My Little Pony Bizarre Adventures - Part 1: Ponyville Central

by LateBronyWriter

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Drama, Trixie, Mystery, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 340899

One Thousand years ago, the saints Celestia and Luna drew upon the power of the Red Stone of Aja to defeat the demon Discord. Now one thousand years later the Stone is destroyed, beginning the tale of six ponies and their quest to redeem the world.

The Red Stone of Aja: An object with power to transcend time and space; a power that can make one's darkest desires a reality. On the thousandth year of Nightmare Moon's Banishment Celestia after drawing upon it's divine powers to purify her sister this power is broken, dispersed across the breadth of Equestria.

Now Princess Representative Twilight Sparkle, must venture to the town of Ponyville, and with the aid of her newfound allies discover the mystery behind the Stone's power. But can she fend off the dark forces that seek the power of the Stone? Or will Equestria be returned back to the darkness from which it came?
Embrace the spirit of Romanticism!
Oh and please Like.

(P.S. JoJo's Bizarre Adventures is owned by Shueisha Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment who retain all rights and publications. My Little Pony is of course owned by Hasbro who retains all rights and publications. Support the official release or you will die around the age of eighty realizing that you have wasted your entire life.)

(P.S. In addition please don't sue me. I have no money.)

(P.S.S. Props to my Premiere Editor: Cross Lament Who I couldn't have done this without.)

(P.S.S.S.Why are you still reading this? Read the story or scroll down already!)

Published 2015-05-24 00:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-19 04:47:24 UTC

Chapter 1-Ponyville Central-Take 1

Chapter 2-Foundation

Foundation:

I never wanted this.

I never wanted my parents to die.

I never wanted to work from age thirteen for thirteen hours a day in harvest when other fowls my age were playing around and making friends.

I never wanted to have to tell my little sister why she doesn’t have a mother or father.

But most of all I never wanted to have to wait here, in the waiting room of a worn down hospital to find out how sick my baby sister really is. All while being given a run around by government type ponies rather than getting straight answers from the doctors that I have known for years Like Dr. Stable and nurse Red Heart.

The rest of the family of course wanted to come too, however we can’t leave the farm completely unstaffed even with hire-ons like Thunderlane and Carrot Top picking up the slack. Goodness knows Granny and big Mac both need their rest at this time of night.

So I did something I hate to do more than anything in the world, I lied.

I told them that it was just a bad cold that would keep her out of school for a few days tops and she would be right as rain in a few days with plenty of rest.

I told them that instead of the truth, which is ever since she go that nasty cut from that piece of a shooting star that fell in our south field she has been battling a fever that makes me afraid; Not for myself but for her.

I hate lying, I hate sitting here reading the same magazine article over and over, but more than anything I hate being so gosh darn powerless.

But if there is even a snowball’s chance in Tartarus of helping my flesh and blood than I’ll endure anything, cause if there is one thing I am it’s the most reliable of ponies.

And that’s because when it comes to the important things in life, I never back down, I never give up, and I walk to the end of the earth if I have to; all to see to it the job gets done.

“Number fifty six, Number fifty six, the Government reprehensive will now meet with you, once again the Government representative Twilight Sparkle will now meet with you.”

My name is Applejack and I’m about to get some answers.

……………….

Slumping out of her chair a orange earth pony mare with a purposeful look in her eyes stares that the slip of paper that she was given when she asked to meet the pony ‘in charge’. Satisfied that she is indeed the pony whose turn it is, she picks up her hat, a worn brown Stetson and parks it on her head with a sigh “Give me a Break…….”

The orange well-built farm mare slips the hat on her head like she had done it a million times before, her dark green eyes narrowing as she glances towards the double doors in front of her that lead to the inner labyrinth of the hospital. Her golden blond mane thought obscured by her hat and untrimmed still reflects light with a golden hue as even her blond tail seems to reflect an inner light. Her Cutie mark, that of a trio of Apples, marks her as not only a farmer, but a member of the illustrious Apple family, a family known throughout Equestria for their strength, endurance and adamant personalities that could move the earth itself with their sheer stubbornness.

Narrowing her gaze towards the double doors that she was told to enter when her number was called the mare paces forward. Yet despite her eagerness and endless frustration at the night’s events the mare manages a leisurely gait towards the door as if her sister’s life didn’t currently hang in the balance. Pushing aside the double doors with a glancing shove from her hoof, Applejack walks inside to the hospital proper to see an unfamiliar face if ever there was one. A purple unicorn mare with a cutie mark of a sparkling purple star whose demeanor and behavior practically scream high class canterlot stands talking to one of the many extra doctors that were ‘reassigned’ to ponyville following the  mysterious outbreak that had affected her sister. Walking right up to the new faces in the middle of the hall Applejack clears her throat, not willing to wait any longer for bureaucratic processes to claim more of her time. Only for her voice to go ignored by the two ponies who are currently engaged in a heated conversation.

“….. and make sure that the youngest of the patients receives the best of the medicines.” The purple mare orders.

“And as I said before Mrs. Twilight.” The grey unicorn stallion with a black mane claims as he pushes up his glasses on his face. “You may have been directly assigned to this little burg by the princess. But I am a senior doctor from the RSD, who in case you didn’t realize specializes in these kinds of cases.”

“Your status doesn’t mean a thing here Doctor.” The unicorn snaps back.  “We aren’t here to progress any agendas, our only goal should be to help those ponies. So I am ordering you to get these civilians the best of the medicines from Canterlot, NO excuses.”

Countering back the doctor gets up in the mare’s face as he too refuses to give any ground “Now who is trying to pull rank? As I already tried to explain to you Mrs. Twilight, we need to conserve the best of the medicines if the situation changes. Rationing the rarest of the medicines and only using them when absolutely necessary should be our policy not doling them out on every John Doe.”

Before the unicorn mare can retort she is cut off by another loud throat clearing noise that draws their attention to the orange mare that has seemingly appeared out of thin air. “Pardon me there, DOC.” Her voice dripping with enmity “But from what ah was gatherin there, yawl were talkin about denying yer patients, patients like my sister, the treatment they need, cause of some issues of supply an demand?”

The doctor sneers at her allegations. “Humph I wouldn’t expect some…. Some…. What is it you do for a living Mrs…….”

“Applejack, Mah name’s Applejack and yes, Ah’m a farmer.”

The doctor grins evilly “oh yes a farmer, forgive my impudence Mrs. Applejack but I wouldn’t expect a lowly farmer to understand the nuances of advanced medicine. You see….”

“Ah don’t need to see to tell a snake from a sheep, Mr. ‘I’m too good for other ponies’.” A Sly grin crosses the mare’s face “Ah just thought the ‘lowly farmers’ and common ponies of this town would feel about yer ‘rationing’ of medicines when their loved ones are sick.”

The doctor’s pale coat turns even paler “That would be a gross breach of contract to reveal that information. I’ll have you know that violating the nation of Equestrian’s secrets can elicit a penalty ranging anywhere from….”

“That ‘lowly farmer’ is right Doctor Healthy Flesh.” The Purple unicorn interrupts. “And you were right about one thing, I am pulling rank. Celestia the monarch of the sun put me in charge of the patients in this town and if I even hear a whisper that you are denying any one of them the best treatment that you have to offer, you will be cleaning medical supplies by hoof for the rest of your life.”

The previously overconfident doctor visibly blanches at this threat, fumbling with any proper response. “But… I was….. Special clearance…….. And…….”

“Do I make myself clear?” The unicorn finishes

Grimacing at the trap he has now found himself in the doctor suppresses his rising anger as he hides behind his own indifference. “Fine Mrs. Twilight, since you are pulling your rank, I guess I have no choice but to follow your lead….. For now.” The doctor backs of as he begins to trot away from the purple mare. “But if we run out of supplies before the day ends don’t come crying to me!” The doctor unceremoniously flees the scene of his defeat allowing the purple mare the space to breathe.

“Whew. That was exhausting;” Twilight clutches her chest as she begins to breathe freely for the first time that night. “I have to deal with dozens of concerned family members and now this. Forgive me for the ‘esteemed doctor’s’ behavior.” The Purple mare extends her hoof to the orange mare in front of her “my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight Sparkle?” The orange farmer asks as she cocks her eye at the mare before her. “Are you sure it ain't Twibright Sparkle?”

“Urgh?! Why do ponies here always think that?” Twilight asks with a twinge of frustration “Is there a Twibright Sparkle here in ponyville or something? I swear you’re like the fourth pony to make that mistake.” The unicorn states with her hoof still outstretched a small smile crossing her face demonstrating the fact that she is pleased to meet a new pony. “No, my name is Twilight Sparkle, I’m the newly appointed princess representative here in ponyville.”

Looking suspiciously at the hoof for a few seconds, Applejack swallows her suspicions of the unicorn before her and shakes hooves in a dignified and proper way “Applejack, Proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres.”

Breaking their hoof shake, the unicorn puts on her best face as she tries to make a positive impression on the embittered pony in front of her. “Well Applejack let me be the first to assure you that whoever your friend, coworker, family member, or significant other is, they are currently receiving the best treatment in Equestria right now.” Twilight walks down the hall as the farmer mare follows on her heals. “The moment that we heard about this epidemic that is going around, we allocated spare doctors and medical supplies from canterlot to better face the problem at hand. I can assure you that we have everything under control.”

“Everythin under control hunh….” The orange mare muses “that’s pretty good considerin yawl arrived not a few hours ago.”

Twilight beams with pride at this compliment as she trots down the hall “what can I say? We move fast when our subjects are in danger. It’s one of the great things about Equestrian healthcare.”

 “……And yawl received news of this here, epidemic when was it? Like I said yawl moved awful fast.”

Twilight’s pace slows to a crawl as she struggles to properly answer the Orange mare’s accusations “He He….. well we received news from scrying pool sometime this morning so we just got everything together and rushed over here as soon as we heard how bad it was here in Ponyville.”

“That’s mighty impressive!” Applejack says with mock gratitude “Ah mean, the day that an outbreak happens yawl just happen to respond in under half a day. I mean I knew that Canterlot doctors were fast but whoee, that’s really fast.”

The purple mare stops in her tracks as she begins to break down in the face of Applejack’s piercing insinuations. “Well…. That is…….. Canterlot doctors are just better! I mean it is the capital of our kingdom for a reason after all!”

Applejack giver the purple filly a deadpan stare, it is obvious as the hat on her head that she is not buying any of what Twilight is selling “Shug, let’s quit the act and stop talking turkey like this.”

“What?” the shock on Twilight’s face is readily apparent “I mean whatever do you mean Applejack? I’m not talking like a turkey! Turkey gobble, I’m a pony not a turkey! I know let’s check on your sister, that will dissuade any further questions! I mean that will…...”

Applejack rolls her eyes not knowing what is worse, the mare’s blatant lies or the fact that the mare in front of her was about as bad as a liar as she was. “Yawl are a terrible liar and an even worse pony if you can keep the truth from us common ponies like we’re stupid or somthin.” In the wake of the unicorn’s weakness Applejack decides to push the advantage of her intimidating presence. “Now hurry up an spill! What’s’ really goin on round here! Ah’m a tax payin citizen and ah reserve the right ta know what’s’ goin on around here!”

“What!? I’m not a bad pony…….” The mare states as she is mentally backed into a corner, flashbacks of her failure with the Red Stone demolishing her self-esteem as she tries to repel the Farmers’ sharpened words.

The sudden meek response of the unicorn in front of her makes the farmer realize painfully that she might have pushed the mare too hard. With a steady deep breath farm mare quiets her growing rage as she prepares to discuss things like a civil pony. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to insult ya none. I’m sure that yawl are at least better than that snobby doctor I just met. However it’s clear as the blue sky that Yawl are hiding somthin from the common ponies, and that somthin is currently threatening the life of my little sister.”

“H-h-h-hiding something?” Twilight asks fearful of discovery “What do you mean?”

Raising her voice ever so slightly, just enough to display urgency the orange mare counters “I mean this whole setup here! First off all tha normal doctors are replaced with these here shifty canterlot types, and now the entire hospital is guarded by the soldiers and all the medical staff that weren’t kicked ta the curb are as silent as a mouse in the cupboard.”

Twilight attempts to counter with a well-rehearsed bluff “That is because the princess is very worried that this infection will spread to others in the town. She’s just making all the efforts necessary to insure that the ponies in the town are safe.”

“And about all that sudden help.” Raising her voice even more. “An infection breaks out infecting tens of ponies in a single day, directly after that little light show in canterlot.  And not a day later doctors arrive even before news reaches canterlot ready to ‘help out’.”

Twilight literally backs herself up against the wall as her arguments fall completely apart. “Well… that’s…..”

“AND FINALLY!” Applejack practically shouts “The Apple Family is known for being as strong as the earth itself. I got the pony pox when I was six and I was back up on my hooves in under two days. This ‘little pandemic’ must be something deathly powerful if it can make one of our kin this sick.”

Applejack presses her muzzle directly up to Twilight pressing her further into the wall “Now I’ll give ya one chance ta come clean. What is mah sister, my flesh and blood really sick with, what crazy magic ya unicorns conjured up is responsible for this, and just what in the hay are you covering up. Talk darn you or so help me…..”

Twilight babbles incoherently at Applejack’s scathingly accurate observations, as she struggles to find a story that will convince the orange mare of her good intentions. Perhaps had the situation gone on a brief few seconds longer, Twilight might have spilled the beans on everything and things would have been different. However just as the purple mare was beginning to crack the orange farm mare was sent falling back on her flank by a sudden blow. Her Stetson flying in the air as the but of a guard pony’s spear comes to rest on Applejack’s chest pinning her to the ground.

Dressed in the armor of the solar guard a pegasus mare with a mane of various yellows stands over the orange pegisi glaring down at her with piercing yellow eyes. Her helm though obscuring most of her face cannot obscure her hostile gaze or hide her light green coat well brushed and maintained even after long hours. Her cutie make that of a lightning bolt surrounded by stars stands as a testament to her speed and suddenness of her arrivals as well as her powerful blows. With flair the mare flips the spear around pointing the business end of her spear at the orange mare's’ throat in a display of her power over the hostile threat beneath her.  “I’d keep your hooves off of the princess’s personal protégé if I were you. The penalty for assaulting nobility is usually one hundred hours community service minimum, and that’s if you’re lucky.” Turning her head to face the recovering purple mare “Sorry for not arriving sooner Mam, I’ll get rid of this troublemaker now.”

Straightening her head out and now able to think clearly after being mentally and physically backed into a corner Twilight rises to her hooves. “No…. that’s not necessary Sergeant Lightning Dust. I can handle this from here.”

The solder chafes at this, glaring at the orange mare with an even more hostile stare “Permission to speak freely Mam? This mare is a troublemaker who just assaulted you; she is an obvious threat and needs to at least be taught a lesson against assaulting ponies in clear view of the guard.”

“……. Dismissed Sergeant”

“But Mam!” Lightning Protests.

 Walking over to the orange mare lying on the ground Twilight begins to speak “this mare is just concerned about her family she’s just distressed and worried.” Twilight pushes the spear away from applejack’s chest with a brief push of her magic “you can understand how that feels can’t you?”

Looking at the orange mare with a slightly softer look in her eyes the mare suddenly breaks out in a snide smirk “looks like you get off easy, farmer. It’s a good thing the princess’s protégé is a kinder mare than me.” Removing her spear from Applejack’s’ chest she returns to her normal guard pose. “However don’t let it get to your head, I’ve got my eye on you and this spear isn’t for show.” Saluting sharply to the purple mare the Pegasus dismisses herself, her cutie mark rippling along with her toned flank as she trots out of sight.

Applejack rubs her throat where the point of a spear was a few moments ago as she rises to her hooves. Internally she thanks her lucky stars that Twilight was forgiving like that. As much as she hated to admit it that guard was right, that was far too out of character for her to just back a mare into a wall simply because she was being lied to. Just as she is about to apologize to the purple mare for her behavior and thank her she is cut off by an apology, from the mare she just offended, to her.

“Sorry about that.” The unicorn states “Lightning Dust is a good soldier and she means well despite her demeanor, she was just trying to do her job.” The unicorn lifting the orange mare’s Stetson off the ground as she presents the hat as a peace offering to the orange farmer.

Picking up the Stetson in her grip the mare puts it on her head “thank ya kindly Twilight.”

“Don’t mention it Applejack.” The purple mare gives a warm smile “Forgiving others is a part of life. I just hope that you can forgive me….” The mare lowers her head in shame rubbing her arm “You see…..  You are right Applejack; I am hiding something from you about what is going on, something that I can’t tell you about. No matter what.”

“What?!” the farm pony is surprised at the mare’s sudden confession. She expected after that display of her authority, that she would cling to her story like a captain clings to their sinking ship. Instead the purple unicorn in front of her came out and openly confessed to lying, even when she could have easily gotten away with it.

 “But I promise you Applejack, your sister will be fine. I give you my word, not the word of a government employee, that she will be fine.” Twilight crosses her heart “That is all that you need to know right now.”

Stunned by the sudden truthfulness of a mare she has just met, a mare she has wronged, the orange mare stares into Twilight’s eyes, searching for a confirmation of her words. She wants to believe the promise of the purple mare she’s’ just met; she wants to blindly believe that she sister will recover. However years of being able to tell a fib from the kernel of truth and the uncertain look in the unicorn’s eyes tell her all she needs to know.

“Horse Apples.”

“What?”

“Ah said Horse apples Twi.” The orange mare states “Twi it may not be the best policy in every situation I know, but I am a mare that needs the truth. Ah can’t just stomach yawl telling me what I want ta hear just cause I’m concerned about my sis. Ah don’t want some government horse apples, I want the truth, no matter how painful it might be. And if yawl respect me than you’ll give me it.”

Applejack looks into her eyes “Do you have a sibling?” she asks almost pleadingly.

“Yes….. Yes applejack I do.” The mare replies.

“Then yawl understand that I need to hear how my sister is doing, an what’s goin on with her, not some false assurances. Please.”

They both stare each other down for a few seconds neither one willing to break under the pressure of the other’s argument. However eventually Twilight caves in to Applejack’s demands, sighing deeply as she prepares to become the bearer of bad news. “Your sister’s name is Apple Bloom, correct?”

The look of sadness in the purple mare’s eyes almost stops Applejack’s heart cold in its tracks “Ye…. Yes.”

“Your sister…… like all the other ponies here has experienced an adverse reaction to a magical substance that is a matter of national security.” She breathes in deeply as she prepares to deliver more bad news “Her condition was….. bad…… so we, in order to better treat her……”

“Yea? Spit it out!” the orange mare wrings her hat in dreadful anticipation.

Twilight fumbles with the next words choosing every one carefully “So…. We put her into a magical induced coma in order to better treat her.”

Applejack’s heart stops. All her vital reactions slow as her mind tries to vaguely comprehend the magnitude of what she has just heard. The first stable thought that passes through her mind is one that chills her soul down to the bone ‘my sister may never wake up again’.

As if sensing the mare’s internal turmoil the Purple mare rambles on “It’s only a temporary procedure Applejack!” she shakes the shocked mare with her hooves to bring her out of her stupor “She is fine your sister is fine! We just put her into a deep sleep to slow her conditions until we acquire more medicine for the patients to better treat their conditions. Once she is better stabilized we can work on bringing her out of the coma, all we need is a few more pounds of poison joke in order produce more of the medicine, I promise.”

At the mention of this applejack’s shocked mind immediately snaps back into the conscious world “Then we Just need more of that plant?!? If we had more of that poison joke plant, mah sister would be okay?”

Now it is Twilight being shaken by a fanatic Applejack her head being shaken back and forth by Applejack’s sudden display of strength. “Y-y-y-yes A-a-a-a-applejack, stop sha-a-a-a-aking, m-m-m-me-e-e-e.”

The orange mare relinquishes her hold “That’s better and yes Applejack the poison Joke is a light blue flower with dark blue marking that has many mysterious powers.” Twilight repeats as if reading the response from a textbook “If brewed properly the transformative nature of the plant can be made to better combat changes in magical auras. Once we gather more of it we can begin better treating the patients.”

Applejacks’ body surges with hope. “Then we just need to gather more of that there flower! I’ll gather up members of the town and we’ll gather it lickedy split!”

Applejack is about to turn and run out but is stopped by Twilight’s telekinetic aura grabbing her by the tail “NO! Applejack, you can’t just go running around rallying up the town to search for Poison joke, the flower is rare and only found consistently in a few difficult to reach places.”

“Like where?” the pleading mare asks “where can it be found? I’ll go get it, you name the place an I’ll be there!”

Twilight gulps “W-Well applejack the nearest place, that is the place that you could conceivably reach within the shortest amount of time is……”

“Yea? Spit it out filly!”

The unicorn gulps again “the Everfree Forest.”

Applejack’s blood runs cold “the Everfree forest?” The mare asks with a twinge of fear “Like the same everfree forest that is filled with quicksand, and timberwolves and poisonous plants and…. “Applejack nearly passes out as she mentions the next part “Manticore?”

“Yes.” Twilight nods her head as she prepares to deliver even more bad news. “That’s why I didn’t want you rallying up the town’s ponies or tell them that we need more of the flower to treat their loved ones. The Everfree is a dangerous place Applejack. For Any pony that is not completely prepared, it would be suicide to walk into its depths, especially now that night has fallen.”

Applejack falls to her flank in despair as tears begin to fall gently from her eyes. In an act of almost divine irony the farm mare was told her sister was dying and shown the smallest light of hope, only for it to be extinguished before her very eyes. It is a level of despair that few should ever know.

“I’m sorry Applejack.” Twilight apologies knowing her words are an empty balm for the mare in front of her. “I’ve already assigned a contingent of the guard to scour the forest in the morning to search for more Poison Joke. Until then you should go home and get some rest.”

“So…. So there’s nothing that I can do?” the mare sobs “there’s no medicine for mah sister?”

Twilight nods “It’s why the flower is in so high demand, it’s almost impossible to cultivate the plant in natural settings and due the great demand across Equestria we have almost none of it here. We have to ration what little of it we have for the most high profile cases, and those who need it the most.”

Applejack’s ears perk up at this the sorrow in her blood begins to take on a new form that of anger. “Those who need it the most hunh? So my sister who’s in a coma right now doesn’t fit on that list?” Applejack asks menacingly.

“What? No Applejack of course all patients get the best treatment it’s just some ponies need more treatment than others and….”

 “So mah little sister isn’t a ‘high enough’ priority for her to get the best treatment?” Applejack growls.

“What? No applejack that’s not what I…”

Backing Twilight into a corner Applejack gets into her face with all the aggression of a raging bull is it because we’re ‘lowly farmers’ that we ain't getting the proper care!?  We all get pushed off to the side while you the fancy government unicorn gets to decide who gets treated while others like my sister are dying!”

The Unicorn begins to visibly cry at this point “A-Applejack, Please….”

“Shut UP!” Applejack screams as she stomps her hoof into the ground “Ah know yer type Sparkle. Yer just another callous stuck up unicorn from canterlot that thinks that she can tell all us ‘common folk’ what to do cause she’s naturally better than anypony else!!”

Twilight falls to the floor under, her legs losing their support under Applejack‘s allegations “A-A-Ap-p-p-plejack……”

 “Does playing with our lives give ya a thrill? Does it?!?”

Suddenly for the second time that night Applejack’s rant is cut off by the well placed but of a spear that knocks her flat on her back. Standing in front of the sobbing mare Lightning dust stares the farmer down with anger equal in intensity to the anger Applejack had displayed moments prior.  “Mam, you may have told me to let you handle this, but from the look of it you were handling it poorly.”

Taking a menacing step towards the orange mare she strikes an aggressive pose, her wings unfurled as if she were prepared to strike the farmer down at a moment’s notice. “Now you, the farmer with an attitude problem. Harming a government official is a serious crime as I stated before. So if you are aiming to start a fight then I can oblige you, if not then get the buck out of here, and leave Miss Twilight alone.”

Raising from the floor the orange mare straightens her Stetson as she stares at the Solar guard. “That’s fine then, cause ah was just leavin.”

Turning towards the double doors that lead to the lobby Applejack walks towards them with the same controlled gait at which she entered as she prepares to leave the hospital behind. However just as she reaches the door she turns her head to look behind her, her eyes locking with the Purple unicorn mare whose eyes are still dripping with tears. Then not willing to stay a second longer Applejack walks out the swinging door leaving behind the scene of her shame.

……………………………………….

“STUPID STUPID APPLEJACK! Why in Tartarus did ya go an do that!” the farm mare berates herself as she walks the long dirt road home; The cold night air doing nothing to alleviate her fiery anger at herself and the world.

“She was just tryin ta help and what do yawl do? Ya blow up in her face not once but twice!” She bucks a tree off to her side casing the wood on it to splitter and crack from the force of her blow.

“Shoot ya even forgot to give her that piece of the shootin star ya got from Applebloom!” fumbling through her apple emblem saddle bag, she produces a small black stone with jagged edges that seem to glisten in the moonlight.

“Maybe had ya given it ta the fancy doctors then they might have been able to help her better, but no! Ya plumb forgot on account that ya have pa’s fiery temper!” Putting the stone back in her bag the mare walks along the fence posts that border her property slightly relieved that she has finally reached home. The mare sighs heavily as she trots along the path leading up to her house, utterly disgusted in herself as she slowly stews in her own guilt and self-loathing.

Finally after what seems like days she reaches the gate to her home, the sign ‘Sweet Apple Acers’ clearly visible in the moonlight. “Well home sweet home as they say.” Suddenly Applejack’s hoof stops mid stride as she realizes that she returned without Applebloom her thoughts reeling as she realizes that she is the one who will have to explain why she hadn’t come home with her. She knows now she will have to explain to the other members of the loving family why her sister has neglected to return home with her.

Applejack collapses in the dust, face dripping with tears as she finally begins to release all the pent up anger and sadness that had been brewing in her. Applejack cries, she cries for her losing herself to her anger, she cries for lying to her family, but most of all she cries to herself for once again being so powerless in a hostile world that seems dead set to destroy her. She sobs in the dust as she finally raises her eyes to the stars above her the brightest ones that are still clear enough to be seen in the glow of the moonlight. “Ah’ve already lost mah parents! Do ya want mah sister now? What’s next?!? Mah farm? Big mac? Granny? mah friends?”

Applejack screams up to the sky “What more da ya what from me?!?” Applejack snivels as she is greeted to her questions by the same thing she has always been greeted with whenever she asked life why it could be so unfair, silence.

Wiping her eyes with her hoof Applejack finally picks herself off the ground “heh, it’s not like I was expectin an answer or nothing…..” adjusting her Stetson applejack prepares to walk through the door when for the first time in her life she is answered.

………To be strong.

All the hairs on applejack’s neck stand on end as a mysterious voice seems to emanate from nowhere. Her body freezing in place “what!?”

The world, and the ponies in it, wish for you to be strong. That is why tragedy befalls you mare of apples.

Spinning around the mare tries to locate the source of the voice that has decided to speak to her. “Who’s there? Come out where ah can see ya!”

You call yourself the most trustworthy of ponies and you are correct for you are a foundation upon which others can base themselves. You are a pillar of strength in hard times, and that is why trouble seems drawn to you, because you alone can endure it.

The mare wheels around again backing up past the gate to her property, confusion taking the place of the surprise that dominated before. “Who’s there? What are ya doing on mah land?”

If you wish to be the kind of pony that others can depend upon you must be like a rock in a stream, unmoving to the trials the world throws at you.

The mare spins around and around, the source of the voice seeming to elude her as she tries to find the source of the wisdom seemingly coming from nowhere. “Who’s there? Show yourself!”

You must find your own resolve and found yourself on the rock that is your resolve. Only then will you possess a firm foundation which cannot be moved in times of trouble. Only then will you be strong.

“AH said who’s WOAH!” the mare shouts out, succumbing to her circling around herself as she falls flat on her flank in the dust. Scrambling around on the ground in surprise, her saddle bags fly open from the force of her fall sending her personal effects skidding across the ground. Spitting out the dust from the road for a few moments Applejack jumps to her hooves again her face a mask of anger and confusion.

“Ah won’t ask again! Who’s there?!” Yet once again as before the mare is only greeted by silence.

“Now I may be a patient mare but I won’t take being made a fool of, I’ve had a rough day so yawl come out NOW!” silence again.

“…..hello?” once again only silence greets applejack as her pulse returns to normal.

Applejack breathes out a nervous sigh of relief “Heh, I really be plumb tired. Now I’m hearin things when no pony’s there.” Applejack takes one last look around seeing the various items that have spilled out of her saddle pack lying on the ground. Apples for a snack, Applebloom’s medical records, and various pieces of garbage litter the ground beneath her.

“Heh, look at me chasing after voices in the dark like this, ah must be crazy.” Applejack states to herself as she begins to pick up her lost items.

Finally she manages to pick out the last of the items of the ground, the strange piece of stone Applebloom discovered as she holds it cautiously in her hoof “seriously ah may even need ta get mahself...… checked out….” The stone in Applejack’s hoof, as if possessing a life of its own slowly moves on her hoof inching towards the path lying in front of her. And looking up from her hoof Applejack can clearly see the direction the path leads in, the Everfree Forest. Yet even with the dark forest in front of her the stone moving on her palm seems to be pointing unflinchingly towards the path ahead of the mare without wavering in the slightest.

‘The Everfree is a dangerous place Applejack.’ Twilight’s voice courses though Applejack’s head ‘For Any pony that is not completely prepared, it would be suicide to walk into its depths, especially now that night has fallen.’

Looking behind her Applejack glimpses for the first time the fork in the road that she had never noticed before. One path, the road to sweet apple aches, the road home. There she can close her eyes for a moment and forget the tragedy of the world around her. There she can wait for her sister to hopefully recover while she lies safe in her bed.

And on the other road, the path to the Everfree, a forest filled to the brim with hundreds and hundreds of the most vicious monsters known to Ponykind. But at the same time it is the path that holds a chance, the smallest of chances, of helping her sister recover, of seeing her sisters’ smiling face once more.

Applejack looks back and forth between the two paths each one holding possibilities that could decide her fate. “Give me a Break……..” Applejack straightens her Stetson on her head “Like there was any choice in the matter anyways.” Mustering up all her courage and resolve applejack stuffs the stone back in her pack and bolts at the fastest speed that she can manage down the path leading straight into the heart of The Everfree Forest.

…………………………….

At the same time walking down the hallways of the nearly empty hospital, Twilight sparkle is faring little better than she was two hours ago. Her mane is disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, her body jittery from several dozen cups of coffee and her attitude sour from a long day’s work, far past her bedtime. Her sour attitude not just the result of a long day but also the fact that the hospital will soon run out of the much needed medical supplies without a resupply by next day’s end. Yet these things are far easier to deal with than the still lingering words left by a mare she might have called friend.

‘Yawl are a terrible liar and an even worse pony if you can keep the truth from us common ponies like we’re stupid or somthin’

“No, I don’t think I’m better than any pony.” The purple mare tries to assure herself  “I didn’t mean to lie; I just had to, for the Princess.”

‘Ah know yer type Sparkle Yer just another callous stuck up unicorn from canterlot that thinks that she can tell all us ‘common folk’ what to do cause she’s naturally better than anypony else.’

“NO! I’m not a bad pony! I’m just……. Just trying my best to help every pony that I can…..”

‘Does playing with our lives give ya a thrill? Does it?!?’

Finally Twilight sparkle has had enough and with a single deft blow she slams her head into the wall in front of her. Her head throbs from the impact however for the price of being able to purge her mind of the infecting thoughts, it was well worth it.

“Ms.?” A nearby doctor walks up to the disturbed mare “Are you okay?”

Waving her hoof in an assuring fashion the unicorn responds “I’m fine nurse Fair Weather, just a little distracted. You can carry on now.”

“As you say milady.” The nurse bows and without another word walks off.

Finally able to breathe again Twilight stares in her reflection in the glass window to her side and is greeted by her horrid reflection. “Eek. No wonder the nurse asked if I was okay. I look worse than the time my brother told me that changelings laid their eggs in pony’s stomachs while they slept.” Twilight chuckles as she remembers the panic she instilled in the castle when she, a twelve year old filly, triggered the emergency wards and locked down the palace under the guise that changelings were infiltrating canterlot.

Conjuring up a steady glow of her magic the adept magi straightens her mane, clears the bang from under her eyes and soothes her rumpled coat as she grooms herself after a stressful day. Finally after five minutes her reflection is back to her good old self. Twilight smiles that at least one thing has gone right today. “Okay, Twilight focus. There are still patients who need your amazing supervision skills. Get it together.” Recalling an exercise taught to her by Celestia, twilight raises her hoof to her chest and breathes in. As she slowly extends her hoof she breathes out, falling into a steady, relaxing rhythm.

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe o- BOOM!

Before the mare can even respond she is bowled over flat on her back by a pink torpedo that pops out of nowhere. “HI THERE! I’M PINKIE PIE!”

“Guhhh!” Twilight screams in terror as she thinks of calling for backup to protect her fragile body from further assault.

 However much to Twilight's’ apparent relief the mare standing on top of her seems to be anything but a threat. Her cotton candy pink coat, silky smooth to the touch seems to be wilder and haphazard as a fox in a hen house. While her matching Pink mane, so wild and curled that Twilight believes that it has never been brushed a day in her life, bobs up and down with every single movement the pony makes. Her Cutie mark, that of a trio of balloons designate her as some kind of ‘super-duper party pony’ informing any pony that stares at her flank that her goal in life is to have a blast. Yet the earth pony mare’s most distinguishing feature is her smile, a broad cheerful and brutally honest that says to the world “I am genuinely happy just to be alive, and there’s nothing you can do to take that away.”

However even Twilight’s razor sharp mind is having trouble thinking while the pink mare above her rants on with the speed and careful foresight of a summer thunderstorm.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay, not from the flying tackle to the ground but from the saddies that you were going through. I was bouncing in the cool night air when my pinkie sense told me that some pony was feeling crummy. My pinkie sense is always right and it told me that you were feeling crummy so I WOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHed right on over to cheer you up because I’m pinkie and I love to see ponies smile on the inside and on the outside. And not on the inside in the literal sense because I got in real trouble for that when I tried to swallow a pair of dentures.  What I really mean I want my smiles to come from the heart because if you aren’t smiling in your heart then you aren’t smiling at all. So annnnnnyyyyyyyways are you smiling in your heart?

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.” Twilight’s one in a million genius mind falls to pieces as she tries to comprehend what the pink disaster is saying “I’m sorry, can you go back to the part where you said that you swallowed a pair of dentures.”

“YEEPERS! I certainly did, you see old mr Flanagan was having a ‘I got a new pair of dentures party’ so I decided to try and swallow a pair of those chattering dentures that are SO funny so that when I broke out into a musical number I could open my mouth and they would be sitting on my tongue! That would have been a riot! But it actually turned into a riot when the chattering dentures got a taste for pony blood and went on a rampage of death. Cause that’s what I do I throw parties for all the ponies of ponyville, HEY you may be able to help me out with something mrs. ‘I’m not sad anymore’.”

“uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh.”

“Come on it's real simple!” Pulling out a magnifying glass from her hair the mare scours the surrounding room with the precision of an ace detective in a dime store novel. “My pinkie sense told me that there’s a new pony in town! And not a new pony in the sense of all the guards and doctors that are here to treat all the sick ponies cause I already threw them a party with lots of cake!”

‘hummmmm so that’s why the entire break room was covered in frosting. And silly me I thought it was a prank to spite me. Instead it was just an out of control hyperactive party machine.’ Twilight muses cynically.

Leaning in as close as physics will allow the pony puts her magnifying glass directly up to twilight’s muzzle. “So have you seen any new pony around here? Is she hiding from me? I just want to throw her a party? Why is she hiding from me?!”

‘I can think of half a dozen reasons why a pony would be hiding from you’ clearing her throat Twilight responds “well I don’t know if you are looking for a pony that is moving here with your ‘pinkie sense’.” Twilight makes air quotes to emphasize how ridiculous it is that a pony could have a sense that could detect new ponies. “But I am a princess Representative staying here in ponyville for an extended period of time, or at least until all the patients are better and……. other business has been taken care of.”

The pink party pony’s face beams as she points at the lavender unicorn. “SOOOOOOOOOOOO you’re the new pony!”

And in the space of time of hearing those five words, Twilight sparkle, genius realizes that she has just made a terrible mistake. “Wait hold on there Pinkie!”

Pulling out no less than an entire carnival style wagon, four flippers, a pair of fake mustache glasses and a small toothless alligator from out of thin air the party pony beams with joy. “Do ya hear that gummy? A new guest for ponyville! And you know what that means!”

“no……” twilight stares in abject terror at Pinkie pie.

“That means we get to sing our patented ‘WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY SONG’!” Pulling out a tuba from behind her back the party mare fills her lungs to the brim as she prepares to blow the loudest most offensive sound known to musical instruments. Thankfully however before the offending note could be blown the mouth of the pink pony finds itself zipped shut by a magical zipper, courtesy of none other than Twilight Sparkle.

“Pinkie pie was it?” Twilight asks with the level of care a bomb maker might use. “Look I know you just want to make me feel better, but this is a hospital and it’s the middle of the night! In case you didn’t know ponies are sick and need their rest and the doctors here don’t need any of your distractions!”

Unzipping her magically sealed mouth Pinkie pie continues her tirade “But you HAVE to have a party! If you don’t have a ‘welcome to ponyville party’ how will you make friends! Or eat cake? Or eat cake while making friends?!”

Twilight gapes at the pink mare “how did you…… that spell was one of my highest silencing spell and you just……”

“Come on there Grumpy Mc. Grumpy pants!” Pinkie drapes her free arm around the mare. “This your first chance to have a real pinkie pie party! Come on It’ll be fun! I’ll make sure that it’s super quiiiiiiieeeeeeeet……” Preparing to blow another note on her Tuba the brass instrument is suddenly yanked out of the pink mare’s hooves and thrown off to the side by Twilight’s telekinesis.

“NO Pinkie Pie!” the purple mare yells “No parties, no music, no….. no…… nonsense... I have an important job to do here and ponies’ lives depend upon me and the decisions that I make. The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends! I don’t have time for silly parties and the ponies that throw them! I can’t…… I can’t be callous to the needs of others….. not anymore.”

Pinkie Pie visibly deflates at Twilight’s sudden statement, her mane losing its ordinary bounce and luster “oh…… I see.” The mare removes the flippers and the fake mustache glasses and with a halfhearted nudge pushes the cart off screen. “I understand, you just have too many important things to waste time with silly party ponies and their silly parties.” Pinkie Pie sighs as she prepares to walk off. “I’ll leave you alone then. Sorry for bothering you…..”

Seeing the normally happy mare this distraught fills Twilight’s heart with a sense of sorrow. Yet what stings even more is the fact that once again her words have hurt a pony who was only trying their best to help. Suddenly a great idea comes to Twilight, causing a deep smile to cross her muzzle “Wait! Pinkie!”

The pink mare’s appearance visibly brightens as her hair returns to its normal fluffy appearance “Yes Twilight! Did you change your mind about the party?”

Twilight shakes her head “no Pinkie, like I said I’m very busy.”

The party pony lowers her head again “oh..…”

“But there is a pony that I know that really needs some cheering up right now.” Twilight turns over to the clock on the adjacent wall. “Well not right now because it’s in the middle of the night, but you get the idea. Her sister is really sick and I may have hurt her feelings. Could you do me a favor and cheer her up for me?”

Pinkie Pie spirit fills with happiness at the idea of cheering up a depressed pony “You bet! What’s her name?”

“Her name is Applejack, and she lives in Sweet Apple Aches. If you could go by in the morning or just whenever and cheer her up that would make me feel a whole lot better.”

Pinkie laughs at this “Silly filly, Applejack isn’t at Sweet Apple Acers right now!”

“Really?” Twilight asks with a curious expression “I thought for sure she lived at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“She does! But I just saw her running into the Everfree Forest not too long ago, so technically Applejack isn’t at Sweet Apple Acres now, she’s in the Everfree Forest!” The pink pony bops herself on the head in a cute manner that completely ignores the fearful expression covering every inch of Twilight’s face. “Silly me! I forgot the reason that I came to the hospital in the first place was to get some medical supplies for Applejack including some manticore antivenin! My pinkie sense told me I would really need it. So I whipped over here and ran into you! Funny story hunh?”

Twilight turns pale as she thinks of Applejack wandering into those cursed woods in the dead of night. “The Everfree Forest? You saw Applejack run into the Everfree Forest?”

“Yep!”

“The same perilous forest covered in head to hoof in ravenous hungry animals and various dangerous forms of flora and fauna?!”

“Yep!”

“AND YOU DIDN”T TELL ME SOONER?!?”

Pinkie rubs her hoof on her chin “Well, it’s like you said, you have all this important stuff that you are doing here, so I thought that I would be rude to interrupt you. Plus this way we get to advance the plot!”

“Just what are you…. Never mind it’s not important! Because right now Applejack has gone into the everfree forest, and it’s all my fault.” Twilight stomps the ground in an attempt to relieve the intense frustration she feels towards herself. “If only I had never told her about the poison joke flower she never would have risked her life like that! I just didn’t think that she would be foolish enough to go into the Everfree Forest at night!”

Taking in several deep breaths, Twilight manages to calm herself down and think through the situation she now finds herself in. “Calm down Twilight don’t panic, panicking won’t accomplish anything here. We need to rescue Applejack, but I sent all that was left of the royal guard to fly in supplies from Canterlot, and I can’t leave the ponies here completely unprotected especially when they could manifest a dangerous out of control stand power.” Twilight looks down the hall glancing at the royal guards stationed there, each one willing to put their lives on the line at her slightest command “And I can’t order these guards to leave their posts to go on a suicidal quest into a dangerous forest in the middle of the night! Even if I am a princess Representative, I can’t go against Princess Celestia’s orders.”

Twilight looks at the door in behind her, the door that leads out of the hospital. “And if I try to leave and find her, then I can’t lead the guard in the case of an emergency or address the public on the outbreak if it begins to leak out that this infection is more than it appears.” Twilight stands like a statue unable to move one way or another “I can’t abandon the princess’s order….. but Applejack…...”

Twilight stands still, her eyes closed in intense thought as she weighs her options flawlessly debating the pros and cons of such a vital decision. Seconds pass as twilight weighs every possible choice and decision and how it could affect not just her, but the ponies in her charge whose very lives may hang on her decision. Even pinkie is silent as she pays witness to an enormous internal battle that rages in Twilight’s Psyche.

Finally Twilight opens her eyes. “Like there was any choice in the matter anyways… I can’t abandon my task, it’s too important to fail at…”

Pinkie gasps “Twilight! You can’t mean….”

“That is why…” The purple mare continues “….I have to go as quickly as possible and save Applejack. That way no pony will die on my watch.”

The party pony’s expression changes immediately from surprise to joy as she embraces the purple unicorn in a full on bear hug. “I knew deep down you weren’t a grumpy-mcGrumpy pants!”

With a little magic and a great force of will, Twilight manages herself from the hug of the boisterous mare. “Thanks…. I think, now Pinkie I know that it is dangerous but can you guide me to the entrance of the Everfree Forest?”

“Yeppers!” The pink mare states as she pulls out a first aid box from behind her back “I already got all the medical supplies that we’ll need while you were standing there all quiet so we’re ready to go!”

“That’s great Pinkie! Now hold on.” Clenching her face into a grimace of deep concentration the lavender mare’s horn glows bright purple as an aura of magic surrounds the two ponies. All of a sudden space snaps around them as both the mares find their locale dramatically changed. Now outside the doors of the hospital proper the lavender mare looks around as she manages to make out the outline of the scary forest off in the distance. Wasting no time the two mares begin galloping off at full speed towards the forest as Twilight turns continues her open dialogue with the party pony running at full gallop next to her.  “All right once I get to the forest, I’ll go in to find Applejack. But I can’t ask you to risk your life by going with me so you can go and get help if I don’t find my way out within an hour!”

Pinkie grins at this as she keeps pace with the purple unicorn to her side, “That’s okay Twibright! I can handle my little old self! Besides I would have gone into the forest to save Applejack if you hadn’t!”

“Wow pinkie! That’s really kind of you.” The purple mare suddenly is struck by a lingering thought “Wait a second! My name’s not Twibright, it’s Twilight! You’re the fourth pony to mistake my name this night.”

The pink pony points to a white sticker on Twilight’s chest reading ‘Hello My name is Twibright Sparkle.’  “Name tag.” Pinkie says like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh.” Twilight remarks. “I see…. And I don’t suppose that……”

“It was there the whole time.”

“And you wouldn’t be so kind to….”

“Nope! I’m telling everypony I meet!”

“Then could you at least……”

“YOUR NICKNAME IS TWIBRIGHT SPARKLE FROM NOW ON!!!”

Farr off in the distance the sound of Twilight’s monumental groaning can be heard as the two mares trot as fast as they possibly can in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

……………….

“Dang nabit!” Shouting out her mounting frustrations, the angry farm-mare curses as she chips her hoof for the seventh that night on yet another sharp and pointy rock. “Why the hay did ah think that this was a good idea to just go wanderin in the forest in tha dark? Ah should’ve brought a flashlight, or a rope at least.” She muses as she walks down the overgrown and ivy filled road.

Originally driven on by courage and optimism at the thought of finding medicine for her sister, Applejack had become bogged down by the endless winding trails that meandered through the Everfree. And worse even though she had avoided several nasty creatures in her time wandering, her attempts at evading danger or just trusting her instinct had left her hopelessly lost. Now the mare, though still not bereft of hope was beginning to doubt finding her way out of the labyrinth again. “……could of at least brought my rope….”

Looking over to a nearby tree, Applejack spies the same broken branch she left fifteen minutes ago as she kicks the tree in defeat. “That settles it, ah’m lost as a pig in a cornfield. Oh why didn’t ah think this through? Now whose gonna help little Applebloom……” a roar tears through the forest shaving the mare to the core “…. Whose gonna help me?” The mare hangs her head in defeat at her current situation.

However just as quickly the mare snaps her head back up slapping herself in the face with her hoof “Snap out OF it filly! Yer an Apple and Apples never quit. This ain't no time fer doubtin yerself, now focus. All you gotta do is find a blue flower with blue markings. That shouldn't be too hard in a forest now shape up!” A sudden burst of resolve courses through Applejack’s veins as she prepares to once again resume her search.

Placing one hoof in front of the other, Applejack slips on another errant rock and with comic fashion begins a long tumble down a steep ravine. Desperate to stop herself applejack tries to slow her descent with her hooves, but is unable to get any traction as she slides down the steep cliff. Flailing her arms about in terror Applejack finally reaches a stop as her tumbling fall is stopped by a dense field of shrubbery. Lying in the bottom of a ravine the mare once again curses her own stupidity for bringing her to the everfree at night. Cursing her clumsiness Applejack slowly rises to her hooves her body sporting various cuts and bruises sustained though a night of fruitless searching.

“Who was ah kiddin common here alone at night.” Applejack says “ah could spend mah whole life searchin this here forest and never find it! It’s just too big fer one small pony like myself.” Looking up to the stars in the sky the the mare imagines the fates themselves laughing at her grand situation.

“But ah can’t just give up!” States the mare “Not like this! Ah can’t just go home empty hooved without that blue flower. So even if I have to search this entire forest, top to bottom ah’ll find…..hunh?”

Looking around her Applejack finds that she has tumbled down the cliff right into a large patch of blue flowers with distinct blue markings. Without even trying the mare has found herself in a field of the very flower she has searched for, the field of the Poison Joke. Applejack blinks for a few seconds, not quite convinced this isn’t some kind of elaborate hallucination, yet after clearing her eyes the flowers at still there. She rubs her face, convinced that the flowers will disappear the moment she looks away, yet he flowers remain, as permanent as the earth itself.

“Hunh…… Well would you look at that…….” A surprised Applejack pokes her head into the flower bed looking at it as if it was there all along. The flower moves gently as the orange mare’s breath blows the flower back and forth as the mare stares on.

Suddenly satisfied that she isn’t dreaming, Applejack leaps into the air with a mighty: “YEEHAW! Ah found it! Ah found it! Ah foun…..”

MUUUUUUURRRRRRRRAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

The far off cry of a timber wolf cuts off the orange mare’s jubilation. Putting her hooves over her mouth to silence any further noise, the mare becomes aware of the fact that she is still in a monster infested forest. Nearly holding her breath the mare waits in silence for the sound of any approaching predators that seek to devour her. Minutes pass until the mare finally is convinced she is alone “…..nd it.” Applejack finishes with a snicker.

Chuckling to herself Applejack discards her worries for the future in the joyous celebration of the present. In her giddiness in finding her sister’s salvation and avoiding an untimely death the mare Applejack opens her arms wide and swan dives majestically into the poison joke, making flower angels by the faint moonlight above. Laughing all the while Applejack proceeds to roll around in the flowers her Stetson and her worries falling off to the side as she temporarily forgets her woes.

Finally the foalish behavior catches up to Applejack as she begins to realize how silly she is acting. Catching her breath from her antics Applejack reaches for her hat and places it back on her head giggling slightly to herself all the while. “Wowee! Would yawl talk about good luck. Ah still can’t believe that I just wound up findin the one flower I needed just by blindly gropin my way through the forest! Well enough ponying around, onto business.”

Emptying her saddle bags of any extraneous items, Applejack begins to hastily stuff as many of the poison joke flowers that she can manage into her bags. Needless to say she quickly she fills the first of her saddlebags, compacting the precious product with her hoof to enable her to fit as much of it as she can. She then switches the full pouch for its empty twin on her left and mechanically repeats the process.

In a few moments the task is completed and her bags are stuffed to the brim full of life saving medicine. Applejack nods to herself on a task well done and puts the bags on her flank impressed by the fact that they barely weigh anything at all. “Well that’s bout all ah can make in one trip.” She says to nopony in particular “an I doubt I’ll be able at find this place again, on account I found it on accident.”

The farm mare looks at her packed bags a faint look of pride on her face “….But on the bright side this is for sure enough flowers for little bloom to get better with. An all ah have ta do is….. Convince twilight ta make it fer her.”

Applejack remembers her previous behavior towards the lavender unicorn “dang nabit! Why’d ah have ta blow up on her like that.” Finding a faint path on the forest floor Applejack begins to follow it, hoping for a way out while she thinks over her options.

“Ok calm down Jackie, Twilight is a reasonable mare, ah’m sure she won’t hold nothing against ya on account her sister was sick. And ah’m sure that if ya give her some of the extra poison joke as payment she’s sure ta give bloom the best of that there medicine.” Applejack nods in confirmation  “Yes sir things are looking up for me.”

However staring into the mare’s dark green eyes sitting directly on the path ahead, Applejack makes out a glowing yellow pair of eyes staring deep into her very soul. These are the eyes of a predator, a creature that will tear ponies to pieces without mercy or remorse. The creature’s slight growling letting on that it has seen her and all of a sudden Applejack realizes that everything is not looking up for her.

Frantically Applejack looks around hoping to find some way to hide from the approaching creature moving closer to her by the second. However she is gravely disappointed as she sees the paths to the left and right of her surrounded by steep cliffs impossible for a normal pony to scale, especially when pursued by a hungry beast. The creature growls louder as applejack flees running back down the path behind her. Her mind empty of any ideas, she runs frantically back to the clearing of poison joke hoping beyond hope for a way to escape her looming demise. However yet again destiny has conspired against her as it appears that the valley is a dead end. As if rejecting the fact that he way behind her is the only way out Applejack frantically runs to every part of the clearing like a chicken with its head cut off. “Come on! Come on! This can’t be it! There’s gotta be a way out there’s gotta!”

Applejack knows in her heart that there isn’t, yet the belief that there is a way to escape is far more appealing than the fact that she is trapped. Suddenly Applejack hears the sound of a heavy paws brush through the foliage behind her. With terror consuming every thought she turns around to see a recurring figure for her nightmares.  The monster’s brown mane is stained with small splotches of dried blood, its teeth razors sharper than any knife made by pony hooves. It’s bat like wings possess several small holes as they are rise in a predatory stance. The scorpion tail rises above the creature’s head as it’s loin paws tread the ground as quietly as death itself. The creature that stands before the frightened farm mare is the same one that she fears more than any other for good reason. The creature before her is a manticore, but more terrifying is the fact that it is the worst kind of manticore, a hungry manticore.

Applejack falls to her flank, her bravery consumed by pure terror. “It’s……… It’s a m-m-m-manticore….. Just like the one that killed ma and pa!”

The monster growls with ferocity and that alone is enough to send the mare into a blind panic. Running with all the force that she can muster, the mare tries vainly to dash up the steep slope behind her. Yet no matter how much she struggles she gets no closer to the top of the gorge only succeeding in sliding back down to the bottom of the slope. The monster roars again, ready to claim it’s prey, as the farm mare finally lays down in the dirt and surrendering to her fate.

“This can’t be happening,” the mare tells herself lying on the ground “mah mom and dad died ta this beast, and now it’s going to kill me to? It just can’t end like this, this has to be some kind of bad dream!” However this is no bad dream, no comforting veil of sleep that she can shake off to free herself from the nightmare before her.

“An just as ah got the medicine for Applebloom! now I’m gonna…” Suddenly like a torch being lit in the dark or a supernova of a star Applejack’s thoughts turn in a flash towards her family. She remembers her first harvest she was allowed to help with, her fist slice of apple pie, and family dinner after a long day of work. Her thoughts turn to her friends in ponyville, and the impact they make in her life simply by existing. But most of all her thoughts turn to her family, her grandmother who raised her, her brother who supported her, and her little sister who needs her, now more than ever. Her thoughts turn to her parents, not their untimely deaths, but their lives filled with gratitude for the simple things: love, life and family as her thoughts turn to what they would do in her situation.

Suddenly it all becomes clear to her. Applejack’s shivering ceases, and with determination rises to her hooves staring the monster in the eyes all the while “……ah a pony who can be depended upon, It’s just like that crazy hallucination said.”

Applejack takes a step forward “Ah’m a pony that other ponies can depend on. Not cause ah’m strong or because ah’m special. ah’m a pony who can be depended upon cause ponies need ta depend on me.”

Her resolve steady and unwavering Applejack takes another step towards the ravenous monster baring her way. “An Right now I am the only pony that can get this medicine to my sister, an ah’m the only pony that can come back alive to my family.”

Another step and Applejack is now within striking distance of the hideous monster in front of her “THAT is my resolve on which ah base my strength on.”

Nearly muzzle to muzzle with the hungry manticore Applejack stares it in the eyes with a threatening gaze. “Ah’m getting this medicine to my sister, rain er shine. So ah guess that you are out of a meal, now anchya?”

Unwilling to be intimidated or surrender its meal, the manticore pounces on the orange farm mare. However this is not the same mare that was seconds ago cowering on the ground, now the hunter faces prey that is determined to survive.

Turning around on her front legs Applejack coils her back legs like a spring as the monster’s pounce comes within range of her most powerful weapons, her iron hard back legs. Just as the monster is almost upon her Applejack converts all her strength and timing into a single attack as her legs snap out like a shotgun blast. The resulting blow pounds the monster straight in the nose sending a crack like thunder reverberating through the clearing as the manticore falls backward in pain.

The resounding feeling of her hooves smashing into the monster’s unprotected flank causes Applejack to rejoice prematurely. “HA! Take that ya varmint, ya may be tough but ya aint apple tough! Now just stay down an let me pass, unless ya want another round of punishment from Bucks Mcgillicutty and Kicks Mcgee!”

As if responding to this taunt the monster pulls itself shakily off the ground leering at Applejack with its eyes. The farm mare now realizes her mistake in celebrating too soon as small drops of blood fall from the monster’s muzzle. Now the creature in front of her isn’t just hungry, now it is hungry and enraged.

The manticore sweeps forward with its claw each one sharp as a razor that slices the air itself with every swing the monster throws. Keeping on her hooves Applejack manages to barely dodge each swipe of the claws as the monster attacks again and again. ‘ah can’t win like this.’ Applejack thinks to herself as she ducks underneath another swipe ‘ah may be tirin this fellow out with mah dodges but ah gota finish him off soon or one of these swipes is gonna get me.’ Suddenly the manticore overextends its blow, tumbling on its face with a loud thud.

Seizing her one and possibly only chance Applejack changes her dodge into a spinning back kick. With the precision and strength of a mare who can buck trees from their foundations Applejack’s blow hits true for the second time that night landing upside the manticore’s head. As the monster skids back on the ground Applejack is rewarded with the monster’s yelp of pain as sign that she has scored another decisive blow.

Weaving back out of the monster’s range Applejack watches as the monster rises from the dirt yet again. “Heh, ah’ll give it to ya that yer mighty stubborn, but from where I’m standin it seems that ah’m the prime contender.” Confident in her sudden victory applejack prepares to advance once again and finish the monster off only to stumble and fall to her knees in exhaustion. “What the? what’s goin…” Applejack’s eyes widen in horror as she looks to her flank behind her and her eyes spying a large detached stinger protruding slightly above where her cutie mark is. Shifting her gaze back to the monster Applejack realizes she was the one who had lost their last exchange.

With a quick jerk Applejack rips the stinger out of her flank and throws it off to the side, yet from the mare’s reeling senses and shaky posture Applejack begins to realize that it is far too late. Sensing the prey’s weakness and hungry for revenge the manticore advances claws extended, and this time Applejack barely is able to turn off to the side as the creature’s claws rake painfully across the side of her barrel. Applejack screams in agony as she falls to the ground from the pain, pushing herself as far from possible from the advancing monster. The manticore licks its bloodied lips eager to satisfy its hunger for the first time in a week as it advances upon the prone pony with bloodlust in its eyes.

Applejack attempts to stand up against the monster but the poison has done its lethal work, as she falls quickly back on her injured flanks. Applejack looks back on the monster in front of her, her eyes still burning in the same intensity that she possessed when she wandered into the forest. “Ah can’t die. Not here…. Not now….. mah….” Applejack hacks up a small glob of blood “…Mah sister needs me….” The monster spreads it’s paws apart preparing for another pounce on the prone mare. Applejack mustering what remains of her willpower rises to her hooves, barely managing to stay up as she stares down the creature.

“Just….. Just one more buck…….” She cries to herself begging her body on the verge of shutdown to give just a little more energy. “If ah can throw just one more buck….. ah can win! Just one more buck…. I can stand mah ground an send that critter flyin!”

The manticore leaps once more with a mighty roar.  Its wings spread in a predatory fashion it’s bloody claws glistening in the moonlight as it prepares to strike.

“JUST…. ONE…. MORE….BUCK!” Spinning around with all the remaining strength in her body applejack swings out her back legs to intercept the charging monster.

A flash of light and the blow connects, and in a single instant the six hundred and fifty pound manticore is sent flying into a tree behind it with a level of force that would be impossible for any normal pony. “What the….I can’t believe ah had that much strength left…. “ suddenly Applejack’s eyes catch sight of a creature off to her side her mind reeling not from the poison but the strange appearance of the creature standing beside her.

The ghostly figure’s body, almost half as large as the maincore and covered from hoof to toe in wooden armor is built like a tank it’s every limb rippling with muscle and sinew. Its wooden armor knotted and worn with age covers its entire body save it’s green leafy face, which is covered only by a layered helm. Surrounding its head sits a large set of deer horns that seem to form around the Creature’s head as majestically as any crown.  Bushes of the finest green leaves blossom where its tail and mane should be giving it a majestic earthy appearance that makes it look like a spirit of the earth. “what the…. Am ah halucinatin again? What…. what are ya…”

Turning it’s empty gaze at the orange mare the spirit speaks with a voice that seems to resonate in the core of her very being “FOUNDATION……”

“Foundation…..” the mare repeats absent mindedly. Applejack blinks once, then twice before finally shaking her head “All right, now ah know that ah’m crazy.”

The Manticore, peeling itself off the ground growls menacingly at the farm-mare with magical powers. Though any normal creature would have run in terror at such a display of strength a manticore is the top of its food chain in the everfree forest, not even dragons mess with one willingly. The enraged creature roars loudly as it charges swinging its razor sharp claws at the mare that has angered to the point of blind fury.

Unable to dodge the sudden blow applejack raises her hooves to defend against the sudden charge, her mysterious shadow moving between her and the monster almost instinctively. The claws fall upon the magical construct and with a furry of blows the manticore attacks the prone pony with enough strength to send the flowers in the field flying left and right as if in a fierce windstorm. After a straight minute of blind attacking the manticore relinquishes its assault, satisfied that no creature could survive such an assault backs up, expecting to see a scene of bloody carnage. Yet as its eyes focus on the scene before it the monster is shocked to see that not only is the orange pony still alive, but the strange plant pony has taken every single blow from its razor sharp claws without retaining a single scratch. The manticore barely has time to comprehend the scene before it as it feels a sharp throb in its front paws. Looking down the monster sees that it’s paws are indeed covered in blood, its own blood. The mangled paws and broken claws a testament to the intense toughness of the magical plant creature that has come to the pony’s aid.

For the third time that night the monster screams in pain as the mare looks on in awe at the sight of the fierce monster whimpering like a filly with a skinned knee. “All right then, hallucination or not this is mah only chance, an I’m gonna take it!” Swinging her front hoof forward in a quick jab the mare is surprised to find that the mysterious plant mimics her actions producing a fierce result, the light jab breaking even more of the monster’s sharpened teeth. The manticore screams in pain as it tries to raise its paws to swipe at the invader however the monster is quick to find it can’t even raise its paws against the plant creature’s savage attacks. Struggling as if it has been rooted to the ground itself the manticore tries vainly to raise its paws in defense or even move out of the way of the orange mare’s barrage of fast light punches hit one after the other.

‘Amazin’ the mare thinks ‘ah don’t know if what’s ah'm seein is real er not, but this creature seems ta follow mah lead like a shadow, an boy howdy is it a strong sucker!’ Blow after blow hits the monster as applejack begins to wind up for a finishing attack. Shouting at the top of her lungs Applejack feels the very earth itself lend its power to her as her very life force surges within her.

‘Mah heart, is beatin! beatin with the breath of the earth itself!’ Winding up a powerful buck Applejack succeeds in launching the half ton monster into the air as easily as a fowl might toss an apple.

As the monster falls down towards her Applejack raises her hooves to intercept the monster’s fall, all her fear and doubt replaced with burning resolve. “UuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooTake this!”

The monster falls its’ body directly over the poised stand, its hooves ready to strike “Raging Earth…….”  With all the strength remaining in her body and the mare and her stand working side by side inflict a countless number of punches on the falling form of the monster as both stand and master cry simultaneously to the heavens above

“OOOOOOOOOOOOVVVEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDRRRIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEE!”

With all the grace of a falling rock the monster is sent tumbling into the darkness of the forest beyond. It’s every bone broken, its tail shattered, it’s claws shredded as it barely manages to crawl whimpering back into the dark from which it came. The mare breathes in once, twice, three times as she listens for the sound of another predator, another obstacle in her way home, only to be greeted by silence. Every inhabitant in the forest stands in awe as the victor in the struggle for survival puts her Stetson back on her head. “Whew, that was…… tough, but I did it.“ the mare limps forward her previous adrenaline all but extinguished “now I just got to….. get that medicine….. to Bloom……”

Her body finally calls it quits as she collapses on the forest floor unable to endure anything more. The mare tries to move, to get back on her hooves yet she fails to accomplish anything aside from a few twitches in her legs. “heh, I can’t believe I came all this way just to die here.” The mare comments on her current situation not with hopelessness and fear but with a strange sense of peace. “Oh well I guess life’s funny like that.”

Applejack accepted the idea of her own death quite well, no fear, no pain, no remorse “I did what I could”. That is what she tells herself as her consciousness begins to blur as the poison obscures her vision. Face to face with absolute finality she is only offered an icy and lucid look at her own demise.

“Ah only hope….. ah only hope that ma and pa are still proud of me.” The mare’s words stumble out “even if ah failed, ah hope that they don’t think any less of me for qutin before the task is complete.” Applejack’s consciousness starts to falter as her vision darkens around her, a shadowy figure standing before her as her soul is prepared to embark upon the final journey.

“heh… I never….. imagined… that the darkness………. Was so………blue…………” finally Applejack’s vision falters as she finally succumbs to sweet unconsciousness.

…………………….

 “Applejack.”

“hunh I can even hear mom’s voice, I guess it won’t be long now.”

“Applejack.”

“Wow she sounds cross. Guess she was more angry than ah thought fer letting bloom down…..”

“APPLEJACK!”

“hunh that doesn’t sound like ma’s voice.”

“Oh sweet Celestia she’s not breathing! She’s bleeding all over! Quick Pinkie make room!”

“what’s going on, who’s moving me am? I already dead?”

“She’s shows signs of being poisoned too, her injuries are too severe for normal magic, I didn’t want to use the red stones I found so far but saving her life takes precedence..….”

“that’s strange…. The voice sounds familiar…… but where have I…...’

Applejack’s internal monologue is cut off as something almost foreign courses through Applejack’s veins. Her body recoils in shock as warm nutrient rich blood begins to course freely through her veins once again. Her mind is shocked back into reality as her body becomes filled with copious amounts of energy that seems to well up from within her very being. Suddenly her eyes comprehend the purple and pink blobs before her as her friends the exceptionally worried Twilight Sparkle and none other than Pinkie Pie.

“Oh thank merciful Celestia!” Twilight remarks “It looks like she’s going to be all right. Pinkie great call on bringing that portable defibrillator, it was just what I needed to give her a jump start. Now you just need to tell me how you had the foresight to carry a defibrillator around.”

Pinkie breaks out into a salute. “A wild flower scout is prepared for any situation any time! Rain or shine, sleet or shine, I never fail to protect what’s mine!”

“…….uhhh I’ll just file that away as ‘coincidence’.” Twilight turns her head back to the orange mare “Applejack how are you feeling? well obviously you feel great since I used the vital energy of a red stone to rejuvenate your severely depleted life source but I mean I the sense how are you doing mentally, because let’s face it, WHAT WERE you thinking?!”

Twilight embraces the orange farmer in a tight hug only to break off and slap her face. “What in the world were you thinking Applejack? Running into the everfree at night?! I know that you were worried about your sister but you could have died! You almost did die! What were you thinking?”

“Twilight?” the orange mare makes out “what are ya doing here? How did ya find me?”

“O O O! pick me pick me!” the pink mare raises her hoof enthusiastically. “I love story time! Can I tell the story please?”

Twilight sighs “Pinkie I really don’t think…”

“It all started on a dark stormy night! Just like this one except there wasn’t a storm at all. We were prowling through the forest filled with hundreds of horrible pony eating creatures looking for a lost mare when suddenly out of the shadows…..”

Placing her hoof over the pink pony’s mouth Twilight breathes a sigh of relief. “What pinkie is trying to say is that we were worried about you so we ran into the Everfree looking for you. At first we couldn’t find one way from another and we ourselves were getting lost. However I saw a pony shaped figure rustling in the bushes and thought it was you, so we followed the figure to a clearing where we found you just lying there.”

Applejack stammers “Ya….. ya mean a pony of shadows? Like a ghost er somthin?”

“A pony of shadows…” Twilight muses to herself  ‘could it really be her? But why would she be here of all places?’

Twilight’s sudden silence earns stares from both of the other mares “Ummmmm Twilight?” Pinkie asks knocking on her head “Earth to Twilight are you there? It wasn’t really a shadow pony right? Cause if it was I need to throw it a ‘thank you for helping us save Applejack party’!”

Shaking of her suspicions Twilight returns to the present “No Pinkie it was probably nothing, just a trick of the light.” Twilight turns back to her patient concern etched on her face. “What is important is we got here just in time. Another few minutes and you would have……. Anyways I’m just glad that you are all right.”

Looking down at her previously injured side and flank applejack finds that her gruesome wounds have been completely healed. Looking at her injuries,  Applejack begins to tear up as she realizes the extent which the mare in front of her risked her life. “Ya, yawl came to help me? Even after all the horrible things ah said?”

Twilight smiles “Applejack you were worried about your sister you didn’t mean any of that! And even if you did mean it that’s no reason to let you die.”

“Yeah Applejack!” Pinkie chimes in “and you should have seen Twilight, I thought you were in pretty bad shape even I was worried but Twilight just whips out her horn and this amazing sparkly stone and whoosh! You’re all better just like that. I mean I knew that the princess’s student was going to be really talented but WOW she was so awesome! Almost like a super magical version of Rainbow dash!”

Twilight blushes at the copious amounts of praise as she modesty begins to kick in “Like I said it was nothing Pinkie! You provided the manticore antivenin, all I had to do was give her body a quick jump start with the red stone that I had on me from earlier that day to strengthen her regenerative capabilities and amplify her magical energy. Any pony could have done that, I’m nothing special, really!”

Applejack is about to launches into another barrage of praise commending the unicorn for saving her life when something the mare says strikes her as funny “Hold on their shug. Just what do ya mean by these Red Stones?”

Twilight freezes “Red Stones? What do you mean? I didn’t say anything about red stones? Did I?”

Ignoring the mare Applejack continues “From the sound of it, this red stone thing seems to be the thing that can heal any wound er somtin.” Rising to her hooves “so if it can heal anything, why isn’t it being used to help these there ponies in the hospital?”

Twilight freezes on the spot unable to deny or confirm Applejack’s suspicions once again. And once again she begins to stammer on like a broken record. “wellllllllllllllllllll ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” Applejack narrows her gaze, ready to pursue the thread of truth that she has followed to this point when her tongue stops dead in its tracks.

‘Ah’m doin it again!’ Applejack thinks to herself ‘Gosh darn it! This is what I did last time, I dogged Twilight so much about the truth that I ended up hurtin her somtin fierce, well no more.’

Suddenly applejack’s face takes on a kinder expression surprising the purple mare’s preconceived expectations. “You know what Twi? It aint important none. If ya say I don’t need to know then I don’t need to know. Simple as that.”

Twilight is shocked, she had fully expected to have to fight tooth and hoof to keep the truth from the mare and she’s giving up without a fight. “Hunh? Really Applejack?”

“Yep, it aint worth losin a friend over now is it. And as long as this here medicine will help my sis then I trust ya.” Applejack nods as she slowly rises to her hooves pointing down at the path ahead of her “now let’s get home now, time’s a wastin here in the middle of nowhere. We got ponies like mah sis ta treat.” With eager steps Applejack begins to walk down the path out of the clearing when she finds herself stopped by a familiar voice.

“Wait!”

Applejack turns around to find her purple friend, Twilight Sparkle trapped with a look of great internal conflict plastered on her face. “Yeah Twilight? What is it?”

The unicorn rubs her arm with as she looks at the ground in front of her “Applejack… the red stones, are what’s making the ponies here sick.”

Applejack stops dead in her tracks “WHAT?”

“Yeah twilight! What gives?” Pinkie states while scratching her head “I thought that red stone thing helped ponies? Why is it making them sick? That makes even less and I’m me!”

“It’s not supposed to make ponies sick!” Twilight continues “Red stones have the power to draw out a special kind of power from a pony’s soul called a stand.”

“Stand?” Applejack asks curiously.

“Yes applejack, stand power.” Twilight nods her head “It works by drawing out the pony’s magical essence, their soul, out of their body so that it can take a psychical form and stand beside them, hence the name. However if a pony doesn’t have a sufficient supply of magical power or doesn’t possess the will necessary to control a stand, the stand itself slowly draws the life-force out of the pony.”

“But you used the stand to help Applejack right?” Pinkie says “something that makes ponies better can’t make them sick right?”

“The Red Stones don’t just draw out stand powers..….” Twilight shamefully admits “The Red Stones amplify all magical reactions, including magic, strength and regenerative rate, meaning all I had to do was use the stone to amplify my healing spell. If you had a stand I could have just fed it to and that would have increased your regenerative rate through the roof healing your wounds.”

Twilight lowers her head in shame “But exposing you directly to the red stone might have caused you to succumb to the same stand illness that affected your sister. The process of creating a stand from your own body's manna would have started to drain your own life force  It’s only because a Stand takes so much magical power to form that causes ponies with lesser wills to get sick. Otherwise any pony would be able to call a stand after being exposed to Red Stones”

Twilight raises her eyes to the sky looking at the rapidly disappearing moon on the horizon as she contemplates her part in the tragedy occurring in Ponyville. “You were right Applejack, it was a magical disaster that caused your sister to get sick. We attempted to use the stone to amplify a powerful magical reaction, but it went out of control and the stone exploded scattering it across Equestria.”

“That’s why I was really sent to ponyville.” Twilight admits shamefully as she rubs her arm “Not just to help ponies but to keep this entire incident secret so we could search for the pieces of the red stone. You were right  all along Applejack; at the end of the day my job is just a self-centered excuse to look for something we lost…...”

The group is silent for a few moments none of the ponies knowing what to say. Each one thinking of how to best break the awkward silence that has been created by Twilight’s decision to reveal the truth.

Applejack is the first to break this awkward silence “Sssoooooo…. this red stone thing, causes ponies to ‘manifest’ some kind of ghostly power or somtin?”

“Yes Applejack that’s correct.” Twilight confirms with a nod “however it normally takes years of practice and self-discipline as well as a large supply of magical power to be able to manifest a stand that you can control at will.”

“Ya mean like this?” Applejack raises her hoof towards Twilight and rippling out from her pelt the strong a tree like creature that appeared before appears aside Applejack standing a good head higher than the mare. With natural flourish the creature trots forward taking a stance beside its master as easily as a fowl walking.

Twilight’s mouth gapes open unable to even talk as she babbles like an infant “how did you…… when did you….. Applejack! How are you doing that? I’ve been exposed to the red stone for years and have an amazing reservoir of magical energy! How the heck did you manage to manifest a stand in one day?!”

“Huh? Oh I just, I don’t know thought about it and poof it appeared. Guess that fighting with a manticore will really draw it out of ya like that!”

“But…. But…” Twilight stammers “You didn’t even have a red stone!”

With a deft movement Applejack pulls a black stone out of her saddle bags. “ya mean this? It don’t look very red ta me, but after bloom cut herself on it she got real sick. I thought if ya had it then you might be able to help her.”

The orange farm mare lowers her head in shame as her stand fades back into her body “But when I got there, there were all these strange doctors and snobby canterlot types. I was surrounded by ponies that I couldn’t trust so I kept it to mahself instead of comin clean.”

The farm mare walks over to the purple mare each trot measured and accurate “See, ah was just scared of being lied to and deceived as ah was of tellin a lie, so ah kept things that ah should have told ya a secret.”

Applejack comes to a stop right before Twilight sparkle and just as quickly as she drew forth the stone from her bag she grabs Twilight’s hoof and places the stone in it. “But ah can’t tell a lie, Twilight Sparkle. Ah trust you. You told me the truth when others told me lies. Ya came to help me even after ah treated ya like dirt and ya did what ah couldn’t. Yawl came clean even when yawl had nothing ta gain by tellin me the truth. Out of all the ponies that I could have met in that there hospital, ah am proud to say that ah know a mare as honest and kind as you are, Twilight Sparkle. ”

Looking the purple unicorn in the eyes Applejack beams “Ah’m the kind of pony that others can rely upon so instead of takin this whole mess on by yer lonesome, why don’t ya lean on yer friends instead?”

Twilight is stunned by Applejack’s sudden profession “my..… friends?”

“He He Yes silly filly! We’re your friends!” Pinkie wraps Twilight in a tight hug “We wouldn’t charge blindly into a dangerous forest in the middle of the night for just any pony! Well maybe if that anypony had a cake with them, then we could throw a party IN the forest! That would be amazing! Could we throw a party In the forest sometimes Twilight? because that would be great!”

“Pinkie….”

“Oh sorry Jackie! Anyways what I was saying is we’re your friends! We’ll always stick by you and help you out when you are in trouble so of course we’ll help you with your super special mission for the princess!”

Twilight begins to tear up at this blatant expression of the pink mare. Never in her life would she have thought that she would have made such inseparable friends so quickly “Really? You really mean it?”

“Course shug!” Applejack slaps Twilight’s back “We’ll help ya gather all these Red Stone things if it helps our town and our friends out along the way! That is if ya can promise the do everythin in yer power to help mah sister, then ah swear ah’ll follow you to Tartarus itself.”

Twilight wipes the tears from her eyes as she savors the fact that she, a complete recluse who brushed off everypony she had ever met, has friends who she can really depend upon. With a solemn gesture she extends her hoof as towards the farm mare in a solemn pledge. “Deal”

Applejack smiling all the while spits the biggest loogie on her hoof that physics will allow and shakes hooves with her new best friend. “It’s a deal then! I have ta say Twilight this is definitely not mah idea of what ah wanted or how mah life ta turn out. But all that doesn’t matter now because for the first time in my life ponies other than my family are dependin on me, so I have the duty to help em out.” They break their sacred spit shake.”

The two mares break their hoof shake as applejack pulls her Stetson down over her eyes in a smug expression. “Sides, ah need to repay ya for saving her life like ya did.”

Pinkie ever the enthusiastic one pulls the both of them into a fierce bear hug as she contemplates their amazing future. “This is so exciting! New friends, crazy adventures and heart stopping action! And in the next chapter I’ll get to show all of you my stand! Could this get any better? I don’t know! That we’ll find out next time on MLP:BA!”

Twilight smiles in genuine joy at the thought that her adventure with her friends is just beginning. From this point on she’ll never truly be alone. “Yeah pinkie, it's’ all for one and one…… Wait A Second! Pinkie what did you say about having a……”

Chapter 2-Ponivile Central-Take 2

Chapter 3-Surprise!

Surprise:

With the rising of the sun many of Equestria’s ponies begin their fruitful lives. Each morning ushers in a new day, each one presenting an opportunity in which one can play, learn and grow. On this morning like any other in Equestria the cock crows as the sun peeks over the horizon his loud voice greeting the new day with gusto and excitement for what is to come.

However just as there are creatures that frolic in the day there are those that are ‘slow to rise’ with the morning sun.

Twilight sparkle is one of the later.

In the middle of town, sits the town’s library, The Golden Oaks Library, a large hollowed out tree that still blooms with foliage and bright green leaves that refract the beams of the rising sun. Its interior first floor is crafted from the very same light red wood of the tree, its walls holding countless books with each one containing the wisdom of a bygone age. While second floor of the library lead up to by a circling flight of stairs, houses the personal areas of the building, namely the bedroom, the guest bedroom and the spacious bathroom all designed for the librarian’s personal usage.

Inside our young heroine, a young unicorn mare with a striped purple mane, lies in her bed as the sun rises outside her window. Curling up in the covers completely unwilling to begin the day Twilight sparkle plays for as much time in her unconsciousness as possible. As the morning sun shines in through the windows illuminating the day, Twilight sparkle tries vainly to hide from the Light that seems to follow her head around her bed. Last night was far too busy to wake up this early; she needs to sleep in at least another three hours to be at her best. Surely sleeping in another few hours wouldn’t be a crime would it? The mare curls up against her pillow as she prepares to drift back to the realm of dreams.

Yet not all creatures are as lax in rising with the sun as Twilight Sparkle is.

“YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAWWWWWWWWWWW!” Applejack shouts as she bucks open the door to Twilight’s room “Rise and shine cowgirl! This aint no time for rest! Up and attum!”

With all the grace of an epileptic patient the mentor of princess Celestia flails about in shock as she tumbles face first out of her bed. As she recoils from the pain of impact she is barely able to discern the sound of her friend Applejack’s voice as she curses the very existence of light itself under her breath. “Yes siree we got ourselves a rich and busy day today! We got ponies ta meet places to see and all the world to explore! And yawl can’t really expect to do or see those things from the comfort of a bed now can ya?”

“Ugh…... What’s going on Applejack?” The sleepy unicorn asks “where are we going so early?”

“Heh still got yer head in the clouds there Twi? Let me refresh yer genius memory.” Applejack clears her throat “Today’s the day that we’re taking that there tour of Ponyville. Since ya just happen to be speaking to the grandchild of ponyville's founding matriarch, ah decided ta give you the grand ol tour.”

“………….”

“Yeah, see after we dropped off all that medicine at the hospital for mah sis an the others ya said that ya needed at least one full day of rest, to ‘recover’ from all that excitement. An since there was no pony stayin in this here library, an bein the good friend that I was, ah talked Mayor Mare into letting ya crash here till yer business in ponyville is finished.”

“………..”

“An don’t try and talk us out o this Twi, yawl said in very clear terms that ya wanted to get a nice early start so that yawl could get to know everythin about this here town of Ponyville.”

As if conjured out of thin air Pinkie Pie pops out of the door frame “Applejack’s right sleepy pants! You can’t expect to meet everypony from your bed! I mean bringing everypony in ponyville to your bed is something that I would totally do for you if you asked but I don’t think everypony in town would like me dragging them to some strange pony’s bedside, they’d think that you were dying or something and that would be really sad!” Pulling a spatula out from behind her back pinkie continues “Oh by the way I made you a big Pinkie Pie Breakfast so you need to get up and eat it while it’s still hot, otherwise it’ll be a cold Pinkie Pie Breakfast.”

With a look that could boil water Twilight gives the two a deadpan stare causing both the mares to freeze up on the spot. For minutes all the twilight mare does is stare at the two ponies whose very existences are a crime against sleep.

Applejack coughs as Twilight continues to stare at her “Well as yawl said yerself, scoutin out the town would help ya out in findin all these red stone things. And you couldn’t have chosen any better ponies fer the job. As a pony who has spent her whole life in this here town ah know every nook and cranny that this little town has to offer.”

“Yeah!” the pink pony comments “and I can tell you everything known about the ponivilians because I know everything about every pony that there is to know about ponyville, well at least not the super-secret stuff that I pinkie promised not to reveal; that stuff is off limits. But of course I’ll tell you everything that I can!”

“………….”

Applejack coughs again as she prepares to put as much optimism that she can manage into her next few words “well Twilight are you ready to begin the day?”

Never breaking her intense stare Twilight rises from the bed, her mane a complete tangled mess, as she begins to walk out the door to her room ignoring the two mares. Both of her friends watch nervously as the purple mare walks without a word down the stairs to her home and into the kitchen on the first floor. Unwilling to follow a mare obviously not in her right mind, the orange farmer and pink party pony listen for any sounds that could emanate from the dark kitchen before them. Silence fills the entire library as the mares’ sharp ears begin to hear faint clinking sounds that originate from the kitchen’s dark expanse.

“What do you think that she’s doing?” Pinkie asks

“Ah don’t know shug?” Applejack replies “I just don…….”

“GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG”

An enormously loud grating sound fills the library causing the books to shake off their shelves from the intense rattling vibrations. “What in Sam hill?!” Applejack asks as she falls prone from miniature earthquake filling the library.

“W-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E!” Pinkie gleefully cheers as the vibrations of the earthquake cause the party pony to dance around the floor.

Attempting to drown out the sound of the noise Applejack plugs her ears with her own hooves as she puts all her efforts into enduring the affronting sound that seems to assault her very being. Then just as suddenly as it began the noise ceases returning the entire library to a state of quiet.

“Awwwwww. It’s over!” Pinkie says “I liked Twilight’s mini earthquake. Oh! Do you think she would do it again if we asked?”

“Twilight did that?!” Applejack asks with surprise “Why in the blue blazes would she….”

“Ahh much better!” both of the mares look to the doorway of the darkened kitchen to see a much calmer and composed Twilight sparkle. Her coat is smoothed over, the bags from beneath her eyes are gone and even her mane is straight and in order, signifying her sudden drastic change from ‘I hate everything’ to ‘BRING IT ON!’ And there resting in her telekinetic field like the soma of the Gods is the cause of such an abrupt change in the unicorn’s demeanor, a single steaming cup of coffee.

 “Oh…” Applejack realizes now how Twilight can be so cheery first thing in the morning.

“Sorry about before girls, but I really needed that. Can you believe that there isn’t a single coffee grinder in the entire library?” Twilight remarks “Luckily I grind my coffee beans magically with ‘Mordechai’s Grinding Hooves of Death’. I find that the coffee tastes better when the beans have been grinded into subatomic particles by intense magical pressure, but that’s probably just me.” Twilight takes another sip from her cup and shivers in delight “OH boy that’s the stuff!”

“Okay then…” Applejack begins unsure whether she should be less or more frightened of the mare before her. “Now that yawl are all fresh and ready ta begin the day we best be on our way. We’re burning daylight every second here.”

With no more words needing to be said Applejack and Pinkie Pie turn to open the door leading outside only to be stopped by Twilight’s assertive voice. “Not so fast Applejack, Pinkie.” Both of the mares stop dead in their tracks, Pinkie actually managing to defy physics and stop in midair. “There is one more thing we need to discuss before we head on out.”

Twilight takes another sip of her coffee, slowly savoring its taste. “Pinkie, you said the day before yesterday that you had a stand power, a fact that was confirmed when you were able to see Applejack’s stand, Fountainhead.”

“Foundation.” Applejack interrupts.

“Right foundation. Anyways only another stand user or a pony who has been exposed to red stones for a long period of time would even be able to see a stand given it’s composed of a pony’s essence.” Twilight takes another sip of her coffee, “Pinkie I know that this might be a bit sensitive but manifesting a stand requires a red stone in order to manifest. So my question is, do you really have a stand power? How did you get it? And why did you wait until now to tell me?!”

Pinkie stares at twilight “Ummmmm Twilight I may not be as good at math as you are…. But that sounds like three questions.”

Twilight groans “whatever, Pinkie I know that. And I know that it might be something that you don’t want to talk about but……”

“Okie dokie!”

“… we really need you to….. wait what?”

Pinkie laughs “of course I’ll tell you Twilight You’re my friend!” Pinkie claps her hooves together as she pulls out a large felt board from behind her back “besides this will give me the chance to try out my ‘flashback board’! I’m so excited!”

Twilight is stunned again “Pinkie…how did you do that?”

Pinkie cocks her head “Do what silly?”

“How did you pull that board out of nowhere?” Twilight shouts “come to think of it, didn’t you do the same thing yesterday with a tuba, and a miniature alligator?”

Pulling out a rolled up newspaper Pinkie bops twilight sparkle on the head. “Save all questions till the end of the lesson, that means No disruptions Ms. Sparkle.” Pinkie says in her most authoritarian voice.

“But I…. Ugh! Never mind just get on with it Pinkie!”

“Perfect, now where to begin! Oh yes at the beginning!”

With super pony speed, the pink mare places several figures on the board in quick succession. A father and mother ponies stand in a field of rocks surrounded by four daughters one of them a bright pink color. “Once upon a time there was a little pink filly that lived on a rock farm with her parents. However her life was boring and hard without any time for fun, can you imagine that?”

Pinkie moves around the pink figure on the board. The pink figure moves about the field of rocks all alone until she finds a strange looking black rock “that was until one day she found a lucky rock in the field that was different from every other rock that she had ever seen. The pink pony wanted to have fun and have a happy life so using all her pinkie powers she wished on the rock for a sign.”

Then the pink mare places a large felt rainbow in the sky complete with all the colors of the spectrum. “No sooner than she wished on the rock then she saw a blinding flash of light in the sky that filled her with a sense of happiness and wonder. Immediately she knew that just like that flash of light, her purpose was to make others happy. And that’s when her cutie mark appeared.”

Once again the scene changes this time the pink figure is setting up a room with streamers and cake. It is clearly obvious from the image that the filly is having a hard time putting the party together. “She set out to make a party for her whole family so they could be happy too! But then she realized that she didn’t have any cake or streamers or party favors at all! I mean how could you have a party without cake? She was stumped, but then she had a super fantastic idea.”

Moving the pink felt pony on the board Pinkie illustrates the pink figure drawing pictures on scratch pieces of paper. “She drew out the things she needed on paper and since her special magic stone had granted her wish the first time, she wished on it again. But this time since she already knew that her purpose in life was to make ponies happy she wished that she could have to power to throw her hardworking parents the greatest party ever!”

Moving the figures around Pinkie introduces a new figure to the board this one a white pegisi shaped creature with cartoonish eyes all over its body. “Then no sooner than she made her little pinkie wish, a magical mystery friend appeared and pulled those supplies right out of the paper. All the cakes streamers and all the piñatas a filly could ask for!”

Moving around the figures Pinkie demonstrates all the felt images dancing around and playing, the father and mother looking on in joy as their children celebrate. “The filly’s parents and siblings were really surprised at how she was able to put together a party from nothing, but they were so happy that they didn’t care! Even though the filly couldn’t pull things she created out of paper any more after that; her special friend allowed me to take everything I could ever need with me by folding it away like paper.”

Pinkie arranges the board to show the pink felt figure throwing another party around her the white filly above her drops various party teamed objects out of the sky around her. “Now the filly could take her parties anywhere she needed them to go and since her imaginary friend was such a surprise that’s what she decided to call her. Surprise! Eventually the filly’s parents stopped trying to figure out how she was able to do such crazy stuff and they just accepted it! After all who would question a good surprise party?”

With a flash of panache the party pony folds up the entire board in the space of a few seconds and stores it behind her back. “And that’s the story of how I Pinkemenia Pie, made my first ever super special friend! Surprise! Say hello Surprise.”

In a flash Pinkie manifests a white figure that stands beside her. The Pegasus shaped stand with a bouncy mane of sunlit yellow and a body composed of felt-like texture manifests itself directly next to the pink party pony with a flair all its own. Across its entire body are hundreds of cartoonish eyes of every shape and color, and various objects ranging from felt boards to cartoon glasses, from cakes to eye patches. Almost every empty spot on the stand is covered in doodles of various objects that all seem to be made out of the same felt texture of the stand’s pelt.

“See every time I need a special object for my special parties….” The party mare reaches out to her stand’s barrel touching a picture of a thermos made completely of felt. “….All I have to do is reach out…” with a quick tug the felt peels off the stand, however as it peels off the two dimensional shape takes on a three dimensional appearance turning into a real physical object “…..And Abra-K-Pinkie! One hot thermos of coffee!” the stand picks up the thermos and with expert control tops off Twilight’s depleted cup. With its task complete the stand places the thermos back on the exact spot on its flank it came from, causing it to once again turn back into felt.

Twilight looks at her cup of coffee with no small amount of surprise as she inhales the fragrance of perfectly warm coffee with absolutely no hint of staleness “Amazing! It’s like an advanced bag of holding spell! Except the spell can preserve an object perfectly in time as well as in space.” Twilight takes a sip of her brew with satisfaction “this coffee is as fresh as when it was brewed! How many objects can you store like this pinkie?”

The pink pony shrugs at this question “Humh? I don’t know, one time I tried to stick a whole kitchen on my stand cause I was going to do this super cool baking party but I ran out of room to stick thing onto so I just turned the oven into felt and stored the felt in my hair! Boy was Mr. Cake surprised when he came home to find out that his oven was gone!”

Twilight blinks at pinkie’s comment “Hold on Pinkie, back up there. Did you say you can turn anything into felt? Meaning that you don’t have to stick it onto your stand to keep it in felt form to preserve an object?”

“Heh He, Don’t be silly Twilight! I can’t turn everything into felt! That would really silly even for me! No matter how many times I tried I could never turn another living thing into felt and store it, which is a pretty good thing cause I guess that being turned into felt would be really boring!” Sticking her hoof into her mane Pinkie pulls out a small toothless alligator “Well except for gummy! He’s really special like that! Could you imagine if I could turn into felt into felt and place it on Surprise’s felt where it could be felt by a pony who loves felt?!”

Twilight rolls her eyes as pinkie laughs at her own little joke, Applejack looking on suspiciously on her strange looking stand all the while. “Hold on there Pinkie.” The farm mare says  as she points at the surprising stand “Ah get this whole turn things into felt but what’s with those eyes yer stand is covered in. yawl don’t expect me ta believe that ya……” the farm mare gulps deeply “……. that yawl can take off ponies eyes or somthin?”

The farmer chuckles nervously “Ah mean cause yawl said that you couldn’t’ turn living things inta felt…… so ah’m not tryin to make any false allegations er anything but……”

Realizing how far she’s getting beating around the bush the farmer shakes herself out of her trance. “Aw to heck with it! Yer stand has all these crazy eyes on them and they’re creepy as buck.”

Both Twilight sparkle and Applejack look on the party pony in dawning horror as they slowly inch away from Pinkie Pie. Pinkie pie on the other hand begins to chuckle softly her laughter growing louder by the second until she is rolling over on her back laughing at the top of her lungs. “BWA HAHAHAHAHA Applejack…. You’re…. You’re so funny BWA HAHAHAHA.’”

The other two mares begin to laugh nervously along with pinkie their original fears slowly being replaced with cautions hope that their friend doesn’t butcher ponies and turn them into cupcakes. Suddenly Pinkie’s laughter stops as she rights herself up looking into Applejack’s eyes “No Applejack the eyes that appear on my stand are natural part of it! They were there when I first got my stand, and sometimes I do have to remove some of them to make room to store my other party supplies.”

Pinkie’s eyes suddenly begin to tear up as she looks her friends in the eyes her sadness almost palpable as her poofy mane begins to deflate a bit. “But seriously Applejack, that was really wrong of you! Do I look like the kind of pony that would hurt other ponies like that?”

Twilight looks her normally joyous friend in the eyes and sees the extent of sadness that such a casual comment has made on her demeanor. The normally smiling face of the pink party pony is creased with a deep frown, her puffy hair deflated; even her pink coat seems less bright.

“Of course not Pinkie!” Twilight assures her “You are one of the kindest and most considerate ponies that I know! You could never hurt anypony like that.”

Turning her head towards Applejack, Twilight gives Applejack the most threatening gaze she can muster letting her know exactly what will happen to her if she doesn’t make things right in the next four seconds. “In fact any pony that would even think that Pinkie Pie would do such horrible things to other ponies is sick, Pinkie Pie a pony that lives to make others happy. Isn’t that right APPLEJACK?!” Mustering all the intensity of her Librarian’s stare, Twilight’s glance conveys a simple message to Applejack, comfort your friend or suffer the consequences’.

“Yeah!” Applejack states, her response spurred on both by her desire to comfort her pink friend and her growing fear of the purple librarian in front of her. “Of course ya would never do any of that stuff pinkie! I just thought you know it was strange and all that ya had all those creepy eyes on yer stand. I meant it as a joke that’s all!”

Pinkie’s face instantly returns to its normal joyous appearance as she embraces the two ponies “Awww it’s okay girls! I forgive you!  I was just messing with you guys too! I know that you know that I know that I would never do any of those horrible things! At least not in this universe! Besides I need those eyes to pull off my other special power.” Breaking out of the hug Pinkie bounces over to the door and flings it open with a loud clattering sound,  “now come on! Fillies we’ve got a town to explore!”

As pinkie bounces out into the world beyond the Twilight can’t help but stare at the strangest pony she has ever met. “Wow, is Pinkie always, like that? Or is it only when she’s around ponies she likes?”

Applejack smiles as she drapes her hoof over her friend’s shoulder “Twi, ah’ve lived in ponyville mah whole life and ah haven’t met a pony yet who Pinkie Pie doesn’t like. Now come on Pinkie’s right! We’ve got a whole town to explore and only few hours ta do it in. So saddle up and lets’ head on out!”

Applejack bolts out the door as Twilight looks at the sunny world outside. “Well it does look like such a nice day outside now that I’ve had my caffeine so I guess that….” Twilight stops her hoof mid stride “Wait a second…… Did pinkie say that she had more than one stand power?!’ Twilight dashes out of the door fully intent on catching up with the pink menace and extracting everything that the party mare hasn’t told her, from her balloon headed mind.

……………………..

“……. and this is Time Turner he’s the local clock maker stallion guy or something. He likes blue telephone booths and hangs out with the mail mare Derpy all the time for some reason, and Derpy is sooooooo cool Twilight! You’ve got to see how good she is at stunt flying! Cause you know she’s the mail pony here and she always flies in a really crazy way! What was I talking about again? Oh yeah Time Turner! He loves banana cakes and banana splits and he’s always running around all over ponyville for reasons no pony really understands and……”

‘This is so NOT what I had in mind when I wanted to know what things pinkie was keeping from me!’ Twilight thinks to herself as she listens to Pinkie explain the backstory for the fifty-sixth pony that they have met today. Twilight grumbles as she thinks of how much better this time could be spent looking for Red Stones than meeting random ponies who like her find themselves at the mercy of the Pink Asylum patient.

“Applejack?” Twilight asks “Wouldn’t it be more prudent to look at areas where the red stones might be found? Or search for ponies acting out of the ordinary?”

Applejack turns to Twilight to resume their conversation “Shucks Twi you asked pinkie to introduce ya to some of the ponies in town, sides we would have had all the time we needed had we left when we were supposed to, cause of yer little coffee break we had to eat breakfast on the go.” Pinkie Pie finishing her expertly crafted tirade on ponyville's 106th resident, Time Turner, moves onto the next pony in sight ponyville's 4083th resident Raindrops who tries vainly to fly away in the face of Pinkie’s Rambling voice.

Twilight sighs “Oh Applejack, naive foolish Applejack.” Twilight says as if chastising a child  “Any danger or discomfort we could have experienced by taking a late start would have been miniscule compared to the discomfort of dealing with me without my morning coffee.”

Pinkie continues disclosing various bits of personal information to any pony in earshot about her good friend Raindrops as the mare attempts to do everything in her power to shut her up. To this day no pony has ever succeeded in getting Pinkie to shut up for more than five minutes without having an aneurism.

“What da ya mean Twi?” The perplexed farm mare asks.

“I mean Applejack…..” the purple unicorn explains “…. That any morning in which I DON’T get my morning coffee is a morning that you and everypony in town will rue your very existence.”

If there is any indication that pinkie was aware that her friends were ignoring her, she either didn’t care or she was so focused on disclosing personal information about a single pony to the world around her, that it completely slipped her mind that the ponies that she was tasked with explaining all these things to weren’t listening.

Applejack gulps in fear from Twilight’s comment “Point taken. An ah guess yawl are right bout one thing, we really need to pick up tha pace here.”

“I’m glad you see things my way Applejack!” Twilight says with a grin. Trotting up to Pinkie who is in the process of explaining what kind of teddy bear Snips got for his birthday last year Twilight snaps her friend out of her behavior. “Ummm Pinkie I don’t mean to be rude, but when I asked you to introduce me to some of the more important ponies in ponyville, I meant that you should introduce me to some of the ponies who are actually important.”

Pinkie turns around gripping her friend with her two immensely strong arms “But TWILIGHT!” The party mare says as she shakes her friend back and forth “ALL the ponies of ponyville are important! I mean what if… Muummmmppphhhhh!”

Twilight cuts of her friend with a hoof to her mouth “Pinkie I know what you are going to say, and I think everypony in Ponyville is special and unique, but I want to meet the ponies in Ponyville who have important jobs and tasks that they alone can perform. The kind of ponies who would know if a pony was acting strange or had found a mystical magical object while doing their job. Now pinkie do you know any ponies like that?”

A serious look crosses Pinkie’s face as she raises her hoof in a solemn pledge “Mmmmmummmmph Mumph Mmmmumph Muumph Muuummmmppppphhhh!”

Twilight removes her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth. “What was that pinkie?”

“I said that I’d totally help you find a pony like that Twi!” Pinkie says “and I won’t rest until I… Hey look there’s Rainbow Dash let’s go meet her!” Pinkie bounces up with the speed of a shark smelling fresh blood before pouncing upon the completely unsuspecting Pegasus “HI RAINBOW HOW ARE YOU DOING?”

Twilight sighs in frustration “GGGGGGGGGGggghhhhhhaaaaaaaa. I give up Applejack, there’s absolutely no way of getting pinkie to follow any kind of schedule.”

Applejack chuckles to herself “Yeah Pinkie’s a handful Twi, but she always manages to come through in a pinch. Take mah friend Rainbow Dash there.”

“Rainbow Dash is your friend too Applejack?” Twilight looks up at the farm mare as her mind fills with hopeful thoughts. ‘Maybe if things work out I can be friends with rainbow too! Wait what am I thinking?! I’m not here to make friends I’m here to find the red stones. Prioritize Twilight!’

Applejack chuckles “If by friends ya mean rivals then yeah, we’re the best o friends. An if anypony knows if somtin rotten is going down around ponyville then she’s the one to ask. After all she’s the captain of the weather patrol and ponyville's resident stunt mare.”

Her eyes filling with awe the Twilight mare looks upon the mare in front of her in a new light. The Pegasus’ sky blue coat belies her powerful muscles underneath each muscle grouping toned to physical perfection after years of rigorous exercise. Her cutie mark a rainbow colored lightning bolt cutting through a white cloud demonstrates her desire for speed as well as her natural born talent at achieving it. Her cocky grin and maroon eyes demonstrating an unparalleled amount of confidence that seemingly fills her very being. Her very body language resonates with pride and confidence, in fact the only faulty mark on her entire body is a medium sized bandage placed right above her left cutie mark. Yet most noticeably of all her six colored mane representing all the colors of the rainbow seems to catch every slight breeze as it ripples beautifully through the air.

“Ponyville's captain of the weather patrol…… You’re right if any pony would be witness to any strange things around ponyville it would be the one who patrols it regularly.” With enthusiasm in her every step Twilight walks up to the Rainbow mare with a cheery grin “Hello there, I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess Reprehensive assigned to ponyville. I must say I haven’t heard many things about you Rainbow dash but from what Applejack and Pinkie Pie tell me you are the pony to know here in ponyville.”

Twilight extends her hoof to the Pegasus who looks over the Lavender mare twice before finally breaking out in a small grin and shaking her hoof. “Well if you haven’t heard anything about me then you really must be a new pony to ponyville! And if you could get that stubborn apple farmer to give you a good word then you must be pretty cool yourself.” Breaking the hoof shake Dash strikes another cocky grin “of course you’re still nowhere as awesome as I am!”

“Really.” Applejack asks unwilling to accept dash’s arrogant attitude this early.

“Yeah Jackie!” Pinkie says “Even I hate to admit it, but Rainbow dash is way cooler than Twilight sparkle! In fact in the nine thousand two hundred and forty seven ponies currently in ponyville Rainbow dash is undoubtedly the most daring of them all! Why she’s practically a shoo in for the wonderbolts next year! Um no offense Twilight?”

Twilight nods her head “None taken Pinkie, but trying out for the wonderbolts, you must be a pretty impressive flyer Rainbow Dash.”

Dash raises her hoof to her eyes admiring it like she was looking as a fins statue “Heh. What can I say, I’m just awesome like that.” Dahs points her hoof to the newcomer “But enough about me and how obviously awesome I am. I know everypony in Ponyville, so what makes you so special?”

‘What?’ Twilight thinks ‘is she trying to be rude? No she’s friends with Pinkie and Applejack; she must just be intimidated by the fact that they have a new friend’. “Well, like I said I’m A Princess Representative from the designated region of ponyville.”

“Pfft, that’s nothing special.” Dash waves her hoof dismissively “All anypony has to do to get a position like that is kiss the flank of the princess. And that doesn’t take any talent. Come on there must be something awesome about you other than the fact that you’re a canterlot snob?”

Twilight is about to blurt out there is far more to being a princess representative than flank kissing when she is interrupted by Pinkie pie’s well timed outburst. “OH NO! Not only is Twilight a super princess Representative but she’s Princess Celestia’s private student! She’s super magical and has all these cool spells that go whoosh and boom and she healed Applejack in an instant with her magic and even guided us clear out of the Everfree Forest in the dark!”

“The Everfree Forest?” Rainbow asks genuinely impressed “You, a stuck up noble, went into the everfree forest? At night?”

Twilight seizes the opportunity to finally get a word in edgewise as she clears her throat “yes Dash I went into the everfree forest to help Applejack, and for your information I happen to be from a common…..”

“Yeah yeah that’s great Twibright….”

“TWILIGHT!  It’s Twilight Sparkle!”

“Whatever…...  Just so long as you aren’t a prissy frou frou unicorn like that Rarity you’re cool in my book.” Rainbow Dash snickers “Cause if you were looking to take the job of town fancy pants then you’re about ten years too late.”

“Dashie!” Pinkie rushes into Dash’s face a menacing look in her eyes “that’s not nice, Rarity is a great pony. Just because you two are very different and you share almost nothing in common doesn’t mean you can’t be friends! And it doesn’t mean that you can just make fun of her like that!”

Dash realizing that she may have gone too far with that last comment rubs the back of her neck shamefully as she looks Pinkie straight in the eyes. “Sorry Pinkie I guess I got carried away, sorry about that.”

Rainbow Dash points at Twilight “I just didn’t want the new pony getting any funny ideas about this town or anything. Ponyville may just be a shadow of the Capital of Equestria, but it’s no playground for any high class nobles or anything. If she thinks that she can come to our town and tell us how to live just because she’s some Princess Rep or something she’s in for a rude awakening.”

“Dash!” Now it is Applejack who chastises the speedster “Ah think Pinks is right! Yawl are goin too far now. Twi is here to help us out, not to oppress us like some foreign tyrant. She’s just doing her job helpin ponies out. Somtin YOU should be doin right about now.”

“Ehhh, I’m on break Applejack.” The rainbow mare states nonchalantly. “If it came down to it I could clear these skies in ten seconds flat.”

“Oh! I had a great idea guys!” pinkie says as an idea takes form in her mind “since Dash is so fast and is a good friend maybe she could help us with our super secret mission! We could be secret agent buddies!”

The group stands in stunned silence as the Pink mare blows any semblance of secrecy that they had in the most overt way possible. Part of twilight can’t believe that Pinkie just went and opposite thing that she was told not to do. Then again she is Pinkie. The air itself seems to be as heavy as lead as Twilight hopes to dear Celestia that Dash thinks that the pink mare is joking. ‘Please please think that this is a joke.’ The purple mare pleads ‘pinkie loves jokes! There is no secret mission it’s just another one of pinkie’s senseless jokes, please believe it's a joke!’

The deadening silence is finally broken by Dash scratching her head “secret mission? What secret mission? Applejack do you know what Pinkie is talking about?”

Twilight face palms “Pinkie! Can I speak to you in private? NOW.” Grabbing the Pink mare with her telekinesis Twilight teleports the two of them just out of earshot of the rainbow mare as she prepares to give the lecture of her life to the pink menace.

“What?” Pinkie asks “To subtle?”

“More like incredibly overt Pinkie!” Twilight shouts “I thought I told you that this was a SECRET mission for a reason, nopony else is supposed to know about it!”

“Nut-ah. You said that ponies who weren’t our friends or couldn’t be trusted. And Dash is our friend so she can be trusted! Besides Dashie is the most loyalist of loyal ponies that I know!”

“You’re joking right? Tell me you're joking pinkie.”

“To quote a great stallion ‘Noooppppeee!’” Pinkie states with absolute confidence “Rainbow Daring Dash is my friend! And that’s the truth.”

“Pinkie your ‘friend' has been rude and insulting to me ever since we met her. She’s stuck up, self-righteous and to top it all off she’s a bigoted airhead with rude manners! She is the exact OPPOSITE of a pony who we want to put our trust in!”

“You’re not such a prize yourself little Mrs. Sparkler.”

“GRUGH. Dahs for the millionth time my name is Twilight…..” Twilight turns around to see the rainbow maned mare hovering two hoof lengths over her head her arms crossed in obvious frustration. “Oh hello Dash! Um, hear anything you didn’t like? Hehehehe……”

However it is obvious from a quick glance that Rainbow Dash is not appeased or amused by Twilight’s apologetic behavior “So you think that I’m a blow hard Hunh? So you just think that me and the other ponies in this town are stupid? You think that you're so much better than everypony else? That we’ll just let you run through this town of ours doing Discord knows what just cause you have a fancy title? HUNH?!?”

Twilight flinches a bit with every accusation that comes from dash’s mouth “H-H-Hey! I didn’t say I was better than anypony else! And for your information….”

“Yeah well you certainly implied it.” The Rainbow mare interrupts “With your ‘secret princess missions’ that the rest of the town ‘doesn’t need to know’. Well I may not be an egghead like you but I can totally tell a government conspiracy when I see one! ”

Dash lands on the ground with a loud impact and begins to stomp right up to the Lavender mare giving her a stick eye “Well I’m not falling for your lies! And as captain of the weather patrol I demand to know what sort of ‘secret mission’ that you are doing around this town. Are you a spy?”

“It aint none of yer beeswax Dash!” The farm mare buts heads with Rainbow dash “Fer yer information Twilight was only trying to be friendly and yawl, an you darn near take her head off. She’s a guest Dash leave her alone!”

Pushing back on the farmer the Rainbow Dash makes it clear she’s not going to back down “She’s a government Spy Applejack! And if it’s not important then why is she hiding it from every pony? It’s exactly what a spy would do!”

The rainbow Mare suddenly turns to the ‘spy’ in question “Well little miss spy? Have you got anything to say in your defense?”

“You’re bleeding dash…....”

“HA! She admits it! She’s a…… wait what did you say?”

Twilight points her hoof over to the bandage on dash’s side the normally white cloth shows a new growing blotch of red under the bandage proper. “Your wound is bleeding Dash. You did a good job of bandaging it, but injuries to parts of the body like your back that experience a lot of movement open back up a lot of the time.”

Dash looks back to her injured flank with a small look of fear on her face as she begins to break out into a sweat. “Uhhhhhh…..”

Twilight moves over to the injured side with her precise and analytical mind as she determines the state of her patient. “Hummmmhhh……Your excitement and increase in blood pressure must have caused the wound to reopen Dash. But from the size of the wound and the small amount of blood I can tell that it’s come a long way in recovering.” Lighting her horn the lavender mare points the tip of it towards the wound on Dash’s side “Don’t worry like Pinkie said before I’m pretty good at healing magics, so I’ll just need a second to…..”

“NO!” the Rainbow mare leaps into the air in a panic clutching her flank. Then suddenly realizing that her behavior was very uncool coughs gently into her hoof as she assumes a more natural stance “I mean No way like I would trust a spy like you to play doctor. You probably would poison me or place a spell on my flank so you could track my movements, or something creepy like that!”

“What! That would be a terrible breach of medical practice!” the purple mare claims “I’m just trying to help you Dash! Why do you have to be so paranoid?”

Seeing an opportunity to get back at her rival for her rude behavior Applejack smiles evilly. “Oh so ya didn’t know Twilight.”

Twilight turns in confusion to her orange friend as Dash’s face grows several shades paler “What are you talking about Applejack?”

Applejack shrugs “I just thought that everypony from here to Canterlot would have heard by now about the fearless rainbow dash.”

Dash glares at the farmer “Applejack don’t you dare!”

Applejack beaming face perfectly contrasts dash’s enraged behavior as she continues to goad the Pegasus. “I just thought that she would like to know……”

“Shut UP Applejack.”

“That the fearless rainbow Dash…….”

“I said shut it.”

“Captain of the weather patrol......”

“Not cool Applejack, not cool at all.”

“Future wonderbolt extraordinaire…...”

“I swear to Celestia Applejack!”

“Is actually..…..”

“I swear to Celestia if you even……”

“Is totally scared of doctors!” Pinkie says as she pops out between the two mares “Isn’t that funny Twilight hunh? Cause I thought it totally was when I found out!”

Rainbow Dash slumps down over herself in pure embarrassment as her shameful secret is revealed to the mare she currently despises the most. Applejack smiles unable to keep herself from enjoying her rival’s humiliation. “Yes siree! In fact if ah had any say in it, ah’d say that Dash has a deep seated fear of any pony in authority, not just doctors. But then again ah wouldn’t know anything about that, after all Rainbow here’s the only pony ah know that’s afraid of doctors!”

Twilight’s eyes light up at this “fear of doctors? That’s perfect! I get a chance to try out my psychologist’s license!”

With a poof of magic Twilight conjures up a pair of professional glasses and a wooden clip board “Now Dash tell me when did you first start having these irrational fears of ponies in positions of authority? Do you know that your paranoia is not normal or do you feel your concerns are perfectly justified? What’s’ your relationship with your parents like? Am I doing a good job? Please tell me I’m doing a good job.”

Suddenly Dash spring into the air “that’s it; I’m done dealing with this. If you two want to ditch the most awesome pony in ponyville to hang out with the egghead then be my guest! That’s your problem.”

The rainbow mare then flies right up to the Lavender mare “and don’t think this is over Twibright. I’ve got my eye on you.” With a sudden burst of speed the rainbow mare vanishes into the wild blue yonder leaving behind a prismatic trail as the only evidence that she was there.

Twilight sighs thoroughly disappointed at her inability to befriend such an obviously important member of the town. “….Well…….. That was pleasant.”

“I know right!” says the ever oblivious pinkie pie “Dashie is one of my best ever friends, I’m so glad that you could get to meet her!”

“That’s Dash for ya.” Applejack remarks “To tell ya the truth ah think she’s a little intimidated by new ponies. She thinks that having more friends means that yer are less loyal to the ones ya do have. That and dash is as paranoid bout newcomers as a beehive in bear season.”

Applejack slaps Twilight on the back “Don’t ya worry none once she gets over her rash behavior and cools off a little she’ll come around, she always does! Ah’ll admit it’s difficult to earn her trust. In fact other than Pinkie, me and her childhood friend Fluttershy, Dash doesn’t have that many friends, she’s like the barn owl in the grain silo, a solo flier.”

“Yeah” pinkie slaps twilight on the back as well mirroring Applejack “Dash may be slow to making friends but once she forms that super special bond of friendship she’s a friend till the end!”

Twilight looks upwards to the colorful streak left behind in the sky, the only remnants that the rainbow mare was even there “I really hope so girls……... Anyways I heard Dash mention something about another canterlot unicorn in town?” Twilight asks with curiosity abounding “I thought that because this is a prominent earth pony town, and because of all these anti-canterlot sentiments that there weren’t any other high class unicorns around.”

Applejack suddenly stares Twilight in the eyes a look of utter seriousness being conveyed by a mere glance “Shug yer wrong about two things, one of them getting the more serious. First there aint no anti- whatever attitudes here in ponyville. We don’t take to hating any kind of pony no matter what they worship or where they’re from…...”

“Or what or who they love!” Pinkie chimes in “in fact just yesterday I threw a wedding anniversary for Golden Harvest who is married too….”

“YES Pinkie we know!” The farm mare says while cutting off the party pony from saying things better left unsaid “anyways we hate ya just because yawl come from a certain town or somthin.”

The purple mare lowers her head in shame “But there have been so many ponies that don’t seem to like me just because I’m from canterlot……”

“I know Twi, but it’s not because of where ya are from. Most ponies here in the shadow of canterlot just don’t like the government. All those stuck up nobles going around telling us what to do and how to live like they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s those ponies that are so pompous that they believe they’re right about everythin and that everypony who isn’t a noble is garbage who we don’t like.” Applejack smiles reassuringly at the mare in front of her “And Twi I’m happy ta say ya aren’t like any of those ponies, you are you, no matter what others believe so don’t go running around like everypony is after you.”

Twilight perks up visibly “thanks Applejack, that means a lot to me. But what was the second thing that I was wrong about?”

Applejack chuckles at that. “The second thing that you were wrong about is the fact that Rarity is a canterlot snob, I’ve been friends with Rarity since ah was a filly and I can tell ya personally that she’s the most generous, gracious an sophisticated pony ah know.”

Applejack nods her head in a direction urging the others to follow her “Don’t get me wrong Rarity may not have been born in canterlot, but from her ‘de-cor-um’ ya wouldn’t guess it. She’s about as high class as ya can get round these parts. In fact we’re on our way to visit her now!”

“Why?” Twilight asks inquisitively “is she a member of the town council or a prominent magi?”

“Well I don’t know how talented she is in magic compared ta you Twilight. After all yer are probably in a whole other ball game compared to most unicorns from what ah can figure.” Twilight blushes at this compliment. “But other than the fact that she’s a good personal friend, Rarity has an ear for gossip like no other mare ah know.”

“Really?”

“Yeah Twilight! Rarity’s really good at figuring things out!” Pinkie comments “this one time I ate this pie she baked for the town bake sale in one whole bite and she knew I did it, even when I said I didn’t do it! But it was okay because I helped her bake a new pie in time for the contest with a really cool song!”

Applejack groans “Pinkie, she knew it was you cause ya had pie crumbs all over yer face!” Pinkie shrugs as Applejack turns to face Twilight again. “Anyways like ah was saying we may not see eye to eye sometimes but, hoowee, if there is a rumor in town that Rarity doesn’t know it’s not worth knowing. If there are any strange happenings around town she’ll find out faster than a hungry squirrel finds its nuts after winter thaws.”

“…….. Applejack, I know that you enjoy them a lot.” Twilight asks as carefully as possible “but PLEASE lay off the southernisms for now it’s still way too early for me to deal with them.”

Applejack chuckles at this “Heh, Rarity says the same thing, except she says it no matter what time of day it is! Ah think that you an her are going ta get along just fine.” Applejack comes to a stop at the front door of a circular shaped building that resembles, at least in Twilight’s eyes, a giant cake. “Looks like we’re here yawl Carousel Boutique! Home of the one and only ‘miss Rarity’.”

Taking them to the door of carousel boutique, Twilight looks up at the building in front of her “what beautiful architecture, you were right Applejack, she certainly has good taste.” The building itself though unremarkable from a canterlot perspective is intricately decorated with various signs of a fashionista’s trade. Ribbons that look sewn on, lights that resemble buttons and the manikins looking out through the window dressed in the most cutting edge clothes are all signs that this is a place of fashion. The fresh pink checkered coat of the building and embellished metalwork making the building a match of any fancy canterlot architecture.

“Yeah Rarity may be a small town girl but she’s got real talent with the needle. Ah may be a simple farm pony who doesn’t understand much about high society, but ah can tell ya that it’s a fact that she’s the best dressmaker this side of Canterlot, even if she’s a bit of a drama queen.”

Twilight arches her eyebrow in sudden confusion of this overwhelming support from applejack “you speak very highly of her for some pony that does such different work.”

Applejack locks gazes with the skeptical Twilight “She’s my friend Twilight, why wouldn't ah speak highly of her? Sides she entered several Fashion contests in canterlot with her skill and always finished in the top five.”

“But not first? Why?”

Applejack’s glower reveals her feelings on the matter “Cause those stuck up noble ponies always judge the contests on nobility and royalty and all that other hogwash. There’s no way they'd let some ‘impure’ unicorn from a backwater town win. No matter how good she did she never got a lick of recognition.”

Twilight seeing her friend upset moves to comfort Applejack by draping her arm over her shoulder “I’m sorry Applejack, I didn’t think her skills were poor I was just curious. Besides from what little I can see through the windows I can tell that she’s a whole lot better than most designers in canterlot.”

Applejack’s demeanor softens a bit “Thanks Twi, that would mean a lot to Rares if you were to tell her that. You know Rarity may be a canterlot mare at heart but, she’s ta good kind of Canterlot, like you Twi.”

“Yeah twilight!” Pinkie bounces her way into the conversation “you’re gonna be such great friends! You already have soooooooooo much in common. You’re both magicky unicorns! You both love canterlot and both of your manes are purple!”

Applejack tips her hat as she opens the door to the store “well enough small talk y'all let’s get on inside an out of this cursed heat.”

With no small amount of excitement, the three friends walk through the door into the designing rom of carousel boutique where they can already make out some of the amazing designs housed by the fashionista. Twilight, her apprehension growing by the second, resolves to not let another great opportunity to make a new friend go to waste. “Well it will be good to meet somepony with some canterlot sophistication here, as long as she isn’t half as crazy as……. GOOD SWEET CELESTIA WHAT IS SHE DOING!?!”

Standing in the middle of the room pinning up a top notch dress is a peerlessly beautiful ivory unicorn mare with a purple curled mane. She carries herself with high standing and an inner sophistication and nobility that usually takes years for even the most top notch of the canterlot elite to learn. Her Fibonacci curled purple mane and glamorous grey purple eyes accented by dark thick eyelashes a sign of the enormous time and effort the mare takes in maintaining and accenting her natural beauty. Her cutie mark, that of a trio of diamonds displaying for all the world to see the mare’s good taste and desire to seek beauty in all things.

In front of her a butter yellow pegasus mare with an aura of natural beauty that eclipses the previous mare (if that alone is possible). The mare’s dainty hoof steps betray her shy predisposition but makes her even more petite and glamorous than one would think possible as she shuffles nervously from side to side. Her long pink flowing mane expertly styled is so long it almost reaches to the ground, flowing from her scalp with the smoothness of running water. Her cutie mare that of three butterflies practically screams grace and poise, demonstrating her natural charm that even savage beasts would bow before.

Yet it is not the beauty of these mares that has stunned Twilight Sparkle, but what the yellow mare is adorned in. For the dress that she is wearing, a bright red dress that sparkles in the glow of Rarity's magic is covered with small multitudes of the Red Stones. The dress itself is magically enhanced so that the copious numbers of Red Stones continually gleam producing a bright red glow around the wearer.

The sound of the chiming doorbell echoes through the store informing the proprietor that customers have arrived. However from her focused gaze on the dress it appears that Rarity barely recognizes the presence of the ponies who have entered her store. “I’ll be right with you in a moment darlings, I’m in the zone as it were. Just have a seat over there for a moment and I’ll be right with you. Now Fluttershy strike a dignified pose here while I compare which shawl goes best…….”

“Um Rarity…..” The pegisi so says in the meekest and quietest voice possible “I don’t mean to interrupt you but our frie..…”

“Fluttershy please no talking I need all my artistic focus for this one moment.” Rarity states as she levitates two different shawls “Now the hot pink or the mahogany? Which goes with the dress best…….”

Rarity mumbles to herself as Twilight gapes at the fact that a national treasure is being used for a fashion accessory. “What in Equestria is she doing!? Does she have any idea what she is…… Is……. Is that embroidery?!?”

“Now shug I’m sure Rarity means well.” Applejack places her hoof On her friend’s shoulder “ah’m sure that she’ll be receptive to giving us the stones when she understands how portant it is.”

Twilight smacks the hoof off “That’s not the point! Here’s an incredibly powerful and sacred magical item and she’s using it! For dressmaking! It’s…..…it’s a crime against nature!”

“Yeah that is a crime!” Pinkie jumps up a look of disgust in her eyes

“See pinkie understands!”

“That dress needs more blue! Everypony knows that blue is a great party color!” With a hop skip and a jump the pink party pony jumps right next Rarity “hey Rarity! That dress needs more blue!”

The fashionista groans “Pinkie…... I know you just want to help but I’ trying to work here.”

Pinkie rubs her chin “Maybe you’re right Rarity…….”

“I’m glad you’ve seen reason darling. Now if you would just…....,”

“Polka dots would look way better!”

Rarity turns around nearly foaming with rage as she stares down the pink oppressor “Pinkiamenia Diana Pie, Please, you are just being ridiculous now and it is not funny. Now please wait there with Applejack and the others while I…..”

Rarity blinks twice, and with expert comic tuning performs a double take to see Applejack waving back at her. “Applejack Darling! I’m so sorry I simply did not know you would be stopping by today! I am terribly sorry for ignoring you like that.” The ivory mare’s face suddenly brightens “Have you finally decided to join me and Fluttershy on our spa date? I know you’re not into that whole prim and proper thing that we do but..….”

“No Rarity ah’m not goin to the spa with you.” The orange mare shivers “not after what happened last time..…”

“I swear Applejack you simply will not forget. Well a filly can hope. Anyways what brings you here to my humble abode?”

“Oh right!” The Farmer steps off to the side and opens her arm to reveal Twilight Sparkle, who is still staring at the red dress with such distress one might think she were witnessing a book burning. “Rarity, this is Twilight Sparkle. She’s a friend of mine and she happens to be the new princess rep from canterlot.”

Before the princess’s protégé can even get a word in edgewise she is cut off by the ecstatic unicorn’s gasp “Canterlot! Why it’s always been my dream to make it in canterlot! The glamor, the sophistication why there’s ....Mph!”

Twilight places her hoof on the white unicorn’s mouth breathing a sigh of relief. “Rarity it’s great that you love Canterlot and that you love the fact that I love canterlot but I really need to ask you about that dress…...”

The purple manned Fashionista looks at Twilight with a look of confusion “…..what about the dress?”

Twilight brain shifts into overdrive ‘great. How do I get the learn how she found those red stones without arousing her suspicions, think brain think!’

Clearing her throat Twilight resumes “That is I hate to weigh in with you when it comes to fashion but….”

“Oh there’s too much red on here isn’t there?” Rarity looks of to the side to Fluttershy with a look of suspicion “I knew it! But Fluttershy refused to admit it!”

“Ummm actually…. Um Rarity… that is…… I really….. ummmmm……”

“Oh no no no no! It’s the perfect amount of Red!” the Purple mare assures the fashionista nervously “It’s just that there’s an awful lot of those strange looking sequins on your dress and I was wondering where you……”

“Oh darling please, one can never have too many sequins, bwah ha ha ha.” Rarity’s laughter dies down instantly at the cross gaze of the purple unicorn.

Seeing how unamused the purple unicorn is at her joke the ivory mare laughs emptily as she tries to divert the conversation in a more appealing direction. “He he….. Ahem. But I can see that you have a particular eye for the best my deer. Though of course that should not surprise me in the slightest being that you hail from the most fashionable city in all Equestria. You see there was a particular coincidence upon how I obtained these magnificent gems that I feel deserves a bit of elaboration.”

With her telekinesis Rarity moves four cushion over to the mares in the room Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie pie and Twilight sparkle before grabbing one for herself the mare then lowers the cushion to the floor and sits gracefully upon it and motions for the others to follow. Realizing that this will be a long story the mares sit down and the ivory mare begins her tale.

“you see, I was out for one of my weekly gem hunts to provide for my fashion wares, you see my cutie mark specializes me as an expert in gems although I do possess an unnatural perchance for designing clothes which I have to admit is my true passion. Anyway I was out near the southern gem fields a short while after the summer sun celebration and while I was looking for my normal supplies of gems I found a new kind of gem in the soil that was totally foreign even to me. Now I’m not one to brag but I know almost every kind of gem in existence and I had never even seen this kind of gem before. Though I could only find these amazing gems at short range even with my most powerful gem locating spells and they all looked like normal rocks but when I picked them up they produced the most beautiful inner light that I could possibly imagine. It was then that I simply knew that I had to have them so I have been going out and around ponyville looking for these strange gems which I have personally dubbed, ‘the stone of great rarity’, catchy I know, and I have now just gathered enough to finish this idea for a designer gown that I have been working on. And since it is our spa day Fluttershy decided to help me out by modeling the dress for me. But I can tell that you are interested in the design, so can I put you down for one, I have to agree this shade of Red goes so perfectly with your coat. Though I will have to warn you that it will be quite a while before I am ready to produce enough of these dresses for the general public as the gems are so awfully difficult to…. To…… Twilight deer are you okay darling?”

The pillow underneath the posterior of Twilight Sparkle has begun to actually smoke and simmer as the story went on to the point that it actually burst into flames underneath the purple mare. Suddenly Twilight’s rage counter reaches max as her mane and tail burst into terrifying orange flames her nose snorting hot steam as she rises from the smoldering wreckage that was Rarity’s’ pillow. With an ear splitting voice she yells “are you BUCKING KIDDING ME! You find an infinitely powerful magical treasure and you use it as a fashion accessory?! Do you have ANY idea how priceless the stone you are using is!? How dangerous it can be!? And you are using it, using it, for Jewelry?!?”

Rarity stands open mouthed at Twilight’s raw fury and anger a scant few seconds, before stupidly commenting on fashion. “…….do you think that it would make good jewelry?”

Twilight screams for a moment teleporting away in a blast of fire that scorches the ground beneath her.

The frightened Ivory mare turns to Applejack “A-A-Applejack, did I say something wrong? Gasp! it wasn’t that my taste in fashion was bad was it? I knew that my wares weren’t good enough for a canterlot eye! Everything those snobby Canterlot Fashion designers said about me was right!”

The orange mare shakes her head “nah Rares. It’s not yer taste in fashion at all. It’s something a whole lot more important than that.”

Rarity gasps again “More important that Fashion? Explain Applejack!”

Sighing applejack removes her station to look Rarity in the eyes “well Twi told us not to tell anypony else, but seeing how she’s……. indisposed. And since Twi already spilled the beans than ah might as well tell ya both the whole story….”

………….

Minutes later, Applejack has finished her story leaving the four mares with nothing better to do than wait for Twilight to return. Pinkie and Fluttershy are playing cards in the middle of the room while Rarity and Applejack spend their time catching up on current events in the town. Suddenly in a flash of purple light a much calmer unicorn appears in the middle of the room looking visibly ashamed of herself.

“Twilight!” Pinkie jumps up and hugs her friend “I missed you! Where were you? Never mind! Lookie what I won!” Pinkie points to the large pile of circular plastic “I really hit it big against Fluttershy she has no poker face at all. Now look at me! I’m totally loaded!”

Looking back and forth between Pinkie Pie and her ‘pile’ Twilight can’t help but sigh. “Pinkie that’s a pile of buttons.”

“Yeah Twilight! And I won! So I got the most fun of all! And since I already have a lot of fun, and now I have Fluttershy’s fun I’m like the super banker of fun for all ponyville!” Pinkie whispers in the lavender mare’s ear “Plus I’ll never have to worry about needing a button ever again. It’s the perfect plan!”

“…………anyways” Twilight turns to Rarity with a look of sorrow in her eyes “Rarity I’m really sorry that I just blew up on you like that. I didn’t mean deride you like that; I guess that it’s just been one of those days where everything seems to spiral out of control….…”

Rarity smiles gently and pulls Twilight into a side hug. “Apology accepted Twilight! I can understand that feeling perfectly. Why just the other week I had to make five dresses a day by hoof while looking after my little sister. I’m just glad that Fluttershy was able to help out otherwise I didn’t think that I would have made it.” Rarity looks Twilight in the eyes “the point that I am making is that I go through the exact same thing from time to time so I can understand exactly how you feel right now what with all those horrible red stones around.”

“Red Stones? Wait Rarity How do you…”

“……and your little outburst wasn’t a complete waste Darling. When you left to, ahem, ‘calm down’ It allowed my dear friend applejack to explain what is going on around town with these ‘Red Stones’ and all that. And I have to say that I am impressed with your resolve to helping ponies and your courage in saving my dear friend Applejack’s life from that wretched monster.”

The ivory mare tears up with a smile on her face “I….. I simply cannot thank you enough Twilight Sparkle. I don’t know what I would have done if Applejack…… You saved my friend’s life Twilight Sparkle, You saved Applejack, and for that I will be eternally grateful.” With poise and precision the fashionista lowers her head, not in shame or fear but in endless gratitude, the kind that can be physically felt.

Twilight is suddenly aware of the importance of what she has done as she tries to dismiss the ivory mare’s thanks. “It’s fine Rarity, Applejack is my Friend too! Of course I would save her. I’m just glad that somepony is supportive of me for the first time since I’ve gotten here.”

Rarity lifts her head “Oh that reminds me, since you haven’t been properly introduced to her before and since you….. Left…..before you got to meet her, I would like you to get to know my friend.”

Despite her friend’s generous introduction, the shy butter yellow mare, brushes the ground with her hoof, trying to look anywhere but where the unicorn is.

Smiling awkwardly at the Pegasus’s painful shyness, yet unwilling to give up Twilight makes an attempt at small talk. “Ahem, I’m Twilight sparkle, Princess Representative. What’s’ your name?”

“Um…. I’m… Flutte…………”

“I’m sorry what was that?”

“um……. My nam…… is….Flutter…….”

“……..Didn’t quite catch that……”

Emitting a noise halfway between a mouse’s whisper and a whimper the mare responds in octaves barely recognizable, creating only making the scene between them even more awkward.

With an enormous force of Will Rarity manages to avoid rolling her eyes. “Oh for Celestia’s sake Fluttershy, She’s not going to bit your head off, even if her mane was made of fire. You always talked about making new friends Darling, well now is that chance!” Nodding reaffirming to the shy yellow mare the fashionista gives the Pegasus a slight nudge in Twilight’s direction.

Suppressing her fears in the wake of Rarity’s words, the timid Pegasus tip toes up to the Purple unicorn “Hi, I’m Fluttershy. It’s….. um…… it’s nice to meet you!” She says as she ducks behind her mane.

‘Oh no look at the poor dear, she’s completely terrified!’ Twilight thinks ‘but why? What did I…..’

Twilight’s previous behavior suddenly comes back into the forefront of her mind as she remembers her terrifying abuse of magical power. “Oh I’m sorry Fluttershy! This is about me exploding into flame and burning the floor and yelling at your friend Rarity. I’m really sorry that I did those things and I’m so sorry that I scared you that badly!”

The butter yellow Pegasus apologizes “oh it’s not that Twilight. Your ummmm, ‘freak out’ wasn’t very scary. That is it wasn’t very scary, compared to one of Rarity’s freak outs.”

“Ahem.” The Purple maned unicorn taps her hoof at on the ground as she stares judgmentally at the Pegasus in a way that implies ‘I thought we agreed to never talk about that’.

“Um that is herfreakoutsthatIshouldnevertalkaboutaresomethingI’mgoodatdealingwith! SoIwasn’tscaredandI’mreallygladtomeetyouaswell!” The Pegasus takes several rapid breaths as she tries to catch her breath from her speedy response while calms Rarity down as well.

“All right then, it’s a pleasure to meet you both of you.” Twilight states “Any friend of Applejack is a friend of mine, Rarity. And of course by extension any friend of Rarity is a friend of mine as Well Fluttershy. I hope that we can be on good terms In the future as well.”

Twilight nods her head as she looks at the surprising diversity of the ponies surrounding her. “Well then on to business, since Applejack was able to fill both of you in on the importance of the Red stones  to the nation of Equestria I hereby formally request that you hand over the stones to my possession in golden oaks library so that they might be adequately protected and studied by the Princess Representative.”

Twilight looks Rarity over, fully expecting her to comply with her reasonable and expected request. Yet to her surprise the fashionista begins to chuckle again. “Darling you must simply stop reading those dusty old books! You sound like a military manual or something.” The fashionista chuckles to herself despite the stunned look of her friend’s face “No Twilight despite our new rapport I simply can’t turn over the Red stones for nothing at all. After all it took a great deal of effort for me to locate them and if I am to assist you in locating more of the red stones……”

Twilight manages to catch this “Assist me? Why would you want to assist me? You’re not a stand user.”

“Of course I’m going to help you Twilight. After all what are friends for?” Rarity flutters her eyelashes  “And of course I’ll have to tag along as well now that you’ve disclosed how important your little mission is. Not only is your little group in need of some beauty and skill but after what happened in the forest it is painfully clear that I have to come along to keep an eye on SOME PONY, so that she doesn’t go rushing off into danger again.”

Under Rarity’s intense Stare it takes everything that Applejack has to look away and whistle to herself hoping Rarity’s wrath will pass over her and onto somepony else.

“……and as for why you should let me help I believe I told you. My natural talents for locating Gems, (though it might be more difficult to locate them than ordinary gems I admit) makes me far more valuable than a platoon of soldiers in your task.” Rarity smiles at her proper labeling of her skills as she continues on “Now as I was saying if I end up helping you for nothing at all, my fashion business will undoubtedly suffer as well. I may be generous Twilight but I’m not completely selfless and if I am expected to help you locate the Red stones I require that I be reimbursed for my troubles.”

Twilight thinks this over in her head. ‘True Rarity’s gem hunting power means that it would be very good idea to have her help. But if she is involved she’ll be in danger, and that would be unforgivable if something happened to her as well. After what happened to Applejack I should just tell her that we don’t need her assistance and…….’

Applejack’s voice resonates through Twilight’s mind ‘Ahm the kind of pony that others can rely upon so instead of takin this whole mess by yer lonesome why don’t ya lean on yer friends instead?’

Reconsidering her own thought the mare looks at the fashionista before her taking in her generosity and her willingness to risk it all to protect a friend in need. “….. Alright Rarity you can help.”

The ivory mare beams “Really?”

“Really. Now how much do you want for your services?” Twilight asks “I’ll have to warn you the princess’s budget is tight so I can’t give you a fortune or something but it’ll certainly be better pay than most jobs out there.”

Rarity shakes her head “Oh twilight I don’t need money, my business though small is incredibly lucrative and between that and my gem finding I could probably go….. let’s see……. four, maybe five months without filling an order?”

Twilight’s jaw drops “What!” the purple mare exclaims “You’re that rich!?!”

Applejack shakes her head “I thought ya knew Twi. Rarity’s a small town girl. But cause of her gem findin and her popular hoof made fashion lines she’s the third richest pony in town. Just behind Filthy Rich, Silver Strike and Filthy’s wife Gleaming Earing, an he owns Backyard Bargains!”

“Applejack you flatterer you.” Rarity blushes under Applejacks’ compliment “But yes I have little need for money and besides all the money in the world can’t get me into canterlot without the proper……. Connections.”

“Hunh?”

“It’s quite simple Twilight Darling.” The ivory mare brushes her purple mane out of her eyes. “You are the princess’s protégé are you not? If I help you out I want to have my clothes be backed by the crown. That is I want the princess and her special protégé to wear only outfits that I myself make.”

Rarity trots over to the window looking out towards Canterlot “If the princess herself is wearing my clothes, NO noble will be able to tell me that my best outfits are cheap rags, that my clothes are nothing but potato sacks for the common peddler…. NO……..” the mare’s eyes burn with a silent fury. “NO THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DENY ME ANY LONGER, NO THEY SHALL ALL BOW BEFORE ME, THAT ARROGANT PHOTO FINISH, AND THAT HORRIBLE SURI, AND THAT ROTTEN HOITY TOITY!! THEY SHALL ALL BOW BEFORE THE UNDENIABLE BEAUTY AND PRESTIGE OF THE GREAT RARITY!” With a voice that chills the bones of every pony in the room the ivory mare laughs a dark and cruel laugh anticipates her dramatic rise to power over the ponies who ruined her life.

“Told you.” Fluttershy whispers in Twilight’s ear.

The mare suddenly becomes aware of her incredibly unladylike behavior as she clears her throat and turns around to face Twilight again. “Sorry about that Darling. Well what do you say? You get not only my amazing services but the right and privilege to wear the best of the best that I can offer. Quite a bargain no?”

Twilight looks around at Rarity’s wares, her every dress a perfect masterpiece of woven cloth and embroidered gems. Even Twilight has to admit that Applejack is right; Rarity is a mare of skill and passion. “Well, normally the princess never directly advocates things because it causes so much trouble. However she does always need formal wear for one reason or another.” Twilight gestures around the room “and from what I have seen of your work I would be proud to forward some of it to her.”

No sooner than the words leave her mouth the lavender mare finds herself embraced in a bear hug that could crush a manticore “thankyouohthankyoutwilightsparkleyouarealifesaverandyou’rehelpingmemakemydreamscometrue!thankyou!thankyou!thankyou!”

Twilight tries to use all her power to pry herself from the grasp, to speak, to use her magic however the lack of oxygen to her brain has made all three of these things impossible as she simply waits for it all to end.

Pinkie laughs “He He Look at the color her face is turning! I never knew there were that many shades of purple!”

Applejack taps Rarity on the shoulder “Um, Rarity….” She points to the nearly unconscious mare which causes the ivory mare to relinquish her grip.

“I’m so sorry Twilight I simply don’t know what came over me!”

Taking great wheezing breaths of ever so precious oxygen the Lavender mare barely manages to respond. “Don’t worry about it Rarity. It’s just one of those days I guess.”

“Well that still does not excuse my behavior. Now I know managing business and friendship is tricky so I simply have to ask, are we still friends despite all this?”

Rarity extends her hoof, and without thinking for a second Twilight grasps it giving the fashionista a certain and clear sign of their friendship. “Yes Rarity, yes we are.”

Unable to restrain her joy and longer Twilight beams at the numerous successes she has achieved today. They have already seen so much of the town, she has made two new friends, one of which can greatly help in her mission and already they have gathered so many of the red stones thanks to Rarity, all on the first day of looking

Twilight asks herself  “Could this day possibly get any better?”

…………

“….This day couldn’t possibly get worse.” the now ragged unicorn states as she drags her hooves through the dirt.

“WOWIE wasn’t that a great day Twilight?” Pinkie says as she bounces next to the obviously exhausted and frazzled mare. Celestia’s sun is setting off in the distance and the entire town is winding down as the ponies of the small town prepare for a relaxing evening. “Too bad Applejack couldn’t join us for this walk back home I’ve had almost as much fun explaining everything we did today than I had actually doing it. Let’s see we met almost every amazing pony in town including Raindrops! We looked at every important building in ponyville and took our pictures next to each and every one. And you only freaked out a whole three times before the day ended!”

Her library in sight Twilight breathes an immense sigh of relief that her day is almost over and puts all her remaining willpower into ignoring the pink menace behind her. “And you know what the best part of all is Twilight? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do you? Hunh? Do…”

Finally reaching the door Twilight wrenches it open “No. What is the best part Pinkie?”

Pinkie smiles brightly “tomorrow we get to wake up and do it all over again! Isn’t it exciting?”

Twilight visibly shudders at this as she freezes in the doorway. “So Twilight what’s your opinion of ponyville? It’s the greatest town in Equestria right? Did you learn something new? How were Mrs. Cake’s brownies? Did you think that mayor mare is a silly name? Because I certainly did!”

Her mane begins to curl as the lavender mare’s eye twitches in its socket. As slowly Twilight can manage the lavender mare, still standing in the door frame looks back at the pink mare behind her. “Why yes Pinkie I did learn something about the town of ponyville today!”

Pinkie leans in to hear Twilight’s thoughts as the mare clears her throat and raises her hoof demurely before shouting at the top of her lungs. “ALL THE PONIES IN THIS TOWN ARE CRAZY!” With the force of thunderclap Twilight slams the door of the library shut leaving Pinkie Pie and all the craziness that she represents outside.

Rubbing her sore horn Twilight walks through the ground floor of the library as she thinks of the best way to try and recover her frazzled nerves before she has to wake up tomorrow and deal with Ponyville and all it’s crazy all over again.

“Maybe from now on I’ll have two cups of coffee in the morning instead of the normal one. I have a feeling I’m gonna need it from now on seeing as how things are only going to get more hectic from here on out.” Twilight looks out the library window to see the pink menace bouncing off in the distance, almost missing the presence of a pony so bright and full of energy. “I still can’t believe that I made friends with such crazy ponies, a stubborn farmer, a dramatic fashionista, and…. Pinkie.”

Closing her eyes as she rests her head on the center table in the library the mare thinks back to everything that happened today. Pinkie’s felt boards, Rainbow Dash’s fear of authority, Applejacks’ unflinching support for her fillyhood friend, Fluttershy’s’ grace and poise in the wake of her outburst and even Rarity’s terrifying rant and her deep seated concern for the fate of her friends.

“They’re all completely crazy.” Twilight states as she smiles to herself. “But you know…. I wouldn’t have anypony else by my side in all this.”

Twilight slaps her face with her hooves causing fresh blood to once again rush to her head. “Okay it's’ only seven o seven. I still have plenty of time for stand meditation and practicing magic. But just to be safe I should probably have a cup of coffee and try some of those new beans that i…….” Twilight suddenly remembers what she forgot to get while she was out. “…… coffee beans. And by now all the stores are closed so there’s no chance of getting any fresh coffee for tomorrow morning.”

Twilight prepares to utter a string of obscenities that could make even ears bleed as she takes in as much air as physically possible. Thankfully Twilights’ imminent outburst is stopped when she spies a steaming Thermos on the library table that she hadn’t noticed before. Amazed at the item’s sudden appearance Twilight trots over to the table and gives the steaming cup a deep whiff. Twilight shudders “its coffee! But who…..” Next to the now familiar thermos Twilight spies a note.

HI TWILIGHT

THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NEED THIS FOR LATER! I KNOW I DO WHENEVER I PULL ALL NIGHTERS AND HAVE THOSE SLOW MORNINGS THAT KEEP ME FROM BEING MY PINKIE BEST! THANKS FOR LOOKING AROUND PONYVILLE WITH ME AND MY OTHER FRIENDS! I LOOK FORWARD TO HANGING OUT WITH YOU TOMORROW, AND THE DAY AFTER THAT, AND THE DAY AFTER THAT, AND THE DAY AFTER THAT, AND THE DAY AFTER THAT.

SINCERELY PINKIE PIE

P.S. AND THE DAY AFTER THAT AND THE DAY AFTER THAT AND THE DAY AFTER THAT…….

Twilight smiles as the picks up the thermos filled to the brim with piping hot coffee. Her hoof practically trembling as she takes a big swig of its delicious caffeine. “Like I said I wouldn’t have anypony else….”

Chapter 4-Foundation-Take2

Chapter 5-Valkyrie

Valkyrie:

I am a winner.

It’s never easy being awesome, but it’s totally worth every second.

Even on my worst of days I take pride in the fact that I can personally take down anything that comes my way.

I can face anything that comes my way because I know that I am a winner.

And the secret to being a winner? It’s real easy, but only the most awesome could ever think of pulling it off. And that means of course I know it.

So do you guys really want to know want makes me such an awesome, extreme, unstoppable winner!?  It’s simple. The key to being an awesome winner is to never let anything stand in the way of your dreams.

Like I said real simple, but it’s a belief that I’ve held to for almost my entire life. And I don’t allow any pony, not bullies not condescending teachers, not my parents, No Pony keep me down.

I’m a winner and no pony can tell me otherwise. And I can do anything I set my mind to and I can conquer any foe. This is what I’ve told myself, over and over, day after day until I turned blue in the face.

…………Well I was already blue, But you get the idea!

And that is what makes me a winner.

I never back down, I never abandon my beliefs, and I’m always the first one to fight for the ponies that need me the most.

And that’s all I need to know

……………………..

A blazing rainbow trail streaks through the perfect blue sky looping through the air almost effortlessly as the blue skies before touching down by a pristine lake. Rainbow dash, stunts mare extraordinaire, stops by the pond lapping up a mouthful of water before wiping her mouth “AHH nothing like water straight from the source! Well that’s it for another awesome morning routine. One hundred wing ups, three laps around ponyville and a few ab crunches just for the heck of it!”

The confident mare looks to the sky reflecting on the rest of the day and looking at her exposed flank now free of injury. “Finally after that wound I‘m back up to one hundred percent. I was actually pretty worried that I would have to go to….” The mare shivers “….the hospital, for stitches. But there’s nothing the great Dash can’t bounce back from! Take that doctors everywhere! Who needs em?”

Looking at her flank Dash smiles at the fact that there is barely a visible scar where her wound used to be. Snuggling back into the green grass beneath her Rainbow Dash watches the clouds above with a free heart. “Besides if I had to go to the hospital I might have run into TWILIGHT, and her brainy…. Brain.”

Dash’s mood immediately sours as she thinks about the purple mare “ever since she’s arrived, strange happenings have been happening around town. And as if it couldn’t get any worse she’s brainwashed all my friends into some secret club! And they’re all ignoring me! What’s up with that?!?”

The rainbow mare lies on her back as she goes over her options mentally “I could just go ask Applejack what’s up, but despite her whole honesty thing, she is really good at keeping secrets. Besides groveling for answers isn’t my style anyways, I’m more of a secret agent kind of pony!”

Rainbow dash jumps to her hooves jabbing at the air as if she were punching out ninjas and sneaking low to the ground as if she were main character of an action adventure novel. “Finding out all the clues, jumping out of explosions, punching the villain in the face and getting the hot mare in the end. STALLION! Getting the hot STALLION in the end. URRRRRRRRRRR.’

Dash slaps herself “All right that’s it! Twilight’s up to something and I’m going to find out what it is if it’s the last thing I do!”

Snapped out of her reprieve by a familiar humming, the mare looks up to see a light green mare with a two tone silvery green mane. The figure who she recognizes immediately as her friend Lyra (she never did get that soda out of her mane from that one time) appears to be walking through the park looking around for something while humming the government mandated winter wrap up song. Ever since Celestia had made it a government requirement to be able to sing while working (or at least carry a tune) Songs had been a crucial part of the Equestrian workforce motivating (or punishing) workers (captive audiences) to work harder (wear earplugs).

“Lyra, Perfect!” Rainbow says to herself as she rubs her hooves greedily “Lyra’s always knows about what’s going on in Ponyville. She’s sure to know something incriminating about Twibright Sparkle! And as Indiana Colt explains in his novel ‘the Temple of Floom’ the first step in being any kind of detective is interrogating witnesses.” The mare, tip hooves towards Lyra from her blind spot; her full intent focused on keeping her element of surprise.

And Lyra, completely oblivious to the oncoming threat is looking around the park with a cheerful look on her face when she stops to literally smell the roses from the town’s rose bushes. All of a sudden her peaceful walk is completely ruined as a rainbow maned pony jumps out of the bushes in front of her and tackles her to the ground “All right Lyra! Spill the beans! What’s up with Twilight? Why is she running around town with all of my friends? Am I pulling off the intimidating detective stick well cause I really want to know if I have it down. Talk!”

Lyra blinks only for a moment before answering, as if what Dash is doing is perfectly normal “Oh, well Twilight is just here looking for the miracle stones around town, and she’s recruited Applejack, Pinkie pie, Rarity and Fluttershy to help her out with that. And yes if it were any pony that isn’t used to the level of craziness that I do every day, your intimidating detective stick would work really well! At least that’s what I think!”

“Don’t try to play dumb with me! I… wait what?” the brash young mare asks “you’re trying to help me? Just like that?”

“Well of course!” Lyra states happily “Why wouldn’t I want to help you?”

Dash shrugs while still sitting on Lyra’s chest “well… um I just didn’t expect things to be so easy. I kind of thought that I’d have to go deep undercover to get answers to what Twilight was up to and everything. I even had a super cool theme song raring to go in my head the moment that I got into danger!”

“Well….” Lyra looks up as she cranes her eyes “To tell you the truth I was acting pretty crazy when I first found out there were stones that granted ponies wishes scattered across ponyville. But Twilight set me straight and now we’re rivals, in fact……” Lyra muses “…. I was thinking of putting together my own team to look for the stones! It’s like a giant Easter egg hunt, I’m sure that I could get ponies on board with it! OH! Just don’t tell Bon Bon, she thinks I’m doing a community service.”

“Wait you’re on Twilight’s side? criminy not you too Lyra! I thought you had more sense than…..Wait back up.” Dash asks cocking her eyebrow “you lost me there, just what the hay are these ‘miracle stones’ that Twilight is after?”

“Oh that’s easy!” Lyra waves her hoof “Twilight’s after these magical stones that grant ponies magical powers and grant wishes. They fell out of the sky on the day of the summer sun celebration! I really don’t understand but when I touched one of the miracle stones it told me it could grant my deepest desire so that’s why I’m hunting for them. Do you want to help?”

“Maybe later.” Dash blows her off as she flies off of the Lyra’s body “I don’t FEEL like gathering ‘magic’ stones. What I FEEL like is exposing Twilight’s nefarious deeds. Not go searching for something that doesn’t exist.”

Lyra snaps to her hooves a serious look suddenly on her face “now hold on Dash. It may just be me but it sounds that you’re jealous of Twilight and the fact that your friends are hanging out with her.”

“I am NOT!” the Rainbow mare denies “Who’s jealous? I’m NOT jealous! I just seem to be the only pony who sees that she’s up to no good!”

Lyra’s hard face gives way to a gentle smile “Dash I know that you can get carried away sometimes and your paranoia can get the best of you but I’m your friend. And believe me Twilight is a good pony at heart.” Lyra lowers her head slightly reminiscing about their first encounter “she’s the pony that taught me that it’s easy to be so swept up in what you believe that it can cause you to do pretty stupid things. But Twilight showed me that even when you think that you are lost, good friends can shine a light when you are going astray.”

Dash grumbles as she looks off to the side unable to face the option that her suspicions might just be that suspicions. Lyra seizing the moment walks up to the rainbow maned mare grabbing her hoof in two of her own as she looks into her eyes. “So Dash? What do you say?”

“Hunh…. Wellllll……. I….”

‘Is Lyra right?’ rainbow asks herself  ‘is all this just in my head? Is Twilight really a good pony? Is it….. Is it just me that’s messed up?’

Lyra stares in her eyes with a sudden look of enthusiasm that would terrify any normal pony “Great! Then you’ll join MY miracle stone looking  team!”

“What?” the rainbow mare tries to break out of Lyra’s grasp but fails as the mare hugs her shoulder in a vice.

“I knew you’d join me! Welcome to team LYRA!” Lyra hugs the mare beside her so tight that Dash begins to fear for her ability to breathe. “It’s going to be great! We’ll go on adventures and have our own theme song and fight evil villains and eat pizza together and have fun and do all sorts of extracurricular activities together. And soon we won’t be just friends, we’ll be comrades. And in the heat of battle when our lives are on the line some of us might come terms with the billowing romance in our hearts that we have for each other. Then in the peace of the night we’ll pull in our soulmate for our first-time, muzzle to muzzle, in an earth shattering kiss. And then in the heat of the moment two bodies will………..”

‘NONONONONONONONO!’ Dash mentally screams as she struggles against the grip of the psychotic green mare. Finally after what seems like hours of listening to Lyra’s ‘plans’ Rainbow dash manages to pry herself from the green mare’s grasp and take to the air. “Sorry Lyra that sounds great but I already have a lot on my plate now so I’m going to have to say no.”

Rainbow Dash’s gaze shifts around as she tries to think up a lie to get her out of her situation “Besides I have to….. Uh……. Go visit Twilight! Yeah that she’s new in town so I have to go pay her a little visit. Later Lyra”

Dash blots off into the wild blue yonder “Yeah right, witching stones, if witching stones are real then I’m an earth pony. What was I thinking? Listening to Lyra like that?”

Watching at the retreating Rainbow mare vanishes from sight Lyra shrugs in disappointment “Heh, her loss.” And with that Lyra the brave continues to search for more party members in her righteous quest.

……………………..

Soaring through the air with the speed of an eagle it doesn’t take Dash long for her to reach her destination Golden Oaks library. As not to draw any undue attention to herself Dash slows down her speed as to not leave a signature rainbow contrail behind and hits the ground rolling. Then with a sudden dash the mare jumps into the row of bushes that line the house.

“Danger Dash, Duu duu duu duu dudt, She’s a super mare! Duu duu duu duu dudt, solving the crime with her superior mind Duu duu duu duu dudt, defeating the evil Twiiiiiillllllliiiight! Duu duu duu duu dudt!” the mare ‘sings’ to herself as she silently spies through the window to the library. With narrowed eyes ‘Danger Dash’ sees the accursed mare herself, Twilight Sparkle, through the window along with her ex-friends Pinkie and Applejack.

“Heh look at them, lounging about, conspiring their little…. Conspiracies.”  Staring through the window Dash looks upon her friends with envy “look at them fawning over her like she’s the best thing in ponyville when they should be fawning over me! I’m a way better friends than that bookworm!” Dash snuggles into a comfortable position as she looks upon the scene inside the library “well might as well get comfortable here and wait for something interesting to happen.”

Quite coincidently Dash does not have to wait long before something interesting does happen as Twilight manifests a ghostly figure out of her own body. Dash barely has time to put her hooves over her mouth to suppress a fillyish scream as she sees a ghostly figure manifest. ‘Holly…..’ dash thinks to herself ‘I knew something was up with that mare! She’s possessed by a ghost! Though it wasn’t like any ghost I’ve seen…’ the mare shakes her head ‘no it seems like the ghost is doing something…’ dash looks on in horror as the evil ghost… picks up a cup of water and brings it to Twilight’s lips ‘what the… the ghost is obeying her? Did she bind a demon to her will like in Indiana colt number seven? How is she…..’

Suddenly Lyra’s words spring to mind of magic stones granting magical powers “So that’s it!” Dash slams her hoof down into her other hoof as she reaches her irrefutable conclusion “those stones gave Twilight freaky powers and she’s using them to brainwash my friends! That explains everything!”

Dash smiles as she has apparently discovered the truth behind Twilight’s plot “well she’s not getting away with it! Now all I need to do now is exactly what Indiana colt would do! And that’s waiting for the villain to slip up and reveal a crucial element of their master plan! Then I just bust in and save the day!”

Dash crouches by the window a look of determination on her face as she waits for the right moment to strike “all right now all I have to do is wait…….any second now she’ll be spelling out her evil plan…… any second now……..”

Rainbow Daring Dash is many things, athletic, brave, and loyal to a fault but if there is one thing that she is not it is patient. Not thirty seconds later of listening to Twilight Dash is ready to bash her own head into the window frame from sheer boredom as she stifles a loud groan.

“Uggggghhhhhhh this is so lame!” Dahs complains “I thought detective work would be all busting down door and taking in villains, but I’m just listening to twilight’s neediness! This isn’t cool at all! Well aside from those creepy evil spirits coming out of her body! But I can’t arrest her for that!”

The mare looks inside towards her two friends “and it’s not like I could jump in there and beat her up. From what I can tell Twilight has my friends under her evil control! If I bust in there and start kicking flank I’ll just get arrested! Guragh! Why is real life so hard?”

The disgruntled mare leans against the underside of the window as she thinks over her plight “come to think of it I can’t really arrest Twilight without some hard proof, cause she’s a fancy pants princess but kisser. It’s not like I could go to the police and tell them that she’s using some creepy power to force my friends to listen to her.” Dash crosses her hooves in a fierce pout “And it’s not like I would be able to bust her for something like being a jerk, or gathering some pfft, magic stones that fell from the sky.”

The mare sighs to herself in disappointment just as she hears a snippet of conversation come in from the library. “NO! I mean there’s no need to tell the Princess about it……”

“Hunh” the rainbow mare’s ears perk up “that sounded like Twilight!’ the mare puts her ear to the glass.

“Don’t you see? The princess didn’t know about these Strange stones! She didn’t tell me to look for them which means that if I don’t discover what they are before I tell her I’ll be a disgrace! What kind of student reports something without telling her teaches what she is reporting!? The kind that gets sent back to magic kindergarten! That’s who!”

Dash grins at Twilight’s mini freak-out “Hellooooo. It seems miss snooty is not as calm and collected as ponies would like her to believe. And it sounds like she’s hiding something…….”

 “….regardless, I’ve stored the remainder of the strange stones that I’ve gathered so far in a hidden location in the basement. No pony is going to abuse them or report this to the princess until I know exactly what we are dealing with….”

Rainbow Dash hoof pumps in midair with a loud “YES!” before putting both her hooves over her muzzle and getting out of sight. Realizing that she might have given herself away the mare waits in silence for a few seconds before content that she has not been discovered “Score. It sounds like little miss book worm does have something that the princess would rather not know and that’s just what I need to send egghead packing!”

Dash envisions the picture in her mind “I can see it now……”

………………………..

“Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha! No pony can stop me now!” an evil version of Twilight Sparkle (complete with mustache, top hat, and black cape) says while she sits on top of her doomsday machine.

“Eeeeekkkkkkk save us Dashie” a bound Fluttershy says as she is hoisted on top of the machine.

“Ah’m sorry for being so pig headed fer all those years an failing to recognize yer greatness. Now please save us…. Ya sexy sexy mare!” Applejack says while scantily clad in an old timey bar maid outfit.

“Yes save us. You sexy sexy mare!” Pinkie pie says as she is bound by her legs to the top of the machine. She too is clad in a skimpy bar maid’s outfit.

“Ha Ha Ha you are too late! Not even the great Dash can save you!” Twilight cackles as she strokes her evil mustache “my evil-o-matic is fully operational! All I need is my evil power source and all Equestria shall be mine! Bwa Ha Ha Ha!” the mare laughs as lighting strikes in the background.

Suddenly a heroic figure swoops in on a rainbow, her face a mask of determination and rugged beauty “looking for these Twibright?” the mare holds up a collection of valuable gems in her ruggedly strong hooves.

Twilight gasps “My gems of power! How did you….”

“Please when you are awesome as I am, it takes more than that to stop me! One thousand zombie ninja warriors are nothing to the great Dash!”

The captive mares cheer as twilight’s machine sputters and falls to pieces without any explicable cause. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Without my source of power my machine can’t function! Curse you Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssshhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Rescuing her friends with her awesome speed the mare of justice undoes the ropes with her awesome heat vision, saving her friends from the wrath of Twilight Sparkle.

“Dashie! I knew that you’d save me!” Pinkie jumps up and hugs her savior giving her a light smooch on the cheek “My hero!”

Removing her skimpy maid hat Applejack bows down to the dirt “ah could never have done what yawl just done Dash. I finally admit how much better you are than me…...”

“I just hope that you can forgive us!” a distraught Fluttershy says “we ignored you and sided with the evil Twilight! Can you ever forgive us for being so dumb?”

“Of course I forgive you!” Dash flexes her mighty muscles “What are friends for! After all I’m the best at being humble AND forgiving those that have wronged me!”

“I just can’t believe you defeated Twilight so easy!” pinkie bounces up and down “tell us Dashie! How did you do it?”

Dash chuckles “what can I say….. I guess Twi-bright wasn’t very bright!”

Everyone laughs as the curtain falls on another adventure of the great and undefeatable Rainbow Dash!

…………………..

“Yeah…… It’ll happen just like that!” Her delusion having been completed Dash rubs her hooves as she prepares to move into the most fun part of the investigation, breaking and entering. “Now to find a way into that basement.”

Luckily for dash Twilight in order to air out the library had happened to leave a window to the basement open. Unluckily for her this window was just a few feet from where Dash was sitting and with a little squeeze the rainbow mare found herself in Twilight’s basement with no trouble. The entire room is exactly as one would picture a scientist’s lab to look: beakers line the table tops, papers are lined up methodically on the tables and results of experiment are tacked to the walls in the most haphazard ways possible.

“Now.” Dash places her hoof on her chin “if I were a lame nerd, which I’m totally not, where would I hide something that I didn’t want anyone to find?” Looking around the room for any signs of a safe dash spies a single lone bookshelf sitting up against the wall. “Pffttt. Nah. Not even Twilight is stupid enough to hide something behind a bookcase that’s like the oldest hiding place in the book!”

Walking up to the shelf Dash tugs on it “there’s no way…” Suddenly the bookcase opens up. The secret door sliding silently to the side as the door opens to reveal a single well-fortified safe. “No way.”

Searching for any traps and skeptical that it could really be that easy Dash stares at the safe with apprehension. Finally the mare grows tired of waiting as she drags the heavy safe out of the secret compartment into the center of the basement floor as quietly as possible. “Wow. I just can’t believe that Twilight was that dumb. I mean come on that’s like most cliché hiding place ever. Now how do I open this thing.”

Tapping on what appears to be a data pad of some sort a voice emanates from the safe “welcome!” the rainbow mare falls backwards in surprise “Please say the password aloud for easy access to the contents of this storage device!”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…..”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“Wait.” Dash gets back up on her hooves “that wasn’t a try!”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

Turning away so that the safe can’t hear her Dash groans loudly “Ugh, come on brain think what would Twilight use as a password…… I’ve got it!”

Clearing her throat the mare turns towards the safe “the password is ‘password’”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“Wow I guess Twilight isn’t that stupid… uhhhhhh books?

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“Lots of books?”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“Ummmmmm I’m a stupid egghead?”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“I’m a really stupid egghead??”

“Password not accepted please try again!”

“I’m a really stupid egghead that’s brainwashing Rainbow Dash’s friends?”

“Password……….”

Rainbow dash holds her breath.

“……….not accepted please try again!”

“Urgh!” Dash screams as she hits the safe “Come on this isn’t funny open up!”

Dash’s rant is cut off suddenly a voice seems to originate from upstairs. Dash freezes in terror as the door down the basement opens sending a large beam of light just short of where dash is sitting with the safe “….. Alright Applejack you gave it a shot but it seems that….. WHAT IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS!” Dash nearly panics as an even greater light begins to stream down the stairs illuminating the entire basement.

Her eyes widen and her pupils turn to pin pricks ‘I’ve been discovered! They know I’m here! ’ seconds away from getting caught Dash doubles her efforts on the safe as she begins to frantically pound the metal box with her hoof “Come. On. You. Stupid. Safe. Open. Up!” punching the box with every word the mare tries vainly to get the box to open.

Dash lays her head against the box “come on! It’s right in here! All I have to do is get what’s in this box and I can save them! Why won’t it open? URRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!” The rainbow mare begins pounding on the box again but this time it is obvious she is far more desperate this time. Yet the mare herself is so busy in her struggles that she fails to see as a rainbow colored aura, like the kind of liquid rainbows that you find at a weather factory begin to manifest around her hooves.

“Just……” a rainbow sheen spreads over her hoof

“Open….” The aura covers her hoof completely its’ aura shimmering in the light

“UP!” the hoof connects with the box and suddenly the entire world around Rainbow Dash explodes in color as a shock wave and pure force. Closing her eyes from the force of the blast Rainbow flails her hooves about as the shock wave blows thought the room leaving her completely unharmed. As the dust settles over the Rainbow mare Rainbow Dash Hacks the dust out of her lungs as she opens her eyes. The sight that greets her is the sight she wanted to see, a sight she almost pictured in her mind’s eye. Sitting just before her is the open safe with door blown clean off its hinges, embedded in the ground beneath her.

Dumbstruck the mare looks down at her hooves the rainbow aura surrounding her hooves flowing and mixing together. “Wow…. Did…. Did I do that?’ suddenly as if with a thought the aura fades away leaving the mare alone in the basement again “The Sonic Rainboom!” the mare cheers “It wasn’t a fluke! I did it again! Ha take that everypony at flight camp take that dad, take that…..”

“Who’s down there?!”

Dash’s internal celebration is cut off as she remembers that she is technically trespassing. Remembering what she came here for the mare quickly grabs the box with the stones from the now open safe and makes a mad dash for the window pushing herself through it as the sound of her adversary reaches her ears.

“What the! What happened….. RAINBOW DASH is that you? What are you…. When I get my hooves on you……”

But it is too late for the lavender mare, just before the unicorn can get her hooves on the speedster the mare slips through the window leaving Twilight eating her dust as Dash flies to safety far from where the unicorn could ever hope to catch her.

…………………Five minutes Ago……………………..

“Check it out!” manifesting her stand Twilight manages to easily pick up a glass of water from the library’s table and lift it to her muzzle taking several deep gulps before putting it back.

Applejack stares at twilight “well that…. Was……. Impressive?”

“Yeah Twilight picked up a glass of water! That was impressive!” Pinkie claps her hooves.

“What?” Twilight looks at her orange friend “no picking up the glass wasn’t what I wanted to show you when I called you here today. I just wanted to show you how much better I’ve gotten at understanding my stand. Great hunh?”

Applejack raises her eyebrow “…..And yawl can pick up a glass of water. Good fer you.”

Twilight face hoofs “no Applejack that isn’t it. Remember when I fought against Lyra a few days ago and my stand didn’t do any physical damage?”

Pinkie laughs “how could I forget that was so funny when you hit her face and she was going AAAAAAAAA like that and it didn’t do anything! That was a great prank!”

Twilight stares at Pinkie “but you weren’t…. never mind the point is I thought my stand didn’t have any physical strength since it didn’t inflict any damage but after testing I sure proved myself wrong!”

Applejack raises her other eyebrow completing the expression of surprise “so your stand isn’t as weak as a pig with a fever?”

“No actually my stand has about as much strength as I do, and from rigorous testing I’ve determined my stand is about 2.37 to 3.89 times more durable than I am…..”

“Gee Twilight how did you figure..…”

“Don’t interrupt Pinkie, I’m on a roll. It turns out my stand not inflicting any physical damage is a result of the mind link I talked about before. My stand naturally prevents it from damaging any living creature even though it can still break and move inanimate objects.”

Applejack lowers her eyebrow again completing her trademark skeptical look “….and that’s what yawl dragged us out here for? To show off?”

Twilight flinches at Applejack’s tone of voice “…….Noooooooo. I just wanted tell you all in light of the existence of the ‘strange stones’ I’ve taken more secure methods of storing them that I think that you should know of.” Twilight cranes her neck looking at her orange friend “but for now I’m more concerned about you Applejack. Are you all right? Was it something that I said?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie chimes in “you look like big mac on a bad day! Most ponies say they can’t tell when he’s having a bad day since he seems to barely move his face. But I have a pinkie sense that can tell when a pony is frowning mentally! And girl you are frowning up a storm!”

The hurt look in Twilight’s eyes brings Applejack out of her stupor “sorry Twi I didn’t mean to snap at ya like that. It’s just I was on my way to visit bloom, that’s all.”

Twilight puts her hoof on her friend as a comforting gesture “I’m sorry Applejack I didn’t want to get in the way of your visit so I’ll make this quick. With the stone that Fluttershy found in a bird nest yesterday I decided to move the Strange stones to a more secure location until further notice seeing as how every pony seems to be after them.”

“So you moved them to canterlot?” Pinkie asks

“No not really…” Twilight admits “actually the princess…. That is she doesn’t …… exactly know that I found them.”

Pinkie’s eyes brighten “So you didn’t tell her yet? That’s great I’m really good at composing letters!” Pinkie pulls out a piece of paper covered in frosting and a fuzzy glitter pen “just say the word and I’ll get it to her…..”

 “NO!” Twilight blurts out “I mean there’s no need to tell the Princess about it……”

Pinkie blinks twice before she puts the letter and pen away “hunh, but why? I thought you were her super special eyes and ears here in ponyville. And if eyes and ears don’t see and hear then they really aren’t eyes and ears, they’re…. well I don’t know what they are but whatever they are it’s not good if ears can’t see and eyes can’t hear. So why wouldn’t you tell The Princess?”

 A single hair comes out of place on Twilights’ mane as she rushes up to pinkie getting right in her face “Don’t you see? The princess didn’t know about these Strange stones! She didn’t tell me to look for them which means that if I don’t discover what they are before I tell her I’ll be a disgrace! What kind of student reports something without telling her teaches what she is reporting!? The kind that gets sent back to magic kindergarten! That’s who!”

“Um…. Twilight.” Applejack says.

“WHAT!” Twilight says as she turns towards the sound of the offending voice.

Applejack points at the several stray hairs popping out of Twilight’s mane “yawl are freaking out again.”

“Oh…” the lavender mare says. Materializing a mane brush Twilight quickly straightens out her mane “thank you Applejack regardless, I’ve stored the remainder of the strange stones that I’ve gathered so far in a hidden location in the basement. No pony is going to abuse them or report this to the princess until I know exactly what we are dealing with. Just please please promise not to tell the princess till I know what these stones do. Please?”

Both pinkie and Applejack look at each other with worry in their eyes before looking back at Twilight “well….. if yawl think that it's’ a good idea, then I’ll support ya in it Twi.”

“Yeah Pinkie Promise!”

“YES!”

Twilight breathes a sigh of relief at this “thanks Guys I already talked to Rarity and Fluttershy about this and they think that it’s for the best as well. We have no idea what these stones do, I don’t want to worry the Princess before I’ve done some more testing with them.”

Applejack scratches her head slightly moving her hat “I thought that they granted wishes, that’s what Lyra said.”

“Yeah” pinkie says “Don’t they grant wishes?”

Twilight groans as she looks at the ponies in front of her “Applejack I’d expect Pinkie to believe in that nonsense. But I would have expected a pony with her hooves firmly on the ground like you would have better sense than that!”

“Hunh?”

Twilight rolls her eyes “I mean come on! Granting wishes? What a load of horse apples!”

“Hey!” Applejack says “don’t use mah cousin’s name as a curse. And fer yer information ah believe Lyra.”

“Seriously Applejack?” the lavender mare asks “all right if you think that the stones can grant wishes then let’s hear your logic.”

Applejack straightens her hat “simple when ah was first walking out home that night we first met I heard a voice that told me to go into the forest ta look for the medicine that saved bloom. And that time ya fought Lyra the stone lit up all shiny and ya got yer stand just like ya wanted. Those stones have some kind of mystic power ah’m sure of it!”

Twilight rolls her eyes “That night you were sick with worry and I had been working to manifest my stand for years.” Twilight retorts gently “I don’t believe in coincidences Applejack, I believe in science and facts not crazy wish granting stones.”

“But Twilight!” Pinkie states from the roof as she walks on the ceiling with plunger hooves “we see crazy stuff all the time, I mean look at me! I’m illogical and you believe in me right?” Pinkie hangs from the ceiling by her back hooves gripping Twilight with a desperate grab “You do believe in me don’t you Twilight? Oh please believe in me! I don’t what to cease to exist like in that movie!”

Twilight rolls her eyes “Pinkie of course I believe in you…”

“Whew…..”

“….what I don’t believe in is something that goes against the laws of probability and physics. Stand is a logical power manifested by the soul not science fiction.”

“Ah don’t know Twi.” Applejack says “it may just be a farmer’s wisdom talkin, but some things in the world can’t be explained….. And those stones just seem to defy explanation.”

Twilight sputters at this as if someone had just told her that the sun was made of hydrogen and helium and not concentrated magical like everypony knew. Finally Twilight stops as a grin crosses her face “fine you think rocks can grant wishes, then let’s put it to the test!” Walking over to the wall of the library where her saddle bags are stored, Twilight pulls out a strange black stone by hoof before walking back towards Applejack and setting it on a table.

“There! I just so happened to find this stone earlier today while cleaning out the upper branches of the library. So let’s put your little theory to a real scientific test!” Twilight points to the fragment of stone as the two other mares look at it with awe “if your little rock can grant wishes than make a wish! Maybe if you wish hard enough it might come true!”

Unfazed by twilight’s mocking Applejack nears the stone its gentle unknown majesty seemingly reaching into her very soul. However before she can even touch it the stone is snatched off the table by Pinkie Pie.

“Me first! ME first!” the pink mare cries out “all right magical wishing stone I wish for a whole tub of ice cream!”

The entire room is racked by silence as all three mares wait in for anything to happen. A full minute passed and yet all that seems to fill the room is the level of silence and peace only a library could poses.

Finally Twilight pipes up “see nothing! I knew it, wish granting stones don’t exist!”

“What are you talking about Twilight?” Pinkie asks as she pulls out a tub of ice cream from behind her back flinging the black stone back on the table “I got my wish, see a tub of ice cream!”

“……..Pinkie did you pull that off of your stand?”

“Maybbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeee! But I still got my wish!” the pink mare takes a bite of the ice cream with a spoon she just found. “Yech, prune flavor! I guess I should have wished for a better flavor of ice cream!”

“Pinkie! That isn’t science that’s…..”

“I know what I would wish for..….”

All eyes turn towards the orange mare holding the black stone in her hooves as if it is the most precious thing in the world. The somberness of her voice and the shaking of her hooves a testament to her emotional state “All I want….. All I really want….. Is mah sister back. I just want little Bloom back…. I want her to wake up again and play around like a filly should. Ah…. I don’t want to see her in that bed….”

The orange mare sheds a single tear over the black rock as her own insecurities and fears about her sister come crashing down upon her. “Ah already lost ma…. And pa…… we’ve lost so much already…. I just want…. I just want us to be a family again.”

Her emotional dams breaking Applejack cries out “please….. Please…. If ya can really give her back. I know that it’s silly wishin on stars or stones like this….. But if there’s….. If there’s any chance… then please….. Please give me mah sister back……”

The two ponies sit there watching the mare cry to herself for what seems like hours. Even pinkie doesn’t try and crack a joke as they watch over their friend. Finally Twilight musters up the courage to move up to her and put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder “I’m sorry Applejack, I really am but just wishing for something won’t make it come true. No matter how much you want it…..”

“It just… it just aint fair…”

“I know Applejack. I know….” Walking over to the door of the basement Twilight flings it open as she turns around to her friend “we might as well put the stone in my safe in the basement now.”

The orange mare doesn’t move “….. Alright Applejack you gave it a shot but it seems that….. WHAT IN THE NAME OF TARTARUS!”

The entire room in consumed in a holocaust of light that floods the senses of any pony that would be fool enough to glance at it. As the light consumes the room a gentle forgiving voice seems to emanate from all around them with the gentle strength of rolling thunder.

So shall it be…..

Then as suddenly as it appeared, the light ceases as the world returns to its normal hues and colors.

Twilight rubs her head “uggghhhh not again, I’ve got to start carrying around a pair of sunglasses. Applejack are you okay?”

Pulling herself off the floor Applejack begins to rub her head. “Ah think so….. What happened?”

“Yeah!” pinkie says as she removes a pair of sunglasses from her face “that was Sooooooooo weird first you were just sitting there crying which wasn’t very cool and then you made a wish on that shiny stone and boy did things get bright!”

Applejack recollects “Yeah, I was just sittin there hopin, wishin that Applebloom would be able to wake up and then….” Applejack’s eyes suddenly grow wide “……Applebloom. Can it be?” with all the quickness her body can muster Applejack grabs her Stetson and bolts out the door.

Twilight barely has time to teleport over to the door frame as Applejack rapidly disappears out of sight “APPLEJACK?! Where are you going?”

Unwilling to stop applejack turns her head and shouts behind her “To the hospital! Mah sister’s gonna wake up!”

Twilight yells for applejack to try and see reason, that wish granting stones don’t exist but before she can even pose a logical argument the orange mare is gone. Twilight groans “great now Applejack is going to be even more upset when the magic wish granting stone doesn’t heal her sister. Could anything else go wrong today?!”

BOOM! A giant explosion of light and rainbow color rocks the library. “That wasn’t an invitation!!”

Stumbling inside from the after effects of the explosion Twilight catches her breath. “What was that? Was that an explosion? Pinkie you wouldn’t have happened to wish for an explosion on the strange stone would you?”

Pinkie shakes her head “don’t look at me Twilight, if I were you I’d ask Dashie! She’s in the basement right now.”

“Dashie…. As in Rainbow Dash?!” the mare exclaims “she’s here?”

“Yepers! I saw her watching us from outside! After you went on about how you were so afraid that the princess would find out that you were hiding things from her she decided to go in through the basement! Which is a really great way to get into anywhere!”

Twilight face hoofs “And you didn’t bother to tell me?!”

“Well yeah twilight! I mean this is a library. Ponies come in here all the time to borrow things so of course I wouldn’t question Dash coming in to borrow things.” Pinkie puts her hoof to her chin “although she didn’t show me her library card…… oh well I’m sure that Dashie of all ponies is good for it! Hope there wasn’t anything valuable in that basement of yours, that explosion sounded like a doozie!”

Twilight’s eyes narrow as she suddenly darts into the basement “Who’s down there?!” The purple mare cries out as she illuminates her horn to blast any errant trespassers.

The scene that greets her eyes below is one of utter chaos, all her scientific glass equipment is in shattered pieces, her papers line the floor in disarray and most impressively someone found the magical safe she had hidden behind the bookshelf and nearly blown it into two pieces in the middle of the floor.

“What the! What happened….. “ Suddenly her keen eyes spy the culprit responsible, a rainbow mare who is currently squeezing her way through the basement window like a rat caught in a trap

“……..RAINBOW DASH is that you? What are you…. When I get my hooves on you……” but it is far too late; just as Twilight is able to charge up her patented binding spell the mare succeeds in wiggling through the window escaping into the wild blue yonder. Twilight looks out the window as she sees the Rainbow disappear from sight, with her prize in tow. Dejected and defeated the lavender mare lowers her head and begins to trot back up to the library proper where an energetic Pinkie Pie is waiting for her.

“Sooooooooooooo?” the pink mare asks “How was it? Are you and Dash friends now?”

 Twilight throws up her hooves in exasperation “Great Pinkie! Just great!” twilight slumps down to the floor “now Rainbow Dash of all ponies has stolen the Strange stones! She could be anywhere by now! Thanks a lot pinkie.”

“You’re welcome!” the chipper pink mare comments “But don’t you worry Dashie will be sure to return those nifty stones of yours before you even know they are gone! Cause if there’s one thing that dash is good at its returning things, why this one time when I lent her the entire series of Indiana Colt….…”

“Don’t you get it pinkie?” the lavender mare says while practically yelling  “Dash isn’t going to return them! She’s…. she’s…… well I don’t know what she’s going to do with them but it’s probably not good.” The lavender mare begins pacing the floor muttering to herself.

“But…..” Pinkie stutters “but that doesn’t sound like Dash! Dash would never keep something that didn’t belong to her……”

Pinkie is ignored as Twilight walks back an forth debating her course of action “she could be practically anywhere in ponyville now! I could contact the weather team to find her but that could take hours! By then she could have already hidden the stones! And since I didn’t tell Celestia I had them then…. then…...”

“The practice field…” Pinkie says

Twilight turns towards her pink friend “I’m sorry Pinkie, what?”

“The practice field! That’s where Dashie is right now!” Pinkie beams “it’s her own little field right near the Everfree Forest, five minutes north of the park’s jogging trail. It’s where she practices all her best stunts away from prying eyes! She always goes there whenever she pulls of something big.”

Twilight blinks “well that would be a great place to hide I admit…. But she knows that you know so there’s a high chance that she….”

“Oh she’s there right now!”

“….and you kno…..”

“Pinkie Sense” the pink mare says as if it is the simplest thing in the world.

Twilight stares at the beaming mare in front of her again at a loss for words. Suddenly she picks up a piece of paper with her magic scribbles a few lines with it and then incinerates it with green fire “there I just sent a letter to Rarity and Fluttershy to meet us there. Hopefully Fluttershy can talk some sense into Dash since you told me they were childhood friends. Now hold Tight!” Grabbing the pink mare with her hoof she presses her closer to her side.

“Um twilight I know we’re friends and all but if you wanted a hug you should ask! Its common courtesy and I’d offer you one any..…”

“No Pinkie I already know where the park is so I’m teleporting us there so try and cut dash off. You said that it was a five minute trot from there so I’m counting on you to lead from the park to Dash’s Practice field.”

Pinkie salutes as Twilight’s magic grows stronger around her “Yes mam!”

Twilight glares “And don’t think that this conversation is over! I want to hear what this pinkie sense is for myself after this is all over!”

Without giving the pink mare time to pout they both disappear in a flash of light as they are pulled into the space between spaces that all ponies know instinctually.

……………….

“Ha ha Ha! Sweet.” The rainbow colored mare catches her breath in the safety of the park as she looks over her shoulder. “No pony followed me! Wait till Twibright realizes that her little charade of pretending to be a good friend is over!”

The rainbow maned mare opens the box containing the mythical artifacts as she savors her victory. “Meh. If I didn’t know any better I’d say these are normal rocks, they don’t look all magicky and stuff. Oh well if it gets Twilight out of my mane and exposes her for the fraud she is, it’s all good in my book.”

Her eyes suddenly widen as she look again at the stones “and if they really grant wishes… this could be my chance to get into the wonderbolts in style!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yells behind her causing Dash to jerk in surprise “you are currently in possession of Government property! Return the stones that you have stolen and get on the ground!”

Rainbow throws up her arms in exasperation “oh for crying out loud!” the rainbow mare yells as she turns to face the purple mare “how did you find me? Almost no pony knows I hang out here! No pony except for Fluttershy and….…”

“Hey Dashie!”

“….and Pinkie Pie……” Rainbow Dash face hooves.

“Hey Dashie Great hiding place! You really do a great job of playing hide and seek!” Pinkie smiles while bouncing in place “But you’ll have to hide better if you want to hide from meeeeeeee!”

Twilight nods to Pinkie “thank you Pinkie for leading me here that was very kind of you, but if you please leave the rest of the talking to me.” Twilight turns to face dash again “You realize this goes beyond a normal prank Dash! I’ll ask again nicely, hand over the stones.”

“Dream on Twi-bright” Dash blows a raspberry at her “I don’t give a flying flip about any magic stones. But if they can expose you for who you really are and what you’re doing to my friends then I’m bringing them to the princess!”

“What? “ Twilight yells “what are you talking about!”

“Don’t play dumb with me! Even though you are really good at it…….” the rainbow colored mare snickers at her own joke “you’ve been using your creepy ghost thing to mess with my friends minds and turn them against me! You’ve been conspiring against me since day one Twilight! But I’m not going to let you use my friends like they were your personal Hench-ponies.”

Dash lands on the ground in front of Twilight as she strikes a menacing pose. “So here’s an idea. Why don’t you give up and surrender to me?  I promise that I’ll make your defeat as awesome as possible.”

Twilight stars with profound pity at the Rainbow colored mare before her “you really are delusional Dash….” Suddenly the mare takes a combat stance in front of the Pegasus “but I can see you aren’t leaving me much of a choice. I’m sorry Dash but if you are going to let your paranoia control you then I’m going to have to use force!”

Dash laughs at the mare before her “HA you a librarian beat me? You’re not returning overdue books Twi-bright! But please…” the mare rises in the air hovering horizontally in front of the lavender mare completely exposed “Make me surrender. That is if you can.”

Twilight grinds her teeth “fine we’ll do this the hard way. Pinkie!”

“Humh, yeah Twilight what is it?”

“Get out your stand. We’re fusing.”

“Yeah! We’re going to make a Pinkie and Twilight Smoothie Yeah!” Pinkie cheers “actually no yeah, that sounds really wrong like you and me were going to…….”

“Just get out your stand Pinkie!”

“Okie Dokie!”

Both Twilight and Pinkie’s stands manifest in front of each other as they face down Rainbow dash. Twilight musters up her intense concentration as she breathes slowly in and out even pinkie is staring ahead seriously. Gracefully Twilight extends her hoof towards pinkie’s white tattooed stand, her hoof growing ever closer up till the moment of contact. All of a sudden the two stands touch only to be blown apart by the resulting force.

Twilight rubs her head as her stand picks itself off of the ground “Ughhhh how many headaches… how many headaches do I have to get before you’ve punished me enough?”

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! That was fun Twilight! Can we do it again?”

“What the… pinkie… your mind…..” Twilight tries to put into words just what she saw.

“Yeah what about my mind? Wait don’t tell me! It’s filled with chocolate frosting! I knew it, Mr. Cake said that you couldn’t store things in your head but I was like ‘but there’s so much room in your imagination’ so I put a can of spray fronting in my ear and…..”

“No Pinkie…. Your mind… it’s chaos itself!” Twilight groans as she rubs her horn “Why can’t you control your thoughts?”

“I don’t know Twilight? Why do you organize your mind like everything has to go in every place it is supposed to?” Pinkie criticizes “Ponies just think differently from each other! It’s a beautiful fact of life!”

“Bwahhhaaahhhahahahahaa!” Rainbow Dash laughs at them from above having settled herself on a passing cloud while the two were bickering. “Ha ha ha seriously egghead you should just quit while you’re ahead and apologies for turning my friends against me while I you have the chance.”

Realizing that they are still in the middle of a fight the lavender mare takes a defensive stance again “puff….huff…. I’m not trying to turn any pony against any other pony. It’s you that’s being paranoid!”

Turning her head towards the pink mare twilight apologizes “Sorry Pinkie but the time for conversations is over. I have to bring her down! Even if it means that I have to get a little rough in order to do so.”

“Beat me Ha! Is your head messed up from all those musty books?” Dash waves her hoof at her “I don’t want to sound negative but that’s impossible! With your level of power you couldn’t even defeat this mare here!”

“Well um you couldn’t even um…. “Twilight’s eyes flicker back and forth as she tries to think up a witty comeback. Suddenly comprehension dawns as she spies a flying bird “AH! Well dash you are so weak that you couldn’t even defeat a Columbidae!”

Dash rises to her hooves on the cloud looking down on the lavender mare “I totally could I could beat a Columbiadia…. Um what’s a Columbidae again?”

“Ha! I thought you wouldn’t know that! Point one for the eggheads! Haha!” Twilight hoof pumps at her clever insult.

Dash rolls her eyes “Yeah whatever. What’s this Columbidae something that I’m supposed to be weaker than?”

Twilight clears her throat “A Columbidae is the class of flying avians that includes the common birds such as pigeons and doves.”

“…….so let me get this straight.” Dash cocks her head “your insult is that I couldn’t even beat a pigeon?”

“That’s right! How’s that for a comeback?”

“……………”

“………....Well? How was it?”

Pinkie shakes her head in pity as she places her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder “Twilight I’m still your friend and all. But PLEASE! Pretty pretty PLEASE! Leave the comebacks to me from now on.”

“What? What was the matter?” Twilight asks in genuine confusion “wasn’t it perfect? I thought that it was so clever and original! Maybe I should try it agai……”

“ENOUGH!” Dash shouts “I’m sick of your neediness and lame comebacks Twilight! If you thought that your lame ghost brainwashing my friends was cool, then keep your eyes open cause I’m about to show you something that’s really awesome!”

Jumping into the sky with enough force to flatten the grass underneath her, Dash leaps into the air. Her wings rip through the sky with the force of a blade, as the mare soars higher and higher into the blue sky. Finally the speedster reaches the zenith if her climb at a height so great that her rainbow mane can barely be seen from the ground below. Arching down the mare suddenly pulls a one eighty rushing towards the ground with a solid thrust from her wings. Flapping with all of her wing power, Rainbow Dash’s Rainbow Aura spreads across her body as she soars hoof first towards the unforgiving ground like a living thunderbolt. However mere instants before she collides with the most unmovable object known to ponykind, she quickly flips her center of balance extending her hooves for landing as she smashes the ground.

What happens next is an immensely powerful shockwave of color explodes in a mushroom shaped column of smoke as a prismatic aurora trail expands across the practice field’s sky. The mere force of the thunderous crash knocks the wind clean out of Twilight as she tumbles back from the force of the blow. Luckily the lavender filly lands on a soft object with a thud as she groans in pain alive but definitely not in perfect shape. Looking over to where Dash landed twilight is dumbfounded to see an enormous crater scaring the earth where Dash is standing the blasted ground a testament to the rainbow mare’s power.

Raining her head high as she gloats the mare rises into the air “Ha! You see that! Was that cool or what?!” The mare raises her hooves to her face as familiar rainbow sheen covers them. “That was a sonic Rainboom! The most legendary move in all of Pegisi history and I just pulled it off.” Landing on the ground the mare picks up a stone “Pretty awesome huh, All I have to do is think…..” the mare throws the stone in the air, smacking it with her hoof causing a familiar shock wave to demolish it. “And BOOM! One sonic Rainboom! I call this little power Valkyrie! And it’s way cooler than your little brainwashing power!”

Twilight snaps at this “I’m not brainwashing any pony! Now give me back the stones!”

Jumping into the air just out of range of the unicorn’s telekinesis the rainbow mare hugs the bag closer to her sides. “Sorry Twi-Bright! But I think that I’m just going to hang on to these little babies.” Rainbow taps her chin “in fact I think that I’ll keep them! How do you like that!?”

Pinkie bounces up grasping Twilight in a sideways hug “See Twilight! I knew that you could trust Dashie! She said she’s going to return your stones to you as soon as…. Never?”

The pink mare’s mane visibly deflates a small amount, as she looks back at her friend “NEVER? Dashie…. Why? That’s not very nice! Twilight and the rest of us looked really hard for those! It’s not nice to take something if you’re not going to return it! That’s…….” The pink mare leans back as she whispers “……stealing!”

“Then I’m stealing them!” Dash exclaims “sorry pinks but I need these babies to expose Twilight for the fraud that she really is! Once the princess finds out that her precious student was keeping secrets from her she’ll be booted out of town!”

Pinkie’s normally bouncy mane begins to deflate even more as she begins to tear up “but….. But why would you want to get Twilight in trouble?? Why Dashie? Twilight’s nice and she’s my friend and…….”

Dash audibly groans “wake up pinkie! Twilight isn’t your friend! She never was! I’m your friend! And you ignored me and ignored what I was saying all along! Twilight’s just using you! She’s the bad pony! I’m trying to save all of you from her brainwashing scheme! Like a snobby canterlot unicorn would want to be friends with you…...”

Pinkie’s eyes grow wide as her mane completely deflates. Her eyes begin to fill with tears as she backs away from Dash with a hurt look on her face. From her expression Dash can immediately tell that she has gone too far and desperately tries to make things right again “oh… come on Pinkie I didn’t mean it like that..…”

“I can‘t believe it…. Twilight was right!” Pinkie’s mane instantly bounces back to its normal puffiness a fire burning in her eyes “the Dashie I know wouldn’t act this crazy, she wouldn't doubt her friend’s words!”

The pink mare takes an accusatory step forward “and she would never, EVER take something that didn’t belong to her!” The pink mare manifests her stand preparing to attack “Dashie…. I don’t know why you’re acting this way. And I really really care about you in more ways than a party pony can say. But you’re going to stop being super crazy right now! For starters give those stones back to Twilight! And apologize for being a meanie pants!”

“No way!” Dash shouts as she leaps into the air “I can’t believe you’re betraying me like this Pinkie! This is only more proof that Twilight is messing with your head! She’s gotten you to think I‘m the bad guy!”

Pinkie closes her eyes gently before opening them again “Dashie, from where I’m standing, you are the bad guy” Pinkie’s stand surges forward grabbing the blue mare’s saddlebags dragging Rainbow Dash to the ground. “Now give Twilight’s stuff back!”

Reflexively dash bats away the attacking stand with her charged hoof blowing away the stand and causing Pinkie Pie to fall to the ground. Breathing heavily the blue mare picks herself off the ground as the pink mare rises directly across from her, recovering from dash’s blow. “Pinkie…. I don’t want to hurt you.” The blue mare begins “but if that’s what it takes to get my friend back…” The rainbow aura covers her hooves as the rainbow mare growls in anger “….then I will!”

Rushing forward to attack with her hooves dash’s lightning fast jab is dodged by Pinkie as her stand moves in to defend. The blue mare counters again as she punches in a combo at Pinkie Pie, each razor sharp jab missing pinkie by mere centimeters as the pink mare stumbles backwards pulling off an impressive triple somersault to get out of Dash’s range. Seeing her friend’s speed at dodging dash flies directly at her opponent again, this time turning her body at the last second turning her double hoof punch into a sweeping kick. Donging below the spinning kick pinkie flattens her body against the ground as Dash swings her foregoing down shattering the earth in an explosion of light and sound. Pinkie rolls out of the way just in time as she throws a cylindrical object straight at Dash. Shattering the object in a single blow an entire king sized jar’s worth of raspberry jam covers Dash’s entire coat in its stick sweet residue. Dash flails about as she tries vainly to peel off an entire coat of jam off of her coat as she cleans the gunk out of her eyes. “Ugh.. Pinkie! Stop playing around with pranks and just give….” Dash’s eyes widen as she is hit dead on with an expertly swung frying pan.

Soaring through the air the blue mare lands in the lake treading water like an epileptic fish as Pinkie grins at her. “I guess you could say that dash is….” The pink mare pulls out a pair of sunglasses placing them on her face, only to take them off a second later “….all washed up! Get it? Cause she’s all wet! He he!”

Twilight sighs as she walks up towards her friend “Yes Pinkie. I get it. I’m glad that you were able to stop Dash without any trouble…..” Twilight looks at the bubbles coming out of the lake “Are you sure she’ll be okay? She hasn’t come up yet.”

Pinkie waves her hoof “nah, Dashie’s really tough! Plus I held back. She’ll be fine! Why this one time….”

Pinkie’s reminiscing is cut off as the entire lake explodes a cascading wave of water four ponies high directly at the two mares. Twilight barely has time to scream as the wave of water crashes over her and Pinkie covering the field around them in over a foot of water. As the water recedes back into the lake Twilight pulls herself from the mud looking around her she sees Pinkie staring perfectly straight at the lake.

“Ha! Now who’s all wet?” Hovering inches above the lake is the loudmouth herself the jam and water blown clean off her coat in the resulting explosion “pretty cool hunh! It seems like I can’t make a Rainboom without hitting something solid. So I swam to the bottom of the lake and hit it as hard as I could! And man was that awesome! Hey Pinkie? When you’re not brainwashed any more let’s wait till Rarity comes by and splash her! Are you in?”

The pink mare stands straight ahead looking at Dash with a dumb grin.

Dash coughs “Pinkie? Come on even you’ve got to admit that was awesome! Come on!”

The mare remains emotionless, staring straight at dash.

“So….” The rainbow mare seethes “you’re so caught up in being friends with Twilight that you can’t even give me a compliment anymore? Is that it?!”

Pinkie doesn’t respond looking straight ahead.

“Well? Answer me!”

The pink mare stands not even acknowledging her friend’s presence.

“Fine.” Rainbow scoffs “I was getting tired of your pranks too Pinkie. I just hoped that you of all ponies would…….. Forget it, it doesn’t matter. Let’s end this.” Generating all the speed that she can muster dash rushes directly at Pinkie with such suddenness she doesn’t have time to dodge. In a single instant the blow connects and the explosion of horrible power it rips through the party pony’s body shattering it into pieces. Both twilight and a Dash look on in terror as the fragments of Pinkie’s body fly all over the field.

Dash understandingly is horrified “NOOOOO! Pinkie!” Looking down at her friend’s bloodless remains the mare begins to cry “I’m… I didn’t mean to….” Flailing about the mare picks up the pieces of her shattered friend. “I’m sorry Pinkie! And don’t you worry I’ll put you back together again. Those stones grant wishes right!? Don’t worry I’ll gather all your wooden pieces and…” Rainbow stops looking at the pink painted pieces of wood that she is gathering.

“You Hoo! Dashie! Look behind yoooou!”

Turning her head behind her Dash comes muzzle to muzzle with two things she would rather not see. One is a crazy pink mare her maniacal grin and boning mane who is legitimately scaring her with her twisted smile. The second is a three hundred and fifty pound party cannon mark 1.1.

Pinkie laughs at the blue mare’s apparent terror that she is staring down the barrel of cannon. “Boy those cut outs are sure realistic now aren’t they Dashie! It’s a shame you had to break it, but it did its duty admirably. Like getting a certain pony in just the right place for her surprise! I hope you like cotton threaded streamers cause you‘re getting one hundred of them per square inch.”

Dash stares abjectly down the barrel of an armed party cannon as she is too shocked to even move. “Buc….” Pinkie pulls the string and in an instant Dash is hit with a thousand newtons of force as several hundred streamers wrap around her like a cocoon. Ricocheting off the ground Dash takes in several deep gulps of air as she struggles to breathe against the oppressive cloth bandages.

Satisfied with her work pinkie nods in appreciation at the prone dash before bouncing over to twilight “alright smarty pants! Now it’s your chance! Do your stuff!”

Twilight flinches as pinkie puts her hoof on her shoulder “hunh? What do you mean? You’ve beaten Dash? Just what am I supposed to do?”

Pinkie giggles “Twilight! I may have stopped Dash but now you need to make friends with her!” the pink mare taps her hoof to twilight’s heart “you need to show her that she’s just being silly by showing her what is really in here! And I think that you know exactly how to do that.”

