In Equestria

Chapters

Chapter 2: Getting started
Chapter 3: 'Neigh'bour (laugh)
Chapter 4: unboxing
Chapter 5: Talks
Chapter 6: B_ok :)
Chapter 7: If it's going too good then it will go bad
Chapter 8: A Good friend
Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th
Chapter 10: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt1 [rewritten]
Chapter 12: Blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly tears. [rewritten]
Chapter 13: Hospital :/
Chapter 14: Saturday with the besties(concerned friend and a new colleague who may not like me)
Chapter 15: Creature of the Night
Chapter 16: Mnoday
Chapter 17: Super crazy meeting
Chapter 18: "I am one with the shadows" -me after one (1) prank using shadows
Chapter 19: Not all nightmares are made equal
Chapter 20: Icecream with the girlies RUINED by terrible evil unicorn
Chapter 21: Angery >:(
Chapter 22: Little Green Pony From Outer Space
Chapter 23: Concern [rewritten]
Chapter 25: Escalation and resolution
Chapter 26: Birds
Chapter 27: Magic Show
Chapter 28: Scared
Chapter 29: The First Step of Flesh-Craft: The Mother Flesh
Chapter 30: In the Basement of the Biomancer
Chapter 31: ...
Chapter 32: Ticket Troubles
Chapter 33: Two friends talk in the rain
Chapter 34: The Second Step Of Flesh-Craft: The First Servant
Chapter 35: New Information
Chapter 36: I Have Yes Enemies
Chapter 37: Blood and Violence
Chapter 38: Closed Case And Cover-up
Chapter 39: Moribund In Nested Nightmares
Chapter 40: New Priorities
Chapter 41: The Calm
Chapter 42: Not As Many Answers As Advertised
Chapter 43: The 1st step of artifice: GET MAGIC ROCK, ANY MEANS NECESSARY
Chapter 45: problems
Chapter 46: Struggles And Solutions
Chapter 47: Fallout
Chapter 48: (t)hug it out
Chapter 49: The 2st step of Artifice: BLOOD IS FUEL
Chapter 50: One Step Forward
Chapter 51: Nightmare
Chapter 52: Too close to the Sun
Chapter 53: Permanent solutions to temporary problems
Chapter 54: Eyes out
Chapter 55: Return
Chapter 56: Aside
Chapter 1: The
Chapter 11: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt2 [rewritten]
Chapter 24: Two ponies work in a library and talk sometimes
Chapter 44: Light Hearted Chapter Where Nothing Goes Wrong And Nobody Gets A Fireball To Their Face

Chapter 2: Getting started

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Y– yeah," I replied. "What about you?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Well, Ann-ya, I'll see ya later!" She took off into the sky and zoomed off to some clouds in the distance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Summer Sun Celebration, I thought it was on the news that princess Celestia had chosen Ponyville as the place where the celebration would take place this year," she explained. It didn't really answer my question of what the celebration was about but it gave me some information. I didn't inquire about what exactly the celebration was about but I guessed that these guys worshipped the sun. There might have been stuff in my pony body's memories but they weren't here with me fully.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh... that was it?

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

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

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

"Well, that's fine I suppose," the mare replied, a bit disappointed. She then continued after the brief pause, "I assume you have come to Ponyville for the celebration."

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

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

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

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

"It's Anya."

"Aanya."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was 12 noon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The house was cheap, and I needed my own place," I responded quickly, leaving out the part where I was dropped into this world and told to buy this house by a lovecraftian thing.

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

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

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

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

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

Well, at least it wasn't just haunted. However, a haunted house was better than being homeless, that much I knew.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was Rarity's turn to be confused.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Note

The chapter is like those online recipe sites, the story being made only to cover a chai recipe.

If you have a problem then remember that A wise robloxisn once said "thug it out"

Chapter 3: 'Neigh'bour (laugh)

The sun was starting to set.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"How exactly?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Go ahead, ask."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sure," I replied, accepting the offer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I then asked her a question.

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

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

What about you, you ever made any art?"

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

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

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

"Why couldn't you keep them?"

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Note

Hey hey

Not All opinions in above text are the author's. If you disagree then please teach your device to swim by throwing it in water

That chapter was so ass that It brayed

Chapter 4: unboxing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End result: I fell down the stairs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The time was around 10 AM.

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

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

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

Author's Note

Born to be Big eepy and cuddle
Forced to live in the economy

Criticism accepted here. Praise too, hate as well

Chapter 5: Talks

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

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

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

"Hi Rarity."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately, I didn't pick the right colour.

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

This was going to take a while.

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

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

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

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

"Go on."

"Its about the library. The sign over there said to go ask at the town hall if you want to get a job as the librarian."

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

"That's cool with me."

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

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

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

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

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

"Hi, Anya!"

"Hey, Brush. Cool painting."

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

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

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

"That's good."

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

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

"Sure, go ahead!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Bye."

And with that final interaction, I asked back home.

Author's Note

named him the doot slayer

Doing can be read in the same way as boing

Chapter 6: B_ok :)

The sun had rizzen.

...

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

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

I, however, noticed something else.

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

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

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

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

"Hey, Mayor."

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

"Sure."

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

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

Mayor Mare was happy to hear that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mayor Mare sent disappointed for a second but resumed talking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I didn't have to wait long.

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

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

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

"There we go."

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

"Nah, you're good."

"Thanks!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"So, is there something wrong?"

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

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

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

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

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

"What do you mean 'egghead'?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Note

joe many liberals does it take to change a log by bulb

none, their too busy ??? they're gender

relax libhrals its caled dark homor

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Babylon wages war on Babylon. Babylon vanquishes the evil of Babylon. Babylon falls and Babylon rises. The head bites the tail. In death they are born.

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

Today was Sunday.

The average person would be happy until the afternoon when they realise that tomorrow is Monday. However, I was below average and didn't like the day from the moment I woke up and wished it was Monday already. I lay in bed, tangled up in my blanket, watching as it slowly became 5 AM on my new alarm clock that I got yesterday after working at the library. I hated how the human brain (or pony brain, I didn't know exactly and had to ask Voth when he came back) would just make you wake up at 4 AM on the days when you had nothing to do while letting you oversleep on every day when you had something important in the morning.

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

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

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

Sundays were always bad.

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

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

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

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

The shadows around me moved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Note

shimmy shimmy
yay, shimmy
yay shimmy yay
(drank)
swalallalala
(drank)
swalalalala
(swalalalala)
swallalalala

nrlbl nrrtr +1 kll

18 sunday J

Chapter 8: A Good friend

I woke up, feeling dazed and a bit thirsty.

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

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

Why was I here?

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

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

"Where am I?" I managed to ask in a low whisper.

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

"Tired. Uncomfortable."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I have a question."

"Ask away."

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

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

"...Okay. So, how much do I owe you guys?" That was the important question. I hope I don't lose all my money due to medical crap again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Everything all right?" I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"So, how was the hospital?"

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

"What's wrong, Anya?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I shook my head no.

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

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

Author's Note

Peepeepoopoo man

Electro mediaeval make s me feel

PLEASE COMEMNT on how the word count is 3232 and also how the story is

Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th

Author's Note

tuesday the 20th super scary day i shitted and pooped and peed and vomited my pants

!R SLUR DROPPED BEWARE!<<

any bad spelling or grammar plox notification me

Chapter 9: Tuesday the 20th

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

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

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

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

By the time I was done, it was seven and if I guessed correctly, there would be a lot of activity in town due to the influx of people coming to celebrate the sun. The actual festival would start tomorrow before sunup and since Mayor Mare gave me the important job of helping out the Canterlot official, I'd probably have a busy day and night. Not anything new, being busy both day and night; I just hope I don't have work that makes me want to tear off my skin.

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

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

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

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

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

"Permission to ask a question?" she said, addressing me like a superior, which felt weird.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Nice to meet you as well, Bloom."

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

"Sure, let's go."

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

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

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

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

"Yeah."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sounds fun."

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

We were at a small clearing just outside the town square and I looked at the direction she was looking at and saw a golden chariot pulled by two golden armoured pegasuses(pegasi?) coming in for a landing. Bloom put on a serious expression and stance as the chariot landed and stopped in front of us. On the chariot was a purple unicorn with dark blue hair that had a pink stripe going through it. I imagined her to be somewhat old, like somewhere in her thirties but no, she looked like she wasn't even past being a teen, or even out of high school. At first, it was a bit hard for 23 year old me to accept that I'd be the assistant of someone that young. Then I remembered that she's probably an actual genius since she's the princess' protege and that I was too much of a retard to have a right to say anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Banquet preparations at the Sweet Apple Acres," he answered, his excitement a stark contrast to Twilight's business attitude. "Let's go!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spike seemed really excited at that prospect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Yeah, promise."

"Okay..." the filly said as she went back, not completely satisfied.

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

As we walked back, Twilight struck up a conversation.

"How you handled that was admirable, I was about to say yes to staying," she complimented my handling of the situation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I did as I was told and we made out way to the Town Hall where the main part of the celebration was going to take place. The streets leading up to it had looked pretty good and I knew it'd be the same story in the hall after what I and Rarity had done for it. We entered the hall, and it looked great.

There was a slight issue, however.

Rarity had took down all the decorations we had done together and put up new ones. I was annoyed to put it simply, but now was not the time to throw tantrums.

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

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

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

"Hello, Mis-"

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

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

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

She then noticed me standing there — not very menacingly — and looking at her blankly. Sweat formed on her brow and she became visibly nervous.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Looks fine by me but you're the expert. Let's go find Dash," I said as I took a step forward. Fortunately, I did not need to go far since Rainbow came to me.

Unfortunately, she was riding a storm cloud and she came right at me with it. The cloud impacted me, or rather, the ground I was standing on and it immediately exploded into a lot of water. I found myself underwater for a second before the water all fell to the ground, making a small puddle around me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the while, none of them noticed Twilight's expression become a really annoyed one. Well, no one but me but I don't think it counts since I didn't say anything.

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

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

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

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

"Where'd she go?" I asked.

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

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

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

Do you know about the story of Nightmare Moon?"

"No, I don't."

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

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 10: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt1 [rewritten]

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

Chapter 12: Blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly tears. [rewritten]

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that everything hurt. A slight breeze blew and the right side of my body was in a lot of pain. I tried moving to shield it in some way but thay just made everything pain even more. I managed to sit up and lean back on to a wall but I was exhausted by that act.

What made this happen?

My ears were ringing and I hadn't opened my eyes yet, so, I couldn't tell what was around me either, and honestly, I didn't care about what was around me. I just wanted the pain to end. However, it did not go away like I wanted, meaning that I should try to get help. I cracked open my eyes and found my vision to be very blurry. Was I missing my glasses?

I put a hoof to my face and found that I was indeed missing my glasses. I didn't really know why my ears were ringing but I had a faint idea that it had something to do with an explosion.

Despite my blurry vision, I could still see a few things. I was in some open area with a stone floor, the sun was rising, and most importantly, someone was there with me. A pony was lying on the floor a small distance in front of me, their dark blue fur contrasting with the grey floor. I couldn't make out any other details though.

I tried speaking up to ask them what happened but I had a coughing fit instead, making me aware of the amount of dust in the air. Each cough sent jolts of pain down my body and I almost collapsed back to the floor. I did, however, get the pony's attention.

"Wh... what's... happen–" I managed to whisper between taking breaths before I was suddenly, and painfully, pushed into the wall behind me. I felt my chest get compressed to a degree that made it impossible to breath for a second but it went back to normal after that. I almost had another coughing fit but managed to control it somewhat, letting me focus on what pushed me into the wall.

It was the pony. She had latched onto me in a one-sided hug and buried her face in my chest. Now that she was closer, I could see that she had long light blue hair and wings that looked to be in bad condition. Above all, she was crying and saying something. My ears were still ringing, however, and I couldn't tell what she was saying.

What I could tell was that she was not having a great time, kinda like me. I managed to wrap my forelegs around her to return the hug and maybe provide some comfort but it seemed to have no effect. I couldn't hold my head up any longer and let it rest on hers.

I hoped that help came soon.

Princess Celestia finally conjured a portal out of the pocket dimension that Nightmare Moon had trapped her in. The locks had been impossible to break just a few minutes ago but now they had broken, signalling the defeat of Nightmare Moon at the hands of her student, Twilight, and the success of her plan.

She stepped through the portal and out of the pocket dimension, letting it collapse behind her. She was in one of the towers in the ruins of the Everfree Castle. Twilight was there with a group of five other ponies, the element bearers. They did not pay attention to her, however, and were staring at a writihing black mass ahead of them. It made all manners of unnatural sounds that seemed to either be laughter or screams of pain.

The princess recognised one of the screams. It was her sister.

The THING got up to all six of its legs and spread out its five wings. A head emerged from the central body on a long thin neck. The head had innumerable eyes and a large jaw that opened into a dark abyss lined with red teeth. It grew horns made out of forelegs and arms of various creatures. When it was done transforming, it stood tall above all in the room, and let out a horrible sound.

"We MeEt AgAIn, PrINcEsS Of THe SuN," it greeted. The ponies turned around and saw the princess walk up to them and stand by them, her expression one of barely controlled anger.

"So it seems, monster," the princess replied angrily. "Return my sister."

"wHy ShOUlD i? ThIs iS My ONLY HiDInG pLaCE," it said as it started approaching her. The ponies around her took a few steps back, prompting her to charge up an offensive spell in her horn.

"Ah aH ah, PrInCeSS, YoU WoULdn'T waNt SOMEONE tO HURT yOuR Oh sO BELOVED SistEr," it chided as it stopped moving. It's main body started to part and revealed a patch of light blue fur underneath the dark fleshy exterior. Celestia hesitated and discharged her horn.

"What do you want?" Celestia finally asked the question she dreaded to hear an answer for.

"mY tRuE FoRM haS BeEn AtTaCkeD By an UpsTaRt aNd Is CuRrEnTLy InDisPOsEd oF. i WANT POWER tO ReGaIN CoNtROl oF iT aNd MAYBE, In ReTuRN, i WilL lEavE tHiS pLaNeT AlONe. I'Ll eVeN GivE yOu tHe IDENTITY oF aN AgENt. oH HoW APPETISING tHeY LoOked, oH hoW MucH i WANT tO CRUSH THEM," it said with a terrible smile on its face.

Celestia almost agreed to the deal. She could get back her sister AND the identity of an agent of the eldritch beings, who'd have to be eliminated before they caused widespread destruction or facilitated an incursion. However, she knew that the THING wouldn't make such a generous sounding deal unless it had something to gain, and as far as she knew, it would not be a good thing for her to let the THING get anything.

"Not even in your dreams, monster," she said, declining the offer.

"VeRY WeLl ThEN," it said as its smile became a frown. "hOw AbOuT, ThE LIFE oF yOuR SISTER fOr ThE POWER i NEED."

Celestia knew she had to do something quick to save her sister. Fortunately, she didn't have to. The THING suddenly fell to the ground as if its legs had snapped. It let out a screech of pain that made the ponies cover their ears. The THING started crawling towards her as it slowly melted, becoming more and more of a primitive slime thing until it was finally turned to ash which the wind carried away.

It left behind a light blue alicorn on the floor, who was coming to. Celestia rushed to her to check for any injuries and also out of the joy she felt. The blue alicorn was confused and sat still as Celestia lookeed her over. Her mane wasn't waving in an unseen wind like hers, her leathery bat wings were not in any condition to fly, and she was a lot smaller than Celestia remembered, but otherwise, she was healthy.

Celestia pulled the blue alicorn into a crushing hug and said, "Luna! How I missed you my dear sister!"

Luna returned the hug, happy to see her sister as well, but pulled away.

"Nightmare Moon, where is she?" she asked Celestia. Celestia looked to the element bearers, confused. Shouldn't Nightmare Moon have been destroyed?

"Oh no, there was another pony as well. Celestia, we have to find them fast."

I didn't know how much time had passed. I was facing the sunrise and had a clear line of sight with it, and I had to close my eyes to shield them from the sun's rays. If I were to guess, it was probably somewhere around six in the morning. The pain had subsided a little bit but I was tired and the only thing keeping me awake was the still crying pegasus. Even though I hadn't check over my injuries, I was starting to feel that the pegasus probably needed help before me.

I would have tried talking to her but my ears were still ringing and I was starting to suspect that the explosion from when the beam hit the THING had given me ear damage. Or maybe I needed more time since it had probably been only, at most, ten minutes since I woke up.

I was disturbed from my thoughts by the ground vibrating all of a sudden, followed by the pegasus increasing the strength of her hold on me. I opened my eyes and saw two figures in front of me. One was the tall and easily recognisable form of princess Celestia while the other was a shorter blue one. The princess approached me, looking real angry, making me question if she knew I worked for Voth.

The princess said something to which I responded, "Can't hear you, my ears a' ringing."

The other pony came forward, revealing herself to be a... an alicorn? She had bat wings and a horn, but I knew that there were only two alicorns, and that she could be a pegacorn. Her horn glowed a dark blue and I suddenly became aware of all the sound around me.

"Could you let Nightmare Moon go?" the blue alicorn asked.

"Nightmare Moon? Where?" I asked, totally confused. Wasn't she destroyed by the rainbow beam?

"Please excuse me," Princess Celestia said in a voice that indicated that she was really angry but trying to hide it. The pegasus was suddenly covered in a golden aura and pulled away from me. The pegasus held onto me, dragging me along.

"Tia!" the blue alicorn shouted, making the princess stop whatever she was trying to do, letting the pegasus and me fall onto the floor. The blue alicorn then came close and spoke.

"The mare in your arms is Nightmare Moon. We need you to let her go so we can help her."

I looked down at the pegasus(?) and moved the hair on her forehead with my magic, revealing a stump where a horn used to be. I involuntarily shuddered at the sight. Nightmare Moon held onto me even tighter and shook her head no, as if she were scared to go with the alicorns.

I didn't really know what to do.

"Hey, uhh Nightmare Moon, I think you should go with them," I whispered to her to try and coax her to go with them. It didn't work but I was persistent. On the fifth time, she let me go and immediately hid behind the blue alicorn to not be seen by the princess. I couldn't help but feel bad for her even though she was going to end the world by mistake.

Now that she wasn't latched onto me, I looked down at myself to assess my injuries. At first, I was a bit confused about why a rather large portion of the right side of my body was a dull red colour but then, I realised that it was blood. My blood. As if on cue, the pain came back to me and I finaly fell flat on the floor.

My vision went dark almost as soon as that happened.

Author's Note

aswdfzxcbghtyyn

we live in a society where a burger king whopper can walk into a bar and order a beer and the bart-ender can say 'we do not serve food here'

Chapter 13: Hospital :/

I heard a beeping sound to my right. I was on a bed, laying on my back and under a blanket that was too thin. I would have complained, but it was warm, like that kind of right temperature that feels like bliss. I tried shifting to lie more comfortably on my side and immediately regretted it as pain shot through me. Whatever drowsiness I had in me was gone with that attempted movement, leaving me laying on the bed waiting for the pain to fade away.

I opened my eyes and looked around. The room was mostly dark with a soft yellow light coming from a light fixture next to one of the two doors the room had. There was a window with its curtains drawn and the lack of sunlight told me that it was night. There was a small table next to my bed. I was hooked up to a IV thing and a machine that was monitoring my heart rate.

There were a lot of bandages on me, some on my body, some on my legs. Most of them were on the right side though and I was a bit confused about why it was that way. Then, I remembered the explosion. It must have been shrapnel or something that got me since I had turned away from it and put the right side of myself towards it.

Well, that doesn't really matter much now that I was in a hospital room once again. I didn't really know what to do. Maybe if I see that nurse or doctor I had the first time around, I could make a joke about me being back. Heh, look at me, thinking about making jokes about something that might be serious. I quietly laughed at that but it turned into a cough almost immediately.

I lay in the bed for a few more minutes, slowly nodding off. The door opened, making me close my eyes instinctively. I heard the quiet sound of hooves on tile approaching me. They stopped by my bed and I heard the sound of pen on paper. I cracked open my eyes and was blinded for a second by the light coming in from the open door. My eyes adjusted and I saw nurse Redheart. She was inspecting the heart rate monitor and the IV bag. She wrote down something on a paper on her clipboard and set the pen down on the table. She turned to leave the room, reading whatever she wrote before stopping.

"Where did I keep the pen?" she asked herself in a low voice as she checked if it was beneath one of the papers on the clipboard.

"It's on the table," I said as loud as I could, which wasn't much more than a whisper. It did get her attention though and made her jump a little in surprise. In hindsight, that was totally unnecessary but then, it was a bit funny and didn't cause any harm.

The nurse turned around and looked at me, not looking particularly amused but not unhappy either.

"It's nice to see that you're awake, though I'd have appreciated it if you made me aware of that earlier," she said as she came back to the side of the bed. "Say, you wouldn't mind answering some questions?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied.

"So, how do you feel right now?" she began.

"Eh, it hurts when I try moving too much, and it's kinda hard to breathe but everything else seems fine," I answered.

"Okay. Moving on, have you ever had to use inhalers in the past?"

"Yeah, many times."

"Hmmm, okay," and with that, it seemed the nurse was finished. She wrote some stuff down but then put it down on the table.

"I have another question though. It's not related to medical things," she said.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling my right ear fold down by itself. The nurse looked like she was finding the right way to ask the question, making me a bit nervous about what she may ask.

"Did... did you really talk Nightmare Moon out of her plan for eternal night?" she asked. "I'm just curious since princess Celestia said that a pony had done that in her address to the townspeople, but she hadn't named anyone."

"What else did she say?" I asked, curious about the what the princess had said, since I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to know the true nature of a lot of the things that happened there.

"She thanked and rewarded the element bearers for freeing her sister, princess Luna, from the control of some dark magic demon and then talked about how a pony had saved Nightmare Moon from the darkness as well. That's about it."

"Yeah, that was me, and if you ask me, it went pretty well," I answered her initial question, still a bit surprised that I managed to pull that off, but then, Voth had done most of the work and I was just there to finish it.

"I don't think it went 'well' as you are saying," she pointed out, gesturing to me.

"It went well until she got possessed or something," I clarified, "I was able to convince her that it'd be a bad idea but then Twilight and her friends came in and started blasting. That and dark magic being pretty bad for you, probably did that."

"I still don't get how a dark magic demon can just appear and take control of an alicorn."

"Eh, it's easy to understand. Dark magic is like a... like a stream of sewage water that also has a lot of power in it. If you drink from it, it won't matter who you are, you will become powerful, but other stuff will get in and infect you and make you die or whatever."

"And you decided to go up against that kind of power?"

"Yeah, you could say that.

So, what happened to Nightmare Moon? The last thing I remember was that she was crying a lot."

"She was brought here for a brief period of time but I'll be honest, I thought it was some other alicorn. She was completely different from what she was when she was at the town hall. Last I heard was that she's going to Canterlot along with the princesses and element bearers."

We stayed in silence for a minute before I spoke up again.

"So, I may have forgot to ask this but how long have I been here?"

"You've been here since seven in the morning and now it's around 10 PM," she answered. "Besides the princess's address, you didn't miss much. Although, there was a pony who came to see you earlier but we had to turn her away. Her name was Feather Brush, do you know her?"

"Yeah, that's my friend. She's probably worried since I dipped on her and ran into the forest." It felt... nice to know that she cared that much. But then, I also felt guilty for making her worried.

"By the way, when do I get out?"

"In a few days. Till then, you'll have rest and after that, you'll try to stay out of trouble."

"Aw, but I like talking to you," I joked. The nurse rolled her eyes at that.

"I'd rather have you talk to me when you're fine than when you're in a hospital bed. It's getting late now, I'll be going. It was nice talking to you, Anya."

"Nice talking to you as well, nurse Redheart."

At least my hospital stay wasn't going to be particularly dull like I imagined.

Author's Note

nurse nurse! get some ice, this dingus jsut got rosated!

I FUKCING LPVE FILLER

Chapter 14: Saturday with the besties(concerned friend and a new colleague who may not like me)

I was in a field. The grass was tall and yellow, there were trees in the distance, the sky was a dark brown colour and no stars were in the sky. A warm breeze was blowing through the area as well, and it was quiet besides the sound of the breeze and trees swaying in it. It was calm.

I was laying the grass, not knowing why I was there and not doing much but I was content with just laying there in the warmth. A lantern was there on the ground next to me, giving off light and warmth. The area around me was lit up in the soft yellow glow of the lantern. Everything outside of that area was dark but I was certain that there was nothing out there. It was peaceful.

Something moved in the darkness, catching my eye. The breeze did not feel as warm anymore. I continued watching as something came towards me out of the darkness slowly, the warmth of the breeze and lantern dissipating the closer it got.

Finally, it entered the light, revealing itself to be a dark mushy looking thing covered in eyes and in the shape of an alicorn. It didn't seem scary or anything but it was weird. It took me a second to remember the only other thing that resembled it.

"Voth, what are you doing here?" I asked. I hadn't seen Voth for the three days I had been in the hospital and since I left... I didn't remember leaving the hospital, let alone how I came here. I suddenly became aware that the grass beneath me felt more like cloth than grass. What was going on?

"YOU ARE DREAMING," Voth said as he came closer and 'sat down' next to me. Him sitting down was less him moving the limbs of her mushy form and more of the mushy form just transforming to look like it was sitting, much like how water shifts to fill different containers.

"Dreaming? So, I'm still in the hospital?" I asked.

"YES YOU ARE"

I looked at the lantern that was there next to me. It only gave off light now that I knew I was dreaming. I didn't really know what to do, so, I imagined that it was levitating and as I had expected, the thing started floating a meter above the ground. I didn't feel particularly fascinated and was in fact, a bit disappointed by how the comfy dream I was having became nothing.

"So, why were you gone for the last few days?" I asked.

"I WAS SETTING UP THE CORPSE OF THE THING FOR ME TO HIDE IN AND PAYING THOSE WHO HELPED ME KILL IT"

"So, you bough eldritch mercenaries to kill that THING and it took you like three days to give them their money?"

"GIVING MONEY WOULD BE FASTER AND EASIER BUT WE DO NOT HAVE MONEY WE ONLY HAVE ENERGY THIS BRINGS ME TO THE REASON I AM HERE IN YOUR DREAM

I HAVE FOUND A CLUE FOR THE KEY IN THE CORPSE"

Ah, the key, the thing Voth sent me to find in Equestria. Looks like they found clues before I did and now that Voth told me that energy was like money for his kind, the key felt less like an actual key to something and more like an eldritch stack of cash that I had to go get him. It was like a person making an ant go retrieve a thousand rupee note lost in the drain.

"What did you find?" I asked.

"AN ARTEFACT CALLED 'GROGAR'S BELL' MAY BE IT"

"Okay, Grogar's bell. Guess I'll have to look for that."

"I HAVE COME FOR ANOTHER THING AS WELL

I WISH FOR YOU TO STOP PUTTING YOURSELF IN DANGER LIKE YOU HAD EARLIER"

I almost thought that Voth was concerned about me.

"IF YOU KEEP DAMAGING YOUR VESSEL YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BE UNABLE TO RETRIEVE THE KEY AND I WILL HAVE TO MAKE YOU A NEW VESSEL WHICH TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND ENERGY"

I should really stop thinking that Voth's nice every time he says something nice. He only cared as long as I was working for him. My mood worsened a tiny bit at that thought.

"Anything else?"

"NO"

"So, you'll be going now?"

"NO I HAVE NO REASON TO RIGHT NOW"

Okay, I guess. I turned back to look at the field I was in. It was no longer peaceful or warm like it was earlier and I doubt that I could make it like that again. Suddenly, Voth's from shifted so that he was laying down next to me. He draped one of his large fleshy wings over me and it was warm again.

"YOU WILL BE WAKING IN TWO HOURS I WILL NOT BE THERE FOR SOME TIME AFTER THAT" Voth said with a hint of disinterest in his voice, as if he wasn't really looking forward to doing nothing for the next two hours. I was happy though since it was warm again.

"Say, what'd you do to Nightmare Moon? She was completely changed the last time I saw her."

"I KILLED THE THING SHE MADE A DEAL WITH AND THAT RELEASED HER FROM THAT THING'S INFLUENCE FOR LONG ENOUGH SO THAT SHE UNDERSTOOD YOUR ARGUMENTS AGAINST STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION

I DID NOT DO ANYTHING BUT LET HER BE FREE FOR LONG ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF HER ACTIONS YOU ARE THE ONE WHO EXPLAINED TO HER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SHE DID WHAT SHE WANTED TO AND THAT REVELATION COMBINED WITH THE DISTRESS A MIND FEELS AFTER POSSESSION MADE HER CHANGE"

I lay there, taking in the fact that I had been a part of the metaphorical straw that broke Nightmare Moon's back. I actually felt a tiny bit bad about it, because even though she wanted to do something bad, she didn't actually know the scale of how bad it would be.

Whatever, I guess. I returned to relaxing under Voth's wing.

I woke up feeling well rested. There was no beeping sound or IV thing in the room since I didn't need it. Light was coming in through the windows and it looked like it was nine in the morning. My back was a bit sore with all the sleeping on my back. I sat up in my bed, stretching a little. Most of the bandages I had three days ago were gone and the ones I still had, mostly on my legs, would be gone today.

My stay at the hospital was mostly just staying bed and getting bandages, covered in what I called 'healing goo', placed on my wounds but besides that, they had done some tests to find out why I was having problems with breathing and it turns out I have asthma. Who would've guessed what the streets could do to a bozo such as myself.

Right now, I just had to wait for a nurse to come and get me checked before I could go, which did take not long.

Nurse Redheart came in the room. She had her clipboard, and some other things as well.

"Good morning, Anya. How are you feeling?" She greeted.

"I'm feeling pretty good, nurse Redheart," I responded with a smile.

"That's great to hear," she said as she put her clipboard on the table and brought the other things she had, a glasses case and an inhaler. She handed me the case first. "Here are your new glasses."

I opened the case and pulled out my new glasses, which had thick black plastic frames like my old ones, but also large circular lenses, which I did not like much, but that was on me since I didn't tell them my preferences when they took me down to the eye doctor and got my prescription to get me new glasses. Other than that, the lenses were pristine and not scratched up.

I put them on and my vision improved significantly, for the most part. It felt a bit funky at first, but it'd take at most a day for me to adjust to the new glasses.

"Are those fine for you?" asked the nurse.

"Yeah, they're good."

"Moving on, let's get those bandages removed."

She removed the bandages slowly, revealing the almost completely healed tissue under it.

"Looks like your legs have all healed up as well, but that doesn't mean you can go running around doing things that are taxing on your body right away."

"Aww man, guess I can't go and pick up a five-hundred ton anvil."

Nurse Redheart just rolled her eyes at the joke.

"Anyway, this inhaler should help with your breathing issues and I'm sure you know how to use it," she continued, giving me the inhaler. "Now, we can go get you checked out."

I stepped out onto the street, my inhaler and the case for my glasses in my magic. I didn't have much to do except get home and maybe rest, and so, I began my not very long walk home. There weren't many people on the path I took and they didn't really notice me either which was great.

That changed when I was on the street back to my home.

"Anya!" I heard the familiar voice of Brush call out from behind me as I was reaching the crossroads. I stopped and turned to find the pony flying towards me with two bags. I didn't get to say 'hi' or anything as she landed right in front of me and pulled me into a hug. I tried resisting at first but let it be.

"Hey, Brush, nice to see you," I greeted, not really reflecting her enthusiasm at meeting a friend.

"It's nice to see you as well, but first, one thing,", she returned my greeting before putting on an expression that was a lot more angry, and as much as I don't want to admit it, I did shrink back a bit at that.

"What in the name of Faust were you thinking?!", she began. I was confused about what she was talking about but she continued, "Like why would you just go into the Everfree when you tell me that you'll be coming back in a minute and then go and fight an alicorn of all things?!"

Oh, this was about that. I guess she could be upset about that since I did lie about being back in a minute. But then, I did save the world, or at least helped save it.

"Okay, Brush, I'm uhh I uh apologise for that, but could you like, not be that worked up since I'm fine, mostly, and I don't want to see you angry," I responded, trying to calm her down. It worked, and she was back to her normal nice and friendly self that I liked.

"Sorry about that, I was just worried," she apologised for her earlier outburst.

"No problem, but there isn't much to be worried about."

"What do you mean 'not much to be worried about'? You literally looked like you were going to die when the princess brought you back to town!"

I didnt try arguing further since I wanted to be nice to her, and so, I just nodded in agreement.

"Say, what are you doing right now?"

"I'm going home. What about you?"

"Just coming back from grocery shopping. Do you want to come over for lunch?"

I considered the offer. I was hungry, yes, but I didn't really feel like imposing on her but she would probably insist on it till I accepted. I guess I could do something nice for her later in return.

"Sure."

Lunch had gone fine. It was mostly us making idle talk with Brush leading the conversation, telling me about how she had been busy painting cool stuff and then showing me the aforementioned paintings. We were in the living room when someone knocked on the door.

"Wait a second, I'll go see who it is," she said as she left to go check who it was. She came back a minute later, not looking too happy. "It's Mayor Mare, she's looking for you."

I nodded and followed her out of the house, where Mayor Mare was. She looked tired but was happy to see me.

"Ah, Anya, it's good to see you on your hooves," she greeted me.

"Good to see you as well, mayor. What is it that you called me for?" I said, getting straight to the point.

"Why don't you walk with me. I'll tell you on the way."

I could tell that it was something important that she wanted to discuss. I bid Brush goodbye and walked with the mayor.

"So, what is it?"

"It's about the princess's student, Twilight Sparkle. The princess has mandated that Twilight should stay in our town and learn more about magic."

"So?"

"So, the town is compelled to provide her a house and a job."

"So, she'll be staying in the library?"

"Yes, she will. She's also taking up a job at the library."

"Okay, what do I have to do?"

"Well, she and the rest of the element bearers would be returning from Canterlot today in some time, and I'd like you to tell Twilight what she'll have to do at the library since I have some work to do, mainly improving the town's security. That reminds me, thank you for helping save the princess. That was truly a brave thing to do."

"Thanks, mayor. Anyway, how long till they're back?"

"An hour or so."

"I'll wait in the library then."

"Yeah, you should. Once you're done instructing Twilight, you can go back to your home and rest."

" 'Kay, boss."

The hour of waiting would be long, and since I was alone until Twilight came, I decided to go do some research on Grogar's bell. Unfortunately, I did not find much relevant information about it. According to the books I read, it's a legendary magical artefact that some guy named Grogar used to steal magic and rule Equestria in the very distant past. It was then stolen by a unicron named Gusty the great and hidden away on top of a mountain named Mount Everhoof behind powerful magic. The location might have been useful but there was no Mount Everhoof on any of the maps I checked, and without any description of its surroundings or physical features, I couldn't guess its location either.

I did find out about another artefact that was simply called 'the key'. It did not have any description other than it holding a great amount of power that could only be wielded by those who know everything about it. Paradoxically, it could only be found and used by those who cared little for it. All this sounded a lot more like the thing Voth wanted me to find and fortunately, its last known location was an abandoned fort somewhere in the Everfree forest. If I wanted to find it, all I needed to do was get a map of abandoned fortresses in the Everfree.

That would have to wait though.

The door to the library opened and in came Twilight Sparkle and her dragon, Spike, who was carrying two bags larger than him with unnatural ease. What did bro do to get that strong? That question would probably go unanswered.

"Greetings, Twilight and Spike," I greeted and then immediately cringed at how stupidly formal that sounded. They didn't seem to care, however.

"Hi, miss Anya! Guess what?" said Spike, clearly excited about something. I knew that it was probably him moving to Ponyville along with Twilight. A small part of me, however, thought for some reason that he was going to say 'chicken butt'.

"What?" I asked, knowing that he's probably going to talk about moving to Ponyville.

"Chicken butt."

"Spike! Stop making jokes, we're in a professional setting! Why don't you go and put our stuff upstairs" Twilight reprimanded him before turning back to me and smiling nervously. "Sorry about that, he's just a child."

Spike walked off with the bags, unhappy that he was reprimanded over a joke. Twilight was a lot more different around me now, probably since I was her colleague/boss, and honestly, it was kinda weird to have someone treat me like I was their boss.

"No need to be that formal, or formal at all, we're in a library," I said, quoting the words of the chad librarian who worked at my highschool. I kinda missed his positivity.

"Oh, uh, that's fine, I guess," Twilight said, less nervous than earlier. She then changed the topic, "So, are you fine now? Nightmare Moon had hurt you quite bad."

"It wasnt Nightmare Moon from what I understand but yes, I'm fine now. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Oh, yeah. I was told that you'd be showing me how to run this place."

"Ya, I will. Anyway, you probably know the basics of putting the books where they are supposed to be on the shelves so we can skip that and go to the other important bits," I began. Twilight summoned a paper and quill and looked at me, ready to take notes. I questioned the usefulness of that since I wouldn't take long or explain something complex but whatever floats her boat, I guess.

"Okay, so, first important bit: we don't do late fees here unless it's like, late for more than a month but even then, don't try to exceed five bits. As for the second, this is it," I said as I walked to the front desk and pointed at the computer. I switched it on to show her what she'll have to use.

"So, we use a computer here to keep track of all the books?" Twilight asked in a voice that seemed... disrespectful to the computer specifically. "Excuse my choice of words but that sounds rather dumb."

"Why do you think it's 'dumb'?" I asked her.

"Well, I've tried to used a computer in the past and it seems that none of them actually work like they advertise," she began, "And they're not great for keeping track of books compared to physical records."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Twilight, but I can tell you that this guy hasn't failed me once," I defended the computer, knowing that Twilight was just tech illiterate. "Maybe the problem is the user, since a machine like this is only as smart as its user. Or maybe the machine spirit dislikes you."

I said the first part as an insult and the last part as a joke. I doubt that she would get the reference but I hoped that she would understand it was a joke based on my tone.

"The what dislikes me?" she asked, clearly not getting that it was a joke.

"Eh, nothing. Anyway, come here so I can show you the programs," I said, brushing off her question. She did as she was told and was at the desk in a moment, her paper and quill still with her.

"Anyway, basic usage etiquette, make sure to turn it off when the library closes, don't try hitting it if something goes wrong, just call me instead but if you don't feel like doing that then you can turn it off and on because that usually fixes whatever the problem is. If the problem stays then call me for sure. Other than that, don't go messing around with the code, not without me around at least.

If I'm not there then you can use the manuals. One is for the computer, the other is for the library program. Both are in the
top drawer of the desk. I'm sure you can figure out how to use the program."

"Actually, could you guide me through it once, just to be sure," she said as she finished writing what I assumed to be everything that I had said.

"Sure. To start, type 'library' in the prompt," I instructed as I moved to let Twilight access the keyboard. She began typing in the very annoying manner of looking through the entire keyboard to find they key. That would have been fine but she did that for every single letter, including the 'r's. I didn't say anything at that, staying patient because after all, they didn't have very many computers in this world.

"Okay, now what?" she asked.

"Press the 'enter' key."

Twilight did as instructed; the computer did not. It instead displayed an error message before turning off quickly.

"Is that supposed to happen?" asked Twilight, seemingly unaware that this was very clearly not supposed to happen.

"Nope, could you turn it back on and try again," I said, cutting her some slack over her tech illiteracy. She turned it back on and after it was booted up, she typed in 'library' again, this time significantly faster than earlier. She did that and just like the previous attempt, the computer shut off.

"Hmmm, Twilight, could you move and let me try," I said, surprised that it just refused to work when she was using it. I turned it on and inputted 'library' and this time, it worked just fine.

"That's weird. Anyway, it shows you two options now," I said as I moved aside to let her see them. "Database is to check if we do or do not have a book while check out and return is to update the database when someone checks out or returns a book."

"So, if I want to use one of the options then I'll have to just type the option into the prompt?"

"Yeah, that's one way but you'll have to type it exactly as it is written. The other is typing the number next to the option."

"Zero for database, one for check out. Got that," she said as she typed the number zero into the prompt. The computer's screen did not change when she pressed the enter key and ten seconds later, it was clear that it froze.

"Stupid thing isn't working," Twilight muttered, frustrated at how it refused to work.

"Try apologising to it," I suggested, not as a joke.

"Might as well," Twilight muttered with an eyeroll, then in a loud voice full of sarcasm, she said, "I'm sorry mister or miss computer for calling you stupid and dumb."

Twilight was clearly not expecting it to work but lo and behold, the computer unfroze and displayed the table with the list of books and the number of copies that were available out of how many there are in the library. Twilight was shocked at that while I just smiled.

"Looks like the machine spirit is happy with you now, and you know how to deal with it."

"What in the name of Faust is the machine spirit?!"

"You'll figure that out the more you work with the computer. Anyway, I'll be going, see you later, probably in a few hours. Have fun."

And with that, I left the library to go back and continue my talk with Brush.

Author's Note

nay nay nay naynay nay nay nay nay naay nay nay na yn abyn aybna yan na yan ayb naby nayn anya byna nyna nuanyan nyan anna

key:
the sinner

if i put haf as much efort into essys as i put in to fnafiction then id hsve good esays

did you know?

that printers are actually fucked up on purpose! companies like HP make their pritners horrible to use by engineering shitiness into them, such as:

ink catidges that only go on one printer and have microchips that stop u from putting 3rd party stuff,
ink catridges that LIE about how much ink is left so taht u buy new expensive ink catridges,
software that stops the printer from printing once a certain number of pages have been printed regardless of printer's condition

Chapter 15: Creature of the Night

I sat at the kitchen table, silently eating my breakfast that consisted of three pieces of toast and a cup of chai. I was thinking about how I'd spend my time today since I actually did not have anything to do, which I hated, and free time was just too... alien to me. I thought about practicing runes but I had no idea on what I would do, nor any motivation for that. The Daring Do books weren't an option either since they weren't my thing. Going to the library and doing my research on abandoned fortresses in the Everfree wasn't an option either since it was likely that Twilight would be there and it would be hard to make an excuse as to why I'm looking for locations of fortresses in the Everfree.

I was in this... this hell of middle ground where I wanted to do something but either couldn't or didn't want to, and I couldn't escape it easily now. I once had the internet and its sweet but unhealthy embrace to save me, but now, I didn't even have anything like a computer to occupy my time with.

Is this how the ipad babies feel when their ipads are taken away?

I didn't really think much about that question and instead thought about some other, more mundane things that I could do, like drawing. Actually, now that I think about it, drawing is the only thing I could do, unless I suddenly felt like I wanted to do runes ~~or maybe fix the backyard~~.

I finished my breakfast and headed down to the basement to get a sheet of paper and a black pen. I sat down at the basement table with my supllies and touched the pen to the paper. I thought of what I would draw and came up with no ideas. Not to worry, an idea would come in some time.

Ten minutes later, I had only one decent idea and I was too frustrated with myself to come up with one that was better. I began drawing and messed up almost immediately by drawing the first shape too small. Nothing to worry about though, I can just cover it up.

I continued drawing, even when the image I drew started deviating from what I had imagined, even when I kept making dumb mistakes.

The image ended up looking like one of those drawings made by people with mental illness, the ones where it's scribbles but the scribbles make an image by making an area look dark compared to the background, except that I didn't draw something that conveyed any emotion. What I had drawn was an underwater scene. There was a large pillar in the foreground and a few more in the background, each becoming more and more faint to show distance. Somewhere in the middle was a trio of what I imagined to be an enormous whale thing that looked more like a shark but with weird whiskers that were actually the result of me covering up a mistake. The trio were not in the center though and it left the left half of the image looking empty, so, I added a submarine there and it was about as big as one of the shark things. I messed up its propellor and it ended up looking very goofy.

Overall, the image was decent at best if the observer somehow missed all the mistakes I had made in it, but that didn't matter much. What mattered to me was that finishing it did not make me feel good in any way and in fact, made my mood worse. That would have been acceptable if the image had taken like four hours to make but it had only take twenty minutes, meaning that I still had so much free time left AND I felt bad.

'Way to go, idiot, you made yourself sad,' I thought bitterly as I walked back upstairs to lie down on a couch. It sucked that I always felt nervous when I was doing nothing and had nothing to keep me occupied, and it was the kind of nervous that made you feel like your heart was sinking and you wanted to throw up. I lay on the couch, fidgeting till I could up with something to do other than immerse myself in my thoughts. I came up with nothing.

I got up from the couch, deciding that I'd spend my time fixing up the backyard. It was better than having thoughts.

The sun was high in the sky and I was tired. The backyard was a lot more clean now that I had removed most of the ugly looking stuff. The grass still needed to be cut and there was one really thorny bush in one of the corners that I couldn't remove but otherwise, it was pretty much done. My hooves were scratched up and dirty, and I was feeling disgusting with all the sweat on me making my fur damp. It was all worth it though since I no longer felt as bad as I had earlier.

I stepped back in my house, leaving the back door open so that the air inside could circulate. I went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. I stepped in after the water was lukewarm and damn did it feel good. I had what was probably the most relaxing shower I ever had. I spent a lot longer than I needed to but at the end, I actually felt nice. After I dried myself off, I was back at the couch, this time feeling better.

There was a pleasant breeze in the room and it was at a nice warm temperature. That combined with my tiredness, compelled me to take a small nap, which I did.

I woke up with a start. I was thirsty, had no idea what the time was, and disoriented. The spot on my right arm where I had rested my head had the imprint of my glasses' leg on them, and my right cheek was damp with drool. I got up into a sitting position and looked around. The room was darker than what it had been before I took my 'small' nap, and the back door was still open.

I used my magic to close the back door and turn the lights on. The living room was as it was and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I looked down at the floor as I got off the couch and found that there was something out of the ordinary. There was a large thing on the floor. It was a mish-mash of brown, black, white, green, pink, and blue, and it looked a bit fucked up to me. It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was and it seemed a lot less fucked up when I realised what it was.

It was a moth, a really large one. It was flipped over, trying to right itself. I reached down and picked it up in my hoof, noting its non-negligible weight. The moth tried flying away and when it could not, it started making a loud squeaking sound.

"Quiet, bug, I'm helping you," I said to it as I turned it to face me. It seemed to have understood that I was not eating it or anything and stopped squeaking loudly or trying to fly away. Now that it wasn't struggling, I could take a better look at it. The moth's most prominent feature was its size, like its body without its wings was definitely as big as a chihuahua, maybe even bigger. Other than that, its body was mainly white with some patches of brown, while its wings resembled a used paint palette with all the splatters of bright pink, blue, black, and green, and it kinda reminded me of those frogs that had very bright colours that signified that they were poisonous. Besides its colouring and size, it was also fluffy all over, like a weird flying sheep.

I set it down on the table, where it started messing with its feathery antennae with its tiny little front legs. I observed it as it did, noting how its all black eyes looked devoid of any intelligence or thought. It also looked like I could pet it. I put my right hoof in front of it and watched as it stopped messing around with its antennae, which it then brushed against my hoof. It started crawling up my arm in a spiral pattern and squeaking as well, just not as loudly as before. However, since it was so large and had even larger wings, it wasn't long before I had to stop it to keep its wings from hitting my face.

I pulled it off my right arm and held it against me like one would hold a puppy against their body. The moth didn't really seem to care about that and stayed still in my arms, or so I thought. I noticed a weird tugging on my fur, close to where I held the moth. I had to crane my neck over the bug to see what it was doing.

What I saw confused me. The moth was... chewing on my fur? That's what it looked like to me, at least. Don't these guys only eat liquid stuff with a straw thingie in their mouth? Whatever it was, I didn't stop it since it looked rather cute and didn't hurt me. It continued chewing on my fur as I moved my left hoof to pet the thing. I pulled the thing close into an actual hug, making sure not to do it too hard lest I crush it. The moth didn't care and continued chewing.

Soon enough,I pulled it off my arm and walked over to the backdoor with it. I set it down on the floor and opened the backdoor.

"Okay, that was cool, you can go back now," I said to it.

The unthinking bug stared ahead at my backyard for a good ten seconds before taking off and hitting my face and then crawling onto my right arm where it continued chewing on my fur. I pried it off and set it down outside on the grass. The bug finally understood what I was trying to tell it, and flew off into the forest.

I turned around and closed the backdoor behind me with my magic and returned to the couch to hopefully continue my nap.

Author's Note

is their a lore reeson as to why she don't jus relax? is she stuoid?

Chapter 16: Mnoday

When I came to the library at 7:30 in the morning, I had expected Twilight to be up, and the library to be clean and tidy.

However, when I entered, I found that my expectations were too high. Stacks of books littered the floor and Twilight was sleeping on the floor among the stacks.

I had only one question. What had she done? Everything was fine Saturday evening when I checked on how she was doing and now on Monday, the library looked like a storm came through.

"Oh, hi, miss Anya," I heard Spike say from the stairs. I looked over and saw that he was coming downstairs with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Yo, Spike. Could you tell me what happened here?"

"Yeah. So, Twilight wanted to read all the books in the library," he said casually, as if Twilight did that every now and then, "but then halfway through, she tells me that the library's book organisation is terrible and that it needs to be fixed. She started yesterday evening and I guess she just fell asleep here. Can't blame her though with all the meetings and talking to journalists at Canterlot that kept her from sleeping peacefully."

I nodded, not really caring about the answer. What I cared about was how I'd get this place cleaned up in the next thirty minutes, before the library opened.

"I can help you with cleaning this all up," he offered, probably after seeing how I looked at the mess.

"Thanks, Spike, but shouldn't we wake Twilight up first?" I said, pointing to the purple unicorn lying on the floor as she was happily drooling on on some paper.

"Trust me when I say this but she won't be waking up for another eight hours or so for any reason at all," Spike said as he set down his cup on the front desk, "You take her upstairs, I'll get started on this."

I nodded and looked down at Twilight. I tried picking her up with my magic but I was not magically strong enough for that, and I may or may not have dropped her from a height of about fifteen centimeters. She didn't wake up despite the fall that may or may not have been my fault. I then carefully picked her up physically and placed her on my back, noting how she was heavier than she looked, not that I couldn't carry her.

I carried her upstairs into a living room which only had a round table. There were four doorways as well beside the one I came in from. One was obviously a kitchen, evident by the fact that there was no door and I could see what was in the room. The other three, I had no idea. I picked one of the three at random and found that it was a bedroom. I didn't waste much time looking around and just dumped Twilight on the bed and left.

Downstairs, Spike had started putting back books in their respective shelves and had made a surprising amount of progress for a little kid. I joined him in the task, picking up a stack of books in my magic and my hooves and putting them back where they belong.

"Hey, miss Anya, I have a question," Spike said as he started putting away the last stack of books.

"Go ahead, ask," I responded, not particularly interested since I was preoccupied with my own stack of books to put back.

"I don't mean this in a bad way but you don't seem to have any reaction to me," he continued, getting my attention since I didn't understand what he was trying to say.

"Elaborate."

"I mean like, you don't really seem to care that I'm a dragon with a unicorn elder sister, or that I'm a dragon in the first place. Most of the ponies in Ponyville were more curious than afraid of me but you don't seem to care. I've got to ask you why is that so?"

I was a bit dumbfounded by that question and it took me a few moments to come up with a response.

"So, you're saying that you're curious about how I just treat you like any other person and want to know why I do that?" I managed to ask, hoping that he'd make himself slightly more clear.

"Kinda, I guess," he answered as he went to lean on the front desk and finish his coffee.

"Well, that's the normal thing to do, or at least I hope it is," I said, hoping that would answer his question.

"That's true, I guess, but you aren't curious in like, any way at all."

"Well, I guess that's because I had a friend and a couple classmates who were dragons, when I was in school and that kinda let me know what dragons can do," I continued, remembering one of my vessel's classmates in, like, seventh grade.

Spike's curiousity was piqued at the mention of another dragon.

"Ooo, you had a friend who was a dragon? What were they like? Were they cool?" Spike asked with the excitement of a child opening up a gift box, and I found that weird since, like, why would someone be that interested about someone just because of their rac-

A thought came into my mind, and I had a potential explanation to why he was that excited.

"So, you have not met many dragons, have you?" I asked as I finished putting away the last of the books.

"No, not really. There aren't any dragons in Canterlot, or many other creature besides unicorns, and they weren't really nice to me all the time," Spike answered sadly, confirming my suspicions that he always felt alone being in a city known for being composed of mostly unicorns. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry about him.

"Well, how do I say this? Okay, so, my dragon friend, Arjun, was a uhh... well, he was not exactly a good influence for a seventh grader," I said, unintentionally making Spike sad at the fact that the only other dragon he just learnt about sucked. I continued with my answer, hoping to make Spike feel not as bad, "But, he was there when you needed him and he never did anything really bad and that's what mattered."

I was successful in making Spike happy again with that last bit.

"Could you tell me more about him?" he asked, hoping I would tell him more. I was happy to tell him more but I had to check the time to see how much more before I had to open the library.

"Sure, just let me look at the time," I said as I moved to go see the time on the clock on the fornt desk. Spike beat me to it though.

"It's 7:59... I guess I'll come back later," he announced sadly as he started making his way back to the stairs.

"Don't leave yet Spike," I said as I went to go unlock the main doors. He stopped, letting me continue, "I do have to manage the library by myself since Twilight's out BUT that doesn't mean that you have to go or that you can't talk to me. It's not like I'm busy all the time."

Spike was eager to talk and brought a stool to the desk as I took a seat. I couldn't help but feel a bit good about how happy Spike was.

It was almost five in the afternoon, just another twenty minutes till the library closed. There weren't many people coming in today, letting me and Spike talk for almost an hour. Spike was happy with how 'nice' I was to him, even though I was just being normal, and he spent the rest of the time helping around the library, which was nice of him.

The talk had made my mood worse though since it made me go through memories of times with my few friends and made me miss them and wish that I could have kept in touch with them. Unfortunately, there was no internet for me to do that, or to scroll through to forget how I was feeling. Strangely though, I didn't miss my firends from my original world at all and instead only missed those from this one. Another one of Voth's mind magic things, I guess.

Anyway, since there weren't many people coming in today, I got some reserch done on the mysterious 'the key'. I had asked Spike to gather some books that could tell me about abandoned fortresses in the Everfree forest under the guise of random curiosity, you know the kind of curiosity that makes you open up a random wikipedia page and then just open whatever links there are. He gathered twelve books and gave them to me, and I read through all of them.

From what I had learnt, there were almost twenty ruins scattered in the forest ranging from minor forts to the Everfree castle and exploring them would not only be time consuming but also suspicious for some rando like myself. However, I was able to get detailed histories on each of the ruins, from which I found the time periods during which they were abandoned. That combined with 'the key' being last seen four hundred years ago let me narrow down my search to two forts.

One was near a town south of Ponyville called Dodge and that ruin had been restored and turned into a museum, and there were no mentions of 'the key', meaning that it had to be in the other fort. The other fort was rather close to Ponyville, meaning that going to it would be easy. The downside was that there was no reason to go there, for me at least considering that said fort was rumored to also have some other powerful stuff hidden in it. If someone knew I went there, it would raise a lot of questions that could not be answered with 'I went exploring for fun'.

On the positive side of things, I had come one step closer to finding the thing for Voth, which was pretty good.

Now that my research was over, I got up to go put the books back, along with the other books that were returned today. It did not take very long to do that and I was back at my desk, waiting for it to be five. There was no one in the library right now except me since Spike had went upstairs sometime back and not returned yet. I felt like I could take a nap but that was since I was just sitting and doing nothing. If I took a walk, I'd be back to normal.

The library doors opened and a familiar purple-pink mare, Cheerilee — if I remembered her name correctly — walked in. She held in one arm a file that seemed to be bursting with papers. She set the file down on my desk and turned to greet me in a tired voice.

"Hey, Anya."

"Yo," I returned the greeting as I came back to my desk. "What's up?"

"About that," Cheerilee began as she took a seat on the stool Spike had left at the desk, "Next week Monday, the students coming to the library to pick out the books they'll be writing end of the year reports on before they go onto vacation, and since you're the head librarian, I'll be needing your help on that."

"...Oh shit, you're a teacher?" I asked, almost completely ignoring whatever she said.

"Oh, sorry but I kinda forgot you haven't been in the loop with the whole celebration thing and being in the hospital," she said, realising that I knew absolutely nothing about what she was talking about. "So, anyway, I'm the teacher at the Ponyville school and we're supposed to coordinate for this."

"Okay, I got that part but I'll need some context on the other stuff, like the uh the kinds of books you want me to put aside, you know, like the genre and stuff."

"I want them to get books on other cultures from around the world since that's what they've learning about," Cheerilee said as she opened the file and pulled out a sheet and handed it to me, "Sorry that I couldn't get to you earlier about this. The sheet has all the details about what the students should be doing. It should help you out."

"Okay. I'll get some books set aside by Monday. Anything else?"

"No, not re-"

The door to the library opened and the air in the room suddenly became very still. Whatever positive vibe that was in the air disappeared all together and was replaced with one that made your heart sink or the kind of feeling I got whenever I heard keys jingling at a door.

An older pink mare with purple hair walked in. She wore a fancy looking shirt and a lot of expensive looking jewelry, and most prominantly, a smile that one would find on the face of someone who stirs shit up for fun. She radiated an aura of a person that you would not like in any way or even want to be around. Unfortunately, she was coming our way.

"Hello there, Cheerilee," said the mare in a voice full of scorn that was grating, and it wasn't her tone or anything but just the sound of her voice that was grating.

"Hello there, Miss Rich, pleasure seeing you here," Cheerilee responded with a lie, trying her best to sound like she was happy.

The mare, Miss Rich, then turned to me and glared at me for a second before speaking, "And you must be Miss Khan?"

She didn't give me an opportunity to answer the question and kept speaking, this time to both me and Cheerilee, "I'll keep this short. Cheerilee, Miss Khan, there will be a meeting at the town hall tomorrow at four and both of you are needed there."

At that moment, Spike came downstairs and ran up to me, looking worried. Miss Rich seemed to recoil at the very sight of the little guy and looked like she was going to say something. Spike beat her to it though.

He beckoned me to bend down to his level, and then he whispered in my ear, "Twilight's awake and she is not happy that we ruined all her organising work."

"Okay, just go back upstairs and try to calm her down," I whispered back to him. He nodded and ran back upstairs.

"Anyway, what's the meeting about?" Cheerilee asked Miss Rich now that Spike was gone.

"It's something to do with money," Miss Rich answered vaguely as she turned to leave.

Right before she left, she added. "Hopefully it's more funding for security." Then she said in a voice that was barely audible as she left, "Can't believe that they let freaks in this town."

She probably was saying that last part to herself but both I and Cheerilee heard it. The library was silent for a moment before Cheerilee spoke.

"By Faust, I hate that mare," Cheerilee said as she shook her head, probably disappointed that Miss Rich could speak.

"Same and I literally just met her," I said, before moving onto more pressing matters. "So, what's the whole meeting thing?"

"I guess Mayor Mare forgot to tell you, or maybe she was busy with preparations for the celebration, but I'll tell you. So, there are meetings every month with all the important ponies in town like head librarian, weather team leader, some businessponies, and unfortunately, Spoiled Rich, the EEA member. It's mostly about how to spend the town budget or organising events. You'll be there since you're the head librarian, and I'll be there since I'm the only pony in town actually related to the teaching profession."

"So, you're the only person in town related to teaching?"

"Not really, since Spoiled Rich is part of the Equestrian Education Authority, but if she were to disappear tomorrow, nothing would change with how education is handled in our town.

Anyway, I've got to go now. See you tomorrow, Anya."

"Bye."

I was left alone for a few moments before I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and by how they sounded, I could tell the Twilight was coming downstairs and she was clearly annoyed. I turned to face her as she neared the desk.

"Good afternoon, or eveni-" I tried saying but was cut off by Twilight, who looked like she just woke up.

"I understand that you had to put all the books back but you will help me get them rearranged now," she declared with a stomp of her hoof, as if she was trying to intimidate me.

"Yo Twiggles," I started, making her stagger at the nickname I just gave her. She was going to tell me to not call her that but I continued, "Could you get me a bunch of books about other cultures set aside since Cheerilee needs them."

"First of all, never call me that ever again," she began angrily before calming down and continuing, "Second, who's Cheerilee?"

"The town's only teacher. She needs the books set aside since the students are going to do a final exam report thing," I answered and then handed her the paper Cheerilee gave me.

"We'll do that while we're rearranging the books," she stated as she read over the paper.

"About the whole rearranging thing," I said, making Twilight glare at me. "I haven't really eaten since morning and I may be a bit hungry right now. And also, is it really important to rearrange the whole library since everything seems fine to me."

"That's where you're wrong! The books are not placed optimally!", she argued, seemingly not caring that I had needs such as eating food.

"Counterpoint: no one else has complained about the books not being placed optimally so far, so, this may be a you problem," I replied, not eager to postpone my lunch/dinner. Despite that, she looked like she wanted to argue and that really annoyed me. I continued, hoping to make her understand that rearranging was unnecessary, "Plus, the people are very likely to have gotten used to how everything is arranged and it would suck if it all changed without warning."

It took a few long moments but Twilight eventually understood my point and lowered her head in defeat.

"Sorry about that, I just haven't woken up properly," she apologised for her behaviour.

I stayed silent for a moment and then made a joke in a voice very clearly mimicking a shitty manager, "Apology not accepted. As head librarian and your boss, I'm cutting your pay by ten thousand bits."

Twilight didn't get the joke at first and cried, "What? You're joking, right?!"

"Yeah, I am. Anyway, see you tomorrow, Twiggles."

With that, I left the library to go home and make myself something to eat. I could really go for a subway sandwich right now. Too bad that those didn't exist and I had to make them.

Author's Note

26m J

the roblox egg hunt is briandead and the """""""""""""person""""""""""""" who said "put every brain dead gambling addiction fostering clicker game on the platform in teh event" should be beaten to death with hammers fr

do u ever feel sad u cant do anything good on the first try and then u stop doing that thing?

Chapter 17: Super crazy meeting

"Hey, Anya, what are you doing?" asked Twilight as she peered over my shoulder to see what I was reading.

"Reading," I replied, not paying much attention to her as I continued reading the book on shadowmancy.

"Shadowmancy? I thought that dark magic is prohibited," she said, a lot more suspicious of me after realising that I was reading about shadowmancy.

"It's not dark magic. Plus, most dark magic is only prohibited if you are using it to hurt someone or something like an animal, except if you are part of the military or you have a permit," I clarified the legality in a slightly harsh tone, trying to make it obvious I wanted her to not disturb me. Immediately after that, I pretended to clear my throat to make it seem like that tone wasn't on purpose since I wasn't really planning on being mean.

"Still, it's very suspicious that you're reading on that, or that you know that law," Twilight said, continuing to pester me.

"Aw man, looks like detective Twinkle Sprinkle has caught on to my true motives of learning shadow magic to uhh... to uh scare children and steal their candy like a uh totally evil person," I said out loud with extremely heavy sarcasm and even an over the top villain voice. I then proceeded to berate myself mentally over how cringe that was.

"Hmph, has anypony ever told you how annoying you are?" Twilight huffed as she looked away.

"Yup, the voices in my head tell me that all the time."

"...I'll ignore that," she said, finally letting me read in peace, or so I thought. "By the way, that meeting you told me to remind you about is in half an hour."

"Thanks for the reminder, Twilight," I said, mildly annoyed that it was already time. I had just got to the part with all the spells and runes, and I wanted that fun stuff after the long ass explanations about shadows in a magical sense. I put the shadowmancy book in the saddlebag I had bought since the drawstring bag looked goofy as hell and I didn't want to carry it around. The bag was a plain but spacious thing that could fulfill my needs now that I couldn't wear a jacket all the time.

I left the library without saying bye or anything and headed straight for the town hall.

I arrived at the town hall ten minutes before the meeting started and quickly found the room where the meeting was. The room was not particularly well decorated with it only having a long rectangle table with chairs, and some framed pictures and newspapers on the walls. There was a small group of ponies as well, among whom was Cheerilee.

"Hey, Anya," Cheerilee greeted, "Come take a seat."

I took a seat left of her and the chatter in the room quieted down and I was very suddenly in the spotlight. There were three other ponies in the room and they seemed interested at the new face among them. There was an old green stallion with brown hair sitting next to me. He wore a black stetson, and a brown vest on which there was a gold star badge that read 'sheriff'. He was the first to speak to me.

"It's mighty nice ta see a new face here. What's yer name, pretty lady?" he asked in a friendly voice with a smile.

"My name's Anya Khan; I'm the uh head librarian. It's nice to meet you as well," I replied shyly.

"An' I'm Sheriff Steel, head o' the Ponyville police," the sheriff introduced himself, his chest swelling up with pride. A few moments of awkward silence followed and the sheriff turned to speak to the two other ponies on the other side of the table, "C'mon guys, don' be shy an' introduce yerselves."

At the sheriff's encouragement, the next pony, a light purple bat pony with dark purple hair introduced herself, "I'm Wind, owner of Wind's convenience."

"And I'm Bolt, captain of Ponyville's weather team until the end of next week," said the old looking yellow pegasus with red hair as he leaned back in his chair, clearly not happy to be here.

After the introductions, everyone broke off into their own little conversations about their work and previous week while I just sat there and waited. The door to the room opened and Mayor Mare walked in, followed by Spoiled Rich, and... the yellow pegasus that was one of the element bearers, I think her name had 'shy' in it. The mayor took a seat at the head of the table while Spoiled Rich took the one on the other end. Shy took a seat next to the sheriff.

"Good afternoon everypony," started Mayor Mare as she took a seat at the head of table, "I'm sure you're all wondering why this meeting is taking place earlier than usual but I assure you that the matter is important.

To put it simply, Ponyville is expecting quite a lot of ponies to settle here in the next few months thanks to Princess Luna's positive words about our town and so, I propose a renovation of the eastern side of the town where most of the immigrants are expected to move to."

I had been to the area that the mayor was talking about and I can tell you that that place felt like an entirely different town with how few people lived there and how bad it seemed. Even without the whole 'people will live there', it needed fixing.

"However, we'll have to redirect funds from certain places to do so," the mayor added. Almost everyone in here seemed cool with the idea. Everyone except Spoiled Rich.

"And where will the funds be pulled from?" she asked in that annoying voice of hers that made me want to cave her skull in.

"I'm thinking that we could pull some funds from the amount that is spent to maintain other parts of the town, especially the southern parts, temporarily of course," the mayor answered.

"So, you're suggesting that we deprive the orderly parts of our town of funds so that we may direct them to ponies who will increase the crime rate?"

"Wha-"

"I know that most of these ponies are coming from Canterlot's lower districts, the place famous for its crime rate! If we welcome them in our town then they'll ruin it completely!" Spoiled Rich cut off the mayor as she started going off on a rant that I did not pay attention to as I opted to tune her out. The rest of the ponies looked like they were done with her with the exception of Wind who looked hurt at those words.

"Yo, Cheerilee, what's she going crazy about?" I whispered to Cheerilee.

"She doesn't like anybody who isn't stuck up like her and gets very argumentative if somebody disagrees with her," Cheerilee whispered back to me, "And now she's going to tell us about how Ponyville will be improved if they dumped more money in the richer part of town where she lives."

Unfortunately, Spoiled Rich saw us and maybe a heard a small part about what Cheerilee said. She glared at us before asking obnoxiously, "And what are you two talking about?"

Cheerilee looked scared and avoided eye contact with the mare, probably since Spoiled Rich was her boss or something. I was more annoyed than scared and decided to try taking Spoiled Rich down a notch or a hundred.

"Nothing much, she was telling me some basic points of your plan," I began with a lie. She of course doubted me but didn't say anything about that.

"Well, I'd rather not be interrupted when I just get to explaining it," she huffed before she opened her mouth to tell us about said plan.

"Could you summarise your plan by the way," I requested, interrupting her, "It'd be great if you did since we can come to an agreement quickly if you did that."

The whole 'end this quickly' was a half truth since I did want this to end quickly but not because I cared about speed or anything, but rather, I didn't want to hear that mare's voice for any longer. The other ponies in the room seem to have their spirits lifted at my interruption and subsequent request for Miss Rich to hurry up and that was enough evidence for me to conclude that no one liked her.

"Hmph, if you say so," Spoiled Rich said with a slight grimace before she composed herself ans spoke, "I do not support the wastage of money on outsiders who will reduce the quality of life of this town, and instead support putting money where it should go, the southern part of town."

"Okay, cool," I said, almost doing a thumbs up before remembering that I had a hoof. Unfortunately for her, I continued, "By the way, what are the benefits of 'putting the money where it should go' as you put it?"

She gasped a little, probably at my audacity to ask that question, but answered it quickly, "To use the money as the needs of the older residents of the town dictate!"

She clearly expected that that would be the end of the argument but little did she know, it was not.

"Don't the old people get a pension or something to help them out? Why'd they need more money?" I asked pretending to be curious when I was actually undermining her point and also potentially insulting her by refering to her as 'old'. The sheriff meanwhile, who was probably the oldest in the room, looked like he was having a hard time not laughing. I continued, making an actual point this time, "Plus, shouldn't the money be put in like uh town square or something and not that specific area since most people are going to go to the town square more often?"

I didn't stop with my argument.

"And if we go by the mayor's plan, wouldn't it increase property values or something? Like, I might not be the most knowledgeable on economics but that seems pretty obvious."

"And since that area is close to the town square and all the businesses of Ponyville, ponies moving in would boost the local economy," Mayor Mare added.

Clearly, this was too much facts and logic for Spoiled Rich as she then said angrily, "It still does not change the fact that those ponies are criminals!"

She realised what she said and covered her mouth immediately but it was too late. No one in the room was happy to hear her, myself included. She had opened a can of worms and she knew it.

"Ah, uh, sorry about my outbu-", she tried saying to salvage what she could but I cut her off, more than happy to make her eat the can of worms she opened.

"I guess you have some reservations about the whole 'outsider' thing but let me clear it up for you using some basic logic. So, as you said earlier, the lower districts of Canterlot where most of these people will come from are crime infested and shitty places filled with shitty people, and I guess that might be true," I started, earning a mean look from Wind. I guess she was from said place.

"However, most normal people wouldn't want to live in a place full of crime, and will try to move out, and that basically means that most people coming over will be normal people, but if that doesn't convince you, we could look at it from the perspective of money.

You see, most poor people can't really move away from their bad situations because they don't have enough money and they're the same poor people that you assume to be criminals and such. Now, if the property values here are boosted due to a renovation then most of those properties won't be bought by those people," I continued. Rich's argument was thoroughly destroyed, in my eyes at least.

Unfortunately, she had a trick up her sleeve. "Most of those ponies are bat ponies! Freaks who stay awake at night! They could break into someone's house easily when everyone's asleep!"

Ah yes, good ol' racism, the ender of all civilised arguments.

This time, the sheriff spoke up with thinly veiled anger, "Well, that's what me an' mah deputies are there for, an' if them bat ponies are awake an' out at night then we can hire bat ponies to keep the law durin' that time o' the day."

He drove the final nail in the coffin that held Spoiled Rich's argument and damn was it satisfying.

"...You think you can lecture me?!" Spoiled Rich shouted all of a sudden as she got off her chair. "I won't be talked down to by a mud pony or a terrorist freak!"

She stormed out of the room, leaving us all in silence. Everyone was shocked at what she had said at the end but were overall relieved that she was gone. Except Mayor Mare, she was holding her head in her hooves and silently mumbling something to herself.

"Mayor, are you fine?" asked Bolt.

"Oh no, I'm not fine at all!" the mayor shouted, making us all confused. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's gone but she also has a lot of friends from the rich part of town, and knowing how she'll spin this whole tale- oh, this is not going to be good if they do something in protest."

Even when we won, we lost.

"We're in the right, though," I pointed out.

"That's true, but it still won't stop some ponies from being how they are," Mayor Mare said as she started to get off her chair, "Whatever, I'll deal with th-"

The door to the room opened and a old and tired looking stallion came in. He was brown with dark hair that was starting to gray. He wore a suit collar thing with a tie and he looked rather annoyed.

"A-ah, Mister Rich! What a surprise seeing you here!" the mayor tried greeting as she put on a smile.

"There's no need to sugarcoat anything; I'd like to know what happened here," Mister Rich said in a tired voice as he took the seat where Spoiled Rich was sitting earlier.

"Yer wife called me a mudpony, and miss Khan a terrorist," the sheriff said immediately, not trying to be hostile to the stallion. Mister Rich looked disappointed upon hearing that and sighed before he spoke again.

"I apologise for my wife's words and behaviour," he said as he sat up straight, "It won't be happening again. You can expect me to be present in all the meetings from now on instead of sending her.

And for your policy, I'll be supporting it."

With that, he left, probably to go talk to Spoiled Rich. Mayor Mare calmed down somewhat and continued the meeting for another five or so minutes, mostly discussing how she'll pull some money from the library for extra security expenditure. I was fine with that since it was temporary.

The meeting ended after that and I went back home to go eat dinner and sleep. Pretty anticlimatic if you ask me but such is life.

Author's Note

option 1: a

option 2: a

which better to look at?

i think i may enter the scifi contest 3, not sure tho

work stuf
27/6 T

Chapter 18: "I am one with the shadows" -me after one (1) prank using shadows

Shadow magic was this really weird and tedious thing that I could do with some proficiency. You didn't really control shadows since they are an absence of light, which is something that exists, but what you could control was the magic in the shadow and small particles in the air that you could arrange into shapes that would cast the shadows you needed. Magic had this property where it was both a wave and a particle, much like light, except that it had some other attributes, one of which was photoactivity i.e. it behaved differently in the dark that when it is in the light and this was integral to shadowmancy.

To even begin your career as a shadow mage, you needed to learn a incantation that (while stupid in my objectively right opinion) was necessary to get the degree of control one needed to move around tiny particles in the air. Once you got that down, you could move onto the actual good stuff, like making a funky little shadow guy, much like I was doing right now.

You could do other stuff as well, such as making a three dimensional shadow by making a light proof shell out of particles, turning that into a golem using shadow runes, and then making a shadow portal to enter the shadow dimension and deploy the shadow golem in the house of someone you don't like. Unfortunately, you couldn't really use shadows to physically harm someone like I had imagined, unless you scare them into falling down the stairs, and the learning curve was a cliff when it came to the stuff that wasn't just making shadow puppets. Plus, some of it was illegal, like entering the shadow dimension.

But all that's beside the point. Right now, the important thing was making sure that I had a decent hiding spot. I had woken up very early thanks to a nightmare and I couldn't really go to sleep after that. I figured that I'd just spend the two hours I had before work on practising shadowmancy and I had figured out the 'making a shadow using dust in the air' part and that was when I had this really cool idea.

I was going to prank Twilight.

I had no real reason to prank her specifically, or to prank someone at all, but where was the fun in that? Twilight was the unfortunate target since she was the only other person I thought of other than Brush, who got a pass since she's my good friend. I had then set out to the library at like 5:50 in the morning, hoping to get there before Twilight woke up.

The library was still closed and there were no lights on in the building, meaning that I was on time. I unlocked the door and slipped in without making any noise. I had turned on the lights and then hidden myself among the many bookshelves of the library. All I had to do was wait for Twilight to come downstairs.

That wait was only five minutes.

Twilight was coming downstairs, looking like she just got up judging by how her eyes were barely open and how her mane and tail looked more like bushes than a mane and tail.

"Anya, are you here?" she called out as she walked to the front desk, looking more awake with every passing moment. She hadn't seen or heard me ducking from behind one bookshelf to another and now was my time to strike. I said the incantation for control in my mind and a slight ache in my horn later, I was able to feel all the particles in the air with my magic. My horn lit up and the particles started moving.

The lights in the library made Twilight's shadow appear in front of her and that was perfect. The particles gathered up between her and the ceiling light into an almost invisible cloud, casting a shadow on her back. Twilight was none the wiser and continued looking over the front desk, trying to find clues about whether or not I was in the library.

Her shadow started growing visibly and within a second, she was aware of it.

"What the?" she said as she tried stepping back from her shadow unsuccessfully. When I was happy with how big the shadow was, I moved onto the second part of my plan. The invisible particle cloud started shifting at my command, making it look like Twilight's shadow started morphing. Twilight charged up her her horn, probably to attack the shadow. The shadow morphed, getting a large body with four wings, one pair bat like, the other bird like. On top of the body sat a head with two circles of light for eyes.

It wasn't as scary as it was in my head but Twilight was definitely terrified.

"What do you want?!" she shouted at the shadow. I started the last phase of my plan and started moving a lot more particles to start making a three dimensional shape. It took a good ten seconds to do that and each second, Twilight grew more and more scared.

When she was about to repeat herself, the shadow sprung forth, leaving the wall and jumping into three dimensions, or atleast tried to. It wasn't a really great looking transition since you need at least three lights, one for the x-axis, one for the y, and the last for the z, to make a proper three dimensional thing, and I only had one light on the ceiling. However, that worked in my favour as it made the shadow look a lot more like a big scary pile of darkness.

Twilight jumped back with a yelp as the shadow moved too fast for her to run away from, and enveloped her completely except for her head. I then used my magic to turn off the light, and cut all the magic from the shadow monster, making it look like the shadows had consumed Twilight. She screamed like a little filly and I giggled at my successful prank.

Now all I had to do was leave the library under the cover of darkness. I took one step, and suddenly, the lights were back on. The library doors were wide open and Rainbow Dash was there, looking as if she were ready to fight. Twilight was laying on the ground, covering her head with her hooves, and I was just frozen there next to a bookshelf mid walk. We all looked at each other for one second.

"What happened?!" Rainbow asked, her voice full of concern. "I heard Twilight scream."

The mare in question was no longer cowering on the floor and instead stomping to me, looking furious.

"What did you do?" she asked in a really angry voice as she got really close to my face. It took me a moment to formulate an answer that'd get me out of trouble.

"I pranked you," I said since I couldn't get out of this one. Twilight was less angry and more annoyed now while Rainbow seemed interested.

"How'd you prank her, Anya?" Rainbow asked, getting out of her fighting stance.

"She used shadowmancy to make a monster thing," Twilight huffed. Rainbow probably didn't know anything about shadowmancy and probably decided that I was doing something evil since shadow monster sounded evil.

"What the heck, Anya, you summoned a shadow monster?" she said pointing an accusatory hoof to me.

"No, I made a shadow that looked like a monster," I defended myself before giving a demonstration, "Like this."

A shadow appeared on the wall next to us, looking much like what I had made to scare Twilight. Rainbow jumped back at that, making Twilight rolled her eyes, but she took a closer look at the shadow on the wall.

"Huh, this does look scary... not that I was scared," Rainbow said, before a smile formed on her face, "But I gotta admit, this thing is pretty good for a prank. How'd you make it?"

"I did the control incantation in my head, which gives me the ability to move around small particles in the air, which I then arrange into shapes in front of lights, which makes them cast a shadow while not being seen by anyone meaning, there isn't any shadow monster but rather, just a normal shadow that looks like a monster," I explained. Rainbow definitely lost interest halfway through but was still impressed.

"And this is for scaring me," Twilight said with a devious smile as she teleported a rolled up newspaper and smacked me in the head with it.

It was a decent start to a Wednesday.

Author's Note

Like this coment if u almost break downover smal things

2.86 w :3

~~shoutout to Fimfiction user~~ ~~Hyperiumon~~ ~~for chapter idea~~ i definitely made this chapter all by myself and definitely did not take a commentor's idea

Chapter 19: Not all nightmares are made equal

I woke up from a nightmare at around three in the morning. All I could remember was that it was about a test that had gone terribly but that was enough to kick me out of my dreams and into the waking world with tears in my eyes. I... I tried real hard to not cry, since it was a stupid thing to do because I couldn't fix the root cause of it, and there was no one to cry to, and even if there was someone, they wouldn't care, and if they don't care, why should I? After all, the nightmare was about some retarded test given to me by some retarded 'school' more than five years ago and I should be over that by now.

But of course, that didn't me from being a crybaby bitch and crying for two minutes, like, get over it you dumb bitch, it was a dream of all things.

After my two minute long moment of weakness, I made a mental note to not do that again, and got out of bed. I washed my face and made some chai. While the chai was getting finished, I went to lie down in the living room for a minute.

I hadn't even got to the sofa when I heard something hit my back door with an audible thump. I went to investigate and pulled aside the curtains of the back door. Strangely, there wasn't any forest wildlife in my backyard like I had expected. Another thump sounded, making me jump a little and then look down. It was a large moth- no, it was the large moth that I had in my house a few days back. The bug took flight, hitting my door once again as it tried to enter. Clearly, it could not comprehend clear glass. I opened the door, and this time, instead of flying into the glass door, it flew into my leg.

I picked it up in one hoof and looked it in the eye, admiring how cute and dumb it looked. The moth just wiggled its legs in the air and squeaked loudly in what I assumed to be protest. Seeing that improved my mood somewhat. I tucked the bug under my left arm as if it were a plushie and went to check on the chai.

Maybe I can show the moth to someone.

That'd be later though. Right now, I still had quite a lot of time until work. Fortunately, my chai was finished and I had a cute bug to accompany me till then.

I poured a cup of chai out and took it to the living room where I set it on the table to cool a bit. I lay down on the couch with the moth in my arms. The bug seemed to have accepted its fate as a huggable creature and rested in my arms, not doing much.

I was about to nuzzle it when a dark liquid-y thing started to come out of the couch. I sat upright as the stuff gathered up and took the familiar shape of an alicorn with eyes all over.

"Hey, Voth," I greeted. There was some important stuff I had to tell him.

"YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY," Voth said, getting straight to the point.

"Yeah, so, Grogar's bell was kinda a dead end since I couldn't find much on it," I started, and I could feel that Voth wasn't too happy to hear that. "However, I did find an artefact that might be the thing we're looking for and I might have a location for it."

"EXPLAIN."

"So, there's a thing called 'the key' which is described as being extremely powerful but it can only be found by those who don't want it, which is basically the same as the thing you wanted me to find. I know where it might be, I just need a good excuse to go there since its in an abandoned fort that no one should go to."

"GOOD YOU HAVE WORKED FAST FOR A LOWER BEING," Voth said with what seemed to be happiness, while I was choosing between being offended or being flattered. I chose the latter since Voth probably doesn't mean 'lower being' in a bad way. "HOWEVER I STILL NEED YOU TO FIND ME GROGAR'S BELL DUE TO ITS RELATION TO MY KIND IF YOU FIND IT I WILL GIVE YOU ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION."

That sounded... decent, I guess. I didn't really want anything but the deal sounded decent to me. I mean, when I give him 'the key', I only get my freedom from him, and even though he was good, I wanted some more stuff other than that.

"I'll try to do that," I said, "What would you give me in compensation?"

"THAT IS UP TO YOU TO DECIDE." Well, that was vague.

"Uhh, that's cool but I don't really know what I can get. Could you give me a list?" I asked, hoping he would elaborate.

"I CAN GIVE YOU SOME POWER AND INFORMATION ON CERTAIN ARTEFACTS THAT I KNOW OF BUT DO NOT HAVE USE OF." Not as vague but still vague.

"That's... less than expected... or does 'power' mean more than just, like, strength?"

"POWER MEANS STRENGTH BUT THAT POWER IS NOT LIMITED TO A SINGLE OUTPUT WITH THE POWER YOU CAN SUMMON CREATURES FOR YOU, GAIN MAGICAL PROFICIENCY, INTERACT WITH MY WORLD AND SO ON FOR INSTANCE YOU CAN USE THE POWER TO TELL HOW THE CREATURE IN YOUR ARMS IS FEELING," Voth elaborated, seemingly happy to share knowledge.

"Really? What's he feeling like right now?" I asked as I pet the moth.

"HE IS IN COMFORT," Voth replied.

"Hmmm, okay... So, if I understood correctly, the power you'd give me is like, good for everything."

"IT WILL NOT TRANSLATE INTO PHYSICAL STRENGTH UNLESS YOU USE IT FOR BIOMANCY AND INCREASE THE STRENGTH YOUR FLESH," Voth said, clearing any confusion I had, but also name-dropping something that sounded cool.

"What's biomancy?"

"IT IS THE MAGIC WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO GAIN CONTROL OVER LIVING ORGANISMS AND ALTER THEM OR MAKE THEM OBEY YOUR COMMANDS," Voth answered, as he started to melt back into the sofa. "I AM GOING NOW, CALL ME WHEN YOU FIND THE KEY."

And with that, Voth was gone, leaving me alone... not really, I had the moth with me. I picked up the cup of chai in my magic and took a sip, burning my tongue.

I walked into the library, whose door was unlocked, probably by Twilight. However, she wasn't anywhere to be seen. I guess she was having breakfast upstairs. I left my saddlebags by my chair at the front desk, and with the moth on my arm, I went up the stairs.

I knocked on the door at the end of the stairs since it was Twilight's home now and I didn't want to accidentally break in. The door opened for a moment and Spike stepped out before he closed the door behind him.

"Hi, Anya, if you're looking for Twilight, you'll have to wait," he said immediately. He was going to continue but was interrupted by the moth on my arm squeaking. "What... what is that?"

"It's a really big moth," I answered before moving my arm closer to him to let him see the moth up close, "Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah, kinda cool for a bug, don't think Twilight would like it," Spike said as he poked at said bug before he continued, "Why don't you go downstairs and wait for Twilight. She has a uhh she's in a meeting with the princess."

"The princess? Princess Celestia is here?" I asked, remembering Voth's advice on avoiding the sun princess.

"Yeah, it's her. Anyway, I'll see you in a bit. Try to act... normal when the princess comes downstairs since she doesn't really like ponies being nervous of her," he said as he opened the door and slipped back inside before closing it.

I took a deep breath before turning around and heading down. There was still at least half an hour before the library opened and I didn't have much to do till then. I sat at my desk and set down the moth next to the computer, where it just crawled around slowly.

I wanted to try and find stuff about biomancy but I had a feeling that it was some type of dark magic and with the princess upstairs, I was not going to take any risk. I opted to sit in my chair and watch the moth crawl all over the computer instead. I spent the next minute like that.

I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and turned my head to investigate. I saw a black coloured pony with midnight blue hair coming down the stairs as if they were sneaking. I recognised her. It was Nightmare Moon. She looked my way as she got off the stairs and the next moment, I felt myself being hugged.

Nightmare had crossed the small distance between the stairs and the desk in a moment and pulled me into a hug. It was so fast that I couldn't really react to it. I did notice that she seemed very weak. Her wings still looked bad and her horn, despite having grown back halfway, still wasn't in any position to do magic.

"Oh my Faust! I thought I'd never see you again!" She said, very excited and happy to see me for some reason. I hugged her back, unsure of what to say or do.

"Hi, Nightmare Moon," I said, finally coming up with some words.

"Hi, uh I don't think I know your name, I never really go to ask you that night, or maybe I did and forgot it," she said very fast as she pulled away from me. "So, what's your name?"

"My name is Anya," I answered, "So, why are you here?"

"Oh! The princes- I mean, princess Celestia wanted to talk to the element of magic, Twilight, about something and she told me that I have to come with her as well, and I remembered that there's the nice pony in this town and that I could go find her but guess what she did," she answered all in one breath. If I were to guess, the 'nice pony' was me but I couldn't be sure.

"What?" I asked, not wanting to say my answer out loud just in case.

"She found me!" she answered excitedly as she hugged me once again, nuzzling my chest. I was starting to feel that something was off about her. She was too different from the last time I saw her and that was less than ten days ago. Was she hiding her feelings?

"Say, do you know why the princess is here, like, the reason why she's talking with Twilight?" I asked her. She went very still at that question, making me a bit worried.

She looked up at my face before looking back down and burying her face in my chest fluff. Her happy facade had disappeared, showing how she truly felt.

"I- I... don't wan-," she said shakily as she hesitated before finally caving in, "Celestia wants to leave me under Twilight's watch be- because I'm not welcome at the castle and becaus- because I'm not a good pony."

I could tell that she was crying when my chest fur started feeling wet, and that sucked since I didn't want her to cry. I run a hoof through her hair and pat her back for some time before saying something.

"Look, you aren't a bad pony, you were just... misguided earlier," I began.

"B- but I hurt you and others," she said, trying to counter me, making me a bit sad.

"And now you regret that. If you were a bad pony, would you do that?" I asked rhetorically. She stayed silent after that, her crying slowly subsiding. I hoped that she had seen my point and stayed quiet because of that and not because she didn't want to argue with me.

I pulled away from the hug, making her confused and a bit scared but I knew what I was doing.

"Wanna see something cool?" I asked her as I reached for the moth that had perched itself on top of the computer. Nightmare nodded a bit hesitantly.

"Here," I said as I picked up the moth and held it out to Nightmare so that she could see it. She was curious at first but when she saw it up close, I swear I saw stars in her eyes. She wordlessly took the bug from me, letting me check the time. There were still another fifteen minutes till eight. I pushed the power button on the computer and turned back to see what Nightmare was doing with the moth.

The scene was admittedly cute, with Nightmare hugging the oversized bug with a smile on her face, while said bug seemed to have no reaction whatsoever. It was good to know that her mood had improved.

Of course, like all good things, it wasn't meant to last.

There was the sound of a door slamming coming from upstairs. Nightmare seemed to teleport with how fast she moved, putting me in between herself and the source of the noise, the princess of the sun coming downstairs. If that wasn't good enough, she looked like she wanted to go into rage mode.

She saw me and nightmare who had tried her best to hide behind me and my chair, and walked straight to us. She put on a neutral expression as she neared us but the fact that she was almost stomping gave away how she felt.

She stopped in front of my desk and greeted me with a very flat sounding voice, "Good morning, Miss Khan. I would like to know what you and her were doing here."

"We uhh we weren't doing much, just chatting," I answered, trying hard not to be intimated by the princess. Nightmare didn't say anything and continued cowering behind me. The princess raised an eyebrow at that, as if she didn't believe me.

"Nightmare Moon," she said, make Nightmare slowly walk out from her hiding spot behind me. Nightmare had a all too familiar terrified expression, like she knew that it was over for her. The princess continued, "I had told you NOT to go anywhere without my permission and an escort. It is a matter of security that you said you understood."

'Whose security?' I thought, seeing how hostile the princess was to Nightmare for something this small.

The princess stayed silent, letting the tension grow, which made Nightmare's mood worse, and I knew that she was doing that on purpose.

"May I speak, princess?" I said, breaking the silence. The princess might have had her reasons to be hostile to Nightmare but she was overdoing it.

"I understand that you want to criticise my harshness but it is necessary that you understand the security issue that is her sneaking away for whatever reason," the princess said, assuming that I didn't know that stuff.

"Okay, sneaking away is bad, I agree with that, but she came downstairs to just talk to me, and not like, do anything bad," I countered. "Plus, she stayed in the library and isn't much of a threat."

"I do not believe I said that she was a threat," the princess said, technically telling the truth to counter my last point. Most people would just go along with it, but, I was not most people.

"Counterpoint: It was implied and said implication could only be missed if you were like, completely stupid," I argued back. The princess hummed at that, seemingly thinking.

"...I suppose you may have a point," she said to me before turning to Nightmare and saying sternly, "Do not leave this building."

She turned and left, going back upstairs. We both just sat where we were for a few moments, hearing the footsteps recede. Nightmare Moon then jumped onto me and hugged me, all while thanking me and stuff. I was just astonished that I managed to argue with the princess, and win.

Nightmare and me had talked for like, ten minutes, and it was mostly her telling me about how much Canterlot sucked and how she didn't want to be there and that Celestia was always angry at her for no reason. I listened to her vent, nodding and stuff since I didn't want to see her sad for whatever reason.

I had to stop her for a moment though with the time being almost eight.

"Yo, Nightmare, I'll be back in a second," I said, interrupting the story she was telling me about some guy named 'Fancy Pants' and how he accidentally switched up Nightmare and Luna.

"Huh, where are you going?" she asked, sitting up from her spot on the floor where she had layed in a loafing position like a cat.

"Gotta turn the sign at the door," I answered. Nightmare looked unsure and unhappy that I was gong away. even if it was for just a moment.

It took me a few seconds and like I had said, I was back at my chair. Nightmare still seemed upset that I had left her for some time.

"Okay, I'm back, you can continue your story," I said. Nightmare went back to loafing and was about to open her mouth when we heard the upstairs door open. We both turned to look at who was coming down.

Princess Celestia was coming downstairs with Twilight close behind her. Neither of them looked particularly happy, which made Nightmare upset. I got out of my chair and put a hoof on her shoulder to bring some comfort to her.

"I think I have to go now," Nightmare whispered to me sadly.

She got up, ready to go when the princess teleported a ring thing and placed it on Nightmare's broken horn, making her confused. The ring was a magic suppression device.

"I've decided that staying in Ponyville for some time will be better for you. You'll be staying under Twilight's supervision and I expect you to behave," the princess said to Nightmare as she left the library.

Nightmare stood silently, processing Celestia's words before a large smile appeared on her face.

"I'm staying here," she whispered excitedly as she looked to me.

"Yes, you are," interrupted Twilight in a very annoying voice as she teleported herself a scroll, "However, there will be some rules that you'll have to follow and there will be consequences if you don't."

It broke my heart a little seeing Nightmare go from almost exploding due to happiness to looking nervous and scared.

"Hey, Twilight," I said, interrupting her before she could start reading out all the rules, earning a glare from her in return.

"As for you, I don't want you to go arguing with the princess or encouraging bad behavi-", she didn't get to finish as I picked up the moth that Nightmare had left on the desk and brought it close to her, making her take a step back.

