Laughter is Faith

Chapters

Chapter 2: Invitations
Chapter 3: Idle Conversation
Chapter 4: Party Time
Chapter 5: Gathering
Chapter 6: Fallen Stars
Chapter 7: Suffocation
Chapter 8: Sacrifice
Chapter 9: Harmless Violence
Chapter 10: Fear of Spiders
Chapter 11: Bad Ends
Chapter 12: Pulling Together
Chapter 13: Marauding Crusader
Chapter 14: Confrontation
Epilogue
Chapter 1: Given Up

Chapter 2: Invitations

Rainbow Dash growled. She snarled, she grit her teeth, she paced through the air. Finding that this did nothing to alleviate her gnawing frustration, she flung herself down on a branch of the tree she had been hovering next to for almost ten minutes now. The cold of the tree bark made a firm contrast to the heat of the blood burning in her veins. The pegasus glared down at the charming woodland cottage in which resided the source of her displeasure.

“It would have been fine, you know!” she roared. “Five hundred bits, Fluttershy! That's what you cost me with this.”

Rainbow Dash shifted against the wood of the tree. The branch she was sitting on somehow didn't seem as comfortable as it should have. She moved to a neighboring limb that looked like it might be more accommodating. And it was. For a moment.

Then she started feeling antsy again.

“The dumb thing would have been just fine anyway,” Dash muttered. “They'd have taken care of it. They're not monsters.”

There was no response from the hut. Not that Dash had expected any. There was no noise except the wind through the trees, and the gentle rustling of leaves.

Dash shifted a little.

A stick snapped near the base of the tree.

Rainbow's head whipped round to look, years of finely honed instincts on the lookout for danger. She knew it was more likely to just be one of her friend's many “pets” than anything really dangerous; the dangerous stuff liked to stay further in.

But sometimes it came out to play.

Even with Rainbow Dash's exceptional night vision, she didn't see anything down where she had heard the twig snap. But now that she was listening, her ears picked up more noises that shouldn't have been there if she were truly alone.

Not that you were ever alone in the Everfree Forest.

She could hear the lower branches creaking. Was something moving them? Was it climbing the tree? Carefully, Dash leaned out to look.

Nothing on the other side.

The sounds grew closer.

As the hairs on the back of her neck began to rise, Rainbow cautiously took to the air, noiseless in her flight. She hovered backwards, away from the tree she had been sitting in, searching for whatever strange creature had made that noise. One hoof reached for the hilt of her short curved sword where it rested in the small of her back.

The sound crept upward.

“Hi, new friend! How're ya doing?”

With a yelp, Rainbow Dash whirled around to find a strange earth pony mare sitting in the tree behind her, who had most decidedly not been there just a few moments before. Dash would have seen her. She was pink.

“W- what?” Dash stammered. Her head snapped back and forth between this newcomer and the place she was sure the sounds had been coming from. “Was that you? How did you –”

The stranger cut her off. “My name's Pinkie Pie,” she said cheerfully, “and I'm here from Canterlot to arrange a party for the Summer Sun Celebration. Here's your invitation!”

Pinkie hoofed the pegasus a card that shimmered with too much glitter, even in the pale light of the full moon, and was covered in cheery pink lettering that Rainbow Dash wouldn't be caught dead with. Dash accepted it anyway, vowing silently to destroy the abomination at the first opportunity.

“What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” She asked with a frown. “We're inside the Everfree forest, in case you hadn't noticed.”

“I already told you, silly. I'm here to invite you to my party tomorrow! Well,” Pinkie shrugged, “I'm here to invite Fluttershy, really, but I saw you sitting in the tree there, and I thought, 'ooh! New friend!' So I climbed right on up here to invite you. What's your name?”

The sudden change of topic threw Dash off balance, and the pink mare's sunny smile made her feel uneasy. She began to feel much less sure that not drawing her weapons when she first saw Pinkie had been the right decision.

“Uh... I'm Rainbow Dash.”

“Nice to meet you Dashie!” Pinkie beamed. “Wow, lucky me! I was gonna visit your house last, because you live in a cloudhouse, and it was gonna be really really really hard to get up there, so I was going to give myself lots of time to figure out how I was going to do it, but now I don't need to!”

Rainbow Dash scowled. “Don't call me Dashie.”

“Sure thing, Dash-dash. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night? It's dangerous out here, you know.”

“Nothing.” Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs in a huff. “I wasn't doing anything out here.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said. “'Cause I heard you yelling something about being out five hundred bits, but I guess I was just imagining things.”

Rainbow Dash winced. “Yeah. Imagining things.”

Dash expected Pinkie Pie to start talking about something else, or maybe just leave, but the pink pony just sat there, staring at her with that same sugary smile. Rainbow's ear twitched.

“Alright!” she finally exclaimed. “Fluttershy's bleeding heart cost us five hundred bits, and I was out here being angry about it, okay?”

Pinkie's eyes widened. “She's bleeding from her heart?” The look of panic in her eyes was surprisingly genuine, and Rainbow Dash was only just able to catch her before she leapt off the branch to go to Fluttershy's aid.

“No, no,” Dash sighed. “She's fine. It's just an expression.”

Pinkie blinked. “I don't get it.”

“What I meant was – well, it's like this. I'm a hunter,” Rainbow Dash grinned. “The best in the business. Cockatrice, Manticore, Hydra, if it's got a name, I've beaten it. But skill isn't enough to keep you alive out there in the woods. You need supplies, and knowledge of how to get them; what sorts of plants and stuff to gather, how to mix them to make stuff, things like that. I'm... not so good at that.” She rubbed her neck. “But Fluttershy's a whiz with all that sort of thing. And we've been friends for a long time, you know? So I thought 'hey, let's form a partnership! I'll take down the monsters, and Flutters can keep me from bleeding out afterward. It's a win-win!'”

“A win-win? That does sound like a win, especially when one's won. Double win!”

“Yeah, I know right? It sounded great,” Rainbow said. “But then Flutters got all upset about me killing the poor little three meter tall death machines, and said if I wanted her help, I'd better not do that anymore. Well that was fine. I mean, the live capture requests always pay better anyway, 'cause everyone thinks they're hard, but I'm the best; I can do them no sweat. So I figured, 'whatever, 's cool, I can deal with it –' only then Fluttershy started taking the things I caught and making them into her pets! I had to capture three separate northeastern sphinxes before I got one she didn't take. And now, I've just spent the entire day hunting a shelled pyro-iguanadon – one of the biggest, meanest guys this side of the Forest Center. I've got some earther scientist from Manehatten all lined up to buy the thing, and tomorrow is the last day for the deal to work. Only Fluttershy thinks that just 'cause I went and chipped its teeth a bit, she's gotta take care of it. For a month.”

Dash threw up her hooves in disgust. “Can you believe it? After all the work I went to getting this deal, all the boasting I made about how I could get this thing that nopony else has ever caught, and all the hours I spent tracking the dumb thing, I'm gonna have to go back and tell the guy, 'nope! Looks like I can't get you one after all. Thanks for coming and stuff, with your big custom holding device and team of specialists and everything, but it was just too much for me to handle!'”

Rainbow realized she had started yelling again, and sighed.

“I'm going to be a laughing-stock...”

“Wow. This Fluttershy sounds like a real jerk,” Pinkie said, with a frown that was mixed with a pout, and softened by her slightly pudgy cheeks. “Don't you worry, Dash-dash. I'll sort things out for you!”

The pink earth pony fell backwards off the branch before Rainbow Dash could stop her. There was a loud crashing of leaves, and for a moment Dash worried that the strange mare would hurt herself in the fall, but when she looked down she saw Pinkie marching up to the cottage door.

“Wait!” Dash cried.

She caught up just in time to keep Pinkie from knocking. “She's not like that!” Dash protested. “I mean, sure, I'm angry at her, but she was just looking out for the animals. And okay, maybe I roughed the thing up a bit. Stuff happens.” She shook her head. “Look, Fluttershy's my friend, okay? She's sensitive. I don't need you to come butting in here trying to fix things and making her feel bad.”

“Okay!” Pinkie smiled.

Dash sighed and let go of Pinkie's foreleg. Pinkie knocked on the door.

“What are you doing?!” Dash hissed. “I told you, you don't need to bother her!”

“I was going to talk to her anyway,” Pinkie hummed. She held up a card. “I still need to give her her invitation!”

Pinkie knocked on the door again. “Hello! Fluttershy! It's me, Pinkie Pie! You don't know me yet, but I want to get to know you!”

There was no sound from inside, so Pinkie reached for the doorknob. “Fluttershy, I know you're in there~! I'm opening the door now!”

Pinkie only got the door about a third of the way open before it bumped into something on the inside of the cottage.

The thing was brown and furry.

Slowly, Pinkie's gaze followed the thing up to its face.

The bear let out a massive roar, and Pinkie Pie slammed the door shut. She turned to Rainbow Dash, with wild, accusing eyes.

“You never told me Fluttershy was a bear!”

The roaring inside the house died down after a moment, and Pinkie could hear a new voice inside. It was a calm, soothing voice, cooing softly in a way that was not very bear-like. “Shh, Mister bear," the voice went. "It's all right. I know you're just trying to keep me safe, but you can't go around scaring visitors away. Even if they are l- loud, and, and new, you still need to be polite.”

“Fluttershy can talk,” Pinkie whispered. “I didn't know bears could do that!”

Rainbow Dash held a hoof to her face and tried not to smile.

Slowly, the door creaked open from the inside. Only about half an inch though, just enough for Pinkie to see a blue eye, and a pale yellow hoof.

“C- can I help you?” the gentle voice whispered.

“Hi!” Pinkie said. “I'm Pinkie Pie, and I want to be your new best friend! Could you give this to Fluttershy? It's an invitation to a big party I'm throwing half an hour before dawn for the Summer Sun Celebration. Everypony's invited! And Fluttershy too, I guess. Do you think bears enjoy parties? Of course they do! Fluttershy!” Pinkie shouted, jamming her face up against the door and trying to make herself heard inside the house. “You can bring your bear friends along too! They're all invited! Bears are ponies too!”

Fluttershy squeaked – the real Fluttershy, not the bear – and tried to push the door closed. Her rather pitiful attempt ended up pushing her back instead, and Pinkie tumbled into the room through the now-open door.

Outside, Rainbow Dash started to laugh.

“Hi!” Pinkie said again. “How are you doing, new friend? What's your name? I have an invitation for you too, but I'm not sure which one is yours.” Pinkie held up a whole plethora of cards. “Ooh! Ooh! Let me guess! Are you: Ditsy Doo? Bulk Biceps! No wait, Princess Celestia!”

Fluttershy was curled up in a shuddering ball of pink hair and yellow feathers on the floor, far too shell-shocked to respond.

Pinkie's eyes narrowed. “Are you really the Princess in disguise? Because if you are, I already sent your invitation to Canterlot Castle. Gasp!” Pinkie gasped. “Oh no! I'll have to run all the way there and get it for you! Just hold on tight, your Majesticfulness, I'll be right back!”

Just before Pinkie could take off, Fluttershy reached out. “Wait,” she mumbled. “I'm not... actually... … …”

“You're not what?” Pinkie asked. “Hungry?”

Fluttershy shook her head.

“Left hoofed?”

She shook her head again, and whispered in an even quieter attempt to explain.

“You're actually not the Princess but really Fluttershy, the mare I've been looking for this whole time, who isn't really a bear after all?”

Fluttershy blinked.

“... Yes.”

“Well that makes sense!” Pinkie beamed. “I didn't think the Ponyville census recorded bears, but it had your name on it, so I figured I must just be mistaken. Here you go,” she said, holding out another card. “Your invitation!”

Fluttershy stared.

“... But you already gave me an invitation.”

“Yeah, but that one was for your bear friend I thought was you. This one is yours!” Pinkie leaned over to whisper in Fluttershy's ear. “They don't actually have any names on them!”

Pinkie bounced back out the door. “Well, I've got a lot of invitations to deliver before sunrise. See you there Fluttershy! Bye Rainbow Dash!”

And then she was gone.

The two pegasi stared after her.

“Well, that was... odd,” Fluttershy said.

“Ha! That was great,” Rainbow Dash chortled. “Maybe I'll go to this thing after all. Just watching what that mare gets up to should be worth my time.”

Rarity, hard-working unicorn craftsmare, was enjoying a well-deserved rest when something landed on top of her luxurious queen-sized bed.

“Hi, new friend!” came a cheery voice. “I'm throwing a party for the Summer Sun Celebration. Here's your invitation!”

Rarity shrieked, and ripped the sleep mask off her face to find a pony she didn't know sitting uncomfortably close, illuminated only by the dim blue light coming from Rarity's horn.

The stranger had a card in her hoof.

Rarity screamed again, and hurled a pillow at the intruder. The pink pony toppled off the side of the bed, out of sight. Rarity scrambled to the other side and turned on her bedside desk lamp. Her eyes darted around the room in the new light.

“You're Rarity, right? I'm Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you!”

Rarity whirled around at the noise, and found Pinkie standing there behind her with a sugary grin, still holding out the glittering card.

“What do you want?” Rarity asked, backing away. “How did you get in here?”

“I'm here to give you your invitation,” Pinkie repeated. “Your doors were locked, so I used the ventilation shafts.”

Rarity blinked. “But... those are too small for a pony to use. They're the size of a mailbox.”

“No,” Pinkie argued. “Well, sort of. It's like if you took a very small mailbox, and turned it on its side, and then sort of squished it and used that as the hole.”

Rarity had nothing to say to that.

Pinkie held out the card again. “Here's your invitation!”

“Rarity!” came a small voice, as the door to the room opened. Rarity turned, and saw her little sister Sweetie Belle standing there, a dawning look of comprehension on her young face. “Don't worry, Rarity! I'll take care of this bad guy for you!”

“Bad guy?!” Pinkie's head whipped left and right. “Where?”

Sweetie Belle let out a battle-cry that was far too high pitched and cracked to actually intimidate anyone, and slammed into Pinkie with all of her eighty pounds of weight. Pinkie Pie let out her own cry of alarm, and the two started rolling about on the floor.

Rarity was about to break the two apart when the squeals of laughter started.

“'M g'nna gnaw on yer 'ugular!” Sweetie growled, scrabbling her way to somewhere around Pinkie's withers.

“N- no! Wait! That tickles!” Pinkie cried, laughing all the while.

With a huff, Rarity lifted Sweetie Belle in her magic, setting her down beside her on the bed.

“Now, Sweetie,” Rarity said, “that was very brave of you, but I am perfectly capable of defending myself. If this ever happens again, it would be much better if you went and got other ponies to help, instead of... what you did.”

“Aww...” Sweetie groaned. “I never get to fight bad guys...”

Pinkie giggled. “That was fun! You're really ferocious, Sweetie Belle! Just wait a moment – I have an invitation for you too.”

Sweetie's eyes brightened. “An invitation? For what?”

“I'm throwing a big Pinkie Pie party for the Summer Sun Celebration in the town hall, just before daybreak, and all of Ponyville is invited!”

“A Pinkie Pie party?” Rarity asked. “I don't think I've heard of such a thing. What is it?”

Pinkie gasped. “You've never heard of a Pinkie Pie party? It's only the most biggest, spectacularist kind of party ever: a party hosted by me, Pinkie Pie, party pony, pupil of princesses, professor of pastries!”

“Woah...” Sweetie Belle whistled.

Rarity frowned. “That's very nice, Miss, ah, Pinkie, but I've been up far to long already. I'll need my beauty rest if I want to be presentable at your... party. Now, if I could just show you the door, I'll be sure to meet you there in the morning.”

Pinkie Pie blinked. “How much sleep could you get? The party is in thirty minutes.”

Rarity's eye twitched.

“I'll see you then, Rarity! Bye, Sweetie Belle!”

Sweetie Belle waved. “Goodbye, Pinkie!”

Rarity groaned and clutched at her forehead. Today was going to be a long day.

There was a knock at the library door.

Spike wasn't up yet, but Twilight still hadn't gotten to sleep. She often spent whole nights studying; it was easier that way. She had the whole library to herself. No ponies coming in and out, distracting her with their attempts at conversation. Or worse: checking out the books she had wanted to read! Nighttime was Twilight time, and that was good enough for her.

So someone knocking at her door, minutes before sunrise, in what was still obviously a “me time” zone, did not put the purple unicorn in the best of moods.

Twilight opened the door with a scowl, to find a pink earth pony she had never seen standing on the doorstep with a manic grin on her face.

“Hi!” the pony started. “My name is Pinkie Pie, and –”

“The library is closed,” Twilight interrupted.

Pinkie blinked. She looked around at the massive tree the library was built inside. Then she looked back.

“This is a library?”

Twilight resisted the urge to groan. “What do you want?” she asked. “It's late. Any sensible pony would be in bed.”

“Actually, it's almost morning,” Pinkie said brightly. “And I'm here to give you your invitation to the party I'm throwing for the Summer Sun Celebration! Here you go, Twilight! I'll expect to see you there, okay?”

Twilight Sparkle lifted the card in her magic without looking at it. “Look, Pinkie Pie, thanks for inviting me and everything, but I'm not really big on parties. I'm sure you and your other friends can all have a great time without me. Have a nice day.”

Twilight shut the door before Pinkie could respond. The unicorn turned around with a warm smile of anticipation, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Pinkie sitting in front of her, a look of desolation on her face.

“But Twilight,” Pinkie whined, “it won't be the same if you don't come. You're on the list Celestia gave me.”

Twilight's ears perked. “Celestia? Princess Celestia? She gave you a list with me on it?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie nodded, pulling out a scroll. She opened it to show hundreds of names, the vellum dropping from her hoof and rolling out to bounce against the door. “The Princess gave me a list of everypony in Ponyville, so I could invite them to my party. And you're on the list!”

For a moment, Twilight's interest gave way to an unimpressed look of annoyance. Then a thought occurred to her.

“Why would the Princess of Equestria bother to help you plan a party?”

“Well, parties are serious business,” Pinkie frowned. “But she's also my teacher, so I suppose she might have paid just a little bit more attention to me than to all the other party-planning requests I'm sure she gets every day.”

“Princess Celestia is your teacher?” Twilight's eyes widened, and she grabbed Pinkie's withers in a surprisingly strong grip for a librarian bookworm.

“Yep!” Pinkie smiled. “She's the best.”

Images flashed before Twilight's eyes. The poise, the regality – Twilight had met the Princess once, long ago. The swift weaving of ethereal energies had burned itself into her mind, as the Princess stepped in to stop, in one smooth motion, a magical mishap that had enveloped six of the School for Gifted Unicorns' most wizened spell-casters.

Here was a chance to talk to somepony who had learned straight from the Princess herself!

“I'd love to stay and chat Twilight,” Pinkie said, as she slipped out the door, “but I've only got a few minutes left to get this party set up, and I've still got invitations to give out. We can talk at the party, okay? See you there!”

The door slammed shut.

Twilight sighed.

“... Well... I suppose one social gathering won't hurt too much...”

Applejack was up before sunrise, just like she was every day on the farm. The cool morning breeze was just what she needed to shake the last remnants of sleep from her bones. In a few minutes, she would step back into the kitchen and help Granny Smith finish setting up the breakfast table. Applejack let out a contented sigh.

This was the life.

“Howdy do, my fine farmer friend!”

Applejack's eyes snapped open, and she stumbled back a pace at the sight of a strange pink earth pony grinning up a storm in front of her.

“I'm Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie said, “and I'm here to give y'all your invitations to the big party I'm throwing for the Summer Sun Celebration just before daybreak!”

Pinkie giggled. “'Y'all.' Hee hee! That's really fun to say!”

Applejack blinked. “Well, uh... Howdy. Pinkie. Ah'm Applejack.” The farmer smiled. “It's nice ta meet ya.” She held out a hoof.

Pinkie put a sparkly card into it.

“Oh!” Pinkie said. “I just remembered something else. I still need to get everything set up for the party. I've got everything else covered, but I still need someone to supply the food, and I've heard that Sweet Apple Acres is one of the best catering businesses around. Think you can help me out?”

“Well, shucks,” Applejack said. “Of course we'd be willin' to do some work for you. How much are you gonna need?”

“Enough for the whole village!” Pinkie announced, flinging her forelegs wide as an example. “So that'll be about three apple cakes, five apple pies, twelve dozen apple strudels, five barrels of apples to slice up for the chocolate fountain, six cinnamon apple pies...”

Applejack's eyebrows slowly raised as the pink party pony listed an impressively precise variety of apple-based goods from memory. The list went on for several minutes.

“... five apple snaps, twenty-five apple tarts, and one red delicious on a stick,” Pinkie finished. “Think you can handle all that?”

“You got it,” Applejack nodded. “That's a powerful lot of food, there. You got enough to pay for it?”

Pinkie Pie pulled out a bag, which clanked heavily when it hit the ground. “One thousand, four hundred and seventy eight bits exactly. Tip included!”

Applejack blinked. “... Sounds about right. And when exactly are you gonna need all these goodies?”

“About... six minutes from now, at the town hall.”

“What?!”

Pinkie nodded. “Short notice, I know, but you're the only caterers in town, so I'm kinda out of options. Well, except for the Cakes, but I already visited them.”

Applejack frowned. “The Cakes turned you down?”

“Oh no,” Pinkie smiled. “They're gonna be supplying all sorts of pastries and stuff. But since Princess Celestia herself is attending, I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.”

“The Princess is attendin'?” Applejack cried.

“Yep! And I may have mentioned something to her about how great everypony says your food is, and how I'll be getting you to help cater for it. And she may be really really looking forward to it. Maybe.”

Pinkie was the picture of innocence as Applejack stared helplessly into the face of disaster.

“So,” Pinkie said. “You think you can do it?”

Applejack burst back into the house. “Granny!” She yelled. “Grab everything we've got for breakfast 'n get it ready to travel. Apple Bloom, Big Mac, come help me grab everythin' we've got from the cellar. Double time!”

Pinkie waved as the Apple family ran past. “See you in four minutes!” she chirped.

Chapter 3: Idle Conversation

Princess Celestia smiled as she looked down at the card in her hoof. There's a party in Ponyville, it read, and you're invited! Be there at the town hall, thirty minutes before sunrise, for friends, food and fun!

The glitter was a bit much, but her student's cheer and excitement shone through in the way the words were written. The playful loops and swirls almost suggested the very tone of voice she would have used, had she been there saying it in person.

“Pinkie really can get things done when she puts her mind to it, can't she?” the Princess said.

The captain of the guard standing next to her blinked. “Yes, ma'am, she can. Uh... was that a rhetorical question?”

Celestia looked down at him. “That's quite alright, Shining Armor. I was talking to myself, but I think I would enjoy having a conversation at the moment.”

“Right,” Shining replied.

There was silence for a moment. Shining cleared his throat.

“Your chariot is ready, your Highness, whenever you wish to leave.”

“Wonderful. Then let's be on our way.” Celestia smiled again. “It wouldn't do to miss a celebration in my own honor.”

The walk through the palace was quieter than usual. At this early hour of the morning not many of the servants were awake, even in the castle of the Princess of the Sun. As they stepped out onto the runway, the chariots were lined up for take-off, in classic formation, with the herald cart in front, the royal carriage, and the chariots for the guards all in formation. The Princess turned to Shining Armor.

“Would you care to join me, captain, on our trip? I meant it when I said I desired company this morning.”

Shining paused. “Ah- yes, of course. As you wish, your Highness.”

The two stepped into the royal carriage, and the team of pegasi pulling it took off. The castle and city of Canterlot dropped away below them. The towering spires and minarets curling gracefully upward were a sight to behold, even in the dim light of the pre-dawn moon.

“You've met her, I'm sure,” Celestia said idly.

Shining Armor blinked. “Pinkie Pie?” he asked. “Yes, I've met her. The whole castle must have met her at least once. Everypony there knows her. She's your student.”

“Yes. My student...”

From where Shining was sitting, he could not see the Princess' face. Her flowing mane concealed her eyes.

“She's very... outgoing,” Shining said. “I tried to get my sister to meet her once or twice, before she moved away, but it never worked out. I think Pinkie would have done her good. Maybe even gotten her out of the house for a while.”

“Your sister lives in Ponyville, yes?”

Shining nodded. “She does. She wanted to research the monsters that live in the forest nearby. The Everfree.” He sighed. “It... worries me, sometimes. Her being so close to danger like that...”

“If she is in Ponyville, then I'm sure you will see her at the party,” Celestia said. “Everypony was invited, you know.”

Shining didn't say anything.

“I'm sure Pinkie Pie has thrown you one of her wonderful parties, too,” the Princess said. “She throws them for everyone who stays long enough.”

“Yes,” Shining replied. “She threw me one.”

Celestia looked at him. There was a sad smile on her face.

“Was that the time when your fellow guards tried to spike the punch, and Pinkie ended up drinking the whole bowl to keep anyone else from getting drunk?”

“That's the one,” Shining said. “Were you there, Princess? I didn't see you.”

Celestia frowned. “Even with my best effort, I'm not able to attend every party my student throws. But she tells me of them, afterward. Pinkie is very proud of them. It's her special talent, you know.”

“Y- yes. I know,” Shining Armor frowned. “Excuse me, Princess, but why are you telling me this?”

The Princess stared at the night sky for a long, long moment.

“No reason,” she said at last. “I just wanted to talk about things. Little things. Important things, like that. Things that shouldn't be forgotten.”

Celestia turned back to the captain. “Do you know the history of the Summer Sun Celebration?” she asked.

“Not particularly,” Shining grimaced. “Sorry.”

“The tradition began one-thousand years ago, as a celebration of my victory over the Mare in the Moon,” Celestia said.

“The Mare in the Moon?” Shining asked. “You mean, the pattern on the moon that looks like a mare's head?”

“She was a real pony,” Celestia said. “An alicorn, like me. Pegasus wings, unicorn horn, taller than any earth pony, with a coat as black as night, and a mane made of the stars. She had many names. One of them you might recognize; she is the pony Nightmare Night is named after.”

Shining Armor's eyes widened. “Nightmare Moon? The Mare in the Moon is Nightmare Moon?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “Nightmare Night and the Summer Sun Celebration used to be held on the same day, as part of the same great feast, before I changed it. Nightmare Moon may have attacked on the longest day of the year, but I wanted to be able to remember it as a happy time. So I separated the two; Nightmare Night recalls the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the Summer Sun Celebration is just that. A celebration of the Summer Solstice.”

“... Princess,” Shining said. “If it isn't too much to ask... Why did you decide to hold this year's celebration in Ponyville? It's not a very notable town.”

“Oh, but it is. You said it yourself, earlier. Ponyville is the only town within fifty miles of the Everfree forest. In fact, it's right on the forest's border.”

“Why does that make it a good place to hold the Summer Sun Celebration at?” Shining asked.

“Because this year's Celebration is also special,” Celestia replied. “It is the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. It has been exactly one-thousand years since I defeated Nightmare Moon and sealed her away.”

“... Why does that matter?”

The Princess smiled, softly. “Monsters are not the only things the Everfree has to boast of. Did you know I used to live there? There was a castle, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. That was where I did it. Where I fought the Mare in the Moon.”

She sighed.

“And that, if anywhere, will be where she returns.”

“What?!” Shining cried out. One of the pegasi flying the carriage looked back, but the captain and the Princess paid him no heed.

“There are predictions,” Celestia said in a hushed tone, “prophesies, that she will return on the longest day of the thousandth year of her banishment. I do not know if they are true, but if they are, then the Nightmare is certain to descend on Ponyville first. It is closest to where she was banished, to where she will return. And if she does show up... I will be there, waiting for her.”

Shining Armor just stared at her. The carriage flew on.

“I'm sorry,” Celestia said. “About your sister. ”

Shining shook his head. “No, your Highness. She knew it was dangerous when she moved there. And if Nightmare Moon is real... if she really does come back... nowhere will be safe.”

He looked up. “That's why you were talking about Pinkie Pie,” he said. “You're worried about her.”

Celestia's face was impassive.

“If the sun does not rise today,” she said, slowly, “if tonight is the last night, for all of eternity... Then Pinkie deserves to spend it outside of the castle, for once. With everypony else, having one of the parties she loves so much.”

“You'll keep her safe, your Highness,” Shining said. “You'll keep everypony safe. You'll see.”

Celestia stared up at the sky and said nothing.

Some time later, the carriage arrived in the little town on the borders of the Everfree.

Chapter 4: Party Time

“La-lala-lala... Some streamers here, balloons over there, more pink, a few silly hats... Perfect! And with a whole nine seconds to spare, too.”

From up atop the city hall's chandelier, Pinkie Pie looked down with approval on all her work. Everything was in place. The curtains were lowered, the lights were arranged, and the stage was set for the Princess' big entrance. And there were all sorts of other goodies and games for ponies to enjoy in the meantime! She was particularly proud of the intricate triple aileron cross-stitch that she had managed to incorporate into the welcome banner. It made the Princess' name a little hard to make out, but hey, everypony already knew what her name was, so what did it matter?

Now, if only those caterers would get here.

The doors slammed open, and a panting Applejack and Big McIntosh wheeled in several carts of baked goods, before collapsing on the ground. Pinkie hopped down, and made her way over to where Applejack was recovering. She gazed at the farmer sympathetically.

“You're just a teensy bit late,” she said, “but since you managed to get everything I asked for, and it was short notice, I think I'll let you off the hook this time.”

“This time?” Applejack frowned. She manged to force herself to a standing position. “Pinkie, if you ever give us a deadline like this again, you can just forget about it. Why, if the Princess herself hadn't been attending this here shindig, Ah wouldn't even have bothered doin' this much.”

Pinkie nodded. “But what if I ask next time, and there's a deadline, and the Princess is coming to that party too?”

“No.” Applejack shook her head. “Ah'm sorry, but we just can't be expected to provide a satisfactory product consistently with that kind of timeline.”

“And what if I've already asked the Cakes and they said they'd be happy to help?”

Applejack looked sick for a moment. But she was firm. “No, Pinkie,” she said. “Next time, you give us a lot more warning, understand? Or Ah'm afraid we just can't help you.”

“Okie dokie!” Pinkie grinned. “This was sort of a one-time deal, anyway. Next time I won't have to spend so much time meeting everypony because I'll already know everypony! Won't that be great?”

“Heh heh. Yeah,” Applejack laughed weakly.

The farmer fidgeted with her hat. “Is what we got you... Ah mean, is it really enough? We had a lot of leftovers from yesterday afternoon, a powerful lot, what with the family reunion bein' that day, but we didn't exactly have time to stop and check what we'd got...”

“Yup,” Pinkie said idly. “Everything's here. Right down to that one apple dumpling with the bite in it.”

Applejack frowned. “You asked for a dumpling with a bite in it?”

“Uh huh.”

“What're you gonna do with a half-eaten dumpling?”

“Oh, it's not half-eaten,” Pinkie said. “More like a quarter eaten. Or maybe a third? Hmm... Let's just call it: 'partially' eaten.”

“... What're you gonna do with a partially eaten dumpling?”

“Throw it away, of course,” Pinkie laughed. “I couldn't let anypony eat it. It's unsanitary.”

“... Right,” Applejack said, a look of confusion still on her face. “And how did you know that one item was in that big pile of stuff we dragged in here?”

“Oh look!” Pinkie pointed. “Rarity's here. Hi Rarity! Applejack, you can set up the food tables without me, right? 'Kaythanksbye!” And she ran off to greet the unicorn.

“... Huh,” Applejack muttered. “She's an odd one, that mare.”

“How in the hay did that mare manage to get everypony in town to show up to a party that would be too sugary for a six year old?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I mean, party balloons? Streamers? Pin the Tail on the Pony? Come on. This is Ponyville for crying out loud. We live on the edge of the deadliest place in Equestria and have to deal with massive, world ending abominations, like, once a week. Those of us who survive are warriors, with keen fighting instincts! We don't have time for stuff like this.”

“Actually,” Fluttershy whispered from her place under the table, “I think it's sort of... nice. Only, there are a lot of ponies here...”

“Look!” Dash pointed over at a sparser section of the crowd. “That purple unicorn, right over there. The one next to the royal guards. That's the librarian. How did she convince her to come to this? The only reason ponies know about her is because they talk about how she never talks to anyone.”

“... I don't normally talk to anyone, but I'm here.”

“Yeah. Because I made you come.”

“Well,” Fluttershy said, “maybe it was something like that. Maybe someone else convinced her to come.”

“'Doesn't talk to anyone,' Fluttershy. There's no one to convince her.” Dash sighed. “What is this 'Summer Sun' thingy about, anyway? I've never heard about anything like it around here.”

A new voice spoke up. “That's because it's not from around here, Rainbow Dash.”

Upon recognizing the newcomer, Rainbow scowled for a moment, before she was able to force her expression into one resembling civility.

“Hello, Rarity,” she said coolly.

The unicorn nodded in reply. “The Summer Sun Celebration is an opportunity to thank Princess Celestia for her role in maintaining Equestria. As such, it's usually held in Canterlot, or one of the other major cities, so that the Princess can be in attendance. This is the first time I've heard of the celebration being held in a town like ours; it's a great honor.”

Dash sneered. “Yeah, great. A big hoity-toity production. Sure makes us hard-working ponies feel honored, having a rich, fancy party and everything.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. “Just because ponies with more money than you choose to spend some of it enjoying themselves doesn't justify looking down on them.”

“You would say that,” Rainbow Dash glared. “You've always wanted to be one of them.”

Fluttershy flinched at the overt display of hostility on her friend's face, but Rarity stayed calm.

“Considering you are my best customer, Rainbow Dash, I should assume you know that I put more than a bit of effort into every one of my products. Making feasible armor out of chimera hide is a lot of work. If I ever achieve my dream of entering the Canterlot elite, it will be because I worked at it, and for no other reason.”

Rainbow Dash was quiet, but didn't back down. With a sigh, Rarity looked away.

“Also, I don't believe anypony would call something like this 'hoity-toity,' exactly. Too much... pink.”

Dash chuckled in spite of herself. “I know, right? That's just what I was saying. And what's with all the balloons?”

“Now, if I were Princess Celestia's student, where would I be?” Twilight asked herself.

The little baby dragon on her back shrugged. “Asleep, maybe? It's six in the morning, Twilight.”

“Don't be ridiculous, Spike,” Twilight said. “This is the Summer Sun Celebration. If I was Celestia's student, I think I would at least show up for her party, especially if I was running the thing. Now, do you see a pink mare anywhere?”

Spike's eyes narrowed as he glanced around. “There's too much pink around here. Pink tablecloths, pink balloons, pink streamers. Bleh. This is a party for the Princess? What is she, five?”

“So much pink,” Twilight muttered. “Of course! It's like camouflage. This must be Pinkie Pie's natural habitat. Now, working on that assumption, I just need to set up a stakeout somewhere she's likely to visit. What do you think Pinkie eats?”

“There's only one snack table, Twilight.”

“True,” Twilight nodded. “That makes things a lot easier than out in the woods. Now, what would be a good position to watch from...”

A flash of golden metal caught Spike's eye.

“Hey...” Spike started. “Hey that's – Twilight! Isn't that Shining Armor?”

“Shining Armor? Here?” The thought was enough to snap Twilight out of planning her ambush. “Oh my gosh, that is him! Spike, Shiny's here! You know what that means, right?”

“Uh... you get to see your brother again for the first time in years?” Spike guessed.

“No! Well, yes,” Twilight admitted, “but more importantly, Shining Armor is the Captain of the Royal Guard. If he's here, that means Princess Celestia is here too! In the flesh!”

“Twilight...” Spike groaned. “Don't go all fanfilly and get us arrested again.”

“Oh, Spike, don't be silly. They can't possibly charge us with trespassing this time; we were invited to this party, and it's on public property, so I have every right to be here.”

“Sure, not trespassing,” Spike admitted, “but we could still get in trouble for harassing royalty if you start taking snippets of the Princess' mane.”

Twilight grinned. “Do you really think I'll get that close? Oh, I can't wait! Eee!”

“... Not the point I was trying to make,” Spike muttered.

The dragon looked up. “Twilight, look! Shining is leaving.”

“What?” Twilight's head snapped up. “Is something wrong? Is the Princess leaving too? What's happening?”

“He just went into that door over there,” Spike said. “Where does that go to, anyway?”

Twilight stared for a moment. Then she smiled knowingly. “Ah,” she said. “That room leads around to the back of the stage. And look; they've set up all those curtains and lights over there. That'll be where the Princess shows up. She must be in that room right now.” She nodded. “Now there's only one question in my mind.”

“What's that, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Do I get the best seat for when the Princess makes her big entrance now, or do I try to find her student first? Oh, I can't decide!” Twilight groaned. “What do you think, Spike?”

Spike sighed.

“I think this is going to be a long night...”

As the party guests milled about below, enjoying the music and the delectable goodies, Pinkie Pie hopped up onto the town hall's big stage and grabbed the microphone. She tapped on it once or twice to make sure it was working, and the crowd quieted in anticipation.

“Ladies and gentlecolts!” Pinkie grinned. “Thank you all so much for coming here this morning to help us host this, Ponyville's first Summer Sun Celebration! I've only spent a short time here, but in that time I've gotten to know quite a few of you, and I've got to say I've never met a more welcoming bunch of ponies. Give yourselves a round of applause!”

After a polite round of clapping, Pinkie continued. “Now, I know a lot of you had no idea what this party was going to be about when you got your invitation. I guess nopony around here has actually heard about it before, but that's okay. I probably should have put it on the invitation, actually.” Pinkie giggled. “That's one of the things invitations are for!

“But anyway, you don't need to know a whole lot about the Summer Sun Celebration in order to enjoy it, so I'll just give you the basics. Number one: this is Ponyville's first ever Summer Sun Celebration. Number two: The is the one thousandth anniversary of the original Summer Sun Celebration. And number last-est but not least-ish: Princess Celestia is here to visit!”

There was a squeal from somewhere in the audience as a certain purple librarian lapsed into full-on fanfilly glee, followed up by a more ordinary round of enthusiastic cheering.

Pinkie grinned as she stepped over to the rope connected to the stage's curtains. “Everypony, and/or bear, please give a big welcome to Princess Celestia!”

With a pull on the rope, the curtains lifted. The excitement was palpable. The smiles on the crowd's faces, the anticipation in their eyes; everything was exactly like Pinkie had pictured it would be.

And then the cheers faded.

The crowd started whispering among themselves, in a tone that was... worried? Pinkie blinked. That wasn't supposed to happen. She glanced back at where she had just raised the curtain.

There was nopony there.

“Hey!” came an angry voice from the crowd. “What is this? Did the Princess really send you here?”

The murmuring grew darker, as the whispers became more pointed. “Would the Princess' messenger really wake us up in the middle of the night, to invite us to a party, minutes before the event?” “She never did show any proof that she knew her or anything, did she?” “Doesn't something about this seem a little weird to you?”

“Ah... Um... Heh heh. We're experiencing, uh, technical difficulties right now,” Pinkie said awkwardly. “I'm sure there's some sort of explanation for this –”

And then the room went black.

There was the sound of thunder, mixed with the peal of rich, feminine, ominous laughter.

“An explanation?” asked a voice. “You want an explanation? Very well, my dear subjects. I can give you an explanation.”

There was a thud, as something hit the stage floor.

“Princess Celestia is finished.”

As the light slowly filtered back into the room, everyone could see the striking figure there on the stage: a pony of midnight black, tall as a horse, with wings and horn both.

“Princess Celestia is no longer in charge.”

Her starry mane had turned into a vortex of blackness, towering above her. In it hung the motionless figures of several royal guards.

“Princess Celestia, my darling sister, has lost to me this day.”

At her hooves lay a pale, limp form. A large form, with a horn, and two wings, and glazed over eyes, which betrayed no hint of the intelligence so familiar to them. Its strained, unsteady breathing was the only hint that life still remained.

“I am Nightmare Moon,” the dark mare declared. “I am the Princess of the Night. And this night, my beautiful night, will last forever!”

Chapter 5: Gathering

The audience cried out.

“Princess Celestia!”

Nightmare chuckled. “Not quite how you're used to seeing her, hmm? The pretty pony princess, gasping for breath, her colorful mane all lifeless and dull, sweat dripping off her heaving sides. Star-spider venom does that to a pony, you know. It leaves you perfectly incapable of movement, with just enough life left to keep your limbs from stiffening up. I designed it that way. It makes it so much easier on the poor spiders; they can take all the time they wish designing their adorable little 'constellations' without having to worry about their materials breaking loose. And oh, does it burn inside.”

