The Friendship Stone

Chapter 1

     The sun is shining in Ponyville as Princess Twilight  wakes up. A bell jingles as somebody enters the library. Twilight's ears perk up. Who could it be? "Princess Twilight?" A small voice asks.

    "Yes?" Twilight answers coming downstairs, in the library section she sees a young pony maybe her age who she's never seen before.

    "Hello... I just read that you are willing to tell anypony about friendship and its magic and I really need to hear about it..." The pony said "Oh! By the way my name is Midnight Twinkle!"

    "Well Midnight Twinkle, I guess you've come to the right place, I am the Princess of Friendship, well what would you like to hear?" Twilight Sparkle said.

    "I don't have any problems with friendship," Midnight Twinkle said "But I'd like to hear about it's magic..." She continued.

    "Well what about it's magic?" Twilight said confused, nopony ever asked about its magic.

    "Well I want to know how it works, I mean you don't see friendship of everyday life turn into incredible powers..." Midnight said.

    "I'm sorry Midnight, I don't think I have the answer to that, but I see you brought some books maybe we could look at them together and see if we get the answer." Twilight said apologetically.

    "That's one of the reasons I brought the books you're right but  I think the library section is too open, is there a more private place in this castle?" Midnight asked.

    "We could go into the throne room, nopony visits it but me and my other friends." Twilight offered leading the way.

     As they entered the throne room Midnight Twinkle gasped in awe, she'd never been to a place where you could actually feel the friendship! "Um... Actually I didn't bring the books to study them, Princess..." Midnight said shyly. "I brought them because they're about the Friendship Stone..."

    "The what now?" Twilight said turning around to face Midnight.

    "The Friendship Stone. You've never heard of it? They don't talk about it in Equestria?" She said confused.

    "If they wouldn't you couldn't have heard about it." Princess Twilight said in a matter-of-fact tone.

    "Oh, but I'm not from here. I'm from Equesa." Midnight Twinkle said back in a matter-of-fact tone.

    "Where's Equesa?" Twilight asked interested.

     "In the east, but I'm not suprised that you haven't heard of it. It was wiped from every atlas when Queen Mereda came to rule it." Midnight said quietly.

     "Who's Queen Mereda and why was Equesa wiped out of every atlas because of her?" Twilight said, curious.

    "She controls Shadow Magic and I believe that she has infected the Friendship Stone, making everypony full of hatred and fear. The strongest of friendships have survived and I have protected them with a spell but it is starting to weaken and I need your help to save the Friendship Stone." Midnight said.

    "Ok... What is the Friendship Stone?" Twilight asked.

    "The Friendship Stone holds the Power of Friendship in it, right now I think Queen Mereda has inserted Shadow Magic in it and infected it making everypony full of hatred and fear, Queen Mereda is still weak from her imprisonment, but is growing stronger. The stronger she gets the more hatred will spread and her next target is Equestria!" Midnight Twinkle said fast. "Princess! We don't have time for this! We must travel to Equesa!" Midnight Twinkle said impatiently.

    "You don't even know if I'm coming with you!" Twilight said.

    "If you don't come," Midnight said, "You'll endanger all of Equestria. Your choice Princess..." Twilight thought and thought and thought: What if Queen Mereda doesn't grow stronger? What if this is all a joke? Finally she decided:

    "I'm coming with you, Midnight Twinkle." She said sounding more confident than she was.

    "Excellent choice, Princess." Midnight said relieved. "I'll open the portal, stand back." Her horn started glowing the deepest of blue that you could imagine and a little "door" opened. Twilight stepped in and Midnight followed. They were in Equesa.

     Midnight Twinkle was greeted with a warm welcome. Children rushed to her talking excitedly and pulled her cape down. Twilight gasped: Midnight Twinkle had been hiding her wings under it!

    "So I guess I'm not the only Princess here huh, Midnight?" She said to Midnight.

    "Actually you are. I'm a Queen." Midnight said. "Queen Mereda pushed me off of my throne." Everypony nodded.

    "Are you Pwincess Twilight?" A filly asked near her.

    "Are you here to save us Pwincess?" A colt asked.

    "I guess..." Twilight said suddenly uncomfortable. Seeing so many ponies homeless and orphaned saddened her. This didn't happen in Ponyville, she thought.

    "Melissa? Do be a dear and show Miss Sparkle her room." Midnight said to a filly about Sweetie Belle's age.

    "Of course, your highness." Melissa answered and took Twilight by the hoof. The other children knew that was their cue to leave the adults in peace and quickly left the room.

    "When will you set towards the forest your highness?" Asked Honey Flower the pony who took care of the children and food.

    "I think it'd be best if we leave as soon as possible, but I think I need some rest so it probably won't be until tomorrow." Midnight Twinkle answered.

    "Absolutely, your highness, I'll go boil some tea for you and then you can rest!" Honey Flower said and made her way into the kitchen and disappeared.

