Exiled From Equestria

Twilight blinks once. Then twice. Then three times. But no matter how many times she blinks, the sight doesn't change.

The sight of Midnight Blaze and Shooting Star gone. She doesn't understand how it happened or why, but all she knows is that her last hopes of returning home...

...are gone.

The purple unicorn collapses onto the soft sand. It is hot and burns her cheeks, but she doesn't care. Why should she? The map and compass were in Midnight's saddlebags, and now she's gone. All Twilight has left in her saddlebags are an apple, a blanket, a tent, a jacket, and four boots. The jacket, blanket, and boots come of no use under the boiling sun. She doesn't need the tent at the moment.

She eats her last apple.

"What now?" Twilight asks aloud. "I have no more water, no more food..." Twilight hugs the sand close to her chest as if it's a teddybear. She squeezes her eyes shut and let's the tears spill out. "I'm going to die out here..."

The aspect do dying scares Twilight. If she died right there right now, what would happen? Her friends would grief for years, Nightmare Moon would loose her mind from the so called 'death' of her sister.

Discord would take over Equestria. After all, that is what he wants, isn't it? He framed Twilight, he captured Princess Celestia, and maybe he is the one who took Midnight and Shooting away. All so that he can rule Equestria in eternal chaos.

That doesn't sound much better than eternal night.

How many ponies would suffer?

How much would her friends suffer?

"No." Twilight let's go of the sand. She opens her eyes and sits up. Her tears stop flowing. Her sparkling eyes fade from wide and sorrowful, to narrowed and anger. "You can mess with me, Discord. But when you mess with my friends, you are going too far."

She knows that she is talking to no pony, but she talks anyway. "I will return to Equestria." Twilight starts galloping through the desert. Her mane flows back from the rush of the wind, sand burns on her narrowed eyes, and her teeth grit in the most painful way.

But she refuses to give up.

Twilight is no longer scared.

***

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all burst through the small garden-like gate into Canterlot. They take a few moments to catch their breaths. Climbing up the side of a tall mountain has left them exhausted.

"We...made it..." Applejack announces. They smile weakly and slowly rise back to their hooves, wiping the beads of sweat from their foreheads.

"That was...the most...exhausting thing...I have ever done...in my entire life!" Rarity complains.

"Well...we're here now...so...congratulations..." Pinkie Pie trails off. She grabs a random party horn from her mane and gives an exhausted blow into it.

From their position, they can see the Royal Castle of Canterlot about a mile away. The friends quickly spot a pool of water nearby and gallop over to it, then dunk their heads inside and drink large gulps. Although, Rarity gently hovers her head above the water and laps at it like when her kitten, Opalescence, drinks milk.

Once they've all finished drinking, they sit on the ground panting. A few rather classy ponies give them disgusted looks as they walk by. Rarity and Fluttershy blush. The others don't care.

"So what's the plan?" Rainbow Dash asks.

Applejack sighs. “Yer plan is ta get ta the hospital.”

Rainbow Dash looks taken aback. “Pegasus bones are hollow to help us fly. It only takes like three days for them to heal. Honestly, Applejack, I’m much better than I was yesterday.”

Applejack doesn’t look persuaded, but she knows it is no use to argue with her, so she shrugs. "I guess the plan is ta walk up ta Nightmare Moon and demand her ta brink back Twilight."

"Darling, how well do you think that will turn out?" Rarity wonders. "After all, we're talking about one of the most powerful mares known to ponydom."

"Like ya girls said earlier, we don't have much else to go on." Applejack starts trotting onto the sidewalk toward Canterlot, then looks back at her friends who don't move a muscle. "Are ya comin'?"

Rarity banished all fears from her mind and joins Applejack in the trotting. Then goes Rainbow Dash who limps but would rather fly if she didn't have a broken wing, Pinkie Pie who bounces, and Fluttershy who walks alongside Rainbow Dash for her slow pace.

Fifteen minutes later, they all stand at the gates of the Royal Castle. The only thing blocking their way are two pegasus guards with matching white coats and blue manes because of a spell on their armor. They lift out their wings to block the five ponies from entering the castle.

"Halt!" The one of the left shouts in a deep voice.

"Who goes their?" asks the guard on the right. Fluttershy shrinks back behind her mane. Rainbow Dash flies up to the left one and looks him in the eye.

"We're here to talk to Nightmare Moon. Got a problem with that?"

"Yeah lady, we do," he snaps, glaring back at the cyan pegasus. "Nightmare Moon hasn't requested any visitors."

"Well we're here, so let us in!" Rainbow exclaims. She is suddenly pulled back onto the ground from a strong tug on her tail. She turns her glare to Applejack who is trotting up to the guards.

"Pardon Rainbow there, sirs. But we just need ta have a quick word with the princess," Applejack says much more politely than Rainbow.

The right guard shakes his head. "Our orders are to only let in requested visitors."

"Excuse me." Rarity pushes Applejack to the side. "Would you at least ask the princess if she will see us?"

The two guards exchange glances. The left one nods and opens one of the gates. After he disappears inside, the one on the right stands right in front of it with both his wings spread out careful not to let anypony inside.

A minute later, the guard returns to his position. "The princess will see you." The guards fold their wings on their back and open up the gates. The ponies slowly shuffle inside, gazing at the hallway they have known for much time. A soft, red carpet stretching from the gate to the throne. Stained glass windows showing events of defeats of evil. They pause at the window showing them defeating Nightmare Moon. Then they turn to Nightmare Moon.

She is glaring. "Stop your strolling, weak peasants! Come forth if you wish to speak to thee," Nightmare exclaims. The five friends trot up to the stares below her throne.

"Howdy there, Princess." Applejack takes her hat off and hugs it against her chest, trying her best to be as respectful as possible. "We would kindly appreciate it if y'all would consider bringin' our dear friend Twilight back home."

