The Ballad of Sir Spike de Draco

Chapters

A Displaced Warrior
Friendship Forged in a Storm of Booze
Deathtrap Boutique and the Shy Puppeteer
Welcome Party for the Apocalypse
The Mooning of Heroes
Idle Extermination
Sliding Scale of Death and Loyalty
Freefalling Fistful of Ponies

A Displaced Warrior

Chapter 1

A Displaced Warrior

Legends say there had once been a youngling of the Draic Kin, blessed by the Immortal Sun Empress herself, destined to bring harmony and a reign of peace to the lands of Equestria. This hero had proven himself in countless battles and as the tales of bards, hearts of pony maidens and lines of admiring -and sometimes alleged- children remember his legacy as a true warrior beyond all, a fable of his achievements was born. Few know however, that the one who had grown to govern our beloved kingdom and rid the world of all things foul, had started in conditions less than spectacular indeed.

Before his many deeds of heroism and bravery, his semi-divine humble self began as a simple knight of Celestia, freshly graduated from Her Majesty's School for those Gifted with Awesome and had taken up residence in one of Canterlot's most famous libraries. What strange folly for someone who's life has always been tied to combat, you may wonder.

You see, Sir Spike was in no ways a scholar, except for reading the bounties off whatever evildoer he had managed to vanquish at the time. However, he also had a trusty squire, who benefited greatly from the knowledge stored there and in his unending generosity and saintly nature, de Draco allowed this young, inexperienced, but very talented pony to absorb as much as she possibly wanted from these old tomes of wisdom.

And on one of these simple, yet in itself undeniably magnificent and awe-inspiring days, does our story truly begin...

"Sir! I've found something!"

Spike de Draco slowly turned around, not even flinching as his young squire, a unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle dragged over a rather huge book to him, effortlessly balancing an entire stack of them on his shoulders in the meantime.

While standing on the tip of his tail.

On another book.

Normally, this would have been a highly odd sign, but she had grown quite used to this by now. Showing off unbelievable feats of strength and power were almost as synonymous with her knight as breathing. She knew he was still just in the middle of warming up yet, as his main exercise of the day usually involved at least five different kind of weapons in each hand.

"What is it, Twilight?" he asked, his strong, manly voice making the young pony shiver with delight just to hear it. "Has my squire found a quest fitting for a knight?"

"Indeed I have, Sir Spike!" the unicorn ventured, her voice trembling with excitement. 'Squire', the word always filled her with joy and appreciation for the knight who had chosen her, of all the little fillies to be his shieldmaiden and general trusted everypony. When Princess Celestia sanctioned it, nopony could be happier than she had been.

"I've discovered a pretty startling correlation between several ancient stories." she explained. "A while ago, I've found a particularly old legend, that speaks of a mythical 'Mare in the Moon', a powerful pony who once governed over the night, as a parallel to Princess Celestia. However, feeling unappreciated and undeservedly feared, she gave into her darkest feelings and became a frightening monster, known only as Nightmare Moon."

"Sounds unbelievable. Continue." he mused. The drake pondered for a moment, before grabbing the lavender unicorn and tossing her straight up into the air, only for her to land on top of the books he was now balancing upon the ridges on his head. Even his slightest motion made the whole tower wobble, much to his squire's fright.

"Whoaah—oh Celestia..." Twilight whimpered, holding onto dear life, despite his expert balancing skills. One could put a whole bookcase on one shoulder and he'd still carry it around without any trouble what-so-ever. "I-it s-says that when the longest d-d-day of her thousandth year o-o-of imprisonment is at ha-ha-hand, she'll escape h-her prison and singleho-ho-hoofedly plunge Equestria into a night that w-will last forever!" she stammered, trying not to further unbalance this already deadly tower. She did like to assist in his exercises every now and then, but not like this!

"Well, we can't have that now, can we?" the knight mused, using his tail as a spring to hop off the book.

The tower he'd constructed had collapsed as well, dozens of books hurtling towards the ground with a screaming Twilight in tow. He smiled and extended both of his hands, catching the unicorn in one and the dusty tome she'd been studying in the other. His tail swished about rapidly in the meantime, smacking the falling books straight back to where they belonged, in alphabetical order no less.

"Twilight, take a note for me." he added, once the lavender unicorn didn't feel the need to cling to his hand anymore.

She flinched and hopped off, her horn glowing brightly as she summoned her magic to assist her in the task. A parchment, a quill and a vial of ink gathered from several parts of the library, having been cast aside each time her attention had been diverted. She was not only his squire, but his official scribe as well, a title that normally other ponies, as squires usually tended to weaponry, above all else.

However, unlike most knights, who downright reveled in collecting as many assistants and minions as they possibly could, Spike had never shown even the slightest indication that he was about to follow that trend. He was quite satisfied with how she handled everything and had long since told her, that unless she asked for someone personally, he'd keep her as his only squire. She was happy for it, as it gave her even more opportunities to be of use to him and make him proud.

Seeing she was ready, Spike de Draco calmly strutted over to the chest that contained his most important tools and possessions, preparing to suit up for the upcoming task. Sure, the threat might have not been immediate, but a knight was never complete without his armor. He nonchalantly tossed aside several uninteresting artifacts, such as strands of glowing fur from an Ursa Major, various dragon fangs an hydra scales and even a coat that had rather obviously been a Diamond Dog's hide at some point.

"Hey there, sexy!" he began narrating the letter in the meantime.

Twilight didn't even flinch, adeptly changing his words into a much more formal 'Dear Princess Celestia'. While Spike was a drake of many talents, he often forgot that although up and close the Princess would more than tolerate his words, it was a tad bit more risque to address her in such a way through mail, even if the transfer procedure was magical. One could never know how many people were trying in vain to pry into Celestia's private life.

"While I know you must be busy prettying yourself for the party, my squire has found something I'm sure you'll find interesting: a legend about some punk called Nightmare Moon you've supposedly banished a millenia ago. Now, I'm sure she probably did something major to piss you off that much, as all I ever got for my pranks had been a kindly slap."

Her squire raised a brow and corrected the tone a tiny bit, all the while smiling to herself. Sure enough he was right, though she also reminded herself that Celestia favored Sir Spike greatly for a number of reasons, including many nightly...serenades. She would have been hard-pressed to banish a trustful and loyal knight, such as the venerable de Draco. Trying to rid yourself of someone with too much knowledge was never a sound plan.

"As such, I'd be more than delighted to take care of this little legendary problem for you, for a couple of favors in return, of course. Slaying mythical beasts has always been a forte of mine, if I may say so." he kept dictating to Twilight, tossing aside an album full of dried and pinned parasprites.

Normally, most knights didn't dare hit a tone that would make them sound like common mercenaries, much less when offering their services to the ruler of Equestria. The only way he could be even more favored though, was if he had been given a place on her throne even, something he knew Celestia would never do. Kind and benevolent Sun Princess or not, she very much liked her rank and wouldn't have parted with it for the world.

"I think it's better if we settle this quickly, before Equestria is pushed to the br-bri-...uh...edge of disaster." he took a moment to throw the lightest of glares towards Twilight, who was giggling from his slight flub. "Sure, it would be exciting to fight under the threat of annihilation and eternal darkness, but I know how much you hate to look through damage reports." he continued, finally getting every bit of equipment he needed out of the chest. "In any case, I'll see you after the party for a one-on-one discussion. Signed, your sizzling fire-breather."

"PS, will you be wearing that dress again tonight? The one we've talked about last time?" he added quickly, taking note of Twilight's blush as she simply couldn't rewrite that addendum into anything less obvious. "It's diplomacy, dear squire. Not every knight gets pushed forwards by a royal hoof." he mused, giving her an especially well-refined not-quite-innocent wink.

"...yes, Sir Spike. The letter is ready." she groaned, shaking her head lightly as she levitated the scroll over to him. He sent it with the tiniest whiff of magical green flames, while the unicorn watched him with a look that gradually changed from disapproving, to a stupid grin.

Watching him don his armor was always something she especially enjoyed watching. It was like a jigsaw puzzle that got shinier with every piece, or a book that got...thicker with every word. The young dragon methodically suited up as always, making sure to the last armlet that they were properly placed and secured to his scaly body.

Twilight flinched and remembered her duty, just about galloping over to the chest. The magic aura around her horn flared up again as she carefully summoned the last article from it, perhaps the most important piece of armor for a knight. His red cape flowed freely and triumphantly in the completely sealed off and windless library room, the golden draic symbol almost glinting in the sunlight. She carefully placed it over his shoulders and made sure it was properly adjusted and secured, before taking a few steps back, her work done.

"Thank you, Twilight." he gave her an appreciative smile, making the unicorn giggle with glee. She could never get tired of receiving praise from her idolized master.

He raised a brow soon after, a familiar sensation coursing through his body. He paused for a moment or two, before opening his mouth for what seemed like a scream. Twilight's delighted daze was shattered a moment later as the dragon let out an earth-shattering burp, even the huge bookshelves trembling to the tremendous belch he had unleashed. Some would have found it disgusting, but others quickly realized that event this seemingly horrible noise actually had a beautiful melody to it, which only true connoisseurs of music could pick up.

"Ah, a few more days and I'll be able to go another octave lower." he remarked, passing down the scroll to her scribe-squire-hybrid.

"Without a doubt." she mused, unrolling the parchment with her magic. She face moved into considerably darker colors as she had begun to run through the princess' message. She glanced up at Spike's face for a moment, before she swallowed and cleared her throat.

"To my hunk of a fire-starter." she stopped for a brief moment, noticing Spike smirking already to the title. "I'd love to explain about that legend over a bottle of fine apple cider, but regal duties come first, despite your best efforts at convincing me otherwise."

"As of right now though, I have a much more important task for you. It is one which requires skill, bravery and possibly even the mighty flames of a heroic dragon." the unicorn continued, making the aforementioned knight grin more and more. Twilight on the other hand, already several lines lower, started heading out of the library for some reason.

A few minutes later they were both riding a chariot, heading for a place Spike had hardly even heard of, its insignificance rivaling only his disappointment for the current development of events.

"This year, the celebrations will be held in the nearby town of Ponyville. As much trusted knight, I need you to make sure to bring word that the great Celestia really doesn't appreciate anyone messing things up on her bi sunrise and have them act accordingly." his squire kept on going, while he groaned in boredom already.

"I have no place in such a backwater slum, as this Ponyville." he grumbled, the sound of metal screeching making the chariot-carriers cringe as he crossed his armored arms. "There's nothing to beat, slay or so much as...get acquainted with, outside Canterlot."

"I'm sure the princess had a good reason for sending you here, sir. Not to mention that getting familiar with someone who doesn't live in Canterlot has never been a problem for you." Twilight took a momentary break from reading to console her knight in slightly dull, but very sturdy armor. He mumbled something under his nose, waiting on her to continue.

"Be a dear and remind them of possible repercussions, so they may make all the right decisions. Once the Sun is up and all the ponies go on to party hard, we may retreat for some private lessons in dueling, if you're so inclined." Twilight felt the irresistible urge to cough at this point, her face flaring up as if she'd been sitting in the midst his flame breath again. "Take care, my dearest and most devoted knight.

"P.S.: If Twilight's blushing, be sure to hook her up with someone, will you? She's a sweet little bookworm and should really go out more." the unicorn gasped and shook her head wildly to the idea. "I do NOT! The princess can be so quick to jump to conclusions sometimes!" she protested loudly, glaring at the pair of snickering Canterlot guard-ponies transporting them.

"Still, that leaves me with quite a few hours of boredom." the dragon sighed, still not feeling quite as super as he should have been right now. The universe itself seemed like a bleaker place already, all colors dimming and the sky darkening as well, lamenting the knight's situation.

"Aww, please don't be like this. Who knows what unknown evil may lurk here? What foul beast may be waiting in the wilderness to be turned into a shoe ornament by the fierce de Draco?" she boasted, trying to pique is attention, with varying degrees of success.

"And...I'll be accompanying you as well, that counts too, right?" she winked, shaking her head in an awkward manner as she tried to imitate the way Celestia showed off her magnificent wavy mane, even though her's was multitudes shorter. "You can also look for the Elements of Harmony, while we're there!"

"The what now?" Sir Spike asked, green brow rising. His voice grew stronger as Twilight filled him in about these mythical artifacts and their possible purpose in defeating Nightmare Moon, should she truly be as unwary to show her face. "Unknown location of hugely powerful artifacts and a menacing evil's return looming above our heads? I believe this is EXACTLY the kind of task the Princess would wish her trusted knight to partake in!"

His voice teemed with unrestrained manly confidence once again, reinvigorated by the promise of some grade A adventuring in the immediate future. Twilight grew giddy of just seeing him getting this worked up about it, only to hear a pair of metallic clangs. She glanced out of their chariot and saw a pair of ornate metal helmets lying on the ground, both suspiciously familiar.

Having reached their destination though, she didn't wish to examine this phenomenon any further and instead jumped out of the chariot, landing on a dirt road fit for galloping, thanks to probably a thousand hooves thumping it every day of the week. Spike back-flipped out of the chariot and landed right next to her, sending the lavender pony into the air for a moment, as his mighty legs made contact with the unsuspecting and unprepared earth.

"Thank you for bringing us here!" he commended both guard ponies, who seemed to have undergone a rapid growth-spurt of manes over the past few minutes, starting from the moment Spike had regained his spirit, up to the point where Twilight wasn't quite sure they could see through them at all. They seemed to have grown beards as well, which was a baffling leap in biology, to say the least.

"It was our pleasure." one of them replied respectfully, his voice deep and raspy, which the squire didn't recall him having either, before they had left. "Now if you'll excuse us, there's word of hydras over that mountain and I'm personally just dying for some Hydra Soup."

"Alright, both of you be strong!" the dragon knight lightly bumped fists with their hooves, the three letting out a short battlecry and took off again, downright galloping through the air however impossible that seemed.

"Now...where is the local tavern here? I could use some questing before sundown."

Friendship Forged in a Storm of Booze

Chapter 2

Friendship Forged in a Storm of Booze

"With all due respect, Sir Spike, we still have a couple of things to do before that." Twilight piped up, trying to grab his attention. She guessed her chances of that being rather close to zero, considering his focus on adventure was harder than his scales, a considerable feat indeed.

"Summer Sun! Preparation! Must check!" she called out repeatedly, while he calmly began to strut towards what seemed like the closest establishment that could be called a tavern.

She scowled and summoned her abilities, trying to stop him from proceeding. The purple aura around her horn extended as she let loose her magic, the spell binding itself to his legs. Spike stopped for a moment, making her sigh in relief, only to proceed as if her obstruction had been little more than a door he needed to open, first. She yelped as his walk pulled her along for the ride as well, before she finally broke the flow of magic. All hope lost, she hung her head for a moment, only to smirk as she remembered something. If one method failed, there would always be a different one, however embarrassing.

"Sir Spike!" she called out again, truly wondering whether he actually heard it at all. "Remember the princess' letter? She said she'd happily 'duel' with you, but only if everything goes as planned."

That did the job perfectly. Several hundred pounds of man and dragon combined stopped all at once and Twilight could almost hear the gears in his head rolling into place. He turned around and began to walk towards her once more with an appreciative smile on his face. He reached down and ruffled her mane a tiny bit, making the young unicorn gaze back at him with her chin hanging loose.

"Well played, squire." he said, making her face transition several shades darker, resembling an overripe plum soon enough. "I shall see to it that everything goes as it should."

"Yessir Spike...as you say sir..." Twilight ventured, in a momentary haze, wobbling around. She wasn't sure whether this was merely because of the slightly affectionate gesture, or whether he had forgotten about his strength again and had given her a minor concussion, but whichever it was, it didn't feel too bad!

The unicorn stumbled around for a moment or two, only to narrowly avoid crashing into a pony nearby. The bright-pink earth pony quickly took a step back, eying Twilight with a look that bordered between pity and annoyance. Her magenta mane was kept in a neatly straight line over her forehead, often obscuring whichever eye it flowed closest to.

The bundle of pink raised her head again, her glance shifting to the armored dragon grinning down at her with all the fangs his face could muster. She let out a loud gasp and disappeared in a cloud of dust, much to their surprise.

"That was interesting..." Twilight remarked with a sense of confusion, before turning to her knight again. "Shall we get going then, sir?"

"First on the list is Sweet Apple Acres, taking care of the foodstuffs." she read off the makeshift list she'd put together.

There was nothing wrong with her memory, but as Spike had discovered fairly early on, she had a habit bordering on an obsession about keeping notes of just about everything. Most of the times, it came handy though, as he usually didn't let his mind be burdened by any more unneeded information, than what his immediate adventure required.

"That's a lot of apples." Spike remarked with all the perception of a math expert. Nothing escaped his keen eyes, even if few would have lost themselves on such a detail, when there were fields upon fields of trees before them.

"Indeed, sir." she chuckled. From time to time he'd end up stating something as completely obvious as this, but it didn't matter to her. She knew from experience that with enough charisma, even the most known truths could sound knew. Just the other day, her knight had managed to make a pony realize he had no fingers, after 30 years.

A strange noise diverted her attention soon enough though and with that, she spotted their possible goal. A pony with bright orange coat, blonde mane and a rather sizable hat was tending to her duties, which apparently involved kicking trees with her hind hooves, until all the apples dropped into the barrels set up around it. She had to admit, while it did seem like somewhat of a crude method, it was effective, as the massive amount of fruits collected had indicated.

"Ah, a fighting spirit I see?" the knight's eyes flared up with curiosity, much to his squire's dismay.

"Just a farmer. They're spunky, sure, but nowhere near the knightly quality." she remarked, hiding her disapproval behind a light cough as they approached her. Spike has always had a thing for anyone he deemed capable of holding his or her own in situations where others would normally call upon the closest law enforcers right away.

"Howdy there!" the pony called out to them in an obviously bright mood. She had a very distinct speech pattern, which struck Twilight as a reminder just how different the wilderness was, outside Canterlot. "Y'all just excuse me here for a moment?" she added, quickly giving the tree a final strong buck, before it finally relinquished all of its apples.

"I'm Applejack, what can I do ya for?" she skipped over to the two and raised a hoof to shake Twilight's.

The lavender pony blinked for a moment or two, before extending hers as well, only to be just about lifted off her feet as the earth pony literally raised her into the air with the amount of strength her grip possessed. The unicorn tried to break contact, but could do little as as Applejack started shaking her hoof vigorously, up to the point where she had doubts the other actually realized she was a pony herself and not the branch of a tree.

"M-m-my n-n-n-name i-i-is-" she slowly mumbled the words, even as Applejack finally put her down. The world still seemed to quake before her eyes and she found it difficult not to just jump around like a fallen jelly bean.

"Twilight Sparkle, my trusty squire." Spike finished for her, smiling down at their new earth pony acquaintance. "And I am Sir Spike de Draco." he announced, bowing respectfully before Applejack.

The earth pony was almost sure she heard trumpets in the distance as he introduced himself, but however she tried to listen, they didn't return. She guessed she might have just spent too much time under the sun.

"Well, pleasure to meet ya both!" she nodded, lightly chuckling as Twilight finally stabilized herself. "Sorry sugar, sometimes I dun even realize my own strength!" she apologized, before glancing up at the armored knight again. "And how am I to call you? Draco? Sir? De?" she grimaced and spun around for a brief moment, swearing she could hear those trumpets again.

"Spike will be fine." he assured, showing a toothy, or rather fangful grin. "How are the preparations coming along?"

"We're pretty much up 'n done." she said. "I can give ya a sample if you're interested!"

"Apples? Pies? Food? Always am, always will be." he exclaimed, disregarding Twilight's insistence that they should proceed already. The only thing greater than Spike's love for battle, was his love for food. She'd heard many times that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, but in Spike's case an entire harem would have proven too little to produce enough food for his belly.

"You just sit tight then!" Applejack pointed over to a neat little wooden table. "Help yourselves to our brew too, you ain't gonna find a better apple cider anywhere close!" she added.

"Apple cider? As in, the alcoholic kind, right?" Twilight asked, having a particularly bad premonition about the idea.

"Sure is, sugar! It wouldn't be the same without that, now, would it?" the orange pony called, already at work on herding together the family for a meal.

"Eheheh, no kidding." the unicorn laughed rather nervously, seeing as Spike began to eye the bottle of cider with eyes smoldering enough to burn through the bottle. "Sir Spike, should I remind you that we're supposed to be checking things for the Princess? You know I have confidence in your observational abilities, but I don't think alcohol is going to improve them." Alcohol and the young knight never seemed to mix in a way that didn't result in several complaints filed and several heads bashed in.

"You just haven't had enough then." the dragon cackled as he sampled the wonderful drink. "The more you drink, the more the world reveals of itself to you!"

"And by the powers invested in me, I deem you foul-smelling dogs null and void!" Spike growled not more than a couple minutes later, smacking his hand on the table, the ponies around him gasping and holding their breaths in anticipation and excitement. Fire burned in his eyes and in his mug, the draic energy inside him having downright ignited the alcohol. He didn't care though, chugging down the bubbling, sizzling cider like it was nothing but spring water.

"Taste my storm of loyalty!" he shouted, raising a foot and striking a glorious pose, the very impact of which sent ripples through the walls of the barn and shattered the old table into a million pieces. Chicken screamed, cows roared and goats shrieked to his mighty words, while some of the ponies downright fainted, unable to bear such a concentrated burst of power all of a sudden.

"And that is how the Diamond Dog Rebellion ended." he concluded his tale and grabbed a large leftover piece of wood from the unfortunate once-furniture, picking that last bit of apple pie out from between his teeth. "They put up a fair fight, but in the end could do little against us. Drove them mangy mutts off the lands for years!" he chuckled, tossing the wood aside, nearly impaling a pony against the wall.

"And I threw him the sword, you know...the sharp, shiny, pointy thing." Twilight giggled, falling back against a large roll of hay in a drunken haze, muttering stuff to no one in particular. Her mind has dulled quite a bit since the first minor gulp of cider.

"You 'kay?" she heard someone call nearby and as she raised her head for just a moment, noticed a large colt next to her, watching her with a string of hay in his mouth. She squinted her eyes, trying to recall his name.

"Yes, thank you Big..uh...Apple?"

"Nope." the pony remarked in a highly drawn-out manner. "Macintosh. I thought you said you can hold yer liquor, little miss." he added with a hint of amusement, seeing how she might have been just a tiniest bit drunk like all hell let loose.

"I can hold it!" she held a hoof up in protest. "But I can't stand it." she groaned in an exaggerated manner, waiting for the world to stop spinning and swirling and rumbling and turning. "How are you so much better at it? I've seen you ch-chu-chi-drink with Sir Spike no problem and you don't look drunk at all!"