She leaned down over her fallen sister. “Better get used to the feeling, Celly. If you think that little vacation on the Moon you gave me was harsh, wait until I turn your precious Elements of Harmony against you, and send you straight into the Sun – only you won't be coming back.”

There were two guards who had stayed in the main hall. They started to advance, their faces set in determined scowls, but Nightmare Moon's head snapped up, and they found themselves pinned by her icy glare.

“I would not try that if I were you,” the Night Princess warned. As she spoke, she dropped the guards she was already carrying to the ground in front of the stage. The crowd backed away, cries of horror rising at the sight of the injured forms.

“S- Shining!” Pinkie gasped. She rushed down to where the guard captain lay, face bruised, burned, and breastplate dented in a way that was not possible with unbroken ribs. “And – and Hokey Smokes, and Steel Saber, and...”

Nightmare Moon shook her head. “Truly, I desire only the heartfelt affection of all my dear subjects. You are capable of great love; such is the warmth which you have have always gifted my sister.” She frowned. “But I suppose that affection will lead some of you to resist me. For her. My older sister... Do you not see why I had to do what I did?”

She stomped her hoof. There was a crack, as the wood floor of the stage splintered beneath her.

“Even in her current state, she threatens to overshadow me. Well, no more! Tonight, we shall have an end.”

Nightmare's eyes flashed across the audience.

“But for that,” she said, “I will need some... volunteers.”

With a suddenness that caught everypony wholly off-guard, she was on one side of the hall, grabbing a small, orange filly. “A pegasus,” she said, murmuring to herself in a voice that carried across the whole chamber.

Then she was over by the dance floor, where the record player was still spouting unfittingly cheery music. At her appearance, a yellow foal with a bow in her mane stumbled back. Before the foal could get away, she was snatched up by the Night Princess. “An earth pony...”

She disappeared. There was a squeal from under one of the round tables, as Fluttershy threw herself out from where she had been hiding a moment before. Dark smoke lifted the table, and set it to one side, as Nightmare Moon held up a third filly who had also been concealed there. “And a unicorn. Excellent.”

With a flash of un-light, she was back on the stage. The limp body of Celestia lifted slowly off the ground, carried in Nightmare Moon's magic aura alongside her other unwilling prisoners.

“Farewell, my little ponies,” the dark mare said. “I will return to you soon enough. Enjoy the rest of the night. It's going to be very long indeed.”

The three captured fillies struggled in the air. The unicorn and the earther cried out to their sisters. “Rarity!” “Applejack!”

The pegasus didn't have a sister. So she called for her hero instead.

“Rainbow Dash! Help me!”

In a whirl of maniacal laughter and shadows, Nightmare Moon was gone, taking the Princess and the fillies with her.

Chaos ran rampant.

“She took Applebloom!” Applejack cried. “Sweet Celestia, she took Applebloom!”

Rarity was in a panic. “Sweetie Belle! Oh, our parents are going to kill me.”

“Stop holding me back!” Rainbow Dash roared, managing to lift the pile of six ponies who were desperately trying to restrain her a few inches before collapsing. “I don't know who that filly was, but she needs me. She asked for me. I've got to save her!”

“They were so scared,” Fluttershy sniffed. “And I was- I did- … I should have done something...”

Twilight galloped up to where her brother lay on the floor. Her breath hitched as she drew close, and she found herself unable to step the rest of the way. She hardly noticed the bright pink pony sitting beside him. His eyes... the- the blood...

“Shining!” Spike called out from his perch on Twilight's back. He hopped down, and ran to the fallen captain. “Dude, are you all right? Talk to me!”

Shining Armor groaned.

“S-Spike?” he mumbled. “'S that you?”

Pinkie's ears pricked up. Tears were streaming down her face.

“Shining? Shining, you're alive!”

She snatched him up in a back-breaking hug. “I thought I'd never see you again! You were so hurt, and when she dropped you, I just –”

“Don't touch my brother!” Twilight spat out, pulling the two apart in a display of magical prowess.

Shining coughed. “Heh heh, ow... It's nice to see you too, Miss Pinkie. Try- not to hug ponies with- broken ribs. Its- painful...”

He turned to look at his sister.

“... Twily,” he smiled.

Twilight's mouth trembled. She wanted to smile back, to match the casual warmth her brother showed even with his eyes swelling up and his fur singed and blackened along the side of his face. Just a small smile, a little thing, anything to show that it would all be alright. But the smile wouldn't come. Twilight's vision was blurring, and her eyes hurt, but she couldn't close them. She just stared.

“Wait here Shining,” Pinkie said. “I'll go get Redheart!”

She started to step away, froze for a moment, and turned back.

“She's a nurse. I just met her today!”

Pinkie took off into the crowd, but was back a moment later.

“– And, and I'll also get Doctor Steady Hoof. He's a doctor!”

“I got that, Pinkie,” Shining grunted.

“Right. Be right back!”

And then Pinkie was gone again.

Twilight, still in a daze, watched as the pink pony left. She laid her brother back down on the floor as gently as she could.

“... Twilight,” Shining grunted. “Do you think you could help me- get this armor off?”

Twilight shook her head. “Shining, I don't think that's a good idea,” she blurted. “I- I wouldn't know what I was doing. It could be the wrong choice; I could just hurt you more. Just wait here for the professionals. They- they should be here any moment now.”

“It's crushing my ribs, Twily,” Shining said with a lopsided grin. “How could that be- the wrong choice?”

“It could be holding them in place! If I took it off, the bones could shift, or you could start bleeding internally, or your lungs could collapse! I just can't- I mean- They're getting a doctor. He'll be here in a minute, so just- just wait!”

Twilight was shaking like a leaf. Spike looked up at her. He rested a clawed hand on her foreleg.

“... Twilight?” he asked.

Twilight looked down at her young assistant.

Her face softened, and she stopped shivering quite so much.

“... Shining, what do we do now?” Twilight asked. “She took the Princess. She... did this to you. How do we stop somepony like that?”

“The Elements of Harmony!”

Twilight jumped as Pinkie seemed to suddenly appear beside her.

“We need to get the Elements if we want to keep Princess Moon from causing eternal night,” Pinkie said. “Oh, and I got the medics. They're over here, guys! Come on!”

As the medical ponies crowded around the injured guards, Shining Armor leaned up and grabbed Twilight by the leg.

“Don't lose hope, Twilight. She can be beaten. We'll- make it through this.”

“Stop moving,” a nurse commanded. “Lie back down.”

Shining did, and Twilight was pushed to the side as the professionals took over.

She turned to where Pinkie sat bobbing her head up and down in an attempt to see past the wall of medical practitioners.

“The Elements of Harmony?” Twilight repeated. “She – Nightmare Moon mentioned them, in her speech. What are they?”

Pinkie smiled. “The Elements of Harmony are pretty much just the most magical things that ever did or did not exist! There are six of them, well, only five are actually known, but there's a sixth one too, and together they can make this magic rainbow that goes woosh, and all crash, and makes everything all better!”

“... Uh huh...” Twilight frowned. “And... these Elements can beat Nightmare Moon?”

“You bet!” Pinkie grinned. “The Princess told me about them once. They'll do the trick, no problem. They can do all sorts of things!”

Twilight stood there for a moment.

“You're the Princess' student, right?”

“Yep,” Pinkie said. “That's me!”

Twilight nodded. “Then am I correct in my assumption that you will be the one who will lead an attempt to rescue both the missing Princess and the hostages which have been taken by the culprit, Nightmare Moon?”

Pinkie blinked. “I... guess? You talk funny.”

Twilight flinched. “Sorry. I'm just... anyway, if that's the case, I- I want to help.” Her face hardened. “I want Nightmare Moon taken down, and I want to be a part of it. Let me help you find the Elements.”

Pinkie's lips pursed. “You suuure?” Pinkie asked. “Because the Elements are in the Everfree forest, and Princess Moon is already looking for them by now. In fact, she probably won't have to look at all; they're up in the old castle, and she used to live there, so she probably knows where it is.”

“Then we'll just have to get to them first!” Spike piped up.

Twilight glanced at her assistant, where he stood by her side with a determined look on his childish face.

“Could you excuse us for just one moment, Miss Pie?” Twilight asked.

“Well, okay. But wouldn't it be better if I excused you for a whole bunch of moments?”

“Thanks,” Twilight said, pulling Spike over to one side. When they were a few steps away, her gaze locked on to his.

“You're not coming with us!” she glared.

Spike sputtered. “W- what?”

“My brother is seriously injured right now, and I'm not going to let that happen to anyone else I care about!” Twilight hissed. “That thing who calls herself a princess has already taken too much from me. I'm not letting that happen to you, Spike. I can't. It won't. It's too dangerous.”

Spike frowned. “I care about Shining Armor too, you know! He's my brother too. Or the closest thing I've got to one, anyway. And what about you, Twilight? What if something happens to you?”

“You can't come,” Twilight repeated. “I'm old enough to take care of myself, but you're just a baby dragon. I'll be fine.”

“Old enough to take care of yourself against someone who took down Princess Celestia and an entire squadron of royal guards?”

“I'll be fine! I'll be-” Twilight shook her head. “But I couldn't protect you, if you came. I'm not strong enough, Spike. You can't come this time.”

“That's not fair!”

“Life's not always fair!” Twilight roared.

She panted. She hadn't meant to shout.

“... I need you to stay here,” she said, finally. “Keep an eye on Shiny for me. Send- send me a message if anything happens.”

Spike fumed. “That's baloney, Twilight, and you know it.”

“Spike, if we run into anything we can't handle, I need you here so I can send for reinforcements,” Twilight said. “Can you do that for me?”

Spike stared at her for a moment.

“... Fine,” he said at last.

“Good,” Twilight said. She wavered for a moment, then gripped the dragon in an overwhelming hug.

“I love you, Spike,” she choked. “I know I don't say it often enough, but I do, and – and I'm sorry, but I just can't... can't...”

“You won't,” Spike said. As they pulled apart, he looked up at her. “Just don't make me lose you, alright? I love you too.”

“I won't,” Twilight promised. She smiled a bit. “You won't lose me.”

Twilight rubbed her eyes as she walked back to where Pinkie Pie was waiting. The pink mare had a small frown on her face.

“Everything going okay?”

“It's fine,” Twilight said. “Spike's not coming. Where were we again?”

“We're all here in the Town Hall,” Pinkie said. “Princess Moon and the Elements are all in the creepy castle in the middle of the Everfree.”

Twilight nodded. “Right. If Nightmare Moon is in the Everfree Forest, then you'll need a team –”

“What?!”

Across the room, Rainbow Dash burst out of the pony pile, sending ponies flying every which way as she rushed up to within inches of Twilight's face. “You know where she is? Where she took them? A team? You've got to let me join!”

Twilight blinked, and took a step back. “You're Rainbow Dash, am I right? The best hunter in Ponyville? And, by extension, all of Equestria.” She turned to Pinkie. “She'd be a great asset inside the forest. In fact, she would be on my list of ponies to take.”

Pinkie nodded. “Sounds good. Welcome to the team, Dash-dash!”

“Ah,” Rainbow slowed. “Right. Of course. I am the best, after all!”

Then she frowned. “Don't call me Dash-dash.”

“Right...” Twilight continued. “Also on my list would be Fluttershy. She's one of the most knowledgeable herbalists and woodsponies I know of.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Fluttershy? Are you sure? She's not really the kind of pony who –”

“I'LL DO IT!” Fluttershy shouted above the crowd. For a moment, there was silence. Everypony stared at her where she stood out in the open, knees knocking, one eye hidden behind her long pink mane and very much wishing that it would hide the other eye too. Fluttershy gulped.

“I'll do it,” she squeaked.

“Ooh! Ooh, that's good!” Pinkie nodded. “And then, what about Rarity?” She snatched the white unicorn from out of the crowd. “She makes armor, and armor's really good when you're facing hordes of ravenous monsters. She should totally join our team!”

Rarity coughed. “Pinkie, darling, you flatter me, but I can't exactly throw together a hauberk in the middle of a forest. It takes time, you know.”

Pinkie blinked.

“Do you not want to come and beat Nightmare Moon?” she asked.

“Oh,” Rarity gasped. “Oh no, I'm not missing this for the world. My sister is in danger, and I'm going to move Heaven and Earth to get her back!”

“Then,” Pinkie said, “as official Celestia's student and team leader, I declare Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all part of rescue team 'Pinkie's Party!'”

“W-wait,” Twilight stammered. “What about me?”

“You?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You're a librarian.”

“Yes,” Twilight said. “I'm also Twilight Sparkle, top-graduating student of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and a world leader in monster research, specializing in dangerous creatures of the Everfree.” She smiled wanly. “I got my first doctorate in it.”

“Accepted!” Pinkie cried. “Anypony else?”

There was silence for a moment as the ponies looked around. Twilight shrugged. “That was it,” she said. “I've made all my suggestions.”

“Then, Pinkie's Party –”

“Wait!”

The ponies turned to look at where Applejack stood beside them. “Ah'm comin' too!” the farmer said.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Hold on, guys. I'll handle this.”

She floated over to the farmer and laid an understanding hoof on her withers.

“Applejack... You're a really strong pony. I know that, and you know that. But this isn't like an athletics competition, or punching the lights out of some jerk at a bar. You're a farmer, Applejack. A civilian. You're not used to fighting things twelve times your body weight, with venomous claws that'll rip a pony in two.”

“Ah'm goin',” Applejack said. “Nightmare Moon took my sister, and Ah'm gonna get her back, even if Ah lose three legs in tryin'.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “That's not the way the world works, Applejack! You can't just tough it out. There aren't any battle scars in this business, because if you get hit, you're dead. Rarity's already a stretch, but at least she knows something about how monsters fight. You'd just get yourself killed.”

“Applejack accepted!” Pinkie grinned. “Come on guys! Let's get this party started!”

And with that, Pinkie bounced out the door, the others quickly following, leaving Rainbow Dash floating there alone for a moment.

“Wait,” she said. “What just happened?”

“The Everfree Forest!” Pinkie cried.

“I can't believe you guys just left me there,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “You don't just walk out on a pony in the middle of an argument.”

“We didn't,” Applejack said. “Argument was over. Ah won. Then we left.”

“Oh my,” Rarity whispered, as she approached the dark, leafless entrance to the forest. “No matter how many times I go in here, it never seems to feel any more welcoming.”

“... It's alright,” Fluttershy said. “It looks scary, but... a lot of the creatures that live in here are really nice, once you get to know them.”

“Nice?” Twilight frowned. “You must be thinking about a different forest. How could a hydra or a basilisk be considered nice?”

Fluttershy scuffed the dirt path with a hoof. “... They're not so bad. Once you get to know them.”

“Alright!” Pinkie proclaimed. “Let us begin this epic journey which will no doubt be entirely trap-free and effortless, with no interference at all from the dangerous Nightmare we're seeking as we skip across fields of flowers and beautiful rainbows!”

The others stared at her. Pinkie winked.

“Come on, guys. Let's go!”

Chapter 6: Fallen Stars

“What's that?”

Applejack stared sidelong at Rainbow Dash, who was putting on a cloak as they walked. It was dull in color, with a hood on it, and it hung closely about her athletic frame.

“What's what?” Dash frowned.

“That getup you're puttin' on now,” Applejack pointed. “Where 'd you pull that from?”

“It's armor.” Dash huffed. “It helps me stay hidden from things that are trying to eat me, and the padding provides just a tiny bit of cushion for when they inevitably spot my ridiculous rainbow mane and decide to find out what it tastes like.” She smirked. “Hint: it tastes like pain.”

She tugged down the hood until only a shaded muzzle poked out of it. “It's also the only set of gear I own that can fit in a regular saddlebag. So it's what I've got now.”

“Ah see,” Applejack nodded. “And what's that?”

“Fold-up combat knife.” Rainbow Dash scowled at the device in her hooves as she unfolded it and the blade snapped into place. “A cheap novelty thing that's probably gonna break on me the first time I use it. But it fits in the bag, so I got it.”

“You have a saddlebag all set up just in case you need to go huntin' down a demon Princess?”

Rainbow slid the knife around to a sheath sewn into the back of her cloak, and tucked the cloth bag into a pocket. “No. This is my regular saddlebag.”

Applejack blinked. “You carry this sort of stuff with you all the time? … You brought it to the Celebration?”

Rainbow Dash nodded.

“Why would you bring stuff like that to a shindig?”

Dash snorted. “Because if I carry around my real stuff, ponies start asking dumb questions like that one.”

Applejack leaned back, eyes wide with surprise. Before she could respond, Twilight spoke up.

“I don't think that answered Applejack's question, Rainbow Dash.”

“Why do I have to explain this?” Rainbow glared. “Of course I would want armor and weapons when I'm going to fight my way through the Everfree forest. Why is this such a big deal, anyway?”

“It's not,” Twilight agreed, “and you don't. But –”

“I mean, at least I'm prepared!” Dash interrupted. “I brought the stuff I need to get through this! Weapons, armor, medicine, food, water. The whole shebang! What about you, Applejack? What did you grab in your five minutes of preparation?”

“... Just some rope,” Applejack muttered. “Grabbed it off of my cart. Didn't have time for anythin' else.”

“Ha!” Rainbow sneered. “Well then, I guess I'll just have to pick up the slack.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight snapped. “None of us had time to pack anything. It's not Applejack's fault that she didn't think she'd be chasing after a figure from ancient pony myth when she woke up this morning. We're all a bit under-prepared.”

Dash crossed her forelegs as she floated silently down the brambly forest path.

“Oh yeah?" she said. "I'll bet Fluttershy has plenty of useful stuff in her bags. Don't you, Flutters?”

The others turned to look at the yellow pegasus, who squeaked with discomfort.

“Oh, I don't know if I packed all that much...”

Dash sighed. “Come on, Fluttershy. What 'd you bring?”

“I – I don't really want to get involved in –”

“Fluttershy...”

Fluttershy coughed.

“... five meters of bandages, some soothing herbs and ointments, some scissors, tweezers, a sewing kit and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.”

“Ha! See?” Rainbow smirked. “Told you she'd have stuff.”

Applejack frowned. “And how in the hay is a sewing kit useful in the middle of a forest?”

“I beg your pardon,” Rarity scoffed, “but being able to maintain the integrity of one's clothing is of the utmost importance! … Although I believe Fluttershy was intending it for it's utility as a surgical aid rather than its more civic use.”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow nodded. “'Course it's useful. Fluttershy's a whiz with all that medic-y stuff. And of course she'd have it with her. She and I practically live out here. If you don't have your gear all set up, then you don't keep that up for very long.”

Pinkie popped up next to the medic with an amused look of curiosity. “I dunno... Why'd you bring all that to the party, Fluttershy? I mean, the town hall's not in the Everfree forest, even if Ponyville's really really close to it and some of the houses around the edge are actually in the shade of the trees and stuff, but my parties are one hundred percent safe! Well, except when Night Princesses show up and kidnap your mentor and beat up her guards, but that only happens once every thousand years.”

“... I just grabbed my bags by accident,” Fluttershy murmured. “I'm not used to going anywhere other than the woods, and I always bring them with me, in case something needs help. I'm sorry...”

“Fluttershy, it's great that you've got skills and equipment that can help us,” Twilight said. “That's not something you need to apologize for.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow frowned, turning her hooded eyes on Pinkie Pie. “Don't bug her about it! What did you bring, oh fearless leader? Where are your saddlebags?”

Pinkie smiled. “I've got my saddle bags right here, Dash-bow!” She reached up into the curls of her mane, and tugged out a set of bulging baby-blue containers. “I don't think those will help much, though – they're sorta full of streamers and stuff, and one of them used to have paint in it, but I think it sprung a leak, because that's all gone now. Buuuut I have all sorts of other useful stuff!”

The other ponies slowed to a halt as they watched their pink companion pull increasingly more improbable things from out of nowhere. “I've got a hammer,” Pinkie started. “Screws. A beach ball. Baseball, soccer ball, football, baseball glove and a toy fish. Three cakes (vanilla, chocolate and spice), along with six cupcakes with custom icing (one for each of us!). A compass, a different compass, a thing that they told me was a compass but that makes circles instead of showing you how not to, three reams of paper folded into a single origami flamingo, a towel, and my favorite rubber ducky. And... that's it! So, what do you think?”

Pinkie smiled as she came to a stop, leaning on top of the pile of junk she had made. Her smile faded a little when she noticed nopony else was saying anything.

“Did I not pack enough cake? I would have brought more, but I only had five minutes.”

“What was that?” Applejack blurted.

“Was that a spell?” Twilight wondered. “Did Princess Celestia give that to you? You're an earth pony, so that can't have been your own magic.”

“How in the hay did you fit all that in your mane?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie's ears drooped. “Was... was I not supposed to do that? I just – everyone else was showing all the stuff they brought, so I thought...”

No one spoke.

Pinkie shook her head. “Never mind! I'll just pack this up, and we can keep going.” With a few swift movements, everything was stowed away again, and Pinkie turned abruptly back towards their direction of travel. “Come on guys! We've gotta get to that castle!”

Pinkie trotted on ahead. The others stood there for a moment in silence. Then they hurried to catch up.

Dash flew up to Pinkie's side. “Sooo,” she asked, “where exactly is this castle we're looking for? I mean, you'd think I would know about something like that, having lived here for so long and all. I've been all over this forest, but I don't remember seeing anything like that lying around.”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin and screwed up her face. “It's sort of Easterly, I think, but not as upward as it is right-ish. Sort of? I don't know.” She shrugged. “I haven't ever been there before.”

“The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is a fairly important historical ruin,” Twilight said. “It's located in the South-Eastern quadrant, about three miles in from the forest's edge. It should be only a short distance off of the Moth Meadows trail, around the point where it runs into Cyprus clearing.”

“Well, that explains it,” Rainbow sighed. “Lame! That's the absolute tamest part of the Everfree. I never come here; there's nothing from here to there bigger to hunt than a quarrel-snipe, and you're better off just ignoring those, they pay so little. You probably don't even need my help, if that's where we're going.”

Rarity frowned. “My sister and those other foals still need our help, Rainbow Dash. And Nightmare Moon isn't going to make things easy on us.”

“Oh, don't think I'm dropping out," Rainbow smirked. "I'm coming with, and nothing's going to stop me.” The pegasus leaned back in the air. “Just wake me when we get there, is all.”

Without turning, Rainbow added: “Applejack, don't touch those. They suck.”

The farmer froze, hoof poised over a patch of unassuming green flowers that she had been about to step in. The petals had a jagged line of yellow running along their center. Twilight glanced over.

“Oh. Nice catch, Rainbow Dash. Everypony keep an eye out for plants you don't recognize.” She turned to Applejack. “These are Shock Saffron. They're carnivorous magic-users.”

“Giggidy,” Applejack mumbled, stepping away quickly. “What – what would have happened if Ah had...”

“Oh, nothing much,” Twilight smiled. “They would have stunned you with their magic, but you've got us around. We would have been able to get you out before anything bad happened.”

“Huh,” Applejack nodded. “Alright.”

“Of course, had you been alone, you would have spent a horrific three days of being slowly enveloped by vines and eaten alive. The digestive process would last much longer – about two months for a creature your size – but you would have succumbed to thirst long before then, so that really wouldn't have been an issue for you.”

Applejack blanched.

“Oh.” Twilight coughed. “That, um. I was trying to be reassuring... Sorry.”

“No problem, sugarcube,” Applejack said. She stepped gingerly around the plants. “Just you make sure and tell me about the next killer plant before Ah step on it, alright?”

“Sure thing,” Twilight smiled.

“You're welcome,” Rainbow snarked, not bothering to turn around.

Nightmare Moon had been gone for a while, but the captive fillies hadn't made any move to escape. The sounds coming from outside the creepy, cold, run-down, dark, kinda moldy room they had been left in could sort of be taken for the sounds a dangerous monster might make, if you were scared already. Of course, they were probably totally ordinary noises an abandoned castle might make. Like the wind, moving through a hole in the walls. Just the wind. Totally normal.

There was another sound, a crash, and Scootaloo clung tighter to the others. To keep them from being scared, of course. She was big and tough, but she could see that the others were getting a little freaked out.

It was going to be okay. Rainbow Dash would save them. Everything would be –

“So,” Nightmare began. The fillies jumped in surprise as she stepped out of a shadowed corner. “Now that my sister is out of the way for the moment, why don't we get to know each other better?”

The great mare strode forward to the center of the spacious room, metal-shod hooves clicking on the stone floor. She sat there, facing the three fillies. There was a smile on her dark face. Scootaloo's breath hitched for a moment as she got a good look at Nightmare Moon's cold eyes. They were slitted, like a snake, and not at all like a pony's eyes should be.

“Y- You've made a big mistake,” said the yellow filly with the bow. “Mah sister's gonna be really mad at you fer takin' me away like this. She's gonna come and beat you up!”

Nightmare's smile grew as she raised an eyebrow. “Really? You have a sister too? What is the name of this mare whom a Princess should fear?”

“Applejack!” the filly replied. “Her name is Applejack.”

“Applejack? What a fearsome name. Is she a famous warrior, that you are so confident in her? I must confess, I haven't been keeping up with the names of ponies to know, as of late.”

“N- no... She's a farmer...”

“But Rainbow Dash is!” Scootaloo jumped. “She's the best hunter in all of the Everfree. She'll save us in no time flat!”

The unicorn filly with the pink and purple mane looked back at Scootaloo with hope in her eyes. “Rainbow Dash is coming here?” she squeaked.

“Sure she is!” Scootaloo nodded. “She's gonna save all of us, and beat you to a pulp, Nightmare Moon, just you wait!”

“And what have I done to provoke the wrath of the terrifying Rainbow Dash?” Nightmare purred. “Is she your sister, then, that she would come after you?”

Scootaloo glared. “She's my hero! There's no way Rainbow Dash would leave me hanging. I'm the founding member of her fanclub.”

“Ah.” Nightmare Moon's eyes rested on each of the fillies in turn. “What have I done to myself this time? Perhaps I should know exactly who it is I have so foolishly foalnapped, so that I may appreciate just how final my doom truly is.” She gestured at the unicorn. “You have been silent so far, little one. What is your name, and whom should I expect to teach me a lesson on your behalf?”

“... My name's Sweetie Belle,” the unicorn muttered. Seeing the others all looking at her, the little filly gathered herself as best she could. “My sister's an armorer. A really good armorer! She'll probably give all the other ponies the best armor, and then you'll be sorry, because all your attacks will just bounce off!”

“I'm petrified,” Nightmare said. She turned to look at the others. “And what of your names? What are the names of Applejack the Farmer's sister, and Rainbow Dash's number one fan?”

“Why should we tell you?” Scootaloo snorted. “You're evil, and you're weird, and you've foalnapped us! If you want to know our names, then we don't want to give them to you!”

“But how is that fair?” Nightmare pouted. “You already know my name. How are we to work together if I don't know what to call you by?”

Scootaloo sputtered. “Work together?”

“We ain't helpin' you!”

“You're evil!”

Nightmare's smile faded into a small frown. She stood abruptly. The fillies shrank back, but Nightmare Moon took no notice of them. Instead, she stared off into the distance, through one of the castle walls.

“... Evil is rather subjective,” she said at last. “Would you not consider imprisoning somepony for ten lifetimes an evil act? When their only crime is that of loneliness? And yet, that is what was done to me. I do not consider myself evil.”

She turned back to the fillies. “Somepony has entered the woods. Searching for you? Your sisters, perhaps?”

“Ha!” the yellow filly cried. “See? Ah told you she'd come!”

“Is Rainbow Dash with them?” Scootaloo asked. “Oh, you're gonna be sorry now!”

“... Indeed,” Nightmare agreed. “I will be very sorry.”

Nightmare Moon flared her ebony wings. The ground shook, and her eyes lit up with eldritch light, as bolts of purple lightning danced around her frame. Her long horn shone blue for but a moment. Then all was done, the air was normal, and light returned to the hollow room.

“I hate to see the lives of such noble ponies as these wasted on such a trivial matter as failing to mind their own business.”

She turned back to the fillies. “Now,” she said. “How about I just guess your names? You look like a Scootaloo to me. And,” she turned to the yellow filly, “that would make you Apple Bloom, wouldn't it?”

In the distance, there was a resounding roar.

“What was that?” Rarity started.

As the roar died down to a deep, echoing moan, Rainbow Dash relaxed from her coiled aerial crouch.

“I don't know,” she said in a hushed tone, “but it's not supposed to be here. Nightmare Moon?”

“That sounds like an Ursa.” Twilight frowned. “There's only one family in the Everfree, and they live in a cave near the center of the forest. What is this one doing out here?”

“... It sounds like it's hurt,” Fluttershy said. “Oh, the poor thing...”

“What's an Ursa?” Pinkie asked. “Is it like a bear? 'Cause ursa means bear, and I invited all the bears in Ponyville to the Summer Sun Celebration, but none of them showed up.” She gasped. “Is it upset because I didn't give it an invitation to my party?”

Rainbow Dash stretched her forelegs wide in a pantomiming gesture. “An Ursa is a massive creature, with even the smallest being taller than a house, and the biggest being as tall as Canterlot castle itself! Its coat is like a patch the night sky, and it feeds by holding very still, letting itself blend in, and ambushing hydras that are unlucky enough to walk under it! And they're mean, too. If they get mad, they'll chase you for miles, and you won't see one coming until it's too late.”

“Uh... Should we go around?” Applejack asked. “Ah mean, that don't sound like anything we should be tanglin' with if we don't have to.”

Twilight nodded. “From the pitch of the cries, it sounds like an Ursa Minor. A baby. Those are never very far from their mothers, and Ursa Majors are highly protective of their young. We should probably try to find another way.”

The beast up ahead let out another cry of pain.

Fluttershy squeaked. “A baby?! Oh no...” And, without warning, she took off down the path towards the noise.

“Fluttershy, wait!” Rainbow called. The other ponies followed closely behind. “It's hurt! It could be dangerous!”

The ponies burst into a clearing, and slid to a stop beside where Fluttershy stood, looking across the newly-deforested copse to where a massive midnight-blue bear was limping around, knocking over decades-old trees and emitting a pitiful wail.

“It's hurt itself, see?” Fluttershy said, pointing at where the giant cub was clutching its paw to its chest. The limb was dark, and starting to swell.

“I think it's leg is broken.”

“That's great, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said. The Ursa roared and lashed out at a swath of trees, which splintered under the heavy blow. “That just means it can't follow us while we sneak past it. Come on, this thing is dangerous.”

Fluttershy watched the Ursa Minor as it stumbled away from the path. Then she turned to where her friend was flying beside her.

“I need you to hold it down so I can bind its leg.”

“What?!”

The cry from the other four ponies drew the attention of the star beast for a moment. It stumbled around, searching for the source of the noise, before it bumped into another tree and was distracted at the unexpected sensation.

Rainbow Dash just sighed. “Why did I know you were going to say that?”

Twilight slowly scratched at her mane. “I don't know about this, Fluttershy. Not only is an injured, wild creature incredibly dangerous, but every moment we spend is another moment the Princess and the fillies are at the dubious mercy of Nightmare Moon. We can't afford to make unnecessary stops.”

“No,” Pinkie said. “No, she's right! As noble heroes of justice, we must take every opportunity to help out the unfortunates we meet upon our epic quest, as they will no doubt turn out to have great strategic and karmic importance later on as our trials begin to grow truly harrowing and our powers grow weak. Also, it'll give us the warm fuzzies. So let's do it!”

“Pinkie, dear,” Rarity frowned, “I don't think that reasoning is – uh – strategically sound. Perhaps we should listen to –”

Rainbow Dash leapt out at the Ursa, her flight a dim blur against the forest background. The beast's watering eyes were drawn to the movement, and it swung a paw at it with the urgency of pain and fear. With smooth, practiced roll, Rainbow Dash curved up and around, avoiding the attack almost before it was thrown, keeping her distance to avoid the billows of wind that would have caught a less experienced flier.

As the Ursa's momentum carried it out in the direction of its blow, Rainbow looped around behind its back and crashed hoof-first into it's wounded foreleg. With an agonized cry, the beast collapsed, it's center of gravity too far out for its hindlegs alone to support. Rainbow Dash hovered back above, seeking another opening.

A noose fell round the Ursa's neck. With an energetic cry, Applejack ran up to the fallen creature, lashing the rope around as many legs as she could manage. By itself, the rope was hopelessly thin, but the farmer managed to fasten so many layers that as the Ursa tried to gather itself again it missed a leg, and fell back onto its side. With a growl that reverberated through the clearing, the Ursa tied to stand for a third time.

But then it stopped.

Fluttershy was there, in front of it, whispering soft words to the young star bear. The others hung back, muscles tensed.

The Ursa sat down again.

“Good bear.” Fluttershy smiled. “You just sit there and let me do all the work. We'll have your leg better in no time, you'll see!”

“Holy purple ribbons, that was awesome!” Pinkie shouted. “I mean, the Ursa was right there, all snarling and grouchy, and everypony wanted to go around, but Fluttershy said 'no' and Rainbow was all 'whatever' and then zoom, and pow, and then there was Applejack, and then Fluttershy again with the shh. Oh, the shh! The shh was the best part!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, “could you get me some wood I could use as a splint? A- Applejack, I'm going to need some of your rope, if that's okay. Um... you can take it off now. Little Minor won't hurt you.”

“A splint for an Ursa Minor?” Rainbow smirked. “You're lucky I can totally kick down trees and stuff.”

It only took a few minutes, two saplings, and almost all of Applejack's rope for Fluttershy to declare the Ursa's leg well and treated. The massive cub leapt up and down excitedly, in spite of Fluttershy's protests, and seemed delighted at the reduction of it's pain. It froze for a moment, ears twitching, and then vanished into the woods.

“Amazing,” Rarity gasped. “How does it move through the trees without running into them at its size? It's like a ghost.”

“Ursas are actually surprisingly good at navigating their forest environment, in spite of their volume,” Twilight remarked. “They can move in almost total silence, and their large feet are designed so that they don't leave footprints, even with their great weight. They only cause the sort of destruction that made this clearing when they're wounded, or otherwise upset.”

“Yeah yeah, Ursas are cool.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

As they stepped back onto the faded path, Applejack adjusted the brim of her hat, keeping her eyes trained on the forest.

“So,” she spoke up, “where do you think that critter went?”

“I'll bet he went back to his mommy,” Pinkie grinned.

“That sounds right,” Fluttershy agreed. “It's what I would do, if I were him.”

“Ah'm just sayin' it 'cause it seemed to me the fellow was headed in this direction.” Applejack frowned. “Ah don't feel all that keen on meetin' up with him again.”

“I wouldn't worry about it,” Twilight smiled. “Even if we do meet up with the Ursa or his mother, they shouldn't bother us now that we've calmed the Minor down.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie cheered.

Suddenly, the path widened dramatically. Where before the ponies could hardly walk two together, the path now spread out the width of a city square. A large city square, closer to the one in Canterlot than the town square in Ponyville. The sides were littered with the trunks of freshly-fallen trees, and the path of destruction lead in a straight line from where the dirt path curved away off towards the forest center in the distance.

In the distance, they could just barely see the sky moving away.

As the others came to a slack-jawed halt, Pinkie bounced along, humming a cheerful tune.

“I'm sure everything's going to be just fine!”

Chapter 7: Suffocation

“So that's really your name?”

“Yeah,” the filly – whose name was apparently Apple Bloom – whispered. “How'd she know?”

Sweetie Belle tilted her head. “Your name's really Scootaloo? What kind of name is that? It doesn't even mean anything.”

“Hey!” Scootaloo frowned.

Quickly, Apple Bloom leaned in and pointed towards the center of the throne room. “What's she doing?”

Standing where Apple Bloom had pointed was Nightmare Moon, scratching at the cobblestone floor with a single hoof. The scraping of hoof on stone made a grating noise that hung in the air.

“I don't know,” Scootaloo whispered back. “But she's been doing it for a long time now.”

“Maybe she's polishing the floor,” Sweetie suggested.

Scootaloo scoffed. “That's just stupid. Why would she do that?”

“Hey! I was only guessing.”

Nightmare Moon scraped the ground again. She spoke without turning, her regal voice carrying through the whole expanse of the room.

“I am looking for the Elements.”

The fillies jumped, but Nightmare Moon continued unperturbed.

Scrape.

“My sister hid them somewhere here before our last battle, as a way to surprise me with their presence. They are still here – I can sense them.”

Scrape.

“The only thing I don't know is the method to reveal them from their hiding place.”

Scrape.

“It must have been something simple – some switch, or minor cantrip. She could not have expected me to give her a chance for anything more complicated than that.”

A small voice piped up.

“How could you do this to your own sister?”

The other fillies started. “Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom hissed. “What are you doin'? Are you tryin' to make her mad?”

Nightmare paused in her search, and turned to regard the small white unicorn. The filly didn't flinch under the Princess' gaze, her own face scrunched up in foallike determination.

“You talked about how much that poison hurt her, and you were laughing about it! Even if she did trap you on the moon, you were the one who made her do it. You tried to cause eternal night. You're still trying to cause it! How can you hate your own sister that much?”

The room was still for a moment. Nightmare Moon's mane flickered silently in the darkness.

“... Do you love your sister?”

“Of course I do!” Sweetie Belle replied. “She's my sister!”

Nightmare nodded. “A sister can be a wonderful thing, if you love her, and she is good. She is somepony who will be around you for a great deal of your life. A good sister is a blessing.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “Mah sister's always lookin' out for me!”

“She can bring you comfort, when times are tough. Companionship. She can be a strength for you, when you have none.” Nightmare tilted her head. “Your sisters are older than you, yes? Mine is as well. I know well how much a sister can help you grow, and be happy.”

“Then why?” Scootaloo asked. “Why are you fighting with her?”

“That is what a sister can be, at the best of times. But a strong sister may not always be a blessing.”

Nightmare looked each filly in the eye in turn.

“You are young yet. Still, I think you two, at least, who have sisters of your own, may already understand how suffocating it can be to have someone older than you, so alike you in many ways, but better, simply because they have had more time to get better in. Just a year or two more experience; not much, in the long run. But they will always be ahead of you by those years, and there is nothing you can do about it. And the better your sister is, the worse it gets.”

Scootaloo frowned.

Nothing Nightmare was saying was making any sense. A sister would be great to have, especially if it were somepony as awesome as Rainbow Dash.

But Scootaloo didn't have one herself.

She glanced at the other two, wondering if there was some speck of truth to Nightmare's words.

Apple Bloom was staring up at the Princess with a look of confusion. Her frown was much like Scootaloo's, and the pegasus could tell that Apple Bloom had no idea what Nightmare was talking about either.

But Sweetie Belle flinched.

“It was years before I rebelled,” Nightmare continued. “Hundreds of years ruling beside my sister, and many years before that as well. I was always with her, everywhere we went. You three are young; you cannot begin to understand the length of the time I'm speaking of. And my sister... My sister was a genius.”

“I loved her, of course.” Nightmare scoffed. “She was wonderful. Braver and stronger than I was, and she always managed to keep us safe, no matter what brainless scheme we came up with. And she was beautiful, too, and kind. She was always looking out for me. How could I not love her? Everypony did. And she loved them back.”

“Every. Single. One.”

Nightmare scowled.

“Did you know that was the reason sunglasses were invented? It was. Three ponies – a pegasus, an earthpony and a unicorn – grew so enamored with my sister that they decided they wanted to be able to look at her Sun, so that they could admire it without being blinded. They made it a challenge among themselves.”

“The unicorn devised a spell that strengthened his eyes. It took a lot of time and effort to cast, and, of course, only a unicorn could use it, but the spell was very clever, as was the pony who made it. From his testings, he devised a way to limit the body's sensations, and so came up with spells that would be used as medicinal anesthetics for centuries to come.”

“The pegasus tried packing thin clouds together to screen the Sun's rays. It didn't work as well as she had hoped, but in the process she happened to discover the secret of making and distilling rainbows, revolutionizing the weather industry in a way no other discovery has done before or since.”

