Heartache: Cherished Friendship {Book the First}

Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie glanced up at the sky. It seemed that each time they solved a riddle, the time would reset itself. The sun was higher in the sky than the position it was in while they were solving the kindness riddle. They frowned. Not riddles, “the Nightmare’s words.”

They continued to buck apple trees. The Apple family was nowhere in sight, so they assumed that they were either in the barn, or rampaging around town thanks to the Nightmare. The mares were doing the work now.

It wasn’t easy. Each mare kept failing. Rainbow almost had the same amount of strength Applejack has. So, many apples fell from the tree she was kicking. The problem was that most of the apples weren’t falling into the baskets around the tree. Those apples hit the ground, turning mushy.

Fluttershy was too weak for the job. Sometimes, she’ll gather up all of her strength, kick, and with luck, one small apple will fall. Onto the ground. It would get mushy, just like the apples around Rainbow’s apple tree. Fluttershy never got a single apple into a basket.

Pinkie was an earth pony, and earth ponies are known for their strength, just as pegasi are known for their flight, and unicorns are known for their spell-casting. So, she had no problem making the apples fall. She had a bit more luck. There were more apples falling into the baskets than Rainbow and Fluttershy’s baskets. The problem Pinkie had was that she was too hyper and fast. She usually missed the trunk of her tree, sending herself through the air due to the force of her own kick. Pinkie sent another kick, assuming that she was about to hit the tree. Instead, she found herself flying through the air. She slammed into a nearby tree.

Pinkie laid on the ground for a few moments. She was angry. She was getting extremely frustrated. For a moment, she just laid there, sprawled on the dirt. Then, she had a brilliant idea. She perked up, jumping into the air, a bright light bulb hovering over her head. Rainbow and Fluttershy stared at the light bulb in astonishment. Then, the light bulb turned into a cupcake. The cupcake fell onto Pinkie’s head. Pinkie landed on the ground on her hooves. The cupcake fell to the ground. Pinkie smiled, picked up the cupcake, and swallowed the whole of it, including the paper.

She pulled her party cannon from her mane. She grinned at her two friends, who were still staring in shock at her. She aimed her cannon at a tree trunk, and fired at it. Colorful confetti shot from the cannon. The confetti was traveling at such a speed that when it hit the trunk, most of the apples from the tree fell. And most of the apples that fell from the tree fell into the baskets surrounding the tree. Pinkie celebrated with joy. Never underestimate her party cannon. She turned to her friends.

“Rainbow! Fluttershy!” she cried. “My party cannons will get the job done!”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy continued to stare. Finally, Rainbow said, “Um, Pinkie, that’s great news, but we only have one party cannon.”

“No, we don’t,” came Pinkie’s reply. She withdrew two more party cannons from her mane. All three of the cannons were identical. For all of the time Rainbow and Fluttershy knew Pinkie, they thought Pinkie only had one special party cannon. Now, they see three identical party cannons.

Pinkie threw the two party cannons to her friends. Then, she aimed at another tree with her own cannon, and fired at it. Plenty of apples fell into the baskets, just like before. Pinkie grinned. Suddenly, she was zipping along the ground and through the air, firing her cannon at numerous apple trees. Soon, Rainbow and Fluttershy joined in the fun with their cannons. They were getting the job done quickly, but the mare who was helping to finish the work fastest was Pinkie Pie.

It only took the three friends a few minutes to finish. Even Applejack couldn’t beat that record. The mares stood together for a moment when they finished. Rainbow and Fluttershy returned the party cannons they used. Pinkie took them, and put them back into her mane, along with her own cannon. As expected, there were no sign of the cannons sticking out from her mane.

They were done with the harvesting. Now, they need to clean up the mushy apples on the ground. But that could take hours. And the party cannons wouldn’t help them in this situation.

“Don’t worry,” came the voice of Rainbow Dash, “I got this.” In seconds, she flew through the orchard, collected the mushy apples, put them in a nearby compost bin, and returned to her friends. She had finished in ten seconds flat. The mares smiled at each other, and they made their way out of the farm, returning to the castle.

As they expected, when they entered, the Nightmare, Starlight, and Spike had changed. Starlight and Spike looked even more exhausted, and it looked like they could use a day’s sleep. The Nightmare had changed Twilight’s body into a tall, skinny, midnight black figure. Instead of ropes binding the Nightmare, there were chains. The chains were stained with blood due to the Nightmare’s constant struggle against the steel. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie knew they were running out of time before the Nightmare manages to escape and destroy harmony.

As usual, the Nightmare asked for the answer, and the mares answered “the Nightmare’s words.” They told the Nightmare that they took care of the apple orchard. That was the answer.

“Answer this,” the Nightmare said, “was the riddle involved with the Element of Honesty or Loyalty?”

For a moment, the mares hesitated. “The Nightmare’s words” had mentioned something about loyalty, but all of that apple tree bucking had kept reminding them of Applejack, the spirit of the Element of Honesty. They thought carefully.

“Honesty,” Rainbow Dash finally answered. Fluttershy and Pinkie didn’t know why she said that, but Rainbow had the lingering feeling again. This time, it was telling her that her element-which is loyalty-will be involved in the future.

To their joy, they had answered correctly.

“The next riddle is this: if you had been disloyal to someone, apologize at once.”

Rainbow’s prediction of her element being involved in a future riddle was correct. Before they walked out of the castle, they asked Starlight and Spike if they were okay. They didn’t reply.

Understanding fully that they were running out of time, they galloped out of the castle. Upon the sight of what they saw, they had to stop. The town of Ponyville was still there of course, but it was the sight ahead of them that caught their attention. It was a small pond. It was just a few yards away from the front of the castle. It had never been there before. The mares walked toward it, curious.