"Woe be upon ye," I said as I gently threw the moth at her. The moth, not wanting to fall, took flight and landed on Twilight's face.

The scream that followed was the second loudest thing after Nightmare's and mine laughter.

Author's Note

Sometimes I want to do things

306 f

Chapter 20: Icecream with the girlies RUINED by terrible evil unicorn

I sat at my desk waiting for it to be five. There weren't many people in the library now, just me, Nightmare, Spike, and Twilight, who was still seething in rage after I threw a bug at her face in the morning. Not that I was too worried about that.

Nightmare had talked a lot and was in a pretty happy mood. I was still skeptical though since I didn't believe that she could have changed so much in just under two weeks. Or maybe I was being stupid. Whatever the case, I was too curious to not ask her. Fortunately, she hadn't left my side the entire day and if I had to guess, she'll probably want to follow me home.

"Yo, Nightmare, I have a question that you may not like," I said, announcing to the ex-villain who was sitting by me and playing with the moth. I should really give the moth a name, maybe something after how a pattern on its wings looked.

Nightmare looked to me, her smile a bit smaller now. "What... what is it?" she asked with a little fear in her voice.

"Okay, so, you remember how you were on the day of the celebration," I said, avoiding saying anything about whatever she tried to do since tht would make her sad. Nightmare nodded, her smile now gone, but I continued, "And if you look at now, its like your a completely different person. I don't really think its my place to ask this but I'm a bit worried about you, so, like, how'd you change that fast?

It's fine if you don't want to answer, I just want to make sure that you're fine."

Nightmare looked both relieved and uncomfortable. She looked around us before leaning in close to me.

"I... I know that it seems strange how far I changed but... but I just don't want to be like that, full of hate and anger all the time. Even though I was under the negative influence of that thi- that dark magic demon and angry and hateful, I was still conscious enough to hurt people.

I don't want to be like that again.

I just want to be loved, and no one likes me at all if I behave like how I did on that day. Being nice is better even if I don't want to be nice all the time," she answered nervously, as if she were scared that I'd not believe her or something.

"Hmm, okay, so you're not having any problems, right?"

"I guess I'm just... sad that everyone is still scared of me in some way, even though they're completely right about me not being good," she answered, ending on a very sad note. Ah, fuck, I've messed shit up once again and now I feel bad.

"Okay, number one, you're completely wrong about you being a bad person," I started, making her look up at me with how confident I sounded with my completely true and correct claim. I looked at the clock and saw it was five and continued," Second, the library's about to close, so, why don't you come with me? We could go get some icecream or something and maybe, if you're fine with it, I could introduce you to one of my friends since you'd probably get bored of talking to me."

Nightmare mulled it over before nodding her head slowly.

"Kay, let's go then," I said as I got up from my chair and put on my saddlebags. Nightmare followed me, her speed not affected by the fact that she was holding the moth in her left arm. We were out of the library whose doors I locked on the way out and on the streets of Ponyville. There weren't many people outside at the time and those that were outside didn't seem to notice NIghtmare.

One of them did notice me though.

"Hey, Anya!" I heard the familiar voice of Brush call out from my right. Nightmare almost instinctively moved to my left as the brown cat-pony came up to me. She wordlessly pulled me into a hug which was how she seemed to greet me.

"Hi, Brush, how are you today?" I said, returning the hug. Brush pulled away and was about to start talking when she saw Nightmare next to me. She wasn't scared or anything, just curious in contrast to Nightmare who was nervous.

"I'm feeling well, how about you?" she replied, not taking her eyes off of Nightmare, who started to grow uncomfortable.

"Pretty good," I answered before I made my next move.

"Okay, so, Nightmare, this is Brush, and Brush, this is Nightmare," I said, introducing them to one another while hoping that this didn't go to shit.

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Brush greeted happily, either not recognising Nightmare or just not being scared of her. Probably the former.

"Hello," Nightmare replied, not as nervous as earlier.

Brush then turned to me and asked, "What are you doing right now?"

"We're getting icecream or something," I answered before an idea came to my head. "Wanna come with us?"

"I'd love to!" Brush answered with a grin. Her positivity was clearing rubbing off onto Nightmare who was becoming less nervous by the second.

"Okay then, let's go," I said leading the two.

We wandered around for a bit, ultimately stopping at Wind's Convenience and buying some cone icecreams. Brush got butterscotch almost instantly while I looked for chocolate chocolate chip, which I was unable to find. I took mint chocolate chip instead and got vanilla for Nightmare who clearly knew nothing about icecream. I paid for it all since I was the only one carrying money.

We were presently just walking with no clear destination in mind.

"I'll pay you back for this later," Brush said as she hovered close to the ground and removed her butterscotch icecream from its wrapping.

"No need for that," I replied as I unwrapped my own icecream that I held in my magic.

"Can we find some place to sit down?" Nightmare said as she held her own icecream in her hoof, not having magic to open it, nor having flight with her damaged wings to hover like Brush and open it. That, along the moth crawling around on her mane, made us look around for somewhere to sit.

"There's a bench," Brush said as she pointed to a bench next to a fountain. We three headed over there and sat down. I was in the middle with Brush to my right and Nightmare to my left. Once we were seated, Nightmare pulled off the moth on her head.

"Foul creature, you should not do that again," she said to it as she looked it in the eye and scolded it for being a menace to her mane. The moth didn't seem to care. Nightmare then handed the moth to me or tried to, only for the bug to take flight and land in my unbraided mane. I wasn't bothered by it that much.

"So, Nightmare, are you new in Ponyville? Or are you just visiting?" Brush asked after she took a lick of her icecream.

"Uhm, I'm not new here but I am visiting," Nightmare answered a bit nervously as she unwrapped her icecream. I didn't say anything and took a bite out of my own.

"Did you just bite your icecream?" Brush asked me, clearly not knowing the true extent of my weirdness. Nightmare, who didn't know what icecream was, also took a bite out of her icecream at that moment and regretted it almost instantly. I'm pretty sure she got both sensitive teeth and brain freeze, a truly terrible duo.

"How do you eat this thing?" Nightmare asked, a hoof to her forehead as she tried to nurse it from the brain freeze.

"Slowly. You don't bite it like I do," I answered with a small smile as I took another bite.

"Hey, Nightmare, you said you were visiting. Where are you coming from?" Brush asked.

Nightmare carefully licked her icecream this time, but not carefully enough to stop her nose from getting some vanilla on it. She put on a very serious face but the vanilla on her nose clashed with it hilariously.

"You do not seem to know me," Nightmare said, bringing a small frown to Brush's face, probably since it sounded like she was being narcissistic. Nightmare didn't notice that and continued, "I... I am Nightmare Moon."

The next few seconds were very tense, for Nightmare at least. Brush seemed to be deep in thought before she responded, "You're THE Nightmare Moon?"

"...yes," Nightmare replied, seeming to regret her earlier decision since she thought that Brush would get scared. I wanted to take control of the conversation but I waited to see how it would play out.

"That's... fine, I suppose," Brush finally said after several moments, making Nightmare look relieved. "Anya, do you happen to have any other surprises today?"

"Ya, surprise bug blast," I replied jokingly before I picked up the moth from my hair and held it up close to Brush. In doing this, I removed most of the tension from the atmosphere. Brush wasn't scared of the bug like Twilight and in fact, she seemed to be happy to see the bug up close.

"What a cutie," Brush said as she poked the insect, making it squeak. "So, Nightmare Moon, is it fine if I just call you Moon?"

Nightmare nodded, letting Brush continue, "So, did princess Celestia forgive you that easily even though you tr-"

I put a hoof on Brush's shoulder and shook my head, silently conveying the message to not directly mention that. Brush seemed to understand.

"Not really, Lu- princess Luna had to convince her," Nightmare answered, shifting in her seat a bit, "Even then, I had a lot of 'escorts' assigned to me while I was in Canterlot. Here, I just have to answer to the element of magic, Twilight."

I didn't really believe that Celestia would leave Nightmare like that and thought that there would be a couple of people following her around. That idea made me look around. There weren't many people around us, and those that were there didn't look particularly sus. Except for that one mare with a blue and pink mane who seemed to have been staring at us until I looked her direction... or maybe I'm just overthinking it and that mare was probably staring at us since Nightmare Moon's here with us and not because she's a spy. I should stop being so brain-dead.

"Anya, do you want to come over to my place for dinner?" Brush asked me, pulling me out of my dumb thoughts. "And you can come as well if you want, Moon."

Huh, this was going a lot better than I expected and Brush was pretty nice to Nightmare. Everything was going well...

Not for long, unfortunately, but you see, that is the way of life.

"Hey!" I heard Twilight shout angrily. All the of us looked to our front where Twilight's voice has come from. There we saw Twilight advancing towards us very angrily. Brush was confused, Nightmare was a bit intimidated, while I was neutral.

"What's up, Twilight," I said, greeting her causally as she stopped right in front of us.

"What's up?!" she said angrily as she pointed an accusatory hoof at me, "You got Nightmare out of the library WITHOUT my permission! Princess Celestia has given me a duty to watch over her and you can't just do things like this!"

"Sounds like you need to cool down, why don't you have some icecream?" I replied as I took another bite out of my icecream.

Twilight was greatly angered by my suggestion.

"Cool down?!" Twilight started, but I immediately cut her off.

"Twilight, we're having icecream, not killing someone. There's no need to be that angry, unless you just want to ruin the mood," I said, increasing the volume of my voice a bit more than normal.

"I'll come back to the library," Nightmare said as she got up from her seat sadly. Unfortunately, Twilight was still angry.

"And you!", she said as she jabbed a hoof into Nightmare's chest, making her drop her icecream. Brush got up at that and I could see claws coming out of her paws, making it clear that she was angry at how Twilight behaved. She wanted to say something but I beat her to it and I was a lot more angry than she was.

"Hey hey hey, Twilight," I said, stopping her from going off on Nightmare. She turned to me to say something but I continued, "Could you like, stop?"

I hoped that she'd get the idea that she should clam down.

"Stop what? Being responsible?" she replied obnoxiously, clearly not getting the message.

"Stop being a... a dingus," I clarified, being a lot more direct than my previous attempt while avoiding calling her a bitch. "Like, being responsible is cool and all but you're blowing up over Nightmare going out for icecream and look at what you did now, you made her drop it."

I pointed at the dropped cone in front of Nightmare who looked sad. Twilight's anger started to fade.

I continued, my clarification becoming a lecture, "Like, what do you even get out of being this angry over her not telling you everything she's doing? Nightmare was going to go back to the library and tell you what she's gonna be out with us and I understand that she should have done that earlier but you just came out here and started shouting and going crazy, like, who does that?"

By the end of my lecture, Twilight looked somewhat sorry about what she did.

"Look, I've just not been having a good day and I want to finish this," Twilight said, frustrated.

"Sorry, I have to go," Nightmare said dejectedly as she turned to go back to the library. Twilight followed her, leaving me and Brush alone.

We were quiet for a bit until Brush spoke up, "You handled that a lot better than I would have."

"I was so close to calling her a slur," I said, "Guess we won't be having that dinner today."

Twilight walked into the library, right behind Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon didn't say anything and went upstairs, leaving Twilight downstairs to her own thoughts, which were currently centered on what happened some time back and how she had been.

Despite knowing that she'd be in the right when she marched the villain back to the library, she doubted that she had gone about the best way of doing it.

It was necessary to be harsh knowing what Nightmare Moon was capable of and what might happen if princess Celestia were to find out that she had let said villain out of her sight for even a moment but now that Twilight thought about the situation, she felt that she had been too harsh.

Nightmare Moon was incapable of magic or flight as of now, and she was just one letter away from being sent back to Canterlot and getting thrown into a dungeon forever, giving Twilight an enormous amount of power over her. Nightmare knew that as well and considering how much she hated being in the dungeon, she'd do her best to avoid it. If she went out for icecream, then she'd have thought it out pretty well.

The more Twilight thought about the whole thing, the more it seemed like she had overreacted, and despite how much she hated it, she had to admit that she was in the wrong this one time.

Perhaps it was the fact that Nightmare had gone out with Anya and her other friend with the cat paws without telling her, or maybe it was that she was still upset over having an over-sized bug thrown at her face. Whatever it was, it didn't matter much. She had been unkind to Nightmare, a terrible thing to do for an element bearer who was supposed to be looked up to.

"Spike!" Twilight called out. Spike came soon, letting Twilight instruct him to gather up the rest of the elements of harmony. They needed to be informed about Nightmare Moon's stay in Ponyville, and maybe she could use their help to try and apologise to Nightmare.

Author's Note

anya's random like my friedn alex

Please comment, whether it be hate, criticism, or love

Chapter 21: Angery >:(

I woke up at around seven in the morning feeling very tired. I mean, most of the time, I'm tired when I wake up but this day, I woke up a lot more tired than usual. As a result of my tiredness, I stayed in bed, appreciating how cosy I was under my blanket while debating if I could be late to work by five or so minutes.

In the end, I pulled myself out of bed after ten minutes and made my way downstairs. I went about my morning routine except for braiding my mane since that would take quite some time and I could just put it over my back to stop it from dragging on the ground. By the time I was done, it was already 7:30.

I made myself a quick breakfast composed of toast, which I then quickly ate. I put on my saddlebags that I had left by the kitchen table and left my house. Today was Saturday and I looked forward to spending time with Brush and Nightmare after I'm done at the library.

I arrived at the library about ten minutes before eight. Twilight wasn't there downstairs and that was pretty weird at first until I remembered that she mentioned that she only worked on the weekdays. If I were to guess, she's probably sleeping in today, since even the strongest couldn't resist the allure of five more minutes.

Or so I thought.

Not even two minutes of me coming to the library and the door opened loudly, followed by Twilight coming in. I... I wasn't really happy to see her since the memory of what she did yesterday was still fresh in my mind, and I was the type of loser to hold grudges. At least I didn't call it 'remembering facts'.

"Hey, b-," I stopped myself from calling her a bad word, and continued, "Do you know where Nightmare Moon is?"

Another thing I forgot to mention was the fact that Nightmare wasn't there when I entered the library. I had chalked it up to her having a nocturnal sleep schedule since that's what a ex-queen of the night would probably have.

Twilight stopped walking as she just noticed me. It took her a moment to process what I asked her, if I were to go by her facial expressions. Once she processed it though, her ears folded back and she started twiddling with her hooves. It was obvious something was wrong.

"Hey, Anya," she said, trying to sound as casual as possible. I wasn't convinced though, since her eyes were darting around here and there, telling me that she did not want to talk to me about that. "Nightmare Moon... uhh..."

Twilight stopped twiddling her hooves and took a deep breath before answering, "Nightmare Moon had to go back to Canterlot yesterday night."

"And... and was it because of something urgent coming up?" I asked, my mood a lot worse than before she had given her answer, or before she had come in.

"...No, she was sent back because..." Twilight paused, kneading the ground with her hooves, clearly nervous. She kept quiet for a few moments before finally answering, "Because princess Celestia ordered her to return."

Twilight was hiding something for sure but I wasn't interested in that right now.

"Okay," I said as I looked at the clock. It was already 7:53 and if I went out to do what I have to, it'd take me a while to come back. "Could you manage the library for a bit, I have something important to do."

"What is it?" Twilight asked, not looking too unhappy to do what I asked her to.

"Gotta tell my friend to cancel something, I'll take fifteen minutes at most."

"Okay, I'll handle things here."

Good. I turned to leave and I walked out, I saw that Twilight was going to say something. I didn't stop to listen and went on my way.

Finding Brush was not too hard; she was at her home like I expected, if I were to go by the fact that the windows were open and I could smell something good cooking. I knocked at the door and waited. In a few seconds, the door opened and Brush was standing there, wearing a pink apron that was lightly stained.

"Good morning, Anya!" Brush said as she stepped forward to hug me. She stopped though when she saw my face, which I imagined was twisted in a scowl. "What happened? Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, remember that dinner we wanted to have with Nightmare?" I asked. Brush nodded, her smile replaced with a worried expression. "Yeah, that has to be cancelled since Nightmare was taken back to Canterlot."

"What? Why?"

"No idea, but I guess that Twilight probably had something to do with it. I'll tell you later if I find something."

Brush's worried expression was replaced with a scowl as well. It sucked seeing her angry or sad but it would happen eventually and I'd rather have it now than later.

"I have to go, got work to do at the library, see you around five," I said as I turned to go. Brush didn't say anything but muttered a goodbye to me.

The walk back to the library was uneventful and I got back to the library in less than fifteen minutes like I had said I would. I stepped into the library only to find it empty. No one was there, not even Twilight even though she had said that she'd manage the library for the ten or so minutes I was gone. Whatever, I guess.

I sat down at my desk and started up the computer. I wasn't in a great mood and Twilight was one of the major reasons why it was so. I'd have to question her about what she was hiding from me when she came back. Right now, I had to focus on looking normal and not like an angry shit.

An hour passed and nothing much had happened. There were a few kids in the library sometime earlier and Spike had come downstairs to ask me if I knew where Twilight was but besides that, it was boring. The boredom, combined with my tiredness and hunger after an insufficient breakfast, made me a bit cranky. I was just waiting for the clock to strike five so I could go home and have lunch and go to sleep.

And the fact that Twilight had just disappeared to wherever was just aggravating me more and more as time passed. I didn't have much to do as well to pass time and that sucked even more.

Today was just a terrible day.

Not all was bad though. I had gone down to the basement to see if there was something interesting there and found a book on biomancy in a box with some other books. All of them were damaged in some way, which was probably why they were there, with the biomamcy book having a torn cover that was held together by some tape. I wanted to read the book then and there but I reminded myself that I had a job to do and put the book in my saddlebags instead. There weren't any copies of it though it's single came for it but I don't anyone would. Still, I checked it out just in case someone did.

One that was done though, things became boring once again, and I wished for something to happen.

And then, finally after what felt like ages, something happened.

The library door opened and Mayor Mare came in. I forced my face into a neutral expression and straightened my ears into a normal position and sat up straight as she approached my desk with a casual demeanor.

"Hey, boss," I said in greeting to appear relaxed.

"Hello, Anya," she returned with a smile. "Just came in here to see how you were doing since I've got some free time today."

"I'm doing fine, not much is going on today," I replied with a wave of my hoof.

"And what about Twilight, how has she been doing?" She continued, inadvertently making me frown. She noticed that and added, "I hope you're not bothered by her having a shorter work week than you."

"That doesn't really bother me," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I'll be for real with you, she's... she's rather unlikable. It's not that she's bad at work, it's just that she's lacking in other traits."

"Hmm, I suppose this has something to do with yesterday, doesn't it?" She said as she sat down and her expression became a neutral one. I raised an eyebrow since I hadn't told her anything about what I did yesterday. She then added after seeing my raised eyebrow, "Word gets around town when an element of harmony shouts at an ex-villain in public."

"Eh, should have expected that," I said with an eye roll. "But it's not that, at least not the entire reason."

The mayor tilted her head and said, "Then what is it?"

"So, you probably know that Nightmare came here yesterday morning to stay with Twilight for some time because princess Celestia ordered it," I began. The mayor nodded, letting me continue, "Well, me, Nightmare, and my friend had planned to have dinner and then the whole 'Twilight gets angry over icecream' thing happens. So, we figured we'd postpone it to today but BAM, Nightmare's gone back to Canterlot like, last night, and I think Twilight had something to do with that."

"That's unfortunate," she said with a nod.

"That and her insistence on being formal all the time," I added.

"Hmm, but other than that, she is generally fine to work with?"

"Yeah."

"That's good to hear —" The mayor stood up, "— I think that she'll mellow out a bit in time, after all, she's been a princess's student for quite a long time and has been put at rather high standards if I were to guess."

I nodded in acknowledgement of that. The mayor then turned to leave, saying a goodbye as she left.

Once again, I was alone in the library but now, I had some stuff to think about. Maybe I was being a bit too cold towards Twilight...

The door opened, snapping me out of my thoughts. I caught a glimpse of the clock and saw that ten minutes had passed. I guess I zoned out. I looked towards the door and saw that Twilight was coming in along with five other people, the elements of harmony, and another person... or was she an element as well? Yeah, she probably was since there are six elements.

I wanted to pull aside Twilight to tell her that I'm disappointed that she just left the library like that, and also to ask her what she was hiding from me earlier but I'd have to wait since she's probably hanging out with those guys and I didn't want to butt in. I, however, didn't stop myself from getting a bit angry that she left the library to go to her friends.

However, Twilight approached my desk while her friends stayed at the door.

"Hey hey, Twiggles," I said as I leaned back in my chair. "Hope that you had some fun with your friends while you were gone."

Her expression went from semi-happy to guilty in a second with her ears pinned down and her shaking a bit. "I'm sorry about that."

"Okay," I replied after a moment of silence, figuring that pushing this issue further would just be a waste of time and that I should not have brought it up. Twilight was surprised that I let it go easier than she expected.

"What? That's it? You're forgiving me just like that?"

"Yeah, I am. Won't do my throat any good shouting at you for something you already understand now."

Twilight remained stumped for a few moments before tilting her head and asking, "What about Nightmare Moon? Are you not angry about that?"

"Not much, but if you want otherwise then I can do that," I replied, annoyed that she still didn't understand that I'm not angry.

Twilight didn't understand still and continued, "But I was the one who sent the letter that made princess Celestia order Nightmare back to Canterlot."

"Look, if you WANT me to be angry at you, just keep pestering me like you are right now. I guarantee that I'll call you a dumb bitch, you dumb bitch," I finally said as I sat up straight in my chair, annoyed that she was so dumb and annoying, and angry that she was the reason why Nightmare was sent back. However, the mood instantly soured at me calling Twilight a bitch. I heard several murmurs of disapproval from her friends.

"That was uncalled for!" Rarity shouted as she pointed a hoof at me. The rest of them seemed to be in varying levels of agreement.

"Probably," I said as I nodded my head. I raised a hoof, however, and continued, "However, counterpoint: I don't like her."

"That don't mean ya can jus' go an' call anyone anything you want," Applejack countered with a frown on her face.

"Counterpoint: I can," I countered her counter with a raised hoof and a small smile on my face. She just grumbled at my defiance.

Twilight, whose mouth had been agape in shock, finally came to and said angrily, "What did you call me?!"

"I called you a 'dumb bitch' since you were being really annoying about me not being angry," I answered, making sure to do the air quotes with my hooves since Twilight would probably miss it otherwise.

Twilight was not amused.

Thankfully, the door opened, saving me from the coming argument. The five ponies at the door moved aside, making way so that... Brush could come in. Yeah, it was Brush, and she looked pissed.

"Hey, Brush," I said in greeting.

"Hello, Anya," she said to me with a forced smile as she looked at Twilight with anger. "You know why Nightmare was sent back?"

"Yeah, she did it," I answered immediately and pointed to Twilight, much to her displeasure. Brush's claws came out of her paws. Everyone noticed that. Brush didn't say anything but glared at her, making Twilight cower a bit.

"I came to say that you should come over to my place later like we had planned," Brush lied. I knew damn well that she was here to get angry at Twilight at first and I wished that she expressed her anger in the form of words and not just glares.

"Okay, cool, I'll be there," I replied. Brush nodded and left without saying a word.

"Happy now that someone's angry at you?" I said to Twilight as she watched Brush leave. "Good luck apologising to her; she doesn't like when anyone interferes with her plans."

It was quiet for some time.

"What was all that about?" Spike asked from the stairs where he stood with a cup of coffee.

After a long day, it was finally five and I could leave. I got off my chair and stretched a little before putting on my saddlebags. I switched off the computer at my desk and headed for the door with the keys for it in my magic.

"Hey, Anya!" Twilight called out from behind me. I turned to see her rushing down the stairs, and almost tripping in the process. She stopped right in front of me with a nervous smile on her face. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Tag along to where?" I asked as my eyes narrowed a bit at the request and how friendly she seemed about it.

"To Brush's place, of course!" she answered as if it were obvious and something to be happy about. However, I wasn't happy to hear that since I thought that Twilight would just make it worse. Twilight saw my face and then added quickly, "To apologise about what I did! I don't want to interrupt you guys."

I grunted and turned back to the door. "Fine, I guess."

"Okay! Wait here a second, I'll be right back!"

I waited as she ran back up the stairs and then came back down with a paper and a pen in her magic. I secretly hoped that she tripped on the stairs so that Brush wouldn't have to talk to her but my prayers were in vain.

"Let's go," Twilight said expectantly. I grumbled a bit and opened the door and walked through, holding it open even though I didn't want to. I led the way while Twilight followed me.

I hoped that the walk would be quiet.

"Hey, Anya, I have a question," Twilight said, immediately killing my hope. "What's the best way for me to apologise to Brush?"

"No idea, I haven't done anything to make her as angry as you have," I answered. She scribbled down something on her paper very loudly.

"Oh... Is there anything she likes?" she continued.

"Art, food, not being annoyed, lunch with friends, not you, et cetera," I replied with some exasperation. Again, she wrote something down on the paper.

"That isn't really helping me," she said as she looked over her notes.

"Cool."

We didn't talk much after that and continued walking. Eventually, we came to the crossroads. I took the path to Brush's house while Twilight stopped there for a second. She was probably having second thoughts or something. She resumed walking but didn't try to close the gap between us.

I stopped at the house's door. I could smell something delicious inside and considering that I didn't have lunch, I was eager to go in. I knocked at the door and a few moments later, Brush opened it. She would have hugged me but she saw that Twilight was there a few steps behind me.

"Why are you here?" Brush asked Twilight, making her give a nervous smile.

"I uhh I wanted to apologise for ruining your dinner," Twilight answered while rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. Brush wasn't impressed or anything. She wordlessly grabbed my hoof and pulled me in before shutting the door rather loudly.

Guess that Twilight wasn't getting to apologise today.

Author's Note

1sjL

the monster's face when i come out the house w/ my friends(1000000000 laser shooting cockroaches)

please comment

Chapter 22: Little Green Pony From Outer Space

I don't really know when I woke up but when I did, I woke up screaming and crying on the floor, all thanks to a bunch of memories of school. For a while, I was on lying there, hugging my pillow and blanket and whatever, just crying. I hadn't slept like a baby but I sure had woken up like one.

I don't know how much time I spent losing it on the floor but eventually, someone came to snap me out of it.

"STOP," the command came in the familiar voice of Voth and suddenly, I wasn't sad anymore. I just felt... numb.

I pulled my head away from my blanket I had buried it in and looked up. My vision was blurry but I could make out that Voth was sitting next to me. I rubbed away the tears from my eyes, making my vision somewhat clearer, allowing me to see that Voth was looking down at me.

"Voth, why are you here?"

"I HAVE COME TO INFORM YOU ABOUT AN ASSASSIN," Voth answered he lay down next to me and draped a wing over me, giving me a warm feeling, "AND TO STOP YOU FROM AN EXTREMELY INTENSE EMOTIONAL OUTBURST RIGHT NOW."

"There's... an assassin? After me?" I asked, ignoring how Voth seemed more concerned about me crying.

"YES BUT THAT IT A TRIVIAL THING TO DEAL WITH ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS KILL THEM," Voth replied, "YOUR EMOTIONAL OUTBURST IS NOT TRIVIAL DUE TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE YOUR EMOTION CAN BE SENSED BY THOSE LIKE ME AND THEY WILL WORK TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT WHICH I CANNOT ALLOW

HOWEVER I CANNOT PLACE BLOCKS ON YOUR EMOTIONS UNLESS I WISH TO ATTRACT ATTENTION TO YOU IN YOUR WORLD I ADVISE YOU TO CONTROL YOURSELF OR CALL ME IF YOU CANNOT."

"Okay, I guess..." I said, still weirded out by how much Voth cared about me being sad but I guessed that it made sense. I then remembered that he said something about an assassin. "What about the assassin? Can you tell me more about them?"

"THE ASSASSIN IS AN AGENT LIKE YOURSELF EXCEPT THAT INSTEAD OF BEING SENT TO RETRIEVE AN ARTEFACT THEY ARE SENT TO EXTRACT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ME FROM YOU AND THEN DISPOSE OF YOU."

"How do you know that?"

"THE BEING THAT SENT THEM DOES NOT CARE FOR STEALTH BEYOND WHAT IS NECESSARY TO BYPASS THE GUARDIAN AND I BELIEVE THAT THEY WANT TO SCARE US BEFORE KILLING US."

"Who is it?"

"WHEN YOU HELPED KILLED NIGHTMARE MOON'S DEALER I HAD TOLD YOU THAT I NEEDED THE DEALER'S CORPSE TO HIDE MYSELF FROM ANOTHER BEING THE BEING IS THE ONE THAT SENT THE ASSASSIN NOW THAT THEY CANNOT FIND ME."

"So, the assassin's close by or something? How powerful are they?"

"I AM UNAWARE OF THEIR LOCATION AT THIS MOMENT BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIGHT AGAINST THEM."

Well, that was reassuring after learning that some eldritch thing out there hates my guts and sent an assassin to kill me.

"I ADVISE YOU TO PREPARE TO DEFEND YOURSELF I AM LEAVING NOW TO FIND THE BEING."

And with that, Voth was gone, leaving me alone on the floor. I lay there for sometime before getting up and putting my blanket and pillow back onto the bed. Today was Sunday, which was bad enough, and then I had a bad start to the day, which made it worse, and now there was someone out to kill me.

This day just couldn't get better.

I sat at the kitchen table, sipping on a cup of chai as I tried my best to read the book about biomany I got from the library. Unfortunately, the weight of knowing that someone's coming to kill me weighed down on my mind too much. I set my cup down on the table next to a kitchen knife I had picked out to defend myself with.

I would have prefered having a gun, or a metal pipe or some other weapon but this was what I had at the moment, unless I took off a curtain rod. I could do that, but then if I had to go outside, an easily concealed knife is a better option. Plus, it's a kitchen knife, a common appliance, and no one would get really suspicious about me having it with me. If I did get attacked though, I'll have to kill since the assassin could just go blab about being an agent sent to kill me, another agent, and that wouldn't be good considering that the government will then kill me, and I don't have much hope of fighting them off.

Staying at home is probably better. There'd be no witnesses at the very least.

I continued flipping through the book on biomancy, skipping all the boring stuff like ethics and sanctity of life and whatever crap, and continuing to the interesting stuff, like one procedure where you put blood in an egg and did some rather simple magic to make a new creature. One important thing I did learn was that biomancy beyond the beginner level needed a licence.

I closed the book and leaned back in my chair. If I wanted to do any biomancy, I'd need some equipment and right now, the only reason I had to do biomancy was just my own curiousity. Maybe I could make a little guy, but for what? To have it defend me? I guess that'd be great considering that I have a higher than average chance of being attacked. Maybe I could make a gun with magic or something for self-defense? No, that's a bad idea. Guns are great weapons and knowing how people are at their best, someone here would copy my idea and before you know it, there's an arms race and magic being real would just make it worse.

I picked up my cup of chai and sipped on it, clearing away all the thoughts I had. I'd have to get equipment if I actually wanted to do any of that and until then, there was no reason to worry myself with stuff that was still in the realm of science fiction for this world.

My cup was empty in like, thirty seconds, and I got out of my chair to go pour myself another cup. I was halfway between the table and the stove when I heard what was perhaps the most bloodcurdling scream coming from outside. It was the kind that tells you that someone's in extreme pain or unimaginable fear. To top it off, it sounded like a child.

I left the cup on the counter and made my way outside to find out where the scream came from. Of course, I didn't know but I had an idea that it was somewhere in the forest close to my house.

"Hey!" I called out as loud as I could, "Where are you?!"

There wasn't any answer. I kept my ears perked up as I kept looking around. An idea came to my mind.

'Voth!' I called out in my mind and not a moment later, Voth was there in my head. I didn't wait for her to say anything and continued, 'I need you help. Someone screamed somewhere around here, can you see if you can find them?'

Voth simply said, "THEY ARE CLOSE BY IN THE FOREST TO YOUR LEFT IF YOU GET CLOSER I CAN TELL YOU THEIR POSITION."

I did as he said and entered the forest, walking in a straight line until Voth told me to turn a bit to my right. I kept going and came across a gruesome sight.

There was a filly with wings and a horn, a pegacorn, lying on the ground next to a tree in a pool of blood, and there was a lone timberwolf staring her down. The filly looked terrified and was trying in vain to crawl away from the animal. I didn't wait any further and shot a blast of magic at the timberwolf. The green bolt flew fast and hit the beast in its side, exploding on contact and sending it a meter or two away from the filly.

The timberwolf didn't seem to care about the hole I gave it and turned to face me, growling as it did. I wasn't deterred in any way since I knew one weakness of the timberwolf: It was alone.

I picked up a large rock from the ground with my magic and threw it at the wolf to give me a bit of time. The wolf was hit in the head, disorientating it and allowing me to continue flinging more stuff its way. The timberwolf started backing away but I wasn't done yet. I charged up another bolt of magic in my horn and shot it at the thing. It couldn't dodge it in time and was hit.

Instead of a simple concussive bolt, I had shot a fire bolt, making it immediately catch fire. The beast howled in pain as the fire spread quickly through its body and in a few moments, it lay on the ground, burning away like a campfire. I didn't care about it any further and rushed to the filly.

The filly's condition was terrible. Her right wing was mangled and losing a lot of blood while her body was covered in scratches, cuts, and bruises. She had closed her eyes and was crying silently to herself.

"You're safe now," I said to her as I thought about what I could do to stop the bleeding.

'Voth, do you know any healing spells?' I shouted in my head. Voth was quiet for a few tense moments.

"THIS IS THE ASSASSIN," Voth said instead, making me freeze for a moment.

'She's a child,' I said to him as I looked down at the filly who had now curled up and was trying to hide herself in her mane. I knew that Voth wasn't joking but it was hard to believe she could hurt me.

"AND SHE IS HERE TO KILL YOU YOU MUST DISPOSE OF HER," Voth countered, not a hint of care in his voice. "LEAVE HER OUT HERE AND SHE WILL BLEED TO DEATH IN A FEW MINUTES OR YOU CAN USE A SPELL TO END HER NOW

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO KILL HER I CAN TAKE CONTROL OF YOU TO DO IT."

'But-' I was conflicted. I was fine with killing someone but this was just wrong; she was not only a kid but also mortally wounded. There had to be some way for me to convince Voth to spare her. Thankfully, an idea came to me.

'What if we free her from her master?' I pitched. Voth remained silence, letting me continue, 'Like, she could tell you where her master is hiding so you can kill him. You can do that right?'

"IT IS POSSIBLE BUT IT WILL BE HARD," Voth said after a few tense moments, giving me some hope. After another few moments, he continued, "HOWEVER SHE MAY TRY TO KILL YOU REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT HER MASTER CONTROLS HER."

Whatever hope I had disappeared at that moment but I still thought that he'd say otherwise.

"YOU MAY SAVE HER BUT YOU WILL DISPOSE OF HER IF SHE TRIES TO CAUSE YOU HARM.

YOU HAVE TO TAKE HER TO A HOSPITAL SINCE YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE HEALING SPELLS I KNOW."

That answer was perhaps the best thing I had heard all day. I didn't have any first-aid stuff at my home, and I doubt that the filly is going to be fine with anything but a hospital visit. I gently picked up the filly and placed her on my back. She wrapped her forelegs around my neck almost immediately, letting me start run as fast as I could without dropping her. I had a few minutes at most to get to the hospital.

I had to be fast.

Author's Note

2u jL

Comment pls I NEED engagement

Chapter 23: Concern [rewritten]

Darkness.

There was only darkness.

It didn't know where it was or why it was but it was content with the darkness. The peaceful, warm, and quiet darkness. There were a few echos every now and then but it ignored all that for it wanted to remain content.

Suddenly, there was pain. Unimaginable pain. It could not cry out as it pained from everywhere. There was a message to the pain, a warning. A warning against failure. It had failed. It was so close but it had failed, all thanks to its incompetence. It was sad and scared and in pain and it deserves it no matter how much it hated it.

Its master hated it, rightfully so, for it had failed. Its master told it to not fail a second time for if when master returned to see failure, it would be purged of anything good, anything comfortable, and filled with pain and only pain. It could not whimper, not scream, not cry, not curl up, nothing. It could only fear.

The darkness and the quiet was dissipating. There was a sound, a rythmic sound that went 'beep' every few seconds. The darkness was replaced with a deep red. It could feel something under it, something on its arm, and something on its body.

Suddenly, there was light, bright painful light, for a few eternal moments. It screamed in its mind with confusion until it remembered. It had opened its eyes. Its beautiful, seeing eyes that master gave it despite it being wretched and disgusting and a failure undeserving of anything good. It closed its eyes, freeing itself from the torment of the light and letting it return to the beautiful darkness that only came because master allowed it.

There were so, so many sensations all around it; all gifts from its master, all that could be taken away at the first hint of failure. There was hearing, there was smell, the was touch, there was taste, there was Fear.

It opened its eyes once more, the light being far too merciful than it should be to a thing like it. It looked around, seeing beautiful things, all thanks to master's generosity.

It lay on a bed in a room with mostly white walls that were decorated with pictures of happy little things. There was a machine that made the melodious tube with the beep every few seconds. It knew the medicine had a band and it had the name at the tip of its tongue but it could not remember. Master had said that it would be allowed to remember if it succeeded in eliminating master's enemy.

It looked down at itself and saw it was covered with ugly dark green coloured fur and had brown hair that sprouted out of its head. It didn't need a mirror to know that it was hideous and the fact that its master cared for it spoke volumes about his kindness.

A section of the wall that was painted brown swung inside, a door, it remembered... Why was it happy? The door opening meant that someone had come inside the room, someone who migh- no, who will try to harm it. As far as it knew, only master would never harm it ever in any way for anything.

It watched as a fat pink pony with purple and white hair waddled into the room with a thing- a notepad, in her hoof. It could feel fear along with a hint of disgust at the sight of the ugly rotund thing and how her body stretched and moved and squished in oh so many horrible ways that made it seem like her skin was going to break apart and let even uglier things spill out.

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. However, the pony approached the bed it lay on. It wanted to run away but the best it could do was shy away a little bit, making it loathe how pathetic and weak it was.

"Hey there, how are you feeling?" the pony asked, her voice full of sweetness and kindness and gentleness and love, but master had educated it about the dangers that these creatures pose with their siren calls. It remained silent but the fear on its face gave the pony her answer.

"Okay," the pony said, her voice just as sweet and kind, as she wrote something down on the notepad. She continued, "What is your name?"

It would have remained silent but its master had told it that this question was important and that it had to answer. However, it did not trust itself with making an answer without the guidance of its master. Master wasn't there though, and it would have to work without master.

"M- my name," it croaked in a voice that was high in pitch and grating. However, it took a few moments to think what it would answer next. It had a name, it knew, but master had taken it away when master took its memories and so, it could not give that name as an answer. Thinking harder, it found that it had only one answer and that answer came from one of the very few memories that master had left it with, a fuzzy memory from a long time ago.

"My name is... Anonymous," it answered. The pony seemed shocked at the name but it, now Anonymous, ignored the shock for the pony was not even a lowly beast in front of the brilliance of its, now her, master and she had no right to even think, let alone say out loud, that 'Anonymous' was a bad name.

"Your name is Anonymous, as in, that's what it is?" the pony questioned, her voice kind and worried. Anonymous nodded wordlessly. The pony processed that and accepted it, like she should have the first time, and wrote down something else on her notepad.

"Do you know where your parents are?" she asked as she continued her interrogation. Anonymous would have remained silent but Anonymous's head hurt upon hearing that question. There were a few flashes in Anonymous's head and those flashes were memories of pain and fear. The most prominent was of a hand coming down to hit Anonymous. Anonymous's master was kind for taking away those memories. However, the flashes were enough to bring tears to Anonymous's eyes.

The pony saw the tears in Anonymous's eyes and tried to reach out to Anonymous. Anonymous, with the memories of pain still fresh in her mind, shrunk away from the hoof as fast as she could, giving the pony a clear message to stay away.

The pony understood the message and took her hoof back, looking pained as she did. Surely, her pain was false and a trick to guilt Anonymous.

"You must be hungry," the pony said to change the subject. She wrote down more stuff on her notepad before continuing, "I'll get your lunch in half an hour."

With that, she turned around and left the room, letting Anonymous breathe a sigh of relief. She had much to do and she couldn't let these ponies get in her way.

Nurse Sweetheart exited the room which held the filly that had been brought in yesterday. So far, she had nothing good to say.

First of all, the filly had lied about her name and that was because she was terrified. Sweetheart didn't know what she was terrified of but it couldn't be something good. Next, the filly's reaction to being asked if she knew where her parents were and how she reacted when the nurse tried to comfort her made the case more concerning.

The fact that she had been found in the forest, and that there had been no missing reports made about a teenage green pegacorn filly pointed to one thing in Sweetheart's mind.

The filly had probably run away from a home where she was not missed or she was abandoned.

The nurse shook her head and continued to doctor Greymane to tell him of the filly's status. Whatever the case, the filly needed help.

Author's Note

REWRITTEN SINCE THE LAST PART GOT CUT OFF

if life is road blocks, be the kill-dozer

please comment

dw the pony gets renamed and isnt an anonfilly that you might know

Chapter 25: Escalation and resolution

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, right before sunrise, a blue coloured carriage pulled by the night guards of princess Luna landed in front of the Ponyville hospital. The aforementioned princess stepped out of the carriage. She had grown back to her original size and had a mane that flowed much like her sister's, and honestly, she would have looked just as beautiful if it weren't for the grim expression on her face.

It had been ages since the world had seen a case like this and princess Luna intended to solve it without bloodshed. Her sister had advised against it and told her that all agents were dangerous things who only deserved death. Luna wasn't convinced at all, especially when said 'dangerous thing' was a scared child.

Her visit was under the pretense of wanting to help the child with her terrible nightmares and help identify her but she had come to free the child from the eldritch monster that enslaved her.

The princess walked through the hospital, a nurse leading her and her guards to the room where the filly was. It didn't take long until they were there at the door to the poor filly's room.

"I've woken her up for the visit and explained her that you're here to help with her nightmares but she may still be nervous in your presence, princess," the nurse said as the princess moved to open the door. The princess nodded and slowly opened the door.

Inside, it was dark with the lights being off. The window was open and the curtains were pulled back, letting in a breeze and some moonlight. The pipe that should have connected an IV fluid bag to the filly was cut and the filly was nowhere to be seen.

"She's... gone," the nurse said, stating the obvious but Luna couldn't blame her. It wasn't everyday that fillies ran away from the hospital.

The princess had a new problem now, however: the filly had disappeared.

"Find her and bring her back," Luna gave the order to her guards, who then leapt into action. Luna hoped that the filly wouldn't be the murderous scum that Celestia warned her of.

'Anonymous' walked down the moonlit path, planning on how she would murder her master's enemy.

A rock to the head would be quick but rather painless, and in her mind, that was unacceptable for any enemy of her master.

Stabbing the eyes would be far more painful, and she could then strangle the blinded enemy, making them suffer as they die. It would be an appropriate way to die for scum like that. Plus, she had something to stab eyes with: the needle the ponies at hospital had jammed in her right foreleg to pump fluids into her. It had been a pain to chew through the pipe that connected her to the IV bag but it wouldn't be as hard to pull out the needle.

She stopped and tried using her hooves to pull out the needle but she could not gather enough strength in her pathetic limb to pull it out. Failure. She tried focusing her magic in her horn but her horn just gave off a few pathetic sparks. More failure. She reached down to the end of the pipe that was still attached to the needle and bit down on it slowly with fear in her mind. It would pain this way but she deserved the pain for her precious failures, for every failure was an offense against master.

She pulled her head back as far as she could, yanking the pipe, and the needle came out. So did a lot of blood and a short scream of pain.

She shut up, cursing herself for screaming and the blasted princess of the night for deciding to visit her.

Her enemy had been scheduled to visit her late in the day, around afternoon because she had spoken to no-one after her first interaction with the fat nurse, and that would have been such an easy kill with the enemy walking into the the beast's den quite literally. But no, the princess just had to ruin everything.

Thankfully, master had come and told her to run away before the princess came and where the enemy was. Master has also told it that the princesses were enemies and that she was free to go after them after killing master's first enemy. She would probably do that.

She held the needle in her left foreleg and continued on her path, slower than before and with a trail of blood behind her. The forest became thicker around the path once she walked past the crossroads and the increased tree cover made it rather dark, but she continued walking, ignoring whatever fear she felt.

Several minutes of walking, she reached her destination. It was a plain but ominous looking house. It blended in well with the forest thanks to its dark colours, and she couldn't help but feel as though it was watching her like a predator would watch its prey.

She shook her head, clearing away the silly though. What was so scary about it? Nothing, that's what. It was just dark and she was a coward and a fool with far too much imagination. She had work to do and it would be done.

She walked up to the door, and looked around on the ground in front of it. The key would be there, her master had told her, under some rock. She found it quickly and put it into the door's lock.

Immediately, the forest around her silenced, making her pause. An apex predator must have been close by. She turned the key and the door swung open. She let herself in and closed the door behind her as quietly as she could but unfortunately, the door creaked loudly as she closed it.

She hoped that she hadn't woken up her enemy with the sound.

She took a step forward and the floor creaked loudly beneath it. She took another, trying to be careful this time about not making noise but the floor creaked louder. She stopped and swiveled her ears around, trying to hear if she had woken up her target but she heard no sound and felt as though the sound around her had been muted.

She took a few more steps forward to the stairs and with each step, the floor creaked louder and she stopped several times to hear if something had moved upstairs.

Suddenly, all her fur stood on its end and she felt as if something was right behind her.

She turned around, her needle raised to stab whatever she saw. Behind her was her target. She towered over her and looked like a shadow in the dark hallway. She raised a hoof and Anonymous instinctively cowered, her fear beating her need to please her master for a second. Just a second.

Anonymous tried to move her hoof with the needle to stab her target but her target had taken hold of it and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't free herself. Her target charged up her horn, making her try harder. She stretched out her wings despite one being hurt from two days ago and tried taking to the air to free herself but her target was quick and had already used her free hoof to grab onto one of her wings, stopping her from flying.

The whole murder had gone south. She tried to free herself from the hold of her target but found herself too weak to do anything. She might have been able to do damage if she had the element of surprise but clearly, she didn't.

The target charged up her horn once again and she found that her only weapon, the needle, was pulled away from her and thrown away. She tried kicking and flailing her hooves but it didn't help her much. The target charged up her horn, taking longer this time. Was she charging up a spell that would kill her?

She didn't want to die. She tried even harder to get away from the target, getting a few punches on her but ultimately, she couldn't free herself. The target brought her horn close to her head and the next thing she knew was that the world was dark.

I looked down at the filly as I let go of her and slowly lay her on the floor. She had somehow managed to make the floor creak, and then not notice me coming up behind her until the last moment and even then, she hadn't been able to put up much of a fight. I had put her to sleep with a knock-out spell that Voth had given me and it had taken effect immediately.

"NOW CAST THE SPELL YOU HAD CAST ON NIGHTMARE MOON," Voth instructed to me. I did as he said, letting him continue, "I WILL RETURN AFTER FREEING THE CHILD FROM THE MASTER MASTER IF THE CHILD WAKES UP BEFORE I RETURN ASSUME THAT SHE IS STILL UNDER THEIR INFLUENCE AND PUT HER BACK TO SLEEP."

Voth was gone after that, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be long till he was done with the hard part and back with good news.

I walked into the kitchen, turning on the lights in the hall and the kitchen as I did, to get a first aid kit that I had gotten yesterday after my cough had subsided. The filly was bleeding at her right arm and seeing how she was armed with a IV needle with part of a pipe attached, I guessed that she had ripped the needle out of her arm. I cleaned off the blood with a tissue and some antiseptic liquid and wrapped a bandage around the wound, stopping the bleeding. There was still blood on the floor that I'd have to clean.

In that much, Voth was back. "THE CHILD IS FREED NOW," he announced the good news. "HOWEVER, THERE REMAIN ISSUES."

'What issues?' I asked in my mind knowing that Voth could hear my thoughts.

"FIRST THE CHILD WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET THE NIGHT PRINCESS SOME TIME BACK AND THE PRINCESS MIGHT KNOW THAT THE CHILD IS AN AGENT," Voth started, giving out what I hoped to be the worst news first. "THE PRINCESS WILL HAVE GUARDS SEARCHING FOR THE CHILD SO YOU SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE HER BACK TO THE HOSPITAL TO AVOID ANY SUSPICION

I WILL REPLACE THE CHILD'S MEMORIES SO THAT SHE SAYS HER GOAL IN THIS WORLD WAS TO KILL ANYONE SHE SAW AND NOT TO ASSASSINATE ANOTHER AGENT."

'So, I just have to act dumb. Got that. Everything else is fine?'

"YES EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE."

The filly on the floor groaned, making me look down at her. She sat up straight, holding her head as she did. She opened her eyes and froze when she saw me, making me a bit concerned.

'Is she alright?'

"SHE MAY BE DISTRESSED RIGHT NOW SINCE SHE CAN NOW PROPERLY COMPREHEND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HER," Voth said, "SHE WAS RIPPED OUT FROM HER WORLD AND PUT IN A NEW ONE AND THAT ALONE COULD MAKE HER DEPRESSED

THAT COMBINED WITH THE FACT THAT SHE WAS SENT TO MURDER SOMEONE AND HOW HER MASTER REMOVED SOME OF HER MEMORIES PERMANENTLY AND THEN RESTRUCTURED HER MIND SO THAT SHE WORSHIPS HIM IS PROBABLY MAKING HER REACT LIKE THAT."

Well, that sucked.

The filly snuck a look to the main door as she continued staring at me with fear. I had a feeling that she was scared of me and wanted to run.

"Hey, are you feeling fine?" I asked her, sounding as nice as I could. The filly had her ears pinned down before I even began, as if she expected me to shout at her. However, after I was done, she looked at me with confusion and fear.

She looked like she wanted to say something to me, probably ask me why I was being nice despite her attempt at taking my life, or maybe she wanted to say sorry. She looked down at the ground in thought, her ears slowly drooping. Was she going to cry?

Tears fell down onto the floor and before I knew it, the filly was crying. The weight of being ripped from wherever she came from and then being enslaved and dropped into another world by an eldritch monster to kill someone was too much for her. I pulled the filly into a hug, where she continued crying. I pat her head and back and let her cry, doing the least I could to help her through what was probably the worst day of her life.

"What's your name?" I asked her after crying died down somewhat. She didn't answer immediately though. I loved down at her and saw how troubled she looked.

"I- I don't know," she responded sadly.

"Hmm, do you want me to guess so that you can remember?" I asked her, thinking that I might cheer her up. She nodded her head in agreement, not looking really happy.

'Voth, can you find out her name?'

"NO THAT MEMORY HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM HER MIND."

It seemed that I actually had to guess.

Princess Luna flew close to the ground, two lunar guards right behind her. They followed a trail of blood on a path into the forest, all hoping that the filly hadn't gotten far, while the princess also hoped that the filly hadn't hurt somepony. They flew past a crossroads and continued following the path till they reached a house.

There was a light on inside and that illuminated the path in front of the house, letting the ponies see that the trail of blood went into the house.

Luna stepped up to the door and tried opening it, only to find it locked. However, she did hear some noise inside. The door was unlocked with a click and it opened a little, letting Luna look inside.

There was a familiar mare sitting in the hallway beyond the door but that was not what Luna was focused on. She was focused on the green filly crying in the mare's arms. Luna raised a hoof, signalling her guards to stay outside and guard while she went inside and closed the door behind her.

One inside, she quietly sat down on the ground next to the mare, and asked, "How is she?"

The mare, who didn't seem to be intimidated by the princess in any way, just shrugged as she looked down at the crying filly and answered, "Physically, she's okay. Can't say the same about anything else."

"Anonymous," Luna said a bit forcefully, making the filly look at her. It pained Luna that she couldn't just pull the fully into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be fine but she had to ask the filly an important question. "Do you hear someone in your head?"

The filly didn't answer her and just turned back to the unicorn mare and buried her face in her chest. It took a second for Luna to realise that the filly was scared of her and when she did realise, she was pained greatly. At least, she could tell that the filly wasn't under the control of the eldritch since they would always suppress fear in their agents.

Luna still had a duty to do, however. She cast a sleep spell on the filly and in a minute, she was asleep.

"I'll have to take her away since she was taken control of by a malevolent magical entity," Luna said to the unicorn, both lying and telling the truth since the knowledge of the existence of the eldritch was not the here business. She nodded in understanding.

"I know you," Luna continued, changing the subject of their conversation since she didn't want to disturb the sleeping filly yet. "I healed your ears after... that night, and you were the only other one to be kind to Nightmare that day. What is your name?"

"Anya Khan, princess," the unicorn, Anya, responded. Luna had heard that name before.

"And tell me this, Anya. Did she try attacking you?" Luna asked as she gestured to the filly.

"Yeah, she tried attacking me with a needle that I think she ripped out from her arm," Anya responded, pointing to a bloody needle in the corner next to the door and then to a bandaged wound on the filly's right foreleg. "I used a knockout spell on her after disarming her and she's just been miserable since she woke up."

Well, that was interesting. She'd have to investigate that later.

"Did she tell you her name?"

"No, she doesn't remember it. We tried guessing her name to cheer her up but didn't come up with anything. She did like 'Nemo' though and asked me to call her that."

Luna looked down at the filly. The poor thing didn't even know her name. At least, she had found one she liked.

"It is time for me to go," Luna said as she stood up. Anya nodded and let go of the filly, who was covered in a blue aura as Luna picked her up in her magic. Luna placed her on her back, balancing her between her bat wings so that the filly wouldn't fall off during the flight to the hospital.

She turned back to Anya one last time as she opened the door to leave, and said, "You are a kind one. I thank you for taking care of the filly. I wish you a good day."

Anya nodded, and waved goodbye to the princess.

After that, Luna had flew back to the hospital with the filly. There, the filly was put back in her room to continue healing her wing and whatever injuries she sustained today.

Luna, on the other hand, was going back to Canterlot and she had a lot to tell her sister.

Author's Note

4t jL

Blinding lights(instrumental) is great

Proudly gonna name her Nemo since that's a cool name, thanks quijex

Chapter 26: Birds

Thursdays were always so... ehh.

Not much happened meaning you were bored most of the day, and since it was close to Friday but not exactly it meaning you were just spending the day waiting for Friday. I didn't have such a privilege since I worked six days a week and due to how boring Thursday was, I figured that I'd do something.

I had bought six chicken eggs yesterday but not for consumption. Instead, they were for biomancy. Today, I had bought the other thing I needed: a plastic tub. It wasn't very big but if I tried, I could probably fit myself in it, but that's beside the point.

I had etched a energy collection and distribution rune onto the bottom of the tub so that when it was filled with water, it would automatically increase the amount of magic in the water. I did this since the book on biomancy told me to and that I'd use this setup for making fleshy stuff and said fleshy stuff needed a lot of magic.

The tub was currently in the corner of the basement, waiting to be filled, but I'll do that when I have to. Right now, I had to master some basic biomancy. I sat at the basement table and looked at the thing I'd be using to practice basic biomancy: a random plant I uprooted from my backyard and put into a pot.

What was my goal? No idea, the book just told me to feel my way through and make the plant do stuff so that I get a feel for bending living matter to my will. What stuff do I make the plant do? Don't know but I guessed that making it grow was one thing. I had gone a bit overboard though.

The plant was thoroughly abused by my magic as I had spent the last hour, I think it had been that much time, just randomly messing with the small magic pools it had. There were flowers blooming on one side while the other was dead branches that had grown to be in the shape of a cube. I did make it grow, that's for sure, but I had to pour a lot of my magic into the plant to do it since the plant didn't use its own magic like the lazy sun-bathing never-moving scum it was. That magic was 'locked away' behind the barrier of 'not worth the effort to get out' and a small part of it was bound to the plant's cells as well.

While this seemed bad at first glance, it was actually a good thing that it was locked up in the cells. The magic acted like little guiding stones that I could use to tell me where stuff is and what it is useful for, like for example, some of the magic pointed at the small, almost invisible, but important pool of magic that was in its roots. That pool of magic could be used to make the plant do basically everything it was capable of but its best use was to make the plant grow in size. Other magic pools were there as well in its branches, flowers, and leaves, and they were more specialised than the magic pool in the roots and had a narrow range of functions to match.

I finished off my experimentation on the plant by making it grow a bunch of branches that were shaped like a dozen little birds. Once the branches were grown, I gave the plant the order to kill those branches and it did exactly that, letting me break the small wooden birds off. They were fragile but looked cool as hell to make up for that.

I closed the book on biomancy and left it on the table while picking up the potted plant and the wooden birds and taking them upstairs. Once upstairs, I put the plant outside, noting that my experiments had taken up more time than I expected with the sun having went down the horizon by now.

I didn't really know what I could do with the birds but they'd definitely be something cool to gift, or sell, to someone. Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone in Ponyville sells these kinds of woodcrafts, but then, I think I was the only one in Ponyville who knew biomancy. Or shadowmancy. Or how to use a gun. Or a lot of other things that I probably shouldn't know.

'Hmm, do I look too much like an enjoyer of the dark arts?' I asked myself since these combination of skills looked pretty suspicious. But then, it was perfectly legal to know all those things until a certain level, after which I'd need a license for it to be perfectly legal.

I think I'm worrying too much about this stuff. If I don't do anything morally wrong with my magic, in public at least, I'll be alright.

Now, back to the wooden birds. I put them on the living room table standing up straight, and thought about what I'd do with them since I didn't really need decor for my house, and even if I did use them, I'd use at most six of them, leaving me with another six. I didn't want to leave them in some box or throw them away either. I think I could give them to someone.

Yeah, I'll give them to someone, probably Brush, and when I have go to the hospital tomorrow to meet the filly, Nemo, I could give one to her.

I couldn't get much sleep on Thursday night, just like the last two days. I think I had only slept like, five hours in the last three days, and that reflected on my mood at work.

"Hey, Anya," Twilight said as I looked at the clock which showed the time to be 3:51 in the afternoon. I'd have to leave at four today since they wanted me at the hospital. I didn't say anything to Twilight and she took it as a cue to continue.

"Are you alright?" she asked, prompting me to look at her. She seemed worried for some reason. "You haven't spoken to anyone in the last two hours."

"Okay, and?" I asked, a bit irritated since I had done my work perfectly fine and therefore, me not speaking was a non-issue.

"I don't really think it's my place to say this, but I know that something is bothering you," she said, stating the obvious without knowing what it was. I was being bothered, that's right, but by what? By Twilight.

"No shit, Twilight, I am being bothered right now," I said, making sure that the sarcasm in my voice was clearer than day. Twilight understood that I was saying that she was bothering me but instead of just leaving me alone like a normal person would have, she continued talking.

"And something else is making you irritated as well," she pointed out. Then, she sat down and said in friendly manner, "And I'd like to help you with it, like a friend."

"Okay, Twinkle Sprinkle, there's some things you need to know. Number one, I don't want to be friends with you," I started with a raised hoof, making her deflate instantly at those last words. I would have felt bad normally, but Twilight was just the right kind of annoying that made me not care.

"Number two, I'll tell you what's bothering me, besides you, since you'll just bother me even more otherwise," I continued, making Twilight look up. "I'll have to go at four since the guys at the hospital called me because Nemo-"

"The filly that you saved on Sunday? Didn't princess Luna try talking to her?" Twilight interrupted me, and then realising that she interrupted me, she said with a sheepish smile, "You can continue."

"As I was saying, they called me because Nemo wants to meet with me, and that's what's bothering me."

"You're nervous about talking to that filly?" Twilight asked, her eyes widening a little as she probably thought that she found the problem.

"No, Twilight! I'm thinking about what I'd say to her," I replied, leaving out the part where I knew that Nemo was from another world. I'd have to talk to her without making her explicitly say that she's from another world since I didn't know whether or not the princesses knew that as well, and considering that all agents are killed, I doubt that the princesses know, and I'd like to keep it that way for Nemo's sake.

"Oh... I don't think I can help you with that," Twilight said, deflating once more with sadness. We sat in awkward silence until she spoke up, "Also..."

"Also what?"

"I was looking for a book that was checked out a few days ago," she said nervously as she started moving her hooves around nervously.

"What book?" I asked.

"A book on... biomancy, Biomancy Basics was its name," she answered as though she admitted to committing a crime. "Do you know when it will be returned? I'm asking since I'm... interested in learning about that subject."

"Why're you talking about it like its illegal?" I asked, ignoring her question.

"It's dark magic," she answered in a whisper as she looked around to see if someone heard us. That was really annoying for some reason.

"OoOoOo, The dark arts, so scary, I'm literally shitting and pissing myself out of fear right now," I replied with mock fear, making it abundantly clear that I didn't think about 'dark' magic the same way as her. I then said with real seriousness, "Look, Twiggles, 'dark' magic isn't anything like you think, and even if it was, it's perfectly legal to do."

Twilight who had been shocked silent by me mocking her finally got her words and said with, "B- but it can be used for evil things!"

"And so can 'light' magic," I countered with a raised hoof. "Like, I can just launch a fireball at you right now and cook your meat to perfection while killing you, and then eat your cooked corpse. And that's all light magic, y'know."

My example was terrible, as I could tell from how Twilight looked at me with some fear, but it got the point across, somewhat.

"Anyway, you gotta wait another few days till that book comes back since I'm using it right now," I said, answering her earlier question.

"You're learning biomancy?!" she asked, as if it were a big shock. I was just annoyed.

"Yeah, you'll be doing it as well," I answered.

"I wanted to just like, read it over, not actually do it! I don't even think I can do it!"

"The hell does that mean?"

Twilight probably would have looked less shocked if she had stuck a fork in an outlet. "Don't you know about magical affinity?"

At my confused silence, she shifted into 'uhm actually' nerd mode and continued, "It determines a unicorn's magical abilities, specifically the kind of magic they can do. For example, I can only do magic that has the attributes of light magic."

"Okay, cool, thanks for the infodump but I don't care," I said, thoroughly annoyed by her behaviour. "If you want the biomancy book, you'll have to wait. I'm not doing anything illegal if that's what you're trying to imply."

"I wasn't implying that!" she protested. "I just- I was just surprised that you did that kind of magic."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said, ignoring her protests. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was 3:56. Time for me to go. "Anyway, I gotta go."

I picked up my saddlebags and put them on quickly. I think I might have dropped something as I did but whatever, I had places to be and not much time, especially for Twilight's annoying questions.

The walk to the hospital wasn't really eventful, though I did meet Pinkie on the way. Well, I 'met' her if you consider her running up to me and giving me a wrapped cupcake and then running off as a meeting. I wasn't in the mood for eating and put the cupcake in my bag and continued till the hospital.

At the hospital, the receptionist called over a nurse, Nurse Sweetheart, to take me to Nemo.

"Hello, miss Anya," the nurse greeted me with a friendly smile. "Ano- Nemo is waiting for you."

"Kay, let's go then," I replied.

The nurse led me to a room on the ground floor. She didn't let me in immediately though.

"Before I let you in, I'll have to ask you to tell me anything important she tells you, like where she lived, who her parents are, anything of that sort," she said to me in a serious tone. "Even if it sounds like she is lying, that information is important, for her sake."

"Okay," I responded simply, not really understanding why she wanted that stuff at first. Then, I realised that someone, probably the princesses, suspected that Nemo was an agent and just wanted evidence for some reason. I'd have to consult with Voth to be sure though.

The nuse opened the door, letting me in. The room looked rather cozy for a hospital room with there being a round blue carpet on the floor and some random toys and plushies in the corner in a box. That was juxtaposed by the many spells and runes and whatnot on the window and the door behind me and how I could feel their power. All this made it more clear that they didn't want Nemo to go anywhere.

Speaking of Nemo, she was lying on her bed and looking at the door from under the blanket. The nurse closed the door behind me and the next second, Nemo jumped out of bed and rushed to me looking overjoyed to see me. She hugged me immediately, not knowing that she was poking me with her horn that had a magic suppression ring on it.

"Hi Nemo," I said to her as I returned the hug. Nemo nuzzled me in return instead of saying anything but that was alright. I continued, "I've got something you might like."

Nemo backed up and looked at me inquisitively at that. I opened my saddlebags with my magic but Nemo didn't seem to like that for some reason. I stopped using my magic and instead fished out the things I got with my hooves. In no time, there were four little wooden birds in my hooves.

"You like them?" I asked Nemo. Nemo stared at the birds before looking at me.

"A- are they for... me?" she asked me as she absent-mindedly reached out for them.

"Yep, you can take one, or all of them. Just be careful with holding them since they're fragile," I answered, letting Nemo take the ones she wanted. She took two of them and held one in each of her front hooves as if they were the most treasured things ever, and she placed them on table next to her bed. She then turned to walk over to the carpet and sit in front of a paper that had something drawn on it. She looked at me expectantly and pawed at the ground next to her. It took me a moment to realise tht she wanted me there sitting next to her.

I walked over and sat next to her. She leaned onto me and picked up the paper and pointed to the drawing on it. It was a picture of a... I don't know what it was. It was a big ugly blob of red, brown, black, and green with a lot of pointy blue legs coming out of it on all side, like it was some really messed up starfish.

"I saw him yesterday night in my dream," Nemo said sadly as she droped the picture and leaned more into me.

"Who is he?" I asked as I put an arm around her. It was clear that she didn't like whatever she had drawn, and I guessed that it was something similar to Voth.

"M- m-" she tried answering but she was too scared to do so.

"He controlled you, didn't he?" I asked as I pulled her into a hug. Nemo nodded in response, letting me continue, "Well, he can't hurt you now."

"H- he wanted me t- to ki-" she tried saying but I stopped her.

"He wanted that, but you didn't," I said to her before she could say out loud something that would send her to tears. Thankfully, she didn't cry and just remained quiet.

"How was it where you lived earlier?" I asked, changing the topic of the conversation to something that I hoped would be better. Unfortunately, it wasn't better as I could tell by how my chest had become wet with her tears.

"M- mother and f- fa- father were me- mean to me," she said as she tried controlling her crying. "They- they always said th- that I was a- a mista-"

"Now, now, you don't have to talk about bad stuff if it hurts you," I said, interrupting her from her description of her parents. In my mind, I wished that I could just find them and strangle them. "I was talking about the uh good parts, were there good parts?"

"I- I liked it when it rained sometimes," she said as she wiped her tears from her face. "I- it rained very little where I lived and I wanted to play in the rain but they never- never let me outside because it was dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"M- my uncle said that- that godless monsters had dropped bombs and- and they made the rain bad and black, and tha- that we should be grateful for living in mountains b- because no one came there. I- I saw one of the bombs go off once," she answered as she looked down at the floor. She probably didn't know much about those bombs but I knew that it was nukes. You learnt that shit in history class when they went over the second and third world wars, and with all the global tension in my previous world, it wasn't hard to get people telling you what nukes would do to you if you aren't in proper shelter. Fortunately, I never had to live through nuclear war or fallout, but I couldn't say the same for Nemo who was there for it in person.

"Will I g- go to hell?" she asked sadly and all of a sudden, bringing me out of my thoughts so fast that it would have given me whiplash.

"What? No, you won't! Why'd you ask that?" I said, really confused to say the least.

"T- the priest said t-that girls like me should- that we should do everything our parents sa- said and stay at ho- home because god sa- said so," she said before she started crying again. I tried stopping her but she continued louder than earlier, "I ran away! I- I didn't listen and ran!"

Ripped away from her world that probably had a large-scale nuclear war, mind controlled to try and kill someone, and abused by what I assumed was a cult; Nemo just had it terrible all the time and I felt bad for her. She didn't continue talking any more and just cried for sometime. Eventually, she stopped but she was clearly tired from all the emotion.

"Hey, Nemo," I said, getting her attention. She looked up at me, her face stained with tears. I reached into my bag and pulled out the cupcake that Pinkie had given me. It was chocolate covered in white frosting and some sprinkles and had a little 'for Anya' note on it that I hadn't seen earlier. I pulled off the note an stuffed it back into the bag. "You want a cupcake?"

Nemo looked confused but happy to see the cupcake and when I asked her if she wanted it, she looked happier. She nodded and took the cupcake. For a moment, she just stared at it to appreciate its beauty. The next moment, she took a bite out of it and the next, she had all of it in her mouth and was chewing away happily, her earlier sadness forgotten.

It was nice seeing her happy again but it wasn't for long unfortunately. The door opened and nurse Sweetheart was there.

"It's Nemo's lunchtime now, you'll have to come with me," she said to me. Nemo wasn't happy to hear that at all but she didn't try stopping me from going. I gave her a smile as I left. Once outside, the nurse closed the door and led me down the hall back to the reception area.

"So, did she tell you anything?" she asked.

"She doesn't know where she came from. Her parents didn't like her and she ran away from home, and I think she might have been in a cult of some sorts," I answered with a frown. The nurse didn't seem too surprised at any of that information.

"Well, thank you for that information," she said with a sad expression on her face. "We'll call you back if Nemo asks us to."

With that, I was back on my way home. The day had been decent for a thursday for sure but it definitely wasn't great. Maybe I could make some cool little wooden things for Nemo.

Yeah, I think I'll do that. She'll be happy to have those.

Author's Note

we met for so little time
we talked and laughed together as friends
but it ended and we were gone
Like birds in the light of atomic fire

6r jL

please comment

Chapter 27: Magic Show

I woke up to the blaring of my alarm. I looked over at it and saw that it was seven in the morning already. Hadn't it been like, four AM just ten minutes ago?

I wanted to sleep some more but today was friday, meaning that I had to suffer the consequences of me not sleeping properly last night. Or the night before. Or the one before that. I don't think I've had proper sleep the entire week.

I got out of my blanket cocoon and onto the floor and stretched a bit before I went onto go through my morning routine. Unfortunately, I was sluggish while I did so and as a result, I didn't have the time to eat breakfast or anything and had to leave for work with an empty stomach.

The walk to work was uneventful and I wished that the entire rest of the day would be like that since I was too tired to deal with anything.

Twilight wasn't there in the library when I came in but I didn't care much. I just went over to my desk and sat down in my chair and turned on the computer. There were still ten or so minutes till the library opened and unfortunately, I couldn't take a nap till then.

It was almost five when Twilight had come in to the library sweating like she had run a marathon. Behind her was Spike, who had a fake looking moustache on his face for some reason.

"But Twi, you gotta admit that some of the stuff you can do is impressive!" Spike said to Twilight as he stopped by my desk. "Hey, Anya, does my moustache look cool? I want an honest answer."

"It looks kinda fake," I answered honestly, much to Spike's disappointment.

"See, I told you that my magic isn't that impressive," Twilight said to Spike as she came up behind him. "Now hold still."

She zapped him in the face with her magic and the moustache was gone. Spike looked somewhat sad at that but good sadness didn't last long. He looked up at me and said, "Hey, Anya, don't you think that Twilight is great at magic? Because she thinks she isn't."

"Twilight's the student of princess Celestia, so, she's probably good at it," I replied, stating the obvious.

Twilight, of course, just rubbed the back of her head and said while blushing a bit, "Oh, that's... something, yes, but it doesn't equate to the ability to do magic good; it shows that I am very good at studies."

"Okay," I replied, not disagreeing with Twilight since I didn't want to start an argument. I continued then, switching the subject, "By the way, where were you?"

"What are you talking about? Today's saturday; I don't have to work today," Twilight said, her eyebrows furrowed as she was clearly confused at my question.

"Today's friday," I said simply. For a moment, I had thought that I had messed up the days somehow but it was more likely that Twilight messed up the days.

"It is?" Spike said with surprise before his demeanor changed to that of someone who was annoyed at some discovery. "I knew that something was wrong this morning! I bet it was Pinkie, or maybe Rainbow, who pranked us by changing the calendars in here!"

Twilight looked horrified at the revelation that today was actually friday. Her ears were pinned down and she froze up and she looked a bit sick. "I- I missed work?"

"Yeah but not a big deal though," I said casually, which stopped Twilight from being as horrified. "There wasn't much done today."

"B- but I missed a day! Do you know how terrible that looks!" she almost shouted, as if it were the most important thing in the entire world.

"Twiggles, no one will care that you missed one day at work," I said, giving her much needed common sense. Twilight was not convinced, however, and so, I figured some evidence would be nice. "Like, some guy I had to work with didn't come into work for like, an entire week once and guess what? No one cared ever. If someone does care then it'll be a good thing since you know to avoid them."

"Yeah, Twi, you gotta chill," Spike added, "It's not like princess Celestia is going to banish you for that."

The very next moment, princess Celestia didn't burst into the library and yell that Twilight was getting banished for missing a day of work but it would have been pretty funny if that happened.

"Y'know, why don't we go check out that magic show? It'll be great!" Spike suggested to Twilight. "Might help you relax a bit as well."

I didn't really care much about their conversation and looked over at the clock. It was 5:01 PM, meaning that I shoud start closing the library. I got out of my chair and pushed the power button on the computer before putting on my saddlebags.

"Oh, Anya, you're coming with us?" Spike asked as I finished doing all that.

"I'll be for real with you, I have not eaten anything since dinner yesterday and I feel like I'm gonna take a bite out of someone, probably Twilight since I don't like her very much," I answered with a glance to Twilight towards the end, before suppressing a yawn. "If I don't drop and fall asleep first."

"Hey!" Twilight said, not understanding that I had made a joke. I could probably start a moon base with how all my jokes just went over her head.

"Soooo, are you coming?" Spike asked, ignoring Twilight.

"K, sure, I'll get something to eat as well," I answered. I didn't have much going on and I didn't feel like doing anything today, so, I might as well just see what this 'magic show' thing is because I was curious about how'd you have a magic show in a world where magic was real.

Spike led me and Twilight through the streets of Ponyville to the park, all while making plenty of conversation with Twilight. It was mostly Spike saying that Twilight was good at magic and Twilight disagreeing. I didn't speak much and just walked behind them with the sandwich I got on the way. Once we reached the park, we saw a small crowd gathered up in front of a fancy carriage. We stopped somewhere at the back of the crowd.

"Do you think that the showpony will ask someone to challenge them?" Spike asked to no one in particular. "Or maybe volunteer for a trick. Ooh, I'd love to volunteer!"

"I think that they might challenge someone since it is customary for them to do so," Twilight answered with a hoof under her chin. "You remember when we saw that one showpony in Canterlot? The one who could escape any lock?"

"The Great Hoofdini? Yeah, he was great!" Spike replied excitedly as he remembered something. He then added, "But not as great as you."

"Oh, come on, Spike!" Twilight replied with a slight blush, "I'm not that great."

"Show's starting," I said, interrupting yet another conversation about Twilight being good at magic or not.

The carriage had started shaking a bit as a loud voice announced, "Come all! Come all! Come and witness the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

As the announcement came, a stage unfolded out of the carriage with a lot of cool looking fireworks going off. It was looking pretty impressive already. A puff of pink smoke appeared on the stage and quickly dissipated to reveal a blue coated unicorn, Trixie, who wore a starry cape and wizard hat.

While the crowd applauded her spectacular entrance, I stared at her with my mouth slightly agape. Something had awoken in me at the sight of the pretty mare- no, wait, this wasn't the place for being a weirdo. I shook my head clear of the thoughts and made myself look normal so that no-one knew I was smitten by the showpony. I think Twilight might have seen me staring though but it was nothing a bit of gaslighting couldn't fix.

"Man, she's flashy," Spike noted as a second round of fireworks went off.

"My, how boastful!" I heard Rarity say from behind us. I turned my head and saw Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack coming over to us. All of them seemed to be in agreement with Rarity.

"Nothing wrong with showing off your talent," Twilight said to them without turning to face them as they stopped to stand to her right.

"Hey Twi," Rainbow replied to her. She then saw me standing to Twilight's left and her face scrunched up in disdain. "Oh, you're here."

"Hey hey Rainbow," I said, not really giving a shit about her tone since I was still looking at Trixie, and still somewhat mesmerised by her.

"Y'know, I haven't forgotten what you called Twi," she continued with an angry tone.

"Uh huh," I replied as I started staring once again at the showpony on stage as she did her tricks oh so gracefully.

"And honestly, I think you should keep your distance from us."

"Mhm."

"...Are you ignoring me?"

"Uh huh."

"Rainbow, there's no need to be upset about something that's in the past now," Twilight interrupted, pulling me out of my thoughtless staring and mumbling. It took me a few moments to realise that I had lost focus on whatever Rainbow was saying earlier and now that I processed it, I was irritated. I considered calling Rainbow some sort of slur but decided against it since I didn't need more enemies. Twilight continued, "Additionally, I thought about it and realised that I might have been a little bit of a... the thing Anya called me. It was mean, yes, but we're alright now. Isn't that right, Anya?"

"Yeah yeah," I said, not paying much attention since I was busy simping over Trixie and how gracefully she did her magic, even if it was somewhat simple stuff and at times, overly flashy...

Why am I simping over someone I have literally no chance with? Or even any relation with? She is a travelling magician and I'm some random loser with no life beyond work or serving my eldritch master. Any interest I had in the showpony died instantly as I snapped back to reality and realised how weird I was acting along with the unintended side effect of feeling bad.

"She's too busy ogling that boastful loser on stage to answer your question," Rainbow said loudly in frustration, attracting some attention from the crowd towards us. I didn't express my anger and just quietly started putting some distance between me and the group.

"What's there to even see? It's just some cheap parlor tricks performed by someone with a matching cheap wardrobe," Rarity said as she looked at Trixie, particularly her outfit, with thinly veiled disgust. I disagreed with Rarity since I thought robes and big wizard hats were rad as fuck in my humble yet objectively right opinion.

"An' she's mighty loud about it," Applejack added her own criticism.

"Girls, why don't we just enjoy the sho-" Twilight tried suggesting but was cut off by none other than Trixie.

"Well, well, well, it seems that there are some naysayers in the audience," the showpony said with a hint of mirth and some annoyance as she pointed a hoof in the direction of Twilight and her friends. The crowd parted like the sea did for that one dude, and I was quick to join them since I didn't want to be in the negative spotlight. Trixie continued speaking, her tone shifting to one of someone who wanted a challenge, "Who dares to question my magical abilities? Do you think that you can challenge me?"

"Yeah, sure do," Rainbow said loudly. She flew upto Trixie and hovered in front of her and asked, "What even makes you so 'great' and 'powerful' anyway, huh?"

"Heh, clearly, you do not know that I, the great and powerful Trixie, have magic strong enough to vanquish an Ursa Minor!" Trixie answered proudly with her head held high. Her horn glew and there were blue outlines of images floating above her depicting a bear and Trixie. The images were made in the same way I made runes in the air by concentrating magic and honestly, her use of magic was pretty interesting. The images started moving and she narrated, "The ponies of Hoofington had been harrassed by an Ursa Minor for many weeks before I came and when I did, I used my awesome magics and drove it back to its cave in the Everfree forest!"

The images had moved accordingly, showing Trixie cast a spell on the starry bear many times larger than her followed by the bear turning and running away. The crowd cheered as Trixie finished her story, some kids started cheering for her extra loudly, and more importantly, Rainbow looked a lot less confident than she did earlier.

Rainbow backed off and regrouped with her friends, who all seemed to have a noticeable dislike of Trixie now.

"that story's gotta be fake.Twilight, you gotta go up there and show her who's b-" Spike said to Twilight only to be cut off as Twilight picked him up and took him a bit away from the crowd to tell him something that I didn't hear.

"Well, citizens of Ponyville, I hereby challenge you to try and outperform me! Any takers? Anyone who wishes to challenge me?" Trixie announced meanwhile. She pointed a hoof at Rainbow, making her shrink a little, and said, "How about you? You were itching to disprove my powers!"

"Ye know what? I'm taking up tha' challenge!" Applejack shouted, looking really annoyed. She whispered something to Rainbow and stepped forward to go to the stage. Rainbow flew off and returned in the time it took Applejack to get on to the stage. She handed a rope to Applejack and rejoined the audience.

"I'll let you start," Trixie said to Applejack, starting the challenge.

Applejack held the rope in her mouth and started spinning it around, revealing it to be a lasso. She proceeded to jump through the spinning loop, as if it were a mere jump rope, a couple of time before she somehow put the end of the lasso on her tail. More astonishingly, she was able to continue using the lasso like that. She did a couple more tricks which were much like her first ones before she ended her performance. The crowd, which had been watching quietly, erupted into cheers for Applejack.

"Very impressive, I must admit," Trixie acknowledged before she shot the lasso on the stage with a spell. "But not as impressive as this!"

The lasso started moving on its own, much like a snake, and I could see where this was going to go. Applejack would be tied up by her own lasso. The rope slowly coiled around Applejack, making sure to distract her with its weird snake-like movements as it did and as I expected, the rope coiled up around Applejack's legs and tied itself. Predictably, she fell down since her center of mass had a hard time staying on top of her base.

The crowd which had cheered for Applejack now laughed at her but such was the nature of people; they liked a good show.

Trixie untied Applejack, letting her return to Rainbow's side with her pride seriously damaged. Watching her friend come back crestfallen had made Rainbow angry and she was clearly ready to challenge Trixie next.

"Yo, Rainbow, don't try it," I warned her but she just snorted and ignored me and took flight, landing on the stage.

"Hmm, it seems that the naysayer is back. Are you ready to be beaten?" Trixie said out loud, making the pegasus even angrier. She said something that wasn't audible to me and took off into the sky. She rapidly gained altitude and punched through a bunch of clouds before coming back down the way she went up. When she landed, a bunch of rain fell on her, making a temporary rainbow on top of her as the sunlight was refracted through the drops.

The crowd once again cheered, and more importantly, Trixie seemed somewhat troubled, as though she didn't know how to top Rainbow's trick.

Then, the clouds that Rainbow had punched through were covered in the unicorn's pink magical aura. The clouds came together to form an almost black cloud that looked like it was ready to just burst like a water balloon. Trixie levitated the cloud do that it was above Rainbow and the next moment, the pegasus was given an unplanned shower. It was a bit ironic since Rainbow had done something similar to me.

Anyway, the crowd laughed once again, this time on Rainbow who had been thoroughly humiliated. Said humiliated pony flew back to her friends and just grumbled under her breath.

"Anya," I heard Spike call out. I turned around and saw that Spike was on his knees as if he were begging. Behind him was an embarrassed looking Twilight. Spike continued, "You've gotta do something! We can't let Trixie get away with humiliating Rainbow Dash or Applejack just like that."

I just looked at him with surprise and asked, "Why not Twilight? Or Rarity? Or anyone else?"

"I have no interest in being humiliated in front of a crowd, or to be humiliated at all," Rarity objected to her participation quickly.

"And I'll feel like I'm a showoff," Twilight added, explaining why she didn't want to challenge Trixie.

"Bruh, I don't want to go on stage," I protested as all of them just suddenly wanted me to go and try beat Trixie without even considering my opinion. I didn't want to go up there and be made a fool of. I didn't even want to go there anyway!

"You there with the glasses," I heard Trixie say, making me turn around. Trixie had singled me out, which sucked real hard since I was the center of attention of the entire crowd. "Do you dare to challenge me?"

There were numerous eyes looking at me, and quite a few of them silently told me that I should go up there.

"Please Anya, you gotta show her!" Spike pleaded from behind me.

"Ah hate ta say this but good luck for when you go up there," Applejack quietly said to me without looking at me.

"Well, are you?" Trixie asked impatiently.

I made a decision under all the pressure. A dumb one.

"O- okay, I'm coming," I said accepting the challenge. There were a few cheers around me but I was panicking internally too much to care. One question was on my mind and it was How do I beat Trixie?

I slowly made my way to the stage, thinking about what I could do. The air runes? No, Trixie could beat those easily. Shadowmancy? No, I'd scare everyone and the sun is not in a good position. Biomancy? Maybe, but would it be impressive if I made a plant grow really fast?

Yeah, no, fuck this shit, I'm gonna ~~cheat~~ get help.

'Voth! I need help, I shouted in mind. Voth was there in a moment, letting me continue, 'Do you know any spells that would look really impressive to a crowd AND not be one upped by Trixie?

"I DO," Voth said, giving me some hope but all that hope died when Voth continued, "HOWEVER YOU CANNOT USE MOST OF THEM YET FOR YOU ARE TOO WEAK."

'What about the ones I can do? I asked frantically as I stepped up onto the stage.

"I AM INPUTTING THEM INTO YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW," Voth answered. My head hurt a little after he said that but the sudden input of knowledge was more relieving than painful.

"Same as before, you start first," Trixie said as I stopped in front of her.

"Okay then," I replied, a lot more confident than I was earlier.

My horn lit up and I help my hoof up. A glowing disc of green magic appeared on it and it formed into a rune. Trixie raised an eyebrow at the simple looking thing but I continued by 'throwing' the rune into the air. Of course, it was all my magic that did the work but I had to look cool while doing it. The rune went up into the air, glowing brighter as it gained altitude and when it was about ten meters above us, it 'broke' apart into a bunch of little flames and bits of green magic and they looked quite similar to fireflies as they came back to the ground.

I had cleverly made it look like the rune (which actually did nothing) made all the flashy stuff appear when it was actually me conjuring tiny fireballs and balls of magical light. It wasn't magically intensive but it was demanding with how many things I had to keep track of. Most of the tiny magical ball lights ended up dissipating as they got close to the ground since I couldn't track them against the mostly green ground and since most of the stuff as already gone, I stopped the tiny fireballs as well.

Of course, the crowd was mesmerised by the display and when it ended, they cheered for me. I was a bit taken aback by the cheering but I kept myself steady.

Trixie looked on, only mildly impressed by my trick. "It's rather impressive how you could keep track of those many lights but it's nothing against what I can do!"

She reared up on her and her horn glowed brightly for a second before it shot a spell towards the sky. The spell was much like a rocket, making a whistling sound as it gained altitude before it exploded, leaving a blue pattern in the shape of Trixie's talent mark. Her trick was clearly a lot more impressive than mine, as evident by the crowd's 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs'. The jump in expected quality and subsequently, the difficulty, was discouraging but I didn't give up just yet.

Now, it was my turn again and I figured that I should try something with biomancy and my new ability to conjure balls of magical light. It took me a moment to plan out what I wanted to do and that was enough for Trixie to say, "What is it, are you afraid that you're too weak to beat Trixie's magic?"

"Nuh uh," came my reply as my horn lit up. I focused on the magic of a random weed that was underneath the stage and I willed it to grow. It took a few seconds for the weed to start growing but when it did start, it grew fast. It might have looked like I was doing nothing until the weed grew tall enough to peek through the small gaps in the floor of the stage. Trixie looked alarmed as the plant started growing outwards instead of upwards and stepped back a bit, giving me space to continue rapidly growing the plant. There was so much magic put into the plant that it actually started giving off some firefly-like lights as piece of it started breaking off and burning up, but that worked to my advantage as it gave me free light effects.

The thing was starting to slow down its growth as it assumed the shape of a long candle holder with three legs. Once it took that shape, it rapidly turned from green to brown as it died because of me reducing the amount of my magic flowing into it. Making the thing was exhausting but I still had something to do. In the final moments of the plant's life, I made it mold a rune onto its top and once it was done, a ball of white magic appeared on top of it. In the end, there was a really cool and organic looking candle holder holding a ball of white magical light on stage. I was pretty exhausted as well.

"Pretty cool, right?" I said with a coug, noting that I probably shouldn't do this much magic yet. Trixie looked at the decoration with a slacked jaw, clearly impressed by my plant-o-mancy. In the crowd, I could hear plenty of whispers that seemed vaguely positive and questioning as well. Trixie face shifted as she probably started thinking real hard about how she could one-up my best. The whispers in the crowd grew the longer she remained silent.

Finally, she tipped her hat and spoke, "Well, it seems I've been bested. There's not many people who can claim to have done that."

The crowd broke into cheers as Trixie admitted defeat. I was thankful that she didn't do another trick because I didn't have the strength to do another trick. It was great as well, having all these people cheer for me (even though I might have had some help but that wasn't something they needed to know).

"Say, what's your name?" Trixie asked over the cheering of the crowd as she came up to me.

"Anya," I answered.

"Well, Anya, I hope that you stay for a bit. The show will be ending in a few minutes and I'd like to talk to you after that," she continued, making me a bit worried. What did she want to talk about? "And what of the light you made?" She asked, pointing to the ball-of-magical-light-holder.

"I dunno, you can keep it if you want but its probably very flammable," I replied, pulling the light-holder from its place and making it break off from the dead plant under the stage. I stepped off the stage, leaving the light-holder next to it, and went back to the back of the crowd, letting Trixie continue her show.

"Woah, what was that?" Spike asked me as I came back to the spot where I was standing.

"Basic biomancy along with some runes and fireballs and light spells," I answered. "Still pretty tiring though. I'd probably have been laughed off the stage if Trixie didn't admit defeat."

"She just went easy on you," Rainbow said, probably salty about how I beat Trixie, who had beat her.

"Now, Rainbow, you and I both saw that Trixie did not go easy on Anya, so don't say that," Twilight said to Rainbow before she turned to me. "That was impressive, Anya."

"The light holder could use some work on its looks though," Rarity said before quickly adding, "Not that it wasn't impressive."

"Yep, Ah'd buy that thing if it were fer sale," Applejack added.

"Thanks guys," I said. "By the way, does anyone have something to eat? Doing those tricks made me hungry."

The show went for a bit longer than I expected but I was not the one running it, so, whatever. I was busy eating a second sandwich through most of it anyway. When it ended, I stayed back like Trixie asked me to but so did some random kids. I had to wait some more as the kids had gotten to Trixie first and were asking her all sorts of questions about her exploits and whatnot.

Once they were done with their questions, Trixie called me over.

"Now, Anya, I've got to ask you this," she began as she adjusted her hat. "What was the magic you used when you did your second trick?"

"Oh, that was some basic biomancy along with runes and some light spells mixed in to make whatever I thought looked cool at the time," I answered non-chalantly. "It was rather exhausting to perform though."

"Biomancy? You have a book on that subject?" she continued, looking somewhat surprised at the mention of said magic.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Well, it is hard to find books that instruct on the... less light-sided parts of magic. Would it be appropriate if I borrow that book? It would help me get some new tricks for my show," she said, shedding some light on some knowledge that I felt like I should have known.

"It's library property, you'll have to go borrow it from there and then return it," I answered, making Trixie a bit discouraged. I continued though, "However, there are no rules against copying it all in a notebook if you want to do that. I'll get you the book and you can get it back to me at the library when you're done with it."

"Thank you, Anya," she said with a smile. "I suppose I could give you something in return, especially with that decoration you gave me for free."

My curiosity was piqued at the mention of something I could get. "What is it?"

"It's a book on magical constructs that I haven't been able to find use for. Let me go get it," Trixie answered as she went into her carriage. There were some sounds of rummaging and Trixie was out with a old looking book in her magic. She presented it to me, letting me see that it had no title or anything. "I got it from an old pony on one of my previous shows. If you couldn't use it then maybe it'll find a place in the town library. Whatever the case, it'll certainly be better than just collecting dust in my wagon."

She let me take the book. I opened it to a random page and saw that it was something about magically charged gems. I closed the book and said, "This looks interesting. Thanks for this, I'll get you your book in a few minutes."

"Okay then, I'll be waiting," Trixie said as she moved onto folding up the stage with her magic.

Now, I just had to go and get the book from my home, which is what I went on to do. As I walked, I noticed that I was feeling pretty nice. Guess the day had gone pretty good for a friday.

Author's Note

7f jL

here, 5k word chapter for u

Chapter 28: Scared

Life was cruel.

Nemo knew that very well.

In the past couple days, she had ran from her home where everyone seemed to hate her, got lost in the dry wilderness, ripped out from her world and put into another with an unfamiliar body, ordered to murder someone, attacked by a forest creature, hospitalised, mind controlled by a monster, and then hospitalised once again.

It was a lot for her, but she had some comfort in the new world. The creatures that lived in the new world, the ponies, were nice to her even though she wasn't as nice to them. She had a soft bed and good food and water as well. She even got a book, and though she couldn't understand quite a few of the words or a lot of what was happening in it, she liked it very much.

The thing she didn't really like was how the ponies in the hospital would ask her questions all the time without being patient, or nice in some cases, and then look at her weird when she eventually answered those questions. She missed the pony who had been nice to her (even though she was the one that Nemo was ordered to kill) and wished she would come back to visit.

The hospital ponies had told her that she'd be sent to a 'foster family' when she was all healthy, and by how they sounded, she assumed that it was something good for her and she waited for that day to come ever since.

But until then, she could only dream.

It was warm and fuzzy and soft, whatever Nemo lay on and she liked it a lot. The sky above was filled with stars and the world below it was covered in all sorts of plant life, much like the waking world. Nemo had come to love it all for it was probably the first time she could see the world's beauty without any fear blinding her.

It wasn't forever though like Nemo wanted it to be.

Her eyes opened as she just felt someone watching her. The warm soft fuzzy thing she was laying on was gone and she was on grass now. She looked around slowly, all the comfort she had disappearing. The shadows of the few trees around her seemed to lengthen as she moved her head.

"Did you think you could escape?" said something from the shadows, making Nemo freeze in fear.