“The earthpony was a glassblower, and she set about making dark glass lenses to see through. It took a lot of tries, and most of the glasses she made were either too light for the Sun, or too dark to see through at all. She gave away all of her failures. By the time she succeeded, everypony and their mother was wearing a pair.”

“And all this happened because they loved Celestia, whose Sun was hard to look at.”

Nightmare whirled round, and began to pace.

“Why? Why did they go to such great lengths for her, while my night, with the wonderful, gentle colors and swirls and eddies of its stars, and the radiant majesty of the Moon, went unnoticed? I worked for them. I built the sky for them to watch. I strove to protect them from the dangers of this world just as much as my sister did. But they strove for her, rather than trust in me enough to brave the darkness. Why did they love her so?”

She lifted a hoof before her face. Her foreleg trembled. Her muscles were taught beneath her skin, and her voice sank to a whisper.

“I would have protected them...”

The room was quiet.

Sweetie Belle stood up.

“T- that's it?” she cried. “You hate your sister because she's better than you? That's just – just stupid. You're stupid! You can't just go and beat up ponies because your sister is good at things, or pretty, or, or a-anything... You can't...”

Her voice trailed off. The others said nothing.

Scootaloo glanced back and forth between Sweetie and the Princess as the two stared at each other.

Nightmare's face was impassive.

Sweetie Belle looked like she was going to be sick.

Then, all of a sudden, Nightmare's ears perked up. She glanced around.

“Well well. It seems that your little rescue party was more resourceful than I gave them credit for. To think that they would actually be able to best an Ursa Major. Which of them do you think that was, I wonder?”

Scootaloo jumped. “Rainbow Dash! I knew she could do it! She could totally take an Ursuhmay thingy or whatever.”

Apple Bloom squinted, and held a hoof to her chin. “What's an Ursa Major?”

“Woah...” Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. “An Ursa Major is really, really dangerous. Rarity is always complaining about how she can't get any quality replica fur, because the actual fur is too hard to get. She has to make it herself...”

“Indeed,” Nightmare said. “Anypony who can get past an enraged Ursa is worth watching.”

Her horn shone, and a circle of color formed in the air. In it, the fillies could see the image of a forest path.

“Let's just take a look at our little adventurers, shall we?”

Murmurs and whispers of voices came through the screen. The fillies leaned forward in spellbound silence as the voices became clear.

A pink pony bounced into view of the scrying spell.

“... think it's obvious that I should have been the one to win the Cake Day eat-off, but Celestia totally got a head start on me, and I just couldn't make up the lost time. I mean, she eats really fast!”

“Ah,” Nightmare mused. “A pony who knows my sister personally.”

“That's Pinkie Pie!” Sweetie Belle said. “She visited us this morning.”

“Are we just giving up the whole 'hide the name' thing?” Scootaloo asked.

“Pinkie, it's not that I don't believe you,” came another voice, as a purple unicorn walked into frame. “I just can't imagine the Princess of Equestria devouring an entire cake in one sitting.”

“Isn't that the librarian?” Apple Bloom asked. “Twilight Somethin'? What's she doin' here?”

Scootaloo sighed. “Yeah, we've given up the whole 'hide the name' thing.”

Another voice spoke out as a pegasus wrapped in a cloak floated in through the undergrowth.

“The world is a cruel place, Twilight. Even the Princess herself has her sins. Sometimes it's the ones we think are the best among us who are willing to eat an entire cake.”

“Rainbow Dash,” a new voice said, “I find it difficult to tell if that is your usual cynicism showing through, or if you are simply making fun of Twilight's unwillingness to admit the Princess might have such a harmless flaw as a bit of yearly self-indulgence.”

Rainbow smirked. “Can't it be both?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo cheered.

“Is that Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked. “She's actually here? To save me?”

“Of course she is,” Apple Bloom nodded. “That's what sisters do for each other.”

A yellow pegasus walked into frame, softly chiding her flying companion.

“Rainbow, I think you've hurt Twilight's feelings.”

Rainbow Dash glanced over at the librarian. Twilight was walking stiffly at a brisk pace, trying to keep at the head of the party.

“It's alright, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “It's just – a little friendly teasing. I just haven't been around many ponies with different views from mine, that's all. I'll be fine.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy mumbled. “Um. Okay...”

“Oh, come on,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Look, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't be talking about things I don't know. Hay, maybe the Princess really is an angel. Maybe she doesn't eat whole cakes at a time.”

“She does~” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“It's alright, Rainbow,” Twilight said, not turning around. “You're entitled to your own opinion.”

“No, it's not alright.” Rainbow sighed. “Come on. Look at me.” She drifted over until she was in front of Twilight, who stopped and looked away.

“I shouldn't be making fun of you like that right now, especially if you're not used to it. It's distracting you, and that could get you killed. That's not worth taking out some random aggression on you for.”

Twilight stared at her for a moment. Then she nodded. “That's very mature of you, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow smirked. “What, I apologize to you and you call me old? What kind of a 'thank you' is that? Sheesh, and ponies wonder why I'm all doom and gloom all the time.”

Twilight blinked. Then she started to laugh.

“Hey,” Pinkie said. “Does anypony know where Applejack is?”

“See?” Apple Bloom asked, waving to Sweetie Belle. “Applejack's here, just like I told you she would be!”

“It would seem you were all correct,” Nightmare chuckled. “Your idols must care for you a great deal.”

Back in the woods, the five ponies searched frantically around them for a few instants. Then there was a snap from above the area of the trail they had just walked past. With a cry of alarm, an orange earthpony swung down to dangle from a vine wrapped around one hindleg, her head just inches above the forest floor. Her stetson fell off to the ground beneath her.

Apple Bloom blushed as Scootaloo hid a grin.

“Yeah, she's coming to save you, alright.”

“Applejack!” Rarity cried. “Are you okay?”

“Daggum it,” Applejack growled. She struggled uselessly to reach her bindings. “No! It's like this whole forest is tryin' tah kill me.”

“That's a Snare Vine,” Twilight observed. “Colloquially known by the less tasteful title 'Hanging Vine'. How did that lift you off the ground? They normally trap smaller creatures – ones around the size of a rabbit, or a common snipe.”

“Well it helps if'n there's about six of them,” Applejack frowned, crossing her forelegs in midair.

Rainbow Dash was struggling not to laugh. “How did you manage to set off six of them at once?” she asked.

“Ah don't know, okay? It just happened. Now can one of you get me down? Mah head's startin' to get heavy...”

The other fillies laughed as Apple Bloom stared crestfallen at the scene in front of her. Quietly, Nightmare Moon stepped away from the little group.

'This is the team arrayed against me?' She asked herself. 'An agent of my sister and a warrior of some reported skill, I can see as reasonable. But a librarian, an armorer, a soft-spoken mare and a clumsy farmer?'

Nightmare shook her head. 'No. They cleared the Ursa, somehow. Let that be proof enough of their quality. It would not do to underestimate any of these mares, no matter how meek their appearance may be.'

Nightmare strode up the steps to the dais in front of the thrones, where she began to carve a rune into the stone floor. Lighting crackled from her glowing horn, melting a pattern that began to glow both with heat and its own mysterious light.

“If this is the path they choose to take,” she declared, “then let it lead them nowhere but trouble. We will see how they handle something more... unorthodox.”

Chapter 8: Sacrifice

“Ughh...”

As Rainbow Dash led the pack in crashing through the underbrush to avoid a patch of blue flowers overgrowing the path that she and Twilight Sparkle had labeled “dangerous,” Rarity let out a groan of discontent.

“How long, exactly, will it take for us to get to this castle?”

Twilight took a moment to tap a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well, the castle ruins are about eight and four sevenths miles along the path. Given a normal walking speed over less than hospitable terrain, that means the whole trip would take about one and a half hours, give or take a few minutes for variation in speed. Of course, that's assuming Nightmare Moon doesn't have any more surprises waiting for us.”

Pinkie giggled. “I like surprises!”

“It's only been thirty minutes, Rarity,” came Rainbow's irritated voice floating back through the branches. “Try not to let the dirt get to you so quick, alright?”

The soft blue light from Rarity's horn was a relief from the murky shadows of the forest as Rarity combed yet another twig from her mane. She scowled.

“The Everfree Forest would be much more tolerable if there wasn't quite so much debris in it, just waiting to ruin a pony's coiffure.”

“How in the hay can you tell how long it's been?” Applejack spoke up. “Everythin's so creepy quiet in here Ah can hardly think straight. And Ah can't make out the Sun at all, through these trees.”

“That's because there is no Sun,” Rainbow huffed. “Remember? We're here to rescue Princess Celestia.”

“Oh, right. Ah knew that...” Applejack sighed. “It's just, it feels like the Sun should be up by now, you know? Like, Ah feel like Ah should be workin', right about now. It just doesn't seem real...”

One of Twilight's ears gave a little twitch, and her face scrunched up as she turned to look at the farmer. “I know how you feel, Applejack. This whole disaster has completely thrown off my schedule.” She sighed. “And today was supposed to be the longest day of the year! I had so much planned to do today, and now it looks like it's going to have to wait until tomorrow.”

“If there is a tomorrow...”

Twilight blinked and stared wide-eyed at Fluttershy, hardly believing what the pegasus had just said. Fluttershy kept walking, with wings clapped tightly to her thin frame, and her face hidden behind her hair.

“Noooo worries!” Pinkie hummed, drifting back in line to loop a foreleg over Fluttershy's withers in one exaggerated movement. “We'll set things right with Princess Moon, and the Sun will be back up in the sky in no time, you'll see. So don't worry, Flutter-by!”

Applejack frowned. “... What do you mean, 'set things right?' You're not thinkin' of tryin' to make a deal with her or anythin', are you? 'Cause Ah ain't sittin' right with that.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded, looking back for the first time in a while. “You don't actually think she'll be willing to talk to us, do you? 'Cause I was hoping for a better plan. Like, one that actually has a chance of working.”

Pinkie smiled. “Oh no, we're just gonna blast her with the Elements. Although, there is always a lot of talking and lecturing and 'this is how you're wrong' and stuff. But it's really the blasting that does the trick.”

“Good,” Rainbow smirked. “Get the Elements and blast the baddie. That's a plan I can get behind.”

Applejack's frown deepened, but she didn't say anything as the group continued on into the forest.

“Alright. Here's the path again,” Rainbow said, turning back to where she was going. “Looks clear.”

“How exactly do the Elements of Harmony work?” Twilight wondered, as she stepped out onto the path. “There's not much really written about them. They haven't been used in such a long time...”

“Oh, it's pretty simple,” Pinkie nodded. “The bearers all get together and cast a spell through their Elements, and then the Elements blast everything that needs blasting when, uh, the bearers wish really really hard, or something. I dunno. The Princess didn't really tell me that part.” She shook her head. “You can have two bearers, or six bearers, or any number in between, but you've got to have more than one bearer or it doesn't work right.”

Twilight frowned. “So... the great and powerful ancient magic artifacts we're staking all of everything on are powered by... wishing really hard.”

“Really really hard,” Pinkie said. She shrugged. “Maybe it helps if one of the bearers is a unicorn? I think it's supposed to be pretty easy.”

“Right...” Twilight muttered. “If we get all the way there and wind up all decked out with a magical superweapon only to find out we can't fire it, I'm going to be so embarrassed...”

Pinkie giggled. “I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen, Twily.”

Twilight jerked a half-step, but the others didn't notice, as they stepped out into a wide strip of open grass. Rainbow Dash frowned.

“What the hay?”

In front of them was a placidly flowing river, with muddied waters and nicely sized stepping stones for a pony to make it across. Sitting there, on the only lily pad to be seen, was a rather large yellow and orange frog.

“Toll,” the frog croaked. “Toll. Toll.”

“A Toll Frog?” Rainbow glared. “What is something like that doing in the Southern River?”

“What?” Twilight blinked. “But Toll Frogs never leave the waters they're born in. Froggy Bottom Bog only connects to the Northern Everfree River, not Everfree South.”

“Well how did this one get here, then?”

“Is this thing not supposed to be here?” Applejack asked. “Do y'all think Nightmare Moon moved it?”

“How?” Twilight frowned. “Nothing and nopony would dare to move a Toll Frog by hoof. They're extremely dangerous when provoked.”

“Maybe she used magic then,” the farmer suggested.

Twilight shook her head. “That wouldn't work at all. Toll Frogs eat mana. Unicorn magic has no effect on them. Well,” she amended, “I suppose it would be possible, if you poured in enough that the frog couldn't eat any more, but then the frog would be... well, dead.”

“Well, maybe she was all clever about it,” Applejack continued. “What if you magicked up, say, the ground beneath it instead of the frog itself?”

“There are a number of reasons why that probably wouldn't work,” Twilight said. “Still, it's an interesting line of thought. I don't think anypony has taken the opportunity to observe a Toll Frog in captivity. Maybe I could look into that sometime...”

“It doesn't really matter though,” Twilight continued, “because I just realized something else. If we're only a bit more than half an hour into the woods, we shouldn't be coming up to the river yet. Something's very wrong here...”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Pinkie asked bouncing up to the bank across from the first stone. “Let's get across, already. Time's a'wasting!”

“Toll,” the frog croaked, as the lily pad drifted between Pinkie and the stepping stone. “Toll!”

“Pinkie!” Dash cried, snatching the excitable earther back from the shore just before she could take a leap. “What are you doing, you idiot?! Don't you know what a Toll Frog is?”

“Well,” Pinkie hummed, “it's a frog that says 'Toll.'”

“And eats anything with magic in it that tries to cross its river,” Rainbow finished. “Anything with magic. Like, say, ponies.”

“It eats ponies?” Pinkie blinked. “Huh.”

“Yes, ponies,” Rainbow said. “Ponies like you. You are a pony.”

“... Yes?” Pinkie said, her normal smile slipping into an amused grin. “I'm not sure where you're going with this.”

Dash growled. “For the love of... It was going to eat you!”

“Ohhh!” Pinkie gasped. “Well, I'm glad it didn't, then.”

As Rainbow Dash curled up in a seething ball of mild irritation, Fluttershy stepped forward with a cough.

“Um... Mister Frog?” she asked. “I'm sorry, but we didn't, um, bring anything to trade with you this time. I know it's very important to you to keep to your toll, but what we're doing is also very important. So, um... could you please let us pass? Just this once?”

“Toll,” the frog croaked. “Toll.”

The others glanced at Fluttershy. Her head hung down a little.

“... He said no. I'm sorry...”

“That's alright, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “A Toll Frog will always stick to its toll. Since they don't ever leave the water, they survive by forcing passers-by to feed them things with high magic density, like Live Vines, or Ember Stones. I don't think there's even a single recorded instance of one letting somepony pass without paying first.”

“But we don't have any of that stuff!” Rainbow scowled. “How are we supposed to cross now?”

“Rainbow Dash, why can't you just fly us across?” Rarity asked. “I don't see how it can do much to stop us then.”

Rainbow stared at her.

“You're joking. You're joking, right? Aggh, you're not joking. You want me to try to dodge a Toll Frog, with passengers.” She slapped a hoof to her face. “Before anypony else tries to volunteer as lunchmeat, I think maybe I should demonstrate just how dangerous a Toll Frog is.”

Rainbow stooped down low enough to the bank to scoop up one of the smooth river rocks. With a casual toss, she sent the stone sailing over her shoulder in the direction of the river.

Instantly, the water erupted as a massive pink tongue, wide as a tree trunk, smashed through the space the stone used to occupy. The tongue held there, reaching out of sight into the forest canopy, giving the ponies on the shore just enough time to see that it was coming not from the frog on the lily pad, but from something much bigger, hidden in the water. Then the tongue retracted, and the frog slid forward over the place the tongue had been.

“No. No,” the Frog croaked. “Toll. Toll. Toll.”

Twilight coughed.

“... In case you couldn't tell,” she said, “the smaller frog we can see isn't the whole of the Toll Frog, or even its main body. It's sort of an extension, an antenna or a periscope stretching from the main body to the surface, to interact with the creatures above the water. The periscope locates or arranges for a tribute, and then the main body, um... eats it.”

Applejack stared with wide eyes at the ripples dying away on the water.

“... Wow.”

“The rock didn't work, by the way,” Twilight added. “That's why the frog said 'no.' The rock wasn't magic, of course.”

“You mean to tell me that grotesquely large creature is the smaller beast?” Rarity said, face screwed up as she stepped gingerly away from the water's edge and held a hoof to her chest. “Oh ew, ew ew ew~! I hate working with amphibians. Their skin is so... slimy.”

“It's like an angler fish,” Pinkie said brightly, “except a frog, and with sound instead of light, and it's more of a warning than a lure, and it lives in a river not the sea, and it's not really like an angler fish at all. Except it is!”

“They're really not so bad,” Fluttershy said. “Their toll is very reasonable. You don't need much, just a pinch or two. And they like to live near things they like to eat, so it's easy to get some, even if you didn't bring any with you.”

“Why is Applejack the only one of you who reacts like you should?” Rainbow asked. “This is a Toll Frog. You should be terrified!”

Applejack frowned. “Are you callin' me a chicken?”

“I'm calling you sane.”

“Hey!” Pinkie cried. “Don't call my friends things I don't know the meaning of, Dashell.”

Rainbow Dash threw her hooves up in disgust.

“We need to look for something to trade,” Twilight said. “I'm afraid I'm not quite as familiar with plants or objects as I am with creatures. Fluttershy, do you know anything around here we could use?”

“Well... No, I don't really see anything around here...” Fluttershy replied. “There aren't so many things they like in the South part of the Everfree.”

“Hmm...”

The two stood a while in thought.

“Well,” Applejack said, “what about that plant we passed earlier? The blue one. You said it was magic, right? Would that work?”

“Poison Joke!” Twilight cried. “Of course! Not exactly a Toll Frog's normal diet, but it should have more than enough magic to pay for us to cross. We'll have to be careful transporting it, but if Rarity or I use our levimancy, that shouldn't be a problem.”

“Alright!” Rainbow cheered. “Let's just hurry. Hold on, Twi, I'll get us there and back in no time.”

“Wait, what are you – Ah!”

Dash pounced on Twilight's back and locked her forelegs around the unicorn's barrel, before tearing the both of them from the ground with a snap of her wings and hurtling back down the path the direction they had come. The others were left blinking owlishly as fallen leaves stirred in the backdraft.

“Okaaay,” Pinkie started. “Well then, while we're waiting for them to get back... Anypony want to play tic-tac–”

“What the hay?”

Pinkie jumped in surprise, and spun around to find Rainbow and Twilight already back, behind her. The hunter's face was screwed up in a baffled grimace.

“Wow!” Pinkie cried. “That was fast! Did you get the flowers?”

“How in the hay are we back here?” Rainbow asked, Dropping Twilight roughly to her hooves, and crossing her forelegs in front of her. “I couldn't have gotten lost. There's only one path! You didn't notice us turning, did you Twilight?”

“Speed–” Twilight moaned. She staggered drunkenly, her violet cheeks turning a pale shade of green. “Velocity– Acceleration, inertia just– not physically possible~ *Hurk!* Ohhh...”

“Darling, whatever is the matter?” Rarity asked. “Are you saying you got turned around?”

“I followed the path!” Rainbow growled. “Wait here. I'm going to check on something...”

Rainbow took off down the path again, slower this time, scanning the forest as she went. As she disappeared back into the trees, the others watched with bated breath. When she walked back out of the forest not a minute later, she frowned, heavily.

“We can't go back,” she said. “Something's messed with the path. That Nightmare's used some kind of weird magic; it hurts my head to look at too long. It's like it just... caves inward or something. Or outward. Ugh, I can't explain it...”

Pinkie gasped. “She bent space?!”

“Yeah...” Rainbow nodded. “I guess she did.”

“Did she bend it into a bubble,” Pinkie asked, “or just a wall?”

“I don't know!” Rainbow replied. “I didn't check up above.”

“Oh no,” Fluttershy gasped. “Are we – t-trapped?”

“If –” Twilight wheezed, color slowly returning to her face. “If it's just a wall, then we're okay. It can't extend up forever, even if Nightmare Moon is powerful enough to defeat Celestia. We can just fly over it. But if it's a dome...”

“Best think positive, dear,” Rarity chimed. “Ah! There's an idea. Would it be possible for you, Rainbow, to fly us so high that not even the Toll Frog would be able to catch us?”

Rainbow Dash winced. “I kinda wanted to avoid flying through the forest canopy. The only really dangerous thing around these parts are the Octospiders, and they like to hang out in the trees. It's safer to stay on the path. Still, if it's the only way... I'll check it out.”

Rainbow took a deep breath. Then, gritting her teeth, she flew straight up into the air. There was the sound of snapping branches and rustling leaves, and then she came slamming down into the ground, having turned completely round in her flight.

“Nope,” she sighed. “There's a ceiling.”

Twilight frowned. “So it is a bubble, or at least a dome. Or maybe another wall? Urg... This isn't good...”

Applejack had been staring at the strange river and the Toll Frog within it for some time. Now, her eyes drifted downwards until they rested on the bank. She paused, and leaned in closer to run a hoof across the ground.

“... Ah can see it,” she said. “there's a space – 'bout a hoof wide – 'cross which the dirt changes color. A line, running along the river. You see? On the one side, it's dark, and on the other side, it's sorta redish.” She gestured with a hoof. “That must be what she's done. She's moved the whole river here!”

“Really?” Pinkie asked. She drew a fetlock across her brow. “Whew! That's a relief.”

“W- what?” Fluttershy squeaked. She flinched as Pinkie turned to smile at her. “I- I mean... how can that be good?”

“Oh, well,” Pinkie scoffed, “for a moment there, when Dashiel mentioned the path, I thought Princess Moon might have just trapped us in a bubble of space. Buuut, since she also moved the river, that means she's piecing a whole bunch of distortions together; there's no way there isn't an exit somewhere.”

Twilight blinked. “You're right, Pinkie! She can't have pieced all these spells together and still achieved perfect encapsulation. In fact, since the river's still running, that means there must be a hole there for the water to come from! We're not trapped yet. Although,” she added, “getting sent to Everfree North would be a huge waste of time. We need to find a hole that lets us continue down the path. Now, where would she have put it?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Probably over there.”

She pointed across the river, past the Toll Frog, which croaked ominously.

“That's where I would have put it, anyway.”

The others shivered.

“... It's as good a bet as any,” Twilight nodded. “And I think – I can see a fair way down the path ahead, and I think it's clear.”

“Well shoot,” Applejack huffed. “How are we going to get across if we can't fetch any magic stuff to pay the toll with?”

“Well, if Pinkie had actually jumped in, our problems would be solved,” Rainbow snarked. “A pony is more than enough mana to pay a Toll Frog's toll. Who volunteers?”

“Rainbow!” Fluttershy scolded. “That's not funny.”

Dash smirked. “I kid, I kid...” Turning, she pointed at Twilight and Rarity. “You two are unicorns. Can't you just beam stuff at him until he let's us cross?”

Twilight frowned. “The amount of magic actually emitted by a unicorn's spells is barely a fraction of the magic present in a pony's whole body. When I was talking earlier about filling a Toll Frog to bursting, I was taking into account a magic ability powerful enough to move the Sun and Moon. There's no way even together that Rarity and I could emit enough power.”

“... I heard once,” Rarity said, “that ponies used to use the filings from a unicorn's horn to pay the toll.”

Twilight flinched. “W- well, yes. Unicorn horn is... highly dense in magic. B- but, the amount of horn required... you need almost two grams. Taking it all at once, it would be about half an inch from the tip of your horn. Even if you spread it out, and even if we both contributed, we would still have to cut into living bone. It used to be gathered over a period of weeks of growth and filing – we couldn't just do it now. It wouldn't just be painful, it could seriously damage our ability to perform magic.”

Rarity frowned. “I thought our horns grew back.”

“Well, t-technically, yes,” Twilight stammered. “But if they aren't cared for properly in the meantime, there could still be p-permanent conduction loss. And even a little damage would leave a unicorn unable to cast until it healed...”

There was silence for a moment as the others watched Twilight cringe under Rarity's inscrutable stare.

“... Well then,” Rarity said. “Rainbow, darling, could I borrow your blade for a moment?”

Twilight's head jerked up. She stared as Rainbow Dash wordlessly held her short sword out to the armorer.

“Rarity...” Twilight said. “You don't have to do this. We can find another way!”

“Nonsense,” Rarity sniffed, taking the sword up in her magic aura. “Perhaps we could find another way, if we looked; but I'll gladly accept a minor inconvenience if it means we can rescue Sweetie Belle that little bit more quickly. I can give this much.”

She paused. “I suppose I can't exactly use my magic for this, now can I?” Transferring the sword to her hooves, she lifted it to the tip of her horn. “Just a bit off the top...”

There was a small *snitck* of the blade cutting through the bone. Twilight blanched, and Fluttershy hid her face. Then it was over, and Rarity lowered her hooves again.

“There we are,” she said, holding out the bit of horn to Rainbow Dash. Rarity's voice was calm as ever, and her pale face hid any discomfort. “Would you care to do the honors, Miss Dash? I think I'll just sit down for a moment.”

“R-Rarity,” Fluttershy whispered. “You're bleeding...”

Rarity's eyes widened. “I am?” She crossed her eyes in an attempt to see the tip of her horn. “Oh. Oh my! Fluttershy, quickly, could I bother you for one of those bandages of yours? Blood is so hard to get out of one's coat.”

As Fluttershy hurried to tend to the wound, Twilight stepped round, face tense. “You've cut into the marrow,” she said. “Make sure not to cast any spells until that heals. Using your horn now would only make it worse.”

Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. “It's not like I use magic all that much anyway. Other ponies get along just fine without it. Rainbow Dash,” she called out, “what is taking you so long? Hurry up and give the frog the toll, so we can be on our way.”

Rainbow nodded numbly. Turning to the river, she tossed the white horn fragment over the waters, and the Toll Frog snatched it up.

“Yes, yes. Toll paid, toll paid.” The frog drifted to the side, clearing the way to the stepping stones.

“... Alright then,” Applejack said. “We can cross now.” She hopped over to the first stone. “Let's get goin'.”

“I'm almost finished here,” Fluttershy said.

“Go on ahead, Twilight,” Rarity hummed. “We'll be with you in a moment.”

Twilight nodded. She, Pinkie and Applejack all began crossing the river, while Rainbow hovered up to where Fluttershy was putting on the finishing touches.

“... That was pretty hardcore, Rares.” Rainbow coughed. “Uh. Could I have my sword back now? I still want it for when –”

“Toll.”

Rainbow's eyes widened. She whirled round to find the others across the stream, and the Toll Frog blocking the path once more.

“Toll. Toll.”

“Wha–” Rainbow sputtered. “Oh, that straw-feathered, worm-sucking spawn of a diseased iguana! We already paid you your toll!”

“Mister Frog!” Fluttershy gasped. “How could you do something like this? We need to get to the other side, or else terrible things will happen!”

“Toll,” the Frog said, changing neither tone nor expression. “Toll.”

Rarity frowned just slightly at the amphibian sitting in the water. She stood, and walked over to the river's edge. Without hesitation she carved off another piece of horn, shearing through the bandage and bone alike in a single stroke. She tossed the second toll into the river, where the Frog snatched it up before wandering off downstream, looking quite satisfied with itself.

“... Greedy brute,” Rarity muttered.

Sweetie Belle gaped at the image floating in front of her. Her hoof slowly drifted up to feel her own nub of a horn as her eyes were glued to the injured remains of her sister's.

“... Impressive.” The Nightmare grinned. “Your sister is quite exceptional, little Belle.”

“She didn't even flinch or anything!” Scootaloo cried. “She was just all whisk, and 'here you go, frog-face, it's not even a big deal!' Doesn't that hurt, Sweetie Belle? I'm pretty sure that hurts, right?”

Apple Bloom nodded slowly. “... You must be proud of a sister like that, huh?”

Sweetie Belle didn't say anything. She just kept staring at the screen, as her sister and the other members of the rescue party finished making their way across the stream.

Nightmare Moon leaned in over Sweetie Belle's shoulder.

“So,” she whispered. “She's got the looks and the poise of a true lady of nobility. Walking into the dark depths of a forest of death at the drop of a hat. Sacrificing her own well-being for the ones she loves without batting an eye. What must it be like, having such an image of perfection for a sister?”

“... I didn't think she would do that,” Sweetie Belle muttered. “She's fussy. Rarity can't even stand a little dirt – she wouldn't go into the Everfree. She wouldn't do – t-that. I'm the brave one... right?”

Nightmare pulled herself up to her full height. “Well. It seems that these intrepid ponies have managed to get past yet another road-block. I suppose I will have to start getting creative.”

With a flash of magic, a wide and detailed bracelet appeared around her metal bracer, glowing blue runes lining its edges and surface. She tapped a hoof on it, and the symbols changed, pulsing rapidly before settling into a steady line. Then she paused.

“But whatever shall I do?” she asked idly. “What new monster could I create that would completely overwhelm these hapless pursuers? A Ligon, perhaps? But no, those are hardly even viable. And so many of my good ideas have already gone into the Everfree Forest – I'm sure that scholar of theirs will know of them. What to do, what to do... I know!”

The fillies jumped as the magic bracelet clanged on the ground in front of them. Nightmare grinned in a way that showed far too many teeth.

“You're going to help me out.”

Chapter 9: Harmless Violence

“W-what?”

“No way!”

“We're not helpin' you stop our own sisters!” Apple Bloom shouted. The three fillies stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they glared up determinedly at the Nightmare Princess in front of them.

Nightmare's smile did not waver. “Really, now? Are you sure you don't want to help? You don't want the opportunity to decide just what dangerous creature your little band of heroes will face next? There's no limit to what you could dream up, you know. You should try it – perhaps you'll find monster creation more enjoyable than you imagined.”

“Don't be dumb!” Scootaloo flared her tiny wings in defiance. “We're not going to help you hurt our friends after you beat up our Princess and foalnapped us!”

“Oh? Well, that's a shame.” Nightmare picked up the bracelet once more and rubbed it against her chest, pursing her lips slightly. “This really is an opportunity for you, you know. With just a bit of clever thinking, you could make it so easy for them. But I suppose I'll just do it myself. Let us see... How about we start with a crocodile?”

At Nightmare's words, the bracelet glowed with a violent violet light, and with a rush of air and warping of space, a full-grown crocodile appeared on the stone floor in front of her. The fillies stared wide-eyed at the creature, which was nearly four times the length of a pony, and had a mouth big enough to swallow a foal whole.

“No,” Nightmare sighed. “Not good enough. How about we make it a bit bigger?”

The bracelet glowed once more, and the fillies all took a step back as the crocodile grew until its head was larger than their entire bodies. For a moment, the idea of those massive jaws enveloping a pony was too strong to ignore, and Scootaloo caught her legs starting to shake.

Nightmare smiled.

“A good start,” she said. “Now, then. Next, I'll add a little venom... Star Spider would be appropriate, don't you think? It merely stunned Celestia, but then, she is an alicorn. Imagine what it will do to your sisters. And after that, I can add something really danger–”

“Wait!” Apple Bloom cried.

Nightmare paused. She lowered the bracelet and glanced lazily in Apple Bloom's direction. “Yes? What is it?”

Apple Bloom scuffed the ground.

“Y- you said we could make it anythin' we want, right?”

Sweetie gasped. “Apple Bloom! What are you doing?!”

“Anythin' we want,” Apple Bloom repeated. “As in, as safe and weak as we want, too?”

“Hmm...” Nightmare tapped a gauntleted hoof to her chin. “I suppose it does mean that, yes. Anything you want. But it's so much more exciting to make them dangerous. Oh!” Her face lit up. “I just had the most delicious idea. Don't you worry your little head about it, I'm sure I can take care of this by myself if you don't want to-”

“No!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Ah'll help, Ah'll help!”

Nightmare grinned. The others were silent as the dark alicorn slipped the bracelet from her cannon once more and held it out to Apple Bloom in her magic. The filly gingerly took the bracelet in her hooves, and the magic faded away, leaving behind an unassuming band. Slowly, she slipped it on her own hoof – the device contracted until she could just feel the cold metal sitting against the underside of her wrist. She stared at it for a moment with a frown on her face.

“... Um...” She waved the bracer around slowly. “How do I get it to work?”

“Never fear,” Nightmare cooed. “It's quite easy to use. Just tell it what changes you want to see, and they will become real before your eyes.”

“Okay...” Apple Bloom turned to where the crocodile rested on the dais, its deep, growling breaths the only sound to go with her hoofsteps. Its beady little eyes stared back into hers, unimpressed, and the great beast blinked with a slovenly arrogance.

Apple Bloom took a deep breath.

“Grow smaller!”

The bracelet flared, and the crocodile began to shrink until it was half the size – still much larger than any pony, but so small in comparison to how it had been. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise, and Scootaloo lunged forward and grabbed at the bracer with her hooves.

“No teeth! No teeth!” the pegasus cried, and the crocodile's massive teeth receded into its gums.

“Oh! Um, smaller!” said Sweetie Belle, stepping up to the other two. “And with cushy, soft scales instead of hard ones!”

“Make it dumb!” Apple Bloom said. “Real dumb. The dumbest an alligator has ever been!”

“Even smaller! With stubby legs, and a short tail, and googly eyes!”

“And big, strong wings like a dragon!”

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded. “We're supposed to be makin' it weaker.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. No wings, then.”

“Well, maybe if they were just small wings...”

As the fillies squabbled and the crocodile shrank and changed and shifted before them, Nightmare Moon sat quietly to the side, a small smirk forming in her eyes.

“Okay, this is starting to hurt. Could we- could we stop, for just a moment? I have to catch my breath.”

The party came to a halt, and the others turned to look back at where Rarity was struggling, face flushed and with a hoof clasped to her forehead. Twilight frowned.

“Oh, Rarity,” she said, moving a step towards her fellow unicorn. “I'm so sorry. I should have given my share of the toll. You didn't have to take it all on yourself.”

“Nonsense, darling,” Rarity replied. “All that would have accomplished would be making it so neither of us could use magic. I just- need a moment to rest before we press on. That's all.”

“We can't stop,” Applejack said. “The fillies are counting on us to get there in time.”

“I know that,” Rarity moaned, “I just- never mind. I can press on a little longer, I suppose.”

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. Without saying a word, she slipped under Rarity's barrel and lifted the unicorn up on her back. Rarity let out a less-than-dignified squawk.

“Rainbow Dash! I can walk on my own quite well enough, thank you.”

“Don't act tough,” Rainbow said. “You got us out of a mess; now let me help you.”

“My injury's on my head,” Rarity argued, “not my legs.”

Dash sighed. “Look,” she said, arcing her neck to stare Rarity in the eyes. “I know it sucks. You knew it was gonna hurt when you did it, and it's not gonna hurt any less anytime soon. We're going to get you out of here, get those fillies back, and rescue Princess Celestia so she can bring the Sun back and fix this whole mess. Then you can rest. But for now, we need to keep moving – quickly, not at a limp.”

Rarity's eyes fell. Rainbow Dash stepped forward at a trot, and the others slowly fell into line as she passed.

After a minute of walking in silence, Rarity sighed.

“Perhaps you should all just go on ahead,” she said softly. “I can make my way back to Ponyville on my own.”

“What?!” Pinkie Pie cried. “No-no-no, no way Rare-i-tay! Pinkie's Party leaves no pony behind!”

“I, um, I don't think that's a good idea,” Fluttershy whispered. “A pony in the woods, alone, with an open wound... I can usually reason with predators, and I don't mean anything bad about them – they're really such sweethearts, and they do need to eat, but- for somepony else...”

“Maybe I could go back with her,” Twilight said. “If she's in so much pain, she shouldn't be coming with us to confront an angry alicorn.”

“No!” Pinkie said sternly. “Nopony's leaving!”

“We can't afford to lose two ponies,” Applejack said. “Bad enough we're losin' one. Maybe Rarity could just hole up here, where it's safe, and we'll pick her up on the way back?”

“It's the Everfree!” Rainbow shouted, wheeling round to butt heads with Applejack, who stumbled back in surprise. “Nowhere's safe!”

Applejack frowned and stepped forward so that she and Rainbow were in each other's faces again. “Back off, Rainbow. Ah know the forest's dangerous. Ah've lived next to it my whole life.”

“You have no idea how dangerous this place is,” Rainbow hissed. “We're not leaving Rarity to fend for herself, no way! I'm not going to sign somepony's death warrant, even if that makes our job harder.”

“Ah don't want Rarity hurt either,” Applejack said, “but we need to get to the fillies – me and her's sisters – as fast as we can, before they get hurt. Or worse.”

“Ponies, ponies!” Twilight said, stepping between the two and forcing them apart. “We all need to just calm dow-”

There was a flash of light, a whining of noise and a gust of wind, which came all at once from just around a bend in the path. The leaves and bushes rustled as the light died down, and everything returned to the Everfree's eerie silence.

The ponies glanced between themselves. Quietly, they drifted over to peer through the foliage at the source of the disturbance.

Sitting in the middle of a wide section of path, unmoving save for the slow, asynchronous blinking of its large purple eyes, was a housecat-sized parody of a crocodile.

“Aww, look,” Pinkie whispered, “It's such a small, defenseless, completely wild and feral animal. I just wanna run up and give it a great big hug!”

“I wouldn't do that,” Fluttershy whispered hurriedly. “You might startle it.”

“What is it?” Rainbow asked. “I've never seen something like that before.”

“I don't know,” Twilight said slowly. “It's not just a small crocodile. The proportions are different – it has a bigger head than it should, and smaller legs.”

“And no telling what sort of nasty secrets it might be hiding.” Rainbow frowned. “What about you, Fluttershy? Do you recognize this thing?”

“Um – well, no, not exactly. I could try talking to it, if you want...”

“No,” Rainbow said. “It's too risky with little Miss Nightmare running about, messing with things everywhere. That was her magic that caused that flash – probably what put this thing here. And just look at that thing. It's so small and pathetic-looking, it's like it's just screaming, 'oh, don't worry, I totally won't devour you in a single bite if you just come a little closer.'”

“Can I take it home with me?” Pinkie asked. “Can I? Can I?”

Rainbow frowned deeper. “Pinkie, none of us has ever seen this thing before. It's something strange, in the Everfree. That means it's probably at least three shades of dangerous. You can't trust things you don't understand out here. No, you can't take it home.”

There was silence as Rainbow turned back around to stare at the creature again.

Then Pinkie stepped out of the bushes.

“Hey, little guy! How're you doin'?”

“P- Pinkie!” Twilight squawked. “Come back! We don't know what that thing is!”

Pinkie waved a hoof dismissively. “It's fine, Twilight! Just watch.” She turned back to look at the alligator, and crouched low down so her face was on its level. “Come here, little guy,” she whispered. “Mama Pinkie won't hurt you. Let's show everypony that there's nothing to be afraid of, okay?”

The alligator snapped its jaws shut on Pinkie's face.

Rarity let out a cry as Rainbow let the unicorn slip from her back, and Rainbow Dash leapt out of the cover of the bushes, followed closely by Applejack. Rainbow had only taken a few steps before she skidded to a stop, narrowing her eyes.

Pinkie turned to face them, a thin smile on her face, and her hooves wrapped around the small green alligator, which was quietly gnawing on her foreleg.

“See?” she asked. She held her limb out, with the creature still attached. “He's cute, and cuddly, and he doesn't have any teeth. It tickles when he bites, look! He's harmless.”

Rainbow stepped forward, jaw set and wings half-clenched and trembling.

“What the hay was that?!?” she roared. “The only thing we know about this thing is that it's different from everything else we know about out here. Different is dangerous – that's practically the credo of the Everfree! You could have gotten us all killed.”

The smile dropped from Pinkie's face. “You don't know that!” she shouted. “Just because something's strange doesn't mean it's bad!”

“Haven't you been paying attention?” Rainbow snarled. “This little trip isn't out of the ordinary in regards to dangerous creatures. Everything that isn't you in here is out to kill you!”

“That's not true!” Pinkie cried. “It's not, it's not, it's not! Just because something's weird doesn't mean it's out to get you! And besides,” she sniffed, “this little fellow here isn't a normal Everfree-ian. He's got all sorts of enchantments and stuff on him to hold him together like he is – I'll bet it was Moonie who did it to him. He's a victim, just like us.”

