Bold: Brave Beginning

Strongbolt landed at the base of the hill with whatever had dragged him down. He got up and was about to attack before realizing what exactly had dragged him down.

"Shiera?" He asked.

His wife looked up at him. "Oh! I'm sorry, I thought you were..."

"Sh! Quiet." He whispered and pointed to bushes on their right.

"No use now." Said The Corruption, emerging from its hiding position. "You made enough noise tumbling down that hill to let every creature in the Everfree Forest know that you were here."

"Why are you doing this?" Shiera asked, her voice was confident.

The Corruption winced. "Because I've had enough of you ponies with your 'love and friendship' nonsense. You're always so happy! Too happy! I'd much prefer a world shrouded in darkness, where nobody was without fear. Besides I haven't eaten in a while. You two, you're married aren't you? Perfect."

"You don't scare us." Strongbolt said firmly and for a moment the creature stopped, and its face grew angry.

"Don't lie to me! Strongbolt Stonewing, I know all about your fears! Your constant paranoia!"

"So I guess we don't need to acquaint ourselves. How do you know my name?" Strongbolt had an idea, he had to be brave.

"Oh, I know a lot about you, little pony. And this one too." It pointed towards Shiera. "I see fear, and where there's fear, there's memories, bad memories, the kind that I feed on!"

"Your knowledge does not frighten us." Strongbolt said boldly, and took a step closer. The Corruption watched him, for a moment his face twitched.

"In fact," Shiera continued, "you don't frighten us at all."

There was a bright flash behind them and someone yelled: "Twilight!"  Strongbolt and Shiera were momentarily stunned, The Corruption took the opportunity and pounced on Strongbolt like a lion.

"Enough!" It hissed and opened its mouth wide and came closer to Strongbolt's face... and then it was on the floor, with a rather large branch protruding from its head.

"Thanks." Strongbolt said to Shiera as she helped him up.

"It's not over yet you little pigs!" The Corruption got to its hooves and absorbed the branch into its skull.

"That's not fair." Strongbolt murmured.

"I have just about had it with you two! I wait so long for this eternal night and the first two ponies I come across won't just give in and accept their fate!" It growled. "Do you know how difficult it is? Living in a world full of light? Especially when you're made out of darkness?"

"Light..." Strongbolt whispered as he watched the sun rise.

"Twilight?" Shiera suggested. The Corruption turned and watched the sunshine cover the landscape.

"No, no, no!" It yelled. "You... you two... have not seen the last of me!" And with that, it vanished into the shadows and disappeared.

Strongbolt sat down on the grass and blew out a sigh of relief.

"Well, that was... interesting." He said.

"I haven't felt this alive in years!" Shiera said. "Is this what it's like? You know, action and adventure?"

"Yeah, something like this." Strongbolt replied. He looked around them and saw a glimpse of purple in the distance, followed by pink, orange, blue, white and yellow.

"Look." He pointed towards the colors. "I think its Twilight and her friends." They got up and stumbled towards them.

"Twilight!" Shiera called.

They had arrived on a path of which Twilight, her friends, Princess Celestia and another small blue alicorn were following. They turned to see the two ponies.

"Strongbolt? Shiera!" Twilight shouted back and ran to them, her friends followed. "What are you guys doing here? What happened to you?"

"Don't worry about it, I see you found the elements." Strongbolt pointed to the crown atop her head.

Twilight laughed, probably from relief. "Maybe we should discuss things outside of here."

"Agreed." Strongbolt and Shiera said in unison.

They walked to the edge of the forest, throughout most of the journey Twilight and her friends talked, except the pink one who kept rambling on about how many balloons they were going to need, or how much cake needed to be made. When they finally returned to Ponyville, Twilight and her friends joined the crowd of ponies who had apparently been waiting anxiously for their princess's return.

Shiera picked up their belongings which they had left at the mouth of the forest, Shiera gave the book back to Twilight and said "Some rescue party we were, eh?"

"Well, It's nice to know you guys have got my back." Twilight admitted before walking back to the celebration.

"Ahem." A voice came from behind them.

"I heard you were Twilight Sparkle's rescue party?" It was the Princess, who was still with the younger blue alicorn.

"Princess?" Strongbolt asked.

"Yes, Strongbolt?" She replied.

"Oh, nothing." He said. "I just thought you would be in town celebrating." He looked at the little blue alicorn who hid behind Celestia.

"Oh, how rude of me." She said. "Allow me to introduce my sister, Princess Luna."

"You have a...? Oh, um, hi." He waved at her, Shiera did the same.

"How old is she?" Shiera asked.

"Oh, only in her early two thousands." She replied, laughing. "But, what I really wanted to talk to you about," she continued, "was this." She presented a map. "I heard you were to be travelling Equestria, perhaps you could use this." She rolled the paper up and place it in Shiera's bag.

"Thanks." They both said.

"Not a problem. Now tell me, will you be joining the celebration?"

"I think we'll probably hit the hay for a bit, had a, um, rough night." Strongbolt said. They began walking away when something tugged at Strongbolt's tail, he turned to find Princess Luna.

"You saw something else in there, didn't you?" She asked. "A creature, of a different kind."

"How did you know?" He whispered to her.

"As I suspected." She said. "Just, be careful in the dark, although I am the Princess of the Night, I work with the light of the moon, who knows what lurks out there. As long as you are under the moonlight you'll be safe, I promise."

"But, how did you...?"

"Luna!" Celestia called. "Can I talk to you quickly?"

"Goodbye, Strongbolt, and you too Shiera." She waved and flew to her sister.

"Strange." Said Shiera.

"Yeah, what do you think she meant by that?"

"No, I mean, I don't recall ever telling her my name." Strongbolt considered this.

"Princesses." He said at last. "Never try to understand them, it'll always make your head hurt." And they laughed, all the way back to the hotel.

Luna arrived by Celestia's side.

"So you think its them?" Celestia asked.

"I'm not sure." Luna replied. "They are bold, that's for sure. I don't remember much from when I was... her, but I'm pretty sure they were the ones who fought The Corruption, if they hadn't, I would have been responsible for two great catastrophes in Equestria." Her eyes began to water.

"Fear not, little sister, you had no control over what you were doing, it was not your fault at all." Celestia comforted her.

Luna looked around her. "Things sure have changed." She said.

"My sister, you understand that, those thousand years... If there was any other way, you know I would have..."

"I understand. You did what was best for Equestria. That is all that matters." There was a long pause.

Celestia spoke at last. "You know now that 'it' has returned, our subjects will no longer be safe."

Luna nodded, and said: "That is why they are here. if Strongbolt and Shiera really are destined to do this... 'it' will waste no time with anypony else." Another long pause.

"What was it mother used to say?" Celestia asked.

"'The future is a gift, one that only you can give.'" Luna stated. "I guess it is their turn to 'give' now." Celestia put her wing around Luna.

"I... have missed you so much little sister. I won't lose you again." she said.