"That is an expected biological reaction actually." he remarked, rolling the hay into the other corner of his mouth. "You see, the consumption of ethanol in general dulls certain receptors inside you and that may or may no result in intoxication. It has long been hypothesized and observed though, that a larger body mass may actually lessen its effect, thus preserving your central nervous system in near-pristine condition."

"Yo Big Mac!" one of his family members called, still cackling from the conclusion of the the tale Spike only dared referring to as 'The Foal and the Princess'. It had been rather amusing to hear just how angry Celestia could get. Luckily they were drunk enough not to understand the full implications behind the punishment she'd handed out, which was amusing only at first glance. "Your turn to arm-wrestle our new dragon pal 'ere! Up for the challenge?"

"Eeeyup!" the red colt nodded and galloped over right away, leaving behind a certain unicorn, who was at this point baffled beyond words.

Some of Big Mac's words had flown completely over her head, but the rest of them sounded deeply scientific, far more in-depth than she had ever heard during her brief skirts with biology books. There was no way, no earthly and conceivable possibility that an earth pony with a huge friggin' apple as a cutie mark could have been this smart and still be working here, rather than in Canterlot's laboratories. It was the cider, it had to have been. She eyed the mug next to her, first cautiously, then as her brain seemed to hurt even more from the repeated reruns of Big Macintosh's words, appreciatively.

"There is no riddle enough alcohol cannot solve." she recited one of Princess Celestia's most known proverb and immediately indulged in some more brain-work right away. She could hear Sir Spike screaming about smiting something, but as that was a rather common occurrence, she hadn't taken any further note of it.

"Whoa, at ease there, squire." Spike slowed down as the pony slowly stirred to life, tumbling on top of his shoulder, broad enough for her to lie on it in a straight line without even the slightest chance of falling, or discomfort. How that happened, she could not even begin to explain, but then again, a mild hangover never helped her thought processes. "I think you've had one too many mugfuls of the good stuff."

"I feel sick." she whimpered, though she was doing relatively better than she had been while drunk. Still, the slight throbbing in her head made her put off magic practice for the rest of the day.

"I know just the remedy for that!" her knight held his laughter in, making his shoulder ripple a bit as well, providing her with a comfy little cradling that felt especially good right now. "Soured alfalfa soup!"

"Don't you even dare!" she groaned in protest, much to the dragon's amusement. "I'm...sorry if I have made a scene, Sir Spike. As your squire, I should be making sure you make a good impression at all times." she sighed, feeling embarrassed.

"Relax, I had done my fair share of stupid as well." he began to laugh harder this time, the rattling of his body nearly throwing her off this time around. "Hardly anything can compare to me attempting to smite Granny Smith for being a witch. For an old lady, she has far too good aim with that chair of hers. Her cutie mark seemed familiar as well and if I'm right, she used to be in Celestia's elite guard."

"Wow, I really didn't expect that." Twilight blinked in surprise. On the other hand, she suddenly recalled seeing the old Apple Family grandmother being pretty inconsistent about the effects of her age. She could hardly move sometimes, only to then drink everypony under the table. "Well, at least everything turned out nicely, right?" she chuckled as well.

"No kidding. Though I'm fairly sure 'I'm the Queen of Magic, b*tches!' will be the new catchphrase of Sweet Apple Acres for the next few months." the draconic knight remarked with a huge grin, glancing up to see Twilight's face sink straight into deep violet once again.

"Rainbow Dash. Our next target is Rainbow Dash. And I'm never going to drink again." she quickly muttered, only to pause as she felt her knight tense up all of a sudden.

Spike looked up in silence as if he had seen something in the distance. Twilight watched in silent trepidation as he sniffed into the air several times as well, his gaze becoming sharper with every second. It was happening again, he was focusing on something, attuning himself to the air and winds like only a dragon could. He could not fly as of yet, but still held a great amount of sensory from just being of the species.

In the flash of a second, he thrust his hand out, falling into a defensive stance. His squire barely had time to register what had happened, when something cyan suddenly exploded into her knight's hand, sending the robust dragon several feet back. His feet never left the ground however and instead left a huge dent in the grass and someone's outdoor garden. The surviving tomatoes cried bitter tears for their fallen comrades.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!" he called out as the object finally lost all of its speed, becoming limp in his hand. He quickly caught whatever had tried to assault them and raised it to eye-level, only to find himself face-to-face with a pegasus pony of all things, sporting the most unusual of rainbow manes.

"That was AWESOME! Where did you learn that?" she asked excitedly, her wings flapping without stop, even though she wasn't going anywhere now.

"Dragon Reflexes." he dropped the stern look and let go of her, only for the pony to casually slump onto his other shoulder, balancing out what little weight Twilight had put on him. "You'd better not to sneak up on people like that though." he advised.

"I wasn't really sneaking you know!" she argued, jumping off his shoulder and into the air once more. "I was just practicing a little aerial stunt. I call it the Rainbow Corkscrew! Seems like it's more of a screw-up, so far." she mused, making Spike's squire grown from the most horrible of puns.

"You wouldn't be Rainbow Dash by any chance, would you?" the mighty dragon asked, raising a hand to point at her. The motion unfortunately cause Twilight to be stuck between his neck and his shoulderpad, a deadly trap that threatened to suffocate her in less than a minute.

"That would be me alright! Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale, Future Wonderbolt at your service!" she proudly announced, before pulling Twilight out of the dragon's death-trap the sudden pull making her land on the ground dug up by Spike's clawed feet.

"...thank you..." the unicorn grumbled, her coat now gaining a very stylish earthy tone.

"Wonderbolt, eh?" he tasted the name for a moment, before recalling it fully. "I've fought with Wonderbolts before, truly expert aerial combatants. Nothing escapes their eyes and nothing can hope to outrun them, either."

"You know them personally?" the cyan pegasus' asked in a fit of pure excitement. "Oh please tell me you know them, I would love to meet them one day! I could show them all my techniques and stuff!"

"I don't think they'd be impressed though." Spike continued with a slight smirk, not flinching even as the pony's look darkened. Thunder and lighting exploded ominously above them, as a whole storm seemed to brew out of nowhere. Seemed like ticking off this one wasn't exactly the best course of action, but Twilight trusted Sir Spike to handle it efficiently. "Not in the least bit, actually."

Then again...

"Say that to my face, I dare you!" Dash downright growled at him by now, pulling herself to his face by grabbing his cape, as she couldn't even hope to move as much muscle as there came with the dragon. "Why do you think they wouldn't be impressed, huh?"

"Because they won't be able to see anything from all these clouds." the knight remarked without missing a beat, pointing upwards. Sure enough, a thick layer of clouds now covered Ponyville's air, spurred especially by Rainbow's failed maneuver and her fiery, or rather, thunderous temper.

"Oh...that. I'll get that done in 10 seconds flat." she chuckled nervously, all her anger dissipating right away.

She let go of the knight's cape and flew upwards, quickly ridding the sky of the obtrusive clouds. Although usually he was indeed the trustful kind, Spike couldn't resist in slowly counting down, only to have her land just as he got to zero. He had taken a liking to her already, her spirit reminding himself of a less strategic and more impulsive...well...himself.

"There. And sorry for yelling at you." she mused, much more calm now.

"It's alright, I know plenty of people who get just as defensive about their ambitions, as you have." the dragon waved slightly, not having any issue with the pegasus at all. Minor conflicts happened all the time and while on most occasions he solved it by roasting the problem, this solution was much less difficult to explain.

"...then why did you have to upset her?" Twilight downright growled at him, rather annoyed. While the minor rainfall was good to wipe the much off her, the winds that followed were less than welcome. She had the look of a beggar, at best. "A challenge is one thing, why go provoking it?"

"Challenge?" Rainbow asked back, rubbing the back of her head. She and Spike gazed at each other for a moment, before both of them exploded into laughter. "Nah, we wouldn't have fought! It was just a game, sorta."

"...a game? THAT was a game? I-I need to lie down some more...my head..." she groaned, rubbing her forehead with her hoof. Logic didn't like to follow Sir Spike's footsteps, however much she tried to change that. Her knight gently put her back into his shoulder, letting the unicorn rest off the rest of her hangover.

"I think you can get that trick of yours to work too, you just need a starting boost!" he spoke up again, turning back to Rainbow Dash. Her face lit up to the idea, just as he had expected it.

"Really? It's worth a try, I guess." she mused, hopping onto his hands as he lowered them slightly. She gazed straight up and prepared herself, smirking already. If this wouldn't get her into the Wonderbolts' ranks soon enough, nothing would. "Ready for liftoff!"

The dragon smiled and counted down slowly, preparing Rainbow Dash for what she initially thought to be a very mild boost. Finally, upon reaching zero, he quickly raised his arms, catapulting the screaming pegasus high into the air. She flew faster than anything he had seen before, actually making him reconsider having put this much strength into it.

"Not a day here and you've already sent a pony into orbit." Twilight remarked sardonically on top of his shoulder. "Didn't Celestia tell you to stop doing that?"

The question hung in the air and a minute or two had to pass before she finally saw a rainbow line forming in the sky, created by the flight and speed of the pegasus they had just met. Spike looked up again as well, grinning as Rainbow perfectly executed that corkscrew this time around, a double even for good measure. After another couple of aerial tricks, she finally descended down to them. The pony seemed out of breath and on the border of freezing to death, but very satisfied of herself nonetheless.

"You w-w-wouldn't guess what I s-s-saw!" she exclaimed, her teeth chattering wildly. "I was so h-h-h-high I could see the M-moon! And you know the we-weirdest thing? I think there was a p-p-pony on it, waving at me..."

Deathtrap Boutique and the Shy Puppeteer

Title picture by the one and only John Joseco. A supreme being of pure awesome, who had come up with the idea of Badass!Spike far sooner than my feeble mind could ever have hoped to.

Also, EQD feature get!! :D This bard now officially feels like an avatar of happiness!

“You think that was her?” Twilight asked, still perched upon the dragon's broad shoulder, like an oversized parrot.

“No idea.” Sir Spike mused, admittedly baffled at least as much as she was. “If it's her though, we're still doing fine. Getting to and from the moon doesn't seem like an easy task.”

Rainbow Dash couldn't give them a detailed explanation of the pony she had spotted on the moon and while both she and the knight were more than ready to send her up on a direct surveillance mission, Twilight had shot that idea down right away, considering the pegasus had already been shivering like crazy by the time she had landed the first time.

“Perhaps we should hurry up though, just in case.” his squire remarked, getting back down to the surface finally, with his assistance. “If she does manage to find her way here after all, it'd be good if we already had the Elements of Harmony to combat her with.”

“Are you sure that's the only way to defeat that wicked creature?” Spike questioned, glancing down at his assistant. Twilight could swear she could see the slightest bit of hesitation, perhaps even confusion on his face, both very unnatural emotions for him. “I haven't seen anything yet that I could skewer with my trusty sword.”

“Nightmare Moon is probably far beyond any other opponent you've ever faced before.” the unicorn tried to expound her findings and speculations as clearly as possible. “She was, at the time of her banishment, an equal to Princess Celestia herself. If anything, she should be extremely powerful.”

“Flame breath?”

“She's the mistress of the night. Nights are cold. I think you can make the correlation.”

“...boot to the head?”

“Now you're just being silly!” she giggled, knowing he was joking as well at this point. He could act hard-headed and unfocused towards anything scholarly, but he rarely came up with anything outright stupid.

“Just checking whether my little squire is paying attention.” he chuckled along as well.

It didn't really matter how difficult it would be to vanquish Nightmare Moon anyway. The idea of failure never even got into his mind, even for a split second; a result of fierce training and determination. Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, alicorn, hydra, dragon, diamond dog, bunny, it didn't hold a difference to him. They all bled and as such, they could all be killed. It was just a matter of finding the appropriate and preferably enjoyable or at least entertaining method of doing so.

“Let's focus on our task at hand, for now.” Twilight dutifully reminded him as they entered the lavishly adorned Town Hall.

They couldn't help but commend the efforts behind the decorating process, as it had obviously taken quite some time to properly align and place such a huge amount of colored drapes and silks. Jewels and gems were masterfully attached to them as well, their numbers enough for a whole clan of dragons or to cause everlasting hyperinflation in a smaller country. They all conjoined into a beautiful blend of shades and styles, creating a perfect atmosphere, more than fitting for the Summer Sun Celebration.

“I...don't really think we have much to do here.” the unicorn breathed after a short while, awestruck by the sheer amount of decor, which by some wonder, didn't end up looking gaudy, breaking all visual and perceptive laws she'd known till now.

“Beautiful...” the knight muttered, just as much in awe as she was, if not more. “Absolutely gorgeous, magnificently and strikingly so. Such perfection I have never even dreamed of witnessing one day. My life feels better, fuller all around more complete by having absorbed this one sight.”

“Yeah...the decoration really is pretty.” Twilight raised a brow at his excited glorification, having never known the knight to be so much into design.

“If I cared any less about that, it'd go into negative amounts.” he stated, surprising his squire a bit. “I'm talking about...her...” he continued, his voice lowering to a whisper by the end. He pointed towards the a white unicorn with an exquisitely kept purple mane, still in the midst of arranging several more jewels.

“Oh...her...” her tone was one of mild annoyance at this point, the pony before them instantly gaining a bad start in her book. Sure, she might have looked as if a thunderstorm, hail, earthquake and perhaps even a brief tsunami had been amongst the things she has had to face just today, but she wasn't THAT hideous!

The unicorn in question picked her head up in the meantime, flinching from her work. Something was just not right, she could feel it in her veins, an uncomfortable prickly sensation running down her spine. The ground felt wrong under her hooves, a familiar feeling of dread and danger enveloping her heart. She was used to this by now, but nonetheless, it always struck her how strongly she could pick these things up.

“My fashion sense is tingling. There is a disturbance in the Style.” she mused and cautiously turned around, only to let out a brief yelp as she noticed the two approaching. “Oh good heavens, dear! What grisly fate has befallen your coiffure?” she asked, the look on her face suggesting she'd just witnessed something utterly terrifying.

“My what—oh, my mane!” the lavender pony quickly caught on and shook her head, making it perhaps even worse, judging by how the other cringed to the motion. “Had a bit of an accident earlier, nothing serious.” she dismissed the other one's worries. “We're just here to check up on the decoration and we'll be gone before you know it.”

“No.” the white unicorn stated grimly, her gaze becoming almost frightening. “I will not allow anypony to go around with such an unkempt, unsightly, unacceptable...thing!” she almost shrieked and stomped with a well-groomed hoof. She summoned her own bit of magic, quickly dragging the reluctant Twilight towards her home. “You'll thank me for this, darling!”

“Oh, I'm thanking you already.” Spike murmured and followed them both with an enormous grin plastered across his face.

He could hardly even believe his luck. Not only has he managed to see the most beautiful unicorn that has ever galloped upon this earth, but with the help of his squire, he'd get a glimpse of her home no more than five minutes after he'd found her! His squire was less than enthusiastic about the idea, trashing and squirming as if the white unicorn was taking her straight to the execution platform.

'A well-executed reconnaissance mission is the key to a successful conquest!' he recited a quote from his battle-worn tactics teacher, getting the actual point of the lesson dead wrong, but at the same time, making the chore of having listened to it worthwhile. After all, knowledge was worth only as much as how much use one could get out of it!

“Black, how about black? It's dark and mysterious, goes well with your darker coat. Or maybe...ah yes, red, the classic crimson! Nah, it's just too typical. Violet might work! And there! Less lace? No...needs more actually, look at that! Smashing, absolutely gorgeous! And jewels, can't forget...shouldn't be too much though, or it'll detract from the main attraction. Hehe, funny little wordplay there, right? Amethyst maybe?”

“I really don't think I need something like this, Rarity.”

“Nonsense. This is neither formal, nor outdoor clothing, but certainly something a lady needs to keep in her wardrobe, especially someone as luscious as you!” the unicorn continued circling around her, making small adjustments to the already rather minimalist attire, all the while complementing on her looks. Twilight couldn't really consider the praise unwelcome, but she certainly would have liked it better if she hadn't been stranded in a situation such as this.

“No, I'm serious I really don't want this anywhere near, much less on me.” the scholarly squire argued, her face taking on a plum color once again. The thought of wearing something nice did appeal to her every now and then, but this was far over the line.

She felt horribly embarrassed to be dressed as such, the revealing nature of Rarity's 'dress' far more adult in nature than she ever would have tolerated. Sure, it probably would have helped draw the sights of any number of colts and then some more, but it just really wasn't her style, despite the tiny little voice insisting she'd try luring the normally quite amorous dragon warrior with it.

“Alright, alright.” the designer giggled and complied finally, seeing how Twilight's body seriously began to need the blood that had rushed to her face back. “I'll just put this on reserve for you then.” she added, levitating it back into a very specific closet. “You'll be back for it; they always return for these, eventually.”

“Not in a million years. Can I go now, we have to-”

“In a bit, just a couple more. Your mane may be perfect now, but there's still much to do!” she exclaimed, summoning another few rolls of fabric. To Twilight though, it much rather seemed like a constantly extended prison sentence.

“AWAY WITH YOU, FOUL BEAST!!”

“What was that?” the unicorn peeked towards the door leading to freedom, hoping Rarity would be more curious about what might be occurring in the other room than needlessly expanding her fashion choices.

“Nothing serious I'm sure.” the pony however dismissed the noise, far more absorbed into her current task at hand. “He's probably just playing with my dear, sweet, adorable little kitten, Opalescence. Now, you were telling me where you're from?”

Spike dashed back with all the speed he could muster, narrowly avoiding a potentially fatal gash to his throat. The lack of space due to all the fabric rolls and other fashion necessities certainly didn't help his cause. He grabbed hold of a nearby mannequin and hurled it towards where he'd last seen his opponent, before taking a moment to recoup and reassess the situation.

He had partaken in a large number of duels and battles by now, but he couldn't remember the last time he had been in one this vicious. He already had to discard an almost completely destroyed armlet and the several cuts he had received were burning in pain, constantly reminding him not to underestimate the creature stalking him. He growled and readjusted his stance, wiping a bit of blood off his cheek. This was not a friendly joust, but a true fight to the death.

The knight closed his eyes for a moment and instead of actively observing the battlefield, tried to listen to his numerous other senses as well. He could feel his opponent scurry about and prepare for yet another assault, not even the tiniest tapping of feet avoiding his other eight senses.

“Now!” he grunted to himself, stepping forwards and slamming his closed fist into the beautifully tiled room, turning it into a colorful jigsaw puzzle.

A shockwave erupted from the attack, nearly every object within an eight-foot radius rising into the air for a moment. He didn't waste this opportunity and opened his mouth, calling upon the might of his dragon ancestors and forerunners. A stream of raw elemental fire erupted from his throat a moment later, flaring through the room and reducing everything to ashes in its wake.

He saw something white jumping aside at the last second, coming to a screeching halt on the floor with the use of its deadly claws. He glared down and met the equally savage visage of his opponent. Both bore several marks of this titanic battle already, but neither were ready nor willing to give any ground over to the other. The white ball of fluff roared menacingly at the large drake, her tiny purple bow slightly singed from the attack.

Spike could clearly see he'd just made the cat even angrier with this, especially as she continued to snarl at him, showing off her claws, promising to rip him into tiny, scaly shreds. She made her jump none too soon, aiming to topple him over and methodically slice him up like an overgrown fleshy cake. The knight had no intention of giving in though and threw his ruined armlet at her, hitting Opalescence dead on.

She meowed pathetically and flew towards the wall, only to suddenly rebound off of it and swoop in for a surprise attack. He managed to avoid the full force of the strike, but she still managed to graze his side, cutting through even his thickest scales. He hissed in pain and turned to face her again, his eyes now just about glowing with rage. Only one of them would leave this room alive.

“Sir Spike, come quick!!”

He heard his squire's cry, but didn't take his eyes off Opal as she mockingly purred, her tail wagging in anticipation. She'd never tasted dragon meat before, after all. He had no mind to continue this fight any longer though. It was a knight's duty to slay evil, but never at the cost of others, especially not someone like Twilight, whom he was bound by honor and chivalry to protect.

Opalescence screeched and prepared for the killing blow, lunging into the air to tear straight into his heart. The dragon's muscles tensed as he waited for the exact time to strike. He poured all of his might, his valor, his determination, pain, sorrow and love into a single strike that would make or break not only this clash, but his very life.

“BEGONE!!”

His fist shot forward like a piercing bullet, just in time as Opal came into clear view. She seemed to realize her mistake at the very last microsecond, but could no longer alter her flight in any way. With a downright cataclysmic effect, he punched the white fur ball with all he had, the impact toppling over at what little had remained somewhat still and orderly in the room after his shockwave-slam.

The cat whined and whimpered from the strike, staying still in the air for one delirious second, before the draic knight's attack send her hurtling across the wall and next couple of rooms as well, leaving a neat, feline-shaped hole in each she had passed through. He couldn't even begin to imagine where her final destination would be, but he wouldn't have been surprised if she ended up going all the way to Canterlot.

Spike sighed and lowered his fist, a bit of steam erupting from his nostrils, from all this exertion. It's been a while since he had to put this much effort into a fight. If Nightmare Moon was in any way as powerful as this kitten unexpectedly proved to be, he was in for the greatest battle of his life.

He inhaled deeply and left the room, unseen winds ruffling up his cape, the golden symbol of the Draic Kin glinting magnificently as he left to collect his pony, who was no doubt in a serious predicament.

“Thank you, Sir Spike. Another few minutes and she surely would have given me a complete makeover.” the lavender unicorn shivered in absolute horror, walking alongside her scarred hero.

When he had found her, the unicorn was pretty much bound the the ground, as the number of gems the overactive fashion designer had placed on the dress she'd been forced to try on, rendered her unable to take so much as a single step. He didn't tell her what he'd been fighting, but she wouldn't have been surprised if Rarity had rigged her house with traps, in case of escapees.

“Don't mention it, squire. I'm just relieved you're alright and look exactly as you always have.” he nodded slightly, smiling as she seemed to have once again grown a light blush from what she perceived as a kindly compliment.

“Er...we still need to check how the music is coming along.” she quickly derailed the topic, much to his amusement.

“Of course.” the knight nodded to her words, following his trusty squire. Neither of them really knew where they were to find whoever was in charge of music, other than the fact she was supposed to be located in the outskirts.

Thunderous tunes startled the two all of a sudden, their source somewhere very close to them. Spike gently ushered several large bushes out of their way, only to accidentally tear several of them out of the ground and send them flying. Twilight sighed in a slightly tired, but accepting manner. Even when fully restrained, the dragon was like a bouquet of natural disasters, wrapped in nearly folded chaos.

