To Fight Against Light

Chapters

Hey, Whats Up With That Alicorn Over There?
The Light! It Burns!
Selena Intermission: An Unfree Goddess
Battle of the ACOTRPS

Hey, Whats Up With That Alicorn Over There?

Chapter 1: Hey, What’s Up With That Alicorn Over There?

Long ago, Equestria was nothing but wild lands where mustangs ran wild. Those were chaotic times, and the ponies of that time were known as savages. Equestria was a land that sorely needed order.

That order came in the form of two alicorns who flew down from space: Luxa, Mare of Light, and Netro, Stallion of Darkness. Those two became the King and Queen of Equestria, and they transformed the land into the peaceful country it is today. Seeing how much good they had brought, the alicorns wished to rule Equestria forever. But something was standing in their way: their daughters, Celestia and Luna.

For several millennia, the princesses waited patiently until they could take the throne. But then, they realized that their parents — namely Luxa — had no intentions of stepping down. Netro was willing to give their daughters a chance, but Luxa vehemently refused each time. You see, her desire to rule eternally had consumed her, and she had gone insane.

When Celestia and Luna confronted their mother about their desire to rule Equestria, Luxa attacked them, aiming to kill them and eliminate the threats to her throne. Fortunately for the solar and lunar princesses, their father burst out of the shadows and struck his wife down. Celestia and Luna immediately cast a spell which banish Luxa deep into space, in the confines of a white hole. But with the last remaining shreds of her strength, Luxa cursed Luna, her younger daughter so that the same thing that had happened to Luxa would happen to Luna. This would prove true, as Luna’s jealousy transformed her into Nightmare Moon later on. But the two sisters had no knowledge of this.

Netro had never posed a threat to his daughters, but nopony trusted him. Many thought that he had just attacked Luxa so he could be the sole ruler of Equestria, and was planning to kill Celestia and Luna later. And so the two mares were forced to send Netro to space, where he was imprisoned in a black hole.

And then, Discord took over, seeing an oppurtunity. But the two princesses used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him. Now, Celestia and Luna had gotten what they wanted. But victory was bittersweet, as they had cast their parents out — one of which was insane — into space. They had every right to be named queens, but in their parents’ memory, they kept their titles as ‘Princess’.

Now, Luxa and Netro remain in space, but the bonds that hold them are slowly but steadily weakening. And it seems the rulers of Equestria may have forgotten about them . . .

“Weird story,” I commented, using magic to fling the book aside.

“Hey! Watch where you’re throwing that book!” someone yelled. I turned and saw a certain small purple dragon, the book I had thrown inches away from him.

I smiled wryly. “Sorry, Spike. Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to the train. A lot of ponies are probably waiting . . . hey, what’s that?” A piece of parchment had drifted out of the book and was now lying on the floor. Looking over at it, I saw that it was a picture of two alicorns. The first one was female and was a yellowish-white color. Her mane was pink and blue, and she emitted a bright white glow. The second alicorn was male and had a black coat with a gray flank. His mane was dark teal. He reminded me of Nightmare Moon, as he was drawn with darkness around him and he had blue eyes with slit-pupils. Actually, the white alicorn had the same eyes. Under them, someone had written some runes.

“Hey, what does that say?” I asked, pointing with my horn.

Spike came over and looked at the old paper. “I don’t know . . .” He took the paper and rolled it up. “I’ll show this to Twilight, and maybe she can study it.”

“Okay,” I said. “Now, I really have to get going. I don’t want the train to Canterlot to be delayed.”

“All right. Bye, Sparky!”

I replied with a nod and walked out of the library, heading for Ponyville’s train station. Equestria has one looped train line with which goes through all major cities. Except Cloudsdale. How are you supposed to get a train up there, anyways? But it doesn’t matter. Most pegasi prefer to fly.

The newest model of train introduced is pretty awesome, though, and not just because I drive it. Instead of running on coal, steam, or electricity, it runs on magic. All I have to do is stand in the engine car and direct my magic into a valve that leads to the engine.

When I reached the station, a cream-colored pegasus named Flash Fire flew up to me. Oh, and he happened to be my best friend. “Hey, Sparky!” he called. “What took you so long?”

