The Friendship Stone

Chapter 2

    When Midnight Twinkle returned Twilight Sparkle had already cleared away their tent, packed their saddle bags, started a fire and was roasting something over it, the smell was delightful, something between spiced almonds and dried peach. "What are you cooking there, Twilight?" She asked her curiously.

     "I"m making almond coated dried peaches, even though it seems like nothing grows around here there are actually lots of fruit trees." Twilight answered dividing the peaches into two bowls.

     "Well, it certainly smells delicious!" Midnight said taking her bowl and forgetting all about the cherries she found.

     "What did you find, Midnight?" Twilight said, she didn't want the food Midnight found to go to waste.

     "I found some cherries. I don't usually cook my findings the way you do! I just eat them raw!" Midnight said munching happily on her almond coated peaches.

     "Well, I've never really traveled like this. My adventures are one day only." Twilight said. She was right, never ever had she had to go find food or cook it above a fire. Life in Ponyville was certainly different from life in—what was this village called? "Midnight? What's this village called?"

     "It's original name is Daviacet but Queen Mereda changed it to Tareli, meaning fear. Ponies don't remember what life was like before the Queen came, to them the name is perfect." Midnight said bitterly.

     "What does Daviacet mean?" Twilight asked, she certainly did not need knowledge of the word "fear" in another language.

     "Daviacet means "Children of Sun and Moon". As you can probably guess the town was named after my ancestors. Nobody knows where my great-great-great-great grandparents came from but they seemed to be the Sun and Moons gift to guide us through darkness." Midnight said proudly. "Since then the royal family had had two children, one Moon and on Sun. Sunrise and I are supposed to rule together but we are allowed not to. That is why I couldn't let Sunrise come. If she gets badly hurt I'll blame myself and go mad from sadness and won't be able to rule. With the Children of Sun and Moon gone, Equesa would be no better than now."

     "Don't you have faith in your subjects to take your place if you die?" Twilight asked. It was no proper way to rule if you had faith in none.

     "I realize our ways to rule are different form Equestria's but you must understand, my sister and I are gifted with powers to lead people in darkness, our subjects have always trusted that and we cannot let them down." Midnight said, and that was the end of this discussion. Twilight started to clean away their things and getting ready to leave. "Twilight? How did Celestia and Luna come to Equestria?" Midnight asked.

     "I.. Don't know." Twilight realized.

     "Have they not always been there?" Midnight continued.

     "Seems like it." Twilight answered.

     "Have they ever even mentioned about somebody replacing them?"

     "No..."

     "Who would replace them if there was need?"

     "Nopony could replace Princess Celestia and Luna. I mean who has that set of powers? Not even I can do what they do."

     "Now you see what I was talking about earlier?"

     "Yes... Sorry."

     "It's fine. Twilight, you must learn to think over your imagination to reach you destination. I've ruled for many years Twilight, and within those years I've gathered wisdom of a true Queen. You will get some as time passes by, don't worry."

     "Patience has never been one of my good points." Twilight said again trying to lighten up the mood.

     "Neither it has been mine." And that was that, no laughing no smiling just those five words, meaningless to anybody unable to think over their imagination, like Twilight.

     Midnight was lost in thought looking at the distance they had to travel, the road seemed to go on and on and on. As they started walking Midnight started thinking about Queen Mereda. Twilight knew what she was doing asking those questions. Her mother had taught her not to dwell in the past or future, what mattered was the present, that's why she never thought about where Queen Mereda came from, what mattered was the suffering of her subjects and how to defeat her. When she was little she always wanted to be grown up and soar like a Queen in the sky, her father had told her to be patient and that if she faced tasks too demanding too young she might never become a true ruler. From that day on she had felt like that little filly who wanted more, today she felt like her little sister, horrified by the shadows standing over her. Her mother and father had left to Equestria when Queen Mereda came. It wasn't that they were cowards, they were looking for the help of foreign lands. When they left Princess Celestia was alone without Princess Luna whom they knew before. Princess Celestia denied helping them since she couldn't take her ponies to war, after all it was her responsibility to take care of them. Her mother and father had sent her a letter that Princess Celestia had also denied their return. It would be better if all the outside world forgot about Equesa since there was no way that Queen Mereda would be defeated. Since that letter arrived she had always wanted to defeat the evil Queen since that would mean for her mother and father to come home! She decided not to mention any of this to Twilight, the pony seemed pretty protective of Celestia.

