Nothing happensby TwiwnBChaptersNothing happens at the beginningNothing happens at the spaNothing happens the next dayNothing happens in the restaurantNothing happens in the end just as predictedNothing happens the next monthNothing happens at the beginning“Is there still a lot left?” asked Twilight. Spike sighed. He was tired. They had both been working from dawn over a big pile of requests and reports and other royal princessy stuff that they clearly would have avoided if they could have. Well, that he clearly would have avoided if he could have. Because Twilight seemed to enjoy reading all the documents and would even get passionate over some subjects, like when Luna had wanted to proclaim that nopony should go to sleep before ten o’clock so that she wouldn’t have to begin her work so early in the day, or when Cheerilee had asked for an increase in the educational budget in order to introduce more dancing into the lessons. The dragon looked at the few papers left in the pile. It had diminished quite clearly over the morning, but still, there was way too much left in his eyes. He began to read them in diagonal to see what they were about. “Well, it seems you’re asked to give a speech at the sand factory in Stalliongrad to encourage them to work hard to meet the quotas for next summer.” He began, saying out loud what he understood from the documents. “This one is from Mayor Mare, who wants a clarification on who is actually competent to decide on the naming of the streets. I suppose she wants to change a street’s name and already knows what name she wants.” Twilight smiled. She liked naming stuff. She was already beginning to think what denomination would be fitting for what kind of street and how she could create a method that would provide a systematic answer to such a question. “This report comes from the army. They want more funding because of the increase of the recruits this year. They already seem to have Celestia’s support, but Luna has rejected it because most recruits are in the sun guards and nopony seems interested in joining the night guard. I think she is upset. Then those seem to be a bunch of requests. Applejack officially asks you to settle the dispute she is having with Carrot Top before she decides to handle it personally, the Take Care of All Animals association wants you to take action over the lack of representation of animals in court when their rights are being threatened. I see Fluttershy has signed the document too. There are three other money requests from ponies that think they don’t have enough, an invitation to a ball in Manehattan from ponies who want to show they have connections, a petition for a reprieve from somepony who wants to evade the judicial system, a plea for attention from some scientist pony who seems to have re-invented the saddle and wants to show it to you, and finally an invitation from a pony to some unbirthday party.” Spike stopped. He looked at that last one again and laughed: “Okay, the unbirthday invitation comes from Pinkie Pie. She seems to have found one day in the year that corresponds to nopony’s birthday in Ponyville, so she has decided to make it everypony’s unbirthday and celebrate it anyway.” Twilight and Spike looked at each other in the eye and both began to laugh even harder. Not because it was anything surprising to them, but because they liked how much effort Pinkie Pie was putting into finding pretexts good enough to throw a party at any given time. It was always remembering them how sweet life was there in Ponyville. “Okay, enough fun now. Let’s get back to work.” Twilight said. “Can’t we make a break already?” asked Spike. “We have been working for hours.” “Come on Spike. It is our duty to answer to everypony.” But she saw that her assistant was tired, so she decided to re assure him. “Don’t worry.” She said. “I already know what to answer to everypony.” “You do?” replied Spike. “Yes. Are you ready to take note of my replies?” asked Twilight, already smiling, not only confident of her abilities, but also enjoying the future amazement of her assistant over the feat that was about to happen. “Ready.” Said Spike, doubtful, but still hoping it would actually be over very quickly for once. “Then write: I’ll very gladly attend. Names are to be given by a commission representing all interests of the city, following rules I’ll provide. Refused for the moment on my part until I can talk with princess Luna about it. The settlement of the conflict will take place in three days and nopony will do nothing to the other in any way or form before, during or after that time. I agree on the principle with the association, Fluttershy is to handle the details of the application and then submit it to me. Refused, accepted and refused, refused, refused, accepted and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She stopped and took a deep breath. Then, as predicted, she enjoyed the amazement on the dragon’s face. “How do you do that?” Spike asked. “Do what?” she innocently replied. “That thing with that brain of yours.” He replied “You know, like you just did.” Twilight blushed. She liked being complimented. And also, looking at Spike now, she felt like she was in the hooves of her big brother in a total reversal of the roles, as Spike was now sort of her little sister, well, little brother. And she remembered what Shining Armor would have done in such a circumstance. “That’s because I’m actually a robot!” she replied with a grin. “And I’m here to robotify you with hugs.” She added, while jumping on the poor dragon and tickling him. The door opened at that moment and a guard entered, interrupting the princess and her assistant during their work session. “Hum…” began the guard. “Your friend miss Rarity has arrived and is waiting for you your majesty.” The guard looked again at the two representatives of Equestria’s royal power that were also looking at him, and added: “But I can tell her to wait if you’re too busy.” Twilight turned as red as a tomato from her blushing and immediately said: “Spike! There is no time for your childish games.” “MY childish games?” the dragon replied. The guard sighed, smiled and left the room, knowing very well that it all meant he should tell Rarity to come in. “Hello Twilight. Spike. How are you both doing? Quite a glorious day, isn’t it?” Rarity said, entering the room. Twilight ignored the stupid look of love on the dragon’s face, and looked a bit annoyed as Rarity petted him which almost made him faint out of pleasure, then focused on the matter at hand. “You arrived just in time.” the princess said. “We just finished answering our mail.” “Oh my, how much I would like for so many ponies to write to me every day. It would be delightful.” Rarity stated, already imagining all the flattering letters of fans and pleas for autographs. “It’s not that much of a delight.” Spike remarked. “More of a pain if you ask me.” “Don’t listen to him.” Twilight said. “He is always grumpy when we treat the mail. I think he doesn’t enjoy it as much as I do.” Rarity smiled. She couldn’t blame Spike there. Not everypony was cut for all the attention. And she liked the idea that the dragon was a little bit different from her. It made him that much more interesting. “Shall we go?” rarity asked. “I fear we might be running a bit late on our appointment.” “Late?” Twilight asked, suddenly noticing the time. “You’re right! Let’s go, quick.” And under the pressure of a suddenly worried Twilight, the three of them went to the spa to enjoy a good afternoon of relaxation under the very expert hooves of Lotus Blossom and Aloe. Nothing happens at the spaEntering the spa, none of the three friends noticed the quickly shut door at the other end of the room. They were just too happy to be there and already in relaxing mode. “Your majesty!” said Aloe with enthusiasm. “It is always an honor to receive you in our modest spa.” As for usual, Twilight blushed under the attention, and quickly told the mare she was here as a normal pony and didn’t expect to be treated any differently as any unicorn, earth pony of Pegasus. It was useless, of course, but it had become sort of a habit to try anyway. “Please come with us.” Lotus asked, leading them to the steam room for the first part of the spa treatment. There, Twilight began to enjoy the hot air and the refreshing effect of the water all around. “This is so nice.” she said. “I wish I could come here absolutely every day.” “Well, you do happen to be a princess dear.” Rarity replied with a tone that was holding enough insinuation. Twilight let it slide away, as she wasn’t ready to just abuse her power like that. And still, it was sort of tempting. Suddenly, she saw something moving behind the heavy curtain of steam. “Spike?” she asked. But the dragon was at Rarity’s side as was to be expected. “What is going on?” asked the white unicorn. “Is there something wrong?” “No.” replied Twilight. “I just think I had seen something for a moment. It must have been one of the spa ponies.” She decided to forget about