“I was at the library reading a weird story about psycho alicorns,” I replied. “Did you get all the tickets from everypony who’s boarding the train?”

“Uh . . . no! I’m doing that right now!” Flash Fire zoomed off into the nearest train car.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the engine car. “That pegasus is not engineer material,” I said to myself. Of course, he wasn’t a unicorn, so he couldn’t drive the train, anyways. Flash would have to settle for being the conductor. I sat down in front of the control panel, impatiently waiting for Flash Fire to return.

When I heard wingbeats in the car, I said, “Everyone accounted for?”

“Yeah.”

I magically pressed a button, turning on the speaker system. “This is Sparky Flourish, your railroad engineer,” I said. “Here at Equestria Rail, safety is our number one concern. So, please keep your hooves — and all other parts of your body — in the car at all times. Thank you.”

Turning to the valve, I sat and focused all my magic into it. The train started to move, slowly at first, but then picking up speed. Looking to one side at the clock, I noticed we were a few minutes late. I hated being late, especially if the train was going to the capital of Equestria. So I leaned forward and stuck my horn in the valve, increasing the flow of energy. Behind me, Flash Fire snickered.

“Oh, you’re so mature,” I muttered to him.

The pegasus slapped a hoof over his mouth. “Sorry, Sparky,” he said, “it’s just that —”

“I don’t care!” I yelled. “What I care about is getting to Canterlot on time, and if I have to stick my horn in the valve, then I’m sticking my horn in the valve!”

Flash opened his mouth to say something, but I never got to hear it. At that moment, all the passengers started screaming. I jerked my horn out of the valve, cutting the engine’s magic supply. “Trouble!” I exclaimed. “Come on, Flash, get ready to fight!”

I charged out of the doors, head down and horn out. Flash flew after me. Outside, I looked around. It looked calm, but everypony inside the train screaming told me otherwise.

“Well, the train’s not being attacked from outside,” Flash said, flying over the train to look over at the other side. When he came back, he said, “Then the problem’s inside one of the cars! Come on!” The cream pegasus took the lead, ducking into the first passenger car. I galloped after him, looking around. There was nothing dangerous in the car. So why did ponies keep screaming?

“What’s wrong?” I asked the first pony I saw, a blue earth pony.

“N-Nightmare Moon is here!” she stammered.

I was taken aback. How did Luna turn back into Nightmare Moon? I thought she and Celestia were all good now! “What?!” I exclaimed. “Princess Luna is —”

“— possibly threatening the passengers!” Flash finished for me. “Maybe the passengers are wrong, but still, something’s scaring them. Come on! Where’s Nightmare Moon?” he asked the earth pony.

“In the back of the train!”

“Thanks!” I said, galloping towards the doors that led to the next car. As we made our way to the back, ponies stopped panicking and let us through. The last car was no different from the other cars. Everypony was panicking . . . except for the black alicorn wearing neon orange shutter shades and an indigo vest in the back. The alicorn was similar to Nightmare Moon because it was the same color and had the same eyes, but it looked like the alicorn was larger that her from what I could remember. And the alicorn was a male. Unlike everyone else, he sat calmly in his seat, talking to himself.

“Curses,” he was saying. “I disguise myself and even learn the modern language, but everypony still quakes in fear upon seeing me! And I am often accused of being somepony named Nightmare Moon . . .” He swung his head towards us. “You two don’t seem to be afraid of me. Who is this ‘Nightmare Moon’?”

“What?!” I screeched without even thinking. “How do you not know who Nightmare Moon is? You’ve had to be away from Equestria for thousands of years!”

“I have been,” the alicorn replied grimly.

“Nightmare Moon is Princess Luna turned evil,” Flash replied. I was actually surprised Flash was helpful. He was usually always so absent-minded. “She overthrew her older sister Celestia and tried to make the night last forever. But she’s not evil any more. The Elements of Harmony —”

“He wanted to know who she was, not her entire life story,” I interrupted before Flash could go off and start blabbing like he was The Complete History of Nightmare Moon or something.