The music rose in volume the closer they got, shifting into several streams even. There seemed to be several beings singing, their tones shifting from the deepest of bass, to a soft soprano. Spike felt exhilarated, the singing reminding him of the Hall of Knights in Canterlot, where he'd spent many fun, cider- and battle-filled nights, that often ended with all the young and elder knights roaring, shouting, bellowing and belching the many great songs of known and forgotten warriors.

Smacking the last bush aside, he was dumbstruck to find a delicate little yellow pegasus conducting the chorus of birds. The softest of pink manes flew before her eyes as she gave them the base voice of the song, her expression surprisingly determined. A member of her menagerie seemed to be slacking off though, consistently hitting the wrong tones over and over again.

“Halt!” she ordered, her voice crackling like a whip, making the avian singers shudder. The pony's look seemed surprisingly dark for her light colors as she flapped her wings, flying up to the offending one.

“This isn't the first time I had to stop because of you, is it?” she asked, sounding both kind and menacing at the same time, a feat both Twilight and Sir Spike believed only Celestia was capable of doing. “I don't think I have to remind you how important this celebration is, nor how...disappointed I'd be if something didn't go as planned.”

The bird seemed to have realized its mistake and looked around in a panic, piping up in what seemed like little more than a weak whimper for mercy.

“Is that so?” she tilted her head slightly, though the expression on her face held no better promises for it. “I do remember asking whether everyone was healthy. And I offered medicine as well. Twice.” she emphasized each word slowly, causing the bird to lose several feathers from fright as it tried another stream of apologetic chirps.

“No.” she firmly stated, to which he only whimpered even louder. “I said NO!” she growled, her voice louder than even the chorus had been mere moments ago. “I've warned you, not once, not twice. I've trusted you to get your act together, but you've broken that trust. I am disappointed, so very disappointed.” she said, her words unnaturally solemn.

In that instant, the bird attempted to outright flee, only to stop as the pony gazed deep into its eyes. It mustered all of its strength to fight whatever she was doing and flapped around with its wings, until it slowly stopped moving at all. Its feathers straightened and it ceased to squirm about as well, falling silent altogether. Twilight couldn't help but swallow, as she continued watching this highly tense scene.

“Shall we continue practicing?” she eased into a sweet tone once again, smiling.

The bird chirped briefly in approval, but no longer seemed to remember what had happened, nor truly comprehend anything else. Twilight shuddered as she could see even from such a distance, that the once spunky creature no longer had any spark of vigor or life in its eyes. It was as if all trace of will and individuality had been extracted from it.

“Excuse me!” she called out finally, remembering their duty.

To her utmost surprise though, the pony let out a loud squeak and nearly forgot how to fly for a moment. She descended back onto the ground in just a second, inching away slightly from the lavender unicorn; a feature Twilight truly did not expect to see. She assumed this pegasus was perhaps the loudest of them all, judging from what happened mere moments ago and yet here she was, nearly cowering before her.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Twilight Sparkle and this is-” she glanced aside, only to see just a big batch of emptiness where her dragon warrior was supposed to be. In the distance, she could hear what sounded like several roars, making her groan and let her hoof rest on her forehead for a brief moment.

“-nevermind. I don't wish to bother you for long, I just wanted to see how the preparations are coming along. You handle your birds...er...very efficiently!” she said, hoping she didn't offend her with the slight pause as she looked for the right wording.

The pony mumbled something, but the unicorn couldn't hear a single syllable out of it. A bit of awkward silence fell between the two and while Twilight smiled to alleviate it a little, it just became more and more dense with every passing second.

“What's your name?” she pushed.

“...I...” the pegasus just about whispered, making it very difficult for the unicorn to catch any of it. “...mynameisFluttershy...” she hushed in a bunch, leaving the squire to decipher it.

“Sorry, I couldn't hear you. Mind speaking a little louder?” she took the tiniest step closer, but only succeeded in making her retreat even more. It seemed like a true stalemate had formed between them. They needed in ice-breaker, immediately. By the grace of Celestia, her prayers were quickly answered as Sir Spike emerged from the bushes, looking very proud of himself and the thick bear pelt hanging from his shoulder.

“...I...IS THAT A DRAGON?!” she cried out loudly.

“Sir Spike de Draco, Draic Knight of Canterlot, Sworn Sword of Celestia, at your service.” the knight bowed respectfully before the delicate pegasus, apparently having missed out on her bird-motivating show after all.

“Oh, and he can talk, too!” she hopped over to the dragon, not in the least bit intimidated by him. Twilight wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment, or an insult. “I didn't know dragons could talk! I'm Fluttershy, it's such an honor to meet someone like you!” she inched closer to him, her eyes beginning to glint the same way they had, just before she ensnared the bird.

As a self-sacrificing noble squire, Twilight jumped between the two, breaking eye-contact between them and instantly reverting Fluttershy into the closed little flower she had been moments ago.

“I'm really sorry, but we need to keep going. There's still a lot of things we have to do in town.” she said, trying to usher her liege away from the manipulative pony. There was no way she'd let Spike fall to the same catatonic spell.

“...alright...” she ventured timidly, a far cry from her enthusiasm mere moments ago.

“Splendid! Come along now, sir, we really can't spend any more time slacking-”

“Is everything alright, miss?” Spike asked in a slightly concerned tone, seeing how disheartened the yellow pony had become all of a sudden.

It's a trap!

The unicorn flinched as she realized where this was going and tried to intervene, with no luck. The cunning pegasus had already gained the drake's attention and it was only a matter of moments, before she'd utter the words that would no doubt seal their fate.

“I just always wondered what dragons were like.” she sighed, her voice only getting stronger when she looked at the knight. Twilight had begun to wonder whether this rang true for the rest of Ponyville's residents as well, only to freeze in horror as Spike spoke those few words she wished she never had to hear again in her entire life.

“I have some stories, if you're interested!”

The squire groaned, almost collapsing to the ground in defeat. Even if she managed to get him moving now, the way the town library -their new home- would feel like a walk through an endless desert, with weights on her back and a floating bucket of water taunting her along the way, always out of reach and always splashing a bit of itself before her feet, reveling in the sweetness of her misery.

In other words, less than enjoyable.

Welcome Party for the Apocalypse

Eternity. A rather easily definable term, but immensely difficult to properly imagine, much less experience. An endless stream of time, one event after another, from never-ending, to infinity. It has no beginning and no end as by its nature it lasts forever, past conscious thoughts and scientific observations. It is truly one of those concepts that can be surprisingly complex when delved into and to some extent, both frightening and amazing.

Yet it seemed hardly sufficient enough to describe the trek from the outskirts of Ponyville, to the Town Library. Twilight felt like an entire age, perhaps a full eon has passed over their heads, though not at all because of the distance they had to travel. Her problems were much more elaborate and eventful, than that.

"And in doing so, I've graduated with High Honors in Experimental Special Techniques. Damage control still went on for a while, but all of us passed at least." Spike concluded yet another of his tales, his chest swelling with pride as his solo audience gazed at him in awe.

"Incredible." Fluttershy breathed, her eyes like huge plates. Occasionally, Spike almost felt like she was overdoing on the staring for some reason, but didn't mind the attention. "You're still so young and you've done so much!"

"I still have a lot more stories where that came from." the knight assured, making Twilight groan lightly once more, until her ray of hope finally shone at her, in the form of a large treehouse.

"I'm awfully sorry, but Spike needs to...uh...run through his inventory of weapons." she turned and spoke to Fluttershy with a none-too-genuine smile. "We'll see each other later then?"

"...oh...alright." the pegasus was visibly disheartened that they had to part now. She'd learned a lot about Spike and considered him to be a perfect possible addition to her vast collection of lovely little critters. Being blocked off like this was slightly...disappointing.

"I don't need to go through the numbers again." the draic knight raised a brow at how quickly Twilight was trying to get him away from Fluttershy and into the library. "I've got 381 swords, 103 battleaxes, 201-"

"He's right, they surely got all of them here safely." the pegasus glanced up into Spike's eyes again and began to apply just the tiniest bit of pressure to his thoughts. The knight's muscles seemed to ease up a tiny bit, alerting Twilight right away.

"Well, they might have left some of them in Canterlot. You can never trust the Royal Equestrian Mail. Some of them don't even have eyes right!" the unicorn mused and attempted to downright push him through the door, only to cope with several issues at once. Not only was it like trying to shove a brick wall aside, but the dragon was simply too tall to fit through!

"Are you sure you can't stay just a tiny bit longer?" the pony asked in the sweetest of voices, keeping up the eye-contact for as long as possible.

She almost had him now, she could feel his defenses slipping and crumbling one by one. While he had obviously been conditioned to resist such approaches, her power was of a far larger magnitude, than any lowly instructor could have prepared him for. Twilight saw she was losing him and resorted to the only surefire method of distracting him.

"The Princess might be already waiting for you inside!"

In that very instant, Fluttershy could feel and subconsciously visualize an enormous astral fist rising from the dragon's mind, hovering over her threateningly. She could hardly even squeak, before it struck, giving her a massive bop on the head, as if she were the nail for a hammer. She had no visible injuries though and she merely wobbled for a moment, the knockback leaving her with a slight migraine.

The dragon had finally come to in the meantime, having sensed or realized little to nothing of what had just happened. He merely shrugged and took a step forwards, going into the dark library and not even bothering to squat down. A knight bowed only before combat, or when before the fairer folk.

The wall gave in as if it were made of paper, a neat, head-shaped hole remaining as an amusing memento. Twilight cringed to Sir Spike's unique way of entering rooms, though she was still thankful he didn't decide to outright make himself an entrance, something he had done before, much to the chagrin of several architects in Canterlot.

"We'll need to talk about this attitude of yours, squire." he stated, once she had closed the door. "I find your lack of politeness disturbing."

"I'm sorry, sir." she sighed. She expected he'd scold her. As a squire, he was obligated to teach her to the best of his abilities and although that usually meant praises left and right, sometimes he did have to hold her over the coals every now and then. "We can socialize with the people here as much as possible, but right now, we really should find out more about Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony." she had a hurried tone, hoping he'd realize this was the most pressing issue at the moment.

"That doesn't mean you should blow them off in such a rude manner though." the knight crossed his arms, the screech of armor on armor making the unicorn cringe to the horrible noise. "You never know when you might need allies." he added, recalling yet another bit he'd remembered from his teachings.

"I know, I know." the pony nodded to his words. He was right, of course he was right, but she had good reason at least! "We'll make amends with them later. First, I just need a couple of minutes to study, without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends with us all the time."

"SURPRISE!"

The lights flared up and a loud cry escaped from what seemed like every inch of the library hall. Twilight flinched, but not nearly as much as her knight, whom she immediately had to hold back with magic, before he'd try and pulverize the closest pony. Surprising him was a double-edged sword, as he either laughed along and enjoyed it, or instinctively attempted to protect himself and destroy what he'd perceive as opposition.

"I trust you were surprised indeed?" the pink pony they'd seen earlier approached them, lightly pushing Spike's fist aside, still held back by his squire's magic.

Up close, she seemed like a lively young being, though there was something in her eyes that bothered the unicorn. It wasn't like Fluttershy's gaze, which she didn't need to be told was dangerous to look into. She had already seen the effects of that. This pony's look had some deep threat inside of them, something far beyond mischievousness and general naughtiness. She honestly wondered why Sir Spike hadn't immediately tried to smite her, considering the fervor he had shown towards exorcising Granny Smith, only a few hours ago.

Though the earth pony had avoided the nasty fate of sharing Opalescence's guided tour through the skies of Equestria, the ponies in the same row as she'd been were still thrown back against the nearest wall and bookcases, sent flying by the mere wind of the punch. She seemed to have anticipated it though and dodge it without the slightest bit of issue, only her straight pink mane ruffling up for a brief moment.

"A lot. Libraries are supposed to be quiet." Twilight said, putting the emphasis on the last word.

"Oh, no arguments there." the earth pony chuckled, in a way that was both amusing and unsettling at the same time. "You see, when I had come across you and your knight, I instantly realized you two must have just arrived in Ponyville. I know everypony around here and if you're new, you simply cannot go without a welcome party."

"Thank you for the thought, fair maiden." Spike smiled and bowed before her, while the rest of the ponies behind her were still in the midst of extracting themselves off the walls the power of his repressed punch planted them into. A gray pegasus was the only one in no rush apparently, her interest caught by a book about muffins she'd landed into, face-first no less.

"Please, my name is Pinkamena Diane Pie." she introduced herself, smiling brightly. Something about that smile continued to send shivers down Twilight's spine. It was like a fully-grown dragon smiling, which while a very nice and friendly gesture would always be ruined by the amount of fangs their faces held.

"You may think of me as the official party-expert of Ponyville. A connoisseur of bashes, an avatar and patron saint of any loud hoo-ha." she listed off in a highly sophisticated fashion, mimicking Rarity for a moment. Said pony huffed over it slightly as well, but didn't seem to mind it too much.

"Yep! Pinkie here is the absolute best at parties!" Rainbow Dash piped up as she swooped over to them. Twilight was convinced just about half the town was here, making her second-guess whether most of them had jobs at all.

"Yes...I'm better known as Pinkie Pie, to my friends." the earth pony said after a slight pause, though the unicorn was almost sure she could see her cringe to the name, her voice also holding a slight edge now. "In any case, I just couldn't let you go by without a proper introduction, especially since I had to bolt off so quickly to prepare this. Consider it an apology and a welcome." The edgy tone was gone again. Strangely flip-flopping pony this one was.

"I consider it a wonderful gesture, Miss Pie." Spike assured, a grin appearing on his face.

He had never been the kind to refuse something like this, even though he had already enjoyed his bit of a toot today, courtesy of the Apple Family and a hefty amount of cider. Still, the measure of alcohol he allowed himself to consume in under a day has hardly been breached yet and as such, he was more than ready to indulge in some more.

"Just Pinkie, or Pinkamena, please." the pony shook her head with a bright smile. "Miss makes me sound like an old lady, which doesn't fit me at all!" she joked, making a couple of ponies around them chuckle.

Twilight sighed and walked over to the nearest table, seeing a couple of drinks and glasses. She noticed a familiar bottle the barrel emblem on it confirming her fears. Spike had already begun to boast and sway the ladies as usual, giving Twilight ample time to quickly make sure the earlier events of the day would not repeat themselves.

She glanced around, before concentrating, summoning a tiny bit of her magical abilities. Her horn flared up with a purple aura blazing around it as she cast her spell, a similar aura enveloping the bottle of cider as well. Turning her head ever so slightly, she flung the tempting, yet oh-so-evil alcoholic beverage out the window, saving herself and the entire town from a possibly draic meltdown again.

"Not a fan of the Acres Vintage?"

The unicorn jumped to the voice, only to see Pinkie standing right next to her, with a bright smirk on her face. Although she really wanted to hope the earth pony hadn't seen her get rid of the volatile liquid, the grin on her face suggested her hopes were in vain.

"I-I like it, actually." she stammered, giggling nervously. Applejack seemed like a really swell mare and she didn't really wish to see her angry, if Pinkie decided to tell on her. "And Sir Spike does as well...perhaps a little too much, is all." she explained, only succeeding in making the pink pony's eyebrow rise as well, in addition to her smirk. Part of her wanted to just kick her and run.

"It's okay, if you've just said so at the start, I would have hidden it!" Pinkie laughed, washing away most of her nerve that instant. It sounded a lot more honest than all her previous cackles. She fetched Twilight a glass and began to poured her from a different bottle, which held no alarming signs on it.

"Oh...thank you." the unicorn ventured, feeling slightly embarrassed. She had shown some pretty bad manners, but apparently it didn't seemed to have bothered the pink pony all that much. "And for the party, too. It was a very kind gesture, Pinkie, thank you." she tried to be as respectful as possible, especially since she probably had her life in her hooves!

"It was a pleasure. I love a good party, no matter the occasion." she smiled a lightly pushed the glass of red liquid over to Twilight. It seemed a little thicker in density than she would have expected from fruity drinks, put she was far too thirsty for any kind of experimentation. Local apples dominated the food market here, so she just guessed this was a more pulpy kind of juice, than the ones she could get in Canterlot.

"Now, mind telling me what exactly a Grade B arcane magic student from Canterlot and a celebrated, thrice commended dragon knight of the Order are doing here in Ponyville, of all places?" she asked, her voice still very sweet, but reminded Twilight of an uncomfortable metallic aftertaste some cheap candies had.

"Nothing special. Sir Spike and I are here to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration." she calmly mused.

She had given it a brief thought, but decided not to share her fears about Nightmare Moon and the possible need to acquire the Elements of Harmony. There was no point in causing unwanted panic amongst the townsfolk. She was about to take a sip from the drink Pinkie had offered her, when a chill ran down her spine. Her knight loved to boast of his accomplishments and never missed out on letting people know how many times he'd been praised, she was the exact opposite of him in that regard.

"We're not dumb, Twilight Sparkle." Pinkie remarked with a growing smirk, watching as the unicorn threw her an almost frightful glance. "A new librarian is assigned to us just a single day before the Celebration and is accompanied by a well-trained crusader of Celestia. Some might not bat an eye at that, but this is a bit too much of a coincidence, wouldn't you agree?"

"I...assure you, there's nothing going on behind the scenes that you should know about." Twilight spoke up again after swallowing nervously. "Sir Spike and I are only here to make sure everything goes nicely. If there are any hidden agenda behind all this, your bet is as good as mine."

"That's a relief." the pony chuckled, her amusement in no way helping to calm the unicorn. "You see, this is a quiet little town. Nothing outstanding ever happens here and most folks would like to keep it that way, too. If you're not here to cause any trouble, you don't have anything to fear, Pinkie Pie swear! Now, go ahead and drink, you must be parched from all that walking."

"...sure, thank you." Twilight nodded after a brief pause and leaned over the cup, taking a couple of much-needed sips from it. The liquid had a far different taste than she had expected and it seemed to tickle her tongue slightly.

"And in the unlikely event that you might be lying." Pinkie continued, tilting her head and counting down the seconds until the unicorn's eyes suddenly bulged out slightly, her face growing blood-red. "Rest assured, we'll know about it."

"Are you okay, squire?" Spike appeared next to them, slightly confused on why she seemed to be in major pain all of a sudden. "Maybe a little more juice would help?" he asked, pouring her another glass of the bottle Pinkie passed him.

She cried out and scurried upstairs in a fraction of a second, her breath leaving a mark of corrosion on one of the dragon's clawed armlets. He quirked a brow and examined the bottle, the bonfire sign giving it away immediately.

"Hot sauce?" he chuckled, reading off the label. "You're a sneaky one, Pinkie!"

"I couldn't help it, it's in my blood!" she laughed along, though keeping her distance from the awful concoction. Normally, she had an enormously high tolerance towards stuff like this, but she knew from experience that this could downright eat itself through the body.

The dragon knight gazed at the bottle for a few seconds, before raising it to his lips. The music and just about all other noise in the area ceased immediately as he downed the rest of it in one enormous gulp, letting out a deep, bass-toned burp right after. A couple of tense moments passed by, only the thud of a book hitting the ground breaking the silence. Even Pinkie Pie was a little taken aback, fearing he'd simply explode where he stood.

"Mmmhm...spicy!" Spike said, flames dancing around his mouth like a makeshift beard with every word he spoke, stunning the ponies even more. "...what?"

Twilight Sparkle groaned loudly, trying to somehow find the right combination between stuffing her pillow in her ears and fan her still slightly burning tongue. Pinkie's little trick made sure she wouldn't complain about any kind of food for a while as she doubted she would feel the taste of anything in the following decade at the very least.

Her new bed rattled rhythmically to the music being played downstairs, giving her not even the faintest chance of sleep. She'd long given up on it anyway, though she knew Sir Spike would be at it till until everyone else had fallen asleep. Superior stamina had the unfortunate effect of rendering the gifted one the last man standing at every party ever.

She heard her door creak open, but she didn't even have to look to know who had come to visit her. Several years of listening to loud footsteps like that had given her plenty of time to engrave it into her mind. What she didn't quite expect though, was the sudden shift in the careful balance of her bed. In an instant, she felt her rest being lurched upwards, reminding her of that one time she'd managed to fall asleep on a slide, as a tiny filly.

"What's holding you back from coming down and having some fun?" she heard his deep voice call out. He wasn't scolding her though, just suggesting it.

"You even have to ask? All the ponies in this town are crazy!" she exclaimed. Sure he might have not noticed, but an abnormally strong apple-farmer, a crazed speedster, a fashion diva, a reserved mindbender and Pinkie didn't quite make for a crew she wanted to spend any time with.

"Crazy is not always a bad thing." the knight chuckled, adjusting his sit at the edge of her bed, making her slide against his arm. "And while I don't think you should follow Celestia's order word-for-word, it can't hurt you to cut loose every now and then."

The unicorn huffed and repeated his words in a childish, exaggerated manner. It was obvious she'd already made her mind up about this issue. The dragon raised a brow and stood up, letting her drop back on her bed. "Alright, you win this one. I'll let you stay and study, or whatever you want. "

"Seriously, what would it take for you to come down?" he called from the door, attempting to bribe her one last time.

"Let's see..." she mused, smirking in the dark. "Profess your everlasting love for me, never see the Princess again...and give me your cape." she purred. Each of these demands were outrageous alone, but together, they were an unholy trinity. Giving up his cape alone would have been akin to Spike losing his honor as a knight.

"Nice try, squire." he chuckled, closing up the door just as she started giggling as well.

She sighed as he left the room though. His presence was uplifting and while she still felt no inclination towards joining the party downstairs, at least he entertained her for a short while. She sat up and looked out the window, gazing right at the Moon. The shade of the planet once again formed the head of a mare, seen this clearly only on select days.

"Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars themselves will aid her escape." she mused to herself. "I really hope it's just an old pony's tale...I haven't been able to do any research on her, or the Elements of Harmony, thanks to this hectic day."

"I just hope Celestia knows what she's doing." she rubbed her head a bit, lying back on the bed again. "Bah, she's an all-powerful, all-knowing deity! She surely knows what she's doing, she always has!"

"Except maybe for that incident in Fillydelphia...no one got hurt though! Or the time she got angry at that frost dragon...but it doesn't matter, we didn't need that mountain anyway! Or that incident in the club with that teleport spell, the one no one is allowed to speak of? They did find everyone, eventually..."

The unicorn eventually turned the other side, feeling worse than ever before as she recounted a couple of embarrassing incidents the royal court has managed to accumulate in just the past few years. Her outlook on the possible upcoming events had darkened considerably.

"We are so doomed."

"No."

"Sir, please!"