Twilight's horn lit up, and her eyes widened. “She's right,” she said. “This alligator isn't natural at all. It's layered in all sorts of enchantments.”

“That just makes it worse!” Rainbow cried. “If Nightmare Moon messed with it, it's definitely a trap! You can't just go jumping at things like that for no good reason!”

“I had a plenty good reason,” Pinkie argued.

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow asked. “Then what was it? What was your big important reason you had to risk all of our lives?”

“It wasn't a risk,” Pinkie protested. “This little guy's harmless.”

“And how'd you know that before you just ran out here? In fact,” Rainbow added, “How are you sure he's not just biding his time even now?”

“I know because my-”

Pinkie paused.

“I mean – because...”

Rainbow glared.

Pinkie whirled around to where Fluttershy was standing at the edge of the path. “Fluttershy! Can you tell what the alligator is saying?”

Fluttershy started. “Oh! Um, I think so. Maybe? He's very... Um...”

She stared at the alligator, who looked off in two directions with unfocused purple eyes. The eyes blinked out of turn.

“He's very... slow.” Fluttershy flinched immediately at her own words. “Sorry, that was rude. I meant...”

“Good enough!” Pinkie's attention snapped to the alligator, and she got right up in its face. “Mister Alligator! Do you promise not to devour us, mutilate us, attack us, enchant us, injure us or impede our progress in these or any other ways, on pain of pain?”

The alligator blinked.

Fluttershy coughed. “Uh... I think... yes?”

“Repeat after me,” Pinkie said. “Cross my heart and hope to fly.”

The alligator blinked again. His mouth opened slowly in a yawn to reveal a marked absence of teeth.

“... Yes.” Fluttershy squinted. “I mean, he said it. I think. It's hard to understand him...”

“No no no!” Pinkie shook her head. “You gotta have the movements, too. Cross your heart.”

The alligator just stared back.

“Fluttershy,” Pinkie barked. “Help him out.”

Fluttershy moved around behind the alligator and took his front legs in her hooves. Pinkie started again.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Fluttershy followed through with the motions with the alligator's limb.

“Did he do it?” Pinkie asked.

“... Yes.”

“Great!” Pinkie beamed, and then turned around to glare at Rainbow Dash. “There, you see? He's harmless.”

Rainbow glared back. There was a grinding from her teeth, and her face started to turn a shade of purple.

“How'd you know it was enchanted?” Applejack asked.

“I can feel it,” Pinkie said, waving her hoof around vaguely. “It's sorta a wispy, tingling enchant-like feeling. It's obvious.”

“Is that something the Princess taught you?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie hesitated, then nodded slowly. “Yeesss... It's sort of an earthpony –”

“AGGHH!”

Dash screamed, and lunged at Pinkie Pie. The two ponies went down in a heap, Rainbow swinging at Pinkie with heavy hoof-strikes and Pinkie retaliating hotly with vicious bites around the ear. As Rainbow managed to get Pinkie in a pin on the ground, the others tried to intervene.

“Oh dear, oh dear...”

“Rainbow, control yourself!” Rarity cried.

“Buzz off, Rarity!” Rainbow snarled, jabbing a hoof at the unicorn. “You're almost as bad as she is, and you've already gotten yourself –”

Dash was cut off as Pinkie wrapped a foreleg around her elbow, and she was pulled off balance as her leg collapsed.

“Hold on now,” Applejack said, sticking a leg in to try and pry the two fighters apart by force, holding Pinkie down when she refused to stop trying to get at Rainbow Dash. “Ah may not know as much about the Everfree as some of us here, but Ah do know it's not the place to be fighting each other in. There's plenty of creepy-crawly strangeness to be doin' it for us, so ya'll just calm down before somethin' bad happens.”

She was shocked when Pinkie slammed a hoof into her jaw. Applejack stared down at the pink pony, almost expecting some kind of explanation. Pinkie just lay there with wet, angry eyes, before resuming her struggles to get up and back in the fight.

On the other side of Applejack, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air. “Stay out of this, Applejack! The puffball needs to be taught a lesson.”

“No way, no how,” Applejack replied, sending a firm glance in the hunter's direction. She pressed down harder on Pinkie's withers as the earthpony redoubled her efforts.

With a frustrated howl, Rainbow jabbed a hoof at the farmer. “Applejack, stop getting in my way! You have no business being here at all. You have no skills that can help out. You don't even have a basic understanding of how to survive in here. You're just here because you have some stupid fantasy of storming in and rescuing your sister like some sort of big hero! Well guess what? Those big, flashy, invincible heroes don't exist!”

“Nuh – uh!” Pinkie argued, squirming around under Applejack's hooves. “Celestia's – totally real! I should know – I'm – her student!”

“And look how well it turned out for her,” Rainbow snarled. “She must have taught you all about it. You keep jumping in harm's way so much, it's like you're trying to get killed!”

“Listen here, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “Ah've had enough of your 'better than y'all' attitude. There ain't a one of us what knows anythin' about this here Nightmare Moon we're supposed to fight – not even you – and sure, she's a heck of a lot stronger than all of us, but Ah ain't backin' down just because it looks bad. Not when my sister's life is on the line!”

“Girls,” Fluttershy said, “we really should stop fighting...”

“Farmers and craftsponies should just leave this to the professionals, and stay the buck at home where it's safe!”

“Oh yeah?” Pinkie growled. “Well, I'm the one who set this all up, so I'm the one who decides who goes. It's Pinkie's Party, and I chose everypony here to come with me. So they're all coming with us!”

“You mean those professionals who got their tails thrashed up on stage? Ah'm comin', whether y'all want me to or not! – Pinkie, you just simmer down, alright? Yah ain't goin' anywhere until you do.”

“You idiots!” Rainbow cried. “This is exactly how the Wonderbolts –”

Applejack stumbled slightly when Pinkie's body disappeared from beneath her. She turned back and stared dumbfounded at the place Pinkie had been.

She had vanished completely.

There was a crashing in the leaves above the group. Rainbow Dash squawked as Pinkie's falling elbow caught her in the spine, right between the bases of her wings, and she fell back to the ground under the earth pony's weight.

The forest was quiet as Pinkie Pie stumbled to her hooves. Everypony just stared at her, even Rainbow Dash, craning her neck from where she lay as Pinkie's eyes turned from rage to fear, and she cowered in the middle of the clearing.

The alligator blinked twice.

“You just- what did-” Applejack stammered. “What just happened?”

“She disappeared!” said Rarity. “She was there on the ground, and then she just vanished, and came down from the trees. She teleported!”

“That's impossible,” Twilight protested. “Pinkie's an earthpony! Earthponies can't teleport.”

Pinkie's eyes drifted over the whole party, and as they did, they began to water. Fluttershy flinched as they passed over her.

“I'm not- different...” Pinkie choked out, tears starting to spill down her face at an alarming rate. “I'm not...”

Applejack stepped forward a pace. “Back when you dropped all your gear all over the place... that wasn't...” She shook her head, and her eyes narrowed. “Ah don't know what Ah thought that was, but it wasn't natural, was it? What exactly are you?”

“It explains so much,” Rarity mumbled. “How she got into my house. How she knew my name...”

“You're the one who was leading us all on this mission in the first place,” Rainbow said as she stood up. She jerked forward, eyes blazing with renewed anger. “What the heck are you? Are you a spy? One of Nightmare Moon's minions? Is this whole thing just some wild goose chase to buy her time to do whatever it is she wants with the fillies?”

“Rainbow Dash, don't be ridiculous,” Twilight chided. “I was the one who approached her. If you're going to blame me as well...”

“But she was the one who made all that big talk about the Elements,” Rainbow argued. “Who here had even heard of these things before now? And they're supposed to be strong enough to take down an alicorn?”

“You're being paranoid,” Twilight said. “My brother knew her, and he's in the Royal Guard. That supports her story of being Princess Celestia's student. Pinkie's done nothing but give us hope so far, and I don't think this- this whatever it is makes any difference.”

Applejack shook her head, her face set in a scowl. “She's been hidin' things from us. Ah'll just bet she knows a whole lot more than what she's lettin' on. What exactly did Princess Celestia tell you 'bout all this?”

“She didn't tell me anything!” Pinkie cried. “I'm just as lost as you are!”

“Then how did you know about them Elements?” Applejack asked. “You understood Nightmare Moon's whole speech, unlike the rest of us. How is it you know so much about her?”

“T- the Princess has talked about the Elements before,” Pinkie admitted. “But just as a sort of history project. She didn't say any of this was going to happen!”

“Pinkie seemed to catch on to that trap Nightmare laid quite quickly,” Rarity said with a frown. “How did she understand the concept of a space-time bubble just by hearing it described?”

“Of course I understood,” Pinkie choked out. “I bend space all the time. We spent six months –”

“Bend space like Nightmare Moon does?” Rarity pressed.

“No! I'm nothing like Princess Moon!”

“... Why do you keep calling her Princess?” Fluttershy interjected.

“Be- Because...”

Pinkie's voice sputtered and died. She curled up in a ball at the center of the clearing, shivering on the ground which was rapidly growing muddy from her absurd, fountain-like tears, which only emphasized her strangeness. The others looked down on her with hurt, tightening expressions.

All except Twilight Sparkle.

“Nightmare Moon, the Mare in the Moon, is the imprisoned sister of Princess Celestia, also known as Princess Luna.” Twilight stepped forward. “'Luna' is an old unicorn word, which translates to Moon. Ergo, 'Princess Moon.' It's recorded in many old pony tales, and in the few history books that go back that far. I'm sure the Princess would have mentioned something like that to her personal student.”

Hesitantly, Pinkie glanced up at Twilight's kindly face. Pinkie nodded slowly.

“All that shows,” Twilight continued, “is that Pinkie is well-read and has a good sense of humor.”

Applejack gripped the brim of her hat with a hoof. “Even so,” she argued, “we can't exactly trust somepony who's always goin' around and callin' the enemy her Princess, now can we?”

“Of course we can,” Twilight replied. “She never said Nightmare was her Princess. And even if she had, Luna is technically Princess to all of us. That's not going to stop us from trying to get Princess Celestia back, or the three fillies Nightmare foalnapped. Pinkie is our friend, and she hasn't done anything to earn our distrust.”

“Even if she can drop into nothingness and fall upon us from the trees?” Rarity shivered. “What else might she be hiding?”

“I can't say for sure,” Twilight replied, “and I don't know how she does the things she does. Yet. But she's our friend. Just because we don't understand her doesn't mean we can't believe in her.”

“... We're friends?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight glanced down. “Of course, Pinkie. We're all friends now, on this journey together.”

“Really friends?” Pinkie levered herself up on one elbow. “Not just 'there's a party, so we'll have fun together and drink punch and eat cake and play games and go away in the morning and never see you again' friends?”

“Of... course.” Twilight nodded. “I mean, how could we not be? We're all in this together. Just look at us.”

She turned to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow,” she said, “You're completely right. We're all in over our heads here, and some of us have never been inside the Everfree before. Maybe there were other ponies more suited for what we have to do out here, but we're the ones who decided to come, and we're the only ones we can depend on to solve this. None of us can turn back – we're all just going to have to rely on each other, and look out for whatever dangers lie ahead. Your skills and determination are going to be a big part of getting everypony out of here alive, and beating Nightmare Moon.”

“Applejack,” she said. “You didn't know what dangers there were waiting for you when you said you would come help save your sister. You knew you didn't know; that just makes you even braver for trying. Things are going to be hard for you, but you knew that coming in. And I promise you, we will get your sister back. You can count on that.”

“Fluttershy, you're so soft-spoken that sometimes I feel like I forget you're there. I'm sorry for that. But whenever you speak up, you've got something kind to say, or some part of your huge stores of wisdom to impart about the creatures here. Don't be afraid to talk to us – your advice is definitely worth listening to, and your heart is perhaps the kindest of us all. Thank you for coming with us.”

“Rarity. You've already given up so much, and you're still keeping up a brave face about it. I don't know how you do it, but I'm glad to have such a strong friend here by my side. I only hope that if I end up needing to do anything like what you did I can do half as well following your example.”

“Pinkie.” Twilight turned to the pink mare. Pinkie had started crying again, waterfalls of tears pooling in a puddle around her haunches. Twilight paused for a moment at the sight, but the almost-hopeful tug at the corners of Pinkie's mouth convinced her to press on.

“I'm... not really sure how you fit into this. You're Princess Celestia's student, and you're the one who brought us all together, who told us about the Elements. And yet, sometimes, you act so clueless about things it's like you're completely lacking in common sense. I just know that without you, none of us would have a hope at beating this Nightmare. Rainbow and Applejack would have probably gotten themselves killed going off to fight her, and I'm not sure what Rarity would have done, but Fluttershy and I would probably have never left the village. We would never have known what to do without your help – so I'm glad you came to Ponyville.”

Twilight glanced around, looking at each of her companions in turn. “I'm glad you've all come with us on this journey. I'm sure that, working together, we can make a difference tonight. We can rescue those fillies, save Princess Celestia, and set everything right. Together.” She smiled. “And I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to save the world with.”

She was cut off as Pinkie wrapped her in the tightest, warmest hug she had ever had, which was also somewhat damp where Pinkie's face was nestled into her coat.

They stayed like that for a while before Rarity coughed politely from where she stood behind them.

“I still don't know quite how to feel about this...”

“Well, I guess it doesn't make a difference to me, anyway.” Rainbow Dash stood up. “I mean, even if she is a Nightmare spy, she's one of our group. What are we going to do, leave her here? No way.”

“Ah suppose it's not likely she's a spy,” Applejack admitted. “And it's not that Ah don't like you, Pinkie. Ah do. It's just... Ah don't know...” She shivered. “Could you not do that again? It's ain't natural-like.”

Pinkie flinched a little. Fluttershy walked up on shaky hooves, and laid a wing over the earthpony.

“... It's okay,” she said. “We're all just a little bit frightened. I'm scared, but... we'll get through this together, okay?”

“That's the spirit, Fluttershy!” Twilight said, and Fluttershy jumped at the voice so near her head – in gathering her courage to approach Pinkie, she had completely forgotten that Twilight was there next to her.

Rarity sighed.

“Well then, I suppose that's settled. May we please get on with this as fast as may be, so that we can get this whole thing over quickly and I can get some medicine for my horn? This headache is simply dreadful.”

The trio of fillies watched, relieved, as their rescuers picked themselves up and began to move on. But the queasy feeling of guilt in their hearts was slow to fade. Nightmare laughed warmly behind them.

“A fascinating choice,” she said. “You three must know your sisters quite well. I'm sure I wouldn't have set upon the idea of breaking their team spirit so badly with such a harmless creature. You really do have a talent for this sort of thing.”

Scootaloo caught herself turning around to check at her sides – the foals at school had been getting their marks for a while now, and it bothered her that she hadn't found anything she was good at yet. The feeling of guilt resurged as she realized that her desire for a cutie mark was so blind that, for a moment, she was even willing to accept one in the creation of evil monsters.

Beside her, Sweetie Belle spoke up in a cracking voice. “We didn't do it to help you, Nightmare. We were trying to make things easier on them, so they could get here faster and take care of you!”

“And I'm sure they're grateful,” Nightmare said. “What did they do to deserve such dutiful sisters?”

The fillies didn't answer. Nightmare Moon let out another long, slow laugh.

Chapter 10: Fear of Spiders

“This is the best day EVER!”

Pinkie beamed as she hopped along the path through the trees, the top of her mane just barely kissing the canopy above. She bounced hither and thither and around, circling the group many times over and appearing from the most unusual of places in her exuberance.

“The 'best day ever?'” Twilight asked with a raised brow. “Well, the Sun's almost two hours late, we've been trudging through a veritable smörgåsbord of the worst the Everfree has to offer in the way of deadly monsters, three of us have siblings that have been injured or foalnapped, and we're about to face off against the creature parents scare their foals with by relying on equally ancient and equally dubious rumors of a powerful magical artifact that may or may not exist, and we might or might not be able to use. But other than that, yeah! I can totally see this being the best day of anypony's life.”

“Hmm.” Pinkie cupped her chin, bouncing along with three hooves just as well as with four. “Those are some very interesting points there, Twilight. Allow me,” she said, snatching her towel from her mane and whipping it around her torso like a toga, “to present my counter-argument.

“Item the first.” She held up the alligator that had given the team so much trouble before. “I have a new pet! He is best pet. And his name is Gummy, which is best name for best pet. So that's four points in my favor.

“Second!” She tossed Gummy carelessly off to the side as a wreath of leaves fell from the tree above her to rest lightly on her head like an ancient pegasi general. “I got to throw my first party ever outside my home or Castle Canterlot, and everypony came, including not one but two Princesses.

“Third!” She held up a tray of six cupcakes, the colors of which looked vaguely familiar. “I told my secret to my new friends, who I also met today, and they're perfectly okay with all the weird stuff I can do! Like pull things out of nowhere, use my tongue like a fifth limb, unhinge my jaw like some sort of bright pink snake-pony, and defy the laws of physics on a whim – perhaps only on a whim.” Pinkie shrugged. “Celestia and I tested it, and it seems like it breaks down under pressure, or something.”

Applejack winced. “Maybe not so far as 'perfectly' okay, sugarcube. Ah mean, ah would appreciate it if'n you'd tone it down a touch...” Her eyes drifted off towards the brush on the side of the road. “That 'gator's okay, right?”

“Of course, silly,” Pinkie scoffed, holding up Gummy in her forehooves as she bounced backwards along a curve in the path. The towel, cupcakes and wreath seemed to have vanished. “I wouldn't do something that would put Gummy in danger. I'm just as responsible as I look.”

As she finished talking, she stopped bouncing and came to a halt in the air above the path. It took a moment for the others to realize that it wasn't another demonstration of her casual relationship with gravity. Pinkie was hanging a meter from the ground, held up by transparent threads almost half an inch in diameter, which glistened with a dark fluid.

“Speaking of looking,” Pinkie mused, “maybe I should look more where I'm going.”

“Is that a spider web?” Rarity asked, taking a step backward. “It's simply enormous! Ugh, I do so abhor spiders.”

But Rarity and Applejack were surprised when Twilight and the two pegasi gave gasps of horror, with fear in their eyes. Even as Rainbow Dash fell back, she reached for her sword.

“Octospi!” she cried. “Everypony mov-”

Her words were cut off as a string of sticky webbing slammed into her torso with the force of a heavy rubber ball at high speeds. As quickly as she was struck, the strand was yanked back into the hidden depths of the forest, the sword fell from her grasp as her head snapped back from the whiplash, and she was gone.

“What in tarnation was that?” Applejack shouted. “Twi, what's an Octospi?”

Twilight's eyes were trained on where Rainbow Dash had disappeared to as she muttered rapid words under her breath. “Gotta find it- heat vision! No, it's on the attack, I've gotta dodge-”

Then the web was back, and Twilight was yanked off into the forest as well.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy squeaked, voice almost a whisper and eyes almost popping out of her skull. Rainbow's voice drifted back through the trees from a short distance away.

“You think you can take me on?” Rainbow cried. “You think I'm scared of a little web in my feathers? I'll show you, this stuff can't hold me, I'll rip it in two! I'll... Mmph!” The sound cut off as it was muffled, though it didn't die away completely.

Twilight just screamed. Then her voice was cut off too, dulled down, like somepony had wrapped a wet cloth around her mouth. But Applejack could still hear her screaming mindlessly through the suffocating string, with no thought as to if she could be heard or not.

“Oh hey! It looks like the neurotoxin's working,” Pinkie noted. Sweat was starting to drip down her face. “That kind of sucks.”

Rarity yelped as she was knocked down, her hooves scrabbling vainly for a grip on the worn surface of the road as she was dragged off into the bushes.

“Fluttershy!” Applejack hissed. “What is this thing? You know what it is, right? Tell me what we're dealin' with here!”

With a thwap, the webbing shot out again and caught Fluttershy all along her side. She let out a quiet “eep!” as she was reeled off in a direction slightly different than the others. This time, Fluttershy was stopped close enough that Applejack could just make out the sight of dark and sinister something stringing Fluttershy up to another one of those giant webs and wrapping her up like a spider's lunch. The creature was hard to separate from the dim browns and grays of the forest, but Fluttershy's pastel hues stood out as she struggled wildly, screaming bloody murder in what was the loudest anypony there aside from Rainbow Dash had ever heard her speak.

“Hang on, Fluttershy!” Applejack cried. “Ah'm comin'!”

“Be free, Gummy!” Pinkie said, tossing the alligator to the forest floor. “Save yourself!”

The web shot out from somewhere up above, and Gummy was pulled away like the others. Pinkie's face fell.

“Curse you, cosmic irony!”

As Applejack ran towards where she could see Fluttershy hanging up in the trees, she snatched up the sword Rainbow Dash had dropped. She traced the line of the webbing down to where it met the base of a tree, close enough to the ground for her to reach, and she stepped up to take a swing at it. The sword came down and the sharp edge bent the anchoring strand all the way to the ground before it broke. Without hesitation, Applejack moved to the next strand.

And then something caught her by the leg.

“Oh my,” Nightmare Moon said suddenly. “I do believe your sisters are about to meet their death. How unfortunate.”

“W-what?” Sweetie Belle started back at the first words Nightmare had spoken in over half an hour. “What do you mean, 'their death?'”

“I mean they've managed to stumble upon the feeding grounds of a ravenous Octospider.” With a gesture of Nightmare's horn, six images appeared in the air, showing the six brave ponies of the rescue party each trapped in their own separate web.

“And to think, that road used to be so safe to travel on not so long ago. What have things come to in my absence?”

“Pssh. Octospiders,” Scootaloo said with a wave of her hoof. “Rainbow Dash'll take care of them, no problem.” She perked up. “Where is she? I don't see her.”

“Well, by process of elimination,” Nightmare said, “I would assume this one.” She pointed at an image which showed a pony-sized ball of unidentifiable webbing. “Although it is rather hard to tell at this point, really.”

“Oh.” Scootaloo frowned. Then she snorted and puffed out her chest. “She's just lulling it into a false sense of security, that's all. Once it turns its back, she'll cut her way out of there with her sword, no problem. You just watch.”

“Hey,” Apple Bloom said, “isn't that Rainbow's sword mah sister's holdin'?”

Scootaloo gave a startled cough and stared bug-eyed at the image of Applejack. “What's your sister doing with Rainbow Dash's sword? She needs that!”

“She must be usin' it to bust 'em all loose,” Apple Bloom declared.

“But your sister's a farmer!” Scootaloo cried. “She doesn't know how to use a sword!” She turned back to the image. “Give it back to Rainbow Dash!”

“Hey,” Apple Bloom argued, “my sister kicks trees all day, so she's really strong. Ah'll bet she's even stronger than Rainbow Dash is. She'll do even better in getting' 'em loose, you just watch!”

“When you have an older sister, it can feel like they are so much stronger and faster and wiser than you are that they are capable of anything,” Nightmare Moon said, a softer look coming into her slitted eyes. “It is part of growing up when you realize that they are not invincible.”

Apple Bloom stared flatly at the dark Princess. “Ah don't know if you just insulted mah sister by callin' her weak, or me by callin' me un-grown-up-ish. Whichever it is – shut up! You don't know nothin' about us!”

“Don't know anything,” Sweetie corrected. She flinched as Apple Bloom turned the stare on her instead.

“Don't move!” Pinkie hissed to herself. “Just. Keep. Still. It can't see you if you don't move. Don't move!”

“Don't move?” Applejack asked, dangling helplessly from a web roughly a meter and a half over Pinkie's head. Most of her legs were stuck to the sticky strands, along with strips up and down her back. The tension placed on the hairs of her coat as she moved was irritating, just short of painful. “Pinkie, do you know what these things are? Ah never got a good look.”

Pinkie looked up at the sound, getting her mane tangled in the web she was stuck to. She had a shaky smile on her face. “Oh. Hi Applejack!” she said in a strained tone of cheerfulness. “I didn't see you there. Did it get all of us?”

“Yeah, it did,” Applejack said, glancing back into the forest. She could still hear the other's voices, but the sounds had begun to die down. “We need to get out of here now. Tell me what this thing is.”

“HmMMmmMm,” Pinkie mused. “Well, from the direction of the wind, the angle of the stars and Moon, and the gigantic webs coated with terror-inducing neurotoxin, I'd say this is a textbook Octospider ambush.”

“What's an Octospider?” Applejack asked. “And how do we beat it?”

“An Octospider is like your average giant spider,” Pinkie said, “only it's got tentacles instead of legs, ink-like toxin it spreads on its web, and a highly-developed ability to camouflage itself. Oh, and it's one of the few creatures to have the dubious distinction of being a natural predator of ponies. Pegasi specifically.”

Pinkie perked up an ear. “Did Rainbow Dash stop yelling yet? She's a trooper alright, got some real guts. Spitting in the thing's eyes all the way. Pegasi generally have a phobia of the big guys, you know. Not like us earthponies.” Pinkie giggled somewhat hysterically. “We're actually the lucky ones. Pegasi are terrified of them, and Unciorns fall prey to their venom so fast they don't stand a chance of using their magic to save themselves, but we've got all sorts of earthpony magic to fight off the toxin just enough that the dumb brute has to come check on us personally before we snap.”

There was a rustling in the leaves above, and Applejack looked to see the huge form of the Octospider fade into view, it's eight legs rippling and undulating in a boneless fashion as it tended to a smaller web set in the crook of a tree. With a sharp snap, the alligator Gummy dropped to the ground, trails of webbing still sticking to him in places.

“Oh hey, Gummy's alright!” Pinkie tried to follow him down, but her mane caught and kept her from looking. Her eyes widened. “He's alright, right? Applejack? Applejack, I can't see him, is he alright?”

The alligator rolled to his feet and blinked ponderously, seemingly no worse for the wear.

“Yep,” Applejack nodded. “He looks fine to me.”

“Oh good,” Pinkie sighed. “When Octospiders hunt, they usually end up grabbing a whole bunch of things that aren't really edible, like logs and twigs and stuff, because they have such terrible eyesight and basically no hearing. So they just grab everything that looks interesting, wait for the fear toxin to set in, and if they detect the frantic struggles of their terrified prey, they wrap it up for lunch. If they don't, they figure that whatever it is it's not alive, so they cut it loose to free up their web for later.” Pinkie's breathing started picking up speed. “At least one of us will make it out alive. Until the eternal night makes the plants start dying and everypony starves to death. But hey! The rest of us will have starved long before that, and the spider will have enough meals to keep it alive for the next month or two. So everything's just peachy, all round!” She glanced up at Applejack. “You know, you seem to be taking this pretty well.”

Applejack looked at the strands of web that were stuck to her sword leg. Looking closely, she could see tiny black droplets that must have been the toxin Pinkie had mentioned. “Yeah,” Applejack agreed. “Ah guess Ah am. Ah mean, this ain't exactly a good situation, but you gotta keep your head or it'll all just turn out worse, you know?”

“No,” Pinkie said, “I know that, and Twilight knew that, we all knew that, but you're the only one whose been able to stay all objective about this. You must have a huge amount of magic for you not to be affected by the toxin. I mean, I've got the most Princess Celestia's ever seen, and it's not working for me!” Her voice cut off with a squeak.

“Pinkie!” Applejack cried. She struggled against her bonds, but the webbing simply stretched along with her movement, and she couldn't get the force to break it without tangling herself up further. “Just hold on, Pinkie. We'll get through this!”

Pinkie had started to tremble violently. “Heeeyyy, Applejack, you're pretty strong, right?” She stared at the farmer with wide and frantic eyes. “You've gotta break free, you're our only chance! You've got the sword. You can cut us down, just break loose!”

Applejack tugged on her leg again, harder this time. Her free hoof slipped and landed against the web, sticking fast. Try as she might, she couldn't break herself free, and as she managed to get the side of her head stuck to another of the strands, she stopped moving.

“Don't give up!” Pinkie cried. The sound of leaves rustling in the bushes by Pinkie's tree heralded the coming of the spider. “You've got to keep trying! Applejack!”

“Ah'm sorry, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Ah can't break the webbing.”

“You have to try, Applejack!” Pinkie yelled. “It's our only chance!”

“No, Pinkie,” Applejack sighed. “Ah'm not gonna do it.”

“What?!?”

“What?!?” Apple Bloom cried. “Don't give up, sis! You've gotta break free!”

Nightmare Moon stepped up close behind her and spoke in a soft and gentle tone. “Even the strongest pony alive could not break free from the web of an Octospider through force of limb. Your sister... is no exception, I'm afraid.” She set an imperceptable hoof on Apple Bloom's withers, and whispered in her ear while the filly's eyes were fixed on the sight in front of her.

“She's only a pony, after all.”

“Give Rainbow Dash back the sword!” Scootaloo cried. “If Rainbow had it, she wouldn't give up, not ever!”

“My sister wouldn't give up!” Apple Bloom shouted. “You take that back!”

“Then why did she just do that?” Scootaloo said back. “She just did give up, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom stared at the image of her sister hanging there, motionless while the spider crept up behind the last of her friends. Applejack did nothing, even as Pinkie began to break down in fear and their doom grew ever closer.

Apple Bloom whirled round to Nightmare Moon. “Help them!” she cried. “You can't just let this happen! You're powerful, you can save them, you can even send them away so they won't stop you. That's my sister out there! You've gotta help them!”

Nightmare stared down at the filly inscrutably. Then the images disappeared and left the castle hall shrouded in darkness.

“I will consider it,” Nightmare said. “You three just stay here for now. I have somewhere I need to be.”

The hall seemed very cold and empty as Nightmare walked into the shadow of a doorway and vanished from their sight.

“No no no, Applejack!” Pinkie jumped as she heard something crawling nearer to her. “We need to get out of here, it can't end like this. Applejack!”

“Just stay calm, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Ah'm gonna try tricking it into letting me go.”

“You can't do that!” Pinkie cried. “Nopony can! Your fragile pony psyche will snap like a twig! It'll know!”

“It worked with the 'gator,” Applejack argued. “And you said Ah'm doin' better than anypony else has at this thing. It's a better shot than tryin' to break myself free, that's for sure.”

Pinkie stared. Water started gathering at the corners of her eyes. “Right,” Pinkie said. “Ha ha. Best day ever.” She stared off into space and started humming to herself as the rustling grew ever closer.

“G- giggle at the ghosties...~ Heh heh... heh...”

The bark shifted and the Octospider revealed itself in its full, unmasked monstrosity. Pinkie screamed, and started flailing around as the spider picked up the web and folded her into an inescapable ball of webbing, where her screams only intensified for all that they were muffled as the fear-inducing toxin was introduced along every inch of her being.

“Oh yes,” Applejack said to herself as she looked away. “That there's just what Ah needed to keep myself nice and calm for when its my turn.” She could feel her muzzle scrunch up in distaste. “Yeppers. Just a bit of a reminder of what happens if'n Ah fail.”

Applejack didn't look back, but she could hear as the Octospider moved away from its most recent captive. Pinkie's screams began to die down like the others had, and from this distance, Applejack could hear that it had been replaced with helpless, panicked sobbing. For a long while, there was no other noise.

Applejack almost started as a branch cracked and broke above her head, but she managed to keep herself from moving, just barely. The spider hissed, announcing its presence, and the hairs along Applejack's spine stood on end where they were not held down by web. Time seemed to stretch on for an eternity of heartbeats.

The spider reached out for the web, and Applejack let slip a cry of fear at the thought that it had seen through her ruse.

Then she was falling to the forest floor, and she landed with a thud that rattled her bones. The pain was almost welcome as it came with the relief of freedom, and Applejack felt like she could breathe again for the first time in far too long.

She staggered to her hooves, and froze as she feared the beast might see her moving and try to catch her all over again. She watched as it finished fixing the web it had hung her on for whatever it caught the next time something came along, and clambered back over unconcealed to rest in the shadows of a high tree.

Applejack kept her eyes on the monster as she moved over and began cutting down her friends. She started with Pinkie Pie as she was closest, and it took some doing to reach the higher strands – Applejack, for all she worked with trees, was not very good at climbing them. Once or twice, she would cut a strand and the web would shift drastically, and Applejack would look up at the spider, in fear of its coming down to find out what was happening to its food supplies. But the creature stayed where it was. Finally, Applejack had Pinkie's cocoon down on the ground. Applejack cut her free with the sword, and Pinkie sat up in a panic, sucking in deep volumes of air.

“Easy now, Pinkie,” Applejack said soothingly. “It worked! The spider ignored me, and Ah've got Rainbow's knife, so we can get all the others down too. Ah got you free now. It's gonna be alright-”

She was cut off when Pinkie wrapped her neck in a hug that could have qualified as a wrestling move. Then Pinkie snatched up the sword with a forehoof and glared up unerringly at where the spider hung.

“Oh, you're going to regret doing that to us,” Pinkie growled. “Fear leads to angry ponies, and angry ponies lead to very unhappy spiders!”

“Pinkie, wait!” Applejack said, but before she could stop the pink earthpony, Pinkie had disappeared into the brush. Applejack gave chase, and found Pinkie leaping a full ten meters into the air to hack at the webbing of one of their friends with ferocious speed, felling the cocoon in seconds where it had taken Applejack minutes.

“You can just go hungry for all I care,” Pinkie cried, as she sliced into the cocoon and freed an unconscious Fluttershy. “And have no fun at all rebuilding all. Your. Webs! Raaggh!”

And then she was on to the next one. In no time at all, she had freed all of her friends. Rainbow burst out of her cocoon ready for battle, with only half of its strands cut, and it took some convincing to keep her from flying up and attacking the spider where it sat in its tree. It took Twilight several minutes to recover enough that she could use her magic, but once she had used it to get rid of the remaining strands of toxin-laced spider silk, the effect began to wear off.

“Oh, I feel so much better now,” Fluttershy said, her shivers beginning to die down. “It's like it was all just a bad dream.”

“Such a horrid creature,” Rarity said, scowling up at the spider. “It's almost enough to justify arachnophobia.”

“I'm pretty sure that would be an oxymoron,” Twilight commented. “The term 'phobia' implies a degree of irrationality. If it were justified, it wouldn't be irrational.”

“Well,” Fluttershy murmured, “they are very dangerous. But even Octospiders can be reasoned with, if you understand them well enough. And they're not hungry.” The others stared at her. She scuffed at the ground. “Well, I can reason with them most of the time, anyway.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow huffed. She wandered off into the bushes in the direction of the path. “Let's just get back on the road.”

Nightmare Moon walked the halls of the ruin castle, making her way down the maze-like passages with the ease of familiarity. Her iron-shod hoofsteps echoed out across the room as she emerged into the open-air expanse of what was once the ballroom of Castle Everfree, and was now marked and etched with sinister glowing runes, surrounding the tall, imprisoned figure of Princess Celestia.

The Princess of the Sun turned as well as she could at Nightmare's approach, twisting her head around as far as the heavy chains she was bound with would allow. Her legs were clamped to the floor, and an intricate iron ring hung heavy on her spiraling horn.

“Luna.” Celestia stared at Nightmare Moon with a single uncovered eye, betraying no emotion. “Have you finished your preparations, then? As you can see, I haven't somehow managed to escape these chains in the few minutes you've been gone.”

“It's been over an hour and a half, dear sister,” Nightmare said carelessly. “Ponies may have changed since I've been gone, but I doubt they call that 'a few minutes,' even now.”

“I see,” Celestia said. “You know, you're really making this too easy on me. I'm used to things being much more unpleasant than this. It makes the time seem to pass slower.” She shook her head, allowing the metal links of her chains to clink and clatter as she moved. “You're throwing off all my estimations.”

Nightmare ignored her, and walked around in front so the two mares were standing face to face. One of them was a pillar of inky night encased in the armor of a war long past, the other a pale pastel titan wreathed in iron bindings. They stood at the same height, looked each other in the eyes, and were as motionless as statues, for all that they still breathed and their hearts still beat.

Nightmare spoke. “Your student has come to rescue you,” she said. “The pink one.”

“I thought she might,” Celestia replied. “It seemed like a thing she would do.”

Nightmare was silent, and it was Celestia who continued the conversation.

“If she is coming here,” she said, “it is because she plans to defeat you. She would have brought others, her friends.”

“She did,” Nightmare offered. “Five of them.”

“Five?” Celestia asked.

“A motley crew. A hunter, an armorer, a scholar, a beast-master, and a farmer.”

“So many,” Celestia breathed. She smiled. “I'm glad for her. Her first night out of the castle, and she's already got so many friends willing to stand beside her.”

Nightmare smiled back. “They seem to have gotten into a spot of trouble. Two of them – the armorer and the farmer – have sisters. Did you know? I have them here visiting me, right now. And one of those little dears has asked for my help.”

Celestia's smile faded.

“Don't do this, Luna. You don't have to involve them.”

“Well I wouldn't,” Nightmare agreed, “if you would just tell me how you managed to use the Elements on your own. It would spare them no small amount of discomfort.”

“Just give up on this idea of a perfect revenge,” Celestia pleaded. “You don't need to use the Elements. Just deal with me some other way.”

Nightmare Moon's face contorted with rage. “You sealed me into the surface of the Moon for a thousand years. And for what? To keep me from getting a little recognition from my subjects? I'm going to do the exact same thing to you, and let you wake up tomorrow to find that a thousand years have left you behind!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Luna, you attacked me. With lasers. In most countries I've heard about, that would be considered attempted murder at best, and treason by no stretch of the imagination. My advisors berated me for months for being so lenient.” She smiled. “I had to fire them to get them to stop.”

“As if you would have died!” Nightmare scoffed. “I wish you would, you vile nag. It would solve a lot of problems.”

“You don't mean that.”

It was not a question. Nightmare had known Celestia for the entirety of her thousands of years of existence, and she still couldn't detect even the smallest measure of uncertainty in the Sun Princess' face.

“Nice talk,” Nightmare Moon said, walking around to the exit. “Good thing, too. We probably won't have time for another when I come back. I'll be too busy.”

“It was nice to see you, Luna.”

As Nightmare left the room, a small part of her wondered at how her sister was able to say that so sincerely.

Chapter 11: Bad Ends

“Hey, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle whispered. “Do you think I'm brave?”

Scootaloo glanced up in surprise at being spoken to. The glazed look on Sweetie Belle's face as she stared off at something a couple miles over Scootaloo's shoulder made a chill run down the little pegasus' spine. “What kind of question is that?” Scootaloo asked. “I barely know you.”

“I thought I was the brave one,” Sweetie Belle continued, voice growing wistful. “I'm not smart, or pretty, or talented like her, but I thought I could be brave. But she's brave too. She's the better sister at everything I do. I'm completely useless...”

She said this last part in exactly the same tone as all the rest, as if she was commenting on the weather or the score of a hoofball game she wasn't interested in. Scootaloo backed up a step almost without noticing that she did so, stepping on Apple Bloom's tail in the process. Realizing what she had done, Scootaloo jumped off immediately.

“Whoops,” she said. “Sorry about that, Apple Bloom. Didn't mean to hurt you.”

Apple Bloom didn't respond. She was lying seated on the ground, staring in the direction of the doorway Nightmare Moon had departed through all those tense moments ago. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at her inaction.

“Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked. “Apple Bloom, are you okay?”

The young filly didn't respond. Scootaloo walked around to Apple Bloom's side and gave her withers a gentle shake. “Apple Bloom?” she asked again. “Hellooo? Hey, don't give up on us now!”

Apple Bloom looked slowly around. “Don't give up?” She asked slowly. Her eyes narrowed as her eyebrows grew suddenly together with singular intensity. “Don't give up?” She leapt to her hooves and whirled round on the startled Scootaloo. “Is that your idea of a joke? Just rub it in to the stupid country filly that her dumb hick of a sister choked when the chips were down, huh? Is that it?”

“Wha – n-no!” Scootaloo stammered.

“She was supposed to save me,” Apple Bloom continued as if Scootaloo hadn't spoken, “and not only did she fall into every trap under the Sun, but when her friends really needed her, when Ah needed her, she just gave up and quit! Just like that! What kind of older sister just gives up like that?”

Scootaloo remained silent this time, but her eyes grew wider as she noticed that, even in the midst of all this anger, Apple Bloom's own eyes were just as glossed over as Sweetie Belle's were.

A cold trickle of fear began to pool around Scootaloo's stomach.