A thing crawled out of the shadow of one thing, its fat slimy body being pulled by innumerable limbs that all seemed to be somewehere in between tentacles and spider legs. It was covered in colours, all vivid and bright like a poisonous frog, only that the colours would shift every second. It was sickening and frightening to look at, not just because of its appearance, but because Nemo knew that it wanted to hurt her.

She tried to get up and run but found herself stuck in place, watching as the thing got closer and closer. Her heart was beating faster and there were tears forming in her eyes as she watched the thing keep advancing while she could do nothing.

It was so close now, one more step and it would be able to reach her. Nemo closed her eyes.

There was a lot of noise the next moment. Nemo opened her eyes and saw that the thing was gone and replaced with a patch of burning grass and that she could move. She immediately got up and ran the other way from the patch, only to run into someone.

She looked up and saw that it was a tall, dark blue pony with a mane and tail made of the night sky, and a par of bat wings and a horn. It took a moment for Nemo to remember that this was the princess who had tried talking to her sometime back.

"It's gone now, Nemo, you are safe," the princess said as she looked at the patch of burnt grass before looking down at Nemo.

Nemo wasn't fully convinced of that fact though. She was still scared and here was a tall and imposing pony looking down at her. Nemo wanted to run but found that she couldn't for some reason. The princess raised a hoof, and Nemo braced for a hit out of instinct. No such thing happened, however. Instead, the princess gently touched Nemo's cheek, making her open her eyes in surprise and look in the princess's cat-like eyes.

"You need not be afraid of me, I am here only to help."

"Sister, could we do what we have come here for?"

Nemo's ears folded back at the second voice. The princess stepped aside as a second, taller and more imposing pony came to stand beside her. She had a white coat and tri-coloured mane and tail, and wings and a horn (like Nemo). However, unlike the princess, the new pony didn't seem as kind or nice, and in fact, she seemed angry at her.

"Yes sister, you can get started," the princess said to her sister before turning back to Nemo, who was still scared. "I apologise for her demeanor but it's just that we have important work to do."

"W- where a- are we?" Nemo managed to say as she watched the princess's sister stretch out her wings and go up into the sky with a mighty flap.

"We are in your dream, Nemo," she answered, making Nemo more confused. "And I must say, you are strong for how you stayed with that night terror for so long."

"N- night terror?" Whatever that was, it sounded bad.

"A creature that feeds off a pony's negative emotions. They usually come about when a pony undergoes a lot of stress," the princess explained before her expression turned sad. "And you've been through quite a lot of it recently."

Nemo lowered her head and stared at the ground at the reminder of just how things had been going for her. Sure, things were far better here than back home, but it was all alien to her. She was in an alien body in an alien world and she had no way of going back if she were to guess.

She felt something around her back and looked up to see that the princess had put her leathery bat wing around her.

"Do you miss your home?"

"Ye- no... I- I'm not sure," Nemo answered as she leaned onto Luna absentmindedly. "I don't know if I miss it. It wasn't very nice... but it was where I lived."

Luna hummed as she pulled the filly into a hug. Nemo welcomed it as it was once again warm and soft and that made her feel better than how she was earlier.

"How did it look?" Luna asked Nemo.

"There was sand everywhere and it was hot all the time," Nemo said, not noticing the dream around them change. It went from plains of grass to plains of rocky terrain with mountains closeby. "But I had stayed there for so long I got used to it."

It was true that she had gotten used to her home, no matter how bad it was, but a small part of her wondered if it was a good thing that she did.

There was the sounds of hooves hitting the ground and Luna turned her head to see her very annoyed looking sister approaching. "I've done the preparations for sealing the mind from the void. You can continue with her once we've sealed the mind."

"What are you doing?" Nemo asked, looking up to Luna nervously.

"We're going to cast a spell that will protect you from nasty things like your previous master. It might hurt a bit but I know that you will brave through it," Luna answered, looking down at Nemo with a smile to make her feel better. It didn't help much since she mentioned him. Luna stood up and walked over to her sister.

The princess's and her sister's horns lit up simultaneously, and suddenly, Nemo felt as though she was being held down and having her head repeatedly punched. It was painful, and it was terrifying. It was only by the princess's magic that the dream didn't immediately collapse.

When it was over, Nemo was curled up with her head in her hooves and was crying as quietly as she could out of instinct, thinking that making any sound would make the pain come back.

"It didn't work! There's something blocking it!" she heard the princess say, followed by hoofsteps coming in her direction.

'They hurt you,' a voice told her.

"Nemo, did you hear someone's voice anytime in the past few day?"

Nemo didn't hear the question. Instead she heard the voice again, 'They will hurt you again.'

The hoofsteps stopped in front of her and Nemo looked up, her vision blurry with tears but not blurry enough to stop her from making out that two large ponies who could hurt were looming over her. One looked concerned while the other looked enraged.

"Did you hear someone's voice in your head anytime in the last few days?" the princess repeated with concern that HAD to be fake.

Nemo shook her head, lying out of fear of what would happen if she said yes.

"Filly! If you dare to hide anythin-" the enraged one said as she raised her white hoof, as if she was going to strike her, but Nemo didn't hear it.

'Wake up,' she heard instead.

Nemo woke up breathing heavily, her cheeks wet with tears and her eyes full of fear. She looked around the dark room for any danger while she made herself as small as she could. A shadow moved across the room and she was under the bed, quietly crying into her hooves as she took shaky breaths.

The door opened after some time had passed, making Nemo even more scared. The light turned on, letting Nemo see that a pony was in the room but that was not what she was focused on. She was more focused on the fact that the pony had white hooves. The princess's sister had come for her in the real world.

Nemo closed her eyes and curled up, hoping that the pony would just go away.

The pony didn't go away.

"Nemo, why're you under the bed?" the pony asked.

Nemo didn't recognise the voice as that of the nurse and thought that it was the white alicorn pretending to be nice, but she knew better.

She felt a hoof touch her back and she screamed, knowing that she was going to be dragged out from under the bed and how she would be beaten if she was pulled out from under the bed. However, she wasn't, and the hoof went back, followed by the sound of retreating hoofsteps. Nemo still wasn't happy since she knew that the pony would come back in a minute or two and she'd be dragged out.

She knew that she had to run but it wasn't an option though. The window was barred and the door would just lead to the ponies who would hurt her.

There was no solution to her problem. It seemed that she would be getting hurt no matter what. The ponies, who had pretended to be kind for so long, would take her away and hurt her. Her new world seemed just like her old, and just like the old, there was nothing she could do about how terrible it was.

Nemo cried, wishing she just didn't exist.

There were more hoofsteps, and before Nemo could react, she felt something stab her and then, she was asleep.

Nurse Sweetheart slowly pulled the sedated filly out from under the bed. Beside her, Nurse Redheart held a now empty syringe, looking worried.

To nurse Sweetheart, there was no explanation for Nemo's behaviour. She had been alright a few hours back when she went to sleep but now Nemo had woken up screaming and crying and was so terrified that she had screamed when Nurse Redheart had tried to help her. Sweetheart knew that it must have been some truly terrible nightmare that had frightened the filly that much, and it made it clear that they'd have to get help if they wanted to help Nemo.

"Redheart, I think we'll have to call in Princess Luna. She's been having nightmares every night and today's been the worst," Sweetheart said as she put the filly back in bed and tucked her in, unaware that the princess was already making plans to head to their town once she was done berating her sister.

Chapter 29: The First Step of Flesh-Craft: The Mother Flesh

Saturday was much like friday, with me not having much sleep, or breakfast. If things keep going this way, it will become very likely that when archaeologists find my body in the distant future, they'll think they dug up not a unicorn pony but rather, a troglodyte. I mean, I already got the intellect and the backbone for being one, and my sleep troubles and inability to get breakfast or lunch will probably get me a lot closer to looking like one. I should go to a doctor maybe, or ask Voth for an eldritch sleep spell, or eldritch caffeine at the very least.

Anyway, that isn't very important. Work had been more lively today since I had quite a lot of kids coming in to do their research projects, so that was cool. There were another thirty minutes till five and I didn't have much to do till then. If Twilight was here, I'd probably make as many terrible jokes as I could, or maybe expose her to brain-rot. I don't think the latter would work much since I didn't have my video playlist and she wouldn't know anything I would be referencing.

Eh, whatever, I was just excited since I'll be starting work on my biomancy experiments today.

To start off said experiments, I needed a tub, which I already had, and a crucible to make flesh grow and do what I wanted it to. The crucible was the other important tool besides the tub of water, and of course, I forgot about it until this morning (yet more proof to my true nature as a troglodyte).

So, the crucible is just this flesh machine thing that is basically a UI (user interface) and the main part for my flesh crafting device and also the thing that I use to keep my creations alive until I pull them out of the tub. I could buy a crucible BUT as far as I know, there isn't a shop in Ponyville that sells that, and even if there was a shop that sold crucibles for biomancy, they'd probably be factory made trash at best and spyware at worst. I might be wrong in my assumption but I knew very well that I was most likely right from experience (the factories in British Africa made most of the stuff in my old world and most of said stuff sucked, and with how these guys have magic, they'll probably be able to put spyware in stuff easily).

Thankfully, I could make one at home using some basic items, like for example, the six eggs I bought the other day for making a crucible and forgot about after leaving them in my fridge. I remembered that the six eggs I brought would be reduced to one (the last being for the ponunculus*) when I made the crucible but I didn't remember the actual instructions on making the crucible and had to wait till Trixie finished making a copy of the book and brought it back to me... Wasn't there a big-ass printer copy-machine in the basement of the library?

Every second, I get more evidence that I am completely stupid, borderline brain-dead even. I mean, I already know that but it's still surprising how I am above average only in doing stupid things.

To add to that, I heard the rumbling of clouds outside and remembered that some guys called 'Cloudsdale Weather Co.' had put up a notice about there being a storm planned for the afternoon since it was getting too dry or something, and that I had read the notice and accordingly forgotten to get an umbrella with me.

Oh, well, the rain would probably be over in like, an hour or something. Nothing for me to be worried about.

The library door opened and in came Trixie, holding the biomancy book and a notebook in her magic, followed by Twilight. Both of them were chatting, mostly about Trixie's tricks.

"Hey the great and powerful Trixie, hey Twilight," I said, interrupting their chat.

"You do know that you don't need to say my entire stage name like that, I'm just Trixie right now," Trixie said, objecting to my clearly humorous and funny greeting.

"Okay, hi 'just Trixie right now', how are you?" I responded with a grin, getting an eye roll from Trixie and a confused expression from Twilight.

"Oh, I did not know about your career as a stand-up comedian," Trixie said with heavy sarcasm and a grin, almost making me laugh.

"But she's sitting right now," Twilight interrupted in a serious voice that indicated that she was somehow completely clueless about the fact that we were joking, or what stand-up comedians are.

I didn't care about all that though since what she said was genuinely really funny and it made me giggle a bit.

"Why are you laughing?" Twilight asked, not realising just how funny she was. I just kept giggling, while Trixie once again rolled her eyes at our antics.

"Anyway, I've come to give you back the book," Trixie said as she levitated the book onto my desk. "Took quite a while to copy it down."

I stopped giggling and said, "Would right now be a bad time to mention that there's a copy machine in the basement?"

"..." Trixie said, making a face that said 'bruh really?'

"That thing? I tried using it to make a copy of a book but it straight up just said no to that," Twilight added.

"The heck you mean it didn't work?" I asked, a lot more interested in what Twilight revealed. Was this world not safe from the clutches of corporate anti-piracy measures? Man, I hope not because if it is like that then I'll probably make some changes to the printer that would definitely void the warranty.

"The screen on it said 'copying this document is not allowed'. I think it's something to protect the books."

"Oh, okay," I replied to her before turning back to Trixie and saying," So, Trixie, we have a copy machine but it doesn't actually copy books so you didn't miss out on anything."

"I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Bad thing, probably, but just imagine it's a good thing.

So, what are you guys doing?"

"We bumped into each other while I was coming to drop this book off," Trixie answered as she sat down on the ground. "After that, we just talked about spells and illusion magic."

"Illusion magic?"

Trixie looked at me like I had a giant hole in my head instead of a brain when I asked that clearly stupid question.

"Ignore that, Trixie, she's just weird," Twilight said to her, explaining away my weirdness, before realising what she had said was probably offensive.

"No need to apologise, I am completely aware of my wierd-osity," I said, not taking offense at Twilight's blunt way of answering.

"Okay, thanks Anya, but that isn't the right word."

"Cool, don't care."

Twilight looked annoyed at my dismissal of her pointing out my use of made up words. Trixie then spoke up.

"I did some practise with biomancy."

"What'd you make?"

"Not much, just a few sticks that vaguely look like wands. I could probably sell those as merchandise once I make them look better," she answered with a hoof to her chin, clearly thinking about potential economic uses of her new magic skill. "But besides that, I couldn't make a plant do anything similar to what you did yesterday, and that's about all that the book has on biomancy on plants. It's all flesh after that. If I may ask, have you acquired a crucible yet?"

"I'm gonna make one today."

"You're going to make one? Can I come and see?" Twilight asked, looking eager at a chance to see magic she couldn't do.

"Okay, but you'll have to wait till five for that."

"That's just a few minutes! I'll go get my stuff ready!"

With that, Twilight went upstairs, looking excited like a kid who's going to get candy in some time. This left me and Trixie alone for a little bit. It was a only little bit though.

"Say, could you help me with biomancy?" Trixie asked me.

"Yeah," I replied, making her smile. I then added as a joke, "That'll be one trillion bits per second by the way."

Trixie paused for a second, looking genuinely concerned, until she realised how absurd the rate was. "Heh, very funny but let me tell you this, the Great and Powerful Trixie does not appreciate these jokes!" she said, jokingly of course. "And you shall pay for it!"

"Sure, any price is fine so long as it's zero or less."

Trixie giggled at that and that was nice to see.

Twilight came down soon enough with her saddlebags on her. Outside, the sky was getting darker as storm clouds started gathering on top of Ponyville.

"Mind if I come along with you two?" Trixie asked.

"You can come, I'll need a blood sacrifice or two," I joked, getting a chuckle out of her.

It had started drizzling a bit when we were halfway to my house, and we had upped our pace. When were three-fourths of the way there, the rain had come down hard. Twilight had carried an umbrella but unfortunately, only two ponies could (barely) fit under it, and since I carried nothing in my bag except my inhaler, keys, and bits, all of which wouldn't be damaged by water, I was the one stuck in the rain. I should learn some sort of shield spell (or buy an umbrella but that wasn't very cool) to prevent this from happening again.

I would have run ahead of the two to get to my house quick but I was already wet as a drowned rat, and running wouldn't do me any good.

"Anya, are you sure you're fine?" Twilight asked, glancing at me as I continued walking in the rain besides her and Trixie.

"Mhm, feels pretty nice here once you get over the cold," I replied as I pushed some of my wet mane away from my face.

"Your home is rather... close to the forest," Trixie said as she looked at the dark surroundings as if something was going to jump out from behind a tree or bush.

We walked quietly until we came to my home. With how dark it was, and how how the windows looked like a void against the dark walls, it looked very ominous and kinda like a really big and scary creature. Both Trixie and Twilight looked at the house with slight fear, probably questioning if I lived there.

"Here we are," I said as I pulled a key out of my bag and put it into the front door's lock.

"Looks... homey," Twilight said, trying hard to sound nice.

"Nah, looks haunted to me, probably is as well," I replied as I unlocked the door and opened it, letting us in. I quickly turned on the hallway and living room lights as they got in. The wind shut the door behind them, startling them a bit.

"K, you guys can wait in the living room, or head on to the basement right away while I go and dry myself," I tld them as I headed upstairs to go get a towel and dry myself. "Might take a while."

Twilight and Trixie watched as Anya disappeared up the stairs. It was quiet for a few moments with only the sound of rain against the house accompanying them.

"So, should we go down?" Trixie asked Twilight as she looked around at the rather featureless home. The hallway they were in had nothing for decorations and the living room and kitchen adjacent to it were only slightly less sparse.

"I think so," Twilight said as she looked at all the closed doors in the hall. She stepped towards one but each step seemed to make the wooden floor creak louder than before, as if it were some sort of warning. She reached the door and opened it to find that it was a laundry room and not the entrance to the basement.

Trixie followed Twilight's example and headed for the door on the side of the stairs, making significantly less noise as she moved.

'Weird how the floor wasn't making any noise when Anya walked on it,' Twilight thought to herself.

Trixie opened the door, and found stairs going downstairs. Trixie flipped a light switch next to the door and the basement was lit up, letting them both go downstairs.

The basement was much like the ground floor, in that it wasn't really decorated much, but it had a lot more interesting stuff to look at. There was a tub full of water close to the corner far from the stairs. A table was pushed up against the wall opposite to the one the stairs were against and it had some boxes and books and other items on it and next to it.

Unbeknownst to either of them, there were several eyes looking at them from the few shadows in the room. The house didn't want them to go anywhere they shouldn't, or do anything they shouldn't.

"Hmm, this place is..." Twilight began, not really liking the silence.

"Less than what you expected?" Trixie finished as she walked over to the table.

"Yes, I suppose. I thought that Anya would have more magic related items here."

"These things look nice," Trixie said as she held up a little wooden bird in her magic.

"Hey! We shouldn't touch these thing without her permission!"

"I'm just looking." Trixie put down the bird next to the other five and flipped over a paper and saw at first that it was covered in scribbles. She then noticed that there was an image in those scribbles. A bunch of sharks? And something else alongside them? Whatever it was, it certainly looked interesting.

She put the paper down and looked at the books on the table.

"Guide to Shadowmancy? Block magic?" Twilight said as she looked over Trixie's shoulder. "I think I've seen those books before. Could you pass me the shadowmancy book?"

Trixie picked up the book in her magic but just before she began passing it to Twilight, the ground shook a bit and the lights flickered for just a moment. Seconds later, the sound of a lightning strike rang through the basement. It was loud and it scared Trixie into dropping the book back onto the table.

"T- that must have been very close," Twilight said as she looked at the sole light of the basement. "The storm's a lot more powerful than I thought."

"Hey hey girlies, good to see you guys are already here."

"Hey hey girlies, good to see you guys are already here," I said to the two mares in the basement as I came down there with a carton of eggs in my magic. They were startled a bit but I continued, "K, so gather around the flesh crafter to witness me do my magics most foul."

I was still wet since I was too excited about making the crucible and I could dry myself later.

The two ponies looked at me with some confusion, making me clarify, "The tub of water, that's the flesh crafter."

They did as I told them to, and soon, all three of us were standing in a circle around the blue tub. Twilight removed the biomancy book from her saddlebags (she had been kind enough to carry that for me) and some papers and a quill as well.

"Alrighty, you guys ready?" I said to them as I levitated five eggs out of the carton and got ready to do what I had to. The other two nodded, and I opened the book and flipped over to the page where all the fleshy stuff began. So, to start making the crucible, I had to place the eggs in five corners of the tub in a manner such that if you drew a line from each egg, it would make a five pointed star. That combined with the tub's circular shape made it seem like a pentagram.

I placed the eggs like I had to and watched them all sink to the bottom. Twilight wrote some stuff down on a paper.

"Step one done," I announced as I got ready to move onto the next step and built up magic in my horn.

"Don't you think this is a little... unethical?" Twilight asked, interrupting me.

"What part of this is unethical?"

"How you'll be bringing things into this world just for experiments."

"Twilight, if you make me consider the morality of my fun little science experiments WHILE I'm doing them, I will take a bite out of you."

"What the?" Trixie said, alarmed at my threat of cannibalism.

"Don't worry, it's only like, the third time I told Twilight I'll do something along the lines of eating her. Anyway, as I was saying, starting step two."

Ignoring Trixie's weirded out expression, I continued with step two, which involved me reaching into the magic pools of the chicken eggs and then using it to make the stuff inside grow like I had made the plants grow. It would be a bit difficult since I had to make all of them grow at the same time and besides that, I had to make the stuff that comes out attach so that all five eggs became one organism: the crucible.

I focused my eyes on the tub and started doing the magic. For a minute, it looked like nothing happened and the two other mares watched me just stand there, glaring at the tub with my horn glowing and a book floating next to me. Then, the eggs started breaking.

All the eggs broke simultaneously and out of them emerged a weird pink mass. As the pink masses grew to reach other, forming a donut against the tub's walls, the water level started going down. The things were using the magically charged water to grow and I feared that it might not have been enough. Fortunately, it was enough.

Once all the five flesh masses were in contact with each other, I stopped making them grow and started making them dissolve their skin at the places they had met one another. The water in the tub started becoming a bit red as the masses bled at the areas they had met one another. Once their wounds were sufficiently large, I made them stop hurting each other and starting healing.

As they healed, I had to make sure that they connected to one another, kinda like grafting two plants together, only that it was more complex with all the blood vessels and nerves and whatnot. I probably messed up here and there but all the errors were within an acceptable range for me; the range being that the thing didn't explode or try eating me.

In the end, I had a half filled tub of reddish water which housed a meat donut in it.

"It looks... great," Trixie said as she looked at the flesh donut pulsate periodically as its heart beat.

"Thanks. Anyway, moving onto last step," I announced as I turned the page in the book. I read the procedure for the last step and frowned. "Hmm, that's unexpected."

"Is anything wrong?" Twilight asked me as she tried looking at what I was reading.

"Nah, just wait here, I'll be back," I said, leaving the book on the floor next to the tub. I went upstairs to the kitchen and returned quickly with a knife and my first-aid kit. Downstairs, Twilight had opened the book to the page with step three and was reading it with wide eyes.

"Y- you have to cut yourself and put the blood in that?" she said, looking up at me come over to the tub with the knife and first-aid kit in my magic.

"Yeah."

"Don't you think this is going a bit far?"

"Nah, sacrifice has to be made in the name of fun little science experiments. Now, move Twilight."

Twilight moved, letting me get close to the tub and hold out my left foreleg over it. I hesitated a bit as I made the knife in my magic touch my skin. I glanced at the first-aid kit which I had put next to the tub. I'd have to cut myself and let the blood go into the tub, and then cast a spell so that the crucible, which was currently just a chicken abomination, actually becomes the flesh factory I wanted it to be.

"Why do you have to give it blood?" Trixie asked as she watched me hesitate with the knife.

"The thing in the tub is just a chicken abomination right now, and the thing about chicken abominations is that they don't do any flesh growing or preserving like a crucible would. To fix that, I'll have to put some blood here, and then cast a spell so that the chicken and the blood fuse and start mutating till it becomes a crucible. Got that?" I explained the few things I understood.

"I- I think so."

"Okay, here we go."

I made a small cut on my foreleg, a bit above the wrist. It was painful but I expected it. Blood started dripping from the wound, staining my foreleg's white fur and soon, the first drop fell into the tub. Nothing happened in the tub.

Some more drops fell into the tub but besides makeing the water a bit more red, they did nothing.

"Is it working?" Twilight asked, a bit shaky at the sight of blood. She was writing down stuff though.

I levitated the book over to me and read the instructions for step three and all other warning and stuff. "The book says that I'll have to let blood drip in until the chicken donut starts making weird movements. Then I cast a spell so that it starts fusing and mutating."

Just as I finished saying that, the chicken donut in the tub started making weird movements, making the blood water slosh around a bit. I said the incantation(bleh) for the spell in my head and cast it onto the tub. The chicken donut in the water stopped moving around and started shaking, making me a bit worried that some water would spill but fortunately, it didnt.

I opened the first-aid kit and pulled out a bandage and some cotton and covered up the wound I made on myself.

"Is it supposed to be doing that?" Twilight asked as she watched the tub shake.

"Yeah, it's gonna do that for like, around eight to twelve hours until it's done mutating. Once that's over, I have a crucible."

Then, it stopped shaking.

"That doesn't look good," Twilight stated the obvious.

"Hmm, let me see why it's doing that." I re-read the step three page in the book and found a bunch of text that was there towards the end. I read it aloud, "Okay so, failures and how to deal with them.

So, first failure, if the flesh stops moving completely then it has died, probably due to errors made during the joining of the five masses, and you have to start over. Second failure, if the flesh is not accepting blood then that means there were too many errors made during the joining and you have to start over. Thrid failure, if the flesh accepts the blood but stops shaking after the spell is cast then that is because there were some non-fatal errors during the joining and the flesh needs additional blood and magic to fix those errors. If that doesn't work, give it a piece of your flesh.

So, that's what I gotta do."

Wordlessly, I removed the bandage, letting more blood fall into the tub. When that did nothing, I started pouring my magic into the rune in the tub, so that the water becomes more magically charged, but that didn't work either. I turned my eyes to the knife I held in my magic.

"You're... you're gonna cut a piece of you," Trixie said as she watched me I brought the knife closer to my wound. "I don't think I want to do these parts of biomancy."

I didn't really care about what she had to say since I was busy with another conversation.

'Voth! I need your help,' I said in my mind, summoning Voth.

"WHAT IS IT?"

'Okay, so, I'm making the crucible for biomancy but I messed up a bit and now I need to cut off a piece of myself. Can you tell me which piece so that I don't accidentally hurt myself too much?'

"YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL," Voth scolded me. "I WILL TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BODY AND MAKE THE CUT AND THEN LEAVE."

My body started moving on its own, or rather, under Voth's commands after he finished saying that. I watched as the knife came close and cut off a small piece of skin (and maybe some of the muscle under it) from my wound. The piece fell into the tub, disappearing into the blood water.

I regained control of my body and immediately became aware of the pain on my wound. However, the flesh in the tub started shaking again, meaning that it was fixed.

I turned to the first-aid kit and found that Trixie was already holding some bandages and cotton and antiseptic liquid.

"I'll help you with that," she said.

"Thanks," I thanked her before turning to Twilight, who looked sick, probably at the sight of my wound. "Just watch the thing, call me if it does something weird."

I held my left foreleg up, so that it was above the heart and wouldn't bleed as much. I walked up the stairs, Trixie following me, and made my ay to the kitchen, where I washed the wound in the sink. All the blood on my foreleg was gone, letting it be white again. Trixie then used some antiseptic and cotton to clean it a bit more before finally wrapping it in bandages.

"That's all good now," Trixie said after finishing wrapping the bandages.

"Thanks for that."

"You should probably go properly dry yourself as well."

"Yeah yeah, I'll do that."

I heard the creaking of stairs and saw that Twilight had come up from the basement and to the kitchen looking rather sick. "I don't think I want to see that ever again."

"You probably won't," I said to her as I opened a cupboard and pulled out a glass. I filled it up with water and offered it to Twilight, who took it and drank from it quickly.

"It's getting late, I'll have to go now, Spike must be waiting for me," she said, looking much better now that she had some water.

"K, Twilight."

She left the kitchen afer saying that. I heard an umbrella being opened and the front door open, followed by the noise of a really bad storm filling the house, followed by the door closing and the noise going away. Twilight came back to the kitchen after that, her mane pretty wet.

"I'm leaving my bags here, by the way. Could you bring them back to me tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Twilight put down her bags next to the kitchen table and left, for real this time. I hoped that she didn't get strck by lightning or something.

"You're going as well?" I asked Trixie.

"I think I might have to stay until the storm has passed," she said, before quickyly adding, "If that's alright with you."

"Sure, you can stay. I'll be right back."

I left the kitchen and made my way downstairs to get the book that had been left behind, limping a little bit on my hurt leg. The flesh in the tub was still shaking, which was great to see. I heard the creaking of the floor above me, probably Trixie going to the living room.

I went back upstairs with the book in my magic and found that Trixie had taken a seat on one of the couches in the living room. I took a seat on the other couch and opened the book to the pages after the crucible instructions.

"Yo, you wanna see the cool stuff I can make after the crucible?" I asked Trixie.

"Sure, I didn't really read those pages when I was copying down the book."

It'd be a great way to spend time as the storm raged on outside.

"Wait up, I'll go get something to drink."

I headed to the kitchen, and put some water to boil, to make fresh chai which would be great in this weather (it was great in all weather). I added all the other ingredients and waited for the water to boil so that I could add the milk.

I was interrupted though when I heard Trixie gasp real loud. "What is that?" I heard her say. I came back to the living room and saw that she had pulled aside the curtains for the back door, and that she was looking at something that was on the other side of the glass. It was big, wet, and furry, like a hairball and it looked pretty weird.

I then spotted wings on it.

"Yo, Trixie, out of the way," I said as I walked over to the backdoor and unlocked it. Trixie saw what I was doing and quickly moved out of the way. I moved the sliding door just enough for me to poke my head out, letting in a lot of rain and wind. I poked my head out and pulled the wet furry thing towards the opening with my magic and once it was inside, I closed the door quickly.

I was soaking wet again and there was a soaking wet Everfree moth on the floor squeaking very loudly.

"Why'd you bring it in?" Trixie asked me, covering her ears as the moth continued squeaking loudly in distress from being caught in the storm. I didn't answer and picked up the moth and took it upstairs to my room.

Once there, I picked up one of the towels I had left on my bed and threw it around the moth, making it finally stop squeaking.

"Heh, you must hate rain," I said to it as I picked up the second towel and started drying myself with it. I couldn't dry myself fully since I needed two towels to do that with my long hair, and the second towel was with the moth.

I picked up the moth in the towel and took it downstairs to the living room, where Trixie was waiting for me.

"Hey Trixie, meet this moth," I said to her as I put the moth on the couch I had been sitting on. "It doesn't have a name and it's greatest achievement was probably scaring Twilight."

I heard the chai water boiling and continued, "I'll be back, just hang out here."

I went back to the kitchen and poured the milk into the boiling water. A few more minutes and it'd be boiling again, meaning it was done. I just had to wait.

I went back to the living room and saw that Trixie and the moth, that probably needed a name, were staring at each other, I think. You couldn't really tell where bugs are looking.

"Does it do something?" Trixie asked me.

"He squeaks, climbs, and flies into your face, that's about it," I answered. "Chai will be ready in a minute."

I went back to the kitchen, and watched as the chai boiled. I turned off the gas once it started rising to the top of the kettle and took out two cups and poured the chai out in them. I put the cups on a tray and took them back to the living room.

The moth had escaped the clutches of the towel and was crawling over to Trixie, who watched it with both interest and alarm. I placed the tray on the table and took a seat next to Trixie, getting in between her and the moth. The moth stopped when it bumped into me.

"Thanks," Trixie said as she picked up one of the cups in her magic. "For the tea and for stopping it. I don't want a wet bug crawling on me."

"No problem," I said. I picked up my own cup and then the book and brought it over to us.

"So, to start, experiment one: making a little meat man."

"That's not what it says."

"K, miss fun police. So, as I was saying, experiment one: making a little meat man."

Author's Note

* homonculus reference, if you remember those videos where the guy made the thing then you'll know what anya's talking about

8sa jL

i'd hug anya maybe, and brush as well, and nemo for sure, and trixie, and luna, and nightmare moon ,and voth, and all the other cool guys yet to appear

~~wish i could draw them :(~~

drew Brush:

Chapter 30: In the Basement of the Biomancer

Author's Note

3rd person pov btw
9s jL

Chapter 30: In the Basement of the Biomancer

Twilight woke up feeling well rested. She got out of bed and looked around her room, seeing that Spike was nowhere to be seen meaning that he was already awake. She stretched a bit before leaving her room.

In the living room, there were pillows and folded up blankets neatly stacked on the sofa, meaning that Rarity and Applejack were awake as well. Yesterday had been something. She had had her first slumber party after Rarity and Applejack had been caught out in the storm and had to take refuge in the library.

There were some arguments, a bit of fighting, but it had turned out well in the end and honestly, it was something she needed after... after watching Anya's... procedure. Twilight felt a bit sick as she remembered the sight of the bloody foreleg and the wound and how casually Anya had inflicted it on herself.

She shook her head to clear those thoughts and went about her morning routine, but it wasn't all good as she felt as if she had forgotten something all through it.

Once she was done, she went downstairs and found Spike, Rarity, and Applejack chatting at the central sitting area.

"Morning Twi," Spike said to her as she came down to sit with them.

"Good morning to all of you. What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothin' much, jus' talking 'bout yesterday an' how Spike shoulda been there. Ain't that right, Rarity?"

"Yes, dear. It would have been quite nice if Spike was there."

"Come on guys, you're gonna make me feel bad about sleeping early!"

"Oh Spike, no need to feel bad because after all, you could join us next time."

Spike looked happy at that idea. Then, his expression shifted to a confused one.

"By the way, where are all those papers and quills you asked me to gather yesterday?"

"..."

"Twi?"

"Oh Faust, thanks for reminding me what I was forgetting!" Twilight said, remembering just what she was forgetting, and making Spike look proud despite him not knowing how he helped. She had to go get her stuff back from Anya's house. And the crucible! She had to see that as well.

"What is it you wer' forgettin', Twilight?" Applejack asked as she got up as well.

"Okay, so, you guys know how I was outside during the storm?"

"Yes, dear, but what has that got to do with it?"

"Well, you see, I had gone over to Anya's house that afternoon before the storm and our slumber party," Twilight began explaining, ignoring the frowns at the mention of Anya. "I had went over because she was doing this really interesting magical procedure and I had to leave my notes on that when coming back because of the storm. I'm going back right now to get those and see how the procedure turned out."

"Oh, can I come?" Spike asked, looking interested.

"Sorry, Spike, but I don't think you can," Twilight answered, remembering how fleshy it was before anything even began. Spike had no business to be exposed to that stuff at his age. Spike, not knowing that, looked disappointed, and that made Twilight a bit sad.

"Spike, perhaps you could head over to the Carousel Boutique and see what Sweetie Belle is doing and maybe join her," Rarity suggested to Spike, giving him something to do. Spike got up and left the library.

"This 'magic procedure' thingy sound pretty excitin'. Mind if Ah came along? Just to see?" Applejack said as she got up as well.

"Oh uhm uh," Twilight hesitated. She knew that Applejack was strongly inclined to do moral good from the time they had spent together, and what Anya was doing wasn't exactly morally good. Plus, to someone who might not have as much knowledge on magic, the stuff would look straight up evil. Twilight herself had some doubts despite knowing that whatever Anya was doing was alright.

"I have not much to do today, so, I suppose I might come along as well. It certainly would be interesting, especially if you found it to be so," Rarity added.

"You guys can come along with me but it depends on Anya on whether or not you guys can see the magic. Additionally, I'll warn you now, it did not look pretty yesterday and I doubt it will look any better today," Twilight answered and warned them.

"Alrighty, Twi." "That's fine, dear." Applejack and Rarity said at the same time, not understanding what Twilight was warning them about. They would understand soon though.

"This is... further into the forest than I expected," Rarity said, looking at the vegetation around the path with some fear. In front of her, Applejack huffed in annoyance while Twilight kept leading them to their destination.

"Rarity, Ah know we had a big ole argumen' an' then apologised and promised not to do that ever, but yer complainin' a mite too much. An' besides, this ain't into the dangerous part of the forest, just a lil' dark than Ponyville is all," Applejack scolded Rarity, covering up her own slight fear.

"I do understand your grievances but you have to understand that I have never gone this close to the forest, bar when Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna came back, and you know of all the stories about the forest," Rarity replied, jumping a bit as a bush rustled in the wind.

"Ah s'pose yer right."

"Come on girls, it isn't that scary, there's plenty of sunlight right now," Twilight interrupted, hoping to stop an argument that she didn't know would not have happened anyway. She was, like them, a bit scared, but the wooded path looked like a walk in the park compared to what it was like yesterday during the storm.

Then, all of a sudden, from behind them came the sound of something hitting the dirt and a "Hey guys, what are you doing?"

The noise startled the three ponies to varying degrees, with Applejack the least affected, and Rarity hiding behin Applejack before she realised that it was just their friend, Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow! Don't do that again, you startled us," said Rarity with a huff.

"K, alright, got that. So, what are you guys doing out here?"

"Nothing much, dear. We were just tagging along with Twilight."

"So, where you guys tagging along to?"

"To Anya's home, Rainbow. Twi left some o' her stuff there and there's somethin' real interesting there as well."

"That loser's place? Why'd you even go there in the first place, Twi?"

"Well, first of all, that's a rude thing to say-"

"She called you a dumb bitch!"

"And we're over that now, Rainbow. You can't just stay angry over something that small for so long; it isn't good for you."

Rainbow harrumphed, unwilling to accept that she may have been too much of a hothead and unjustifiably angry but in her mind, she was right and that mattered quite a lot. Not as much as Twilight telling her to stop, though. Rainbow took a deep breath before replying, "Well, I guess maybe you're right."

"Okay, good. Now, let's keep going; it's not very far."

"So, can I come with you guys? There isn't much to do today."

"Rainbow, look, whether or not you get to see the thing depends on whether or not Anya lets you in. And if she does lets you in, you have to keep in mind that she is doing nothing wrong at all. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, Twi, Understood."

Rainbow then whispered to Applejack, "What's she talking about?"

"Some magic thing that don't look pretty."

The ~~three~~ four ponies moved along the path silently until they came across Anya's house. Despite it being morning and there being plenty of sunlight, the house still looked off-putting, and ugly as well in Rarity's opinion.

"Here we are," Twilight announced as she walked up to the door and knocked.

"At the haunted house of the Everfree," Rainbow added, giving additional context to Rarity and Applejack. Neither of them believed in what Rainbow said because, after all, ghosts were not real except in fiction.

"I wonder if the ghost that haunts this place looks as ugly as the house does," Rarity joked to herself, trying not to look at the brown walls and the darker brown roof. Whoever had the place painted clearly had no eye for detail, or maybe no eye at all.

A strong wind blew when Rarity finished saying that, making the windows of the house rattle which spooked the ponies a bit.

"Looks like your on the bad side of the ghost already," Rainbow said jokingly.

The door opened and standing on the other side was Anya. Her hair was unbraided and unbrushed, she had a look in her eyes that could be described as crazed, and her smile made it seem like she really was. Her leg still had the bandages from the wound she had inflicted on herself yesterday. All that made her look like she were a witch, or a mad scientist, living in the forest and not a normal pony.

"Hey Twinkle Sprinkle, are you here for your stuff, because I forgor about it lol," she said immediately, giggling afterward at some joke that only she understood. Twilight was unhappy that she was referred to by her nickname in front of so many ponies.

"Heh, she called her Twinkle Sprinkle," she heard Rainbow whisper to herself and she knew then that it was over and she would probably never live that down.

"You can come in, hehehe, and take your stuff," she said, again giggling at a joke only she got or even knew was there. She moved aside to let Twilight in.

"Uh thanks Anya but besides getting my stuff, I came here to see how the crucible turned out," Twilight said, making Anya somehow smile more and become visibly excited, things that she never seen Anya do.

"Ooh, you'll love it, come on in!"

"And uh my friends wanted to see it as well, if that's alright with you."

"K, just behave or you'll be put into the meat gwinder," Anya responded, giggling and seeming more like a mad scientist than before. If it weren't for the fact that they worked together, Twilight probably would have been scared, or weirded out. Her friends were understandably not thrilled to hear the threat but didn't say anything since Twilight didn't either.

Except Rainbow.

"Hah, as if you'd do that, or even can do that! I'd like to see you even try to touch me," she said in response to the threat that was really a bad joke, but instead of making Anya mad or anything, like Rainbow hoped, she just made her giggle.

"Hehehe I'll touch you alright," Anya said before she suddenly moved forward to Rainbow, catching her off guard, and pressed her hoof against her nose, making Rainbow's face scrunch up very funnily. "Boop."

"What?" Rainbow said, discombobulated by the sudden boop.

"Boop, boop, boop," Anya declared as she repeatedly booped Rainbow.

"Hey! Stop that!" Rainbow batted away Anya's hoof.

"K, anyway, it's in the basement guys. Just follow me," Anya said to them, walking past the confused ponies with a pep in her step like a really excited filly. The ponies followed her into the house, not noticing the door shut by itself behind them.

"Is she like that all the time?" Rarity asked Twilight.

"No," Twilight answered, still confused about how her normally cheerless boss was so excited.

"Is she on something?"

"Rainbow!"

"What? I'm just asking."

"K, it's down here."

Anya lead them to the basement stairs and went down. The ponies followed. What they saw downstairs looked straight out of a horror film's set, for the ponies at least.

The crucible, which had only been halfway up to its tub's top yesterday was now reaching just a bit over the top, while the water in the tub had seemingly transformed into a weird pink jelly-like fluid. That was secondary, however, to the fact that there was a huge mouth shaped hole on the crucible with half a beak, along with several eyes all around its donut shaped body.

Additionally, there was a big meat worm thing lying on the table, pulsating every now and then, and next to it was a big bowl filled with water and three red blobs. There were some red stains on the floor, primarily around the table and the flesh crafter.

It did not look good at all and in fact, it looked horrible. So horrible that Rarity left instantly. She went back up and ran so that she could get as far as she could from all the disgusting, slimy, fleshy things in the basement. She was too busy trying not to throw up to open the front door but thankfully, it opened to let her out and then closed, all by itself. She didn't care though since she had to get back to her home and do her best to forget what she saw.

Downstairs, the other ponies stared in shock. Twilight was the first to recover and she had a lot of questions.

"What is all this?" she asked, not able to convey her confusion to Anya who was completely unbothered by anything around her. Anya didn't answer immediately and went over to the table and picked up the bowl and brought it back to the three, who had taken up positions around the stairs subconsciously.

"Look at these," Anya said smiling as she brought the bowl close to Twilight, letting her see the red blobs in it. The blobs floated around in the water, not doing much besides wiggling around a bit. "Cute, aren't they?"

"Uh yeah," Twilight answered as she raised a hoof and poked one of the blobs with it. The blob didn't react and continued its wiggling, which felt funny on Twilight's hoof. Another thing that felt funny was how slimy the water was. "What are they? And what is the fluid?"

"So, these cute fellas are uhh something cool that should uh should uhh, actually, it's better if you watch this!"

She ripped off the bandages on her left foreleg, revealing the wound and making it bleed a little. Twilight, who had been mostly undisturbed so far, was now disturbed. Anya didn't care and brought a knife from the table using her magic. She then levitated one of the blobs and held it close to the wound. Then, she cut off a piece of the blob with the knife and put the blob back in the bowl. The piece fell onto her wound and stuck to it.

"Ow ow ow ow it burns," Anya said as the piece of the blob on her wound started changing shape, and then seemingly fused with Anya, covering the wound and repairing it. Then the repaired skin grew some white fur on it and it was as if Anya had never even hurt herself.

"Ta daa, organic bandage thingy that insta-heals small wounds! Cool, right?"

Twilight just looked on with wide eyes. Then, Applejack recovered from her shock.

"What da hay?" she asked. "Is this all dark magic?"

"No, it's biomancy magic!"

"Twilight, could you come with me? I have to talk to you," Rainbow said, her shock slowly becoming distress.

"Not now, Rainbow," Twilight said as she watched Anya put the bowl and the knife back onto the table. "Anya, did you... make this stuff by following the book's examples?"

"No, I made only two things by following the book: the crucible and the nutrient paste maker."

"The what?"

"The nutrient paste maker!" Anya repeated, pointing to the big flesh worm on the table. Twilight walked to the table, leaving the safety of her friends. When she got closer, she realised that the thing had a mouth on one end and it was closed at the moment. Anya took the moment to continue explaining with excitement, "It's super important because the crucible can't actually ingest normal food to get itself organic matter. So, I have to make this thing which converts whatever I feed it to the nutrient paste that the crucible can use. That was what you dipped your hoof into earlier when you poked the organic bandage."

"Why are you making these disgusting things?!" Rainbow asked, interrupting Twilight and Anya's conversation.

"Well, I want to. Plus, they're very nice."

"How many of these have you made?!" Rainbow asked, her distress growing.

"There's the crucible, the paste maker, and the three organic bandages. So, that five for now," Anya answered, still ignoring Rainbow's distress.

"This- I can't handle this. You're a freak, Anya."

Rainbow left as well, not out of disgust at the sight of the fleshy things but rather, disgust at the kind of things Anya was doing, and fear of what she could do. Rainbow had heard far too many tales of good ponies who had done dark magic and subsequently, turned to evil and as far as she cared, Anya would be one of them. She had to do something.

Down in the basement, Anya had lost a lot of her excitement and giddiness and looked quite tired and a bit sad now that two ponies had run away at the sight of her 'fun little' experiment. Applejack noticed the change in mood, and was going to say something to make her feel, only for Anya to shake her head a bit and whisper to herself, "Oh well, she's a hater 'cuz I'm winning."

Anya wasn't convinced of her own words.

"Anya, I apologise for Rainbow's behaviour. I knew that I shouldn't have let her come with me," Twilight said to Anya, trying to make her feel better.

"It's alright, this stuff looks bad and disgusting," Anya replied, clearly sad. "Sorry, I got really excited over this stupid thing."

"Look, sugarcube, Ah might think that this stuff is... weird but it definitely don't look stupid to me. Rainbow... she's just real hotheaded and thinks in black-n-white a lot," Applejack said, but Anya didn't look any bit better.

"She's right. None of this stuff is stupid. In fact, I think that those organic bandages you made are pretty interesting. Could you tell me more about them?"

"Okay," Anya answered, looking slightly better now.

When Twilight returned to the library, she did with all her notes she had taken yesterday, and more that she had taken today. The crucible and the paste maker were fascinating, but not as much as the organic bandages that Anya had explained her all about.

It was pretty interesting and she was thinking of writing to one of her friends in Canterlot about it. That'd have to wait though, since Rainbow was there, waiting for her.

"Oh, hey Rainbow."

"Okay, Twi. I'll get straight to the point. You gotta warn the princesses or something."

"Warn them about what? Is this about Anya's biomancy?"

"Yeah! You saw those things just like I did and you have to admit that those things are dark magic!"

"Rainbow, those things AREN'T dark magic!"

"Well, how do you know that?!"

Twilight stared at Rainbow, completely bewildered. Rainbow stared back until she realised just who she was talking to.

"Well, uh, you still gotta warn her or something! Like, what if Anya just decides to make something to make it go on a rampage across town?"

"Rainbow, listen to yourself! You're saying that someone who literally works at a library is going to... Rainbow, is something wrong?"

Rainbow looked away, avoiding eye contact, and avoiding talking about what was wrong. But that wouldn't be right, leaving a friend in the dark.

"Look, I just had some bad experiences with the whole dark magic, that's all. I don't want anyone else to go through trouble if I have something to do about it."

Rainbow tried hard to not remember her encounter with a student of the dark arts, and how close she was to getting hurt, and how close others were to not getting hurt.

Twilight came up behind Rainbow and put a hoof on her shoulder.

"...I understand, I guess, but I can assure you that Anya won't be doing anything bad with her magic."

Rainbow wasn't fully convinced. She could hope that Twilight was right.

Chapter 31: ...

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

Chapter 32: Ticket Troubles

The week had passed by in a blur. I'd wake up not feeling well rested, forget breakfast, go to work, work quietly, go home, have dinner, and then go to sleep using Voth's spell. He had told me that the spell would give me nightmares but I didn't care at the time and used it. Now, I was having nightmares every night instead of half the nights, and I think it showed on my face.

Or maybe I was just becoming normal again. While it might have been sad that my old world was gone, Voth had made sure I wouldn't care about it. Going to this new world where I have magic, a house, and a decent job had made me happier than I normally was, but now it seemed that I was getting used to it and slowly going back to being dull like I always was.

Whatever the case, I was not having a great time.

I did put on a neutral face, mostly since I had work. I'm pretty sure that there were some subtle body language things, or maybe just my vibe, that told people I was not in the greatest mood, but since no one pointed it out, I felt that I was doing alright.

Currently, I was just playing around with the library computer, writing random lines of code and seeing as the computer started making take-off noises before giving me outputs. The code was vaguely similar to some coding language I had used in the past but couldn't remember the name of. It had been quite a while since I actually used a computer for reasons other than consuming brainrot so I was getting quite a few errors with my code, and eventually, I was bored of the error messages.

I looked over at the clock and saw that it was about closing time, just five more minutes. I got off my chair and walked over to the sight area to go tell whoever was still there that they'll have to go soon.

"Hey hey people, five minutes till closing time," I announced to the four ponies still there. They made some skins of acknowledgment, letting me go back to my desk.

They left within two or three minutes, and I started closing of the library for the weekend. The computer was turned off, books were put back, and I was ready to leave.

The door slammed open and in came Twilight with Spike on her back, both of them looking panicked. She slammed the door shut behind her and put down Spike on the floor before running upstairs. She yelled as she went up, "Don't let anyone in!"

I didn't really know why she was panicking but I didn't question her order. Spike has beat me to it though as he quickly locked the door.

"Why are you guys panicking?" I asked Spike as I walked over to him. Then I noticed that his right hand was hurt and he was holding something golden in his left hand. Spike quickly hid whatever he was holding behind him and gave me a nervous smile.

"H- hey Anya, we were ju-" he tried saying only to be cut off by rapid knocking on the door. We were silent for a moment until knocking came back, louder and harder than before.

"Who the hell is chasing you guys?" I asked Spike as I backed away from the door a bit.

"Twilight's friends, and a bunch of other ponies maybe," Spike answered, following my example of backing away from the door.

"Why?"

"Umm," he hesitated for a bit before sighing and showing me what he held in his left hand. It was two golden coloured tickets. "It's tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala."

"Tickets to the big nobility party? They're chasing you for these?" I said, just looking at the tickets shine a bit. I remembered reading since newspapers that would mention the gala and what some noble did there but that wasn't really important right now. "Is your hand fine?"

He held up his right hand for me to see, and it didn't look really great. There was dried blood on it, some not yet dried blood, and quite a lot of broken scales.

I was going to ask him how his hand got hurt like that but Twilight came downstairs. She said, "Spike come upstairs, we have to clean that before bandaging it. Anya, you ju-"

She froze all of a sudden for some reason when she saw me and Spike.

"What is it, Twilight?" I asked her.

"Spike, did she see the-"

"Yes," Spike answered, not looking Twilight in the eye.

"Guys, what are you talking about?" I asked, confused about whatever they were talking about so cryptically.

"The tickets," Spike answered.

"What's so special about them? They're just some nobility party entry passes," I said, hoping that the whole issue didn't actually stem from the tickets.

Twilight was relieved to hear me say that, making her a bit less stressed. "I'll give you the short version right now. I was out with Spike when I got a letter from princess Celestia with these tickets inside. Now, my friends are trying to get me to give them the ticket but I can't decide who I should give the second ticket, or rather, both the tickets to."

She finished her explanation with her ears drooping at the dilemma of who to give the tickets to. "Come on Spike, we should get your hand bandaged. Then I can worry about this.

Anya, I know that you're work is over but could you just make sure that no one comes in."

"No problem."

She and Spike went upstairs, leaving me alone. I was no longer sad as I was earlier. I might not have necessarily liked her much, but seeing Twilight that sad over something that seemed so small was just bad. She was a nice person and she shouldn't have to go through such problems like her friends trying to make her give them a ticket.

A rapid knocking came from the door.

"Hey Twilight! Open the door!" I heard Rainbow call out from outside. Something about how she said it just made me a bit angry.

I unlocked the door and opened it just a bit, ready to shut it if someone tried forcing their way in. Outside, I saw all five of Twilight's friends standing at the door, all of them looking eager or impatient, except Applejack who seemed guilty for some reason.

"Anya, move out of the way," Rainbow ordered me, her face going from impatient to frustrated.

"State your business," I replied flatly.

"I don't need to explain myself to a dark magic user," she answered obnoxiously. I tensed up as she took a step to the door.

"Okay. As head librarian, and not dark wizard, state your business," I repeated, reminding her of my position.

"Rainbow dear, could you move aside?" Rarity said, as she not very discreetly pushed Rainbow so that she could stand in front of the door instead. "I'm here to talk to Twilight. She promised me that she'll be giving me the ticket to the Gala."

"No she didn't! She's clearly going to give it to me because of the super duper cool and awesome party I threw her!" Pinkie interrupted with a frown on her face.

"No offense but she's giving it to her most awesome friend!" Rainbow argued. The three then started bickering like little kids, which was very annoying and slightly aggravating when all three of the had really squeaky and annoying voices.

"Hey, Anya, could Ah come in?" Applejack asked as she walked up to the door quietly.

"What for?" I asked roughly, expecting her to try sneaking in while the others were distracted.

"Ah've gotta apologise ta Spike fo' hurtin' him," she explained, lowering her head to look at the ground with guilt in her eyes.

"You'll have to wait," I said, my voice not as rough as before. Applejack nodded and stepped away from the door. Then, Fluttershy came up to the door.

"Can I come in?" she asked in a sickly-sweet voice. She even did puppy eyes.

"No," I answered plainly, not affected by such things.

"Please?"

"No. Go away, Twilight is busy right now."

I started closing the door having seen enough of the five but Rarity noticed that.

"Why are YOU allowed inside but not us?" she asked loudly, directing the other two's attention to me.

"Because I work here."

Rarity sputtered a bit at my completely reasonable answer. Then Pinkie spoke up, "Or are you trying to get the ticket for YOURSELF?"

"I don't want a ticket to some over-glorified nobles only tea party," I replied harshly, shutting down her suspicions.

"Yeah, as if we'll believe you, witch!" Rainbow said angrily.

"Anya, what are you doing?" I heard Twilight ask from behind me. I was going to answer her but clearly, the five had heard her. I had turned my head back to answer but then the door was suddenly being opened. I pushed back hard immediately at the three trying to force their way in, and managed to close the door.

"Seeing your friends. They're a bunch of bitc- losers, at least those three that just tried breaking in," I answered as someone started knocking on the door and Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie started calling out for Twilight. Ignoring them the best I could, I continued, "Applejack came to apologise to Spike though."

Twilight looked disappointed and sad when I told her how her friends were behaving. Spike came downstairs, his hand bandaged now. "Are they still there?" he asked.

"Yep," I answered. "Twilight, you want me to get them to get los- I mean, go away?"

"What? No, I have to do something to make them all happy; I'm their friend after all," she said, sitting down and thinking about how he'll go about the impossible task.

"Yeah, no, there's no way you can do that," I said stating the obvious, making Twilight more discouraged. I didn't like doing that at all, but Twilight would be wasting more time if she just tried figuring out what to do.

"Okay... could you let them in?" she said after some moments of deliberation.

"...Alright." I didn't think that she was doing the right thing but then, she knew what was best for her.

I opened the door, letting me see the five waiting outside, and glare at three of them. They saw that the door opened and immediately started making their way in, making me step aside. They gathered around Twilight who was still sitting on the floor and looking down at her hooves. Applejack didn't join them and went over to Spike and started quietly whispering to him.

"Thanks for letting us in Twi, I bet you're gonna give the ticket to me," Rainbow said to Twilight, so oblivious of how bad Twilight was feeling that it made me want to start shouting at her.

"Don't listen to her dear, I KNOW you're giving it to me," Rarity said, just as oblivious as Rainbow was.

"No, she's giving it to me so that I can go to the biggest party ever!"

"Umm, I just want to see the castle garden."

It was real hard to not just start shouting at them with how fucking dumb all of them were being, but ultimately, it was Twilight who had to do something.

"I know that the ticket is important to all of you," Twilight began, looking up at each of them. "But I can't give you all a ticket.

So, I'm going to send these tickets back."

That answer surprised everyone, me included, but not for the same reasons. The four immediately started blabbering about how Twilight shouldn't send the tickets back, while I was silently fuming about how Twilight didn't call them out about how they were treating her but I guessed that would come afterwards. However, if she didn't say anything about that then I probably would. I walked over to my desk where Spike and Applejack were watching the whole thing unfold.

"I've made my decision and it's final! I'm not going to let even one of my friends miss out," Twilight declared, shutting down all four of the blabbering ponies. The logic might have been shaky but no one questioned it. "Spike, take a letter!"

Spike, whose good hand was bandaged, could not in fact take a letter. He panicked for a bit as Twilight teleported a scroll and quill to him, seemingly forgetting he was hurt. I caught them in my magic for him. He looked up to me and whispered, "Could you help me out? I'll owe you one."

I would have said something to Twilight but she was already reading out what Spike was supposed to write, "Dear Princess Celestia..."

I scribbled down her letter where her message boiled down to "If my friends aren't having fun when I can, I won't have fun either". It was an admirable stance but despite that, no one was happy about it. Twilight was sad, probably about not getting to go to the gala, while her friends were sad, most likely because they couldn't go either.

Seeing all the sadness made me make a decision. I added to the letter,
"p.s. hi princess, ~~you~~ could you send some tickets for all these guys, they're all very sad. Also, very ~~unintelligent~~ bad move sending 2 ~~letter~~ tickets only even though Twiggles has 5 friends. She became very stressed about who she was going to give the tickets to.

-Anya"

The addition was unnecessary, yes, and I felt nervous about it but I thought it would help these guys, even if I didn't like some of them.

I handed the letter to Spike while Twilight levitated the two tickets that had caused the entire problem over to Spike. Spike took the tickets and put them on the paper and put the paper onto the table to roll it up. Once it was rolled up, he held it in front of his mouth and blew fire on it. I questioned the act but realised that it was probably some teleportation magic.

Now that the whole thing was over, I could leave. But not yet.

"K, that's all over, so," I began, getting everyone's attention. I wanted to shout at Twilight's friends but didn't since that wouldn't be great. "Twilight, I think you should talk to your friends about how they behaved and made you stressed over a ticket."

"What gives you the right to tell her what do?" Rainbow said immediately, making me regret not shouting.

"I am giving a suggestion, whether Twilight acts on it is her call," I answered, my voice making it clear that I had little patience.

"Well, keep your mouth shut, no one wants your opinion," Rainbow replied immediately. I considered calling her every slur I knew, but since Spike was there, I didn't and decided to just remain quiet. Somehow, that aggravated her more. "What? You think you're too good to speak to me."

"A monkey might fling its poop at you but that doesn't mean you should do the same," I said, trying to sound as wise as I could despite my anger. Rainbow didn't understand by the looks of her face but whatever, she could die for all I care. "Anyway, I'm goi-"

Spike belched fire all of a sudden and from the fire fell a rolled up scroll. Twilight caught it in her and opened it, making seven gala tickets fall out. She was astonished by that but forced herself to read the letter. "My Faithful Student Twiggles, I have realised the error I had made earlier this day and wish to apologise for any stress it caused you. I have put seven tickets for you, your friends, and Spike to attend the Gala. Your teacher, Celestia."

She levitated the letter to Spike, not registering the fact that the princess had called her Twiggles, and looked at the seven tickets on the ground with unmatched joy, as if she wasn't miserable some time back, and announced to her friends, "We're all going to the Gala!"

"Oh wait, there's more here," Spike said as he read over the letter and found some other stuff written in there. I felt a bit nervous since I guessed it probably had to do with my addition to the letter. No one seemed to care enough to listen to him read it aloud except me. "P.S. Spike, if you're hurt then I hope you get better soon. Also tell Anya that I send her my thanks for pointing out my error, and that I'll be using the nickname she has given to Twilight."

I was slightly relieved that it was nothing important. However, Twilight, who had been busy celebrating with her friends — the same ones who were literally just hounding her a few minutes ago and making her stressed and sad — stopped celebrating, and looked confused. "Wait, Spike, if your hand is hurt then how did you write the letter?"

"I asked Anya to write it for me. I thought you might have noticed that when the princess referred to you as Twiggles," Spike answered with a shrug.

"She called me what?!" Twilight said, levitating the letter to her and rereading it.

I took that as my cue to leave, wisely so since the second I left the library, I heard a very loud 'Not again!' from in there. Whatever was happening in there wasn't my problem anymore, and so, I headed home to get some dinner and hopefully some proper sleep.

Author's Note

15 sa jL

did a show episode, i think this my 4th show episode thing, which is a lot less than what I expected. Anyway, Anya is not yet over flesh craft (the abominable glass holder will be here) and I think Brush is gonna be real surprised soon

Chapter 33: Two friends talk in the rain

Brush's morning had gone pretty good so far. She had come back from Canterlot yesterday night, woken up well rested today at sunsrise, had a filling breakfast, and then checked her mail to find a cheque for a portrait she had made and sold some time back. As much as she disliked making portraits of nobility and the such, she had to admit the money she would get was good.

However, today was sunday and she wouldn't be doing any work today. Instead, she would go out and just relax and maybe meet her friends. Well, friends wouldn't be accurate since she had only one friend, and now that she remembered her, she realised that Anya must have been questioning where she had gone for the past few days since she also had only one friend.

'I should probably go over and see what she's doing' Brush thought as she put down the book she had been reading and went to go brush her mane.

My morning had gone pretty good so far. I had woken up at three in the morning from a nightmare I didn't remember fully, and then had a breakfast consisting of two toasts and a can of energy drink. It might sound bad at first but then, you see, the nightmare I had had given me some ideas of what I could do today. More on that in a bit.

I had gone down to the basement where the crucible was making more squelching noises than it normally does, meaning that I should feed it. For that, I levitated the paste maker over and made it open its mouth so that I could empty the contents of the paste maker into the crucible's mouth, like some bird feeding its kid digested slop.

Once I was done feeding the crucible, it went back to making its usual noises, and I got to work. First order of business, I had to find a bug, preferably recently dead and also a spider. Why? Well, the crucible could make creatures for me but it was limited in what it could make. To put it simply, the crucible could make anything so long as it had the genetic material of said thing, or if its owner, I, knew how to make it make the thing using what genetic material it already had. Unfortunately, it currently had pony and chicken stuff only, and I didn't know how to make spider legs out of that, meaning I had to go and fuse a spider into it.

Finding a spider would be simple enough; I could go to my attic, or my backyard if I didn't have any luck in the attic. However, the next step would be hard since it involved me having to use my magic on the crucible to sort all the genetic stuff and that was hard with how much stuff there was. Making the organic bandages alone had taken me a couple of hours and they were rather simple compared to what I wanted to make.

So, what did I want to make? Well, from my nightmare, I had remembered among other things, that there was a spider servant thing and I felt that would be something I could make right now. It wouldn't be simple since it would have to be able to do simple tasks only when I asked it to and do them intelligently as well, and so far, I know basically nothing about those two, but I'll figure it out as I did it, just like with the organic bandages.

So, first things first. I needed a spider. I left the basement (leaving the lights on in there since the crucible didn't seem to like the dark all that much, I think) and made my way upstairs to the hall where the bookshelf was. On the ceiling in front of it was the entrance to the attic. I pulled it open, making a ladder come down, and went up. In the attic, it was dark and somewhat dusty but no so much so that I couldn't handle it. I turned on the one light that was in there and started looking around in the corners for a spider.

A few minutes of searching later, I had found nothing, not even a web, which sucked. I left the attic and went downstairs to the backyard. Outside, it was blue and cool since the sun was going to start rising in like, one hour I think. I looked around the garden in whatever spots I could think of a spider hiding in, and I found one eventually. It was a tiny brown thing with long legs, hiding in some grass. I crushed it with my magic, killing it, and picked it up and rushed down to my basement.

I dropped the dead spider into the crucible's middle and gave it the command to start fusing the spider. It would take some time though until that was done, meaning I had to wait, which was alright. I left the basement as the crucible started doing its thing, and went to the living room to lie down on the couch and rest for a few minutes. Laying down on the couch was pretty great, especially since I still felt tired. I closed my eyes for a little bit...

I woke up to knocking. I looked around and saw that I was curled up on the couch after falling asleep it. My vision was blurry despite having my glasses on but I could tell that it was a lot more brighter outside. How long had I 'closed my eyes for a bit' for?

The knocking came again and I got off the couch and walked over to the door, trying not to stumble or yawn as I did. I opened it and saw Brush was standing outside. In classic Brush fashion, she hugged me in greeting, and I hugged her back, a lot more awake now.

"Good morning sleepy head," she said to me, not suppressing a giggle. I thought about what must have given away the fact I had just woken up and realised that it was probably my face.

"Hey hey my little kitten," I replied, giving her a nickname that made her giggle more. "What're you doing here?"

She pulled away from the hug and answered, "Just dropped by to visit and see if you want to hang out."

"Hmmm," I thought. I didn't have anything going o- no, wait, I had the crucible thing going on. "Come in and just wait for a minute, I'll be back in a moment."

She came in and went to the living room, while I headed downstairs to check on the crucible. The crucible was making a lot of organic noises meaning that it was still doing its thing. I figured that I could go hang out with Brush.

I went back up and to the living room. "Yeah, we can go hang out. you have an idea of where we'll go?"

Brush didn't answer immediately though, and was instead looking at something on the table. I walked over and saw that it was the picture I had drawn that one sunday. Hadn't I put it in the basement? Or did I bring it up here accidentally?

"I didn't know you could draw that well," Brush complimented me as she looked at the thing.

"There's a lot of mistakes in that," I said as I sat down next to her.

"I think it's nice regardless," she replied as she looked over at me. "So, are you going to go out like that? I mean, you do look extra fluffy with your hair like that."

I looked at her confused before looking myself over and realising that I look like I had just come out the dryer. "Man, this will take time to fix."

"Y'know, I could help you with that, if you want," Brush offered, making me look up at her. I wanted to ask her about how she was alright with that but decided not to since I think I would actually need help. Do ponies trim their fur? Actually, forget that question, with how much more hair, and subsequently place to fuck me up I had, I'm pretty sure going to a barber will get me a cut that'll actually make me cry.

"So, Brush brushing my hair?" I said instead figuring that she wasn't serious. "Sounds aight."

"Heh, that's funny."

I went and brought the one hairbrush I owned with me just in case she was serious. "I have only one hairbrush."

"So, do you want me to do it or not?"

"I don't know; I've never had someone else brush my hair."

When I finished saying that sentence, Brush looked at me as if I had commited a serious social faux-pas, which made me a bit nervous.

"No one? Not even your mother?"

"No."

She looked at me with pity in her eyes when I have her that answer. "Did she not care for you?"

That question brought back bad memories, both pony and human, and they made me frown and answer, "No."

She was going to ask me another question, probably something about my past, but I was faster than her ay changed the topic, "So, you said you were gonna brush my hair."

Brush seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about that stuff and didn't push it. "Uh yeah, just come over here and sit down."

I did as she said, taking a seat next to her and giving her the hairbrush, all while trying to get into a better mood, because after all, it had been around six years since I had met my family in both human and pony worlds and I can't just let their memory ruin my day after all that time.

Behind me, Brush started brushing my mane. I tensed up a bit but then relaxed immediately as she ran the hairbrush through my hair. Normally, when I would brush my hair, I'd just try to get it over with as quickly as I could, while Brush was going slow and nice.

"Feels great, right?" She asked after a minute or so, to which I nodded, my troubles mostly forgotten now. "I wonder if..."

I tried looking back at her to see what she was wondering but stopped when I felt an absolutely divine feeling. I didn't recognise it at first but found that I was being scratched behind my left ear. I leaned back into Brush as she kept scratching that spot behind my ear.

"Huh, you really like that," she said as she stopped, making me whine a bit. I was going to ask her to keep going but stopped, realising how embarrassing that would be. I think I blushed a little as well but Brush didn't comment on that and returned to doing my hair while I secretly wished that she would scratch that spot again.

"So, what did you go to check?" Brush asked, making me freeze for a second. I could just be straightforward and tell her that I am in fact a biomancer and that I was checking up on my equipment, but the memory of Rainbow calling me a freak and Rarity running away came back to me and put a question in my head. What if Brush doesn't like it as well?

I could lie, or deflect the question since I didn't want to lose the one friend I had, but it wouldn't do me any good to lie because I've learned over the years that it's better to just tell the truth and be done with it. I carefully considered what I would say, and finally answered, "Do you know about biomancy?"

"I don't believe I've heard about that. What is it?" she said with no negative reaction, yet.

"Basically, it's using magic to make creatures that do things," I answered giving the explanation I knew. "I had went to check on the stuff I use for that."

Now, I just hoped that she would leave it at that.

"Sounds interesting, do you think I could see?"

"..." I remained silent, thinking how exactly I'd answer that question without looking like I'm being weird.

"If that's alright with you?" Brush added at my silence.

"Look, if you want to see it, I will let you, but not right now. However, when you do get to see it, I'll warn you now, it will not look pretty at all. In fact, it will look unnerving and somewhat disgusting at best. Do you understand?" I said as seriously as I could.

"Y- yes."

"Okay, good," I said, really hoping that she won't become hostile to me when she sees that stuff. She resumed brushing my hair and soon enough, we were again having a great time.

After Brush was done, I had offered to make something to eat. Brush had accepted, and I had put some rice and daal to cook in pressure cookers. It would take about an hour for it to cook though, and during that time, Brush asked me, "So, can I see the magic stuff?"

We were in the living room, a cup of chai with each of us, and I almost dropped mine when she asked that. Thankfully, the only thing that happened was my heart rate increasing and me becoming nervous. I had told her that I'd let her see it but now I was wishing I had not.

"Umm, okay," I said, trying not to sound nervous. I put down my cup on the table and got off the couch. "This way."

Brush put down her cup as well and got off the couch. "Hey, are you feeling alright?"

"Yep," I replied with fake cheer. "Let's go."

Brush was probably gonna say something about my nervousness but I was already walking down the hall to the basement door. She followed me, the floor creaking at each step she took. I opened the door and held it open for her. "Down here."

She looked at me questioningly but didn't say anything and went down the stairs. I steeled myself for any averse reaction and went down a few seconds after her.

Downstairs, Brush was looking at the 'equipment' with wide eyes. The crucible making all its squelching noises did not help at all.

"Here it is," I said, trying to sound happy, as if the stuff was normal to have.

"Ummm," Brush said, glancing at me, probably questioning her choice of friends. She then opened her mouth to speak and I braced myself for the expression of disgust.

"This looks a lot less... intense than what I though."

I was thrown off by her complaint about the stuff not being as intense as she thought. "What?" I asked, hoping that I heard it right.

"Yeah, I thought it would look more icky, especially with how you described it earlier."

"You- you aren't disgusted? Or scared?"

"Not really. It all just looks weird."

I was relieved to hear that. All the tension in my mind was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's the problem?" Brush asked, taking her attention off of the biomancy stuff and directing it to me.

"Nothing, I just... I just had some assumptions," I answered.

"You thought I would be scared if I saw this?" she continued, putting her paw on my shoulder.

"I thought you would react a lot more... negatively."

"Why? Did someone say something about this?"

"Mhm, showed it to some people a week back. One of them ran off immediately while another called me a freak and has been calling me an evil witch ever since," I explained, my head lowering as I remembered all the times Rainbow had seen me and called me a witch. As much as I wished that I could ignore other people's words, I couldn't, and all the times in the past week Rainbow had pointed at me and called me some name were weighing down on me.

"What?! That's horrible!"

Brush pulled me into a hug seeing that I wasn't in a great mood and said, "You aren't evil, Anya. You're probably the nicest pony I've met."

I didn't know whether I should correct her on that since I knew that I wasn't a nice person, or if I should just keep quiet.

I ended up staying quiet and appreciated my friend and how much she cares about me. She pulled away from the hug eventually and asked, "So, what exactly do these things do?"

My mood became better at her changing the subject, and I answered, "So, the big tub thing is the crucible and it grows whatever I make it to. That worm thing next to it is the paste maker. It makes nutrient paste for the crucible since it can't eat normal food."

"They... eat?"

"Yeah, they're living things and they need to eat to survive, just not as much as we need to."

"Are they doing anything right now?"

"The crucible is absorbing a spider so that it can make creatures with the characteristics of a spider. It isn't done y-", the whistle of a pressure cooker came from upstairs, "-yet, and I can't use it till then. Why don't we let it do its thing and go and eat?"

"Okay," she said, taking one last look at the fleshy stuff before following me upstairs. "You said that you can grow creatures with those things. Have you made anything?"

"One thing so far. I call it the organic bandage."

"How does that work?"

We walked into the kitchen, where I started making the tadka for the daal. "Basically, there this creature that has a very good regenerative ability. You cut off a piece of it, which it doesn't mind, and put that piece on some particularly deep cut or something similar to heal it VERY quickly. The creature's piece will react to the blood on the wound and start repairing it, dissolving itself in the process to get material quickly while also generating a lot of heat, which I think kills any potential infections but I'm not sure about that."

"That sounds complex. How did you manage to make it do that?"

"Got lucky."

"Lucky?"

"Yep, no real skill or anything; just pure luck."

"It can't be just pure luck; you probably have some degree from Canterlot Magical University and just don't mention it."

"My only qualifications are that I passed high-school."

Brush was stumped upon learning that 'fun fact' about me. I finished the tadka and put it into the pressure cooker with the daal, making sure to cover the top with the lid so that I don't get boiling oil onto me. Once it had stopped making sizzling noises I removed the lid and stirred the daal around to evenly mix the tadka.

"You only passed high-school? And didn't go to college? How did you do it?"

I figured that she believed that college was important to keeping a successful life and to her credit, she was right; college was important to living a successful life, but, it wasn't the only way of doing so.

"Barely," I answered, not really wanting to elaborate on the past six years of my life in both the pony and the human world, not right now at least.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked. I think I might just tell her, but not right now.

"I'll tell your after food," I said, opening a cupboard and pulling out two large bowls. I opened a drawer and took out two spoons and put one in each bowl. I put a generous serving of rice and daal in each and levitated it over to the kitchen table and put them at opposite seats.

Brush took a seat at the table and I took the other. She looked down at the bowl and shook her head a bit before saying, "So, what is this dish called?"

"Chawal daal," I answered as I started mixing the rice and daal. Brush followed my example and when she was done mixing, she ate a spoonful.

"This is a bit salty for my taste, but it is pretty good," she complimented. It also started eating, the familiar taste of chawal daal back in my mouth. We ate in silence for a while.

A low rumble from outside interrupted us. I looked at the window and saw that the sky was gray outside, and asked, "They planned rain for today?"

"I don't think so."

No sooner, the first drops of rain hit the kitchen window, and in a minute, it was raining. Brush commented, "Do you happen to have an umbrella?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it though; rain should probably be over in an hour or two."

We continued eating in silence, only the sound of the worsening rain to accompany us. I finished first and got up to get two glasses of water.

"I think that if we ever have lunch or anything like that, you should host it because your cooking is great," Brush said from behind me after finishing her own bowl.

"Thanks," I said, passing her a glass of wate- There was a loud bang from somewhere close by and the lights went out. Had I turned on the lights? I don't remember doing that but it might have been muscle memory.

Whatever, what matters is that all the lights had gone out after that lightning strike, and with how dark the sky was, it was pretty dark in my house. The sudden change in brightness was not something I could adapt to immediately, and so, I cast a horn light spel- no, wait, I can make balls of magical light appear. I cast the magic light spell, which provided light in all directions instead of just one direction like the horn light.

In the pale green light, I saw that Brush was standing there with her fur standing on its end and a glass on the floor. Fortunately, the glass was a metal one so I didn't have to deal with broken glass on the floor in the little light I had.

"What in tartarus was that?" Brush asked, pretty spooked by the lightning strike.

"Lightning. It cut the power, I think," I said as I tried the light switches. "Don't think that was planned. Anyway, you can head on over to the living room while I get this water cleaned up. Do you need a light?"

"No, I can see fine in the dark," she said as she stepped past me and went to the living room, reminding me that she had cat eyes and therefore, better night vision. I went to the laundry room where I kept my mop and brought it over to the kitchen. I picked up the glass and put it in the sink and then mopped the water. Once that was done, I went to join Brush in the living room.

There, she was sitting on the couch looking out the window at the worsening rain. "Is it me or did it just get a lot colder?"

I paused for a bit, and indeed, it was a bit colder. "Yeah, it's colder."

There was a thump at the backdoor, startling both of us. Immediately followed by the thump was another lightning strike, probably just as close as the last one, and that startled us a lot more. Still, I kept calm and went over to the backdoor to check what had collided with it. I pulled back the curtain and saw THE moth on the deck. The rain wasn't all that strong yet, and so, when I opened the door and brought the bug inside, there wasn't much water on the floor to be cleaned. What I did have though was a slightly wet bug.

I brought it over to the couch and put it next to Brush while I went to go get the mop. "Moth's here."

"It's the same moth?"

"Same one."

I brought the mop and cleaned the floor in front of the backdoor while Brush watched the moth. Once I was done with the mopping, I put it back in the laundry room and returned to the living room.

I sat down next to Brush, who held the moth in her hooves, and we were quiet for a moment with only the sound of rain on glass accompanying us.

"So..." Brush began, hesitating a bit before continuing,"You said that you were going to tell me about..."

"Yeah, that," I replied, bring reminded that I was going to tell her about why I only have a high-school diploma. My mood worsened upon remembering the day I graduated and what happened when I returned home.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Brush added, probably after seeing my expression.

"I'm just thinking how I'll say this," I said, trying to structure my story in a way that didn't make it seem as bad as it was since I don't want Brush to be worried or feel sad about me. I finally said after thinking long enough and not finding any way to make it not as bad, "So, about six years back, I graduated from high-school. Okay?"

"Mhm."

"Then, later that day I got kicked out."

"What?"

"I was kicked out by my family since I was legally an adult and they could do that. Because of that, I had problems that made it so that I couldn't go for any higher education."

The memory still hurt after all these years but it stung even more right now since I had two different memories of it. When I was a human, it was quick and bad but for the pony memories, it was worse. In my old world, I was male when it happened and so, I had less to worry about, but the pony me had been turned female at the age of sixteen, and getting kicked out at eighteen was a lot harder on her for obvious reasons.

Brush looked horrified at that information. "Why did they do that?"

"It's called being a fucking disappointment and I can assure you that they were naturally skilled at it," I answered, my voice very bitter and clashing with the 'joke' I made.

"You had somewhere to go, right?"

I looked down at my hooves with a frown, remembering those first few days of wandering the streets when I still hadn't come to terms with my situation fully and foolishly tried getting help. The only sound as I remembered was that of the rain and that of my silence, and that silence gave Brush her answer.

"I- I'm sorry about asking that," she said, looking guilty about making me remember.

"There's no need to be sorry."

We sat in silence for a minute, only the sound of rain there for us. Brush looked sad and deep in thought, prompting me to ask her, "What are you thinking?"

"How I've complained about my life almost all the times we've met when you've gone through so much worse," she said as she looked down at her paws looking downcast.

"Hmm, Brush, answer this question for me," I said, feeling bad that I made her struggles seem like nothing and subsequently making her feel like crap. Brush looked up, letting me contiune, "Imagine this: there are two people. One has all their limbs broken and the other has no limbs. Does seeing the guy with no limbs fix the other guy's limbs?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Then tell me why knowing that I had it worse make your problems go away."

Brush opened her mouth to say something in response but she came up with nothing and just looked sad instead. I just hoped that she understood that me having bigger problems didn't make her problems go away.

"But you don't have to care much about that since it's in the past and I'm alright now. I've got a home, a decent job, and a friend," I continued to try and cheer her and myself up. I don't think it worked all that well, but it did work a bit.

We were once again sitting in silence, at least until Brush spoke up again. "It's still unfair that it happened to you."

"True but life is unfair by design. The best anyone can do to fight that is help each other out."

We resumed sitting in silence but after some time, she asked, "Did you ever go back to your family?"

"Nope."

"Did they ever come to you?" she asked hesitantly after my one worded answer.

"No, and I hope they don't."

"But what if they want to be forgiven?"

"I don't care. They caused me too many problem and the only thing they will be is ignored," I answered sounding as sure as I could so that Brush wouldn't ask more on that. I didn't want to think about them at all and honestly, sometimes I wish I could forget them entirely, but that could not be done and all I could do was just distract myself to not be tormented by my memories. However, there wasn't much to distract myself with now, and the fact that I was talking about those memories directly was not great. Glimpses of memories, both pony and human, came and went as I once again looked down at my hooves, wondering if I could ever find a way to fix things.

Brush, seeing my downcast mood, put the moth on the table and pulled me into a hug. We stayed like that for a bit, which was nice, but the silence felt weird.

"It wasn't always bad though, wanna hear about some of the few times things were interesting?" I asked her, hoping that would be a good way to change the mood.

Brush nodded, and I started, "So, let's see... so, there was this one time at a restaurant I worked at..."

Author's Note

16S jL

Art time :3
Source:https://www.deviantart.com/arandomlonelydude/art/Anya-with-Crucible-1052039740

SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THE IMAGE DISTURBING

Among us

i hope u guys liked it. if u did please comment about what you liked; i love the engagement

also, updates might slow next week

Chapter 34: The Second Step Of Flesh-Craft: The First Servant

Today was Thursday; close to the weekend but not quite there yet. Nothing particularly important was scheduled for today, and not many people had come in to the library. The weather was nice and there wasn't much to do besides work. Today was, by all means, supposed to be a normal day.

Twilight wasn't so sure of that though. Why? Well, her boss had called out of work today. In the time she had spent working with Anya, she had learnt that skipping work was something that was close to unthinkable to Anya, but today proved otherwise. She wasn't really worried but rather, she was curious about why she'd stayed at home today.

Why was she curious? Well, for starters, Anya was no longer downcast like she was last week but instead of it just her being naturally positive, it was something that Anya had done that made her happy and she had hinted at it yesterday, making Twilight curious. Then, there were the books she had borrowed from the library on Tuesday and Wednesday. One was on golems and magical constructs, while the others were on dream magic and wand making.

The subjects seemed rather random and unrelated but Twilight had a feeling that Anya had figured something out with all that knowledge on magic and had taken the day off to do something with it all. She'd probably know if Anya came to the library and told her, or if she went over to her house.

Speak of the devil and there she was. The library door opened and in came Anya. Her hair were messy and dishevelled, her glasses were slightly crooked, she was jittery, and had a really happy look on her face, all making her look much like how she was the day Twilight had went over to her place to see how the crucible had turned out, i.e. like a mad scientist.

"Heya Twinkles, sorry about not coming in today," she said cheerfully and before Twilight could say anything, she continued, "Is there any more stuff on dream magic?"

"I don't think so, let me check," Twilight answered as she opened up the database on the computer and scrolled through it. Anya started tapping her hoof on the floor impatiently as Twilight checked, and eventually found nothing. "No, there isn't anything else on dream magic here."

Anya frowned for a bit before returning to her cheerful state. "Okay, no problem!"

Anya walked straight to the magic section and started browsing through the shelves while humming some tune. Twilight left the desk and walked over to her side to take a peek at what books she was looking through, and to ask what she had been doing the entire day.

"Hey, Anya," Twilight said as she came up next to her. Anya just hummed in acknowledgment as she skimmed through a book on computers and stopped on a page every now and then. Twilight, now that she was close, noticed how Anya's eyes were bloodshot and her hooves were shaking a lot as if she hadn't slept for a while and was relying on too much caffeine, something Twilight could relate to. "What were you doing?"

"Biomancy," she answered simply, pulling a second book from the shelf, this one being unrelated to biomancy with it being about magically active gems. She flipped through that as well, stopping on pages about gem carving and magical memories.

"So, what did you do with biomancy?" Twilight asked, wanting an elaboration. If she had to guess, she'd probably guess that Anya has made some sort of breakthrough.

Anya didn't answer though as she was too engrossed in the book to listen to Twilight. Twilight considered repeating herself but decided not to since that would be interrupting Anya, and Twilight knew very well how interruptions felt when you were really focusing on something. Twilight left Anya to her reading and went back to the desk. There, the clock said that it was just another minute till closing time.

There wasn't anyone in the library but her and Anya right now, meaning that she didn't have to tell people to leave. She went over to the front door and flipped the open sign, but as she did, an orange unicorn with red and yellow mane and tail sneaked up on her. As Twilight turned to go back into the library, she had her mouth covered by a hoof and was pulled back into a vice-like grip.

"Any final words, Twilight?" said the orange unicorn who held Twilight. Twilight couldn't say anything as the unicorn then pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

Twilight managed to free herself and turn to her to say, "Not funny, Sunset! You scared me!"

"Not funny?" Sunset said with faked shock. "How could you say that, Twilight?"

Twilight just rolled her eyes before springing forth and hugging the unicorn. "It's been some time since I've seen you."

"Likewise," Sunset replied, hugging Twilight back. They stayed like that for a minute before Sunset pulled back and said, "So, you work- no, LIVE in a library, huh? Must be like paradise for you."

"Not really since I have to watch ponies take books knowing very well that they won't be taking care of them."

"Oh come on, most ponies keep books fine, you're just a very literal bibliophile who doesn't want anypony near her darlings~"

"Hey, that is not true!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"It is- wait," Twilight said, realising her error but it was already too late. Sunset was giggling at her, making Twilight pout very cutely. After Sunset managed to control herself, Twilight asked, "So, why are you here?"

"You sent me a letter telling me that there's a biomancer making interesting stuff and that I should check it out. You remember that, right?" Sunset said, pulling out a folded up paper from her saddlebags. "Well, I'm here now, so, why don't you take me to them?"

Twilight remembered the letter she had sent Sunset, and said, "Oh! She's right inside, come with me."

Twilight opened the door, letting them both in. The first thing Sunset said when she saw Anya hunched over a book with another book in her magic right next to her was, "Woah, you cloned yourself, Twi?"

Twilight, who suddenly realised how she must've looked like Anya during her studies under the princess, replied, "No, that's Anya."

Anya didn't notice either of the two unicorns entering, but upon hearing her name, she said, "Sorry Twiggles, I can't help you right now."

Twilight was dismayed upon hearing Anya say that, not because she needed Anya for anything, but because she had just given Sunset a nickname for Twilight. She glanced at Sunset and to her horror, Sunset held a grin like a cheshire cat. "Hehe, Twiggles."

It was over for her, she knew that much.

Anya suddenly closed the two books she was had and carried both of them in her magic. She looked up and noticed the two unicorns. "Uh what?"

"Okay, Anya, this is Sunset, and Sunset, this is Anya," Twilight said, introducing them to each other. "Anya, Sunset's here because she's interested in your organic bandages and wants to talk about them."

Anya looked confused for a moment before saying, "Okie, let me just get these checked out."

As Anya went over to the computer to check the books out, giddy with excitement, Sunset asked Twilight, "Does she work here with you?"

"Mhm, she's my boss."

"She looks more like a mad scientist."

Twilight would have said something to object, but Sunset was somewhat right; Anya did look more like a mad scientist right now.

Anya meanwhile, finished checking out the books and was about to walk out when she stopped and turned to the two unicorns and said, "Oh, right, the OBs. So, uh, Sunset, you'll have to come with me to check those out since they're at my home right now. So, just follow me, okay? Okay."

Sunset glanced at Twilight, a bit uncertain about Anya. Twilight just said, "Admittedly, she is a bit strange. I'll come with you guys."

I could barely contain my excitement as I lead the two unicorns back to my home. What was I so excited about? You'll see in just a minut- oh, wait, we're already here. I walked up to my door, and it opened all by itself. The two noticed that, I think, but whatever, I just had to show them the OBs so that I could get on with my work.

Speaking of my work, it was right there on the other side of the door, on the ceiling in front of it. A large sixteen legged spider hung on the ceiling there, holding the door open with two of his legs while he used the rest to hold onto the ceiling. Did I mention that he had sixteen legs? Well, that might make him seem creepy or scary, but he wasn't since he was also covered in fluffy brown fur and was very huggable and friendly to people.

Speaking of people, Twilight and Sunset walked into my home, the latter looking around a bit nervously. I guess she hasn't been close to the forest yet. The former, on the other hand, followed my gaze up to the ceiling above them and gasped.

"He looks cool, right?" I asked Twilight as she continued staring at the spider. Sunset followed Twilight's gaze and saw the large brown spider as well.

"That's biomancy for sure," she whispered to herself. After a couple seconds, I coughed a bit to get their attention.

"You can see it up close if you come in," I said to them, making them move away from the door. The spider closed the door after they got out of the way and then he dropped down from the ceiling, expertly landing on the floor. He skittered around the two ponies, both of whom gave him quite a lot of space, and came up to me. Once he reached my legs, he started tapping at my hooves with his little legs and making little squeaky sounds, clearly demanding something.

I petted him, making him quiet down as he got what he wanted for a job well done. After being pet, he just hung around me, letting me introduce him to the two unicorns, "This is... Spider, the friendly spider servant!"

Yeah, I know, very imaginative name, but it's better than just some number, or a ligma joke.

Twilight and Sunset stared at Spider, leaving us in awkward silence for a minute, until Sunset stepped forth and reached out to spider with a hoof. Spider reached back with his two front legs and touched Sunset's hoof, making her say, "Aww, he's cute. Right, Twiggles?"

"Uhhh yeah, cute..." Twilight said, not really convinced about Spider's cuteness factor.

"Okay, so, come with me, I'll show you the organic bandages," I said, interrupting Spider and Sunset's interaction. Sunset nodded, and I lead her to the basement, which had changed quite a bit since last week.

There was now a second table, one that I had grown using biomancy on some random sapling next to my fence. On top of that table was a lot of computer hardware and one second-hand computer that I bought yesterday. The hardware looked somewhat similar to hardware from the human world, though there were parts that used magic as well. Not like horn magic but rather runes, like, tiny glass balls filled with magic, and wire between those balls, and carved magical gemstones and the like. A fine example of magi-tech, though it leaned more on the tech side.

That table and the stuff on it wasn't the star of the show, however. That title went to the crucible and the new and improved nutrient paste maker that I had attached to its mouth for easier feeding.

"What's that on the crucible?" Twilight asked me, pointing to the new paste maker. Sunset, meanwhile, just walked over to and inspected it closely.

"The new paste maker; I replaced the old one since it was not efficient enough for me."

"What did you do with it?"

"Cannibalised for spare matter," I answered, ignoring Twilight's semi-horrified expression at that information and quickly walking over to the original table which held all the books on magic I had at the moment. I added the book on computers and the one on magical gems to the stack before picking up the bowl with the organic bandages, almost knocking over four empty cans of energy drink, and bringing it over to the two. I also gave the order, "Spider, go get a piece of bread and give it to the crucible."

Spider, who had followed me downstairs, chirped and went back up to the kitchen to go get a slice of bread.

"This crucible doesn't look professional. Did you make it by yourself?" Sunset asked as she stopped inspecting the crucible.

"Mhm, made it myself. Anyway, here's the little guys."

I picked up one of the OB's in my magic and levitated it over for their viewing, putting the bowl with the rest back onto the table. Twilight didn't look particularly interested in it, while Sunset seemed rather fascinated by it.

"So, this thing can heal wounds, just like that?" she asked, poking the little wiggling red blob with a hoof.

"Yup, they do it very fast."

"So, can I see a demonstration... no, wait," Sunset said, only to cut herself off upon realising what exactly she was asking, but I had already begun. The knife that I had used to cut myself earlier when I made the crucible was still on the table, and now, it was in my magic.

"What the-" Twilight managed to say as she saw the knife in my magic get near me.

Without much thought, I cut a gash onto my left foreleg, my eagerness to demonstrate my creation overpowering the primal desire to not be hurt. That changed though once the cut was made, and I regretted my dumb decision. It bled pretty bad and was a lot larger than I had hoped. There was already a bunch of blood pooling on the floor. Oh, well, I could deal with it; it was just a flesh wound after all, and I was a flesh crafter.

I brought over the OB I was holding in my magic and cut off a significant chunk of it with the knife, letting it fall onto the cut and as soon as it touched it, the healing process began. It was not a fun experience. The familiar burning came back to me as the OB dissolved itself onto the wound to provide material for the magically accelerated healing process. Thankfully, it lasted for only about ten seconds and my cut was fully healed after that. Another successful operation!

I looked at the unicorns with a smile, hoping they'd be impressed, but they looked nothing like that. In fact, they were distressed, but why- oh, wait, yeah, I had just casually cut myself for a demonstration. Pretty sure no one does that.

"By Faust..." Sunset whispered to herself. She walked up to me and inspected my foreleg where I had cut it and healed it. "It's completely healed. How... how does it work?"

"It basically dissolves itself on the wound while forcing the cells in your body to start repairing stuff fast using the dissolved material. Uses your body's magical memory to guide the healing. Downside is that it generates heat as it does all that," I explained quickly. Sunset no longer looked completely distressed and instead, she looked fascinated.

Spider came back down with a single piece of bread, which he put into the mouth of the paste maker. He then scurried over to me to be pet, which I did.

"Marvelous," Sunset finally said. "But do they work on other ponies? Like, it's partly made out of yo-"

"I took that into account while making these and did my best to remove parts of me from it so that it doesn't have a negative reaction with anyone, and besides, they should work on other people anyway since the healing process is done by their bodies and the OB only makes their cells go into healing overdrive and provides material," I said, thinking I silenced her doubts.

"Did you test them?" she asked. It was an important question since the OB theoretically could work on other people, but practically, I have no idea if it actually does.

"..." I was thinking about how I'd answer that question.

"I hope not since you need a proper lab environmen-"

"Twilight! Would you like to volunteer for a test?" I asked suddenly, cutting off Sunset from whatever lab safety stuff she was talking about.

"What? No! I don't want to be stabbed!" she answered as she backed up from me, realising what I was proposing to do to her.

"Please?" was my response.

"No!"

"Pretty please? I have a first-aid kit if you're worried."

"Anya, I do NOT want to be stabbed for a test, at least not until I'm in a lab," Twilight said, finally making me stop trying to get her approval.

"Awww," I whined, unhappy that Twilight wouldn't help me out.

"Anya," Sunset said, getting my attention. "I- Can I take one of these? I'm a researcher at CMU and I could have these tested there."

"Oh, okay," I said, accepting the idea. "I'll give you a copy of notes as well just in case."

