Heartache: Cherished Friendship {Book the First}

The walk out of the castle was silent. The moment they both stepped outside, townsponies surrounded them, using their mouths, hooves-and for the unicorns-their magic to force Fluttershy and Pinkie to stay in place. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie glanced at each other in dismay.

The Nightmare laughed maniacally.

“Nightmare,” Fluttershy said softly, “we solved all of your riddles. Unless you have another one about the Element of Magic, release all of us. We defeated you.”

The Nightmare cackled again.

“Fool!” it shouted. “It was a lie! They were all a lie! The riddles were a lie.”

The three friends were taken aback by this. They merely stared at the Nightmare in shock.

“Did you really think that I’ll simply let you destroy my plans?” the Nightmare hissed. “Riddles will never help you. The riddles I made were hastily created. I put no thought to them. Now, all of Equestria will be mine!”

The Nightmare laughed again.

“Equestria will never be yours!” Pinkie shouted. “Noble shall prevail! Harmony will stay whole!”

“Harmony will never be whole,” the Nightmare hissed through giggles. “You all lost. There was a reason why the princesses didn’t do anything. Twilight Sparkle continued to have nightmares in the past because I made an illusion in the Dream World. While Twilight faced terrors in her dreams, Princess Luna will see that the door to Twilight’s dreams in the Dream World leads to simple happy dreams instead of nightmares. So, she never went to rescue Twilight because she believed that Twilight was fine. Ever since you three started solving stupid riddles, I tried my hardest to use my magic to put the princesses to deep sleep. Not everyone needs their horns to use magic. Fortunately, I succeeded to put the alicorns to sleep, so you never had any help. I knew that Equestria was bound to be mine. Evil has prevailed.”

“That’s not true!” Rainbow bravely cried out. “Friendship is magic! Together, my friends and I will defeat you!”

The three mares gasped as the Nightmare jabbed Twilight’s horn into Dash’s chest a bit deeper.

“Another word, and you shall meet death,” the Nightmare hissed. “Then again, what use do you all have? A chance to defeat me, that’s what. I remember when Luna was being possessed by me, and I thought that the Elements of Harmony would never defeat me. I underestimated them. Now, I won’t take any chances. I shall kill all of you.”

The mares feared for the worst. Suddenly, Fluttershy couldn’t take it anymore. She roared. Her roar was deafening, and it reminded her friends of her ear-piercing scream when she saw her chicken cross the road. Fluttershy didn’t have a care anymore. She bucked the surrounding townsponies. Finally free, she opened her wings and flew into the sky, kicking and punching pegasi out of the air with the same unbelievable strength she had displayed earlier.

Pinkie glanced around. The Nightmare wasn’t jabbing Twilight’s horn into Dash’s chest anymore. It was hissing at Fluttershy. It looked like it wanted to knock Fluttershy out of the sky. Rainbow had taken her chance to escape, and she joined Fluttershy, knocking pegasi out of the sky, her speed giving her an advantage against the townsponies. Normally Pinkie wouldn’t like seeing her best friends beating her other friends, but their situation was desperate. She wasn’t trapped by the townsfolk anymore. Fluttershy had knocked them down. She decided to help her best friends.

She withdrew her party cannon, and blindly fired confetti at random ponies. The colorful confetti were thick in clusters. Soon, the ponies were in a midst of brightly colored confetti. Somewhere in the midst, the Nightmare roared. Although the confetti prevented the Nightmare from finding the three friends, it also prevented them from finding each other. Suddenly, the cannon stopped firing confetti. Pinkie frowned, and shook the cannon. She had never thought her cannon would ever run out of confetti, but what just happened disproves that. Without any more confetti, the small pieces of streamers and papers in the air eventually fell to the ground. The surroundings cleared up to reveal townsfolk writhing on the ground, two pegasi hovering in the air side by side, one dumbfounded earth pony holding a party cannon, and the Nightmare.

Since Fluttershy and Rainbow were exposed, the Nightmare easily spotted them. It pointed Twilight’s horn to them. Magic coursed through the horn as the Nightmare prepared to shoot a laser beam.

Just as the beam shot from the horn, Pinkie slammed herself into the side of the Nightmare. The Nightmare’s aim became off. The Nightmare screamed gibberish as Pinkie scrambled away from it. But that gibberish was soon replaced by screams of agony as the Nightmare clutched Twilight’s head, a bright white light engulfing it. Rainbow and Fluttershy landed next to Pinkie as they all watched.

Eventually, the white light faded away, revealing three new figures. Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy gasped. The three new figures gasped as well.

“Rarity, Applejack, Twilight!” Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pinkie exclaimed.

“Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie!” Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight exclaimed.

The six best friends reunited. They gathered in a tearful group hug. Rarity and Applejack gasped.