that and began relaxing again. After a while, Lotus and Aloe came back to take them away and apply the mud mask. Rarity smiled all the way, but Twilight literally laughed as she still wasn’t accustomed to having mud all over her face, and it was making her remember her first sleepover party and Applejack’s reaction to the occasion. During that time, Aloe and Lotus left to go seek some other products. But in an instant, everything changed from standing still with mud and cucumber slices on the eyes to thrown on the floor by some mysterious violent force. “What happened?” asked Rarity in panic. “I don’t know…” replied Twilight. “All I felt was a powerful wind. I couldn’t see anything because of the cucumber.” Spike, who had fallen asleep in the steam room, just entered the room and began to laugh. “What are you two doing on the floor like that? Did you trip over or something?” he asked. But when Twilight and Rarity explained to him what had happened, he began to wonder with them about what might have happened. “That’s weird.” He said. “I didn’t see anything strange at all. Maybe it really was just some wind.” Twilight would have explained to him that no natural wind would create such an effect during such a short period of time, but Aloe and Lotus were already coming back to them and she decided to put the matter on hold, as there wasn’t much more to be said. Still, she was decided to crack down the mystery at some point. The horn manicure went without much incident, but when the time for the massage came, Twilight noticed that the table she was on was already hot and she concluded that either the spa ponies had installed a new system to warm those, or that somepony had just left the table. This was beginning to make some sense, even if she still had no idea what it all meant. Still, she decided to confirm her hypothesis. “You know what? We should skip the massage and go directly to the mud bath. I read in a book that the massage should actually be made afterwards.” She lied. “Really?” asked Rarity, surprised. “Well, it is certainly an original approach, but I guess a lady should stay open to new ideas.” They convinced Aloe and Lotus to change the order in the treatment, and Twilight noticed a concerned look between the two spa ponies, but they obliged and took them to the mud tubs. That was it. If Twilight’s reasoning was correct, she would find the culprit there. She looked around and noticed that there was one mud tub too many that had been filled. It was sort of a confirmation, but the tub was empty. And then a bubble appeared on the surface of the mud. “I have you now!” triumphantly stated Twilight. She went to the border of the mud tub and just waited. A few seconds passed, a few more bubbles appeared, and then, finally, a pony’s head went out of the mud in one fast move to catch her breath again. A blue head with a multi colored mane. “Rainbow Dash?” both Twilight and Rarity asked, surprised. The culprit looked around and then, in panic, just replied: “Hum… no?” “Come on Rainbow Dash…” Twilight told her. “What are you doing here? Or more importantly, why is it you have been avoiding us all this time?” “It was you?” asked Rarity, suddenly catching on what had happened. Rainbow Dash clearly searched for a lie to get herself out of this predicament, found none, sighed and just told them the truth: “I just didn’t want you to know I had come to the spa.” “But why?” asked Twilight. “It doesn’t make sense. We have already come to the spa together, don’t you remember.” “It’s not the same.” Dash replied. “I didn’t want you to know I was trying to look more beautiful than usual.” This time, it was for Twilight not to understand immediately and Rarity’s reasoning to find the answer. “Oh my, could it be?” she began. “Would you by any chance be in love with a stallion?” she asked with glee in her eyes. Rainbow Dash silence confirmed what she had thought. The Pegasus had fallen in love, and she had wanted to impress the stallion with a new more “awesome” look as she said in her own terms. She had just been afraid her friends wouldn’t understand and would make fun of her for acting differently. “Well.” began Twilight. “I think there is a good lesson to learn from that experience, and that is to never fear your friends’ judgment, for a good friend will always look for your best interest in any situation.” Rainbow Dash agreed and the three mares spent the rest of the day exchanging beauty advices, while Spike went back to the castle to escape from all the girly talk. Nothing happens the next dayTwilight woke up the next day at six o’clock exactly, as her planning of the day was demanding. She was very proud of all of her planning. Each day had its own. She had divided the twenty four hours in little time periods of twenty seconds and had allocated those to different tasks throughout the day. For example, she had three periods to get up, seven to assess the situation, six periods to brush her mane and up to thirty periods to wake up Spike. They would then both go eat their breakfast at six thirty exactly, finishing at six forty five. As it was Wednesday, the breakfast was to be followed by spell practice from seven o’clock to eleven, with three breaks of fifteen minutes. At eleven and twelve, Spike convinced the alicorn that they had to stop practicing, arguing that the planning was the prime reason and not that he was tired of looking at her fail her spells all over and having to deal with the results all the time. Lunch was at eleven thirty. They were supposed to have a guest sharing lunch with them, some ambassador from the griffon kingdom that Twilight didn’t know and therefore didn’t care much about. But he never showed up and the two hours lunch that had been planned turned into a thirty minutes lunch followed by an hour and half of more spell practice. Then, from one thirty to four o’clock, Twilight studied in the castle’s library. At four o’clock, she and Spike went for the weekly inspection of the guards who didn’t seem prepared at all for the inspection. Twilight re-allocated ninety periods of time to make sure the captain of the guards had understood how important it was for the guards to pass the inspection in case a foreign dignitary was to accompany her, or if Luna or even Celestia herself were to come visit. She explained in all length how it was the captain’s duty to anticipate the inspection and make sure everypony was informed. She also stated that it wasn’t that difficult to pass an inspection that was scheduled every week at the exact same moment. “It’s not like you were surprised or anything!” twilight finished, a bit angered. Not by her troops incompetence, but by her own, as she was feeling she was incapable of making them understand such basic principles as planning. Which was even more disconcerting was the fact they had done a very good job the last week… Still, at five o’clock, Twilight went for a stroll in the streets of Ponyville, then came back to the castle and heard that somepony was waiting for her. She looked at the schedule, saw no appointment and told the guards to tell that pony that she had no time at the moment and she should come the next day, as she had come unannounced. Twilight had, in fact, to attend another appointment, with the ambassador of the griffon kingdom that had stood her up at lunch. She was thinking of taking the opportunity to demand some explanation for that weird behavior, but the ambassador never showed up at any given time during the two hours Twilight and Spike waited in the throne room. “Okay, that does it!” Twilight said, being very upset. “Spike, take a letter.” Spike obliged very gladly, as he hadn’t like to have to wait two hours doing nothing like that. “Dear ambassador of the griffon kingdom, It has come to my attention that you do not seem to have any interest in meeting with me as you had previously asked. I do respect your freedom to not like me, or wanting to show your disapproval of whatever it is you disapprove of. I do feel, however, that the least respectful thing to do would have been to tell me in person you had no intention to meet with me in the first place so that I wouldn’t have to waste hours of my time awaiting our meeting. I am deeply disappointed by your behavior and hope you’ll have the decency to at least apologize for the way you’ve treated me today. Please accept, regardless, my sincere regards.” Spike finished writing the letter, then added the usual signature at the end, made Twilight read it again, confirm it was all correct, then sign it herself. “Okay, send it.” She told the dragon. Spike followed the instruction and sent the letter to the griffon ambassador, using his magical breath. “It’s done.” He stated. “Good.” Twilight replied. “That will show I may be a new princess, but a royal princess of Equestria cannot be made fun of without making fun of all of Equestria, which is unacceptable.” It was seven thirty, and both Twilight and Spike went to eat dinner, that wasn’t ready yet. Twilight, exasperated, went