Cool, the whole 'showing Twilight's friend the OB' is over. I can finally get back to what I was doi-

"Also, could you tell me how you made Spider?" Sunset asked. Spider chirped at the mention of his name.

"Okay, long story short, I've been making him since like, Monday, and have had three failed tries so far. Spider is the fourth try from yesterday and he works."

"How did you train him? I don't think creatures made from biomancy come out completely trained."

"Well, at first I tried to see if I could make him into a golem but that works only on dead stuff and not animals. Then I figured that I'll have to train him like a dog and that's what I did."

"And he was trained in just one day?"

"Mhm."

"How?"

"I used dream magic to put him to sleep and then have a lot of dreams that basically trained him on how to act and behave," I explained the process. Spider, when he just came out of the crucible, was a wet and dumb bug that had to be trained, and I had tried doing it conventionally for like ten minute before I got an idea: dreams can affect how you are in the real world and you can remember most of them, so, can I use it to train a creature by making a 'simulation'? The answer was yes, yes I can.

It was relatively quick but it was also tedious since I had to be there and put Spider into situations for like, ten hours or something, and that's why I was trying to automate it. Hence, all the books on computers, wand-making, golems, and gems. I just needed the two unicorns to be gone so that I could start seeing what goes where... or maybe go to sleep. When did I last sleep? I don't know, maybe monday night.

"Dream magic isn't supposed to be used like that," Twilight said, not happy with my usage of dream magic as a training tool. "I mean, what you did is interesting but it's supposed to be used to help people, not train spider things."

"Consideration: I don't care," I said to her, utterly and completely destroying her argument. "If it isn't against the law then it's alright."

"I mean, yeah, thinking outside the box is great but there's a better way to say that y'know," Sunset said in response to my brushing off of Twilight's argument.

"Fair enough. Anyway, you wanted one of the OBs right? Do you have anything to carry it and the paste water?"

"No, I don't."

"Alright. Spider, go get that empty bottle from the kitchen."

Spider did as he was told and came back quickly with an empty plastic water bottle. I took it from him and walked over to the crucible. I pulled off the paste maker from its mouth and held it in my magic. The new paste maker was cylinder-shaped, with its mouth at the top and the bottom with a long straw-tube thing through which the nutrient paste flowed. Instead of the nutrient paste coming out the mouth like vomit, it was now coming out the back end like liquid shit. Fortunately, the paste itself was a weird grey-white nutritious liquid and not just poop because if it was, then it'd be a bit too disgusting to work with.

I pulled the straw and forced it into the bottle, letting it be filled up one-fourths with the paste. Once it was done, I put the paste-maker back onto the crucible's mouth and I took one of the OBs that hadn't been cut yet and pushed it into the bottle, which was easy since they didn't have any bones or anything like that.

"K, come on up, I'll just finish this off and give it to you. Twilight has a copy of the notes and there's a copy machine in the library so you can get a copy as well," I said to them as I walked past them and up the stairs, Spider following close behind.

I went to the kitchen and filled up the rest of the bottle with water, and shook it so that the paste and water would be mixed evenly. The OB inside the bottle didn't mind that at all. I then cleaned off the dried blood on my left foreleg. I remembered the blood in the basement, and said to Spider, "Take a tissue and go clean the blood on the floor downstairs."

Spider chirped and climbed up the kitchen counter, taking two tissues from the tissue roll on the counter, and then scurrying off downstairs.

Twilight and Sunset came upstairs shortly, and I handed the bottle to Sunset.

"By the way, I noticed that something's growing in the crucible. What is it?" she said after putting the bottle in her saddlebags.

"Spider number two. Anyway, time for you guys to go now," I answered quickly as I didn't want to spend more time talking when I could have been figuring out the automation stuff downstairs.

"Yeah, we should go. Thanks for the thing you gave us," Twilight said, looking at me weird before she lead her friend out of my home.

Now that they were gone, I could get ony with my work. But, first, I needed something. I went over to the fridge and got another can of energy drink from it. I opened it and sipped on it, starting my third, or fifth maybe, can of today.

Sunset watched as the organic bandage wiggled in its bottle. She said to Twilight, who was walking behind her, "Your boss is pretty weird."

"I know," Twilight replied. "But she was more weird today, especially with how she wanted us to go away quickly. I bet it had something to do with all those books on magic."

"Reminds me of someone."

"Hey, I'm not like th- Okay, MAYBE, I am a LITTLE bit like that, but not to that extent!"

Sunset just chuckled, putting away the bottle back into her bag. She dug around a bit in her bag and pulled out a chunk of meat, surprising Twilight.

"What's that?" Twilight asked.

"A piece of Anya's crucible. I'll probably need it when I'm doing tests with the OB."

"She didn't allow you to take it, or did she?"

"Twiggles, you're sounding too much like a nerd."

"You're a researcher at CMU."

"Well, I'm the cool kind of nerd who does cool research, while you're the one whose always reading books and saying 'uhm actually' before correcting someone."

"Actually, I don't say that all the time."

Sunset snickered, making Twilight realise her mistake. Sunset stopped snickering and said, "Well, at least you're not the kind of nerd who'll want to STAB someone for a test. Like, what was Anya thinking when she stabbed herself just for a demonstration, or when she asked to stab you?"

"Honestly, I don't think she was thinking at that time."

"Twiggles, mark my words, you're surrounding yourself with the wrong crowd. If you keep at it then eventually, you're gonna be a mad scientist cackling in a basement with an operating table as Frankenstein gets up from it," Sunset joked.

Twilight didn't find it very funny but didn't say anything since it was just friendly banter.

Twilight then switched the topic of the conversation. "Whatever. Anyway, how's everypony in Canterlot?"

Author's Note

20r jL

Anya's flesh army on the rise fr fr

i crave reading an entire essay in this comment section about this story. should come later, i think

Chapter 35: New Information

It was Friday afternoon, about three. The sun was high in the sky. as it would be during a normal summer afternoon, people were outside relaxing, as they would on a Friday, and in general, most things were alright, as they were most of the time.

Most didn't mean all, however.

In the Ponyville hospital, in a room that had several layers of magical protection to keep things from coming inside, or going outside, things weren't alright.

Nemo paced the in her room in front of the wall with the window. She was worried, very worried, and scared as well. Why? The pri- no, A princess was coming to visit.

The memory of her nightmare was still fresh in her mind and she was scared that the princess would hurt her again. However, she could not say no to the visit, nor could she hide or run, and so, she had tried figuring out how she'd keep herself safe.

After deep thought, she had come up with one thing: don't let her become angry.

In her nightmare, she had lied to the princess and made her angry, so, she suffered. When she had left her room untidy yesterday, the nurse had reprimanded her. When she still walked on two legs and had hands, her father would punish her for her bad behaviour and rebelliousness. When her master had hurt her, it was because she had failed to do as he said.

The common pattern that she found was that every time she suffered, it was by her own fault, and so, she had to remove whatever faults she could.

The first fault she had found here was that her room wasn't neat, and as far as she knew, the ponies like cleanliness a lot, and therefore, the princess would like it a lot more.

She had cleaned her room as well as she could; all the toys were put away in the box next to the window, all the books were neatly stacked next to that box, whatever drawings she had made were hidden away in the drawers of the little table next to her bed, and everything was as neat as it could be.

However, she still wasn't happy with all that. Next, she had groomed herself the best she could in front of the bathroom mirror. She combed her hair, washed her face, even tried preening her feathers even though she didn't know how to. However, that wasn't enough either. Her right wing still had bandages on it, making it look ugly, and no matter how much she tried, she could not convince herself that she didn't look like the wretched thing she was.

Now, she just paced along the windowed wall, hoping that everything she had done was enough even though she felt in her heart that it wasn't enough.

Nemo paused all of a sudden, her ears swivelling to face the door and her face panicked. For a moment, it was silent. Then, she heard it.

The sound of hooves on the floor.

It HAD to be the princess. Nemo quickly looked around, trying to find anything that looked out of place, anything that could get her in trouble, anything that shouldn't be there, but she found nothing. The hoof-steps came closer and closer to her door, and with each step, Nemo's heart sank a little bit more.

At last, they stopped right outside the door and all was quiet for a few, very tense moments. Nemo's ears were pinned down and all her attention was at the door as she watched it fearfully as if it were going to be kicked in. Then, there was knocking on the door. The air in the room grew still in the ensuing moments of silence, and then-

"Nemo, I've come to remove your bandages," said the familiar voice of Nurse Sweetheart from the other side. She opened the door and walked in all by herself, letting Nemo relax a bit. She still had time till the princess came.

Nemo still wasn't in the clear though.

The ponies seemed nice but they would turn the moment she behaved badly in any way, and she had to keep that in mind at all times.

The nurse motioned for her to get onto the bed and she did that, and without any prompting, she stretched out her right wing, letting the nurse take off the bandages. Nemo had thought once about whether or not she could fly in her new body, but so far, she didn't know if she could. However, now that she could see her wing, she figured that she might be able to.

The wing looked mostly alright, unlike what it looked like three weeks ago. Some of the feathers were bent or out of place and now that they were exposed to the air, she could feel how they felt out of place, and now that she could feel it, she wanted to straighten them out.

"Hmm, do you need help with preening those?" the nurse asked Nemo as she disposed of the dirty bandages, to which Nemo shook her head no. There was no need to trouble the nurse. The nurse then said, "The princess will be here in about ten minutes. I'll leave you to it till then."

Once the nurse was gone, Nemo relaxed a bit more but it wasn't for long as the dread of having the pony princess visit her came back. It wasn't as bad as before, probably since the nurse hadn't said anything about her room being untidy or Nemo looking ugly, but it was still there. She started straightening the feathers out, preening as the nurse had called it, and found that it was somewhat calming.

Princess Luna walked through the halls of the hospital silently, following a nurse. Not much was going through her mind since she had planned out what exactly she would do when she met the filly. What was she going to do? First of all, she was going to apologise to her for causing her pain and scaring her. Then, she was going to finish sealing her mind so that nothing else could ever take control of her.

However, for all that to happen, Luna had to make sure that Nemo doesn't get scared of her, and she doubted that things would go that way.

The nurse stopped in front of a door and opened it, letting Luna hear a few panicked hoof-steps within the room as it opened. Once the door was fully opened, Luna peeked inside, letting her see that Nemo was sitting on her bed, barely hiding her fear. Luna sighed and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

Luna could tell very easily that Nemo was scared of her. Her wings were twitching, her fur stood on its end, she kept shifting nervously where she sat, her ears were pinned down, and her eyes kept darting to the bathroom door. Luna stood silently for a moment, thinking, and then she stepped forward to Nemo.

Nemo did her best to not immediately hide behind her hooves when the princess stepped forward, and she succeeded in that. However, she did flinch, and that made the princess frown, which was very bad in Nemo's mind. She didn't have time to chastise herself for that though, as the princess came up to her side and sat down on the bed beside her. Nemo would have put distance between herself and the princess but it wouldn't do her any good to do that. It's not like she could run away anyway.

Luna took a deep breath, thinking what she'd say. Nemo just kept getting more stressed as Luna stayed quiet. Finally, Luna looked down at her and spoke, "I've come for some important work, but more importantly, I wish to apologise to you, Nemo."

Nemo, to put it simply, did not expect to hear that. She had never in her life been apologised to by someone older than her, not genuinely at least, and so, it took her a minute to process that. Once she processed it though, she figured that it probably wasn't anything genuine. A small part of her wished that it was not how she thought it was.

Luna continued, trying to ignore how the filly didn't seem to believe her, "What happened that night in your dream was... was unfortunate and my sister's behaviour didn't help either. I didn't mean to cause you pain; I only wished to stop any more monsters from coming after you."

Nemo nodded, still unsure of the apology despite Luna's clearly visible guilt.

"I... I've hurt a lot of people in my time, but today is perhaps the first time I could try apologise to one of them. I doubt you will accept my apology but it is good to know that I could at least give you one."

Luna then looked away to stare at the carpet quietly as memories popped up in her mind, each one stinging her just a little.

Nemo watched as the princess's sadness grew despite her not doing anything. She was still unsure about the princess's apology but no matter how she put it in her head, it looked to be genuine. The words didn't seem hollow, she hadn't tried dismissing how Nemo felt, and now, she didn't seem as dangerous as she did. In fact, now that Nemo thought about it, in that dream, only the other princess had been bad.

Nemo slowly reached out with a hoof, her fear still present but not so much so that it stopped her from seeing that the princess was truly sad. Perhaps, the princess didn't mean any harm ever and was nice. She ended up touching the princess's foreleg, making her glance Nemo's way.

Wordlessly, the princess put one of her wings around Nemo. The leathery appendage felt weird but strangely warm to Nemo, who had mostly forgotten her fear now. Together, they sat in silence for a few minutes.

Eventually, Luna said, "Tell me Nemo, do you think you can trust me?"

"W- why?" Nemo asked, looking up at her questioningly.

Luna drew in a long breath before answering, "Your mind is still exposed to the world beyond, and I have to seal it properly this time, but I'll need your permission if I want to do that."

"Will it hurt?" Nemo continued, hoping the answer would be 'no'.

"Yes, it will hurt for some time," Luna said, giving her the truth.

"D- do we have to do it?" At least this one could be a 'no'?

"Unfortunately, yes, we have to. The things from beyond will see your exposed mind and take control of it to further their own goals, and that is a threat to everyone's security," Luna explained, withholding one detail for a moment since she wasn't sure if she should say it. However, the filly deserved to know, and so, she continued, "My sister will not tolerate that and... the consequences will be harsh on you. She has had ponies like you, agents of the eldritch as she calls them, punished... severely, and I do not want that to happen to you."

While she didn't explicitly say the kind of magical torture and death an agent would be put through to remove them from the world entirely, she did convey the severity of what would happen to the filly if she didn't do what Luna had asked of her. Luna felt guilty since she seemingly taken away the choice from the filly and it showed on her face very well.

Nemo, on the other hand, looked very troubled. She didn't know what exactly would happen to her but she knew that none of it would be good, and so, she asked with fear in her voice, "What- what do we have to do?"

"Come here," Luna said as she got off the bed and sat down close to the center of the carpet. Nemo got off the bed as well and sat down opposite to Luna. Once she sat down, Luna's horn lit up ans she said, "Now, this part won't hurt but it will feel strange. I'll have to cast a spell that lets us into your mind."

Nemo nodded, not understanding much about what Luna was doing, but she didn't stop her, letting Luna bend down and touch Nemo's horn with her own.

A blue coloured pulse went out from where their horns touched, and suddenly, the world felt a lot more... different. Nemo couldn't tell what exactly had changed, but she knew something had. She looked around once Luna got up after finishing her spell, and saw that they were still in the hospital room, and that nothing seemed to have changed. The carpet was still there, the window still had bars, the bed-

The bed was gone.

In its place was an all too familiar mattress. It was old and covered in stains of all kinds, and it was torn at its corners, letting one see the yellow foam that it had inside. It had a simple brown cloth on it that served as a blanket, and Nemo could make out a depression on the bed, vaguely in the shape of a person, under the blanket and that confirmed her suspicion.

It was her old bed.

She looked around again, and the room had changed. The bright coloured walls had been replaced by familiar brown wooden walls, and the carpet was gone. There was no furniture in the room now, but there was still a window and it was still barred.

Nemo was in her old room.

Immediately, her breathing became rapid and her head turned to the door and her ears perked up, listening for the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. There was not a single sound. However, she was still scared and right now, all she wanted to do was run away.

Suddenly, she felt a hoof at her shoulder, making her jerk her head that way to see who it was.

It was the princess looking down at her with concern and pity. "I take it that this isn't a place you like very much."

"A- are we alone?" Nemo asked, hoping that none of the people who lived in the town were there.

"We should be. There won't be any danger to us here; it is your mind after all," Luna answered as she rubbed a hoof on the filly's back to comfort her. Wherever they were, Nemo didn't like it at all, and if she became too agitated, the spell would break and that wasn't something that would feel great and so, Luna couldn't allow it to happen. As much as she disliked it, she had to cast a certain few spells that would keep Nemo from being too scared from whatever she saw. Manipulating someone's emotion through magic might have been illegal, but it was necessary here to prevent anything worse from happening.

Luna took Nemo's hoof in her own and looked down at her with a reassuring smile. "Come with me, we must find the breach in your mind."

The princess opened the door and led the filly through. Nemo was somewhat less scared knowing the princess was with her (and also due to the effect of the fear suppressing spells), and so, she went along without any protest. The two went down a small flight of stairs that led them into a moderately sized room.

The room had a bed in a corner, a sofa against a wall, and a chair stacked with clothes. Adjacent to the room was a small kitchen which had no real distinguishing features other than being cleaner than the rest of the 'house'. Nemo looked at the downstairs area with slight nervousness for a bit before she looked to the large door that would lead outside.

Luna opened that door as well, letting them both out into the settlement that was once Nemo's home. There wasn't much, just a few buildings in a circle, all made out of wood or metal scrap, probably houses, and one large building which had a cross above its door. Besides the buildings, there was a wall all around the settlement, and in the empty area in the center of it all was a simple wooden platform that Luna assumed was for delivering addresses to a crowd. Nemo looked around sadly, unhappy that she was back here once again.

The sky above was dark with just a few stars every now and then and no moon to be seen. However, what caught their eye was a large rainbow coloured crack that spanned across it. It looked quite similar to a cracked window, and its colours shifted, never staying the same in one place for more than a few seconds.

"Is that it?" Nemo asked, looking up at the crack, slightly enthralled by its shifting colours.

"Yep, that's the breach," came the answer from someone in front of them.

Luna and Nemo immediately jerked their heads down to the intruder. In front of them stood a large black and white spider-like creature. It had ten eyes that looked like the night sky, ten legs that ended in hands, and a simple green tophat on its head. It stood taller than the princess and looked down at the two with mild interest.

Luna immediately left Nemo's hoof and stepped in front of her with a shield already cast to defend the two against the intruder.

"Y'know, that ain't very nice, the whole 'immediately put up a shield' thing. I mean, I get the whole stranger danger thing but that's kinda an overreaction. You get me?" the spider said, rubbing its chin with one of its front hand-legs, bothered but not scared by Luna's aggressive stance.

"Begone, foul beast! Leave this little filly's mind alone!" Luna shouted at the spider-thing, to which the spider chuckled, its mandibles moving side to side as it did.

"I would, princess, but then who'd stop the nasty stuff from beyond getting in? I guess this body don't look real nice. Hey, kid, do I look scary? I hope not since the whole 'transforming into something else' thing won't look pretty at all and I kinda don't wanna do it," the spider said, going from replying to the princess to asking Nemo a question in the span of a few seconds.

Nemo, who strangely didn't seem scared of the beast, said, "Y- you look alright."

Luna, meanwhile, was trying her hardest not to resort to violence, at least not in front of Nemo. "Beast, did you not hear me? I told you to leave and I expect you to do so!"

"Chill bro, I'm not doing anything bad; everything's fine," the spider said, before looking around it and adding with a ten-legged shrug, "Well, as fine as they could be. Jeez, this place looks sucky as hell. Like, no offence to you kid but you really need to do something about all this fear and crap.

Anyway, as I had said earlier, I would leave but I can't really."

Luna was not happy to hear that answer, and ordered, "Explain."

"Okay, so, I was once like y'all, well, I wasn't a fluffy pony exactly but I was like in the same tier of things as you guys, like there's the eldritch tier and the normal tier and I was in the normal tier like you guys, but that's beside the point. So, basically, I was like you once but that changed a while back. Anyway, I'm a contractor who does contract work for all the eldritch beings that'll pay me for it. You can call me 'Ranger' by the way," the spider, now 'Ranger', as he called himself, explained but he ended up only giving Luna more questions.

What did he mean by 'he was like them once'? What was he doing exactly? Who did he work for?

Luna still kept up her guard and shield, but lowered her voice and asked, "I'll need some elaboration on quite a few of your claims."

"That's alright. I like talking; it's been a while since I've talked to someone who isn't just pure business, or trying to get me into a hedonist cult thing. Like, I appreciate my boss's honesty and straightforwardness but it sucks real hard because he's just pure business with me almost all of the time. I don't even think I should talk about those cult guys, right now at least," Ranger rambled until he realised he was rambling. He then added as his spider body lowered to the ground so that he was laying on the sandy ground, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"What are you doing here? Who's your boss?" Luna asked, glancing at Nemo who had come to stand to her side instead of behind her.

"What am I doing here? Well, I'm just sitting here, looking all menacing, till that breach gets fixed by my boss so that no one else gets in here with their schemes and stuff. As for my boss... well, I can't just tell you who he is, like his name and all, but I can tell you that he's mostly nice, just a bit uncaring, towards me at least, but whatever. The point is that he's chill."

"Why does your boss have an interest in Nemo?"

"Ehhh, I'm not exactly sure since he hasn't told me exactly, but he did tell me that the cun- loser who enslaved Nemo was trying to kill his agent and since he couldn't allow that, he killed Nemo's master and therefore, took ownership of her. Don't worry though, he's just gonna fix that breach and let her go since he doesn't need another agent."

Luna tried to hide her dismay upon hearing that there is another agent somewhere on the planet but Ranger noticed it. Ranger then looked slightly troubled. "Did I say the whole thing about his other agent? Man, I am so dumb."

Ranger took a deep breath and then said, "Well, I guess it's alright since you don't know the agent and or any clue about his i- no, was he a girl? or a guy? I don't know so I'll just say they. So, you don't know much about them so it's alright."

"What... what is this agent doing?" Luna asked, wanting to get as much information as she could.

"Now, I can assure you that the agent is not doing anything evil like starting a blood cult or somethin' so you don't have to look scared like that; they're just getting back some trinket for boss. It won't be something you'll miss, I think, but you don't have to worry about someone rampaging through your planet and doing evil crap anytime soon," Ranger answered, reassuring Luna that everything was alright. "So, I've answered a lot of questions, why don't I ask one. Okay, so, how does sugar taste? I don't really remember it since my first boss, that dic- LOSER, took away a huge part of my memories and then just threw me away after I did what he wanted me to, and I haven't got a chance to really eat sugar since then."

Luna stared at Ranger questioningly. She had expected him to ask something more... more sensitive in nature when he said he was going to ask a question. "It tastes... sweet."

"Ah, I remember now, sugar was nice," Ranger said, remembering some fond memory. The three were left in silence, until Nemo spoke.

"He is... gone? Forever?" she asked, referring to her former master.

"Mhm, good riddance too. My first boss was like yours, like, he made me do the same 'kill this specific person' task, and I bet your boss would have thrown you away like mine threw me away after I did the thing," Ranger answered, scratching his head with one of his hands. Nemo was satisfied upon hearing that answer.

"So, when will you be gone?" Luna asked, the last important question she could ask.

"Well, I think one week in your time, then I'll be gone. You won't have to worry about me then, or anything much since no one else is gonna come in here, except you maybe."

Luna doubted that answer. While Ranger seemed to mean well, he also seemed very dumb for an eldritch thing, especially if he expected an eldritch being to simply leave a pony just like that. It was apparent that Nemo would have to be kept under watch. There was also the issue of the other agent and whatever they were doing. Celestia had to know about all she had learned.

"Also, don't try the brain breach healing spell since boss is already working on it and the spell will be redirected back to the brain and that'll hurt Nemo," Ranger added a warning. "Anyway, you guys wanna chat more?"

"No, but thank you, Ranger," Luna answered, cancelling her shield, following by cancelling the mind spell. Both her and Nemo blinked, and they were back in the hospital room, sitting on the carpet. Nemo looked around, confirming that she was in her room, before looking up to Luna, who had stood up now with a semi-grim expression on her face.

"Nemo, you'll have to come with me."

Celestia sat in her chair, her face impassive as Luna finished recounting her attempt at trying to fix the breach in Nemo's mind and the conversation she had with the eldritch thing. Luna had returned to Canterlot with Nemo right after the conversation she had, and gone straight to her sister. Nemo, on the other hand, was currently in a guest bedroom of the castle. Right now, both the sisters sat in Celestia's bedroom, at the table, which had two cups of tea on it, both of which had gone cold by now.

"What do we do, sister?" Luna asked.

"I still think that we should execute the agent, even if it seems that she's not possessed any longer," she answered, knowing that keeping the filly alive was trouble. An execution probably wouldn't have happened with how Luna opposed it, but she still supported the idea.

"Tia, she is a child, an innocent child!" Luna said, still not understanding how her sister could suggest something like that. Celestia knew better, of course, with the memory of the last time an agent was in Equestria still fresh in her mind. Far too many had died to an 'innocent pony'.

"I won't try arguing with you on that matter, Luna, but I'll have her put into the care of the Jade family; they'll be able to take care of her and keep an eye on her as well. Should anything go wrong, we'll be the first to know. I'll have documentation made for her as well.

As for this other agent, they're clearly working with those monsters, and so, they'll be put down when we find them. I know that that thing told you that 'the agent is nice' but we both know that there is no trusting the eldritch."

"...I agree with you on that, but we do not know where they could be."

Celestia got up and walked over to her window. She looked out at Canterlot, watching as teams of pegasi cleared the skies above the city, and said after a long silence, "I bet they're close by, because after all, trouble always seems to be close to Equestria."

Author's Note

21f jL

hope Anya don't get in trouble.

Next Nemo chapter will be after a while

Chapter 36: I Have Yes Enemies

Today, I did not feel great.

I was feeling hungry and anxious and slightly irritated but that was probably because I had more caffeine than food in the last five days and also because I had not slept in any of that time. I was also kinda (read: very) exhausted due to aforementioned reasons, and yesterday's failures with basically everything that I had been trying to do were weighing down on me.

The second spider-servant that I was making had come out of the crucible on friday evening, and it came out bad. It had tried attacking me but couldn't get far since its legs hadn't grown properly, and honestly, it was sad to look at since it was clearly in a lot of pain. I had to put it down and cut it up to put it back into the paste maker and no matter how much I tried convincing myself, I couldn't help but feel as though I had made something only to suffer in its short life.

That had quickly brought me down from the high I had gotten after making Spider, and once I was back to not being happy, the anxiousness and tiredness had set in. I had tried figuring out why the second spider had failed after I had put it down, and that took a lot of time. Ultimately, it was time wasted since I couldn't figure out why it had failed, and that setback just made my mood worse.

I had tried to focus on other stuff after that, like carving memories into magically active gems. Trixie's book and the book from the library were pretty useful but I couldn't really focus on what was written due to my tiredness. I should have given up and went to sleep but nope, I had tried stubbornly to read and learn all friday night and in the end, the only thing I had learned by the time night started turning to day was how to test gems to see if they're magically active.

That might not seem useful but it was since I had an entire box of gems just sitting in my basement. I had thought that someone might have forgotten their treasure here but when I read that magically active gems are basically worthless compared to normal ones, I suspected that the gems I had were the former kind, and when I did the test — a specific rune spell that would make magically active gems glow — my suspicions were confirmed to be true; I did not have anything valuable, except the one silver bar.

I doubt anyone would miss them if I were to use them, and that was probably the only good news I had since I wouldn't have to buy gems to carve, and even if someone came back for them, I could replace them easily I think. I had around six thousand bits, nowhere near what I'd like to have but that should change a little bit when I get my paycheck at the end of the month.

Anyway, to summarise, I didn't get much done with the gems or biomancy or the computer, and overall, friday evening and saturday early morning were very unproductive and I felt like shit as a result.

Right now, it was almost seven and I was at my kitchen table, shovelling my fourth grilled cheese sandwich of the morning into my mouth. When I said that I was hungry, I was real hungry. I think that I hadn't eaten properly once since Monday, my dinner yesterday was just some toast, and I wanted to do nothing more than eating my own bodyweight in food and then going to sleep for at least half a day.

My wants were reasonable and so, they were ignored, as reasonable wants usually are. Instead, I had to go to work feeling like shit. At least I wouldn't be too hungry since I had a lunch of grilled cheese sandwich on the kitchen counter. I think I'll be alright if I get some coffee on the way as well.

The sound of skittering broke the silence of my house as Spider came into the kitchen. He had been sleeping in the basement about an hour ago and I guess that he woke up now. He came up to me and started squeaking and chirping at me demandingly, making me shove the last of my sandwich into my mouth before I bent down to fulfill his demands of being pet.

As I pet Spider, he made a sound pretty similar to purring which made me smile a bit since it was pretty cute and it made him seem like he was a sixteen-legged and eight-eyed cat. Unlike a cat, he didn't visibly disapprove of me when I stopped petting him and put on my saddlebags, ready to go to work.

He tried following me outside as I left, like he had yesterday, and like yesterday, I told him, "You can't come with me, you gotta stay at home."

It was kinda sad to close the door on him but it was for the better. I doubt that I can bring a pet-servant thing to work... actually, I could since I was the boss and I set the rules, but I doubt everyone else who comes into the library would like to see a big spider in there.

I walked down the path, not thinking much other than where I could get coffee. I also felt like I forgot something but I guess it was just me being anxious for no reason.

Spider was admittedly not very smart.

While he could understand what his master, Anya, wanted him to do, he didn't exactly understand the reasoning most of the time, not that he could reason much to begin with. However, he knew that he liked Anya very much. She gave him food, she petted him when he asked for it, and she also hugged him. Of course, he didn't know that Anya had ensured that he would like her under all circumstances when she trained him, but he wouldn't have cared if he knew.

And because he liked her very much, he stayed at home even though he wanted to follow her around. If he did what she said, he would be a good spider-thing. Of course, like a good spider-thing, he stood in front of the door and waited for her to return.

And he waited.

And he waited some more.

He could've stood there in front of the door and waited forever, but it wasn't so. Ten minutes had passed and he was still waiting patiently when he became aware of something.

He was hungry.

That was alright. He had been hungry many times and he knew that he should eat. He turned around and silently made his way to the basement door. He didn't have to climb up to the handle since the door opened on its own, letting him go down the stairs to where his food would be.

Next to the two tables which held important stuff, there was a bowl on the ground. It was where food would be. He walked over to it and saw that the bowl was close to being empty. Not a problem, Anya had taught him yesterday how to get a refill should he need one when she isn't around. He ate what little nutrient paste was left in the bowl, and after he was done with the filling meal, he dragged the bowl over to the crucible.

The crucible was about as tall as he was and so, it was easy to climb onto it. There, he lifted the paste maker just enough for him to reach in and pull the fleshy red straw-tendril out from under it. Once he had the red straw-tendril, he pushed it so that it was in the bowl and that was it, the bowl should be refilled soon.

He waited.

And waited.

Nothing was coming out from the straw-tendril like yesterday. Why? Spider started thinking why. The paste maker was making a lot of sound when he had refilled the bowl under Anya's supervision but today, it wasn't. Clearly, the paste maker had to be making sound. What made it make sound? That one was easy; it just had to be fed.

Spider stopped thinking and started moving, going back upstairs to the kitchen to go get some food for the paste maker. Once in the kitchen, he climbed up the counter where there would be a packet of bread. However, he didn't find any bread and instead, he found a thing covered in aluminium foil.

It smelled like the thing that Anya had been eating and that raised a question in his mind. Why didn't she eat this one? He had seen how hungry she was yesterday and today and so, he questioned why she left her food.

Spider forgot about refilling his bowl and started thinking about why Anya had left her food. After several moments of deliberation, the answer came to him.

She had forgotten it.

The answer made sense to him since he knew that Anya couldn't smell as well as him, and with how the food was covered, she could have easily forgotten it. Spider didn't stop thinking even though he had his answer.

He loved Anya more than anything and he knew that she was, or would be, hungry. In front of him was what she ate. He did not know if she would have food, and so, it seemed obvious that he should go and give the food to her.

However, there was one problem stopping him.

She had told him to stay at home.

Now, he obviously couldn't disobey her command because that would be bad, but then, he couldn't let her be hungry either because that was also bad. He had to choose between either of the options and it was like choosing between a rock and a hard place; it was a hard decision that would require a strong will. In his head, the need to obey clashed with the need to care, each one being just as importantly as the other.

Eventually, the clash of needs ended.

Spider picked up the foiled sandwich and placed it on his back through expert leg movement. Then, four of his legs bent upwards so that they would wrap around the sandwich to prevent it from falling off. He turned and jumped from the counter, landing on the floor without making any noise.

Disobedience was alright. Letting Anya be hungry was not.

Once on the floor, he scurried out of the kitchen and to the front door. He didn't have to unlock it since it clicked and swung open by itself, letting him out of the house. Once outside, the door closed and locked by itself, and Spider started walking.

Then, he reached the path in front of the house.

There were two ways to go: left, or right. Now that he was outside, it became apparent that he didn't actually know where Anya had gone. Well, he did know that she had gone to 'work' but he didn't know where 'work' was. Of course, since Spider was dumb, he didn't think to turn back and instead, he thought about which direction he'd go.

He smelled the air and found Anya's scent quickly. It was rather easy since she had a very distinct smell that was composed of dried nutrient paste, the smell of the home, and her sweat. It was a result of her substandard hygiene practices — such as not taking a bath the entire week or not cleaning off the paste properly when it got onto her hooves — but it worked to Spider's advantage.

Once he had her scent, all he had to do was follow it, and follow it he did.

He walked down the path as quickly as his twelve free legs could, away from the watchful eyes of the house and to the town where Anya was. He was a bug on a mission and nothing would stop him.

I did not like cities all that much for a couple of reasons.

Besides being expensive to live in and having a lot of pollution of all kinds, I didn't like cities because of the coffee shops and how they made themselves unnecessarily fancy and expensive. I'd have to go through their menus and learn at least three new words just to get what I wanted, which was usually overpriced a lot.

Now, I kinda missed being in a city.

While Ponyville was a nice place to live, it had literally no place to get coffee, or if there was one, it was concealed behind camouflage that was at least three hundred years ahead of what most militaries used currently.

I ended up walking around the town for a good ten minutes looking for a cafe or something.

The walk wasn't completely uneventful though. I had caught some people sending weird looks my way and maybe they were talking about me behind my back. It had made me look down at myself to see if I was looking weird somehow.

Was it my hair? Or did my face look weird? Was it how I walked?

I found no clear faults with my appearance and that made me more anxious than I already was. Why were they looking at me weird?

I tried to ignore it the best I could but my best wasn't very great today for some reason, and I kept looking around nervously as I passed by people.

I eventually found myself in front of the Sugarcube Corner but I didn't enter it immediately. I'd get coffee in there probably, but there were other people in there as well and with how the people on the streets were looking at me weird, I didn't really feel like going inside... or to work.

My feelings were irrelevant though, I reminded myself that. I was probably overthinking the weird looks I had got, and I was probably overreacting as well. That knowledge didn't really comfort me.

I stepped into the bakery. White a few people were there, chatting and eating in little groups at the tables. Everything seemed normal for a few seconds. Then, the chatting lowered in volume, and the vibe of the room shifted from 'normal morning' to 'look at her, what a weirdo'.

I could feel that a lot of people inside had their eyes on me, and that they were talking about me. I wanted to turn and just go to work, coffee no longer important, but turning and leaving right as I entered would be weird. Yet another reason why I missed cities: you could be weird and no one would give a shit.

Anyway, I took a breath and walked over to the counter quickly. There, a rotund blue mare, Mrs Cake, greeted me. "Good morning, what can I get you?"

I looked up to the menu on the wall behind her, my eyes skimming over all the stuff until the beverages section. They had coffee. Normal coffee without any fancy names or words, and it wasn't overpriced either.

"Yeah, I'd like one cup of coffee, medium size," I replied as I pulled out five bits from my saddlebags and handed it to her.

She nodded with a smile and turned to face the door behind her, which probably less to the kitchen, and said, "One medium coffee, coming right up. Pinkie-"

"Already on it!" shouted Pinkie from behind the kitchen door.

I turned and looked for a free seat. There were ten tables in the building, five against each wall. Seven of those tables were occupied, while two of the three unoccupied tables were not in a corner, making me naturally gravitate to the last one in the corner. I walked to that table, hoping that something besides me getting my coffee didn't happen.

Unfortunately, something did happen, as it usually does when you don't want something to happen.

It wasn't bad, just a green-blue unicorn mare on the table next to the one I was going to waving at me, but I didn't really know why she was waving at me or what she wanted, and not knowing sucked. With her was an earth pony mare who didn't seen thrilled to see me.

I stopped at their table, ignoring as best as I could the mean look the other mare at the table was giving me. The unicorn then spoke, "Hey, you're Anya, right?"

"Yeah," I answered, kinda weirded out by how cheerful she looked. "Why?"

"You do biomancy, right?" she then asked, looking at me with eyes full of curiosity. I looked back with hidden confusion. Why does she want to know that? How does she even know that?

"That–" I began before pausing and realising that I could definitely use more context. "– depends on what you want from me."

My response was clearly not very charismatic as evident by the other mare snorting at it. The unicorn sent a quick glare in her direction before turning back to me and saying, "Oh, I was there when you went up on stage against that showmare, and your trick with the growing light holder was really fascinating to me and I wanted to know about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get to you earlier. If you have time, maybe we can talk about it?"

"What's the time right now?" I asked since I didn't mind explaining what I did that day and I might even get to know what and why everyone's whispering about me. She opened her mouth to respond but then didn't say anything and closed it and looked to the other mare at the table with a sheepish grin.

"It's around seven thirty," the other mare replied with a sigh. "Lyra, I think it's better if you talk in the afternoon."

The unicorn, Lyra, ignored her and said, "Forgive Bon Bon, she hasn't had her coffee yet. Why don't you sit with us?"

Bon Bon grunted with a frown on her face, clearly not happy that Lyra was inviting me to sit with them. I wasn't particularly thrilled to hear the idea either but I had already committed to this interaction and couldn't just leave.

Lyra scooted over, giving me place to sit next to her, which Bon Bon didn't seem to like much. Whatever, I guess. I then asked, "So, like, you want to know about that trick to impress someone?"

"Well, you see, the apple harvest festival is coming and there's going to be a lot of people coming to the festival this year. So, I was wondering if I might be able to use that trick for a business venture," Lyra explained her intentions and then looked at me with a smile that didn't feel as innocent as it looked.

"So, money?" I asked, thinking about her idea for a bit (haha). Lyra nodded.

"You know what, I'll tell you about it but I want some stuff in return," I finally said. Bon Bon very clearly didn't like that idea and was going to say something but Lyra beat her to it.

"Oh, what do you want?"

"Well, first of all, I want to know why everyone's being weird when they see me. Like, almost everyone I've seen so far started whispering when they saw me and I'd like to know why they're doing that," I put forth my first demand while gesturing to the group of three ponies two tables over sneaking glances towards us.

"Umm," Lyra said, probably thinking about her answer. "You see..."

"You probably know Rainbow Dash, she's hard to miss. Anyway, she came in here yesterday and told everyone what you're doing," Bon Bon answered when Lyra took too long to say something. My eyes widened a bit in surprise at that.

"What... exactly did she say?" I asked.

"She basically said that you're an evil biomancer doing dark magic. I don't believe her about you doing evil things by the way, though I can't say that about everyone else. Can't blame them though, she is an element bearer after all," Lyra answered with a slight grimace.

I already regretted letting anyone know what I was doing, and I made a note to myself to keep things more secret and maybe talk to Rainbow later. I don't think there's much I could do about people talking though, unless I do something totally heroic that changes whatever negative opinion they have of me. The chances of that happening are zero though.

"And I guess everyone knows now since word spreads fast in small towns. By the way, do you actually do stuff with... with flesh?" She continued, ending with a slight shiver at the mention of meat.

"Yeah, I do," I answered as nonchalantly as I could, but it wasn't much since I was peeved at Rainbow spreading a rumor that I was evil.

"Do you think I could see?" Lyra then asked, earning herself a glare from Bon Bon.

"No," I replied almost instantly. No need to get some more losers talking about what I do. Lyra was probably going to try and convince me to let her but thankfully, we were interrupted by Pinkie coming over to our table with a tray on her back that carried three cups and a donut in a plate.

"Heya everypony, I got your orders!" she said cheerfully as she jumped. I thought the floor was going to taste all our stuff but then Pinkie moved really fast like, as if she were lightning or something. She grabbed each drink one by one while they were mid-air and put them in front of us, not spilling even one drop, and she ended her stunt with catching the donut and gently putting it in front of Bon Bon, who only looked mildly interested at Pinkie's crazy– no, impossible speed.

"Enjoy!" she said in the same cheerful voice as she left us. I looked to the two mares at the table and they didn't seem anywhere near as surprised as I was. Did Pinkie do this stuff normally? How was she not winded?

"Don't think too much into it, she just does that stuff," Lyra said to me as she picked up her drink, a smoothie I think, and started drinking from it.

I considered her words and decided to just do as I was told. Drinking the coffee in front of me looked a lot easier than figuring out how Pinkie did what she did. I did just that. Bad move though since I burnt my tongue immediately. What is it with me just drinking stuff without checking the temperature?

"So, what else do you want?" Lyra continued after she put down her cup.

I looked down at my cup of coffee and thought about what else I could get... Actually, I don't think I should ask for anything since the book I learnt biomancy from is a library book.

”I don't want anything else. I'll get you the book where I learnt the trick. Just come to the library tomorrow around noon."

Both Lyra and Bon Bon were happy to hear that. Well, Lyra looked happy while Bon Bon went from looking annoyed to looking neutral. I guess that she doesn't like me much, and honestly, fair enough.

I was about to get up and say goodbye when Lyra asked. "Say, why did you learn biomancy?"

"Huh?"

"Like, is there any specific thing you're doing that needs biomancy, or is it just what your cutie mark says you're good at?" she elaborated. It took me a second to remember that a cutie mark is just another word for talent mark. It took me a couple more seconds to realise that I had no answer for that question.

"Good question," I said simply.

"I hope you aren't doing anything evil," Bon Bon said in response, getting a stink eye from Lyra while making me annoyed.

"Anyway, I gotta go," I said to them as I got up with my coffee in my magic. I wasn't welcome at the table and I didn't want to stay there longer. I didn't wait for a response and left quickly for the library.

One thing was on my mind, and it was about how I'll deal with this rumour crap.

Lyra watched Anya leave the building with her coffee, and after a few moments, she glared at Bon Bon.

Seeing that, Bon Bon said, "What?"

"Did you really have to do that?"

"She was going to go anyway."

"I know that, but did you really have to go and say that you think whatever Rainbow Dash said about her is true?"

"Look, if an element of harmony is saying that somepony's not up to anything good then there's probably a good reason why."

"Well, did she look like she was up to no good?"

"...Not really." But Bon Bon did know that looks didn't matter a lot.

"Exactly! That wasn't a nice thing you did, Bonnie."

Bon Bon didn't argue back, knowing that it'd be pointless to try and convince Lyra otherwise. It was silent at their table for some time, letting Bon Bon feel the vibe of the room go back to being normal. She probably should go and see if Anya had some license for what she was doing. A biomancer running about without any approval from the crown, or even with approval, could turn very bad very quickly. She shook her head clear from the memory of an assignment that wasn't pretty, and sipped on her coffee. It was a welcome distraction; Pinkie always knew what could make you feel better.

Bon Bon then said to Lyra after the tension had simmered down, "So, wood crafts? You're going to try and sell those at the festival?"

"Mhm, I bet they'll sell a-"

There was a short scream from outside, followed by the door opening. Bon Bon always tried sitting in a place where she could see any potential entrances of wherever she was and as a result, she saw that the door was opened not by a pony but rather, by a giant spider- no, it was something else that looked like a spider.

Lyra turned her head to see what Bon Bon had locked on to, and saw the spider as well. A lot of the other patrons also saw it. For a moment, all was quiet as everyone held their breaths as they felt its eyes look over them.

Then, it turned around and left. There was another scream from outside.

Bon Bon downed her coffee and ate her donut in a single bite. Lyra turned her head and looked back at her and asked, "Have you seen anything like that?"

Bon Bon didn't answer as she got up and ran after the bug. She had seen things like that before, of course, and she knew very well that seeing things like that was a bad thing. The last time she had seen a giant bug, quite a few ponies had lost their lives and one had to be put down, and she hoped that nothing even remotely similar would happen today.

She stepped outside the building and saw a traumatised-looking pink mare, Lily Valley, being attended to by two other mares, all while muttering about a giant spider. She looked around and saw that the aforementioned giant spider was already gone, but she had an idea of where it could have gone to.

When I reached the library, the door was already unlocked and Twilight and her friends, except Pinkie and Applejack, were inside at the sitting area, chatting away about their weeks. They didn't notice me as I slipped in and went over to my desk. The clock showed the time to be 7:55 and so, I had some time before work.

I considered confronting Rainbow since she was there, but figured that now was not the best time to do so. Plus, who know what she'll do after I go and shout at her. Probably spread more rumours.

"Oh, hey Anya," Spike said as he came downstairs with some snacks. I waved at him as I went over to the main door to turn the sign.

I came back and sat in my chair once I was done with that. Now that I was kinda alone, I wondered how Spider was doing. Good thing that I have an eldritch boss who could tell me.

"Voth!"

"WHAT?"

"You remember how you had me place an anchor thing in my house so that you can have surveillance on it all times? Can you use that to tell me how stuff is going on there?"

"...IT SEEMS THAT THERE IS AN ISSUE."

"What's the problem?"

"THE ANCHOR DOES NOT WORK."

"What? Why?"

"I AM UNSURE BUT I BELIEVE THAT IT MAY HAVE EXPIRED DUE TO THE GUARDIAN DOING SOMETHING

DO NOT WORRY YOU AND I ARE SAFE."

"So, do I have to recast the anchor?"

"I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT IS CURRENTLY POSSIBLE OR NECESSARY HOWEVER IF YOU THINK IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER I CAN GIVE YOU A NEW ANCHOR SPELL IN SOME TIME."

"Alright, thanks for that. You can- actually, I need some help."

"WHAT IS IT?"

"So, somebody spread rumours about me that I'm evil and a whole bunch of people believe them, I think."

"WILL THAT AFFECT YOUR ABILITY TO RETRIEVE THE KEY?"

"I'm... not sure about that. Is there a way to get rid of the rumours?"

"DO NOT DO ANYTHING RASH AND IGNORE THEM THE RUMOURS WILL DIE DOWN IF YOU DO NOT PROVE THEM RIGHT I CANNOT HELP YOU MORE THAN THAT."

"Thanks, I guess."

Voth left my head, letting me think about how his advice wasn't particularly helpful in getting rid of the rumours quickly but I guess it's better than just going and shouting at Rainbow.

The door opened and I turned to see who it was.

Imagine my shock when I see Spider coming at me as fast as his legs could carry him. On the topic of carrying, he was carrying something on his back, but he was moving too fast for me to see what it was. He climbed up my chair and onto my chest, giving me a twelve legged hug while making lots of cute squeaks and chirps that removed any anger I felt at him for escaping the house. I hope he used a window since I don't think he can lock the door from outside.

"Spider, why're you here? I told you to stay at home," I asked him as I pet him, to which he shifted to let me see what was on his back. It was my sandwich which I forgot to put in my bag. I picked it up in my magic and put it on the table, freeing up his four legs, and seeing that he made his twelve legged hug into a sixteen legged hug. I bet he would nuzzle me if his head could move that much. I was going to hug him back but was interrupted by a sudden cry of fear followed by a couple gasps.

The cry came from the direction of Twilight's group, and I suddenly became aware of how weird it must have been to see a sixteen legged spider hugging a pony. Hell, it probably looked like Spider was attacking me.

I turned my head and saw the five looking at me, but not all of them looked scared. Twilight had seen Spider, so, she looked only slightly miffed. On one end of the spectrum was Rarity, who looked like she was going to faint, and on the other was Fluttershy — I finally remembered her name — who looked like she wanted to take Spider from me and hug him forever.

"Hey guys," I said to them, trying to appear as casual as I could for someone whose dark basement science experiment was hugging them. As much as I loved Spider, especially since he got me my forgotten lunch, I really wished that he was more obedient and had just stayed home because I don't really want to do introductions for him.

"What the– what in Tartarus is that?!" Rainbow exclaimed, pointing at Spider.

"Spider," I replied dumbly, or smartly since it was both his name and species but then, she doesn't have as much knowledge on him as me. Spider quieted down upon hearing his name.

"Okay guys, don't freak out — especially you, Rarity, it's friendly as you can see," Twilight said to the group. She then walked over to me and asked in a low voice, "Why did you get it here?"

"He came here by himself."

"Okay, can you send him back? I doubt that anyone would like to see him he–"

"Umm can I see him?" Fluttershy interjected, having walked over to the desk while I and Twilight were talking. If the situation wasn't as bizarre, I probably would have giggled at the timing.

I blinked at her for a bit before saying, "Why?"

"He looks... he looks really cute and Ijustwanttohughim!" she answered, going from shy to excited in one second.

"Uh, sure. Spider, go to her."

Spider obeyed. He let go of me and went over to Fluttershy, who immediately crouched down to his level and started petting him and baby-talking to him and other stuff that made it seem like she was just greeting a cat. Kinda unexpected since I thought she'd be scared.

"Fluttershy, get away from that thing! It could be dangerous!" Rainbow shouted as she came up to her. Fluttershy didn't get away from Spider and instead, she picked him up and turned around to show him off to her.

"But he's so cute!" she said to her as she held up Spider close to her face for her to see. Rainbow backed up from her and turned to me while Fluttershy took Spider and showed him off to the others, who looked noticably less scared of him.

Rainbow was going to say something but was cut off by someone bursting through the door. It was Bon Bon and she looked very pissed for some reason. She looked around and calmed down somewhat upon seeing Fluttershy, but she was still a bit angry.

Twilight backed up from me as Bon Bon marched up to my desk and demanded, "Is that thing yours?"

"Yes–"

"You're going to tell me what exactly you're doing with your magic," she ordered. Reasonable, I suppose, if I were to ignore how she's saying it like an order, but then, that makes sense since nobody would think positively of a giant big and would want to know why it's in town. The demand still made me a bit angry but I was going to comply.

But then, she added, "Or else."

"Or else what?" I said immediately. Just who did she think she was?

"Hey! Watch your tone, witch!" Rainbow said, making me more annoyed. Voth's advice of being calm could go to hell.

"What if I don't?"

"Hey guys, could we no–" Twilight said, trying to stop us, but Rainbow flew up and got in my face.

"I can beat you up," she threatened, not scaring me much.

"I can call the police," I said, after a bit of thinking. I'd have threatened her back but Spike was here, and it wouldn't be great if I go and tell this bitch that I'll kill her since she can just go and spread more rumours.

"About that. Are you sure that your biomancy is legal?" Bon Bon added. Why the fuck does she care? She definitely isn't the police. "Because as far as I remember, making monsters isn't legal."

It took every single bit of restrain in myself to not tell them to shut up while calling them a bunch of slurs. Instead, I took a deep breath and thought about what I'd say to get them to shut up and get lost without causing myself more trouble.

"That's what I thought, witch," Rainbow said, getting out of my face at my supposed defeated silence.

You know what, fuck this shit.

"Alright, that's it. Both of you are permanently banned from the library for harrasment and making threats. If you have books, get them back here by the end of the day and then never come back," I declared immediately.

"You can't do that!"

"Yes I can, Rainbow. Now get out of the library before I pick you up and put you out."

"Twilight, help me out here," Rainbow said, turning to Twilight who looked on impassively.

"Rainbow, I can't help you. The best you can do is apologise. Same for you, Bon Bon. I never expected to have friends like either of you," Twilight said, her voice full of disappointment. Bon Bon looked a bit taken back by that, while Rainbow looked devastated.

"But– she–"

"And also, don't go around spreading more rumours about me. Now, get lost."

Rainbow looked at Twilight for a few more moments before leaving, still looking devastated. Bon Bon didn't leave.

"Terko alag sae invitation chahiya? (Do you want a seperate invitation?)" I said to her, to which she just made a 'I'm watching you' gesture, after which she left.

Once both of them were gone, I rubbed my eyes and sighed deeply. It took a lot of effort to not just go and start cursing them. "Twilight, if you can, please go and talk to Rainbow and get her to stop being such a bi– loser."

"I can do that."

"Thanks," I said to her before turning my attention to Fluttershy who still had Spider with her. "Spider, come over here."

Spider chirped and jumped out of Fluttershy's hooves, making her whine a bit. When he reached me, I bent down to him and said, "Go back home, don't let anyone see you."

Spider obeyed and left the library, leaving us in silence. I didn't look forward to the rest of the day, and I felt a lot more tired even though I had coffee in me.

What a horrible start to a day.

Author's Note

22sa jL

Anya has some enemies. Let's hope that she doesn't go down the Jerma route of putting them in a meat grinder, or that secret agents raid her house.

Also, her house is pretty suspicious, right? (GETOUTOFMYHEAD)

Chapter 37: Blood and Violence

Today was Sunday. It was about noon, and not many people were outside with the sun bearing down on the town. There was a mild breeze blowing through, but it wasn't really cool. Ponies were spending their time in their homes, at the lake, or, in the case of two others, at the library. Things were going normally for the average person.

Bon Bon wasn't the average person.

She wasn't at home or in her candy store, passing time one way or another. She was outside and on a mission. As an agent of the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria, or S.M.I.L.E. — if you wanted the dumber name according to her — she had a duty to protect Equestria from any threats of a magical or non-magical origin, and one of the ways she could protect was by gathering information on any potential threat.

Right now, there was one unaccounted potential threat in her town: a biomancer.

Biomancy was new magic, only properly explored for the first time about fifty years ago, and in that time, it had proved to be a... problematic field. Biomancy might have produced some medical miracles, yes, but most of the time it produced monsters, some shaped like bugs, some shaped like ponies, all of which took innocent lives.

Bon Bon questioned why it wasn't just banned outright, since biomancy would create more trouble by itself and by exposing ponies to the darker sides of magic, most commonly blood magic, and she knew the kinds of things blood magic could do. She shuddered, remembering the time she and a team had to put down a blood cult that had taken the lives of an entire town in the name of some god called 'corn' — if she remembered the name correctly (which she didn't).

Thankfully, one couldn't do such deeds with general biomancy easily. It wasn't easily scalable or hidden like blood magic, and biomancers usually didn't commit mass murder. Instead, they'd worship themselves, killing ponies if they felt like it or if they needed biomass to make monsters much like Frankenstein — and usually, get themselves killed by said monsters, like Frankenstein — which wasn't much better since there'd be a rogue monster and dead innocents, but it was still better than mass murder for blood sacrifice.

She shook her head from the thoughts of blood cults and continued down the path. She had rubber gloves on her hooves, a cloak covering everything but her tail, a ski mask on her head, and a small bag with her equipment slung around her neck.

She had sent a letter yesterday to the agency's headquarters, informing them that there's a biomancer in Ponyville. In response, she had recieved a box that held a dozen chocolates, under which there was a secret compartment, in which were instructions to put up surveillance for now, along with a dozen of the most advanced spy-tech device Equestria had.

The device was simply called 'the eye'. It was small, about the size of a bean, but it could record and transmit visuals and audio back to a computer in HQ forever since it powered itself with the ambient magic in a place. Bon Bon knew that a dozen of them could easily cover a home from when she had put a dozen of them in the home of the lone changeling resident of Ponyville, and so far, Kevin hadn't found a single one of them.

She doubted that Anya would do any better.

She stopped in front of the only house on the wooded path. Just like yesterday, when she had followed Anya's giant bug to the place, the house loomed in front of her. Its two defining features, in Bon Bon's mind, was how ugly it was and how foreboding it looked.

She did not want to go through the trouble of bugging the house and wished that she could have put down Anya, but unfortunately, the law stated that it was 'innocent until proven guilty' i.e. illegal to kill her until they got solid evidence of her using the magic for evil, hence the spying.

Still, Bon Bon disliked that she'd have to go in there, and to express her disapproval, she glared at the house. The house looked back impassively.

She stepped up to the door and pulled out a cylinder shaped object, which she put on the door's lock. Immediately, the device started making clicks and clacks and other mechanical sounds as it unlocked the door. She'd have plenty of time to put the cameras and leave since she knew that Lyra would take a lot of time with Anya at the library.

It was going to be an easy job.

Bon Bon couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

Suddenly, the world around her went quiet. All the leaves stopped rustling, all the birds stopped chirping, and even the air seemed to have gone still. The only sound was that of the lockpicking device. It was taking awfully long to open a simple door.

She looked back to the path, her instincts telling her that she was being watched by something. It was to be expected; there were timberwolves and normal wolves and manticores and a lot of other things prowling in the forest. Perhaps, one had spotted her. She didn't fear an attack since the animals knew that attacking a pony would be bad for them, and she could easily fend off anything that came for her, but she still remained tense and watched the forest beyond the path.

Why did all the bad guys have to live in such places? Did they make the places bad when they moved in, or did they move in because of how bad it was?

The house finally decided that it'd be more interesting to see what she did inside.

The lock clicked behind her and the device fell off the lock. Bon Bon turned and put it in her bag before pulling out four black bracelets with red gemstones and putting them on each of her legs. They'd scramble any trace of her hoof-magic, meaning that IF somepony decided to do a thorough magical investigation, they wouldn't find any traces of her. It was overkill but overkill was always better.

She opened the door, expecting all sorts of nasty things to be hidden in there. She saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The hallway beyond the door looked normal, the living room looked normal, and kitchen looked normal as well, but Bon Bon couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. The things she expected were hidden away, probably in the basement. She stepped inside and closed the door, locking it behind her.

Now that she was inside, the feeling of being watched was replaced by the feeling of being scrutinised, of being studied by something. She looked around and found only the brown walls of the house to be there. She shook her head and chalked up the feelings to nervousness, because after all, she would feel nervous when going into someplace where she might die.

The first order of business was a sweep of the house to find anything suspicious. Bon Bon went up the stairs, noting how all of the steps were of different sizes. She looked at the ceiling and found the entrance to the attic. She pulled down on the string to it, making a ladder come down fast, scraping her right foreleg a bit as it did. Bon Bon ignored the injury and went up the ladder.

The attic was empty, which made sweeping throught it a breeze. She took one of the cameras and put it into one of the corners of the roof, where it stuck to the wall and changed its colour to blend in better. One room down, a bunch more to go. Bon Bon turned and went down the ladder, her earlier nervousness mostly gone. Nothing had gone wrong so far.

Then, she fell down the ladder.

It wasn't a huge fall, nor did it hurt all that much, and honestly, it could have just been a simple error. Bon Bon didn't think so. She swore that one of the steps had moved, but that could not be possible. How would a ladder do that? Just move a step? She inspected it for a minute, finding that it was unchanged from when she climbed it, and eventually, she accepted that she had somehow made an error.

The house's windows rattled a bit, probably due to wind outside, but Bon Bon couldn't help but feel as though the sound was the house was laughing at her for doing such a stupid thing. She huffed and closed the attic entrance.

Next, she placed a camera in the hall, in the upper corner next to window, making sure that it would be able to see down the hallway where there were the two rooms that she'd have to go through next. There was only a bookcase in the hall, and it held some Daring Do books which were nothing of interest.

The first room was Anya's bedroom. She could tell that by how the pillows and blanket on the bed were in a jumbled mess. She ignored what was atop the bed and instead, bent down to see what was under it. Down there, she found nothing, letting her move onto the wardrobe next to the empty desk.

The wardrobe had some clothes, and a drawer. She opened the drawer and found the first interesting thing: documents.

She took them all out and laid them on the desk. Four passports, a birth certificate, and some pictures lay in front of her. She started with the passports. There were two Indian passports, one Pakistani, and one Equestrian. This wasn't related to magic but it was still potentially useful. She pulled out a small camera from her bag to take pictures.

She opened the Pakistani passport and found that it was for some unicorn colt named Aamir Khan. The passport was old and had been expired for almost twenty years. Why did Anya have it? She clicked a picture and moved to the Indian passports, which were also expired but not as old. The first one was of a younger Anya, while the second was of the same colt from before. The fourth was Anya's current passport. One question came to Bon Bon's mind. Why did she have two passports that clearly weren't hers?

Then, a potential answer came to her mind.

She compared the pictures side by side, and found that Aamir and Anya looked very similar. Was Anya trans? Bon Bon couldn't confirm that yet, so, she took pictures of all four passports. Once that was done, she looked over the other documents which weren't particularly interesting, but she took pictures of all just in case. When she was done, she put them all back in the wardrobe as they were.

Just like before, she put up a camera in a corner of the room. The next room was unused, evident by the thin layer of dust on the little furniture it had. She searched it and put a camera in the room regardless.

Now that the attic and first floor were done, she went back down to the ground floor. She sweeped through the living room, the kitchen, the laundry room, and the bathroom, and she found nothing suspicious. In fact, she found nothing much. One could have thought that the house never had somepony living in it with how bare-bones it was. She put a camera in each of the rooms, as well as one above the front door that was facing down the hallway. The house stayed silent as she went about putting the cameras.

Now, there was only one place left: the basement. It was definitely where all the nasty stuff was going to be. She opened the door beneath the stairs and let herself in the basement, and like she had expected, nasty stuff was there but it wasn't as nasty as she had expected.

A crucible of poor quality sat in a corner of the room, starting off into space with its many eyes, making Bon Bon imagine that it was suffering even though it wasn't. On it, there was a meat thing that she didn't know the name of. There were also two tables, one of which only had a bowl and a knife on it, while the other held computer parts and books, and there was something hidden underneath it, behind its table cloth.

She noted the distinct lack of any monsters. Not even the giant spider was there, but that was probably because Anya had decided to take it with her, and while Bon Bon disapproved of that, it worked to her advantage.

She started the basement sweep by checking what was under the table. There, she found three boxes and she pulled them out from under the table before opening them. She was surprised to find magically active gemstones in two of them and a dumbbell in the third. Why did she have that many gemstones? Yet another question that she didn't have a proper answer for. She took a picture of the boxes and their contents before closing them and sliding them back under the table.

She moved into the stuff on the table. The computer and its spare parts were interesting, and she tried turning it on. It didn't make any noise as she pressed the power button, making her raise an eyebrow. Was it broken? That would explain all the parts then.

Bon Bon peered behind the computer, finding that it was unplugged. She lifted the table with and looked for an outlet on the wall bring the table but found none. She took a look around the basement and found that there were no outlets in any of the walls. Why did she have it down here then?

The house was much less gory and much more strange than Bon Bon had imagined. It almost looked to be a normal place that belonged to a normal pony.

That changed when she took a look at the books on the table.

She spotted a book on shadowmancy, one on golems, one on block magic, another on carving gemstones, one unmarked book, and a notebook. While she didn't know why Anya had those books, she could imagine that it wasn't for anything good, especially with the book on shadowmancy. She quickly took a picture of the marked books, leaving her with the unmarked book and the notebook.

She flipped through the notebook first and found that it had twenty pages that contained records of experiments, if she assumed based on the headings and dates. She tried reading it but found out first hand just how atrocious Anya's cursive was. She gave up on trying to read it and just took pictures instead. For a minute, the only sound — besides the crucible squelching every now and then — was that of the camera shutter.

Then, there was the sound of a door opening.

Bon Bon froze for a second. She took the picture of the last page in the notebook and quickly closed it and put it back how it was. She heard some muffled words, followed by the basement door opening. She immediately dived under the table, behind the table cloth and the boxes. In her mind, she was shouting, 'Why is she back so soon?!'

Even though she loved Lyra very much, she hated one aspect about her: how much time she wasted for certain things. She had expected Lyra to hold up Anya for a lot longer but no, it seemed today was her unlucky day.

"–and get that bread packet down here once you're done putting away the bags!" she heard Anya say to whoever else was in the house. That was bad. She could have easily handled Anya but a second pony complicated things. She heard the sound of hoof-steps coming down the stairs along with Anya humming some song. The hoof-steps came close to the table and stopped right in front of it.

In her head, Bon Bon was formulating a plan on how she'd get out. Stealth was currently not an option with there being two ponies in the house. She might have been able to handle them but she wasn't sure since she had no information about how strong either of them were, or how fast either could run for help. Alternatively, she definitely could run since all her identifying features were obscured, but she'd have to wait for the right opportunity to do so. She could come back some other day and put up the last camera and she'll make sure very well that nothing like this would happen that time.

There was the sound of skittering and plastic dragging as something came down the stairs, chirping as it did. The sound stopped in front of the table.

"Good, you got the bread," Anya said, recieving a bunch of chirps in response. Bon Bon almost breathed a sigh of relief at that. The wasn't a second pony in the house, just Anya and her bug, who should be a lot easier to deal with. There was the question of how strong Anya was at slinging magic at people, but if Bon Bon was fast, she wouldn't need an answer to that. Now, she just needed her to move away from the table, or, Bon Bon could flip the table over. It'd be a great distrac-

Anya moved away from the table and went to the one next to it and Bon Bon heard the sound of a bread packet being opened. Then, she heard Anya's hoof-steps receding from the table and going towards the corner with the crucible. Now was her chance.

Bon Bon put her hooves underneath her, and with one quick movement she–

She stumbled.

She stumbled and hit her head on the table's leg, making something fall off the table. Anya heard that.

"Huh?" she heard Anya say as the hoof-steps came back to the table. Bon Bon stopped cursing herself as she could see Anya's silhouette bend down against the white table cloth. Slowly the table cloth was lifted by a dark hoof.

Bon Bon stood up, flipping the table onto Anya with her earth pony strength. Anya gave a short yelp as she barely dodged the computer coming down at her. Spider hissed, jumping back from where the computer hit the floor and broke into a hundred pieces with an expensive sound. All the computer parts on the table came down to the floor in a cacophony of metal hitting the stone floor and glass breaking. The table was now upside down, and Bon Bon and Anya saw each other.

Bon Bon made the first move, pushing the flipped table towards Anya. She tried dodging but the table hit her hooves, making her fall down roughly. Seeing that, Bon Bon immediately turned and ran for the exit. Unfortunately, Spider was there, blocking her way out with a fierce display of hissing.

Bon Bon reared up and brought her front hooves down on Spider, crushing him to death instantly and covering her hooves in spider blood. Thankfully, she had gloves on and wouldn't have to go and find somewhere to wash it off.

Behind her, Anya stood back up and froze as she saw Spider's crushed body. Bon Bon took the opportunity to run up the stairs to the door—

She was yanked back by her tail, making her fall on the stairs. She bit the inside of her cheek as her head hit a step and tasted blood. She turned her head and saw that Anya had picked up the knife from the other table with her levitation and was coming to Bon Bon. The look in her eyes told her everything. She wanted to hurt her.

Bon Bon wasn't really scared. In fact, she kinda liked that Anya was coming at her with a knife. Killing in self-defence was alright in the eyes of the agency and it'd be a quick end to the biomancer problem... but then, there could be a solid argument made that it wasn't really self-defence, and the agency explicitly stated that they should avoid killing ponies when there wasn't any solid evidence of magic being used for evil. It would be more trouble than it's worth, according to them.

Bon Bon figured that running was a better option right now. However, Anya would just yank her back if she tried that. She'd have to knock her out.

"Stay where you are and show yourself, harami!" Anya shouted at her as Bon Bon got up. She turned around and saw that Anya was at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at her. Bon Bon had the high ground.

She took the advantage and jumped down at her. Anya was taken by surprise and instead of getting out of the way, she put up her hooves to defend herself. Bon Bon landed on top of her, sending Anya sprawling to the floor. Her knife clattered somewhere by the stairs. There, she held her down on the floor and punched her horn. Anya gave a cry of pain as the punch landed but she didn't get knocked out like Bon Bon had thought she would.

She punched her horn again, and again, and again, and finally, Anya stopped struggling and went still, letting Bon Bon get off her. She might have been tough for a unicorn but Bon Bon was, quite literally, biologically superior in that regard. Anya would be knocked out for some time and Bon Bon could use that time to finish her work. She took a few pictures of the crucible and the meat thing and put up the last camera in the basement, all while the silence in the house became progressively more and more uncomfortable.

She stepped over Anya, making sure that she was still knocked out as she did, and after that, she continued up the stairs.

Behind her, Anya stood up like a puppet on strings without making any sound, her mind still gone but her body under the control of her boss, who happened to know a lot more about fighting than she did, and who also happened to greatly dislike anyone interfering with his work or attacking his workers. He tried her magic and found that it worked despite the hits to the horn, though it'd cause Anya pain when she woke up. That was acceptable to Voth, and he commanded the body to pick up the dropped knife.

Meanwhile, Bon Bon had reached the front door which was locked. She tried turning the deadbolt but it didn't move. She pushed the door a bit and tried it, thinking it was simply stuck. Again, it didn't move. Bon Bon frowned. She wanted to get out of the house now that her work was done but no, there just had to be some stupid problem.

She didn't know that the house didn't want her to escape.

She was going to try the lock one last time but paused. Did her shadow just grow? Her ears swiveled and she heard breathing behind her. She whirled her head around and saw Anya standing there with a knife in her hoof. The knife came down fast but Bon Bon sidestepped the stab, feeling the knife pass mere millimeters by her.

Anya was going in for a second stab but Bon Bon bucked her in the face before she could. The kick hit Anya's eyes, breaking her glasses and then pushing the subsequent broken glass into her face as she barely moved back. Some pieces embedded themselves around her eyes, causing bleeding, but Anya didn't make a sound. Her eyes remained focused and her face remained expressionless.

Bon Bon was a bit taken back by the sight. She was sure that she had knocked Anya out in the basement, but here she was, barely registering a kick to the head or glass in her face. Whatever, she had to focus on fighting off Anya, who seemed to be fighting to kill, or more likely, to maim. She could find out later why Anya was so strong (she wouldn't, Voth would make sure IF it came to that).

Anya rushed forward, ramming into Bon Bon's side and pushing her up against the door with unnatural strength, knocking the wind out of Bon Bon. She raised the knife and went for Bon Bon's throat. Bon Bon managed to barely dodge it before roughly pushing Anya back. She launched a flurry of punches on Anya before she could recover from the push, and she aimed to get the knife out of Anya's hooves, or out of the fight entirely.

She punched Anya on the horn, this time a lot harder than before. Anya didn't even flinch at that. Instead, she backed up a bit, putting distance between her and Bon Bon, before she reared up and started charging up a spell. Bon Bon charged at her before she could sling the spell, impacting her roughly in her chest and making her shoot the spell up at the ceiling, where it left a burn mark.

Bon Bon used her momentum and pinned Anya to the wall in front of the basement door. She held up Anya with a hoof to her neck and her other hoof to Anya's right hoof which held the knife. Anya tried using her free hoof to remove Bon Bon's ski mask, and in retaliation, Bon Bon was forced to headbutt Anya, who still looked like she could keep fighting despite the hoof at her throat cutting her airflow and the blood all over her face.

Bon Bon finally tore the knife from Anya's hoof and was going to throw it away, but then, Anya charged up a spell and shot it at Bon Bon. The spell hit her shoulder and burned through her cloak like acid, and then it burned on her shoulder like acid, making Bon Bon grit her teeth. Anya charged a second spell and seeing that, Bon Bon did something she did not completely think through.

She stabbed Anya in the stomach.

Anya somehow didn't register it and shot the spell anyway, but she missed Bon Bon and hit the floor next to her. Bon Bon stabbed her once more, again in the stomach.

Anya then surged forward all of a sudden, breaking Bon Bon's grip on her throat. She threw herself onto Bon Bon, sending them sprawling to the floor with Anya on top, and she bit down on her neck. Anya was trying to choke her like a wolf would. Bon Bon stabbed her again, this time in the chest, as she felt something wet on her throat — which she knew was blood but hoped to be spit. Anya didn't have a reaction to the stab and charged up a spell, making Bon Bon grab her horn to stop her. It worked, but Anya was still biting down her neck like a rabid animal and Bon Bon was starting to feel the effects of asphyxiation.

Anya tried taking back the knife from her, making Bon Bon stab her in her right shoulder. She stabbed and cut her again and again on her chest and forelegs as Anya kept trying to get the knife. Anya tried using her other hoof to remove Bon Bon's hoof from her horn but Bon Bon's grip was strong. Bon Bon's lungs started burning, and to add to that, Anya started punching her face once she realised that she couldn't beat Bon Bon's grip on her horn.

Bon Bon finally jammed the knife into Anya's left side, making sure that it went in deep. She left the knife and Anya's horn and used her free hooves to force open Anya's jaw and free her neck. Now that her neck was free, she pushed Anya off and got up to her hooves while taking deep breaths. Anya got up to her hooves as well and reared up and charged her horn, ignoring all the stab wounds she was bleeding from or the knife embedded in her left side.

Bon Bon saw that and for a moment, she was questioning what she could do. She couldn't fight forever, especially with her injured shoulder and neck, while Anya was still fighting hard even with all her wounds, and it looked like they'd fight till one of them dies.

Then, Bon Bon saw that Anya was right in front of the open basement door.

She immediately turned and bucked. Anya, who was still reared up, was pushed back, sending her off balance and stumbling backwards towards the basement stairs. There wasn't enough floor for her to stumble on and she fell down the stairs.

She fell on her left side first. The knife that was still jammed in there was pushed in deeper as she hit her first step. Then, she broke her right foreleg on the second step she hit. She hit her horn on the third step. Finally, she ended up sprawled at the base of the stairs, and she stayed there, unmoving.

Voth, who had been controlling Anya's body, finally realised that he could not win against Bon Bon, not without killing Anya in the process. He decided to cut his losses and accept defeat.

Bon Bon, who had only come into the house to put up cameras and collect information would leave as a pony who defeated an eldritch god in a one on one fight.

She didn't know that, of course, but she probably wouldn't care if someone told her now. Right now, something else was on her mind: checking if Anya was dead or not.

She walked down the stairs to Anya's body, avoiding stepping in the little puddle of blood forming around her. She was still breathing, which was good. She was bleeding though and if left without any medical assistance, she'd end up dying. Unfortunately for her, Bon Bon didn't have any first-aid on her and even if she did, she probably would not help Anya.

"What a mess," Bon Bon said as she looked around the basement with a grimace, her eyes going over the flipped table, the stuff littered all over the floor, the crushed giant spider-thing, and finally, Anya's bloodied body. She turned to look at her own injuries and found them to be just as ugly. Her shoulder where she was hit by Anya's spell was burnt badly with magic, bruises were forming around where Anya had punched her, and she could feel blood on her neck. Making excuses for all that to Lyra would be extremely difficult, almost as much as beating Anya.

She looked back down at Anya when she heard a cough. She was already waking up? Just what was she made of? Bon Bon dealt with that quickly by giving her a swift kick in the horn. Now, how would she get medical help here? She thought about it for a minute and finally decided that an anonymous letter to the police would be a good way to deal with that.

She stepped over Anya and made her way back up the stairs, ignoring her pain and thinking about how much Lyra would dote on her when she returned home and after Lyra stopped shouting at her for getting herself hurt.

She thought it was all over.

The house, which had silently watched the fight with slight interest and then horror when it turned bloody, was angry. It did not like Anya much but tolerated her. Now, watching her get beaten to an inch of her life had made it have a change of heart. If it hadn't let her in, Anya would be alright. It hated Bon Bon.

She wouldn't get out just like that.

Bon Bon reached the top of the stairs and froze as a chill ran up her spine. The feeling of being watched came back full force along with another, more primal feeling: the feeling of being hunted. She looked around on instinct, finding only the dull brown walls of the house around her. She shook her head and convinced herself that it was some spell that Anya used on her to scare her or something. She made herself step forward, still thinking it was over.

Then, she turned her head right and saw the laundry room.

The door was gone, the entire wall was gone, and in its place was a mouth, filled with three sets of teeth, dripping with saliva, and smelling like death.

She stared at it for a second, her brain trying to process what she saw. It couldn't have been a mouth. There was no way a giant mouth could have just appeared in the laundry room. Like, where would the washer and dryer go? Where would the teeth come from? Where would the mouth even lead to?

Then, the floorboards erupted from the floor in front of her. She caught a glimpse of a large thing underneath the floor from where they had erupted, and she saw tentacle-like appendages holding up the floorboards, which had now formed into a short wall between her and the main door. Confusion turned to fear very quickly. The house was alive and it was furious.

Behind her, there wasn't any sort of exit, only the bathroom door. It was a good place to hide though. She turned and ran for it, not noticing the basement door had closed itself. She threw open the bathroom door and–

There was a mouth there as well.

She turned back and ran to the basement door, but it didn't open. The floorboards started approaching her, making her run forward and jump over them with ease. She almost ran into the main door but she didn't care about that. She frantically tried to unlock it.

It didn't open.

Behind her, she head more floorboards erupt from the floor.

She had to get out.

The living room didn't look like a mouth, yet, but it had teeth coming out of the ceiling and the floor. Bon Bon ignored them as she ran to the glass door. She threw open the curtains and–

A wall of pulsating flesh stood in front of her, blocking her only exit out.

Her only exit on the ground floor. The bedroom windows weren't barred like all the others, and she could jump down from there without taking any damage.

She ran out of the living room and to the stairs. She ran up the stairs, ignoring how the walls were made out of meat, and to the first bedroom.

She threw the door open and found that the bedroom was replaced with a mouth. She ran to the second bedroom and found it to be like the last.

Every room was a mouth.

She turned to the barred window behind her and threw it open before she started kicking at the bars, hoping to break them off so that she could survive. She didn't want to die.

She felt a thing coil around her back leg, making her turn and see that it was a tongue coming out of the second bedroom. She kicked at it to remove it but it just coiled around her leg tighter. Suddenly, it pulled. Bon Bon was quick to grab the bars and hang on for her life.

Then, like a sick joke, the bars broke.

She kicked and screamed and thrashed as she was dragged into the bedroom-mouth.

The house swallowed her whole.

The forest, which was always alive with all its animals and rivers and trees, stayed eerily silent as the house, which was alive like an animal, swallowed its prey. Once it was done, the floorboards went back to the way they were, the walls turned back to brick, and the rooms became rooms again.

It was as if nothing had ever happened, but the forest knew the truth.

In the basement, Anya woke up, and the first thing she did was try moving.

It was a bad move.

Immediately, she felt the pain of every single wound on her body she had sustained when Voth was fighting using her body. The knife in her side was competing to be the most painful, but was blown out of the water and into space when Anya accidentally moved her broken right foreleg.

She only managed a few pathetic whimpers as her body pained everywhere. In her mind, it was much the same.

'Voth, help. It hurts,' she whispered in her mind.

"I AM TAKING CONTROL AGAIN THIS WILL HURT."

Voth took control of her body again, and immediately casted a healing spell. It was far out of Anya's range and with how much abuse her horn had taken, it hurt a lot. It did help a little though, as it closed up some of the stab wounds on her chest, somewhat.

Her legs, except the broken one, moved on their own and forced Anya to stand. Tears leaked out of Anya's eyes as she felt all the pain her body was feeling. If she were in control, she would have just stayed at the bottom of the stairs in the puddle of her blood.

Then, her legs gave out from exhaustion. Voth couldn't force her body to keep moving; the fight had drained it too much.

Anya cried out as she hit the floor. The knife in her side hurt the most, until she instinctively moved her right foreleg to the wound. She coughed roughly, each cough sending pain through her entire being and a reminder that she needed her inhaler, and each with cough, some blood came out of her mouth, adding to the blood already on the floor or her fur.

It wouldn't be long till she died of blood loss.

Voth knew that, and so, he continued forcing her body to move. He tried to get her magic to levitate the bowl with the OBs to her, but the healing spell he had made her cast had drained her entirely. Then, he forced her to start dragging herself with her left foreleg, her destination being the table with the bowl on it.

It was a short but agonising trip. Voth made her sit up against the wall next to the table, and let the body rest for a few moments and steady her breathing. He tried the magic again and it failed again, making him force the body to reach over the table and get the bowl. Once she grabbed a hold of the bowl, she pulled it back to her roughly, making it spill some of its paste-water onto her.

In the bowl, there were only two OBs, which wasn't great. The stab wounds on her stomach were where she was losing the majority of her blood from, but the OBs wouldn't be enough to cover them entirely. Still, it was better than nothing, and so, she took them and applied them to the wounds, making her cry some more from the burning sensation.

Voth knew that there were still a number of other problems, such as the cuts and glass around her eyes, the half-healed stab wounds on her chest and shoulder, the broken leg, and the knife in her side, but he also knew that the body was at its limits and that pushing it more would not be good. He made Anya lie down on her side and let her get some well deserved rest.

As far as he knew, no one but the unknown assailant knew that Anya was here, slowly dying. He really shouldn't have tried fighting her and he made a note to himself to check his temper. He couldn't do anything about the current situation... unless...

He forced Anya to go to sleep and start dreaming. The night princess would have to be there for his plan to work, but in case she wasn't, he also started making preparations in case Anya did end up dying here.

It'd be somewhat easy to put her mind into some newborn since he had experience in doing that, but it would be a lot more difficult making her act normal while she grew up, especially with how traumatic her death would be — if she did end up dying here, which was becoming more likely by the minute.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the house looked on with regret.

The night princess was not there in the dream realm. She was busy in court.

However, there was her army of golems which patrolled the dreams of all the eight billion people on the planet because the princess couldn't do it all by herself obviously.

One such golem was combing through a row of doors that led to the dream of someone who was asleep at the moment. The door were all kinds of shapes and colours, reflecting the state of the dream. Generally, weird looking wooden doors that were painted bright colours represented good dreams, while other represented bad dreams.

So, when the golem came across a very normal looking dark brown wooden door with blood on its doorframe, it knew that whoever was one the other side needed help. It opened the door and entered the dream, giving itself the face of princess Luna as it entered.

What it saw was concerning.

It was in a dark room that had a single terrified and badly hurt mare lying on the floor in a puddle of blood.

"Help," she said, not opening her eyes. "I've been attacked and I think I'm dying."

"Where?" the golem asked, looking at her with concern.

"1424 Evergreen Street in Ponyville," she answered. Immediately, the golem left the dream and sent a message to the princess, informing her of the situation.

Princess Luna, who had been stuck in a meeting with her sister and some noble who just couldn't stop talking, immediately excused herself when she got the message. She then sent a message to the Ponyville police department, hoping they'd be quick enough.

Someone's life was on the line.

Author's Note

23s jL

I think this is the first time I've written a fight and I'd like feedback about it, and also some general feedback of the chapter

And so, Anya shows us how she can't fight for shit and gets her ass beat, and the house shows us that it's alive like a pony is. This incident will probably make Anya do something drastic about her and her creations' (RIP Spider😭) protection.

Chapter 38: Closed Case And Cover-up

Sheriff Steel was having a really bad case of the Mondays.

It was expected, of course, as just yesterday, Ponyville had seen its first violent crime in years and a missing person case as well. Both had happened in the same afternoon yesterday, literally hours from each other, and understandably, the town was in a tense mood.

Sheriff Steel wasn't tense though. He was more disappointed. It was his job to prevent such crimes for happening but just like that, it had happened. To add to his disappointment was the fact that they had not found Bon Bon yet, nor had they identified the person who had almost killed Anya.

He had talked to both of them that day, before what happened to them. Bon Bon in the morning when he bought some sweets from her, and Anya in the afternoon after he had spotted her getting groceries with her giant spider. He couldn't help but feel responsible for what happened to them.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Right now, he sat in his office, sitting and twiddling his hooves as he waited for an investigator coming in from Canterlot, all because he and his deputies were too incompetent to figure out any clues about either of the two cases they had.

He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling fan spinning slowly. Today was a Monday, alright, and it sucked.

Somebody knocked on the door, making him sit up straight. The door opened and a earth pony stallion came in. He was dark grey with light grey hair, and he wore a black suit and sunglasses. His age showed on his face, which was currently holding a neutral expression.

"Sheriff Steel," he greeted as he stopped in front of the sheriff's desk.

"Mister Sharp Eye," the sheriff replied.

"Let's get down to business," Sharp Eye said, adjusting his tie a bit. "So, a burglary and a missing person case, eh? Have you got any leads or evidence?"

"No, we don' got anythin' yet," the sheriff admitted with some shame.

"Hmm," Sharp Eye said, smirking for just a second. The sheriff chose not to comment on that. "Why don't we go to miss Anya's place first to investigate?"

Sharp Eye followed the sheriff down the wooded path to the crime scene he had to investigate.

As an agent of S.M.I.L.E, Sharp Eye knew exactly what had happened in the house yesterday — he had been there, watching the live transmission from the spy cameras to a computer screen, seeing Bon Bon fight Anya and then get to making her exit from the house, until all the spy cameras stopped transmitting simultaneously.

He knew that Anya had been hospitalised by Bon Bon and he had to cover that up to keep the agency and it's actions secret, which should be quite simple. Finding the missing agent was what he was worried about.

It couldn't have been Anya who had made her disappear since she was just one punch from death when the police had found her. Other than that, he did not know, and he needed clues.

They finally came to a halt in front of the house where the almost-murder had taken place. Sharp Eye admired the ugliness of the house and how it looked so comically obvious that a practitioner of dark magic lived there. In his time as a field operative, he had rarely seen anything like it — outside of when he had to deal with certain cults.

However, the more he looked, the more he became aware of the feeling of being watched. He didn't ignore it because he knew from experience that it would cause him trouble if he did so. He knew that there were things in the forest around but he knew that they wouldn't approach with there being two ponies together.

Maybe something from the forest took Bon Bon, probably a timberwolf or maybe a manticore. It made sense since she would have been alone and even though she was a rather strong agent, all a predator needed to get her was a lucky hit. That didn't explain the cameras going off though, and there were no signs of struggle anywhere on the path, meaning that something else must have happened to Bon Bon.

Sheriff Steel, meanwhile, walked upto the door and opened it, wanting to get away from the forest. He pulled out a key from his vest's pocket and unlocked the door. "Alrighty, the scene's down in the basement. And Ah'll give you a warnin', there's stuff down there that ain't pretty. Miss Anya does meat magic."

Sharp Eye nodded, already knowing very well just what Sheriff Steel was talking about. Already, there were some small blood stains on the hallway floor. They both went down the basement stairs and came across the crime scene. It was much like yesterday. There was dried blood on one of the steps, dried blood on the floor where Anya had landed and a trail of it where she had dragged herself to the table. The crushed spider was still there, the table was still overturned, and all the stuff that had fallen to the floor was still as it was. The crucible was still there, making organic sounds.

"What a mess," Sharp Eye said after observing the scene. He then added, "Looks like a burglary gone really bad."

It was an easy explanation that should have covered any questions anyone would have. The sheriff wouldn't bat an eye. Yet another successful cover-up by S.M.I.L.E.

"Looks like that to me too, but..." the sheriff said, making Sharp Eye frown a bit. "Ah don't think it's that."

"Why is that?"

"Well, as you can see," — he pointed to the crucible — ", Miss Anya's a uh..."

"Biomancer."

"Yes, that, she's a biomancer, an' you can see that it ain't look very pretty. So, last Friday, that lazy brat Rainbow went into Sugarcube Corner and said some nasty things 'bout her bein' an evil witch an' Ah think that–”

"Someone decided to 'be a hero' and do all this?"

"Mhm."

"Well, sheriff, if that were the case, the vigilante would have come out by now and said that they've done it, especially after beating a dark magic user since vigilantes usually think that it'll give them the moral high ground. Has anyone done that yet?"

"No... but they could've just run from town..." A thought came into the sheriff's head and it was banished just as quickly for how dumb it was. "No, it couldn't be that, Bon Bon wouldn't do that. Ah think yer right 'bout this bein' a burglary gone bad, but we can't confirm that since we don' know what's been stolen, until Miss Anya wakes up. Though, there's two boxes o'er there that have some gemstones in 'em but haven't been touched as far as Ah could tell. Might be wrong though since we only peeked."

Private Eye smirked a bit. Bon Bon, despite her rashness, was still good at making sure there was't anything pointing back to her. Then his smirk faded. Bon Bon was still missing and the agency wanted an explanation.

"I'll check this place over for any other clues. Can you go and see if you find something upstairs."

Sheriff Steel, despite having combed through the house yesterday, complied anyway because who knows, he might have missed something. Meanwhile, Sharp Eye, now alone, walked to the corner of the basement where Bon Bon had put up the camera. He didn't find the camera, and if he were to guess, it'd be the same story in all the other rooms.

Next, he had to make some stuff disappear to make the burglary explanation more solid. However, there wasn't much he could make disappear since most of it was either worthless, or broken on the ground. There were the three boxes though. He walked over to them and opened the wooden one, hoping to find something that would be worth taking.

In the box was a small trove of gems. He reached out into his magic and channeled it through the ground and reached out to the gems in the box and yup, the gems were all magically active. Not something a burglar would take. And he couldn't make all that many gems disappear without it being obvious that something had changed. He dug through the box, hoping to find something that was expensive but also something that could've been easily missed.

And he found something that was expensive. He pulled out a hundred gram bar of silver from the box. It would have been expensive even if it were magically active. He then checked it for that and found that it wasn't active. It was the perfect thing to take. Anya would notice its absense with it being worth a good thousand or so bits, and the burglary story would hold true.

He pocketed it and closed the box before moving onto more important business.

He pulled out a device from his suit and turned it on. It had two antennas and six lightbulbs. Once on, the first light turned green while the other five flashed red for a second, after which, only one of the red lights remained on. That was interesting. The device he held would detect magic out of the ordinary and with one red light already on, it was obvious that something magical was happening in the basement. Probably the crucible, but he did reconsider thinking that Anya had nothing to do with the disappearance.

He walked around the basement, testing for any weird magic. Three red lights switched on when he went near the the crucible but that was to be expected. Besides that, it stayed at one.

Until he brought the tester over to the corner that had the camera.

All five red lights turned on immediately, telling him that something had happened to the cameras — probably a teleport. This was interesting, but it might have been a coincidence. He left the basement and made his way into the laundry room, and again, the readings spiked when he brought the device close to where the camera had been. Definitely not a coincidence.

He left the laundry room, and walked over to the front door, noting how one red light stayed on the entire while even though he was far from the crucible. Perhaps there was something else.

He waved the thing around, hoping it wasn't broken. In doing so, he pointed it towards the stairs, making the second red light turn on. He stopped waving the detector around and walked over to the stairs, watching as the two red lights became three.

He walked up the stairs, finding the sheriff in the hall, looking out the barred window. He ignored the sheriff and continued moving around with the detector. The reading went upto four when he went down the hallway with the bedrooms, and then five again right outside the second bedroom.

"What're ye doin'?" the sheriff asked, having watched Sharp Eye wave around the detector.

"Just checking for out of the ordinary magic, and it looks like there's a lot if it in here," Sharp Eye responded as he opened the door to the second bedroom.

Inside, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, but the detector was giving a reading of five everywhere in the room. He couldn't see any immediate sources of magic that would give such a high reading, or any reading at all. The room was bare, clearly unused in quite some time as evident by the dust in it, and so, the reading seemed illogical.

"Ya know why there's lot o' strange magic 'ere?"

"No. I'll need some help figuring this out. Say, do you know some unicorn who could come over here and help us out?"

"...Ah'll go and get someone."

When the sheriff returned, he returned not with one of his deputies like Sharp Eye had expected. He instead returned with none other than the element of magic, Twilight Sparkle.

"Hi, I'm here to help," she had said in greeting before getting to work right away.

Right now, both him and the sheriff were waiting as Twilight did in the middle of the room with her eyes closed and her horn glowing. The detector was still giving the same reading as it has been when they fir–

The reading went down to one and Twilight opened her eyes with confusion. "The magic, it's– it's gone."

That wasn't good. Magic didn't just go away like that, not without outside intervention at least. The place was getting weirder by the minute, and it seemed to Sharp Eye that he'd have to get actual backup.

"It's alright though, I was able to figure out that it was residue from a teleport. A really badly done teleport," she said, looking quite proud of herself. Then, her expression fell and she added, "But I don't think that's very useful for catching whoever hurt Anya."

It was quite useful for finding out what happened to Bon Bon though.

"Did you find out anything else?" Sharp Eye asked.

"Unfortunately, no."

While it wasn't great, it was a start. Sharp Eye still had a lot of work to do, it seemed. Though, he'd get lunch before he did that.

Suddenly, Twilight asked, "Do you think I could look over the scene downstairs? I might be able to find something."

"I've already looked it over and I find nothing. There's no point for you to go there," Sharp Eye said. "I suppose we take a break, I'm hungry. And thank you for your help, Miss Sparkle. You can go."

Twilight looked disappointed that she couldn't help but moved. The three ponies went downstairs and left the house and made for Ponyville.

"We still don' know who broke into the house," the sheriff said to no-one in particular.

"It could have been an outsider who needed money quick," Sharp Eye lied.

"But why'd they have to attack her so brutally? They could have just knocked her out and left," Twilight said with slight anger.

They continued walking till they reached the crossroads. They would have kept walking, but a scream from the forest made them stop in their tracks.

Sharp Eye was the first to run. He ran into the forest, towards where the scream came from. Sheriff Steel and Twilight were quick to follow. They kept running until they came across a clearing.

In the clearing, close to the middle, a muzzle was sticking out of the ground.

The three rushed forward to it and started digging at the ground. They had found Bon Bon. They dug her out from the ground where she was buried alive and laid her out on the ground.

She was covered with cuts and scratches and dirt from her head to her hooves, but she was alive and mostly fine physically. Mentally... she'd probably never sleep soundly — or even just sleep — after getting eaten alive and spat out under some clearing.

Sharp Eye had questions to ask her but she had to be taken to the hospital first. The day had gone a lot better than what he had imagined.