"Absolutely not."

"The mayor asked you to deliver the opening speech. This is a great honor."

"I'm a warrior, not a spokesperson."

Twilight couldn't help but facehoof at the statement, groaning in frustration. She'd been tasked with many insurmountable missions concerning her knight before, but none seemed as difficult as this one at the moment. She rather wished to face Nightmare Moon alone, than to continue making up reasons for him to finally do as told.

"Please, Sir Spike, this is important!" she grumbled, getting behind him to try and push the dragon forwards. She guessed in just a thousand years, she'd be able to move him at least an inch close.

The ponies in the Town Hall were starting to whisper to each other about the delayed opening speech, especially as dawn was drawing closer and closer with each passing second. They were all excited and giddy to finally see their Princess and even more so to cut loose and enjoy the celebrations. There was a reason this was one of the most favored of all the annual festivities.

"Everythin' alright here?" Applejack peeked behind the curtain, only to see Twilight exhausting herself in a feeble attempt to levitate Spike towards the state. The dragon was planted firmly on the ground though, arms crossed and not about to move. "What in the hay is goin' on?"

"I refuse to go." the drake stated solemnly, his cape picked up by unseen winds once again. Big Mac would have had a field trip trying to explain all the improbabilities that seemed to occur around Spike.

"I tried...everything..." Twilight sighed, dropping to the ground, completely out of breath. In her mind's ears she could already hear the disappointed grumbles of the people outside, along with a scold from Celestia herself. It was no use though, the dragon simply refused to budge!

"Maybe this ol' mule here just needs some motivation." the orange earth pony grinned and disappeared for a moment, returning with a bottle of apple cider, much to the knight's and his squire's surprise.

"See this?" Applejack called out to him in a soft voice, sliding the bottle back and forth on the ground. At first it seemed like Spike paid no attention, until Twilight noticed his eyes were firmly locked upon the bottle. "All this an' more is yours, if you git goin' and give everypony a speech to remember."

"...I don't want it." the dragon spoke up, his voice shockingly weak. His squire could hardly even remember the last time she'd heard him talk like this. "I like it, but you can't bribe me. I don't want that stuff."

"Don't be silly, everypony wants it." the earth pony continued, smirking as she saw the crack in his defense. Knightfall was at hand. "The only question is, how much?"

"Ponies...and more ponies!"

His voice boomed across the Town Hall as if he were hooked up on the most powerful of megaphones and backed up by the biggest of sound systems. Several ponies immediately shot a glance towards the one responsible for the acoustics, a gray unicorn sporting a stylish pair of glasses. She just extended both hooves though, signaling she was no longer responsible for anything. The knight had snapped the microphone in half the moment it was passed to him.

"Look up ponies, what do you see now?" he roared, the strength of his vocal chords forcing several of the townspeople to hold onto the nearest stable objects, unless the wanted to be sent flying right out the door. "What is that...that big ball of light up in the sky? That white thing glowing thing with the horse head on it? The damn moon!"

Applejack was grinning quite a bit at the show, surrounded by three empty barrels toppled over in a drunker fervor. She knew the knight would be a smash hit if he let himself loose on stage, even though the price for his performance was high indeed. Twilight on the other hand, was busy contemplating the quickest escape route from the building, preparing for the moment the residents of Ponyville would want her and Spike's head on spears.

"But I'm not here to talk...about the moon. I'm here to announce, to each and...every pony, that it is once again time. The longest day has arrived and with it, the day of ce-ce-ce...festivaling and drinking and eating and doing stuff! And that's the main point of it, too! Doing stuff! Stuff that matters, stuff you need to take care of, stuff that says you should do something until you tell them you have other stuff to do!"

Although his speech didn't yet make much in terms of sense, some of the younger ponies were already taking a liking towards the armored dragon swaying from side to side on stage, as if he was fighting an invisible hydra.

"But that's not even the important thing. The important thing is this, people of Ponycity...it is time to rise and growl and roar! On this Summer Sun Festival, each of you are given something...namely, the spark to carry on for another year and accomplish all you have been unable to do until now!"

His motivational speech was slowly, but surely rousing the townspeople. Some of the more level-headed ponies still considered him to be an idiot let loose, but a lot of people were leaning towards going with the flow of his voice.

"You each have a heart of steel, hooves of metal and brains of books! The sky, no, the MOON is the limit to all of you and until you can go ahead and say 'yes, I've punched the moon today!', you have done nothing! Aim as high and possible, seize the moment and cherish the daylight of this glorious world!"

His speech was getting more and more clear as he continue, the fighting spirit inside of him taking care of the bit of stuttering and the occasional hiccups he had managed to sprinkle on top of his words.

"You are not just ponies anymore, but a legion of indestructible warrior mares and colts, ready to take on whatever challenge the world may pose to you. Where there's a mountain, level it! Where there's an enemy, destroy it! Where there are fields, will the food to exists! Your fury knows no bounds and your souls heed only the call of glory!"

By now, even the most timid of ponies were stomping their hooves to every syllable, low guttural growls filling the Town Hall. Even the youngest of colts could feel several strands of hair appearing on their chins, which they hardly even noticed in their excitement. They were ready, they were prepared, the stage was set, the moment at hand. Their new lives would begin now and this Summer Sun Celebration would mark the beginning of a new era of ponies; a Golden Age.

"Listen to me, my fellows...no, my brethren! In another few moments, the sun shall rise! Let us all welcome it with one earth-shattering, sky-smashing, fire-breathing, hoof-stomping call to power! Destiny is upon us and our guide is here to lead us. She, strongest, wisest, fairest of them all will help you in becoming what you were always meant to be, immortal to time, space and the elements. Now, my brothers and sisters, rise and see, for here is our Immortal Sun Empress herself, the Ruler of Equestria and Light itself! Princess Celestia!"

The colts and mares of Ponyville each let out a roar at the final call, the building itself trembling right down to its foundation. Sir Spike himself had to stomp the wooden stage so hard his feet sunk into it, otherwise even he would have been blown through the walls, such was the power these ponies exhibited with their voices alone. He felt a lone tear trickle down his scaly face, pride filling his heart to the brim, while the guest of honor finally appeared on the royal balcony.

"Has everypony lost their minds in the past millenia?" a low, but unexpectedly harsh womanly voice echoed along the halls, once the battlecry finally subsided.

Those who had been ready to go through anything found themselves frightened all of a sudden, trembling a horrible pair of events they had never expected to see, especially at the same time: Princess Celestia was nowhere to be found and someone else had taken her rightful place upon the balcony.

A legend has awakened.

The Mooning of Heroes

Describing the first minute following the unexpected arrival, or rather re-emergence of the dark mare would have put even the toughest scribes to the test. Celestia's finest bards, who had honed their skills in countless epic sing-offs, the string of their lutes sharp as razors, would have found themselves tone-deaf and with stiff hooves. This was a kind of situation that would have driven a whole literature college to mass suicide from the loss of honor, as they surely would have failed to adequately chronicle what occurred here.

As such, this version will merely try to replicate it as best as possible. Several sources had been consulted and many minds were thoroughly rummaged through for the most meager bits of information regarding Ponyville's reaction to this ancient being's return. No pony was hurt during this gathering of data. Really, we're not kidding here.

Enjoy and may these forward your studies about this doubtlessly stressful moment in pony history.

Panic, panic, run, shout, scream, party, hay, evil, what, magic, what, no, flee, muffin.

Thank you.

"SEIZE THE WITCH!" the mayor mare found her voice first and did what seemed to be the most sensible thing, right before the 'running like scared fillies' option. Not that some didn't take that option immediate, bolting towards the entrance like no tomorrow.

Being an earth pony and a particularly ancient breed of that has rendered her somewhat less accepting of a couple of things though. Magic wasn't exactly one of her favorite things in the universe, though most of the times she begrudgingly took no offense to any of the town's residents using its boons, especially after the third rejection from Celestia about organizing a nation-wide witch-hunt. Neither of which would have involved her, of course. The Sun Goddess was supreme, she was only against the heathen heretics who defiled her holy magic by using it for their own wicked and selfish purposes.

Under the carefully balanced layers of fear, confusion, anger, terror and horror, she was almost a bit happy she would finally indulge in what she knew had been her family's favorite pastime for generations now. She made a mental note to have the townsfolk start collecting firewood, once the witch has been apprehended.

Three colts from Celestia's Royal Guard rose to battle immediately, taking off into the air to bring the unknown intruder to swift justice. The mare readied herself, only to find them flying into just about every direction possible, instead of concentrating on her. The explosive growth of hair on their faces left them almost completely blind, though as fierce as they could be.

"Found you!" one of them cried, only to tackle a huge roll of decorative fabric, making a certain white unicorn amongst the crowd hiss lightly in pain.

The rest followed the voice of the first and dived in for the capture, only to end up fighting their own colleague. The dark alicorn continued watching them for a couple of seconds, not quite impressed by the show. Eventually, she grew bored and sighed, all the while raising a hoof and pointing it at them. A bolt of lightning struck down from above them, quickly separating the three and sending them hurtling back towards the ground.

"Disgraceful...I'm gone for a mere thousand years and everypony has dived off the edge of sanity." she spoke up again, her voice icy and dripping with mockery. She slammed a hoof down upon the balcony, another bolt of lightning emphasizing her words. "No doubt the sun has fried your petty little brains..."

Sir Spike looked up, his vision slightly blurred from the amount of cider coursing through his veins. He growled at himself and tensed his body, briefly focusing only on himself, instead of the situation. He soon felt the alcohol leaving his system, his body downright absorbing and neutralizing the normally kindly greeted substance.

Having willed himself to sobriety, he glanced up again, only for his initial frown to slowly turn into a grin instead. Sure enough, above him stood the evil rule of nights, whom Twilight had been talking about all day long, but his mind couldn't help, but put that fact aside. All he could concentrate on was the beautiful black coat, the mist-like mane flowing freely around the lithe frame of the alicorn and a pair of piercing emerald eyes, shaped almost like a dragon's.

"Hmm...not what I expected, but who am I to complain?" he quietly remarked to himself, lightly stroking his jaw.

She watched the people of Ponyville as they slowly inched backwards, scared witless of her. The unknown alicorn couldn't help but smirk to that, though some annoyance was mixed into her amusement as well. She has already had her fun, ambushing and banishing her sister into the Sun, letting her have a taste of her own medicine. However, there was still the issue of these ponies at hand now.

"Apparently a mere millenia is enough for people to forget." she mused, walking right up to the edge of the balcony. "Is there no one here who remembers then?" she continued. Her mane convulsed for a moment, the edge of it making a noise similar to the crack of a whip. "Has no one seen the signs, or heard of the legend? Are you so oblivious to your own history?" her voice was getting angrier by now.

"Not everyone." Twilight called out, grabbing her attention right away as the young unicorn trotted out from behind the curtain, joining up by Sir Spike's side. "I've seen the signs and identified you. I know who you are, why you're here, what you are and everything else I could possibly learn of you." she announced, taking a defiant stand.

"Is that so?" the mare gazed upon the squire, her emerald eyes glinting with malice. "Who am I then, little filly? Who stands before you undeserving whelps?"

"You're the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon!" the unicorn answered right away, eliciting a gasp from just about everyone. Most had begun to realize this for themselves, storybooks and evenings by the fireplace coming to their minds as they remembered hearing about her legend.

"Well, well, seems like someone has done their history lesson after all." Nightmare Moon's voice softened up slightly, though the tone of it still didn't promise much good for them, especially as she rose to her hind hooves. "I am indeed the Mare in the Moon, though as you may see, that name no longer applies to me. A thousand years have passed since my imprisonment and now I've been unleashed! Tremble and bow before me, as I shall-"

"-bring about eternal night upon us all!" Twilight finished for her, breaking her glorious announcement with her unconscious desire to prove just how prepared she was of this subject. Spike couldn't help smiling as Nightmare Moon seemed to freeze in the air, dumbstruck.

"Yes...that is exactly why I'm here." the mare spoke up again after a bit of a delay, lowering her front hooves back upon the balcony again. An awkward silence began to grow as the new evil overlord of Equestria actually found herself struggling on how to continue her speech, now that Twilight had interrupted her in such a rude manner.

"Yes, eternal night, that is indeed a suitable punishment for you all." she finally spoke up again, her voice gaining power. Soon, her eyes were glowing once more, her amusement surfacing again as well. "And none of that infernal sunlight either-"

"-as you have banished the Princess to the Sun, so she can't raise the sun." the unicorn simply couldn't shut up, though the dragon knight next to her didn't seem like he wanted to encourage her to do so, either. The dark mare only seemed to become more beautiful with every moment, especially as she was getting angry.

"I see you've really done your research..." Nightmare Moon remarked, tapping the floor of the balcony with a slight impatience.

Twilight was proving to be both fascinating and highly annoying. At this point, she couldn't decide whether to kill her, or offer her a place in her ranks. Knowledgeable minions were quite hard to acquire in this day and age, but they always carried a risk in suddenly turning against their mistress. Still, she regarded it as an option at least.

"I've read every possible book that exists about you." she proclaimed and smiled proudly, even before this so much more powerful enemy. The draic knight standing next to her felt rather proud though, seeing his influence rubbing off on her finally. "I know everything there is to know about you."

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment, or a threat..." Nightmare Moon mused, glaring down from the balcony.

She briefly looked over the rest of the townsfolk, finding it rather weird they hadn't even tried to escape, nor blown up into a panicked rampage. She could swear ponies a thousand years ago were smarter than this. She returned her attention to the lavender unicorn soon enough though, not bothering with the rest of the litter, if they were truly made of such dumb material. She flinched slightly, as it finally dawned upon her though.

"But of course!" she chuckled, this time succeeding in getting Twilight nervous. "You have to forgive me for not noticing you right away, but you've never revealed your face, nor true voice to me."

"...huh?" the unicorn mumbled, about as confused as one could be. She glanced up at Spike, but the knight looked more or less enamored rather than confused, so there was no help there.

"Might I be mistaken? No, it has to be you." Nightmare Moon looked around, not seeing a single soul about who might fit the bill of whom she sought to find.

Not the raging mayor mare, nor the gray pegasus looking in several directions at the same time with just two eyes and definitely not the brown earth pony with the ruffled mane, heading straight towards a blue box-like object near the door, which she was confident had not been there a minute ago. Then again, after what she'd seen of the townsfolk so far, she dared not make any predictions or assumptions anymore.

She wasn't asking for much, just a praise, or perhaps a frightened shriek, but not, they all had to stand around like a bunch of newborn foals and fillies, gazing at her like she was some old relative, instead of the fearful ruler of the night sky. Only looks that were even marginally different had been that hulk of a dragon's and although they were flattering to say the very least bit, they weren't exactly perfect replacements for the signs of fright she had aimed to cause.

"...anyway." the dark mare cleared her throat, annoyed by the awkward silence constantly dropping in the town hall. She was beginning to think she had done Celestia a favor by banishing her to the Sun. "Did you honestly think I just guessed that the Summer Sun Celebration would be held here? I had an inside mare, a pony who by means of ancient magics aided my plans and has offered her undying servitude."

The citizens of Ponyville each glanced at each other in outright confusion, mixed with a bit of suspicion. Sure, they were all friends for the most part and had known each other for quite a few years, but that never meant they fully trusted each other. Any one of them could have had an agenda, or perhaps a complex goal with which Nightmare Moon could assist them.

Some eyed the Cakes, as they had repeatedly stated Sugarcube Corner has been experiencing some troubles since Rarity had decided that larger dresses would come with larger price-tags. Others were keeping their eyes on the Apple Family, thinking they were no longer satisfied with having monopoly over just apples. Another few were looking at some of the younger fillies on the other hand, thinking they might have been trying to acquire an 'accomplice of evil' cutie mark.

Out of all of them though, the mayor was without a doubt the most efficient. She just kept circling around and growling at everyone within a fifteen-foot radius. Witches,they're all witches, she thought. How this fact managed to elude her up till now, was perplexing indeed.

Nightmare Moon let a single hoof travel down from the top of her head to the chin, during which she had counted to ten, drew up three different spells and had possibly come up with an answer to several unsolved mathematical theories of her time, all the while trying to find reasons not to simply do away with the whole bunch of them.

"I shall await the moment you reveal yourself to me." she called out finally, silencing the whispering, grumbling ponies. "Until my glorious coronation ponies, good night!"

She closed her eyes, her mist-like mane swirling around to slowly envelop her entire body. The townspeople watched with dread as she promptly evaporated, streaking through the hall in a swift dark-blue stream. Immediately, she was overwhelmed with a fascinating sense of freedom, now she was back and has already disposed of her sister.

"Hey, get back here!"

She was already out by the time she heard the call, enjoying the soft breeze of the night. Considering how the guards hardly posed any threat to her, she stopped to see who dared follow her, deciding to entertain her pursuer just a bit. At least whoever this pony was, she had more guts than those empty-eyed braindead zombies inside.

A rainbow blur darted out of the Town Hall, speeding straight towards her. Nightmare Moon couldn't help smirking as she materialized again, lazily flapping her wings to keep herself in the air. It's been ages since she had properly used them for anything. The feeling was strange and welcoming at the same time.

The pegasus stopped close to her, the bravery she held before faltering just a tiny bit. She knew Celestia's life could very well be on the line, but being this close to the alicorn made her downright shiver. She'd faced off against a couple of things larger than her before, especially due to her headstrong nature, but Nightmare Moons mere presence emanated power beyond anything she'd seen so far.

"Ah, it's you!" the alicorn's initially rather vicious smirk eased up into a smile instead, though it was no less creepy from a figure as dark as her.

"Yeah, it's me alright! Where did you take the prin-wait...you know me?" Rainbow Dash didn't often find herself having to stop in the middle of a boast like this, but the situation called for it.

"Of course." Nightmare Moon mused, adjusting herself to fly a few lazy circles around the cyan pegasus. "You and I had met just a few hours ago, don't you remember?" she asked, though she knew perfectly well there was no way she could have seen her clearly. "Let me give you a hint then...there was no one else on that moon, but me."

"So...I did see you then!" she exclaimed, a bit confused, but also intrigued. It wasn't everyday she could meet a pony from space, even if she did indeed disrupt the Summer Sun Celebration, kidnapped their princess and basically threatened everyone with eternal night. Still, space pony!

"Indeed you have." the alicorn mused, finally stopping before Rainbow Dash again, though almost uncomfortably close. She had half her mind to raise a hoof in defense already, in case Nightmare Moon attempted to pull a fast one on her. "You were the first pony I've seen in a thousand years. Not even my unseen mare-servant has revealed herself to me yet. Come to think of it, what is your name?"

"Mine? I'm Rainbow Dash." the speedy pegasus replied, rubbing her head a tiny bit. Nightmare Moon's behavior was somewhere between alarming and just downright creepy, especially since she had little to no conceivable reason to be this friendly with her. "Hey, don't try to change the subject here!" she quickly piped up again, remembering her mission. "Where's the princess?"

"I'm afraid your princess is in another land." she purred with hardly hidden satisfaction. "And that leaves me as your new ruler, of course. I shall rule this land of eternal night with an iron hoof. Though you have little to fear, Rainbow Dash..."

The pegasus lurched back a little as the alicorn towered over her, the dark wings falling over her. The mist-like mane she possessed coursed around as if trying to envelop Dash in its ethereal embrace. She fell silent and almost fully still as Celestia's kidnapper leaned close, her wings keeping her in the air purely by instinct. Her first thought, however unlikely, was that she wanted to stab her through the head with her horn.

"You were the first living being I had laid my eyes upon in a dreadfully long millenia." Nightmare Moon's voice lowered into something of a whisper, her emerald eyes scanning her to the very soul. She leaned even closer, their noses almost touching, igniting quite a number of warning signs for the pegasus.

"One cannot help, but appreciate the beauty of that...and you, my little pony, have much of that quality indeed. Your new princess can offer you a delightfully comfortable position, if you're willing to swear your loyalty to me." she continued, taking note of the commotion coming from the Town Hall. It seemed like Ponyville had finally figured out what just happened. "I may be the mistress of the dark, but I'm not cruel, not without good reason. If you listen to my word, you may find the night to be pleasantly...warm." she whispered the last few words almost right into Rainbow Dash's ears.

Before the bewildered and just about completely stunned pegasus could have uttered a single word though, she disappeared as quickly as she had back inside, only the end of the fine mist reminding her of what had happened. It came as no surprise that she had little to no idea how to react to all of this, though her mind balanced it between 'interesting' and 'terribly creepy and messed up'. She felt lucky no one had seen her though, as this would have been quite difficult to explain.

Rainbow wiped a bit of sweat off her brow, only to have her sight be drawn to the Town Hall once again. She saw two figures leaving in a rather hurried pace. Although the pony was a little harder to identify at first in the dark, the huge armored beast next to it wasn't exactly the most subtle companion.

"Where's she going?" the pegasus wondered, getting rather suspicious.

"Sir, may I ask what you're doing?" Twilight called out, hearing rummaging noises from the other room.

The two had returned to the library right after they managed to fight themselves through the stunned ponies. The unicorn still wondered what had come over her that pushed her to stand up to Nightmare Moon for a couple of moments like that, but she rather wished it didn't happen again. Not that she didn't like emphasizing her intelligence to, but it was probably not the best idea to do that before an evil alicorn, who had just managed to banish the immortal Sun Empress to her namesake.

"I'm suiting up for battle, squire." came the call, along with a sword spinning through the door and nearly sawing her horn clean off.

"Careful!" she called, having to step aside as a two-bladed axe quickly followed it, embedding itself in the nearest bookshelf.

"Why do they always have to pack the fine stuff to the bottom?" Sir Spike grumbled to himself, his squire just watching with a soft sigh as the first two weapons weren't left to wallow in loneliness and were soon joined by half a dozen of throwing knives, a lance, a cannon, a double-barreled cannon and a box of rusty nails.

"Just hurry up sir, please." the unicorn begged. "We need to look through the archives to find some information on the Elements of Harmony."

"And just what ARE the Elements of Harmony?" a loud noise stopped her from elaborating upon the subject, a cyan entity swopping right to her face, pointing hooves at her. "And how did you know about Nightmare Moon? Are you a spy?"

The offending pegasus was immediately removed from her sight though, hurled across half the room even as Applejack pulled her back by the tail.

"Someone's gonna smack you, if you keep getting in 'em faces like that." the earth pony called. "We got no proof she's a spy."

"Indeed." Pinkie Pie mused with a very enigmatic expression on her face. Twilight was less bothered by the fact they were all in here and much more about how they got in without her knowledge. Apparently the door was about as secure as a hole in the wall. "If I were a spy, I surely wouldn't go around showing off my knowledge about my employer."