The clicking of hooves on stone tile drew Scootaloo's attention away, and her head snapped up to see Nightmare returning from where ever she had gone. The other two fillies didn't seem to take notice, and Apple Bloom kept right on ranting, but Nightmare Moon ignored them. She spoke up.

“I have decided to spare your sister's lives,” she said shortly. An image appeared in the air, showing the rescue party picking themselves up and removing the last of the Octospider's webs. “Be grateful that I have been so merciful, but realize that, if they still choose to confront me, I will be forced to deal with them myself.”

Joy and relief flooded Scootaloo's small frame, and a grin gripped her face so hard it was almost painful. “They're safe! Well, of course they're safe,” she said, folding her forelegs across her chest and feigning a level of 'cool' indifference. “Rainbow Dash is with them. She's not going to stop at anything until she's rescued me, all the others, Princess Celestia, and kicked you back to the Moon where you belong!”

Nightmare Moon was silent. She tilted her head to one side.

“She's already almost here,” Scootaloo continued. “You might as well give up now. Rainbow Dash is already gonna be ticked that you foalnapped me, but maybe if you beg for forgiveness, she'll let you off with imprisonment for life.”

“Why, exactly,” Nightmare Moon asked, “are you so confident that Rainbow Dash is coming to rescue you?”

Scootaloo blinked. The question caught her entirely off guard. “Huh?” she asked. “But- she is coming. You've showed me she is.”

“Princess Celestia is certainly a big enough figure to merit rescuing,” Nightmare continued. “The rewards and prestige are sure to be equally grand. But why would anypony go to the trouble of rescuing you?”

Scootaloo blinked again. And then another time. “What do you mean 'why would anyone rescue me?' Of course she'll rescue me. Rainbow Dash is a hero!”

Nightmare Moon scoffed. “'Heroes...'”

“What?” Scootaloo asked. “What's so funny?”

“Do you even listen to your little idol, there?” Nightmare asked. With a flash of her horn, she pulled up an image from earlier in the night. Scootaloo found Rainbow Dash glaring down at her, and jumped at the angry tone in her voice – it was as if Rainbow was there herself, chastising her.

“Those big, flashy, invincible heroes don't exist!”

The image disappeared into thin air. The light of the rising full moon streamed in from the cracks in the castle walls, staining the room a deep night blue. Nightmare Moon stepped forward while Scootaloo was still reeling.

“It is a part of growing up,” Nightmare began, “when we realize that the ones we idolized shall always fail to meet our standards for them. When we begin to realize just how vapid and hollow their affected affections can really be, as they use us to satisfy their own delusions of heroism.”

“What?!” Scootaloo cried. “Rainbow Dash would never-”

“Look,” Nightmare Moon continued, powering through Scootaloo's protestations. Six new images appeared in the air behind Nightmare Moon. They showed Rainbow Dash and the others walking through the woods, and each one was focused on a different pony. They circled round, and the one centered on Pinkie Pie floated up towards the front.

“Every single one of them will fail you.”

“Come on, guys!” Rainbow urged. “We've gotta be almost there by now.”

The ground had taken on the slightest bit of an uphill slope for the last few miles, and Fluttershy and Rarity were both panting a little as they climbed. None of the ponies, however, showed any signs of slowing their hurried pace.

“There should be a bridge, not far ahead,” Twilight spoke up. “That should be right in front of the castle. We should be there in just a few more minutes.”

“Unless that Nightmare tries somethin' again,” muttered Applejack.

Pinkie laughed. “Well, joke's on her! We'll get through whatever mean tricks she tries on us, and the more time Princess Moon spends trying to trip us up, the less time she has for whatever her real plan is. I hope she tries something again. There's only been five traps so far – Bow-chan's still missing hers.”

“Bow-chan?” Rainbow asked. “What? Wait, are you saying I'm not pulling my weight here?”

“You know, you're right,” Rarity said smoothly. “Each of us has contributed something to our little group, if you count Twilight's masterful soothing of that nasty little quarrel we had. But what did you do, Pinkie, if you pardon my asking? I can't seem to think of anything.”

Pinkie blinked. “Duh.” She swung the end of her tail around in front of her to reveal the diminutive reptile dangling off of the end of it by its un-teeth. “I forged a solid mutually beneficial alliance with Gummy here when everypony else was worried about his mysterious origins and unnaturally attractive demeanor indicating that he could possibly have consorted with forces of utter darkness in order to become such a stunning specimen of bullhood. It was an impressive display of my princess-taught skills of diplomancy, if I do say so myself.”

The others glanced back at the pink pony, who managed to keep a bounce in her step even though she was now walking with something approaching a normal gate.

“... Bullhood?” Rainbow asked.

“Actually, that's correct,” Fluttershy spoke up. “A male alligator is called a bull. So, um, I guess that's what Gummy is, too. Although he's not like any alligator I've ever met...”

“Diplomancy?” Rarity asked. “Darling, don't you mean diplomacy?”

“Do I?” Pinkie asked. “Silly me, I always get the two confused. What was the difference, again?”

“One actually exists?” Rainbow snarked.

“Nope!” Pinkie giggled. “I'm sure that's not it. The Princess was very clear in my lessons that there are ways to get ponies to like you without resorting to eldritch magics.” A thought clicked in her head. “Oh, that's right! I did mean diplomacy. Good catch, Rarity!”

Rarity let out a hesitant half-laugh, and turned her eyes resolutely back up the road. The full Moon continued to rise overhead, and the forest began to take on a pale blue hue in its powerful light.

“What?” Scootaloo asked. “What's going on? Why is everything blue?” She screwed up her eyes. A faint pressure was starting to grow behind her eyes, and it was beginning to grow uncomfortable. “Why are there six pictures?”

“Each of those ponies have their strong points,” Nightmare said, as if Scootaloo hadn't spoken. Scootaloo was startled to find that Nightmare had stepped up beside her while she was focused on the image. The filly tried to pull away, but Nightmare had one large wing draped over her, holding her in a strong grip.

“And yet,” Nightmare continued, “each of them also has their weaknesses. And I know all of them.” She was staring down into Scootaloo's eyes with her own snake-like monstrosities. They seemed to be devoid of all warmth, even as they burned with a cold rage.

The image focused on Twilight Sparkle cycled into the foreground.

“A mare who can go for years without seeing her loved ones and not grow lonely, only concerned about them when tragedy strikes. Her bleeding, child-like heart is covered up with her obsessive interests and her near-love of isolation. Apprehensive of her own motivations.”

The full Moon continued to rise. The colors grew ever more blue and distorted.

“Diplomancy?” Twilight asked, a note of surprise in her voice. “Isn't that considered a school of extremely black magic? Why in the world would Princess Celestia be teaching you that?”

“Oh, silly,” Pinkie giggled, “Celestia doesn't teach me anything like that. I'm not a unicorn, so she can hardly teach me how to do a spell like one, now can she?”

“I- well, I suppose not,” Twilight admitted. “It's sometimes hard to tell with you what you can and cannot do.”

“Of course, that doesn't mean I can't cast it,” Pinkie continued. “But after the first time, Princess Celestia said that we shouldn't use eldritch magics to convince Philomena to light my hair on fire, no matter how badly my Nightmare Night costume required my hair to be singed.” She grinned. “Did you know that phoenix fire has healing properties when applied in a haphazard fashion to your face? I certainly didn't!”

Twilight's eyes widened and she fell back a step, but Pinkie didn't seem to notice, bouncing along the path just as cheerfully as before.

“But can you really count that?” Rarity asked, drawing the conversation back to its original track. “Your little alligator wasn't even a real threat. All you did was run out and pet it while the rest of us were still trying to figure out if it was going to eat us. Not to put you down at all, darling – you've certainly proved your worth to our expedition in other ways – but it just doesn't seem quite on par with, say, Applejack's dramatic rescue from those horrid spiders.”

Applejack flushed. “Aw, shucks, that ain't nothin'. What about how Fluttershy here ran right up to that star bear? That sounds like a more appropriate comparison to me. You know. Tiny alligator, giant bear. It sure was impressive.”

Fluttershy ducked her head, but there was a smile on her lips. “Oh no, it wasn't that impressive. I mean, all the rest of you rushed out to help too. I just put us all in danger.”

“And saved us all from the wrath of mama bear!” Pinkie chimed in. “And patched up that little baby bear's leg too, while you were at it. You're a hero, Fluttershy! Three cheers for Fluttershy! A one, and a two-”

“Ugh!” Rarity stumbled, her hoof catching on a slight indentation in the ground. She clutched at her head. “Pinkie, if you could just tone it down a bit...”

Instantly, the group's tone shifted. Applejack stepped up and reached out a hoof towards Rarity's shoulder, but thought better of it and dropped the hoof without touching her. “Are you feelin' alright, Rarity? You still up to this?”

“Has your horn started bleeding again?” Fluttershy asked gently. “Please tell me if it does. It's very important.”

“I'm fine,” Rarity protested. “I'm fine. Just a little... headache, that's all. It makes loud noises irritating. I'm fine, really.”

Twilight, forgotten on the outside of the trail, found her eyes drawn to Rarity's injury. The thick bandage that Fluttershy had applied to Rarity's horn was mostly clean and white on the outside, matching the pale unicorn's color almost exactly. In the darkness and half-light of the forest trail, the effect was rather upsetting. It was as if Rarity, in other ways almost a ponification of beauty, had not merely had her horn removed – a smooth, clinical procedure, horrifying, perhaps, but unobtrusive – but had it replaced with a malformed mockery of a thing, something which could not hope to channel magic properly. It made Twilight's blood run cold to look at it.

“The first cut wasn't even that bad, to be honest,” Rarity continued. “It was only after the second toll that I began having this dreadful aching in my head. Like the whole thing was dipped in acid.” She stiffened. “I'm fine,” she said hurriedly. “Forget I said anything.”

“We're not gonna do that, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash replied. “You're our friend. If we don't want to hear that you're hurting, it's 'cause we don't want you to actually be hurting, not because we don't want you to tell us. How's Fluttershy supposed to do her job if you don't tell us how you're feeling?”

Rarity shrank back. “I hate to be a burden...”

“Well, maybe if somepony had contributed, you wouldn't have had to.”

Everyone turned to stare at Pinkie, whose face had lost its customary smile and replaced it with an unsettling scowl. No pony said anything.

“Or what about her,” Nightmare said, pushing the image aside for the next one to take its place. Now the focus was on Rarity. “Why do you think she is so willing to offer up everything she has to save her precious sister?”

“Answer my question!” Scootaloo said, the anger in her voice watered down into a petulant whine. It was too hot underneath Nightmare Moon's wing. She had started to sweat. Scootaloo tried to push the dark Princess away, but it was like pushing a mountain.

“She is a most generous soul, to be sure,” Nightmare said. “But more than a little of that desperate effort comes from the fact that she is convinced she has nothing much to give.”

“You okay there, Rarity?” Applejack asked. “You're looking a bit out of it.”

Rarity started. She hadn't noticed Applejack coming up quite so close. “Oh, yes, I'm fine,” she said. “Nothing new to worry about. I'm just a little bit distracted, that's all.”

“Uh huh.” Applejack's eyes drifted up to Rarity's broken horn. “That thing bothin' you that much? You're lookin' mighty flushed there.”

“I am?” Rarity gasped. “Oh, how awful! Red is completely not my color. It goes against my entire image! Tell me, quickly, how bad is it?”

“Oh, uh.” Applejack took a step back. “Well, Ah don't know. It's pretty red. But, Ah mean, you don't look bad or nothin', just that you don't look good, if you know what Ah mean.” Applejack blinked. “No, wait. That didn't come out quite-”

“Don't look good?!” Rarity cried. “Oh stars, it's worse than I thought! Oh, and me without a dressing room! Makeup, I need makeup!” She began rummaging around in her saddlebags. Her sense of balance began to fail her, and she almost fell as she pulled forcefully on her small bag of supplies, but she caught herself in time. Her headache began to grow worse. “Just give me a moment. I just need... there!”

Rarity spotted her makeup kit inside her bag. Reflexively, she tried to grab at it with her magic, and a spark of pain ripped through her head. She froze, flinching imperceptibly as she the pain reminded her once more of her situation.

“... Fluttershy,” she said, trying to recover, “be a dear and help me out, would you? I need somepony to hold the mirror for me while I work.”

Fluttershy had a pained look on her face, but she stepped forward and took the mirror Rarity offered her. Rarity got to work applying powder to her face and neck, ignoring the fact that she was now the center of attention.

“Rarity,” Applejack said. “That wasn't what Ah meant. Ah meant to say you don't look alright.” She sighed. “Are you sure you're okay?”

“I know what you meant,” Rarity said, not even turning from her work. “Just give me a moment here and we can get started again.”

“... Rarity,” Pinkie said at last, “Maybe you shouldn't go.”

Rarity paused. She looked up.

“What?”

“You're obviously more injured than you're letting on,” Twilight observed. “Do you really want to be facing down Nightmare Moon when you're almost falling over from shock?”

“... We've already talked about this,” Rarity said, snapping her makeup-kit closed and placing it back in her bag. “My coming with you is the best of many bad choices. I'll simply have to bear with it until we can make it back to civilization.”

“At this rate,” Rainbow Dash said, “you'll be more of a liability than a help.”

Rarity blinked. “What?”

“What we're sayin', sugarcube, is that... well, maybe it's best for you if'n you come along, but it might not be best for us. For all of us.” Applejack sighed. “You get me?”

Twilight nodded. “We can't be worried about you passing out on us while we're facing down the pony who took out Princess Celestia. It just wouldn't make sense to hurt our chances that way.”

“Why- of all the-” Rarity rose and stomped her hoof. “I can still fight, you know, even without my magic. I can still be useful!”

“You think you can do something unarmed against the mare who took out an entire detachment of Royal Guards?” Rainbow asked pointedly.

Rarity turned and opened her mouth to speak, but the pain from her horn chose that moment to grow more intense. Her vision pulsed with the sensation, fading out around the edges into phantom pricks of light and darkness. Rarity shut her mouth without speaking.

Fluttershy came up to her and put a hoof upon her shoulder.

“Maybe it would be best for you to wait here.”

Scootaloo's headache was growing worse. With a frustrated shove against Nightmare's side, she craned her head round to see the other fillies sitting listlessly by themselves on the dais, neither of them taking any notice of Nightmare Moon or the images she was showing.

“Guys!” Scootaloo called out. “Help me out here! I can't get her to let go.”

“Or what of this one?” Nightmare asked as the images moved on to Fluttershy. “She tries, she tries so hard for her friends, but a courage you can only summon when your friends are in front of you is easily pushed to the side when they're nowhere to be found. Is this your idea of a hero, Scootaloo?”

“He really is a nice bull, isn't he?” Fluttershy trotted up alongside Pinkie, coming close to where Gummy was hanging. “Hello, Gummy. I'm sorry that I was so afraid of you at first. I let my fears get the best of me. I do hope that we can be friends.”

Gummy blinked ponderously in Fluttershy's direction. Fluttershy smiled.

“Can you really understand him?” Pinkie asked. “That's so incredimazing! I talk to animals all the time, but I've never had any of them say anything back to me before. Except that one time I talked to a parrot. Now that was fun!”

“Oh!” Fluttershy perked up. “What kind of parrot was it? Was it a Lorikeet? I just love how their feathers-”

“Aren't we getting a little off topic?” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “We're supposed to be focused on beating Nightmare Moon. Come on, we're almost there.”

“R-right,” Fluttershy said, flinching back at the chiding voice. “Sorry...”

The group continued walking through the forest, moving at such a rapid rate that Fluttershy found herself trailing at the back end of the line. The forest on either side seemed much darker now with the moonlight falling on the path than it had earlier when everything was in shadow. Fluttershy jumped as something rustled in the bushes to her left.

“Did you hear that?” She cried.

The others paused and turned to look back.

Everything was still. There was not a sound or a movement in the entire forest around them.

“It's just your imagination,” Applejack said at last. “Ah didn't hear nothin'.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy murmured. “Okay...”

The party resumed their advance. The pathway seemed to grow narrower, and there were certainly more twists than before. Even walking right behind the pony in front of her, Fluttershy often lost sight of the rest of the party for brief instants as they walked around a corner. The chill of the night began to creep in through her feathers.

A figure crept just outside of her field of vision.

The others jumped as Fluttershy screamed. “Something's there!” she cried. “I saw it, just over there!”

Rainbow Dash darted past her into the bushes where Fluttershy pointed, sword at the ready. Twilight followed close after, horn aglow. Applejack stood between the rest of them and whatever was out there, ready to deal with whatever might come. The rest stood huddled together, sharing tense looks amongst themselves.

“There's nothing here!”

Rainbow Dash stepped back out of the bushes, a look of disgust on her face. “False alarm,” she said testily. “Fluttershy's just jumping at her own shadow.”

“B-but there was something there,” Fluttershy protested. “I saw it!”

“Nothing was there, Fluttershy,” Twilight said as she stepped back onto the path. “No creatures, no signs of creatures. Nothing. You just need to relax, okay? Don't let this get to you.”

Fluttershy shivered.

The group resumed the march. With every step she took, Fluttershy could feel her heart pounding against her lungs. She told herself that it wasn't the time to be scared, that she needed to be brave, but still she found that her breaths came a little too fast and a little too shallow. More dark figures flitted in and out of her sight.

“There it is again!” she cried. “Oh, I know I saw it this time, I just know it!”

“Where?” Applejack asked. Fluttershy pointed to where she had seen something duck behind a tree. Applejack stared for a good minute, but nothing came out.

“It's just your imagination,” she said at last. “Come on. Let's get this whole thing over with, and then we can set this all behind us.”

Just as Applejack turned to leave, Fluttershy saw the figure lean out from its hiding place. As the moonlight fell full upon it, Fluttershy got her first good look at the creature's face.

It was the rotted, diseased face of a pony, twisted up into a horrid grin. Fluttershy's breath squeaked out in a soundless shriek of terror.

Then it was gone before she could call any more attention to it.

Fluttershy hurried to catch up with the others. “Guys,” she said timidly. “I think we have a problem. I keep seeing these- Guys? Hello?”

She was alone. Alone in the middle of the terrifying Everfree forest, with something else, something very wrong, right next to her in the darkness.

Fluttershy ran.

She raced down the path as fast as her thin legs could carry her, faster than she had ever moved in her life. The trees seemed to grow closer here – the patches moonlight grew fewer and fewer, and once she almost crashed headlong into a tree before she saw it. All the while, the figures of the not-ponies kept popping up to the sides of the trail, rustling leaves, breaking branches. One of them let out an unearthly moan, and Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat out of sheer terror.

Even as she kept running, she still couldn't see any sign of the others. She felt certain that she must have gone off the path. But she couldn't turn back, not now, with those things after her. The very idea was too much to contemplate. Choking sobs began to ring their way out of her mouth, and tears began to fill her eyes. She rubbed viciously at them with a hoof.

When she dropped the hoof again, she found herself staring straight into the face of the creature. Its cold, fetid breath washed over the skin of her face.

Fluttershy screamed and scrambled backwards, unable to tear her eyes from the monster in front of her. Another moan came from somewhere to her right, and she turned her head to find another not-pony standing there, moving slowly towards her. Her back bumped into the rough bark of a tree.

“Rainbow Dash!” She screamed. “Help! I- AIIIEE!”

Another not-pony reached around with a not-hoof and grabbed her by the shoulder. Fluttershy panicked, tugging at her foreleg and beating the monster with pitifully weak blows, but she could not dislodge it. The other two creatures came up to her and reached out to grab ahold. Fluttershy shut her eyes, sobbing hysterically all the while. It didn't help at all. She could still feel the creatures' mouths begin nibbling at her limbs, pinching her cruelly, and it was all the worse for not being able to see it. She still struggled, but only out of fear and not from hope of escape. Then a voice spoke out.

“My little pony, I can save you.”

Fluttershy's eyes flew open.

Standing before her was Nightmare Moon.

“Yes! Please!” Fluttershy cried out. One of the monsters bit at her ear hard enough to draw a trickle of blood, which ran down the side of her face. “Please help me!”

“I can save you,” Nightmare Moon repeated. “But then, you are trying to ruin all my hard work. I'll tell you what – I'll call off these monsters, here. I'll get you safely back to your precious cottage on the edge of the woods. I'll do this, in return for one thing,” she said, leaning in quite close. The monsters shied away from Nightmare Moon, but their grip on Fluttershy's legs only tightened to the point of being painful. “Swear on your life that you will never oppose me again.”

Fluttershy was trembling so badly that her entire body was shaking where she sat curled up as tightly as she could against the tree trunk. For a moment, she hesitated. A flash of lighting cut through the night sky, and in that moment of illumination the monsters seemed to loom three times as large and frightening in her mind.

“I swear!” Fluttershy cried, breaking down completely. “I swear, I swear! Please, just help meheeheeee...”

“Or the pink one, my sister's student?” Nightmare asked. Everything was starting to go fuzzy. It was hard to think. “A flighty thing whose competency is questionable at best. She trusts her delusions implicitly. But what happens when those very impulses fail to match reality?”

“Oh hey, look!” Pinkie pointed from her position at the back of the group. “The trees are clearing out up ahead. That must be it now! We're here!”

The group emerged from the woods and spread out as they did so that Pinkie was able to bounce out to the front of the column. She glanced around and snapped a hoof up to shade her eyes from the non-existent sun.

“Where's the bridge?” she asked. “I don't see it.”

“It's not here, Pinkie,” Twilight said, voice just a little bit cold. She and the others walked slowly to stand between Pinkie and the forest behind them.

“Oh,” Pinkie said. “Okay. Hey, you want to make a game out of it? First pony to see the bridge wins – I don't know – fifty-three points!” She glanced around again. “Boy, this is a big clearing. I can't even see the trees on the other side from here.”

“That's 'cause it isn't a clearin',” Applejack said. “We're not in the Everfree forest anymore.”

“What?!” Pinkie cried. She whipped around to look back at the dark depths of the forest she had just left.

“You mean we came out all the way on the other side of the Everfree? But that makes no sense! The Everfree Forest is huge!” Then Pinkie blinked. “Oh!” she cried. “Ohhh! I get it now. Princess Moon must have sent us all the way out the other side. Phooey! That means we're gonna have to walk all the way back, and we don't even know where we are. This is gonna take forever!”

“On the contrary, Pinkie, dear, I believe the rest of us know exactly where we are.”

“You do?” Pinkie turned to where Rarity was seated next to the others, who had begun to lounge about. Rarity was buffing one hoof against her chest.

“Of course we do,” Applejack replied. She took off her stetson and smacked the dust off of it before putting it back on her head. “It's the end of the Huntin' Road. We're out on the other side of the Everfree, alright, just like we're supposed to be.”

“Oh right,” Pinkie giggled, “I forgot.”

Then she paused.

“Wait. What?”

Applejack sighed and opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash, who was only halfway through pulling off her camouflaged suit. “Don't tell her, stupid! There's no reason for her to know what we're doing out here.”

“True,” Twilight commented, “but then again, I don't really see the harm in her knowing. If we've done our job right – and, let's face it, we've done a pretty good job – there's nothing she can do now, anyways.”

Pinkie snapped her head from friend to friend. “Okay,” she started, “I have absolutely no idea what you all are talking about, but whatever it is, we're still kinda in a time crunch here. Come on, guys! We've got three little fillies and a princess to save!”

“Don't worry, Pinkie,” Fluttershy said. She had a smile on her face, but it rubbed Pinkie the wrong way. Pinkie was an expert on smiles, and this one looked like one she would have expected Fluttershy to give a wounded critter. “The royal guards are already on the case. You don't have anything to worry about. In a few short minutes, Princess Celestia will be safe and the Sun will come back over the horizon.”

“The royal guards?” Pinkie asked. “Since when were the royal guards on the trail of Princess Moon? They don't know about the Elements of Harmony.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “Will you guys just shut up? She's gonna figure it all out at this rate.”

“Figure what out?” Pinkie asked. Then she shook her head. “Come on, let's get going. We can talk on the way!”

Pinkie tried to head back into the forest's shades, but Applejack got up and blocked her path.

“Whoa there, little filly,” Applejack said. “You ain't goin' in that there forest 'till the Sun's good and up, you hear? Princess Celestia told us to make sure you don't interfere with the guards' job, and we're gonna make sure that you don't.”

Rainbow Dash smacked a hoof to her face and groaned loudly. Pinkie's jaw dislocated and violently hurled itself to the ground, smacking into the dirt with a soft poomph.

“What –” she stammered, picking her jaw off the ground. “What do you mean Princess Celestia told you to keep me out of the way? That's – that's ridiculous! She wants us all to go and use the elements to save her sister!”

Twilight scoffed. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“What are you talking about?” Pinkie asked. “Of course she wants us to save the world and get her sister back with no drawbacks and huge payoffs. I mean, come on, who wouldn't want that? It's the best possible result!”

“Actually,” Rarity argued, “I didn't quite understand the lengths the Princess went to myself before we set out on this little trip. Having gotten to know her, however,” she said, gesturing towards Pinkie with a nod of her head, “I now understand completely. The Princess couldn't let a freak like her get in the way of the actual rescue mission. She had to make sure she was safely taken care of, for the sake of everypony else.”'

“What?!?” Pinkie shrieked. Her face started turning red, and her eyes started watering with rage as she glanced about her for some sort of response. “I just- you don't- how dare you say that to me? Friends don't call each other that, and the Princess would never think that about me! She loves me!”

“The Princess can care about whoever she wants,” Rainbow sighed. “She's old. She can be a little crazy sometimes if she wants to. Although how anyone can stand being around you even when you aren't being a flat-out monstrosity is more than I could say.”

Pinkie stumbled back. On cue, her eyes started leaking two steady bands of tears which ran silently down her face to splash against her hooves below as they dribbled off of her chin. She turned one by one to each of her companions, coming to rest on Twilight where she stood in the center.

“B-but... you said-” Pinkie sniffed. “You said... I thought you said we were friends. That you were okay with...”

Twilight smiled softly and reached out to stroke Pinkie's chin with a hoof. “Pinkie,” she said, “friendship is a wonderful thing to have. But with your... issues, it may be a very long time before you understand that friendship is also something you will never be able to truly experience.”

Pinkie stared. Then her still watering eyes went into a sharp deadpan.

“What.”

“You see?” Twilight interrupted. “A normal pony wouldn't waste time arguing about their sanity. They would just be upset at an accusation like that.”

“I am upset!” Pinkie cried, the tears practically gushing out by this point. “I am very upset!”

“Are you?” Twilight asked. “Or did you just convince yourself that you were after I mentioned that was what a normal pony would do?”

“I just- of course I am!” Pinkie sniffed. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because you need to understand just how far away from normal you really are,” Twilight said calmly. “The Princess has studied you for a very long time. You think in a very different manner from a real pony – all your emotions are much too fast and virulent to be the real thing. Why, just look at us.” She waved a hoof around the group. “You've only known us for a few hours, and yet you've already formed such a 'close bond' that our turning out not to reciprocate your feelings causes you to break down in tears.” Twilight shook her head. “You are much too unstable to let loose in ordinary society.”

Pinkie fell backwards on her rump as if she had been struck. Her lip trembled, and she broke into a howling, sobbing mess. The others paid her no mind, occupying themselves with whatever happened to catch their fancy.

After a short while, Rarity spoke up. “Isn't it a bit late on the part of the guards? I thought for sure they would have had the Sun up by now. We dragged this sniveling beast through the whole of the forest, for heaven's sake.”

“You're right,” Twilight said irritably. “They ought to have been finished some time ago. They must have fallen behind schedule somehow.”

“Y-you don't think...” Fluttershy hesitated. “You don't think Nightmare Moon might have – g-got them, do you?”

“Wait!” Pinkie cried out, jerking herself to her hooves and scattering salty tears everywhere. There was a big smile on her face. “I get it now. This is all a fake, isn't it! Princess Moon is trying to stop us! And, and that means we're some kind of threat to her, not just a wild goose chase designed to get rid of me. This is all some kind of horrible lie!”

“Of course we're a threat, darling,” Rarity said coldly over her shoulder. “Nightmare Moon was just trying to get you out of our sight so that you could go and trip up all the ponies the Princess had sent to do their actual job.”

“Princess Celestia would never do that!” Pinkie said, suddenly shouting. Her normally curly mane and tail went limp and straight, all on their own. “She loves me! She loves me, I know she does, she loves me! She doesn't think of me like some kind of monster. Like you do!”

There was a pause in the conversation. Everything went very still. Pinkie frowned and looked down in confusion. “No, wait. That doesn't make any sense...”

“I don't presume to know the Princess' thoughts,” Rarity said. “All I know is what she told me to do.”

“Look,” Rainbow interrupted. “This is sweet and all, but I'm beginning to think something must have happened. Those guys really should not have had this hard a time dealing with Ol' Shadow Nag. What say we go back in and look for them, huh?”

“Is that really a good idea?” Applejack asked. “The Princess told them to deal with her sister, and she told us to deal with Miss Pinks here. Why not just do our job and trust them to do theirs?”

“We've done our job,” Dash argued. “We took the freak the whole path through the Everfree Forest. We've kept her from interfering with the rescue effort. Now it looks like they messed up. So I say, let's go back and see what we can do to bail them out.”

“Agreed,” Twilight said. She stood and turned towards the forest. “Let's get moving. For the sake of Equestria!”

“Indeed,” Rarity said. “Now we can finally get around to actually rescuing my sister.”

As the others all made their way back into the darkness of the forest, Fluttershy looked back at where Pinkie had sat down and was thinking furiously at the ground, clutching Gummy's cold and scaly flesh to her chest.

“Do you want to come, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked. “I'm sure you can't mess anything up now.”

Pinkie didn't reply. Fluttershy turned around and walked back down the path. When she was gone, Pinkie turned to her reptile companion.

“Well, Gummy,” she said, in a very serious tone. “Those ponies weren't real. They were all fake. So it looks like you're the only friend I've made tonight.”

Gummy struggled in her grip. Suddenly, he popped out and trotted down the pathway after the other five. Pinkie just stared after him.

She had never been quite so alone as at that moment.

A few moments later, screams started echoing from the forest, but Pinkie took no notice. She just sat there hugging herself, eyes flicking furiously back and forth as she tried to figure out what had gone wrong. The tears began spilling down her face once more.

Scootaloo cried out as the image was whisked away. She almost felt like sobbing herself now. Everything felt wrong inside, and her head just wouldn't stop pounding.

“This 'Applejack' comes close, I suppose,” Nightmare mused. “She keeps calm when she needs to. She's strong. She's determined. She has no experience, of course, but then that was never a real impediment to heroism in the first place. But still, as she is, she will never get to be anything more than a 'good mare.'” She snorted. “It's easy to stay true to ponies who are useful to you – that is hardly a virtue. A good pony will stay true even to those who give them nothing of value in return, and the rare few will lend their strength even to those who are a burden. But loyalty is a two-way street. A hero must expect those they love to be the target of terrible things, sorcerous and mundane, which make them not only a burden but an active threat. And that is where Applejack fails. Loyalty cannot survive betrayal...

“And that is why there will never be a true 'hero.'”

For the third time in as many minutes, Applejack fell heavily to the ground as something pulled her tail taught behind her. She snorted and blinked back the hint of tears as Rainbow Dash started laughing her head off, and more than one other pony joined in with chuckles of their own.

“Tar-nation!” Applejack fumed, yanking her tail out of the bushes it had gotten caught in. She turned around to look at what had happened. “Just what is this thing, anyway? Some kinda bush made of fishing hooks?”

“Don't be absurd, Applejack,” Twilight sighed. “There's no such thing as a plant that can refine and forge the metals necessary to fashion actual metal fishhooks. What you have there is just a rather common hunting trap. Let me see that.” Picking up the artificial bush with her magic, she eyed the arches of metal carefully. “It looks like you got lucky,” she said at last. “Normally these hooks would be coated with some kind of sedative or poison, but it looks like these are clean. That or you just managed to avoid getting pricked by any of the hooks.”

Applejack frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you tellin' me somepony just left something like this here by the side of the trail where anypony could have walked into it? That's just plain dangerous if you ask me.”

“Oh come on, Applejack,” Dash teased. “You're just upset because you walked into yet another trap. Hey, maybe Nightmare Moon set that one up too, right guys?”

The other ponies joined in with a round of laughter. Applejack glared at them before rubbing her eyes and tugging her hat down over her face, eager to get back on the march. Just as they were leaving, however, Rainbow Dash stopped to pick up the trap.

“And what are you doin' with that?” Applejack asked.

“Well, I'm not just gonna leave it,” Rainbow remarked, stowing the contraption in a side pocket of her bags. “These things are expensive, you know.”

Applejack gaped. “You can't just take that! Somepony put that there expectin' to find it again later. It don't belong to you.”

“Sure it does,” Rainbow said. “Who do you think put it there in the first place?”

“That there's your trap?” Applejack stood there for a moment in silence before scratching her head. “Ah thought you said you don't come down this here path when you're huntin'.”

Rainbow smirked.

“I don't.”

Applejack blinked. “But then, how did...” Her eyes grew wide. “You – you set that up just now?”

Rainbow burst out laughing. “Finally, she gets it!”

“Why in all the gardens of Hesperides would you do that?” Applejack cried. “We're on a serious mission here! Are you tryin' to doom all of Equestria?”

“Oh please, Applejack,” Rarity chided, “don't be such a drama queen. The fact that you've managed to fall into every one of Rainbow's little pitfalls just means you're not quite suited for the adventuring life, that's all.”

“There's more?” Applejack asked. “You knew about this?”

“Of course we did,” Twilight said casually. “It was fairly obvious that Rainbow Dash was responsible right from the beginning.”

“You all knew?” Applejack looked from pony to pony. Fluttershy nodded sheepishly. Pinkie shrugged.

“She did warn you about those plants the first time, Jackie,” Pinkie said. “After that, well... you really didn't have to fall for every single one of them.”

Rainbow laughed again. “It's like you're some kind of magnet for traps. That or you're completely blind.”

Applejack stared in disbelief. Then she scowled and shook her head. “We're wasting time,” she grumbled, heading off with her eyes fixed firmly on the ground.

It was only because she was so focused that she noticed the stick she stepped on in time for her to barely jump out of the way of the massive tree limb that came crashing down where she had been walking. It passed so close to her face that the bark rubbed up against the tip of her nose as it fell.

Rainbow Dash let out a roar of laughter, and she was not the only voice Applejack could hear. There were Pinkie Pie's high-pitched squeals, and Rarity's cultured, bell-like tones. Applejack wheeled round and grabbed Rainbow by the collar.

“You could've killed me with that!”

Rainbow was too busy laughing to respond. Beside her, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Um... I know this isn't my place to say this, but maybe, if you couldn't dodge that, you shouldn't be in the Everfree Forest in the first place.”

Applejack looked at her aghast. Her hoof slipped from Rainbow's neck as it started trembling uncontrollably.

“Y- y'all are supportin' this?”

Twilight shrugged. “It's not a big deal, Applejack. Some ponies just aren't cut out for this kind of life.”

Applejack took a step back. Her heart was still pounding in her chest.

“Y'all are insane.”

The others laughed at her. Applejack turned and set off down the path at a run.

“Look out ahead, Applejack!” Rainbow called out. “Wouldn't want to get hurt!”

Applejack nearly stumbled as she caught herself in mid-step with one hoof positioned right over a steel bear trap. She leapt into the air in a desperate attempt to avoid disaster, but as she landed on a patch of leaf-strewn ground just beyond, the earth collapsed beneath her hooves, and she fell headlong into a pit, avoiding impalement on the nasty spikes inside only through sheer luck.

The laughter continued, even increased at this new stroke of misfortune. As Applejack scrambled to her hooves, she saw Pinkie give Rainbow Dash a cheerful bump with her hoof. Applejack didn't stay to watch but took off as fast as she could. It was only a few moments of panicked flight and the rest of the party was lost to sight behind her in the woods.

Then she was suddenly in a clearing, the trees falling away to her left and her right. In front of her was an old wooden bridge, and beyond that, a crumbling old castle made of stone. At the foot of the castle was a sight that caught Applejack's full attention: Nightmare Moon, with Apple Bloom and the others held captive in her loathsome magic.

As Applejack stood motionless from the shock of seeing her sister again, the sound of laughter from the forest suddenly cut off. It was replaced with screams of terror. She could hear each of their voices – Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight – and with each sound, she could tell exactly which one had cried out. She had come to know them that well.

Nightmare Moon walked away, into the castle, dragging her captives with her. Applejack looked back at the forest for one brief moment.

Then she took off at a gallop across the bridge.

Behind her, the cries all ceased.

“Do you think they deserved that?” Nightmare asked. “To be left alone, to whatever fate befell them?”

Scootaloo didn't answer.

“Perhaps so,” Nightmare admitted. “But that's not a very heroic answer. Then again,” she chuckled darkly, “I wouldn't make a very good hero either. It's just not... practical.”

“Well, maybe if somepony had contributed, you wouldn't have had to.”

At last the silence became too much for Twilight to bear. “What do you mean?” she asked, her throat dry with anticipation.

Applejack coughed. “She means we have two unicorns here, and only one of them helped out.”

“W-what- I-” Twilight fumbled for words. Everypony's eyes seemed suddenly to be on her. “You can't possibly have expected me to cut off my own horn!”

“Rarity cut off hers,” Pinkie said. “What makes you so special?”

“I... nothing!” Twilight shook her head violently. “There wasn't even enough time for me to do anything! Rarity didn't wait, the second time.”

“Are you tellin' me that you'd have done it if you'd had enough time to think?” Applejack asked, eyes narrowed. “Somehow I can't quite bring myself to believe that. You're choking up just thinking about it.”

“I would have!” Twilight protested, even as her body broke out in a cold sweat. “I would have, if I was the only one left who could.”

“And what would you have done,” Rarity asked, “if I had given you enough time to think about it? If I told you, 'the Toll Frog wants another toll, and it's either you can start chipping in, or I can keep cutting away at my horn,' which would you have chosen?”

“I... I would choose...”

Twilight wanted to say something. To say she would have been brave enough to mimic Rarity's act of sacrifice so she wouldn't have to repeat it. But even as the words were on her lips, they brought the image to her mind – the chill of the cold steel against her brow, that dreadful cutting, rending sound of metal cutting through bone, the pain, and the sudden feeling of emptiness – and her tongue caught in her throat.

“You said it was for the best,” Twilight said, her voice hollow. “That it was better to have one unicorn with working magic than to have none.”

“So,” Rarity snarled, “you admit it! You admit that, even if you had the choice between you and a pony who has already suffered it once, you would choose to let the other pony go before yourself! I can't believe I ever thought to call you 'friend.'”

Twilight stepped back another pace as the others closed in around her. “Please,” she begged. “I'm sorry, but- but magic is my life! It's always been my life, ever since I was a little foal. It's even my special talent,” she said, turning to the side to display her cutie mark: a grand pink star surrounded by five smaller white ones. “The idea of losing it is just- it's my worst nightmare, okay?”

“So you'd rather make somepony else suffer through it?” Rainbow scowled. “You're disgusting, Twilight.”

Twilight flinched, but she couldn't think of anything to say in reply. Her breath whistled in through her nose as she tried to hold back the tears she could feel just starting to run down her cheek.

“Why are you even out here, anyway?” Pinkie asked. “Your brother wasn't foalnapped. He's back in Ponyville, in a hospital bed. Why'd you run off and leave him there, huh?”

“P-Princess Celestia is still out here,” Twilight said. “And the others. I still want to help!”

Twilight fell back on her rump as Pinkie got right up in her face. “The Princess is my teacher,” Pinkie said harshly. “You don't even know her. What makes you think you can do anything to help her? It's none of your business!”

“I met her once,” Twilight blurted. “During my entrance exam to her School for Gifted Unicorns. On the last test, I had a massive power surge, and she came in and saved me from my own magic. She's my hero!” Twilight leaned around to look Rarity in the eye, searching for any sign of sympathy. “Please, Rarity. You can imagine how I feel about it, right? I'm sorry that I wasn't brave enough.”

“I don't have to imagine it,” Rarity said coolly. “I'm living it, right now.”

With a snort, Rarity turned and walked away down the path. One by one, the others followed. At the tail end of the line, Twilight stood up and tried to step forward, but Applejack turned and barred her way.