Author's Note

24m jL

You said something bad about the princesses? 👁️

Chapter 39: Moribund In Nested Nightmares

I woke up feeling cold. Not uncomfortably so, but I'd have preferred being warm right now.

No, not warm, I wanted something else, something... nice, that was also warm. I didn't remember what it was or why I wanted it but I lamented its absence.

I took a deep breath to get away from the thoughts and the first thing I noticed was that I regretted taking the deep breath when pain came to me from my chest. I kept my breaths shallow and short, which still pained but not as much and that was good enough for me.

I opened my eyes a little and struggled to keep them open with how dry they felt. A little bit of blinking and they did not sting as much, letting me see where I was.

The first thing I saw was that it was dark, wherever I was. Not pitch black since there was some light on somewhere near but it was still dark. I was looking up at the ceiling which was blurry and grey. There was other stuff around to look at, but I didn't feel like looking around. There were some sounds but I tuned them out to continue looking up.

The ceiling looked nice as it slowly shifted around, and as I kept looking at it, I became aware of how exhausted I felt. My body felt sore, there was a bed underneath me, and it was comfortable even though it was a bit cold. I could totally take a little nap. I just had to stretch a bit to get rid of the sorenes–

There was pain from my chest. So much pain. I stopped my stretch and went back to laying how I was, which felt so uncomfortable now. I blinked a bit as some tears formed in my eyes. At least my eyes weren't dry now.

The pain died down but not entirely, and now, I didn't really feel like having a nap anymore, even though I was tired. The ceiling was no longer interesting to look at and the sounds I had tuned out were back. I was also noticing some other stuff in my vision. There was a muzzle on my muzzle... no, that's a... a ventilator mask. Weird.

One of the sounds that I had tuned out suddenly got my attention. It was a continuous and rhythmic beeping which I think was familiar... Was I in a hospital?

I looked to my left and saw three machines that were hooked up to me. One was a breathing machine since it was attached to the mask on my face with a pipe. The second was a heart monitor, and the third was something that had a wire going to my head. I looked up and saw that the wire was attached to a cone thing on my horn.

I tried to reach out to it with my magic and regretted that when all I got was a bad headache, which put more tears in my eyes. Why was I here? Just to suffer? No, I was just bitching about problems that I caused. The pain didn't become any lesser at that realisation. Instead, my thoughts wandered back to the warm thing I wanted.

This time, I remembered what it was.

A hug. I wanted a hug. I wanted to be hugged and told that everything's going to be alright. I was disappointed in myself for wanting that. Not because it's a weird thing to ask for, even though it is, but because I should know by now that I'm not going to get what I want and that I should adjust my expectations with that in mind. I was alone and that was it.

I missed Brush; she'd tell me that everything was alright. I missed Spider; he'd make cute noises and hug me as well. I hope that he's alright at home...

Memories came to me. He was gone; crushed to deat–

A chirp came from the foot of the bed. I looked down, looking past my body covered in dressing and bandages, and saw Spider standing at the end of the bed and looking at me. He was alive!

I tried reaching out to him but found that my hoof couldn't reach him. I tried getting up but found that my right arm was in a cast and that it pained too much to move and that I couldn't breathe properly. I was forced to lay back down and get my breath back. Spider watched me silently as I did.

"Spider," I managed to whisper as my breathing steadied. "Come here."

I had seen him die but here he was, and I wanted nothing more than to keep him close to me, away from where people could get him.

Spider didn't hear me, I think, since he just stood there at the foot of the bed and started at me. I tried again to say something but I coughed painfully instead. My mouth had too much saliva and I swallowed it but that just made it harder to breathe.

Spider made the saddest, most gut-wrenching chirp as he saw me struggle to breathe, and he jumped off the bed and walked to the door behind him, hidden by the bed getting in the way. I bet he was going to get someone to help me, like the good bug he wa–

There was a loud crunch and the room was plunged in silence. A void formed in my chest as I recognised the sound. It was the sound of him being crushed. It couldn't have been. I– I didn't see him get crushed, and it could have been something else– it had to be.

But I knew he was gone. I had seen him die for me.

I slowly lifted my head so that I could see over the foot of the bed and confirm that I was wrong, and that he was alive and alright.

There was a dead bug there. It was my fault.

I woke up in the dark, feeling cold. It wasn't that cold, but I would have liked having a scarf or something like that.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on a bed. I was still in the hospital, and in the same room from that nightmare. I immediately lifted my head up, and saw that there was nothing on the floor in front of the bed. My chest didn't hurt much and there weren't any machines hooked up to me. It was just me and the bed.

And the silence.

The silence, I could focus on only it. It didn't matter that the room was completely bare, or that there was no door or window, or that something was standing at the wall in front of my bed. All that mattered was the silence. The silence, it– it felt accusatory. Did I do something wrong? Knowing me, I probably did. But what?

The silence didn't give an answer and continued glaring at me, like it was expecting me to figure out what I did. I hated it. I hated it and wished that I could hide under a blanket, or have someone hug me, or both, but I knew well that I couldn't have either. I didn't deserve to. I had done something wrong.

What did I do wrong? I'm only pretending to forget so that I don't have to take responsibility.

The silence was oppressive and all-encompassing. I couldn't hide from it and there was nobody to save me from it. Or was somebody there just choosing to not save me, just like when I didn't stop that bitch from killing Spider. I had a clear shot but I didn't take it. He adored me and I adored him but I let him die. I could've saved him but I didn't. Why should someone help me if I couldn't help them back?

That was it. Spider's death was what I was forgetting. That was what made the silence judge me. That was why nobody would help me from here, and honestly, they shouldn't. I wanted my friends– no, friend to barge in and tell me that everything was alright. But why should she? Why should Brush help me? I wasn't a good friend, or a good person, especially if I just wanted help despite not knowing if I could, or would, return the favour. I'd probably forget all about her the first chance I get, just like I forgot Spider.

I felt tears form in my eyes. I should've been lamenting his death, but here I was, crying about being alone of all things. I was just a bitch who took and took and never gave back our felt grateful. Maybe my parents were right, maybe I am a disappointing thing. I saw myself curl up and hide my face behind my mane. I started crying. Pathetic.

"Oh, you're still alive?"

I looked up to where the voice came from, and through my tears-soaked eyes, I saw a dark figure standing at the foot of the bed. She stared at me with a predatory look and a knife in her hoof.

"Don't worry, I'll finish you off."

She raised the knife and lunged at me. I couldn't back away in time and only got to sit up straight, which made it easier for her to catch me by my throat and pin me down.

"How weak, can't believe you're that pathetic," she commented with a sneer. I tried shrinking away from her, to hide behind my mane, or anything but she held me down firmly.

Then, she stabbed me. There was pain everywhere as she stabbed me repeatedly. I cried because that was all I could do. How pathetic.

I woke up in the dark, feeling cold and miserable. I could feel tears running down my face, pain all over, and the biting cold take away whatever warmth I had, but I didn't do anything to stop it either. I didn't deserve to feel nice. I lay on some cold surface that made me feel so small and all I could do was curl up and cry. I didn't even remember why but I felt terrible.

I don't know how much time passed, but it felt like a lot of time, and in that time, I could feel a void inside me grow larger and larger. Why couldn't things just be okay? Maybe things would be alright if I wasn't a pathetic and weak loser.

My very long moment of weakness was interrupted eventually. I heard a door open and a voice call out to me, "Get up."

I opened my eyes and looked up to see an open door on the wall in front of me. On the other side of it were stairs that led up to somewhere. I ceased my crying and wiped the tears from my face using my left hoof.

The voice called out again, "Get up."

I obeyed, getting up slowly while barely ignoring all the pain. I stood on three legs with my right foreleg being broken and I had to hold it up like a dog would hold up its injured leg to avoid stepping on it.

"She's up there," the voice said to me. I could hear footsteps from the stairs. That bitch wasn't out of my house yet. "Take revenge."

I hobbled forward to the stairs, determined to kill. How would I do it? Painfully.

But by the time I reached the stairs, my determination was waning. Just getting to the stairs had taken me so long and I was rather winded by it, but I soldiered on and started making my way upstairs, thinking that I'd make it to that intruder and tear her to pieces. I should know by now that I'll fail to meet any expectation.

Each step was harder to go up than the last. Each step was larger than the last. Each step loomed more and more over me like a sheer cliff face. I climbed over each step before me, ignoring the pain my body felt or how my lungs burned as they struggled to get enough air.

I looked back for a moment. I had gone up just one step that was barely a centimeter– no, it was barely a millimeter in height.

I looked back to the step in front of me, whose top I could barely see. The footsteps upstairs were slowly fading away as she got away from me. No! I can't let her go! I grit my teeth and started clambering up the step as fast as I could, forcing my right foreleg to work no matter how much it hurt.

She wouldn't get away.

I finally reached the top and dragged myself over the top, laying down just for a moment to get back my breath and rest my failure of a body.

A shadow fell over me.

I looked up and saw the dark figure of the intruder standing atop the vertigo-inducing step. She was impossibly large and imposing, and she looked down at me with contempt.

"You should'a stayed down."

She lifted a hoof and bright it when towards me. The gigantic appendage came down and hit me directly on my horn, pushing me off the step I had worked so hard to climb up. The world warped as I fell down a million mountain-like steps and hit myself on each one. The intruder was all I could see as I fell and she laughed at me, seeing how WEAK I was. I fell on my left side, my broken foreleg, my horn, and everywhere else where it would hurt a lot.

After much falling, I hit the floor. The door shut close, stopping me from going back up — not that I could. I'd just get kicked down again. I failed.

I curled up, both from the pain of falling and the pain of failing. All that bravado, all that determination, all of it was just crap. I had her right in front of me and she just kicked me down the stairs like the worm I was. Everything hurt.

I failed.

I could feel tears building up in my eyes once more. This was all I could do: cry like a bitch. I failed to avenge Spider. I've already failed myself, I'd fail my colleague, I'd fail my friend, I'd fail Voth. It was all I could do: be a failure.

The world around me shrunk as I stayed curled up and cried pathetically at myself. II was so alone and I HATED it. I missed my friend. When would this pain end?

Suddenly, the world was warm again. Something– no, someone came to my side and laid down next to me. I opened my eyes as I felt a wing drape over me, and I looked to see who it was. Through my blurry vision, I saw that it was Voth. I immediately latched onto him. Even after all my faults, he was still here. Or he was here to tell me he's letting me go since he found someone who can do the ONE task he gave me better.

I blabbered apologies for wasting his time at that realisation and I did my best to get him to not leave me.

Or, that's what I tried to do, at least. In actuality, I ended up just crying into his chest while barely being able to make words come out of my mouth. I think he got the message, but it was still embarrassing of me to be crying so much I couldn't speak. I was weak.

The world around kept shrinking until it was only me and Voth. He held onto me, gently rubbing my back as I cried. He didn't go.

Voth looked down at Anya with pity. Her mind was being assaulted by outside magic as doctors put magic back into her system after he had made her drain it all, and as a side-effect, she was feeling pain in the real world and going through a fever dream stuck in between the dream realm, the mind, and the waking world.

The forced magic pumping was important since her body naturally refilling its magic would be a slow process that would leave her with volatile magic for a while. Volatile magic would push back against the healing spells the doctors would put on her and that was obviously bad. She might even end up dead if it pushes back too hard considering her current situation.

However, the magic pumping was also breaking all the blocks that he had put on her mind and emotions, releasing all the emotions that had built up behind them onto her already vulnerable mind, which consequently made the fever dream she was having even worse. Voth couldn't put back the blocks until the doctors were done, meaning that he could only keep her company throught the condition that was only the fault of her inferior biology, unless he was ready to risk accidentally causing more harm to Anya. How he hated the uncertainty of the effects of eldritch power on inferior biology.

He kept her company in the dream realm and her mind, knowing he had to discuss the issue of her protection with her but that would have to wait until she was less distraught and more coherent. However, he could tell, from her crying and barely coherent thoughts as she faded in and out of the dream, that she was furious at her weakness and that she'd get to work on something to protect her the first moment she gets to.

He had to manipulate some of her thoughts around to divert her away from the method that would attract too much attention or require his help, to the methods that would be more subtle and not point towards him. Most importantly, he made her prioritise getting the key back before she did anything drastic.

Anya, meanwhile, stayed latched onto Voth and between her pain and fear, she was angry. Her entire problem had started because of her being weak, and now she had little control of her situation. She swore that when she woke up, she'd get to work right away on some implement to keep herself safe.

Author's Note

...Have you ever woken up? And woken up again? And again? And it was the weirdest but scariest dream you've ever had?

Damn, that was a weird dream. Anyway...

...Have you ever woken up? And woken up again? And again? And it was the weirdest but scariest dream you've ever had?

Chapter 40: New Priorities

When Bon Bon left the hospital five days after being eaten alive, spat out, and then being pulled out of the ground, the first thing she wanted to do was to go home and cuddle with Lyra for at least a day.

Lyra, who had been anxiously waiting for Bon Bon in the lobby, wanted to take her home, shout at her for not being careful and making her worried, and then cuddle with her.

Investigator Sharp Eye, who was also waiting in the lobby, wanted to know what had buried his colleague alive after her disastrous mission, and also discuss some other important things.

Of the three, the investigator's work had the highest priority.

Bon Bon repeatedly questioned if that was true as she waited for the investigator in an empty meeting room in the police station. It was illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun coming in through a window; it was perfect weather to be at home, but she was here. She knew that she'd be answering quite a few questions and she wished that she didn't have to and that she could go home already.

She couldn't leave yet though, and so, she passed her time tapping at the room's lone table while staring at the empty chair opposite from her, hoping that she'd zone out until the investigator came.

Her thoughts, however, kept wandering back to Anya's house and how it literally ate her and spat her out under some field. It was the monster that she had been looking for. It was what Anya was making, and it was what she had to destroy. She would have to inform the agency of the thing and get backup as well. She knew that Anya was still in the hospital and that they could get the drop on he–

The door to the room opened and Sharp Eye strode in, carrying with him a file in his right hoof and an annoyed look on his face. Bon Bon recognised him as her superior and relaxed somewhat, knowing that she wasn't dealing with a normal investigator. He took a seat opposite of Bon Bon and put the file down on the table.

He immediately started talking. "I hope your stay in the hospital was peaceful, agent Bon Bon, but we have business to attend to. To start off, what exactly happened after you were done putting up surveillance in the target's home?"

Bon Bon remembered the house coming alive and how she felt like she was actually going to die in there. After taking a few breaths to compose herself, she answered, "The house... it's alive."

Sharp Eye raised his eyebrow at that. She continued, "After I had knocked out Anya, I was just leaving the house when all the rooms started turning into... mouths. A– all the doors were locked shut and I couldn't escape out the windows either. It... it ate me, and spat me out under that field."

Bon Bon took a moment to calm herself. The memory of being inside that thing was still fresh in her mind.

"That house... that thing is dangerous. Anya's made it for sure and she's made it large. W– we have to do something about it!"

Sharp Eye didn't look disturbed at all, and Bon Bon thought that it was probably because she didn't describe it properly. Then, Sharp Eye spoke, "All the rooms turned to mouths?"

Bon Bon nodded.

"And it ate you?"

She nodded again.

Sharp Eye seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before saying, "Alright. Moving on–"

"Moving on?! There's a Faust-damned monster in town and who knows what Anya will make it do!"

Sharp Eye took a deep breath after Bon Bon was finished. He then started, "First things first, Anya did NOT make that thing."

"What?" Bon Bon was lost. That thing had all the signs of being engineered by a biomancer, but here was Sharp Eye, telling her it wasn't.

He continued his explanation, "That thing is a naturally occuring creature that we call 'living houses'. It's a kind of magical creature that exists both in the physical world and in a plane of reality right below ours, and it shifts between either when it pleases. It latches onto any structure that can accomodate its size, most of the time anyway."

"But it's still dangerous, right?" Bon Bon asked the important question.

"Depends on which type it is. The one you came across in her house is very likely one of the 'rural variety', as we call it. They're usually pretty large and nonviolent–"

"It literally ate me."

"And then it spat you out mostly unharmed. It could have done a lot worse. Remember how I said that they're pretty large? They don't get large just like that, they hunt and eat a lot of the surrounding fauna while gathering energy from flora, and ley lines if there are any. In cities, there isn't much of any of that, and that's how you get the other variety of living houses, the urban variety, which are a lot more aggressive and consume ponies primarily. The rural variety don't do that unless they're particularly pissed or if there's a shortage of food."

Bon Bon thought about what it would be like to be actually eaten. She then shook her head to get rid of the images, and asked, "Still, what are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing."

"...We're doing... nothing?" She had to confirm if she had heard him right.

"Well, not exactly nothing, but we're not going to be killing it like you're thinking. Killing it would affect the local ecosystem quite a bit, and the clean-up afterwards is going to be a big challenge. Plus, there are usually more than one–"

"There's more of them?" Her eyes were wide with since horror at that information.

"We don't know that yet but considering that the rural variety of living houses are rarely isolated, and that Ponyville's on a ley line, which these things can feed on, we can safely assume that there are more of them in town. Anyway, as I was saying, if there's more and we kill one, the rest will turn aggressive and that would be a lot more trouble than just leaving them alone. Mind you, we won't be leaving them completely alone — I'll have a team come down here to find and set up surveillance for all instances of living houses in the town."

Bon Bon took a minute to process all that information. There were more than one of those things in the town and it was safe? It was hard to believe for her.

"So, do we tell Anya or?" she asked dumbly before stopping herself. Why would they tell her, it's supposed to be secret. Besides, she'd probably try and use it to further her own goals if she knew.

"No, we won't be telling her since it is very unlikely that it will harm her. On the topic of harm though...

Agent Bon Bon, your handling of Anya was terrible."

Bon Bon had not really expected that; she had thought the issue of the living house would be more important.

Sharp Eye continued, his tone shifting from annoyed to slightly angry, "You've made quite a mess with how you put her in the hospital–"

"It wasn't my fault that she kept fighti–" she tried defending herself but was cut off.

"It's your fault that you didn't plan out your mission to avoid that entirely! Do you know how Anya was found? She cried out for help in a dream. Princess Luna herself sent a letter to the police here to go and save her, and now that I've settled this as a burglary, she wants to know who was behind it. A princess, who also happens to know Anya personally, wants answers and I can't just go and tell her that a SMILE agent was behind it, not without the whole agency facing consequences! Do you know what this could mean for you?"

Bon Bon shook her head, and seeing that, Sharp Eye became slightly angrier. "You could be tried for aggravated assault, home invasion, and involuntary manslaughter if Anya dies, which she might. The agency would be put under a lot more oversight and bureaucracy that can interfere with our ability to protect Equestria."

"But she's a biomancer — a dark magic user — she'd eventually do something. I found books on other dark magics in her house!" Bon Bon argued as she tried justifying her actions.

"But we do not have any definitive evidence that would warrant that level of force being used, let alone any. Gathering that evidence was supposed to be the only thing you were to do in there!"

Both stayed silent for a while but the tension in the room didn't go down.

Finally, Sharp Eye spoke, his voice calm once more, "Look, what's happened has happened. The agency will work to keep our involvement in this incident secret. We'll get somepony to blame the burglary on if we can. You, on the other hoof, have a new task."

Bon Bon looked up at that.

"The cameras you put up in Anya's house were all destroyed by it. We can't go and put more up since they'll probably be broken as well. All the evidence you collected has been lost as well and I couldn't get all that much since I had to 'investigate' the scene," he said as he opened the file and flipped through a few of it's contents before closing it. "You are going to keep an eye on her through more active means."

"You're saying that... I should... become her friend so that I can keep track of what she does?"

"I didn't say that, but it will be a good way to achieve your goal."

"I don't think that's possible. I literally pissed her off enough for her to ban me from the library."

"Then you're going to fix that. Consider it as punishment for your unprofessional conduct, " he said, ignoring her complaint. He then pushed the file to her and said, "This file has all the information we could dig up on her. Use this as you need to."

Bon Bon turned the file and opened it, flipping through a bunch of pages that had quite a lot of information. It would help with the task for sure, but she was still not convinced, especially since it involved befriending a dark magic user, one that did not like her.

"Now, what we did here was discuss what attacked you while you were out on a walk. You'll tell the sheriff that you didn't see what asked you but that you think it might have been a timberwolf. Got it?"

She nodded, closing the file. In her mind, she almost wished that she wasn't a secret agent with all the things she had to do. However, she was one and she had to do get job. Said job could wait for some time though; she wanted to rest first.

I regretted waking up.

I was in some dim hospital room with my right arm in a cast and three different things hooked up to me. I was far from being okay, let alone comfortable, and I missed Voth's warm embrace. I don't know how much time I had been with him, using him as a shoulder to cry on, but I knew that it wasn't for long enough. I wanted to go back to sleep so that I could go back to him, but I didn't since I was too uncomfortable to, and because I'd be wasting more of his time as well.

I just stayed awake, wishing that I could turn over to lie on my stomach since lying on my back was becoming uncomfortable. I was immobilised though, with my right arm in a cast and all the stuff hooked up to me, and so, I could do nothing about it.

I could only look around the bare room, which didn't even have a window as far as I could tell. It was cold and the blanket I had was thin. My fur was pretty useless. Just like me.

I tried to go back to sleep once I realised that being awake wasn't worth it but my chest hurt too much and my mind wouldn't shut up. I almost tried casting the sleep spell but remembered the cone-thing on my horn and the nightmare I had had. I then tried to think about what I'd make to protect myself and anything else that I wanted to, but I couldn't focus enough to even get a vague idea. So much for my mind not shutting up. I was frustrated with myself.

I eventually decided to call Voth and get him to put me to sleep. I felt a bit guilty about disturbing him just because I wasn't content with doing nothing but I buried my feelings for a bit.

'Voth,' I said in my mind. He came quick, letting me continue, 'Can you put me to sleep?'

I recieved my answer as suddenly, my eyes felt heavy and the world faded into black. I was floating in darkness for a while, which was nice since I couldn't feel any of my injuries or any pain.

I opened my eyes when I stopped floating and I found myself in my bedroom. There was no light but I could look around without any issue. My right arm wasn't broken and my torso wasn't covered in bandages and dressings and I could see alright as well. I was clearly in a dream.

I was sitting on my bed and there was the sound and smell of rain filling the air, all of which were a thousand times better than the bare hospital room. I pulled the blanket and pillow on the bed into a pile, which I then started kneading at so that it would be perfect to lie down on.

Once I was done making the pile perfect, I lay down on it and curled up with my back to the wall. It was so much nicer than the hospital. I closed my eyes for a moment and nuzzled the pile, appreciating how soft and fuzzy it was. It was almost like hugging someone. Almost. It was still cold though and not in a comfortable way. I didn't complain though. It was more than I deserved anyway.

The door opened, making me open my eyes and lift my head up. I saw Voth walk into the room. I was going to thank him for the nice dream but was cut off by Voth stepping onto the bed and then laying down next to me. He curled up around me and draped a wing over me as well. It was warm and fluffy even though he was made entirely out of skin and eyes, and I found that I could think more clearly now that he was here. He put his left arm over me and began, "I HAVE COME TO SPEAK ABOUT YOUR SAFETY."

"Oh," I replied as I put my head back down onto the pile. "I haven't really thought about it yet."

"IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU DO I PREFER YOU DO NOT PERISH BEFORE YOU FIND MY KEY."

"Hmm, but how would I do it? Do I just become buff? Or should I make a gun?"

Voth didn't say anything, letting me think a bit. Becoming buff would be hard since it involved exercise and going to gym and whatnot, and all that was stuff I probably could not do. Because I was weak. Making a gun would be difficult as well but for different reasons.

If I went the full magic route, I'd make a thing called a 'spell slinger' which was basically a magic gun. Those things were used extensively in this world's two world wars, after which they were phased out, partly because they were just stopgap solutions to arm a lot of people very quickly and partly because there were few major wars afterwards, which was a bit weird for me since my original world had three world wars and was on the verge of a fourth. I guess these guys are just more peaceful. Anyway, as a result, they're very well regulated and hard to get and making one at home would be a crime.

I couldn't make a traditional gun with gunpowder and stuff because I didn't know how to, and I'm sure that I wouldn't even be able to get gunpowder because it's something you use to get yourself a working cannon i.e. a controlled thing.

That left me with the option of either making something that wasn't a gun, or a gun that wasn't covered by the law. But would I really do that, introduce new ways to kill people?

The image of Spider's crushed body came to my mind and I made my decision quickly after that. I'll make something lethal. But what?

I thought some more and eventually, something came to my mind. In my old world, there were two superpowers: the Union of Free Nations and the Eurasian Union, and long story short, the Eurasian Union has been arming its soldiers with coil-guns since like, the 2020s.

The idea behind a coil-gun was simple — just use timed electromagnets to accelerate a projectile to devastating speeds. I could make that, especially since I had literal magic to help me. It would be great since it wouldn't depend on my combat magic skills, and the parts would be simple enough to find or replace with a magical equivalent.

"What if I make a coil-gun?" I said to Voth, proposing my idea.

"I SUPPOSE THAT WILL WORK BUT I ALSO HOPE THAT YOU DECIDE TO INCREASE YOUR NATURAL STRENGTH."

That was reassuring to hear and I returned to resting. Voth didn't leave like I expected him to but that was alright with me since he was warm. I'd hate to wake up. It felt nice with him and he wouldn't be there in the physical world.

I'll have to wake up eventually though, and when I do, I'll have work to do. But until then, I could rest.

Author's Note

29sa jL

The home invader when a singular iron nail sails through the air and towards their head at 200 m/s (they're gonna be real open minded soon):

Chapter 41: The Calm

I opened my eyes and groaned a bit as I turned in bed to lie down on my right side, and hopefully return to sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, my sides started paining and I was forced to get up to stop that. I looked around as the pain slowly died down. What was the time again?

The light in my room was on, meaning that it was either easily morning or evening. The vibe in the air, and the clock on the wall above the door, told me that it was evening, about six. I couldn't be sure though since the clock was a stupid twelve hour clock, and I could have been misinterpreting the vibe. I didn't know the date either, besides that it was August, but I knew that something was happening today — something that I couldn't remember but had been looking forward to. Was that why I woke up?

I sat in silence for a while, slowly remembering. It had been around three weeks since I first came into the hospital and I had kinda lost track of time. There wasn't much to do besides rest and I really disliked that. Inactivity sucked ass.

My face scrunched up as I remembered the first two weeks of being here. I was stuck to the bed for those weeks. The first week was terrible with all the magic pumping to restore my internal magic giving me fever dreams. The second had gone better, except for when a doctor came into my room and fixed my broken arm using magic. I shuddered as I remembered how much it pained. They had moved onto fixing all the other wounds I had left after that.

After that, it was an extremely boring experience. I don't have much to do — the hospital's selection of books was small, and I didn't get any visits besides Mayor Mare and sheriff Steel and they came purely for business. As a result, I felt... trapped and lonely. Very lonely. I guess there's no-one that cares that much about me. Or maybe they were just busy. It's not like I'm particularly important anyway. I had just got too used to having someone talking to me everyday as a friend.

I had to stay until the doctors could confirm that my magic is back to normal and didn't just randomly decide to fuck itself —which it could somehow — after which I could finally leave this place. That day was today. I finally remembered why I was looking forward to today.

As if on cue, the door opened and a nurse, nurse Redheart, walked in. She smiled at me while I managed to give her a neutral expression.

"I've got your glasses," she said to me as she came close and handed me a case that I hadn't seen her holding.

"Thanks," I whispered as I took the case and opened it. Inside were my new glasses. I picked them up and put them on. They weren't as good as my previous pair in terms of improving vision, but they were a lot stronger. I'd take that over vision since seeing clearly wasn't something that was high on my list of priorities — I doubt that there were even glasses that could help me do that.

"Now, let's get you checked out," she continued, prompting me to get off the bed. Once I was off, I followed her out the room, limping a bit on my right arm and already losing my breath. I soldiered on though; going back home was the top priority in my mind.

I walked through the streets of Ponyville as the sun slowly went down. I was right about it being evening. There weren't many people out at this time even though there was plenty of light outside. Those that were outside saw me walking with a slight limp and heavy breathing and probably thought that I was some old hag. I tried to not pay them any mind but I could tell even through my blurry vision that they were staring at me.

Despite it not being good for me, I walked faster. No need for them to see me for any longer in my current state. As a result of walking faster, I reached home quicker and I was winded as well.

I opened the door and paused for a moment as I remembered some important things. Mainly, all the blood and guts down in the basement. Did someone clean them? I sniffed the air and found that the smell of rotting stuff wasn't present, meaning that someone did. I thought some more and remembered when the sheriff had visited me and told me along with other things — like how they couldn't identify the bitch who broke into my home — that he had given the key to my house to Twilight (the copy that I used to open the door now was under a random rock on the lawn).

Did she clean the place? If she did then I'll have to thank her. But if she cleaned the place then that means she went through my stuff as well. I shook my head at that thought. She might have gone through my stuff but it was for my own good. I didn't dwell on that for long while outside and headed inside.

I closed the door and sat down on the floor, taking some time to catch my breath and sort out my thoughts. I had stuff to do, like saying thanks to Twilight or whoever cleaned up my place, going to work tomorrow, getting all the parts for the coilgun, more locks for the door, and bills–

Actually, health insurance covered those for me. That's what Mayor Mare had told me when she visited me (besides a 'get well soon'). Remembering that made my mood better. At least I'm not going to be penniless once again.

I moved onto thinking about how I'l deal with the other stuff. Going to work tomorrow was necessary since I had missed three weeks of work already and I didn't need more rest even though my body acted like it; it was just lethargic after being stuck in bed. Parts for the coilgun should be easy as well. I had made a mental list of the stuff I'll need and none of it was really expensive or hard to get, if I assumed correctly, and I'm sure I have some of the parts already but I'll have to check that. Thanking whoever cleaned my place should be easy as well; I just had to find them. Locks should be easy too.

I got up, ready to go to the kitchen and make something to eat. I don't really think the bread I brought that day is good now. Cereal would have been fine, but I'm pretty sure the milk had spoiled as well. Anything else I had would take time to cook, and I really didn't feel like spending that much time. I guess I could see if there's something in the kitchen I forgot about. I'll have to go and get groceries tomorrow.

I yawned. Thankfully, I'll deal with a lot of that tomorrow and not today.

Just as I was going to take a step, someone knocked at the door. I turned and opened the door just a bit so that I could see who was there. I then opened the door fully as it was Brush who was outside.

She immediately pulled me into a hug and said a lot of things that I didn't quite catch because I was too busy appreciating just how good being hugged felt, especially with how soft Brush was and how she hugged with her wings as well, and also how it felt nice knowing someone cared. I leaned into her as I hugged her back. Brush stopped talking and we stayed silent for a little while.

Eventually, she pulled away, which I didn't like much — not that I tried stopping her or expressing displeasure at that — and she looked me over, likely to see if I was alright.

"You're feeling fine, right?" She asked me as she stopped and looked me in the eye with her ears lowered and her eyes wide.

"Yeah, just a bit tired," I answered as casually as I could since I didn't want her to be worried about me. Like I expected, she calmed somewhat and she hugged me again, not with her wings though.

"So, what do you want?" I asked her.

"Oh, I saw you walking and remembered that I have to give you your key," she said as she pulled back and unfurled her right wing. She pulled out my house's key from in between her feathers and handed it to me. I took it in my hoof and put it on the key holder next to the door.

"Thanks," I said to her before remembering that the sheriff had given the key to Twilight and not her. "Say, how'd you get it?"

"Well, after the sheriff was done with his investigation here, he has handed the key to Twilight, and she came here. I had seen her and followed her here. We met and she told me that she was just checking things out over here, and she invited me in and..." She paused to take a breath before continuing, her ears folding back a bit and her wings twitching as she did, "There was a lot of... blood and the– the dead spider. It was starting to smell bad and Twilight had the idea to clean up the place for you. I helped her with that. She's a lot nicer than I thought. She gave me the key and I've been coming here to feed your crucible for the last three weeks."

She smiled at me after finishing. I stared back, feeling a funny feeling in my chest. She had, along with Twilight, going out of their way to help me. I think that's the nicest thing anyone has done for me ever.

"Thanks," I managed to say to her after a while. All that time and all I could say was 'thanks'. Man, what an idiot I am.

We stayed silent for a few moments before Brush then added, "Twilight buried the spider in your backyard."

"Oh." I'll have to see that. "Thanks again, you can go."

Brush didn't turn to go. Instead, she said, "Actually, do you mind if I stay for a bit?"

"Not an issue, I'll be back in a minute. You can stay in the living room," I said to her. I turned and went to the backdoor.

I went outside and after a bit of looking around, I saw a spot where the dirt has been disturbed somewhat recently. The grass was already staying to grow back on it and there was a single, withered flower on the spot. I stopped in front of it and just stared at it.

Below that dirt was Spider.

I had seen death before, quite a bit. I had lost people that I would describe as friends, not as close as Brush or Twilight, but friends nonetheless. I hadn't felt particularly sad at any of those since I knew that life ends eventually. Still, looking at the grave made me feel sad. Maybe it was because I had literally made Spider, maybe it was because I felt like I hadn't given him enough in his short life, or maybe because I could have saved him but didn't. Whatever it was, it made me feel sad.

I heard Brush come up and stand besides me but I didn't take my eyes off the grave. We both stood there in silence, only the sound of the evening breeze around us.

Eventually, Brush spoke, "Twilight told me that you liked it quite a lot."

"I did."

"I'm here if you need someone."

I nodded slightly. The memory of him dying kept playing in my head as I stared at the grave. I didn't cry. Brush came closer and put a wing over my back.

Then, a dark thought came.

It couldn't have been a burglary. Whoever that bitch was, she definitely had some other motive for breaking into my house. Maybe it was the rumours about my work. Would something like this happen again? Would they be content just with killing me?

I glanced at Brush and an even darker image came to my mind. If the break-in was to scare me, why would they stop at hurting my creations? They could go for my friends.

The thought might have been irrational but it was still a scary thought. They could get hurt because of me. All because I was doing dark magic because I couldn't handle free time.

I was no longer sad.

I was angry.

Angry at myself for putting people in danger, angry at that bitch who killed Spider, angry at the people for being so susceptible to rumours. I was not angry, I was furious. Biomancy would have to wait, the coil-gun had the priority now.

I'm not gonna be defenseless again.

Author's Note

13s Au

Hey hey people, the next few chapters will probably delve deeper into magic and Anya will learn a secret thingie as she goes down the dark path :3 (that might be messed up from everyone else's pov)

Rant-ish:
Also, mfs keep down-voting without commenting why. While I do understand that my story is not exactly great and that comments take time to make, it still sucks to not have any feedback.

Chapter 42: Not As Many Answers As Advertised

It was half past five and it was hot outside.

Bon Bon would have stayed in her shop, or her home that was right above the shop, and appreciated the wonders of air conditioning and not being outside. However, she was nowhere in her shop or home; she was outside.

Any sane pony would've stayed at home, and she was a sane pony. However, she could not say the same about Lyra, who was the reason why she was outside. As much as Bon Bon loved Lyra, she still considered knocking her out and taking her back home to where everything was safe, cool, and not sweaty. She didn't do that since Lyra would be very cross with her if she did and because Lyra was on a mission that Bon Bon could potentially benefit from.

Lyra's mission was simple: go to Anya and thank her for teaching her biomancy with plants.

Ignoring her own mission, Bon Bon could have just stayed at home and let Lyra go by herself but she didn't because Lyra was going to Anya's house, both of which could harm her.

The house by itself was a problem and Bon Bon wanted her to stay away from it even if it was 'safe'. The owner of the house was an entirely different set of problems. The file she had been given had all the information that was available on Anya, and a few bits of it were huge red flags to Bon Bon.

Of course, she couldn't stop Lyra, not without revealing secrets that would get her reassigned to somewhere else while getting Lyra a memory wipe, two things that Bon Bon did not want. So, she opted to go with Lyra so that she could at least protect her.

That did not stop her from complaining about how hot it was.

"Couldn't we have gone later?"

"Oh, come on, Bon Bon, it's not as hot as you're making it sound! Besides, we'll be quick," Lyra replied, ignoring how both her and Bon Bon were sweating as though they were trying to bring about the biblical flood. "And if I'm right, there'll be plenty of shade once we're out of the town."

The rest of their conversation went something like that as they made their way from their house in the center of the town to the outskirts. Just like Lyra had said, there was a lot more shade in the form of trees at the outskirts.

Eventually, they were past the crossroads and on the wooded path, and that's when Bon Bon started feeling nervous. She wasn't scared or anything, she was just worried about Lyra. She didn't know the kind of place they were going to, nor did she know the kind of pony she would be talking to, and Bon Bon couldn't warn her.

Bon Bon was pulled out of her anxious thoughts when Anya's house came into view, and seeing the house plunged her into similar but more vivid, anxious thoughts.

The house was a living thing. It had a body that could phase in and out of their plane, it could make each of its rooms into a mouth, and it could very easily eat the pair, and the worst part was that there would be no escape if they went inside the house, and there wouldn't be a trace of Tehran left. They might break stuff, like the bars on the windows, but the house would just repaie that like it already had.

Maybe being outside wasn't safe either. The thing was big, if Bon Bon were to go by the distance between the house and the field it put her under, and there were definitely more of these things. She couldn't wait for the S.M.I.L.E. team that would come to town and find every one of them so that she could avoid those places and not let Lyra go there either.

The pair stopped in front of the house. Lyra only seemed mildly intrigued by the dark building, opting to knock on the door instead of looking at it for its details. Bon Bon, on the other hand, was barely able to stop herself from looking at it as though the windows were going to reveal themselves to be giant eyes. They already felt like it, to her at least, and she considered the idea that the thing was staring at her through invisible eyes and knew who she was and wanted to hurt her.

The house was, as she had thought, doing the part about looking at the pair with invisible eyes, but it didn't recognise either of them and didn't have any reaction to them as a result.

The two waited at the door for a while, each moment both tense and calming, for Bon Bon specifically. Nopony answering the door meant that Anya wasn't home and that they wouldn't be going inside, which was relieving, but waiting outside made her feel exposed.

"I don't think she's home," Bon Bon said, hoping to get Lyra to leave this place, for now at least

"Hmm, I guess we can come back later," Lyra said, her smile replaced with a slight frown.

Bon Bon turned away from the door, almost smiling about not having to deal with this today.

Then, she heard a branch snap from the path. Lyra turned just in time to see that Anya was walking towards them, clearly winded from carrying saddlebags of groceries. Lyra winced a bit at seeing her limp up to the door. Bon Bon almost sneered at Anya, before remembering that she had to be nice to her.

"Hi Anya," Lyra said, putting her smile back on as Anya stopped in front of them.

"Hey hey," Anya responded in an almost-whisper with a hoof raised in greeting, after she stopped to catch her breath. She continued, louder than before but still short of a normal volume, "Why're you guys here?"

"I came by to tell you thanks for helping me with biomancy. It was pretty great at the festival; almost everything that I made was sold!" Lyra answered excitedly.

Anya didn't mirror her excitement but she smiled and replied, "That's cool."

"And as a thanks, I got you some of the stuff I made!"

Bon Bon silently cringed at that. She knew how it would play out: Anya invites them in, they walk into the house, and then it eats them... well, that might not happen but the very thought of it, especially the part with Lyra getting hurt, made Bon Bon nervous.

Anya, meanwhile, had one of her ears lower as she looked at Lyra inquisitively. Bon Bon didn't like that expression all that much (she wanted to punch her in the face) but didn't express that, while Lyra smiled nervously. Then, Anya's ear went back up and she said with a smile, "That's very nice, come on in and you can show me what you got. I'll get you guys something to drink as well."

She didn't wait for a reply, unlocking the door and letting them in.

Bon Bon almost didn't enter. Almost. She knew that she would be stepping into the mouth of a monster if she stepped inside, but if she didn't, Lyra would be alone in there. She followed them inside reluctantly, keeping her eyes peeled and ears up while looking as casual as she could, which was surprisingly quite a lot.

"You guys wait here, I'll drop this stuff off and get some water," Anya said as she left them in the living room and went to the kitchen.

Lyra and Bon Bon took a seat on the couch closer to the window. Bon Bon's ears went down as she suddenly remembered that she was underneath one of the many teeth of the living room. Of course, there were no teeth or any flesh-y things around but Bon Bon was still nervous. She wanted to leave the place as soon as she could.

Lyra noticed how nervous Bon Bon seemed, and asked, "Hey, Bonnie, you alright?"

"Y– yeah," Bon Bon lied, knowing very well that Lyra could tell that easily.

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"It's..." that they are in a giant monster and it could eat them any secon– "Just that the house feels weird."

Lyra raised an eyebrow at Bon Bon's half-truth. She then looked around and seemed to notice something. She put an arm around Bon Bon and said, "Yeah, it's pretty empty and she's been here for like, two months, I think."

Then, Lyra smiled and patted her saddlebags on her other side. "She'll definitely love the stuff I've got."

Bon Bon wished that she could have her optimism. Actually, she decided to try that. She looked around, a bit less nervous with the arm over her shoulder. If Anya had lived here for two months without incident then that was — besides being unfortunate — a good sign that the house was pretty passive. Or that Anya could communicate with it.

Well, at least it hadn't done anything to them. Yet.

She figured that trying to find a bright side was a bad way to deal with problems, and that she should just stick to the tried and tested method of ignoring the problem best as she could. Right then, the other problem entered the room with a tray that held two glasses of water.

Anya put down the tray on the table and took a seat on the other couch. Lyra immediately got to talking as she laid the various trinkets she had in her saddlebags or on the table one by one. Bon Bon, meanwhile, chose to observe Anya as Lyra explained all the things she sold at the festival.

Anya held a positive expression on her face, though her body didn't seem to reflect it, which was weird. Besides that, she looked everything like a witch while simultaneously looking nothing like one.

She was short, a bit hunched, and her face was ugly with the large scar and the assymetry of everything else on it. Yet, she also looked somewhat decent otherwise, and that, along with her colouring and rather long mane and tail, made her look weirdly harmless. It was hard to imagine that this was the same mare that had tried to strangle her to death like a wolf.

Bon Bon's eyes narrowed.

That was what Anya was, a wolf in pony skin, ready to strike when nopony expects it. Quite a few ponies in town had come to be fooled by the disguise already, and besides Rainbow Dash, she seemed to be the only pony that was wisely wary of her. If only she could put her down before she became a bigger problem.

Lyra pulled out the last of the trinkets and placed it among the dozen wooden statuettes and elaborate photo frames. She had saved the best for the last.

On the table lay a musical instrument. It vaguely resembled a guitar in shape, but the keybox on it made it clear it wasn't that. There was a wheel towards the lower end of it and a crank at the side. Five strings ran from one end to the other, three went through the keybox while the other two stayed outside. It was small as well, barely the size of a violin, which it looked related to.

Anya regarded the instrument with interest while Lyra was clearly excited to be presenting the thing.

"I made a few instruments as well, mostly flutes and lyres, but I made this thing as well. Of course, nopony was really interested in it but I know that you'll love it," she said as Anya picked it up and looked it over. She then turned the crank, making the wheel turn, rubbing on the strings. The sound that it produced was like that of a violin, one that hadn't been tuned.

"It's called a hurdy-gurdy. Pretty neat, right?" Lyra said after Anya stopped and put the instrument down.

"Yeah," Anya said, not sounding sure in her answer. Bon Bon grimaced at that, thinking that Anya didn't appreciate the thing Lyra had spent hours making. Anya continued, "But I think it'd be in better hands if someone else had it since I don't know how to play it."

Lyra's ears went down and she sunk a bit upon hearing that. Then, there was a spark in her eye and she sat up straight with her ears perked up. She said with barely contained excitement, "I could teach you."

Anya was surprised at hearing that. Bon Bon was surprised and slightly dismayed at hearing that.

"Ummm, thanks for the offer but I have... stuff going on," Anya said cryptically. "And I don't have that much money."

"Oh, don't worry about money, I'll teach you for free. Plus, your can swing by Bon Bon's store whenever, I'll be there. It'll take just an hour or two to learn," Lyra replied, still cheerful.

It was quite for a moment, and that's when Bon Bon decided to start her mission. "So, Anya."

"Yeah?"

"I wanted to apologise for how I talked to you that day, in the library," Bon Bon lied, knowing very well that apologising was the last thing she wanted to do. "I shouldn't have been like that."

Anya stared at her for a few uncomfortable moments before replying, "Okay, apology accepted."

"Just like that?" Bon Bon asked, not expecting this post to be that easy.

"Yeah, I don't feel like holding a grudge right now. Plus, you were nice about it," Anya said, clearly fooled by her lie.

Everything was quiet again for a little while. Then, Lyra said, "Anyway, we should be going now. It was nice talking to you, Anya."

The three got up and Anya let them out. On her way or, Bon Bon caught sight of a spool of copper wire on the kitchen table. They said their goodbyes and Lyra and Bon Bon were on their way home. They didn't make much conversation, letting Bon Bon think for a bit. She definitely hadn't got as much information as she wanted, but she had started her mission. There wasn't anything suspicious at Anya's, except the wire spool and she couldn't help but where what Anya was doing with it.

Whatever it was, Bon Bon would need to get closer to Anya to know about it.

Author's Note

14m Au

the hitch-hiker lied

sorry about slow update, I'm cooking on two other stories as well right now and a third one which I released some time back. Go check it out: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/560130/sacrifice

Chapter 43: The 1st step of artifice: GET MAGIC ROCK, ANY MEANS NECESSARY

Making a coil-gun is pretty simple. You need some pipes, wires, some other electrical components, and some magical components to replace electrical components that you might not have.

Making one was, unsurprisingly, completely legal...

Well, there was no law, provincial or state, against it since this world has only very recently learnt how to make breech-loading spell slingers while I was making sci-fi weapons, and since there was no law saying otherwise, it was alright to assume that it's perfectly legal for me to do so. Even if it wasn't, I could just claim to be a dumbass and probably get away with a fine. Better to be perceived as a dumbass in court than to actually be a dumbass in jail. That won't be a problem though if I get a weapons permit, which might be easy since pony me has had one in the past for a job and also because I live close to the Everfree forest. I might deal with that tomorrow though.

So, as I was saying, making a coil-gun is easy. I already had some of the stuff I needed, like the copper wire. The rest of the stuff, I had to get. I had to get amethyst, quartz, amber, glass, iron nails, lead, diamonds, and some other less important stuff. Well, I had almost all of the gems, though not as many as I needed, but the problem was that they had to be in certain shapes for them to be useful for me, and I didn't exactly have the tools I needed to make them into those shapes.

I didn't know what tools I need, let alone where to get them, nor did I know if there were any jewellers, or whoever you go to get your gems cut, in Ponyville. Of course, I could ditch the magical parts of the coil-gun and get capacitors and light gates but I'm sure that those things weren't sold in Ponyville either, at least not the kind I wanted.

I could get the other stuff though. I just had to go to the local Stable Depot where I got the copper wire spool yesterday.

I just had to get through work, which would last about an hour. I could have just left early, cutting bad health, but I didn't since I had already spent three weeks not working and I don't want to be more of a lazy bitch.

"Hey Anya, are you feeling alright?"

I looked up from staring at my desk to see that Twilight had come up to me and was looking at me with slight concern.

"Yeah, just thinking," I replied as I looked around. Not many people were in the library before I had zoned out and started thinking, and not many people were there after Twilight interrupted my thoughts. Today was a rather bad day to be in a library since it was kinda hot and stuffy in here.

"About what?" Twilight continued, sitting down on the floor next to me.

I thought about how I needed gems that were cut in a certain way for an improvised weapon, and figured that I probably could not tell her that. However, she was my friend and she wanted to help, and it wouldn't hurt to let her.

"Magically active gems," I began, getting all of her attention at the 'magical' part. "I have some at home and I need them to be cut in certain shapes to be useful for projects. However, I don't have any tools to cut them with, nor do I know if there's someone in town who could help me with that."

"I could help you with... well, I know somepony who can..." Twilight said, making me feel better even though I was sure that she was going add a 'but'.

She smiled really wide and said, "But, you have to tell me more about your projects — they sound really interesting."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but 'projects' actually means 'vague ideas that might not work' and not anything solid like you're imagining," I lied. Twilight's interest was mostly crushed at hearing that, and seeing her like that with her ears drooping and her smile fading made me feel bad. I didn't relent though and didn't tell her about my plans.

Now, it was just waiting.

"Well, you could tell me about those ideas then!"

Or maybe not.

The chat I had with Twilight went a lot better than I had expected. For starters, she was happy again, and I didn't reveal my plans either. That was probably because it was mostly her info-dumping everything she knew about magically active gems and the branch of magic it fell under — artifice. It might have been a bit boring but I listened to it all. That's what friends do, I think.

That chat had lasted a while and eventually, the clock struck five. We had closed the library and then Twilight said that she'd lead me to the person who could help me with gems. After a little detour to my house to get the gem box, we were on our way.

To where exactly? To her friend, Rarity.

It was a bit of a surprise since as far as I knew, she was a fashion designer, and not a jeweller. Twilight had seen my confusion and explained to me that Rarity had her own personal style of putting gems in the clothes she makes, which sounds pretty cool even to a fashion-ignorant person like me.

So, that's how we ended up at the most peculiar building in Ponyville: the Carousel Boutique.

I had seen it when I was put into this world but I had never been to it, not that I would have any reason to — fur covered up the stuff that had to be covered up, and it also provided some (not a lot in my case) protection from the elements, and I could get jackets and boots at some other store, although, I hadn't seen any such store anywhere in town. Does Rarity have a monopoly?

We entered the boutique, making a bell above the door sound.

The first thing I noticed was how pink and purple and bright everything inside was — I had expected the usual off-white walls and minimalist design that all boutiques seem to have.

The second thing I noticed was that a cat was coming towards us, and behind said cat was Rarity. She was white furred and kinda fat with messy hair — the cat, NOT Rarity — and had an expensive looking collar and a purple bow.

The cat stopped at Twilight's hooves and immediately started batting at them aggressively, making Twilight start backing away from her slowly. Rarity was quick though. She swooped in and picked up the cat, saving Twilight from it.

"Opalescence! That is no way to greet a friend, let alone a customer," Rarity scolded the cat, making it face her. The cat, Opalescence, just meowed in response. Rarity held her anger for just a few second before she broke and quietly apologised to it before putting it down. Opalescence walked off like nothing had happened. Classic cat behaviour.

Rarity then faced us, smiling, even though her ears were held down and her smile seemed desperate. Was it because of me?

"Good afternoon Rarity," Twilight greeted.

"Hi," I also greeted.

"Hello to both of you," Rarity said, her voice slightly shaky. "Twilight dear, are you here for your dress?"

Twilight was going to answer but Rarity kept talking. "I couldn't work with the dress that you gave me; it was simply too... unsuited for the gala, and as a result..."

She paused dramatically, making Twilight lean in towards her with her ears perked up. Then, with a flourish, she continued, "I made you a new dress entirely!"

Twilight pulled back and said, "Oh, thanks Rarity! Can I see it?"

She was going to say more but stopped and frowned. Then she said, "Wait, actually, we can do that later. Right now, I have some work."

"Ooo, what is it? Perhaps a new dress for a different occasio–"

"Actually, Anya here needs some help with gemstones."

Rarity looked to me and her cheerful attitude faltered. I remained mostly impassive — she probably doesn't like me much and I can't really blame her for it. I didn't like me much anyway.

"You guys can go ahead. I can wait," I said, deciding that I'll let them do their thing first. Pretty sure that seeing a dress will take a lot less time than gemstones, and I didn't want to hold them up with my crap.

"But Anya, we're here for your thin–"

"Yo, Rarity, what takes less time: seeing a dress or cutting gems?"

"Um, seeing a dress."

"Cool, you're gonna do that then."

"But–"

"Twilight, I can wait a bit."

Twilight looked at me with wide eyes and she kept opening and closing her mouth like a fish as she tried to say something. She looked over to Rarity, who just shrugged. Twilight finally gave up after that.

"Alright, but I'll try to keep it short," Twilight said, to which I gave a nod. "Okay, Rarity, let's see the dress."

Both her and Rarity went to a different room with the latter taking about she made dresses for everyone and how they had given her feedback and something else I didn't hear, leaving me to wait in the main area. I took a seat on a sofa-thing by some mannequins and just looked around. I have to say, these dresses and suits that Rarity is selling look pretty good. Bet they're expensive to match.

A soft meow caught my attention and I looked down to see that Rarity's cat had come back into the room. I looked at it and it looked back at me, meowing at me again.

"Salam," I said to it. It continued staring at me with a dumb look. Then, it jumped up to the sofa-thing and sat to my left. I paid it no mind and continued looking around, or at least I tried to. I was forced to look back down to the cat since it pawed at my thigh to get my attention. It saw that it got my attention and meowed at me while looking up at me expectantly. When I didn't do anything, it pawed at my thigh again. In response, I pet the cat, which it approved of since it made some happy cat noises and nuzzled my side.

The bell sounded as the door opened.

The cat stopped nuzzling me and I stopped petting it simultaneously. Both of us looked over to the door and saw that a person had come in.

It was Bon Bon.

Two birds with one stone.

Bon Bon loved that saying quite a lot. She loved it even more when a situation happened to fit the saying.

She had been going to Rarity's boutique to pick up two dresses that Lyra had ordered after she had recieved a ticket for the gala that would let her take a plus one. Naturally, Lyra took Bon Bon as her plus one because of course, she would.

Then, as Bon Bon was nearing the boutique, she saw one of the resident witches of Ponyville going into the shop with the element of magic.

At first, she had paused, thinking about why Anya would be going there. She wasn't the type of pony who'd wear anything fancy, if Bon Bon went by the information she had on her, and she knew that Anya was not on the list of ponies who had been given a ticket for the gala. It was something else for sure and she had the perfect opportunity to know what it was.

She had entered the boutique, looking as casual as she could. She immediately saw Anya sitting with Rarity's cat next to her. Besides the fact that Opal was being friendly to a pony besides Rarity, nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. Bon Bon kept her guard up regardless.

Anya waved at her while Opal sneered at her. She preferred the cat's response since she could say without a doubt that it was true. In her mind, Anya was most likely only pretending to be nice. In reality, Anya was genuinely being nice. Too bad that Bon Bon couldn't see that.

"Hey Anya, where's Rarity?" Bon Bon began, walking up to Anya but not sitting next to her since Opal was still glaring at her.

"In there," Anya answered while pointing to the door to the room where Rarity would work and store her projects. "She's showing a dress to Twilight."

"Ah, for the gala, right?" Bon Bon replied, getting Anya into a conversation. Beating around the bush sucked but she'd have to do it. Asking her directly what she was doing would come off as unfriendly.

"Yeah, pretty sure about that."

"You're here for a dress as well?"

"No, I have some other work."

"Other work?"

Anya could not elaborate as Rarity and Twilight came back into the room. Twilight looked cheerful while Rarity looked like she had seen her house burn down.

"Dear, are you sure you want everything on your dress to be like that?" Rarity asked Twilight as she trailed behind her, referencing something that could only be dreadful if one went by her voice or expression.

"Mhm." Twilight didn't even look back despite how unsure Rarity sounded.

"Even the stars?"

"Yes, even the stars. They're going to be the star of the show AND the dress." Twilight giggled at her joke.

Rarity went through the five stages of grief in the span of two seconds, knowing that making Twilight's dress to her demands would ruin her image greatly, especially since she had planned a fashion show starring Twilight and the rest of the elements.

She had hoped that at least Twilight would be happy with what she had made– that she would have at least one pony looking good, especially after the other four had asked for terrible changes to their dresses, but no! Even Twilight wanted terrible changes to be made to her dress. However, she didn't voice her concerns. Those were her friends' dresses after all and she had promised them 100% satisfaction, and so, she could not object to their choices.

"Anything else, dear?" Rarity asked, her voice hollow as she came to terms with the inevitability of the fashion show's disaster.

"Hmm, nope. Just Anya's work now. I'll go and get the rest of the girls like you said."

I'll admit this now, I am not exactly a great friend. I forget crap, I make shitty jokes, and am not really a great person either. However, I could at least see if I'm stressing someone out and work to fix that if that happens. Twilight clearly could not see that she was stressing Rarity out.

It was not my business to intervene though, and my work here was just to get gems. Whatever Twilight had asked of Rarity was between them, and me butting in would not be appreciated.

"Okay," Rarity said to Twilight as she left. She then turned to me, looking defeated. "What can I help you with?"

"Uh, yeah, I was told that you also work with gemstones," I began, getting up from my seat. Bon Bon moves aside while looking more interested in my work. The cat, on the other hand, looked annoyed that I left her just like that and jumped down from the seat to go elsewhere. "I have some that need to be cut into certain shapes."

"Yes, dear, I can do that. Come on over to the counter so I can take your order," she replied, slightly less defeated, as she walked to the other side of the counter.

I came up to the counter just as she laid out a paper on it. The paper had various gemstone shapes on it, all of them fancy looking, but none of them looking useful to me.

"You said you have the gemstones you want to be cut?"

At that, I pulled out the box I had from my saddlebags and put it on the counter. "I have most of them."

I opened it, and the first thing that Rarity said was, "Oh my, that's quite a lot of amber."

"So that's what those are called," I commented, making Rarity look at me weird. At least she didn't look defeated now, I guess. I picked out four of them and put them on the counter. "I need these to be cut into a cone shape."

"That's a rather... simple shape for jewellery. Are... are you using these for jewellery?"

"No, they're for artifice."

"Oh," Rarity said, clearly relieved to hear that.

"So, could you do that?"

"Actually, could you wait here for a moment. I have something you might like."

I nodded, and she turned and went into a room behind the counter. Immediately, Bon Bon came up to my side and said, "So, artifice?"

"Yeah," I answered, ignoring how suspicious she seemed of me when she asked that, and how weird it was since it didn't line up with her earlier friendliness.

"Why?" she continued, less suspicious.

"Sounded interesting," I lied. "Plus I had magically active gems lying around."

"So... there's no real point behind doing it?"

"Yeah," I lied again. Then, I added as a joke, "That's... how I roll."

"..."

"So, what are you going to make anyway?" she asked, saving me from the cringe of the joke.

"No idea right now, I'll just see what works," I lied once again. Bon Bon didn't look too convinced of the lie but thankfully, she didn't press me any further.

"Y'know, I know a thing or two about artifice," she said all of a sudden, making me turn my head. "I could help you with stuff, if you want."

"Uhh thanks for the offer," I replied, finding the offer rather strange. We didn't know each other very well, and it was weird to offer that kind of help just like that. What was she up to?

I didn't ask her that since that would be a bit rude, especially since she was probably just being nice... though, I couldn't shake off the feeling that she had some other motive. I think I'll keep my distance from her for now. Weird, considering I'm the one with hidden motives.

Eventually, Rarity returned. She carried in her magic, a large wooden box that was a bit dusty. She put it down on the counter and opened it, letting us see its contents: a lot of gemstones that were cut in simple shapes.

"I've had these sitting around from when my sister tried to get her cutie mark in cutting gems. I'm pretty sure that there's gems that you want in here..." She pulled out four ambers and put them on the counter to let me see them. The stones were roughly cone shaped, differing in height and quality by a little bit, but they were pretty close to what I wanted.

"These are what I want. Could I take a look in the box? I need some other gems as well."

"Go ahead, dear," she answered coolly before turning to Bon Bon. "And you're here for yours and Lyra's gala dresses, right? Come with me."

I started digging through the box as Rarity took Bon Bon to the room she had gone into with Twilight.

I was able to find about half of the gems I wanted. Four ambers shaped like cones, four amethysts shaped like octahedrons, and one quartz shaped like an obelisk with rounded edges. They were of decent quality, which was good as well. I needed three more quartz in the obelisk shape, and four diamonds shaped like a cone but with the base being rounded, like a teardrop.

I needed these particular shapes because of the properties of magically active gems. A rough gem sucked ass when it came to anything with magic except storing it, but a polished gem of the same type with equivalent mass could do that, and much more. I dug around the chest some more for but there were only gems with no use for me in there.

Just as I closed the chest, I heard Rarity and Bon Bon came back. Perfect, I can tell her what gems I need.

"Hey, Rarity, I picked out the stuff I want but I'll need some gems to be cut as well," I said to her as she went behind the counter. I looked up at her right after and saw that her brow was furrowed, her ears were halfway down, and that she kept looking between me, Bon Bon, and the floor while whispering something to herself and tapping her chin with a pen she held in her magic.

I glanced at Bon Bon and saw that she seemed just as confused as I was.

Rarity gasped all of a sudden and she no longer looked deep in thought and instead, she looked like she had a eureka moment.

"Darlings," she began, her voice eerily similar to that of someone who's presenting a scam to you. "I have an offer to make to you two."

"Uh, what is it?" Bon Bon asked.

"As you both know, I have planned a fashion show tonight at eight," she continued, her confidence slowly faltering with each word. "And it's starring the elements of harmony, minus me. However, I have run into a problem. My friends... they... I promised them that I'll make their dresses as they want it, no questions asked. The dresses they've asked me to make... they're terrible."

She actually started shedding tears at that.

"I– I– it would mean the world for me if either or both of you volunteered to go up on stage, wearing proper clothing. It'll save my image and put you in the spotlight. I'll owe you a lot if you do."

I stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

"Please." She started making puppy eyes at us.

"Uh, thanks for the offer Rarity, but I don't really think I'm cut out to go on stage, and I'm pretty sure I need a dress to go up there," I said after I managed to reign in my confusion and astonishment. Seriously, me, a model in a dress? I didn't even know there was a fashion show.

"Same here Rarity, I don't think I'm exactly suited for that even though I have a dress," Bon Bon added, making Rarity's ears droop. Then, her ears went back up and she jumped over the counter to us with a smile.

"Au contraire —" She brought out a bunch of measuring tapes and other stuff from behind the counter with her magic "— I think you both are perfectly suited for that. Er, one of you is. Anya, don't worry, I can whip up a dress in three hours, and you won't have to be on stage for long."

"Uhh..."

"The gems you want, I can give them to you in exchange for doing this."

"..."

"Bon Bon, I could cut down the cost of those dresses. Tartarus, I'll take your entry into the show as payment."

"Ehh..."

"Please."

"I... I'll go and check with Lyra," Bon Bon said, breaking to Rarity's pleading. Rarity brightened up like a lighthouse at that and I swear, she would have probably kissed Bon Bon as a thank you. Bon Bon quickly made her exit from the shop, leaving me alone with Rarity.

"Uhh, so, as I was saying, I need you to cut some gems," I said, getting back to my work.

"Oh, yes dear! What do you need?" Rarity asked, all signs of her sadness gone.

"Okay, so, I need three quartz shaped like this —" I levitated the obelisk shaped quartz from the counter "— and I need four diamonds in a tear shape, completely smooth, no edges. About twice as big as the quartz."

"Alright dear!" she replied, going back behind the counter and writing down stuff on a notepad.

"So, how much will it cost?"

"Hmmm, well, since these are all magically active gems and they're all simple shapes, it'll be relatively cheap. I could take some of your rough gems as part of payment, so..."

She pulled out a calculator and put in some numbers.

"It'll be a thousand and one hundred bits."

"One thousand one hundred bits?"

"Yes, you can make the payment today and come back on Thursday for the gems."

That was NOT cheap, for me at least. I had like, six thousand bits overall, and I couldn't take out over a thousand just like that. I almost considered dropping the coil-gun project. But then, there was her offer.

"Say, what if I volunteer for your fashion show?"

Fuck it, we ball.

I had done far more degrading work for far less — what was a fashion show compared to cleaning shit off the walls of a restroom? A walk, that was what it was, figuratively and literally. This should be rather simple.

Author's Note

15t Au

Bad puns are how eye roll.

She learns new magic, not good for Bon Bon. although, maybe them being in the show will help them get closer (Bon Bon profits easy)

I'm not entirely sure of putting Anya into the show. Any thoughts that you guys have on that subject?

Chapter 45: problems

I didn't know what time it was but the lack of light made it clear that I had woken up before sunrise. I lay on my bed, curled up around my pillow, on top of the dark blue and grey cloth mound that was the blanket and comforter.

It might have been messy but it was comfortable.

Right now, however, it wasn't comfortable. In fact, the cloth nest was sticky, rough, and it dug into my right side like a rock would, while also messing up my fur in ways that were just so aggravating. I had opened the window in hopes of letting a cool breeze into the bedroom but so far all I got was disgustingly humid and warm air. Tossing and turning in bed didn't do much to help me, especially since my mane just kept getting in my face or getting stuck under me, and I was starting to sweat. Just more things that aggravated me, and the fact that these were little things that were making me feel horrible just made things worse. I felt like I might cry.

On the topic of sleeping, I couldn't actually do it for some reason, even though I was fatigued as though I had run a marathon a few minutes ago. My body was sore-ish, except for my hindquarters which were sore-ish and also had a dull pain in them. Why? No fucking clue. I really felt like I might cry. Like a bitch.

I kept staring into the dark, my glasses still on since I had forgot to take them off before going to sleep. I had considered using the sleep spell Voth had given me but I couldn't remember it, and I didn't want to bother Voth about that, and even if I did bother him, he'd just refuse to tell me since he had decided that the spell was bad for my health.

I doubt I could sleep now with how hot and sweaty and sore I was feeling. To add to my problems, I was starting to feel a bit nauseous and hungry as well. The sound of silence was filling up my ears.

It was getting overwhelming. It was irritating how I was being overwhelmed by just feeling hungry and hot and sweaty. I was getting overwhelmed by how irritated I was. A vicious cycle had arisen and I wanted out.

I wish I had someone, lying next to me and helping make my situation better somehow, maybe by just telling me it'd be alright. I could almost imagine them just hugging me till the problems go away, while saying all sorts of nice things to m–

...

My ears flopped down without any conscious input at the realisation that there was nobody with me. I was alone. The overly self-indulgent thoughts didn't matter as much as me being alone, somehow.

I don't know why but that fact hurt quite a bit. Being hurt by that made me disappointed as well — it was my reality for quite some time meaning I should be used to it by now. Still, knowing that fact hurt, and knowing that it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future hurt more. I felt like I might actually cry.

I got out of bed. I wanted to be elsewhere — a place that wasn't hot and stuffy, and also had food. Maybe someone– nobody would be awake right now. I was alone. I had only myself to help myself. What a nightmare.

I stumbled around in the darkness for a bit before casting a horn-light. It was a simple spell, just concentrate magic in the horn to make light, but it gave me a headache. I would have just ignored it but something was wrong with me tonight– something was wrong with me all the time, just that tonight was worse for some reason.

Whatever, I just needed to get food. I guess I'm not me when I'm hungry...

That joke didn't improve my mood at all.

I found the light switch quickly enough to relieve my horn of its light-giving duties. Now that I wasn't doing magic, I felt a bit better. My body was still sore and sluggish though. I guessed that some stretching could fix that. And that's what I did. I stretched like a cat, and unlike a cat who felt real good after stretching, I was on the floor almost immediately, clutching my stomach as it pained. I curled up as it continued hurting and I could feel tears forming in my eyes. I didn't care much about that because of how much my abdomen hurt. It was like I was being repeatedly kicked in the balls, only that I had none. No, it was like I was being stabbed and beaten with a bat. It was terrible.

What the fuck was going wrong? Was I dying? I hope so, this pain is unbearable.

After much suffering for what felt like forever, the pain subsided. I was on the floor, curled up and making all sorts of pathetic noises like sniffling and choking back sobs as I tried hard to stop myself from crying hard. Some more, indeterminate amount of time passed and I finally got back up. It was embarrassing to be crying like that and I was angry at myself for that, but I had major concerns that needed to be addressed. Like, how hot it was and how hungry I was. I was sweating like a... ugh, whatever, I was covered in sweat and there were tears on my face and I felt disgusting. I was alone, maybe for the better — It'd be terrible if someone saw me like thi– I think I already do look like that all the time...

Maybe a cool bath would take my mind off all that.

That would have to wait though, my stomach told me by growling at me. I needed food. I was hungry, I don't know how much, but I felt like I could eat a... nevermind, not a horse, they suffered the same fate as neanderthals. Plus, I was craving something... sweet, like chocolate, or cheese maybe. No, not something to eat but just consume, like, I didn't know if I was craving a drink or a solid food, but I was craving something sweet. Hopefully the fridge had what I wanted.

I gingerly made my way to the stairs since my abdomen area still hurt a bit and I didn't want to cause myself a second 'too painful to walk' moment. I think I might stop by the bathroom since I was feeling more and more nauseous as I walked around in the dim yellow lights of my house that made me feel sick. I really wished that I had someone right now – I don't think they'd stay for long, if they somehow were here. I'm just that repulsive. Not even I like me.

I reached the stairs and stood before them, looking down into the darkness. It swirled just beyond the sick light as I stood and rested my body, and it made me think.

I was exhausted from so little exertion. This can't be the same body i used to haul two carts of stuff, or work construction with. I felt terrible for no real reason. Sure, I had just gone through what was probably the most physical pain I've gone through in my life, but I had felt terrible before that as well and I didn't know why.

It was irritating.

Everything was irritating.

The nausea-inducing lights, the oppressive silence, the high temperature, the horrid humidity, the sweat, my uncomfortable fur, my ugly repulsive body, my ravenous hunger, me being alone, my everything. I hated being myself, I wish I was someone else. Someone without all these dumb problems. Someone who was better. Better looking with better adaptation to the horrendous climate, someone less hungry, someone with someone to love them, someone who...

Who could appreciate what they had instead of being a bitch.

I felt like my heart was compressed, but then, I kinda deserved that. I had a house, a bed, and the luxury of having cravings of all things. There's many people who don't have any of that. I should be grateful for what I have and quit bitching about what I didn't have, though I'd definitely like the ability to get over myself, or the ability to not desire things I can't get or become.

My stomach growled at me again, uncaring about anything but its own needs. I wished I could punch it and tell it to shut up and die.

I started making my way downstairs, taking my time since I didn't want to trip and fall and also because of how sluggish my body still was.

Halfway down the stairs, I was forced to stop to let my pathetic body rest. I was taking in deep breaths as my heart pounded in my chest and my muscles begged me to sit down or something. And to think that I thought about getting buff earlier; my body would die on the path to the gym. I'll probably have to do something about that.

I continued down the stairs once my legs stopped burning from effort. I almost considered just walking around in the dark instead of spending more time in more sickening dim yellow lights but my head still hurt too much for me to cast a spell, meaning that I had to spend more time in the light.

I successfully ignored my nausea as I walked into the kitchen, where my hungry overpowered all the grossness and nausea I was feeling. I went straight for the fridge but I didn't immediately start going through what I had. The cold air of the fridge simply felt too good and I sat there in front of the open fridge, appreciating the cold.

I could have sat there for longer but my stomach had had enough of waiting around. I forced my arms to move and start moving the stuff in the fridge around as my stomach sent the all too familiar feeling of hunger to me.

I... didn't have a whole lot of stuff in the fridge besides basic food items. There was bread, sliced cheese, vegetables, milk, and the bar of chocolate I had recieved from Pinkie at the fashion show a few hours back. Nothing sweet to satisfy my cravings besides the woefully small chocolate. Still, my hunger remained and so did the craving.

I pulled out the bread, the cheese, a half-empty jug of milk, and the chocolate. I might not be able to satisfy my cravings but I'd satisfy my hunger at the very least.

I took two slices of bread and put in a slice of cheese in between and I didn't even cook it on the stove — I just ate it. It might have been cold, which made it feel weird when I bit down on it, but it was food. I ate the entire cheese sandwich in three bites like a gluttonous beast.

I made myself another sandwich, which befell the same fate. And another one. And another.

The more I ate, the hungrier I became, making me eat more. I definitely looked like some kind of freak right now– I looked like one all the time, but I couldn't care much right now. The bread tasted so fucking good.

I ate seven of the sandwiches before I stopped myself to get some drink to wash it all down. I took out a glass from one of the cupboards and filled it with the cold milk. I'd heat it up but i didn't have a microwave to do that quickly, and I didn't have the patience to put it on the stove, especially since I felt like milk might actually be what I was craving. Not plain milk, of course. I pulled out the sugar jar from the ingredients cupboard and pick out two spoons of it with my magic before dropping it into the glass.

I mix it with a spoon and voila, I have milk that tastes good.

Like anyone else would, I immediately took a big gulp of it, finishing the entire thing in about ten seconds. However, there was a problem.

I had felt hair in it. I don't know if that was my imagination or not, but the fact was that my tongue had felt something in the milk. All the nausea had come back to me, and it was stronger than before. All the nice food I had eaten suddenly felt revolting. I felt like I was gonna throw up.

No, no, everything was alright, I just needed water. I moved to the sink as such as I could.

My stomach twisted, and I got that feeling in my throat that you get before stuff starts coming back up.

I didn't even put the glass under the tap, I just went ahead and drank from it directly. It didn't help all that much. In fact, it made me feel bloated and that made my body feel more like it was gonna throw up. I tried breathing through my mouth instead of my nose. That worked... up until a random intrusive thought came, telling me that it'd look disgusting if I threw up.

Stuff started coming back up after that thought.

It was inevitable.

I'm pretty sure I broke some record with how fast I ran to the bathroom but I couldn't care about that as I emptied out everything I had eaten and drunk in the last few minutes out into the toilet. It was disgusting white slop, and just the sight of it made me retch some more. Nothing came up the second time since there was nothing left in me, but it did make my throat and stomach hurt and my eyes wet with tears.

I was left lying on the tiled floor, dry-heaving for a bit while tears streamed out from my eyes. I tried to stop all that but it only made my head hurt. I was disgusting right now.

All that running and throwing up had its effects on me, like coughing so hard it felt like I was gonna throw up again and that I needed my inhaler, my legs aching as if they had carried the weight of the world, my chest hurting as my heart and lungs recovered from the sudden exertion, but the worst of them all was the abdominal pain coming back.

Now, I was on the floor with vomit on my mouth, and immobilising pain in my entire torso. Needless to say, I cried. I hated this body. I hated how useless it was. I hated how ugly it was. I hated that I couldn't work with it. I hated that I couldn't get used to it. I hated how I was stuck with it. I hated how I was crying. I hated myself more than anything in the world at that moment.

Ultimately, the hate didn't stay long. What stayed was the sadness and misery of being who I am — a disgusting, ugly thing.

I wished, more than anything, that someone came and helped me out.

But why would they? I could see that I was terrible in all aspects, why wouldn't they?

That repeated realisation only made me cry more. I wished the pain went away. I wished I had someone. I wished I was someone else. If not, I wished I was dead.

I don't know how long I spent crying on the bathroom floor but I eventually stopped. It wasn't through any self-control or anything, it was just too tiring to keep crying, and I had all sorts of fluids on me which I wanted to get rid of.

I got up once my abdominal pain subsided enough and flushed the toilet first, sending away all the puke. I moved onto the sink, taking off my glasses before I got to work cleaning off my matted facial fur. I did so silently, ashamed at myself for crying so much. I could accept it if it was only because of the pain but it was for a lot of trivial garbage reasons as well. I'm supposed to be strong, not crying like a little girl because I threw up of all things.

I paused at that. The only sound was that of the tap water coming down on my front hooves.

I was a girl, or a mare, I guess. This should be alright, right? No, it was not. I might be female but I was grown up and weakness was inexcusable. I stared down at the sink, watching the water get wasted as I stood there trying to accept that answer. I looked back up at the mirror, making out my blurry face. I don't know what I was looking for in it but I stared at it for a long time. It was weird seeing a pony so sad, until I remembered it was me in the mirror and not some pony.

I looked back down and finished cleaning my face. The truth I had given myself didn't sink in for some reason, and I still felt sad. And alone. Both of those were my fault. I put on my glasses and stared at my face in the mirror once again. I looked miserable. Deep down, I knew that it was my fault I felt that way. How could it not be? I'm literally all by myself and I still managed to ruin things.

I turned off the tap and turned to go to the tub. I got in and turned on the shower, not caring about how uncomfortably cold it was. Why was I whining about that? I had literally been crying because it was "too hot".

I lied down in the tub, letting the cold water run over me. I couldn't care that I had walked into the shower with glasses on, or that it was "too cold" according to my body. I was tired and hungry and I wanted a hug. I could fix none of that. At least the water was taking my mind off the dull pain in my hindquarters and getting rid of all the sweat. Unfortunately, my mind just cannot stay empty and it just had to think about some stupid shit.

Unfortunately, the stupid shit was me. More specifically, my face in the mirror. It kept coming back to me because... I don't know, it just did. Maybe because of how ugly it looked. Probably that for sure, I mean, someone at the fashion show yesterday saw that and pointed out out... a lot of people might have.

I sat up and looked over myself. Through my water soaked glasses, I could see my wet body, every square centimeter of it, and I could observe it for it was.

...

How could something look so fucking ugly?

Rarity's got to have serious talent if she somehow worked with this garbage and made it look good. I don't think I should go to work. Everyone would see how repulsive I looke– Everyone had already seen me.

My blood ran colder than the shower water. I tried to think about something else, like me being alone, but my mind kept thinking about how I looked, and it made a connection I didn't like.

The people in town don't like me much. They probably talk behind my back about how ugly I looked. Maybe that was why I was alone. They'd see my face and know I'm nothing to be nice to.

No! They– they're– they've got to be better than I think. The problem's with me, not them. Like, I just now decided that my problems are everyone else's fault.

I was a terrible person.

Maybe that's why I'm alone. Ugly on the outside and uglier on the inside.

I held my head in my hooves, trying to make the thoughts stop. They didn't.

Who'd want to be close to me, except those who want to take advantage, like Twilight or Brus–

I screamed out loud in anger as my hooves pressed down my ears against the side of my head to a painful degree, silencing the thoughts. How could I think anything bad about them? They literally went out of their way to help me and were nice to me when I wasn't in return, and here I was, thinking ill of them because of my stupid thoughts.

I didn't deserve them. I'm a terrible friend.

I felt tears form in my eyes. Is this how I was? Taking and not giving?

I'm a terrible person.

I shouldn't leave my house again, if not to spare the world from looking at my ugliness then to at least spare my friends from putting up with me.

My tears were washed away with the shower water. The thoughts came back though, finding some more faults to point out.

What about Voth? He knows just how terrible I am but he still puts up with me—

I lied back down, covering my head with my hooves and trying hard to suppress my tears.

—He gave me one job and I can do it but I've just been wasting time for no good reason. He should have picked someone better and let me die with my world. He didn't deserve to suffer from me–

My thoughts stopped as I felt a familiar presence in my head. It was Voth. I guess I bothered him. I should apologise for bothering him and being useless.

'Voth, I'm sorry,' I said, sniffling a bit as I did. Voth didn't respond immediately like he would. Was he angry at me?

"WHY?" he asked after what felt like a really long while.

'I– I've–' I took a deep breath before answering, 'I've been wasting your time.'

I expected him to agree and get angry. Instead, he said, "YOUR EMOTIONAL STATE IS INFLUENCED YOU ARE NOT HEALTHY RIGHT NOW."

I was confused. Why was he talking about that instead of my performance? How did it even correlate?

Voth probably sensed my confusion as he continued, "YOU ARE BEGINNING TO UNDERGO A STANDARD INFERIOR BIOLOGICAL PROCESS WHICH IS CAUSING YOUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL STATE TO DEVIATE FROM ITS NORMAL."

'What?' So far, he was just confusing me.

"YOUR BODY IS STARTING TO GO THROUGH A 'PERIOD'," he clarified in simple terms. "YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM 'PRE-MENSTRUAL SYNDROME' AS YOUR DOCTORS CALL IT AND YOU ARE EXPERIENCING MOOD SWINGS AND ABDOMINAL PAIN AS EFFECTS OF IT."

Periods? Don't ponies go through some breeding season thing– no, wait, these ponies don't. They had periods, not those season things.

But still, mood swings? That was it? That was why I felt like shit? No, that was an excuse for me to forget that I'm a terribl–

'Voth, can I fix myself?' I asked impulsively. I wasn't sure if it was the question on my mind but it was the first one that came to me.

I could feel that Voth was confused at that question. "ELABORATE."

'Like, can I make myself... not myself?'

"YOU... DO NOT WISH TO BE YOURSELF?"

'Yeah, I'm... not a good friend, and I'm ugl–'

"YOUR THOUGHTS ARE NOT UNDER YOUR CONTROL YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS IS BEING INFLUENCED–"

'By myself! I– I'm just making things worse. I thought that my friends are– are bad and I–'

"YOU REGRETTED THAT THOUGHT MEANING THAT YOU DID NOT MEAN IT."

'But it still came to me.' Once again, I was crying.

Why couldn't he see it? I was just trouble and I wanted something to fix that. He should have something, even just instructions, on how to go about that.

"YOU HAVE MANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT YOURSELF AND THEY ARE NOT VALID," he declared. I didn't really believe him. "YOU DO NOT BECOME A 'BAD FRIEND' BECAUSE OF A SINGULAR INTRUSIVE THOUGHT WHICH YOU REGRET AND YOU ARE NOT UGLY AS YOU SAY EITHER

YOU ARE SIMPLY SUFFERING FROM YOUR INFERIOR BIOLOGY AND REQUIRE ASSISTANCE."

I didn't say much to him. He couldn't see what I was saying and was chalking it all up to mood swings. It was irritating– but he was the only one here with me, trying to help, and I was being bad as a response. I had literally wanted someone to be with me and now that someone was here, I still wasn't happy. I didn't deserve help, or company.

'You can go,' I said to Voth. I didn't recieve a response.

I got back up and turned off the shower. I didn't have a towel nearby but that was alright, I could shake myself dry like a dog. A bitch.

I left the bathroom and instead of heading upstairs to get a towel to dry off my tail and mane, I went into the living room. I opened the backdoor, and stepped outside. The air outside was hot and humid, but it wasn't sitting in one place like the air inside. I lied down on the deck and just curled up. The only sound was that of bugs and leaves in the breeze.

'You're still here?'

"YES."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the familiar eye-covered alicorn manifestation of Voth come outside of my house. He made no noise as he walked, and I did not feel him as he lied down next to me and draped a wing over me. We stayed in silence for a while.

"IF IT IS ANY CONSOLATION YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN FACING SUCH BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES MOST GRIFFON AND DRAGON FEMALES FACE THESE AS WELL."

It wasn't any consolation. Sure, having a griffon grandfather made my period bad and gave me "mood swings" but that didn't change the fact that I looked ugly and was a terrible person. And knowing that other people go through what I'm going through physically just made me feel sad for them.

'How does that help?' I asked him.

"DUE TO A LARGE DEMAND THERE ARE MEDICINE WHICH YOU CAN USE TO REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF YOUR PRE-MENSTRUAL SYNDROME," he explained. I guess that is some consolation; I won't have more abdominal pain at least. If have to go and get stuff medicine though and that involved going out. Outside where people were going to look at me and thank their god for not making them look like me.

'It still doesn't change that I'm ugly and bad,' I said to him.

"AGAIN YOU ARE NEITHER IF YOU WERE 'BAD' YOU WOULD NOT CARE ABOUT IT AS MUCH AS YOU DO AND YOU ARE NOT UGLY BY ANY INFERIOR CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS."

'But I am– I have a bad colour scheme, and my face is messed up. There's nobody else that looks like that–'

"INCORRECT THERE ARE SEVERAL PONIES WHO ARE UGLY BY YOUR DEFINITION."

'They aren't ugly– That would be mean to them...'

"THEREFORE YOU ARE BEING UNFAIRLY HARSH TO YOURSELF."

'No, it's just... different.'

"IT IS NOT."

'You're just saying that to make me happy.'

Voth stayed silent at that, pausing our argument for a bit. He might have been an eldritch god but he couldn't understand my situation, which I guess is alright. My situation is just that dumb.

"IT IS MY DUTY AS YOUR MASTER TO KEEP YOU SATISFIED WHILE YOU DO YOUR JOB WHICH YOU HAVE DONE WITH APPRECIABLE SPEED."

'I still haven't got your thing though...'

"YOU HAVE DONE BETTER THAN MY PREVIOUS WORKER."

I raised an eyebrow at that. He had someone else before me? Obviously, why would I be anyone's first pick?

"SHE WAS ON THE JOB FOR THREE LIFETIMES SPANNING OVER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS IN YOUR TIME."

'And she didn't get the key in that much time?' I guess there really were people worse than me. Big multiverse, I suppose. Still doesn't excuse my uselessness.

"NO SHE MADE A DEAL WITH A RIVAL AND BETRAYED ME IN SECRET AND USED THE THREE LIFETIMES TO GATHER ENOUGH POWER TO FIGHT ME ABOUT FIFTEEN YEARS AGO IN YOUR TIME I HAD TO PUT HER DOWN YOU ARE FAR MORE TRUSTWORTHY AND USEFUL THAN HER."

I still wasn't convinced, but I didn't feel as bad as I did earlier. I guess that was something to be happy about, even though that was hard to do.

"THOUGH IF YOU WANT TO ACQUIRE THE KEY AS SOON AS YOU CAN YOU CAN TRY AND MAKE A CREATURE TO DO IT FOR YOU."

I'm pretty sure he was giving me something else to think about and I was more than happy to do that. It was definitely a good idea since I wouldn't have to go to the ruins by myself but there was the problem of training the creature I make. Mainly, making it smart enough to identify and bring back the key while avoiding any dangers, unless I figured out how to remote control it... I think I'll figure that problem out later. I couldn't concentrate on it deeply since I was fatigued and hungry.

"BUT BESIDES THAT I AM CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF."

I turned my head to look at his face. What was he suggesting by that? That I couldn't take care of myself at all?

My irritation died and was replaced with shame when I remembered that I was literally crying like a baby for help earlier. Plus, he's rarely ever wrong.

"YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SHOW YOURSELF KINDNESS LEST YOU CAUSE YOURSELF HARM BY TRYING TO MEET IMPOSSIBLE STANDARDS THAT YOU SET FOR YOURSELF ONLY

WE WILL EVENTUALLY GO OUR SEPERATE WAYS AND I DO NOT WISH FOR YOU TO BE DISADVANTAGED WHEN THAT HAPPENS."

'Why do you care so much about that? You could just leave me like that when I've got you your thing.'

He started at me, making me question why I said that. Was he going to do what I s– He would never. I looked down at the floor, ashamed at my anxious thoughts.

"I CAN DO THAT BUT ENGAGING ONLY IN A BUSINESS SENSE LED TO MY FAILURE WITH MY PREVIOUS WORKER

I CANNOT AND DO NOT WANT TO MAKE THE MISTAKE OF PUTTING YOU THROUGH THAT TREATMENT BECAUSE IT IS UNFAIR TO YOU AND A POTENTIAL LIABILITY TO ME," he explained to me, really emphasising how he didn't want to be mean to me and cared how I felt. It was... nice having such a nice boss.

He started getting up all of a sudden, making me reach out to him to stop him from leaving. While I made a fool of myself by being so needy and also because I couldn't actually touch him, I did manage to stop him.

'Could you... stay?' I asked, avoiding eye contact as I did.

"I WILL KEEP YOU COMPANY FOR SOME MORE TIME IF YOU WISH."

I somehow smiled a bit. At least I won't be alone for a while.

My stomach grumbled, reminding me that I needed to eat.

I got up, phasing through Voth. My hindquarters twinged with pain, making me scared for a moment. Thankfully, the abdominal pain didn't come back like I feared it would. I wanted some food first. Let's hope I don't throw up again.

Author's Note

16w Au ~0400

This chapter was kinda hard to write since I had to do some research across the internetwork and use the information on anatomy (that I could get) properly on Anya and while I definitely could have just avoided it, I didn't. (i don't know why. i apologise if you got this far)

Also, thanks for the ideas for the folk horrors. They'll be relevant later. it might take a while for the next chapter to come out though since I have to cook on another two stories.

I actually scream-shouted "Let's fucking joeee!!!!"(from the meme) when I saw that the story had achieved a 7:1 ratio last night after a long time (a 84 to 12 as of 2024 July 13 23:59). And I guess I did the same thing when I got 10 likes, and 11, and basically everytime I got a like, I did the whole "Let's fucking joe!" thing. Pretty funny, right?

Chapter 46: Struggles And Solutions

Voth had kept me company when I threw up a second time, and he stayed with me for another hour, up till six in the morning.

In that hour, he had been quite nice to me, trying to convince me that I wasn't ugly or dumb or bad like I thought, and I... I was kinda questioning myself, I guess. He did say that I was probably having an especially bad time because of other stress factors, which made sense because I'm pretty sure that when I had my period last month — when I was just feeling down for about a week — I wasn't recovering from a serious injury. How I missed that it was a period back then, I don't know. Maybe I was just overreacting to other stuff because of said period. I guess that the one good thing about it all so far is that there's no bleeding involved with the process, and that I have a way to circumvent other problems.

After Voth left, I was alone again for the rest of the day, unless I went to work. I still wasn't all that convinced that I should go, but a variety of factors told me I should go. Mainly, I'll have to go out to the pharmacy and get a bunch of that period medicine to fix myself, and that I had no real reason to not go to work, unless I suddenly have another one of those cramps.

I looked to the clock as the sun rose high enough to reach into my bedroom and land on me. It was 7:01, meaning that there was still an hour to work. I stayed in bed though, not getting up even as time passed. I should go, but I was still deciding if I had to, for some reason. Watching the minutes pass wasn't great, and being aware that I was just wasting time lying in bed wasn't great. I didn't want to go outside, but I had to, but did I really have a good reason to go–

Finally, at 7:15, I forced myself to get up. Good reasons be damned; discipline kept me working.

I didn't try stretching after I got out of bed since I didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the morning. I looked to the open window and debated whether or not I should leave it open for the airflow. Nobody should get in throught them since they're barred, but I had my fears. Someone had broken into my house already, somehow, and it could happen again. I closed the window, deciding that having hot stale air waiting for me at home was better than having an intruder waiting for me.

I walked up to the wardrobe and opened it. I looked over the clothes I had since I didn't want to go out feeling completely exposed. However, all the clothes I had were more suited for colder weathers, and I'm pretty sure that I'd look ugly with or without them on. So, I didn't put on anything; no need to be ugly and sweaty.

I made my way downstairs, slightly irritated by the way the sweat on my fur and the heat. Stupid summer weather. The fridge's cold air was some respite from the weather as I pulled out bread, cheese, and milk for my third breakfast of the morning. I whipped up a little breakfast of a single cheese sandwich and a glass of milk and took it to the kitchen table. I took a small bite to see if I'd throw up again. If I did, I'd probably kill myself and go through the whole reincarnation thing where Voth hopefully puts me in a better body.

I didn't throw up as I had thought, letting me finally eat my breakfast. It wasn't filling in the slightest and I was still quite famished even after eating it, but I figured that I'd get something to eat on the way to work. Hopefully something sweet.

I checked my saddlebags after I finished breakfast, making sure I had my bit bag in them. I'd be getting a fan today, along with iron nails, and some sweet stuff as well. And a clock for downstairs, and the basement as well. Man, I have to get so much stuff.

I put down the bags next to the front door as I went back to the bathroom to brush my mane. I spent much more time on it than I should have, taking my time to braid it even though I had to be able to get to the pharmacy and then the library on time. Once that was done, I was on my way, walking as fast as I could, which was disappointingly not very fast.

At least there was a light breeze blowing and plenty of shade out here. It was almost nice. If only I had someone with me–

I shook my head clear of that thought with a grimace. Why was I so hellbent on not being alone? I had stayed alone for a huge chunk of my life at this point. Why was it becoming such a big deal now? Especially since I know that I can't keep people close easily. My period probably, I guessed. Man, I really need those period pills.

I continued onward, the sun slowly rising above the canopy of the trees around me, letting its light grace my left side, and its glare, my left eye. It might have been "pretty" to some but to me, it was just another annoying fucking thing right now. I resorted to just keeping my left eye close until I get somewhere where the sun isn't blinding it. Not like it was good for seeing much anyways.

However, even with only half — or rather, around three-quarters since my right eye did most of the seeing by itself — of my already bad vision, I still noticed someone coming up the path, towards me.

"Hey Brush," I stopped and greeted as she landed in front of me, holding a magazine in her paw. Secretly, I was also waiting for her to hug me like she would. (Don't tell anyone.)

"You were in a fashion show?!" she asked, her eyes wide like plates and her ears upright like trees.

"Huh?" It took me a second the process the question since I had not expected that, and Brush used that moment to open up the magazine to a page close to the front.

"This is you, right?" she asked, pointing to the picture second from the top. It showcased me standing at the end of the catwalk, looking like an absolute idiot. The rest were images of the others, in their good dresses in the case of five certain ladies. I couldn't really comprehend the fact that I was in a magazine at the moment, so, I decided to do that later.

I briefly considered saying that no, it wasn't me, but I threw that thought out like it was garbage, because it was garbage. I didn't want to lie to her, and the fact that I even thought about lying to her was a testament to how shitty I was.

"Yeah, that's me," I answered, finding the ground a lot more interesting than eye contact or the magazine all of a sudden.

Brush was silent for a moment, making me nervous. I hope she didn't laugh– she would never do that. I had to stop assuming bad things about my friends.

Brush didn't laugh like the intrusive thought had said. Instead, she squealed and grabbed me by my shoulders, making me look up to her. Her eyes were sparkling as she said, "You have to tell me all about it!"