    "I shall pack for you and Princess Twilight." Nicholas said taking Midnight's saddle bag. The other adults quickly rushed off to prepare for the journey to the Meren Forest and Midnight was left with her little sister Sunrise. She looked at Midnight for a long time and then opened her mouth to speak but Midnight cut her off:

    "I know it is dangerous to go into the Meren Forest but I have no choice! The destiny of Equesa rests on my shoulders!" Midnight said.

    "Then why can't I come? I'm part of the royal family too!" Sunrise said frustrated because of Midnights continuing "Big Sister" attitude.

    "Because you might get hurt!" Midnight said, why couldn't Sunrise just accept the truth that she was the little sister? "You could get hurt too!" Sunrise argued back.

     "Besides, our powers combined," She started.

     "Makes our will stronger." Midnight finsihed. "Yes, yes I know but I care for you too much to let you go!" Midnight said.

     "So do I!" Sunrise said tears rising. "So why don't we both go?"

     "Because if you get hurt I'll blame myself and won't be able to rule the kingdom, it would make no sense to defeat Queen Mereda if I won't be able to rule!" Midnight said ending the conversation.

     "Why won't you ever listen?" Sunrise said leaving the room. Midnight sighed and went upstairs to Sunrise's bedroom.

     "Hey, I'm sorry, you understand that I do this because I love you right?" She said softly.

     "Yeah, I guess so." Sunrise answered. Midnight knew it wouldn't help if she stayed in the room so she left closing the door quietly behind her.

     Twilight greeted her in the hallway: "Sibling trouble?" She asked gently.

    "Yeah, you know how you and I must go to the Meren Forest to defeat Queen Mereda? Well Sunrise says that she should come too but I can't let her, she'll get hurt!" Midnight said suddenly crying. Twilight comforted her.

    "It's all right, it,s natural to be a little overprotective with little sisters." Twilight said softly.

     "I guess... Hey, Twilight can I ask you something? Do you have a little sister?" Midnight asked.

     "No, although I have a baby dragon to take care of. Wait, Oh no!" Twilight suddenly said.

     "What, what is it?" Midnight said worried.

     "My friends don't know wher I am! I didn't leave a note or something like that!" Twilight said panicking. "We must return to explain!"

     "Twilight! You're not making any sense!" Midnigt said. "Get a hold of yourself of course your friends know! I left them a note with the books and all!"

     "Wait, you did?" Twilight asked.

     "Yes! Honest! I left before I told you because I knew you couldn't say no!" Midnight said.

     "Oh, I'm sorry I tempt to panic in situations like this..." Twilight said embarrased.

     "It's OK at least you didn't actually return..." Midnight said laughing slightly.

     "Hey! It's not funny Midnight!" Twilight said even though she was laughing too. After a while Midnight stop snortling and went serious again.

     "We must get some rest. Good night Princess." She said bowing. Twilight flopped her ears when Midnight turned around and went to bed, she wasnt used to such serious behaviour, in Equestria everypony was usually quite happy and smiling. She sighed and walked to the guest room. She decided to read about the Friendship Stone before bed.

    "The Friendship Stone is a multicolored gem to be found most likely in the Meren Forest. It is one of a kind, if it'll be destroyed or infected friendship might die and..." Twilight fell asleep. She had horrifying nightmares about her friends turning their back on her and that she permanently failed as a Princess. As the first rays of sunlight came through the window, Twilight woke up to find a warm plate of breakfast layed next to the bed. She gobbled it up grateful remembering that she had no dinner last night. Somepony knocked on the door. "Come in!" Twilight called. Midnight Twinkle stepped in with a saddle bag on her back. "Are you ready Princess?" She asked, she was still very serious and hadn't even said good morning.

     "Ready for what?" Twilight asked, what did she have to do now? She hadn't even got out of bed! "Ready for a journey to the Meren Forest?" Midnight said.

     "Already? I haven't properly woken up yet!" Twilight said annoyed.

     "Princess, you must understand, day by day, Queen Mereda grows stronger! She is one step closer to Equestria!" Midnight said even more annoyed.

     "Fine! But don't blame me if nothing goes according to plan!" Twilight said getting out of bed.

     "Twilight, listen, the palace is more than 90km away! It'll take us day just to get to the edge of the forest, what about the palace deep in the forest?" Midnight said.

     "I guess you're right, but I don't have anywhere to pack my stuff in." Twilight said suddenly realizing that she had left without even parchment paper or a quill.

     "Do not worry Princess, we have a spare one." Midnight said bowing.

     "Why do you speak so formally, your highness?" Twilight asked using the formalities against her host.