At first, Nightmare Moon doesn't react. She just sits and stares. "Does thou tell me a joke?" Her eyes glare. "Or does thou speak honest?" Nightmare Moon stops her hoof with each steps as she defends the staircase beneath her throne. "Thou wants me to bring back thee who committed treason? Thee who killed my beloved sister?"

"Princess, Ah'm sorry, but ya're unfairly alleging her—"

"Thou has no right to even think about thee traitor!" A small thunder cloud starts to form above her head.

"If y'all just let me explain—"

"I will not listen to this foul conversation no more!" The storm cloud glows. An ivy hedge suddenly springs from the ground beneath Applejack. The farm pony, who has been backing up from the princess, bumps into the wall. She looks around and is about to spring backward when an ivy rope shoots from the hedge and grabs onto one of her forelegs.

"Applejack!" Her friends shout worriedly. Rainbow Dash quickly limps forward, but before she can reach her friend, a sharp lightning bolt attacks her from the cloud above Nightmare's head. Rainbow falls to the ground from impact, pain, and shock. Before anypony else can try to interrupt Applejack's punishment, Nightmare Moon's horn glows once more and a glass case forms over her friends so that they are trapped.

Applejack pulls at the ivy wrapping around her foreleg, but it won't budge. She sees that the ivy is wrapped in a turquoise glow, just like Nightmare's. The farm pony drops her hat and positions herself, then uses her back legs to kick Nightmare Moon in the stomach as if she were a tree. Nightmare Moon staggers back and grabs her chest; who knew a pony only half as big as her could cause so much pain?

When Nightmare Moon staggers back, her concentration on the spells is lost. The ivy lets go of Applejack, and the glass case is no longer being held to the floor. AJ quickly grabs her hat, slips it in her head, then runs to the glass case. Nightmare Moon is too late to stop Applejack from lifting the heavy object off her friends and setting them free.

They run for their lives. Adrenaline rushes through their blood. They don't even know what they're doing as they gallop toward the front gate to escape. The doors are still open. Nightmare Moon looks up. The ponies are one tail-length away from escaping.

Then the doors are wrapped in blue magic, and they swing shut. The ponies slam into the door and fall to the ground. The impact is enough to knock the air out of all of them, and create bruises to last for weeks.

Nightmare Moon soars across the hallway and lands before the subjects. They stare up at her with fear in their eyes. The princess glares. Applejack tenses, making sure she's ready for whatever pain she will throw at them.

Instead, Nightmare Moon turns her gaze to the window of herself being defeated by the five.

Nightmare Moon sucks in a deep breath. "You do not understand the pain I am going through." The cloud above her head vanishes. "My sister is dead...she was the only pony left that I loved."

"Twilight Sparkle has killed my last love."

Rarity gulps. "Twilight did not kill her. We are trying to tell you that it was Discord!"

Nightmare Moon laughs evilly. Before Rarity can blink, Nightmare's head is a hoof away from hers. "Discord is encaged in stone. You are a fool for thinking I would believe such a foolish excuse."

"But we saw him. He really is free, Nightmare Moon. You have to believe us."

"Have to? I don't have to do anything." She turns directly away from the mares and stares at her throne. She thinks about when Celestia and her were little fillies, chasing each other around the throne. Mother was sitting there. Father was laughing. And now they're all dead, she thinks. "You just want to see Twilight so you can kill me, too, right?"

"No, of course not!" Rarity shakes from the tip of her hooves to the tip of her ear.

"And why would you want to kill me?" Nightmare Moon's horn glows again. Black vines begin to stream down from the high-up ceiling. The five friends watch in fear and scramble onto their hooves. They start backing away, but the vines slowly turn toward them.

Pinkie Pie glances around. She smiles when she sees a window and runs up to it. A party canon appears from nowhere, and she throws it at the window, hoping it will break. But it doesn't.

"Is it so that Twilight can take my place? That's probably her plan isn't it? Has that been her plan all along? Ever since she was a filly?"

No pony answers, for their attention are filly on escaping from the vines. With no place else to go, they all huddle up in a corner of the room, shaking, watching the vines descend slowly.

"Well, I won't make the mistake of trusting her again."

The black vines grab onto all their forelegs. They all scream, causing the guards to burst through the door. As soon as they see what's going on, fear overwhelms them. They abandon their posts and run out the door. When all the ponies outside see the guards panicking, they peer inside the castle. Then they, too, start panicking.

It doesn't take long for all of Canterlot to be running around in a panic.

"In fact, I won't make the mistake of trusting any pony ever again!" Nightmare Moon shouts.

A sudden burst of screaming interrupts the princess's thoughts. She leaves the sight of the ponies and peers outside where ponies everywhere are running for their lives.

Applejack takes this time to bite the ivy off her legs. Once she's free, she begins on Rarity's. By the time Nightmare Moon looks back at the scene, Applejack and Rarity are free and trying to free Rainbow Dash.

"No! Stop!" Nightmare Moon shouts, galloping toward them. Rarity and Applejack break the last of ivy wrapped around Rainbow Dash. They glance from Nightmare Moon to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie who are still trapped.

Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash want to tell Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy that they will come back to free them, but that they can't do that if they're trapped, and that is why they are escaping. But there is no time. All they can do is look at them with sorrowful eyes and escape through the open castle doors. Nightmare Moon would go after them if Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy weren't biting through the ivy already to escape.

"I guess you two are the lucky ones," Nightmare Moon whispers. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pies' eyes widen in fear as more black vines grab onto their back legs as well, then around their bellies, around their muzzles, and lastly, around their necks. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy glance at each other with pure terror.

"You shall be punished for helping that tyrant kill my sister."