"Okay," I replied, making Brush leave my shoulders. "We'll have to walk though."

"That's alright!"

She walked alongside me, to my right, holding her magazine now in her wing.

"So, how did you get into the show?" she began, still all excited and happy.

"Rarity was desperate," I answered bluntly, making Brush look at me with a raised brow. "She wanted more people in her show and decided that I could get in. It was on a pretty short notice as well; just three hours before the whole thing."

"Oh. So, how was it? Being on the stage, in the spotlight?" she asked, expecting me to gush about the experience if I were to go by her playful tone and smile.

"It sucked hard. Zero out of ten. Wouldn't do it ever again."

"Wuh?" Brush looked at me with a mix of confusion and what seemed to be concern. "Why... you didn't like it? It's every mare– nay, every women's dream! At one point at least."

"Not a dream I've had; I'm just built different," I joked dryly as I remembered how nervous I was on stage. It's a surprise that my heart didn't explode then from how hard it was beating. "And I doubt that it stays a dream when you're actually on the stage, walking down the catwalk as everyone around you is talking about you and... scrutinising every little detail about you."

"I can get why it would be nerve-wracking, but it wasn't that bad, right?" she asked, unknowingly making me a bit annoyed.

"It was. I don't look great and it was out there for the world to see," I said curtly, choosing to focus on the path instead of her. Suddenly, I comprehended the fact that the magazine had me in it, and that there were a lot of people who would have seen it by now.

"And now that it's in a magazine, it's actually out there for the world to see..." I continued out loud, stopping in place with my ears slowly drooping.

Just the thought of people seeing me looking like that twisted my stomach into knots. I should have just paid for the gems. There were probably people looking at the pictures, thinking 'damn, she looks fucking stupid' and I couldn't do any–

"Hey, Anya!" I was snapped out of my thoughts. I looked to my side and saw Brush had placed her paw on my shoulder and looked quite concerned. I looked away quickly and resumed walking down the path, flustered that I had a moment of weakness in front of her.

"Anya, is everything alright?" Brush asked as she caught up to me quickly, her earlier excitement all gone. I really should stop making her concerned like that.

"Sort of," I answered, not wanting to elaborate on what I was feeling. I should get over it anyway; my mistake's consequences were mine to suffer from.

Brush, being the blessing of a friend she was, didn't take that as an acceptable answer. She moved close to my side and draped her left wing over me. It felt nice having someone close. She shouldn't have to be so nice to me.

"Anya, are you... nervous about what people might think of you?" Brush asked.

"I–" I tried answering but found that I couldn't make a word come out all of a sudden. I took in a deep breath instead of trying to force an answer out. After I was sure that I could answer, I whispered without facing her, "I... am a bit nervous."

I was nervous, but not just a little bit like I had said. It was a half-truth, and she probably knew that as well, and although it wasn't a complete lie, I felt like shit for giving that as an answer. I doubt I'd feel better if I gave her the actual answer since I'd be making her deal with my problems that way.

"There's no need to be nervous, Anya. I'm sure that everybody thought that you looked pretty. Why else would they publish that picture in the magazine?"

"Accidentally, probably."

In hindsight, I should have remembered that Brush does not like negativity all that much — even if its a joke that nobody, not even I, found funny — and that she cares about her friends quite a lot, and that I should not have made that joke, around her at least. Therefore, I shouldn't have been surprised when she 'suddenly' left my side and came up in front of me, held my shoulders tight, and looked me in the eye as she asked, "Anya, what's wrong?"

The first thing I did in response was flinch away, involuntarily. The second was getting angry for a moment, also involuntarily. The third was letting the anger dissipate as I lowered my gaze to the ground, voluntarily. I shouldn't be angry; she was just worried about me after all.

"Sorry," I said in a low voice, feeling terrible and not looking up. I should've just stayed at home. "It's just that... I've not been having a great day so far."

Brush stayed quiet for a moment before pulling me into a quick hug. As she pulled away, she asked, "Is there any way I could help?"

"I don't think so," I replied, not having anything she could help me with, nor wanting to force her to help me. "I just– I just have to get to work. And get something to eat."

She nodded, and we were walking again, her wing draped over me. I didn't want her to spend more time than she needed to on me, but I had a feeling that if I told her to leave, she'd just insist on staying. Or maybe she'd take it the wrong way– She wouldn't; I wanted to punch my brain so bad for thinking that.

"Do you mind me asking why your day has been lacking?" Brush asked as we got closer to town.

I did mind her asking but I didn't say it. I didn't know whether or not women talked about their periods just like that. I tried my pony memories and came up only with memories of me feeling like shit for one and a half weeks and telling my ex-colleagues that I was just having a bad day. Never elaborating why since nobody ever asked, or talked much to me beyond work. I didn't know if that was good or not.

As I thought, the silence started becoming awkward to me. When I realised I had no other choice but to either keep quiet or lie, I decided to take the third option of just getting it over with. "I'm... I'm on my uh... I'm on my period, and uh it isn't great."

"Oh."

I didn't like that response. It was ambiguous. I didn't know if I had just said something normal or something weird, and I hated not knowing. Brush didn't retract her wing like I had expected her to do if she was weirded out, but maybe that was just her being nice. Even more ambiguity.

Finally, she said, "The mood swings must be particularly bad for you."

That answer, while not being direct, made it clear that I wasn't being weird, to Brush at least. I took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief before explaining my problem in more depth, "It's not the mood swings I'm worried about, it's the abdo–"

I hadn't even finished saying the metaphorical devil's full name before it had come to fuck me.

I almost doubled over as the dull pain in my abdomen flared at what was possibly the worst time it could have. Yet. I needed those fucking pills if I wanted to function. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was still not in sight. I held my abdomen with my right hoof, which didn't do much to alleviate the pain which was making me start tearing up. I doubted I could walk with the pain. I shoud've just stayed at home.

Beside me, Brush was quick to act. She pulled me to the side and made me sit down, freeing up my other front hoof and letting it hold my abdomen as well. It didn't help in much besides making it clear to an observer that I was in pain. Thankfully, it looked to me that we two were the only ones on this particular street. Nobody would see me like this. Nobody but Brush.

She was going to say something, probably offer some sort of help, but I interrupted her by getting back up onto my hooves. The pain was still there, yes, but so was the fact that I was looking weak and was close to having someone do my work for me, and out of the two, I'd rather deal with the pain. I winced and grit my teeth as the pain flared again for a second but I didn't sit back down.

Brush, obviously, didn't like seeing that. She put her paw on my shoulder and said, "Anya, y–"

"I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth, not letting her finish whatever she was saying. I took a step forward, and then another. The pharmacy was close, I could make it there.

"Anya, you can wait here. I can go and get what you ne–" she tried offering help again.

"I'm fine, Brush." I brushed her off again.

"But–" She tried again.

"I said I'm fine!"

I didn't pause my walking even though the regret for raising my voice at her filled my head. I had to keep walking. I couldn't just shout at her for trying to stop me and then immediately stop. Besides, I was used to pain and I knew that pushing through it was the best way to deal with it when I have to do something.

Brush didn't say anything else, making my heart sink a bit, but she walked with me. Though, she kept a little distance between us. I was too busy pushing through the pain to overthink that. I just hoped I didn't fuck up real bad. I probably did.

Eventually, after a walk that felt very tense to me, we reached the pharmacy. The pain had subsided somewhat, making it more manageable for me. I walked in while Brush didn't. Why would she, I was mean to her for no reason. I sighed internally, realising that I had probably– no, definitely fumbled yet another friendship. I could only frown at the classic me move even though I felt like I might cry. She was the closest friend I think I've ever had.

I swallowed my sadness and went up to the counter, telling the clerk what I needed. He got it for me and I gave him the hundred bits the bottle of period pills costed. I held them in my magic even though it hurt to. I left the building as quick as I had entered.

Waiting outside for me was Brush. She didn't seem angry or sad like I had thought, and it removed quite a lot of weight from my mind and heart. "You got what you needed, right?"

"Y– yes," I answered, looking over the bottle instead of looking at her. It was clear with white capsule shaped pills inside. I opened it, took one out, and swallowed it then and there, without any water. The effects of the pill obviously weren't immediate, but knowing that I had a solution to one of my problems now took some weight off my mind. I stowed the bottle in my saddlebags.

My mind, not content with me being happy, immediately added new weight by reminding me that I had been mean to Brush and that she was still here for me. I had to apologise for shouting at her.

"Brush, I..." I began, pausing as I realised that I hadn't thought out what I'd say exactly. I looked up to see her.

"What is it?" she asked, not a hint of anger in her voice. She looked at me with concern as the silence stretched.

"I''m sorry about shouting at you earlier," I finally said, unable to maintain eye contact as I did. Brush remained silent, making me continue, "I shouldn't have done that and–"

"It's alright."

Those two words were somehow the greatest thing I had ever heard. Yet it was hard to believe she'd let me off the hook like that.

She came up to my side and draped her wing over me while I stood there like an idiot statue. "You should be fine now, right?"

"Yeah," I answered, a little bit too loud for comfort. Brush clearly didn't mind the volume.

"Good," she replied with a smile. "Now, how about we head on over to Sugarcube corner? You did say you were getting something to eat, and it should be open about now."

At the mention of the bakery, my stomach reminded me that it wanted food. I was compelled to say yes even though I felt like I might be late to work if I did.

"Alright," I said, letting us go on our way.

The morning had gone decent so far, I suppose. I think I wouldn't be late to work, and even if I was, at least it was because something nice was going on. My stomach silently grumbled, taking my mind off those thoughts and back towards my plan for breakfast.

Author's Note

16w Au

The next chapter will probably not be released until after July 2024 ends. Let's see if I can get 90 likes by then ~~(impossible goal moment, ROFL)~~

Edit 1 Aug 24: guess who was wrong

Meanwhile, let's see if Anya learns to be more social by then (yet another impossible goal moment ROFLMAO)

ART TIME! Here's Anya with Voth:
Image source: https://www.deviantart.com/arandomlonelydude/art/Eye-Contact-With-The-Boss-1075024958

(Anya has hugged Voth — while he looked like that — numerous times during the story. She is, to put it simply, built different)

Pretty cool, right? I think I'll do Anya with Brush next. Whenever that happens.

Chapter 47: Fallout

Sugarcube Corner was a charming place that Brush hadn't been to, but had heard about. However, it was bustling with activity, and did not have a single free table when the Anya and her entered it — about half an hour before eight — which was rather disappointing for the latter.

There were empty seats, however, and a pony who was happy to share a table.

Someone called out from one of the tables, getting both Anya's and Brush's attention. They both looked over and saw that it was Lyra waving at them, with Brush also being able to see that she was smiling at them.

Brush didn't really know a lot of the people of Ponyville. She had mostly kept to herself and her art, and so, she could count the number of people she knew and talked to, on her front paws. Lyra wasn't one of those people that she talked to but she knew about her from Anya, and additionally, she had made a nice first impression on her and seemed charming.

Brush walked along with Anya to Lyra's table, her wing no longer on her friend's back. She knew that Anya didn't like the lack of contact, evident by her moving ever so slightly closer to her, but it was getting too hot for an extended wing hug. How she wished to return to her home and enjoy the wonders of air conditioning, or maybe have some rain. Of course, none of that could happen right now, unless the weather company decides it, but she kept a positive attitude.

The two friends stopped in front of the table. Now that she was closer, Brush could observe Lyra better. The aquamarine unicorn was continually shifting in her seat with her ears raised forward. She was impatient to do something, probably speak to the two, and if Brush was to go by her with her excited smile and what she saw in the magazine she had in her wing, it was probably about the previous evening's show.

"Hey Lyra," Anya greeted with a raised hoof and a slight smile. "How's everything going?"

"Better than great!" Lyra replied with a clap and a large smile. "I can tell you all about it. Take a seat, you and your friend." She pointed at the empty seats opposite of her.

"Oh, thanks," Anya replied.

"Thanks, Miss Lyra," Brush said. She found Lyra to be quite nice already.

"You can just call me Lyra, and you're welcome..." she paused, not knowing her name.

"This is Feather Brush, Lyra," Anya said, doing the introduction for Brush like a good mutual friend should. "And Brush, this is Lyra."

"Thanks," Lyra said. "Anyway, as I was saying, you're welcome, Feather Brush."

"You can just call me Brush."

"Alright, Brush."

"Alright, I'm getting myself some stuff to eat. Want me to get something for you guys as well?" Anya said, moving on to the next order of business seeing that the introductions were over. Both Lyra and Brush declined the offer, and with that, Anya left the two at the table and went over to the counter to make an order.

Almost immediately, the conversation died, as it usually does when the mutual friend leaves for a moment. However, Brush didn't like that all that much — the silence was too awkward and the mare she sat with was most likely an agreeable person to talk to.

Fortunately, she didn't have to restart the conversation.

"So, how's your day going?" Lyra began.

"Well, it has been alright so far, though it has only just begun," Brush answered. "What about you, how has your day been?"

"It's been wonderful!" she answered with a clap of her hooves and a wide smile.

Brush turned her full attention to her at that, as evident by her ears turning forward and her pupils dilating a bit. Her whiskers shifted forward a bit as well. Lyra's excitement was infectious and Brush found herself wanting to know more, especially since Anya hadn't spoke much on what had happened at the show, and she didn't want to press her for information right now.

Seeing that she had the attention she wanted, Lyra began elaborating. "The fashion yesterday evening, you were there, right?"

"Unfortunately, I was not there. I did see pictures though." Brush pulled out the magazine from under her wing and put it on the table.

"The Canterlot Fashion magazine?!" she exclaimed, leaning over the table to see the magazine up close. The next, she sat back and smiled sheepishly. "I mean, I knew I'd end up in it but actually seeing it... can I have a look at that?"

"You're welcome to," Brush replied, pushing it to her. Lyra snatched it up immediately and started flipping through the pages quick as she could, with childlike excitement that made Brush smile. Lyra stopped at a page and stared for a moment, before she squeed in an adorable manner, probably at the pictures of herself in a pretty dress.

"I have to say, you did look beautiful in the pictures," Brush complimented before asking what she wanted to know. "Could you tell me more about the show?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, in a bit!" Lyra answered as she perused the page she had stopped on. Brush nodded and leaned back a bit in her seat. She saw that Anya was coming back from the counter.

Anya took one look at what the two were doing, and decided not to interrupt Lyra's reading. She sat down next to Brush and asked quietly about what was going on. Brush told her that she had given the magazine to Lyra.

Just then, Lyra put down the magazine and looked up. "Oh! I didn't know you already came back."

Anya nodded, and then switched the topic. "You were going to tell us something."

Lyra blinked, her mind still on the magazine, before she remembered what she had been intending to do. "Oh, yeah. So, you remember Photo Finish, the photographer from yesterday, right?"

While Brush hadn't met her personally, she knew about the (in)famous Canterlot photographer. Anya remembered her, though she didn't sound happy to as she replied yes.

"Well, then, you probably know that she does a lot of photo shoots." Lyra paused dramatically and leaned in a bit, as if telling a secret. Brush leaned in closer to hear what Lyra had to say.

Anya, on the other hand, took the pause as an invitation to guess what was happening to Lyra. "She's calling you to one of the photo shoots?"

Lyra, in a display of her maturity, pouted at having the 'surprise' be ruined, but she didn't make any indication of holding it against Anya. Brush considered saying something about her directness, though she decided against it since Anya didn't mean any harm.

"Yep, I got a letter this morning from her to be ready," Lyra continued. "Just imagine, supermodel Lyra Heartstrings. More famous than even Miss Fleur herself. I'd fit right into Canterlot." She giggled after she finished, though it seemed that she was more than just joking.

Brush just rolled her eyes at that, but she still smiled. Lyra might have demonstrated her complete ignorance of Canterlot elite society and the many issues it had, but her good nature more than made up for her ignorance. She'd learn in time that she'd prefer Ponyville over Canterlot, hopefully in a manner that wasn't akin to diving headfirst into a furnace.

She glanced to get side and saw that Anya seemed to have no reaction to Lyra's good news. Of course, she knew that Anya felt happy for Lyra, she just didn't express herself as outwardly as others.

"When you're up there, among — heh — the stars," Anya began suddenly, her voice almost drowned out by the ambiance of the bakery. She paused for a moment, not dramatically but rather to think about how she would continue. "Be sure to remember the weirdo who taught you how to make plants grow weird."

"I'll be sure to," Lyra said, playing along. Brush didn't find it to be amusing though, not being a fan of self-deprecation, but she didn't say anything to interrupt.

There was a lapse in the conversation, but Brush didn't find it to be awkward silence. She took the opportunity to observe the people around her, and did so in a mostly discrete manner. A quick look around let her see that Anya had taken to staring at the table, though her eyes did wander around nervously every now and then. Her ears were swivelling around as well, probably looking for some imagined problem. Contrastingly, Lyra had picked up the magazine again and was absorbed by it.

Besides that, there was just the general ambience of the shop. She tried puting a wing around Anya, but was interrupted.

"Heya everypony!"

Pinkie Pie had made absolutely no indication of her being there until now — no sound, no shift in the air, and Brush wasn't even sure that she had seen Pinkie walk up to the table. One moment she wasn't there; the next, she was. Brush was startled to say the least, and in that startled state she had let out an 'eep' and opened her wings, inadvertently slapping a slightly-less-startled Anya in her side.

Opposite to the two, Lyra put down the magazine and said calmly, "Hey Pinkie, how's everything going?"

"Everything's peachy keen! Here, I've got your order," Pinkie replied, seemingly ignorant of his she has startled the two other ponies at the table. She hopped in place, making a plate with a pastry on it bounce off the tray on her back. The order landed in place perfectly in complete defiance of what one would expect to happen to a falling plate of food.

Brush watched the impossible feat happen with wide eyes. She had observed Pinkie to be a peculiar mare with quite a lot of surprises but she hadn't spoken much with her after the welcome party, meaning she couldn't really gauge what the party mare could do, and apparently, the seemingly impossible was one of them.

Brush decided to not pursue an explanation of how she had done that, and turned her attention to apologising to her friend for the accidental hit. Anya has just enough time to tell her it was no big deal before Pinkie turned to her.

"And here's your order!" Said she as she once again did her impossible serving trick. Brush got to watch as a plate of cookies, and a cup of what she assumed to be coffee dropped perfectly into place in front of Anya, as if it were a magic trick. Anya mumbled a thanks, seemingly unfazed by Pinkie's antics.

Pinkie didn't go yet. Instead, she continued talking, "Oh, by the way, you didn't mention what kind of coffee you wanted, and Mister Cake forgot to ask, and I didn't anypony to have bad coffee on MY watch, especially when they're feeling down." Anya looked up to meet the smiling mare's eyes with some alarm and quite a lot of confusion.

"So, I made you a custom drink!" Pinkie suddenly leaned in and started whispering, though she did it loudly enough for Brush to hear. "I'll tell you this now: drinking it will feel like a hug, and everypony likes hugs because they're the best, so you'll like it as well." Pinkie paused for a moment, before pulling back and continuing in a normal voice, "And if you don't like it, you can have it exchanged. Capiche?"

Anya nodded.

Pinkie beamed at that answer. "Alright, have a nice day!" She said before she retreated back towards the counter, skipping like a little filly as she did. A few moments of silence persisted.

"Is she always like that?" Brush asked out loud to nobody in particular. It might have been rude but she was genuinely confused by Pinkie's demeanour.

"Yeah, sometimes she's a bit... sudden, but she's still pretty good at what she does," Lyra answered. "Especially baking. She's probably a world class baker in disguise." As if to demonstrate, she took a bite of her pastry and then made a comically exaggerated sound of pleasure.

Brush shook her head and glanced at her friend. Anya had picked up the cup of mystery coffee in her hooves and was looking at it questioningly. She glanced towards Brush, who simply shrugged in response. Seeing that there was nothing else she could do, Anya took a sip of the drink.

For the second time that day, Brush saw a pony have an immediate and (relatively) comically exaggerated reaction to the bakery's products.

The mystery coffee had enlivened Anya, making her go from drowsy and glum to being a lot more animate, and she was already taking another, longer sip of the drink, making a cute little hum as she did. She no longer hunched, her ears didn't swivel around, and on her face was a look of bliss. Brush found her to be rather adorable at that instant.

Anya noticed her looking, and turned to face her with a raised eyebrow and cup to her lips. "Hm?"

"You look rather nice," Brush explained. Anya paused at that.

She thought for a second and then dismissed the compliment. "Alright," she said, turning back. Her ears shifted downwards as she did, and the contentment she had earlier was gone. Brush sighed at the change in mood. She put a wing around her, seeing that it was probably the only thing she could do to cheer her friend up. Anya wasn't cheered up, but she did appreciate the gesture.

There was a shift in the air accompanied by a door opening, but Brush didn't look over. Anya turned her head to glance at who had had entered the building, and quickly turned back. "Bon Bon's here," she said to Lyra.

"Already? I thought she'd be busy..." Lyra trailed off as she raised her head high to look over the seats. She mumbled something to herself as she continued looking. What she mumbled was probably not good, judging by how her smile faltered a little. "Why's she here?"

Brush didn't have to turn her head around to see the offending pony since they walked up to the table, having a very clear one-sided conversation. Two earth mares had stopped at their table. The first was a young beige mare with a two-toned blue and pink mane that ended in curls, and a cutie mark of bon-bons. The other was an older pale pink mare with a styled mane of magenta and dark heliotrope, and a cutie mark of a diamond ring. In addition, she wore a gaudy red dress with golden trim, quite a lot of jewellery, and even more makeup.

Now, there was a shift in the mood as well.

By the way the former smiled and nodded along to whatever the latter said, and how the latter didn't seem to care for anything besides talking in a vexatious faux-Canterlot accent, Brush could infer that the former was stuck in conversation. Fortunately, Lyra intervened.

"Hey Bonnie, your work with those three ponies done?" Lyra asked, interrupting the rich mare's monologue on the importance of makeup.

The mare paused mid-speech, clearly dumbfounded at the interruption and processing it. She recovered quickly, but not quickly enough though, since Bon Bon had sat down next to Lyra and started talking with her. They entered a conversation that Brush didn't pay much attention to. She was busy discreetly observing the other mare — more specifically, how she looked at the group.

She held her head high and looked down at the four, with her face slightly scrunched up, and a mean look in her eyes. Her sneer became more prominent whenever she glanced at either Brush, or Lyra, or Anya, and there were definitely some mean mumbles coming from her. She somehow seemed to embody all the aspects of a caricature of a Canterlot elitist — quite ironic for an earth pony. Although it wasn't exactly fair in her mind to judge a book by its cover, Brush had decided that the mare was probably a disagreeable pony.

Anya was not-very-discreetly avoiding looking at the mare, while the other two seemed to be ignoring her the best they could. Brush decided to follow their example, not because she was intimidated as it seemed for the rest, but because she extrapolated from experience and figured that engaging would be trouble.

Unfortunately, the mare either didn't notice, or didn't care about how the four were trying to ignore her. She cleared her throat but Lyra and Bon Bon continued talking. Only Anya seemed to pay attention to the mare, though it was definitely not because she was interested in whatever the mare had to say.

She cleared her throat again, louder and more impatiently. The two mares stopped their conversation this time and looked to her.

"Oh, hi, Spoile—" Lyra began, only to be cut off immediately.

"Miss," the mare corrected with a grumble.

"Yes, Miss Rich." Lyra mumbled something afterwards, probably unsavoury in nature, but Miss Rich didn't hear it over her own voice.

"I believe I was speaking about how important makeup is for a civilised mare." She paused, looking over the group. "But I suppose I'll address something more pressing first. Do you mind if I have a seat?"

She didn't wait for a response and sat down next to Bon Bon, making sure to take her time as she adjusted both herself and her dress, and ignore the two mares who had practically pushed themselves against the wall to avoid being close to her. Brush glanced to her side to see how her friend reacted to the unwelcome lady and saw that Anya was almost glaring at the mare, while nibbling on a cookie. Besides that, Brush also picked up some bits of conversation from other tables, and they all seemed to be directed against the mare.

She had to turn her attention back as Miss Rich started, "I've got to say this: congratulations on your part in the show yesterday. It's not everyday that a mare gets to do something like that." She looked to her right at Bon Bon and Lyra as she said that. She paused before giving a short sigh and addressing Anya, "And you too, I suppose."

The not-so-subtle denigration did not go unnoticed, and Brush found herself subtly shaking her head at it. Anya hadn't said anything, and was probably ignoring it, but her ears did lower a little. Lyra was more open with her disapproval as she sent a disapproving look to Miss Rich. Only Bon Bon didn't seem to care, but that was probably because she sat right next to the source of the problem.

"As difficult as it is to work with Miss Belle, I would have probably taken the offer to join as well," Miss Rich continued. "But alas, I wasn't present when she became desperate. It's a shame; I would have probably been the star of the show."

"How so?" Lyra asked, disbelieving. Bon Bon whispered to her, probably to tell her to not offend the mare.

"Oh, it's simple, darling. Miss Belle had to grapple with a lot of... faults when she made those dresses. Covering up the little things in the mare took away from what she could truly do with her talent, not a problem that she would have faced with me. Despite that setback, she still managed to make all the mares look pretty. I commend her efforts and talent at dress-making and applying makeup."

"Makeup? I don't think anyone used it," Anya interjected.

"Hmm, I think that explains why the lights were so dim. It's hard to believe that some ponies think the night is good — a pig could have walked on stage and looked presentable in the night. Not that I'm calling anypony ugly." She then said quickly, "Even though some were close to it." She gave a haughty laugh at her joke. When nobody laughed along with her, she cleared her throat and continued, "But I digress. As I was saying, I commend Rarity's work. I would be her most loyal patron, if she weren't so disagreeable and unknowledgeable of the demands of high society on a socialite such as myself."

She then rambled on about high society, and dresses, and all other elitist nonsense that focused primarily on making her be both better than everyone but also severely disadvantaged by her position, and all that made Brush impatient. When she had settled in Ponyville, she had done it to pursue her art, and to avoid the 'high' society that had rooted itself in the city nad her family like a weed. Yet here she was, face to face with an almost literal caricature of snobbery. Brush glanced around the table and saw that the others were in a similar state of being annoyed by the mare.

Fortunately, Anya interrupted the lecture. "Hey, could you summarise?"

Miss Rich stopped and stared at Anya, probably thinking about how to reply. However, no quick response came, and instead, the silence reigned at the table. Being blankly stared at made Anya uncomfortable. She shrunk back a bit and averted eye contact. "I– it's just that I have to finish breakfast and get to work."

"Breakfast?" Miss Rich looked down at the half-eaten cookie Anya held, and then the plate of cookies on the table. She stared at it for a second, and then smiled. Brush's pupils instinctively thinned at that smile. "Hmm, that explains a lot."

"Explains what?" Anya asked.

"If that" — she pointed at the plate — "is your 'breakfast', then it explains quite a lot of things."

"Like what?"

Miss Rich smiled innocently. "Like how large your dress was yesterday."

"Hm?" Anya tilted her head a little, clearly not understanding the insult at first. Brush, meanwhile, frowned at the unprovoked attack. She was about to politely tell the mare to stop but she was cut off.

"I understand that you might not exactly see it — I doubt you see much anyway — but if you were to look at pictures, or even just in the mirror, you'll notice how... rotund you are," Miss Rich 'explained', her sweet voice extremely jarring. Beside her, at the behest of Lyra, Bon Bon half-heartedly tried shutting down the mare, but it was to no avail. "No offense," she added, smiling innocently.

"Are you calling me fat?" Anya was more direct in her response, but she wasn't calling the mare out. She put down the cookie as well. Brush glanced around, and found that some ponies from the other tables had taken an interest in whatever was about to go down.

Miss Rich smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry that that's the conclusion you came to. I was merely pointing out a physical feature, which anyone could. There are some other things as well." Of course, she wasn't done. If Brush went by experience, the old mare could go on and on about the 'faults' she saw, most of which were imagined or exaggerated. Her final goal was to put down whoever she disliked, and right now, it was her friend who was in her sights. Anya seemed to know where the mare was going with her words, but instead of telling her to shut up, she set her jaw and braced for whatever she'd say.

"I don't believe that anybody wants to hear what you have say," Brush interrupted her, making sure that the tone of her voice conveyed that she was not welcome to continue and should leave. If not that, then Brush's slit pupils and turned back ears would give her the hint.

However, Miss Rich didn't take the hint. She instead turned her nose up at her. "And who are you to talk to me, while I'm in the middle of things? I'll have you know that a civilised mare such as myself will not be talked down to by something as feral as you."

Brush didn't have a response to that. She had expected something vile from the mare, but not something so direct. Nobody at the table said anything, for they were stunned silent. Even in Canterlot, where the most uptight of unicorn nobility lived, nobody woud be bold enough to call her 'feral' to her face. Who was she to say things like that to her? Brush tried formulating a response to the insult as best as she could, but there wasn't anything coming to her mind besides several words and phrases that would make her stoop down to the terrible mare's level. Though it was tempting to give in to her anger, she chose to keep quiet and keep her paws in check.

Of course, the mare took advantage of the silence around the table and continued speaking to Anya.

"As I was saying," she restarted in that jarring sweet voice of hers. "It's not your only flaw, darling. Some might not have noticed it at the time, but I have an eye for detail—"

"Get to the point and get lost," Anya said, her ears turned back and her face twisted into a scowl. At first, Brush was a bit taken aback at the sudden outburst from her usually worry friend. However, that faded quickly as the conversation continued.

Miss Rich snorted, amused at being told what to do. "My my, you should control your temper—"

"You should control your tongue."

Miss Rich was no longer amused. She huffed and said, "Well, to put it simply, I think you made a lapse in judgement when you decided to go on stage. I was going to break it to you slowly, but you've forced my hoof. These roles where one is supposed to be pretty in the limelight, you're not suited for them in the slightest."

"Hey, you can't say that!" Lyra butted in, tired of Bon Bon's continued silence.

"Quiet down you, you're only marginally better than her at best." Bon Bon, who had been sitting like a statue finally had a reaction to the irritating mare — she glowered at her. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, you. You know that the famous photographer Photo Finish was at the show?"

"Hm."

Miss Rich smirked. "Then you'll surely know that the pictures she took were published in the Canterlot Fashion magazine." Anya hummed in response. "To keep it short, the pictures did not capture your good side, not that there is much of it anyway. Though it pains me to say this, I admire your courage, being able to walk around freely with such hideous features. Then, there's the rather sharp jawline, and the squarish head..."

Anya remained stoic, her face at least. Her ears lowered, however. "Where are you going with that?" she asked curtly.

"Well, if you know about certain mentally ill people—" she was stopped from her meandering insult as Anya ran out of patience.

"If you're calling me retarded, say it to my face, and then go fuck yourself. If not, keep your mouth shut, and go fuck yourself. I do not have all day to waste, and even if I did, I wouldn't waste it on someone like you." Anya was louder this time, and at least one curious onlooker had turned away after hearing her vulgar reply.

Miss Rich was taken aback by the directness and the language, and she made a face like that of a fish out of water, which was admittedly very funny. However, Brush didn't laugh at that time. She instead hoped that the mare would get the message and get lost. Obviously, she didn't, because that'd be to easy.

The terrible old mare took a moment to recompose herself, and then she dived right back in. "Hmm, your just as ugly in the inside as you're on the outside, but that's hardly surprising for uncivilised cretins like yourself. It's a shame you choose this town of all places to inflict yourself, and it's a bigger shame that quite a few good ponies will have to see how truly wretched you are. Did I mention your terrible limp? It's rather hard to ignore."

Anya faltered a bit at the mention of her physical features, but she kept on with her verbal onslaught. "Cool, don't care. Get lost; nobody likes you. Also, did I mention how terrible your makeup is? You look like some dumb kid who got access to her mom's makeup crap." She wasn't afraid to lower herself to Rich's level, much to the amusement of the others.

Miss Rich turned her nose up at that. "As if you'd know anything about being a mare." She then leaned in close, and said with a predatory smile, "It's obvious that you don't have much experience in being a mare; you barely look like one."

Anya's ears lowered, but she didn't miss a beat as she replied, "And you barely even pass as a sentient creature, you overgrown germ. I suggest you don't talk any more shit and go back to the shithole you came from."

"Hmph." She sat up straight, and turned her nose up again."As if I plan to spend more time here anyway. This establishment is unpleasant as it is, and you only make it worse." She got up from her seat. "Have a day as pleasant as you are," she spat as a final retort.

"Fuck you too." Of course, Anya wouldn't let her have the pleasure of the final word. Miss Rich snorted, sent a mean look to everyone at the table, and then walked away, probably to waste someone else's time.

There was a moment of silence in which the ponies breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Oh thank Faust she's gone!" Lyra said, slumping in her seat. She sat up straight quickly and turned to the stone-faced Bon Bon. "Why didn't you say anything to her?"

Bon Bon turned to look at her incredulously. "What? You know how she is!"

While the two had a little argument, Brush took the opportunity to talk to Anya. Anya had her head hung low, and she looked more troubled than relieved as she rubbed her eyes.

"Hey, are you fine?" Brush asked.

Anya put her hooves back down, and without looking her way, answered in a soft voice, trembling a bit, "Yeah, I'm alright."

She was lying and very obviously hurt by all that the mean old mare had said, but it wasn't something to get hung up on. Brush tightened her wing hug, and for just a moment, Anya leaned on her. She was quick to sit back straight though.

Being the good friend she was, Brush said, "You do know that Miss Rich was trying to provoke you. You aren't anything like she said."

Anya nodded slightly, keeping her gaze lowered and her expression a neutral the bordered on sad. Brush didn't sigh since that'd trouble Anya more.

"Hey, Anya, you alright?" Lyra asked, having ended her little argument on a positive note. Anya didn't respond, and seeing that, she continued, "You looked alright just a moment ago. What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Was it the... she was saying that you're trans, I think. Are you bummed about that?"

"..."

"Are you... what she said?"

Anya looked back down, finding the floor more interesting to look at whole she shifted uncomfortably. Brush chose to think about that later, and to stop Lyra now.

"She's just unhappy about all the insults from that nasty mare," Brush said quickly.

"Oh, okay." Lyra was going to say something else but Anya cut her off.

"It's about eight, I have to go," she said suddenly. She got up from her seat hastily and didn't wait for any reply as she left with her coffee in hoof.

"Bye, I guess," Bon Bon said, clearly not bothered by the sudden departure. Brush didn't stop to glare at her, getting up from her seat.

"I'll see if she's alright," Brush said to the two as she left as well, jogging to catch up with Anya.

Author's Note

16w Au

Be Spoiled Rich
Wake up, dress good, go outside
Find some rando, annoy her
follow her to bakery, be mean to losers for the lulz
leave
Spoiled Rich on that hater grindset.

This truly has been a shitty morning for Anya (at least she didn't get physically attacked)

Sorry for the long wait, it might happen again (not now). Updates will be slower due to school. RIP me, took 5 AP classes :'(

Also: 98 likes! LET'S FUCKING JOEEE!!! :D

Also also: did you know that cats can detect changes in air current using their whiskers? And that they're mostly near sighted? Well, I didn't until I wrote this chapter. Brush having glasses was purely a design choice earlier lol.

Unrelated, I saw this in a dream:

Reader input time!

Q: Should Anya get love (as in romance, i.e., kissing and other mushy stuff)? Elaborate on your answer please.

(It sure would be hilarious to give her someone to love and then take them away in a most brutal fashion (that'd be cliche though (but bad decisions are never off the table)). Who would she be shipped with though, if any of that even happens?)

Chapter 48: (t)hug it out

Today was Sunday, and it was going like most Sundays go for me.

Every day since Wednesday had been a slog, and I wanted to do nothing more than to stop existing, or at least be held by someone while I bitched about everything to them. Unfortunately, I couldn't do either of those things and the best alternative I had was to stay at home. Staying at home sucked though, since it was hot and I had very little to occupy myself with, and even lesser motivation to do anything.

That's how I found myself in my basement, on the floor, curled up and using the end of my tail as a pillow. The basement was the coolest place in my house at the moment, and that was added to by the table fan I had bought on Wednesday. I hadn't eaten anything but two toasts since I woke up and my stomach was more than happy to let me know that, while I was more than happy (not really) to ignore it like the stupid fat thing it was.

I hadn't slacked off the entire day like it seemed; I had put the crucible to work and it was currently making a new spider. It wasn't because I was lonely and wanted to replace the original Spider — that'd be impossible, and pathetic — I just had an idea that could get Voth's work done sooner, as it should. I just had to wait for the thing to come out to see if I can continue with my idea or not. Unfortunately, that would take a lot of time — about twelve to fourteen hours — and I didn't have a lot to do in that time.

I had tried sleeping to pass the time since I was tired from not having proper sleep last night, but the feeling of wasting time had stopped me from doing that. However, I didn't have the will to do any work at all, and so, I just stayed in my basement, feeling bad for being idle but not being able to do anything about it. Spending time outside might have been better than what I was doing now, and I could go and see if I can hang out with someone, but I'd just be bothering anyone I come across, at best. Most probably, if I step outside, I'll be judged and made fun of for being fat and ugly by random people for whatever reason, which was definitely happening with all the crap that Miss Rich had definitely spread about me after I told her to get lost.

Hanging out with my friends wasn't an option as I said earlier. Twilight and Lyra were probably busy today, with their friends and a photo shoot respectively, and I didn't want to bother them. Brush... I don't think she'd appreciate seeing me any time soon.

Long story short, after the whole thing with Miss Rich ruining my morning on Wednesday, I had walked off like a mad toddler and then when Brush came to see if I was alright, I told her to leave me alone. Rudely. More rudely than I should have — I shouldn't have been rude at all, but here I was, wishing I hadn't been rude. She hadn't talked to me since then, and I doubt she will again. Fair enough; it was only a matter of time anyway till she figured it was better for her to not be around me. It hurt to lose a friend, but I deserved that for being such a horrible excuse for a friend... I wished I wasn't me. I missed Brush's company.

On the bright side, which wasn't all that bright, my PMS was gone and my actual period had begun, which was somewhat better. I don't know much about horse biology — not that it matters; I'm a magical unicorn pony in an entirely different universe — but I'm sure that horses had heat or something, and honestly, that would be preferable to this monthly crap. At least, there was no bleeding involved like in humans.

The only other things I had going for me was that, yesterday, I had managed to finally fill out a form for a biomancy license, or rather, a general dark magic license since there wasn't anything for specific magics. Along with that, I had also filled our the weapons permit renewal. Now, I just had to wait for a response for that stuff, which meant more waiting. Yay.

I yawned and turned to lie on my right side, letting my back face the fan. The floor was a bit uncomfortable, but it was cold and I was more than used to lying on the floor. However, I still felt restless, and my thoughts would just keep going back to me being a loser. I really missed my laptop; it had all the brain-rot and chat bots to keep me distracted from thinking.

I curled up a bit more, and tried focusing on the various sounds in my house. There weren't many though— just my breathing, the fan, and the crucible making some wet sound every now and then. Some more listening later, my ears were starting to do that stupid ringing when its silent. I sat up straight and looked around. The basement was probably the most decorated part of my house but even then it was rather empty. Just two tables with assorted junk and the four dull grey walls. It felt empty, the opposite of what a basement should be. Well, I won't be losing stuff if I don't have much to begin with. That was... kind of sad, but I haven't done much to deserve otherwise.

I got up and walked over to the crucible to check on the progress of the new spider, even though I had a rough idea of what it would be like. One of the crucible's eyes followed me as I walked the little distance to it, but I didn't care much. Inside it, the pink water was slowly churning and a little, obscured shape was attached to the inside walls. If I pulled it out now, it'd probably look like a blob of meat. I continued watching it as it grew almost imperceptibly. Maybe I could pass time by watching it? No, that felt weird, and I doubt that it'd distract me enough. I continued watching it though, thinking about what I could do.

My eyes drifted over to one of the tables and the stuff that was on it. There was my notebook that I used to record any observations, just in case, the magic books, and finally, pieces of my gun. I had all the stuff for the gun in a pile on the table, but I hadn't assembled it because... I don't know. I had got all the stuff that I needed by Thursday and after that, I had done nothing. Was I procrastinating? Probably; I wouldn't trust myself to not be lazy.

I continued staring at the pile of stuff, thinking about putting it together instead of doing it. I walked over to the table and sorted out the pile. All the magic things were grouped together on one side, and the non-magic stuff on the other. I still had to finish a copper coil but that'd take like, a minute at max, and then I could get this over with.

However, I didn't do it right away. I stood there, staring at the stuff like a dummy. My thoughts were kind of a mess and I couldn't focus long enough to force myself to get to work. Besides, I could really go for something to eat right now, and I didn't feel like doing anything else right now, especially something boring. Maybe later.

I shook my head and grumbled a slur at myself.

I hadn't done anything to deserve a 'little' break, literally nothing; I was literally lying down on the floor until now. I should get this over with, even if I didn't feel like it — not that my feelings mattered in the first place. This indecision was just an excuse for wasting time.

Yet, it didn't go away. The debate raged on in my head: to slack off or not. It seemed so obvious — just don't waste your time — but noo, I just had to have the stupid argument with myself. Even with that self-awareness, the indecision didn't go away.

After some long moments of standing like an idiot, I sighed and finally moved. Away from the table.

It felt bad but it was hard to get behind doing something right now. I left the basement quickly and found myself in the kitchen, hoping to get something to forget my troubles temporarily. A cheese sandwich would probably help, even if it's just a little bit, and so, I made myself a cheese sandwich. However, with that sandwich made, I was out of bread. I'd have to get more soon... tomorrow. I wish tomorrow doesn't come.

I didn't eat it right away, and instead, walked to the backdoor with my sandwich held in my mouth because it was stuffy in the kitchen even with the window open. I pulled back the curtains and then waited for my eyes to adjust to the new light in the living room. The time was somewhere between morning and noon, probably closer to noon, I'm pretty sure. There was no doubt that outside would be hot. However, I only intended to see if there was a breeze outside, which I couldn't tell by just looking through the glass door.

I opened the backdoor and fortunately, there was a cool breeze outside, much better that anything my fan could do. I stood there for a moment, eyes closed and sandwich in mouth, as I let my mane flutter around in the breeze. I felt significantly better now. I could probably just stay here, maybe lie down just outside the sunlight, till I forgot about my problems—

I shook my head and grumbled at catching myself almost going back to procrastinating.

I walked myself to a couch and sat down on it. My body told me to lie down as well but I refused and began eating my sandwich. It was finished too quick and now I was sitting on the couch, still hungry and with nothing to do. This should've been the end of my little break from doing nothing, but now that I was here, I was again hit with the problem of not wanting to do anything, and again, I had trouble finding the will to do something about it. After a bit of quiet struggle, I lay down on the couch. I didn't think I could force myself into doing stuff today — I was tired —, and even if I could, I'd do stuff sloppily. I'd do it tomorrow for sure.

That justification for my lethargy didn't stop me from feeling bad though. I spent the next ten or so minute just trying to fall asleep so I don't have to deal with anything, but I was too sad, and wasn't tired enough to sleep. It was hell, and I hated it. I didn't know how to deal with it, besides just shutting up and telling myself that I just have to get to tomorrow, i.e., thugging it out. But tomorrow was probably going to suck as well, just for different, and maybe today's, reasons.

I shrunk back and curled up, focusing on anything else besides today or tomorrow. There wasn't much to see, but there was a bit more to hear. It was mostly the faint sound of leaves rustling, the clock ticking upstairs, and finally, the even fainter sounds of people. What were they doing? It was a bright and sunny day; they were probably out, with family and friends, having a good time. I wish I could do that. I whined a bit and curled up some more. It was lonely here, and I couldn't do much about it besides thugging it out. I think I'll just rot here on the couch till tomorrow.

I woke up with a start as someone knocked at the front door. I turned and sat up without much thinking, and then fell forward and off the couch, hitting my nose on the carpeted floor.

"Ow," I groaned as I slowly sat up straight and rubbed my nose.

My arms were shaky and they felt weak and like jelly. My body felt sore as a whole, and the left side of my head stung a bit from where my glasses had been pressed against it. I was both thirsty and famished. I opened my eyes and looked around, only to find everything blurry. The only thing I could tell was that the room was a bit darker than before I had dozed off. My vision should come back in a minute or two.

I took a moment to steady myself and get a bearing. I was in my living room, not my bed. It was afternoon. I had drool on the side of my mouth, which I quickly wiped away with a hoof. What was I doing here? Oh, right, wasting time. I guess I fell asleep like, however long ago, an hour or two probably. Why did I wake up again?

There was knocking on the door again.

I stood up and walked to the front door almost automatically, feeling light headed. I put a hoof to the knob and it was then that I regained control. What was going on? Yeah, somebody outside. Who'd want to meet me now though? I looked down at myself. I didn't even look presentable. They'd probably point and laugh if they saw me now. But they had probably heard me walk to the door, so I couldn't ignore them. I guessed I had to see who it was.

I unlocked and then opened the door just a bit. It was Brush; she was outside. At first, I was relieved; it was just her. Then, I was afraid; it was her. As far as I knew, I was sure she didn't want to see me. Was she going to say that to my face, to stop me if I ever though otherwise? No, she wouldn't ever be that mean—

"Hey Anya!" she greeted, throwing me off. She seemed cheerful. Or was she? I couldn't tell; I could barely remember how her tone was when she said that. I wasn't sure if she was happy to see me or not.

"H- hi," I replied, opening the door a bit more. It was after I did it that I realised that I shouldn't have opened the door as much; she could see me entirely and I looked like trash. I couldn't close the door now though since that'd be rude. I just stood, staring at her blurry face while silently panicking and preparing for a mean comment.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she asked, instead of saying what I expected, throwing me off again.

"Yeah," I lied quickly. There's no way she fell for it though, but why would that matter — she probably doesn't care about what I say, but if she did — like a part of me hoped —, I didn't want her to be worried.

She remained silent, making me more nervous and look down at the ground. I had to stop myself from squirming or pawing at the ground. Finally, she spoke, "Anya, you're— your nose is bleeding."

"Hm?" I looked up. Was she looking at me with concern? I put a hoof to my nose and wiped. Upon inspection, I found that my white fetlock was stained with a little red. It took me a moment to realise that it was blood, probably from falling off the couch. I wiped again, but there wasn't much change in the size of the blood splotch on my fetlock. The physical wound would go away in a few minutes; less if I healed it, which is what I did. My horn lit up and I cast a quick healing spell on myself. There was a burning sensation for a second as the wound healed in a similar-ish manner to how it would if I put an OB on it, and then I was alright. I'd have to see if I stained the carpet though.

I then realised that I had forgotten that Brush was there while I did all that. I quickly averted what little eye contact I could make.

"It'll be alright," I muttered as I wiped away any remaining blood. Then, I asked, "Why— what brings you here?" I think I said that rudely, which I probably did. I didn't mean to, but I did. I wish she'd leave already, even if it would suck to see her go and then be alone again. I'm getting too used to having someone.

Brush took a moment to answer. "Well, today seemed like a pleasant day, and I wanted to spend some time with you—" She took in a breath. I was waiting for the 'but'. "—but... nevermind."

I looked back up at her as she continued, cheerful again, though with some apprehension now, "As I was saying, would you like to go outside, maybe to the park?"

Again, I was confused on what to do and how to react. On one hand, it seemed that Brush was alright with me, even though I was mean to her. On the other, it was entirely possible that she wasn't alright with me and that I was just be wasting her time.

I was pulled out of thought as Brush added, more apprehensive than cheerful, "It's alright if you don't, and if you want me to go away." She seemed sad to say that, especially the last part. I didn't want to see her sad like that, especially because of me.

"Sure," I blurted out almost immediately. Brush was happy to hear that; I wasn't as much. Sure, I had made her happy but I was also inconveniencing her now. I tried focusing on the positive side — she was happy to be around me and didn't dislike me like I had thought — but dark thoughts kept coming to me, telling me that'll be rectified soon and that I'd be alone again. Whatever, I had to deal with the present first. "Just wait a bit, I'll be out soon."

I had made myself look as presentable as I could in the span of five minutes, which was nowhere near what I would have liked. I didn't spend more time though, mainly because I didn't want to keep Brush waiting. After that, we were out on the streets, walking at Brush's leisurely pace. It seemed like a nice day outside; the sky was bright and blue, birds were out and about, flowers here and there — it looked peaceful like the XP background. But I couldn't care about all that.

We talked as we walked, and by that I mean, she talked while I just nodded and hummed and all that stuff that made it seem like I didn't care about what she was saying. I did care, but I just couldn't make much conversation since I was too busy trying not to look nervous. When I had agreed to coming outside, I had forgotten that outside was where all the people were, and though I couldn't confirm it, I was sure that every other pony that had seen me had made some remark about me. I wanted to go back home (and never come back out) but I had committed to being outside and couldn't turn back now.

The other thing that bugged me was that I hadn't yet apologised to Brush for being rude to her on Wednesday, and just being a burden in general. She was probably waiting for me to do that, and I definitely should if I wanted to be a half-decent friend at least. The problem was finding the words to begin with. I didn't want to mess up in a manner that pushed her away from me for real.

We were in the park right now, just idly walking whichever way Brush took. I didn't lag behind since she'd just slow down to match my pace and keep me at her side if I did. She'd point out something, like a flower, every now and then but otherwise the walk was quiet. I didn't really know when was the right time to begin, or if I should do it now, but I had already told myself that I will. I took a breath and then began when the time seemed right.

"Hey, Brush."

She turned an ear towards me but kept her eyes on the path, which was good since there wasn't any eye-contact. "Hm?"

"I... I probably should have said this earlier," I still looked away to say that.

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry for... Wednesday."

She stopped walking for a moment at that, and I did as well. She then resumed walking quietly, and I followed. However, the silence felt different, and it seemed that I had messed up. I shouldn't have mentioned Wedn—

"It's alright," she said, interrupting my catastrophising. I was taken aback by how quickly she had let it go; it seemed too easy. She continued, turning to smile at me, "You were upset and needed time."

"But I—" I tried telling her that she was going too easy on me, but she put a wing over my back and turned back.

"Look, it's alright. You just had a bad day then — I'm sure anybody would if they went through the same situation," she reassured. It was that easy. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could breath a sigh of relief. I still felt worried for some reason. Brush continued, "Anya, I know that you're nervous about something, and I don't want my friends to be troubled by something when I can help. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I— ye— no, you don't have to..."

"I don't have to, but I want to help." She tightened her wing hug a bit and looked to me. "Tell me, are you upset because of what that... mare had said to you?" She frowned at having to mention Miss Rich.

It took me a moment to answer, "I was mostly worried because... I thought I... pushed you away, but... yeah, what she said still make me feel bad." It was both relieving and embarrassing to admit, but mostly relieving.

Brush hummed in response. "You know that she was just trying to bring you down, probably because she didn't want to see anybody be happier than her. You look a lot better than she wants you to think; I think she's just jealous."

"Hm, yeah." My ears lowered and I looked down. Sure, it was nice to hear that, but it was hard to believe. I didn't say anything else though since I didn't want to upset Brush. I just wanted to hug her and hang out somewhere that wasn't outside.

She continued, more unsure now, "And... well, if you're trans like she said..."

I felt my heart skip a beat and shrink back a bit. It was the one thing I did not want to address because it would go bad most likely. Pony-me had lost basically all friends who learned that one detail, and I didn't look forward to one more, however unlikely that was. Even though that seemed unlikely with Brush, I still found myself looking down and mentally bracing for a negative response anyway. It wasn't nice to her, and I didn't like doing it.

"...I won't think any less of you. You're just my friend first."

I was so happy to be proven wrong in my assumption. I was deciding if I should explain my situation to her, or hug her first, but was stopped as she continued, "I— I'm not saying that you are, I just—"

I stopped and hugged her. It was awkward, and seemingly out of nowhere, but I just couldn't help it — she was probably the best friend I ever had. I stopped her mid-sentence and she took a moment to return the hug. I guess I had told her enough through this gesture; I'd explain more to her later but I didn't care much about that right now. I was happy that I was with a friend; that's what mattered right now.

Author's Note

20s Au

NGL, the drama needs work, but the chapter has to be finished — decent-good chapter is better than no chapter at all, and not everything has to be perfect to be good 👍 (I should really stop trying to justify my bad writing by pointing out how others things have been worse but successful. Having an editor or pre-reader would counter that issue, but I don't have any lol)

Semi-spoiler: Miss Rich will return to trouble Anya, but not now; Anya's busy hugging Brush.

I was originally gonna edit and post this Friday morning but I need the dopamine hit. I apologise for the unedited chapter

I considered replacing the "adventure" tag with the "slice of life" but it wouldn't be great since Anya's "normal" day is closer to a bad day for a normal person, than a normal day + she doesn't have many "normal" slice-of-life days in the story.

It's kinda hard to write this story at times since it is rather far off from the main characters of the MLP show (who everybody wants to read about), and becuase I am in no capacity a "good" writer (a lot of the chapters in the story are low quality in some way, this chapter included), and also because keeping Anya (relatively) grounded is a bit hard at times. The problem is that because of the established lore of the story, there is no real reason for Anya to interact with the mane 6 outside of Twilight. RETCONS will be hard since there's over 150k words to go over, and nobody will like to reread this stuff.

I'm thinking about using Anya's eldritch backing, and the eldritch in general, as a way to get the characters to interact more but I feel like I might make it an evil deus ex machina thing, or mess up character interactions with unrealistic dramas. There's also the problem of justifying the branches of magic she's learning, and keeping things fresh (only flesh-craft will get boring) while trying to balance out the ~~edging~~ wait for newer magics.

Speaking of that, there's also the magic system but that's easier to deal with right now since the magic currently introduced is based on some scientific fact, mainly the law of conservation and some other stuff. Artifice is mainly based on the existing properties of metal. Biomancy is a bit more vague since I can't find a lot of information on medical and body related subjects, but I guess it's called "magic" for a reason. I'll have to work to keep it from being too overpowered though. Getting into the "real" (or maybe "high") magic is gonna be more difficult, but I'll probably figure it out, or bullshit my way through it good enough.

There's also Nemo, the other human in Equestria, and her story line. I introduced her mainly to show that the eldritch things can be horrible beyond reason but now she doesn't have much of a purpose, but I'll see if I can do something with her. (Anya mom arc???)

Anyway, moving on from the yap sesh, here's a picture of Brush that I made:

(source: https://www.deviantart.com/arandomlonelydude/art/Brush-Revamped-1105917078
alternate: https://derpibooru.org/images/3457195)

loaf :3

Chapter 49: The 2st step of Artifice: BLOOD IS FUEL

Mondays were peak, actually.

There was not one day you could be sure about before it began, besides Monday. It was almost always going to be the worst with waking up for work or school. No matter how your weekend was, Monday was always gonna be crappy, and you would want to wish it away. Monday was pretty static compared to other days of the week.

The point is, Mondays were predictable for the most part, and a sort of anchor for the week. If it went bad, it went as expected. If it went good, then you don't have anything to complain about. Other days didn't have this kind of guarantee attached with them — you could be looking forward to Friday, only to be hit by a truck on said Friday and have it ruined; on Monday, it'd be within the realm of expectation, and therefore, not as disappointing.

Anyway, my Monday had been going great so far! It was around three in the morning and I was in my basement, getting work done for once. It might be unwise to stay up on a work night but I think I'd be fine later in the morning, especially when I had important work right now. Besides, I was in a good mood and intended to make full use of it.

The thing that I was currently attending to was the new spider that I was making for my idea to get Voth's key back. The plan was simple: I make a bug that can carry stuff around, Voth possesses it, takes it to the fort where the key is, retrieves the key and brings it back to me so that I can then do the ritual or whatever I have to do to give it to him. It was a bit crappy since I was making Voth do the brunt of the work, but I think he'll appreciate having his thing sooner rather than later.

Additionally, I was figuring out automating the whole process of making creatures. That was an idea I had like a month ago but hadn't been able to for reasons, such as almost getting killed, but whatever; life throws rocks at you when you're climbing up a cliff, or when you're standing around doing nothing, or when you're sleeping— whatever, that's all rambling and beside the point.

So, new spider. I think I'll call him... Retriever? That's a bit on the nose. Ret? I don't know, but I guess that's good enough. So, Ret (I should really get a better name) was still in the crucible. He was a lot larger now, no longer just a little dark blob in the red water that you might miss. He looked like a normal spider, having only eight legs and looking a bit like a particularly oversized tarantula that was also a jumping spider. On his back, however, was a bright red 'X' spot, signalling that he was not to be trifled with.

Of course, the spot meant nothing; it was there just to scare anyone or anything from trying to attack him. I wouldn't actually make him poisonous since I wasn't a hundred percent sure of whether he'd come out as an eight-legged puppy or as an eight-legged pitbull named "Cupcake". However, I doubt that Ret will come out aggressive since I had been monitoring his development closely and comparing whatever data I had gathered with the data I had from the other bugs and Spider.

The one factor that differed between the failed bugs and Spider was how much the crucible had been fed before the creation of the bug. Less nutrition made the bug somewhat deformed and rather aggressive — maybe due to incomplete development, or some kind of starvation instinct. While I could use more than five subjects for my data to narrow down the reason, I wasn't too keen on making things suffer and then die for something that can be fixed by just me being responsible for once in my life and feeding the crucible more.

Anyway, the crucible had been well-fed before I made it make Ret and I was pretty confident he'd come out alright. I just had to wait for the crucible to finish making Ret, which should be any minute now. I had to be around to take Ret out of the red water, dry him, and then put him through dream training. The process would be a bunch easier if I could automate it, especially the dream part, but I hadn't yet implemented anything for that. That's some more work to keep me occupied later.

Right now, I occupied myself NOT by staring at the crucible like it stared at me (that'd be weird) but rather with the other important thing I had: assembling the coil-gun. I had finished coiling up the last coil and just had to assemble the gun, which I was already doing at the table.

The design was simple, compared to the stuff that you'd find in Eurasian or UFN forces, I think.

So, the four coils sat equidistant on the barrel, a half-metre long plastic pipe. Each of the coils was connected to the pointy end of a quartz gem, which would convert any magic it gets into electricity very quickly, like a capacitor. The flat ends of the quartz gems were then connected to a piece of glass by a copper wire, since copper was good at conducting magic as well.

That piece of glass had iron wire wrapped around it, and was in contact with a second piece of glass. The glass piece with the iron wire was attuned to the iron's magic, and had one-way runes on it. The other piece of glass had a copper wire that connected to an amethyst gem that was attached to the barrel a little bit before the coil. The amethyst would detect and amplify the magical signature of whatever was in the barrel right above it, which in this case would be an iron nail. It would then transfer that magic signature to the second piece of glass. Since both the pieces of glass would be attuned to iron's magic, they would let magic flow between them, acting like a switch. I was quite proud of that mechanism and how simple it was.

Moving on, the second piece of glass was connected to a diamond by a wire that had a basic electrical switch as a safety mechanism to stop magic flow. The diamond, which served as a magic battery, was connected to an amber cone. The amber would take in magic from the surroundings and deposit it in the diamond till it was full. Three of the four coils had this set-up, which should make them activate in sequence when an iron nail goes through the barrel.

The first coil, the one that fires initially, didn't have any amethyst in it. Instead, the mechanism was connected to a trigger that would simultaneously let the second glass touch a bunch of iron wire, while cutting the connection between the amber and the diamond to ensure an instantaneous-ish flow.

I was finishing the initial coil mechanism, making sure that it worked properly since it was the only thing with moving parts. It seemed to be working fine, if I were to go by the quartz lighting up ever so slightly for a moment whenever I pulled the trigger. What I had to do now was actually test the gun to see if it works or not in its current design.

I picked up a little one inch nail that I had set aside on the table and inserted it into the barrel from the trigger end. I’ll finish the chamber in a bit so that the nail doesn't drop out, but after the first test. I carefully picked up the gun in my hooves and just inspected it for a moment. It looked like a piece of junk right now but that didn't bother me much. It was definitely lighter than any gun I've ever held, which was a plus. I walked away from the table and to the centre of the basement, and took aim at the wall furthest away from me, steadying my breath as I did. Without waiting another moment, I pulled the trigger.

It took a moment for me to see the nail be shot out. The projectile sailed through the air for a second before hitting the floor in front of the wall and coming to a noisy stop. I lowered the gun and stared at the nail for a second. The most important observation was that the gun definitely worked. However, the fact that the nail didn't even hit the wall, that was about six metres away, made it clear that the gun was nowhere as powerful as what I expected or wanted. But why though? I think a second test will answer that.

I levitated the nail back to me and inserted it into the barrel. I took aim and fired again. This time around, the nail only went half the distance and seeing that did make my mood a bit worse. Instead of keeping steady, the gun had lost power, which definitely wasn't good. However, it was obvious now what the problem was: not enough magic in the system. Every time I fire the gun, the magic in the diamonds will be depleted, and if I don't give the diamonds enough time to recharge, they'll give me a smaller energy output.

To confirm that, I charged up the diamonds with my magic by holding them and the ambers in my telekinetic grip for a while. The gems syphoned off of my grip, making me exert some more energy to hold them in place. It was easy to know when they were full since they stopped syphoning magic, and glowed a bit. I hate to admit it but I was a tiny bit winded after that. However, I was more concerned that it took a whole thirty seconds for me to charge up the gems. I'll have to rectify that, somehow. Probably by adding more amber gems to increase input.

But with the gems fully charged, I could see the true power of my gun. I put in the nail and took aim at the wall again. I pulled the trigger and immediately observed some noticeable recoil. That was good; there was power behind the nail for sure, and the gun was working as intended.

The next thing that I observed was the sound of the nail hitting the wall. Twice. The first time from the wall I aimed at, and the second from the wall to my right. This observation was immediately followed by a sharp pain in my right flank. My ignorance of safety standards had come back to bite me in the ass, literally.

I cursed, dropping the gun as I turned my head to see where the nail had hit me. It was a bit hard too see at first where the nail was, with the dim light and some tears in my eyes, but once the wound started bleeding, it became a whole lot easier to spot.

The nail had hit me just below my talent mark and was about halfway in. I cursed myself again for being stupid as I touched the nail, making my flank hurt more. I made a note to myself: don't do stupid shit without any safeguards. I could have shot myself in the head just as easily as I shot my ass, and I wasn't keen on losing an eye, or worse. Whatever, I could curse myself later; first, I had to fix this problem.

I began by sucking in a breath and quickly pulling the nail out and tossing it to the side. The pain in my flank flared as I did, and more tears came to my eyes, but at least the hard part was over. It was just like ripping off a bandaid, I told myself. I was left with a tiny, bleeding wound that had to be dealt with. I didn't have any bandages or OBs at hand, but that didn't mean I was helpless.

I reached out to the blood around and in the wound with my magic and directed it to start the healing process. Moving the blood around was a bit hard since it was a fluid, but it was definitely better and easier than trying to move the flesh around the wound, and it burned just the same. The tiny wound that the nail had left me with was slowly healed, until it stopped bleeding and looked like a patch of fur-less skin. It wasn't a complete heal like the OBs since it still stung a bit and there was a bit of fur that had to grow back but it was good enough otherwise.

I stood up, a bit shakily, and walked a bit just to make sure that everything had gone alright. The stinging in my flank died down as I did and soon, it was like nothing had ever happened, almost. I still had a mental note to not do any experiments without safety, and a patch of drying blood on my flank as a physical note that I had to clean. But first, I had to record my tests.

I walked back to the table and levitated my notebook and a pen from the other table. I flipped through the notebook till I reached the page where I had written down information related to my gun. There was a list of components, and a crude drawing of the gun's design below that. Below those both, I began writing down how the three tests went and what I learned from them.

"Test 1: Shot at wall, nail barely reached.

Test 2: Shot again right after above, nail only went halfway. Cause: not enough time to recharge magic.

Test 3: Recharged all diamonds fully, took shot. Nail went fast as expected, bounced off walls and hit me. NOTE: FOLLOW SAFETY DUMBASS."

I mainly wrote this stuff down so that I have something to look back to in the future if I had to, like with the crucible's feeding data, but I doubt that I'll have use for most of what I write down, besides maybe trying to convince myself that I've done a lot.

Once I was finished writing, I turned to go pick up the gun. It was lying where I had dropped it, and nothing looked to be broken, which was good.

I walked to it and picked it up, looking over it closely to make sure that there wasn't any easy to miss damage anywhere. Fortunately, there wasn't anything like that. However, I did notice something strange. One of the diamonds had a faint glow.

How did it recharge so fast? I hadn't held that diamond in my magic or anything like that. If I could find out why, that'd be great for sure. The diamond looked normal from the side I was looking at. I turned the gun around and saw that the diamond looked normal from the other side as well. My eyes were drawn downwards, however, to the amber below the diamond, and that's where I found the thing that had changed.

There was a bit of blood on the amber.

I looked down to the ground and saw that the bloody nail was lying there. I picked it up and walked back to the table where I set it down with the gun so that I could think.

Putting blood on the amber had very clearly made it better at absorbing magic. It made sense; amber had once been alive, and living things like have a lot of magic in them, which was why it absorbed magic so much better than other gems. Blood was the... well, the life-blood of living things and therefore, it had a lot of magic in it, and probably even more magic-absorption capabilities than amber. I had accidentally put some blood on the amber, and together, the two had charged up a diamond faster than just amber alone.

I looked up to the wall, thinking some more. I could definitely use this finding to my advantage, getting my gun to reload faster, without any input of magic on my part. However, it required blood as a sort of fuel, and that was admittedly a bit messed up and probably not exactly legal. But then, I wasn't harming anyone or breaking any laws, maybe, if I only used my own blood for it. Besides, the point of the gun is to harm, so I guess that justifies it in a weird way. Does this count as blood magic? I don't think so, but I’m not sure.

I looked down at the notebook on the table, and then wrote down a few things under the observations for the third test.

"Blood from nail got onto amber accidentally. Blood on amber = quick recharge. Need more tests to determine how much. Look more into magic related to/using blood as well."

Once I was done with Ret, I would have plenty of time for this research. However it goes, it will definitely be interesting.

Author's Note

21m Au

Thanks to ArcaneDust for editing this chapter, and giving some opinions.

NO, ANYA, DON'T DO IT! DON'T LOOK INTO MAGIC RELATED TO/USING BLOOD, YOU'LL GO INSANE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE!

I actually tried making up some equations to calculate magical force and also a unit of measurement (a thaum) but that is rather complex and doesn't add enough to the story to justify it.

(If you're curious, I tried setting 1 thaum as the maximum amount of magic 1 mol of gold atoms can hold. 1 thaum of magic exerts a force of 1 Newton on an object with a mass of 1kg, which is all rather convenient. However, considering that it is magic, I think that it'll be alright.

Of course, these numbers mean nothing as of now and are subject to change.)

Anywho, how do you think Anya's foray into new, darker magic will go?

Chapter 50: One Step Forward

Biomancy seemed like a cool field of magic to spec into — and it was. The limits to what you can do with it are defined by how creative you are with meat and blood. You could make yourself look pretty, you could cure yourself of crappy organs and ill health, you could get rid of scars.

You could do all sorts of things, all of which probably sounded nightmarish to some people, but not to you.

Right now, I was staring at the crucible, at three AM in my dimly lit basement, all locked in to wrangle a huge wet spider-thing that was, to a degree, my flesh and blood. I'm pretty sure that all those things, just by themselves, were nightmare fuel for the average person.

The crucible had made some noises a couple minutes ago, signalling that it was going to release Ret and that I had to stop whatever I was doing and get ready. And ready I was; a towel lay on the floor beside me, for Ret, and a roll of paper towels was on my other side, for the inevitable mess. I also had my new gun, just in case Ret somehow came out bad and I somehow couldn't put him down with just my hooves, though I doubt I would need to do any harm tonight, or morning I guess. Staying up all night probably wasn't healthy, but getting work done was worth it.

It was just waiting now. Any moment now, the crucible would release Ret and he'd go from calm and peaceful to splashing around in the red water, distressed and trying not to drown. Who knew being born sucked ass? Maybe I should figure out if I can make the crucible better in that regard somehow, but later.

The dark figure in the red water twitched. The moment had come. I had to be quick, unless I wanted Ret to drown.

I didn't waste any time reaching out with my magic and grabbing Ret, who was moving a lot more now. I'd have used my hooves instead of levitation since levitating living things is harder, but I wasn't keen on being bit. It was a bit hard to get a hold of him though since he had started full on panicking about both being underwater, and being grabbed by some big unknown thing (me). In his panic, he made a little bit of the red water splash out to the floor, giving me a mess to clean.

He was panicking now, thrashing all eight legs around and trying to get out of the water, making a mess while making it harder for me to get him out. Spider had not been anywhere as panicky as Ret, and I briefly considered just going physical. I'd have called Ret an idiot if the task wasn't time sensitive.

"Quit moving, you," I grumbled as I finally got a stable enough grip on him. I pulled him out of the crucible quickly, adding to the mess on the floor. Ret added more to that mess by flailing his appendages around, splattering the red water all over the floor and me as well, leaving little splotches that looked brown under the yellow light. Now that Ret had air in his body, he was making all sorts of sounds of distress, ranging from squeaks to a few hisses. Quite dramatic, but understandable. At least, he wasn't hissing aggressively at me.

The mess wasn't really a big deal; him flailing around was, since it was breaking my hold on him. I kept my focus though and manoeuvred him away from the crucible and towards the towel. My horn had already started aching with the effort of holding him, and I was more than happy to let him drop onto the towel, on which he landed upside down. He flailed his legs in the air and continued being noisy as he tried righting himself. I didn't give him the opportunity to do that though since I'd rather not have a wet bug running around and making the mess larger.

I grabbed the towel with my magic and wrapped it around him, trapping him. He tried freeing himself at first, but calmed down somewhat when I started drying him off. I'd have to give him a proper wash later if he was to be truly clean, but being dry should be enough for now.

It took a minute for me to be done, which also gave Ret a minute to fully adjust to his situation. He wasn't squeaking anymore and was perfectly silent and calm, like the basement. Once I was done, I slowly unwrapped the towel and freed him. He stood up immediately and turned to me, staring at me with his large black eyes, which seemed to be gauging me with far more intelligence than a bug could ever have. Simultaneously, he looked like he was lost and wanted guidance.

I offered my hoof to him, to see how he would react.

It wasn't ideal, but it was the best way I had (at the moment) to determine if he was alright or not. I hoped that he was the former, but I had to wait for him to react to get a definitive answer.

Ret didn't have an immediate reaction of any kind, which was worrying — all the other bugs had quick reactions. He just stared at me in complete, and worrying, silence, and I stared back at him to find any sort of reaction while staying cautious. It didn't help that he looked dangerous and a bit foreboding as well, but I shouldn't have been complaining about that since I made him look like he was danger. Plus, he was like the size of a housecat.

The moment stretched on for a rather long time, and I was impatient to know what exactly was going on in that little head of his, if there was anything happening in there at all. Had I messed up somewhere in making him? That wouldn't be good.

Finally, he made a move.

He stepped forward to my hoof, bumped it with his head, and chirped.

In response, I pet him, which made him chirp happily and come closer for more pets. I breathed a sigh of relief, happy that this was a success, and that my prediction of him being alright was correct. Any creatures I make in the future won't be set up for failure now that I know what caused failure, but more importantly, I wouldn't have to get rid of Ret.

Now that I wasn't worrying, I could look over his features more closely. He was a lot more furry than I had imagined, and since his hair was all fluffed up, he looked quite cute (once you got past his colouring). I picked up Ret, in my hooves, and hugged him. "What a cutie." It was probably the closest I could get to having a plushie in real life.

He seemed to object to that at first, but he didn't do anything to get away from me. It was quite nice since he was soft and just the cutest thing ever. I'll definitely keep him after Voth's done with him, and I'll... be responsible so that nothing bad happens to him. I held him a bit closer after that thought.

I hugged him for a tiny bit (ten minutes), mumbling some nice things to him all the while, before I set him down so that I could start cleaning up the mess we had made. Ret didn't wander off to explore, like Spider had when I left him to his devices, but he didn't stay at my side either. He instead climbed onto me and perched on my back. The only part of that which I minded was that I couldn't exactly pet him while he was there, easily anyway. Whatever, there was plenty of time later for that. I think I'll show him to Brush, and maybe Twilight if she doesn't get too scared of him. But after Voth's task.

It was about four AM and I was kinda tired and ready to sleep, but that was mainly because I had lay down. I'll definitely be more tired later in the day but I figured that I'll be okay.

I had called Voth earlier, and was waiting for him for a while now. He was busy with something important so I had to wait to tell him my plan, which was alright. I had decided to spend the time just hanging out with Ret, and I ended up taking him to the backyard to let him run around and look at whatever was there.

He had been doing that for a while, walking up to random plants in my backyard or other points of interest and inspecting them. I had initially sat at the deck and watched Ret do his thing, but it got boring after a while; Spider was more interesting to watch as he ran around in circles in the backyard, not that Ret was worse in comparison. They were just... different; but I care for them both all the same, maybe even more for Ret. I wouldn’t want him to get hurt, ever.

The weather was nice outside, with a warm breeze blowing, and the sky was clear with a crescent moon. I had lain down on the deck after a while, alternating between watching Ret or the sky.

It was... peaceful today, compared to yesterday. I'm not saying that yesterday was bad; it was quite good actually even though it started off poor, but it was a bit more emotional than what I liked. Well, I did spend it with Brush, so that was nice, and we discussed... sensitive topics briefly, and she... she's probably the closest friend I've ever had, and could ever have. That's why I was unusually happy yesterday and today. I'll definitely make some time to go hang out with her.

I looked up at the sky. It was still just as pretty as the first time I had seen it in Ponyville. I guess one advantage of a rural-ish town is that there is basically no light pollution. I continued admiring the stars for a while. It'd be a cool place to hang out with Brush, here in my backyard at this time, looking at the stars.

Suddenly, there was the familiar sound of distressed chirping and distressed squeaking, shaking me out of admiring the sky. I looked back down to see that just beyond the dim yellow light of the deck's lights, Ret was picking a fight with another large bug, I think. I couldn't tell from where I was.

I got up quick and trotted to Ret, magic at the ready to grab whatever I had to. I got close and saw that there wasn't a fight going on, but rather something that looked hilarious.

There was Ret, running in a circle, chirping with clear distress as he tried to shake off the bug on his abdomen. On his abdomen, covering the red spot that should have indicated grave danger, was the moth — that I should probably name — holding on for dear life and squeaking with clear distress as Ret tried to shake him off. Neither were attacking the other but they sure were making it seem like they were fighting the entire Japanese civil war by themselves.

I, being the good and responsible bug owner that I was, giggled and watched the two bugs continue their cartoonish battle for a little bit, until it ended all by itself, in a peaceful manner.

And by peaceful, I mean that the moth left Ret and took flight, making a beeline directly for my face. I swore I saw some emotion of sorts in his normally unintelligent eyes right before he made contact with me.

"Ow." I rubbed my nose where the moth hit; for a bug with flight, he was remarkably good at being a blunt weapon. I wasn't the only one who was complaining about being hit though. He had perched itself on my chest after a brief fall and was squeaking and flailing around his front legs at me, in a manner that seemed to suggest that the bug was capable of being annoyed, and perhaps, wanted to see my manager.

The sound wasn't nice though since it was rather loud and annoying, and I was pretty sure that it was slowly damaging my ears. I pulled him off my chest and held him in front of me so I could look him in his eyes, and say calmly, "Quiet, stupid bug. This is all your fault." He actually quieted down after that, and then stared at me like the dumb but cute bug he was.

I lowered him and looked at Ret to see what he was doing. He was just beyond the light, also staring at me like a dumb bug— no, wait, he was locked in, glaring at the moth like he was his nemesis. Seeing him standing there, just beyond the light menacingly, with that dislike in his eyes that made him look quite... hilarious. I was sure that he looked terrifying, but to me, it just seemed funny that he was so worked up over a bug.

"Ret, come here," I called out to Ret, which shook him out of his standing and glaring. He started walking over, but he kept his attention to the moth in my hoof. Not even a day old and he has enemies. The moth on his part didn't seem to have the capacity to care, which was nice — two angry bugs wouldn't be easy to deal with.

I let the moth go, and he immediately crawled up my arm and back to my chest, where he started the chewing thing that he did whenever he got onto me. I watched him do his cute thing, debating if I should pet him, until my attention was pulled away by Ret chirping at me.

He was at my hoof and tapping at it, no longer looking at the moth. He chirped again, which prompted me to pet him like he wanted. When I stopped, he didn't go away to continue exploring like I had expected.

"You done with the backyard?" I asked him. He didn't give any sort of response and continued staring up at me. I shrugged and turned to walk back to the deck. Ret followed me closely, being quite literally on my tail.

I lay down on the deck, curling up this time. The moth moved, trying to get to my face, but I caught him and then held him like he was a plushie, which earned me a squeak from him. In front of me, Ret had climbed up the deck and was looking at me, clearly in relatively intense thought about something, probably the moth.

"Hmm," I looked down at the moth in my hold, and he looked back up to me, I think. I should probably give him a name since he just hangs around and is too distinct to be just 'the moth'. But what would I name a bug? Ret was easy to name since it was just his primary purpose shortened. Well, all names are that, sort of. Look back far enough and you'll find that all names are just some variation of 'religious' or 'king' or some other adjective that was good at the time.

I stared at the moth, thinking about what I could name him considering his qualities. He was fluffy, and stupid, and quite squeaky as well. There's also how he has weird colours on his wings, like he flew drunk into a paint factory. All of those things give good ideas for a name.

"What could I call you?" I whispered to the bug, thinking about a name. He squeaked at me in response.

"Aha!" I exclaimed as I got the perfect name. The moth squeaked at me in what I interpreted as confusion. Ret, who had been standing in complete silence chirped at me.

I looked down at the moth and pointed at him, "Your name is... Steeve the moth."

Very creative and representative of him and his qualities, I know; you can stop with the applause for that feat of ingenuity, it's nothing new on my part. Seriously, stop.

The moth, now dubbed Steeve, didn't have any reaction to his new name besides a generic squeak, which I assumed to be his approval of the name. I responded by nuzzling him, getting a few indignant squeaks out of him. Ret chirped again and walked up to me, bumping my face on purpose. He clearly wasn't happy to watch the other bug get all my affection. I reached out with my magic and brought him closer so that I could nuzzle him as well and then use him as a pillow for my head. He gave me a few satisfied chirps even though I had demoted him to pillow. I shifted around a bit, getting comfortable with the two fluffy bugs I had.

It was quite nice right now, in the warm breeze, under the open sky, and with two fluffy creatures. As I lay there in the quiet ambience of the backyard that was only occasionally broken by Steeve making some quiet sound, I yawned. While I had told myself that I'd avoid it, taking a 'little nap' seemed a very attractive idea. If I did take a nap, I'd probably have Voth wake me up, which would be embarrassing since I was waiting on him. It'd be more embarrassing if he doesn't and I end up late to work.

Therefore, I didn't let my eyes take a 'little' rest, and occupied myself by watching the stars or observing the bugs. I did, however, take pleasure in how comfortable I had made myself; probably the most I've ever been. I nuzzled Ret again. Everything was going well.

I was proud to say that I had been awake when Voth finally came. I will not elaborate on how many times I had almost fallen asleep.

He walked out of the darkness that blanketed the far edge of the backyard, completely silent and with all eyes on me. I would have waved at him but Ret and Steeve were using my hooves as resting spots and I didn't want to bother them. I don't know if I imagined it or not but Voth seemed... tired, but as I said, I'm not sure if it was for real or just me being blind.

He stepped onto the deck and lay down beside me, putting a wing over me. It was only a visual illusion since I didn't feel anything like I usually would. Shame, he was nice to feel.

"I AM HERE WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?" he asked immediately, skipping pleasantries like usual, though he did seem eager to know. I took a quick glance at the bugs, making sure that they weren't disturbed even though only I could perceive Voth.

Seeing that they were alright, I replied in my head, "Alright, so, my plan. It's quite simple."

At his silence, I continued, "So, you can possess me and move my body around as you need. I was thinking if you could do that with some other creature as well. You can, right?"

"I CAN."

"Alright, so, I made Ret here." I looked down at the spider, and Voth's many eyes followed my gaze. "And I was thinking that you could possess him and go get the artefact." I paused for a moment, before quickly listing the pros of the plan to counter the fact that he had to do the hard part. "It's definitely a lot quicker than waiting for me to get an opportunity to go to the fortress without any suspicion, and using Ret can also help since nobody would think he's too out of place in a forest, if they see him."

I had more thoughts about Ret's ability to evade suspicion but I couldn't exactly put them into words right now since I was a bit nervous. Voth might not like the plan as much, and there might be some confounding variable that I forgot to account for. I just had to get Voth's input first, which I was waiting for with my breath held.

"YOUR IDEA APPEARS GOOD," he praised, making me sigh in relief by reflex. "WE CAN START WITH IT NOW."

"O- okay, so, do you need me to do something so you can possess Ret?" I asked, preparing to move Ret off my hoof. I hadn't expected him to get on with it right away, but I wasn't objecting to that.

"YES."

"What do I do?"

"YOU HAVE TO CARVE A RUNE ON HIM."

Wait, what?

I turned my head to look Voth in the eye, trying to see if he was joking even though I knew he never joked. Voth looked back impassively. He was serious about what he said.

I looked down at Ret, my eyes widening. I didn't want to hurt Ret, that'd be terrible, and I had promised to not hurt him. But I had made him for this purpose, being a puppet, and I'd disappoint Voth if I backed out.

Still, I felt like backing out. I hadn't expected to have to carve runes on him.

"DO NOT WORRY THERE WILL BE NO PERMANENT DAMAGE ON HIM," Voth elaborated, sensing my concern. I continued staring at Ret. This was my plan, giving him over to Voth for a while, and I should have been prepared to hear something like this — but here I was, troubled at what I had to do to execute my plan.

The breeze blew over me, but it didn't feel as nice. I continued looking down at Ret, asking myself if I should go through with my plan or find some other way. The silence which had been so peaceful some time back was now uncomfortable.

I put a hoof on him, getting a low chirp in response. Why did I not think things through entirely?

Eventually... I caved and replied, "Okay. Just... tell me he'll be fine." I shouldn't even be asking that of Voth; I could, and should, trust him, even if I was conflicted.

"HE WILL BE," Voth reassured, while simultaneously retracting his wing. The breeze seemed so cold now.

I nodded absentmindedly in response, before I slowly pushed Ret and Steeve off my hooves. They both made a few noises but didn't move anywhere. I stood up and walked in to my house to retrieve a knife. The walk to and from the basement was a blur, and I had returned with the implement all too soon. Voth was waiting for me at the deck.

"What rune do I have to draw?" I asked out loud.

On cue, an image flashed in my head in response, and I stumbled for a moment, putting a hoof to my head as it hurt briefly at the image. The image was that of the rune. The rune was star-shaped, with each of the four points having some sort of symbol on it. In the centre of it was what I assumed to be a closed eye. It was small and simple, and it probably wouldn't have been a big deal if Voth had asked me to carve it on myself. But he had asked me to do it to Ret.

Right as I recovered, Voth pointed at Ret silently, putting a heavy weight on my mind. I had to do this. I hesitated at first, which Voth probably didn't appreciate, but I didn't hesitate for too long. I got down to Ret's level, which prompted him to walk over to me for pets.

I pet him a bit before casting a knockout spell on him. "Sorry," I whispered to him as I did that. I kinda regretted getting so attached to him so quickly.

Now came the hard part. I turned him over so that I could carve the rune into the underside of his abdomen. The knife was slightly shaky in my hoof, and I could feel my ears pressed down as the tip of the knife hovered dangerously close.

I sucked in a breath and got to work.

I winced, seeing Ret spill blood from where I made the first cut. I couldn't stop, however, since I had already started and had Voth breathing down my neck. I continued caving the rune as lightly as I could, painstakingly making the four-pointed star. I had to remind myself to breathe multiple times as I did it. Once that was done, I almost took a breather — who wouldn't after having to hurt a pet — but I didn't, since it was just delaying the inevitable. I continued on with the carving, making the symbols and the closed eye.

Once I was done, I dropped the knife, and just as it hit the deck, Ret woke up.

"GOOD," Voth congratulated me as I watched Ret's body flip over with ease and immediately hop off the deck and onto the grass. It was scary to see him go off to the dark. I hope Voth doesn't let him get hurt.

Voth continued, in a voice that was clearly gleeful, "I WILL RETURN WITH THE ARTEFACT IF I CAN YOU MUST WAIT UNTIL I RETURN WITH IT."

Then, as Ret disappeared into the darkness, Voth left as well. It was quiet again, and I found myself looking down at the discarded knife on the deck. The breeze pushed aside my mane, and I suddenly felt very exposed. I picked up the knife and Steeve, and retreated into my house. I don't think I'm ever going to do anything like that, ever. I just hope Voth is done quick.

Author's Note

21m Au

Dw about Ret, he'll be okay.

I think I'll stick to posting one chapter a week since that keeps me (relatively) stress free, and gives you readers a schedule (maybe a 2nd chapter every now and then, if I feel generous or need the dopamine hit). win-win, as they say.

Wednesday shall be our day, besties :3

Lore accurate Anya:
source:Derpibooru

Chapter 51: Nightmare

The room was empty, devoid of all things nice. The floor was cold, and so was the air. A window was there, letting in a little light but it was otherwise dark in the room. Everything was hazy, and seemed far away, or maybe nothing wanted to be near me — not that I had any right to complain. I could hear the sound of life going on outside but it was far away and muffled. I was lying in a corner of the room, alone and wanting and scared.

There were footsteps outside the room, somewhere far, but they were getting nearer. They were heavy and slow, but not slow enough. They never were. I couldn't recognise who they belonged to, but every time they sounded, I flinched and trembled. I didn't know where they were in relation to me, but it was definitely too close for comfort.

I wanted to bolt out the door and to somewhere safe or at least somewhere where I wasn't alone. But no such place existed; there was no point in confirming, I simply knew it. I was alone now as I had been the day before and the day before that and everyday before that one, and I would be alone tomorrow and every day after. I had pushed away the handful of people who came to me by virtue of being myself; who would want to be around me anyway?

Another footstep fell, so much closer now. How long had I not paid attention? Even if it didn't change anything, I should have focused. I wished I could focus on things and not be stupid.

More footsteps, just around the corner. I sucked in a breath and held it, burying my face in my arms and hiding myself behind my hair as best as I could. I doubt I was doing that well enough to hide, but I've never been good at anything. I'd get found regardless, like always.

The footsteps kept going, going, going, till they were right outside the door. I shrunk as much as I could into my little corner in the dark, and I stayed as quiet as I could, daring not to move or to even breathe. Please go away.

There weren't any footsteps of anyone leaving, and whoever was outside, stayed at the door. I doubt it was a friend outside — they had left me long ago for better people. They were waiting for an indicator I was here. I knew that if I moved or made noise or cried or took a breath, they'd break the door down and come in and get me. Was the door even locked? Did it matter? I wasn't somewhere I had control. I wished someone nice would come for me and save me. But that wasn't an option, even in my wildest delusions. I kept quiet and did whatever I could to make myself as small as possible. Maybe I would be hidden in the dark but I'd more likely be seen.

I took a peek at the window as silently as I could. There was freedom outside — I could run and not have to face this once more. I was high above the streets outside, I was sure of that, and I couldn't fly, which I was also sure of, but it was the easy way out that would permanently end my problems. But I couldn't move myself closer; I was too scared to go. I would take the hard way, all because of me being too scared. I hated myself.

I squeaked as there came a sudden pounding at the door. Stupid. I had made noise. It was too late, I had made noise and they knew I was here in the room. It was over for me. I felt tears roll down my face, and I had to hold my mouth shut to stop myself from crying. It'd be worse if I did.

More pounding, louder than before. I could hear snarling and heavy breathing behind the door. Maybe they were smiling in anticipation of what they could do to me, but they were probably angry that they had to see me. I didn't want to be alone as I faced them by myself. I didn't want to face them, or be by myself. I wanted to be anywhere else, with anyone else.

They pounded the door a third time, even harder and louder. They wouldn't be polite anymore, and the door would come down. I had very little time, and there was nothing I could do.

There was a moment of silence, the calm before the storm that almost seemed to taunt me with the possibility that everything was going to be alright — that it would be okay. It never was okay, things always went wrong.

I flinched and shut my eyes hard as the door was kicked. One. It was locked, but it wouldn't hold. The door creaked and whined as it bent under the second hit. Maybe it was sorry for me, but it is more likely that it didn't care about me and was concerned about itself.

There was a pause, so dreadful. I could feel my heart trying to escape my chest and run off.

The door burst open on the third hit, shattering into splinters and pieces that showered over everything. A piece hit my head, but I didn't flinch. I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt in an effort to keep myself quiet while I moved my arms to shield my head. The heavy and fast footsteps moved around the room erratically, coming closer and going farther in search of me. The floor would shake whenever they came close, and I would brace for whatever. Maybe I'd be dragged out of the corner by my hair, maybe I'd just be hit there. It was so hard to hold my breath.

The search ended too soon. The footsteps ended all of a sudden and turned to me. I shuddered, and exhaled shakily and as quietly as I could to make myself smaller. I was too loud.

They screeched at me, calling me something bad. The footsteps resumed, now running towards me. They still screeched. I couldn't move, or look, or react in any way besides bracing. I was like a deer in the headlights — I hoped that it would end just as quickly as it ended for a deer.

There was a crash as the window shattered. A cry of some sorts ran gout, distinct from the screeching but just as angry. Both were close. It always got worse.

I heard a horn lighting up and then discharging magic. Something blew up right after, and there was an ear-piercing screech of pain that was only drowned out by a loud "begone, beast". I didn't know if I was the centre of attention at the moment or not, but I still kept quiet and choked back sobs to make sure I wasn't.

There was more screeching, followed by someone hitting the floor near me. They got up quickly and ran towards the screeching. I wanted to look, but I also wanted to slip away while the two fought. I ended up staying put, paralysed by fear.

More fighting, more screaming and shouting. I wanted it to stop, but I could only cry pathetically. My head hurt so much. I shifted my arms so they covered my ears as well, which muffled the noise somewhat. I was sure that the two people had moved outside as well, taking their fight outside my room.

The fight kept going for a while, or maybe not. I had lost focus again. It was silent now, completely silent. No noise from outside, no more screeching, no more magic or anything. I wanted to crack my eyes open and see why it was so, but I didn’t want to see anything coming towards me silently.

Silence was replaced by footsteps. These ones were different, lighter and less unhappy than the previous ones, but I stayed tense all the same. You could never be sure. The footsteps came to a halt in front of me; I was cornered.

“Thy nightmare hath been vanquished. You need not fear anymore... my little pony.” I flinched at the sudden talking. She seemed familiar, and nice, but I didn't want to take my chances or any false hope. I stayed cowering in my corner.

She wasn't happy to hear that, if I went by the sound of how she sat down in front of me. She was very close — I could hear her breathing sharply. She seemed angry at me, probably for ignoring her. She'd shout now, calling me all sorts of things — I was sure of it. I held back my tears, sniffling for a little bit as I quieted myself fully.

The silence stayed intact, however. I could feel her glaring down at me; it was uncomfortable. She should have done something by now.

I finally made a move, taking a peek at her.

My vision was blurry at first but I could make out that she was blue and towering above me. As my vision became clearer, I could see that she had a horn as well. I didn't recognise her. She was wearing a tiara, a necklace thing, and shoes. I focused on the necklace and saw that it had a moon symbol on it. I didn't catch any other detail as my eyes were drawn to her sides.

She had bat wings.

"P— princess?" Why was she here? Was I in trouble? I could feel my heart drop at that thought.

"Aye, ‘tis I, Princess Luna of the night, in the flesh and blood," she replied, seemingly casual about the situation despite the pomp or how I looked at her with wide eyes. She suddenly turned her head up — maybe she wasn't as casual as I thought. She lifted a hoof (I shrunk back), and put it up to her chin as she continued, "Or, mental projection, to be true."

She put the hoof down. "But that is peripheral to our main issue."

I didn't care much about thinking about any of that, and tried saying something. "Y— you're—" I couldn't think of what to say.

She took my stammering as an opportunity to continue. "Aye, We are here. Thou aren't having a nightmare — not after We came to thy rescue," she explained, gesturing to the room behind her. Where were the splinters and broken glass? Where was the doorway?

"Ah, I apologise; I had slipped back into my old tongue," she said, breaking me out of my observation. I looked back up to her, and saw that her expression had become a lot more clear. She was looking down at me with... sympathy? I wasn't sure. "Panic not, we are in your dream right now. A dream beast had managed to enter, and my guard— and the dream golems weren't able to enter to stop it from feasting on your fear."

I stared up at her, more confused than scared. The princess looked back, now looking eager and proud about something, or maybe she was amused. Probably the latter; I looked like a dumb child right now. I asked the first question that came to me,"This... a dream?"

"Yes, Anya, you are dreaming."

"You're... here?" I began processing what she said earlier about being here in the flesh and blood. She wasn't actually here, right? She was just my imagination, right? The possibility that I had embarrassed myself in front of someone started eating me up. Why didn't this nightmare just end already?

"Yes, that I am," she answered, clearly bored by the questions I had. In contrast, I felt my heart drop. Someone had seen me like this, at my worst. And she was a princess. I wished that I genuinely didn’t exist.