to the kitchen, made everypony understand that a planning was meant to be taken seriously and followed to the upmost detail, then came back into the dining room as she was feeling she was about to insult somepony. This was all very frustrating. At eight, with thirty minutes delay, dinner got served and they ate. At eight fifteen, they were finished and, trying to catch up with the plan, went to Fluttershy’s cottage to ask her about the whole giving animals lawyers thing that had come up the last day. They arrived, knocked on the door and found out that the yellow Pegasus had already gone to bed. “I can’t believe you forgot about our appointment!” almost shouted Twilight in exasperation. She saw how scared Fluttershy looked and she immediately regretted her outburst. “I’m sorry.” She said. “I shouldn’t have spoken that loudly, but today was a bad day. Worst Wednesday in my life.” “Tuesday.” Fluttershy replied. “What?” asked back Twilight. “We are Tuesday, not Wednesday.” And just like that, a deep and strong feeling of both shame and absolute stupidity invaded every inch of Twilight’s body, mind and soul. Contemplating the catastrophe, she decided unconsciously to take the easy way and just fainted right there. “What happened to her?” asked Fluttershy, suddenly incredibly worried about her friend. “I think she hadn’t planned that possibility.” Spike replied. Nothing happens in the restaurant“That is quite a story!” Rarity stated, hearing Spike explain how he had helped Applejack take care of Twilight for all this time and how they had both come up with the desperate plan of climbing the ice walls. Both he and Applejack had come up with that better story, as they didn’t like the truth very much. “I really can’t thank you enough for what you have done for me.” Twilight said. “Actually, you’ve thanked us more than enough.” Applejack replied. “I think there isn’t one time during the whole journey back that you haven’t thanked us. And we told you, we just did what anypony would have done.” “I should have been there with you…” said Rainbow Dash, who had felt guilty since she had heard the story, as she was thinking she could have easily flown them out of the crevasse, or gone to seek help, ignoring the possibility she could have hurt one of her wing in the fall. They all laughed. It was a mix of a relaxing laughter, because they were trying to get back to the normality, and a bit of relief laughter as it was feeling like things could have turned very badly in the end. “I’m glad things turned out so well after all.” Fluttershy said with her gentle voice. She had been scared from the moment they had begun to tell her the story and felt even more frightened that they had been in the crevasse as if she had been there herself. They were her friends, she would have missed them so much if something had happened that just thinking about it was making her cry. Once again, they all laughed. It was just feeling great to be able to laugh like that, for no particular reason, just because they were alive, because they were together, and because everypony was happy. And then, Twilight noticed that a mare she didn’t know was standing near her, looking at her with a strange expression on her face. There was something a bit creepy in the silent look of that mare, and that weird expression, but nothing threatening. Just weird. “Can I do something for you?” asked Twilight, who was feeling in the mood of helping pretty much anypony. The pony stayed silent. But her eyes frowned just a little bit. “Come on dear.” Rarity said. “Don’t be shy, you can speak to her. You’ll find out our princess is quite open.” But Rarity’s smile quickly disappeared as the mare still stayed silent, just looking at Twilight with that indescribable expression on her face. “Are you going to talk or are you dumb or something?” very awkwardly and abruptly asked Rainbow Dash who wanted to hide that the mare’s behavior was creeping the hell out of her. They all thought the pony was going to stay silent once again, but her mouth opened, only to say: “Are you Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight nodded. “Yes, it’s me.” The mare’s eyes frowned even more than before. “I hate you.” She said. “I hate you more than you can imagine. I hate you with all I have. I hate everything you are, everything you represent. I…” the mare caught her breath, simmered down and finished by saying: “I just hate you.” And as neither Twilight, nor any of Twilight’s friends was answering, the mare looked down and slowly walked out of the restaurant. “Who the hell does she think she is?” asked Rainbow Dash, who was shocked by what she had just seen and heard. “I do have to say, that behavior was very rude!” Rarity stated. “Yup, I don’t know who that mare was, but she could use a lesson in respect.” Applejack confirmed. “Who was she?” asked Fluttershy. “Who cares?” replied Rainbow Dash. “It doesn’t matter. She is just some weirdo mare. That’s all. You can’t expect every pony in Equestria to like Twilight.” “She was the bad apple in the basket.” explained Applejack, as she found the idea very convincing. It was easy, it was convenient, and as none of them knew who that mare was, they agreed to forget about her and keep on laughing together. Nothing happens in the end just as predicted“My father was innocent.” The mare said. She was telling the truth. He indeed was innocent. In fact, the culprit would confess his crime just a few days later. “I don’t want much. I know you can’t bring him back to me. I don’t even want an apology. I just want to know why.” The mare asked. Celestia kept listening, but didn’t say a word. “I’m not sure if you can tell me why, but I don’t know who else to ask.” And still Celestia kept on listening. “I guess you must find my pleas absurd, or ridicule, but it’s very important for me. I just don’t understand anymore why it had to happen that way. Why it had to happen at all. Why she did nothing to help me. Why she didn't receive me.” And again, Celestia let her talk. “I guess I came to you because for a thousand years you were the only princess in Equestria, the only one to look over us, and you always took a good care of us. I guess I just trust you more than any other princesses. More than anypony in all of Equestria.” The silence that ensued felt almost healing. It was feeling like the mare and Celestia were sharing an invisible bond in the mare’s sadness and despair. It felt great to be able to speak like that, to say what had to be said, to know a good ear is listening to you. And then, as the soft silence had finished enveloping the mare with its gentle and caring caress, Celestia asked: “Who are you again?” THE END Author's Note Okay, I guess I should explain. First, I'm very proud of how this story turned out. God I love it. Don't care how badly written it is. The challenge was enormous from my point of view and I didn't do too bad of a job for once. Second, to give some explanations: While Twilight's parents are basically non-characters in canon, it still gave me an easy hook to build off of and provided an instant reason for Twilight and her friends to be personally concerned about his fate. This comes from anowack's interview I just read a few hours ago: Anowack's interview And yes, that is why I put a link to his story in the description. It felt funny to see how right he was that we, as readers, wouldn't have felt even remotely concerned about the fate of an original character that was just introduced there in his story, in contrast to how much we begin to feel concerned when this original character becomes Twilight's father. I felt insulted, not because it's insulting (far from it, Anowack did it completely right), but because it shows something true about the human mind and my personal way to see the world. To sum it up: I don't know that person, so I don't care." I decided to explore the concept to one of its extreme, by making the reader not care whatsoever. And I took back a concept from my list of stories I wish I could write with the whole "nothing happens" idea. Also, thanks to prilla 111 for the music playlist. Now, due to how I "sold" that story, nobody will read it, and the few that would will find it confusing or badly written, they will be right and who cares? Right? This is also the reason why I didn't use that story to try the "posting chapters one after the other" thing. The ending would just be way too frustrating for anybody who would had read it that way. God I need to go to sleep... Nothing happens the next monthFor some mysterious reason, the royal princess of friendship, princess of Equestria, alicorn, one of the most powerful being in the land and adored by all decided to go on a journey very far away from Ponyville, into the distance glacial parts of the empire, to inspect some advanced military post that had been built under the ice for a reason most ponies had forgotten since long. Applejack had decided to accompany her as she felt it was unsafe for the alicorn to go alone with Spike as she had intended