"Thanks, Pinkie." the unicorn sighed, happy that at least someone wasn't about to jump to conclusions.

"Then again, maybe that's exactly what I'd do." the pink pony continued, raising a brow. She tilted her head slightly, letting the flying crowbar pass by without obstruction. "Being obnoxious is a perfect way of throwing any potential investigator off. They'd think I'm too stupid to be an accomplice. Or maybe I'd be a double agent, working for both sides? So many possibilities."

"Bottom line, she ain't no spy till she does anything spy-ish." Applejack ended this part of the argument with a stern look, all the while bucking an incoming hammer aside.

"Sorry!" came the call from the storage room right away.

"But she sure knows what's goin' on," she spoke up again, turning towards their new librarian. "Dontcha Twilight?"

"Yes." the unicorn nodded, seeing no reason to hide this from them. "I've read about Nightmare Moon and her return as well. Supposedly, the only things that can stop her are the mystical artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony."

"We don't really know what they are though." the dragon's voice had come from the other room again, but as no weapon followed his words, it was safe to assume he was either out of ammo, or had found what he had been looking for. Twilight suspected the former as she'd never encountered a situation in which Spike had run out of weapons. It was just a matter of taking something from his surroundings and turning it into an armament then.

"-nor what they look like. They're a complete mystery."

"Elements of Harmony, Handbook for the Illiterate." Pinkie called out, picking a rather old-looking tome off the nearest bookshelf, as if she'd just been waiting for the cue.

"That's...wait...h-how did you find that?" the unicorn could barely even utter the words, completely baffled. "I haven't been able to find anything!"

"Silly, you just don't know the system yet. It was under 'M' for 'Magic stuff'. Everything else goes to 'U', as in 'Other'.

"Who would make up a system like that?"

"The librarian before you, of course." the earth pony chuckled, her laugh containing the kind of humor Twilight would have expected even a funeral committee would have frowned upon for being too dark. "Poor Miss Scroll. She was such a nice old lady...till she went crazy and claimed that one of her books was actually her child and demanded we call it Ink Blot."

"That's...lovely..." the unicorn remarked, though she found it a bit unsettling Pinkie felt like she absolutely had to share this with her.

"It's alright. We're kinda used to it anyway. It's not like the pony before her didn't do the same thing." Pinkie shrugged, while the others seemed to feel rather uneasy. Sure, this was all public knowledge, but there was little point in spreading it.

"Why? What did she do?"

"Well, lets just say you best not look around in the basement." she giggled once again, succeeding rather nicely at making Twilight seriously reconsider sleeping outside from now on. "I'm sure you won't go crazy like they had, after all, why would you?" she brushed her hair aside for a moment, revealing both eyes for a change, not that it made her any less intimidating.

"...right. Can I just see that book?"

"Here ya go." Applejack quickly pried it from Pinkie Pie's hooves and passed it over to Twilight, before the pony would share any more of Ponyville's horror stories. There was a time and place for these, which normally would have been never and nowhere, but especially not while they had an all-too-real nightmare to deal with anyway!

"Thanks." Twilight's horn flared up and the book rose into the air, pages flipping rapidly thanks to her magic. "The Elements of Harmony consist of five-" she paused, her jaw dropping slightly.

"Five what? Go on Twilight, why did you—oh my!" Rarity gasped, the others quickly following their example.

Sir Spike de Draco, proud knight of Celestia, stepped out of the storage room, his appearance just about stunning everyone in the room. Contrary to even Twilight's expectations, the dragon had chosen a suit of armor most unexpected, concerning the current situation. The drake had apparently decided he required an advanced attire of protection, which could seem slightly unconventional to the casual onlooker, but carried strategic importance nonetheless.

A suit.

Granted, it was indeed a very elegant black suit straight from Canterlot. Any designer would have gushed over its exquisite texture and the hefty price-tag it carried also made sure only those who were very keen on living on stale bread for the next five years would pick it up.

But for all intents and purposes, it was still just a suit.

"Sir?" Twilight finally blurted out, shaking her head in hopes that this was just a cruel optical illusion. "Pardon the question, but why are you wearing that?"

"One must always prepare properly for every encounter." the knight explained, brushing off a tiny speck of dust from his shoulder. "I've found this to be the most suitable defense against Nightmare Moon." he added, not taking note of the ensemble cringe to the pun.

Rarity inched closer eventually and began to circle around him, her eyes wide as plates. Until now, she had thought it was impossible to create a suit for a dragon, considering their scales, spiky appendages and all other pointy parts. It was truly a magnificent work of fashion-art and she was determined to learn as much from it as possible.

"With all due respect, you cannot be serious!" his squire complained, trying not to facehoof furiously. It was rather rare for her to get this worked up about his sometimes odd choices concerning upcoming battles, but this was really over the line. "You cannot expect me to just let you go ahead and fight an all-powerful alicorn in just a suit! That's absurd and—is that champagne?"

"Chardonnay, actually." the dragon mused, raising the bottle in his hand slightly, further baffling his young scribe. One could almost hear the little, but elaborate piece of clockwork running in her head, desperately screaming for a drop of oil.

"No. No, no, absolutely not!" she shook her head in protest, finally putting it all together. "No, how could you even—no! Just no, you can't, seriously, you just can't!"

"But-"

"No!" she cried, leaving the words stuck in his throat. "Please, with the utmost respect, adoration and gratitude I have for you, I humbly with to say that if you take a single step out of this library in that, I will personally make sure Princess Celestia gets to know all about your little adventures you might have neglected to inform her of."

"You wouldn't-"

"All of them. Including Nightmare Moon and to the very last tiny detail." she stomped down, emphasizing her words. The two gazed at each other for a couple of moments, before the dragon finally sighed.

"...very well, squire." he nodded. Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, especially when it had come from someone's closest allies, but she had all the cards this time around. A knight knew when a fight was lost.

A loud, uncomfortable noise echoed through the library as the drake literally tore his suit off with one firm pull, revealing the familiar set of armor he had underneath all along. He leaned down and passed the bottle of champagne to Rarity, who definitely looked like she needed it, her face noticeably pale even through her already white coat.

"Why in the hay-" Applejack began, only to see Twilight shaking her head slightly. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carefully towed off a near-hysteric Rarity, who was loudly shrieking about transgressions and unholy crimes against long-forgotten deities of fashion

"Don't ask. You wouldn't find any logic in the answer. It's knight-thing, just roll with it." she said, as she has already had this conversation before. It had led nowhere. "I swear to you, if he could remove his scales, he'd have armor underneath them as well."

The unicorn stepped forwards and levitated the book she had sought up to eye-level again, tired already from all the commotion. Rarity's restraints were now backed up by Pinkie Pie as well, leaving her, Applejack and Sir Spike to finally find a method in all this madness, or rather yet, a solution even.

"So, the Elements of Harmony..."

Idle Extermination

They say the Everfree Forest contains probably the largest amount of creatures and environmental hazards that had ever tried to take a bite or more out of a pony. This assumption is most definitely correct in at least some regards, especially when one takes the time to observe the correlation between accounts of lost ponies and a particularly foalish game of bravery, which involves the unfortunate 'adventurer' having to venture deep into the Forest and return with a particular plant, or item.

Of course, this is all speculation, as the official explanation is still that they had found inner peace and had chosen to live in solitude for the rest of their lives. Going by that logic however, there should be an entire nation of ponies dwelling in those woods. The arrival of their ambassador is pending...and has been, for the past couple centuries now.

If going by cynical views though, the Everfree Forest is definitely not the place any pony with a reasonably sound mind would want to go to, unless suffering from a terminal death wish. Even the best of warriors would think twice, before venturing into this dangerous cove of monsters and even then, only with at least a battalion of troops to serve as valuable cannon fodder, in the eventual case of a strategic withdrawal.

As such, the idea that six ponies and a single dragon knight should attempt to reach an old ruin nestled uncomfortably deep inside the Forest, would normally be regarded as sound as waking Princess Celestia with a bucket of water on any given morning. It might make out to be a great story to tell, but would be made difficult by the lack of a mouth.

Rarity had been walking back and forth for several minutes now, getting somewhat worried. They had all agreed to led their guardian knight scout ahead, but has not yet returned, nor given any signs of still being alive at all, except for the occasional creature randomly flying from once corner of the Forest, into the other.

"Are you certain this is where we'll find those Elements?" she asked, making extra sure to avoid a small puddle of mud, possibly left about by some diabolical maniac bent on ruining her lovely coat.

"I'm afraid yes." Twilight remarked, looking somewhat less worried than the white unicorn. She was certain her knight would return unharmed as a measly forest like the Everfree was nowhere near dangerous enough to warrant being anxious about. "The book was very vague, but the Elements should still be in the old castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. I just hope they hadn't been moved since."

Although every fiber of her being insisted against it, there was indeed a slight possibility that since the book was visibly quite old, the information stored inside of it was no completely up-to-date. As such, the Element might have been moved several times and then all their time searching for them would be for naught.

"Ah dun think so." Applejack joined in on the conversation. She tried to keep herself busy in the meantime, mostly by repeatedly quelling Rainbow Dash's far too over energetic impulses. It wasn't an overly difficult task, but at least it kept her on edge, while they were waiting. "Nopony ever goes 'ere."

"They're just too chicken." the cyan pegasus grunted, held on a tight leash with Applejack's lasso, after she had attempted to follow Sir Spike for the third time already.

"No, it's just much too dangerous." Fluttershy spoke up as well, her voice soft as silk and very obviously trembling with fear.

Twilight didn't let her guard down though, the memory of the broken bird all-too-vivid in her mind. Even if she was wholly different right now, she could try and beguile Sir Spike at any given occasion, something the squire was not about to let her have. Nonetheless, she did seem genuinely scared of the Forest and their situation altogether.

"You don't need to do this, you know." Twilight said, somewhat hoping there was some chance she could reason with them, one way or another. "If Everfree is really that dangerous, you should all just stay home, where it's safe."

"No can do, sugarcube." Applejack shook her head, confirming the unicorn's fears. There was literally no way to get this group of misfit crazies off her back. "We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone!"

Twilight could do little but softly groan to that, resisting the urge to rub her forehead with a hoof. She honestly had little to no clue why these ponies kept insisting to accompany her on this mission. Not that there was no need for extra help, but why them? Her whole day seemed firmly centered around weirdness with them around and now they were clinging to her like particularly stubborn leeches.

"Has anyone seen Pinkie Pie?" she called, having noticed the distinct lack of pink in the atmosphere.

"I've last seen her there, right behind those rocks." Fluttershy pointed over to a rather large collection of rocks nearby, arranged probably by some dragon that happened to have a penchant for playing catapult from inside the Forest.

Although the unicorn wasn't exactly the most thrilled about it, considering her past run-ins with the rather perplexing earth pony, she walked over to check if she was alright. While she had been somewhat concerned for her safety, the notion of looking for the pink bundle was much rather due to the fact that dragon knight or not, a casualty this early into a mission would have looked bad on Sir Spike's resume. As squire, she couldn't let that happen.

She hopped onto the largest rock and with only slight difficulties, managed to climb on top of it. Even in the dark, it wasn't difficult to spot Pinkie nearby, hunched over a small pile of pebbles she had arranged into a makeshift circle. She seemed deep in thought for an earth pony, slowly and methodically arranging the leftover pebbles inside the circle.

"I know you're there." she spoke up suddenly, though without even looking in the unicorn's general direction. "You might as well come down here, if you wish to speak with me."

Twilight found herself wobble for a moment, much to her dismay. There was something about Pinkie that continued to unnerve her with almost every word she had spoken. Still, as squire of a draic warrior, she had to have at least enough courage to face her, regardless the enormous amounts of creepy emanating from the straight-maned party-master.

"Isn't it funny?" Pinkie mused, once Twilight had finally approached her. "The Elements of Harmony, regarded by fables as the most powerful artifacts of tranquility, also happen to be located in the Everfree Forest. The greatest force of stability, in a place that is chaos incarnate. There's a sort of grand irony in this, don't you agree?"

"It's certainly the unfunny kind of irony though." the unicorn replied, raising a brow. Although comparing her to Applejack wasn't fair, Pinkie's speech was much more refined than one would have expected from a common earth pony, even without the common stereotypes. "You seem pretty well-versed in poetic studies..." she tried a light compliment, wondering whether she would strike upon the chance to tell more about herself.

"Have you ever been to a rock farm, by any chance?" she asked after a short pause, adjusting another few pebbles. "Or by extension, do people in Canterlot even know what a rock farm is?" she smirked slightly as Twilight shook her head a bit.

"It's quite simple, really. You see, most things in this world go by some measure of order. Such is true for rocks, stones and even jewels. " she explained, though the unicorn noticed her motions were becoming somewhat harsh, the more she kept talking. "We earth ponies are closely attuned to the dirt and the soil; the very magical essence of land itself."

"This connection allows us to shape and alter just about anything that comes from the ground. Have you noticed, for instance, how the best sculptors are always earth ponies? We draw magic from the land itself and subconsciously transfer it into our crops, or even rocks themselves, causing them to grow in ways we desire."

Twilight tilted her head slightly, becoming more and more confused. These were academic level studies, a far cry from what she expected Ponyville's education system would provide. The inner workings of magic were difficult to understand, even for her. How did Pinkie know of all this?

"This is all very oversimplified though, of course." she continued, shaking her head slightly. "Let it be enough that whatever the earth provides, we have a certain amount of influence to it. Yet at the same time, here's the Everfree Forest, which is a living testament to how things can function when you get your hooves shoved off of it. It's terrifying, because it works in ways we're not used to...but at the same time, there's something fascinating about it as well."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Twilight found her tongue in knots, regardless her best attempts at keeping calm.

Pinkie slowly turned her head to face the unicorn finally, the smirk on her face surfacing once more. It deeply disturbed her how anypony could grin in such a way and not be run out of town for being possessed by every single malevolent spirit that might exist in storybooks. Better yet, it was impossible for her to comprehend how she didn't just turn around and run straight into the Forest. Anywhere would have been better, than here, facing that horrible smile.

"Why?" the earth pony mused, leaning slightly closer to Twilight. She seemed rather satisfied to see her almost take a step back. "No particular reason. Smalltalk to pass the time, idle banter silly."

Her explanation did not calm her the least bit, but she couldn't find herself to speak as of yet. Pinkie just flashed that smirk once more and walked straight past her towards the others. Twilight sighed and tensed once more as she actually looked at the rock-formation the earth pony had left behind. She would have bet her horn that the strange collection of pebbles in the middle formed an arcane symbol. Her mind screamed at her that it couldn't be one, but her gut told her otherwise.

For once, she was almost willing to trust it, too.

This forest has quite the pest-problem, Spike thought to himself, casually sending yet another large beast flying across the clearing. He no longer really paid attention to whatever beast it might have been, as almost anyone would have gone tired of counting past the first several dozen. All that really mattered was the fact that it had fur, was somewhat larger than a pony and has just relinquished just about half of its teeth.

Although at first he was quite excited to venture into these woods alone, armed only with his sharp wits and blunt fists, the magic had worn out a long time ago. He could see why this place was dangerous to ponykind, but to him, the endless waves of desperate and hungry creatures hardly served more than bore him to bitter tears.

He tensed all of a sudden though, picking up something entirely different in the atmosphere. Being a dragon, he possessed extra senses designed to pick up and decipher magic signals, effectively rendering a magical ambush about as possible as Twilight burning down the library. There was a bit of a possibility to it, but it seemed more likely that the universe itself would suddenly and irreversibly implode.

This bit of energy he had just picked up could also be filed mostly under 'peculiar'. It was pony magic, that he was sure of, but it felt much more grand than what his squire could have been able to summon. Sure, she was gifted, but it still would have been rather shocking. Slowly and cautiously, he began to look around a bit, trying to find the source of this strange, almost familiar power.

His tail twitched slightly, the slight touch of magic immediately sending bright flashing signs of great big danger lurking nearby. Most normally would have reacted the traditional, yet often most successful method, which involved a complex string of activities, usually beginning with a debilitating cry of terror, though only distraction purpose, of course. Going straight against the norm though, the knight grabbed the edge of his cape and did a rapid turnaround, pulling his cape along in a sweeping motion, the moment he felt the slightest twinge of cold touching his scales.

The air itself twisted to the force of the move, the ornate draic symbol almost coming alive with a mighty roar for the fraction of second. Dragon capes had long been suspected of being magical beings in itself, as only the unicorns most skilled in the art of both magic and sewing could make one and only one in their entire lifetime. A gust of wind erupted forwards, ridding nearby trees of some of their hard-earned leaves. He felt a smile creep on his face though as he noticed a large dark-blue mist being blow aside as well.

The cloud of what seemed to be the very essence of the night solidified itself before his eyes mere moments later, forming into the dark exile he had already seen before. She landed gracefully on the ground, with little to no hint of annoyance, nor anger. It was almost as if she had expected this, even before creeping up on him.

"You have an acute sense of awareness, Sir Knight. I'm truly impressed." she said. Her voice was deep and beguiling, dangerous but charming.

"I shall take that as a compliment, Lady Nightmare." he lowered himself down to a knee, bowing respectfully before the alicorn. Exiled or not, she was still not just a powerful mare, but also royalty of the finest kind as well.

"I see formalities are far from dead, even after a thousand years." she just about purred, her starry mane flowing around her like as if it had its own will. "Apparently, my sister has mysteriously lost her disapproval towards the founding of a Royal Order of Knights. Alas, coming up with ideas of her own has never been her forte."

Nightmare Moon paused for a short while, waiting for him to reply something. He just kept his gaze on the ground though, still kneeling before her as a honorable knight should have. Her eyes narrowed slightly to the continued silence, only for the mare to eventually burst into a brief fit of laughter from the sheer awkwardness of the situation.

"Very well then, you win this round." she mused without mockery this time around. "Rise, Sir Knight. Your education of etiquette has been a fine one."

With that, Spike rose to his feet once again, smiling rather calmly at the alicorn he was supposed to be fighting as of this very moment. His liege had been banished to the sun, which normally would have prompted just about any self-respecting dragon to burn the face off of whoever managed to pull off such a feat, even at the risk of self-annihilation. For now though, he was still biding his time.

"Is there a reason why you've chosen to see me, Lady Nightmare?" he asked, making sure to be as respectful as possible. Not that it wouldn't have been sort of amusing to anger her, but beings such as the alicorn had a tendency to reveal far too much of their plans, when prompted to speak. He wasn't about to let that chance slide.

"Indeed there is." she said with a knowing smile. "You see, while enjoying the spoils of my victory, I had found myself wondering as to why in the Moon would half a dozen ponies and a dragon knight of all things be interested in an excursion to these woods. It wasn't quite hard to figure it out though, I assure you. All it took was to acknowledge that my sister is still as dumb as a sack of hay and seems to have gone senile as well ."

"The Elements of Harmony...you can't even begin to imagine how much power lies within them." she continued, watching Spike's every reaction. Whether he was shocked to hear she knew about their plans or not, he was adept at keeping his emotions at bay. "The last time they had been utilized, their combined power had been enough to imprison me for a thousand years and at that time, my sister had used them all by herself. Imagine what they could do if were used properly..."

"But I digress." she shook her head briefly, her ethereal mane dancing wildly about in the air. She was undoubtedly a majestic creature of beauty, wholly different from Celestia, but in no ways less. "As I've said, I'm aware that you're seek the Elements of Harmony, which opens up a rather interesting debate whether I should go the easy way and kill them all right now, or let them find the Elements and kill them just before their expected victory?"

"To me, it seems like both options carry the same end results." the knight spoke up, carefully choosing his words.

He had somewhat expected the discussion to take such a turn and was ready to gamble for the lives of the ponies waiting for him. The idea of bargaining with an ancient and all-powerful being usually would have earned a swift kick to the head in Tactics class, but he had been pushed into a corner by the alicorn. As such, the only possible way out was to bust through the wall behind him.

"You're very confident they wouldn't be able to defeat you even with the Elements. Is there a reason for that, or are you just that sure of yourself?" he continued, dropping the bait for her to bite into. Riling up an alicorn would have been considered outright suicide, but having been around Celestia for quite some time now, he had certain ideas on how much he could get away with.

"The Elements require ponies who not only represent a particular element, but are also mostly pure of heart. Nopony is perfect, but the Elements require the cream of the crop." the mare explained in a casual, yet deeply menacing manner, all the while flashing a wicked smirk. "I had not seen a single pony since I've returned, who might fit the ticket. Better yet, if those team of misfits you've assembled could actually use the Elements, I would eat this helmet without a second thought."

"You never know, there might be a lot more to them." the draic knight remarked, taking note of the increasing volume of growls nearby. Either she had brought company, or the creatures of the Forest were starting to eavesdrop on them. "Their strength of character may surface when the time comes."

"I'm going to call that wishful thinking, if you don't mind." she chuckled. "But your faith in them is indeed rather touching. I may just humor your little adventure and allow you to continue. However, if you're so sure they are worthy of the Elements, I'm sure you won't mind if I see fit to put them to a test."

"If their lives are at stake, I will interfere." he stated. He wasn't about to let any harm come to the ponies, especially not his dear squire.

"By all means, please do." she let out another hearty chuckle, her eyes glinting with malice and amusement. "They'll just stay as weak as they are now that way."

She seemed to downright ignore a rather large wolf-like creature creeping up behind her, the same kind Sir Spike's been running into since he had entered this forest. The knight made no move until the beast was about to lunge at Nightmare Moon, only to spring forwards that instant. The alicorn moved not a single muscle and just smiled to herself as the warrior swooped past her, his fist immediately rearranging the delicate pattern of the wolf's nose, mouth, teeth and face altogether.

"Such a valiant young knight." she commended his efforts, turning to face him once more. Her horn flared up with the power of the knight itself, watching calmly as another few of these wild creatures emerged from the dark woods, advancing on the two. "By chance, would you be up for a little dance?" she offered.

"It would be an honor, Lady Nightmare." he assured, grinning in anticipation.

"Then let us waste no time then." the alicorn remarked, her body tensing up already from the upcoming battle.

As if on cue, a dozen different creatures assaulted the clearing, hungering for soft flesh. Nightmare Moon reacted immediately by stomping the ground with one hoof, her eyes glowing in otherworldly white. Her wings extended and raised her several feet into the air, the winds around them gaining enough strength to unbalance the lighter beasts trying to ambush them. She pointed at an incoming cockatrice, her gaze sharpening into a glare. Sir Spike turned his head to the sudden noise, only to see a bright flash of lightning just about cooking the unfortunate reptilian-fowl hybrid.