It seemed that the princess took notice somehow as she assumed a more alert stance right after that thought. I was dreaming, right, so I should be able to force myself to wake up; I couldn’t handle making more of a fool out of myself. What should I do? I had to be quick; I couldn’t waste more time here.

“You need not worry about my presence,” the princess said, pulling me out of my panicked thoughts. I only paid her mind for a moment but that was more than enough for her to capitalise on. “I am here only to help thee— you. Anything that happens here shall stay here, I swear that on my honour.”

“What— what do you want?” I cringed as I blurted out that question — I might not have cared much about her rank, but I still had a basic expectation to be polite to someone who had been nice, so far. I looked away so that I didn’t have to make eye contact. I had to get away.

Instead of being offended like I thought, she simply answered, “As I said, I wish to help you. Yo—”

“Why?”

I covered my mouth with a hoof. I couldn’t really believe that she wanted to help me just like that — she was a literal princess. Shouldn’t she have more important things to deal with? Or other people’s dreams? But I shouldn’t have asked it like that. I was just being rude now and I hated that so much. Why couldn’t I be normal? That’s all they ever wanted why couldn’t I—

She put a hoof on my shoulder. Where was the shoe she was wear— She was gentle yet firm as she spoke, “Can you do something for me?”

I looked up at her and found my gaze drawn towards her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she looked back with worry, or with disappointment. I tried looking anywhere but her eyes but I just couldn’t. Was her horn glowing? What did she want? What was she doing to me?

Princess Luna hummed, interrupting me out of my train of thought, and then said, “Can you take a breath?”

“Huh?” That’s it? No, wait, I was trying to wake myself up, not calm down.

“Breathe, it’ll help you calm down,” she elaborated, still holding me by the shoulders and still staring me in the eye. I thought I heard magic. Had she blinked? What was the blue light?

I wanted to not do that, but I still found my breath becoming more relaxed as the moments passed agonisingly slowly. I couldn’t look away from the princess’s eyes, and I couldn’t tell what she was doing to me, but whatever it was, it was making me calm down. Why was I panicking again?

The blue glow intensified, and then dissipated.

I suddenly blinked and looked around. What was going on?

The room was bare as it had been earlier, but it seemed different now, less hazy and more definite. There were no sounds coming from anywhere, besides me breathing. I was not alone. I had been having a nightmare, and was now awake— not awake, I was... lucid dreaming? Yeah, definitely that, I think.

I turned to the other person in the room, the princess, who still held me by my shoulders. Her ears were slightly lowered and her hair flowed in a non-existent wind, looking just like the night. She was staring at me with a raised eyebrow and I looked back, confused for a moment and rather tired as well.

“Tell me this, how do you feel?” she asked all of a sudden, letting go of my shoulders and stepping back just as quickly.

“Fine,” I answered automatically, which made her frown a bit. I quickly added, “But a bit tired.”

“Tired? New… but understandable,” she said, looking up in thought. She mumbled something to herself.

I looked around again, partly to make sure the room had stayed the same, and partly to restart the gears in my head and remember whatever had happened. Why was the princess here? I had some sort of nightmare and she came to help. Why had I panicked? I think I got scared of the princess. She’d leave though since I was okay now. What had she done? Helped me. I should probably thank her before she goes.

I looked back at the princess, who was now blankly staring up, like a puppet not in use, but I had a feeling she was alright. Besides that, I had a distinct feeling that I was forgetting something. Or maybe the feeling was because I was just sitting next to someone so high in stature, in my dream, and was being just... casual.

I guess if someone asks me if I met a princess, “in my dreams” is a legit answer. Heh. I snorted at my joke, and then yawned. Weird how I’m tired while I’m asleep, but it tracked since I’m usually tired after any amount of sleep. I wished I had coffee, but I guess being okay was more than enough. I didn't let myself get too comfortable though; you never know what'll happen if you do that, and fumbling in front of a princess will definitely haunt me forever.

The princess suddenly took a deep breath, startling me out of my thoughts. She exhaled and then blinked a few times, giving her wings a few quick flaps as well, after which she looked back down to me with a piercing gaze. I sat at attention at that; crown or not, being looked at by someone sucked.

“Thy— your nightmare has been vanquished, but there is still work to be done,” she declared, putting on a reassuring smile that showed off her fangs right after. Then, her ears went down and she added in a less-happy voice as she looked off to the side, "If you wish to have my help."

Help? I couldn't help but stare blankly at her at that offer. She had stopped the nightmare; that was more than enough help. I shouldn't impose on her being polite, especially when she didn't want to be here — she's literally a princess; she wouldn't have time to spare, and even if she did, she shouldn't waste in on me.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time thinking about declining the help. The princess said, her ears now lowered and her hooves fidgeting, "We— I can don a more agreeable appearance if t— you want for that."

That was unexpected. I thought she'd ask me to hurry up, not try to persuade me into accepting. What was she cooking? Whatever it is, she doesn't need to do — she shouldn't waste time and energy on me. I just had to decline politely, and deal with my stuff by myself.

"Oh, uh, you don't have to— I mean— I don't want help." I fumbled that reply real hard. From the way the princess frowned, it was confirmed what I said was definitely offending. I swore I'd tear out my tongue if I kept at being stupid.

She abruptly stood up and turned to the window. She already had her wings open and ready to take off, but she didn't leave immediately though. She seemed bitter, but more importantly, sad as she said with her back turned to me, "We understand. We shall take our leave. Fare thee we—"

"No, wait," I interrupted her before she could leave. I didn't want to be mean to her, making her think I didn't appreciate her presence — that'd be bad of me.

She stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at me, and it was under her unhappy gaze that my spontaneous decision started to bite me in the ass. It was quiet for a long awkward moment as I figured out how to continue, no matter how obviously it was made up on the spot, "It's— it's not that you're— that I don't want you here, it's just that I think that— that you've already done a lot for me."

"Thou—" she frowned and grumbled at herself "—You believe that I have helped you enough?" she narrowed her eyes at me, disbelieving.

"Well, yeah, you made my nightmare go away. That's like, a lot, especially since you probably have important stuff to—" I couldn't finish as the princess, very suddenly and very loudly, interrupted to correct me.

"Nay! 'Tis part of our duties as princess of the night to protect and help our subjects from the perils of the dream realm," she was loud as she explained that, standing proud with a hoof pointed upwards as though she were giving a speech. I'm sure her volume would have worsened my ears if we were in the physical world. She pointed her raised hoof at me almost accusingly, making me take a step back. "Thou art not intruding on our own time as thee suggesteth."

It was dead silent after that, with the both of us staring at each other, her with incredulity and me with shock. I didn't know how long the moment lasted, but it was definitely time wasted.

We stared at each other for a bit. I couldn't think of anything to say, and I don't think she could either. I couldn't even make myself look away.

The princess put her hoof down and coughed slightly. "Ah, We— I apologise for... that... outburst." A moment of silence as she shook her head and got rid of her nervous expression. "So, ah... you will take my help? I promise you are not intruding on me."

I took a moment to get back my senses, after which I answered, "Y— yeah. Sure." I didn't think I could tell her to leave after that, seeing how adamant she was about going out of her way for me. I stood up as well, out of politeness. "What do you have to do?" the question came out better than all my previous ones, thankfully.

She was quick to answer, "Although the dream beast has been vanquished, there is work to be done. Firstly, we have to find why the dream golems were unable to enter your dream and vanquish the beast themselves."

"Like, look around my brain?" I asked, slightly worried, not because there was a problem with my head but rather, having her go around. What if she finds out private stuff? Hell, what if she finds out about Voth? Well, he had told me he had put blocks in me that make me forget everything about him if I ever got put in a situation like this. That didn't stop me from being nervous though.

"Aye, we must traverse your mind. There may be a fault or a wound in your dream's magic. The sooner we fix it, the better." Her confirmation, no matter how nicely she said it, was not a nice thing to hear. I kept myself from giving any really overt indication of not liking the princess's idea, on my face at least. I'm pretty sure my ears and tail lowered a bit, though the princess made no indication of noticing.

"Alright," I said with a hoof raised in anticipation. No backing out now. I hoped this went well. "So, how do we... find the fault, princess?" Even though I had used dream magic, I had used it for training, not whatever we're doing.

Her face lit up at that question, clearly showing how excited she was to talk about some subject she probably knew a lot about. She took a deep breath, and answered, "T's quite simple; we walk."

"We just... walk?"

"Aye, we walk," she confirmed with a smile, amused, probably because of my dumb question. "Thy— your," she paused, going cross-eyed for a moment as she glared at her snout. "We— I apologise; I keep slipping back into my old dialect."

"I understand what you're saying either way," I said. It seemed that Shakespeare english was her default, though I'm not sure how she got there considering that she hadn't been on Earth when Shakespeare, or rather, Hayspeare was around. Nightmare spoke normally as well, which was weird. I guess it's just one of her quirks. It didn't matter much to me since I could understand, or at least accurately guess whatever she was saying. No need to burden her with having to accommodate for me.

She looked at me for a moment, her head tilted a bit with one of her ears down and one of her eyebrows raised. "You do not mind my manner of speech?"

"No, it's alright." Even if it wasn't, who was I to say no.

She went back to smiling a bit. "Very well then. Let us be on our way."

She turned and gestured to the far wall with her wing. I followed her wing and saw that there was a door there, where there had been none earlier. I stopped to stare at it for a moment before remembering that I had a princess waiting on me. I walked to the door, and she followed me. I kinda wished it was me following her since she'd know things better.

I hesitated a bit as I put my hoof on the handle. Though I had agreed to let the princess look around, I was still looking for a reason to stall. What if there was weird stuff that she would see and I couldn't explain? There had to be some way I could avoid anything like that happening.

Too bad that the room around was empty, and that turning back now would not sit well with her. I didn't turn my head to look back at her for reassurance, but she probably knew I wasn't confident about this. I would be wasting her time though, if I just stood here and did nothing.

I took a deep breath and silently cursed myself for my decisions. I opened the door.

The door swung open loudly, and the echo of it hitting the wall reverberated through the room for a few seconds. The outside wasn't how I had expected it — there wasn't a long hall lined with doors. Instead, there was a small, grey, and dusty closet of a room with a set of stairs leading up to a dark door. Besides that, the room was bare, as though it had just spawned into existence one day and was then forgotten about.

I stepped forward and out of the doorway, letting the princess walk into the coffin of a room. The room seemed to become smaller when she walked in, and I felt like it was a little harder to breathe. I looked back to the princess, but she didn't seem to be affected by anything, preoccupied with trying to find some detail about the room. If she was fine, I guessed everything was fine.

I looked back to the stairs, which were a lot more interesting than the suffocating room around. They were old, wooden, and... familiar. I had seen them somewhere, but where? I looked to the princess, who had taken to looking at the ceiling.

"I don't think there's anything here," I said, taking another look around to be sure.

"True," she agreed. She looked back down at me, and I could feel that there was a 'but' coming. "But t's a dream. There's more than what we can see, and details are obscured by thy subconscious. Tell me, do you find anything here to be evocative of some emotion? Tell me, even if it is a little."

"The stairs, they seem familiar," I answered. I found my gaze drawn towards the stairs. They seemed to have changed when I looked away, but I couldn't tell how. I just knew something had changed. "They've changed a bit. I don't know if that's good..."

The princess hummed in response, thinking for a moment. "T's most likely thy mind putting in familiar things in thy dream." She walked up to them for a closer inspection, lighting up her horn as well. I came closer as well, but to keep an eye at the door upstairs.

It was almost dead silent as the princess scanned the door, and even the sound of her magic seemed muffled. I kept expecting some sort of sound, be it a clock or air-conditioning, but there was nothing. It was like nothing existed outside the room, and even within. I found myself tapping my hoof, both to keep it from being too quiet, and to let out some stress.

Normally, I'd appreciate the quiet and be happy with its peace. The silence in the room, however, was more like the silence of sneaking around, or being snuck up on. It was unbearable, and I found myself constantly checking to make sure that the only thing behind me was a wall, and that the door upstairs wasn't being opened.

"So, uh, how's your day been, princess?" I finally asked, mainly to fill in the silence, and maybe a bit to make sure that the Princess was still near. I then realised an error in my question, and quickly corrected, "Or night, I guess."

"T's been... less than expected," she answered, cutting off her magic and shaking her head. She sounded tired as she said that. "Our night hast been unfortunately uneventful. I doth not believe I have aught to doth, except helping thee with thy nightmare."

Well, that was a response I hadn't been expecting. I wasn't the only one having a crappy night, not that that made me feel any better. I probably should have kept quiet instead of having her be reminded of her night so far.

"And thee, Anya? How has't thee fared tonight?" she asked back. There was a momentary pause, after which she coughed into her hoof and quickly answered her own question, "Nevermind. I wouldn't be here if it were well."

She didn't let me get a word in as she continued, "Let us not waste more time here. These stairs are merely a part of your dream constructed from memory. They're probably in thy home."

"Oh, okay." Again, a moment of awkward silence. "We should get going."

"Yes, we should."

The princess moved out of the way, letting me lead the way up the stairs. On one hand, it made me squeamish to be in the lead again, but on the other, if something jumped out from behind the door, it wouldn't jump out at the princess. I sighed and moved. The steps creaked as we moved up to the door. This door was different from the last, looking like a jail cell's door. I couldn't see anything beyond because of a dark fog that was on the other side.

I hesitated again. There could have been nothing beyond the door, but there could also be something waiting for me to open it. Sure, I had an alicorn princess of the moon behind me, but I still felt like I was making a mistake, and that I should just lead the princess back downstairs and figure out some other way to fix me.

A sigh from behind me broke me out of thought, and reminded me that the princess was there behind me and probably getting annoyed by me being a bitch.

Without further thought, I pushed the door open. Unfortunately, the fog didn't dissipate like I thought it would, and the only way forward was through it. Couldn't things go properly, in my dream at least? I tried willing the fog away but after it stayed there, I figured that I wasn't in charge even in my own head.

Seeing no other option, that wouldn't waste time at least, I stepped through.

The fog was thick, like water or maybe mud, slowing me down. It was cold to the touch, chilling to the core like ice water, but it simultaneously felt like a hot and humid room packed with people. It was everywhere, giving me the worst of both cold and heat, and it made me regret even stepping in. I couldn't see either and had to trust myself to walk straight and out to the other side, and hope that nothing jumped out at me, and that princess gets through as well. But until I got out, I had to contend with all the disgusting feelings the fog was making me feel.

The end of the fog couldn't come sooner and I was almost happy when it did end, putting a good metre between me and it. Unfortunately, the princess was still in there, and I felt sorry for her for having to deal with crap my subconscious made up.

However, I was quickly drawn away from watching the fog by the view around me. I was in a street, on the sidewalk next to what looked to be an asphalt road, surrounded by a mix of skyscrapers and other tall building-like things that looked like parking garages if they were absurdly tall. It was dark, but the streets were well illuminated by soft yellow light. The buildings were all completely dark, and the city completely still.

I felt my fur stand on its end, and my ears turn low and to the sides. The entire place felt off — a city was supposed to be the antithesis of silence. If not people, then distant traffic, and if not that, there should at least be the sounds of machinery, however little there would be. But here, even the air was still. I kept looking around for any potential threat, and did so discreetly just in case. How could I even dream up such a place?

I turned around to see if the princess was coming, but my eye was caught by the building there. It was a sad mid-rise apartment block that had its front door open, which had the black fog in it. I recognised the place almost instantly, and I was already glaring at the hell-hole with my tail almost between my legs, my fear mostly replaced. Even if I wasn't there, I couldn't escape this place. I swore I'd kill myself before ever coming back here, unless I returned to burn it— I forced myself to calm down somewhat; this was all a dream, not something to get worked up over.

Princess Luna stepped out of the black fog, but paused halfway through as she caught me glaring in her general direction. She hesitated a bit, and then asked, "Is everything alright?" she asked, looking at me with her wings slightly puffed up and her right front hoof slightly raised.

I shook my head and turned around to stare at the ground. "Yes, just some... bad memories."

"Bad memories?" I heard her ask. She walked up to my side. "What is it with this place that makes thee furious to even see it?"

"Bad memories, princess," I repeated, wishing I could forget all the crap that happened in that place. It just made me so angry.

The princess didn't press me further for more information, which she definitely wanted. I felt a bit bad keeping things from her when she said she wanted to help me, but I really didn't want to let my secrets out of the relative safety of my skull. She probably understood why, but I still felt bad for being skittish.

I was shaken by her suddenly putting a hoof on my shoulder. She said, "This place doth not appear to be the locus of thy nightmare. If thee doth not wish to speak of it with Us, there shalt be nay discussion of it — We see that thee wish to leave these emotions be, though we advise 'against that. Anger festers and harms thee in ways subtle but terribly damning."

Done with her warning, she took her hoof off my shoulder and took a step forwards to look at the scenery around, while also giving me a moment to think over her words. I didn't think much about them. Sure, she was right about holding grudges being unhealthy — but I didn't hold grudges for things that could be solved and forgotten easily — almost everything that happened in that accursed building, between me and the waste of air that was the landlord, was not something easily forgivable. Just remembering those things in the few quiet moments left a sour taste in my mouth, and scowl on my face.

I kept myself composed though, figuring that I could be angry later. "I'll... think about that," I said to her, knowing very well that I probably wouldn't. Before she could call me out on that, I changed the topic, "So, where do we go from here?"

"That is up thee, Anya. This is thy dream, and thee will navigate it better than anyone," she answered, looking both ways of the street. "Though 't may be more difficult seeing how... unstructured thy dream is."

"Unstructured?"

She paused for a moment, and then looked back at me with a little playful smile. "Well, thy dream is structured in a manner"— she waved a hoof around, gesturing to all the buildings —"as we can see 'round us, but, t'is an unstructured dream at its core."

Had she... yeah, she just made a dad joke. A thousand year old princess, who probably isn't properly up to date, made a dad joke at me. I'm sure anyone else would have groaned, or maybe laughed, but I was a bit too surprised to do that even.

My lack of reaction elicited a reply of mock-injury from her. "Oh, come on, doth be not silent like that — We were quite humorous back in our time, and still are!"

"Yeah, I guess." To her credit, she did make me feel marginally better with that joke, and her reaction as well. "But what were you saying about unstructured earlier?"

Princess Luna turned so that she faced me. "To keep it succinct, most dreams have a clear beginning and end, and a straight path 'tween. As thee can see, thy dream has more 'round than expected from a normal dream. It means little by itself, but considering that the dream golems could not enter thy dream when they did need to, I suspect something is wrong. We can solve the issue, but thee shall have to lead us to 't."

I nodded, understanding most of what she said. I wanted more context, but I could probably ask later, after my problem was dealt with. I did have an important question though. "Do I just feel my way around to lead us?"

"Aye, that thee do," she answered. "Focus on thy surroundings, and thee shalt find something to follow."

I nodded, and then tried doing that. At first, I looked around — we were in some city-thing, and there could be signs — but found no visual indicator of a path. I couldn't hear anything either besides the silence, so that was out of the question. What other senses could I use? Magic?

I tried that, warily closing my eyes and lighting up my horn and feeling around. Almost everything around was made of magic, but it was just background magic and nothing out of the ordinary. There was the princess's magic, bright like a lighthouse and cool as the water around one. Behind me, the building seemed to radiate some distinct magic, though it was flickering like a dying candle. It wasn't what we were looking for anyway, and I moved on.

I tried feeling as closely as I could, but I could not sense anything out of the ordinary nearby. I cut off my magic, and opened my eyes, slightly disappointed in myself. This was my dream, why couldn't I just— I had an idea.

"Can't I just mould this dream so that we're closer to the problem?" I asked, miffed that I hadn't thought about that earlier.

"A simple idea, but unfortunately, not one we can execute," she answered, dashing any hope for that happening. I titled my head at her, and she elaborated, "Thy subconscious is crafting this dream, and thee art not conscious enough to command it to do otherwise."

"I'm not?" How was I not — I was literally talking to her.

"Aye. You only seem conscious because I have cast a spell that does so. The moment I leave this dream, you will revert back to dreaming normally. Unfortunately, I cannot make it so that you are dreaming consciously, and we are 'out of luck' as some would put it."

"Bruh." How inconvenient. "I can't feel anything like a clue. Do we just walk around then?"

"It seems to be the only option," Princess Luna said, looking down the street, towards an intersection. "Come, let us walk."

She set off at a leisurely pace, and it took me a moment to get my legs working. I was able to catch up and keep pace with her, staying at her left side, on the sidewalk. I kept a little distance between her and myself, not wanting to intrude on her space, but not staying so far that I may somehow separate from her.

We walked without making any talk, leaving only the sound of our hoofsteps to echo around the street. I wanted to ask some questions but I felt I'd be annoying. Instead, I occupied myself with looking around at the cityscape, observing all the things I found interesting.

The main thing I found was that there were only three types of buildings: the skyscrapers, the skyscraper-sized parking garage things, and mid-rise apartment blocks. All would have looked exactly the same if it weren't for their colours all being somewhat distinct shades of brown and grey. There were no doors on any of the buildings, and all the windows had their curtains drawn close. They gave off the feeling that they were either completely hollow, or filled in on the inside.

Either way, they were inaccessible. All the alleyways were pitch black, even if they were close to a light — they looked more like painted walls to be honest. Still, I felt like I was being watched from behind the curtains and from the shadows. Occasionally, I looked behind us to make sure we weren't being followed.

Even though I was safe with the princess, I still felt a bit on edge with the lack of anywhere to hide. The street we were in would be a perfect place to give chase. The only saving grace was that this was a dream and the worst that could happen was that I got scared awake, in the short term at least. The quiet didn't help one bit, since it seemed keen on making me feel like I was being stalked rather than reassuring me that we were alone.

The princess stopped, and I did as well as we reached the intersection. It was where we found the first interesting thing and an obvious clue to what was wrong.

The road in front of us, the one perpendicular to the street we were on, looked like Godzilla had been there. The road was split apart into a little valley, and had several craters dotted around the valley. In the craters and the valley was what appeared to be completely black still water. Looking either way, the damaged road stretched from horizon to horizon. A perfect obstacle — for me at least; the princess could fly.

"Is this what's wrong?" I asked the princess, even though the answer was obviously going to be a yes. The princess was busy observing the broken road with a keen eye and didn't answer.

Suddenly, she stepped forward, spreading her wings out. She took off just as suddenly, flying over the road and hovering in the air above it, just beyond the lights. Besides the sound of her leathery wings, it was quiet as she observed the road from her new place. It was hard to see her since she blended in with the darkness well, but her eyes gave her away since they reflected red light — she kinda looked like some kind of phantom, or maybe some bat cryptid. I wasn't scared, just a bit intimidated, and I hoped that she didn't see that.

She stopped hovering, and made a beeline for the ground, landing next to a crater on the street. She looked down into it for a moment, before raising her head back and calling out to me. "Anya, come hither." She seemed disturbed as she said that. Did she see something bad? I could feel a knot form in my stomach at that thought.

I didn't need to be told that since I was already walking over. Once I was at her side, she said quickly, "Anya, look into the water, and tell me what you see."

I looked into the crater and at the water in it. My attention was caught by the princess's reflection. She was looking down with me, though she looked quite grim with her ears to the sides and her pupils narrowed. She was almost baring her teeth at her reflection. I quietly took a step away from her and shifted my attention to my reflection, only to find that the water was not still anymore, and was rippling a little, distorting the reflection and making it look ugly. It didn't matter much since I was ugly anyway — in fact, I was relieved it wasn't anything bad.

"The water's rippling, my reflection is messed up," I informed her. I brought my head up and asked her, "Is there something up with this water, or its reflections?"

"Aye, the water muddles how one looks at themself, t's the work of a beast that aims to anger," she answered, taking one last angry look at the water before stepping back and lighting her horn up. I stepped back as well, and she shot a spell at the water. I didn't get to see what happened, but judging by the hissing and the black fumes that appeared and dissipated, I could conclude that she boiled the water away. I didn't really see the usefulness of that, seeing how there was a whole lot of the water left, but seeing how she looked only mildly annoyed after that, I figured it was for anger relief.

"Forget it. Let us move on, the road shalt lead us to where we need to be." She set off, keeping to the sidewalk this time. I trailed behind her to avoid intruding into her personal space, but I wished to be at her side, just to feel safe.

Again, we were walking in silence.

I looked to the side, observing the buildings even though they were mostly the same, if a bit plainer than what I had seen so far. There weren't any alleyways here, but I could see an intersection coming up, after the block ended. I turned my eyes forward and observed the princess for a bit, noticing how she had lowered her head a bit, and that her ears were low. I kinda wanted to ask her if I could do anything to make her feel better, but I doubted that I would be any help. I just kept my guard up and frequently checked behind us.

Finally, as we came across the first intersection, the princess spoke up. "Anya, can thee answer a question?" she asked, not stopping or looking back.

I took a quick look at the stop sign as we started crossing the road. "Yeah, what is it?" Looking either way, I noticed that the street was rather wide, and that I couldn't see down the road. What if a car or something came barreling through? I tried thinking of something else, but kept an ear up anyway.

The princess took a moment to say anything, the air around her pensive. She then asked, almost whispering, "Do you... fear me?"

I was taken aback by the question, to say the least."Huh?"

"Do you fear me?" she repeated, louder than before, and more sadly as well.

I didn't even have to think about the question to answer, "No, I don't." Sure, she was intimidating, but she wasn't scary. I then asked my own question, "Why?"

The princess sighed and shook her head. "Come, walk at my side." She moved a bit to the side, giving some space. I looked between the space and her for a moment before moving to be at her side like she wanted. It was uncomfortable, being that close to her, but it was what she wanted. I took the opportunity to look ahead and saw that there was a second intersection coming up.

She didn't begin speaking immediately, waiting till we were back on the sidewalk again. "T's been a millennium since I walked the earth, but it is still as... cold as it was then, but now, I do not have much to contribute even." She paused, taking a deep breath. "Ponies... people, they... they fear me. Most no longer fear the night and its inhabitants, as they did all those years ago — and I'm grateful for that — but... they still fear me."

She had her head lowered and sad eyes as she finished. Though she hadn't said a lot, I could still feel the weight of what troubled her. A thousand years behind and not with a good image and basically nobody to depend on. She straightened up quickly, covering up her sadness rather poorly. "Apologies, t's improper of Us to speak of our troubles while helping thee with thine own."

"No no, it's alright. No need to apologise," I said. "And if it means anything, most people should come around eventually."

"That is the issue: that they take so long to do little," she said, snorting a bit. "Even in Our— my and my sister's castle We face trouble. Nary a servant looks at Us without fear, even Our own guards stay cautious around Us, as though We art still the nightmare from all those years ago!" For a moment, it looked like she would go on a rant, but then she deflated. "They still shun me as monster."

She didn't say anything after, slowing down quite a bit. I stayed at her side, asking myself what I could do to cheer her up, without bringing up some shitty thing. I wanted to put a hoof on her shoulder and tell her it'd be alright and that not everyone hates her, but it felt like I would be overstepping boundaries if I did that. But she looked so sad as well, and she might assume that I was scared if I kept mum.

She sighed and turned her attention forward, her ears drooping down and her wings sagging a bit. "But I suppose they're right. We—"

"They're wrong," I interjected loudly, without much thought put into that statement.

The princess turned her head to look at me incredulously. "Wrong?"

"Yep, they're wrong," I repeated. She still stared at me with disbelief, as though she couldn't imagine me saying that. I continued, "You're definitely not a monster. A bit intimidating, yes, but not a bad person. If they can't see that then they're blinder than I am." It was the best I could think of at the moment, but it was a shame that I even had to think of that in the first place. Fucking losers making good people miserable.

The princess stared at me for a moment longer after I finished. She then turned her head back forward with a little smile. "Quick to defend, and to insult," she said with some cheer. She definitely didn't fully believe what I said, but it did pull her out of her slump at least. "I suppose t's a matter of perception, as thee say."

Seeing that she wasn't so down anymore, I was somewhat satisfied. I would have liked to see her not sad at all but doing more was beyond my ability and up to someone else.

I took a look around, seeing that we were coming up to the second intersection. The buildings were shorter and plainer now, and more grey. Everything was losing its colour — even the streetlights, and the street seemed narrower. I pulled my attention back to the sidewalk and saw that the crosswalk was coming up. The stop sign was placed wrong though, being in the middle of the sidewalk instead of being off to the side. I stepped around it and stayed at the princess's side.

"Nightmare Moon talks about thee," the princess suddenly began as we crossed the street, which was fortunately a lot smaller than the previous. However, I was more focused on what the princess said to care about that.

"She does?" To be honest, I did wonder from time to time what was going on with her. The last I had seen her was almost two months ago and it didn't end well with Twilight getting her sent back to Canterlot for minor crap. But then, I was more at fault since I just took Moon out for ice cream without talking to Twilight. Gulit aside, I found it a bit surprising that Moon thought of me.

"Aye, she does. She considers you a close friend, however little you two have met in reality," she answered, seemingly disappointed to say that, especially the last part.

"Is she really that lonely?" I had expected that she got better, but then, she was THE villain two months ago and I doubt that that was enough time for anyone to consider forgiveness. Wait up, was she in a cell? "Or is she stuck in prison?"

"In a manner," she said, making me feel both relieved and worried. "She has her own private quarters within the castle, but rarely is she without an escort, and she only has me to talk with — if she even decides to leave the confines of her room. Her situation is quite unfair really."

I didn't reply, feeling guilt — how could I not? I was kinda the reason why she was going through all that crap. I'd give so much to go back in time and punch myself in the face. I sighed, knowing there was nothing that I could do now, besides probably making things worse.

I looked around to distract myself. Another intersection was coming, this one with traffic lights that were red. The buildings around were now just blocks of concrete which were getting shorter and smaller at an increasing rate. I looked behind and saw that the previous intersection was rather far off. Still nothing else behind us. The road was terrible now, looking more like a rocky coastline than something in a city.

"You needn't worry, however, for I am working to improve her situation," she added. "She might be in Ponyville sometime in the month of October with me. It'll certainly help her; she might even make more friends."

"So, like, you're coming to visit Ponyville?"

"Aye. T's not for business; I merely wish to observe the Nightmare Night tradition in Ponyville." Huh, that was cool, I guess. The princess continued, "It will be nice to meet thee in person at last... well, without any threat of magic demons, I hope."

I hummed in acknowledgement, thinking over whatever she had said about her plans and what it meant for me. Since she had explicitly mentioned meeting me in person, she'll definitely expect me to be there. The only real thing I was worried about was how it could affect things, like Voth's work if it wasn't done by then. Plus, I'd be an actual dark mage by then and I doubt she'd like that. The only real positive I could see was that I could see Moon again.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by the princess suddenly extending her wing over me and stopping. I stopped as well and looked at her. "What is it?"

"Look."

I followed her gaze forward and saw what she was pointing out: two stop signs in our path, blocking the third intersection's crosswalk. Looking beyond, I could see that all the traffic lights on all four ways were pointed towards us, all red. Beyond that, the street narrowed noticeably and lost all light, becoming an impossibly narrow abyss. The buildings became smaller and darker and sharper. Somehow, I could make out a dark shape in the distance — a house, perhaps. Just looking at the far off house made my heart beat faster. I didn't want to get any closer. Maybe we should not go further.

"The fault in thine dreams is close; I can feel it," Princess Luna said. She breathed in and then said quietly, "Stay close."

She stepped forward despite all the things ahead of her politely suggesting that she shouldn't. I didn't step forward, not able to or wanting to my legs. Why couldn't we just turn back and leave this stuff to sort itself out? Worst case scenario is that it doesn't sort itself out and I get worse, but I'd get worse anyway so it didn't even matter.

"Anya, do not fear. Come with us and this shall be over," I blinked and saw that the princess had already taken a few steps forward. She still had a bit of her wing on me, almost like a hand to hold. I looked at her, feeling a bit sick. I did not want to go further.

And yet I stepped forward at her urging.

I didn't feel my leg move or anything, I just stepped forward, towards the one place I didn't want to go. And before I knew it, I was walking alongside the princess at an uncomfortably fast pace, down the narrowing road and to the dark place. I shivered a bit as we left behind the intersection and the lights, as though we had passed a threshold we shouldn't have.

It was dark in the street now, darker than anywhere I had ever been. Still, I could make out shapes in the dark, of things ahead and around us. The buildings deteriorated a lot, becoming more hostile with each step. Their sides sharpened into spikes, threatening to cut if I stepped too close. Going on the road was not an option as it had become a ravine that dropped off into an abyss that called to me almost like a siren. Stop signs appeared as well, intermittently at first but gradually increasing in numbers. The worst was the silence and stillness of everything — everything felt more like a tomb than a city. I had to keep reminding myself that I wouldn't be hurt physically at least.

Despite all the warnings, the Princess kept walking forward, all but dragging me along with her wing on my back. I had moved closer and had kept my eyes fixed on the pavement. Afraid. I didn't know how long we walked but it wasn't long enough. Why didn't the nightmare end already?

I didn't notice it at first but the darkness was slowly going away, instead being replaced by an ominous red glow that came from the growing number of traffic lights hanging over us. The world was washed in that red light, making my fur stand on its end. Please turn back. There weren't any more intersections — no escape — for them, the lights just hung in the air. The only thing between me and getting hurt was the princess. Please wake up.

Still, we carried on forwards like lemmings to a cliff.

"Anya." I almost jumped out of my skin as the princess startled me. I quickly looked up to her to see that she was looking at me with some concern. "Calm thyself. We can feel thy fear." With that, she turned her head back to look forward, looking grim all of a sudden.

I followed her gaze and saw that the end of the red hallway was coming up. It was a pitch black square that looked more like a hole in reality than an exit. I almost turned around but the princess's wing and the narrow street kept me from doing that. There really was no escape. It kept getting colder, and my heart beat faster. Turn back.

"Do not worry, this all shall be over soon." Couldn't it end sooner?

The road ended soon and we stopped in front of the exit, the hole, the tiny little space that had something terrifying on the other side. If something would jump out, it would be after we crossed the dark threshold. All around it were warning and stop signs, telling us to not enter. But I had no choice in that matter, not after I had come this far.

"We're here, I can feel it. Whatever it is that troubles thee lies beyond," Princess Luna announced. I almost didn't hear it, too busy staring at the hole, afraid and frozen in place. I could feel the sorrow and fear behind it and I almost couldn't breathe being so close. Wake up wake up wake up. The princess resumed walking after taking a long look, but this time around, I didn't budge from my place. She probably didn't like that seeing how she suddenly pulled me forward, almost dragging me along.

With as much protest as I could give, which amounted to nothing more than a whine, I was walked into the bad place.

The hole gave way to a second, shorter corridor. There were no walls, and everything was dark, but it was still a corridor with nowhere to go but forwards to where I didn't want to go. The air became colder and more stifling as I got closer to the end, and though I didn't know how or why, I just knew I was in danger. I breathed and walked as quietly as I could, like I was prey close to a predator. My head hurt.

Princess Luna said nothing as we neared the end, keeping her face locked in a grim expression even though the air around her betrayed her own wariness. She just kept her eyes focused forward, and her wing over me as both protection and cage. Even with her here with me, I felt alone.

We exited the corridor into a place that was brighter, but still just as dead. We were in a crater of sorts, the walls reaching high like cliffs. Above them, I could see the city we had been in. The sky above was now grey and dreary, and the ground below was cracked road and pavement.

However, those things didn't have my attention for long. Instead, it was what lay at the center of the crater that had my immediate and undivided attention, and my genuine fear.

It was a house, grey and blue, dull in colour in both colour and outward appearance. Made in some factory in the great lakes region and assembled by underpaid workers. Nothing would distinguish it from the other houses of the suburban hellscape it was plucked out of.

Yet it made my heart sink and skip several beats. Run away. I almost cried, and felt sick to my core just looking at it. Leave. I couldn't forget even after all these years. There was nothing that could make me go back to it. Not money, nor fixing nightmares. It was too painful.

I flinched as I heard the sound of a door come from the house. There wasn't much time. I kept my eyes and ears locked at it as I felt around for the princess's hoof. There wasn't time to waste, we had to leave for anywhere else. Before he found us.

I found the princess's hoof and took it in my own. I tried retreating back towards the dark corridor but she didn't budge. Please don't stay. For just a moment, I looked away from the house and to her so that she could see that we shouldn't be here.

What I looked at wasn't her.

There was a dark figure, towering and malevolent, looking down at me with sadistic glee. We locked eyes, and I knew it was going to hurt me.

I immediately tried pulling away my hoof and running, not giving a care about the princess that it had replaced. She had left me. But it did not leave my hoof, keeping a hold of it with its large dark hand. I tried harder, but it was a futile effort. I was done for. I could already feel the tears on my face.

Then, it let go, and I fell backwards.

I hit my head on something wooden and was momentarily stunned. I looked up to see what it was that I hit, and froze when I saw that I was at the stairs to the front door of the house. It took me another second to process that I was hearing something coming from within. Footsteps. Recognisable footsteps.

I tried getting up, my heart beating like it never had, but I was painfully sluggish in my movement. The door was thrown open and I was grabbed by my mane and dragged in. I screamed in pain and struggled, trying to free myself. How did I get back here? The only thing I managed was to earn myself more painful tugs on my mane, and incoherent shouts of rage. It will hurt more if you struggle.

The house was completely dark on the inside, but the layout was burned into my mind and I knew I was being dragged to the stairs. Just like I remembered, I was dragged up, no care given to me — it even hurt in all the same places like back then. It was just being a teen all over again. I wished I was dead.

I was dragged around some more, to my room and then thrown at a wall. I had only a moment to curl up and catch my breath before the pain began. Please wake up.

But the pain didn't begin like I remembered. Instead, there was shouting and the sound of a blast. I didn't peek, and just stayed curled up, trying to keep my snivelling and crying under control. There was a crash and a roar, followed by something being thrown hard at the floor, making it shake. The air wasn't still any longer, and had been replaced with an angry wind. More crashes, more roars, a slash, all right next to me. I trembled, hoping I was forgotten in the chaos. I should stop wasting time on hope.

There was another blast, and then, the world was a lot brighter and quieter. It was a ruse, he'd be back. I stayed in my corner, silently crying and hurting and wishing I didn't exist. Why me? It would never get better, I was stuck like this. No one would help.

I braced and held my breath as there came the sound of hooves on the floor. He was back. I wondered if I should just let go.

"Anya," said he in the voice of the princess. I didn't respond, knowing it was a trap. I just prayed he thought I was dead and went away, but my shaky breaths and snivelling betrayed me.

He stepped closer, and I heard him bend down. "Anya, I have vanquished the beast." I didn't believe it. That's what she said earlier but it clearly didn't happen — it was all just a figment of my imagination, no one would care enough to help. I deserved this.

"It was quite entrenched in thy mind. You'll suffer from it no longer, however." More lies. Life was pain and that was it for me. Why did it have to go the extra mile to lie?

I suddenly felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I shrunk away, almost screaming out. It was getting harder to control myself and choke back sobs, and I felt I'd break and just start bawling.

It hummed and sighed. "But you need rest. Sleep well, Anya. May we meet under better circumstances."

There was the sound of a horn charging and a spell being cast, and then everything started fading away.

Author's Note

23w Au

And so, Anya finally meets the princess of the night, for more than just a few moments now (10k+ words in fact). too bad it's a nightmare.

also, lemmings don't actually go to cliffs to die. consciously at least

If Anya's your "She's literally me fr!!!" character, I don't even know what to say beside good luck.

today's mission: comment

Supa Important:
Nemo chapter coming up soon, hope you haven't forgotten her, though I'd understand if you did. I'll try and ease her in (she'll drop in like a nuke)

Many thanks to Arcane Dust for editing and pre-reading this chapter (which happens to have Luna and also be the longest (so far)).

Chapter 52: Too close to the Sun

Honestly, we should get rid of Thursdays. It's just an extra day at its best, with nothing important going on, and at its worst, i.e. the usual, it's just a stupid obstacle of a day keeping the weekend further than it should be. Unfortunately, god is a liar and I had to deal with this crap every week no matter how much I hated it. Anyone who says otherwise is probably a paid agent and a liar and needs to have their mouth stitched shut.

If you couldn't tell, today was Thursday, and like all Thursdays, it was mind numbingly boring so far and I was already losing it.

I was tired and missing my bed after having forgone sleep last night. I was hungry as well, having last eaten yesterday morning, but I was much too focused being bored and thinking about cuddling my pillow to care about that. Besides, I'd be alright anyway, and if I wasn't, I was only reaping what I sowed.

Like most other days, I was at the library at this time in the afternoon, sitting at the front desk, watching as the seconds tick by as I was slowly cooked in the afternoon heat. Like most days this week, there had been little traffic here and I was alone at the moment. There was some light rain scheduled for Friday evening, which would be a nice break from the summer heat, but I wished they’d make it rain today as well.

Unlike most other days, Twilight wasn't at the library right now, having gone out with Spike for some super important work.

What could possibly be so important as to make Twilight leave work?

The answer was quite obviously Princess Celestia being in town for a casual visit.

So, yeah, the princess was in town for a casual visit, all by herself, as heads of states do. Fortunately, Twilight had told me that yesterday along with some details of what she might do, and thankfully, “going to the library” wasn’t one of the things she would do. I wouldn’t have to see her today or do anything extra or worry about it.

Twilight had tried to invite me to come along with her to meet the princess at Sugarcube Corner with her friends, and while I appreciated the gesture, I declined, but not after a whole lot of her trying to convince me otherwise. I was still a bit annoyed over that last part, since she talked my ear off for thirty minutes, knowing very well that I didn’t exactly like Princess Celestia or her friends (I would throw a certain one into a meat grinder). I’d probably blow myself up and everyone else if forced into that room. Twilight only accepted my declination this morning because I pointed out that somebody had to be at the library. It was crazy how I could see that while she couldn’t.

Anyway, after that part of the morning, everything was boring.

There were plenty of books that I could have read to pass time but I wasn’t in the mood to read right now, feeling meh and more interested in thinking about other things.

It had been three days since Voth had taken Ret and I couldn’t help but feel worried. Sure, I could ask Voth for an update on what they’re doing, but I’d rather wait than potentially interrupt at a bad time. But until then, I had to do all the fun things that waiting entailed, like sitting on my ass and being worried. Fun things.

A knock on the main door made me sit up straight and wipe my frown from my face. I looked to the door, expecting someone to walk in. I kind of looked forward to it, since I’d have something to do, be it creepily staring at some poor soul as they perused the bookshelves.

But the door didn’t open. Instead, there was a second knock, which sounded more like a bump now that I had my attention directed at it. I tilted my head at the door when a third bump came. What was going on out there?

I got up and walked to the door. There I waited a second for another bump. When it didn’t come, I opened the door to see what the problem was. The light outside was blinding for a moment and I momentarily closed my eyes.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to look around for the problem, meaning I didn’t have to be in the sunlight for long.

Unfortunately, the problem hit me right in the face, squeaking noisily, right after I opened the door. I stumbled back a few steps as the hot and hairy problem stuck to my face, making damn sure to try its best to make me go deaf and also be annoying. I grabbed it with my magic and pulled it off. I didn’t throw it away because I wanted to make sure it was who I thought it was, and also because it had taken my glasses along with it.

I brought the furry menace close to my face and a quick look over confirmed that I had the moth, Steeve, in my magical hold. He was still squeaking and trying to fly, but wasn’t going anywhere. I stared at him for a good long moment, waiting for him to shut up, which he didn’t. Stupid idiot. Eventually, by which I mean ten seconds later, I brought my right arm up to him and let him grab onto it as I let him go. Seeing that he was now stuck onto me, which was probably the most prestigious thing a bug could do on a hot summer day, he quieted down.

I sighed, slightly annoyed at the bug’s antics. I had left him at home and I expected him to stay at home, but he clearly had his own thoughts, if there even was a brain in his head at all — if there even was one, it was probably damaged. Somehow, he could escape my house but not figure out how to get into the library, especially when there’s an open window right next to the door. I’ll have to see how he got out of my house and fix that.

I looked to the ground and found my glasses quickly. I picked them and put them, blinking a bit before returning to more important things, like closing the door.

Something caught my eye, however, as I reached for the handle. There was a very distinct purple blur coming towards me from across the street. I squinted and made out two shades of purple. It was Twilight. If I were to make an educated guess about why she was running, I’d guess that something was wrong. Accordingly, I didn’t close the door. I did get out of the way of the door, just in case.

Twilight was approaching fast, running like she was being chased and the library was her only escape. She skidded to a stop over a distance that seemed absurdly long, but she managed to stop just as she passed the door. She was panting and wheezing from her run, but she didn’t spend time recovering, instead looking straight at me like I was the saviour.

“What is it, Twilight?” I asked with a raised foreleg, getting to the point right away.

“Anya, I need your help!” she answered, almost hyperventilating and not answering the question at all. A bit annoying, but she was clearly stressed.

“What is it?” I repeated.

“Princess Celestia,” she began, and immediately I was worried. If it had something to do with her I probably shouldn’t intervene, for my own health. However, I probably didn’t have as much say as I wanted. “Her phoenix, it’s gone! I had to keep her visit pleasant, but her phoenix is gone!” She stopped to breathe, and then continued lamenting, “Oh, if only I had kept on task like I should have.”

She looked like she would start crying, but she stopped herself and got to what she wanted me to do. “The princess — Spike is bringing her here to keep her occupied. Could you help him as well? Just keep her occupied. That’s all.”

“what”

I had expected her to ask my help in finding the pet, not that. Why did she even ask me to do that? Surely there’s better alternatives. Although she was my friend, and I should lend a hand therefore, this was a tall order she was asking from me. An order too tall perhaps. I didn't want to interact with the princess, and was going to say no to that.

Twilight suddenly lunged forward at me, grabbing me by the shoulders and hanging on me like a pleading child. She looked up at me, tears in her eyes. “Please, Anya, I n— need your help. I can fix this, but I need time. Please.” She said it like her life depended on it, and I couldn’t help but feel that it did.

I was left staring back at her with my ears lowered and my nay in question. I couldn’t step away from the decision she was presenting or her. She did need my help, and in retrospect, occupying the princess’s time wouldn’t be all that hard. I definitely couldn’t just say ‘no’ to her when she needed it; I’d be a terrible friend if I did. However, it was Princess Celestia she was asking me to deal with and that’s like, a terrible idea. But I couldn’t just leave her hanging, unless I wanted to leave her at the princess's mercy. And I couldn’t spend forever making a choice.

I caved.

“Uh, okay, I’ll do… something.” I didn't know what I'd do, but now I'd have to figure that out. Somehow.

Twilight did a complete 180, losing her hopeless look. She let go of my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug which I very much did not appreciate. She let me go before I could push her away, and did a 180 physically, turning to the door.

“Thanks, I owe you!” she said quickly to me as she left running.

I was left alone now, staring out the door and watching as she disappeared into the background. For a few moments, I was like a cat that had water thrown on it, recovering from the sudden invasion of my personal space. I just gave her a favour, why did she have to touch me?

Steeve, who had stayed silent the entire exchange, chirped, bringing me out of my recovery. I looked down at him and he stared off into space, as one would. I looked at him for a moment before remembering I had stuff to do. Stuff that I didn’t want to do. Why is the world so comical again?

I had stayed at the window next to the door for two minutes, discreetly watching for the princess, slightly anxious — anyone would be anxious. My head was hurting a bit. Even though I had little to do with it, I had hoped that by some miracle, Twilight found the princess’s pet and returned with it, but then miracles are called miracles because they’re never going to happen. And like all miracles, this one didn't happen either.

I first saw the princess at the end of the street, her height and colour easily distinguishing her from the surrounding blurs. She had an entourage, with at least two guards going by the shiny blurs. There were others as well but I couldn’t tell who they were exactly from how far they were.

Having seen that she was coming, I left the window and returned to my desk to pretend that I hadn’t been watching out for her, though I doubt I’d put up a good enough act. Whatever, I just had to act calm and keep my cool. Yeah, super easy to do that, especially around someone I had been warned to avoid. Why did I agree to this again? Yeah, being a nice but dumb as shit friend got me into this.

I removed Steeve from the chair, where he had made himself comfortable, and dropped him on the table before taking the chair. He didn’t protest and simply crawled onto my keyboard, where he made himself comfortable again. I ignored the cat-like behaviour and thought to myself what I should do about him. I couldn't exactly drop him off back home, not right now at least, but I didn't think it would look good to have a giant bug around... well, the last time she was here, Steeve was also there and she didn't notice. Or rather, she wasn't around long enough to care. Well, I could probably stuff him in a drawer if he gets rowdy. Man, I needed more prep-time for this crap.

The door opened loudly, making me jump a bit in my seat. I looked over just in time to see Spike walking in first.

"...And we've settled in completely here and it's just like our home in Canterlot — maybe even better sometimes! You can make yourself comfortable here," he was saying as he moved to hold the door open.

I watched as the pony I feared stepped in, ducking under the small door to avoid hitting her horn. The whole place seemed to turn brighter as Princess Celestia stepped inside. However, the pomp that I had expected with a princess's entrance wasn't there, not that I was against that — having paparazzi or high nobility in the library would suck major ass and I'd probably beat someone to death. But maybe that was just me expecting more than I should. My head hurt a bit looking at her but that was probably nervousness or stress.

The princess was smiling and nodding at Spike as he continued talking to her about how things were going for him. Should I bow to her? No, thAt'd be stupid. However, she was also looking around and in the split second that I was looking directly at her, she looked directly at me. Hate when that happens. I froze up for a second, almost tried pretending I wasn't looking, and then gave her a little wave. She returned the wave with one of her own, though it felt overexaggerated but that was probably because of her size. That went better than expected. Maybe it'd be fine and I was just locking in over nothing.

And then to dash my hopes of things being okay, in walked Rainbow Dash — I bet she got the dash part of her name for just that. She was still banned from the library as well. Did she really think that just because she was here with the princess she'd be let in? Speaking of the devil, Rainbow Dash turned her head to look at me and very clearly made a 'I'm watching you' gesture. I would have replied with a middle finger or a threat of violence, but neither were options for obvious reasons, and so, I had to take the third option of quietly simmering in my anger and becoming a fresh new batch of bitch soup. I kept my appearance in check as well as I could, though I would really prefer to be seen kicking Rainbow out, literally.

Spike closed the door and walked up to my side. "Hey, Anya, did you see Twilight? She left in a hurry for something."

I looked down at Spike for a moment, making a convincing lie. I started off with a truth. "Yeah, she stopped by to tell me the princess was coming."

"Oh, did she tell you anything about what she had to do?"

"Apparently, she misplaced something. Don't know what but it sounded important." Not a complete lie, yes, but the best lies always carried a shade of truth. Spike was convinced, nodding his head. I still felt a tiny bit nervous however, since it wasn't lying to Spike that mattered — it was lying to the thousand-year old princess that mattered. I had said my answers loud enough to be overheard and I was just waiting for a reaction to gauge how I did.

Unfortunately, the reaction came from the dye factory accident.

"Twilight? Losing stuff?" She snorted to accentuate her disbelief. I wanted to tell her to shut her mouth but couldn't as she suddenly walked up to my desk very fast. She leaned on it like she owned the damn place and said, "Wi— Buddy—" she seemed to gag at that word choice "— Twilight's the smartest pony I know, and I think you're losing your mind if you think that she of all ponies would lose stuff."

She looked at me like she was explaining an obvious thing, ending with an obnoxious smile and a puffed up chest. I stopped myself from looking at her like I wanted to crack her head open and confirm it's empty, but my ears did lower. It would Feel great to sEe her hurt.

"Um, actually," Spike spoke up with a raised finger, bringing our attention to him. "Twilight does lose stuff — quite a lot in fact — but I, her number one assistant, usually stop that from happening in the first place."

He beamed, quite proud of himself. Rainbow stammered meanwhile, having her dumbass statement get noted right after she said it. Her eyes darted around as she put on a nervous smile and tried to play it cool. She looked to the princess, who was watching the situation play out with a poker face. She looked to Spike and then to me when she found nothing. I stared back blankly, hiding my anger. JuSt get losT alreAdy.

"W— well, everypony has bad days. I have bad days, you have bad days, everypony does." She laughed sheepishly but quickly stopped. I hoped that she would shut up and leave now. Quite obviously, she didn't, instead finding something else to attack me over: Steeve.

"Another one of your bug freaks?" she asked, pointing to the oblivious Steeve on the keyboard. Spike stood on his toes to see the bug in question and just shrugged. He turned and went to the stairs, leaving me alone. Rainbow didn't wait for me to answer and continued yapping, "I don't think you know this but nopony wants to see your ugly little horsenstein creatures here."

I wanted to hit back with my own insult, and maybe an actual hit to her stupid ugly face, but I didn't. Not because I believed in the 'bigger person' bullshit, but because the princess was coming up behind Rainbow. It was the perfect opportunity to look like the normal guy being accosted by the weird guy. But having the princess come closer was making me more stressed and my head hurt more. WHY can't thIngs juSt be all niCe for ONCE?

Of course, Rainbow didn't notice that the princess was coming up behind her and took my silence as an invitation to keep running her bitch mouth that was long overdue for a violent and sudden dental extraction. "Like, just because you can do some dark magic doesn't mean you can go and cause problems, especially when I—"

"Ahem," the princess interrupted, getting an 'eep' out of Rainbow. She looked down at us, a neutral but strained smile on her face. "I couldn't help but notice that there seems to be a dispute here."

"Yeah, Rainbow's being disruptive," I said quickly before Rainbow could lie. I was rewarded by the princess looking down at Rainbow with a raised eyebrow and Rainbow looking at me like I confessed to cannibalism. It was quite hilarious and I smiled.

"What?! Me? Disruptive?" Rainbow asked loudly, being disruptive. She guffawed then, in case someone thought she was being ironic. "Funny joke, dweeb!"

She laughed some more, going so far as to lean on the princess for dramatic effect. I cringed as I watched the princess's smile become strained. I half-expected her to swat away Rainbow like the annoying fly she was, but unfortunately, the princess only gently pushed her away. If I was in the princess's place, I'd have broken her teeth by now. It would be so SATISFYING.

Rainbow straightened up quickly to continue her hostility. She pointed an accusatory hoof at me. "Nopony believes your lies, witch. Y—"

"Now now, let us not argue here. Today is a good day to relax," Princess Celestia said, putting a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder and shutting her up. Rainbow Dash looked at her, mouth hung open. I doubted that she could tell the princess to stuff it, but I didn't dismiss the possibility. I was a bit miffed since she seemed to completely ignore the 'witch' remark, but I'll take what I can get.

Rainbow stammered, pointing towards me in general as though the princess would understand all her problems with me just like that. The princess just smiled at Rainbow, staring almost unblinkingly. I too stared at Rainbow but with a sour expression.

Seeing that she wasn't going to do anything besides make more of a fool out of herself — which was quite easy for a dumbfuck of her caliber — she harrumphed and backed off, but not before giving me a nasty look. She turned and headed for the door, muttering something to the princess about work before she left. I breathed a sigh of relief and let myself calm down — the library felt so much more free without her. Everywhere wOUld feel bEtter if she were GONE. Forever.

"Ah, I seem to have upset Rainbow Dash," the princess said sagely, after the multi-coloured mutt finally left. She shrugged with her wings. "Oh well, she'll be alright."

Fortunately, that seemed to be the end of dealing with Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately, no celebration was to happen as there was still the princess to deal with.

She turned around to look, or rather, stare directly at me. Though she smiled disarmingly, I still froze up as we made eye-contact, her presence overpowering — it was the princess of the sun, of course she was intimidating. I couldn't look away from her for what felt like an entire minute. I almost missed having Rainbow since she was distracting enough to blind me from the light.

"So, Anya, how was your day?" she asked, making me blink.

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and answered, "Fine."

She raised an eyebrow at that and tilted her head ever so slightly, prompting me to elaborate, "Sorry, I j— I just look weird."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, no, I wasn't suggesting that. In fact, you look quite good for somebody who's just 'fine'. The answer just confused me a little, we all have different definitions for 'good' after all."

Though her attempt at lying was commendable, I didn't fall for it — I had lived with my face my entire life and I was the one who knew it best. I didn't say anything about it though and just nodded. No need to waste time on 'positivity' nonsense. Besides, I had more important concerns, like keeping her distracted from her missing pet.

There was silence between us. The princess just stared at me, keeping her smile. I stared back at her ears so that I looked like I was keeping eye-contact. I fidgeted in my seat a bit. Doesn't she have stuff to do beside having a staring contest on a Thursday afternoon? I hated to admit it but I really needed Spike's help.

The princess ended the staring contest by taking a look around. “Today must be a rather slow day?”

“Uh yeah."

“I suppose you didn’t expect such… extraordinary company,” she said, walking up to the closest bookshelf. "Spike should be coming down with tea. You won't be alone for long."

It seemed that the princess had caught on to my wariness of her, and that made me cringe. I mean, anybody would be wary around her, yes, but I should be better than that. The one good thing of her being far was that it made me feel a bit better.

I gulped and straightened up while the princess’s back was turned. I just had to be normal now, and I could cry about being uncomfortable later when I have nothing to do. I haTed This.

“I wonder when Twilight will return,” she murmured to herself. I had the same question, but for different reasons. She turned around, not finding any book to be interesting. “Tell me, what is there in the library?”

“Books, probably,” I answered, trying to sound as normal as I could. Obviously, that was a complete waste when the answer itself was weird, which I only noticed after saying it. What did I mean by ‘probably’, this was a library — of course there’d be books.

But what was done was done. The princess raised an eyebrow, like that one bald guy, and asked, “Probably?”

I thought of the best course of action to cover up my own brainlessness: playing it off as a joke. That always worked. I quickly answered, “Yeah, there might be a chance.”

She paused for a moment, before breaking out into a smile. “A chance?”

I almost sighed in relief. She was playing along with my joke now, which was honestly the best case scenario. Now, I had to play along as well. “Yeah, slight chance.”

“Slight chance to have books in the library?” She snickered a bit, which was good. I felt a bit more relaxed.

“Yeah, I know. Preposterous idea, but you can’t be too sure nowadays,” I said as seriously as I could, which was a lot more than what I expected. I even kept a straight face which added to the delivery of the joke.

She actually giggled at that, covering her mouth with a hoof. That was a lot easier than expected, but I wasn’t going to complain or tempt fate. JuSt keEp this gOiNg, ANYA. Or at leAst don't BLOW it like YOu do.

It was now that a spanner was thrown in the works. Steeve suddenly chirped, bringing our attention to him. Seeing that he had the attention he wanted, he chirped again, and took flight so that he could impact me on my chest. Despite the short distance, he had gained quite a lot of force in his flight and as a result I had some air knocked out of my chest with an 'oof'. Steeve was obviously uninjured and clinging onto me while I was left coughing and trying to recover at the same time. If he weren't so damn cute, and also if I wasn't busy with some slightly more important issues, I'd have called him stupid.

The princess laughed at the display, not trying to hide her amusement in the slightest. I didn't mind it too much — I'd have laughed at myself if I could — but it was not something I had planned and it was a bit embarrassing. At least the princess was amused.

I tried plucking Steeve off of myself but he held on firm and squeaked loudly at me, which just made my head hurt more and leave him be. Princess Celestia laughed some more, which just made me more conscious of how stupid I looked. When wAs she gOIng to LEAVE?

The princess laughed a bit more before bringing it under control, though she did smile like she'd break out into laughter again. She took a step to me and said, "Here, let me help you."

Her horn lit up and Steeve was surrounded in a golden aura. He let go of me with no resistance whatsoever and let himself be carried to the princess without any tantrum. I'd be indignant at the biased treatment, but having a tantrum wouldn’t befit me and would also be stupid.

Princess Celestia brought the moth close to her face, looking at him like he was a puppy. “You’re a little rascal, aren’t you?” she said to him before bringing up a hoof to pet him. Steeve squeaked in response, and the princess giggled. She let go of her magic, letting him grab onto her hoof. It was quiet as she watched him crawl a bit before stopping in one spot.

“He has a quite interesting colouring. Where did you get him?” she asked almost suddenly, looking at me.

“Oh, uh, he… he just came into my house one day.”

“He just... flew into your home? From the forest?”

“Yeah.”

"Interesting..." she said, her eyes going back to Steeve for a moment. "In my observations, these moths prefer to avoid people, more so when they're wild. I've a couple in my castle gardens, but they rarely show themselves to anyone — not even their caretaker."

Going from her tone, she didn't seem to believe me, which prompted me to explain why Steeve did that. "He's probably just dumb."

"Dumb?" The princess looked at me like I was a dumbass child who said a dumbass thing, making me shrink back a bit. "Contrary to what you might believe, they're really quite intelli—"

Steeve suddenly took flight, interrupting the princess. He flew over to the entrance, hovering in the space directly in front of the open window. It seemed that he was leaving — for home, I hoped. He hovered for a few more moments before flying forward... into the closed door next to the window. A dull thud sounded as he hit the very solid and very opaque door. He fell down to the floor where he lay silently, probably contemplating how such a thing could happen to him.

The room was all silent for a moment, and I looked over to the princess to see that she was looking at Steeve with a flabbergasted expression. I thought I saw one of her eyes twitch as well, but I wasn't sure.

To get rid of the awkward silence, I said the one thing that came to mind. "Thanks for the demonstration, Steeve."

Steeve chirped in response, which made me snort. Smart enough to know his name but not that he can't no-clip through a door — what a gem.

Princess Celestia couldn't keep silent at the display anymore and broke out into laughter, and not the princess-y kind of hushed laughter. It was loud, rambunctious laughter, like that of an annoying child, which made me lower my ears to avoid making my headache worse. I didn't really expect that kind of laugh from her, or from anyone who would have been in her place — it was just a bug inflicting brain damage on himself, but I wasn't going to ask her to stop. I just silently waited for her to calm down, which took a little while. She laughed for almost an entire minute, almost falling to the floor to roll in laughter at one point, before calming down somewhat and catching her breath.

"Oh, it's been ages since I've laughed like this," she said, wiping away a tear from her eye. She quickly straightened out, though she still held traces of mirth. "Just what I needed after that meeting. You should have been there to see how strained everybody and everything was! Ah, how I wish I wasn't there either."

I nodded in acknowledgement. I didn't know what the burdens of being princess were, having spent more time closer to being a pauper than someone like her, but I could tell from recent events that it was probably very boring.

Princess Celestia walked over to the door and picked up Steeve in a hoof. She then walked towards me, presumably to give him to me.

But she didn't stop at the other side of my desk.

She walked around my desk, up to my right side, sat down, and put Steeve on the table in front of me. Could it get any worse than that, being so close to someone you didn't want to be close to? Obviously, it could. She put an arm around my shoulder. CONTACT.

It had taken at max ten seconds for the whole thing to happen and those were probably up there in the list of the worst ten seconds of my life. IMy stress shot up till the moon, but I was still somehow pretending to not care. My ears hurt as they kept themselves forced up and straight, my heart raced like it was going to detonate, my head felt like it was being used as a drum, my horn pulsed with pain. I was terrified. My entire body was telling me that I was cooked. MAKE THE PAIN STOP.

She didn't notice, or maybe she just ignored my panic and she kept her arm on my shoulder. Instead of putting her arm back down, she began talking. "You know, your Steeve reminds me of my own pet, Philomena. She's a playful phoenix, quite intelligent but using it all on being a nuisance..."

I couldn't pay attention to what she was saying, too busy staring dead ahead at the edge of my desk as I fought to keep myself from shaking or pushing her away. GET AWAY. My head hurt so much more. BREAK IT OPEN. It came from both within and without, like I was a tin can being filled with air while under a hydraulic press. I felt like I was choking. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL HER TO STAY AWAY? WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS? I didn't know why I was like this. The only output I had for all my raw emotion was just flicking my tail, but even that had to be limited because of how close the princess was. I wanted to go home, where I would be all alone, and stay there forever. Why the hell did people think they can go around touching someone after one positive interaction?! KILL THEM.

I didn't know how long I sat there, nodding along and half-listening to whatever the princess prattled on about, but it was for far too long. The pain in my head made me want to smash my head on the desk till either the pain died or I died, and both options were enticing. END THE PAIN. I couldn't, I had to wait it out. The princess seemed oblivious to how I was doing stuck under her, too absorbed in her chattering about her stupid bird which started this whole stupid problem. SHUT UP. If there was a positive to all this suffering, it was that I was at least doing what Twilight asked of me. DOORMAT. IDIOT. I really was one.

The room felt so much hotter and I felt like sardine in a can with the princess who probably revelled in taking up the most inconvenient space in a room. The Door was right there I could get away to somewhere less painful.

I was brought out of my stewing and focusing on looking normal and general anger by the princess suddenly saying, "Anya, are you well?"

I didn't look away from the spot I had been staring at all the while she had yapped but I could tell that she was looking down at me with concern, and I could feel her disgustingly warm breath on my ear. TEAR HER. I sucked in some air, doing my best not to choke or to lash out in anger at her sheer ignorance, and answered meekly, "No."

She shifted in her place, but still didn't take off her arm from around my shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"Headache. Give me some space, please." It was the politest way I could put it, but I still heard the princess huff. She did back off, giving me room to breathe. My headache remained all the same though. PAIN. I did not get the relief I wanted, and that just made me feel worse. I brought up my hooves to hold my head but it did nothing.

"Do you feel better now?" she asked, to which I replied by shaking my head. She hummed, almost as if she was suspicious of me for some reason, but she didn't say anything about that. Bitch. "I suppose the heat is getting to you — it's rather hot today, I admit, even for myself."

I didn't respond, too busy fruitlessly nursing my damned head. At least she wasn't touching me now. NOT ENOUGH.

There was the sound of the upstairs door opening, followed by the sound of feet. I turned my head a bit and saw that Spike was coming downstairs with a tray that had a kettle and probably a cup on it. That's what he left me for, huh — but it's alright though. He can deal with the princess while I figure my shit out. I put my arms down and managed a neutral expression.

"Hey princess, I got lemon tea — your favourite!" Spike said, proud of himself. "Hope you didn't get too bored down here without me."

"Oh, it was nothing. Anya was a quite nice conversation partner," the princess replied, outwardly friendly. LIAR. Her sarcasm would have been near impossible to detect for someone unless they were there with us during the last five-ish minutes. I felt a bit bad and ashamed about staying mute during the 'conversation' that 'we' had. I should have at least tried talking a little even if I felt like crap.

Right after Spike set down the tray on my desk, the princess said, "Also, Spike, could you get a glass of water for Anya?"

I looked to the princess, not expecting that. She looked back nonchalantly. Spike was already off before I could object to that. The princess simply said, "You look like you could use it. No need to thank me."

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. She was probably right, and being a contrarian wouldn't do me any good. I was pretty sure that I had previously drunk water more than a day ago, so I could definitely use that. I just turned back to keep staring at the desk and ignore my headache. I lay my head down for a moment on the desk which made me feel a bit better. Steeve, who had been quietly sitting at the desk, took it as an invitation to climb onto my head and make himself comfortable in my mane. I didn't try removing him since I didn't want him squeaking at me.

The princess stepped away from the desk and went to the window where she took a look outside. "Hm, it seems there is a situation outside."

I sat up straight as she opened the door. "What?"

"Tell Spike that I'll return in a moment," she said before stepping out.

Almost immediately after, the pressure on my head subsided somewhat. Some peace, finally. I don't think I'd ever like to be in the same room as her ever again. I got off my chair and stretched a bit, my legs feeling a bit sore. The time was still about two, but I wanted to go home. Maybe Twilight would be happy to cover for me. She better.

Spike returned, carrying with him a glass of water. He came up to me and handed it to me before taking a look around. "Hey, where's the princess?"

"She went outside for something, said she'll be back," I replied. Spike nodded and went to the window to look for her probably. Meanwhile, I drank the water, which only made me aware of my thirst. Go home. I'd go home and crash out till tomorrow once I've talked to Twilight.

I left the glass at the desk and walked to the other side of the closest bookshelf, out of sight of anyone who'd come through the door. I sat down there, leaning against the bookshelf. Today had been terrible and I felt terrible and tired, and there wasn't anything I could do besides feeling upset. Cry— No, that wasn't an option. I pulled Steeve out of my mane and hugged him. Steeve wriggled around in my hold a bit but didn't do anything else. I just quietly held onto him, waiting for the bad feelings to dilute down to a more manageable level. It'd be better if it was someone and not something we held onto.

I sat there next to the bookshelf for about two minutes, and was just about to get back up when I heard the door opening. Two sets of hoofsteps came inside, and my headache immediately worsened, forcing me to stay seated where I was and do my best to not cry. Steeve made a little squeak as I squeezed him a bit harder, but we were otherwise silent.

"...There's no need to apologise for that, Twilight. It was mostly Philomena's doing," I heard the princess say, followed by some mumbling that sounded like baby-talk. "Spike, take the tea upstairs, I'll be there with Twilight shortly. And where's Anya by the way?"

"She's somewhere in the library but I don't think she'll hear you from here," Spike replied. "Should I get her? No? Okay." I heard the tray being picked up, followed by receding footsteps.

It was silent for a moment, before the princess started talking again, this time in a hushed tone. "Twilight, I need you to do something for me."

It wasn't my place to eavesdrop on whatever they were talking about, but I couldn't stop myself.

"What is it, princess?" Twilight asked in an equally hushed tone.

"I know this request is a strange one but bear with me, it'll make sense when I explain it to you." There was a momentary pause.

"Can you keep watch on Anya?"

I got the very distinct and familiar feeling that I was in trouble the moment my name left ehr mouth. Why were they talking about me? I listened on with both dread and curiosity.

"Why, princess? Is something wrong? Did she say something to—" Twilight's increasing panic was cut off by a shush from the princess.

"While I can't say with certainty that something is wrong, I am fairly strong in my suspicion that something might be wrong with her. I may be incorrect — which I hope I am — which is why I need you to keep watch on her, discreetly. I'll explain more, but not now."

Though I didn't see it, I knew that Twilight probably held an uncertain expression. The princess probably looked grim. In contrast, I was scared. Did she know what I was? The very thought of that being possible had my stomach in knots. Voth had warned me of her — I shouldn't have gotten close to her. I could only imagine what would happen if I was found out. Was it over?

No, it wasn't. She wasn't sure of my true nature yet. All wasn't lost. I just had to consult Voth ASAP and be wary around Twilight. She was my friend and all but Voth's work took precedence over all other matters. Did it? Shut up. I got up quietly, putting Steeve back on my head, and sneaked to the end of the bookshelf. I had to get home, where I could talk with Voth and figure out what to do, but I had to get past the two ponies at the door.

I straightened up and took a breath. Just act normal, like you had a walk. I stepped past the bookshelf and saw the princess was at the stairs, going up with a red bird on her back. Twilight was at the desk, looking lost. She quickly straightened up when she saw me, giving me an obviously fake smile.

"H— hey," she said, doing a very poor job of pretending nothing was wrong.

"Hey," I replied, doing a better job at being oblivious despite my racing heart. "You found her bird, huh?"

"Yeah, yup, found her. It took a lot less time than I thought, and it wasn't as bad either. Thanks, by the way, for distracting her."

"Okay." I waited a moment. "Could you cover the rest of my shift? My head feels like it's gonna blow up."

"Sure!" she replied, a bit too excited as she said that, smiling sheepishly afterward. She didn't ask any questions, which was good. I wasn't going to wait around for her to ask some though.

I nodded, mumbling thanks to her as I moved to get my saddlebags from behind the desk. I wanted to just pick them up and leave, but I didn't since that would look suspicious. Instead, I put them on like I always did, even though I felt exposed with Twilight staring at me.

I didn't bother saying goodbye and left the library in a slight hurry. I had to get to Voth before I did anything else.

Author's Note

24r Au

Sorry Thursday lovers, Anya thinks you're invalid.

I originally had Anya start the chapter off with a sonnet about how much she hates Thursdays, but my editor said that Anya's style is more crazed ranting. The sonnet's here if you want to read it:

Thursdays, oh Thursdays,
you're the week's worst time.
Why must you be so set in your dull ways?
Having you every week should be a crime.
You're quiet, but terribly boring,
seeing my disdain probably makes you smirk.
I'd rather be in bed, snoring,
but Thursday morning I have to go to work.
At your very best, you're merely filler,
a stupid damned obstacle.
At you worst, you make me wish to be a killer,
and bearing you is almost impossible.
But not all pieces of you serve to offend,
since like every other day, you have an end.

sorry for the long wait. i had semester finals and college applications and also the dreaded block.

I have a discord server now if you want to heckle me or see what else I'm cooking up: https://discord.com/invite/waTEUXv9Ea

See y'all next year.

Chapter 53: Permanent solutions to temporary problems

I had contacted Voth right after I got home and immediately informed him of the predicament I was in. He didn't say anything besides ordering me to go to sleep. I don't remember his exact words but I remember the distinct feeling of doom and being in trouble. Despite the fear I felt, I had somehow managed to go to sleep as he had ordered.

I had woken up again, but not in real life. Though the surroundings I found myself in looked exactly like my house, I just knew that it wasn't the real thing. That was further reinforced by the outside just being grey fog instead of the usual forest. The only issue was that Voth wasn't there, making me more nervous. The feeling that I was in trouble I couldn't get out of kept growing in my chest like a thorny vine.

Though I was in a dream, and I knew that, I couldn't alter anything in it, meaning that the only thing to pass time was to pace in circles and prepare for Voth's arrival. I was in the living room, which let me pace in a larger space that wasn't as suffocating as my room. None of the lights were on, and the room was dimly lit up by the light that came from outside. It was very quiet too, to the point that I could hear my hoofsteps. My head still hurt, but not as much as it did earlier.

I wasn't worried about Voth only, however — I multitasked by worrying about what I had seen earlier in the day as well. Princess Celestia was suspicious of me already, and this was like the second time I met her. The first time I had met her, I hadn't had any headaches, and my stress was mostly normal. This time, I had a headache that felt really out of place. The best explanation I had was that she had cast some spell or something that had negative effects on me.

Though she wouldn't be in Ponyville most of the time, and definitely not around me for the time she was, she still had eyes and ears. Twilight was the major one, and I was concerned that the princess would give her the same spell that she used, which will make my life harder and more importantly, give them the data to confirm the princess's suspicions. Besides Twilight, there could be more people sent after me, and that terrified me. They could strike at any time, when I'm least expecting it. They will. And Voth told me that if that happens, it won't be good. Run away while you still can.

I was brought out of my worried pacing by the back door sliding open, letting in a wind so cold it could have frozen water on the spot. Along with the cold wind, a wave of dark water of a colour I could only describe as 'void' flowed in. The water took up the side of the room opposite to mine and stayed there, rippling angrily. I watched it, so tense that I was grinding my teeth.

The puddle shook violently and then split into several fountains of dark water. The fountains coalesced into a single large spout of shadows, before taking on a slightly equine shape. Several eyes and mouths and ears and other things opened up all over the surface of Voth. All looked angry, and all looked at me. I cowered in fear, and shivered from the cold wind.

"THE SUN KNOWS?" he asked immediately.

I choked at first, not being able to answer. However, the glare he gave me forced my throat to open up, "I— she's suspicious— she's having Twilight keep watch on me to get evidence."

His eyes didn't narrow but I got the distinct feeling that he had his eyes narrowed at me.

"THE SUN DOES NOT HAVE EVIDENCE GOOD," he noted, almost positively. However, his tone shifted as he continued, "BUT YOU HAVE COMPROMISED MY WORK."

Though he was right about me compromising everything, I wasn't the one to blame — I didn't do it on purpose. I voiced my objection to the implication, "I— I didn't want to be close to her! She was the one who cornered me and she had some aura spell thing, and I— I couldn't just run away. That'd be more susp—"

Voth interrupted me loudly, "YOU COULD HAVE AVOIDED HER EASILY BY CLAIMING YOU HAD SOMETHING ELSE TO DO YOU COULD HAVE RUN AWAY IF NEEDED BUT YOUR LOYALTY TO THOSE YOU PERCEIVE AS FRIENDS OUTWEIGHS YOUR LOYALTY TO ME."

I wanted to say something, anything, that would prove him wrong, but there wasn't anything I could think of. He was right, I shouldn't have put myself at risk by sticking my neck out for Twilight. But it was wrong to be selfish. I could only stare at the ground in fear like a kid caught doing something wrong. I just hoped that making up for the mistake won't be a painful process.

"I OBSERVE THAT MY ENERGY ON YOU HAS DEGRADED MY BLOCKS ON YOUR MIND ARE FALLING APART YOU ARE UNABLE TO OPERATE EFFECTIVELY WITHOUT MY RESTRAINTS," he said, assessing all that was wrong with me. I just felt more ashamed. "YOUR MIND ITSELF IS WEAK IT SPLINTERED EASILY FROM THE SUN'S ENERGY IF YOU HAD STAYED LONGER YOU WOULD HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF AND ENDED YOURSELF AND THIS ALL."

I kept silent, my throat feeling like it wrapped with barbed wire.

"YOU NEED TO LEARN FEAR IF YOU WISH TO SURVIVE."

I looked up from the ground and at him as those words emanated from him. My eyes met two of his, and I felt all my fur stand on its end at that instant. Run. The next instant, Voth had surged forward and covered most of my head. I couldn't even blink at that time. GET AWAY. I couldn't move a muscle as Voth completely covered my head with himself. It was terrifying but not painful. Yet. I tried staying calm, reasoning that he did something like this once and that I'd be better off letting him do his thing. But the look in his eyes before he started made me question myself — I was in the dark, both about what he was doing, and also literally. I still somehow clung to the idea that this was for the better.

"YOU WILL LEARN FEAR FOR YOUR OWN GOOD."

There was light all of a sudden.

Bright, searing light. My eyes were forced open and my head held in place. There was no escape.

The dream was gone, and so was Voth. I was facing an equine figure of light and terrible fury. She stood over me, towering and glaring at me with hatred that scared me. I could only hear the roar of hellfire all around as I slowly burned under her wrathful gaze. But the most prominent feeling was not of burning but that of pain. It was everywhere, permeating me inside and out. My eyes burned as the moisture in them evaporated from the sheer heat, but still, I could see her. It was princes— The Sun.

She pointed an accusatory hoof at me and flared her wings. Words came out of her mouth, garbled words that were unintelligible but conveyed the anger she felt for me, the message that I was going to perish painfully. The Sun reached down for me, her hoof stretching an impossible distance from the heavens to the pit I was in, like a vengeful pillar of fire coming down to burn the earth, and she grabbed me by my horn. It didn't vaporise from the heat, nor did it break under her strength. It melted. I could feel it as it melted from her touch and burnt my forehead and eyes as they too melted. I felt my body start liquifying under the heat, being rid of all that was foreign to the world, all that I was. I could still see without my eyes, unfortunately.

Somehow, I screamed after all that, not for mercy but for a quicker end — they were practically the same thing at this point.

Everything went dark.

It was cold and small, wherever I was. I could feel myself just enough to know that I was bound and gagged. The surroundings were damp and cold, and the air reeked of rotting things. It was too dark for me to see anything.

I knew that I was in a dungeon, not a prison, and that I was here because I had been found out. I couldn't remember how or when it happened, but I knew that it had happened. Nightmare. I didn't know how long I had been in the cell, waiting for the end. Voth had told me that if I was caught, only one thing would happen to me — still, I hadn't been careful. I had slipped up somewhere. Wake up.

I heard the sound of hooves on stone coming closer. A guard, probably. They were here for me, to take me to the execution chamber and put me down. It was horrible, knowing that the end was here but that I couldn't do anything about it besides making it more painful for myself.

The hooves stopped a short distance from me. There was the sound of a horn lighting up followed by a metal door being thrown open. I tried lifting my head up only for it to be slammed down into the ground. I was then dragged out of the cell by my mane. It was still too dark to see anything, not that I cared too much about that with the pain I was feeling.

There was a sudden jerk and a bunch of my mane was ripped off, leaving me lying on the floor, biting the gag in pain. A light turned on all of a sudden, blinding me for a moment. My eyes quickly adjusted though, and I could see that I was in the middle of some room, under a spotlight. I wasn't alone.

I could make out Twilight just beyond the light, staring at me. I tried calling out for her to help me but it came out as a bunch of muffled noises. Twilight didn't seem to care, however, and she just stared at me. She won't help you. I looked around to see what was wrong, but spotted someone else: Brush. She stood at an angle such that I couldn't see her and Twilight at the same time. She was only partly concealed in the shadows, letting me see that she was staring down at me with a mixture of disgust and amusement. In her right paw was a bunch of black hair. She had... betrayed me.

"Ah, Twilight, Brush, I see that you've got the agent ready." I turned my head around to see Princess Celestia walking up to Twilight's side. I couldn't see her face but I could imagine the hatred in her expression at seeing me.

"Yes, we did," Twilight replied in a flat tone, still staring down at me. Or was she glaring?

"I have to thank you both once again for reporting it to me. Who knows what it would've done if left hidden," the princess continued, confirming that my friends had found me out. I was shocked, but it made sense. Voth had told me this would happen and it did.

As if to rub it in, Brush replied in a venemous tone, "It was our duty, princess. I don't want monsters running about, lying and plotting. I still can't believe that it tricked me into thinking it was my friend."

It's not her. I wanted to say something, anything, to get her to realise that I would never do any of that — that I was her friend. But her tone made her convictions about me clear. She wouldn't have trusted anything I would have said. It hurt a lot, knowing my first proper friends, especially Brush, wouldn't care about what I had to say in my defence. But I had been warned about this. This was all my fault. It's a lie.

I was suddenly grabbed in a golden aura of magic and suspended in the air. "Twilight, could you begin the procedure, as I showed you?"

Twilight stepped forward, holding a red blade in her magic. Now that she was closer, she was looking at me with a disappointed look that I was clearly the cause of. Who wouldn't be disappointed if their friend was a liar?

"With pleasure, princess," she said, before bringing the blade to my chest. I tried struggling against the princess's hold but she held me firm. There was nothing I could do except scream into the gag as Twilight started carving.

I opened my eyes and saw Voth looking down at me. I was in my living room, on the couch where Voth had grabbed my head. Immediately, I sat up straight, looking around for any signs of anyone — being seen with Voth would mean a painful end.

"CALM YOURSELF YOU ARE STILL IN YOUR DREAM," Voth said to me, bringing my attention to him. He was in his equine shape, sitting next to me on the couch almost casually. Seeing that he had my attention, he continued, "YOU HAVE SEEN THE PATHS YOUR FUTURE HOLDS FOR YOU SHOULD YOU STRAY FROM THE FEAR I NEED YOU TO LIVE BY YOU NOW KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD FEAR AND WHY."

I just looked at him with my mouth hung open. It wasn't real, all that I had been through, but it felt very real. Maybe it was because it could— would happen. I had one question to ask. "You can't help me if I get found out?"

"NO THE RISK OF EXPOSING MYSELF IS TOO HIGH AND NOT WORTH SAVING YOU," he answered, making my heart sink. He narrowed one of his eyes at me. "YOU HAVE ONLY EXPERIENCED A FRACTION OF THE PAIN YOUR 'FRIENDS' CAN CAUSE YOU I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS NOONE YOU CAN TRUST BESIDES ME."

I nodded, having flashbacks of the visions he showed me. I teared up a bit remembering betrayal from my friends. I wanted to believe that it would never happen, no matter what, but I knew that reality wasn't like that. Hell, they'd turn their backs on me for lesser things. I was alone in the world, as I had always been. There was no one I could trust with anything.

Voth put a wing around me and pulled me closer.

"YOU WILL REMAIN UNHARMED IN MY CARE IF YOU SERVE ME," he said reassuringly. I knew I could trust him on that, and it made me feel a bit better. After a moment, he continued, "NOW AWAKEN AND HEAL YOURSELF."

I felt myself slip away from Voth and start falling.

I woke up with a gasp. My body hurt and my head felt like it was full of lead. The light was on which, while making my head hurt more, also let me see that I was in my kitchen, sitting on the floor with my back to the fridge. I quickly looked around and was relieved to see that I was all by myself at the moment. No princesses, no 'friends', just me.

I tried getting up but was stopped by a flare of pain from my chest and a squeak and something clattering to the ground next to my leg. I looked down and saw Steeve perched on my chest, looking up at me blankly. I stopped to stare back for a few moments before looking for what had fallen to my side.

It was a knife. A bloodied knife.

I looked back to Steeve, and noticed something more. I pulled Steeve off of me with shaking hooves, noticing that his underside was a dark red instead of the usual white. I looked down at myself and saw that my chest was covered in dull red blood, all coming from what was clearly a rune carved onto me. I felt nauseous at the sight but there wasn't anything in me to throw up.

I then remembered what Voth had told me to do before he made me wake up: that I had to heal myself. I got right to it, reaching out to my magic and making it fix me even though it hurt to just use my horn. My vision was blurred with tears as I started healing the wounds,the burning sensation of the healing combining with the pain already present to make me feel terrible. Other sensations came as well as I healed, mainly thirst, hunger, and fatigue.

By the time I was done, I felt like I was going to pass out there on the floor. I wanted to get something to drink but my legs were too weak to move beyond some twitching. I felt dirty as well with all the blood and sweat on me, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I held Steeve close to myself to not feel as bad as I did. He didn't squeak, almost as if he knew I wasn't well.

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing normally. I wanted to go to sleep and deal with all this later but I was too tired and too thirsty to sleep. But I was too tired to move as well, meaning I could fulfill none of my needs and could only suffer on the floor until I managed to get the strength to get up or fall asleep.

After a while of sitting with my eyes closed, I felt Voth's presence in my mind. "YOU HAVE HEALED YOURSELF GOOD."

I tried thinking of a reply, but my thoughts didn't form any coherent words that could express me. After a bit of concentrating, I asked, 'What happened?'

"WHILE YOU WERE IN YOUR DREAM I CONTROLLED YOUR BODY TO CARVE A RUNE INTO IT THE RUNE HAS TAKEN A TOLL ON YOU BUT YOU ARE NOW PROTECTED," he answered, which just made me question why he made the rune. Fortunately, he elaborated, "IN A FEW DAYS THE MOON WILL BE AT ITS STRONGEST CAUSING MY BLOCKS ON YOU TO DEGRADE AT AN EXTREMELY HIGH RATE THE RUNE I HAVE PLACED ON YOU WILL SERVE AS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE DEGRADATION AND AS A SOLUTION TO THE NATURAL DEGRADATION UNDER THE SUN'S INFLUENCE."

That sounded bad, sure, but there was a nagging feeling in my head that he had went overboard with the rune. 'What happens if your magic degrades?'

"YOU START FALLING APART AND YOU BECOME MORE VISIBLE TO THE SUN."

'Falling apart?'

"YOUR MIND BEGINS TO DEGRADE IN FUNCTION."

I didn't feel like I could pursue or process a deeper explanation right now. Besides, the rune was for my protection, which meant that there wasn't any 'going overboard' with it. I didn't want to think too much into it, and just wanted something to drink and something to eat and to sleep.

With great difficulty, I managed to get up and move myself towards the sink. I needed a bath as well, and I also had to clean Steeve, but that could wait until I was done with drinking water.

Author's Note

25f Au ~0300

as it turns out, traumatising people is a good way to make them easier to control. dwarf fortress is right about things once again

sorry for not posting since last year lol

voth's power being affected by the phases of the moon and the season was only added this chapter, but by coincidence (or maybe my subconscious locking in), voth's actions's power levels are roughly consistent with the phases of the moon.

also, don't worry about anya, she'll have some (relatively) good chapters after this one

Chapter 54: Eyes out

I woke up feeling like crap. Usually, my first order of business would be to wipe away any drool from my face and then go back to sleep. However, I had more important priorities, mainly, making sure I knew where I was and that my surroundings were secure.

I was on my hooves almost instantly, before I could even open my eyes. I didn't have to put on my glasses since they were already on my face, though they would help little with all the sleep caked in my eyes. I listened around for a moment and heard only my panicked breathing. I quickly forced open my eyes to make sure I had woken up where I had fallen asleep, in my kitchen.

Though it was incredibly blurry, I saw that I was still in my kitchen, which let me breathe a sigh of relief. There wouldn't be anyone in the house besides myself because I would've heard any door opening. With the important things out of the way, my attention automatically went to less important things such as myself.

The first thing was the light-headedness and momentary loss of control that I suffered from standing up too quickly. I fell to the floor, reduced to lying on my side again. As I recovered, I became aware of how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten anything the last time I was awake, so that wasn't too unexpected. Unfortunately, my body was sore and I was too exhausted to move myself to the fridge at the moment; meaning I’d have to deal with my empty stomach for some time. Sleep wasn't an option since I was too exhausted for even that — what I'd do to get actually refreshing sleep once in my life.

Sleep reminded me of what I did before sleep, which was talking with Voth and...

I looked down at my chest, and just as I remembered, there were the dried bloodstains from when Voth carved a rune into me. I shifted my arms a bit, ignoring how they shook, so I could study its features better. It was a large rough circle with a rectangle in it whose corners touched the circle. The rectangle was divided into four triangles, each of which had three symbols that looked... 'strong' in an animalistic way, and gave the rectangle the feeling of a shield. I didn't think too much into it, knowing it was there for my own good. I'd have to clean the blood off though, and the floor as well where I bled on it — don't want anybody seeing any of that.

I lazed on the floor for a while, observing my surroundings. The kitchen window had its curtain closed, which was nice; and seeing that there was no light at the edges of the curtain, I figured it was night time, which was nicer. Steeve wasn't with me anymore, which sucked and made me feel lonely, but there wasn't anywhere he could go and he was probably at the backdoor, damaging his non-existent brain as he failed to comprehend glass.

After some more time on the floor, long enough for one of my ears to start ringing, I decided that it was time I got up. I forced myself into lying on my stomach first, then took a few short moments of rest before I slowly stood up. My limbs were a bit shaky but it'd be fine in a bit.

I turned my eyes to the fridge, knowing there'd be stuff in there to gorge myself on. I opened it with my magic and was met with the disappointing sight of only milk, butter, cheese, bread, and energy drinks. I had expected other stuff in there but I guess past me hadn't left any leftovers in a while. Stupid pig. To make matters worse, the bread would only last me two sandwiches, which wouldn't even begin to satiate me. But since there wasn't anything else, the bread would have to do.

I took the bread packet out and pulled out the four slices of bread left. Without much thought, I wolfed down all of them within seconds. They were really bland, and I could have cooked them or something, but I just couldn't wait right now. It was then that I remembered I had cheese. I froze for a moment, processing that, before shrugging and turning back to the fridge. I took out two slices of cheese and ate them. I closed the fridge, still hungry and feeling weak.

There might have been other things in the cupboards that I could eat but I had to cook it all before I could. Unfortunately, that would take a lot of time, which required patience that I didn't have. Getting stuff from a store would be quicker — maggi would be better than any blessing any god could give me. That would, however, require me to go outside. Outside where I was most definitely going to be gang stalked by feds.

For at least a minute, I stood in the middle of my kitchen and contemplated if my laziness would outdo my hunger and what the ramifications of that happening were. I then thought about what I'd have outside at this time of the night, which wasn't a lot when I thought about it. As far as I knew, there was only one store that was 24/7 in town, but no places to eat. Even if I went there and bought stuff, I'd still have to cook it and that defeated the purpose of going out. Unfortunately, I couldn't accept that answer despite all the evidence.

I sniffed and looked down at myself. There was still blood on me, and I'd have to get rid of that if I wanted to go outside. Everything was inconvenient and I hated it. Seeing that I'd be staying home, I opened a cupboard to take out some rice. There, I was met with a horrible sight, there was almost no rice left. Seeing the almost empty container made me remember that I had planned to get groceries on Saturday, tomorrow. That annoyed me greatly — like, how do I even manage to force myself into something right after I decided I wouldn't get into it?

"Dumb bitch," I cursed myself as I discarded those plans of going shopping tomorrow. My stomach didn't make it any easier, going so far as to growl at me. I just grumbled some more as I forced my legs to get me out of the kitchen and to the bathroom.

Halfway through the ten steps to the bathroom, I found Steeve, sitting on the floor quietly. He was also stained in my blood, and I'd have to clean him as well. I scooped him up with an, eliciting angry squeaking from him, and took him with me. I'm sure he would clean himself off if given time, but I didn't want anyone to see him with blood on him and ask why that was so.

The bathroom was a welcome place to be in, with the ventilation fan providing background noise and the room having a cool temperature. The tiled floor would've been nice to lie down on, but I had a rowdy bug and myself to keep my mind away from thinking about it too much. I went over to the sink first since Steeve would be easier to clean. I took the hand towel next to the sink in my magic and wet it a bit. Once that was done, I started cleaning off the blood from Steeve; going about it slowly since I didn't want Steeve to try and escape. Steeve, meanwhile, only squeaked at me and wiggled his legs as I slowly brought him back to looking like the white cotton ball of concentrated stupidity he was. Once I was done, I had a dirty towel and a clean bug, who I deposited on the floor and outside the bathroom respectively.

I then went into the shower, going about cleaning the blood from my coat as quickly as I could while being careful about it. Even though the blood was all gone and there were no indicators of me ever having a rune carved onto me, I could still feel the rune when I rubbed my hoof over where the lines were. A slight imperfection that you could only know was there if someone pointed it out, which I wasn't going to. At least I looked semi-normal now.