Looking up, I noticed that the alicorn looked sad. “Luna . . .” he said. “She’s all right now? And Celestia, too?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “As far as I know, Their Majesties are in good health. Why do you ask?” It sounds crazy, but the alicorn we were talking to looked a lot like that one alicorn in the book I had been reading in the library. What was he . . . The Stallion of Darkness or something?

“I ask because those two are my daughters,” he said quietly. However, Flash’s and my reactions weren’t so quiet.

“WHAT?!” we screamed at near-the same time.

“You’re Celestia’s and Luna’s father?” Flash asked incredulously. “That means — that means you’re the king of Equestria!”

I frowned, remembering the book. “I thought you were stuck in a black hole! How did you get out?” Well, maybe it didn’t matter. In the book, he was the good guy, after all. I think.

Flash tapped me on the shoulder with one hoof. “Hey Sparky, I think everyone’s calmed down. They must have heard or seen us talking with Not-Nightmare Moon and figured he’s not dangerous.”

“So we can get going now?” I asked. “But then . . . We’re going to be late to get to Canterlot! Gah! What if they fire me? What are we going to do, Flash? I don’t have enough magic to get us there on time!”

“Excuse me,” the alicorn said. “If you need magic, I would be happy to assist you. I need to get to Canterlot without any delay. I have to warn everypony!”

“About what?” Flash asked. I was curious about that too, but that alicorn seemed sort of tight-lipped. I guess spending tens of thousands of years stuck in a black hole with nobody else around wouldn’t make you the most talkative pony.

Just like I predicted, the alicorn didn’t reply. So I decided to ask him an easier question. “What’s your name again? I read it in a book, but I forgot.”

“Ah . . . My name is Netro. King Netro.”

When we reached the engine car, Netro looked around in surprise. “This is . . . What am I supposed to do to power this . . . ?”

“Train,” Flash said.

The black alicorn nodded. “Thank you. What am I supposed to do to power this train?”

“You stick your horn in this valve” — I tapped the valve — “and channel all of your magic down it.” Hearing a certain pegasus snicker behind me, I added, “Shut up, Flash.”

“All right. What are your names?” Netro asked. “I’ve been away for so long, and I would at least like to know the names of two of my subjects.”

“I’m Sparky Flourish,” I said. “And this immature moron here is —”

“Excuse me,” Flash interrupted. “The ‘immature moron’ can introduce himself. I’m Flash Fire.” He spread his wings out dramatically and started hovering in the air.

“It is truly a pleasure to meet you two,” the king replied. “Now, I think we’ve dawdled long enough. He stuck his head out and placed his horn in the valve.

The train started up and moved forwards at an impossible speed. I didn’t even know it could go that fast! Anyways, I tumbled into the back wall of the train. A crash and yell above me indicated that Flash had landed somewhere near the door leading to the next car. He slid down the wall and landed next to me.

“Holy crap . . .” he croaked. “Ugh . . . We’re going way too fast!”

My head throbbed pretty bad, and my neck was sore. But I couldn’t move, as the train didn’t show any signs of slowing down. I couldn’t see anything except blurs through the windshield. How was I supposed to spot Canterlot’s train station? It was big and made of white marble, but I wouldn’t be able to see it at the speed we were going at!

I thought I saw something white coming up. In fact, I was sure it was the station. “Stop, Netro! We’re at the station! Stop using magic!”

“What did you say?” Netro turned his head to look at me, effectively stopping the train. Abruptly. I was thrown forward into the control panel, hitting my head on something metal. Flash smashed into the windshield. Imagining him stuck on the windshield like a bug would had at least made me smirk some, but my head was hurting too hard.

“I was saying that you should stop the train,” I groaned, “but it seems like you’ve already done that.”

“My apologies,” he replied, noticing Flash stuck to the glass in front of him.

“Can’t . . . move . . .” the orange-maned pegasus groaned. Netro quickly levitated him onto the floor.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, getting up. “I’m not a wimp!” Suddenly, Flash’s legs gave out from under him. “It’s just . . . I had a muscle spasm! Yeah, that’s why I fell!”

“Whatever you say,” I replied. “Now, are we at the station, or was I just being stupid? If I find out that I was smashed into walls for nothing, I swear I’m going to —”

“I believe those modern runes on the white building read ‘Canterlot Train Station’,” the black alicorn said, looking out a side window.

