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Relatively recently was superseded by recently, however, and I had more reason to not want to be at work today.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