“Why,” Rarity remarked, “our bodies! We’re back!”

She turned to Applejack and saw that Applejack was the same as well.

“We got our bodies back!” Rarity continued. “We’re not simple souls anymore!”

They whooped for joy, but then the happiness faltered as Twilight realized something.

“Wait, I still don’t have my body back!” she cried out. Indeed, she was still a slightly transparent soul. The Mane 5 thought that she slightly resembled a ghost. The six mares glanced over to the Nightmare. The Nightmare staggered to Twilight’s hooves, hooves that belong to Twilight, hooves that does not belong to the Nightmare, hooves that the soul of Twilight Sparkle is now looking at. The Nightmare eyed the group, smiling.

Twilight galloped toward the enemy, determined to somehow get her body back. But before she reached her enemy, the Nightmare spoke. It said those words casually, calmly, but it washed away Twilight’s hope and determination.

“If you try to hurt me,” the Nightmare said, “you’ll actually hurt yourself. You’ll hurt your own body, perhaps even destroy it. There’s nothing you could do.”

Twilight galloped to a stop. She realized that the Nightmare was telling the horrible truth. All hope disappeared. She felt broken, and without knowing, she just sat down. The Mane 5 rushed over to her.

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Dash said. “Things will work out in the end.

“Dashie’s right,” Pinkie squeaked. “I’ll throw a party after everything’s back to normal!”

“No, my friends,” Twilight said sadly, shaking her head. “Perhaps friendship isn’t magic after all.”

Meanwhile, the Nightmare had been enjoying Twilight’s despair, hopelessness, and sadness. It was an evil spirit that simply enjoys to watch and feel negative emotions from ponies. But the Nightmare didn’t want to be reckless. After a few more minutes of heartache, the Nightmare ignited Twilight’s horn, creating a deadly spirit bomb.

The Mane 5 looked up. Their eyes widened. They quickly surrounded Twilight, and the group stood closely together. Twilight was huddled up and crying in the middle. The Mane 5 shut their eyes, preparing for impact. Just as the Nightmare let go of the ball of energy, a blast of wind flowed through the mares’ manes and tails. They opened their eyes. A shield of some sort formed around the group, but it wasn’t a normal type of shield created by normal magic. Instead of one color, the shield was rainbow, with colors swirling around. The eyes of the Mane 5 were glowing white, and their manes and tails were whipping through the air by a strange wind. Their hooves were wide apart to prevent them falling over by the wind. A strange powerful aura flowed through them, and they felt like they were being electrocuted.

The spirit bomb the Nightmare released earlier collided with the strange rainbow shield protecting the group. The spirit bomb disintegrated into nothing. The shield continued to protect the Mane 6. The mares weren’t sure what happened next, but a slightly transparent ray of colors shot from the shield to the Nightmare. The ray wasn’t a rainbow. Instead, it was a combination of red, orange, blue, pink, and purple, the colors of the Elements of Harmony, excluding the Element of Magic.

The ray of colors hit the Nightmare in the chest. It screamed in agony, as if the ray was burning it. The Nightmare became engulfed in a white glow as it disintegrated into nothing. A few moments later, the glow faded away. The powerful magic that had flowed through the Mane 5 faded away as well. They blinked away the white glow in their eyes. They each felt strange. They looked back at Twilight. They were still confused by the strange incident, but joy soon replaced confusion.

“Twilight!” Applejack exclaimed. “Look! Your body is back!”

Twilight realized that her friend was right. Her body was bloody and bruised, and she wondered why. She barely cared. She felt happier than she ever felt before. She also felt a bit dizzy. Her ears heard muffled sounds. Her vision became blurry. She listened to her friends’ distressed and worried voices as she began to black out.

Twilight Sparkle laid in her hospital bed. Her best friends were gathered around her. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie had finished telling Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight their part of the story. Rarity and Applejack had told Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie their part of the story. Twilight had stayed silent during all of the story-telling. She had been taking in every single detail, and stored them away in her mind. The Mane 5 weren’t the only ones in the room with her. Starlight and Spike were in the room as well, snoring. They definitely deserved the sleep. The Mane 6, however, simply couldn’t sleep. They were too excited. So much had happened.

Perhaps a bit too much. At least that’s what Twilight thought. But it had made her think. She had done so much in her life with her friends. The day they had all met had started their adventures. Her friends had supported her. They were the ones who made her smile and laugh. They were the ones who comforted her the most. They were the ones who helped her become an alicorn princess. Their struggle against the Nightmare was one of their most hardest, but memorable. All of the things they had been through made her want to cry tears of joy and sadness.

“Girls,” she said quietly.

“Yes?” they all responded.

“Can I have a hug?” Twilight whispered.

No more words were spoken as they all gathered in a group hug.