Nightmare Moon began to laugh in earnest as her spread her front hooves, sparks flying around her fetlocks as she collected energy for yet another lightning strike. Although some of the beasts were indeed terrified of this attacked, the rest of them were merely pushed into a state of frenzy, which only doubled their efforts to tear the princess of the night to tiny, delectable morsels.

The dragon knight was locked in a much more traditional style of combat in the meantime, albeit as to how traditional it could have been to beat a hydra to death with its own head, was up to debate. Beings such as this were amongst the most well-researched though, which handed him a sure hand of victory from the get go. It did bother him why this particular hydra seemed to have wondered off from its normal, swampy home, but that was a question for later.

Most wannabe fighters usually fell into the trap of cutting off a hydra's heads one by one, but unless these wounds were burnt immediately, they simply would have spawned even more nasty, tooth-filled maws of uncomfortable death. Instead, he merely proceeded to tie the heads together, before shoving the whole bundle aside, tearing down a couple trees on the way.

He looked back to see Nightmare Moon shocking a wolf into submission with morbid glee, unaware of a rather angry-looking manticore about to ambush her from behind. Without a second to spare, the drake lunged right into the air, grasping onto the back of the creature just as it was about to strike the princess down with a swipe of its tail.

The manticore roared and tried to shake the knight off, who merely scowled at its attempts. Moving quickly, he grabbed the scorpion-like tail with one hand and its bushy mane with the other, ignoring the pained cry of the creature. Careful to avoid its tip of the tail, which he knew hosted a vast array of deadly poisons, he used it as leverage and downright stood up straight on the back of the beast, turning what was normally a fearsome predator, into a winged board of flying draconic manliness.

With this new and highly inventive steed at his disposal, Sir Spike swooped down upon the invading beasts and let loose the inferno boiling inside of him, flames of fiery fury erupting from his mouth. The new ruler of Equestria seemed highly pleased of the knight's performance and assisted with her own power, managing to make death by fire even worse, by changing it into death by electric fire.

The alicorn's eyes soon gained back their color, just the the brewing lightning story around them had dwindled as well. Her almost reptilian eyes narrowed as she let herself drop from the sky, landing gracefully on top of a particularly noisy wolf, placing it firmly where she believe it belonged: under her iron hooves. Their assailants had been just about purged from the clearing by now.

Sir Spike took it upon himself to hand down a final roasting to those still eager to fight, driving them off finally. He adjusted his flight, before disembarking his vehicle by jumping off, allowing it to find itself a suitable launchpad upon the bark of a a nearby three. He landed close to Nightmare Moon, who just seemed to be finishing a final, all-too-courageous and quite lost Diamond Dog.

"Such admirable fighting skills. I'd love to spar with you, once this is all over." the alicorn remarked, slowly climbing off the Diamond Dog, making sure to put pressure into each of her steps, relishing in the pained whines of the lowly mutt.

"I'm afraid Princess Celestia would resent me releasing you from your cell, Lady Nightmare, even for something as simple as that." he said, rebutting her thinly veiled hint.

"Ever optimistic. A fine quality, if somewhat idealistic for a knight." she commended his efforts nonetheless, finding herself thoroughly amused. This brief little scuffle send delightful shivers through her body, reinvigorating her after a thousand years of passivity.

"I'd prefer to be called realistic, but I guess you might protest to that." he swept a stray leaf off his shoulder nonchalantly, watching her as she seemed almost restless after just this tiny bit of fighting. "You have a warrior's spirit burning inside of you. It's quite the shame it gets squandered in the midst of all the bickering you seem to have had with Princess Celestia."

"Bickering? Oh please, Sir Knight, you seem to be under the assumption that I might go far as to dislike my own sister." the empress of the night dismissed the claim with a chuckle. "In all honesty, I don't dislike her at all. I hate her. I loathe her to the last bit of fiber. I despise every single solitary hair of her bleached coat. What I feel for her is not a measly little resentment, but an unending, unrelenting, unforgiving, all-consuming, all-powerful, destructive, really big bucking burning hatred!"

"I will rend asunder every single precious book and painting she has and scribble their remains full with the blackest, most stubborn ink ever devised by ponykind. I will first disorganize her vast array of sickeningly colorful socks, then incinerate them one by one over a fire that's fueled by her dresses."

"If I had an enchanted hammer, a chisel and enough patience, I'd go right back to that Moon and carve the words of my hatred into every tiny speck of moon-dust, twice. Then I'd direct it to spin around the Sun for all eternity, just so my sister can see it every single solitary moment of the day. And this, all this is just the tiniest little inch of a fraction of how much I truly hate her."

"I...think I understand." the knight stated after a brief pause. He'd seen a couple of sibling rivalries before, but this seemed to be slightly over the top in comparison. Then again, he'd never seen a squabble between godlike beings before either.

"Good." her tone was harsh and slightly snappy, obviously worked up. "...go back to your precious ponies now. They'll be wondering where you've disappeared to." she added before turning away from him, dissolving into the same mist-form she'd exhibited before. Sir Spike watched her leave, soon left alone in the wilderness once again.

"Mares..." he sighed tiredly, raising his fist as he heard a low growl behind him.

A couple more minutes passed, before all eyes turned towards those haunted, cursed and all-around malignant woods once more. A figure appeared in partial obscurity, though its outlines suggested more than just the drake in the flesh, especially once they noticed a rather large shadow along his arms as well.

As Sir Spike de Draco finally emerged from the Everfree Forest, a couple of things became readily apparent to the group of ponies. First of all, the place was still far from safe. This hunch was immediately backed up by the large, dog-like creature dangling from his right arm. It had obviously sunk its teeth into the dragon, but could neither tear the arm off, nor free itself after it and had pretty much been around for the past hour or so.

Secondly, Sir Spike seemed to have some rather strange priorities sometimes, evidenced by the fact that he actually managed to retrieve something as well, namely the signpost warning people not to into the Forest. It would no longer be of much help, as after something had taken several bites out of it, the letters hardly read more than 'verfr', but that did little in discouraging the knight from putting it back in its rightful place anyway.

"Well, the good news is, I cleared out most of the bigger nasties on the way." he announced, only to flinch from the growling coming from downstairs. "Oh, you're still here?" he remarked in a very casual manner, even petting the most-probably highly dangerous animal. "Now, run home to Mama, little puppy."

He shifted his weight and threw his arms out, making the wolf-like creature whimper instead, ready to reconcile and leave on friendly terms. Spike no longer wished to have any of that thought and merely spun around his axis several times, gaining speed rapidly. The moment he became a blur to the eye, the creature could no longer hold on and was shot right back into the depths of the Forest. Wherever his lair was, the knight made sure to deliver him via improvised air-mail.

"The bad news is that the castle ruins are too deep. By the time I'd clear the way to it, the monsters would just flood the starting point again. It's best if we go through the Forest together." he advised, all the while hammering the signpost back in its place with his bare fist.

"Good idea. More eyes, less trouble." Applejack nodded, finally letting Rainbow Dash loose. The pegasus flew a few rounds in the air, enjoying her freedom once more. Her wings had grown almost numb by now. "Come on everypony, let's move!"

"Go ahead, the outskirts should be clear. I'll be with you in a minute." Sir Spike stated, adjusting the sign a bit, before hammering it further into the ground.

The group slowly entered the forest in the meantime, Applejack leading them for now, followed closely by bubbly Pinkie Pie, a nervous Rarity and a just about terrified Fluttershy. However one looked at it, this was definitely not the kind of epic fighting force one would have expected to combat Nightmare Moon.

"Is everything alright, Sir?" Twilight briefly stopped by the knight, tilting her head.

"Of course, squire. What makes you think there's something wrong?"

"I...I'm not really sure. You've been away for a long time." she paused, tapping her hoof to the ground nervously, before speaking up again. "She approached you, hadn't she?" she asked. Although she would have followed Spike to the end of Equestria if needed, she would have felt incredibly conflicted, if he suddenly chose to stand by Nightmare Moon instead.

"Yes." the dragon sighed. "I've spoken to her. She's not about to make this trip easy for us."

"I should have known." the squire grumbled, but felt relieved her master's heart was still in the right place. "Did you two fight?"

"No, surprisingly not." he said, finishing up with the signpost, all the while watching Rainbow perform one final brief aerial trick, before she would head into the forest, after the others. He hadn't let any harm come to them yet and wasn't about to change that anytime soon.

"Listen up, squire." he called, getting her attention right away. "I need you to watch the others as closely as possible. Nightmare Moon will try and disrupt our mission at every turn and she'll go through each and every one of them to do so. Be my eyes and we'll make it through this by morning."

"Will do, Sir!" she nodded and tried to look fierce, earning a chuckle from the dragon.

"That's the spirit. Now go ahead, I need to speak to Rainbow for a moment." he said, smiling as she bowed and ran into the forest. Her loyalty knew no bounds and her enthusiasm was refreshing as always. He knew he couldn't have chosen a better squire. "You can stop listening in now, I want to talk to you."

"The pegasus swooped down just a moment later, bearing a spunky grin that held little promise of innocence. "It was an accident that I've heard anything, I swear." she assured.

"I have no doubts about that." the drake remarked, raising a brow at her. "There's something I need to know."

"Shoot." she replied quickly as they both began to walk towards the dark woods. There was something in the dragon's growing smirk though that eventually began to unnerve her more than the prospect of having to trot through this highly dangerous area.

"...since when have you and Nightmare Moon been on speaking terms with each other?

Sliding Scale of Death and Loyalty

Any seasoned veteran who had experienced more than a brief bar scuffle and has also experienced the magic of comradeship would speak volumes of how important teamwork was in any successful band of warriors. One needed to be honest about the danger, but also loyal enough not to back out of a contract, once the risks are properly counted for. If all positive qualities and even the stars themselves aligned in a perfect way, no harm could ever come to whichever party managed to attain this level of fellowship.

Needless to say, that was not the case here.

"For the last time, get it through your thick head, Scaly!" Rainbow Dash growled, turning back towards Spike in a fit of rage. "I'm not a spy and I'm neither am I an ally of Nightmare Moon, got it?"

The others seemed let out a collective sigh as they proceeded through the forest, their presence fully obvious thanks to the argument going back and forth between the dragon knight and the rather furious pegasus. Twilight realized by now that leaving them together might have been a bad idea, though she had little to no clue the drake would accuse Rainbow with something as serious as this.

Spike seemed to have different opinions of the matter, but held his words back for now. He merely let his opinion by known through a light growl and the several cubic meters of smoke fuming from his nostrils. His squire had seen him angry before and knew quite well those usually ended with her writing lengthy letters about why such excessive force was without a doubt needed. Said letters tended to become somewhat hard to believe though when several houses were burnt down in the midst of a simple sparring match. This conflict between the two helped little to advance their already shaky efforts, making her worry even more.

"Ah can't believe these two are already bitin' at each other." Applejack spoke up, keeping close to the unicorn. "Ya barely left 'em alone for five minutes."

"Trust me, I've seen him do worse things in less than five minutes." she mused, but couldn't help shake her head to the highly disapproving look on the orange earth pony's face. "But I suppose you're right. I'll try and talk to him."

"Good. Ah'll set Rainbow straight while ya do that."

"I hope one of your will start handing out popcorn soon." Pinkie called back, rather amused by the situation. "This just keeps getting better and better."

"Shut up, Pinkie." Twilight grumbled and slowed down slightly to get in line with the dragon. Although she was better than to show how much she enjoyed doing that, silencing the pink pony had been a surprisingly joyous moment for her.

"What is it, squire?" the dragon's tone was a little snappier than what she was used to, making her flinch slightly, if just momentarily. Spike had the tendency to become a fierce force of nature when angered enough, but he had never let this anger spill into any interaction he might have had with her.

"I wanted to ask about Rainbow Dash." she spoke up again after a brief pause, her voice timid and soothing. She hated to see her knight upset for any reason, regardless how rare it was.

"You can go ahead and ask her yourself, if you're so curious." Spike said, only to notice he was outright scaring his young companion by now, making him reconsider his words in an instant. Sure, he had issues with the blue pegasus, several all at once, but they weren't worth doing this to his most faithful friend. "I'm sorry, Twilight. I shouldn't be talking like this to you, of all ponies."

"It's alright." she raised a hoof and patted his arm gently, letting him know she wasn't mad about it. "I'm just concerned for what's going on and why you think she might have betrayed us. You know I trust your judgment."

"I know you do and sometimes I wish to Celestia you didn't." he sighed, but manage return the soft smile she was giving him. It was nice to have someone so reliable by his side, even if she was still an inexperienced filly compared to him. "Lady Nightmare seemed to have implied it."

"And that's enough for—wait, Lady Nightmare? Sir, she kidnapped the Princess and has made night eternal!" she raised a brow, though the thought that he was the traitor instead had not crossed her mind at all, even for a second. "For once, forget about your code and call her out for what she is, a cruel old hag!"

Sir Spike de Draco barely resisted wincing visibly to her words. While she might have underestimated the rate at which Nightmare Moon was observing them, he had little to no doubts she was watching their every move and would not be amused in the least bit about Twilight's opinion of her. He guessed the only creature worse than her at taking criticism was Celestia. He dared to do so before, but made damn sure every single time beforehand that a viable escape route was always available.

"Even if she's evil, she's still royalty and second only to the Princess herself, at best. I have to give her the proper respect." he tried to make her see reason, but the unicorn would have none of it. Celestia had allowed him to take her as a squire even though there were many more suitable candidates and as such, she felt like she owed the alicorn this much, if not more.

"You're the most impossible dragon I've ever known." she groaned in anger, rubbing her forehead with one hoof. "As far as I'm concerned, I respect her claims of royalty so much I'd let her lick my fetlocks clean, at best."

She quickly seemed to realize her mistake as the air around grew colder by the second. She looked up at the knight, who just nodded solemnly, confirming her fears. Nightmare Moon had been observing them a little more closely than the unicorn had expected and she was fairly sure this little outburst of hers didn't quite score any good points with the Mare of the Night.

"Er...that reminds me, shouldn't we hurry up and get those Elements?" she chuckled nervously and to his slight amusement, turned straight around to do so immediately.

He was glad she could get sidetracked so nicely by her nature and thus didn't press on about his suspicions. As much as he trusted his squire, he knew the confrontation he'd been expecting was inevitable and had already prepared for it, without her knowledge. Sometimes it paid off to think ahead every once in a while. He glanced at the pegasus again as she kept listening to Applejack with varying degrees of acceptance, his expression unreadable.

"-I don't care! If he thinks I'm suspicious, so be it, see if I'll care." she huffed and stopped in her tracks, stomping the ground with a hoof. It's been a while since Applejack had seen her this mad, without someone questioning her flying abilities.

"Rainbow, we're all in this together, ya know that." her friend kept trying to calm her down and make her see reason at the same time, two tasks which were both very hard, when performed upon the cyan pegasus. "And actin' like someone bit yer flank isn't going to make it any better."

"I know, I just..." the pegasus trailed off for a moment, looking away. "I'm not a traitor. You know I'd never do that to anypony, especially not you."

"Ah know, sugarcube. And he'll know, too. Just be on yer best behavior, ya can do that, right?" the orange earth pony nudged the grumpy speedster again, who after a long while, had finally managed to crack a smile to all her efforts.

"I suppose I can." she surrendered herself to the will of the apple farmer, though without the slightest bit of mockery. "And...thanks AJ. It's good to know there's always somepony on my side."

"Ya can always count on me, Rainbow." Applejack chuckled, seeing how the pegasus had finally buckled to her words.

Getting through to her wasn't always an easy job, but it was certainly worthwhile. They'd known each other ever since she had chosen to live closer to Ponyville. While they might have clashed on a number of occasions, in no small part due to Applejack's far greater sense of duty and responsibility, Rainbow knew she would always be the first to stand before her and everyone else. The earth pony was quite confident the pegasus would do the same for her as well, which is why she could tell how much it pained Rainbow to be suspected of collaborating against them.

"I'll scout around from the air, if it's okay. Might cool my head off, too." she offered, feeling like she could use a breath of fresh air right now. These woods had a constricting effect on her and it was becoming uncomfortable.

"Go ahead." the earth pony nodded understandingly, letting the pegasus take off into the air right away. "Just keep an eye on us and don't get lost!" she called after her. The dragon knight walked past her with a somewhat disapproving glance, but she didn't bother react to it. She knew Rainbow Dash was trustworthy and that was the only important thing right now.

The pair of flips and a quick corkscrew trick helped little to calm Rainbow's nerves. She was less bothered by accusations now though and much rather by the visitor she'd been expecting for a while now. She was not the most perceptive person around, but she'd been feeling it for several minutes: eyes watching her every move, her every single breath observed by somepony hidden from mortal eyes. She didn't need to be a genius to figure out the identity of her mysterious stalker, especially considering Scootaloo was nowhere in sight.

"Why are you following me?" she spoke up, addressing the night itself.

She received no answer though and it made her blood boil. She was not some kind of toy to be fooled around with, even if an almighty goddess was watching her. She snapped her gaze from side to side, her wings flapping in a much more hasty, irritated manner.

"Show yourself! I know you're here!" she called out again, her voice rising in pitch just a little. She would have been lying to herself, if she claimed she wasn't afraid at all.

"Very well, my little pony." a voice like no other spoke to her, both soft and cold.

The pegasus retreated just a little as the night sky itself seemed to twist and turn, distilled into the fine mist she'd seen the alicorn disappear into before. The mist swirled and sparkled like hundreds of stars and she could see her breath coming out in little puffs from the sudden chills the magic or the exile's presence brought.

Nightmare Moon materialized from the mist in a rather modest flash, her long, dark wings extending into the sky. The stars glimmered upon her helmet, while her ethereal mane coursed around the air like an unruly cloud. Enemy or not, Rainbow had to admit the mare had a way of presenting herself.

"I do apologize for having to play around like this, but I can't help but feel your...friends would not approve of my presence." she had that voice again, the same that brought chills down her spine when she caught her outside the Town Hall. It was like Rarity upon seeing an exceptionally large sum of money offered, but this was directed at her!

"No, I don't think they like you that much." she said, trying not to show how uncomfortable she was. Sure, Nightmare Moon surprised her right away by not hurting her in any shape or form, but then again, those glances and that voice would have given anypony goosebumps.

"They'll change their minds eventually. Or perhaps I'll change it for them." the alicorn chuckled, her borderline-reptilian eyes glimmering with glee. "It's not as if they have much a choice, anyway. I'm here to stay, whether they like it or not."

"You still haven't told me what all this has to do with me though." Rainbow Dash cut in, not really in favor of her gloating. "Why are you following me around, why are you...watching me?" she couldn't word it any better and it certainly seemed to describe the alicorn's actions well.

"I believe I've already said why." the mare tilted her head and gave her a surprisingly honest smile. "You're the first pony I've seen in a thousand years. Your mere presence was special, like a breath of fresh air. You can't imagine how that feels on a rock with no atmosphere to speak of."

"So that's it then? Well, I'm glad we talked that over, I have to-"

"But that's not all and you know that as well." Nightmare Moon outright purred and strode closer to the pegasus, towering over her smaller frame. The alicorn could hear her swallow, moving her heart even more. She was the last person in Equestria she wanted to frighten. "You have nothing to fear from me, Rainbow Dash. I am perhaps the only person upon this planet, who would never, ever hurt you."

The elder mare let her mane extend towards her, almost cradling the pegasus in its strange, shapeless matter. She felt her jump slightly to the first touch, the strange texture obviously very unexpected and awkward to feel.

"I wish for you to join me as I rule Equestria." Nightmare continued, dropping all notion of manipulation in favor of a direct offer. She deemed Rainbow worthy of playing clear cards with. "I need someone to be my eye and hoof in the sky, but most importantly, I need someone I can trust. A friend, to speak of."

The pegasus honestly flinched to that, having expected far worse explanations than this. She found the alicorn to be sincere, to the point of vulnerability. She could hardly understand what exactly she saw in her at all and now she was outright offering her a very high-ranking position, possibly something as important as being part of the Wonderbolts, if not even more.

"Everypony I had known has died a thousand years ago." the alicorn continued, noting her silence and the way she tried to avoid looking her in the eyes. "I'm thrust into a new and probably vastly different world than it had been when I was banished. It's a difficult situation and I need to rely on someone to guide me through it. The solitude on the moon was maddening, but was suddenly broken by an explosion of color into my tiny little world there."

Her mane seemed to change shape, acting as a less elaborate brush as she let it run through the pegasus' ruffled rainbow mane, gently stroking it. Said pony felt herself break into sweat as the alicorn kept gazing at her with affection she'd rarely seen from anyone, let alone an all-powerful deity bent on bringing eternal night over Equestria. She wasn't properly prepared to deal with such a situation.

"Uh...I'm happy I made you happy then." she mumbled, trying her best not to just shove Nightmare Moon away. "Can I go now?"

"More than happy, I assure you." the alicorn chuckled, finding what she perceived as shyness adorable. She ruffled the pegasus' rainbow mane a little, amused of the slightly irritated look on her face. "In any case, my offer still stands. I offer you to be my agent of the sky, with all the power you could possibly want, if you pledge yourself to my cause."

"I'd have to abandon my friends for that though, wouldn't I?"

"Of course. I'd hate for you to get caught in one of the many traps I've prepared for them." she assured, giving her a cheeky wink, as if she hadn't been discussing possible harm to her friends.

"Traps? Oh no, I gotta get back to them!" she immediately made a move to free herself from the magical embrace of Nightmare's mane, only to find it holding onto her like a vice. The alicorn's eyes were downright glowing, but without the anger Rainbow had expected to see in them.

"Whether you save them or not, they won't trust you. They wouldn't understand anything or nor could they, for they have no idea of the misfortune a fiery spirit brings." she could tell Rainbow's interest was piqued by her words, even though the rush to save her friends was also there. "I've learned a thousand years ago that when your spirit burns brightest of all, everypony will try to drag you down. I would know, I've seen it before."

The pegasus made a half-hearted attempt to break free from her embrace, but Nightmare could tell her words had reached her, either because she was truly that convincing, or what seemed like a far more likely possibility, that Rainbow had already experienced something like that. She smiled and gently pulled the still somewhat struggling mare to her.

"Listen to me and you may learn a lot, Rainbow Dash." she purred, her voice like the softest breeze of the night sky.

"So...none of you have ever been in here before?" Twilight asked timidly, trying to keep her sights straight, a task made quite difficult by the number of warning signs more or less lucky travelers have placed upon various places.

At first they were just short messages warning them to leave the Forest as quickly as possible, but by now, she saw trees that had carved images of cutie marks crossed out on them and one rather memorable memento seemed like a bizarre collection of items, ranging from broken pottery, to an unnaturally red flower basket. Even Sir Spike seemed slightly unnerved, once they had come across a crude necklace of what seemed like a particularly large and ancient set of dragon teeth.