Twilight looks from the struggling Rainbow Dash who is flailing against her restraints and back to her friend Pinkie. Suddenly a look of comprehension dawns across her face as she looks deep in pinkie’s eyes. “Pinkie… You’re right! Dash isn’t a bad pony at heart and neither am I! I just have to show her that and everything will be all right.” Walking past Pinkie the Lavender mare trots cautiously to the rainbow mare who is flailing against her restraints.

The rainbow mare snorts and stares at the lavender unicorn as she approaches “Well? Come to gloat? Or have you come to brainwash me like you have all my other friends!? Well I won’t give into your little tricks so easily! So come on, Do your worst! Cause you’re not going to get me!”

“Dash… I’m not trying to hurt you… I just want to show you….”

The Rainbow mare spits in her face causing Twilight to flinch “Liar! You’re against me! You’re all against me! You’ve turned everypony in this Celestia forsaken town against me! Now let me out!”

“Dash….” Twilight points her hoof “your next line is going to be ‘let me go! I don’t need you guys! Leave me alone!’”

Struggling against the binding streamers Dash thrashes back and forth “‘let me go! I don’t need you guys! Leave me alone!” the mare suddenly stops thrashing “what….. What am I…”

Twilight looks at the mare with a look of sadness in her eyes “Dash… Look at yourself…. You’ve become so wrapped up in your suspicion of me that you’ve pushed your best friends away! You stole something out of spite and you tried to hurt your friend Pinkie Pie! I may not know you very well Rainbow Dash, but I do know that you never want to be alone.”

Twilight ignites her horn as she manifests her stand inches in front of the Rainbow colored mare “I have nothing to hide Dash and I’m about to prove it…” Lowering her horn to Rainbow’s head Twilight activates her Friends power her eyes illuminating with a bright white light. Instantly Twilight makes mental contact with Dash as their minds come together in a flash of color. Twilight’s metal self fumbles about in a storm of thought and feeling,  foreign ideas and images flashing onto existence around her as she tries to retain her sanity. ‘Stop’ the lavender mare thinks to herself ‘STOP!’. Images swim before the eye of Twilight’s mind, racing and flowing through her very core.

‘STOOOOPPPP!!’ All of a sudden everything stops. The images come together and cease their chaotic bickering forming into a single memory.

Twilight finds herself on a simple air strip surrounded by clouds, the air strip itself is on a plateau hundreds of feet off the ground as various pegasi ponies fly about through colored rings collecting yellow flags. The lavender mare shakes herself off as her mental avatar comes together “this is the wonderbolts training field… but why would Dash…”

“So you’re going to do it!?” Twilight turns her head to see a very familiar filly in front of her. Her coat is light blue her mane still prismatic the filly bounces like a top around the legs of an older mare wearing a wonderbolts uniform. “You’re really going to do it?”

“Well…..” the older mare thinks while tapping her hoof to her chin. Her pink coat and blue mane fitting snugly within her wonderbolts uniform “No pony was ever recorded to have done the Sonic Rainboom before. Even I might not be able to pull it off…”

“Aww but mom! You’re the best flier in Equestria!” The rainbow filly pouts “and if you don’t pull it off, then all these ponies who came out to watch you try it would be really disappointed!” the filly gives her mother the most adorable and cute look a little filly can muster. Her eyes expanding to the size of small dinner plates as her mother chuckles.

“Well I suppose that I can’t disappoint my fans now can I?” the wonderbolt pats the filly rustling her hair “especially my number one fan!”

The filly beams “you mean….”

The adult nods “I’ll give it my all! But only on one condition my little Dashie.” The mare puts her hoof on her daughter’s chest “I’ll try my best, I won’t quit only if you don’t. So when I’m out there today I want you to give me your biggest cheer!” the mare leans in “Is that a promise?”

The filly salutes with pride in her eyes “Yes Mam! I won’t let you down!”

The mare tickles the filly’s belly “that’s my little girl. Now go on back to your father and let your old mare warm up before her big show!”

The fully nods to her mother and rushes over towards her father taking only a single look back before rushing up towards a rainbow maned stallion with a darker blue coat.

“So?” the stallion asks the filly “did you give your mother the encouragement that she needed?” the filly nods “Good! Cause that’s what she needs right now.”

The filly waves her hoof “psht! Mom doesn’t need encouragement she’s the Blue Valkyrie of the wonderbolts! She’ll pull of the sonic Rainboom in ten seconds flat! You’ll see!”

The stallion nods at his filly however his locked eyes staring at his wife betray his nervousness “I hope so Squirt….. Your mom is the best flier in Equestria no doubt. But sometimes I wish that she would calm down with her routines and think about how dangerous they are. Sometimes I wonder why she has to pull off such dangerous tricks like this?”

The filly rubs her face against her father’s hoof “That’s cause lots of ponies are depending on her dad! She can’t afford to mess up!”

The father looks down at his daughter and smiles “you’re right Dashie. Your mother always was the kind of pony who others could depend on and she’s always the first one to waltz into danger a smile on her face. That’s what I love about her.” The stallion gently takes his daughter’s hand “now come on the show’s about to start. Let’s get to our seats.”

The bright sunny scene fades away instantly right before twilight’s eyes the bright hues of the sky fading away into the chaos of the void. The purple mare flails around “wait! What was that? That was… Dash’s Father and her Mother… was a wonderbolt! And she was the Blue Valkyrie no less! No wonder she wants to be one so much.” The mare thinks aloud “but what happened next, from what I was in her mind everything was fine…. Just what happened?”

Twilight turns away from the scene in front of her as if squash her own curiosity. “You know what, forget it. This is obviously private so I should just find my way…”

The purple mare’s peddling through empty space gives way as another scene forms around her. However were as the previous scene was bright and sunny this one is as dark and gloomy as a funeral procession. The young filly from before stands at the entryway to a small ramshackle house standing much taller and stronger after years of growth. Though obviously still a filly the Rainbow mare stands with the disposition and maturity of a mare many times her age. Upon her flank is a cutie mark of a cloud shooting a bolt of rainbow colored lightning.

“…. I can’t believe it….” Twilight turns her head towards the side to see a stallion his coat and mane the same color of Rainbow’s father. However from his disheveled appearance and bloodshot eyes it is obvious this is not the stallion that she saw before. “I just can’t believe you would be that stupid!” The stallion slurs “You raced with my boss’s son after he I explicitly told you to leave him alone, and you embarrassed him and his friend by cheating him in a race? What were you thinking! Do you want me to lose my job!?!”

“I didn’t cheat!” the rainbow mare yells at the stallion as step takes a step forward “and for your information it’s kind of hard to ignore a stallion that’s relentlessly bullying me and my friends!”

The stallion laughs as he picks up a bottle, taking a large draught from it before speaking again “Friends? You mean that shy filly that won’t speak to anypony else? She can barely fly let alone make friends with a ruffian that would rather pick fights with the boss’s son.”

“That Boss’s son was going to shave off her mane! What was I supposed to do WATCH?!”

“……..At least she’s mature enough not to go leaping into trouble ……” the stallion says as he takes another swig.

“I didn’t go looking for trouble! Trouble came looking for me!” the mare turns her flank to give her father a visible display of her cutie mark “besides you were so caught up in yourself that you missed the most important part! I got my cutie mark! And I got it for being a speedster! Take a look!”

The stallion stops mid rant putting his bottle on the cluttered coffee table before taking a step closer to his daughter. Squinting his eyes he takes a look at the cutie mark his daughter is presenting in front of his face only to break out into cruel laughter. “Cutie mark for being a speedster my flank! Like any daughter of mine is going to waste their lives being a ‘daredevil’ HA!” the stallion walks over to the couch and slumps down picking up his bottle again “that cutie mark stands for weather control, just like mine. It’s nothing special…”

“It is so!” the mare yells taking a step forward “it stands for being a speedster Just like mom’s. It stands for being daring and standing for something! Unlike what you do! Sitting around Drunk all Day!”

The stallion growls “Don’t you dare speak of your mother that way. She was five times the mare you would ever be……” as he once again turns to his drink. “You know I’ve decided. This ‘flight camp’ is filling your head with all these ridiculous thoughts. I’ll work on switching you over to the weather factory training camp tomorrow.”

“No!” the filly yells “I did get it for being a speedster! I got if for being fast just like mom! And I did it! I did it Dad! I pulled off the Sonic Rainboom! I did it just…” A thrown bottle hits the rainbow mare in the face sending her falling to the ground. Blood drips from her muzzle as the stallion stands to his hooves breathing heavily.

“LIAR!! Like you the most clumsy flier in her class could beat a pair so stallions two years older than her!” the stallion sneers “And a Sonic Rainboom! That’s the biggest load that I’ve ever heard! You know that you fly like a ditz! Why do you insist on lying to yourself like this all the time, you’re not some ‘super athlete’ so why do you insist on believing these lies?”

“Because I can!” the filly cries “I did do it! I did the sonic…..”

“Bull.” The stallion repeats himself “if your mother, the greatest flier in Equestria history, couldn’t pull of something she spent her whole life preparing for, what makes you think a little deluded filly who is the clumsiest flier I’ve ever seen could ever pull it off?”

The Filly gives the stallion a glare of righteous anger that immediately cuts him off; the look in her eyes not one of hatred but a look of pure determination and resolve “Because I’m my mother’s Daughter. That’s why.”

The stallion stops his rant immediately at this his mouth hanging open as if struggling what to say. Finally the stallion grunts and lounges back on the couch reaching for another round of his ambrosia. “Fine….. You want to fail? You want to be some ‘hero’? You want to believe that you’re any good? Fine be my guest! I won’t stop you!” the stallion drinks deep of his liquid as his voice turns deadly cold “Just walk out that door.”

The little filly turns towards the door her eyes suddenly widening as she pictures life outside and suddenly Rainbow Dash is not so brave. “Out… Outside?”

The Stallion grins “I won’t stop you from chasing a pipe dream, SQUIRT! But if you want to chase it you’ll have do so alone.” The stallion takes another drink “that means no money for flight school, no roof over your head, no dinner at night, nothing. You’ll get nothing and you’ll get nowhere without me to provide for you. I may be a drunk but I make more money in one day of supervising the weather patrol that you could in a month.”

The filly rises to her hooves turning her head towards her father ”…….you would really do that…. You would really do that… to me?”

The stallion takes a look at his drink “I already lost my wife…… I lost her because she was stupid and impulsive, just like how you are acting. As far as I’m concerned if you are so dead set on living this delusion that you’re some kind of ‘speedster’” the stallion laughs darkly as he takes another swig of his ambrosia “then you’re just as dead to me.”

The filly takes a looks at the stallion behind her then she takes a look at the door, and all of a sudden her mind is made up. “Then I guess that I’m dead then.”

The mare walks over to the door, no longer a scared little filly, and opens it looking into the dark night outside. Turning her head to look at the stallion behind her, Dash hopes beyond hope that he has changed his mind, that he was bluffing all along. Yet the mare is heartbroken to see that the stallion isn’t even looking at her anymore. “Good bye…. Spectrum.” The mare walks out and slams the door causing the entire world to shatter around the lavender mare.

Suddenly the mare falls backwards on her flank landing on the green grass beneath her. Looking before her she sees the rainbow mare in front of her crying tears of pain. Realizing that she has returned to the real world Twilight gets back up on her hooves “Dash…. Dash are you okay? I’m sorry for peeking in your mind I’m sorry it just happened and…..”

“… How dare you….” The rainbow mare mutters to herself “HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!” she yells at the top of her lungs in her anger she tears through the ribbons holding her to the ground ripping them to pieces with her overwhelming rage. In an instant the rainbow mare is on top of Twilight her fists raised to attack as the mare lies beneath her. “…… A dirty loser Like YOU!” Twilight is unable to close her eyes as the terror overtakes her Dash’s hoof moving in slow motion as she prepares to strike a lethal blow against the prone mare.

“RAINBOW DARING DASH YOU STOP THIS INSTANT!”  Just as the blow is about to fall upon her it stops dead in its tracks. Twilight turns her head to see the angered face of Fluttershy staring her friend down with a panting and out of breath Rarity beside her “How dare you… HOW DARE YOU!”

The rainbow mare backs up off of Twilight “NOW LISTEN HERE MISSES! JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE UPSET THAT WE’RE NOT SPENDING TIME WITH YOU DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU GET TO BE A BULLY!”

The rainbow mare trips over her own hooves falling on her flank “YOU MAY BE STRONGER THAN ME! FASTER THAN ME! AND OVERALL BRAVER THAN ME! BUT YOU DO NOT! I REPEAT!”

The rainbow mare backpedals on her back trying in vain to put as much distance between herself and the yelling yellow Pegasus “YOU DO NOT HURT MY FRIENDS!”

The rainbow mare now stares into the depths of Fluttershy’s eyes looking for some hint of mercy only to find an empty and merciless void of endless darkness. “You got that? WELL?!”

Rainbow Dash sputters on the ground trying to come up with a vain defense for her actions “but…. But Twilight and Brainwashing… and all you guys….”

“And I am very sorry that you felt left out.” Fluttershy apologies “But I think that Twilight is right.” Waving her hoof around her Rainbow’s eyes finally uphold the devastation around her caused by her and pinkie’s fight “you’re stronger than she is but surely you can see that all this is doing is hurting the ponies that care about you! You’re hurting me and Pinkie and even Applejack with this. We’re not trying to exclude you from anything and we don’t think any less of you.”

Fluttershy shakes her head “And I certainly know that it was wrong to keep secrets from you like that. But can you see just exactly you have done by not talking about it?”

Dash looks around her to see the faces of her friends, Fluttershy, Pinkie and.. And even Twilight Sparkle. Yes even her, dash realized that while in her mind that Twilight never had any intention of separating her from her friends. ‘It was me…’ the rainbow mare thinks ‘it was me all along…’

“Well Dash?” Fluttershy asks “what do you think?”

And with that the dams come crashing down around Dash. All her fear of abandonment all her hatred of Twilight, all her disappointment in herself, all the bitterness she has been bottling up inside of her ever since her mother passed away comes pouring out. In the blink of an eye Fluttershy finds herself grasped in the tightest most desperate hug Rainbow Dash can muster as she bawls like a baby into her coat. Dash begins to cry into her best friend’s arms sobbing as the weight of what she has done comes crashing down on her head; the guilt at her actions and the ways in which she had hurt her friends becoming crystal clear to the mare.

Abandoning her selfish pride the mare begins to cry out in nonsensical syllables how sorry she is how much of an idiot she was, and most importantly how much her friends really mean to her.

She does this as she comes to grips with her own worst enemy, not Twilight and her ‘scheming’ but her own fears of being abandoned by the ponies she cares so much about.

And with that the mare continues to cry and cry out to the setting sun as Rainbow Dash is surrounded and embraced by new friends and old.

…………………Later in the golden oaks library…………………

“…..well.” Fluttershy says to the group sitting around the table consisting of her Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow and Twilight Sparkle. By now Dash has visibly calmed down her cool demeanor and posture having returned however her face is still creased with a look of shame that is mirrored by Twilight. “Now that we’ve all calmed down, is there anything that we have to say.”

Rainbow Dash turns her head towards the lavender mare “Sorry for destroying your library and attacking you Twilight. It was very wrong of me to let my suspicions get the better of me and for that I am genuinely sorry.”

“And I’m sorry too.” Twilight claims “for insulting you behind your back while keeping secrets from you. And I am very sorry that I looked into your mind like that, I know that it was…. Private.”

Dash waves her hoof “that’s okay Twilight. I know that you don’t have the best control over your stand yet.”

Twilight suddenly grows serious “Dash….. How did you know that? About my stand and….”

Rainbow Dash taps her head “mental link remember? While you were digging around in my head I was taking a look in yours. I know all about stands and the strange stones, that’s why I knew you weren’t a bad pony and it’s how I know that I won’t tell anypony what you saw.”

Rainbow Dash grins like a devil “besides I had the opportunity to look into your mind as well! And I just so happened to take a look at something really private of yours!” Rainbow dash gets back up in her face “So if you ever think of telling anypony what you saw, then the next morning everypony in town will know who your first crush was!”

Twilight gulps in fear as she remembers something she had rather forgotten. The chocolates the awkward blushing and all those hoof written cards. Twilight fearfully crosses her heart with a pinkie promise “you have my word Dash, No pony will ever know what I was in your mind.”

Dash stares into her eyes for a moment as if judging her truthfulness before nodding in confirmation “Good now next order of business I want in!”

“Dash….” Twilight puts her hoof on her shoulder.

“Look you guys I know that what I did was lousy and hurtful to all of you, but just hear me out!” Dash takes a deep breath in and lets it out “I guess, I guess that I was just so convinced you were up to something, that you were trying to steal what friends I had, and turn them against me, that I sort of lost my better judgment. That was seriously uncool of me.” Dash looks up “that’s why I have to help out I have to make up for……”

Twilight places her hoof over her mouth cutting off the weather pony “Dash… I was going to say welcome aboard.”

As the lavender mare takes her hoof off of the mare’s lips Rainbow Dash’s surprise is evident “a what?! But I attacked pinkie! I tried to attack you!”

Pinkie laughs at this “Silly Dashie! We’ve already all forgiven you. Besides that was a pretty fun scrap we got into and nobody got really hurt so it’s all okie dokie lokie! And even if it wasn’t okie dokie or lokie I would still really really REALLY like you anyways!”

Rarity walks up placing her hoof on her shoulder. “We’ve all forgiven you darling. I must admit that though I wasn't there for most of it, it seems to me that you did what you did because you thought your friends were in danger and I can understand why you would seek to protect them like that.”

Fluttershy moves up placing her hoof on Dash “it’s all right Dashie. I know that getting a strange power can be really upsetting and you can easily be tempted to abuse it. But the Dash that I know would never fight somepony unless she thought she was protecting her friends. That’s just the kind of pony you are.”

 They all pull the Blue mare into a tight hug letting her know that all her crimes and suspicions are undoubtable forgiven. And it is this wonderful, heartfelt moment that is ruined by Twilight’s mind catching up to what her friend just said “Wait a minute!” the lavender mare explodes. Suddenly all of the ponies in the room are looking at her. “Fluttershy! You used some kind of power to stop Dash. How did you do that?”

The butter yellow mare immediately backs away “Oh… well…. Ummm you see…”

Now Dash is curious “Yeah Fluttershy. I’ve never seen you do that before. I mean it was scary as Tartarus and all when you caught me in that stare of yours, but mare was that cool! How did you do it? Did you learn it before or after flight camp? Cause if you did, why didn’t you use it before when you were bullied? I mean I didn’t mind standing up for you and all…”

The butter yellow mare’s rear hits the wall as she tries to think her way out of her present situation. “Um… well… that was….. Um. Nothing special! Yes that’s right I mean it was just a very important lecture from a friend that stopped Dash! It certainly wasn’t anything that I did! That is…. Um…”

Twilight looks at the mare with an ‘are you kidding me’ expression that lets her know that she is not so easily fooled. Suddenly the lavender mare manifests her stand throwing a fast punch inches from the yellow mare’s face.

“EEEPPPPP!” the yellow mare falls to her hooves in terror.

“Well would you look at that. Fluttershy can see my stand.” Twilight smiles as she looks at the cowering yellow Pegasus “that must mean she has a stand power. Could you imagine that?”

The yellow mare knowing the jig is up slowly pulls herself off the floor as her friend Rarity walks to her side “Fluttershy Darling is that true?”

Shyly the yellow Pegasus nods “um… I didn’t want to scare any of you….. But yes.. I kind of got it when we found that first miracle St..…”

“Strange Stone!” Twilight barks out

“…. Strange stone and I kept it It secret so that I wouldn’t frighten any of you.”

Rarity nearly swoons “But Daaaarrrrrrlllliiinnnggggg? Why in Equestria would you want to hide such a fabulous and magnificent ability from us? Why would you think that we would be scared of your stand power?”

“Well….” The Fluttershy shuffles her hooves “when I first found out that I had this power I… kind of used it to….. Threaten Carrot Top…..”

“What?!” the group shouts.

“It was an accident!” the yellow Pegasus blurts out as she begins to panic “I just wanted her to share some of her carrots with the hungry rabbits but she was so rude telling them to take a hike like that. So I tried to tell her nicely that sharing was important and she emptied her entire cart to them and the bunnies swarmed her and she lost her entire day’s produce and…… and the screams…. Oh the horrible horrible….” Fluttershy looks around to see the gaping gazes of the group “well um…….. she recovered but I just didn’t want to scare you like that. Besides, making ponies do something that they don’t want to is….. Mean……”

Walking up to the yellow mare Twilight puts her hoof around her shoulder pulling her into a comforting hug “well I understand that you aren’t entirely comfortable with your stand and if you don’t want to use it I won’t force you to. It’s your power and you are the one that decides how and when to use it.”

Fluttershy perks up at this “wait… you’re…. you’re not going to force me to do something that I’m uncomfortable with? But my power….. I mean it can do so much! You all would really be fine…. If I didn’t want to use it?”

“Yeah!” Dash blurts out “you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting when you have an awesome pony like me to pick up the slack! Between me and Applejack we could find all these ‘stone thingies’ in less than ten seconds flat!”

The yellow mare looks very comforted by these words “you guys… thank you….. I just don’t know what to say.” The mare straightens up “no I do know what to say! I want to help you to! And if you really need me to, I’ll fight too..….” Suddenly the mare’s confidence and enthusiasm dies completely “That is within reasonable limits….” Fluttershy shuffles her hooves “That is to say if you don’t mind……” Finally Fluttershy begins to blush and mumble “That is to say….. Um…… never mind……”

Suddenly realizing something Dash looks around the room as if searching for something.  “Hey? I don’t mean to spoil the moment like this I mean you are all my friends….” The rainbow mare states as she looks around “but where ‘s Applejack? What was she too busy to help out or what? I mean I don‘t mean to say we’re joined at the hip or something but I would expect my greatest rival to show up and stop me when I went on a rampage. Where the hay is she?”

Rarity looks around “not to be so brash darlings but I mirror Dash’s sentiments. Where is Applejack I would expect that she would be the first to help in a situation like this.”

Twilight puts her hoof on her chin remembering just when she saw Applejack last. Suddenly interrupting her train of thought the door bursts open a familiar orange mare in the door frame “ah’m right here yawl!” The group turns to see the orange farmer standing in the doorframe beaming like the winner of the ‘Best Apple Products in Equestria’.

“Applejack!” Rainbow dash shouts “bout time you decided to show up! What kept you?”

Applejack tips her hat “sorry yawl I had other business to attend ta. But enough I that. I have great news!” Walking towards the table she stares Twilight in the eyes with a smug grin “heh Twi, yawl said I was crazy. Yawl said ‘magic stones granting wishes were illogical’. Well let’s see yer evidence refute this.” Turning towards the door the orange mare let out a loud holler “Applebloom come in here an meet mah friends!”

Entering the door frame is a small filly whose very presence dumbfounds the ever punctual and always factual Twilight Sparkle. A normal earth pony filly of around ten to thirteen years of age, possessing a yellow coat slightly darker than Fluttershy’s and a blazing red head of mane is none other than the youngest of the apple Family, the young Applebloom. Sporting a smart pink ribbon that contrasts with her bright red name is the filly that Twilight had to resort to putting in a coma in order to save her life. The same filly that for all logical purposes should still be in said coma. Twilight’s eyes widen as she recalls Applebloom’s supposed condition and how it so blatantly contrasts with the fact she is walking across the floor towards the table. Twilight’s mouth gapes as she tries to process what she is seeing “….. Do you know what this calls for everypony?”

Pinkie jumps up out of nowhere throwing up a cloud of confetti “An ‘I‘m glad that you’re not in a coma anymore party’?”

“No. But definitely later.” Twilight comforts the disappointed pinkie “no this degree of chaos and disorganization calls for something only I can deliver.”

Everypony leans in as Twilight take in a deep breath. “This my friends calls for a Group Meeting.”

Chapter 5-Surprise!-Take 1

Chapter 6-Sprout

Sprout:

“……. Heh, magic wishes…… Just how dumb am I?” Standing before a hospital bed her coat drenched in sweat stands our hero, the farmer mare Applejack. Having run the entire distance from golden oaks library to ponyville central hospital, a seven mile distance in under twenty two minutes the mare is significantly winded. However upon seeing her sister Applebloom still lying in her bed as cold as death, her breath stops cold in her throat, her hopes dashed as she is forced to slowly watch her sister’s shallow breaths.

“I told you MISS applejack!” A grey coated black maned unicorn stallion walks up arrogantly “but no. You refused to believe the words of a professionally accredited doctor. Now as you can plainly see your sister is still in a coma.” The doctor golds his hoof as to cross his arms “now do you have any other ridiculous accusations of magic wishing stones.”

The orange mare looks down at the sister and sighs deeply “no…. No doc. I just…. I just want to visit her now, if that’s all right.”

 “Are you kidding me?” The doctor exclaims “you disrupted the entire hospital with your deluded antics, pulled me away from some very important paperwork and you just showed up here this morning! Why on this good Equestria would I…”

For the first time since he saw the supposedly ignorant and impudent farm mare the doctor stops and looks at the mare herself. Her slumped defeated posture, her disappointed frown and her eyes that radiate sorrow, and suddenly he realizes that the mare before him might not be as bad as he thought. He sighs in defeat “fine, you can have extra visiting time despite the fact you showed up this morning! But ten minutes only, then nurses have to care for her.”

Applejack weekly nods as the doctor turns and opens the door out, looking at the mare one last time before closing the door. Applejack seeing that she is finally alone takes off her hat staring at her unconscious sister, the lights from the fading sun glistening off her coat. “Hey bloom. How are you doing?” Applejack asks.

“The farm’s doing fine, case you were wondering. Big Mac has been handling a lot of the new hire-ons, an with the money ah’m making with this new job with Twilight we’ve got quite a bit saved up till harvest time. May even have room to expand….”

The orange mare fiddles with her hat “granny took it the hardest, you being here. She pretends to be tough as nails but ah can tell how she’s really doin. An Twi, bless her heart, she’s never met ya but she provides the best care and expenses fer ya for notin. You …. You ‘d like her bloom.”

A lone tear falls down Applejack’s face landing on her sisters’ sheets. “She’s snobby and opinionated most of the time but she is a good pony who will do all she can to help out others. An she’s always got a plan, even when things look their worst. But most importantly she never gives up, just like you bloom, she puts her all into everything she does even when… Even when…..” A single teardrop falls on Applebloom’s face causing the unconscious filly to cry along with her sister.

Now the orange mare can no longer hold back her tears “ah…. Ah miss ya bloom. There’s no point dancin round it. Ah’m not upset yer chores aren’t done, ah’m not upset that ya tried to play it tough when ya first got sick, heck I aint even upset about ya whining fer yer cutie Mark.” The mare cries over her prone sister knowing her words can never reach her “so please. Please come home.”

Applejack lays her head on the bed spread letting her ocean of tears soak into the sheets not caring who is looking. And there the mare cries, not a loud sobbing but a gentle stream of tears that slowly let's out the deep seated sorrow that has been building up in her soul. So caught up in her tears and sorrows the orange mare almost misses the soft sound of rustling sheets and a gentle voice.

“A-Applejack…..?”

The orange mare’s ears immediately perk up at the sound of a familiar long lost voice. The voice speaks again.

“…..sis….. Is that you…..?”

Applejack’s head snaps up with such force it rustles the bedspread with the air currents alone. There looking her dead in the eyes in are the small inquisitive pupils of her sister her head craned towards her, her eyes wide open and awake. Applejack stares, unable to even speak as her little sister blinks back at her.

“…..Applejack….. Are ya really not upset fer skip in out on mah chores?”

“APPLE BLOOM!!” The orange mare surges forward tears in her eyes as she embraces her waking sister for the first time in weeks. Holding her sister in a fiercely loving hug as the surprised filly slowly wraps her arms around her as well. And no matter what troubles and calamities the future may have held for those two, for that moment, for that single moment everything was right in the world.

“Humph, will you look at that….” The doctor mutters to himself as he looks in on the two sisters hugging and greeting each other with open hearts and souls filled with joy. Unwilling to join them the harsh unicorn stallion is content to watch on through the glass window above the doorway as Applebloom and Applejack embrace tearfully.

“In all my years I’ve never seen a patient wake up from a coma that deep, it’s a scientific improbability.” Though the doctor wants more than anything to rush in and apply cold hard science to the filly’s’ miraculous recovery, not even he can bring himself to tear apart the two sisters for even a second.

“Dr.Flesh who are you kidding.” The doctor chastises himself. “You’ve spent your entire life studying more improbable happenings in the RSD. You just can’t stand to accept that such a miracle could occur without it being documented and recorded.”

“Perhaps… perhaps there is more to this line of work than science and research.” The doctor remarks half-heartedly to himself as he abandons watching in on the two fillies, walking down the hall with a new spring in his step. “I may hate to admit it but behind all the glamor being a doctor is really about is reuniting ponies like these two.”

However the doctor’s new perspective on life is suddenly cut off as a deep fit of exhaustion begins to overcome his previously exited form. “Goodness, what’s gotten into you doctor? S-So tired all…. of a….. Sudden?” to his great surprise the doctors’ steps become more and more heavy by the second. His breath grows shallow as his senses begin to shut down without reason or cause, one after the other.

“Wh-What’s going on?” The doctor asks himself as he props himself in a nearby chair. “I-I feel so…. Tired……..” Dr. Healthy Flesh remarks to himself his incredible intelligence no longer able to function under the incredible deliberating onslaught of exhaustion that overtakes his every thought.

“I…. Guess a little nap….. wouldn’t…………..” And with that the good doctor, completely overwhelmed by an unexplainable exhaustion falls into a deep and troubled sleep as his very presence goes ignored by thee two happy sisters walking hoof and hoof out of the hospital happy as can be.

…………….

“….an that’s what happened more er less Twi.” Applejack finishes her story for everypony at the table as she looks back at her sister. “Ah’m just glad that things worked out the way that they did! Ah don’t like to admit it….. but Ah was really scared fer ya Applebloom.”

The filly looks up at her sister with a look of utter appreciation in her eyes as she rubs her head “ah just can’t believe ah was out fer two an a half weeks! It feels like just yesterday ah was bucking apples…”

“AHEM!” the orange mare taps her hoof impatiently

“…all right helping to buck apples and the next thing I know ah’m sitting in bed starin up at Applejack! It’s like magic!”

Applejack wraps her hooves around her sister crushing her with a hug “an it was Magic. The best kind of magic the one that makes wishes come true!” Dropping her sister like a sack of potatoes the orange farmer points accusatorially at Twilight Sparkle. “SEE! An you doubted me when ah said that ah heard voices from the stone! It’s just like Lyra said the stones Grant wishes and Bloom here is proof!”

Twilight looks at the little filly rubbing her hoof to her chin “wellllll…… it is true that Applebloom recovered quite coincidently and your claim isn’t entirely without merit.” Twilight sits steadfast as she closes her eyes as if reciting an element of her moral code “Never the less a theory is still a theory, and evidence that these stones really can grant wishes is shaky at best. However I will admit that there is evidence that could be attributed towards wish granting.”

Applejack rolls her eyes “ Give me a Break…….Twi yer as paranoid as a squirrel protectin its nuts in an early winter.”

Dash jumps to her hooves “yeah! What Applejack said! Except less country. Why can’t you just accept that the stones are magic? I mean you use magic all the time!”

Twilight glares at the Pegasus “because I’m a scientist! That’s why! Now I’m sure we are all very glad that Applebloom has recovered but we have other matters to attend to in this meeting. So if Applejack is done with her story I’d like to move on.”

The entire table looks towards the orange mare who after a few seconds tips her hat signaling that she is fine with Twilight moving on “thank you Applejack. Well then, with Applejack’s story told and everyone finally on the same page I call the first ever meeting of the Stardust Crusaders into order!”

“Wait hold on there Twilight…” Dash rises up to her hind hooves placing her fore hooves on the table “Stardust Crusaders? What the heck?”

Twilight leans her head “what? I thought that it was clever! We’re crusading for pieces of magical stones that fell from the sky like stardust so: Stardust Crusaders. Given that the night this all started was called the night of shooting stars I thought it was a perfect name for our team!”

Applejack and Rarity look at each other with concerned faces “um Darling, I don’t mean to insult your creativity but that name, oh how do I put it…..”

“…..It’s as horrible as cider made from rotten apples.” Applejack finishes.

“What?!” the lavender mare shouts “it is not horrible! It’s creative and original! Back me up Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy immediately flinches at Twilight’s requests as she begins to sweat profusely. “Um….. I don’t mean to…. Ummm….. Be offensive or anything….. But that name does seem really plain and generic……. I mean what is some pony is already using it? We could be sued! And I don’t want to go to jail!”

Pinkie smiles “I like ‘The Mane Six’ cause there’s six of us and we all have manes and we’re main characters!”

“I’M NOT CHANGING THE NAME!” Twilight shouts “I’m the government employee and I’m footing the bill so I get to decide what we call ourselves.”

Giving her friends a look that lets them know that this discussion is over Twilight clears her throat and resumes “now onto the main topic of tonight’s discussion….” With a deft moment of her hooves the unicorn mare picks up a box filled with the strange stone fragments and places them on the table proper “…..what do these Strange stones really do? Thoughts?”

 The entire table face hoofs as everypony, save Twilight, sees that their entire conversation is going in circles. Everypony except for Pinkie that is. “Oh! Oh! I know pick me!”

Twilight points to the Pink mare “yes Pinkie?”

The pink mare lowers her hoof and excitedly exclaims “They grant wishes!”

Now it is Twilight who is facehoofing “No Pinkie, I just got through explaining that’s illogical and it’s only a loose theory. We need a real scientific Hypothesis, not mystical mumbo jumbo!”

Pinkie puts her hoof to her chin and thinks as hard as her mind will allow before speaking up “okay I got it! Not only do they grant wishes, but they also talk to ponies as well! Is that a good Hypothesis?”

Twilight double face hoofs “NO! When will you ponies get it? Granting wishes is illogical and unscientific! There’s a rational reason for all of this and if we can pull ourselves out of superstitious behavior we can figure out what it is! Now any real contributions?”

Applebloom tensely raises her hoof causing Twilight to point to her “Yes Applebloom? You have something to say?”

The filly lowers her hoof “Are you always this crazy or is it just today? Cause this is mah first time meatin ya and I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”

“Well Applebloom that’s a very good question… you see……. WHAT?!” Twilight slams her hooves on the table fuming at the filly’s accusations “What kind of question is that?”

“Applebloom!” Applejack snaps at her sister “That was a very rude question to ask! But to answer yer question, yes she’s always this crazy.”

“ENOUGH!” the unicorn yells “I’m sick and tired of all this…. This…. NONSENSE! I know that all of you are set on the idea that wish granting magic exists but I am…….”

“Oh lighten up darling!” Rarity says as she is filing her hoof “I know that you are upset that your theories aren’t going anywhere but please.” Throwing her hoof file off to the side Rarity clears her throat as she prepares to take up the role as the voice of reason. “Dash just let her own inability to see the error of her ways backfire on her and I for one am not eager for a repeat.”

Twilight is about to yell at the mare when she realizes the reason behind her words. Taking several deep breaths the mare calms down before addressing Rarity again “thank you Rarity. You’re absolutely right getting frustrated won’t solve anything now. Thank you for being the force of reason here.”

“It's’ quite all right Darling” Rarity nods “I’m glad you were able to see how crazy you were acting……..”

“I’m Not CRAZY!” the lavender mare shouts slamming her hooves into the table as her horn glows menacingly. Yet quickly the lavender mare realizes all her friends are moving away from her scared stiff by the unicorn’s outbursts.  Calming herself Twilight clears her throat as she blushes profusely “sorry……. Again.”

“……. Like I said quite all right Darling, what are friends for?” Rarity looks towards the center of the table at the box of strange stones “to be honest it feels good to be good for something around here for once.”

“Hunh?” Fluttershy asks “what do you mean Rarity? You’re a great help! Your gem finding spell has helped us find so many of the Red stones in town. We never could have found them without you!”

Rarity looks at Fluttershy a look of sadness in her eyes “Yes I suppose that you are right Fluttershy. I know that I have already been an immense help to you all. It’s just that..… It’s just that I hate being helpless in a pinch. The main reason that I joined this little group was to keep Applejack and later all of you out of harm’s way.”

The ivory mare looks down at her hooves “yet when Lyra attacked us I was completely powerless, I could only signal for help. I mean it was Fluttershy of all ponies who was able to stop Rainbow Dash while I was forced to the sidelines. No offense Darling?”

Fluttershy shakes her head to signal that no offense has been taken ‘”that’s fine Rarity. I never expected to be able to stop Rainbow like that it just happened. And besides you’re the one that taught me that we can do what we are able and let our friends to do the rest.”

“I know darling…. I know. But is there a problem with wanting to do more?” the ivory mare asks “Now you all have such fantastically flashy powers and I feel so….. So powerless in the face of adversity. I know I always am putting my everything into everything I do. But to be unable to do anything……” Rarity’s face fills with tearless sorrow up her face twisting into a visage that appears to be haunted by ghosts of the past “to watch helplessly as ponies precious to you die…… that….. That is something unbearable to me…….”

Applejack looks at her friend a look of concern on her face “Rares… I had no idea that ya felt that way…”

Seeing her friend’s concern Rarity instantly brushes the sadness of her face as quickly as possible “oh don’t worry about me Applejack. It’s just my silly feelings getting in the way again. It’s just that I wish….” The mare closes her eyes “I just wish that I had the power to help you all better, that’s all….”

Responding to the mares’ sudden profession of her desires and much to the shock of everypony at the table the stones ignite once again in a flash of light that fills the room causing all the ponies in the group to cover their eyes. Twilight particularly flails about as she tries to make sense of the situation “what’s going on? Why is it glowing again?” however the purple mare’s scientific inquiry is cut off by a gentle voice that resonates through the library.

You seek to better express your desires to aid others and bestow upon them a gift of your creativity.

‘There’s… there’s that voice again!’ Applejack thinks to herself ‘that’s the same voice that came out of nowhere ah knew it came from the stones!’

You seek power not for your own sake by that you might aid others and in doing so atone for your own mistake.

‘A mistake?’ the orange mare thinks ‘Rarity made a mistake? What could it be?’

A mistake that drives you to be generous. You Rarity are worthy. Now find your inspiration and create.

The light bursts again leaving the room exactly as it was before as the mares right themselves. Rarity in particular seems to have trouble standing on her own four hooves. “Ugh… darlings this bright light is simply not good for my skin, or my eyes. Twilight dear do those dreadful stones always flash that bright? Because if so I think that I’ll need a pair of sunglasses!” a pair of sunglasses forms around Rarity’s eyes shielding her from the light of the room. “Thank you Pinkie, I bit too late, but it’s the thought that counts.”

Pinkie sits on the other side of the table pointing her hoof at Rarity’s’ glasses “Ummm Rarity? I’m over here.”

Rarity looks to see that the pink mare is indeed on the other side of the table “oh, then I suppose it was you that provided me with these stylish silver glasses Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy nervously shuffles in her seat as she stares at Rarity. “Um. No it wasn’t me Rarity.”

“Oh?” now the ivory mare is truly stumped “well if you didn’t give them to me then where did they come from Fluttershy.”

Applejack stares mouth agape at the ivory mare “Rarity….. ah think that you made them…”

Rarity scoffs at this “oh Applejack hush now. You know that I am a fabulous designer of fashion but forming something from out of thin air like a new umbrella is simply….” Rarity picks the glasses off her face with the gentle glow of her telekinesis, causing it to take the form of a smart silver umbrella. Rarity stares mouth agape at the silver object, then closing her eyes intently the silver umbrella then changes shape into a beautiful silver dress. Blinking again Rarity wills the dress to change form into a solid silver sphere about seven hoof lengths across each molecule of the mercury ball moving and flowing at its user’s slightest will.

Twilight stares mouth agape as Rarity moves the liquid metal stand in various shapes with as her horn glows. The stand itself seems to flow like water as Rarity molds the shimmering metal completely absorbed in her newfound powers. “What. The……”

Twilight’s imminent burst of obscenities is cut off by Rainbow Dash’s perfect timing “Oh come on!” Dash yells “Now Rarity gets as stand? Now it works? Why didn’t the stone grant my wish to have a mountain of bits or that wish to be captain of the wonderbolts?”

Rarity fiddles with her amorphous stand like a fowl with a new toy constantly forming it into new shapes or levitating it in the air with her telekinesis while moving it around.

Applejack looks at her friend with a bemused look “Dash ah don’t think that that’s a good wish. From mah experience the stones seem to only grant the real important like wishes.”

Dash slams her hooves on the table “But me being the fastest most Awesome Wonderbolt in Equestria is real important!”

Applejack rolls her eyes “whatever Dash…” Dash grumbles as the orange farmer turns to face her ivory friend “more importantly…….” Applejack watches as Rarity forms her stand into the form of a glimmering sword.

“You have a stand…….” Applejack stares intently as rarity moves the liquid shape with her mind alone “Rarity You have a stand! Do you know what this means?!”

Rarity looks at applejack her lack of attention causing the liquid to pool and fall to the floor before evaporating into thin air “it means that I can design my dresses at twice the normal rate at which I normally craft them?” the mare asks excitedly.

Applejack looks at the mare as if she just grew a third head “uhhhhh yeah that, but more importantly…….” The orange farmer trots up to Twilight Sparkle walking over to the purple mare and dropping to her plot only a hoof length away from her.

Suddenly Applejack looks at Twilight with an unnerving stare “Ummm Applejack what’s with the staring?”

The orange farmer begins to smile like a mare that has cheated death itself all the while staring at Twilight “Why are you smiling like….. Oh no.”

The farmer licks her lips slowly wetting her mouth “Don’t do it Applejack!”

The mare coughs as if to pave the way for saying something important “I know the disintegration spell Applejack and I’m not afraid to use it!”

Applejack slowly opens her mouth “Applejack I swear to Celestia! If you even think of saying it, IF YOU EVEN THINK of saying those words there will be DIRE consequences!”

Slowly…. Ever so slowly the orange mare opens her mouth, and says the most painful and embarrassing words a pony who is wrong can possibly hear “I told you so.”

The lavender filly freezes up like a statue the words echoing through the corridors of her mind each time chipping away a little bit of her sanity. Suddenly the mare can take it no more and fires a light blue beam of magic at the filly Applebloom.

Her sister gasps in terror “TWILIGHT! Ah know that was kind of tasteless but how dare ya take it out on mah sister like that!” turning to her sister Applejack begins to coddle her in her hooves “Applebloom are yawl all right?”

The filly raises her hoof to her ears with a quizzical look “WHAT?”

Applejack raises her voice “AH said ARE YAWL ALL RIGHT?”

“WHAT?”

“She can’t hear you Applejack, my defining spell has made sure of that.” Twilight says as she takes in very deep breaths “Don’t worry I can easily dispel it later.”

“Defining? Why would yawl deafen mah sister ta punish me?”

“Applejack, I didn’t deafen your sister to punish you.” Twilight says “I did it so that she wouldn’t hear this.”

Suddenly with the force and intensity of the royal canterlot voice the lavender mare begins to cuss with the force and creativity that makes Applejack very glad that her sister can’t hear anything. In great detail and using almost every curse word known in the equestrian language (‘101 words not fit to be said’) the Lavender mare begins to curse the laws of physics, probability and the utter defeat of the scientific process. But more than anything she curses the universe itself that seems to be conspiring to make a deliberate fool out of her. The mare continues and continues to curse as her friends look on with mixes of horror, admiration, laughter and bashfulness, simultaneously until the mare finally runs out of steam and falls to the table in exhaustion. Pointing her horn towards the young Applebloom Twilight dispels the spell she cast on her to prevent her from hearing that. “All right Applebloom…” the lavender mare sighs “you should be able to hear now…..”

“WHAT?” the filly asks

The lavender mare sighs as her head hits the table all her friends watching her and trying to recover from the mare’s barrage of profanity. Finally the butter yellow pegasus finally builds up the courage to walk up to the mare “um…. Twilight? Are you okay?”

Twilight raises her head “yes of course I’m fine Fluttershy! It’s not like the universe is conspiring against me or anything!” the mare laughs emptily before slamming her head into the table again “now I just have to find a way to send a letter to princess Celestia saying that magical wish granting stones are falling from the skies all around Equestria.” The lavender mare sighs again as she looks around the table. “I just… I just don’t know what to do. What do I do now…..”

The entire group is silent as they gather around the lavender mare all of them not knowing what to say as Twilight Sparkle slowly bangs her head into the table. Suddenly Pinkie Pie’s hoof shoots straight up in the air as she bounces excitedly in place. “Ooo! Ooo! I know what to do! We should throw a party!”

Twilight groans as she pulls herself off the table “Pinkie! A party is your solution for everything!”

“I know Twilight but please, hear me out.” The sudden serious tone of the pink mare causing everypony to pay attention. “When you first came to Ponyville you were super alone! You didn‘t trust any pony and you didn’t even want any friends. But now….” The pink mare pulls all of the ponies in the room into a single giant hug defying all possibility “…now you have lots and lots of friends that really care about you! You said once that I couldn’t throw you a party cause you didn’t have any ponies to celebrate with. But now you do and no matter what’s going to happen we’ll be able to face it together!”

Pinkie extends her hoof to the lavender mare “so I say we throw the biggest ‘welcome to ponyville’, ‘we all have stands’ and ‘Applebloom’s not in a coma’ combo party ever! What do you say?”

Twilight slightly tears up a as she looks across the room to see it filled to the brim with all of her most important friends. All of them willing to stand by her thick and thin through whatever dangers the world can throw at her. With a smile on her face she takes Pinkie’s hoof “You know what Pinkie? You’re right! We’ve all gotten stand powers, Applebloom has woken up and we’ve all solved a major mystery about the strange stones all while retaining our health. I would never have thought that I would be saying this when I was living in Canterlot, but let’s have a party!”

Without another word pinkie disappears in a cloud of smoke and before a pony could say Yahtzee! The room is covered in streamers banners and several kinds of cake, all a courtesy of pinkie’s party cannon. “Then without further ado… Let’s party!”

Applebloom’s eyes widen as she looks across at the colorful display “wow! Can I party too? Ah just love Pinkie’s parties!”

Applejack looks at her sister with worry “ah’m not so sure of that bloom. Ya just got out Of the hospital an all. Doctor said that ya needed rest an….” Applejack is cut off by the sight of the filly ‘s pouting, her little eyes widening to maximum cuteness. Not even applejack can resist “well…. I suppose it is yer party….. But no stayin up past yer bedtime! Ya need yer rest.”

The filly looks disheartened “aww but Applejack…..”

“No buts missy. Ya can stay fer the first half of the party but no later!”

“Aww……” The filly begins to pout against the injustice of it, no sooner than getting out of the hospital and she gets groused by her sister.

However the filly’s plight does not go ignored as a rainbow maned pegasus flies down next to her “hey kid don't sweat it! You’ll be able to stay up and do all the best and most awesome things like the grown-ups do!”

“Really?” The hopefully filly responds

“Yeah!” Dash snickers “in about ten years! Ha!” Dash slaps the filly’s back in her cruel jest. Suddenly the moment her hoof lands on the filly’s back Dash is sent flying backwards landing head over hooves on her the hardest most fortified part of her body, her head. The entire room looks over in surprise as the speedster groans on the floor, a victim of her own malice.

Twilight walks over to the embarrassed rainbow Dash looks up at Twilight “how…. How did I get on the floor? Did we break out the cider already?” The rainbow mare asks her eyes spinning in her head.

“I have No idea Dash but I know for sure that that certainly wasn’t normal…” Twilight muses as she picks her impulsive friend off the ground “but it seems like you just fell over. Applebloom did you do anything to….. Applebloom! Look!”

All eyes in the room turn to the yellow filly and a strange shaped object that seems to be growing out of her very back. The object in of itself appears to be a small sapling comprised of brass that has only three small branches and a hoof-full of golden leaves sprouting out of its tiny branches. The brass plant appears to be growing out of Applebloom itself, its roots completely invisible as only the stem juts out of her back. However the strangest feature of the stand itself is the fact that its branches and stem are curled up into the shape of a circular springs giving the plant a bouncy and flexible look as it bobs back and forth along with the filly’s body.

“GUAH!” the surprised Applebloom seeing a plant growing out of her falls flat on her flank the plant disappearing almost instantly as she stares at where it popped out of her body. “A-Applejack? Is this because I ate that watermelon seed when yawl told me it would grow inside of me? Cause if it is I’m sorry that ah ever doubted ya.” The filly looks on her elder sister with pleading eyes “Please remove it before a watermelon grows inside of me, ah don’t want ta explode.”

Applejack tilts her head looking at her sister with a look of confusion and slight fear.  “Uh, sis? Ya didn’t eat any watermelon seeds while you were in the hospital did ya? I mean ya were in a coma all that time right?”

The filly tilts her head “uh yeah Sis….. I woke up, we spent the next two hours fillin out discharge paperwork an stuff an we came straight here. Why?”

The orange mare throws her hooves up in exasperation “Well if ya didn’t eat a Watermelon, why would ya think one was growin in her stomach?! Sides watermelons don’t do that, now thimble melon seeds…. Whoee! Now yawl don’t want ta see what happens when ya eat those!”

“Well I didn’t know! What else could that have been?” Suddenly the filly’s mind catches up to her sister’s words “wait! Yawl were lying to me about the watermelon seeds?! I was so terrified of a plant growin in mah belly ah never ate a single Watermelon all last summer! Why in Equestria did yawl lie….”

“Well ah don’t know Applebloom?” Applejack rolls her eyes. “It may have something ta do with the fact that we’re the APPLE family an ah don’t want mah kin eatin any ‘lower class’ fruits on mah watch.”

“Anyways!” The Twilight walks between the two sisters “I think that the bigger issue is that Applebloom sent Rainbow Dash falling to the floor without even touching her.” Twilight looks inquisitively at the filly as she gently manifests her stand in front of her. Tapping bloom in the side with her stand twilight’s prodding causes the plant like object to spring out of Applebloom again this time with much less force.

Twilight nods and withdraws her stand “well it’s official. Applebloom has a stand power.”

“What!” Applejack yells “what…. But how…. What…..”

Applebloom fares little better “ah…. Ah have a stand?”

Twilight taps her chin “well it seems to be an automatic stand power, that is, it automatically activates its power once the pony wills it to work, like a shield. And from what I can tell it doesn’t’ seem to be able to move at all, so it’s an Ability type stand like Fluttershy’s.” Applejack her eyes widening prods her sister causing the plant to appear at the point of contact sending Applejack’s slight prod shooting back on itself.

“And more interestingly” Twilight continues “it seems to respond automatically to the stimulus of being attacked so you won’t have to worry about it going out of control or having to learn how to use it. But yes it seems like now even a little filly with no formal training can develop a stand power. Ugh! Just how many more ponies are going to get stand powers! Who’s next? The mail mare?! I should really start with a…….”

Twilight’s rant is cut off by Applejack tapping her on the shoulder. “Uh..… Twi?” The orange mare points to her sister who looks as though she has drank an entire liter of coffee in under three seconds. Her body bouncing around in excitement, her words streaming out of her mouth like a river of fire.

Applebloom gasps. “Ah have… A stand? Just like mah sis?” Twilight nods causing the filly to woop in glee jumping in the air and clicking her heels “this is great! We can go on adventures together! Ah can help out a be part of the team an have mah own theme song an…,”

Applejack sighs “no ya aint Applebloom.”

The filly stops her prancing immediately “what? Why not? I got a stand an everythin!”

Applejack stamps her hoof “because it’s dangerous! That’s why. An just cause ya have a stand that..… That…. What does yer stand do anyways?”

Twilight looks at Applebloom inquisitively as she trots around the filly unnervingly “well from Dash’s initial response and the fact that the ‘counter’ activated the second after she was ‘attacked’ by Dash …. I would say that Applebloom’s power is some kind of kind of kinetic energy rebound.”

Applejack blinks with a vacant stare

Twilight suddenly realizes she’s talking to a farmer “uhhhhhh it returns an opponent’s attacking force back on them.”

“….Right that.” Applejack turns back to her sister “anyways it’s one thing ta have a stand, it’s another ta be able ta use it. Sides our work’s too dangerous fer a little filly.”

“But ah can use it!” Applebloom protests “an I can help!”

“The answer’s no bloom.” Applejack puts her hoof down “yawl can help by stayin out of the grown up ponies way, an stayin out of trouble.”

Applebloom is ready to begin another round of protesting when Pinkie grabs the two sisters with a surprise hug squeezing them both together “come on girls, let’s stop with this moping! We’ve got a party to celebrate! This is no place for an argument! Unless it’s about what kind of cake is best, that in that case it ‘s triple chocolate!”

Applebloom’s further protests are cut off by Applejack “pinkie’s right this is no place fer arguin bloom, we’re here to celebrate yer recovery.”

“But Applejack! You were arguin too!”

“Applebloom!” Applejack stamps her hoof with the sound of thunder, laying down the law “Now ah don’t want ta hear any more o yer bickerin. Yawl are too young an that’s that. An if I hear any more sass you’ll be sleepin through the rest I the party. Understand?”

Applebloom opens and closes her mouth repeatedly however in the end her desire to stay at the party and not be sent home early overrides her indignity and she nods affirmatively.

“Good!” Applejack nods “Now run along an have fun. I see Pinkie brought yer favorite cake so have a slice er two and remember it’s yer party too.”

As the slightly less disappointed filly (pinkie’s cake will do that to a pony) trots off the remainder of the group comes together as pinkie hands each one a mug of fresh (non-alcoholic) cider. Raising her glass high in the air pinkie shouts “A toast!” The pink mare shouts “to a great party, and even greater friends!”

Applejack raises her mug “a toast!”

Rarity Raises hers as well “a toast darlings!”

Fluttershy raises her glass with much more gusto than normal “a toast….”

Rainbow nearly slams her glass into the others raising it with such gusto “An Awesome Toast!”

Twilight beans as she raises her glass to her friend’s a look of sheer joy on her face “a toast to great friends!”

“HERE HERE!!!” The all yell at once downing their drinks with mighty gulps.

Pinkie seeing the mood is just right jumps up on the table. “Well then ponies without further ado, Let the triple party jubilee, the greatest celebration held in a library BEGIN!”

And with that the six new friends (with the exception of one little filly who was sent to bed early) celebrated all night, excited at the fact that their journey was just beginning.

……..the next morning……..

As most parties go the party to celebrate Applebloom’s recovery, Twilight’s welcome to ponyville and everypony getting stands was one of the greatest triple combo parties the pink mare had the pleasure(s) of throwing. However as all parties must, the party ended far too soon and the next morning a certain yellow filly found herself grumbling as she trotted down the road to go to a place that she rather would not go.

“Stupid Applejack” Applebloom mutters as she kicks a stone on the path, the yellow filly‘s saddlebags filled to the brim with books paper and pencils “sendin me ya school while she an her friends have a super-secret club meatin! It aint fair!”

The filly punches a nearby post as she walks unwillingly to the path to the schoolyard. More than anything she wanted to turn around and run back to the golden oaks library, to where her sister was and do something, something important! She hated being excluded because of her age and she hated being babied even more. However Applejack made it very clear just what would happen if she heard from Miss Cherilee that she decided to skip school. Applebloom shuddered at the thought of Applejack’s punishment, and so the filly continued to walk unwillingly to the schoolyard ahead of her.

Finally the yellow filly comes into sight of the large bright red building in front of her the yard filled with the sounds of fowls like her laughing and playing. Part of Applebloom wanted to be excited for this, her first year of real schooling at an actual school. With life on a farm she had been homeschooled by granny most of her life. It was a lot more effective and more practical when you could adjust the schedule for harvest or didn’t have to work to where you were learning your multiplication tables. But it also meant the little filly had few close friends outside her family, few fillies and colts her age with whom she could relate. It had taken weeks of begging and chores to convince her sister she could handle both the farm work and her new schooling at Ponyville elementary. And now she was here on the cusp of a new experience a new adventure for her to delve into.

“ Maybe…….” The filly optimistically hopes  “maybe this won’t be so bad at all?”

“BLANK FLANKS! BLANK FLANKS!” A loud voice resonates over the fences of the schoolyard

The filly’s ears droop immediately “or not….” She recognized that voice.

Walking through the gates to the schoolyard Applebloom comes within name calling distance of a familiar filly that she had rather hoped not to see. A pink filly with a well groomed two toned mane of white and mauve and a cutie Mark of a shiny crown, an exact duplicate sitting on her pompous head. Her cocky self-righteous grin permanently plastered on her muzzle displays her cutie mark’s true calling, to stand over others and dominate.

“ Diamond tiara…” Applebloom mutters under her breath. And of course flanking the queen of the universe itself is the pink mare’s crony silver spoon. Wearing her trademark fancy glasses and accusatory gaze the grey filly with a silver greased mane done in an intricate ponytail and a silver spoon stamped on her flank, symbolizing her talent for manners etiquette and unbreakable decorum. The mare had made it her mission in life to follow her master and aid in her mission to make every pony‘s life miserable. True she wasn’t as bad as Diamond but her appearance would herald the coming of the spiteful filly so Applebloom liked to avoid her anyways.

Applebloom and Diamond had been bitter enemies ever since either could remember. Though the Apples and Filthy rich (Diamond’s father) had been business partners since before either fillies were born the two fillies relationship had soured into a bitter and aggressive rivalry. Ever since filthy brought his daughter to the apple’s farm and she had called Applebloom’s sister a ‘country hick’ the two had been at each other’s throats. Both families had hoped that the two fillies would be fast friends given their common ancestral history in the founding of Ponyville. However after the subsequent beating Applebloom had given Diamond for her insult of her sister and Applebloom’s subsequent ultra-heavy duty secret prohibition free maximum grounding the two couldn’t be farther from companions.

Applebloom would have prepared for her insult if the day by now and given a witty retort however it appeared that fate had decided to smile on her today as it looked like Diamond had decided to pick on somepony else today. Or rather some ponies else…….

“Well? Got anything to say for yourselves?” Diamond walks around the two fillies in a circle. “You just thought that you could splash me with mud and get away with it? Did you Blank flanks?” Diamond says as she walks around the fillies like a vulture circling her meal.”

“So what!” An orange pegisi a filly yells as she buzzes her wings in an attempt to intimidate her opponent “so we threw a ball and it splashed a drop of mud on your coat? Look it’s not even visible!”

“I don’t know….” Diamond says as she flanks the mares “Silver what do you think? Should I just forget about it?”

Silver who is currently mirroring Diamond circling around the fillies begins to smile “I don’t know Diamond. I mean they refused to apologize even after insulting your word, and they’re like totally rude….….. I don ‘t think that you should let them off so easy….”

The white filly in the center whimpers closer to the ground, her two toned mane of light purple and pink, shaking as she looks up with her green eyes “just…. Just leave us alone! You… You bullies!”

Diamond stops in her tracks directly in front of the white filly causing her to whimper in fear. Diamond taps her chin “you know what Silver? I think that I will forgive them!”

“What?” Silver stops looking both surprised and relieved at the same time.

“Yes.” Diamond says “after all… It’s not like I would expect any civil and polite behavior…..” Diamond leers at the two fillies “….. From BLANK FLANKS!” The entire playground laughs at Diamond’s tasteless joke as even the brave Orange filly begins to tear up at their combined laughing.

“I mean if they are willing to admit that they are uncivilized blank flanks with no redeemable qualities whatsoever, of course I’ll forgive them! It’s not like they know any better.” The laughter continues embarrassing the fillies even more as Applebloom watches on.

“…..Diamond….. Well at least I'm not the object o ridicule on mah first day. Maybe ah might actually be able ta make some friends before Diamond tries ta make a fool out of me.” Applebloom looks around searching for some pony to make friends with, a spotted cold with a brown mane, a light blue pegisi a filly, a teary eyed orange pegisi and her white….

Suddenly Applebloom can‘t look away from the tormented fillies their situation a perfect window into her past bullying experiences. ‘Except these fillies don‘t know how ta fight back…. They can‘t handle Diamond’ the yellow filly shakes her head suddenly as remembering something critically important. ‘What am I thinkin? I can‘t let Diamond make fun I any pony! Not when ah have the power ta stand up fer them! Sides……That’s what applejack would do!’ Bravely the yellow filly steps forward through the crowd as Diamond Tiara continues to mock the two defenseless fillies.

“Well?” The pink filly swishes her hair to the side “are you going to apologize? Or not? Blank flanks.”

Silver looks at the two fillies with her accusatory gaze “I don’t think that they’re going to Diamond.”

“Well of course!” Diamond laughs “after all everypony knows that Blank Flanks are young, immature….”

“Yawl got a problem with Blank flanks…..” Every head on the playground turns to face the newcomer as the filly’s pink ribbon blows in an arriving wind. “Ah said, do YOU, have a PROBLEM, with Blank Flanks? Do you Diamond Tiara?”

Diamond’s body immediately tenses up as she turns to face her eternal enemy. Her body instinctively reacting to the presence of a real challenge. Diamond locks eyes with the filly in front of her, knowing this won’t be an easy fight in any sense of the word. Diamond turns her head looking at Applebloom out of the corner of her eye as if she were far beneath her notice “well look who decided to show up! If it isn’t the princess of the blank flanks herself! What’s wrong worked that your little wittle subjects are crying?”

The playground fillies circle around the two knowing that this is going to be an epic showdown between the two rivals. Applebloom take a step forward “well ah may just be a poor country farmer….” Unwilling to let her rival put a negative spin of her heritage “……But ah just thought that the princess of snobs had better things ta do than hang around with blank flanks. Or is it that yawl’s Crony Silver is getting too boring fer ya so yawl are reduced to hangin round us blank flanks? If ya needed a new friend yawl could have just asked Diamond.”

The entire playground ohhs at Applebloom’s righteous burn causing Diamond to grind her teeth in her rage. ‘Looks like Applebloom brought her A game today, I’ll have to step it up!’ “Oh but I was bored!” Diamond says as she steps off to the side looking off to the heavens “how would I be able to survive a single day without hearing your butchered country accent and uncouth stories about shoveling mud on your dirt farm. And I thought that you were too scared of little old me to show up!” Diamond smiles as she turns back to her opponent, “after all you skipped the first two weeks of school! What’s the matter Apple-loser? Were you to chicken to face me?”

Now it is the other filly ‘s turn to grind her teeth in anger as the playground around her chuckle at her from under her breath. “Ah was in the hospital Diamond….”

“For what?” Diamond smirks “to get that ugly wart removed? Well I guess you weren't able to get it off after all. I guess that removing your entire crushed face and replacing it with something that doesn’t make me want to barf was out of your family’s price range.”

Now the entire playground is laughing uproariously at her as Applebloom tries to slump away from their jeers. Diamond holds her head triumphant in her victory knowing not even Applebloom can come back from that insult.

A normal filly might have shrunk down and bowed her head at such embarrassment letting the alpha dog on the playground have her day. But Applebloom was anything but a normal filly “Well at least ah wasn’t born ugly like you Diamond Tiara!” The yellow filly retorts “fer all ya money and class ya couldn’t fix her ugly mug or yer ugly attitude! At least ah have an a good heart! Ya might have money Diamond, but ya are as rotten as a moldy old stump!”

The entire audience is struck dumb at Applebloom’s sudden scathing comeback as Diamond fumbles about to find any retort to silence her aggressor. “Well…. Well….” The pink mare comes up blank as she tries to counter “well…. You….”

“An another thing!” Applebloom lurches forward her eyes only a hoof-length away from her enemy “no pony here likes yawl’s bullyin! In case yawl haven't noticed lots of fowls here are blank flanks! An yawl just walk around usin it as an excuse to make other ponies miserable!” The yellow filly ‘s advance pushes Diamond back as she tries to put as much distance between her and her advancing foe “ordinary ponies might be impressed by yawl’s fancy money and snobby attitude and insultin ways, but ah aint! Cause I know that deep down ya aint a brave strong an smart filly like ya try ta make yerself seem by tearin other ponies down!” Applebloom stops eyes mere inches away from the mare “cause deep down yer just a lonely little filly beggin fer attention. An that doesn’t scare me, not. ONE. BIT.”

Finally the pink mare reaches the end of her rope both figuratively and physically as her attempts to back up causes her to trip over her own hooves into a puddle of mud with an unceremonious splat. The entire audience who moments ago were struck dumb with awe now begin whooping and hollering at the fall of their old tyrant and the rise of a new benevolent ruler. Diamond Tiara has taken a tumble off the social status ladder and Applebloom has moved into her place.

However even the most soulless tyrants has a loyal follower. A pony that will stand by them thick and thin and tend to their wounds when all goes wrong. Silver spoon rushes over to her friend through the mud picking her friend off her rump “come on Diamond let’s get out of here….” Diamond however doesn’t move, her eyes glaring at Applebloom with all the hatred she can muster. Her eyes seem to bore a hole into Applebloom’s very soul causing even the yellow filly to shiver in fear.

Silver’s prodding continues “come on Diamond. She’s not worth it. I brought your favorite shampoo today just in case, we can wash all this muck off in the school showers.” The pink mare continues to stare as the groups around the playground shy away from the defeated mare.

“Come on Diamond!” Silver pulls her friend’s arm “Do you want the mud to dry and get stuck in your beautiful mane?”

This finally grabs the pink filly’s attention, however she refuses to cease her hateful glaring at her enemy “yeah…. You’re right Silver…. Let’s go…..” The pink filly finally breaks her stare as the two walk off of the playground and into one of the school’s side buildings.

The fowls laughing at the retreating mare finally begin to disperse as Diamond Tiara walks out of sight. Every filly and colt talks among themselves spreading rumors of the recent confrontation and playing with each other by the light of the sun, savoring every second before school begins. Applebloom sighs in relief that her first day of school and her first confrontation with Diamond at school hadn’t backfired horribly on her like all her ordinary antics had. The yellow filly begins to believe that the day is finally looking up for her as two familiar fillies walk up to her.

“WOW!” the orange coated purple maned Pegasus shouts her small wings fluttering in excitement “that was so cool! Not as cool as Rainbow Dash but still…..”

Her white companion sighs “Scootaloo? Do you really have to compare everypony you meet to rainbow Dash? I’m beginning to think your obsession with Rainbow is unhealthy….”

“Aww what do you know sweetie?” the orange mare turns her head with an upset frown to look at her white friend beside her “what are you a Psycho analyst or somthin?” The orange mare turns back to Applebloom “sorry about sweetie there, she can be a real wet blanket sometimes.” The orange mare extends her hoof to Applebloom “my name’s Scootaloo! Thanks for handling that bully Diamond there, I could have taken care of her but I just thought that since ya seemed to know her that I should let you handle it.”

Applebloom takes one look at the orange pegisi in front of her. Brash, arrogant and strong willed Applebloom already feels a deep affinity with her. Applebloom takes her hoof “Yeah ah know Diamond, like a bad cold. Don’t worry bout her none ya just got to know how to handle her an she won’t give ya too much heartache.”

“But you made it look so easy!” The white unicorn exclaims her voice cracking in the process. Embarrassed the filly clears her throat “I mean even when she said all those mean words you weren’t fazed at all. Ya just stood up to her and got her to back off! That was amazing!” the White filly shifts her balance “Oh and I’m Sweetie Belle by the way.”

Applebloom looks at the purple maned Unicorn. Though shy and a bit clumsy Applebloom could tell right out that she was the brains of the two, and she had a cute demeanor that could win over any adult. “Sweetie Belle… it’s nice ta meet ya. And it’s like I said, ya just have ta know how to handle her.”

Applebloom waves her hoof nonchalantly “why the first time she started pickin on me, I learned quick that throwin hooves would just get me a groundin, so I just took her own words an threw them back at her. That shut her up real quick. So from then on every time I got in a scrap with her ah just took whatever she threw at me and threw it back, guess that’s just a part of my ‘psy-chi’ like Twilight would say…..”

Suddenly her mind turns to something Twilight said to her before she left something about stands gaining powers biased on their user’s mindsets. “Hey…. That’s probably why I got that kind o stand power in the first place….. whenever somepony tries to beat me down it only makes me stronger. An I take what they throw at me and… send it back?  Or somtin?” the yellow filly sees the her two companions staring at her “uh.. What’s up guys.”

Sweetie chirps up “what’s a stand?”

“Ut Oh…” Applebloom gulps “ah wasn’t supposed to talk about that….”

“Yeah…” Scootaloo rubs her head “I’ve never heard of standing giving you magic….is that why you were at the hospital?”

“Yeah!” Sweetie belle confirms as she backs away “is it contagious? Why would you come to school if it was contagious?”

“No it’s not it’s just that…….”

“I just don’t understand how you could get some kind of special power from standing?”

“Can it make you really sick? Can it…” Sweetie gulps “….Kill you?”

“No! I mean yes…… I mean no you can’t…..”

“How’d you get it Applebloom I want a special power too!”

“Yeah Applebloom if you’re sick you shouldn’t be around other ponies.”

“What’s the secret?”

“…..cause if you are then you should be…”

“Enough!” the yellow mare’s outcry silencing the random gibberish of her two friends “now yes ah was in the hospital for somethin, no ah’m not contagious, and no ah can’t tell you why it’s a secret, so please stop asking.”

Scootaloo groans “Aw come on! And here I thought you were cool! Why can’t you tell us? Are you afraid that you might get in trouble or something?”

“No it’s not that…” Applebloom thinks back to this morning and Twilight’s words.

‘Now Applebloom I know that you are excited to have a stand power but what we do and what we’re looking for are matters of national security. If word leaks to the population about……yada Disaster, yada yada yada yada, bad news, yada yada yada yada Banishment……. Applebloom are you listening?!’

‘um…. Yes….. But just to be sure……. say everything you just said now.’

‘Ugh! All right Applebloom, the bottom line is that it comes down to trust and endangering the ponies of ponyville. If average ponies learn what the stones can do they might try to abuse them or use them to give them stand powers which could end up killing them. Second the ensuing panic from discovering stand powers would send the public into an uproar and cause other countries to seek means of obtaining stand powers to boost their militaries. In other words it could lead to war, something pony kind hasn’t experienced on our soil since the nightmare wars.’

‘Now Applebloom I know that you are sore that you aren’t helping directly with our search, but by keeping this secret from untrustworthy ponies you are saving lives. I hate to admit it but right now there are many ponies that we can’t trust with this information…. But you are Applejack’s sister and she attests to your honesty. So please promise me that you won’t tell anypony……. Cause of this information is shared with the wrong ponies….. Just promise me that you won’t….’

Applebloom takes in a deep breath calming herself for what she is about to say “I’m sorry girls but Ah made a promise not to tell anypony bout stands and all that other stuff.” Applebloom imagines the image of her upset sister holding a giant cake as she imagines her punishment if she were caught revealing something she promised not to. Applebloom shudders “sides mah sister would be real sore if I said something ah wasn’t supposed to…”

“But…..” Sweetie tears up “but aren’t we friends? Can you…..” Sweetie begins to sniffle her mere presence seeming to wear down any desire to keep a secret from her “Can’t you trust us?”

Applebloom flinches “No! not it’s not that… it’s just Twilight said that this is real secret like and ah wasn’t supposed to tell anypony that we couldn’t trust…..”

“So you can’t trust us?! Do I look like a filly who would give up a secret?” Scootaloo accuses “I guess that she just can’t trust us…”

Applebloom begins to panic as she becomes painfully aware she just questioned the trustworthiness of two ponies who could very well be her friends. “No it’s not that ah can’t trust ya it’s just that…..”

“…Well?!” Scootaloo says “then why can’t you trust us not to tell?”

Applebloom pauses looking at the faces of the first two ponies that she ever met at school, ponies that could very well be her friends. Sure it was wrong to go back on a promise, but when it came down to it Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were right; keeping a secret from them would make it seem like she couldn’t trust them and that would demolish any chance of them being on amiable terms. Twilight’s words ring in her ears……

‘So please promise me that you won’t tell anypony……. Cause of this information is shared with the wrong ponies…..’

Applebloom shakes her head dispelling any lingering notions of her promise. ‘buck this!’ the farm filly thinks ‘if keepin a secret fer mah sister and her friends that have done nothing but push me push me away, costs me mah friends than ah don’t want ta keep it.’

Applebloom raises her head “ya know what, yer right. It may just be that we met today, but if ya promise, an I mean a bonafide Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony than I’ll tell ya what stands are.”

Sweetie immediately ceases her crying as if on command as a smile graces her lips “Great! If you hadn’t told us after that I would have had to use my real pouting face and that would have been really bad.”

Applebloom looks at the white filly “wait… You were actin?”

“Well…” Sweetie shuffles her hooves nervously “I was sad that you kept a secret from us just as soon as we met…… but I was just wanted to know what was so important because my sister has been acting strange lately.”

Sweetie looks back at the yellow mare her eyes brimming with hope and confidence “But my sister told me that she could trust Applejack, so since you are Applejack’s sister I thought that you might know something. But it was wrong of me to try and force you to tell something that you promised not to. So if you don’t feel like telling us….…”

Applebloom pulls Sweetie into a side hug “No ah want ta tell ya. Not cause ya tried to force me, but because we’re friends, and friends don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Both Applebloom and Sweetie smile as they admire their newfound friendship. “Enough chitter chatter!” Scootaloo shouts as she stamps her hoof “let’s get onto the story! So Applebloom what’s a stand?”

Applebloom clears her throat “well if ah’m to tell the story right ah need to start from the beginin. See ah was out lookin at the stars at night……”

…………….

From there Applebloom told her two friends everything she had heard from her sister about what had been going on around ponyville recently. While they all lay on the grass in the schoolyard field Applebloom told them everything that was really going on. About the Red Stones and how sick they could make a pony, the strange stones and their wish granting powers and most importantly Stands, and how getting one gave their users strange and unnatural powers. She talked and talked as her new friends listened in awe to Applebloom’s story and her heroic representations of all the adults as they fought to recover the mysterious stones that rained down from the sky. No sooner than Applebloom finishes her tale of heroism and bravery than the bell rings signaling the start of a new school day and all the learning it brings.

“Alright students.” A mulberry earth pony mare with a cutie mark of a trio of flowers yells from the door to the school “Time for class!” The three fillies look at their teacher Miss Cheerilee and then back to each other.

“Awwww class?!” Scootaloo moans “If I knew that going to school meant that we would have to go to learn boring stuff I wouldn’t have come!”

Sweetie punches the orange pegisi in the arm “Going to school is about learning things Scootaloo. Anyways Applebloom is all that true, the crazy magical powers and magic stones and everything?”

Applebloom nods her head “Yep, everythin! Though it doesn’t matter none cause the ADULTS….” Applebloom rolls her eyes “….will let us help. They say that we fillies are too young to help out.”

“That’s bogus!” Scootaloo says as she gets up from the grass “I mean Rainbow Dash wouldn’t lay down and take that! We can’t just turn our backs on everything that is going on!”

Applebloom lowers her head in shame as she too rises to go to class. “But mah sis won’t let me join their group, ‘the stardust crusaders’ er something like that. And I mean what could I do alone…”

Suddenly Sweetie belle puts her hoof on Applebloom shoulder giving her a heartfelt look of confidence “you’re not alone Applebloom! You have your friends!”

Scootaloo mirror the unicorn in putting her hoof on her friend “Yeah! We’re your friends Applebloom! No way that we’d let you go it alone! And if the adults won’t let us join their group then we can just make one of our own!”

Applebloom’s face lights up at this idea as the gears in her mind begin to turn “our own group…… Yeah. Applejack said that ah couldn’t join them but if we make our own group we can search fer the red stones without them.”

Applebloom walks a distance away from her friends as she mulls over the details “yeah… we could do it together, ferget the ‘stardust crusaders’ if they won’t let us help then we don’t care.” Applebloom strikes an epic pose as the wind blows causing her mane and ribbon to flutter in the breeze “From this point on, us three are ‘THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS’!”

Both of the stunned fillies look at Applebloom their mouths agape as they try and think up any word to say. Applebloom finally noticing her friend’s states looks cautiously at them “Um? Guys what do you think?”

Scootaloo is the first to mare to be able to move her mouth “Applebloom…. That name…..”

Applebloom nods “yep ah thought it up all on mah own! Ya see the adults called themselves Crusaders, and we’re crusading fer the Red Stones too. But we don’t have Cutie Marks, cause we’re not adults like them. So Cutie Mark Crusaders! Nice hunh?”

Now Sweetie Belle is able to speak “Applebloom….. That name……”

“That name………” Scootaloo resumes

Both of the fillies look at each other as their horror fades away. Then with the force rivaling the Royal Canterlot voice they scream “IS TOTALLY AWESOME!”

Applebloom blinks “Ya think so?”

Scootaloo nods “yeah! Totally awesome right Sweetie?”

“Yeah!” Sweetie nods “it’s the perfect name for a group of fillies looking for something.”

Applebloom nods as she places her hoof towards the other two. “Then it’s decided, from this point on we’re a team, and we’ll look for the Red Stones and Strange stones and everything else that comes our way, TOGETHER!”

The two fillies join their hooves with Applebloom as they raise them in the air simultaneously. “TOGETHER!” All the fillies grin and giggle at each other as they look at their newfound friends picturing all the amazing adventure they will have together.

“Applebloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!” the three are broken out of their reprieve by the voice of their teacher “girls! All the other students are inside! If you don’t come in right now you’re going to be tardy! And I don’t think that you want me to have to talk to your parents now do you?”

The three fillies look at each other with fear on their faces as they rush inside without further a word. Running inside they all take their assigned seats in the normal bare bones classroom as they teacher takes attendance and begin their day. However in their minds they are already running through grassy fields and having fun together like good friends do.

…………………..

“Stupid Stupid Applebloom.” Diamond Tiara mutters to herself from the back of the classroom glaring daggers at the red maned pony in front of her. Not only had that mud taken forever to get out of her mane, no thanks to Silver, but because of it she had missed all of recess washing out the offensive gunk. But even worse, Applebloom’s words had struck close to home and everypony in school had seen it. She had been thoroughly embarrassed in front of the entire school, and though she still knew that they respected and feared her status, her credibility had taken a major blow that would take months for the others to forget. Worse still her actions might have put some backbone in her opposition, ponies might start to question and resist her will rather than awe in her presence like rightly they should. Even those new ponies Scottaloser and Sweetie Dunce look completely un-cowed and if ponies like them learn to resist her, than her status as queen bee of school is ruined. “Stupid Stupid Stupid Applebloom! Why did she have to make a fool of me like that? It’s not fair!”

As the teacher takes roll Diamond plots and plans on how to get even with her adversary for her actions. if she could just bring  Applebloom down a peg, if she could show them all just how lame Applebloom really was than they would all come flocking back to her again. Then everything would be as it should be, she’d be at the top and Applebloom would be at the bottom.

Diamond Smirks “heh, so you want a fight now Applebloom? Alright I’m game. But there won’t be any mercy then…..” Suddenly a strange pony shaped figure leans down from the ceiling directly beside Diamond Tiara. The figure sports a diamond lined opera mask its hooves ending in two plain white operating crosses like the kind you would find at a high class puppet show.  Its lower half seems to be embedded into the ceiling itself while its upper half is a pristine white covered in fancy lace and an impressive diamond collar. “I’ll embarrass you to no end and show everypony who exactly is on the top of the social ladder here! And with my new power ‘Baltimare Tea Party’ it’ll be as easy as cake.”

Chapter 6-Surprise!-Take 2

Chapter 7-Baltimare Tea Party

Baltimare Tea Party:

“Gravitational Upheaval…..Overdrive!!”

The Floor of the Golden oaks library shudders as Applejack and Twilight test out the extent of their combined power causing all the books in the library to flutter off their shelves and into the air. Even Twilight’s friends (Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash) are not immune as they float into the air waving their hooves around in a vain attempt to gain traction Rarity herself looks incredibly distressed as her mane’s normal curl begins to unravel with the lack of gravity “Um… Twilight darling…” Rarity conjures her stand into the shape of a brush and is frantically trying to put her mane back in shape. “I know that you are excited and all that to be trying out your little Gravity trick but if it isn’t too much trouble could you LET US DOWN FROM HERE!?”

However in their intense concentration the pair seems to be unable to hear the pleas of the ivory unicorn.

“Hello there!” Rarity shouts “earth to Applejack!”

Suddenly the two mare’s focus snaps back to the world of the living as they apologize simultaneously. “Sorry there…”

“…..Rarity. Ah guess that Ah was….”

“…..Just so caught up…..”

“….In what ah was doing…..”

“….That I completely forgot….”

“…..That ah had guests.”

Both of the mares close their eyes as their two combined stands separate back into their two individual halves, ending the gravitational effect and sending all the mares falling to the floor. Fluttershy and Rainbow being pegisi flutter gently to the floor with the gentle beat of their wings and while it looks like Rarity and Pinkie would be in for a rough landing Pinkie pulls out a red velvet couch at the last instant placing it below them. Rarity and Pinkie land safely on the couch as Rarity wipes the sweat off her brow “Whew…. And you said that a fainting couch had no practical purpose Pinkie!”

Pinkie shrugs “what can I say? I guess that you proved me wrong!”

“Okay everypony!” Twilight says “now that we…. Oh hold on a second….” Igniting her horn all the books in the library glow with a faint magenta light as they fly back to their shelves. “Whew that was a mess. It’s a good thing that I enchanted all the books for automatic re-shelving! Anyways with that little display we’ve successfully tested the extent of my Stand’s ability to boost your respective stand powers through a mind link, as well as test some of the base abilities of your newfound stands.”

With a flash Twilight teleports out a clip board and a pair of professional glasses as she gazes at the fruits of a day’s successful experiment.  “To start off we tested Fluttershy’s ability which I have successfully dubbed ‘thousand yard stare’!”

Fluttershy shyly raises her hoof “um actually Twilight…. I kind of thought since it was my stand that I might be able to name it……. I mean….. I actually thought up a few good names…..”

Twilight however being in full researcher mode seems to ignore the butter yellow Pegasus “Now the stand itself seems to have powerful will suppressing abilities that allow the user to eliminate a living being’s will power, making them incredibly susceptible to suggestions. However it does not seem to be able to affect beings if the user can’t make eye contact with them and though the user can affect ponies at a considerable distance the user has to be within ear shot to give commands and do anything more than prevent a pony from moving…...”

“Um… Twilight I actually had a name…. for my stand that is…..”

“However when I combine my Stand with Fluttershy’s Thousand yard stare…”

“Um…. The name I had…. I thought was really good……”

“By touching her eyes with my stand……” Twilight continues.

“Um the name is……”

“I can boost the power of Thousand Yard Stare…...”

Suddenly the Yellow Pegasus shouts with a force that silences the lavender mare completely. “THE STARE!”

Twilight recoils from the sudden explosion of noise from the quiet Pegasus “um…. What?

Fluttershy clears her throat “Um I had actually thought of a name for my stand already…….”

Comprehension suddenly dawns on Twilight’s muzzle as she rolls her eyes “Fluttershy We just finished this discussion via mind link, Now I respect your ideas Fluttershy, but that’s just not a very good name and…..”

Fluttershy suddenly stares down the lavender mare with her newfound power “Oh I’m so sorry miss I get to name everything because I’m in charge!” Fluttershy snaps with such assertiveness that Twilight finds it hard to believe she is the same mare. “I just let you name our group that ridiculous name, even though I’m more than one hundred percent sure that I’ve seen it somewhere before. So please since you’re soooo good at naming things please give my poor little stand a name since I obviously lack the imagination to make up my own names! Go on! I DARE you!”

Twilight stutters at the yellow mare’s sudden defiance “but…. But……” Finally she relents “Fine, you can keep the name…”

Fluttershy nods “that’s better. Continue.”

Twilight clears her throat “as I was saying…. By boosting Fluttershy’s stand, The Stare, with my own Fluttershy can command any pony within ear shot without having to make direct eye contact with them. All she has to do is look at them and they are under her complete control.”

“Whoa Whoa. Back up…..” Rainbow extends her hooves “seriously? The Stare? That’s not cool Fluttershy, I mean Twilight’s suggestion wasn’t much better…..”

“HEY!”

“…But Come on? The Stare? What kind of name is…..” Fluttershy uses the stare on Dash, her eyes suddenly expand to the size of dinner plates as her pupils contract to pin pricks, her entire vision consumed by the power of Fluttershy’s stare.

“I’m sorry Dashie? Did you have a problem with my name?” The yellow mare asks menacingly “WELL?!”

Dash Flies directly behind Twilight to avoid the enormous pressure of Fluttershy’s stare “NOPE! No problems here! In fact I think it’s a great name Flutters! So original!”

Suddenly the vengeful demon disappears, transforming into the face of a smiling beauty “Good! I’m glad that you all like it, I thought really hard to come up with it…. And….. I just don’t know what I would have done it you didn’t like it.

“Anyways!” Twilight says “Moving on! Next we did a recap of Pinkie’s power, the ability to store an almost infinite number of objects by turning them into felt and sticking them to her stand.” Twilight picks up her clipboard flipping through the pages “she can’t store living things in her stand……”

“Except for gummy!” The pink mare points out

“…..Except for Gummy.” Twilight repeats “and it seems to be covered in these eye like things that Pinkie refuses to elaborate on…..” Twilight gives the pink mare a dirty look.

Pinkie giggles hysterically at Twilight’s glare “that’s because it’s a surprise! I mean a surprise wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you what it was would it? I mean you could try to forget what the surprise was if you tried really hard but you’d probably fail. I mean this one time someone spoiled the ending for Indiana Colt and the Malted Falcon to me before I even read it so I hit myself in the head really hard to try to forget! But It didn’t work so I decided to read the book backwards since I already knew the ending that way the rest of the book would be a surprise!” the mare bounces up to Twilight poking her barrel with a hoof “and believe me Sister you don’t what me to have to hit you in the head to make you forget the surprise that I’m going to surprise you with cause then I would have to hit you really really……”

“OKAY!” Twilight shouts “I get it! It’s a surprise! Your stand’s name is Surprise! It’s a joke!” Twilight groans heavily “After trying to hold a serious conversation with you for more than five minutes I honestly don’t care anymore.” Dismissing her blatant failure with Pinkie Pie Twilight picks up her clipboard fully prepared to move on. “Besides with how Pinkie and my minds seem to be polar opposites, mind linking with her seems almost completely impossible at this point. Even attempting a mind link causes horrific backlash”

 “Really?” Pinkie cocks her head “I just thought that we couldn’t do your whole fusion thing because your mind was all serious librarian stuff and mine was all super happy crazy fun stuff! I didn’t know it was because our minds were at the North Pole! Wow you learn something new every day!”

Twilight stares at pinkie and continues on, not willing to touch that conversation with a ten foot pole. Mentally the mare makes a note to never use logic OR expressions around the pink mare ever again. “Alright next we tested Dash’s power….”

Dash lands next to the lavender mare and hoof pumps “all right! It’s about time!”

“….Dash’s power….” Twilight flips through her notes on the clipboard looking for the exact page “Dash’s power…..  Ah ha here it is Valkyrie!” Twilight points to the page with the notes she was looking for “Valkyrie…. Its power allows Dash to create a powerful vibrational shockwave with physical contact that are capable of incredible destructive feats.”

“Uh Twilight….” Dash taps on her shoulder “Less nerd please?”

“Oh Right! Basically Dash’s power charges her hooves or any part of her body with a latent energy that is instantly converted into kinetic energy the moment it contacts a physical object.” Twilight flips a page on her notepad. “The power of this explosion seems intrinsically linked to velocity as well. In other words the faster Dash attacks the more powerful the explosion. Your stand is most assuredly the most powerful stand offensive wise that I’ve seen so far. It could even blow over eight thousand gallons of water out of a lake in one attack!”

Dash leaps up in the air flaunting her obvious superiority “Aw Yeah. Who’s the mare? It’s me! Rainbow Dash! Best Stand user ever!”

Applejack sighs and tilts her hat over her eyes at Dash’s trademark arrogance and single mindedness “Give me a Break……. Dash get off yer high horse, yawl might have a smidgen more power than another pony, but that’s no excuse fer thinking yer better.”

“Applejack is right Rainbow.” Twilight flips another page “your stand may be impressively offensively but it has two main weaknesses, well three really.”

“What!” the rainbow mare lands on her rump with a thud “THREE?!”

“Yes Dash.” Twilight states “Three. First your stand is limited to your own reach; you can’t manifest your stand in physical form like Applejack’s or Pinkie’s meaning your stand has a much smaller range.” Applejack holds her head high in the air as Twilight continues “second like I said your stand derives its power from your velocity so if you’re not moving you can’t use it. It’s why you got trapped by Pinkie’s streamer attack you weren’t able to build up enough velocity to tear through the streamers.”

“Hey! That’s not a weakness!” the mare complains “Besides I was able to break out of that straitjacket in ten seconds flat!”

“Only because you were lividly angry, which allowed you to move enough of your body to generate a velocity strong enough to break out of the cotton threaded bindings.” Twilight continues unfazed “And finally at the issue of most concern your stand might be…. Overly destructive….”

Dash dismisses twilight with a wave of her hoof “Pfftt! Twilight I know that you are jealous that your stand isn’t as awesome as mine. Ya know since your stand is so weak that it can’t even swat a fly….”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I was able to swat a fly with my stand earlier this week!”

Rainbow Dash gives her friend her best ‘are you kidding me’ stare that she has used on Applejack for years “did it get back up?” Dash asks.

Twilight fumes “What? I mean what kind of….. I mean…..”

Rainbow Dash arches her eyebrow.

The defeated purple mare hangs her head low “…..yes….”

“…As I was saying…..” the rainbow mare resumes “there’s no such thing as too destructive! I mean my Sonic Rainbooms never hurt me! And our fusion is hooves down the most radical!’ Twilight waves her hoof over to a large gaping hole in the library proper “I mean look at what it did to the library! Is that cool or what!?”

Twilight internally cringes at the hole rueing of the fact that she’s have to repair it later today “yes…. Impressive.” Twilight scribbles away on her board “Never the less be careful Dash. A stand user needs to control their power not the other way around. Meaning if you accidently blow me to pieces with your stand I’m going to haunt you for the rest of my un-life.”

Rainbow Looks her friend in the eye “Twilight, I know you’re concerned but I’ve got this. I’m all through going commando and going out of control. Trust me I’ve learned my lesson.”

Twilight grins back at the rainbow mare lands on the ground again “good Dash, as long as you’re careful. That’s all I ask.” Twilight flips to her next page in her notebook. “And now we just finished analyzing Applejack’s power: the ability to strengthen or nullify gravitational forces on objects. It seems that her power works by strengthening an object’s gravitational attachment so an object cannot move or weakening it to a point that it loses its hold on the earth and falls over immediately. And with our boost in power it allows her to use that power over a radius no less than twenty meters. Overall it’s a very strong and resilient stand with a flexible power.”

Applejack having the manners not to interrupt a mare when she is talking only tips her hat in thanks for her words when Twilight is done “much obliged Twilight.”

However one mare has an objection to this “Hold It!” Dash yells “Twilight what’s’ the big idea? You couldn’t stop talking about my stand’s weaknesses! What about Applejack’s? I bet it’s something really lame.”

Applejack suddenly turns to face her rival nearly getting in her face “now Dash… just cause yer stand is as wild as a bull at a rodeo doesn’t mean ya should be poking into….”

“oh right Applejack’s weaknesses” The lavender mare says without removing her eyes from the clipboard “Well Applejack’s stand is enormously strong but in exchange it’s needs a lot of time to bring that power to bear, in other words the faster Applejack attacks the weaker her blows become. That’s why her power is so important, not only does it allow her stand to withstand more powerful blows by making her stationary but it prevents her opponents from moving so she can wind up for a powerful attack.” Applejack cringes as Dash snickers “And second her power only works if a pony is standing on a physical object, so it would have no effect on a Pegasus or any object that wasn’t tied to the ground.” As if forgetting something Twilight flips a page “oh and the stand is only about as fast as Applejack is which though impressive is only about half as fast as my stand and a third as fast as Pinkie’s…….”

“HA!” Dash laughs in her rival’s face “see against my stand you wouldn’t have stood a chance! You can’t hit an object in midair so I would win hooves….”

“…..however when combined with my stand, Applejack’s ability to control gravity compensates for her stand’s lack of range by allowing it to control gravity at a distance as well as boosting her speed.”

“….down.” Dash finishes

Flipping through the notebook twilight comes to a blank page “All right all that is left is Rarity, her power seems to be the most flexible of all of us. Her stand has no real form but seems to be able to take almost any form that the user imagines. In addition the user seems to take no damage when the stand is attacked unlike normal stands allowing the user to defend with it, constantly reforming the stand whenever it’s damaged.”

Rarity nods affirmatively at Twilight’s compliments “Thank you darling though what I can do is nothing special and I still have difficulties with, how do you say….. Manifesting and controlling my stand, and it can’t take a pony like shape like yours can…..”

Twilight places her hoof assuredly on Rarity “that’s because your stand is an object stand type, you’re just selling yourself short Rarity. your stand might not be able to take pony shape, but it is virtually indestructible and has no real weaknesses. In my opinion it’s an amazing power.”

Rarity nods her head “I guess you are right Twilight, I got so caught up in….” The ivory mare stops “… Come again Twilight? What did you mean by ‘object stand type’?”

Twilight grins excitedly teleporting out a set of notecards “I’m glad you brought that up Rarity! Because I was prepared especially for that! You see there are three types of stand forms, there are ‘creature’, ‘object’, and ‘body’ stand types which basically depend upon how the stand choruses to manifest itself.”

Closing her eyes Twilight manifests her stand striking a simple pose with it “Creature type stands or pony shaped stands as you call them take the form of a creature that itself is capable of movement. It can extend a distance from its user’s body and perform physical actions on the owner’s behalf like attacking or picking up an object.”

Teleporting next to Fluttershy twilight wraps her arm around the Yellow Pegasus who meeps in surprise “Now Fluttershy here has a body type stand. The stand doesn’t manifest apart from the user’s body. Instead the stand grants the user a powerful magical power that usually involves augmenting the user’s body like Dash’s does or granting special powers like Fluttershy’s does.”

Twilight points her hoof towards Rarity “you’re stand type is an Object stand type. Object stands take the form of an object and have unique powers and notably their users suffer no damage if their object stands are damaged. Although they usually have limited or non-existent movement powers, and often require special conditions or actions from the user to manifest their power properly. Your stand for example can’t move itself meaning you have to move it with your telekinesis if it’s not attached to the ground.”

Pealing her eyes from the clipboard Twilight takes a long look outside. “Technically Lyra’s thousand hoof crutch is an object type stand as well because even though it possesses a limited degree of movement it has to spring from a physical object and Lyra herself suffers no damage if it is destroyed.”

Rarity manifests her stand watching it intently as it forms and moves in the air “well it is quite impressive, though I never knew that there were so many types and forms of stand to begin with.”

Twilight puts her hoof over Rarity “and that’s the fun part, your stand is already a flexible object type stand that can take any shape the user imagines. When we combine our powers using my FRIENDS stand I bet its flexibility and control will improve dramatically. I mean its basic mental physics, with two minds working together at once I’m sure that we….”

“NO!” Rarity recoils as if visibly struck ripping herself free from Twilight’s grasp. Panting heavily Rarity looks around her to see the entire group staring at her as a response to her strange behavior. Realizing her situation the ivory fashionista works quickly to calm herself “I mean….. I understand where you’re coming from Twilight Darling but I just don’t feel ready to as you say ‘kick it up a notch.’ It’s like you said my stand requires a great deal of control so…….. I feel that I should learn better control of it.”

Twilight looks at her friend with a look of conger in her eyes “But Rarity…. Everypony else has…”

“Now Twilight.” Rarity firmly states “you said to Fluttershy that you wouldn’t force her to do anything that she was uncomfortable with and I feel that applies to all of us as well. And the fact remains that I am simply not comfortable with boosting my power when I can’t fully control it. Besides….. We wouldn’t want an accident now would we?”

Twilight looks at Rarity, seeing as she curls her stand around her subconsciously trying to protect herself from Twilight’s judgmental eyes. In Twilight’s opinion Rarity already had great control over her own stand, control that she wished ponies Dash possessed. Yet her reaction to her offer to mind link…. It was true she had a problem earlier when she tried to boost both Fluttershy’s and Dash’s powers simultaneously, but that had just given her a major headache and confirmed that she could only boost one stand at a time. So why was she so concerned? Then again Rarity had two good points, she had only had her stand for a short time and she was uncomfortable with the idea of a mind link…….. So as a good friend she should respect Rarity’s decision regardless of the subtext behind it. Twilight sighs “you’re right Rarity… I wouldn’t want to force you to do anything. If you feel uncomfortable with it then I’ll respect that.”

Rarity nods her head in thanks “thank you Twilight I knew that you would understand.”

“Twilight turns to address the rest of the group “all right everypony take five! We’ll work on controlling our stands individually for an hour before going out on patrol for more of the red stones.” All the mares break off into groups and begin to talk amongst themselves, save one “Not you Applejack, we need to talk…”

All the mares look at the orange farm mare that looks as though she has no idea what is going on.

“OOOOOOOOO!” Dash snickers “looks like some pony’s in trouble with the teacher! What happened Applejack? Forget to do your homework?”

Applejack groans “honestly Dash yawl can be worse than a fowl sometimes.” Quickly and without a trace of nervousness the orange mare trots up to Twilight with a curious look in her eyes “alright Twi we’re out of earshot now. Now what’s up? Is there a problem?”

Twilight shakes her head “not really Applejack. It’s not a really big problem if that’s what you’re asking I’m just worried.”

“Worried?” Applejack blinks “worried bout what?”

Twilight puts her hoof on Applejack’s chest “I’m worried about you being worried Applejack. I didn’t mean to pry while we were….. linked…... I know that you don’t like that but your worries about Applebloom were so strong I almost lost control of the fusion.”

Now Applejack looks nervous. Now that her cover is blown her cracked façade slowly bleeds through with worry. Worry not for herself but for her little sister. “Oh. I kind of fergot ya had that whole mind thing going there Twi. Sorry, I know that I can be difficult ta keep it together when a pony’s…... not stable an everything. Not ta say that Pinkie’s not stable er anything….. no offense Pinkie?”

The pink pony pops up from under Applejack’s hat this time surprising the mare much less “none taken.” The hat falls back on Applejack’s head causing the pink mare to disappear.

“That’s not what I’m worried About Applejack.” Twilight says “I mean if we can’t fuse properly that would be bad, but I’m more concerned about you and how you are doing. Not the status of your stand power.”

Applejack shifts her weight back and forth between her hooves prancing nervously in place “Ah know Twi. It’s just….. Oh Twilight. Ah know I’m probably just bein silly, but I know I’d feel a heap better if ah could just check on Applebloom one last time….”

“Applejack…..”

“Ah’m worried about her! Ah can’t help it! She just got of the hospital! What if..… Mmmmph!!”

Applejack’s runaway train of thought is stopped by Twilight placing her hoof on her mouth “Applejack it’s okay to be worried But Applebloom’s out of danger! Her life is safe and she’s out of harm’s way. And from here on out she’s never going to get involved in the dangerous world of stands.”

“Besides Applejack….” Twilight places her hoof on her friend’s shoulder “Applebloom is at school, watched over by an attentive responsible adult! I mean what could possibly happen at school? Paper cuts? Not turning in an assignment? Pop Quiz? Face it Applejack, Applebloom is safe and out of trouble.”

Applejack looks at her friend then back out the window as if she could see her sister from miles away. Suddenly her smiles as she looks back at her friend. “Ya know what Twi? Yer right! Ah just got so plumb tuckered out woryin about her that ah didn’t realize how funny it was. Ah mean school? Not even Applebloom could get into any trouble there. She’s as safe as a prairie dog in a four foot deep hole on a hot summer’s day!”

“Southernisms, Applejack.” The unamused unicorn reminds her.

“Heh sorry Twi….” Applejack tips her hat “ah just meant ya were right, ta not worry bout bloom. Ah mean school of all places! What could possibly go wrong?”

…………………

Everything that could have gone wrong for Applebloom that day had gone wrong. Since she had attended school, her spirit high after defeating her hated enemy Diamond Tiara, she had thought that her life was looking up again. Now she was just counting the clock for the minutes to end so she could go to lunch and eat her meal in peace.

At first it had been nothing, spit wads launched at the back of her head from random locations. At first she had suspected Diamond Tiara; however the sticky bolts had seemed to come from every direction and angle as if the entire class was in on Applebloom’s torment. Eventually she had just tried to ignore it and that worked for a while until they started to throw heavier objects, like erasers and textbooks. Eventually the bombardment had worn her down and she snapped behind her demanding that any pony that had the guts to mock her do it to her face. Diamond whistled innocently as the rest of the class looked dumbstruck at the yellow filly, as if she had lost her mind. Cheerilee had reacted much harsher than the rest of the class did; demanding to know what she thought was so important she had to yell over her.

Applebloom blushed of course and apologized to the class for her disruption, as Diamond grinned behind her. Their teacher Cheerilee had then used Applebloom’s disruption to her advantage giving them a pop quiz. All the class groaned as the teacher handed her test out to the class telling them it was just a simple recap quiz of thing they should already know. And upon receiving the test Applebloom was surprised to find out that she did already know the answers to all the questions, life was looking up for her again. Cheerilee gave them ten minutes and Applebloom buckled down, confident that she could ace this test easy. However something strange happened yet again, every time she tried to mark her answer her pencil as if possessed a mind of its own, would move randomly across the page. Applebloom tried to control it however using too much force made her look crazy and using too little just created little more than scribbles on the page. By the time that Cherilee called time, the only thing that Applebloom had managed to legibly write was her own name. When asked by the teacher why she had saw fit to fill her quiz with scribbles Diamond had launched into a witty remark about her intelligence that the entire class had laughed at and though Cheerilee had managed to calm the class down the damage had been done. Applebloom could only look behind her with a dirty look at her face as Diamond had grinned in triumph, now Applebloom knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Diamond had done something to sabotage her.

Cherilee the well-meaning teacher had tried to help Applebloom by allowing her to do an easy problem on the board. However the moment that Applebloom tried to get out of her desk she had her front hoof tugged out falling flat on her face. This earned her another smart remark from Diamond earning more ridicule for the yellow filly. Finally Applebloom had managed to get up to the board despite tripping again and began to solve the math problem Cheerilee had set out for her. Applebloom knew the answer yet once again when she grabbed the chalk to write the answer her hoof had been sharply pulled to the side creating a ‘four’ on the board in place of the correct answer ‘one’. Applebloom was forced to look in horror as Cherilee confirmed that the answer was wrong earning more taunting from the class. This, for the third time that day earned a sharp remark from Diamond to which the entire class, save Sweetie and Scootaloo joined in on. Finally the yellow mare had had enough of her ridicule, and though her sister was known for her patience and self-control, her younger sister had yet to master such virtues. In no small words and using a word or two that fillies her age were not meant to hear, Applebloom displayed the brazen honesty of her sister by telling Diamond EXACTLY what she thought of her.

Now she was sitting in her desk nineteen minutes late for her fifty minute lunch break watching as all the other fillies played outside without her. Applebloom looked at the clock again willing time to move faster, if just to let her out of her prison of a desk. Finally by act of god or just good luck, the clock hit 12:45 and Cheerilee said the yellow filly was free to go. However as Applebloom was about to leave the teacher made it very clear that further disruptions would not be tolerated causing the filly to gulp in fear and hastily rush out into the fresh air outside. Now outside and free from the watchful eye of Cheerilee, Applebloom sighs in her despair thinking upon the fact that she can’t afford to make another mistake as well as ruing the day she thought would be her best day ever. However as the yellow mare lowers her head in defeat she finds that despite her embarrassment in class that she is not entirely forsaken..….

“HEY APPLEBLOOM!” the yellow filly raises her head from the dirt recognizing the voice of Scootaloo “Come over here we saved you a seat!” Scootaloo shouts over the din of the playground from a nearby wooden picnic table.

Smiling broadly that she has not yet been abandoned the yellow filly trots up to the table where her two friends are sitting and takes a seat. “Thanks Guys! Ah thought that little thing in the classroom had ruined mah chance at popularity. Good ta know that ya decided to stick by me!”

“Of course Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle squeaked “it’s one for all and all for one! Just because you messed up with problem on the board…. And you failed your quiz…. And you made a fool of yourself in class it don’t meant that we’re any less your friends!”

Applebloom throws her arms up in exasperation “I didn’t mess up! it wasn’t me!”

Sweetie tilts her head “um…… how is that possible? I mean unless you were replaced by a changeling in the middle of class then….”

“No, no Sweetie” Applebloom shakes her head “Ah mean that ah was up there on the board and sitting down fer the test and ah knew the answer but mah pencil and mah arm moved like they was possessed!”

Scootaloo shivers at the implications “you mean…” she gulps heavily “that the schoolhouse is…. HAUNTED?!”

Applebloom groans “no Scootaloo ah don’t think that the school house is haunted.”

Sweetie nods her head “yeah Scootaloo. Ghosts don’t exist! There’s no reason to be scared!”

“I’m not scared of ghosts!” Scootaloo yells “I mean…..I wasn’t scared at all…. Great story Applebloom!”

Applebloom rolls her eyes at her orange friend’s efforts to conceal her fright “whatever… let’s just get to eatin our lunches…” Applebloom opens her lunch box with gusto. “Ah don’t know about yawl but ah’ve been looking forward to this ….” The yellow mare’s eyes widen “…oh no…”

Scootaloo takes a bite of her sandwich “what’s up Applebloom? Did your sister pack you a pear?”

Applebloom tears through her lunch pack “MY APPLE FRITTER! It’s gone! Applejack packed that especially for me and it’s gone now! Applejack makes the best apple fritters in Ponyville and its gone!” Applebloom wines “Ah was looking forward to that all day….”

“Aw… I’m sorry to hear that Applebloom…” Sweetie’s ears lower but then perk up again a second later “you can have some of my cookies that I made!” Sweetie opens up her lunch bag and offers a strange object to Applebloom with her outstretched hoof. And speaking of a ‘stretch’, to call the object sweetie has just handed her friend a cookie would be an insult to baked goods everywhere.

The thing that Sweetie currently is offering to her friend is colored bright white with green splotches covering its flakey form as if the entire pastry were covered in mold before baking it to a blackened crisp. The smell of the cookie itself is strong enough to kill rats and if smell is any indication of taste, the taste alone would be able to kill an adult pony in seconds.

The filly shies away from the cookies as if from death itself “Ummm… no thanks Sweetie, the rest o mah lunch is fine. Thanks fer offerin though.”

Sweetie shrugs “suit yourself!” As Sweetie pops the ‘pastry’ into her mouth every pony at the table can’t help but stare at the pony as if she had grown another head “What?” Sweetie asks “is it something that I said?”

 “NO! It’s nothing! Right Applebloom?”

“…yeah…. Nothing…..”Applebloom looks to the other side of the playground to the privately reserved table of her nemesis “….I bet you right now Diamond Tiara is laughing her little crown off at mah situation. And I don’t know how but somehow ah know that she’s the one to blame for all this…..”

………..

“Nice Apple Fritter Diamond! It looks really good!” Silver comments to her indifferently eating friend “That looks like a Sweet Apple Acres fritter. Where did you get it? Did your butler get it for you?”

Diamond snaps out of her mental focus and looks at her friend with a surprised look before answering in her normal indifferent behavior “oh? This? I just happened to get it from Applebloom. Think of it as a donation.”

Silver scratches her head “but Applebloom hates you. She’d never give you one of her sister’s Apple fritters, unless……” Silver’s eyes grow wide “Diamond?! You didn’t…. you didn’t steal if from her? Did you?!”

Diamond looks at her friend with a look of contempt “and? What if I did? She’s just a nameless blank flank, who cares?”

Silver puffs up “I care!”

“About that blank flank? I thought you loved picking on her?” Diamond barks. “What about our friendship? Do you want to be friends with Applebloom now?” Diamond glowers at silver “are you TRYING to betray me?!”

“What? No! Diamond why would you….” Silver is obviously hurt from Diamond’s accusations, however mastering her emotions quickly and logically, she quickly calms herself down as she attacks the problem with poise and self-restraint. “Look Diamond, picking on Applebloom cause she beat you up and defending yourself from the accusations of other ponies is one thing. You’re my friend and of course I’ll always defend you. That and teasing ponies is really fun.” Silver giggles as Diamond stares on. “But I’m more concerned about you Diamond. You were sick for a few days with a really bad fever and now you seem even meaner than ever.” Silver looks across the playground extending her hoof to accentuate all the happy playful fowl. “You teased Applebloom before, but now you seem to be deliberately insulting any pony just because you can. I mean you always have a quick wit Diamond, but this is taking it too far. It’s….. It’s not like you Diamond…”

Suddenly Diamond seems break free of her paranoia thanks to the earnest words of her friend. True ever since she got her power she has been a little meaner to everypony…. But that’s because she’s better than them right?! Diamond sighs “you’re right Silver, this is very unlike me…. I guess that I just let my emotions get to me. I mean stealing from a blank flank like this…” Diamond finishes the fritter jumping off of the table with a quick leap. “…It’s like so low class. When have I ever needed to stoop to petty thievery?”

Silver breathes an immense sigh of relief as she jumps down from the table to join her friend “I’m glad Diamond. You know that I’ll always stick by you and all. I was just worried about you.”

Diamond smiles “of course you wouldn’t be a good friend if you didn’t!” Diamond giver her friend a side hug “and things will go back to normal, just as soon as I put that blank flank in her place.”

“That’s good Diamond, cause I was getting… Wait? What!?”

Diamond takes an affirmative step towards the table Applebloom is sitting at as if declaring war “She embarrassed me Silver. She ruined my reputation in front of the entire school. But most unforgivably she attempted to throw me off the top rung of the social ladder. And treason like that cannot be so easily forgiven.”

“But Diamond…”

Diamond turns sharply towards Silver. “Once I put that trouble maker in her place everything will go back to normal. I’ll be at the top again and everypony will love and respect me.” Diamond twists her head to glare at her adversary from across the playground “I promise Silver, once I’ve put that blank flank in her place, everything will be as it was again.”

Silver breathes deeply and looks at worry at Diamond Tiara as she realizes her words will no longer reach her friend where she is right now. In her heart Silver hopes that it will really be the end and that once Applebloom learns not to mess with Diamond, her friend will return to normal. However something that has emerged from her friend’s psyche, a cruel streak that seems to delight in spreading misery worries her far more than she cares to admit. It is as though an insidious shadow of power has taken residence in Diamond’s soul, stifling the light she once saw and nurtured. And in her mind Silver fears that Diamond Tiara will never stop, not as long as she has the will to crush those that would defy her……

…………….

The bell rung and class had continued like normal. However this time it became impossible for Applebloom to ignore her phantom bully. Spitwads became more numerous, her coat became pelted with various objects from every direction and she had even fallen out of her seat a couple of times. From that point on it became impossible for Applebloom to deny that Diamond Tiara was behind her misfortunes as she would snicker and laugh at every one of Applebloom’s misfortunes. Diamond would react with surprising speed every time Applebloom stumbled and fell, responding with a quick joke every time Applebloom was embarrassed.

And worse yet it had been only thirty minutes since lunch.

Applebloom still had more than two hours more to endure till school was out, and she was dead certain she would be unable to make it another two hours without either attacking Diamond Tiara or going crazy. Another spit wad hits her mane with enough force to send the filly jumping into the air in shock. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately Cheerilee was too absorbed in her lecture to witness Applebloom’s plight, lecturing with her back to the class as she drew shapes and diagrams on the board.

With things only getting worse for her Applebloom’s mind is forced into high gear as she struggles to think up any way to get away or get back at her tormenter. ‘If only ah could lure Diamond some place and confront her, then ah bet that ah could get her ta stop.’ Applebloom ponders looking at her teacher as she draws another pie chart ‘but Cherilee would never let me leave unless it was a medical emergency or somtin. Aw! If only ah was still sick then ah….’ Applebloom suddenly shoots up in her desk ‘THAT'S IT! GET SICK!’

The yellow filly raises her hoof trying to look as sick as possible “Uggggggg miss Cherilee…..”

The teacher turns around to address her student, a look of concern on her face “yes Applebloom? Is something the matter?”

Using all the skill that she possesses the yellow filly attempts to do the one thing her sister could never succeed at doing, lie. “Uggggggghhhhhh! My stomach…. It hurts….. Can I…urp…… can I go to the nurse’s office?”

Fortunately for her, Applebloom was much better at lying than her sister. Unfortunately she was trying to lie to a middle school teacher. Despite the yellow filly’s best attempts at acting, Cherilee hadn’t gone through half a decade of college learning and accumulated years of classroom experience to be done in by a little filly’s excuse. “Honestly Applebloom? A stomach ache? Now I know that you haven’t been having the best of days today….”

“Uuuugggghhhhhh” the filly groans louder

“….But you simply can’t make up a story like that in the middle of class and expect to get away with It.” the teacher looks at her with a look of compassion on her face “What would Applejack say if she caught you lying like this?”

Applebloom groans again “ugggghhhhh…. It was…urp… Sweetie’s….. Urp…. It was her cookies……urrrrhhhhh…. Shouldn’t have…. Tried….”

Catching onto Applebloom’s plan Scootaloo quickly plays along “oh no! You Tried Sweetie Belle’s cookies Applebloom! No wonder you are so sick! You should really go to the nurse’s office before your stomach explodes!”

“Enough!” Cherilee shouts firmly but fairly “now I know that you get out of class early Applebloom but this is ridiculous!”

“Try one Miss Cheerilee!” Scootaloo insists “then you’ll see that Applebloom is telling the truth.”

Cherilee rolls her eyes “oh very well, if this will put a rest to this ridiculous moaning and fibbing than I suppose that I can give it a try. Sweetie if you don’t mind….”

Throwing open her bag Sweetie pulls out a spare cookie with the speed of an assassin drawing a lethal weapon “Of course Miss Cherilee! As it so happens I have plenty of spares since nopony wanted any.”

Without opening an eyelid the teacher picks up the cookie with an outstretched hoof as she places the cookie near her mouth “now let’s go on and end this…” Cherilee takes a bite, her eyes growing wider than a dinner plate as her mouth is assaulted by a taste so powerful that it freezes her mind in place. The teacher chews once….. Twice….. Then she spits the putrid pastry all over the floor “GOOD SWEET CELESTIA!! WHAT IS THAT TATRATUS FORSAKEN TASTE!?!?” Cherilee spits out as much of the poison on the floor as she possibly can, as she wretches from the taste.

“Oh that’s easy Miss Cheerilee!” Sweetie responds oblivious to her mentor’s suffering “you see ponies always add things like mustard and ketchup and mayonnaise to make things taste better right? So I thought if I cooked my cookies with some of them they would taste better! So how was it? Be brutally honest, should I have included more mustard or pepper?”

The teacher turns to Applebloom her face turning whiter by the second “How many of these…. These…..” the teacher holds up one of the half chewed pastries up for the class to see “THINGS, did you eat Applebloom?”

“Um…. I don’t know Miss Cherilee? Two?”

“GOOD EMPRESS! WHY WOULD YOU EAT MORE THAN ONE?!?!”

Applebloom fidgets in her chair “well… I didn’t want to seem rude to Sweetie Belle….” Applebloom points to the gently weeping white filly.

Sweetie Belle sniffles “My… my cooking isn’t that bad….. Is it?”

Realizing the extent of her hysteric behavior Cherilee takes a deep breath in and out before placing her hoof on the white filly shoulder “Sweetie, I don’t mean to sound rude, but your cooking is Death itself. And there’s nothing wrong with that, some ponies are just better at things than others. And I assure you Sweetie you will find a talent that will make ponies very happy and get your cutie mark. But I can assure you that cooking will never be that talent.”

Cherilee turns to face the yellow filly tossing her a small yellow piece of wood. “as for you Applebloom you are a far braver pony than I am, here is the hall pass, nurse Long Sleeves is not in today however you are free to spend as much time resting in the nurse’s office as you feel you need. If you are still feeling ill after school I will take you to the hospital myself but until then I have to continue to teach class.”

Cherilee looks with a terrified expression at the pastry on her desk before promptly throwing it in the trash. “I understand after consuming….. THAT…. You might need more attention but I simply cannot leave these students unsupervised for any reason so I’ll have to ask you to wait for a while until the lesson is done.”

Grabbing the hall pass in her mouth the filly thanks the goddess for giving her friend super horrible cooking powers and bolts out the door before anything else can happen to jeopardize her plan. Running out into the hall the filly finally breathes a sigh of relief “Whew…. All right that went pretty well ifin Ah do say so mahself. I’ll have ta thank Scootaloo and Sweetie later. But fer now step one is complete…..”

The yellow filly walks over to the door outside throwing it open and letting in a subtle breeze “…..now it’s time fer step two.”

……………..

Diamond taps her hoof impatiently on her desk listening to another boring lesson of another boring day of school. Surprisingly Cheerilee was still at it, talking about something about integers or something that Diamond didn’t care about.

How could she possibly be expected to pay attention to a boring lesson when the object of her attention, or rather the object of her ire, had been able to evade her wrath thanks to a lame excuse from her blank flanked friends. I mean a stomach ache from Sweetie’s cooking?  How lame could an excuse be get? Then again there was that one time she had gone to get a dress from Rarity and Sweetie had tried to prepare her tea…… Diamond shook her head trying to purge her mind of that memory. She needed a whole new toilet after that day……

No she needed something else to occupy her time, anything to distract her from that horrific memory.

However there was nothing. Her plan today was to crush the will of Applebloom, but she had coincidently fled her presence, meaning she had to wait until tomorrow to make a fool of her. Normally if class got too boring she would pass notes with Silver or try and talk with her if the teacher wasn’t looking; after all she was in the desk right next to them. However ever since lunch Silver had seemed really downcast, like she didn’t want to talk to her at all.

Diamond simmered inwardly ‘why can’t sliver understand, it’s all Applebloom! She’s trying to make a fool of me! She’s the one at fault here!’ Diamond groaned inwardly as she decided to do something truly desperate and pay attention to Cheerilee's lesson. Diamond looked ahead to the front of the room looking for anything there that could distract her from her boredom, the back of Sweetie’s rat’s nest of a mane, Cheerilee's crazy bar graphs representing numbers or something Applebloom making a face at her from the window, Alula and her cute….. Diamond does an immediate double take to see none other than her rival making a ridiculous face at her from the window. Diamond stares as Applebloom stretches her smile in the creepiest way possible.

“MISS CHEERILEE!” Diamond yells pointing out the window

Cherilee sighs muttering under her breath how many more interruptions will happen today “yes Diamond?”

“Applebloom’s making faces at me!”

Cherilee rolls her eyes “Diamond I know that you and Applebloom don’t get along but she’s in the nurse’s office right now.” A haunted look crosses Cheerilee's face “…any pony would be in need of medical attention after that.…”

“No Miss Cherilee! She’s outside, look out….” Diamond looks out the window just where Applebloom was a second before to see that the yellow menace has disappeared.

Cherilee looks out the window where Diamond was pointing not a second ago “Diamond that’s just your imagination. Now I have had enough of interruptions today and I would like to finish this lesson on prime integers if you would please. That means no more interrupting the class.”

“But miss Cherilee!”

“Do you understand Diamond Tiara?”

Cheerilee's stare silences any further protests from the pink filly as she slumps back into her seat crossing her hooves in a pout as the ignorant teacher begins her lesson again. However just as Cherilee turns her back Applebloom appears in the window again this time with an even more insulting face. Diamond is about to call out to Cherilee again, but stops realizing that the same results would only repeat. Cherilee would look, Applebloom would disappear and Diamond would get in trouble. And worse of all her power couldn’t work on Applebloom from this range, not with her outside!

As Applebloom makes another mocking face that no one else in the class can see, Diamond stares forward at the board realizing that now the horseshoe is on the other foot, and she has to endure Applebloom’s bullying. Diamond calms herself with a deep breath steeling herself for the rest of the day ‘don’t worry Diamond you can do this, it’s just one day… tomorrow she won’t be able to use the same excuse and you can get her then. Yeah just wait it out and then you can….’

Diamond makes the mistake of looking out the window to see a sight that she wishes that she could forget. Apparently Applebloom had grown tired of making faces and had just opted to wave her but in Diamond’s face through the window. Diamond burned in anger and embarrassment as she tried to look away from the offensive, disgusting sight but found herself completely unable to. Despite how much she tried Diamond could not tear her vision away from Applebloom as she waved her blank flank at her from the window, mocking her in a way that was visible to nopony else but her. Diamond blushed furiously in anger as she hoped to no avail that the blank flanked loser would switch back to her normal insulting ugly face. However despite her concerns the Yellow filly continued at it, waving her curvy flank as if to mock Diamond’s integrity. Diamond gulps heavily as it looks like she is stuck staring at the offensive posterior of her worst enemy, Applebloom. Yes Diamond Tiara was stuck staring at Applebloom’s cutie petite…..

Diamond’s hoof snaps in the air “Miss Cheerilee I have to go… Bad.”

The teacher sighs deeply at the tenth interruption that day. “All right Diamond you can go, but TRY and make it fast…”

Diamond jumps from her chair and walks with calm malevolence towards the door, “oh don’t worry Miss Cherilee, It’ll be over quickly.” As she shuts the door behind her she swears under her breath “one way or another, it all ends today..….”

………………

Outside on the playground the two fillies stare each other down like the cow ponies of old in a face off of epic proportions. The two rivals had met there without a word both staring the other down as they both knew that one way or another that their little teasing had evolved into something far more. They both knew one way or another that this would be a fight to the finish.

 “Well Blank flank?” the pink mare is the first to speak “You’re the one who dragged me out of class with your immature behavior, so what do you want? I’m a busy mare so if you don’t have anything to say then……”

“I’ve got a question..…” The yellow mare interrupts the pink mare with such force that Diamond Flinches. The yellow filly looks the bully in the eyes the force of her stare unnerving the pink bully. “What is wrong with you Diamond? Pinkin on ponies makin them feel bad, an all because you’re lonely. Yawl have to realize that…”

“Don’t you get it blank flank? I don’t pick on ponies because I’m lonely.” Diamond Smiles as she seizes the upper hoof.

“… an …. What? What are yawl talkin bout Diamond? Aint yawl just pickin on ponies ta get attention er somthin like that?” Applebloom scratches her head “ah mean why else would ya make ponies miserable if ya didn’t want attention, it makes less sense than a snowstorm in June…”

‘Poor poor Applebloom…..’ Diamond Tiara thinks. Diamond looks at the uncouth farmer before her, half of her wanting to just put her in her place so that she won’t have to hear her butchered Equestrian anymore. But the other half…….

“All right I suppose this is as good a time as any.” Diamond Tiara smirks as she closes in on Applebloom. “You may be a mindless dolt but I’ll try to make you understand the importance of what you have done to me, by standing up to a pony that is far more superior to you.” Diamond looks at her adversary with a look of pity “have you ever been to a fancy dinner party Applebloom?”

“Wha….. A fancy dinner party? What kind of question is that!?” Applebloom takes an angry step forward “Make some sense Diamond! Why are you such a bully?”

“HUMPH! I’m guessing by the way you’re acting that you’ve never been to a fancy dinner so let’s just use our imaginations shall we?” Diamond brushes her mane to the side showing off her obviously superior beauty. “If everypony at a dinner party were to sit at a fancy dinner table with silverware and napkins to their left and right. What would determine which silverware the pony picks up?”

Applebloom is completely lost at Diamond’s words tilting her head in confusion “HUNH? Now yer talking about silverware? Diamond this is serious not some game ah asked ya a simple question an a want a….”

“And I’m trying to explain it to you, you nitwit!” Diamond Yells “Now answer the question. What would decide which silverware a pony picks up the one on their left or the one on their right?”

Seeing that arguing with the filly before her is getting her nowhere Applebloom blows out some hot air from her nose “fine then it, if ya want to play at riddles then it depends upon whether the pony pickin up the silverware is left or right hoofed.”

Diamond giggles “a simple answer from a simple pony, I expected as much. That answer may be correct from your lowly country view, but that answer is wrong.”

“What?”

Diamond smirks “that’s right Applebloom, the correct answer is, that it is determined by the pony that takes his or namely ‘her’ silverware first. For example I am left hoofed so if I took my silverware first then everypony else at the table would have to take the silverware from the left because that would be the only pair left to them.

If the first pony takes her silverware from the left then there is no choice but for the other ponies to also take the left silverware. They do so because they have no other option since there would only be a fork and spoon to the left of each pony.”

Applebloom continues to scratch her head “ah still don’t get it, what do napkins have to do with bullyin?”

Diamond groans “fine Applebloom I’ll only ask you one more question, and then we’re done. At this table what determines who takes their silverware first?”

Applebloom thinks really hard at this as she scratches her chin “ah don’t know much bout fancy dinner parties but…… If it were anything like a normal dinner, the pony at the head would be the first to take the silverware?”

Diamond breathes an immense sigh of relief “very good at least you got one right. Yes the pony at the head or the master of the table will take the silverware first because..…” Diamond asks leading Applebloom on.

“……because they set the table?”

Diamond face hoofs “it’s because they’re respected! It’s because they have status! The one who takes the silverware must be respected by everyone there.” Diamond shouts in exasperation. “For example if Celestia herself sat at the table and she took her silverware from the left, no matter who you were you would have no choice but to take the silverware after Celestia wouldn’t you? That is because she is respected, that’s why ponies follow her!”

Applebloom looks at Diamond as she begins to piece her argument together “so what yer sayin is the one that is the most respected decides what to do?”

Diamond grins evilly “Now you begin to understand! I knew it was so simple that even a blank flank like you could get it. In society, nay in the world it is the ones with status and prestige, the ponies of the upper class that decide everything with their slightest whims. I mean if a rich pony can decide which silverware another pony eats with, they can easily decide another pony’s minimum wage, the jobs they take and the lives that they live”

“Ponies get cutie marks for a reason. For example my cutie mark.” Diamond reveals her flank her cutie mark the standard of perfection. “Is that of a crown which demonstrates my right to power and prestige that surpasses all the lower classes that I rule over.”

Diamond takes a step forward her eyes filled with rage “in other words it is the ponies that possess high class and the respect of other ponies, those born marked to rule over others, who decide a pony’s fate. That is true power and those under this power’s influence can only be allies.”

Applebloom scoffs at this “what? That’s the most pompous and ridiculous thing ah’ve ever heard!” Applebloom yells “Ponies can be anything they want! That’s what a cutie mark means!”

Diamond laughs “only a low class pony would resist such a universal truth. Face it Applebloom you were born on the bottom ladder of society. You were born at the bottom of society because you belong there and by embarrassing me and resisting that fact, you’ve spread chaos in my perfectly orderly world. Face it Applebloom you were born to farmers and you’ll die a farmer. While I, a rich business pony will climb to the top of society while you wallow in mud the rest of your life.”

Applebloom’s eyes ignite with an intensity that rivals her sister, her eyes burning with righteous indignation at her words “so let me get this straight. Yawl think that just because yawl got money and a fancy cutie mark that yer better than any pony?” Applebloom snorts in like a bull “And that gives ya the right to push other ponies down, cause they’re not as good as you?!”

Diamond smiles and nods “I’m glad ya understand Applebloom. Now you know what will happen if you go against your designated place in society don’t you? You’ll…”

“Yeah, ah’ll know what will happen…” Applebloom spits off to her side “you’ll get a black eye!” Before the pink mare can even react the yellow mare leaps forward tackling the pink filly to the ground.

Diamond unused to such physical combat flails about at Applebloom pins her adversary in the dirt. Applebloom smiles evilly as her tormenter lies beneath her “so yawl like tormenting me hunh?” Applebloom raises her hoof to strike “well it looks like the horseshoe is on the other foot now aint it, so let’s see how you like…..” The yellow filly lowers her hoof to Diamond’s head “A Noogie!”

Diamond shrieks like a tottered mare “NO! My perfectly styled mane! Ruined!” the pink filly flails about as Applebloom harshly presses her hoof into Diamond’s hair. However in her flailing Diamond is able to get her back hooves free. “I said… let GO!”

With the force of an earth pony’s buck Diamond Tiara launches a powerful blow directly to the Yellow filly’s stomach causing Applebloom to clutch her stomach. “Ha. Take that Apple…..” The pink filly’s eyes widen “….Bloom?” The blow that she thought that she delivered directly at Applebloom seems to have stopped in its tracks her hooves absorbed into some kind of silvery plant that is growing out of Applebloom’s coat. No sooner than Diamond realizes this than the plant rapidly expands with the force of a gunshot sending the Pink filly sprawling backwards in the dirt. Looking over at her opponent with a look of surprise and shock Diamond pulls herself to her hooves using the bars of the swing set next to her as support “what the… how….”

Applebloom smiles as she rival pulls herself from the dirt “yawl like that? That’s the power of mah stand!” Applebloom takes a leisurely step forward “ya see, it’s like mah sis Applebloom said ‘ah am rubber and yer are glue’ When somepony throws somtin at you, yawl just got to throw it back.”

Applebloom takes a solid step forward “That’s how this rivalry o ours has gone fer a long time, ya throw somtin at me an ah throw it back.” Applebloom strikes a stylish pose as she manifests her beautiful plant stand out her back, its branches beginning to blossom like an apple tree in June “an with mah stand, ah can send back any attack ya launch at me right back at you, it’s over Diamond.”

Applebloom walks up to Diamond and grabs her with her hoof propping her up against the bar with no small amount of force. “Now Diamond, Ah know that ya think that ya have the right ta make fun of any pony ya want, but this has ta stop now before yawl go too far.”

Diamond looks off to the side as if trying to avoid Applebloom’s gaze “….Stand…. I see…. So that’s the power that causes you to manifest some kind of spirit….And that’s what that bush on your back is……”

Applebloom shakes her head “Yes! Ah mean no! From what Twilight told me it’s some kind o mane-if-istation of who you are or something…… but that’s not important now Diamond. Anyways, like ah said yawl need ta stop all this bullin or else….”

“Or else what?” Diamond snaps “you’ll beat me up? You’ll bully me too? You think that you’re some kind of saint or something Applebloom?” The yellow filly shocked by Diamond’s harsh words loosens her grips ever so slightly “Face it Applebloom you just want to push me in the dirt so that you can stand over me just like I was doing to you! The only difference between us is that I’m doing it for the betterment of society!”

Applebloom flinches “that’s….. That’s a Lie!”

“No it isn’t Applebloom it’s a fact.” Diamond states with a level of certainty that shakes even Applebloom’s foundation. “Ponies are born into poverty and ponies are born into riches and the rich and influential ponies rule over the lower classes. That’s what creates an orderly society.”

Diamond breaks out a wicked grin her every word seeping with arrogance and haughtiness. “But don’t worry Applebloom if you promise to submit to me and my wishes then I’ll go easy on you. After all for a blank flank you seem to have all this important knowledge about the strange things that are going on in Ponyville. You even knew what to call this power that I have gained recently….. Stand was it? You could be very useful to me…..”

Suddenly before she can even respond, Applebloom finds herself hoisted into the air as if by some invisible force. The yellow filly flails about as she looks above her to see a puppeteer figure draped in lace and diamonds. The figure’s arms end in what looks to her like a kind of puppet tool and each point ends in a string that is attached to her arms and legs. The yellow filly trapped in Diamond’s web struggles for freedom while Diamond laughs beneath her “You like that Blank Flank? That’s my power; it allows me to attach strings from a ceiling or other object above my head to control any object that I wish like a puppeteer on stage.”

Diamond brushes her hair to the side fixing her crumpled mane and driving off the dust on her coat. “it’s truly a power fitting an upper class pony like me. The power to control the plebeians born below us is a power that is destined to come into the hands of an upper class pony such as myself.”

Applebloom continues to struggle “Ya…. Ya were the one responsible…. Fer everything! The test…. The spit wads…. The board…..”

“Uh Duh!” Diamond deadpans “did you miss the entire ‘put the lower class ponies in their places’ speech I just gave? Well no matter once there is a solid object above my head my stand is invincible! It’s why I lured you to the swings.”

Diamond looks over to the schoolhouse as an idea crosses through her head. “But I think that now it’s time for a little change of scenery…”

As Applebloom continues to flail Diamond’s stand pulls tight on the strings, swinging the yellow filly back and forth under the swing set as Applebloom gains a bit more altitude with every swing. Suddenly with explosive power the stand releases the yellow filly sending her rolling through the air straight towards the open schoolhouse door. With a thud the yellow filly lands in the empty hallway of the school thankful that her stand was there to absorb the impact of her fall.

Her head still spinning from sailing through the air like a kite on a windy day, Applebloom rises slowly to her hooves just in time for a dark shadow to fall over her. The brave blank flanked filly turns around to face her rival Diamond Tiara, the pink mare’s very presence blocking out the sun as the bully advances with malevolence. Applebloom looks to the left and the right for any way out, but is distressed to find that she is in the locker room of the school where fowls store their things for the day. She is far from earshot of the class and has and the only way out is through the bully blocking her escape.

“What’s wrong Blank flank?” Diamond mocks “still dizzy from your little flight? You know that you can try and hit back if you want..….”

“Shut up Diamond!” Applebloom yells

“..…could it be?” Diamond smiles with glee “oh I think I know what it is. See I was confused why you didn’t try to attack me with your ‘stand’ but then I realized my stand can move because it’s a pony shape. Yours is a plant.” Diamond points accusatoryilly at Applebloom and with the most mocking voice that she can muster Diamond laughs at her “it’s not that you aren’t attacking it’s that you can’t! Your stand can’t move an inch! Not that I expected much from a Blank flank’s stand, it’s only more a sign of how useless you are..…”

Now Applebloom is no longer able to control her temper as she surges forward “ah said Shut UP!” Applebloom leaps forward only to fall flat on her face a hoofs’ length from Diamond. Looking behind her the yellow mare sees her back leg snagged in another of Diamond’s wires the stand itself hanging from the ceiling. Applebloom tries to yank the string off of her with her free hooves but she quickly finds her limbs bound by the strings as she is hoisted completely powerless into the air.

As Applebloom flails about Diamond takes a moment to back in her victory over her eternal rival. Finally after all these years she has defeated Applebloom. “What’s the matter?” Diamond mocks “Is your blank flank stand unable to do anything against my Baltimare Tea party?” Applebloom yells in anger as Diamond nods “Good that is the way it should be. Lower class ponies like you should be cleaning my boots. And now with an entire ceiling above me and not just a swing bar I can use my power to its utmost potential.”

Lifting both her hooves in the air like a composer before her orchestria Diamond swirls them around in the air causing several strands to wrap around Applebloom’s mane and legs. Then with a sharp yank of her hooves Diamond causes her stand, BTA to tug Applebloom’s mane with enough force to cause the yellow filly to yelp in pain. Smiling Diamond swings her arm again this time tugging hard on her left arm. Applebloom yelps again as she flails about to escape. “Don’t bother Blank Flank…” Diamond says “maybe if you'd stand could move you might be able to break free. But your stand can only absorb a physical blow, not a grapple like this!”

Diamond pulls on Applebloom’s mane again this time the filly manages to stifle a scream. “Or than more than two attacks at once like this!” Diamond pulls both her arms apart as she stretches her body like a pony on a rack. Suddenly Diamond stops her assault allowing the filly to hang limp in the air panting heavily as she tries to suppress her rising discomfort. Applebloom catches her breath recovering from the light torture as Diamond stares on. Diamond looks at Applebloom with a mixture of pity, and compassion as Applebloom stops squirming “enough of this Applebloom. If you had any brains at all you’d realize it’s over. I’ve won!”

Applebloom stares back at her adversary breathing heavily “……no ya….. Ain't won….. Yet….”

Diamond Tiara sighs “Your insistence on not giving up might be cute if it wasn’t for the fact that it was annoying as buck. Wake up you dunce! You’re helpless before my power you can’t move and you can’t attack. Just give in and submit Applebloom. It’s your destiny to be a lowly farmer just like it’s mine to get rich off your labor! No matter what you do that will never change. So just give in!”

In that very moment part of Applebloom did want to give in, to just bow down to Diamond’s trivial demands and let her have her way. After all she thought, how could a blank flank, who didn’t even know what to do with her life, fight against fate? Applejack was right; she was just in the way, a burden to others. If her stand couldn't do anything to stop one little bully how could she fight against her destiny of hard work on a farm. She should just give in, endure Diamond’s taunts in silence and go back to Scootaloo and Sweetie….

Suddenly a fire ignites in the yellow filly’s eyes again. How could she have forgotten her friends!?! If she let Diamond win she wouldn't be the only one to suffer! If she let Diamond prevail here her friends would be targets for Diamond’s cruel jokes. Her sister may be right….. She was in her sister’s way. But the only pony standing in the way of her own destiny wasn’t a cutie Mark, or her heritage as a farmer, it wasn’t even Diamond Tiara or Applejack. The only thing standing in the way of her life, was herself, her self-doubt, her fears and her indecision were the only things encumbering her, all of them waiting to be thrown off like excess baggage.

Applebloom yanks on the strings binding her with such force and suddenness that Diamond flinches as her stand struggles to hold Applebloom in her bonds. “Ah’ll never give up ta you Diamond. An yer wrong, ah can improve ah can change. An most important ah can protect mah friends. So do yer worst cause ah’ll never let ya have yer way with me or mah friends….Not as long as ah gots the strength to fight back.” Applebloom‘s stand appears over her back subconsciously as the plant begins to flower and grow, the silvery buds blossoming into bright red flowers.

Diamond is originally shocked by Applebloom’s resistance however after a few seconds she sighs disappointedly “why are blank flanks so thick headed? All right Applebloom have it your way! I didn’t want to go this far…. But if your only goal is to make trouble for me and my rule then you’ve forced my hoof!” In a sudden jerking movement Diamond’s stand swings the yellow filly on her line sending her careening towards the floor “I’ll just have to knock you out in one blow before you can defend with your stand!”

Applebloom hits the floor in a flash of light as the plant like stand all over her body erupts in a blossoming explosion of red flowers. The silvery spring-like plants grow and thicken as if growing in fast motion, forming all over Applebloom’s back as they reform into four solid branches. Two pony shaped arms formed from a large brass spring, spring out of the bramble’s sides the arms covered in shining pewter gauntlets covered in pressure gauges. Two legs accompany similarly changes with the same brass springs and silver leg guards that mark the stand’s battle ready appearance. The central bramble dissolves as a torso emerges formed from a multitude of springs and a pressure gauge over its heart. And finally an armored head emerges completely formed from the bramble it’s red flowery mane complementing its silver mask and brass muzzle. Its transformation completely the final stand stands perfectly formed, no bigger than the filly from which it has sprung. With a stunning display of power and speed the stand smashes into the ground with its hoof stopping Applebloom’s fall as it’s spring like arm coils from the impact.

 “What the…..” Diamond barely has time to react as Applebloom’s stand plucks the string holding Applebloom with no more thought than flicking a fly. As the vibration travels up to the string and to Diamond’s stand the vibrating string explodes causing the stand to recoil from the impact its strings flying off Applebloom’s arms and legs as the filly lands safely on the ground. Applebloom’s stand turns to its master emotionless but not cold, it stands majestically as Diamond Tiara picks herself off of the floor her muzzle bleeding from the feedback from her stand. “What…… What was that……. Were you, just hiding your power.” Diamond wipes the dribble of blood from her muzzle as she scowls at the filly in front of her “were you hiding this potential from me…. Applebloom?!?”

“Potential…..” The yellow filly says as she watches her stand in awe “Potential! That’s it! Mah stand had potential, ta grow! It’s like a tree! It grows stronger an bigger tha more ah get beaten down!” Holding up her hooves the filly savors the new movement of her stand. “It's’ like Twi said, stands mane-if-est to grant desires.  Ah needed it to grow, ah needed to get stronger an ah did!”

“That’s…” Diamond hacks “that’s impossible! A stand getting stronger…. Just by thinking about it!? No way! And even if such a power existed there’s no way a blank flanked loser like you would possess it.”

Applebloom shakes her head in pity “ya just don’t get it Diamond….. yer right ah may be a blank flank now but that doesn’t mean mah place in this world is fixed ta one path! That’s what bein a blank flank means…” Applebloom takes a resolute step forward as Diamond takes a step back. “Ah can be great at anything, mah possibilities for growth are endless. And that means that no matter how much you try and beat me down, ah know that ah can get better, that ah can improve, and that’s something that not even you with all your money can take away.”

For a second it looks like somehow Applebloom’s words made it through to the pink bully. Her eyes seems to soften as she looks upon the yellow mare in front of her in a new light, as if seeing something that she had never seen before. However just as quickly as it appeared the look disappears, as her face conforms into a visage of rage and embarrassment “SO WHAT!?” Diamond’s stand appears above her releasing her strings all around the hall.

With a drastic wave of her hooves the lockers around them fly open releasing a storm of books and heavy objects to the floor. Diamond smiles as her stand picks up these books with its multitude of strings and flings them with all the force that she can muster at Applebloom and her new stand. “SO YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN IMPROVE HUNH?! YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME? Well let me tell you something Applebloom! It doesn’t matter how much you think that you can improve as long as I have a ceiling over my head my stand Baltimare Tea Party is invincible!”

Applebloom gestures with her stand causing it to rapidly block the books paperweights and assorted items that Diamond is flinging at her. In the midst of this assault Applebloom smiles “then it’s a real good thing that ah’ve got a new power now aint it Diamond?”

Diamond visibly flinches at this the books and heavy objects hanging in midair as she momentarily ceases her assault “a new power?” suddenly she shakes her fear off “you’re bluffing! It’s got to be a lie!” Diamond resumes her attack throwing more and more objects at the yellow mare and her stand in an attempt to hit her.

Applebloom only grins as she looks at her stand which is blocking against every blow “yeah ah thought it was silly too…. But ya saw what happened when mah stand touched the line, all the force of hittin tha floor traveled through it.” Applebloom taps the gauges on her stand that seem to grow with every hit the stand blocks. “See all the energy of yer attacks are stored within mah stand waitin to be released, like a battery. An every attack you have thrown so far has only been making it stronger….”

Diamond’s eyes widen as she sees the gauges on Applebloom’s stand grow higher and higher, the stored energy of all of Diamond’s attacks fueling the stand’s power and speed. “Mah ability has far surpassed a simple Sprout….. It’s not some useless plant anymore!” Applebloom shouts “now it can take yer bad vibes an send em back at ya, so ah think ah’ll call it Vibrations!”

With a single solid hit the stand Vibrations strikes the support beam of the entire locker room causing the beam to shake like a leaf. The vibrations travel through the wooden beam, straight to the ceiling causing it to crack around the body of Diamond’s Baltimare Tea Party. “Yawl said that as long as ya had a ceiling over yer head that ya were invincible? Aint that right Diamond? Well what happens when that glass ceiling of yers comes crashin down on yer head!”

Diamond can only stare up in horror as the wooden ceiling directly above her, the same part where her stand is hanging, breaks and shatters into a hundred tiny pieces causing a large segment of the ceiling to fall directly on top of her. Diamond tries to flee but finds herself tripping over one of the many books than school supplies that she has scattered over the floor falling flat on her back. Raising her hooves in a vain act of defiance Diamond closes her eyes and braces for the end as the large chunk of timber and plaster threatens to crush her flat.

The air around Diamond explodes with sound and pressure as the wood splinters around her, the pink bully flinching like a leaf as she prepares for her death. A second passes in complete silence as Diamond’s body fails to record any sensations of pain. Opening her eyes apprehensively Diamond looks up to see a familiar yellow body above her, the filly Applebloom’s arms and legs spread far apart over Diamond’s body. Above her the entire weight of the ceiling rests on her back as the yellow filly struggles under its weight. Acting like a living bunker Applebloom pants from the heavy weight, shielding Diamond from the ceiling’s collapse.

Diamond blinks her mind struggling to decipher the riddle of what she is seeing. ‘It can’ be real, it simply can’t’ she thinks ‘Applebloom? A lowly farmer. Saved my life….’

The pink filly shakes her head “what…” Diamond’s shaky words fumble in her mouth “just what is your deal Blank Flank!? First you try to kill me with that attack of yours then you try to save my life? What is your game?!” Diamond sneers “Oh I get it. You just saved my life for my money, is that it?! Well you can forget it, like a mare of my status would ever…..”

Diamond feels a powerful hoof slap her across the face “will ya shut up about money and status and all that nonsense!? It’s makin me sick!” Applebloom shouts “ah didn’t try an kill ya! Ah didn’t even want to fight ya except ta stop yer bullyin mah friends! Ah don’t care bout money or any of that hogwash that ya were spoutin…”

“Then…..” the bully fails to understand “then why? Why after I…..”

“Cause!” Applebloom shouts “Ya may be a bad apple Diamond Tiara, but that doesn’t mean that yawl will be like that forever......” Applebloom looks at Diamond tiara in the eyes straight into her soul as she inches towards the pink filly “ponies can change Diamond, even a bully like ya can be a good pony if ya try. An even if yawl were ta be mean ta me the rest of mah life ah wouldn’t want ya to up and die……”

Diamond blushes as Applebloom’s muzzle approaches her own; the two of them that have brushed so close to death now find themselves so close to each other in heart and body.

“Applebloom…”

“Diamond Tiara…”

“Applebloom….. What the hay do you think you are doing?! GET OFF OF ME!” Diamond shouts

“urrrh! Ah can’t help it Diamond this ceiling is heavy. It’s pushing me down towards you.”

“It had better just be the ceiling that’s moving your muzzle closer to me!”

“What the hay are you….” Applebloom finally realizes what Diamond meant as she notices her position directly over Diamond. “Oh bleh! Gross! what kind of filly do ya think ah am?”

“Never mind that just push it off so we can both leave”

“What do ya think ah’m doing? Push-ups?!” Applebloom complains.

“I thought you were trying to take advantage of a beautiful and helpless damsel in distress.”

“Well ah aint cause you aint no beautiful damsel.”

“Why you… when I get out of here….”

Suddenly another familiar voice enters the two fillies range of hearing “Applebloom! Diamond! Is that you? I heard a loud noise, are both of you all right?”

Diamond breathes in relief “Oh thank Celestia! It’s Cherilee. It’s about time….”

“Mrs. Cherilee it’s Applebloom an Diamond! We’re trapped here.”

“Don’t worry girls I’ll save you, urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” The mulberry mare struggles as she tries to remove the ceiling off of the two fillies.

“Hurry Mrs. Cheerilee mah legs can’t hold out much longer.” Applebloom cries.

“Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………I’m so sorry Applebloom!” Cheerilee shouts as she wipes the sweat from her brow. “I can’t lift it off of you. You will just have to wait until I can find the jack.”

“An how long should that take Mrs. Cheerilee? Mah arms are getting tired…..”

“Oh it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to find.”

“Ten Minutes?!?” Both fillies cry out at the same time.

 “Or maybe twenty, goodness knows where I left it. Just hold on girls I’ll go find it.”

As the teacher dashes off Diamond crosses her forelegs and begins to pout “Well this is just perfect stuck in this awkward position for who knows how long and your stand can’t even help us out.”

“……..Uh Diamond”

“What is it blank flank?”

“Well yer stand can pull up objects as long as it has a ceiling over it right?”

Diamond Tiara sighs “um weren’t you listening to the whole ‘my stand works like a marionette’ speech I gave back there, yes I can do that blank flank. That’s my power.”

“Well can’t yawl just pick up the ceiling with yer stand?”

“Well I could if there wasn’t a big hole where the ceiling used to be right above us!” Diamond’s eyes begin to roll “Seriously use your brain for once Blank Flank.”

“Yeah but wouldn’t yawl be able to use your strings ta pick up the ceiling fragments from the ceiling round us? You know like you could swing your strings over from the not damaged parts of the ceiling above us till ya could attach them to this rubble on top of us, and then ya could just lift it off!”

“…………”

“Uh Diamond you okay?”

“…….I am seriously going to kill you Applebloom.”

“Hunh? OW! Diamond that hurt! Just what did I do wrong?”

………………………

With a quick use of her power Diamond frees the two of them. When Cheerilee had returned with the jack twenty five minutes later they had managed to convince her that they were able to slip out from underneath the rubble. Fortunately Cherilee blamed the collapsing ceiling on faulty repairs and had to cancel school for the day due to construction problems, which caused a great deal of excitement among the student body. As the rest of the students leave the school and Cheerilee runs to town to procure construction ponies, five fillies that were previously mortal enemies convene on the school grounds in the first cease fire in their long histories.

“…….well that was a totally lame day.” Diamond remarks “first I get embarrassed by a lousy blank flank, and then I have to end up being saved by the same blank flank. Seriously does trouble follow you around everywhere cause it sounds to me like you are a walking Disaster zone.”

Silver prods her friend reminding her why she is truly here. “Diamond, you said that you were going to apologize to them, even if they are lousy blank flanks.”

“Fine.” Diamond clears her throat obviously unused to giving an honest apology “Thank you Applebloom for saving my life, even though I was the one bulling you in the first place. It took real guts to stand up for yourself and even more to forgive me so quickly.” Giving her signature sly smirk Diamond looks at the yellow filly with a new look of admiration “I guess you are not half the loser I thought you were.”

Applebloom seems genuinely grateful at this statement not expecting an apology and a compliment from such a bitter filly. “Gee Diamond than..…”

“Don’t you dare get the wrong idea, Blank flank!” Diamond shouts as she points to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle “that that goes double for the two of you. This isn’t over between us. You are all still blank flank losers and are all still going to get called out for being blank flank losers. I’m not going to stop being myself simply because of one small act of kindness!”

Silver nudges Diamond causing Diamond to snap at her “what? Is there something in my teeth?”

Silver gestures over to Applebloom who is staring her down with a mature and threatening gaze, like the kind given by a scolding mother. Sure enough even Diamond Tiara is immune to this as she takes a single step back.

“But……?” the yellow filly encourages.

Seeing that there is no way out Diamond takes a deep breath to prepare for her first concession “But I’ll try and lay off the more overt bullying in the future, that is unless you really deserve it.”

“And…..?” Applebloom continues

“….and I promise not to use my stand to torment you again.”

“Aaaaaannnnnnnnddddd?” Scootaloo asks hopingly.

The glare Diamond gives could melt iron causing Scootaloo to hide behind Applebloom “Don’t push your luck, Scootalooser…..”

Applebloom gives the bully one last stare before giving an affirmative nod “…… Well I suppose that is the best that we’ll get for now. You okay with that girls?”

Sweetie belle nods and Scootaloo tries to look as indifferent as possible as she comes out from behind Applebloom’s back “I’m cool with that, as long as she keeps her teasing to a minimum I guess we can put up with her.”

Silver nudges Diamond “well do you think that you could get along with them Diamond?” Silver winks “I mean they are Blank flanks……”

Catching her friend’s drift Diamond plays along “Oh I don’t know Silver…..I think that I could get along with them better……”

“IF THEY HAD A CUTIE MARK!” both of them shout at the same time giggling at both their perfect timing and perfectly executed burn of their opposition. The two friends satisfied that things are again right with each other, perform their signature greeting “Bump! Bump! Sugar Lump RUMP!” the two fillies put their flanks together displaying their cutie marks and laughing together at the Cutie Mark Crusader’s embarrassed faces.

All three blank flanks burn in embarrassment at Diamond’s jest as Scootaloo sighs heavily “gee thanks Diamond, man you save her life and she’s still a jerk, can you believe it?”

Suddenly Diamond Fishes around in her saddle bag “oh I have one last thing for you here Applebloom….”

Applebloom rolls her eyes “Let me guess…. Its somtin that’s goin to make a fool of me? Gasp how did I ever know?!”

Diamond Extends her hoof placing an object in Applebloom’s hooves “Oh just take it! You cry baby!” Applebloom turns her hoof over revealing a strange piece of black stone.

Applebloom gasps “this… this is one of those Strange stones Twi’s searchin for.”

Diamond shrugs “I don’t know what it is but when I touched it I got sick for a while then I got this power. And since I don’t like to leave myself in another pony’s debt you can have it as payment for saving my life.”

“But….” Sweetie interjects “But this stone can give you magic powers! And it’s really important! Don’t you need it?”

“Need it Ha!” Diamond scoffs “I don’t need some crazy magic stone! I’m Rich!” And with that the pink filly begins to walk away “Now let’s go Silver this Blank flank party is cramping my style.”

Silver turns to leave, but just before she does she turns to Applebloom offering her a word of quick thanks “Thank you Applebloom. You may be a blank flank but you really helped Diamond out! Thank you for giving me my friend back.”

Applebloom simply nods “it’s all right, just try to keep in mind that she’s supposed ta be nicer from now on an we’ll be cool.”

Silver turns to leave “I don’t know about that….. I mean this is Diamond Tiara we’re talking about!” Silver quickly runs to catch up with her friend as Applebloom and the others look at the strange piece of stone in her hooves.

Scootaloo pipes up impatiently “Well, that settles our bully problem. But now what do we do?”

Applebloom put her hooves around her friends pulling them together “Ah’ll tell you what we’re goin to do we’re goin to find all of these Strange stones ourselves, an we’re goin to do it TOGETHER! That way when we show up mah sister, Rarity an Rainbow Dash we’ll prove that they should never have underestimated us! What do ya say?”

Sweetie puts her hoof around both Applebloom and Scootaloo “Make a fool of my sister!? I’m game! That’ll teach her to try and bar me from the kitchen!”

Scootaloo joins in completing the Cutie Mark Crusader’s triangle “I’m in too! The opportunity to show Rainbow Dash what I can do……. It’ll be awesome!”

Applebloom looks around at her friends a fire burning in her heart a she thinks of the goal ahead of her “Good then it’s settled! Now our first act as the cutie Mark Crusaders is……..”

“APPLEBLOOM!” a thunderous voice erupts over the horizon as all the fillies turn to see Applebloom’s sister running towards them at full tilt, her nose snorting like a bull. Stopping on a nearby hill Applejack narrows her gaze on her sister “Applebloom! Ah just ran into Cherilee in Town an she just told me exactly the foul language that ya used in class today! Stay Right There! Ah’m commin down now!”

Applebloom gulps heavily as she remembers the last time Applejack punished her for language, so much cake……. “Crusaders our first mission together is ta get as far away from mah sister as possible, are ya with me?!”

“We’re already in the wagon!” Sweetie Belle shouts. Applebloom turns her head to see Sweetie Belle attaching the end of a wagon to Scootaloo’s scooter, the orange Pegasus revving her wings as they prepare for a hasty retreat.

Applebloom  takes one look at her advancing sister and one look at the wagon and jumps in as if Discord himself were on their tails “FLOOR IT!” She yells, causing the trio to take off just As Applejack is about to reach them.

“APPLEBLOOM!” The orange farm mare yells “yer not makin this easier on yerself NOW GET BACK HERE!” However Applejack is too late, even if Applebloom had tried to hear her sister’s threats she was already out of earshot. Sighing heavily Applejack straightens her hat on her head “Looks like mah sister’s made some good friends…… that’s great!” Applejack sprints after her sister “But that’s not goin ta save her from all that cake!”

Chapter 7-Thousand Hoof Crutch-Take 1

Chapter 8-Magic Mare

Magic Mare:

In the City of Canterlot, royal capital of the Empire of Equestria lived a true goddess in every sense of the word. Princess Celestia, ruler of the day and warden of the night was the de facto leader of an entire nation and through her guidance and direction the ponies of Equestria had prospered and flourished. Yet she had not done this through abject cruelty or force of arms, but rather through diplomacy, peace, and the magic of friendship. The Princess of the Sun had created an empire where ponies were free to live their lives in peace without strict rules or threat of force and she had done so through benevolence. It was no small wonder why every pony in the entire kingdom though of her as a second mother, a protecting and nurturing figure that would never let them down. However despite how revered and respected she was by her ponies they barely knew anything personal about their Princess other than common public knowledge.

That is few ponies aside from Twilight Sparkle.

Though she had only known her for ten short years compared to her more than one thousand year span and the princes had a place in her heart for every single pony in her kingdom, her heart burned for Twilight. Not out of a base lust (though even Celestia had to admit that Twilight sparkle was a very cute mare) but out of an overwhelming love that transcends boundaries of age or gender or species. Celestia adored Twilight sparkle in a way only a mother might, supporting her, helping her and loving her to the best of her abilities. The mare could almost believe that the sun rose and set on her young apprentice, if it was not for the fact that she rose and set the sun itself. Therefore in the depths of her private chambers while going over a countless reports from her agents all over Equestria scrambling to find pieces of the Red Stones it is no surprise that she stopped and actually took the time to read over Twilight’s reports over the past few days and weeks. She chuckled at the antics of Pinkie Pie, she grinned at Applejack’s southernisms and Rainbow Dash’s headstrong nature, she mentally approved of her handling of Lyra Heartstrings and her deal with the gem hunter Rarity and genuinely glowed in pride at the mention that her student had finally gained her stand. Finally finishing the last of Twilight’s many reports Celestia removes her reading glasses chuckling gently at what she has just read.

“Well it’s finally good to hear some good news. Twilight herself is doing very well, and I am very happy for her. She had rarely ever spent time with other ponies other than me Zecora and her brother, it is amazing that she was able to make such good friends in a short time period.” The solar monarch removes her eyes from many of twilight’s reports to look at a cluttered board on her wall. Sighing heavily the solar mare rises “However for now I must turn my attention to the dangers at hoof.”

Pacing up to a board filled to the brim, Celestia begins to pin up countless pieces of information and reports to a large board, all of it from her best and brightest agents. “All in all the collection of the stones is going slowly, many of my stand users in cities and towns across Equestria are encountering unexpected resistance from new stand users.” The Solar monarch continues to pace as she computes the facts “But even more frightening, rouge stand users are beginning to appear from the shadows, ponies who have much more experience in using their powers and seem to possess much darker ambitions. Even Shining Armor and Spitfire had their own troubles in acquiring pieces of the corpse….”

The mare tacks more reports to her board as she tries to make a connection. “Though many do not possess adequate knowledge on the nature of the stones the simple fact that I am looking for them seems to draw them like moths to a flame. It is as though a malicious force from the shadows is guiding these foes out into the light, as predators drawn by the scent of fresh blood. Our enemy has sensed opportunity and they have attacked quickly and cohesively at the points at which we are weakest.”

Celestia stops looking as she spies a report with a very specific name on it. Starlight Glimmer a pony as twisted and sick as she was notorious, could she be responsible for this sudden resistance? Goddess only knows what the former head of the RSD is up to and how she was handling this new development, and how she is using it to bolster her ‘research’. A chill descends over the mare as the she shudders in the way a pony might if a spider decided to crawl around inside their body. No, Starlight is probably taking advantage of this situation, have no doubt, but the inside knowledge points to a traitor within their own ranks not a loose cannon like her. And with the head magister hot on her trail, there is little chance she is behind the sudden attacks on her troops.

The attacks indicate another hoof, somepony meticulous but interested only in reports of the Red Stones, the complete opposite of Starlight Glimmer’s signature. Her guard would find large supplies of Red Stones, they would report it and almost instantly they would be attacked by well-coordinated stand users. This points to somepony with intimate knowledge of Equestria Royal guards as well as their movements, not a scientist, but a shrewd tactician and merciless enforcer. Starlight would gain nothing from these attacks that she did not already possess. When she had left she had already stolen a lifetime supply of Red Stones, unless she was after ‘IT’ which was unlikely as she spent half her time in the RSD trying to discredit its very existence.

Therefore, Celestia concludes, there is a new enemy who has recently surfaced who is planning these attacks. Somepony who knows the inner mysteries of ‘IT’, somepony with a grudge against the solar throne.

Somepony like Luna.

Celestia ceases her pacing, looking up at the moon as she walks to the comfort of her royal balcony. As if lured she opens the glass doors to her chambers letting the cool night air into her warm abode. Her mind previously so focused seems to wander to matters closer to her heart and more personal than any pony would know “And what of you Luna, where are you sister? Are you still so angry with me that you hide your presence even now? Or are you still possessed, a slave to the darkness within you?” Celestia stops to look at a single large shard of the Red stone of Aja on her desk being used as a paperweight as she thinks back to the night of the ritual. “The circle seemed to have done its job, despite the loss of the Red Stone of Aja, as I felt all the dark magic corrupting her dissipate, but then why does she hide from me?” a single tear graces the monarch’s face “And despite all my information I still can’t find her.”

Looking at the moon with a nostalgic glint in her eyes Celestia recounts the days of her youth. Long ago before she was a monarch, before her ascension, before nations and day court, before Discord.  Days filled with childish things and playful moments with her best friend and closest relative. “Luna, you were always far better at hide and seek than I was, I could never find you when you wanted to be found. You would only come out from wherever you were when I would bake those cookies you loved so much.” Celestia stops “But I fear even if I prepared a mountain of baked goods it would not repair the rift between us.”

Looking at the moon once again Celestia begins to right herself emotionally and mentally shaking off her private doubts and fears. “No. thinking of the past will not change the future. it will not repair our relationship to dwell on the past. Wherever Luna is, ever since that night she has taken over the raising and setting of the moon. She has taken back her duty as princess of the night, and she has even lowered the moon to set way for the day, something that the nightmare would never do.” Hope fills Celestia’s face “Wherever my sister is, she is still there in spirit, and she is still my little sister. She angry and afraid, but that is nothing I cannot address.” Celestia walks back into her room closing the door behind her with a gentle glow of magic. “I will find her again, all I have to do then is find some way to apologize to her some way to convey how important she is to me, and how important the Red Stone of Aja is to Equestria. But For now I must turn my focus to the task at hoof, the stones.”

Celestia looks back at Twilight’s letter reading between the lines. A thousand years of wisdom and intimate knowledge painting a vivid picture of the writer’s state of mind. “Twilight is obviously hiding something from me and that troubles me even more than my sister. Could she begin to suspect the true nature of the Red Stones, could she already understand their true power and significance?”

Celestia looks at the letter even more intently as if a secret that she has kept for more than a thousand years threatens to reveal itself in the most damaging way. “If she were to discover their true purpose, I still feel she would still take my side, Twilight would understand how important its existence is to this nation’s survival. However what if I am wrong? What if this deception is just enough to turn Twilight and her friends to the enemy’s side?” The monarch stops in her tracks “Should I tell her first?”

Celestia stares at the board in front of her the myriad information and countless reports meaningless in helping her decide upon a course of action. Closing her eyes and filtering out all unnecessary information Celestia thinks back to all the times and wonderful memories that she has shared with Twilight over the years. She remembers her thirteenth birthday party, her first teleport, and all the hours she slaved working and sharpening the Arcanum to purify her sister. “No.” Celestia opens her eyes a fire of resolve beginning to fill the void of logic. “I cannot allow such secrets to endanger her life in any way. The less Twilight knows the better. When all the pieces are gathered and Luna is safe then I can begin to make her understand.”

Her mind made up Celestia begins to gaze upon the board in front of her “For now Twilight is gathering the pieces of the stone that is what is most important. However I am still worried for her, she had recovered so many pieces and that could attract the enemy. If only there were some way to protect her physically and shield her from the truth while at the same time ascertaining what she is hiding.” Celestia stops her pacing with a moment of dawning comprehension. “Of course it is so simple!”

With a simple conjuration Celestia rings a bell created by her pure golden magic causing the belle to ring in a tone that resonates through the room. No sooner than the ringing ceases a familiar figure opens the door to the room closing it behind her. The royal secretary to the princess Zecora, straightens her white coat as she adjusts the clipboard in front of her “yes Princess? Is there a cause for me being called at this hour? And using a spirit chime no less? I thought that Cool Breeze was to take over for the night shift?”

“Sorry Zecora, but this cannot wait.” The solar monarch apologizes. “There is something troubling me and I need some assistance on a certain matter.”

Zecora’s eyes widen. “Is this about our magister? I assure you that despite the breach in security that the leeks have been apprehended and……..”

“Has her condition changed?!” Celestia snaps her face suddenly filled with worry. “There hasn’t been another attempt on her life? Has a deeper plot been revealed that threatens her in some way?!”

Backed against the door by Celestia’s sudden advance the Zebra quickly regains her footing. “No your majesty! Please calm down there have been no more attacks, the thieves are in custody and the magister is still fine.”

Suddenly realizing that she has nearly pushed her secretary against the wall Celestia immediately calms down realizing how silly she is acting. When she had heard news that an attempt had made on the magister’s life Celestia had originally been terrified. Not only was it an attack against somepony close to her but it might be signaling a rash of political assassinations. However in the end it had been revealed to be a ruse by Melodia to recover Red Stones transported to Canterlot, and the magister just so happened to catch wind of it. Even though the issue was resolved the concern and fear was still fresh in her mind “And you are sure she’s fine?” Celestia asks again just to be sure. “She’s not in anymore danger?”

The secretary nods “She assures you Princess that her life is in no danger. In fact.” Zecora chuckles “I think that she is more sore about being confined to bed rest than the actual attack, you know how much she hates being coddled.”

Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle at this. When she had heard that her head magister had been attacked she had originally feared the worst. Dropping everything she was doing she raced over to the hospital only to find her giving the doctors a run for their money insisting despite her profuse injuries she was completely fine. It had taken a royal decree to force her to rest and take it easy for a few days and even then she had insisted using the time to catch up on her paperwork. She really was an incurable workaholic, small wonder who she got that from.

Zecora clears her throat as she peels back her clipboard to look at a certain paper. “I am pleased to report that her condition remains stable, despite her extensive injuries she is recovering nicely and the assassin is still in our custody. The magister says she will be able to return to her post within the week.”

Celestia sighs knowing that it would be impossible to convince her to stay away from her job any longer and take a vacation for once in her life. “Sometimes I forget how strong willed she can be sometimes it’s just....” Celestia takes a deep breath as she turns off to glance at a small picture on her desk. “I worry for her; I almost lost her once I don’t want that to happen again.” Realizing the burden she had inadvertently placed on her secretary Celestia turns back to face Zecora. “Once again sorry to bother you Zecora I know you already have a lot on your plate but…”

Zecora bows “No, forgive my rude remark; I answered rudely, rashly and too stark. I know that truly, it is no walk in the park. But to serve you is my task.” Zecora rises from her bow looking directly at her monarch. “Now what would you ask?”

“Thank you.” Celestia turns back to the board with gusto eager to put her previous worries behind her. “Zecora, I remember reading a report recently about stand inspector number 7 being in the area of canterlot outskirts not a day from here, would that be correct?”

Looking down at the reports Zecora nods her head curtly “yes Celestia Inspector number 7, aka Magic Mare, has just finished dropping off her supplies of Red Stones that she has been hunting after as well as two stand using criminals from the organization Melodia. She is currently on her way to Neigh Orleans to assist the local law enforcement there.”

“That will not be necessary, tell her that I have a special task for her.” With a quick tug of telekinesis Celestia picks up a nearby file placing it in Zecora’s hooves “she is to take a file detailing methods of stand control to several new stand users that have appeared in a certain town nearby. These stand users are new to their powers and could be a great asset to us.”

Zecora takes one look at the file and then looks back to her monarch with a quizzical look “Babysitting? Forgive me for inquiring but does that not seem like a waste of her talents? She is one of our best investigators not a nursemaid.”

Celestia looks out the window towards the small town of Ponyville her thoughts racing a mile a minute “that is only a cover story. Her real objective is to monitor the princess representative there, and protect her at all costs while secretly reporting her movements to me.”

Zecora nearly drops her file at this looking up at Celestia with suspicion. “You want her to spy on Twilight sparkle? Why?” Zecora looks back an forth as if in danger of being overheard as she whispers to Celestia “Do you suspect that she is the one who is giving away out movements? That’s she’s the traitor in our ranks? Because if you do…….”

“No I would never believe Twilight would be capable of betraying her country, or me, without a just cause.” Celestia’s thoughts suddenly turn dark as she thinks of what Twilight might do if she discovered what her real goals were. Shaking her head she dispels such images of Twilight betraying her “No. I feel that she is beginning to suspect the true nature of the Red Stones. But more importantly I feel that she is in great danger, despite her new friends, and allies”

Celestia turns to the zebra in front of her giving Zecora, her undivided attention “That is why I am sending Agent number seven there, she has never failed in her missions and she is as dedicated as they come, even if she is a bit…… unpleasant at first. I do this not because I fear Twilight,” Celestia assures the Zebra “but because I fear for her. Tell Inspector seven to set out for ponyville first thing in the morning; that will be all Zecora.”

…………The next morning in the town of Ponyville…………

Harnessing years of intense magical training Twilight channels her magic on the stone in front of her. Her horn flickering with the purest spark of energy the mare concentrates as she attempts to filter her magic through the stone in an attempt to harness its unpredictable power. With the library closed till noon on Sundays the center room of the building is the perfect size and shape for the proper wards of protection as Twilight pours more magic through the stone resting on the pedestal in the center.

Ever since the stone had granted Rarity a stand power almost a week ago, they had been silent and inert reacting to none of Dash’s pleading wishes to be the best flier in Equestria. In fact other than a faint glowing Twilight could barely get any of the strange stones to react at all. Her best guess is that using their power had depleted the stone’s power somehow, yet that defied all her logic. Whenever a red stone was used up it crumbled into base dust, if the strange stones were truly depleted of magic they should have crumbled apart like the others. Instead the stones seemed to be regaining their power slowly as a living being would when tired. Therefore Twilight’s experiment today was to try and replenish the stone’s power artificially by attempting a magical transfer. Once the stones were back to full power, then she could resume her tests to determine what exactly they were. And to Twilight’s great joy it seemed to be working as the stones regained more and more of their brilliant white glow.

“Almost done…. Almost…..” suddenly in a flash of green smoke a letter appears directly in front of her causing her steady beam of magic to explode outwards burning a nearby book to ashes. “Son of a…” the purple unicorn yells at the top of her lungs “who in their right mind would be stupid enough to interrupt me in the middle of such an important…..” Twilight picks up the letter with her magic looking at the sender “…oh my mistake it’s from Princess Celestia!”

Tearing open the letter Twilight begins to read over the content passage by passage as if there would be a test on it the moment that she finished. Pouring over every detail Twilight commits to memory the passages as her subconscious begins to interpret  the letter. Twilight’s eyes grow as wide as dinner plates just as pinkie pie bursts into the room “Twilight you’re never going to believe what my pinkie sense just told me!”

Twilight still caught up in the letter, barely notices the pink pony bouncing around her, which considering it was Pinkie was quite a feat. The pink pony not used to being ignored begins knocking on Twilight’s head “Equestria to Twilight! Any pony home?”

“Gwah!” the frightened unicorn falls on her back finally looking up at the pink party pony “oh Pinkie you startled me… I was…. It’s not important… the princess just sent me a letter….”

“…. Telling you that she sent somepony to help?” Pinkie finishes

Twilight gets back up on her hooves “…...telling me that she sent some pony to monitor and…..” Twilight blinks as she tries to comprehend the immensity of what Pinkie just said “Pinkie… how did you…. Pinkie don’t do that! Guessing what a pony is going to say is my thing!”

Pinkie begins to giggle “Sorry Twilight but the readers are getting tired of these longer chapters so we’re going to have to speed this up!”

“What are you…..” Twilight shakes her head as she mentally reminds herself not to combine Pinkie pie with reason “Never mind, according to the letter that I just got from Princess Celestia she’s worried about me confronting so many stand users, and given how many Red Stones I’ve sent to Canterlot she’s sent an agent to help with reserving the Red Stones.”

Pinkie gasps heavily “Another new pony?! I’ll break out my welcome wagon! That’s wonderful news…..”

Pinkie is about to bounce off to tell all her friends when Twilight levels a gaze that stops the pink mare in her tracks “…..or not?”

Twilight groans “Pinkie it’s stand agent!”

Pinkie’s head tilts in confusion “…..and that’s bad?”

“Well… maybe.” Twilight begins to pace “See when a bad pony gets ahold of a red stone and uses to gain a stand power a stand agent will bring them to justice. They’re like a stand police force, traveling the land and using their power to stop rogue stand users.”

Twilight stops pointing directly at the pink Pony “You found a red stone at a young age and using it you gained a stand power, so stand agents search for rumors of strange things happening or unsolved crimes and track down ponies who might be stand users. You were relatively safe due to the fact that you grew up in a small town but if you committed a crime or drew the attention of the law you would have been tracked down by a stand agent.”

Pinkie’s head tilts in confusion “…..and that’s bad?”

Twilight groans even louder like a teacher attempting to explain calculus to a ten year old. “That means that she’s here to asses whether ponies who have just gained a stand without the knowledge or consent of the government are a danger to society, that means every pony, you Applejack, Dash, Lyra, every pony is under her judgment! And if she thinks that they are a danger to society and to others than they’ll be shipped off to……. Gulp…….. an RSD holding cell……. where only the most dangerous and life threatening stand users go! Where they are kept in maximum security cells until the day they die!” Twilight grabs the pink mare with her two hooves crushing her face “do you KNOW what that means!?”

Suddenly pinkie looks deathly serious as Twilight frees her from her grasp. Her mane, though still puffy freezes as the pink mare considers the implications. Couching the pink mare opens her mouth to say a word of wisdom in a dark time.

And promptly makes a fart noise “Ppppppppppffffftttttttttt! Come on Twilight you’re being all crazy again! I’m certain that she’s not going to do that!” Pinkie waves her hoof dismissively I mean she’s throwing a party in the middle of the town square! What kind of bad pony would do that?!”

Twilight continues to pace “……and to top it off I have no idea who this agent is going to be! She could be any pony and come from anywhere! Celestia didn’t even tell me anything about the agent other than the fact that she would be ‘easy to spot’! And to top it off….”

Twilight’s paranoia is immediately cut off by a loud explosion coming from outside snapping her out of her rant. “What the…..” Twilight looks out the window of her library just in time to see another barrage of fireworks erupt in the sky filling the town with their bright red blue and green lights. “That came from the center of town…. But who….”

Pinkie flings open the door to the library “that’s the new pony Twilight! My Pinkie Sense told me she would be coming and even better that she would be throwing a party!” The pink mare rushes over to Twilight and before she can resist the lavender unicorn is dragged to the door “Come on Twilight this is a chance to get outside and meet new friends! I’m sure the standing agent won’t be that scary!”

Pinkie runs off leaving twilight’s mind reeling “Wait…. The stand agent is there…. How did you……”

“…..SECRET PONY MONITORING SYSTEM!” The pink mare shouts “NOW COME ON TWILIGHT! YOU’LL HAVE TO RUN FASTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO CATCH UP!”

Looking at the retreating pink mare in the distance and seeing the fireworks Twilight groans as she charges her horn “Walking’s for suckers anyways….” And in a flash of light Twilight disappears.

……………….

Okay there, you can do this, no pressure.

Others are a hindrance but they are not your enemy. Ponies may get in your way but your true enemy is your own fear, your hesitation in the face of the unknown.

It’s your past demons, it’s your fear of failure that weighs you down and threatens your destiny.

But more than anything it’s your own doubt that cripples you, that prevents you from succeeding.

You doubt yourself, you are driven onwards by fear, however even when that fear takes hold you harness it like a mighty wind to propel yourself to greatness.

You are a master of fear, constantly subject to it, but not allowing it to dominate you.

The shadows of the past or shades of the future may scare you, but they can’t stop you nor can they deny you what is rightfully yours.

Fame

Justice

And superiority to a certain lavender mare.

All these things are within your power to seize, all you have to do is reach out and grab it. RIGHT NOW!

After all, you are the Great and Powerful Trixie, the greatest magi since Starswirl the bearded, and you will not be denied your destiny.

After all, when it comes magical ability, was there ever any doubt?

In the middle of ponyville square a traveler’s cart suddenly explodes outward in a flurry of light in sound, smoke filling the square as a giant stage appears where there was not one before. The backdrop sparkles and flashes as blue smoke fills the stage and ponies gather around to see the festive spectacle. Emerging from out of the smoke is a light blue mare with a silvery mane and a confident gaze that could put a Dryad’s charisma to shame. Decked out in full performance gear, namely a grey purple well-tailored magician’s hat and cape the, blue mare rises on her hooves signaling a cascade of fireworks and sparklers from the back of her trailer. And to no surprise her cutie mark is that of a wand and a light crescent moon symbolizing her love of showmanship and dramatic flair. The mare’s glare tells the rest of her tale, a face filled to the brim with levels of confidence (and arrogance) that would outclass Rainbow Dash on her best day.

With a loud sage pony voice the mare addresses the entire audience at once drawing them all in in body and mind as she enraptured their minds with promise of spectacular feats. “WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE PERFORMANCE OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!!” the mare shouts “I HOPE THAT YOU CAME TO SEE THE GREATEST AND THE BEST PERFORMER IN EQUESTRIA, BECAUSE I ASSURE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

The blue mare clears her throat as she magics up an official looking board “Now I charge by the trick so if you want to see a show, listen up and pay in the box. Small tricks are listed below and cost five bits each medium ten bits and large are twenty bits. You can pool your bits or pay for your own trick but payment is upfront and if you are all nice and applaud the Great and Powerful Trixie might have be generous and perform additional tricks. But like I said payment. In. advance. Now don’t miss out! Step lively now to the front and have the Great and Powerful Trixie perform for you!”

In a flash of light Twilight reappears a distance from the square, a little tired from the sudden jump but knowing that she will be fine in a few minutes when her manna fully regenerates, nine minutes and thirty six seconds to be precise. “Well. Celestia’s agent…. A show mare…. That’s surprising….”

Suddenly a pink blur pops out of nowhere knocking Twilight down and pinning her to the ground “….. Though not surprising as some pony I know.” The lavender mare rolls her eyes.

“Oh! I know this one! Is it rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asks as Twilight shakes her head “Rarity?” Twilight shakes her head again “Applejack?!”

“No Pinkie… the pony is you!”

“What? Really? I’m the most surprising pony you know?!” Twilight nods yes “YEAH!” the pink mare jumps off Twilight throwing a cloud of glitter around her as she begins to dance the chicken dance in celebration.

Eager to get back to some sense of normalcy Twilight quickly scans around for any pony she knows and is surprised to find that Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash have already arrived on the scene. The three mares are watching the showmare in front of them with a mixture of boredom and disgust as the showmare saws a pony in half. Leaving Pinkie dancing around in circles Twilight rushes over to her friends “hey Guys what’s up! Who’s this?”

Rarity rolls her eyes “apparently she’s the great and powerful Trixie, a bragging show mare with a garish costume.”

Applejack nods “yeah, ah mean that ah appreciate a good show as much as the next pony but with the rate this mare’s charging and the boasts she’s just being a nuisance!”

“Yeah!” Dash shouts “and worse of all she’s just tricking these ponies out of their money.”

Twilight looks at the rainbow mare with a skeptical look “Dash a magic show IS tricking other ponies, you can’t just blame her for doing her job. Plus Celestia might have sent her to help us…”

“What?” Dash exclaims again “that show off?! She’s just a loudmouth…..”

“……most uncouth…” Rarity finishes

“Yeah she’s just usin her stand ta make fools of ponies!” Applejack points to the stage “She’s just showing it off like a school filly with fancy new ribbons.”

Looking onstage Twilight narrows her gaze as she watches the blue stage mare holding a triad of rings. Suddenly a ghostly image appears behind the stage mare that Twilight immediately recognizes as a stand. It’s star like appearance similar to her own except it’s silvery white stars contrast with its blue white coat, upon its neck is a similar blue and star spangled coat that the mare is wearing as well as the stand’s blue and white magician’ hat. All the stars are connected across its body giving the stand the appearance of being covered in the most beautiful constellations. Its body is lithely and dressed on a smart star spangled tuxedo with Trixie’s cutie mark emblazoned over its heart.  The stand touches the rings and in an instant they come apart stupefying the audience who is ignorant that a stand power is at work.

“Using a stand for profit….” Twilight thinks over “maybe you guys are right…. Perhaps she isn’t the liaison….”

“You think?” Dash almost yells “Seriously Twi, we don’t need some pony pretending to be better than everypony else!” Dash strikes a pose as she fluffs her ego “Especially when you have me to be better than every pony!”

This earns the blue speedster a sharp glare from every pony in the group “What?” Dash asks “is it something that I said?”

However Applejack’s potential lecture is cut off by a booming voice “Who dares Disturb the Show of the Great and powerful Trixie?! Who would attempt to cause a ruckus when I am Trying to Perform!?” the showmare shouts at the top of her lungs. The others shrink back slightly as the mare stares at the rainbow mare as it appears that Dash’s loud grating voice did not go unnoticed by a certain Blue showmare.  “Does one of the poor plebeians in the audience have a problem with my magical powers? Then step forward rather than hiding in the audience and state your grievance. Trixie promises to be merciful.”

“Do I have a problem? You bet I have a problem!” Without a second’s notice the rainbow mare flies up to within a hoof’s “SO great and powerful Trixie” Dash asks in her most mocking tone “what makes you think that you’re so awesome anyways?!”

Trixie merely tips her hat laughing at the ignorance of the rainbow mare “why only the great and powerful Trixie would have magic strong enough to vanquish her adversaries in their own respective talents!”

“Say what now?” Dash tilts her head in midflight.

Trixie scoffs “Did the Great and Powerful Trixie Stutter? It is simple, though you are obviously unimpressed by the skills of the Great and powerful Trixie this is not the first time this has happened.” The blue mare narrows her hat further down on her face. “If a pony is foolish enough to believe that their miniscule talents are better than the great and powerful Trixie than prove it! I hereby challenge you bolivians. Anything that you can do Trixie can do better!”

The mare’s sudden boast earns a host of silent murmurs from the crowd “Any takers? Anyone? How about you?” the showmare points to Dash “Do you have the gall to suggest that your skills are superior to Trixie’s?”

Shaking off the show mare’s boasts as easily as water off a duck’s back Dash lands on the stage “Heck yeah! You may talk a good game but I’m captain of the weather patrol for a reason! I could send you packing before you could pull a bunny out of your hat!”

“Well……” the showmare gives pause “you seem to think that you can compete on the level of the great and powerful Trixie? Even seeing what I can do?”

“Yeah! There’s no need to go need to go strutting around and showing off like that!” the rainbow mare smirks “that’s my job!”

Trixie narrows her eyes “is that a threat? The great and powerful Trixie does not take kindly to hecklers who believe their skills are better than hers are.”

“Believe nothing! They don’t call me Rainbow and Dash for nothing!” Dash flies right up in the show mare’s face “I’ll show you! This’ll be over in ten seconds flat!”

…………….Ten minutes later………………

Dash lies on the ground her eyes spinning in her head like a pinball machine her coat covered in mud as a bound and gagged Applejack tries to free herself from her own rope and a mentally unstable Rarity brushes her hair repeatedly muttering something about a green mane.  The ponies of Ponyville having had enough of laughing at their misfortune have retired to their homes and places of business causing Trixie to pack up her stage and leave to camp in the park for the night just as Rainbow Dash slowly picks herself off the ground.

Pinkie bounces up to the rainbow mare “Wowie Dashie!” You really showed her!”

“….Shut up Pinkie….”

“Okie Dokie Lokie!”

Cutting Applejack out of her bounds the farmer finally is able to spit out the apple in her mouth out letting loose a string of silent obscenities as the newly arrived Fluttershy calms the fashionista down. “Ok, now I’m convinced…” Dash brushes herself off “…..Not only is this Trixie not the ‘contact’ or whoever the princess thought that it would be a good idea to send us, she’s a huge jerk. I say we run her out of town!”

Always the voice of reason Twilight intervenes “now hold on there Dash, Trixie may not have the best manners but you can’t just run a pony out of town because you don’t like them. Besides she hasn’t really broken any laws.”

“Hasn’t broken any Laws?!” Dash yells “She spent me spinning in the dust!”

“She dang near hog tied me Twi!” Applejack yells

“…Green….. Mane……” Rarity mutters

“Welllllllllll……” the lavender mare looks at her friends “I suppose that it was pretty nasty…..”

“And funny!” Pinkie interrupts

“…..and funny.” Twilight snickers at the memory of her friend’s embarrassment “But she did give us this card…” Twilight flips up a card scrawled with a single line ‘come to my trailer after the show’ “she managed to slip it under my hoof without me even noticing, and that does seem like something that a professional stand agent would do.” Twilight turns her head off into the distance looking at the show mare’s abode on the horizon “…… and despite how rude she was I think that if she is the agent and we should meet her.”

“….Well…..” Rarity finally is able to speak “I find the whole idea of meeting….. that mare…. Most troublesome… but if she is who you say she is, it would be rude and foolish to just ignore her… so we’ll trust your instincts on this one Twilight.”

The rest of the group nods in agreement saving Dash who groans heavily “fine I’ll come along too, but only cause if she isn’t this stand agent or whatever, I can kick her to the curb the moment that she tries something.”

In less than five minutes of trotting the entire group makes it to the park proper and the caravan of none other than the great and powerful Trixie. The entire grounds are littered in various magical supplies and props that would be too large to fit inside the normal trailer, Large boxes various dummies, and props for almost every occasion. The group stands in hesitation before the front door of the caravan proper, remembering the embarrassment suffered the last time some pony decided to try and make a fool of the blue mare. Twilight gulps heavily and looks to her friends for support, all of them urging her on with backhanded waves of her hooves. Looking at the door with worry in her eyes Twilight slowly walks up the steps to the door and extends her hoof to knock, only to be bowled over as the door opens in her face. The force of the door and the surprise of the lavender mare causes Twilight to tumble head over hooves down the steps landing on her flank with a loud thud. Raising her eyes to the top of the steps Twilight sees for the first time up close the fire in the blue mare’s eyes, not only a powerful drive, but a profound anger that extends beyond simple spite. Twilight sees in the eyes of Trixie a gaze of wrath that finds itself focused squarely on her.

“So….” Trixie jumps off the entire flight of stairs in a single jump landing directly in front of the startled Lavender mare “…. My nemesis has decided to show herself. I take it by your appearance that you have accepted the Great and Powerful Trixie’s challenge then? I commend you for not running away in fear of the great and powerful Trixie’s abilities and that you have decided to face her like a mare but courage will do you little good against the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Before a startled Twilight can even speak Rainbow dash pipes up flying right up in the show mare’s face “you bet your fancy magic tricks that I wouldn’t run away from a creep like you! And I don’t know why you would think that you could be a jerk to me and get away with it but you're way too pathetic to even consider being my rival! Besides Applejack kinda already has that…….”

“Not you! You rainbow manned fool!” Trixie points her hoof towards Twilight sparkle “I was talking to Twilight Snarkle there!”

Twilight looks around as if the showmare could possibly be addressing any other mare called Twilight sparkle, before pointing to her own chest “…..me?”

“Yes You! Do you see any other mares named Twilight Sparkle around!?” the showmare backs off taking a deep breath before resuming “when Celestia herself gave me orders to randevu with you, I took it as a divine sign! That now after all these years! After the humiliation I have endured at your hands, I the Great and Powerful Trixie would have her revenge!”

“…….. annnnnnd dddddddd, revenge for what exactly?”

The great and powerful Trixie stares at Twilight mouth agape with enough surprise and shock to suggest that she was struck in the face with a lightning bolt. It was as if one pony had walked up to another and asked who Princess Celestia was, or who raised the sun and moon, it was such an unbelievable occurrence for the blue unicorn that for the first time in her life she found herself speechless “…..you….. You don’t remember my embarrassment? My defeat?”

Gaining the courage to stand again in the face of Trixie’s faltering Twilight gets to her hooves “actually I don’t believe we’ve ever met before today…….. Wait a second! You said that Celestia sent you? That makes you the stand agent that we’ve…..”

“YOU DON'T REMEMBER ME!?!?” Trixie roars grabbing the bleu mare's’ coat only to throw her back. “After everything I’ve been through!? After all my hardships at your hooves!? You went ahead and forgot me?!? YOU WENT AHEAD AND FORGOT ALL ABOUT HOW YOU RUINED MY LIFE?!!”

Twilight flinches from Trixie’s outburst as the blue mare simmers down in her rage. Suddenly as if the blue mare could not be any more disconcerting Trixie breaks out laughing “Oh…. I get it now Twilight! You’re playing dumb in the hopes that it would fool the great and powerful Trixie! A clever ruse that might have fooled a lesser opponent, but not the great and powerful Trixie!”

“…..um what?”

“Well it’s obvious that you are playing dumb Twilight Snarkle!” Trixie brushes her mane off to the side “No pony could forget the show stopping charisma of Trixie! And not even you could be dumb enough to forget a pony whose life you have ruined so thoroughly.”

“…… um sure….. Let’s go with that…..”

Trixie smirks in joy elated that she has indeed guessed right “what? are you really expecting the Great and Powerful Trixie to believe that you do not remember the way you sabotaged her, the day that you prevented her from joining the magical academy, your little ‘transformation accident’?”

“Oh…..” Twilight eyes widen in horror as she subsequently remembers the most shameful and most proud day of her life the day that she became Celestia’s private student “you were the pony that I accidently…”

“……Yes, you Twilight sparkle intentionally sabotaged your rival.” Stroking her ego with every word Trixie paints herself as the most tragic of heroes, deprived of her place in the dun by an evil villain. “Yes! You Twilight Sparkle were fearful of my superior magical talents and therefore you prevented me from attempting my routine which would have assuredly earned me my spot as Princess Celestia’s prized student with your little magical ‘accident’.”

“But… but…..That was a magical surge!” Twilight stutters “I had no control over what happened to you Trixie!”

“LIAR!” Trixie yells in denial “It was all an act! A clever act on your part but an act none the less! Thanks to you, Trixie was sent home early before she even got the chance to attempt the final test before the princess.”

“….um forgive me for asking Twilight darling…” Rarity interrupts “but is there any truth in what this Trixie is saying? What is this ‘Accident’ she’s talking about?”

Twilight taps her fore hooves together rapidly almost too ashamed to even speak “Well……. You see….” The purple mare stutters looking more like Fluttershy by the second “well when I first became Celestia’s student I had to audition for the magical academy and I had a little….. tiny…. Itty bitty magical surge that ….”

“Don’t you finish that sentence Twilight or so help me….”

“…..turned Trixie, and my parents, and the proctors…….into a trees…..” Twilight finishes as she flinches from the memory.

Dash looks back and forth between Trixie and Twilight “Trixie got turned into a tree…..”

“…. Like an apple tree and all that?” Applejack tilts her head trying to imagine it.

“I’d like to be a tree.” Fluttershy chirps happily.

Twilight taps her hooves nervously “Welllllll it was more like a spruce…… But it was an accident I swear!”

Every pony in the group aside from Twilight and Trixie looks at each other with an unreadable expression trying to decide how everypony else is feeling. Finally they start to giggle, which quickly evolves into chuckling, and then, full blown laughter as everypony begins to laugh at the blue mare’s misfortunes. Both of the two unicorns blush furiously at the memory. Finally after what seems like hours later the laughter dies down as the ponies around begins to calm themselves down after their fit of laughter.

Trixie now thoroughly embarrassed begins to clear her throat “now that that’s out of the way….”

The blue mare looks straight at Twilight sparkle the force of her gaze enough to dispel any traces of humor still left in the situation “Twilight! You may have embarrassed me before by this time it’s different! After ten years of Training I have honed my magic to its highest potential!” the mare smirks “…and not only that, but as a stand agent, I have traveled across Equestria honing my talents in life or death battles! Trixie has something a bookworm like you could never possess….. and that’s real combat experience!”

Trixie takes a step towards the lavender mare “I’ve trained my entire life for this moment Twilight Snarkle, and the Great and powerful Trixie will not be denied!” Trixie draws her breath causing the tension in the air to thicken to the point it could be cut with a knife “I Trixie Lulamoon challenge one Twilight Sparkle…. To a magical duel!” The entire yard grows silent as Twilight and Rarity gasp heavily at the implications.

“You’re on Trixie!” Dash blurts out “Twilight will beat you with one hoof tied behind her back!” Dash crosses her arms in satisfaction “…. By the way what’s a magical duel?”

Twilight face hooves “First, Dash please let me speak for myself, and second a magical duel is a combative contest of magic that usually goes either to the death or until an opponent cannot continue or decides to give up. It’s a very dangerous contest of magical school.”

“What’s the matter Twibright?” Trixie sneers “Afraid of…..”

“HOW DID YOU KNOW!?!” Twilight asks eyes filled with fear “Has word spread even to Canterlot? Does the Princess know? I told everypony that was only one time! I was dead tired when I filled out that nametag I swear!”

“Nametag?” Trixie asks “What nametag, what are you talking about Twibright?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about Trixie!” Twilight gapless the showmare shaking her erratically. “I’ll only ask once more, WHO ELSE KNOWS?!”

“Stunned by the formally sheepish mare’s sudden brazen display of power Trixie struggles to formulate words as she is shaken every witch way by the unicorns’ strong arms. “T-Trix-x-xie Dos-s-sen’t k-k-kno-o-w-w wh-h-ha-at yo-o-oe’re t-t-talk-k-king a-a-about!!”

Twilight immediately ceases her hold on Trixie. “So…. It was just an accident? You just made up ‘Twibright’ on the spot?” Twilight breathes out a sigh in relief “Whew then that’s good, for a minute there I though everypony knew about ‘it’ but nopony else knows.” Twilight growls to herself “they can never know……”

“We all know Twibright!” Pinkie chuckles as her group of friends can’t help but break out in collective snickering.

“That’s because you told everypony in the Tri-State area about the name tag incident!” Twilight shouts

Twilight grates her teeth both from her nickname and the collective response of Trixie’s heckling “All right look Trixie, I understand you want to fight me Trixie. But I just said that it was an accident! There’s nothing to gain from us beating each other to a pulp like this.”

“This isn’t about the past any more twilight!” Trixie stomps her hoof with enough force to cause a dent in the ground “Like you said the past is in the past and cannot be changed, and the Great and powerful Trixie is not so petty that she would hold a grudge, even if you did ruin her life!”

“I didn’t….” Twilight breathes, out realizing that arguing will get her nowhere against this mare “Fine Trixie then why? Why risk your life and safety…..”

Trixie laughs as if her foe can’t understand a simple joke “why that’s simple Twilight! The Great and Powerful Trixie wants to prove herself by besting you! Let’s face it Twibright! If you hadn’t sabotaged me in the preemptive tests than I would have been the one to get to the princess before you!”

“Stop calling me Twibright!” Twilight snaps.

“…..And we all know what caused you to demonstrate your extraordinary powers in front of the princess….” Twilight’s eyes grow wide as she remembers the single incident that caused her to finally bring her magical surge under control, in front of the princess no less. That single phenomenon that she had failed to pin down despite all her years of study “….. That’s right Twilight I heard what gave your cutie mark in the first place….. The legendary Rainboom! If I had been there in your place I would have been the Princess’s student, not you!”

Trixie looks at her hooves as if picturing an opportunity slipping from her grasp. “And even though you stole my golden opportunity, I’m not resentful. Getting angry over the past won’t change anything. In fact in a way I’m grateful. Because of your ineptitude I’ve only gotten stronger! Now I’m more than a match for you and I intend to prove it.” Trixie grins “So how about it? Are you a mare enough to accept?”

Twilight considers Trixie’s view; it is true that she might have intentional or otherwise ruined Trixie’s life from one perspective but a life or death struggle? “And why should I accept? I understand what you want to prove Trixie but a magical duel? Surely there can be a better way to settle this than….”

“A magical duel is the best way to settle this Twibright!” Trixie Stares down her rival “I intend to prove that my practical and battle honed magics are superior to your shoddy bookworm magics, and a real magical duel and not some kind of test is the best way to prove that.”

Trixie looks around at Twilight’s friends around her a devilish glint in her eye “but I can see that you need some more incentive. Very well Twilight if you are successful in beating me not only will I assist you in your hunt for the red stones, but I won’t report your friend’s irresponsible stand use to the Red Stone Group’s police force, my superiors. Despite the fact that most of them are emotionally unstable.”

“Hey!” Dash yells “I’m not emotionally unstable, and you don’t have any right to……”

“The Great and powerful Trixie has every right Rainbow Crash!” The blue unicorn counters “that’s what being a stand agent is all about. I determine whether a stand user is a threat to themselves and others and biased on my reports I could be cleared to take you to a secure location, for your own safety of course…” the blue mare grins sadistically “….until you learn to responsibly and safely control your stands!”

“Yawl….” Applejack gulps heavily “Yawl can’t do that! Ya can’t just drag me away from amah farm like a common criminal! Right Twi?”

Applejack, indeed the entire group looks to Twilight for assurance, but only find worry on her face “Technically if a stand user is a threat to themselves and others than Trixie is authorized to apprehend them until they can use their power safely….. But I have a lot of authority as a princess Representative…”

“…..That does not supersede my precedence in all matters stand related!” Trixie finishes for her “So if you win no matter how repulsive your friends are I will take no actions against them as long as they aren’t killing ponies in the streets. In fact I’ll even help you with your little red stone hunt as well!”

Twilight thinks over Trixie’s offer “…. And if I lose?”

Trixie grins “Well then.… if I win I assure you Trixie won’t act maliciously towards your friends.” The showmare chuckles “That is, more maliciously than is required of Trixie’s job. But betting without a prize is very ‘uncool’ as Rainbow Crash would say.” Trixie taps her chin for a few seconds “how about this? If Trixie wins then not only must you admit how superior Trixie is to you, but you must become Trixie’s slave for a week!”

Twilight lowers her head deep in thought, her mind considering every option before her before finally offering a curt nod. “Fine Trixie. I agree.”

“What?!” the group yells at the same time. Dash visibly upset rushes up to Twilight “Twi I know Trixie’s a jerk and all but this isn’t the way to shut her up! Think of what will happen if you lose!”

“I’m not finished!” Twilight yells causing her friends to quiet down “I’ll agree to your duel Trixie, but only on the condition that you won’t report my friends for being themselves. I know their hearts and their minds they’re no threat to any innocent ponies, so promise that you won’t abuse your position and take out your frustrations on them.”

Trixie cocks her eyebrow at Twilight’s sudden defiance “you’re suddenly cheeky now aren’t you Twilight? Good, Trixie likes that.” The blue showmare nods “Very well it’s agreed! A duel it is!” The blue mare lights her horn and in an instant appears behind the entire group arriving safely outside. With a quick nod the mare gestures to a prepared wooden platform standing not a two dozen hoof lengths from her house “Follow me, I’ve already prepared the stage for our little match.”

Twilight is about to quickly follow the Blue mare when she is stopped by the hoof of an orange farm mare “are ya sure bout this Twi? I have a hunch Trixie’s not gonna play fair. An yawl can’t afford ta lose! I’m sure that if ya just tell the princess…”

“That’s not all that this is about Applejack…..” Twilight looks back to the blue mare before her, her confident pose the way she carries herself on full display as she jumps up on stage “even if it wasn’t intentional I did ruin Trixie’s big chance, at least according to her. And besides if I backed down now how would I be able to call myself a student of Princess Celestia?” Twilight tears herself from Applejack’s hoof “besides I’m not a fowl you know I can handle myself!”

