The school bell rang and Rebel Heart was out the door before anypony could stop her. She ran through the hallway to the exit, flapping her wings for extra speed. The door handle was just within grasp when-
“Hey Rebel!” came a colt’s voice.
She turned, thanking Celestia that it wasn’t a teacher at the least. It was Marble, a colt in the grade below hers with a unique marble coat.
“Whad’ya want kid? I’ve got places to be.”
He grinned shyly. “I was wondering if I could hang out with you today maybe?”
She furrowed her brow and sized him up. “You? Perfect grades Marble? Cried because he couldn’t get down from the jungle gym Marble?”
He blushed deeply, but looked determined. “I know I’m lame, but that’s why I want to go with you. You’re the coolest pony in school, so if I could go on one of your adventures with you...”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of a lone wolf. I don’t do group adventures.”
She opened the door but Marble ran in front of her to block the path.
“Please! I’ll do anything. I can’t take eating lunch alone anymore. I can’t take having to tell my mom that I still don’t have any friends.” Tears started to well up in Marble’s eyes. “Please.”
“Jeez, okay, you can come with. If you get in the way though, I’m leaving you behind. And rule number one of being cool is no crying, so stop.”
Marble dried his eyes and tried to give her an excited hug, but she ducked out of the way. “I’m not the hugging type either.”
He smiled regardless and they headed out the door.
“So where are we going anyway?” he asked.
“Nowhere yet. I have a job for you if you really want to come along. Your mom made cookies for the last bakesale didn’t she?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I want some.”
Marble looked confused. “I don’t know if she even made any today.”
“I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s a homemade desert. I haven’t had one in a long time.”
“Don’t your parents make them for you?”
“Look, just take whatever she did make, lie to your parents about where you’re going, and then meet me by the abandoned park near Everfree.”
“I-I’ve never lied to my parents before.”
“Pfft, yeah right. You’ve never lied about why the door was locked when you were clopping?”
Marble looked horrified. “I don’t do...that!”
“Yeah, sure, whatever. Rule number two of being cool is that you have to stop worrying about stuff. I’ve admit to way worse than clopping and the world didn’t end. Now go get those deserts.”
An hour later, Marble arrived at the abandoned park to find Rebel swinging from the monkey bars.
“Hey Rebel,” he called. “I’m back, and I brought cake.”
She dropped from the bars and walked over to inspect the bounty. “Hey, you did pretty good. Wait, three slices?”
“Oh, I just grabbed what was left. We can cut the third one in half and share it.”
“Pfft, fuck that. I’ll wrestle you for it.”
“What? I’ve never wrestled before. Besides, you’re a filly.”
She grinned. “I’m going to kick your flank is what I am. First one to pin the other for three seconds wins. Ready?”
“No, I ha-”
“Go!”
Rebel charged toward Marble as he backpedaled in fear.
“Wait, please!”
She tackled him to the ground and pinned one of his hoofs.
“Fine!” he said angrily, recoiling his back legs toward his body. As she reached for his second hoof he pushed out with both legs and she flew off, landing on her back.
“Not bad,” she said, getting back up onto her hooves.
“There,” said Marble. “Have I proven myself now or whatever?”
She flashed a cruel smile. “I said you have to pin me for three seconds.”
Before he could protest she charged at him again, this time hitting him square in the side with her shoulder. It knocked the wind out of him, and he hit the ground wheezing. She jumped on him and lay across his chest lengthwise.
“One,” she started.
Marble gasped for air in response.
“Two,”
“Three!”
She got up off his chest, and helped him back to his hooves. His blood was pumping so hard he could hear it pulsing in his head. Part of it was the fight, but it was also exhilarating being that physical with the most popular filly in school. He thanked Celestia that he had an excuse for his face being red.
Rebel barely even looked “That wasn’t too bad for your first fight. Should have flipped me when I shoulder slammed you though.”
“I think I’m done with wrestling for a while.”
“Not if you hang around me you aren’t.”
“What was that all about anyway? Nobody likes cake that much.”
“Gotta be tough if you’re going to go adventuring. And rule number three of being cool is that you have to be able to hold your own in a fight.”
He just sighed and gave her the third piece of cake.
“Mmffn! This is so good.” she said, shoveling it into her mouth.
“Glad you like it. So where’s this adventure we’re going on?”
“It’s in the Everfree Forest. Will only take us like five minutes from here.”
“The Everfree Forest? Are you crazy? That place is super danger– wait a minute. You’re just going to say something like ‘Rule number four of being cool is that you can’t be scared.’ aren’t you?”
“Nope.”
“Really?”
“Yup. Rule number two was to stop being scared, not rule number four.”
“Then what’s rule number four?”
“You think I write this shit down or something? Now hurry up, I want to be back out of the forest before it gets dark.”
Marble looked around nervously when they reached the edge of the forest.
“I don’t know about this Rebel. Wrestling and lying is one thing, but everyone says the Everfree forest is deadly.”
“I come here all the time, it’s not dangerous if you know what you’re doing. Besides, we aren’t going that far in.”
When he still looked unsure, she walked into the forest without him. “This is your last chance Marble. Follow me or be a huge nerd forever.”
“Okay okay!” he said desperately, and ran past the first tree.
“See? Not so bad, is it?” she said.
He looked around and had to admit that she was right. Maybe it was worse at night, but at the moment it looked like any other forest. Well, almost. The trees were still enormous and their upper branches weaved together to block out any direct sunlight, but enough light radiated through into the forest itself that Marble could see everything clearly.
After a few minutes of walking, Rebel stopped. “Well, here it is.” She pointed to a small pitch black cave entrance, barely wide enough for a large stallion to walk through. “I saw it on my way back from a different adventure yesterday, but I didn’t have any torches.”