"Heavens no, just look at it! It's dreadful!" Rarity complained loudly, avoiding mud patches small and big along the way, by stringing her movements into what seemed like either involuntary muscle spasm, or a very elaborate and obscure dance. Either way, the knight definitely wasn't one to complain upon seeing the lovely pony jump around constantly.

"And it ain't natural." Applejack added, a little bit of worry mixing into her voice. She was indeed somewhat anxious about their situation, but also because she hadn't caught sight of Rainbow Dash for some time now. She hoped nothing had happened to the pegasus as a rescue effort without knowing where she was would have been fruitless. "Folks say it dun work the same as Equestria."

"W-What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight glanced back at the apple farmer, rather surprised to hear that. She couldn't quite imagine anything to function differently than what she had known until now, though she guessed that might have been because she knew next to nothing of the Everfree. She shook her head and trotted to become the lead of the team, Sir Spike following her shortly.

"I've mentioned that as well, don't you remember?" Pinkie spoke up suddenly as well, while Fluttershy merely shuddered to her words. Living so close to it, she knew exactly how different the Everfree Forest was, but couldn't really put it into words. "The Forest is...for lack of a better word, exactly what it says on the packaging: free. That goes with all the benefits and drawbacks you can think of and I'm pretty sure we're about to see what made it into what it is now."

"I don't get it..." the lavender unicorn muttered in confusion, still not quite grasping it.

"You're really quite slow, aren't you?" the pink earth pony smirked, a spark making her eyes glimmer briefly, something Twilight had quickly learned was never a good sign. "I'll follow you through it then." she chuckled and stopped briefly, turning to face the unicorn.

"We're heading towards an ancient, ruined castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, where the Elements of Harmony are supposedly located." she listed and Twilight's mind immediately leaped forward, making the necessary connections finally, long before Pinkie finished talking. "Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia. Ruined castle. Elements of Harmony. Just put it all together."

"There's...no magic discharge that could do this..." Twilight ventured, struggling to take it all in.

While Pinkie might have just scraped the surface of the issue, her mind already went to work on analyzing the situation. The Elements of Harmony were powerful enough to banish Nightmare Moon and possibly even destroy the castle where the battle had taken place. Yet to imagine the Elements to signify a force potent enough to permanently alter the landscape and its laws, was something frightening truly frightening.

She had heard many times how unsupervised magic could turn a lush garden into a desolate wasteland even with the best intentions, but this was still incredibly hard to comprehend. This probably stood for the Elements as well, more so than any other spell. Could the clash between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon truly have brought such unexpected devastation, or was this purely the Elements' fault. She suddenly felt the weight of their mission pressing down her and doubt lingered in her mind like a vile snake. Was she truly prepared to try and utilize artifacts of such power, or was she merely a filly who thought far too highly of herself?

"Well, whatever did cause it did a pretty nasty job. Ever since then, the Everfree has been a place of shadows and torment." Pinkie's voice brought her back from the depths of her mind, but the content of her words calmed her none at all. "We always try and warn everypony who attempts to cross through it, but sometimes they don't listen-"

"Pinkie dear, please stop." Rarity called out suddenly, sounding somewhat worried by now.

"-and then, after that one little scream in the night, we never see them again." the pink pony continued anyway, that nefarious glint in her eyes again. Twilight had been sure by now that the earth pony always knew more than she let anyone in on, but still found herself shivering to the thought of the Forests claiming so many lives over the years. "Oh...actually, we do. Sometimes we do see them again, but never more than a hat, a dress, strands of their manes, or maybe even-"

"Pinkie Pie!" the white unicorn raised her voice so much that even the bundle of pink flinched to it, surprised of Rarity being so loud to her all of a sudden. She had good reason to do so, as she had one hoof around the timid pegasus who had been following them silently, was furrowed deep into her coat, trembling all over. "You're scaring Fluttershy." she returned to her normal tone, while gently trying to sooth her friend.

It didn't take long for Pinkie to realize what she had done and for the first time since she had gotten to know her, Twilight saw genuine regret in her eyes. She was almost sure the earth pony wasn't even capable of feeling such a thing. Sir Spike and Applejack had stopped to catch up with them again, wondering what all the fuss was about.

"I'm...sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Pinkie sighed, lowering her head for a moment. She truly had forgotten to think, for a moment there. Out of all of them, Fluttershy lived closest to the Everfree Forest and as such, probably knew all too much about the things going on in these woods. "I just meant to say that this forest really isn't the kind of place anypony should linger in for long. Best is to just be quick, lay low and tread lightly."

It was as if Pinkie had just sealed the end of an arcane ritual with her words, as within mere seconds, huge cracks formed in the ground under them. Before any of them could have jumped aside, the whole cliff side crumbled to tiny bits, leaving the ground without any leverage at all. Sadly enough ponies, let alone an armored dragon were notoriously heavier than air and as such, had the unfortunate tendency of falling.

Pinkie tumbled upon the rocky slope for a second or two, before her mind jerked her body alive once more. A primal fire burned in her eyes, the unrelenting force of survival governing her senses that instant. She managed to hold her balance long enough to turn sideways, her fetlocks nearly drawing sparks from the rocks she kept sliding over. She hissed in pain, but held on and sure enough, she managed to slow her slide to a near-crawl. That gave her ample time to see how the others were doing, now that she was out of the way of immediate harm.

The others didn't fare so well and continued tumbling downwards, Twilight unfortunately leading the race. Fluttershy, the only one of them who had managed to take off into the air by pure instinct and stay there as well, leaped into action and managed to grab Rarity's tail between her teeth, halting the unicorn's fall. Although she did seem slightly pained by the sudden pull, it was preferable, than to fall to one's certain death.

Sir Spike seemed to ponder upon the best course of action as he headed downwards, not only standing, but cutting deep lines into the ground with his shoes. He was perhaps the most unfazed of them all, though the plight of his new teammates didn't elude him. What was surprising though, was the lack of a second pegasus nearby. None of Rainbow's excuses mattered anymore, as her absence right now was more telltale than anything. He narrowed his eyes and leaped into the sky, flying right past his tumbling squire and into the dark chasm below, leaving the rest of the ponies guessing why in Celestia's name would he opt to have done that.

Twilight cried out for help as she barely managed to stop herself from falling off right away, holding haphazardly onto the rather slipper ground. She forgot all about her Sir Spike's teachings of bravery, strength and willpower, deciding on screaming in fear instead, her grip slipping more and more with every second. She noticed Applejack just barely managing to bite down upon a loose root and thus not ending up sharing the wide open space of the edge with her.

This is it...I'm going to die. The unicorn thought with uncomfortable solemnity. She felt her insides squeeze as she felt like crying. She had failed her knight, her Princess, the whole of Equestria. She had been a fool to think she could pick up a fight against Nightmare Moon, when in reality, she couldn't even help herself.

"Hold on, Twi'!"

The unicorn forgot all about her sadness and picked her head up again, only to see Applejack sliding to a halt right before her. She reached out and managed to grab her hooves, putting tremendous effort into preventing her from falling to her death. This quickly proved to be a rather difficult task though as she could only barely hold on as well. There was no way she could have pulled the unicorn up as well.

"I can't climb up! Applejack, what do I do?" she cried, trying desperately to find some sort of footing. There was none she could rely on. She just kept losing strength and stability with every second and now threatened to pull the earth pony with her, if she fell. She noticed the apple farmer looking aside for a moment, before turning back to her again with a very determined, but kind look on her face.

"Let go."

"...are you crazy?" the unicorn cried, her voice cracking from her fright by now. Was this her great idea, asking her kindly to let go?

"No I ain't. I promise you'll be safe." the earth pony said with a soft smile, her hold already loosening slowly, much to Twilight's utter horror.

"You can't be serious! Please, Applejack, you can't do this to me!" she whimpered, breaking into cold sweat by now. She was just about suspended in the air, at the mercy of a pony who has apparently cracked at some point within the past five minutes.

"Now listen here, what I'm saying to you is the honest truth." Applejack's voice was soothing, but not exactly to someone who was about to experience death by falling quite a lot. "Let go and you'll be safe."

"No bucking way!" Twilight cried, slipping another few inches from her frantic cry alone, now barely even dangling off the edge. She wanted to cry out for her knight to rescue her, only to remember he had jumped ship earlier. Apparently dementia was a virulent disease in these parts of Equestria.

"Twilight, trust me. You'll be alright." the orange pony said again, causing the lavender one to scream in pure terror as only Celestia's grace kept her from falling.

"Applejack," she growled, looking up into the earth pony's eyes. She knew she could hardly do anything by now, but wasn't about to give up anyway. She was past the initial fright and now just wished to exert herself to the fullest and live, by any means necessary. "If you don't pull me up, then Celestia help me I will-"

And at that precise moment, Applejack let go.

Freefalling Fistful of Ponies

Within the deepest of pegasus pony flight enclaves, falling is documented as the great, unbreakable antithesis to flight. Many aerodynamic experts have tried fruitlessly to come up with a solution to this highly common problem, but as of yet, this law of the universe has remained constant. What must go up, must come down, either willingly or through applied force.

Yet there is a certain faction, or rather yet, a sect who claim falling to be just as exhilarating as flying, if not even more. They draw difference between the graceful drop of a feather and the hurtling of a stone, seeing form and substance in the feeling of being completely at the mercy of the winds themselves. They also do their best to share this knowledge, this enlightened state of mind with every new flyer, much to the dismay of flight coaches around Equestria. Thankfully though, their numbers are ever-decreasing, usually due to over-indulgence in their beloved art form.

Part of it seemed true though, to some. Falling had a certain sense of freedom and helplessness to it, a sensation some outright crave for. The thought of not having to bother with whatever might happen appeal not only to pegasi, but to earth ponies and unicorns as well, sometimes. It was a solemn decision to pursue such an experience, but there was something about it that drove them in, something ancient, exciting and-

On second thought, scratch that. Falling is a horrible experience with the promise of way too much pain and hurt once you hit rock bottom, in more ways than one.

As Applejack's hooves slipped Twilight's grasp and she felt the first tiny, but progressively stronger whistling of the wind around her ears, she knew this was one experience she could have done without. Not only her own, but several of her ancestors' lives seemed flash before her eyes, her face locked in an expression somewhere between shock and dull surprise. It took all but a fraction of a second for her mind to piece everything consider and for once, she honestly wished it hadn't.

The most terrified of cries erupted from her throat as she dropped like a pony-shaped stone from the sky, plummeting down towards the depths below. Even though she had hardly fallen more than a foot yet, she already swore with all her might that if any single bone remained unbroken in her body, she would surely use that to kill the orange earth pony.

She came to a sudden and quite forceful stop though, as she felt something snake around her body and pull her out of her fall, with the added grace and gentleness of several trains crashing into one another. Still, it did the job though, as she preferred a fall against a railing, rather than a fall against the distant ground.

"I couldn't let my trusty squire become a hole in the ground, now could I?" she heard a familiar and highly welcome voice just a couple of inches from her.

She picked her head up and was immediately relieved to find Sir Spike, sporting his usual kind smile. His situation was no less dangerous, considering his grip on the rocky slope was hardly better than what she had, but as long as she wasn't going downwards, she was quite accepting towards the situation. Apparently the knight had realized earlier that not even Applejack could pull her up and instead decided to take action in a slightly unusual way. Sure enough, to see one's liege-lord and hero jump off a cliff certainly helped little to bolster her confidence at the time.

"How are we going to get back up?" the unicorn asked, tentatively letting the magic in her stir alive, shown quickly by the soft glow of her horn. In the growing darkness of Nightmare Moon's eternal night, even this little extra light was more than welcome.

"We're not going back up. We're going down." the dragon stated, taking note of how quickly Twilight seemed to be drained of color, from lavender to almost blinding white.

"What? Y-You're kidding, right?" she whimpered, trembling all over. She made the mistake of looking down from their current very unstable lookout point, prompting her to grab onto the knight's arm like a particularly stubborn armlet.

"Relax, it'll be a piece of cake." he assured, giving her a toothy grin. Although he usually had one of these when he was convinced the situation was in no way life-threatening, the fact that this was his general outlook on just about every encounter throughout his life made Twilight less than trustful of it. "We're just waiting on one more passenger."

"I won't keep you waiting then!" Pinkie Pie called from just a couple feet above them. While Fluttershy had just taken Rarity to safety and Applejack was in the midst of keeping her hooves firmly planted on the ground, the pink pony had been sliding downwards slowly, but surely. She couldn't help but smirk at the absurdity of the scene as she shook her head once, her grip in the ground about to give up.

"Save me, oh great knight!" she called out in mock-fright and jumped straight into the endless dark void below.

Before Twilight could even think of using her magic to help her, Sir Spike set his feet against the side of the cliff and leaped off with blinding speed. The unicorn once again let out a scream as they flew through the air in an arc, closing in on a particular bundle of pink. The drake reached out when the time was right and with the same motion he'd pulled Twilight to safety, grabbed hold of Pinkie as well, who instead of whimpering in terror, seemed much closer to busting a gut from excited chuckling.

With two ponies occupying his arms, the dragon found himself quickly reassessing the predicament at hand. It certainly seemed like a rather nasty scenario to simply fall and as much as he was convinced he'd survive, he rather wished to avoid the kind of hassle it would be to climb up again from several feet underground. He thought of using his flame breath to slow their impact, but while he couldn't see them in the dark, there was a high chance of Rarity and Fluttershy already waiting for them at the bottom and the last thing he wanted to do, was to char them into pony-husks. He even gave the nearby trees a brief look, but didn't want to waste time climbing down amongst the dense labyrinth of branches.

"What I'd give for that manticore right now..." he muttered, lamenting the loss of his temporary flying steed. The other end of the chasm was getting closer with every passing second though, intensifying the situation. However, panicking was strictly forbidden by his Code and he was determined to stay loyal to it till the very end. As such, once he considered all option, he decided to give out the most sensible order he could think of. "Twilight, get my boots!"

"Get your what?" the unicorn asked back with the most confused look she's had in a while. Even Pinkie, who was in no ways a stranger to oddball ideas, seemed entirely befuddled by his request.

Nevertheless, she wasn't around to second-guess him all the time and with just a little bit of magical assistance, pulled the dragon's footwear off, levitating both to her. She grabbed onto them, only to suddenly break out in bitter tears, her stomach flipping around several times, like a drunken pegasus. Her vision blurred within moments and she could swear even her horn felt like it'd melt on spot.

"You promised me, no bio-weapons!" she complained loudly, much to the amusement of their other passenger.

Spike didn't bother to answer though and instead positioned himself like a falling cat, with both hands and feet facing the cliff-side. Twilight felt their support dwindling slightly and grabbed onto his breastplate with Pinkie, both of them holding onto his armor and each other as tightly as possible. Despite knowing Sir Spike wouldn't let harm come to them, the unicorn couldn't help but feel a tiny bit scared. Though it was rare for her age to so much as think about passing, she certainly didn't want it to occur in a manner that would leave her and the earth pony as bloody, mushy stains on his armor. She wanted an at least slightly more dignified death, than that.

The knight braced for impact, focusing on landing in such a way that would not hurt the ponies holding onto him. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he felt the familiar fire burning in his belly; the mighty flame, the inextinguishable burning heart of the Draic Kin. He had no fear, no trepidation or worry anymore. He was within the moment, the quiet tranquility and certainty that everything would be alright. He would not fail.

He landed upon the rocky surface almost exactly as he wished, his strong scaly fingers and talon-endowed feet sinking into the cliff-side as if it were made of butter. He tensed his arms and legs, trying his best not to instinctively bend them and thus possibly crush both mares. He let out a low growl and sunk slightly deeper, letting the wall of the chasm absorb all his impact. Twilight whimpered a little as they got closer and closer, but quickly found them as a whole heading downwards instead.

Much as Sir Spike had expected, the rocky texture simply wasn't built for situations like this and as such, immediately gave way to his talons, resulting in the odd bundle of dragon and ponies to slide towards the ground in a manner that was not fully unlike a cat's descent upon a curtain. The two continued to hold on as they sped towards the bottom, while the knight tried his best to keep his grip steady.

Their velocity was increasing rapidly though, threatening them with a nasty landing, if they didn't find a way to slow down. Spike tried to sink his hands and feet deeper into the rocky surface, but could do little at this point. He closed his eyes and decided to use his head to alleviate the danger. Without another moment to spare, he slammed his head right into the cliff-side, the ridges on top of his head acting as a brand new set of brakes for them to rely on.

His plan worked exactly as expected, the extra friction slowing them down enough, where he was sure none of them would suffer injuries. Once close to the bottom, he pulled his feet free and prepared, meeting up with the ground mere moments later. It took him a moment or two for his muscles to properly transfer the excess energy, but in the end, all three of them managed to land safely, if a little scuffled and disoriented.

"Oh, thank Celestia you're all alright." Rarity's voice was they first they've noticed, followed by the lovely unicorn herself. She looked positively moved to see them unharmed, which made even Twilight smile a little, albeit she first had to wait for the world to stop shaking before her eyes. Looking over them however, she couldn't resist the slightest of frowns. "I'll definitely treat you all to a little spa-time. Trust me, you look like you need it."

"I-I'm so sorry I couldn't help more!" Fluttershy's meek call followed suit. "I'm not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two."

"Nonsense, Fluttershy dear." Rarity waved dismissively, smiling at her. "You were positively heroic back there. You saved me!" she commended the pegasus, leaving her even more flustered than ever before.

"Nice to see y'all safe 'n sound." Applejack cut in, trotting over to them. She had a few beads of sweat trickling down, implying she'd gotten down the hard way as well, though probably not in the form they had. The slight twitch under Twilight's eye made her reconsider getting closer, however.

"Pray that your huge family has at least one doctor amongst them." the unicorn grumbled, her horn lighting up already.

She was almost sure Applejack only let go of her because she had seen Sir Spike ready to catch her, but that still didn't make the experience any better. She never got the chance to do anything though, as another voice pierced the night. One they hadn't heard in a glaringly long time now.

"Did I miss something? What happened to everypony?" Rainbow Dash's voice came from right above, said pegasus swooping into sight mere moments later. Her reception though, was less than warm.

"You just missed the party, Dashie, that's all." Pinkie Pie spoke up first, her expression unreadable. Then again, as much as Rainbow could tell, that wasn't a unique thing from her.

The silence following her words did leave her both confused and worried, however. She tried to hurry back as quickly as possible, but had a hard time actually finding them. Now, as it seemed, something had to have happened while she was away, something potentially dangerous and she had not been around to help.

"Like Pinkie said, you hadn't missed out on anything." the dragon spoke up, his voice about as sweet as two rocks rolled together in an acid bath. "I trust you had fun with Nightmare Moon though?"

"What? I did not!" she quickly retorted, though not everyone missed out on the nervous tone in her voice. "I told you already, I don't work for her, I'm with you guys!"

"Of course you are. You just happen to have something urgent to do, whenever she makes an attempt at our lives!" Spike raised his voice slightly, making most of the ponies wince. As difficult as it was to aggravate the dragon, nothing set him off more than people who dishonored their friends or their convictions.

"She did what? I-I didn't know! If I were here, I would have helped!" she cried, visibly shaken by the fact that in her absence, Nightmare Moon had taken a shot at eliminating her friends. The alicorn had warned her that she'd do something like this, but she didn't think the Princess of the Night would get to it this quickly.

"No need. The others helped plenty where you hadn't. All that's left for you is to go back and report." he didn't wait for a reply and took his leave, intent on getting to the castle ruins within the hour.

Twilight briefly glanced at the pegasus, before following her knight. She still wasn't sure Rainbow was intentionally missing or not, but it did seem rather suspicious. A sigh escaped her throat as she continued, her thoughts taking an inevitable dark turn. If she would become a liability to their mission though, she knew they would have to drive her off somehow. She just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Twilight? Rarity? Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow called out their names as they each turned away to catch up with Sir Spike's large steps. Her body felt unusually heavy for her wings, forcing her to the ground as she kept on going without so much as looking back at her. She glanced aside, noticing the timid little pegasus she'd known for such a long time.

"Fluttershy, you know me! Tell them I'd never betray anypony!" she tried to put on a smile, but it came out as horribly mangled and faked.

"I...I don't think you're...against us." she mumbled, struggling with the words. She was obviously very uncomfortable with the situation, but her friend deserved an answer at least. "But this hurt them, bad. And it hurt me too. You've always been there for your friends and now you were just...gone." she kicked the ground a little, trying to find some way of saying it that wouldn't hurt the cyan speedster even more.

"I'm sorry Rainbow. You're still my friend...but I'm not sure if you know who your friends are." she almost squeaked those last few words, but to her friend, they were as loud as a cannon. She looked aside for a moment, before trotting after Sir Spike and the others, leaving Rainbow feeling absolutely horrid.

"I reckon ya said ya'd fly low." Applejack stopped next to her, her eyes gleaming with anger and disappointment. Somehow, Rainbow Dash felt more afraid of her words, than the fact the others had left her behind like this.

"I was-"

"Horseapples!" the earth pony slammed her hooves down, making her cyan friend wince. "What the hay do ya think yer doin'? Ah'm tryin' to prove you'd never go hooves-in-hooves with Nightmare Moon, but Ah can't do anythin' if ya keep this up!"

"I know, I'm sorry AJ." she sighed, her wings folding up. She felt absolutely miserable by now.

"Ya darn well should be!" she said, only to shake her head in the end. "Rainbow, this ain't like you. Ah don' know why yer bein' like this, but Ah don't like it. Git yerself together, ya stupid mare." her words softened by the end, though they did leave the pegasus horribly ashamed. "Let's git goin'. We shouldn't fall behind."

Rainbow Dash refused to move though, far too upset from what just happened. Sure, she'd been scolded over a hundred times by Applejack just about every day, but she hardly ever had been this genuinely angry, rather than just mildly annoyed. She flinched only the pony suddenly pushed her forwards from behind, forcing her to get back on her hooves.

"Come on. This ain't the best flyer in Equestria I know." she called, managing to make even the distraught pegasus crack a faint smile.

An uncomfortable silence had fallen upon the group as they continued their trek across the Everfree, their minds heavy with conflicting thoughts about what had already occurred and what may have been waiting for them. Until that dangerous fall not long ago, they hadn't fully comprehended the weight of their mission, nor the risks involved. They had little choice, but to press on, for if they truly had the eyes of Nightmare Moon upon them, it was doubtful she'd let them flee without repercussions.