“Really?” I got up and darted to the window with surprising speed. I managed to get up off my front hooves and look through the window (yes, I am pretty short). Like Netro had said, we were at the station. And then I felt all the pain from smashing into the control panel. I fell back, hitting my head for the third time that day. “Ow.” I got up. “Now, we can have a break.”

“Finally!” Flash exclaimed, practically zipping out of the engine car.

“Jeez!” I looked out the open door. “And you were the pony falling on the floor a second ago!”

“Actually, that was you,” Netro replied.

“Shut u —” I started to say. Then, I remembered it was the King of Equestria I was talking to. “I mean, you’re right, Your Majesty.” I put a hoof on the control panel, pressing the button that opened all the doors on the train. “I’m taking a look at the schedule. What are you going to do? If I were you, I wouldn’t go marching through the city like you own it — uh, actually, you might. But that’s not the point! Everypony in Canterlot might think you’re Nightmare Moon and then —”

“I’m going to see my daughters,” the alicorn said simply. “And then, I have to warn everypony before it’s too late . . .”

Again with that ‘I have to warn everybody’ business. What was the problem? Equestria seemed safe. There was nopony (or draconequs) like Nightmare Moon or Discord around, and the monsters in Everfree Forest weren’t rampaging around. Maybe Netro was behind the times, like Luna had been. Well, at least he wasn’t using the Royal Canterlot Voice.

I stepped out of the car and looked at the schedule posted on the station wall. “Train’s leaving for Manehattan in two-and-a-half hours. I guess I’ll stick around when you warn everypony about . . . whatever you’re warning them about.”

“What’s up?” someone asked. I jumped and almost stabbed Flash Fire with my horn.

“Don’t do that!” I snapped. “I swear, one of these days I’m gonna kill you . . .”

Flash looked down at me like I was a madmare. “Well . . . You didn’t answer my question? What’s up?”

“His Majesty over here’s going to warn everypony about whatever he said he was warning everypony about. And he’s going to meet with his daughters after . . . a really long time.”

“Yes, there’s so much I want to talk with them about . . .” Netro looked up at the sky. “And so little time. We must make haste to Canterlot Castle!”

Galloping after an extremely large alicorn with extremely long legs was not fun. And Flash didn’t have any problem keeping up with him, since he could fly. As for me . . . I was making a foal of myself. So I decided to screw getting exercise and teleported myself to the castle.

When I got there, I felt like throwing up. I wasn’t used to teleporting, as I only used my magic for smaller things like driving the train. Tough it out, I told myself, shaking my head. I was surprised to see Netro and Flash coming up towards me. “Look who finally decided to come!” the cream pegasus called out once he saw me.

“Shut up!” I hissed in annoyance. “I got here before you did!”

“Because you used magic,” Flash said. “And —”

A unicorn guard levitated a spear towards us. “State your name and business.” We must have looked like assassins to him, with us flying or galloping or teleporting in and all. And I wondered, what did he make of the alicorn?

“We are here to see the princesses,” Netro said in a commanding tone.

“I’m sorry, but they are not open for audiences now,” the guard replied. “You’ll have to come back later.”

Netro glared down at him through his orange shutter shades. A black vortex began to swirl under his hooves. “Under my authority, you will let me speak to the princesses.” He reared up on his back legs, spread his wings, and bellowed, “FOR WE ARE THE KING OF EQUESTRIA!”

Now I knew where Luna had gotten her melodramatic nature from.

The doors to the throne room burst open, and Celestia and Luna walked into the great hall.

“What is going on here?” Celestia asked, staring at us with confusion.

Luna, meanwhile, looked at Netro and gasped. She nudged her sister with one wing. “Tia, is that . . .”

Celestia swung her head towards Netro. I couldn’t tell exactly, but she looked like she was tearing up. “Father?” she asked.

Using his magic, Netro took of his shades so we could see his face. He put them on Flash, who immediately looked at his reflection in the polished marble floor. “I look awesome!” he cried.

Everyone ignored him.