to do. The ice in the north was a very dangerous part of the land after all. And it was proving true, as the three of them, Twilight, Applejack and Spike, had now been trapped for two days in a crevasse. “We should have turned left…” whispered Applejack for the hundreds time. “I know!” Spike replied. He was making sure Twilight was kept warm, as she had lost consciousness during their fall and had stayed that way since. He would have given anything he had to make her wake up. Not only because he liked her a lot, not only because he was identifying himself as her assistant and it was his duty as such to make sure she was okay, but also because he was feeling guilty for the current situation. He had been the one holding the map and the one who had insisted they turn right, which had proven a grave mistake. “How is she doing?” Applejack asked. There was no answer to be given to that question. She was breathing normally. She was warm, but there had been no way to make her drink or eat anything at all, as she was basically sleeping. Applejack walked away, looked at the walls around her, then trotted to the other side of the crevasse, looked at the walls, then came back and sat. She waited a few minutes, then went back to look at the walls everywhere, trotting in circles in a cacophony of hooves steps. She then came back to her initial spot, sat again and stood still for a good thirty minutes. “We have to move.” She finally said. “We can’t stay here.” “And how are we going to do that?” Spike asked. “We are at the bottom of a crevasse.” “I’ll carry her.” Applejack said. Spike looked at the alicorn that was sleeping under the blankets, then up at the sky far above them, then at Applejack again. It was tempting to accept. Applejack was a strong pony and could probably actually climb while carrying Twilight. At the same time, Spike couldn’t help but feel it was a very bad idea. “No.” he replied. “What if something turns wrong? What if you fall with her? What if she slips out of your grasp? She probably wouldn’t survive another fall.” “Are you saying I wouldn’t be able to climb those walls with her?” Applejack asked aggressively. “No. I’m saying it’s possible that something bad happens.” Spike replied. “Nothing bad will happen. I can take us out of here.” The farm pony stated. “You can’t be certain of that.” “Yes I can.” “No you can’t!” “So you do think I wouldn’t be able to do it. You just don’t trust me…” Applejack concluded. Spike didn’t reply. It was true. He didn’t have enough faith in the earth pony to entrust the alicorn he loved so much into her hooves. It was just too risky. He just didn’t know how he would feel if something else were to happen to Twilight. Applejack went back to sit on her usual spot and spent the next hour looking at Spike and Twilight without saying a word. Above their head, the day began to disappear, creating many shadows all around them. Spike looked around and tried to ignore his fear. But he still was afraid of the darkness. He made sure Twilight was well wrapped into the blankets, and then tried to protect himself from the cold. It soon became pitch black into the crevasse and Spike lost sight of his own claws. “Celestia help us…” he whispered. As there was nothing more to do, he slowly fell asleep, hoping to only wake up when the sun would have reappeared in the horizon. But his eyes opened again in the middle of the darkness. He looked around but saw nothing at all but black. He tried to figure out how long he had been sleeping, but couldn’t. He had no idea why he had woken up. Still, something felt very wrong. Like a six sense telling him he had to act. And act quickly. Then he heard the sound of a piece of ice falling on the ground. By reflex, Spike used his fire breath to light the place and immediately saw that Twilight had moved from the blankets to Applejack’s back, and that Applejack herself had begun to climb the walls of ice. “What are you doing?” asked Spike in panic. “Come back immediately.” “It’s the only way.” Applejack replied. “One of us had to take some sort of action. I have to do it if you won’t.” But Spike wasn’t ready to give up that easily. As Applejack was only about ten feet high, he ran and jumped to force her to come back on the ground. Applejack struggled fiercely, but suddenly lost her grasp on the piece of ice she was holding on and all three fell down. Applejack immediately got up, ready to face Spike, but the darkness hid him away from her. She heard his steps behind her, but also in front of her, and on her sides, as they were echoing due to the configuration of the ice walls. “You know we have to take her out of here. None of us is going to make it if we don’t come out of here!” Applejack shouted. “I won’t let you harm her!” replied Spike’s voice from right behind her as he jumped on her. She struggled again, but with the advantage this time as she could use all of her four hooves to fight. She achieved to make Spike let go of her and bucked him violently against the nearest wall that he hit very hard. Everything went silent again and Applejack felt completely lost in the middle of the darkness. She couldn’t find Twilight again, nor find out if Spike was okay or if she had injured him. She wasn’t even sure if she wasn’t just having a big nightmare. For a moment, she felt like she had left reality. “So you want to do this the hard way…” said Spike’s voice in the distance. Applejack felt relieved. Even if it was to threaten her, she was happy to know that Spike was feeling well enough to speak. But then, a giant green flame appeared in front of her, forcing her to step back a bit. A then another giant green flame. And a third one. Applejack hit a wall of ice behind her and felt the warmth of the fourth giant green flame. “I just wanted to help.” She tried to defend herself. “I did it for Twilight. To save her.” But Spike clearly didn’t listen to her. He breathed fire a fifth time and Applejack took the opportunity to evade it and use the light to see her target and jump on him. She hit him on the head and the fight stopped there as the dragon fell unconscious. Applejack stopped to move too. She was trembling pretty badly. It took some time for her to breath normally, and she finally checked on the dragon that was lying under her hooves. He felt alright, as he was breathing normally. She took him on her back, then began to search in the dark for Twilight. She eventually found her, as well as their bags. High above her head, the sun began to appear, very slowly, but providing a bit of light that was way better than nothing at all. Applejack tied up both Twilight and Spike to her, as she wasn’t ready to leave any of them behind and, having the advantage of seeing the wall of ice this time, began to climb while trying to ignore the weight of the alicorn and the dragon. She climbed for a good hour. She had gone almost two third of the way. But she was exhausted. She had already let the bags slip down the crevasse, as they were too heavy for her to carry at the same time she way carrying her two friends. Better sacrifice the bags than them. She put her hoof on a piece of ice that got loose and almost fell, but could keep her grasp with her other hoof and avoid it. She took a deep breath, then kept on climbing. Another piece of ice got loose under one of her back hoof, but she avoided once again the fall by pure luck. A third piece of ice almost disappeared as she was leaning on it and she soon ceased to feel the weight of the alicorn and the dragon as the sky above her began to look more distant by each passing second. At least she had tried. She could always convince herself of that. It’s not like anypony would care about it anyway. She closed her eyes, only to open them again as she was very slowly and carefully touching the ground with her hooves. She looked up and saw Twilight flapping her wings as hard as she could. The alicorn finally landed, used another spell to make check on Spike and finally turned to Applejack: “What happened?” she asked. “I…” began the earth pony. She stopped there. She had almost said “I was about to kill us all.”, but that’s something that is pretty hard to admit at any given time, no matter how true it might be. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She replied. “We have to get out of her.” “No problem.” Twilight said, as she was feeling hungry, and thirsty, and was worried about Spike, and had, to make it short, all the reasons in the world to want to go back to civilization. “Hold on!” she told her friend. A huge amount of magical energy filled the crevasse and in one magnificent flash, Twilight, Applejack and Spike simply disappeared from the crevasse, to reappear far away, in a little village at the border of the crystal empire that they had left two days ago before falling into the crevasse. They were out of danger, and Twilight decided that she preferred to face whatever was awaiting her in Ponyville than go back into the lands of ice of the north. Also, she would be glad to finally eat once again in a true restaurant from Ponyville or Canterlot. Because she was still hungry and was feeling homesick.