Sir Spike was leading them once again, perhaps all too certain they were going the right way. Normally, Twilight would lead him, her skills at cartography and topography serving both of them well on a number of occasions. Such did not seem to be needed though as Nightmare Moon was leading them exactly where they were supposed to go, or wherever she wanted them to go, as part of their little off-stage duel.

The first few stray trees and peculiar markings may have been just by accident, but once the moon's light had begun to carve a path for them and some bushes shifted their sizes almost before his eyes, he had no doubts that either the forest was fully sentient, or the exiled princess' hooves were guiding them. Neither sounded particularly good, but as of right now, he was in no position to refuse the assistance.

The recent events did trouble him though. She had warned him outright, but it still surprised him how forceful she was about endangering all the ponies under his protection. If they were any less capable or resourceful, that fall would have been a costly experience. He was almost completely sure she wasn't finished with them, either. He hadn't been dealt the best of hands, but while she may have held all the cards at the moment, he was no less busy in spinning his own plan, one that would flip the table over on her. He ran every element of it through his head once more, while listening in on the conversation that had finally sprung up.

"-have you known each other?" Twilight asked, walking alongside Rarity and Fluttershy. Pinkie caught up with them soon enough to listen in, leaving Rainbow Dash and Applejack guarding their rear.

"Well, Fluttershy and I have been friends for a couple of years now." the white unicorn was the first to speak. She seemed somewhat relaxed they were talking once again. The gloomy silence was getting on her nerves by now. "I know Applejack and Rainbow Dash also go back years. And of course, everypony knows Pinkie Pie."

"Pinkie Pie knows everypony." the mare repeated Rarity's words, though the switch hadn't gone unnoticed by Twilight. She found it strange, but decided not to stress it.

"And do you all...well...trust each other?" the unicorn continued to prod, wondering just how tight-knit the group really was.

She hated going along with such thoughts, but questing for the Elements was a hopeless endeavor, if they would be stabbed in the back mere moments later, thanks to the tiniest prod by Nightmare Moon, a move she already seemed to be practicing on Rainbow Dash. To her surprise though, Rarity outright stopped in her tracks, giving her a look she honestly had not expected at all.

"Now just listen here, Twilight Sparkle." she said, her voice twisted by what she could only perceive as pure anger.

"Rarity, please..." Fluttershy meekly called out, trying to stop her before she'd explode on the lavender pony. She was a soft-spoken and generous soul, but hell hath no fury like a the dressmaker's rage.

"I understand there might be some issues between us as a group, but by Celestia, I will not have you asking these kind of questions about any of my friends. Trust? Do you honestly think this is a subtle way of interrogation?"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." the unicorn stammered, taken aback by the ferocity Rarity was showing all of a sudden. To her surprise though, while she continued huffing for a moment or two, she did calm down soon after.

"No...I don't honestly believe you've meant it, either." she sighed. Her anger faded, but her expression was still rather serious. "But if you assume we'd betray you at the first possible opportunity, we might as well turn back right now, because we'll never find those Elements of Harmony."

"And that means that until we're sure the other is collaborating with the opposition, we should not make things worse by constantly accusing each other." she added, looking at Sir Spike this time around. The knight remained silent and continued walking, but she was sure her words had not fallen on deaf ears.

Fluttershy felt a bit relieved Rarity managed to keep her calm, as she usually ended up as a destructive force of nature, whenever her temper spiked too much. She smiled softly, the soft breeze of eternal night playing with her pink mane. As dangerous as the Everfree Forest was, she knew it had aspects worth knowing. Quite a number of birds and critters would only live here and as such, were always a unique experience to see, much less treat. Although she didn't have any papers to show for it, everypony knew she was the go-to pony on all pet problems. Even the Forest seemed to have understood this after a while, as sick and wounded creatures from it always ended up near her cottage, whenever they needed treatment.

It was this unique connection to nature that quite possibly saved all of their lives. The faintest of noises, a tiny little whiff of a particular odor and she immediately leaped aside, shoving Pinkie Pie away from them before she could have uttered so much as a single syllable. Sir Spike reacted only a moment too late, unable to grab after the long tail that appeared before him for just half a second.

Fluttershy cried out loudly as clawed paws grazed across her yellow coat, the creature's strength far more than whatever force her tiny weight managed to put towards keeping her on the ground. The surprise attack left the rest of the ponies tossed aside by the sheer force of it and surprised even the dragon enough that he didn't manage to grab after the long, scorpion-like tail. They collected themselves as quickly as possible though, frantically looking around for their vanished friend. Not only had the darkness become thicker, but even the faint moonlight, that had been guiding them till now, seemed to have dimmed.

"...my hair..." Rarity gasped, paling as she felt her beautifully kept mane becoming a tangled mess of purple from force of the ambush. A second later though, she no longer care about it though, remembering why she'd been tackled in the first place. "Where's-"

"A manticore! A manticore took Fluttershy!" Pinkie hollered with a surprising amount of worry in her voice.

She sharpened her gaze, as if trying to cut through the dark of the night with her glare alone, scouring the trees nearby for their lost friend. The second cry made them flinch one more, Applejack and Pinkie immediately turning towards where they were sure the noise had come from. Nothing escaped an earth pony's keen senses, not even in such an unfamiliar territory. Sir Spike scowled, knowing Nightmare Moon had to be behind this once again. Manticores were very infamous predators that although usually hunted for other beings, it could get an acquired taste for ponies as well. They rarely went hunting and always liked to take a bite out of their prey right away, to savor them.

They had but minutes to spare.

"Twilight!" he called out, as not even his eyes could penetrate the darkness at this point.

"On it!" the unicorn didn't need to be told what to do, her horn already blazing with energy. Many assumed Spike had only taken her as his squire because he was obligated to, or because she was just plain cute. In reality though, he was simply amazed by her quick wits and her ability to work together with him, using just a bare minimum of words.

She adjusted her stance and lowered her head slightly, finishing up the incantation. She used a fairly simple, but very useful spell she'd found and perfected to her liking, with a little help from Princess Celestia. Sir Spike readied himself as a stream of bright light erupted from the unicorn's horn, already knowing what to expect.

The stream quickly shaped itself into a disc and had begun to spin in the direction they'd heard the scream from. Twilight's face contorted from the exertion the longer she let the disc fly. Once it was suitable far from them, it seemed to break apart, the speed of its spin forcing the torn bits to shower the nearby trees like shrapnel, illuminating them one by one. The dragon scanned every single inch of the trees, only to finally find his goal: the shadow of a pair of bat-like wings.

Without a moment to waste, he dashed forwards, running straight towards the tree upon which the manticore was perched upon, waiting to feast on the pegasus. The rest of the ponies followed him suit, with the exception of Twilight, who was still breathing heavily from the strain the spell had put on her. The rest were all galloping towards the tree at full speed, not about to let their friend be disemboweled.

Forgoing all sense of subtlety and elegance, Sir Spike de Draco downright slammed shoulder-first into the tree, a horrible crack echoing the untimely demise of it. The manticore let out a confused growl, lurching back as the branch he'd settled upon shook violently. A moment of uncertainty passed, before the whole tree began to tilt at an extremely unhealthy degree. Free from the paw pinning her down, Fluttershy whined, the scrapes the monster had left burning painfully.

Her wings had seized up from her fright, but she decided to make her move nonetheless. Manticores hated losing their prey, thus she knew she had to get away from it as quickly as possible. She hadn't seen her friends approaching, but trusted them enough to know this had been their work. Putting her life in the hands of fate, she forced herself to roll right off the branch and down into the pitch-black darkness.

All she could see was a faint rainbow blur, before feeling the comfortable touch of hooves. She sighed and closed her eyes, holding onto her obvious savior.

"...thank you..." she panted, trembling slightly. She'd always been easily frightened, but few times has she ever been this close to death for real.

"Don't you ever scare us like that again, Fluttershy." the cyan pegasus muttered, having a shortness of breath as well. Rarely has she ever been forced to go this fast, this sudden and for such high stakes. She decided this certainly wasn't a trick she wanted to repeat anytime soon.

"I won't. Promise." she almost giggled, but it ended up as more of a hiss.

The euphoria from being rescued was far more welcome than the fright of such a deadly predicament. Her injuries were light, but still painful, though nothing she couldn't cope with. The Everfree was ripe with herbs and she knew some of them by name even. Finding one that would relieve her would take next to no effort.

While Rainbow Dash was busy getting Fluttershy to safety, the rest of the team had a much different task ahead of them. The manticore finally realized its resting spot has been compromised and lunged off the tree, growling in rage. Spike quickly stood before the ponies, shielding them with his own body, in case the creature tried to grab any of them again. The beast let out a roar of anger and swooped down towards them, an otherworldly frenzy burning in its eyes.

The knight set his feet firmly upon the ground, taking the manticore's assault with full force. Almost immediately, he could tell this was a much more mature and more powerful specimen, than the ones he had fought before alongside Nightmare Moon. His muscles tensed as held the monster back by its shoulders, rendering it unable to properly claw into him, either. Losing his initial flight advantage, the being dropped onto its hind feet, putting its full body weight towards toppling the drake.

Sir Spike wasn't about to have any of that, however, and with one forceful move, extended both arms to shove the manticore back. It was obviously confused by the sudden burst of strength, but the knight was far from finished. His fist flung forward and connected with its jaw, copious amounts of saliva and even a bit of blood bursting from its mouth from the impact. Slightly dazed, but perhaps even more crazed than ever before, the beast quickly spun in a half-circle, catching the knight with its armored tail, just as he pulled his fist back.

The dragon raised his other arm to defend himself, but was still sent back a couple of feet from the power of that one hit, his armlet cracking from the force it had been subjected to. A simple glance into its eyes told a lot though, as he could hardly see even the most basic of animal instincts in them, only hatred, confirming Nightmare Moon's influence being at work. It took but half a second to collect himself, but to his amazement and slight worry, it had been enough for the secondary assault force to make its move.

"No one hurts Fluttershy, no one!" Pinkie Pie cried out loudly as jumped up onto the rebounding tail, hopping right up to the creature's neck using the momentum.

Without warning, she struck down upon the top of the manticore's head with both hooves, earning a pained howl as it lurched about, putting together what just happened. The pink earth pony seemed to have become possessed by the same bloodlust it had against them, as she viciously pulled at its mane with her teeth, not doing much actual damage, but pain aplenty. Growling from the assault, it raised a clawed paw to swipe the unwanted pest off.

That signaled the need for another contestant to enter the ring and so she did, dashing straight for the remaining front leg. Calling upon the strength of every Apple ancestor she'd ever heard of, the orange pony turned around the moments she was close enough, giving the manticore's leg the most powerful buck she could muster. She could feel her trusty double-barreled organic weaponry doing the job well, the leg sliding right off the ground, unsettling it enough to slide out from under the beast, depriving it of support.

Pinkie held on as the lion-like predator collapsed, only to jump off right away at the first signal from Applejack. A moment later, a torrent of jagged rocks rained down from the air, bombarding the manticore, some of them scraping it even through its thick fur. Rarity and Twilight were both standing next to each other, their horns glowing brightly as they gathered ammo for another rocky rainfall. The lavender unicorn had read enough about these creatures to know none would retreat just from this attack alone. The dressmaker's rage helped power the spell tremendously though, so much that she made a mental note not to even endanger her fashionable appearance, lest she wished to face an early demise.

Sir Spike gazed over the fight, ready to go back and send the beast backing right away. His slide across grass had left him close to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the latter of which had carefully examined the yellow pegasus' wings for any damage. While her other injuries were more prevalent, albeit not dangerous, she knew from experience that any damage to the wings could bite back in the most painful ways possible.

"Nice save." he spoke up, though his voice sounded more like two boulders rolling off of each other.

"Yeah." she replied, not paying much attention to the dragon. Fluttershy could feel tension still bubbling between them, but this wasn't the time to try and smooth thing out.

"This be one ornery critter!" Applejack's voice distracted all three of them though as she bucked the manticore right in the face, causing it to step back and growl. Pinkie immediately backed up the offensive, biting down on one of its bat-like wings this time around.

That set it off though and sent it reeling around in pure pain, the howl of pain almost making their ears hurt. The pink pony could only hold on for so long, before she was launched through the air, crashing right into Twilight and Rarity, breaking their concentration and sending the whole bundle rolling in the dirt. The rocks they'd been using as ammo all stopped as one, no longer guided by the magic of the two unicorns.

Free from its tormentor, the manticore's ears twitched, the movement of the earth pony behind him not going unnoticed this time around. It's large, scorpion-like tail sprung up from the ground and coiled around the approaching earth pony, her cry following the echoes the fight had generated so far. The creature turned around, jaws snapping in anticipation as it growled and slobbered in raw, unrestrained hunger as it eyed its soon-to-be meal, helplessly bound in the air.

Its feast was once more rudely interrupted by a projectile, though this was had a much more pony-like shape, than the earlier barrage of rocks. Rainbow Dash slammed into to beast's side with all the force she could muster, but could hardly even unbalance, much less topple the mighty creature. It glared at her and smacked the obnoxious pest into the ground. The pegasus landed on her back, her wings ruffling up from the impact.

"Rainbow!" Applejack outright screamed, hitting the tail holding her several times, but to no avail.

The manticore turned to the cyan pony instead, the growl of its stomach driving the monster mad by now. It had never felt so empty and hungry before in its entire life. It loomed over the dazed Rainbow Dash, ready to swallow her whole even. Applejack continued to kick and scream, desperately trying to escape the hold of the scorpion tail. The last thing she wanted to see was her friend getting hurt, while she had no method of helping her whatsoever. Its teeth were barely inches away from pegasus' belly, its hot breath making her flinch, but all too late.

A bright glow suddenly broke through the dark of the night, a blinding white that left the creature howling in pain, its eyes wholly unaccustomed to such intensity. Even Applejack, who'd been under Celestia's sun her whole life, had to squint her eyes as the shine from Rainbow Dash's chest overwhelmed the manticore. It seemed to downright hurt the creature, since its howl quickly turned into a pained one. An upside to this was that its grip on the orange earth pony loosened enough so that she could freely wiggle out of the tail's vice grip.

She quickly looked back at her friend, the light from her body slowly fading back into a hardly noticeable glow. The pegasus herself seemed awfully shocked as well, though nopony could have been described as more confused right now, than Applejack. She wasn't sure Rainbow Dash had even realized what just happened, but the sight before her made her heart wrench in ways she'd never expected it could.

The quiet moment was broken a mere second later as a large stone slab sped right past the two and hit the wobbling manticore like a steam engine, driven forwards by a justifiably angry dragon knight. He pulled himself into a stop soon enough, but tossed the stone forwards, letting it carry its passenger a little while longer, before crashing into the closest tree. Pinkie, finally back in action, rushed over to see if the two ponies had suffered any injuries, while both Rarity and Twilight grabbed hold of the stone and used it to keep their attacker pinned to the tree for as long as possible. Spike cracked his knuckles in solemn anticipation, more than prepared to put an end to this fight, before any more of the ponies under his knightly guard would be threatened.

"Wait!" Fluttershy cried, making the drake flinch. The yellow pegasus had flown all the way over to them with a surprisingly determined look on her face. She was still deathly afraid, he could tell, but she wanted to stop this needless fight at least as much as they did. "I think I know how to...pacify it." she said.

"So do I." the dragon remarked, raising a brow. "A fistful of hurt and pain should get it under control."

"I have a better idea." she assured, gazing into his eyes.

At that moment, he was reminded of that soft, but prickly feeling he kept getting the first couple of times she looked into her eyes like that. He felt needles under his scales once again, a cold feeling running down his spine. He had heard of ponies possessing such unique abilities at times, but to come across one, let alone a pony so timid and graceful, was truly something extraordinary. He nodded slowly and proceeded pay close attention to every detail of her plan.

It had understood. It took a moment or two to grasp why the pain had been there, why it burned so much, but as it remembered the dark, the laugh, the glow, the hunger and the thirst, it no longer had any doubts left. The smell of blood once again roused its appetite and feeding time was long overdue by now. The magic on the stone binding him was strong, but nothing compared to a manticore's strength. This forest did not belong to the ponies and it was determined to prove this debate by feasting on the opposition's flesh.

"Sir, the stone is crumbling, we can't hold it for much longer!" Twilight called out, closing her eyes as she desperately tried to keep the slab together, while Rarity continued to apply the force needed to keep the animal pinned to the tree. With their magic divided though, both were having a difficult time restraining the raging beast.

"It's okay Twilight, just let it go. We're ready." the drake calmly stated, preparing himself for the upcoming showdown.

"But sir!"

"At ease, squire. Trust me."

Although it still bothered Twilight as to what her knight may have had on his mind, especially with possibly the most unconventional weaponry she had seen in her life, but she'd long since learned that sometimes, it was best not to ask questions, as long as there were visible results. As such, she signaled to Rarity, upon which released the stone from their magic at once. Almost immediately, the remains of it were shattered into tiny pieces by the raging manticore. It glanced around in a crazed bloodlust, before its eyes centered upon the closest possible target, namely a highly odd dragon-pony duo.

"You ready for this?" he asked, glancing down for a moment.

"Oh, yes, of course. Just please...um...be careful." Fluttershy nodded twice. She was scared, but no less prepared than the others.

"Don't worry, I'll be as careful as a dragon can possibly be." he assured, though this wasn't quite one of the best reassuring speeches he had ever given.

The manticore's roar didn't faze him much, especially as he had since gained the most efficient weapon ever created to combat such a rampaging forest-dweller. He gently readjusted his grasp a little, carefully balancing the strength of his grip, so that he wouldn't hurt Fluttershy in any way. She inhaled deeply, staying still as the knight held a pair of her legs in each hand, tilting her upwards slightly, so blood wouldn't rush into her head. As the creature began to dash towards them, he pitched her body upwards just a bit more, so she would face it head-on.

"This...is my pony!"

Just before the manticore could have raised its paw to tear Fluttershy's head off with a single swipe, the pegasus opened her eyes to the fullest, her glare burrowing deep into the creature's very skull. Almost immediately, it stumbled back with an agonized howl, feeling as if someone had put a fist through its brain. It was already seeing weird colors and sparkles everywhere just from this one hit, hardly even realizing what was going on anymore.

Sir Spike de Draco jumped out of the way as the enraged animal tried to swipe at them anyway. He rolled right before the stumbling creature and pulled his trusty pony-rifle up again. Fluttershy didn't need to be told what to do, as she unleashed the power of her gaze once again the moment their eyes met. Its cries now more closely resembled that of a wounded cat, but rather than give up, it just whipped itself into a final stage of frenzy.

Hardly anything mattered now, as it desperately tried to either claw the dragon to death, or just smash him into a bloody pulp, using it's tail. Spike anticipated the move though and briefly let go of Fluttershy's front legs, grabbing the appendage before the sharp stinger would have made a crude opening in his head. Instead of just hanging limply however, she used her wings to steady herself in the air and glared into the manticore's eyes once more, further shattering its already crumbling mind.

The beast let out yet another roar of pain, but it gradually faded into a crude whimper. The knight used to opportunity and pushed on both the tail and the animal itself. Hardly even able to think, much less move, the creature wobbled for a second, before collapsing on its back. Approaching the barely conscious manticore, he raised his Fluttershy-toting hand once more, aiming her eyes right at its face. The pegasus used the animal's head as leverage, though she avoided looking into its eyes right now.

"You poor little fool." she sighed, gently running her hoof across its ruffled mane. "It's that wicked evil pony who made you this angry, right? Or was the promise of some fresh equine meat too much to resist? I hope not...I would be very disappointed to hear that." she warned and Spike could swear he heard it whimper.

"Relax now. Just look into my eyes and you'll feel better when you wake up, promise." she purred, smiling softly at the creature that not five minutes ago tried to eat her friends.

It didn't want to be angry anymore though, or hungry. These feelings and cravings were aching so badly, he just couldn't take it any more. Slowly, the manticore raised its head to face Fluttershy more clearly, earning a soft little kiss on the nose in return.

"Good boy." she said, stroking it's face. "Now...sleep." she lowered her voice to a whisper, before gazing into its eyes as deeply as possible one final time. It never even growl or roar this time around, just dropped its head back on the ground, its mind lost in a sea of lasting calmness.

Twilight was the first to approach the two, just as Sir Spike gently put the pegasus back on the ground. She glanced at the motionless manticore, finding it highly unnerving how simply they've subdued in this time around. Fluttershy shook her head a little and gently rubbed her eyes, indicating the attack had left a little mark on her as well. The unicorn was awfully curious about what just happened, though one question in particular bothered her.

"Is...is it-"

"No, of course not! I would never—I could never do such a thing!" Fluttershy protested with a shocked look on her face, waving a hoof dismissively. "Um...he'll be asleep for a while, but he's fine."

"Oh...great going then!" Twilight said, smiling at the pegasus. Although she wasn't entirely sure how this was the best idea ever, it did the job well and even she confirmed that it'd have no lasting effects. She noticed Fluttershy wince though, which instantly made her remember that she had gotten the short end of the stick, during the scuffle. "Where are you hurt?"

"I-It's nothing to worry about, really." she ventured. Twilight nonetheless examined her a little closer and found several scrapes across her body. She was right, none of them were particularly bad, but they were probably painful nonetheless.

"Fluttershy, I cannot ever repay you for this." Rarity's voice was positively trembling as she approached them, her gratitude and concern making the pegasus smile.

"It's alright, Rarity. At least nothing really bad happened." she shook her head lightly, while the others gathered around them as well. She winced a little once more though the more she kept talking, eventually getting her to accept the almost overbearing concern they were showing. "But...if one of you...could get me a few leaves off that bush over there, I'd be grateful...um...only if you could, that is."

"That ain't even a question, sugarcube." Applejack assured, knowing exactly what plant she was talking about.

This particular bush and its leaves were one of the reasons why ponyfolk still came to the Everfree Forest on occasion. The water found in those leaves were very good at easing pain and reduce swelling. She and Big Macintosh often used them whenever they over-exerted themselves, especially during Applebuck Season.

"Just rest yer hooves and Ah'll be back here lickety split." she added, quickly trotting off towards the plant.

Truthfully though, she needed a moment to herself anyway. The smile she had on her face faded almost immediately as she remembered what she had seen just a few minutes ago. She still couldn't believe it, every fiber of her being protested against the thought, but for the first time since they'd left, the seeds of doubt had begun to bloom in her heart.

She'd known Rainbow Dash for years now and would have trusted her life on her any day, but right now, she wasn't so sure anymore. That moment, when the mysterious glow protected her from the manticore, she'd seen something she was sure should have not been there. For at that moment, a unmistakeable sigil had shone brightly upon the cyan pegasus' chest, one that for all intents and purposes, should not have been there:

The glowing image of a crescent moon.