     Twilight herself was lost in thought too. Midnight Twinkle had given her a lot to think about. Where did Celestia come from? What does it mean to think over your imagination? Since she got into the School for Gifted Unicorns Celestia had been by her side. And Luna too, so did Celestia just come out of no where? Had Celestia always been the wise pony Twilight knew or had she stumbled along the way like Twilight? When she was little, to her everything had to be perfect. Not one mistake. She never really thought of anything important except studies and perfection. Her brother had taught her about love and family, Shining Armor was the first one to truly open her eyes but really, she wondered, are they really open? Midnight had a way of thinking from a different perspective. Every word she said was important in one way or other. None of them were useless. Twilight understood that Midnight cared for her subjects but there seemed to be more behind the want to defeat Queen Mereda than Midnight let onto. The question she had asked earlier came into her mind again. Where did Celestia and Luna come from? Did they sail from foreign lands? Where are their parents? Surely they had parents? Nopony appears from thin air, right? Then again, what if they really were like Midnight's ancestors, a gift from the Sun and the Moon? She pondered this question for a long time until Midnight stopped and held out her hoof to stop Twilight.

     "Demons. Hide!" She pulled Twilight into a bush with her. Twilight looked over the edge of the bush. Two horrible shadowy creatures floated past them. They were making these kind of gurgly sounds as they floated in the empty streets. They knocked on each door and said something. Midnight heard them and whispered to Twilight.

    "But that's a lie!" Twilight whsiper shouted. "That's not what happened!"

    "It is all part of making the Queen stronger. She feeds on lies and hatred. If ponies believe them she grows stronger. You must never listen to a demons talk, are we clear?" Midnight asked.

    "Yes we're clear." Twilight said shuddering.

    "Good."

As Twilight thought about the lie the more and more convinced she was to defeat the Queen. A lie is like a seed. You say it and you feed it with more convincing lies. Even if you pull the plant out it has probably dropped more seeds and the lie will spread. Twilight thought. To plant a lie is a horrible thing to do. It's like poisoning someone's mind, to live in such pain because someone lied to you is unforgivable. Poisoning someone's mind is worse than actually poisoning someone because you can never really heal.

    "Penny on your thoughts Twilight?" Midnight said breaking the silence. The demons had long since moved on but they hadn't even thought of moving.

    "I was thinking about what a lie is. I mean it's like poisoning someone's mind don't you think?" Twilight asked desperately, she really needed someone as sensible as Midnight to explain to her about lying.

    "It is Twilight. Lots of ponies have started to lie because of their own good. Some lies are more harmless than others but all lies lead to bad endings. Some ponies lie because they think it's for the best but let me tell you this: no matter how many good reasons you give for lying you'll always be wrong. Sometimes you believe that lying is better than the truth because the truth hurts you. No Twilight Sparkle, lying will always be bad no matter what." Midnight said saying everything very slowly so it registered to Twilight's head.

    "Agreed, now let's go on. I think these people are starting to believe the lies." Twilight said pointing to a small amount of ponies who had gotten out of their houses to look for the two ponies who would destroy their ability to have their own thoughts. That was the lie and that was the opposite of what Twilight was here to do. It broke her heart to think about so many ponies turning against her. Silence settled down and no word was spoken. It was like they were in a cage, stuck in one place unable to really move. All those questions were bothering them, it was worse than the journey. When you think you got the answer you realize that the answer just unfolds more mysteries. This annoyed Twilight. She wasn't patient. She had to get answers, now. There had to be an explanation to all this. Where Queen Mereda came from, where Celestia and Luna came from. It was like walking in a dark hallway. You never know when it ends.  As the night began to draw nearer more ponies were seen in the streets and Twilight and Midnight had to walk in the bushes crouching so nopony could notice them. Twilight started to feel tired from all her thinking. All this was just too complicated for her. She never had to think of anything this complicated and even if she had had to her friends would have been there to help. She thought of her friends worrying about her just going to another country to save the world without them. Thye probably would ahve already defeated the Queen if it weren't for Midnight just taking Twilight. Why didn't she realize that it was probably better if her friends came with her? That pony has no trust in anypony, she thought to herself.

    "We should rest now. It is no use going on in the shadows without no clear destination." Midnight said after the sun had already set and the shadows were long.

    "Yes, I certainly need to sleep. All these questions you asked me are starting to tire me out. I mean, I never really ask these questions because they don't seem important." Twilighht said yawning.

    "Good, I hope nopony is out there." Midnight said drawing a deep breath and looking over the edge of the bushes. "Twilight! The forest is a mere 10km away! If we could continue for a while we could reach it!" Midnight said excited.