As Twilight walks towards the stage leaping up on it Applejack looks upon her find in worry as a thought from before creeps her way into her mind. Eager to rid herself of her worries Applejack turns to best friend, the unicorn Rarity beside her. “Hey Rares…” Applejack asks

“Humh yes Applejack?”

“You remember what Trixie called that thing that gave Twi the ability to control her magic all like that? The Rainboom er somthin?”

“You mean the sonic Rainboom?” Rainbow dash buts in “the sonic Rainboom is a mythical aerial technique that….”

“Yeah yeah thanks Dash…” Applejack ignores the blue pegisi turning back to Rarity “anyways do yawl know when that happened cause I think that I saw somthin like that too, it just seemed so familiar…”

“Yes I know what you mean Applejack,” Rarity taps her chin “For some reason I can’t put my hoof on a rainbow flash of color across the sky seems to ring a bell for me.”

Dash groans “I know right well check this out that’s because I..…”

“YEAH you’re right!” Pinkie jumps in “and the day that I threw my first party I saw something like that! Mysterious aint it?”

“That’s because I’m the one…...”

“Ummm….” Fluttershy interrupts “I also…. I mean… I think that I also saw something like that… when I was a filly….”

“Will all of you shut up and listen to….”

“Dash!” Rarity yells “now I know that you think that you have something important to say… but that is no excuse for telling Fluttershy to shut up! Honestly when will you grow up and learn to use some manners?”

“But… but….I…”

“No buts there missy!” Applejack scowls at Rainbow Dash “Now Rare’s right! There’s no cause fer your behavior like that now apologize to Fluttershy! She deserves better than that!”

“But… but…..” The stares of both Rarity and Applejack cut her off letting her know in no small words what will happen to her if she doesn’t apologies to the sensitive Fluttershy. Dash sighs realizing that this is a fight that she cannot possibly win “I’m sorry Fluttershy…”

Both of the responsible mares hold their breaths as they wait for Fluttershy’s reaction. Thankfully Fluttershy’s face which looked close to sobbing slowly turns back to a gentle smile that defines the yellow mare “oh that’s all right Dash. I know how impatient that you can be sometimes. It’s quite all right. Just remember to wait your turn the next time…”

Dash groans so heavily that one might mistake her for a dying animal As Applejack and Rarity give thanks for the fact that Fluttershy took it so well. Applejack wipes the sweat off her brow “whew. See now aint that easy now? Now then Dash what’s so impatient now that yawl tried to interrupt Fluttershy here to say it?”

Dash beams finally grateful that it is her turn to tell her friend the most awesome thing she could ever tell them “Well! You guys know that amazing and awesome Sonic Rainboom! Well guess what! I’m the one who…”

“Hey Guys! Look!” Pinkie yells at the top of her lungs “Twilight and Trixie are about to begin their fighting! Let’s watch!”

Suddenly all attention in the group turns away from Dash at the group prepares to watch the epic showdown of rivals, much to the dismay of a rainbow maned mare “but….. but……… but………… UUUUUURRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!” the mare screams at the top of her lungs.

“Now dash! What did Fluttershy just finish telling you?” Rarity levels her most accusatory gaze at the blue Pegasus “If you have something important to say than wait your turn! There is no cause for yelling like a banshee!” Rarity turns back to the showdown at hoof “all right I’m back, did anything happen darlings?”

“Nope Rarity, yawl didn’t miss anything.” Applejack assures her “just them setting some ground rules and….. do yawl hear a thumping sound?”

BAM   BAM   BAM   BAM   BAM   BAM   BAM

“Nope and who cares?!” Pinkie screams with as much enthusiasm she can muster “this is the showdown of the century! You’d have to be banging your head against a wood pole like Dash is doing to miss this!” Pinkie pulls out a huge assortment of snacks treats and Twilight teamed merchandise “and I’m the exclusive vendor! He he! I’m going to make a fortune………”

Twilight and Trixie stare each other down each one paws their hoof on the stage, mentally psyching each other up for the inevitable confrontation. Sparks fly from each unicorn’s horn as they build up magical charge and their bodies coil to strike.

“So….” Trixie begins “I’ve chosen the stage, so it only seems fair that the loser would decide the specifics. Does that seem fair to you Snarkle?”

Ignoring Trixie’s jest Twilight addresses the whole audience equally “We will go by Crystal North rules, the first one to give up or become unable to continue loses, no lethal force, Dark or Chaos magic, no pre-prepared magics. Is that fine by you…..Twixie?”

Trixie flinches from the insult “Twilight that was….. that was….”

“Ha! You see I can sling insults just as well as I sling spells!” Twilight smirks with her victory

“…..really Really lame. It sounds like the name of a bad romance genre…..” The showmare finishes “I mean….. You should obviously leave the quips to somepony else….”

“That’s what I said!” Pinkie yells from the sidelines.

“And I certainly hope that you DON’T sling insults as well as you sling spells!” Trixie smirks “otherwise this will be a very short fight! I hope that you are prepared to face the Wrath of the Great and powerful Trixie!” a barrage of sparklers go off behind her as she stands on her back hooves making an intimidating appearance that surprises every mare in the arena.

All except one of course, a lavender mare who rolls her eyes in exhaustion “…..Can we fight now?”

“Son of a…. yes!”

With sudden speed and precision the blue mare launches a bolt of magic directly at the head of the lavender mare who weaves to the side avoiding the blast. Taking advantage of Twilight’s opening Trixie charges towards the startled Lavender mare who is unprepared for the sudden rush. Yet at the last second Twilight launches a blast of her own hitting Trixie’s barrel straight on with a blast of eldritch force. However the moment that the spell collides with the showmare, the blue pony disappears into a cloud of smoke surrounding Twilight and cutting off her field of vision to almost zero. Trying to back out of the mist, Twilight is shocked to find her field of vision is already blocked by the dark blue smoke completely cutting off her sense of sight.

‘It’s obvious that Trixie is an illusionist type magic user, if I let her gain the upper hand or close the distance I’m a goner.’ Twilight thinks her eyes searching through the mist for any sign of movement ‘If I’m going to win I have to keep the distance between me and her otherwise she’ll be able to interrupt my spells with hoof to hoof combat. And if I’m able to take her by surprise……’

With a sudden gust of magical wind Twilight quickly blows away the smokescreen, and scans around to locate the troublesome blue mare before she can play another trick on her. Yet the moment that the smokescreen vanishes, the Lavender mare is tackled from her blind side sending her tumbling to the ground.

Dojaaaaaaa….

Trixie recovers from the body blow almost instantly as she stands over Twilight the mare takes a step towards the prone mare. Basking in the fact that she was able to get the upper hoof on her rival in the first round Trixie strokes her mane “Had enough Snarkle?”

Twilight grins as she rises to her hooves “please Twixie, I’m just getting started!”

“Stop trying to make that work you…” Trixie is cut off by another explosion as Twilight releases a purple smoke cloud of her own around herself giving herself almost total concealment from Trixie. Trixie readies herself as she faces the cloud, aware that an attack could come from any direction at any time. Then with a flash of light Twilight teleports at point blank range in front of the blue mare who is only able to backpedal once in terror as Twilight hits her with a powerful right cross.

Yet once again her hoof passes harmlessly through the showmare, as the illusion dissipates into nothing. “An illusion?” Twilight recoils  “But how?! I never saw her ignite her…”  Twilight’s words are cut off as the purple mare is once again tackled from her blind side sending her skidding to the ground. Appearing from behind the purple mare Trixie grins at another successful attack

Dojyaaa…..

This time the purple mare rises to her hooves almost instantly as the blue mare smirks in front of her “well that was a surprise,  little bookworm knows how to throw a punch and it looks like you can take a punch as well…….” Trixie remarks with a pleased tone in her voice.

Twilight smirks back “the boxing compendium’ chapters four and six, the straight cross and the half step. Both essential moves for any close quarters fighters.”

“Don’t get cocky Snarkle, your punch is still lacking compared to the Great and Powerful Trixie! If you want to win against me…..” Trixie’s horn glows bright “..…You’ll have to turn up the heat!”

With a flick of her horn a wall of flame materializes around the purple mare its flames rising high enough in a second to completely obscure the mare from view. Twilight friends look on with no small amount of fear as the walls of scorching heat rise preventing them from knowing if Twilight Sparkle is alive or burnt to a crisp. The flames roar the fires burn and the heat is unbearable, yet not twenty seconds later the Lavender mare walks clean through the flames completely unharmed.

Twilight brushes her coat with her hoof as if brushing off any imaginary soot “Making an audible and visual illusion that incorporates Touch…… Not bad Trixie. But you’ll need more than petty tricks to get the upper hoof on me.” Twilight takes a step forward “Not that I’d expect anything less from a showmare. But if ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ expects to beat me with light shows she had better think again!”

Twilight takes a firm stance before the showmare as she stares her down. “I trained personally under some of the best minds in canterlot and played chess with an alicorn, so if you want to beat me you’ll have to think four moves ahead.”

The ground beneath Trixie’s hooves ignites in a sudden flash of light blinding the Blue Showmare “………because I’m playing three moves ahead of you.” Rushing at the blinded showmare, Twilight runs up and throws a powerful Cross knocking Trixie off her footing. “This one’s for the tackle.” Then with another blow Twilight flattens the showmare sending her falling to the ground as Twilight’s friends cheer from the sidelines. “And that was for calling me Twibright” Trixie slowly rises to her hooves with a look of resolution on her face and despite the bruise on her cheek she barely looks fazed by twilight’s full force blow.

Spitting out a dab of blood on the side of the stage the showmare rubs her bruised face as she turns back to face her opponent. “Please you call that a punch? Don’t make Trixie laugh. She’s fought fillies who could hit better than you.” Trixie takes delight in Twilight’s stunned expression as she paces around her foe “Don’t look so surprised Twibright, as a stand agent it has been Trixie’s job for the last six years to track down and bring to justice the most hardened criminals. If Trixie was so weak to succumb to a librarian’s punch she would have died ages ago.”

“And another thing..…” Trixie stops her pacing turning her supple body to face Twilight “….you talked about playing four moves ahead like this was some form of chess game, Don’t delude yourself Twilight sparkle, this is real combat., not some board game! It’s something that sheltered fillies like you would know nothing about.” Trixie raises her hoof revealing a long brown rope “Real combat is about reading your opponent’s moves, planning for them and luring them in for the kill, like what Trixie just did to you.”

With one solid yank with both her hooves the blue showmare pulls the rope tight the disguised chord now wrapping itself around Twilight’s legs. The lavender mare barely has time to yelp as the rope hogties her sending her crashing to the ground with a thud.  “Trixie let you hit her on purpose, to lure you in for one of my signature magic tricks. Trixie’s third trick: Magic Rope Trap.”

Twilight flails about her horn burning as she attempts to sever the rope with her magic “Don’t bother Twilight! The rope on your hooves is enchanted to resist all magics even my own, it’s why I had to set it up manually with my hooves while you were wasting your time with that little smokescreen!”

Twilight’s horn flares as she tries to grasp the rope with her telekinesis, burn it with fire or sever it with a cutting spell but to her great distress nothing works. Trixie grinning in victory walks up to the struggling mare and places her fore hoof firmly on her head. “Well it looks like I have won our little match Twibright! Be sure to show up bright and early tomorrow, after all a servant can’t be late for her master now can she?”

Twilight blushes furiously in embarrassment as Trixie yawns lazily “Now if you don’t mind, your stupidity has worn the Great and Powerful Trixie out so she is retiring for the night in her…..” Trixie’s eyes widen in terror as she looks back to see her home, her caravan burning down like a grass hut “….. Smoking ruins of her wagon?!”

The fire consuming Trixie’s home suddenly becomes as apparent to the group who was so entrenched in the fight that they could not see the flaming trailer behind them. Trixie turns on the mane six with malice in her eyes “YOU….. You just couldn’t stand the fact that your little friend was no match for the Great and powerful Trixie! Could you! So you destroyed her home?! I swear that you’ll pay for th…..”

“Don’t look at us!” Dash shouts “we weren’t the ones throwing around deadly lasers all over the place!”

 “WHAT!?” Trixie looks back between her house and her own horn “do… do you expect Trixie to believe that Trixie was responsible for this you…. You…..”

However the more she thinks about it the more Trixie comes to the horrible truth that deep down she is the one responsible. None of the others possess the means to create a fire with such intensity in such a short time while they were all watching Trixie’s fight. Which means the blast that was currently burning her home must have come from her or……

Trixie hears the sound of ropes snapping behind her to see the Twilight the ropes around her hooves badly burnt by an errant piece of flaming wood. Twilight breathes a sigh of relief “whew, those ropes were really resistant to magical fire. But luckily for me they weren’t so resistant to normal fire. It’s a good thing that there was a fire so close by…”

“YOU!” Trixie looks at the lavender mare stomping towards her with the force of an enraged titan “YOU BURNT DOWN MY HOME! It wasn’t enough to just embarrass the Great and Powerful Trixie and ruin her life now you have decided to destroy her home and livelihood as well!?”

“Your home?” Twilight tilts her head is obvious confusion toe the show mare’s allegations “I just got this piece of flaming wood from over….” Twilight looks over towards where she got the piece of flaming wood to see that the small fire she found has grown into a fire that is consuming the show mare’s home

“… Fire!! Don’t worry Trixie I’ll have this put out in a moment! Just let me….” Twilight concentrates her horn blazing with magical energy as a dark storm cloud forms over the Trixie’s wagon. The cloud crackles with magical energy as it explodes in a thunderous boom releasing a torrent of water down over the caravan, and extinguishing the fire. Looking at the charred and skeleton remains of the home Twilight looks back nervously at the blue showmare “S-S-See? As good as new!”

CRAAASSHH!!

As if waiting for the irony of the situation, the trailer falls to pieces leaving a pile of ashes and burnt wood where Trixie’s only permanent residence once stood. The showmare, witnessing her own home destroyed gapes for a minute or two with her mouth wide open at the scene of devastation before her. Her mind struggles to process both the suddenness and destructive after effects of losing her wagon, her vehicle of business, her home to a freak accident that leveled the entire building in less than a few minutes.

Slowly the Great and powerful Trixie takes a deep cleansing breath in stoking the flames of her rage with the ashes of her home. The showmare then turns to the librarian her face contorted into a face of cool rage, the kind of cold calculating anger that makes a pony’s hairs stand on end “Twilight…..you used your stand just now… didn’t you……”

Twilight backs up “Trixie… what are you talking about? I’m sorry about your home but it was…..”

“You used your stand just now.… to get that flaming branch, didn’t you….. I saw that your stand had the name FRIENDS on it….” Trixie manifests her own stand its star covered arms folded like a wrathful djinn of old, its cape billowing in a ethereal breeze as its anger filled eyes glint from under its wide brimmed hat. “Well if you wanted this to be a stand battle in the first place you should have just asked. Trixie can certainly oblige you Twilight, but she can assure you that by the time she is done with you you’ll be sipping your meals through a straw.”

Twilight shivers with cold terror as she is aware that Trixie is now completely serious. She has one chance and only one chance to explain herself before Trixie loses it “Trixie what happened to you house was a complete accident! There’s no reason to….”

“’it was an accident!’ ‘I’m sorry!’ ‘I’m a pathetic unicorn!’ blah blah blah!” Trixie screams in a nasally mocking voice “Don’t you get tired of saying the same thing over and over?!” Trixie shouts in her most snide voice as she takes a step closer.

“Now then since you are so insistent in taking this match further…” the showmare pulls out an assortment of knives seemingly from out of thin air with her stand “I can show you some of my most devastating magic! With the aid of my stand, MAGIC MARE!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as fear suddenly gives way to alertness, the active threat brought on by the presence of the knives drawing out her stand FRIENDS as Trixie stands ready to attack.

“Now take this! DOJYAAA!” Twilight’s eyes grow wide as the mare throws a barrage of knives directly at her, her stand reflexively defending against the attack. The knives scrape and bounce off Twilight’s FRIENDS causing several shallow cuts that fail to draw blood to appear on Twilight’s coat. Refusing to let up her attack Trixie throws another assortment of knives at blindingly fast speeds. This time Twilight quickly manifests a barrier that stops the knives, embedding them in a translucent purple shield.

“Not bad Twilight!” Trixie yells as she jumps into the air “Now try this!” Another barrage of knives are thrown and Twilight raises a stronger shield to block them, however this time the knives vanish in thin air the moment that they contact the shield, dissipating into mist as mysteriously as they appeared. Twilight withdraws her shield as Trixie lands on the ground again the purple mare keeping her eyes on the blue showmare for any sign of her usual tricks. However what Twilight sees in Trixie’s eyes scares her even more than her knives, he look of smug victory and a mare who knows something that doesn’t.

With a gesture filled with overwhelming confidence, Trixie points up to the sky with her hoof causing Twilight to follow her gaze upwards, just as she a razor sharp storm of knives falls all over her body. “Trixie’s fourth trick: Rain of Knives”

Twilight manifests her stand as fast as she possibly can attempting to swat away as many of the multitude of blades as possible. Yet despite her best efforts the blades countless blades manage to slip past her guard with sheer numbers as they fall on top of her, cutting her coat with their jagged edges. Eventually the mare realizes that there are far too many to and attempts to shield herself with her stand’s body as the storm continues to fall. Eventually the steel rain ceases and the storm ends leaving the purple unicorn standing in the middle of a pile of blades that glint in the last light of the fading sun. Twilight is now barely standing, her body now covered in countless scratches ranging from glancing blows to long cuts that cover her forearms and back. The purple mare pants heavily more from the pain than the blood loss as she channels her magic as rapidly as possible to heal the numerous wounds covering her body.

“TWILIGHT!” Fluttershy calls out as the other mares prepare to rush onto stage.

“TRIXIE! What were you thinking?! Are you trying to kill her!?!” Dash yells as she leaps up on the stage.

“Back off!” Trixie snaps at them in a tone that causes the mares to halt their attempts to save Twilight. “All of her wounds are superficial little more than scratches. I intentionally missed any of her vitals and slowed the speed of the knives, so it doesn’t count as lethal force. I broke no rules in this duel so none of you have any right to interfere!

“Besides…” Trixie looks over towards the lavender mare, a slight look of defiance hiding behind the Twilight’s pained expression “if she didn’t want to fight any more she wouldn’t have remained standing. Twilight hasn’t surrendered yet so that proves that she doesn’t want this fight to end either!”

Applejack unwilling to let her friend get so heavily injured in front of her stomps her hoof with enough force to crack the wood of the stage “No way! Ah’m putting my hoof down now! This little match of yours has gone too far an ah’m stopping it right….”

“Shut up!” Trixie yells at the top of her lungs, and with a wave of her horn throws the mares off the stage with raw magical force “this isn’t about the magic duel anymore! It’s about my honor as an illusionist and a mare. Twilight has taken everything from me, my Future, my past and now my present! But more unforgivably… But more unforgivably…” The blue mare shakes with rage as she tries to formulate a response that justifies exactly how she feels about the mare in front of her.

Twilight, exhausted and breathing heavily manages to raise her head towards Trixie and her stand the librarian’s eyes regaining their focus as she looks upon the star spangled image in front of her. Suddenly Twilight’s eyes light up with a flash of inspiration. Her mind clicks as she finally understands the depth of Trixie’s deceptions “Trixie…” Twilight points her hoof at the showmare “your next line… it’s going to be…”

 “……..Twilight spit on the Pride of the Great and Powerful Trixie! And now she must pay for it!” Both mares yell at the same time. Trixie audibly gasps at this putting her hoof over her mouth “wha… What!?!”

Twilight grins “and your next line is ‘no pony sees through the Great and powerful Trixie’s tricks! It’s impossible!’”

“No pony sees through the Great and powerful Trixie’s tricks! It’s impossible…… WHAT?!” The blue showmare seethes completely flabbergasted by Twilight’s sudden surge of confidence and her well timed trick. “How.. how did you…. You couldn’t have…” Trixie stutters.

Twilight beams in pride as she takes a step forward “yes Trixie I did! I saw through your tricks! I know how you’ve been getting the drop on other ponies with your illusions, like how you managed to disappear at will and make knives appear out of thin air! It’s your stand!”

Twilight points to Trixie’s stand with her hoof causing the showmare to flinch and look at the star caped figure behind her. “I was confused because I never saw your horn ignite when you seemed to disappear and reappear, so I thought it was some form of sleight of hoof and not your magic! But you were using your magic, just not your unicorn magic!”

Twilight manifests her own stand causing it to pick up one of the remaining knives in her hooves “that’s how you managed to make the knives appear out of thin air and you seemed to disappear at will! Your stand can probably cause anything it touches, to vanish into thin air and create an exact illusionary double in its place. When you threw those illusionary knives at me you threw the real knives into the air so that I would try and block the illusions and miss the real attack.”

Trixie begins to sweat bullets, her tricks unraveling before her eyes as Twilight fiddles with one of Trixie’s knives in her telekinetic field. “From how I figure it, it works like the spell ‘mislead’. You mask the real object in invisibility and create an exact illusion of it at the same time. Then you use the illusion as a distraction while the cloaked object hits your opponent from a blind spot.”

Twilight throws the knives off the stage as she clears the distance between her and the showmare “in fact…. That’s probably how you managed to vanish and reappear behind me all those times and hide a rope where I couldn’t see it! My stand was able to hold the rope so stand powers work on it. You’ve been cheating from the beginning Trixie! You were using your stand the entire time!”

“So what if I was?!” Trixie snaps at Twilight as she takes a step forward “in a life or death battle anything goes! Besides you decided that this would be a magical duel, and stands are a form of magic!” Trixie manifests her own stand inching closer to attack “if you’re so sore about me using my stand you should use your own!”

The blue show mare tilts her head in confusion “So come on! Hit me with your stand power! You haven’t used it once since this battle began. Have you been holding back on me? Or is it that your stand is so weak and pathetic you didn’t bother to use it Twibright?”

Twilight gulps heavily ‘Trixie’s right!’ she thinks ‘my stand has no offensive power! And by itself it can’ do anything! It can only form connections!’ Twilight shakes her head as she pushed the doubts out of her head ‘but I can’t let Trixie know that! And I doubt that I can form a stable connection with Trixie given how much she hates me.’

An idea enters Twilight’s head as she manifests her stand causing the blue showmare to back off in caution. ‘Maybe if I attack her with my stand, I can create an opening to finish her with my magic! That’s my best option now, if I keep her in the dark about my abilities I can get the drop on her.’

“Alright Trixie…” Twilight’s FRIENDS strikes a threatening pose as it raises its hooves to attack. “You want me to attack with my stand! You’ve got it!” With surprising speed Twilight attacks with her stand as Trixie moves to block with her stand Magic Mare. FRIENDS rushes forward It’s hooves attacking with such speed and suddenness that Twilight’s feint soars clean past Trixie’s’ hastily constructed guard connecting squarely with Trixie’s face.

 “ORA…..” the stand says as it pulls back its hoof from the face of the blue mare, the same mare who is blinking in confusion.

Twilight’s freezes as Trixie looks at the stand then back to Twilight, then back to the stand before laughing out loud. “BWA HA HA HA! Was that your best attack Snarkle?! That must have been a fluke! Come on and Try again, the Great and Powerful Trixie will let you! Ha HA”

‘Oh no!’ twilight thinks ‘she knows that my stand can’t do anything! Now I have to…’

“ORA!!!!” as if obeying the orders of the blue mare, the stand FRIENDS lashes out again with much more force, yet just as before the blow produces no signs of physical damage on the Trixie’s face.

“Well it seems as if that wasn’t a fluke.” Trixie remarks snidely “I thought that it was strange that you didn’t use your stand to attack… but if this is all it can do….”

“ORA! ORA!” the stand attacks twice at Trixie’s Magic Mare landing clean blows but with no visible damage as Trixie glares at the stand in frustration.

“Once might have been funny, and twice maybe, but now it’s just getting annoying…. Gruah….” Trixie rubs her horn “your little antics have given Trixie a headache…. But now it’s time to end this! Take this! DOJYAAA!”

‘Hunh?’ Twilight thinks to herself ‘a headache… didn’t Lyra complain of the same thing?’ Twilight jumps to the side avoiding Magic Mare’s slow punch as her mind races; The pained expression of the showmare causing Twilight’s mind to race in overdrive as weaves in and out avoiding the pained stand’s movements. ‘Why? Why did my stand attack all on its own? Why doesn’t’ it do any physical damage? Can Why does it make ponies heads hurt when I can’t mind link with them? …….Wait a moment!’

A crazy idea enters Twilight’s mind as she parries one of Trixie’s blows with her own stand glancing at her astral projection before her in a new light ‘What was it that I said to Applejack?! About what happens if a mental link fails?! Could it be? It doesn’t inflict physical damage because it actually inflicts……?’

Cutting off Twilights’ train of thought, a large black box appears around the lavender mare trapping her body inside the prison as her stand is trapped outside without its owner. Trixie’s horn flares and her stand holds up a collection of swords as the black wooden box is surrounded by solid iron chains that quickly seal off the black box from any chance of escape. “It’s over Twilight sparkle! Trixie’s First trick, the best in my arsenal…..” the large straight swords disappear from Magic mare’s hooves only to reappear around the black box suspended in Trixie’s magical aura. “…..Magical cutting boxes!”

Like a scientist testing a new hypothesis or an athlete testing a new limit of their abilities Twilight is filled with excitement and rising terror knowing if her hypothesis is faulty then it will mean the end of her. Glancing through one of the sword holes the mare maneuvers her stand FRIENDS directly in front of Trixie as it readies its’ hooves to attack the now exposed blue showmare.  ‘This is it! If this fails there will be no second chance! I’ll have to hit her with everything I’ve got in one shot!’

As FRIENDS stands ready to attack however, Trixie barely pays it any mind, knowing how powerless its blows truly are. “Why won’t you just give up Twibright!” Trixie shouts to the librarian as she lifts the black box in the air for the finishing blow.  “It would take a thousand of these little fowl punches to beat…..”

ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAA!!!!!

Twilight’s stand FRIENDS throws one punch after another each one hitting the blue mare square in the muzzle like a volley from a Gatling gun, each blow followed instantly by another just like it. Suddenly the black box around twilight falls to pieces, the chains dissipating into mist as Trixie falls to the ground groaning in pain.

With her concentration breaking apart the suspended swords fall to the ground with a loud clatter as the blue mare clutches her head in agony, shielding herself from FRIENDS’s numerous blows. “My…. My head…… hurts so bad….. What did you…?”

Twilight smirks “It’s my power Trixie. I have the power to form mind links with other ponies and boost their powers….” Twilight looks at her stand with a now look of pride on her face “… and I thought that because of that, that I had to rely on others in combat and couldn’t protect myself. “

Now free from the box Twilight begins to trot over to the prone Blue showmare as she raises her stand’s fore hooves. “However I forgot that if a pony isn’t willing to perform a mind link, that the mental feedback creates intense mental strain. In other words it creates mental damage not physical damage. Normally it wouldn’t be noticeable from one attempt because the initial feedback creates only mild headaches”

Twilight raises her stand’s hooves smashing them together in a thunderous clap. “But a mild headache can blossom into intense migraines, dizziness, confusion and eventually unconsciousness if its effects multiply. Meaning my stand can inflict concussions just by assaulting your mind, you can block a punch but you can’t protect your mind!”

“D-D-Defeat T-Trixie?!” The showmare rises shakily to her hooves as she stands manages to manifest her stand. “Y-You must be joking! T-Trixie’s power is invincible…… Y-You can’t……”

With a single blow Twilight pours the last of her strength into her stand’s powerful left cross, hitting Trixie square on as her stand’s hoof smashes itself into the Magic Mare’s face. For a second the two mares stand completely as the two stands stand motionless and with one last gasp the blue mare falls to the ground completely unconscious.

Twilight’s friends look on as Twilight remains standing the sole victor in a fight of rivals, many times they feared for her safety but only now do their souls brim with pride and happiness as the lavender mare stands over her enemy. However Twilight does not share in their joy. Her body frozen in fear, the Lavender mare stares at Trixie with a haunted expression in her eyes, her face contorting itself in rising horror like a pony coming face to face with a ghost.

Just as Applejack is about to ask if Twilight is all right, the lavender mare lets out an ear piercing scream as if she was the witness to a crime of horrific proportions. Her voice echoes over the field with a piercing cry of pain just as the mare falls to the ground in a dead faint, both the victor and the loser lying on top of the other as their minds drift and dream.

………………..

“uuuuuggggghhhhhhhh….. my head….. what…. What happened?” Twilight sparkle mare extraordinaire pulls herself off the ground, her head throbbing with new information as she pulls herself upright, quickly helped up by the familiar face of one of her friends.

“Who there…. Take it easy Twi…..” Applejack says “yawl were pretty pooped after that there fight and pinkie had ta give y each a red stone to perk ya up. Otherwise yawl might have been out fer longer than an hour.”

“An… an hour….” Twilight rubs her head “That’s right! I was fighting Trixie?! What happened who won?” The mare frantically asks “Do I have to be Trixie’s slave? Because I really really….”

Dash lands by the lavender unicorn “relax there Egghead, you totally….”

“It was a tie!” a familiar voice yells and every eye in the group turns to face the arrogant and self-obsessed face of Trixie “the match was a tie, it was a great and equal draw! The perfect ending to a great and powerful duel!”

Dash glares at Trixie “Uh….. earth to loser, you fell down first that means you lost…”

“Ridiculous! I heard the details from the yellow Pegasus! Who is much kinder and has better manners than a brute like you!”

Dash turns to Fluttershy who blushes nervously “…well um…..” The butter yellow pegasus shuffles her hooves “…..she did ask what happened….. and she kind of deserved to know…. I didn’t want to be rude…”

Trixie nods politely “yes and Trixie thanks you for being courteous and telling the truth. Thank you Fluttershy.” The entire group stands dumfounded that the Great and powerful Trixie would thank any pony as the blue mare turns to Twilight “And from what I heard Twilight collapsed exactly five seconds after I did. And according to magical duel rules a contestant has to stay alive or conscious for ten seconds or the match is a tie.”

The great and powerful Trixie magics her hat hack onto her head with poof of smoke “Besides Trixie woke up first!”

“……however.” Trixie continues “since it was a fair duel and Trixie did fall first I will honor my word and attempt no actions against you plebeians.” The mare tilts her hat obscuring her eyes “Trixie is a mare of her words if nothing else. Is not Trixie great and generous?”

Twilight surprised at the blue mare’s sudden shift in behavior trots over to the showmare, extending her hoof in friendship “wow Trixie that’s…… really kind of you. tha….”

Trixie swats the hoof out of her face “Don’t get all chummy with Trixie, Twibright! I still hate you; I’m just following orders to help you out. I was commanded by Celestia to watch over you and your little friends, that is all there is!”

The entire group looks at Trixie with disdain in their eyes “Wait a second!” Dash shouts “If you were commanded to protect Twilight why did you try and kill her with that magic cutting box thing?”

“And those flyin knives!” Applejack says

“And that garish outfit!?” Rarity finishes. The entire group looks at the fashionista “what? Her outfit is a danger to everypony who gazes upon it! Why I don’t know how you all can put up with it!”

“This outfit is traditional magician’s garb!” Trixie shouts “And Trixie wasn’t trying to kill her! She was just going to defeat her to prove to Celestia how much more superior Trixie is! It would then be obvious to her who the better apprentice would have been and who she can really trust in this backwater town.”

Trixie lowers her head as if in shame “And for that The Great and Powerful Trixie apologizes. She was so sure that she would beat you easily; you see it often in those pompous nobles in canterlot. They think they know everything about using magic but most can’t even fight their way out of a paper bag.”

Trixie raises her head looking directly in the eyes of the lavender mare “However it is obvious now that you are different Twilight Sparkle. You are obviously not even a quarter as talented as the great and powerful Trixie…….. but you have the right stuff. The great and powerful Trixie was wise in choosing you as her eternal rival.”

“Wow…. Thanks Trixie.” Twilight states with surprise “… I guess. And I know that you will be a great asset to us here in ponyville, and my friends are more than happy to have your help too, right?”

The entire group (other than Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy) grumbles to themselves revealing their great disagreement with Twilight sentiments.

“RIGHT?” Twilight stares them down causing the entire group to mutter positive conformation.

Pinkie giggles “this is great! A new pony who loves to party! This is going to be the best welcome to Ponyville party ever! That is aside from the Party we threw Twilight…… and the party for the mayor’s reelection …. And that one time this really strange guy came to ponyville and started stealing all my songs……and that one time….”

As pinkie babbles on Rainbow Dash turns to Fluttershy “I don’t know about you, but I still don’t trust her. Call it a hunch but I think that that mare is hiding something. What do you think flutters?”

“Well….. um I don’t know…” Fluttershy mutters “I think that having Trixie around could be….. nice….”

“NICE?!” Dash yells “NICE?! Trixie is the complete opposite of nice!”

“Well… um… she complimented me…. So I think that she isn’t all bad…..”

“NOT THAT BAD? Let me tell you something Flutters…..”

The group continues to debate and talk with each other Pinkie about her parties Rainbow listing the reasons not to always look on ponies bright side and Rarity remarking on Trixie’s ‘fashionable’ cape and hat. Between Twilight trying to restore order and the group’s rambunctiousness nopony notices as Trixie walks towards the smoking rubble of her home. With a gentle glow of Trixie’s horn she pulls a magic protected suitcase out of the ashes walking back over towards the group. “Well Now that Trixie is homeless again, she needs a place to stay until this is all over, do any of you plebeians have a place luxurious enough for the great and powerful Trixie to stay?”

Dash’s eyes grow wide as she imagines what would happen if Trixie decided to start living in her house “Not IT!” in a flash of rainbow color Dash flies away as if chased by Discord himself.

“…. Well that excludes Rainbow Crash….” Trixie turns to the rest of the ponies “do any of you ponies have a decent place to stay? What about you Twilight?”

Twilight taps her chin “well…. The library does have a guest room that I can lease out. It’s the least that I can do considering it is partially my fault that you lost your home….”

“…..and my cottage has a spare room too!” Fluttershy shouts with suddenness that causes the entire group to looks at the yellow mare. Realizing her outburst the yellow mare blushes furiously “that is…. I don’t mean to intrude…. And it is pretty far from town……That is…. If you needed a room that badly……”

The showmare looks between the two mares “two very tempting offers Trixie is sure….. However Trixie believes despite her resentment towards a certain purple mare for destroying her home, she will stay in the library. From Twibright’s reports it is closer to town and the center of all your operations.”

Trixie’s eyes stop on the butter yellow mare the look of disappointment on her face readily apparent “however Trixie would be more than happy to meet up with a mare as polite as you at another time perhaps for tea…….Considering you seem to be the only pony in this town with any degree of civility.”

The butter yellow Pegasus immediately perks up as Twilight picks up Trixie’s suitcase in her magic “then it’s settled!” Twilight looks at Trixie “Trixie will stay with me in the library for the time being. We’ll meet again at the same time tomorrow!” with that the entire group disperses as the ponies make their way to their own prospective homes.

………………….

Twilight the pack mule carries the burdensome load of Trixie’s magical props and luggage on her back. Struggling under the immense weight of Trixie’s worldly possessions the librarian struggles up the stairs at the blue mare taps her hoof impatiently. “Come on Snarkle! It’s just a couple more steps! Keep up the pace.”

The mare groans under the immense weight of the bleu mare’s pack placing it down on the halfway point on the stairs. “And why, oh great and powerful Trixie, am I the one who has to carry your things?”

Trixie taps her chin “Trixie does not know Twilight. Why did Twilight destroy Trixie’s home?”

“……touché Trixie….” Finally with a monumental heave of magic the lavender mare finally places the cumbersome items on the top of the stairs breathing freely for the first time in what feels like hours.

Trixie raises her nose at the purple mare “so the little bookworm couldn’t even carry the baggage the rest of the way….. Well that’s fine since Trixie is so generous she will carry her baggage the rest of the way.” With a gentle glow of magic the blue mare slowly picks up the baggage managing to shove the enormous pack through the door into Twilight’s guest room.

Twilight shuffles her hooves as she watches the blue mare move her possessions. Finally the lavender mare can take it no longer and clears her throat “Um… Trixie…”

 The showmare stops removing a specific package causing it to hang in midair as she turns to face the lavender mare “Yes Twibright, is there a problem? If this is about going back on giving me this room you are far too late as Trixie has already had to turn down Fluttershy and move all her things here.”

“Trixie…” Twilight continues her words as if stepping on broken glass “who is the bandaged pony…..”

The package falls to the floor with a loud thump as the Blue mare looks at Twilight her face pale and her eyes wide “How…… how did you….. know about…… THAT?”

Twilight shuffles on her hooves as she looks Trixie in the eyes “I didn’t want to say anything since my friends were there but when I hit you that last time I saw…… I saw that memory……. Of your parents…… and that stand…..” Twilight gulps heavily “and all that BLOOD”

At this the lavender mare has Trixie’s complete and utter attention “I don’t mean to pry into anything or make you talk about anything that you wouldn’t want to talk about……. Just…. Just what was that?”

Trixie turns her face from Twilight resting her head on the door frame “so…………you saw that.” Suddenly Trixie turns back to Twilight her face resolute and grim. “Well if you saw that then there is no point in keeping it a secret now is there?”

Twilight is about to speak up but a simple raised hoof from Trixie stops her cold. The showmare breathes in and out with an uneven breath. “When Trixie was a filly…. Long before she ever met you, or took that magic exam her parents were murdered, about thirteen years ago, by a stand user. Trixie remembers little of that day before she blacked out just a dark pony with a stand covered in bandages gripping my parents corpses in a vice.”

Trixie breathes out the weight of revealing such a monumental secret bringing her both relief and apprehension. “That’s the reason Trixie joined the stand agents and the reason that she travels across Equestria. Since I never found out the user’s identity, I have searched town after town for years of my life searching for that one stand. Since every stand is unique Trixie would know when she found the pony who murdered her parents.”

Trixie’s eyes glow with a dark fire of hatred as she looks off in the distance as if seeing the stand with her naked eyes “that is the primary motivation for Trixie. To find the pony who took her parents from her so cruelly and end them.” The mare closes her eyes as her demeanor returns to normal “Your motivations are naive Twilight…. However if you are truly intent on preventing rouge stand users from hurting innocent ponies…. Then Trixie is with you.” Trixie smiles ever so slightly as she extends her hoof towards the purple mare.

Twilight looks down in shock at Trixie’s outstretched hoof, before suddenly grasping it firmly “Trixie I think that this is the start of a beautiful Friendship….”

Trixie’s’ grin suddenly returns to its normal cocky nature “Friendship… HA! As if Trixie could ever consider the mare that ruined her life to be a friend! Friends are weakness that Trixie cannot afford, you are only a tool for my own revenge, so don’t let our collaboration get to your head Twibright!”

Twilight can’t help but chuckle “Whatever you say Great and Powerful Trixie, whatever you say……”

Chapter 8-Thousand Hoof Crutch-Take 2

Chapter 9-Love Bug

Love Bug:

“All right class that concludes today’s lessons!” Cherilee, teacher for ponyville elementary states happily.  The bell rings throughout the schoolhouse as the sluggish students of Ponyville elementary pack up to leave. “And remember to do your assigned reading on the third Zebranican civil war of 752 A.N we’ll be having a test on it next class period.” The entire class groans in discomfort at the thought of another one of Cheerilee's assigned readings as they trot out of the class back into the world of sunlight.

That is all except one two toned purple maned, white coated unicorn filly, otherwise known as the third member of the newly formed Cutie Mark crusaders, Sweetie belle. Pulling back from her friends the white filly looks at her teacher Cheerilee, the elder mares’ breath heavy and brow filled with sweat, then back to her friends before walking over to the teacher’s desk. “Um…. Miss Cherilee?”

The teacher pulls her head off of her desk looking right at the white filly “Yes Sweetie? Is there something that you need? You’re not going to ask for another extension on your assignments are you?”

The white filly waves her hooves frantically “No that’s not it Miss Cherilee Honest! I was just wondering are you feeling alright?”

“Humh?” Cheerilee asks with feigned surprise “Whatever do you mean Sweetie Belle?”

“Well….” Sweetie shuffles her hooves “you just seemed really tired when you were teaching….. and you let us have small group for a whole two hours today, so I was just wondering if you were feeling okay…..”

The teacher beams at the innocent curiosity and concern of her student “Aw Sweetie Belle….. Thank you for being so considerate. However I can assure you that I always feel my best when I’m teaching my students.”

The mulberry mare pinches Sweetie’s cheeks causing the white filly to giggle bashfully. “Especially students like you who care so much about others. Now run along I’m sure that you and your crusaders have big plans today so why don’t you catch up with them. Go on and have a blast.”

Sweetie belle takes one last look at her teacher before shrugging and running out the door to follow her friends. Cherilee waves politely to the white filly as the door of the schoolhouse closes leaving her completely alone in the building. Only when she is sure that any pony who could have heard her is out of earshot does she lay her head on her desk taking ragged deep breaths, while her body breaks out in a cold sweat.

“I really….” The teacher swallows deeply “I really shouldn’t have come to school in my condition. A teacher, a teacher should never endanger the welfare of her students by getting them sick. But there were no substitutes available and I couldn’t just cancel school again. Not after it took a whole week to repair the hole in the roof.”

The mulberry mare rises from her desk “well…. Maybe that new unicorn Twilight would have been qualified….. But she is far too busy with government matters to even be bothered. And besides with all this panic about a mysterious illness going around Town the last thing that the fowls need is, to believe is that their schools aren’t safe anymore.”

Picking up her bags and slinging them on her back Cherilee fastens the latches as she continues to talk to herself  “I’ll just have to get better by tomorrow” Cherilee slaps her cheeks causing new fresh blood to course through her veins “get better CHERILLE! Your students are depending on you! You can’t afford to be sick now!”

With new fresh blood coursing through her head the teacher opens the door outside and breathes in a lungful of fresh clean air “Well that worked better than I expected! I feel better already!” Cherilee comments as she trots outside.

Unnoticed to the mulberry mare, peeking out of her saddle bags is a dark insectoid shape with glowing pink eyes that seem to refract an inner light. Watching from the safety of the mare’s bag the glowing pink bug watches intensely as her other saddle bag shuffles and moves their presence completely lost on the mulberry mare as she trots obliviously on her road back home.

………………..

“Run for your lives! It’s after me!”

“Lyra! Why are you always getting me into these messes! I mean Ghosts?!”

“It’s not a ghost Bon Bon! It’s called a Stand!”

“Well whatever it is, it’s chasing us! DO SOMETHING”

Cherilee watches with a bemused expression as Lyra and Bon Bon spirit through town as if chased by invisible forces that they can’t even begin to understand. Lyra continuing to scream something about ghosts and Bon Bon criticizing Lyra for dragging her into another mess as the teacher blinks in confusion.

“Well….” The teacher remarks to nopony in particular “…at least since Twilight has moved into town things have been more lively.” The teacher watches as the two mares vanish off into the distance as she continues on her way home “And lively is most certainly better! Aside from Pinkie’s parties, bless her soul, there is very little in the way of action in this…. Wait what is that yelling?” Cherilee turns her head across the square as her ears begin to pick up the sound of loud arguing.

Standing before the family’s trademark apple stand is the strong, and hunky stallion Big Macintosh, the most eligible bachelor of ponyville. His red coat, orange mane, and large muscular body complementing his cutie mark of a large green apple to physical perfection. The yoke around his neck and his cutie mark of both symbolized both his incredible physical strength and his enormous levels of patience. It was no small secret that big mac despite his wondrous physique and rumored ‘endowment’ that the brother of Applejack was single, which made him a target for almost every mare (and a few stallions) in town.

And for Cherilee, a single mare in her early thirties, she was no exception to this rule. However what really caught her eye was the flustered expression of the stallion before Big Mac, a one Filthy Rich, father of Diamond Tiara. Filthy was one if not the richest ponies in ponyville and his status as CEO of Backyard Bargains was as well-known as Mac’s single status. However on the contrary to Big Macintosh Filthy, though was far more lithe and manicured typical for a pony who spent more time in meetings than working or exercising. His light brown coat, impeccably well groomed, was dressed up in the finest business tie and hoof cuffs that money could buy. His Cutie mark, that of a bag of Bits represented both his talent and his love for acquiring and investing money and few things other than that and his daughter could hold his attention for long.

From what little Cherilee can make out from across the square it seems that Mr. Rich is complaining about a business deal of some kind, something about not being able to provide….something. Suddenly as if by magic Cheerilee is Able to hear every word of the argument, as if she was standing right beside the yelling Stallion.

“……and I’m telling you Macintosh. I need those fifty crates by week end. Supplying is the job of the supplier so pick up the pace! My constituents are depending on it!”

“…. An ah’m telling you, Mr. Rich, that we just don’t have the horsepower to fill that order on such a short notice…. An rushing things will decrease our quality.”

“Well then hire more workers! That shouldn’t be a problem with you kissing the flank of the local princess Reprehensive!” Filthy sneers as he tries to comb back his rapidly degenerating mane style. “Don’t think that I’m blind, Macintosh, the entire town knows what a hooligan your sister has turned into ever since….”

“So….” Cherilee talks to herself as she tunes the argument out “it’s a business argument between Big Mac and Filthy Rich….. Well it’s none of my business anyways. I should just walk away.” However despite her efforts the mulberry mare cannot tear herself from her spot.

Cherilee continues to stare ahead as Filthy continues to vent his frustrations to an unreadable Big Mac. “But I can’t just leave two prospective guardians of her two students in such a shape. What about their children? Besides….” Cherilee grins broadly as she walks towards the two stallions giggling all the while “…If I help out Big Mac it might just be the excuse that I need to take him on a date!”

Walking up to the two stallions who have to this point ignored her and are subsequently ignored by everyone else in the marketplace, Cherilee clears her throat. “Um hello!” both stallions turn towards the teacher “um yes! Hello! I couldn’t help but hear your little argument so I thought that I might help by being an arbitrator in this discussion! See I know both your children from school and if I can be of any assistance……”

Filthy turns to Cherilee “you want to help? Then but out.” The stallion turns back to Macintosh “as I was saying before I was interrupted. Get that sister of yours under control and have her help you fill my order. You promised me that order by the end of the week!”

Big mac continues to stare down the business pony with a slight look of frustration “we promised ya thirty crates of apples, not fifty.”

Filthy rich groans “thirty, fifty same thing. Just make it work! I have…..”

“Excuse me!” Cheerilee yells “Now Mr Rich! This is positively atrocious behavior. Now I know that you are busy but that is no reason to make such unreasonable demands of….”

Filthy Rich moves so close into Cheerilee's face that she backs off immediately “Tell me, what does a school teacher know about the finer points of business? How many multimillion bit corporations have you run lately?” Cherilee can only stutter wordlessly as the brown stallion backs off “I didn’t think so, now as I was saying Big Macintosh….”

Cherilee stares blankly at the rude stallion before her as he continues to yell at the muscular hunk before her. “All I wanted…. I just wanted them to behave…. Is that so wrong…… why can’t that thick headed stallion see how rude he’s being. Why if I had the power, I’d…..”

Suddenly Cherilee freezes in terror as she sees a large bug, about the size of a hoof land on the stallion’s flank. If it were not so large it might have reminded Cherilee of a lady bug, its round shape and pearl studded shell that matches her own coat’s color perfectly. The insect though large would appear almost cute if Cherilee were not so afraid of the fact that it had extended its long needle like proboscis and was in the process of biting into Filthy’s flank.

Acting in the same way any normal mare would if she saw a large hoof sized bug landing on a pony’s flank Cherilee screamed at the top of her lungs and slapped where the bug had landed, right on Filthy Rich's’ flank. However before her hoof could even connect the bug flies off with amazing speed hovering in the air in front of Cherilee as if confused by the mare’s behavior. This caused the most humorous scene of a schoolteacher spanking a business pony in the middle of the town square for everypony to see, much to Cheerilee's embarrassment.

Needless to say Filthy Rich did not react well to this, Rubbing his injured flank and turning around to face his accuser “What in the name of Dickens?! Miss Cherilee?!? What do you think you are doing?!”

The teacher points her hoof towards the giant hovering insect “A bug! It was a huge bug! It bit your flank and I tried to stop it but…..”

“A Bug?” the stallion asks incredulously as he looks around as if staring at empty space “I see no bug Miss Cherilee! Have you lost your mind?! Or is this an idea of a prank to you?!”

“How could you miss it? It’s right in front of you!” the teacher turns to where the insect once was only to see it fade into thin air “What? It flew away? No it was like it just disappeared……”

The brown stallion rolls his eyes “oh how convenient! The bug just happened to vanish into thin air after supposedly biting me! Well I didn’t feel anything and I see no bug! That means you have either gone crazy teaching those little fowls of yours or you have or you are so intent in sabotaging me that….”

“Now see here!” Cherilee yells her eyes suddenly glow with an inner fire “I may be a patient mare, slow to anger. But no pony!” the teacher gets up in the brown stallion’s face “I repeat NO PONY insults my students. Now you sit down and be silent.”

For a second there the stallion looks like he wants to continue to yell at the mare before him to tell her off simply because he himself if wealthy. But suddenly his eyes glaze over as the stallion stares at Cherilee with a new look of admiration and respect for the mare on his face “Very well. I will sit down and be silent.” The brown business pony sits down in the dirt looking at the teacher before him as is what she has to tell him is the most important thing in the world.

Impressed that she is finally getting somewhere Cherilee nods in approval “that is more like it young colt. Now I know that you need those apples for your business, but you have to see how unfair it is to Big Mac to simply be so rude to him like that. First you should be polite and talk thing over like gentle ponies…..”

 “….Be polite….” The brown stallion echoes

“Yes be polite, very good!” Cherilee nods “second you should put yourself in the position of others, no more of these unreasonable demands. Need I remind you that you have a daughter that is a student of mine? You need to set a reasonable example for her sake! Your daughter is a jewel but you obviously need to spend more time as her father and less time as a business pony. And the best way to do that is be patient and kind.”

“….no unreasonable demands…. Spend more time with daughter… be patient and kind…..” the stallion drones on.

‘Wow this is working even better than I had ever imagined! Points for being a figure of authority!’ the teacher nods again reinforcing Filthy’s compliance “Good! Now you go back home and think about your behavior young colt!”

Picking himself off the ground the haze clears slightly from the stallion’s as he walks back home, resolute on spending some quality time with his daughter and adjusting himself into a better more well-rounded pony.

Cherilee confident that she has saved the day turns back to big mac “well I sure showed him! Now are you alright Big Macintosh?”

 Big Mac stares off as he fails to process the fact that the most difficult customer he ever had the misfortune of knowing has just agreed to give him more time on his order. Turning towards the mulberry mare he promptly displays this surprise by staring at the mare completely slack jawed. Finally Big Mac is able to pick his jaw off the floor and properly thank the pony who saved him from having to put up with a pony more draconian than a dragon. “Thanks miss Cherilee. Don’t know what ya did or how ya did it, but ah thank ya for it.”

Cherilee blushes “oh Big mac, I didn’t do anything! He just got bitten by that bug and he….” Cheerilee's mind stops in its’ tracks as she begins to process what just happened. ‘The bug? Could it be? It made Filthy want to listen to me? But how? True I’ve never seen a bug like it… but where did it come from? And for that mater where did it go…..’

Cherilee looks at the stallion before her as he tilts his head in confusion “Bug? What bug?”

‘Oh! Shoot Cherilee! You’re blowing it! You’re blowing it! Just act natural!’ “So….” The teacher rubs the back of her head nervously “…..are you doing anything right now Big Mac?”

Big mac looks to his cart “as a matter of fact yeah.” Cherilee beams at the implications of spending quality time with big mac “Ah was just bout ta pick up mah goods and head in.” Cheerilee's previous mood instantly dissipates at the stallion fixes hit cart to his harness and begins to pull the cart away.

“But….. But…..”

“Thanks! Again miss Cherilee ah really owe ya!” Big Mac waves good bye to the mare as he pulls the cart off into the distance.

‘No! I can’t just let this prime opportunity go! If he leaves…… I might never get another chance like this again!’ Reaching after the stallion Cherilee calls out “W-Wait!” Cherilee rushes after the stallion that turns back in confusion to the mare. “I-I-I mean… what’s the hurry? I mean the day is still young! It’s barely sunset, surely you can spare a few minutes for the mare who helped you out?”

Big mac chews the stalk of hay in his mouth still utterly confused “bout what?”

“About….. About……” Cherilee desperately thinks up any excuse, any topic that would keep the stallion from leaving. “About business of course!” Cherilee beams at the cleverness of her own lie “I mean, Filthy Rich may have been very rude about it but he was right to say that I knew nothing about it. I mean..… It was wrong to involve myself in sweet apple acre’s business without knowing the first thing about it.”

Big mac looks back at the mare with a thankful look on his face “taint no problem Miss Cherilee. In fact ah’m real thankful ya showed up when ya did…”

Cherilee nervously gulps as she thinks to herself. ‘All right Cherilee! This is your one chance! Don’t blow it!’ “So… perhaps if you were willing….. You might be able to give me some pointers.  Say over dinner sometimes?”

Big mac’s face suddenly dawns in comprehension as he notices the burning red cheeks of the mare “Look Miss Cherilee. Ah owe ya big fer dealin with Filthy like that. An yer a real nice mare and all…..but…..”

Cheerilee's heart sinks in her stomach “But? BUT?!”

Now it is Big Mac that is the nervous one “look..… I’d be more than willing ta pay ya back another way an all. But ah know what yer are after Miss Cherilee, and ta tell ya the truth, at this stage in mah life mah family and mah business comes first an ah got no time between harvest, runnin Sweet Apple Acres and rasin Bloom and Jackie ta be thinkin all romantic like.”

The stallion smiles at the dumbstruck mare closing her jaw with his hoof. “Maybe once things slow down a bit then ah’ll have time for all the lovey dovey stuff but until then business comes first. Ya understand right? Ah mean yer a teacher, and that’s a full time responsibility. Yawl should be able to understand…..”

With that the Red stallion again picks up his cart with his strong back and waves good bye to the teacher. “Like ah said nice meatin yawl, an have a nice evenin.”

The mare stands dumbstruck as the potential love of her life begins to trot off leaving her all alone. True Big mac had obligations just like she did, she should respect his opinions and let him say when he’s not ready…… Right.

Suddenly Cherilee looks back on her own life with a new perspective as venom seeps into her mind. But what had her obligations really gotten her, a class with so few students who actually made a sincere effort to learn, what had her years of schooling and dedication brought HER?

And it wasn’t just the children, but adults who looked down on her profession, adults like Filthy Rich, and his snobby wage earners who made three times what she made in a day knowing a fourth as much as she did. And more depressing than that, night after night spent completely alone grading papers and preparing tests by candle light when lovers cradled each other in bed. What had her obligations gotten her but resentment and misery?!

And now obligations threatened to pry a prospective lover from her arms, another lonely soul who was forced to choose between his own happiness and the happiness of others. Was she really going to let this happen again? Why couldn’t he see how much she was hurting? How much that he was hurting thanks to his Celestia Damned obligations?!

Cheerilee's heart breaks “I just wanted the chance to get to know him……..” the mare lets loose a single tear as she watches the red stallion walk off into the sunset. Yet as she stares at the stallion’s flank she sees a familiar sight that moments ago was invisible, a large hoof shaped insect that has landed on the stallion’s back, its’ long needle like proboscis ready to strike. Suddenly the madness in Cheerilee's mind takes hold as an idea takes form “oh no Big Mac, I don’t think that you’ll be leaving anytime soon. In fact I believe that we will be getting to know each other very well.”

In a single moment the insect bites and the eyes of the stallion begin to glaze over………

………………….

The next morning at the library begins as any other does, with Twilight making her plans on the main table as she waits for the last stragglers of their group to arrive. Rarity is flossing her hooves in the corner while Fluttershy is talking amiably with the Great and powerful Trixie, Pinkie and Dash are snickering in the corner about one thing or another as they both point to the bookworm Twilight. Twilight however Twilight is oblivious to the chatter of the other ponies, engrossed as she is in her team's’ success. So far their team ‘the stardust crusaders’  have found a great deal of the red Stones in a relatively short amount of time, results which have greatly impressed her mentor Princess Celestia. And to make things better this time they will be accompanied by a newcomer, the great and powerful Trixie whom Twilight hopes will be a great help in their mission. Yes things couldn’t get any better than this.

“Alright everypony I’m glad that we could all set aside our busy schedules to meet today.” Twilight comments as the others draw into the main table “I know you all have your own lives and jobs that require attention, but I thought that we could all meet together today to greet a new member of our team and show her the ropes.”

Trixie straightens her hat on her head as she scoffs at the very notion “Show me the ropes? If you think that you would be able to show me anything Twibright, you are sadly mistaken. Trixie is a stand agent who has seen more action than your entire group combined. If anything it is Trixie who will be showing you a thing or two, being that Trixie is the strongest and most experienced in using her stand power.”

Trixie points at every pony at the table as she flaunts her superiority “Why Trixie doesn't know how you made it without her! You must have been hopelessly lost without Trixie!”

Dash rolls her eyes “Ugh! Can we please move on before Trixie the loudmouth starts another of her long winded bragging storms?”

Trixie, using all her superior acting skills puts on the most offended look that she can manage “Loudmouth!? How dare you insult the Great and powerful Trixie you….”

The door bursts open with a full force buck as a heavily panting orange farm mare comes walking in through the door. The mare looks positively ragged, with large bags under her eyes and a worried look across her face that everypony can’t help but share. Every pony in the room looks at the mare with worry in their eyes as they wonder what could have Applejack, the most dependably and level headed in their group, so worried.

That is, everypony except one.

“UGH!” Twilight yells “Every time! I repair the door and the next day it is blown off its hinges! I swear the ponies in this town must want this library destroyed!”

Twilight levels her most disciplinary librarian’s stare at the panting orange mare “Applejack I know that you are upset for being late, but I sincerely hope for your sake you have a better excuse than that for busting down my door in the middle of a group meeting!”

“No…. no time fer yer antics….. Twi…” Applejack gasps panting with every syllable. “Have any of you…. Seen mah brother…. Round these parts……”

“Her brother?” Trixie’s eyebrow perks up “The hayseed has a brother?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie cheers “Big Mac! He’s Applejack’s brother! You can’ miss him! Just look for the buffest pony in town and you’ve found him!”

“Pinkie dear….. I think that you are over exaggerating. I think that there is far more to Big Mac than simply his physique….” Rarity remarks “Why just yesterday I saw a White Pegasus Stallion in town with a blond mane who looked so muscular you could hardly believe it!”

“….Okay then the second most muscular pony in ponyville….”

“He’s big, an has muscles like a tank….” Applejack continues “he’s got a red coat and an orange mane an he’s got a cutie mark of a big Macintosh…..”

“Clever.” Trixie sarcastically remarks

“…… an he never goes anywhere without his yoke! He was supposed to be home with the cart yesterday! He always comes home at seven sharp but yesterday ah had to go out lookin fer him!” Applejack begins to tear up a bit “….But all ah found was the cart with his yoke right by it! He’s been missin fer thirteen hours so far!”

Fluttershy moves close to the distraught mare putting a comforting hoof around her “there, there Applejack…. It’ll be alright…..”

“Sniff…. Thanks Fluttershy.” Applejack wipes the tears from her eyes “Ah… ah just don’t know why this craziness hurts our family like this…..”

Twilight looks at the Orange mare, her hooves covered in dirt, her mane and coat a mess, and her eyes bloodshot and tired. ‘She must have been up half the night looking for him….’ Twilight thinks to herself as she looks over the distraught farmer.

 Her mind made up Twilight turns back to the group “All right everypony, change of plans, today need to find Big Mac.”

“Let Trixie get this straight…” the showmare works through Twilight’s logic “we’re wasting the day combing the entire town looking for one stallion? He probably just found a cute mare to spend the night with or decided to crash as a friend’s house. Why should we waste our resources on a pony who hasn’t even been missing a full day?”

 “Big Mac aint like that!” Applejack yells “He’d never abandon his family an leave us to worry like that! Heck Applebloom was bout to skip school ta help me look, an Apple would never leave family worried sick bout them”

“Applejack is right.” Twilight turns to face Trixie “I may not know anything exclusively about Big mac, but him disappearing is unnatural. It’s likely this could be the work of a stand user. But more than that Trixie….” Twilight narrows her gaze at the showmare causing Trixie to sweat nervously “….Applejack is our friend and we never abandon our friends and comrades when they need help the most. Do you understand?”

Surprised by Twilight’s sudden outburst and tone Trixie backs off “…..very well we help look for the hayseed….”

Twilight nods “Good, I’m glad that you’ve seen things my way! I’d hate to have had to……” the purple mare leans in whispering words just out of earshot of the rest of the group into Trixie’s ear. Though the word are too soft to hear, their effect on the showmare is readably noticeable as the blue mare’s coat flashes white from fear as she listens apprehensively to the librarian. “……understand?” Twilight asks. Trixie nods furiously “Good! Now onto a plan of action!”

“Pinkie Pie, Rarity.” Twilight turns to the two mares causing Pinkie to salute sharply, pulling out a soldier’s helmet and placing it on her head “You two will start and search the east quarter of town for signs of Big Mac While me and Trixie will handle the west side.”

“Okay… well what about me?” Dash asks

“Dash, I want you to search the outlying sections of town. With your speed you should easily be able to cover ponyville's perimeter for any strange happenings.” The rainbow Pegasus salutes sharply as the purple mare turns to address the rest of the library “No matter what, we’ll meet back here in two hours to coordinate our finds and report on our status.”

Applejack stares at Twilight open mouthed for a few seconds as the rest of the group is about to rush out the door. Suddenly just as Fluttershy is about to speak the orange mare shouts over the din. “W-Wait! Twi I think that ya fergot somepony! What bout me! I have to help yawl find big mac! He’s mah brother.”

Twilight looks back at Applejack with a look of worry on her face as she walks up to the farmer placing her hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sorry Applejack, I really am, but you’re just too close to this to think clearly…..”

“Too close ta this?! But….”

“No buts Applejack look at yourself!” Twilight points her hoof to the orange mare “You’ve practically run yourself ragged already! You’re almost dead on your hooves. Twilight pulls the orange mare into a tight hug “I promise you Applejack, we’ll find your brother. But in your state, you’d be doing more harm than good. That’s why I need you to stay here to wait for any leads we may get.”

Applejack looks deep into the eyes of the purple mare before her, part of her mind wants to believe Twilight and trust her friend. But the other, larger part of her psyche is telling her that right now her brother is in trouble and that completely overrides any rationality the sleep deprived mare possesses. “Ya can’t stop me from wantin to go Twi….”

Twilight sighs “I thought that you would still feel that way…..” the purple mare scoots aside whispering something into Fluttershy’s ear that causes the orange mare not a small amount of worry. “…..That’s why Fluttershy is going to stay here to keep an eye on you.”

“Fluttershy?” Applejack snickers at the very thought of the yellow mare stopping her “Yer serious? Fluttershy? yer goin ta have ta do better than that! Fluttershy has bout much chance of stoppin me as  a….” Before the farm mare can even finish her southernism she locks eyes with the butter yellow mare in front of her and stares into the void of Fluttershy’s stare. Applejack tries to move to muster up any amount of willpower and to manifest her stand, however she finds herself unable to do anything apart from breathe and stare into the eyes of the pink maned Pegasus in front of her.

“I’m sorry Applejack? What was it you just said?” Fluttershy continues to stare into the motionless mare’s eyes “Now I know you want to help your family Applejack, but this isn’t healthy. Right now what you need is rest….”

“N-N-No….. Ah….” The orange mare struggles with the gaze of Fluttershy “….Ah don’t need…. Rest…..”

Twilight looks at Applejack with a sorrowful expression on her face “I’m sorry Applejack….” Keeping her eyes from tearing up the purple mare turns back to the group “All right let’s head out! Keep Applejack here Fluttershy!”

“No……. ah can….” However despite the orange mare’s protests she is able to do little more than watch out of the corner of her eyes as her friends leave without her. Suddenly her exhaustion catches up with the mare and the merciful darkness overwhelms her senses.

………………..

Applejack awakes with a start from formless nightmares created from her worries as she instinctively reaches for her Stetson on the night-table across from her.

‘…….wait? Night-table?’ Applejack looks down to see that she is laying on a comfortable reading couch her hat and a glass of milk lying across from her and a light green blanket resting over her body. Reaching for the glass from her couch the mare gulps down the warm milk and places the Stetson on her head as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. The mare combs through her memories as she tries to piece together why she way lying on a couch in the middle of the library. The last thing that Applejack could remember with certainty was the fact that she was out looking for her brother……

Looking for Big Mac……..

And it all comes flooding back.

Without a second thought the orange mare rushes over to the door and flings it open with a single fluid motion as she prepares to run outside. Only for her to run face to face with Fluttershy and her momentum stopping stare. “Going somewhere Applejack?”

Under the complete influence of the stare Applejack has no choice but to shake her head no “Good I thought so……” Fluttershy comments “you need your rest and your good friend Fluttershy would be ever so upset if you just up and abandoned her, so why don’t you just stay indoors for the time being.” Walking back with all the caution a pony backpedaling from a hydra would demonstrate Applejack trots back indoors as Fluttershy walks in behind her closing the door behind her.

“That’s good Applejack now you certainly look better after your little nap but you still need plenty of rest, It's only been an hour since the others left!” Fluttershy takes Applejack’s Stetson off her head placing it gently on the night table to Applejack’s side “And don’t worry about Big mac I’m sure that the others have found him by now and are on their way back.” The yellow mare picks up the blanket off the couch and delicately drapes it over her friend “It’ll be alright… you’ll see….”

Applejack wants to scream, to tell her that everything's not alright, that her family is in peril; however all that she can manage is a defeated sigh. “Give me a Break, Ah don’t want ta admit it but …….. I Guess yer right Fluttershy……ah’d just be in every pony’s way in mah state…..” Applejack painfully smiles “ah’m so pathetic all ah can do is just lay here, some ‘dependable pony’ ah am…...”

A look of immense compassion crosses Fluttershy’s face as she looks over Applejack. Never in her life had she seen the confident, proud mare look so defeated before, it brought a tear to her eye that such an event could wound Applejack so greatly. To Fluttershy, Applejack had seemed invincible, now she was beginning to see a side of a pony who she thought she had all figured out, to see all the doubt and fear that she kept bottled up inside while she was out there being brave.

“It’s not that’s ah’m upset with Twi for leavin me behind like this, she’s a true friend….” Applejack looks down at the floor as she clutches the blanket around her. “Twi was in the right, I’m more upset in myself fer letting my emotions get hold of me like this again. After Applebloom…… ah just promised myself that I wouldn’t let it happen again. Guess that didn’t last long now did it?”

Applejack snuggles tighter into the blanket draped around her sitting form, needing the emotional comfort more than the physical.  “Ya know what the really sick part is? When I heard my brother was missing I wasn’t angry at him or getting himself into trouble or whoever took him………. Ah was angry at myself.”

Gentle tears flow across Applejack’s face as she recounts her feelings to a mare who she barely even knows  “Even now, even though I love my brother more than anything, I’m angrier at the fact that I am unable to help him than him being missing. I’m…..I’m just so tired of being so gosh darn powerless when ponies need me the most. Ah really am pathetic now aren’t I?”

A strong yellow hoof lashes out with speed and unpredictability that leaves the orange mare stunned as Fluttershy back hooves her across the face. Applejack blinks in shock as she puts a hoof up to her face rubbing the sore area as she stares back into the angry eyes of the Pegasus before her. “Fluttershy… wha….”

“THAT IS ENOUGH APPLEJACK!” Fluttershy stares deep into Applejack’s eyes “Now you quit that thinking right now, missy! You are not powerless! You are personally one of the strongest ponies that I know!”

Fluttershy rips the blanket off her friend not even giving the orange mare a chance to respond. “Now you quiet down and listen here! The Applejack that I know is always trying to help others even at her own expense. She is brave and always comes through when ponies really need her. I…… I always admired that Applejack….”

Fluttershy suddenly looks down at the floorboards away from her friend’s gaze “I could never….. Could never be relied on like you were Applejack. I was always afraid and doubted myself because I thought that I didn’t have anything to offer….. And because of that…. I was always the first to run away from my problems….”

The yellow mare pauses as if in deep thought as Applejack rises back up to her hooves. The silence goes on for so long that Applejack is about to speak up when she is interrupted by Fluttershy. “But…. But I’ve realized something Applejack and you need to realize it too. Rarity, your best friend and mine as well taught me that one pony can’t do everything….. But a group of ponies can do anything.”

Fluttershy takes Applejack’s hoof and places it in her own “Sometimes If you want to help others, you have to depend on them. You have to be willing to let others do what you can’t do and just do what you can. So please Applejack, don’t say that you’re weak, you’re not weak, just let the others do what they can…..and do what you can in turn.”

The yellow mare smiles as Applejack begins to smile back “And I promise you, it may not be today, or tomorrow or the day after that.  But I promise you Applejack that ponies will depend on you and what you can do….. A-And I know when that happens that you will step up to the plate because I know that Applejack is the most dependable pony that I know!”

“…..Fluttershy….” the orange mare’s face brightens considerably as she wipes tears from her eyes “that’s mighty good words there! An ah’m……”

BAM!

Both mares heads turn sharply to the front door of the library where an exhausted orange Pegasus filly with a scooter and helmet drags herself into the library proper.

Applejack picks her hat off the side table as she looks at the pathetic condition of the library door “…..Twi was right…. That happens way too often……”

“Which one…..” the orange filly gasps “which one of you is Twilight…… Need help….”

Fluttershy always sensitive to the injured and woes of others rushes over to the tired filly. “You…. You’re Scootaloo aren’t you? Applejack says that you’re friends with her sister Applebloom?”

The filly smiles as she collapses into Fluttershy’s outstretched arms “heh is that how everypony knows me…… as Applebloom’s friend? Man I really need to work on my image….”

“Well for what it's’ worth I’m glad to see you too Scootaloo.” Managing practically the lightest slap in existence Fluttershy spanks the filly “But still, shame on you! How could you just skip school if you’re Applebloom’s friend? I knew that Applebloom and Rarity’s sister Sweetie Belle were troublemakers…. But this……”

“What the…. Never mind that!” the filly slaps aside Fluttershy’s hooves standing on her own “I had to escape from school as fast as I could! Cheerilee was…..”

“You deliberately ran away from School?!” Fluttershy shouts “And your teacher?!”

“Would you let me finish?!” Scootaloo shouts

“Gladly!” Applejack slaps Fluttershy upside the head “Let Scootaboom finish.”

“Scootaloo!”

“Scootaboom, Scootaloo, Same thing, now what’s the rat in the grain silo?”

“…… Like I was trying to say….” Scootaloo continues “Miss Cheerilee's lost it! We were just starting class you know talking amongst ourselves, being rowdy, throwing paper balls….. You know the usual when she sort of snapped!”

The orange filly extends her hooves creepily as if telling a ghost story. “Suddenly all the students started looking like zombies from Indiana colt and the graveyard of the Brain Munchers!” Scootaloo scratches her chin “That and her guest speaker looks really out of it! I mean Big Mac is usually really quiet anyways but he just looked really…. Weird and he didn’t talk much unless he was complimenting Miss Cherilee.”

“BIG MAC? He’s at yawl’s school?!” Applejack yells

“Yeah! Applebloom thought that was strange as well cause he was supposed to be missing or something. All of a sudden Applebloom told me to get Twilight as soon as possible and told me to get going. She even punched Big Mac in the face so I could escape.” Scootaloo picks up her scooter brimming with pride “So I got on my trusty scooter and got here in ten minutes flat! Pretty awesome wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, yeah Scootaboom. Whatever you say.”

“Scootaloo!”

Applejack narrows gaze letting the filly know she’s not taking any backsass. Parking her Stetson on her face the orange farmer looks down on the little filly “Scootaboom yawl rest here and when Twi gets back tell her what happened.”

Scootaloo looks at Applejack with a skeptical looks “Why? What are you going to do?”

“Me?” Applejack places one hoof confidently outside the broken library door as she looks back at Scootaloo “well now that ah know where ta go……….Ah’m gonna have me a little parent teacher conference with mah two best friends Kicks mcgee and Bucks magillicuddy.”

However the orange farm mare once again finds her way outside blocked “NO! Applejack I know that you want to help your brother but you’re in no shape! Let’s wait until Twilight gets back like she asked……”

“We aint got time fer that Fluttershy!” Applejack takes another step forward causing the yellow mare to back off “All the others are scattered round town, we can’t leave our fowls at a crazy teacher’s mercy. Ah’ve seen how crimson harvest ends! And that aint right!”

“Oh……” Fluttershy nervously shuffles her hooves “I’m sure that Scootaloo is just over exaggerating everything…….. I know Cherilee. And she’s a calm reasonable pony…. I’m sure that Applebloom and her friends are……”

“We can only do what we are able to do, aint that right Fluttershy?” Applejack tilts her hat as if acknowledging Fluttershy’s past point. “Well now we are the only ones that can reach the school in time, so it is up to us to do what we can. An that means both of us, together!”

Fluttershy looks at Applejack her confidence swelling as she feeds on her confident aura that seems to pour out of the farmer without limits. Taking a deep breath Fluttershy stares back her own confidence returning “All…… all right then….. I guess….. No, you’re right! Now it’s our chance to do something!”

Applejack nods “Good that’s the spirit Flutters! We’ll make a brave warrior out of you yet!”

………………

Applejack looks at the quiet schoolhouse before her as Fluttershy shivers behind her in terror. ‘So much fer a brave warrior…..’ Applejack thinks.

The orange farm mare originally put off by the silence, walks in through the front gate scanning the grounds “it’s quiet….. Too quiet. This yard here is usually packed round this time fer recess and the like, now it’s as silent as a ghost town populated by tumbleweeds!”

“Well that’s good!” Fluttershy rambles “No noise means no ponies! So we can just search somewhere else now!” Fluttershy attempts to fly off only for her tail to be grabbed by Applejack in midflight. With a mediocre amount of force the orange mare pulls the mare back to the ground and jerks her back up to her hooves just as quick.

“Looks flutters….” Applejack says while dusting Fluttershy off “I know yawl are scared an all but ah need yer help. Mah brother an all the other fillies are in trouble an ah can’t do this alone.” The farm mare smiles encouragingly “So can ah count on ya Flutters?”

“…….No.”

The orange farm mare rolls her eyes. “Just come on already Fluttershy yawl can hide behind me if things git bad.”

Though still visibly scared the yellow mare perks up and nods “All… all right Applejack I-if you insist nothing bad will happen.….” They both look to the door leading into the schoolhouse classroom “now we just have to knock and hope some pony answers …..”

WHACK!

With a single dexterous movement built up over years of Apple bucking the orange mare shatters the door with a patented Apple family kick, leaving hundreds of fragments of red wood on the floor and crude torn hinges as the only sign that a door ever existed.

“…..or that works too….”

Both of the mares walk in through the back of the classroom completely surprised with how silent the room is compared to how filled it is. Row upon rows of students sit straight as measuring rods at their desks working on problems that only they can see. The little fillies and colts being so absorbed in their work that none even notice the fact that their back door has been bucked down with the force of a thunderclap. Only the sound of pens scribbling on parchment permeates the room as the mares make their way to the front of the classroom and the proudly grinning teacher who stands at the front of it. Sitting behind her desk like a ruler on her throne Miss Cheerilee is completely engrossed in the sound of her students working she almost fails to notice the two mares.

“Well Well! Class it looks as though we have some more guests!” Cherilee applauds as all the students look up to the two mares “Class, may I introduce Miss Applejack, proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres, and Fluttershy a good friend of mine who had the top scores of her class in veterinarian’s school! Applaud.”

The entire class claps their hooves mechanically and without any passion as they stare at the mares before them. Applejack looks at the students in fear and disgust at how devoid of life and vigor they seem, how empty their souls are; granted it was a school but still it was way too creepy to be anything but abnormal. The orange mare looks over the class until she spies the face of her sister.

“Applebloom!” Applejack rushes over to her vacantly staring sister “Applebloom! What’s going on here? Are yawl all right? What’s going on here?”

Suddenly a bit of the youthful vigor returns to Applebloom’s face as she interacts with her sister. “Oh, Applejack! Everything is more than fine! I’m at school and nothing bad ever happens at school. You simply worry too much!”

Noting a substantial lack of something in her voice Applejack cringes “Applebloom…. What’s…. what’s wrong with yer voice? Where’s yer accent?”

“Oh that!” Applebloom waves her hoof dismissively “Cherilee just helped me with a voice lessons so that I could learn to speak normally so that others can better understand my diction!”

“Wha… what?”

“It’s nothing special sister. Just some vocalization and proper equestrian in addition to my normal school work. It took a little more work but it was no trouble when I buckled down and did my work for once!” Applebloom beams with pride “If only I had realized how important it was listen to my elders before, then I would have saved you a great deal of trouble. Just imagine how much schoolwork I can do now that I’ve learned to work quietly without any interruptions!”

“…..aaaannnnnnddddd Applebloom’s been brainwashed.” Applejack turns back to the teacher in the front of the class. “Cherilee! What the buck do you think that yer doin?!”

“Applejack! Language please! Remember that there are fillies and colts in the room.” Cherilee raps her hoof on her desk “Class forget that word.”

“YES MISS CHERILEE.” The entire class responds in unison before turning back to their papers.

“And for your information Applejack…” Cheerilee continues “I am doing my Job, which is to educate these students to the best of my ability using whatever means at my disposal…..” Cherilee extends her hoof as a large hoof shaped ladybug lands on it “And with my little friend here all it takes is a little love bite and they all hang on every word I say.”

Applejack readies herself as she looks at the strange shaped bug “Ah stand power….. That’s how she’s been doin it! Twi was right.”

“You brainwashed all these fillies? How could you!” Fluttershy shouts

Cherilee rolls her eyes as the bug crawls off her hoof and onto her desk. “Well every filly except for Diamond Tiara… I gave her the day off so that she and her father could spend some quality time together…..”

………………

“Diiiiiaaaaaaammmmmoooooonnnnnddddd…. Come out of your rooooooommmmm!”

“NO! Now go away! Come back when you’ve gotten some intense therapy!!”

“No door can keep out my love Diiiiiaaaaaaammmmmoooooonnnnnddddd! So you had better come out! We have so much to do together!”

“And as I told you the last seven times, NO. BUCKING. WAY.”

“Aw Diamond… you're breaking your father’s heart!”

“You’re not my father! My dad loves coffee and the morning paper and is always serious about his work….. not….. this……”

“That was the old Filthy Rich! Now I’m new and improved!

“…..more like new and deluded……”

“……And I want to spend all my time with you Diamond! I’ve even read all those self-help books your mother bought for me! I’m a better father now!”

“Good come back when you’re a sane father again!”

“But Diamond……”

“The answer is NO! I am not dressing up in my filly clothes and retaking all the pictures from the key moments in my life! Now go away!”

“……………..”

“…………..Phew, he’s gone…. Finally. This will give me a chance to reinforce my barricade. I thought that my dresser would be enough. But with how crazy Daddy’s acting I’d better barricade the windows too…”

THWACK!

“Um….. What was that…..”

THWACK!

“It sounds like…. It’s coming from the door….”

THWACK!      THWACK!

“OH MY GOD! HES GOT AN AXE!”

THWACK!

“I told you Diamond No Door can separate you from my love!”

THWACK!     THWACK!     THWACK!

Peering through the splintered and cracked wood the bloodshot and giddy eyes of a middle aged stallion peer through the door to his daughter on the other side. Grinning like a fowl who has found a new puppy the stallion laughs manically “HHHHHHEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRREEEE’SSSSSSSSSSSSS DADDY!!!”

…………….

“……she should be fine.” Cherilee concludes “it’s you naughty mares that should be concerned! I mean running into class unannounced…. And without a hall pass of all things!”

“Ah don’t have time fer this…..” Applejack takes a menacing step forwards “Put mah sister and the rest of the class back ta normal right now! Or things are gonna get ugly.”

“And like I said Applejack…..” Cheerilee looks at the farmer with a look of disdain on her face “I’m doing nothing wrong! Look at this class!” Cherilee points to the students “Before they were completely disruptive and unfocused, now every single one of them are reading at a tenth grade level! Before they would barely listen to me! Now they hang on my every word!”

The teacher leaps to the table a crazed look in her eye “And guess what?! I happen to like it! I’m tired being the but of every pony’s joke, the lonely widower that wastes her life away accomplishing nothing! Now ponies can’t help but pay attention to me! They love me now!”

“Isn’t that right…… smouchikins?” The mulberry mare turns her head as a familiar red stallion come walking out of the hall. Big Mac’s eyes though filed with a light of passion and awareness seem off somehow, as the stallion stares completely love-struck at the mare before him.

“Big Mac?!” Applejack stares dumbstruck at her brother before her as he continues to lose himself in Cheerilee's eyes “Big Mac! Snap out of it!”

The red Stallion turns to face his sister “Oh hi Applejack! Fancy seein you here! Do you want ta meet mah new mare friend?!”

“What.”

“Yep!” Big mace nods multiple times with enough force to give him brain damage “Cheerilee's mah new mare friend. Sorry if in ah didn’t come home ta tell ya. Ah didn’t mean to let ya worry ah was just so lost in mah date that…..”

“Big Mac! Snap out of it! She’s not your mare friend! She’s manipulating you!”

 “Nope.” The stallion responds “She is mah mare friend she said so. Isn’t that right smookiekins?”

“You bet snuggly bear.” Cherilee responds

“aaaannnnnnnnnnddddddddddd, now Big Mac’s lost his mind too.” With a sudden jump Applejack leaps forward and manifests her stand in as she prepares to pummel Cherilee with a flying tackle. Yet just as Applejack is about to bring a world of hurt to Cherilee, a familiar Red stallion steps between Applejack and her prey. Big mac Stands Arms spread wide in front of Cherilee as the Orange mare skids to a halt just inches away from her brother. “Big Macintosh!” Applejack says in her most authoritative voice possible “Out of the way….. NOW!”

“No sis.” Big mac, unintimidated stares right back at his sister “I aint letting you hurt mah special somepony.”

“What… that….. why….hunh…..” The flabbergasted Orange pony fumbles for any word to better express the lunacy of what is happening right now.

“Now Applejack….” Big mac explains in his most calming voice “Ah know this might come as a shock ta you, and ya might not approve of mah relationship with smookiekins….”

“There is no relationship you big gault!” Applejack yells “Yer bein brainwashed!”

“But that aint no excuse fer violence. If ya just gotta know her…….”

“Big Mac, I’ve known her fer all off five minutes and she’s brainwashed her class, threatened me, and held mah brother against his will.”

“I know….” The red Stallion looks back to the mulberry mare with googly eyes “isn’t she the best?”

“Do ya even hear yerself?!”

“I think Snuggly bear understands perfectly.” Cherilee walks up to her special somepony giving him an intimate nuzzle that many fowls in the class would wretch at if not for the fact that their noses were imbedded in their papers. “I love him and he loves me. It’s not his fault that you can’t respect our love….”

“That aint love you….”

“In fact….” The teacher continues over the orange mare “you’re the one who is causing trouble here…. Disrupting my class……. Yelling at your brother….. and running around town like a banshee for Celestia only knows what.”

With a confident, cocky grin Cherilee extends her hoof causing the insect to appear, it’s proboscis ready to strike “If fact….. If you insist on being a disruption in my classroom, then I’ll have to silence you myself.”

Cherilee flings the bug at Applejack the creature flying towards the mare at incredible speeds. Applejack sensing the danger of even a small bite can inflict on her manifests her stand causing the bug to run into Applejack’s wooden foundation like a Pegasus into a brick wall. With a quick and dexterous movement Applejack garbs the bug with her stand completely immobilizing it in Foundation’s strong hoof. The bug squirms and wriggles but finds itself unable to escape from the grasp of the immensely powerful stand as the green leafy mane of Foundation drifts around the stand. Cherilee flinches from the impact but looks completely unharmed as she stares at the ghostly figure that Applejack has manifested in front of her.

“Like that hunh?” Applejack smiles “that’s the power of my stand Foundation. Yer stand seems to be fast an all that but has less power than Twilight’s. An now yer stand is helpless. Now I’ll ask only once more Cherilee Give up, ah don’t want to hurt you….”

“Stand……” the teacher mouths “what’s a stand?”

The orange mare groans “yawl don’t know what a stand is? It’s what yawl have been usin ta make these ponies listen ta you! Now I’ll ask again undo all this brainwashing right now……”

“Stand…. I see that’s the power that I’ve gained, the power that allows me to summon my little love bugs……” Cheerilee smiles as she walks forward “And when they bite a pony they have no choice but to listen….”

“That’s right now….. Wait… did ya say bugs?! As in plural?” every hair on Applejack’s body stands erect as she feels multiple tiny feet on her flank, as if an insect were crawling over her body. Suddenly the orange farm mare feels a tight pinch on her flank and falls over as a strange new sensation begins to course through her veins.

“Yes you’re right Applejack.” Cheerilee extends her hoof causing two identical bugs to land on her outstretched arm “I can manifest two of my little pets at once and once they bite that pony is ….”

Applejack tries to shake the venom off as she stands to her hooves, charging at Cherilee her stand prepared to strike.

“Applejack! SIT DOWN!” the magenta mare yells with a voice of authority causing the orange mare to slump down to the floor unmoving. Applejack unwilling to accept how easy it was to subdue her struggles and wriggles like a mad mare trying to pull herself off the floor “And stop flailing around like that, you’ll hurt yourself!”

Applejack stops moving, staring straight ahead “Good now see? Isn’t that better? As you can see my power is very difficult to break out of, as long as the commands aren’t overly unreasonable. For example let’s try a very simple one….”

Cherilee grins manically as she clears her throat “Applejack, why don’t you apologize for disrupting the class like this? You were so disruptive earlier it would only be right if you apologized for your rude behavior.”

Applejack’s eyes widen like saucers as her mouth begins to open of its own accord. The farm mare struggles with all of her might attempting to clamp down on her mouth. However despite all her resistance and her best efforts Applejack finds her mouth opening and contorting itself into words she hates to say “I’m….. I’m sorry everypony…..” The words turn to ash in her mouth as the mulberry mare grins excitedly.

“Good job Applejack! I’m glad that you’ve seen the error of your ways…..” Cheerilee smiles gently as the Orange mare turns back to Fluttershy hiding behind one of the desks.

“Fluttershy….. Help…. Me….” Applejack whispers just below the teacher’s range of hearing, Fortunately for Applejack Cheerilee was ranting on and on to her ‘special somepony’ and completely missed Applejack’s near silent plea for help.

“Welllll….. ummmm….” The Pegasus mare stutters as meekly as possible “Cherilee isn’t really hurting anypony….. and her students are so nice and quiet…… and…….”

“FLUTTERSHY!”

“Oh! I’m sorry Applejack!” the yellow mare cries “I’m just not good at standing up to ponies. If she were actually hurting them then……. But…..”

Applejack raises her eyebrow expressing the full range of her skepticism towards the Pegasus “Fluttershy, yawl were here for the brainwashing and the forcing ponies against their wills weren’t you?!”

Fluttershy gulps heavily “Well…… maybe I should talk to her……” Applejack rolls her eyes as the yellow mare pulls herself out from behind the desk and tip toes towards Cherilee who is currently completely engrossed in her stallion friend “Um…. Excuse me…… Miss Cherilee…..” The yellow mare raises her hoof gently as the teacher turns to face her.

“Yes Fluttershy? Is there something that you need?” Cheerilee asks amiably.

“Well, I was just wondering……” Fluttershy shuffles on her hooves “if you might….. Maybe…… let everypony go and stop trying to brainwash them? Pretty please!”

Cherilee blinks once at the mare, before breaking out in a short giggle “Oh Fluttershy you are so polite! But no the students are staying like this.” Cherilee puts her hoof over the yellow mare’s mouth “I’m just making sure that they do their duty as students and pay attention to their teacher. I’ll put them back to normal after class is over, and they’ll be none the wiser. Well that’s not entirely true; they’ll still remember all their knowledge, so they will be wiser!”

Cherilee chuckles as Fluttershy mutters under the teacher’s hoof “Now I know that you think that this might be ‘amoral’…” Cheerilee says as if reading the pink maned pegasus’ mind “…….or wrong but rest assured they’ll be fine by the end of the day.” Cherilee finishes as she removes her hoof from Fluttershy’s mouth.

“….Even Big Mac?” Fluttershy asks hopefully

“HA Ha ha…. No. Big Mac is my special somepony. We love each other and are going to get married.” The yellow mare tires to object and is once again stopped by Cherilee “However I greatly appreciate making your concerns made known to me and asking politely. Have a cookie.” Fluttershy tries to talk again but finds a large sugar cookie shoved into her mouth.

Cheerilee smiles at the stuttering Pegasus patting her on the head and walking back towards the class behind the yellow mare. Completely ignoring Fluttershy’s muttering Cherilee turns herself to face the rest of the class. “All right now that that inconvenience is out of the way every pony pull out your frogs!”

WEAZE…. HACK….

Fluttershy chokes on the cookie in her mouth as she spits out the offending party. “…F-Frogs?” the yellow mare pulls a one eighty turn and faces the teacher with a perplexed look on her face “what frogs?”

“Oh Fluttershy! Come now surely you haven’t forgotten this project!” Cherilee watches as every student in the class pulls out a tin with a frog on it out from inside their desks. “After all it’s a requirement for any pony to pass their middle school biology. And being that you’re a veterinarian you must have done this before….”

Fluttershy gulps heavily her throat drying up as she watches the students pull out long sharp instruments and plenty of needles.  “y-you don’t mean….”.

“That’s right Fluttershy!” Cheerilee sweeps her hooves across the glass as if literally embracing the knowledge “Today is Class Dissection day! Now class ready your scalpels!”

Every student in the class raises their miniature knife “Now I know that this experiment may make many of you squeamish but it is a required part of coursework and is necessary for you to receive a passing grade in biology.”

Cherilee pulls the yellow mare beside her into a deep hug “Why even Fluttershy here was required to do such a course when she was a filly. Isn’t that right Fluttershy?” Cheerilee turns her head looking towards the yellow mare searching for confirmation and their eyes lock for a moment.

Cherilee jumps back from the quaking yellow mare as she gasps desperately for breath. With all the fear of a cornered animal Cherilee backs herself against the wall as she begins to glance into the pegasus’ eyes shivering in fear at what she sees. Two orbs of pure hatred and malice stare back at Cherilee as the yellow mare turns to face the schoolteacher. “You’re asking me…..if I would willingly allow….. Nay that I would take part in the torture of innocent animals……”

“What… what are you talking about Fluttershy?” Cheerilee asks desperately “you must have done a dissection if you passed….”

“SILENCE!” Cherilee gulps heavily as Fluttershy continues to advance “I would never… I repeat NEVER, condone such cruelty to little animals, no matter how small they are. How could you even think of killing defenseless animals for your own amusement!? You’re sick!”

“But….. But It’s not for amusement… it’s for science….. and the frogs are already……”

“I Said SILENCE!” Cherilee flinches visibly as the yellow Pegasus mare comes to within inches of her face. “The main reason that I DIDN’T graduate top of my class in veterinarian school was the fact that I refused to participate in this sick experiment when I was a filly. Now you are going to use your fancy shmancy stand power to force these innocent fillies to rip apart animals? I. THINK. NOT.”

Cherilee sweats heavily on the ground as the mare continues to stare her into oblivion, every second that her eyes are fixed on Fluttershy becoming a moment of pure agony. Realizing that unless she does something right now she is doomed Cherilee thinks up a clever scheme on the spot as a false smile crosses her face. “Oh Fluttershy you’re right!” Cherilee states as she places her hoof over her eyes cutting off Fluttershy’s stare “How could I ever force my students to participate in something so evil! I’m such a bad pony……”

Fluttershy relieved that her friend is beginning to see the light relaxes her guard ever so slightly “You…. You mean that Cherilee?”

“Of course Fluttershy!” Cheerilee says “It was wrong of me to try and force these fillies to do something that they were obviously uncomfortable with, especially with ponies like you present who are so sensitive to the needs of animals.” Cherilee turns her head and mutters under her breath “even if it was required coursework….”

Fluttershy perks up immediately glad that another crisis has been averted “Well I’m glad to hear that Cherilee…. Apology accepted! I’m just glad that you decided to come to your senses before you did anything rash…..”

“Yes… yes Fluttershy…” Cheerilee extends her hoof up towards the yellow mare “Say could you help me up? I seem to be forced into a corner, pardon my expression.”

Fluttershy blushes as she realizes that Cheerilee has indeed been forced down into a corner by her stare and is lying on the floor. Fluttershy extends her hoof to help her friend “Well of course Cherilee! What are Friends…..”

“Fluttershy no! It’s a Trap!” Applejack yells.

Fluttershy turns her head to the farm mare as Cherilee makes her move. Her stand Love Bug manifests itself on Cheerilee's hoof as she tightens her grip. Fluttershy feeling the intensity of the grip turns her head back to the teacher just in time to see the bug bite her arm injecting her with its poison. Fluttershy stares betrayed at the mare before her as the venom courses through her veins “Cherilee….. What……. WHY?”

Cherilee grins “I’m sorry Fluttershy, but this dissection is twenty percent of a pony’s biology grade and despite your feelings my students and their grades come first. It’s like I said to Applejack if you are going to get in the way of my class you will to be made to behave.” Cherilee laughs giddily “And now you have to behave Fluttershy! All I have to do is speak the word and…..”

Fluttershy’s eyes ignite in red hot fury pinning the teacher in the spot. Cheerilee tries to flinch, to move, to close her eyes from the visage before her but fails miserably each time.

“Teacher……” Fluttershy says with a voice full of mocking rage “I have a question…. You said that once you bit ponies with your stand that they would have to listen to any command you gave them. But let’s say that you were unable to give a command…… what would happen then?”

Cheerilee is stuck staring straight ahead looking into the infinite pits of blackness that seem to encompass Fluttershy’s eyes. Her mouth dries up in fear as she attempts to manages the slightest of sounds only for her will to be crushed by the intensity of the visage before her. She tries to utter the one word that will save her from the mare’s wrath ‘stop’ however despite all her willpower she finds herself completely unable to. To Cheerilee's rising terror she can’t even blink as Fluttershy pulls closer to her.

“Now you listen here Cheerilee…” Fluttershy flies right up in Cheerilee's face hovering a few centimeters away from the mulberry mare “You’ve brainwashed fillies, kidnapped one of my best friend’s brother, and brought my friend to her knees……”

Fluttershy’s mane and tail burst into brining pink flames as all in the classroom gaze upon the terrible majesty of Fluttershy the conqueror. “BUT DON’T YOU EVER THREATEN A CUTE LITTLE ANIMAL AS LONG AS I AM AROUND! NOW YOU UN-BRAINWASH EVERYONE YOU HAVE FORCED TO GO ALONG WITH YOUR SICK SCIENCE PROJECT, GIVE BACK BIG MAC, AND APOLOGISE THE SOULS OF THE SWEET LITTLE FROGS YOU HAVE MURDERED RIGHT NOW!”

In the face of such a power, a mortal body few defenses against such mind demolishing fear. Her senses overloaded in fear the teacher is just able to groan weekly in response and fall to the floor as every pony in the classroom looks around in complete confusion. As Cherilee lies on the floor covered in her own sweat and shame, the spell binding the fillies and colts breaks as they look around the classroom free for the first time since the day started.  And the sight that greets the fillies and colts is perhaps the third strangest one they have seen in ponyville, their Teacher Cheerilee lying face down on the floor covered in various bodily fluids as a vengeful demon with burning pink hair stands over her with eyes as empty as the abyss.

Applebloom blinks erratically as she walks up to her sister “Um Applejack? What’s going on? Why is Miss Cherilee lying on the floor? Why is Fluttershy’s mane on fire? And what smells so bad?” The little filly looks around as her eyes spy another familiar face. “Big Mac?! There ya are? What are ya doin? We’ve been looking everywhere fer ya!”

Applejack looks at her sister a look of concern on her face “Applebloom? Are ya feeling better?”

Tilting her head the filly looks back at her sister in confusion “Um… I think so? Should I not be feeling better? Why would I not feel good?”

“Nevermind Bloom…. Just go on home fer the day…..” The orange mare turns back to the class “In fact… all classes are canceled fer the day so go on out an play er somthin….”

Needing no other excuse than that, the entire class piles out of the room each filly and colt eager to leave behind the trappings of school. Even Applebloom dashes out of the room to meet up with her friends for another day of crusading, completely forgetting the entire incident. Applejack sighs contentedly that at least one thing went right as she watches the yellow mare’s mane return to normal.

“WHO’S THE MARE!? WHO'S THE MMMMARRRRREEEEEEE!?!” Fluttershy screams to the heavens as she lands on the floor with the force of a soaring eagle “YES I AM!”

Fluttershy suddenly looks at the teacher in front of her scared half to death and sitting in a pool of her own urine. Her mane returning to its normal not on fire state the pink maned pegasus dotes on the distraught creature in need of some nurturing. “Oh Cherilee I’m so sorry for that! Please forgive me!” All the bravery and strength forgotten as she tends to the shell shocked mare, before her.

 “Um… Fluttershy?” Applejack steps attentively forward  “How'd ya get yer mane ta burst inta fire like……”

“Twilight.”

“Figures.” The Applejack sighs

Cherilee beginning to recover from the shock of a full force stare looks vacantly at the floor with a look of shame on her face. “What… what have I done?” The teacher asks “I abused my powers to force others to do what I wanted….. Without any considerations for what they wanted…… I’m a bad teacher…… I was just…..”

Cherilee sniffles as tears stream down her face “……..I’m not a monster….. I just wanted ponies to like me…… I wanted Big Mac to like me……and I ruined it…..”

Applejack looks into Cheerilee's hope shattered eyes and sighs a deep familiar sigh “Give me a Break….. This always happens, every time a mare falls in love with Big Mac it ends in trouble.”

The red stallion walks up to his sister his mind completely free of tampering “Sis! Don’t be like that! All mah dates weren’t a disaster! What bout Crimson Blossom?!”

Applejack stares at the stallion “Mac…. she set the barn on fire and threatened to call the police if you tried to take her out on a date again.” The orange farm mare sighs again “Look you two just wait outside for a while, I got ta have a talk with Miss Cheerilee fer a while.”

“But… but you won’t hurt her will you Applejack?!” Fluttershy asks “I know that she did some pretty bad things to you but….”

Applejack smiles “don’t worry shy; ah’m not gonna hurt her. However she will wish that she was bucked in the head instead of having ta hear what ah’m gona tell her…..”

……………..

Fluttershy and Big mac sit outside in the dust as Applejack continues to talk to Cherilee about something that would best be left unsaid about Mac’s luck with dates. Fluttershy herself doesn’t know how long has passed however from the deafening silence between the two most silent ponies in ponyville she figures it must have been hours. Finally the mare’s sanity can endure it no more as she ventures in the forbidden zone of conversation.

“Sooooooooooo, nice day isn’t it?”

“Eyeeeeuuuuuup…….”

“……..is the farm doing well? I know that we’ve been needing your sister more and more often lately……. It isn’t interfering with your harvest…..is it? Because if it is……”

“Nooooppppppeeee…….”

“Um…… I’m lost, no the farm isn’t doing well or no Applejack being away isn’t causing you trouble?”

“Eyeeeeppppp…..”

“……..yes it is causing you trouble?”

“Nooooppppppeeee…….”

“….so Applejack being away doesn’t bother you?”

“Eyeeeeppppp…..”

“…… it does or does not bother you? Yes or no.”

“Nooooppppppeeee…….”

“It doesn’t bother you that your sister is doing Celestia knows what and might be in danger?!”

“Nooooppppppeeee…….”

“Well why not?!”

“…..Jackie is strong; she can take care of herself.”

“….Oh…. well I guess that you’re right…..”

“…………..”

“………………….”

“…………………………”

“………………………………………”

“……are you doing anything latter?”

“WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!!!” Fluttershy nearly jumps out of her skin as an enormous shout comes from the inside of the schoolhouse. Big Mac just sighs as he straightens up a little more knowing with the way his sister handles explaining things it will soon be over and they will be on their way.

“Um….. Big mac? Was that Miss Cheerilee?” Fluttershy is interrupted as the door to the schoolhouse opens and out walks and incredibly red faced and flustered schoolteacher.

Miss Cheerilee looks thoroughly embarrassed and without any grace or poise walks over to the red stallion and flings herself in the dirt with a bow. “I’m SO sorry Big Mac! I know that it was very, very inconsiderate of me…… I just….. Well love can make you do pretty crazy things…..” Cherilee rubs the back of her neck as she smiles awkwardly “and I promise you, from this point on, I will never use this power for evil purposes. I just hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me…….”

The three ponies look back and forth between each other looking for a sign of confirmation before turning back to the mulberry mare.

“Of course we forgive you Cherilee! We know that you weren’t yourself.”

“Yeah wouldn’t be the first time a mare’s lost her marbles over my here brother!”

“Eyeeeppp!”

Fluttershy takes the teacher’s hoof in her own “we’ve already all forgiven you Cherilee, there’s no need to beat yourself up any further. In the end everything worked out for the best.”

Cherilee looks back at the mare in front of her with tears of joy running down her face “That….. That is very….. Mature of you Fluttershy, and you too Big Mac! I…… Just Thank you. I’d give you a hug but I seem to be covered in……”

Cherilee pulls her hoof free from Fluttershy’s hoof as she prepares to leave “you know it's’ not important, now if you’ll excuse me I have to prepare lessons for tomorrow….. A teacher’s work is never done!” And with that Cherilee trots briskly off into the distanced, sparing a single look back at the stallion behind her before muttering darkly under her breath.

“Well….. I’m glad that Cheerilee is all right now….” Fluttershy looks at her bare wrist “Oh would you look at the time! Biased off the shadow of the sun from behind me…” Fluttershy judges the angle of her hoof’s shadow “Two hours have passed! We really need to get heading back to the library. I hope Twilight isn’t too upset we left….”

“Aw Twi will be fine as a pig in mud once we show her we found Big Mac.” Applejack slaps the yellow mare across the back “And wait till I get to rub it in Dash’s smug face! Won’t they be surprised that we found Big Mac on our own?”

The entire group giggles as they start walking towards the library together. “….So sis….” Big Mac turns towards his savior “what excuse did ya use this time? Family curse? Purple spots? Familial marriage customs?”

“Applejack?! You…..” Fluttershy gulps “You Lied?!”

“Yeah well….” Applejack blushes “Ah learned real quick that honesty isn’t always the best policy especially when Big Mac is involved. But No Fluttershy this time ah didn’t lie ah just told her the truth….”

Big Mac Narrows his gaze at his sister the rumble in his voice evident “An that would be….”

“Simple, Big Mac. Yer gay.” And with the force of those two words a half ton stallion and a petite mare fall over in complete shock their eyes wide and their faces frozen.

Fluttershy’s mouth gapes open and closed as she stares at the stallion in front of her “…… I should have known…….”

“Wait there a sec Fluttershy.” Big Mac turns to his sister “Applejack! Ah thought we had this discussion already! I aint Gay! Just cause I don’t spend all mah time staring at mare’s flanks and just because ah put all mah time ta making this farm successful doesn’t meant that ah’m Gay.”

Fluttershy paws the ground with her hoof making hearts in the dust “I should have known…. Why are all the good ones already taken or Gay?! Why can’t I find a special somepony? I have neeeeeeedddddssss!”

“Right Big Mac, Right.” Applejack nods humoring her brother “You aint gay. And I suppose that all the time ya spend with Turner and Thunderlane is just a coincidence.”

“Those are mah friends Applejack! We go out er drinks and have fun.” Big mac continues to glare at his sister “Ya don’t see me accusing you of being gay. An ah’ve seen how ya look at Rarity when ya think that she’s not lookin. And that new unicorn Twilight…...”

“Now see here Big Mac!” Applejack retorts “Now ah won’t have you saying anything…..”

“It’s because I’m not assertive isn’t it?!” Fluttershy sadly says as she continues to draw broken hearts in the dust, completely ignored over Applejacks’ rant. “Everypony wants somepony assertive. IS IT BECAUSE I’M NOT ASSERTIVE?!”

This gets Big Mac’s attention as he turns to comfort the mare “No Fluttershy, Yawl are perfect the way ya are and ya don’t need any stallion to tell ya otherwise!”

As Fluttershy begins to stop crying Applejack gives her brother a knowing wink and a little nudge “that’s right Fluttershy ya don’t need a stallion ta tell ya yer pretty. Just Like big Mac doesn’t need a mare ta tell him he’s handsome…..”

“I. AINT. GAY!” Big Mac Roars “Just why in Sam hill are ya jumpin ta conclusions like that Applejack?”

Applejack rolls her eyes “Well……yeah Big Mac, maybe ya aren’t gay. You keep that poster of Sorin hidden under your bed because you are a fan of the wonderbolts. Isn’t that right?”

“And ah told ya! That. Was. A Gift! Sides I happen ta like the wonderbolts.” Big mac turns his head to the side “an ah thought that ah hid that well…….”

Applejack laughs uproariously as she wipes the tears from her eyes “Don’t worry Mac. Yawl ‘little secret’ is safe with me and when yawl are finally ready to ‘come out’ ah’ll be here fer you…..”

 “I aint GAY! I just haven’t met a mare ah can take past one date! And ya better stop that snickerin right now Applejack. Ah mean it!” However despite all his false anger the red stallion finds himself just short of catching his sister as they both run down the path in front of them, back to the library and their good friends who are waiting on them.

Chapter 9-Valkyrie-Take 1

Chapter 10-Dangerious Zones

Danger Zone:

It began on a day like any other day. The sun was shining; the birds were chirping, not a cloud in the sky……….

KABOOM!!

…………..and an explosion detonated at the golden oaks library. Truly this was an ordinary day in ponyville.

Twilight pulls herself out from behind a heavily reinforced table in the basement of her library, coughing up smoke. “Well that confirms Hypothesis number fourteen; thermal energy creates no visible effect on the strange stones. You okay back there Trixie?! You owe me five bits.”

The showmare pulls herself out from behind the table on the opposite side of the strange stone, her entire body covered in soot and dust from the resulting explosion. Even her trademark hat and cape are stained black. The mare coughs up a small cloud of black soot as she walks towards Twilight hoofing her the bits “despite your wordy and long winded explanations, Trixie still fails the grasp the importance of launching fireballs at magical artifacts. If one were to ask the great and powerful Trixie she would say that our time would better be spent looking for more of the Red Stones, or better yet ponies who have abused the Red stones to their own ends, not……. This.”

“Trixie, I had to give the others a day off, they threatened to strike if their demands weren’t met!”

Trixie scoffs. “Some friends they are, forcing their leader to surrender like a frightened fowl.” Dusting off her coat Trixie Strikes a confident pose. “Now if the Great and Powerful Trixie were in charge than she would throw any pony who would disobey her like that into the royal dungeon!”

“Trixie! That’s horrible!” Twilight gasps “Even though their healthcare demands were pretty biased those are our friends that you are talking about!”

“Humph perhaps your friends, but the Great and Powerful Trixie possesses no friends!”

Picking up a roll of newspaper Twilight promptly bops the showmare on the nose “Oh stop you. You know as well as I do it is that it would be completely unreasonable to expect our friends to work all the time. They have their own lives and jobs that need their attention. Rarity has that new fashion line that she’s sending over to the princess, Applejack has to take time off for zap apple harvest and spending some ‘quality time’ with her sister………”

………………

“Applejack? Are ya sure that this is the best way ta harvest Zap Apples?”

“Positive Bloom. Ah’ve harvested more Zap apples this way than in any other! It’s practically a family tradition.”

“But Applejack…. Not to dismiss a family tradition an all. And I know that Zap Apples have funny magic an all, but this seems a little……”

 “……Applebloom, quit yer whining and get in the trebuchet!”

……………..

“……….and Fluttershy had to cram for her final so she can become a full-fledged veterinarian. It’s a good thing that I was able to give her another chance at that, it’s amazing what a little word from the Princess Rep can do! Besides giving them all time off to tend to their jobs and relax will make them better able to handle the stresses of their jobs when they all get back to work.” Twilight levitates a clipboard into the chest of the blue mare as she turns back to the Strange stone on the pedestal “Alright Trixie prepare to record the results of experiment number fifteen, exposure to extreme cold.”

Trixie looks at the lavender mare and scoffs dropping the clipboard to the floor “The great and powerful Trixie does not need petty breaks as searching for stand abuses is her job! Besides how is almost being blown to smithereens by your crazy experiments a relaxing break? Why does Trixie have to help you?”

Twilight sighs as she continues to jot down more notes “I don’t have an assistant and I’m giving you free room and board so the least you could do is help me.”

Trixie narrows her eyes at the librarian “You destroyed my home.”

“And I’m providing you room, but if you want to keep being fed you have to start pulling your weight around here.” Twilight pulls herself away from the pedestal looking directly at Trixie “That means you, the Great and powerful Trixie helping manage the library, clean dishes and help me with my experiments.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is beyond such menial labor!” Trixie barks as she throws the clipboard to the ground in frustration. “Find some other banal servant to perform such meaningless tasks.”

“Help or I’m cutting cheese and crackers from the shopping list.”

Trixie hesitates for a second her mind balancing and comparing the pros and cons of helping Twilight sparkle with her life threatening experiments and cheesy crackers. “………..pass the note pad Sparkle.”

Yes indeed on this very day it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary would happen. However on this day three inconspicuous stand users would end up clashing over the title of ‘master pranker of ponyville.’

…………………..

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was hilarious! Did you see Rarity’s face when she sniffed those flowers?! It’s like her body couldn’t decide whether or not to yell at us or collapse in a fit! That was priceless!” Dahs continues to roll on the ground (out of earshot from a certain ivory unicorn) laughing her face off along with her good friend Pinkie.

“He He he! Yeah Dashie! The great thing about a prank is that it makes lots of ponies happy, especially the ponies who pull it off and everypony appreciates it……. Eventually.” Pinkie looks out from behind the building at Carousel boutique “At least, I’m pretty sure that Rarity was kidding when she said that she would skin us alive if we got in the way of her completing her order……… “

“Of course she was kidding pinkie!” Dash wraps her arm around the pink mare causing her worry to melt away “You know Rarity. Always a drama queen. So Pinkie, what’s our status?”

With plenty of dramatic flair the party pony pulls a long list out from behind her back making a quick mark before continuing “Wwwweeeeeeellllllllllll……… we’ve already gotten all of our friends! Rarity just now with a sneezing bouquet, Applejack with coloring her apples, Twilight with invisible ink, Trixie with that banana cream pie, and Fluttershy….. Well Fluttershy is way too sensitive for pranks and she said that she would do some pretty nasty things to us if we got in the way of studying for her test so she’s off limits…… But we’ve gotten everypony else!  Yes sir Dashie I’d say that we’ve done a great job so far!” Pinkie says as she throws the list behind her creating a potent explosion.

Dash cracks her hooves as she hovers in the air on her back nonchalantly “Yep there’s no doubt about it. My pranking skills are truly the best in ponyville. A whole league above the rest, if only all the ponies in ponyville could finally realize how awesome my pranks really are they’d have to make a holiday after me Rainbow Dash and give me the respect that I deserve.”

Pinkie giggles “Well I don’t know about best Dashie, I think I know one pony who could give you a run for her money….”

“What?! No way?” Dash dismisses confidently “a better pranker than me? And I don’t know about them?! Who are they where do they live?! Come on Pinkie you’ve got to tell me. ”

“Oh I don’t know Dashie…..” Pinkie pulls a small string chord to her left causing a multitude of flashing signs to appear all around her. Every one of the neon arrows converging on Pinkie’s exact location “…… I know how about we play a guessing game? You guess who this mysterious pony could be and I’ll tell you if you’re right! All right! Ready…. GO!”

“…….. Is it you Pinkie?”

The parry mare throws a storm of confetti in the air “Hooray! You got it Dashie! And in one try! I knew that you would get it eventually!”

“……. Well of course you’re a great pranker Pinkie! Just not the best.” Dash puffs out her chest in pride “Your pranks lack style…. Moves…… and awesomeness. They just don’t have the impact that pranks made by yours truly have.”

“He He yeah your pranks always seem to make a splash, and I’m not just saying that because you like to use clouds and weather in your pranks cause that would be really predictable, just like all your pranks.” Pinkie giggles as she flaunts her own self-image “I on the other hoof, am the most crazy unpredictable and overall most surprising party pony in ponyville! I mean even Fluttershy could see your pranks coming a mile away and I’m not just saying that because her stand’s name is kind of thousand yard stare cause despite that name she doesn’t have that good of eyesight. I mean she’s not like eagle eyes but she’s not bad either. The point is that your pranks are way too easy to see through, that’s why I’m the best pranker. Sorry Dashie but you might as well throw in the towel and admit it.”

Both mares laugh good naturedly at the other mare’s comments for a few seconds each one enjoying the mirth of the moment. Yet in the space of a single second both mares stare each other muzzle to muzzle in the most intense and serious gaze each one can muster. They simply stand neither one making a move, waiting for the first one to make a mistake.

“So Pinkie…… it has come to this has it? After all these years you finally think that you can out prank the Dash, do you?”

“Yepers Dashie, it’s nothing personal it’s just a mare’s gota do what a mare’s gota do……”

“And you know that there is only one way to really settle this don’t you?”

“Yep there is only one true way to settle a rivalry as epic as this……” From behind her back the pink party mare pulls out a large caliber revolver, smiling crazily. With a single deft movement the mare flicks out three of the six bullets and spins the chamber before pressing the cold steel barrel to her temple. “RUSSIAN ROULETTE TO THE DEATH, ME FIRST!”

“Yeah… an epic prank……. WAIT PINKIE NO!!!”

However Dash is far too slow. Pinkie smiles grandly as she pulls the trigger the resounding explosion of the gun, resonating against the buildings with the sound of rolling thunder as the mare recoils from the force of the round. The pink mare falls to the ground, the gun clatters emptily against the sidewalk as the Rainbow mare stands aghast at the scene she has just witnessed.

“Pinkie……..” the rainbow mare stands teary eyed at the prone body of the mare before her “Why do you have a revolver that shoots confetti?”

Pinkie leaps up off the ground dusting the gobs of confetti off her face “Oh you mean my Party popper two thousand and one? Well I keep that as a spare for parties that are less than a shindig and slightly more than a quiet evening with friends. See I used to use my party cannon for all parties but then I learned from Rarity how to be a little more….” Pinkie pulls the Rainbow mare in whispering in her ear “….discrete.”

The pink mare stashes the revolver away “see that’s why I’m going to win that amazing prank contest that you were planning on having, cause I’m discreet and super unpredictable! Because nopony can see me coming!”

“Um yeah fine.” Dash looks at her pink friend with a mixture of admiration for such an unpredictable prank and fear that she might go overboard. “Just promise not to do that again, it might give some ponies the wrong idea or something. You know like you offing yourself or something……”

“Silly Dashie, that would be way too dark for this fan fic, at least until chapter nineteen!”

“Um……. Yeah just no more Russian roulette. That’s not my idea of a contest.”

“No kidding! Besides I’m no good at Russian Roulette. For some reason I always lose.”

“What I was thinking…..” Dahs hovers in the air with the rising tension. “Is a town wide pranking contest to see who the best prankster in ponyville! Whoever plays the biggest and most awesome prank on the other by the day’s end is dubbed the Master Pranker of All Ponyville, no take backs.”

“Yeah! I like that idea!” Pinkie claps her hooves “and the loser has the throw a party for the winner! That’ll be really awesome!”

Dahs face hooves “Um Pinkie. The objective of a punishment is to make a pony not want to lose.”

Pinkie tilts her head “I don’t get it.”

“……….If the loser has to throw a party, and you lose…… then you would have to throw me a party…..”

“……….. I still don’t get it.”

“Pinkie you love throwing parties………”

“Oh………… should I throw two parties?”

Dash face hooves “All right how about this! Whoever loses has to be the winner’s slave for three whole days! Does that sound like a good bet to you?”

Pinkie taps her chin for a few seconds humming to herself “Hhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuummmmmmhhhhhhh. Well when you put it that way, that sounds like a great idea!”

 “All right then It's agreed!” Rainbow spits a large lougie of spit on her hoof extending it to Pinkie. Pinkie responds in kind as the two mares double spit shake on their new arrangement.

“Perfect than it’s a best friends bet! And when I win…..” Pinkie’s mane slightly deflates taking on a slightly more wavy and flowing appearance rather than its normal bouncy tone. “…. You and I are going to spend a little more….. Intimate time together…… and play some really fun games.” The pink mare says in her most sultry voice.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu……… Pinkie what are you…….” The blue mare tries to back away from her crazy friend as her face turns a dark crimson.

“Don’t worry Dashie. I promise that I’ll be gentle…….. and merciful……..” The pink mare’s mane suddenly springs to its original bounciness again “When I beat you in tick tack toe twenty to zero! HA! Now if you excuse me I’ll have to get planning my prank to make you my slave! See you later!” The Rainbow mare con only stand looking in stunned horror as the pink mare bounces off singing a song about the joys of jellybeans.

After a few minutes Dash breathes out a sigh of relief satisfied that pinkie is finally out of earshot. “Whew that Pinkie Pie…….. alright time to get planning my own prank!” the Rainbow mare prepares to take off into the wild blue yonder only to take one longing glance at the direction that Pinkie took off in. “then again….. If I let pinkie win……”

The blue mare shakes her head “Snap out of it Dash! This is about your pride as a pranker! Not pinkie’s… weirdness.” The blue mare takes off into the sky thinking up the perfect prank to get pinkie with “Besides, if I win then Pinkie has to do what I say no way I can pass that up!”

…………………….

“Now THIS is the absolute best prank of all time!” The Rainbow mare lifts the last of her contraption onto the roof of sugarcube corner, the residence of one Pink Party pony. The mare snickers to herself as she raises a large empty dumpster to the roof of the gingerbread building placing it gently over the rear door of sugarcube corner. Satisfied with her placement of the large container she quickly swoops around the vicinity with her lightning fast speed grabbing several clouds and condensing them into a large dark storm cloud. Placing the cloud over the open portion of the dumpster Rainbow Dash gives the cloud a solid buck filling the empty dumpster with gallons and gallons of water. Dash propping the dumpster at a slight angle on the roof and propping it up with a sturdy pole the mare ties a long string to it and files down to the door with the other end. On quick half knot later the other end of the string is tied tightly to the door handle. Rainbow Dash snickers as she plucks the string sending a pleasing vibration through the air.

Rainbow Dash smiles gladly at her expert prank “Heh! This is sure to ‘wash away’ whatever pinkie’s prank is for me! She thinks water is a boring idea for a prank, well this is sure to blow her out of the water!” Rainbow Dash looks at the door visualizing the prank in action. “I’ll tell her I have a surprise waiting for her out front and since this is unpredictable pinkie she’ll rush out the back door! And when she does…….”

“Hi Dash!”

“GWAH!” Dash leaps into the air in fright before quickly turning around to face the sound of the voice. “Pinkie how did you….” Dash is cut off as she sees that it is not Pinkie that has surprised her from behind but the town Mail Mare, Derpy hooves. The Grey Pegasus mare with her blond mane possessed unique cutie mark of an assortment of bubbles that represents her free spirit and inner grace. Derpy was the town’s mail mare and delivery mare for three years running despite conditions that would normally get her fired in a larger city. The wall eyed Pegasus was known for several things around ponyville, her cross-eyed ‘condition’ that no pony in town would dare discuss in polite company, her ill-timed clumsiness, and her legendary love of muffins. However despite all her eccentrics the Pegasus’ adorable nature and kind hearted attitude as well as her sincere love for her daughter Dinky quickly endeared her to the vast majority of ponyville.

Few ponies could stay angry with her for long, not even Dash. However the fact that she had almost made her pull her trap early certainly didn’t put the speedster in a good mood. “Geese Derpy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

The Pegasus looks at dash apologetically “Sorry Dash. I just wanted to know what the weather would be like today!” The Pegasus walks over to the string attached to the door plucking it musically “Ooooo! Dash are you turning the Cake’s building into a musical instrument?”

The rainbow mare quickly swats the grey Pegasus’s hoof away “Be Careful with that Derpy!” The quick swat earns Dash another reward for jerky behavior as Derpy begins to tear up a little “Oh gosh. Look Derpy I’m sorry I snapped at you and all it’s just me and Pinkie are in the middle of a prank war and…..”

“A prank war?!” Derpy’s sorrows are immediately forgotten “that sounds great! Well as long as it’s safe……” the pegasus ears swivel downwards “No pony’s going to be hurt right?”

Dash eyes roll “No Derpy No pony is going to get hurt, just look.” Dash points up at the dumpster and the Grey Pegasus follows her gaze “See when Pinkie opens the door it’ll pull the string and she’ll get all wet. It’s all in good fun.” Dash suddenly brightens as she thinks up a clever idea “In fact how would you like to help me out here?”

Derpy shuffles with uncertainty in her hooves “oh I don’t know Dash I only came down to ask about the weather, and grab a quick bite.  I really should get back to my route.”

“I’ll owe you two muffins of your choice! Think of it as an apology for my outburst earlier!” Dash wraps her hoof around the grey mare “So what do you say Derpy?”

“Well…….” The grey mare thinks it over “When you put it that way….. and since it’s all in good fun then why not!”

“Great! I knew I could count on you!” Dash flutters over to the bush a slight distance from the back door “All right now since the trap is set all you have to do is tell Pinkie that I’m waiting for her outside from the front door. Pinkie will suspect a trap and come through the back door and when she gets all wet I’ll be able to jump out and surprise her!”

Derpy Blinks “that’s all?”

Dash nods “That’s all and in return I’ll get you two muffins of your choice. In the meantime I’ll be hiding behind that bush to jump out and surprise her.” With an acrobatic leap the rainbow mare jumps behind Derpy hiding in the dense foliage right next to the door

Derpy looks back at the rainbow mare who obscures herself in the bush once more before walking towards the front door. As the mail mare walks out of sight Dash snickers in joyful anticipation of her prank succeeding. The mare watches through the back window and waits as she begins to hear a sound similar to a herd of buffalo stampeding down the stairs. ‘heh, the unpredictable Pinkie’ Dash thinks to herself ‘Won’t Pinkie be surprised when she finds out that I anticipated her so easily…. Then she’ll have to admit that I’m the best...’

Yet in the excitement of the moment something truly unpredictable does happen. Unfortunately for dash the roof she placed the dumpster on was uneven and as if by divine intention or simple bad luck the jostling of Pinkie running down the stairs was enough to dislodge the dumpster proper causing it to skid down the side of the roof. And the dumpster without its sole support slides off the roof causing the entire crate of water to fall off the roof directly over a certain group of bushes. Seeing the string snap right before her eyes Dash barely has time to look up as she sees the entire crate of water falling right on top of her. Her eyes grow wide as the last thought she that courses through her stunned brain is that it would have been really funny if pulled out a small umbrella right now.

With a crash loud enough to wake the dead the entire dumpster full of water falls on top of the blue mare top down drowning the speedster in a torrent of her own water biased trap. Half thankful that the dumpster proper didn’t land on her and crush her flat the mare flails her arms about in the darkness as the dumpster falls over her top first, trapping her like a bug under a cup. The mare sputters and coughs erratically as the water permeates every inch of her body an entire rainstorm released in the space of a single second. As the water settles the waterlogged Rainbow mare lifts the top of the dumpster off her body, wet soggy and defeated by her own trap. Dash spurts out a jet of water from between her teeth as she pulls the dumpster off of her head. “Ugh washed out by my own prank. Could this get any worse…..”

As if sensing her dramatic irony the back door flies open revealing a grinning Pinkie pie “….. and since she’s probably waiting for me at the front door….. Oh Hi Dashie! Fancy meeting you here! Why are you so wet? Did you decide to take another cold shower, and in the middle of Ponyville?”

“NO! I mean…. Ummmmm. Yes I was….. taking a shower…….” The Rainbow mare lies read faced.

At this Pinkie rolls on the ground laughing “Silly Dashie! You can’t fool me! I saw you planning that old super large water bucket over the door a mile away thanks to my good old pinkie sense! I knew you were trying to prank me the moment I came down the stairs!”

Pulling out a bath cap and a scrub brush from behind her back Pinkie equips the rainbow mare “But I got to admit, I totally did not see that coming! I mean pranking yourself is super priceless and original! If you were planning to prank yourself you would have totally won! But now I’ve got to run and plan my prank for my special little target, namely you! So if you want to beat me you’ve got to be more unpredictable than that!” leaving Dash to stew in her own utter embarrassment and shame the pink mare bounces off into the distance humming the same cheerful song that she always does.

………………….

“HuuuumHummmhMummh! HuuuumHummmhMummh! HuuuumHummmhMummh! LALA-LALA-LA!!!”

“Now then Pinkie you old party pony!” the pink party mare says to herself as she walks around ponyville proper taking in the sounds and sight of happy ponies around her. “What would be the best prank to get my good friend Dashie with? It was sure a surprise that her own prank backfired on her but Dashie won’t let that keep her down! After all a prank war of THIS magnitude calls for extreme measures: PINKIE PIE STYLE!” Sitting on her rump the mare applies all her Pinkie Brain as she muses to herself on the best possible prank that she can pull to win her the title of Best Pony Prankster or something like that, as well as the right to have Dashie do whatever she desires.

Unable to suppress her imagination, Pinkie Drools as she thinks of all the possible things that she can have Dash do for her, like make her a cake, or have her take her shift at the cake’s bakery or something with chocolate icing.

“Now let’s see here little Brain, what can I do with…..” the mare pulls her patented Party cannon out from behind her back “…A party Cannon…” she pulls out each item in turn “, a snorkel and fins, three rubber chickens four cans of brightly colored paints, a bowling ball and a bottle of instant fresh water. Humhhhhhhhhhh…….. AH HA! I know what to do!”

Picking up the bottle of instant fresh water Pinkie carefully places the bottle on a nearby unoccupied park table writing a quick barely legible tag to place on the bottle. The tag which reads ‘Drink me Dashie’ causes the mare to snicker to herself, sure that Dash won’t be able to resist such a complimentary drink. Then judging the trajectory with both her hooves pointed outwards Pinkie judges the perfect angle for a shot, a nearby alley that is conveniently hidden from view. Pinkie laughs as she zips over to the alley and pulls out her party cannon positioning it so that it is perfectly aimed at where the bottle of water is. Pulling out several cans of paint Pinkie pours the semi-viscous liquid down the barrel laughing all the while “HE He he! What a great idea Pinkie……… He he!”

“What’s a great Idea Pinkie?”

Pinkie pulls her head up to see a familiar mail mare standing on the tip of her cannon “OH! Hey Derpy! What’s happening? What’s up? Well other than you of course Pegisi are always up! Well except when they land on the ground, but then they can always go up!”

Derpy nods at the sage advice “that is so True Pinkie! But I was really wondering what is up with you? Why are you pouring paint into a cannon?”

“Well that’s a funny story Derpy! Have you heard about me and Dash’s prank war?”

The Mailmare tries to hide her surprise “Um…. Well I might have heard of it….”

“Great!” Punkie throws the empty can of paint to the side “than that saves me a long explanation! And I hate long explanations! You see this is my little prank for Dashie. When she stops to sample the water on that table there.” Pinkie points to the table off in the distance as she walks around the cannon to the back “then I’ll pull the trigger her and launch a storm of polka dotted paint right at her! You see it’s really funny because she just took a shower and got wet, so after this prank she’ll have to take ANOTHER shower!”

“Wowie that sounds a lot better than Dash’s prank!” The grey mailmare remarks as she turns around on the barrel of the cannon to face pinkie “But um, I’m confused, how do you get paint to make polka dots?”

“That’s easy you just buy polka dotted paint!”

“Oh wow you know how to get everything Pinkie!”

“Yeah I’ll say Derpy! Um can I ask you something Derpy old pal?”

The mailmare blinks “Yes Pinkie what is it?”

“Um well how to put this. You’re sort of standing on my party cannon and I’m trying to aim it, so……”

“Oh OH! I’m sorry Pinkie I didn’t want to get in your way or anything!” the mailmare takes to the air allowing Pinkie to once again focus on the aiming module.

“He He! That’s okay Derpy I know you didn’t mean it!” Pinkie is about to finish her preparations when she pulls a magnificent double take “Say want to stay and watch? Its’ going to be really good!”

Derpy’s normal cheerful attitude dissipates instantly into an aura of fear and uncertainty “Um…. Well I’m not sure Pinkie…… I mean I know this prank is going to be really cool and all. But I think I’ve had enough of pranks for a while…….”

Noticing the immediate change in Derpy’s behavior Pinkie beams even more to cheer her up. “Hey that’s okay! I wouldn’t want you to stay if it made you unhappy! You go on and have a happy day delivering mail!”

Derpy smiles and turns to fly away “Thanks Pinkie! You always know what to say to make me feel better! Oh by the way!” the grey mailmare reaches into her sack pulling out a brown wrapped package “this is for you! I was going to drop it off at your room in sugarcube corner……. But I forgot.”

With absolutely zero grace and no concern for the condition of the package the mare rips the parcel to shreds revealing a large orange book. Pinkie gasps dramatically “find the 22nd edition of 1001 puns! Thanks Derpy I’ve been waiting on this for four weeks! Get it!”

Pinkie stuffs the book in her mane before turning back to the mailmare “Thanks for delivering it in person Derpy! You’re always so considerate!”

Derpy surprised to be complimented for forgetting a delivery rubs the back of her neck “He he! Yeah just doing my job! He he.” Suddenly the grey mare gets very serious “say Pinkie…….”

“Yes Derpy?” Pinkie asks as if completely oblivious to Derpy’s sudden change of mood.

“If there were something really bothering me………” the grey mailmare taps her hooves together shyly.

“Humh?” Pinkie yells over the loud clanking of her cannon as she adjusts the accuracy and aiming. “You’ll have to speak up there Derpy I can’t hear you!”

Derpy looks at Pinkie deeply as if she has a load on her chest that she has to get off, a weight that is crushing her. Finally after what seems like minutes the grey mailmare shakes her head “……….Never mind it’s not anything that you can help me with anyways! Have a nice day.” And with that the grey mailmare flies off leaving the pink mare to focus again on her prank.

“Boy that Derpy…..” Pinkie remarks “always so mysterious and…… Hunh?” Pinkie stops her preparations of her cannon instantly looking down the barrel of her cannon “That’s strange it looked like something landed on the barrel….. Maybe it was one of Derpy’s feathers?” the pink mare turns back to the sky “HEY DERPY! YOU DROPPED SOMETHING!”

Seeing as how the grey mare is gone and out of earshot Pinkie shrugs and walks around the barrel of the cannon pulling it down to her eye level as she inspects the barrel for any damage or sign of the mysterious object. “Good….. now let’s see what the little problem I………” the party mare looks down the barrel just in time to see it erupt in her face sending her flying as the explosive propelled paint sends her tumbling hooves over head out of the alley and into a cheap park table. Her head spinning and her body covered in thick creamy polka dot paint the not-pink party mare picks herself up shakily on her hooves standing up as a familiar pony lands besides her.

“Hey Pinkie! Look some pony’s handing out free bottles of my favorite water! And it even has my name on it! Sweet!” the mare guzzles the entire bottle down in a second throwing the bottle into a nearby recycling bin. “Ugh Pinkie what happened to you? Is that your new Fashion statement? I may not be a Rarity but I can easily tell you that polka dots aint your color Pinkie.”

“Well I wasn’t trying to give myself polka dots!” Pinkie crosses her arms grumpily “And I didn’t mean to prank myself! My prank just happened to backfire on me!” Pinkie suddenly jumps to her hooves staring Dash down “…….. As if somepony was trying to sabotage me! Somepony like you!”

“What? ME?!” Dash Points her hooves to her chest

“Yes you! I bet it was all part of your big plan! You knew that you couldn’t beat my surprising pranks so you rigged my Cannon to blow up in my face early and cover me in polka dots! Now look me!” Pinkie tries to brush off the globs of paint congealing on her coat. “I’m all sticky and wet now! I’m so embarrassed…….”

“UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH………..” Rainbow’s brain stalls as she tries vainly to keep from thinking certain thoughts all while trying to suppress a monstrous blush consuming most of her face.

“And it's’ all your fault Dashie!” Pinkie pouts again her arms crossing sloppily as the flecks of the paint splash on Dash’s coat. “You think I’m fooled well I’m not! That wasn’t a very good prank anyways it was just mean!”

Dash sighs as she tries to clear the blush from her face “Alright, first I never touched your cannon! And second you are the one who sabotaged me! You just knew that your running down the stairs would cause my trap to work against me, admit it!”

“Shows what you know.” Pinkie pie sticks her tongue out at the rainbow mare wincing as she gets a dollop of paint on her tongue. “I blame your shoddy construction. It’s not my fault that your own trap fell apart on you!”

“What! Alright this has gone on long enough Pinkie. Dash lands a hoof away from Pinkie “Just admit that you’re the one who sabotaged my prank and we can get on with this!”

“Nut-uh!” Pinkie presses back against Dash muzzle to muzzle “You apologize for sabotaging my prank! Cause I know for a fact that I didn’t sabotage yours!”

“Oh really? Is that a fact!?” Dash asks as sarcastically as possible.

“Yes Dash, it’s a fact!”

 “Well I know that I didn’t prank you! So who was it?”

“Oh have both of you been pranked by the master pranker of ponyville too?” Both mares turn suddenly to see a brown colored earth stallion with a brown well-trimmed mane and cutie mark of a cup of water. The stallion gulps nervously in the face of the two mare’s intense gazes “that is…. If you were pranked by the master pranker, you wouldn’t be the only one. He’s gotten almost every pony in ponyville. He got me twice since last week…. Um am I saying too much?”

Both mare blink at each other simultaneously before turning towards Swift Service again. “Woa Woa. Back up there…..” Dash says “what are you talking about the master pranker of ponyville? Cause the only master pranker in ponyville is yours truly!”

“Oh well, since you were arguing like that I thought you already knew….” Swift Service clears his throat and signals the two mares to sit down. Once the two mares sit Swift Service resumes his tale with the same level headedness that he began with, that is to say not a lot “Okay, basically ever since about two or maybe three weeks ago, I can’t really remember when exactly….. anyways ever since about two and a half weeks ago a mysterious pranker has been pranking ponies indiscriminately. That means the pranker pranks any pony that he can and he never leaves a calling card or a hoof print or anything that could give us a clue of who he is! True no pony’s been hurt by his pranks, but the pranks always strike at the most inconvenient times and no pony has no clue who is doing it so its’ really frustrating!”

The now polka dotted mare pulls out a detective hat and a bubble pipe, blowing bubbles in deep thought as she listens to the stallion’s tale of woe. “Of course!” Pinkie pounds her hooves together in a downward motion “we must have been counter pranked by the legendary pranker! He’s heard about our completion and wants us to know that there is no better pranker in ponyville than him! It’s the perfect crime……”

Dash blinks in surprise that for once Pinkie is the one making sense of the situation. “Yeah….. Yeah! That makes total sense! He must be intimidated by my superior skills so he’s trying to get the drop on us! Well he had better think again if he thinks that he can make a fool of the two of us and get away with it!”

The rainbow mare turns heroically to the stallion “Don’t worry Swift Service, I personally promise as the most awesome pony in ponyville to find the master pranker and prank them back hard!”

“And I second that emotion! We both have to work together to find this mare, stallion, or whatever it is!” Pinkie nods her head “I love a good prank as much as the next pony but is sounds like this prankster is going too far! I mean Polka Dots!? What kind of pony uses Polka dots!”

Swift Service breathes an immense sigh of relief as Dash and Pinkie shake hooves each one agreeing to put aside their differences for a common cause. “Then it’s settled!” Dash exclaims as she lets go of Pinkie’s hoof. “But just how does a pony go about catching a mysterious super pranker?”

“Well…….” Pinkie remembers “My great uncle Trout Line taught me that if you want to catch the right prey than there is only one thing that you really need!”

Dash raises an eyebrow “And that is?”

“Easy!” Pinkie points towards Swift Service   “The right bait…….”

………………………….

Thus it came to pass that Swift Service the pony became living bait for the mysterious prankster shuffling nervously outside his own house with a large kick me sign on his back and wearing a pair of united shoes. Truly there could not be a better example of a sitting Duck than Swift Service the pony. Thus it was to the great surprise of Both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash that it was taking so long for the mysterious prankster to find their bait. In the depths of their super-secret mobile fortress that looked conveniently like a bush the two mares watched their bait known as Swift Service waiting for their chance to strike back at their nemesis.

“URGH!”

“Dash be quiet! We need to be quiet if we want this to be a surprise!” Pinkie whispers harshly.

“But Piiiiiinnnnnkkkkkkkiiiiiieeeeeee!” Dash moans “it’s Sooooooooooo Boring!”

“Well just think of funny thoughts!” Pinkie continues to stare at Swift Service through her pair of binoculars “like kumquats and cheri-changas! Or kumquat flavored Chimi-Cheri-Changas! That always helps me pass the time!” Dash groans once again as Pinkie watches the increasingly more terrified Swift Service stand outside his house waiting for disaster. “Wow is Swift Service brave or what! I wonder why he agreed to play pretend and be our bait so easily?”

“Oh that” Dash snaps a stray stick in her hooves “Yeah I just had to promise him a saucy picture of Applejack, and he agreed to do it easy. I mean I would have promised him two but he agreed in less than ten seconds…….”

Dash lifts her gaze to see Pinkie pie looking back at her with a judgmental gaze. “It’s not like I was going to actually give him one! I mean it’s not like I have one!”

Pinkie bops Dash on the head “Normally I would be more sad at the fact that you decided to lie to Swift Service. However I’ll make it up to him later. His birthday is in a week after all and I have a great present for him! A five layered fudge cake!”

“Whatever, as long as he’s off my back.” Dash pears out of the bush looking at Swift Service   “are you sure that this is tempting enough? Do you think we should have made him more of a target, or do you think that would have been too suspicious?”

“Relax Dashie!” Pinkie pats Dash on the head much to the bleu mare’s discomfort “no real prankster could possibly pass up a good kick me sign! All we have to do is watch and wait so that we can take this mysterious prankster by…..”

“SURPRISE!”

Both mares flail backwards as a familiar grey mailmare sticks her neck into the bush “Hi ya Guys? Are you still pranking each other?”

Pinkie blinks at the mail mare “Wow Derpy, are you related to my aunt Surprise? Cause you’re really surprising!”

 “No sorry Pinkie, I don’t know your aunt Surprise, she sounds really nice though.” Derpy hovers in the air as she gestures over towards Swift Service. “I’m just here to deliver Swift Service’s mail and I saw you two hiding in a bush so I thought that I would tell you both hi!”

The mail mare stops in mid-sentence as she sees Swift Service shuffling his hooves nervously. “Ummmmmmm why is Swift Service  dancing like that? And why is he wearing shoes?”

“Derpy….” Dash growls at the Grey mail mare

“OH I almost forgot!” The grey mail mare reaches into her saddlebags and pulls out a medium sized box that radiates heat, the mare smiles as though she is holding a chest of gold as she flips open the lid of the box. “You both looked so down cause your pranks backfired on you guys so I got you a pick me up!”

Pinkie grins as she quickly picks up a muffin and puts the entire pastry in her mouth in one bite. “Trhaks Berpy! Yer murfins afre the befts!” the mare says while spewing crumbs all over the ground.

Dash is more hesitant looking over the muffins for a few moments before finally grabbing one and taking a cautionary bite of it. Dash’s eyes light up immediately as she quickly finishes the rest of the muffin. “Yeah thanks Derpy. It’s good that something is finally going our way today. But if you don’t mind we are doing something really important that requires our full attention so if you could help us stay on the down low…..”

Derpy snaps into a quick salute “You don’t need to say another word! I’ll get back to my job! By the way…..“ Derpy looks at various items lying in the bush”…..what are you doing?”

Pinkie grins as she holds up a pair of binoculars “That’s easy! We’re setting a trap to catch the mysterious prankster that’s playing all these mean pranks on ponyville! Want to help?”

“Pinkie!” Dash clops her hoof over the party pony’s mouth “Never mind that Derpy. You have a job to do right? So just leave this to us!”

Derpy looks at the two ponies with a strange look in her eyes, one might say it were a mixture of sorrow, fear and shame. “O-Okay. I’ll just…….. Deliver Swift Service’s mail now. Bye you guys.” The grey mare turns tail and flies off towards the house in the distance.

Satisfied that the mailmare is out of earshot the rainbow mare removes her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth “Pinkie? What were you thinking?”

“Hunh?” Pinkie cocks her head “well I thought that I was thinking of clouds that rain sprinkles? It least I think that I thought that thought. What did you think?”

Dash groans as a familiar grey mail mare greets Swift Service off in the distance. “I mean about asking Derpy to join our secret mission! I mean she’s nice and all but she can be a bit…….. Well, I just think that she would get in the way of our chance to nab the legendary prankster.”

Pinkie taps her chin as she considers Dash’s point “Well she did think that muffins were a kind of cupcake when she first came to ponyville.”

Dash nods as the grey mailmare puts the mail in the mailbox and waves to Swift Service flying off into the distance “that’s exactly it. She’s nice and all but she always gets in the way. If you ask me I think that she’s a few muffins short of a bushel.”

Pinkie gasps heavily as she punches Rainbow in the shoulder hard. “Dashie! How dare you! You can’t just say mean things like that behind a pony’s back! And especially about Derpy!”

Pinkie crosses her hooves and pouts “She’s a really kind mare with a wonderful daughter! Why she even went out of her way to give me a book that I had been waiting months on while I was in the middle of my prank.”

“Woah Woah Pinkie!” Dash waves her hooves cautionary “I wasn’t saying she’s not smart or something, it’s just that she has a bit of trouble when it comes to common sense, and we all struggle with that. I mean when I was in the middle of my prank she almost triggered my trap early. Seriously what kind of Mare does that?”

Off in the distance Swift Service reaches into the mailbox to retrieve his mail only to find his hoof stuck in the confines of the box, quite possibly due to the large shoes he is wearing. Pinkie looks at the ground as she considerers Dash’s point “Well she may be a bit, Derpy. But she’s a wonderful mare who’s always there when you need her and you shouldn’t……” Suddenly Pinkie’s mane deflates instantly as a horrible thought comes to mind. “Um, Dashie?”

“I know I know pinkie she’s a good pony and all but that doesn’t excuse her, MUuummmph!” Dash is stopped in mid rant by pinkie’s hoof.

“Dash….” Pinkie gulps as the stallion in the background pulls more on the box to try and free his hoof. “When did you say Derpy appeared?”

Pinkie removes her hoof allowing Dash to speak. The rainbow mare coughs “Like she appeared just before my prank went south and it backfired on me why?”

Pinkie looks into Dash’s eyes her normal puffy mane beginning to return along with a burning realization “Because the same thing happened to me Dashie. Think about it.” Pinkie says in her most serious voice “We’re looking for a pony that has been as the scene of our pranks and could prank all of ponyville. And Derpy is a mail mare, she goes everywhere in ponyville!”

Swift Service continues pull on the mailbox in attempt to free his hoof bending the pole like a bow, and building up all the potential energy of a catapult. “What?” Dash looks at her friend surprised “Well it is suspicious that she was at the scene of our pranks, but Pinkie this is Derpy we’re talking about! There’s no way…..”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Both mares watch just in time as Swift Service is sent flying off into the distance from the released force of his mailbox. They both gape at the trajectory of the stallion as she crashes into a nearby hay roof crashing through it with a loud thump. Both mares stare mouths open as both their minds reach the same concussion at the same time.

“Derpy’s the master pranker.” Dash says dramatically

“M-humh” Pinkie agrees

With all the speed that their four hooves can muster the two ponies leap out of the bush hot on the train of the wall eyed mailmare.

…………………..

“…… And you’re sure that she went this way?!” Dash’s gaze narrows at the direction Pinkie pointed her in.

“Absolutely positively! My pinkie sense is never wrong. Well except on April Fool’s day, and even then it is sometimes right!” Pinkie points towards a small alley a short distance from Carousel boutique, away from any prying pony eyes.

“My pinkie sense said she went down that alley. Besides….” The pink mare pulls out a long list from behind her back. “…….. According to the town postal guide this is Derpy’s corporately designated break spot. She is corporately required to take a midday snack break here from four thirty to five.”

Ignoring Pinkie’s usual jests Dash looks at the entryway to the alley knowing that the pony that made a fool of her is just around the corner. “Good. Now maybe we can finally get some answers from a certain somepony. You go left Pinkie and I’ll take the right side” In a prismatic flash the mare flies around the corner landing with enough force to crack the ground beneath her hooves. Sure enough sitting on a small bench enjoying a bite of muffin and a beaker of Apple juice is none other than Derpy hooves.

Raising her lopsided eyes to the sound of the chasing hooves Derpy spies Dash and waves cheerfully towards her friend “Well Hey Dash! What’s going……” Now Derpy may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer like Dash said, but she was far from stupid. In fact her natural empathy meant that she was far more sensitive towards the moods and emotions of ponies than she let on. And from the mannerisms that Dash was giving off, namely her slightly clenched jaw her spread posture and her burning magenta eyes that Dash wasn’t there to talk. “…… um Dash? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Dash chuckles “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, namely you!”

“What?” Derpy backpedals gasping “M-M-Me-e-e?”

“Yes You!” Dash takes a step forward “I know your secret, You’re the mysterious prankster that’s making a fool of everypony including me and Pinkie!”

The Grey mare’s legs begin to shake as a look of fear fills her eyes “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” the mare turns around as if to retreat however she finds that her other way out is cut off by a familiar Pink Party mare.

“Oh trying to play dumb are we?” Dash rolls her eyes sarcastically “well I know for a fact that you have been sabotaging us all day! What was being nice to us all some kind of game? Do you like making fools of other ponies?”

“Derpy….” Pinkie looks sad eyed at the mail mare before her “Is-is it true? Were you just pretending to be nice to us, to me? Just for a prank?”

“NO Pinkie!” Derpy actually begins to cry a little at Pinkie’s allegations “No I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just….” The mare clenches her eyes shut suppressing her tears “…… just leave me alone!” the mail mare tries to escape to the air only to find her way out blocked by Dash.

“Oh no you don’t!” through careful maneuvering and midair technique the blue mare forces Derpy back to the ground. “Now Look! I don’t know what your deal is and what you’re really after. But I’m not leaving here without some answers!” Dash crosses her hooves as she hovers over Derpy Hooves “So start talking. What’s your angle? What do you have to gain by pranking everypony like this?”

“Nothing! Just………. leave me alone.” Derpy falls to her haunches hoping that her problems will just go away.

“Derpy…..” Pinkie walks forward and places her hoof on the scared Mail mare’s shoulder “I know that you are pretty scared right now. It’s sometimes scary to have to tell the truth.” The grey mare looks at the pink mare behind her, as her tearing up eyes begin to leak actual tears. “But I know deep down you’re a good pony that wouldn’t want to make others unhappy. So please tell us why you’re doing all these pranks. Pretty Please?”

For a moment the grey mare’s eyes brighten in hope as she looks into the pink mare’s smiling face. “Pinkie, I……” The grey mare turns away from Pinkie in shame, pulling herself out of the Pinkie’s grasp “I-I can’t explain it, I can’t control it! That’s why you just have to leave me alone!”

“What? You can’t control your pranking?” Dash scoffs “is that some kind of joke? Cause you’ve been intentionally targeting us since we began our little contest. That shows that you’re targeting us!”

“Dash stop it!” Pinkie turns to the blue mare a looks so scorn on her face “you’re scaring her!”

“She should be scared!” Dash practically yells at Pinkie “she’s been attacking ponies all over ponyville for some kind of sick prank and now she’s caught!” Dahs backs further into the grey mare’s face “so what is it hunh? Is your little friendly act to make yourself less suspicious or something? What are you after cough it up! And stop it with these pranks!”

Harnessing the force of her frustrations and anger the grey mail mare cries out in anger. “I said leave. Me. Alone!” As if responding to her call a Ghostly figure appears from behind her and shatters the hard cement before her reducing it to rubble in an instant. Both Pinkie and Dash back away from Derpy in awe and anxiousness as the ghostly figure from manifests itself more fully from behind Derpy. The dull steel grey stand is lanky and limber possessing a thin iron body and frame. The thickest part the torso looks to be composed of only iron hoops and a tightly pulled faux-leather Pilot’s jacket that matches the color of Derpy’s mane. Though the stand appears to be shaped like an earth pony the stand has four wings, one on each limb each one fluttering in the wind as if it were wearing them like a bracelet. Stranger still the stand appears covered in multiple propellers that spin and rotate as if propelled by an invisible breeze. The pilot’s capped head turns itself towards Dahs as its eyes narrow at the aggressor before it.

“So…. That’s your secret.” Dash remarks as the presence of the figure forces her to step back. “You control a stand. That’s how you were able to prank us and everypony in town so easily. You just used a stand power.”

Derpy’s eyes shoot open in a moment of recognition and surprise as the looks back and forth between the ghostly figure before her and Dash. “W-Wait! You can see this? I thought I was going crazy! Or worse that I was possessed by an evil ghost or something like that.” Derpy’s ears flatten “Wait, I’m not possessed by an evil spirit am I? It’s not contagious right?”

Dash looks at Derpy with a deadpan stare “Uh, no. A stand is, well it’s kind of like a ghost cause only ponies with stands of their own can see them. But it’s not a ghost, it’s like a ‘mani-fest-ation’ of your soul, it's’ a part of you that comes out when you touch a rare stone.”

Derpy muses over this new information “when I touched that rock I found on my route two weeks ago I got sick, and then this evil spirit appeared and started following me.” Derpy leaps to her hooves in hope “that means you can get rid of it right? Or keep it from hurting other ponies right? How do you……”

“That’s enough! I’m the one asking the questions here!” Dash takes a step forward reclaiming lost confidence and ground from before Derpy manifested her stand. “All right you’ve got a stand, but the question still remains why are you using it to make fools of every pony?”

Rainbow Dash asks intimidatingly “It’s because you’re after the Red Stones and Strange stones isn’t it! You’re using your pranks to check and see if they have stands too, cause if they have stands it’s likely that they have red stones too!” Dash beams with pride at her well-formed theory, confident that Derpy can’t talk her way out of her watertight argument.

“Red….. Stones? What are red stones?” Derpy asks genuinely confused “are they from a ruby or something?”

“What!” Dash interjects “Don’t try to play dumb with me! Red Stones are what give ponies stand powers so you would obviously be after them because we’re after them.”

“So these red stones gave me this ‘stand’ thing?” Derpy asks. “Why would I want more of these Red stones in the first place? I’m not trying to prank any pony! I can’t control this ‘stand’ thing. It leaves these ‘marks’ behind that cause dangerous things to happen!” Derpy rants desperate to be heard. “I’m not interested in these Red Stone things; I just want to be left alone.”

Dash pauses a moment for Derpy’s excuse before promptly blowing her off “A likely story. From where I’m flying it looks like you can control that thing pretty well to me. You targeted us because we’re with the big shot princess Representative and you thought that we’d be easy to take down……”

“I think that she’s telling the truth.” Pinkie states with certainty

“See? Even Pinkie’s agreeing with…. What!? Pinkie come on! You’ve got to admit that it’s just way too coincidental that she just happened to attack us with her stand!”

“Well I’m sorry Dashie.” Pinkie states “But Derpy’s’ a good pony and if she says that she can’t fully control her power than I believe her.”

Derpy begins to tear up a little and is in the process of saying something to Pinkie when Dash interrupts her “Whatever, but I still say that we bring her in to Twilight. If she can’t’ control her stand and it's’ hurting ponies automatically maybe she can help Derpy out. Oh hey and check it out!” Dash reaches behind her back and pulls out a double white band “Twilight gave me this cool Anti-Stand hoof cuff to try on so we can bring her in all cool like!”

“Well I suppose that would be okay.” Pinkie muses to herself “Derpy would you like to come with us and Talk to Twilight? She knows more about stands than any pony so I’m sure that she could help you out.”

Derpy shuffles her hooves nervously debating her options. On one hoof she really trusted Pinkie, despite Pinkie’s usual zaniness she could be very reliable at times and if Pinkie thought Twilight could help than it was usually worth trying. However on the other hoof what if her stand couldn’t be cured like Pinkie said? What there was no controlling this power that she had? What if they took her away to those special prisons that she heard about where ponies who couldn’t control their magic go? What about her daughter, who would take care of her if she wasn’t there? “Well, I’m not so sure Pinkie, I mean……”

“Yack-Yack-Yack.” Dash drops down right in front of Derpy “Let’s just get these babies on! Ever since Twilight used these on Lyra I’ve wanted to…..”

Derpy’s stand turned to face Dash a fierce yellow glow in its eyes. Perhaps it was due to the suddenness that Dash dropped down. Perhaps it was to Derpy’s worries over whether or not going with Dash and Pinkie was the best idea. Or perhaps the stand just didn’t like the Rainbow Pegasus’ attitude. The motives behind it were quite possibly unknowable. However what could not be denied was that the moment that Dash tried to slip the cuffs over Derpy’s hooves, her stand shot out and with one power packed punch sent the Rainbow mare sailing flat on her back. The hoof-cuffs clinked on the ground a second later as the stand lashed out again breaking the cuffs into pieces with three inaccurate punches contorting the steel of the cuffs beyond recognition.

The grey mailmare looks on in fear at the Pegasus “Dash! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to…… I mean you just frightened me and….. Are you all right?”

The Rainbow mare flips herself over wiping a little of the blood from her muzzle as she rises to her hooves “So that’s the way it's’ going to be, you’re going to lure me in close so that you can sucker punch me hunh?” the rainbow mare turns to face Derpy the fire of combat burning in her eyes “all right, you want to do this the hard way, fine, we’ll do this the hard way.”

Derpy backpedals as the Rainbow mare takes another step forward her entire body ready to pounce at the slightest movement from the mailmare in front of her. Raising her hoof to take another step forward Dash prepares to leap forward and attack with her high speed attacks when she is stopped by Derpy’s voice.

“Stop Dash!” Derpy points her hoof towards the Rainbow mare “Don’t step there! Don’t step on that bubble.” Rainbow Dash stops her hoof in midair as she looks where she was about to step and sure enough the ground has a small bubble marking on it.

“What’s this? Is this a bubble?”

Derpy nods “I was telling you about this before Dash, my stand leaves marks behind that create Dangerous zones! If you step on that mark I won’t be able to prevent myself from hurting you!”

“Is that a threat?!” Dahs glares at the grey mare, her resolve returning  as she become more and more convinced in Derpy’s guilt “I knew that you were an enemy! Well thanks for the warning, but it’s totally not necessary!”

Dash takes to the air hovering over the mark on the ground, “in case you forgot, I can fly. You won’t be getting any or our strange stones or making a fool out of me with your little prank bubbles.”

With a quick snap of her wings the Rainbow mare rushes Derpy her arms pointed to attack. Attacking reflexively Derpy’s stand swings its propellered hoof at Rainbow missing her by a large margin as the rainbow mare punches the mail mare with a heavy stomach uppercut. Derpy gasps as she falls to her elbows trying to regain her breath as Dash backpedals out of the mare’s range. “Give it a rest Derpy, you don’t stand a chance just give up and deactivate your stand already.”

Looking the Rainbow mare in the eyes a sudden intensity of anger fills the mare. “I told you Dash, I can’t control it! It’s attacking on its own! And I don’t want to fight you!” As if responding to her anger the stand advances and throws another punch, however Dash doesn’t even need to put effort into dodging it as the stand misses her completely.

“Right, and your stand is just coincidentally beating the stuffing out of me. I should have known” Dash lands on the ground as she circles around the mailmare to get a better angle of attack “If I remember right, you’re the one that attacked me first! And no matter who started it, I’m ending it.”

“Dashie! Just stop this!” both Dash and Derpy stop all point all their focus at the Pink mare on the sidelines. Pinkie falls to her rump as her eyes fill with tears as her mane begins to deflate “Just….. stop. I don’t want my friends fighting like this. If Derpy really can’t control what she’s doing then…… I just…… stop. Please……”

Dash’s fire is quenched as she watches her friend powerlessly watch her from the sidelines. As she gazes into her eyes dash begins to realize the depth of her own actions, she is literally forcing a pony to go with her against her will. And regardless of what she has or is doing that pony is her best friend’s friend. Looking at Pinkie, Dash takes a deep calming breath in and out smothering her anger in favor of empathy.

“I know pinkie.” Dash sighs as she looks back into Pinkie’s eyes giving a stern but assuring look “I know that it’s hard for you to watch, but this has to be done.” Dash states sternly as she looks at the scared mailmare in front of her. “Whether it’s intentional or not Derpy’s been hurting ponies and if she’s going to get better than I need to bring her down and bring her in.”

Dash turns to Derpy her fire rekindled “And if you are telling the truth, and you really can’t control your stand, then that’s all the more reason to knock you out so you can’t use it to hurt anypony. Then I’m going to bring you to Twilight so she can make sure that your power won’t endanger my friends anymore.”

Dash raises her hoof to eye level as she judges the stand’s range and speed “From what I can tell your stand is really powerful but it can’t hit the broadside of a barn. I’m guessing that it can only hit something when it’s right in front of your muzzle.” The mare pounds her hooves together a rainbow aura encasing them “So to show you that I’m not doing this to spite you, I’ll bring you down in one punch! With my own stand Valkyrie.”

Launching off the ground like a prismatic torpedo Dash sails through the air past Derpy’s guard and her stand’s flailing attack. In the space of less than a second the mare uppercuts the Mailmare with a single rainbow powered explosion sending Derpy corkscrewing into the air with the force of Dash’s Valkyrie. Landing on the ground dramatically Dash turns her back to her opponent as Derpy hits the dirt with an unceremonious thud. “Sorry Derpy…..” Dash cranes her neck behind her to look at her opponent. “But your stand was a thousand years too early to beat me, with pranks or with stand powers.”

Walking a distance away from the grey mailmare Dash walks up to pinkie putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder “Hey Pinks? Are you okay?”

Pinkie looks between her friend Dash, and the prone Derpy behind her as a melancholy but kind smile returns to the party pony’s face. Wiping a few errant tears from her eyes the pink mare’s curly mane begins to return “T-Thanks Dashie, I don’t know what came over me back there it’s not like me to cry like that.”

“Hey don’t sweat it.” Dash brushes a tear from Pinkie’s eye “You were worried about your friends, it’s natural.” Dash turns to look at Derpy’s’ prone form “Don’t worry once we bring her to Twilight we’ll know what to do with her.”

“Y-Yeah….” Pinkie looks at Derpy “That’s what I’m worried about. What if she really can’t control her power? What if she really does have to be taken away? What if…..”

Pinkie’s rant is cut off as Dash places her hoof over her mouth silencing the mare “What if a giant meteor falls out of the sky and crushes us flat? Like I said don’t worry about it! Twilight’s a wiz at this kind of stuff.”

A childish grin spreads across her face “But now that it’s over, did you see me back there?! How awesome was that? I totally defeated a rogue stand user and the legendary prankster! That means I win the contest!”

“WHAT!?” pinkie gapes “You’re still thinking about that! Dashie……”

“What Pinkie? Jealous that you lost?”

“Pfft. No way! I was going to say that I should have won!” Pinkie says with sass as her normal smile returns. “Just cause you defeated Derpy doesn’t mean that you’re a better pranker. The winner should be me!”

“What? And why should you win? All you did was sit on your rump and cry like a baby!”

At the mention of the word ‘baby’ pinkie begins to tear up her eyes threatening to overflow as her mane slowly deflates.

“Oh Celestia. Look Pinkie I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to call you a baby I was just….”

Leaping up the mare bops Dash on the nose instantly returning to her normal cheerful self “Ha Ha! Got you Dashie! You’re just way too easy to fool! Just like you were before.” The pink mare swoons backwards as if acting in a fancy play “T-Thanks Dashie, I don’t know what came over me back there… BWA Ha Ha!”

Dash blushes crimson as small bubbles fall over her from above “What! No way that was an act! You were actually crying your eyes out there!”

“Maybe….” Pinkie smiles coyly as bubbles continue to rain down “or Maybe I was just pranking you!”

“Bull.” Dash states defiantly “…and will you stop with these bubbles, it’s not much of a prank if it’s not funny…..”

Pinkie immediately stops laughing “Um Dashie I’m not making any bubbles. I left my bubble machine at home today because I thought that I wouldn’t need it.”

Dash swats at the bubbles which shatter into oblivion at the slightest touch from her hoof “Seriously what the hay? Bubbles? Where did these come from?” Dahs freezes as she remembers something that Derpy said before “wait a second Pinkie, didn’t Derpy….”

“Is that….. Is that all you’ve got?” Dash freezes as the hairs on her neck stand on end. Both mares turn around slowly with stunned expressions to see the very same grey mail mare that they thought was completely unconscious rising shakily to her hooves.

“If you thought…..” Derpy stutters as small amounts of blood trickle down her face “if you thought that you could just knock me down like that, and take me away from my daughter………from my home, you had better think again. I’ve taken worse punches than that…..”

Derpy takes a step forward pointing an intimidating hoof at Dash’s forehead “I told you I didn’t want to fight you, but if you are going to pick on me…. Than I have no choice, I’ll fight back with everything I’ve got.” Derpy strikes a sudden confident pose her wall eyes lining up for once in her life as she stares Dash down “It’s time to settle the score. Right here and now. And this time, you won’t see me back down.”

“Derpy.” Dash states visibly shaken at the mail mare’s sudden change in personality  “Look at you you’re barely standing, just give up and come with us and I won’t have to hurt you.”

Derpy smirks “is that a threat?” Derpy points her hoof towards the stunned speedster “Sorry Dash but I just don’t feel like losing to you anymore.”

Dash narrows her eyes “What do you mean by….”

“Dash look out!” all of a sudden Dash finds herself pinned to the ground by a pink party mare as a barrage of random items falls out of the sky right on top of the two ponies. Dash and pinkie’s forms are lost in the dust as no less than a flowerpot, an anvil, a cart full of hay and a grant piano falls right on top of the two unlucky mares the intense weight of the items alone capable of killing a dragon.

Meanwhile up one hundred hooves in the air, the ponyville moving crew looks down sheepishly at the several items that they just let fall out of their moving van, each member looking at the other as they speculate the cost of the times that they just inadvertently destroyed. Whistling innocently to themselves the moving crew flies off in a hurry hoping to Celestia that no pony would discover the extent to which they screwed up.

Meanwhile back on the ground a certain cerulean mare convinced that she and pinkie have been crushed to death screams out in agony. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

“Dashie……”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“Dashie………..”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

The pink mare takes a large draught of air “DASHIE!!” Rainbow Dash stops screaming as she looks over to the pink mare across from her “Dashie, we’re fine. No need to scream silly filly.”

“Bu…What?! But there’s no way!” Sure enough even though booth mares are pinned under hundreds of pounds of rubble both are perfectly unharmed, suffering not even minor breathing troubles from the monumental weight above their heads. “That makes no sense! We should be crushed to death! Was it something that you did Pinkie?”

“No I did that.” Derpy walks up to the two mares manifesting her stand “That’s the power of my bubble markings” Derpy extends her hoof to her flank pulling off a round bubble shaped sphere from her cutie mark and presenting it before the two mares. “True the bubble traps may be pretty nasty, and they may make ponies sad, but they never really hurt any ponies even if the ‘prank’ normally would. That’s why all that stuff could fall on you and you’re not even hurt.”

Dash flails about trying to dislodge herself from under the rubble but to no avail as Derpy walks up to Dash with a disappointed look on her face “I’m ashamed of you Dashie….” Dash literally winces from the kind mare’s reproach “I tried to warn you not to touch the bubbles that my stand creates. I tried to tell you that I didn’t want to hurt you. But you………. You picked on me anyways! Even when I told you to stop! And you never listened!”

Lifting her muzzle at the mare in reproach the wall eyed mare puts the bubble back on her flank as her stand strikes a pose. “So I hit you with a special attack that I just made up, I call it Bubble launcher!” Derpy grins goofily as she admires her handiwork “Pretty cool hunh. I didn’t think that I would be able to throw my danger bubbles like that. But I guess I’m getting better at using this stand thing.”

Derpy’s face suddenly brightens as a brilliant idea fills her head “Say you gave your stand thing a name hunh Dashie? I should give my stand a name too!” Derpy taps her hoof to her chin and sits on her rump in deep thought. “Well, my stand is kind of dangerous and it has propellers on it….. Pinkie?” Derpy turns towards the pinned party mare “You always have good ideas what do you think?”

Pinkie scrunches her face in intense concentration as she puts her best brain cells on the case. “Well  there’s no real rule for naming stands other than it has to be a title of something, most often a song or a movie title. But I named my own stand Surprise, cause it was so surprising! So if you asked me I would say name it after what it does. Or whatever floats your boat! You’re the boss Derpy!”

“Wowie! You have a stand too Pinkie? That’s so cool! And that’s some great advice too! I knew that I could count on you Pinkie!” Pinkie beams with happiness at Derpy’s compliment as the grey mail mare puts her mind back on track with thinking up a name for her stand; her eyes rolling in her head as she concentrates with all her might. “Humh…… well my stand creates Dangerous zones…… Oh I’ve got it! Danger Zone!” Derpy puffs out her chest in pride “Yeah! That sounds really cool! What do you think Dash?”

Dash laughs insincerely at Derpy’s name for her stand as the Grey mare poses in front of her “He He! Yeah that’s a great name Derpy! A real go getter. Now if you don’t mind pulling all this stuff off of us so we can just put all this behind us and laugh it off.” Dash struggles one last time against the pile of debris as she looks into Derpy’s eyes  “Hunh what do you say? Buddy old Pal?”

“Oh no I can’t let you go yet!” Derpy claps her hooves together as her stand mirrors her actions menacingly.

This action does not go unnoticed by a certain cerulean mare who gulps heavily “Uh Derpy what are you doing? Um could you not, I don’t know, go waving that stand around? You’re kind of making me nervous.”

Derpy points her stand’s winged hoof at Rainbow Dash as she lines up her perfect shot “Now I’m sorry if this will hurt a little. But you need to learn that bullying ponies is never acceptable! You can’t just go around picking on ponies for something that they can’t control!”

Derpy winds up her stand as she readies the most intense haymaker of all time. “Trust me……” the mail mare whispers under her breath “.....I know that feeling all too well.”

Dash flails about as she tries to move an inch, to dodge, to move out of the way, to do something but both her and Pinkie are completely and utterly pinned. Both are sitting ducks for an attack from a vengeful mare that there is no getting away from. “Derpy! Come on Mare! Let’s just talk this out like civilized ponies!” Dash laughs nervously as she realizes that there is no way that she can dodge Derpy’s blow and from experience she knows that the wall eyed mare packs a real punch  “I’m sure that we can come to a nice, reasonable………”

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

With one single punch, Derpy’s Danger Zone sends the two prone mares flying at near supersonic speeds as they crash through the building behind them with enough destructive force to send them careening through the multiple walls of reinforced plaster and drywall. Wall after wall crumbles as the two mares crash through the walls on a path of incredible destruction and untold devastation.

……….Meanwhile in Carousel Boutique…………

“……..Rarity Darling You have truly outdone yourself.” The ivory mare smiles to herself as she cuts the last lacy ribbon off of her latest creations, several Gala Dresses designed solely for the princess of Equestria and her royal entourage. The dresses stood magically suspended above the floor encased in her magic, as the mare made her final touches. Normally she would use a mannequin, but this was no normal order, after all this was for the princess and her frame was much bigger than a normal pony.

Ever since Twilight had promised the fashionista the rights to make dresses for the highest levels of nobility in Canterlot the Ivory mare had been enduring moment after agonizing moment crossing her hooves, hoping beyond hope for the immortal ruler of Equestria to consent to wearing her fashion. Finally after what seemed like eons the Princess had come across Rarity’s request forwarded by none other than her prized Student and kindly requested a demonstration of her talents saying that she would be happy to try on anything a Friend of Twilight made. Rarity’s heart might have stopped at the news of this moment if it were not for uplifting feeling of euphoria that filled her every essence. She Rarity Belle, was the official dressmaker for the Queen. All of a sudden all the losses she suffered at the hooves of ‘more capable’ canterlot show ponies meant nothing, she was a designer for royalty after all! No longer could a pony look down on her work anymore, her Dresses were now the pinnacle of fashion and fabulousness.

And indeed her dresses were majestic, the two most perfect outfits that Rarity could design. After all nothing short of her absolute best would do for the god ruler of Equestria and so Rarity had put all her efforts into these two dresses. A full three days and nights of sweat and tears of careful stitching embroidering and sewing that was preceded by two whole weeks of flawless designing in the early hours of the morning. However standing back to admire them Rarity couldn’t help but feel that all of her work was worth it, the dresses were stunning.

The first Dress Rarity chose to embroider the majesty of the sun and all its glory, a long flowing ball gown embroidered with a flawless representation of Celestia’s majestic sun in red diamonds. Lace of the purest white flowed out of every sunbeam on the dress like water from a stream, crisscrossing over each other as they covered the dress in a thatched pattern. Around the neck of the ball gown a white hoof stitched ruff accentuated the wearer’s long neck and left room for Celestia’s signature gold studded jewelry on the chest.

The second outfit was the polar opposite of the first, designed to represent Celestia’s dominance as the warden of the night, a dark black elegant cocktail dress highlighted with dark blues and shall shimmering diamonds to represent stars. Long strings of sapphire and diamond beads lined the dresses sides each one never longer than six inches, and would give the impression of the moving night’s sky with every step the wearer made. The short sleeveless foreleg coverings resembled more of armor than a dress and were designed to convey the mysterious power of the night.

Rarity looked upon her creation and saw that it was good. Surely these two dresses would make her the cornerstone of Equestrian fashion and would also make a flawless gift for the princess. “Flawless Rarity….” Rarity tells herself as she looks upon her creation “…..Absolutely flawless. I daresay that I really think that you have outdone yourself this….”

BOOM!

With force enough to shatter the dreams of one thousand children the wall to Rarity’s left explodes in a cacophony of sound. Before the mare can even process what has happened the wall behind her boutique explodes sending two Pink and Blue projectiles sailing through her store and tearing through her dresses before flying out the other side of her shop with a resounding crash. The mare blinks in dumbfounded surprise as she stares at the spot where her dresses were magically suspended. “What?”

Pulling her head through the wall where the projectiles came from Derpy looks through the gaping hole in Rarity’s shop as she gasps in horror “Oh no! I didn’t mean to hit Pinkie too! I’m so sorry Pinkie!”

“What.” The stunned Fashionista’s mane springs a little out of place. “What just happened to my dresses?” half stunned the ivory mare cranes her neck to look out the gaping hole in the other side of Carousel boutique, her heart stopping at the sight her eyes are transmitting to her already stalled brain.

Hanging by a flagpole outside her shop and dressed in the torn and dirtied remains of her fabulous dresses are the unconscious forms of the two most troublesome ponies in ponyville, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Each one is tangled up in the cord of the flagpole, hanging upside down giving each and every pony in the town square an unflattering presentation of the two mare’s spanked rears, a large horseshoe shaped mark a testament to their through flank kicking. The entire town square stands stunned at the sight of the two most mischievous ponies dressed up like princesses and hanging from the flagpole no pony able or willing to say even a single word. Suddenly as if unbidden a small snicker escapes from a nameless pony in the crowd, only for it to be quickly suppressed. Yet the offending noise is soon joined by another snicker, and then another as the snickers evolve into chuckles more and more ponies unable to suppress the wellspring of mirth birthed from the absurdity of the situation. Then as if no pony can stand it anymore the entire crowd breaks out into uproarious laughter at the sight before them, each one bellowing at the top of their lungs at the two unconscious figures hanging from the flagpole like piñatas.

Everypony except a stunned fashionista her eyes twitching and her mind spinning at the destruction of a dress she spent months in preparation for. Her mind finally catching up to what she is seeing the mare looks upon the destruction of her beautiful dresses and despairs.

Raising her hooves to the heavens the ivory mare shouts over the crowd with the anguish only a denied Drama Queen can muster

“CURSE YOU PINKIE PIE!!”

“CURSE YOU RAINBOW DASH!!”

“CURSE YOU CAUSALITY!!”

“CURSE YOU ALL TO TARTARUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!”

……………………………..

Her forehead throbbing and her mind hazy Rainbow dash the defeated groans in pain as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. Looking around Dash can clearly see that she is no longer outside. It seems as though she has been placed on a green couch inside an average home of some kind not too nice but not a bad place to live either. Looking down at her torso the rainbow maned mare notices a light yellow blanket covering her torso a soft pillow rests under her head, there is even a glass of milk sits on the coffee table to her left. ‘Okay, so wherever I am at least it’s friendly.’

The cerulean mare groggily throws a light yellow blanket off her body as she better positions herself on the couch sitting herself up and propping her back against its back. “Don’t move….” Dash spins her head to see Derpy hooves walking towards her, a tray with a piping hot kettle of tea on her back “…..you shouldn’t move so soon. You were out for quite a while. I guess I hit you a little too hard.”

Dash’s imminent interjection is cut off by a smaller gentler voice. “Mom? Are you okay in there?” Dash turns her gaze to the new comer in the room a small grey coated unicorn filly with a scraggly blond mane and a worried look on her face. Dash guesses that she can’t be older than that filly that always watches her tricks, Scootaloo or something as the filly also lacks a cutie Mark.

Derpy turns to the filly giving her an assuring look “it’s all right sweetie I’m just having a conversation with Dash here. Why don’t you go and help Pinkie in the kitchen?” The grey filly looks between the two mares in the room, worried but not nervous as Dash finally pieces together the fact that this must be Derpy’s daughter. Dinky takes one last look at dash giving her the most intimidating look a filly can muster before walking back out of the room.

“Sorry about Dinky.” Derpy apologizes “she worries about her mother more than she should.” Reaching behind her back the mail mare picks up a cup with her hooves while simultaneously picking up the boiling kettle with her mouth. Pouring a cup of the light teal liquid into the cup she hooves it over to Dash with a smile on her face. “Here. Drink this, it’s an old herbal remedy the previous mail mare taught me, it is amazing at relieving sore muscles and body tension. Trust me I know that it works.”

Dash looks suspiciously at the cup before gulping the entire cup down in half a second, not even bothered at the piping hot temperature of the tea. Smacking her lips the mare judges the taste “Not bad, it’s got a good taste, though I’m not much of one for tea parties.” Dash looks around the room “So this is your house hunh? Why am I here?”

Derpy chuckles “Well silly I sort of brought you both, that is you and Pinkie here after I sort of…….. Well, I knocked you clean through Rarity’s’ boutique and into the town square.” Derpy puts a hoof over her mouth as she points to dash’s torso “And you kind of picked up some fancy new clothes on your way!”

Dash looks down and immediately regrets it as she sees herself wearing a frilly white dress, the kind that she would never be caught dead in. Dash blushes as she vainly tries to cover her un-exposed body “Derpy, Please tell me I wasn’t passed out in the town square wearing this.”

“No don’t worry Dashie……...”

Dash breathes a sigh of relief “thank the Goddess.”

“…….You were hanging by a flagpole in the town square wearing that!”

Dash groans as her face lands heavily into her lap, her body temporarily losing its ability to stand straight due to the shame she feels over the loss of her awesomeness. Seeing Dash’s condition Derpy pats the blue mare on the back and comforts her “Don’t worry about it, rumors and things like that come and go. Ponies will forget about it in a week……”

“A WEEK?!”

“……Well it could be three days if something else happens, but a week is the usual norm for ponies forgetting stuff. But I don’t think that Rarity will be as forgiving.” Derpy shivers as she remembers the face of the fashionista, the full wrath of a scorned mare “she looked pretty steamed.”

Dash groans again “Rarity’s the least of my worries, Ponies will never forget this!” Dash turns to the grey mailmare as she rants on “I mean I have a reputation to uphold! I mean what kind of pony gets knocked out and dumped in the middle of town square in a namby panby dress?”

Dash grabs the Derpy looking her dead in the eyes “I’ll tell you who doesn’t, the wonderbolts! And now even if I do impress them with my super cool tricks they’ll still know about this!” Dash looks up at the ceiling as she pictures the look on her idol’s spitfire’s face. “And that’s not all. Ponies know that they can depend on me because of my flawless image! If ponies don’t’ think that I’m cool than no pony will trust me, they’ll think ‘oh it’s dash the loser’ no pony can depend on a pony like that! What will my friends think about me if I can’t……”

“I’m Sorry!” Derpy blurts out

“Excuse me? Derpy what are you….” Dash stop mid rant as she sees the wall eyed mare beginning to cry in front of her, her face filled with shame and regret.

Derpy’s wings bristle as she repeats herself “I said that I’m so sorry! I never meant to pull those pranks and make a fool of anypony, especially a pony as cool as you Dashie.” Derpy looks down at the ground tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor. “I got really sick one day and I was so scared for Dinky because I thought she would get sick too. When I got better I……. I thought that it was all over but then this invisible thing started flowing me and nopony else could see it so I thought I was going crazy and all these accidents started happening around me and I didn’t know what to do and……”

The grey mare is practically sobbing at this point “…..and…. and you just came out of nowhere and started yelling at me and I…… I……… I have no excuse for how I acted. There is never any excuse for hurting a pony like that even unintentionally. So I’m sorry.”

Dash mind stalls as the looks upon the face of the crying Derpy hooves however this time Dash is able to glance beyond the superficial labels that she and ponies like her. Labels of a klutz, of a two faced pony after her own means, of a walking spiteful disaster. Instead she sees the face of a frightened mare who loves her family and obtained a curse that caused her to unintentionally bring harm to others. “…..so your real purpose wasn’t to prank any pony? It was to deliver the ponies of ponivile’s mail?”

“I’m so sorry!” Derpy bows her head.

Dash places a reassuring hoof on Derpy’s shoulder as she raises her lowered head “No Derpy, I’m sorry. I should have realized it earlier, Pinkie was right; you would never hurt anypony if you could help it. I just got, well I got carried away with all that was happening. Can you ever forgive me?”

Derpy sniffs as she wipes the tears from her eyes “R-Really?” She asks.

“Really Really.” Dash nods

“Really Really Really?!” Pinkie says as she jumps out from between the two giving them both a mild fright. However this fight is forgotten as the Pink Party mare pulls the two into a warm embrace. “Don’t worry Derpy I forgive you too! And I’m sure that everypony in town would forgive you if they knew it was cause of a stand. Well Twilight said that I couldn’t tell anypony else about stands, or that I couldn’t tell anypony to tell anypony about stands, or that I couldn’t tell anypony to tell a pony to tell another pony about stands. But I bet that even if they didn’t know that it was a stand and if they knew that you were the legendary prankster they’d still forgive you because they all love you so much! In fact some of your pranks were really funny so I bet a lot of ponies enjoyed them, they were just scared cause didn’t know who was pranking them!”

“Pinkie’s right mom.” Derpy turns to see the face of her daughter carrying a small tray of muffins in her the yellow glow of her levitation. Placing the try on the table Dinky looks at her mother “You taught me and every pony in this town that it’s wrong to hate or dislike ponies for something that they can’t control, so they’d never be upset if you knew that it was an accident. And even if you did mean it….”

Derpy rushes forward hugging her mother rubbing her teary eyes into her mother’s coat “….you’d still be the best mom in the world, and nothing could change that.” Derpy’s tears cease as she proudly holds her daughter in her arms, demonstrating the depth of her love in a way that requires no words or language to express

“Besides…..” Dinky breaks the hug giggling a little to herself “….Some of your pranks were pretty funny.”

“I know right!” Pinky leaps up displaying her new frayed black dress “I mean who would have imagined that me and Dash would look so good?”

Dash glares at Pinkie as the rest of the room breaks out into a fit of giggles. Even Derpy begins to cheer up “I just wish that I could control my power better.” Derpy begins to droop again as the laughter in the room dies down.

“I mean I seem to lose control of my stand when I’m really emotional, but I just wish that I could control my stand all the time; like I could during that fight with Dash.” The mare taps her hooves nervously as her lazy eye dangles off to the side “I mean then it was Dangerous fight but it was almost like Danger Zone was a part of me then, like it listened to my every command. But I guess now I’ll have to be taken in to Twilight since I can’t control it……..”

Suddenly a lightbulb goes off above Dash’s head “That’s it! Thanks Pinkie!”

Pinkie takes the lightbulb that she placed over Dash’s head and stores it in her mane “No Problemo Dashie, Now what’s your brilliant idea?”

Dash pulls the Pink mare into a huddle “Follow my lead.” Dash whispers into Pinkie’s ear much to the confusion of Derpy. “Yes Pinkie you’re right! That was an awesome prank, it probably had to be the best prank of all time! It was so much better than ours.”

“Well I don’t think that it’s very fair to say that her prank was the best of all time. I mean there was this one time when I….” Dash elbows the pink mare who remembers her role “….Oh yes! I mean how could Derpy’s prank not be the best of all time? I mean it was so Derpy!”

“Yes it was so awesome I think that there is no question about it! What do you think Pinkie?”

“Well I don’t know what you’re thinking but I agree with what you agree with Dashie!”

“Then it’s settled” Dash raises her hoof ceremoniously over Derpy’s head “Derpy in the name of the Lather….” Dash taps Derpy’s left shoulder “…..the Pun….” Dash taps Derpy’s right shoulder “and the Holy boast, I hereby dub thee the Master Pranker of Ponyville and the winner of our prank contest!”

“What!?” Derpy Exclaims “But it was a complete accident! I didn’t mean to prank any pony!”

“That’s why you’re the obvious winner Derpy!” Dash smiles confidently “You’re a natural!”

Derpy face hooves “…..That’s not what I meant”

“Don’t forget about your prize!” Dash exclaims “According to the rules of our prank contest the losers have to serve the winner for three days!”

“What!?” this time Pinkie is the one yelling “But, you, and me and slave and….”

“Pinkie’s right!” Derpy exclaims “I don’t want you to be my servants! I don’t want any of….”

Dash stops Derpy by placing her hoof over the mare’s mouth “Nu-uh! Not another word! You’re not getting off that easily! As your servants for the next two days Pinkie and I as master stand users will be training you nonstop! To better fulfill your desires we will train you for three days and nights instilling in you all the skills and talent to control your stand like you request.”

Derpy and Pinkie stand stunned as the cerulean speedster places her hoof reassuringly on the mailmare shoulder.  “And by the end of our studios sessions you will have finally learned to control your stand powers so that you Derpy Hooves will never hurt another pony by accident ever again! So….. What do you say do we have a deal?”

Suddenly realizing the extent to what the blue mare is sacrificing for her Derpy begins to once again tear up from the thoughtfulness of the mare before her. Just this morning she was terrified of what the future would bring, it seemed like her life was spiraling out of control, and that she would end up losing everything she cherished. And now she is standing here, supported by ponies who care about her and are willing to do everything in their power to help her in her hour of need.

Taking in her sudden and complete reversal of fortunes with an open heart and mind Derpy wipes the tears off her face stares straight (Or as straight as one can with cross eyes) into Dash’s eyes her fire ignited. “Well if that’s the case……. Then I accept and promise to take both of your training seriously!” The grey mare snaps a smart salute “I won’t let you down!”

“All right then!” Dash leaps into the air “Come on Training starts now! Let’s head on out to the back yard for some sparring, last one there is a rotten muffin!” With no more words needing to be said the rest of the group rushes out the back door and into the open air as the sun slowly lowers itself from the sky.

Pinkie however doesn’t move her mane visibly deflating as she stares at the empty door frame “But…… But……. I wanted to spend special times with Dashie……”

Dash sticks her head in through the door frame “what was that Pinkie?”

Pinkie's mane springs back into place “Nothing! It’s nothing Dash!”

“……Yeah whatever………” Dahs rubs her neck shyly emulating a certain yellow Pegasus “um Pinkie………”

“…Yeah Dashie?”

“Do you want to…… um…….. Get a cupcake together after this? As friends of course!”

“You mean, like a friend date?” Pinkie asks cocking her head

“Yeah! As a friend Date…………..and nothing else.”

“Nothing else?” Pinkie’s mane turns wavy as she sultry voice returns “Are you sssssssuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrreeeeee you don’t want anything else? Not even a little…. Dessert?” Pinkie says as she pulls out a pink frosted cupcake from behind her back.

Dash visibly sweats as she looks at Pinkie “Well……. Ummmmm, mayb…..”

Dinky shoves her head through the door frame, the sound of her barking voice snapping the two lovebirds out of their trance “Geese you two! Can you go two minutes without shipping each other? Well you’re not getting all lovey-dovey in my home.” Dinky rolls her eyes “Seriously you two get a room!”

Dash looks around “….Um, Kid? We kind of are in a room.”

“…………… Just get outside and help my mom already.” Dinky walks out of the room in a huff “Seriously, adults are so gross.”

Chapter 10-Valkyrie-Take 2

Chapter 11-Dirty Trick

Dirty Trick:

“Trixie! I swear this is the last time! Where are you?”

The blue mare looks up from her book she has been reading for the past hour in the middle of the library floor. So far it had been a slow morning however from Twilight’s little outburst from the kitchen Trixie could tell that the cease fire between the two had already ended. Trixie sighs as she puts down her book ‘torture and you’ she was reading “And I was just on the chapter on psychological interrogation. What does Twilight want from Trixie now?”

Trixie watches in slight amusement as a flustered lavender mare trots up the Trixie carrying a white carton in her telekinesis. Twilight stomps to a stop fight in front of Trixie as she pushes the carton into Trixie’s face “Trixie? What is this?”

With the slightest flick of her horn Trixie magics her hat back onto her head, sparing just enough effort towards glancing over at the other unicorn to look interested. “…and here Trixie thought that you were the smart one.”

Not even bothering to rise from the pillow she is sitting on Trixie squints as she looks at the object in front of her “Well, Trixie may not have a college degree like some lavender dimwit but from her limited knowledge Trixie supposes that that object is a carton of milk.”

Twilight stuttered in embarrassment “But….. I know what it is Trixie! What I want to know is what is it doing here?!”

Trixie blinks “Well perhaps it’s because you brought it from the kitchen? Wow a college degree doesn’t count for much these days now does it?”

“NO! I mean YES! I mean arrrggghhhh!” Twilight raises her hooves to the heaven in exasperation before calming herself down “Look my question for you today is this. After you ate your breakfast, which left a mess all over the table, did you leave the milk out again or not?”

Trixie taps her hoof to her chin “hmmm hhhhhh…… Trixie is going to guess by your angry behavior and her infallible memory that the answer to question is answer number one. That I Trixie Lulamoon committed the unforgivable sin of leaving the milk out!”

Twilight nods, ignoring Trixie’s sass in favor of actually getting somewhere in this argument. “Very Good Trixie. Now as for question two……” Twilight leans forward into the blue mare’s face “Why did you think that it was a good idea to leave the milk out again and not clean up after yourself in MY house?”

Trixie inspects her hoof nonchalantly “now that is an easy question! The answer is as simple as your mane style; Trixie saw no problem in it! You were going to get milk for your coffee this morning no? So Trixie just left it out so you didn’t have to get it! You should be thanking Trixie’s thoughtfulness, not condemning her.”

“…….and the mess?

“Trixie was just too busy to bother with such trivial tasks.” Trixie picks up her book “Trixie is a big thinker, not a maid, and her time it too valuable to be spent cleaning simple messes.”

Twilight face hoofed at the blue show mare’s flippant attitude “Look Trixie I know that you are used to living on your own but your manners are atrocious!” Twilight sighs “And you’re living in somepony else’s house now so you have to show some consideration for other’s property and feelings, not just your own.”

Twilight turns to leave reaching the halfway point between the kitchen and Trixie before the blue mare gets out a snide comment “Well at least my manners are not as bad as your taste in organization….”

Twilight stops dead in her tracks, her fur bristling as she turns around to face the blue mare behind her “….what did you say?”

‘Bull’s eye!’ Trixie thinks “You heard Trixie! I mean what kind of pony in their right mind uses the LCC method of organizing books? It’s a sham.”

Twilight growls, this time Trixie has gone too far. “The princess herself uses the Library of Canterlot classification system….”

“Yes, yes the Princess uses it! That’s such a quaint argument!” Trixie rises to her hooves “I mean the princess eats like what forty pounds of cake a day, does that mean Trixie should as well?”

“The princess has a higher metabolism than the average pony!” Twilight argues “And don’t change the subject! The LCC is the perfect form or literary organization for every library! There’s’ no problem with it!”

“And I am telling you now Twilight your trust in the library of Canterlot calcification system will only lead to your own downfall, everypony knows that the Dewy Decimal system is far superior.”

“And that’s why I’m telling you are being completely illogical, the princess herself has used the LCC system in the royal archives for over a thousand years. Compared to that track record the DDC barely holds a candle.”

And once again the two residents of Golden Oaks Library, one Trixie Lulamoon: stand Agent, and Twilight Sparkle: Princess Representatives prepare for their mutually shared talent of arguing. Through a Library is normally a place where one might hear the quiet sound of pages turning, any place where the two unicorns gathered would quickly become a place of conflict between the two self-righteous mares.

Preparing for yet another intense argument the blue showmare adjusts her hat. “And once again you cannot hold true to the changing of the times. It is clear from looking at the various libraries NOT in canterlot that the Dewy Decimal system is the logical choice. Your LCC may be an organization standard in the narrow minded corridors of canterlot, but the rest of the world sees the superiority of Dewey’s methods. ”

“The LCC is far better suited for the research intensive and studious minded ponies that often frequent libraries.” Twilight retorts “though I wouldn’t expect a hard headed stuck up pony like yourself would blaspheme against a system that has aided scholars for thousands of years!”

“How dare you! And you dare to call Trixie illogical!” Trixie fumes “You have just proven yourself that the LCC is not the best kind of organization system for this library.” Trixie stamps her hoof “The Great and Powerful Trixie can see that The LCC is only suited for scholars and bookish nerds like yourself who are too set in their ways to see the truth. The Dewey Decimal system is far superior and more appealing to the masses than your outdated models. Or are you so sheltered and alienated from the common pony that you can’t even realize that?”

“You want to debate who is more illogical, hunh miss ‘wheels can’t be trusted’.” Twilight remarks with venom “You went into a thirty minute rant that wheels are dangerous and destructive, all before breakfast despite the fact that your wagon rolls on them.”

“WHEELS ARE DANGEROUS. Any pony with half a brain can see that they are a resource that must be used as sparingly as possible. That is why Trixie places three charms on each of her wheels to protect others from their untapped wrath.”

“What? That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard!” Twilight remarks with exasperation, just as a sly grin crosses her face “…..Though I suppose that I should have expected such an antiquated belief from some pony that never went to magic college!”

“You’ve crossed the line Sparkle!” Trixie buts heads with the lavender unicorn “Normally Trixie would resort to violence, however Trixie is feeling merciful today. So for the last time let me state my demands. Purchase more cheesy crackers, stop Belittling Trixie’s obviously superior talents, and rearrange the entire library to accommodate to the much more superior Dewey Decimal system instead of your outdated library of Canterlot calcification system that only serves to infuriate the local populace!!”

“And I have a demand for you Great and Powerful Trixie, stop being such a stuck up freeloading jerk! Your snoring wakes the dead, you’ve left out the milk Celestia knows how many times, and you are consistently rude to any pony that you meet.” Twilight shouts over her adversary adrenaline rushing through her veins as she pushes back against Trixie’s despotism with sheer physical force. “I’m letting you stay in this library to repay a debt and because I respected your abilities, but if you keep acting like a savage slob all the time then you can find somewhere else to sleep!!”

Both mares stare each other down eye to eye, horn to horn magic to magic each one staring down the other with a malice and pride that could shake mountains. However the first to break this epic stalemate is Trixie who simply shrugs off her glance with a superiority complex and a level of emotional control only an experienced performer could pull off.

“Humph, this is getting Trixie nowhere, arguing with you is a complete waste of time.” Trixie remarks as she turns away from the purple librarian trotting up the stairs to the treehouse without a single word more.

Stomping up the stairs Twilight recovers from her self-induced rage just in time to see Trixie open the door to her room. “Trixie, come down here! I haven’t finished talking.”

“Yes Twilight but Trixie has finished Listening.” The showmare states with finality “Now if you can excuse me I will be taking a nap in MY room and will not be disturbed.”

Trixie slams the door with her fury sending a vibration through the entire treehouse as the lavender mare stares dumbstruck and infuriated at Trixie’s’ door. Unsatisfied with the conclusion of their argument both mares simultaneously growl in primal fury expressing their deep frustrations with the other.

“URRRRRRRR!! Why do you have to be so stubborn Trixie?!?”

“URRRRRRRR!! Why do you have to be so stubborn Twilight?!?”

Casting a simple noise proof charm on the door so that she won’t have to hear the sound of one annoying purple pony’s obnoxious voice, the Great and Powerful Trixie breathes in and out. An old trick but a good one for frayed nerves and soaring tempers.

Trixie counts back from ten with every slow breath in to calm her nerves from her recent spat with the Librarian. “Ten…….. Nine……… eight………seven……… six………five……… UGH! Twilight Sparkle! Why do you have to be so infuriating! Why can’t you simply see that Trixie is right?! URGH!” The blue mare kicks a nearby bookshelf sending a book falling onto her head with a loud thump.

Rubbing her head the caped showmare once again attempts to calm her raging temper as she rubs her sensitive head. “Do not lose your Cool Trixie, that is only what Twilight Sparkle wants.” The showmare removes her hat and throws it on her bed “Just think through the situation like you always do.” Trixie paces to her left “Pros and Cons of living in the library with Twilight. Pro: free room and board. Well relatively free room and board”

Trixie pivots as she paces to her right “Con: Annoying roommate. Pro: location in the center of town, allowing easy access to any part of ponyville”

Trixie turns again this time to the left “Con: Really annoying roommate. Pro: Access to key pieces of intelligence in gathering pieces of the Red Stone and monitoring Twilight sparkle Con……” Trixie falls to her plot in exasperation “…….. Con: Really REALLY Annoying roommate AKA: Twilight sparkle.”

The blue showmare sighs falling to her rump as she realizes her base problem is also her means of shelter and her mission. Celestia had assigned her to not only watch Twilight for anything suspicious, but also to protect her from any Danger. But why of all ponies did it have to be HER?! Why did fate have to be so cruel that it would have her protecting the very pony she despised the most? True Twilight was talented and considerate at times, but she was so pig headed and naïve. How she managed to not die while facing down dangerous stand users was beyond the showmare comprehension. How could she expect to complete her mission when she kept trying to befriend every pony she met?! How could Twilight Sparkle be so smart, but so incredibly stupid at the same time? It was infuriating!

“I mean FRIENDSHIP?! How dumb could you get? Everypony knows it’s’ every mare for….. OW!!” Another book falls on Trixie’s head causing the mare to wince in pain as the slighter heavier book rebounds off her head. “Trixie thought that that was the last time a book would get the better of her!” Trixie looks up to see the very bookshelf that she kicked falling right on top of her hundreds of pounds of literature threatening to crush her flat.

Reacting with reflexed honed over hundreds of life or death battles the mare’s stand Magic Mare leaps out in an instant stopping the collapsing bookshelf before a single book can slide off the shelf. “Ha! Take that fate! You will have to try better than that if you want to stop the Great and Powe…… OW!” a small spurt of Blood falls from Trixie’s hoof as her stand’s hoof is injured, the feedback causing Trixie’s own hoof to open up and bleed. The bookshelf quakes as Magic Mare winces from the pain, however Trixie re-exerts her control over the stand moving the bookshelf back into place.

With the shelf now firmly on the floor Trixie extends her hoof looking at the small but painful gash on her arm. “Humh. That was odd, and this wound………… it’s not a paper cut or a wound you would get from a bookshelf.” Trixie’s eyes scan the room as she applies her twenty-twenty vision with the aid of her stand. “In fact it looks more like a form of bite than anything.”

Finally Trixie’s eyes catch something as she looks up to see a dark shape hanging from the chandelier it's’ vacant white eyes reflecting ambient light in the shadows. Trixie prepares to call out and readies her stand to strike only to once again feel a book falling on her head. Trixie turns sharply this time just as she sees the same bookshelf that she stopped a second ago falling towards her again. Yet this time Trixie is far too slow as the entire bookshelf falls on her burying her under a mountain of letters and pages.

……………..

Meanwhile on the ground floor of Golden oaks library, a very distracted Unicorn rereads the same passage over again. Twilight was doing what she always did when she felt flustered, reading. However the Blue mare had a way of buzzing in her brain like a fly in her ear and Twilight found it very difficult to focus on what she was doing. Suddenly a loud Crash echoed through the library as the lavender mare sighs in defeat. “Ugh now she’s’ wrecking the guest room too. Well I had better go up and stop her before the great and angry Trixie destroys something of real value.”

Building up a familiar magic charge in her horn, Twilight Teleports up the flight of stairs unceremoniously landing on her hooves at the door t Trixie’s room. Clearing her voice Twilight knocks “Trixie! Open up. I know that you are angry about the ‘wheels’ comment, but destroying the library is not going to help.” Hearing nothing significant from inside Twilight knocks again.

Meanwhile on the inside of the Door The great and powerful Trixie, thanks to her own noise proof charm fails to hear Twilight’s voice, or her knocking. As she pulls herself out from the ruins of the bookshelf as she flings several of the books off her back. “That didn’t just happen. Somepony please tell Trixie that she didn’t just lose to a bookshelf.”

Trixie shakes off the damage as she clears her mind, noticing the wound in her hoof is still bleeding she uses a minor healing spell to patch the wound, stopping the bleeding and leaving a small but significant scar the only sign of her damage. Scanning the room Trixie spies her hat on her bed and reaches to pick it up with a hoof. Hearing a clunk from above Trixie removes her hoof just in time as a flaming chandelier falls from the ceiling landing right where her arm was half a second ago. “What the…… this is no coincidence! Whoever you are show yourself! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!”

A snide and winy laughter fills the room as Trixie’s’ head begins to spin, “Oh we don’t think that you are any position to demand anything Trickles. Not after the little gift that we gave you….” Trixie’s head continues to swim as she takes a knee on the floor catching her suddenly laborious breath.