Unfortunately, my mane and tail got wet in the process of scrubbing, which sucked since getting them dry took time. I snorted and got out of the shower, taking a towel and drying myself off quickly. I didn't bother brushing my mane at the moment, simply patting it down where needed instead. I'd deal with it after I had food. Steeve was outside the door, apparently trying to get back in. I moved him out of the way as I returned to the kitchen to get my saddlebags.

Once I had my stuff, I went to the front door but I didn't leave immediately. Again, the possibility, or rather, the fact that there'd be someone following me scared me, but being scared didn't give me a solution to the problem besides not going out. But my house wasn't some castle I could have a thirty year long siege in, and even if it was, suddenly becoming a shut-in would be suspicious.

My only course of action was to go about my business as I would normally, while also keeping in mind that there are people after me. Not an easy task, and it made me nervous to think about since I would only think of the ways I could slip up. I took a breath and steeled myself for what I had to do.

I opened the door and stepped out, making sure that I locked the door behind me and checking twice. The path was somewhat lit by the more-than-half moon so I didn't have to use horn-light. I walked down the path to the town in silence, thankfully with a cool breeze to accompany me. I could smell rain on the wind. There were a few dark clouds in the sky so I guessed that the rain was coming earlier than planned.

Brush's house came into view and I walked a little faster, pretending I didn't notice it while I sneaked glances at it. The lights were out, but that didn't mean someone could be watching from the windows. A part of me told me I was terrible for doubting my friend like Voth needed me to, while another told me that my anxiety was justified. A third part told me that the argument didn't matter much since I was already leaving; I hated the third part the most since it was stupid and shortsighted — and quite obviously, it was the part that dictated what I did.

I sighed to myself, shifting focus back to my hunger to avoid having to think about other things.

I walked along the path which started having streetlights now. There was definitely more life now than the last time I had been outside at whatever the time was. I saw a few bat ponies occasionally who were going about their business, even some kids playing. Fortunately, they kept to themselves and I could go towards the grocery store unimpeded by mindless conversation or staring.

Except, things could never go right ever because the universe fucking hated my guts. As I turned a corner, I was met with the most terrible sight of Wind's Convenience having no lights on. I didn't believe my eyes at first and walked closer to make sure I wasn't imagining the store being closed. There was a sign saying the store would be closed on Friday and Saturday to stamp out any morsel of misguided hope left in me; hope that I shouldn't have even had. Worse still, if I read the sign right, I had slept through all of Friday. An entire day of work was missed, and my absence must have been suspicious as well. I gulped as I remembered the visions Voth gave me. There wasn’t much I could do besides lying about being sick, which was probably what I’d do today.

There I stood, bereft of nutrition and any way to acquire it in a timely manner. If I weren't out in the open, I'd have crashed out so hard I'd never get up again, but since that wasn't an option, I had to figure something else out.

I walked away from the store, head hanging a bit in disappointment, mind occupied with thinking about alternatives. At first, I thought about going to a different place, but I knew that all the stores were the same in that they were closed right now; then, the only option left to think about was finding some restaurant or something and getting food there. Not perfect, but was the world ever perfect?

I wandered through the streets much like the spirit of some dead lady who had nothing better to do than to wander, except that I was looking for food; I was pretty sure I scared at least one of the few kids outside right now. Normally, I’d be proud of that but hunger told me I could be proud later when it's gone.

Fortunately, fortune smiled on me now. I was in the general area of all the restaurants and cafes in town when I saw a neon sign lit up on an otherwise dull building. I couldn’t see much through the large windows besides some faint light. The sign read “The Cave Bowl” and was above the most bland-looking door ever. I didn’t care and pulled the door open, steeping in.

The inside was dimly lit in the gas-station-bathroom way, and the place was mostly bare as well, save for a few posters of what I assumed to be metal bands. The tables were circular and dotted around the place with no pattern. I couldn’t help but compare the restaurant to the Krusty Krab of all things. To further add to that comparison, a counter was placed on the far side, opposite to the door and a bored looking cashier was there, reading a newspaper.

There were four other people, all at one table to the right side. I ignored them for the time being and went up to the counter. A display hanging from the ceiling gave me their selection and I picked one thing quickly. The restaurant didn’t have a specific type of food that they served, offering a whole range of things.

I got the cashier’s attention and ordered a bowl of ramen since that was the cheapest and most appetising option in the menu as far as I could tell, and a sandwich as well for later.

I sat down at a table tucked away in the corner away from the other occupied table. Said corner was next to the front window, which made me a bit uncomfortable. I kept sneaking glances at it, trying to catch a hopefully non-existent spy.

There was also the group of people in the restaurant to worry about, especially since I seemed to have caught their attention. I tapped my hooves on my table nervously, or maybe they shook by themselves, as I watched them from the corner of my eyes. Three of the four were bat-ponies and the last was a large griffon who seemed to be staring right at me. I couldn't think of any way to deal with that than to pretend he didn't exist. I swivelled one of my ears a bit to hear in on them anyway, just in case.

“...Bro, you really think you have a chance, like…” one of the bat-ponies said before lowering his voice to a whisper to continue. I didn't know what to make of it besides it being a sign that they weren't focused on me.

“It's not even been three days since sis opened this place and there's a damned sun-kisser in here already,” the second bat-pony said in a gruff voice, almost intentionally to prove me wrong. I kept my expression unchanged even though I found it to be rather ironic being called that in my current situation.

“Hey hey, calm down. This ain't Canterlot, you can't just go around calling people stuff,” the last bat-pony said, clearly the voice of common sense in the group. “Besides, this town’s a good place — Princess Luna said so.”

I could imagine that the second was grumbling stuff to himself. I didn’t care since it seemed likely that they weren’t feds like I imagined, at least I hoped so. I was still a bit worried about the griffon since my gut told me he was likely to be trouble.

I stopped my eavesdropping as I saw a waiter come into the main area through a door to the cashier’s side, carrying with him my order. The bowl of noodles looked like the most appetising thing ever, and if I were at home, I’d have left most of my table manners to devour the meal.

There was still lingering anxiety but it had been pushed to the back of my head for later. I could deal with everything else once I wasn’t starving.

Author's Note

26sa Au

it be Wednesday, me dudes

thanks to History Student for also prereading this chapter

New art: #3518276

Chapter 55: Return

Walking into work on Saturday, something I was used to, never really felt great. Sure, I got more money but until relatively recently, most of that money wasn’t really ‘extra’ since it would go into rent and food. Don’t get me wrong — the extra money was nice and all, but it didn’t really make having a one day weekend feel any better like I imagined it would. Not the first time my imagination turns out to be delusion; I just wished it happened less often.

Relatively recently was superseded by recently, however, and I had more reason to not want to be at work today. As I sat at my desk at 9 AM in the morning, still tired and peckish, I wanted to let the intrusive thoughts win and take me home where I was alone and free from the public. Home, where I could be sure in saying that there wasn't anyone keeping watch on me.

But skipping work right now wasn’t an option for me unless I mastered the art of child slavery and became a reclusive CEO in the next ten minutes.

Instead, I could only wait for time to pass, bored and anxious at the same time somehow. I had already shelved all the books returned and there wasn't any task to occupy my mind with. Without anything to keep it distracted, it returned to being suspicious of everyone and everything. As a result, even though I knew that there was nobody and nothing behind me, I kept looking back every minute or so, and around as well, like I was insane. My eyes remained glued to the door for the remainder while my ears swivelled at every noise, imagined or otherwise.

I hadn't seen either Twilight or Spike today, nor heard anything from their place upstairs. They were out for some reason, probably rallying Twilight's friends to come spy on me. My absence yesterday might have clued her in on me being clued in on her task from the princess. If that was the case, I had to throw them off somehow. But the question was how; it was one of the many things I was thinking of.

A low and distant rumble sounded outside, and I could almost feel the cool breeze that accompanied it. It would rain in some time and though I didn't know the forecast, I could guess that it wouldn't be light rain. I really hoped that I could use it as an excuse to go home.

I absent-mindedly ran my right hoof over my chest and held it there as inconspicuously as I could. I couldn't physically feel the rune, just like earlier, but knowing that it was there — carved onto me so it would never leave me and always be there to shield me — made me feel a bit better and safer.

I put down my hoof as I thought I heard noise outside. My eyes and ears locked in at the door as I sat with bated breath.

The door opened and in came Twilight. Along with her was Spike, and her little group of friends. Seeing the latter dug a pit the size of the Mariana trench in my stomach and threw my heart down into it. I grit my teeth and grabbed the edge of my desk as my body tensed while I forced it to look normal. As I had expected, Twilight had got her friends and now they were coming after me—

I took a breath and shook my head. I didn't know for sure if they were going to follow me, and they were definitely not going to do anything like that here in plain view of me. Though my heart and subconscious mind told me I was fucking stupid for expecting rational behaviour from people of all things. I still held onto the thought, perhaps like a fish holds onto bait.

"Good morning, Anya," Twilight greeted me after she whispered something to Spike. Spike beckoned all the others to follow him to the sitting area, leaving us two relatively alone.

"Hello, Twilight," I replied, outwardly neutral.

"Everything's alright?"

"Yes."

She tilted her head at that answer, not satisfied with it. "...Is there something you want to tell me?"

At first, I pretended to think if I had something to say so that I could tell her no again. My eyes wandered over to her friends, some of whom were waiting for Twilight, while a certain one of them was glaring in our general direction. Looking at the glaring one, I realised I had something to say.

"Rainbow is still banned from the library. Tell her to leave," I said, making sure to be loud enough to be heard by the fuckwad in question. In a perfect world, she wouldn't exist in the first place. In a slight less than perfect world, Rainbow would understand what I was saying and leave without argument. But this... was not a perfect world. She stayed planted where she stood, intensifying her glare like it was a death ray that'd kill me with enough power.

Twilight sighed, looking downcast. She looked back up to me and said, "Well, I think we can remove her ban since she has behaved better."

I stared at her with the same neutral expression as before. Did she seriously believe in that?

"How about an exception? Just for today?" she bargained. "Please?"

I grumbled and relented, but not before adding a condition. "...You owe me a second favour now."

Twilight cheered up. "Okay! Thanks."

She returned to her group, trotting happily.

I sighed. I probably wasn't going to cash in any of the favours and it honestly felt pathetic to be counting those, especially for a friend, but I couldn't stop myself. Other doubts still lingered in my head, mainly on her status as a friend, making me feel guilty and terrible. Even with justification for it all, I hated myself.

I sighed again and returned to my routine of listening and looking for anything, now with the added burden of Twilight and her group. I didn't know what they were doing but it did put the thought into my head that I should see if I could hang out with Brush maybe. Probably not today though, not until I could be sure of her. Until then, I was as I had been most of my life, alone.

I glanced over to Twilight's group and saw that they were gathered around a table, all looking at a blueprint. Pinkie was leading the conversation, pointing at the blueprint and gesturing in the air rapidly. They were planning for something and I turned an ear to listen in.

"...but none of them should hear about ANY of this, this welcome party's gonna be the greatest surprise of their lives and I'm counting on you..."

I tuned her out, she was only discussing a party. I still had a pit in my stomach despite knowing that they weren't talking about me. Another low rumble sounded from outside. I didn't think anyone would come to the library today. So, I returned to keeping watch and thinking about how to evade the authorities and catastrophizing about being caught.

I had a thought just then.

Voth could possess me, so, why not have him possess someone else? I knew the process for it was simple, just carving a small rune onto the target; I had done it with Ret, and probably myself — I should get specifics on all that he did to me. If the police or secret service or whatever gets too hot on my trail, Voth could possess the unfortunate person and make them get in the way or take attention away from me.

The only real issue I could see, besides that carving a rune onto someone, was choosing who I'd throw under the bus. My eyes wandered over to Twilight's group as I thought, and they landed on Rainbow Dash. Obviously, it wasn't going to be her — it'd be too suspicious for someone of her status — but I had other, less important enemies that not many people would miss. Morally bad option, maybe, but morals make for downturns and the cost to benefit analysis was lopsided in favour of benefit.

I put the thought in the back of my head to ask Voth about it later, and returned to keeping an eye out. What I would do for a phone and cat videos.

I had to close the library early today since the light shower had evolved into a pretty bad storm in a matter of hours. I was thankful to whoever fucked up in Cloudsdale for my early leave. It was nice having the cool wind on my face instead of the sun glaring down at me at noon and as a bonus, there was nobody outside.

A couple drops were already hitting my glasses as I trotted on my way back home. If I were to guess, the storm would last well into the evening. Perfect weather to get comfortable with a blanket. Food as well, I was reminded by the groceries jostling a bit in my saddlebags.

The air improved as I moved away from the town, becoming less... stuffy with each step. It was freer closer to forest; ironic considering that said forest is a no-go zone. It was probably, and by that I mean definitely, the concentration of trees. Come to think of it, I hadn't really used my inhaler — not that I'm complaining.

Despite that, my breath became strained as I trotted quietly past Brush's house. I didn't know why exactly I felt guilty about just passing by, but it took out the good mood I had managed to scavenge for myself. I was just doomed to be this way.

By the time I reached home, the drizzle had turned to light rain and I had buried whatever guilt I felt from earlier. I left my saddlebags in the kitchen and after a quick detour downstairs to feed the crucible, and another upstairs to get a blanket and pillow, I was in the living room, snuggled up on the carpet in a fluffy blanket nest with the pillow underneath me.

I had opened the backdoor a bit to let the fresh air circulate. The curtains stayed closed meanwhile so the room was dark and cozy. It would be cosier with the fireplace but the weather wasn’t cold enough to use it yet.

Having settled down, I called out to Voth to discuss my idea from earlier and talk some.

Instead of him materialising out of somewhere, my head suddenly felt like it was made of lead and it fell to the pillow. I couldn’t stop myself as all the energy was sucked out of me in moments. My last thought as my eyes closed was a question. Had I locked the door?

I opened my eyes with a quiet gasp. I had brought my head up and was looking around before I had regained my senses enough to make sense of the world around.

I was in the living room still, exactly where I remembered to have fallen asleep. The rain was still going on and it didn’t look like much time had passed. I was beginning to entertain the possibility that I had passed out for no reason when I heard the backdoor slide open fully.

Pushing aside the curtain, Voth stepped in, confirming I was in a dream. The first thing I noticed was that his presence was greatly diminished. It was like looking at a light bulb that had dimmed. He was smaller as well, no longer towering over me. My ears lowered at the sight even though he was healthy.

“What happened?” I asked.

“THE MOON WAXES THE LIGHT GROWS,” he answered as he sat down in front of me. “MY POWER WANES WITH THE LIGHT I AM ANATHEMA TO IT IT IS ALREADY A DISADVANTAGEOUS SEASON AND THE BLUE MOON ONLY COMPOUNDS MY WEAKNESS.”

I understood what he meant. The moon and sun were light and he was weak in it. There was going to be a blue moon in a few days and it probably weakened him more than usual.

“WHAT HAVE YOU TO TALK ABOUT?”

“A few questions, and also an idea.”

His silence was invitation enough for me to explain, “So, you can possess things if they have a rune on them. I was thinking, what if I got you someone else to possess, as a backup plan.”

I got the feeling that he was narrowing his eyes on me. “It’s uh, it’s uh, it can be useful for throwing off anyone after me, like, if the police are too hot on my trail, you can just possess the guy and have them do something to take away attention from me.”

Voth regarded me with… some emotion that felt like intrigue.

“A BOLD CRUEL IDEA,” he noted. “BUT THERE ARE ISSUES WITH IT THE RUNE USED TO POSSESS INFERIOR CREATURES LIKE YOU DIFFER FROM THE ONES USED FOR MERE ANIMALS.”

I nodded, already expecting that.

“FEEL YOUR LEFT ARM FOR A RUNE”

I did as he asked, stretching out my left arm and feeling for a phantom scar. I didn’t remember carving anything there at the behest of Voth, so it was difficult to find. I did find it though, beneath other more physical scars on my wrist. I felt the energy the rune radiated and made a mental image of it. It would have looked like a fucked up stickman surrounded by stars if I drew it on paper and squinted my eyes at it really hard.

“THAT RUNE IS FOR POSSESSION WITH CONSENT OF THE AFFLICTED PARTY THE PONY YOU INHABIT SUBMITTED TO MY COMMAND AND CARVED THAT RUNE ONTO HERSELF

CONSENT IS NOT GIVEN FREELY HOWEVER IF YOU WISH TO ALLOW ME TO POSSESS ANOTHER YOU WILL HAVE TO CARVE A MORE COMPLEX RUNE ONTO THEM AND ENSURE THEY NEVER KNOW

IT IS A DECENT IDEA BUT SETTING IT UP WILL BE DIFFICULT.”

I figured that going about my plan would be hard. People wouldn’t want to have a rune carved onto them, and explaining that the rune would let my boss possess them so that they could sacrifice themselves to a painful death to hide me wouldn’t be particularly convincing.

With that out of the way, I moved onto questions. “I have some other things to ask about.”

“ASK.”

“What are all the things you did to me? Like, I don’t remember anything between my body walking into the forest and me waking up in it.” It was an innocent question, I just wanted to know my limits.

Voth’s eyes narrowed at me and the air turned cold like his gaze. “YOU NEED NOT KNOW THE SPECIFICS ONLY THAT THE PREVIOUS INHABITANT AGREED TO SERVE AND THAT YOU AGREED TO SERVE AS WELL.”

He said it in the same voice as he said everything else but I got the very distinct message that I shouldn’t ask about that stuff. I kept my mouth shut in accordance, letting an awkward silence consume us.

Voth, happy that I wasn’t asking, went back to normal and changed the subject, for which I was all ears. “PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE ON THE SEARCH FOR THE KEY YOUR BEAST RETURNS NOW.”

My ears went up and my tail wagged a bit. It had been almost a week since I last saw that lovable little thing. Even better was the news about Voth’s key. “Ret’s coming back? With the key?”

“YOUR BEAST RETURNS BUT WITHOUT WHAT I WANT.”

Oh. My ears went back to looking normal.

“I FELT THE KEY THROUGH THE ANIMAL IT IS WHERE YOU CLAIMED IT IS BUT THE FORT IS TRAPPED AND GUARDED MY POSSESSION BREAKS IF I GET TOO CLOSE AND YOUR BEAST IS UNABLE TO RETRIEVE THE KEY WITHOUT MY GUIDANCE.”

It was… okay news, but I’d have preferred good news over okay news. At least Ret was alright, and I was correct about where to find it. I lowered my head to the pillow in disappointment still.

“HOWEVER I HAVE MADE IT RETRIEVE OTHER OBJECTS THAT WILL HELP YOU WHEN YOU VENTURE TO RECOVER THE KEY.”

I sat up that news, tilting my head at him. “Other objects?”

“THERE WERE ARTEFACTS AND OBJECTS THAT CAN BE OF USE TO YOU THE ANIMAL RETURNS WITH THEM NOW INSPECT AND MAKE USE OF WHATEVER YOU NEED.”

“Okay, I will. When will Ret be back?”

“I ALREADY SAID THAT IT RETURNS NOW.”

Voth suddenly stretched out an arm towards me, pressing my nose lightly. I went cross eyed at the gesture. Looking back, Voth was gone. The floor then fell out from beneath me without warning and everything turned to black fog.

I woke up with a faceful of pillow in my face. I sat up, readjusting my glasses so that they weren’t digging into my face anymore. They definitely needed a clean but that would wait.

I got up from my blanket pile and walked to the backdoor. It had gotten darker and greyer and the rain was falling harder. There was a bit of water where I had left the door open. I pulled aside the curtain and just like Voth had told me, I saw Ret. He was on the ground, dragging behind him an improvised bag.

I opened the door and picked up Ret and the bag in my magic, setting them on the floor inside quickly.

Almost immediately, I had Ret clambering up my arm, chittering loudly. I got a hold of him and held him close even though he was soaking wet at the moment. It was good to have him back.

After a long minute of being affectionate with Ret, I turned my attention to the bag he got with him. It was more a piece of cloth folded to hold stuff than a bag. I unfolded the cloth to reveal what he had brought.

The first thing that caught my eye was a large dark gem with a purple glow around it that seemed to radiate cold. Besides that one, there were a couple of other, less flashy gems. A little, old, worn book with a leather cover was in the pile of gems. No cover or anything but the leather binding was a bit off-putting, serving as a bookmark. More off-putting was the grey horn attached to the book via a string. An unassuming necklace lay to its side. The last item was a short wooden staff that looked to be broken on one end.

Each item was fascinating in some regard, even when off-putting. I didn’t know how most of it worked so I’ll have to learn a couple of things. I could be occupied for an entire day with these things. Good thing tomorrow was Sunday.

Author's Note

26 sa Au

Chat, I am finishing up/developing some plot points from before and also introducing new ones

I have a discord server now if you want to heckle me or see what else I'm cooking up:

https://discord.com/invite/waTEUXv9Ea

Chapter 56: Aside

It was evening and Princess Luna watched the rain run down the length of the balcony door. She sat on a purple cushion in her room, at a low table. The clouds outside were coloured by the sun, going from red to rust. She’d have opened the door if it weren’t for the direction of the rain.

On the table before her were some documents, an empty teacup, a kettle of tea, and a mug of the greatest concoction that she had ever drunk: coffee. One of the castle’s servants had recommended it to her in her first days back and after that the drink had become like water to her. She always had some whether she was in class learning about the modern world, or in her bedroom like now, waiting for her sister.

The past week had her sister swamped with work and so, they hadn’t been able to convene in the evening as they usually would. Today, she was finally free from work.

There was a familiar knock on the door. Luna turned her head to see her sister walking in, carrying with her a plate of pastry. Not for her, quite obviously; Luna disliked most pastries, finding them too sweet for her taste.

“Good evening, sister. How has your day been?”

“Ah, it’s been fine, Lulu. What about yours?” She took a seat opposite to Luna and poured out some tea for herself.

“My lessons continued as normal. Miss Scribe is quite a good teacher when it comes to history. Nihornese history was quite interesting even though we only glanced over it.” Luna took a sip of her coffee.

Celestia took a sip of her tea and then looked at her with an eyebrow raised and a slight frown. “You know that you shouldn’t be having coffee all the time; it’s not healthy in those quantities.”

“The pot calls the kettle black,” Luna said with a slight grin. Modern sayings were probably one of her favourite lessons by far.

Celestia, who had raised one of her pastries to her mouth, paused at that. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. After a moment of thought, she shrugged and devoured the pastry. Luna snickered at the display.

“Say what you want, sister, but my preferences are simply better than yours,” Celestia stated. To display her conviction in the statement, she stuck out her tongue at her sister. Luna merely rolled her eyes, deciding she would not win the argument if it were started.

Celestia took another sip of tea. Her face shifted to a more serious one. “And what of… her?”

“She has a name,” Luna replied with a snort, frowning a bit. She took another, longer sip. “But to answer your question, Nightmare Moon is progressing quite better, outpacing me as always. T’s a shame I cannot say the same for her progress in trying to be social. She shut herself in her room as usual.”

Celestia hummed, her expression softening up a bit. It was relieving to know no changes had occurred with her. Yet. With that out of the way, she took another sip of her tea, only to find it was all gone. She poured out some more.

“Sister, you visited Ponyville some days back,” Luna piped up, changing the subject to a less contentious one. “How did it go?”

“It was a nice break from my regular duties; not exactly what I had planned, but nice nonetheless. It was meant to be a simple casual visit but it became a bit more elaborate with Pinkie Pie having set up a party.”

“Ah, but Miss Pie must have made up for that with entertainment.”

“Not really,” Celestia said, making Luna raise an eyebrow and tilt her head a little. “I’m not sure but I think Pinkie had something troubling her since I only saw her twice in the party, both times only for a few moments. Both times she looked like she was in pain.”

That didn’t line up at all with the image of Pinkie that Luna had. It seemed downright impossible for a pony like Pinkie to behave like that. “Something ailing her? Surely you jest, sister.”

“I wish.” Celestia stared off into the distance after that, troubled.

Luna set her mug down. “Tia, what’s wrong?”

Celestia looked right at Luna. She sighed and looked down at the table. “Luna, ever since we learnt of the filly, Nemo, I’ve kept a protection spell around myself.”

Luna narrowed her eyes. Her sister, warrior of the light, afraid of a little filly who was at her mercy? It would’ve been unbelievable. But Luna listened on.

“The spell is simple in function — it causes pain to those under the influence of…” Celestia leaned in to whisper, “them when they near me. The closer they get to me the more debilitating the effects.”

“So, you believe that Miss Pie — bearer of the element of laughter — is under the influence of dark powers?” It was a downright preposterous idea to even think of, let alone say out loud. Celestia sighed at her sister’s skepticism, and at herself as well. In hindsight, it was probably a coincidence and nothing more.

“That isn’t all. This happened twice, ponies experiencing pain when I came near. During the party, Fluttershy had taken away Philomena for a while. Twilight sent me to the library while she looked for Philomena. You remember that mare, Anya, right? The one who was there at the castle that day.”

“Yes, I do.” And before Celestia could continue, Luna cut her off with her own concerns, “Sister, methinks you are thinking too much of mere coincidences. Chasing phantoms out of fear.”

Celestia brought her hooves down to the table harshly, rattling the crockery a bit. “You read the same reports that I did. You know what their agents do. I’m justified in my fear!”

Luna winced. “I’m not saying your fear is unjustified.” The reports of the Cloudsdale incident were still terrifying to think about despite her only reading them a month ago. “I’m saying that you’re letting your fear drive you irrational. You should at least get some more evidence before you go after somebody.”

“Luna, Anya left the library right after I left to have tea with Twilight. I had asked Twilight to keep watch on her and yesterday, Anya had not shown up to her work. Do you know what she could have been up to at that time?” Celestia gestured with her hooves wildly as she explained to Luna. She quite obviously referred to all manners of dark arcane rituals with her question at the end. It ruffled Luna's feathers even though she had none.

Luna was tired of what she thought was her sister grasping at straws. She answered Celestia’s rhetorical question, “Sleeping.”

Celestia paused and looked at her sister. “Sleeping?”

“Yes. Sleeping. The entire day.” At her sister’s bewildered silence, Luna sighed and explained, ”In my free time, I’ve been taking up my duties as guardian of dreams even though that title is long defunct. I’ve come across her nightmares and monitored her sleep, and though I cannot reveal much, I can tell you that Anya is not exactly sound of mind, or of physical health. What you are attributing to darker powers can be very simply explained by her poor health. There’s certainly at least one new nightmare beast burrowing in her dreamscape since I last saw her.”

Celestia didn’t say anything. Luna sipped her coffee. The rain provided the only sound in the room for a few short moments.

Luna got up, her mug empty and in need of a refill. “Sister, I say you shouldn’t let yourself lose sleep over this matter. You’ve instructed your student to keep watch and I’m sure Twilight will. I suggest you retire for the night and get some rest.”

Celestia finally spoke, making sense of what Luna said, “Right, yes. I suppose I was being unreasonable.” Luna’s explanation simply made more sense than whatever she had, and with her accepting the explanation, her own lost a lot of its credence and sounded stupid in hindsight. She got up and left the room, wishing her sister a good night. She hadn’t left the issue entirely though and she thought of what she could do, besides asking Twilight to keep an eye on her friends.

Author's Note

prev.

average luna W

Chapter 1: The

I woke up feeling cold.

That was normal. I remembered that the shoebox of an apartment I had rented had very bad heating, and that winter was setting in. While that implied a whole another set of problems, far more dire than it being cold, they weren't here yet. My problem was that it was cold.

I opened my eyes to search for my blanket but found that it was too dark to see.

That was unusual. The streetlights outside should have been putting some light into my room. Were they off? Or did I forget to open my eyes? There were no sounds either. The city never sleeps, it should always be noisy.

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

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

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

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

"YOU ARE MINE YOU WILL FIND THE KEY YOU WILL DELIVER I WILL PUT YOU IN A VESSEL YOU WILL WAKE SOON" it said all of a sudden.

As soon as it was finished, the world around me became black once again. Was I going back to sleep?

A drop of water fell on my forehead.

I was looking up at the grey sky.

A second drop fell to my right eye, only for my glasses to stop it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What was going on?

Confusion slowly took me along with a smudge of dread.

Was this a dream?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...What the hell was going on?

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

First, it took the shape of a tall unicorn with wings. A pegacorn— no, it was stronger. It was an alicorn. Then, it started growing eyes all over itself. All that took a second but I was sure that the sight would stay in my memory forever.

After its transformation was complete, all the eyes on its head focused on me, making me shrink back a bit. My new— no, old— no it was new— my tail went in between my legs and my ears drooped and I shrunk back from it a little.

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

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

"GOOD YOU ARE OBEDIENT YOU WILL SUCCEED IF YOU REMAIN SO" it commented as I trailed behind it. It no longer seemed as scary as it was earlier, but it still felt powerful. We were soon within the forest. I finally came up with a question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even though I had no control over my body the entire walk, I was also able to come up with all the questions that I wanted to ask. Another thing I had figured out was my memories. I had two sets of memories, one of my human life and one of this pony that was my 'vessel' according to the thing.

I, however, was convinced that the vessel was just an alternate universe me. Most of the memories matched up almost perfectly, bar the differences in physical body, the world and natural phenomenon. The human world where I was had no magic or different species but here, it was the opposite, with multiple species/races and magic being commonplace. The places where my memories differed greatly were the most recent ones. The last memory of my human life was me going to sleep. Here, it continued for a bit longer. I had apparently left my 'home' in Manehatten to go live elsewhere with me eventually ending up here. Another important detail was a magical incident a few years back that changed the vessel's gender. Something told me I should be more concerned about that, but I couldn't really care for some reason. It was quite fascinating, comparing two different worlds through my memories, and disappointing to learn that it was much the same.

The thing and I came to a halt.

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

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

"Why can't you come with me?" I asked, slightly distressed as the only anchor I had disappeared.

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

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

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

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

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

I felt like I should have been surprised at the sight of him. I felt like I should treat his sight as normal.

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

Keeping in mind what the thing had said earlier, I replied, "Yes."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had a few moments to process things.

I bought a house.

It might've been cursed or something, judging by how the pegasus wanted to leave so bad, but it was my own.

I had my own house!

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

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

I moved onto the second door and found it to be the entrance to the bathroom. I then made my way to the stairs, and spotted a door on the side of the stairs. I decided to check that afterwards and went upstairs, only to find that none of the steps were of the same size after almost tripping on them. Guess that's reason number one why that guy wanted to leave this place so bad.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I involuntarily grimaced at the sight of the talent mark and didn't waste more time looking at it.

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

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

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

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

The markings on the paper glowed for a bit before the paper burnt up and a dark blob rose from the ashes. It grew in size quickly and was once again an eye-covered alicorn shaped mass.

"YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN ACQUIRING THE DWELLING VERY GOOD THE SYMBOL HAS BEEN BURNT AS WELL MORE GOOD," it praised, making me feel nice. "HAS THERE BEEN DIFFICULTY?"

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

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

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

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

"What pro–", I tried asking but was cut off as the thing jumped at me and tackled me onto the sofa, forcing me onto my back. It deformed from its shape somewhat to hold me down on the sofa as I tried to resist for a second. The dark blob that made up its head deformed and then completely covered mine.

The next second, I became still.

The thing, my boss, was so warm and friendly, I wanted to help it, do what it wanted me to. Information entered my head about how to avoid the void things, protection spells against eldritch leeches, how to avoid temptation that other slime used, and what would happen if I told anyone about this all. I felt light headed, something was being done to me. I didn't resist.

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

It picked me up and put me on the sofa.

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

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

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

"What?"

"I WILL EXPLAIN

YOUR WORLD WAS A LOWER EXISTENCE THAT EXISTS WITHIN MY WORLD SIMILAR TO A TERRARIUM EACH OF THESE LOWER EXISTENCES HAS A GUARDIAN TO PREVENT INTRUSION BY OUTSIDERS

AN ARMY OF GREAT STRENGTH GATHERED AT THE BORDER OF YOUR WORLD AND FOUGHT ITS GUARDIAN ULTIMATELY DESTROYING IT AND MAKING IT DISCHARGE ALL ITS ENERGY

THE DISCHARGE BURNT YOUR WORLD AND DESTROYED IT WHILE DISRUPTING THOSE CLOSE TO IT

I TOOK YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE MOLTEN WRECK OF YOUR PLANET AND PUT YOU INTO A VESSEL I MADE FOR YOU IN THIS WORLD"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a flash, it– no, Voth was gone, leaving me alone in the house. The sound of the rain pattering filled my ears.

I... didn't know what to do.

I was in a different but familiar body, in a different but familiar world, with one task that I had to do. A simple task, if I'm lucky.

I just hope things turn out fine.

Author's Note

the start of a new adventure, and a new-ish life. let's hope our protagonist doesn't turn out bad

3 july 2024: rewritten slightly since Main Character felt flat

Chapter 11: 21 June 2023, The Night Incident pt2 [rewritten]

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

'Should I go in now?'

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

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

'Will she be dangerous?'

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

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

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

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

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

...Princess Celestia!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And do you know why I am here?"

"..."

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

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

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

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

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

'What does it do?'

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

'Why do you need to do that?'

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

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

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

"DISTRACT HER."

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

"What abou–"

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

I didn't give Brush time to reply as I turned back and continued. She listened to my instructions and flew straight to town. I continued till I reached my home.

"Where now?" I asked out loud by accident.

"KEEP MOVING DOWN THE STREET AND GO THROUGH THE FOREST THERE IS A CASTLE WHERE THE NIGHT PRINCESS IS"

I did as Voth said, continuing down the street till I reached the end and faced the forest. I stopped for a moment, hesitating as I looked at the dark trees in front of me. Voth did not like that one bit.

"YOU SHOW HESITATION YOU SHOW FEAR," said Voth in a tone that made his annoyance clear.

My head hurt as he finished, but suddenly, the forest did not seem as scary as it did earlier and I cringed at how I hesitated earlier. I cast a light spell and moved on, stepping past the boundry.

"KEEP GOING FORWARD TILL YOU REACH A RIVER"

'Can't you come into the physical world now that I'm in the forest?'

"THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED THE GUARDIAN MONITORS THE PHYSICAL WORLD MORE CLOSELY EVER SINCE YOUR ENCOUNTER"

'Shame.'

I slowed down to a walk to catch my breath from all the jogging. I could feel the eyes of many things looking at me but I did not feel scared for they were just animals or bugs. I kept going till I came across the river like Voth told me I would. It did not flow very fast and with a single step in it, I could say that it reached halfway up my legs. It was a bit wide, however. I stepped into the cold water, and started crossing the river slowly so that I did not slip.

I was three-quarters of the way through when the water started becoming turbulent. I almost slipped as I hurried to dry land but it was well worth it because as soon as I crossed the river, it turned into something that you could not cross without a bridge. My tail and hair did get wet though and that was rather annoying.

The forest ahead was thicker and I kinda cringed thinking about how my hair would be catching quite a lot of stuff. I kept going despite that, my only respite being an area that had a lot of dead trees and looked pretty creepy but was otherwise okay.

I eventually reached a ravine and on the other side were the ruins of a great castle.

'We are here,' I announced, 'However, there is no bridge.'

"JUMP ACROSS," commanded Voth, "THERE IS A PART WHERE THE DISTANCE IS SHORT ENOUGH."

I looked around for that part and found it. It, however, was still a pretty large jump. A very tiny piece of me told me to go find some other way to get across but the large majority trusted Voth and believed I could jump across.

I took one last look at the gap and then got into position to sprint and jump.

I took a deep breath and broke into a sprint. The gap rapidly approached and just at what I hoped was the right moment, I jumped. It wasn't anything like in the movies where they show it like its cool and easy; it was terrifying. The ground on the other side came closer and closer but I would not be landing on it. I instead hit the wall of the ravine, only my upper body actually reaching the ground. Without caring about how much my chest hurt or how hard it was to breathe, I pulled myself up and away from the ravine.

"GET UP THE PRINCESS IS INSIDE" said Voth. I took another few moments to catch my breath and got back up and started moving again. I didn't have much problem finding an entrance, which was just a huge hole in the wall, and entered the ruins. I was in a dark hallway with only my horn light to show me where I could go. I also picked up some sound. I could not tell what it was but it was coming from down the hallway.

I slowly and easily crept down the hall, making no sound as I moved. The noise I heard became more like a conversation, only that there was only one person speaking. I reached the doorway at the end and peeked to see Nightmare Moon. She looked like she was talking, or rather, bargaining with the air in front of her.

"I have returned now, and you promised me power for when I did!

...

What do you mean you altered the deal?! That isn't fair!

...

I swear if you don't take that back now, I'll KILL you!"

"CAST THE SPELL."

I ignored whatever she was saying and focused on the spell. My horn lit up with bright green magic, making just enough noise for Nightmare Moon to notice. I cast the spell and a small green ball of magic sailed across the air. The alicorn turned to face it but she was too slow and the ball of mgic impacted her left foreleg, doing absolutely nothing and dissipating.

"I WILL RETURN RUN NOW"

I felt Voth leave my mind but that didn't matter. What mattered was that the alicorn had seen me. I tried moving but I felt light headed all of a sudden and found myself in front of the alicorn. Did she teleport me?

I wasn't the one asking questions, though.

"And what do you think you're doing here, eavesdropping on my conversation?" Nightmare Moon asked as she got very close to my face.

"There's... someone else here?" I replied, doing my best to sound oblivious.

"No, there isn't," said Nightmare Moon after a moment of deliberation. She then got out of my face and back to towering over me. "So, you have been sent by Celestia to stop me?" she asked with some mirth, probably at how I, a pathetic little creature in comparison to her, had supposedly been sent by princess Celestia to pick a fight with her.

"N- no, I came here by myself," I answered, technically telling the truth. Nightmare Moon laughed at that answer. Her laugh was a weird one; she sounded like she was both amused and angry, like she was at the end of her rope.

"And what did you —" she looked to the spot of air she was talking to earlier before turning back to me "— hope to accomplish with that pathetic magic blast, other than annoying me?"

I didn't give an answer, hoping that she would see me as stupid instead of working towards a goal.

"Hmph, nothing it seems," she turned and walked a few steps before turning back, looking like a maniac. "Let me tell you something, little pony, when I'm done purging the influence of my sister from this world, everybody will LOVE the night!"

I knew that in the story, Nightmare Moon wanted to make the night last forever and I had doubted that was her goal since said story was almost a thousand years old, but now that I was face to face with Nightmare Moon, I began rethinking my earlier assumption.

"You'll actually stop the sun from being in the sky, like forever?" I asked, just to make sure that I wasn't being dumb.

"YES! And it will be glorious!" she answered full of confidence.

A dumb person might have laughed at that or called her stupid, and then be instantly obliterated but I was not that dumb. I knew that I should probably try to stop her since I kinda lived on this planet and didn't want to die, at least before I get Voth the thing he wants. I didn't have Voth to help me out, nor did I possess any fighting skills other than going ape on the enemy but I doubt that would work here. Running away was out of the question as well. I thought about what to do and then it came to me. I could potentially talk to her and calm her down. As crazy as that sounded, I might be able to since I had prior experience in doing the whole 'calm down crazy people' and I could try it now.

"I don't think that's a good idea, or even necessary," I began. Almost immediately, Nightmare Moon sent a death glare my way but I continued anyway since it was too late to turn back. "I mean, like, you wanted people to love the night, right?"

"Where are you trying to go with this?" asked Nightmare Moon angrily.

"Well, there's like a lot of people who like the night," I stated, ignoring her question.

"If that is so, then tell me why those ponies in the town were terrified of me?", Nightmare Moon asked as if she didn't just zap onto a stage in front of a crowd of easily scared ponies and declare that their beloved princess was gone forever and that it would be night forever like a stereotypical villain.

"It's on you really, you came in like a big smoke thing and then did things that scared them all, like just declaring that their princess is gone forever."

"So, you're saying that I should have just stayed away and wallowed in my night all by myself and let Celestia get all the adoration of our- no, my subjects?"

I had backed myself into a corner and had to come up with something quick.

"Well, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that maybe you should try to make yourself seem better in their eyes since they've had her for the last thousand years, and a thousand years is enough time to make a bias."

"I will be the one DECIDING if I want to look good or not, little pony. I will not be taking your 'suggestions'."

I had to hold back from saying 'well, go fuck yourself then' and make an actual response to that. Fortunately for me, I heard the familiar voice of Voth in my head.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY DID YOU NOT RUN?" Voth asked, clearly stressed and angry.

'Couldn't run, she saw me instantly. Could you help me talk her out of putting the moon in the sky permanently?' I answered, trying to look like I was thinking on the outside.

"SHE IS STILL UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HER DEALER AND IS ACTING IRRATIONAL AS A RESULT TALKING HER OUT OF IT WILL BE HARD"

'I can't do anything else.'

"... TRY TO PROVOKE HER INTO THINKING OF THE RAMIFICATIONS OF STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION BUT DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE OF PEOPLE SHE IS FANATICAL ABOUT STOPPING THE PLANET'S ROTATION SINCE SHE BELIEVES THAT SHE WILL RECIEVE POSITIVE ATTENTION FOR IT I WILL DEAL WITH THINGS ON MY END"

"Okay, let's not talk about the emotional stuff and instead, we can discuss the impacts of stopping the planet's rotation," I said to Nightmare Moon, who looked more annoyed than angry at this point.

"I have told you already, I will not be taking suggestions from a sun-loving fool like you."

"Well, you sent Princess Celestia to wherever and I guess that I'm now your subject since you're the new ruler, and it's not that I'm biased against the night or something," I continued, getting her attention.

"What do you want to say?"

"Okay, so, I don't think you've kept up with modern scientific discoveries but I'm sure you know that plants only grow in the sunlight. Well, those plants can't really grow under the moon's light and that would not be great for your future subjects," I said, addressing the easiest to understand problem. Nightmare Moon, thankfully, did not look like she was about to blow me to bits, and actually looked taken aback at that.

"W– well, I'll have my mages create new plants that grow under the moonlight!" she answered. It was impossible not to compare the answer to some idiot kid on the playground say 'well actually, I have an everything shield'.

"Second point, the sun gives off heat that keeps the temperature on this planet livable for us. If that gets stuck to one side of the planet, this side will probably freeze.

Like imagine that you do the whole 'make it night forever'. Your subjects, both those who love you or hate you, will die. Do you want that to happen?", I continued, ignoring her 'solution' and moving onto more side effects of forever night along with some emotional stuff mixed in.

Nightmare Moon had gone from mildly intrigued to looking like she was having a very rude revelation. She was clearly trying to make an argument to disprove but she knew that I was right. It looked like I was winning.

"Do I look FOOLISH enough to believe your LIES?!", she shouted back angrily all of a sudden, a stark contrast to her expression earlier.

"HER DEALER IS INFLUENCING HER THOUGHTS EVEN MORE I WILL BE BACK AFTER I AM DONE KILLING IT DO NOT DIE", Voth announced before leaving me again.

"Look, I understand somewhat that you don't want to accept that but even if you don't, you'll still have people who will hate you and call you a monster for forcing the night on them."

"I'll purge them all!"

"But then you'll just be a bad person."

"Gahh! Shut up!"

I felt magic around my neck and before I could do anything, I was being choked midair as Nightmare Moon came close to me and shouted with tears forming in her eyes, "I'm not a bad pony! I just want the LOVE that SHE always got! All the APPRECIATION that I DESERVE! I won't be DENI-"

She stopped as she did a double take at me being held up in the air by her magic and getting choked. She dropped me and looked horrified. I lay on the floor, coughing and trying to catch my breath.

"I HAVE KILLED THE THING," I heard Voth say as he returned. "FINISH THIS TALK."

As angry as I was from being choked, I had to finish this whole thing. I looked over to Nightmare Moon who had sat down and was looking at her hooves with a horrified expression. Tears were running down her face and she looked pretty miserable. Voth seemed to have done most of the work for me.

"I'm a horrible pony, a monster," Nightmare Moon said to no one in particular.

"You're misguided, not any of that," I said, making her give me a bewildered look. "If you go back and apologize or something, they'll probably forgi-"

A bolt of purple magic sailed through the air and hit Nightmare Moon in the back, sending her sprawling to the ground. I looked to where it had come from and saw Twilight and the five ponies we had to talk to earlier.

"Anya! We're gonna save you!" I heard Rainbow shout as she flew straight to me. She couldn't reach me, however, as a red blast of magic hit her and threw here back into the other ponies. Nightmare Moon had got back up and she looked furious.

"You did all this, just to waste my time!", she said to me, absolutely filled with anger. I don't know what caused her to come to that conclusion or to have such a reaction but I had to either calm her down or run.

"No! I neve-", I tried arguing only to be cut off by a purple beam of magic hitting the spot between us two.

"Anya! Run!" shouted Twilight.

I didn't run and tried to say something but I was stopped by Voth coming back and saying, "THE DEALER HAS POSSESSED HER YOU HAVE TO LEAVE IT IS GO–"

Voth's voice was cut off. It was too late to run now. I was picked up by my neck once more and could only watch as Nightmare Moon transformed. Her eyes turned black and her flowing mane and tail seemed to become a black fire.

"YoU WiLl ReGReT ThIs!", she shouted in a voice that was familiar to me. A shield formed around me and I was dropped into a bubble prison.

"Girls, distract her!" Twilight ordered as she ran to some weird sculpture thing with stone orbs. I wanted to shout at them to stop fighting but it was too late. Nightmare Moon was possessed by whatever the hell her dealer was and I was stuck in a bubble a bit too small to hold me.

Four of the five ponies charged at Nightmare Moon without any apparent strategy and as expected, they were shot at with blasts of nasty looking magic. Fortunately, they dodged or found cover, and continued their attack. Rainbow flew above the possessed alicorn and dived, hitting her on the head. It was to no avail, and Rainbow found herself being thrown away. Applejack charged at Nightmare Moon next and was thrown away just like Rainbow.

"I dO NoT hAvE TiME fOr ThiS," said the THING that possessed Nightmare Moon, annoyed at ponies' attempts to stop them. She charged her horn and shot a beam towards Twilight. Twilight didn't dodge in time and disappeared along with the orbs she was fiddling with. She then teleported both herself and me.

We reappeared in some far away part of the castle ruins. Some distance away was Twilight who was looking around to see where she was. The THING stood on a raised platform with the orbs on the floor around her and me in the prison bubble behind her.

"You'll never win! The night cannot replace the day!" Twilight declared. The THING simply laughed.

"I dO NoT CARE fOr WhEtHEr It iS DaY oR niGhT, aLl I nEeD Is ThIs pLaNEt To DIE," the THING said, catching both me and Twilight off guard.

"What?" Twilight asked.

"ThIS PonY, NigHTmArE MoOn, is BuT a TOOL FoR ME tO EnD aLl RESISTANCE On ThIs PlAneT AnD CoNSuME iT's POWER," the THING continued, explaining its motive.

Twilight seemed horrified at that revelation but steeled herself and charged.

"W- well, you're not going to win!", she shouted as she charged up her horn and charged at the THING like an absolute idiot. The THING smiled, revealing a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and charged at her. Just before they collided, Twilight cast a spell and teleported to where the orbs were. She desperately tried to do something with those orbs and did not notice the THING sneak up to her.

"ThE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY ArE GONE! I DeStrOyed ThEM AlL tHoSe YeARs aGo WheN tHe PrIncESs oF ThE SuN BaNIshEd heR sIsTer. It iS OVER fOr YoU!" The THING said, followed by it rearing up to presumably crush Twilight under its hooves. Twilight jumped out of the way, fortunately, but when the THING stomped, it released a shockwave that broke the orbs that were presumably the elements of harmony that would be used to defeat the THING.

Twilight looked devastated at that and honestly, I didn't feel great when I saw that. The THING seemed to be filled with joy and it transformed even more. It's wings grew larger, it's legs longer and thinner, and it's jaw unhinged revealing its terrible teeth.

"YoUr TuRN, NoW," it said as it looked to me. Despite the fear blocks Voth had placed on me, I felt terrified. The bubble around me started to fade away as the THING approached, opening its mouth wider to maul me. Twilight saw this and shot a magical blast at the THING's head, annoying it. It turned to Twilight, scaring her even more. I would have run but the bubble was still there.

"WeLl, It LoOks LiKe YoU'Re MoRe EAGER tO DIE!" it said before lunging at her. Twilight teleported away to a door at the far end of the hall we were in. The door opened behind her and the five ponies came in. She looked at them and turned back to the THING that was now crawling to the six like a really fucked up spider thing.

"You were wrong, monster! The elements aren't gone!" Twilight said confidently as the wind started to pick up.

"YoUr DeLUsIoNs WiLl NoT SaVE yOu!"

"That's where you're wrong. The spirits of the elements are right here!"

A white light started forming around the six, making the THING pause for a moment. Twilight continued her speech.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty! Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... kindness! Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... laughter! Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... generosity! And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty! The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."

"YoU ARe StiLl INCOMPLETE!"

"Oh, no, we're not incomplete, because there is a spark in us all that makes us, us. The spark of... magic!"

The white light around them grew in intensity along with the wind. The THING lunged for Twilight but was violently thrown back, making it hit my bubble, which was basically a wall since it didn't move.

A rainbow coloured beam shot out from the white light and raced towards the THING. It tried to get out of the way but it was too slow. The beam hit it and it let out a demonic screech of pain and agony. I had to turn my eyes away because of how bright it was.

There was a flash of orange, and I was suddenly pressed to the side of my bubble by some force, and the bubble was now covered in cracks and holes. I could only watch as a free-standing wall approached me with rapidly increasing speed.

I was falling. Very fast.

Was this the end?

Author's Note

the infamus peanits blast

Chapter 24: Two ponies work in a library and talk sometimes

Twilight woke up feeling well rested. She got out of her bed quietly as Spike was still asleep and she stretched a bit. She took a look at the alarm clock next to her bed and found that its hands weren't moving. That was strange. She pulled back the curtains of the bedroom window, expecting it to just before sunrise. She was rudely surprised by the sun being up in the sky and the streets down below being crowded as they would be on Monday morning.

It took her a second to realise that she had woken up late.

She rushed to the bathroom to wash her face and make herself look presentable, waking up Spike in the process.

"What's the big deal?" Spike asked crankily and sleepily as he turned in his bed, ready to go back to sleep.

"I'm late!" Twilight answered, not seeing that Spike had already fallen asleep.

Twilight entered her bathroom and quickly washed her face and dried it. She didn't bother with brushing her mane and just used magic to make it look presentable. She'd have to be back in ten minutes to properly brush her mane. She made her way to the door to the stairs and opened it, the quiet in her home being replaced by the quiet murmur of a class.

Today was the day when the teacher, miss Cheerilee, got her class to pick out books for a project and Twilight had totally forgotten. This was foolish on her part, she noted with distress as she made her way down the stairs. The teacher and her class were around the central sitting area, listening to the teacher about what sort of books they should pick for the project and other details and whatever.

Twilight was more interested in coming up with a reason as to why she was late despite her quite literally living where she worked. The reason, that started feeling more like an excuse after Twilight realised there was nothing to blame but her lack of responsibility, had to be good for her weird colleague and grumpy boss, Anya, and with how their last interaction had gone on Saturday, Anya was more likely going to be the grumpy boss and not the weird colleague.

Speaking of Anya, she was sitting at the front desk like she did most of the time. She also looked quite tired and was a lot more slouched than she would be normally. Ignoring how her boss looked, Twilight approached the front desk.

Anya didn't react like Twilight expected. In fact, she didn't react at all besides a simple raised hoof in what was probably a wave.

"I'm sorry that I'm late," Twilight started, her voice full of guilt, "It was my own fault."

"Cool," Anya whispered in response instead of the angry reprimanding Twilight expected. Take wa a bit taken aback by the casual response but then she noticed that Anya was struggling to breathe and was shaking a little bit.

"Are you fine?" Twilight asked, concerned now that she was sure that Anya won't be calling her stuff.

Anya opened her mouth to respond but started coughing really hard instead, and looked as though she was going to hack her lungs out. After she stopped coughing and steadied herself, Anya said, her voice slightly above a whisper but dripping with sarcasm, "I'm doing fucking great, can't wait to cough my useless piece of shit lungs out onto the floor."

Twilight probably would have said something about how she had cussed, especially when there were foals nearby, but didn't since she didn't want to worsen Anya's already clearly bad day.

"You know, I think that you should leave and go rest since you aren't doing too great," Twilight suggested, looking eager to help. "I can handle things here."

"You look like shit as well, as if you got out of bed a minute ago," Anya responded, meeting Twilight's kindness with grumpiness, much to Twilight's shock. Twilight would have said something mean back but Anya was right. Twilight knew that she looked terrible and that she had gotten out of bed less than five minutes ago. Anya then added, "Go make yourself look decent and then come back."

Twilight grumbled and turned to go back upstairs and make herself presentable.

"And be careful with the book," Twilight said to the two unicorn colts who she had helped with finding the book they'll be using for their project.

The colts joined the rest of the foals in reading their books. They'd be leaving in sometime with their books, making Twilight secretly wish that Cheerilee hadn't given them such a project. Twilight loved books and she knew that more than a few of the books that had been taken would be returned damaged, and that fact hurt her.

She cleared her head from the images of book harm she had imagined and made her way to the front desk to see how Anya was doing, and maybe strike a friendly conversation with her.

Anya was at her desk, looking tired and still coughing every now and then. It would have been better for her if she just went home and rested but alas, she was too stubborn to do that.

"Hey, Anya," Twilight began as she say down next to Anya, "How are you feeling right now?"

"I think I want to cave my skull in," Anya answered with a sigh, as if self-harm were a trivial matter. "Or maybe I want some sleep. Either way is fine since I don't have to be awake."

"Anya, you can't just say things like that!" Twilight responded, shocked at how casually Anya said that she wanted to hurt herself.

"Okay, cool, you can go now," Anya responded with a cough. Twilight suddenly understood that Anya was trying to stop her from making conversation.

"Go where?" Twilight asked as she controlled her frustration. "I know you're trying to avoid talking to me but I just want a friendly conversation."

Anya looked annoyed at how Twilight wouldn't leave her alone. She leaned back in her chair and asked with a sigh, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I-" Twilight began only to realise she didn't know what to talk about. She quickly thought of something and said, "How did you get your cough? You looked fine on Saturday."

Anya turned to face Twilight. Twilight watched as Anya formed an answer in her head and how still she was as she did that. Ponies would normally have some body movement but Anya just didn't. No flick of the tail, no ear movement, and her face seemed to have no emotion on it. How had Twilight not noticed the strangeness as much?

"So, yesterday morning, I found a badly injured kid in the forest and brought them to the hospital, I'm sure you heard about that," Anya started. Twilight did know since she had heard from various ponies about how Anya had saved a filly from bleeding out. Anya continued, "And getting her to the hospital had a lot of running involved and to put it simply, I'm not built for that kind of physical exertion and now I suffer the consequences of that."

"You did save a life though."

"Never said I regretted that. Just hate how weak my lungs are."

Twilight was going to continue, happy to see how easy it was to get Anya to talk. Unfortuantely, she was interrupted by the class suddenly appearing at the desk.

"I'll talk later. Got work to do," Anya said as she turned to check out the books that the class had.

Twilight was disappointed that their talk was cut short but happy to have had it nonetheless. Perhaps she could learn something about friendship from the talk and write back to princess Celestia about it.

Dear princess Celestia,

It has been an eventful week here in Pontville and I'm happy to say that I've learnt something about friendship. Sometimes, somepony might not warm up to you due to your or their actions but so it takes is some communication to fix things up. I learnt this after a somewhat short but rather pleasant talk with somepony I had a strained relation with, but now that we've talked, I think we can become friends.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note

3m jL

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Chapter 44: Light Hearted Chapter Where Nothing Goes Wrong And Nobody Gets A Fireball To Their Face

The mood in the room was jovial.

Seven ponies were gathered, all dressed up and waiting excitedly for the fashion show that was starting in half an hour. They chatted and fantasised about the crowd outside being stopped in their tracks by how beautiful and stunning they looked. Not all of them were friends when they entered the room, but it was sure that they'd be leaving like friends.

One could have described the scene as beautiful.

One could not describe most of the dresses they wore with similar language.

Bon Bon had taken Rarity's offer of participating in the show because she had felt sympathy for her plight... and also because of the offer for free dresses but that was a 'small' secondary factor. However, she did appreciate not having to pay the three thousand bits it cost for the two outfits.

Her outfit was simple and not overly flashy, much like her. She wore a plain white shirt, a light green suit coat, and a matching light green skirt. The coat had golden accents and buttons, while the skirt had golden floral patterned embroidery at its edges. It might have been unconventional but Lyra loved it and that was quite enough for Bon Bon.

Next to her, Lyra sat, almost shaking in excitement and chatting joyfully. She had taken up Rarity's offer right after Bon Bon was done explaining it to her. She didn't care about the free dresses as much as she cared about getting to be in a fashion show — it was a dream she had since she was a little filly. In fact, all the mares in the room had dreamt about being models, even Bon Bon. Hence all the excitement.

Lyra wore a much less simpler dress than Bon Bon. It was a gown but that was light yellow and white and it looked quite fancy with its golden embroidery that looked reminiscent of musical notes. She wore a little golden tiara and yellow shoes as well.

Together, they were currently the only mares in the room with dresses that could be described as beautiful.

In front of them were the five other mares in the room, sitting on two sofas in an arc facing them. The leftmost of the five from Bon Bon's view was Fluttershy. She had actually talked quite a bit despite her introversion and propensity for staying silent, and it was nice to hear her.

Her dress wasn't particularly bad to look at, but it wasn't good to look at either. It was definitely the closest to normal looking of the five. Her gown was green with a really out of place floral polka dot pattern on it. Then, there was the flower shaped necklace thing she was wearing that seemed like something a clown might wear, and her shoes that looked like they were made of grass. That was all okay-ish but what really ruined it was the fake nest she wore as a hat. Why she had that idea, no-one could fathom.

Next to Fluttershy was Twilight, and her dress made it absolutely clear that despite all her knowledge, she could be dumb.

Her dress was more of a cloak that was more like a representation of the night sky, especially with all the accurate constellations on the dark purple cloth. It looked like something a nerdy kid might use as a blanket, or a dress that a teacher might use to teach their students about the constellations. The 'tiara' that Twilight wore looked downright hilarious with all the stars on springs it had. The only redeeming feature of the 'dress' was that the bows looked pretty, but there were only two of them.

Rainbow, who sat next to Twilight, boating about her looks, had a dress that was just as bad but in a different manner.

If someone had told Bon Bon that a neighpoleonic era soldier — a hussar probably — had dressed like that, she would have believed it. Her dress literally had a helmet as part of it, and her gown was just a big red piece of cloth with her cutie mark embroidered on it as if it was a regiment flag, and her shoes were closer to the things that the royal guard wore than something that would be acceptable for the gala. All of it was either gold or rainbow-coloured, of course, because one cannot have too many rainbows when they're Rainbow Dash.

Then, there was Applejack, guffawing at Rainbow's boasting before boasting herself, completely ignoring the fact that she wore the worst outfit of the five.

Bon Bon couldn't decide what she disliked the most about it. Maybe it was the goofy looking yellow all-race galoshes, maybe it was the 'gown' that looked like something a stereotypical hillbilly would wear, or maybe the tacky hat that looked like it came out of a western comedy. Maybe it was the combination of the three that did it. Whatever it was, it was going to be unpopular on stage, and it made it abundantly clear why Rarity wanted more ponies in the show.

Lastly, there was Pinkie, eating a bar of chocolate she pulled from her mane. Her dress seemed alright but that was probably because of it being juxtaposed next to the other bad dresses. It would have looked decent — even though the gown looked like sending between a paper fan and a tutu, and the boots had comically oversized bows — but Pinkie had ruined it by having actual balloons tied to her tail and a cupcake hat on her head.

If it weren't for her continuous spying and snooping, Bon Bon would've thought that the five were trying to sabotage Rarity. At least, her and Lyra being there in proper dresses would make the fashion show go better for the fashionista.

Speaking of her, where was she?

"Hey, guys, do you know what Rarity is up to? The show is going to start in thirty minutes," Bon Bon said to the group, pausing all the conversation that was going on.

"I dunno, probably making some final checks. You know how she gets with the details," Rainbow answered with a shrug. It was a plausible explanation — Rarity had to make sure that the stage outside the boutique was set up and that the music and lighting was done as well.

"Ooo, what if she's getting another pony for the show!" Pinkie exclaimed all of a sudden, somehow eating her bar of chocolate in less that a second. That was also a plausible explanation — Rarity wouldn't want to let her fashion show be a disaster after all. Though, who would it be?

"Oh come on, we seven are good enough! She won't need more ponies, especially when I'm around," Rainbow boasted. Bon Bon glanced towards Lyra to see if she had pursed lips like her. Lyra didn't, but Bon Bon could tell that she was also questioning Rainbow's confidence like her, only that she did it in her head.

"Ah wouldn't be so sure 'bout that, 'specially when Ah'm 'round," Applejack responded to Rainbow's claim. The irony could have materialised as actual iron.

"Nah, I'm sure, AJ. My dress rocks and you're just jealous."

"Not much ta be jealous o' when ye look like ye jumped out a lil' filly's colouring book."

There was much laughter at that, and even Bon Bon giggled a bit. Rainbow fumed for a moment before joining in as well. Even though their dresses were bad and that the mixed response to the show was inevitable, they could still enjoy themselves.

The door opened and in came Rarity, looking quite pleased about something.

"Hey Rarity, where have you been?" Twilight asked her.

"Oh, I was just finalising a few things, who knew that hosting a fashion show is hard even at such a small scale," she answered with a hoof wave. Then, she turned her head to face someone on the other side of the door. "Come on in, dear, there's no need to be nervous — you look quite stunning in that outfit."

Everyone in the room had heard that. Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. Who was Rarity talkin– The answer came before she could even ask herself the question — there had only been one other pony that Rarity had invited into the show.

Lyra was the only other pony who had an idea about who Rarity was talking to, thanks to Bon Bon telling her earlier. Everyone but the two of them were curious about who was coming in. Bon Bon was curious about what compelled Anya to take up Rarity's offer, and to a lesser extent, what Rarity had come up with for Anya's dress; her colour palette was not exactly a good one.

Rarity moved out of the doorway, letting in the eighth and last pony in the show.

Anya walked in, her ears pinned against her head and her gait unconfident. Her eyes stayed looking at the ground to avoid eye contact and her cheeks were red under her fur. She wore a navy blue gown with long sleeves and golden embroidery along its edges. On top of that, she wore a white vest with a red bow. A similar red bow was there at the end of her braided mane. She didn't have her glasses on.

'Not the worst thing I've done,' she kept thinking to herself as she walked into the room. The silence only made it worse since she perceived it as the silence of a crowd right before they burst into mocking laughter, and of course, without her glasses she couldn't tell what their expressions were, which only made her more nervous.

"Take a seat dear, there's still about half an hour till the show," Rarity prompted her as she took a seat next to Fluttershy. Anya nodded and made a beeline for the only other seat in the room, which was next to Bon Bon. The entire time, the room remained silent. Then, to add to her embarrassment, she accidentally bumped into the low table in between the sofas. She quickly and quietly settled into the empty seat, feeling the eyes of everyone on her even though she could barely make them out in her blurry vision. She already regretted listening to Rarity's suggestion of leaving the glasses off for the show, but she had already committed to it and couldn't turn back now.

Some moments of painfully awkward silence passed.

"Shouldn't you be in hospital?" Rainbow asked insensitively.

"Rainbow!" Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight shouted.

"What? You can see that she has a limp," Rainbow pointed out in her defence, which only made Anya more self-conscious. It might not have been the hardest thing she had done but she already regretted getting into the show. Getting sandpaper and carving gems seemed easier in her head (it wasn't easier in actuality).

"Besides, the show already has enough ponies," Rainbow added. She was wrong and biased in that claim, and even though Anya knew that, she couldn't help but feel a bit bad. She didn't express it with anything but a sight frown.

"Rainbow, you apologise to Anya this instant! I offered her this spot and she graciously accepted," Rarity scolded her, to which Rainbow grumbled. In return, she got a glare from Rarity.

"Sorry," she forced out, not wanting to invoke Rarity's wrath.

"Okay," Anya replied, knowing that the apology wasn't genuine — she didn't want to ruin the mood further by making a huge problem out of it. She looked away from the blue blur that was Rainbow and chose to focus on the table in front of her.

She sighed. The whole thing had been a lot less 'fun' than what she had imagined, and it didn't seem like it would get better. She kept a neutral face as she coped by reminding herself the one truth she knew about life: that it was going to be mostly disappointing for her.

Bon Bon noticed that Anya was not having a great time. While she did approve of Rainbow's words, she found Anya's response unexpected. A dark mage would have, at the very least, started an argument — it was in their nature to do so. While it made some questions in her head, it also gave her an opportunity.

She put a hoof on Anya's shoulder, making her turn to face her. She smiled and gave a small nod, appearing to be reassuring even when she wasn't. Anya, as she had expected, believed that Bon Bon was just being nice to her and it improved her mood somewhat. At least she wasn't intruding.

It was weird for Bon Bon. Three weeks ago, they had almost killed each other but here she was, being nice to her– no, she was pretending to be nice, and there should be no doubt that Anya was doing the same.

There was a small amount of doubt in Bon Bon's mind.

"Hey, Anya, want some chocolate?" Pinkie called out, making Anya face her. It was easy since it was hard to miss the pink blur waving at her.

"Uh, sure," Anya replied.

"Alrighty, catch!"

Anya only had a moment's warning before Pinkie tossed a small bar of chocolate towards her. Where she got it from, nobody knew, but where it was going was clearly Anya's face. It took her a moment to make out the blur rapidly approaching her face, and in the next moment, she had her hooves up. She caught it just in front of her face.

"Nice catch!"

"Pinkie, ya shouldn' be throwin' stuff around," Applejack said to her, to which Pinkie stuck out her tongue at her.

Anya brought the chocolate close to her face to properly inspect it. Even at ten centimetres, she couldn't make out anything but the name of the bar — 'Coltbury'. She didn't open it immediately though since she felt like everyone was staring at her.

"Even though it's unexpected, it's nice seeing you here, Anya," Twilight said. "And you look very pretty in that dress."

Anya looked down bashfully and whispered, "Thanks."

She looked back up and seemed to inspect Twilight. "I... I can't really see you very well but I think you look... good as well."

Anya knew that Twilight didn't look good since Rarity had been kind enough to spend at least a quarter of an hour talking about it while she was making her dress. Of course, she didn't mention that since Rarity had told her not to.

"Anya, did you also get a ticket to the gala?" Lyra asked, her ears raised in excitement.

"No."

"Oh," all the excitement had disappeared from her voice. Then, it came back as she said, "Well, you're definitely going to be the star of the show tonight."

"Nah, that's gonna be me," Rainbow butted in with a raised hoof.

"Okay," Anya responded. She was happy with not being in the spotlight, which was kinda stupid since she's going in a fashion show of all thing. She noted that she should plan things out more often instead of just making up plans as she goes.

"What if you did get a ticket? Would you like to go to the gala?" Lyra continued, ignoring Rainbow.

"No."

"Why? It's the greatest party in the entire country– no, the entire world!"

"Source?"

"What?"

Anya seemed to stare off into space for a second while looking slightly troubled, which Bon Bon noted for its weirdness.

"I mean, you might find it pleasant, but I doubt I can say that for myself," Anya said, not elaborating on her earlier one word question that only she knew the meaning of. Bon Bon might have pressed her to know what exactly she meant by that but didn't since Twilight started talking.

"Say, have you been doing any magic, or anything interesting?" Twilight asked after a lull in the conversation.

"No, not much. Just chilling."

"So, doing witchcraft?" Rainbow butted in.

Nobody had a chance to tell her to keep quiet or send a glare her way since Anya was quick to answer very dryly, "No, I do not know how to do that."

There was a pause.

"Yet."

Bon Bon snorted, while the others either giggled or rolled their eyes; Anya sure had a sense of humour.

Rainbow, meanwhile, did not like that answer very much. She crossed her arms and said, "Oh, so what do you know how to do, huh?"

"Biomancy, fireball, horn light, and your mother, to name a few things," Anya listed, counting on her hoof while doing her hardest to maintain a disinterested voice, especially around the last part.

Lyra burst out laughing at that. And so did Applejack, followed by Pinkie and even Twilight. Fluttershy giggled and so did Rarity. Even Bon Bon had to admit that that response was funny even though it was the staple of a pre-teen's humour. Rainbow, meanwhile, was fuming as she did not find the joke to be funny.

"Can't you make an actually funny joke; 'your mother' jokes are so old and overused," Rainbow stated, thinking that it'll make the joke not funny.

"Just like yo mama," Anya added without even thinking before she began snickering. Everyone else, even Bon Bon, laughed some more, and Rainbow was flabbergasted before she decided not to make a fool out of herself again and opted to return to fuming silently.

Eventually, the laughter died down and the mood was jovial once again.

"Heh, y'er pretty fun," Applejack noted. "Nice dress too, Rarity ya really did do good on that."

"Oh, thank you Applejack, but Anya also played an important role in making the dress," Rarity said, half-deflecting the compliment.

"Not really, you did all the work," Anya replied, deflecting the compliment entirely.

"But I wouldn't have recieved inspiration if you didn't tell me about your favourite outfit."

"Ooo, you have a favourite outfit?" Pinkie said immediately, making Anya turn to face her. "You have to tell me about it!"

"Uh," Anya thought about it for a bit. It certainly wouldn't do her any harm to tell them, but did she really want to? Eventually, she figured that she could tell them.

"Okay, so," Anya took a breath as she figured out what to say. "My favourite outfit was sort of simple. A blue greatcoat with a colour like my dress right now, a long-sleeve white shirt, some thick grey pants, a set of socks and boots, and a winter cap, the kind that has flaps. That was about it."

"Ooo, that's pretty interesting," Pinkie said, her voice as if she had listened to the most interesting thing in the world.

"Where would even wear that?" Rainbow asked. She was going to answer her question with 'homeless camp' but Anya answered quick.

"Work," she said. Only Bon Bon has a clue about what that was.

"Work? Like, a uniform?" Rarity asked, having only heard what the outfit was and not the history behind it.

"Well, the shirt was the only piece of my uniform," Anya answered, remembering one of her previous job in the pony world and how it was similar to the job she had in the human world last.

"Well, what did you do?" Lyra asked.

Anya once again considered if she should elaborate or lie. She decided to go with elaborate since there was time to kill, and the thing was something that they might have found cool.

"My job was hauling–” she began, only to be interrupted almost immediately by none other than Rainbow Dash.

"You? Hauling? Do pigs fly as well?" Rainbow said, chuckling at the very idea of Anya doing that kind of hard work.

"Well, I've seen you fly so it's clear that they definitely can," Anya clapped back. Then, she continued as Rainbow processed what she said, "As I was saying, I had a job in hauling and I needed to have that outfit on due to the conditions I'd be pulling carts in."

"How hard was it?" Lyra asked.

"Pretty hard since the company would assign me the jobs that were out in rula– rurar– rural areas in the Macintosh or Colt mountains or some other place where the infrastructure was garbage, and they'd usually put me on solo jobs."

"Can't they just use the trains for that work?" Rarity asked, shuddering at the thought of doing that kind of hard work by herself.

"As I said, infrastructure was terrible in those areas. Forget about railways, you'd need to be on hallucinogenics just to see a paved road. Plus, there's gonna be basically nobody but you for the entire round trip, unless you count the things hiding in the woods and stalking you," Anya explained, not embellishing even a single bit. The dark muddy roads through mountainous areas were still clear as daylight in her mind. Hauling carts and driving trucks across the countryside was pretty similar, only that driving was a lot faster and the greatest danger was falling asleep at the wheel. Hauling kept you awake since you were pulling carts while going through dark, winding roads while watching out for danger, instead of driving down the straight highway with nothing of interest.

"Sounds mighty bad, but it can't be that bad," Applejack said, not really believing anything Anya said.

"Okay, imagine this: you're pulling two carts of goods to some remote mining town in the Macintosh mountains. The roads are all mud, you're all alone, it's night and the only light is the lamp on your first cart. The town is still two hours away, your only defence is a cheap spell-slinger and a hatchet, and something in the forest is stalking you, waiting for you to lower your guard for just one minute so that it can drag you off into the darkness. Imagine that you're doing that, and then tell me if that's still 'not that hard'." She made sure to do air quotes for the last part.

Applejack snorted at that. "Y'er just makin' up tall tales. Ain't no way that the monster part's true, i's jus' ghost stories to scare young'uns."

Bon Bon almost corrected Applejack — a lot of monster stories had their roots in reality. If only she knew of the things that hid in the dark corners of the countryside. Bon Bon almost felt bad for Anya having to go through that.

"Look, those mountains are ancient, they definitely have creepy stuff hiding in them, and even if you don't belive all that, there's still the terrain and the weather working against you," Anya continued, ignoring Applejack's disbelief.

"Or maybe, you weren't up for that work," Rainbow interjected, partly to get back at Anya and partly to help out Applejack.

Anya switched between looking at the two, deciding how she'd counter them. Issuing a threat was a okay-ish option, but a story was a good option. She dug through her pony memories of the job and found one that was interesting and also proof that she was cut out for her work.

"K, I'll tell you los– guys about one of my jobs," Anya said. Most of the ponies had their interests piqued and were eager to hear a story with how she had described her work so far. Rainbow merely raised an eyebrow.

Anya began, "Okay, so, this was in January this year so it's winter. I'm in Macintosh province, coming back from a trip to a coal mining town to deliver some equipment. It's about six and the sun has started to set and there's a storm coming and I'm still an hour away from the closest town.

So, going back involved crossing this one river, Flower River, I think, and the only way to get across is a wooden bridge, or alternatively, a five hour long alternate route. Naturally, I take the bridge, like anyone else would. So, I come across a whole bunch of other haulers going to the bridge together and I join them. They were a cool bunch of guys.

Anyway, we reach the bridge just as it's beginning to snow, and wouldn't you know it, it's broken."

"Broken? Shouldn' bridges be maintained better since they're important?" Applejack asked, not convinced of the story so far, having heard plenty of similar tales of improbable situations from quite a few people — who also happened to be liars.

"They should, but the lord or duke or whatever loser whose in charge of the province was a useless piece of shit who probably diverted funding for road maintenance to their own pockets. Seriously, the only decent road in the province is in the provincial capital and it's probably designated as a protected area or a tourist site for everyone to see."

More than a few faces grimaced at Anya's scathing language, while a few faces smiled at the hyperbole.

"So, as I was saying, the bridge is broken, like, the entire middle section has been washed away. We can't ford the river since it's too deep and the flow is strong and it's freezing as well, nor can we fly over since none of us have wings. If we turned around, the closest town would be four hours away but we'd be in the middle of the snowstorm for a lot of time if we went that way.

Anyway, there's one other cart full of logs and planks at the bridge already and there's two guys with it. They're the repairmen who came to check out the damage and see if they could fix it but they didn't know how bad it was when they had left town. We ask them about what we can do, and guess what one of them says."

Anya looked around at the ponies who were captivated by the story so far. They leaned in, expecting her to reveal what the repairman said.

"Ooo, ooo, did she tell you guys that you'll have to help fix the bridge?" Pinkie guessed excitedly and suddenly, making everyone flinch a bit.

"Correct!" Anya said, getting back into the story. "One of the repairmen, he told us that it was our only option unless we wanted to risk freezing to death, and everyone decided that it was the better option. We get to work and we have a problem immediately. Someone has to go down into the river to hold the support logs and hammer them in–"

"And you were one of the ponies to go in?" Rainbow asked, knowing that the answer would most likely be a yes, as it would be for such 'real and completely true' stories.

"Yep. The repairman told us where to put the supports. I and a zebra guy went down into the river first and we got like three of the supports hammered in before we had to get out. Three guys did the other five, and the rest of them worked on putting the top of the bridge back together–"

"And there were zombies attacking you guys the whole time?*" Rainbow's sarcasm would have dripped from every orifice on her body if it was a liquid. Anya noticed said sarcasm but decided not to react to it and continued the story. She was coming close to the end anyway.

"No, but the storm kept getting worse the whole time. My greatcoat kept me warm in the two hours it took to fix the bridge enough for us to get across, and once it was fixed, we all got to town in an hour, all safe and sound. I couldn't walk the way since I could barely feel my legs but it turned out fine in the end since I only got a cold. Pretty sure we made the news, the bunch of us. The end."

"Wooh, that sounds intense," Lyra was the first to say. Bon Bon nodded, knowing from the information she had that the story was true. She didn't want to admit it but it was impressive of Anya to do that kind of work. Anya would've been nice to be actually friends with if she wasn't a dark mage.

"And it also sounds like a really, really tall tale," Applejack said. Rainbow nodded in agreement wih her arms folded with an unimpressed expression. To them, there was simply no way that a pony like Anya was even remotely capable of being a hauler, let alone do such a task as help fix a bridge, in a blizzard.

"It was fun to hear!" Was Pinkie's takeaway. True and simple.

"But it's still fake–”

"Actually, Anya, was this in the western part of the province?" Twilight interrupted Rainbow.

"Yes," Anya answered.

"And was it near the town of Ironhill?"

"Yep, that's the one."

"Then the story is real."

"What?!" Applejack and Rainbow Dash exclaimed together at Twilight's declaration.

Twilight took that as an opportunity to elaborate, "You see, sometime in January, I witnessed Princess Celestia give a... a 'stern' talking to Lord High Winds about his province's poor infrastructure and how everyday ponies had to deal with it. During that, she mentioned an incident where haulers had to fix a bridge in western Macintosh."

The two mares' mouths hung open in shock, while Anya smiled gleefully.

"That kind of job must pay a lot, right?" Lyra interjected, curious about that kind of lifestyle.

"Nah."

Lyra blinked and stared at Anya with disbelief.

"You're telling me that that job, which made you go through all sorts of bad places while pulling carts of stuff, did not pay well?"

"Yeah."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. Each trip paid you about just enough to cover the expenses you incurred while on it."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we had to pay for our food and other supplies out of our own pocket, and that would eat up most of what you earned. If you decided to spend a night in an inn or something, you'd pay for that and those things are kinda expensive. I'd just sleep in my cart with my coat as a blanket unless it was going to snow."

"That's horrible!" Lyra exclaimed, distressed that things like that happened in Equestria. Beside her, Bon Bon agreed with Lyra, but she only frowned. Not all monsters lived in the forests or a madpony's basement, some lived in mansions and offices. She, begrudgingly, felt a little bit of sympathy for Anya.

"Yeah, but it was 'my fault' and I 'should've read the fine print' before I took the job. Last time I ever skipped those forms," Anya said bitterly, making air quotes with her hooves. She did not mention how she also wanted to kill her ex-boss, or rather, the guy who decided that company's could do something like that.

"Hey, Anya, do you think you could tell us more stories?" Pinkie asked, steering the conversation away from the bad stuff since she wanted to preserve the good mood.

"Yeah, sure. Let me think of one..."

Anya noted that the whole thing had gone well so far, and maybe, things wouldn't go as bad as she had thought.

Things had gone alright.

The nine mares were currently in the backstage area of the stage that has been set up right next to the boutique. The light in the sky was fading and there was a crowd gathering outside, waiting for the show to start.

Rarity was the most nervous of all. She kept checking and rechecking everything. From the music to the lights and to the dresses, which were the things she was most nervous about. Anya, Bon Bon, and Lyra's dresses might never been good but they had to make up for her friends' dresses. Or maybe, she was just worrying too much — if her friends were confident with their dresses then the crowd would be fine with them, right?

Of course, that though didn't stop her from triple-checking the dresses though.

"Rarity, I think you're overdoing the whole checking thing," Rainbow said to her as Rarity inspected Rainbow's helmet for any defects with a magnifying glass.

"Dear, there absolutely is no such thing as 'overdoing' checking. After all, it's better to be safe than to be sorry," Rarity responded as she continued her inspection.

Beside them, Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack were predicting the reactions to their dresses.

"I bet they're gonna love my dress and maybe even feel a bit hungry!" Pinkie proclaimed with a giggle at the thought of drooling ponies.

"Ah doubt that them ponies are gonna be hungry after seein' ya," Applejack said with a shake of her head.

"Oh, then they'll be peckish!"

"Pinkie, ponies don't get hungry when they see a pony wearing a confectionary-themed dress." Twilight face-hoofed. Pinkie buwomp-ed in response.

Bon Bon and Lyra stood nearby, discussing how they'd look during the gala and also how pretty they looked.

"Come on Bonnie, admit it, all the people at the gala will either be jealous of your dress or of me because I'm with you!"

Bon Bon just rolled her eyes with a smile.

And finally, standing in a corner, all by herself, was Anya. She still had her positive mood but she was growing nervous again. It wasn't because she felt weird in her dress or because she thought that her dress looked bad on her, but because she thought that she was going to fumble on the catwalk — probably by tripping, or walking weird– actually, walking weird was a guarantee for her with her limp. That realisation made her more self-conscious suddenly.

Finally, it was time for the show to start.

Rarity finished her checks just as the stage lights dimmed. On the other side of the curtain, Spike started giving the opening speech to the audience. Rarity immediately started thinking about the order in which she'd send the mares onto stage. They should have rehearsed instead of chatting.

While her friends' dresses were okay (they were not), she didn't want to send them out for the beginning or the end, meaning they'd be in the middle. Lyra and Bon Bon going out first would definitely be a good start, but that'd leave Anya all by herself, and just by glancing at her, she could tell that Anya was extremely nervous. Sending her out alone at the finale would be bad since being alone might just make her crack under stage fright. She could counter that by making either Pinkie or Fluttershy go with Anya at the end, but that would take from the middle display.

"Lyra, Bon Bon, you two are up first. Walk side by side," she instructed the pair as she walked past them. They nodded and walked to the curtains excitedly, but not before Lyra took the opportunity to kiss Bon Bon on the cheek quickly.

Anya straightened as Rarity came near, and she maintained her slightly crooked smile.

"Dear, you might have to go alone at the end, after everypony. Do you think you could manage that?"

"Uh yeah, I should," Anya said, her ears drooped to reflect her confidence, which was not a lot.

"Alright, though I do have to tell you something else first," Rarity said, seeing that clearly.

"What is it?"

"When you go out there on stage, the ponies will be talking about you. It might be good, it might be bad, and you'll definitely hear some of it. You have to ignore it all and focus on yourself, especially since we haven't had the time to rehearse, but I'll tell you this, nopony, absolutely nopony, will focus much on your faults for long. You look positively stunning and they'll see that as well."

Anya calmed a little from the pep talk and Rarity was happy with that.

Spike's speech ended, and the curtains opened, letting Lyra and Bon Bon go out. Rarity turned and dashed to the side of the curtain to see how it was going. She peeked around the corner and saw that the crowd was recieving the two mares very well. Seeing that killed a lot of her stress.

Then, after they were done, the pair started walking back and Rarity remembered that her friends were up next. Almost immediately, the stress came back, and she tried her hardest to convince herself that they'd be fine when she know they wouldn't be fine.

The curtain closed behind the two mares as they re-entered the backstage.

"Darlings, you're up!" she said to her friends, making them all line up in front of the stage. Fluttershy was the only one among them who looked slightly nervous. "Good luck!"

The curtains opened and the five went on stage and the crowd outside was stunned silent. Rarity quietly watched, hoping it was because of how pretty they were.

The crowd started whispering and exchanging awkward looks.

It was like she had expected, nopony seemed to like the dresses. Rarity kicked herself mentally for letting her friends decide their dresses and not telling them how they looked. She could have at least has a test audience. She shouted at herself mentally for making such a poorly planned show.

The five stood at the end of the catwalk. At first, that thought that it was going good, but when the whispers and quiet jeering started, they quickly realised that they might have overdone their dresses a little bit.

Meanwhile, Anya's nervousness had only grown and she hadn't even gone on stage yet. She couldn't turn back now, and she didn't have any other options right now, besides questioning her life choices and vowing to herself to not do stupid things like this again.

The five onstage were quick to come back behind the curtains once someine in the crowd started laughing at them. However, Spike came into the backstage before they did and he looked panicked and excited.

"Rarity!" He almost shouted as he stopped in front of her.

"Oh, what is it, dear?"

Spike took a moment to catch his breath before answering rapidly, "You know Hoity Toity, right?"

Of course, she did. Who wouldn't? He was only one of the leading fashion designer in the country.

Rarity nodded, a void forming in her stomach at the implication.

"He's here! He's in the crowd!"

Rarity's ears fell to the side of her head, her tail twitched before going completely still, her heart started pounding, and she donned a thousand yard stare.

One of the most important and influential ponies in fashion was here, watching her show.

Time slowed down for her. Behind her, her friends were telling about how bad the show had gone for them, and Anya was walking up to the curtain for the finale, doing her best to maintain a calm look.

Hoity Toity had seen her friends in those dresses. That was her first impression on him, and maybe, the last as well.

It was a disaster.

She rued the moment she decided to do a fashion show; she rued the moment she decided to let her friends decide how their dresses were going to be; she rued all the moments she had told herself that the dresses were fine when she knew they weren't.

And for a moment, just a moment, she hated her friends. They had put her career on the line.

Then, she remembered that she could have stopped them at any moment. Really, it was her fault the show had gone bad. She should have known that he friends didn't have the expertise she had, and she should have stopped them from going out, looking like that. She had made an embarrassment of herself and her friends.

She could fix it.

It wasn't over till it was over.

She calmly walked up to Anya and instructed her calmly, "Dear, could you go a bit slow. I have something that needs to be done."

Anya nodded as she took a deep breath to calm herself. She had signed up for the show and she was going to get through it.

Rarity stepped back to her friends. They were going to say something but she cut them off, dropping her accent, "Alright, all of you, we have to be quick. You're going to wear the dress I had made for you all originally and going on stage. None of you are going to say no or complain. Understood?"

They nodded, if not because they agreed with her already, then because they didn't want to find out what happened to those that disagreed with Rarity.

Anya stood at the curtain, waiting nervously for it to open. Her ears kept trying to go down and her tail kept twitching and she had to consciously stop them from doing so, making her feel self-conscious to a degree she hadn't been ever before.

"Hey, Anya."

Anya turned to see that Lyra and Bon Bon had come up to her.

"You're gonna rock."

"Yup, what Lyra said."

Anya turned back to face the curtain as the two left. She didn't feel any better, especially since she could just FEEL that something was wrong, but she kept her calm face on. She could do this.

The curtains opened.

She paused for a moment, feeling the eyes of dozens of people on her. She couldn't see them, and the crowd blended into a mishmash of colours and the occasional camera flash. She steeled herself and started walking down the catwalk.

It took a lot of effort to keep her ears straight and her face in a smile while she focused on making her limp as invisible as possible and also making sure she stayed centred on the catwalk.

And of course, like Rarity had said, she could hear whispers. Some bad, some good.

"Her dress looks great."

"Is she limping?"

"I'm not sure."

"What was Rarity thinking with those other dresses? This one looks great."

"I wish I had that outift."

"Is that mud on her face?"

"That's her fur colour, dummy."

"Isn't she the pony who went to the hospital a month ago?"

"I think, look at the scar on her face. Hideous."

"Yeah, her face looks weird."

Anya's heart was racing. Breathing was becoming hard for her. She felt nauseous as well. She kept her entire focus on getting to the end of the catwalk while looking decent and going back the same way as quick– she had to be slow, Rarity had told her to be slow.

She adjust her pace, slowing down — even though she wanted to be over with the whole thing quick — until she reached the end of the catwalk. There, she simply stood like Rarity had told her to. It was a simple task but she was literally overthinking how she was standing, and how she looked, and how she smiled, and–

A camera flash pulled her out of her overthinking, and she glanced around her. All the faces in the crowd were blurry and she couldn't tell how they looked at her.

It was terrifying being in the spotlight, and her heart beat like it was going to explode.

But she kept herself looking outwardly calm to not make a fool of herself, if she hadn't done that already.

Some more camera flashes, and some cheers came from the crowd. She stayed smiling. No one was talking ill of her as far as she could tell, and it made her feel somewhat better. The anxiety of messing up didn't go away though.

She turned around and started walking back, slowly. It felt like eternity as it happened — she fully expcted to mess up in the final part. Every step, she felt like she'd trip and make a complete fool of herself, and by extension, Rarity. She had the power to, in her mind, ruin Rarity's show, and it was scary to have that power.

She didn't do any such thing. It went perfectly, or as good as it could.

The curtain closed behind her, and she was immediately met by Rarity.

"You did great, dear!"

Anya nodded, not really registering Rarity. She walked back to the corner where she had been standing earlier and sat down on the hard wood floor. She started taking quick breaths as her hooves shook a lot more now that she didn't have the pressure of having to looking good. Her ears folded down and she stared at the ground as a thought came to her. What if she didn't do good enough?

Similar thoughts started popping up, and she couldn't remind herself that the show was over and behind her and that she had a mostly positive reception. The voice of that one mare calling her hideous kept coming back.

She looked back up as she heard hoofsteps approaching. It was Bon Bon, holding something in her hoof.

"Here," she said to Anya as she offered the thing she was holding to her: Anya's glasses. Anya took them and put them on quickly.

"You alright?" Bon Bon asked, looking down at Anya. For a dark mage, she sure was pretty awkward and shy, and she felt a tiny bit bad for Anya seeing that she was literally shaking out of nervousness.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Anya whispered an answer as she shook her head and steadied her breathing. "Just... nervous."

"Nervous? What for, dear? Everypony out there was impressed by you."

Rarity had come up to them, looking tired. Anya nodded in acknowledgement but not in agreement. She got up, stumbling a bit.

"So, it's done?" she asked Rarity.

"Well, no, not yet," Rarity said with a glance to the curtains. "I had my friends put on a second set of dresses and go out there again."

"Okay," Anya said, becoming aware of the cheers coming from outside. She didn't care much about all that, and she just wanted to go home. "Can we get out of here? I feel like I'm gonna throw up."

The mood in the room was not exactly jovial, but it was still happy, just with a bunch of tiredness mixed in.

Anya sat on a sofa all to herself, still in her dress, only that she had her glasses now. She had told Rarity that she only came into the show for the gems but Rarity had none of that nonsense and gave the dress to her. She doubted that she'd ever wear it, but it was nice to have it regardless. Rarity had held them back for some reason. Probably for a picture.

Opposite to her, Lyra and Bon Bon sat on their own sofa, still in their dresses as well. They were speculating about why Rarity had held them back. Anya didn't pay them any mind; she was too tired to. She wanted to go home and just curl up in her bed and be done with the day. She'd never do anything similar to what she did today, not unless her life depended on it — but if her life did come to a situation like that she'd probably just choose to die.

The door opened, and in came Rarity and her friends — all wearing the dresses Rarity had made for them originally.

Along with them was a mare, clearly upper-class. The mare was light cyan with white-grey mane and tail. She wore large pink goggles that hid her eyes, and a black and white patterned dress, and she carried a suitcase as well.

"Here they are," Rarity said to the two, gesturing to the three mares. The mare approached Bon Bon and Lyra first.

"Yes yes, very good," the mare mumbled as she inspected the two mares, completely ignorant of the concept of personal space as she did.

Before Bon Bon could tell her off, the mare moved on to Anya, inspecting her in a similar fashion. Anya was torn between enforcing her personal space and letting the mare do her thing.

"Rugged, simple," she mumbled as she tapped her chin with a hoof. "Scarred. Hmm, vat is your name?"

"Uh, Anya."

She didn't reply and left Anya and went to the empty side of the room, where she put down her suitcase and pressed a button on its side. The suitcase popped open, transforming into a camera in a second.

"Rarity, we can take ze pictures," she declared with a flourish.

"Alright," Rarity acknowledged. She turned to address the fashion show participants. "Girls, that is miss Photo Finish. She wants to take some pictures of you all for the Canterlot Fashion Magazine. You can go up there if you want to be in the picture."

Rarity's friends were quick to line up for their pictures. Bon Bon and Lyra also joined them since Lyra thought it would be great. Anya didn't join them. Anya joined as well due to imagined peer pressure.

The cameramare started taking pictures of all the mares one at a time, making sure to get as many angles as she could, despite it being rather intrusive at times. Bon Bon was a bit uncomfortable about it but beared it since Lyra was excited.

Anya, on the other hand, was more annoyed than anything since the mare was taking her time clicking the pictures. After she was done with the solo pictures, she took a group picture of them all.

Once the photoshoot was over, Anya was ready to leave for her home, and leave for her home she did. She had her dress put in a bag and she left, the only thing on her mind being the gems she had to collect in Thursday and how her bed would feel.

Author's Note

15t Au ~2000

Somehow the 11 dislikes take up more space in my mind than the 77 likes. (Figures as of 2024 July 6 23:59)

Somehow, I wrote this chapter faster than the previous one.

Crazy world, right?

* "He reeked of guts and blackpowder" - unknown French sapper describing his officer at Berezina

Are the dress descriptions good?
What are some cool and obscure folk horror creatures that live in Eastern US American forests? (For uh uhmm... reasons, yes, reasons, totally benign ones, for example, not this story and not to torment Anya)
Do you think it's smooth sailing for Anya from now on?
Unrelated to story: I'm cooking on another story, does anyone want to pre-read it?