Nothing happens at the beginning“Is there still a lot left?” asked Twilight. Spike sighed. He was tired. They had both been working from dawn over a big pile of requests and reports and other royal princessy stuff that they clearly would have avoided if they could have. Well, that he clearly would have avoided if he could have. Because Twilight seemed to enjoy reading all the documents and would even get passionate over some subjects, like when Luna had wanted to proclaim that nopony should go to sleep before ten o’clock so that she wouldn’t have to begin her work so early in the day, or when Cheerilee had asked for an increase in the educational budget in order to introduce more dancing into the lessons. The dragon looked at the few papers left in the pile. It had diminished quite clearly over the morning, but still, there was way too much left in his eyes. He began to read them in diagonal to see what they were about. “Well, it seems you’re asked to give a speech at the sand factory in Stalliongrad to encourage them to work hard to meet the quotas for next summer.” He began, saying out loud what he understood from the documents. “This one is from Mayor Mare, who wants a clarification on who is actually competent to decide on the naming of the streets. I suppose she wants to change a street’s name and already knows what name she wants.” Twilight smiled. She liked naming stuff. She was already beginning to think what denomination would be fitting for what kind of street and how she could create a method that would provide a systematic answer to such a question. “This report comes from the army. They want more funding because of the increase of the recruits this year. They already seem to have Celestia’s support, but Luna has rejected it because most recruits are in the sun guards and nopony seems interested in joining the night guard. I think she is upset. Then those seem to be a bunch of requests. Applejack officially asks you to settle the dispute she is having with Carrot Top before she decides to handle it personally, the Take Care of All Animals association wants you to take action over the lack of representation of animals in court when their rights are being threatened. I see Fluttershy has signed the document too. There are three other money requests from ponies that think they don’t have enough, an invitation to a ball in Manehattan from ponies who want to show they have connections, a petition for a reprieve from somepony who wants to evade the judicial system, a plea for attention from some scientist pony who seems to have re-invented the saddle and wants to show it to you, and finally an invitation from a pony to some unbirthday party.” Spike stopped. He looked at that last one again and laughed: “Okay, the unbirthday invitation comes from Pinkie Pie. She seems to have found one day in the year that corresponds to nopony’s birthday in Ponyville, so she has decided to make it everypony’s unbirthday and celebrate it anyway.” Twilight and Spike looked at each other in the eye and both began to laugh even harder. Not because it was anything surprising to them, but because they liked how much effort Pinkie Pie was putting into finding pretexts good enough to throw a party at any given time. It was always remembering them how sweet life was there in Ponyville. “Okay, enough fun now. Let’s get back to work.” Twilight said. “Can’t we make a break already?” asked Spike. “We have been working for hours.” “Come on Spike. It is our duty to answer to everypony.” But she saw that her assistant was tired, so she decided to re assure him. “Don’t worry.” She said. “I already know what to answer to everypony.” “You do?” replied Spike. “Yes. Are you ready to take note of my replies?” asked Twilight, already smiling, not only confident of her abilities, but also enjoying the future amazement of her assistant over the feat that was about to happen. “Ready.” Said Spike, doubtful, but still hoping it would actually be over very quickly for once. “Then write: I’ll very gladly attend. Names are to be given by a commission representing all interests of the city, following rules I’ll provide. Refused for the moment on my part until I can talk with princess Luna about it. The settlement of the conflict will take place in three days and nopony will do nothing to the other in any way or form before, during or after that time. I agree on the principle with the association, Fluttershy is to handle the details of the application and then submit it to me. Refused, accepted and refused, refused, refused, accepted and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She stopped and took a deep breath. Then, as predicted, she enjoyed the amazement on the dragon’s face. “How do you do that?” Spike asked. “Do what?” she innocently replied. “That thing with that brain of yours.” He replied “You know, like you just did.” Twilight blushed. She liked being complimented. And also, looking at Spike now, she felt like she was in the hooves of her big brother in a total reversal of the roles, as Spike was now sort of her little sister, well, little brother. And she remembered what Shining Armor would have done in such a circumstance. “That’s because I’m actually a robot!” she replied with a grin. “And I’m here to robotify you with hugs.” She added, while jumping on the poor dragon and tickling him. The door opened at that moment and a guard entered, interrupting the princess and her assistant during their work session. “Hum…” began the guard. “Your friend miss Rarity has arrived and is waiting for you your majesty.” The guard looked again at the two representatives of Equestria’s royal power that were also looking at him, and added: “But I can tell her to wait if you’re too busy.” Twilight turned as red as a tomato from her blushing and immediately said: “Spike! There is no time for your childish games.” “MY childish games?” the dragon replied. The guard sighed, smiled and left the room, knowing very well that it all meant he should tell Rarity to come in. “Hello Twilight. Spike. How are you both doing? Quite a glorious day, isn’t it?” Rarity said, entering the room. Twilight ignored the stupid look of love on the dragon’s face, and looked a bit annoyed as Rarity petted him which almost made him faint out of pleasure, then focused on the matter at hand. “You arrived just in time.” the princess said. “We just finished answering our mail.” “Oh my, how much I would like for so many ponies to write to me every day. It would be delightful.” Rarity stated, already imagining all the flattering letters of fans and pleas for autographs. “It’s not that much of a delight.” Spike remarked. “More of a pain if you ask me.” “Don’t listen to him.” Twilight said. “He is always grumpy when we treat the mail. I think he doesn’t enjoy it as much as I do.” Rarity smiled. She couldn’t blame Spike there. Not everypony was cut for all the attention. And she liked the idea that the dragon was a little bit different from her. It made him that much more interesting. “Shall we go?” rarity asked. “I fear we might be running a bit late on our appointment.” “Late?” Twilight asked, suddenly noticing the time. “You’re right! Let’s go, quick.” And under the pressure of a suddenly worried Twilight, the three of them went to the spa to enjoy a good afternoon of relaxation under the very expert hooves of Lotus Blossom and Aloe.
Nothing happens at the spaEntering the spa, none of the three friends noticed the quickly shut door at the other end of the room. They were just too happy to be there and already in relaxing mode. “Your majesty!” said Aloe with enthusiasm. “It is always an honor to receive you in our modest spa.” As for usual, Twilight blushed under the attention, and quickly told the mare she was here as a normal pony and didn’t expect to be treated any differently as any unicorn, earth pony of Pegasus. It was useless, of course, but it had become sort of a habit to try anyway. “Please come with us.” Lotus asked, leading them to the steam room for the first part of the spa treatment. There, Twilight began to enjoy the hot air and the refreshing effect of the water all around. “This is so nice.” she said. “I wish I could come here absolutely every day.” “Well, you do happen to be a princess dear.” Rarity replied with a tone that was holding enough insinuation. Twilight let it slide away, as she wasn’t ready to just abuse her power like that. And still, it was sort of tempting. Suddenly, she saw something moving behind the heavy curtain of steam. “Spike?” she asked. But the dragon was at Rarity’s side as was to be expected. “What is going on?” asked the white unicorn. “Is there something wrong?” “No.” replied Twilight. “I just think I had seen something for a moment. It must have been one of the spa ponies.” She decided to forget about that and began relaxing again. After a while, Lotus and Aloe came back to take them away and apply the mud