Twilight finishes her knocking as she stares at the door in front of her “Alright Trixie enough playing around, I’m coming in.” Twilight’s telekinesis grabs the door handle turning it sharply as she charges …… right into the closed door. Sliding to the ground after her failed attempt to open the door with her face Twilight picks herself up groggily “Uh. way to lock the door Trixie…….”

Twilight blinks in confusion “Wait this is odd, Trixie never locks her door.” Twilight resumes her frenzied knocking “Trixie! Why have you locked the door? Open this door right now!”

Twilight nearly considers teleporting inside when she hears the familiar click of the lock as the door opens from the inside. Opening the door is a not very great Trixie, her hat is missing she is covered in several books and her mane appears to be a complete mess. However what Twilight notices first is the fact that her room is a complete mess.

Twilight gapes as she sees her priceless bookshelf demolished and her books are lying unceremoniously on her floor.  Trixie’s bed has scorch marks over it and is currently filled by her flaming chandelier. And most disturbingly there is a small but non cable train of blood on the floor as Twilight notices a small blotch or Red on Trixie’s right hoof.

“Trixie? What’s going on? Why are you bleeding and why is the bed on fire?”

Trixie pants heavily as she takes a shaky hoof out of the door “Twilight…… Just….. Leave…….”

“What? You Trash my library and you expect me to leave? What has gotten into you Trixie!?”

Extending her hoof Trixie gives the mare a weak but attention grabbing slap across the face “Twilight you idiot….. We need to leave….. It’s an attack…… by……” Trixie swoons forward landing in Twilight’s outstretched arms.

Twilight looks down at the heavily breathing mare as a pit of worry begins to fester in her heart. She had never seen Trixie this weak, not even during their fight and the fact that anything could bring the mare so low worried Twilight more than anything. “Trixie I sincerely hope that this is a joke to get back at me for saying that you didn’t go to college.” Twilight extends her hoof placing it over Trixie’s forehead. What Twilight feels leaves no doubt to Trixie’s condition.

‘But she was just fine a second ago.’ The lavender mare thinks to herself  ‘and no illness works that fast unless it’s a……’ Twilight gasps as she looks back at the wound on Trixie’s arm “…..Poison? Trixie what happened to you? What’s going on?”

Trixie raise her gaze to look wearily into Twilight’s eyes “You…… idiot…… we need to run……. Stand…… it’s crawling in the walls…….”

Twilight’s ears immediately perk up at the mention of Stand, she eyes glancing side to side in an attempt to locate this mysterious attacker. Seeing nothing Twilight quickly deduces that she and Trixie are at a distinct disadvantage fighting a stand that they themselves can’t locate. And worse than that, Twilight looks down at the blue mare in her hooves, from Trixie’s condition she needs to get her to a proper doctor as quickly as possible.

Twilight feels the mare’s head again and checks her pulse wishing that she could properly diagnose Trixie’s afflictions. Potions and poisons were never a strong area for twilight, as the art of advanced poison making was regulated by the Equestrian government. Besides Zecora being one of her best friends and a Zebra shaman had always been there to help her with her potions. However despite her lack of experience in anatomy, the signs Trixie is giving her tell her that the blue mare is not faring well.

Flinging the blue mare in her back (and struggling a bit against her weight) Twilight trots down the stairs “Don’t worry Trixie. I’ll get some help.” upon reaching the front door Twilight grabs the handle and yanks on the door learning from her last mistake of trying to open doors with her skull. However Twilight struggles in vain as she looks to see that some pony has nailed the door shut completely from the top and bottom.

“Oh Come ON! Can this get any worse?” Hearing a snapping rope Twilight looks up to see a large heavy box of books swinging on a long rope towards her head. Conjuring a quick shield Twilight blocks the attack causing the box to fall to pieces from the shock of the recoil.

“As if I had to ask……” Twilight looks around the room “Great, now how will I get out of here when the door is locked?” Twilight spies the back door through the kitchen, several windows and the upstairs balcony, all of them promising exits in their own right. “If I had to guess I’d say that every door and window in the library is booby trapped so there is no real easy way out of this.”

Twilight wracks her brain as she considers her situation, she is under attack and being held hostage in her own library by a rogue assassin of some kind and she needs to get Trixie to a hospital. All the doors and windows are booby trapped and it’s not as if she can just teleport out. The assassin had probably placed wards around the library to prevent that. “…….. But I just teleported up the stairs which means……”

Concentrating a small burst of magic as not to hurt herself should the teleport fail, Twilight conjures up magical forces beyond a normal unicorn’s comprehension. With expert precision Twilight and her passenger to jump through space landing completely unharmed a four hooves away. Twilight blinks in skepticism “Wow, I can’t believe that worked! This assassin must be an idiot if he expected to trap two magically adept unicorns without sealing their teleportation.” Twilight builds up a much larger charge in her horn this time as the glow of her magic fills the room “Well you know what they say one pony’s incompetence is another pony’s blessing.”

The spell is nearly complete as several voices speaking in unison call out from around the library “Not so Fast Twilight Sparkle! We wouldn’t leave if we were you! That is unless you value the life of your little filly friend there!”

Twilight horn glows slightly less as she places the spell on hold searching the surrounding room for her prey. “SHE IS NOT MY..…. Never mind just who are you and what do you want?”

Directly in front of her Twilight watches as a strange shape crawls out of the wooden floor in front of her, the wood rippling and bending as the small figure crawls out of solid ground. Taking the shape of a sickeningly yellow mouse its tail completely missing and its hole filled ears twitching every which way. Its milky white eyes and gaunt appearance make it all the more terrifying and other worldly as the mouse smiles evilly at her with its yellowed crooked teeth.  “Now then allow me to introduce myself. I am one of many and believe me when I say that we are many. This is the stand Dirty Trick, and you have been watched by us for quite some time.”

The rat paces across the ground as it circles around the lavender mare “We could have finished you and your little mare friend any time we wished however we have an objective at this point that is of far more importance of your filthy lives.”

“And that would be…..” Twilight circles around the rat as well trying to get to a more advantageous position to defend again the stands’ attack should it strike.

“I and talking about the objects that you call ‘strange stones’ the objects currently locked in that safe of yours under this library.”

Twilight catches her breath as she realizes that the stand was telling part of the truth, if it knew about the strange stones then it had been watching her and Trixie. Twilight shudders subconsciously at the image of being watched by the creepy rat thing in front of her but retains her cool. “And you just expect me to hoof them over to you? What a great plan. Let’s ask the unicorn nicely to hoof over an object of immeasurable power; I’m sure that’ll work.”

“Oh you will hoof over the stones to us!” The rat crawls up a nearby bookshelf staring down at the mare from above “You have little choice in the matter. You see before I bit that mare’s stand I coated my jaws with a rare and powerful poison. Needless to say if you chose to take her to a hospital she would not survive the night.”

Twilight yells in rage as she fires a beam of powerful magic through the wall right were the stand was. Yet Dirty Trick slips through the wooden shelf as if passing through water, completely missing the blow. “Well it seems some pony doesn’t have a lot of patience so I will cut to the chase, I have the antidote to the poison that is killing Trixie and you have the strange stones, so let’s make a trade shall we?”

The chuckling of rat’s echoes off the walls as the mare can almost feel the wretched beings circling her. “The deal is simple you hand over the, what is it you call them, the strange stone pieces. And in exchange I’ll give you the antidote to the poison that I injected into Trixie!”

The stand lounges on the bookshelf like a tiger staring at its prey as Twilight struggles with the dilemma before her “it’s not like you have any other choice.” The stand remarks. “Without another stand to fuse with you are completely helpless before me, so you might as well give in now and save me the trouble.”

Twilight lowers her head looking at the ground beneath her in deep thought. a lesser pony would think that she was considering giving up, of surrendering to save her friend’s life. However any companion of Twilight could tell you that if there is one thing Twilight was bad at, it was throwing in the towel and giving in, especially when a friend’s life was on the line.

“Heh, you may have been watching me for days, but you still don’t seem to know anything.” Twilight raises her head her eyes brimming with newfound confidence “My stand may work well with others, but you seem to forget that I’m the private student of Princess Celestia Alicorn of the sun, and I don’t need a fancy offensive power to crush a rat.”

Turning to the mare on her back Twilight watches as Trixie breathes in and out with laborious breaths “Don’t worry Trixie, this will be all over soon. I’ll finish this guy and get the antidote…….. In ten seconds flat!”

……………….

“……..and another thing Pinkie! You can’t just expect .........”

“Um Dashie? Are you okay?”

“………..”

“Hello there! Earth to Dashie! IS ANYPONY HOME!?!”

“………..Twilight just used my catchphrase…….”

“Really? How did you…..”

“Dashie sense.”

“…….You have a Dashie sense?”

“No I can just tell when someone uses a copyrighted trademark.”

“That makes sense! So what are you going to do about it Dashie?”

“Same thing I always do. Crash into her library scattering all her books in a thousand different directions the moment she finishes reorganizing them.”

“Wait you crash into her library on purpose? Ha! I knew crashing into her library wasn’t an accident! You’re way too good for that Dashie!”

“Well the first time was sort of an accident, but after that I just liked messing with the egghead….. Anyway where was I? Oh yeah, you can’t just expect something to be a good cupcake ingredient just because……”

………………

Twilight takes a cautionary step towards the evil rat like stand her horn blazing with fury as she prepares to strike at a moments’ notice. Suddenly with a flick of her horn Twilight slings another of she spells trapping the rat in a bubble of force. As the rat struggles to escape from its new confinement Twilight flings the creature into the air manifesting her stand in an instant the mare pounds the Rat with a single powerful punch that connects perfectly. The rat falls to the ground as Twilight raises her own hoof crushing the rat flat against the ground with her bare hoof as she grinds its body against the hardwood floor. A second passes, then two yet the mare doesn’t feel any resistance from the creature she is pressing into the ground with her hoof. Twilight raises her hoof seeing no sign of the Rat stand under her hoof. Taking advantage of the Unicorn’s surprise, The rat leaps from beneath the ground it’s teeth outstretched to bite and fill Twilight’s veins with its’ deadly poison. However the mare is too fast and Twilight jumps back onto the table in the middle of the room blasting away at the rat with a bolt of her magic.

The rat vanishes beneath the ground as the bolt hits the ground which rippling like water as the rat swims through it. A feral hissing fills the room as Twilight looks around to to see not one, not two but three rats all as ugly as the first peering at her, their heads sticking up from under the ground. “Hsssssssss! Fool You cannot harm us! And even if you could my stand does not inflict damage to my main body when it in injured! Hsssssssss! Do you get it now filly? Your little stand cannot harm me! Surrender the stones.”

Twilight however retains her confidence as she looks at the stands around her “That may be……. There are many stands that don’t transition damage to their main bodies.”

Twilight raises her stand its hoof pointed right at the main rat “however I learned something from Rarity’s’ stand which also doesn’t convey damage to her main body. My stand’s attack isn’t a physical one it’s purely mental, and so it can affect even stands like yours since a stand is a manifestation of a pony’s psyche!”

Twilight laughs with bravado as she tries to get the scheming rat to back down “amazing isn’t it? What I once thought of as a weakness turns out to be a golden strength. Now I’ll make a demand of you Dirty Trick, give up the antidote and I’ll let you leave here with your mind still in one piece.”

The rats stare at Twilight as they attempt to stare down the confident mare before them. After a few seconds their ears twitch as all three sink back into the walls of the library. “You seem to have spirit little filly……. But spirit can’t’ help you against us.”

Twilight here's another snap of chords as she feels a weight press down on her back pushing her flat against the table. Twilight struggles against the force holding her down until she looks above her just in time to see another swinging book trap swing right where her head was a mere second ago. Twilight turns to see Trixie lying on top of her pressing her against the table, her face strained but serious. Twilight opens her mouth to say something however Trixie presses her hoof against her mouth silencing the mare as Trixie scans the room for signs of the Stand. Confident that she can see no more traps the blue show mare lights her horn casting a translucent bubble over the table as she breathes a sigh of relief. “Whew now that’s better…….. Another…… successful plan from….. Trixie…….”

Twilight looks around her at the barrier as she taps her hoof to the translucent shield “A sound proof bubble? Trixie what is the point of this? We’re in plain sight!”

“You, imbecile do you think….. Do you think that the great and Powerful Trixie would just lie there……” Trixie coughs into her elbow as if she is struggling with every breath “…….while you did all the work? While you were, flinging spells like a mad mare……. I was watching, learning and I learned something important about the stand while you were panicking.”

“I was so not…..” Twilight is interrupted by Trixie’s hoof again.

“Listen well Twilight…… we don’t’ have much time before the other stand catches on……..” Trixie breathes heavily in and out as if catching her own breath as she continues. “First, I noticed the stand…. There are three of them……. Can travel through solid objects like the library and a hoof……. But not magic like stands and shields…… it’s probably how he caught us by surprise.”

Twilight rolls her eyes “No duh Trixie I already figured that out.”

Trixie smirks at the lavender mare’s attitude “Yes but you missed the most important part of the stand. if it can travel through solid objects…… how can it find its prey?” Trixie taps the barrier exhaustion leaving her voice as she stares with a focused gaze out to the library proper. “The answer is sound. If you haven’t noticed already, all the rats blind, so it finds its prey and makes traps biased on vibrations sent through the air…… and the ground.”

Twilight eyes widen at Trixie’s logic as the lavender mare thinks through Trixie’s’ words carefully. With flawless logic Twilight analyzes her claims as the filters through the list of possibilities to determine of Trixie is telling the truth. “Trixie…… that’s amazing if its’ true! But are you sure? What if he can attack us right now? We’re sitting ducks here.”

“It’s the job of a stand agent to be able to quickly analyze a stand’s powers. So yes….. I am sure.” Trixie takes a single book off the table in her telekinetic magic “Watch.” Throwing the book out of the shield the heavy tome lands on the ground with a thud. Not a second later several sharpened pencils and broken scissor blades fly out from the shadows imbedding themselves deeply into the book itself.

Trixie adjusts her posture kneeling down on the table “The stand can only hear us……..that means as long as this Sound proof bubble surrounds this table, we have time…… time to plan and counter attack the target.”

Twilight scans the room looking for any sign of the enemy and his tricks “Well I can’t see him anywhere. Plus we’ll know if he tries to come from underneath since he can only come through one of the four table legs on the floor since they are wider than the body of his stand. If I had to guess, because the user seems cowardly and because he can’t locate us till we make a move he’ll simply wait to strike us from somewhere we can’t attack.”

Twilight turns her gaze to the mare next to her as she sees the Great and Powerful Trixie breathing heavily, and from what Twilight can tell Trixie is not in the best of states. “But…… But we can’t let this turn into a waiting game, if we do they’ll have the advantage. That means that we simply have to make the first move and counter attack when he pops up his ugly head.” Twilight manifests her stand moving its hoof closer to the blue mare “maybe if we combine stands than we’ll be able to boost your power and …….”

The blue mare slaps the hoof on Twilight’s stand away with her own hoof “Don’t worry about Trixie! And keep your pathetic stand away from her!”

Trixie glares at the floor as she scans for sign of the stand. “Besides didn’t you hear him? Destroying his stand has no benefit! So combining our stands wouldn’t help us win!” Trixie narrows her gaze out the window “If we are to win, we need to find the real user and beat him to a pulp before he can defend himself. That is the only way we can win.”

“But Trixie! You’ve been poisoned! We need to beat the user now! Before your poison spreads!” Twilight begins to tear up “otherwise….. otherwise…….”

Twilight looks upon the face of a dead mare walking as Trixie does something a dying mare could not possibly do, Trixie sighs in flippant disappointment “Twilight you imbecile……. Don’t you get it? Didn’t you hear the user’s claim about HOW he injected me with his poison?” the blue mare looks accusatory at Twilight “I thought that you could see through tricks like Trixie’s? Or was that a bluff said casually during our last match?”

“Trixie……. What are you talking about?” Twilight moves closer to the blue mare “What trick are you…….”

“WHERE ARE YOU BRATS?” A loud hissing voice resonates from the walls as he mares snap to attention “where are you? How can I not hear you? Is this some kind of trick? Did you find out how I find my opponents? Clever girls but not clever enough.” Twilight and Trixie look around as the sound of scurrying from the walls becomes impossible to ignore. Both mares press their backs together as they prepare for an imminent attack.

 “You think that you little brats can hide from me well think again!” Dirty Trick yells “It’s true I usually locate my prey by sound but if I can attack the whole area where I know my prey is, I don’t even need to know exactly where they are.” Twilight and Trixie continue to watch the room for any sign of attack peering at every dark corner and shadow as the mares prepare for an attack. Suddenly a small cold object lands on twilight’s back who almost leaps three hooves into the air in shock.

“Twilight stop jumping around! You need to stay inside the barrier!”

“It was an attack Trixie! The stand attacked me with……” Twilight raises her hoof as another drop of clear liquid lands in front of her, the drops becoming more and more frequent as they continue to fall down like rain. Looking up both mares see drops of liquid falling from holes in the ceiling more and more holes are made by the second. “….Great. Now he’s tearing apart my ceiling. Now there’s no way that I’m getting my deposit back.”

“But still…. “Twilight extends her hoof catching a drop of the mystery liquid in her palm “What is this? Is this water?” Twilight extends her hoof sniffing the unknown clear compound “No it’s not water, it smells like….. like……”

“Gasoline.” Trixie finishes, her eyes growing wide. Both mares look around the library in a blind panic as they realize that now they are surrounded in a potential holocaust of fire. “Twilight whatever you do don’t panic or try and leave the soundproof shield! He’s trying to force us out into the open!”

“Hear that?” Dirty Trick laughs “That, my friends is the sound thousands of gallons of highly flammable gasoline raining down from the ceiling! Now all I have to do now is light it and you will all burn to death along with your precious books!”

Twilight raises her hoof in righteous fury “No! Not the Books! You Tartarus forsaken monster!” “

Trixie face hoofs at Twilight’s list of priorities “Twilight….. Focus please.”

“Ha Ha that is right! The only way to save yourselves is agree to my demands and open this safe right now.” Twilight and Trixie watch in fascination as the safe itself comes up from the ground bobbing on the floor like a cork in water. “See look how nice I am, even brought the safe up from the basement so you won’t have to leave your little friend to hand them to me. If only I could move through the safe then I could have just finished you off, but no I had to do things the hard way.”

Twilight watches the safe rise and settles on the floor in fascination as a practical thought passes through her mind. “Wait how did you even find the safe?”

“In case you were wondering how you found the safe…..” The stand says as if reading Twilight’s mind “it was behind a false bookshelf, I mean talk about a cliché hiding place.”

“…. I knew I should have moved it somewhere safer.” Twilight looks at the safe and then around the library proper.

True if she gave up the stones to this stand user she might never see them again, they would disappear she and her friends would never get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding them. On the other hoof, what choice did she have? The stand was right if so much as a spark was lit the entire library and the two of them as well would go up in flames and the user would take the safe away and open it elsewhere. And Trixie, Twilight looks back at the showmare, Trixie was obviously trying to put on a brave face but if she didn’t get the antidote soon, then there was no question that she would die. Even if they succeeded in defeating their opponent it would be a shallow victory, is she lost a friend, even one like Trixie. Twilight’s mind is wracked with indecision as she considers her only two options, give up the stones, or lose a friend.

Twilight looks at the mare beside her, then to the safe her thoughts running a mile an hour. Suddenly the unicorn makes up her mind and with a flick of her horn Twilight dispels the sound proof barrier. Trixie watches the barrier fall apart around her however her complains are cut off by the strong voice of the lavender mare. “All Right Dirty Trick, you win. I’ll give you the stones but only if Trixie gets the antidote first.”

Trixie Gapes “Twilight! What are you doing?”

The stand laughs “what she is doing is her only real choice! And a wise one it is! Now then Twilight open the magical safe for me.”

“Not so fast Dirty Trick.” Twilight states “Antidote first!”

“It seems that you have overestimated your position Sparkle.” The stand speaks as if surrounding her “You forget that I can kill you with a thought by lighting the library on fire. Rest assured once I have the stones I will have no need for either of you and I swear on my stand itself that I will give you the antidote that you so crave.”

Twilight narrows her gaze at the safe as she prepares to utter the password to open its door only to be stopped by Trixie’s strong hoof “Twilight what are you thinking you idiot! Trixie told you not to worry about her.  You do know that if you do hoof the stones over to him there is no assurance that he won’t try and kill us after?”

Twilight looks back at the blue mare “Don’t you think that I know that? I’m literally giving up something that has no value, something truly priceless.” Twilight looks down at her hooves in shame. “But I have to do this I have to take a chance if it means saving your life.”

Twilight raises her eyes looking at Trixie with a look of resolve “No matter how important the stones are, they’re not as valuable as your life Trixie. That’s why I have to take this chance, because I can’t abandon my friends even for all the strange stones in Equestria.”

Trixie looks at Twilight staring at the mare before her as Trixie begins to understand Twilight’s concern for her. Trixie turns her head away from the lavender mare as she pouts “…..Fine but only for one second.”

Trixie’s’ sudden change of mood and a slight blush cause the lavender mare no small amount of confusion “What? Trixie what are you…..”

“Do I have to say it? Mind link!” Trixie blurts out “If we mindlink for even a second we’ll know what the other is thinking, and you’ll understand the Great and Powerful Trixie’s powerful Plan.” Trixie manifests her stand its hoof outstretched towards the unicorn in a display to trust. “So hurry up and let’s get this over with!”

Twilight raises her stand’s hoof as Trixie manifests her stand both raising her hooves only inches from each other “Alright, are you sure Trixie?”

“Just do it before Trixie changes her mind! And no that is not a telepathy joke!”

The two stands touch for an instant their hooves melding into each other as two very different minds connect in a way that few ponies could ever know. In the space of a wink, these two ponies who had once despised and looked down on the other learn more about each other than they could in a full hour as their minds mesh on an intricate level. Then as quickly as it began the meld ends, the strands separate as both mares look at each other in a new light, as if they have only met each other for the first time.

“Trixie…..” Twilight stares at the mare before her “That is…… some plan.”

Trixie boasts “OF course it is! The Great and Powerful Trixie thought it up! However….. Trixie was also impressed with your concerns for her.”

The showmare blushes slightly as she tries to whisper the next words under her breath ashamed to be heard making a heartfelt profession. “Trixie was greatly surprised to find your concerns for her were not ….. forced, I am surprised that…. I mean…..” Trixie fumbles with her words “Trixie is surprised that your concerns are genuine.”

Twilight smiles warmly at the mare before her as a loud grating voice interrupts their moment “Enough talk! Are you hoofing over the stones to me or not? Because if you aren’t…… well I can promise you that things will be getting a little hot around here!”

Twilight snickers as she gravitates the safe over to the table with her telekinesis placing the large safe on the table directly in front of Trixie and her “Sorry about that Dirty Trick I’ll get you the stones right now.” Twilight clears her throat “Password 123.”

The safe beeps “Password accepted!”

The door flies open with a steely creaking as Trixie grasps the box inside housing the Strange stones just before hoofing it over to Twilight. Twilight picks up the box in her magic nods once to Trixie, the blue mare nodding affirmatively to her as Twilight throws the box on the ground in front of the table.

“There. Here’s the box that the strange stones are keep in.” Both mares watch as the box vanishes into the ground dragged by the stand Dirty Trick “Now it’s your turn Dirty Trick, give Trixie the antidote.”

The mouse like stand raises its head from the ground as a diabolical grin crosses its muzzle “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” The stands Dirty Trick bursts out laughing at the mare’s scorn “Don’t worry it’s not that I never planned to give you the antidote, it’s just that no antidote exists for the poison I injected into Trixie. HaHaHaHaHa, you fools!”

A blast of magic nearly engulfs the rat in front of Twilight Sparkle only for the foul creature to slither underground again. “Fools! Now I have the Strange stones! Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to trust strangers?”

The voice of the stand surrounds the two mares on all sides mocking them all the while. “You dumb stand users with your fancy shmancy powers think you are all invincible aren’t you? You think those with your flashy abilities makes you cooler than the rest of us? Well you’re not! I beat the two of you with my stand power, That proves that my stand Dirty Trick is the best!”

The ditch rat stand reaches out from the ceiling with its head and strikes a single match holding it above the two mares “And Now that I have everything that I need there is no reason to keep you all alive. Given that you and your little mare friend are doomed to die anyways be a good little filly and Burn. To. Death!”

Both mares try to extend their auras to catch the match with their telekinesis however both fail as all the gasoline in the library combusts in a fiery explosion. The two mares gasp in terror as the entire library is engulfed in unholy fire as the heat of the flames close in around them.  They grow, consuming over a hundred years of combined knowledge as the raging fire feeds off every book of history, nonfiction and smutty romance novel alike with heartless destruction. Twilight would doubtless be panicking to save such a collection of priceless knowledge if it were not for the fact that all her magic was going into keeping herself from going up in flames. The stand Dirty trick watches in glee as the two mares try vainly to keep the flames from expanding but slowly lose ground as the fire expands ever closer towards them. Finally having seen enough to know that there is no escape for the two mares the stand nods, and slithers through the library leaving the two mares to their fates.

………………

A safe distance away three large rats slitter on the ground completely unnoticed in the chaotic situation as the ponies within earshot of the library begin to panic from the copious amounts of smoke spewing out of the library. Somehow despite the Lavender mare’s propensity for strange explosions and fires the Towns ponies know, perhaps instinctively that the large fire beginning to rage out of control in the library is anything but routine. Quickly joining in in an effort to save the library from burning to ashes, a group of fire-ponies arrives on the scene ready to save the two mares trapped inside. The Fire brigade, a separate department of the weather patrol, are trained to combat fires by use of wind and rain and drawing on their elite training begin to douse the flames with water filled rainclouds. But even these brave stallions and mares were obviously having trouble with the raging inferno. Despite the aid of the nearby ponies attacking the fire with mud and dirt to save Twilight Sparkle and Trixie, the blaze only climbs higher, threatening even the tallest leaves of the treehouse. Yet the fire seems only to expand at their efforts as a nasty and buck toothed pony sneakers in glee at the fire consuming the library.

The pony in question, if one could call such a gangly, dirty, yellow-grey coated creature a pony sits off to the side of a nearby alleyway. His unremarkable brown eyes survey the damage the fire is inflicting on the home as his broken laughter goes unheard by the frantic ponies trying to put out the fire. His untidy brown mane and cutie mark of three turnips as well as his horrendous teeth alone were capable of conveying to a blind pony how stereotypically backwater he was. That and his dirty cut off shirt, rusty antiquated tool belt and garish green baseball cap that could only be thought of as fashionable at a moonshining convention only made it more difficult to ignore his blatant oafish nature. And if this dark figure lurking in the shadows wasn’t obviously evil enough he was rubbing his hooves together while cackling like a cliché supervillain who had just stolen a pile of used toys from an orphanage.

“Hu-uck! Hu-u-uck! Huck!”

Well maybe cackling like a hillbilly supervillain would be more appropriate, if such an oxymoron could exist. And speaking of morons…..

“Heh what a bunch of dopes!” the pony obscured by the shadow of the alley says “All it took was a little lie and they just hoofed over those stones to me! And to think that I was worried when they heard they had stands! Not to say that ah was afraid of a bunch of fillies……. It’s just that Ah’ve never had to kill stand users before.”

The sickly pony grins like a demon as three rats slip through the wall next to him carrying a box on their shoulders. The pony grins with crooked teeth, as he picks up the box rising to his hind hooves as he raises the box to the heavens. “But in the end it was me, Hayseed Turnip Truck , Who got the stones from them!

The dirty stallion snickers as he revels in his victory “Huck Huck! And the rest of the gang said I was ‘a no good rat’! Making fun of mah…. I mean my country accent! Making me do all the hard jobs, even when I’m the best thief in the gang!” The stallion stops. “Well second best….. but that filly doesn’t count! She can turn invisible for crying out loud! How can I compete with that?!”

Shaking his head the earth pony dismisses his anger and suspicions, while laying the box on the ground. His stand fades into the aether as he looks at the box before him, smiling at his imminent recognition. “Well joke’s on you guys! Ah’ve got no country accent no more, after taking that discount speech therapy class and all! And even the boss will have to admit how fancy ah am now when he sees that this ‘Rat’ came back with….”

The pony throws open the box “……Nothing?” Hayseed gasps in dismay at the lack of contents in the box.  Sure enough the box contains nothing but a single folded sheet of paper.

Hayseed stares at the box a minute or two before throwing it to the ground in a rage. “What is this? Is this ah trick?! That there’s just a piece of paper! Oh I knew that I shouldn’t have killed them so quickly!”

The pony growls as he stamps his hoof on the ground “Well That blaze wasn’t too big. If one of them may still be clinging to life, it’ll probably be that blue one. Once I’m done with her she’ll wish that she never lied to me! Huck! Ah’ll make her tell me where the stones are, one way or another!” The pony kicks the box with his hoof letting out a yelp of pain as he clutches his injured hoof rubbing it as the single piece of paper falls to the ground.

Hayseed, having finished nursing his hoof, opens his eyes sees a small amount of writing on the paper as the gears in his tiny head begin to turn. “Wait a second yawl, that there’s something written on the paper……. It must be the location all the stones are hidden at!” the Rat-like pony grins in realization “Hayseed ya clever hunk you, they hid the location of the red stones are on this here paper! And ah thought that I had lost the stones for a second there.”

Hayseed grins of the second and last time that day, completely sure that he has finally won in his game of wits. In fact the country hick is so enraptured in the single piece of paper that he is completely oblivious to the two looming shadows falling over him from behind. He waves behind him without even looking as he stands engrossed in the paper in his hooves “Whoever yawl are get out of my light! Now lets’ see the paper says ‘look behind you’, what does it mean? Is it a message of some kind? Or maybe……. it’s one of those there secret codes or a……”

DOOOOO JJJJ AAAA!!

With a single straight punch from a star spangled stand the earth pony goes crashing into a trio of garbage cans at the end of the alley his body groggily propping himself against the wall as he looks behind him to see who would dare attack him.

“Or maybe….. Just maybe it’s a warning. After all the Great and powerful Trixie does not enjoy sucker punching a pony, even one as distasteful as you.” The blue showmare complete with magician’s hat and cape stands cracking her hooves as she blocks off the yellow earth pony’s’ retreat.

Hayseed Turnip Truck’s eyes grow side as a lavender unicorn walks out from behind the Blue mare “No fair Trixie! You said that I got the first punch! That guy singed my library! If it wasn’t for the fact that I shelled out the alchemical ingredients for the complex flame proofing spell the day I moved in, all my books would have been ashes by now!”

Trixie smirks at the lavender mare as she savors her small victory “First come first served Sparkle.”

Not wanting to stay around for a very savage beating the earth pony turns tail to run only to find his way out cut off by a large brick wall. Only now does the stand user remember that he is literally in on a dead end street. If only he could use his Dirty Trick to slip him through walls, but his power didn’t work on him, and besides his stand couldn’t possibly compare to the speed and strength of Trixie’s Stand, let Alone Twilight’s. Unwilling to accept the fact that he is trapped Hayseed paws at the walls looking around for anything that would offer him escape from the two advancing mares.

Trixie continues to crack her hooves as she continues to advance on the panicking pony “hey bookworm, what’s that analogy that applies to Rats? Trixie forgot it.”

“You mean trapped like a rat?” Twilight smirks playfully “Yeah I can see how a brainless stuck up pony like you would forget such a simple quote”

“Well Trixie just couldn’t help but think about how apt the quote is here.” Trixie cracks her neck “What with cowardly rat of a pony being trapped like one.”

“Well for once Trixie, I would agree with you wholeheartedly.” Twilight illuminates her horn as she advances on Hayseed.  “This is a pretty ironic fate for a pony who uses a rat shaped stand, especially when he looks so much like a rat in the first place.”

Hayseed Turnip Truck’s mind stalls as he tries to dismiss the horrible illusion in front of him “B-b-b-but, you’re…. you’re both dead! How did you escape that inferno! There was no way out!”

Trixie taps her horn “Uh, we’re both unicorns, duh.”

Twilight rolls her eyes at Trixie’s simplistic explanation of the magical forces “…….And being magically adept unicorns we’ve both mastered short range teleportation, all we had to do was teleport out once the library caught fire.”

Hayseed scoots farther back against the wall his mind frantically trying to find a way out of his present situation “But that’s impossible! Even if you could escape how would you ever find me?”

“Fool!” Trixie scoffs as she rises to her back hooves “There are no animals on earth that cannot be tracked. It matters not how fast an animal can run and hide, it will never be as smart as a pony like Trixie. Stand agents such as Trixie are adept at inspecting and studying landscape, the direction of prevailing winds, as well as the habits and tracks of our prey. It was a simple matter of applying Trixie’s great and Powerful…..”

Trixie is cut off as Twilight smacks her upside the head “Or the Great and Powerful Twilight could have just used a tracking spell on the box……..”

“……..That works too……” Trixie straightens her hat “But do not mock Trixie! Had she not switched the box with the stones in them for a fake using her stand you would have had to hand off the real strange stones. It was Trixie’s switch, not your tracking spell that lead us to victory.”

If a pony had exceptional hearing they might be able to hear as Hayseed Turnip Truck’s heart fell into his stomach, his pulse belying the sudden intense fear that is coursing through his veins. “Oh! that’s right I have the antidote to your poison Trixie. Huck Huck Huck, see I lied when I claimed there was no antidote to the poison you were injected with.”

The stallion reaches behind his back pulling a small vial out from his ratted tool belt. “So all ya have to do is let me go and I’ll give it to you, no harm no fowl. I’ll leave forever you will never have to see me again Honest!”

Trixie turns her face unreadable as her eyes lock onto the pony before him. “Oh that’s right the poison that you tried to inject Trixie with, the one you have the antidote for.” Trixie smirks as she adjusts her hat. “Well Trixie appreciates the offer but it is completely unnecessary. You see you never poisoned me in the first place so Trixie does not need an antidote.”

The vial falls from Turnip Truck’s grasp, shattering on the ground as Hayseed Turnip Truck’s mouth gapes in complete bafflement. “Uhhhhhh…….. What?”

“It is easy rat brain.” Trixie smirks “your stand bit Trixie’s stand, not Trixie herself and a stand cannot be poisoned. Your poison might have been able to kill me but stands can’t be poisoned, so Trixie did what she does best, she acted. Trixie pretended to be poisoned to lure you out of hiding, an easy task for a mare of such show stopping talents as Trixie.”

Hayseed blinks “what?”

The blue showmare fakes a swoon, dramatically continuing her long monologue. “It was all fowls play to fake Trixie’s ‘sudden illness’ to lure you out, to make you think that she was weak. All the while I was watching, biding my moment for the perfect time to strike.”

“Oh by the way Trixie.” Twilight interrupts “Remind me to pay you back for making me think you were dying and forcing me to carry you when you were PERFECTLY FINE!”

Trixie smirks as she sticks her tongue out at the lavender mare. “Have you seen your flank Twibright? You were in desperate need of exercise anyways. And now that we have this little hayseed exactly where we want him the only question is…” Trixie cracks her hooves as she turns back to the cowering stallion “…how to inflict as much suffering as physically possible without killing him!”

“W-W-Whaaaat!?” Hayseed continues to press himself further against the wall as if his cowardice alone would allow him to push himself through a brick wall. “W-W-Wait a minute! There aint no reason to be hasty…..”

Thinking on his hooves the stallion reaches into his tool belt pulling out a large bag of coins that he throws at the advancing mare’s hooves. “You like Money? I was paid in advance for my services! It’s all yours! One thousand bits! Surely yawl can be mature and forget all of this…… Purty Please?”

Twilight manifests her stand its hooves poised to strike as she steps over the bits on the ground “no amount of apologies or wealth can make up for your actions…..”

Trixie manifests her stand “….. After all, we never had any intention of forgiving you in the first place.”

“You fool, what you owe……” Twilight raises her hooves.

“……..Can’t be repaid with money.” Trixie finishes.

DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOOOOO JJJJJJJ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! OOOOOOOOOO RRRRRRR AAAAAAAAA!

Hayseed is only able to whimper vainly as two powerful stands proceed to beat him within an inch of him, life each blow assaulting his body and mind like a battering ram against a pillow fort. The wall behind him cracks from the force of their combined blows as if finally collapses sending the pathetic pony spiraling through solid stone his broken body landing in a puddle of mud as the dust settles on Hayseed Turnip Truck’s game of wits.

………………..

Thirty minutes later the two mares find themselves in the slightly charred library once again with an ‘honorary guest’ dressed in a nice comfy pair of shackles. After sending the fire ponies away claiming that it was just another of her famous experiments gone wrong the two ponies had set about repairing the damage that had been wrought to their residence. Thanks to Twilight’s enchantments not a book had been harmed and no major damage had been done to the building, however there were still traps to disarm and various cosmetic damages to be addressed inflicted by Hayseed's malice. Despite their newfound tolerance for each other the two mares were still thoroughly bored by the mundane tasks, and not even pleasant conversation between the two could alleviate them from the repetitive nature of their tasks. So when their prisoner awoke from his pleasant slumber over a tank filled with (illusionary) sharks, and the library was wracked by his girly screams the two fillies gleefully left their mundane tasks for something more exciting, namely torturing a certain yellow pony.

“NNNNNNNN NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! OHSWEETCELESTIAGETTHEMOFFOFMEADON’TWANTTODIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! A’LLTELLYOUANYTHINGYOUWANTTOKNOWJUSTLETMEOUTOFHERE!!!!!”

Twilight smiles at such a sudden success as she levitates Hayseed off of the rope hanging him from the ceiling “See now that wasn’t hard was it?” Twilight pats the shivering wreck of a pony as she turns to face Trixie “And you said that piranhas were better.”

“Very well Trixie concedes that sharks are better for intimidation, but Piranhas are far fiercer than sharks!” Trixie grabs the shivering wreck pulling him to winning an inch of her blaring eyes “But Trixie is still going first.”

Twilight begins to pout “But I was supposed to go first! The bet was how long he would last and I guessed ten seconds, while you guessed twelve so I won Trixie. Besides I read up on interrogation techniques in ‘torture and you’ just so I could…..”

“Silence Sparkle! Trixie has real experience in interrogation and real questions to ask.” Trixie turns her head away from the lavender mare to look at the sickly yellow pony before her. “It is obvious that some pony hired this assassin, and Trixie intends to find out who, even if she has to do it……” The Blue showmare presses the pony’s face to the glass tank his eyes bugging out as the illusionary sharks smile menacingly at him “……piece. By. Piece.”

Hayseed takes on looks at the sharks and one look at the pony who wants to throw him to said sharks, before making perhaps the smartest decision in his life. “I’ll tell ya anything! Anything!”

“Trixie appreciates your cooperation, All right then first question of the day….” Trixie pulls up a small depleted vial from Hayseed Turnip Truck’s personal effects waving it in his face.  “The poison that you put on your stand…. The one you tried to use on me…. Trixie has determined that it is a poison for subduing ponies not killing them. Why would you use this kind of poison if your intentions were to kill myself and Twibright?”

Twilight looks at shock at the vial that Trixie is holding in her magic “What? Trixie are you sure?”

“Yes Trixie is positive.” Trixie turns around as she throws the vial to Twilight who catches it effortlessly. “It’s not something a bookworm like you would know but this is a fake death syrup, used by magicians for ages to slow vital signs to fake death or survive in enclosed spaces where oxygen is sparse.”

Trixie grabs Hayseed by his throat pressing his already battered body against the glass wall. “So talk, why were you trying to subdue me? You attacked me first to try and make it so that you could capture me? So why? Who put you up to attacking us? Who is responsible for your actions? TALK!”

Trixie’s anger burns as she continues to press the pony further into the wall with every question her eyes fill with a silent fury that threatens to boil out of her control. However in response to Trixie’s potent intimidation Hayseed begins to laugh his backwards nasally laugh as he holds what little knowledge he has over the unicorn’s head like a guillotine’s blade. “Hu-uck! Hu-u-uck! Hu-u-uck! You really don’t know do you, Trixie Lulamoon. It doesn’t matter if yawl beat me there’s no way yer gonna survive anyways! Do ya think that I’m the only one after yer life!? Wroooong!”

Trixie pulls the pony off the glass wall throwing him harshly to the floor “Explain to Trixie! Who is after her life!? Is it part of Trixie’s work as a stand agent? Who are you working with? ANSWER!”

Hayseed continues to chuckle through Trixie’s accusations like a mad pony “ya may be tough an all, but even I’m not that stupid, ah know what happens to those that betray the bosses’ secrets! But if you really wanted to know all the details, just ask that bandaged pony!”

Trixie flinches at the mention of the bandaged pony her face turning white as a sheet. Hayseed seeing the fear in her eyes rants on “The reason I was after your life wasn’t just because yawl had the stones! It was because this pony promised two hundred thousand bits for your capture! There’s a bounty on your head! One thousand bits alive, Trixie Lulamoon!”

In an instant the blue mare’s stand lashes out snapping Hayseed Turnip Truck’s leg like a matchstick. Obviously not expecting this level of violence from the showmare, Hayseed screams as Trixie presses her own hoof into his shattered leg accentuating his screams with labored breathing. “TELL. ME. WHERE. HE. IS.”

Hayseed continues to bawl as he tries to crawl away from the crazy mare with his arms shackled and only one good leg “A-A-A-A  D-D-D-Don’t k-k-k-know! A-a-a-and even I-I-if I did, ah’d never tell you! No pony betrays Melodia or the boss and gets away with it! He’ll skin mine alive! ”

Trixie extends her hoof to crush his other leg, her patience running shorter by the second.  “You’re lying! You know where the bandaged pony is! You’re hiding him from Trixie!” The mare swings down with her stand’s full strength her blow snapping against Turnip’s chest with a resounding thud as her stand prepares to strike again. “And if you won’t talk, then Trixie will just have to beat the truth out of you!”

Trixie swings her hoof once again to strike but finds her blow stopped by the lavender mare’s own stand. “Trixie stop!” as the two stands make contact Twilight and Trixie’s minds flow together for a single second as Trixie becomes aware of the extent of her actions. The blue mare shudders as she looks at the writhing pony on the floor sobbing his eyes out, realizing how close she was to ending him. And what frightens Trixie more than her sudden loss in composure is the fact that somepony watched her in her darkest moment. The mare before her, Twilight Sparkle, watched in her indulgence of violence at her sudden display of brutality with a wordless expression that conveys her fear of the showmare.

Suppressing her emotions once more, Trixie withdraws her stand and turns her back on the two ponies in the basement “Turn him over to the local police, and get him out of my sight. Trixie’s done with this hayseed. ”

Twilight watches dumbstruck at the blue mare climbs the steps of the basement. “Trixie, where are you going? We need to talk about this!”

Trixie stops at the door frame to the library proper as she turns her head towards the lavender mare beneath her, her face filled with sorrow and regret “Yes Twilight but Trixie has finished Listening.” Twilight’s heart sinks as she hears the same line again, this time she can’t help but feel the pain in Trixie’s voice. “Now if you can excuse me I will be taking long walk to cool off and will not be disturbed.”

Trixie slams the door behind her with such force that the door bounces off the basement’s lock chain leaving a wide open door as the only evidence of Trixie’s sudden departure. This single opening, as if by coincidence creeks open just enough so that a single streak of light illuminates the lavender unicorn below.

Twilight had thought that perhaps she and Trixie had become a little closer, that the blue mare had opened herself up just a little more through their unexpected life or death struggle. Now as she looks at the empty doorway at the top of the stairs Twilight can only bring her hooves together in a futile prayer for the showmare’s soul. For in looking into the blue mare’s mind, Twilight had seen a depth of sorrow, despair and overwhelming hatred that would have crushed a lesser pony like dust. She had seen her loneliness in the orphanage she grew up in, her focused rage towards everything, and her distrust of everypony she had met in her short life. But more than that, the last time they touched Twilight had actually felt a part of Trixie that she normally had kept buried deep in her psyche, her shame. Twilight had felt Trixie’s festering hatred of herself for letting her parents die, her inability to pass the magical exam that Twilight had passed so easily, and her failure to bring down the bandaged pony that was still as free as a bird. Her self-hatred and loathing had shocked the lavender mare to the point of tears as the blue mare had left without a single word to drown in her own boiling rage that threatened to consume her.

Twilight had thought that Trixie was so easy to figure out, that she put on a big act for attention, and to be adored. However it ran deeper than that. Trixie didn’t become a braggart who brushed her ego at every opportunity because she wanted attention, she just couldn’t stand hating herself any more than she already did. More than her longing for her parents, her longing for justice, Trixie wanted to be respected, to be a pony that changed the world, not a puppet pulled by the threads of fate. Trixie wanted to have pride in herself because deep down she believed she wasn’t a pony worth being, and she hated it more than she ever could that bandaged stand.

Twilight had thought that living together would have allowed her to polish up Trixie’s social faults, that they had become real friends, and not just comrades or friends of convenience.

Now Twilight could only look out at the empty door praying to any higher power that would hear that she would be able to reach Trixie before it was too late.

Twilight had thought that she and Trixie had become closer……..

Now Twilight couldn’t help but think of how far away the blue mare is is………

Chapter 11-Sprout-Take 1

Chapter 12-Dreamweaver:Take 1

Dreamweaver: Take 1:

The sun rises on a cold morning in ponyville, though summer has come and past and autumn has just arrived, the cold nip of the morning mist gives sign that the winter months are fast approaching. Two and a half months from now the ground will be completely encased in a deep snow, and two months after that it will be time for Winter Round up. However these thoughts are the furthest things from the minds of the ponies who have gathered this morning in the open space of the park, each one carrying a heavy load on their backs.

The six mares, each of them friends in every sense of the word each make their own last minute preparations for the journey ahead of them. though they are surrounded by a small crowd of their families and well-wishers, none talk causing a deep and permeable silence to fall over them all as they secure saddle bags and packs in the wide open grassy field. Their silence is not borne from resentment of each other or personal grievances, but from awareness of the seriousness of the situation and the importance of the task at hoof.

Pinkie stands as silently as the her demeanor would allow, humming a quaint tune as she fastens pots, lanterns and various miscellaneous supplies onto her stand Surprise, bouncing silently around the manifested construct.

Rarity pats her little sister Sweetie Belle on the head giving her some last minute instructions for her to behave herself at their parents’ house. The little filly nods and walks back to her family, a look of concern on her face as The ivory mare secures the first aid packages and water purifying equipment in her hoof stitched sewing bags.

The orange filly Scootaloo was not used to waking up this early on a Saturday, However to see her hero Rainbow Dash off, no time was too early. The orange filly and her two loving parents watch as the lightly packed Pegasus warms up with her signature wing drills and stretches preparing for the march ahead.

Fluttershy, having finished her preparations long ago flinches from the sound of her stepping on a twig before calming herself with deep long breaths, reassuring herself that everything will be fine as long as she stays with her friends.

Twilight looking perhaps the most prepared and focused looks over her list triple checking every magical instrument in her repertoire. The Lavender mare knows that her task is the most important in the mission, and without her their entire operation is doomed to failure. So she pours herself into her preparations with manic pace, making sure they all have the supplies that they need for the journey ahead.

Then, there stands the Quartermaster, Applejack, fifty percent of the entire group’s water and rations placed firmly on her back, yet she seems undaunted in the slightest by the weight. However the look of worry in her eyes does not go unnoticed by the group leader, Twilight who turns from her busy task to trot quietly up to the orange farmer.

“Something on your mind?” Applejack turns around to see the face of her Friend smiling back at her, the orange mare’s mood suddenly stabilizing itself. Twilight places her hoof on the orange mare’s shoulders “Are you okay there Applejack? You look worried, is it about Applebloom again?”

Applejack regains her composure as she chuckles at Twilight’s inquiry “Don’t ya worry none Twi, ah went through great lengths ta make sure that Applebloom’s not gona follow us this time.”

Applejack smiles as she turns to face her family, her elder brother Big Macintosh, her grandmother Granny smith, and…… Applebloom. All three of the elder apples can’t help giggling at Applebloom’s new appearance. The yellow filly stands blushing furiously in embarrassment as she lies on the ground tied up like a thanksgiving turkey, bound head to hoof in the tightest knots the orange apple farmer knows.

“Oh come on Sis!” The futilely struggles against her bonds “I was only kiddin when I said I was following ya no matter what! Can ya at least slacken these here ropes?”

“Not a chance sis!” Applejack chuckles “Now Big Mac will untie ya when ya are gone, and if in ya behave yerselves ya can have that sleepover with yer friends like I told ya.”

Applebloom pouts cutely as she silences herself, she had been waiting weeks for the go ahead for their sleepover, however she never wanted to earn it like this. Applejack chuckles at Applebloom’s childlike innocence as she turns back to the focus of her worries. “I just never thought I’d be back here again……”

Twilight nods understandingly as Applejack perks up her head to look at the entrance to their destination, the everfree forest. Applejack’s first experience in the dreaded forest seems to have been so long ago now, it was the first time she had ventured into the dreaded woods and it had nearly killed her. Now not three months later she was headed in there again, this time Applejack was relieved not to be alone. But even so, this was the Everfree and predictable is one thing it is not.

Twilight looks at the orange mare “I understand Applejack, the last time you were here…….”

“But ah aint that worried bout goin in this time.” Applejack interrupts her

“We’ve got some real friends goin in with us this time.” Applejack looks at their makeshift group as Rarity meets the orange farmers’ gaze waving back warmly.

Twilight smiles at this compliment knowing that Applejack is telling the truth there isn’t a single pony in their group that wouldn’t be willing to jump headlong into danger at the slightest sign of trouble. “Ah aint worried none Twi!” Applejack confirms. “An I mean you yerself have been planin fer this ever since ya told us that…….”

……………………….

“………The Strange stones are alive.” Twilight finishes her line. The rest of the group gathered at the table can only gape at Twilight, her accusation cutting through the tension in the room and leaving them all completely speechless.

Everypony sits at the table in the middle of Golden oaks library their mouths hanging agape as they listen to the main point of Twilights’ meeting. “And before any of you ask, yes I am sure it’s’ alive despite its cells being in a form of stasis it produces its own magic and reacts to stimulus in a way that an inorganic object can’t mimic. No it’s not overtly hazardous as far as I can tell, and no it’s growing so none of you have to worry about it eating you or something.”

Rainbow Dash is the first to pull her jaw off the floor, and with the eloquence and diction that a twenty something mare is capable of she summarizes the entire group’s feelings in a single sentence. “…… what….. the Buck.”

Rarity ever the pony for drama is the next to freak out “They’re alive!?  I was carrying one in my mouth of all places, what if it carries hazardous germs?”

“Well Rarity….” Twilight rolls her eyes sarcastically “that’s probably why I started off this meeting with the whole ‘don’t worry they're not dangerous thing. If you were listening you might have heard it.”

“So……. It’s alive?”

“Yes Pinkie.”

“Oh Oh! Did you name it?”

“What?” Twilight asks

“You know, did you give it a cool name, every pet needs a name, what about black snooty?”

“URGH! No pinkie I’m not going to name it! It’s not a pet. It’s a rare magical artifact not a toy.”

“Oh………” Pinkie looks downfallen, but only for half a second. “Are you really sure? Cause I have a ton of ideas about…….”

“I’m not having this discussion!”

“Well um… why not?” Fluttershy raises her hoof

“What?” Twilight throes her hooves in the air. “Fluttershy not you too!”

“Well I just think that living things should have a name. puppies and goldfish have names so if it’s alive it should have a name too.”

Twilight massages her horn trying to avoid a migraine headache. “I can’t’ believe we’re having this discussion.”

A familiar ivory hoof slams her hoof into the table with a loud thump “Twilight is right!”

Twilight immediately perks up “Thank you Rarity! At least some pony has some common sense here.”

“Twilight how could you have not named it already? You should have named it the moment that you found out it’s alive!” Rarity pouts “Now we have to waste our time discussing it.”

WHAM

Twilight head hits the table at Mach-one creating a deep dent in the wood where her horn is.

“Um Twilight darling are you okay?”

“Twi’s fine.” Applejack waved her hoof dismissively “More important, Rarity why did ya think that it was a good idea fer her ta name it? Yawls remember ‘stardust crusaders’?”

Rarity taps her chin “Good point, let’s put it to a vote, all in favor of baring Twilight from the naming process raise your……”

“ENOUGH!” a bossy voice erupts over the others as a magical aura fills the air. The din of the group is quickly cut off by a loud explosion of fireworks, the amazing display of lights and color causing all the ponies at the table to stop their prattling. The magic from Trixie’s spell dies down as she looks over the group. “Trixie said enough, so all of you quiet down and listen to Trixie. Twilight may be crazy one day out of the week…..”

Twilight lifts her head from the table “I am not crazy!”

“…..But Trixie trusts Twilight’s scientific insights. Trixie knows that you won’t find a better researcher in the RSD than her.” Trixie looks at twilight with a look of conviction on her face “Trixie herself went over Twilight’s findings so you can be sure that she is indeed correct. The stone’s magical natures and sentient responses allude to the fact that they are indeed a living organism of some kind.”

Trixie turns to Twilight “Now continue on with your presentation Sparkle, Trixie had grown bored of all these silly questions ages ago.”

“…………..Thank you Trixie…… just thank you……” Twilight quickly reaches into her saddlebags placing a large map on the surface of the table “All right telling you that the stones were alive in the magical sense of the word is one major reason that I brought you here. However there is a more pressing matter that I have discovered in my research that requires our immediate attention.”

Twilight points to the map as everypony leans in “For the past few months I have thought it strange that so many of the Red stones and Strange stones seemed to congregate in the area of ponyville.”

Twilight reaches beneath the desk pulling out a large pie graph suspending it in the air with her magic. “According to Canterlot reports we’re bringing in five times the number of Red Stones alone, and we’re the most understaffed of all the guard units numbering at only seven strong.”

Throwing away the flimsy pie graph Twilight picks up a pointer from the top of the desk pointing it to several points on the map. “Then I started tracking the patterns and locations that we have discovered the red stones as well as how many were discovered at each locations. After I got back the results from our own reports and the interviews of those we have gotten stones from, Cheerilee, Derpy, and Lyra to name a few, I came to a shocking conclusion.”

Twilight taps her hooves on the table as she looks at the marked points. “We have found more and more stones in centers of urban activities and in large caches with groups of red stones being found closer together, in places like in homes or under patios. And that might be normal if they were coming out of the ground but the stones fell from the sky, finding them in such places is unlikely to say the least.

“And strangely enough we have discovered red stones in areas that were once thought clean, or in places we have already looked.” Twilight looks at her friends around her “As if the stones were moving on their own.”

Rarity raises her hoof “So the Stones can move? You said that they weren’t alive. You said that they were no threat to us Twilight.”

Twilight groans as she turns to the fashionista. “That’s because the stones aren’t growing legs and walking around Rarity. The stones are moving but it’s not due to ponies moving them or the stone’s being alive, it’s due to something else.”

Twilight reaches under the table pulling out a single strange stone fragment. “When I discovered this pattern I started experimenting more by flowing more magic into the strange stones and testing their reactions on each other.” Twilight then reaches out with her magic and in a flash an entire safe appears landing gracefully on the table. “This safe is filled with fragments of the strange stones and a large supply of the strange stones that have yet to be sent to canterlot.”

With surgical precision Twilight places the single shard of the strange stone on the table drawing a starting line just before the stone “Now watch and see what happens.”

Every eye on the table is glued to the table as they begin the exciting prospect of watching a rock. All eyes look on at the black stone each pony wondering what could possibly happen, and for minutes they watch in silence, in awe of such an exciting display of science. Suddenly the group watches in nervous agitation as the stone moves a slight distance forward the tiny movements of the stone carrying it across the line twilight drew previously. Everypony gasps as they watch the rock move of its own accord as it slides slowly across the table coming to a rest against the thick walls of the safe.

Applejack reaches over to the table tensely touching the stone “it-it moved!” She exclaims.

 “Yes that’s why there are so many stands gathering together,” Twilight explains “they’re being attracted to each other by an invisible force. As far as I can tell it’s some form of magnetism, But it works more like gravity, drawing the red stones and strange stones into cashes and individual places.”

Twilight takes in a deep breath to calm her nerves “However from what I can tell the force between the strange stones in exponentially stronger. It’s a mysterious force that is steadily pulling the stones towards each other and towards a single point in space.” Twilight muses with her hoof on her chin. “Perhaps a bend in space time?”

Placing her musing in the ‘later’ file in her mind Twilight takes up her pointer “Anyways to the bad news……”

“That wasn’t the bad news?!” Fluttershy asks

“No Fluttershy, it isn’t. Though I wish it were.” Twilight takes the pointer drawing strong arrows on the map pointing in a certain direction. “After I discovered this attraction I quickly set about trying to study it, and that’s when I discovered something big. There’s already a powerful force in play that is pulling all the stones away from ponyville. From what I can tell all the stones in a yet unknown radius are all being drawn towards a certain area.”

Twilight smacks her pointer on the table the point landing on a large dark blotch on the map. “And that location is The Everfree Forest.”

 Every pony grows silent at the mention of the name of the dreaded woods, everypony knowing that the everfree is no laughing matter. “And from the readings I’m getting…..” Twilight pulls out a large stack of scientific papers. “….I hypothesizes it might be an attempt by a third party to gather more of the stones together for their own benefit. However it could also be an insanely large collection of these Red stones or a magical effect of the everfree that’s’ drawing these strange stones together.”

Twilight slams her hoof on the table “But whatever it is it’s drawing every stone that we haven’t found into the everfree, at a larger and larger rate. That means the force that’s drawing all the stones together is getting stronger. And that means in a few weeks’ time there won’t be a strange stone or red stone left in all of ponyville, and a few months after that, all of Equestria.”

Twilight takes a deep breath her tension returning as she prepares to deliver the point that she has been building up to all night. “And that’s why I’m leaving tomorrow morning to investigate this phenomenon, ALONE.”

Every pony in the group practically explodes, each one raising their voices in protest at the same time as Twilight is forced to use her magic to silence their protests. With a dome of silence descending around everypony save her the lavender mare continues. “Now I know that you all want to come with me, but you all have families and your own lives to handle so as the Princess Representative the task to investigate falls to me alone.”

Dispelling her barrier with a thought the, Twilight raises her hoof cutting off everypony else’s arguments as she continues her well thought out point. “Now I know what you are going to say; but my mind is made up, I’m leaving tomorrow morning and I’m leaving alone and there’s not a thing you can do to change my mind.”

………………..

A cold shiver passes Twilight’ body and it’s not from the cold morning air. “I still can’t believe that you all threatened to read every book in the library that I haven’t read already and spoil every ending if I went into the everfree alone….”

Rainbow Dash takes a break from her routine slugging the librarian in the shoulder “that’s just how much we care about you egghead!”

Twilight groans heavily at Dash’s antics as she pulls a fragment of the strange stone that she is carrying out of her bag, watching as it spins on her hoof like a needle on a compass. As the stone comes to a rest pointing in the direction of the dark and dangerous everfree the weight and danger of this task suddenly falls on her “I just wish that I didn’t have to drag you all into the Everfree like this. You know none of you have to come with me if you don’t want to.”

Applejack cuts off the lavender mare with a powerful arm on her shoulder “Stow that sinkin thinking Twi. We’re yer friends, come Tartarus er high water.”

“Applejack is right Darling.” Rarity wraps her hoof around Twilight “If you feel that you have to go into that dark muddy forest than by goodness we’re with you!”

“Ditto here!” Dash lands by Twilight placing her hoof on her shoulder “I wouldn’t be a very loyal friend if I just backed out and let somepony else have all the action.”

Pinkie leaps into the dogpile “Uh-Huh! It’ll be like one big super adventure with all our friends together! It’s like a big party!”

“Oh I’m fine too.” Fluttershy nods as she wraps her hoof around the lavender mare. “I live near the Everfree so as long as we don’t run into anything too dangerous like a d-d-dragon….” The yellow mare gulps. “…then I’ll be fine too.”

Twilight looks at the friends around her their faces brimming with hope and optimism, so genuine that there is no way that such a promise could be in-sincere. A naysayer might look at their ramshackle group of a farmer, a stunt mare, a Fashionista, a veterinarian and….. Pinkie and say that one couldn’t possibly pick a more contradictory team. However weeks of time spent with these very ponies has taught her that they could be counted on, that they were, as crazy as it sounded her friends “Thanks you guys! I wouldn’t choose any pony else to go into a life threatening situation with, even if you are all pretty weird…….”

All five of the mares go silent as they look at twilight their faces completely unreadable. Twilight gulps heavily hoping that she didn’t go too far with that ‘weird’ joke as she begins to sweat nervously. All of a sudden the entire group breaks out into good natured laughter, each one of them chuckling at the humor of their situation. All six mares join in as their laughter begins to die down each one of them filled with the faintly burning embers of merriment.

Fluttershy sags a bit after the laughter, her face containing a minor amount of disappointment. “I just wish that Trixie was coming with us then we’d be all together. It seemed like she was getting along so well with us, and we had so much fun at our tea party…..”

The most of group shies slightly away from the yellow mare in surprise, Dash’s eyes widening “You had tea with that loudmouth?”

“Trixie heard that!” Trixie walks out from behind the crowd her face glowering “For your information Fluttershy and the Purple mare are perhaps the only two civil ponies in your entire group, and the yellow one makes a very good crumpet. And as Trixie told you all yesterday”

Trixie straightens her hat as she recites government protocol “One government official must be in town at all times in case of an emergency. So since Twilight is so insistent on leaving. Trixie must stay and keep the peace in the town while all of you are off on your little vacation.”

“But Trixie.” Twilight points out citing more official government protocol “Technically nopony else knows about this mission so technically it’s not a government operation and thus is not subject to its rules. Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us?”

Twilight trots up to the blue mare in one last attempt to convince Trixie to tag along “it’s a short trip since we plan to be back by the day after tomorrow and we could really use the help of some pony used to survival situations.”

The blue mare looks out from the crowd, previously ignored up till this point the showmare begins to once again bask in the limelight. “So you’ve realized that you suddenly need the Great and powerful Trixie’s skills now do you? Well as tempting as a camping trip in the deep dark Everfree is, Trixie must decline.”

With no small amount of hamming it up, the blue mare looks sorrowfully upon the group. “Despite the fact that Trixie was sent to keep an eye on you, some pony must keep watch over the town. And Trixie feels that no single one of you hayseeds are responsible enough to watch the entire town so the duty of protecting this burg falls to Trixie herself. ”

Muttering under her breath Trixie continues “Goddess knows that this town would have been destroyed long ago without somepony to keep it from burning to cinders. I mean it seems that some kind of disaster happens every other week, Celestia only knows how it’s still standing……..”

Twilight ears perk up “I’m sorry what was that Trixie?”

“Nothing!” the blue mare rises to her back hooves in a dramatic gesture “Now be on your way! Trixie will be fine here! Just make sure to come back safe and not die.” The showmare professes with embarrassment. “It’s not because Trixie cares about any of you (except Fluttershy and perhaps Twilight) but because it would be a ton of paperwork if you just up and died!” Not willing to let any pony see her slight blush and her concern for her friends the blue mare turns tail and walks away from the group, with a burdened heart.

“You know Trixie may still be a jerk……” Rainbow Dash says as the group watches the show mare trot off “…..But she’s gotten less jerky about being a jerk. You know what I’m saying?”

“I just hope that the darling can handle the entire town while we’re gone.” Rarity looks off at the rapidly fading blue mare “It took all of us together to keep Ponyville from falling apart; it seems that some kind of disaster happens every other week. Celestia only knows how it’s still standing.”

“Trixie can handle the town” Twilight slings her pack of magical tools on her back “What’s important is that we get to the source of this anomaly as soon as possible. And that means setting out now.”

Reaching to her flank Twilight pulls out a thermos and opens it, promptly pouring herself a large cup of coffee. Downing it with a single shot the mare wipes her lips with her arm and strikes a confident pose. “So let’s get to it Stardust Crusaders!”

The entire group is silent, each one watching the lavender mare. Rainbow Dash sighs “Twilight, no matter how many times you’re going to say it, it won’t make the title sound cooler.”

“Whatever!” Twilight yells as she starts down the path for the everfree. “Let’s just get going!”

The rest of the group looks at each other, measuring the others reactions as each of them begin to trot down the path placed ahead of them after Twilight Sparkle. Each one of the group waves hardily to the ponies behind them as one after the other they disappear into the darkness of the Everfree forest.

……………………

The first part of the epic journey of the mares, though slow and tiresome was undoubtedly dangerous. The path through the Everfree, not used in an age was winding and twisted, the magic that was holding the dirt roads together having degraded long before any of the mares were born. For the most part the mares tried as much as possible to stay on the paths, however following the whims of a magic stone, their paths often lead through stone gators, quicksand, nests of angry creatures, and the Everfree’s most numerous inhabitants, Timberwolves. However these were no normal mares, their resourcefulness, their power and their resolve more than a match for the traps and dangers the forest threw at them. Yet as the day passed quickly on the mares became more and more ragged, worn down by the insects, the shifting temperatures, and most of all the long burdensome road ahead of them. However most infuriating was probably the fact that though the direction the stone lead them in was constant the winding nature of the Everfree and  the multitude of obstacles often forced them to redirect their course more than once forcing them to travel three times the distance to get where they were trying to get to.

Morning passed into late day as the mares growing even more exhausted as the hours ticked by. Their journey shifted from moments of ere silence, to traps and creatures fraught with danger, their adrenaline coursing through their veins at intervals as they fought every inch of the way to make progress in their quest. Still they tried to keep the mood up, Pinkie breaking into full fledged song at least three times, Rarity and Applejack talking about the finer points of their business and Twilight trying to explain to Dash how you couldn’t just use magic to make yourself the fastest pony in Equestria. Still by the time the sun was coming just about to rest on the horizon, the mares began to despair at even reaching their destination……..

“UGH!” Rarity groans “Another hill! Twilight please are you TRYING to kill us?”

Twilight grunts as her hooves lose traction slide a small distance back down the hill her fore hoof still clutching a fragment of the strange stone in hoof. “I’m waking the same path as you Rarity! If you want to blame something blame the dumb rock that lead us here!”

Twilight extends her hoof to Rarity showing her the rock as Pinkie looks inquisitively at the strange stone “Um? OKAY!” Pinkie slaps the stone with her hoof “Bad Rock! Now take us on an easier path without any hills!”

The other ponies in the group groan at Pinkie's antics, far too tired to tell her to shut up already. “Um…. Pinkie….” Well except for one yellow mare “I think that Twilight was joking….”

“Well I knew that Fluttershy! I was just curious if she could tell that she was joking too!”

“Great, now not even Pinkies’ jokes make sense anymore.” Rainbow Dash, her wings tired from constant flying decided to give them a rest, only to deeply regret not trying to fly up the hill they were on. “Hills…… why’d it have to be hills……”

Applejack grunts in heavy labor as she nears the very crest of the hill “Ugh Don’t’ yawl go quitin on me now!” The farm pony adjusts her hat “we’re almost to the top! Ya can’t stop now!”

Applejack reaches her hoof up to the very ridge of the hill pulling herself up “See not so hard! An look ah can see fer miles and mil……… wooooow……..”

The entire party is left staring at Applejack’s plot as the farm mare looks away from them completely stunned at something that only she can see. Twilight looks at the farm mare and calls out “Applejack! What are you standing around like that for? Give us a hoof.”

Applejack appears to be moving her mouth as if saying something to herself. Doubtless if the others could see her face her expression might be one of dumbfound nature. Twilight face hooves “Great. Applejacks’ finally lost it!” the purple mare turns to face the rainbow maned pegasus behind her. “Rainbow Fly up and tell Applejack to throw down the rope so we can all climb up.”

“Aw! Do I have too?”

“………….”

“Gurah! All right I’ll go!” Dash grudgingly flies to the top of the hill her shoulders slouched from the exertion. “Hey Applejack quit slacking and…… Whoa……..” Rainbow Dash takes a look over the crest of the hill stunned by the sight before her.

“Great now Dash’s loopy too!” Twilight throws up her hooves in exasperation “Rainbow Dash! Applejack snap out of it we could really use some help here.”

Twilight’s words finally seem to reach the orange farmer, snapping her out of her daydream. “Oh, Twi. Were you sayin somthin?”

“Throw down the rope! We need to climb up there!”

Applejack looks to her pack sheepishly seeing a long coil of rope “Oh mah mistake Twi.” The orange farmer throws the rope down the steep hill “Ah was just a bit distracted, yawl really need ta see this.”

All the mares look at each other in confusion from Applejack’s comment, wondering what the farmer could mean. Reaching for the rope they pull themselves up the slope by their teeth climbing up the hill with newfound energy, each one wondering what could be beyond the crest of the next hill. Twilight arrives first at the crest of the hill spitting the dirt from the rope off of her tongue. “Petw! Bleh! Last time I grab a rope covered in quicksand with my mouth. The lavender mare freezes at the view before her “…..Wow……”

Rainbow Dash nods at the sight before them as the rest of the mane six come over the hill. “Yeah, I know…… pretty awesome hunh?”

The sight greeting the mares could only be described as majestic. The hill’s perspective giving them all a view that stretches for miles the dark greens of the Everfree meshing together like a dark carpet. From their vantage the town of ponyville can just be seen on the horizon, and if one were to squint they might be able to make out the vague shadow of the great City of Canterlot.

However the sight that dominates the view before them and enraptured their senses is something far older and more ancient than a simple city. Crouching on the edge of a large gorge, as if standing in defiance of the crevice’s attempts to swallow it, sits a large majestic castle encased in dark grey stone. The castle stands as if beyond time. Lost to the ages yet undaunted by age and weathering, it remains in pristine condition despite a few shattered windows and broken stones. And considering the force of the Everfree, the fact that a single structure could survive such a ravaging makes it seem even more mythical. Between the mares and the castle stands a wide open plain, the empty grassy expanse between them and the gorge only serving to accentuate the size and detail of the building in front of them. Smaller ruins of civilization dot the landscape around the mares, the stones and rubble the only testament to the fact that a civilization even existed here.

“It’s…… it’s amazing……” Fluttershy gasps

“Indeed,” Rarity nods “I do believe that this is a sight we shall not soon forget.”

“What did I tell you guys!” Pinkie pulls all of the mares all into a group hug “Best Camping trip ever! Oh wait a second, great idea!” Manifesting her stand Suprise, Pinkie pulls a large camera off of its skin placing it gently on the ground. The group looks at each other as they realized that they have once again been dragged into a Pinkie Pie antic.

“Now everypony smile!” Pinkie shouts “Three Two One, Ham and cheese!”

The camera goes off in a blinding flash causing the large majority of the party to begin writhing on the ground in agony blind as bats. All save the pink party mare herself who quickly inspects the group photo “Oh this is a good one! Definitely one for the scrapbook.” Pinkie stuffs the picture in her mane as she turns back to the rest of the group “Hey? Are you guys okay? That wasn’t too sudden, was it?”

“Pinkie.” Twilight pulls herself off the ground as the rest of the group steadily recovers “Please don’t do that again.”

Pinkie lowers her head “Sorry Twilight, it was just such a good picture, look!” Pinkie presents the photo to the group as they all take in not only the majestic background but the fact that Pinkie managed to catch them just as they were all smiling for the picture.

“Pinkie, that’s some cool photography.”

“Thanks Twilight I have a lot of practice! I take pictures of almost everything in ponyville, birds, brides, rocks, rolls, Peanut butter, jelly, you know, everything! That’s why I’m so good, why just the other day I was taking a picture for one of my parties because I love my parties and I want to remember that ponies should remember them so……”

“Yeah that’s great Pinkie.” Twilight blows the pink mare off, turning to address her finds to her friends. “But what’s really surprising are these ruins.”

Twilight looks towards the view as she reaches into her saddle bag with her magic pulling out their map “This palace looks ancient, but it doesn’t appear on any map of the everfree, and castles don’t just appear in the middle of a forest. Even though the Everfree is not widely explored, something like this couldn’t possibly be missed, especially since it seems to have had some kind of history.”

“Well where is the strange stone pointing?” Fluttershy asks

Twilight pulls out the strange stone watching as it’s needle spins on her hoof coming to a stop so that its tip is pointing in the direction of the palace. “It’s pointing right at it, and the abnormality is much stronger this time. We must be close to it. Perhaps it’s near the ruins somewhere?”

“Well what are we waiting around here for?” Rainbow dash leaps into the air her spirit and wings revitalized by the sight before them “Come on, let’s check it out!”

Rainbow Dash is fully prepared to soar straight to the ruins only for her momentum to be stopped by the strong yank of a certain orange pony’s jaws. Rainbow turns around just in time to be pulled back to earth by Applejack. “Now just hold on a second yawl.” Applejack adjusts her hat giving the castle a wary look. “Ah may be a stick in the mud fer sayin this, but is exploring a decrepit castle in the middle of a haunted woods such a good….”

KABOOM!

Every pony in the group flinches at the deafening explosion, the hair on their flanks standing on end from both surprise and the powerful current of magical energy coursing through the air. Thunder cracks off in the distance as the mares turn their heads to the sound behind them. All gasp as they see the large dark cloud contrasting against the sunset sky, its obsidian bowls crackling with wild lightning and thunder. The mares watch for the space of several seconds, awed by the power of wild nature as the cloud begins to clear the horizon as if it was rushing towards them.

“Wild Storm!” Dash yells. Dash being a senior leader of the Weather patrol, realizes the danger they are now in as she raises her hoof to the broken keep in the distance. “Alright everypony! Let’s double time it to the castle! We definitely don’t want to be caught in that storm! Let’s move move!”

No one dares question the blue mare as the entire group breaks out into a gallop towards the small wooden bridge leading to the palace. Each and every mare pumps their legs as their hearts pump more and more oxygen rich blood into their hooves, putting all their remaining power from a long day’s hiking into one last rush. Twilight looks in terror behind her as she sees the storm smash the taller branches of the tree like kindling with the force of wind alone, the lightning setting copious fires that are instantly extinguished by the torrential rains.

“Don’t look behind! Run Faster!”

Twilight had of course heard of wild weather. When chaos magic combined with regular atmospheric magic or regular storms became overcharged with magic, regular rains would become waterfalls, wind would tear trees out of their foundations, and lightning would strike anything and everything in its radius. It was partially why the weather patrol existed, to control naturally occurring storms and superclusters and insure that naturally forming weather was safe. However in land saturated in as much Chaos magic as the Everfree, such storms could never be controlled and even her strongest barrier would never survive the constant bombardment which left only one course of action.

“Run! That’s it! You’re almost to the bridge!” Twilight shouts encouragement to the rest of the group “Keep it up!”

Seconds later the four non flying members of their party come safely to a stop at the edge of the canyon and the rickety rope bridge spanning the gap. The four ponies pant heavily as they look at the decrepit bridge before them, thinking about how solid and sturdy it looked before they came face to face with it.

“Hurry up you slowpokes!” Dash yells “That’s storm’s not going to wait on us!”

Applejack looks between the storm and all its fury and the bridge over a thousand foot drop. “Are ya sure that there aint no other way across?”

“We don’t have time to argue this! Just cross it!”

“Cross that?” Rarity points her hoof to the falling apart bridge “Rainbow, just Fly us across!”

“With all your baggage you’re all too heavy!”

“Oh and I suppose that we’re just the right weight for crossing a bridge that looks ready to collapse any second!” Rarity snaps.

Twilight watches at the storm behind them grows even closer, the sound of the lightning and flashing thunder almost simultaneous. “Rainbow’s right we don’t have time for this!” Twilight yells “Rarity use your stand to reinforce the bridge’s ropes! I’ll strengthen it more with my magic!”

Rarity looks at the lavender mare like she has lost her mind “Me? But….. Mind link and…..”

KABOOM

“Rarity there’s no time! Just do it!”

Looking between Twilight and the bridge Rarity takes a deep calming breath as she extends her stand like a rope, the silver chord mixing in with the rope of the bridge. The silver starts to extend across the gap, its wielder beginning to falter as she struggles to project her stand across the entire chasm. However just when she thinks her stand is about to collapse a gentle horn taps her own as she feels a familiar but gentle magic coursing through her stand. Rarity opens her eyes to see Twilight’s’ stand FRIENDS touching her stand, the silver from Rarity’s’ stand mixing into its arms. Suddenly Rarity’s power increases three fold as the silver expands forming an entire platform for them to cross. Rarity shudders a little as she feels Twilight’s presence in her mind gentle but firm, and a bit panicked by the situation around them. However for the most part Twilight only fuses partially with the ivory mare pouring her magical power into Rarity rather than combining their stands properly together.

“Twilight….” Rarity looks at the unicorn before her “You….”

“Bridge’s up!” Dash yells “Go! Go! Go!”

Both mares, Twilight and Rarity, look at each other as they realize there is no time to waste. All four mares dash across the new silver bridge at full speed trusting completely in the strength of their friends as the storm behind them grows ever closer. In less than seven seconds the mares reach the other side Rarity retrieving her stand as they make a mad dash for the palace ahead of them. The wind picks up behind the mares that only put more and more of their energy into outrunning the storm. The party runs with reckless haste to the castle as Dash races ahead to the door of the keep. Putting her entire back into it the rainbow pegasi puts all her weight into pulling open the giant rusted over door. The door barely budges at first however inch by inch the Pegasus pulls the large brass handle, the door slowly creaking open as the storm grows ever closer. The earth bound ponies put more power into their hooves as the smallest of raindrops begin to assault their flanks the wind and rain howling like the wendigo's of old, as if the weather itself was hunting them. Fluttershy lands next to the rainbow Pegasus as she begins to tug on the handle with her mouth, the door slowly creaking open. Finally the large twenty hoof high door slides open allowing just enough space for the party to squeeze into the foyer. Dash breaths a deep breath of relief as she turns to spur the others on for the last sprint.

“Come on guys! The door’s open! Hurry up!”

Every mare’s lungs are burning from every breath, their panting growing even more labored, from the run. Yet the sound of the collapsing ruins and screaming thunder behind them spurs them on even more than the voice from a friend possibly could. Finally after what seems like an eternity of sprinting the mares reach the door streaming through the small crack with the urgency of survivors looking for cover. First Applejack squeezes her many packs through the door frame, then Pinkie bounces over through the doorway, her normal enthusiasm returning now that she is out of danger. Then Rarity and Fluttershy gallop through the door unwilling to spend another second out in a storm of this magnitude. This leaves Rainbow Dash holding the door as Twilight Sparkle takes one last look at the storm behind her. Twilight watches the fury of the storm as thousands of gallons of water fall in seconds, the force of the wind turning rain into projectiles as it beats against the ruins. The thunder claps and the entire sky is lit up as all that can be seen of the once majestic sunset is immersed in black.

“Twilight! Stops staring at the storm an git in here!”

Snapped out of her idle daydreams Twilight turns on a hoof running through the doorframe just as the full force of the wind impacts the door slamming it shut with the force of a thunderclap. Suddenly darkness overtakes the party the sound of the rain outside and loud panting of the ponies all that can be heard in the dark. Carefully and cautiously Twilight ignites her horn illuminating the room in a bright purple light. Applejack quickly follows suit pulling various lanterns out of her pack and lighting them, filling the entire room with a bright glow as the ponies get a first glance of the room that they have dashed into.

The entire entry way seems to be in relatively good condition despite the age of the building around them, the roof is lined with various calligraphic examples of stone work. Simple grey pillars with blocky wave patterns surround the room scraggly vines crawling up every third pillar. The windows though made of solid glass appear enchanted and clear and despite a few fractures the majority of the windows appear to be in amazing condition with only a small broken window sitting in the corner.

“Wow they said that storms in the everfree were fierce…..” Rainbow Dash looks out the partially shattered window watching as jagged raindrops bombard the windows with the intensity of gunfire. “…..but not this fierce! How’s this castle even standing? I think any building would have been kaput after a storm like this.”

“Yes Twilight.” Rarity looks at walls suspiciously “are these ruins safe? This whole place isn’t going to come down on us any time soon now is it?”

“This castle is old Rarity, and its magic is even older.” Twilight looks around at the moth eaten tapestries and rugged practical stonework marveling that the roof and walls are still in one piece. “Given the late gothic architecture and the old magic runes woven into the floor I’d say that this palace has been around since the founding of modern Equestria, at least one hundred fifty to two hundred years before the nightmare wars!”

Applejack feels the stones beneath her hoof with a new appreciation “So if it’s so old how is it still standin?”

If I had to guess…..” Twilight touches the dark stone with her hoof rubbing it almost sentimentally. Suddenly she lets loose a powerful bolt of magic at the stone before her the bolt dispersing into aether before it even lands, leaving not even a scotch mark. Twilight then nods “yep, it’s null stone. It’s a rare stone that disperses magical energy with ninety seven percent uniformity. It blocks almost any form of magic so that it doesn’t pass through, we should be perfectly safe from the storm.”

As if having a lingering thought Twilight reaches into her bag grabbing a small fragment of the strange stone from a pouch. Holding the stone in her hoof Twilight and the rest of the group watch as the stone remains completely motionless. “I thought so, because of all the null stone I’m not getting a good reading on the abnormality, so much for all our progress.”

“Well were safe here right?” Pinkie asks “That and we were looking for a place to spend the night. So…….. Can we have our slumber party in a castle? Please please pretty please!?”

“Well I certainly don’t see the problem with it.” Rarity looks at the room around them “we’re safe from the storm, and though the castle may be a bit, rustic, I think it’s a fine place to, rough it as it were.”

Fluttershy shuffles on her hooves “I don’t mind either. That is as long as none of you mind.”

“Yeah we’re all exhausted her Twi!” Dash throw out her sleeping bag without even giving Twilight a chance to speak “Let’s just crash here for the night.”

Twilight thinks back to what she learned from ‘The legacy of camping’ and all the dangers of just laying down someplace you haven’t thoroughly checked. “Well normally old ruins are populated by wild animals and the like and I don’t like just leaving the trail to grow cold.”

Twilight takes a second look around the room. Though the castle is dark and murky, there is a certain charm to it, and they probably aren’t going anywhere in this storm. Yet there was something in Twilight that made her want to stay, the mystery of the palace that intrigued her beyond words and logic. “But we’re not going to be able to leave in this storm, and we have had a rough day, so why not! Everypony set up camp. We’re making this our base of operations.”

Everypony sighs an immense sigh of relief as each and everyone throws their heavy saddle bags to the floor with a din that would frighten a dragon. Twilight sets about making a small magical fire in the center of the room by inscribing a magical circle, content that the room’s large ceiling is big enough to disperse any smoke. Applejack breaks out the night’s rations handing out a small satchel of dried fruits and bread to every pony. Rarity quickly moves the rain catcher to a nearby broken window filtering water from the storm to pour into each and every pony’s canteens

Each and every pony eats their meals quickly with a minimal amount of conversation, even Pinkie cuts back a bit on her normal rambling in return for shoveling more food into her mouth. The ponies speed their meal time talking baseless small talk and finish uneventfully, none willing to cut into their own sleep time. All begin to yawn as they each break out their own respective bags for the night.

Applejack opens her baggage searching for something as the rest of the group begins to set out their supplies for the night. “Give me a Break……” Applejack groans.

Rarity turns away from her task of setting up the dew catcher for the night to look at the orange mare “yes Applejack? What seems to be the problem?”

Applejack looks through her supplies once again confirming that something is missing “Mah sleeping bag, it’s gone! Urgh, I knew that I lost somtin in that forest, ah was just too stubborn to go around an look for it.”

Rarity looks over Applejack’s supplies again food, water, rope, magical locator, journal but no sleeping bag to be found.  “Goodness you’re right, it looks as though you have neglected to pack a sleeping bag.” Rarity’s face suddenly brightens as a brilliant idea enters her mind “it is most fortunate that I had the amazingly fabulous foresight to pack a sleeping bag with enough room for two. You shall bunk with me tonight. “

Applejack shakes her head “Nah, No thanks Rarity. I’m used to the cold, a little brush and a solid floor is enough for me to have a good night’s rest”

“…But…. But….” The fashionista stutters, unwilling to let this go “But it’s so cold! Why not bunk with me where our body heat… I mean my sleeping bag is heated. Surely you would prefer a warm cozy bed to snuggle in?”

“Well that’s a mighty fine offer there Rari….” The orange mare says “An ah admit sharin a heated…. Wait what was that last part there?”

“…..Uhhhhhh My sleeping bag is magically heated?”

“No the part after that.”

“Ummmm It’s going to be cold?”

“No not…. “

“You can bunk with me Applejack!” Twilight interrupts

“…..What?” Applejack asks

“What?!” Rarity screams

“Well yes!” Twilight paws her hoof “that is if you really needed a sleeping bag I could use my magic to enlarge mine so we could both fit in it. It’ll be so much more practical than trying to squeeze in two ponies into one bag.” Twilight sags her head “I mean I can’t just have you sleep on the cold floor completely alone, what kind of friend would I be then?”

“What? I….. now look Twi……” Applejack clears her mind as she tries to tackle the craziness surrounding her with solid logic. “Now I know that ya mean well an everythin but the sleepin bag’s more of a formality an all. Ah really don’t need much an… well…..”

Applejack blushes slightly “……It’s just sharin a sleeping bag, with you, well ah’d think it’s get a little awkward, doncha think?”

At Applejack’s blushing Rarity’s face becomes completely downfallen as though her hopes and dreams were shattered in the space of a single instant. Rarity lowers her head in defeat, all her years of friendship and work seeming to vanish down a black hole “Oh….. I see how it is….. I just didn’t know that you and Twilight were…..oh I just can’t believe that you were…..”

Applejack turns to face her ivory friend instantly catching her depressed mood. “Rarity? What’s wrong with ya filly?”

“Oh I can’t believe I didn’t see it before!” Rarity raises her hoof to her face “The Royal and the Brave Knight! The bookworm and the farmer! Two ponies so different and yet so alike!” Rarity swoons to the ground in genuine sorrow “Oh why didn’t I act sooner now it is forever beyond my reach! Oh what a fool I am!”

“Uh Rarity? What are you talking about?” Twilight asks with no small amount of confusion.

“Oh spare not my shattered heart!” Rarity cries “For it is gone to the grave in sorrow!”

“Uragh!” Applejack raises her hooves to the heavens in a dramatic cry “What’s up with everypony an sleepin bags?! Is it one of those fads er somthin!?! Cause I don’t get it!!”

Applejacks’ scream causes every pony in the group to stare at the orange mare like she has finally lost her mind, even Twilight and Rarity put aside their own grievances wonder what Applejack is going on about. Thankfully the soap opera drama is interrupted by a mare whose very talent is being surprising, Pinkie Pie. “Hey guys! Check it out I found a sleeping bag! That’s plus ten to resting without being disturbed! Pretty good find hunh!?”

Twilight looks over to see that Pinkie has indeed found a spare sleeping bag “Oh! Thank you Pinkie!” Picking up the bag in her telekinesis Twilight brings it over to Applejack “well problem solved! Thanks to Pinkie you have your own sleeping bag! Now you won’t have to share one with me! Pretty convenient hunh!” Twilight smiles optimistically, glad that the problem is resolved.

Applejack looks back between the purple librarian and her sleeping bag “….I…. Twi….. I….. Thanks an all that…..”

“That’s great!” Twilight places her hoof on her orange friend’s shoulder “now you two get some rest, I’m going to take a quick look around before I hit the hay. This castle hasn’t’ been disturbed in hundreds of years! Who knows what secrets it holds?” The lavender mare walks off deeper into the abandoned castle, a look of adventurous spirit on her face, leaving two very flustered and confused mares in her wake.

Rarity mulls over the recent events in her mind as she looks at Applejack ‘humh…. For a moment there I thought that Applejack already had…… but it’s obvious that, like always, that Twilight is completely oblivious to social matters…. But I never thought that Twilight of all ponies would try and get between Applejack and myself. Never the less I shall not lose to a new upstart, much less Twilight, in either love or war…..’

Rarity turns to Applejack “Well that’s one problem solved deer Applejack! Now let’s tarry off to bed we can talk for a bit until we fall asleep, just the two of us….”

“…..what….” The orange mare is still staring at her sleeping bag with a mixture of regret, relief and confusion. Rarity nudges the orange farm mare slightly snapping her out of her daze “OH Right! Thanks Rarity! An ah’m real glad ta have mah own sleeping bag like this. Ta tell ya the truth…… I know that you and Twi are real good friends of mine. But sharing a sleeping bag would have made me real uncomfortable like.”

Applejack blushes furiously as a long forgotten dream enters the forefront of her mind. “It was almost like the two of you wanted ta…… I mean sharing a sleeping bag seemed like it was really…….”

Rarity turns her head back towards the far mare “Humh? What was that darling?”

“……..Nothin, nothing at all and ah’d love ta spend some time with yawl Rarity, just the two of us.” The orange mare stutters as the dark crimson blush consuming her face returns with a vengeance. “TALKIN! Ah’d love ta spend some time TALKIN tagether A-A-As  friends!”

Laughing at the orange mare’s slip up, Rarity comforts Applejack with her with her denature chuckling as they both laugh at the comic scene of romance that just occurred. Their embarrassment all but forgotten, the two mares and best friends walk off towards the main hall where they plan to bunk down for the night talking and reminiscing about times gone by. All the while the purple mare walks further and further into the darkness of the castle before her oblivious to the dangers the darkness contains.

…………….

The darkness pervades the castle around her as Twilight sparkle drifts further and further from her friends. Yet in all honesty the mare feels more peaceful than she should in an ancient abandoned castle. Twilight walks the dark halls with only her horn for illumination observing with curiosity the various degraded fixtures of the palace around her, Rusted suits of armor, tapestries of the sun and moon, and slim dark grey pillars. Soon the dark grey stone of the outer walls gives way to the dark tan of the interior hallways as Twilight ventures deeper into the castle. As a librarian and bibliophile the quiet darkness of the castle as well as its proper insulation and warm rooms appealed greatly to the lavender mare who began skipping down the hallways the light of her horn illuminating the rooms she was peeking into with great clarity.

“You know this place isn’t so bad after all. Sure it’s in the middle of the Everfree, but for a thousand year old castle it’s……… peaceful.” Twilight looks down another hallway the doors ways lined with various levels of protruding ridges and rusted metal hinges. Though the doors themselves have long given themselves over to the ravages of age the stone remain in flawless condition devoid of mold or rot. “You know teleporting is difficult with the Everfree’s ambient chaotic magics, but with a level five teleportation circle I might be able to bypass the static. Then I could come here whenever! Make this a little get away from home, or a summer house, that kind of thing.”

“It’s really top notch stonework” Twilight rubs the castle walls. “Those ponies of the past certainly knew what they were doing. Really the only thing that could make this better would be…..” Twilight’s neck cranes around the hallway absentmindedly her eyes suddenly bugging out of her eye sockets at the sight before her.

In front of her very eyes, directly in front of her vision something the lavender mare never truly expected to find in the middle of a dark and dangerous forest, or a ruined castle to say the least. In front of her eyes lies a perfectly organized and well lit library stocked to the brim with tomes from a forgotten age. “…….would be a fully stocked library.”

Twilight stands in awe of the magnificent sight before her, the candles on the pillars illuminating walls upon walls of perfectly organized (According to the LCC of course) bookshelves each one filled to the breaking point of valuable nay priceless books. The genuine looks of surprise and unbridled joy on Twilight’s face might be the kind of face a pony would have if they opened a box of cereal and a genuine diamond ring fell out of the packaging. Needless to say Twilight didn’t stay surprised for long and within a few seconds the lavender mare was bouncing through the halls of the library with reckless abandon.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The filly squeals in excitement. “Oh my gosh I’ve never seen this many books! Well except in the library of canterlot but still, this is the greatest collection of books outside of canterlot and it’s all mine! MINE! MINE to read! No more return dates or ‘oh Twilight I really need this book for a school project’ a whole library all to myself! Wait did I light these candles? Never mind BOOKS!!”

Twilight hops on her tip hooves like a little filly in a candy store all the while taking all the amazing piles of magically preserved literature. “BOOKS! BOOKS! Books everywhere! Books as far as the eye can…… Oof!” in her enthusiasm Twilight neglected to notice the ledge of a table and in a monumental thump the lavender mare lands flat on her face.

Falling on her face the lavender mare quickly snaps out of her foolish behavior as she quickly gets back up on her hooves. “Ahem. Well it looks like this building has a fully stocked library…….. Scratch what I said before, I am totally making this place into a summer home. Just as soon as I’m done with paging through all these books.”

Reaching to a nearby shelf the mare begins to run her hooves down the spines of the books inspecting their titles and dates of publishing adding the name of each book into a mental vault of names and titles of books. Indeed there are so many books it would take an eternity to catalog them all.

“Wait a minute, what am I thinking? A library of this size has got to have a library catalog already. I don’t have to page through every book, at least not yet. Now where could that catalog be?” Twilight looks at the tables in the library looking for a long list of books when her eye falls on a certain black book lying open on the table in front of her.

The librarian instantly thinks it strange that a book would just be left open in the middle of a well-lit table while nopony else was here to read it. “Come to think of it…… these candles didn’t light themselves did they?” Twilight watches the flame in front of her as she flows a small amount of magic into it watching as the red flame turns bright blue then back to its normal red shade.

“Ha I knew it. These candles are magically enchanted to light up when a pony enters the library. He and I thought that somepony else was here. All right let’s get this book….. Hunh?” Twilight is in the process of attempting to pick up the larger book in front of her when she takes a closer look at the hoof written words in front of her. The light blue ink and beautiful scrawling calligraphy a sign that this book was personally written. “This is no library book…..”

Her curiosity piqued the librarian places her rump on the cushion behind her and starts to read to herself. “Year ten AD Day two hundred and forty five, Dear journal……”

‘The pony known as Firecracker, our chef pyro-technician has finally managed to control the strange power of Stand. She calls her ghostly companion ‘Burning down the House’ an apt name for a stand if a bit catchy. This confirms what I have been telling Celly the entire time, the Red Stone of Aja forcibly draws out powers from living creatures by strengthening their spirits. This spirit then gains the ability to take physical form it is not a spirit summoned by the stones like Celly and I first believed, or a curse to be feared as many ponies have thought but a psychological manifestation of our very essence.

Somehow should a pony of sound mind, body and soul overcome the sickness that comes when the stone is introduced into the blood, they gain not death but power. The stone is not limited to simply bending reality and amplifying magic as we have thought. Before our knowledge of the stone was limited by what the great surviving saint Spike the First, told us that the stone tapped into the mysterious power of harmony. Spike the First explained when we passed the seven great trials of the saint: Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Forgiveness and Love, that we could use it to counter Discord’s brand of magic which turned this force of harmony upon itself corrupting reality and making the impossible possible.

Yet these stands, what are they? I Hypothesize is that the stone’s ability to manipulate reality gives its wielder the ability to manipulate reality similar to Discord but to an infinitesimally lesser degree. The stone may increase a pony’s power but the abilities the stands manifest, require far more testing to understand. Ever since me and my sister have found the small fragment of the red stone in Discord’s floating palace and gained our own powers I knew the stone was capable of great things. It is why we pursued the legend of the Sacred stone of the saint, the Red Stone so single mindedly, to stop Discord. And indeed with a single use of its power we sundered Discord, a foe we could never have beaten with all of our great magics combined.

Celly is cautious as always but she has agreed that the prospects of the stone are too tempting to ignore and she has agreed that we will both research the stone and its effects together.  I do not throw caution to the wind in this; I know all magic has a price, I have seen what the stone is capable of when we employed it against Discord………… but the girl, Appendix…… what happened to her cannot be denied, it was a miracle. She was crippled from birth dying from an incurable illness and upon a single touch from the stone’s power, she was made well instantly! If such magic could be harnessed, then there is truly no limit to what can be done! Proper experiments will begin tomorrow after we have moved the stone to a safer location beneath Canterlot castle. Then Celly and I alone will perform the first rounds of intensive research into the stones’ inner workings starting by finding out what the stone itself is made of. Perhaps drilling a small hole to sample a fragment from the core?

As a final thought, I can’t help the feeling that Celly is hiding something from me as if something is troubling her weighing on her mind……… nay sister would never hide the truth from me unless she thought it irrelevant.  She is probably just too engrossed in her new popularity and diplomatic success in securing our kingdom of Equestria’s sovereignty.

I must admit I am….. Jealous….. of Celestia’s newfound popularity. She is adored by all yet I am ignored and pushed to the sidelines. Simply because Celestia was the one to harness the stone’s full power while I supported her from the sidelines they hail her as the Empresses of the Cosmos as if the sun AND the moon revolve around her. How can they not see that it is I who move the workings of the magical world around the scenes that if not for me and my understanding of the corpse Celly would have never succeeded in bringing Discord to heel? How can they not see that without me there would be no Equestria?

But Listen to me complaining like a spoiled fowl. This is Celestia, my sister I am talking about not some usurper. These dark thoughts circling through my mind are the results of sitting hunched over a book for so long. For once Celly is right, I really have to find some new hobbies, perhaps I will join her in court for a time, or better yet have my own court, then ponies might actually see me and what I do in a better light. Until my next entry………’

“……Princess Luna?!” Twilight finishes with a gasp. “This….. This is Princess Luna’s private diary! Before she even became Nightmare moon! But why would something so personal and secret be lying around here?”

“……..you should not have done that.” The hairs on Twilight’s keck stand on end as all the lights are extinguished, the comforting glow of candlelight erased to make room for soul chilling darkness.

The sound of another voice and the instant extinguishing of all light, instantly turns the librarian into all out panic mode as Twilight ignites her horn in a beam of light scanning the library “What?! Who’s there? Show yourself.”

Twilight jumps from her chair as she searches around her the silence of the room unnerving her even more as she begins to break out into a cold sweat. “I-I’ll have you know that I’m Princess Celestia’s Private student! S-so whoever you are you had better show yourself.” The lavender mare falls to her rump “this can’t be good….”

“Celestia’s student? Has she found me already……” Twilight turns to try and locate the voice but the acoustics of the library make it seem like the sound is coming from everywhere. “No if Celestia were here she would announce her presence, she would come with her guards and best stand users, not such a small party. Perhaps you are scouts searching for me.”

“Celestia doesn’t know we’re here!” Twilight blurts out just before covering her mouth “I should not have said that.”

The voice stops abruptly at this, “Then you are either very foolish or very ignorant to come to this place. Now tell me why are you here.”

Twilight listens to the voice noticing the sudden change of demeanor and speech, from demanding and suspicious to inquisitive. “Well, I’ve come this far…..” Twilight raises her voice “I’m here following the abnormality from the strange stones, it lead me to somewhere in the Everfree, that’s why I’m here.”

“Strange stones? That’s a foolish name, what’s a strange stone?”

Ignoring the slight, Twilight reaches into her pack pulling out one of the stones with her telekinesis the stone growing brightly from the magic Twilight is pouring into it. “It’s these, they seem to have strange….” The lavender mare groans at having to admit it “….Wish granting properties and they’re different from the red stones Celestia has had me gathering. We, my friends and I, hoped that by following the abnormality we might find out what they are.”

“You’re gathering those things?!” The voice booms causing Twilight to shrink lower to the floor “Then you are my enemy! You’re gathering them for Celestia!”

“I’m not your enemy!” Twilight yells as she rises to her hooves “At least I don’t think that I’m your enemy, now my turn.” Twilight demands “Who are you? Where are you hiding? What do you want with Princess Celestia? If you mean to hurt her…..”

The voice scoffs as she shadows seem to dance at the displeasure of the mysterious voice “Am I not royal enough for her, does she not know who I am? Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?”

Twilight’s ears perk up as the sound of soft hoof steps clop on the floor in the exact way they do right before the main character dies in a horror movie. Twilight freezes her every rational though telling her not to look behind her however eventually the curiosity wins out as twilight turns her head to look behind her, the figure’s name catching in her throat. With dark precision the figure manifests her stand. Twilight’s eyes widen at the stand before her, it’s coat covered in all the blues and dark purples of the night sky, its’ gleaming scale armor giving it the impression of the aurora borealis, the northern lights. The stand’s outspread wings covered in shooting stars and its braided mane the silvery white of the milky way. Its armored helm covers the eyes of the stand as if it is blind to all and it's black horn filed to a razor point.

Twilight raises her voice to scream “Nightmare…..”

The blow falls, as Twilight sparkle’s senses falter, her mind falling into a dark sleep as the figure over her stares into her very soul. The mare tries to resist to struggle against the coming darkness, however eventually her strength gives out completely and the mare knows no more.

Chapter 12-Sprout-Take 2

Chapter 13-Dreamweaver:Take 2

Dreamweaver: Take 2:

Twilight Sparkle, private apprentice of princess Celestia awakes with a start, her eyes flying open as she rises from her sleeping bag in a blind panic. Her body covered in a cold sweat, as if awaking from a nightmare or haunting dream. After a few of such deep breaths the librarian once again gains her mental footing, her fever pitched heart slowing down to a normal rate as she observes her surroundings. Cautiously the mare scans the room around her, as she suddenly becomes aware of her friend’s loud conversations, the six of them eating breakfast and planning their day ahead. Twilight flinches from the sight of her friends as if something is deeply wrong with the scene before her.  Yet despite her unease the mare is unable to place a hoof on what is wrong, her thoughts turning inward as she tries to remember what brought her to this point.

‘Wasn’t I somewhere else?’ the errant thought passes through her mind ‘I was looking in the library and……. What happened after that?’

“Twilight!” Applejack turns to face the lavender mare as she hooves Twilight her mess tin. “Well it seems like some pony was as tired as a bear In fall! Now hurry an chow down Twi, we’ve got a busy day ahead.”

“Yeah egghead! I’m rarin to go today so you had better not slow me down.” Dash comments as she shoves more of her breakfast rations down her throat.

“Yeah!” Pinkie digs into her tray of food “It’s gonna be great! I can’t wait to see what happens this time!”

“This time?” Twilight cocks her head

Rarity takes a fashionably small bite of her meal before turning to Twilight “Ignore Pinkie deer she’s been acting strange ever since we got here. But then again when is Pinkie not a doll?”

“Silly Rarity!” Pinkie complains “I’m not a doll! At least not yet!”

Twilight rubs her head in confusion as she digs herself out of her sleeping bag. “Wait a second what happened last night? I went out to look through the castle I found the library and…..” Twilight’s head throbs causing her to rub her horn.

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy asks brushing her green mane out of her face “are you all right? You seem a little off? If you need to stay here and rest more, we understand. It was a very busy day yesterday.”

Twilight rubs her horn as the headache recedes “Yes Fluttershy I’m fine I must have just slept too long that’s……” Twilight does a double take scanning Fluttershy’s pink mane “….. All?”

“Well then ah know what’ll cheer ya up and get energy in ya fer the day ahead.” Applejack places a large brown pastry on Twilight’s tray “if you’re gonna be good yer gonna be better with some of mah Apple brown betties in ya! They’re perfect fer a long day of exploring!”

Twilight looks once at the pastry on her tray before scooping the brown betty into her mouth moaning with pleasure at the rich apple taste on her tongue. With ravenous hunger the unicorn finishes the pastry in record time downing the beaker of Applejack by her side. “Thanks Applejack, that was amazing, I guess I was just hungry.”

“Well shucks Twi from the looks of it I figure yawl could sit here all day an eat those things.” Applejack smiles as she props her Stetson on her head. “All right then, that’s it fer breakfast yawl. Now let’s get on with it, and git down ta the brass tacks.”

“Applejack’s right we had really start the search as soon as possible.” Twilight looks at the room around them with a newfound appreciation. “As nice as this place is I want to find out what’s up and get back to ponyville.”

“What’s the hurry?” Dash asks “We’ve got all day! Besides these Apple betties are delicious. Let’s just sit back and talk here. We have plenty of time.”

Twilight arches an eyebrow at Rainbow’s strange behavior. “Well I’m glad that you’ve learned some patience Dash but we need to get on with our jobs.”

Dash groans “All right fine but I call looking from the air! In case you forgot……” Dash strikes a cool pose putting a pair of sunglasses on her face only to take them off dramatically. “……flying is my specialty.”

“……Right….. Anyways……” Twilight looks to the rest of the group “All right everypony huddle in.”

With almost clockwork precision and speed the six mares and Twilight sit down as they listen to Twilight’s plan. “Alright everypony, yesterday before we came to the palace I was able to determine with the strange stone that the force that has been pulling all the strange stones and Red stones into the everfree is indeed near this palace. However the null stone that the palace is made off is interfering with the abnormality so the plan is simple.”

Twilight reaches into her pack pulling out small fragments of the Strange stones levitating a small piece in the hooves of every pony in the room. “We each will receive a strange stone and split up to cover more ground, the first pony to find the abnormality will call out for the others, and hopefully by day’s end we’ll be heading home.”

“Now any questions?” Fluttershy raises her hoof “Yes Fluttershy? What is your question?”

“Um I don’t mean to be a bother……..” Fluttershy asks “But……. Um, what was the plan again?”

Twilight face hooves “I just told you Fluttershy, we use the strange stones to locate the source that is drawing all these strange stones and Red stones into the Everfree. It’s literally that simple.”

“Oh no. I mean…… um what are we after?” The yellow mare begins to blush a bit “I mean, what are looking for the corpse fragments for? I mean it’s so dangerous here.”

Twilight opens her mouth to speak, to tell Fluttershy exactly why they are here, and exactly why they can’t chicken out halfway through, when her words freeze in her mouth. Twilight’s throat grows dry as a chilling feeling passes over her body, the feeling that something is very wrong, that everything is very wrong. However before she can voice her concerns her thoughts are cut off by an almost razor sharp voice, a voice that she can’t place.

“Ttttttttttwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllliiiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhhhttttttttttt?????? Are you Oooooookkkkkaaaaayyyyyy?”

The voice resounds through her mind like a gong, her thoughts becoming more sluggish with every syllable that echoes through her mind. A deep fog fills the unicorn’s head her thoughts becoming dismissive of her paranoid concerns. “I’m fine Fluttershy. Twilight recites as if reading the words off of a sheet of paper.

“It’s like I said before in the library.” Twilight says clearly and eerily. “The reason that we are looking for the corpse fragments is because we don’t know what they do. On the night of shooting stars the red stone fragmented across Equestria, when we attempted to Purify Princess Luna from the evil force that held her.”

Twilight looks at her hoof amazed that she had forgotten her fur was purple. “We think it succeeded so that’s good, but the Red Stones scattering across Equestria is very bad. We’ve spent our time gathering these Red Stones because of that, and These Strange stones are just more powerful versions of the Red Stones. So it’s part of our job to gather them too.”

Oblivious to her own ranting the purple unicorn drones on. “And more worrying Celestia seems to have no idea that these Strange stones even exist. So we need to find out what they are and how they work before we tell her about them.

As the fog that had dominated her mind before begins to disappear, Twilight fiddles through her bag handing small fragment of the Strange Stones to each one of her friends. “That’s why we’re investigating this phenomenon. Its’ a threat to the ponies of Equestria and it can aid us in finding out more information on how these stones work.”

‘Come to think of it…….’ A thought echoes through Twilight’s mind ‘wasn’t there something important about Princess Luna that …….. nah. Twilight quit being so paranoid.’

Applejack raises her hoof. “But why not tell Celestia? I mean you’re her student, don’t you trust her?” Applejack remarks as she puts her Stetson back on her head with her other hoof.

“Of course I do Rainbow dash! She’s my mentor, my idol…….. It’s just……..” Twilight’s mind flies in circles and this time it’s not from her situation but from her own mental turmoil. Why didn’t she tell Celestia about the strange stones? It would be so easy and she trusted her mentor with her life, so why didn’t’ she just come clean? Was it because she just didn’t want to turn in something half-finished and expect her to fill in the blanks. Or was it something else, something strange and surreal, something that made her head spin and her stomach ache. “It’s just that……. That…….”

“You just have your doubts.” A voice finishes “You are a smart mare Twilight Sparkle, and despite your love and adoration for Celestia it has not blinded you to the truth. Doubts are not always comfortable Twilight sparkle but they must be shouldered if one is to face the truth with unbiased sight.”

The voice responds with a mixture of impressed gratitude and wary superstition “Perhaps I misjudged you Twilight Sparkle, you are quite observant in addition to your mental prowess, it is no small wonder that Celestia chose you as her student. Me thinks that you might become an ally yet, but for now I must be sure of your intentions. The powers that you are toying with must not fall into the wrong hooves.”

“Yes that’s exactly it Fluttershy, I just have doubts that’s all. It’s nothing to be concerned about.” Twilight looks at her friends as she feels another headache coming on. Twilight rubs her head as if trying to remember a long lost lyric to a song from her fillyhood.

“Why did I say Fluttershy? That wasn’t Fluttershy’s voice, I’m sure of it.” The mare mutters under her breath “I’ve heard that voice before. But from where?” Twilight rubs her head as if trying to jog her memory “Was it canterlot? Ponyville? Where did I hear that voice? It sounded so familiar…….”

Twilight is suddenly snapped out of her mental fog by the calming touch of a friend. Twilight looks up to see Rainbow Dash placing a gentle hoof on her shoulder, her untamed mane flowing freely in the breeze. “Hey Egghead, are you okay? If yawl need to stay here an take a break than we totally understand.”

Twilight smiles, realizing that she is a very lucky mare to have friends like these by her side. “No Rainbow I think I’ll be fine.” Twilight turns to the rest of the group “All right everyone you know the drill scour the palace and its surroundings for any sign of the abnormality, and be back here in two hours.”

In perfect unison the entire group nods, each mare confirming their resolve to the task at hoof and their desire to see their task completed. That is every mare except Pinkie who blows the mother of all raspberries at Twilight’s boring speech. “PPPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFHHHHHHHH, No way Twi, that’ way too boring!”

Reaching to a nearby stand of armor the pink mare dons the plate mail with speed that would make a wonderbolt shiver. “I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to slay a dragon and eat ice cream until I explode! See you all later!” before Twilight can even protest the pink mare flips the helm down and jumps out the open window next to her disappearing into a deep fog.

“Pinkie wait!”

Twilight prepares to rush after the pink mare but is stopped by Dash’s cerulean blue hoof “Let her go Twilight. She’s just being more Pinkie than usual today, she’ll be fine.”

Twilight looks into Dash’s bright green eyes as the future wonderbolt gives her a reassuring grin. Twilight looks between Dash and the window Pinkie jumped out of with skepticism. “Okay….. I guess you know her better than me Dash. So I’ll trust that Pinkie won’t get into too much trouble.” Twilight turns to the rest of the group “All right everyone you know the drill scour the palace and its surroundings for any sign of the abnormality, and be back here in two hours.”

In perfect unison the entire group nods, each mare confirming their desire to see the task completed. Like a well-oiled machine the five mares leave the room by each of its five hallways, each one watching the strange stone in their hooves for sign or anything out of the ordinary.

…………….

 “All right Twilight, no more pretending, something’s off here, I just can’t put my hoof on it.” Another flying fish passes the lavender mare as she looks through what must be the twentieth room she has checked today.

For what seemed like hours but in reality was probably only a few minutes the Lavender mare had followed the strange stone spinning on her hoof into five dead ends, six secret doors, seven stone slides, and a very angry shopkeeper who complained when she crushed his cabbages. Twilight groaned heavily this search, if it could still be called that, was getting her nowhere, rather she seemed to only be getting farther away from her goal as the stone in her hoof would periodically change directions as if on a whim, leading her around in circles. Suddenly as if sensing the irony of the situation, the stone in her hoof turns precisely one hundred and eighty degrees around leading her right back down the hallway she had been walking down for five minutes.

“GUAH!” With force that would surprise even her, the librarian chucked the stone down the hallway behind her the sound of the stone clinking like glass echoing through the empty hall. The librarian pants heavily as she slowly but surely works out the anger that has been building in her system for the past hour. Every ragged breath letting out her frustrations and allowing her to regain a sentience of her calm and collected self. “Okay Twilight, pull yourself together, things may not be going the way that you have planned, and you know something is wrong but that’s’ no excuse for losing your cool. Breathe in…… and breathe out……….”

With great self-restraint the mare regains her sense of calm her angry frustrated mood balancing itself out as her smile returns.  “Now let’s see if I can’t find that strange stone. Hunh?”

Twilight turns around to find the way she just threw the stone down obscured by a large door. “Okay now I know that something is wrong, I’m sure there wasn’t a door here the last time I checked.”

Her hooves shaking the Lavender mare reaches tensely for the door handle, her nerves betraying her current condition. Finally mustering enough guts the lavender mare closes her eyes and bolts through the door magical shield raised in preparation for any traps or surprises. After a few seconds of tense waiting the lavender mare slowly opens her eyes “Easy Twilight look everything is fine, see the door is open, the floor isn’t burning hot or freezing cold and there are no traps to speak of. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about……..”

Twilight’s eyes shoot open. “Wait why can’t I feel the floor?” Twilight looks down as she realizes the horrible truth that she is just standing on empty air. “Oh you have got to be kidding me!” The mare comically wiggles her hooves for a few seconds as gravity begins to kick in again. Yet Twilight sparkle is nothing if not resourceful, reaching out with her stand the mare manages to grab the edge of the ledge with her stand pulling herself up with just enough force to put her over the ledge she just walked off of.

Panting heavily from the exertion the mare flings the doors closed with her magic as she pulls herself up on her hooves. The mare breathes in and out once again calming her mentally fatigued body and mind as the mare assesses her situation calmly and clearly. “Will this madness ever end!?” Twilight screams “What’s next?”

BAM!

Twilight ducks instinctively to the floor as the wall beside her collapses into a heap of rubble a large red sleigh crashing through the wall with the force of a cannon ball. Twilight coughs up a storm of dust as she looks up to see the medium sided dragon that was pulling the sleigh lying unconscious underneath the weight of the half a ton sleigh on top of it.

“What the…..” Twilight watches as the dust clears revealing a bright pink earth pony sitting in the bright red sleigh. Decked out in a crimson red hat, coat and matching brown boots the pink pony lets out a loud bellowing laugh as the lavender mare looks on with no small amount of concern.

 \“…….Santa Pie?” Twilight asks hopefully, praying to dear Celestia that she hasn’t finally lost her mind to the force of nature only known as Pinkie pie.

“…. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one dragon open…..” The pink mare ceases her song to looks down at the frightened lavender mare. “Oh hey Twilight! What’s up? Did you want to go Dragon Sleighing with me? It’s really fun!”

“Pinkie……” Twilight gasps “I’m almost afraid to ask but……. Where did you get the dragon, the outfit and the big red sleigh? And how did you come crashing through the wall?!”

“That’s easy Twilight, I thought it up! Everything’s easy when you can use your IMAGINATION.”

“Right…….” Twilight rolls her eyes “And I’m princess Celestia.”

“Oh that’s a great idea Twilight! You can be Celestia and I’ll be her estranged lover that’s returned from the field of battle!” Ripping the red suit in half Pinkie reveals a smart officer’s uniform complete with war medals.

“Celestia, there was once a time in which I loved you.” Pinkie monologues in a tear-jerking performance “But that time can never come again for a pony who cares more for the masses than her knight. A knight who has vanquished his evil sister to keep your dirty secrets.” Pinkie sheds a single tear as she turns back to Twilight just as happy as before. “All right now you go!”

“GRGRH! Pinkie I’m trying to be serious here! Something is really wrong with, well everything! The rooms keep moving around, our friends aren’t acting like our friends, there are traps everywhere and there’s…… something watching us!”

Pinkie crosses her arms in a spoiled fashion “But I want to play!”

“Well I’m sorry Pinkie, but play time can wait until we are out of life threatening danger.”

“……Dashie would never pass up the chance to have fun……”

Twilight groans. “Well I am sorry but I’m not Dashie.”

A literal lightbulb appears over Pinkie’s Head as a very mischievous grin crosses her face. “Well you’re not Dashie now……” the pink mare creeps up on the lavender mare raising her hoof just as the lavender mare turns her back on her.

“I’m glad you see reason for once now do you think you can cut back on your silliness for half a minute and….” With expert precision and comic timing the pink mare pokes the lavender mare the instant Twilight turns her head, causing the lavender mare falling on her flank “…..Ow! Pinkie what the hay!”

Pinkie giggles as she walks up to the mare on the floor fluttering her eyelashes “So Dashie……how’s it hanging?” Pinkie asks in a curious tone of voice.

“What? Pinkie this is serious first you bop me on the head……” Twilight grabs her snout in surprise her eyes widening as she hears something very disconcerting “…… that’s not my voice.” A blue blob fills her vision as Twilight extends her hoof to swat it away only to realize that the blue blob is her hoof. “What the…….What’s going……”

Pinkie places her hoof over the now panicking Pegasus “Shhh, your voice is perfect Dashie. And just like your lips.”

“WHAT? Pinkie I don’t know what’s going on but I’m not……” Pinkie points to the other mare’s flank, causing her to turn around her vision coming face to face with a cutie mark of a single cloud pierced by a rainbow colored bolt of lightning. Twilight spreads her wings in shock as she realizes who she has been turned into “…..Rainbow Dash.”

Pinkie leans against the stunned Pegasus “So….. Are you doing anything later? Cause if you weren’t we might finally be able to get that chocolate smoothie you owed me.”

Twilight’s mind screams in terror as her body freezes up. The mare does not know what is worse, that she was transformed against her will by one of her best friends, or what her best friend intends to do with her ‘Dashie’. Neither thought is very comforting “Pinkie wait!”

Twilight waves her hooves to ward off the pink mare “I’m Twilight Sparkle! Your friend Twilight! I’m not really Dashie, I mean Dash! And I don’t want to play any games with you. At least not like this!”

“It looks like somepony is playing hard to ge-et!” Pinkie says in a sing song voice. “Well that’s okay, I know the real Dash has feelings for me so I know that you do to! This is just practice for the main event. So ‘Dashie’ what’s the best way to get ‘your’ attention, with the direct approach or a more subtle one?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” the Pegasus attempts to flee only to have her tail tugged by the strong jaws of the pink mare. The Pegasus tries to escape only to find herself pulled directly into the arms of the strong Pink Pony.

“Direct approach it is! That’s good because being subtle never got me anywhere!” The pink mare extends her muzzle closer to the captive romantic interest as the now blue mare struggles to free herself from Pinkie’s grasp.

“Pucker up Dashie!” The pink mare extends her lips, her eyes close as the Pegasus before her

However before the dreaded kiss can land, with speed and precision born from a truly desperate situation, Twilight manifests her stand FRIENDS and throws a strong right. The stand’s blow connects with the pink mare’s muzzle the impact not even denting her lips. Indeed all looks lost when all of a sudden the two mare’s minds connect for a single instant. Twilight’s false shape fades away; the two minds merge for a single second as thoughts from the two minds flow into each other. Yet the difference between the two minds and the suddenness of the connection causes the bond to shatter just as quickly as it is made, both mares falling to their rumps in psychic shock.

Twilight herself stares at her hooves with a newfound perception as her brain begins to readjust herself, her prefrontal cortex humming with life and power. Her mind now awake Twilight Sparkle, student to Princess Celestia realizes the simple, easy to understand reason why the world around her seems to make no sense, the reason that everything that she does seems to have no bearing on logic whatsoever. “Oh my gosh we’re dreaming.”

Pinkie Leaps off the floor with all the enthusiasm that a party pony can muster, throwing a cloud of streamers in the air with Ernest celebration “Well Duh! Of course we’re dreaming Twilight! See I knew we were dreaming all along, ever since breakfast cayuse Dash said she wanted to wait for you, and Dash never waits for anything! Plus I gave her a peck on the cheek and she didn’t freak out or anything so I knew that it was a dream.”

“Pinkie, you can lucid dream?” Twilight manifests her stand looking at its hooves “I get it. When I punched you we mind linked for a split second allowing your consciously awake mind to link to my mind still trapped in the throes of sleep. That and because I was able to recognize the fact that I was sleeping I was able to wake myself from my own dream, it makes perfect sense!”

“Yyyyeeeeaaaahhhh, let’s go with that. Whatever floats your boat Twilight.” Pinkie’s eyes bulge out of her head. “Wait TWILIGHT?! As in the real Twilight? You’re the real Twilight?”

“Um, Yes?”

“You’re not a fake dream Twilight?”

“Um, Yessssss?”

Pinkie Gulps heavily as the implications of what she just tried to do to her friend. “Oh my gosh Twilight I’m so sorry! I really thought that you were just a dream! I didn’t know that you were the real Twilight. I just thought that it wasn’t real and I was playing along and I’m so sorry if I made you uncomfortable and I understand if you don’t like me for what I did but PPPPLLLLLEEEEEAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE say you’ll still be friends with me! Cause it would be really awkward if we showed up and our friends asked why we weren’t friends anymore and I had to lie and say that Mmmpppphhhhhh!”

Twilight places her hoof on the pink mare not a moment too soon “That’s all right Pinkie I forgive you.”

Pinkie wipes an errant tear out of her eye “R-Really?

 “Really, really. I know how crazy dreams can get from this experience and you weren’t trying to be malicious or anything so of course I’m still your friend. In fact if it wasn’t for your……..” a cold shiver passes through Twilight’s frame. “…….Advances, I wouldn’t have finally figured out this was a dream.”

Twilight steals her voice in a solemn assurance. “I’m not upset at all Pinkie, I’m just surprised. I didn’t know that you and Dash were…… well frankly it’s none of my business but I wish you luck with asking her out on a proper date.” Twilight pulls the pink mare up to her muzzle her eyes burning with righteous fire as she picks the pink mare off the ground in a telekinetic grip. “On the condition that what just happened never leaves your lips. On pain of death.”

Pinkie either blind to Twilight’s threats or completely ignoring them salutes sharply. “Okey Dokie Lokie! My lips are sealed. That’s a Pinkie Promise.”

“I’m glad that we have an understanding.” Twilight promptly drops the pink mare “Now we can work on trying to get out of this dream.”

 “He he, silly Twilight there’s no reason to try and escape from a dream!” Pinkie grabs the librarian in a sideways hug “Dreaming is just your way of filtering through all those silly thoughts that go on through your head; there’s no reason to be afraid of dreaming. Dreaming is a natural healthy part of being a pony, even if it is a bit strange, I mean what if you were scared of going to the bathroom? That would be really weird. And if you ever are scared of a bad dream or start to have a nightmare that you think is too much for your little self , all you have to do is give yourself a little pinch and you wake up just like that. ”

Pinkie reaches over to her flank “See just watch just one little pinch and OW!” The party pony falls to her rump rubbing to sore area cautiously as a burst of real pain courses through her body.

 Pinkie rubs her head in genuine confusion. “Humph, that’s never happened before……. I’ve never felt pain in my dreams before. Maybe if I pinch again I’ll OW! Nope not that time, maybe if I pinch the other pinkie cheek than OW! Okay pinkie no need to panic, maybe if I..…”

Pinkie’s frantic pinching is stopped by the hoof of Twilight sparkle “I’m sorry Pinkie, but I don’t think that this is a normal dream.”

“But I don’t get it! I’ve never felt pain in a dream before.” Pinkie looks at Twilight with a look of concern on her face. “I mean this looks like a dream, it tastes like a dream and it even SMELLS like a dream. See watch I’ll imagine that I have a cone of ice cream and…….”

Pinkie extends her hoof the look on her face one of intense concentration, however after several seconds mare falls to her rump “I-I-I don’t get it! It worked before! I just had to dream up a super cool sleigh and now……. I can’t even make an ice cream cone appear? None of my Pinkie Pie dream powers are working! Twilight? Do you know what’s happening, I’m starting to not like this dream…….”

Twilight closes her eyes in deep thought, true everything Pinkie said is true. This is a dream, and she seemed to be able to make things change in the dream before. So why now? If this was a normal dream Pinkie should have been able to wake up by now. So why or rather what would be the point of depriving a pony of their ability to lucid dream and the ability to wake up?  With razor sharp speed Twilight comes to one irrefutable conclusion “it’s probably because this is a form of stand attack. The stand user is probably asserting more control over the dreamscape so that we can’t interfere with her plans.”

“Stand attack?” Pinkie asks “Oh so you had a dream about stands! Well then there’s nothing to worry about then!”

“No Pinkie, Not a dream about stands, a stand of dreams. It’s a stand that possesses the ability to control our dreams.” Twilight grabs the party pony with her fore hooves “think about it! None of our friends recognize that this is a dream and our minds are incapable of waking us up!”

Twilight waves her hoof pointing to the world around them as if accentuating their situation. “This is the perfect opportunity for an enemy to attack us! Our bodies are helpless in the real world, and our minds are trapped in a space that’s under the complete control of somepony else. You couldn’t think up a better trap than this.”

“But this is just a dream right?” Pinkie rolls her neck to the side inquisitively “I mean it’s not like if you die in your dreams you die for real. If we just get hurt we wake up right?”

Twilight leans her head against the wall to her left breathing out in a long steady exhale. “I wish I could say that was the case Pinkie… But from the way this stand power works we should assume that our opponent can inflict lasting harm on us here.”

Pinkie’s face pulls itself into a deeply serious expression as she pieces together Twilight’s argument, “But that means….. Oh No! Our friends are in danger! We’ve gotta find them and use the buddy system! Nothing bad can happen if we use the buddy system.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you Pinkie!” Twilight protests with no small amount of exhaustion. “Even if the opponent can’t hurt us physically in here, if we can never wake up from this dream we lose no matter what!”

Twilight grabs the Pink mare in her hooves “We are literally trapped in the dreamscape unable to return to our own bodies. And if physical pain can’t snap us out of our dreams then we’re doomed to be trapped in our own minds for an eternity while Celestia only knows what plays around with our physical forms!”

“But….. But I can’t sleep for an eternity! As cool as that sounds I have parties to plan, and real ice cream to eat! And I still have to go steady with Dashie!” Pinkie grabs the lavender mare with her fore hooves the pink mare’s puffy mane beginning to straighten out. “What’s the plan Twilight?! You’ve got to have a plan to get out of this right? You always have a plan!”

Twilight looks up at the desperate mare before her and with shaking lips begins to utter the five words that she most hates, the five words she tries to avoid saying no matter what “I-I-I Don’t have a plan!”

“What?”

“I’m sorry Pinkie but I can’t think up a way out of this. I simply don’t know how we can escape from this. Dream magic is rare and very difficult unless you specialize in it, and I don’t know enough about the enemy’s stand power and……..”  Twilight’s head slumps down in defeat. “Maybe if we were all together. If all our friends put our heads together, than we might be able to think of a way out of this. But as we are now…… I just don’t know Pinkie.”

“……… So if you could find our friends you might be able to get us out of here? You would be able to come up with a plan then?” Pinkie asks with genuine curiosity, her fear evaporating as her mane begins to turn back to its poufy self.

“Well yes. But Pinkie you don’t get it.” Twilight looks down the halls of the dream castle. “They could be anywhere and the fact is that the pony controlling this dreamscape can change where they are at any time by manipulating reality.”

“Oh I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” Pinkie says dismissively. “Cause I already know where everypony is!”

“Then we’d have to……. Wait What?” Twilight said “Pinkie you know where Rarity and the others are? Did you see them before you came here?”

“Nope I’m seeing them right now!” Cutting off what would undoubtedly be another to Twilight’s rants on science and probability Pinkie cuts in with a rant of her own. “You see there was this one time I went with my parents to the city of Baltimare for a rock farming convention. And let me tell you Baltimare is a really big place, so its’ super easy to get lost so me and my older sister Maud went and….”

“The short version Pinkie.” Twilight demands with a cold stare.

The pink party pony gives a sharp salute. “Okie Dokie Twilight! All you had to do was ask.” Pinkie clears her throat “Anyway remember when you were asking why there were all these little eyes on my stand and I told you it was part of my super-secret power. Well that day I got lost I found out that I could see out of those eyes even when I pulled them off my stand.”

The pink mare begins to pace back and forth as she illustrates her point by manifesting her stand. “so I thought to myself: Pinkamena Diana Pie, this is a great way to find out what’s going on around town at all times so if a pony is ever sad or needs a party you could rush on over and cheer her up. So I placed these stickers all over so that I could see what was going on all around town!”

Pinkie Beams with pride “I call it my Pinkie Sense Cause it lets me sense when a pony needs a Pinkie. It’s how I know where my friends are. Just in case they would get in trouble or get lost in the woods on the way here I placed one of my Pinkie Eyes on them, and that’s how I know where they are.”

“Sooooooo you can see what every pony is doing every second of the day at all times?” Twilight asks skeptically.

“Pfft No silly!” Pinkie waves her hoof “That would be an enormous breach of privacy laws to see EVERYTHING ponies do at all times. I mean watching miss and Mr. Cake’s special time would be really weird, even for me!”

Twilight cautiously backs up “uhhhhh that’s… good Pinkie.”

“I know it’s good! Cause thanks to it I was able to help a whole lot of ponies, avoid opening doors and falling objects and things like that.” Pinkie continues her rant getting more and more enthusiastic by the second. “If  one is really close to me like one on the other side of a door it takes no trouble at all but for one like a really really long ways away I have to sit on my Pinkie bum (he he bum) and concentrate to see anything out of it. That and it’s really cool to see what everypony else is dreaming right now.  I mean I know that this is a serious situation Twilight, but come on you’ve got to admit that dreaming is fun! Look there’s the sticker I put on you!”

Twilight spins around to see a sticker on her cutie mark of a colorful eye, blinking back at her. With no small amount of creepiness the mare pulls the mark off of her “How did I not see that?”

“Maybe you’re just horrible at finding things?” Twilight gives Pinkie a glare that could boil water. “What? Some ponies just aren’t’ good at finding things! It’s like…….You know that feeling when you lose your car keys and you waste all the time looking for them when they’re right in front of your eyes?”

“Car keys? What are…..”

“That’s kind of how it works!” Pinkie finishes “You don’t know it’s there because you don’t know where and what to look for!”

“…... Okay even if that was true, we’re in a dream Pinkie! It’s not like the tags you put on our friends would carry into a dream.” Twilight states scientifically. “Right now we’re just mental representations of who we are in the real world so physical mater can’t enter a dream. And even if they did we’re in the dreamscape where time and space are distorted, so it should be impossible to…..”

“Hey I found them!” Pinkie shouts with her eyes closed sitting on her rump. “And they’re all in one place! Isn’t that awesome? We can pick up all our friends at the same time!”

“……..You know what, I don’t even know why I try and be logical anymore.” Twilight looks over to the Pink mare “All right fine, let’s roll with this, Pinkie can you guide me to the others? We need to meet up with them before something else happens.”

CRASH!

Suddenly as if awaiting a cue the two sturdy stone walls fall, surrounding the two mares boxing them in the hallway from both sides. Before Pinkie can even say that can’t be good the two walls start closing in on each other the two walls of their prison threatening to crush the mares flat.

 “WHY?! Why did I have to say that!? WHY?” Twilight cries out as she summons her shield to block the two walls from advancing. Despite the unicorn’s best efforts the shield begins to crack as the walls advance mercilessly.

“URGH! All right change of plans!” Twilight cries out as her horn strains to press against the walls. “I’ll try and teleport us to our friends. Pinkie where is everypony? Give me their exact coordinates and I’ll jump us there.”

Pinkie taps her chin as she begins to do the proper calculations in her head. “Let’s see. They’re forty Pinkie Pie bounces that way.” Pinkie points with her hoof at a slight angle downward. “And about three Pinkie Pie bounces to the left.”

“What?!” The desperate purple mare cries out “Pinkie your bounces aren’t a unit of measurement!”

“…….Are you sure?”

The shield keeping the walls from collapsing inward begins to crack as Twilight strains against the weight. “I need a real unit of measurement! Start by telling me the distance in yards to an area where there is a mass of empty space.”

“Um, Okay Twilight.” Pinkie salutes while still sitting on her rump. “Just one teeny tiny question, how long is a yard?”

CRINCK!

The shield begins to shatter around the two mares as Twilight begins to sweat from the exertion, at this rate they’ll be crushed before she can get anywhere with Pinkie Pie. This leaves a drastic and faster way of communication. “Pinkie listen to me, think calming thoughts.” Twilight manifests her stand while straining against the weight of the crushing walls. “I’m going to use my stand to mind link with you then I’ll know exactly where everypony is.”

“Okay?” Pinkie looks at the stand before her “But Twilight! Won’t that just give you a headache? I mean last time we tied that……”

“Last time neither one of us was about to be crushed to death!” Twilight yells over the din of the walls “You just have to calm your mind and think only about the coordinates for a second, and then I’ll teleport us out of here. Just focus like you do when you use your Pinkie Sense and it’ll be fine.”

Pinkie looks between the Lavender mare, the walls, and Twilight’s stand FRIENDS as she closes her eyes in a moment of silence. Suddenly the pink mare opens her eyes her vision focused and resolute and with a flick of her wrist manifests her stand touching Twilight’s stand briefly. Both mares’ eyes light up as their minds exchange crucial information their stands beginning to mesh into each other as the light from their eyes fills the shrinking room. Yet in by focusing on the mind link Twilight’s shield begins to falter and finally collapses, the walls of the crashing together with a thunderous noise as a flash of light rips through the room.

…………………..

Forty Pinkie bounces away two mares come out of a teleport neither of them worse for the wear as the mind link ends. Twilight looks around her at the familiar forms of her remaining four friends as she wipes the sweat from her brow. “Whew. Not a second too soon. Thanks Pinkie I really owe you this time.”

“It’s no problem Twilight!” Pinkie rises to her hooves, offering her hoof to help the lavender librarian up “After all what are friends for?”

Twilight smiles back as she grabs Pinkie’s hoof pulling herself back up to her hooves. “Thanks Pinkie. Now let’s hurry we have to snap our friends out of their day-dreams before this dream weaver decides to throw us into another crusher.”

Now out of danger the two mares give each other a curt nod as the two rush off down the hallways around them, their eyes peeled for any sign of their friends. The search does not take long however, as three pinkie bounces away Twilight finds the four ponies each trapped in a illusion of their own design. Fluttershy once small and timid now stands at a height that rivals Celestia, her body rippling with barely contained muscles. Covered hoof to head in steel plate armor and a sword that is so large it would be a weapons crime to even possess the barbarian Fluttershy stands talking amiably with her other friends at a Victorian style tea table. Dolled up in a baby bonnet and Bib sits a young filly around Applebloom’s age her golden blond mane tied up in ribbons and her orange coat groomed to perfection as she sits at the tea table like a good little filly. Ignorant to her sudden reversal of age Applejack sits talking with a Victorian dressed Rarity each one of them wearing a jeweled broach of their cutie mark and sitting around sipping tea like proper ladies. And Rainbow Dash…. Rainbow dash is sitting at the table with a large pair of thick rimmed glasses and an oversized ‘Indiana Colt and the temple of Floom’ shirt that practically screams ‘nerd’ with its sheer ridiculousness. To her side sitting in a chair is a life sized plushie of Pinkie Pie with the word ‘Waifu’ Tattooed on its head, its large googly eyes always focused on Dash herself.

These four friends completely oblivious to their own state sit at the table with a content and happy look on their faces unaware of the immense danger they are in. Mustering her most authoritative voice the librarian lets out a loud cry that could not possibly be ignored hoping that it will snap the four mares out of their illusion.

“Rarity! Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! Applejack!” Twilight yells, the sound causing the four mares to turn their heads to face the panicking purple mare “Listen to me! This is a dream, and you have to wake up now! You are all in incredible danger.”

All four mares look at each other and for a moment it looks as if they believe their friend. However not ten seconds later the four break out into loud mocking laughter that causes all hope that Twilight was taken seriously to fade instantly.

The first to recover is Applejack taking off her baby bonnet on her head to wipe her teary eyes with. “Whohoe…….. Seriously Twi? A dream? That’s yer excuse ta make us take a break? A dream?” Applejack places her Stetson back on her head “Ah’m the element of honesty fer a reason ah think ah’d notice if in ah was dreamin.”

“Element of what?” Twilight blinks incredulously “No Applejack, listen to me I’m being completely serious.” Twilight pleads as she attempts to reach her friends using well founded logic. “You are all dreaming. We’re trapped in a dream where somepony else is in complete control! you have to snap out of it now before we’re attacked again.”

“Yeah Twilight is right!” Pinkie states reaching behind the lavender mare’s ear “After all if this wasn’t a dream, how could I do this?” With a single yank Pinkie pulls a long tied bandana rope out of the lavender mare’s ear, the librarian straining her neck against the sudden force of having a long rope yanked out of her ear.

Yard after yard of rope streams out of the lavender unicorn’s ear as she winces in pain against the force of Pinkie yanking on her head. Finally the end of the rope along with a half-ton anchor falls out of the purple unicorn’s ear with a loud thud and seizing the moment Pinkie bows to the audience. “TaDa! Look, see! I pulled an anchor out of Twilight’s ear, now you’ve got to admit there’s no way that this couldn’t’ be a dream!”

Releasing her sudden double negative Pinkie taps her chin. “Or is it there’s’ no way you could believe this is a dream? Or maybe there’s absolutely a way in which you could believe this wasn’t a dream once upon a time? Or maybe…”

 “………Um, Pinkie” Dash raises her hoof “You do the impossible all the time, that’s just you being you! I mean pulling an anchor out of Twilight’s ear definitely isn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen you do, even though it was pretty cool.”

Pinkie rubs the back of her neck “Awwwww! Thanks Dashie! You’ve gota admit, The Great and Powerful Trixie’s got nothing on the Great and Funny Pinkie Pie!

“What? Were you guys even watching?” Twilight groans in agony as she breaks the cricks out of her neck. “Pinkie just pulled an entire anchor out of my eardrum! Do you think that’s all right?”

“Well of course it’s all right, Twilight. Pinkie is our friend!” Rarity scoffs at Twilight’s notion as she takes another sip of her tea “She can pull as many anchors out of a pony’s ear as she desires!”

“Fluttershy the brave agrees!” A large hulking monstrosity covered in plated armor booms “Pinkie Pie is Fluttershy the brave’s friend, And Fluttershy the Brave is Pinkie Pie’s friend.”

“That’s right!” Applejack says as she takes another sip of her tea “Pinkie’s our friend yawls shouldn’t discriminate about what’s possible an all that if in it makes Pinkie sad. That’s as cruel as a cactus stew!” Applejack takes another deep sip of her tea as twilight gapes at her friend’s disregard of all logic “Great tea by the way Rarity!”

Rarity blushes from embarrassment as she pours Applejack another cup “it’s quite alright Applejack, I’m just glad that we’re together. More tea Fluttershy the brave?”

“Fluttershy the Brave would LOVE another cup!” The bulky monstrosity booms.

Dash fake gags at the girly display before her as she squeezes a life sized plush of Pinkie Pie “You guys can keep your fancy tea parties. Me and Pinkie are having a blast without your frou-frou tea parties!”

Twilight groans at her failure as she rubs her head, her headache worsening as she watches the embarrassing display before her. “Are dreams always like this?”

“Well my dreams always involve a lot of kissing and chocolate…….” Pinkie says as she looks at the display before her “So yes Twilight dreams are really crazy. After all I bet that you had some pretty weird dreams before.”

Twilight blushes fiercely as she remembers one especially embarrassing dream she had. She couldn’t’ look her teacher Celestia in the face for a week after that. “Never mind that. So what do we do now? Pinkie, you’re the expert on dreams do you have any ideas?”

“Well….. not really.” Pinkie shrugs as she looks at the ponies before her “Normally the old illogical stuff works, actually I wouldn’t know if it works or not cause I’ve never had a multiplayer dream before. That is I don’t know if I had a multi-player dream before cause all my dream versions of you guys were AI’s. Or your dream versions were of you but I couldn’t tell because you can’t remember your own dreams so even if we had the same dream you wouldn’t remember it. Which now that I think about it is pretty good because most of my dreams are about kissing and chocolate…..” Pinkie takes a deep breath “So what do we do now Twilight?”

Twilight looks over to her friends as she gags from the sickening display before her. Logic didn’t work, illogic didn’t work either and she was officially out of ideas. The worst part of the situation was her friends were completely oblivious to the encroaching threat, either they didn’t believe Twilight or they just didn’t care. They were trapped in a prison of their own crafting, so as long as they were enjoying their ‘torment’ then they would never want to wake up and they would never snap out their delusional fantasies. If only there was some way she could shock them out of their delusions somehow then……

Twilight stops her sudden disappointment morphing into twisted glee as she dons a diabolical smile of a pony that has just stolen Christmas from an orphanage. Rubbing her hooves together like a cliché supervillain the mare manifests her stand as she chuckles malevolently.

“Uh Twilight?” Pinkie waves her hoof in front of Twilight’s face the unicorn smiles malevolently at the sheer evil coursing through her brain. “Are you okay you sort of look….. Evil. Do you have a plan now? What do we do?”

“Now.” Twilight gets off her hooves as she trots over to the table where her friends are sitting, her stand’s hooves primed to punch. “Now I think that it's’ time for a little shock therapy.”

 Twilight cracks her stands’ hooves as she comes to a stop before the four mares looking straight at the white garbed Fashionista. “Hey Rarity, the joke’s on you! Me and applejack have been going steady for a week now, guess you shouldn’t have waited so long!”

Rarity’s mane explodes into flames as her dress around her disintegrates into dust “WHAT!! WHY YOU UNFORGIVABLE HUSSY!!! I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT….”

ORA!

In an instant the ivory Fashionista is flat on her back, the blow of Twilights’ stand sending her senses reeling as Twilight turns to Applejack without missing a beat.

“Applejack.” Twilight says in her most serious tone of voice as she places a reassuring hoof on the young filly’s shoulder. “Bad news, a blight has struck Sweet Apple aches! Your entire crop of Apples is gone! But don’t worry the blight can’t affect oranges so you can grow those from now on!”

Applejack’s calm demeanor is suddenly displaced by a face of pure hatred and rage as her sudden size growth causes her bib and bonnet to rip in half. “AH’D RATHER STARVE TA DEATH AND ALL PONYVILLE WITH ME THEN GROW THOSE PUTRID PEELED….”

ORA!

Twilight turns to Fluttershy the brave “Fluttershy can hardly fly!”

“W-W-W-WHAT!!” The titan figure shrinks down as the yellow mare’s self-esteem collapses around her. “T-T-That’s not very nic…”

ORA!

And with that the giant titan known as Fluttershy the Brave is slain. The gigantuous figure reverting back to old Fluttershy as the purple unicorn narrows her gaze on her last foe.

“And Rainbow Dash…” Twilight smiles evilly at the blue pegasus mare. “In the upcoming Indiana colt movie not only is Indiana colt going to be played by Row-Boat Paddleton but at the end of the movie you find out that Indiana colt died in the previous movie and is only possessing his son as a ghost!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” The blue pegasus screams to heavens as she rips off her Indiana Colt autographed t-shirt “Why has Hollyhoof betrayed us!?!”

ORA! ORA! ORAAAAA!

 And with that the four mares collapse to the ground as their delusions are blown to pieces by the purple mare’s stand. For a few seconds all the four mares are capable of doing is groaning in shock and nursing their shattered dreams and hopes.

Rarity is the first to recover rubbing her horn tensely as she rises shakily to her hooves. “Urgh, what happened?” Rarity groans “I can’t remember anything. I was having a tea party with Applejack and…..”

“Yawl were what now?” Applejack asks pulling herself off the floor dusting off her Stetson.

“Applejack!” the ivory mare instantly recovers “I was just urm, I mean it was…… Twilight now be a dear and tell us what’s going on!”

“What happened is that I snapped you out of your dreams.” Twilight says as she helps her fatigued friends up “When I hit Pinkie pie, the mind link allowed me to realize that I was dreaming. I hoped that a quick mind link with each of you would do the same.”

The purple unicorn snickers. “That and I hypothesized that intense discomfort of mental shock like what I experienced with Pinkie….” The pink mare waves from behind Twilight as the librarian shudders “…..could allow a pony a chance to ‘reject’ their dream creating not only an opportunity to mind link but creating a strong desire to ‘wake up’.”

Dash rubs her head as she look between the plushy she is holding and the real Pinkie Pie. “So we ARE dreaming? None of this is real?” The rainbow mare says as she quickly throws the life sized pinkie plushie away in a fit of embarrassment.

The yellow Pegasus falls to her hooves “But……. But I liked being Fluttershy the brave!”

The prone Pegasus quickly finds herself wrapped in a genuinely caring hug “And you still are darling.” Rarity hugs the pegasus tighter “You are just as brave as you always are Fluttershy, you….. you just come in a travel sized package.”

“You…. You mean that Rarity?”

“Well of course I do darling!” Rarity claims “After all one should never underestimate the power of a travel sized accessory!”

Both mares laugh at the fashionista’s joke each one forgetting the turmoil that they have been through. Suddenly Rarity’s eyes are pried from her friend before her as she looks back at the lavender mare who has just finished her conversation with Pinkie. “Fluttershy it has been marvelous dear. But if you excuse me I have to talk to Twilight.”

“… So.” Rarity Trots up to Twilight within whispering range as she looks back at Applejack “You and Applejack are…..”

“Hunh?” Twilight asks

“I’ll admit that I did not see it coming, you and her….” Rarity says as she paws her hoof to the ground “I have lived my life to insure Applejack is happy, I just thought that……. It doesn’t matter as long as she is happy then….”

“Rarity what are you talking about?” Suddenly Twilight’s own words from before come to the forefront of her mind “OH! Don’t worry Rarity that was just to help you snap out of your dream. None of that was true.” Twilight says reassuringly “Besides I already know your little secret!”

“Oh thank you Twilight! Thank….” Rarity stops her body breaking out in a cold sweat at the mention of the word ‘secret’. Rarity gulps heavily trying with all her might to suppress her welling up fear. “Wait what are you talking about Twilight dear?”

At this Twilight gives a coy smile “Oh don’t try and play dumb Rarity I know that…..”

“…… So…….” Applejack nudges the ivory mare from the side interrupting Twilight’s train of thought. “What’s this bout forcing me ta attend one of yer frilly tea parties hunh?”

The ivory fashionista goes as red as a tomato her vocal chords short circuiting from the tension. “Well, that is I really wanted to ask you over for tea and……. Well would you look at the weather here! Rainbow Dash did you work on the weather today?”

“……Rarity, we’re dreaming.” Dash says

“Well that’s what I mean did you manipulate the weather in the dream it looks wonderful!” Rarity chuckles nervously as she tries to divert the conversation away from her past dreams as possible. “Don’t you agree Applejack?”

Rarity epps as the orange mare places her hoof over her shoulder “aw come on there Rarity. Ya think that ah’m that slow? Now tell me all bout this little get together we had, maybe yawl can fill in some blanks fer me.”

“Applejack! There’s no reason to pick on Rarity like that.” Twilight says “it was just a tea party.”

“Yes Twilight’s’ right!” Rarity says clutching the rope that she has been thrown “I mean it was just a tea party, there’s absolute no ulterior motives to it at all!”

“Besides you shouldn’t’ read so much into it.” Twilight resumes as she cites a passage from ‘Dreaming and You’. “The dreamscape is subtly influenced by the subconscious the most random and unpredictable part of the psyche. And given the multitude of meanings and interpretations anything can mean anything else. Rarity probably wishes that you had more culture is all.”

“……yes….. “ the crest fallen Fashionista recites with a downtrodden expression  “…. Just a coincidence…”

Applejack grows red with fury as she realizes something that slipped her mind before. “Now hold on! Ya think that ah need more culture? Is that it?”

Rarity recoils from her friend’s accusations “No Applejack I like you just the way…..”

“Not you Rarity!” Applejack points her hoof to Twilight “You!”

“Me?”

“Yes you!” Twilight flinches from the accusation “So ya think that ah need some fancy lessons hunh?”

“What? No Applejack I think that you’re perfect just the way you are! I just thought that Rarity might think that you needed some lessons in etiquette.”

“I think no such thing!” Rarity Scoffs

“Rarity’s’ right she would never think a prissy thought like that.” Applejack snorts “But apparently some pony would.”

“Now hold on a second Applejack, I didn’t mean it like that I just think that some areas……. your use of southernisms perhaps, and your accent could use a little work. Some pony back me up on this!’

“Methinks that the farmer could use some assistance with her accent.”

“Ah do not have an accent Rarity! It’s a perfectly normal way o talkin.”

“Um Applejack I might agree a little with the mysterious voice’s sentiment, but that wasn’t me.”

“Oh really Rares? Cause I don’t see anypony else here with a fancy way of talkin like yours.”

Rarity’s eyes widen as her coat grows more pale than normal. “W-w-well then D-darling I think that you had better look behind you.”

Applejack sighs and turns her head behind her to humor her friend, yet the sight behind her stops the orange mare cold.

Applejack had only seen Celestia, the goddess of the Sun and ruler of Equestria once in her life, at the summer sun celebration in canterlot. It had been one of the last things that she had done with her parents, and the memory of the benevolent and beautiful goddess had only made it more memorable. To this day the mare could not forget the feeling of standing in her presence, no longer wondering why ponies revered her so much. ‘Forget moving the sun and the moon’, thought the orange farm filly. To be adored by all ponies regardless their of age, sex, or background, that was what made er a true goddess.

Which is why it took so much out of the orange farmer to admit that the figure floating before them on the currents of the dreamscape was genuine goddess in every meaning of the word. Her mane an ethereal and flowing dark blue cloud filled with drops of starlight. Her coat majestic Dark cobalt, that seemed to glisten in the right light. Her horn and wings both long and pointed each feather in its proper place, groomed to such perfection and detail one might think it was impossible. Her dark obsidian crown and regalia masterpieces of metalworking that fit snugly on her hooves signifying her will and divine right to rule over others. The ghostly figure behind her only accentuated the fact that this pony was divine, the stand’s bright white eyes looking down on the ponies, as if it were sent from above. The stand’s scaled armor reflecting all the colors of the sky, its silver braided mane, its armored hooves and its terrifying gaze. Being a mare of honesty Applejack hated half-truths, however the foalish side of the mare wanted more than anything to deny something she had just discovered about the mare before her.

She was truly a goddess.

And she was truly terrifying.

And she was looking right at them her eyes glowing white and her horn crackling with eldritch energies as a whirlwind of magical power circles around her.

Under such a presence an ordinary mare might flee in terror and indeed a part of Applejack wanted to do just that. However the unicorn in front of her, the lavender mare who had lead them there had her gaze and attention completely enraptured on the figure standing undaunted in the presence of a goddess.

Twilight Sparkle saw the majesty of the goddess before her, but she wasn’t cowed into submission or fearful of the fact that this creature could probably erase her from existence. To tell the truth she was actually peeved that she took so long to show up. “I think we’ve had enough of the light show, Nightmare Moon!” Twilight yells above the din “Your power does not scare me; you forget I have stood in the presence of a Goddess before, and I am not so easily frightened. I also know that if you wanted to we would be dead already so why don’t you come down and we can talk this out like civil ponies.”

A flash of anger fills the goddess’ eyes for a split second as she glares at the mare lavender mare before her. “If I were you Sparkle, I would know better than to use that name around me.” With grace and poise the goddess touches the ground her horse shoes clinking against the cold stone. Her eyes returning to their normal turquoise hue as the wind and storm die down around her. “That name is a blasphemy against everything that I am and wish to be. My title is Princess Nocturnes De Luna, empress of the night and warden of the dark. However if you must address me you may call me Luna.”

Twilight breathes a long exhale of relief, ‘well at least that went well, now for the hard part.’

“All right, you have our attention and we have ours.” Twilight shouts “So what do you want?”

“What I want is simple Twilight. I wish to know what my sister’s intentions are with the corpse.” The lunar monarch gestures around them with her hoof, the stone around her rippling at her slightest movement. “It is why I trapped you here in your dreams, to test you and determine your intentions

Twilight taps her chin “So…. Now that you see that we aren’t her to harm you, or that we aren’t her on Celestia’s behalf. You’re going to let us go right?”

“No, Twilight.” The lavender unicorn sags while Luna continues. “You may have said that you have no clue as to my sister’s intents and perhaps that is true in part.” The princess of the night nods affirmatively “But I cannot let you leave, if there is a chance that you will reveal my locations or if you know anything about my sister’s prize.”

“What? But-But, I told you the truth! I told you when you were posing as one of my friends when you first sent me to the dream realm. I couldn’t have faked that.”

The goddess flinches from the accusations of the lavender mare, but only for half a second “I commend you for seeing through my dream images as well as my subconscious suggestions; however that does not mean you are not on her side. Nor that you have not given our current location to her.”

The princess paces back and forth as the mentally works out her options and decision. “My wards and flaming braziers should have shielded this place from scrying so I had worried that you had somehow bypassed my barriers and revealed my location to my sister. Yet somehow you simply walked through them without setting a single one off, how?”

The princess ceases her pacing her eyes locked on the librarian with a paranoid gaze “Perhaps it is the ‘will’ of ‘that’? No but why would it ‘align’ with a mere fowl? Even in its unfinished form it should not be capable of this much.”

“I am not a fowl!” Twilight barks her tone growing softer as she tries to relate to the isolated princess. “And I am no fool either, and despite the fact that you are holed up in a castle in the middle of nowhere, I don’t think you are either- Princess Luna.”

The princess ceases her rapid pacing, her head craning slightly to the side as if considering things from a new perspective. “That name, I have not been called by that name in a long time. Part of me had expected to never hear it uttered again.”

The princess looks back at the entire group this time, not just the lavender mare. Her eyes grow less harsh has she looks over her subjects, her ponies who have traveled so much distance in search of the truth. Yet again though her suspicions take hold as she steels her resolve. “However it is not Paranoia to suspect an attack that has already been launched.” Princess Luna of the Night takes a strong step forward. “Nor is it foolishness to plan for the inevitable. My sister will never part with it and I have already lost too much to my sister’s arrogance to lose any more. The force that she attempts to wield is too beyond the keen of moral minds to use. Too many lives have suffered for it; therefore the Holy Corpse must be destroyed.”

In the wake of so much that she can’t understand Twilight can only launch flimsy arguments against the walls of Princess Luna’s paranoia. “Princess! You’re not making any sense!” Twilight pleads “You know that Princess Celestia hasn’t sent us! We don’t mean you any harm just let us out of this dream and we can talk this over!”

The princess of the night however stands unflinching. “It is true that while the subconscious has control over one’s dreams that one is more truthful, however you are a smart mare, therefore it is likely that you have a form of subconscious protection. Protection that would allow you to lie even in a situation in which you were not in control of your subconscious, like in a dream.”

Twilight flinches from the accusation, knowing it was accurate to a point. Her mind did have many forms of subconscious protection. It was standard issue for the high members of the military and government to have such mental protection that could protect them from giving away sensitive information against their will. Twilight being the Princess’ student was no exception and she had learned several methods to protect her mind against unwanted intrusions that could jeopardize Celestia’s safety. In fact Twilight had suspected it was due to these methods of protecting her thoughts that she was even able to suspect that something was wrong even while she was trapped in Luna’s Dreamscape.

It was ironic, the mental protection was taught to her to protect Celestia’s best interests, but because of that very mental protection she couldn’t get her mentor’s own sister to trust her. From the looks of things Luna was still very suspicious of her sister to say the least. Luna suspected her own sister of conspiring against her and though she was no longer held captive her own dark magics she was still a prisoner to her own fears. Luna truly believed her sister was hunting her down to destroy her, but Celestia, the face that she made when Twilight had asked her mentor about her sister…… that could never be faked. Right now her mentor only wanted her sister back, and all Twilight wanted was to get the bottom of the secret of the stones. And both of those things would never happen if she didn’t get Luna to trust her.

Swallowing her fear the lavender mare tries for one more desperate plea “But Princess Luna..….”

“Therefore this is my decision!” Princess Luna, Goddess of the night raises her wings as she brings her hoof down with the force of a judge’s gavel. “You all will stay here in the realm of dreams until I have deemed your captivity unnecessary or I have determined what you say is true.”

Every pony in the room immediately protests, a cacophony of voices protesting, however like always it is Applejack who beats the other ponies to the punch. “What in Tarnation!” Applejack yelps as she readies her fore hooves for a fight “Yawl can’t just……”

“Silence orange farmer mare!” the princess’s voice booms with the force of a thunderclap as the entire group backs off, all intentions of fighting for the moment blown out of their minds by the force a Goddess’ voice. “A Princess is to never be interrupted, and I shall not be denied my right to speak. Now as I was saying, after I have determined your innocence or your guilt, you will be released to the town of Ponyville no worse for your troubles. Then I will attempt move the heart to a more secure location where my sister cannot uncover it.”

“Don’t talk to Applejack like that! No pony talks to my friends like that.” Fluttershy steps up her eyes burning as she remains just on the verge of using the stare. “So you think that you can just imprison any pony you want just because you’re a princess? That you can trap any pony that you want forever? I mean I know you’re evil and all but to trap a pony in their dreams….. That’s really evil you should be ashamed of yourself!”

Fluttershy shakes in barely controlled anger at the injustice of the situation as she advances on Luna. “You have no right to keep us here! Now you be a good Pony and let us out missy, or I-I-I’ll do something that I’ll regret!”

 Thousands of years ago there were three things that the princess of the night hated: being questioned, being ignored, and eating bananas (or rather anything to do with bananas). And yet this mare had the gall to do two of those three things right in front of her, and in her own plane of existence no less. The princess’s feathers rustle as she looks the cheeky yellow mare before her.  “And I think you have made your point, ‘Fluttershy the brave’. But you would do well not to anger me, lest you forget that it is I who has domain over this realm, and all those who pass through it.”

“Oh and you think that I’m NOT angry? Or is it that you don’t care about anypony else’s feelings? Well you know what I think? I’ll tell you what I think!” The Pegasus says as she takes a step forward her eyes filled with righteous fury.

“Well I think….” The yellow mare’s coat ripples and bulges and pounds of muscles rush in as if from thin air to fill her supple frame.

“That you’re just a…….” The Alicorn takes a step back as the Pegasus begins to tower to her height.

“A big MEANIE!” the butter yellow Pegasus roars with the force an oncoming typhoon, as Fluttershy the Pegasus is replaced by the monolith known as Fluttershy the Brave.

With a dramatic roar the hulk leaps on the Goddess with primal fury, her muscles bulging in anticipation of tearing the mare in front of her apart with her bare hooves, her mouthwatering as the mare savors her bloodlust on her tongue. Yet In the face of such savagery the goddess merely smirks and waves her hooves causing Fluttershy the brave to instantly revert back to her normal form. The mare lands with a cute thump directly in front of the goddess who can’t help but smirk at the sudden change of fortunes.

“You were saying?” the lunar princess chuckles as the now depowered Pegasus hugs the ground in front of the goddesses’ hooves trying to seem as small as possible.  “Do not forget that you are in my realm Pegasus, I control all in this domain. Do you really think that you would be able to defeat me here?”

“Fluttershy isn’t the only one fighting Black snooty!” Luna turns her head just in time to see a rainbow missile headed straight towards her its’ hooves covered in a glimmering gauntlets of prismatic color. With a powerful twist of her body the rainbow mare torques her back legs at the Dream princess, her back hooves glistening with power as she turns a charging straight into a roundhouse kick.

However as fast as Rainbow Dash is, Luna is faster, her stand manifesting its’ scaled armored hide in defense of its owner. The two stands clash the prismatic blast of color sweeps across the room blowing away the castle around them in favor of a colorful expanse of the dreamscape. The light from the blast fades away as larger and larger cracks appear in the stonework of the castle around them, cracks that spread into the remaining pieces of the stone work surrounding the mares. Dash’s smile as a successful blow hits quickly fades away as the princess of the night raises her guard to look the Pegasus in the eyes.

“You are quite impressive Dashie. You were actually able to force me to block your blow.” Luna pushes the Pegasus away with a sweeping blow from her stand “And were we not in the realm of dreams that blow might have stood a chance at felling me. But as I said before this is my realm, no blade or blow can harm me here.”

“Well maybe I just have to try harder!” Rushing the Lunar Goddess from a ninety degree angle the Prismatic bolt closes distance from the side in preparation for a Rainboom powered punch.

Luna responds dramatically and with minimal effort she ducks under the punch delivering a powerful uppercut into the gut of the rainbow mare via her stand. As the rainbow mare lands with a thud at Applejack’s hooves, the prismatic speedster raises her hoof shakily groaning from the pain. “Ugh, alright Applejack, Tag in.”

Clapping the hoof of her cerulean compatriot, the Orange mare tilts her hat downwards as she narrows her gaze on the goddess before her. “Give me a Break, why’d ah have ta wake up this morning ta fight a goddess?”

“Um…. technically we’re still asleep Applejack.”

“Whatever Fluttershy!” Applejack spits a loogie off to her side as she cracks her hooves “Well Princess Luna as much as I was taught ta respect mah elders ah’m gonna have ta disagree with yawl’s little proposition. See ah got a little sis waitin on me so ah’m not very keen on stayin locked up here. An sides Yawl made one big mistake…..”

With lightning precision the Orange mare throws her hoof forward in a razor sharp jab, the lunar princess barely blocking with her own arm as the blow connects soundly. Applejack grins at her successful attack as she gazes down her stand’s arm, “Yawl just pissed me off. And fer that, yer getting a paddlin.”

Striking while the iron is hot Twilight prepares to give her friends battle commands “All right, you asked for this Princess! Everypony else attack as one! Keep Luna busy. Applejack we’re linking now you’ll understand the plan as soon as the link is complete.”

As if moving together as one, the ponies all react. Rarity throwing sharpened spines from her stand right at the Goddess, Pinkie firing round after round of projectile from her cannon, and Fluttershy…… who cheers silently from the background. Mildly amused the Lunar princess manifests her stand, and with godly precision catches every single projectile from sharpened silver knives to rubber chickens throwing them off to her side with supernatural speed. Not willing to let her attack be in vain Rarity lashes out with her whip of Quicksilver, only for the Goddess to dodge every attack by a margin, Punching the ivory mare in the gut. With a gasp the ivory mare falls to the ground at the hooves of the goddess, and unwilling to see her friend be crushed Fluttershy finally leaps into action with her Stare. Fluttershy locks eyes with the goddess signaling a successful use of her power. Yet One thousand years of mental discipline and training have refined the princess’ willpower to a fine point, allowing her to turn the tables on Fluttershy. The princess’s horn glows as she reverses Fluttershy’s own Stare at her, the yellow mare’s own stare freezing the her in her tracks. Seeing her friends in trouble Pinkie reacts reflexively, grabbing the prone Rarity and the mentally stunned Fluttershy and dragging them out of the range of the Goddess’s counter attack.

Princess Luna unimpressed by their best display of strength prepares to berate them on their tactics, when a sudden force presses on her from above causing even her godly form to shake from the weight. The Goddess tries to lift a hoof, to take to the air however the force only increases the ground beneath the Goddess Cracks from the strain as Princess Luna is pushed further and further into the ground. Assessing her situation Princess Luna looks over to the mare Twilight and her Friend Applejack watching as the two mare’s eyes glow in unison, the Orange mare’s stand taking on a new appearance and a new power that even now seems to be pushing her into a corner. Years of tactical experience flows through Luna’s brain as she instantly works on not only a way out of the force that is currently crushing her to death, but the reason for the orange mare’s sudden power increase.

“Give it up Luna.” Twilight says as the stand Foundation presses the gravity down on Luna harder.

“Yawl don’t’ stand a chance, now let us out o this crazy dream.” Applejack gestures threateningly at the prone mare.

Luna muses for a second as she watches the two mares move so well together, their focused bodies seeming to move as one. Suddenly in a flash of inspiration rare magic technique comes to the forefront of Princess Luna’s mind. “A mind link that boosts one’s power. That is an interesting ability no doubt.”

The lunar mare grunts heavily her horn glowing with a dark blue light as a spell charges and spreads across her from. As quickly as it descends the magic dissipates and she spreads her wings as a shockwave of force blows over the ponies like a gust of wind “But twenty earths of gravity is nothing here. Gravity has no power over one who has walked the heavens or have you not had a dream about flight? Adjusting one’s gravity in a dream is fowl’s play.”

Twilight and Applejack smirk collectively. “Well Princess have you ever had a dream…..”

Applejack points her hoof above the goddess “….where somthin was falin on yawl?”

Curious the princess of the night looks up to see a large storm of shattered stone and debris falling straight at her head the force of their fall augmented by the intense gravity of Foundation. Together both mares muster their strength increasing the force of the gravity even further sending the storm of masonry spreading towards their foe even faster. Both mares smile at their combined scheme, thousands of tons of Dreamscape rubble flinging towards the Princess faster than she can disperse it, and should the Princess Dodge to the side they can rush in from behind and finish her. Both mares coil their hooves preparing to jump in and attack at the slightest hint weakness, waiting for the Princess to dodge.

However the Lunar monarch does not run, she does not flee to the left or the right; she does not try to run and dodge from such an obstacle. Rather she smiles in the face of a decent challenge manifesting her stand the Princess primes her hooves and leaps off the ground plowing right into the center of the hail of rocks.

NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI! NOCTI!

Swinging her hooves like a frenzied fighter the princess punches the ruble to pieces the rainbow colors of the dreamscapes’ sky rippling from the force of her every blow. Boulder after boulder is sent flying at the goddess, and blow after blow shatters the rack until it is naught but gravel. The blows continue until not a stone remains the goddess of the night lowering her wings as she lands with a loud thud on the ground. Every mare in the room looks on the sight of the Goddess before them, Twilight and Applejack’s connection dispelling from the shock of what they have just seen.

“Huzzah! What a warm up! Our hooves have not had practice like this for millennium.” The princess lands on with a thud on the ground the shattered stones crushed into dust from the mere landing of the entity of the night. “Please kind ponies, If thou are so steadfast in attacking me I suggest ‘upping your game’. Otherwise I shall not even sweat a break!” The Princess of the night laughs uproariously in cheerful glee, however to the other ponies might as well be their dirge of defeat.

“What-What do we do Twilight?” Fluttershy quakes in her hooves as she looks at the invincible goddess before her. “How do we fight? How? This- This is a world with no rules.”

Applejack takes a step back “As much as ah hate ta admit it Fluttershy may be right.” Applejack gulps “This is a world with no rules of any kind! Common sense doesn’t work here! Its’ a world in which she can do whatever she wants.”

“She’s way too strong. We can’t win!” Rarity shivers in terror as she backs away.

The mares are about ready to retreat when they are stopped by the sound of ragged breathing that originates from behind them. Rising from her place in the dirt, Rainbow Dash places a strong hoof on the yellow Pegasus’s back. With cool practiced action, she wipes a small dribble of blood from her mouth, her body shivering as she struggles with the pain of her wounds.  With a cocky, steady voice she gives her a clear answer that is heard by every pony in the room.

“What do we do?” Dash asks her face resuming its trademark cocky smile “That’s easy we fight anyways. That’s what we do.”

With tremendous force the mare leaps off the ground, the rainbow Pegasus readying her stand to fight. She soars towards the goddess her eyes burning from resolve “So you wanted me to up my game? Well here’s my ‘A’ Game! Enjoy.”

Luna smiles, her heart pumping furiously and her veins throbbing from the excitement of the fight as well. Raising her wings the cobalt Alicorn pushes off the ground her stand priming her hoof to strike. “You are quite spirited Rainbow Dash. Tis not often that I get to face so worthy of an opponent as you. Thoust should make a good warm up after a thousand years of idleness.”

With the roll of thunder the two mare’s hooves collide the force of their impacts pushing against each other as both mares try to shove the other back on wing power alone. Dash smiles back at the cheeky mare in front of her “Warm up My flank! By the time I’m through kicking your but your throne will have to have an ice-bag for your fat flank!

 “That I would like to see!” Luna retorts as both mares continue to push harder and harder against each other, both their muscles straining as neither one gives an inch. Suddenly Luna’s stand raises its’ other hoof to strike, And Dash responding in kind, readies her hoof with her stand Valkyrie’s rainbow aura.

With a monumental explosion both mares punch the other straight in the muzzle the blow alone sends vibrations through the air. The resulting shockwaves that ripple through their own bodies impact with deafening force as both mares crash against the walls behind them from the force of the other’s blow. The walls crumble to dust behind them as the cracks in the reality of the dreamscape give way more and more, the dream castle fading into the eather around the two mares. Princess Luna ever resolute picks herself out of the rubble raising her hoof to lick her bloodied hoof staining her tongue a dark red as she savors the taste of battle. “Is that the best you have Dash? Thou thought thoust would kick mine flank?”

Dash picks herself from her respective pile of rubble, unable to keep a smile from her face. Despite how much she wanted to escape from this crazy dream world, even though she was fighting for her life, part of Dash didn’t want this fight to end. It was just that awesome. “heh! Me and my friends are just getting started Black Snooty!” Dash retorts “You’re the one who should throw in the towel!” With no more words to be said the rainbow mare rushes back at her opponent, the two of them trading blows yet again as she shockwaves from their punches echo through the dreamscape.

Yet despite Dash’s bravado it is clear that Luna has the upper hoof. Dodging Dash’s blows by a hair, countering only non-critical areas, her cool demeanor and guard firm guard that blocks Dash’s attacks give every pony watching the fight the impression that the goddess of the night is dominating the fight. Applejack turns to her friends in an attempt to spur them into action. “Now are we gonna let Dashie have all the fun? Come on and let’s help the gall!” Everypony nods as they all manifest their stands each and every one of them putting aside their fear to rush in and save their friend.

All save the Pinkie Pie, who is grabbed in mid jump by a familiar magical aura. “Not you Pinkie, I need your help here.” Twilight sparkle the unicorn adept watches as her four friends attack the Goddess who is getting respectively faster as each bow is thrown at her.

“But Tttwwwwiiiillllliiigggghhhhhtttttttt! My friends need me!” the pink filly wines and struggles against the field holding her without any success on her part. “Let, Me, GO!”

The lavender mare sighs as she sets the Pink mare on the ground. “I know our friends need our help, that’s why I need you to help me think. As much as I hate to admit it I’m not the dream expert and besides your ability to think outside the box is perhaps our only hope.” Twilight flinches as she watches Rarity take a strong blow sending her skidding on the floor, only for her to leap up to attack a moment later. “As you can see none of our attacks are working against her, and even if they were, she could just leave the dreamscape if she wanted and we’d lose no matter what then.”

“She can just leave?” Pinkie asks. “are you sure?”

“Remember what she said Pinkie? She said she was going to leave us here, that means that she could leave us trapped in the dream  anytime she wishes.” Twilight watches the fight before her with rising worry “She’s just toying with us Pinkie, that’s why we need a plan to get out of here, or force Luna to let us go, and you’re the expert on dreams, so I need your help. Do you have any idea on how we could escape?”

Pinkie taps her chin as she drums up another of her Pinkie Ideas before shrugging helplessly. “I got nothin, It's’ just too bad too. Princess Luna seems like a real crazy pants, but I don’t think that she’s a bad guy.” The pink mare watches the cobalt goddess as she takes one of Applejack’s powerful bucks only for the goddess to bounce back a second later. “Plus from what you said Princess Celestia is really worried about her, if only we could make friends with her……”

A lightbulb goes on above the Unicorn’s head her brain churning with a rapidly forming idea. “I have an idea Pinkie. Remember how I beat Dash in the first place? I just have to show Luna like I showed Dash that we aren’t her enemies!” the lavender mare’s optimistic demeanor returns as she pats Pinkie on the head “Thanks for the lightbulb by the way Pinkie. It always helps me come up with ideas.”

The Pink mare smile as she puts the light bulb back in the storage of her own stand. “No problem Twilight I’m always happy to help with metaphorical gags!”

Twilight nods as she puts her large brain to use in working the kinks out of her plan. “All right if this is going to work at all I need to get into point Blank range with the Princess. First I need to get past her guard so she can’t defend herself, but Luna’s defenses are too strong to just wink in with teleporting.”

The lavender mare muses as she analyzes the Princess of the Nights’ fighting style. “In order to get in I’ll need a distraction and an attack that is capable of blowing past her guard. But She took Applejack’s an my attack like it was nothing, I’d need an incredibly destructive stand power to get into range.”

As if summoned by fate Rainbow dash lands with a thud at Twilight’s hooves, Her head spinning as she tries to right her sense of balance. Both mares look down at Dash then back at each other as Pinkie smiles sheepishly.

 “Pinkie NO.” Twilight waves her hooves “Absolutely NO.”

“Aw come on Twilight! Why not?”

“Pinkie, were you even there the last time we combined powers?” Twilight extends her hooves in exasperation. “It blew a hole in the library wall! And I personally enchanted the wood to be stronger than steel! Dash’s power nearly killed us and you want us to fire it off like this?!”

“But you said that you needed a stand with a lot of destructive power.” Pinkie picks up the dazed Cerulean mare with her hooves presenting her to Twilight like a lost puppy “And no stand is more destructive than Dashie’s.”

“After what happened to my library!? Do we have to?” Twilight whines, knowing there is really no way around it. “Grah, fine Dash come here.”

“Who’s that, what?” The mare says woozily.

Twilight signs as she ignites her horn filling Dash’s vision with lavender light. Not a second later the rainbow mare comes too, shaking her head to get out the last remnants of the fog from her mind. “Twilight, mare am I glad that you are okay!” Dash turns back to the goddess of the night with a fierce look on her face. “Now if you’ll excuse me I need to kick some pony’s flank.”

Dash tries to fly off only for her tail to be grabbed by Twilight’s Telekinesis much to Dash’s frustration at being dragged back to earth. Placing the gouchy blue mare gently on the floor Twilight clears her throat. “I know Dash, I know, that’s why I need you to……”

The lavender mare’s voice drones out, much to the Cerulean mare’s disappointment. “What was that? Speak up Egghead. Princess Snooty’s flank isn’t going to kick herself.”

“I need you to fuse with me!” Twilight blurts out.

“We’re fusing?” Dash asks “But didn’t you say that my power was way too…..”

Twilight places her hooves over Rainbow’s trap. “I know what I said. But there’s no time to talk. Let’s fuse.”

Dash looks at the mare in front of her for a second before she breaks out in a cocky grin. “About time. All this warming up, and I couldn’t bring out the big guns till now.” Dash looks over at the Lunar Princess “Well if my A game didn’t do anything, I guess it’s time for my A+ game!”

A short distance away breathing heavily from exertion that would drop a normal pony the Monarch of the night stands victorious. Her foes defeated and unconscious, lie at her hooves bested in glorious battle. And though they all attacked as one with flawless teamwork, none could stand against her and her divine power. Her breath returning to its normal rate as Princess grins, it had been a long time since she had enjoyed a fight this much, perhaps once things cool over she and that Rainbow maned one, Dash, could spar again. And perhaps next time the speedster might be able to actually wind her.

Luna stops as she looks at the ponies around her “Wait, where is that Dash mare? She couldn’t have vanished could she?” Princess Luna watches as the other three mares disappear in a flash of lavender light their unconscious bodies moving through space away from the Goddess. Raising her head towards the origins of the teleportation Luna smiles as she come face to face with her Sister’s Protégé, and the brave warrior Dash.

“All right Black Snooty!” Dash points her hoof at the princess “Listen it’s been great and all, this little hoedown.” The blue mare yawns “But I’m afraid, it’s past my bedtime so I’m gonna have to end this match so I can get some real sleep.”

“Interesting.” The princess of the moon readies herself “it seems that you still have some spirit left. Very well, I too have grown tired of this warming up. Come this let us see how strong you power can become. I take it that you and Twilight will be performing that mind link power boost you used on the orange farm mare.”

Luna spreads her wings her stand manifesting itself as she readies for Twilight and Rainbow's combination attack. “However it makes no difference! Thoust best attacks shall break upon mine coat like water on the cliffside and once thrust are defeated thoust shalt reveal mine sisters’ plotting schemes to me so we might thwart her twisted ambitions!”

Twilight however can’t help but smile at Luna’s predictability as she readies her own stand.“Luna I know it, I know what your next line is.” Twilight exclaims as her stand reaches over to touch Dash’s arm. “Your next line is…”

The two ponies connect their eyes glowing as Dash finishes the line “……Bring it on, I shall be the one to blow you away!”

“Bring it on! I shall be the one to… What!?” Luna states in awe.

“And the line after that is….” Dash says as the rainbow aura peels off her hooves its’ prismatic energy taking on a new form.

“…..How did thoust predict mine words?! What sorcery is this!?” Twilight exclaims as Twilight’s stand bends and buckles it’s pony like shape taking a far more humble form.

“How did thoust predict mine words!?” Luna snaps as her guard begins to break down “What sorcery is this?!”

“WHAT!?!” Luna exclaims as she watches the rainbow formed stand change shape into a simple ribbon of seven colors. Twilight and Dash can’t help but smirk as the Rainbow ribbon takes its’ complete and proper shape around their forms its sleek lithe form belying its radiant beauty as the rainbow circles around the two mares who stand before the princess of the Night.

“Can-Can it be?” Luna Stutters as she tries to back away from the sentient rainbow that circles around the two mares “The mythical Rainbow of light? It exists?!”

Suddenly faster than the alicorn's eyes can follow the rainbow arches up into the air its speed unrivaled by any earthly thing as it comes crashing down directly on the Alicorn’s head. The Princess watches in part fear and part awe as the majestic beam of light speed towards her at 299,792,458 meters per second. Faster than it takes for light to circle the earth nine times the rainbow hits the royal point blank her stand’s armor shredded by the sheer force of the blow as the rainbow seems to rip through her very soul. The light courses over the princess the shockwave of the blow resounding through her solid frame like a jackhammer pure white fills her vision.

Then just as quickly as it struck the rainbow disperses reduced back to ordinary light by its sudden explosion of power, leaving behind only a steaming smoking crater where Princess Luna once stood. Twilight and Rainbow Dash collapse on the ground completely exhausted by their sudden last burst of power as the gasp for air. For a moment it looks as though after all their efforts it is finally over no living creature could survive such an onslaught surely anything struck with such destructive force must have been defeated without the shadow of a doubt.

Yet the night is not so easily vanquished.

Rising from the mist with a dreadful mien her breath ragged, her pelt scorched, her mane disheveled and her body bruised the Goddess of the night Picks herself out of the dirt as she emerges from the dust. The Goddess’s horn ignites with powerful magic and the power of her stand as she pours the magic of the dreamscape around her into her wounds. Princess Luna watches with gratitude as her wounds evaporate her body healing itself at an exponential rate as she rises to her hooves “I truly commend you both, that was a devastating attack. Were we in the real world even I would have been unable to defend against it, even with my strongest shield. I was a fool to try and take such an attack head on with no magical defenses.”

Spying Rainbow Dash lying off to the side the Princess of the night channels her healing magic and the power of the dreamscape towards patching her wounds as she advances menacingly on her. Dash utterly exhausted in every sense of the word lies prone on the ground, unable to move in the slightest as the Princess of the night stomps closer to the rainbow mare. “But as I said before in this world I cannot be felled. No Physical blow can harm me.”

The lunar monarch, her gaze so occupied on the cerulean mare before her,  that her peerless senses fail to notice the Lavender mare falling from the sky right on top of her. Princess Luna turns her head just in time to see Twilight Sparkle grasp onto her with her hooves with an iron clasp. Twilight grins ion the Princess’ face as she manifests her stand. “Phase one Complete. Now commencing phase two.”

With practiced precision Twilight touches the Princess with her stand pouring all her power into making a link no matter how tumultuous between the two mares. before either mare can adjust to the suddenness of the mind link, of their two minds brushing against each other, both double over in pain as both of their minds scrape against each other like sandpaper on a chalkboard.

In contrast to the link between Twilight and Dash before that had created such beauty the link between Twilight and the Princess of the night is forced, artificial and the strain of both minds pushing against each other create mental agony. Both mares writhe on the ground their minds each struggling for control and dominance over the other, Twilight struggling to show the princess her good intentions and Luna trying with all her might to destroy the invader that would violate her mind. Twilight tries to show the Princess that she is not a pony to be feared, while Princess Luna pushes against the lavender mare with all her strength as they each vie for control over the other.

 “N-No…..” Twilight whispers “N-Not yet…… can’t let it, end like this…..”

With phenomenal willpower the Lavender mare holds on the Goddess her mind blazing with pain, begging the purple unicorn with every throb of pain that passes between them to let the bond break. Yet just as the lavender mare is about to collapse a familiar and old memory enters the minds of the two mares at once as pure white fills their perspective visions.

…………..

Two minds scream as one, both falling through the shifting void in front of them. Their perceptions stretch and bend as they try to make sense of their surroundings. Suddenly the Lavender mare and the azure goddess lands belly first on a cold tile floor. The room around them though regal and well adorned is empty and devoid of any pony. Yet the room itself seems to give the presence and warmth of a sunrise on a dark night. The white tapestries emblazoned with the golden stitching of the sun princess flutter in the cold night air, the brilliant moon shining through the window and reflecting off the white washed tile. However all these small details are currently lost on the two mares as they struggle to pull the pieces of their rattled minds together.

“Ow, my aching head……” Twilight rubs her horn as she is able to slowly pick herself off the ground. “Where… where are we?”

“You do not know where we are Twilight?” Luna says rising to her hooves prepared to fight. “We thought that you had better control thine powers but it seems that were mistaken.” The princess of the night unused to being taken anywhere against her will stomps on the illusionary floor with such force Twilight fears it may shatter. “Now deliver us forth from this room!”

“I don’t know where we are Princess.” Rubs her sore horn. “The last time this happened I landed in Dash’s memory and saw something that she remembered from a long time ago.”

“Then how did thine escape last time from the shifting world of memories? And whose mind have we landed in.” The lunar princess looks uncomfortably off to the side. “we are not comfortable with you sifting through our memories like this.”

“Look I don’t know how to get out. Last time it sort of happened by……”

Twilight’s words are cut off as the sound of a creaky door opens behind the two visitors to the past. Both mares turn to the source of the sound as a small filly and the majestic monarch of the sun enter the room the filly balancing a medium box in her telekinesis.

“Wait I know where we are now!” Twilight exclaims “We’re in MY memories. I remember this! This is the night I finally convinced Celestia to stay up stargazing with me. And this is Celestia’s room at the castle!”

“This is Celly’s room?” Luna’s eyes gaze at the paper filled monstrosity of a desk, the rumpled sheets and the stacks upon stacks of romance novels piling in the corner of the room. “Mine sister’s tastes have certainly changed in these past thousand years. In the past she would never have let a room get this messy, and she would have never have had a room with so few booby traps. What if somepony decided to try and fill her bed with acid in the middle of the night?”

Twilight opens her mouth to berate her on the effectiveness of the royal guard in protecting their princess when she is curtly cut off by her past self.

“Well I am glad that I finally get to take you stargazing!” the little filly Twilight hums “For some reason you don’t seem to stargaze very often. And since I got this nifty telescope tonight is the perfect night for it.”

“That’s because I raise the sun Twilight. If you didn’t know already I’m more of a morning pony, than a night owl. But I did promise you one activity of your choice so stargazing it is.” Celestia leans in to whisper in the ear of her student mischievously “however that’s only if you keep your end of our little arrangement.”

“Don’t worry Princess. You taught me to never go back on my word remember? Even though my dad caught you with icing on your crown I’ll claim that I ate my entire birthday cake, no matter how many times he asks!” Twilight hops and skips through the room eager to spend time with her most favorite pony in the world. “I’m just glad that you want to spend time with me, for a moment I thought…….”

“Humh?” Celestia stops in her tracks “Thought what Twilight?”

“Well, It’s just sometimes…..” The lavender filly rubs her arm as if ashamed to talk about a sensitive topic “I mean what you do is so important and everything but I’m, well not. I mean you move the sun and the moon and run a kingdom that hasn’t ever seen a war or had a major disaster in hundreds of years. I just feel that sometimes I am wasting your time with looking at stars and stuff.”

“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia shouts in her most authoritarian teacher voice “I can assure you that I love spending time with you, you aren’t a bother in the slightest.” The celestial monarch pulls her student into an embrace “And I couldn’t’ be prouder to have such a smart young mare as my student.”

“I know that….” The filly begins “it’s just that I, well it’s silly but I can’t help but think that well that you only made me your student for some crazy reason or something. Pretty stupid hunh?”

At Twilight’s words the Monarch stops her cheerfulness beginning to erode as she takes on a much more serious tone of voice. “….Tell me, Do you know why I chose you as my student Twilight sparkle?”

The filly tilts her head “because my grades were the best in all of canterlot?”

Celestia chuckles “Well that certainly helped matters, your knowledge of the arcane and your passion for learning are phenomenal for your age. I can’t remember the last student who simply loved learning and magic as much as you.”

The solar monarch picks up the filly in her telekinesis causing the lavender filly to flail about in the air for a bit. Celestia lets loose a small burst of laughter as she lies down on her bed cuddling into the bedspread of the room in preparation for a long story. Placing the filly on the covers between her forelegs the monarch begins her tale. “Do you remember the qualifying test for the magical exams? Where everypony was required to bring something to prove their magical talent?”

The Little filly nods her face the exact picture of a perplexed little filly waiting on an answer only the teacher can give.

“That was only a year ago” the monarch reminisces with pride “But to tell you the truth, I can’t even remember what everypony else brought and did. It was all the same thing that I had ever seen, self-righteous nobles trying to fluff up their sons and daughters with petty performances to show how much better they were than the competition.”

 Poking her student gently in the tummy the monarch smiles at the accomplishment of her student, “Except for you Twilight, the moment I heard what you had brought and why you had made it I knew you were the most special and perfect pony there.”

Twilight sags “And I brought a plant……” only for her to perk up a second later “Wait, you mean my lunar flower? But you rushed out of the hall right after. I thought you hated it!”

Celestia places a soft hoof on the lavender unicorn’s head “No Twilight, it was the greatest gift that I have ever known. It was then that I knew that you were the one I needed, the one who would be my greatest apprentice.”

Twilight gaps almost unable to understand Celestia’s reasoning as the Goddess continues without a hitch. “The reason I had to leave the hall is because it moved me, the monarch of the sun to tears.” Celestia smiles gently “And if I was seen crying by a bunch of little fillies somepony might have hesitated to become my apprentice.” Celestia and twilight chuckle at the thought of Celestia crying in front of an entire audience, Celestia’s cheerful demeanor returning with every giggle.

“I’ll never forget what you said.” Celestia closes her eyes, her millennium old mind recalling a simple child’s project, yet the smile on her face makes one think that she were remembering the secret to eternal life. “You had heard about how once upon a time a demon had been banished to the moon, a demon known as Nightmare Moon. So you had spent weeks and weeks making a plant that could survive the cold chilling vacuum of space. However it was what you said in that moment that let me know just what a kind and noble filly you were.”

“You said and I quote ‘Well if I was all alone trapped on the moon for thousands of years, I’d be pretty lonely. So I thought that If she had something to take care of, like this flower she wouldn’t be so lonely. I mean even if she did something really bad I bet she’s still get lonely and sad, and who knows maybe she could be nice if somepony got to know her.’”

The stunned Lunar monarch turns to the Adult Twilight sparkle her face a mask of disbelief and joy. “You….. you were the one who sent those Ambrosia flowers? I remember those even when I was devoured by a nightmare…… that, that was you?”

Twilight rubs the back of her head embarrassingly “Well we all do pretty silly things when we’re kids. I never really tested them so they probably just died anyways.”

“No they didn’t!” the lunar princess claims “in face I loved them, they were one of the first things that I had to eat in a thousand years. And since they grew like weeds I was able to eat a full meal without worry for the first time in ages.” With all the grace of a princess can muster the previous mare in the moon bows curtly “Twilight Sparkle I thank you. I thank you for such a treasure.”

The lavender mare waves her hooves with embarrassment “it’s like I said it was nothing just a random gift there’s no reason to get all worked up about it.”

Luna’s further protests are cut off as the memory of her sister clears her throat drawing both of their gazes to the Goddess of the Sun before them.  The solar monarch brushes a sole tear from her eye as she resumes her praise of her student. “You a little pony in the prime of her life were willing to slave away to make a priceless gift for a pony that was vilified as a monster for a thousand years. It was then I knew that out of all the ponies in Equestria that you were the one I wanted as a student.”

Celestia smiles as she looks out of the window at the dark and scarred moon outside emblazoned with the face of a dark alicorn. “If only I was as kind and considerate as you are Twilight, then maybe, maybe it wouldn’t have been necessary to seal Nightmare Moon away. Had I been more patient, and listened to her when I had the chance, then perhaps the world would have been a much better place.”

The little filly’s eyes pop out of her head as she looks at her starstruck mentor before her, unwilling to believe that she is regretting her most famous victory aside from her defeat of Discord. Surely she can’t regret vanquishing the demon that tried to destroy the world? “But that was a good thing right? Banishing Nightmare Moon and imprisoning her on the moon saved all Equestria. I mean that was before I found out that Nightmare Moon tried to kill everypony on the planet!” Twilight yells extending her hooves to the heavens “She’s big, scary and a big fat…”

“Nightmare Moon is my sister.”

“…..Nice pony to be around!” Twilight finishes “Also, WHAT?! How could a pony like Nightmare Moon be…… Princess are you crying?”

Present Twilight and Luna both watch the scene before them as the monarch of the sun begins to visibly weep her mask of perfect calm breaking before the filly in front of her. Luna stands visibly affected her eyes watering along with her sister’s as both sister who have inflicted so much pain on each other for the very first time cry together.

“P-Princess? Why are you crying? Was it something that I said?”

Realizing that her student is clearly in distress the Monarch of the sun quickly brushes off her tears, however her sorrowful demeanor remains. “I’m sorry Twilight I didn’t mean to bother you with my problems. It’s just that, well I may have not been entirely truthful when I said that I chose you as your student without an ulterior motive.”

“Y-You mean that you really don’t want me to be your apprentice?” Twilight gasps in fear as her eyes begin to fill with tears. “It was all a big joke?”

“No Twilight! In fact it was because of those reasons that I knew that you were the only one who could help me.” Celestia quickly assures her student, brushing her mane with her hoof in a calming manner. “You are the kindest, gentlest, most considerate mare that I have ever met, and I would never regret taking you on as a student.”

The princess claims with complete honesty as she brushes the errant tears out of Twilights’ eyes. “Not only that but your experience in magical theory is leagues above every other pony and growing by the day, perhaps in time your knowledge of magic will be equal to my own.”

The celestial monarch gently pushes up the filly’s muzzle upwards so that she is looking directly in her eyes “And that is why I needed you Twilight. I have discovered a way in which I can save my sister from herself. But I need the help of a smart and caring mare like you, a mare who was willing to give a thoughtful gift to a pony that she had never even met.”

The filly fidgets in the arms of the solar monarch doubtless confused by her teacher’s rapid changes in mood. “I-I don’t understand?”

Celestia watches her student her newfound uncertainty as clear as day break to the experienced monarch. “Let’s put it this way, If your brother Shining Armor and you got in a fight, would you do anything to set things right between you two?”

Without a second’s hesitation the filly nods emphatically. “Good, and that is why I need your help Twilight.” Celestia claims “I need you Twilight Sparkle to help me make things right between me and my sister, between me and her.”

“I-I-I made a mistake Twilight.” Celestia admits with shame as she looks sorrowfully out at the moon. Her wounds still as fresh as the day she and her sister were separated. “I chose the world over my own sister without a second’s thought. It was more painful than death, but I thought that I had made the right decision, but when I listened to her claims and studied the Holly Cor..…. I mean when I learned what I had really done to her, I realized that she was right.”

Celestia bows her head the weight of her shame overcoming her strength. “I chose them over her, I abused my position as a ruler, and more horribly I abused a power that was not mine even when I knew that all magic has consequences. And because of it, I lost someone irreplaceable to me.”

“Twilight, I do not ask this easily, and I do not demand it as your ruler or your mentor or an immortal ruler of the sun.” Discarding her poise and discipline the Goddess kneels before the filly Twilight sparkle her heart bare and her secrets exposed. “No in fact I am begging you, as a sister who has made a terrible, awful mistake. I make this request of you as a pony that has hurt somepony she loves.”

Every mare in the room, both past and present, look on the solar goddess completely stunned. Each and every pony watching as small rivers form on the muzzle of the most powerful creature short of Discord  to ever walk the mortal plane crying in front of a powerless filly begging for help.

“Will you help me?” Celestia wails “Will you be willing to pour years into your life to atone for a mistake that I have made? For a crime that I have committed? Would you be willing to sacrifice time that should be spent with family and friends, slaving away for a broken old mare such as me? Even knowing that nopony else would ever learn of your sacrifice? Would you……”

A warm small pair of arms envelops the large neck of the goddess the immortal goddess recovering from the shock as a little filly looks up into the eyes of her hero. Celestia looks down in shock the own filly’s tears mixing with her own. “….you had me at ‘ruler of the sun’ Princess. Of course I’d help you.”

No words need be said, no words could describe the complete pricelessness of the moment. For both the Twilight of the past and the Twilight of the present this moment would be always hold a place inside her heart. Whenever she would doubt whether or not her mentor was a pony to follow, whether Celestia was some pony that she could look up to, she would look here to this very moment in her memories and say ‘YES’ without a shadow of a doubt. Because in her heart of hearts Twilight knew that deep down Princess Celestia was a pony like any other, a pony who made strived towards the best for her little ponies a pony who loved and cared, a pony who never stopped fighting for what was right.

As for the other pony in Twilights’ mind, the cold princess of the night, she had been bawling her eyes out for what must be minutes now. Her mind in complete turmoil as every suspicious thought, every hateful word and distrustful view she ever had about her sister in her thousand year isolation is blown to shreds by a picture of overwhelming Love.

“She……” Luna sobs, snot and tears running down the muzzle of the goddess “She loved me……. She never stopped…… Loving me…..”

Both mares look on the scene before them and in a flash of white light, as the connection ends and the heartwarming memory fades back to the black.

Chapter 13-Baltimare Tea Party- Take 1

Chapter 14-Dreamweaver:Take 3

Dreamweaver: Take 3:

“AAAAAA!” Twilight awakes with a flash her body rocketing upwards as she gasps for breath. She quickly looks at the room around her the room around her completely normal in every way. From the comfort of her sleeping bag the mare can see her five friends unharmed and still sleeping soundly in their beds. The mare tries to recollect what just happened, and this time the memories flow readily back into her mind causing her to let out a deep sigh of relief. “Oh good we’re back in the real world. What a relief.”

“Actually no.” Twilight’s sleeping bag suddenly materializes back into a long slender worm with Princess Luna’s exact voice. “This is very much a dream.”

………..

“AAAAAA!” Twilight awakes with a flash her body rocketing upwards as she gasps for breath. Surveying the room around her, the mare pinches herself on the shoulder pleased when a sharp jab of pain courses through her body. “Well at least it’s not a dream.”

Slipping out of her sleeping bag the lavender mare looks around her, taking in the still beauty of the night, as well as her friend’s safe sleeping forms. Trotting over to the nearest sleeping bag the one she identifies as Applejack’s, she shakes the mare out of her slumber. “Alright Applejack you’ve been sleeping for too long, Rise and shine!”

However despite her vigorous shaking the orange farm mare does not move. “Applejack this isn’t funny anymore. Applejack what’s wrong?” With a small degree of caution the mare turns over the sleeping bag to get a better look of her friend, only to cry out in terror the next moment.

Looking her straight in the eye is the evilly smiling princess of the night, Princess Luna. With barely restrained glee the princess pops out of the sleeping bag her body outfitted in a false goatee beard, a dark green baseball cap and tacky shirt. “Nope!” The princess of the night smiles maniacally “Chuck Testa.”

………..

“AAAAAA!” Twilight awakes in a flash her body rocketing upwards as she gasps for breath. This time she is much less pleased. “That wasn’t funny! Try that again and I’m telling everypony that you cried like a baby while you were in my mind scape.”

“You are no fun.” The princess of the night materializes out of thin air a scowl upon her face. “You should be thankful that I decided to put you back in your sleeping bag. I could just as easily left you on the cold stone floor.”

Twilight looks around seeing that she is indeed tucked softly into her sleeping bag the moonlight from the sky outside showering down on her. “Thanks Princess. And that was pretty funny, but do you mind waking up my friends?”

“It shall be done Twilight.” Closing her eyes the princess of the night lights her horn as gentle flakes of magic fall on the slumbering prone forms of her friends. The flakes dissolve into their skin with a layered glow of light as their bodies begin to wake and move. As if awaking from a long nap or having to stretch out after sitting still for an immeasurable amount of time the forms of Twilight’s friends groggily stretch against their covers as they slowly open their eyes. Sleepily the five mares stretch out of their sleeping bags their arms reaching for the sky as they wearily blink to clear the sandmare’s dust out of their eyes. Brushing off the last remnants of sleep the five mares begins to return to their normal selves their minds slowly remembering the events of the dream world as they notice the presence of the mare of the night in front of them. In recalling the events of their dreams some mares react more strongly than others.

“Twilight! Watch out It’s Luna!” Rarity yelps. Leaping out of her bag the ivory mare points her hoof threateningly at the goddess without a trace of fear. “Get back you ruffian! Or I’ll…..”

Twilight places her hoof on Rarity’s outstretched arm “Down Rarity. Luna’s not a threat anymore.”

With her normal level of enthusiasm Pinkie pie bounces jumps up on Princess Luna who is obviously scared half to death by the pink mare’s behavior. “Best, Dream. EVER! Can we do it again? Can we? Can we? Cause that was the best dream fight sequence ever! But maybe this time we can do without the whole ‘trapped in your dreams without the ability to wake up’ cause other than that that was a super cool dream! Oh do you control all dreams? I mean, I know that you are the night or something like that, and that reminds me of a funny story about when I met bat mare at comic con…..”

“In the name of the glorious moon! Make it stop!” the Princess recoils from the pink party pony like a vampire from garlic.

Ignoring the display of silliness the rest of the group trots up to Twilight each one with a confused look on their faces. “Twi?” Applejack slaps her Stetson on her head trotting up to Twilight “what just happened? Are we still dreamin? Cause this don’t feel like a dream.”

Moving the pink pony a safe distance away from her the Princess of the night trots over to Twilight and the rest of the group. “It…..” Princess Luna breathes out as she falls to the floor “it is over…..There is no more reason for us to fight.”

Every mare’s eyes blink once as if unable to believe that the mare that just wanted them to be trapped forever just gave up. It would be as expected as a boot to the head or chocolate rain. Yet the demeanor of the princess as well as Twilight’s willingness to stand so close to the monarch of the night without fear is enough to at least dissuade the others from a fight. That is everypony except for Rainbow Dash.

“It’s over when I say it’s over! I’m not letting you catch your breath for a moment!” With a quick burst of speed the Speedster prepares to hit the goddess yet again with her Valkyrie. Yet Dash’s sudden advance is once again stopped by the powerful jaws on a Lavender mare grasping her tail. “OH come on! Is this going to be happening all time time is it? This had better not become a running gag!”