“Ah think,” Applejack said, “it would be best if you didn't come.”

Applejack turned and left with the rest, leaving Twilight alone in the middle of the forest path.

Suddenly, there was a scream from just up ahead. Twilight's head jerked up at the sound, and before she could think about it she was running up the path as fast as her legs could carry her. She rounded a bend in the trail, only to come to a halt in shock at the terrible sight that was in front of her.

There was a small clearing in the forest. Twilight's friends lay scattered across the ground – Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash – all unnaturally still and silent. On the other side of the clearing, Pinkie Pie screamed and struggled as she was held aloft in the sinister aura of Nightmare Moon, who was slowly walking away towards the foliage of the Everfree, her captive in tow.

“Stop!” Twilight cried. Without thinking, she hurled a bolt of magic from her horn at Nightmare Moon. The shot crackled with desperate energy, ripping through the space between them and singing the air as it passed, only to bounce harmlessly from a passive shield Nightmare had around her. The dark princess didn't even seem to notice as she disappeared into the bushes and out of sight.

Twilight stood there, panting. She darted over to where her friends had fallen. They didn't look injured – maybe they were alright. Anxiously, she put a hoof at Rainbow's jaw to check for a pulse.

There was none.

She checked each of them in turn. There was nothing. She shook them, violently, but they wouldn't get up. It was as if they had just fallen asleep, only they neither breathed nor did their hearts beat.

They were all dead.

Twilight jerked to her hooves as the world began to spin around her. She felt suddenly queasy. Pinkie's words from just moments before came floating back to her. Why had she decided to come out here, to brave the depths of the Everfree forest in search of the most dangerous villain in Equestria's living memory?

Revenge.

When Twilight looked into the depths of her heart, that was the only answer she could come up with. Nightmare Moon had hurt her brother, and Twilight wanted revenge for that. So she had tagged along on a foalish quest to take out a pony who had already felled Princess Celestia like it was nothing.

And now, everypony was dead.

Revenge wasn't enough anymore. It all seemed so thoughtless, now, looking back on it. Why had she done this? Why had she suggested going after the Elements themselves, instead of telling the Royal Guard about it and letting them handle all this? She couldn't even call herself idealistic. Revenge wasn't a noble cause. It was crazy, mind-numbingly crazy, to have tried all this.

Twilight took a step back, away from the bodies in the ring.

It wasn't over yet. She wasn't dead yet. There was still a chance. She could make it back through the forest, find her way back to Shining and to Spike, where they were waiting for her.

Or, a soft voice whispered, I could try and save Pinkie by myself.

Twilight stared at the clearing for a long moment.

Then she ran off, back down the path they had such a short time ago traveled together.

A flash of Pink rang through her mind, but she ignored it.

Coming here had been a mistake.

“No,” Scootaloo protested weakly. “Stop... stop doing this to them...”

“Not even a single one will meet your standards,” Nightmare repeated.

“Maybe it would be best for you to wait here.”

The ache in Rarity's head was matched with a dull emptiness which now possessed her heart. Slowly, she looked round at the other members of the party.

“... Do all of you feel this way?”

One by one, each of her friends nodded. Rarity stood there for a moment. Then, without a word, she strode over to the side of the path and began clearing out a section of dead leaves and twigs, leaving a path of bare earth. Even working with her hooves, it took her but a moment – when she was done, she curled up on the spot and relaxed, leaning against a tree.

“Well, off with you then,” she said, eyes closed. “Hurry on and finish this, so that we may all return home together. Go and rescue my sister.”

No pony spoke. In a moment, Rarity heard the hoofsteps of the rest of the group walking away. She opened her eyes just in time to see Fluttershy glance back at her and give a gentle wave.

“We'll be back for you,” Fluttershy said.

And then they were gone.

The forest didn't actually get any darker or colder than it had been before, now that the others were gone. Rarity shivered anyway.

A chill breeze ran through the trees.

A twig jabbed into Rarity's side. It seemed like she hadn't been as successful in clearing the ground as she had hoped.

She jumped as a shrill scream split the air.

Rarity was standing before she had time to think, legs stiff, ears twitching to catch any continuation of the noise. There was none.

Her skin crawled.

She knew that voice. The scream had been from Pinkie Pie.

Rarity ran off down the path. They hadn't been gone long. She didn't know what she would be able to do – she might even be too late – but she couldn't just hang back when her friends were in danger.

As she slid around a bend in the path, she came upon a terrible sight. There was Nightmare Moon herself, with the limp forms of her friends floating in the air beside her.

“Ah, there you are,” the monster-princess said. “I was wondering where the last of the group had gotten off to.”

“P-put them down!” Rarity sputtered. She pawed at the earth. Her mind was reeling in an attempt to find something, anything, that she might do to save her friends.

“Oh!” Nightmare Moon gave an insincere little gasp and held a hoof up to her mouth. “Oh, my! Whatever did happen to your horn, my dear? That looks rather hideously painful, on top of being just hideous in general.”

Rarity blinked at the unexpected change in topic. The pulsating pain in her horn seemed to double as she paid more attention to it, and a bead of sweat trickled down her nose.

Nightmare gave a smile that had just a hint too many teeth in it. “You know, I don't really want to hurt you any more than you've already hurt yourself with this trifling endeavor. Perhaps if I just give you your horn back, you can go back to Ponyville like a good girl and we can just put this whole thing behind us? Even with your magic, it's not like you're any sort of a threat.”

“My horn?” Rarity asked. “You think my horn is the most important thing on my mind here? You foalnapped my sister, two other fillies, Princess Celestia herself, and now you've captured my friends! I'm not going to abandon them all to your villainous cluthes just because you give me my horn back – in fact,” she said, pulling herself to her full height, “I'm proud of the sacrifice I've made. I gave my horn of my own free will.”

“Oh, don't be a fool,” Nightmare muttered, rolling her eyes. “Fine, fine, you can have your sister back, too.” With a flash, Sweetie Belle's sleeping figure lay sprawled out on the forest floor with her customary lack of grace, along with two other forms of a similar size. “Take the other foals as well. I don't particularly care.”

“But it- that-” Rarity stumbled for words. This was not how she had expected things to go at all. “What about my friends?”

“Well of course, that was what I needed the foals for,” Nightmare said. “The hunter will do quite well as my vanguard, once I have convinced her of where her true loyalties should lie, and her little shy friend has such an interesting talent with animals. Imagine what I could do with an Ursa or three who took orders, instead of just letting them loose and hoping they walk towards your enemies. The librarian seems to know quite a bit more than she should, on top of being one of the biggest fanfillies for my sister that I've ever seen – it should be most amusing to break her of that. The farmer will be useful as a bargaining chip with the Apple clan, if any of them should get it into their heads to betray me instead of loving me as they should, and the pink one is a mare my sister felt was worth keeping a personal eye on. She might even have confided things to her that would be useful for me to know – or dangerous not to.”

Nightmare turned to walk away. “These others will serve my purposes quite well, thank you. I hardly need to worry about a few foals and an armorer on top of that. You and the other oversights can go home now, and await my return as your rightful ruler of the Night.”

“No!”

Nightmare paused. She turned to look back over her shoulder. “No?”

“No,” Rarity repeated. “I'm not letting you walk away with my... my friends.”

Nightmare blinked.

“You say that like you had any choice in the matter.”

Nightmare's horn glowed in a flash of light, and Rarity had to cover her eyes to keep from being blinded. When the light died away she lowered her legs to look around.

She was back in Ponyville's main square. Lying a short ways from her were her sister and the other two fillies.

“Blast and botheration!” Rarity scowled, scrambling to her hooves in a trice. Her head seemed much clearer now, and it rang full of righteous outrage. “She thinks she can treat me like this? I'll show her. She can't just ignore me!” She started running for the village entrance, heading back in the direction of the forest. “I'll show her –”

Rarity paused, her steps slowing to a gradual halt. She lifted a hoof to her horn.

It was healed. The pain was gone without a trace.

It was like she had never given it up in the first place.

Nothing we did mattered.

The conviction struck her hard, an icy claw encircling her chest and making it hard to breathe.

It was all part of her trap. She gave the fillies back and just took the others. She was playing us all along. And I wasn't even important enough to be part of her plans.

My coming along was just an accident. Just a mistake.

She trembled. As Rarity stared off into the woods beyond the town limits, seeming further from her now than they had any right to be, she could feel the moment when her nerve broke and she collapsed helplessly to the floor.

She wasn't strong enough to even try to help her friends.

“All of them are among the finest that equinity has to offer,” Nightmare said, “and yet, each one of them has her own flaws, unsurmountable defects which prevent them from ever being worthy of the title 'hero.' Do you honestly think that any pony alive would risk their lives to help a filly they've never even met out of some misplaced sense of heroism?” She shook her head. “Even if they do make it here, it won't be to rescue you.”

“Shut up,” Scootaloo said, her voice sounding oddly disconnected and far away. “R-... Rainbow Dash...”

“Oh, you didn't think I had forgotten about her, did you?” Nightmare asked. A new image pulled up in front of them. “Of course I wouldn't forget. After all, this whole thing is to teach you just how fragile your heroes really are. It wouldn't mean much if I didn't stop on the one you actually consider your hero, now would it?”

Scootaloo stared at the image of Rainbow Dash. A cold, sickly feeling made her want to puke as a part of her mind began to wonder what was going to happen.

“Your Rainbow Dash is special,” Nightmare said, a small smile lacing her every word. “She's the only one among all of those there who knows what I know to be true. She's learned for herself that most valuable of lessons, the one I'm teaching you now.

“There are no heroes in this world.”

“Look out!”

Even as she cried out in warning, Rainbow Dash was in motion through the air, drawing her sword from its place on her back in one smooth motion as she tackled the Crimson Fangbeetle in mid-pounce, the full force of her weight only just managing to divert the course of the massive insectoid from where it would have hit Pinkie Pie to instead land harmlessly on the ground. There was a frantic few seconds of wrestling with the creature, trying to avoid its many lethally sharp limbs before Dash finally found a chink in its natural armor, sliding her blade home to rest in the creature's side. Its struggles grew weak, then died out all together just as the creature itself did.

Fluttershy gave a low gasp of horror. Somepony else made a retching noise, but Rainbow Dash couldn't tell who.

As Rainbow stood up and pulled the sword out to wipe it on the ground, no pony else made any noise. Dash sheathed the sword, then looked around at the others questioningly.

“What?” she asked.

“That was the Crimson Fangbeetle from my story!” Pinkie spoke up, sounding quite upset. “You weren't supposed to just kill it like that!”

“Pinkie,” Rainbow sighed, “I don't know if you've noticed, but your stories have been coming to life for the past few minutes, and all of them have been trying to leave us dead. Nightmare Moon must be doing something to-”

“You killed it!” Fluttershy blurted, rushing up to the creature and laying her hooves on its bony carcass. “Rainbow Dash, how could you? You promised you wouldn't do that any more!”

“It was going to kill Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow protested. “I figured breaking my promise was the lesser of two evils.”

“You shouldn't say something you don't intend to follow through,” Applejack interjected.

“Well, what's it to you?” Rainbow asked, turning to the farmer. “Would you rather I have just let Pinkie die, just so that I can keep from making a little fib?”

“I should say so!” Pinkie said sharply. “Promises are serious business. That wasn't how the story was supposed to go at all. We were all supposed to befriend the monster, and learn about how our differences can be overcome without fighting. And now you've ruined that!”

“It was in the middle of trying to kill you!” Rainbow said. “I can't believe what I'm hearing. Is no one here grateful at all?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy roared.

Everyone went silent. Rainbow stared in jaw-dropped amazement at the normally quiet mare, and she wasn't alone in her reaction. Fluttershy glared Rainbow right in the eyes with such intensity that the hunter felt like she was facing down a savage beast instead of her oldest friend – she unconsciously took a step backwards.

“You think you can just go around breaking your promises and hurting poor defenseless creatures?” Fluttershy asked.

“Defenseless?” Rainbow started to argue. “W-”

“You think the things you do don't have any consequences?” Fluttershy interrupted. “That just because I'm your friend that I'll forgive you for disobeying me?”

“Disob-”

“I think you need to be taken down a peg!” Fluttershy said, cutting Rainbow off again. Fluttershy glanced at the others. “I sincerely apologize for my friend's unacceptable behavior. Perhaps you can understand why she acts the way she does better if I share a little story with you about her life.”

It was getting hard for Scootaloo to keep her eyes open. Darkness was beginning to creep in from around the edges of her vision.

“Are you paying attention?” Nightmare Moon asked, giving the filly a little shake. “This is the part I want you to remember.”

A jolt of fear ran through Scootaloo's mind, urging her to keep awake. It was numbed underneath layers of drowsiness and discomfort, but, with a maximum of exertion, she was just able to keep her eyes open, to stay focused on one thing, the only thing that reminded her there was still something to fight for.

“Rainbow Dash...”

Rainbow's eyes went from wide with shock to narrowed with anger in a flash. “Fluttershy, don't you dare.”

“It has to do with a flight team called 'the Wonderbolts',” Fluttershy said, a poisonously hostile smile on her face as she said it. “They were somewhat famous around the time that we were growing up. Perhaps you mightn't have heard of them, not being pegasi and all.”

“I've heard of them,” Twilight commented. “They were a special aerobatics and reconnaissance team, trained to be the fastest, most agile fliers in Equestria. They reported directly to Princess Celestia herself, and held airshows when they were not currently on a mission – they were pretty popular, especially in their hometown of Cloudsdale. They were disbanded years ago, though.”

“That's right,” Fluttershy said in a sickly sweet tone, nodding as she did so. “Twelve years ago, the Wonderbolts were quietly retired from duty.”

“Fluttershy, shut up!” Rainbow growled. “You do not want to go where this is going.”

Fluttershy ignored her. “Rainbow Dash was a huge fan of theirs, you know,” she went on. “She dreamed of joining up with them one day. She even thought she could make it in with her special 'Sonic Rainboom,' which no pony seems to recall seeing her pull off.”

Rainbow Dash flinched. She glanced wildly from side to side, but everypony else was wrapped up in Fluttershy's story.

“So you can imagine how heartbroken she was when they broke up,” Fluttershy continued. “The media tried to keep the real reason why it happened quiet, so as not to upset anyone, but Rainbow Dash was just so determined to find out that she snuck into the newspaper room and found their little pile of research on the subject. And you wouldn't believe what she found.”

“Fluttershy, I swear, if you say one more word-”

“The notes detailed the last mission the Wonderbolts would ever perform,” Fluttershy said, heedless of Rainbow's warning. “They had been sent deep into the center of the Everfree, as part of one of the first efforts to map out the interior of the forest in over three centuries. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well for them. Of the seven members of the team, only two made it out alive, and one of them was crippled for life.”

Pinkie gasped. “That's horrible!”

“It gets worse,” Fluttershy continued. “Willow Wind, the only one to make it out under her own power, confessed to leaving the others behind when they got injured half-way through. They had already gotten into horrible trouble with the dangers of the forest up to that point, and now they had injured ponies to deal with. Willow told the reporters that their captain, Spitfire, decided that it had gotten too dangerous to continue caring for them and still make it out with their own lives intact, so they just left them there for the wolves to chew on. Of course, it didn't help Spitfire much when they ran into an Octospider's hunting ground.”

“Serves her right, leaving her own teammates to die,” Applejack said. “And Rainbow here idolized these ponies?”

Rainbow Dash was shaking violently in place, a look of tortured rage across her face.

“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said. “She used to have all sorts of posters of them hanging up in her room. She took them down after she saw the pictures the newspaper didn't print, though.” Fluttershy stared Rainbow right in the eyes, a sadistic gleam in her features. “They were so graphic it caused her nightmares for weeks just looking at them.”

As Fluttershy finished speaking, there was a moment's pause. Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily, staring at nothing and gritting her teeth so hard her jawbone was creaking.

“I see,” Twilight nodded at last. “So her childhood heroes turned out to be the kind of pony who would abandon their own teammate just to save their own skin when the going got rough. I guess that's where Rainbow must get it.”

Rainbow Dash almost stumbled. Her tensed up wings offered her no lift upon the air as she moved to turn her glare on Twilight. “What did you say?”

“Of course,” Pinkie said. “The kind of pony who murders a defenseless forest monster would have heartless, soulless creeps for idols as well.” She nodded too. “Everything falls perfectly into place.”

“What's with all these accusations?” Rainbow shouted, losing what little composure she had left. “I hunt things for a living! I'm here to rescue those kids, the Princess, and all of Equestria! Why would you all turn on me like this?”

“Oh, really?” Fluttershy asked, her smile still present and an arch in her brow. “Well maybe we don't want your help. Why should you come along instead of anypony else?”

Rainbow Dash was so worked up she was running out of breath now. “Because,” she panted, “because that little filly asked me to, that's why!”

Fluttershy snorted.

“If you care about her so much,” she challenged, “then say her name.”

Nothing but silence greeted her, as a chill wind whispered through the trees.

“Rainbow Dash is coming to save you?” Nightmare asked.

Scootaloo's vision faltered. Things started fading in and out.

“I-” Rainbow started. “Her name is- is...”

“She cares about you? Can you really believe that?”

Scootaloo opened her mouth. She wanted to call out to her hero, to catch her attention, but no sound came.

“I don't know, okay?!?” Rainbow said at last. “I don't know the little twerp's name.”

And the light faded from Scootaloo's eyes as the image before her died out completely.

Chapter 12: Pulling Together

“You don't know her name,” Fluttershy repeated. She stepped back to look at the others, spreading her wings in a definitive manner. “She doesn't know her name! That filly, Scootaloo,” she emphasized, getting up in Rainbow Dash's face, “is a total fanfilly over her, and she doesn't even know she exists.”

“Wait. I have a fan?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy glared at her, and even the others frowned in disapproval at Dash's outburst. She backed down under their gaze.

“I mean, I totally know who she is,” Rainbow stammered. “I, uh, saw her at... uh... the thing...”

“The Hunters of Ponyville celebration, where you were awarded that hooded armor set you're wearing.” Fluttershy pushed forward, uncharacteristically confrontational, and jabbed Rainbow right in the chest. “She was there. She even got up in front of the crowd to cheer you on. You pawned off your old vest on her, as if it was some sort of grand gesture and not just getting rid of old trash you didn't need. I'll bet she keeps the thing enshrined in her closet back home. And you don't even remember her.”

“I'm sorry I ever made that outfit for you,” Rarity chimed in. “I see now that you were hardly deserving of it.”

Dash flinched, gritting her teeth, her ears flopping back atop her head. With a growl, she attempted to move around the blocking pegasus. “None of that matters now,” she said tersely. “Look, I'm sorry the creepy monster died, alright? We need to focus on finding Nightmare Moon, and getting everypony back safely.”

“And who said you're comin' with us?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow turned to the farmer in surprise. Applejack's expression was mirrored in the faces of the others – cold, unfeeling stares.

Dash let out a small laugh, although it seemed choked and hollow in the dark blue shadows of the forest. “Come on, guys. Are you really going to turn away an offer for help, just because you have a problem with somepony's attitude?”

“Perhaps,” Twilight said. “If it's you, then maybe.”

Pinkie snorted. “I didn't think it was a good idea to bring you along to begin with, but Twilight here thought you'd be worth something.” She pouted at the reclusive unicorn. “Nice character judgment, Twilight! Look what sort of pony you've got us traveling with.”

Twilight nodded. “I now deeply regret my hasty decision to invite her along solely on the merit of her combat abilities. Pinkie, you have my firm recommendation that Rainbow Dash be removed from the group, effective immediately.”

“Wha..?” Rainbow's head flicked back and forth as she tried to keep up with the conversation. “Now, just hold on a minute! I'm not gonna leave you-”

“Get out, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie said.

The forest was completely devoid of outside noise. Rainbow could hear her own heart beat softly in her ears – her breath caught in her throat.

“Scram. Begone. Go away!”

Rainbow stared for a moment. Then she scowled.

“And what if I say no?”

As if in answer, a sudden weight smacked into the side of her neck, a dull, bruising pain rippling out from the point of impact. She stumbled, caught off guard, and turned to find Fluttershy scooping up another rock from the ground and poising to throw.

“Leave.”

It was Fluttershy's soft, gentle voice, her mouth moved with the sound, but the situation just didn't seem to compute in Rainbow's head. It was like the whole world had suddenly gone sideways.

A smaller rock skipped off the rim of her hood, this time coming from Applejack on the right. The others started to pick up rocks of their own, scooping them up in their hooves or, with Twilight, readying a floating ring of earthen debris in her magic. Rainbow Dash was rooted to the ground in shocked disbelief.

Then the rocks began to fly, and Rainbow fled.

As soon as she was out of sight of the clearing, the foliage provided some cover from the smaller projectiles, but a particularly large rock managed to crash its way through and strike her hindleg near the hock. Rainbow cursed as she crashed through the underbrush, keeping herself upright with a well-timed beat of her wings as she stumbled. She made a sharp turn to get out of the line of fire, scrambling to get lost amongst the tangled forest.

The others didn't follow her. Dash slowed down as she realized she was safe, for the moment, hovering close to the ground in an attempt to keep a low profile. The pain in her neck pulsed with each beat of her wings. Rocks kept crashing down harmlessly in the direction Rainbow had started from for a while, but then soon the sounds stopped altogether.

Dash found herself with trembling hooves and heavy breathing, familiar side effects from coming down off an adrenaline high. She ignored them, and they began to fade away as she knew they would. The pain in her leg and neck began to made itself more pronounced, but she ignored that too – the bruises weren't serious, and there was nothing she could do about them anyway.

What didn't fade was the anger. Rainbow noticed it all of a sudden, not as if it had just sprung up in a single moment, but more as if she had been furious since the first betrayal in the clearing and she had only just now happened to realize how she felt about it.

So, they think they can just ditch me like that? They think they can drive me off? Me? Rainbow Dash, the best hunter anypony has ever seen? Well, no dice, sister! They wouldn't last three minutes in there without me, not a one of them!

Without a sound, Rainbow circled back and headed towards the path, angling her direction of travel so that she would meet up with the open space some distance from where she had originally exited. Rainbow Dash was not so easily dissuaded. Already, she had something of a plan in mind.

I'll follow them to the castle, she thought, keeping just out of sight, yeah? And then, when they find Nightmare Moon and everything goes wrong, well maybe I'll take my sweet time deciding on whether or not to save them before I kick her fat flank!

It wouldn't take long, she was sure. They were only a short distance from where the castle should be now – the final confrontation would be soon.

When Rainbow got back in sight of the pathway, she was surprised not to find the others walking on ahead of her – she had estimated they would be moving more quickly than that. A glance at the ground told her that nopony had passed any time recently – she must have gotten ahead of them. Rainbow glanced backwards, thinking she might have overestimated their speed.

There was Nightmare Moon, surrounded by four still bodies, slowly choking Pinkie Pie into unconciousness.

Rainbow's eyes shot wide. Nightmare Moon dropped Pinkie down next to the others, already sprawled out on the floor, the fallen mare barely breathing in wheezing gasps through a bruised windpipe.

“Hey!” Without pausing to think, Dash was already half-way across the space and barreling towards Nightmare Moon, sword ripping from its holster. “Hooves off my friends!”

Dash struck with a speed that only a trained, seasoned and desperate hunter could manage, but somehow it wasn't enough. One moment cold steel was an inch from the alicorn's throat. The next, the sword was tumbling through the air into the forest beyond as Nightmare Moon ground Rainbow slowly into the dirt, her hoof digging into the side of the hunter's throat.

“So,” Nightmare said, “you showed up after all. I must admit I am surprised. What possessed you to hang around after your friends drove you off? Wait, don't tell me.” The Moon Princess smiled, the white of her teeth forming a sinister crescent. “I didn't interrupt your attempt at a little vengeance, did I? Just give me another moment here, and then you can feel free to finish them off. I've had my fun.”

“You sick- rrgh!” Rainbow struggled wildly, kicking off the ground with the wing that was trapped under her barrel and striking at Nightmare's leg with her hoof. “I'll end you, just see if I don't!”

Nightmare Moon arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And what do you think you can accomplish that the others couldn't?” That smiling face, devoid of any warmth, leaned in close enough that Rainbow Dash could feel the hot breath tickling the hair along the inside of her ear. “Are they even worth it, after what they did to you?”

Bending herself almost in two, Rainbow Dash pulled her hindlegs up until they nearly touched her forehead and struck out in a vicious blow. There was a moment of recoil as her hooves struck Nightmare's face with a resounding thwack.

Something shifted. For just a moment, an eyeblink's worth of time, the blue light faded out of the woods and Rainbow found herself stumbling to her hooves, unable to see in the comparative darkness.

Then the light came back on. Nightmare Moon was standing across from her, head bent to the side and a wing caressing her own cheek, but with cold, clear eyes locked on to Rainbow's own. Rainbow Dash glared back fiercely.

“You think you can distract me so easily?” Rainbow asked. “I don't care if I had a fight with them, you're still the one I'm here to beat. And they're still the ones I'm gonna protect.”

“Fool,” Nightmare snarled. “Imbecile. This wasn't some little fight you had with them. They turned on you, completely and utterly. Do you think they would have stopped short of killing you if you hadn't fled?”

“I have no idea why they did what they did,” Rainbow snapped back. “In fact, they've been acting so strange that it wouldn't surprise me if you had something to do with it. But even if you didn't, what they do has nothing to do with what I'm gonna do. I'm bringing them, the Princess, and the kids you took out of this forest alive, no matter who tries to stop me – them or you!”

“By what power?” Nightmare asked, furling her wing and rearing her head up to her full and terrible height. “You are but an insect. Even with your companions, you could not hope to best me. You would strike at me, without a prayer of succeeding?”

“Funny,” Rainbow said, crouching down to spring. “I do hope!” She leapt out again with lightning speed, arching a twisty path through the air with her wings meant to circumvent a block of a simple charge. Instead of impacting Nightmare as she expected, Rainbow Dash sailed on through as the figure of the Night Princess dissolved into a shadowy mist, the alicorn reappearing several paces away with an ever darkening expression. “And if you're wrong about that,” Rainbow finished, “I wonder what else you're wrong about.”

“I am the embodiment of terror itself,” Nightmare Moon growled. “My very name means fear! Do you not hear the rattling echoes of your own demise, gathering in the trees around us?”

Rainbow did hear a sound. She did not stop to listen to it, or to hear what it said. With a scream, not of terror but of rage, she struck out again against her shadowy opponent. Just as her hoof collided with Nightmare's skin, the light blinked off again.

Rainbow's hoof met no resistance, and she bounced off the rough bark of a tree. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust her eyes as the blue light lit up the forest once more. A hoof snaked around her neck and pulled back, choking her, lifting her off of her hooves.

“You fight for those you have never met,” Nightmare droned. “Those who have wronged you. A filly you never even bothered to get to know. Do you honestly think that the strength to beat me can be drawn from motivations such as these?”

“I...” Rainbow choked out, twisting at the leg gripping her neck with her hooves. “I'm rescuing... a bunch of kids. And my Princess. And a group of treacherous slimeballs I only met this morning. Or what... was supposed to be this morning.” She glanced up at Nightmare Moon out of the corner of her eye. “You don't get better motivations than that!”

And she slammed an elbow as hard as she could into Nightmare Moon's side.

There was a ripping sound – or perhaps not a sound, but only the impression of one – as the world went completely dark for half a second. Rainbow's sense of hearing snapped in her head, as a sudden ringing in her ears overtook all the other noises around her. The hold on her neck was gone, and she fell to the dirt floor of the pathway in an ungraceful sprawl as she landed painfully tail-first. She rolled to her hooves, tensed to re-enter the fight.

The light didn't come back.

Neither did Nightmare Moon.

Rainbow glanced around, not believing that her opponent would just leave like that. Her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, but before they did, her hearing began to come back in the form of voices.

Familiar voices.

“I swear! I swear, I swear! Please, just help meheeheeee...”

“Fluttershy?”

Rainbow blinked, eyes and ears both homing in on the source of the voice. Even in all the years she had known Fluttershy, she had only heard her voice that desperate and alone a single time. She'd vowed, there and then, never to let that tone enter her friend's voice ever again.

“BwaaAAHHHaahhahannnaah!!!”

Rainbow's head jerked left, as she saw a familiar pink mare bawling her eyes out as only she could do.

“P... Pinkie Pie?”

The others were there as well, scattered along the path, alive and uninjured. Rainbow's heart was torn between elation at the ones she had called her friends being well again, and trepidation as she remembered what had only just transpired between them – that sudden betrayal that a large part of her still refused to understand.

But these conflicting feeling faded away to be replaced by confusion, as the true state of the others worked its way into Rainbow's mind.

Pinkie and Rarity were collapsed on the dirt of the road, each sobbing uncontrollably. Rarity was babbling on about something – “I can't do it, I'm sorry, I'm just not enough –” and over in another corner, Fluttershy was cowering into the tightest ball of fur and feathers she could manage, flinching away from unseen impulses. Applejack was walking mindlessly into a bush, the thorns and brambles of which barred her progress completely, and on the other side of the path Rainbow saw a place where the undergrowth had been pushed aside by somepony's passage.

“Hey!” Rainbow said, lifting into the air. “What's going on?”

Not getting an answer, she hurried over to Fluttershy's side and grabbed her shoulder with a hoof. She shook her friend roughly. “Hey, Fluttershy! Snap out of it! What's wrong with you?”

At first, it didn't seem to be doing anything. Fluttershy only flinched away even harder at the initial contact. Then, as Rainbow increased the force she was using to shake her, Fluttershy snapped her head up. She stopped screaming, blinked and looked around, almost as if she was waking up from a bad dream.

“Where...”

“Fluttershy, you okay?” Rainbow asked, leaning in close to look her friend in the eyes. Fluttershy just stared back, terrified, watery eyes staring back into Rainbow's own.

With a sigh, Dash stepped back and glanced away. “Just wait here for a moment, alright? I'm gonna check on the others!” She leapt into the air, and headed over to grab Applejack next.

Rainbow had to move carefully to wrap her forelegs around Applejack's withers without getting herself caught in the same bush the farmer was in, but she managed. Shaking had seemed to work with Fluttershy, so Dash tried repeating the procedure, and was only just able to dodge a whistling left hook as Applejack snapped to her senses and took a swing at her.

“You!” Applejack cried. “What, it wasn't enough for yah, setting up traps to get me killed? Now you gotta do it yourself?!?”

“What the hay are you talking about, Applejack?” Rainbow asked, floating out of reach of the farmer's hooves. “You know what? Forget it. It doesn't matter, just- just wait here while I go check on the rest of the guys, huh? Cool.”

Rainbow turned back towards the others. Fluttershy still had a haunted look about her, but now she had moved over to Pinkie and was rubbing her back, murmuring soothingly in one ear. Rarity was still in the same shape as before, muttering to herself and wringing every last tear out of her eyes, but as Rainbow's eyes fell on the place where the plants had been pushed away again, she suddenly realized who was missing, and who it must have made that blind trail.

“Twilight!” she cried out, following down the path as quickly as she could. “Wait up!”

She flew low to the ground. It wasn't exactly easy, keeping above the bushes and below the branches, but it was the thing of every day in the Everfree. It was only a few moments before the fleeing purple mare came into sight, and Rainbow tackled her to a stop just before Twilight was about to step off of a particularly steep incline, apparently heedless of the considerable danger involved in such an act.

Twilight's eyes seemed to clear at the impact, as she looked up to find Rainbow holding her in a firm bear hug, but the tears in them didn't lessen. Twilight struggled fiercely to break free, although it was completely hopeless that she would overpower the much fitter pegasus who was holding her.

“Let me go!” Twilight said. “Let me go, Rainbow, I don't deserve to be here! I failed you!”

“Calm down!” Rainbow said sharply. “You need to calm down. I think Nightmare Moon did something to us – we're all behaving weird – but if you just calm down, and come back to the others with me, we can get the sorted out. Okay? Calm down.”

Twilight struggled, but Rainbow held on, and eventually she gave it up and collapsed in a heap, shaking and sobbing between her hooves.

It was several minutes before Twilight had calmed down enough that Rainbow was willing to let her up. Together, they made their way back to the spot on the path where the others were waiting. Everypony seemed to be looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes, flinching whenever they noticed that somepony else was looking in their direction and hurriedly looking away.

Rainbow Dash glanced between them.

“What was that?” Rarity asked, voice sounding shaken. She was actually trembling herself, although she was doing a good job of trying to hide it. “I was just- I saw things, and then suddenly I'm back here in the woods...”

“Ah think...” Applejack said slowly. She had doffed her hat, and was wringing it in between her hooves in front of her chest. “Ah think Nightmare must have done something to us. Ah saw... Ah saw you all laughing at me, as I fell into trap after trap that you all had set yourselves. And then... Ah saw Apple Bloom in this castle, and Ah...”

“It was all fake!” Pinkie beamed, the only one in the clearing who looked cheerful. She was grinning from ear to ear, a complete reversal of the heavy tears which were still evident on her face from where she had been crying. “I wasn't wrong! If it was all just an illusion, then that means we're all still friends. Look!” She held up the tiny reptile she had been carrying with her since they had found it. “Even Gummy's still here!”

“I betrayed you,” Fluttershy said. Her voice was quiet, but it was somehow stronger than Rainbow could ever remember it being – the emotion packed inside the words cut through silence like steel. “Nightmare Moon offered to rescue me from her own monsters if I swore to serve her. And I did...”

“Hey!” Rainbow barked, the hairs along the back of her neck bristling with discontent. “It was all just another one of Nightmare's tricks, you know? Doesn't count! You'd never do that to us if it was real.”

Fluttershy flinched and glanced away.

“I saw you all die,” Twilight said softly. Rainbow glared at her, willing her to shut up, but the purple mare wasn't looking at Dash – she was staring off into the middle-distance, remembering something only she had experienced. “Except for Pinkie. Nightmare took her. I should have helped her, but when I saw the others lying there I just... broke. I ran away instead...”

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said, and for a moment her tone grew genuinely remorseful. It was an odd and disturbing contrast from her normal, exaggerated demeanor, and in that moment Rainbow wished very much never to hear it again. “I didn't go to help you, even when I heard you calling out for me...

And then the moment was over. “Oh well! You learn something new about yourself every day.” Pinkie smiled as she looked Rainbow straight in the eye. “What about you, Rainbow? You didn't betray everyone like the rest of us, did you?”

A chill ran down Rainbow's spine and she found that she couldn't look away from Pinkie Pie's gaze. She could hear Applejack talking in the background – “well, Ah think 'betray' might be a little harsh a term for it...” – but she only heard it like you might see something a distance off through a fog.

“I don't,” Fluttershy said, close to tears once again. “I think it's exactly as harsh as it needs to be.”

At her voice, Rainbow snapped out of her trance. “It doesn't matter what I saw,” she said smoothly. “It wasn't real, and even if it was, we'd just have to suck it up and pull ourselves together. That Nightmare is still out there, and if we want a chance at taking her down, we're just going to have to forgive whatever imaginary crimes we committed and work with each other.”

Twilight nodded, rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. “She's right,” she said. “Princess Celestia and those fillies are counting on us too much for us to give up now. Even if we aren't perfect.”

“Oh, are they?”

Everypony jumped. The voice seemed to be coming from all around them. It was a voice they all recognized – the voice of Nightmare Moon.

“I wouldn't be so sure about that.” A patch of moonlight that filtered through the trees slowly congealed, taking on form and color, resolving into the image of a pony the group was only too familiar with.

“Nightmare Moon!” Rainbow cried. Her hoof went instantly to where her sword should have been hanging, but she found nothing but air. Around her, the other ponies also tensed up or crouched, ready for action, although there was a note of pain in some of their eyes that was absent in hers. Fluttershy turned the palest yellow she had ever been as she stood stock-still and stared wide-eyed at the dark Princess.

“So,” Nightmare commented, her tone entirely unimpressed with the cold reception, “I see even my deepest nightmares are not inescapable if I leave them to their own devices rather than watching over them myself. I must thank you for breaking free, however you managed it. I was going to let you go anyway, but you've saved me the trouble.”

As the patterns of light shifted subtly through the tree branches of the thick woods, Rainbow caught a glimpse of her sword hidden in the bushes on the side of the path, where she must have dropped it while she was still under Nightmare's spell. She glanced over at where Twilight had gathered a very impressive aura of magic around her horn for a librarian and tried to catch her eye to signal her, but was dismayed when Twilight quit channelling the spell and stood up straight to glare Nightmare in the eye.

“Give us back your hostages and surrender,” Twilight demanded. “You will be given a fair trial, and any grievances you may have will be given due consideration.”

“Hostages?” Nightmare looked down with half-lidded eyes, a smile on her face. “Maybe you haven't heard enough about me from the last time I was here. I don't take hostages. So I don't have any to give you.”

Pinkie snorted, but Twilight let out a small gasp of horror. Rainbow knew it was a bad idea to look away from the enemy, but she couldn't help letting her eyes glance over just briefly at Twilight's outburst. Twilight's eyes were wide, a hoof covering her mouth. It took a moment for Rainbow to process what such a reaction implied for the fillies Nightmare had taken.

Then her vision went red.

Without meaning to, without thinking, Rainbow bolted straight for her sword and snatched it off the ground. The instant she grabbed hold of it, she pulled off a turn so sharp she could feel the flesh and muscle yanking against her tendons as the g-forces she was experiencing skyrocketed. Throwing away any idea of a coordinated attack and relying only on the suddenness and ferocity of her lunge, she barreled straight at Nightmare's side, a roar in her throat, sword aimed for a killing blow.

She passed right through, the image of Nightmare shimmering and tearing as the illusion was disrupted by Rainbow's passage.

“Well, I suppose I know who wasn't the one responsible for your escape,” Nightmare said, looking down on Rainbow with one eye. “Striking at someone who isn't physically present will accomplish nothing.”

Rainbow Dash growled in frustration. Applejack took a step forward, a glare hidden under the shadows of her hat and her jaw moving slowly against strained muscles.

“What have you done to my sister?” she asked, voice low and cold.

“Nothing, as of yet,” Nightmare smiled down, “but I have big plans for her. For all of them. The foals will serve my purpose, and my sister will pay.” Her eyes gleamed darkly. “They aren't hostages, because I'm not even pretending I'm going to give them back to you.”

“Aw, come on!” Everypony turned to look at Pinkie Pie, who had clapped a hoof against her forehead. “Don't explain the joke, Luna! That kills it.”

Nightmare's smile dropped instantly into a murderous frown. “Do not presume to call me by that name, churl! That is the name I bore when I was but the sniveling younger sister of the Sun, maligned and suppressed. I am Nightmare Moon, your rightful Princess of the Night! And I care not what my sister has told you, your feeble understanding does not come anywhere near close enough to take such a familiar tone with me. I desire even your love, pony, but I demand your respect!”

Pinkie snorted again, a short, breathy thing which was the result of trying to hold in laughter. “'Familiar!' Oh, Moon, you're such a crack-up! How can it be familiar when I've never talked to you before?”

“Pinkie!” Rarity cried, finally managing to regain her composure. She and the others looked at Pinkie with incredulity written on their faces. “What are you doing?”

Pinkie paid no attention to the others, beaming a great big smile up into Nightmare's glower, which had only gotten darker at Pinkie's response. “Did you make this guy?” Pinkie asked, pulling Gummy up to present to the Princess. “Thanks bunches! I named him Gummy, and I love him ever so much.” Pinkie gasped and hugged Gummy to her chest. “You aren't going to ask for him back, are you?”

Nightmare Moon just stared, and as she did, her expression seemed to cool into one of pure condescension.

“Would you perhaps like to know the origins of that creature?” Nightmare asked. “It is somewhat related to why I've deigned to speak to you. I'd like you all to give up on this well-intentioned, but futile, quest.”

“Never!”

To everypony's surprise, it was Fluttershy who had spoken. “Never again!” she said, legs trembling, but with eyes that were clear and sharp.

Nightmare met Fluttershy's gaze impassively.

“We're not givin' up on our sisters, no matter what you say!” Applejack said, nodding in agreement. “Or the Princess, neither.”

Nightmare smiled. “Not even if your sisters have differing opinions on the matter?”

The air beside her began to twist again as images of three smaller figures came into focus. Figures that were quite familiar to the ponies gathered there. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle appeared from the ether on either side of Nightmare Moon.