     "It is a tradition of our country, one must address anypony visiting with their title." Midnight said. "It also makes us sound good if you want to be informal." She smiled, Twilight smiled back. As they started to leave the children came and handed them both a cape, Midnight had a dark blue one and Twilight got a dark purple one. Twilight thanked for hers very much, you could see they had made it overnight specially for her. They left quickly not wanting any attention from outsiders. They walked on for a few minutes in silence.

     "Midnight, I know you're deep in thought but I want to know where did Queen Mereda come from?" Twilight asked almost whispering, it felt like if you broke the silence you'd break the world.

     "We don't really know. I think she sailed from the northern lands to here." Midinight answered in the same sort of whispery way.

     "Hmmm, have you ever visited the north Midnight?" Twilight asked looking for clues about the sudden appearence of Queen Mereda.

     "Not really, I once sailed close to there when ther had been a shipwreck and I wanted to find survivors." Midnight answered.

     "And was there something suspicious out there?" Twilight said continuing to look for clues.

     "No, Princess. Please keep it down, we are nearing the lake and we are close to the village." Midnight shushed Twilight.

     They had to take a boat from the Survivors Harbour to reach the village. As teh village neared Twilight became colder and colder, her thoughts were on bad things that could happen. Finally she wasn't really concentrating on anything just the cruel things that could happen...

     "Twilight? Twilight!!!" Midnight shouted. Twilight shook her head and cleared the trance's sleepy feeling. "Are you all right Princess?" Midnight Twinkle said worried.

     "I had horrible thoughts" Twilight said rubbing her head.

     "I should have put my spell around you when we left, luckily we haven't reached the shore yet and I can stilll do it but we are deadly close to the demons." Midnight said. Her horn glowed blue and suddenly Twilight felt much better.

     "Sorry about that, it's Mereda's demon guardians, they enter your mind and infect your thoughts." Midnight Twinkle explained.

     "Well, is there anything else that could protect me in addition to the spell?" Twilight asked.

     "If you have an especially strong friendships then that should help, I think you still need practice on that since the demons got in very easily." Midnight answered.

     "I can't believe it! Since I came to Ponyville I thought I had teh strongest friendships that existed! I guess I was wrong..." Twilight said suddenly down.

     "Hey, hey! Watch it! With that attitude the demons will get past the spells and friendships and we don't want that to happen!" Midnight said alarmed.

     "Oh, sorry your highness!" Twilight said joking, she knew that if anything, laughter was going to make the protection much stronger.

     "Well, I guess I shouldn't worry anymore since you learn quite fast Princess." Midnight said. She got the joke that's for sure but she didn't laugh, clearly she still hadn't dropped her "warrior attitude". As the boat hit the shore Midnight quickly jumped out, there might be someone looking! Twilight followed her into the village. Even though the protection spell was still working she still got cold and afraid. Queen Mereda was growing stronger, and very fast! The houses weren't painted, they weren't cared for, nopony looked twice at anypony else, even by accident. It was like everybody hated each other even without knowledge that that somepony existed. It was awful walking in those streets. Twilight realized that everypony was looking at her since she was walking with someone and because she was a stranger. As she tried to look away from one pony she accidentally turned to another. The eyes were all on her and she started having a pounding headache. Finally when she started to feel dizzy she had to stop.

     "Midnight?" She said feebly. "We have to stop. I can't go on any more." She said wobbling a little.

     "Fool! Spells don't stay up without power!" Midnight growled. "You must keep your thoughts on one spark of light that'll always bring a smile on your face!" Twilight hadn't even thought about keeping the spell up, she didn't usually even need to use emotions when using magic!

     "I'm sorry, but could we still rest a little, Midnight?" She asked. She was about to faint on the spot if she didn't get rest.

     "Of course Twilight." Midnight said. Twilight noticed that she wasn't speaking like Twilight was a Princess anymore, clearly nopony knew she was the Queen either. As Twiligth sat down and started to think about her precious moment swith her friends the dizziness started to fade. After a while she felt quite strong and wanted to go on. "OK Twilight, we will continue our journey." Midnight answered. From this moment on Twiligth thought about her amazing adventures with her friends. There was that time when Pinkie and AJ baked those muffins during Apple Buck Season and the time Rainbow studied for that test. Good times, good times. She thought. Finally the sun started to go down in th ehorizon and Twilight started to feel very tired, after all she had just got out of bed when they left.

     As the sun rose Midnight lay in bed thinking about her sister. She wondered if Queen Mereda had found out about their hiding spot and destroyed its protections. She thought about all the children and their destinies. What were the children meant to do? Serve her until the last day of her life? She didn't like thinking about it at all. Twilight shifted her position in the bed next to hers. "Twilight? Are you awake and can we continue our journey?" She asked. Twiligth mumbled about breakfast and properly waking up. Midnight rolled her eyes. They were in the middle of saving the world and Twilight was thinking about food? On teh otehr hoof, she was quite hungry too so she went looking for food. As she stepped out of the tent she saw the Merena Forest in the distance. She wondered if their journey would ever end.