Twilight spits out a few stray hairs from her mouth as she turns to the Cerulean mare who is still in mid-flight. “Dash, there’s no reason to fight Luna isn’t a bad guy!”

“Of course she’s a bad guy!” Dash yells as she flies right up into Luna’s face “You tried to crush Twilight and Pinkie like a pancake. And to top it off you nearly took our heads off in that fight just now! You nearly killed us, and that’s what bag guy does! They try to kill the good guys.”

All eyes on the room focus on the dark blue mare as she begins to chuckle lightly. This laughter is quickly cut off by the scowl of the rainbow speedster as Princess Luna clears her throat and resumes her conversation. “Forgive me, Dashie, was it? I found your accusations…….. humorous? Is that what ponies these days say? I meant no disrespect on your part.”

“Well excuse me for not laughing, but I don’t’ think trying to kill us is very ‘humorous’” Dash says while making air quotes, hovering in mid-air all the while.

Luna continues to chuckle a bit “Forgive me Dashie, but believe me when I say that you were perfectly safe. After all it is impossible to die in a dream. Would I have ‘taken your head off’ you would have merely woken up, or since you were being held in your dreams by my stand, you would have been knocked senseless for a time.”

“I knew it!” Pinkie shouts “See Twilight! We had nothing to worry about. We were in no danger whatsoever.”

“The Pink one is correct,” Luna points to Pinkie Pie as she resumes “only dark and evil magic can kill one in a dream and I used none of it on you. My only intent was to determine what you were after and what your loyalty to my sister was, that is why I trapped you in the dreamscape. It was not an act of malice, but an act of caution.”

The Princess of the night straightens her posture as she looks upon the ponies before her. “And as I said before I only intended to hold you as long as I deemed that you were a threat to me.” Princess Luna, monarch of the night turns to face the Lavender mare an unreadable expression on her muzzle. “And from what I learned from Twilight, such caution was unfounded. I must say I am very impressed with you Twilight sparkle, you are resourceful, cool under fire, and possess a very potent stand ability. We had thought that the art of mind linking was lost, so rare it had become.”

The lavender mare’s face flushes with embarrassment from the praise. “Thank you Princess, but it really wasn’t me alone.” Twilight gestures to her friends with a broad sweeping gesture. “If it wasn’t for my friends I could have never gotten this far, they’re really the only reason I'm standing here today!”

The princess of the night looks among the gathered mares, each one of them possessing the loyalty to follow a friend into the darkness of the Everfree, the ability to laugh when faced with the power of a god and the kindness to give her, the creature once known as Nightmare moon, a second chance. With a glad smile the princess clops her hoof as she applauds their courage. “Indeed these are some very good friends Sparkle, you are lucky to have them by your side in such an hour of need. Were it not for your combined teamwork you would doubtless still be trapped in my realm of dreams. More importantly you have shown me that my sister does indeed still care about me, and for that I thank you Stardust Crusaders.” With a curt bow the princess bends her knees bringing her head down to the level of the common ponies, an act of reverence as old as time itself.

“Does that mean you’ll make up with Princess Celestia?” Twilight’s eyes sparkling with the glow of hope.

The princess’ mood does a one eighty as Twilight mentions the name of her sister, going from confident and in control to shocked and uncertain. “We……. I am not sure Sparkle. That depends upon my sister’s intentions, and what she plans to do with the sacred power of the Holy Corpse.”

Rarity leans over whispering In Applejack’s ear “What a Drama Queen.”  However the ivory mare receives no response from her compatriot.

The room grows silent as if the mere weight of the words ‘Holy Corpse’ is enough to awe the ponies present into dumbfounded submission. The mere words alone seeming to carry enough weight to buckle the world and everything in it as the dark blue goddess looks out the window watching the moon as it reaches its zenith. “For one thousand years, nay for longer than I have been imprisoned I have suffered thanks to its influence. You were able to glean a few of said details from my diary were you not Sparkle? About how me and my sister harnessed the power of the Red Stone of Aja, about how we attempted to harness the stone’s power and unlock its’ secrets.”

The moonbeams seem to fall through the window like sunlight illuminating the supple form of the goddess, as well as her inner sorrows. “I have seen into your mind Twilight, and you are a very intelligent mare, and I owe you more than worked can say for saving me from the Nightmare that consumed my sanity. But you know nothing of the corpse, or its power. And you know nothing of the shadow that hangs over mine sister’s Throne.”

Trotting gracefully over to the window the cobalt mare turns her back on the group as she continues to stare back up at the moon. “Tell me Twilight do you know what the Red stones are? Or better yet the identity behind these strange stones that you are collecting?”

Twilight puts her amazing mind to work as she begins to piece together what little she knows about the mysterious Red stones. “Well it’s an artifact of amazing power that can amplify magic and do almost impossible things? And you and Celestia found it and used it to defeat Discord. But I have no idea what the strange stones are……Are they a rarer version of the Red Stone? Or a byproduct ”

The lunar princess lets loose a small grin as she looks out at the stars. “Wrong on all counts. For starters, what you call the strange stones and the holy corpse are one and the same.” Twilight gasps as the Lunar monarch continues. “It is the corpse that possesses the power to bend time and space not the Red Stone of Aja. When the circle overloaded the corpse itself was scattered into pieces along with its outer shell the Red Stones. These ‘strange stones’ are what everypony ,including my sister, are truly after not the red stones.”

“What? But why?” Twilight asks.

“You could think of the red stone as the blood of the corpse. It is a byproduct of its existence that is continually produced. Think clearly of it Twilight, much of the red stone is harvested, lost and used, so how is there always more of it?” Luna turns away from the window to face the group in front of her. “The answer is simple, the Red Stone is a mere container for the power of the Holy Corpse it is merely a battery that is produced by the corpse and absorbs its power.”

“So, since the holy corpse can produce red stones….” Twilight mulls over the problem in her head “…..Ponies want it because with it you could create an army of stand users, who can heal from the most mortal wounds?”

Luna shakes her head in disappointment “Twilight you answer too quickly, the stone itself is of little consequence, beyond its ability to restore wounds and utilize stand it’s power is completely inconsequential compared to the value of the Holy Corpse.”

“Um don’t mind the super cool athlete here.” Dash says while flexing her muscles. “But I think an army of invincible super cool stand users is pretty hard to beat. I mean why have some rotting old corpse when you can have super powers!?”

At this Luna instantly narrows her eyes, malice radiating off of her very coat as Dash gulps back her fear. “Even the power of an entire army of one thousand stand users is no match for the corpse’s power. Do not be so proud of your stand power that you have manifested, the ability to destroy mater with a single touch is insignificant next to the power of the corpse.”

As if stopping to remember a painful and far off forgotten memory the lunar princess signs deeply. “During Discord’s reign my sister and I discovered the power of the Red Stones and attempted to use it to do exactly what you said, create an army of stand users. Over two hundred strong and fiercely loyal to our cause we all attacked Discord at once. We determined that not even he could defend against us all.”

“And what happened?” Dash asks genuinely curious.

“Discord turned them all into chocolate and ate each and every one of them one by one as they screamed for mercy in their minds. My sister and I were the only ones who were spared.” Lune growls as her teeth clench in rage. “The sick monster told us to bring more next time.”

Luna rises on her hooves towering over the rest of the ponies in attendance “That is the power the Holy Corpse crushed in an instant. That is the monumental power that it can muster, it is beyond even an Alicorn’s understanding.”

Luna bows her head in shame “Indeed much of our experiments were successful to a degree. by drilling to the center of the stone we discovered a living core crystallized by magic and that this core was the real power that was able to tap into a force known as harmony.” Luna raises her head, gesturing with her hooves as she struggles to convey the advanced magical theory behind an abnormality in sample time

“To put it in simple terms…” Luna continues “…..the power of harmony is the power of order, probability and fate, I hypothesized once that it accomplishes its’ power by rewriting the rules of our world making what one wishes a reality and turning fiction to truth.”

“Yet despite how little we knew about its workings, the results were clear.” Luna looks out the window with a pained expression. “By such by welding the corpse a pony could achieve the impossible. They could alter probability, change the laws of the world, to suit their needs. And though both my sister and I were terrified by such a power, we saw great potential in it as well.”

“A power that can change reality itself…..” Rarity mouths “so one could, hypothetically bring back the dead? I understand your caution in using such a power but what happened that changed your mind?”

“The everfree disaster happened.” Luna points her hoof out of the window at the twisted landscape beyond. “Discord was cruel to many a pony; however oceans of chocolate and houses made of gingerbread insured that no pony starved. indeed most ponies were beneath his notice. When he was defeated his magic went with him and our subjects began to starve. Therefore we resolved to test the power of harmony by using it to accelerate the growth of plants.”

The Princess of the night gestures out the window at the dark twisted landscape beyond the castle grounds. “As you can see it did not go as planned. Harmony was once again turned on itself in a cataclysm that nearly destroyed our small kingdom. It was from then on that I feared the power that we had no true control over. And it was that lack of control that lead to the discovery of a certain method of harnessing its power.”

“The Arcanum.” Twilight finishes, anticipating Luna’s words.

“That is correct Sparkle. “ Luna confirms with a curt nod of her head. “That is the reason we use advanced Arcanum to control the corpse’s power, because uncontrolled the power could run out of control or worse yet twist the possessor’s desires into something monstrous. I do not know……..”

The princess stops, as if thinking of the right way to phrase her next few words. “…….that is I did not know how Celestia managed to use the Corpse’s power against Discord without it destroying her, but like any magic, the more powerful it is the more control is necessary.”

“My sister always the knowledgeable one thought that there were still secrets about the corpse and so we left together to sift through the ruins of the castle of dreams where the eight great saints protected the corpse.”

“It was on this second trip to the ancient temple that my sister and I discovered that the corpse’s power was far too great to control normally. To protect the corpse’s power from growing out of control, the eight sages of old invented a special magic circle that would prevent its power from escaping which they called a greater Arcanum. “

“Thus with this discovery my sister and I came to an arrangement.” Luna states while gripping the stone windowsill with such intensity that one would think she was supporting herself on it. “We agreed together that the corpse’s power should not be invoked until we had a working understanding of how we could use its power without it harming us or others without any chance of its powers harming others.  By using a model of the Arcanum from the temple in which we found the corpse we were able to seal its power away”

The princess glances across the room looking at one of the ruined white tapestries depicting the rising sun. “Or so I thought” the princess growls as the stone windowsill breaks down under her grip.

“That……” The lunar princess hesitates, struggling with a single word. “That was when I learned that I learned the horrible truth, I had been betrayed from the start.”

“Woah Woah, back up Betrayed?” Dash asks “By who?”

“You remember that diary entry do you not Sparkle?” The lavender Unicorn nods while Luna continues “Then you know of my….. moodiness. The reason that Celestia was able to use the corpse in the first case against Discord was because the Corpse chose HER to wield it’s incredible power.”

“Wait a second!” Pinkie jumps in “How could a dead body choose a pony. I mean it’s not like this corpse thingy is a zombie! Please Please tell me we’re not gathering pieces of a zombie Princess Luna.”

Twilight Sparkle rolls her eyes at such an inane question “No Pinkie the corpse is not a Zombie. I think what Luna is getting at is even though the corpse itself is dead it still possesses a semblance of life, that was what my tests confirmed at least.”

“Then your tests were accurate Twilight.” Luna says with a great deal of surprise in her voice “Yes the creature that once was the Holy corpse is long dead, however the spirit of the creature still guides the one who possesses it. No doubt you have heard it talking to you at one time or another.”

“That’s right!” Rarity speaks up “it gave me my stand power, because I asked for it!”

“Ah think it gave us all a stand power of some kind.” Applejack says “an more importantly it brought mah sister out of a coma when everythin else failed.”

“It brought you sister out of a coma?!” Luna exclaims as look of grief crosses her muzzle. “then that is grave news.”

“What!? But it cured mah sister, How in Sam hill is that a bad thing?” Applejack asks scratching her head.

Luna takes a deep breath calming her growing frustration at the group’s interruptions as she begins to speak again. “When my sister was chosen by the Corpse she gained in addition to the ability to use the corpse without requiring an Arcanum, the ability to manipulate probability by drawing on the Corpse’s power. And by using this power she was able to manipulate probability so that she could never fail at anything. My sister literally became perfect, she would succeed at any magic spell, she would always make the perfect impression on any pony that she met, and she would always succeed in the best possible way at anything she set her mind to.”

Luna’s hoof clenches, gripping the floor beneath her to the point that it splinters and cracks, her teeth grinding against each other. “Despite my protests she used the power was used without my knowledge under my very nose for years.”

“But that’s a good thing right?” Fluttershy cuts in. The entire group looks over to the previously silent yellow Pegasus. “I mean, it was nice that she was making peace with other nations and being such an important pony shouldn’t she use a power if it helps her make good decisions for her nation?”

“All magic has a cost, no matter what it is Fluttershy.” The princess responds sadly “All good things come at a cost, and that is the primary reason that I feared the power of the corpse. It seemed to create so much good but it didn’t appear to have a noticeable drawback.”

“I was……. Jealous of my sister’s success and popularity.” Luna admits with a twinge of sorrow. “She succeeded where I failed at every turn thanks to her power and everypony loved her for it. In order to cover my own troubles getting the common pony to accept me I delved deeper into my own studies of the corpse. One day I hit a snag with my own studies so I borrowed my sister’s notes on the corpse and what I found shocked me, she was using its power under my very nose all this time.”

Luna paces tirelessly back and forth as she makes her argument. “I knew that something was wrong with Celestia’s power. All magic has a cost so it was almost blasphemous that a power could only bring fortune to a pony with no drawbacks. After weeks of research I was able to deduce how her magic worked, through balance.”

“Balance?” Twilight asks.

The princess of the night flares her wings with purpose dramatically making a point.  “Yes Twilight, balance. Her magic could give a pony infinitely good luck by depriving a pony of their own fortunes. In other words by using this power she was stealing the ‘good luck’ from a pony, while giving them her ‘bad luck’. She would succeed at everything and be loved by everypony unconditionally, but in exchange another pony would fail at everything and be hated by everypony she met.”  The princess of the night brushes away her teary eyes. “And thoust can surely guess who was given all of Celly’s bad luck?”

Twilight puts her hoof to her mouth in shock. “You don’t mean….”

“Yes Twilight, the more Celestia used her power, the more that I suffered as a result.” Luna claims with equal parts sadness and anger. “Every time she succeeded in her diplomacy and earned the praise of other ponies. I would make a mistake and be hated. After years of this I began to be despised by the common pony, until the point that I simply stopped trying to earn their affections, delving more and more into my own research.”

“And worse yet, from her notes I discovered that in secret, my sister had reverse engineered her own power to create an Arcanum of her own. It is a power that would encompass an entire nation, our nation, creating a practical paradise. It was a power that would prevent any kind of calamity from befalling our nation. Wars, famine, disasters, anything that could be avoided through accident and fate could be avoided.” Luna states with grim certainty “but at the cost of others outside the spell’s radius suffering such misfortunes.”

“Wait a second!” Twilight interrupts “now look I may get this whole manipulation of time space caused by the power of a mythic artifact……”

“Well that’s good because I Sure don’t!” Pinkie exclaims.

“…….But how can any degree of magic do that!?” Twilight yells infuriated by the idea of something beyond her comprehension. “I mean first you’d have to judge the outcome you would want from every situation happening in an entire nation. Then you would have to change that outcome with magic. And then you would have to do that for every living thing in Equestria simultaneously! Just how does that even work?”

“It was difficult to deduce to tell you the truth. If you are having trouble thinking of it…..” The princess rubs her head, racking her brain in an effort to describe alternate timelines and time space manipulation in a way that farmers and fashion designers can understand. “…...Well think of it like that dice game, dragons and dungeons.”

“Dungeons and Dragons.” Twilight corrects

“Whatever, let us say that every pony in the land of Equestria has a saving throw against attacks, disease, accident and corruption. Just like how in dungeon and dragons players have score for an armor class, Fortitude, Reflex and will.”

“Okaaaayyyyyyyyy.” Twilight says “But how do you know about Dungeons and Dragons if you were trapped on the….”

“Anyways!” The princess smiles confident that her explanation is going smoothly. “Celestia’s power allowed her to manipulate probability so that she would roll a twenty sided die and every time it would come up twenty allowing her to succeed at everything, but at the cost of somepony else rolling a one.”

Everypony ‘ohs’ and nods as they begin to understand the Princess’s point. Glad that her explanation is so well received the Princess of the Night continues. “However the circle she designed would use this power over a larger area which means it was much weaker. Therefore instead of every pony getting an automatic success, everypony gets a modifier making it more likely that a pony won’t get sick, get hurt, or make a bad choice. So think of it as giving every pony in Equestria a +12 modifier to every saving throw and armor class, making it much more unlikely that bad things would happen.”

“Well.” Applejack brushes the dust off her hat. “Now ah suppose that makes sense”

 “But at the same time…..” The princess breathes out a long exhale in preparation for breaking the bad news “…this magic would give every pony and living thing not in Equestria a -12 modifier making it far more likely that bad things would happen to them. And Celestia was using this magic on a national scale without my consent or knowledge, to crush our enemies while bolstering our own nation’s ponies.”

“When I discovered this knowledge, I was….. angry.” The princess admits with no small amount of shame “Nay I was enraged, furious, I confronted her on her backstabbing betrayal, I accused her of Treason, of being a fiend, of hating me.”

“Needless to say Celestia was stunned, she thought I was overreacting, at least until is showed her my findings and what I had stolen from her own private journal.”

Luna breaks her monologue to look into the eyes of the stunned Lavender Unicorn “Now I know from your memories Twilight, that my sister was telling the truth oh so long ago.” Luna looks at her hooves so sadly. “Celestia really had no idea that her use of her power was causing me to suffer like it did. But at that time I thought that it was an excuse to torment me, that she was trying to get rid of me so she alone could rule our nation. I was twisted up by my own jealousy and my hatred of the common pony.

“A-And so.” Luna says with rueful continence. “I foolishly tapped into my own hatred for my sister, into the darkness of my own psyche. I prayed a dark prayer that I might receive the power to destroy my sister, to destroy everything, and that darkness consumed me.”

The princess of the moon looks to the moon outside as if remembering that day so long ago as it happened yesterday. “And you all know the rest. Celestia drew upon the power of the corpse to seal me away where nopony else could reach me. And for a thousand years I languished in my hatred until my return.”

The group stands completely silent unable to even think up a response for the immense tale of tragedy and regret that seems too surreal to be true. Yet everything that Luna has told them beyond being crazy and absurd makes far too much sense for any of them to refute with certainty. Yet if what the Princess of the night says is true it changes everything, the nature of their quest, who they can trust and the nature of the monarch who has ruled over their very nation for one thousand years.

“So….” Fluttershy asks tensely knowing her words have the potential to spark a flame war between her friends. “So this magic circle, that Celestia made….. did she ever use it?”

“Yes, yes she did Fluttershy, in face she had just finished applying its power across the whole of our nation when I had given into the nightmare.” Luna states. “and I suspect it has been active ever since.”

“But….” Twilight protests “But you don’t know that for sure! There’s no proof, besides Celestia would never….”

“If it meant that her little ponies would live lives full of joy and happiness, do you not think that my sister would use such a power?” Luna asks, as doubt begins to fill Twilight’s mind. “True there is no solid proof currently in our possession that she has been using it, but look as the world in the past one thousand years since I have been gone. Equestria’s size has quadrupled stretching from sea to shining sea. Major birth defects and illnesses are at an unnatural low, and there has not been a war or other natural disaster of any scope since I have been banished.”

Rarity mulls over this new knowledge. “All the while the nations around Equestria have been growing weaker and more divided while we grow stronger. I’m sorry to say Twilight but things certainly point to the use of this magic circle.”

“But the princess is super nice!” Pinkie pipes up “She wouldn’t use some kind of scary magic if it made other ponies unhappy.”

“I’m with Pinkie one hundred percent on this.” Twilight states with certainty, her confidence masking her doubt. “I know the Princess better than any pony in this room, save Princess Luna of course. And I don’t believe that she would ever resort to…….. whatever it is that you’re accusing her of!”

Twilight states unwilling to allow any possibility that her mentor guilty of any crime. “The long peace is probably due to her shrewd governance and less illness is probably due to advancements in medical Technology. At the least she probably only used its power to prevent major wars or disasters which would destroy the nation, and only when there were no other options available.”

“So ya admit that you believe that she could use it.” Applejack points out.

“Yes! I mean No! I mean, URGH!” Twilight yells out her rising frustrations “The point is I trust the princess, and I believe that she would never use a power that would doom other living, sentient creatures to suffering.” The lavender unicorn admits with certainty. “Even if it would save the lives of countless ponies…… even if it would stop all wars and illnesses…….. even if it would save the lives of those that she loved……..”

All arguments in the room stop, as a deep silence pervades the entire foyer. The sound of a pin dropping could cut the tension in the room as all begin to accept the possibility with an open mind that the Ruler of their nation, a figured universally revered by every pony in the land, could be in fact the greatest purveyor of genocide the world has ever known.

“Enough of this second guessing.” Luna breaks the silence with her royal voice. “There is one way that we might know for sure. One thing that could tell us beyond the shadow of a doubt whether or not my sister is innocent or not.” Luna turns as she begins to walk out of the room “The Holy Corpse itself might be able to tell us the truth of mine sister’s innocence or guilt.”

“Wait!” The sound of a rough voice stops the cobalt Goddess in her tracks. “So what you’re telling me.” Dash says with suppressed anger under every word “Is that the Princess, our princess, has been using some cursed magic circle to make pony NOT living in Equestria suffer for over one thousand years?!”

Dash yells unable to hold back her anger at the injustice of it all. “And now you want us to ask some dead corpse if she’s some murder? That the ruler who raises the sun and moon is some kind of super villain who kills innocent ponies so that she can rule her nation with an iron fist or something?”

“OF course she wouldn’t do that!” Twilight exclaims in protest “The princess would never hurt others if she knew what the magic of the corpse was doing! That’s what Luna just finished telling us!” Twilight walks right up to the cerulean Pegasus’s face “How could you even suspect the princess of such a thing? What is wrong with you Dash? Did you forget what happened the last time that you let your baseless paranoia get a hold of you?”

“Well just cause some of us have been kissing the princess’s flank all their lives it doesn’t mean that we all believe every word that come out of her mouth!” Dash pushes back on the lavender Unicorn’s advancing horn. “Or are you just so in love with the princess’ fat flank that you don’t mind if she’s the one messing up the world!?”

“HOW, DARE, YOU.” Twilight growls as she pushed back on the cerulean mare. The two ponies look ready to come to blows, Twilight’s horn sparkling and dash’s feathers rustling ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

“ENOUGH!” a voice of thunder booms cutting off the divisions cutting through the group. All eyes turn to the princes of the night as her Royal Canterlot voice dies down. “We do not know which path my sister has taken, or her intentions, that is what we are investigating with level heads. Do not let petty infighting divide us from our purpose or our bonds of friendship.” With grace and self-restraint the princess of the night turns on her hooves once more walking out the door “Now if you are done fighting like fowls, we suggest that thou follow us.”

Twilight and Dash break their standoff, their eyes looking at everything except the mare next to them, their postures and gazes reflecting their own shame for turning on each other. Rarity places her hoof on Twilight's snapping her out of her daze as she walks wordlessly behind the monarch of the night. Wiping the errant tears from her eyes the lavender mare quickly rushes out of the room eager to put some distance away from her problems even while she is running on a crash course towards them. Dash follows suit, followed by Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy who all move their hooves as slowly as possible. And without further a word the rest of the group slowly begins to follow the princess through the dark passages of the castle as they are dragged towards their unavoidable destiny.

…………..

All seven mares trot through the dark of the night in complete silence, the seriousness of the occasion robbing them all of the desire to talk on the fear that it will lead them back to the previous conversation. Even Pinkie holds her tongue as they walk wordlessly down the dusty hallways of the castle, following the light of the Princess’ horn like a star. Avoiding conversation the mares distract themselves by taking in the beauty of the broken windows, the intricate carvings and the many suits of armor and ruined tapestries as they pour their focus towards avoiding the issue at hoof. Gliding through the dark as silently as shadows their short trip seems to stretch for hours without a single pony able to tell how long they had been walking for. Like the children in the back of a carriage on a long trip the mane six are left following and waiting for them to reach their unknown destination, not knowing how much farther it is or whether or not they will arrive in the next few minutes or next few hours.

Thus begins a war between the encroaching madness of silence, and the enormous discomfort of the allegations placed upon the most respected and benevolent pony on the land. Needless to say due to her close relationship to the princess, Twilight sparkle is the first to crack, her tumultuous mind no longer able to take a thought of her mentor a second longer. Trotting up speedily up to Princess Luna the lavender mare clears her throat gaining the Goddess’ attention.

“Um, Princess Luna?” Twilight says meekly breaking the silence.

“Yes Twilight? Is something the matter?” the cobalt mare asks turning her head to the lavender mare behind her  knowing fully well that things could not possibly be right with the purple librarian.

“Well I feel like everything’s the matter right now.” Twilight smiles sheepishly “But my question is an important one. You said that the power of the Corpse is too great to be controlled.”

The princess nods affirmatively “Yes that is correct. Originally we needed the power of the Corpse to defeat Discord. However after a time I came to sympathize a bit with the saints who protected the corpse and kept it from the hooves of the common pony. A power this great is far too easy to abuse.”

“Right….” Twilight says with a hint of depression. “Well my question is this. If you don’t think it’s power should be used then what are you hoping to do by gathering pieces of the corpse? I mean you’re behind the force that is pulling all the strange stones and red stones here right?”

Luna chuckles at the unicorn’s suggestion. “No Twilight I am not responsible for that, it is the corpse’s attempts to reform itself that is pulling the stones into the forest, it is not my doing.” The princess of the night stops and turns to face the lavender mare. “However your question is an important one Twilight so I will answer it with complete truth.”

Luna looks from Twilight to the rest of the group. “The corpse did save pony kind once upon a time, but its purpose has since then been fulfilled. It is thanks to its’ abuse of power that much sorrow has entered the world, I myself am only one such example. Therefore I wish that the corpse to be destroyed so that a new better world might blossom from the ashes of its’ destruction.” Her piece said the princess of the night trots back down the hall a smile on her face. “However enough talk, we are almost there.”

“Destroy the corpse?” Twilight asks trotting after the Goddess “How?”

“In my time here I was able to ‘ask’ the corpse how I might achieve this feat. And in doing so the corpse itself answered that once all the pieces were gathered together, one would be able to destroy it ‘to pave the way for the right world’.” The princess gestures with her wing leading them down a last hallway as the light from outside glows faintly in the distance. “Perhaps it is a lie, or perhaps it is the truth. But we think it to be the truth. Even were it not, were a single piece of the corpse to remain in the world it would still be capable of creating disaster. And that is my primary motivation in gathering the corpse, unimpressive though it is.”

“But Princess.” The lavender unicorn rushes to catch up with the Goddess. “I understand why you want to destroy the corpse. If you aren’t pulling the stones towards the everfree….” Twilight asks with no small amount of confusion “What is? You said the Corpse was pulling itself together but that would mean…….”

“There is no more need for talk.” The princess comes to a stop a slight smile on her face. “We are here.”

The six mares, come to a stop on the ruins of an old stone patio, leaving behind the darkness and stuffiness of the castle for the wide open space of the castle gardens. Though left untended for over a thousand years the plants still seem to grow in an orderly fashion though every pot and stone barrier has been overgrown with greenery and flora of all kinds and shapes. Wild flowers and plants of all kinds bloom and flower sporadically as if the plants themselves could not decide what season it is. The gardens though are still lush and green, the many trees that dot the paths having endured time itself, from the time of their great, great grandsires, the trees that inhabited the gardens in happier times when the two princesses were together and all was right with the world.

The stone patio they rest on, despite its age and the fact it is covered in honeysuckles maintains its ancient majesty, instilling a calming aura into the party. Statues of various ponies and creatures stand steadfast against the force of time a few still in pristine condition with only patches of mold attesting to the fact that they have been enduring the wild elements of the Everfree. Others not so fortunate lay scattered on the ground their white-washed marble fragments attesting to the monumental force of the Everfree and of nature.

Yet for all the majesty of the garden and the stonework around them the eyes of the entire group are drawn to the center of the garden and the white glow that encompasses the  stone fountain. Resting in the middle of the engraved stone fountain, glowing with the intensity of the moon above sits a large barrel shaped fragment of the Holy corpse. The Corpse’s chest appears to be large and flat with two half formed vestigial limbs that appear to be arms of some kind. What one could call the neck points upwards as the main body slouches against the fountain proper it’s glowing radiance spreading across the entire garden.

“Fabulous…..” Rarity mouths her eyes barely able to contain the wild beauty of the garden and the majesty of the corpse at the same time.

“….Just….. Wow.” Fluttershy says

“It’s so pretty!” Pinkie’s eyes glow at the pretty sight before her “Too bad it wants to eat our brains.”

“…..Yeah, real awesome. is that it?” Dash’s wings extending in excitement as she gazes upon the beauty of the corpse.

“Ah reckon it is Dash.” Applejack takes off her hat in reverence “I reckon it is.”

“Princess?” Twilight asks tugging her gaze away from the glowing light before her “Is….is that…….”

“Indeed Twilight.” Princess Luna says finishing the flabbergasted mare’s thoughts for her “That is the Holy Corpse, or most of it anyways. What you see before you is the heart of the corpse, it’s literal still beating heart that has drawn all the other pieces to it here in the forest, and despite my greatest magics and intentions I am still unable to move it.”

Twilight gazes upon the majestic and gentle glow of the object in front of her, it’s radiance both calming and beautiful to behold. Yet there is no doubt in her mind that the object in front of her is capable of tying time in a knot at the slightest whim, it’s unearthly power radiating outwards from its center like the pulse of a star. The mare begins to break out in a cold sweat as she can practically hear the corpse’s heart beating across the garden, or perhaps the loud thud that she hears is her own heart racing. “So…..” Twilight gulps “…..I guess that this is the part where you ask it what Princess Celestia was planning with the corpse?”

 “Actually Sparkle…..” Princess Luna turns to face the lavender unicorn “…..I was hoping that you might be able to converse with the corpse. Indeed the reason that I have brought you here….” The princess Gestures to the garden around her “…Is because I believe that you might be worthy to wield the corpse in my sister’s place as the next Chosen.”

The entire crowd grows silent in the wake of Princess Luna’s announcement, everypony waiting for the lavender unicorn’s mind to process the Goddesses’ request.  Twilight blinks once, twice as she points to herself as if expecting that another pony named Twilight Sparkle would spontaneously pop into existence behind her. Yet much to her dismay the princess nods, one affinitive nod that insures that she is talking about her, the Twilight Sparkle in front of the Goddess of the night. Taking the news that she has been chosen by exiled royalty to wield the power of a God about as well as any pony could expect, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Representative and Private protégé to the Princess begins to freak out.

“ME?!” Twilight yells as she backs up from the princess, her body on the edge of hyperventilating “But-But-But-But-But I don’t want to control that kind of power! Can’t you ask it whatever you need to ask it?”

“Nay Twilight it can only be you.” Luna says taking a assuring step towards the Twilit mare lowering her head to eye level. “I have tried to move this corpse from its spot yet it does not listen to me, nor does it heed my words any more. I nearly destroyed the world in a jealous fit of anger and thus the Corpse has declared that I am…… Unworthy.”

The princess takes another step forwards “Yet you Twilight Sparkle, might be worthy enough to ask it what you desire, to gain it’s power so that others might not.” The princess takes another step towards Twilight as Twilight takes another step back. “You have proven that this location is no longer safe. If you could have found this location, then it will not be long until our enemies come here in pursuit of the corpse’s power, ponies that have much darker intentions.”

The princess extends her wings making it clear that she is forcing a grave responsibility on the librarian from ponyville. “I have tried but I cannot move it even with all my magic, it is part of the reason I have stayed here to protect it from prying eyes. That is why I have brought you here Twilight; I think that you might be capable of becoming the Corpse’s Chosen, the one capable of wielding its power safely and responsibly.”

“But I don’t want this power!” Twilight exclaims “I don’t want to wield a power that causes others to suffer. That’s why………”

“I know Twilight, you do not crave power, only the safety of your friends and those close to you.” Princess Luna places her hoof on the frightened unicorn. “But it is irrefutable that if the corpse remains here than it will most certainly be taken by some pony with less pure intentions. That is why you must try to claim it, if only to keep it safe from others.”

Luna smiles “And who knows? The corpse responds to the desires of the one who wields it. Therefore should you wish for a world where no pony should suffer thanks to its power, then perhaps it will come to pass.”

Twilight stops at this, as the idea of hope enters her mind that maybe, maybe this could all turn out alright. If she could use the corpse’s power, if she could use it responsibly, then she might be able to set thing right, to put things back to normal. But could it really be that easy? The lavender mare looks behind her; she looks to her friends in her moment of doubt for a sign, and she is not disappointed. Looking back at her without a trace of fear in their eyes the five mares that have already come through so much with her each give her an assurance in their own way.

“Well I’m not so sure about this, time space bending, that this corpse can do.” Rarity remarks “But if any pony could use it responsibly, then I believe it would be you darling.”

“That’s tha truth!” Applejack nods adjusting her Stetson “If in there’s any pony in Equestria that ah trust with that much power it’d be you Twi.”

“Twilight you are the most considerate, smartest and bravest pony that I have ever met.” Fluttershy says as all doubt leaves her voice. “We have faith in you Twilight, and if this is what you have to do we believe that you can do it too. All you have to do is have faith in yourself.”

“Yes siree!” Pinkie grins “You’re you Twilight! We wouldn’t have come this far if we didn’t trust that you were who you are! So go on and level up to Super Twilight so you can save the day like you always do!”

“Just get on with it already Egghead!” Dash hovers in the air her confident grin spreading across her face. “We all know that you’re the only pony for the job. And even though you come in second in terms of who’s the most awesome in this group, I wouldn’t have any other pony take the lead!”

Twilight eyes begin to tear up as a familiar cobalt alicorn places her hoof gently on her shoulder. “It appears as though all your friends have already spoken Twilight and they all have faith in you. The only question is, do you?”

Wiping the traces of tears from her eyes Twilight grins back her earlier fears, though still prevalent now tamed by the powerful feelings of joy welling up inside of her. “Thanks guys. I suppose that I’m just nervous about wielding supposedly Godlike powers that could destroy all reality. But I’ll give it my all anyways!”

“Don’t be Twilly!” Pinkie jumps over to her friend embracing her in a hug. “We’ll be with you all the while so it’ll be fine.”

“No Pinkie.” Luna pulls the pink party pony back with her hoof. “Twilight must approach the corpse alone. She alone has the questions that need to be answered and she alone is worthy enough to approach it.”

The Pink pony begins to tear up “But-But Twilight needs us!”

“Don’t worry Pinkie.” Twilight assures her friends “I’ll be fine, I just need to approach an entity of phenomenal cosmic power. How hard could it be?” With concentration and a little magic the lavender mare focuses her magic causing a medium sized lock box to materialize out of thin air. “Besides I think I already have a pretty good idea of how to get the corpse to listen to me.”

Breathing in and out one last time, the mare levitates the box onto her back as she stares at the steps before her leading into the garden proper. Her friends at her back wait on the patio and watch as their friend steps ever closer to the mythic artifact pulsing with unknown life in front of their friend. In their hearts and minds despite their faith in Twilight Sparkle and her ability to succeed, every one of them prays silently for her success. Each of them sends their confidence for their friend Twilight subliminally as they watch the mare step ever closer to the Holy Corpse.

Stopping not four yards from the corpse Twilight sparkle breathes in and out once again calming herself for the confrontation at hoof. Clearing her mind of all miscellaneous distractions the mare lights her horn as the box on her back opens revealing similarly glowing and pulsing pieces of the corpse. The pieces pulse in time with the Corpse’s own sympathetic magic, the air becoming charged with an unknown force as the mare kneels to the ground before the Corpse. Her magic pulsing in time with the corpse Twilight begins to spin the fragments of the corpse around her body forming an arcane circle in the air. The circle glows brighter and brighter as the corpse’s pulsing light pulses faster and faster along with the mare’s horn. Faster and faster the pieces spin around the mare as her eyes clench shut as tight as a floodgate. Suddenly the mare’s eyes open glowing white as the circle around her spins off her body towards the corpse. The fragments touch the corpse as the circle surrounds the artifact, the pieces of the Corpse flowing into the main body like water as the circle dies away. The corpse pulses stronger now than before as the column of spine grows out of the torso, the arms lengthening and the neck of the creature extending out of the top. The pieces once again reunited with the corpse the mare lets out a loud shout.

 “HOLY CORPSE.” Twilight shouts in the authoritative tone of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “I, Twilight Radiance Sparkle, Protégé to Celestia invictus Solaris, Goddess of the Sun, Friend to Nocturnes De Luna, Goddess of the moon, do so humbly make a request of thee!”

The mare bows her head once to the earth “I have returned to you that which was lost to you that you might answer a query and set doubts to rest!”

Twilight bows once again “I Twilight Radiance Sparkle, ask this of you as a lowly mortal doomed to die that you would clear doubt and set me on the path to truth!”

The mare lowers her head to the earth yet this time it does not rise “I beseech thee in the name of thine! I implore you in the name of the Sun, the Moon, and the Holy Earth!”

The garden is silence itself. No sound passes through the gentle glow of the corpse, as the mare continues to bow her head down to the earth. Only her own ragged breaths fill her ears as Twilight waits patiently for a sign of any kind. Seconds pass, then a minute, then two, as the mare slowly gives up hope of hearing anything of value aside from her own heartbeat.  Yet just as she raises her head to leave, her hope extinguished a soft loving voice fills her mind, the voice itself reminding Twilight of the gentle ringing of bells or the sound of the surf on a windy day. The voice is both kind and all knowing, reminding Twilight of the teacher that she left behind in Canterlot, a voice full of love and kindness.

The long introduction, though proper, is not necessary child of twilight. I know who you are, and who you were, and who you shall be. I know what it is that you seek. Yet let me hear it from thine own lips.

Jumping to her hooves the mare stares at the broken corpse before her own eyes widening with wonder.

What is your desire oh child of twilight? What has brought you so far that you would request something of me, without your friends to guide your actions?

With uncharacteristic humor Twilight chuckles letting out some of her pent up tension. “Well to tell you the truth, until just now I didn’t really know, or rather I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted. I was pent up, confused, and twisted up inside. I was torn between hoofing the corpse over to Celestia, trying to destroy it like Luna wanted, or worse yet keeping it for myself so I could use it to get what I wanted.”

And? What is it that you decided upon? What is it that you desire?

“My desire….. “ Twilight states, her conviction ringing true “….my only real desire right now, is to have a clear direction; to know the path I must take to set everything right. That….. That is my desire.”

The corpse and its query remain silent for a few moments as if the inanimate dead body is somehow mulling over Twilight’s request. Its alien mind processes her request until it finally responds.

…..The desire to set things right. It is a powerful desire young Twilight, and one that I can sympathize with. The desire for justice and goodness is very strong in you. It was not small wonder that you were able to hear my voice before.

To answer the first question that you have asked in your heart of hearts, the one that you seek the answer to most of all. The answer for that question is ‘YES’. Celestia has indeed used this vessel’s ability to insure prosperity for her nation and pony kind. Yet she has done this even after learning it would come at the cost of the nations and peoples of others.

Twilight’s heart sinks in her chest, only her last vestiges of hope and courage keeping her from falling to the ground as a sobbing wreck.

Though it is not active now that I am separate from the circle that she has formed deep in the mountain of canterlot, should you give my body to Celestia is would once again work in the way that it is always has. Time shall continue onwards in its cycle as it does and the nation of Equestria, though safe, will not change.

“But……” Twilight shakes as she finds the strength to utter a single word “…But you can make it right, can’t you? You can…. “ Twilight mulls over the situation, the betrayal of her teacher still fresh in her mind as she struggles to think up a way out of the mess that she and her friends have landed in. “Can’t you do something to….. I don’t know, bring everypony back to life? Can’t you undo all the wrongs that you have done, or something like that?! Your power is infinite, you can do anything if your user desires it….. Right?!”

………No that is not possible.

All hope shatters in Twilight’s breast. “What? Why not? You can do anything, you can bend time and space? Why can’t you make things right?!”

..……Because that was MY wish.

Twilight stops her rant, as a calmer mind returns in the place of her frantic and confused one. “Your desire? You wanted this?”

 In a word, YES and in a word NO. True, you view Celestia’s actions as wrong. Yet it is thanks to her that all ponykind is safe and gathered under one banner. As they are once more, they are a herd with a shepherd that lies in greener pastures. And as is it not the way of the world, that one must suffer so that another might partake of joy?

“But….” Twilight stops her mind working overtime to walk herself through her own thoughts. Is the corpse right? If living things have to suffer for others to live in happiness, shouldn’t the ones who live in happiness be them, the ones who possess the blessing of a god? Twilight shakes her head. “But… does it really have to be this way?”

The lavender mare bravely taking a step forward as she asks her question again. “Can’t you make everyone happy: Ponies and Minotaurs, and Dragons and those that don’t live in Equestria? Even if it’s just a little, even if it doesn’t amount for much, can you save us from this mess?”

………I am as I have always been, an instrument of balance, of harmony. For one to have, another must have not. This is the one of the many laws that governs this world. By the rules of harmony such a thing cannot be done with my power. Balance must prevail.

The mare falls to her hooves, never before had she felt this powerless before in her entire life, as she realizes that her hopes were misplaced. There is no easy way out of this mess.

But I see that you and others like you do not desire such a world. Neither you nor your friends, want a world of martyrs and sacrifices. Therefore you will all fight for a new one.

You will travel far and wide, across the breadth of the world. You will go South, North and back to the center in search of the right path. And you will be cast out persecuted and spit on for this one’s sake. You will face a true evil and some of you will not return, passing onto shadow and fear. The entire world and all the ponies in it may turn against you, but rejoice for such things must happen and come to pass.

Twilight flinches at the corpses’ words her mind recoiling at the thought of her friends dying, at the world turning against her. “But I don’t want any of that!”

Twilight yells at the top of her lungs unable to accept it anymore “I don’t’ want my friends to die! I don’t want to suffer! Tell me a better way! Tell me a way I can save my friends!”  The lavender unicorn runs up to the fountain pressing her hooves against the fountain as if she could force an inanimate object to comply with her demands “TELL ME!” She yells at the top of her lungs her tears running down her face.

Unless Pony kind itself withes me to leave, I am unable to do so. Yes should you gather all the pieces of my form as one then a new world of friendship and magic will come to pass.

A small clicking noise fills the garden as the corpse’s light begins to die down. Then suddenly the corpse falls off its precarious post on the fountain tumbling down to the ground. Almost reflexively the mare reaches out with her stand grabbing the stone body and dragging its heavy frame into her arms.

Twilight Sparkle, you are not worthy of wielding this power as you are now. Yet you are brave and true, a hero in dark times rising, therefore so that all should come to pass you might carry me so that I might come to new shores.

Twilight begins to cry “W-Wait! I still need more answers. What’s going to happen? How do I stop it? How do I talk to Celestia, after what she’s done?  How do I save my friends?” the mare begins to bawl her eyes out over the stone figure as the light of the corpse begins to fade away.

Those that are and those that were shall be again. When the corpse is gathered and wielded with justice all shall be again and I shall return to harmony once more…. That is the prophecy you must adhere to for your desires to be manifest.

“Wait!” Twilight yells “You can’t just leave us like this! You can’t just leave us alone to face this bucked up world! You can’t expect us to save ourselves!?!”

The corpse though ignores the unicorns’ protests as the glowing aura dies down around the dead body, causing it to revert back to its inherent stone form.

Remember this single word Sparkle for it will guide you to your salvation, as well as the salvation of all ponykind……..

All its light fades out, leaving the lavender mare holding a fossilized stone body in her shaking arms Twilights’ ears perk up as she prepares to hear perhaps the most important words in her lifetime.

FRIENDS……

And the light dies out

“Twilight! Twilight!” Pinkie shouts as she jumps up to the lavender mare “What did it say? I couldn’t hear anything. Was it good? Is the Princess Innocent? Are those tears of joy or sadness? Pleeease tell me. I’m dying of suspense here!”

“Twilight dear? Are you alright?” Rarity asks “we couldn’t hear anything. What did the Corpse say? Is Celestia innocent? Did it tell you how to use the corpse’s power?”

“Yeah Egghead! Did you get some awesome new power or something?” Dash asks hopefully.

“Dashie’s concerns are well founded.” States the princess “Has the corpse chosen you as its bearer?”

“Twilight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asks “Was it good news or bad news?”

Yet for all these questions lobed at her, the mare doesn’t respond to any of them. And as if with ironic timing the sun rises on the horizon greeting a new day with its normal warmth and benevolence. Yet the day that greets Twilight, the day on which she has discovered such a horrible truth is anything but a good day. And as the warm benevolent sunshine rains down on her head they only serve to reflect of the tears of sorrow that stream down Twilight Sparkle’s muzzle.

……………………….

“And you are sure that this information is reliable? It was not planted, or falsified?”

“You know I believe in her innocence, Princess. I believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt. But if this is a frame job, it’s a really, really good one Mam. It would have to be done by some pony who knows our reports and procedures inside and out….Then again given who we are after, this might very well be an attempt to lead us off the trail. To distract us while this Traitor in our ranks strikes.”

“Or it could be a chance to find out how some pony was able to falsify these files. If we could find any kind of hint among these incredulous reports by bringing in this pony……”

“Your highness! Surely you must be joking?”

“I wish I were Shining armor, but given this information and the sensitivity of the Holy Corpse’s existence, it is far better to be safe than sorry. Should any pony be, unintentionally or otherwise be revealing information about its existence we must investigate.”

“But you don’t believe any of this…..”

“I believe she is innocent Shining. However if she has learned of its existence I need to speak with her immediately. If she has taken the corpse’s importance to this nation the wrong way, then it is possible that the enemy could be using her to get to us. That is why you must go, you alone can bring her in and make her understand the importance of our mission.”

“……Very well, Princess, if you think it is what is best.”

The monarch of the Sun Princess Celestia stands up on her throne in the empty chambers of the royal court. Her grim face a testament to her utter seriousness. “Believe me Shining Armor this is something I do not do lightly. Now call in Zecora, she will be going with you.”

“Zecora?” Shining Armor, captain or the royal guard asks. “Why her? It’s not that I don’t trust her or anything but I’m more than capable of handling this myself, and I’d rather not draw attention to this.”

“Zecora may not have a stand, but her skill with investigation and paperwork is almost as good as yours is Shining Armor.” Celestia says as she walks off her throne towards the window facing ponyville. “That and she is and old friend of Twilight’s who has fowl sit for her more times than I could count. If there is a pony in Equestria that I could trust it would be her.”

The door to the throne room opens with dramatic effect as a familiar Zebra enters the room bowing low to the floor as the door closes behind her. “Yes Celestia? What is it you need? I came with all speed for your commands are true. Whatever it should be, know that I exist for you.”

Celestia smiles as she watches the zebra in the reflection of the window. “I have a very important mission for the two of you to undertake, you are to go to Ponyville with a contingent of guards and investigate the reports that we have received from there about some……… Questionable activity.”

The princess turns to the two ponies, “There you will meet up with Sergeant Lightning Dust and our Stand agent Trixie Lulamoon to apprehend, Investigate, and Clear, Emphasis on the word CLEAR, the pony who reports have alluded to being the traitor.”

Zecora’s face turns to one of surprise “The traitor has been found? Should that not make us proud?”

“No Zecora it should not.” Celestia states sadly. “Let me be clear, there will be no use of lethal force and you will treat her with the utmost respect, until you can discover the true source of the leak. I trust you to handle this matter seriously and professionally.”

“But who would have you, in lieu of the truth, so worried your majesty?” Zecora asks with worry setting in to her otherwise calm demeanor.

The monarch of the sun extends her wings in a majestic display of her authority and power as she makes her decree. “On Royal decree I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, authorize you to bring in Twilight Sparkle, Princess reprehensive of Equestria, on the charge of high treason!”

Chapter 14-Baltimare Tea Party- Take 2

Chapter 15-Bastion

Bastion:

It was an unbearably hot day to be traveling through the Everfree forest. It was an even worse day to be traveling after learning that the pony that rules over the nation that you live in is stealing the lives of countless souls so that her own subjects can live long, happy lives. And to top it off it was as humid Discord’s but crack.

Indeed if a group could ever be in low as spirits as the six ponies trotting through the everfree, than they would most likely be on a death march. Ever since they had left the castle of the two sisters, with the Corpse in tow, the six ponies in the group had held their tongues to the point of complete silence, only the various sounds of the jungle filling their senses as they trudge along. Walking in single file down the overgrown path before them the five ponies each stew in their own thoughts as they count the seconds until their march is over. It was quite fortunate that Luna was able to show them the road out of the forest from the castle; otherwise the ponies most likely wouldn’t have made it back at all. So emotionally drained and mentally exhausted were they that the crusaders most likely would have succumbed to the winding nature of the forest and it’s multitude of traps long ago. Especially Twilight Sparkle, the mare who going into the forest was so full of life and vigor was now leaving it an emotional wreck ready to break down from the slightest stimulation.

The moment that Twilight was able to compose herself she has told them everything, the prophecy of their supposed death, the corpse’s refusal to lend her it’s power, and Celestia’s use of the corpse’s power to create a supposed paradise. Nothing could have hit Twilight and the group harder than that, than the knowledge her teacher was guilty of genocide. The rest of the group had been equally shocked, all save Luna who had expected it all along. Their minds and bodies being rejuvenated from their night of rest, every pony agreed unanimously that it was better to get back to Ponyville as soon as possible and after a small breakfast had left early that morning with all haste. And so for the past five hours the six ponies had been trudging down the broken path back to their town their spirits lower than ghastly gorge.

However despite the weight of the news upon their minds that had fallen like a heavy blow there were some in the group who still possess the strength to face the trails before them.

Rainbow though she was never one to trust blindly, especially in a faceless government engine, had trusted the princess unconditionally as a paragon of goodness. The news of Celestia’s plan had hit her the hardest in the group save perhaps Twilight. however rather than retreating into herself the Rainbow Mare seethed with barely suppressed rage at the fact that someone that she trusted so thoroughly could turn her back on everything Dash thought that she stood for.

Applejack, though daunted with the task at hoof still remained well grounded in the here and now, which for the moment was getting all her friends out of the Everfree safely. Though even her rock steady mind could not endure the thought of the monarch of the sun would doom those not in her land to perpetual suffering.

Fluttershy was emotionally torn by their ruler’s actions, on one hoof ponies were happy and safe, but on the other hoof some weren’t. Yet the yellow mare did not allow her feelings to show and worry her friends preferring to invoke her natural born talent of being silent.

Rarity always an expert at maintaining a proper poise was the picture of calm on the outside, even offering to carry Twilight’s pack so she could carry the heavy corpse herself.  Though she would never admit it to any pony in the group, part of her sympathized with Celestia’s plan, knowing that it would improve countless lives across the Empire of Equestria.

And then there was Pinkie, who had wisely decided to remain silent in the group’s return, her joy daunted by Twilight’s news. Pinkie just wanted to see her friends smile, and more than that so see her friend Twilight who was so despondent from the news of her mentor, happy again.

Yet all of her friend’s feelings were lost on the lavender unicorn that trod the path as if the entire world around her was falling apart around her. Worse yet, the weight of the corpse on her back seemed to grow heavier with each step, and though their path through the Everfree had cut back on their journey the sun was already beginning its descent back down from its zenith as Twilight plodded along.

Rainbow dash having caught yet another bug in her open mouth hacks uncontrollably as she clears her throat. The rest of the group turns their head towards the cerulean mare hacking in midair as she tries to clear her throat.

Applejack face hoofs “Aw for pete’s….. Dash ah told ya once and I told ya twice. There are all sorts of swarms of bugs an flies in the upper canopies, that’s why we’re walkin. If yawl are so insistent on flyin up their yawl are gonna get a mouth full of bugs, Now get down here!”

Dash’s love of flying finally gives way to not having bugs in her mouth and she lands on the ground clearing the remains of the insects from her throat. “All right so you were right about the bugs, I should have listened to you the first time. You don’t have to rub it in.”

Normally the orange mare would have rubbed it in the cerulean mare’s face, were she in a brighter mood. However as she was now she just wanted to get home and sort through the shifting thoughts running through her mind

“So……” Dash speaks up “We’re almost back in Ponyville right?”

Applejack sighs, glad that at least she isn’t asking that question every five minutes. “Yeah Dash, I reckon so. Least cordin to Luna that is.”

“Well despite your skepticism of the Princess I trust her word.” Rarity pipes up. “If she said that this road would get us back in Ponyville by sunset then I believe her.”

“Now I’m not sayin that ah don’t trust her an all.” Applejack defends herself “I’m just sayin that we’ve been goin rather slow. Ah just don’t want to get caught in this forest after dark.” The orange mare shivers “Yawl don’t want ta be trapped in this here forest after dark.”

“Well I’m Sooooooo sorry Applejack, that we’re inconveniencing you with our slow walking.” Twilight spits out with as much sarcasm as she can manage. Turning around the lavender mare’s bloodshot eyes come eye to eye with the farmer. “But you’ll have to excuse us for not having the brute strength and single minded determination that you have.”

“Now see here Twilight!” Applejack growls “Ah know yer depressed an all but that’s no excuse fer….”

“Can we PLEASE, stop arguing?!” Pinkie pie cries out, her shrill voice cutting off what most assuredly have been a friendship shattering argument between the two friends. “I don’t like it when my friends fight…..”

The entire group shuts up at that each pony holding their tongue as they all turn back to their walking. Twilight apologizes under her breath as each mare tries their best to put the thoughts of the argument out of their minds. Each pony focusing on the road ahead of them as if every rock and twig is of vital importance. They continue down their trail Pinkie Pie watches her friends nervously as she judges the happiness quotient of the collective group to be a negative seven. Hoping to steer the conversation in a more pleasant direction the mare clears her throat.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Pinkie asks

“Who Darling?”

“Well the princess.” Pinkie states “I mean she’s all alone right now, do you think that she’s okay?”

“I think that Princess Celestia is perfectly fine in her ivory palace Pinkie.” Dash says as she punches a tree in her way to let out her free flowing aggression.

“I wasn’t talking about Princess Celestia, I was……”

“Then please stop talkin Pinkie.” Applejack groans. “cause in case ya can’t tell, We don’t need another one of yer long winded rants right now.”

“Hey!” Dash yells, punching Applejack harshly in the shoulder “You can’t tell Pinkie to shut up, she can talk whenever she wants.”

Applejack recovers from her staggering with a scowl on her face “Yer just makin things worse Dash. Now why don’t ya just cool yer jets before ah have ta make ya.”

“I’d like to see you try, you country….”

“I WAS TALKING ABOUT PRINCESS LUNA!!” Pinkie yells at the top of her lungs. “I was wondering if Luna was safe!”

Both of the two mares stop short of blows at Pinkie’s voice reaches them. Both their angers smolder in an instant as the two mares watch Pinkie pie begin to cry, bubbly tears pouring down her face as both mares feel immense shame at their own actions. As both turn their heads away, Dash thinks about how they wouldn’t be fighting like this if Luna was with them.

‘She was a Goddess’ Dash thinks to herself. ‘I really didn’t want to admit it, but Luna was so awesome. And as much as I hate to admit it, she is way cooler than I am. She was brave confident and full of resolve.  She never seemed unsure or afraid, if she were here now we wouldn’t be like this. Even when she was leaving she was completely in control of herself….. why couldn’t she have come with us?’ Dash wracks her brain as she thinks back to her last encounter with the Goddess.

……………..

“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Dash asks hopefully “I don’t say this lightly but you kick some serious flank. And we could really use an attitude like that back in ponyville.”

Luna fastens her own saddle bags to her back smiling back at the cerulean pegasus. “You do not need my help physically as you do mentally. And while we appreciate the thought that you would request my company, you have tasks ahead of yourself that require your utmost attention. You must keep the Corpse safe from those that would abuse its power, my sister included.”

Luna turns her head away from the group as she looks with melancholy off in the distance. “In fact I fear it is my task which is the hardest.” The Goddess says, face demonstrating a sliver of worry. “For I must do something that I have put off for over one thousand years.”

Rarity walks up to Luna levitating a few stray items into her bag as she looks at the Goddess of the night with worry. “Surely you do not mean that you’re going to..….”

“I must confront my sister.” Luna finishes for the ivory fashionista “But properly this time. Not with force and threats of damnation, but with words sincere and true. I must tell her what her abuse of her position and her magic has done to our ponies.” Luna says with worry. “And what she has done to me……”

“And if she does not listen to reason….” The princess says with worry in her voice. “Well at least I would have said my peace before I was sent back to the moon.” The princess laughs morbidly at the thought as she prepares to take off into the air.

“….You’re wrong.”

Luna stops her wings primed to flap as she turns to address the voice behind her. All eyes look at the previous silent Lavender unicorn with awe. Ever since she had finished telling them what the corpse had told her word for word Twilight had been as silent as death.

“Even if she did something….. Like that…… she would never hurt you.” Twilight says with certainty. Though her demeanor is still downcast a glimmer of light courses through her words. “You and Celestia are sisters, she would never hurt you, she loves you Luna don’t you ever doubt it.”

Luna looks to the lavender unicorn her face uncertain and confused. “How can you be so sure of that? We have each done….. terrible things to each other and all for petty reasons. How are you so sure that what we had can be repaired?”

“Because I too have a sibling; Shining Armor and I were always different but we were always together.” Twilight says as if it is the simplest thing in the world. “We may fight from time to time, and I may not enjoy everything he does. But I know that he will always be there for me, whenever I need him, and that he will always love me. After all……” the mare lets loose a small tear looking off towards Canterlot in the distance. “He’s all the family that I have left.”

No one else talks after that, no one else makes a noise, no pony knows what to say after that. As the mare brushes a single tear off her face the group looks at each other, each of their faces a stunned wreck.

“Twilight….” Luna says with the utmost sympathy. “We…. I did not know that…..”

“Don’t Luna.” Twilight snaps at the Goddess “Just don’t, I don’t have the patience to deal with it.” Twilight looks up at Luna with a soul rending look in her eyes. “Just please, promise me that you will make up with her, despite everything she loves you more than you know.”

……………….

Dash shakes her head clearing thoughts of Luna from her mind. “I really don’t need this right now. Come on Pinkie let’s just go.” Dash turns away from Applejack and trots down the path, trying to cover up her worry with her normal indifference.

Every mare in the group turns their eyes away from the sniffling Pinkie pie trying as they prepare to once again resume their quiet journey down the path home. Each pony begins to trot down the path ahead of them, all save Rarity who raises her hoof tensely as if mentally debating whether or not to take the next step. The fashionista watches as her friends leave her behind, sullen looks adorning her faces, as she suddenly comes to conclusion, the conclusion that this cannot continue.

“……. Alright this is not working.” Rarity says coming to a complete stop. With a look of frustration the ivory mare positions her flank and places herself right in the middle of the path. “I don’t know about you all but I simply cannot take another step.”

The entire group sighs at Rarity’s predictable spoiled behavior as Applejack reaches over to pull the ivory mare up. “Come on Rares, it’s not far from Ponyville now, just a mile er two more and we’ll be right as rain, now quit stallin and let’s get a move on.”

Rarity gently swats Applejack’s outstretched hoof away. “Applejack darling I’m not talking about rest.” Rarity waves her hoof around her “I’m talking about this. This ‘issue’ is tearing us apart. Now I don’t know about you but when there is an issue between friends I refuse to let it lie and fester like an old wound.”

Each mare stops and looks at each mare in the group, the surprise of the sudden bravery of the Ivory mare and the shame of their behavior seeping into their expressions. Clearing her throat Rarity continues with measured poise and grace. “Well frankly I’ve had enough of us tearing each other to pieces over this so I’m not moving another inch until we six get to the bottom of this and talk it out like friends should.”

The six friends look at each other as Rarity’s words ring true in their own respective hearts. Breaking from their self-induced spell of depression and hopelessness the six mares look at each other hoping for if not a resolution of the issue at hoof, a way to appease the gnawing hole in their souls.

Dash scoffs at Rarity “Oh that’s a wonderful idea Rarity!” She says with utmost sarcasm mimicking the fashionista’s tone of voice. “Let’s all just hold hooves and sing Cumbia together as one big group of friends I’m sure that’ll solve everything.”

“It’s nothing to get upset about darling.” Rarity’s states with utmost calm “I just think that we should talk about our problems before they…..”

“What’s’ my problem?!” Dash leaps into the air her gear falls to the ground with a loud clatter “I don’t have a problem! I just found out that our supreme despot is guilty of genocide!!  That’s the problem!” Dash crosses her arms. “So yeah! Maybe I have a problem with ponies who butcher thousands of living breathing creatures for their own enjoyment! So sue me!”

“You think that she did it for her own enjoyment?!” Twilight shouts “That’s sick! Princess Celestia may have done bad things, but she did it for us!” Twilight points to her heart. “She did it so that ponies like us could live in peace, that we could live full lives without worry.”

“She might as well have killed them all herself! And as if it couldn’t get any worst she lied to everypony about it, taking all the credit for being the sole ruler of the greatest nation in the world.”

“How many times do I have to say it she didn’t do it for the fame, she did it for her little ponies. She lied to us because if the Corpse's power was known it would cause mass panic!”

“Yeah! They’d panic because everypony NOT in Equestria was dying a horrible painful death!”

Pinkie prepares to walk between to stop their fighting only for her to be stopped by a gentle hoof on her back. Turning around the pink mare comes face to face with Fluttershy who gives Pinkie a look telling her that ‘they need to get this out.’ So with heavy hearts the rest of the group watches on as the two friends yell at each other at the top of their lungs. The four ponies looking on as the two mares duke it out, physically manifesting the conflict within their own souls with harsh serrated words. Both Rainbow and Twilight respectively representing their pre-established conceptions of wrong and right and the power to save the ones you love.

“What is your Problem Twilight?! Were you just born kissing Princess Celestia’s flank or are you so in love with the Princess that you take the side of a murderer?!”

“I just think that there is some truth to what the princess is doing you doufus! I’m not taking her side I’m making a point! It’s very tempting not to try something if you have to power to do it!”

“Oh then EXcuuuussssseeeee ME! I didn’t know that having the power to kill ponies means that you should!”

“Would you shut up and think about things logically for once in your life Dash?! Pony kind has never experienced a war or plague or economic collapse In one thousand years! Think of how many lives the Corpse’s power has protected, how many ponies have lived long healthy lives! You have to agree that such a power is tempting!”

“Oh and I suppose that using a power that killed hundreds made sure that your parents lived long healthy lives?” Dash spits out with anger and spite dripping off of every syllable.

Dash is blasted out of the sky by a bolt of purple magic as the Lavender mare pants heavily at dash’s hooves. “DON’T You TALK about my parents! You don’t DESERVE to talk about family when your own father kicked you out of the house!!” Twilight yells as her repressed rage threatens to overtake her better judgement.

The group finally realizes that things have gone too far as they rush over to the panting and teary eyed Unicorn and the prone Pegasus. Applejack and Rarity work at holding Twilight back as Fluttershy and Pinkie pie Rush to Dash’s side. However much to the relief of the group Twilight’s blast though painful was far from damaging and Dash is only bruised for her trouble.  Recovering slowly from the sudden assault Dash is finally able to raise her head she comes face to face with Twilights’ hurt and pained expression. With the heat of the moment long past Dash begins to come to turn with how much her spite towards things beyond her control has hurt her friend.

“……I’m…… I’m sorry Twilight……” Dash whimpers as she tries to pull herself off the ground. Her impulsive irresponsible actions hurting her more than the sudden bolt of magic ever could. “….. I…… that wasn’t fair of me…… I went way too far…… “ Dash hangs her head in shame, the weight of her actions finally catching up to her “…..again……”

Twilight watches as the cerulean mare’s tears fall into the dust. Part of Twilight wants to blast Dash again, to give into her anger at her situation and her rage at being betrayed. However the larger part of Twilight, the good part of her knows that Dash is just as angry upset and torn up inside as she is and feels just as betrayed as she does. In her heart of hearts Twilight knows that despite her words Dash is a pony that she can count on no matter what and that she would never intentionally hurt her friends.

“I….. I’m sorry to Dash I shouldn’t have brought up your past like that.” Twilight states hesitantly honestly ashamed of her own actions “I know you’re impulsive sometimes and you say what’s on your mind.” Twilight exhales “But that doesn’t make you a bad pony.” Twilight smiles gently at the cerulean mare who is still sitting on her flank embroiled in her own regret.

“Look” Twilight rubs her horn as she tries to look at their situation logically. “I know what Celestia has done is wrong in a sense of the word. It’s just…… I’m trying to look at it from her perspective.” Twilight rubs her arm as she continues on “If I could use a magic that could bring back my parents, or insure that a plague that would wipe out tens of thousands of ponies would cease to exist, then I’d be pretty hard pressed to use a power that could save lives even if it hurt others.”

The entire group is silent wanting for some pony, namely Dash to interject, however for a few moments the trees are quiet and still. “Ah…..” Applejack speaks up removing her Stetson solemnly from her head. ”Ah know that feeling too Twi. Ah lost mah parents too, when ah was around Applebloom’s age.”

Twilight turns to the orange mare “Yes I know. I never wanted to intrude on your private life but I figured that they had been already passed away.” With great care the lavender mare places her hoof on the farmer’s shoulder. “You don’t have to say anything that you feel you don’t have to Applejack.”

Applejack nods as she wipes her sniffling nose. “It was a Manticore…… got into the south fields near the everfree and wandered into the main field……. Ah was in Manehattan at the time, so ah don’t know what happened exactly….. But when I heard, ah just didn’t want to come home at all.” The mare brushes more tears out of her eye, her voice unwavering as she pours out one of the most sensitive memories in her life.

Rarity lowers her head sadly. “They were very good ponies, far better than I was at that age.”

“So ah understand where ya are comin from Twi. And ah’m not sayin we use that corpse ta bring the dead back ta life and all that. That aint natural and ma and pa wouldn’t be happy like that.” Applejack gulps at the thought of her parents as Zombies. “But if it could stop what happened ta ma an pa…… then I don’t know if ah’d be able ta resist.”

A deep and reverent quiet fills the path that all four friends are standing on as each pony thinks back to things in their life that they would want to change if they had the power. Their minds fill of friends and loved ones, childish mistakes and long impacting decisions, and everything in between as they each think of how they could use a power like that. But at the same time lingering in the back of their minds like a bad secret between friends lies the inevitable truth that every good thing wrought with such a power creates something bad, and every life saved, is a life lost by another. It is literally a pyrrhic victory, ponies are dammed if you use the Corpse and dammed if you don’t. Everypony suddenly realizes the painful irony of their situation, whether they use the corpse or destroy it, each decision saves lives each one dams them to suffering. There really is no way to win, no easy problem that can be addressed or solved by one’s moral compass.

 “How is it……” Dash asks as she paws at the dirt with her hoof. “How is it that if this Corpse thing is supposed to make life so grand…..” Dahs punches the ground futilely “….That our lives are so bucked up right now?”

“I don’t’ know Dash.” Twilight says as truthfully as possible. “I just don’t know.” Trotting over to the cerulean mare twilight places her hoof around her barrel in a gentle hug.  “I think that really all life is give and take, good things happen, and bad things happen too. Celestia just wanted to fill our lives with more good things than bad.”

Just as Twilight is about to finish when a novel idea fills her mind her eyes sparkling with an unknown radiance.  The lavender librarian rises instantly to her hooves throwing Dash off her balance in the process. “But maybe…. Maybe that’s the problem!”

Fluttershy tilts her head “What do you mean Twilight?”

“Think about it. We want only good things in our lives and work so hard to avoid the bad that we forget that sometimes we have to suffer a bit for things to work out better. Maybe Luna was right about the Corpse’s power being evil, not because it makes others suffer, but because it offers good things without any sacrifice, without any effort.” Twilight conjectures “Maybe it’s that desire to be happy without doing anything that is truly evil, or the desire to see others happy without having them work for it.”

“WHOA! WHOA!” Pinkie gestures with her hooves as she jumps into Twilight’s field of vision “Let’s not go too far Twilight! I mean I love making others happy, throwing parties and making ponies smile is the best! I mean there’s nothing wrong  with making ponies happy and throwing parties and filling balloons with laughing gas…….. is there?”

“No Pinkie I didn’t mean that!” Twilight waves her hooves back and forth in a panic as she tries to keep herself from tearing her friend’s entire world view to shreds. “I just meant that maybe if we want to have the right to be happy and for things to work out, maybe we ourselves have to work for it rather than expect some magic or other pony to make us happy and fill our lives with meaning.”

“But Twilight!” Rarity speaks up her face contorted with worry “Not everypony can live happy lives, and it’s not sorely because of their own ineptitude or lack of ability. Sometimes….” Rarity’s voice stops, her words caught in her throat as she struggles to continue.

“…Sometimes all it takes is a wrong turn of fate to ruin everything you have ever worked for in your life. I mean if I caught an incurable illness or killed some pony by accident; it would still make ponies suffer no matter what my intentions were. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you do……” Rarity says sadly “Fate trumps all efforts and makes the foolishness of the best laid plans. Sometimes no matter what you do you can never beat your destiny…..”

Dash leaps to her hooves from her sitting position “Bull, there’s no way that’s true. I beat destiny when I performed the sonic Rainboom. And if I did it any pony can!” Dash crosses her arms crossly “And even if it was true that wouldn’t make what Celestia’s doing right.”

“……Not everypony can change the past Dash.” Rarity picks her dirtied hoof of the ground watching as drops of mud flow from the tip onto her pristine white coat. “To have your entire life ruined by a sole action outside your control, or even worse one of your own mistakes…… that is the definition of a disaster.”

Rarity says with a tone of complete finality “Believe me I don’t believe what Celestia is doing is right, but part of me believes that it……….is necessary. After all not everypony can be lucky enough to avoid misfortune, and to have a world without calamity…… Isn’t that what Celestia is trying to prevent?”

“Well that’s just….. I don’t………” Twilight a mare with a 160 IQ is stopped dead in her tracks at Rarity’s statement. The mare looks for any fallacy, any point that she can use to take apart Rarity’s arguments but is unable to find a single one.

‘Is she right?’ Twilight thinks to herself. ‘No matter what I do fate will always have the upper hoof, so doesn’t it make sense to fix the odds if it saves the lives of those I care about?’

‘No!’ Twilight shakes her head unwilling to lie down and accept eventuality so easily. ‘I can’t doubt myself now! I came all this way thanks to my friends I can’t afford to give up and let some arbitrary force take control of my life. Fate be damned! I have to believe in the path that I am taking, even if I can’t prove why. I have to believe that even if my resolve falters that I will never die, that no matter what happens that I won’t stop heading down a new path as I head into the future.’

Realizing she currently doesn’t have an answer to the question, Twilight resorts to a tactic that her mentor Celestia used on many an occasion; stall and hope the pony forgets the question. “Forget it; I’m too tired to think about this clearly.” Twilight fakes a groan and she begins to walk down the path again. “Let’s just get back home and sleep, we’re almost back to Ponyville anyways.”

Everypony looks at each other as Twilight trots hastily away from the scene of battle. And though each pony has not solved their own dilemmas about the corpse, the fact that they have finally been able to confront the problem has done wonders for their moods and more importantly their friendships.

Now in a much calmer but still sullen mood the six friends begin to trot more rapidly to get out of the haunted forest. Their journey though still quiet and surrounded by the darkness for the forest around them begins to take on a new pace and in no time at all the dark green of the canopy begins to thin out to make way for lighter hues. The forest begins to thin out around them, the leaves of the trees letting in actual sunlight for a change in place of the murky shrouded light they had grown accustomed to for hours. Soon the darkness gives way to the dying light of the sun, not yet red from sunset but getting there, as large beams of light cut through the shadows with ease.

Finally after what seemed like the longest and most difficult trek in the six mare’s short lives, the entrance of the forest presents itself off in the distance the entire group breathing a collective sigh of relief. As they begin the track to the forest’s entrance the group once again begins to talk about casual everyday things, their previous troubles losing relevance to their joy to finally be free of the Everfree Forest. However Twilight Sparkle taking up the head of the group narrows her vision as she looks past the forest’s entrance to a very peculiar sight.

As the rest of the group begins to trot rapidly out of the forest twilight trots behind the main pack to speak with another lagging friend “Rarity?” Twilight asks curiously,

“Yes Twilight?” Rarity asks while keeping pace with Twilight’s quick walking.

“Did you tell the Trixie and the others when we would be coming back?” Twilight asks “Did you tell them clearly when we would be coming back to Ponyville?”

“Twilight you know I did! After all you were there too, and you told them all yourself.” Rarity muses “So why would you ask me darling?”

Twilight points her hoof to the entrance of the forest at the large group waiting on them. “Because we currently have a greeting party and they’re a day early.”

With a dramatic halt the entire group of six comes to a stop at the very edge of the Everfree taking in the size of the large group of ponies apparently waiting for them. Even in the diminished light of the setting sun the reflective armor of the solar guard is clearly visible to all present. Their jaws lower as the six travelers realize that they have come face to face with an entire contingent of royal guards lead by none other than the great and Powerful Trixie.

The six mares though cautious at the sudden appearance of so much military might trust the presence of their friend (?) Trixie is a good sign and with measured steps they trot over to the large group coming to a trot past the edge of the Everfree. However despite the appearance of six brightly colored mares the Solar guard too occupied by their own conversations remain blissfully ignorant of the arrival of the very group that they have been waiting for at the foot of the most dangerous set of woods in the world.  The guards all talk amongst themselves, polishing their armor and weapons as they watch with interest the loud commotion coming from the center of their ranks occupying their attentions.  The six mares watch as Trixie talks loudly with a Zebra in a tight fitting black suit and a professional looking white coated solder, who from his armor appears to be the one in charge.  Though the Stardust Crusaders cannot make out the words spoken from their distance, the argument appears to be heated as the two ponies and one zebra debate amongst themselves arguing with both diction and body language in an attempt to make their points. The argument goes on for a few minutes until Rarity, unwilling to be ignored for another second (and far too used to being the center of attention) clears her voice loudly in an attempt to get the guard’s attentions.

“Um… Trixie Darling?” Rarity asks with caution as the entire guard turns with one movement to face the newly arrived group of ponies. All voices cease as Rarity gulps heavily. “I-I-It’s not that we don’t appreciate the thought. But WHY did you happen to bring an entire contingent of solar guards?” The ivory mare watches nervously as the large group of guards slowly advances on the group of ponies. “I mean I understand completely how a mare of such proper demeanor would require an armed escort however I assure you the thought was unnecessary.”

Though the ivory mare laughs at her own joke as the group of guards closes in, in a semi-circle shape around them, the guards remain serious and undaunted their eyes locking on the group. The six mares slowly give ground as they are pressed with their backs to the cursed forest; Trixie’s pained expression giving them all indications that the appearance of the guards is not a good one. Backed up against the forest half the group prepares to run at a second’s notice and the other half prepares to fight when a very strange thing happens to the most predictable pony in their group.

“Shiny!” Twilight shouts with a level of glee and excitement that would cause one to mistake her for Pinkie Pie.

“Twilly!” The White stallion shouts. The Purple mare leaps forward the white stallion who heads up the group takes off his official helmet revealing his multi colored blue mane. With suddenness that surprises both sides the two unicorns embrace in a loving hug.

“Shiney?” Applejack asks inquisitively “Yawl don’t think that’s……”

“Oh where are my manners.” Twilight apologizes turning back to face her friends “Everypony I’m very pleased to introduce the captain of the Solar Guard, and my BBBFF.” Twilight takes in a deep breath giving the precise amount of time to build up a dramatic pause. “Shining Armor!”

The stallion bows dramatically playing along with his sister’s well played exaggeration., hamming it up as he bows to imaginary applause from every pony in his presence. “Thank you, Thank you, you’ve been a wonderful audience, I’ll be here in ponyville (because I’m here on royal business as Captain of the Royal guard) all week!”

“…….”

“…………..”

“………………..”

“……Captain Armor?” A orange male Pegasus with dark blue hair coughs nervously. “I still respect your command and everything, but that was….. how do I put it……” The cadet struggles with his words fumbling with an attempt to put his feeling and no doubt the feelings of everypony in the clearing into polite words. “…..Well it’s just that we still respect you and all……”

“….But that was by far the lamest thing I have ever seen.” Lightning dust finishes with absolutely zero tact. “And I’ve seen Flash Sentry here attempts to pick up mares.”

“Yeah, that’s……Hey!” The orange stallion turns sharply around to face Lightning “For your information Lightning, that mare just happened to have previous obligations. It’s not like she was intentionally avoiding me!”

“Yeah that’s why she had ‘previous obligations’ every time she you asked her out.”

“…...It could happen…..”

“It could happen fifteen times in a row?”

Ignoring the conversation between the two guards Twilight’s friends begin to talk amongst themselves at the appearance stunning first impression of Guard Captain Shining Armor. “Give me a break, they're brother an sister all right.” Applejack comments. “Ah’ve never met two ponies with such a bad sense of humor before, they gotta be related.”

“Indeed.” Rarity comments “it is quite rare to find two ponies that have such a…… unique sense of what is humorous and what is not.”

“Ah’ll say.” Applejack tilts her hat forward obscuring her face.

“And what’s THAT supposed to mean?” Twilight asks as she levels her most powerful stink eye at the orange farmer and ivory fashionista. However in light of the appearance of her brother she quickly dismisses the farmer’s words. “You know what, it doesn’t matter, I’m just glad to have you here Shiny I have had the absolute worst day ever, I really needed you here now.”

The group visibly lets down their guard as they all breathe in relief and begin to relax. Every one of Twilight’s six friends relieved both By Twilight’s improved behavior and the unorthodox appearance of the Captain of the Royal guard greeting them. And if Twilight’s previously dismal mood could be improved by being in touch with her family, than all the better.

“Zecora!” Twilight smiles with newfound happiness as she trots up to the Zebra “What are you doing here? Did you come here to keep an eye on my hopeless brother?”

“Hey! I’m not that bad!”

“Please Shining.” Twilight grins “You probably wouldn’t have been able to find the way to Ponyville even if you had a map! You’re totally hopeless.”

Zecora snickers at Shining’s embarrassment for a moment as mirth fills her visage. However as soon as it appeared, the happiness vanishes, leaving both the Guard Captain and the Zebra with somber expressions on their faces. “Twilight sparkle.” Zecora begins sadly “as you might know. Our presence is important and though, we are happy to see you so, our news strikes deep as the arrow from a bow.”

Zecora’s tone instantly conveys to Twilight all the indication of something being is very wrong “Shining? Why are you here?” The lavender mare asks nervously as her hooves stand rooted to the ground. “I know that you are excited to see me but you’re the Captain of the Royal guard, you wouldn’t come here unless……. Unless something was wrong.”

Twilight gulps heavily as a dark creeping sensation passes through her bones. “T-This is….. what are you all doing here? Shining? Please, why are you here looking for me?”

Looking his scared sister in the eyes Shining armor sighs deeply “I-I’m sorry Twilly. I hate to see you like this but I come bearing bad news.”

“Bad news?” Twilight asks as she takes a step back “What’s the bad…woah!”

In that disastrous moment, a moment that will indeed change the world, taking a step back Twilight trips over a stray rock sending her falling to her rump. This accident may have changed nothing were it not for the fact that in tripping over the rock the large package of the corpse dislodged itself from her back sending it sprawling to the ground and revealing it’s gentle glow to every pony present.

Shining Armor’s eyes widen in dawning concern and worry at the sight of the hardened stone on the ground. Zecora audibly gasps at the sight at something so inherently beautiful as the stone’s radiance reflects off her stripes and muzzle her hoof covering her expression as she stares unflinchingly at the Holy Corpse. Trixie, the mare of one thousand snappy comebacks is struck mute her jaw hanging open like a bar door, as her mouth opens and closes gently in shock. And the entire Royal guard gasps as they back slowly away from the glowing stone. Twilight herself gives shining a look of equal shame and embarrassment, like the kind of look a fowl might have if they were caught with their hooves in the cookie jar as she realizes that there is no way this could end well.

“Twily…..” Shining Gulps “Where did you get that…. That much of the….” Zecora nudges the stallion causing him to snap out of his gaze. “Red Stone! Where did you get that much of the red stone Twilly? That’s way too much for you to carry around on your back.”

Shining Armor chuckles nervously as he surrounds the corpse with the pink aura of his magic. “So why don’t I take this off your hooves and we can talk about….”

“NO!” Twilight shouts. With a burst of her own magic Twilight causes her brother’s magic aura to fade sending the corpse once again crashing against the ground. With her own telekinesis Twilight deftly wraps the Large mass of fossilized flesh up in its’ protective sheath of cloth and places it on her back as she steps away from her brother with a look of betrayal in her eyes.

Shining armor originally prepares to raise his voice to chastise his sister to ask what she is thinking to assure her that he is on her side. But It is deadly clear by the look she has in her eyes that Twilight has no intention with parting with the object resting on her back. And more frightening of all, the look in his sister’s eyes tells the Captain of the Royal guard that she knows everything he has tried to keep from her for her entire life.

“I-I didn’t want to believe it Twily.” Shining lowers his head in worry “And even now I don’t.” Shining raises his face looking his sister in the eyes as he pushes down his own feelings of discomfort and regret for what he is about to do. “But you have just crossed the line. Now I’m going to give you one last chance hand over that, thing, on your back and come with us. Please Twilight don’t make this hard on yourself.”

Twilight though comforted by her brother’s words shakes her head back in fourth signifying her resistance. “No Shining I can’t hoof this over to you. I don’t know how much you know about the corpse or what it does, but you can’t hoof it over to Celestia. You don’t know what kind of power…..”

Twilight’s eyes widen as her brother’s reaction and his behavior around the complete Red stone course through her mind. In an instant the mare reframes her own brother’s his past behavior in a new light, leading her to a horrible conclusion. “…….oh sweet Celestia you know…….” The lavender mare’s legs shake as she falls to her hooves with a crash. “……You know what this is….. That’s why…. That’s why you’re trying to take it!”

“Enough of this!” Shining stomps his hooves “Twilight I’m begging you just turn yourself over. I’ll clear you of these stupid charges, but resisting arrest will only make you look more guilty!”

“Resisting arrest?!” Applejack shouts “What in Equestria are yawl talkin bout? Twilight aint done nothing worthy of bein arrested!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie shouts “And you can’t just go around telling ponies to listen to you just cause you’ve got a big fancy uniform! I know my rights! And I won’t be silenced. And you can’t’ arrest my friend for no reason! That’s a fact!” Pinkie shouts as she pulls the lavender mare in a tight hug as if unwilling to let her go.

“You’re right Pinkie.” Trixie states with a serious expression “Normally Twilight would be fine, no pony would dare touch the Princess’ student. But….” Trixie gulps back her worry as she manages to continue. “….But new information has just come to light, information that points to Twilight sparkle being the Traitor that has been tipping off criminal groups and terrorists to the location of troop movements and Red Stone caches.”

“And you think Twilight is this….. this Traitor, Trixie?” Rarity asks with her most offended tone of voice. “How could you even think that Twilight would be responsible for such horrible things?”

“It does not matter what Trixie thinks!” Trixie exclaims “The fact of the matter is that paperwork discovered that implicates Twilight of disclosing reports to third parties, the evidence does not lie.”

“Trixie speaks the truth.” Zecora nods “Though it feels as wrong as an ache in a tooth, Twilights’ actions with her stones has been most aloof.”

“Twilight? A Traitor?” Fluttershy gasps as her fear begins to give way to indignation at the Royal guards before her insulting her friend. “That’s….. That’s ridiculous! Twilight would never betray any pony! She’s the second most loyal pony I know.” Fluttershy exclaims as she turns to the rainbow hued Pegasus next to her. “Right behind Dash of course.”

“Yeah!” Dash yells itching for a fight “Instead of accusing Twilight of being this big bad traitor why don’t you back off and answer our questions!” Dash crosses her hooves “Or better yet how did you even know we were here! I you ask me you should be interrogating whoever blabbed our secrets of being this traitor, not Twilight!”

“It was easy to know you were here, for we had a friend that you trusted deer.” Zecora states as she turns to the light blue showmare. “Celestia sent Trixie to keep an eye on you, to determine of what is true, about the accusations that accuse, Twilight of being a Traitor.”

 “Trixie’s a spy?” Dash exclaims. “I knew it!”

“Trixie is a stand agent! Not a common snitch!” The showmare proclaims proudly. “It is my job to report suspicious activities to the Princess! Of course she would report the appearance of strange stones that appeared out of nowhere, and granted wishes!”

“Twilight.” Shining says with utmost seriousness as he tries one last time to assure his sister of his good intentions. “I know that you’re very confused about now. But you need to step away from that thing that fell out of your pack and come with me, as calmly as possible.”

Shining’s pleas are cut off as a Rainbow blur rushes the captain of the guard knocking him off his hooves. However with a dexterous flip the stallion lands back on his hooves with minimal damage as he locks eyes with the mare that knocked him over. Rainbow Dash demonstrating her innate desire to stand up to authority and protect her friends stands steadfast and firm in front of the stunned Lavender mare. “Like Buck you are! Twilight’s going nowhere with you, even if you are her brother!”

In an instant the entire guard readies itself only to be stopped by the wave of the guard captain’s hoof. “Stand down everypony.”

Murmurs fill the circle as Zecora steps up to place a hoof on Shining armor “Shining armor, I know that you trust in your sister’s innocence as do I, but….”

Demonstrating his normal confidence the stallion turns to address the Zebra mare “Don’t worry Zecora.” Shining turns to face the cerulean Pegasus with fierce eyes “I’ll handle this myself.”

The Pegasus hovers in the air as her stand surrounds her hooves. Smashing them together in a small burst of color the Pegasus stares down the guard captain in front of her. “You may be fine with dragging an innocent pony to jail against her will but Twilight’s in no shape to put up with your garbage. You may be Twilight’s Brother, but if you think even for a second any friend of mine could be disloyal to any pony then you don’t know anything about her.”

Dash lands on the ground her wings flair In a display of hostility as she paws the dirt with her hoof ready to strike. “So I’ll give YOU one chance to back off. Despite everything you are Twilight’s family so I’d hate to have to have to send her only brother back to Canterlot on a stretcher.”

Shining grins back cockily “Sorry to say this, Miss Dash. But you’re one hundred years too early to even touch me. And even if you were a match for me, my resolve to protect my country is far stronger than anything that you could possibly possess.” The stallion digs in his hooves for the defense, his horn crackling with magic as he narrows his gaze at the Pegasus before him “Don’t you underestimate the resolve of a solder.”

“And don’t you underestimate me!” the cerulean Pegasus states as she rushes towards the captain of the guard her hooves poised to attack. Closing the gap in under a second the mare hits the stallion at full throttle as waves of power course across her frame. The ground ripples and fractures as the mare smiles in satisfaction from her strong left cross. Surely such a blow could rend mountains, yet standing completely unfazed protected by a dark purple shell the captain of the guard stands unfazed.

Dash’s mouth gapes open and closed for a moment as she ponders how her full force blow couldn’t even crack this stallion’s barrier. Stunned by the results of her attack, the rainbow maned mare barely notices in time as a larger purple bubble begins to take shape around her threatening to trap her. Placing all four of her hooves on the shield in front of her the mare flips off of the barrier trying to escape through the hole in the shield behind her. With not a second to spare the mare breaks through the single opening to the blue skies above as the mare breathes an immense sigh of relief staring down at the stallion beneath her.

“What….. the heck.” Dash states with no small deal of surprise. “That was my best attack! What are your shields unbreakable or something?”

Shining blinks in surprise as the mare’s statement hits a bull’s eye. “Actually yes. But you were wrong about one thing. It’s not a shield, it’s my stand”

extending his hoof the captain of the Guard manifests a single bubble in front of his eyes. “To create an unbreakable shield, a barrier that protects from every attack at every angle. An invincible defense that cannot be broken. That is the power of my Bastion. You may have an impressive attack, but against my defense you can do no harm.” Shining grins as he taps the bubble around him causing the bubble to let out a thumping sound. “After all sometimes the best offense is the good defense.”

“So what?” Dash cracks her hooves unwilling to accept defeat for even a second. “A good defense doesn’t make a good offense. Even if I can’t break through your shields I just have to wait for you to drop your shield so I can attack.” With trademark speed and precision the rainbow mare sprints around the barrier with rapid sharp movements as if goading the stallion into attacking.

“That’s’ only IF I drop my shield.” The stallion smiles as his shield ripples, causing several tinier bubbles, each the size of a basketball, to pop out of the shield encasing him. The stallion’s horn glows with magical power as his aura shrouds the individual bubbles each of them suspended in midair around the stallion. The stallion’s horn blazes with telekinetic energy as the individual bubbles rotate around his barrier like the sun and moon around the earth, their speed increasing as the stallion swings the shields at the flying prismatic mare. Yet the mare’s speed and reflexes are far too fast to be hit by the stallion’s circling spheres as she drifts around them, peppering the main shield with attacks from her own stand Valkyrie. the ground quakes from her assault, but once again Shining’s shields remain unfazed by Dash’s attack the mare backing off as Shining armor swings all of his projectiles at the mare like a flail as the bubbles smash into the ground with force.

“Not bad reflexes.” Shining comments as his projectile bubbles increase in size from about the size of a basketball to the size of a large exercise ball. “But how about we stop warming up now?”

With a flick of his horn the stallion sends all the bubbles soaring at the blue mare who weaves through his attacks with her natural flying precision. Directed by the stallion’s will the bubbles follow the mare around making up for their lack of speed with their ability to attack from Dash’s blind spots with their larger size. Shining grins as his Bastion slowly encloses around the mare her movements becoming even more forced as she is forced to dodge attacks from every angle at once, the captain of the guard increasing the frequency of his attacks as he presses his advantage.

Suddenly Dash ceases her rapid dodging hovering in midair. With a pained look she realizes that she has been boxed in, Shining armor’s spheres covering every angle around her that she could conceivably escape from. Shining savors the Dash’s shock as she realizes that she has nowhere to run. “Got you!” With a wave of his hoof all of his large spheres move in from every angle to attack the mare cutting off escape as the bubbles threaten to smash the mare to pieces with their size and force.

Yet just as all the bubbles enclose on the rainbow mare threatening to crush her, she spins around in a cyclone of prismatic color attacking every moving shield at once with a full force barrage.

“USSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Spinning like a tornado the mare throws punch after punch kick after kick as she threatens to shatter the air itself with every explosive blow from her hooves. Yet this time the bubbles are blown back by the shockwaves from her hooves, the shields tossed aside by Dash’s superior barrage as the telekinetic aura controlling their movements begins to fall apart. Shining’s Telekinetic force surrounding the bubbles falls apart as they fall inert to the ground, All the ponies gaping at Dash’s superior display of physical strength and power.

“Ha I knew it!” Dash crosses her hooves confidently fluttering in midair “I knew your so called invincible bubbles weren’t so tough after all. Al I had to do was make a little wind with my Valkyrie and I just blew them all away.”

Dash fist pumps as she anticipates her victory “Defense is the best offense my flank! From where I’m hovering you can’t even touch….” The mare blinks as she realizes that the stallion is nowhere to be found. “Hey where did he go?”

“I’m right here.” With shock the cerulean Pegasus looks underneath her just in time to see the stallion purple bubble encase her in a dark purple sphere. Panicking at the fact that she has been caught, the mare quickly attacks the bubble only for it her best attacks to bounce off it like a fly against a pane of glass.

The stallion beneath her can’t help but chuckle at the mare’s humorous attempts to escape as he shakes his head condescendingly.  “That’s the weakness with fliers, it’s easy to knock them out of the air, and three hundred and sixty degree combat leaves a lot of room for blind spots. Which is why it’s textbook to attack directly underneath a pegasus where they can’t see you casting a spell.” Dash struggles even more against the barrier as she realizes with horror as the barrier is shrinking around her.

“You were right about one thing.” Shining admits “since no magic can pass through Bastion it severely limits my attack options.” The stallion states as the bubble shrinks around Dash even further.

“And I’ll give you credit where it is due, you are fast.” Dash presses her hooves against the wall of the shield as she struggles to keep the wall from closing in on her.

The stallion looks up at the mare watching as Rainbow Dash’s strength begins to give out. “But like I said you’re one hundred years too inexperienced to beat me. There’s a reason I’m Captain of the guard and I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t in part of my stand power. Not even grade four teleportation can pass through it. Once you are encased in my Bastion there is no escape.”

The stallion claims as despite the Dash’s great resistance she is forced into the fetal position where the shield stops closing in completely immobilizing her. “In fact if I weren’t letting air in you’d be suffocating right about now or you would have been crushed to death due to the pressure. I never take a life needlessly or injure a pony when I don’t have to, unless they give me no choice.”

With a serious look on the stallion’s face he turns to address the rest of the five mares. “Now the rest of you stand down, this fight is over. Just hoof over the Corp…. I mean that large Red Stone and surrender Twilight to us and nopony else will have to be hurt.”

“Now you see here!” Fluttershy shouts as she readies her Stare against the contingent of guards. “Now you may be big and strong, but if you think just because you have a big fancy badge that you can take a pony away from her loved ones in the middle of the night. Well then you had better think again mister!”

“An if yawl think we’re just hoofin over the corpse so yawl can use it fer yer own benefit…” The country farmer straightens her hat as she digs her hooves into the ground. “….Then yawl got another thing commin.”

“Yeah No way we’re letting you put Twilight in a dark scary cell!” Pinkie readies her fists.

“I concur darling.” Rarity says as she readies her own stand “I may be a classy lady but I’m not one to sit back while a bunch of bullies badger my friends and rob them of their possessions like common thugs!”

The guards ready their weapons as the four mares step in front of Twilight in a clear statement of defiance. Both sides show absolutely no signs of backing down as they forces slowly begin to advance on the other. The guards ready their helms as the captain of the guard solemnly sighs at what their mission has brought them too. Yet even he readies himself as he prepares to fight, his eyes cold and steely as he too prepares for the inevitable clash. Yet Twilight’s friends are no less resolved, even Dash in her captured state levels a piercing gaze at the soldiers before them. Each of her friends surround the purple librarian as they prepare to fight to the death to defend their friend.

“Twilight.” Applejack whispers to the mare behind her. “We’ll hold them off, soon as the fighting gets startin then run back inta the everfree. Run for the palace of the two sisters an we’ll meet ya later. Just make sure ya get the corpse as far away as possible. Now get!”

Yet Twilight says nothing.

Twilight watches as a battle threatens to wage in front of her eyes clouding over as her mind struggles to process what she is seeing. In her mind’s eye she can see the future of the corpse unfolding as if with her waking eyes. As in a fever dream she can see hundreds of thousands of ponies raise banners in her name each one chanting for her as they march into battle against the might of the evil monarch of the sun. The two sides clash, each pony fighting screaming and dying all for the power and glory the corpse can offer her kingdom. She sees it with her waking eyes, the carnage, the bloodshed and the ruin that such a power can bring. And in a nightmarish vision of what the future can bring Twilight stares in horror at what the future holds, all her friends lying dead and blood spattered at her hooves as she alone holds the power of the Corpse. Canterlot stands sacked the palace despoiled as she alone sits on the throne of Equestria the cold dead husk of her mentor lying at her hooves. The mare visibly shudders as she snaps back to the present watching as her friends prepare to go toe to toe with an entire contingent of royal guards, all for the sake of the corpse.

“Stop it……” Twilight whispers as her friends ready their stands to fight their faces

“Please….. stop….. please….” Twilight watches in horror as the guards ready their spears and their own stands as they prepare for combat.

With burning hearts and a desire to fight both sides charge at each other, stands at the ready as they close the distance between each other in an all-out charge. The sound of their hooves echo like the drum beats to a dirge as they both prepare to fight to the death, for friend and for country.

“STTOOOOOOPPPPPPPPP!” The unicorn screams at the top of her lungs both sides ceasing as both sides stop their charge. Everypony turns towards the mare their bloodlust and desire for conflict dying as they look into the tear-filled eyes of the mare. “Please stop this! Please stop fighting!”

Twilight’s friends perhaps the most touched of all deactivate their stands as they look to the distraught purple mare; their resolve faltering in the face of their friend’s heartbroken appearance.

“But Twi!” Applejack says as she points her hoof towards the royal guards. “We can’t just hoof over somthin as powerful as that ta Celestia. We have ta fight if we want ta keep it from their hooves!”

“It may be worth fighting for.” Twilight admits hesitantly as she slowly rises to her hooves “But is it really worth dying over worth dying for?!” Twilight cries out, her voice filled with pain and sorrow.

Everypony stops. Everypony aged and young, big and small, mare and stallion puts aside their own preferences and skepticism to listen to the lavender mare. They all look on as the lavender mare tears speak to them as much as her words do. “What good is all the power in the world if it comes at the cost of the lives of those who you love?  What good is peace if it requires death? What good will hunting each other do now? How much more blood needs to be shed over this power?”

With heavy hooves the lavender mare picks the large body of the corpse off her back and with a casual throw hefts the corpse at the hooves of Shining Armor. “No more.” Twilight claims as she wipes the tears from her eyes. “I won’t let another pony suffer because of this power. I won’t let it cost me my friends, or my family.” Twilight leans down exposing her hooves to her brother, captain of the solar guard. “I surrender Shining. You win.”

In an instant all of Twilight’s friends rush around the lavender mare requesting that she stop, asking what she is thinking, and begging her to reconsider all at the same time. Yet despite her friend’s pleas and logic Twilight trots towards her brother with the certainty and resolve that awes her friends into silence. Frankly Twilight’s friends don’t know how she can trust her life and the Corpse to a minion of Celestia, even if he is her brother.  But in Twilight’s heart of hearts, despite the her own disagreements with Celestia’s methods, Twilight knows that her brother will always be on her side. She knows that no matter what he will always be her BBBFF and he will always be her family.

With a curt nod of his head Shining armor gives the order and a stand collar falls across Twilight’s neck blocking off not only her stand powers, but her magic as well. As the bindings fall across Twilight’s form Shining armor picks the corpse off the ground placing it carefully inside his Bastion, protecting both from itself and any pony that might try to claim it. Twilight’s friends watch on in fear and apprehension as they watch their friend be bound and taken away from them like a common criminal in front of their eyes. As if sensing the group’s angst at their own powerlessness Shining addresses them to calm their fears.

“Don’t worry she’s in safe hooves with me.” Shining assures with the authority only a truly noble pony can muster. Rising back up to his full stature the stallion gives a confident grin to the group, not the cocky full of themselves grin an arrogant noble might possess but the calm reassuring smile of a self-made stallion. “I know you are all worried. But I can Promise you that no harm will ever Befall Twilly as long as I draw breath. Of this you have my word.”

 “Captain Armor!” an orange Pegasus recruit snaps a sharp salute “What should we do about the others? They don’t appear to be a threat……..”

“HEY!” Dash yells from inside Shining’s barrier “I take offense to that!”

“…….But protocol states that they are accomplices to the accused. Do we take them in as well?” The guard asks as Shining Armor looks over the rest of the group.

Applying years of tactical experience and investigative knowledge the military stallion comes to a quick decision. “That won’t be necessary First Sergeant Flash.”

A decision that makes him few friends within his own unit. “Captain Armor I object!” Lightning dust lands to the side of her captain. “They tried to assault you, and were in the possession of some serious contraband. It’s obvious that they’re our enemy.”

“For once I agree with Sergeant Lightning.” An orange Pegasus male says trotting next to his superior officer. “It’s obvious that they know something they should be brought in for questioning as well. I know that they are friends of your sister Captain Shining, but we can’t leave a single possibility to chance.”

Shining armor gives the ponies in front of him another once over, looking at the imprisoned Dash and the rest of his sister’s Friends before waving his hoof dismissively. “No, I don’t think that I’m going to do that, Instead….” Shining gestures over to the blue showmare “They will all be released under the observation of Trixie Lulamoon, for their own safety and so that they won’t try anything ‘dangerous’.” Shining smiles as he turns to the blue showmare “Can I count on you to accomplish this task Trixie Lulamoon?”

The blue unicorn blinks in surprise for a single moment before snapping into a hasty salute “Sir. You are currently the highest ranking officer aside from Celestia herself. Would you ask Trixie to impale herself you could count on her to accomplish the task. I will insure these hayseeds are safe from harm, you can count on me to keep them in line sir!”

Shining rolls his eyes at Trixie’s over exuberance. “Yeah…. Just don’t go impaling yourself any time soon. That’s a lot of paperwork right there.” With reluctance Shining armor turns to the rest of Twilight’s friends and with a glow of magic Dash is freed from her prison landing safely on the ground. “There you have it Trixie will insure that you are safe and accounted for as well as insuring the fact that you will stay out of trouble.”

Dash rises shakily to her hooves as she takes in long deep draughts of fresh free air. “But-But Twilight….. We can’t let you have Twilight.”

“Please, don’t worry about me guys.” Twilight says sorrowfully, her face a mask of concern. “I’ll be fine and I Trust Shining Armor and if he says that he’ll clear me of these charges than I believe him. Just wait for me in the Library and fill in Trixie on what’s’ going on until I can clear this mess up.” The mare levels her gaze at the more impulsive members of the group “And I don’t want to hear any plans of breaking me out or endangering the lives of the solar guards. Are we clear?”

The rest of the group nods emphatically under the piercing gaze of Twilight sparkle, knowing just how fierce the mare can get and knowing that any disobedience will not be tolerated.

Shining armor snickers under his breath at how his little sister has bred fear into such an impulsive group of mares. Their job complete Shining gives an immense sigh of relief for the fact that they were able to complete their mission without major bloodshed. “Don’t worry about Twily.” Shining armor assures them once again. “This isn’t the first time that she’s gotten in trouble. We’ll keep her safe while we get to the bottom of this mess.”

Dash raises her voice eager to get in the last word. “Yeah I bet she’ll be real safe in a prison cell.”

Shining visibly bristles at the mention of putting his sister in a cell. “She’ll be out before you know it. Just sit tight and leave this to the guard. I promise you that this entire mess will be resolved in ten seconds flat.” Shining grins mockingly at the blue pegasus

Dash’s eyes widen “Wait a second….. how did you know that was……”

“Trixie’s reports.” Shining armor finishes.

“Then do you know about how when I got my stand and…..”

“Oh yeah.” Shining grins as he makes it abundantly clear the level of blackmail he has on the Pegasus, as well as what he could do with said information in just two words.

Rainbow dash gulps heavily at the implications of what the Royal guard has on her as Shining Armor motions to the group of guards. Responding as if by clockwork all of the soldiers line up in formation around the captain of the guard as he places his helmet curtly on his head. “The rest of you are all free to go. Trixie will insure that you get to the library safely.” Shining armor’s horn blazes with light as his teleportation spell begins to reach its zenith

“And stay safe.” The stallion states as if an afterthought. “There’s trouble in this town that I can’t place my hoof on.”

The light of Shining’s horn grows to magnificent proportions as the stallion encompasses the entire contingent of royal guards in a field of pulsing magic power.  Before any one of Twilight’s friends can protest, the entire group of Guards vanishes in a scale of teleportation that would be impossible for any normal unicorn as the six remaining mares shield their eyes from the brilliance of the light. In a moment Lightning dust, Zecora, Shining Armor, and their friend Twilight as well as the Corpse all disappear in a flash of light leaving all of the other ponies gaping at the empty spot where their friend once stood. Trixie left behind by her superior officer trots up to the rest of the group however she is unable to speak a syllable in light of the situation as she joins the rest of the group in staring at the empty spot on the field where Twilight once stood. Everypony wracks their respective brain. Each one questioning their actions and words. Each one wondering if this was really the best way, if there wasn’t another way to help their friend, to save the corpse, to do something other than just sit there watching as their friend was taken into custody.

They each wonder whether or not what they did was right as a beautiful sunset begins to fall across ponyville.

“So….” Pinkie asks the rest of her friends a look of deep concern on her face. “What do we all do now?”

…………….

“……..What you do now is you tell us everything that you know!” Lightning dust slams her hooves into the table as Twilight flinches from the impact. “The reports that got almost fifty of our men killed and caused fifteen of our best stand agents to wind up missing came from your little base of operations!” Lightning dust slams her hoof into the table again. “Not only that but you seem to have recruited some ‘bodyguards’ to help your little operation in these parts. Your actions have been suspicious from day one; even the princess can see that!”

For the past thirty minutes it had been like this for Twilight. The moment she had arrived in the police station where the royal guards had currently made their base of operations, she had been tossed in her bare smooth walled cell and had an anti-stand collar placed on her that suppressed her magic. The room was a combination interrogation chambers and bunking room with its bed locked against the wall and had a single table nailed to the floor that Lightning dust was in the process of reducing to scrap metal. The chairs were cold and uncomfortable, probably on purpose, making it difficult for Twilight to focus on the details of Lightning’s words.

Her brother’s assurances had been reassuring and she knew that at least she had friends working to get her out of this mess. Zecora was probably updating the princess on the status of the Corpse Twilight recovered from the Everfree, Trixie was taking care of her friends, and her brother if nopony else was probably working frantically to free her from her cell. And then there was Lightning Dust, who had been drilling her for any information that she could, egging her on to slip up and reveal the slightest hint of incriminating evidence. However Twilight if anything was used to pressure, all she had to do was keep her cool, answer any questions as simply and truthfully as possible.

“And I am telling you that I don’t know what you are talking about.” Twilight says calmly and confidently. Yet even she has to admit she is beginning to crack under Lightning Dust’s pressure. Calmly the unicorn composes herself as she waits for help to arrive. “Look I did receive some reports of stand users dispatched to several towns. But I never had access to that many files, and the files that I did receive never left my specially designed magical safe. They were perfectly secure.”

Lightning dust sneers as she throws a heavy file on the desk. “Well this file fresh from the princess’ desk says otherwise.  It says that you requested several highly classified files from several ‘questionables’, and the fact that you say your safe was so secure makes it even more likely that you’re the leak. So, If I were you, I’d work on a better story than ‘I don’t know’ or you’ll be up river without a paddle so fast you’ll be begging the princess to spare your traitorous hide by the time she arrives tonight.”

“Then the file is wrong.” Twilight states with certainty pushing the fact that the princess will arrive soon into the back of her mind. In her heart Twilight hopes that Celestia will arrive soon to bail her out of this mess, but on the other hoof that would mean confronting her knowing what she has been doing for the past one thousand years. ‘Keep cool Twilight, don’t think about Celestia, you just need to hold out a little longer’ Twilight thinks to herself.

Lightning Dust as if expecting Twilight’s response rolls her eyes. “Oh then excuse me I didn’t know that the immortal monarch of our land was prone to making mistakes of this magnitude. My apologies, I should have known that you were completely innocent and all this evidence is completely circumstantial. I’ll go get the keys so we can let you out of this nice little cell, and you can be on your merry way.”

Twilight sits unfazed by Dust’s nagging sarcasm. “You know that isn’t what I meant.”

Lightning slams her hooves into the table grabbing the unicorn’s collar. “Then cut the garbage and tell us what we want to know or so help me…….”

“Lieutenant Lightning!” A loud authoritative voice causes Lightning dust to drop the unicorn immediately. “That is enough! Stand down!”

‘And good old Shining Armor. Right on time.’ Twilight breathes a sigh of relief as her brother strides into the room an angry look on his face.

The mare snaps a sharp Salute “Captain Shining I was just…..”

“Dismissed sergeant.”

“Captain?” Lightning dust asks “But I was just about to….”

“I said DISMISSED.” The captain utters in a tone that brooks no argument.

The mare considers arguing for a moment, but only for a moment, as she scowls and gets out of her chair making her way out of the room. On her way out of the room Lightning dust leans in and whispers in her senior’s ear. “I don’t think she’s intentionally leaking information.” The mare whispers. “But she’s still hiding something. I’m going to check on her other friends, they might be connected with Melodia and be extracting the information from her with a stand power or other method.”

Shining takes a stern look at Lightning letting her know that her normal roughhousing behavior will not stand, before giving her an affirmative nod. A brief smile crosses Lightning’s face as she salutes and trots out of the room sparing Twilight one more cautionary glance.

The moment Lightning leaves the room shining breathe a sigh of relief very similar to his sister’s, as her props up the interrogator’s chair as he sits comfortably down in front of Twilight. “Sorry about that, I know that you’ve worked with Lightning before, but her behavior just now was out of control.” Shining looks at the two way mirror sadly. “We’ve lost a lot of good men to these gangsters and thugs, nowhere near our max number of guardsmen but it’s putting everypony on edge. But enough about me and my boring life.” Shining says as he turns to his sister. “Can I get you anything? Glass of water? Cushion? A good book perhaps?”

Twilight smiles, realizing her brother hasn’t changed a bit. “So…. Good cop routine?”

“No Twilight.” Shining armor states “Big Brother routine.”

“Oh….”

“You better believe ‘oh’ what were you thinking Twilly? Going into the Everfree forest alone? Forget these bogus allegations against you, that was stupid.”

Mustering all her little sister pouting abilities Twilight crosses her arms in feigned frustration. “I wasn’t alone, I had five very capable stand users going with me, besides some pony had to discover what was going on with the stran…… I mean what some pony was doing with the corpse.”

Shining shuffles in his seat uncomfortably. “The Corpse?” Shining feigns “What kind of corpse? Did you discover some application that the Red Stones in the Everfree? Is it some kind of ambient magic from the Everfree that’s affecting the Red stones?”

The lavender mare’s eyes widen suddenly as a look of comprehension crosses her face. A look that she quickly suppresses as she continues on as if nothing ever happened. “Oh yes, if you found that large piece of ‘Red Stone’ in the everfree. That’s why you were acting so surprised that you reacted strongly to me finding it.”

Shining shuffles even more in his seat rubbing the back of his neck. “Well you know, Red Stones are dangerous when not in the right hooves. I’m sorry that I overreacted like that; I didn’t mean to hurt your friend Dash either.”

“That’s fine Shiny, Dash is a little impulsive sometimes, let’s just continue talking about some other surprising things.”

“Really?” Shining plays coy “Like what little sis?”

“Welllllll……..it was very surprising to see you waiting for me the moment I came out of the forest, I mean you’re captain of the solar guard, and there are a thousand more important places you should be!” Twilight comments nonchalantly “However the most surprising thing I’ve found out lately would probably have to be Celestia’s Arcanum.”

As if the military’s stallion’s poker face couldn’t get any worse he begins to break out sweating. “Celestia’s Arcanum? Oh, you mean the circle she used on Nightmare Moon right?”

“No not that one shiny! I’m talking about the Other Arcanum!” Twilight smiles and nods. “I was really surprised to find out that even after it was blown to bits Celestia’s Arcanum had saturated into the corpse’s pieces giving them the power to displace harmful phenomenon. Though I shouldn’t be surprised since the corpse was used to perform that same magic for over a thousand years.” Twilight’s piercing gaze cuts through Shining Armor letting him know exactly how far his lies are getting him.

In Less than half a second he somber expression on Shining Armor’s face gives way to a brief chuckle, as he realizes that any chance he had of downplaying his sister’s suspicions has failed utterly. “Heh, I can’t put anything past you little sis. You could always read me like an open book.”

“So,” Twilight straightens in her chair as she tries to hide her own disappointment “You knew. And you didn’t tell me.”

“Your orders were to get the Red Stones and address any abnormal issues in Ponyville. As long as you kept yourself safe and out of harm's’ way you didn’t have to know.”

The unicorn looks up at her brother with a hurt expression in her eyes “Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out? Am I really such a baby that you had to hide something so important from me? Shining if you know me there is one thing I hate, and that’s being lied to.”

Shining sighs at his sister’s anger. “I know Twilly. And that’s why I’m coming clean now.” Shining smiles reassuringly as he materializes a cup of coffee for her; pushing it towards her with his hoof. “I know that I haven’t given you a lot of reason to trust me, but I’m on your side.”

Twilight looks from the cup of coffee (Canterlot Black, her favorite) and her brother sitting right in front of her and without a doubt Twilight knows that she can trust him. Taking a deep swig of the coffee the mare addresses the stallion in front of her. “All right then, first question, just how long have you known about the existence of the Corpse?”

“That’s probably the easiest Question that you’ve asked today.” Shining declares. “It was when I made Sergeant major, just after I had perfected my stand’s force field abilities. You were, let’s see fourteen at the time and I was I had finished my rising through the ranks when Celestia and a few Higher levels of the military let me in on the real reason our country was so prosperous. The knowledge of the corpse is known to all the ponies of Celestia’s inner circle: ponies sergeant or higher in the military, the Arch-Ministers of the magic Academy, any high ranked ponies in the RSD and a few ponies in sensitive government positions. At the time of our appointments we were all told the general idea that the Red Stone was used to bring prosperity to our country but at the cost of inflicting misery on others.”

Shining smiles as he tops off his sister’s coffee. “Then we were given the two options. Option one was have our memories wiped of this knowledge and keep our rank and status in whatever branch we were in. And option two was to take this knowledge to our graves and become part of Celestia’s inner circle of her most trusted ponies, using the power of the corpse to insure prosperity for our country.”

 “And?” Twilight asks her voice filled with skepticism. “How did you react to this knowledge? How did it make you feel when you found out?”

Shining rubs his fore hooves together staring down at his strong muscular arms. “Well to tell you the absolute truth Twilly, I felt the same way you probably feel right now. Betrayed, confused, surprised, you name it. It was way too much to take in. It still is.”

The stallion stops fiddling with his hooves as he tries to make sense of his own answer “I mean I had just been told that a dead body was responsible for upholding our country’s peace. And that this same body was stopping plagues and war by sending it in a package to whoever was outside our own country borders. And to top it off…….”

Twilight looks at her brother as she places her hoof on his own. “Shining. I’m sure all this is very interesting but you’re still not answering my question. You’re still not answering the question that I really need to hear Shining.”

The stallion smirks “And the million dollar question is?” Shining asks with his normal charm.

“Do you think it’s right?” Twilight asks sincerely, her voice both serious and tender at the same time. “Do you think that it’s fair to make others suffer so that we can live long happy lives?”

The stallion looks up from his hooves, a funny look on his face as if he was unable to tell his own mood. But in time it quickly gives way to an even funnier response, serious smile. “Yes, Yes Twilight. I believe what I’m doing is the right thing.”

If Twilight’s world could get any more chaotic she might have suspected that Discord came back from Tartarus just to mess with it. “WHAT?!” the mare sputters “How could….. why… could…….. How could you say that Shining?!”

“I never said that it was easy!” Shining armor shouts, stunning his sister.  “No pony could be responsible for taking a life and just brush it off like it was nothing!” Shining grips the table as if he were a stallion clinging to a life raft in a raging storm.  “But…..”

With the discipline instilled in him over years of combat experience Shining armor calms himself stealing his voice. “But I am a solder Twilight. And as a soldier I am more often than not required to inflict harm on others to protect the ponies, and the nation that I love. Even if it means that other ponies have to suffer for it.” The stallion turns to his sister frightening even her with big resolve. “I want you to know Twilight that this is not a decision that I made easily, but when Mom and Dad….. When they died I realized that ponies need someone or something watching over them.”

“Shining….” Twilight says as her eyes begin to tear up.

“It was how I got my cutie mark Twily.” Shining says with a resolute look on his face. “I’m not trying to hurt others, I’m just trying to do my duty and make sure the power of the corpse is used responsibly and not abused by the villains that I fight against every day.”

Shining brushes an errant tear from his sister’s eyes “And believe me Twilight I don’t ever believe it is right to hurt others under any circumstance. But in order to protect the ponies that you love sometimes you have to make sacrifices. And if it meant someone else getting hurt so that my little sister could grow up……” Shining rubs the top of her mane with brotherly affection “…..then I’ll fight for you any time.”

Twilight looks up at the stallion she most respects in her life, her admiration for Shining Armor just short of princess Celestia herself. In her heart she wants to believe what her brother is saying is the right thing, and she does. Protecting the ones you love is part of being a pony, of being any living creature, but what happens when these living creatures have to fight and kill each other for their own happiness?

“If that was the case…..” Twilight states, her courage driving out her fear and giving weight to her words. “…..If peace had to come at the cost of the lives of innocent ponies, then I wouldn’t want it. If I were in your hooves Shining I would fight for a world where ponies wouldn’t have to sacrifice each other. That’s my wish.”

In the time it takes to blink, Shining Armor entire argument is matched by a single sentence. A single sentence spoken by his little sister had floored Shining Armor’s entire well-thought-out argument that he had honed over his entire life. Part of the stallion wanted only to reject such a simple answer and go back to his life of duty and protecting others at a cost. However the larger part of him could only smile at how grown up his sister had become.

“Well then, maybe you can make that kind of world a reality Twily.” Shining grins back. “But if you were to try it you’d have to beat me, and believe me Twilight I’m no push over.” Shining bends his bicep “I’m strong like a bull, immovable as the mountain, I’m not going to help you with your crazy quest just cause you ask. Besides Celestia would be pretty upset if I let you take the Corpse for yourself on the grounds that ‘you’re my sister’.”

Twilight chuckles at Shining’s’ comic display, no doubt an attempt to cut the tension in the room and relieve the distraught mare. However something Shining says does give the mare pause. “And how does Celestia feel about this…. This, corpse usage?” Twilight asks tentatively “I still care about her Shining, but…..”

Shining grins as he leaps from his chair. “Then when she gets here tonight you and her will have lot to talk about.” Shining gives his sister a genuine and encouraging smile “You just sit here like a good little filly and let your big brother handle this mess. I promise Twilly it’ll all work out, just sit tight for a bit.”

“I will BBBFF. Just hurry up will you?” Twilight smiles back “You weren’t exactly known for your speed, and you have put on a little weight.”

Shining opens the door to leave giving her one last smile as he turns back to face her “Hey I’m still in as good as shape as I ever was. I’ve just had to battle more paperwork than dragons lately.”

Both siblings give each other a small wave as the door closes behind shining armor. Twilight ceases her waving as she realizes she is once again alone, only the two way mirror for company. Yet despite her situation the mare can’t help but be optimistic about her future. “Shining Armor, why you always have to have the last word?”

Looking over to her now opened cot the mare is surprised to find a thick tome Laying on top of the bedding ‘Indiana Colt and the Chamber of One thousand Snakes’ to be exact. The mare squees at the appearance of the book and without wasting another second she jumps on top of her bed snuggling into the covers of the prison cot as she reads the first page of a sequel she has been waiting for. “He he, Shining Armor you really are the best big brother best friend forever……”

Her big brother Shining watches with joy as he watches his sister snuggle in with a good book on the bed all her troubles forgotten, lost in a world of literature. The stallion smiles at how such a simple gift could make her so happy. True it had been a pretty big favor to get the book early, but the look on her face when she saw that he left it for her had been priceless. Brushing a single tear of joy from his eye the stallion tears himself from the heartwarming view before him as his gaze narrows to one of resolve.

“Now all that’s left is to get her out of there.” Shining states to himself as he trots over to his temporary offices just down the hall.

The door opens to the room inside as he finds Zecora already going through several different files at once looking for any signs and contradiction. “Shining Armor! Is Twilight holding up well?”

The stallion pulls up a chair “As well as could be hoped Zecora, she knows everything.”

The Zebra stops with a single file dropping from her mouth as she gapes at the stallion. ‘Everything? What do you mean by everything?”

Shining looks up at the Zebra with a look of annoyance on his face “I mean everything Zecora, the Corpse, Celestia’s Arcanum, one thousand years of peace. Everything.”

The stallion begins to look through the paperwork completely oblivious to the Zebra’s gaping mouth. “E-Everything? But how? Twilight is more intelligent than any mare I have ever met I shall admit. But how ever could she found out about the ‘IT’?”

“Twilight is smart.” Shining states as he flips through more of his paperwork “Other than that I have no idea. But that doesn’t matter now. Now we just have to get Twilight out of there and find the real traitor.”

Shining looks up from his paperwork at the Zecora. “Speaking of witch, when will Celestia arrive? I’ve placed my Bastion around the Corpse so it’s not going anywhere, but I’d still like to know when she’s going to arrive. With Nightmare Moon still on the lose I don’t’ want to take any chances.”

Zecora coughs as she readjusts her mood. “I sent Flash Sentry to deliver the news personally since Scrying at the palace seems to be out.”

“Again?” Shining asks as he slams his hooves against the papers on the desk. “That’s the third time this week, ever since this whole mess started communications have been unreliable.”

“That is precisely why I sent a runner.” Zecora nods “True scrying is faster however if there is any chance of our message getting out it is better to be safer.” With a cautious glance the mare looks over across the glass door out into the hall. “Until we find this traitor no news is reliable. And given the size of the corpse that Twilight has recovered it is far better to make it as safe as possible. Should news of a corpse fragment this large escape, then I shudder to think of the danger that we shall be in.”

Shining stops looking through the papers as his head lowers in worry. “Yeah I know Zecora. But right now I’m more worried about Twilight. Twilight may have hid the corpse fragments from Celestia but I think it was because of her curiosity, not negligence. It’s not right to hold her like this on these bogus charges, can’t Celestia see that?”

Zecora places her hoof on the stallion’s shoulder “I know. But that is not the work of her, but this Traitor. This ruse is a petty attempt to draw attention away from himself and It means that we are close to finding this coward. I only hope that we are on the right path and that Celestia will arrive as soon as she can.”

“Don’t worry Zecora, we’re doing the right thing.” Shining gives his assurances “No matter what they may say protecting ponies is always worth our efforts and time. Twilight is innocent and soon everypony will see it that way.”

With a deep sigh the zebra rises from her chair as she trots over towards the door. “You seem to have these reports in hoof, greater progress will be made if we divide our work. I shall check Twilight’s reports for discrepancies with the falsified reports as well as her alibis for times that these reports have been sent. Hopefully that should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Twilight is innocent.”

“Good idea Zecora you stick with that. I had a copy of Twilight’s reports brought to the lower offices just in case.” The stallion taps his hooves to the multitude of files on the table. “Meanwhile I’ll stick with these false reports maybe I’ll be able to find out who this traitor really is.”

With a curt nod and a friendly smile Zecora leaves her friend to his troubles as the stallion stares at the mass of papers before him. “I only hope that Trixie is having better luck handling Twilight’s Friends, than I am with fishing out this leak………” The stallion remarks as he looks out the window at the Golden Oaks library in the distance.

…………….

WACK

The showmare falls to the ground from Rainbow’s sudden Punch her hat flying off her head from the force of the blow.

“Okay, The Great and Powerful Trixie Probably deserved that…..” Trixie says as she slowly rises to her hooves.

“No that was just to make me feel better. “Dash states as she picks up Trixie by her cape for another punch “This if for betraying us.”

WHAM

This time Rainbow’s bow is stopped by Trixie’s quickly manifested stand which parries Dash’s blow with its’ hardened elbow. “Enough of this, Trixie grows bored of being a punching bag.” With two deft punches the showmare sends the Pegasus sprawling to the ground smiling as Dash tries to pick herself up again.

“I just hit you once you arrogant jerk!” Dash exclaims as she rises to her hooves “Unless you really would like me to turn you into a punching bag!”

Trixie readies her stand it’s cape bristling in the aether. “Bring it on, you windbag.”

The two mares stand in the confines of the library all their friends watching on as Trixie and Rainbow Dash prepare to once again duke it out. However this time the fight between Dash and yet another fight is cut off by Fluttershy waking between the two of them “Both of you just stop it! We’re friends we shouldn’t be fighting like this. Violence won’t solve anything so the two of you just stop and talk things out like normal ponies before I have to use my Stare.”

Trixie and Dash glare at each other for a few more seconds before giving into Fluttershy’s pleading demands. Trixie quickly reverting back to her smug persona “in case you forgot….” Trixie reminds the Cerulean Pegasus “It was not Trixie’s reports to the princess that got her arrested. It was the falsified reports that accused her of revealing her knowledge of key troop locations and hoofing off red and strange stones to a third party.”

Trixie takes a step towards the Pegasus to make her point causing Dash to fall on her rump. “Your anger would only get Twilight in more trouble, it wouldn’t help her in the slightest! Trixie’s decision to come clean and allow Twilight to go with her brother will insure that she is cleared of these audacious charges.”

Trixie laughs “Or did you forget were it not for Trixie that you would be locked up in a cell with her instead of under house arrest?”

Dash jumps to her hooves defensively. “So what? You still lied to us and blabbed to everypony that would listen about our most intimate secrets! What, was your loyalty to Twilight and the rest of us so weak that you would sell us out at the first sign of trouble?” Dash spits off to the side “Some friend you are……”

“In case you forgot Dashie.” Trixie says mockingly. “It’s Trixie’s job to send reports to the princess. And if you were hiding something from her, like say the existence of the Corpse fragments, then it’s Trixie’s job to report it.”

The showmare lights her horn as she picks her hat off the floor placing it squarely on her head. “She is not here to be your friend. And her loyalty to the princess is greater than any loyalty she has to a hayseed like you.”

Rainbow is about to counter her argument when she is stopped by Applejack placing a hoof on her shoulder. “That’s enough Rainbow ah think that ya made yer point. But in case ya fergot. We still need ta tell her about the Corpse and all that stuff we went through in the everfree.” Applejack looks over to the showmare. “Trixie seems ta know all bout government pro-ced-ures, and all that stuff so maybe she’d be able to help us clear Twi.”

Dash looks back and forth between Applejack and Trixie. On one hoof, she would probably rather eat dirt that work together with Trixie at this point. However on the other hoof Twilight was in trouble and if there was a chance that this mare could help her……. Dash sighs “Alright Trixie, do you have any ideas on how to clear Twilight?” Dash asks “cause you see Celestia was keeping this big secret! See the Strange stones that we were collecting are actually part of this government conspiracy. So do you know if we can, like sue Celestia or something? You know, like when that hack of an author J.K. Yearling tried to rip off Indiana Colt?”

Trixie’s eyes narrow at the Pegasus her patience stretched thin by the pegasus’ grating behavior. “Explain.”

“Well you see….” Dash rubs the back of her head “How do I put this. Well Celestia used this Red stone of Aja to make Equestria all happy and all that, but it was secretly making other ponies miserable and which was really not cool. So when the Red stone exploded and everything, the pieces in the middle of the stone that allowed the stone to do that rained down across Equestria along with the red stones.” Dash takes a deep breath drawing in the air needed for the rest of her rant. “And the reason that these strange stones could grant wishes and everything is because they were actually…….”

“….. pieces of the Holy Corpse, Trixie knows.” Trixie finishes with utter seriousness. “You forget Trixie is a Stand Agent, a secret agent that answers directly to the crown. Of course she would know about the existence of the Holy Corpse.”

“WHAT?!” Dash yells “So you knew about the corpse all this time? And you didn’t tell us?”

Trixie nods “True Trixie did not know the details of the Corpse’s power, such that it causes other ponies not in Equestria to suffer….. She was only told that it was key to Equestria’s security when she was inducted as a Stand Agent.”

Trixie tells the truth with a degree of caution. “However that does not change her mission or the Corpse’s importance to Equestria. Without the Corpse’s power Equestria would fall into ruin, its existence is tantamount to the safety of this country. Therefore even if it did cause others to suffer Trixie would still use it in the same way that Celestia has used it.”

“Trixie….” Fluttershy says as small tears begin to drip down her muzzle. “How could you….”

“What?” Trixie asks oblivious to Fluttershy’s and the rest of the group’s previous conversations on this topic. “How could I support using a power that kills others? It’s called survival of the fittest Fluttershy. If it came down to it any other nation would use a power like that like a weapon and probably kill billions for the heck of it. Celestia has used its power to give all of ponykind a future. Pony kind exists in the form it is in because of the Corpse, we survive because we possess something our neighbors do not. “ Trixie narrow her gaze on the Pegasus “Or do you think it’s wrong for ponies to live a long happy life?”

Fluttershy shakes her head “No, not just that…. Trixie how could you lie to us like that…..”

Trixie looks at the saddened expression of Fluttershy and sighs heavily as if the burden of telling an excited filly that Santa hooves isn’t real. “Fluttershy, I Trixie Lulamoon, am a spy, I lie to everypony save my superiors. And to top it off I am a showmare, I make two livings off deceiving others, it is part of my job to lie.”

Trixie looks down at her hooves in shame. “I wish I could tell you that I regret lying to you and reporting your movements to Celestia. But I do not. I do what I do so that ponies like you can live in peace. I make the hard decisions that normal ponies can’t so that you live long happy lives.” Trixie states as she straightens her hat “So no, Trixie does not regret lying to you, nor does she think that the use of the Corpse’s power to insure Equestrian’s prosperity is ‘unjust’. The ends justify the means Fluttershy, so if Trixie can accomplish her mission by lying to you or if Celestia can bring peace by causing suffering then so be it.”

The group goes completely quiet from Trixie’s statements as the Blue mare proudly raises her chin confident that she has won over the rest of the group with her eloquent words and diction. Trixie is so engrossed in her own apparent success that she is unable to notice the disappointed looks on every pony’s faces as they are forced to stare at the pompous showmare before them.

“Well.” Dash says rising to her hooves “I don’t’ know about you guys, but I’m out.” Dash says as she walks over to the library’s well-worn door.

Just as Rainbow Dash throws open the library door to leave, Trixie finally is able to respond “W-Wait a second you hayseed! You are under Trixie’s government mandated protection. If you leave house arrest, Trixie will be in serious trouble. You can’t just leave me…….”

Stopping with a single hoof out of the door Rainbow turns her head and looks the showmare in the eyes. “Well then, sucks to be you…..” with a single majestic flap of her wings the prismatic mare rockets into the sky leaving only a thin prismatic trail as proof that she was there.

“Well, ah really don’t want ta get ol Trixie here in Trouble…” Applejack says sarcastically. “But I figure after she just lied to us an reported all our little actions ta the police, I figure that ah need ta get some shut eye in mah own bed and eat dinner with mah family.” Adjusting her Stetson on her head the orange farm mare walks out the door.

And straight into another pony, causing both of them to fall to the ground. Rubbing her head Applejack looks on at the pony before her who has already rising to his hooves and is apologizing profusely.

“OH! I’m so sorry!” The bulky earth pony stallion quickly bows to the ground, brushing his dark brown mane out of his eyes as he apologizes profusely. The stallions’ cutie mark, one of three blue horseshoes contrasts well with his light brown, almost caramel colored coat and gives him the impression of a young hardworking stallion. Yet despite the stallion’s size being only slightly smaller than Big Mac’s the stallion’s gaze was one of disconcerting appearance, seemingly staring straight through the mare’s mannerisms.

Before Applejack can even respond, the light brown earth pony stallion brushes the mare’s coat free from dust. “But I was in the neighborhood and I saw that this is a library so I was wondering if I could borrow a….” The smooth talking stallion’s attempt to get into the library is stopped by Applejacks’ sturdy hoof.

“Library’s closed.” Applejack states with a sense of finality that stops the stallion dead in his tracks.

“Oh my mistake then!” the stallion bows politely. “Well then if the library isn’t open I really need to leave! Excuse me.” And just as quickly as he appeared the stallion disappears running off into the distance with a level of speed one would not expect from a stallion with as much bulk as he possesses.

“That was weird.” Applejack says scratching her hoof. “Anyways Trixie, Yawl need ta adjust yer bad attitude, Twi may have said ta fill ya in and all that. And that fella shining Armor may seem like a good pony even though he had ta take Twi in.” The farmer looks at the blue showmare with utter contempt in her eyes. “But what ya did, and the fact that ya don’t feel sorry fer it means that there somthin real wrong with ya.”

Applejack tips her hat in a polite goodbye as she trots away leaving the library even emptier than before. As Trixie mouth begins to gape at the accusations that the farmer leveled against her as she struggles to come up with a counter argument for a pony that isn’t there.

Fluttershy dries her eyes and having gained resolve after watching two of the most resolute ponies that she knows, she rises to her hooves and begins to make for the door. The delicate yellow mare wipes the last remnants of the tears from her muzzle as trots gently out of the door. “I-I’m leaving too. I need to prepare for my veterinarian job in the morning…. So if you will excuse me….”

Trixie reaches out as if to hold the mare back desperate to keep the yellow mare from leaving. “Fluttershy! Trixie does not permit you to leave!“

The butter yellow mare turns around to face the blue showmare as a final sorrowful tear falls from her face. “Goodbye Trixie Lulamoon….. and farewell……” The yellow mare leaps into the sky flying away from the library as the blue mare is left alone.

An awkward silence fills the library as Trixie’s eyes water, a deep depression falling over the showmare as she watches powerlessly as Fluttershy vanishes out into the distance. A depression that quickly turns to anger at the irritating sound of a mare tapping her hooves together.

Turning around the showmare confront the offending sound with all of her anger “WHAT?! Who dares disturb the great and distraught Trixie?!”

Rarity taps her hooves nervously together. “Well if it isn’t so much trouble Darling. I left my best work just lying around in my boutique waiting to be finished.” The ivory mare turns her nose from the showmare in feigned indifference. “And even I have to admit that your actions in monitoring Twilight and the rest of us warrant a slightly more appropriate punishment. I think letting us leave would go a bit of a ways towards making up for your atrocious behavior.”

“Yeah Trixie!” Pinkie shouts “I mean we’re all still your friends and everything. I mean at least I’m still your friend. And definitely Twilight since she still seems to trust you for some reason, and maybe Fluttershy too. But that’s beside the point how many friends you have now because spying on others is super wrong! I mean you were Living at Twilight’s place this whole time you were spying on her! I bet you were watching her every movement, when she was eating breakfast, when she was reading a book, when she was alone in bed and thought no pony was watching her! I mean I know you’re like a super spy but even I’d have to draw the line at….”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie wasn’t spying on all of you all the time!” Trixie exclaims as a slight blush of embarrassment crosses her muzzle. “That would be far too creepy for a mare of class like Trixie. Trixie was only following her orders to spy on Twilight and keep you from discovering the truth about the stones and reporting your actions to…. Mmmupttt.”

Pinkie places her hoof over the show mare’s mouth. “……But you really need to apologize and say that you are really sorry for spying on us, cause Dash and Applejack and the rest of us are really big on trust. Cause if you can’t trust what your friends say than they’re not really your friends right?” Pinkie asks with her best cute and pleading eyes. “After all the surest way to lose a friend is to lose their trust. So if you want us to be good friends then you have to earn some trust.”

Trixie is stopped by Pinkie’s pleas for a second as she looks at the pink mare and think about the ponies that she has met in her time in Ponyville, as well as the effects her actions have had on them. For a moment Trixie actually begins to question her place in the world, and what her job and her actions are really costing her. Suddenly the memory of the bandaged stand returns to the forefront of her mind and it all becomes clear. ‘I’m not doing this for friendship, I’m doing this for Justice!’ Trixie reprimands herself  ‘I’m doing what I do so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to others. I am called to a higher cause, And if they can’t understand that, then they are no friends of mine!’

In an instant her anger returns as rips Pinkie’s hoof off of her mouth, her anger beginning to fume up again. “Well fine!” Trixie yells “If you don’t care if Trixie gets in trouble and don’t respect my position enough to stay then…. Then….. Then Trixie is leaving too!” With a huff of anger the blue mare puts her hat and without another word she barges out of the door leaving the other two mares reeling in the wake of Trixie’s response.

Though the showmare put on a truly marvelous show of anger, fooling even a large part of herself, if one were to watch the mare storming out of the library muttering curses under her breath they might be able to make out the small pitter patter of tears dripping down the mare’s face as she runs off into the distance completely alone.

………………………

Darkness has fallen across Ponyville, the beautiful sunset having given way to night over the course of Twilights’ return. Yet Shining Armor was dead right about one thing, in the dark of the night trouble that one could not place a hoof on stirred like a festering wound, seeking to accomplish it’s dark ambitions.

In the darkness of the night a dark cloaked figure wrapped in a black shroud trots down the obscured street it’s presence unnoticed to the entire world. Blending into the shadows as well as a wraith the cloaked figure comes across a small inn on the outskirts of town with a silent gait. Glancing only once at the sign in the window to confirm that he has reached the right abode the figure trots towards a well-kept but quiet inn with the demeanor of a predator. Reaching the door the figure places its ear against the grain for a few seconds listening for anything out of the ordinary before trotting into the light of the building. Careful to make sure that his cloak obscures its appearance and that the light of the room does not cut through the specially made cloak, the figure spies the inn around him. The small entryway and open desk accentuate the large roaring fireplace in the middle of the room and the cute mare watching the flames.

Sitting at the front desk is a tan manned yellow earth pony with the cutie mark of a dark blue bed and a rising sun behind it tapping her hooves on the desk impatiently. Content that there are no major signs of danger the figure allows the door to close cutting of his exit as he walks up to the desk. As the doorbell on the front door rings the mare immediately snaps to attention as she looks at the cloaked figure before her. “Welcome to the Pony’s Haven stranger! My name is Early Riser! Are you looking for a room? Cause we’ve got a lot of those here seeing as this here inn’s almost empty right now! All our regulars sales ponies are out travelin so we’ve got plenty of soft warm beds! Da ya need anything?”

Ignoring the peppy pony in front of him the cloaked figure cautiously scans the empty foyer, its ears listening to the slightest sounds to be made. “Is there nopony else here?” the dark figure asks.

“Welllllllllllll.” The mare taps her chin cutely “It has been a slow night here in Ponyville, there were a lot of guards that arrived earlier today. But they’re all staying at the Law enforcement center, they have a barracks there doncha know! I mean my inn’s good but you can’t beat free! But that means we’ve got lots of rooms for tired travelers like yourself since there’s nopony else here today! In fact I could even give ya a special if you are staying for more than a week!”

The cloaked figure throws a bag of bits on the counter causing the mare’s eyes to widen. “I was told.” The dark figure places its hooves on the counter “That there would be a pony waiting for me in room seven of this hotel. Would I assume that statement is correct?”

The filly takes one look at the bag of bit before sweeping it under the table “Oh so you’re that pony. Well then head on up! I’m not one to judge if you want a little ‘private time’ with your special somepony away from prying eyes! Don’t worry I have good earplugs so I won’t hear a thing! You go on ahead and have a good night and if there’s anything you need don’t hesitate to ask!”

The cloaked figure shudders in rage at the oblivious tan manned mare’s accusations as it looks up the curling stairs that lead to the upper levels of the inn. “Very well I’ll be on my way. In fact…” the cloaked figure states as if an afterthought “I do have a request; that is if you don’t mind.”

The mare smiles cheerily.  “Anything sir you just name it! Extra pillows? A room with a view? Anything except alcohol, this isn’t a pub after all. In fact that’s probably why ponies don’t come here as often as they should. Maybe I should consider getting a bartender’s license.”

“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble…” The cloaked figure states “I would very much like you to hang yourself.”

“All right then! Will that be….. um I’m sorry sir did you say….”

“Hang yourself.” The cloaked figure states with a tone of annoyance. “I wouldn’t’ want anypony to know that I was having this little meeting now would I? And since you were so nice to offer me anything I desired I would be a fool not to take you up on your offer.” The dark figure extends its hoof towards the now frightened mare “I should also like my bits back.”

The mare in front of the cloaked figure blinks as her eyes widen in terror. For a moment it looks as though she is torn between screaming, running for her life and punching the figure in front of her with all her might. However after a few tense seconds the mare extends her hoof under her table and hoofs the bag of bits back to the figure. “Well sure thing there. If yawl want your bits back ya can have them. now about that hanging what should I use for it? Do you want me to get a rope from the store or try and find one around here or…..”

“Just use a bed sheet. I don’t really care.” The figure states as he places the bits back in his cloak.

“Bed sheet it is!” the yellow mare chuckles as she reaches under the front desk for a long and strong blanket. As if unable to believe her own body is obeying such a terrible command her hooves shake furiously as the mare twist the long blanket into an improvised but solid rope.

“That’s good just make keep it quiet and make sure you don’t make any unnecessary noise.” The dark figure states as he begins to trot up the stairs. “One more thing, destroy the guest registry before you off yourself. We wouldn’t want anypony to know that my friend was here now would we?”

“No we wouldn’t!” The mare cheerily admits as she ties the nose with her hooves her face dripping with tears as she tightens the end of the makeshift rope to a key hook beside her desk.

“Very good my dear you follow orders well, just don’t forget to smile on your way out, we wouldn’t want you to go out sobbing like that.” The hooded figure trots up the stairs as nonchalantly as a pony would if they were taking a walk, uncaring of the mares’ obvious suffering.

“O-Okay, W-Whatever you s-s-say mister…..” The mare states as she throws the large book in the fireplace her face streaming tears as her body refuses to obey her. The dark cloaked figure lets out a soft and terrible smile as it watches the mare’s plight from the banister at the top of the stairs.  The mare sobs to herself as she ties the noose around her neck doubtless crying out in her own mind for any pony to help her.

Yet the cloaked figure is not there to help her, it came to this inn with a purpose and so it trots up the final few steps to the rooms above uncaring of Early Riser’s last seconds of life. Trotting past room five and six the figure reaches door seven just as a sharp cracking sound fills the inn giving way to an evil silence that signifies something being horribly wrong.

Slowly the silence of the building is forgotten as the dark cloaked figure slowly smiles, his face the picture of contentment and happiness one might have after crushing a cockroach or killing a diseased animal. With a small chuckle the figure opens the door to the room, closing the door behind him as the room is encased in darkness. The cloaked figure’s eyes pry the room for any sign of the pony he is meeting its dark eyes searching for any sign of life as it takes in the Spartan arrangements of the room. Bed, Wardrobe, table and lamp are all that fill the room and those are only visible due to the light of the moonlight streaming into the room from the only window.

The figure sighs as it turns over to the corner “Are you always this paranoid that you have to hide in dark corners whenever somepony enters the room?”

From the darkness of the furthest corner of the room a pair of beady green eyes opens gazing upon the cloaked figure with unmeasurable malevolence. “Considering what has brought us here, being cautious is of the utmost importance.” The dark grating voice of the figure states “Though I am glad to see that you have arrived. Given your reputation I had suspected you might be foolish enough to try and betray me and that this was all an elaborate trap.”

The cloaked figure chuckles darkly “If I wanted to kill you you’d already be dead. Besides I have no intentions of ending your existence. Are we not allies? Have I not given you all the information that was necessary for you to recover fragments of the Corpse?”

The dark figure in the corner narrows his gaze on the cloaked one. “I admit though your help has been... appreciated. Yet you yourself are quite untrustworthy, your motivations, your true stand power, all a mystery to me your most trusted ally.” The figure with glowing green eyes leans out of his dark corner to come muzzle to muzzle with his partner in crime “Tell me… why would you of all creatures would betray your country and its’ ponies? Wealth? Power? Or do you just like seeing the world burn down around you?”

“That.” The cloaked figure states with no small amount of venom in its voice. “Is none of your business.”

The figure narrows his gaze at the cloaked figure before him gauging his reactions as if a lion would gauge the strength of his prey. “So be it.” The dark figure backs off from the cloaked one “you want to talk about business? Let us talk business.”

“Very well.” The cloaked figure states coldly “let us convene, I have precious little time before those fools recognize my absence and I would prefer to keep this meeting as quick as possible.”

The dark figure with green eyes leans against the wall unwilling to relax even the slightest amount in front of the cloaked figure before him. “On to our plan then. We both know why we are here, to claim the Corpse and tie up some ‘loose ends’.”

The stallion in the corner comments “However due to your….” The pony clears his throat “….position, you cannot blow your cover and must rely on my superior strength to recover the corpse so that you might escape blame. I escape with the corpse, Twilight and her friends take the fall for its disappearance, and the evidence insures that she is hung as a Traitor, everypony wins.”

“NO.” The voice booms. “No more half measures or loose ends. The Royal guards, the pesky stand users, but most importantly, Twilight Sparkle, put them all to the sword.” The cloaked figure states with a tone of ultimate finality “Everything that happens tonight must be pinned on Twilight Sparkle’s dead body. She must die a traitor to her country so that I might operate freely once more.”

The cloaked figure looks out the window as the moon parts through the clouds in the horizon. “Still I cannot believe that Twilight would hoof over the corpse so easily. The fool.” the dark cloaked figure growls “Giving up the infinite power of the corpse all because she was afraid of a little bloodshed, she herself has proven that she is unworthy of its infinite power. How ironic that because of her pathetic attempts to avoid conflict that she has orchestrated the deaths of all of the ponies in this town.”

“All of them?” the dark figure in the corner asks skeptically.

“ALL of them.” The cloaked figure confirms “Any pony that knows anything significant about the Red stones or the Corpse must be dead by night’s end.” Reaching into the dark folds of his cloak the figure throws a paper scroll at the hooves of the stallion in the corner. “All the names, locations and stand powers of everypony in town are here on the list. I trust you can swat a few files without failure?”

The dark figure in the corner scoffs as he stuffs the scroll into the folds of his dark billowing mass. “You underestimate my power?”

“I underestimate your competency and your resolve. Were it not for my false information Celestia would be here by now and the corpse beyond our reach.” The hooded figure chuckles. “Given my ‘skills’ it was a simple matter to send a false report luring her to a trap I placed in the deepest catacombs of the crystal mines. If all goes as planned the monarch of the sun will be dead before she has a chance to raise her precious sun.”

The darkness surges as a deep red light illuminates from horn of the figure revealing his beady glowing eyes and purple misty eyes. “I thought we agreed Celestia was mine!”

Undaunted by the figure in the corner’s sudden rage the dark cloaked figure continues. “And upon delivering the corpse to the preselected location her bloody corpse will be yours in exchange for hoofing the corpse over to me. You wanted her dead; don’t fret on the details of my plans, while yours remain unaccomplished.” The dark hooded figure snaps. “Celestia is out of the way and communications and reinforcements have been cut off from this town. All that remains is for you to recover the corpse and eliminate the ‘completion’. If you can even call the trash that populates this town that.”

The glow from the horn of the figure in the darkness dies down as the figure smiles with vampiric teeth. “Taken care of. I already have two of my best ranking stand users in this town, their talents are…… unique…… they will be useful in helping me eliminate my foes and recover the Holy Corpse’s power.”

“You mean OUR foes.” The hooded figure corrects. “Were it not for my information you would not have known that Celestia had lost her possession of the Corpse. In addition had I not revealed the movements of the army to you would have never acquired as many of the Corpse fragments as you did. For all your muscle and talk you are nothing but a powered thug, it is only thanks to me that this operation is possible.”

The room grows quiet only the sound or rusty pipes and flowing water filling the room. Coming out from the darkness of the corner a voice speaks. “Your information has been beneficial to me, Traitor. And as we both share an enemy in Celestia and a desire for the corpse I have consented to working with you.”

 In a single moment far too fast for an eye to perceive in the darkness of the room around them a grey hoof grabs the cloaked pony by the throat. “But do not dare to presume to be my better. And do not dare underestimate my power. What I do is not for your benefit, I am not one of your tools that is to be used for your own ends. And the moment that you betray me you will most certainly die…….”

Reaching out from the shadows a dark stand of heart chilling appearance takes form from its user’s twisted psyche. Adorned in the most desiccated roll of bandages that one could imagine that stretch from hoof to head the Stand appears to be the victim of agonizing torture that could never be spoken of. The rusted black nails sticking out of its body and blood stained bandages only one part of a frightening whole. In addition to the jagged nails several spikes of what looks to be red crystal seem to have sprouted from the stand’s hooves and back forming serrated spines that glint in the moonlight. And bringing the rest of the picture together is a red crystalline mask, devoid of any features save the fact that it is divided into two parts. This gap between the upper half of the mask which hides the face and the lower one which protects the jaw, allows room to showcase the stand’s impressive and sharpened set of teeth as well as its several serpentine tongues. The crystal Red mask reflects the moonlight from the window, the dark figure smiling with a toothy grin as it squeezes the Traitor’s throat.

“….After all no pony that has seen my stand, Black Nirvana, has lived to tell the tale!” Releasing his hold on the hooded figure’s throat as the figure walks out of the darkness to back in the moonlight streaming in through the window. The moonlight glints off his sharply pinstriped suit jacket as the stallion’s serrated teeth gleam in the moonlight. The stallion grins at the moon outside his window as his smoky dark eyes and sharpened crystal red horn refract in the moonlight. With malevolence to match the stallion stares out his window at the town before him like a predator out for the hunt as he anticipates the carnage that is to come.

“The ruler of the new world is me SOMBRA! And no pony will change that!”

Chapter 15-Magic Mare-Take 1

Chapter 16-The Monster Within

The Monster Within:

No matter how bad her day was, no matter how horrible things would get Applejack was a mare of simple pleasures and preferences. And despite how badly the day had gone for her the fact that she could eat a quiet healthy dinner with her family filled her with the kind of subtle joy that could never be replaced. So it was that the entire Apple family (Sans Granny smith who had left the day before to visit Appaloosa for their national pie baking contest) sat down at the end of a very long day for supper. Indeed a slice of Apple crumble pie was almost enough for Applejack to put the day’s events behind her.

“So” Big Mac asks “How was yer trip?”

Almost enough

Sighing heavily the downtrodden mare turns to face her brother. “Give me a break Big Mac, like ah said before; I aint talkin bout it.”

“Are you sure?” Applebloom asks “Ah just ask cause ya seem kind of down.”

“Yep, now finish yer pie.” Applejack plainly states as she shovels another mouthful of comfort food into her mouth.

Dinner at the Apple family household had never been very loud. Despite the rambunctious nature of the Apples, dinner was a sacred time for them to come together as a family and love on each other. It was time to let everypony know what was going on the farm and what was happening in each other’s respective lives.

However the silence filling the dining area was anything but reverent this night, as the second eldest Apple struggled to push aside her own feelings on Twilight and the Holy Corpse. What happened to Twilight was kept a secret from almost every pony in town for a reason, It could ruin her good name and inadvertently reveal things about the Holy Corpse, and so Applejack too was sworn to the same silence as the guards ponies. Applejack still hoped that things would end up working out as they had always had however in her heart she still doubted that things be so easily resolved given how much hot water Twilight was in. And what about Celestia? How was she supposed to tell her sister what the ruler of their nation, a pony who could do no wrong was using magic to hurt others?

Applejack sighed deeply. It was nights like this one, nights when she didn’t know what to do, that she missed her parents the most. Though she liked to play the part of the dependable and strong hearted mare that her friends expected her to be, there were days like today when she would visit her parent’s graves to try vainly to feel like they were still a prevalent part of her life, like they were still a part of her life supporting her in her darkest moments. However she couldn’t let her brother and sister on to what was going on with Twilight, as far as they knew Twilight was still in her library snuggled up in her blanket safe and sound. So once again Applejack found herself pushing the truth further down inside her as she tried to keep her family content and happy.

However despite her lack of words or rather because of it the two other Apples knew that something was very much up with their sister. Applejack was good at keeping secrets, however when It came to hiding her own feelings on the matter she could be red like a book. Both the Apples knew that something was eating Applejack, however without Applejacks’ desire to come clean there was no way to get the Orange farm mare to fess up. Thus the three Apples sat in relative silence around each other Big Mac seeking to alleviate his sister’s sour mood and Applebloom seeking to take advantage of it.

“So…..” Applebloom picks at her food as she tries to phrase her question carefully. “Me and the other crusaders did as ya asked and we were REAL good while you were gone.”

“That’s good bloom!” Applejack smiles sincerely glad that her sister stayed out of trouble for once while she was gone.

“And since I was so good, that means me and the girls can have a……..” The yellow filly asks with pleading eyes as she attempts to lead her sister on.

However in Applejack’s mood she has absolutely no idea what her little sister is aiming for and so attempts her first frantic guess. “Um, an ice-cream?”

“Nope!”

“Um, a new bed?”

“That'd be nice but nope!”

“A new colt friend?”

“APPLEJACK!” the filly yelps causing the mare in question to snicker. “Ya didn’t forget now did ya?”

“Of course not Applebloom, I didn’t forget whatever it was that you wanted me to remember.” The mare states with the absolute worst poker face in the world.

The filly’s eyes fill with sparkles as she looks over at her sister “Does that mean me and mah crusader friends can have our sleepover?! Cause we sorta already planned it out…..” The filly whispers under her breath. “O Please Please PLEASE say yes!” the youngest apple filly asks as she levels category five pleading eyes against her unsuspecting sister.

Applejack groans as her sister’s aim suddenly comes apparent, recalling that she did promise her sister a sleepover if she behaved. Normally she would have kept track of something so important but with Granny out of the house and all that was happening it completely slipped her mind.  “Sure why not? As long as Rarity’s looking after yawl ya can’t get inta too much trouble.” Applejack picks up her plate placing it in the sink as she rubs her sore forearm. “As fer me ah think things will be getting back ta normal round here.”

The first word from Applejack all night that belies her true mood leaves her two siblings wondering what she is talking about. “Applejack? What da ya mean by that?” Big mac asks with no small amount of confusion in his voice.

Applejack looks at her brother with equal mixtures of sorrow and happiness “Ah mean that ah think ah’ll be able to work full time on the farm again. That on account that ah think that our little group is done and gone.”

Now they’re worried. ‘It’s no wonder that Applejack’s so down in the dumps’ both siblings think to themselves as if with one thought ‘she must be fighting with her friends!’

“Now sis.” Big Mac states calmly and surely. “You know that I’d be the first ta appreciate the extra help and havin you around again. But there’s really no reason ta give up on yer friends. With what yer bringing in from working with Twilight and the fact that yawl get along so well ya’d be a right fool for givin up on them.” Big mac places his plate in the sink from the table “Besides yawl are getting along so well with yer friends it’s be a shame ta give up now.”

“Big Mac is right Applejack!” Applebloom wines, her mood a complete contrast to Big Mac’s demeanor. “Ya can’t just give up on ya friends so easily. The Applejack that I know wouldn’t give up without a fight! She wouldn’t……”

“What do you know?!” Applejack snaps at the filly causing her to flinch in her chair. “Ya seem ta think that fighting is all yer sis is good for, well let me set ya straight Applebloom. Ya can’t fight everythin, and there comes a time when all things have ta come to an end, and when that time comes ya just have to accept it instead of complaining like a baby.” The orange farmer straightens her hat on her head as she prepares to walk out the room without another word, leaving her family stunned.

However once again Applejack’s conscience gets the better of her as she turns to face her family. “Look Bloom ah’m mighty sorry bout snapin like that. It just this is somthin that can’t be handled by just swingin hooves, it’s far deeper than that. And well…..” The mare struggles with her next words as she rubs her sore arm again. “….well there's just no easy answer fer it.”

“But Applejack….” The filly brushes her teary eyes away “You’re still friends with Rarity and Twilight and everypony else right?” Applejack stops rubbing her arm as she looks down at her hooves. “Ah mean, even if ya fight with each other yer still good friends right? Yawl just need ta get together and work it out!”

Applejack looks back at her sister’s confident expression as she thinks to herself. Could it really be that easy? If they all get together, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna and Twilight and the rest, could they find a way to make this work out? Applejack’s new hope is cut off by another painful throb from her arm bringing her out of her thoughts and back to her troubles in the present.

“Applejack?” the filly asks.

“Maybe Applebloom, Maybe.” Applejack says longingly “Ah’ve had a long day ah’m hittin the hay now.” And with those cryptic last words the mare trots up the stairs leaving the two members of her family who are worried about her completely in the dark about the situation that she has embroiled herself in.

Trotting down the hall with the same measured steps Applejack tries to maintain her mental balance as her mind goes through option after option to get her friends back together. Idea after idea on how she can bridge the gap between her friends caused by all this craziness courses through her head as she scratches her forearm viciously. However just as before an idea pops into her head thoughts are cut off by a sharp painful throb coming from her arm. This time the pain is sharp enough to cause the mare to wince as she looks at the red sore area of flesh that is causing her this much trouble.

“Must have been some bug bite.” The mare remarks to herself as she scans the hall for the bathroom. Finding the familiar room the mare trots into the enclosed and small enclosure, locking the door behind her as she takes a closer look at the large wart on her hoof. Pulling on the faucet the mare sends a cascade of warm water across the wound as she thoroughly cleans it out, washing her own face in the process. Looking from the tired eyed mare in the mirror to the wart on her hoof the mare reaches a quick and logical decision. Reaching under the sink cabinet the mare pulls out a long thin pointed sewing needle as she carefully places the tip of the point on her sore boil. The mare takes a deep breath as she prepares herself for the pain.

“No problem Jackie, just got to pop this sucker and bandage it up. It’s just like pulling off a band aid.” Applejack closes her eyes as she takes a deep breath “It’ll be easy.”

“I doubt that!” a grating and nasally voice responds.

Applejack’s eyes widen in shock as she searches the small room for the sound of the voice that just assaulted her hearing. “Who’s there! This had better not be another one of those Strange stone Hallucinations. Cause ah’ve had enough of those!”

The mare looks around the room in a frenzy pulling back the shower curtain, looking out the window and even checking under the sink. Finally content that she is alone the mare breathes a sigh of relief “Whew it must have just been mah imagination. See Jackie it was nothing.”

“Who you calling nothing you backwater country hick! I’m super impressive!”

The hairs on applejack’s neck stand on end as she locates the sound of the voice. Suppressing her rising fear the mare looks down at her hoof to see a large razor toothed maw on her sore hoof. Like a blackened blister with teeth the infection on Applejack’s arm has evolved into a monstrosity with a grinning smile.

“Hiya Toots!”

Reacting accordingly the mare fumbles back on herself as she screams out in terror. “W-W-What is it? What the buck!? How did this happen?”

“How rude!” the maw spits out “I’m not an ‘it’ you idiot, in case you didn’t know! Though I suppose with your level of education that’s the best greeting you can come up with.”

Applejack simmers with anger as the offending boil clears it's throat. “Well since you’re so slow on the uptake then I’ll tell you WHO I am! I’m a stand called, THE MONSTER WITHIN! And I just so happen to be occupying this spot on your hoof, ah may be small now but I’m mighty impressive. And let me tell you, gal my users got big plans for you!”

Applejack’s thoughts run at a mile a minute as she instantly recognizes the fact that this little mouth on her is very big trouble. Thinking fast the mare clears her throat as she addresses the offending boil. “So yer a stand hunh? And I take it cause you’re so talkative yer one of those automatic types hunh?”

“Well the southern bell got one right! Impressive. Well since you’re right I won’t deny it, yeah I attack automatically that means that even if you somehow attacked me, which would crush your own foot in the process, the big man wouldn’t get hurt at all!”

“Ah see.” The mare quickly realizes “And since ya can’t move of yer own accord, that means ya can’t attack. So all ah have ta do is put up with ya until I can beat the stuffing out of whoever is controlling you. That bout right?”

“Hey do you think I’m some helpless dope?  Normally I would have killed ya impressively! But the boss has a thing fer pretty mares like youse!” The evil maw grins. “So I’m gonna take over yer body and lead you right ta the main man himself, right after I use it to whack the other two dopes in this barn!”

In her rage the mare punches the offending maw with her stand causing both of them to wince in pain. “Ya seem ta have pretty good vision fer a mouth so why don’t ya go ahead an read mah lips. OVER MAH DEAD BODY. Now why doncha give up ya little guy an take me to yer user so ah can slap em silly?”

The maw grins at Applejack’s threats as it’s cheeks bulge “All right youse gal, prepare ta get yerself defeated by mah impressive skills!” with a shower of bile the stand spews forth a small projectile hitting the mare square in the shoulder.

Applejack winces as she reaches over to her opposite shoulder, and with precision pulls out the very needle she planned to pop the bloated sucker of a boil with. “That’s it? A needle? Yawl are gonna have to do better than that!”

However Applejack’s optimism and cocky bluffs quickly give way as her shoulder where the needle tit throbs painfully. Suddenly before her very eyes a large black maw pops out of her shoulder it’s sharpened teeth ready to bite.

“You dope don’t you get it? I’m a body type stand that infects others! Whatever part of a pony I touch I gain control over and every bite or wound I make creates another of me! I’m a stand that you catch, a living disease!” Applejack watches in fear as her own arm begins to move of her own accord. The mare tries to send her own commands to make her arm obey her yet every movement she makes seems to be overpowered by the offending blob. “And not that I’ve got some real control here, it’s feeding time!”

Applejack’s own arm moves towards the mare aiming for her neck and forcing her to dodge her own swinging arm. Falling to the ground Applejack holds back the savage attack of the stand gripping the inside of her own arm with all her strength to prevent the maw from drawing closer to her. With her great strength she manages to push the gnashing teeth away from her body however with every second the teeth grow close and closer to her main body as her strength begins to give out.

“Impressive aint it!” the mouth comments as it draws ever closer to the mare’s mouth “I can keep at this all day since there aint no limit to mah endurance! But as satisfying as it would be to keep at this till you croak I have a better way to end this little stalemate!” the maw extends its teeth in a grotesque way. “BIG MAC, COME QUICK I NEED HELP!” the maw cries out in a facsimile of the farmer’s voice. “See I can mimic my voice, Impressive hunh? Now your big brother’s gonna come investigate and when he opens the door I’ll give him a little kiss and he’ll be mine!”

The room goes silent as Applejack hopes that her brother doesn’t fail for such a ruse, praying that her own strength holds out as the maw draws closer to her body. However once again her fears go unanswered “Applejack?” a concerned voice calls up from downstairs. “Is that you? What’s wrong?” every step that echoes through the barn a death toll for Applejack and her family.

Releasing that she has little time the mare thinks fast of a way to take advantage of the relentless stand. “Big Mac! Don’t come in it’s a Trap!” Applejack yells as she struggles to push the advancing arm off to the side.

“Applejack?!” the hoof steps grow louder as the stallion picks up the pace. The door handle rattles as Applejack puts more of her strength to pushing the maw away from her.

“BIG MAC HELP ME PLEASE!” the maw cries out again in an attempt to lure the stallion in for the kill. However in the stand’s attempt to call out Applejack seizes her chance. Flipping over her body the mare moves the infected arm around her hind hooves pinning the snapping muzzle against the floor. With all its strength the mouth flails as it attempts to escape Applejack’s joint lock.

“Whew.” The mare breathes out in relief “That’ll hold ya piece of…” Yet in a moment of pure irony Applejack is cut off as the door is bucked clean off its hinges the force of the impact knocking the mare into the bathtub as the maw escapes from its bind. The shower-curtain falls around the dazed mare tangling her even further in her trap as the maw wraps itself beneath the cover of the plastic sheet its mouth licking its twisted lips as it prepares to savor its bound prey.

Pulling the now broken door out of the bathroom the stallion Big Mac looks around the room for any sign of danger as the light above him flickers on and off before sputtering out, no doubt a side effect from him pounding the door in. The heavy breathing stallion looks over the partially destroyed room looking for any sign of his sister straining his ears the stallion hears a sloppy mouthy sound and focusing his senses he notices the twisted shower curtain writing around in the bathtub.

Big Mac Rolls his eyes as he watches the figure flailing about and moaning in pain in an attempt to free itself from its captivity. “Not again.” The stallion sighs as he approaches the bundle “Now is, how the heck did ya get yerself tangled up in the shower curtain this time?” the stallion asks as he moves over to the cloaked flailing figure.

With simple predictable movements the stallion bares his teeth and begins to tear the offending pile of plastic from his sister’s body. “Ah hope yer happy Applejack. Ya made me buck down a perfectly good door and ruined our shower curtain! An to top it off ya made me think that somthin was really..…”

A hoof extends from the dark attacking the stallion’s muscled neck taking the Big Mac completely by surprise.  Big Mac yelps in equal measures surprise and fear at the fact that his sister’s hoof just bit him as he recoils away from the curtain. “S-Sis what was… YARGH!” the stallion leaps up as another bite from the orange blackened hoof snaps at him like a snake, he side of his neck and his own hoof throbbing in pain from the deep bite.

Big mac looks at the blacked maw attached to the orange limb that seems to somehow be attached to his sister as his mind ceases to function from fear. The mouth smiles as the shower-curtain is ripped to pieces by its sharp teeth. “Now then that wasn’t so bad was it?” The maw says causing all color to flush from Big Mac’s face. “Now how about you come over here and I’ll fill your thick pelt with my lovely kisses now?”

 The stallion flails back against the horrible sight as his hoof and neck throbs again the stallion looking just in time to see a similar black maw come into being on his own hoof its teeth grinning maniacally at the terrified stallion.

“IIIIIMMMMMPPPPPPPRRRRREEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” the maw screams as the black maw closes around his own flank. Foregoing any notion of courage, the stallion screams in terror as a dark and monstrous figure rises from the bathtub its multiple grins reflecting off the moonlight that streams through the window behind the abomination. Unable to cope with levels of fear and pain he is no doubt not used to the stallion mercifully passed out as the dark figure draws ever closer to his unconscious body.

………….

CRASH!

The yellow farm filly flinches as ceases packing the remainder of her bag, the silence coming from upstairs beginning to get to her. Big mac said that he would escort her to the Crusader’s sleepover when he said he had heard something from upstairs and went to check up on Applejack.

“BIG MACINTOSH! Hurry up up there!” the filly cries out knowing her brother hates being called by his full name “What’s takin ya so long? Ya promised ta take me ta mah sleepover, what’s the hold up?!” the filly waits and listens for the sound of her brother’s voice however the filly is surprised and frustrated to hear no response from upstairs.

“Applejack must really be upset if Big Mac is ignoring me….” The filly whispers to herself, her voice trailing off as she looks up the dark flight of stairs.

True she really wanted to go to that sleepover the rest of the crusaders had planned. However the more concerned part of her didn’t want to leave her sister alone like this, especially if her sister or even worse Big Mac was breaking things around the house again. The filly shudders as she tries to suppress the memories of the last time Big Mac brought a date over. They were lucky that time, only half their house was set on fire, luckily insurance paid for it, but she still lost some pretty prime stuff. Looking back and forth between her bag and the stairs the filly mentally debates her course of action, wait for her sister to calm down or go up or go up to try and comfort her herself. The filly looks back and forth for a full minute before finally consigning herself to helping her sister. With a careful hoof the filly begins to climb the stairs up to the second floor the hallway darkening with every step as the filly trots into the darkness above.

Reaching the top of the stairs the filly looks down the hall with apprehensive caution at the quiet that greets her. She expected loud noises, shouting, not library level quiet, and the fact that the hall lights seem to be out only makes her more cautions. The hairs on the filly’s neck stand on end as a door creaks eerily, blown by the open window at the end of the hall. The only source of constant light, the only source that allows her to see by, is the thin silhouette of the full moon outside, the moonbeams cascading through the window. Applebloom’s hooves shiver fear as she begins to walk down the hall with shifty eyes, surprised both by the fact that her own house could become the backdrop to a scary movie in under a minute and by the apparent absence of her siblings.

“O-Okay Applejack ya got me.” The filly admits as she looks back and forth between the darkened hallways. “Ah’m scared now, J-Joke’s over.” However despite the filly’s admission of her own fear her brother and sister are still nowhere to be found the shrouded hallway. The filly is about to bolt back down the stairs with all her strength, when the echo of gentle crying reaches her ears, the sound freezing her in her tracks.  Putting aside her desire to bolt out of her own house the filly gulps and perks her ears, swiveling her head in the direction the soft sound is coming from. The filly looks upon the door to her own room as she begins to clearly hear a sound whispering from the half open door to her abode.

“Applejack?” the filly asks as she trots over to the door of her own room the sounds growing louder with every step “Applejack is that you? What the hay are ya doin in mah room?”

“Don’t…..” Applejack’s voice struggles to utter “Don’t come up Applebloom….. run away….”

Applebloom chuckles a bit as she realizes the extent to which her own frady cat suspicions have gotten the better of her. Her sis is probably just crying a bit and accidently walked into her room by mistake. The fact that her sister wanted to be alone only makes the absence of lights and the absence of her brother even more appealing as the filly’s nerves calm down.

With trademark ignorance the filly rolls her eyes as she approaches the sound of her sister’s voice coming from her room. “Now sis ah know that confronting yer problems aint easy an all that, but if ya can’t just cry fer ever! Especially not in mah room! Now yer comin out of there even if ya don’t like it. After all it’s not like it’s……” The filly presses open the cracked door to her sister’s room as she trots in blindly “…the end of the world?”

The filly’s mouth hangs open as her rump falls to the floor at the sight before her. A slight gust of wind blows in from the open window, the slight breeze carrying the stench of decay towards the filly’s sensitive nostrils. The window curtain drifts lazily distorting the narrow beam of moonlight that refracts through the broken glass into several dancing streams.

 However dominating her physical senses and mental attention is a figure that could have only come out of a nightmare. Rising from her prone position on the floor her back turned to the filly, sits her sister Applejack her hat absent and coat covered in dark splotches darker than the pitch tar. Like a drunken pony her sister staggers, her face a mask of pain and fear small rivers of tears dripping down her muzzle. Yet what is stunning the filly to utter breathlessness is the fact that the dozens of splotches that cover her sister’s body, from her back to her hooves, and even a large mark on her cheek are grinning at her. The splotches are grinning at her, with sharpened teeth that put a manticore’s maw to shame each tooth catching the moonlight from behind her sister like a sharpened blade on a cool winter’s night. Each tooth gnashing at the filly in preparation for the meal they are about to eat. Each one, each tooth and mouth hungering for her tan flesh.

“A-A-Applebloom…” The orange mare struggles as tears of pain flow down her face “R-Run away!”

“NO APPLEBLOOM!” the maws speak simultaneously “Stay here! We’ll have so much fun at OUR sleepover you’ll forget about your little friends!”

Reaching a nope factor of a billion in less than a second the filly slides back on her rump as the creature that calls itself her sister lurches forward with the coordination of a corpse it’s jaws snapping in anticipation of devouring the little filly. The stunned and terrified filly lies on her rump as the form of her sister lurches at her it’s mouth’s open to bite.

“SPROUT!” the filly manifests her stand just in time as the creatures’ iron jaw closes around her neck. In less than a second the force of the bite is returned on the jaw itself shattering its teeth in an instant as the figure falls backwards both from the pain and the impact of its returned blow. The multiple jaws screaming in both rage and pain as Applejack flails about on the floor. Rising shakily to her hooves the filly gasps for a breath that she didn’t know that she had forgotten.

“A-Applejack, W-W-What’s goin on? I-I don’t like this anymore…..” The filly states as her legs quake threatening to give out from underneath her.

“A-A-A-Ap-p-p-pueblo-o-o-om.” Applejack struggles against the pain that courses through her entire body as she attempts to resist the muzzles on her body.

“S-Sis? Is…..” The filly gulps “Is that you Sis? Is it…. Is it really you?”

“RRRRRRRR AAAAAAAAAAA!” the entire body in front of her leaps towards the filly who barely sidesteps in time as the bulk of her sister’s body punches through the wooden floor the boards shattering from the force of her blow.

“A-Applebloom.” The mare sweats feverishly as her limbs begin to quake from an unknown strain. “It’s a stand attack. If ya get bit by these mouths ya catch……. A plague.” Applejack pulls her body out of the broken floor planks as she struggles to resist the stand’s might. “Ya gotta run, get Twilight, she’s at the police center. H-Hurry it takes all my strength to slow this monstrosity do-own.” The mare croaks as her body is dragged closer to her little sister against her own will.

“But…” The filly swallows her fear as she takes a step towards her sister. Her ragged breath echoing through the hall as she tries to suppress her rising fear. “But I can’t leave you here!”

Applejack’s arm extends like a coiled snake as the maw tries to take a bite of the filly. “YA aint goin anywhere ya little minx!” The jaw screams “I may have had use fer that big lummox of yer brother but I don’t need a little filly like youse.”

The stand smiles as its mouth grins at a figure behind her. “Beside I’ve gotta kill you impressively fer breaking my wonderful teeth like that.”

The filly freezes as she hears a loud heavy set of hoof steps behind her. Against her better judgment the filly turns around to see her brother, her big Brother who was always there for her who had vowed to always protect her covered in dozens of the same grinning mouths. “B-Big Mac?” the filly whispers. With the suddenness of an earthquake his large powerful hoof falls on the filly pressing her into the wooden floor with a thud as the boards crack beneath her from the blow.

The filly struggles to get to her hooves from the force of the impact as another blow from the stallion sends her skidding across the floor. Rising to her hooves just in time to avoid a chomp from maws on her sister the filly looks back and forth between her two affected siblings as the filly recognizes with horror that she is trapped in the center of the hallway with each sibling cutting off her escape. Either way out of the hall is blocked by the rapidly advancing monstrosities that were once her sister and brother as the filly is forced between a rock and a hard place.

“He He HE! There’s no way out little filly!” all the mouths speak at once “Your brother to yer back and yer sister to your front! There’s nowhere to escape.” The mouths state as they lick their lips in anticipation of the kill.

The filly looks between her brother and her sister as she is metaphorically and mentally backed into a corner. In such a situation any normal filly would be bawling their eyes out begging for what little mercy an inhuman monster could offer before being torn to shreds. However Applebloom was no normal filly, and she was no coward, and so she did something completely unexpected; Something that baffled both her siblings and the stand alike.

She sighed.

Not the kind of sigh of deep longing and regret but rather one of annoyance and mild frustration. It was the kind of sigh a pony might have if they their ice-cream cone fell in the dirt. Or the kind of sigh one would give if they lost a very memorable game that would be rubbed in their face. But it was most certainly not the kind of sound one would expect of a cornered filly about to die.

“Ta tell ya the truth ah didn’t want ta have ta use this right off tha bat but…..Ah think ah’ve absorbed enough force from Big Mac anyways.” The filly primes her arm as a stand appears behind her its’ shape not the static plant that Applejack had seen before but an entirely shiny new stand. Its piston arms and ribbon red mane flowing as if it was caught in a windstorm as the needle gauge on its chest hovers in the red.

“Applebloom?” Applejack asks “Is that….. yer stand?”

The filly looks up for a moment locking eyes with her elder sister “Hold on Applejack.” The filly looks down at the floor as if concentrating as her stand primes its hoof.

“VIBRATIONS!” With all her force the filly slams her hoof into the ground beneath her the force of her blow dissipating into the ground with a dull rumble.

The hallway goes quiet as the rumble dies down as the blow from Applebloom’s stand becomes a distant memory. Originally mystified by her stand’s sudden appearance the mouths begin grinning again advancing on the filly. “What was that? That wasn’t impressive in the least? That was just…”

Before the offending maws can speak another word the floorboards beneath them give out from underneath them with a loud crashing snap. Or rather it would be more proper to say the floor exploded beneath them with the force of stick of dynamite. Either way as the ground gives way underneath the two infected ponies they fall with a loud resounding crash that causes the little filly to wince from the incredibly loud noise. Applebloom looks down at the two figures beneath her, both her brother and her sister wriggling in pain underneath the multiple layers of broken rubble and living room furniture as they attempt to free themselves out from under the mess. Finally raising their hosts up to their hooves the mouths echo out whiny cries. “Alright that’s it ya little minx! I’m gonna kill you so impressively that…”

The ground snaps beneath the two ponies once again with the force of a stick of dynamite as the stand cries out in defeat “NOT AGain…………. ugh!” Applebloom winces both from the loud thud of two ponies falling another story and also from the thought of the grounding she is going to get from both her siblings when this is all over for destroying their house.

However the filly realizes that she can’t stop now, she has to stick to her plan. Reacting quickly Applebloom leaps over the crevices in the floor she just created and over to the window. Stealing her nerves the filly closes her eyes and jumps through the open window out into the cool night air using her stand’s power just in time to absorb the force of her fall. Breathing a sigh of relief that that worked the filly turns to face her true destination, the fortified cellar door behind her. With speed that would surprise even her, the filly grabs the large heavy plank that is used to secure the cellar door and with expert aim fastens the door shut just in time as a loud heavy thump echoes from the other side of the door.

 “Ya see that!” the filly shouts from the other side of the door confident that she is safe. “That’s the combined strength of mah sister mah brother combined with mah own strength! Ah stored it with mah stand and sent it through the house to attack the weakest beams all at once! That’s why the floor collapsed twice!”

The front door echoes from the impacts as Applebloom smiles with glee. “He don’t yawl even try it. That there’s an Apple Family Cider Cellar. That there door is made of the hardest apple trees reinforced with iron plates all ta keep out any who’d try an steal from us! There aint no way yer getting out of that easy!”

A large red hoof rips clean through the door as the metal bends from the impact of the blow. Applebloom’s eyes widen and her mouth gapes as she realizes that she has greatly underestimated her sibling’s physical strength. “…...I’m gonna go get Twilight now.” The filly states as she runs off as the door’s latches beginning to break and give under the monstrous strength of her two siblings’ assault.

……………

Putting her years of running away from trouble at her disposal the filly pumps her legs towards town as she quickly begins to put the barn behind her in the distance each hoof step a step towards safety and help. Despite her size the filly makes great time as she puts more and more distance between her two siblings and her as she barrels down the beaten path leading out of Sweet Apple Aches. Yet despite her speed the filly quickly runs out of breath and begins to slow down. Her lungs and body tired from the multiple surges of adrenaline, the doses of fear as well as her strained physical exertion forcing the filly to come to a stop a mile or so down the path from her house. Knowing time is of the essence but unable to continue for another step the filly stops and takes deep breaths filling her aching muscles with liters of precious oxygen.

Every breath she takes fills the filly with more hope and more energy as she reflects on the slim odds that she had to beat in order to escape from the stand attack that had already consumed her two siblings. Looking behind her the filly sees the edge of the barn off in the distance as the filly takes comfort in the fact that she has at least made good time so far. Her breath returning the filly prepares to make another desperate sprint, this time hopping to get at least to the front gate of Sweet Apple Acers when a mysterious voice calls out to her from the shadows.

“Hey kid.” a shady voice asks from the darkness asks causing the filly to skid to a halt. “Where you think yer goin?”

The filly stops in her tracks at the sound of another voice as her senses struggle to locate the pony that would be crazy to be out here at this time of night. “Who’s there?” Applebloom shouts “Show yerself! AH don’t have time ta play games! Ah have ta get to town so if ya don’t come out…….”

“Whoa Whoa little firecracker. Ah’m over here.” A stallion-esque shape waves from the darkness the faint light of his burning cigarette the only sign other than his faint outline that any pony is there. “Ah was just out fer a walk when I heard ya barreling down the path.”

“A walk?” the filly asks skeptically. “You were out for a walk? On our property? At night?”

“Yeah a walk, that’s right.” The stallion states as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. “So yer goin to town? Shame it’s so dark.” The stallion like figure smiles menacingly as the red light from his cigarette lights up his face and his piercing eyes. “Why don’t I help ya find yer way? Weze can go together, like mates.”

Even though she is not the brightest of ponies, the very stench of hard booze and smoke tells her that this pony isn’t to be trusted in the slightest. “Look ah don’t know what yer doin here, but ah’m not supposed ta talk to strangers.” The filly turns back on the path out of Sweet Apple Acres eager to put the suspicious stallion behind her and continue on her mission to save her sister.  “And I happen to be in a hurry so….”

“Heh!” the voice from the shadow snickers “that’s yer excuse? What do ya do everythin as yer told? What are you some kind of square?”

Her patience having reached its limit from the last comment the filly puts on her most serious tone to address the grating voice. “Look mister.” The filly turns to address the voice with her most accusatory tone “Ah don’t know what ya are doin here, but if ya need ta leave mah sister an brother are possessed! Ya gotta get out of here now an make fer town.”

The filly turns back to the path “Oh an to top it off even if mah sis wasn’t possessed she’d kick yer flank just fer trespassing so ah’d make like a tree and leave.”

The filly prepares to bolt back down the path only to be stopped once again by the silver tongued stallion’s voice. “It’s a pity…” The stallion in the dark takes another long puff of his cigarette, as if completely uncaring of the filly’s warnings. “If yer sister could mover her stand then she might be able ta keep herself from killin yoze. It’s too bad that mah The Monster Within, stops all their host’s movements, even stands can’t move when their owners are immobilized.”

The filly immediately turns to the voice in the shadows realizing immediately that this is no ordinary stallion. “Who are you? An did ya say that….”

“Yeah that stand that’s controlin yer sis is mine.” the stand user asks as he steps out of the shadows. The stallion’s dark brown jacket contrasts with his light brown coat, but matches perfectly with his dark brown greased mane. His Cutie mark, that of three dark blue horseshoes barely shows up in against the dark backdrop he surrounds himself in as he remains partially obscured by the shadows. Brushing his greasy mane out of his face with a free hoof the stallion straightens his jacket’s dark red tie as he takes another long drag from his cigarette.

“Youse see” the stallion resumes his beady blue eyes dancing in the moonlight “Ah realize that it’s a shame that ize have ta be the one ta finish off a little filly but ….” The stallion spits out his cigarette to his side “Ize can’t have ponies like youze soundin the alarm till Weze are good an ready see? So ah’m gonna have ta ask youze to listen ta yer betters get youze’s but kicked.”

The stallion attentions are divided as the sound of two ponies approach their ragged breaths echoing through the night. Looking over to the side of the path he sees the two apple siblings infected with his stand standing off to the side. The stallion grins as he greets the new arrivals. “And I see that my stand has been effective. Good job The Monster Within.”

“I TRY BOSS!” the mouths speak in unison.

“An ya got me a real southern bell this time now you two do me a favor an…....”

WHACK

His attention distracted by the appearance of the two new arrivals the stallion doesn’t notice as the little filly’s stand delivers a sound uppercut right in the stallion’s most sensitive area. The stallion suppresses a loud yelp of pain as he falls to his knees. “Wha……..“ The stallion gasps in pain as a tear streams out of his eye. “What was that fer ya minx?! Don’t ya know that below the belt’s off limits?!” the stallion groans as he rises painfully to his hooves barely able to stand from the intense pain coursing through his lower half.

“You kidnap mah family an try ta kill me, an you talk about playin fair?!” the filly yells “Now let mah siblings go an get outta mah way or I’ll wreck yer face next!”

The stallion takes on look at the filly all the malice in his eyes being conveyed in a single hateful gaze as the stallion gestures to the two ponies infected with his stand. “Kill her.”

With dramatic lurching movements the two ponies leap at the filly, their hungry mouths wide open letting feral slobber drip over their coats.  Yet this time Applebloom is not the same frightened filly running away from a nightmare.

If Apples were known for anything beside their love for their namesake, it was their righteous anger and fierce rage at those that would hurt their family. Before the horrific nature of the stand and the terror of it taking over her family had overwhelmed her senses and smothered her will to fight back. However by this point Applebloom’s rage had boiled over, meeting the stallion who had hurt her sister and brother so much had awakened a great beast in the filly, a beast that craved to beat the offending stallion to a bloody pulp. Her rage suppresses the little filly’s fear as she leaps forward towards her advancing siblings her stand at the ready as her stand levels a swinging left elbow at her brother Big Mac.

“VIBRATIONS!” the filly shouts as her stand power activates. The force of the stallion’s advance is absorbed into the stand’s pistoned arm and instantly returned in the stallion’s face. Applebloom recoils from the impact as her blow sends Big Mac head over hooves in the air only to land a half second later flat on his flank. “Sorry Big Mac,.” Applebloom apologizes to her unconscious brother “but if yer knocked out ya can’t hurt yer sis anymore.”

“OH reallllyyyyyyy?” Big Mac’s body flinches and recoils as his muscles spasm. Applebloom watches in fearful eyes as the battered bloody face of her brother’s picks itself up from the ground. The body’s vacant and empty eyes belaying the body’s unconscious state. “Are you Ssssssuuuuuurrrreeeee about that?” the mouths utter as her brother’s unconscious from picks itself off the ground. “Well then it’s a good thing that I still have an impressive possession of big Brother Mackie’s body then!”

Big mac’s mawed mouth on his torso leaps at the frightened filly who only dodges it’s sharpened teeth by a hair as the unconscious body rolls over in the dirt. “Big Mac?” the filly gasps for breath as she dodges another attack from her sister “N-No! it can’t be?”

“Impressive isn’t it?” the brown coated stallion watching off to the side states “My stand has the power to take control youse movin bodies an control them like puppets. So to put it in words a minx like youse will understand, my stand lasts until death! So if ya want to save yer family….” The stallion laughs “…You’ll have ta KILL them! An call it a hunch but ize don’t think a filly like youze has the guts!!”

The filly falls to her haunches before her circling siblings as the horrible idea of having to murder her only family enters her mind “K-Kill mah family……N-N-No…. Th-This can’t be happening!!”

Leaping at the stunned filly her own sister knocks the wind out of her as Applebloom skids on the round, dust covering her back as she slowly rises to her hooves. The stallion laughs evilly at the young crusader’s pathetic state. “Well then minx that’s a cryin shame, cause that means yer the one whose gonna end up on the choppin block.”

The stallion spits off the side as he advances on the frightened filly “Now da ya see the impressive power of mah stand? It can take over the ones most precious to youze an turn them against youze! And if ya can’t kill em, Then they’ll be added ta mah collection for the rest of eternity! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

As the stallion’s snide and mocking laughter echoes through the clearing his celebration of his imminent victory crushing the will of the filly to resist, her sister Applejack her body not her own looks upon her sister with a hopeless expression. Powerless to move an inch without resisting with all her might and unable to even manifest her stand, Applejack stews in her own powerless as she is forced to be the instrument of her own family’s downfall. Applejack bemoans her own fate as her will to resist like her sister finds itself crushed to pieces when faced with a cruel and merciless reality, that seems Tartarus bent on destroying her.

 ‘why….” The farm mare thinks to herself as she gazes on her sister ‘why does this keep happenen ta me?! What did ah do ta deserve this? I couldn’t’ save mah parents, ah couldn’t save Twi, and now ah can’t even save mah sis when she’s right in front of me! How could ah just let this happen…..’ the orange mare sobs to herself as she is forced to corner her own sister ‘this has ta be a mistake…. It wasn’t supposed ta be mah parents… it wasn’t supposed ta be bloom…. It should have been me who was taken…. I should of died in their place.’

Applejack cries out as her heart breaks within her. ‘I guess that deep down ah always knew that ah was powerless… I guess that ah knew all along that one day fate would catch up ta me…..”

‘THAT IS ENOUGH APPLEJACK!’ A strong authoritative voice echoes through Applejacks’ mind.

The orange farm mare gulps as her body moves off its own accord again as its razor jaws snap inches from her sister’s face. “Fluttershy?” the half delirious mare asks.

‘Now you quiet down and listen here! The Applejack that I know is always trying to help others even at her own expense. She is brave and always comes through when ponies really need her. I…… I always admired that Applejack….’

‘Fluttershy….’ The orange mare thinks to herself  ‘what da you know about me….. ah can't’ even save mah sister… I’m just weak….’

‘But I’ve realized something Applejack and you need to realize it too…….Sometimes If you want to help others, you have to depend on them. You have to be willing to let others do what you can’t do and just do what you can. So please Applejack, don’t say that you’re weak, you’re not weak, just let the others do what they can…..and do what you can in turn.’

Applejack’s mind snaps out of her stupor ‘is it really that easy…. Is that all ah need ta do ta beat fate? Just do what ah can?’ the orange mare’s previously stunned mind working overtime as she takes in her surroundings once more. ‘is there really somthin that ah can do?!’

“Enough toyin around.” The stallion grins as he gestures to the tow Apple siblings who flank Applebloom “Youze have been a troublesome filly, but let’s see how youze handle a two on one attack! Get er boys!”

Both the Apple siblings leap at the filly as Applebloom curls into a ball prepared to defend with her stand as her siblings raise their hooves to flatten her with their combined strength.

“Applebloom!” Applejack shouts in midair. “DUCK!!”

Reacting reflexively to her sister’s command, the yellow filly ducks low as the two ponies leaping through the air end up on a collision course with each other. And so with all the form and grace of a tap dancing elephant Applejack and an unconscious Big Macintosh crash into each other with tremendous force, falling to the ground in a tangle as they try to free themselves from the mess that they have gotten into. The two ponies lay flat on the ground with Applejack lying on her brother’s back as the brown maned stallion face hoofs at the stupidity of his own stand.

“Urgh you idiots! Get up off yer bums and attack again.” The stallion taps his hoof impatiently as the two forms writhe on the ground. “Well what are you waitin for? A compliment? Get up already!”

The two bodies flail and struggle as the mouths grin sheepishly. “Uh boss? We can’t.”

“What?” the stallion asks “So are youze sayin that yer disobeyin yer boss?”

“NO! or course not boss! We respect you way too much ta do that (and you also determine whether we live or die so that’s a plus in favor of obeying you).” The stand’s multiple mouths laugh nervously “It’s just that we literally can’t move.”

“What?” the stallion asks “What da ya mean ya can’t move?”

The two ponies bodies flail about however it appears that both Big Macintosh and Applejack appear to be going nowhere. “We don’t know boss it’s not very impressive, but it’s like we’re stuck to the ground with glue or somthin.”

“Stuck to the ground?” the stallion taps his chin “How could ya be stuck ta the ground as if by….. OH.”

Her plan having succeeded Applejack grins on as she gives the stallion a defiant look from out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, did yawl ferget about little old me?”

The stallion looks at the prone mare as his stand tries to rip itself off of the ground “You! You did something! What did you do?”

Applejack laughs mirthfully “Oh did you ferget about mah little stand power? True ah can’t move mah stand but it’s power ta fasten thing ta the earth is workin just fine.” The mare gestures down at the stallion beneath her with what little muscles she has under her control. “An it just so happens that ah have Big Mac here and me pinned ta the ground. After all ah aint county wrastlin champ three years runnin fer nothing!”

 “Applebloom!” The orange mare shouts out to her sister behind her.

“Um yes Applejack?” the filly asks as she rises back to her hooves as she watching her sisters’ back for instruction.

“Now ah’m givin ya a order as yer big sis now so listen up and do as ah say.”

The filly recoils as if struck. “Applejack yawl really can’t expect me to run and..….”

“As yer big sis.” Applejack states with all the authority she can muster “ah’m orderin you, to flatten this huckster.”

“Ah ain’t runnin and that’s……” Applebloom blinks several times. “Uh…..Applejack are ya tellin me to….”

“That’s right Applebloom.” Applejack states with no doubt an enormous grin on her muzzle. “Ah’m COMMANDING YOU, ta beat this huckster that’s trespassing on Apple family property to within half an inch of his life. And ah expect ya to listen….. now is that understood sis?”

Half stunned by her sister’s ‘request’ the filly shakes her head before a cruel smile crosses her face. Trotting towards the rapidly backpedaling stallion the filly cracks her hooves “Well ya know me sis! Always willing ta listen to my elders! An I wouldn’t want our guest ta feel underappreciated an all, so of course ah’ll listen ta ya like any good filly should.”

The stallion having his back to an old knotted tree growls like a cornered rat his flesh rippling as he faces the filly in front of him. “So, youze want a fight now do youze….” Suddenly large sharp maws appear from his skin their rabid jaws snapping in unison. “…Well come on then all ize have ta do is get one blow in an yer mine!”

The stallion rushes the filly with his newly acquired jaws as the filly dodges out of the way of his improvised attack. The jaws though frightening before are now just an obstacle to be avoided as the filly ducks, blocks and moves into position around the stallion blocking his punches and absorbing their force. Backing off from the stallion the filly raises her hoof to the heavens as her stand’s hoof begins to quake with suppressed energy. The stallion’s eyes widen as if anticipating the blow as the filly slams her hoof into the ground with deafening force, the ground quaking beneath the filly as her vibrations travel through the earth underneath the stallion. Unable to anticipate an attack that he cannot see the stallion is unable to dodge as the ground beneath the stallion explodes in a storm of earth and dirt sending rocks flying like shrapnel at the mawed monstrosity. Applebloom stands at the ready elated that her attack struck at point blank but knowing that the enemy in front of her will not succumb so easily to one attack.

And indeed she is right as the dust settles the evil brown maned stallion trots towards the filly, his maws crushing the rocks sent at him in their teeth as he grins along with his stand. “Heh is that the best ya got minx?”

“Nah.” The filly comments offhandedly as her stand pumps its hoof for another strike “that was just ta keep ya from movin so ah could hit ya where it hurts.”

“Oh? An where would that be ya….”

WACK!

With one well-placed blow to the stallion’s now exposed private section the filly strikes true with expert precision as she stallion senses explode in agony. The stallion writhes in insuppressible pain as he clutches his now very sore family jewels. This time he is unable to stifle a very girly scream as he huffs and puffs in agony. “WHAT did ah say about hittin below the belt!!! youze should be….”

WACK!

“AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!” The stallion moans as the filly strikes true again. “That’s not funny youze..…..”

WACK!

“URRRAGH!! I’m Gonna KILL YOUZE, you little…..”

WACK!

“S-S-Stop-p-p-p ya little…..”

WACK!

“AH said, STOP!” The stallion swings his hooves like a mad pony his pain turned to rage at the little filly’s defiance. Applebloom however blocks the stallion’s desperate blows with her stand recoiling slightly from Caramel’s rush as she readies her stand for another attack. Panting heavily from his exertions the veins in the stallion’s head begin to throb as he prepares to explode on the little filly, with all his rage as his weapon.

Yet as if recognizing the error of his ways the stallion calms down visibly brushing his tangled mess of a mane back to a semi neat appearance. “Nice try filly but ah can see where this is headed. Yer goadin me, tryin ta get me ta attack so ya can absorb mah attacks an send em right back at me.  Well that ship’s sailed and gone filly se ah’m way too smart ta fall fer that!”

Applebloom smirks “Funny ya weren’t smart enough ta fall fer it a minute ago!”

The stallion growls as he addresses the pipsqueak before him “Ah said I aint fallin fer that anymore ya minx. Sides I aint worried, cause yer little ‘attack’ just showed me yer weakness!”

The stallion sneers as he plots his victory “What ya think that ah wouldn’t notice? Ya seem ta take in every blow thrown at ya and dish it back at yer opponents. But those last few blows of yers barely hurt at all. So I’m thinkin that yer power gets weaker if youze don’t have any attacks to absorb. So all I have ta do is make sure ya don’t absorb my attacks an ah win!” the stallion smiles triumphantly.

Applebloom looks at the stallion with her best ‘are you kidding me’ look that she can muster. “Well then ya shouldn’t have attacked me just now cause from that last attack alone ah have enough power to knock ya clean out an save mah siblings!”

Rushing towards the stallion her hooves outstretched the filly readies her stand for her most powerful attack as Applebloom prepares to smash the gangster’s face in with one blow. “VIBRATIONS!”

With a powerful thud the blow lands on the face of her enemy, blood and bone go flying as the impact breaks the figure before her into pieces. However the sudden gruesomeness of the impact stuns the filly, she set the vibration at just enough of a level to knock the pony clean out. So why was her hoof covered in this…. Blood? The filly backs away from her opponent getting a better look at the battle field around her. The filly looks around to see the gasping stallion once again lying on his back, pushed away at the last moment by a new arrival. However the filly’s eyes remain locked on the ragged and dirt encrusted figure before her, a dark green pony with a cutie mark of an apple filled pastry drooling in front of her with a vacant lifeless stare. The figure’s torn face and skeletal appearance making it deadly apparent the figure is not alive, as the dead pony lurches towards the with with a will not its own as its eyes glow silky green.

“U-U-Uncle T-Turnover….” The filly asks with a whimper her hooves shaking at the desiccated appearance of the zombie before her. “But-But you’re not supposed to be……W-W-What’s goin on? First mah siblings get taken over by parasites an now, This?”

“Noteworthy!” the stallion in a cheap suit shouts as he rises shakily to his hooves, yelling at a figure that pops out of the darkness behind the filly. “How dare youze interfere! I just so happened ta have her right where ah wanted her! You necrophiliac!”

The figure that steps out of the darkness is of all things a Unicorn, his light blue coat embellished with a dark black outfit of what looks to be a priest’s cassock. The unicorn’s horn, nearly covered by his shaggy dark blue mane which matches the color of his musical note cutie mark, glows with an unnatural dark light that seems to crackle with dark malevolence. Tied around his neck seems to be a brass medallion of some kind of casket that accents his white priest’s collar. However it is the stallion’s deranged and luminous yellow eyes that seem to dominate the filly’s senses, as he glances over her as if she were simply not worth his time. “Well I’m sorry that you had trouble in defeating a little filly, but in case you haven’t forgotten Carmel we are all on a tight schedule tonight. And must I remind you a thousand times, I am an undertaker, not a necrophiliac, as you emphatically insist.”

The stallion steps forward as a bony figure adorned in beads and feathers materializes behind him. It’s appearance a dead ringer for a mid-sized earth pony skeleton dressed up in what appears to be yards and yards of colored string and jewelry. The Stands’ skeletal appearance rattles with every movement as its’ string covered hoof brushes against the ground.  “And while you were playing around with a little filly, I had finished with my designated task of picking up our ‘allies’ from the local cemetery with my HollyHoof Undead.”

The other stallion scoffs as Applebloom recognizes that she is surrounded by not one but two veteran stand users. “Big whoop! So you reanimate a couple dozen rotting corpses, it’s still nowhere near as impressive as my power.”

“A couple dozen?” The Unicorn levels his yellow gaze at the stallion as a deep and terrible moaning echoes through the trees. “Try a couple hundred, Caramel.”

Applebloom and Applejack’s eyes and ears flick around as more dark shapes begin to materialize from the grove around them. The rotting odor and putrid smell wafts through the cool night air, the odor of death drowning out the smell of apples that permeates the grove and replacing it with a much more powerful stench. The filly and the mare’s heads swivel around them as their breaths catch in their throats at the horrible sight before them. Yard upon yard of dead and decaying corpses some no more than skeletons trotting along as they close in from all sides like a plague of biblical proportions.

Had their night not already been filled with terror that would have killed a dragon in pure fright, the arrival of an army of Zombies might have fazed them. However the battle hardened minds of the Mare and Filly barely process the fact that the dead trotting at them were once living things, instead focusing on the survival and the arrival of a new threat.

‘dagnabit!’ the orange farm mare thinks to herself ‘now there are two of them? This is bad, Applebloom can’t take two of these guys at once! An if this guy’s power really does what ah think it does….’ Applejack raises her voice “Applebloom change of plans! Go on and git! Ya need ta get help now!”

“It’s too late for retreating.” The Unicorn states as his stand waves its bony hoof in a circle his stand mirroring his actions. In seconds both the mares find themselves encased in terrible ring of the rotting flesh the dead’s slobbering jaws, vacant eyes and horrible wailing a testament to the horror they find themselves trapped in.