    "Or not. You see I'm very slow and very tired. Also I wouldn't like sleeping near that terrible forest!" Twilight said dropping her saddle bag. "Besides, I know were in a hurry but we can't go in the forest until daylight for the risk of being eaten and sleeping on the edge would leave us into the open." She continued. Midnight sighed and nodded. She clearly agreed but could not help being disappointed. Twilight set up the tent and beds and straight away fell asleep before she could properly pull her covers on top. Midnight stayed awake for long reflecting on the day. Twilight had made it important to reflect on things lately. The past really is important she thought falling asleep.

     As the first rays of sunlight came in the tent, Midnight was already packing her things. Maybe if they woke up early they could walk on the road for a while and see the forest. They still had some food left so they didn't have to look for it and so they could leave quicker.

    "I still don't understand the rush. I mean, we can walk behind the bushes, it's not bothering me." Twilight grumbled. Again an early wake, can't one pony sleep in once?

    "Don't understand the rush! We are up against the most dangerous pony of all kind and you think what's the rush!?" Midnight said face red.

    "Sorry." Twilight rolled her eyes. They started walking for a while on the road. They were close to the forest when a door creaked and somepony shouted:

    "It's them!!!"

    "Let's get 'em!!!"  Another one shouted.

    "Uh oh. Run!!!" Twilight screamed and started galloping towards the forest. Midnight took a while for the command to resist, so shocked she was that somepony spying on them had gone unnoticed. The ponies were quickly catching up on them and so she had no choice, she would have been delivered to the Queen otherwise. She spread her wings and flew high, of course that left the ponies staring at the sight of a pony who was a unicorn and a pegasus, an alicorn as they call it.

    Meanwhile the ponies after Twilight were almost at her side, Twilight saw that in a moment of such despair she could reveal her wings just to escape, after all Midnight did so too. The only bad thing was that she still didn't have control over her wings. Sure having Celestia's, Luna's and Cadence's wing power was hard but the fact that she basically earned control didn't mean she had earned control of her own wings. She wobbled up and down, and up again. "Twilight, we have to get to the forest, quick!" Midnight screamed, the ponies realized that there were pegasi in the crowd and they had started flying after them. Twilight closed her eyes and revised her rhythm of the flapping of her wings and flew so fast her speed trail was visible. Midnight stared in awe, it had to be a spell. But no, Twilight remembered the wing power she had when she had all the alicorn magic. If she found her alicorn magic inside her she could have almost the same wing power. Twilight had practiced this alone at the Castle of the Two Sisters because she didn't want her friends to think that she wanted to become a Princess who ruled alone without friends, a little like Celestia maybe, she only ruled with Luna and none other. Still, her flying was weak and wobbly and she couldn't fly straight like Rainbow Dash did. Suddenly air resistance started making it harder to fly which meant she was flying too fast, she had to slow down but it felt like her wings were moving automatically with no choice of their own. Suddenly a deafening sonic boom was heard, it seemed to boom inside as well. Twilight suddenly felt like a cloud, happily floating with no worries. A strong wind blew and she was carried in the sky. Midnight flew to her side cheering: "That was awesome Twilight! I didn't know you could do Sonic Sparkle Booms!" She laughed.

    "Huh?" Twilight looked around, the speed trail boom was trailing into nothing. "I did it! I managed to reach my alicorn magic completely!" She cheered happily. The pegasi were in a daze because Twilight's Sonic Boom contained magic, not a powerful one but magic all the same. Before the magic faded away Midnight and Twilight set off towardss the Forest which was growing larger in the distance as they got closer. They landed on the edge.

    "Well, we've reached the Forest with only three days of travel. I guess that's an achievement." Midnight said still shaking her head in disbelief because of the Boom. Twilight took a step towards the Forest, it was already getting cooler. A gentle breeze made her mane flow like a Princess'. Midnight walked quicker lile she wanted to get it over with and soon the shadows engulfed her. Twilight quickly bashed after her worried that she might be left alone.

    "Midnight?" She asked.

    "I'm here." Said Midnight from right next to her. It was pitch black and no light could be seen, it was like the Forest had closed in on them. Midnight lit her horn and suddenly the whole place was much comfier. Twilight breathed out loudly, a long journey was ahead. She glanced over to Midnight. During their travel Midnight had changed a lot, she wasn't the same serious pony, she was almost smiling, Twilight noticed. Maybe, she thought, the journey is not that long after all.