mask. Rarity smiled all the way, but Twilight literally laughed as she still wasn’t accustomed to having mud all over her face, and it was making her remember her first sleepover party and Applejack’s reaction to the occasion. During that time, Aloe and Lotus left to go seek some other products. But in an instant, everything changed from standing still with mud and cucumber slices on the eyes to thrown on the floor by some mysterious violent force. “What happened?” asked Rarity in panic. “I don’t know…” replied Twilight. “All I felt was a powerful wind. I couldn’t see anything because of the cucumber.” Spike, who had fallen asleep in the steam room, just entered the room and began to laugh. “What are you two doing on the floor like that? Did you trip over or something?” he asked. But when Twilight and Rarity explained to him what had happened, he began to wonder with them about what might have happened. “That’s weird.” He said. “I didn’t see anything strange at all. Maybe it really was just some wind.” Twilight would have explained to him that no natural wind would create such an effect during such a short period of time, but Aloe and Lotus were already coming back to them and she decided to put the matter on hold, as there wasn’t much more to be said. Still, she was decided to crack down the mystery at some point. The horn manicure went without much incident, but when the time for the massage came, Twilight noticed that the table she was on was already hot and she concluded that either the spa ponies had installed a new system to warm those, or that somepony had just left the table. This was beginning to make some sense, even if she still had no idea what it all meant. Still, she decided to confirm her hypothesis. “You know what? We should skip the massage and go directly to the mud bath. I read in a book that the massage should actually be made afterwards.” She lied. “Really?” asked Rarity, surprised. “Well, it is certainly an original approach, but I guess a lady should stay open to new ideas.” They convinced Aloe and Lotus to change the order in the treatment, and Twilight noticed a concerned look between the two spa ponies, but they obliged and took them to the mud tubs. That was it. If Twilight’s reasoning was correct, she would find the culprit there. She looked around and noticed that there was one mud tub too many that had been filled. It was sort of a confirmation, but the tub was empty. And then a bubble appeared on the surface of the mud. “I have you now!” triumphantly stated Twilight. She went to the border of the mud tub and just waited. A few seconds passed, a few more bubbles appeared, and then, finally, a pony’s head went out of the mud in one fast move to catch her breath again. A blue head with a multi colored mane. “Rainbow Dash?” both Twilight and Rarity asked, surprised. The culprit looked around and then, in panic, just replied: “Hum… no?” “Come on Rainbow Dash…” Twilight told her. “What are you doing here? Or more importantly, why is it you have been avoiding us all this time?” “It was you?” asked Rarity, suddenly catching on what had happened. Rainbow Dash clearly searched for a lie to get herself out of this predicament, found none, sighed and just told them the truth: “I just didn’t want you to know I had come to the spa.” “But why?” asked Twilight. “It doesn’t make sense. We have already come to the spa together, don’t you remember.” “It’s not the same.” Dash replied. “I didn’t want you to know I was trying to look more beautiful than usual.” This time, it was for Twilight not to understand immediately and Rarity’s reasoning to find the answer. “Oh my, could it be?” she began. “Would you by any chance be in love with a stallion?” she asked with glee in her eyes. Rainbow Dash silence confirmed what she had thought. The Pegasus had fallen in love, and she had wanted to impress the stallion with a new more “awesome” look as she said in her own terms. She had just been afraid her friends wouldn’t understand and would make fun of her for acting differently. “Well.” began Twilight. “I think there is a good lesson to learn from that experience, and that is to never fear your friends’ judgment, for a good friend will always look for your best interest in any situation.” Rainbow Dash agreed and the three mares spent the rest of the day exchanging beauty advices, while Spike went back to the castle to escape from all the girly talk.
Nothing happens the next dayTwilight woke up the next day at six o’clock exactly, as her planning of the day was demanding. She was very proud of all of her planning. Each day had its own. She had divided the twenty four hours in little time periods of twenty seconds and had allocated those to different tasks throughout the day. For example, she had three periods to get up, seven to assess the situation, six periods to brush her mane and up to thirty periods to wake up Spike. They would then both go eat their breakfast at six thirty exactly, finishing at six forty five. As it was Wednesday, the breakfast was to be followed by spell practice from seven o’clock to eleven, with three breaks of fifteen minutes. At eleven and twelve, Spike convinced the alicorn that they had to stop practicing, arguing that the planning was the prime reason and not that he was tired of looking at her fail her spells all over and having to deal with the results all the time. Lunch was at eleven thirty. They were supposed to have a guest sharing lunch with them, some ambassador from the griffon kingdom that Twilight didn’t know and therefore didn’t care much about. But he never showed up and the two hours lunch that had been planned turned into a thirty minutes lunch followed by an hour and half of more spell practice. Then, from one thirty to four o’clock, Twilight studied in the castle’s library. At four o’clock, she and Spike went for the weekly inspection of the guards who didn’t seem prepared at all for the inspection. Twilight re-allocated ninety periods of time to make sure the captain of the guards had understood how important it was for the guards to pass the inspection in case a foreign dignitary was to accompany her, or if Luna or even Celestia herself were to come visit. She explained in all length how it was the captain’s duty to anticipate the inspection and make sure everypony was informed. She also stated that it wasn’t that difficult to pass an inspection that was scheduled every week at the exact same moment. “It’s not like you were surprised or anything!” twilight finished, a bit angered. Not by her troops incompetence, but by her own, as she was feeling she was incapable of making them understand such basic principles as planning. Which was even more disconcerting was the fact they had done a very good job the last week… Still, at five o’clock, Twilight went for a stroll in the streets of Ponyville, then came back to the castle and heard that somepony was waiting for her. She looked at the schedule, saw no appointment and told the guards to tell that pony that she had no time at the moment and she should come the next day, as she had come unannounced. Twilight had, in fact, to attend another appointment, with the ambassador of the griffon kingdom that had stood her up at lunch. She was thinking of taking the opportunity to demand some explanation for that weird behavior, but the ambassador never showed up at any given time during the two hours Twilight and Spike waited in the throne room. “Okay, that does it!” Twilight said, being very upset. “Spike, take a letter.” Spike obliged very gladly, as he hadn’t like to have to wait two hours doing nothing like that. “Dear ambassador of the griffon kingdom, It has come to my attention that you do not seem to have any interest in meeting with me as you had previously asked. I do respect your freedom to not like me, or wanting to show your disapproval of whatever it is you disapprove of. I do feel, however, that the least respectful thing to do would have been to tell me in person you had no intention to meet with me in the first place so that I wouldn’t have to waste hours of my time awaiting our meeting. I am deeply disappointed by your behavior and hope you’ll have the decency to at least apologize for the way you’ve treated me today. Please accept, regardless, my sincere regards.” Spike finished writing the letter, then added the usual signature at the end, made Twilight read it again, confirm it was all correct, then sign it herself. “Okay, send it.” She told the dragon. Spike followed the instruction and sent the letter to the griffon ambassador, using his magical breath. “It’s done.” He stated. “Good.” Twilight replied. “That will show I may be a new princess, but a royal princess of Equestria cannot be made fun of without making fun of all of Equestria, which is unacceptable.” It was seven thirty, and both Twilight and Spike went to eat dinner, that wasn’t ready yet. Twilight, exasperated, went to the kitchen, made everypony understand that a planning was meant to be taken seriously and followed to the upmost detail, then came back into the dining room as she was feeling she was about to insult somepony. This was all very frustrating. At eight, with thirty minutes delay, dinner got served and they ate. At eight fifteen, they were finished and, trying to catch up with the plan, went to Fluttershy’s cottage to ask her about the whole giving animals lawyers thing that had come up the last day. They arrived, knocked on the door and found out that the yellow Pegasus had already gone to bed. “I can’t believe you forgot about our appointment!” almost shouted Twilight in exasperation. She saw how scared Fluttershy looked and she immediately regretted her outburst. “I’m sorry.” She said. “I shouldn’t have spoken that loudly, but today was a bad day. Worst Wednesday in my life.” “Tuesday.” Fluttershy replied. “What?” asked back Twilight. “We are Tuesday, not Wednesday.” And just like that, a deep and strong feeling of both shame and absolute stupidity invaded every inch of Twilight’s body, mind and soul. Contemplating the catastrophe, she decided unconsciously to take the easy way and just fainted right there. “What happened to her?” asked Fluttershy, suddenly incredibly worried about her friend. “I think she hadn’t planned that possibility.” Spike replied.