“Sweetie!” Rarity gasped, as at the same time Applejack called out to her own sister. Neither of the two fillies responded.

Instead, they glared up at them with looks their elder sisters had never seen before in their eyes. Looks that they would have been very happy to have never seen at all, much less from somepony they loved. Rainbow frowned as Scootaloo gave her a similar look.

Nightmare Moon spread her wings, pulling the fillies closer to her. They did not resist her touch.

“Now then, children,” Nightmare said. “Here are your sisters, come to take you back home. Would you like to go with them?”

“No!”

The ponies from Pinkie's Party started at the fillies' sharp response. Apple Bloom didn't step forward, but her glare grew tighter.

“Ah'm not going anywhere with a pony who'd just abandon everypony who's counting on her when things got hard!”

“W-what?” Applejack gulped. Something about the look in Apple Bloom's eyes had set her into a cold sweat. “Apple Bloom, what are you talking about?”

“You think I'm going to go back home just to sit in your shadow again, Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Well I'm not! I'm not going back home, ever!”

“They're just illusions,” Rainbow said quickly, seeing the look of agony on Rarity's face. “We can't believe anything Nightmare shows us.”

“Aren't you upset at all?” Scootaloo asked. She lurched upward from where she was seated, pointing a hoof accusingly at Rainbow Dash. “How can you feel nothing at a time like this? I thought you cared about me.”

Nightmare gave a long, slow chuckle.

“There. You see? You are not wanted here.” Her ethereal mane gave a flick all of its own, pointing back along the path towards Ponyville. “Go home.”

“What have you done to them?” Twilight asked, truly angry now for the first time any of the others had seen. “What have you done to these foals?”

“Only talked to them a little,” Nightmare said. “Mind to mind. It turns out we each have much in common. Your sisters are free to leave, once they've helped me out a little, though I doubt they'll care to see you again.” Her horn lit up, and from somewhere off in the darkness the image of a bracelet floated into sight. “Do you know what this is?”

Twilight frowned. Something about that bracelet looked familiar, somehow – etched with markings that she recognized from years of study on magical theory, runes of fusion and transformation. Pinkie's gasped, her eyes snapping wide as she shot ramrod-straight.

“Guys!” Pinkie shouted. “We need to go, we need to go now!”

“It has been a most useful tool to me, over the years,” Nightmare said. “I used it to populate much of the Everfree Forest. Manticores, Octospiders, Riversnakes – oh, and countless others. Monster creation is something of a hobby of mine.”

Pinkie bolted off down the path. Nightmare Moon did not seem to take any notice of Pinkie's departure, and the others hesitated for a moment to follow as Nightmare continued. “The best part about it is that, unlike the Elements of Harmony, anypony at all can make use of it. Why, even these little fillies were able to make that small alligator thing you insist on carrying around.”

“Ah!” Twilight blinked. “I remember what that bracelet is. But why would she... and Pinkie... ...oh, no!”

She also took off at a run. “Pinkie! Wait up!”

“Where are you all going?” Rainbow asked, already trailing along behind. The others also began hurrying along the path.

The image did not move with them, but they had only just passed it when they saw it again, unchanged, off to one side of the path ahead. Nightmare Moon kept talking, not seeming to care that the ponies she was talking to were constantly barreling past her and the three fillies.

“You might have heard me explain what I want to do earlier, on the stage,” Nightmare said. “I intend to use the Elements of Harmony on my sister and imprison her, just as she imprisoned me. Only, without my sister's mysterious technique, I need more than one pony to be able to use the elements. I need a partner, somepony of considerable power and potential.

“The bracelet itself suffices to alter a body alone,” Nightmare said, lowering the bracelet as she talked and slipping it around Scootaloo's forehoof. The metal willingly altered itself, shrinking and compressing to fit snugly against the filly's coat. “To alter a creature's magic, though – that is a more difficult problem.” Nightmare grinned toothily. “Did you know that the only creatures to successfully use the Elements have been my sister and myself, together? Two alicorns.”

“I mean, I get that we don't really need to stick around and listen to Nightmare babble on,” Rainbow said, catching up to Twilight and returning to her own line of conversation, “but what's got you two so worked up? What makes things suddenly so urgent?”

“I don't know how my sister was able to use them on her own,” Nightmare continued. The image of her horn began to glow with a minor spell, and the color was reflected in the eyes of the fillies sitting next to her; they got up silently and moved to stand in a circle.

“Whatever secret about the Elements she discovered is still unknown to me. If I aim to use the Elements in spite of this, then I need to... find... somepony to help me out.”

Twilight was running full out to catch up with Pinkie. She didn't have much breath to spare, but she tried to answer Rainbow's question the best she could.

“The bracelet-” she panted, dodging around a low-hanging branch. “I recognize it- now. It's a relic- lost to time - known as -” She panted, running out of breath completely, and then shook her head in defeat, reluctantly compromising full intellectual disclosure in favor of just getting the important idea across. “The bracelet has two functions – alter and combine. She can't- get what she wants, through altering, so she- she must be planning on- on-”

The fillies blinked in unison. When their eyes opened, they were clear and familiar again – but their determined, angry looks did nothing to assuage their sister's fears.

Scootaloo held out the hoof which held the bracelet, and the others tapped their hooves to its bronzed surface. At the touch, the bracelet seemed almost to steam, emitting – or absorbing – a glowing mist from all three little ponies. The fillies nodded to each other, one by one.

Nightmare Moon had been watching the fillies rather than the group of heroes, but now her head and eyes suddenly turned to follow the ponies in their flight – each of them could feel her gaze on them as almost a tangible substance, thick like oil and suffocating.

“Congratulations, Rarity, Applejack,” Nightmare Moon said, her voice actually sounding cheerful. “Your sisters, and their little friend, are about to become an alicorn.”

And then the image disappeared, leaving Pinkie's Party alone in the woods.

“Together,” Scootaloo intoned.

“Strong,” came Sweetie Belle.

“As one!” said Apple Bloom, not a one of them hesitating in their determination.

“I'll make her notice me,” Scootaloo said confidently as the bracelet began to hum with power, glowing so bright that it hurt to look at.

“I'll be better than she ever was,” said Sweetie Belle, glaring into the light as a tugging sensation began to run up from her fetlock.

By now, the distance between the three had noticeably shortened, and the transformation was only picking up speed. Apple Bloom couldn't feel the end of her leg now, but it didn't matter. The sensation didn't stop her one bit.

“If Ah can't trust her, Ah'll go it on my own!”

The light grew so bright now that Scootaloo was forced to look away. It didn't help. Even through closed lids, even looking in the other direction, the light was overwhelming.

Sweetie Belle was pulled forward towards the bracelet. She couldn't see anything anymore, and the humming was growing into a high-pitched whine just short of deafening, but she felt it when the side of her neck was pressed up against those of the others. There was a strange tugging, and then she was pulled through.

This is really happening. She felt bigger now. Stronger, healthier than she had even been before in her life, although at some point along the way she had lost any idea of the actual shape of her body. I'll bet I'm so strong, I can fly for real!

Wait. Who thought that?

The noise, the light, the aura of magic – all of it burst as the bracelet completed its work.

As the light died down and the noise faded away, a single, solitary figure was left crouching there on the floor. A broad wing twitched as the pony shifted, rolling their head and shoulders and gathering their hooves beneath them. Nightmare Moon smiled as the new alicorn drew herself to her full height.

“Well then,” Nightmare asked. “Are you ready to make Equestria ours, and settle things with all of our sisters?”

The other pony stared at her with widened eyes. She glanced at her new, peach-colored hoof. Her purple mane – long and “flowing” in the normal sense, but still made of hair and not animated like those of the Princess, or Celestia– slipped down around one side of her face and she jumped at the contact, reaching up to touch her cheek. Her mouth opened slowly. Then she looked at Nightmare again, and those warm brown eyes seemed to harden.

“Yes,” she said. “We'll show them. We'll show them all.”

Her voice was not that of a foal's anymore – it was the voice of a grown mare. Her height, too, was just a little taller than that of the average adult pony. Something stirred in the depths of Nightmare's heart at the alicorn's expression – this was a pony after her own heart, one she could truly respect.

Nightmare nodded off to the side. “The 'rescue party' will be here shortly. You heard me try to convince them, but now it's out of my hooves. They are very near the castle now. I need only a short time to prepare things here. Would you be a dear and stall them for a few moments while I get things set up?”

The conglomerate pony's face twitched, a tugging at the side of her mouth as she couldn't decide whether to smile or snarl – neither face was particularly friendly, and neither was the resulting mish-mash.

“Sure thing,” she said. She stumbled as she turned towards the door, but her wings flared out and caught her weight before she fell more than a few inches – her face lit up for a moment before being drowned with hatred again. “We'll go... deal with them, or something.”

She staggered out of the room, not looking like she was in any condition to be dealing with anything, but rapidly growing more and more sure of hoof. Nightmare turned away, smile spreading across the whole of her face.

She was alone now. With confident purpose, she strode forwards to a certain spot on the castle floor. As she neared it, her horn glowed with a simple telemancy spell, pushing a seemingly innocuous stone down into the ground. With the grating noise of stone on stone, a circle opened up in the floor as a grand structure rose up in a cloud of dust, holding aloft those powerful stones for all the world to see – the Elements of Harmony.

There was a laugh building up in Nightmare's throat, and she saw no reason to keep it concealed as she lifted the stones from their pedestal. One by one they began to orbit around her, Kindness, Honesty, Friendship, Loyalty, Generosity, and-

She paused.

Nightmare Moon looked again at the Elements she was carrying. She counted them. Then she counted again, just to make sure that she hadn't, she couldn't have, made a mistake in her calculations –

Nightmare howled.

“Where's the sixth element?!?”

Chapter 13: Marauding Crusader

Princess Celestia winced as the chains binding her to the floor made a great groaning and creaking sound without actually giving way in the slightest. Reluctantly, she stopped straining against them, and they fell the few inches back into their original positions with a crash.

Celestia winced again. She very much did not want to attract her sister's attention while she was still restrained like she was. She had only a little time left, she knew, before Luna would be ready for her plan. Celestia had to be free by then, or else – well, she was probably the one who would suffer the least, in the long run.

But she still hadn't found a way out. The bonds holding her physical body were too strong, too secure and too numerous for her admittedly limited knowledge of the art of escape. And her magic...

A trickle of blood dripped down into her eye again. She blinked to keep it clear.

Something moved. Celestia's ears pricked up and she smiled. “Luna,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

Shadows ripped themselves out of the crags of the ancient stone floor, twisting together with great speed and complexity before congealing into the form of Nightmare Moon, snarling a step in front of her sister's face and with hatred in her eyes.

“You!” she barked, wasting no time in pleasantries. “What did you do to the Elements? Where is the last of them?”

“You know what I did with the Elements,” Celestia said. Nightmare was so close she could feel the breath from her nostrils. “You were there.”

Nightmare snorted angrily and pawed at the ground with a hoof. “Is this part of your secret?” she asked. “Did something you did to use them on me by yourself break them? Make one disappear? I know you didn't hide it, Celestia! You could never hope to conceal it from me.”

Celestia stared at Nightmare Moon for a long moment. Then at last she sighed.

“The Elements,” she began, “must be used by a group. The group can be of any number, so long as the individuals themselves, in some combination, meet the requirements for each element. But there must be more than one Bearer, and all of the Bearers be present for the Elements to activate.”

“I know,” Nightmare growled. “I know, I know this! What did you do to the Elements?”

“I didn't do anything to them!” Celestia said loudly. She paused, and took deep breath.

Nightmare Moon merely kept up her steely glare and said nothing.

“There is only one exception,” Celestia continued. “... In the case where the Elements are to be used on one of the Bearers themselves, the Elements will act upon the united will of the remaining Bearers, to strike down the wayward member.” She glanced downwards, dropping Nightmare's gaze. “I was only able to use them on my own... because I used them against you.”

“Or I could have used them against you,” Nightmare said. Her eyes flashed even darker. “So, I never needed those fillies in the first place. Only even with them it still won't work, because now one of the Elements is missing, and even with a partner I still can't use only five Elements.”

“The price,” Celestia said, “for using them as I did. Even if they were all together, they would not respond to either of us now.”

“What? What?” Nightmare shrieked. “You did- I can't- you destroyed the most powerful artifacts in all of Equestria?!? How do you expect to keep our little ponies safe without the Elements of Harmony? What if Discord returns?”

“It... wasn't easy,” Celestia said slowly. “But somehow I managed.”

Nightmare's eyes blazed with fury. And then, all of a sudden, they changed. The fury was still there, perhaps even more so, but all the heat was gone. Princess Celestia was struck with the unalterable feeling that these were not the eyes of the Luna she knew.

Nightmare turned to look at the ground at their hooves. With a flash of her horn, dark sigils burned themselves into the stone around Celestia, who could only watch as they formed a complete circle surrounding her, imprisoned as she was. She glanced back up to find those unfamiliar eyes glaring back at her.

“I know you,” Nightmare hissed. “I know how you work, how you're always twelve steps ahead of everypony else. Your student and her little friends have made it very close to here now, and even if I wasn't taking them seriously for most of their journey, they've still managed to defy all probability and overcome everything I put in their way. Of course they did. They're your plan to beat me. And maybe they'll do it. Maybe they'll pull of some sort of miracle from out of nowhere and they'll win. Crush little Luna's hopes and dreams like they always do. But there's one thing I can promise you, sister. If I go down, you're coming with me. Even if they blast me with the Elements, the moment my magic is gone, or reduced, or changed beyond recognition, this sigil will activate, and it will kill you. They may win, I may not get what I want, but you will still die. There is no way you're getting out of this, Celestia, not without me having my revenge!”

Nightmare Moon stood panting there for a moment in the silence after her rant. Then her eyes changed again and she was back to the hurt, angry pony Celestia knew, the one who was trying to kill her, and in whom she could still see the wounded heart of her sister. “The next time I return will be the last. I will put an end to this, Celestia. Finally, after all these years.”

Those slitted eyes drifted over Celestia's face. “You're bleeding,” she said. “You tried to escape.”

“You tuned the razor well,” Celestia said. “I thought I might be able to use just enough magic to escape, but it got quite painful quite quickly.”

“I can't even tell if you feel pain, sometimes,” Nightmare muttered. With a caress of magic, she wiped away the trail of blood back to where the bladed ring sat around Celestia's horn.

Then she frowned.

“I certainly hope you do,” she hissed.

With rapid steps, Nightmare Moon strode around her sister and made her way towards the door.

“Luna!” Celestia called out, trying to follow her movements with her head, but catching on the chains before she had moved two hooves length.

The hoofsteps stopped behind her.

“When I'm gone,” Celestia said, “if you succeed... make sure it's still you inside.”

There was nothing but silence for a moment.

Then Celestia knew Luna was gone.

“There it is!” Pinkie cried as they burst out into the final clearing. Just ahead, across a slender rope bridge, were the towering remains of the Castle of the Two Sisters. “Come on come on come on, we've got to gooo – Waaah!”

As Pinkie was running towards the castle and her destination, her hooves suddenly fell on nothing but air as she stepped out into the opening of a deep ravine. Just as she was about to lose out to gravity, there was a tug on her tail, and Twilight's magic managed to pull her back to safety as the unicorn galloped up next to her, panting with the exertion of her run. The two ponies looked down into the black abyss as the others caught up behind them.

“Oh, come on!” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Are you serious? The bridge is out.”

“The ropes and boards don't look like they're in such bad condition from up here,” Twilight said, gazing down at what remained of the bridge. “Somepony must have cut them from the other side. But maybe we can-”

“Come on, come on, double time!” Rainbow said, already swooping down into the ravine and pulling up the side of the bridge which had been cut. “Get over here, Fluttershy, and help me tie these things back together so we can cross!”

The work took only a few minutes, but the ponies felt every second of the wait. The instant the last knot was tied, the ponies were thundering over the bridge and heading for the castle. They were almost at the gates when the heavy doors began to open of their own accord. Up at the front, Pinkie Pie screeched to a halt.

“Oh no,” she whispered, her hooves shooting to her mouth.

The others caught up to her side and stared at what she had seen, their own reactions ranging between confused and horrified.

Standing in the doorway was a pony whom none of them had ever seen before. A pony with the body of an adult, with wings and a horn. A strange and unfamiliar alicorn.

The Pony glared at them.

“You're not stopping us!” the Pony said, voice bold but cracking at points like it was new to her. “I don't care if Nightmare Moon is planning on banishing the Princess. We know how it feels to have a sister that's always better than you, Rarity!”

Rarity stared, wide-eyed, as one trembling hoof found its way to her chest.

“Yeah! That's right!” the Pony said, as if agreeing with herself. “You tell 'er, Sweetie Belle!”

“S- Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked.

“We're too late!” Pinkie cried out, voice filled with anguish, as she pointed at the strange pony. “Nightmare Moon already fused them!”

“That's them?” Applejack asked, a wild look in her eyes. “That pony – that pony's Apple Bloom?”

“She must be,” Twilight said. Her face was scrunched up in pain. “And Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle too. I... I don't know if there's any way...” She stepped forward. “Girls? H-how are you feeling? Are you all in there?”

“We're feeling better than we ever did with you, thank you very much,” the Pony said. “Or our sisters.”

“Or with Rainbow Dash,” the Pony added to her own sentence.

“Scootaloo?” Rainbow asked, ears perking up. “Scoots, is that you?”

“Oh, so you know her name now,” the Pony said, backing up a step on the top of the stairs. “You didn't seem to care about her before.”

“They still seem to have separate personalities,” Twilight commented. “That's good news! If we can only separate the bodies, then maybe there's a chance...”

“Is that all of you fillies?” Rainbow asked, floating up the steps towards them. “Look, I get that you've all gone through a lot of stuff tonight, but just come with us and we'll get you help. Get you back in your own bodies-”

“No!” the Pony shouted, striking Rainbow Dash across the jaw with one hoof. Dash was caught off guard, and crashed headlong back down the stairs. The gathered ponies cried out, Fluttershy rushing forward to pick up her fallen friend.

“Hey!” Applejack said. “Apple Bloom! What in tarnation are you doing?”

“You're not my sister!” The pony blurted, her voice suddenly taking on a familiar country accent. “And you're not listening! Ah said you're not gonna stop us from doing what we're doing, even if we have to fight you! Nightmare Moon sent us to stall you, and that's what we're gonna do!”

It wasn't Apple Bloom's voice.

“Apple Bloom,” Applejack said, voice heavy. “What's gotten into you?”

The pony did not answer. Instead, she crouched down and sprang head-long upon the group. She hit Pinkie first in a violent tackle that knocked them both to the floor, pulling in close and kicking, even biting at her throat and chest with her dull pony teeth.

“Aggh!” Pinkie cried out. “She's gnawing on my jugular! And it's not nearly as adorable this time!”

“Get off of her!” Applejack said, jumping at the conglomerate pony and trying to wrestle her to the ground. Applejack was surprised to find that the Pony was much stronger than she had expected, being nearly a match for her own, farm-trained muscles, and before Applejack knew it, the Pony had wriggled out of her grasp and slammed a kick into her face with both back legs.

A magical aura surrounded the pony as Twilight tried to intervene. “Now, girls,” she said, trying to keep a calm voice, “Something very serious has happened to you, and we're going to get you all the help we can, but you've got to work with us-”

She cut off with a cry as a foreign aura clamped itself down on her horn, pinching it rather impishly and causing her to lose her spell's integrity. The aura around the pony faded away, and the pony turned to glare in Twilight's direction before blinking.

“Hey,” the pony said. “I just used magic. I just used magic!” She jumped up and clapped her hooves together in glee, before clapping them to her face in horror. “Ah just used magic,” she said in a very small voice.

Pinkie stumbled to her hooves. A sharp gleam was in her narrowed eyes.

“Ah'm a shame to the Apple family,” the Pony muttered.

“Pie-clan Secret Technique,” Pinkie Pie intoned, reaching around behind her back. “Three Ream Flamingo Strike!”

With a sudden lurch, she swung a giant origami flamingo straight into the Pony's face. Papers scattered everywhere as the Pony was bowled over and fell flat on her back, already scrambling to get back up.

“Pinkie!” Rarity cried. “We can't hurt them! They're our sisters, they're just foals!”

“They sure don't punch like foals,” Rainbow muttered, getting back to a standing position. She wobbled a bit from side to side, but she stared the Pony right in the eyes.

Pinkie shrugged. “Well, yeah,” she said, “but what am I supposed to do? They're attacking us! She's attacking us. Uh. Hmm.” She turned to the Pony. “What exactly are we supposed to call you, now that you're all a single pony?”

The Pony blinked. “That's a good question,” she said, lifting a hoof to her chin. “Like... Foalmerge? Unity? Purpose? … Crusader!” Her eyes lit up. “We're on a crusade to get right with our sisters! You can call us-”

Her pupils suddenly turned to slits as her smile dropped away from her face.

“Nightmare Marauder,” she said, voice the same as ever, without inflection.

Pinkie blinked.

“Huh. That didn't follow at all from what you were saying just befor-”

She was cut off as Marauder slammed both hooves into her stomach in a flying tackle, spreading her wings to boost herself above Pinkie as the earthpony bounced to the ground. Marauder reared up, aiming to trample Pinkie against the pavement, but before she could bring her hooves down, Rainbow Dash slammed into her side in a devastating body-check.

“Rainbow!” Rarity protested.

“Don't you get it?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering at the ready as Marauder got back to her hooves. “We can't just sit back and let her do what she wants. Not when she's doing something that'll mean the end of all Equestria. She's being used by Nightmare Moon, and I'm not going to let her make that big of a mistake without a fight.”

“Rainbow,” Applejack said darkly, “if you hit my sister again, Ah'll-”

She was cut off by a blast of magic, which slammed against the side of her head and burned at her coat as it knocked her to the ground. The world was spinning for her as she looked up in shock at where Marauder – Apple Bloom – was standing, glaring at her with a smoking horn.

“Ah'm using magic,” Marauder said. “And Ah don't care what the Apple family thinks of me for it! They ain't my family no more.”

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity cried. “I'm ashamed of you! That is not an acceptable use of magic, and you know it, young lady!”

“Oh yeah?” Marauder replied. “Well, maybe if the way I'm using magic is so wrong already, I should just use it to solve my problem!” She raised a foreleg, and the bracelet around her pastern began to glow. “Let's see how you like being the useless sister, Rarity!”

Everypony gasped. “That bracelet!” Applejack said.

Twilight's eyes widened. “The Demonstrum!”

“Make her weak,” Marauder intoned, “ugly, old and frail. Make her mane turn green, and-”

“Knock it off!” Rainbow barked, barreling into Marauder with a flying tackle. Even with the speed and strength behind the blow, Marauder was still able to stay on her hooves as the two slid back together.

But even as the incantation was interrupted, Rarity stiffened and collapsed where she stood. Her already white face went pale as death as she trembled, shook, her skin and muscles shrinking and wrinkles forming on her face. Twilight rushed to her side.

Marauder struck back at Rainbow Dash with surprising strength. Rainbow considered herself one of the most athletic ponies in Ponyville, but the strength of these three fillies in a single combined body was nearly enough to overpower her. Fluttershy stepped back with a shriek as the two grappled back and forth along the ground and rolled through where she had just been standing.

“Fight it, Rarity!” Twilight cried, shaking the fallen pony by the withers. “The bracelet's magic can't control you if you don't let it! Fight back!”

Rarity's frightened eyes twitched towards Twilight's face, the rest of her body held in a sinister paralysis. Then her eyes closed, and her breathing began to still. Slowly, the changes began to revert, her face smoothing out and her mane returning to its rich purple.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, come on!” Marauder complained.

A blow to Rainbow's muzzle set her nose to bleeding. Marauder's face turned back into a grin. “What's the matter, Rainbow Dash?” she asked. “Why aren't you using your sword? You're a big-time hunter, aren't you? Are you not taking this seriously, just because we're fillies you barely know?”

“Are you insane?” Rainbow snapped back, unimpressed. She kicked out with a hoof and clipped a joint on Marauder's wing which caused the conglomerate to reel in discomfort as a nerve in the joint was compressed. “I'm trying to rescue you. It'd be a little counter-productive to do that by carving you into tiny pieces, don't you think?”

Marauder snorted and tried to punch Rainbow in the face again. Rainbow blocked this time, at the expense of her grip.

“Uh, guys?” Pinkie asked. Her front leg was bouncing up and down, as if it had a life of its own. “I think we need to get inside. We need to get inside, right now.”

“Kinda busy here, Pinkie,” Rainbow grunted.

“I won't let you!” Marauder cried. “You're not stopping me, and you're not stopping Nightmare Moon!”

Applejack groaned as she tried to pull herself to her hooves. She staggered, and was only able to stay standing with help from Fluttershy, who was looking worriedly at Applejack's burn marks.

“We've gotta deal with her first,” Applejack said. She glared at Rainbow Dash. “But Ah ain't leaving everything up to Miss Hits-a-Lot here. Maybe together, we can hold her down long enough to-”

“There's no time!” Pinkie stressed, her whole body trembling with urgency. “There's no time, we've got to go now, or something really bad is going to happen!”

Rainbow Dash was finally able to wrestle herself into a good position, and heaved Marauder into the air. The nightmare pony, unused to flying flailed awkwardly as she arced through the air and landed heavily on the ground. Rainbow stretched her neck to the side and pawed at the ground.

“I'll hold Marauder off myself,” she said. “You five get in there and do what needs to be done. I've got an idea how to end this.”

“That won't work!” Pinkie cried in despair. “We need all six of us to-”

The bouncing suddenly stopped. Pinkie paused.

“On second thought,” she said quickly, “that sounds great. Catch up as quick as you can, Dashell!”

“Stop giving me nicknames!” Rainbow said.

Marauder leapt into the air, her horn glowing with a spell. “What makes you think Ah'm letting y'all go inside?” she asked loudly.

She squawked as a baseball smacked into her horn. Pinkie didn't wait a moment to make sure that her throw has struck true, bending down and scooping up the still wobbly Applejack onto her back.

“Come on, everypony,” she cried. “Into the castle!”

She darted up the steps and into the castle interior before anypony could object. Rarity was also struggling to get back on her hooves, but after a moment of deliberation, Twilight picked up her fellow unicorn with her magic and followed after Pinkie. Fluttershy paused at the top of the steps to look back at where Rainbow was still facing off against the poor fillies they had come to rescue.

“What are you waiting for?” Rainbow asked. “Go on! I'll take care of things here.”

Fluttershy nodded. Then she followed the others inside.

“Wait!” Marauder called, trying to dodge around Rainbow and get at the others. Rainbow Dash managed to block her, though, barreling into her and smacking the younger pony into the ground. Marauder let out a growl of frustration.

“I hate you the most!” Marauder said. “What kind of hero hits the ponies she's trying to save?”

“Hero?” Dash asked. “... feh. I'm just some pony who hunts monsters for a living and decided to take on an ancient pony of darkness to save some fillies, the Princess, and all of Equestria.” She blinked. “Actually, when you put it that way, that does sound kind of heroic, doesn't it?” Dash chuckled. “Well of course, if there was going to be somepony worth calling a hero, it would have to be somepony as awesome as me, now wouldn't it?”

Marauder screamed and rushed at her. Rainbow Dash laughed, and darted around her and off, over the bridge, back down the path through the Everfree Forest, Marauder chasing after her in a fit of rage.

Chapter 14: Confrontation

“The Elements!” Pinkie called out, as she skidded into a large room with a stone fixture in the center, which had six holders for six stone orbs, all of which were obviously empty. “Gah! Nightmare took them! Where is she?”

“Pinkie!” Applejack cried as Pinkie Pie whipped round and round, looking for some hint of the Nightmare. “Let me off! Ah'm... gonna be sick...”

Pinkie plunked the dizzy farmer down on the stone floor, and grabbed Applejack's head between her hooves to stare her in the eye.

“You're coming along with us, alright?” Pinkie said. “Because it's super important that everything plays out in exactly the right way, or everything will come crashing down on our little pony heads. I take promises very seriously, and I Pinkie Promise that everything is going to turn out alright with your sister, but we need to find Nightmare Moon in the next three minutes, or all of Equestria could be completely-”

There was set of loud thuds, and the sound of stone on stone, rolling against the floor. Everypony turned to find the missing orbs as they rolled to a stop, just before their hooves. And behind the Elements came the pony who had caused them so much heartache that night – Nightmare Moon.

“The Elements of Harmony,” the Dark Princess droned. “Or at least the five of them that survived.” She glanced over the ponies gathered in front of her, who had huddled up together to stare defiantly at her. “I see that my little diversion barely delayed you at all. You can have her back now. She can be of no further use to me. Assuming you kept her alive.”

“You did this to our sisters!” Applejack said, stepping forward, advancing on a pony twice her size. “And you're gonna turn them back, or so help me, Ah'll have your mane for bootstraps!”

Nightmare Moon's eyes turned to slits. Applejack found herself suddenly yanked off her hooves, and held suspended by her neck right in front of Nightmare's face.

“Even if I had the ability to undo what the bracelet has done,” Nightmare said in a low tone, “for what reason should I even pause to consider your blustering as a threat? Have you some power, farm mare, that I am not seeing? The Elements of Harmony are as dead as the stones they are made of. If you hoped to use them against me, you had best give up while I still desire your adoration. I feel I won't do so much longer.”

“You can't undo it?” Rarity asked. Nightmare turned to appraise the mare, who flinched under her gaze but kept talking. “But- but can't the bracelet do something about it? If it can fuse three ponies together, can't it also be used to give them their own bodies back?”

Nightmare didn't bother to answer. In the crushing silence, Rarity sank shakily down to the floor, her face awash in agony. With a snort, Nightmare Moon let Applejack drop heavily to the paved stone. The Dark Princess turned to leave the room.

“As I am no longer able to deal with my sister in the way she dealt with me,” Nightmare said, “I find that I have little choice but to end her life. A lesser prison would not contain her for more than a century at best, and I am sure I would grow tired of the endless struggle to keep her in her place. It was my original plan for dealing with her, anyways, back before she managed to surprise me. When I return here, I expect all of you to be gone, or else I shall reached the very limits of my patience.”

“There's no way we're going to let you do that.”

Nightmare blinked. She turned to Twilight Sparkle, whose horn was glowing the the base form of a spell.

“Princess Celestia has led well for the last thousand years!” Twilight said. “Under her rule, Equestria has grown happy and prosperous! We have inventions now, advancements in magical science, which were unthinkable before! Even with the constant threat of monster attacks, we've found ways to work with the creatures of the Everfree and from elsewhere, revolutionizing ponies' lives time and time again, and all of it is thanks to the Princess sticking with us through the hardest times in pony history! We're not going to abandon her now!”

Nightmare Moon hissed, her distaste for the subject overcoming her calm demeanor. She wheeled round upon Twilight, and before the mare could cast whatever spell she had building on her horn, she found it clamped down sharply with an aura of the Nightmare's own magic. There was a flex, and Twilight cried out as hairline cracks ran up and down her horn.

“Vapid zealot,” Nightmare snarled. “You are a sheep, rather than a pony. Shall I mould your horn into that of a ram? I'd like to see you use your precious magic with that atop your head.”

“Tssk,” Pinkie clicked. “There are so many problems with that, Luna.”

Nightmare glared at the pink mare, who was acting oddly aloof. Pinkie gave a flick of her mane, and started bouncing the balance of it in one hoof.

“To start with,” Pinkie said, “rams are male sheep. And last I checked, Twilight Sparkle was a mare.”

“You check-” Twilight started, but Pinkie Pie kept talking.

“And then, also,” Pinkie said, “rams have two horns, one on each side of their head. If you tried to do what you said you were going to do, you'd end up with too few horns in all the wrong places. Frankly, there's just too many things getting in the way for your idea to ever work. Oh,” she added. “And by the time you finished, we would have already ended this Nightmare and gotten everypony to come back with us.”

Nightmare Moon stared.

“You ponies seem to have no sense of self-preservation or common sense,” she said. The aura she was keeping up around Twilight's horn disappeared, and Twilight gave a sigh of pained relief. In the next second, Nightmare's ethereal mane whipped round and knocked Twilight hock-over-head across the room.

“I am Nightmare Moon,” Nightmare stated. “I am powerful beyond your pitiful comprehension. More powerful than the strongest earthpony, pegasus, or unicorn. More powerful than my sister, or any other alicorn. Just tonight, I have teleported an Ursa remotely, altered the shape of time and space, delved into your very dreams and trapped you each in separate, sustained nightmares of your very own, and before all that, I have stopped the very motion of the heavens themselves. After all that I have shown you tonight, what hope could you possibly hold out of accomplishing anything against me?”

Pinkie straightened up and looked Nightmare dead in the eye.

“We're going to use the Elements of Harmony and blast you with rainbows.”

Nightmare struck the ground with a hoof hard enough to splinter the stone, and a bolt of fragmented lighting lanced in through the crumbling roof to strike full on the stone orbs of the Elements. With a shattering crash, the orbs exploded into thousands of tiny stone shards. Behind Pinkie, the others gasped with alarm.

“The Elements are dead,” Nightmare emphasized. “I told you before. There were only five of the six, and now I have destroyed even those useless lumps.”

Pinkie shook her head.

“You can't kill a rock,” she said. “And I found all six Elements back in Ponyville.”

Nightmare's eyes narrowed. Pinkie took a step forward.

“We're going to win, Nightmare Moon. We're gonna take Princess Moon back with us. Not because we're stronger than you, or smarter than you. We're gonna win, because you won't accept the threat we pose to you until right up at the moment where it's too late. And we're gonna win, because we have the Elements of Harmony: Kindness, Generosity, Friendship, Honesty, Loyalty. All of them. We're gonna win, because you're you, and we're us.” She lowered her head and steeled her eyes. “Let me prove it to you.”

“I think we've heard enough out of you,” Nightmare said, readying a bolt from her horn. Quick as an arrow, she loosed the spell at Pinkie Pie. There was an electric hiss as the bolt struck home, and a cloud of smoke enveloped the pink target that obscured the vision of everypony in the room.

Out of the smoke came a voice, firm, resonating, and smelling ever so slightly of cake frosting.

“Fluttershy,” the voice said. “The Element of Kindness, the promise to care about what happens to you because it matters. She came with us into the forest, ready to face down Nightmare Moon herself because she couldn't bear the thought of leaving three terrified fillies in your hooves. Of course, what she could bear was the responsibility of reaching out to an injured Ursa, a creature who could have crushed us all in an instant, and tend its wounds because they hurt. Did you think she couldn't fight you just because she cares about you too?”

The smoke cleared, and the other ponies gasped. Nightmare Moon's eyes widened in shock. Her bolt had failed to reach its target – standing in the line of fire, head low but eyes still gleaming, a smoldering circle on her chest, was Fluttershy.

“I'm not... going to let you hurt any more of my friends,” Fluttershy said. “Not if I... can stop it from happening.”

“Out of the way!” Nightmare commanded, lifting Fluttershy up with her mane and swinging her around behind. “I'll deal with you after I've squashed the pink one like the bug she is.”

Another spell sprang up on Nightmare's brow. But before she could release it, there was a wild battle-cry, and a hoof struck the Nightmare across the face, sending the bolt spinning off into the darkness beyond. Nightmare's eyes flashed with fury as Rarity landed in front of her, still posed from her skillful flying kick.

“Rarity,” said Pinkie Pie, still in the same voice. “The Element of Generosity. The promise that what she has, she'll give away for you. She didn't think she could contribute much to our success, when we first asked her, but she's ended up giving more than anypony else to see this journey through. Not once, but twice, the Toll Frog asked if she would give, and she answered 'yes'. However begrudgingly and filled with hurtful feelings she was when she did it the second time.”

“What?” Rarity asked, looking askance at Pinkie over her shoulder. “That loathsome toad demanded a second toll from me, after I had already paid more than enough for our whole party! Are you seriously criticizing my attitude-”

“Enough!” cried Nightmare Moon, striking out at Rarity and crushing her to her knees against the floor with another segment of her mane. “There will be no more mercy! No more interruptions!”

A blast of magic caught Nightmare right on the nose. The puff of smoke that followed cleared to reveal very little damage done, but a very irritated Nightmare Moon stared past the remaining ponies at Twilight Sparkle, who glared in defiance even as the cracks along her horn shone with an inborn power.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Pinkie said. “The Element of Ma- Friendship! Definitely Friendship.”

Pinkie coughed. “The promise to strive to live up to all the things which a friend should be. The promise to make, and keep, all the other promises friends make to each other. Twilight is a bit of a loner. She doesn't need other ponies around to make her happy like the rest of us do. But she understands what friendship is, how we need to work together through the tough times, forgive each other for our differences, and see that we're all the wonderful ponies who became friends in the first place. She kept us from falling apart when my most sensitive secret came to light. You can't scare her anymore.”

With a snarl, Nightmare leapt clear across the room, carrying her captives with her, soaring through the air on her pitch-black wing in an arc straight towards Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn didn't even have time to react as Nightmare crashed into her, knocking her back and adding her to the swirling prison of a mane.

“You struggle,” Nightmare said, “but pretty words are meaningless. No matter how wonderful your friends are, their virtues are no fit substitute for the Elements of-”

But Nightmare broke off. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a movement that she could not explain. She looked, and saw that there was something circling the forms of Fluttershy and Rarity, where they hung helpless in her grasp.

Ringed about them were the myriad shards of the shattered elements. And they were glowing with life.

A noose settled around Nightmare's head, and she was pulled away just as she was beginning to understand.

“Hurry up 'n finish, Pinkie!” Applejack said around the rope she held in her teeth. She galloped around Nightmare Moon, trying to entangle her in the rope's length. “We can't buy you any more time!”

“Applejack,” Pinkie said, voice no faster than before. “The Element of Honesty. The promise, perhaps, that is the most important of all – the promise that promises will be kept. To know oneself, one's strengths, one's weaknesses, to take it all in and choose the path that all others think impossible, but you alone know that you can walk – that firm evaluation is also a form of honesty. And that is what Applejack did when she slipped past the Octospider's web, unharmed, when a futile struggle would have spelled our doom. Trust me, Applejack,” Pinkie smiled. “We made it in time.”

Applejack cried out as the rope burst into dark flame, and she dropped the burning strand to paw at her singed mouth and tongue. In another moment, the farmer too was caught up in Nightmare's grasp.

“You're all out of friends, Pinkamena Pie!” Nightmare bellowed, turning towards the subject of her ire. “They followed you this far, and you used them as a shield. Now, they'll follow you into the afterlife!”

As she spoke, Nightmare charged a blast bigger than any she had fired before. She took aim at Pinkie, and there was a haste to her motions. The shards of the Elements continued to gather.

“Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie said.

With a crash and a bang, a streak of many colors smashed its way through the mighty stained glass window that graced the northern wall, and struck Nightmare Moon dead in the face. The Dark Princess was struck from her hooves, and the hovering blue pegasus grinned down at her from above.

“The Element of Loyalty,” Pinkie Pie said, as calm as if she had expected this all along. “The promise to always look out for you, to do their best for you, to be in your corner when the chips are down. The worst reality your spells could envision failed to make her spirit falter. Did you think the real reality would be any kinder to you?”

“I took care of the fillies, guys! They're waiting for us,” Rainbow said cheerfully, favoring one foreleg as she hovered. “Let's end this thing and go home!”

She froze as an aura of darkness surrounded her. Suddenly, Rainbow was hurled to the side of the room, where she sank down in a daze. Nightmare grabbed onto her and hoisted her into the air with the others.

“That's five,” Nightmare said. Her voice was quieter now, almost as if she were talking to herself. “And the sixth... No. No no no no no...”

Again Nightmare formed a spell atop her horn. Across the room, Pinkie Pie turned to face her. Gently, Pinkie leaned down and set Gummy on the floor. There was nothing left. No one to stop the Nightmare Princess from striking down the one who stood before her.

At the key moment, a drop of sweat slipped into her eye, and Nightmare blinked.

In that moment, Pinkie was across the room and smacked Nightmare Moon's charged and ready horn.

The magic was strong enough that there was feedback, violent feedback in the form of a thaumic explosion. Nightmare fell back, a look of terror on her face. Pinkie's hoof was burnt severely, but Nightmare's spell was spent.

