CHAPTER 9

“And so those were all your three encounters with demons?” Silver Fox asked.

“Yes,” Sweetie Belle confirmed.

“You were lucky,” he replied, standing up from his garden chair and trotting toward the woods. “Very lucky.”

Sweetie Belle looked at Silver Fox walk away for a bit before realizing that she was expected to follow him. The two passed between a few treelines before arriving into another clearing not too far, larger than the one Silver Fox's house was in.

The clearing was mostly empty, save for a small creek on the other side of it. Silver Fox made sure to fly up and clear the clouds in the sky above the place before landing back down next to Sweetie.

“While learning advanced exorcism spells on a whim was an extremely impressive feat for a foal your age,” he explained. “It still was a feat of luck. And you can't rely on luck infinitely in this line of work. Also…” He raised an eyebrow. “You're really telling me you went this far without requiring the basic spells even once?”

Sweetie Belle cocked her head to the side. “The… basic spells?”

“Yeah! The basic spells! Y'know, the ones you're usually meant to learn before the chains thingy? Those that are actually necessary against most demons? That's what I'm talking about!”

“Oh…” Sweetie Belle looked rather sheepish. “I thought that the chains worked well up until now.”

“As I was saying, you were lucky.” Silver Fox took out a canteen of water and drank from it before continuing. “First off, you only faced one demon that seemed partial to soul possession. The one that was in Diamond Tiara was it?”

Sweetie Belle nodded.

“Well normally, the majority of them rely on soul possession to defend themselves. It's kind of their way to use innocent ponies as meat shields, see? That's what the depossession spell is for.

“Secondly, some demons like to block unicorns’ magic. I'm actually shocked you haven’t gotten a shamrock cutie mark from all that, ‘cuz I'm telling you, these guys aren’t that uncommon either.” Silver Fox finished his water before he concluded his explanation. “That's the reason why exorcists invented holy water.”

“You mean, so that they could still defend themselves without their magic?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“You got it. Holy water's like their secondary weapon.” Silver Fox grinned. “So that's what you'll have to learn: depossession and water holifying.” He scratched the side of his head in thought. “Although, we can't really practice the former outside of theory, ‘cuz we would need to make a demon possess somepony to test it out, and as far as I'm aware, that'd be crazy dangerous.”

Sweetie Belle internally agreed with that statement, shivering at the thought.

“Are you ready to start, Sweetie Belle?” Silver Fox asked the young unicorn.

“Yes,” she answered, her voice full of determination. “I am.”

****

The first week of training wasn’t so great. Since Sweetie Belle couldn’t test out the depossession, she had to learn the entire theory behind it instead, which took up her mornings. It really wasn’t easy for her to focus, and she quickly discovered that she had a below-average attention span. Still, she persisted and continued reading the books, whatever “the link between a body, a brain, a spirit, a soul, the Holy daughters, the Holy mother, and the Holy spirit” was meant to be.

The water holifying on the other hoof, which she trained to do in the afternoons, didn't seem so difficult, because all one had to do to test if a water was holy was to taste it. Holy water was supposed to taste like the abstract concept of “alicorn goodness”, which despite being an uncommon thing to feel on one's tastebuds was actually easy to recognize. Sadly, Sweetie Belle still didn’t manage to cast the holifying spell. And Silver Fox, not being a unicorn himself, wasn’t of great help when it came to teaching spellcasting.

****

The second week was almost a disaster. Sweetie Belle had been unable to understand the subtle difference between a soul and a spirit, so she just moved on to the next page. That was an immense mistake. At first, she thought she understood things that were presented to her without having to learn that one notion… until she didn't understand anything anymore and was stuck in a web of contradictions and footnotes. That led to her losing her focus and wasting hours wondering how depossession was supposed to be a “basic spell”. That side tangent helped her comprehend how difficulty curves could work differently for each pony, but not the difference between soul and spirit.

As for the water, Sweetie Belle had managed to make it boil and give it unusual tastes and textures, which seemed like a step in the right direction at first, but it wasn’t. It was a torture for Silver Fox's tongue, however. The elder pegasus was shocked at how Sweetie Belle sometimes managed to cast spells that were so unrelated to the task at hoof that the clearing they had reserved for her training ended up looking like the aftermath of a magical warzone. He silently thanked his past self for having chosen to train just far enough from the house to avoid destroying it.

****

Silver Fox didn't look forward to the third week. Before he had consented to do the training, he knew that exorcist training was a long and tedious process, and he knew that only a month might be too short to actually learn something meaningful. The past two weeks had proved him right so far.

After he woke up and prepared his own breakfast, he directly flew to the clearing where Sweetie Belle spent her time training, because the filly had in fact developed a habit of waking up early to go there.

Silver Fox was surprised not to find her on site. He went back to his house's guest room, finding there that she was still sleeping.

Sweetie Belle woke up later in the day, explaining that she had been overworking herself too much to no avail, so she had decided to start taking things easy to see if it helped.

And it actually helped her greatly. It only took her 3 days to learn the theory on depossession by heart, and only one more day and a half to holify a glass of water.

****

To celebrate Sweetie Belle's success, Silver Fox had ordered pizzas from a place in town. He was glad to see that Sweetie Belle, the same shy filly who could barely say a word when she had first arrived, was then smiling widely and humming happy tunes as she ate pizza slices across the dinner table.

“You can be happy,” he said, swallowing his own slice of the cheesy treat. “You might really have talent to back up your luck.”

The both of them chuckled.

“Seriously, though.” Silver Fox assumed a sincere smile. “You achieved a trimester's work in only three weeks. You are gifted with a level of skills that could potentially rival Silver Key, one day.” He paused, reminiscing about his late husband. “I know he would be proud of you, if he knew you.”

Sweetie Belle smiled bashfully, appreciating the compliment. “Thanks.”

“Say, I've seen you glancing at this book a lot since you arrived.” Silver Fox pointed at the old book that stood alone on one shelf. “You're curious about what it is?”

“Um, yes,” she confirmed. “But I don't want to read it if you don't want me to.”

“Nonsense! I'm sure Silver Key would've appreciated if you read his diary.”

Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow at that.

“Don't worry. I knew him the best, and I can tell you that his diary was indeed written to be read by other ponies,” Silver Fox reassured her. “It's unusual, I know. But it's true.”

“…Okay. I'll try reading it, then.”

Later that evening, after dinner, Sweetie Belle took the diary from its shelf and into the guest bedroom. She sat down in bed and started to flip through its pages.

Author's Note

Alicorns are like healthy food after too many greezy pizzas. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

...I sometimes forget that the original premise was meant to be a joke.