Nothing happens in the restaurant“That is quite a story!” Rarity stated, hearing Spike explain how he had helped Applejack take care of Twilight for all this time and how they had both come up with the desperate plan of climbing the ice walls. Both he and Applejack had come up with that better story, as they didn’t like the truth very much. “I really can’t thank you enough for what you have done for me.” Twilight said. “Actually, you’ve thanked us more than enough.” Applejack replied. “I think there isn’t one time during the whole journey back that you haven’t thanked us. And we told you, we just did what anypony would have done.” “I should have been there with you…” said Rainbow Dash, who had felt guilty since she had heard the story, as she was thinking she could have easily flown them out of the crevasse, or gone to seek help, ignoring the possibility she could have hurt one of her wing in the fall. They all laughed. It was a mix of a relaxing laughter, because they were trying to get back to the normality, and a bit of relief laughter as it was feeling like things could have turned very badly in the end. “I’m glad things turned out so well after all.” Fluttershy said with her gentle voice. She had been scared from the moment they had begun to tell her the story and felt even more frightened that they had been in the crevasse as if she had been there herself. They were her friends, she would have missed them so much if something had happened that just thinking about it was making her cry. Once again, they all laughed. It was just feeling great to be able to laugh like that, for no particular reason, just because they were alive, because they were together, and because everypony was happy. And then, Twilight noticed that a mare she didn’t know was standing near her, looking at her with a strange expression on her face. There was something a bit creepy in the silent look of that mare, and that weird expression, but nothing threatening. Just weird. “Can I do something for you?” asked Twilight, who was feeling in the mood of helping pretty much anypony. The pony stayed silent. But her eyes frowned just a little bit. “Come on dear.” Rarity said. “Don’t be shy, you can speak to her. You’ll find out our princess is quite open.” But Rarity’s smile quickly disappeared as the mare still stayed silent, just looking at Twilight with that indescribable expression on her face. “Are you going to talk or are you dumb or something?” very awkwardly and abruptly asked Rainbow Dash who wanted to hide that the mare’s behavior was creeping the hell out of her. They all thought the pony was going to stay silent once again, but her mouth opened, only to say: “Are you Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight nodded. “Yes, it’s me.” The mare’s eyes frowned even more than before. “I hate you.” She said. “I hate you more than you can imagine. I hate you with all I have. I hate everything you are, everything you represent. I…” the mare caught her breath, simmered down and finished by saying: “I just hate you.” And as neither Twilight, nor any of Twilight’s friends was answering, the mare looked down and slowly walked out of the restaurant. “Who the hell does she think she is?” asked Rainbow Dash, who was shocked by what she had just seen and heard. “I do have to say, that behavior was very rude!” Rarity stated. “Yup, I don’t know who that mare was, but she could use a lesson in respect.” Applejack confirmed. “Who was she?” asked Fluttershy. “Who cares?” replied Rainbow Dash. “It doesn’t matter. She is just some weirdo mare. That’s all. You can’t expect every pony in Equestria to like Twilight.” “She was the bad apple in the basket.” explained Applejack, as she found the idea very convincing. It was easy, it was convenient, and as none of them knew who that mare was, they agreed to forget about her and keep on laughing together.
Nothing happens in the end just as predicted“My father was innocent.” The mare said. She was telling the truth. He indeed was innocent. In fact, the culprit would confess his crime just a few days later. “I don’t want much. I know you can’t bring him back to me. I don’t even want an apology. I just want to know why.” The mare asked. Celestia kept listening, but didn’t say a word. “I’m not sure if you can tell me why, but I don’t know who else to ask.” And still Celestia kept on listening. “I guess you must find my pleas absurd, or ridicule, but it’s very important for me. I just don’t understand anymore why it had to happen that way. Why it had to happen at all. Why she did nothing to help me. Why she didn't receive me.” And again, Celestia let her talk. “I guess I came to you because for a thousand years you were the only princess in Equestria, the only one to look over us, and you always took a good care of us. I guess I just trust you more than any other princesses. More than anypony in all of Equestria.” The silence that ensued felt almost healing. It was feeling like the mare and Celestia were sharing an invisible bond in the mare’s sadness and despair. It felt great to be able to speak like that, to say what had to be said, to know a good ear is listening to you. And then, as the soft silence had finished enveloping the mare with its gentle and caring caress, Celestia asked: “Who are you again?” THE END Author's Note Okay, I guess I should explain. First, I'm very proud of how this story turned out. God I love it. Don't care how badly written it is. The challenge was enormous from my point of view and I didn't do too bad of a job for once. Second, to give some explanations: While Twilight's parents are basically non-characters in canon, it still gave me an easy hook to build off of and provided an instant reason for Twilight and her friends to be personally concerned about his fate. This comes from anowack's interview I just read a few hours ago: Anowack's interview And yes, that is why I put a link to his story in the description. It felt funny to see how right he was that we, as readers, wouldn't have felt even remotely concerned about the fate of an original character that was just introduced there in his story, in contrast to how much we begin to feel concerned when this original character becomes Twilight's father. I felt insulted, not because it's insulting (far from it, Anowack did it completely right), but because it shows something true about the human mind and my personal way to see the world. To sum it up: I don't know that person, so I don't care." I decided to explore the concept to one of its extreme, by making the reader not care whatsoever. And I took back a concept from my list of stories I wish I could write with the whole "nothing happens" idea. Also, thanks to prilla 111 for the music playlist. Now, due to how I "sold" that story, nobody will read it, and the few that would will find it confusing or badly written, they will be right and who cares? Right? This is also the reason why I didn't use that story to try the "posting chapters one after the other" thing. The ending would just be way too frustrating for anybody who would had read it that way. God I need to go to sleep...