“And in case you have failed to remember.” The Unicorn addresses Caramel, as if ignorant to the horror of the zombies moaning around him. “It was one of those ‘rotting corpses’ that protected you from an early demise. And though it would please me to no end to give you a proper funeral, our Boss has given us orders that cannot be ignored.”

Putting his two hooves together in prayer the Unicorn falls to his knees as he looks up to the stars. “We must put aside our passions and desires if we are to purify ourselves from our inner evils. For to cleanse ourselves of sinful desires is the hallmark of being able to face death without fear and thus it is the way unto the Elysium fields.”

Caramel throws his arms up in the air “And THIS is why I never work with priests!”

“I’m a Deacon……”

“Whatever!” The exasperated stallion shouts as he approaches Applebloom “Just stick to your dead bodies and leave the filly to me! I’ve got her on the ropes!”

As the stallion approaches the filly more of his twisted jaws popping out of his skin he finds himself barred from her by the arm of a skeleton corpse. Noteworthy sighs “Sadly as I stated so clearly before, we have a timetable to adhere to, and given that I anticipated for these siblings to give us trouble I have already brought a ‘pair’ with us that will insure their peaceful demise.”

The filly’s hooves shake as she turns to the Unicorn, her voice trying to retain all the courage she still has left. “B-Bring it on you, B-B-Bully I aint afraid of y-y-you….”

The malevolent priest flicks his mane back as two figures claw their way through the mass of corpses . “No little filly,.” Noteworthy states. “despite your claims you ARE very much afraid. It is regrettable that ponies these day fear death when they should embrace it.”

The stallion turns his head as he greets the new arrivals in the same way a pony might greet old friends. “However to fear death is to fear our own salvation. Do you fear going to sleep? Death is a natural part of the world, a necessary step one must take that they might purify themselves and enter the next world with a pure and noble heart.” The two ponies trot out of the shadows as the priest turns back to the filly. “After all why should one fear death when one has two such noble ponies to escort her to the hereafter?”

Applejack, her flank turned to the two approaching figures can only gauge by her sister Applebloom’s appalled and horrified appearance that whoever has just arrived is not  some pony good. “Applebloom? What is it? What’s goin on?” the elder apple asks her younger sibling.

“no…..” Applebloom recoils from the sight before her. The ponies before her barely look like the ponies that she once knew once upon a time, their torn flesh and worn stitches holding them together making them look even more terrifying as they stand a distance away from the filly.

“NO……” the filly falls to her rump as she tries to move away from the advancing figures. Their ragged torn coats and rotting appearance of the mare and the stallion before her. Their light green and bright orange coats cracked in mud.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Applebloom, unable to take the sight any longer curls up the fetal position covering her bawling eyes. “Take them away….. PLEASE! I-I-I-I’m sorry…. .PLEASE j-j-just go away!”

The reanimated stallion’s corpse raises his hoof over his own daughter, it's lifeless eyes gazing down at the filly as his eldest daughter begs for him to spare the figure beneath her. However the apple parents are dead and gone, no light of compassion or spark of recognition fills the figure’s vacant eyes. There is only the command of its master as the corpse swings its hoof down to crush the living beneath its hooves. The world seems to go in slow motion for Applejack as she is forced to watch as her father’s corpse prepares to crush her sister without compassion or mercy. It’s worn and bloodied hoof closing in for an otherwise fatal blow as Applejack cries out one last time for her sister the scene of utter tragedy unfolding so fast that the orange mare barely has time to react to the cruel irony of her father, an Apple killing her own flesh and blood.

And then the entire world goes white.

The field booms with the crash of thunder as both her mother’s body and her father’s disappear in a fury of white light their dried and worn earthly forms vanishing in the a pillar of light that comes from heavens. Applejack stunned by the scene unfolding before her blinks unable to understand what happened. Was it a miracle? The last wish of her parents to protect their children? An act of God?

No, it was a miracle, but not the kind of phenomenal kind that comes from beyond, but the timely arrival of a helping hoof when a pony needs it the most. Standing over her Applebloom her spear lodged in the exact spot where her parents once lay, the ground singed beneath her lance stands a light green Pegasus with a yellow flowing mane. Decked out in the full armor of the solar guard the Pegasus rises from the ground with a look of righteous fury at the foes before her gaze.

“What is this?” the Unicorn Noteworthy asks “How did…. Who are you?”

The mare flicks her cowlick out of her face as she stares down the pony in front of her helm accenting the fierce anger in her eyes. “Lightning Dust, First Lieutenant of the Solar guard currently assigned to a special task force in ponyville. I came here to observe the Stardust Crusaders for signs of being traitors. However being attacked by Melodia was the last thing that I expected to find.” The Pegasus chuckles to herself “Guess I owe guard Captain Shining those sixty bits, you guys are clean as a whistle after all.”

“The Solar Guard.” Noteworthy mouths “It looks as though our operation has been blown, and just before we could deliver the final blow.”

Lightning Dust Lieutenant of the solar guard looks to the pile of ashes where the two parents of the Apple family once stood as her eyes burn with barely suppressed fury. “HOW DARE YOU!” The solder points her spear at the priestly unicorn with levels of malice that could kill. “You scum. You dragged the corpses of these ponies from their graves to torment their children? That’s sick, even for trash from a gang like Melodia.”

The priest’s no doubt well organized and rehearsed response is cut off by the loud and tumultuous shouting of a much less intelligent adversary. “HEY watch your tongue ya minx!” Carmel shouts “Youze can talk trash about that necrophiliac all youze want But I’m a regional commander, Head of Prostitution Caramel Cider!  And I aint some common thug.” Carmel spits out in pride as he continues his rant without a thought. “An get this, weze were hoof chosen by the boss ta kill stand users! So youze better shut up!”

“……Caramel, can you ever shut that craw of yours?” the Unicorn shakes his head with pity.

“WHAT?” the brown stallion shouts “What is it now Noteworthy?”

“You just told her that we’re members of Melodia and our respective ranks.” The brown stallion flinches as Noteworthy continues “You also told her our names, and our mission, which were supposed to remain a secret.”

Caramel’s face blushes furiously as he realizes his mistake “S-So what! We’re going to kill her anyways so it doesn’t matter!” the stallion turns back to the soldier “You hear that ya minx, youze days are numbered and soon….. HEY don’t you turn your back on me! Ize am talkin ta youze you minx! Get back here an face me!”

The gaze of the solder torn from her opponent turns down to the no doubt traumatized filly as Lightning Dust places a gentle hoof on her head. The filly flinches from the touch however eventually the softness and gentle care of the Lieutenant win out as the filly looks up into her soft and caring eyes. “Don’t you worry there kid.” Lightning says with a level of compassion that one would not expect from a pony as harsh has her. “Your parents are free from that monster’s control, they can finally rest in peace. And no doubt they would be very very proud of how brave you were.”

The filly’s tears begin to cease as the Lieutenant raises her gaze to the vile brown stallion before her. “Now you just stay put and leave this to me. It’s about time somepony blew these guys away.” The mare grins cockily as she levels her spear at the stallion in the cheap pinstripe suit. “And you horseshoes are first on my list.”

The stallion fumes as a multitude of carnivorous jaws pop out all over his body. “It’s Caramel! Not horseshoes ya minx.” horseshoes shouts as he charges at the mare teeth gnashing.

With years of dedicated practice and focus the mare dodges the stallion’s flailing strike countering with a rapid assault from her spear. However the stallion before her is no slouch either and manages to dodge her rapid blows by a hair, each time deflecting her hardened spear tip with his sharpened teeth. Yet Lightning keeps up the assault delivering a flurry of blows from multiple directions as she slowly pushes the stallion back. Finally the stallion’s balance falters as Lightning dust ready for the kill charges in, only for her lance to be grabbed by the sharp teeth of Caramel’s The Monster Within. Lightning Dust frantically yanks the spear in an attempt to free her weapon, Caramel pulls back on the weapon and they both find themselves in a fierce exchange as they both wrestle for the spear in their hooves. However eventually Caramel wins the exchange with his greater strength yanking the spear out of Lightning’s grasp and sending it spiraling through the air as it falls imbedded in the ground behind the mare.

Seizing the moment as the mare recoils from having her weapon ripped from her grasp the stallion rushes in with his jaws snapping. A large sharp maw appears on the bottom of his hoof as he throws a sharp uppercut at the mare’s underside, putting all his earth pony strength behind the blow. “Got ya ya minx!” Carmel shouts as he prepares to finish her off.

However noticing the pegasus’ cocky grin, Noteworthy shouts out just as Caramel throws his punch into the mare’s unguarded sternum. “Caramel stop! Lightning’s stand power is….”

Caramel’s low connects as his stand bites deep into the pony’s unguarded barrel resounding force of the blow echoing through the clearing. Caramel satisfied with his blow smiles prematurely, confident that was a lethal bite. Yet the grin on the Lieutenant’s face dashes all of his confidence as the mare begins to glow, her body transforming into pure energy as her form crackles and sparks around the stallion’s hoof. In a time faster than the stallion can blink the mare vanishes flowing up his arm and into his body in the form of pure electrical energy. The stallion doesn’t have even time to scream as twenty thousand volts of electricity courses through the Caramel Cider frying his body in less than a millisecond as Lightning Dust reforms behind the stallion completely unharmed. Grinning confidently as the stallion falls limply to the ground the mare takes to the air landing before Noteworthy ripping her lance out of the ground in the process. Completely unharmed the mare points her lance at the Unicorn as she mentally celebrates her victory. “Riding the Lightning, a stand power that can turn its user into pure electricity, it makes me completely invincible to physical attack. But then again you seemed to already know what my power was didn’t you?”

The mare feints with her lance as the Unicorn is forced to back off. “All right then, one down! That only leaves you next, and I don’t think that you’re going to be any tougher to beat than that hack.”

The mare readies her spear to strike as the Unicorn manifests his bony stand for a fight, his body poised to defend against the sergeant’s power. The unicorn’s horn glows with a crackle of magic as he prepares for the inevitable confrontation when suddenly a look of surprise crosses his face. “Well though I would not be averse to fighting you, it appears as though your previous fight is not over yet.” The Unicorn points behind him at a sparking, smoldering figure slowly rising to his hooves.

The mare gasps as the stallion rips himself off the ground. “No way….”

Noteworthy sigs as Caramel struggles to pull himself up. “Well if anything could be said in Caramel’s defense….he IS hard to put down.”

Literally steaming from Lightning’s Lightning, the stallion rises to his hooves as he coughs up another cloud of burnt fibers “I”LL KILL THAT MINX!” the stallion rises shakily to his hooves. “I SWEAR IT ON MIZE MOTHER’S GRAVE!”

“But how?” Applebloom asks off to the sideline “That was a direct hit! There’s no way he’s still standing? What is he immortal or somthin?”

The stallion rises to his hooves as he brushes off his singed pelt. “Aze have ta admit that was, shockin. Turnin inta lightning like that, but luckily ah know how electricity works.” The stallion extends his hoof revealing his slobbering maws. “Take a looks here. See how my maws slobber?”

The lieutenant shies away from the gruesome sight. “I’m trying not to.”

“HEHE yawl should listen ta the boss!” the maw cries out “You see cause our slobber got all over boss’s coat it redirected the lightning away from his heart and lungs across his pelt. It was like a lightning rod was redirectin all that power of yours! Pretty impressive hunh?”

The stallion smirks as he brushes off the last vestiges of his damage “So lucky fer me and bad fer youze yer little bolt of lightning only singed mah skin a little the rest of yer attack was barely a Taser!”

“But it was still capable of knocking you on your rump, yet again.” Noteworthy smiles at his partner’s misfortune. “Though I suppose that is what you get for underestimating your opponent. First you fall to a filly, then a mare? What is next for the great Carmel to lose to? A rock?”

“Shut UP Noteworthy!” Caramel complains with no small amount of frustration. “Ah got this mare. So youze better not interfere or else!” The stallion grins “Sides, I’ve got an impressive plan to finish of the little minx.”

“Whatever.” Lightning remarks “Like the plan of some brain-dead mobster is a threat to me.”

The stallion raises his voice to yell at the mare in front of her, to tell her exactly how wrong she is. Yet that was exactly what Lightning was waiting for and with years of practiced precision the mare trusts her lance towards the stallion in an attempt to decapitate him with a single thrust. A fate that the stallion avoids by a hair as he manages to tilts his head to the side just in the knick of time as the thrust takes a chunk out of the stallion’s cheek drawing blood from Caramel’s big and pompous mouth. Caramel whimpers at the new addition to his face as he backs off to nurse his wound only to be hounded by the advance of Lieutenant Lightning Dust and her glistening spear.  Again Lightning’s spear blows are levied at the stallion this time her attacks are sharper and stronger the force of every blow pushing the pony back. Every blow cracks the stallion’s teeth and jaws as the force continues. Knocking the stallion off balance the mare seizes her chance as she readies her spear of the final thrust.

“Game over Caramel.” Lightning states with a tone of finality as she puts her weight behind the thrust, her wings providing a sudden and explosive burst of speed as she closes in for the kill. Yet this is exactly what Caramel was waiting for, as he reaches behind his back with a grin. At the last second the stallion throws his projectile at the mare her spear catching on the large glass bottle as it explodes in a shower of sharpened glass and noxious liquid. Averting her eyes as the glass pelts her pelt, and recoiling from the sudden shock of Caramel’s attack her blow misses completely leaving the mare wide open for a blow. Licking his lips in anticipation of the attack the stallion rushes in a large maw materializing on his hoof as he leaps into attack. Reflexively Lightning activates her stand at the moment of impact preparing to turn to lightning and shock the stallion once again. A sharp pain courses through her arm causing her to yelp in pain, however unlike before nothing happens as the mare feels deep sharp teeth dig into her flesh.

“What?” The mare gasps as she watches the liquid covering her mix with her blood and drip down across her pelt. The teeth of Caramel’s maw piercing through her skin and into her flesh as she winces in pain. “How did you….”

“It’s hard liquor ya Minx!” the stallion grins as his teeth begin to draw blood from the mare. “Se ize had a great idea, ya can’t turn ta lightning if yer body is covered in water cause that would shock ya too! That’s why I covered ya with the liquor, if yer wet ya can’t turn to lightning.”

The mare pounds the stallion’s hoof as she tries vainly to free herself from the iron grip of Caramel’s maw. “Damn! How could a loser like this discover my weakness like that so quickly? There’s no way he could find out my weakness all by himself unless…..”

“……unless of course.” The Unicorn behind her speaks up with mild, satisfied grin on his face. “We had some ‘inside information’ that just so happened to list the targets for disposal and their respective weaknesses.”

“The Traitor.” Lightning dust mouths almost silently before realizing the truly worrying part of the Unicorn’s words. “Wait, other targets? What other targets?”

“And I happened to think that a solar guard would be smarter than that.” Noteworthy looks at her with a look of pity. “Do you really think that the boss would take the time of dispatching his most senior members to a backwater town like this?” the Unicorn gestures over to the three ponies lying on the ground beside him with an obvious look of disdain on his face. “All to dispose of a stallion without a stand power, a farmer and a little filly?”

“…..It could happen….” Applebloom admits shamefully.

The stallion chuckles darkly at the mare’s antics as she tries to continually free herself from the jaws of Caramel’s attack. “No, if you haven’t deduced already, our stand powers allow us to create almost infinite numbers of shock troopers that are successful in overwhelming an enemy’s defenses with sheer numbers alone.”

“That means that our stands can create whole armies!” Caramel interrupts. “Noteworthy and his lame undead, and me and my ultra-impressive army of infected slaves that obey my every command!”

“…. As I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted.” Noteworthy continues, glaring at Caramel with a furious look at the world ‘rudely’. “Our mission to put it in simple terms is to attack the town, and the police headquarters to retrieve the corpse and eliminate all the stand users who might oppose us.”

“ATTACK THE TOWN?!” the filly shouts in urgency “Twilight an mah friends are there! We got to warn everypony!”

The filly’s attempts to run off are suddenly dashed as the wall of the undead closes in on her. “That is quite a shame because neither of you are going anywhere.” The Unicorn smiles as his bony stringed stand moves it’s hooves, waves and waves of undead surrounding  the mares growing even thicker by the second. Powerless to stop them more and more of the damned corpses join the ranks of Noteworthy’s army as the mares watch on in growing apprehension.

“Oh by the way Caramel.” The Unicorn states snidely “Your little plan only worked because alcohol DOESN'T conduct electricity, not because it does. It kept her from turning into electricity and flowing through you because it created a barrier through which her electricity couldn’t flow.”

“W-Whatever! It worked right? That’s all that matters.” Carmel admits. “I just brought along the bottle of hard liquor because it was part of my impressive get up!”

“Or you forgot about it and had to improvise with dousing her with the contents of your pockets. If you had brought the bottle of water like I told you, you wouldn’t have to resort to such improvised methods.”

“Shut up you necrophiliac!” The stallion raises his hoof to point at the Unicorn “I don’t see you doing anything. Sides I’ve got her right where I want her! She’s mine now!”

“I forgot again who is ‘yours’ now?” Both stallions cease their bickering as they look over with a slack jawed expression over to the light green mare standing perfectly unharmed a distance away from them. Extending her sore hoof the mare gives the two a short wave and smiles at them at them, making them feel two grade A stooges. “Because from where I’m standing. I look pretty free to me.”

Caramel momentarily struck speechless looks down at his hoof that he pointed at Noteworthy, the same hoof that was holding Lightning in the iron grip of its jaws up until a few second ago.

“Caramel you idiot!” Noteworthy face hooves as his shakes his head with a mixture of annoyance and apathy “you let her out of your grip! This is what I get for working with ponies that couldn’t graduate middle school.”

“Screw you! Middle school is hard!” Carmel shouts back as he stamps his hooves. “Sides who has use for stuff like ‘grammar’ and ‘proper speakin’ it just gets in a fella’s way! Sides you made me let go! So who's the real idiot?”

“You are you fool! You’re the one who conveniently forgot motor control AND hoof eye coordination at the same time!”

“Only cause youze distracted me!”

The Unicorn massages his temples as if the very logic coming from Carmel’s mouth is giving him a tumor. “Why did our benevolent boss ever decide to team me up with you? You can barely spell logical let alone follow a plan without your dreaded improvising.”

“WHATEVER! Did youze ferget the power of mah The Monster Within? Ah still got her look!” the stallion gestures over to the mare who is clutching her bleeding hoof and groaning as if her limb is on fire.

“What…..” The mare pants as her wound begins to fester black “What’s going… URAGH!” the mare screams as the dark festering blotch of flesh grins at her with a jaw of sharp serrated teeth.

“IMPRESIVEEEEEEEEEE.” the maw whispers as the mare’s eyes widen in fear.

“Lightning!” Applebloom shouts as she watches her hope of defeating the two stall on fade before her eyes. “Watch out! If yawl gets bit by the jaws of that thing it controls yer body! Ya can’t let it bite ya anymore.”

“You’re mentioning this now?!” the mare shouts as weaves to the left, trying to keep her own arm from biting her head off.

“How was I supposed ta know that horseshoes over there had the same effect?

“It’s Caramel ya minx!” the stallion shouts as he watches the mare try and push away her infected arm with all her might. “Whatever, ah’m in too good of a mood fer a filly like youze ta spoil it now!”

The stallion raises his hoof to his mouth as he yells at the writing mare. “Ya see that guard minx? Yer under mah control now! An as soon as yer decked out in mah impressive marks youze will belong completely ta me!”

The mare pushes back on the slobbering maw before her with all her strength as its gaping teeth snap furiously, each snap closing the distance between the mark and her. The mare looks between her and the filly to her side, taking in the worry of the little Applebloom’s face as Lightning struggles with her own personal demon. “So this mark controls me hunh?” A look of resolve crosses her face as the mare looks at the hideous snapping jaw in front of her. Reaching up with her two hind legs the mare grabs her infected arm with an armbar as her one free fore hoof reaches off towards her lance. “Then I guess I’ll just have to remove it.”

Caramel snickers “Ha well good luck with that, there’s only one way ta remove mah stands and I aint tellin youze so how there aint no way…”

SLRICCCCCKKKK!!

A sharp gristly ripping should cuts through the air like a knife as All three ponies stare at the Lieutenant Lightning Dust with an utterly stunned and sickened expression on their faces. Everypony watches the brutal sight before them each pony’s expression ranging from somewhere between amazement and disgust at the sight before them.

“…no way….” Caramel mouths as Lightning Dust finally stands up her hooves shaking from the incredible amount of pain and adrenaline that is coursing through her body.

Embedding her now bloody lance in the grass beside her the mare throws the discarded lump of black and writhing flesh on the ground with utter disdain. Her arm gushing blood the mare stares down the sickened stallion in front of her.

“S-Se-e-e I Jus-s-st removed it. How bout t-that.” Reaching onto her armor with her one good hoof the mare shakily removes a roll of emergency bandages as she patches her bleeding arm in an effort to stop the bleeding.

“N-No wound, N-N-No infection, guess your chances of C-C-Co-o-ontrolin-n-ng me just went down the drain.” Lightning tightens the now blood soaked bandage around her injured hoof as she stands lamely up picking up her lance with her free hoof and storing it against her side under her left wing.

“Impressive.” The Unicorn speaks with a level of repressed awe that can’t help but seep into his words. “She ripped off the infected flesh without even screaming. What an incredible threshold for pain.”

Applebloom can only stare on silently as the mare limps on her injured hoof towards her grinning like she just won the lottery every step of the way. “Now then.” Lightning speaks up as she grabs the filly with her one good hoof. “As much as I would love to beat the both of you completely senseless…” The mare throws the filly on her back with a flick of her wrist. “….Me and the kid here have an alarm to raise. So Later.”

Turning behind her the Pegasus mare flares her wings as she prepares for flight. “Hold on tight kid!” sensing her intentions the filly wraps her arms tightly around the mare as Lightning takes off into the dark blue sky. Her yellow and green trail leaving a line of color coursing through the sky as the mare leaves the two stallions eating her dust.

As the guard vanishes into the distance the earthbound Caramel can only watch as his prey flies further and further away from him. Originally Carmel was glad to see them go to see them flee before his power, up until the point he remembered what exactly they had done to him. The kicks on the balls, the surge of lightning, the embarrassment that he a Captain of Melodia was forced to endure at the hooves of ponies who had escaped his grasp. Caramel begins to breathe heavily as very angry thoughts course through his small head about how the two mares that inflicted such bodily harm on him, who were right in front of him managed to escape. The fact of two ponies, a filly and a mare no less,  that had injured him so badly and just escaped his grasp is all that is necessary to set off the stallion’s hair trigger as he explodes outward unrestrained anger.

“damn it, Damn It, DAMN IT!” the stallion yells as he punches the ground furiously as if the dirt beneath his hooves is the cause of his woes the ground cracking and contorting abnormally with every furious blow. “Noteworthy she’s getting away from me! Why didn’t you stop her!?”

“Didn’t you say to ‘leave the minx’ to you?” The Unicorn comments nonchalantly “You didn’t ask for help so I didn’t offer it. It is as simple as that.”

“Besides……” the Unicorn looks off as the lightning trail of the mare disappears “at the rate she is flying even my undead pegisi wouldn’t be able to catch up. And even if they could catch up to her they would be unable to beat somepony so capable.”

Watching her sister fly away to safety Applejack for the first time in what seems to her to be forever lets out a relieved chuckle. The stallion turn sharply towards the infected mare having long ago forgotten they have a captive audience. “Applebloom’s safe, thank Celestia.” Applejack breathes in relief as her unconscious brother groans underneath her, still stuck in dreamland. “Yawl might as well throw in the towel now.”

Applejack remarks off hoof as she suddenly becomes the center of attention for the two living ponies in the clearing. “Mah sis is safe and in no time at all mah friends will be here ta save me too. An when they do…. Well let’s just say yawl don’t want ta be tha ones stuck between Rainbow Dash and a one of her friends when they’re in a pinch.”

Applejack smiles confidently as the brown suited mobster grimaces from Applejack’s snide comments. “Tell you what, if you let me and mah brother go now, and take us to yer boss that’s behind this….” The mare glares at the Carmel with a malevolent look “…..we’ll consider only break in half the bones in yawl’s body instead of the whole set. How about that?”

Both of the stallion cease their normal mannerisms as they both stare at the mare with an serious expression, their faces devoid of any humor. The two partners in crime then look at each other, mirroring the other’s expression before bursting out into uproarious laughter. Both of the two villains as if reenacting a horrible cliché break out into villainous laughter together as their voices echo through the darkness. Bellowing together as if the captive mare had just told the world’s funniest joke their faces ooze with snot and tears as they roll about on the ground like a pail of hyenas.

“What, the…. Ah’m serious yawl better call it quits before mah friends get here!” the stallion continue to roar in laughter as the Applejack blushes in embarrassment, completely ignored by the two who had moments before been hanging off her every word. “What’s so gosh darn funny? Hunh?!”

As the laughter dies down the stallion wipe the tears from their eyes as their chortling dies down to a mere chuckle. “What’s so funny my dear farmer…” The Unicorn Noteworthy rises to his hooves in chuckling to himself as he trots up to the mare “….Is that your sister and the Lieutenant are NOT safe.”

Without waiting for a response the Unicorn flicks the mare in the forehead “Think for a moment Applejack, use that underused brain of yours. Caramel’s power allows him to infect any numbers of ponies that he bites.”

The Unicorn gestures to the horde of flesh around him. “And these lovely guests here, are the residents of the Apple family cemetery plot.”

“So?” Applejack resists the temptation to spit in the Unicorn’s face as she hocks a logie off to her side. “Yawl are turning mah kin and mah family against me. Yer as rotten as a moldy apple in a cellar corner, so what?”

“So my dear Applejack.” Noteworthy smiles as he gestures to the swarm around him. “If these ponies are the result of ONE of ponivile’s four graveyards….” The Unicorn points to the singed brown coated stallion who puffs up his chest “……And if Caramel can infect any number of ponies with his powers…….”

Moving close enough into the mare’s face so that she can smell his breath the Unicorn continues “……Then take a guess my dear Applejack, as to WHERE are the rest of our combined forces are right now.”

…………………

“Ah said TURN BACK!” the filly shouts as she tugs on the Pegasus’s ear her wines becoming more persistent the more distance the two fly through the sky.

Lightning dust ignores the filly for the moment, tightening her gauze as she looks behind her for trails. “Whew, at least there’s no pony following, probably that Noteworthy’s call, he knows that his undead freaks can’t keep up with my level of speed.”

“Did ya hear me Lightnin? Ah said TURN BACK!” The filly pulls on the mare’s ears even harder as she looks behind her with a worried look “Mah sister’s back there, we can’t just leave her there! We have ta save her!”

“No we can’t!” Lightning shouts over the roar of the wind “in case you didn’t notice we were outnumbered a hundred to one. If I had managed to take out that dumb one then maybe I would have stood a chance against the other guy with you and your sister helping me. But between my degree of blood loss and that guy’s toughness we would have been the ones to lose.”

The filly’s eyes water as she looks back towards her home where her sister still remains trapped by hostile powers.  “B-But Applejack…..”

“Will be fine. If they wanted to kill her right off the bat that smart one Noteworthy or something would have killed her already.” The mare looks back at the filly on her back with a stern serious look “Most likely they’ll try and use her as a shield against us, and that’s when we can save her. For now our priority lies with alerting the town for the upcoming attack.”

Averting her eyes from behind where her sister still remains trapped the filly looks forward towards the town, and her face blanches white as a sheet. Applebloom’s eyes widen at the sight before her as her mouth finally manages to materialize words. “…..Ah… ah think it’s too late fer that Ligntnin…..”

Her head still turned back towards the filly Lightning dust scoffs at the filly’s sudden lack of faith in herself. “Pessimism won’t solve anything kid! What happened to that confident filly that held off two experienced stand users all by herself? What and I don’t mean to be cocky I’m pretty fast. In fact we should be in town in less than thirty seconds, so makes you think that we’ll be too late?”

With mechanical precision the filly places her hooves around the mare’s head and turns it to face forward showing the mare exactly what she has been seeing. Lightning Dust hovers in midair as the orange light coming from the town illuminates the situation for her as clear as daylight. “Oh, that’s why….”

Hovering in hundreds of feet in midair, the two ponies get a pristine and uninterrupted view of the town of ponyville in front of them.

In other words they get an in depth view of pure Tartarus.

Fires rage through unoccupied buildings on the outskirts, doubtless an effort by the fleeing townsfolk to stem off the hordes of undead advancing slowly though the town. Already many of the houses and abodes on the outskirts of the town have been swallowed by a wave of death the sound of shattering glass and screams of fear echoing up into the stratosphere. Desperate house to house defenses are waged by those with the strength to fight as the rising hordes and even worse ponies that have been turned into infected slaves pound against the fortifications of the living with tireless strength. Those bitten by the Monster Within scream the loudest as they feel their own bodies rebel against them. Their forms contort unnaturally as the maws bite and claw at every un-blighted parts of their bodies, the ponies powerless do anything but cry in pain as they slowly lose control of themselves. Though the cacophony of the painted ponies screaming, the dead’s constant moan is perhaps the most unnerving as a haunting chorus fills the town in an almost musical way as their varying octaves create a disconcerting sound that echoes off the multitude of buildings in the town. The undead marching in rank and file as they swarm over living thing unfortunate enough to be engulfed by the rotting tide.  All an all it is a scene of hellish terror and torment, a sight that would break lesser ponies like matchsticks, and the two ponies look down at the hell before them knowing that this hellish wasteland is their destination.

“Ah think…..” Applebloom begins as she watches the unfolding horror before her “Ah think we’re gonna need backup…..”

“From the looks of it….” Lightning dust clutches her mouth half to keep herself from throwing up and half to remain as objective as possible. “…It looks like there aren’t many casualties so far. They’re probably seeking to expand their numbers with Caramel’s ability to ‘infect’ others before they move in for the kill with new numbers.”

Before such an apocalyptic sight any sane pony would gouge out their eyes and curse the very world that they were born into before rather than whether such a storm. Yet despite their fears despite their own apprehension, both ponies realize that their friends and family depend on their actions, depend on their resolve and their will to resist in the face of adversity. Lightning dust looks back at the filly who gives her a quick nod of affirmation as she hugs the Pegasus tighter for comfort. The Pegasus nods back and both mares hold their breaths as they fly down away from the safety of the clouds and into the hell before them.

Chapter 16-Magic Mare-Take 2

Chapter 17-Hollyhoof Undead:Take 1

HollyHoof Undead: Take One

In the cool night air if you had the eyes for it you might be able to make out the outlines of shambling shapes far of in the trees or perhaps the wafting stench of death on the breeze, that signaled the disaster that was to come. However for most of the ponivilians trapped inside until daybreak it was a night like any other, a night as plain and ordinary as the one before giving no indications of it being otherwise. For two mares resting inside a simple run-of-the-mill home, this night was as dull and uneventful as a night could be in a Discord cursed town such as Ponyville. Ironically as if foreshadowing the struggles to come, it was on a night like this that the two sisters, Lyra and Bon Bon would find themselves in an argument over the very reason for the trouble to follow.

“LYYYYYRRRRRAAAAAAA!” a loud and offending voice rumbles from the simple house’s second story.

Flinching up from her copy of ‘humans and other mythical creatures monthly’ the mint green mare knows that tone of voice coming from her sister Bon Bon can only mean one thing. Or rather two things, trouble for her and most likely a very long lecture. Unwilling to endure either Lyra pulls herself up from a stationary position in a flash as she throws herself behind the couch taking refuge in the crawl space between the couch and the living room wall. With the wall behind her and her back to the couch Lyra prays to whatever gods may hear her cry that her sister will conveniently forget to look for her in the most expected of hiding places.

 “LYRA!” Bon Bon’s voice echoes down the stairs “You had better not be hiding behind the couch again! Stay right there I’m coming down!”

‘Crab apples.’ Lyra thinks to herself. ‘Maybe under the sink? I doubt she’ll be angry enough to give a really thorough search this time’

In her heart of hearts Lyra prays that her hopes will prove true. However the loud thumping of her sister’s hooves as she storms down the stairs tells the green mare that her hopes are pure fantasy.

Lyra gulps heavily ‘then again maybe if I come out and own up to my mistakes she’ll go easy on me this time. For whatever it was that I did this time.’

The sound of hammering hoofsteps comes to an abrupt stop as Lyra can practically feel the earth pony’s gaze as she cowers in her makeshift hiding place. “Lyra I see you hiding behind the couch! Get out here!”

Knowing her goose is metaphorically cooked, the pony sheepishly pulls herself out from behind the couch and right into the piercing gaze of the cream colored mare. Lyra’s eyes widen and try to evade the gaze for the mare before her, however the tapping of Bon Bon’s hoof speaks volumes to the fact that no matter what she says she is in real hot water this time.

But then again Lyra Heartstrings was never one to back off and not try every option. “Ok now before you lay into me let me be the first to say that I love you and care deeply for you. And that no matter what you say or that I have done I will always love you with all of my heart.”

Lyra smiles with a grin that could break her jaw as she hopes her ‘sincere’ words will somehow lighten her looming punishment. A hope that is instantly dashed as her sister fails to budge even an inch her anger remaining despite Lyra’s honeyed words.

Bon Bon rolls her eyes “Nice try Lyra Heartstrings.” Lyra flinches from the use of her middle name knowing it’s usage can never be good. “But buttering me up won’t help you this time. You are in SERIOUS hot water this time. Though I doubt you even know why you are in trouble to begin with.”

Lyra sweats “Sure I do! It’s………uuuuuhhhhhhhh……… give me a second here……..Laundry?”

“No Lyra you took care of the laundry yesterday. In fact you actually did it without me having to nag you more than three times, very good job.”

“Uh…. Thanks Bonnie!”

“NO Lyra this is much more serious.” Bon Bon reaches over onto her back taking a large brown box off of her back and throwing it to the floor.

Lyra’s reaction is as surprised as her words are incriminating. “My Miracle Stones! I…. uh I mean my rock collection that I uh……”

“Once again nice try Lyra.” Bon Bon advances on the mint unicorn who falls to her rump as her sister closes the distance between her and the incriminating stones. “I know for a fact that you have been doing your little ‘stand team ups’ and gathering these stones even after you PROMISED me not to.”

Lyra sweats profusely in a blind panic, her secret that she hoped to never be revealed had been so suddenly blown wide open by the one pony she tried to keep it a secret from. “Oh.” Lyra taps her hooves together as she tries to vainly think up a way out of her situation. “Well that’s because i….. Um. Well it’s a funny story really.”

“It’s a story I’m not in the mood to hear.” Bon Bon replies, the room growing ten degrees colder from the sound of her voice alone. “Do you know why going after these stones is a horrible idea? Do you even remember promising me that you weren’t going to involve yourself in anything dangerous like this?”

“But Bonnie!” Lyra counters. “The stones aren’t dangerous at all! They just attract dangerous ponies is all…..”

“Exactly.” Bon Bon states “These stones attract trouble like no pony’s business, there’s no point in gathering them especially if the pony who is gathering them is prone to making disasters in the first place!”

“But they aren’t useless! They can help ponies Bonnie, Applejack’s sister Applebloom was cured because of them, and Carrot Top woke up from them too!” Lyra looks her sister in the eye leaning closer to her sister in an effort to defy her logic with her own passion and conviction. “I made lots of great friends thanks to them like Twilight and Derpy and Vinyl Scratch (and I guess Octavia? I don’t know how that works….) anyways I went through so much trouble to get those stones to just give them up! You can’t just…...”

“But NOTHING Lyra!” Bon Bon shouts as she slams her hoof into the ground silencing any further argument from the mint green mare. “These stones are dangerous. Did you forget what happened when you got a hold on one in the first place? You practically beat Applejack to within an inch of her life!”

Lyra blinks “Wait… how did you know about….”

“Oh please Lyra.” Bon Bon rolls her eyes yet again “Do you really think that I’m that dense? I knew that something was up then so I went by Twilight’s later and got the full story of your little ‘quest’ out of her. And let’s not forget that time when you fought that gryphon chief!”

Lyra manages to stand on her hooves at the mention of the accursed chief and his stand power. It had taken her three of Bon Bon’s home cooked meals to recover from that catastrophe. “That guy was dirty from the start Bonnie!” Lyra states with conviction as she tries to recover some ground. “He was trying to drive you out of business for crying out loud. And I could have beaten him if he hadn’t gotten the drop on me! And besides didn’t we help that pony Dar….. Dare something? I can totally handle myself in a scrap! That one time was just a fluke!”

Bon Bon’s gaze burns with such anger that Lyra can’t help but feel threatened by it. Yet the unicorn stands resolute against her sister neither one of them willing to back down in the face of the other’s arguments. However eventually one does give in, and with a defeated and sorrowful downward gaze Bon Bon sighs with a sudden drastic change in mood. “One fluke is all it would take Lyra.” Bon bon comments dryly as she looks sadly into Bon Bon’s eyes. “In something as risky as combat it all comes down to a single move Lyra. If you make one mistake or misread one attack, then you die. One mistake is all it would take and…. And I would lose you forever Lyra.”

With a look of brazen determination the mare picks up the box of stones and throws it on her back as she levels a gaze that frightens even Lyra. “And I can’t have that. That’s why I’m taking these stones to Twilight’s first thing tomorrow.”

Turning her back on her sister Bon Bon trots up the stairs as a dumbstruck Lyra is left watching her flank as she trots up ahead of her. Suddenly just as Bon Bon reaches the top Lyra’s senses return as she chases after her sister. “B-Bonnie! Wait!’ Lyra runs after her practically flying up the stairs to their house to keep her sister from escaping from closing herself off from her. Yet just as she reaches the top of the stairs the door to her sister’s room slams shut sealing Bon Bon off from the outside world. “Bonnie Wait!”

Lyra knocks furiously on her sister’s door eager to establish any kind of connection with her as her sister begins once again to close herself off. “Bonnie let me in we have to talk about this!”

Lyra ceases knocking as she holds her ear against the door hoping for any sign of life from her sister, hoping for a message from somepony she loves. “Go away Lyra!” A muffled cry issues out from behind the door. “My decision is final I’m not letting you keep those miracle stones or whatever you call them so just stop trying!”

“I don’t care about those strange stones! Bonnie just listen.” Lyra takes in a deep breath before her sister’s door as she prepares to bare her heart and soul to the mare who is currently hiding behind the door in front of her. “I know that your time in the Royal Guard had a big impact on you and all you want to do is protect me from danger, I understand that. And I’ll admit it Bonnie, I screw up a lot, and I know that I’ve always been inconveniencing you with all of my crazy beliefs and antics. But not once did you ever regret becoming my sister and never once did you leave me hanging Bonnie.”

“……….”

“I just thought, you know, that gathering might make you more proud of me, that it might make me more worthy of being your sister. You’re always protecting me I just thought….. I thought that by collecting the stones and keeping them safe that I could protect the ponies of this town too. I thought that if I was more like you that…… that you’d be proud of me for once……”

“……….”

“But I realize now that nothing I do could make me any more worthy of being your sister, or of having such good friends that I’ve gotten so far thanks to this messed up journey” Lyra paws at the door with her hoof “So please open up, I don’t care about power of what others think. I just want to make you happy Bonnie, I just don’t want to see you sad. So please don’t close yourself off again…..”

“………”

“….uh Bonnie? Are you alright in there?” Lyra confused at Bon Bon’s sudden silence knocks once more on the door only to find it opening at her touch.

The door cracks open from the unicorn’s pawing the silent sound of the door creaking echoing eerily through the hallway. “Uh… Bonnie? Did you forget to lock the door? Can I come in?”

No response comes from inside, the silence becoming more uncomfortable by the second as Lyra looks at the slowly opening door before her. The darkness of the room distracts her from her current concerns as she trots headlong into the dark. Yet what is by far more distracting is the coppery smell that seemingly fills every crevice of the room. “Belch Bonnie did you put on perfume or something? It smells awful in here!” the mare’s hoof steps in something wet, the hairs on her neck standing on end as she makes out a shape in the ambient darkness of the room. All of a sudden Lyra’s heart skips a beat as she realizes that she is not alone in the room and the shape before her is anything but her Bonnie.

“What a touching scene.” A dark and terrible voice originates from the shadows. “I can almost feel a tear or two welling up inside of me.” The dark voice laughs “Almost.”

Lyra gapes as her flailing mind struggles to take note of the scene before her. A dark grey stallion with what looks like a red stone sticking out of his skull sits straightening his dark pinstripe suit. Cleaning the drops of blood out of his dark coat as if it were an act as natural as brushing his teeth the stallion stares uncaringly at the mare before him with beady green eyes. In his aura sits the entire box of stones that she spent months gathering sits in just outside his field of vision as she stallion’s dark purple aura seems to stifle the stone’s natural radiance. However it is what or rather who the stallion has chosen to sit on that occupies the mare’s attention. For under the stallion’s offensive rump, her breath shallow and ragged from loss of blood is her sister Bon Bon.

“To tell you the truth…” The stallion resumes as he faces the stunned unicorn mare. “I am quite surprised that a no pony like you would come to possess so many corpse parts. Then again I suppose that is why you were at the top of the Traitor’s list. Or perhaps it was mere luck.”

“BONNIE!” the unicorn shouts her horn blazing golden with magic as she teach clench. “Get off of her you creep! Or so help me I’ll KILL you!”

“So you aim to kill me?” The stallion polishes his hooves as he sits on the bleeding body of Lyra’s sister. “An understandable gesture certainly. Though if I were you I would hold true to the cream pony’s wisdom little one. One mistake, one move can decide a battle. Therefore if you were to attack me…” The stallion levels his malevolent gaze his very stare freezing Lyra’s blood in her skin. “…. I would make it count.”

For a moment Lyra only stares at the beast before her, his eyes devoid of any spark of warmth as she feels like her world is spiraling out of her control. However it only takes one ragged breath from the injured mare resting beneath the monster’s flank to reinstall an undaunted purpose into the mare. Overwhelming her fear, her terror is the simple fact that her sister needs her and with that the mint green mare manifests her spider like stand as she growls at the dark figure.

“MONSTER!” Lyra calls out as she jumps at the unicorn her teeth bared and her stand’s multiple arms preparing to strangle the stallion sitting on her sister’s prone body. Yet in the space of a second the beast disappears causing the mare to land on top of her sister. Swiveling her head around her in a full three hundred and sixty degrees the mare searches for sign of the stallion, dumbfounded that any pony can disappear that quickly. However her sister’s breath from beneath her causes her to push any other concerns out of her mind as she focuses exclusively on the one thing she cares about more than anything in the world. Using her stand to create a protective cradle of arms around her Lyra looks down to her sister pouring what little healing magic she knows towards closing the gaping wound in her chest.

“Don’t worry Bonnie.” Lyra assures her unconscious sister beneath her as she pours more magic into healing her sister’s profuse wounds. “It’s not that deep, I’ll get you out of here now just hold on…...”

MUDA!!

Lyra doesn’t even have the chance to finish as a dark hoof falls over her head smashing her exposed face into the ground beneath her. Lyra’s muzzle breaks from the force of the blow as the wooden floor buckles and shatters from the single blow, and in less time than it takes to blink the mint green unicorn is out cold. Sneering at the prone bleeding from beneath him Sombra reaches into his coat pocket for a white handkerchief as he stares down in contempt at the mare.

The stallion wipes the blood from his hoof with his pocket handkerchief as his simple eloquent voice calls out to the mare on the borders of dreams and death. “As I said before, one mistake decides a battle. You made the mistake of checking on your fiend when you should have been more concerned for your own well being.”

“Had you made an effort to defend yourself this battle would not have been decided so quickly.” Wiping the blood off of his hoof the stallion quickly incinerates the cloth erasing its presence and any trace of blood. “And here I expected a decent fight, how foalish of me to expect anything resembling a challenge from you.”

Watching as the mare beneath him fades out of this world the stallion glances back to the box full of stones. Part of him regretted the fact that he had to be seen by these two ponies, however he had succeeded in his task and for now that outweighed his paranoia about being seen. Sombra stands over the prone bodies of his foes, a small smile of twisted joy crossing his face as he savors the acquisition of the fragments of the holy corpse. With practiced measure he levitates the box with the fragments of Corpse into his deep satchel knowing that before the night is through he will have far more pieces to collect. The sound of screams and violence finally crosses over to the bosses’ threshold of hearing; causing his smile to expand even further at the thought of his night’s work is just beginning.

Looking out the window of the small house with almost detached concern Sombra watches as his well-planned distraction begins to take shape. Ponies with black splotches over their bodies writhe about as sharp japs snap and bite at any that come close, hordes of zombies pour out of the woods on the outskirts of town and well timed fires planned ahead of time come to life.

“10:16, Right on time. Now while Noteworthy and Carmel distract the guards and the rest of the populace I can slip in and recover the corpse at my leisure.” Looking back on the heavily bleeding body of the mint green unicorn the green eyed monster smirks in his moment of triumph.

“You fight well for a common stand user, but as I said before little one, those that dare to cross me and my plans are…….”

…………….

“…….Finished!” Twilight shouts to herself as she gracefully flips the back cover of the book closed. Smiling at another successful read Twilight holds the book she was reading ‘Indiana Colt and the Chamber of One thousand Snakes’ up with her hooves. “Wow that was a great read. I don’t know what those reviewers were thinking that was Indiana’s best adventure yet! Who knew that you could overcome your phobia of snakes by jumping into a pool seven feet deep of poisonous reptiles? This book is going right up in the recommended reading section!”

Twilight looks around her at the stark, Spartan arrangements of her cell, the bare stone walls and nearly empty bed beneath her before recalling her predicament. “Oh, right. I’m in jail……” the unicorn’s cheery mood is lost as her ears fall. “Well at least Shining and Zecora are working to get me out of here, and if I know Zecora’s skill with paperwork this shouldn’t take too long.”

“After all….” The unicorn laughs as she prepares the utter a phrase.

She opens her mouth to utter a phrase that could never end in something good.

A single phrase that has made fools of righteous and evil alike with its cruel indifference.

A single phrase whose irony can sink ships and drive learned ponies into madness with its ability to incite mass disaster and destruction. “….what could possibly go wrong?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIII!!!!”

The unicorn’s mane stands on end at the piercing scream that echoes through the whole of the center it’s sound chilling the unicorn’s bones and causing her hair to stand on end. “what is that?!” the unicorn flails her head about the cell looking for any sign of danger her mind working overtime to determine the source of the threat. Her ears swivel about as the unicorn hears faint sounds echoing through her cell originating no doubt from the police station proper.

“Is that…. Is that screaming?” Twilight hops tentatively from her bunk over to the door. Hearing more loud and unnecessary noises the unicorn gulps before placing her ear against the door crack listening for the sounds that are currently putting the normally calm and collected unicorn on edge.

Listening from the crack of the door Twilight can just barely make out the sound of muffled cries and sounds of bodies clashing against one another. The sounds appear distorted, echoed but are none the less terrifying to the little purple unicorn. Pressing her ear further against the door the mare listens eve more intently for signs of happening outside the six by five cell.

“What in Equestria is happe….”

WHACK!

The door swings open with a force sending the purple librarian sprawling on her back her eyes rolling in her head. Struck dizzy by the blow all the unicorn can do for the moment Is mutter curses under her breath at the coincidental attack of fate.“Ughhhhh what is it with me and doors? Did I spite the god of doors or something when I was little or am I just the but of some cosmic joke?”

Twilight’s head begins to spin even more frantically both from the impact of the door and the chaotic situation that she has become unintentionally enraptured in. Yet the unicorn shakes her head rapidly and rights herself just as quickly as her disoriented senses take measure of the world around her. Standing in the middle of the hallway leaning against the doorframe of her cell her brother Shining armor catches his breath. With sharp focused eyes he looks to the unicorn within the cell with a mixture of concern and worry and even more worrying his armor is missing its golden helm and is covered in dark black marks of what looks to be dried blood.

“Shining?” Twilight asks “Shining what in Equestria is going on? What is happening out there?”

“I’ll explain later.” Reaching over with his teeth Shining grabs the cuff on her neck and drags her out of the room in a way a lioness might hold their cubs. Dropping her in the middle of the hallway with urgency Shining looks back and forth down the hall before turning back to his sister. “Keep close to me. Don’t make a noise and don’t you dare run off. Got it Twilly?”

To the best of her ability Twilight suppresses her own curiosity awed by her brother’s command. Or perhaps it is the fear in his eyes has deprived her of any desire to know what is troubling him or what the sound of the wretched noises are. Either way Twilight nods curtly causing Shining armor to quickly dash to a nearby corner checking for any signs of trouble before waving for Twilight to follow.

“All right so far so good” Shining looks around his senses on edge. “So first thing’s first we get you to the center of the Station where everypony else is making a barricade, then we go up and reinforce the second floor to prevent any intrusions up there. And from there we make our next move.” Shining looks down the next corner as Twilight follows close on his heels. “Sounds simple enough and if we can make some adequate defenses we may be able to hold out until……”

Coming to the stop of the hall before them both ponies stare at the scene before them as Twilight realizes now where the awful din was coming from. “Celestia preserve us….” Twilight mutters under her breath staring at the battle raging before her.

To Twilight’s credit she could hold her nerves pretty well, and though she detested violence she could hold her stomach and fight if the lives of those she cared about were in the crossfire. However to see an entire police station filled with the undead and plague ridden victims fighting to the bloody death against trained stand users of the royal guards in such enclosed spaces was far too much for the poor unicorn’s nerves. The wails of the dead, the crunching sound of biting flesh and the screams of the battle before her overload the petite unicorn’s senses in a matter of milliseconds as the shell shocked unicorn stares unable to tear herself away from the scene before her. She watches as Zecora bashes another of the slobbering infected monsters with yardstick knocking the pony out as the creature continues to lurch forward at the soldiers of the Royal guard. All around the normally peaceful office setting the Solar guards fight with stand and spear alike against rounds and rounds of advancing undead and infected pour from every opening and crevice in the building.

“Great, it’s gotten even worse!” the stallion shouts as Twilight watches the scene of violence unfolding horror as guards and corpses alike fight a gruesome war of attrition.

Realizing his sister’s distress the white stallion turns over to his sister, placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight you wait here and don’t you dare move.” With a resolute glance the captain of the guard looks over to the fray his eyes igniting with a fierce desire to protect that comes to him when ponies someone cares about are suddenly thrusted into harm’s way “I’ve got to go and thin their numbers.”

Without even giving her time for an argument the pony leaps into the fray protecting endangered allies with his bubbles while attacking with his magic turning zombies into piles of dust with every flick of his horn. “How did they get in here?!” Shining shouts out to the troops. “I thought that I gave orders to lock down the building?!”

“I’m sorry captain Armor!” a white and blue maned Pegasus shouts over the din as an infected maw on his arm bites deep into his shoulder again. Screaming out in pain the stallion never the less answers. “T-There were ponies crying for help. Asking us to save them from the advancing horde, but when we opened the door, these black jawed things swarmed us!” The stallion screams again as a deep black blotch pops out of his shoulder “H-How were we supposed to know that they could mimic voices? We thought there were only one enemy, those walking corpses. YEAGHA!”

Shining blasts the guard unconscious sparing him any further pain as the black mouths on him grow and expand by the second. “Well apparently there are two stand users now. One that creates mass numbers of undead and one that causes these sores that control ponies to appear from physical contact.” Moving in a swift and fluid motion the captain of the guard leaps through the air dodging as the previous unconscious guard lurches at him.

“Switch to using Anti-Stand collars on the infected ponies, they’re still alive! Waste the undead!” Shining shouts over the fray as he turns to cover the Zebra behind him. “Zecora?” Shining bucks off another of the infected off of him simultaneously placing another anti Stand collar over the light blue Pegasus. “Any thoughts?”

“Though I should like to make a stand here, I am no good without a stand I fear. And though beating one is a breeze, against such numbers it is nothing to sneeze.” Interrupting her poise a large bulky zombie slobbers over the Zebra’s back earning it a stern smack from the zebra’s hooves. ”And as they surround us from the rear, their numbers multiply like a forest of trees.”

Shining takes a moment of reprieve from the combat around him to survey how his troops are doing as he takes in their desperate situation. Already half of his guard has been incapacitated either by the infection that takes them over and turns them against their allies or their fatal wounds inflicted on them by the horde. At this rate they will be wiped out in a matter of minutes no matter how well trained they are. For mindless bodies they knew exactly how and where to attack them where they were weakest. Shining grimaces as he realizes grudgingly that a good offense won’t win them this battle, and against such numbers there is only one real solution. “FALL BACK!” shining shouts over the fray “Fall back to the second level! I’ll cover you all! FALL BACK!”

Responding to their superior’s command with rapid effectiveness the guard backs off as Shining’s barriers push and prod the horde back away from the retreating troops. “Twilight!” The captain calls out as he batters away the horde with his magic “That means you too! Get up there!” with speed spurred on by copious amounts of adrenaline and fear the guards and personnel pile into the stairway to escape the bellowing and screaming swarm behind them, each and every one of the monsters calling out of their blood. Finally the rest of the survivors make it up the narrow stairway, as Shining teleports over to the only flight of stairs that leads to the upper levels. Smiling cockily as the wall of flesh closes in around him shining conjures up a dark purple bubble around the doorway as he smiles triumphantly. “Sorry guys but dinner’s canceled. I’ve got other plans.”

The horde slams itself against the wall of the bubble with monumental force however the unbreakable sphere holds, its shiny surface not even cracking under the strain of hundreds of hooves smashing into it. Smiling in contentment the captain turns away from the wall behind them as he trots up the stairs. “And to any of my men that have been captured by this infection that is controlling you.” Shining states as he turns back around to face his men his eyes filled with an honest glint. “Don’t worry I give you my word that I’ll save you all.”

The few infected can only stare vacantly through the translucent barrier their eyes revealing the relief and hope given by the assuring words of their Captain as the resolute stallion torts back up the stairs. With a heavier heart than when he began his climb the solder trots up the stairway with a steely calm knowing very well that his own words were a complete and utter lie. There was no certainty that he could save any of them, it might come down to him being forced to kill his own men in cold blood if he wanted to save the town and the corpse. As a pony he wanted to give any pony he could the blessing of hope, however as an orphan he knew that life could be far too cruel to just ponies. But overall he knew that as a soldier he was required to protect his country and the ponies of his country to the death if necessary.  And so as the captain trotted slowly up the stairs he burned his compassion from his heart as he prepared to once again make a weighty sacrifice for the safety of his country.

Coming to the top of the stairs the captain of the guard looks upon his tired troops as they all catch their breath. Scanning the plain and open upstairs for any sign of a break in or possible area where the enemy can attack, Shining Armor takes a full gander of the situation in seconds, and as far as he can tell it is not good. The upstairs offices of the building were designed to hold onto files not hold off enemies and the wide open area fenced off by plate glass only serve to convey to the survivors that this building was not designed to hold off a siege. The hallways that spread out from the center room gives the building a parallel aesthetic design that causes the troops to divide themselves into separate clusters as their nervous eyes shift back and forth for any signs of danger. Office tables have become makeshift beds for those with critical damage as battlefield medics provide what first aid they can to stabilize the injured. The glass windows resound with sporadic thumps as undead pegisi pound against the windows yet the iron bars holding the frames shut show no signs of bending to their rotted strength as the corpses and infected continue to pound away.

However more pressing to the stallion is the condition of his men, as well as the condition of the few police officers and white collar government agents like Zecora unused to the levels of stress and fear that they are now being exposed to. Shining watches in worry as the ponies that remain take deep calming breaths as they vainly attempt to drown out the screaming and violence that seems to rage around them. ‘they look tired’ the captain thinks to himself as he takes note of the condition of his men as his gaze settles on his frightened sister and Zecora both looking genuinely terrified despite their best attempts to keep their own fear from overwhelming them. ‘they all look tired’ Shining corrects himself ‘and from what I’ve seen the night is just beginning.’

“Shining?” Twilight asks with a twinge of fear as she approaches her brother “What’s going on? Are those…. Things going to follow us up here?”

Shining shakes his head clearing away any thoughts of duty and danger for the moment as he makes a sincere gesture to comfort his little sister. “Don’t worry Twilly, I placed one of my Bastion’s bubbles over the only doorway so they’re not coming up from below. And the windows are enchanted to resist enough strength to resist pegisi smashing into them so our sides are secure. And I had already placed troops on the third floor to keep our landing zone safe so we’re safe up here for now.”

Shining places his hoof over his sister’s shoulder stilling her shivering body with a warm comforting embrace that instantly calms the frightened unicorn down.  “But if you’ll excuse me, your handsomely good looking brother….” Shining smiles as he straightens his armor “…still has a job to do.” Trotting over to a nearby troop Shining armor puts on his best commander face. “Solder, status report on the double!”

“SIR! We have forty five present and accounted for here Captain.” A nearby guard salutes. “seven office employees brought from canterlot to assist in the filing and investigate the charges. Five officers of the law who occupied the station previously and the prisoner. In addition to our remaining thirty two uninfected and combat ready troops including yourself of course.”

Shining smacks his lips as he struggles to process the fact that out of his entire platoon of one hundred he only has a third of them left. “Thirty two? What about Lightning Dust and her scouting squad of twenty? Shouldn’t they have made it back by now?”

The trooper doesn’t even need to respond this time his vacant silence painting an entire picture for him. “I-I see.” Shining states. “Then it’s up to us.”

“U-Us?!” the guard shouts “But what about our reinforcements? What about Celestia?”

“Celestia’s spotted Nightmare moon.” All the heads in the room turn to the new arrival an orange Pegasus with a dark blue mane trots over to the group. Multiple levels of surprise cross their faces as the Pegasus snaps a sharp salute to his captain. “I had to leave in a hurry to tell you but it’s been confirmed Nightmare Moon has been hiding in the Crystal mines underneath Canterlot right under our very muzzles.”

“Flash Sentry!” Shining exclaims. “About time! Is Celestia on her way? You Told her about how much of the corpse we’re holding right?”

“Well yes and no.” Flash salutes. “Celestia knows about the Corpse but I just jumped back and I had no idea what was going on till I looked out the window. And with Nightmare Moon’s location being discovered she’s trusting you to insure its delivery to Canterlot while the Princess handles Nightmare Moon.”

Shining sighs heavily as he comforts his dashed hopes. “Of course she does, now of all times when we need her most she just had to get word of Nightmare Moon. Does she at least know our situation?”

Flash hangs his head “No Captain. It took me a while to jump here from Canterlot so last time I checked, nopony else has any idea of what’s going on outside of Ponyville.”

Shining turns back to the orange Pegasus. “What about scrying pools? Can we get in contact with the local barracks in canterlot? Can you jump back and inform them of our situation?”

Flash rubs the back of his neck “Well…… uhhhhhhhh about that………”

Shining sighs once again his hopes getting more distant by the second. “Figures, we’re in a right death trap this time. And with Nightmare moon appearing in Canterlot’s Crystal mines we don’t stand much of a chance of getting reinforcements any time soon.”

“Nightmare Moon in canterlot? B-But that can’t be right!” Twilight shouts drawing the attention of every pony in the room “That has got to be a mistake, Princess Luna wasn’t anywhere near Canterlot! Princess Celestia’s in danger, we have to warn her!” Twilight states her concerns now focused on the danger to her mentor rather than herself.

Now all the attention in the room is focused on the unicorn and her sudden outburst, the unicorn’s face growing red from a combination of embarrassment and nervousness. “Um Twily?” Shining armor asks “I know you’re a know it all and all, but how would you even know that?”

“Well Um…..”

“How does she know that?” a bright yellow Pegasus shouts as he points his hoof towards the unicorn “I’ll tell you how she knows that! It’s because she’s the traitor! She’s the one who lead this accursed army of the dead here! She’s in league with that witch from the moon!!”

 The guard trots around the unicorn as his hoof steps signal his malevolent intentions. “How else would she know where that Monster is? How else would reports of our movements leak out to our enemies? And what else is this attack but a jailbreak?!” The guard shouts as he points accusatory at the now frightened librarian his booming voice rallying others to his cause “She’s working for the enemy just like the reports said!”

“Nightmare moon… I mean Luna is not a monster!” Twilight takes to her hooves in an effort to defend herself “She’s just trying to make up with her sister, she doesn’t want to harm any pony!”

“And she’s defending the monster!” The guard exclaims earning small mutters of agreement from the crowd as they begin to suspect Twilight Sparkle’s actions even more. “What did I tell you? She’s the Traitor!”

“That’s enough Solder.” Shining says with the thinnest hint of a threat “Stand down.”

Voices in the crowd begin to murmur along with the nameless soldier as he continues to pile more blame on the hapless purple unicorn. “I’ll bet my bottom bit this whole attack is an attempt to free her from imprisonment! We should finish her off before she has the chance to..…”

“I said ENOUGH!” the captain of the guard shouts with the force of a thunderclap all voices in the room grows silent. “Now I can understand you’re scared Right Bolt, but I think you’ve said enough.”

“And I think…” The stallion continues “That your judgment is impaired because the traitor just happens to be your sister! You have no right to speak in her defense, your judgment is clearly biased.”

“And I say,” Shining points his glowing horn at the guard before him “That my shield is the only thing keeping those monsters below at bay. So I would watch what you say to a superior officer.”

“And I say,” the guard replies as he presses his forehead against the unicorn stallion in front of him “That you’re in no position to make a decision about this matter! Twilight Sparkle is the Traitor and if we don’t act now she’s going to get away!!”

“Just Get rid of her!” a voice from the crowd cries “She’s the reason for this attack! Maybe they’ll go way if we hoof her over to them!”

“The evidence is solid and this attack proves it! She has to be the traitor!”

“I say we put it to a vote!” A guard cries out “Whether to give this traitor up to this mob or to execute her ourselves.”

The accusatory stallion nods with affirmation. “Now that’s a democratic and impartial decision. Let’s all raise our hooves and put it to a vote.” The stallion grins as he stares evilly at the cowering lavender unicorn hiding behind her brother. “If you want to make sure that this traitor doesn’t escape to pal around with her zombie friends outside, raise your……”

BBZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!

“……EEEERRRRRAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!”

In a flash of lightning the stallion’s coat ripples with static electricity frying him from the inside out as his skeleton is illuminated for all to see. Then in less time than it takes to blink the light ceases leaving a singed solder smoking from his ears as he falls unceremoniously to the floor. Every pony in the group suddenly silences themselves and backs away from the accusatory stallion as his body twitches and spasms from the jolt he received.

Smiling with a cocky and self-righteous grin a light green mare steps out into the crowd her yellow two toned mane rippling from the electricity coursing through her body. “And MY vote goes towards kicking the flank of any pony that dares to threaten a superior officer. Now who else wants to vote?” the entire crowd hushes up as each and every stallion backs away from the mare who is cracking her hooves ready to roast her opposition. “Humph and you call yourselves stallions.”

“Lightning Dust!” Shining armor shouts.

“What?” The mare looks back at the smoldering stallion groaning behind her “I left him alive! And he was going to usurp your command! That’s a charge of treason right there, I had every right to…..”

“Oh him?” Stallion points to the stallion “Forget him, he got what he deserved for threatening my sister and trying to usurp my command. I’m far more concerned about you! What happened to your hoof? Are you bleeding?”

Lightning looks to her bloodied bandaged hoof as if she had forgotten her own life threatening injury. “Eh it’s just a scratch, so what’s going on here? Where are our reinforcements?”

“They’re on standby.” Shining responds rolling his eyes “Apparently they haven’t gotten word that there’s an emergency. No doubt the traitor’s handiwork.”

Flash sentry trots up to the two ponies “I can fly over there and let them know we’re in need of some backup.” He salutes eager to help.

“That depends, Can you ‘flash’ over there cadet? Because anything slower than a teleport won’t reach us in time.” Shining asks skeptically, arching his eyebrow.

“Well….” The stallion’s ears fall down “……no, I placed my marks the royal palace so that I could inform her highness but she’s not there right now. I could ‘flash’ over there and but the number of marks I have are limited and they need to be in a certain range. I had to place my marks at mile increments and jump from mark to mark to make it her and back so it’s a one way trip. Plus my marks only work once before they fade out so I’d have to……..”

Lightning sighs heavily “You could have just said ‘no’ Flash, we didn’t need the whole nine yards on your stand power.”

“It’s probably better off that you can’t jump over there.” Shining continues in an attempt to brighten the trooper up “I need you to locate the enemy who is causing the attack so we can eliminate them and end the stand power. Your stand is the fastest out of our entire platoon, so place your marks and scan over the town so that we can…..”

“Taken care of captain.” Lightning finishes Shining Armor’s sentence with a grin. “I’ve already encountered the enemy and their stands. And it’s just like you suspected, they want to wipe out the entire town and get the corpse.”

Lightning gestures to a small figure obscured by the shadows behind her. “In fact I’ve brought some pony that has already come into contact with them and can brief us on their stand powers and abilities.”

“Really?” Shining asks his eyes expanding in his skull “You met another trouper that could hold their own against whomever is using this stand power?”

Barely able to suppress her own snickering the light green Pegasus nods once placing a hoof on her mouth to suppress a fit of giggles. “Well then that’s perfect!” Shining states “Bring him forward I’ll be sure to give him a proper recommendation to the Princess. Heck if his information is good he may even get a medal, or at least a promotion!”

At this the jab green Pegasus can no longer hold back the torrent of laughter that has been bubbling up inside her, her laughter pouring out with intensity that is mystifying the stallion. Suddenly the stallion feels a gentle tug on the side of his uniform as he turns to face the stimulus. Facing him is practically the most adorable filly that he has ever seen, her cute red hair done up in a perfect bow and her wide open eyes encompassing about seventy percent of her face.

“Well hello there little filly! I’m glad to see that you’re safe and everything but if you don’t mind could you step off to the side for a moment. Lightning dust is about to…..”

Shining armor’s mind reboots as he puts all the information together from years of training. That filly wasn’t there before, he did a sweep of the room so she had to have arrived around the same time as Lightning Dust. Meaning the filly would have to have arrived with Lightning Dust. That and his subordinate’s response lead to only one solid conclusion.

“Seriously Lightning?”

Lightning continues to smile as she snickers under her breath.

“You’re kidding right?” Shining armor asks.

Lightning dust snickers even more.

“Lightning Dust, please tell me this is an elaborate joke.”

Lightning dust begins to chortle under her breath.

“……you’re serious?”

Clearing her throat the mare tries her best to snap a proper salute as she breaks out into an ear to ear smile. “YES SIR!”

“This… filly… came into contact with the enemy? An enemy that defeated almost half our royal guard? And she survived?” Shining asks curiously

“Came into contact? Pfht! This filly fought both of them to a standstill captain!” Lightning continues to heap on her praise as the filly beams puffing out her chest at word of her accomplishments “In fact I think this little filly is about the best guard we’ve had in…. ohwhoamikidingican’ttakethisanymore BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”

As Lightning dust falls to her back her hooves waving in the air from her own joke Shining armor takes another clear look at the yellow filly before him. With a narrow careful gaze the unicorn looks the yellow filly square in the eyes his discerning gaze picking the pony apart from the inside out. The room grows silent as she stallion stares down the little filly with the intensity only a guard captain could muster. Finally after what seemed like an eternity for the filly under such intense scrutiny the stallion nods affirmatively. “All right then!” Shining says cheerfully “I’m not the kind of pony willing to waste another second on idle conversation when an enemy is knocking on our doorstep. Applesnack can you tell us….”

“Applebloom!”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Mah name! it’s Applebloom not Applesnack!”

Shining scratches his head “But I thought that Twilight’s friend was Applesnack. Granted you’re a bit younger than I figured but you seem like a nice filly….”

Applebloom face hooves “APPLEJACK is mah sis. She’s Twilight’s friend. Ah’m Applebloom.”

“Oh…………….. are you sure?” Shining armor asks.

“YES.” Applebloom stares at the stallion ahead of her with a deadpan expression “Ah’m sure mah name is Applebloom.”

“…….so you and my sister aren’t friends?”

“Yes!” Applebloom shouts “Well… No…… Well……. Ah think we are….. but…..”

“OH in the name of Celestia Just get on with it!” Zecora shouts

“Yes get on with it!” Lightning dust shouts

“YEAH GET ON WITH IT!!!” The guards shout in a deafening chorus.

“But….” Shining argues

“GET ON WITH IT SHINEY!!!” Twilight shouts.

Signing in defeat the stallion turns back to the filly “All right Applebloom can you tell us what these two stand users look like and what their powers are? Can you do that?”

“Well.” The filly taps her chin with her hoof as she recalls the encounter with the two villainous stallion who nearly killed her not a few minutes ago. “There’s this one guy he’s a big bully! He’s the light brown one with a dark brown mane.” Applebloom holds her hoof up to about Shining’s back height “He’s about this big an he’s got a horrible attitude. He’s got a cutie mark of three horseshoes and has this dirty brown suit on. And even worse he talks like a drummed out gangster from one of those old timey movies!”

“And……” Shining waves his hoof urging the filly on.

“And there was this other guy!” Applebloom continues “HE was like this voodoo priest type. He had all these fancy black clothes and talked all smart like! He was big an blue an he had this strange title or somthin like he was a priest. An to top it off he wouldn’t stop talking about purification through death or hogwash like that.”

Shining Armor rubs the bridge of his muzzle “I meant what are their stand powers. The details about their appearance are nice but what I really need to know are what their stand powers are.”

Applebloom blinks in realization “Oh right well that first guy, Horseshoes er somthin controls those gaping maws er somthin. If he touches you or if any of those black mouths bite ya then a big sharp toothed may pops out of yer skin and controls you!”

“So.” Flash rubs his chin “That’s the guy that controls the ponies with his power. Is there a way to remove the maws? Maybe get rid of them?”

“Ah-Ah don’t know.” The filly looks at her own hooves downcast “He said…. He said that only killing the pony would remove em …..”

“And you believed him?” Lightning dust spits off the side almost hitting another of her men “That’s bull! I removed mine!” Lighting Dust extends her injured hoof the blood dripping down the bandage as shining suddenly understands the origins of Lighting’s injuries.

Shining Armor rolls his eyes. “I doubt it’ a viable strategy to rip the enemy’s stand off our bodies Lightning.” Shining states dryly as he turns back to the filly Applebloom. “But Lightning’s right about one thing there must be a way to remove these sores that Horseshoes isn’t saying. So we’ll beat him unconscious and hope that does the trick and if that doesn’t work we’ll simply force him to get rid of them. What about the other one Applebloom?”

“That other guy was real creepy an stuff.” Applebloom continues without any hesitance. “He brought the dead back to life an he…. He brought back…..”

“He brought back some of the dead from the cemeteries.” Lightning finishes for the filly. Turning over to the yellow crusader she places a gentle wing on her back “There nothing to be scared of captain they’re just corpses that we can put back in the dirt. However what is a big concern is that there seems to be no limit on the number of dead he can reanimate, and given the size of the town we’re talking number of corpses in the thousands.”

Shining nods as the filly snuggles deeper into the light green Pegasus’s down feathers greatly comforted by the light green mare’s concern. “Well at least we know who our enemies are now.” With a condescending look Shining turns back to the rest of his men “Do you hear that? Despite your ‘democracy’ Twilight was innocent of your accusations. If you had hooved Twilight over to the monsters at our doorstep the attack would not have stopped and you would no doubt have died as well.”

Every soldier and pony looks down at their hooves as they recount their shameful actions. Shining taps his hooves impatiently “Well what do you have to say?”

The troops look at each other before responding in one pitiable voice “We’re sorry Twilly.”

Shining Nods “Good now that we know the particulars….” Shining looks over at his men “AND we’ve given a proper apology, we can develop a plan to take these guys out. Flash, can you use your stand to take me and a select group to fight the enemy?”

“Sorry captain but that’s not going to fly.” Lightning salutes as she trots over to the stallion “You aren’t going anywhere, we need you to protect the corpse with your Bastion.” The mare looks down the flight of stairs flinching as the sounds coming from the first floor. “That and if you leave the barrier downstairs then the entire station will be overrun.”

Shining sighs as his heroic plan to save the day are once again dashed by logic “Lightning……. You’re right I can’t leave. If the corpse falls into enemy hooves then I shudder to think what could happen. Then perhaps you can?”

“Uhhhhhh about that Captain Armor…..” Lighting rubs her injured hoof sorely.

“What is it Lighting?” Shining looks down at the mare’s blood soaked bandage. “Your hoof? I’ll admit that it looks bad but you’ve never backed down from a fight!”

“What? Oh my injuries?” Lighting looks down at her hoof as she continues. “Well I admit that I did lose a lot of blood but that’s not why I’m not rushing over there to kick their flanks. They know my stand power Captain and to tell you the truth I barely made it out of there to begin with. If I lead an attack with them already knowing my ability I’ll probably be the one getting knocked on my flank.”

“B-But it has to be you Lightning! No pony else has the experience and technique to lead an assault.” Shining waves his hoof around the police station “And it’s not like we have another team on standby! Look I know that it’s dangerous but it has to be you. Zecora doesn’t have a stand and Flash is too inexperienced to lead. ”

“And I’m just saying, Captain.” Lightning reiterates “That going up against a pony that knows our stand powers and their respective weaknesses is a recipe for disaster. And if these guys know my power, odds are they know the stand abilities of our entire unit.”

“Well you’ll have to risk it Lightning.” Shining states sternly “There’s nopony else that can take down these enemies and I don’t see anypony else volunteering.”

“……I’ll do it.”

All eyes in the room turn towards the small and slightly meek voice that seems to cut through the silence to find a very tense Twilight Sparkle sitting there with her hoof raised.

“I-I-I mean we could do it. Me and my friends that is, you said that you didn’t have another team lying around but that’s not really true. I mean me and my friends are more a group than a team….” The unicorn blushes as she tries to put her makeshift idea together “But you said you needed a team a stand users and well, we’ve managed to beat down every stand user that has tried to defeat us so in terms of experience….”

“NO.” Shining interjects “Absolutely no.”

“Shining! You said yourself the longer this stand power is active then the more ponies suffer!” Twilight gestures out the window with a free hoof as she pleads with her brother. “Me and my friends may not have formal training but we have teamwork, friendship and a desire to protect the ponies we love, just like you do! We can’t afford to be divided and let our biases affect our judgment Shining. We have to use everything at our disposal if we are to save the corpse and the town.”

“Twi’s right!” Applebloom squeaks as she rushes over to Twilight’s side “Ah don’t know anything about a corpse er whatever yer talking about. Ah have ta save mah sister an I don’t care what yawl say, Ah’m helpin too!”

Shining looks at his sister her iron fixed gaze letting him know that she is not going to budge an inch. As if seeking sound advice he glances over to Zecora silently praying that she can back him up. “If Twilight deer is so resolved, then let her gather her friends which have been dissolved. She can then bring the fight to our enemy, and allow us to seize victory.”

Lightning nods with Zecora's logic “I think the paper pusher is right this time captain. If her friends are capable of giving us this much trouble than they’re certainly capable of handling their own.” Lightning despite the desperate situation manages a cocky grin. “Plus if your sister is half as good a fighter as you are then they’ll be able to bring these guys down before they overrun the town. And you DID say yourself that time is of the essence.”

Despite the votes of confidence for his sister, or perhaps because it, Shining is noticeably worried.  His gaze levels with his sister in his best intimidating guard stare, yet the mare stands resolute. Their eyes match as each pony tries their best to try to keep the other from making what is in their mind a dangerous mistake. Twilight trusting in the strength and power of her friends and Shining armor trying to keep his only family as far out of harm’s way as physically possible. Both look like neither will surrender as they stare at each other in an attempt to physically sway the other with their mere presence.

“I can do this Shiny.” Twilight states her voice softening “Please.”

Shining looks at his sister as her plea echoes through the now silent room. Shining gives one last attempt to steer the mare away from her course of action before hanging his head in defeat. “You really don’t play fair do you Twily.” Shining chuckles as his horn illuminates, suddenly the mare flinches as she feels the Anti-stand collar fall off of her neck landing on the floor with a loud clank.

Twilight rubs her sore neck as she massages warm blood back into her now exposed coat.  The mare looks back at her brother with a look of both bewilderment and thanks as Shining Armor looks warily into his sister’s eyes “Just don’t make me regret this, okay Twily?” Shining Armor says. “No matter what, you survive, and that’s an order. Got it?”

Twilight snaps into a sharp playful salute as she makes it clear that she has no intention of dying here. Her posture, her bearing, each give her brother an image of a responsible and capable mare that can handle herself, a mare that can defeat any obstacle thrown at her and come out on top. And despite his own silent fears Shining can’t help but smile as he looks at the mare before him not as his sister that needs to be coddled but her own pony that is every bit his equal. Shining salutes back with a smile as they share a wordless moment together each of them ready to do their part to save the world.

‘She really has grown up’ Shining thinks to himself as he turns to face the rest of his soldiers that are patiently awaiting their orders. “Alright everypony!” Shining rises his booming voice to the rest of his men “Here’s the plan!”

“Lightning.” The mare salutes as Shining places his hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “Take what solders you can and slow down the enemy’s advance in the town proper. Protect as many of the ponies of this town as you are able and get the ones that you can’t to safety.”

“Flash.” The orange Pegasus salutes “Help Twilight get her team together by using your Flashpoint. Once you have dropped her off to eliminate the enemy, fly as fast as your wings are able to Canterlot. Get the Princess and get reinforcements, come back as fast as you can.”

“I’ll stay behind with our vanguard to protect the corpse and the police station while drawing the enemy’s fire.” Shining looks around the room as he taps his hoof on the ground. “Between my Bastion and the sturdy nature of the building it shouldn’t be too hard to defend this place. Besides no pony but me knows the exact position of the corpse, so even if we are overrun it won’t be taken.”

“Zecora I want you on the com table.” Shining nods to the zebra mare “Try and get in touch with any of our guards in the surrounding towns. There may be stand agents in calling distance that can lend a helping hoof. But more importantly try and get word to Canterlot to tell them everything that’s going on.”

Finally he turns to his sister “Twilight…..”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Twilight smirks as she turns to Flash sentry behind her. “I’ll get my friends and save the town. You just stay here and….”

Twilight turns to leave only to find a strong gentle hoof on her shoulder. Turning back behind her Twilight comes face to face with her brother his loving genuine face. “Go Twilight.” Shining smiles affirmatively “Go and change the world, don’t worry about me and the others. Your Brother is a lot stronger than you know.”

Before Twilight can respond she finds herself gripped in a tight hug as Flash sentry throws Applebloom on his back. “Hold on everypony I’m teleporting us out now!”

With no time to even respond Twilight watches tearfully as space begins to fold around her, her vision clouding in the eather as she watches her brother fade out. Unwilling to let her brother’s words go unanswered she extends her hoof and calls out “Shiny! Wa-“

…………

“-it. Hunh?” Twilight looks around finding her once again in the center room of a room that is unmistakably familiar to her. The rows and rows of books, the center table and the peaceful quiet all tell Twilight that they have arrived almost instantly back in her library. However the peaceful silence that normally fills the library quickly finds itself replaced with a ere calm as Twilight quickly becomes aware that the library in question is  devoid of any pony save her, Flash sentry and little Applebloom.

Looking around the dark and empty space Twilight takes in the immense contrast between her own current situation and the situation at the war-torn police station miles away as she sighs heavily “Great, you could have at least let me say goodbye.”

Twilight looks around and ignites her horn the dark and empty library as she prepares to reignite the candles in the room. However the sounds of the horde off in the distance dash the mare’s plans, from the sound of it the army that is attacking the police center is a ways off however it’s best not to draw any stragglers or random groups of the enemy to their doorstep. Casting a small personal light spell Twilight looks around determining all her protective wards and locks are still in place, satisfied that Trixie and her friends would be sufficiently safe if the enemy decided to attack them here. “But I have to admit you got us here fast. Not many ponies could pull off an even a pre programmed teleportation so easily. Why do you even have a teleportation mark in the library of all places?” Twilight asks off-hoofedly as she scans the library for signs of her friends.

Flash rubs the back of his neck “Well I may have borrowed a book from Trixie to read and not returned it yet. Besides Trixie was our informant so I kept a mark here in case we needed to reach her.”

Twilight suddenly snaps to attention her current quest forgotten in a rising tide of terror that the undead could not produce “Trixie! I completely forgot, I told her to watch the library!” Grabbing the stallion the mare shakes him violently in a blind panic. “Quick, did she change the library over to the dewey decimal system? Answer me! The fate of hundreds of innocent books depends on it! TELL ME!!”

Flailing about as the mare continues to shake him Flash barely manages to stutter out the answer “N-N-No Sh-h-he said that she did-d-d-dn’t have t-t-t-time.”

Dropping the stallion on the floor like a sack of potatoes the mare wipes her brow of sweat “Whew! That’s a relief. If she had really had gone against my will and established her abhorrent system, not even seventeen cups of coffee could have saved her.” Twilight grips Flash’s collar menacingly. “And by that I mean that SOMEPONY would have RUED the day they were BORN!!”

Flash Sentry’s coat stands on end as a dark and cruel fire ignites in the mare’s eyes only for it to be extinguished a moment later. “All right then, that’s one worry down.” Twilight says as she tosses Flash Sentry backwards, looking around for signs of her friends. “Now all we have to do is get the others and get over to where those ponies Horseshoes and Noteworthy are. That shouldn’t be so hard.”

“Uh, Twi where is everypony?” Applebloom asks as she looks around the empty foyer “didn’t yawl say that all yer friends were waitin for us here?”

Twilight’s attention snaps away from the stallion as her vision pans around the room, and sure enough she finds the library almost completely abandoned.

“Come ta think of it…” Applebloom taps her chin “Applejack came home so maybe the others left too?”

Twilight groans heavily “Great I give Trixie one task and she blows it. Well at least she didn’t rearrange the library while I was gone.” Twilight begins to trot up the stairs turning back only to address the others a moment later. “Come on Applebloom Trixie’s probably upstairs. Flash you watch the door, the last thing we need is a horde of zombies coming in from all sides.”

With practiced focus Twilight looks around the upstairs hallway for any sign of the mare, and coming to the door to the blue show mare’s room Twilight jostles the handle to find the door is locked firmly from the inside. “Oh for crying out loud.”

Twilight knocks on the closed door. “Trixie? Where are you?!” Twilight demands as she knocks more furiously “Why isn’t any pony here? Where are the others?! You were supposed to keep them here if we needed anything, where are the rest of my friends?”

However despite her heavy knocking the door remains firmly closed, unyielding to the purple unicorn’s inquiries. Looking at the locked door with no small amount of frustration the mare stares at the door with a look that could scorch wood. “URGH! I don’t have time for this.” Grabbing the yellow filly to her side Twilight calls upon her inner reserves of magic as she and the filly disappear in a flash of light only to reappear on the other side of the locked door. “All right we’re in. Now where are you Trixie? This is the only locked door in the library and she has nowhere else to go so she must be here somewhere.”

Twilight’s eyes once again scan over the room around her taking in the chaotic organization that Trixie has utilized in order to instill some haphazard method of order in Twilight’s previously pristine guest bedroom.  Scanning over the piles of junk that Trixie seems to have found all over ponyville to use for her tricks, Twilight finds her senses overloaded by piles of glistening scrap metal, unopened boxes with exotic labels and piles upon piles of books resting on the floor without any organization whatsoever. Her trained eyes glance over each and every item in the room from jars of glitter to piles of colored wood as the mare mentally catalogues and identifies every single item in rapid succession. With all the skill and perceptive abilities of a mare with an IQ over 180 she glances over the room only to find no trace of the mare if illusions, surely Trixie must be a master of disguise.

“Uh Twi?” Applebloom nudges the unicorn pointing to a shaking mass of blankets sitting on the top of the queen sized bed. “Yawl didn’t get some new vibrating blanket did ya?”

“Of course not Applebloom!” Twilight states condescendingly “Vibrating blankets won’t arrive until Thursday! Now help me find…..”

Or she could have just been hiding under the blanket in the first place any ordinary pony would look. Twilight tears her eyes away from the distracting clutter to stare at the shaking pile of blankets on Trixie’s bed straining her ears to hear distorted muttering coming from under the thin sheets.

“S-stay away” a small and meek voice cries out from underneath a shaking pile of blankets sitting on the bed.

Trotting over softly as a ghost to the shaking sheets Twilight gently prods the mass of blankets in hopes of eliciting a response from whatever is hiding under Trixie’s blankets. “Um Hello?”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

In an explosion of the most high pitched and fillish scream imaginable the blue showmare leaps out from under the covers clinging to the ceiling fan for dear life. Scrambling to put herself as far away from the intruders as possible Trixie cries out as she clutches her eyes as tight as possible. “G-G-Go away! Don’t eat Trixie’s beautiful Brains! J-Just leave me alone!”

Rolling her eyes at Trixie’s cowardly behavior Twilight calls out from the floor “Trixie! This is no time for shenanigans!” Twilight glances at the mare’s crumpled sheets “And why were you hiding under the covers in the first place? There are ponies that need help, don’t you know what’s going on!?”

Trixie’s eyes widen as she immediately recognizes the sound of that voice. Looking down she sees not a group of zombies but a little filly and a mare whom she knows very well. “Twilight! And unnamed filly #4!” the mare cries out as she drops unceremoniously from her perch “I was just… I mean Trixie was just… um Waiting for you to arrive and I was…. Uh securing the most defendable position waiting for you to arrive and……”

Trixie prepares to continue her fibbing however the skeptical look on the purple unicorn’s face lets her know her story is getting her nowhere “…You’re not buying any of this are you?” Trixie asks.

Twilight shakes her head ‘no’ confirming Trixie’s fears causing the great and powerful Trixie to sag noticeably in embarrassment. “Figured.”

“Don’t worry Trixie!” Applebloom pipes up “Twi’s here now and we’ve got this big plan goin on! Yawl don’t have to be scared of some dried up zombies!”

“Don’t worry!?” Trixie shouts as she straightens out her disheveled mane “Well in case you needed glasses little filly, the town is under attack by a horde of the undead that want t-t-to eat our b-b-brains!” Trixie stutters in fear as she gestures out the window “This is the perfect time to worry!”

Twilight places a reassuring hoof on Trixie’s shoulder calming the near hysterical mare down. “I know Trixie, I know that things look bad now. But we have a plan now all we need to do is get the girls together and defeat the stand users that are responsible for this disaster.” Twilight pans the room as if searching for a sign “By the way where are our friends? They went to the library with you so I thought that they would be hiding here with you.”

“Them?” Trixie gasps with exasperation as she strikes the most offended look that she can muster. “Those traitors don’t care one lick about Trixie, so why should she care about them? They think of Trixie as garbage and left her to face the consequences of disobeying the direct order of Captain Armor! That’s a court marshaling offense Twilight, I can’t be court martialed! I’ll be sent back to….” Trixie gulps “…..Junior Boot Camp!!”

With a slap from her hoof The showmare knocks’ Twilight’s hoof off of her shoulder crossing her arms in a grumpy pout. “So what if I kept some secrets? So what if I reported their movements to my superiors? Trixie is a Great and Powerful Stand Agent empowered by Celestia herself! If those ingrates really cared about Trixie they should respect her as such.”

To Twilight’s great dismay Trixie begins to literally turn about as she turns her back on Twilight’s pleas for help. “And they expect me to help now that they are in trouble? Give one reason Trixie should bail those hayseeds out now that they need my help!”

“Trixie!” Twilight gasps at the show mare’s sudden profession “How could you say that? Those are our friends we’re talking about.”

“And as I said before Twi-Bright.” Trixie sneers “Trixie has no Friends.”

The silence that fills the room could “Besides did you see outside? Trixie isn’t going out there! There are z-z-zombies out there! Not that Trixie is afraid of zombies or anything, it’s just that…… well Trixie has to secure this very defensible position under the bed! Yes that is a perfectly reasonable explanation!”

Applebloom the pony that should be most offended by Trixie’s stubborn decision to abandon her sister to a horrible fate only looks back at the show mare with a teary eyed expression. “Trixie….”

Trixie though obviously listening to the filly remains with her back to the two ponies, her will and stubbornness unaffected by Applebloom’s pleas.

“Ah know that mah sis and her friends aren’t always nice ta you, an ah have no idea what yawl are fightn over.” Applebloom sniffles in a such a way not even Trixie can tell whether it is part of the yellow filly’s act or a genuine demonstration of her sorrows. “But yawl can’t just leave em alone. Yer a stand agent! Yawl swore an oath ta protect everypony even those ya don’t like, no matter what the situation is.”

 “Mah…..” Applebloom looks down her body shaking from fear. “Mah parents were brought out of the grave by that unicorn Noteworthy. Ah… ah barely even remember mah parents, an he dug em up and made them almost kill me. Yer not the only one whose afraid……Ah’m scared too……”

Trixie’s normally steadfast demeanor instantly dissolves under the filly’s confession. With painful slowness the mare turns around as the full grown mare abandons her pride to watch the tears of the little filly pitter patter against the floor.

“Yer… yer so strong Trixie…. Please mah sis needs yer help….. Twi needs your help…. All of Ponyville needs ya. So Please.” Applebloom’s teary eyes straight into Trixie’s soul “Please help me……”

Trixie pulls her gaze away from the filly to the window outside, and all the horrors and terrors that are consuming the town as she sits there safe hiding like a coward. Pulling her gaze away from the window he locks gazes with Twilight who is asking her to go out into that terrible situation to save ponies who abandoned her at the drop of her magnificent hat. Then she looks back to the filly, a filly whom she doesn’t even know who is asking her to risk her life to save her hayseed of a sister from the hordes of Zombies that are running rampant outside. Trixie sighs knowing deep down, despite her reluctance there is really only once choice she has to make. With a heavy heart Trixie gives in

 “Very well little farm filly.” Trixie straightens her hat as her cocky grin returns “Trixie will ‘mare up’ and face down this horde. If only to show that not even an army of the undead can face down the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Twilight smiles at the mare’s sudden change of heart as she extends her hoof to the cross armed mare in a gesture of camaraderie.  The showmare looks at the unicorn’s hoof for a second before grasping it firmly in a truce. “Just let me make this clear Twilight, we are not friends, Trixie is just doing her job and nothing more. Do not mistake Trixie’s duty for altruism.”

“YES!” Applebloom hoof pumps in the air as the two mares look at the excited filly with wide eyes. Her act over the filly laughs out loud wiping the crocodile tears from her eyes “Another point fer the filly! Take that Diamond Tiara! Ah can speak real good, ah just choose not to speak all fancy like yawl do all the time.”

Both the adults look on as the previously sobbing filly giggles to herself, both of them realizing that they have both been duped by a filly. “Well Trixie, fer a showmare yawl are pretty good at being suckered! If yawl were mah sis ya would have seen through mah whole ‘mah parents are dead’ thing ages ago. Sides, everypony knows an Apple doesn’t cry!”

“Pft!” Trixie waves her hoof dismissively breaking her grasp on the purple librarian’s hoof “Your pathetic oration skills had nothing to do with it hayseed. It was your annoying stare that changed Trixie’s mighty mind. Those class four cutesy eyes would have slain a grumpy dragon and charmed him out of his horde!”

Trixie clears her throat as a blush crosses her muzzle “Plus it would be unprofessional of Trixie to leave Twilight and her friends to die, even if they did deserve it….”

“What was that Trixie?” Twilight asks with a slight grin.

“Nothing!” Trixie fumbles with her words “I mean, Trixie meant her associates! Trixie would never call such losers her friends! It was a slip up. Nothing more.”

Twilight chuckles softly at Trixie’s antics as the crucial issue comes to mind “By the way Trixie where are the rest of the girls? We really need to get them together if we’re to get on with our plan.”

“Yeah!” Applebloom perks up “Where are the girls? They said they would arrive back at the library ages ago with their sleepin bags an stuff.”

“They were going to come back?” Trixie asks in surprise before quickly reverting back to her cocky egotistical self. “I mean of course they would return! No pony can stay away from the Great and Powerful Trixie’s unstoppable charisma for long! I knew that those fools would come groveling back to me sooner or later! They just went off to get their sleeping bags so that they could obey Trixie’s’ command to sleep here for the night. How could Trixie have been so foolish?”

“No, no not those girls!” Applebloom corrects the confused showmare “Ah mean Scootaloo an Sweetie Belle! They were supposed to arrive here for our sleepover ages ago! We planned out the whole thing so that we would all arrive in the library the night yawl returned.”

The hairs on the two mares’ coats stand on end as a horrible thought crosses their minds simultaneously. With a sickening gulp Twilight clears her throat as she turns to the filly. “Applebloom…. So you’re saying that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are walking here, Tonight, In the dark, and completely and utterly without any form of adult supervision?”

“Well sure!” Applebloom smiles oblivious to how wrong twilight’s words sound “The library’s all big an empty an perfect fer all those nighttime activities, so we all agreed to meet here for our sleepover! Pretty good idea hunh?”

“Yes Hayseed.” Trixie states with a dangerous mixture of fear and anger in her voice. “That was a very clever idea to use the abode of a pony for a sleepover, WITHOUT asking them if it was okay.”

“Um Trixie? Technically the Library is my….”

“But you left out one teeny tiny piece of information.” Trixie throws her hoof to point out her window to the raging fires outside. “The entire town is under attack from a zombie horde! Do you KNOW what that means?!”

The filly taps her chin for a few seconds as she computes this new piece of information into her tiny filly brain “….Cutie Mark Crusaders Zombie Slayers?”

Trixie face hooves. “NO! It means that your little filly friends are out there, walking the streets while the entire city is under attack!!”

Applebloom immediately snaps to attention as every potential horrible outcome crosses her mind in an instant. With a great deal of fear the filly recognizes the immense level of danger that her friends are currently exposed to by an indirect result of her plans. “Th-Then we’ve gotta save them! They could be anywhere! We gotta go out there and find them!”

“Hence our dilemma.” Trixie looks out the window as she looks nervously at the scene of carnage growing ever closer across the horizon “Stop the stand users and save the town.” The mare looks back to the filly picturing the faces of two little fillies in deathly danger. “Or try to save as many lives from the Stand Attack as possible.”

The room becomes dead silent, and were this a strictly comedy fan-fic the writer might use this opportunity to write some bad pun about it being as dead silent as the undead outside.

However the far off screams that barely reach the cusp of the three ponies’ hearing tells them that this situation is not a laughing matter. Innocent ponies are dying at this very moment and the ponies that stand a chance to stop it are trapped in a moral deadlock. Either choice that they make will result in lives lost and the danger that Applebloom’s friends are potentially undergoing makes the situation all the more real. Thus the three ponies sit around waiting for the first pony to make their point, to deliver their first blow in a debate for the lives of the town’s ponies.

A debate that is sidestepped entirely by the bravery of a small yellow filly. “A-Ah’ll go…” two pairs of eyes turn to Applebloom as she clenches her hooves and straightens her body. “Ah’ll go help mah friends, ya have ta go save the town.”

“Applebloom….” Twilight recovers from her stunned state with a curt shake of her head. “I-I can’t allow that, I know that you want to save your friends but…..”

“Let me guess…” Applebloom cuts the mare off “….. but ah’m just a filly right? Yawl can’t let me save mah friends cause ah’m too little right? Well you can just ferget about that Twilight!” Applebloom leaps to her hooves “Well guess what? Yeah ah’m a filly! Yes ah’m little but ah can still do great things, an right now mah friends need mah help!”

“Ah can do this Twi.” Applebloom states her voice softening “Please. Please let me save mah friends.”

“Applebloom……” Twilight cringes on the inside a she suddenly realizes in a small way how hard it was for her brother to agree to let her go. “I know that you mean well and that you are already strong, just like your sister. But you can’t go alone even if your power can defend you.”

Applebloom’s previously unquenchable resolve begins to fade a little as the door opens up behind her. Standing in the doorway a strong curt stallion salutes. “Well then if she can’t go alone then I’ll just take her myself.”

Applebloom immediately perks up as Twilight responds “Flash? Were you listening in on us? Who’s watching the door?”

“Please Twilight.” Flash sighs “I’m in the army and I know when I’m being given a bum job whose only purpose is to get a solder out of the way. Besides from the high pitched scream I heard had me bolting up the stairs with all the haste I could muster. I mean it’s not like I could let you die or something. What was all that screaming about anyways?”

Trixie blushes profusely as she remembers her previous outburst while simultaneously giving the purple librarian the universal stare for ‘tell and you die’. “Um sorry Flash.” Twilight rubs her hoof “I uh…… saw a mouse…..”

“A mouse? Seriously?” Flash scoffs “You are fighting a zombie horde and a mouse scares you? I mean come on what’s a mouse going to do?”

“You would be surprised what a mouse could do.” Twilight glares at the solder “Or rather what three mice can do.”

“Oh right, Turnip Truck.” Flash remembers the reports of the trouble the three mice gave Twilight’s Library.  “Well fortunately he’s still locked up tight in the Canterlot’s holding cells so there’s no chance of him aiding in this attack.”

 “In any case…” Trixie gets to her hooves  while turning towards the purple mare with all trace of humor replaced with serious determination. “All of the hayseeds left for their own homes almost as soon as we arrived for…... Reasons.” Trixie admits shamefully. “But if Trixie has learned anything it’s that they are too tough to die. Trixie believes that they will be ready to fight if we can reach them.”

Twilight taps her horn proudly “It’ll be difficult but I think that I can teleport us to each house to gather our team. I’m familiar enough with their houses to succeed in a teleport, the only issue will be teleporting so many ponies at once.” Twilight straightens out. “It’ll tire me out but I think that I can do it.”

“That’s probably for the best.” Flash brushes his blue mane “Meanwhile I’ll take Applebloom and hopefully we can find her friends as well as save as many ponies as we can. Then as soon as they are safe I can head out to get reinforcements.”

Twilight nods “Then we have a new plan. Me and Trixie will gather up the girls while Applebloom….... gathers up the girls.”

Applebloom nods curtly “Sounds like a plan! I just hope yawl don’t have too much trouble with Horseshoes an that nasty priest guy!” Applebloom’s face suddenly looks back at the two adults “Are yawl sure you’ll be all right?”

Both mares look at each other as they individually suppress their own doubts to put on a confident face. “Of course Applebloom, those two may be tough but I’m no bookworm. And if Rainbow Dash gets her hooves on them, well let’s just say it’ll be over in ten seconds flat.”

“Twilight is right hayseed there is nothing to fear.” Trixie raises her hooves to the heavens with dramatic flair “After all she’ll be with the great and powerful Trixie! And everypony knows that the great and powerful Trixie cannot be defeated.”

Before the filly can even protest she finds herself thrown up on the back of another pegisi as Flash sentry crosses his face in concentration. “All right then Hold on Tight Applebloom. I’ll take us close to the residential district where all this disaster is heading. Hopefully we can find Lightning and get your friends to the safety of the town hall.”

Flash’s outline begins to crackle with static as the filly’s head swivels around to take in. “Wait a second, where are we….”

The air around the two ponies crackles and finally pops as the two vanish into thin air leaving behind a faint smell of ozone and electrified air. The two mares gape at their new Afros that have become charged with static electricity as they quickly flail about to brush their manes back to its previous mane styles. Finally after smoothing out her poofy mane Twilight whistles in surprise.

“Wow.” Twilight blinks repeatedly “That guy’s got to learn to slow down once a while and let ponies finish their sentences.”

“Forget about the filly, if half of what Trixie hears is true she can handle herself.” Trixie grunts as she straightens out her electrified hairdo. “What about our mission? Does the Bookworm think that we can take these stand users out? They seem to have quite a combination going for them.”

“All we know for sure is that our enemies are well organized and possess shrewd tactics capable of overwhelming an entire town’s defenses in under an hour. I know that we’re strong together but these guys are on a whole different level.” Twilight looks out the window with a concerned look on her face as she now tries to be brave for the mare in front of her. “But I know that together there is no obstacle that we can’t overcome. The entire town is depending on us after all. There is no room for failure this time.”

Trixie as if sensing the Librarian’s worry nods affirmatively as both mares bolster the other’s confidence. With their plan in place and their counter attack under way only now does Twilight glance out the window the catch a glimpse of the destruction awaiting her. “One power controls the living and the other controls the dead, these two stand users must be a frightfully competent and impressive team…….”

Chapter 17-Love Bug-Take 1

Chapter 18-Hollyhoof Undead:Take 2

Hollyhoof Undead: Take Two

“NO you shut up!”

“No YOU shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

Applejack rolls her eyes as she once again wishes to the point of selling her own soul that she could move her hooves, if only to cover her now bleeding ears. When Noteworthy had threatened to kill her if she didn’t come along (And deciding that following the two enemies to see what they were up to) the two ponies had alternated between glorifying the destruction of her town with their psychic powers and arguing with each other. And if that wasn’t enough the pointless bickering would follow the same predictable pattern.

Caramel would insult Noteworthy’s ‘hobbies’ involving his stand power and his ‘necrophilia’. Then Noteworthy would make a thinly veiled insult that would take Caramel a few seconds to understand. Finally Caramel would retaliate with a very loud proclamation of his own superiority and they would argue until something else distracted them or they ran out of breath.

Frankly if Applejack had to choose between watching the destruction and waves of plagues and undead unfolding before her, and listen to the two bickering, she would probably have chosen to feed herself to zombies ages ago. Yet thanks to Caramel’s power she was barely able to move an inch of her own accord and thus was unable to do anything aside from listen to the two argue at the top of their respective lungs.

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“NO you shut up!”

“How about both of you SHUT UP!” Applejack yells at the top of her lungs “Ah’m getting real sick of yer bickering, if yer gonna force me ta watch the destruction of mah town the least ya can do is keep me from hearin yer pointless arguing!”

Applejack’s own fore hoof picks itself off the ground delivering a curt and powerful slap to the mare’s face “Don’t you tell our boss to shut up!” The maw shouts “How about You shut up for a change, you’re throwing off the boss’s impressive flow you dig?”

“Yeah don’t insult me!” Caramel turns to the mare “Ize know that this Necrophiliac voice is annoying as heck but that’s no reason for youzes insult!”

“Caramel my dear even if I took the time to straighten out your grammatical mess you call your conversation skills then you would no doubt still be unable to pass a garbage pony.”

Pushing his face right up to the blue unicorn Caramel snorts like an enraged bull “Ize has no idea of what youze just said but from the smug tone of yer voice it sounds like youze are trying to insult me!”

Mustering up every sarcastic bone in his body the stallion rolls his eyes with enough force to pop a blood vessel “And the high school dropout says the most insightful thing he has said all night! What brilliant powers of deduction!”

“Well, why don’t ah take mah hoof and shove it up youze…..”

“IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA! SHUT UP!!” Applejack yells at the top of her lungs “Yawl are makin me sick, an not just cause yer tryin ta kill everypony!!”

The mare’s loud shout seems to have broken the two out of their argument as they cease their infighting to glare at each other resentfully. Deciding that any second that they’re not talking is good second Applejack attempts to take the ball and run with it guiding the conversation away from something that two can argue about.

“What’s yer deal anyways?” Applejack asks while channeling a great deal of her exasperation “Ah mean do ya really feel good about razin an entire town? Think about it! That’s hundreds of ponies that yawl are making suffer!” Applejack gestures over to the town with a nod of her head putting her all into one last appeal to appeal to the moralities of two mobsters in a last ditch effort to save her town. “Is this what you really want to do with yer lives? Kill ponies and bring sufferin? Is this really what yer life’s about? Is this somthin that yawl can be proud of?”

Both mobsters look at each other and then at the town before them, from their view on the top hill they can see it all. Their handiwork is visible to all the world in all its twisted monstrosity. As they gaze upon the wreckage of the town for the briefest of moments Applejack believes that she has finally made an impact on the stallions that her words have actually managed to pierce through their icy hearts. With a swift turn of their heads both Noteworthy and Carmel turn back to the mare, clear their throats and say…..

“Yeah I think this IS what I want to do with my life!” Caramel states happily

“And finally something we can agree on.” Noteworthy smiles to himself

“What?!” Applejack gasps as she steps back in horror. “Why…. How… What…. Are you two insane?! Yer talkin about razin a town, mah town, an killin fer the heck of it! How could ya possible want ta do somthin like that?! Just how sick are ya that this….” Applejack gestures to the burning buildings down the hill “….. is somthin any pony would want?”

Both stallion cease their little chuckling at the orange mare’s naive nature as Caramel clears his throat approaching the mare “Look kiddo. Weze knows that youze gotts problems with killin an that’s fine and all fer a minx like youze.  But if yoze have heard of the phrase ‘ya can’t make an omelet without crackin a few eggs’ then yoze will know what ize mean.”

Gesturing out towards the overrun town the corrupt stallion straightens his dirty suit as he smiles in pride. “The fact of the matter is, Ize got an Impressive job here tonight ta ‘take care’ of any problems tha boss has. So what if a few ponies get whacked, it’s all part of the job!”

“And for once I agree, despite my partner’s butchered accent.” Caramel shoots a sharp glare at the Blue unicorn in response to his pointed words. “To bring lasting peace to pony kind is the goal of any self-respecting pony. And nothing is more peaceful than a body at rest. Therefore bringing death is tantamount to bringing salvation!”

The zealous priest extends his hooves to the moon above as his fanaticism reaches its crescendo. “Ponies may fear death but when it is embraced and accepted then purification from the filth of the world can be achieved.”

 “Now do youze see Minx?” the stallion smiles as his putrid alcoholic breath fills the mare’s nostrils “Killin aint personal, it’s just a job! An youze can’t be mad at two ponies fer doin their jobs, right?”

Applejack sighs at her own situation wondering what evils she must have performed in a past life to deserve to be tied at the hip with two of the most horrible ponies in existence. “Can somepony just put me out of mah misery already?”

“I agree with the mare.” Noteworthy looks over to her as he readies his skeleton of a stand to strike at Applejack’s heart. “She is one of the targets and she is fated to die. Let me bring the peace of death to her.”

“An Ize ah said No!” the stallion swats away the hoof of the Blue unicorn “Youze keep yer hooves off her Ize say when we knock her off an not before. She’s bait fer the others, for the other minxes. They’ll come back fer a rescue an then….” The stallion rubs his hooves as he contemplates thoughts of revenge. “….And then…. I’ll add her and her friends to my harem.”

“YOUR WHAT!?!” Applejack yells at the top of your lungs her disbelief and disgust rising with every word spewing forth from the gangster’s vile tongue.

“Youze heard me minx! See I’ve got me a whole bunch of pretty mares like youze.” The stallion grins as her strokes the mare’s pelt and the mouths sticking out of her skin. “All under mize command. Doin whatever ah want them ta do. An let me tell youze, if yer friends are half as pretty as youze ah think that we’ll be getting along pretty well.”

Applejack shudders as this time it is Noteworthy that swipes the stallion’s hoof away. “Caramel that is highly inappropriate!”

“Thank Celestia.” The mare sighs in relief.

“The boss gave us orders to kill all the stand users in ponyville and that was a direct order.” Noteworthy states harshly “Not in a harem, not under our control. Dead, as in a peaceful death, not your abomination of life.”

“What?” The stallion looks over to the mare with lustful eyes. “Surely you want to live don’t you minx? Just say the word an you can be number fourteen of my special little club. Come on! Youze will get anything youze want and serve a hot stallion like me fer tha rest of yer days!” The stallion grabs her cheeks with his hooves as he looks deep into her eyes “so what do youze say?”

Applejack looks into the eyes of the wicked stallion before her, the very act of him touching her skin filling her with a level of revulsion that she didn’t think was possible. Suddenly in response to Carmel’s question the mare opens her own mouth as she mulls over her options. “What do ize say?” Applejack asks as curiosity courses over Carmel’s dull face. Reaching deep down inside her, deeper than any pony thought possible the mare clears her throat and spits the mother of all lougies directly in the stallion’s face. As the spittle drips down the his face the mare grins cockily. “That’s mah answer. Is that clear enough fer you?”

 “…..Can I kill her now?”

Caramel slaps the Blue unicorn upside the head “Shut up youze necrophiliac!” reaching into his suit pocket the stallion pulls out a small handkerchief to brush the spit out of his face. “So youze think that youze are too good fer ol Caramel here? That youze are too good fer me!? Well ize know exactly how to break stubborn mares like youze!”

The stallion grins evilly as he slowly approaches the paralyzed mare her hooves unresponsive to her desire to flee as the stallion’s muzzle comes to within inches of the mare. As the mare struggles to move she watches in fear as Caramel extends his hoof towards her face as she pictures all the horrible things that this stallion can do to her. Yet defying the mare’s expectation she feels neither pain or discomfort as the stallion extends his hoof to the orange farmer’s golden locks his very touch sending cold shivers through her spine. With almost tender dexterity the stallion brushes the mare’s exposed mane with practiced precision creating a soothing feeling in the mare despite her attempts to pry herself from his grasp. Yet the evil glint in Carmel’s eyes tells the mare beyond a shadow of a doubt that his intentions are the furthest thing from a compassionate act. “Tell me Minx.” Caramel asks softly.

 “Tell me…….” The stallion continues “have youze had your first kiss yet?”

Applejack’s eyes widen in terror, color flashes from her face as she realizes where the stallion’s inquiries are heading. With desperate fury the mare flails about in an attempt to move away from the loathsome stallion before her only to find her hooves planted in the ground by his equally loathsome power.

Smiling at the mare’s struggles the stallion moves his muzzle closer to the “No?! So youze haven’t kissed yer special somepony yet?” The stallion grins at the mare’s desperate attempts to escape “Probably not. Well then remember this ya minx yer first wasn’t somepony ya liked! It was me Caramel Cider who took youzes first kiss!”

Applejack struggles, she flails about with all her strength; however the discolored sores across her body move her face closer towards the stallion. Caramel grins in a twisted sense of pride as the mare forces herself towards him, her lips ripe for the conquest as the wicked stallion closes his eyes and moves in for the kill. Puckering his lips comically the stallion inches closer to the mare all his thoughts focused on the spoils he is about to reap.

‘Now give me some sugar ya minx!’

Suddenly two pairs of lips meet and the stallion dives in exploring every crevice of the pony’s mouth with his rough liquor flavored tongue. ‘HA it’s over!’ The stallion thinks to himself as he continues to take advantage of the open orifice, his eyes clenched in deep pleasure ‘Now that ize has stripped away this stubborn mare’s pride she belongs solely to me! To turn her into a mindless fool I won’t let her have any other friends or lovers, only me Caramel Cider! Soon she’ll turn inta a fool with nothin ta live for an then she’ll be all mine!”

“BRUGHA!”

The stallion clenches his eyes even tighter at the offending sound ‘Humph, sounds like some pony lost their lunch. It seems like that Necrophiliac Noteworthy couldn’t handle the sight of a real stallion conquering a mare! Ize knew that he was a freak.’

“Urrp. That is…. The most disgusting thing…..that ah have ever seen Urp…..”

‘Humph talk all youze want Noteworthy but yer not……’ the stallion’s mind suddenly snaps to attention ‘Wait a second!? That voice, that didn’t sound like that necrophiliac, it sounded like…… Applejack? But that doesn't make sense that minx is right….”

The stallion opens his eyes to the figure before him, and his heart stops completely. Caramel’s eyes open to the figure in front of him, however instead of the beautiful orange coated southern belle he thought he was making out with he finds a ragged decrepit corpse. The yellow coated pegasus stallion zombie in front of the brown earth pony moans out a deep throated raspy cry as blobs of slobber dribble down its chin like rain.  Its black sunken eyes give the faintest spark of light as the Zombie moans enthusiastically before continuing on its way. Carmel however stands rooted to the ground, unable to think, unable to move, his heart barely beats as his mind tries to avoid acknowledging the dirty dead he just performed. Craning his neck slowly behind him he finds the orange mare wiping the remains of her dinner off of her chin, and one giggling Blue unicorn.

“Amazing what a little undead control can do Isn’t it Caramel? Close your eyes for a second and they appear to pop out of the ground exactly where you least expect them to. Now then…..” The Blue unicorn chuckles at the aghast face of his cohort, taking his own twisted sense of satisfaction at the sudden terror and wordlessness that has overtaken the normally rambunctious stallion. “……Correct me if I’m wrong I seem to have forgotten which one of us is the necrophiliac. Could you kindly inform me who it was that made out with a corpse?”

…………..

POP!

With a loud thump five mares pop out from between space in a tumble their bodies lying in a jumbled dogpile on the floor. All five of the disoriented mares, Trixie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all writhe about in discomfort as they try to adjust to not only the jumbled position of their bodies but also their jumbled senses. All while Twilight lies comfortably at the top of the pile made by her friends groaning like a gryphon with a Saturday night hangover, all the while rubbing her fizzling horn.

“oooowwwwwwwwww…..” The librarian rubs her horn tenderly “Ugh…. Sorry guys I guess that wasn’t such a clean jump after all….. I guess I should have spent more time picturing Pinkies’ place before I tried to bring five other ponies along with me.”

For the most part Twilights’ friends seem fine despite their unorthodox method of travel as they slowly and steadily pry themselves from the leaning pile of ponies.

“Ugh…. Twilight darling could you be a dear and cut back on the turbulence the next time we go teleporting around it’s messing up my mane!” Rarity complains as she re adjusts her hair with her stand’s power. “I mean I know that Applejack is in trouble but is that really any excuse for arriving a mess? I think not!”

“Well….. Um….” Fluttershy fumbles and falls cutely to her hooves as she manages to pull herself from the pile “If it bothers you so much Rarity, you could just think of it as being Fashionably late.”

“Late or early, the Great and Powerful Trixie needs no preparation.” The showmare booms “For the Great and Powerful Trixie always arrives fantastically!”

“Will you give it a rest already.” Rainbow dash groans as she flutters over to a nearby chair rubbing her aching head. “Geese I feel like I lost a cider drinking contest with Applejack…. Not cool at all.”

Pulling herself off the top of the pile Twilight brushes off her coat as she takes stock of her surroundings. When she tried to teleport from Carousel Boutique she had imagined arriving in Pinkie’s room, however a last minute change of thought had landed them in the main eatery of the pastry shop and sent them spiraling through space as well. Straining her eyes against the dark Twilight tries to create a light spell only for her horn to fizzle like a wet firecracker.

“Great, my magic’s burnt out; it’ll take minutes for my mana to recover like this.” The mare sighs as she is forced to be content with the darkness around her. “I knew that five extra ponies was really pushing it. Teleportation is a specialty of mine but that was way too much Extra baggage.”

Trixie, grinning that she can one up her rival, ignites her horn creating a gentle pinkie glow that fills the room. Twilight turns to the mare behind her to offer her thanks only to come face to face with the cocky face of the showmare. “Well Twilight? Care to offer the greatest unicorn in all Equestria Praise? Well I don’t blame you it takes a skilled and clever unicorn to create a light spell as powerful as…..”

“Yeah that’s great Trixie.” Twilight cuts her off “Now just keep that glow steady. Remember we need to find…..”

The sound of clattering steel and ominous hoof steps echoes through the abandoned house causing, the hairs on every mare’s coat to stand on end. Trixie’s eyes grow noticeably wider as her sudden fear of having her brains eaten cause her to lose control of the spell sending the entire room spiraling into darkness. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the showmare screams out in the dark. “It’s the Zombies! The Z-z-zombies are coming to eat Tr-r-rixie’s fabulous brains! Get them away get them away! GET THEM AWAY!!”

The light comes back on thanks to Rarity’s quick use of her horn the light pink of Trixie’s light replaced by the light blue of the Fashionista’s magic. With the light on, all eyes focus on the cowering showmare as it becomes readily apparent to her how embarrassing she must look curling into a fetal position on the floor. “Ummmmmmmm.” Trixie blushes under the focused stares of the other four mares. “Doja?”

“Wowie!” all five mares jump as the sound of a sudden but very familiar voice. “That was some trick Trixie! You had even me thinking that you were scared! But I guess that’s why you’re a showmare after all!”

The librarian’s head swivels around trying to locate the sound of the very familiar voice her eyes and ears straining against the consuming darkness. “Pinkie, is that you?” Twilight asks skeptically as she tries to peer through the shadows “Pinkie where are you?”

“Yepers Twilly! I’m right here!” the pink mare pops out of the shadows. Suddenly the reason that Twilight couldn’t notice her becomes apparent as a mare decked out in a skin tight black spy outfit and night vision goggles emerges from the darkness. “Hey ya Twilight! Glad that you could make it! Do you like what I’ve done with the place?” Pinkie gestures to the room around her with her open hoof.

To the group’s surprise they find the normally hospitable and open windows or Sugarcube Corner reinforced with plywood and steel bars. The entire room looks like it could hold of a siege and the massive amount of supplies sitting in the middle of the floor attest to the face that any long term attack would be doomed to fail. “See I was going for this ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ look! You know with boarded up windows and barricaded doors! And I’m not half the designer that Rarity here is but I think I pulled it off pretty well! Now if only I had more flickering lightbulbs and squeaky door hinges..….”

“Pinkie! This is no time to be making a haunted house, we….” Twilight stops another one of her lectures, quickly stopping herself as she remembers once again that Logic and Pinkie Pie do not mix. “Never mind. Are you okay Pinkie? The infected ponies didn’t get to you did they? Where are Mr. and Mrs Cake? Are they alright?”

Ripping the black skin tight outfit off of her body the mare grins with such force that it could break a pony’s eyes trying to look at it. “Oh Mr. and Mrs cake are fine! They’ve been out of town for a week! see there was this bossy, and kinda cool Pegasus and she was all like ‘you have to evacuate!’ and I’m like ‘no I don’t cause this is a free country’ and she was like ‘it’s for your own safety you dope!’ and I was like ‘I know but I can’t leave cause Mr. and Mrs Cake are out of town on their second honeymoon so I have to keep the store safe!’ and then I told her all about why me and the cakes are like family and they love me and how I met them and she was all like ‘fine be that way!’ and she just flew off really fast!” the pink mare blinks repeatedly as she realizes a rainbow mare is in present company. “But she wasn’t as fast as Dashie of course! and she wasn’t half as cool….. or as cute and she didn’t have a ticklish spot….”

“OKAY Pinkie!” the rainbow mare shouts at the top of her lungs “we get it. You’re the only one here and we’re really glad you’re safe.” Rainbow Dash suddenly looks out the boarded up windows with a look of deep concern on her muzzle. “It’s getting hectic out there Pinks, one minute I was sleeping and the next zombie ponies everywhere! It’s a good thing that I remembered Fluttershy had a panic room, otherwise those corpses and infected ponies would have taken a bite out of me!”

“Fluttershy has a Panic room?” Twilight asks skeptically as she turns to the light yellow pegasus. “but we found you sitting in the middle of your home defending yourself from dead house pets! If you had a panic room why didn’t you just hide there?”

The yellow mare blushes profusely “Well….. um that’s because…. Well I just decided I had to fight off my fears for once. You know? I said to myself ‘Fluttershy you go out there and you face down those zombies!’ so… um…… that’s what I did.”

All five mares look at the yellow Pegasus with a surprised look. “Fluttershy darling, are you saying that you WANTED to fight an endless horde of the undead, just to prove yourself?”

The yellow Pegasus looks at her ivory friend as she shuffles her hooves “Well yes! I mean I can’t be a coward forever right? Besides fighting Zombies sounds kind of….. cool?”

The entire group is consumed by a prevalent silence as everypony stares sternly at the yellow mare emulating the yellow pegasus’ stare with brutal effectiveness. Fluttershy unused to being on the other end of such powerful intimidation can only glance around as their perching gazes cut the mare to the quick.

The yellow mare sags her head down in defeat. “…….I lost the key to the panic room and couldn’t open the door to get in.”

“Now that sounds more like the Fluttershy we know and love.” Twilight nods affirmatively as the entire group basks in the satisfaction of learning the truth. “Well it was probably for the best, if you hid yourself away we would have never found you in time and believe me we need all the help that we can get!”

Looking around her Twilight Takes stock of her friends their postures and demeanors telling her far more than words ever could. Ever since she had met them she had learned enough about each of them to write a book on each of them, and in a way she knew them better in some ways than she knew most forms of magic. And the looks on her friend’s faces show the mare no trace of doubt or fear, confirming that Twilight made the right choice in relying on them in her time of need. With a single stamp of her hoof all their eyes turn towards the purple mare as they all instinctively circle up, knowing that now is the time to put Twilight’s plan into action. Nodding affirmatively Twilight thanks whatever god exists in this world that she has such capable and reliable friends by her side in moments like these.

“All right!” Twilight shouts getting the undivided attention of every pony in the room “Now that the gang's all here we are finally ready for the counter attack. However the next step is the most difficult we need to find where Horseshoes and Noteworthy are hiding here in this town so we can defeat them and end this stand effect. Pinkie I need you to use your pinkie eyes/ Pinkie Sense/ whatever power to search the entire town for any po…”

“OH SWEET CELESTIA WHY!!!!”

The piercing scream reverberates through their very bones, echoing over the din of the one thousand infected Zombies and she vicious screams of the dying. After a few seconds of dumbfounded surprise Fluttershy finally manages to raise her voice. “um… what was….”

“WHY NOTEWORTHY!? WHY WOULD ANYPONY THINK THAT THIS IS FUNNY!!!”

The second shot hits the building like thunder cowing the six mares into submission with shear volume. “Wha….” Twilight gapes “What was that?! That was the second loudest shout I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh that.” Pinkie waves her hoof dismissively as she continues to grin “that was just Applejacks’ make out session going horribly wrong.”

“WHAT!” Rarity shouts, her face flustering in disbelief and outrage. “A-Applejack was m-m-m-a-a-a-aking out?!”

“Oh no no no! Don’t’ worry Rares, Applejackie’s not that kind of mare!” Pinkie pats the unicorn reassuringly on the back as she continues. “It’s just that nasty Horseshoes guy had some trouble!”

“THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!!”

“Horseshoes Guy?!” Twilight’s ears perk up at the sudden mention of the very pony she is looking for. “You know where those two stand users are?”

“Yepers!” Pinkie salutes sharply like a soldier reporting in from the front “I placed my Pinkie Eyes all over town remember? See I saw this bag wave of zombies going ‘rargh!’ And I was like ‘OH NO!’ so I sounded the alarm and got as many ponies to get the heck out of dodge! Even though this isn’t dodge junction or any kind of dodge! This is Ponyville! Anyways I told them to get away and used my pinkie eyes to try and find the sign of trouble and I found out they were on Cemetery Hill overlooking the town and I was like going to go all Rabo on them but but when I saw that you were picking up our friends to take them down together I raced over here to protect the store cause I promised the Cakes that I would and put on my special mission outfit while I waited for you to come pick me up.”

The Purple unicorn snorts out in barely contained frustration as she approaches with head butting distance of the pink mare. “So let me get this straight Pinkie. You knew not only that there was a storm of Zombies coming towards the town, AND that we were teleporting all over the town to look you AND the location of the two ponies that we were looking for that are destroying the town.” The purple mare takes in a deep breath “AND YOU DIDN”T TELL ME!?!”

Pinkie shrugs “You didn’t ask.”

 “IS THIS ABOUT THE HAREM, IF SO I PROMISE TO GET RID OF IT, PLEASE JUST PLEASE TELL ME THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN!!!!”

Forgetting her intense anger for the moment Twilight turns her head in the direction of the voice, peering through the cracks in the boarded up windows towards cemetery hill. “All right then that’s enough waiting around then, if we know where they are I can teleport over to them as soon as……Wait” Twilight pauses as her mind begins to process all of Pinkie’s information “You said they were on the old cemetery hill on the outskirts of town, but that’s two miles away! That’s impossible!”

“Yeppers!” Pinkie nods her head in confirmation. “I mean Nopers! I mean I think the fact that we can hear it proves that it’s impossible! Wait, what’s impossible and what’s possible again? I’m so confused!” The pink mare cries out as she falls to her rump.

“What is the matter Twibright?” Trixie scoffs “is a scant two miles to much of a teleport for the pathetic Twilight sparkle?”

“No it’s not that Trixie,.” Twilight’s cutting remark quickly brings Trixie down. “I’m just surprised that that any pony’s voice can reach that far, he almost puts Celestia’s Royal canterlot voice to shame.”

“UREEREERRERSERREEREREREERRERR!!!!”

Rarity blinks repeatedly “Royal canterlot voice? What In Equestria is the Royal Canterlot voice?”

Twilight freezes her muscles lock in place as a long repressed memory of her teacher bubbles steadily to the surface, unbidden by the unicorn’s intent. With years of mental discipline the mare tries to push down the rising memory, reminding herself this is not the time to be reminiscing, however she quickly finds herself unable to suppress the swelling of memories as they flood into the forefront of her mind. Unable to keep down the flood of memories any longer the mare recounts with a mixture of both nostalgia and regret the first time that she heard the Royal Canterlot voice and subsequently lost her hearing for three days.

…………………..

“…….. and that’s why extra dimensional magic is so difficult Twilight! I hope that answered your question.”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she does the one thing that she loves more than any other, absorbing Knowledge and learning new things. The fact that it came from her absolute favorite pony in the world only made it better. “Wow princess you know so much!”

The alabaster goddess chuckles at the antics of a young Twilight sparkle “Well, my faithful student, I have had a lot of time to learn.”

Twilight’s gazes down at her own hooves her muzzle a mixture of humility and admiration “But you know so much…… I’ll probably never even know a quarter of what you know…..”

Celestia smiles as she raises her student’s vision to her own “That does not mean that anything you, or any pony learns or does is any less valuable. It’s not important so much what you know, but how you use it that counts.” Both smile at each other as Celestia turns her gaze igniting her horn in a short blaze of light. An instant later a small but elegant chocolate layered cake appears on Celestia’s desk “But enough of lessons today, who wants cake?”

Twilight licks her lips as she gazes at the perfect cake, a single slice missing allows her to gaze upon the interior of the pastry and all its glory. It was no secret to any pony in Equestria that the princess harbored a strong and powerful lust for pastries and sweets of all kinds, but cake was by far her favorite. Being the private student of Princess Celestia Twilight had sampled the best of the best of all kinds of cakes and like her mentor had a very good eye for them. And Twilight could tell from a single glance that the cake before her would be a cake she could never forget.

Celestia and Twilight salivate a little in anticipation of the feast they are about to enjoy as Celestia raises the knife to cut an even slice. However before the knife could even touch the cake, the door behind the Goddess slams inward revealing a very sweaty and tired Shining Armor. “Twilight!”

Celestia surprised by the sudden interruption slams the knife into the table cleaving the table neatly in two. The resounding crash of the desk sending all the various piles of paperwork, paperweights and yes the cake itself sailing through the air on its first maiden voyage. Celestia stunned by the sudden aero-dynamic status of her cake, can only watch in stunned silence as her precious cake was sent sailing through the air, her eyes memorizing every flip as it crashed into the ground with a messy splat.

Right at the hooves of a certain guard captain who completely oblivious to any pony except himself walks over the pastry trampling it under hoof as he walks over to the purple filly “Twilight, you thought that it was so funny to fill my armor with itching powder didn’t you!? Well wait till the princess hears about………Why are my hooves covered in icing?”

Shining looks from his hooves to see the grim face of his boss and leader……. “Princess Celestia!” Shining salutes sharply “Forgive me I didn’t know that you were in here! Your schedule said you would be entertaining dignitaries from Saddle Arabia.”

Princess Celestia Invicadias Quakes in anger as she looks down upon the face of her up and coming guard captain. Despite his age he was a capable stand and magic user who was unmatched in his creation of barriers yet it was days like today that made her regret ever consider giving him the position. True National Pride needed to retire, but how could any guard captain stand there like a limp fish saluting while his hooves lay in the middle of a priceless treasure, a treasure that he destroyed? “Princess Celestia are you okay? You look a little………red. Should I summon the royal doctor?” And the fact that Shining armor had as much social sense as a turtle probably didn’t help matters much.

Finally the goddess could handle it no more, her mane ignited into roaring fire her eyes burned bright as the sun as the princess invoked the Royal canterlot voice for its intended and divinely created purpose. For the true purpose of the Royal Canterlot voice was a sacredly created tool with a very specific purpose. Such a divine and almighty power was not created for commanding legions of flowers, not for speaking at long distances, but for shouting curses so loud and vulgar that they would be an affront to the heavens themselves. It is said that that day all the windows in canterlot castle not protected by level three wards shattered into dust in her divine fury. It is also said that the guard Captain Shining armor is also deaf in one ear to this very day.

However Twilight Sparkle, an innocent bystander to this crime against cakes didn’t know any of these things. She didn’t know anything about the royal canterlot voice aside from the fact it was very, very loud. All that Twilight knew for certain was that by the end of the day she had acquired several impressive and verbose new curse words.

…………………..

“……Twilight?” Rarity asks with a small hint of worry snapping the lavender unicorn from her reprieve. “Are you alright darling? You didn’t respond to anything we said for a whole minute! You just kept muttering….. Things.… under your breath. Are you sure you’re all right?”

Twilight is about to give the mare a long winded lecture on the importance of taking your time when she is cut off by the sound of her horn sparkling with magical charge. With a slight grin the mare smiles hoof pumping the air as she turns back to her friends. “All right! Sorry for the long wait everypony I’ve built up just enough charge for another jump, now we can follow the sound of that voice to wherever those two ponies are!”

Extending her two hooves in a wide arc the mare quickly encompasses her six friends as she makes the calculations for her longest jump yet, the one that will bring them into battle with the ones that are trying to destroy their town. The five ponies huddle closer around Twilight as the mare’s face crosses in intense concentration her horn buzzing with life and power as an aura encompasses the “everypony hold on, this one could get a little dicey!” Suddenly, with a quick burst of magical energy the Purple mare and all her friends disappear in a flash of light leaving the inside of the bakery completely vacant.

………………….

Meanwhile off on a hill overlooking the portion of ponyville downtown two demonic and evil ponies plot the destruction of all that is good in the world.

With their respective stand powers the two ponies use their best skills tactics and formidable abilities towards nothing less than the destruction of our fair heroes.

Truly who could be more formidable than these two enemies who were capable of bringing a town to its knees in a scant few hours?

Who are these mysterious stallions working for?

What are they after?

Will they be stopped?

And why…….

Why is one of them writhing on the ground, while throwing up and slobbering like a rabid dog?

“BLUAHAKAHIDKOOOLAA!!!” Caramel moans as he scoops fresh dirt into his mouth doing everything in his power to drown the taste of decaying flesh out of his mouth. The brown stallion’s coat is matted in dirt, his mouth foaming and his face is still several shades whiter than normal as the stallion weeps gently at his own misfortune. And though the original kiss had disgusted the orange farm mare Applejack to her very core, even she had to admit the previously stuck up stallion’s reaction was nothing short of priceless. And the fact that it was happening to the pony that had tormented her the entire night only made it better for her as she struggles with actual pain from having to suppress her laughter this much.

Only Noteworthy seems unamused as he constantly pulls out a golden pocket watch to glance at the time every ten seconds, his mood growing even more sour with every second that passes by on his watch. “Are you done yet?” Noteworthy asks, with a tone implying that his joke has lost its humor. “Need I remind you that we have a schedule to keep?”

“NOTEWORTHY!!” The brown stallion snaps to attention his rage suppressing his inner disgust. “This is all youzes fault! If it wasn’t for youze, Ize wouldn’t have…. Ize wouldn’t have….. URP!” the stallion falls to his knees, his mind unintentionally recalls his horrific experience as he shovels more dirt into his mouth.

“Yes, Yes you kissed a corpse.” Noteworthy rolls his eyes “If I had known that you were going to freak out that much I might have reconsidered it. Just consider us even for all those Necrophiliac comments you’ve made.”

“EVEN!?!” The stallion explodes as he presses further into the Blue unicorn’s face “Youze an me aint even CLOSE TO BEING EVEN!! Ize swear on me mother’s grave that….”

The Blue unicorn slaps the stallion curtly on the cheek “Get over it, remember we have a job to do.”

“Ferget the job! just because youzes some creepy necrophiliac doesn’t mean youze had ta force others ta make out with some dead broad!”

This time it is the Blue unicorn who explodes in anger as he begins to push his forehead back against the brown coated stallion. “For the Last Time! I am not a necrophiliac! I do not derive sexual pleasure from death, unlike how you force ponies to obey your twisted fantasies!”

“Really? Youze kill an ize kill, looks the same ta me.”

The Blue unicorn opens his mouth to no doubt give the stallion a stinging lecture, however after a few seconds of intense staring he only sighs while looking out into the empty sky. “How can I make a corrupt soul such as yourself understand?”

Noteworthy asks the stars in the sky with tears in his eyes as Carmel realizing where his partner is going slowly backs away. “What I do is a privilege! A sacred art! Not some form of business!” Noteworthy gets to his knees in prayer as if to give thanks for the very concept of killing. “Life is full of pain, corruption and evil. Yet when one dies all of life’s burdens, all their suffering is thrown aside, it is the ultimate form of purification. To bring this endless peace to everypony is tantamount to SALVATION!”

The silence that falls over the hill from the fanaticism of the blue unicorn is almost physical; his devotion alone capable of swaying the ideologies of the sentient ponies with his overwhelming charisma alone. Slowly the silence becomes longer and longer as the Blue unicorn prays silently on the hill his closed eyes a sign of his intense thought and focus. Finally after what seems like hours Caramel shakily opens his mouth.

“Ize understand…..” The brown earth pony gapes as he looks over the field of devastation before him. Noteworthy practically leaps out of his skin in glee as he takes pride in another soul saved.

“Ize understand…….” The brown stallion slams his hooves into the ground “That youze are a complete nut job!”

The Blue unicorn scoffs at putting his expectations so high for a pony like Caramel as he pries his gaze from the brown stallion. “Tch, Like you would understand the intricacies of life and death.” Noteworthy is about to quit his lecture when his eyes land on the captive orange farmer. “But perhaps there is a pony here that can understand the magnificence of what I am trying to accomplish.”

Applejack might have thought that Noteworthy was talking to her were it not for the fact she knew that he was completely insane. However over the course of a half minute the multiple gestures the dark priest makes in her direction slowly convinces the farmer that the pony he is trying to refer to is….. “…….ME!?!”

“Of course maid of Apples!” Noteworthy gazes deep into Applejacks’ eyes before prying them away and pacing on the ground before her. “Just consider it!  All your effort on your farm all your love for your family is a shallow patch, for the loss of your parents. You try so hard because you know no matter how perfect your farm is, no matter how good of care you take of your family you can never see them again in this life.”

The Blue unicorn pushes further in as if sensing the mare’s unease and reluctance to admit any truth in what he is saying. “Now wouldn’t you like to be reunited with them? To see their loving faces once more? To have lasting and permanent peace that transcends anything you could find on this broken world?!” Noteworthy practically screams as he reaches the crescendo of his argument. “Well that is what death is for! It is to liberate the soul from the confines of flesh! It is deliverance! It is purity! It is…..” The stallion shudders as he takes a deep breath “….SALVATION.”

The stallion looks down on the mare his wicked sick smile a contrast to his normal calm demeanor as he stares down the cowering orange mare. Applejack looks up at the stallion, her mind tumultuous and confused as her mind tries to rebuke the twisted priest’s doctrine of death, her breath ragged and  shallow. Yet as the stallion continues to bear down on the mare with his powerful presence it is the orange farmer who lowers her head in defeat. “Yer right……… ah would love ta see them again.” The orange mare admits shamefully, her head hung low.

“Exactly what I thought.” The Blue unicorn smiles in satisfaction “then just say the word and I’ll make your passing….”

“Ah miss em, ah can’t deny that. But…….”The mare swallows back a heavy lump in her throat “but ah have a family here, an not just Applebloom an Big mac an Granny.”

“What?” The Blue unicorn scoffs “And I thought you were an honest type Applejack. I checked your records you don’t have any other family and you certainly don’t have any other…….”

“They’re pretty unexpected ah’ll give ya that.” The mare continues talking over the Blue unicorn much to his frustration “An they are pretty weird fer family, fer sure. Ah have a sister one who is faster than the wind and more reliable than harvest. A have one who fills mah life with happiness and is always there ta brighten mah day. Ah have a sister who acts all meek but is far stronger than even she believes. Ah have a smart, beautiful mare who never puts herself before others an is obsessed with fashion. And ah have a bonafide magical master, who has the ability ta keep us together through even the darkest storm.”

The mare chuckles to herself “Yeah ah even have a little sis who boasts an brags like there’s no tomorrow.” The mare smirks to herself “But…… Ah’ve never known a more stubborn mare in mah life, she’s the kind a pony who pretends she doesn’t care, but really she fights harder than any pony ah know when there are lives on tha line.”

Realizing where his victim is going with her conversation the twisted priest can’t help but grimace at Applejack’s sudden defiance and uplifting mood. “They are without a doubt, tha most special, tha most interesting, most carin ponies ah have ever had the pleasure of knowin, an they all have one thing in common…” The mare stares down the Blue unicorn with such a fiery gaze that even a pony as cold as him falls on his rump in fear. “….an that’s that they all never give up or leave a friend behind, an that’s’ the truth!”

Now the mare has literally turned the tables on the unicorn with the dark blue mane as the previously confident stallion sits with his rump in the dirt staring up at the fiery mare before him “So, bring it on! Cause ah know that even now when the world looks ta be ending, an whenever ah’m in trouble…..”

BANG!

The hill explodes in an explosion of light and sound as a burst of magic blows back the manes of the three ponies on the hill. Noteworthy and Caramel surprised by the sudden explosion fall to their hooves only to back step away from the center of the singed grass with cautions fear. Yet more surprising than the explosion is the six mares that have arrived in the middle of it their faces contorted in a mixture of battle readiness and rage as they manifest their stands one by one.

The orange mare grins ear to ear as a she looks upon the faces of her best friends in the world. “…….Ah know that they’ll always be by mah side, cause that’s what family’s for!”

The six mares however look less than pleased to have arrived, their throbbing heads and broken posture a sign of a less than stellar teleportation.

“Twilight what was with that lame teleport?! You said ‘hold on’ and it took you like an hour to teleport us out here!” Dash complains “So what the heck.”

“Well excuse me for wanting us to arrive safely!” the unicorn shouts back “maybe next time you can teleport six ponies two miles to a place you aren’t intimately familiar with! Oh that’s right you can’t!”

“Will you two stop bickering, this time it’s Trixie who you’re giving a headache!”

“Um, we’re supposed to be saving the town right? I think it's best that we don’t fight each other…….”

“Yeah these super menies are going DOWN! Like down town! Cause we’re overlooking downtown! Get it? Cause we’re on a hill overlooking downtown! I’m SO funny!!”

Rarity and the rest of the group rolls their eyes “Yes Pinkie I presume we get the joke, however if you could refrain from ‘cracking wise’ the rest of the time we are fighting for our lives that would splendid, thank you. After all we currently have a job to do and we don’t need any more of your….. improvising if we’re going to save our Applejack.”

The six ponies though independent stand as a unified force defiant in every sense of the word as they prepare their bodies and minds for conflict. Each one knowing that their victory

“Well Caramel.” The Blue unicorn says as he rises to his hooves, glancing over at the stallion behind him. “It looks like I owe you those ten bits, they did come right to us.”

Caramel grins as he extends his hoof catching the bag of bits thrown to him by his compatriot “Heh! I told ya! All ize had ta do was hold that orange minx hostage an they’d come right to us! An youze doubted mane plan!”

“Shut up Corpse kisser.” The Blue unicorn snaps more sore at the fact that Caramel was right than his loss of bits. Caramel noticeably greens as he holds back his lunch as Noteworthy takes center stage. “I’ll applaud your courage.” Noteworthy begins as he addresses the newly arrived group. “Not many ponies would go out of their to walk headlong into their own executions. However I appreciate the fact that you no longer wish to prolong your fate, and will give you a proper funerary procession.”

“What’d he say?” Dash scratches her head while she hovers in the air “Twilight! I think that guy’s trying to insult us or something.”

As if anticipating the Pegasus’s response Noteworthy rolls his eyes “And will you look at that, another genius to add to our merry band.”

Twilight puffs up her chest “Thank you!”

Noteworthy face hooves “I was being facetious you dolt!”

“Wait, were you being facetious to me, or Twilight?” Dash asks “because all I heard was ‘look at me, I’m a scary priest guy, I play with dead ponies, I’m a huge egghead’.”

“Youze an me are speakin the same language now minx!” Caramel comments punching the Blue unicorn harshly in the shoulder “Ize hear the same thing whenever this necrophiliac opens his mouth!”

“I am NOT a Necrophiliac!” The Blue unicorn shouts.

While the two ponies and one necrophiliac blue unicorn continue to argue pointlessly about sexual orientation and sexual preferences Twilight wisely seizes the opportunity created by their bickering. Taking stock of the graveyard covered hill around them Twilight gestures over to her friends pulling them quickly into a huddle. “Wow. I’ve got to admit Dash did a great job with distracting those two. I didn’t even have to tell her to create a diversion so we could come up with a plan.”

“Um Twilight?” Fluttershy raises her hoof “I don’t think Dash is trying to distract them… I just think that she’s being Dash…… not that that’s a bad thing.”

“I know Fluttershy. But more importantly.” Twilight pulls out of her huddle to look at the battlefield around them, instantly processing the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents. “…..we should use this time to come up with a plan.”

“Plan?!” Trixie scoffs “The Great and powerful Trixie says there is no time for a plan. We have the advantage in numbers, let’s simply push our advantage and attack!”

“That sounds like a swell idea Trixie!” Pinkie cheers “Well all team up and hit them with a super wonder ultimate…..”

“No Pinkie!” Twilight lightly slaps some sense into the mare as she looks at the field around her. “Did you forget about the hordes of zombies and infected ponies surrounding the hill?! If we rush in we’ll be surrounded and crushed! We’re the ones outnumbered, that’s why we need a plan!”

“All the more reason….” Trixie pushes back with her rhetoric “…Why we should take them down before they knew what hit them! If we hit them fast and hard there is no need for another plan!”

“And I say we can’t just rush in against two ponies without some form of tactics.”

“For once I agree with Twilight darling.” Rarity remarks as she looks over to the two dense and completely oblivious dunces and Noteworthy. “One does not simply rush into battle all helter skelter! It is a pony’s ability to control their baser instincts and direct this primal fury in a way….”

“Heyz Noteworthy!” Caramel yells pointing to the group of ponies “Theyz huddling around that white minx with the ugly mane an talkin all secret like! Theyz are comin up with a plan!”

The temperature in the huddle grows ten degrees colder as a dark and frigid shiver passes through the body of every mare.  All heads turn over to the white fashionista, her eyes blazing like the fires of an exploding volcano as she looks up from the huddle at the brown gaudy clothed stallion. And then she takes a step towards the stallion her hoof step still as dainty and well controlled as before, but harboring untold malice.

And so it was, that for a moment the Stardust Crusaders did not fear the thousands of hordes of the undead or the horrible infectious disease that can cripple them and control their bodies. They were not even afraid of the two ponies responsible for the very atrocity that is destroying their town. For a single moment no fear on this green earth could hold a candle to the mind crushing levels of terror that every mare huddled in the circle felt radiating from Rarity’s dark fiery eyes.

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity blinks in confusion as she slowly approaches the stallion. “Excuse me my good sir but I fear there’s been some form of confusion.” The mare laughs in a way that sends shivers down the bodies of her six friends “You see, you said you saw ‘a white minx with ugly mane’ and for a moment there I thought that you were talking about little old me.”

With less commons sense than a louse and more disinterest than a corporate banker being asked for a loan, the stallion promptly reaches up his nose and flicks a booger off to his side. “Yeah ize did. So what, youze want me to apologize fer youze havin no fashion sense?”

The stallion laughs along to a joke that only he finds funny as the mare steps closer. “Ize mean, Youze might be stupid enough ta think it looks cool. But it looks like youze glued youze but to youze head!”

Carmel laughs again as Rarity steps closer. “Ize can’t believe there are minxes as stupid as youze that think that looks cool! Ize mean culled manez are like from the seventies an youze still think it looks cool! Bwa ha ha ha ha!!”

The pale white Unicorn doesn’t make even a single sound as she stands not ten feet away from the laughing earth pony stallion, save the ominous sound as she cracks her neck.

“….give me a break…..” Applejack gulps in fear rooted to the ground.

If one could compare the wrath of a scorned mare to something easy enough, say a pony like Caramel to understand, an erupting volcano would be a good simile. Insulting a woman’s acquaintances and livelihood is fine as long as it is done in the ‘society proper way’ (Have you seen that new mare Janice? Darling however do you keep yourself occupied all day?) With apologies immediately offered should things turn sour. However insulting a mare’s looks and appearance is tantamount to standing at the mouth of an erupting volcano. And for Rarity a pony who had dedicated her entire life to beauty and perfection you might have better luck throwing yourself into a volcano than facing her fury.

Applejack had known that. Applejack had been there when the three bullies that had tried to pick a fight had dared to insult Rarity’s mane. And from that day on, the bullying problem that had plagued ponyville elementary for years stopped completely. The three bullies in question soon moved to another town entirely, unwilling to admit to their parents how each of them had managed to break all four of their legs at the same time. Little did the bullies know that the little filly that they had dared insult was the reigning junior judo champion for the district of Canterlot, and had studied since she was six on how to dislocate and shatter pony bodies with as minimal strength as possible.

In a flash of silver light Rarity’s stand lashes out living up to its name as Quicksilver as a beam of hardened metal smashes into the offending stallion’s face. The stallion recoils back as his gums begin to bleed profusely. However the mare’s assault does not cease as she slams the stallion’s head into the ground with the flat of a newly formed silvery hammer. Caramel yelps in pain as the force of the hammer’s blow shatters six of Caramel’s perfectly pearly whites and sends a small spurt of blood over the ground from his mouth. The stallion flails about as he struggles to recover from the sudden assault his senses reeling as the hammer smashes into his unprotected ribs causing painful hairline cracks as he is powerless to do anything but yelp in pain. Then before the stallion can even recognize what is happening his is kicked with a spinning buck kick from the ivory mare sending him skidding against the ground and into a nearby tombstone. Smashing into the stone with enough force to break it, Carmel sides to the ground hacking profusely as he attempts vainly to clear blood pouring out of his mouth and eyes.  Hacking up the blood pooling from his lungs the stallion lies at the foot of the tombstone trying vainly breathe properly.

Rarity’s friends can only gape as the mare telekinetically swings the heavy silver hammer in the air as it lands gracefully on her shoulder.

“I’m dreadfully sorry there sir, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble you be so kind as to repeat what it is that you just said?” Rarity blinks cutely. “Because in case you were too stupid to understand, NO PONY, I REPEAT NO PONY CAN SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT MY MANE!!!”

For a moment it doesn’t look like the stallion can even move, his badly battered face a testament to Rarity’s powerful combination. Yet defying common sense and demonstrating legendary toughness the earth pony Carmel rises shakily to his hooves blood leaking from his mouth. “The minx brok mah nose!” Caramel screams as he tries spit the copious amounts of blood from his mouth. “IZE GONNA WHACK THAT MARE!!” The stallion shouts as he spits out his lose teeth with a feral growl.

With razor precision the two stallion manifest their stands. Noteworthy’s bony projection ripples out of his skin it’s sharpened hooves and rainbow string covered body swaying in the wind in anticipation of a fresh kill. Caramel his anger ignited growls as hundreds of sharp toothy maws cover his body like a horrific tattoo each one gnashing to devour the flesh of the offending white mare.

As the two stallions ready their stands Trixie can’t help but smirk at the change in the situation. “Well Twilight, it looks like your plan is shot, because it looks like our local fashionista has finally taken the imitative. Good for her!”

Twilight can’t help but sigh at the situation. “B-But I like plans….”

“Well it doesn’t’ look like Rarity’s going to follow a plan now does it?” Trixie smirks with snarky flare.

“PLAN?!” Rarity turns her head around leveling her gaze on her friends “I’ll tell you what our plan is! Our plan is to beat those two ponies that dared insult my mane INTO THE DIRT! That is our plan!”

Rarity paws the ground like a wild bull as she readies her horn to impale the two ponies in front of her, her nose snorting in rage. However much to Twilight’s dismay Rarity’s plan finds a great deal of support among her other friends.

“It’s about time somepony came up with an awesome idea!” Dash cracks her hooves as she lands right next to Rarity “Rarity’s right! There’s no time for your egghead plans now Twilight, let’s just beat them up!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie states as she bounces right next to Dash “It’s better not to have a plan so when Twilight does come up with a plan it will be a surprise! Now that’s a plan!”

“Um…” Fluttershy taps the shoulder of the white fashionista in an attempt to assuage her wrath “if it’s any consolation Rarity. I don’t think that you’re mane is…..”

“The plan Fluttershy.” Rarity growls her eyes locked on the offending brown stallion “WHAT. IS. THE. PLAN?!”

“Beat them down?”

“Beat them down.” Rarity nods with a dark twinkle in her eye.

Realizing that she is outvoted the lavender library mare sighs as she trots up to the front line “Whatever but just to be clear, this was my idea!”

“Attack my great and powerful underlings!” Trixie shouts with her normal fanfare. “Show those two fools what happens to those that cross the Great and Powerful Trixie! And I suppose save Applejack and the town while we’re at it.”

With their doubts swept aside the six ponies rapidly close the distance between them rushing towards to two stallions. However despite the six ponies rush Noteworthy remains undaunted. “You may think that you are the ones who hold an advantage, but as you will see you are the ones who are hopelessly outnumbered.” Noteworthy’s stand cackles incessantly as it slams its bony hoof into the ground with a sickening crunch.

Suddenly as if coming from the depths of Tartarus the ground explodes in front of the six ponies halting their charge as more decrepit corpses paw their way out of the ground. “….or did you neglect to notice that we are in a graveyard by chance.”

The dead ponies moan horribly as their decay radiates of their very bones with enough force to flatten a lesser pony with stench alone. “And since ize don’t like takin back seat…” Caramel grins as he raises his jawed hoof into the air, it’s mouths glibber with horrific effect as dark vacant eyes emerge from the dark around our heroes. Suddenly to their great horror the six ponies find themselves completely surrounded by the pained screams and slobbering maws of the infected as they close in around the group.

“In fact, Ize think a little get tagather is in order, doncha say….” The stallion turns back to the farmer who lurches forward against her will “….minx?” Applejack tries to resist the stand’s power however she quickly finds her strength taken over as she is forced to move in to attack her own friends.

Waving his hoof forward Caramel laughs as his legion of followers charge in from all sides. Noteworthy taking the initiative sends his own legion of the damned forward as the Stardust Crusaders find themselves running out of empty space.

“Well Trixie?” Twilight laugh sarcastically “This is your plan, so what do we do now?”

“Easy Twilight.” Trixie says as she cracks her hooves and ignites her horn “We do just like Rarity said, we push our stands to the limit and beat them down. ATTACK!” With a war cry that would be impressive were it not coming from a twenty something showmare the mare charges into the fray directly towards the two stallion as she blows the a hole in the ranks of the undead menace with a ball of arcane fire.

Inspired by her courage and leadership by example the five mares look at each other for only a second before joining the showmare mare herself in charging directly into enemy lines. As they ready their stands and charge they enter battle in a frenzy hitting the enemy from every direction at once. Pinkie leaps through the fray like a whirlwind attacking with everything from party poppers from the kitchen sink which she swings erratically around like a flail. Dash coating her hooves in her Valkyrie power eschews any weapon for the satisfying crunch of her enemies beneath her hooves as she shockwaves of pure force throws her enemies like rag dolls in a windstorm. Fluttershy’s narrowing gaze, focused and powerful sent no small amount of enemies screaming like little girls back to the safety of their homes or back within the deep earth where they belonged; the fury at having her town targeted by these monstrosities adding fuel to her power. However Fluttershy’s fury was perhaps eclipsed by Rarity who moved like a river through the battlefield attacking one moment only to flow away and attack again. already she had piled dozens upon dozens of bodies on the field knocked senseless by the flailing steel which was Rarity’s stand. Trixie always the master of misdirection used her power flawlessly luring her enemies in with an illusion of herself only to blast them to pieces with pyrotechnics or direct attacks from her stand. So far the mare hadn’t even suffered a scratch, her attacks always hitting an enemy from their blind spots before they could even manage a blow. Applejack powerless in body was only able to pin herself to the ground with her stand not far from where her friends were fighting. Yet even then she would fight in spirit warning her friends about attacks from behind, shouting words of encouragement as her ‘family’ fought for her on her behalf.

And standing in the center of this carnage like a pony in the eye of a hurricane was Twilight sparkle. Never once did she stop shouting encouragement or advice to her friends around her as she used her magic and her stand to protect them from harm. With flawless distribution and multitasking one would expect from the princess’s protégé she would flatten the infected with her stand F.R.I.E.N.D.S causing the them to fall into a deep slumber only to attack the automatic stand The Monster Within directly. The mental feedback would quickly shut down the simple mind of the maws so even though the sores were still festering on many a pony’s body, the stands themselves were shocked senseless by her blows. Meanwhile she would conserve her own magic and deploy it sparingly, but efficiently do destroy Noteworthy’s undead. And better yet every time Noteworthy tried to pull another of his twisted creations from the ground Twilight would signal to her friends and the beast would be pushed back into the earth before it could even attack.

The result of the six mares working in tandem was undoubtedly a sight to behold Six untrained mares holding back an entire attacking army while beating said army into the ground as the bodies pile up around them. In their furry the two stallions push their own stands to the limit as they work overtime to pump out more soldiers; yet even as more and more of the army congregated around the Stardust Crusaders they would redouble their efforts dispatching their foes with supernatural ease. Thus a pattern was formed, that the more the two villains sent in, the faster they were beaten down by the mares and the shorter the distance grew between the vengeful crusaders and the two generals.

“This is impossible!” Noteworthy shouts in disbelief as he watches Pinkie send another of his undead flying with a blow from her party cannon. “They should be dead by now! How could their will to fight be this strong?”

Caramel smirks as he dodges a stray magic bolt from the Great and Powerful Trixie “Well if ize had mine guess it’d be that youze undead are slackin! The boss should have known not ta put youze in charge when I clearly outrank youze!”

“Well from where I’m standing…..” Noteworthy narrows his gaze at the stallion at his side “…..you haven’t infected even one of them with your power, At least I’m hitting them!”

“Why you little Necrophilia!” Caramel shouts “I’ll have youze know..…”

However the sound of the two once again arguing was cut off by the enormous din coming from around the five ponies their breaths become more labored by the second. Twilight flings another of the dead ponies like a flail as she encourages her friends around her knowing that even though the enemies’ numbers are thinning the battle could go either way if their exhaustion gets any worse.

“Remember guys!” Twilight yells over the din of battle as she barely manages to dodge as a zombie erupts from the soul underneath her “That pony ‘Horseshoes ’ can control your movements if he bites you, so don’t let him!” Twilight cries as she blasts another corpse into dust with a bolt of magic.

“Please Twilight!” Dash shouts as she beats down another one of the stallion’s infected “As if I’d let this loser’s slow attacks get to me! In fact….” Dash narrows her gaze at the offending stallion “I think I feel like ending this guy, Right NOW!”

With speed that could only be achieved with years of hard work and dedication the speedster launches off a nearby tombstone hugging the ground as she races towards the brown stallion like a lightning bolt. Her hooves resonate like thunder as she smashes through obstacle after obstacle, crushing them before they even have a chance to attack as she beats her way through the crowd of enemies. Suddenly just as a venerable wall of the infected surrounds the intrepid mare she leaps into the air and towards the stallion preparing to come down right on top of him in a rainbow arc.

Smiling in anticipation of the victory she is about to see Dash braces herself for impact as she preps her hooves for impact. “Game over.” She declares as she falls directly on top of the gaping brown coated Stallion. With an explosion of color and sound the mars smashes into the mobster’s body smashing him into the ground with enough force to create a deep crater in the soft dirt. The ground explodes in a cloud of dirt and debris forcing even the Stardust Crusaders to shield themselves from the blast as the dust settles. However one mare does not look away, and as the dust clears on her battle Rainbow Dash stares dramatically forward in an impressive pose that conveys her excitement and elation at her own victory. “Heh like I always say, I can wipe the floor with any pony in Ten Seconds Flat!”

Brushing back her mane the rainbow mare fawns over her own awesomeness as she stares intimidate at the Blue unicorn in front of her. “And guess what, you’re next, so if I were you I’d throw in the towel before you really make me mad!”

Noteworthy however seems completely undaunted by the mare’s threats. “Really?” He asks “Because from where I’m standing I don’t think that you’ll be backing up your boasts any time soon.”

“DASH! Look out!” Applejack cries out in urgency “Yawl need to get away now!”

“Hunh? Why?” Dash asks as she cranes her neck back to her orange friend ignoring the hideous orange mouths covering her coat to glance into her dark green eyes.” I mean the bad guy’s defeated, problem solved, right?”

“Dash look at me!” the mare writhes on her knees as she tries to present her black blisters to the oblivious blue mare. “All those horrible maws are still on me, an Caramel said that as long as he was conscious the maws wouldn’t go away! That means that he’s still kickin! Git away before he bites yawl too!”

At this Rainbow Dash flares her wings in surprise “No way! I hit him full force! There’s no way that he’s….. alive?” Looking down at the pony beneath her hooves Dash sees a dark brown pony dressed in the gaudy brown coat that she had seen on the obnoxious pony that had hurt her friends. However on closer inspection the rainbow hued mare realizes that the pony beneath her hooves could never pass for Caramel in open sunlight, given that the pony’s face was rotten and decaying from years of being buried underground. Looking down at the undead stand in that is clearly not Caramel Dash recoils in a mixture of both surprise and fear “You're not…”

CHOMP!

The rainbow mare screams in pain as she clutches her hoof desperately the jagged bite mare already festering and turning black under the light of the moon. Recoiling back off of the long dead corpse the stunt mare looks on in shock at the evilly grinning pony with a cutie mare of three horseshoes pulls himself out from behind the tombstone to her left. His body naked of its normal dark brown coat presents his bulging muscles and horrible toothed maws popping out of his pelt as he walks over towards the broken corpse Dash stood on not a moment before.

“Impressive aint it!” The evil pony laughs in glee small with drops of blood from his broken teeth dripping on the ground. “All ize had ta do was take of mine impressive coat an get one of Noteworthy’s flunkies ta wear it an youze fell fer mine bait hook line an sinker!”

The stallion grins as he trots over the broken corpse and rips his torn shirt off of the body of the now twitching zombie, only for the cheap fabric to fall apart in his hooves. “However youze did mess up mine coat. Ize will have ta take it out on yer hide, after youze are listenin ta my commands!”

Rainbow Dash opens her mouth to tell the stallion off, to tell him that she’ll never surrender and obey a freak like him when her arm explodes in pain. Dash clenches her solid jaw shut as she watches powerlessly as a large mouth with serrated teeth appears on her arm grinning like a predator cornering its meal.

“Iiiimmmmmmppppprrrrrreeeeeeeeessssssiiiiivvveeeeee!!!!” the mouth wines as it’s jaw lurches forward to bite the rainbow mare with its unnatural strength.

Only Rainbows’ keen reflexes and her physical strength keep the hungry jaw at bay as it presses forward to eat her. Reflexively in order to avoid attacks from her own arm she leaps into the air dodging her own attacks as she rolls around in the air to avoid the bites and gnashes of the infectious stand. The light blue mare’s unorthodox flying allows her to constantly dodge the predictable movements of her controlled arm as she flies higher and higher out of sight flailing against the dark maw on her hoof shouting curses all the way.

“She’s getting away!” Noteworthy shouts as she gestures to two pegasi corpses behind him. “Quick you two, go after her and…..”

“Ferget about it!’ Carmel says good naturedly as he wipe his bloody mouth with remnants of his torn jacket “Ize got her didn’t I? Now it’s only a matter of time till she’s covered in maws! Once she runs outta steam she’ll be swarming with mah stand! Fer now we should wrap up on finishing off tha other minxes.”

Caramel glares hatefully towards the panting ivory fashionista “Sides Ize gots me a score to settle with that not-impressive minx! I’ll make her suffer fer what she did ta mah impressive muzzle!”

Rarity prepares herself as she watches the hateful stallion step towards her “In fact…” The stallion grins “Ize know just how to pay this minx back fer my muzzle!” Turning back to the orange mare he yells with a loud dominative voice. “Hey Minx! Come on over here!”

However despite his cry the mare stands rooted to the ground, defiant of the stallion’s wishes. Smiling at the disappointment on the stallion’s face the mare smiles “Heh Nice try ya varmint, but thanks ta mah stand power I aint goin anywhere!”

Yet the stallion’s disappointment soon gives way a confident expression that the mare can’t quite place as he continues to stare the ivory mare down. Just before the mare attempts to voice her concerns to the stallion she feels a heavy tearing beneath her hooves as her body plods forward against her wishes. Crying out in surprise the mare looks down to find giant clods of earth hanging out from below her hooves.

“Impressive aint it?” The stallion laughs as Applejack is forced to trot up to the stallion’s side. “This here mare’s power may have kept her glued to the earth but that doesn’t work if she’s strong enough ta pull the earth out of the ground.” The evil maws lick the orange mare’s coat sensually Applejack shivers in a horrible mixture of disgust at her situation and fear for her friend as she stallion rants on. “After all what could be better than getting a mare’s best friend ta whack er?! Nothing that’s what! An given that this minx was strong enough ta tear the earth out of the ground roots an all ize says that youze are gonna be gettin a pretty one sided beatin ya ugly maned minx!”

With a contorted moment that should not be possible for any pony Applejack vaults off the ground in a cartwheel as her body’s power is thrown into one attack. However Rarity though stunned initially by her friend’s forced compliance and the situation, she responds just in time with a back step landing a pony’s length away from the earthen crater created by Applejack’s brute strength.

Rarity lands shakily on the ground from the mere shock wave of her friend yet Applejack continues her assault slamming her hooves into Rarity’s shakily constructed shell made of her stand. Blow after blow hammers into the metal shield as Applejack’s amazing strength tears it to pieces as she flails her arms at her friend. However Applejacks’ sudden assault leaves her grossly off balance, a weakness Rarity quickly exploits as she mare grabs the mare’s hoof with her magic to temporarily immobilize it, and then throwing her entire body weight into her shield she slams it into the farmer’s form.

Feeling her opponent slam into the ground from her sensitive hooves the mare reforms her metal shield into a heavy spiked flail as she reflexively swings her weapon for a finishing blow on her attacker. Yet as she orange mare turns her head Rarity’s senses recover, her mind floods with memories of fond times with her friend Applejack and in less than a millisecond the mare realizes that she is trying to attack her friend with a lethal attack. With a loud cry the mare swings her flail wide missing the mare by a margin as the orange mare’s head dodges the crippling attack.

And though in any normal situation Applejack would be enormously grateful to Rarity for such an act however the orange farm mare knows that her body is currently not her own. As such Applejack can only watch on in terror as she feels all her muscles in her back tense up like a coiled spring. With a single shed tear the orange mare closes her eyes as she feels her entire leg strength slam into the mare’s white coat pounding her flesh with the force built up from years of applebucking. Applejack winces as she feels two ribs snap like kindling as the white mare lands in roles over the ground like a broken wagon wheel landing in a heap at the base of a broken tombstone.

Rarity unwilling to be beaten down attempts to rise shakily to her hooves only to fall back on the ground with a sickening thud as she clutches her side to suppress her desire to scream in pain. And standing over her friend, tears pouring down her face stands Applejack, her black toothed maws crying out for the white mare’s blood. And as if a dark contrast to the two mares is Caramel laughing like a maniac as he contemplates his revenge against the mare who wronged him.

“HE! HE HA! that’s what a minx like youze gets fer makin a fool of me! Now my little slave….” The stallion points to the white mare writhing on the ground.  “Do meze a favor an finish the minx off Impressively, an make it painful!

The orange mare’s how shakes erratically her nerves and muscles tense as she tries to use all the vestiges of strength in her power to disobey, to keep herself from making a mistake that could ruin her entire life. Yet to no avail the dark maws gnash her hoof poised to strike as the orange limb is swung down with her entire body weight directly where Rarity’s head is. For the scarcest if moments everything moves in slow motion Applejack’s tears pouring down her face Rarity staring up in horror as the finishing blow falls and Caramel laughing in victory as he flaunts his power over the two horrified mares.

Suddenly like a bolt from the heavens a bring flash appears over Rarity as a large purple object stands over the prone fashionista her eyes glaring upwards at the mare with a force that would give Fluttershy’s stare a run for its money. Suddenly Applejack’s blow stops her hoof frozen in space as the lavender unicorn stares back at the orange mare causing her to slowly back away from Rarity, an action that greatly confuses and infuriates the brown coated Stallion.

 “What?” Caramel shouts in disbelief of the scene before him “How my commands are absolute youze little friend should be ripping ya to pieces! Why ain’t she obeyin me? CRUSH HER!”

“Oh, THAT.” Twilight remarks nonchalantly as she straightens her hooves standing straight up in front of her injured friend Rarity. With Applejack’s hoof hovering not three inches from her muzzle Twilight steps forward as Applejack is forced to retreat away from the confident purple mare as Twilight draws closer to the fuming Caramel. Trotting around the controlled mare without fear Twilight walks behind Applejack as she stares down the stallion with a confident smirk “That’s just a little effect of my power F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I thought that you knew all my powers? Or perhaps your information is incomplete otherwise you would have heard about my ability ‘friendly fire’.”

“F-Friendly fire?” Noteworthy asks as he watches Applejack’s quaking arm refuse to injure her friend “How? A stand should only have one power, to possess two….. is that possible?”

“No you’re right a stand can only have one power.” Twilight confirms with a nod from her head as she continues to circle around the frozen Applejack “this is just a simple result of my Stand’s mind link ability.”

Clearing her throat in a way that would make a pony believe that the librarian has sat in front of a mirror practicing clearing her throat in a condescending way the mare launches into yet another of her long scientific tirades. “It’s simple really, after all a mind does all it can to keep from injuring itself just like the body keeps itself from hurting itself by holding itself back. It’s similar to the way that the body places limiters on muscles so a pony doesn’t use all their physical strength and destroys them. Or perhaps it’s closer to a pony’s natural instinct to keep from damaging themselves.”

“Hold on a second.” Noteworthy tries to interrupt “I may be only a humble priest but to me that does not sound…...”

“And since during a mind link two ponies become one…..” Twilight continues conveniently ignoring the Blue unicorn’s moot point “…..even after the link is severed the two minds are still linked in the form of an invisible bond. It’s like how a transplanted liver will always acknowledge its host as friendly and compatible in a way what prevents the body from attacking it like a foreign invader. And because of that a pony I’ve linked with is incapable of harming me in the same way that they are incapable of harming themselves.”

Twilight grins as she trots around her orange friend who stands completely unable to attack. “It also keeps me from being hurt by my friend’s stand powers since a stand is an extension of a pony’s psyche. Otherwise when me and Rainbow Dash fused that one time I would have been blown to pieces along with my library wall by her own stand’s destructive force.”

The entire hill top stands silent; perhaps in awe of Twilight’s new power or perhaps it is the result of her long winded speech before Applejack clears her throat to interrupt. “Uh Twi? It may just be cause ah’m a simple country farmer an all, but that makes as much sense as a chicken rollin around in mud.”

Shooting the immobile farmer a dirty look Twilight continues “You just don’t have the years of scientific training and research into stand powers to understand that it does not make sense.”

“….Twi, did you just call me dumb?”

“And now…..” With a smirk of satisfaction at the dumbfounded expression on Caramel’s face Twilight manifests her stand. “And now that Applejack can’t attack me I can put my stand’s true power to its most efficient use.” Raising her stand’s hoof the mare touches Applejack’s body its hoof combining with Applejacks’ stand as the two become one. “And boost her power to its limits!”

Her eyes igniting worth the full power of her stand the two ponies begin to combine their powers Applejack’s stand finally manifesting past her frame as the power to Caramel’s stand becomes mitigated by her sharp power increase. Yet just as it looks that the battle is turning it her favor Twilight finds herself slammed back by the body rush of an undead corpse her power interrupted as she falls to the ground with a heavy impact. Sliding from the body rush the mare quickly rises to her hooves her eyes turning back to their normal hue as she prepares to fight.

Wiping a cold sweat from his neck Noteworthy closes in on the lavender mare driving her back “That… that was too close, had you managed to use your power to boost Applejack’s strength further….” The Blue unicorn gulps “…Not even I could tell what would become of it.”

“Caramel!” Noteworthy shouts “don’t let them fuse together! That purple mare can boost stand powers if you let them touch then we may be the ones to lose tonight!’ Manifesting his stand Noteworthy slams his hoof into the ground as more and more undead pile out into the land of the living “Remember the strategy swarm and overwhelm them! No more messing around.”

Combing his greased black mane back into position the stallion gestures with his muzzle causing his loyal ‘followers’ to once again swarm around the desperate mares. “Yeah Yeah, Youze made it clear the first time let’s just get this over with, these minxes are getting ta be more trouble than they’re worth!”

With nervous eyes Twilight looks around as her friends form up back to back, their retreat cut off by even greater swarms of enemies than they had fought off before. As the five mares look around at their enemies the hundreds of rotten undead and hundreds of controlled ponies circling around them like a ring of death. Even Rarity rising shakily to her hooves looks nervous as the swarms of undead cackle and moan while they close in on our intrepid heroes, their jaws snapping and opening like a chorus of gnashing teeth.

“Tch.” Twilight looks around at the scene before her. Her mind unlike her friends is unclouded by the fear of the situation of the evil of her foes as she pushes her intelligence to the limits as she frantically strategizes. ‘All right Twilight think, what do we do now? Or rather what can we do, Trixie thought that if we could finish these guys fast enough then there wasn’t a need for strategy’ Twilight looks around her as the zombies march in ‘and look where that got us!’

Twilight looks at her friends behind her their breaths heavy and their shoulder’s sagging ‘at this rate we won’t survive another wave, so our options are retreat or surrender, and surrender is not an option. True I if I had enough magic I could attempt a teleport. But my magic it too week now to get us far, and even if it wasn’t, these two won’t stop attacking the town so by the time I could muster enough magic to teleport us back there’s no telling what they would do without us to hold their attention.’  Looking around as the circle closes even tighter the mare begins to lose hope as the situation around her looks even more bleak.

‘Can we really escape while surrounded? Only Fluttershy can fly so we can’t go up. And this circle keeps us from leaving on hoof. That means the only way we can escape is if we could….’

With expert timing Pinkie pulls out a lightbulb and places it directly over Twilight’s head just as a surge of inspiration hits the unicorn. The lightbulb flickers on and Twilight grins ear to ear as a brilliant idea enters her head. “That’s it!” not willing to waste a second the purple mare rushes over to Rarity grabbing her with her hoof as she manifests her stand.  “Hold on Rarity I’ve got an idea! We need to fuse now!”

“Wait, What?” the fashionista protests “B-But is that really necessary Twilight I-I’m not the most comfortable with fusing, not to say we aren’t a pinch but…”

“Rarity! I don’t have time to explain, but the moment we fuse you’ll know the plan and why it is so important that we fuse. Now mare up and fuse already!”

Without even giving the mare time to respond the Twilight’s stand touches Rarity’s Quicksilver as their eyes fill up with light. With almost sentient will the silvery amorphous stand begins to flow over Twilight’s F.R.I.E.N.D.S. coating it in a solid metal shell as a silvery sheen covers and highlights the stand’s gleaming saddle.

“They’re fusing!” Noteworthy shouts with a sense of urgency “hurry attack now before they have a chance to use their power!”

With killer intent the passively advancing circle surfaces in, the zombies and infected converging on the six mares as the hundreds cry out for blood. With bloodlust and fury the undead charge only to run headlong into a giant metal pillar. Raising their eyes to the heavens even the mindless undead look on in awe as a large metal figure forms towers over the undead horde. The figure, a silvery set of giant armor four pony widths in height from hoof to head stands over the mares like a guardian angel it’s embroidered steel plates covered in cascading etching designs of varying variety. Rising above the six mares like a giant metal skeleton a large suit of unicorn shaped armor eclipses the battlefield its large metal legs surrounding the mares on four sides. Suddenly with a sweep of its mighty hoof, the attacking undead find themselves swept away by the giant metal pony their bodies cracked and broken by the mildest sweep of its hoof. The undead recoil as their rotten brains begin to recall terror as even the infected maws flee in fear from the metal monstrosity.

“Don’t youze stand there's!” Caramel shouts over the din “That big lug’s slow as heck. Surround them an bring it down!’

Obeying their master’s orders the two legions reform and charge in from both sides as they approach the mares from every direction. Reforming effortlessly the silver titan melts like hot metal as it reforms into a large razor tipped funnel surrounding the group of ponies in a protective shield. Slowly the metal funnel spins around like a top, its momentum increases by the second, each revolution of its metal body kicking up more wind and turning it’s sharpened spikes into a whirling develirish of flashing blades. The result is a cycling Hurricane of razor sharp blades that spin around with incredible speed, dicing any undead unfortunate and stupid enough to approach the silver tornado. The infected halt in their tracks as the remaining infected back up, a dark cloud of dust swept up by the hurricane filling their fields of vision as they collectedly hunker down to endure the artificial hurricane.

Dust flies and circles through the air as every quadruped falls to the ground or is blown to the ground by the sweeping winds that circle around the hilltop. The air swirls around in a terribly powerful current as even the lightest touch from the winds bites into the surrounding solders with terrible force. And then as suddenly as the wind came the circling cyclone of death vanishes into thin air, the wind from the storm dies down, Lingering on for only a few seconds before it too dies down. As the swarms surrounding the top of the hills pick themselves off of the ground the dust slowly falls down upon them like drifting snow covering their bodies with a thin layer of dirt as the dust settles. The suddenness of the tornado’s conjuring and disappearance is only half as surprising as its intended effect, for as both of generals look around the open field to find with no small amount of surprise they find that the Stardust Crusaders are…….

“They’re……“ Noteworthy looks around open jawed “They’re gone!” Looking around with his keen eyes the Blue unicorn scans his surrounding to find that the six ponies have indeed disappeared into thin air right in front of his nose. “They’re Gone without a trace to follow. They must have used a dirt storm as a smokescreen to escape.” The stallion looks around at the carnage before him, his decimated undead a testament to the power of their stands “And this was them trying to escape. I am loath to admit it but their teamwork is incredible.”

Caramel’s eyes widen to pinpricks as he looks around to find that another pony of his is missing. “HEY! Where’s the orange minx!? She couldn’t have vanished inta thin air! Where are those cowards?” the stallion looks around the hill only to find no sign at all, of the group’s passing “Where did those minxes go!?”

 ………………

In the dark of the world around them Twilight finds her head spinning around like a pinball as she tries to reorient herself to the situation that she once more finds herself in. Her throat filled with dust and debris Twilight coughs up a storm as she faintly ignites her horn a light purple light flowing over the group’s surroundings. With a raspy strained voice Twilight calls out to her friends in hopes of hearing them safe and sound. “Is every…” The mare hacks out a large hoof ful of dust from her lungs “…… is everypony all right?”

Much to the unicorn’s elation she begins to hear signs of life emanating from the darkness and dust around her.  Straining against the darkness Twilight increases the strength of her light, illuminating the small dark room around them as well as the stony walls of beautiful calligraphic writing that surround them. With their bodies currently out of harm’s way the six ponies with the exception of a bound Applejack, quickly rise to their hooves taking stock of their situation.

”Wowie Twilight, this place is so cool!” Pinkie shouts as she resumes her normal bouncing “I mean it’s pretty scary but still pretty cool too! Where are we, some ultra-old amusement park?”

However Twilight does not respond to Pinkie’s inane comments, in fact from her wide eyed vacant stare it seems as though she doesn’t seem to be responding too much of anything her mind trapped in the levels of deep thought that only intellectuals seem to enjoy.

 “Uh Twilight?” Pinkie taps the librarian’s head rapidly as she quickly dons a pair of headphones with a built in microphone “Equestria to Twilight here, Equestria to Twilight do you copy? Over?”

That simple reference seems to do the trick as Twilight is brought back to the present by Pinkie’s unorthodox performance, the librarian blinking rapidly in an effort to process the pink pony’s mannerisms. “Oh right!” Twilight shakes her head as if trying to throw out a nasty thought. “Sorry about that Pinkie I was just…… Just….”

The lavender mare looks over cautiously to the ivory mare slightly to her side watching as the fashionista carefully binds the Applejack head to hoof with the strongest bands of her quicksilver. The lavender’s mare’s eyes narrow in suspicion as she stares at the back of the ivory mare her face equally nervous and fearful as she looks closely over Rarity’s injuries as if her demeanor is revealing of something that was so obvious to her before. “..…Distracted.”

Tearing her gaze away from Rarity for now the Librarian looks over her group re-assessing her friend’s situations and states, content to find that despite some heavy breathing and some scrapes and bruises they appear to be fine. “And in case you couldn’t tell yes we are safe, for now. With any luck it will take quite a while before our friends above find out we’re hiding in a tomb.”

Everyone snaps in attention at this statement as Fluttershy’s wings flutter in a panic. “Wait? WE’RE WHERE!?” Fluttershy screams out only to find her muzzle zipped shut with a magical zipper.

“SHhhhhhhhh!” Twilight shushes with all her might as the six mares listen tensely for any sign that they have been discovered. Seconds pass in silent tension before Twilight breathes a sigh of relief. With a slight gesture Twilight looks over to Trixie who quickly understands the librarian’s intention and ignites her horn.

Closing her eyes in concentration the showmare builds her charge in to the point that it crackles with magical power until it bursts soundlessly around them. Trixie exhales as she turns back to the curiously looking group “Silencing spell, now no pony outside the spell’s radius can hear us. Now then perhaps Twilight can tell us why in Celestia’s name she has decide to bury the Great and powerful Trixie alive!”

“Thank you Trixie.” Twilight says ignoring the show mare’s drama as she gestures to her surroundings “And yes Fluttershy we’re in a tomb or more accurately we’re in a Burial vault or catacomb since the casket is buried in an open air space underground.”

Looking around nervously the showmare begins to apply one of her most well-known of coping techniques, sarcasm. “Oh! It’s a only a tomb! Silly Trixie to assume that we were somewhere dangerous and frightening when we were only hiding in a place where there thousands of undead waiting to tear us limb from limb! A Burial vault.” Trixie repeats as it was a novelty “What a wonderful place to hide from a stallion who can reanimate corpses!”

This earns the showmare a quick slap upside the head. “Quiet Trixie, It was the closest place for us to get away from Noteworthy. Using our combined powers I was able to kick up a storm of dust while me and Rarity used Quicksilver’s drill to dig us into this underground tomb. Noteworthy uses his power to reanimate the dead out from underground so luckily this tomb is unoccupied. It's not the ideal place for shelter…..”

Trixie scoffs

“….. but it’s hidden and safe from attack, as well as the last place they would expect to look for us.” Twilight smiles triumphantly as she taps her horn “And as a plus we’re unicorns so hopefully he thinks that we’ve just teleported away, and that gives us enough time here to come up with a plan to counter attack.”

“Well that does make sense.” Fluttershy comments as she looks around at her new surroundings with an air of cautious skepticism. “But um, why is Applejack here, I mean it’s not like I would want to not have our friends with us but…… um she’s sort of, Well….. um how do I put this…..”

“Capable of killing us at any moment?” Trixie comments.

“Um yes that, I mean she still has those ugly awful mouths on her. So what if……”

“Don’t worry about Applejack darling.” Rarity trots up placing a comforting hoof on her friend as she gestures over to Applejack’s silvery bonds. “As you can see by my amazing needlework I made Applejack a nice little straitjacket so that she wouldn’t feel inclined to kill us.”

Looking at the orange mare the group is surprised to see that Applejacks’ tacky bonds have been replaced by an eloquent but full body straight jacket that covers every one of Caramel’s offensive maws. Yet more surprising is the fact that the orange mare seems to be enjoying her new accommodations given her previous condition. “Urgh, yeah galls. Doncha worry bout me I’m tied up as tight as a hog at a rodeo.”

“Southernisms Applejack.” Twilight reminds the orange mare with a death glare. “And now that we’ve fielded the random questions perhaps we can get down to the main point of thinking up a plan because in case you failed to notice, I’ve got nothing.”

Pinkie pie responding in her normal over exaggerative fashion gasps heavily and rushes up towards the purple mare. “YOU. DON’T. HAVE. A. PLAN!? But you always have a plan Twilight! That’s like the third best thing about you! Right next you being a smarty pants and your cute tushie!”

“Well I’m sorry Pinkie but I can’t think of anything that can get us past all their defenses and….” The purple mare does a double take. “Wait what was the second thing that you said?”

“You being a smarty pants?

‘No Pinkie not that. The other thing.”

“You’re love of books?”

“That wasn’t one of the things that you said was one of my good points.”

“But your love of books is totally one of the best things about you Twilight!”

“And I’m not saying it’s not but…..”

“GASP! Could it be that you don’t think that you loving books is one of the best things about you Twilight?”

“Of course not, I love books!” Twilight shouts defiantly. “I just really want to know what you said about my….”

“Because if you did then I just have to say silly filly that love comes in all shapes and sizes so if you would love to spend a nice candle lit night of passion, curled up with a good book then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!”

“………. Night of passion?”

“And even if there was, you would still be my bestest of bestest friends in the whole world and I would support you all the way!”

“…………. just help me think up a plan Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie Lokie!” Pinkie salutes sharply.

As the Twilight’s body remains stationary, her eyes closed and her pulse steady, her mind is running in overdrive as her thoughts race at a mile a second. Her imagination works in overdrive as she mentally calculates every possibility and every outcome in record time. Her thoughts and purpose all focused towards a single goal defeating the two enemies that have dared to harm the ponies that they all care about for their own selfish reasons. Suddenly with a flash of inspiration the mare reaches her conclusion, her eyes open slowly as they sparkle in the ambient light of her horn. Everypony leans in on their tip hooves as the lavender mare licks her lips, slowly opens her mouth and with a measure of absolute certainty declares to the world……..

“I’ve still got nothing.”

“What?!” the mares shout at the top of their lungs in disbelief.

“I’m sorry girls but there’s just no way of reaching the two ponies that are controlling the two stands.” The lavender unicorn hangs her head in defeat as she paws the ground. “They have the ability to create an infinite supply of soldiers while we’re only five mares strong. The fact is that they’ve had the advantage all along. I thought that we could push our way through their defenses before they knew what hit them but they just keep replenishing their numbers.”

The group not used to seeing the normally optimistic mare so down in the dumps look at each other with confusion their minds struggling to process the mare’s logic. “Surely you’re exaggerating darling.” Rarity places her hoof on her friend's’ shoulder “I mean I was able to get that cretin myself surely we can defeat them if we all come together.”

Throwing off the mare’s hoof a little too forcefully Twilight groans “That’s because they let you get close Rarity. Caramel didn’t think that you were a threat so he let you close up on him, but that won’t happen again. Now that they know the potential of our stands they won’t let us get anywhere near them. They’ll just keep mobbing us with their numbers until we collapse from exhaustion.”

“B-but that’s not fair!” Fluttershy protests “Dash got by them so we can….”

“That’s because it was a trap Fluttershy. They lured Dash in so that Caramel could put Dash under his control, and by now she’s probably under his complete control biting ponies.” The more looks around at her friends a look of frustration dominating her expression “That’s the problem, any ground we cover, any attack we make could be easily countered by them. They’re anticipating our every move. If we try to get close we’re beaten back, if we try and attack from outside their range their stands and bodies can take the blows for them, and if we push forward we fall into a planned trap of theirs. I just can’t think of a way to get around them.”

“I’m….” The purple unicorn lowers her head as tears begin to drip down her muzzle “I just don’t see a way out of this…. I’m so sorry that I’ve wasted your time.”

The mood of the room immediately hits rock bottom each and every pony bites their tongues each one not knowing what to say in the wake of overbearing pessimism. Seconds quickly turn to minutes as our brave and resolved group of heroes lay about like rocks, their will to resist, drained as they become painfully aware of the odds stacked against them.

With her spirits at an all-time low even Pinkie sighs as she watches Twilight’s tears pitter patter against the dusty ground. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help Twilight. If only we could make a surprise for those nasty guys too. Then we could surprise their surprise, that’d sure be a big surprise.”

A sudden spark of inspiration fills the young unicorn’s eyes she looks back to her friends, her vision slightly clouded by teary eyes. “P-Pinkie….. what did you just say?”

The pink pony perks up at having being addressed by name. “Well I was just thinking that we can’t get to those meanie mc meanie pants because they would always surprise us if we tried anything. But if we surprised their surprise then they’d be too surprised to be surprise us? To be honest I was just adlibbing most of……”

The unicorn’s sudden embrace cuts off the pink mare’s further words as she feels her strong body compressed like a vice by the strength of her friend. “PINKIE you’re a genius! A surprise is exactly what we need!” Twilight laughs as she squeezes Pinkie Pie like a bath toy.

“T-Twilight, I love hugs too, but URGH I think I can’t breathe!”

“Oh sorry Pinkie I was just a little excited.”  The purple unicorn drops the pink earth pony to the ground. “Is that better?”

“….well…..” The pink unicorn blushes slightly as she taps her hooves together “Well I'm really glad I can breathe again, because otherwise I couldn’t talk and that would be able to talk and that would be really really awful!”

“Really.” Rarity states with a deadpan expression.

“…… but I still sort of miss the hugging cause friend hugs always make me happy and….”

“Alright that’s enough!” A flustered Trixie shouts as she trots up to Twilight. “Entertain your filly friend on your own time Sparkle! Just tell Trixie your plan so we can get out of this hole in the ground!”

“WHAT?” Twilight fumbles with the show mare’s sudden accusation as she feels her heart race in equal measures embarrassment and surprise at Trixie’s claim. “That was a friend hug, Pinkie and I aren’t….. You know what forget it. You’re right Trixie we’ve had enough filler for one segment, it’s time to bring this chapter to a close. ”

“Um Twilight? I hate to be a party pooper and all but breaking the fourth wall is kind of my thing so it’d be real great if..…”

“This nightmare’s got to end sometime, so it might as well end with us. It’s like Pinkie was saying.” Twilight wraps her hoof around the party pony. “We can’t get by those zombie ponies with brute force so we just have to give them a surprise that they won’t ever forget!”

The rest of the group sensing on an instinctual level the sudden and dramatic change on the Unicorn’ disposition all huddle up (including a bound and now gagged Applejack who creeps towards the group on her tip hooves) as they prepare themselves for another one of Twilight’s’ plans that are sure to save the day.

“It’s going to be to be a trap that they won’t ever forget, something that they’ll never see coming. And best of all we’re going to pull it off by working together.” Twilight states with pride her normal enthusiasm returning as the light of hope gives her words and ideas strength and merit.

“And as a matter of fact…” Twilight grins as she looks over to the bound Applejack “I actually think that Applejack’s current condition will be the key to bringing them down. Now here’s the plan….”

…………..

The broken battlefield at the top of the hill once filled with the loud cries of battle is now as quiet as a graveyard, devoid of any living ponies save the contorted infected and the two insidious ponies responsible for the destruction of the town before them. As quiet as the dead, the infected and corpses ramble about as they search every square inch of the hill their eyes peeled for any sign of their master's’ enemies.

“I'll admit one thing.” Caramel spits a bloody lougie to the ground “those minxes are good at hiding!” Kicking another of his captive infected to the ground in frustration Caramel continues to tear across the hillside looking for signs of the escaped mares.

“Patience Caramel.” Noteworthy reminds the impatient stallion. “They can’t escape us for long. They may possess the ability to hide for now, but it only delays the inevitable. Eventually they will be found and against our endless numbers they will be quickly overwhelmed.”

“Bute Ize can’t help it!” Caramel shouts as he punches one of Noteworthy’s undead to pieces with a single blow. “Those minxes took that Apple-minx away from me! She’s mine! They had no right ta take that pretty minx away from me!’ Caramel growls “At least not before ah made her pay fer getting in mah way!”

“And as I said before Caramel.” Noteworthy grows menacingly. “Our task is kill them, not to make them our slaves. If you had bothered to pay any attention to the mission than we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Manifesting his stand Noteworthy gestures to the undead who coming through the surroundings of the hill this time at a much more rapid pace. “Now pay attention and double the search for those missing ponies. After all it’s not like they’re going to…..”

KA-BOOM!

One of the crypts explodes in an explosion of dark green mist as the two stallions brace against the shock wave coursing over the hill. The dark cloud of green hangs ominously in the air as the two stallions nervously and cautiously brace for any attack that could possibly come from the green mist that slowly dissipates as to falls to the ground. Second by second the visibility increases as five shadow cloaked figures slowly emerge from the green cloud as the ninjas of old once did. With dumbfounded surprise every set of vacant eyes on the hills stares at the five mares standing in defiance of everything thrown at them so far by the hordes, eager to take them on once again.

“….Pop out of thin air.” Noteworthy finishes.

The two stallions though far of in the distance from the mares ready themselves for a fight as they prepare to stick their respective armies on them. Yet before they can even issue a command the five mares do the unthinkable. With almost machine like unison they subsequently turn their backs and gallop away at full pace making for the outskirts of Ponyville in a desperate attempt to escape. As the zombies move in their rotten teeth and broken hooves poised to strike Fluttershy’s piercing gaze flashes in the darkness as the undead directly before them stare blankly ahead stunned by the immense power of her Stare as the five ponies gallop wordlessly past the blank eyed undead.

“That yellow minx’s stare, it’s keeping youzes pathetic zombies from attacking!” Caramel yells as he gestures to the five mares passing through the gaps in Noteworthy’s ranks “They’re gonna get away!”

“Well then after them you dolt! We can’t let them escape. Attack from the yellow one’s blind spots!” Noteworthy screams as his stand waves its’ bony hooves causing more of his undead soldiers to rip themselves out of the ground around the retreating party.

Acting in unison Caramel extends his fore hoof as a dark maw appears on it as he yells out over the din of the combat. “Get em!” He yells at the top of his lungs as his legions of the infected course in from all sides towards the retreating mares.

Yet even as the mares retreat something nags the light brown mobster as if suddenly remembering something he wanted not too long ago. “Hey theirs is only five of them minxes….” Caramel states almost to himself as he watches as the Stardust Crusaders begin to run out of sight. “So where’s…..” The black horse cranes his neck across the battlefield as he peels his eyes for “….That orange minx!”

Caramel taps Noteworthy’s shoulder as he points off in the distance. Sure enough only a few mere hooves away from where the five mares had appeared with a dramatic flash Applejack lays before the hole her body lying prone on the ground.

“Look there she is just lying on the ground!” Caramel grins at the fact that at least something is going right for him tonight as he trots casually over towards his prize. “They must have left her behind once they realized they can’t remove my stand’s maws!” Caramel shouts over the din of in the distance as he quickly runs up to the prone farm mare.

Brushing back his slick mane Caramel makes an effort at appearing presentable as he leans down and whispers into the mare's’ ear with alcohol baited breath. “Hi ya minx, so youze decided ta stick around! Smart choice now youze can have some real fun, just you and me!”

“Caramel!” Noteworthy shouts as he rushes up to the stallion. “That’s not part of our orders! We’re supposed to kill them not make them our pets!”

“Tch, forget youze, Ize do what ize wants!” Caramel states, earning him a slap upside the head from the hooves of the ever patient and watchful Noteworthy.

With keen observant eyes Noteworthy watches as the five mares take off on hoof narrowly avoiding the attacking infected as despite their efforts to escape the group begins to find itself surrounded by greater numbers. “Anyhow it looks as though our decision to pursue them was the correct one.” The Blue unicorn states as he watches the five remaining ponies barely dodging the attacks of the legions that surround them. “True we must keep our distance or risk an in-fight with them but if they go out of earshot we won’t be able command our armies as effectively and accurately assess our foe’s situations.”

“Yeah yeah ize hear youze.” Caramel states as he watches as the five mares are once again surrounded by Noteworthy’s hordes of the undead as his own infected are barely held back by the yellow pegasus piercing stare. “Now it’s only a matter of time till they crack under the pressure. Alls we have ta do is wait, an we win!”

Caramel turns back to the prone orange mare lying face first on the ground as he flashes her a broken twisted smile.“An the fact that they were willing ta abandon their friend here shows that themes are pretty desperate. At this rate they’ll all be part of my special little club in a matter of minutes!’ Caramel rubs his hooves greedily.

“That’s no excuse for you behavior Caramel!” Noteworthy interjects “Like I said these ponies, especially that orange mare who craves her own demise, deserve a peaceful purifying death you have no right to deny her the salvation she deserves you….”

“In case yawl couldn’t tell….” Applejack interrupts. “…..mah friends didn’t leave me behind.” Applejack remarks with no small amount of confidence, quickly earning her the attention of the two bickering stallions “Ah chose ta stay cause ah’m the bait!”

“Bait?” Noteworthy asks skeptically “bait for what?”

“Bait for the beautiful ponies standing directly behind you, perhaps?”

The hair on the coats of the two stallions stands on end as they heads jerk sharply in the direction of the voice. They eyes widen in surprise their faces contort into anger and their bodies stand in rapt attention as they look to see the four ponies that they had thought were so far away from them, the Stardust Crusaders, are standing battle ready not ten feet away from where they are.  Rarity plants her hooves firmly on solid ground, Twilight and Trixie ignite their horns and Pinkie, well Pinkie was being Pinkie. Each of the mares however merely stands there in place as if awaiting the stallion’s next move or perhaps savoring the utter surprise covering the stallion’s faces.

“Those minxes!” Caramel readies himself for a fight as he looks around for any infected ponies he might use as a shield “How did they get so close ta us?” Did they teleport or somthin?”

“My Zombie’s constant attacks shouldn’t’ have given them a chance to teleport!” Noteworthy states as he as well manifests his bony stand. “And the magic and concentration required to teleport that many ponies that amount of distance is not feasible!” The blue unicorn looks off in the distance “Besides they were right there a second ago….”

Looking off in the distance the Blue unicorn stallion hopes beyond hope to see the ponies he has been tasked with ending are being torn to shreds by his massive hordes of the undead. He hopes that the trap that he has blundered into thanks to his ignorant partner is a simple hallucination, that the five battle ready ponies in front of him are simply an illusion. However to his utter shock Noteworthy watches as the five mares off in the distance explode into a cloud of smoke leaving behind only a single pony. With unmatched bravery, Fluttershy continues to stare down the crowd surrounding her moving her head from a full three hundred and sixty degrees around as she frantically tries to keep the hordes from approaching her from all sides.

“The yellow one used her power to keep my Zombies from attacking?” Noteworthy mind begins to race, his tactical mind slowly comprehending what the mares were trying to achieve as he turns back to face the real Stardust crusaders. “Of course, it was a diversion! You lured us in with fakes!”

Twilight can’t help but grin as she savors the dumbfounded look on the demented priest’s face. “You catch on quick, if you’ll look at this hole here.” Twilight points a single well-worn hole in the ground. “you’ll remember this is the exact spot where we disappeared into thin air. We used Rarity’s’ stand to dig this hole and then I covered up the entrance with a thin layer of dirt!”

‘So youze dug a hole ta escape. So what?”

“So what!?” Twilight shouts in disbelief to the stallion’s ignorance “I develop a tailored plan that taps into all our special talents to defeat an entire army and you say so what?! Do you know that making four completely functioning illusionary clones that follow the lead of a single pony? And Trixie did that with her eyes closed, literally!”

Turning her head off in the distance the purple mare yells back to her yellow friend “Oh by the way you did a great job Fluttershy! You can come back now.” Wiping the sweat from her brow in relief the yellow mare takes to the air as she flutters back towards her friends.

“You may also thank the Great and powerful Trixie for that Trick!” Trixie puffs out her chest. “True Fluttershy might have used her stand’s power to keep the Zombies from attacking them, but it was Trixie’s magnificent stand Magic mare that made functional illusionary copies of all the hayseeds here. Of course when it came to fooling a pair of foalish naysayers such as yourselves was there really any doubt?”

“Um I really did my best as well.” Fluttershy shyly states as she lands gracefully with the rest of the group. “I tried my best to keep the zombies from attacking so that you couldn’t tell our fakes were… well fake.”

“And it was a good job Fluttershy!” Pinkie joins in on congratulating her friend. “If those fakes had been faked out or touched in any way then our little surprise would have been completely ruined! And there’s nothing more worthy of a frowny face than a spoiled surprise.”

Realizing with even his limited intelligence that whatever the five mares have planned for him is not good for him in the slightest Caramel takes advantage of the group’s distraction as he tries to backpedal away from the group. Only to find his hooves planted firmly into the ground as a strong orange hoof presses down on him from his shoulders.

 “Hey, What are youze doin ya minx?” Caramel shuffles his hooves a bit more as he fails to move an inch Applejack’s stern hoof clutching tighter into his shoulder. “UR! Seriously youze are starting to get on mine nerves! Ize am commanding youze ta let go now!”

The stallion pulls harder as he finds his body is unable to pry itself from the iron maiden’s grip, however as the stallion turns his head to confront his former slave on why and how she is managing to defy him that he sees a sight that stuns even him. The orange farmer formally covered in his flesh controlling maws Now finds her body plated in layer upon layer of silver tarnished armor, each plate moving is harmony as each plate moves along with her Its’ strength boosting her physical power far beyond its peak. As the frightened stallion gazes upon the beautiful exoskeleton he realizes with a frightened realization the tables have turned and now he is the captive in this situation.

Rarity chuckles drawing the attention of the two villains “You thought that we lured you here for no reason? You may still be out of Twilight’s range, but in case you’ve forgotten you are still well within the range of my stand Quicksilver.” Rarity fluffs her mane “In addition to being readily fashionable Applejack’s fine suit of armor is completely soundproof blocking out any more of your dreadful commands, all while boosting her own strength! Now that’s what I call a functional accessory!”

Realizing the extent of the trap that he has willingly walked into, Noteworthy tries to rapidly retreat only to find that he too is held fast against the ground. Looking down he too finds a familiar silver stand, namely Rarity’s Quicksilver is binding his legs its metal tendrils slithering up his limbs and holding him in place.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Rarity asks rhetorically “I call it my lake of moonlight.”

“You see.” Twilight continues “Rarity’s stand is in its true form a liquid so it’s easy to just pour it across the ground only to solidify it later. That’s our trap, it’s a thin but strong sheet of metal poured across the ground that allows the user to freeze the movements of its enemies.”