“Yes,” Netro said softly. “I have returned, my dears.” He galloped over to them, and the three alicorns wrapped their wings around each other. Everypony in the room couldn’t help but cry a little. I looked over at Flash and saw that tears were running from under his new shades.

“You crying too?” I asked with a smirk.

“No!” he snapped defensively. “There’s no way this sappy stuff could make me cry! I just . . . these shades hurt my eyes! I have no idea how Netro wears them!” The pegasus scoffed, flicking his orange tail in annoyance.

“I’m sorry I forgot to release you from the black hole,” Celestia was saying. “It’s just . . . After you were banished, Discord, spirit of chaos took over Equestria, and we were hard-pressed to defeat him . . . and after that, we just forgot.”

“Please forgive us!” Luna said. “And forgive me for what I’m going to tell you . . . I felt jealous that everypony loved Celestia’s day and ignored my night, and then I —”

“— Became Nightmare Moon, right?” Netro guessed.

Luna was startled by that. “Yes! How did you figure that out?”

Netro turned to me and Flash. “Those ponies told me about what happened.”

In an instant, all three alicorns were looking at me. I didn’t like the feeling that washed over me. It felt like I was being scrutinized. “Uh . . . yeah, we did,” Flash, who didn’t seem so nervous, said. “A lot of ponies thought your father was Nightmare Moon and he didn’t know who that was, so we told him about her.”

“Ah,” Luna said. But she still didn’t look so steady. “I see. Thank you for informing my father. But do you forgive me for it?” she asked, turning to Netro.

“Well, did Celestia forgive you for it? You must have hurt her badly when you turned against her,” the black alicorn replied.

“I did,” Celestia replied.

“Then, I see no reason why I shouldn’t forgive you,” Netro replied.

Luna collapsed against her father’s neck. “Oh, Father . . . thank you!”

Netro let her cry for a few seconds until he gently pushed her off with his wings. “I think I have wasted too much time . . . We have to warn everypony!” He turned to the guards. “Gather everypony in Canterlot in the courtyard outside the castle. I have an important announcement to make.”

“About what?” Luna asked. “You seem uneasy.”

“I’ll tell you later. There’s no time to waste!” Netro galloped out of the hall, heading to the courtyard. Luna and Celestia shared an uncertain look before following him.

“. . . What just happened?” Flash asked.

“Netro’s going to explain what he’s warning everypony about,” I replied. “You wanted to hear it, so I guess we better get going to the courtyard.” Glancing down at my watch, I added, “We’ve got time.”

We were standing in the courtyard. Everypony had been gathered, and Netro was about to begin. To do this, he spread his wings.

“Now, I don’t think many ponies know who I am,” he said. “And so I will begin by introducing myself. I am Netro, Stallion of Darkness. In addition, I am the father of Celestia and Luna, which makes me the king of Equestria.” He paused, letting everypony in the audience gasp. When they settled down, he resumed. “Now, let me tell you a story. I used to rule Equestria along with my wife Luxa, Mare of Light. When Celestia and Luna were of age, we were supposed to step down and let them rule. To be truthful, my wife and I did not want to step down because of all the good we had done when we were king and queen. I saw sense after a while, but Luxa did not. She wanted nothing more but to rule Equestria forever.

“I tried to convince her to step down, but to no avail. Luxa . . . she had gone insane. And for some strange reason, her appearance had changed, as well. At any rate, it matched her change in disposition.

“One day, I decided it would be more convincing if Celestia and Luna personally asked her for the throne. How wrong I was. They had barely gotten a word in when Luxa struck them with magical bolts of lightning. Her intent was to kill them so nopony could challenge her for the throne. Fortunately, I had been expecting something like that. So I had hidden in the throne room, disguised as a shadow. I leaped out and stabbed Luxa in the side before she could do anything else to our daughters. The attack surprised her, and she fell to the floor, incapacitated.

“Seeing an opening, the princesses quickly cast a spell that banished her to a white hole. All was well . . . for a few minutes.

“Soon after, ponies clamored for me to be banished, as well. Many believed that I wanted to be the sole ruler and was helping my daughters only so Luxa would be eliminated. Eventually, riots started up, and Celestia and Luna had no choice but to agree to my banishment. Beforehand, they promised me I would be freed a few thousand years after, when everything had blown over. And then they banished me to a black hole, binding me with a seal weaker than the seal they had used on Luxa.