Nothing happens the next monthFor some mysterious reason, the royal princess of friendship, princess of Equestria, alicorn, one of the most powerful being in the land and adored by all decided to go on a journey very far away from Ponyville, into the distance glacial parts of the empire, to inspect some advanced military post that had been built under the ice for a reason most ponies had forgotten since long. Applejack had decided to accompany her as she felt it was unsafe for the alicorn to go alone with Spike as she had intended to do. The ice in the north was a very dangerous part of the land after all. And it was proving true, as the three of them, Twilight, Applejack and Spike, had now been trapped for two days in a crevasse. “We should have turned left…” whispered Applejack for the hundreds time. “I know!” Spike replied. He was making sure Twilight was kept warm, as she had lost consciousness during their fall and had stayed that way since. He would have given anything he had to make her wake up. Not only because he liked her a lot, not only because he was identifying himself as her assistant and it was his duty as such to make sure she was okay, but also because he was feeling guilty for the current situation. He had been the one holding the map and the one who had insisted they turn right, which had proven a grave mistake. “How is she doing?” Applejack asked. There was no answer to be given to that question. She was breathing normally. She was warm, but there had been no way to make her drink or eat anything at all, as she was basically sleeping. Applejack walked away, looked at the walls around her, then trotted to the other side of the crevasse, looked at the walls, then came back and sat. She waited a few minutes, then went back to look at the walls everywhere, trotting in circles in a cacophony of hooves steps. She then came back to her initial spot, sat again and stood still for a good thirty minutes. “We have to move.” She finally said. “We can’t stay here.” “And how are we going to do that?” Spike asked. “We are at the bottom of a crevasse.” “I’ll carry her.” Applejack said. Spike looked at the alicorn that was sleeping under the blankets, then up at the sky far above them, then at Applejack again. It was tempting to accept. Applejack was a strong pony and could probably actually climb while carrying Twilight. At the same time, Spike couldn’t help but feel it was a very bad idea. “No.” he replied. “What if something turns wrong? What if you fall with her? What if she slips out of your grasp? She probably wouldn’t survive another fall.” “Are you saying I wouldn’t be able to climb those walls with her?” Applejack asked aggressively. “No. I’m saying it’s possible that something bad happens.” Spike replied. “Nothing bad will happen. I can take us out of here.” The farm pony stated. “You can’t be certain of that.” “Yes I can.” “No you can’t!” “So you do think I wouldn’t be able to do it. You just don’t trust me…” Applejack concluded. Spike didn’t reply. It was true. He didn’t have enough faith in the earth pony to entrust the alicorn he loved so much into her hooves. It was just too risky. He just didn’t know how he would feel if something else were to happen to Twilight. Applejack went back to sit on her usual spot and spent the next hour looking at Spike and Twilight without saying a word. Above their head, the day began to disappear, creating many shadows all around them. Spike looked around and tried to ignore his fear. But he still was afraid of the darkness. He made sure Twilight was well wrapped into the blankets, and then tried to protect himself from the cold. It soon became pitch black into the crevasse and Spike lost sight of his own claws. “Celestia help us…” he whispered. As there was nothing more to do, he slowly fell asleep, hoping to only wake up when the sun would have reappeared in the horizon. But his eyes opened again in the middle of the darkness. He looked around but saw nothing at all but black. He tried to figure out how long he had been sleeping, but couldn’t. He had no idea why he had woken up. Still, something felt very wrong. Like a six sense telling him he had to act. And act quickly. Then he heard the sound of a piece of ice falling on the ground. By reflex, Spike used his fire breath to light the place and immediately saw that Twilight had moved from the blankets to Applejack’s back, and that Applejack herself had begun to climb the walls of ice. “What are you doing?” asked Spike in panic. “Come back immediately.” “It’s the only way.” Applejack replied. “One of us had to take some sort of action. I have to do it if you won’t.” But Spike wasn’t ready to give up that easily. As Applejack was only about ten feet high, he ran and jumped to force her to come back on the ground. Applejack struggled fiercely, but suddenly lost her grasp on the piece of ice she was holding on and all three fell down. Applejack immediately got up, ready to face Spike, but the darkness hid him away from her. She heard his steps behind her, but also in front of her, and on her sides, as they were echoing due to the configuration of the ice walls. “You know we have to take her out of here. None of us is going to make it if we don’t come out of here!” Applejack shouted. “I won’t let you harm her!” replied Spike’s voice from right behind her as he jumped on her. She struggled again, but with the advantage this time as she could use all of her four hooves to fight. She achieved to make Spike let go of her and bucked him violently against the nearest wall that he hit very hard. Everything went silent again and Applejack felt completely lost in the middle of the darkness. She couldn’t find Twilight again, nor find out if Spike was okay or if she had injured him. She wasn’t even sure if she wasn’t just having a big nightmare. For a moment, she felt like she had left reality. “So you want to do this the hard way…” said Spike’s voice in the distance. Applejack felt relieved. Even if it was to threaten her, she was happy to know that Spike was feeling well enough to speak. But then, a giant green flame appeared in front of her, forcing her to step back a bit. A then another giant green flame. And a third one. Applejack hit a wall of ice behind her and felt the warmth of the fourth giant green flame. “I just wanted to help.” She tried to defend herself. “I did it for Twilight. To save her.” But Spike clearly didn’t listen to her. He breathed fire a fifth time and Applejack took the opportunity to evade it and use the light to see her target and jump on him. She hit him on the head and the fight stopped there as the dragon fell unconscious. Applejack stopped to move too. She was trembling pretty badly. It took some time for her to breath normally, and she finally checked on the dragon that was lying under her hooves. He felt alright, as he was breathing normally. She took him on her back, then began to search in the dark for Twilight. She eventually found her, as well as their bags. High above her head, the sun began to appear, very slowly, but providing a bit of light that was way better than nothing at all. Applejack tied up both Twilight and Spike to her, as she wasn’t ready to leave any of them behind and, having the advantage of seeing the wall of ice this time, began to climb while trying to ignore the weight of the alicorn and the dragon. She climbed for a good hour. She had gone almost two third of the way. But she was exhausted. She had already let the bags slip down the crevasse, as they were too heavy for her to carry at the same time she way carrying her two friends. Better sacrifice the bags than them. She put her hoof on a piece of ice that got loose and almost fell, but could keep her grasp with her other hoof and avoid it. She took a deep breath, then kept on climbing. Another piece of ice got loose under one of her back hoof, but she avoided once again the fall by pure luck. A third piece of ice almost disappeared as she was leaning on it and she soon ceased to feel the weight of the alicorn and the dragon as the sky above her began to look more distant by each passing second. At least she had tried. She could always convince herself of that. It’s not like anypony would care about it anyway. She closed her eyes, only to open them again as she was very slowly and carefully touching the ground with her hooves. She looked up and saw Twilight flapping her wings as hard as she could. The alicorn finally landed, used another spell to make check on Spike and finally turned to Applejack: “What happened?” she asked. “I…” began the earth pony. She stopped there. She had almost said “I was about to kill us all.”, but that’s something that is pretty hard to admit at any given time, no matter how true it might be. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She replied. “We have to get out of her.” “No problem.” Twilight said, as she was feeling hungry, and thirsty, and was worried about Spike, and had, to make it short, all the reasons in the world to want to go back to civilization. “Hold on!” she told her friend. A huge amount of magical energy filled the crevasse and in one magnificent flash, Twilight, Applejack and Spike simply disappeared from the crevasse, to reappear far away, in a little village at the border of the crystal empire that they had left two days ago before falling into the crevasse. They were out of danger, and Twilight decided that she preferred to face whatever was awaiting her in Ponyville than go back into the lands of ice of the north. Also, she would be glad to finally eat once again in a true restaurant from Ponyville or Canterlot. Because she was still hungry and was feeling homesick.