“But how?” Noteworthy flails against his new restraints. “Your stand isn’t invisible so we should have seen its’ reflective coating a mile away! How could your clunky stand possibly sneak up on us?” As the Blue unicorn flails more small shavings of green peel off of Rarity’s stand causing the stallion to momentarily cease moving, staring down as more of the light green shavings seem to fall off of the silvery surface of Quicksilver.

“What the….” Cautiously the Blue unicorn lowers his nose to the ground sniffing cautiously. “is this… wet paint?”

“He he.” Pinkie grins as she waves around a large green spray can “and it was my job to decorate it! I gave it a little forest green some light greys cause its night, I even painted some cool looking tombstones!” Grinning ear to ear Pinkie holsters her artist’s tool in a newly acquired holster “And I for one think that, it’s my best work ever!”

“See that little smokescreen That Trixie’s magnificent doubles appeared in was not simply a smokescreen.” Trixie booms “It was a thick cloud of the pink one’s spray paint, since the paint was already falling to the ground all the fashionable hayseed had to do was spread the sheet of metal across the ground while the paint fell on top of it!”

Twilight points to Applejack her excitant bubbling within her as she continues on explaining her plan. “Of Course you’d have noticed that your zombies were turning green from the cloud or perhaps you might have noticed if you had been paying closer attention. But just to make sure that everything would go smoothly Applejack made sure to keep you distracted while she lured you in closer.”

Noteworthy looks down at his silver encased hooves a cold sweat breaks out over his body as he tries vainly to free themselves from the metal hoof cuffs. As more and more of the thin layer of paint comes off of the  large metal stand Noteworthy’s eyes grow wide as he realizes the immense are covered by Rarity’s empowered stand. “She took the liquid metal of the stand, and spread it across the ground! And we stepped right into it! They lured us closer so that we would get stuck in it, now glued to the ground like flypaper!”

 “By the way Trixie.” Twilight states as an afterthought “You can go ahead and remove the optics illusion now.”

‘Really? So soon?” Trixie asks jokingly “Being the master of illusions Trixie can keep this up all night. But if you insist.” A slight pulse of light echoes off Trixie’s horn as a slight magical aura falls off Rarity and Twilight’s bodies and with dramatic flair the two ponies their eyes revealing an infinite expanse of light where their pupils should be.

“M-Mindlink…” Caramel shudders in fear. “Iz didn’t know cause their eyes looked all normal an like! So that’s how she boosted the ugly maned one’s power like that!”

“And it’s all thanks to Trixie’s magic.” Twilight grins at her successful ruse

“After all if you had seen both our eyes glowing you might have suspected our plan.” Rarity states.

“But the hardest part was speaking out of turn like. It almost took all of our concentration not to….”

“…Finish each other’s sentences. Even I was slightly averse to mind linking like this again.” Rarity states with a sigh “But I suppose that a lady has to make sacrifices sometimes for the greater good.”

Her plan in full effect and her enemies trapped like rats on a sinking ship, Twilight takes a proud step forward. “It was an impressive plan no doubt, and we all played a part in it. Trixie used her stand Magic Mare to create illusionary doubles that lured you closer towards our trap.” The showmare tips her hat giving credit to her great performance.

“Fluttershy used her Stare to keep the Zombies and infected ponies away from our illusionary clones keeping them intact and preventing you from discovering our ruse.” The yellow mare blushes slightly as she tries once again to hide behind her mane.

“Pinkie Pie painted Rarity’s stand insuring that it would go undetected by your senses as you were lured in to our trap.” Pinkie laughs along with the scene, her expression almost as giddy as Twilight’s.

“All the while Rarity and I poured our combined powers into making the trap that even now holds you in its clutches.” The two unicorn mares stamp their hooves in pride as the loud metallic sound of the plate of metal beneath their hooves reminds the two stallions the impressive trap that they walked blindly into.

“And Applejack…” Twilight can’t help but laugh at the mention of her friend’s role “Applejack’s role is the most. Important of all.”

With her newfound armor encasing the orange mare, Applejack breaths steadily as she slowly and ominously cracks her hooves and rolls her neck. With almost giddy anticipation Applejack gives Caramel a grin almost as large as Pinkie’s smile on free cupcake day at Sugarcube corner as she stares right into Caramel’s pinprick eyes. “An that job sugarcube……..well ah guess that even a fell like yawl can figure out what mah special job is, sides from makin sure that you would walk headlong inta our little trap like a raccoon towards a garbage pile.” Applejack cracks her hoof one last time as she stares hatefully into Caramel’s eyes “…..now can’t youze?”

“Um…. Ize…. Uh….” Caramel gulps nervously as Applejack pulls back her hoof for what is sure to be the most intense beating of his short miserable life. “Youze weren’t takin that whole harem thing seriously were youze? That…. That was just a joke!”

Applejack does not seem amused. Caramel gulps again “Um that task wouldn’t happen ta be poundin me inta a bloody pulp while shoutin ‘Ooooooverdrive’, now would it?”

Applejack nods. “Raging Earth…….”

Caramel for the last time in his miserable life gulps heavily. “Um…… I surrender?”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOVVVEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDRRRIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEE!”

To make a long story short the beating that Applejack gave the incompetent stand user of ‘the Monster Within’ was as magnificent as it was brutal. It was a beating that pounded his frame into the ground like a pancake. Unloading all of her suppressed rage and righteous anger with a barrage of punches that shook the earth Applejack actually succeeded in burying the offending stallion six feet under in a crater about the size of a small house. And needless to say, Caramel did not enjoy it as much as Applejack did, the brown coated stallion now black and blue all over his body as his arms and legs remain permanently bent in directions a contortionist couldn’t mimic.

“Tha……that’s not very…. Impressive….” The stallion groans in pain just as he passes out on the ground.

As the vile stallion Caramel slowly fades into unconsciousness his nightmarish effect slowly fades away like a bad dream. Like ash from a fireplace the carnivorous maws slowly turn to dust and fall off of the bodies of the infected ponies that surround the hill, much to their great surprise and joy.

“W-We’re free!” A nearby mare shouts at the top of her lungs.

“We’re all free!” A stallion responds in jubilation.

Applejack looking around at the previously subdued captives can’t help but smile as Rarity’s metal armor peels off her body revealing for the first  time that night her pristine orange coat free of Caramel’s controlling sores. Giving a soft chuckle the mare rubs her coat, never before so thankful for a clean coat. “Give me a Break. It may be clean now but it’s gonna take weeks o washin before mah coat feels clean again.”

“Well then partner…” Applejack turns towards the Necrophiliac Blue unicorn behind her. “…That’s one desperado down, an only one more ta go. Ah hope yawl have a good dental plan cause ah haven’t forgotten what ya did ta mah sis Applebloom!”

However despite the malice radiating off the orange mare’s coat as she stomps towards him or the murderous glint in her eyes The Blue unicorn remains deathly calm as he remains fastened to the ground. As the mare approaches the blue unicorns’ face contorts into at first a bemused expression, then amused one just before breaking out into dark laughter. “Fool.”

Suddenly with the force of an explosion a swarm of the undead rip themselves out of the ground dirt and debris flying everywhere as Applejack shields her eyes from the stray projectiles. The other ponies can’t help but stare on more and more of the undead horrors rise out from beneath the metal sheet placed over the ground, ripping through the metal with a gruesome metallic groan.

And in the center of it all is Noteworthy, laughing in glee as he rides the wave of undead surging from beneath him as his metal shackles are torn from his hooves. Forming a platform of rotting flesh and brittle sharpened bones around the Blue unicorn as the Mane 6 back up in terror as the Blue unicorn looks down on them from above.

“The…..the undead!” Twilight gasps as she watches as the thin metal sheet that she and Rarity painstakingly constructed is ripped to pieces from the dead rising out of the ground. “They’re ripping a half inch sheet of metal to pieces! Just how strong is his stand?”

“You may have defeated that fool Caramel….” Noteworthy remarks as he lounges on top of the mounds of rotting flesh beneath him “……But it will take far more than a surprise attack to divert me from my righteous mission!”

The five mares leap forward to stop the Blue unicorn’s stand from reanimating more of his undead followers, only for their advance to be halted as a wave if the undead tears through their shallow graves directly in their paths. Rising out of the ground like stalks of desiccated flesh the hordes of Zombies multiply as the Blue unicorn lounges on his undead throne. “Sinners.” Noteworthy spits out “When will you finally accept your blessing and surrender to the peace of death? As long as we stand on this hallowed ground my stand is undefeatable, your deaths certain.”

Twilight clenches her teeth as she prepares for another fight only for a prismatic sparkle from the corner of her eye to cause a smile to cross her muzzle. “Noteworthy was it?” Twilight points her hoof at the stallion in front of her with a deadly sharp grin on her muzzle. “Your next line is going to be…’Submit to the salvation of your deaths!!’”

“Submit to the salvation of your deaths!!” Noteworthy shouts only to audibly gasp a second later. “W-W-What!? How did you….. forget it! It makes no difference.” The dark priest growls “you may have brought down that idiot Carmel with petty tricks but I won’t be fooled so easily. Now that I know your scheme I’ll never let you get close enough to hit me! And eventually you’ll be overwhelmed by my vast numbers!”

Raising his hoof dramatically the Blue unicorn shaman prepares to strike his final blow. “Now die! Hollyhoof Un…..”

WHAM!!

With the subtly of a steamroller (And the physical force of one) a bolt from the heavens falls down smiting the priest like an act of God. The shockwave, knocks the mares flat against the ground as a tall mushroom cloud containing every color of the rainbow, spreads out from the point of impact. Noteworthy’s throne of bones shatters to pieces as a rainbow cloud crests over the hill the result of the deafening explosion As the dust falls from the sky like rain, the five mares rise shakily to their hooves The mares almost unable to process the speed and suddenness at which Noteworthy was defeated stare with gaping mouths as a prismatic maned figure blows away the dust with the slightest flutter from her wings.

Emerging from the dust surrounding the crater, Rainbow Dash stands admiring her hoof as if such an awesome display of power were as natural to her as breathing. “Yeah Fillies it’s not your imagination, it’s me! And my sense of timing IS just that awesome, it’s not an act.”

Managing enough force of will to close her mouth Twilight can’t help but whistle as she looks down at the still twitching body of Noteworthy. “Wow Rainbow, clearly you’ve never heard of the word Overkill” Twilight admits with grudgingly. “Well better late than never I suppose. Though when I saw you about to hit Noteworthy at full speed I kind of thought you’d try and hit him without killing us. ”

“Okay little miss perfect, maybe next time YOU can bring down a supervillain in a single punch!” Dash strokes her mane “I mean beating a guy that took out an entire town in a single blow, yeah that’s one hundred percent Dash. I didn’t need any lame plan I just WHOOSHED in and POW! Game over.”

“…… enlightening Dash.” Twilight looks over to the remains of the undead as they collapse powerlessly to the ground “Well At least the last stand user was defeated, even if it was totally sloppy and went against my carefully orchestrated plan.”

However despite Twilight’s protests there is no pony at this moment that could care less about procedure than the prismatic mare curtly flaunting her superiority over everypony in existence. “Yeah just gonna keep being awesome over here.”

Fluttershy giggles for a moment at Dash’s normal display of confidence as she looks around at the battle field around them. The infected ponies now free from the commands of Caramel are slowly treating the wounded and enjoying the simple freedom to move that they had taken for granted their entire lives. The undead that previously ravaged the countryside now lie powerlessly on the ground their earthly remains once more at rest. And most importantly all of her friends are all safe and healthy despite the immense danger that they just went through. It is just as this thought passes through the Pegasus’s mind that she realizes something that she has only now noticed.

“Twilight….” Fluttershy addresses her friend with wide eyes. “Do you know what this means?”

Not missing a beat Dash responds “That I’m awesome?”

“No… I mean Yes Dash that was very impressive too. But, um, I was thinking of something completely different.”

“Really? Like what?” Dash asks.

“Ah think that ah know what yer talkin bout Shy and ah gotta say that it is pretty amazin!”

“Soooooooooo this thing that you’re talking about isn’t about me being awesome?”

“Um hum it is super-duper ultimately exciting! In fact I think it calls for some loooooooouuuuud shouting!”

“Um hello there! Earth to Everypony! What is everypony talking about?”

“Well darlings, I say if we’re all thinking of doing the same thing, I think that we should do it at the same time!”

“Um Rarity what are you talking about?”

“The great and powerful Trixie agrees. Shall we do it together on three?”

“Um I’d really like it if everypony would stop ignoring me!”

“All together then! One…..”

“GUYS!”

“Two…..”

“Stop ignoring me!”

 “One…..

“Will somepony PLEASE tell me what’s going on!”

And with that, the ponies that went through a night of almost heart stopping terror, fierce combat and facing down some of most evil ponies they have had the misfortune of meeting, can finally hold their heads high that their nightmare is over. Despite the odds against them, despite the evils that they have faced, they have survived, and better than that, they saved their town in the process. Letting all their pent up fear and anger, hatred and pain fall by the wayside the six brave ponies raise their arms to the open night sky, shouting to the very heavens the reason for their jubilation in one voice.

“WE WON!!!”

“We won?” Dash asks skeptically as the fact of their victory suddenly brings a genuine smile to her face. “I mean of course we won, those zombie knockoffs never had a chance against us! Let alone me!”

And with that every single pony breaks out into laughter as they roll around in the grass like free ponies with the entire world ahead of them. And without a word between them they share an intimate moment that will carry with them their entire lives, and from that day on that starlit night on cemetery hill will hold a place in their hearts as a place where they fought and lived together. Needless to say all of them can’t help but giggle like a bunch of mad mares as they laugh along with their lifelong friends.

“Hey guys!” Everypony looks over to Pinkie Pie “You know what this calls for, right?”

“Let Trixie guess…. A party?”

Crossing her hooves with a frustrated and perplexed expression the pink party mare stares over at the showmare. “How’d you guess? GASP! Do you have Pinkie powers too?”

And with that the entire group once again breaks out into laughter as they roll about on the hill staring at the stars above them.

Twilight in response to Pinkie being pinkie, gives a slight giggle only to cut her off a second later. “EHEM, A party sounds great Pinkie! And I hate to be a wet blanket, but….”

Everypony groans loudly their exasperation clearly evident to the bookworm.

“Twilight….” Pinkie chuckles “Everypony here knows that you LOVE being a wet blanket! That’s, like, the fifth best thing about Twilight Sparkle! Right next to your cute tushie and your sarcastic attitude!”

Shooting every pony in her close group of friends a death glare Twilight gives pinkie an especially stern look as she snorts steam from her nose. “…..one of these days I’m going to have to take a look at that list.”

“Anyways like I was saying, we should probably get these guys…..” Twilight points to the two severely beaten villains their shallow breathing the only sign that they are still alive “…..down to the station before they can cause anymore trouble.”

“Gggggggguuuuuuaaaahhhhhh.” Trixie moans like a pony told to wake up in the next five minutes. “Does Trixie have to? She just found a nice spot on the hill to relax on.”

“I’m serious Trixie, they’re out cold now but if we don’t get a stand harness on them before they come to they could still cause some trouble.” And with that purely logical argument in play the purple unicorn turns her head slowly to gaze at the battered building off in the distance. Even from miles away Twilight can tell the police station has seen better days, and despite the lack of zombies clawing at its walls the moonlight above still paints the picture of a fortress under siege. “Plus…. I want to check up on my brother and the rest of the guards we left behind to protect the corpse.”

Everypony looks up at this as they realize with a pained expression that tonight’s battle did not just involve them. As the mares looks down towards Ponyville they realize that hundreds of innocent ponies have most likely been injured or, Celestia forbid, killed in tonight’s struggle as they try to keep themselves from thinking about the grim reality that they now find themselves in.

“Um Twilight?” Fluttershy rises to her hooves shuffling awkwardly. “ I know that there was a lot of fighting tonight and that you're worried about if your brother is…… anyways I just think that you should go check up on your brother if that’s what you really think is the right thing to do.”

The purple unicorn pulling her vision away from the buildings shakes her head dismissing the yellow mare’s concerns. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’m not worried.” Twilight admits with a certain grin “My big brother is captain of the Royal guard, and he’s the most reliable pony I know! I just want to make sure that he remembers to clean up after his own mess for once.”

The entire group shares a brief laugh at this, their spirits coming back to an all-time high. Even the nippy night air, now noticeable that their lives aren’t in danger, cannot dampen their spirits as they look or to the east as they anticipate the dawn’s warm embrace.

“Well ah suppose that that makes sense.” Applejack states frankly as she punches the blue showmare in the shoulder. “You heard the mare, go get em Trixie.”

“ME?!” Trixie asks as she gets up off the ground to face Twilight “Why does Trixie have to come with you? Can’t somepony else come with you to drop off our guests?”

“Well for starters you’re an actual government agent that can give an official report. Last time I checked, I wasn’t. And second you should probably escort me back.” Twilight paws the ground “Remember until the charges are officially cleared by Celestia I’m still technically under arrest. So it would make more sense if you escorted me back, to prove that I am still complying with the authorities.”

“Well Trixie does love to make her reports thorough.” Trixie states as she looks at the police stallion off in the distance. “Very well Twibright, let us get this misunderstanding resolved, and drop off this criminal scum while we are at it. Trixie herself will escort you on this mission of grave importance.”

And with that five of Twilight’s’ closest friends stand by as they stand by to see their friend off each of them offering their best to a pony whom they simply could not live without.

“Good Luck Twilley! I’ll get the balloons for our celebration party!”

“Yawl take care now! An don’t’ be getting us into any more trouble now Twi!”

“Be careful Twilight! I’d feel just awful if anything bad happened to you now!”

“Don’t worry! They’re not going to do anything to a pony as awesome as Twilight!”

“Do take care darling! Once you get this awful mess wrapped up, the spa’s on me!”

Twilight smiles “Don’t worry everypony, it may just be me but I have a feeling that everything is going to be fine.”

“Let’s get a move on Twibright!” Trixie grunts as she hefts the Caramel onto her back. “In case you have failed to realize these two ponies are VERY heavy.”

With an affirmative nod Twilight responds by picking up Noteworthy’s still groaning form and placing it on her back as she builds the charge in her horn to a boiling point. Her horn grows brighter and brighter with a brilliant lavender light as Trixie trots up next to her in preparation for the jump. Her friends stand of the side, only able to wave off silently as Their friend vanishes into thin air, once again plunging into the depths of a darkness so great that not even they cannot begin to comprehend its purpose.

Chapter 18-Love Bug-Take 2

Chapter 19-Black Nirvana

Black Nirvana:

Po…..BANG!

With a loud snap the two unicorn mares, and their baggage land with a thump on the floor, The two unconscious stallions barely groaning from the sudden jump through subspace as they hit the floor like a sack of flour. As for the mares, the sudden snapping of space and time around them due to their less than stellar teleport has done wonders for their nausea and throbbing headaches, doubling their pain in under a second. Groaning on the ground like two hung over party ponies, the two mares groggily rise to their hooves, their senses recoiling as if they were slapped upside the head. Yet unyielding to the pain the two mares try to gain a hold of their disoriented senses as they rise shakily to their hooves.

“Ugh!” Trixie groans loudly “Do you just have a talent for making botched teleports or are you actually trying to give Trixie a headache?”

Trixie winces from her own loud shout as an equally loud Twilight shouts back “Hey! I’ve been fighting against a horde of zombies all night! Cut me some slack Trixie, I got us here didn’t I?”

Both mares wince at Twilight’s booming voice as they both decide from that moment on to be as quiet as possible. “Whatever Twibright, But this is the last time Trixie trusts your teleports. I mean look at where you’ve brought the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

With a dramatic gesture of her hoof Trixie highlights to the shrouded room that is so dark her light blue coat can barely be seen against the backdrop. “It’s so dark here Trixie cannot even see her hooves. What, have you decided to teleport us to the basement?” Trixie straightens her mane as she looks around the run down appearance of the room around her. “All Trixie knows for sure is that next time she is teleporting herself next time.”

“Ugh.” Twilight rubs her horn cautiously as she glances around the room as well “if my calculations were right we should be in the entryway of the police station. It’s the only part of the police station I was familiar with so I thought it would be the best place for a teleport.”

Her headache finally having faded away Twilight creates a gentle magical current with her horn as she illuminates the scene around her with cautious optimism. However the room that greets her vision is nothing like the scene that she was familiar with. The glass windows, emblazoned with the seal of the ponyville police lie shattered, the cold night air drifting across the shattered frames producing a haunting whistle with every errant gust of wind. The front desk of the room once housed a friendly desk clerk lies overturned and shattered on the floor in thousands of pieces. The magazines and empty periodicals lie on the floor torn to shreds by bite marks. Even the seat cushions and potted plants lie scattered about in the room as if an tornado had decided to sweep through the room without any regard for the life that it once contained.

In short the familiar and welcoming entryway to the police station has seemingly been replaced with something out of a horror novel, the alien feeling of the room around her accentuating the apprehension the purple mare is trying to suppress. This apprehension is for now just simple nervousness however as the mare gropes around in the dark she begins to instinctively crave for the comfort and insight only brilliant light can bring. Noticing a nearby light switch, the lavender mare reaches out with her hoof towards the simple light stitch in high hopes. Yet as she flicks the switch the lights above her flicker for a scant moment before dying out like candles in the wind.

“The lights must have gone out, either they blew a fuse or the lights themselves were destroyed in the scuffle.” Twilight looks around as she finally manages to find the doors that lead further into the building. “That could be a problem for later, if there are no lights around us we’ll have to rely upon our horns for illumination.”

“Whatever, you said that Shining Armor is on the second floor of this place right?” Trixie remarks, completely dismissive of Twilight’s concerns “Let’s just drop these guys off with the captain and take a nice long nap. A good pampering is just what Trixie needs after all her hard work.”

Twilight rolls her eyes as the unicorn’s self-centered attitude but she suppresses a hearty yawn. Even the normally practical mare admits to herself that the ability to take a good night’s sleep sounds absolutely divine.

“Well I can tell you one thing for sure; this building definitely needs a new coat of paint after all of this. Hello Shining! We’re back!” Twilight states as she throws open the main doors of the police station entering the completely dark and gloomy first floor. Despite the darkness before them and the almost absence of light the illumination from the horns of the two mares is just powerful enough the reveal the outline of several prone bodies and dark blotches on the floor and walls; The dank coppery smell immediately informing the two mares that the dark blotches are in fact blood.

Twilight gulps as she diminishes the light from her horn not wanting to see any more than she has to of the remains of the battle before her. “Oh right, this building was home to a gruesome battle. Well let’s get a move on, we certainly don’t want to be here all day.”

“Trixie agrees with Twilight.” Trixie takes a deep breath as both mares step cautiously into the room. “I knew that there was conflict here, I… Trixie just did not imagine how brutal it was.”

“I’d skip over this if I could Trixie.” Twilight states “But if Shining’s barrier is still in place trying to jump into the second floor would have caused the entire teleport to backfire. Just keep your head down and try to block out the smell.”

However blocking out one’s senses is easy compared to blocking out the horrific images that try to force their way into the ponies’ minds. Images of death and battle, of blood and terror, these are the things that they cannot suppress or drown out, even as they try so hard to ignore the lives lost to the two stallions that they are now in the process of handing over to face a long and lengthy trial. Yet onwards they trod, every second in that room seaming like a year as they trip over various personal effects and grope about blindly searching for a path to take. Finding a relatively clean part of the floor in the center of the room Twilight looks around as she tries to recall where the stairs to the second floor were on such a building.

Propping the heavy and prone form of Caramel against a nearby table next to her Twilight does her best to ignore the gristly surroundings as she once again cries out for her brother. “Shining where are you? In case you can’t tell the hordes of zombies have been put to rest. We’ve got the guys responsible for this catastrophe and we need stand collars to put on them.”

Taking a cue from Twilight Trixie plops the unicorn Noteworthy on a nearby desk as she takes stock of the dark around her, thankful that their horn lights can only show them a fraction of the carnage around them. As the blue showmare lights her horn cautiously in the dark interior of the room around them she grows more cautious for every second that Twilight’s words go unanswered. “Trixie has a bad feeling about this. And this place is giving her the creeps.”

“Oh hush Trixie.” Twilight says condescendingly “We’re on the first floor, they had to barricade it off when the zombies attacked remember. Of course it would look a little creepy. My brother and the rest of the squad are probably still barricaded on the second floor.”

Clink.

“EEEEEEIIIIIII” Trixie shrilly screams as she grasps the purple mare next to her. “whatwasthatwasitanotherzombiedon’tletiteatmybrains!!!” Trixie screams out in a panic as her ears swivel around on her head listening for any more signs of the enemy.

Twilight blushes heavily as she struggles to push the showmare off of her body “Trixie! Let go! I know that this isn’t the nicest of places but there’s no reason to freak out like that!”

Trixie gulps heavily “But that sound was…..”

“…..Was my hoof knocking a glass bottle, Trixie.” Twilight confirms “There’s nothing to be afraid of here.”

“Oh right…. Trixie knew that she was just testing you!” Trixie blurts out embarrassed that she just showed her eternal rival a very fearful and not very powerful side of herself.

Ignoring Trixie’s normal shenanigans, Twilight glances around the room, thankful that in the dark she can’t make out the faces and gruesome injuries doubtless sustained by the soldiers and undead alike. “But you are right about one thing, this place is giving me the creeps. Lets’ grab our prisoners and get to the second floor already.”

Eager to save face Trixie eagerly takes Twilight’s advice. Exhibiting unnatural calm The Great and Powerful Trixie takes a few gracious and calming breaths as the turns around to retrieve their prisoners when she sees something that really scares her. “Um Twilight?” Trixie asks tensely.

Twilight groans “Yes Trixie what is it now?”

“What did you do with that earth pony?”

“You mean Caramel, I put him down right over….” Twilight points her hoof at shear nothingness, the spot that she had placed Caramel on a moment before completely vacant. “This is bad.”

Drip

Expressing her frustration with a few extra decibels Trixie snaps at the Purple bookworm. “You lost him!? He was right there and you let him get away!”

Drip

“Well excuse me Trixie, I thought that you were doing your job and watching them like a stand agent is supposed to!”

Drip

“Don’t heap the blame on Trixie, he was your prisoner! You know what his stand can do right, and you are the one that let him get away! Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Drip

“T-Trixie is that blood?” Twilight asks, a shiver passing through her body as she points to Trixie’s back.

Distracted by the librarian’s statement Trixie turns around to see that her pristine cape tarnished by several large drops of blood staining her cape crimson in several places. “Urgh and Trixie just cleaned this from undead slime.” Trixie grimaces as she once again applies her magic towards cleaning the bright red drops from her precious cape.

As Trixie applies a basic cleaning spell to her coat, the scientist in Twilight though repulsed by the fact of dripping blood, drives her to move closer to get a better look at the drops of red still staining Trixie’s cape. “It’s blood alright, and from its thickness, consistency and uniform position of the drops it looks to be fresh.”

Trixie rolls her eyes both from the inconvenience of cleaning her cape again and Twilight’s inane questions. “Well in case little miss bookworm couldn’t tell, this is a battlefield, of course there’s going to be blood.” Trixie’s eyes take on an unreadable expression as she finishes cleaning her precious cape. “It’s probably from somepony that I know, so I would prefer if you didn’t draw too much attention to it.”

“Y-Yes I understand that Trixie, but WHY is it fresh?” Twilight’s hooves shake as the hairs on her neck begin to stand on end. “Like I said they boarded off this part of the building hours ago….. so where did the fresh blood come from?”

Drip

“ARRRRGGGGHHHH!” Trixie explodes as another drop of blood falls on her cape from above. “That’s just great! Trixie demands to know where that infernal dripping is coming……”

Trixie and Twilight look up at the same time and both of them freeze in their tracks, as they find out where the source of fresh blood was coming from. Caramel was their donor, and from the way he has been pinned to the ceiling with various sharpened knives with a single jagged slash across his throat it is painfully evident that he is very very dead.  However the most horrifying aspect of Carmel’s appearance is his wide open and terror filled eyes, his overall visage conveying the fact that he died begging for mercy from whatever it was that killed him. The two mares look up at the bloody corpse above them and their hearts stop their breath grows shallow, as they nearly die from the sudden shock. The specter of death hangs over them and both mares now know one irrefutable truth….

“We’re not alone here Trixie.” Twilight says in a deathly quiet whisper, logic taking over so that her fear cannot. Blinking almost mechanically the mare immediately tries to drive the image of the flayed stallion from her mind even as her eyes continue to stare vacantly at his broken form.

Trixie doesn’t respond at all her entire body torn between dry heaving at the gruesome scene before her and fleeing in terror. “I-I didn’t hear anything….” Trixie finally manages to say after a while. “….How… how could a pony…..” Trixie suppresses a surge of bile from her stomach. “…how could anypony do that… without us noticing? It’s impossible.”

Twilight looks around her as her adrenaline begins to flow through her body. “Trixie! Where’s Noteworthy?”

Trixie swivels her head around finding no pony to greet her. Both relieved that whatever it was didn’t get her and horrified that something that brutal got close enough to her to snatch her target from behind her back Trixie flails around her head jerking every which way as she looks for signs of her foe. But the first sign of their captured foe comes not from their obfuscated sense of sight, but their ever keen sense of hearing, as the snide voice of the blue unicorn, Noteworthy echoes through the darkness.

“B-B-B-B-Boss!” The voice of Noteworthy Stutters, his previously confident voice conveys the level of fear he is currently feeling. “I-I-I Did as you commanded! I distracted the entire town, your ruse worked to perfection!”

“SILENCE!” The dark voice booms as even the two mares shudder echoing off the wall in a way that makes it sound like the terrible voice is closing in on them from all sides. “You have failed me Noteworthy, I placed you in change of this mission rather than Carmel who was the head of our prostitution ring. Do you know why?”

With their sense amplified by their fear the two mares can hear in the dark as the fearless unicorn Noteworthy shakes his head erratically. “It is because…” The dark voice continues “…I related to your mission of purifying the world and believed your resolve carry out your mission would give you victory.”

“B-B-But Boss I did exactly as you asked!” Noteworthy’s cries out with a desperate plea. “And if I must say so myself, it is thanks to my efforts that…...”

“I SAID SILENCE!” The voice booms even louder, the very darkness around the two mares seeming to dance like waves on a stormy sea from the sound of the voice. “You have lead my target here and for that I give you praise. But you have allowed yourself to be captured by the enemy, which means that you could have let slip elements of my plan, or movements of our gang.”

The mares can hear once against as the previously fearless unicorn gulps heavily in the dark as he vaguely suspects how horribly he has upset the demon in the dark. “Do you know why Melodia is so successful?” The dark voice asks. “Don’t answer; it is because few ponies if any know the full extent of my organization, it is our secrecy that leads to our success. Those that know anything of value are either my allies, or they are dead.”

“Now then.” The temperature drops ten degrees around them as the dark voice takes on a tone that is colder than the arctic wastes. “Why don’t you take a guess and tell me which one you are.”

“I’m going to die….” Noteworthy asks with a tome of what the two mares can barely comprehend; with a clear voice Noteworthy responds with a tone of hopefulness. “Are…. Are you really going to kill me? After so long I will finally know a merciful and quick death? Will I be saved from the impurity of this world?”

The dark voice chuckles along with noteworthy. “You have been awaiting this moment for years haven’t you? Since I respected you I shall not lie. Yes Noteworthy, I am going to kill you. However….” The voice, like a serpent playing with its meal suddenly turns dark and cold. “…. I never said that it would ‘quick’ or ‘merciful’. I might have been able to forgive your eccentrics but you know the rules of my gang and you know the rules of my stand!”

A loud snap fills the air followed by a blood curling scream as the voice booms out over the violence “ALL WHO BETRAY MY SECRETS MUST DIE!”

The sounds of a pony dying are not something that should or that can be expressed in words. The snapping of bones, the gurgle of fresh blood and the last strained breaths as a pony struggles against pain for the right to live another second more, is not something that ponies should want to hear. And needless to say the tortured screams of a pony, even an enemy serve as a potent form or psychological torture for any that may hear it. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie are no exception as she huddle together shaking in fear from the evil voice that is capable of inflicting so much pain, dreading the moment that the screams die and the voice turns its attention towards them. The screams grow louder; Trixie herself stands prone in the middle of the room trying to suppress the fear rapidly gaining control of her body. Twilight clutches her eyes yelling at the top of her lungs as she tries half successfully to drown out the screams echoing around her.

As the sound of the zebra’s screams finally die down, the room reverts back to the silent state it was before as the two ponies look around at the darkness around them. Their hormones and adrenaline racing as their instincts are stuck between two simple but impossible difficult choices. Two choices that will decide whether they live or die: to fight against the darkness, or to flee.

Drip

“We need to leave.” Twilight concludes without a second’s hesitation “NOW!”

The doors to the entrance slam shut with the resounding crash of a thunderbolt just as the mares turn to flee in that direction. The two mares have just enough time to gasp as the sound to be mirrored by the sound of every door out of the room they are in being slammed shut by an invisible force.

“Teleport NOW!” Twilight yells out as bath mares frantically ignite their horns as they prepare to teleport. However much to the two mare’s panic their horns fizzle out as their spells fade into nothing their magic fading harmlessly into the void without ever achieving their purpose.

“Why isn’t it working?!” Trixie shouts as her attempts to escape fizzle out “Come on work work work!”

“It’s no use Trixie!” Twilight shouts out as her horn glows with a dark red light “I don’t know what but there’s some strange spatial magic blocking us! Whoever is behind this they must be an extremely skilled magical practitioner or a stand user.” Twilight looks around fully expecting a cliché villain to pop out from the dark to monologue about his plan. “it’s probably both.”

“Well Well Well.” The dark voice chuckles “For once the slave of Celestia is wrong. You see as a prison in Equestria the runes around the building allow entry through subspace only when entering the building.”

Like a mountain lion toying with its prey, the dark presence circles around the two mares more than happy to forestall the inevitable bloodshed with empty banter. “As you know Teleportation uses the astral plane to sidestep physical matter and space allowing the travel of great distances in the blink of an eye. I won’t bore a foolish mare like you with the details, but the magic was designed that prisoners could be teleported in but prisoners couldn’t teleport out.”

The hairs on the coats of the two mares stand on end as they can practically feel the presence of the voice. Every syllable seems to strike their coats malevolently, probing their  bodies, revealing every weakness and dark fear.  “If you wanted to say, escape by teleporting, you would have to find a way of traveling through space other than the aether, like how that orange Pegasus turned himself into lightning and teleported himself along a fixed path.”

The voice laughs in the darkness as the two mares huddle together in an effort to appear brave. “Though you were right about one thing filly, I am an extremely skilled magical practitioner, as well as a peerless stand user.”

A sudden line by the voice gains Twilight’s immediate attention as she circles around to the direction the voice is coming from. “You know about Flash’s power? How long have you been watching us? Noteworthy called you ‘boss’, who are you? Is my Brother safe?! I swear if you have done anything to hurt him……”

“That is indeed a great many questions, Twilight.” the voice remarks “however I think that you only want the answer to one of them. “

“…..The necro…… Noteworthy  called you boss, and you mentioned the Gang Melodia.” With deep panting breaths Twilight forms her resolve as she tries to drive away her rising terror at being forced to commune with the voice in the darkness. “So who are you?”

The entire room grows silent as the two mares wait on baited breath for a response, for anything other than the all-consuming silence that could signal their demise. Twilight is about to repeat her question when the entire room is filled with dark and nefarious laughter so loud the wind itself blows their manes. “A most excellent Question, Twilight! Normally I would be sworn to kill any pony that knows anything about my gang.”

With wide eyes the two mares look directly in front of them as the darkness begins to congeal in front of them, a dark and nefarious figure pulling itself out of the shadows and into the light of their horns. “But for such a special filly as Trixie, and her…. Companion I will answer that particular question.”

Coming to a stop directly in front of them is a stallion of great height and charisma, his dark grey coat and sleek black mane styled to perfection, matching perfectly with his steam pressed black and white striped pinstripe suit. His wedding white tie contrasting sharply with his black undershirt, serves to draw the eyes of the two mares who could not believe such a pure shade of white could be worn by a stallion whose heart is so dark. His horn if such a sharp jagged protrusion could be called that looks almost crystalline as if somepony shoved a piece of glowing Red stone into his skull. However the most stunning and mesmerizing part of the stallion is not his garb, his coat, or his blood red cutie mark of a cluster of dark red crystals, but his eyes. His glowing green eyes surging with dark magic seem to stare through everything their evil gaze corrupting everything they set their vision on.

“My name is Sombra Leader of the criminal enterprise Melodia. And the reason I have told you this is simple. Any pony that knows my identity or my stand is either my ally or they are dead.” Grinning with razor sharp teeth the stallion licks his lips with a forked tongue as he stares at the mares before him. “Now then Twilight Sparkle, here is the real question, which one are you?”

Taking full advantage of the initiative of surprise Twilight lets loose a powerful burst of concentrated light energy directly towards the stallion. The beam of purple light dances haphazardly through the air as it soars like a thunderbolt towards Sombra’s skull. Yet at the last moment, an even more horrifying figure than Sombra Materializes behind him. The dark stand covered from hoof to head in ragged bandages and rusty iron nails razes its red crystal claws, and with one swing of its hoof parries the beam with its hoof causing the bolt of magic to explode with deafening force.

Even Twilight cannot help but lose her focus as her mind tries to comprehend the tortured stand before her. Part of Twilight wonders to herself what trauma such a pony would have to go through to obtain a psyche as twisted as the stand before her, while the more logical part wonders how it will kill her. Trixie for her part stares vacantly at the stand in front of her eyes her hooves shaking in their spot, while her teeth create a vice grip in her mouth.

Rubbing his smoking injured hoof Sombra groans as he clearly expresses his frustration with the mare before him as he clenches his teeth in pain. “Clearly manners were not something that Fraud Celestia was able to teach you. In case you didn’t know it is bad manners to try and kill a pony when they are talking to you. In any other circumstance I would have already…….”

“It’s you……”

The two ponies’ heads turn towards Trixie the sudden coldness of her words instantly gaining their attention. Her gaze though obscured by her wide brim hat, is leveled straight at the stallion. “Ah my dear Trixie Lulamoon.” Sombra remarks good naturedly. “Don’t you worry I will be with you in a second. Right after I have…..”

“Why?”

“Humh?” The stallion looks inquisitively towards the shaking blue showmare “Forgive me my dear but I fail to understand what you are asking, why what?”

“WHY DID YOU KILL MY PARENTS!?!” Putting all her power and anger behind a single blow Trixie leaps forward her stand’s hoof flashing as she throws perhaps the most powerful Cross in her life. Sombra, shocked by the mare’s sudden attack and the rage behind it barely has enough time to raise his stand’s crystalline guard as Trixie’s Magic Mare hits him full force. The room shudders from the shockwave of the blow as Sombra is sent skidding across the ground his stand’s guard shattered by Trixie’s act of retribution. As he comes to a stop the stallion glares back the blood dripping down his forehead an indication of how close the mare in front of him came to flattening him with a single punch.

“Trixie is sorry but correct her if she is wrong.” The Mare throws of the hat allowing her to stare straight into Sombra’s eyes. “You, the pony in front of me with the bandaged stand, said that any pony that knew your secrets was either dead or your ally.”

Sombra grimaces as the wound on his forehead patches itself up automatically “I fail to see how…”

“If so then that is a very fortunate prophecy, Sombra.” Trixie grows as she throws off her cape to the side “because since you know the secret of why you killed my parents I’m going to KILL YOU!”

Once again the mare leaps forward with a powerful shoulder blow, a blow that Sombra Barely dodges as he leaps dramatically into the air. Unwilling to let her hated enemy elude her for a second the blue showmare bombards the stallion’s form in midair with a merciless barrage of punches.

DOJA DOJA DOJA DOJA DOJA DOJA!!!

Guarding against the mare’s sudden blows the stallion rebounds off the mare’s attack, landing on a nearby table with a graceful backflip that one would not expect of a stallion of his girth. Brushing off his coat with his left hoof the stallion turns back towards the mare with a mildly perturbed look “Trixie, if you wished to prove your skills than you have succeeded. However this match is irrelevant. Now I don’t know why it is that you wish my demise but I can assure you….”

“YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER!?!” With her horn blazing Trixie fires off a powerful burst of fire where Sombra was standing not a moment before. As the temperatures scotch torch floor Trixie allows a second to feel proud of herself for vanquishing her enemy, only for her ears to perk at the sound of perplexed humming. The mare cranes her neck behind her to see in shock that the stallion that she thought that she had incinerated is sitting idly on top of a table his hoof rubbing his chin as if he was deciphering a difficult riddle.

“…..Ah you are recalling THAT night!” the dark stallion muses as he once again leaps onto the floor, his stand stands at ready to intercept any attack made. “Yes…… I see how you might hold a grudge against me for such an act. Murder is typically frowned upon in civilized society, typically if it is one’s caregivers. But to say that was a malicious act might be going a little too far, after all their deaths were not my intention either.”

The hairs on Trixie’s neck bristle in anger as she stomps her fore hoof into the ground “Don’t you DARE play coy you ….”

“Come to your senses FOOL!” Sombra roars with such force that even Trixie recoils a bit from the force of his words. Clearing his throat from the loud bellowing, the stallion’s chastising voice reverberates off the walls of the room, each echo restating the same point the stallion is trying with all of his might to convey. “Yes I am responsible for the deaths of those two ponies, however you have allowed your rage and anger to blind you to the truth! Such a small crime makes no difference in the greater scheme of things. A single life, a single drop of blood in the bucket amounts to nothing at all. It is the effect on the world that can be achieved by using such a life that matters! After all, had you known what your caregivers were really doing, than you would have thanked me for killing them!”

With a scream Trixie leaps forward with her stand punching all the while. Putting her stand’s power for illusions into effect as the mare seems to vanish in a second only for her blows to appear from out of nowhere. Yet despite her complete and unpredictable attacks, Sombra’s’ guard absorbs her blows with minimal damage as his hoof work allows him to circle around the mare’s attacks.

“DO YOU NOT KNOW?! Do you not know of the crimes committed by that fraud, by Celestia?! The disasters she has begot from that cursed womb of hers; the destruction she has wrought with the Corpse’s powers?!” His stand’s arms shot out in an instant as both stands engage in hoof to hoof in a flurry of blows. The barrages carries on as both side pours their all into overpowering the other with raw numbers. Yet in the end Sombra’s well-placed attacks win out as his accurate blows deflect Trixie’s attack allowing him a clear uppercut to the show mare’s gut. The blow causes the mare’s knees to shiver and buckle, her breath stuck in her throat as she tries to regain her footing, only for her to be knocked to her rump by straight across to her face.

“You know the extent of Celestia’s crimes, and you call me a murderer? If I am truly guilty of such a crime than Celestia is guilty of Genocide!”

“Trixie!” her sudden fears forgotten, Twilight sparkle, who had been sitting on the sidelines rushes over to the injured mare. Thinking on her hooves the mare erects a powerful barrier over the two of them, its luminous light cutting through the black of the room. Her defenses sound and secure, only then does Twilight divert attention away from the stallion as she looks over the injured showmare for signs of serious injuries. “Don’t move Trixie. You’ve fought well but it’s clear that you’re outmatched in terms of strength and skill, we both are.”

“Not only that…” Looking over towards the stallion through the transparent dome of lightest purple the mare takes in the dark radiance emanating from the stallion’s body. “Did you see his left hoof? I’m ninety two percent sure that my magic missile took a chunk off of it, but now there’s not even a scratch on it! I never even saw him cast his healing spell! And to top it off we still don’t even know what his stand power is, nor the extent of his magical powers!”

“Heh… so what….” With enormous willpower the showmare Trixie straightens her back as she pushes against the ground like a weary boxer. “So what… if he can heal himself…. Trixie will just have to…. Beat him down until he stays dead….”

“That’s not the point Trixie and you know it!!” Twilight shouts over the mare as grasps Trixie’s injured torso in an attempts to help her up. “We’re hopelessly outmatched here. Now I’m worried about my brother and the others solders too, but we need to regroup and get the rest of the crusaders so that we can….”

However Twilight’s firm grasp on the showmare is brushed away as Trixie laughs in her face. “Feh…. I should have suspected it….. you said that you were my ally my friend…. But here you are willing to abandon everything that I’ve struggled for because you’re scared.”

“T….Trixie….” Twilight bites down on her teeth, suppressing her rising anxiousness as the show mare’s comment rings true in her heart. “Okay, yes I’m afraid Trixie, but that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t beat Sombra now! We’re tired and we don’t know our enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, and to top it off we’re separated from our friends. We need to get out of here so that we can live to fight another day!”

“….Your bucked up logic may make sense in whatever little world you live in Twibright.” Trixie states with a measure of utmost certainty as she rises to her hooves. “But all Trixie hears are excuses. Sometimes in life you only get one chance to achieve your dream, one chance to be a winner. It may not be the best chance but you have to take it because if you don’t, you will regret it forever.”

Trixie’s eyes blaze with an inner fire her years of repressed hatred and rage bottled up for so long finally having an outlet upon which she can pour it all out on. Staring down the stallion before her the mare takes a step towards Sombra as she clenches her teeth. “And if I know anything Twibright, it’s that regret eats your soul from the inside out. So if Trixie is supposed to choose between death and regret, than Trixie chooses death. Bucking Tartarus if I’m going to run away with my tail between my legs and let some sociopath get away with murder!”

 Pounding her hoof against the purple barrier the Trixie turns back towards the purple mare with such suddenness that Twilight backpedals in fear. “If you were really my friend you’d be helping me kill this monster with everything you had!! But look at you. You’re a coward looking around for the easiest way out!”

“T-Trixie….. Are you stupid!? You’re stubbornness is going to get us all killed!”

“Fine then if Twibright wants to play coward then she can do so, But Trixie is no coward and she’s not about to let some dark loving freak get away with killing Trixie’s parents!!” Before Twilight can even respond the showmare flattens the mare with a single blow from the back of her hoof.  Clutching her injured horn Twilight clenches her teeth as the sudden interruption of her concentration causes her spell to fail and the barrier around them to fade away, leaving nothing between the two mares and Sombra himself.

With Twilight’s barrier having crumbled around her, Trixie manifests her stand in full as she attacks the stallion’s weaving body with a fast volley of punches. “You’re mine Sombra!!” Trixie shouts out as her missed punches shatter the desks and tables littering the room.

With deft and experienced movements the stallion manages to evade the mare’s blows and parry her attacks. Yet even his stand seems to be unable to keep up with the mare’s ferocious attacks as the occasional punch breaks through his guard. “So you’ve chosen to fight me Trixie, why?” The stallion dodges another of Trixie’s blow by a fraction of a hair as it scrapes across his chest. “True you have been wronged Trixie, but it has not been by me. Why do you still stand by the fraud Celestia after all she has done!? Do you not know the disasters she has wrought, the orphans she has created?”

“Shut up!” Trixie yells as she hits the stallion had on with another punch. Her body getting used to the stallions pattern of dodging the mare inwardly grins as she once again manages to slip in between the stallion’s guard inflicting a powerful body blow that lifts Sombra half a hoof off the ground. “Trixie does not care about your messed up social life or your grievances with Celestia’s use of the corpse. There is enough of that going around to frustrate even Trixie. All Trixie cares about now is bringing down a murderer, and that just so happens to be you!”

“I was not just talking about the Corpse, Trixie.” The stallion growls with such hatred that even the resolute showmare feels his limitless rage. Grabbing the showmare across the forearm the stallion applies his own body’s physical force as he throws the showmare to the ground. “I was talking about the RSG, the experiments and the actions of the ones closest to you; the ones that re-wove the threads of our destinies and played with our lives as if we were their toys!!!”

The hairs on the stallion’s neck bristle in rage as he expresses his resentment with the power of his booming voice “AND IT’S ALL HER FAULT!! THAT ARROGANT EVIL SUN GODDESS!! HER FAILURES, HER ARROGANCE THAT HAS LEAD TO THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD!! SHE WILL PAY FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO ME, TO US, TO HER!!!”

Calming down visibly, the stallion re-focuses his intent, the fires of his anger cool as his dark green eyes open, his gaze once again leveled on the showmare, rising once again to her hooves. “But I have a plan Trixie!” The stallion extends his hoof towards the showmare. “A plan to make everything right again! A plan to give not just you but all Ponykind the lives that they deserve! And for that, all I need is the corpse, and I’ve already obtained more than half of it from that guard captain!”

Twilight’s ears perk up at this. In the mind-numbing terror inflicted on her by the stallion before her she had nearly forgotten about the current whereabouts of her brother. “Shining?! What have you done with him you monster?!”

Speaking over the voice of the purple unicorn Sombra reaches the Crescendo of his speech with a flurry of fanaticism. “…..JOIN ME TRIXIE! Join me in the creation of a new world, and you will receive everything that you could possibly desire!! It is predestined!”

However in response to the stallion’s emphatic pleas and arguments the showmare only smirks. “That’s funny, Sombra, because there is only one thing that the Great and Powerful Trixie desires in the all of the world.” Her horn glowing as bright as the light of a distant star the mare locks eyes with the stallion making the full breadth of her hatred known. “And that is your DEATH!”

To the stallion’s great surprise the floor underneath him seems to close in around him, dark black walls surrounding him from all directions. Before the stallion can run or turn he finds his body encased in all manner of magical chains and padlocks manipulated by the show mare’s magical powers. Grinning in satisfaction the mare closes up the walls around the stallion of darkness forming an airtight black box surrounded with layer upon layers of protection spells that could prevent any method of escape, magical or physical.

“HA you thought that the Great and Powerful Trixie was unprepared?!” the showmare flaunts in her victory “FOOL Trixie has been planning this day her entire life! She was already leading you to with her great and powerful attacks so that you would be standing right where Trixie wanted you!”

With a satisfied smile and a racing pulse the showmare materializes several dozen of her sharpest most deadly swords as they sound the box currently encased in her magical field. “Now take this! Trixie’s first and Greatest Trick….”

“Trixie!” Twilight yells out “STOP!!”

“MAGICAL CUTTING BOXES!!!” With all the speed and precision a magi’s honed telekinesis could allow, Trixie swings her horn sending the steel bolts speeding towards the box with near supersonic speeds. In half an instant the swords crash into the box with deafening force Impaling the enclosed box from every single direction

The room grows silent as the swords impaled into the box reverberate from the force of the impact coursing through their frames. Breathing heavily Trixie pants as her levitation around the box falters and finally fails as the box comes crashing down to the floor with a resounding crash. Trixie recovering quickly from the sudden exertion stares at the box lying lengthwise on the floor as her keen eyes catch sight of small drops of blood dripping from the tips of the edged weapons.

Trixie stares at the droplets of watching the grisly scene with a dumbfounded expression as if unable to comprehend how it could be over so quickly. Half of her couldn’t believe that it was over, that the pony that tormented her for her entire life was dead; however the larger part of her was so elated she couldn’t have cared either way. Her slight curve of the muzzle, slowly transforms into a smile. Her smiles give way to nervous chuckling, and finally all her repressed anxiousness all her fears and pain over her entire life time cumulates in uproarious laughter. “H-H-H-Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!” The showmare extends her hooves to the heavens in relief. “How did you like that!? The great and powerful Trixie’s best performance to date! Surely a heart stopping performance, but then again was there ever any doubt?”

Trotting over towards the box the mare grins like a maniac as she fiddles with the lid with her hooves. “And Twilight doubted my skills! Now then, Sombra, do you have anything to say for…..”

The lid of the box lands on the floor with a resounding crash as the silence from before once again fills the room. Trixie’s mouth quivers and her knees threaten to buckle as she stares vacantly with deadened eyes at the inside of the box. Like a demented birthday present, or stepping on a landmine the shock of the sight before the mare, Trixie Lulamoon stops her heart and freezes her blood.

“T-Trixie…. PFHT!” Twilight cries silently as she coughs up her insides over the bottom of the box, blood from the multitude of sword wounds pooling around her critically injured form. “I-I…. Told your….. BLACK..…and-your stupid stubbornness was going…. Going to get us killed……”

Looking down at the scene before her the light blue showmare can only stare vacantly at the image of her dying friend as her mind futilely struggles to process what she has just seen. “T-T-T-Twi…… Twi……. How did you…. Why did you……. Twilight……”

“… well… that’s a first…..” Twilight smiles macabrely to herself. “For once you don’t have anything to say…. Trixie…..”

“TTTTTTTTTTTTWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!”

Her voice reaching the heavens themselves All of Trixie’s inner turmoil, her angst, her pain returns with tenfold force as the impact of what she has done shakes her more than any physical blow ever could. In front of her very eyes, against her most powerful attack her dreaded enemy had not only escaped but made her attack her ally, her rival, her friend. And now she was lying an inch from death’s door….. and it was all her fault. As the magically conjured swords vanish back into the aether, Trixie realizes with a pained admission that she has truly become a failure. Her plans of revenge have fallen on her face, her decisions have led her to a life of loneliness and isolation, and now more terrifyingly it looked like she would be joining her parents in the afterlife.

“Well Well Well!” Sombra grins like the Cheshire cat as he trots out of the darkness. “And I thought that you cared for the mare Twilight sparkle. Well I suppose that it is inevitable that lovers should quarrel every now and again.” Sombra chuckles. “Though I can hardly believe that you hated her enough to kill her.”

“YOU!” Her rage rekindled the mare spins around to attack to kill, to make the bloody stallion pay for every misdeed he has ever done. However before she can even attack she finds her throat grasped and her body shoved into a wall behind her with an echoing crash.

“Enough playing around, It is over Trixie Lulamoon.” The stallion clenches tighter around the mare’s throat with his stand, causing the mare pressed against the wall to visibly gasp for air. “And…. Given your…… situation…. I highly recommend that you give my offer to join me another thought.”

As the stallion tightens his grip around Trixie’s neck the showmare presses against Sombra’s superior strength, her hatred for the stallion returning with full force. “You expect me….” The mare seethes with rage as she looks down at the bleeding form of Twilight sparkle. “You expect me to join you? After everything you’ve done?! Are you insane? Don’t answer that…. I don’t care what your sick plan is I will NEVER serve you Sombra.”

“Ah but you underestimate how special my offer is. Have you forgotten that I can save your little friend?” Without giving the mare a chance to respond the stallion extends his other hoof and with sharpened teeth bites down with incredible force, a dark red substance forcing itself out of his veins. Trixie shocked by the stallion’s sudden self-mutilation tries to shy away only to find her face forced towards his injured hoof.

“Shhhhhhh!” Sombra shushes the mare as he extends his bloodied hoof. “Watch.”

Her eyes forced on Sombra’s hoof Trixie is forced to watch the scene before her. At first the mare fails to notice anything of any significance however after a single second of staring Trixie watches something that truly chills her bones. The gaping wound on Sombra’s hoof, slowly stitches itself together as the blood dripping out of the wound is drawn together as if by an unseen force. As the wound disappears into nothing the remainder of the blood on his hoof finds itself molded shaped by the dark black glow of the stallion’s horn as the blood is collected and gathered up; its’ substance distilled to the point that it becomes a solid blood red stone that glows as his magic flows through it.

“You see this substance flowing through my very veins is not pure blood. Coursing through my veins is the vital life force of the Red Stone which gives me unparalleled strength and regenerative abilities.” Sombra chuckles “And all it took was injecting Crystallized Red Stones into my bone marrow.”

Trixie gasps at the stallion’s profession as he continues. “I was……. a soldier in Celestia’s army when I was…. Recommended for this treatment. It was exceedingly painful at first but after screaming for a full week you get used to the incredible upsurge of vital energy constantly tearing your body apart.” Clenching his sharp teeth with such force that his grinding causes audible pops in the air, Sombra clenched teeth transform into a demented grin. “And it’s all thanks to Celestia.”

His rage towards the Goddess now reaching its fever pitch the Stallion continues to rant on as his anger causes him to press Trixie Lulamoon further and further into the wall. “Celestia was a fool, in more ways than one! She failed to notice the failure in the Corpse, she failed to notice how our gang was growing in power! She is so blind that she does not even see her age is over when it is as plain as her precious son.” The stallion barks “Even now she fails to notice the presence of the Traitor, but I suppose that you would know about that now wouldn’t you, Trixie?!”

Manifesting his stand the stallion glances over towards the form of the prone and bleeding librarian lying in the box like a corpse in a coffin. Without any respect or concern the stallion picks the mare out of the box with his stand only to drop her unceremoniously on the floor. As the mare’s prone form writhes in pain from her wounds as Sombra looks down on the injured mare with complete apathy.

Sombra instantly takes stock of the physical condition of Twilight as he grunts in disgust. “Humph her wounds were not as severe as I thought. Perhaps the great Trixie was holding back, or perhaps she was already healing the wounds even as she was being pierced?” Sombra raises his hoof as his stand’s sharpened needles protruding from its body catch the glint of his green eyes. “I’ll have to do something about that now won’t I?”

With a single precise swing of his hoof the sharpened crystal nails of his stand cut clean through the mare’s wrist, the spurt of blood signaling the direness of her situation. Without wasting a second Trixie tries to free herself, to rush over towards the profusely bleeding mare only to find herself pushed back into the wall. The showmare struggles to escape from Sombra’s grasp as the stallion presents the red stone made of his own blood to the desperate mare.

“One minute” Sombra states as he presents the red stone made from his blood to the showmare. “I shall give you one minute to make your decision! As you can see I’ve cut her wrist down to the vein. Therefore If you fail to accept my offer in and give this her this Red Stone within a minute she will lose consciousness and die!”

With wide beady eyes the mare looks between her tormenter, the stallion that she would trade her very life to kill, and the mare bleeding to death on the ground beneath her. On one hoof, vengeance, if she attacked while Sombra was distracted by his vile game she might be able to win, but then Twilight……

Could she save Twilight in time if she focused on Sombra? Should she save her? Twilight was…. Special no doubt…. But she was a fighter she voluntarily put her life on the line. It wouldn’t be Trixie’s fault if she had to defeat Sombra by sacrificing her life. Bringing down the head of Melodia was a calling greater than one mare’s life! It could save countless other lives! It could end organized crime in Equestria! It would elevate Trixie to the highest ranks of society and make her the most recognized mare in the country!

And most importantly, It would allow her parents to rest in peace….. and it would finally allow Trixie to once and for all bury her cursed and checkered past. It would give Trixie everything that she ever wanted…..

…..So why did it feel so wrong to Trixie?

‘A single life, a single drop of blood in the bucket amounts to nothing at all. It is the effect on the world that can be achieved by using such a life that matters!’

“……. Well Trixie?” Sombra grins evilly as he looks over upon the bleeding purple mare “you have a big decision to make…….and not much time to make it in. So then how will the Great and powerful Trixie reach her decision?”

…………………

Pant…. Pant…… pant……. Pant……..

“…I need…… more speed….. “ Pant “….If I am to get….” Paint “… just a bit……” Pant “…..of help…..”

The sound of hooves galloping through the night resounds off the dusty roads of Ponyville as a figure races through the late night early morning air. Everywhere that one can look signs of restoration can be seen: fires being put out, doors being put back on their hinges, family hugging and thanking the gods that they are all together and healthy despite the tragedy they have endured. And every which way members of the royal guard and medical personnel and honest hardworking citizens are helping those in need, of safety, first aid and warm food.

However these mean nothing to the Zebra Zecora, she barely pays notice to the few royal guards and doctors aiding the currently injured and comforting the few weeping ponies in their grief. Her need is far more urgent, and requires the aid of the best of the best, and so she runs as fast as she can while she searches for the only ponies who can help her.

It is just as the out of breath Zebra looks to have given up on hope that she spies a large gathering of very specific ponies gathered together near the great stone fountain in the center to town. Though the damage to the fountain is indicative of the harsh night the town has barely endured, the fiery spirits of the two ponies near it fill Zecora’s heart with a combination of relief and annoyance as she trots over towards the group.

“There…. Pant…. They are….pant….. see that wasn’t……. pant….. very far……”

Gathered near the center of town a temporary command post adorned with the crest of the Royal guard, a group of very special and specific ponies stands about as they do their best to alleviate the situation around them.

Handing out crates of warm baked goods as well as much needed courage are the twin bakers of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Having wasted no time and displaying their generosity, the two mares had managed to bake a small assortment of cakes and warm hot chocolate to the ponies of the town free of charge, assuring them that the situation was well in hoof.

Rarity spent her time more practically using her magic to repair and ‘spruce up’ the exteriors of the buildings in the town square that had been attacked. With a few scraps of metal, half a torn dress and a rock she had already managed to repair much of a nearby building’s structural weaknesses with a fashionista flair that one would expect from such a mare.

Fluttershy had taken it upon herself to watch over the children of the town who had perhaps been scarred for life by the horror of what they just witnessed. Yet just the presence of the butter yellow Pegasus was enough to drive off the fowl’s fears and promise them their nightmares were over.

Standing apart basking in the adoration of the praises of the other fowls were none other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Together they has spent every second since the disaster ended regaling the other fowls on their ‘kill counts’ and the many numerous methods they had used to put the walking dead to rest. If one were more skeptical one might be inclined to not believe them, if not for the giant pile of burning corpses off in the distance. When Carmel’s curse had ended the adults who had been bitten had collaborated the youngster’s stories telling in horror the many ways in which the three youngsters had brought an army of the undead to heal with no more than a scooter, a chandelier, three bags of marbles, a tiara, a six very long sticks, a wagon and a three boxes of Sweetie Belle’s home cooked meals. All in all the three fillies (Plus Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon) had managed to kill thirty eight zombies and incapacitate nineteen infected ponies, and most of them were by accident.  After all who would expect a filly’s cooking to be so bad that it could literally kill zombies and cause an infective stand to foam at the mouth?

The nineteen ponies that had survived ten of them had been convinced that the three fillies were the spawn of Discord himself and resolved to move as far away from the three as the town limits would allow. The other nine had to have their stomachs pumped.

And Rainbow Dash…… Rainbow Dash was doing what she did best…….

Yelling.

“That’s a load of Horse Apples!” The rainbow mare shouted as she slammed her hoof into the table where Lightning Dust was sitting. “We got them all, didn’t we? These ponies have had enough scares for one night, we don’t suddenly need to force them into some smelly building cause you have ‘a feeling’.”

Clearing her throat the acting commander of her unit of the royal guards tries her best to keep her temper from rising despite her opponent’s antagonistic behavior. “And I say that safety takes priority over how these ponies feel. If there’s another stand user in the town, which there most likely is, then these ponies are in even more danger standing out here in the open. The town hall and the surrounding buildings are all stone walled and capable of housing the ponies of this town in one place so that we can protect them.”

Panting with all her might the Zecora finally manages to crawl her way up to the table holding on to the sides for support as she struggles for words. “…. Pant…. Everypony….. pant… I need ….. pant….. your…. Pant……”

“That or it could just make it a bigger target if there is another bad guy waiting around!” The rainbow mare crosses her hooves while hovering in midair. “Which there’s not. And if any evil villain had the guts to show up in the open, I’d knock them down in ten seconds flat!”

“….. is that your catchphrase or something? ‘Ten seconds Flat?’ cause if it is you definitely need a new one.”

“…..pant…… please…… pant…. Listen…..”

“That’s not funny! And my catchphrases are totally awesome!”

Lightning groans. “…. Seriously, if you were under my command I’d give you an order to think up some new material.”

“Come on Lightning Crud! Think of the fowls! We don’t need to scare the little guys any more than they have been!” Rainbow Dash gestures over towards the fillies playing under Fluttershy’s guidance. “Not that I was scared but these little guys just lived through a freaking ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! They’re probably all scarred for life!”

…………..

“…..So then after we nailed their hooves to the ground with Sweetie’s nail gun, we took out a chainsaw and tore through them like they did in the movie ‘Rise of the Dead’! There was like blood and guts everywhere, even in our manes! That’s how bloody it was!”

“COOL!”

“Totally awesome!”

“I wish my mom had bought me a chainsaw!”

Ever since they whole disaster ended Scootaloo had been ‘enlightening’ the other school fowls with her awesomeness, telling them all about how she, Scootaloo the Zombie slayer (and co.)  had killed over a hundred Zombies. The tales she wove were as biased towards her as they were ridiculously impossible and self-contradictory. However being prepubescent fowls who lived on action movies and comic books, convincing him that an untrained thirteen year old could kill over a hundred zombies with her bare hooves was easy as telling them that babies were dropped off by a large bird.

Well it was easy to fool almost all of them. “Um Scootaloo.” Sweetie belle asks with such shyness that even Fluttershy would be proud “it may just be me. But I don’t remember any of that happening!” The white filly cocks her head to the side “Are you SURE all of that stuff happened?” Sweetie belle gasps “You aren’t LYING now are you?”

Before the audience can even respond the orange filly thinks on her hooves as she grabs the white filly. “Just a second everypony! Need to straighten out our stories.” Grabbing Sweetie by the arm the desperate orange Pegasus pulls the white filly out of earshot of the others.

“S-Scootaloo…. You’re lying!” Sweetie states sorrowfully. “How could you! We all barely survived because we all worked together and you’re making it sound like a game!” Sweetie brushes her mane off to the side with dramatic flair “Besides I killed most of the Zombies with my ‘Wilber’s Surprise’! So if there is any pony that deserves all the credit it’s me!”

“Don’t blow this for me Sweetie!” Scootaloo pleads between clenched teeth. “This could be our only chance to be as popular as Rainbow Dash is! And by Celestia as my witness I’m going to squeeze every second of popularity out of this that I possibly can!” Turning back towards the group the orange filly straightens her expression as her young overactive mind generates more disturbing images of shear awesomeness.

“Now where was I…..” Scootaloo taps her chin as if she was some war hero trying to remember her long lost glory days. “Oh yeah! Then the boss showed up! He was as big mound of putrid undead flesh the size of a house! So I tied a rope around my waist and jumped into its mouth, from there it was easy to swim through its putrid flesh until I found it’s heart! Then I just pulled out my Gas can and lit it on fire! Then all Applebloom had to do was pull me out and we just watched as he burned to death from the inside out.”

“THAT’S THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!!”

“You are so cool Scootaloo!”

“You’re way better than Diamond Tiara ever was!”

And speaking of Diamond Tiara, the drama Queen herself was not in the best of moods. Sitting with her hooves crossed on a nearby bench the filly was currently giving the yellow filly sitting right beside her the biggest upset pout in her little filly life. Her trademark crown, the symbol of her pride and dignity was currently being bent back into shape by the yellow filly beside her. With all the skill of a drunken surgeon Applebloom was currently using her strong teeth in an attempt to bend the dented charred head ornament back into place. Needless to say Diamond Tiara was noticeably upset.

“Look ah said that ah was sorry! But yawl know that we needed to spark the gas leak with some kind of metal!” Applebloom grunts as she tries to pull the dented body of the crown back into position. “And it just so happened that yer crown was made of…. Well some kind of metal.”

“….It’s made out of platinum, which is why I’m surprised that you managed to dent it.” Diamond Tiara pouts “then again I suppose you three blank flanks are experts at destroying priceless, irreplaceable objects now aren’t you!”

“………Is this about yer house?”

Diamond Tiara face hooves “Oh no Applebloom I’m not upset at all, I mean deciding to BLOW UP MY HOUSE was a perfectly sane and rational decision!” using her years of dramatic acting the pink filly attempts a very lady like swoon by laying down on the cold metal bench. “It was all done towards a great cause after all. How would I ever live with myself if Scootaloo beat your kill count and managed to kill more Zombies than you?”

Applebloom nods “Good! Ah glad that you think that too, aint no way ah was gonna give Scoots the gold! Even though it was Sweetie who beat us……” Applebloom looks back at Diamond whose eye is twitching erratically as she stares at her. “you sure you aint mad Diamond?”

“…….Nooooooooooooo! Of course I’m not mad Applebloom I’m just darn peachy that you destroyed my house on a whim!”

“……. Really? Well that’s mighty mature of you Diamond!”

Diamond raises her hooves in exasperation “Of course I’m mad at you! You blew up my house! You’re just lucky that you destroyed Daddy’s bottle cap collection and not any of my stuff otherwise I would have never forgiven you!”

Her attention currently redirected by the filly’s comment Applebloom looks over at the lounging pink filly. “Hey if it weren’t fer me comin ta save you yawl would be worm food! In anything you owe ME!” Applebloom smiles evilly. “Unless yawl fergot what kind of condition ya were in, as well as what ya did when ah saved yer hide!”

“I-I-I was hysterical! I wasn’t thinking straight, it’s not my fault you surprised me like that!” Diamond protests. “Besides I would have been completely fine! You said yourself that I’m not a princess, so I didn’t need you to come rescue me!”  Harnessing her year of maturity of experience and maturity offer the yellow filly Diamond Tiara responds in the way she always does.

That being Diamond Tiara turned to stick out her tongue at the yellow filly beside her. Applebloom stubborn as ever, and unwilling to give any ground, throws out a raspberry right back. And with that the fourth annual face making contest began between the two fillies, an event which of course went completely ignored by the adults and their more important conversations.

………………

“…..The kids look fine from where I’m standing.” Lightning coughs into her hoof. “But more importantly than how they feel we should insure that these ponies are safe. And if that means corralling them into a building than that’s what we are GOING to do, whether you like it or not.”

“Oh big surprise!” Dash shouts with feigned surprise. “The royal guard is here to make us common ponies follow your rules! You know I thought after cutting Twilight some slack that you guys were okay, but big surprise here you are trying to make everypony do what YOU think is best!”

At this the commander barely suppresses her rage, as she barely manages to keep a civil tone through clenched teeth. “I am TRYING to do what’s best for everypony. If you weren’t so stuck up you’d see that these ponies safety is more important than how they feel for a while!”

“And I SAY!” Dash slams her hoof into the table “That their freedom and how they feel IS important! We don’t need to round them up and stuff them in crates to protect them!”

“Their safety is too important to jeopardize!”

“Their freedoms are too important to jeopardize!”

“Safety!”

“Freedom!”

 “…… air………” The Zebra pants out as she collapses on the table in exasperation.

The disturbance of the table causes the two mares to finally notice that they currently have another interloper to their conversation. An exhausted interloper dressed in a sweaty black suit but an interloper not the less. Her decorum taking over, Lightning dust quickly gives a salute as the turns to face the Zebra. “…Secretary Zecora? When did you get here?”

“UUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” Zecora screams.

“Wait, who?” Dash cocks her head

“She’s just Celestia’s secretary. She has the leader of the land’s ear but she doesn’t have any real command.” Lighting Dust Clears her throat as she prepares to resume the argument. “Now as I was saying Dash, Guard Captain Shining Armor placed me in charge of the safety of these ponies. As long as Shining Armor is holding down the fort over by the police station I’m in charge!”

“….commander Lightning Dust…..pant..… I really need to tell you…… pant….…that…. pant…..”

“Well then let her get your Boss over here and maybe he’ll tell you what a jerk you’re being!”

“Well that’s the first good idea that you’ve had all day, Rainbow Crash. Somepony definitely needs to straighten you out.” With all the decorum and command that the uniform allows Lightning turns to face the Zebra. “Zecora go fetch shining Armor and tell him we need….”

“HELP!!”

Just as it looks as though somepony is finally going to pay attention to the Zebra mare all eyes turn away as they lock on to the voice of a desperate sounding mare off in the distance. Trotting towards them, displaying an obvious amount of pain stands a mint green unicorn mare, her coat matted with red and upon her back a light tan pony with a candy colored mane rests gently as a droplets of blood fall from her hoof.

“Is… is that Lyra? And that sweet maker Bon Bon’s on her back…..” Fluttershy asks as she trots up to Dash, leaving the children unattended. “Oh my goodness she’s hurt!”

Those five words are all it takes, within seconds Zecora is completely forgotten again as an entire group of ponies rushes over to help the injured mare. Within seconds Lyra finds herself propped up by the strong supportive hooves of Lightning dust and Rainbow dash as she and her injured sister are taken over towards a nearby hospital bed. With all the care the two pegasi can muster the two mares find themselves picked up and placed on two clean cots as doctors and various medical personal surround them. As healing spells are cast and bandages placed around their injured limbs Lyra’s friends and acquaintances can only look on as two more casualties are added to the list of tonight’s damages done.

“Lyra, how did….” Applejack mouths as she looks upon the injured form of the green mare, measuring her shallow breaths as the mare struggles for air. To see the previously energetic and optimistic mare brought so low is hard to accept for a mare like Applejack. Yet her own curiosity and concern presses her to ask the hard question that is currently on everypony's mind. “Lyra… what happened ta you, and to Bon Bon? Ah mean yawl are a good fighter. So how the heck did you get so beat up?”

“Applejack!” Fluttershy states with an indignant outburst “These two need rest! I’m sorry but you’ll have to hold off your questions until……”

Applejack nearly jumps out of her skin as she feels a strong hoof grasp her arm, yelping with such shock that every pony stops talking. Wheezing from the strain, the mint maned unicorn grasps Applejack’s arm tighter as if afraid that if she let go she would be unable to finish. “It was…. It was another stand user….he was…. Dark… and strong…. Didn’t stand…. A chance……” a single tear streams down her face as she notices the tan coat of the mare beside her is matted with blood. “…. I couldn’t protect her….. I couldn’t protect Bonnie…. I failed her…..”

“L-Lyra…” Applejack clenches the hoof of the mare tightly.

“C-Couldn’t stop him….” Lyra admits shamefully as she breathes out in exhaustion, the dried blood matting her coat mashes with the dirt on her coat discolorating her light green pelt. “….F-Forget me…. Just tired….. P-Please…. .. Bonnie… is Bonnie…… is she……”

“Lyra….” Fluttershy sniffles along with everypony within earshot, their hearts stuck by Lyra’s plight. “It’s all right, you don’t have to say any more. You're safe now, and your sister’s safe too there’s no need to….”

“Let her finish Fluttershy.” Lightning dust says calmly and sternly. Trotting up to the mint green unicorn the solder gets to her knees and places a gentle hoof around the Lyra’s hoof, caressing it reassuringly as she looks straight into her eyes. “Don’t worry citizen, your wounds and that of your filly friend are severe, but not life threatening. Given time both of you will pull through.”

The mint green mare for the first time since she arrived cracks a subtle smile, perhaps at Lightning’s inference towards her ‘Filly Friend’. “However at this moment anything you can tell us about your attacker is vital.” Lightning states sternly but fairly. “Do you know what he was after? What was his stand power? Do you know what his name was? Or what kind of pony he was? These are the things that could help us save lives, so tell us all that you can.”

Lyra breathes in. then she breathes out, letting her sorrow escape into the air around her. Suddenly the crushed mare from before raises her body shakily as she puts all her strength towards sitting up. Despite the gestures of the medical personnel around her Lyra Heartstrings manages to rise up to the other ponies eye levels, her gaze focused and filled with resolve. “…Dark grey stallion…. Red curved horn that looked like a knife…. And his eyes… they were the worst part. They glowed green and had dark purple vapors, they weren’t the eyes of a pony.”

“And his cutie mark?”

“…Couldn’t see, it was too dark. I didn’t’ even see his stand either, he just vanished from sight before I could even land a punch.” Lyra’s eyes suddenly gain focus as she remembers a crucial sentence she had heard from just before she faded out of consciousness. “He said…. He said that he was after the miracle stones….”

“The what?” Lightning asks with genuine surprise.

“Um… I think she means the Corpse pieces….”

“Yeah, those stones that grant miracles. That guy he was after them, he said that he was going to ‘gather them up’ and ‘finish’ any pony that would get in his way.” Lyra exclaims as she looks over other sister hanging on to life in the bed next to her. “I’ve faced a lot of nasty guys ever since I got my stand… but this guy….. he’s a whole other league. He’s not misunderstood or ambitious, he’s just plain evil, and he’s stronger than I can believe. And right now he’s bent on getting every miracle stone that he can get his grubby little hooves on.”

The unicorn shivers as her body breaks out into a cold sweat “And worst of all….. I don’t’ see how we could stop him….”

“The pieces of the corpse?!” Lightning muses as a doctor bandages the two mares’ wounds. “Then this attack was just a distraction. And if the enemy is after the corpse then that means that Shining Armor…….”

“THE POLICE STATION IS UNDER ATTACK, BY A STAND USER!” Zecora blurts out with about as much tact as a stick of dynamite.

The entire group grows silent; the mares barely blink, as only the sound of the Zebra’s panting is heard over the silence. Then as suddenly as it descended the silence is blown away by loud words filled with hysteria.

“What? The police station is under attack? Why didn’t you say so sooner Zecora!” Lightning dust leaps to her wings “Shining Armor needs our help now!”

“Lightning Crud is right!” Dash states “You should have said that sooner! Twilight and Trixie are on their way there right now!”

“Twi’s in danger?!” Applejack asks with deep concern “That’s real important stuff Zeboria! Why didn’t yawl tell us sooner!”

The Zebra however only looks at the ponies around her with one of Twilight’s patented ‘are you kidding me’ faces. Her simple gaze expressing more hatred than a fowl who just found out that their elder sibling ate the last cookie. “…..pant….. pant…… hate you all …… pant… hate you all so much…….”

“Well whatever are we standing around here for girls?” Rarity asks with exasperation as she trots over to the road leading out of the town square. “If Twilight gets even a scratch on her coat I’ll never forgive myself!”

No more words are needed, no more pep talks or Pinkie themed jokes are permitted. Together all five of twilight’s closest friends and acquaintances put all their energy and focus towards getting to the police station at top speed. Their hooves blur, their wings flap and their breaths grow heavy as their bodies try to keep up with their racing minds, each one of them trying to suppress the images in their mind of what this mystery stallion did to Bon Bon and Lyra as they try not to imagine what gruesome fate is awaiting their friend.

…………..

Twilight lies crumpled on the floor a single sword covered in her blood, her prone form and stained pelt a sign of the serious blood loss she is currently suffering from. Pinned against the wall Trixie remains trapped, forced between choosing to serve the man who killed her parents to save a friend, or achieve her revenge and reap all the rewards that come with it. And of course watching the blood leaking out of the purple mare like it were some form of demented pastime is the villain himself, the leader of the gang that had just finished sacking the town, the dreaded boss of Melodia, Sombra.

“Well Trixie? Time is wasting; if you had some plan to save your friend now would be a good time to implement it.” Sombra smiles darkly as he looks over towards the ever paler Twilight sparkle. “Unless you were considering my gracious offer?”

A dark shudder passes through Trixie’s frame as she is forced to look deep into the luminous green eyes of the murderous stallion before her. ‘Well this is it, back against the wall, no chance of escape, and no desire to either. In front of me, the serial killer that I have been chasing for years, the very stallion that murdered my parents.’ Trixie narrows her gaze ‘and he has just made the fatal mistake of letting his guard down.’

Glaring at the grinning stallion before her the mare clenches her jaw as a rudimentary plan forms in her mind. ‘Alright Trixie, here is the plan, distract him with your words, make him believe that you’re going along with his insane plan. Then cut off his head with the garrote wire you have in your mane with your third trick: magic Rope trap! It’ll be instantaneous, and even with his ability to regenerate it will be impossible for him to survive.’

Her mind made up the mare takes one last glance down at the purple mare behind Sombra, her every breath growing weaker by the second. ‘Twilight…. I’m sorry but it was your own fault for being caught. I wasn’t responsible, it was something Sombra did! And I can’t’ pass up this chance to see justice be done, I’m not letting this psycho get away on my watch!’

“Well Trixie?” Sombra asks.

‘Alright Trixie!’ the showmare psyches herself up ‘it’s ShowTime! Carefully now, lure the stallion in with soft and difficult to hear words so that he’s right up next to you!’

With perfect acting skills the showmare subtly opens her mouth as she prepares to utter the words that will lure Sombra to his gruesome death. But to her surprise not words come out, as if her very body is rejecting the falseness of the words she was prepared to utter.

‘What!? What happened? Say it Trixie! Say you’d never join him, attack while he’s distracted! Do something!’

“I…… I……” the showmare stutters for perhaps the first time in her life as the tries with all her might to pronounce two simple words. The two words that will signal her counter attack, as well as the end to Twilight’s life.

‘No Way. How hard is that for you to say Trixie!? Two words, just tell this scum off and beat him down!’

“Well Trixie? Have you reached a decision? Regardless what you choose you are coming with me. And since you possess no chance of victory you might as well swear your undying loyalty to me and save yourself the heart ache.”

‘Say it Trixie! Twilight would understand! This stallion is evil, I need to kill him, he murdered my parents and will kill others if I don’t stop him right now!’

Glancing over at the lavender unicorn clutching one of the swords protruding from her body the stallion seizes the fact that the unicorn’s worsening condition to put more pressure on his captive. “Time grows short for your friend Trixie, and while I take great pleasure in seeing any pony close to the Sun Witch die I have a schedule to keep. So I would suggest that you MAKE A CHOICE.”

Trixie’s’ body shivers her entire system in revolt as her clenched hooves shiver in barely suppressed frustration and rage. “…I…. I……..”

‘SAY IT TRIXIE! SAY IT! SAY IT! SAY IT! SAY IT! SAY IT!’ The mare screams over and over in her mind, her body shakes her pupils dilate, her body sweats up a storm as she tries to put her entire being into saying two single words.

The words that will get her revenge.

The words that will make her the most respected mare in Equestria.

The words that will kill Twilight Sparkle.

“WELL TRIXIE!?” Sombra shouts over the showmare’s stuttering “What is your decision!? Time is running out for her friend so if you want to save her miserable life than I suggest that you buckle down and SAY IT!”

Trixie’s minds shatters, her body convulses, her heart skips a beat, and in a moment of utter powerlessness the mare’s arms fall to her side as all life leaves her eyes.

‘I…… I can’t say it……’

‘……good sweet Celestia I can’t say it……..

‘Dear sweet Celestia Forgive me, Forgive me mother, Forgive me father…….I just…….’

In that moment the light blue unicorns’ mask of stoic calm shatters tears course tragically down her face as she looks down at the innocent pony bleeding to death before her. ‘I just can’t say it……..’

Sombra confused at Trixie’s sudden loss of anger inches closer just as Trixie opens her mouth.“…. If… if you save Twilight… then….” The dark stallion presses closer towards Trixie, his mind and soul waiting on baited breath for the next words to come out of the show mare’s mouth. “…If you PROMISE…. You won’t hurt her…. Then I…..” The mare gulps every fiber in her being trying to reject the words she is about to say. “then I… I’ll…..”

What happened in those next two seconds was so instantaneous that even Trixie had difficulty following it. The stallion Sombra anticipating Trixie’s offer to join him had neglected to notice a simple fact about Twilight namely that the swords that Trixie had impaled her with had all disappeared when Trixie had opened the box. Thus even Trixie was surprised when the purple librarian pulled the very sword that was supposedly stuck in her body, only for the gag blade to reform in a slight glint of purple magic. Noticing the small flash Sombra had turned sharply around to witness just in time as Twilight’s glowing telekinesis shoved the glowing purple sword straight into his chest. With enough force to push clean through the stallion the sharpened blade had managed to pierce him, whether by coincidence or incredible precision, at the exact spot where the stallion’s heart would be. Understandably the surprise of being impaled and the pain of the attack itself caused the stallion to scream in pain dropping the red stone in his hoof that he had promised to Trixie. And finally Trixie herself never one to pass up an attack of opportunity, had manifested her stand and before Sombra had even hit the ground, he found his body pummeled by a barge of the showmare’ most powerful punches.

DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJA! DOJJJJAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Needless to say now no longer pressed against the wall Trixie’s punches sent Sombra spiraling through the air, his heart ruptured his body broken and beaten before he even knew what hit him.

Panting heavily, all her strength exerted in a single moment the showmare falls to her knees as her body greedily takes in the oxygen from the stale air around her. Her panting breath is the only constant in the silent darkness around her, the sound of her thudding heartbeat her only audible companion as her still reeling mind struggles to take in what just happened.

“……. Atta girl…… Trixie….” A small voice speaks out from the darkness.

“TWILIGHT!” The blue showmare rushes up to the prone form of Twilight instantly forgetting her own exhaustion. Not wasting a second, Trixie grasps the twilight mare in her hooves applying all her remaining focus and magic towards stopping Twilight’s bleeding. The showmare wastes no time at all at putting all her magical power behind her most powerful healing spell directing all its power directly into Twilight’s injuries as Twilight smiles back up at her.

“Heh we really…. We really got him good didn’t we Trixie……” Twilight grins her own blood staining her teeth a dark red “…….Just like you said….. just gotta…. Take a chance…..”

“Don’t talk Twilight.” Trixie wipes the tears from her eyes. “You…. You were great Twilight. You beat him just…. Just stay with me now. You aren’t going anywhere!” Trixie promises as her horn blazes brighter, all her magical expertise and ability channeled towards healing her friend’s injured form.

“….s-st…..”

“Twilight just calm down I’m currently doing everything that….”

“…..s-stone……”

Trixie’s’ ears perk up at this “Stone…. Sombra’s Red Stone!” The mare looks over the room as her horn’s light shines through the dark. “Red stones have immense healing properties, all I have to do in find it and….”

“And WHAT?! My Dear Trixie?” Trixie’s’ heart skips a beat, her pulse escalates, and her body tenses up as the sound of another voice echoes off the walls. It is a voice that fills the showmare with dread, it is a voice that she had never hoped to hear again, but the sound of hoof steps behind her lets the mare know that what she hears is not an illusion. Faster than she can even turn around the showmare finds herself tackled to the ground, her hooves pinned at her back and her face slammed into the ground as she is barely able to turn enough to make out her attacker.

Trixie’s frame shudders as she looks upon the figure pinning her to the ground. Standing over her like a triumphant conqueror his hoof pressing her face into the ground beneath her with the force of a steamroller, is none other than Lord Sombra. And from the look on his face she can tell not only is he alive, but he is very, very angry “N-No….” The showmare cries out as she is pressed further into the ground. “H-How can you even be alive!? Twilight, she stabbed you in the heart!”

“Tenacity my Dear Trixie.” Sombra growls “Pure rage and tenacity. After all this isn’t the first time I’ve had my heart ripped out, and if that fraud CELESTIA has her way it most certainly won’t be the last.” Sombra growls as he looks down at the lavender unicorn her raw wounds threatening to come apart under sudden shock of Sombra’s apparent return from the dead. Yet even as Trixie is being pressed into the ground her bones groaning in pain from the pressure of the stallions’ force, she still manages to pour all her available manna into healing Twilight’s wounds. “Though, to tell you the truth of all the ponies I have known, I never expected that YOU would be the one who would try to rip out my heart.”

Suddenly displaying an abnormal amount of rage the stallion pushes Trixie’s head against the ground with frightening strength. “But then you went and betrayed me! You tried to kill me! After everything I’ve done for you! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU WOULD TRY AND BETRAY ME TOO!” The stallion screams out as he hacks up another liter of glowing red blood down the side of his coat as the gaping wound in his chest slowly but carefully stitches itself together. The pain of the wound causes the bestial stallion go growl out in pain as he pushes the show mare’s face into the ground. “I thought that I could use you Trixie Lulamoon, but now I’m beginning to have my doubts. Yet I am still more merciful than that fraud. Bow down to my will and you will live.”

Responding in kind the Trixie musters up her will to resist, pushing through the pain as she spits on the stallion’s hoof. “buck off.”

The stallion pushes the mare further into the ground, causing the mare to wince in pain. “You still defy me! I could have given you everything and you threw it back in my face! Why? Why would you….” Sombra eyes widen as he turns around his vision catching sight of the blood stained purple librarian laying prone on the ground barely managing shallow breaths.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” Sombra yells at the purple unicorn as he rushes over to Twilight’s side. His own fury aroused against the barely alive mare, the stallion throws aside all pretenses of sophistication and mercy as he savagely wails on the mare with his bare hooves. Blood flies as the mare’s wounds begin to open up again from the impact of the blows, all of Trixie ‘s efforts at patching her wounds are brought to naught. Normally Twilight would resist, she would fight, but in her current state she finds herself even too weak to scream as the stallion inflict blow after blow upon her hapless form. “YOU WORTHLESS, PATHETIC, PONY! I should have known the spawn of Celestia would be a thorn in my side! A hindrance to my plans, a blasphemy against everything I have ever struggled for!”

“YOU STUPID…..”

SPHCK!

“…UGLY…..”

CRACK!

“……PIECE. OF. FLITH!”

WHUM!

“ha… ha…..ha….” Sombra straightens out his bloodied tie as he wipes the blood from his face with his snaked tongue. With eyes filled to the brim with endless malice he stares down at the mare beneath him, still clinging to life despite his savagely delivered beating. “You made a quick decision in such a weak state; therefore as an opponent I will praise you Twilight Sparkle.” Manifesting his stand the dark stallion raises his stand’s nail driven and bandaged hoof as he looks down on the shallowly breathing mare beneath him. “But your acts were completely meaningless in the end. DIE!”

His hoof raised for the finishing blow it looks as though there is nothing that can stop Twilight’s end. Her body exhausted and far too weak to even beg for mercy from the psychopathic stallion prepared to crush her head with the level of concern that one musters when stepping on an ant.

Yet even in the darkest of moments a light always finds a way to shine. “Where… what do you think you’re doing…. Sombra…..”

Looking from behind his neck at the showmare behind him the stallion manages the faintest of smiles as he watches the cocky showmare struggle to even stand. “Still you insist on saving this pathetic unicorn? I commend you for your tenacity.” Sombra laughs mockingly as he raises his hoof to inflict what will undoubtedly be the finishing blow against Twilight sparkle. “However there is nothing on this green earth that you can say that will save….”

“I know how your stand works.”

Sombra’s hoof stops in mid swing, his stand shaking from the mental turmoil his is no doubt experiencing. His eyes previously so filled with his assurance of victory, grow beady and narrow, his breath catches in his throat as his entire body breaks out in a cold sweat. Turning around the stallion locks eyes with the mare rising shakily to her hooves and in a way a millionaire might ask a dragon not to eat him, the stallion gulps and with a quivering lip asks. “…… I beg your p-pardon?”

“Your stand power.” Trixie says with every degree of confidence and as much strength as she can muster. “I know how it works.”

The stallion’s mouth gapes in disbelief as he stands paralyzed by words, however the smirk crossing the show mare’s face lets the darks stallion she isn’t even close to being done. “And didn’t you say that any pony that ‘betrayed your secrets’ must die? That is what you said right? Therefore since I know what your stand does surely you mean to kill me, Trixie Lulamoon, in cold blood just as you killed my parents.” The mare fakes a swoon. “Oh woe is me! To die in the same way as my parents, well get on with it, I Trixie Lulamoon am prepared to accept my fate!”

“I TOLD you Trixie. They DESERVED to die! The stood in the way of my ascension!” The stallion shakes his head frantically. “Wait, This doesn’t make sense…..” Sombra tugs on his mane “Is this some ruse? A trick?!” His eyes bulge “You’d never just present yourself up for me to kill offer yourself up as a sacrifice! It has to be…..”

“I’ll give you ten seconds to make your decision.” Trixie states with a tone of finality “You can either kill me for knowing your stand’s power, or you can take me with you and risk me killing you in the future, it’s your call.”

“Wait… What?!” Sombra shouts as he accidently pulls a clump of his own mane out.

“T…Trixie….” Twilight mutters “Wha…What do you think you’re doing……”

“Those ten seconds start now.’ Trixie grins as she takes a step closer towards the dark stallion. “Ten….”

Sombra stutters. “F-For once I agree with your pathetic friend! If this is some kind of joke….”

“Nine…” Trixie says as she takes another shaky step towards Sombra her body completely defenseless.

“What…. What do you think you’re trying to pull?!”

“Eight….”

“Do you honestly think I’ll fall for another one of your tricks Lulamoon?” Sombra snarls.

“Seven…..Well Sombra?”

“Trixie would never do this….” Sombra futilely assures himself. “She’d never walk straight up to a superior opponent without something up her sleeves…. It’s impossible…..”

“Six….. time’s wasting….” Trixie states mockingly.

“I get it now! You’re just an illusion!” Sombra points his hoof towards the advancing blue mare. “You’re just an illusion created by Trixie’s stand! The real Trixie would never so haphazardly approach me!”

“Five….”

“Now I get it!” Sombra’s glowing green eyes swivel about as he scans the room. “The real Trixie’s somewhere in the shadows, just waiting to attack me….. BUT IT”S NOT GOING TO WORK TRIXIE!!”

“Four…..” Trixie stops not a hoof’s length from the dark stallion in front of her.

“Ha… hA…. HA! I’ve seen through your tricks Trixie…..” Sombra gulps as the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. “…haven’t I?”

“Three….” Trixie states as her star studded stand, it’s cape waving in a nonexistent wind, manifests out of her body.

“Trixie’s stand….. that means this is the real Trixie?!” Sombra shouts out as he takes a step back. “Is she stupid?! Doesn’t she know I can kill her in an instant from this range?!”

 “Two….” Trixie cracks her neck as she releases her pent up tension her body loosening up as her muscles relax.

“Is this a suicide attack? A feint? A stall for time?! The final part of an elaborate plan she’s been setting up from the beginning to kill me?!?!” Sombra raves while fear begins to course through his body.

“One…..” Trixie’s stand winds up for a punch

“You have to kill her Sombra, you have to kill her now! But it’s Trixie, I can’t kill her. You can and you will! But she knows how our stand works, we can’t use it! Shut up and attack, DO SOMETHING!!”

“Zero.”

In half a second two extremely skilled stand users react with all the speed and responsiveness that they can muster as their stands lash out with all their power like an erupting volcano. Trixie’s Magic Mare it’s glistening star spangled hoof, shots outwards it’s most powerful, most sharp, and most deadly left cross to date, the blow slicing through the air, directly towards Sombra’s terrified mug. Sombra on the other hoof, stunned by the mare’s audacity as well as his own crippling paranoia finds himself raising his stand cowardly it’s flailing hooves forming a ramshackle guard in an attempt to ward of whatever trick or scheme the mare in front of him has hatched to kill him.

However there is no trick in Trixie’s actions. No ruses, no falsehoods or second measures in her attack. No her blow is simply what it appears to be, one straight cross from her stand, thrown with everything she has. All of her rage towards her Sombra, all her remaining energy and power, all her desire for justice and her long nights of loneliness while sitting in an orphanage are put into the is one blow. And Twilight…… her punch is thrown with the desperation of a pony who is willing to risk everything, sacrifice all to protect a pony that is truly irreplaceable to her. All these traits ephemeral and physical alike are condensed, distilled and unleashed in one simple act of physical synchronicity as every part of her very being is put behind a single blow. The result of all this energy all this pain and practice is a punch, nothing special, just one simple, basic left cross.

KA-KROOM!!

Yet, though it is just a simple punch, it is said by many great warriors that with enough force behind a leaf one can cut through a dragonhide. Meaning that depending on the resolve on one’s heart that even a simple jab can become a fatal blow. And with everything behind Trixie’s’ one punch, it is no surprise that a simple cross becomes a blow that shakes the very air as her hoof impacts the Stallion’s face with the force of a thunderclap.  The stallion’s face bends from the impact, his body breaks as the blow presses further into his face the shock wave traveling through his body shattering the floor underneath him even as he is lifted into the air. His body spasms and bends like rubber as his entire body contorts under the righteous strength of Trixie’s hoof. His bones vibrate, his eyes bleed, and even his skin ripples from the blow’s resounding impact like miniature title waves.

DDDDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Sombra’s body cartwheels through the air smashing into the wall behind him with enough force to bring down the entire wall around him in a cloud of rubble. The dust drifts in the air as The Great and Powerful Trixie pants heavily her stand receding back into her body as her exhaustion reaches her peak. Taking a knee the mare pants harder as her hooves shiver like a frightened fowl, he body has reached its limit long before and even not it is taking her every ounce of energy just to keep herself upright.

Yet once again like a bad cold, or a notice From the IRS, the rubble flies apart as a dark bandaged stand pulls it’s user from the rubble, Sombra has returned. His body is bleeding and profusely bruised from the impact, his heavy breathing an indication of even his exhaustion, yet even so the stallion still manages to look intimidating even as he struggles to know what just happened. “W-What….” The bloodied stallion hacks up another cup of red stone infused blood as his injured body somehow manages to rise to its hooves. “It was….. it was just a punch?!”

Feeling his broken and bruised skull to his side the stallion’s sudden apprehension fades away in the wake of realization. “It…. It was a bluff! You never….. you never had a plan!” Sombra’s previous fears, his paranoia and angst all vanish in all of five seconds as he releases his nervousness in a burst of uproarious laughter. “BWA HA HA Ha ha ha……. Not a bad Trixie, you actually were successful in bluffing me! The head of Melodia of all ponies, with nothing more than a simple lie…. I should have known that you would never be able to decipher the mystery behind my stand. Ha ha ha ha ha ha…….”

Suddenly the room grows as deathly cold as Sombra’s voice. “However your pathetic ruse has failed, and with it your chances of victory have just reached absolute zero. In short you lose Trixie Lulamoon.”

Yet even in the wake of absolute defeat the showmare can’t help but smile. “No Sombra, Trixie did have a plan, one that you were actually able to guess.” Trixie stands over Twilights’ form her senses primed and ready to defend against any surprise attack the stallion may throw. “Trixie wasn’t trying to take you by surprise or make a foolhardy attack; Trixie simply put all her confidence and her strength into their best and fondest ability, her bluffing. You see Trixie knew that she couldn’t’ defeat you alone.…”

In a sudden Explosion of sound the door behind explodes a large colorful group of pastel ponies bursts into the room, their faces locked in a deathly serious expression as they survey the room around them and the carnage contained within.

Her face a mask or resolution and focus, Applejack tilts her hat fastening it firmly on her head as her stand manifests out of her body. Foundation smashes its wood covered hooves together with the force of a bomb blast as its’ flowing green leaf mane flutters in the eather.

Dash, being as quick as she is, lands with a loud crash, positioning herself on the front, ready to defend her friends behind her with body and soul. Her hooves, glowing with the golden aura of her Valkyrie drive off the dark around her as she stares down the dark abomination threatening to harm her friends.

Even Fluttershy, thought to be the weakest in her group can’t help but make a stand after seeing the condition of her two best friends fighting with everything they have. Standing like a vanguard in front of the injured Twilight and the exhausted Trixie, her dark formless eyes signify the power of her Stare ready to crush the wills of any who could hurt her friends.

Rarity her discerning eye having noticed her lavender friend even in the dark, suppressed her shock at seeing her friend Twilight in such a condition as she rushed over towards her injured friend. Her stand Quicksilver moving itself with expert precision only a seamstress could muster danced like starlight as Rarity worked her best towards sewing her friends wounds shut.

Pinkie’s flippant attitude had disappeared the moment that she walked through the door, her happy smile replaced by determination as her deft hooves work at patching Twilight’s wounds with bandages and gauze alike. Her stand Surprise works overtime pulling out disinfectant, Band-Aids and various medical supplies as her full attention goes towards keeping her friend breathing.

The showmare grins as a group of very familiar ponies enters the room each one of them ready for a fight at a moment’s notice. “…However Trixie never said that she was alone!”

“Trixie!” Lightning Dust shouts as she rushes up to the showmare “Are you okay? We heard that you needed….” The light green Pegasus looks over the room her eyes catching sight of a bleeding and prone mare lying off to the side”……Twilight?!”

“Reinforcements…… How troublesome.” Sombra growls as he retreats further into the darkness the entrance of the new arrivals forcing him back as he looks around for a way out.

Her plan having come together Trixie musters her rising enthusiasm as her stand manifests itself alongside the others. Her brash and confident attitude returning in full as she stands ready once again to fight. “Now if I were you…” Trixie says in a crude mimicry of the stallion before her. “I’d suggest running away, after all…. I never said that knowing your stand’s power was a bluff. And now that I know your stand’s weakness, your defeat is at hoof.”

“You LIE!” Sombra spits out with venom and ill will of a serpent.

“Then call my Bluff Sombra!” The showmare shouts as her hooves dig into the ground “Attack me, but I’ll have you know that we outnumber you seven to one, so if you’re willing to risk dying right now, then come and get some!”

Sombra smiles cruelly as he looks down on the ponies beneath him with animosity that could kill, his free hoof rubbing the still throbbing wound on his face inflicted by the offending showmare. “You think you’ve won Trixie Lulamoon?! You think you’ve duped me!? Well think again!” Sombra spits out with venom as his dark red horn glows with the aura of dark magic. “Though I will commend you for a Stellar performance, this battle was moot to begin with, for I have already achieved my objective!”

With perfect timing and no small amount of Dramatic flair the stallion reaches into the darkness underneath him and with a single tug pulls out a large object from out of thin air. Out from the shadows glistening in the dark with a powerful golden light the dark stallion holds out the crude glowing silhouette of the Corpse. Trixie and the other arrivals despite the horror of a pony like Sombra coming into possession of an object so powerful can’t help but be swayed by the object's’ inherent beauty as its light seems to mesh perfectly even with the darkness surrounding it. “This Corpse! This was my objective! And I succeeded in obtaining it! Victory, in the end belongs solely to me Sombra!”

“The corpse!” Lightning yells “Stop him! We can’t let him get away!”

Yet before the ponies can even react a gaping vortex of pure darkness emerges from around the dark stallion’s red glowing horn as he and his prize are sucked into the singularity with the force of a windstorm. Holding on to the ground for dear life the mane six are only able to shield their eyes as they watch Sombra disappear back into the darkness. Then, as suddenly as it began the vortex dies down and all that can be heard as the dark portal closes around the stallion is the soft echoing voice that seems to be amplified by the darkness itself. “Farewell Trixie Lulamoon….. and Twilight Sparkle….. we will most certainly meet again.”

Plip….

And with that Sombra vanished into thin air, the corpse was gone, and despite the overwhelming joy at just being alive, everypony knows that today’s fight for all its fanfare ended in their defeat. One would need only to look at the countless dead soldiers littered around the darkened room to know that. Despite all their best efforts in saving the town, their enemies had won, they had lost an object of limitless power to a psychopath who had nearly killed their best friend. And speaking of the unicorn in question, even now she her life was hanging by a thread.

“…he… he… he…” The purple blood stained unicorn chuckles on the ground in a feverish delusion as her eyes begin to dim. “….that’s right…. You’d…..better……. run…….” Twilight sparkle breathes out and to every pony’s shock the mare doesn’t breathe back in.  As her eyes begin to flutter closed, the last of her strength leaving her body as a large group of ponies surrounds her prone form shouting meaningless words of comfort and fear.

“Oh my gosh TWILIGHT!” Fluttershy shouts on the borderline of near hysteria.

“TWI! Stay with me Twi!” Applejack shouts as she grips the unicorn’s hoof firmly.

“Good Sweet Celestia what happened to her she looks like a pincushion!” Dash cries out

“EVERYPONY STAY BACK! SHE’S NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION!” Pinkie shouts with urgency.

“SHE’S GOING ITN SHOCK! Does anypony here have an ‘AB’ blood type!?” Rarity cries out even as she works her best at stitching her friend back together.

“How could you let this happen t……If anything happens I swear I’ll……”

“…Twilight stay with me Twilight….”

“..she’s gonna make it rig…. She al…..”

“…Rarity I need….. Bandage her…..”

“….Twili…… hear…….”

“…..Twilight…..”

“…o…that….. ge…… help……”

“…shu…..th……er…..pa….”

“…………..”

“………”

“…”

………….

Twilight……

Twilight………..

Now you really can’t expect to stay here forever now can you………

A dark figure emerges from the shadows its eyes blazing like the fires of Tartarus as it glares at a lone naked filly bound by the dark. The filly shivers at the darkness in front of her grows larger in front of her the path she was walking has been blown to smithereens the pieces of the cobblestone road hanging in midair as the darkness laughs.

You can’t die now Twilight……

The towering figure grins as it shows off it’s its’ serrated sharp teeth.

After all how could I let you die…..

The darkness licks its lips.

Before I made you taste true despair…….

The dark cloaked figure runs its forked tongue over its sharp teeth as its infinite black maw opens like the doors to hell.

AND SPEAKING OF TASTE YOU LOOK DELICIOUS ENOUGH TO EAT LITTLE FILLY!

I’LL GOBBLE YOU RIGHT UP!!!

Twilight looks up but she can’t even scream as the mouth descends over her, her limbs locked in place all the filly can do as the darkness closes its teeth around her neck is cry pathetically.  Reading herself for the end the filly flinches from her perceived death.

And then the light erupted around her. Even closing her eyes did nothing the as the light seeped through every crevice of her being cleansing her from the darkness that had threatened to consume her. Yet even as it burned her the filly did not mind, she knew that it only hurt a little and that was because the darkness was burning away from her, not because the light was trying to hurt her.

The light., the light was….. It was her mentor it was her parents, her brother her friends. It was formless but at the same time it was everypony she had ever met or known all rolled into one.

And the light was talking to her.

You have come already endured much on your travels, little one.

But a greater journey is yet to come.

But if you are to determine a new path you must endure, and more importantly you must….

WAKE UP!

…………..

“GASP!”

As suddenly as pulling one’s self from a nightmare, Twilight woke up with a start, her entire body rising like a coiled spring. And an instant later the wracking pains covering her body make her instantly regret her decision.

“urgh…..” The mare falls over clenching her sides. “That definitely hurt.” Twilight lays back on the bed as her frantically pacing mind looks at the room around her. The room is Spartan to say the least, yet the presence of an iv drip sticking out of her arm and the bandages covering many of the empty beds let her know that she is in a temporary hospital of some kind. . Yet despite the room’s identity as a hospital there appear to be only three mares in the room including her.

‘Okay, so it’s’ a private hospital’ Twilight thinks ‘given how badly I’m banged up I can’t say I’m surprised that I have my own room but who are….’

Twilight’s analytical mind quickly identifies the first of the ponies, a light green pegisi mare sleeping against the door standing up, as Lightning dust. Sleeping against the door was standard guard procedure in protecting important clientele, as it would allow a soldier to rest while protecting a vital entrance, it’s something only Lightning would do. And second a unicorn mare sleeping face first on her bed. The blue unicorns’ scraggly light blue mane, her lopsided magician’s hat, and her wrinkled cape letting Twilight know without a doubt who the slowly awaking mare on her bed is.

The light blue unicorn slowly rubs her eyes, Twilight’s sudden movements and outburst having awoken her. Rubbing her eyes with her hooves the light blue unicorn looks on the mare before her with a stunned look as joy begins to fill her face. “…..she’s awake….” Her voice chirps in barely constrained disbelief.

Shaking her head free from the cobwebs of sleep, the mare that sits in front of Twilight looks like she hadn’t gotten a moment’s rest in days. “Hey Lightning!” Trixie calls out to the light green mare sleeping against a wall. “She’s awake! Twibigh…. I mean Twilight is awake! And you said that she’d be out for twelve hours at least! You should have known better than try to compete with Trixie’s skill at approximating time a pony will sleep!”

“…Uh.. what?” The groggy mare rubs her eyes as she looks over to bed where the purple unicorn is lying. Instantly the mare’s groggy sleepy eyed stare is replaced with a broad and genuine smile. “Twilight good ta see ya!” The green mare yawns “I knew that of all ponies that you’d pull through, you gave us a bit of a scare, but I knew that you were too tough to go out like a loser!”

Once again in the company of friends the mare tries to make out a smile and a pleasant greeting. However the soreness of her body instantly turns her cheery morning disposition into, well……… “ARRRGGGHHHH……….” Twilight groans as she rubs her horn, her entire body sore and protesting. “How long have I been out? And somepony get me a cup of coffee!”

“Not long!” Lightning chirps “You’ve only been out for about six and a half hours so it’s still morning by military time.” Lightning smiles even more. “And no you can’t have any coffee while you’re recovering, doctor’s orders!”

“UUUURRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH….” Twilight groans as she rubs her aching forehead with more force as she contemplates the reality of a morning without her liquid energy.

“What was that Twilight? My ‘Zombie’ may be a little rusty but I though you just said ‘that’ll be fine Lightning, I’ll respect the doctor’s orders! You’re so cool!’ or maybe you were just groaning for brains, I can never really tell!” Lightning snickers as she laughs along with her own joke.

“…….Curse you morning people….” Twilight mutters under her breath “curses on all of you and your cheery dispositions too….”

“What was that Miss Twilight?” Trixie asks smugly.

“Nothing!” The librarian blurts out.

“Nothing hunh?!” Lightning says with a cock eyed stare “Cause from what I heard I sounded like you were cursing me Twilight Sparkle!”

“Cut Twilight some slack Lightning!” Trixie states as she pats the grumpy librarian on the head. “Besides while you were evacuating the town she and her other friends were fighting off an entire horde of Zombies, if anypony has the right to be a little grumpy it’s her!”

“Really?” Lightning asks “And why are you so defensive of Little Miss Twilight today Trixie?”

“N…No reason!” Trixie blurts out as a slight blush crosses her face. “Shut up! Trixie is just… making sure her fri… her compatriots get their rest! Goodness knows that they all need it after the fight they just went through.”

“My friends!” Twilight asks with the utmost urgency “My friends are they…”

“They’re fine Twilight.” Trixie states reassuringly. “They were pretty worried when your heart stopped and they refused to leave your side for a moment. But once you were stabilized, Trixie was able to convince them with her great oration skills that there was nothing to worry about.”

“They’re in the next room resting.” Lightning gestures to the door “It’s been a long night for everypony but I practically had to force them at spear point to take a nap. You have some pretty loyal friends miss Twilight.”

Twilight nods at this, knowing that her friends would swim through lava if it meant her safety, when something of far more crucial importance catches her attention. “Wait a second! My heart…. Stopped?!” Twilight asks with equal mixtures of curiosity and horror “Then… then how am I even…..”

“The Red Stone made from Sombra’s own Blood.” Trixie comments off-hoofidly. “It took all my magic to stabilize you Twibright, but if it wasn’t for the stone he made there’s no way you’d even be alive; Let alone able to move a few hours after you were cut to ribbons.”

Twilight shudders at this, both from the fact that she was seconds away from death, but also the fact that she was saved, even indirectly, by the very villainous stallion who gave her the wounds she was sporting. The fact that she had technically drank blood only increased her level of willies from a class three (Pinkie popping out of your cereal) to a class five (Pinkie popping out of your toilet), sending even more shivers up her spine.

“You’re lucky it’s just scars Twilight Sparkle.” Lightning dust restates “You’re lucky just to be alive. There were many others who weren’t as lucky.”

Trixie’s lip quivers as she stoically removes her hat. “The doctor said that despite your healing the scars will not heal, a result of Trixie’s’ reckless attack.” Levitating over a small hoof mirror to the bed ridden mare Trixie grovels nervously “Trixie…..Trixie apologizes, if it wasn’t for her attack….. well see for yourself.”

Glancing in the mirror Twilight is undoubtedly shocked to see the figure staring back at her. Her eyes are bloodshot, her mane is a mess and there as plain on her face as her horn is a deep jagged scar running directly over her left eye. Fortunately the scar stopped just short of injuring her vital sensory organ however the scar was painfully noticeable and very long. However its’ appearance though obviously painful was complimented well by a second longer scar running crosswise to the one running down her eye. Beginning at the eyebrow and going left at an upward angle the second scar gave the first a cool symmetrical look that drew attention away from the scar itself and served to better accentuate the left side of her face, namely her cheek and horn.

“It’s…. it’s not that bad…….” Twilight remarks impartially. “It’s not good certainly, but it’s not that bad either.” Placing the mirror by the bedside Twilight turns back to Trixie. “I don’t get it, normal magic should be enough to heal most wounds so why can’t you get rid of my face scars? Not that I’m complaining or anything I’m happy to be alive and the ones on my face do look pretty cool… but they also look bad…… do you know what I mean?”

“Trixie’s swords…. Well the ones that she used were…..” Trixie shuffles her hooves “Well they were cursed…. “ At this Twilight gasps knowing the heavy regulations that the showmare just broken when she decided to curse her weapons without a licensed request. “Trixie wanted to make sure that Sombra died so….. she sort of put a hex on the blades that would impede healing. It’s a level four curse.”

Cursing weapons, it was a major crime even for a stand agent, yet she broke her code in a second when presented with the idea of brutally killing the pony responsible for her parent’s demise. Yet the showmare’ remorse strikes the librarian as truly genuine, not an act or a ruse to gain the unicorn’s favor.

Since the first time Twilight has met Trixie she can see that the unicorn sitting in front of her is truly and unmistakably sorry. “Its’ fine Trixie.” Twilight says without a second of doubt. “I can tell that you really mean it, so I don’t hold it against you.” Twilight rubs her face and the visible scar that it contains. “Or this either.”

Gently picking up the mirror for a moment the unicorn looks once again at her sole disfigurement as she contemplates her new life with a scar. “So, this is really permanent.” Twilight states sorrowfully as she rubs the mark on her face like one would a new limb, placing the mirror off to the side of her bed. “Not even Celestia can undo a level four curse completely, not without some serious somatic components. I guess that I’ll just have to grow into it.”

“Atta girl Twilight!” Lightning dust smiles as she slaps the mare’s back “Just think of it as a reminder that you’re alive.”

With a newfound scar adorning her face Twilight rolls her eyes “Gee thanks Lightning, like I want to be reminded that I almost died. Fighting a super vampire that attacked the police station my brother was barely defending against a zombie horde, that’s definitely a something that I want to remember ten years from now.” Twilight remarks as she closes her eyes ready to once again drift off into sleep.

“…..Shining!” Twilight jumps up with a wince of pain. “I just remembered, I have to make sure check up on Shiney! That idiot would probably forget his own armor if I wasn’t there to check up on him every now and again.”

Both Trixie and Lightning dust become eerily silent at Twilight’s words as they try vainly to look anywhere but Where Twilight is. “Um…..” Trixie coughs into her hoof. “It…. It’s not necessary to have to report into the captain yet.”

“Hunh? But I thought that it was regulation to report in as soon as possible.” Twilight states as she throws the covers off her legs placing her hooves carefully back on the floor. “You know what; I should probably meet up with Shining just in case, so that we’re both on the same page.”

However Twilight finds her attempts to leave her confinement suddenly stopped by a stern powerful hoof of the Royal guard. Standing over the mare like a jailor over a captive the light green Pegasus growls. “Trixie said..…” Lightning pushes the purple unicorn back into her bed. “…...You need your rest. So if I were you I’d get some. Now go to sleep.”

Twilight blinks in surprise not expecting this kind of harsh resistance. “Lightning Dust? Why are you trying to keep me here?” Twilight asks as the two mares avert their eyes once again. “I know I’m still technically a prisoner until Celestia arrives to dole out my punishment but..….”

The purple librarian suddenly gasps “Is it because they’ve already decided my punishment?!” Twilight exclaims with eyes wide. “Oh my gosh it’s about me isn’t it? Is it because I didn’t defeat the stand users sooner? Did you get in trouble for letting me out? I didn’t mean for Sombra to get away, Please don’t throw me into the dungeon!”

“Twilight…..”

“Or banish me!”

“Twilight……”

“Or throw me in a dungeon in the place you banish me to!”

“Twilight! Will you PLEASE SHUT UP?!” Lightning dust yells at the top of her lungs.

Years of condition play their part instantly as Twilight’s voice is silenced by Lightning’s snapping tone. Twilight knew when a pony was supposed to talk, and from Lightning’s tone she knew she had said something that had deeply upset her. But for the life of her, Twilight couldn’t comprehend why lightning Dust would suddenly lash out like that without reason. The mare standing before her, full of frustration and rage does not seem like the pony that she had met before. Lightning was impulsive from time to time, free to express her frustrations, loud mouthed too, But outright hostile? Twilight had never seen that side of her before.

Lightning breathes out heavily as she takes a long calming breath, her fury replaced with shame. “I-I sorry Twilight….. I was just; I’m just not in my right mind right about now.” Lightning dust lowers her head in shame as she paws the ground with her hoof, much to Twilight’s ever growing confusion.

“Twilight…. It’s…” The light green solder takes off her helm placing it by it off to the side in an act of the greatest reverence. “It’s not about you….. it…..”

The lavender mare cocks her head.

Lightning dust shudders her sweat is cold, her voice hoarse, her muzzle stained by the residue of dried tears. And with that the solder utters the four words that will change her life. “It’s about your brother……”

The response is instant, Twilight’s earthly concerns are instantly forgotten as the worst possible reality comes to mind. Lightning’s upset behavior, the avoidance, the adverse stares, it all comes together in the young mare’s mind to form a terrifying and incomprehensible conclusion. “…..no…….”

“Twilight…” Lightning Struggles with the words. “This is never easy for any pony. But you have to know….”

Reason, thrown to the wayside is instantly replaced with cold, unyielding denial. “NO!”

With all the gentleness of a minesweeper Trixie places her hoof on Twilight’s shivering shoulder. “Twilight, I knew your brother, he was a brave noble…..”

But Twilight was gone. Before Trixie had even spoken Twilight’s horn was glowing like an eldritch fire and in less than a second the other two mares were thrown against the wall with unrestrained telekinetic force. Leaping to her hooves in desperation, the scared little filly reaches the door in less than a second ripping it off its hinges.

“TWI!”

“TWILIGHT STOP!”

Twilight could vaguely recognize the voice of her friends off in the distance however she didn’t even care. Not even Celestia herself could stop her now as she barreled down the hall and up the stairs to the upper levels of the building, tearing any object misfortunate enough to get in her way into subatomic particles. Her mind was blank, her wounds were aching and ripping open at the sudden exertion of physical force, but she didn’t care. Twilight Sparkle didn’t care about anything, and nothing in the world could stop her.

Arriving at the top of the stairs her eyes barely taking gawking soldiers before her.

The bodies they were covering with Equestrian flags lying lifeless on the floor.

Only one thing mattered to Twilight Sparkle. And that was the large ordinate flag lying by the window to the room, the Equestrian Grand Aegis. Twilight knew what that flag meant, it was the one that they only used for those soldiers that had received the highest honors and epitomized the very meaning of sacrifice. It was reserved as an honor for those that gave their lives to in service to protect the lives of those that could not defend themselves.

“M-Miss Twilight! I’m sorry for your loss mam but you can’t…….”

To her credit even in her state Twilight had just enough control to avoid inflicting serious damage on the guards she had tossed across the room. After a night like she had just endured screams had barely any impact on the young mare any more. Not that anything they said could stop her. With the most steel faced expression a pony could possibly muster the mare trotted silently over towards the flag stopping only a hoof length’s away from the pristinely creased tarp. Without even pausing to breath, without any regard for anything else in the world, the mare ripped off the flag, exposing the figure under it.

“……no……..”

And then she fell to her knees.

“Twilight! She’s in here yawl!”

“Twilight Darling You gave us quite a fright! You were…… oh my goodness gracious……”

“That’s… is that really…..”

“……….”

“That guy….. his isn’t…. that pony there isn’t Twilly’s……….”

“……Twilight……. Are…. Are you okay?”

And it all came out.

“NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Throwing away all dignity, all self-imposed impressions of society, all restraint and discipline that the mare had honed over years of study in the magical arts, Twilight Sparkle fell to the floor before the only family that she had ever known.

And she wept.

She screamed.

She cursed Sombra, the world, and everything in it.

But mostly, the small little filly cried.

She cried for the loss of a pony so dear to her heart.

She cried for Shining Armor, her captain.

Her protector

Her brother.

And the little filly known as Twilight sparkle

WEPT

……………… I’m alone……….

…………………………I’m so terribly alone………………..

………………………………………is……. Is this what it feel like to die………………………

…………………………… Did Shining…………. Did he feel this way……………….

…………………Did he feel this alone when he died…………………

………………………….wait…….. is this……….. warmth…………….

………… I feel………. Warmth…………………

Where……….. where is it coming from.

Twilight opens her eyes to a display of colors, pinks, oranges, yellows, blues, whites all dance before her blurry tear filled eyes as she tries to shake free herself of the constricting force holding her.

The warm powerful force around her grows tighter.

…….what….. what’s going on………

The mare known as Twilight struggles against the constricting force.

Yet the force will not let her go, in fact it grows even tighter by the second.

……..why… why can’t you let me go………

………. Why……. Can’t I be with him again………..

The mare’s eyes finally open, the film from her eyes falls as she finally recognizes the force enveloping her entire being.

……… my….. my friends……….

Twilight’s eyes pool up as the tears that had been obscuring her sight fall down from her face dripping across the multitude of arms embracing her.

Twilight moves her eyes, turning towards the orange strong farm mare, her face soft but so unbelievably strong at the same time, her own loss giving Twilight the strength bear hers.

………..Applejack………

She turns her head to a white marshmallow fashionista, tears pooling down her face as she offers the only thing that she can, her own tears, without hesitation to alleviate her friend’s overwhelming sorrow.

…………Rarity………….

The sound of sniffling comes from a pure pink party pony her laughter replaced by crying as she feels her friends’ pain as deeply as her own. Her laughter is not forgotten only saved for the days ahead when her friend will need it the most.

……………Pinkie Pie………….

Dash stands solemnly by her side, her face stern and focused, her very demeanor conveying how absolutely she is there for her friend. Yet even with her face locked up as tight as a drum, the prismatic speedster can’t help but leak tears like a faucet.

……………..Rainbow Dash…………..

Her lip quivering, her body quaking in rage at any pony that would do this to her friend; Fluttershy the most cowardly and meek of ponies stands fearlessly by her side. Facing the enormity of Twilight’s loss embraces the mare in a deep powerful hug, assuring her without a doubt in her mind that everything will be all right.

……………Fluttershy………….

Feeling a tight grip from behind Twilight glances down at her shoulder at the light blue hoof gripping her ever so tightly. Without a thought the mare turns around to see the face of a mare obscured completely by a tall blue brimmed hat. Her eyes covered and her body distant from Twilight, from a distance one might even call such a gesture a futile and halfhearted attempt at comforting a mare. Yet even with her eyes covered Twilight can still hear the pitter patter of tears falling from her face.

The mare standing behind her is a mare who also knows the meaning of sacrifice. A mare that was willing to sacrifice everything she had ever wanted, everything she had set out to find. A mare who was willing to make a deal with the devil and sell her very soul to save the life of a pony that had given her nothing but trouble and pain her entire life.

There joining everypony else in their embrace.

The most anti-social.

The most stuck up.

The most friend-despising pony in ponyville.

Trixie Lulamoon

……………everypony……………….

…………… of course………..

……………….I’m such an idiot………….

……..I never really realized…….

……… I never truly told them……….

………why we’re friends…………

And with that In spite of her entire world collapsing around her.

In spite of Sombra’s overwhelming victory,

In spite of the loss of her brother, Shining Armor.

Twilight sparkle smiles

She smiles knowing that whatever may come her way, she has some ponies to help her hold it all together.

……………..I can’t believe I never realized the fact………

Twilight sparkle snuggles deeper into her friend’s embraces.

........ That I was Never alone……….

…….. I never was……….

……and I never will be……

And with that Twilight Sparkle fell asleep, never before feeling so safe and secure.

Chapter 19-Danger Zone-Take 1

Chapter EXTRA-Into the Dark

Chapter Extra: Into the Dark

I have been called many things in my long life.

I have been called the light of the world, the bringer of the dawn, the monarch of light, the warden of the darkness that seeps to corrupt the world.

I have been called mentor, teacher, judge, arbitrator and monarch.

And most proudly, I have been called mother.

Not simply by those that have shared my blood, by those that I have brought forth into the world, but by the lost, the destitute, and the infirm.

I have been a mother to them all. For all ponies in this majestic land of Equestria are my children, and I in turn am their mother.

And as much as they may pain me, I love them.

Despite their flaws and sins I care for them, their innocence and desire to do good winning out over temptation and sin at the most dark of times.

Ponies say that my willingness to give so much of myself to others makes me a compassionate, but I simply say to them that doing the right thing is not always easy, and it always comes with a cost but it is always worth it.

Life is not fair, nor is it easy.

I have taken on many roles in my life, all of which were necessary to preserve the fragile balance of peace in this nation and through it I have accomplished much.

But It is said that it is not one accomplishes with their life that defines them but what they are willing to sacrifice that tells their true nature.

And I have sacrificed.

I have sinned.

I have killed.

I have abused the very laws of reality to insure a prosperous future for my race at the cost of the lives of millions. I have demanded their lives a sacrifice of a brighter dawn. I have thrown innocence on the fires of progress to stoke the flames of tomorrow that even now face the threat of extinction at the hooves of a nameless force.

Some days I wonder if it is even worth it. The sacrificing, the toil, the struggle to preserve such fragile brief lives.

Yet regardless of the pain that its existence has brought others, to the tragedies it has wrought without even my knowing, I cannot stop using its power. It has brought pain, but it has brought life as well.

All I have to do is look out my window and behold a land of ponies, generations that have not just survived but thrived for a thousand years without war and pestilence and crime and pain to know that it is worth it.

All have to do is look at a child that miraculously recovers from a life threatening illness who gets to grow up with her family and friends to know that this sacrifice has meaning.

All I have to do is watch a bright caring young unicorn filly, whom I love as if she were my own flesh and blood, lose her parents to a tragedy not even I could have seen coming to know that the Holy Corpse’s power, though atrocious, is necessary so that no pony should know the pain that she had to endure.

I am not deaf to the cries of pain outside my borders.

Nor do I deafen myself to their cries.

Yet I swore a holy oath, as a monarch as a ruler, and more importantly as a mother before the holy Faust herself to protect my children no matter the cost.

Regardless of moral quagmires,

Regardless of the price.

The safety and happiness of my children takes precedence over anything and everything.

……..Or so I would like to believe.

Taking a life is never easy, and as much as I would like to dismiss away the casualties of an Equestrian Peace, I cannot.

There are nights that I spend in sleeplessness after hearing a notable disaster that ravages another land. I think to myself ‘what if those were my children?’

And now the mare that I have most wronged, that has more right to hate me than anything, my sister Luna, whom I love with all of my heart, is free once more, purified by the very evil I had unintentionally unleashed on her. Her life is only one of many destroyed by the corpse’s power.

Yet for me it rings the loudest, her very existence telling me ‘THIS, this is why you are evil! You deserve to DIE for what you have done to her!’

Every day the shadows in my heart grow as I doubt myself more and more, as I doubt what I am doing is truly the right thing. And over and over a thought echoes through my head with in the moments when I curl up into a ball in the darkness of my covers as I try to find peace in the land of dreams.

What would Twilight think?

What would my student, my child, think if she knew?

The very thought sends shivers down my spine.

Yet regardless of the doubts and the darkness before me, I know that a dawn must come. That regardless of how dark the world is, that there is light waiting to break out, to illuminate, to save.

This is my hope, my saving grace that has brought me through my darkest days of loneliness and pain over the course of one thousand years.

My name is Celestia Invicadas Solaris, the invincible ruler of the dawn, and I know that as sure as I raise the sun that a new age is beginning to dawn in Equestria…….

But what will this new age be?

And at what cost must salvation come?

Only the Gods know.

……………

Looking out from her window of her golden room on one of the darkest nights in her long memory Celestia gazes off in the far distance as she takes another sip of her cashmere tea to calm her nerves. The distance is so far that a normal pony could never see it, but to her it is as clear as crystal. And what she sees disgusts and terrifies her.

A town is burning, and she is doing nothing to stop it. She, the ruler of her country sits idly in a time of crisis as she depends on the strength and skill of others while her attentions are drawn to other matters that require her attention. Granted this time her task is probably of equal importance, confronting her wayward sister before she can fall back into the darkness, being as important to the safety of the country as the corpse.

But it is far more than that, it is a chance to make reparations, to make up for a mistake that she made a thousand years ago, one that had caused them both no small amount of heartbreak and grief. Celestia’s heart swells as she thinks of her sister, and this time getting the chance to do the right thing, to meet her not with arms and spells but words and love. ‘And this time’ the monarch swears to herself ‘I will not fail.’

The door creaks open behind her as a guard opens the door to her private chamber as if defusing a bomb. The cobalt blue earth pony stallion satisfied that he was not incinerated on sight steps carefully through the doorframe as the heavy oak door clatters behind him. However the Goddess gives him no time to make his report as she places down her cup of tea and turns to him with a question she has been holding back all night on her lips.

“Have you prepared the squad?” Celestia asks with her usual methodical tone. “Are we ready to embark to where my sister is?”

“Yes mam!” The dark blue stallion salutes “We assembled a hoof picked small squad to accompany you into the mines. They are the best of the best and will protect you from any harm you may be exposed to.”

“And the Arcanum?” Celestia raises her eyebrow skeptically “You made sure to downsize the Purifying Arcanum did you not?”

“Yes Mam!” The stallion salutes once again as he pulls out an impossibly ordinate sheet of paper from his armor along with a smaller set of instructions. “I may not know magic that well your highness but the your grand magister said that….” The stallion’s eyes squint as he tries to read the small print on the sheet of paper.

“It was difficult to find a way to downsize the size of a spell that complex but the magical academy was able to create a lesser version of the Arcanum that will work without the amplifying powers of the Red Stone of Aja. The Arcanum has been inscribed onto paper made of the world tree bark and inscribed with ancient Dragon runes to store the magics necessary to get the reaction started. However the academy is worried that the cost of attempting the spell a second time will drain you to zero and endanger your life. Therefore since the magical charge will be used the first time, I warn you that you will only get one shot so make it count and please…..” The stallion stops his eyes re-reading the same passage as a dark crimson blush passes over his face

“Well?” Celestia asks “is there anything else?”

The guard gulps nervously “…..please, for the love of Faust make sure you are pointing it in the right direction before firing the spell this time, as the hair on my flank has still not grown back yet despite my best spells and potions. With the Greatest Honor. Sunset Shimmer.”

The goddess for the first time that night relaxes at least one aspect of her plans is going smoothly. “Good, I should not like to dwell on such dark thoughts but if Nightmare Moon’s evil has indeed returned to claim hold over her, then I must attempt to purify her by my own power, no matter how dangerous it must be.”

The goddess’ head lowers as she looks at the carefully drawn Arcanum. “I know I would feel better if a pony with as much magical talent as Sunset or Twilight were accompanying me. But Sunset cannot make such a perilous journey, no doubt she would try anyways but it would be far too dangerous for her.” The goddess content with the quality of the Arcanum looks back to the guard. “Thank you Orange Scent, for bringing me good news.”

The orange maned guard nods dumbly like a puppy that has been given a treat by his master “yes Mam, I know that I may be new here, but as always I am at your command. And I know for a fact that all our troops are the most organized that they’ve ever been!” the guard remarks confidently.

Celestia nods. “That is good because now of all times is when we need organization the most.” The goddess looks out over the balcony before her as her eyes once again take stock of the situation of ponyville. “From what my eyes can tell there are many great fires raging in ponyville. There seems to be some kind of commotion that is going on, and I doubt that it’s anything good.” The Goddess turns back to the Guard “And you made sure to send an extra detachment to reinforce Captain Armor?”

The guard salutes sharply “Yes Mam! I mean Yes Princess! I mean, I made sure that we sent a contingent of one hundred of Canterlot’s finest. It was difficult putting them together given that much of the guard was scattered but they should be arriving in town by train in three hours!”

The mare turns back to the scene outside as her eyes narrow on the town. “Good, that is a long time for any normal pony to hold out. But Shining Armor epitomizes a strong defense, waiting a few hours for reinforcements will be easy for a soldier of his caliber.”

“Oh then that’s good then as long as you can see what’s going on then….” The guard stiffens for a second before beginning to stutter “W-Wait! Y-you can see the town from here!?”

Looking back in a mixture of surprise and disbelief the goddess smiles “Yes I can, after all I chose this mountain because you can see for miles after all. And though scrying might be out I still have my eyes to rely on.”

The guard stares back as the mare pears out her window his eyes widening at the incredible powers of the Goddess before him. Truly she was the monarch of the sun, perfect powerful and all-knowing in every sense of the word. “P-Princess! That’s incredible, I mean you’re incredible! Seeing that far in the dark of night! I mean you still would be incredible if you couldn’t see that far, not that it’s not that impressive to begin with! It’s just that even if……”

The goddess smirks as the new recruit fawns over her seemingly invincible superiority. ‘that and I have the ability to focus the light from the town with my stand power Walking on Sunshine. It’s like having a ten million bit telescope in your eye, but better because you don’t have to carry it around!’ the mare giggles silently as she thinks to herself, Smirking at the stallion’s flattery . True over thousands of years of life most flattery had gotten old however it still delighted her that ponies thought so highly of her. So every so often she would embellish a little here and there, her little ponies always loved to think that she was truly an invincible goddess who could do anything.

However in reality she was just a mare like any other, granted she was a thousand year old mare with the wisdom of the ages and the strengths of all three races and skill in the arcane that eclipsed any mortal pony that existed to date. But she was still a flesh and blood pony like any other and still suffered the same complications and problems that any normal pony had to deal with.

‘Speaking of which, I should really get back into shape!’ the goddess looks down at her belly as the guard continues to rant behind her on the flawless nature of her coat. ‘Luna was always the more physically minded one while I focused on magic, but she’ll be able to tell instantly that I’ve been letting myself go.’ The mare smiles as she pictures the aghast face of her sister. ‘And I already know what she’ll say….’

‘Celly! Did you indulge in your dark obsession with cakes while I happened to be away?!’

‘And I’ll say ‘No Luna of Course not! Things have just been busy in Equestria of late so I haven’t had much time for strenuous exercise.’

‘And she’ll say ‘Dost there now lie to me? See thou infernal pudge? Tis a sign of the dreaded Devil's food cake and must be expunged with studious exercise and diet!’

‘And I’ll respond ‘No not a diet!’ just like always and she’ll laugh and I’ll laugh along and everything will be the way it was…...’

A shock passes through Celestia’s system as the weight of reality weighs down on her with malice. A dark shudder passes through her very soul, her hair pausing in mid flutter as the Goddess remembers that things can never go back to the way they were before. Instantly the Goddess’s merry mood sours as the weight of reality comes crashing down on her head. ‘Who am I kidding, life isn’t so simple that we can just embrace and say ‘let’s be sisters again’. Life isn’t so merciful that such things can be forgiven. Especially since I’ve been actively using the very magic that corrupted her in the first place.’

The goddess’ sudden shift is mood does not go unnoticed her downcast expression plainly visible to even the most unobservant and untrained of ponies. Namely the solder behind her back who noticing the Monarchs’ sullen expression shuffles his hooves as he mentally debates what to do. Hesitating for the briefest of seconds the guard musters up what remains of his courage as he taps Celestia lightly on the shoulder.

“Um….. Princess? Should I stop with the praises? Am I upsetting you?” The guard asks in a vain attempt to cheer up the now depressed mare. “I-is it about Shining Armor? I know that it looks like he’s in a bit of a pinch now. Do you think he will be okay? Perhaps if you are still worried you would like to go with our vanguard to reinforce the town?”

Pulling herself out of her dark thoughts the mare looks to the town, as she imagines what she had seen so far. And from what she had seen it was not good, and true a light jump would drain her considerably it would take no more than a second to arrive in the Town of Ponyville. If she left now thousands of pony lives might be saved by her direct intervention, and the corpse would no doubt arrive safely back in Canterlot. She would also be able to no doubt clear Twilight of the crimes falsely levied against her. The mare blinks as a sudden unbidden thought enters from her subconscious why had she thought that had been a good idea in the first place to arrest her student, even in the wake of incriminating evidence? She should be flying over there now even if there were no looming disaster if just to apologize to Twilight for failing her in her darkest hour. And more importantly to explain that what she did for her country she did out of love for her ponies, and more directly her love for her student.

However the information that had been received by her precious stand agents right before they had collapsed from grave wounds had been unmistakable. They had seen her sister hiding right under her nose in the darkest depths of the crystal mines of Canterlot. More than anything she wanted to fly over there right now, not just to protect the national treasure of the Corpse from those that might use it for terrible deeds, but to save the lives of her ponies that even now battled between life and death.

But were her sister truly in the mines and if she did not act immediately chances were her sister would flee. With her hiding place discovered Luna would escape to find another and once more her sister would be lost to her. And even worse the longer that her sister dwelled in the dark places of the world alone and left to her own evil thoughts the more likely she would seek the power of the dark magics that corrupted her, and use that power to undermine her rule. And should the worst come to past Nightmare Moon would be reborn and without the power of the corpse to stop her

Once more the monarch looks over the town as she sizes up her options with centuries of experience as she instantly makes an impartial and sound decision.

“Shining Armor will be fine. He is undoubtedly the best we have to offer. He will insure that the Co…… I mean the ponies will not be harmed and he and Twilight will arrive safely back in Canterlot.” The mare turns back to face the guard diverting attention away from her many linguistic slip ups with her overwhelming natural grace. “For now subduing the threat of Nightmare moon takes precedence. She may have been purged of her evil but should it return, we would all be in grave danger.”

The Goddess looks out the window at the crescent moon in the sky her thoughts suddenly become focused on other things. ‘And more importantly I have to talk to her and apologies for everything, make her understand that what I did was for Equestria, for our ponies. I only hope that we can reach an understanding, and that she can forgive me for what I’ve done to her…..’

Turning away from the moon as she turns away from darker thoughts the Solar Princess turns back to the guard with a smile that could never reveal her guarded moods. “And I have not forgotten that Twilight is with him. She is resourceful, brave and from what I can tell from her letters she has some very capable and loyal friends of her own.”

Looking out at the small pinpricks of light in the distance the guard gulps as his mind conjures up the most horrible pictures he can imagine, the ultimate nightmare scenario unfolding in the town of Ponyville as they speak. The guard gulps as he turns back to his queen “You sure have a lot of confidence in them you highness, what if they fail? What if…..”

The guard finds his lips stopped by the soft hoof of the solar monarch, the warmth of a star flowing through the hoof and into his lips and face, the warmth instantly causing a sleepy calm to overcome the solder. “They won’t, I’m sure of it. Nothing can get past Shining’s shields and Twilight’s still only beginning to tap into her powers. If there are two ponies better suited for this quest, then I have yet to meet them even after over one thousand years of life.”

“But listen to an old mare prattle on. I’m here talking about such silly and useless things now we have a long trek ahead of us.” Celestia chuckles lightly at her own joke as the guard laughs nervously at his boss’s sense of humor.

Yet in the space of a second all trace of mirth disappears from her face her eyes shining like fire in the dark as even her mane flutters more erratically in anticipation of the task ahead. “But enough jokes, We have a task to do on which our nation depends on. We cannot fail.”

The stallion prepares to speak yet a single glance from the Goddess freezes his blood. The normally kind and approachable Princess Replaced with a flaming mare of light. Gone is Celestia the Princess, Replaced by the might and strength of Celestia the goddess of the Sun, ruler of the light and slayer of the abomination Discord. A cold sweat covers the blue coated stallion’s body as he falls to the floor in fear. Yet surprisingly the furious sun does not smite him, she does not condemn him for his weakness, but rather as the door opens behind him she sun speaks to him.

“Do not worry young one.” Celestia says with an assuring and motherly tone as she gently trots out the door. “It will all be all right.”

The door closes behind her as the enormity of the mission that she is undertaking becomes painfully evident to her. She has to confront the mare she has most wronged, a mare who has tried to kill her twice before and pray that she sees reason. And if she does not, if she drifts once more into the madness of darkness that threatens to consume her….. Celestia trots down the hall faster, her steps becoming more rapid as she reaches the doors to the deep mines in record time. Trotting up to the doors with the authority of a monarch the Goddess Glances down upon the soldiers assigned to protect her from harm. The elite soldiers donned in the solar guard armor cease their idle chit chat and salute sharply as the five soldiers prepare for the sovereign task ahead of them.

“That’s right….” Celestia says assuring more of herself than anypony else “one way or another it will all be all right.”

…………………

The mines were dark.

Not dark in the sense of the absence of light though they were most certainly dark in that sense.

No the darkness that surrounded the small group of six was more sentient, more alive than to just dismiss it as some mere aspect of the environment.

The Crystal mines, Long ago a national treasure to the ponies had been said to house an ancient temple to the ancient Goddess, the merciful mother of all ponies. The legends of this ancient temple and the vast untapped reservoirs of magical crystal had drawn countless ponies to the mines. For years the mines had been a symbol of Canterlot’s importance not only as a capital but as a producer of some of the finest gems and crystals in Equestria. However the endlessly winding paths and the magical crystals which interfered with guiding spells and compasses meant that becoming lost in the mountain was no laughing matter. And the deeper the ponies delved into the mountain the more ponies would be embraced by the darkness within it, doomed to die never seeing the sun.

All in all over one hundred and seven ponies had died in these mines before they were barred from the public on grounds of being too difficult to navigate. Then fifty from the military institute and magical academies had died before the princess had been forced to quarantine the darker parts of the mines off from ponies altogether, abandoning the ancient mining equipment and skeletal remains the only signs that ponies had even been here in the first place. And though the smaller caverns closer to the surface were still very much in use, the mines in the center of the mountain were dark and foreboding.

The mines in the heart of the mountain were stifling, Oppressive and all consuming, as though the mountain itself was a form of dark and ancient monster.

And leading the small group of elite troops through the belly of this beast her horn cutting through the darkness like a sword is the princess of the sun, the slayer of Discord, the Monarch of the dawn, none other than Princess Celestia. The five soldiers follow behind the mare with caution knowing that one misstep one false move could send them spiraling off the path they are following through the mines. Suddenly the cave opens up in front of the group as the princess expends a small amount of light ahead of her, illuminating an ancient rusted over wreck of a mining complex. Mining carts, ramshackle buildings and what looks to be yards and yards of metal tracks that lead further into the darkness of the paths coming out of the junction. Breathing a slight sigh of exhaustion the mare gives the cluttered space a once over to determine it is safe before addressing the senior most officer in their mission.

“Commander Sharp Sword.” The Goddess turns to face the senior most member of the team, a dark red unicorn stallion. “Are you sure that we’ll find our target this far down?”

“Mam, according to reports given by the half conscious stand users they had investigated the escape of several dangerous stand users from the Red Stone Group’s holding cells as well as several missing person’s reports.” The dark red unicorn looks around as light from his horn refracts off glinted steel of the mining equipment around him. “A team of stand agents traced the missing ponies’ trail through the mines where they encountered the subject. Only two of the four survived in a state in which they were able to make it back.”

The captain looks up at the monarch of the sun before him, her shining horn leading them through the darkness with the ease at which a parent might lead a child to bed in their own house “..…and the only reason that they were able to escape is due to the fact that few other than our princess even know their way through these mines, as the Nightmare couldn’t follow them. Without The princess to lead us now we would be hopelessly lost.”

“They’re lucky that they made it back at all.” A black-purple unicorn mare with a scraggly red mane looks upon the darkness before her with her one good eye not obscured by an eyepatch. “To survive a fight with a goddess is no easy feat, and we’re headed for such a fight.”

“And to think that such a monster was hiding directly under canterlot!” A Bright yellow earth pony stallion spits off to the side to avoid as his braided dark blue mane sways off to its side. “Despicable.”

“Sounds very open and shut to me,” A green pegisi stallion comments “Find the invincible goddess of the night and bring her down. Simple enough.”

“But-But are you sure they’re down here?” A meek voice asks off to the side revealing the cobalt coated orange maned earth pony “I-I mean why would a princess be down here anyway! I mean I’m not afraid or anything but are you sure it’s safe? Maybe we should turn back.”

Sharp Sword looks ready to punch out the offending stallion before taking in a deep breath and calming himself down. Through gritted teeth the stallion manages to answer. “No Orange Scent we are sure she’s down here. Our stand agents confirmed it, and the magic crystals here would easily explain why we haven’t been able to locate her by magical means as they interfere with scrying.” The stallion turns towards the monarch of the sun eager to have his concerns reinforced by his superior “She has to be down here! Isn’t that right princess?”

The Celestial monarch does not respond to the commander’s question as her hooves come to a stop. The entire group ceases its movement as they watch the Princess give a peculiar look to the captain, her eyes expanding in surprise and what looks to be confusion as she absently mindedly stares straight at the captain of the guard without any regard to her situation.

“Um, Princess?” The orange maned stallion taps the goddess’s side “I’m sorry for questioning the captain, please don’t be angry with him.”

The voice of Orange scent seems to snap the princess out of her daze as she turns to face the stallion off to her side. “Oh right!” the princess snaps to attention as she addresses the captain “Of course Captain Sharp Sword but if you will, please forgive Orange Scent’s presumptions, after I’m a princess and even I feel like…..”

pink!

Every head in the small room swivels towards the sound as the entire group stands at the ready, preparing themselves for any sign of danger. Stands are manifested, eyes crane in the dark and weapons are readied as the entire group prepares for brutal close quarters combat. Yet nothing greets the group as seconds turn into a minute the six ponies finally relax their guard slightly.

The captain however does not take a chance as he points towards one of the dark tunnels in front of him. “The sound came from in there, you two.” The red stallion points to the light yellow earth pony and the light purple unicorn mare. “Proceed down that tunnel if you don’t find anything report back after five minutes. We’ll guard the princess here while we wait.”

The two salute sharply as they trot cautiously towards the cave prepared to fulfil their orders to the letter, only for them to be stopped by a familiar and comforting voice. “Belay that order captain.” Celestia states with a tone of authority. “It was more likely than not just a rock and nothing more. Were it truly an enemy they would have fled more rapidly to escape or they would have attacked us while our guards were down. And since there was no nose I suspect that it was nothing that we should be concerned with.”

“B-But princess!” the dark green guard protests. “Surely we cannot take that chance and pass up an…..”

“Anyhow.” The princess nods dismissing the claims of her guardsmen “We’re not covering enough ground as it is. We have been here more than two hours yet we’ve haven’t discovered or found any sign of our enemy. Therefore….” The princess looks over the entire group as if waiting to judge their reactions “I suggest that we split up to cover more ground.”

“But Princess!” the dark purple Unicorn mare salutes as she looks Celestia straight in the eye unafraid to speak her mind even to one she is sworn to protect. “Forgive me Princess but that is far too dangerous. Our lives don’t matter but you are too important not to protect! Besides that is a huge breach of protocol one six……”

“Spell Sheen.” The Goddess says in a tone that brokers no argument. Instantly the mare backs off, her argument dying in her throat as she looks up to the goddess. “And Hard Tack.” The bright yellow earth pony stallion salutes shakily still in awe of the goddess’s sudden use of her authority. “You will form one group, and double back where we once came from, following the path that we have painted with our glow in the dark markings. If Nightmare Moon is trying to escape she must go towards the entrance to the mines or risk losing her way.”

Pointing towards the Green Pegasus Celestia continues “While Green Beans and Orange scent take the old mining path which one can navigate easily enough given that it is a fixed path forward. The captain will escort me himself. And should any one of you contact the enemy then you will use flares to alert me, given that they still work despite the crystal’s interference.”

“But Princess?” the orange maned stallion raises his hoof “Are you sure that this plan is a good…..”

“And there will be no arguments or second guessing complaining that this plan is not typical or by the book.” Celestia states suddenly. “You will follow your orders to the letter. Now are we clear?”

The soldiers look among themselves torn between their loyalty to their duty and their loyalty to their Princess as they hesitantly avoid making any unnecessary eye contact.

“Trust me.” The princess of the sun smiles benevolently “It will be all right, my little ponies.”

With a single smile from the goddess, all doubt to their duty instantly dissipates, as they join together in support of the princess’s plan. Spell Sheen and Hard Tack perform one last honorary salute before they wordlessly follow their orders, filing into formation as they turn tail and head back the way they just came. As the two guards trot down through the hall the goddess gives them a brief wave and a smile wishing them good luck as they vanish off into the distance completely oblivious to the danger that they are unintentionally leaving behind.

Unknown to the two ponies of the royal guard just as the princess had turned her back on the other ponies in her group, the true enemies had seized their chance to strike. The red stallion in the royal guard outfit grins malevolently as he watches the princess’s own shadow takes on physical form it's dark shape congealing together on the ground behind the oblivious mare. Rising into the air as silent as death the dark pillar grows height as it sprouts two separate limbs as large and muscular as tree trunks, its two glowing yellow eyes staring down on the goddess. The dark figure though virtually indistinguishable other than its rippling muscled figure is none the less as intimidating as it is silent as the towering muscled stand raises its hoof over the princess for what is sure to be a lethal blow. As silent as the night the stand swings down its limb squarely on the Goddess’s neck.

“Now then…. Captain…” The princess asks with an amused tone of voice. Before the stand’s blow can even land the monarch of the sun disappears in a flash of light as her shadow fades with her. The Red stallion gapes at the goddess’s sudden disappearance however he doesn’t even have time to react as the goddess appears before him her eyes blazing with anger. Her horn ignites as the stallion feels his legs give out from under him, his body dangling weightlessly in the air as the mare pushes the stallion into the wall behind him with tremendous force.

“Or whatever your real name is,” Celestia resumes “Perhaps you could kindly tell me why you are an imposter, or better yet what it is that you hoped to accomplish by luring me here?”

The dark red stallion groans in pain as he is slowly pushed against the wall by the fury of the princess. “Heh so you’ve found me out.” The stallion sneers “what gave me away?”

The princess’s eyes narrow as she stares down the dark red stallion her mere gaze enough to break a pony with the slightest stare. Throwing the stallion to the ground with her magic the mare glares menacingly at him. “Ever since a certain incident a couple of hundred years ago where a stallion dared to guess at my age it has been against protocol to address me as ‘mam’.” The Goddess closes her eyes “It was an old rule of the academy so I decided to test you by having you to investigate a sound off in the distance that I created by kicking a pebble with my hoof.”

The princess smiles fondly as she opens her eyes to the sight of the fuming stallion beneath her hooves “It was an old trick but that did not stop you my little pony from falling for it. You sent off two of the squad to investigate the disturbance while you yourself stayed behind. If you were any kind of solder you would know that a senior officer always takes point to protect his troop’s lives in case of an ambush. In addition you never corrected me when I called you captain when a real commander would remind me of his position for logistics sake.”

The red coated stallion grins as he is backed up into the wall his confidence unscarred even when faced by the superior strength and power of a goddess. With anger aplenty the stallion wastes no time in ripping off the armor of the royal guard with a passion, stamping on the symbols and dress of a noble position with single minded contempt. As he throws off the last of his armor his cutie mark of a black lion’s head appears for the first time on his flank as he swaggers closer towards the Goddess. “I was getting tired of the armor anyways! So then what say we end this little façade and get right down the main event?”

“Fair enough.” The princess smiles as she conjures up a powerful shield around her body. An instant later a large stalactite the size of a small house descends from the heavens landing on top of the princess shield with the force of a bomb blast. Yet through the dust and broken shards the princess shield holds out, its brilliant illumination cutting through the haze as the shield dissipates from around her. “This would be the time in which your two partners decide to attack me while my back is turned.” The princess looks around only to find that the red stallion has disappeared.

“Though I suppose you’ve decided to use the chance to attack me to run away with your tail between your legs.” The princess scans the room hoping for a reaction from the frustrated and angry stallion as she pans the rusty mining equipment for signs of her enemies.

“And case you were wondering how I knew that the two guards behind me were with you it was simple.” The princess continues her rant hoping to elicit some response from her hidden enemies. “You sent off only two of the squad to investigate when it is a standard rule to send teams in groups of three. In addition one of the two seemed quite nervous to be left behind with me. Thus I suspected that the two of them were part of your little assassination team.”

The Goddess of the sun ignites her horn as an untold brilliance as the light from her horn scans the darkness of the mines around her for the group of ponies. “The fact that your two friends did not try to attack me from behind after you saw my power but rather chose to regroup speaks to the fact that you three are professionals who were trained by special operations of the military or some pony who knows them. You were even able to disguise sending a pillar at me as an attack so you could allow your friend to escape in the distraction it created.”

The mare looks around as her senses kick into overdrive: Her keen eyes picking up any traces of light and her ears catching the merest of sounds as she tries to locate her three attackers. “You are professionals you have full knowledge of my stand powers and, most dangerously, you work well as a team. Yet you have lost, all I have to do is leave the way I came and you will be trapped here in the mines without a chance of escape since I am the only pony who knows them well enough to lead you out.”

Celestia states with solemn finality as her years of diplomacy and logic prey on the hiding opponents fears and doubts. “Why not surrender? I don’t want to see any pony die this day and compromise would help us both reach what it is we want. Deactivate your stands and come into the light and I give you my word that no harm shall befall any of you. ”

The princess’ voice finally gets a response as a small meek voice echoes through the dark “She sure is smart brother maybe we should…”

SLAP

“Shut up Dally you imbecile! I’m in charge here! This is your fault anyways!”

SLAP

“Eldest Brother is right! All you had to do was act natural and you couldn’t even do that right! All you had to do was act calm and we could have killed her by now!”

SLAP

SLAP

“B-B-B-Big B-B-Brother Cameo! B-Big B-B-B-Brother Negrado! P-P-P-Please! S-S-S-Stop, you’re hurting me!”

SLAP

The sounds of violence fills the darkness around the mines, echoing off of the walls. “All right Negrado that’s enough, if you knocked him out before he could do his part then we might really be in trouble. I swear you’re way too violent sometimes I think you might kill him one of these days.”

The monarch’s trained ears make out the sound of spitting as she strains to make out the direction of her enemies. “Who cares, besides his power works better when he’s injured right?! So he should be thanking us for his beating!”

Unable to take the sounds of violence any longer, even though it is directed towards one of her enemies Celestia stamps her hoof on the ground, the resulting thunderclap causing a deafening silence to fall over the cavern. As the silence descends upon the caverns, the princess pears over her surroundings as the monarch of the sun puts all her effort into one last attempt to end the fight without bloodshed. “Enough. This fighting accomplishes nothing for either of us. Now then let’s cease this foolishness and talk things over like civilized ponies. Tell me where my sister as well as who is behind this attempt on my life is and you won’t be harmed.”

The room grows silent for a few moments and for a few brief seconds the princess of the sun believes that there might be a peaceful resolution. Suddenly the voice of ‘Commander Sharp Sword’ Responds “As if we’d surrender to a sun hag like you! You want to know what we want? We want to buck your dead corpse that’s’ what we want!”

The princess’s earlier demeanor of kindness vanishes completely replaced with an icy cold expression of anger that radiates off the crystal pillars. The room’s temperature elevates from the goddess’s divine fury as the hair of the three ponies cowering in the shadows stand on end. “Enough frivolousness.” The princess’s voice booms as her horn blazes to life. “This is your last chance. COME OUT NOW. You can’t possibly hope to kill me, better creatures have tried and ALL have failed.”

“heh so now the tyrant of the sun shows her true colors does she?” a pure black stallion steps out of the shadows above her as he stands on a pedestal above her the outline of his black lion’s head cutie mark barely visible against his dark grey coat mane and coat, both the same color. His spiked mane is cut short and sharp like the bristles of a cactus, as it sways gently back and forth from the slight bending motion of his head. “Well then since you’re demanding my name I’ll tell it to you! I’m Negrado eldest of the three Dark Brothers and my stand Me and My shadow takes over my opponent’s shadow and uses it to attack them! Since they can’t’ hurt their own shadow without hurting them my stand is invincible!”

Emerging from the shadows to his right a dark green stallion sighs as he throws the remainder of his armor over the ledge with a clattering sound. “Leave it for big brother to steal my thunder. Since you’re so good at guessing games princess I might as well give you my name!” The snobby dark green stallion strokes his fur causing his coat to change to a light pink. Brushing back his sleek and styled grey mane the stallion strikes a stylish pose with as he looks down on the Goddess before him “My name is Cameo, second eldest of the three dark brothers. And I don’t mind telling you my power either the power of my stand Color Blind allows it to change color at will allowing completely invisibility and camouflage.”

‘A color changing stand, that’s how they were able to pose as my guardsmen so easily’ Celestia thinks to herself a she keeps her gaze locked on the stallions before her. However entering from the side of her vision almost beyond her presence is the orange maned stallion that slowly approaches the edge. The color quickly melts from the stallion’s coat revealing the stallion’s cutie mark of an old well on his flank, however what truly catches the goddess’s eye is the stallion’s nature. The stallion’s fumbling hooves and embarrassed apprehensive expression a clear testament to the now black coated and pink manned stallion’s painful shyness. Tugging on his wild and untamed pink mane like a support the stallion seems to fumble with every other word as he looks shyly over in the direction of the Goddess.

“H-Hi there….” The stallion fumbles nervously as he moves his mane to cover the painful swelling on the right side of his face. “Oh and I’m, um the youngest brother Dally. And I’m not allowed to tell you my stand’s name or it’s power because I was a bad pony and didn’t do my part the way I was supposed to…..”

“Well would you look at that! See the idiot’s learning!” The eldest brother grins as he slaps the back of the younger brother’s head forcibly. “An who says that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!”

“Looks like he could keep his mouth shut after all.” The dark green stallion sighs. “And for once he could do as he was told, since our ‘dark brother’s formation’ depends on him doing his part. If our little princess knew the extent of his ability she might catch on to our little plan and leave is here.”

“The dark brothers…..” The princess reminisces on the days of her past as she stares at the three ponies before her. “I remember now!” Celestia recalls as she closes her eyes “a trio of brothers who were rejected acceptance to the royal guard due to genetic emotional instability went on a rampage after stealing several pounds of raw red stones and using it on themselves.” The princess narrows her gaze at the stallions above her as her fluttering mane picks up speed “You killed fourteen guards and ten innocent civilians with your out of control powers and were locked up for life for your crimes.”

The eldest brother laughs “That’s right! You left us to rot like common criminals because you decided that we didn’t deserve the powers you kept from us! You played God and we suffered for it!”

The princess narrows her gaze “You were unrepentant in your actions and refused to suppress your powers that killed so many innocent lives. I gave you a chance to live good, hardworking lives and you threw it away because you refused to wear the stand suppressing collars that would have preventing you from killing again.”

“We received our powers because we were chosen to receive them!” The eldest stallion yells down to the princess like a spoiled child “You denied us our destiny when you gave the limitless power of stand to whoever you chose!”

Swiping his light green mane out of his eyes the Cameo picks off with a confident grin “However the traitor saw how powerful we were he helped us learn to control our powers while we were locked up. For years we honed our powers secretly while we prepared to fulfill our ultimate destiny, to become the most powerful stand users ever. And so years later he freed us so that we could receive the honor of killing you!”

“Um…” The smaller white coated stallion taps his hooves nervously “Well the plan is once we kill you we’ll be the strongest stand users and then…... Um the traitor can take over and then…...”

The meek stallion looks over to his brothers with a confused look on his face. “Um Big Brother Negrado? I know that I’ve asked before but what happens after we kill Celestia? I mean I don’t mean to say I don’t trust the Traitor but he is called the traitor, What’s his big plan again? Can we even trust him, not to ….um betray us too?”

The eldest brother Negrado looks at the younger one, his face momentarily stunned by the deep insight of a pony he had thought to be. With his mouth hanging open for a full thirty seconds as Negrado’s brain struggles to determine whether what his brother says has any truth before punching his brother Dally upside the head.

“YOU IDIOT! This is what you get when you try and think!” Negrado shouts as he kicks the prone stallion “We don’t need to know the plan he has because once we off Celestia we’ll be the most powerful stand users in Equestria! We can do whatever we want! And if this traitor tries to betray us we’ll just kill him too!”

The youngest stallion wines slightly from his injuries as the eldest brother turns back to face the Goddess. “As I said! Once we kill the one pony who betrayed us we’ll be the most powerful stand users in Equestria. There’s no need for a plan if you’re the strongest that’s why we’re gonna do what the Traitor said and Kill Celestia! So stop being a wet blanket and do what I say!”

The stallion turns back to face Celestia his eyes burning fiercely with the fire of his hatred. “Honestly how much of a idiot are you? We kill Celestia and live as kings, that’s it! End of plan no more discussions! How hard is that for you to understand?”

The goddess however remains undaunted by the brother’s threats as she sighs heavily “It seems that you cannot be diverted from your present course of action. Very well I only had one last question anyways.” The mare spreads her hooves apart as she enters a ready combat stance. “What have you done to my guards, Green Bean, Orange Scent and commander Sharp Sword? Tell me where you have hidden them and I will make your defeats as painless as possible.”

All three brothers look at open another as if in shock as they silently think up the best way to tell the goddess the fates of the three guardsmen that they impersonated.

“Oh them!” Negrado grins as if recalling a funny joke. “Well that’s a funny story. See we told them that we planned to use their aliases to lure the princess somewhere quiet and murder her slowly. We asked them ever so nicely if they would calmly let us take on their identities but they attacked us first…..” Negrado bursts out laughing “…. So we beat them to death. It was justified self-defense so you can’t complain it was against any law.”

“Big Brother is right! Don’t worry about it!” Cameo laughs along with his elder brother as Dally remains silent off to the side. “They may be gone but they certainly won’t be missed by their loved ones! After all we made sure to take eliminate their families first!”

An illuminating blast from the Goddess’s horn speeds towards the three stallions as Celestia channels her pain and frustration. The thick bolt lightning speeds towards the ponies looking as though the fight will end in a single second, however the eldest stallion only grins as he picks up his youngest brother lying prone on the ground throwing him into the path of the magical burst. The youngest brother however only has the time to mouth two words as the burst of magic surges towards him.

“B-Black Hole….” The youngest stallion mutters as the magic strikes him full force in the chest. However rather than electrocuting the poor stallion to death the energy courses through him his wounds and bruises created before slowly evaporate as a dark black spot appears on his chest.

Celestia looks on in an equal mixture of curiosity and cautiousness as the black hole over the stallion’s heart grows from the size of a small marble to about the size of a small mandarin orange. The stallion whimpers as the dark hole in his chest grows larger and larger as more and more of her spell is sucked into its infinite depths. The younger brother recoils in agony as the lightning is sucked completely into the dark hole on his chest, his wounds from before melting completely away.

‘an energy absorbing stand!’ the princess thinks to herself as she ignites her horn for another round of lightning. ‘And one that’s capable of absorbing my full force attack no less! It seems he’s capable of converting magical energy towards his life force as well, so any magical attack won’t have any affect. I’ll have to close the distance and attack with physical force if I want to…..”

The goddess ducks reflexively as a large dark fist brushes over her mane with tremendous force. The dark ogre that is Negrado’s stand slithering on the ground behind her. The stand attacks again this time it's powerful fist shattering the ground beneath her as the goddess takes to the air to get out of range of the stand’s fists. However as she takes into the air the ogre only seems to grow bigger it’s giant arms practically bulging as it grows up to brush the top of the cavern. With a guttural roar the stand swings its monstrous arm as the air current alone nearly knocks the agile goddess out of the air. The monster raises its fist to strike only for the goddess’ golden armored stand to lash out with the speed of a single beam of light as its hoof punching clean through the monster’s soft chest.

For a second the battle looks over as the giant gapes down at the hole in its chest, only for it to reform a second later. Celestia’s’ eyes widen as she barely manages to dodge another blow, only to be forced into parrying the giant’s great strength with her stand’s hooves. “No damage? But how?”

Landing on the ground Celestia watches as the Giant shrinks accordingly it’s clenched hands none the less ready to break the Goddess’s bones with unbridled fury. Suddenly the Goddess’s eyes widen as she recalls Negrado’s previous monologue. ‘My horn! Of course! It’s glow is creating a shadow!’ the ogre of a stand raises it’s hooves reading itself from a powerful haymaker just as the goddess cuts the flow of her magic causing the room to grow dark as the illumination from her horn ceases. In an instant the shadowy figure disappears completely, its existence fading into nothing without a light source to confirm its existence.

The goddess sighs in relief as she taps her horn as if in warning. “I’ll have to watch my output of light from here on out. This is a stand that thrives in the shadows, the larger the shadow the stronger it is. Now I just have to find where….URGH!” The goddess shouts as a savage blow forces her to the ground. Rising quickly to her hooves the goddess looks around through the impenetrable dark as she listens for sounds of her enemy’s passing. However the only sound she hears in the dark of the mines is the snickering of her vile foes.

“Did you forget about little old me?” a condescending sophisticated voice shouts from the darkness around her. Craning her elegant neck around in the dark the goddess tries to locate the sound of the voice just as another hoof smashes into her face from the darkness.

Reflexively igniting her horn the mare shines her narrow beam of light in front of her as her eyes catch sight of a peculiar creature that could only be a stand. Its narrow slender body, takes on the base shape of a starved lizard, its scaly dragon like appearance and protruding forked tongue a dead ringer for a reptile. However it’s six padded and webbed feet, it’s three tails each tipped with a shard of broken glass like a flail and it’s three yellow eyes tell the Goddess with a degree of absolute certainty that the target in front of her is not friendly. However before she can attack the stand’s outline fades and blurs as the lizard vanishes into thin air.

Celestia blinks in surprise just as another savage blow hits her from the side. Recoiling around the mare quickly puts her eyes to work as she tries to locate her opponents. Yet despite her frantic search the goddess finds her surroundings once again abandoned; the cliff where the tree fiends once lauded their superiority over her bare of their presence. “Where are you now? Show yourselves!”

Cameo however only laughs as his snobbish voice echoes off the walls. “Oh? Is the immortal Goddess struggling to find three little ponies? Well don’t bother trying to find us or my stand. As I’ve proven before I can disguise anything even ourselves so I think you’ll find it ‘difficult’ to locate an enemy who can make themselves invisible in a locale such as this.”

The Goddess’s horn blazes to life as she conjures a shield of glowing yellow light around her deflecting the invisible blow just as it pounds into her shield. The goddess smiles in satisfaction as the invisible creature’s blow struggles futilely to break through the Goddess’s shield; a satisfaction that completely disappears as the goddess feels a dark presence behind her poised to strike. Celestia gulps as she turns her neck slowly around only to see the dark and evil shape of Negrado’s stand Me and My Shadow, looming behind her. The evil stand cracking its knuckles in the way a bouncer might just before he turns an offending patron into a fine soup.

Creating a door in the shield instantly the goddess rolls to the side just as the ogre of darkness attacks her from what was previously the inside of her shield. Closing the hole in the shield the goddess attempts to confine the creature formed from her shadow as it tries mercilessly to pound its way from the inside of the shield. However another invisible blow to her head causes her concentration to fail as the barrier dissipates the shadowy ogre advancing to strike. Though groggy from the blow Celestia still manages to back step just as the blow lands just where she was standing. Cutting off her horn’s power once again the mare tenses herself just as another blow from the shadows hits her below the belt.  Groaning in pain the Princess takes to her hooves as she tries to remain mobile against an attack that seems to come from every direction.

‘I can’t use magic…….this is bad.’ Celestia looks around in the pitch black darkness in vain just as she feels another blow impact her body. ‘If I ignite my horn to use my magic, even the slightest spark will cause that elder brother’s stand Me and My Shadow to manifest behind me and attack from my blind spots while I’m trying to defend against

‘And not only that without any light to manipulate I can’t use any of my stand powers, only physical attacks!’ The goddess braces herself as another savage attack strikes out from the dark. ‘Which wouldn’t be a problem if I could see my opponent! But I can’t create any light to locate them!’

‘And to top it off!’ the goddess takes to the air attempting to escape only to be beaten back down to the earth. ‘It’s nearly impossible to locate anything here in the mines.’ Mustering her courage the princess of Equestria pours a thick beam of light from her horn as she runs through the dark rapidly. Her eyes pan from side to side as she attempts to locate her hidden enemies. However a powerful blow to the back of her head from Negrado’s stand causes her light to flicker out. Yet her mind though rattled still races furiously in an attempt to find a solution to her dilemma. ‘The caverns echo so I can’t locate them with sound and even if I could create enough light to see with, they’re using Cameo’s camouflage to hide so my chances of finding their main bodies is slim.’

Celestia guards her face in vain as Cameo’s stand Colorblind continues to hammer her from every direction with its numerous blows. ‘And to top that off, even if I could find them I can’t attack with my magical attacks because the youngest brother, Dally can absorb these magical attacks.’

The mare smiles grimly as she looks around in the dark the voices of the three brothers snickering at the ruler of the country’s pitiful position. ‘Hum, this does look very bad. They know all of my weaknesses and planned (or more likely they were told) exactly how to cut me off from my strengths.’

With great resolve the goddess shakily stands up on her hooves her body though battered standing with all the resolve and majesty an immortal goddess of the sun can muster ‘When it comes down to it I really have only one of two three options. First I can try to run away and leave them here in the mines, however that is unlikely since after all this running around in the dark I can’t seem locate the glow in the dark markings which lead to the way out. No doubt their work.’

The mare closes her eyes to the darkness as she tries to listen for the sound of the creeping invisible stand of Cameo. ‘Second I could try and eliminate the stand Colorblind. His stand is about the speed of sound but my stand is immeasurably faster. The only reason this fight’s been so one sided is because his stand is constantly attacking from where I can’t see. I can’t’ hear him at all but If I try and attack in the general direction that he’s attacking from the moment after he attacks then I have a slim chance at getting him.’ The mare looks around as she spreads her consciousness to the room around her in hopes of finding the three fiends hiding in the darkness. ‘Then once Cameo is defeated I can work on finding the other two, defeat Dally in hoof to hoof combat and then move on to Negrado.’

The mare takes a ready stance her stand though shrouded by darkness raises its hoof as it prepares to strike at a moment’s notice. ‘And since I cannot afford to run and risk these brothers harming any more innocent ponies my option is number two, eliminate Cameo’s stand!’ The mare smiles as she anticipates the coming attack. ‘and I think I have an idea on exactly how to do that!’

For several seconds the attacks cease as the Goddess stands at maximum alertness her hooves prepared to strike as every muscle in her body tenses up in anticipation of the fight to come. The mines are silent the darkness thick and heavy as only the sound of dripping water. For minutes the two sides stand at a stalemate as Celestia catches her breath.

“WELL CAMEO?” a voice shouts out from the darkness echoing off the walls “What are you waiting for? It’s your job to attack the princess when she can’t defend herself so why are you just sitting around? Finish her off!”

“But, Big Brother!” a voice wines from the darkness in a way that makes it impossible for either side to ignore. “The Princess is too well defended now for me to attack!”

“Um what are you talking about Cameo?” The soft voice from the sidelines asks “She’s not that well defended and your stand is invisible so why can’t you attack?”

“Dally you Idiot! I was able to attack before because she didn’t know what direction I was attacking from!” Cameo complains “even if I did hit her she’d hit me back if I attacked now! And my stand is a distance type so it’s not as strong as yours. So I’m saying help me out Big Brother Cameo, Let’s finish her off together!”

Another deep silence fills the mines as Celestia can practically feel her heart beating out of her chest. Suppressing a dry cough the mare stands completely alert as she mentally prepares for the imminent attack knowing her very survival depends on applying her plan properly. Suddenly a voice emanates from the darkness as Negrado responds “Well I suppose being careful couldn’t hurt. Especially when fighting a goddess, so why not let’s beat her down from both sides!”

Celestia flinches as a small but powerful light appears from out of the corner of her vision. Turning in the direction of the light she sees the grinning overconfident face of Negrado, his stand looming in the shadows behind him as he trots ever closer to the Goddess. Celestia’s horn glows like a torch as she points the tip towards the advancing stallion the shadow of his stand growing greater from the light from her horn.

“Uh Uh!” Using his horn Negrado holds up his youngest brother like a shield. “Did you forget about Dally’s absorption powers? So if you were thinking of using any of your little magic….” Negrado shakes his grey coated brother like a rag doll in his dark red aura.“…well let’s just say it’ll be really ineffective.”

From the shadows behind the vulgar stallion a dark giant drifts across the ground silently only for it to disappear the next instant against the dark backdrop as only it’s eyes are visible in the dark. “All right Cameo!” Negrado shouts to nopony in particular “You attack from stealth and when she’s stunned by your little surprise attack I’ll finish her off!’ The stallion turns back to the mare as he contemplates his own victory. “Well Princess?” The stallion spits out with venom “have any last words?”

“Yes in fact I do.” The princess smiles as the radiance around her horn grows even brighter. “Flashbang.”

“Flashbang?!” Negrado snouts as the light surrounding Celestia’s horn grows even brighter “what’s a flashban…….. OH SWEET CELESTIA MY EYES!!”

In an instant the room becomes a holocaust of light, the radiance of the Goddess of the sun’s horn reaching unseen levels as the brightness in the room continues to grow. Like the depths of a star or the inner heat of a raging bonfire the Goddess rises gracefully into the air as the brightness eclipses anything a normal pony could even conceive of.

“Flashbang.” The Goddess continues “as in a non-lethal spell or tool designed to disorient or blind the enemy. In this case it would be a quite appropriate usage of vocabulary do you not agree?”

The Dark brothers do not respond, as they are far too busy rolling around on the ground in perpetual agony as it feels like their eyes are melting out of their skulls.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Celestia comments as the three ponies writhe on the floor in a vain attempt to drown out the immense amounts of light that are coursing through their very bones. “You thought that your familiarity with the darkness gave you a disadvantage because I could not see. But it is this very fact that you denied me my sight that makes your inability to see now all the more ironic.”

Though no ordinary pony could see in such brilliance, Celestia was not the monarch of the sun for no reason. Light was her very nature, brightness her very soul and to see through such brilliance was as easy for her as greeting the daytime’s splendor. That and she had a badass stand power that allowed her to control light so that she could look straight into the sun without burning her eyes out.

“And now that you’ve done me the pleasure of revealing yourselves.” The princess smiles as she stares directly at the exposed Dark brothers. “I know exactly where you all are! WALKING ON SUNSHINE!”

The blinding light gathers around Celestia as her stand absorbs the light around it honing it refining it and strengthening it as the light in the room grows to unheard of illumination. The brightness grows and grows as Celestia’s stand amplifies the light in the room past it’s normal quantities reflecting it off every refractive gem and every black stone as the room becomes an endless ocean of pure white.

“SOLIS HASTAM!” The mare shouts as the dense light that is coursing through the small room condenses into three separate spears of pure sunlight each one shooting towards the three separate assassins as the mare watches on. At the speed of light itself the three beams honed to a fine point shoot towards the dark brothers, only for the three beams to swerve violently off their course missing Cameo and Negrado completely. The Celestia’s eyes widen as the room itself seems to grow darker around her, her head swiveling around as she watches the three bolts of light circle around the room like a lost firefly on their erratic path.

“The path of the beam was redirected!?” Celestia shouts in disbelief as she follows the new path of the stream of pure light “But how?!”

Following the final path of the beams of light Celestia gapes as she watches the three beams swerve back to their original path to their new target, the youngest brother Dally. Dally’s pupils shrank to pinpricks as the void in his chest devours the yellow beams of light like a midday snack, ravenously sucking in the light around Celestia with an insatiable appetite as it sucks more and more of the Goddess’s immeasurable light into its dark depths.

“What?” Celestia gasps in surprise as the light from her horn and her stand’s latent light energy circles into the now gaping hole in his chest vanishing without a sound. “H-He’s absorbing the light itself? So he isn’t just limited to absorbing mana, but any type of energy? And he can absorb it at a distance?!”

“Darkness….” Dally touches the edge of the giant void on his chest as the endless pit of darkness on his chest now the size of a basketball glows ominously with a bright yellow light. “…..Darkness…… Release.”

Celestia’s eyes widen as a giant bolt up pure sunlight and magic comes streaming out of the small hole in his chest the mare barely having the time to guard with her stand as the full force of her own magic is returned on her. However the suddenness and unpredictability of the attack easily overpowers the Goddess’s guard as her stand Walking on Sunshine is blown back by the pure force of Dally’s attack. The beam drives the goddess clean into the wall with a sickening crunch as stone and flesh alike give way from the attack. Biting her lip to the point of drawing blood the Goddess suppresses a blood curling scream as she rises limply to her hooves coughing up a faint dribble of blood as she props herself against the wall for support.

Slowly the assassins rise to their hooves as they try to clear the spots out of their eyes from the Goddess’s intense light. Their heads spinning from the overstimulation of their sensitive dark adapted eyes. “BUCK!” Negrado curses loudly. “I can barely see! I’m lucky my back up plan kicked in otherwise you would have been in trouble Cameo!”

“A-Actually brother…” Dally whispers under his breath. “I-I-I’m the o-o-one who….”

“Shut up Dally!” Cameo shouts as he rubs his eyes painfully. “Can’t you see that I can barely see! URGH that Princess will pay for this! If my brilliant eyes are even slightly damaged by her little trick I’ll skin her alive!”

Pressing her blood covered fore hoof against the wall the mare glares menacingly as the tree wicked stallions encroach on her space, their eyes luminous in the dark like a wolf inching in for the kill. Her rump against the wall the Goddess attempts to flare her wings in a threatening manner only to cry out as one of her wings recoils in pain. Wincing the goddess looks at her limp wing as she concludes what it is indeed broken in several places as well as the fact that she neither has the time or the opportunity to attempt to splint her broken bones.

The stallion chuckle evilly as they slowly close in on all sides their stands at the ready as they prepare to move in for the kill. Daly though meek approaches with his black heart throbbing at the chance to absorb more of the ivory Goddess’s magic. Cameo lauds magnificently in his apparent victory his stand coming out of its cloak just to leer in her face with its multiple eyes. And Negrado stares malevolently as the light from his horn allows his obsidian giant to stand behind him with its angry hands ready to wring Celestia’s neck like a turkey.

‘so… this is it?’ The goddess wonders for herself as she is backed even further against the wall ‘this is how I die? Alone and in the dark, without even a chance to defend myself or explain my actions? Without love or compassion?’

Defying all expectations Celestia smirks. ‘Regardless of the situation I can’t help but feel it’s fitting. I doomed countless living things to suffering alone and in the dark and now…. Now I join them. It will all be fine Ponies will miss me but Equestria will carry on. Shining Armor will recover the corpse and my little ponies will live on in peace. The moving of the sun and moon will pass on to Twilight to whom I’ve taught the spell work necessary to move it. With help she will take over the movements of day and night.’

The princess smiles faintly like an old mare on her deathbed, almost savoring her death to come ‘It’s funny really; ponies think the entire world revolves around me but I’m really not needed for anything after all. In reality I’m really such a small part of this world for the supposed ruler of the sun. And of course should raising the sun and the moon prove too difficult for the unicorns of today Luna could always…..’

Suddenly a single glint of a memory passes through her eyes as the previously submissive goddess snaps to attention. ‘No I can’t’ die! Not now!’

Cameo smiles as his stand’s tails snap like a whip on the ground “I think that this is going to be glorious!”

‘How…..’ the goddess gulps to herself, as true genuine fear begins to take hold ‘How could I die without telling Luna that I’m sorry!? How could I die without even being given the chance to talk to her!?’

“Remember boys!” Negrado licks his lips as his stand pounds its fists into the ground “I’m the eldest so I get first dibs!”

‘….to hold her!?!’

“Um nothing personal princess.” Dally states as he looks at the princess with pity in his eyes “But you’ve really got to die. Big Brother and the Traitor said so after all.”

‘…To tell her that…….. I love her more than anything in the world?’

“Shut up Dally!” Cameo cries as his stand begins to rapidly close the distance between it and the princess “And as for who gets her first, I wore her down the most so I get first dibs!”

Celestia’s eyes can only widen as Cameo’s stand leaps into the air it's mouth of razor sharp teeth opening up as it prepares to turn the goddess into a puddle of bodily liquids. Its razor sharp tips spin like a blender as the monster roars in anticipation of its meal. With only a single second to spare as the monster comes down on her head Celestia, leader of Equestria and the free world only has the time to close her eyes as her life flashes before her eyes.

‘…Luna……’

‘…..…Luna…….’

‘………..I’m just…… so sorry Luna……..’

‘………….. I know that I wasn’t the best sister……….’

‘……..I know that I let you down………’

‘………… I know that I wanted to say I’m sorry more times than I could count……’

‘………… but even if you never know how sorry I am………….’

‘………. I want you to always remember……….’

‘………That I love you Luna………’

‘……….I always have and always will love you…….. just don’t forget that…….sister.”

………………….

KABOOM!!

“EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!”

Just as the darkness surrounding the princess looks to be capable of snuffing out her light, just when all hope seems to be lost, a light flashes in the darkness it’s brilliance only surpassed by the defining sound of an explosion as a wall directly across from the three assassins caves in. The magic missile however is not the like the harsh powerful light of the sun but a mellower more gentle light that streaks through the room like a comet on a dark night. Celestia watches with dumbfounded surprise as she watches her attacker, the lizard stand Colorblind fall to the ground a gaping hole in its chest still smoking from the powerful magical blast that cut through its hide like a hot knife through butter. Subsequently the stand’s owner Cameo falls to the floor a second later coughing up a mouthful of his vile blood as he screams out in pain. The other two assassins stunned by their sudden change in fortunes can only back away from the injured Goddess and the gaping hole in the wall as they are forced to abandon their assault in the wake of a new arrival.

A soft gentle hoof step seems to echo as the dark silhouette of a pony emerges from the other side of the hole.

“Celly….” The dark figure grins as it extends its wings, its pearly white teeth reflecting the gentle glow from her horn. “Thou hast really let thyself go. I mean look at that infernal pudge, and thine bruises! Thou art really out of shape, I mean losing to a folly of fools such as this! It is proof enough that you have lost your touch dear sister.”

Turning in the direction she saw the beam of light come from, Celestia’s heart nearly stops as a familiar face from her past emerges from the shadows off to the side of her assassins. Thought her eyes are telling her the identity of the pony smiling before her, her rational mind in part refuses to believe it. How could she have known she was here? Why did she come to her rescue? These questions send the already weakened Goddess’s head spinning as she tries to put into words the immense levels of amazement and surprise that are currently overwhelming her senses.

“L-Lulu?” The goddess asks her eyes tearing up. “I-Is that you?”

“URRRR.” The silhouette groans as her horn grows brighter revealing none other than the second royal pony sister Princess Luna, her ethereal mane capturing the glow and majesty of the stars. “Thou mean…. I mean you have really let yourself go. Cures, modern language is far more difficult than it once was. And these new inventions! These….. light bulbs and wheels…. How could thou allow such infernal inventions to…..”

Whatever long tirade that Luna had perhaps prepared on the demonic appearance and powers of modern technology is immediately forgotten as Celestia wraps her arms around her sister. Weeping into her coat the sun goddess releases in a single moment all of her pent up fear and self-loathing, her sadness and pain in a single breakdown as tears stream down her muzzle. And for a moment all the mightiest pony in Equestria can do is weep in equal measures of joy and sadness as she reminds both herself and the pony before her that despite her powers and godlike status she is indeed a pony like anypony else.

“C-Celly….” The stunned goddess raises her shaking hoof as she hesitates to return her sister’s embrace. Of all the things Luna expected, a fight to the death, another deception, to be imprisoned in the moon once more for a thousand years, she had never in her one thousand years of solitude expected this. For her sister, for her proud and noble elder sister to suddenly break down and cry in front of her, it was unheard of, it was impossible. Save the first time she had donned that darkness that consumed her, her sister had never shed tears like that for her, she had never even cried like that for any pony that she had known or loved over her thousand years of existence.

Part of Luna had always suspected Twilight’s memories of her sister, namely her heartfelt speech on how she had wronged her, had been a ruse. That it was an act designed to gain Twilight’s trust so that her sister could defeat the Nightmare’s dark magic with the aid of the corpse’s power.

She had come expecting a fight not tears, not…… this. anything but this. Part of her wanted to dismiss this act, to yell to scream, to do anything but stand there being cried on by the very pony whose negligence had cost her one thousand years of life and happiness. The pony that had ripped joy and love from her hooves and replaced it with loneliness and hatred. The pony that had ignored her words of advice and caused untold devastation over the thousand years she had been gone despite what that very power had done to her. But her tears….. her sister’s tears……

“F-F-F-F……” Celestia shudders through her tears as she tries vainly to put words together.

“S-sister?” Luna asks apprehensively.

“F-F-Forg-g-give m-me….” Celestia snivels pitifully “Forg-g-give me… for being so blind……I-I was so wrong…..”

Those few words so simple send a shock greater than anything that the Goddess of the night had ever felt in her long life through her very soul. In an instant all doubts and fears fall apart as she can only stand mouth agape as she gently recalls the words of a pony very wise for her age.

‘We may fight from time to time, and I may not enjoy everything he does. But I know that he will always be there for me, whenever I need him, and that he will always love me.’

And though her pain, her suffering and the injustices of the world around her are not forgotten, the fear and suspicion towards her elder sister, the hatred that she silently harbored for her across the years finds itself washed away by her sister’s heartfelt tears. Her pain, her suffering is still there but it is washed over, it is filled by the enormity of her sister’s love, like a dark and empty crevice suddenly being filled with warm and pure life giving water.

Suddenly in a moment it all becomes clear to her what she, Princess Luna of the night, must do. ‘How could I have been so foalish.’ Not wasting a second longer the Goddess of the night returns the warm embrace wrapping her hooves around her sister with equal measures compassion and love. “I-It is good to see you too…... sister.”

And for that moment nothing else matters to the two sisters except the other pony in their arms. Not the Corpse. Not the Traitor’s actions or the nameless attackers from the shadows. Not even the presence three still very powerful assassins staring at their backs, can pry apart the love binding the two sisters together.

Nothing in the world can divide their love.

Yet like anything all good things must come to an end. Slowly, ever so slowly the monarch of the sun breaks free from her sister’s embrace to look deep into her eyes. “Luna…. Words cannot describe how good it is to see you once again! But how did you find me.....” The Goddess of sunlight sags “Why would you want to find me……”

“From what I could glean from the dreams of the palace staff, I could tell that you had wrongfully concluded that I was in the Canterlot mines for some reason.” The lunar princess taps her chin thoughtfully. “There I ran into two of your guard, Spell shimmer and Hard tack Believe their names were. Where I convinced them to….. divulge the path that you had taken……”

…………………..

“Nice job Hard Tack…..”

“……..”

“No seriously way to resist torture like that. I’ve got to say, you sure put up a fight after Nightmare Moon got the drop on us!”

“……..”

“Seriously you held up for, like what three seconds before you told her everything that she wanted to know. Yep your resolve and steadfast dedication to our immortal ruler is a real inspiration to all those who look to one day become part of the royal guard.”

“……..”

“And now here we are, hanging upside down, tied up in our own ropes and anti-stand harnesses. Completely powerless while the immortal Goddess of the night goes after the ruler of our nation, who we’ve sworn to protect with our very lives.”

“………”

“Well do you have anything to say?”

“………”

“Well?!”

“………But she was so cute!”

Spell Shimmer blinks “….Um excuse me?”

“Did you see those puppy dog eyes? And that amazing smile? ‘Thou would be ever so grateful if thine would tell me the direction mine sister has gone’. She was so… so…. Luna!”

“…. Come again?”

“Really I’m surprised that I was even able to resist three seconds!”

“………if I had a free hoof right now, I’d be giving myself the biggest face hoof of all time, right after I had finished killing you and bathing in your blood….”

“………You’re just jealous because I have a new best pony.”

………………

“Twas easy, thou should really consider better guards Celly. As for why I came, I…” now it is Luna’s chance to stutter, her logic and strategy momentarily forgotten in the storm and forgiveness of emotions that surrounded her return.

Luna clears her throat. “I came to tell you…..” Celestia cocks her head in confusion as Luna struggles with her words. Part of Luna wanted to just forget about everything else, to drown in the loving embrace of a loved one who she had been separated from for a thousand years. But no she was a Goddess equal in power and grace to Celestia and she had a job to do. “… nay, I came to DEMAND, that you stop using the corpse’s power, it had destroyed countless lives and…..”

Responding reflexively both alicorns back step as a bolt of magic speeds towards them, a single well placed fireball detonates exactly where the two goddess stood not a second before. Both of them turn their necks towards the direction of the attack as the three brothers of darkness stand leering at the two of them.

“Did I interrupt something? Yes? Well to bad!” His horn crackling with arcane energy Negrado chuckles as the two goddesses scowl at his complete lack of tact and genuine concern. “Well it looks to me like we have a double bonus this time boys! Two namby panby Pony Princesses for the price of one! This must be our lucky day!

“B-But brother.” The smaller stallion tugs on his hoof “But if we kill them both who will raise the sun and the moon? Shouldn’t we think this over?”

“Who’s in charge here? A brain dead loser like you or me?” Negrado asks spitefully. “ME that’s who and I say that we kill the two pretty princess!” The eldest dark brother stallion looks over at the two mares before him “Those two princesses controlling everything like they’re Gods or something! It makes me sick. So with the Traitor’s help, we’ll get rid of them and rule this land ourselves!”

“B-but….” The younger stallion’s ears fall as his distress becomes readily apparent even to a sociopath like Negrado. “But I even patched up Dally by giving him some of the life force I had saved up!” Dally points his shaking hoof towards his slightly limping middle brother the hole in his chest covered in a large still bleeding scab. And though his wound is patched the pale expression on the pink pony’s face is a sign that he is still far from well. “I healed him and you couldn’t! Y-Y-You can’t say that I’m in the way!”

“Of for the love of Celestia! Will you just SHUT UP!?” With an impressive back hoof the elder brother smacks Dally across the face knocking him down into a puddle of mud. “You know sometimes I don’t know why I even keep you around! Mother knew that there was something wrong about you. You were the reason that we couldn’t get into the guards! If it wasn’t for you…”

Leaping forward the goddess of the night pounces on the bickering stallions as she manifests her starlit stand it’s plate mail glimmering in the ambient light. With almost comic timing the grey coated eldest Dark brother barely has time to react as the Goddess’s black horseshoe slams into his face sending several of his teeth flying as his body skids across the floor. The goddess unable to resist herself cracks a cocky grin as she stands over the stallion. “Forgive me for the sudden interruption. Did I interrupt something?” The grey coated stallion grimaces at Luna’s mocking tone “Yes? Well to bad!”

Yelling out a desperate battle cry the stallion watches as his stand forms behind the Goddess it's dark ebony hands ready to squeeze the life out of her thin neck. However this time The Goddess responds with a series of blows from her own stand each one of her blows hits the giant ogre. Each blow though heavy enough to fell stones only punches harmlessly through the giant which watches as in amusement as the blows ripple across it’s shadowy form. Ceasing her attack the Goddess takes a step back as she calmly assesses the situation.

“humh… Shadow conjuration, if I’m not mistaken.” With silent fury the giant swings it’s hands around for another attack only for it to vanish once again consumed by the dark as the Goddess extinguishes her horn. With shaky limbs the eldest dark brother rises to his hooves as his keen eyes peer through the dark at his opponent as he watches as the Goddess’s head swivels around as if searching. Blind and unable to see Negrado knows that surely this is the chance he has waited for. Drawing a slim nimble knife dripping with the most deadly poisons known to Ponykind, the stallion tip toes over towards the Goddess his knife poised to plunge into her exposed breast. Only for Luna’s glistening eyes to turn directly towards the creeping stallion, her wrathful expression and suppressed rage making it as clear as daylight that she can see him.

“Oh, and should thou be considering attacking from stealth, Just remember this…” Luna’s eyes flash as teal draconic pupils take the place of her normal eyes. “Thou art not the only one able to see in the dark.”

“D-D-D-“ The stallion stutters nervously as his will begins to waver in the face of his newfound enemy. “D-Dally! C-Cameo! What are you waiting for? Get her now, Attack, D-D-Do something!”

Leaping forward more on reflex than actual concern to his elder brother the black coated Dally leaps forward his hooves outstretched to tackle the goddess. Only for his form to be hammered by a barrage of precise punches from Luna’s Dreamweaver. Dally gasps in pain as the blows pound his chest in rapid succession depriving him of his breath even as he is sent flying by the recoil of her blows. Tumbling through the air the young stallion lands with a resounding crack as his body smashes into the ground with a painful noise.

Smiling in satisfaction of another well placed blow Luna takes stock of her situation. “Let’s see now, there’s the shadow man…” Luna levels her gaze at the eldest dark brother, his hooves frozen in place as he stands rooted to the ground. “…there’s the lizard guy…” Cameo groans as he painfully pulls himself across the ground the cauterized wound still burning painfully. “…. And with the young pink maned one’s defeat that accounts for….” However Luna’s gaze stops on the last pony who she just finished beating to a pulp, the youngest Dark brother Dally rising from the dust.

“What?” Luna watches as despite her expectations the pink maned ebon stallion rises to his hooves seemingly unaffected by her stand’s ability. Backing away from the new powered pony Luna searches her memories for an answer for this baffling problem. “Mine power should have trapped thou in thine realm of dreams. How art thou still conscious?”

“Lulu!” Celestia shouts out from behind as the blue alicorn turn her head back to her sister “That one’s the most dangerous one! He can absorb any kind of magical energy thanks to that void on his chest!” the goddess looks back and sure enough under rapidly healing bruise inflicted by her stands’ powerful punches, is a single dark bulge that seems to defy the laws of time and space. “He probably absorbed your stand’s ability the moment it hit, to defeat him you must use physical attacks, not magic. He seems to be able to use the magic to heal his wounds to so you have to wear him down first.”

“Heh d-did you hear that guys?” Negrado nervously laughs as his hooves shake on the ground “My power is the most dangerous, I guess that when you have a power as good as mine you can’t help but intimidate even a few Goddesses!

“B-But Big Brother….” The cowering Dally trots over towards his elder brother. “I-I thought that she was talking about me. I thought that she said my power was the most….”

“This is all your fault Dally!” Cameo shouts as he limps over towards the younger his wings rustling in anger. “Thanks to your…. HACK!..... incompetence…. Look at how injured I am! And to think that I always stood up for you because you’re family!”

Wavering a little from the blood loss the stallion still manages enough strength to spit of to his side in disgust. “And the moment you get the chance you leave me so weak that I could keel over any second! You make me sick!”

“B-Big brother Cameo…” Dally cries as he tugs his wild pink mane. “No, don’t say that Brother… please.”

“Now heal my wounds!” Cameo demands. “Come on I’m dying here!”

“B-But I already used up all the life force I got from those three guardsmen and their families…. I can’t use any more without draining my..…”

“You can give me some of YOUR vital life source can’t you?” Cameo remarks without a hint of empathy “So heal me you dolt! Stop making me wait!”

Dally stands transfixed his body shaking as a feeling that he had never known begins to bubble up from the surface of his psyche. “Y….You…..” The younger stallion stares creepily at his bleeding brother before him, his eyes bulging out of his skull as Dally walks menacingly in his direction. “You w-want me to h-h-heal you? After everything you’ve said!?”

Cameo angry that the previously submissive stallion is putting off his healing raises his hoof to strike his fool of a brother slapping him weakly. “YES you retard! Cause while you were sitting over there like the idiot you….” Cameo hacks profusely “…..are I was risking my life to take down the princess and I would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for your incompetence!”

“B-B-B-Big brother Cameo…..” Small tears slide down his face as the black stallion rubs the spot of Cameo’s slap as though it was the most painful to him. “Big Brother Cameo never hit me before….. Big brother Cameo was always nicer to me than Big Brother Negrado…. Why?”

Cameo ignorant to Dally’s already fragile psyche groans heavily. “That was because I thought that you would be more obedient if I showed you some kindness now and then! Some mistake that was, now hurry up and heal me! HEAL ME NOW YOU IDIOT! NOT LATER DO IT RIGHT NOW!!”

…………….

Dally, now I’ve told Negrado your elder brother that he is the one in charge of this mission. However you and I both know that that’s a lie.

You and I are friends Dally, and that’s why I can tell you that even with your combination, that your pathetic elder brother has a snowball’s chance in Tartarus of bringing down Celestia.

The fact is neither of your brothers has a chance of defeating her, I don’t expect Negrado, or Cameo to defeat the evil goddess Celestia, I know neither of them can help me, but I know somepony that can, a pony who I trust absolutely!

Do you understand, Dally?

I, the Traitor have such faith in you and your superior stand power that I have placed YOU, not your pathetic brothers in charge of the most important mission in the history of Harmony.

The death of Princess Celestia.

You brother’s powers are pathetic and meaningless. They want you to think that you are powerless, that you are week and that’s why they abuse you and put you down.

Do you understand me Dally? They’re afraid of you, they fear your true power that’s why they hate you and abuse you every chance you get.

They want you to think that you are holding them back because they have always been holding YOU back! They are the ones afraid of being abandoned by you! You have nothing to fear from them.

So when the time comes…... The time that you realize what I’ve been saying is the truth. You must throw aside your fears and………..

…………….

“……he was right.” Dally whispers under his breath his fear replaced with a suddenly familiar and powerful emotion. “He was right all along.”

“What the buck are you doing Dally!” Raising his hoof like a slave driver raises a whip, Cameo musters up his strength and swings a back hoof in a blow he is sure that his misfit brother will never forget. “Stop whispering to yourself like a retard and heal…..”

But the blow never lands. Cameo’s hoof hovers in midair never reaching its mark as Dally’s strong hoof clinches Cameo’s arm in a vice.

“Dally?” Cameo asks as his brother’s eyes remain obscured from his vision. “DALLY you imbecile what do you think….”

SNAP!

“URRRRRAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!” Cameo screams as his arm is snapped like a matchstick his form hoisted up so that he is forced to stare directly into the dark and empty eyes of the stallion before him.

And gazing into his brother’s eyes Cameo for the first time begins to realize the full extent of what fills his brother’s mind and soul.

Hatred. Pure and unadulterated hatred.

Before this moment, Dally had directed all the hatred his brothers had fed him, all his own inner bitterness and all his pain inwards, he had hated himself and everything he did with a dark an unholy passion.

Now like a dormant volcano stewing its burning malicious contents from a lifetime, all that anger and pain had exploded and was flowing out over on the world around him for the first time.

And now there was something new that he hated.

Slowly a slight aura of green appears on Cameo, his skin rippling and clinching as the void in Dally’s chest grows larger. Like a deathly siphon Dally’s void works its dark purpose as it drains the energy from his dying brother’s body before him. Cameo’s skin wrinkles, his body grows weaker by with every pulse of the dark heart in Dally’s chest while the middle of the Dark Brothers flails powerlessly as he is trapped in Dally’s vice like grip.

“Br-Brother…” The stallion weekly coughs as his body becomes older and older by the second. “S-Stop you…. You’re killing me…..”

But Dally doesn’t respond, the dark void in his chest sucking every last iota of energy out of the struggling stallion before him, his very life force being drained from his body as Dally licks his lips in glee. Finally his body no longer able to take it, Cameo crumples in Dally’s’ arms as his body breaks down into dust. If silence was physical, then the simple weight of the silence filling the room could crush the very spirits of the gods witnessing such an atrocious crime.

Negrado himself barely able to process what he has just witnessed, shivers uncontrollably as Dally turns around to face his brother. “Now you’re next.” Dally spits out.