“And you actually want to go in there?” he asked.
“Well duh. You think we walked here just to look at the entrance and leave?”
She lit some torches for them and stepped into the cave. “Come on. And be quiet, there might be animals in here.”
Once inside, they realized that the small entrance snaked forward instead of opening up into a cave, forcing them to walk single file. After following the first couple of bends, they heard movement coming from up ahead. Marble tapped on Rebel’s shoulder nervously, but she continued walking forward. He knew what her answer would have been anyway, and reluctantly continued following her.
They turned another bend and noticed a faint green glow coming from up ahead. Rebel got down on her elbows and knees and inched forward even more slowly than before.
After what felt like an eternity of crawling, she saw the room that the tunnel led to. It was a small conclave with stone walls and a stone floor. There was a sleeping mat in one corner, and a pile of books next to a desk on another. The only light in the room came from green-glowing mushrooms on the walls. None of that concerned Rebel as much as the male Zebra on the opposite side of the room next to a book stand. He was facing away from Rebel, flipping through an ancient looking book full of strange symbols and written in a language she didn’t recognize.
She whispered what she saw to Marble, and he motioned urgently that they should leave.
“Hold my torch,” she whispered. “I want to grab one of his books; he might be into evil magic or something. Stay here and get ready to run.”
Without waiting for a response, she turned and crept slowly once again toward the room. There was a pile of books fairly close to the tunnel exit, so as long as the zebra didn’t turn around she could grab one without him seeing.
She inched closer toward the pile, reaching for a particularly ominous looking book, bound in purplish leather with a geometrical symbol on the cover. When she touched the book, a horrible wailing noise burst forth and she quickly recoiled her hoof. The zebra turned to see what had happened and locked eyes with Rebel. She grabbed another book at random and bolted toward the tunnel.
“Run Marble!” she shouted.
“Stop!” the zebra called out, but that was the last thing on Rebel’s mind.
She scrambled desperately toward the tunnel, but the Zebra was faster. He placed his hoof on one of the books, causing vines to grow out of the floor and around Rebel’s legs.
“Let her go!” Marble yelled, dashing into the room and pulling at the vines.
“Run you idiot!” she yelled back, but it was too late. More vines sprang up and coiled around Marble’s legs.
The zebra stared at them as they struggled against the vines. “What are you doing here, and why did you try to steal my book?”
Rebel tried to put on a tough face, even though deep down she was terrified. “We were just exploring, and your book looked evil.”
“The book is indeed evil. I am not, however. I study these books to keep the realm safe from dark magic.”
“You use it too though. These vines are dark magic; you don’t even have a horn.” said Rebel.
The zebra raised an eyebrow. “You are very observant. Yes, to fight dark magic, I must learn how it works. That does not make me evil. If I were, I would have killed you both by now.”
Marble finally piped up nervously. “We– we won’t tell anyone about this place if you let us go.”
The zebra looked him over slowly. “I wish I could believe that, young colt. If only I could...ah, yes, that would work.”
The zebra walked over to a chest and took out some herbs.
“What are you doing?” said Marble.
“A potion of forgetfulness. One sip, and you’ll forget everything that happened today. When you wake up, you can both go about your lives as normal, and my secret will remain safe. I’ll move my things to another cave in case you get the same idea again.”
“But then...” Marble said, trailing off. “No!” he shouted. “Today was one of the most important days of my life, and I’m not going to let you erase it.”
Rebel looked surprised. “Don’t worry Marble, you’ll ask me again tomorrow after school.”
Marble frowned. “I don’t think I will. I almost didn’t have the courage to ask you today, and you barely ended up agreeing. If anything is different tomorrow, it probably won’t happen.”
The zebra sighed. “I’m sorry, but there isn’t another way. My work is too important to chance discovery. I was foolish to not hide this area better, and I take full blame for that.” He finished mixing the potion and walked over to Rebel. “Now please, just drink the potion. I’d rather not have to force you.”
“Can you at least let one of my hooves free so I can drink it myself?”
“I suppose one hoof isn’t enough to make trouble.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and the vines around her front left hoof retracted into the ground.
“Thank you.” said Rebel, and the zebra handed her the potion.
“Please don’t forget me, Rebel.” said Marble.
Rebel smiled at him. “Hey, have some faith in me.”
The zebra didn’t look amused. “Enough chatter, drink the potion.”
She lifted the potion to her lips, and as the first drops touched her tongue she lowered the potion and headbutted the zebra’s face. He crumpled to the floor in pain and held his bleeding nose in his forehooves. As he lost focus, the vines released from their hooves.
“Pin him Marble!” said Rebel.
Marble charged over and jumped on the zebra’s chest like Rebel had done to him earlier. As the zebra struggled to unpin himself, Rebel pried his mouth open. She poured the potion down his throat and held his mouth closed. He tried to gag the potion back up, but only a small amount escaped from his nostrils. A few moments later the struggle died down and the zebra was out cold.
“Run!” Rebel said to Marble, and this time he listened.
They didn’t stop running until they had made it all the way back to the abandoned playground where they stopped to catch their breath.
Marble slumped onto the grass and laughed nervously. “Oh my gosh, I’ve never been that scared in my entire– mmph!”
Rebel interrupted him with a kiss on the lips.
“What was- what?” Marble stuttered.
She kissed him again, for much longer this time. Afterward, she leaned back and gave him a devious smile. “Danger always gets my blood flowing.”
Marble could barely think straight. He had daydreamed about this at least a few dozen times, but never in a million years thought it would actually happen. “Thanks.” was all he could say.
She chuckled and started walking back toward the city. “See you at school tomorrow.”
Author's Note
Constructive criticism is appreciated. I realize that it's a bit short/rushed.