“Pinkie Pie,” said Pinkie, letting her charred hoof drift down beside her. “The Element... of Faith. The promise that the world... is a joke, shared between friends. That, if just we knew the right way to look at things, all would become clear, and we would laugh at how wonderful everything really was, in spite of how dark it all looked. I saw a rainbow one day on a rock farm, and everything changed for me. I was taken away from my family. I never had any friends. But that rainbow gave me something very special, something that's worth all the pain it's caused me. Something I'd like to share with you. With them. With everypony I meet.”

A light from nowhere bloomed and died away above Pinkie's head, leaving behind a jeweled golden tiara, and at the same moment, the fragments that had been orbiting the other ponies came together to form gold necklaces around each of their necks. In each piece of jewelry, that pony's cutiemark was displayed as a beautiful gemstone, each with a different color. The Elements of Harmony were like they had been made solely for this group of friends.

It was too late now to stop what was coming.

“I know the punchline.”

“No!” Nightmare cried, striking out at Pinkie with a steel-shod hoof. The blow caught the pony across the cheek, but Pinkie didn't move. She opened her eyes, and they glowed with an awesome power.

“You can't do this!” Nightmare said, desperate now. She had no grip on the ponies she had, until a moment ago, held captive, as they drifted over to float behind Pinkie. “You mustn't do this! If you strike me down, your precious Princess will be-”

“You're still in there, Luna,” Pinkie said. An enormous rainbow of power rocketed out from the combined forms of the six Bearers of the Elements. It circled high above, near the ceiling, and Nightmare watched her doom with horror in her eyes.

“Come back to us.”

And the rainbow crashed down upon them all.

“I can't believe it! I'm healed!”

Rarity laughed joyfully as she pranced around in a little circle, reveling in the return of her beautiful horn.

“I'm healed!” She said. “We're all healed! Look at you,” she said, rushing to Fluttershy's side. “Oh, you were so brave, Fluttershy. And now it's all over. We've won!”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said. She slowly dragged herself up from where she had found herself lying on the floor after the rainbow had fired. Carefully, she dragged a hoof through the fur where Nightmare Moon had shot her. “I am healed. That's wonderful.”

“My horn is safe!” Twilight cried. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you all that's holy! My horn is safe, my magic is safe, my horn is safe...”

“Did you expect anything else, Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Of course everything worked out alright. Nightmare Moon had nothing on us,” she said, preening herself on their victory.

“The fillies?” Applejack said, pulling herself to her hooves. “You said you took care of the fillies, Dash? What'd you do to get them off your tail?”

Rainbow flinched guiltily. “Now, look, Applejack,” she said, backing away slowly. “Don't get mad alright? They're totally fine, it's just I had to think of some way to trap 'em quickly, and the only thing I could think of was-”

A huge, drawn out gasp interrupted her as Pinkie shot up into a sitting position, breathing heavily and sweating massive drops of fluid.

“I can't believe that worked!” Pinkie cried. “That was- the single- biggest wild hunch I've ever run on! OHHHhhhh...”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked. “Then what was all that about you knowing what was going to happen?” Her eyes widened. “You sent us on a quest for something you barely even knew existed, and all this time, not even you knew if it would-”

“NOOOO!”

A strange voice cut everyone off. Everypony turned to look at the source of the noise, and there in the middle of where the blast had gone off, amid the steaming wreckage of Nightmare Moon's armor...

Was a young, night-blue alicorn.

“Sister!” She cried. “Celestia!”

Silence echoed throughout the castle. The alicorn broke into tears, and began to sob uncontrollably into her hooves.

Slowly, Pinkie got up and approached the strange new pony.

“What's the matter, Luna?” Pinkie asked.

The others gasped at the revelation, but Luna looked up at Pinkie with tears in her eyes.

“Why did you not listen?” Luna asked. “Why... why did I do it? Why did I take such steps to steal away my own happiness, if I were to be struck down? Why? …”

“Luna,” Pinkie repeated. She knelt down next to the former Nightmare Moon, and squeeze her hoof between her own. “What's wrong? You can tell me. I promise, I'll make it better.”

Luna gulped, choking on her own tears. Then she wailed.

“I've killed my own sister! My sister is dead because of me!”

“Oh no, no no no,” Pinkie said hurriedly. The others began to come closer. “No you didn't, Luna. I made very sure to stop you before you could do anything you couldn't take back.”

“You saved me.” Luna nodded tearfully. “But I outwitted myself! I set a trap, so if Nightmare fell, at least... at least Celestia would not... would not...”

“It was an excellent try, Luna. But it seems you lost this time.”

Everypony's heads jerked up at the new voice, the regal, warm and loving voice of Princess Celestia, where the Princess stepped silently in from a passage that none of the ponies of Pinkie's Party had had the chance to travel down. Pinkie's face lit up with the biggest grin that she could manage. Never, in all of her life, had she ever heard such joy in the Princess' voice as at that moment.

“Perhaps that is something we can all celebrate,” Celestia said, smiling, with tears in her eyes. “When we get back home. I have so many things to show you.”

“Sister!” Luna cried, bounding across the room to embrace the alicorn mare, who stood at twice her height. “Tia, I... I...”

“Luna,” the Princess breathed. Together they collapsed to the ground in a tight embrace, from which it seemed they might never part.

A drip of something hot fell across the back of Luna's neck.

She looked up into Celestia's face, and gasped at what she saw there.

“Sister!” she said. “You're bleeding!”

“It's nothing,” Celestia said shortly. She leaned back up and stared Luna in the eyes. “I had to do something a little desperate to escape, but there's no need to worry. It's nothing that will not pass.”

Behind Luna, Twilight gasped at a sudden revelation. “Your horn!” she cried. “Princess Celestia, your horn is gone!”

Luna quivered. Shuddering, she buried herself in Celestia's chest, and the larger Princess wrapped her wings around her sister.

Pinkie zipped off down the corridor Celestia had come in from. In a few moments, she was back with an ice chest in her hooves.

“I've got the horn!” she said. “Quick, quick, I know a doctor in Ponyville! If we hurry, maybe we can-”

“I doubt a doctor could help me with that, Pinkie,” Celestia said softly. “I cast a spell to free myself from those bonds, very hard and very fast. The horn-ring I was kept in is very unforgiving. I would imagine what remains of the horn is... rather fractured.”

Everypony glanced at each other, and everypony saw everypony else had a sickly look on their face.

“What's gonna happen?” Rainbow asked. “Who's gonna raise the-”

“The Elements!” Pinkie cried. “The Elements healed us. Maybe we can use them to heal you, Princess Sunsun!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. Rainbow smacked Pinkie in the back of the head.

“Don't give the Princess nicknames!” she cried.

“Oh, come on, Dash!” Pinkie whined. “You won't let me do it with you, so who else am I supposed to try it on?”

“Anypony else,” Rainbow said. “Anypony at all.”

“If you think you can get the Elements to work,” Celestia said, “then feel free to try. But somehow, I think I will have to suffer through this the old fashioned way.”

“Quick, everypony!” Pinkie said. “Think harmony thoughts!”

Everypony scrambled to do their best, watching their necklaces with keen interest.

But nothing happened.

Celestia sighed. “It's just as well,” she said finally. “I was just thinking how much of a blessing it actually is that my horn is gone.”

“WHAT?!?” Twilight cried, at the same time as Rarity asked, “what do you mean a blessing?”

“Well, without my horn,” Celestia said, looking down at her younger sister, “there will be very little choice but to welcome my sister's return. Unless the unicorns want to once more take up the burden of moving the Sun and Moon.” Celestia smiled faintly. “It works so well... why, it's almost as if I planned it all out from the beginning.”

“We have to welcome her?” Rainbow asked, pointing an accusing hoof at Princess Luna. The Princess shrank back against the warmth of her sister. “Did you see what she did to those kids? Did you see what she did to us, over and over again? What she did to you? You want we should just forget all of that and be friends?”

“Not forget,” Celestia said. “Forgive.” She nuzzled at Luna's back, but the younger sister was very still. “Nightmare Moon was another life. If you find it in your hearts to not hold it against my sister, I have every confidence that you will find somepony worthy of anyone's love and respect.”

Fluttershy stepped up slowly to Luna's side. Celestia let one wing slide down, and Fluttershy gently laid a hoof on Luna's back. Luna looked up in surprise. Hesitantly, Fluttershy smiled at her.

“That's real great,” Applejack said. “You got your sister back. Now, what was it you were tryin' not to say to me about my sister, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked, cornering the flying hunter.

“Ah,” Rainbow said, looking very uncomfortable. “Well, uh... w-we're just gonna have to pick them up on the way back. I left them tied up, uh, just inside the Everfree Forest.”

“The Ever-” Applejack choked. “You left them inside the Everfree Forest?!?”

“Hey! It's cool,” Rainbow said hurriedly. “They'll be just fine. There's nothing there that's gonna seek them out, now that Nightmare's gone, alright? I made sure of it.”

Applejack grunted. “Let's just hurry up and fetch 'em, and be on our way back to town.”

Princess Celestia looked down at where Princess Luna was hugging her fiercely, the thousand-plus year old mare looking like a small child, like Celestia barely remembered maybe having once seen her. The form was unfamiliar, but the warmth she felt flowing from her sister's heart could not be mistaken.

“Yes,” the Princess said softly. “Let's go home.”

Epilogue

Apple Bloom took the time to note just how very strange it was, being caught up in another pony's thoughts. She also felt that Scootaloo was just about the angriest she had ever known another pony to be, right now. Their shared body was snarling and hissing, and generally making lots of un-pony-like noises as they barreled after the elusive Rainbow Dash. Scotaloo's emotions were so strong, it was getting hard to see anything but the straight path to the target of her rage.

“Get back here, ex-hero!” Marauder shouted. “You didn't care when I got foalnapped, so I'm not gonna care when I beat you up!”

“What do you mean I didn't ca-” Rainbow started, but she was cut off as Marauder took advantage of the distraction to finally hit her with a new spell. Sweetie Belle was quite excited about her newfound ability, and her wide-eyed exuberance as she tested the limits of her magic fed itself easily into Scootaloo's all-consuming rage. A shell of ice sprang up around Rainbow's foreleg, and the hunter hissed as the limb grew heavy, and painfully cold.

Marauder tried to capitalize on the opening, but Rainbow's wings were still working fine. Rainbow backed away as Marauder leapt after her.

“Come on, Rainbow Dash,” Apple Bloom said through their shared mouth. “Ah promise we won't let Scoots hurt you too badly. But you did kinda ignore her completely, even though she was your biggest fan.”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “That wasn't very nice of you, Rainbow Dash. How many fans do you have, anyway? Can't you pay attention to at least one?”

“I came here to get her back,” Rainbow said shortly. She looped low, scraping the ground with her wings, before soaring back up and hovering in place in front of them. “We all came here to rescue you, and I'm not leaving without you three!”

Without hesitation, Scootaloo lunged at the wide-open hunter.

They stopped in mid-air, inches away from their target. A smug grin ran across Dash's face.

“W-what?” Marauder asked. She tried to pull away, to move forward, anything. Her wing stuck to something that she hadn't noticed before.

A trickle of fear formed in their stomach.

“Sorry, kids,” Rainbow said. “I had to think of some way to keep you out of action while we went and took care of Nightmare Moon, and, well, there were these Octospider webs just sitting there, waiting for somepony to use them...”

Marauder's mind was a chaotic mess of yammering. All of them had seen what had happened to their sisters and their friends when they were trapped in the webs.

“I can't- You can't just-”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, all smiling gone from her face now. “It sucks. But I don't have any better options right now, and Pinkie said to be back as soon as possible. So I'm gonna have to leave you here for a little bit. Just wait a moment,” she said, narrowing her eyes and reaching a hoof around to grip the hilt of her sword. “I'll try and make sure nothing bad happens to you while I'm gone.”

There was the smallest rustle in the trees above.

Suddenly, a string of webbing shot down through the trees, right at where Rainbow Dash had been hovering. But the hunter wasn't there anymore. Quick as thought, Rainbow rolled around the sticky projectile, angling straight at the source and driving the full length of the sharpened blade into the body of the Octospider that was hidden in the branches.

The two hung there for a moment, predator and prey suspended there in death. Then the powerful legs of the Octospider gave way, and its body crashed heavily down to the forest floor below.

“I owed you that,” Rainbow muttered under her breath, wiping the ichor off of her sword on her armor sleeve before drifting down to consider the stunned Marauder.

“I've never claimed to be a hero, Scoots,” she said finally. “I'm just trying to do the best I can to make things right. Don't waste time complaining about how bad things are. Just accept that they are that way, and then do everything in your power to change things until they're good enough to live with.”

Marauder stared back quietly. There were tears in her eyes. She struggled a bit more against the spider's web.

Rainbow sighed. “I'll be right back,” she said. “Just try to stay calm while I'm gone. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

And then she left.

“Sweet marigolds, did you see that?” Sweetie Belle asked. “That was so awesome! No wonder you like her so much, Scootaloo. She just took care of that giant spider like it was nothing!”

Scootaloo sniffed. She wasn't quite so angry anymore, but she felt very silly, and afraid. She shivered uncontrollably.

“Ah wish my sister was like her,” Apple Bloom commented.

They hung there silently for a moment. After a while, Scootaloo spoke.

“We need to get out of here,” she said quietly.

“But how?” Sweetie asked. She flexed a new, powerful foreleg, but the spider silk only bent with it and then snapped back into place when she let up. “Ponies aren't supposed to be able to break free from an Octospider web.”

“Shouldn't we be more panicked right now?” Apple Bloom asked. A drop of nervous sweat ran down their collective neck. “Ah thought the venom was supposed to work faster than this.”

“It is on pegasi and unicorns,” Sweetie Belle replied, “but remember Pinkie said that earthponies take longer to affect.”

Scootaloo frowned. “Then... what kind of effect does it have on us?”

No pony had the answer to that.

There was a great light from somewhere in the distance, followed by a thunderous crash. The fillies twisted in their bonds to try and get a better look, gazing on the distant colors in awe. Something about the sight made them all feel better, somehow, and deep inside Marauder something hissed and buried itself as deeply as it could manage in their subconscious.

“Crusader,” Apple Bloom said suddenly. She blinked. “That was what Ah wanted to call ourselves! Crusader.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “I like that name better than 'Marauder.'”

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle cried out. “If the fear-toxin isn't driving us crazy, then maybe I can use a spell to set us free!”

“Good idea, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo said. She began charging up a simple blast. “Let me give it a shot.”

“No fair!” Sweetie protested, struggling to gain control of their horn. “I thought of it, I want to do it!”

“Come on, girls,” Apple Bloom said, a tremulous smile on her face. “Let's try to work together...”

“They're gone.”

Rainbow Dash searched furiously around the area of the web as the others trotted up, gazing at the melted webbing and the dead body of the Octospider with surprise and worry written on their faces.

“I left them right here!” Rainbow Dash said, whipping her head back and forth while scanning the ground with her eyes. “How the flying feather did they get loose?”

“You left our sisters in an Octospider's web?” Applejack asked angrily. “What in the hay were you thinking? That there's practically torture!”

“Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked. “Where is she? Where did the fillies go?”

“I don't know, okay?” Rainbow said. “They could be anywhere by now! They have wings! I can't track them!”

“The Everfree Forest is a dangerous place,” Twilight said, shifting hooves nervously. “If the fillies have gotten lost...”

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said softly. She touched the Octospider's body gently before turning back to look at the others. “I hope they're alright.”

“I can no longer sense them.”

Everypony turned to look at Luna, whose horn and eyes glowed for a moment before fading back to normal. “My range is not so large as it was when I was the Nightmare, but they have left it. They are no longer in the Everfree proper, I think.”

“They can't have been... eaten... could they?” Rarity asked fearfully.

“No, no,” Luna said hurriedly. “Death would not keep me from finding them. They have truly left the area I can search. They are gone now.”

Princess Celestia nodded. She hugged her sister to her with a foreleg over her withers. Then she looked at the others sadly.

“It has been a long night,” she said, “and a hard one, too. We must trust that your sisters can take care of themselves for the time being, and search for them at large over the coming days. They will turn up before long, I think. An alicorn is no common sight.”

Everypony was silent. Rarity hung her head and began to cry.

“Oh... Oh Sweetie Belle...”

Pinkie Pie's eyes also began to water. She swooped in and wrapped Rarity in a tight hug as the armorer broke down. Applejack stepped over and quietly joined in, and soon all six of the ponies of Pinkie's Party were wrapped in a big group hug. Pinkie had to stretch out impossibly far and pull Rainbow in, but even the cynical hunter gave way to their shared sorrow. Behind them all, Princess Luna stared on in sickening torment as Celestia closed her eyes and bowed down to nuzzle her own long lost sister.

“We'll find them, you guys,” Pinkie Pie said. “The Party's not over until everypony gets home safely.”

Fluttershy stepped in through the wooden door of her homely little cottage and let it swing shut behind her. She felt tired, more tired than she could ever remember being. It seemed to take a great effort just to unbuckle her saddle bags and drop them in the corner of the room. Even in the darkness of the indoor space, she had no trouble navigating the familiar surroundings.

There was a cacophony of chirps and chitters as small creatures came out of their tiny wooden houses at her coming, and ran up to circle around her hooves. Fluttershy smiled and gave a loving caress to a tiny red squirrel she had nursed since the time of its premature birth, all the way until today.

“Hello everyone,” she said softly. “Something very terrible happened, but everything is mostly okay now. Some new friends an I went out and fixed things up.”

Birds of many different types fluttered down and perched on her wings, twittering angrily about how very disorienting it was that the Sun was not up as it should be. Fluttershy's head nodded as she tried to keep from falling asleep on the spot.

“Yes,” she said, “It's been just awful. But the Sun will be up soon. The Princesses are making their way back to Canterlot right now, and Princess Luna is going to raise it just as soon as they get there.”

A giant centipede from the forest curled down from the ceiling and wrapped its massive body around Fluttershy's legs, the top of its back easily coming up to the pony's belly. Fluttershy patted it gently. “Oh, no, Gerald,” she said. “I'm alright. I'm just very tired. I stayed up all night, you know, and ponies generally aren't known for doing that.”

A small white bunny jumped up on the centipede's back, and looked disapprovingly up at Fluttershy. It stamped its foot rapidly and made some gestures with its front paws.

“Angel!” Fluttershy gasped. “Don't talk about such horrible things! You know that, if I were not to come back, Missus Vet is supposed to come by and take care of all of you. None of you would starve, I'm sure.”

The rabbit sighed and smacked a paw to its face. It waved a paw around vaguely.

“Oh.” Fluttershy blushed. “Well, I'm fine anyways, so you don't need to worry about a thing.”

A bird chirped over by the window. Fluttershy and many of the animals looked over to see the first hints of the morning light peeking over the horizon.

At the first sign of the sky's changing, the animals all began to move. The diurnal birds and small furry critters raced to go outside, finally getting started with their day, while through the window came in the nocturnal bats and certain flying insects who lived at Fluttershy's home. As all the creatures went about their business, Fluttershy found herself left alone in the middle of her living room.

She sighed. The sigh turned into a yawn as Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes with a hoof and swayed gently from side to side.

There was a deep growl from over in one corner. The massive form of Harry the bear lurched over to her and a great, hairy arm pulled the sleepy pony into a warm fuzzy embrace. The bear rolled over on his back to let the pony curl up upon his chest, and Fluttershy sank into Harry's fur.

Fluttershy smiled contentedly as she fell asleep.

The Sun was just beginning to rise as Rarity slipped inside her combined storefront and homestead, the Armored Carousel. She slipped off her bags and turned on the lights, and strode quickly past where Sweetie Belle's saddle bags were hanging up on the peg by the door. She made her way up the stairs to her living quarters, but as she reached her bedroom door, she paused.

For some reason, it seemed a difficult thing to work up the will to turn the knob. She stood there, unmoving for several minutes, staring blankly at the wood and metal. The light began to stream in through the windows as the birds outside began to sing.

Finally, she shook herself. She opened the door and strode inside, but instead of seeking her bed, she moved to fetch paper and a quill.

She had a letter to write.

Rarity sat down at her desk. She adjusted the paper a few times to make sure it was in the right position for writing, and checked that the ink in the inkwell was enough for her purpose. She didn't want to have to get up to get more, she thought. She held the quill above the paper, but it shook in her grasp, so that she almost immediately had to stop writing. Rarity took a calming breath, and then she tried again.

“My Dear Mother and Dearest Father,” she wrote.

“I hope that you have had a most enjoyable Summer Solstice this year. I know the Summer Sun Celebration has always been one of Dad's favorites in particular. I hope that what I have to tell you does not take away from the joy that you have always felt during this time.

“I have some bad news to impart. By the time you receive this letter, it will have been several days since the Summer Sun Celebration itself. You may have already heard of what happened here in Ponyville while you were up in Canterlot for the big festival there. Princess Celestia came to visit our weary little town – I'm sure you were not expecting to find her gone, or you might have stayed here this year.

“You left Sweetie Belle in my care while you were gone. Well, on the night of the Celebration, there was a vicious pony named Nightmare Moon who came and attacked Princess Celestia. Can you imagine? She defeated the Royal Guards, and took the Princess hostage. In addition, before she departed, Nightmare Moon foalnapped three young ponies, among whom was-”

Rarity stopped. She dropped the quill to the desk and threw herself away from the letter, stumbling as she caught her balance.

She could finish the letter when she had some sleep, she thought.

The Sun was streaming in through her bedroom window. Rarity drew the shades down. She lay down on the bed, pulled her sleep mask over her eyes, and tried to get some sleep.

Later in the day, the mask would grow so damp it would wake her up. She would pull it off and hide her head under her pillow, and not come out of her room until the next morning.

But for now, she rested.

The Sun was rising right in Applejack's tired eyes as she trudged down the road away from the town, along the edge of the Everfree and to her family's farm. She tugged her hat lower on her head to block out the light.

What was she going to tell them?

She had been thinking about it the entire walk there. But when the gate to Sweet Apple Acres came into view, and she saw Big McIntosh and Granny Smith waiting at the gate, she still had no answer.

Not one that she liked, anyways.

“Hey, Big Mac,” she said, coming to a halt a short distance away. “Hey Granny. Ah'm back.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac intoned. His speech was as short and to the point as was usual for him.

“Well, 'acourse you are,” Granny Smith said. “We saw the Sun comin' up on the horizon, and we knew you 'n yer new friends had done the deed. 'S why we're here waitin' for you.” The old mare squinted her eyes, scrutinizing Applejack quite closely. “Now where's Apple Bloom?” she asked. “She ain't with you.”

Applejack stared at the dirt path.

“Apple Bloom... she's gone, y'all. Run off somewhere on her own. Ah lost her...”

Big Mac's eyes widened. But Granny nodded solemnly.

“Ah figured as much,” she said. “She ain't with you, but if'n something really awful had happened to her, Ah think even you would have some tears in yer eyes, Miss 'Cries on the Inside.'”

Applejack snorted. “Ah don't know, Granny. Ah've dealt with a lot tonight, and Ah ain't cried yet. Maybe somethin's wrong with me, but Ah reckon that's a bet you'd lose. Maybe that's the reason Apple Bloom lost her faith in me.” She stared back at the ground. “Rarity cried.”

“Well, you ain't Rarity, now are you?” Granny snipped. “A nice enough family for unicorns, but that filly is all the stuffed-up silliness of their kind put together in a neatly prettified package. Couldn't last a day out on the farm.”

Applejack frowned. “She lost her sister, Granny, just like we lost little Bloom. Don't talk bad about her. You ain't seen what she done for us last night. Ah'm proud to call her my friend.”

Granny whistled through her teeth and pursed her lips. “Well now. That ain't how you talked about her before now. Why don't you come inside and tell us th' whole story over breakfast. Sounds like there's a whole bundle of a story you've got to tell us. We've got somethin' hot, just waitin' on the table for ya.”

Applejack smiled. It wasn't a very large smile, not like her normal, happy ones. But it was a start.

“That sounds great, Granny. Ah'll tell y'all all about it.”

Spike jumped as the door of the library slammed open and two figures stormed in like a whirlwind of activity. Two pairs of saddlebags flew to a corner of the room, where they lay discarded and forgotten. Already books were floating off the shelves, covered in a familiar purple aura.

“Twilight?” Spike asked.

“... and I have no idea how that might effect the outcome of the spell,” Twilight was saying. “Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. But if we can just get something for each of the fillies-”

“We could test everything and see if it works,” Rainbow Dash finished. “Maybe we could find something they all shared an interest in. Could the similarity between the objects be important?”

“Well, I don't know,” Twilight said, her eyes growing clearer and her smile widening. “That could be something we could try to test. But I was thinking that I could try to cobble together a spell that would be able to use all three of the objects and try and give us a general position of the three ponies as a group. Normally, that would only be useful if they were close together, but in this case, it's practically guaranteed-”

“Twilight!” Spike cheered, leaping from his chair and running up to hug her. “You're back, and you did it! The Sun is up again, Twilight!”

“Spike!” Twilight beamed. “Yes, I'm back. But there's still some work left unfinished. I'm going to need all the books we have about sympathetic spells, but I can't remember where I put the compiled Copper Crux's Compendium. Can you find it for me?” She snorted. “For some reason, I think I shelved them by general topic instead of in a group like they should have been. What was I even thinking?”

Spike frowned. “You just got back and you want me to fetch books? Bleck.”

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow asked, “Who's the little guy?”

“Oh!” Twilight said. The books in her magic paused for just a moment before resuming. “I forgot you haven't been introduced. Spike, this is my new friend. She's a hunter. She's going to be a big help in trying to track down the three fillies who Nightmare Moon foalnapped, and who have now been merged into a single pony and are on the run for reasons of their own.”

Spike and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance as Twilight turned to look at a passing book, flipping through the pages at a rate that made Rainbow think she couldn't possibly be reading it, though Spike knew better. Rainbow glanced back at Twilight.

“Was that seriously your idea of an introduction?” she asked. “Because that was just about the worst attempt I have ever heard.”

“Fillies? Foalnapped? Merged ponies?” Spike asked. “I thought Nightmare Moon was trying to banish Princess Celestia!”

“She was, but that didn't pan out like she expected it would.” Twilight looked at Rainbow. “And what was wrong with it, may I ask? Just because I haven't given many introductions before doesn't mean I don't know how.”

“You didn't even give him my name,” Rainbow said. “Do you seriously have so few friends you expect him to be able to just call me 'the friend Twilight has'?”

Twilight blinked. “Oh,” she said. “I have five new friends now. That is... surprising, actually.”

“Wait, you got all five of them to be your friends?” Spike asked. “I thought for sure you would have driven at least three of them away with your freakish monster knowledge.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Spike,” Twilight said dryly. She turned and raised an eyebrow. “Wait a minute. Didn't I ask you to watch over Shining Armor for me? Why aren't you at the hospital? Shining is still okay, isn't he?”

“Better than 'okay,'” Spike said, pointing a thumb towards the stairs. “He's already been discharged. Just give me a moment and I can go get him for you.”

“Oh, you don't need to do that,” Twilight said, waving off the suggestion. “We can let him rest. Right now it's still more important that we get a head start on these divination spells. Most missing pony cases are either solved within the first few hours, or else not at all.”

“Aww, Twily. You aren't trying to ignore me, are you?”

Twilight looked up, and smiled at the sight of her brother standing there at the top of the stairs. “Shining!” she said. “You're awake!”

“I sure am,” he said. He tapped at his chest, which was wrapped securely in bandages and medical tape. “Spike's been trying to keep me comfortable, but it's hard to fall asleep when you feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest.”

“Hmm. That doesn't sound comfortable,” Twilight agreed. “Maybe I can look something up for that just after I finish making the search spell for Rainbow.”

“You have a very strange family dynamic,” Rainbow commented.

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“What's strange about it?”

The Sun was very uncooperative, trying to “jump its tracks” at every opportunity, and it wasn't until it was quite securely in the sky that Luna finally felt it safe to stop guiding it personally every step of the way. The light from her horn died down, and left her standing there, panting from exertion and covered in sweat. A palace servant, called in by Celestia beforehand, stepped in to wipe Luna down with a towel.

“It is harder to do, without the power of the Nightmare,” Luna said. “And the Sun is not nearly so cooperative as my Moon.”

“I found that it was the opposite for me, when I first had to raise the Moon,” said Celestia. “I would think that our talents play a much bigger part in our efforts than we realize, in this case. Without that help, we have to rely solely on our personal strength. It is a great drain.”

“And I will have to keep checking on it throughout the day, and then the Moon during the night,” Luna said. She dismissed the servant and stepped over to her sister. “When do you find time to sleep?”

Celestia smiled apologetically.

“I don't.”

Luna blanched. But before she could say anything more, Pinkie Pie bounced up from where she had been watching appreciatively in the corner.

“Wowee, Princess!” she said. “That was such a great job of raising the Sun, and you did it completely different from how Celestia does it! Isn't it so much more impressive with all that power coming from a much smaller pony?”

Luna glanced over at her sister.

“Do you allow all of your subjects to speak so freely of your person?” she asked.

Celestia shrugged. “I find it refreshing. Besides, Pinkie Pie is hardly an ordinary subject. She is my precious student, after all.”

“You don't mind if I don't call the Princess 'Princess,' do you Princess?” Pinkie asked, looking at Luna as she did so. “Because if I call the Princess Princess, and I call you Princess, Princess, then I would have to say 'Princess' a whole lot more than Princess really Princess Princesses. Princess.”

Luna blinked. Her eyes flicked over to Celestia.

“I think she's making fun of you,” Celestia said helpfully.

“Fun?” Luna asked.

“I prefer to think of it as making fun with you,” Pinkie said. “And besides, Luna! If you keep seeing everypony as your subjects, when are you going to get around to seeing them as your friends?”

Luna glanced back and forth between the two ponies. She scratched her head.

“What is 'fun?'” she asked finally.

Pinkie's eyes grew big as dinner plates, and her jaw literally dropped all the way to the floor. She pounced onto Princess Celestia and clung to her forelegs.

“Please tell me there's some sort of language drift,” Pinkie begged. “Please tell me there's never been a pony who could possibly not know what fun is!”

Celestia smiled an amused half-smile. “The word used to be 'fon'. It meant something different then – my sister had a particular distaste for it. Still, if there was ever anypony who didn't know what fun is, I would have to say Luna would be a very likely candidate.”

“Fon?” Luna asked with a frown. “If she's made a fool of me, it must have been very thorough, because I cannot see how she has done it.”

Pinkie shivered, and slowly laid one hoof on Luna's withers.

“I'm so sorry,” she said. “I wish I could do more for you. Please, find some help while I'm away.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “And where will you be going, Pinkie?”

“Oh, Princess Celestia!” Pinkie said, turning to face her again. “I was thinking about how great it was adventuring with everypony in Pinkie's Party together, and how we're all friends now, and technically our journey is still unfinished, so I thought 'Hey! Wouldn't it be totally great if Celestia would let me go stay in Ponyville for a while?' So I asked around, and I asked the Cakes, and the Cakes told me to tell you that they would be okay with me staying at their place for however long I wanted. I even get to help them out in the kitchen! So I was wondering if you would let me do that and stuff.”

Pinkie smiled. Luna stared incredulously.

“When did you find the time to ask-”

“Of course, Pinkie,” Celestia said, cutting off her sister. “I think it's wonderful that you've found ponies who you can call friends.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves together, while Luna gaped in amazement. “Sister, is she not your student?” she asked. “How can she learn from you while she is away?”

“I think we can make something of it,” Celestia said. “An experiment in making friends.” She winked at Pinkie. “Maybe you can invite Luna over after you've gotten the hang of things.”

“You betcha, Princess!” Pinkie said, snapping off a salute.

At that moment, a herald stepped onto the balcony. “Visitors to see the Princess' student,” the herald said.

Pinkie turned to look at the herald. “Hi, Thimble Rig!” she said. “Who wants to visit me? I never get visitors.”

Before the herald could respond, Celestia interrupted. “Why don't you show them in, Thimble Rig?” she asked. “We'll let it be a surprise.”

The herald bowed. As he turned and headed for the door, Luna looked up at her sister curiously.

“You know who it is,” she accused. “What manner of trickery have you performed this time?”

“I had no part in it,” Celestia said cheerfully. “I plan a great deal less than I usually get credit for. I just take advantage of how things turn out. The only thing I did was warn them about your coming return.” She smiled. “These are some ponies who had more confidence in my success than I did. All on their own, they decided to wait here to celebrate the Summer Solstice with her. After the crisis was successfully averted.”

Pinkie watched the door open with focused intent. As the shapes of the visitors became clear, she gasped with amazement.

“Mama!” she cried. “Daddy!”

She rushed to embrace the two. Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz awkwardly returned the hug as best they could, with Pinkie holding on to them so tightly. From behind them, Pinkie's sisters stepped around to form a circle. Without letting go of her parents, Pinkie twisted around and reached out to pull the others into the family hug.

“Pinkie,” said her sister Maud, in a very flat monotone. “You're doing the thing again where you have too many legs.”

“Hey! Knock it off, will you?” barked Limestone Pie. “It's the first time you see your sister in years, and the first thing you think to say is to bring that up?”

Marble didn't say much of anything, but she made a great effort to be the one who returned Pinkie's hug the most fully. It was hard to compete against Maud's strength, of course, but Pinkie turned to Marble and smiled.

“Oh, Marble,” Pinkie said. “You don't have to worry about your big older twin sister. Today might have been filled with danger, and not everything might have come out the way we wanted it, but I also found five new friends who were willing to stick with me, even knowing what I can do. And now, I got to see my family again! I can say that, most definitely, this has been the very best night of my entire life, and it's only going to get better from here on. Look!” she said, dropping the hug and pulling Gummy out of her mane. “I've got a pet now! I found him on our magical journey last night.”

Most of the others pulled back in shock at having an alligator shoved in their faces, although Maud merely looked slightly less placid.

“Oh, come on. Look!” Pinkie said, opening Gummy's mouth. “He has no teeth!”

Cloudy Quartz coughed. “Very nice, Pinkie,” she said. “You will have to make sure to take care of him.”

“Mhmm,” Pinkie nodded vigorously. She paused. A gleam came into her eye.

“Say,” she asked. “Do you know what this calls for?”

“A party?” asked Celestia.

“A party,” said Igneous.

“A party,” stated Cloudy.

“A party,” groaned Limestone.

“A party,” droned Maud.

“Mmm hm,” agreed Marble.

“Oh, come on!” Pinkie cried. “You guys take all the fun out of this!”

Author's Note

The End.

For now...

Chapter 1: Given Up

It was a dull, gray, cloudy day on the farm.

It always was. That was the way it was supposed to be.

The farm, this farm, was not for growing things. Bare earth spread out to the horizon, the flat, uninteresting surface only interrupted by the methodically ordered, equally uninteresting rows and rows of rocks.

That's what the farm was for. It was a rock farm.

Rocks don't need light to grow. Sunlight would have just encouraged other things, like grass and weeds, and those would have just gotten in the way. So no sunlight. The cloudy haze that hung over the plains was almost entirely natural; that was what had made the place such a good site for the farm. The pegasi only needed to touch things up a bit, every now and then. And even with all the clouds, it hardly ever rained. It was just cloudy, always cloudy.

Except for that one day.

That one, magical day, when the brilliant colors had come and pushed away the clouds, and Pinkie had found her calling, and life had been happy.

Igneous sighed.

That had been a special day.

A breeze blew past. It was a small breeze, and it really wasn't that cold out, but Igneous shivered all the same. The stoic earth pony wrapped his forelegs around himself as he waited there, in the silence of the plains in front of his house.

That day hadn't lasted.

When they woke up again, the clouds had started rolling back in. It wasn't a bad thing, not really. Igneous Rock had even welcomed it. The main problem for him was that it didn't come back sooner; he would have to pay the cloud workers more than usual to get it fixed before the weeds started popping up.

His family felt the same way, mostly. Or, at least, they knew why it had to be done. All of them did; his wife, Cloudy, and their lovely daughters. Even Pinkamena.

Pinkie...

Pinkie was the real problem.

It was wonderful to see how she had brightened up. Really, it was. She could make even rock farming, the absolute dullest of chores, seem like a game. It was like a small part of that color had come to rest in her and refused to leave, and it seemed like the sun was shining wherever she happened to set hoof. It was wonderful. At least... at first.

Then she started popping out of drawers.

That was the first time he had seen it. He had reached into a drawer to get some silverware, and out had popped his young, brightly smiling daughter. He had started, she had laughed, and laughed, and he just stared.

Because that was impossible.

And then, the next day, when her sister Marble had walked into the living room to announce that Pinkie could see the future. Igneous had gone out and checked.

There was Pinkie, laughing again, with a bright orange and purple polka-dotted blindfold that had never been on the farm before, calling out when her sister dropped a rock – before it hit the ground.

Those were the first signs.

It had only gotten worse.

At first, Igneous had just thought that his little Pinkie was happy, really happy, for the first time in her life. It seemed that way, to a point. She had always been a little sillier, more off-the-wall than the rest of her family.

But the change wasn't just when she was happy.

She was happy most of the time. Even when it didn't make any sense, she would be beaming, and bouncing around all over the place – she hardly ever seemed to just walk anywhere anymore.

But when she was sad...

She would cry buckets – literal buckets of tears – when they went to a movie and the lovers died.

Her eyes would water at the first hint of rejection.

She would call out to him as he left in the morning to visit the town market as if he was never coming back.

…

And the things she did... They just kept getting weirder. More unnatural.

Pony limbs are not supposed to bend that way!

Igneous was a logical sort of pony. He was a stallion of routine, who knew his place in the world, who knew what he needed to do and did it well.

He had no idea how to deal with what Pinkie had become.

There had been tests. Fancy unicorn doctors, experts in the field of strange magics. None of them had any idea what to make of her. She was a complete unknown.

So he went to the Princess.

Unknown was dangerous.

Igneous sighed again.

She would be here soon. The shining angel from on high, come to rescue him from his troubles.

From his daughter.

Pinkie was inside, with the others. Saying her goodbyes maybe, or just sitting there, in silence. Just like everything else on the farm.

Igneous stared back at the wooden shack his family called home.

Why hadn't he made it better for them? There was no reason not to. It wasn't like a firmer construction would hurt the rocks. They were rocks – they didn't mind a great deal. So why had it all been so depressing, all the time?

There was movement in a corner of the sky, as the Princess' chariot, pulled by flying guards, broke through the cloud layer. It was the Sun coming back again. One last time.

Igneous got up, and slowly stepped back into the house to tell Pinkamena that the Princess was here to take her away.

Igneous wasn't all that much like his daughter.

He didn't cry very easily.

The ride back was very quiet. The cold of the high altitude air and the wind of travel made things slightly uncomfortable. Princess Celestia looked down at the tiny pink ball of fur that had been the reason for her visit to the farm. The little filly sniffed.

“Are you cold?” the Princess asked, half in seriousness and half to break the monotony of the flight.

For a moment, it seemed like Pinkie wasn't going to answer. Celestia turned to look back over the sea of clouds, staring off to where Canterlot would be coming over the horizon soon.

“... I hate you,” the filly mumbled.

Celestia glanced back. There was no hurt in the Princess' eyes; but there was enough for both of them in the little filly's, from where she stared, unmoving, at the floor of the chariot.

“Your family loves you,” Celestia said softly. “They're just a little confused right now. They don't know how to react.”

“I hate them too,” Pinkie choked. “ – Hate everything. I... I hate..!”

And then she burst into sobs. Pinkie threw herself at the Princess, her long pink mane flowing loosely against Celestia's whiter coat. At first, the Princess thought the filly was embracing her, clinging tightly to the only pony within reach. Then she felt the weak drumming of hooves against her side. Celestia didn't react, but held her forelegs around the little, suffering pony in a tender embrace.

By the time they had landed, the drumming had stopped.

Pinkie got on better, after that. By the time they finally made it to the castle, she was bouncing around, asking questions, making herself beloved by all she met. And her stay was a happy one. She made it so, more than anything, although Celestia tried her best to be the little pony's friend. Pinkie always seemed to find a way to make things brighter, and ponies loved her for it. Pinkie was odd at times, and some ponies thought she couldn't take anything seriously, but the Princess knew better.

She had been with her, on that lonely flight from home.