Without wasting a second the Negrado turns to run only to find his hooves frozen to the floor by a thick layer of condensed ice, his frantic attempts to escape only amusing the approaching black coated stallion. Smacking his jaws like a predator the youngest of the dark brothers falls on his elder sibling with a furry unmatched, his stands’ dark void growing wider and wider by the second as Negrado screams futilely for mercy. This time however the process is far quicker and in all of five seconds all that is left of the remains of Negrado, eldest of the dark brothers can be swept up in a dustpan. Dally breathes in heavily as by now the dark void that consists of much of his torso is about the size of a basketball it’s dark and empty expanse completely taking the place of his beating heart. Cracking a sick and twisted smile Dally brushes his mane back with absentminded care as he turns back to face the two aghast princesses, their looks of matching horror only thrilling the demented stallion even more.

“Well? No words of admonishment?” Dally asks, spitting at the feet of the two goddesses “No condemnation for my crimes? And here I thought the immortal princesses of an empire would be more judgmental.”

Taking a step towards the stallion, demonstrating that beyond all doubt she is not afraid Dally’s behavior, is the Princess of the night. Luna’s mane ripples threateningly in an astral wind as her stand’s scaled armor ripples with the light of the night sky. “I have nothing to say.” Luna spits out “To a rabid monster.”

However the princess’s response seems only to delight the dark brother as he laughs in her face. “Big talk for a mare who was nothing but a monster herself until a few months ago. Though I suppose that attempting to kill all Ponykind such an easy crime to forget, Nightmare Moon.”

Unwilling to take the stallion’s abuse a second longer the mare of the night charges in horn blazing with magic as her stand’s gleaming horseshoes flash in the ambient light. Then with expert timing Luna teleports behind the stallion rushing him from behind with a barrage of stand infused punches that shatter the ground underneath Dally’s hooves. With a resounding impact from Dreamweaver’s Silver horseshoes Dally’s back contorts in agony as the strength of her blows seem to inflict lasting damage on the stallion. However as the barrage dies down and the ground cracks beneath Dally’s punishment the stallion pushes back against the punches each blow deflected by his strong muscular back as the dark void of his heart grows with each punch. Suddenly with strength aplenty the stallion lashes back with a single blow which Luna barely defends against, yet even with her guard up the sheer force of the blow sends her spiraling backwards through the air. Landing on the ground a bit dizzier from her exchange Luna shakes off her spinning head just as Dally rushes in pounding Luna’s diaphragm with a blow that whistles through the air. Hacking up blood from the intensity of the blow Luna finds herself driven into the ground with the force of Dally’s’ blow as he raises his left hoof above his head it’s tip bristling with dark nothingness as he prepares for a finishing blow.

“Dark Ice.” Dally swings down his hoof its tip crackling with the void as Luna stares blankly at the imminent attack. Suddenly the younger alicorn finds herself her body dragged out of the way of Dally’s blow just as it hits the ground the negative energy of the hoof instantly draining all the heat out of the air and causing the ground itself to freeze over with icy stalactites. Panting heavily Celestia props her sister up as Dally’s dark empty eyes stare malevolently at the alicorn who just denied him his kill.

Yet Celestia stands undaunted by his gaze only glancing over to her sister once to assure herself of her sister's’ condition. “Sister? Are you hurt?”

“How…” Luna spits up another small mouthful of blood her ribs bruised and lungs wincing in pain. “How could anypony be that strong?! It was like being hit by a dragon……. And even after I hit him with everything I had….”

“Don’t you get it fool?” Dally rants “In case you didn’t notice I can absorb and release an infinite amount of energy! I’m a living black hole!”

Dally chuckles to himself as he savors the stunned look on both princesses faces. “The only reason I didn’t absorb it before was because SOME PONIES told Dally that he'd be a bad pony if he didn’t take his punishment! HA AHAH! But there’s not here to make little Dally feel bad any more now are they!? HA ah AH HA aH AHA!”

“For example….” Dally extends left arm outwards the room growing colder and icier by the second as his void pulses like a heartbeat. Even the Goddesses their bodies used to the most extreme temperatures can’t help but break out into shivering as ice begins to form on the cavern walls. “….. I can absorb all the magic and heat in the surrounding area…..” Dally aims the void in his heart at the two alicorn as it begins to emit the faintest of lights. “…..and unleash it all at once!”

The void on his chest begins to glow with a fowl light, as Celestia who realizes what is coming just barely manages to shout out a warning as she rolls for cover. “Lulu! Get down!”

Luna’s eyes widen as she follows her sister’s lead her body instinctively ducking for cover just as a gargantuan bolt of heat and energy arches through the air just where the two mares were sitting. As the bolt rips through the air past them the sheer heat of the blast melting feathers and singing pelts on its path is it glances the two prone alicorns. A deafening and catastrophic explosion rips through the mountain behind them, showering them with stone and rubble alike as the ball of magical energy soars past them. Crash after resounding crash echoes through the mountain as the room they are in is racked with miniature earthquakes shaking the foundations of the earth itself. Even two goddesses cannot help but stand dumbstruck at the devastation the mountain has endured the gaping hole a testament to the evil stallion Dally’s power.

“HA did you see that!” Dally gestures to the gaping hole in the side of the mountain its smoldering edges dripping with magma from the intensity of the attack. “I nearly cut through an entire mountain, IN ONE SHOT! BWa HA AH AH ha HA hA AH AH HA!!”

Dally winces in pain as he brings his aching hoof to his aching head, his eyes glowing dark black as he glances at the hole in front of him created by his power. “I can’t believe I never saw it before! That Traitor was right! I feel a thousand times, no a million times better with them out of the way!”

Holding up his left hoof the stallion savors the newfound power now coursing through his veins as a strange empty feeling causes the hair on his arm to fall off in splotches. “Without my worthless brothers to hold me back now my power has no limits! Well at least they played a role in the end, after all now I have the combined magical power of all three of the dark Brothers in one! Guragh!”

Dally winces in pain his left arm throbbing as skin begins to fall off in clumps his back arching in pain as he struggles to control the immense force of the void in his chest. “I-I-I-I’m-m-m the……. I-I-I'm mmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMM!!!!!!”

Dally clenches his teeth in apparent pain as he suppresses a scream his left arm striping itself to the bone as its physical remnants are sucked fully into dark void on his chest. His back arches in agony as two ugly bulges ripple beneath his skin his skin contorting itself as he lies on the ground clutching what is left of his arm. Dally buckles and writhes in pain as even the flesh of his arm disintegrates bloodlessly their very being reduced to subatomic particles, molecules of pure energy, only to be drawn into the dark void on his chest.

 “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!”

Both Celestia and Luna look on in horror as the stallion writhes about even more the deformation of his skull and the cracking of his backbone made all the more sickening by the stallion’s contortions. Then with terrifying suddenness the stallion’s movements finally stop as two dark pure black wings rip themselves out of his back. That is if the twig like and sparse feathered bony protrusions that drip with black ichor could be called wings in any sense of the word. This is followed by yet another scream from the stallion as a twisted and broken horn its end sprouting twisted points like a thorn-bush. Dally’s left arm completely vanishes, consumed by the gaping empty hole that now takes the place of much of his left side as he rises shakily to his hooves. The dark alicorn smiles evilly with misshapen sharpened teeth, the whites of his eyes replaced with a pale grey as the transformation that seems to drive all color from his body replaces the bright pink of his mane with a pale bony white. “I……..I AM INVINCIBLE!”

Both mares stare agape at the twisted being before them that can no longer be called a pony it’s left side consumed by a gaping maw of darkness its’ body adorned with broken twisted limbs of both pegasi and unicorns. Celestia however is the first to respond suppressing her urge to vomit at the sight before her. “L-Luna… is that?”

“Darkness Pact..…” Luna states with a tinge of deep sadness “Stands draw fourth strength from the psyche, thus drawing fourth strength from the…. More undesirable parts of a psyche, like hatred, rage and greed can drastically increase stand strength.” Luna remarks as she stares at the twisted monstrosity chortling like a demon.

“However the cost is far too high for any sane mind.” The mare of the night admits with a tone of finality and repressed pain that underscores her own suffering. “Drawing upon the darkest most evil portions of a pony’s mind results in madness, sociopathy, schizophrenia and an unsuppressed hatred that will eventually consume any last vestiges of a pony’s soul.”

“You see!?” Dally rants as he spits up another mouthful of black bile, his pain and endless agony forgotten in the haze of power that courses through his veins. “The-the energy I have absorbed from those two nitwits have given me their Pegasi and Unicorn essences! Destiny has chosen me, Dally Dark as the God that will reign over a new world!”

Dally looks at his sole remaining hoof as he feels the dark chasm that consumed his left arm. His new scraggly and filthy wings twitch and his misshapen horn glows with a black aura as a new power he never knew courses through his veins. “Forget the Traitor’s plan! With this amount of power I could level this entire kingdom if I wanted! The world and everything in it now belongs to me as a divine right!”

“I am the end of everything.” Dally states with a twisted look in his eyes “I am the darkness that will wipe this world clean of its Filth.”

“Cease your prattling dark monstrosity!!” Luna snaps sharply cutting off the stallion’s rant. “Any fool of a pony could tell that you are no alicorn, absorbing your brother’s life forces have only caused a facsimile mutation. You do not have any control over the power of the three races and you are certainly not a god.” Luna’s eyes narrow as she stares down the new alicorn. “I have killed gods. And I have killed monstrosities and you are nothing but another sick monstrosity waiting to be put down”

“HA!” Dally laughs “You…. You’re just afraid, afraid of poor little powerless Dally now that HE HAS THE POWER!” He flexes his bony wings unable to even achieve flight as he trots over to the two this void pulsing with dark light. “But you don’t have to be afraid any more I’m here to bring your long and pathetic lives to a sudden close, so just lay down and die like the little flies that you are……”

Both mares leap to their hooves once again ready to fight back as they stand once more before a nearly invincible foe. “Well sister?” Celestia asks “Have any bright ideas?”

“It looks bad sister, if he can absorb magic…. “Luna muses as she glances over to the white maned alicorn. “….and if he can absorb the kinetic energy of attacks…..” Luna looks with fearful eyes upon the stallion, the void in his chest growing larger and larger by the second. “…..Then how in Equestria do we stop an opponent whom cannot be felled by either blade or magic?”

Glancing at the dark hole in the swaggering stallion’s chest Celestia applies her logical mind with the upmost potential as she thinks back over everything she knows about her opponent Dally and his terrifyingly powerful stand. The thinks over his abuse at the hooves of his brothers, his ability to absorb and release energy, his gristly murders and his sudden ‘ascension’ as she thinks over the way to overcome the opponent in front of her. All thought of retreat forgotten as she looks at the mare beside her, she will not run and leave such a terror to her sister. Suddenly her memory courses over one inconsequential face, the disappearance of Dally’s arm as an idea take form.

“Simple Lulu.” Celestia states with brimming confidence “If his power is truly invincible then we turn his own power upon itself.”

Luna looks over to her sister with a look of surprise while keeping one eye on Dally. “What did you have in mind sister?”

“I need a hole.” Celestia states “one that cuts from the inside of the mountain to the outermost shell, and seeing how his last attack made such a nice impression….” Celestia gestures towards the hole behind her the deep crevice hundreds of meters long.

“I begin to suspect your idea!” Luna grins as she watches as even the heat around Dally body is ripped from the air and drawn deep into the crevice that is his heart. “And since his power returns magical attacks at several times their normal power, perhaps we can indeed use his power against him in more ways than one.”

“Then it’s settled. Try and keep up sister dearest.” Celestia smiles slyly at her sister. “You have been gone a thousand years, let’s hope you’re not out of practice.”

“Heh…” Luna chuckles “if any pony is out of shape it is that cake loving flank of yours Celly.” Luna gestures good naturedly to the large flank of her sister and her injured wing. “Look at you; you look the fright deer sister. Perhaps you should stay on the sidelines and leave this to the young ponies.”

“As the youngsters of today say ‘Dream on’.” Celestia prods the mare aside her “You should respect your elders, LITTLE sister. If you’ll remember I was casting sixth level spells while you were handling cantrips. So if anypony is falling behind it would be you Lulu.”

“I believe you have made another foundering sister.” Luna chuckles “For the realm of dreams is my domain so if I were to dream I would be simply arriving in a plane in which I am in complete control! Therefore your argument is……”

“WILL THE TWO OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!!” Dally yelps snapping the two ponies out of their reprieve. “In case you failed to notice I’m on the verge of immortal godhood, and you Two are about to die by my hooves. So if you would stop chatting like idle school fillies that would be great!”

“…….”

“….. on three then…..” Celestia whispers.

Without warning a cascade of frozen ice shards shoots towards the mares forcing them to dodge to the side to avoid being impaled. “THREE!” Luna shouts as she grabs some of the errant spears of ice throwing them back at the black coated pony with all the force he threw them at her.

The icicles hit their mark hitting three lethal spots on Dally’s body. However just as instantly as the spears hit, his body begins rapid healing, the ice melting from the rapid metabolism of his body. By the time Luna has arrived close enough to attack the protruding icicles have melted away leaving behind perfectly healed flesh in its place. Yet despite the fact that every blow the Lunar Goddess seems to inflict has little to no effect on the stallion Luna hammers away even harder her pace and blows growing more intense with every successful blow on the stallion.

Meanwhile off in the distance Celestia stands like a statue her horn crackling with static as her magical aura expands, encompassing the air around her. Her stand floating like an angel hovers above her form its glowing white eyes as sign of the intense magical reactions flowing through its body like liquid fire. The Goddess of the Sun’s face a mask of the utmost concentration begins to break out in a sweat as her horn accesses levels of magic only dreamed of by unicorn magi of ages long since passed.

Yet all good things must come to an end as Dally extends his remaining fore hoof, his horn sparkling with faint traces of magic as his stand pulses with a dark light. “Darkness….RELEASE!” like a thunderclap a sudden explosion shoots outwards centering from his chest sending the blue mare flying backwards from the blow. Landing just barely on her hooves the Goddess manages to barely stand as Dally rushes in attacking with the pent up energy from his stand as he pounds Princess Luna returning the same force she once used on him. Unwilling to let him have his way Luna fights back her multitude of blows beating out Dally in terms of speed and numbers as her stand’s punches hit him head on. Yet every successful attack inflicted by the Alicorn of the night only seems to fuel the dark hole in his chest, the void growing larger while Dally grins evilly. Suddenly one lucky shot gets in and in an instant it is over, the Alicorn of the night spiraling through the air from Dally’s uppercut as she lands with a harsh thud on the cold cavern ground.

Stepping on Luna’s head with his dirty hoof, the dark alicorn of the void stares down at his pinned opponent as he laughs out in joy. “HA! I bet you thought that your little dreaming punches would put me to sleep hunh? Well forget it! My power absorbs all your pathetic magical AND physical attacks.” Dally pushes down further as Luna stifles a wince of pain. “Heh and you thought that you stood a chance against me….. that a monster like you stood a chance of felling me.”

“Luna!” Celestia shouts out in concern as the dark stallion stands over the prone and battered goddess of the night. Celestia’s mane suddenly grows white hot as she takes an intimidating step towards Dally. “Leave her alone Dally. Or I swear on the sun that I’ll……”

“I don’t’ see why you care.” Dally rolls his eyes “Such an idiot who couldn’t even scratch my perfect form DESERVES to die.”

“Surely you don’t mean that?” Celestia states looking for any vestiges of weakness and goodness in her opponent as well as playing for time. “Surely your brothers were…..”

“B-Brothers?” the black coated stallion laughs as he pummels the prone blue mare “HA! brothers, as if I would even call them that! All they ever were, were eyesores. Always beating me down, always thinking I was the weakest, always making fun of me, when in fact they were the ones in MY way!”

Absorbing a large helping of magic from the princess of the night, the stallion looks at the now gaping vacuum in his chest smiling as he begins to draw in more heat from the air around him. “And now their lives have served the ultimate purpose, in making me the strongest dark brother and the strongest alicorn in the world!”

“..…You’re deluded and not thinking straight. Do you really think that this is the answer?” Celestia’s hoof stomps into the ground before her with enough force to shatter rock as she tries one last attempt to reason with Dally. “Having power doesn’t make you brave and flaunting your power over others won’t make you happy, only more alone.”

Celestia takes a step forward her horn’s blazing light reaches its zenith. “If you continue on this path, if you so recklessly throw away your own potential and the lives of others, than you really will become a monster.”

“Don’t you dare to judge me Sun witch! I’ve merely sacrificed a hindrance in order to increase my own power! After all isn’t that what you did!?” the stallion laughs as the solar goddess flinches as if struck by the heaviest of blows. “You banished your own sister so you could rule Equestria absolutely, so that you could play God like the witch you are.” The stallion laughs as he spits on Luna’s pristine coat with venom dripping from his every word.

“You’re the same as me!” Dally points at Celestia “You saw an obstacle on your way of true power and you got rid of it. In this world, In order to advance something must be sacrificed, so why shouldn’t I sacrifice theses fools that dare get in the way of my righteous destiny?”

“…….”

“Well?! Nothing to say CELESTIA!?!”

“………….”

Celestia doesn’t have anything to say. How could she say anything when what he said was true? The context was horribly butchered but the result could not be denied, she had thrown away her sister. She had chosen her people’s safety and their lives over that of her own family. To this day she didn’t know whether she made the right choice, maybe if she had spoken to her sister, if she had told her the importance that the Corpse played in the stability of their land. Maybe if she had told her sister how much she loved her or investigated the repercussions of the corpse’s power like her sister said it could have all been avoided. But the flow of time offers no what-Ifs, and so the result remained. She had banished her only sister. She had trapped her in a fate worse than death for over a millennia.

And worse than that, she had driven her to it. And even worse she even after she had determined the power of the corpse had played a role in her sister’s corruption she has insisted on using it still. How could she not?! Cures for the cureless, peace for the restless and salvation for her little ponies in an age bereft of hope. How could she deny them their peace that they deserved, love and tolerance alone could not heal the sick or save a life. It was only thanks to the power of the Corpse that her ponies had lived to see a world without war and pestilence that had would have been their fate before. So she had justified her sister’s sacrifice and that of others as a ‘necessary trade’ she the monarch who had epitomized justice and goodness had justified every disaster she had wrought for the sake of her little ponies. Just Like how Dally’s brothers had driven to his current state through years of abuse, it was her negligence and self-righteousness that had driven her sisters’ transformation into Nightmare Moon. Perhaps In the end she was just like…..

“You are NOTHING like Celly.” Luna states from beneath Dally’s hoof her voice the possessing the sternness and chill of tempered steel. “You are just a monster, drunk on your own power who slaughtered his kin in a bout of primal rage. You are NOTHING like my sister.”

Dally, though originally stunned by the Goddess’s sudden words laughs in Luna’s face. “HA and I suppose the ‘monster’ who tried to kill all Ponykind is any…..”

“SHUT UP.” Luna snaps the stallion out of his rant. “I have no patience for your blasphemous words. True my sister was forced to make an impossible decision, the extinction of all mortals or my own exile. Were I in her place, I….. I could not have made such a choice, and I am the one who forced such a weighty decision on her.”

Luna gulps down her tears as she stares back at her sister letting her know once and for all where the fault lasts for her corruption. “It… It was me and my weakness alone that allowed the darkness in my soul to take hold, my weakness that drove me to embrace the jealousy in my soul towards my sister….. It was all me, with no fault of hers.”

“L-Lulu….” Celestia mouths her eyes tearing up as she listens to her sister’s profession the pain and wounds in her heart mending themselves with every word her sister speaks.

“Had I talked things over with her……. had I made her understand the danger of the powers we were toying with then perhaps this all could have been avoided.” Luna closes her eyes as she thinks back to the dark days of her past. “It was me…… and my negligence not my sister’s that lead to my own downfall.”

Looking back at Dally, Luna clamps down on her own hesitation as she utters the words she was trying to say all night. “The corpses’ power has torn us apart as it has torn apart the lives of so many others. I do not fight my sister or the enemies in my way over petty grudges or over relics of the past. I fight for a world bereft of sacrifices or justifications, a world where every living thing has the right to live life, be it one of suffering or one of plenty.”

Luna smiles as she locks eyes with her sister, both on the verge of tears after such a heartfelt display of emotion and sincerity. “And in her own way, my sister does too.”

Both sisters cry tears of joy, words unable to express how deep and meaningful the younger sister’s words are to her elder. “You say that because you killed your brothers you know the meaning of sacrifice but you think of no pony but yourself while she only thinks of the well being of others. And that is why you are nothing like my sister.” Luna grins with a cocky smile as she flaunts her moral victory over the gaping stunned stallion above her. “Though suppose that only a stallion who would murder his only family like an animal would think that being able to murder others made him a better pony.”

Dally stares at the mare beneath him part of him insulted by the Goddess of the night’s pathetic ideology and part of it enraged by her defiance of his will. “You know I was going to kill you first…” Dally pries his gaze from the dark blue mare beneath his hooves as he looks up at the mare of sunlight, her horn charging with monumental levels of magic. “…..But I think I’ll give you the honor of seeing your sister die! That means I’m gonna kill you first CELLY! I hope you’re ready to perish! HAHahAHAHA!!”

Dally approaches the now helpless white allicorn, her spell still charging the mare is unable to defend against the stallion’s attacks. Dally licks his lips in anticipation as he approaches the now defenseless mare, his one good arm winding up an attack for what will be a lethal blow on the Goddess of the sun. Yet despite the menace approaching her, Celestia stands fast her body ready receive Dally’s attack as her unfinished spell bubbles just on the edge of preparation.

Suddenly with as much drama as a flickering light bulb the light on Celestia’s horn flickers out leaving a very bemused look on the Goddess of the sun’s face. “Well… “Celestia blinks as she blushes in embarrassment “Would you look at that, charging is done. Goodness it took me quite a long time this time around!”

“A-About time sister….” Luca manages to cough up as her horn flickers with a slight light. With a simple teleport the mare of the night vanishes from sight appearing beside her sister’s brilliantly glowing stand.  “Though had I not employed strategy seventeen: ‘distract the villain with a monologue’ you would have never had time to finish your plan!”

“About time?!” Dally shouts as he gestures with his remaining hoof “About time for what?”

“Oh nothing much.” Celestia says dismissively “Just a tenth level light spell.”

“T-Tenth level magic!?” Dally stammers “There’s a tenth level of magic?!”

“Megan scriptor aurei crines.”

Like a rain of pure golden sunlight the dark stallion is instantaneously assaulted by a rain of golden arrows that seem to attack from every direction. With a multitude of attacks that ellipses the number of raindrops in a summer storm each and every beam of lithe light that radiates from the goddess tears through Dally’s unprotected flesh in a bullet-storm of luminous projectiles. Ricocheting endlessly off the walls of the caverns around them the dark brother screams in pain as even his void like heart struggles to absorb the intensity of the energy ripping through his very being. Blow after blow strikes him as the bullets rip through him when suddenly the void in his chest can take it no more. Just as Celestia’s attack reaches its peak a bolt of pure light, kinetic energy and bottomless rage for the Goddesses explodes from Dally’s chest as the force of his attack blows the two goddesses off their hooves. Even anticipating the evil alicorns attack the two royal pony sisters barely dodge the intense attack that rips through the mountain like a hot knife through butter with a devastating explosion of noise.

Dally breathing heavily from the sudden exertion of power feels the void on his chest, though diminished by the sudden burst of energy, resume growing to about the size of a beach ball. Managing the slightest of smiles at his immense reserves of power Dally trots shakily to the prone form of Celestia lying in the dirt before the gaping hole he just created.  It is then standing not a hoof’s length away from the prone Goddess clinging to life from his devastating attack that Dally begins to laugh wickedly. “HA HA! a direct hit. Victory is mine! Burn and die you sun witch! I hope you…….”

The groaning of the Goddess snaps Dally out of his rant, his face expressing true distress at the Celestia’s survival. Plucking her head graceful from the dirt at her hooves the Goddess blinks several times to clear the dust from her eyes as she looks at Dally with an unexplainable look of satisfaction on her muzzle.

“Well that took quite a while.” Celestia states brushing her coat off as if nothing had happened. “And here thought you’d never follow the plan…. Dally was it? Anyhow thank you for being so simplistically predictable.” Celestia manages a cut nod while lying on her flank as a sign of her thanks.

“What?” Dally asks unable to comprehend why his enemy is so lackadaisical when faced with imminent death.

“You’re giving him too much credit sister…..” Luna moans as she slowly pulls herself off the ground off in the distance her charred coat a sign of her close shave. “He took forever to launch that attack, and were it not for my constant attacks he might have not gone along with our plan.”

“What?! What plan!?”

“You were a good opponent no doubt but in the end you made three mistakes.”  Celestia rises to her hooves an unreadable expression on her ivory muzzle.  “First you underestimated your opponent.” Celestia states. “Even though your opponent has thousands of years of experience more than you, controls the sun and has fought hoof to hoof with the most terrifying demons you still make this mistake.”

“What Plan?!”

“Second, you have no strategy.” Celestia circles towards the gaping hole behind her, letting in a small amount of light refract of her glistening coat. “Your power is impressive and powerful. And though you are most certainly not the strongest stand user have ever faced, your ability to absorb an infinite amount of energy is troublesome to say the least.”

“N-Not the strongest stand user?!” The black alicorn creates a crater in the ground with his one good hoof. “Impossible! My stand is the strongest! And what in blue blazes is this talk about a Pla……”

“Yet.” Celestia continues her chastisement. “Even though you don’t have a plan you also possess no combinations or abilities that make the most use of your power, and have little control as well.”

The mare glares at the stallion before her as fresh sunlight begins to fall upon her ivory coat. “The first two I might have been able to forgive, in my long lifetime I have endured far worse at the hooves at my enemies.” Celestia’s horn ignites her horn burning in righteous fury as she stares down the dark stallion before her. “But nopony, NOPONY insults my sister.”

“I have lied of the existence of my only family.” The princess’ voice thunders octaves away from the royal Canterlot voice. “Erased my sister’s crimes from the annuls of history.” The gold horse-shoe of the goddess smashes into the ground. “And forgiven her a thousand times over of any slight she may have inflicted on me while she was in her state of insanity.”

Celestia roars as the sun rises behind her it’s light shining through the hole in the mountainside as the goddess’ rage ignites like a powder keg. “BUT THOUST DARED INSULT HER!! THOUST DARED TO DRAGEST HER NAME THROUGH THE MUD FOR THINE OWN AMUSEMENT!!!” Celestia shouts as she sun rises behind her blinding every pony in the dark mountain crevice. The Goddess of the sun cloaked in all her majesty, her mane blazing with fire and her eyes as luminous as the sun causes the mountain to shake from the very sound of her voice striking fear into the souls of mortal beings. Standing before him is not the timid weak willed goddess he was handed for execution, but a fiery raging behemoth of light and flame, her voice as cold as death. “AND FOR THAT I SHALL NOT FORGIVE YOUR FLAGRANT AND MALEVOLENT CRIMES.”

Dally shields his eyes his senses so used to the dark now blinded by the direct radiance of the sun. “Wh-What is this? Is…. is that the sun? But we’re two miles underground how is it….”

The flaming haired goddess smiles “Didn’t you forget your little attack that nearly clove through the mountain?” Dally’s eyes widen. “It is fortunate for me that it was on the eastern side of the mountain, the side that the sun rises on. All my sister and I had to do was prod you into making one final attack so that my precious sun could shine its holy light upon this black abyss.”

“B-Big whoop!” The slightly more scared stallion shouts out in defiance as his void like heart grows. “Throw everything you’ve got at me sun witch I’ll eat all your precious light with my Dark Heart.”

Yet despite the stallion’s confident claims and his stand’s immensely powerful vacuum swallowing up all the light it touches Celestia stands as unmoved as ever. “Yes absorb all my light, what a creative and original plan you have there.” Dally growls in response to Celestia’s mocking voice.

“Very well I permit you to absorb all the energy I throw at you….. that is……” Celestia smiles as a look of fear crosses Dally’s face. “…….If you can absorb ALL THE ENERGY OF THE SUN!!”

Celestia’s stand ‘Walking on Sunshine’ extends its majestic wings as the very light of the sun itself filters though it’s pristine and golden glowing body. Acting like an enormous magical magnifying-glass, a torrent of lava hot sunlight falls down upon Dally’s head scorching his fragile black body as his stand struggles to absorb all the energy he is being bombarded with.

“Do you have any idea of how much energy my sun produces in a second?” Celestia’s voice booms over the sound of Dally’s’ screams of pain “and yet you really think your darkness can absorb all of its power?” Celestia stands over the dark stallion as her sister Luna looks on dumbstruck at the immensity of her sister’s power.

“True….” The Goddess of the sun admits “I can only tap into the smallest fraction of this power myself. However if you are so deluded that you believe that you can absorb it all then you truly are in need of help.”

“YOU JUST WATCH!!” the corrupt Dark alicorn of the Void shouts as the sphere of nothingness across his chest grows larger; it’s black expanse struggling futilely to drain the endless levels of sunlight that seem to be ripping through the very core of his being. “I CAN ABSORB IT ALL! YOU JUST WATCH I’LL SUCK YOUR PRECIOUS SUN DRY!!” Dally screams in defiance as his void grows larger and larger. “I don’t understand why you’re even trying to fight!! Is it because you don’t want to leave that insane, useless stain you call a sister behind? You should forget about her, she’s just a worthless waste of existence!! You should run like the coward you are!!”

Celestia smiles as the sunlight continues to course down on Dally’s head the intensity of the light alone would have killed any normal pony minutes ago. “Well, Well….” Celestia remarks as she looks over to Luna “Run away? There is no need to run away.” Celestia laughs in Dally’s face “Because before you take your next breath you’ll have already lost.”

Dally grins as he prepares to deliver a stinging retort, to insult Celestia’s sister stand power and pathetic resistance once again, only to find to his great surprise that he can’t even breathe. Looking down in dawning horror Dally watches at the void in his chest grows over the rest of his chest, his lungs and diaphragm having been absorbed into his own stand’s body. Dally watches unable to even gasp as his remaining hoof cracks and shatters, the hairs on his arm disintegrating under his stand’s immense pull.

Celestia faced with such close minded hatred can only sigh in pity as the Dally struggles to scream his body being broken down by his own stand. “My little pony let me tell you something that can only be learned from countless years of experience.” Celestia smiles sadly as the void in Dally’s chest grows larger and larger. “There is not a thing on this earth that is infinite, there is nothing that physically exists that won’t eventually fade away. Even the sun must one day give way for a new era’s genesis.”

Celestia looks down on the dark soul in front of her; her eyes devoid of pity or remorse for Dally or his actions. “But I can assure you the sun will last longer than you will.”

Dally looks down at his chest in stark horror as he watches it expand across the remainder of his body, his wings having long since been absorbed into the black mass that he once thought was under his complete control. The dark stallion opens his mouth, unable to even scream given that his lungs have been eaten by the black pit of emptiness that is rapidly consuming his physical form to the last molecule. The stallion cries out psychically to his own stand, demanding, begging that it stop growing, that it stops eating him alive, demanding that it obey him and his will. Yet all that greets him back in his stand’s own endless hunger, the immense energy of the sun pouring into its maw feeding the stand’s emptiness even as it craves more energy to fill it’s formless center. With no small amount of apathetic despair the surviving Dark Brother realizes that with the endless amount of sunlight coursing down upon him that escape is impossible. Even if he could stop his absorption and try and return the energy filling his being the constant fury of the laser thick sunlight coursing down on him would kill him instantly the moment he tried to return her energy back on the Goddess of the Sun.

Unable to do anything as the darkness of his own stand rips his body apart molecule by molecule Dally is only able to watch as a figure emerges from the light coursing down in front of him. Celestia’s face that stares down on Dally’s pathetic state is that of a true monarch, impartial but fair, just but sympathetic, a gleaming sword of sunlight raised above her head as she prepares to strike.

It is a face that has seen many years both good and evil and has judged both in her time. Celestia looks down on Dally’s pathetic state, his existence devoid of hope or happiness, trapped in a cycle of hatred and pain without any chance of redemption. Even now the compassionate mare sees that the twisted being has been consumed by his very nature, his death is now certain and inevitable. Thus as both an act of retribution and an act of mercy the Goddess of the sun raises her sword managing to shed one last word of godly wisdom that will surely brighten the dark alicorn's last moments.

“Oh and by the way…..” Celestia states solemnly as she raises a sword of pure sunlight over the quivering stallion’s neck. “…..OC alicorns suck…………. PEACE!”

With a single curt swing of her gleaming sword Celestia lops off Dally’s head just as the void around his body grows to consume the last vestiges of his being. As the void around his body grows to epic proportions his head disintegrates as its’ latent energy is sucked into the dark hole that now has eaten up every last trace of the stallion. The endless void that was Dally’s body, now deprived of its physical anchor in the world begins to flicker out of existence under the unbearably bright light of the rising sun. The black dot’s from dissipating into thin air like mist as eventually all that is left behind is a small black hole the size of a marble which winks out of existence the last trace of the stand and it’s user vanish from reality.

Panting in and out like a pony who has just finished running the running of the leaves ten times in a row the Goddess of the sun breathes in and out each breath heavy and labored. “I-It’s finally over…..” Celestia states in relief as she falls to her back in complete exhaustion, panting heavily from the exertion.

She is soon joined by none other than the princess of the night, Princess Luna who is still struggling to rub the spots out of her vision. Thought battered and severely blinded, the mare of the night still manages the force of will to trot over to her sister her mouth unable to suppress a slight grin at The Goddess of the sun’s splayed out position.

“Feeling better sister?” Luna asks mockingly.

“Well……” Celestia pants “I’m still alive… so that’s something……….”

Luna smiles “Good.” and punches Celestia in the shoulder.

“Ow…. Luna that hurt” Celestia rubs her shoulder, her pride and feeling hurt more than her flesh by her sister’s condescending tone. “What was that for?!”

“Why are there not more guards here Celestia?” Luna asks in the tone a parent might use on a child up past their bedtime “You are the ruler of the country, the most important pony in Equestria and you just waltz straight into a trap like a blind filly!?! Why was there not a platoon of guards? Why were you here by yourself!? Are you trying to get yourself killed sister!?!” Luna shouts angrily.

“Were it not for my timely arrival you could have….. you would have been…….” The dark goddess of the night brushes errant tears from her eyes. “W-Well you shouldn’t have been down here alone sister! What were you thinking!?”

“I sent them away Lulu.” Celestia says with an honest smile stunning the goddess of the night. “I didn’t want any of my little ponies to be hurt so I sent them away so they wouldn’t be harmed in the crossfire.”

Luna’s mouth continues to hang open as Celestia looks upon her sister with the same honest compassion that earned her to her nation and earned her the love of her ponies hundreds of times over. “Besides….. The reports said that YOU were down here…. So ……. I didn’t want you to be hurt Lulu.”

Dumbfounded by her sister’s response Luna crosses her arms in a nice pout as she chastises her sister’s reckless behavior. Turning her muzzle away from her sister, the Goddess of the night tries with all her might to hide the blush of embarrassment spreading across her face. “Only you Celly. Only you would be so foolish as to try and handle everything on your own when you have no shortage of ponies to help you. You would probably try to do every pony’s jobs for them if you had the time for it! We’d have to paint cutie marks on ponies because with you doing everything they’d never find out their special talents, and where would that leave us then!?”

Celestia can’t help but laugh at this as she and Luna join in at the ridiculous thought of Celestia rushing around at light speed performing every pony’s jobs for them and painting cutie marks on little fowls. For minutes the two mares just sit about laughing, laughing away their exhaustion, their fear of death, their apprehension of the future and their regrets of the past. All of it is lost in the moment where two sisters sit about as if nothing bad has ever happened between them and for one single moment everything is right with the world once again.

Finally the mirthful laughter between two good friends that have not seen each other in ages comes to a close as Celestia manages to move on to more serious matters. “True Lulu once again you are right. Yet I really had little choice since I had so little guards to choose from in the first place. Most of the elite guards have been sent to Ponyville for…. A special task to locate a traitor in our ranks.”

“What!?” Luna shouts grabbing her sister and shaking her back and forth the mare expresses in no uncertain words her feelings on the matter. “Ponyville the town that Twilight sparkle and her friends have taken residence, the town that the heart of the Corpse is in is under attack!? And thoust did not tell me!? Sister what were thou thinking!?!”

Brushing off her sister's’ arms Celestia puts her years of emotional control into play as she calms down the younger more temperamental alicorn. “Luna relax. I have my current captain of the royal guard Shining Armor currently in ponyville now he’ll make sure….. wait what did you just say?!”

Now it is Celestia who is rapidly shaking the confused Princess of the night. Shouting at the top of her lungs, Celestia, monarch of the sun shakes her sister like a demented Psych ward patient.  “The HEART of the Corpse is in PONYVILLE?! And you didn’t tell me!? What were you thinking Lulu!?!”

“CELESTIA!!!!”

“……Celly did you hear that?”

“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy sister! You’re going to……”

“Celestia!” a loud echoing voice echoed down the corridors of the mountain the sound of hoof steps barely heard as the sounds reveal the presence of several dozen ponies closing the distance between them. “Princess where are you?! It’s me Hard Tack! We’ve brought reinforcements!” The voice echoes down the halls of the mountain

“Just hole on.” The voice snickers “Get it because there’s a hole in the mountain?! Ha ha ha h… OW! Spell Shimmer, knock it off! Just because you don’t have a sense of humor….. OW!! Cut that out!!”

A sudden stunned expression of surprise covers Luna’s muzzle as the sound of royal guard closing in on her position, informs her that her time is indeed short. “Perfect, NOW the royal guard arrives. Well better late than never one supposes.” Flaring her wings the goddess of the night prepares for flight as she looks for an exit out of the mountainous cavern. “I guess…….This is my cue to leave then. It was nice seeing you Celly……despite everything…….”

Originally Celestia thinks that this is another one of her sister’s failed jokes, another attempt at her sister’s infamous botched humor. However the tone of her sister’s voice and her curled wings prepared any moment for a speedy flight soon convince her that her worst fears are in fact a reality. Celestia’s face loses all it’s color as her sister prepares to fly away once again leaving her behind, alone and in the dark. “W-Wait Luna!” Celestia shouts stopping her sister’s retreat in its tracks. “Where are you going!? Lulu you can’t leave now!”

Her wings closing for a second Luna looks back at her sister with fearful eyes. “I must leave Celly, we are enemies. I am wanted by your royal guard, and in your condition with the lack of assailant’s bodies I will undoubtedly be a suspect. I must leave before they……”

“That doesn’t matter!” Celestia shouts as she grasps her sister’s arm unwilling to let go. “You are my sister Luna, politics and opinions be damned….” Celestia nuzzles her sister’s fur in a sigh of utmost intimacy as she tries to once again convince her only remaining family of her good intentions. “…….As long as you are by my side none of these things matter. For a thousand years all I wanted was my sister back, and now that I have her I’m not going to let her go.”

This heartfelt moment goes on for several seconds both ponies unwilling to let go before Luna finally clears her throat. “Then…” Luna gulps back her fear as she presses into dangerous territory. “Then you have decided that the corpse is too dangerous? You agree with me that its power is better off not used?”

Celestia releases her hold on Luna’s arm in shock “…….What?!”

Luna turns back to her sister’s muzzle, inches away from her face as she stares at the monarch of Equestria with resentment and disappointment in her eyes. “…….You haven’t decided have you? You still insist on using the Corpse’s power….. even after everything that has happened ……. don’t you!?

“Lulu..… what are you talking about? You’re my sister and I love you more than anything!” Celestia says words brimming with hope “Surely there can’t be anything more important than that!”

“…...more important than the Corpse?”

“You can’t seriously expect me to make this decision Lulu? The fate of Equestria or your feelings?” Celestia states with defiance. “You can’t seriously expect me to make such a ………”

“Do you think that a power that redirects suffering onto others, the same power that corrupted me, should be destroyed? Yes or no.” Luna flares her wings in feigned anger as she pushes her advantage and forces the issue. “There is no middle ground to take Celestia, and you know how stubborn I am, I will not budge on this. So I’ll ask again, will you help me in destroying the Holy Corpse? Yes or No?”

Celestia’s response hangs in her throat her words inaudible as finally her voice manages a small and half-hearted chirp. “N-N-No.” Celestia admits shamefully, her voice on the brink of losing out to the silence the sound faltering as she struggles with her own resolve. “The corpse is capable of too much good, too many ponies lives depend on it for its power to just be destroyed. But surely Luna we can reach a compromise there’s no need for…..”

Turning her back on the pony in front of her Luna makes her point clear. “Then as long as you insist on your abuse of the Corpse’s power…..” With a heavy heart Luna swallows her tears as she suppresses her own sorrows. “….then we are rivals at best, Celestia.”

Celestia can barely believe it; she had just gotten her sister back only to lose her again. As the dark blue mare walks away part of Celestia wants to promise her anything, to lie or cheat if only to get the mare to come back to her. And yet, how could she make such a crucial and far reaching decision at the whims of her sister’s emotions? Was Luna really going to force her to make her decision now?! Was this a bluff to force her to abandon the corpse, to cave in to her demands?

No Luna wasn’t like that, she said what was on her mind and what she meant with no reading between the lines, and she would never bluff on something as important as this. A sinking feeling fills Celestia’s’ soul as she realizes that deep down Luna does mean it. Her sister has set herself against her, on the side opposing her and that meant that sooner or later, no matter what she does, they would come into conflict once again.

Did, did she have to fight her sister again? After everything they had already endured would they once again be forced to fight each other?! Was there no mercy in this world, that gods would conspire to watch sister and friends fight to the death for their own amusement!?!

Luna spreads her wings as she looks out the gaping hole into the still dark morning sky. “The guards will be here in a moment to provide you healing and first aid. You will be fine with them…. Farewell sister…..”

“LUNA!” Celestia cries out as she fumbles on shaky hooves towards her sister only to fall flat on her face. Looking up from the dirt at her hooves, the supreme Goddess of the sun looks at her sister with the most heart wrenching expression as tears cascade like waterfalls down her face. Luna unable to resist her baser instincts turns around to assure her sister is fine revealing her face as well is dripping with tears and snot alike as she cries mercilessly, her face mirroring the pony closer to her soul than any other.

However with her mission steeling her resolve the mare of the night wipes her tears and turns back to the window leading into the sky. “We shall meet again in ponyville; this is neither the time nor place for such a meeting.” The mare looks out at the hole in the mountain her eyes growing distant and unfocused. “Besides I fear for Twilight sparkle and her companions just as I fear for the fate of the corpse.”

And with that the Goddess of the night leaps into the air soaring through the opening like a bullet from a gun as she spreads her wings in an open blue sky above. Unwilling to let her sister go so easily Celestia spreads her wings only to wince in pain as she looks back to her broken wing.

Unable to follow her sister as she leaves her behind the all-powerful monarch of the sun looks up at her sister taking to the air and leaving her behind. “…..It’s amazing that Lulu can fly in her condition……” Celestia states as Exhaustion once again overtakes her causing her to fall to her haunches. “A tenth level light spell and an endless Solis Hastam? It’s amazing that I’m still conscious, Luna was right I’m really out of shape.” Celestia remakes as she looks down at the tear stained ground before her.

Yet fortunately (or unfortunately) for her the Princess of the sun doesn’t have much time to stew in her own sorrows as no sooner than her sister has left the Royal guards arrive immediately rushing around the injured mare in a frenzy of concern and vigilance.

“PRINCESS! Are you okay!?”

“You’re injured Princess What’s happened?!”

“Give her some room!”

“No don’t give her some room! Give her some medical attention!”

“Medics on Celestia NOW! She needs some immediate first aid!”

“Princess did you just blow a hole in Canterlot Mountain? That is so COOL!!”

“Its’ not cool you fool!! Think of the repercussions!! It could bring the mountains down!”

“Princess who did this?! Why are you injured? Was it Nightmare Moon?!”

Of Course it was Nightmare moon you dolt!”

“I’m NOT a dolt you….”

“Enough” The slightest whisper from the monarch of the sun silences the gaggle of ponies. Their voices catch in their throat as they all respectfully remain silent as they wait on the word of their ruler.

Celestia breathes in taking in the wincing pain from her bruised ribs, the pain bringing her an immense level of clarity as she looks down to a pony wearing the crest of the medical core. “I require first aid, but do so silently so that I can commune with the others.”

The medics circle around the Goddess wordlessly as they work as quickly as their hooves will allow. “Assure the nobles that the earthquakes are part of an exercise.” Celestia orders “Tell them I am not taking court today and have them pull their own weight for once by assuring the ponies of Canterlot.”

Several more ponies rush off, their direction now set as they carry out their orders flawlessly. “Assess the structure of the mountain, I doubt it will fall from such a blow but better safe than sorry. And for the love of the Goddess keep this entire incident under wraps we don’t need a panic.”

More ponies disperse as the Goddess her wings bandaged by surrounding medics turns to face to particular ponies, a dark purple unicorn mare and a light yellow earth pony. “Spell Sheen, Hard Tack. Status report on the condition of Ponyville.”

“MAM!” A dark purple unicorn with an eyepatch salutes “Lieutenant Flash sentry just arrived from Ponyville, he says it's bad. It’s filled with undead and a stand that controls ponies or something like that. Shining Armor requests immediate reinforcements which left the moment he arrived. They should be there within the hour.”

“And Twilight?” The goddess asks with concern in her voice.

“Safe mam!” hard Tack the bright yellow earth pony salutes “Or so Flash says.”

“So the enemy has made their move….. So now we make ours.” The mare lies prone her mind raging as she considers the options and maneuvers of her men and assets as a lesser pony would consider chess moves. “First establish a scrying pool with Ponyville, find out what is going on there. No doubt connections should be up by now given we’ve been working on them all night.”

Celestia states taking charge of the situation. “Assassinating me is an idea that has merit, but I suspect that it had another motive of dividing our focus. And if that is the case Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle are in danger.”  Spell Sheen, the purple unicorn, salutes wordlessly as she rushes off out the hole in the mountain no doubt on her way to make contact with the endangered town.

“Second.” Celestia continues “Prepare my chariot, I will be personally leading a foray to Ponyville. I suspect the Traitors’ hoof in this and if that is true he will no doubt be in Ponyville now.” The goddess’s eyes narrow with anger. “And if he has done anything to Shining Armor or Twilight, I will PERSONALLY insure he gets a one way trip to Tartarus.”

“But Princess!” A light blue Unicorn guard in a Red Cross outfit shouts off to her side while bandaging her wing. ”You are in absolutely no condition to go anywhere. You’ll need a week of relaxation and bed rest before…..”

“Red Stones.” Celestia asks extending her hoof to the guard next to her, who hoofs the goddess an entire bag the size of a deflated tetherball filled with the precious healing stones. Without skipping a beat the Goddess downs the entire bag, ingesting the copious amount of red stones with a single gulp. Celestia’s form shudders as new nutrient rich blood courses through the Goddess’s veins filled with an exorbitant amount of life energy.

Normally such an overdose of life energy would have torn apart the flesh of a lesser pony the pain of the body breaking itself down and rebuilding itself inducing death from shock. However this is the Immortal ruler of her kingdom, a deity of incalculable willpower and wisdom who stands far above the normal limits set by Ponykind. She is invulnerable, she is immovable, she is…….

“URRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Ohmysweetmercifulgoddessabovethisisexceedinglypainful!!!!!URRRHRHHRHHRHRH!!!! Whydidithinkthatthiswasagoodidea?!?!? URRRRGGHHHGHH!!!”

………She is crying like a baby.

To her credit, Celestia only screamed a little (she spent most of her time crying) as her body was rebuilt hundreds of times over, her flesh and essence pushed to the limits by the sudden dramatic increase in regenerative power. Her heart racing like a river as raw life energy runs rampant through her system. Eventually the reaction dies down the Goddess’ broken bones setting themselves as the Celestia breathes in and out, her lungs taking in life affirming breath.

 “You….. pant…… were saying?” Celestia remarks as the multitude of wounds covering the Sun Goddess’s body begin to close up before the ponies eyes. “Now between my own magics and The Red stone’s healing factor I should be in good enough shape by the time we arrive in Ponyville. Now prepare our troops for departure.”

Everypony within earshot stares at Celestia, too afraid to say anything that could be construed as an insult or questioning her orders as they try to be as ordinary as possible. “A-Anything else P-Princess?” A Bright yellow earth pony shakily salutes brushing traces of his braided blue mane out of his eyes.

The princess taps her chin as if trying to remember if she needed anything. Or perhaps she is just enjoying the sudden fear she has instilled in her timid guards. “Yes Hard Tack there is one more thing I’d like you to do.” Celestia states as an afterthought. “Send word that all units should cease all actions against Nightmare moon AKA Princess Luna immediately. She should be arriving in Ponyville soon and I don’t want the Royal guards to give her any trouble.”

“Certainly Princess I’ll send word via every….. WHAT?!” the guard sputters dropping his clipboard from his hoof. “N-Nightmare Moon!? B-B-But P-Princess she……”

“And THAT.” Celestia’s voice booms. “Is an order, I will personally discharge the pony who disobeys that command. Have I made myself clear?”

Celestia turns to the newly made hole leading out into the brightening morning sky. “Now bring my private chariot around to this entrance, I will be going myself to Ponyville, POST HASTE.”

The hard Tack salutes hastily, motivated by fear, as he disengages with the Princess of the sun and runs about in a frenzy shouting out his highness’s orders to any who can hear him. Yet Celestia’s’ mind is too far away and too burdened to even give anything else a second thought. Even that clamor that fills the room and the dozens or royal guards that surround her bandaging her wounds and healing her with the most advanced magics can break her focus. Celestia watches the rising sun from the hole out of the mountain watching as a dark blue shape fades into the distance. Yet her telescopic vision can make out the figure so far from her with such clarity she might as well be standing next to her; tears falling from her sister’s cheek as visible to her as her own muzzle.

More than anything Celestia wants to rush up to her to embrace her to fill her sister’s sad heart with the depth of her love, but she knows that it is futile.

The princess realizes with a heavy heart that there is a distance between the two royal pony sisters, a distance that Love and forgiveness alone cannot breach.

And Luna is right, she must make a choice: accept peace or accept her sister; The Corpse and The lives of her ponies, or her sister or her integrity.

Once again the Monarch of the sun reals under the weight of the crown that has placed itself on her head against her desires or wishes. She is not just Luna’s sister, she is the Invincible Monarch of the sun thus she cannot make false promises to her sister or deals that compromise the lives of her people. Were she able to throw the crown to the side to forswear her duties she might reclaim her sister but for the life of her she could not. How could she be so selfish as to throw away her people’s safety and lives for a single pony?

But was Luna right?

Was the use of the corpses’ power counterproductive?

Everything was so blurred now……

Her people,

Her crown,

Her sister,

………..Her student.

So many things to lose, so many things to weigh on her mind.

“So much sacrifice….” The Goddess muses sadly. “…..But at what cost must it come? And how could I alone decide?”

‘Only you Celly.’ Luna’s voice rings in the Goddess’s ears. ‘Only you would be so foolish as to try and handle everything on your own when you have no shortage of ponies to help you.’

“…………Perhaps……” The goddess muses a gentle smile crossing her face as a distant hope fills her mind “Perhaps Luna is right, that this is a decision too big for one pony to make alone…….”

And as the Goddess of the sun watches the sun rise before her greeting the world with light and warmth, she smiles as an idea takes hold. She smiles because she…….

The Princess of the sun.

Has Hope.

Chapter 20-Danger Zone-Take2

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Chapter 21-Dirty Trick-Take 1

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Chapter 22-Dirty Trick-Take 2

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Chapter 23-Dreamweaver-Take 1

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Chapter 24-Dreamweaver-Take 2

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Chapter 25-Dreamweaver-Take 3

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Chapter 26-Dreamweaver-Take 4

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Chapter 27-Dreamweaver-Take 5

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Chapter 28-Dreamweaver-Take 6

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Chapter 29-Bastion-Take 1

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Chapter 30-Bastion-Take 2

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Chapter 31-The Monster Within-Take 1

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Chapter 32-The Monster Within-Take 2

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Chapter 33-The Monster Within-Take 3

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Chapter 34-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 1

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Chapter 35-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 2

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Chapter 36-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 3

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Chapter 37-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 4

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Chapter 38-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 5

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Chapter 39-Hollyhoof Undead- Take 6

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Chapter 40-Black Nirvana- Take 1

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Chapter 41-Black Nirvana- Take 2

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Chapter 42- Ponyville Central- Outro

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Prologue

Chapter 1-Ponyvile Central

Part One: Ponyville Central:

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

A loud and disruptive knocking echoes through a private bedroom in Castle Canterlot, Its sound reverberating off of the countless bookshelves filled to the brim with priceless tomes from only the most esteemed sources.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

This bedroom though similar to almost every other room in the castle had several key differences that set it apart.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

For starters the room was covered in arcane diagrams in charts which left little room for anything else. Any personal effects that could have been visible, choked out by the incredible amount of information that would take any ordinary pony years to properly understand.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “Mam? Are you in there?”

In the very corner of the room what could be classified as a bed, if it was not covered in enough books to form a kind of paper shell over the soft cushioning.  And hiding underneath this paper shell like a dragon in its hoard the creature within began to shake and stir in its slumber.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “Ma’am? Are you there? This is important.”

The movement of the covers on the bed grows greater as the hibernating creature attempts to ignore the affronting sounds disturbing her slumber, trying with all her might to drift back into the realms of sleep.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “Mam? You need to open the door! Seriously, magi and their magical locking mechanisms….”

A purple hoof slowly extends from under the covers gently pulling the heavier books on top of her prone form. Though her mind is not in top shape having just woken up, she knows it is a scientific fact that there is no way she is waking up this early. Not without several more minutes and an entire pot of coffee.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “Ma’am, The princess’ secretary sent me to get you, she said that you were taking a nap now of all times. You need to open the door and come with me.”

‘Why won’t the annoying voice go away?’ The slumbering creature thinks. ‘I’m comfortable here, why can’t he just leave me alone.’

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK “MAM! You need to wake up now! You were supposed to report for preliminary tasks over ten minutes ago!”

The slumbering creature’s eyes widen in terror and in the fraction of a second the bed and all the contents on it explode into the air in a burst of magical telekinesis. Her eyes as wide as saucers the lavender unicorn mare looks at the door as though it were a dragon pounding at the gates. Reaching up with her petite hooves the mare grasps her three toned mane composed of a dark purple body and pink highlights like a dark and a sunset sky. in a nervous fit as a single hair pops up from her mane in a curly shape as her bloodshot eyes scan frantically around the room. Her cutie mark, a mark that signifies every pony’s special talents and skills, is that of a large six pointed purple star surrounded by five white stars as white and radiant as a real star. Her mark signifies the mare’s skill in the magical arts as well as her composed and bright personality, however at this very moment the mare is anything but composed and bright.

“……I’m….. tardy?” The Purple unicorn mare’s bed head becomes even more frazzled as she comprehends the magnitude behind those words “……I…….. Twilight Sparkle am…….. Tardy?”

The guard behind the door grunts in frustration “seriously why do I get stuck with this job?” the guard sighs as he knocks on the door again.

KNOCK, KNO…… BOOOM!

With the subtly of a steamroller, the door explodes of its hinges sending the guard in front of the door skidding across the floor while screaming for his life. Barely managing to open his eyes the unlucky guard manages to see the most demented mare in Castle Canterlot running past him carrying several objects in her telekinesis as she bolts down the hall with reckless abandon. Strapping her saddle bags to her side, the mare begins to brush her untidy mane while brushing her teeth and eating her breakfast (wheat toast and an entire pot of coffee) at the same time. And if the scene weren’t improbable enough, the mare manages to do all this all while running full force down the hallways screaming at the top of her lungs about being banished to the moon for daring to be late.

“OHMYGOSHINEEDTOGETTOTHEPRINCESSNOW,PLEASEDON’TBANISHMETOTHEMOONI’MSORRY!!!” in other words it sounded something like that.

The guard groans as he barely manages to slowly pick himself off the ground. With an impartial glance the stallion gazes upon the destruction left by Celestia’s private apprentice. “Yep, just another day in Canterlot…” THe jaded guard remarks as he prepares to go back to his post, unwilling to think about the destruction the mare has just wrought on his watch.

Meanwhile the mare having tidied her mane eaten breakfast and brushed her teeth runs down the hall at full force. “I’m late! I’m late! For the most important date! OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! I need to get there ten minutes ago!” In her panic Twilight sparkle most magically talented unicorn since Starswirl the bearded builds up a magical charge large enough to destroy a small house and molds its power to suit her purpose. Imagining the location that she is supposed to be at and distributing the magical charge over her body Twilight fades from reality over the space of a single second and in a flash of brilliant purple light…….

Pop!

……..reappears at another location.

In contrast to the quiet atmosphere of her room, or her previously frantic pace down the halls, the Open air stadium Twilight now finds herself in is one of quiet awe. The octagonal shaped room provides a perfect display of the stars above, yet is enclosed enough to protect from prying eyes. The walls of the room around her are emblazoned with countless pricelessly ordinate runes designed not to keep ponies out, but to keep aether in, and prevent rouge magical power from surging out in case of disaster. Performing other idle tasks of the side are various master magi and full-fledged ponies of the solar guard, ensuring that their tasks are carried out and everything is in its place.

Yet dominating the room and surpassing the importance of all the ponies in it lies a large jet black bolder. Set upon an octagonal patio engraved with one of the most complicated and powerful magical arrays known to ponykind the bolder presides over the entire room as if the room was designed around this single inconspicuous object. The stone though it appears from simple sight to be no more than a black rock emanates an aura that makes it unmistakable that it is an object of immense importance an object that can…..

“Enjoying what you see my dear?”

“GWAH!” jumping three feet in the air Twilight hits the ground with a thud, looking behind her to see the origins of the voice that succeeded scaring her out of her skin.

The zebra mare, adorned with a long white coat that barely obscures her toned flank and surrounds her barrel chuckles a bit at Twilight’s overt reaction. Straightening up the other mare’s disheveled appearance with a handy hoof-brush the mare touches up the mare’s disheveled mane while dexterously wielding the brush with her hoof. The Zebra’s black and white mane, tied in an Asian style bun bobs up and down in perfect unison with the zebra’s bare arms and legs as she finishes up combing the unicorn’s stray hairs. “Relax Dear Twilight, you have nothing to fear. For I am now here!” Placing the brush back in her pocket the Zebra extends her hoof to the prone mare with a smile of concern.

Twilight sighs and pulls herself to her hooves with the help of her friend “Thanks Zecora. I guess that I’m just nervous. I mean this what I have been preparing for ten whole years, ever since I became Celestia’s Apprentice. And to top it off I was running late and…..”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she begins to panic “OH my gosh I’m late! I’m Ten minutes late! I can’t believe you convinced me to take a nap when I was supposed to be doing preparations! Oh Celestia’s going to kill me. What do I….. mmmhhh?”

Twilight’s rant is cut off by Zecora’s gentle hoof. She chuckles again “Do not worry Twilight. I told you to take a nap so you are not so bright in the middle of the night. For disaster to be averted, you cannot be hurting from lack of sleep.”

Now in much calmer spirits the lavender unicorn removes the zebras’ hoof. “Uhh thanks Zecora, and I know that you love rhyming and it's part of your culture and all, but please could you….”

Zecora’s eyes widen and she begins to relax “I am sorry Twilight, I realize that in the seriousness of the mood it is aggravating to hear one always speak in riddles. What I was trying to say is I recommended you take a nap because it was important that tonight of all nights during a lunar eclipse of the summer solstice that you be at your best when we release Nightmare moon from her thousand year imprisonment. ” Zecora remarks impartially.

“I know that Zecora. Remember that whole preparing for ten years thing?” Twilight waves her hoof at the room around her, pointing to the octagonal pedestal. “I know everything there is to know about Nightmare Moon and the mission that we are supposed to be doing tonight.” Twilight lowers her head “And I know that I am supposed to be at my best, so that I can help to prepare the Arcanum that will purify Nightmare Moon. It’s just…… I don’t know………. Now that I’m here, I just don’t feel very ready.”

Zecora’s face presents a gentle smile. “Twilight sparkle you are a talented and unique mare and I know for a fact that you are one of the most talented magi in Equestria in one thousand years. You are more than ready for this task.”

Despite Zecora’s comforting words Twilight still cannot shake the feeling that she is missing something. “But I don’t even have my stand power yet!” Twilight looks over to the giant black stone in the middle of the room. “If I am really the best mare for the task, and one of the best magi in Equestria how come I can’t even manifest my own stand even after countless attempts?”

Twilight restates, unable to accept her friend’s assuring words. “If I can’t even handle manifesting a stand power when almost every member of the royal guard can do it in their sleep, then what kind of unicorn am I?” Looking over towards the dark black stone in the center of the room, the enormity of the task ahead of the mare suddenly begins to seem all that more daunting. “Maybe Celestia is better off finding a new pony to handle a task as important as this…”

“Do not doubt yourself so easily my young student; you are far more talented than you know….”

Twilight’s breath nearly stops in her throat as a gentle reassuring voice begins to fill her very being with endless confidence. Falling gently from the sky like a sunbeam, the princess and monarch of the sun gracefully steps down in front of the two mares. The full grown alicorn mare, possessing both a majestic horn and a large pair of pegasi wings lands on the ground with the slightest noise possible, as she demonstrates her natural born grace. From her alabaster coat whiter than any silk sheet, to the flowing three toned mare of teal, sunset pink and a light purple that puts Twilight’s coat to shame it is evident to all that the mare before them is a goddess in physical form. Her cutie mark of the invincible sun defines her as the picture of illumination and leader of the entire Equestrian Empire. With untold grace the regal leader’s flowing mane ripples off to the side as she addresses her doubting student.

“…..And as for manifesting your stand….” The Goddess of the Sun Chuckles “……I remember telling you to simply be patient, it will manifest when it is ready, and not before.”

Twilight bows her head in shame, still unwilling to admit her friend’s confidence in her is well founded. “But Princess…..I’m just a filly I may be a pretty good at magic but I don’t have half the experience that other ponies have. What about the head magister? Can’t she look over the circle in my place?”

Suddenly Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widen in realization of what she just said, her mentor chuckling at her student’s slip of the tongue. “I mean…… well I know that she can’t…….. You know what I mean! She’s the head magus; she was your student before me! Surely she should be more qualified for this than I am!”

The Princess smiles gently as she looks at the magic pedestal. “True she was my student as well at one time, but you are my student now. And let me assure you Twilight nopony, not even the head magister has as much knowledge in magical theorem and arcane runes as you.” Celestia gestures over to the nearby circle with her wing. “Why you practically designed this magic yourself Twilight, and I could think of no pony more qualified to conduct final preparations than you.”

In a comforting gesture Celestia drapes her free wing over Twilight’s back. “And while the other ministers are managing the ambient energy fields to insure optimal conditions and to protect Canterlot, I know that you will insure that the Arcanum functions properly.”

“But…. But…..”

“No buts Twilight Sparkle. You really must have more faith in yourself than that. I saw in you from a young age a filly that would pour all of her talents and energies into things that would enrich the world.” Removing her wing from the timid Unicorn’s back, Celestia looks with purest pride over to the magic circle inscribed into the patio. “And now you are poised to help me save my only sister from the darkness that consumes her. And you know what Twilight? I wouldn’t have any other pony helping me than you.”

Zecora walks forward putting a gentle hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Celestia is right. I am certain that if, Celestia on high forbid, something bad should happen tonight, it would not be your fault. After all there is no pony that has given more to make this project succeed than you have Twilight.”

“Yeah Twilly! don’t worry!” Twilight turns around to greet another familiar voice, one that fills her with joy to hear. An official looking stallion dressed in glistening gold armor and adorned in a centurion’s helm covered in blue accents, his white coat and two toned blue mane complementing his muscular figure. Upon his flank is his cutie mark, that of a gleaming shield representing both his desire and ability to protect, and his face is a smile of unbridled happiness. “After all when you have a handsome older brother to protect you, there’s no way that anything bad can happen, am I right?”

Not missing a beat the lavender mare smiles as she turns to face the white coated stallion. “Yes Shining Armor, but then I’d need a HANDSOME older brother.”

“……Touché Twilley.”

Despite his demeanor, or perhaps because of it Twilight sparkle can’t help but smile as she rolls her eyes. “Yes Shining Armor I am happy that you are my older brother as well, however all the brotherly love in the world won’t help me if this circle isn’t completely and utterly perfect!”

Shining Armor frowns at this and glances over towards the giant magical circle “I just don’t see why we even need this big of a magic circle anyways. My Stand power Bastion is an unbreakable barrier and the magister is handling the backlash fields, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to handle any feedback without some fancy magic circle.”

The group looks at the captain of the Royal Guard with looks of shock and surprise on their faces. Twilight even manages a face hoof as the captain of the royal guard glances at their disappointed looks. “What?” Shining asks “Was it something I said? OUCH! Hey sis that hurt!”

Twilight groans advancing on her brother who is rapidly giving ground to the mare who just punched him. “Shining do you even know the first thing about the Red Stone? Or why we need a powerful Arcanum that is so complex and powerful that it encompasses the combined knowledge of almost ten entire generations?” The purple unicorn states with an upset tone. “Do you even remember why I’m freaking out here? DO YOU?!?”

Shining leans his neck back to put as much distance between his sister and himself as the feared lavender mare moves closer to him with every passing second.“Uhhhhhhhh because you’re obsessive compulsive and have a deep seated fear of failure?”

Celestia can barely suppress a chuckle as Twilight begins to fume from Shining Armor’s response. “I am not! I am just…… Ugh never mind! Let’s take this from the top since SOME PONY can’t seem to get this right.”

Clearing her throat and adjusting her posture Twilight raises her head in pride as she begins to indulge in one of her most well-loved hobbies, elaborating on complex magical theory. “Normally in order to perform magic three things are necessary, a power source, a method of molding said power, and a method of activating and or controlling said power. In the case of ponies, magical power or aether/manna/magic whatever it has been called through the ages, is drawn forth from the world around them, or more specifically from their element. Earth ponies draw their magical power from the earth, Pegisi the sky and unicorns the astral plane.”

“This magical power is drawn in through the body naturally be eating, drinking, resting and breathing to replenish the body’s own magical supplies that are lost from moving, thinking, fighting or yes preforming magic. This magic can then be focused through parts of the body such as the horns, wings and hooves to perform spells such as telekinesis, flight and superior strength and heightened resistance. Once the part of the body has a supply of magical power the user can activate the power by simply willing it. Earth ponies, pegasi and sometimes even unicorns can manifest their powers unconsciously without even having to think about it which is why many ponies even believe that pegasi and earth ponies don’t even have magical power.”

Shining raises his hoof cutting off his sister“Uh Twi, thanks for the magic 101 but I don’t see what this has to do with the circle. Plus I think that you forgot stand powers.”

Twilight levels her gaze on her brother again and lightly bops him on the head with her hoof “Don’t interrupt when the teacher is talking. I was just getting to that Shining.”

Clearing her voice Twilight begins again “Stand power, as it is called due to the fact that it manifests a magical construct that ‘stands’ by the user’s side is a form of magic that is drawn forth by exposure to the Red Stones. In simple terms it is a manifestation of the ‘soul’ of the user; their magical energy in their body taking physical form. The user can then direct this magical construct with their will since the magic forming a stand’s body is technically part of their being, allowing the construct to perform any task that the user designates. The stand can also manifest a special power biased upon the user’s desires and needs that corresponds in some way to the user’s psyche. And because it is made in the form of the user’s soul, it can take almost any form varying its shape and powers based on its user’s psyche. For example Shining, your stand takes on the appearance of a giant bubble…”

“Twi! I told you it’s a 360 degree protective shield!”

Twilight laughs, glad that for once she was able to upset her brother. “…. Like I said, a giant bubble, and its power makes it unbreakable. This power is due to the fact that you are a born protector and you desire a power that allows you to better protect others. This is the kind of power that can be drawn out of others by Red Stone of Aja, a national treasure of Equestria that is unknown outside the highest levels of Equestrian’s government.”

Shining smiles at the complement. “That’s right sis. I will always be there to protect the ponies that need me the most, that's what makes me a soldier. And though I REALLY enjoyed the long boring lecture ….” Twilight shoots her brother a hostile gaze letting him know that his sarcasm will not be tolerated causing the stallion to fearfully back away from her. “….It still didn’t answer my question of what does this have to do with the Red stone of Aja and that Arcanum thing.”

“Right” Twilight clears her throat again more than willing to continue. “If the Red stone was normal magical power the Arcanum would be completely unnecessary. However as you might have guessed by its ability to cause living beings to manifest strange powers known as Stand, the Red Stone’s magic doesn’t obey the normal rules of magic because it’s magical power is entirely different.”

“Wait. What?” Shining asks

“It’s an anomaly shining.” Twilight clarifies with a somber tone of voice. “It’s an object beyond time and space. Even our greatest scientists and theoretical physicists can’t understand how it fully works. Even Princess Celestia who has studied the Red Stones for years and established the Red Stone Group to research it, barely has any idea of how its powers seem to defy time and space.” With all the caution of a physicist picking up a bar of uranium the mare points to the black stone sitting on the altar. “And because the stone is an anomaly in space time it is incredibly difficult to control its power, even the princess who has more magical experience than any living being on the planet has trouble with directing such power.”

“And we’re just going to fire it off randomly and hope it all goes right?” Shining Armor Captain of the Royal guard remarks snarkilly. “Great idea.”

“That’s why we have the Arcanum, Shiny.” Twilight corrects the stallion “Even if the Red stone is an abnormality in space time that taps into a power beyond our understanding, it still follows quite a few laws in our dimension. By using the Arcanum It allows us to use the stone as a catalyst and a power source allowing us to achieve feats of magic that would normally be impossible due to their scale and difficulty.”

With no small amount of pride the lavender unicorn walks up to the stage tapping a hoof on the well inscribed magical circle surrounding the Red Stone of Aja. “This Arcanum is specifically designed to separate and destroy the almost limitless evil that is contained within the soul of Nightmare moon. It’s similar to the way in which the stone allows ponies to physically manifest aspects of their psyche physically though a stand power. This Arcanum will draw out this evil and subsequently destroy it, freeing her from the corruptive influence of the dark magic affecting her actions. I personally helped Celestia design this circle along with many of the top mages in Equestria. It’s a project that I myself have been working on for ten years, but even this is my first Time seeing the main body of the red stone up close.” Twilight suddenly glances over to the large black bolder in the center of the room her face masked with worry. “I only hope it works….”

Celestia smiles benevolently wrapping her wing around twilight. “Twilight the circle is perfect. As you said before the Red Stone of Aja will provide the power, the circle will focuses it, and the rest is up to me to direct and control the power of the Red stone.”

Shining armor looks at the dark monolith of black, a sudden look of awe in his demeanor. “To purify your sister’s inner evil……I had no idea that the stone could even be used in this way….”

“What was that Shiny?”

Shining immediately snaps back to attention “Nothing! It’s nothing little sis.” Turning his back leg Shining begins to make a hasty retreat towards a very official looking group of unicorn guards “anyways I need to work on the barriers with the rest of the guard. Catch you later Twilly!”

“I should get going as well.” Celestia states as she glances up to the sky above her, the dark face of a pony drawn into the surface of the moon reminding her of the mission’s importance. “The Arcanum will do most of the work drawing forth the corpse’s power and do focusing it. However it is up to my will and strength to purify my sister. And to do that I need to…… To prepare. To prepare once again face my sister….” A look of deep melancholy crosses the goddess’ face, a regret so heavy that it could break lesser mortals like matchsticks.

For the first time since she arrived Twilight becomes worried about something beyond her own insecurities “Celestia…..”

Celestia snaps out of her mental daze “I am fine Twilight; my magic will draw my sister to me when the lunar eclipse occurs. And if the Arcanum is successful, you will have reunited me with my sister and that is worth any amount of emotional discomfort.” Celestia turns away eyes still locked on her apprentice. “I’ll say it once again Twilight, I have absolute faith in you. I trust you to make sure the Arcanum is ‘up to snuff’ as those youngsters these days say.”

The zebra coughs getting the attention of the goddess and the giggling purple unicorn “ummmm princess I don’t think any ‘youngsters’ these days say that.” the Zebra says.

“Oh. Really I could have sworn that was the right ‘lingo’ are you sure that ponies these days don’t use ‘up to snuff’ anymore?”

Zecora sighs “No princess ponies do not use ‘up to snuff’ anymore.”

Celestia blushes slightly “Goddess I feel old now. Oh well, learn something new every day I suppose. Come along Zecora, we have important matters to attend to.” With brilliant illumination Celestia charges her horn preparing for a quick teleport “oh and Twilight remember what I said, I have faith in your judgment.” And with that Celestia and Zecora disappear in a flash of light leaving the lavender unicorn once again alone.

Though originally disheartened by every pony’s sudden absence, the mare Twilight sparkle wastes no time. With urgency befitting her situation, Twilight slaps her cheeks with her hooves waking her mind and body up for the important task she is about to begin. “All right Twilight! It’s up to you now, all you have to do is go over the Arcanum and every rune in it in order to make sure that everything is in its proper place. Compared to your other work this should be a breeze.”

Leaping to her hooves Twilight begins to walk over the layers and layers of carefully choreographed runes that lie upon the ground. With peerless perception and years of photographic memory on the circle’s from and composition, she goes tirelessly over every sigil, every bump, and indent on the stage strengthening the marks and insuring every letter of the magical alphabet is spell checked to reduce any margin of error. Seconds drag unto seconds, minutes into minutes until finally the empty room around her begins to fill with serious looking ponies each member a master in the magical arts, as Twilight resolves to make sure her greatest work is nothing short of perfect, no matter how long it takes.

…………… two hours and twenty three minutes later……………

“FINISHED!” Twilight wipes the sweat off her brow breathing a sigh of relief as she takes pride in the brain child of her ten years of research resting beneath her hooves. “That was exhausting, I almost thought that I had made a mistake on review number three on the fourth wall but luckily I was wrong! I guess this circle is about as perfect as I can make it that means all I have to do is sit back and…….what?”

However just as Twilight is about to turn away her eye catches the sight of something out of place. “Hunh? That’s not right….” Looking to the left and the right fro signs of anypony else, Twilight walks carefully forward to the center of the circle where t the red stone is. Tip hoofing over the detailed magical runes (many that she helped craft) she stops near the center of the circle and stares agape at a single syllable slightly outside the center of her perfectly crafted ritual.

“There’s no way….” Twilight peers that the circle again her mouth suddenly coming agape at the single most horrifying thought in the world “I…. made a mistake? NO! That’s impossible I checked and double checked this rune at least four times this shouldn’t be here! Celestia herself said that she would go over this part of the Arcanum! And there’s no way that Celestia of all ponies would make a mistake!”

Twilight states with a tone of finality as she tries to convince herself otherwise. “This must be a new addition to the Arcanum to boost its power, yeah that’s it! Celestia must have just changed this part of the Arcanum without telling me! There’s no way that this could be a mistake. ”

Twilight looks to around her again, gulping deeply in fear “However……This could cause a catastrophic magical surge if it is not properly handled…. And Princess Celestia DID say that she trusted me to go over the circle for any errors……”

Twilight falls to her rump, her mind in deep concentration ‘OK Twilight this is the moment that you have been trained for, fix the circle and risk Celestia’s wrath or don’t fix the circle and risk Celestia’s wrath. There are no wrong answer only two equally dangerous decisions that could end up with me banished to the moon or Nightmare Moon rampaging free across Equestria. This moment will decide the fate of your entire life, and you can’t afford to mess it up.’

Looking up at the moon, Twilight thinks of Celestia’s long lost sister corrupted by dark magics. She thinks of this magical circle the only real hope of purifying her from the darkness that consumes her. She thinks of her own brother, and how she would do anything to save him if she was in Celestia’s place.

Suddenly her mind is made up. “The princess trusted me and my judgment to make sure that this Arcanum would drive out the evil in her sister. If there is even a single error in it is my duty to make sure that it functions properly! Besides such a textbook mistake can’t be considered worthy enough to bother Celestia, especially since she needs all her focus for tonight. I’m sure she would understand.” igniting her horn Twilight fires a beam of magical energy at the opposing rune causing it to glow. Slowly the affronting rune takes on a new shape better conforming to the circle’s pattern.

Twilight smiles and nods her head, content that now the circle will do its purpose. “Whew. I’m glad that moral dilemma is over. I just hope that this won’t have any far reaching consequences!”

Suddenly Twilight’s train of thought is cut off by a familiar voice, the voice of her brother “Twilly! We’re about ready to start! Get over here.” Shining Armor cries out waving his hoof off to the side of the Arcanum’s platform.

Twilight turns around with a look of shock on her face “Coming shinny!” Building her magic in her horn Twilight teleports off of the dais directly to the side of her brother. “Don’t worry I’m done! No magical catastrophes or anything!”

Shining armor smiles at this “that’s good Twilight. Now get ready to watch the real show put on by yours truly.”

Before Twilight can retort on the fact that it is Celestia that will be invoking the circle’s power, and he’s only playing a supporting role, the blaring voice of Zecora cuts them both off. “Quiet all! This is no time for Fuss! The lunar eclipse is almost upon us! So clear the way and play your part. For Celestia’s role is at the heart!”

Zecora’s booming voice causes the soldiers and magi around her to immediately scurry around as they frantically prepare for the eclipse. “Man your posts, and perform them well. Else what shall happen not even I can tell.”

Shining groans “Ugh does she have to rhyme now?”

“Only when it’s important big brother.”

No sooner that Zecora finishes her ‘motivating’ than a brilliant flash of light emerges from the center of the circle. Covered head to hoof in glimmering runes and shining armor the monarch of the sun emerges in in front of the red stone of Aja her face grim and resolved. Facing the red stone with the reverence of a saint, Celestia raises her horn to the heavens as the four stars near the cardinal points of the moon.

“All right stallions enough horsing around.” Shining bellows as he dawns his gleaming helm. “The moment that Nightmare Moon lands in the circle I will use my stand to trap her inside while Celestia does her part. Mages, Flow your magic through the inscriptions on the stone to help control the power of the Red stone. The rest of you form a perimeter and get ready for a heck of a show!”

Following his commands several prominent magi including our young heroine ignite their horns around the stage forming a pentagram of prismatic light suspended in midair. Clearing their minds unicorn mares and stallions alike touch their horns to the side of the octagonal platform causing the light from their horns to slowly spread through the runes underneath the monarch’s feet, their magical pentagram meshing together with the runes of the circle. Finally the entire circle gives off a dull illumination and the magi raise their heads again, their will and magic bound to the Arcanum in a dramatic display of arcane power.  As the Arcanum glows bright white The monarch of the sun stares stoically at the dark shadow on the moon preparing for the confrontation to come as the moon begins to turn blood red against the dark and foreboding sky.

“Thirty seconds until Lunar eclipse! All ponies stand by!” Zecora bellows.

The guards stand ready forming a perimeter around the stone dais upon which Celestia stands.

“Twenty seconds until Lunar eclipse!”

Celestia herself stands ready, raising her horn to the heavens as the last white sliver on the moon prepares to give way to the blood red that spreads across it.

“Ten Seconds until Lunar Eclipse!”

Shining armor readies his horn igniting its pinkish hue, his face stern and unmoving.

“Five seconds!!”

Twilight gulps heavily ‘All right Twilight, this is it!’

“ZERO!” Zecora shouts her voice echoing off the enclosed room with the intensity of a thunderclap.  the shadowy face on the moon disappears. All is deathly silent as everypony holds their breath and waits for the horseshoe to drop.

Ten seconds pass……

Twenty……..

Thirty…….

Everypony is too scared to even breathe. Each one, mare and stallion alike, holding their breaths as they prepare to plunge into an uncertain future. Yet each pony stands at the ready, prepared to do their part though each one is uncertain of what will happen next.

Suddenly as fast as a thunderbolt a dark shadow falls on Canterlot. A fell wind blows as a creature that could only be conceived of in a night terror lands in front of the monarch of the sun. Its wings sickly and bat-like flap in the night air like the ancient devils of old. Its teeth pointed and jagged as if designed to consume the very flesh of living things gnash in boiling rage. A mane as dark and shimmering as the water from a well that has never seen the sun, ripples in a nonexistent wind as the few glimmers of starlight contained in its’ vestiges are choked out by its pervading dark. The creature’s body, black as coal is adorned with ancient cobalt blue armor that is etched with the foulest runes made from the blood of countless innocent creatures. However most terrifying of all are its eyes, Eyes devoid of compassion, mercy and any trace of goodness, eyes devoid of a very soul.  Its Alien slatted eyes more likely to be found on one of the near extinct dragons of the fiery plains than a creature of warm flesh and blood.

This creature, not pony, but creature shakes off the dust from its coat as it looks upon the Princess of the Sun and it does something more terrifying than simply existing.

The monster opens its mouth and contorts its razor sharp teeth into a broken grin.

Nightmare Moon has arrived.

“SHIELDS!” Shining Armor cries out. In a flash the entire circle is surrounded in a purple barrier that cuts the mortals off from the two gods standing face to face in the circle. And though they are safe from physical harm the haunting image of the dark pony has engraved fear into their souls.

Without wasting a single breath the dark mare manifests a dark shadow from behind it. The image she manifests behind her is a shape of utter darkness, a shadow of the darkest night devoid of any features aside from its pony shaped body. Its dark mane of the brightest white is the only colorful feature on its body. The shadow lacks a horn, wings even eyes, yet it stands suspended in midair its malice and intent almost palpable as its hoof moves like a bush in the wind.

Suddenly the dark stand extends its arm like a tentacle straight towards the heart of Celestia its’ sharpened point ready to skewer her without giving her a chance to defend. However at the last second the arm of the creature is sheared clean off by a burst of the brightest sunlight, the remainder of the stump sizzling as the heat from the laser eats away at its arm.

With a look of resolve in her eyes Celestia makes a calculated step to the left, her stand emerging out from her right side in a flash of light. As if a complete contrast to Nightmare Moon’s stand of pure darkness, the stand that Celestia manifests is a creature of pure white sunlight. It’s illuminated body coated in plate mail that extends across its torso, like a thousand tiny vines of purest gold. All its limbs from its wings to its hooves are covered in emblazoned golden armor that glimmers with every movement of the mare refracting every glint of light in the air around it. Its armor is scaled and plated, covering its entire body save its face, belly and mane with armor so fine and luminous it almost seems transparent. And upon its head is a brilliant war helm accenting a foot long golden horn and blazing red eyes.

“Hello…. Sister.” Celestia states, “how are you?”

Laughing maniacally the creature offers up an evil grin as its stand regenerates its entire arm that seconds before was reduced to dust. “Me? You are concerned about me? I suppose that there is a first time for everything Celestia. In the past you cared more about your pathetic mortal subjects than I. Is it only now that I have returned that you feign concern?”  The nightmare mocks “Typical of a weakling such as you to try and take the easy way out of your defeat by attempting to ‘win over’ me like a common filly having a temper tantrum.”

Confronted with an image of absolute evil Celestia still manages to stand her ground her voice fair and benevolent. “I’m not trying to deceive you Lulu, and I am not trying to win you over to my side.” Celestia states with a stern look. “I don’t want to be right, I don’t want the power and prestige of an empty crown, I only want my sister back.”

“Humph, then I guess that you are going to be very disappointed now aren’t you Celestia.” The nightmare grins as it circles around the mare testing her opponent's mental weaknesses and probing her physical defenses. “That pathetic filly Luna is gone now. Nightmare Moon is all that remains of her, and Currently Nightmare Moon wants to mount your had on a pike. Now how does that sound?”

Celestia recoils as if struck with a whip her hooves shaking as she stares into the pits of the monster’s eyes, realizing that the creature before her was at one time a pony she cared about more than any other. Starring her sister straight in the eyes with a sorrowful look that would cause stones to weep the celestial monarch begins to tear up as she attempts once again to reach the mare before her. “I was Wrong Luna, I was so very wrong and it ended up hurting you so badly.” Celestia sheds a sole tear. “I just….. I tried to think of what I could say…. To……”

“You can say NOTHING! SUN WITCH!” the nightmare screams as the dark mare’s hooves slam into the ground beneath her. Breathing heavily Nightmare Moon stares hatefully at the Princess of the sun, her eyes wide as if realizing a dirty secret  “Ahhhhh I see now. You think that this, this rebellion is a bit of teenage angst, some pathetic cry out for attention hummmm? You think that deep down I just want ponies to love me again so you try to tempt me with your sappy sisterly love and acceptance.”

The nightmare takes a step closer to the monarch of the sun “You think that this is about ‘IT’ don’t you? You think that this is about the love of the common ponies that you stole from me. You think that this is about the loneliness and isolation that you filled my every waking moment with. You couldn’t be more wrong.”

Celestia’s face immediately freezes in terror “what are you talking about Luna?”

The nightmare grins as it once again begins circling around the princess of the sun. “I realized long ago the greed and selfishness of the common pony Celestia. Yet you always made the mistake of trying to live your life, slaving away for these worthless mortal shells, for these beings that would take everything that we so openly offered to them and give nothing in return. You think yourself their ruler, HA! You are their slave Celestia, a slave to their desires and whims! And I do not desire to be a slave.”

Celestia recoils again “Luna what do you…..”

“There is only one true way to free this world of their corruptive influence.” The Nightmare continues her voice gaining momentum and pace with every word she utters with her forked tongue “And that is to show these pathetic mortals what life would be like without light or mercy. To show them who truly rules over their lives and their destinies. It is time to show them a world without the sun and see how long they hold their haughty heads high as they freeze to death in the darkness!”

Celestia stands straight lowering her head ever so slightly as she closes her eyes in deep thought “….you would kill any pony who opposed you, Luna? You would literally kill every living creature on the planet simply because you can? You would kill me if I tried to stop you?”

The nightmare grins “Just the ones that refused to bow down and submit to my will. And as for my poor misguided sister, Heh I would kill you anyways for being such a pathetic waste of existence,.” The dark Alicorn flares her wings revealing her terrible majesty. “There is only room for one at the top of the world Celestia, and it shall be me.”

Celestia raises her eyes at her sister, her own flesh and blood with a ferocity and anger that could put the flames of the sun to shame “YOU are not my sister. Luna loved the night and all her ponies. She was as generous and loyal to her ponies as if they were her own blood.” Celestia stamps her hoof in her furious rage “And she would NEVER allow herself to fall so far that she would believe she had to resort to genocide simply because she had a little power. I don’t know how much of you is left in there Luna, but I will save you, and I will protect my little ponies at the same time.”

The nightmare lets out a bellowing laugh that this “HAHAHAHAHAHA! Such fierce resolve from so weak a pony. Then try it! Go ahead and kill your little sister! Oh that is right you can’t because you love me! HAHAHAHAHAHA!” The shadow continues to bellow for a few more seconds before she cuts herself off.

“Enough of this Foolery Celestia.” THe nightmare glares at her sister. “I can tell from looking at your stand that your connection to ‘it’ is gone. You may have the stone hare but you cannot use ‘IT’S’ Power.” The shadow looks off to the stone at her side as a evil look crosses her muzzle. “You may have thought that your strong desires would have been enough to allow you to harness the true power of the Red Stone of Aja but you were gravely wrong. And in doing so you have placed before me the means by which I might make my dream a reality!”

“NO!” Celestia shouts. However she is too late as she shadow sweeps over the Red stone. The previous princess of the night solidifying again as she comes to a rest atop of the black rock. Raising her head to the night sky above the Nightmare lets out a howl to the moon above as she basks in her self-proclaimed victory.

Standing on top of the Red stone the nightmare lets out another mighty laugh. “You are far too late Celestia; the power of Harmony is now MINE!” Looking down at the rock beneath her hooves the Nightmare licks her lips. “Now ‘stone’ you will obey me and my will! Bask this world in eternal night and make me the ruler of all!”

Celestia wasting no time, taps her horn to the stone and charges her horn’s magic in an aura of brilliant illumination causing the entire stone beneath Nightmare Moon’s hooves to glow bright red. “You were right about one thing Luna; I have always been slow and cautious. After all it took me so long to see how much you were suffering.”

Celestia grins as the Nightmare’s dismay becomes apparent “However in your haste you forgot three very important things. One Even if ‘it’ is not a part of me there is more than one way to use an Arcanum, and more than one way to tap into its power. Two I have spent the last thousand years researching and developing an Arcanum that can remove inner evil, all that is necessary it to make sure that the victim lands inside of the Arcanum for it to work.”

The stone beneath the nightmare glows bright red as the entire Arcanum comes online; it’s previously invisible markings illuminating in the night sky. “…And Three, I may be too slow, but you were always too easy to fool, and far too eager to jump to conclusions.”

The Nightmare stands stunned, completely surprised as she now finds how ironically the tables have turned on her.  Realizing too late that she is now caught her sister’s trap, the Nightmare spreads her wings in a vain attempt to take to the air as the entire sphere is illuminated with the brightest light imaginable. The figures inside the sphere blur and vanish under the immense onslaught of magical energy as those outside the sphere do everything in their power to keep the spell from falling apart.

“URRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH It’s too powerful!” Shining screams as his invincible shield quakes from the intense magical energy. “I can barely hold it all in!”

“Shield guards one through seven Support Captain Armor!” Zecora bellows out. No sooner than she speaks several concentrated beams of magic converge with Shining’s shield causing the purple sphere to take on a rainbow hue. “Twilight how is the Arcanum holding up?!”

“The buildup is a concern Zecora!” Twilight screams out over the din of the advanced magical reaction taking place a few hooves away. “Isn’t the Arcanum and the shield supposed to prevent this kind of backlash?”

“That should be the case little one!” Zecora yells “the new runes that we added today were supposed to help channel the magic into the participants better so that it would not put a strain on the Arcanum.”

“New Runes? But I didn’t see any new…..” Twilight’s heart stops. “Wait. What do you mean new runes?!”

However Zecora cannot hear Twilight as the blaring sound coming from inside the circle grows from simply uncomfortable to almost ear splitting in under a second. All the ponies surrounding the Arcanum begin to struggle as waves of magical power and deafening sound course through their very beings. The light from the dome grows brighter and brighter eclipsing even the sun. All the while, what few ponies that are able to stand their ground through the reverberations of the magical reaction cover their eyes and ears in an attempt to withstand the immense sensory bombardment.

Thinking on her hooves, Twilight pushes even more power into the Arcanum in an attempt to analyze the status of the circle. ‘Let’s see, from what I am reading from my sensory spell, the circle is working perfectly, all seven layers of the Arcanum are fine. So why are we getting this magical feedback?’ Twilight expands her consciousness through the Arcanum she remembers what Zecora just said. ‘Wait a minute Zecora said that the rune was added last minute to channel the excess magical energy through the participants. But if that rune was changed that would send all the excess magical buildup straight through……..’

Twilight’s face consumed with equal parts dawning comprehension and absolute terror as she raises her voice above the din of the constant magical reaction taking place in front of her. “HIT THE DECK!” Twilight yells as she breaks free of the Arcanum running for cover as fast as her little hooves can take her.

Those left in the stadium barely have time to think as all the pent up magical energy explodes outward from the center of the Red Stone of Aja in a catastrophic explosion. Like the sound of a thousand pounds of fine china being blown to bits, the single most priceless artifact in Equestria explodes. The barrier around the stone, unable to withstand its might, instantly crumbles to pieces in a single flash of Crimson light. Every mare and stallion falls to the floor from the sheer force of the blast as hundreds of thousands of shards of the Red stone are sent spiraling far into the atmosphere their trajectory directed upwards from the Arcanum’s feedback.

Like a rain of shooting stars streaking across the skies, thousands of pounds of magically charged stone begins to rain down all over the land of Equestria. Each shard and fragment glows with an eerie red light that refracts the starlight above  as it tumbles through the stratosphere. This single event, an accident of epic proportions, would go on to be known as the night of shooting stars and at the time was celebrated by ponies all across the land as a beautiful accompaniment to the Lunar Eclipse.

Countless ponies would never know that what they thought of as a display of their princess’s power over the stars was a massive catastrophe what would have such dire and longstanding consequences that would change the very shape of their world.

And that night, unknown to the ponies of the land of Equestria, would signal the beginning of all the things that were to come.

……………………..

The dust begins to settle around our heroine, Twilight Sparkle coughs out some of the latent magically charged dirt, a lingering effect of the ionized Red Stones, as she slowly rises to her hooves. “Well…. I’m alive I guess….” Looking around at the scene of disarray around her, Twilight makes out the silhouettes of her brother and Zecora as well as other disoriented members of the Royal guards. “We’re all alive….. We took a point nine magical blast point blank and we’re all right! Wow I guess I have to thank Shining after all, if it wasn’t for that barrier I’m not sure that we would have made it.”

Twilight sighs as she lowers her head in shame “Good now maybe I’ll live long enough for Princess Celestia to banish me to the…… CELESTIA!”

Her own imminent banishment forgotten Twilight turns around to see the stage behind her to find her mentor lying prone and scorched upon it. Celestia’s body normally the picture of pristine beauty is now covered in countless wounds and magical burns as she lies on her side completely still.

“Princess!” Teleporting over to her mentor in the space of a second Twilight buries her face in her Princess’s chest. Trying to drown out the sound of her own frantic heartbeat Twilight listens for any signs of life in her mentor. Seconds blur into years as the lavender mare begs any powers that will listen that her Princess, still lives. Her own life, her fate, her failure is completely inconsequential as she begs fate that life will return to a mare she loves as a mother, to a mare that is truly irreplaceable to her in every sense of the word.

Ba-Dump.

Twilight’s face brightens as hope once again returns to her tumultuous heart.

Ba-dump.

Her smile returns, as her fears fade away, banished by a small and simple sound that she had taken for granted her entire life, the sound of a heart beating. Suddenly the white goddess begins to stir groaning as if awakened from sleep, her eyes blinking groggily as she registers the presence of her student by her side. Twilight, unable to endure the emotional tension another second longer lets loose a cascade of gentle tears, overjoyed that in this merciless world that sometimes things turn out for the best.

“…..Twilight?” the goddess asks.

“Yes Celestia I’m here it’s all over now, you’re going to be fine…” Twilight assures with tears in her eyes.

“…..Lu…… Luna…. Is she…. Is my sister….. Is she…….”

Nightmare moon! Twilight completely forgot about her! Her entire body tense, The mare looks across the stage, spying another prone shape off to the side. Twilight’s body becomes almost frozen in fear as the thought of a great dark demon rising from the ashes to suck their blood fills the crevices of her mind.

However to her great surprise the figure that she sees is not a notorious demon, but a very pony looking creature with a light dark blue coat and light blue mane. All in all the figure before her looks like any normal pony she could find on the street, save perhaps the fact that she possesses both a horn and wings as well as the black blot surrounding her cutie mark of a crescent moon, no doubt the residue of left over dark magic. Though the figure’s mark was strikingly similar to the Nightmare’s her mark seems to represents the beauty and majesty of the night rather than the terror of the dark that Nightmare Moon represented not too long ago when she descended from the moon seeking revenge and death.

‘But is she still the same’ Twilight muses ‘or is this really……..’

Twilight’s train of thought is cut off suddenly as the blue mare opens her eyes staring directly into the unicorn’s soul with frightening powers of perception. The two mares retain contact as the blue mare rises shakily to her hooves both mares staring the other down, unwilling to give the other any ground mentally or physically. Eventually the silence is dissipated as Twilight being the younger of the two, cannot hold her tongue any longer “Um, Princess Luna? Is… is that really you?”

The blue mare counters with silence.

“You’re not going to go all evil on us again?” Twilight asks.

Again silence.

“Are you hurt? That was some explosion…..”

 The blue mare stares into her eyes judging her with an intensity that can scarcely be understood. Finally she responds “I don’t know….. I feel better than I should, but…..” The blue mare looks the prone form of her elder sister, her body exhausted and scorched, her golden armor rent and singed from the force of the spells beyond mortal ken.

Suddenly the eyes of the two siblings lock and after what seems like an eternity of separation, and Celestia despite her condition manages to muster enough strength to speak “…..Sister……… you…….. You…….”

The blue mare recoils in terror from her sister as if she were a ravenous beast. “I need to get away from here!” she declares with no small amount of fear. Without another word the alicorn charges her blue horn with an intensity rivaling that of the brightest star as she prepares to teleport away from her locale.

Twilight rushes towards her “Wait! Princess Luna! Wai….” However before she can reach the long lost alicorn the princess of the moon vanishes into thin air leaving Twilight falling to her rump in defeat.

“………Luna……..” Celestia moans.

Realizing that she has just left her teacher alone in her hour of weakness Twilight rushes back over to her Princess, clasping her hoof reassuringly. “Don’t worry princess, I don’t know for sure, but from the look of it, it appears that the Arcanum worked. Nightmare….. Princess Luna…. That is…. Ummmmmmmmm.” The student fumbles with her words as she tries to assure her mentor.

“She probably just needs some time to herself!” Twilight states with faltering certainty. “Yeah that’s it, she probably just needs time to sort all this complicated stuff out, that’s all! And once she comes back it’ll all be fine and everything will be sunshine and rainbows and you can be sisters again….. and …….. and…..” Twilight fumbles as she works at combining as many comforting phrases together as possible in a vain attempt to alleviate the mood of her heart-stricken mentor.

Celestia is as silent as death as all she can do is stare vacantly at the space that her sister used to occupy.

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight says “I know that I really messed up today….. but you said that you trusted me.” Twilight dons the greatest look of resolve that she can muster “then you can trust me on this. Your sister Princess Luna is fine. Everything is going to be fine, I promise.”

After what seems like the longest and most disappointing night of her life a gentle smile crosses Celestia’s tired muzzle. “….she’s …… fine? Good…… as long as she’s fine……. Then……… I am……. Too…………….” The monarch of the sun, exhausted from her day and her near death experience finally drifts off to sleep cradled in the arms of her most trusted student.

Twilight breathes a sigh of immense relief as she stares down at her mentor “well at least one thing went right tonight…….”

“Twilly!” A familiar voice calls out.

“Twilight dear!” another voice joins in as both Shining armor and Zecora rush up towards the lavender mare and their monarch.

“Shining! Zecora! Thank goodness you’re alright. Is everypony else okay?”

Zecora lowers her head in shame. “There are no casualties here my dear. But the destruction of the stone is something great to fear.”

“Zecora is right. The destruction of the Red stone is nothing short of a national catastrophe! What did you do Twilly?”

“Hunh?” the mare asks trying to play as dumb as possible, a difficult feat for a genius with an IQ of 180 “I don’t know what you are talking about big brother! It what makes you think that I had anything to do with what happened?”

Zecora stares down Twilight with her piercing gaze causing her back up as Zecora’s condemnation grows ever closer. “Twilight Sparkle. This is a matter of national security. This is no time for games. When I mentioned the new runes that we were adding to the circle you seemed ignorant of them and seconds before the blast occurred you told us all to hit the deck.” Twilight’s retreat finally fails causing her to fall on her rump. “Now Twilight I know that you have only the best intentions but I must ask. What. Did. You. Do?”

Twilight’s normally razor sharp mind stops functioning almost instantly in the wake of Zecora’s accusations. Twilight’s brain freezes over as the various high magi and military ponies gather around the purple mare in order to hear her ‘valid’ and ‘logical’ explanation for why everything went wrong.  Her amazingly high IQ producing no ways to escape the hole that she has dug herself into.

“Well Twilight?” shining armor chimes in “Please, tell me Zecora is wrong. Please tell me that you didn’t have anything to do with this!”

Twilight’s brain finally comes back from vacation as her stalled mind begins to think again. ‘Alright this is no time for stalling now come on think brain! This is the one chance you have to explain yourself before you are banished to the moon for a thousand years. Think of something clever and logical that explains you just wanted to make the circle magic circle more efficient and better able to cleanse Celestia’s Blood sister of corruptive magics. Then they will see that it is not your fault that a priceless artifact that is tantamount to the military strength of the nation exploded!’

Twilight sparkle demonstrating amazing resolve in the face of pressure rises to her hooves with dramatic flair. With social grace befitting the private student of the ruler of the country, she clears her voice in a solemn way, and raises her hoof, her entire body prepared to deliver the most eloquent speech in her life. The speech that her entire life depends upon. Finally her mouth opens and a torrent of words pours out.

“wiuhiuahifuwadhuaifhiuauriwweeygytrewwqasdfvgyyuhkikjnkkolllkjhggfvbnjnnggfdxsxszazszsswefghhuiopopoijukuhrfhguiufvkhdhughufhuuhdshilssdjicslkmsfjkjfdvmdsudgrurungnhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” And with that brilliant piece of literary genius, Twilight sparkle falls over fainting dead away from the waking world.

………… 12 hours later…………..

The same lavender mare who had fainted away in front of a crowd of twenty, Twilight sparkle, stands before the throne in front the highest power in the land of Equestria, none other than princess Celestia. Channeling her inner tapeworm Twilight crouches as low to the ground as possible as she stands in judgment at the very hooves of she has spent her entire life trying not to disappoint. The very goddess that raises the sun and the moon, one of the strongest and wisest creatures in the world, a living god in body mind and soul, and Twilight had failed her. Standing before the solar throne in a room devoid of any pony aside from her aide Zecora, the solar monarch stares down upon her apprentice as the twilight mare seems to be melting into the floor.

The lavender mare muses on the fact that she could be disintegrated on the spot and no pony would even know. But even more painful to her is the fact that she knows, despite everything, that she deserves it. More crushing than the mare’s disappointment in herself is her abusing the very faith Celestia had put in her skills and abilities. Celestia trusted her, Twilight sparkle, to help her save her sister and now Luna is gone to goddess only knows, and the most valuable object in Equestria has been destroyed at her hooves. Banishment to the moon is far too good for ponies like her.

‘Why doesn’t she just say something already?’ The scum known as Twilight sparkle thinks to herself ‘Why doesn’t she just banish me to the moon already? I can’t take the pressure anymore! Just say something! Anything!

Finally after minutes of complete silence the princess opens her mouth. “Well…..” the princess of the sun begins “…..it seems that we are in a bit of a pickle now aren’t we.”

“A bit of a pickle…….” Twilight stares aghast at her mentor “A BIT OF A PICKLE!?! Princess Celestia I destroyed one of the most valuable and priceless objects in the entire kingdom with nothing to show for it! A bit of a pickle doesn’t even begin to describe the mess that we are in now!” Twilight lets her frustrations out on a fury of self destructive words. “Now thanks to me the means to obtain powerful magical abilities, to obtain Stand powers, is now scattered across the whole of Equestria!”

“Twilight…”

“I don’t understand why you are not taking this seriously! I deserve to be banished from Equestria!”

“Twilight……”

“…..Or be thrown in a dungeon!”

“Twilight…………”

“Or be banished and be thrown in a dungeon in the place that I’m banished to! I don’t deserve to…”

 “ENOUGH TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Manifesting the full power of the royal canterlot voice Celestia breaks her student out of her manic rant. “HOLD YOUR TONGUE HENCEFORTH SO THAT WE MIGHT CONVEY WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY TO THOU!”

The purple unicorn cowers on the ground as she prepares to face judgment for her crimes against the kingdom of Equestria. Her entire body shivering in fear at the wrath of her mentor.

As suddenly as it appeared, the wrathful visage of the monarch of the sun fades away leaving behind the mentor Twilight knows and respects. “Forgive me Twilight, but what I what I have to say is something that you need to hear.”

Twilight leans forward gently in order to better hear the princess’s words. ‘This is it! This is the point where the ever so perfect princess banishes the foolish failure of a mage! Goodbye Equestria! Goodbye Shiny! Goodbye Canterlot!’

“What happened to the Red Stone of Aja….” Celestia takes a deep breath. “Was not your fault.”

Never had Twilight sparkle been more surprised in her life than she had in this moment. In fact if one had keen ears they might be able to hear all the gears in her brain grinding to a complete and sudden stop. As if doubting her own senses Twilight sparkle pulls herself off the floor and cleans the wax out of her ears with the aid of her magic. “That’s funny my ears appeared to have malfunctioned there for a second, I thought you said that what happened to the Red stone of Aja wasn’t my fault.”

Celestia chuckles “that Is because it wasn’t your fault Twilight Sparkle.”

“What.” Twilight’s entire mental being breaks down in the wake of an inconceivable possibility.

Celestia smiles gently. “After I recovered from magical exhaustion I went over the entire Arcanum myself and from what I say your last minute modification actually improved the spell’s effectiveness, just as you predicted.”

“What.”

“What I mean to say…” Celestia Resumes “Is that your change to the Arcanum had no effect on the Red Stone of Aja’s destruction. You are completely in the clear my dear student.”

“What.”

“Twilight, do you understand what I am saying to you?”

“What.”

Celestia rolls her eyes. “It seems Twilight’s train of thought has crashed again.”

“Shall we wait for her to regain her senses?” Zecora asks.

“What.”

“No this looks like it’s going to be a long one Zecora, and as it stands now we have precious little time.” A faint glow illuminates from the monarch’s horn as she spins a storm cloud into existence directly above the stuttering unicorn.

“What.”

“I am sorry Twilight but desperate times call for desperate measures.” Igniting her horn with a flash of yellow light, a single bolt of lightning from the cloud shocks the mare to her senses; her body shivering from the brief display of electro-shock therapy.

“Uggggggggggggg” The singed purple mare groans on the floor as she body discharges small arcs of electricity.

“Twilight? Are you okay now?” Celestia asks timidly

“Uggggggg thanks PrincessI really needed that.” Pulling herself off the floor Twilight stands before the princess again. “Now where was I………….. Oh yes, WHAT?! How could I not be responsible? There wasn’t a problem with the Red Stone and there wasn’t a problem with you so the problem must have been the Arcanum! And since I was the only one to modify it before the ritual, it must be…...”

“Actually Twilight….” The princess interrupts “….in a way it was my fault that the ritual failed.”

“What.”

Celestia’s voice rumbles like thunder “Do not start that again Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight gulps “C-Continue Princess.”

“As I was saying….” The princess continues her voice tinged with regret “It seems like I heavily underestimated the strain that two goddess level entities would put on the Red Stone.” Celestia admits. “I had thought that between Shining Armor’s Shield and the Arcanum that any excess magical power would be dealt with. However our two energies combined were far too much of a strain for the Red Stone to handle. It’s like two professional wrestlers decided to fight on top of a table, no matter how strong it is even the most stable of objects can fall apart if enough strain is placed upon it.”

Twilight sparkle mind wheels about as all her previous expectations of banishment and guilt are smashed to pieces. “Sooooo……. You aren’t going to banish me and throw me in a dungeon in the place that I’m banished to?”

Celestia chuckled at this “Twilight Sparkle, Believe me when I tell you this. Even if you were responsible for the destruction of the Red stone I would never banish my precious student for something that they had no control over.”

Twilight’s eyes begin to tear up “Princess…”

“That being said….” The princess of the sun rises from her throne and begins to walk down the steps in front of her. “I have an important task for you Twilight. One that I only trust you to perform.” Coming to a stop in front of her student Celestia stares into her eyes “the question is do you feel up to it?”

Leaping in the air in excitement and the opportunity to redeem herself Twilight cries out in joy “YES! YES I Would love to help out in any way I can Princess!”

Realizing that leaping around her mentor like a school filly might not be the best way to demonstrate her maturity and readiness to embark upon a dangerous task, Twilight adjusts her intensity level “I mean, if that is you desire princess.” Twilight says as she breaks into a short bow.

Celestia smiles that the childish display of her student, however she quickly takes on a stern demeanor as she prepares to explain the importance of the task she is to assign her student. “Twilight do you know what the common ponies are calling the incident that took place last night?”

The unicorn shakes her head ‘no’ as Celestia continues. “They are calling it The Night of Falling Stars. Fortunately since the summer Sun Celebration was in full swing the ponies of Equestria thought the thousands of Red stones falling across the sky were an attempt at celebration. They even took the lack of the mare on the moon as an artistic change.” Celestia chuckles. “In fact I have received several compliments from members of the nobility about the ‘artistic liberties’ that I am taking with the night sky.”

Twilight giggles at the idea of ponies thanking Celestia for something as frivolous as changing the appearance of the moon. However her mirthful behavior is immediately cut off by her mentor’s serious appearance.

”This is no laughing matter Twilight.” Celestia states. “I spent hundreds of years denying my own sister as a mere legend for fear that when she did return to me, her past crimes would haunt her and drive the ponies whom she loved away from her. As a result few ponies even know the reality of my sister or her return.”

“But….. But she’s not evil any more. Right?” Twilight asks cautiously “You said yourself the circle worked, and I saw her! She didn’t have any of that evil aura that I felt coming from Nightmare Moon. And you said yourself that the Arcanum worked…. Right?”

Celestia looks at her student with a haunted look in her eyes “I certainly hope so Twilight, I certainly hope so.” Her mentor the goddess that moves the sun and moon does something that Twilight has never seen her do before, she looks worried. However realising she is in the presence of her student Celestia quickly brushes these worries aside. “But that is not your that task that I have assigned to you, I shall handle finding my sister, what I am having you do is a far more immediate concern.”

Gesturing to the window Celestia leads her student to a view that looks over half of the nation of Equestria “Twilight do you know why we gradually expose those in our solar guard to the red stone and subject them to rigorous psychological testing?”

“That’s easy Princess” Twilight sparkle chirps, as she is once more immersed in her element of facts and academia. “It’s because manifesting stand power takes a great deal of latent magical power in order to properly manifest, and if the pony who manifests a stand is not of sound mind, they might manifest a dangerous power or worse yet be unable to control their own stand.”

“That is correct, so please tell me Twilight.” Celestia, the monarch of the sun, turns to face Twilight with a grave look on her face. “What would happen if a pony with insufficient magical power and a week will was exposed to the Red Stone?”

“Well….” The purple unicorn thinks deeply at this question “they’re not many documented cases in the guard since they train so rigorously mentally, spiritually and physically. But if a pony who had insufficient will or magical power was exposed to enough of the Red Stone, it would force their stand to manifest too quickly and…… oh no.”

Celestia’s grave face reveals her inner worry “I believe you now see the problem Twilight.”

“If-if the user’s magical power isn’t strong enough the stand…” Twilight’s voice cracks as she gulps heavily “…..will drain the user’s vial life-force until they…….. until they die. And even if the user manages to survive, if they are unstable or possess a week will their stand may go berserk or develop a power that actively harms others!”

Celestia nods “and now that the red stones are scattered over Equestria there is no telling how many ponies might be exposed to its effects.”

Twilight raises her head as she looks out the window, picturing the myriad of horrible possibilities that could be taking place in the kingdom of Equestria. “We have to find the Red Stones as quickly as possible!”

Celestia nods, affirmatively “I have already dispatched most of the solar guard across Equestria, with their stand powers they should be able to locate the Red Stones and deal with any rogue stand users that they encounter, and you must join them.”

“ME?” Twilight asks. “But I… don’t have a stand….”

 Sensing her student’s distress Celestia drapes her large left wing over her student is an comforting gesture. “You will manifest it when the time is right. But now I need as many capable ponies as possible to help protect my subjects and I cannot think of any pony more capable, resourceful, and kind than you Twilight.”

Twilight looks at the ground, thinking over her current situation. On one hoof she feels utterly unprepared for the task ahead of her; she’s never been outside in the world, everything that she knows is here in Canterlot. And what if she’s not prepared? What if somepony depends upon her to save them and she fails?

Her heart sinks into her stomach as she feels a gentle alabaster hoof raise her head. Celestia raises Twilight’s vision away from the ground so that she is looking straight into her eyes, eyes that could never be disappointed in her student so long as she tries her best.

Suddenly it all becomes clear to her, Celestia trusts her because she knows that the purple unicorn always tries. It is because she refuses to give up that her mentor trusts her so absolutely, and as long as she tries her best she will not be fail.

Raising her hoof to her head Twilight gives the princess an official salute of the solar guard “You can count on me Princess! I’ll give it my all just point me in the right direction!”

Smiling at her student’s newfound confidence she has instilled into her mentor, Celestia focuses her magic into her horn causing a fully packed saddle bag to appear on Twilight’s back. “I have already taken the effort to send you to a small town nearby that according to reports should have a large number of ponies affected by the Red Stones. Knowing that you would most likely want to leave as soon as you heard I had Zecora pack your bags, so that you could leave the moment you were ready.”

Twilight, opening the bag with her magic finds that it indeed is filled to the brim with everything she could need. “You’ll find the train ticket in your bag that will take you to the town. There you will act as the princess reprehensive there and insure that not only are the towns ponies taken care of but that you gather the Red Stones and any other dangerous artifacts found as secretly as possible. And should you find any other strange magical forces you should report them to me immediately.” Raising her head in pride Celestia looks over her student again. “Now that won’t be a problem will it?”

Brimming with enthusiasm the purple mare looks her mentor in the eyes “No Princess it won’t. And don’t worry. I’ll make sure that no pony comes to harm in the town of…… What town am I going to again?”

“Ponyville my precious student.” Celestia smiles. “You are going to Ponyville.”

“Right Ponyville.” Twilight turns around awkwardly as she prepares to trot out the door. “Well…… I should be on my way…..”

Raising her hoof demurely Celestia calls out to her student just as she prepares to leave “Wait Twilight, there is one more thing that I have for you before you leave.”

Twilight cocks her head to the side “Something else Princess? Is it a book!? Is it the Magical Spell craft and practicalities By Silver text? You know the one that I have been looking forward to getting ever since, well forever. Is it a book?”

Celestia shakes her head “No my precious student. It is something far more valuable than a simple book.”

“More valuable than a book? What could possibly be more valuable than a…” Twilight’s words are cut off as the monarch of the sun pulls her student into a deep embrace, hugging her student gently as warmth both physical and spiritual seeps into Twilight’s very core. This is not an embrace of lovers; it is a soft and caring act, an act of familial love and intimacy. The kind of thing that a caring mother would give to a frightened child on a stormy day, to assure them that everything will be all right. Twilight immediately melts in the embrace, all the mistakes of the past, the tension of the present and the fears of the future fading away in the magnanimous intensity of her mentor’s love for her.

Letting her student go Celestia speaks gently to her “Be safe Twilight, above all the things you have to do, out of all the troubles that you will have to face Your most important task is to come back safely to me. Do you understand now how important it is for you to come back safely?”

Twilight lets a single joyful tear drip down her mentor’s coat as she begins to realize once again how much she means to her mentor “Princess……” Wiping the faint remnant of tears from her eyes she looks again at her mentor. “You’ve got it Princess! Don’t worry about me, I’ll be back soon.”

Now with nothing else holding our heroine down, she bolts out of the throne room door, only stopping once to wave goodbye to her mentor as she leaves behind the only home that she has known for an adventure of enormous proportions. As she leaves a smile of both faint sorrow and immense pride graces the Monarch’s face as she watches the mare that she thinks of as her own child leaves home for the first time into the world beyond.

“She’ll be fine.” Celestia assures herself “I know her and trained her myself. She is at that age where she has to begin to learn things for herself now, and I know that she will be ready to face whatever comes her way.” With a flick of her magic Celestia shuts the doors to her throne room leaving her alone once again.

“Ahem, Princess.”

Well almost alone. “What is it Zecora?” Celestia says as she turns to face her secretary behind her.

“Princess, I am relieved to see that Twilight got out at last.” Zecora clears her throat “without a punishment that would hold her fast. But was lying to her for the best? With telling her the truth I do wrest, is this some form of test?”

Playing coy with her aide Celestia puts her hoof to her mouth to hide the slight smile that is forming beneath her hoof. “Oh Zecora? Whatever do you mean?”

“You know as well as I it is not true, though telling her would make her blue, to know that the fault for her own failure is burdened by you.”

“You mean that telling her that she was responsible for the destruction of the Red Stone would be better than telling her it was my fault?” Celestia asks.

With a curt nod Zecora confirms Celestia’s suspicions “To tell a lie is sometimes right, But the truth is better not to fight.”

Looking at the door where her prized student left Celestia responds “It is true that she is responsible for this looming catastrophe is the loose sense of the word. However it is the truth that Twilight Sparkle is not guilty of the crime of destroying the Red Stone because she lacked the intent behind such an action.” Celestia remarks sagely as she turns back to face Zecora “Without the burden of her actions to weigh her down I am sure that Twilight will succeed in gathering up the pieces of ‘it’ without any great trouble.”

“And who knows?” Celestia continues “perhaps this is part of some divine plan, and everything will work out for the best.”

Zecora is shocked at this “Princess! With all due respect you surely don’t mean that. The loss of a national treasure such as the Red stone and the exposure of countless of our own citizens is anything but a good thing.”

“I do not claim to know the future Zecora.” Celestia admits as she looks out the window over her empire. “Despite all my wisdom and insight I can only guess what it has in store for us. Perhaps this so called catastrophe will pave the way for a new tomorrow.” Signaling for Zecora to follow her Celestia walks out the door to the throne room “Now come Zecora, we must turn our own attention to a more important task. The task of finding my only sister.”

Chapter 3-Foundation-Take 1

Chapter 4-Thousand Hoof Crutch

Thousand hoof crutch:

“Twilight darling, Have you seen Pinkie Pie?” in the middle of the library floor  Rarity twirls her hair in yet another graceful curl from her styling as the mane-doo bounces back and forth. “……because the last that I heard from her she was saying some dreadful nonsense about a new pony and gravity control and bubblegum of all things! Do you think she’ll be here soon? All this waiting up is simply not good for my mane.”

“Well Rarity if I could predict Pinkie’s behavior, which I can’t…….” the lavender mare says as she practices one of her many examples of known magic turning a random book into an orange “It could be anywhere from two seconds to a week before she arrives.”

Looking at the door with an impatient glance Twilight sighs heavily as she mourns yet another of her well laid plans reduced to ruin. “And here I thought that because I told her we’d be doing some important work today, she would finally take things seriously and arrive on time. Silly me..…”

Looking around at her friends, that have been waiting for no less than fifty six minutes and twelve seconds, Twilight quickly goes through her figures calculating the effect of the lost time will have on their schedule. Already Fluttershy Rarity and Applejack have arrived, and Twilight knows that with every second they waste her plan threatens to unravel completely.

Twilight sighs once again. “We’re better off not waiting on her. Clear out everypony” Charging her horn with the glow of her magic twilight smiles as her aura fills a big empty space in the middle of the room. “All right, adjust aura, limit effect, perfect control and…….. Open!”

In a dramatic flash of light an octagonal center table reappears in the center of the room causing Fluttershy to squeak in surprise as the large cumbersome object relocates right in front of her. The table though ordinarily bare is covered this time in a full scale model of the entire town of ponyville and its surrounding areas in near perfect detail.

“Now you can all probably guess by what I’m drinking right now,” Twilight waves her handy thermos of coffee around with her telekinesis “…But I didn’t get much sleep last night. However all that lost sleep was worth it to construct this working model of Ponyville for our mission today. It’s made from the weather patrol’s maps and the town records so I’ve made sure it’s as accurate as physically possible.”

Applejack looks in amazement at the map whistling in pride “Wow Twi. Ah have ta admit that’s’ mighty impressive, but when did yawl have the time to throw this whole thing together?”

Twilight smiles awkwardly “oh it’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have to sleep applejack! I just couldn’t’ sleep with how nervous I was for this mission so I just stayed up all night throwing this together!” the lavender chuckles, taking a sip from her coffee thermos as the farmer takes a subsequent measured step away from the caffeine crazed mare.

“Anyways enough questions.” Twilight magics up a crystalline pointer, pointing it to the center of the town at a location that looks startlingly like Golden oaks library. “Now last night while I was putting this together, I organized a plan to survey the entirety of the town’s more easy-to-reach places searching for Red Stones before they could be subsequently discovered by the residents of the town.”

Levitating her mug for another sip of coffee the mare points to several locations at the border. “Given the plans of the town and calculations that I developed from the explosion, I was able to guess a trajectory at which a large majority of the Red stones have most possibly landed.”

The mare points her stylus to one side of the town, the side farthest from the everfree forest. “Here on the western side of the town, the side farthest from Canterlot, is where we will begin the search. According to my calculations and Rarity’s’ information, thank you Rarity….” The white unicorn nods “…..all the easily found Red Stones were either already found or were recovered by her. Therefore our mission for today is to get our hooves on as many of the Red Stones still undiscovered in this west portion of Town.

Slapping her pointer down on the table like a general at arms, Twilight makes her point with gusto. “Once that’s done then we can focus on getting the Red Stones out of the hooves of other ponies and locating some of the Stones hidden in more difficult to find places.”

Waving her pointer around with such enthusiasm that she nearly hits rarity, Twilight takes another sip of her Coffee as she elaborates on their plan of attack. “And now for the plan of attack. Rarity and Fluttershy will take one group and search the south west side of the map here. You two will use Rarity’s gem finding spell and Fluttershy’s ability to fly to get as many of the Red stones that you can from hard to reach places.”

Twilight groans “and I had planned for Pinkie to help me out so there’s going to be a change of plans.” Pointing her stylus at Applejack’s forehead twilight resumes “Applejack.”

The mare swallows nervously in the face of Twilight’s aura of command, saluting as sharply as an officer on duty. “Ye-Yes Twilight Mam?”

“I had planned for you to see if any of the ponies around town were acting strange or began hoarding strange objects recently, like the Red Stones, but the plan has changed. I need you to come with me and help me search the North West side of the town. Between Rarity’s gem finding spell which I just learned and your ability to distinguish Red Stones by passing a magical current through it with your stand; I estimate we should finish around…” Twilight looks outside to the position of the sun “.... 6:25 pm just before sundown with time allotted for lunch breaks, bathroom breaks and travel for good measure. By then we’ll have surveyed the west side of town and taken the Red Stones that have been infecting ponies off the streets.”

With a wave her horn the entire table and the pointer disappear in a flash of light leaving behind only an empty floor between the mares. “Questions?”

Fluttershy snakingly raises her hoof “Um… twilight not to …. Um criticize you or anything but are you sure that you are okay? I mean… I know that you want to help and all but….. Are you okay?”

Twilight groans “Ugh what is it with you guys first Applejack, then Rarity and now you Fluttershy. I keep telling you guys I’m used to all-nighters like this. I’ll be fine with a little coffee and a delayed sleep spell it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“Um it’s not that…..” Fluttershy mutters “…. though it problem is the reason why….”

“Yes Fluttershy? what was so important that you had to interrupt the group to point it out?”

“It’s just that…..ummmmmm….”

‘YES? What is it?”

“…. Um I didn’t really want to be a bother….. But…” Fluttershy shuffles nervously on her flank, “but you’ve been holding your thermos of coffee upside down for the past half hour.”

Twilight processes the words for a few second before looking at the thermos she has been drinking from for the last twenty minutes. Sure enough the bottom half of the thermos, the side designed to serve as a bottom, is facing up at her, mocking her intelligence with it’s very presence. While the lip of the cup, the part that is designed to hold the liquids placed into it, is on the bottom of her thermos, its’ contents completely empty of the dark brown ambrosia she so craved. Twilight looks back to the door of the kitchen staring at her brand new coffee maker (that pinkie generously donated to the ponyville library) only see an offensively large amount of spilled coffee dripping from the counter. The stain no doubt the result of trying to pour coffee down the bottom end of a thermos. And as if things couldn’t get any worse the dark brown coffee is staining her purple coat.

Twilight knew many things; she knew the capitals of every major country surrounding Equestria. She knew the number of special magical elements, the three great composers of her time, as well as several miscellaneous facts that would surprise and enlighten the average pony. And she also knew that coffee stains were scientifically some of the hardest to remove, even magical cleaning had little effect on such powerful stains. And, with a great deal of pain, Twilight knew that for the rest of her day the remnants of the stain would be her reminder to all of ponyville the absolute level of her blunder. Now every time that she looks down on her coat for the next three days, every time she saw the brown blotch on her coat she could be reminded of her stupidity.

 “Oh…” the mare realizes now why the rest of the group was snickering all morning. “Well that explains the mystery of why I seemed to never run out of coffee, and why I feel an unquenched need for caffeine.” Twilight ignites her horn causing a gentle glowing aura to flow across her coat cleaning her from excess stains while patching a simple illusion spell over her coat to try and cover the remainder of the stain. With another spell she then levitates the same pot from the kitchen and pours herself a cup of coffee in the right way before taking a long, much needed sip. “Better, now were there any more questions any pony?” Twilight states as humorously as possible.

Applejack grins sheepishly “Now Twi I tried to tell ya sooner but… it was so gosh darn funny and yawl were…..”

“ARE. THERE. ANY. MORE. QQQQUUUUUUUEEEEEEEESSSSSSTTTTTTTTIIIIIIIIIOOOOOONNNNNSSSSSSS?”

“Nope no questions from this here farm mare! What bout you Rares?”

“No. No Questions! Fluttershy?”

“meep…..”

“Yep we’ve got no more questions to ask yawl, so let’s go!” The orange farm mare turns to leave however she is stopped once again by a familiar voice

“I just have one more thing to address before we leave…” Twilight takes another sip of her coffee.

With a feeling of Deja-vu almost permeable, as the orange farm mare turns to face Twilight “….. Give me a Break….. Twi what is it with yawl and ‘one more thing?’ Now ah know yer upset an all, but why da ya have to bring somtin important up when we’re all about to leave?” Applejack asks indignantly.

Twilight narrows her gaze at Applejack “I don’t know Applejack maybe heavy southern accents just cause me to forget what I was going to say.”

Applejack narrows her gaze back at the Purple mare “Touché, continue Twi.”

“Good.” Twilight nods her head as she pulls out a familiar black stone out of her saddle bags with her hoof “it’s about this” Twilight places the black stone on the table causing the others in the group to circle around it.

“Twilight…” Rarity comments as she removes a pair of her fashion spectacles out of her bag to get a better look “correct me if I am wrong but that seems like a normal Red stone. Not that they are supposed to be normal in any sense of the word.”

“That would be the case of this WAS a Red Stone of Aja..…” Lighting up her horn Twilight picks up the stone with her magic. Quickly the stone breaks out into a brilliant white light that banishes every shadow in the entire room with its overwhelming brilliance. The light, though incredibly bright, is not blinding or painful to the eyes in the slightest, allowing all the mares to stare enthralled by its unknown power. Then with the suddenness at which the light appeared, Twilight places it back on the table returning the room to its’ normal illumination. “This is the stone Applejack gave me not to long ago. It’s the one that Applebloom cut herself upon. I’m concerned because though it superficially resembles the Red Stones of Aja, it is fundamentally different in terms of density and magical essence.”

Applejack looks nervously at the black rock. “Define ‘fundamentally different’”

“That’s easy!” Pinkie says as she pops out from underneath Applejack’s hat causing the farmer to fumble about in terror “Twilight means that though it may look like those funny stones we’re looking for, the Red stones of Abra, it isn’t! Even though it looks like one. It’s like bagels and doughnuts! A bagel looks like a doughnut and is shaped like a doughnut but it isn’t one! Doughnut?” The pink mare says as she pulls a box of doughnuts out from behind her back.

Before twilight says a word Pinkie pie stuff a delicious sugary treat into her open mouth. “Speaking of which do you like it that I brought doughnuts to our secret meeting? Do you? Of course you do!  I know, ‘really cool pinkie’ it’s just one of the many perks of having a cool friend that works in a bakery!”

Twilight gapes  “Pinkie where were…”

“I was throwing a new party for the new pony in ponyville! Gravity well! He was really grumpy for some reason luckily I brought lots and lots of bubble gum! HE loved bubble gum!”

“Pinkie I’m trying to….”

“Oh and don’t worry about your whole plan Twibright! I’d be happy to ask around and see if any ponies are acting super strange around town. That is ask of any ponies are acting super strange other than me of course because everypony thinks that I’m really strange for some reason. You guys don’t think that though, right? But even if you did think I was really strange I’d totally forgive you cause you’re my best friends!”

Twilight’s mouth opens and closes unable to conjure a world that encompasses how strange Pinkie Pie really is. Twilight doesn’t think that there’s a word in any language that could encompass the enigma of Pinkie Pie. Unwilling to risk derailing the conversation any further than it already has, Twilight glares Pinkie into silence and continues. “Anyways, the two stones seem to be related somehow since they too seem to be able to produce the same ability to manifest stands as the Red Stones.”

Twilight taps the black stone on the table with her hoof. “However the most interesting thing about this ‘strange stone’ as I have dubbed it, is it seems to produce the same unknown energy the red stones produce but on a much more concentrated and purer level.  From what little I have seen from it so far it seems to have amplification far beyond the norm, surpassing the Red Stones hundreds of times over.”

With deft hooves twilight slips the stone back into her bag. I’ll be keeping the stone with today to see if we do find any more of these stones that I can use it for a comparison. So if any of you do happen to find any of these ‘strange stones’ be sure to collect them carefully and bring them to me immediately. We don’t know how powerful these stones are so, or what they can do, I would like to treat them with as much caution as possible.”

Twilight stretches her legs as she begins to speak “Okay, now we’re ready to leave.” Everypony gets up “But before we do I just have a few safety precautions that….”

Everypony groans at the idea of another Twilight safety lecture “Now everypony, nothing bad should happen today, ponyville is a relatively safe town. However untrained stand powers can play with the minds of ponies that aren’t used to controlling them.”

Rarity interrupts “Your mean stand powers can brainwash their own users?”

“No nothing like that Rarity. Think of it….” Twilight taps her hoof to her chin deep in thought “Well think if you just obtained the ability to fly, or if an earth pony just grew a horn. Gaining that much power instantly can corrupt and mislead a pony pretty easily.”

Twilight looks at her friends a serious look in her eyes “Now I believe that nothing bad or dangerous will happen today we’re not doing anything exotic or hazardous. If worst comes to worst and you encounter a dangerous stand user, just run away.”

Twilight gestures to everypony “We can call members of the royal guard to deal with any overt threats, and between me and Applejack we can handle anything most ponies. So just focus on the task at hoof: finding as many of the red stones, and these strange stones as possible before the day is up.”

Sticking her hoof towards the other girls Twilight grins “now are you all ready?”

Looking at her hoof Applejack smiles and places her hoof alongside Twilight’s “Ready.”

Pinkie smiles as she sticks her hoof in the center “Yepers! I’m Always Ready Twilight!”

Rarity places her hoof as well “Fashionably ready darling.”

Everypony looks over at Fluttershy, the butter yellow mare, hesitating, for a single moment before placing her hoof in the center with the others. “I’m… I’m here for you too Twilight. We may have just met a short time ago, but I feel as though we’ve known each other for a lot longer. So… So if you say that you REALLY need my help….. then I’m with you.” Fluttershy states with level of dedication one would not expect from the demure mare.

They break the five way hoof shake as twilight beams “I feel the same way Fluttershy.” The lavender mare looks around her “I still find it hard to believe that I made friends so quickly with you four. It’s like we have a connection that we all never knew about……” Twilight quickly pulls herself out of thought as she teleports over to the door

“Well enough of that.” Twilight throws open the door in front of her with pizazz. “We’ve got a job to take care of, so everypony do their best!”

…………………

The day passes quickly for the mares as the individual members of the team split up to cover more ground each of them finding quite a few pieces of the red stone located across the town. The day passes uneventfully like this, talk to locals, find a stone in an unexpected place, test for validity and repeat. It is in this monotonous state, as the sun rises past noon that Fluttershy and Rarity slowly pick up the pace of their own work eager to finish up their daily task.

“Hot” Rarity says, as Fluttershy flies a little closer to the thatched roof of a nearby house.

“Colder.” The mare repeats as Fluttershy flies lower, looking at the glass paned window sills.

“HOT! Boiling hot Darling it’s right in front of you!” Looking at the underside of the roof Fluttershy spies a small sharpened fragment of the Red Stone embedded deep in the wood. Extending her hoof with surgical precision, the yellow mare grabs a cloth from her saddlebag and wraps to around the stone as she carefully pulls it out of its prison.

“Great job Darling! Now be a dear and come down so we can put it away.” Fluttershy sighs to herself as she drifts down over to Rarity. Unfolding the cloth Rarity pinks up the stone with her magic causing to glow a bright Red. “Success! that’s another stone collected by team Rarity! I’ll daresay that Twilight and Applejack aren’t even doing half as well as we are.”

Rarity stuffs the stone in her bag and begins to trot leisurely away eager to put more distance between her team and Applejack’s. “Come along Fluttershy we’re ahead of schedule, and I just can’t wait to see Twilight’s face when we arrive early with more Red stones than she could ever…. Fluttershy? Are you coming?”

Standing as rooted to the ground as a tree, Fluttershy whispers to herself. Her voice just out of earshot of the ivory unicorn’s hearing, as she paws the ground with her hoof as nervously as possible.

“What is it Fluttershy Darling?” Rarity asks as she backpedals to her previous location “Are you all right? I haven’t been pushing you too hard have I? Goodness look at you! You’re sweating, let’s get you to some adequate shade!”

Finally the yellow Pegasus raises her voice to an audible level “why… why did you bring me along Rarity?”

Rarity blinks in confusion “Why? Darling whatever do you mean? I thought that you were keen on spending some time with me and making new friends like Twilight? Is it about your job?”

Fluttershy shakes her head “No it’s not that. I was able to get a leave of absence from the veterinarian’s office since it’s been slow lately. And Twilight’s pay is generous enough that I don’t have to worry about money…. It’s just…..”

Rarity tilts her head in confusion unable to process her friend’s concerns. Rarity had known Fluttershy from the yellow Pegasus had moved to Ponyville and they had instantly bonded over their respective love of beauty and implacable manners and etiquette. And despite the fact that she never quite got along with her Childhood friend Dash, she had always thought of Fluttershy as one of her closest friends in Ponyville. However the shy mare’s lack of overtness and her tendency to beat around the bush left the Pegasus a flighty enigma to the fashionista, if only for the fact that she would fail to communicate properly.

Rarity mentally debates the cause of the Pegasus’s sudden reluctance, when suddenly a dark and oppressive thought begins to take root in the unicorn’s mind. “Do you just not want to spend time with me anymore?” Rarity asks almost dismayed by the very utterance of her statement. “I know that we haven’t been very close lately, I even had to cancel a few of our little spa dates because of…..”

“NO! It’s not that, it would never be that Rarity, you’re a great friend and I’d never imply that you weren’t being a good friend.” Fluttershy lowers her head in shame as she paws the ground. “It’s just I wonder why you would want to involve such a useless pony in something as important as this….”

“…Fluttershy, surely you can’t believe that can you?” Rarity asks as she drapes her arm over the filly next to her “Now darling you really…….”

Brushing off the ivory unicorns’ closeness the Pegasus suddenly finds her voice. “But it’s true! I’m useless in all this…… this craziness.”

Fluttershy trots in place as she begins to nervously list all her deficiencies and failings in order to illustrate her point. “I’ve always been frail…….I’m afraid of everything…….. I can’t stand up for myself……… my only good talent is taking care of animals.”

Fluttershy points her hoof to Rarity tears dripping down her face. “But Rarity….. you’re the kindest and smartest mare that I know. You’re so generous and you care about everypony and you’re so rich and successful.”

The yellow mare turns away from Rarity unwilling to face the mare behind her “it’s the same with everypony else who is helping……. Twilight is really good with magic……… Applejack is really strong ……….. And pinkie always makes ponies feel better………….I….”

The mare gulps down her tears unwilling to let the pony behind her see her cry “…….I’m just in the way……I can’t do anything to help you…. So why do you even want me helping you?”

“….I …. I don’t even feel like I’m your friend sometimes……” Fluttershy sobs “……I just feel like a nuisance …. A pony who can only leach off the ponies around her……..” Fluttershy lowers her head to the dirt in shame at her own apparent failures, utterly convinced she is making life worse for the ponies around her just by merely existing.

However the pink manned mare’s pity party fails to even make a dent in the mind of her friend.  Mustering up an assuring smile that would make Pinkie Pie proud, Rarity trots over to the yellow mare and raises her face up with a gentle hoof. “Even if that were all true Fluttershy, even if you were the most useless pony on the planet, and I can assure you that you are not.” Rarity picks up the face of the Pegasus looking her straight in the eyes “You would still be the most considerate, the kindest, and the most genuine friend that I have ever known. I have never known you to upset any pony Fluttershy, and you never abandon your friends when you know that they need you. “

Rarity brushes off the tears that are slowly streaming off Fluttershy’s face with her magic as she smiles at her friend. “And I promise you darling it may not be today or tomorrow or the day after that.  But I assure you that you will have a moment in which all your friends depend upon what you can do.” Rarity smiles “and I know when that moment comes you won’t let us down.”

Fluttershy smiles a bit her earlier fears and uncertainties, unforgotten but suppressed under the immense level of confidence Rarity has given her.

“Besides.” Rarity remarks off hoof. “It may just be my opinion but our little team needs a little culture in it don’t you agree?” Rarity brushes her mane off to the side as she demonstrates her superior looks and class “Pinkie is a dear and Twilight is from Canterlot but no pony carries herself with the grace that you do Fluttershy. Could you imagine it? Taking Pinkie out to high tea? She wouldn’t last thirty seconds before the entire greens erupted in chaos!”

Rarity wraps her hoof around her friend “besides darling, with what Twilight is paying us we would be fools to not take this job. Twenty two bits an hour, with expenses? How could anypony pass that up?”

Fluttershy raises her hoof to her mouth in a cute giggle “it IS really silly….”

“Oh?” Rarity asks with a bemused expression “And what is that Darling?”

“Well, the idea of Pinkie sitting down for tea! I don’t think that she would last thirty seconds without breaking into a song about cupcakes!” And with their fears forgotten both mares break out into laughter both of them basking in the glory and wonder of a new day.

“Don’t worry about you lack of confidence deer.” Rarity once again assures her “Even I have times when I wish that I had more confidence…….” The ivory mare looks off in the distance, her eyes filling with worry and fear. “The confidence to tell a certain somepony close to my heart the truth..…..”

Fluttershy stops her mirthful smile as she looks at her friend’s face to see a look that the yellow mare had never seen before, a look of shame. Never before had Fluttershy seen this side of Rarity, a side that knew fear. To her Rarity was always so confident and brave, how could she be afraid of something? Fluttershy nudges the mare to her side “Um, Rarity? Are you okay?”

The quick shake knocks the ivory mare out of her daydream and back into the world of the living. “Oh I didn’t mean to worry you deer. Really it’s nothing.” Rarity states with dismissive flair. “Well come along Fluttershy we’ve got a long ways to go today. And I do not want to hear any more of your self-loathing.”

Fluttershy nods and prepares to follow her friend when suddenly as if on instincts the yellow mare turns her head left.

There resting just barely on her field of vision, sits an abandoned playground it’s gates covered in long dried ivy. As if drawn by a siren song the mare takes a step towards the yard’s rusted gate, then another, and another each step more automatic and devoid of thought than the last. By the time she realizes how strange she is acting Fluttershy is practically galloping towards the gate as Rarity calls out behind her. However Fluttershy does not hear her friend, any voices that she could possibly hear drowned out by a mythical haze that is filling her mind. She feels it, that in that abandoned place is something, something that fills life with meaning, something powerful and ancient as she suddenly comes to a stop in the middle of the park in an area of hoof high weed covered grass.

Suddenly the haze clears from her mind as she looks around in fright. “Where… where am I… how did I get… OW!” Raising her hoof in a yelp of pain Fluttershy lifts the bottom to see a small sharp rock only to cover her mouth to suppress her yelp of fear. There imbedded in the boney bottom of her hoof, the same black stone that she has been searching for.

Whimpering in pain Fluttershy reaches shakily out to her hoof her limb shaking more from fear than the pain of having a sharp object being driven into her hoof. Clenching her teeth and closing her eyes the mare winces as she pulls out the small black stone from her hoof placing the rock to her side as she fishes around her saddle bag for a bandage. “H-H-How c-could I be so dumb! I need to get this b-b-bleeding under control! From what Twilight told me cutting cut by these stones can make you really….Sick?”

Looking at the bottom of her hoof injured hoof Fluttershy had expected to find a gaping wound, a sore testament to her mistake. However instead she sees her hoof looking as perfect as it was looking before, as if her injury and exposure to the stone were a brief illusion. “W-W-What?! B-But I was sure that…..”

“Fluttershy!” The yellow mare turns around to see her fashion minded friend completely winded behind her. “There you are. Ugh and now I’m covered in sweat! Fluttershy Darling why did you run off like that I was calling out your name but you just kept on ignoring me and…. Hello? What’s this?”

Rarity’s keen eye suddenly spots the black stone lying not a hoof from the mare and with caution in her breath she picks up the stone with her magical aura. Suddenly just as Rarity’s magic touches the stone it erupts in a cascading stream of white light that seems to reflect off everything around them with equal radiance. The sudden surprise of the light causes Rarity to relinquish her magical hold on the stone, its inert form once again falls to the ground black as obsidian. “GASP!” Rarity gasps. “This must be one of those strange stones that Twilight told us to collect, oh good job Fluttershy! Not even my gem finding spell can locate these fragments! An you just so happened to find one out of the blue!”

“But…. I…… there was a voice …… and hoof…….and then blood…… and……..”

Not even giving the shy mare a chance to respond the Fashionista embraces the yellow mare. “I knew that I could rely on you. See Fluttershy? What did I tell you? You’ve already proven yourself useful; just picture the look on deer Twilight’s face when we come back with one of these marvelous stones that she asked for!”

Rarity embraces the yellow mare in a tight hug causing Fluttershy to blush with pride. She did find the stone….. Even though it was an accident. It was just like she felt called in its direction. Maybe, maybe she did have a role to play; maybe she could help her friends.

But what about her hoof? Was she going crazy or…….

Rarity breaks off the hug and looks around the park with her horn illuminated “Humh my spell doesn’t seem to have located any more of the Red stones around us, so we best be on our way to give this stone to Twilight…”

“You two are going nowhere!” the two mares turn towards the sound of the voice “and neither is that stone that you are holding!”

The mares both see that their only way out of the park blocked by a light green mare with a matching light green mane with whitish silvery highlights. Her coat mint green and well-groomed sits in stark contrast to her scraggly, free flowing mane that seems to sway in an imaginary wind. Her golden yellow eyes locked on the two mares with the intensity of a predator make it known that she isn’t playing around.  Her cutie mark barely obscured by her white and golden saddlebags is that of a golden lyre professing her pursuit of passion and of her skill with expression. “So in case you didn’t understand the first time….” The mare crosses her hooves confidently as she stands on two hooves. “empty your saddlebags now. You’re going to turn over those stones you’ve been collecting to me!”

Rarity gasps at the threats of this new stranger “why you ruffian! Trying to rob a pair of sweet defenseless mares in broad daylight! I will not stand for being mugged like this. I have friends in high places in the government, including the princess’ protégé! And to top it off I am a fourth dan in judo so would just walk away and…...”

The light green mare rolls her eyes at the antics amused by the unicorn’s beliefs that her opinion could stop a mugger “I’m not mugging you.” The mare lands back on all fours “I just want you to empty your bags and leave the stones that you’ve been collecting. Do that and we both walk away No pony the wiser to your little ‘secret mission’.”

“Um…” Fluttershy chimes in “I don’t mean to be rude miss….. But getting someone to give up something that they own IS stealing… So technically you are mugging us.”

The mugger sighs “Uh, news flash fillies, the stones that you’re collecting fell out of the sky! That means they’re fair game! Plus…” The mare takes a menacing step forward “if you feel ‘inclined’ to leave them behind for me, then it’s not stealing now is it?”

Fluttershy shakes like a leaf, however not every pony is so easily intimidated. Raising her nose up at the pony in front of her, Rarity responds to the mugger’s threats with indignation of a whole other kind. “I simply do not know what your problem is.” Rarity says as if the mugger’s manners are an affront to good culture “but I will not be intimidated by a thug! And I have no intention of letting you steal the stones that we have been searching all day for!”

Standing battle ready and glowing horn pointed at her opponent Rarity tries her hoof at her own brand of intimidation. “Now kindly step aside before I am forced to do something drastic!”

The green unicorn shrugs “suit yourself! We’ll just have to do this the hard way.” The green mare takes a similar combat stance mirroring her opponent. “However if you thought that your ability to use some judo would allow you to take me down, I just wanted you to know beforehand, you are dead wrong.” Lyra stares intently at the sputtering Ivory mare.

“How dare you!” Rarity shouts “You think that simply because I am a lady I can’t defend myself? I’ll have you know… AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” before she can even register what is going on the ivory mare finds herself is picked up off the ground. Her four hooves flail futilely against an invisible force her mind in limbo as her body is slammed against the hard unforgiving ground.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy rushes forward to her friend’s side making it half a step before she too is tripped by the same invisible force that just defeated her friend. Both mares try to rise but struggle vainly against the invisible force binding them as it feels like their bodies are bound in the coil of a serpent.

“He too easy. And you thought your little judo skills would bind me? Looks like you two are the ones tied up!” Suddenly the same invisible force pulls the saddlebags off of the two mares caring them over to their subduer. “And to the victors go the spoils.”

Rarity grunts against the force holding her to the ground all the while her horn radiates a light blue aura “All right, don’t say that I didn’t warn you!” with expert precision rarity fires a bolt of arcane energy that shoots towards the mint green mare.  Yet just as it looks as though Rarity has turned the tables on her attacker, the bolt of magic is brushed into the sky courtesy of the same invisible force.

“Wow that was close.” The green mare states as she glances at the stray beam of magic spiraling into the sky “I take it back prissy pony, you’ve got guts….” The mare strikes a dramatic pose “…..but fighting my stand, thousand hoof crutch, without a stand yourself is totally impossible!”

Her well laid plans having failed Rarity struggles vainly against the force holding her prone if only to feel that she is doing something to escape. “I-If you do a-anything to u-us then our friends w-won’t….”

“Oh quit your sniveling!” The mint mare snaps “I take back taking back what I said! You totally don’t have any guts.”

The green mare levitates the two mare’s saddle bags in front of her “I’m just after the sacred stones! It’s not like I was going to do anything weird to you or anything! Now let’s see here….” The green mare opens the bag and with her golden yellow aura pulls them out with one by one. Time after time she pulls out a glowing red stone only to throw it behind her in disgust. “Junk, Junk, Garbage, garbage, no…. Aha! Here we go!” Holding up the eerie golden glowing stone that Fluttershy just found the mare jumps for joy as she gazes into its depths. Stuffing the stone into her white saddle bags, the mare throws the two mare’s saddlebags back to them as she turns to leave.

“Well that’s all I needed” waving her hoof over the two mares they feel the bonds holding them to the ground fall off. “Later you two, and remember if you find any more of the Miracles stones that they belong to me Lyra Heartstrings.”

The green mare is about to walk away when Rarity leaps to her hooves “wait! Weren't you after the Red stones like us? Why are you just letting us go? What do you know about these other stones? Are you crazy?!” Fluttershy puts her hooves over her mouth as the green mare freezes at the sound of the word ‘crazy’. With terrifying slowness the mare turns her head slowly around inch by inch revealing an angry stare that would chill the blood of a Cockatrice.

The green mare turns slowly around the angry stare vanishing from her face as she gains control over her emotions once again. “Well since you asked, no I’m not after these whatever you call them ‘red stones’, why would I be? I already have a stand in case you didn’t know. Two I’m letting you go because you’re gonna find more of the Miracles stones for me. Third I want them because the stones can grant you wishes…..”

Rarity gasps “those stones….. Grant wishes!? What in the wide wide world of Equestria would make you believe in that hogwash?”

“…...as I said” Lyra continues over the ivory mare’s protests “The only reason that I’m after these stones is because they grant your ‘greatest desire’. When I found my piece of the stone it granted me a stand power and claimed that the stone existed to grant the desires of its user or something like that.”

“That means whoever possesses the prices of this stone will have their wishes granted!” The Mare looks towards the heavens hope in her eyes “and when I gather all the pieces, then I Lyra Heartstrings will finally and irrefutably be able to prove the existence of Humans!”

The entire park goes completely silent as both Rarity and Fluttershy stare mouths agape at the Lyra with the look a new pony to Ponyville might give Pinkie Pie. The only sound that can be heard is the blowing of the wind as an ironically timed the tumble weed rolls on the ground in front of them “….um Lyra was it?” Fluttershy raises her hoof “not to rain on your parade….. But humans don’t exist.”

The green mare practically explodes “That’s a lie! Humans DO exist! They were once a plentiful species that invented many great inventions that we ponies use today! Explain bowling balls! Humans existed! It’s a fact! I’m not crazy!” The crazy mare rants.

“Um I’m sorry Lyra but human existence has been debated for thousands of years but no certified evidence has ever existed to support the existence of humans.” Fluttershy states with the calm analytical logic of a seasoned animal expert. “In all zoological studies the closest thing to the mythical human is the monkey tribes of the southern islands and they went extinct five hundred years ago. I'm sorry but there’s just no evidence supporting their existence.”

“Humans DO exist.” Lyra insists “They even possess a technology that allows them to peer across the dimensional fabric of space time! They call it ‘Television’ and they’re using it to spy on all of us all the time!” Lyra’s eyes bulge “Imagine it; they are all watching us in our most private of moments right now for their own sick entertainment! That’s why I have to prove that they exist, I’m the only one that can stop their creepy spying!”

If silence could be any more awkward it would have broken the very dimensional fabric of space time. “Um…. Darling?” Rarity asks “I don’t mean to be rude and all but are you always so….”

“DON’T SAY IT!”

“……crazy?” Rarity winces.

The green mare nearly tears her mane out “I’m NOT crazy! Why does everypony think that I’m crazy, cause I’m not! Humans are real it’s all a conspiracy to cover up their existence! Why can’t anypony else see? This is why I need to gather the magic wish granting stones! To prove that a race of two legged hairless apes are spying on us and writing down out movements in their fan fictions! I’M NOT CRAZY!”

“Ah don’t know bout you Twi, but that sounds plenty crazy ta me.”

“Agreed applejack, it’s a good thing that Rarity signaled us when she did, this mare looks like she needs some help.” Twilight remarks “It may be that her stand is affecting her judgment, but what she said sounds really crazy.”

Suddenly the out of breath green unicorn breaks out of her rant just in time to see an orange earth pony and a lavender unicorn behind her cutting off her escape. “Who are you? How did you find me? What are you doing here in the first place? Are you after the Miracle stones as well?” The green mare suddenly gets defensive as she moves to confront the two newcomers.

The purple mare strikes a pose demonstrating her authority and elegance “I am princess representative Twilight Sparkle and on behalf of the crown I hereby command you to release my friends and turn yourself over to the government for your crimes against said agents of the crown.”

“An as fer how we found ya…” The orange mare points up to the sky, a large light blue cloud of smoke remaining motionless in the air “…yawl probably should have noticed that there flare now?”

Lyra looks up in the sky in utter surprise as the Ivory unicorn gloats “I said that I had friends in high places didn't I? I wasn’t begging and trying to distract you with small talk, I was stalling until my friends could arrive!” Rarity brushes her mane off to the side “That what you get from underestimating a fashionable lady!”

Lyra finally closes her mouth and looks at Rarity “well I’ll be fooled…… That blast of magic wasn’t to hit me; it was a flare to draw your allies to you.” Lyra can’t help but grin “Clever, I officially take back me taking back me taking back the fact that you actually have guts you prissy pony.”

The green mare turns to face her new opponents her entire body raring to go “But don’t get too cocky! You may be with the government but I have no intention of turning over these magical wishing stones to you. I am going to make my dream come true and show everypony they were wrong to doubt me. If you want me to surrender you’re going to have to use force! And my stand Thousand hoof crutch has never been beaten!”

Cracking her hooves, Applejack takes a step forward “fine by me, ah like having ta do things the hard way!” Leaping forward applejack manifests her stand in a single moment its heavy wooden body ready to attack. It’s glistening green mane shines as the setting sun reflects off of the stand’s crown and body it’s every muscle coiled to attack.

 Suddenly in a single blow Applejack’s foundation shatters the ground with a powerful right straight, its hoof contorting the earth from the impact, yet Lyra is nowhere to be found. “She’s….. Gone?”  Applejack gapes “Where did that there slippery varmint….”

Twilight points her hoof “Applejack, above you!”

Applejack looks up to see the green mare hanging from a lantern post above her head, her body suspended from the pole by several strange looking arms each one ending in five blunted claws of varying length. The dark iron arms seem to have grown out of the pole itself, their base seemingly a mix of the metal of the pole and the dark metal of the stand’s ‘limbs’. Looking down on her opponent Lyra breathes out a sigh of relief as another of the arms pops out of her back wiping the sweat off her brow.  “Whew that was too close. If that had actually hit me, it would really be all over….”

“What in tarnation?” Applejack shouts “Are ya a spider pony er somtin?”

Lyra laughs “it looks like your stand is pretty strong I’ll give you that, even off the owner is short on brains.” The mint green mare crosses her hooves in confidence “Fine I‘ll tell you! Thousand Hoof Crutch allows me to create arms and hands that can grow out of any non-living object within my range (well, including for me as well) allowing me to create an army of arms. It’s how I so easily defeated your friends before, and it’s how I’m going to defeat you!”

Suddenly several dozen arms grow out of the ground around Applejack each one blowing from the soil their twisted fingers outstretched. Then with remarkable precision each and every one of the metallic arms reaches out grabbing a part of the farmer’s body. Her friends call out in distress as the dozens of arms grapple Applejack from every angle rendering the orange mare unable to move even a muscle.

“Ha! Bet you didn't see that coming did you?” Lyra mocks “You seem to have a lot of raw power but you can’t defend against a lot of attacks at once can you bet that’s why you didn’t even bother to dodge hunh? You realized it was futile hunh?” the green mare crosses her hooves in pride “Yes sir, my stand is unbeatable, it’s only logical that even you’d give up struggling against it!”

Applejack not even wiggling spits in the dirt to her side “Nah I just didn’t move cause dodging too much trouble.”

“What?”

“Sides, it’s cowardly.” Applejack grins “Scaping’s easier.”

Lyra’s laughter stops instantly “escape? Ha you think you can wiggle out of a twenty three arm grapple? Dream on! But since you seem so confident that you can beat me I’ll knock you out quick with my signature thousand fist barrage!”

“….. Give me a Break…… where do all yawl idiots come from? Fine just make it quick, ah got harvestin ta do tomorrow.”

Manifesting even more arms around the paralyzed mare the hands curl up their digits into a ball as they all arch around the farm mare like snakes waiting to strike. Then suddenly all the arms snap out like bullets each one striking with incredible precision as they pound the paralyzed orange far mare.

Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola,Vola!VVVVOOOOOOOLLLLLLAAAAAAA!!!

However the orange mare doesn’t seem bothered at all by the mare’s attack. Leaning her head down as she manifests her wooden stand over her own body, it’s skin covering her like a shell of armor as the fists rush in attacking her from every direction. Blow after countless blow impacts the orange mare and her stand as Lyra mercilessly beats the orange mare with everything she has. Yet the as the attack dies down Applejack appears to be completely unfazed by a single attack as the fists that attacked her shatter into hundreds of pieces. The entire group (aside from Applejack) can only stare completely dumbfounded as Applejack has just endured a savage beating of supernatural origins without even being bothered by it.

“Yawl done yet?” the farm mare asks “standin here’s borin so I’d like to beat yawl and move on if you please.”

“How…. Why……. My stand…. How did you endure…… DO YOU EAT CEMENT OR SOMETHING?!?” Lyra screams “that was my best attack! What are you made of stone?!”

“Nah” the farm mare claims “mah stand’s power just makes it or anything it touches impossible to move is all, and since mah stand is tougher than cousin Braeburn’s apple jerky, well yawl might as well have been punchin a brick wall for all I care.”

“SOUTHERNISIMS!” Twilight calls out from the sidelines “Applejack you promised no southernisms!”

Applejack tilts her hat “sorry Twi, it’s a habit, me and what you call them ‘southernisms’ are as close as peas and gravy!”

“UUUURRRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!” twilight screams

“Well…. Well…. You still can’t break free!” Lyra states glad for her sake that her stand is still holding the mare stationary. “Ha I got you there! I might not be able to injure you but if you can’t move then I win! Victory is mine! HaHaHaH……”

“UUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Applejack cries out as she and her stand push outwards against the strength of dozens of arms holding her to the spot at which she is rooted.

“Fool! You plan to break the grip of my stand? A regular pony like you? I’ve been given power by the miracle stones and I still have trouble with it. There’s no…”

“UUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Shattering Earth……” With the immense strength of her stand and her own potent physical strength honed over a lifetime of hard rigorous work, Applejack rips all of the arms out of the round with a shockwave of force as she breaks out of the hold with nothing more than physical strength. “….Overdrive!” Earth and stone fly into space as the stand stamps it’s weathered wooden hooves into the ground with an intimidating thunderclap.

Lyra stares unable to even think as she tries to comprehend the monstrous level of strength she just witnessed. Her opponent was able to break out of a hold with nothing more than raw strength she overpowered twenty three times a normal pony’s strength so easily. The arms ripped out of the ground fade back into the either as Lyra gapes at the sight she has just witnessed.

Dusting off her coat applejack smirks “Oh I forgot ta mention mah stand can also remove any object from its foundation by touchin it as well. So long as ah got the strength to rip it out of the earth like that.” Narrowing her gaze at the stunned green mare applejack stands battle ready “Now Is that all yawl got?”

“But…. Stones… and …humans….I…”

“Well it’s been a hoot Lyra with yawl funny stand and yer silly talk bout humans, but ah’ve got to be home in time for supper so I hope that yawl won’t think me rude fer finishing up our little ‘fight’ right now.” Launching out a powerful right hook with her stand Lyra is just able to pull her out of the way as Foundation bends the metal post that she was has hinging from like a straw.

Scared out of her wits to be on the receiving end of a stand that could do that to metal, Lyra puts her stand’s many arms to the best advantage, by using them to run away from the angered orange mare. Like a spider fleeing from a burning house the many arms popping out of the mare’s back carry her scurrying body across the ground while the orange farm mare follows hot on her heals.

“Lyra! Stop running around like a chicken in the farmhouse an get back here so I can punch yawl good!”

“NO!”

“I mean it Lyra get back here now and let’s end this little charade!”

“NO you can’t make me!”

“Lyra stop runnin about like a coward and git back here or so help me…”

The comical routine continues back and forth as Applejack chases the terrified Lyra heartstrings around the grassy abandoned park in the middle of nowhere over magical stones that fell from the sky. And as this scene of utter depravity against all the laws of the universe is going on the ponies on the sidelines watch on with mild amusement.

Suddenly the purple unicorn speaks up “Rarity?”

The ivory mare turns her head “Yes Twilight. What is it? Do you want more popcorn?” the generous mare says as she offers Twilight her bowl.

“No thanks Rarity I was just watching and thinking, when was it that our lives got so….so…….”

“Bizarre?” Fluttershy chimes in as she takes a deep slurp from her hay shake.

“Yeah that! I mean what the actual buck is it with us? I’ve been here all of five days and already I’m watching…... This, like it’s some spectator sport. When did this become my life? What in the world is the deal with Pinkie? Why in the world aren’t we helping Applejack?! This isn’t normal! It’s not rational! It’s pure and unadulterated…..”

The ivory mare places her hoof forcefully over the manic unicorns’ mouth silencing her rant. “Hush now darling, Applejack seems like she has everything under control.” The ivory mare says as she gently bops the purple unicorn on the head “besides I gave up trying to make sense of all this craziness a long time ago. As the saying goes ‘don’t question a good thing’ and I have lived by that.”

The ivory mare gestures out to the scene before her of an orange earth pony mare swinging a long metal pole after a scurrying spidery unicorn. “I mean think about it in this way twilight.” The ivory mare turns her head towards Twilight with a look of seriousness upon it “Would you rather be sitting in Canterlot doing taxes as some random everyday Jane. Or would you rather be a super magical apprentice of a mare who moves the sun and moon on a quest to recover magical stones that have rained down across the land while discovering a deep dark secret protected for a thousand years?”

“But…... logic and mathematics and probability says that this should be…..”

“I’d rather be friends with Rarity and you Twilight than live a predictable life.” Fluttershy says as she throws her empty hay soda in a nearby trash can.

“But…..” Twilight sighs utterly defeated. “You are right Fluttershy and you are too Rarity. Our lives might not make sense, but I’d rather have this than some dead end job. Especially with friends like you. Even though you all are a little weird.”

Rarity pats the lavender unicorn on the back both of them with newfound smiles on their faces “That’s the spirit twilight now finish your popcorn. OH! Darlings look they’ve stopped running around. Quick pretend we’ve been paying attention!”

Sure enough the two mares fighting have stopped running about both simply stand staring at each other each one dangerously out of breath. Both have withdrawn their stands keeping them at arm’s length as they get their breath back, each one daring the other to make the first move.

Finally the orange mare speaks up “I keep telling you Lyra, stop runnin about like a coward and fight like a mare, this is getting silly yawl know ya have no chance of beating me!”

“Dream on Apple Snacks.” The Green mare retorts “No way I’m just standing still while you pound me into the ground.” Lyra points her hoof at applejack’s stand “besides if you’re so tired of running around just send your stand closer to attack.”

“What?” the farm mare asks “what they hay are you talkin about? Move mah stand closer?”

“Yeah move it closer. You know like moving your stand closer towards your opponent like this.” Lyra manifests an arm directly in front of the orange mare causing it to grow out of the ground and tweak her nose before receding again.

“Ouch! Cut it out that hurt!” the orange mare says as she rubs her sore nose.

“THAT hurt? And after I hit your stand with everything I had? All I had all I had to do is attack you instead of your stand….” This causes the green mare to perk up as she realizes something.

A sly grin crosses her face as she takes a step backwards widening the gap between her and her opponent. “I get it, it’s not that your stand isn’t moving away from your body to attack me, it’s that it can’t! Your stand lacks the range and speed that my stand does so your are forced to follow me around like a little puppy while I stay safe outside the range of your attacks.”

“Hunh? What are ya talki… OUCH” Applejack falls to the ground as a rock smacks her in the head. Rising quickly back onto her hooves Applejack looks around her “what in the blazes where did that…. OW, hey!” looking in the direction the second rock came from Applejack looks to see one of Lyra’s arms tossing a rock in midair, catching it in its hand before it throws another projectile at her.

Manifesting her stand Applejack easily grabs and crushes the rock with her two hooves reducing the projectile to powder. “Enough o this playin around Lyra, fight me fair an….” Applejack barely has time to finish her sentence as she is tapped on the chin from below. “What the…” looking beneath her Applejack barely has time to watch three arms extend upwards. Acting as one the three arms of Lyra’s stand uppercut the orange farm mare and sending her flying into the air. With a resounding thud Applejack hits the ground hard as her Stetson flies off of her head.

“Hehe, so you thought I was crazy hunh?” Lyra stands victorious over her downed opponent. “Well I guess that you just lost to a crazy mare haven’t you?”

Applejack pulls herself off of the ground “ah haven’t lost yet.”

Lyra rolls her eyes “please I was trying to pull my punches because I didn’t what to cripple you or anything but it’s obvious that I’m the winner of this fight” Applejack surges forward to attack once again, her stand priming its’ hooves to attack. However this time Lyra deftly dodges out of the way as her arms trip Applejack sending her sprawling to the ground.

 “You see….” Lyra continues her adversary lying in the dirt “Your invincible stand has two weaknesses that I can easily exploit, first it is as slow as, how should I put this, ‘it’s as slow as molasses on hearth's warming’ Yehaw!”

“Oh dear Celestia now she’s doing them too!” Twilight cries out from the sidelines.

“……meaning my faster stand can get in and pound you the moment that your stand is no longer protecting yourself.” Lyra remarks confidently.

Using her stand Lyra throws another rock at Applejack’s exposed flank from behind drawing blood in the process “…..And second it can’t attack and defend at the same time, unlike my stand. All I have to do is wait for your slower stand to try and attack me and I can use my greater speed and range of over 20 meters to attack you when you can’t even touch me.”

Applejack tries move forward ant attack again however this time Lyra’s arms grab the pony by the tail and drag her painfully to the ground “You went on and on about how strong and invincible your stand was Applejack. However sometimes victory goes to the swift and the clever. My stand’s radius is 20 meters! There’s nowhere you can hide from my attacks!”

Suddenly hundreds of Lyra’s arms pop out of the ground like daisies each one holding a rock in their hands the size of a baseball. “And that is why this match… is over. Finishing attack Stone PONY!”

Attacking in perfect harmony, each arm throws their rock at the same time releasing a rain of rocks directly over Applejack’s head, threatening to crush the orange pony flat. The orange pony prone on the ground curls up vainly to protect herself from the rain of heavy stones hanging over her head. Flinching in fear from the imminent threat as the sound of stones impacting a hard object resonates through the field. Yet as she feels no pain from the rain of rocks the orange mare suddenly opens her eyes to see a shimmering barrier of purple light shielding her from the rockslide.

“Hey! NO Fair!” the Green mare complains “This was a one on one fight! You had no right to interfere! Twilight Sparkle!”

Sure enough the lavender mare stands resolutely in between Lyra and her friend Applejack. “You’re the one that has gone too far Lyra. I understand you might be cross with Applejack but this is ridiculous!”

The lavender mare swings her hoof to the side as if the brush away Lyra’s deluded notions ”you were speaking of fighting fairly and you deceived and betrayed Applejack by attacking from behind!”

Applejack shakily rises to her hooves as she tries to push back Twilight “Stay…. Stay out of this Twi… this… this is mah fight, ah won’t have….”

Applejack’s words are cut off as a familiar object fall back on her head. With fowl like surprise the mare feels the worn thick canvas of her Stetson; once again back in its place. “Mah hat? Ya, ya got it fer me Twilight?”

“Of course Applejack! We’re friends after all!” Twilight turns to the orange mare behind her a smile of genuine concern and happiness snapping Applejack out of her state. “I don’t mind you being in danger Applejack; I don’t mind you putting your life on the line especially if it means helping your friends and family.”

Twilight states as she places a reaffirming hoof on her shoulder. “That’s just a part of who you are Applejack and I realize that now. You want to stand up for something, and I respect that. BUT….” The purple mare scrapes her hoof on the ground like a bull ready to charge as she levels her gaze at the light green unicorn mare, Lyra Heartstrings. “If you think even for a second that I’m just going to sit here while you get beaten half to death you had better think again. I may not have a stand power but I promise you Applejack that you or any of my other friends who finds themselves in danger will never fight alone!”

Lyra opens her mouth to counter to lavender librarian’s words, to state how she is no match for her stand, but she never gets the chance.

Eclipsing even the light of the sun a bright white glow begins to emanate from Twilight’s bag shining through the heavy canvas as if it were a sheet of paper. All the mares turn their heads away to shield their eyes as the bright light surrounds the purple mare causing her very body to vanish from sight against the illuminating backdrop.

I couldn’t have said it better myself……. My little pony…..

The near blinded twilight rises from the ground shaking her head just as the light from her bag begins to die down. “Ugg what was that? What happened, who’s voice was….that?” Twilight stares forward at a strange looking double laying in front of her eyes.

The stand is about the lavender mare size, it’s sparkling coat is covered in star like shapes that surround and layer the stand with stars of all shapes and sizes. The flowing mane and tail gives it’s bright silvery-white mane the appearance of the Milky Way on a cold winter’s night. Taking the form of an androgynous unicorn, the stand’s star shaped tattoos spotted all over its white blemish less coat; follows a chaotic pattern of the most beautiful design. Yet the most distinguishing feature of the stand is its’ dark black saddle encrusted with gems from every color of the rainbow. The word F.R.I.E.N.D.S, dotted across both sides of the saddle in countless refracting gems causes the stand to sparkle like the stars on a cold and lonely evening.

She raises her right hoof and the stand mirrors her, she waves it does the same. She jumps up and down and the stand levitates up and down in front of her. Suddenly the mare blinks once and burst out into cheering “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I MANIFESTED A STAND! FINALLY! Applejack I finally manifested a stand! I’m a stand user! Finally after years and years of waiting I finally get a stand! Are you excited? Cause I’m certainly excited!” The purple mare practically gushes in joy as she begins to toy with her control over the figure in front of her causing it to levitate, move its’ limbs and strike countless crazy poses. Lyra Heartstrings gaping off to the side as she stares at the unicorn’s saddle bag is completely ignored in the wake of Twilights’ overwhelming excitement that seems to fill every fiber of her being. In fact were she not in the middle of a battle, the lavender unicorn would possibly have ranted on for hours about how excited she is and how proud the princess will be of her pupil once she finds out about her accomplishment.

“It’s the stone…..” Lyra claims almost to herself as she stares at Twilight’s bag. “It’s the Miracle stone! You have one!” the excited green mare jumps in the air with glee mirroring the lavender unicorn, the green mares’ outburst reminding Twilight that this is no time for celebration. “You had one and it granted your desire! That proves it! The stones grant wishes! HAHA!” the mare straightens herself out manifesting several arms around the purple mare “perfect. Now you can hand over the miracle stone you have to me!”

Twilight smirks as she strikes the cockiest pose a librarian can manage “oh I don’t think that I’ll be handing you anything Lyra, not into those….. Big….. ugly looking hands you have anyways.”

Lyra looks at her completely unamused  "lame.”

“….but you are the one that is going down! Get her standy!” suddenly the stand zooms at the green mare with frightening speed and before she can even raise a guard the stand is on top of Lyra. The stand glares at the green unicorn as Lyra realizes that there is no time to dodge, her eyes widening in terror.

Readying it’s hoof ‘standy’ throws a powerful right cross hitting Lyra right in the face as the mare screams in apparent agony. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…… what the? Shouldn’t that hurt?” Lyra looks at the stand in front of her and blinks. The stand throws another punch, and again Lyra blinks indifferently as eh blow bounces off her face.

The stand punches again hitting her in the face, however this time Lyra doesn’t even move apparently unfazed by the stand’s blow. “Wow….. That’s really REALLY lame.”

Twilight is completely shocked as she falls to her flank “what? My stand…. Is that weak! I don’t understand is something wrong why I… why did it….”

Putting her hoof to her mouth to stifle the giggles pouring out the mint mare cries out to Twilight. “Hey Twilight! Something’s wrong with your stand or something! Did you forget to change the batteries or something? All it was able to do was give me a splitting headache, and that’s about it. What are your trying to embarrass yourself? Because I find it hard to believe that you are this really this lame! ”

As Twilight sares agape at the powerlessness of her stand before her, Lyra bursts out laughing at the lavender mare’s apparent misfortune. “BWA HA HA HA HA. You finally managed to manifest a stand…. And it doesn’t do anything! HA Ha ha ha…he that is so priceless. He I really feel sorry for you, you know that Twilly. BwaHAHAHA!!”

Lyra stifles her laughter as her stand moves its’ multitude of arms each one clutching a large circular stone it its hands. “But no worries, I’ll show you the power of a REAL STAND and put you out of your misery real fast.” The arms juggle their rocks with deadly precision as they take their aim at the stunned purple unicorn. “I’ll make this quick. Finishing move Stone Pony!”

In a literal hail of rock and mortar Lyra’s Thousand Hoof Crutch sends her attack flying. The stones spiral through the air threatening to stone Twilight Sparkle who sits on her haunches staring at the form of her powerless stand manifested not a hoof’s length in front of her her. “My stand…. Useless….. there……….. there’s just no way……..”

“TWI look out!” moving with all the speed she can manage the injured mare Applejack moves her stand in the path of Lyra’s attack. As if moving in slow motion Applejack’s Foundation curls itself around the Purple mare and her stand ready to absorb the impact of Lyra’s attack with her own body.

Yet suddenly as Applejack’s Foundation touches the body of Twilight’s stand the two stands mesh together their bodies merging to form a single whole. Both Twilight and Applejack look on with glowing white eyes as both of their stands meld into one another from the slightest touch. The storm of rocks flying towards them fall to the ground crushed flat by intense gravitational forces as the two stands finish the merging process.

Yet all the physical merging of two stands is nothing compared to what is going on in the minds of the two mares. As if a barrier between Applejack and Twilight has been demolished the glowing eyes of the two mares show them everything they could possibly know about the other. Likes and Dislikes, Fears and Family, Memories and Feelings of one mare become crystal clear to the other as their thoughts mesh together in perfect harmony.

And as if symbolizing this mythic unity between the two mares in a flash of starlit light the two stands have become one. The Strong oaken armor of Foundation now adorned with twilight’s six pointed stars that form a layered pattern over the dark brown wood. It’s grassy mane now red as autumn flows gracefully, sparkling in a non-existent wind. The horned crown of Foundation, now adorned with gems of every color complements with the black saddle on its back, the gems in the Saddle Now spelling out the word FRIENDS in dark green emeralds.

Lyra sputters unable to understand the incredible scene that has happened before her. “What the hay is going on, what did you do? This had better not be another trick!”

Twilight and Applejack’s eyes continue to glow as they both stare at the defiant mint unicorn before them. Together as if psychically linked they raise their hooves towards the Green mare.

“Lyra…” Applejack says “your next line is going to be…”

“….don’t insult the fight you two…” the purple mare finishes

“…And that’s the one!” they both say simultaneously

“…..Don’t insult the fight you two!” the green mare angrily yells. Suddenly she realizes that something is very wrong “What the!?! Can you… can you read minds?”

Twilight smiles “you still don’t get it Lyra. And to tell you the truth I didn’t either for the longest time, but now I do.” Applejack and Twilight their eyes glowing step forward towards Lyra just as she takes a step back. “For the longest time I tried to take on the world by myself. But just recently I’ve learned something; that when two ponies work together as one, when they have an unbreakable bond with each other. Their power grows immensely!”

In perfect unicorn Twilight and Applejack strike a daring pose as the new version of foundation stares down at Lyra Heartstrings. “An that’s the power of FRIENDS!” Applejack shouts “It’s a stand creates a mental bond between us two, casuin two stands ta merge tagether!”

Applejack cracks her hooves “…and that means yawl are fighting two ponies in perfect harmony, with twice the power as before! Yawl won’t stand a chance!”

Lyra glares angrily at the two as her stand’s arms pick up more projectiles to attack them with. “So what? Your stand is still too far away to touch me! All I have to do is attack outside your range and I…… HEY what’s going on?!”

Raising its hoof the ‘FRIENDS’ Foundation lifts the green mare into the air as if by will alone. Small rocks orbit around the green mare as she flails about desperately trying to pull herself back to earth, her stand’s arms just inches short of pulling her back to the ground. Fear begins to fill Lyra’s senses as she floats weightlessly in midair unable to attack defend or move before the power of FRIENDS.

“This effect isn’t simple levitation Lyra, It’s Gravity.” Twilight states as Foundation holds Lyra weightlessly “Applejack’s original power allows her to create an unbreakable gravitational bond between two solid objects or dispel gravity all together for a split second or two causing the objects to lose their footing.”

Applejack continues “now with Twi’s friendly stand bostin mah power, it allows us to control gravity at a distance, turnin a pony completely weightless or strengthening gravity to crushing force.”

Twilight smirks. “And Guess what the effective distance of that power is?”

“I reckon it’s about twenty meters” Applejack smirks “the same as your stand.”

 “…so I guess….”

“….that you’re out of luck!” Applejack shouts

“Take this!” Twilight shouts “Gravitational…….”

“……Multiplication…..”

“……OVERDRIVE!” Both mares cry out at the same time as Foundation swings it’s hoof to the ground.

Lyra barely has time to think as she is hit by several G’s of Gravitational pressure, being hurled to the ground beneath her at subsonic speeds. In less than the time it takes for the mare to blink she finds herself smashed into the ground her body creating a crater in the ground from the force of her impact. For a few moments the mint unicorn manages to keep herself barely conscious as colorful purple, brown and orange shapes spin before her vision. But eventually and mercifully the battered mare passes out her consciousness drifting away as the blurry figures close in on her.

……………………..

“So let me get this straight darling you can read minds?”

“No Rarity it’s a mind link not telepathy.”

“Well…. Um forgive me for asking but isn’t that the same thing? I mean I’m not an expert on it or anything but it sounds like the same thing.”

    ‘Ugh, my head, what’s going on…..’

“No Fluttershy, it is not the same thing. Telepathy is one mind manipulating or accessing the thoughts memories and personalities of others. It’s why such magic is hard to perform and even harder to learn. It requires an immense amount of skill, and most of it is labeled black magic because it can be so easily abused.”

“So…. What is this mind link thing? Is it illegal? Cause if it is……”

     ‘My body…. Feels heavy… what happened…..’

“Well……… it’s sort of illegal but….”

“Illegal? Twi! Ah don’t want to go to jail, just because ah did that mind thing with yawl! I’m innocent!”

“Applejack if you would let me finish. It’s not illegal because it breaks any law. But because it can go wrong if you aren’t very, very ……”

     ‘The voices…. Who are they.....’

“Did it do something to mah head? Oh sweet Celestia it did didn’t it? What do I do what do I MMMUUUMMPPPHHHHH!”

“Thank you Rarity, and No Applejack it didn’t do anything technically wrong. A mind link or a mind meld as it is called was used by sorcerers to boost magical powers by linking two or more minds together. It’s not illegal because it requires consent in order for it to work properly, so it can’t be done on any pony against their will. If you try to do it on some pony against their will….. The mental feedback causes the spell to falter anywhere from one point zero seven seconds to five point fifty three seconds. And all that does is create mental strain on the minds of those linked, except for the one who performs the ritual of course because they’re protected by Maddy’s fourth law of spell craft ….. I get it that’s why it didn’t do anything to Lyra, she resisted the mind link so I couldn’t link with her without creating a potent mental feedback! Point for Celestia’s student!”

“…..Um, Darling?”

“Yes Rarity?”

“Um I hate to be so well…… but could you please say it in terms that a normal pony would understand?”

“……….. Two minds become one, unless you don’t allow it. If so, you get a headache. That simple enough for you?”

“But wait Twi. Yawl know that ah don’t mind it but I didn’t really agree to that mental shindig we did, so how did it work?”

      ‘Am I…. am I dead?’

“I was getting to that Applejack. In order to do a mind link you have to trust the other pony who you are doing the mind link with, that’s probably why you and I were able to do it, because you trusted me. Once the mind link is successful the two can pool magical power and mental focus allowing them to accomplish greater spells than they would normally be capable of.”

“All right ah get that. That stand of yer sure boosted my or our power, whatever yawl wanted to call it. But what was with the whole reading minds thing. While we were….... together……. ah could see a few of yer …… um…….. thoughts and ya could see some of mine. Is that normal?”

      ‘No calm down! I’m not dead I was fighting some pony… for something…..’

“Well……... That’s a part of a mind link Applejack. And I understand if you were uncomfortable with it and didn’t want to do it again! But during a mind link ponies can freely share knowledge with each other. So when we…… well mind merged……. You became able to see my surface thoughts and I became able to see your surface thoughts. It’s why we were so in-sync we could tell what the other was going to do as they thought to do it.”

“Oh….. so did you…… um……. Look at anything……. Important like?”

“Of course not Applejack! I would never! Like I said it only works with surface thoughts so unless you directly….. thought about something…… I wouldn’t be able to see it unless I really looked for it. And if I forcibly tried to look at something deeper in your unconscious and you didn’t want me to look at it you could easily resist my attempts to read your mind just by willing it!”

“Oh well then you didn’t see…… That’s good then real good!”

“It’s like I said Applejack a mind link is built upon trust between one pony and the other, if that trust is broken, the link fails. And I know it helped us win, but if you don’t feel comfortable with it any more than….”

       ‘Who was I fighting? What was I fighting for in the first place? I can’t remember….’

“Nah that’s fine Twi! It just caught me off guard somtin fierce. But after that it was like…... like looking off a mountain top and seeing all the land beneath ya.”

“Yes, I got that impression to Applejack, just from looking at your surface thought I could tell like there was a whole world of you that I hadn’t ever seen. I just was unsure that you would think the same. I was afraid that you would be…..… well averse to something so intimate.”

“Well I wouldn’t think about doin it all the time… but if we have to throw down I could imagine doin it again. I’ll tell ya Twilight Sparkle there’s a lot more ta ya than meets the eye.”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” suddenly Lyra heartstring bolts up with a start seeing the faces of the four ponies that foiled her masterfully laid plans.

“Well look at who just woke up!” Applejack smirks condescendingly “It seems that our darling friend Lyra just woken up from her little nap.”

Quickly the green mare tries to activate her stand but fails miserably as it seems that the white binding rings holding her arms to her barrel are preventing her from manifesting her stand or shooting of more than a spark of magic. “Oh and in case you were getting any funny ideas, those binders around your arms are anti-stand collars manufactured by the Red Stone Group of canterlot.” Twilight points to the white rings “There’s no plausible chance of breaking out of those. Well there is a one in five million four hundred thousand and ninety eight percent chance of breaking out of them but like I said that chance is negligible.”

Despite the lavender mare’s words the green mare continues to thrash about on the ground for a few seconds before finally running out of breath and calming down. “Now that you’ve gotten your little temper tantrum out of the way, are you finally willing to reason?” The green mare pants for a few seconds more before nodding her head in the motion of yes.

“And you’re not going to give us any more trouble, right?” The mare thinks again before nodding yes.

“Good” the purple mare states as she sits down next to the green mare “now first question: you have to see now that attacking a governmental official was really crazy.” Lyra growls “Were you really so desperate to collect these stones as to risk the rest of your life in prison?”

The green mare looks deeply into the eyes of the purple mare, and for the first time that day Twilight doesn't see a cocky arrogant pony. Twilight sees the eyes of a pony consumed with desperation. The green mare sighs and looks away “you wouldn’t understand, you’re the princess’s apprentice. Everypony loves you just for being who you are. Me? Everypony hates me just for what I believe. How could you possibly understand it?” Lyra states with a twinge of sadness “I’ve spent my entire life slaving away to prove humans are real, to earn their respect, and all I’ve gotten is loneliness.”

The green mare chuckles darkly “heh I must have done something terribly evil in a past life if destiny itself hates me this much. I know it’s crazy to believe in Humans. I really do! It’s just…. It’s just…… I don’t know. I just don’t know why I don’t just quit….”

Suddenly the Applejack walks up to the green mare turning Lyra over so that she’s Looking the far mare straight in the eye “that’s cause you aint a quitter.”

“What? I’m not….. A quitter?”

“Ya heard me Lyra.” Applejack states with certainty “ya may be annoying, and be crazy bout humans. But if I’ve learned one thing from trading blows with ya it’s that ya don’t give up. Even when things get hairy an things look against ya, ya find a way ta win. Yer no Quitter, that’s why you don’t give up on yer dream.”

The green mare stares surprise in her eyes at the orange mare as Twilight chimes in “Applejack is right Lyra. It may SEEM crazy to believe in humans, but that doesn’t make you crazy for following your dream.” Twilight looks down “and you’re wrong even I make mistakes, if I had just accounted for the feedback of the stone’s energy none of this would have happened….”

The lavender mare stares Lyra in the eyes “but if I have learned anything throughout comment to ponyville it is when life beats you down you just have to get back up and try again. Cause if you don’t give up, even if you never reach your dream, even if you never prove humans are spying on us with ‘televisions’ amazing: things will happen. I promise you.”

“Twilight is right Darling.” Rarity chimes in “being lonely is painful have no doubts about it. But giving up on one’s dreams, giving up on the things that make a pony happy…. That is simply unbearable!”

As the purple unicorn places her hoof on Lyra’s solder the green mare begins to tear up “Twilight….. You……”

“Lyra Heartstrings!” All eyes and heads jerk behind them to see a steaming mad cream colored mare with a cutie mark of three wrapped candies on her flank. Her pink and blue mane bobbing along with her head as the mare snorts like a charging bull. And most disturbingly her face covered with a scowl that would frighten a manticore into giving up meat. Her blue and pink mane practically ripples in the wind as she steps menacingly towards the green mare who is struggling to get away. “What in Equestria are you doing?” The candy mare shouts “Running around town, bothering the princess representative, and….. Are those anti magic binders? What have you got to say for yourself!?!”

The green mare breaks out in a cold sweat as she realizes there is no easy way out of this situation “H-H-Hey Bonnie. What’s up?”

“Don’t you hey Bonnie me!” Bonnie snaps “What are you doing tied up like a common criminal, and in front of a government representative no less!”

“Well…. I… Well…….”

“You didn't do anything illegal again did you?! You remember the last time? You were lucky the Corns were willing to let you off with community service after you destroyed their barn with that missile of yours!”

“It was an airplane Bonnie! And I said I was sorry! I was just explaining how humans were real and how they’re spying on with their….”

Anything else the green mare could have said after that was cut off as the cream colored mare hits her in the mouth with a flying jump kick. “YOU IDIOT!” Bonnie screams as the green mare falls to the ground. Landing on her hooves the cream colored mare then proceeds to turn on a dime dragging the green mare in front of Twilight Sparkle.

“Princess Representative Twilight Sparkle….” The cream colored mare begins “I apologize profusely for Lyra and any stupid behavior she may have bothered you with today. We all know that you have more important things to do today than put up with Lyra and her shenanigans. I’m sorry If she bothered you about her humans are spying on us nonsense, she really is quite ill.” Bonnie Glares at the green mare with a look that could peel paint “I’ll have to straighten her out when we get back to the house.”

“Bon Bon! I’m not crazy humans are real as….” The green mare is shoved into the dirt, in simulated bowing.

“Please!” The cream colored mare bows down in front of Twilight “please forgive her! She’s just a stupid pony who doesn’t think about her actions. I’ll cover for if need be but I can promise you she’s not a bad pony. She doesn’t need to go to jail. I’ll make sure that she takes accountability.”

“Please….” The mare is practically begging now. “Please forgive her.”

Twilight looks at the two a long time before smiling “there’s really nothing to forgive ….. Bonnie was it? After all it was Lyra who volunteered to help us out!”

“What?” The cream colored mare asks skeptically.

“What!” The surprised Lyra Heartstrings yells.

“What!?” The rest of Twilight’s friends shout in unison.

“Oh absolutely!” Twilight nods like a con artist scamming a pony out of their last bit “Lyra has been a great help! Not only did I enjoy her…. Unique…. Perspectives on Anthropology, but she volunteered to try out the anti-magic collar we brought in case of emergencies.”

Twilight illuminates her horn causing the bindings to fall off the green mare. “I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, Lyra isn’t in any trouble and she’s free to leave at any time!”

Bonnie rises from the dirt “So Lyra wasn’t bothering you? She was helping you out? She’s not guilty of anything?”

Twilight grins “the only thing that she is guilty of is being a good citizen. You must be very proud of her.”

The cream mare shakes her head as if some pony complimenting Lyra must be a dream. The cream mare turns to Lyra “Lyra? Is this true? Did you help Twilight out today? And you didn't cause any trouble?!”

“What.” The stunned green mare stands prone. Suddenly a sharp jab from Applejack brings her to her senses “oh yeah! Of course I helped Twilight out today! Come on Bonnie did you ever need to doubt me like that?! That’s a pretty serious blow to my self-esteem right there.”

The green mare is suddenly enveloped in a tight hug “I never doubted you Lyra. I was just worried for you.” Bonnie then breaks the hug to stare Lyra in the eyes. “And I am proud of you. I couldn’t have a better sister.”

Lyra looks back at the cream colored mare “…..and I’m just happy to be your sister. You emotional fuzzy tail!” and with a happy heart the green mare plus her sister back into one last hug.

Their emotional display finished the cream mare turns around to leave “you have fun playing with your friends! I’m making you your favorite tonight so don‘t take too long!” The cream colored mare now with a smile on her face walks off as Lyra watches her back until she is out of sight.

Applejack touched by the scene puts her hoof on Lyra’s shoulder “yawl have a good sister. Not many ponies would put their necks on the line fer kin like that.”

Lyra risks a last look at Bonnie “yeah….. She is. We’ve never been actual blood, but that never really mattered much. She’s always been there for me, supporting me even if I failed, and loving me even more when I did. If that’s not family I don't know what is.”

Lyra turns to face Twilight her visage unnaturally serious “Twilight? Can I ask you a question?”

“Humm? Oh yes. What question did you have in mind?”

“Why did you cover for me like that?” Lyra asks with honest confusion “I mean I practically assaulted you! I went all out and I…. Could have really hurt you. You even held back your attack so that I wouldn't get hurt so why? Did you feel pity for me or something…..”

“No Lyra” Twilight shakes her head “it was nothing like that.

“Well what was it then!?”

Twilight stops thinking for a second “I guess it’s because…. Because I'm here to help other ponies, ponies like you. So when I slammed you into the ground or when Bonnie apologized for you I realized that you had ponies that you cared about, friends and family. And I wouldn’t want to make them sad.”

Twilight turns her neck down the path the cream colored mare went down “besides it looks like you already have one friend who cares about you. That mare Bon Bon may seem brash but it shows that she is really worried about you.”

Lyra stares at the mare before her as if she has just encountered a saint or a lunatic. She stares mouth agape for a few seconds more before bursting out laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?” The purple mare pouts “stop laughing…. I’m trying to be serious!”

“Hehe you’re saying that for real? He He! You must be incredibly naïve!” The green mare chuckles “you aren’t just a good fighter, but you have a good heart as well. You’re noble, not like those snobby nobles of canterlot, it’s like you’re noble even on a spiritual level.” The green mare walks up to the lavender one placing her hoof in hers. “I really have been utterly defeated by you Twilight sparkle. I concede.”

Feeling something in her hoof twilight opens it up to see a price of stone “is… Is this….”

“That’s the Miracle stone that I found. From now on it’s yours! Think of it as a memento of our fight.” The green mare turns on her hooves and begins to walk away “but don‘t think this is over! not by a long shot! Like you said I never give up! I’m still searching for the stones.”

The mare smiles back with a look of mischief on her face “So if we meet in the future Twilight sparkle, it‘ll be as rivals and not just friends!” Lyra raises her hoof in triumph, defeated in body but not in spirit as the small group watches her follow Bonnie’s path home.

Twilight looks down the path the brave mare just took as a look of contentment and happiness passes her face.

“Are ya sure that was all right Twi?” Applejack asks walking up to the lavender mare “just letting her go like that. I mean I don’t mean ta say throw the book at her, but that mare seems like she’s trouble. What if she starts fightin us an other ponies fer these stones?”

Twilight shakes her head “I don’t think that she’ll be intentionally hurting ponies any more to get their stones. I t seems that she’s begun to realize that she has to be responsible for her actions.” Twilight looks Applejack in the eyes “I don’t think that she’ll risk getting her sister in trouble by intentionally attacking ponies anymore don’t you.”

Applejack looks down as she becomes lost in thought. She thinks of her own sister, of everything she has done and everything she will do for her. She thinks of her sister still in a coma and how she would do anything to see her waking face again. But suddenly these somber thoughts are replaced by the loving look she saw in Lyra’s eyes as she watched her sister walk away. “……guess yer right Twi. No sister would risk their siblin’s hide like that.”

Twilight nods “I’m glad you agree Applejack, because we’ve got bigger things to worry about now.” Twilight extends her own hoof revealing the black stone in it. “Like these Strange stones….”

“Um…” Fluttershy raises her hoof “you mean miracle stones?”

“No Fluttershy, Strange stones not Miracle stones.” The lavender mare says sternly “I discovered these stones and analyzed their properties Not LYRA! I’m not going to let her name something that I discovered! GOT THAT!”

Fluttershy meeps at this outburst as Twilight turns back to Applejack “now where was I? Oh yes. These STRANGE STONES, seem to possess strange abilities that we can’t quite understand, they seem to be a pure version of the red stones that we are searching for and they seem to react to or draw out stand powers for a reason. This can be confirmed by the fact that Applebloom seems to have stand sickness from touching it as well as the fact that both Applejack and I have gained……” The lavender’s mare’s words die in her throat as she stands frozen on the spot the hairs on her mane springing up off her head.

Seeing the mare just freeze up Rarity trots cautiously to inch towards her. “Um… twilight darling are you okay? Can I….”

Twilight explodes outwards grasping Rarity in a monumental bear hug and bouncing around “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I HAVE A STAND RARITY! AFTER SO MANY YEARS I HAVE A STAND! NOW THE PRINCESS CAN REALLY BE PROUD OF ME AND STOP LOOKING AT ME IN DISAPPOINTMENT LIKE I KNOW SHE DOES WHEN SHE THINKS I’M NOT LOOKING AND I CAN SHOW UP MY BROTHER AND DO RESEARCH TO MASTER MY POWER AND…. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“Twilight darling Please you’re overreacting again!” the ivory mare calls out while bouncing up and down against her will “please you’re upsetting my mane!” Twilight realizing that she has just caught one of her friends in one of her patented episodes of crazy stops immediately and pulls herself off of Rarity blushing in embarrassment.

Rarity brushes her mane to the side instantly curling it out with her magic “that’s better, well I’m glad that our work is done for the day, but my coat is all dusty and in desperate need of a shower so if you don’t mind I shall be departing until tomorrow.”  Preparing to leave the purple maned mare looks down the path Lyra took “to tell you the truth darling, I’m glad that everything worked out fine with Lyra. She did seem like a nice, though not very mature pony.”

Rarity smiles as she takes her first step back home “Now let’s OW!”

Rarity falls to her knees as Applejack rushes up to her “Rares are yawl all right?”

“Ugh, it’s nothing Applejack I just mush have injured my hoof in the little scuffle we had. Just a little scrape, that’s all.”

Applejack looks to her hoof and opens her eyes in fear. “A little scrape notin! There’s a hole in yer hoof!” Applejack turns Rarity’s hoof up to show her that the hardened bottom of her hoof has a small but sharp hole in it that is leaking blood. “That Lyra! She’s gona…”

“Applejack!” the ivory mare chastises “be reasonable and try to think! Lyra the dear never hurt either of us and even though I couldn’t see her stand power or whatever it looked like it was clear that she never touched the bottom of my hooves. It was an accident Applejack I probably just stepped on a nail is all.”

Twilight looks at the wound as she flows some of her healing magic into the wound “Rarity’s right this wound isn’t consistent with that of Lyra’s stand. Now I’ve healed the wound but you probably shouldn’t put too much pressure on it. Fluttershy can you walk her home? ……..Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy seems stuck in a daze her eyes locked on the wound in Rarity’s hoof as she slowly looks at her own hoof for comparison. “You… you couldn’t see it? Those arms….”

Twilight smirks “of course either of you couldn’t see it, in order to see a stand you either have to have a stand like Applejack, and now me. (EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!) Or you have to possess a ton of magical energy or have been exposed to the Red stones for years.”

Twilight looks over to the stunned yellow mare who looks more apprehensive than usual for Fluttershy “Fluttershy are you okay? you look a little out of it…”

Suddenly Fluttershy stands at attention “I’m OKAY! I’ll take Rarity home!” Picking up Rarity from the side so she can rest her wounded arm across her back Fluttershy begins to walk off in a hurry. “Don’t worry Rarity I’m sure with a little bubble bath and the newest magazine from fashion week and you’ll be right as rain in a few days. I promise…”

Applejack wipes her brow of sweat. “Well Rarity will be fine now Fluttershy will take her home safe an sound. Now that that’s done I should be getting home now.” Applejack turns to leave finding the way back to her house blocked by a starring Twilight Sparkle. “Uh Twi? I know you told us to tell you when you were doing it so here it goes. Yer acting strange again.”

Twilight continues to stare at the orange mare “what is it Twi? What? Is there somtin on mah face?”

“…..do you have a crush on Rarity?” the purple asks causing the strong farm mare to nearly collapse in on herself.

“W-W-WHAT! Why would ya even think that Twi!” Applejack fumes “T-T-That’s ridiculous!” shakes in rage as a dark red blush crosses her muzzle “Y-You must have got yer head stuck in too many of those bad romance novels er s-somtin. Rarity’s mah best friend ah’m just concerned about her prissy self.”

However Twilight is undeterred “why are you so adamant that you don’t? Rarity’s’ a great pony she’s got good looks, loves this town and you are both good friends. Why aren’t you….”

“Cause she’s a Friend that’s all!” the orange mare states as she tries to hide her raging blush with her Stetson “she’s my best friend and thinking of her in….. That way……. feels wrong. Especially cause she’s a mare and well…... In case yawl didn’t notice ah am too.”

“…….you have a thing about same sex couples Applejack?”

“Yes! No! I mean urrgh I have nothing about who other ponies live their lives with, but I come from a strong family line, that ah have a duty ta continue, that’s all.” Applejack places her Stetson back on her head as she recovers mentally from her own outburst “look I’m sorry fer that Twi, it’s just yawl were getting pretty personal there. Ah didn’t mean to say anything offensive to any pony.”

Applejack crosses her arms in defiance as she looks off at the white mare in the distance. “Sides Rare’s about as old fashioned as me! she’s always goin on about fairy tale endins and white stallions! She’d never go fer a gal like me…..”

Applejack’s eyes shoot open realizing how her own words have trapped her. “Not that ah’d want her to! Ah mean I’d sure be flattered if…. Ah mean ah wouldn’t want a mare to…….. URGH! I just happen to be s-s-straight Twi and that’s all!”

Twilight’s ears droop a little “I’m sorry for being nosy Applejack I just was curious if you and Rarity were, well an item because you always speak so highly of her.” The Lavender mare waves her hoof “….that and what I saw there…. But that was probably just a dream fragment.”

Every hair stands up on Applejack’s fur and her hat nearly flies off her head. “What did ya see..…” Applejack asks while her orange pelt grows whiter by the second.

“Oh well I didn’t want to say because everyone was around and it seemed personal; but when we mind merged I saw this image of you sitting on a picnic blanket with this unicorn mare who I couldn’t make out and she had her hair up in a bun and she was giggling and then you and her…...”

“WOW WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME I SHOULD REALLY BE AT HOME NOW! WELL SEE YA LATTER TWILIGHT BYE!”  The orange mare bolts away as fast as her hooves can carry her.

Twilight puts her hoof to her chin as she watches as her friend gallops away as if discord himself was after her “But why would she be blushing like that if it was just a…… oh my Celestia.” The purple mare gets to her hooves and begins chasing after the orange mare. The two mares then proceed to bolt down the empty country outskirts.

 “Applejack I understand now!! You don’t have to be ashamed that….…”

“AH CAN'T HEAR YOU!!! LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!”

“Seriously Applejack I know that this is a sensitive topic. But you can’t hide from the truth! You taught me that!”

“LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA”

“I don’t think any less of you and I know this might be a big family issue but none of your friends would think it was awkward if you came out and said that you’re….…..”

“LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA”

“Though it does make sense in a town with such a high mare to stallion ratio that you would…….. That is not to say that environment is entirely responsible for being….… that is not to say it’s a bad thing to be….”

“LALALALAALALALLALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALAALLA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! LALAlALAlA!” The orange mare shouts at the top of her lungs practically flying over the ground in an attempt to outrun the Lavender mare behind her.

Both of whom are running as fast has their hooves can carry them as the sun sets off behind them.