Rainbow was the first to arrive at the pond. She sat down by the edge. Her friends followed shortly behind. Nothing was really unusual about the pond, except for the fact that it appeared at the front of the castle out of nowhere. It has a calm surface, the sparkling blue water displaying Rainbow’s reflection. Curious, she reached out a hoof before her friends could stop her. She touched the surface, and her reflection vanished. As the ripples faded away, the three mares saw something strange.

Rainbow’s reflection didn’t reappear. Instead, a different image appeared on the surface. It was a scene, and the objects of the image moved around as if the mares were looking into a world through a pond. The scene showed Rainbow Dash, who was surrounded by her own best friends. Her friends were each wearing the same costume, each friend disguised as Mare-Do-Well. Mare-Do-Well was never actually real, Dash’s friends just made up the figure to teach her a “lesson.” They taught her that performing amazing and heroic tasks is great, but bragging about it makes it less admirable. So, they each dressed up as Mare-Do-Well to do the exact same thing, doing heroic tasks while being brash. The plan had worked. It worked so much that Dash’s friends were even worse than Dash herself. The scene shown in the pond was showing the moment when her friends revealed themselves from their costumes. Dash was staring at them, shocked. But Rainbow remembered that she had felt something else as well. Pain. At the time, she felt betrayed horribly by her best friends, ponies she thought she could trust. She remembered that she was considering to break apart from the friendship, but her inner loyalty had kicked in, telling that her friends were still her friends.

From that day, Rainbow continued to move on with her life. She kept the pain and sorrow hidden deep within her, never wanting to be reminded of the terrible day. But now, as she gazed into the depths of the pond with two of her best friends, she felt the pain and sorrow rising. It reached into her throat, and eventually her eyes. Before long, Dash found herself crying, the pain she kept hidden for so long finally escaping. Crying wasn’t something Dash usually do. If it happens, the tears were usually silent. So, it took a moment for Pinkie and Fluttershy to notice that their friend was shedding tears.

“Dashie,” Pinkie said in concern, “What’s wrong? Why are you crying? You know that I, Pinkie, don’t like frowns.”
Rainbow took a moment to wipe her eyes.

“Nothing, really,” she answered. Her voice sounded almost normal, just slightly more strained than usual. But Fluttershy and Pinkie were having none of it.

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said softly, but sternly, “something must be bothering you. You can tell us about it. We’re your friends.”

Rainbow took a deep breath, and sighed. “It’s sort of stupid, really,” she said. “It’s just about the Mare-Do-Well incident. After I found out you two, along with the others, had played that trick, I felt...lost. I was shocked of course, but I also felt betrayed. I thought you weren’t my friends anymore. I even considered about leaving the group and giving up my element at the time. But I moved on. I knew you were still my friends, and you still are. It still hurts though.”

Silence followed. Fluttershy and Pinkie were shocked and a bit guilty. As great friends, they immediately started to apologize.

“We’re so sorry!” Pinkie exclaimed, hugging Dash fiercely. “At least I am. But I bet Fluttershy is sorry too. Right? Fluttershy!” Pinkie started to glare at the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy flinched.

“Er, yes, of course!” Fluttershy said, then more softly, “I’m terribly sorry.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t respond. The hug Pinkie was giving her seem to be suffocating her. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets.

“Er, Pinkie?” she gasped, “I. Can’t. Breathe.”

Pinkie let her go, and waited for Dash to catch her breath.

“Ha, thanks. Apologies accepted, but the Mare-Do-Well incident is long gone. I’m fine now,” she said. Fluttershy and Pinkie gave her a hug, one that wouldn’t suffocate her. For a moment they all just stayed in their group hug, enjoying their comfort. They finally broke apart, and realized something. They had solved “the Nightmare’s words” without knowing it. Without a word, they walked back to the castle, smiling softly along the way. The moment they opened the front doors and stepped inside, their smiles were swept off their faces.

Starlight and Spike were nowhere to be seen.

“Where are they?!” Rainbow shouted at the Nightmare. “Where are Starlight and Spike?”

“I won’t say,” came its response. One of the chains that were tied to Twilight’s hooves, which were being controlled by the Nightmare, broke apart. The three friends stared in shock and horror. The Nightmare tugged again, but couldn’t manage to break another chain.

“Your next riddle is this: smile and laugh, even through the darkest times,” the Nightmare said carelessly, focusing on the chains while trying to shake off the thin thread around its horn.

Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie galloped out of the castle. They must use every single second wisely. But when they ran outside, they had to stop. During all of their desperation, they hadn’t realized their surroundings, or how Ponyville, their beloved town, changed.

Rarity and Applejack still had no idea what was going on. They had been recalling memories with Twilight for quite some time. Each time they recalled one, a new floating rectangle will form, holding that memory. It didn’t made any sense to them. But they followed along with Twilight.

Twilight, meanwhile, was getting more and more excited as each new memory returned in her mind. Finally, only one memory was missing. And it was a very fond one.

“Er, Twilight,” Applejack couldn’t help asking, “is all of this memory restoring science or magic?”

“Why,” Twilight replied, “it’s science!”

Shocked silence with stares.

“With some magic,” she added. “Anyway, do you remember the time when I became an alicorn?”

“Yes,” Rarity said.

“Yes,” Applejack said.

Silence.

Nothing happened. Twilight looked around. There was no new floating rectangle holding the memory. She started to panic. She looked around again. There was nothing new.

She looked back at her friends, tears in her eyes.

“Why didn’t it work?” she asked in a desperate, pained voice.