“And so, we come to what happened today. Due to their focus on their duties as regents, Celestia and Luna had forgotten to free me. I am here today because I escaped from the black hole. The bonds were weakened, but nonetheless, it was a difficult task. Black holes suck in and crush all matter in the vicinity, and nothing, not even light, can escape from it. But I was magically bound to the black hole, which meant I was actually a part of it. However, the black hole sapped my strength — namely, my magical energy, which is why it took me so long to escape.

“Of course, conversely, white holes give strength. And I have reason to believe that on the other side of the black hole I was imprisoned in was the white hole Luxa was imprisoned in. So, that meant my magical energy was being given to her. Combined with her already existing vast amounts of magical energy . . . Even though the bonds holding her to the white hole are stronger, her power must be sufficient enough for her to break out.

“That is what I am here to warn you about. Luxa will come back soon, and we all have to be wary. I’m warning you, the good citizens of Canterlot first because I know that Luxa will come here first to take the throne and exact her revenge. But I request that some pegasi fly out and warn all the other cities in Equestria. I will go out and try to stop her, but all of you must be vigilant. That is all.”

Everything was silent. A few courier ponies went inside the castle. They were probably preparing to get the word out. Meanwhile, Netro looked displeased as he stared out at us. What did he expect? Cheering? He had just stated that a madmare was coming to kill us all!

“We’ll help,” Luna said. “You said yourself that Luxa’s gotten more powerful.” I was surprised she didn’t call Luxa “Mother”, but then I thought a mare like that didn’t deserve the title.

“You’ll fare better with assistance,” Celestia added. “No matter how strong she is, she won’t be able to stand up to the combined magic of three alicorns.”

“No,” Netro replied firmly. “This is my fight, and my fight alone. Besides . . . I don’t want you to die. She’ll surely try to kill you two again. My mind has been made up. Please do not ask me again.” Turning to the crowd, he said, “You have been dispersed!”

As we walked back to the station, Flash Fire asked, “So, what do you think?”

I stared down at my watch. “I think that it’s time to get back to the train. We’re going to Manehattan in half an hour, and I really don’t want to be late.”

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound as a building a few blocks off burst into flames.

The Light! It Burns!

Before we start, I just have to say that all similarities to My Little Alicorn are coincidental. I didn’t even know the fic existed until I was halfway done with this chapter!

Chapter 2: The Light! It Burns!

Flash landed next to me with a small plop. “What do you think that was?” he asked. He didn’t even try to act tough and hide the fear in his voice.

“Hmm, let’s see,” I mused. “Fire is a type of light. Who do you think that was?” Make no mistake, I was freaked out, too. But I couldn’t panic, so I had to put up a sarcastic front.

“But Luxa can’t be here already!” Flash cried.

“Didn’t you hear Netro’s story about how she’s extremely powerful now?” I asked.

“Well . . .” Flash started flying again. “Then we have to do something to help! Come on, we’re going to the castle!”

“Help?” I scoffed. “Do the words extremely powerful madmare mean anything to you? Luxa could probably kill us just by pointing her horn at us!” I marched down the street in the opposite direction. “You should just go back to work.”

However, it seemed we couldn’t go back to work. When we returned to the (impossibly crowded) train station, the train was already gone. “What the hell! Where’s the train?” I yelled.

“Canterlot is being evacuated,” a mare next to me explained. “The trains are being manned by the royal guards right now. The train schedule is going back to normal when this situation is contained. ” She must have noticed my engineer’s uniform, then.

I could feel Flash’s smug grin. “Oh, all right, then!” I yelled. “But I’m warning you, she’ll kill us!”

“Not if we sneak attack her, like Netro did,” the pegasus replied. “Let’s go!”

I still have no idea what possessed me to gallop after him. Well, somepony needed to make sure he didn’t get killed.

When we reached the castle, I gasped with horror. As it turned out, it wasn’t some random building but the garden that was on fire. Screaming ponies were running out. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the front wall of the castle had a hole blown in it. Netro fell through it, awkwardly crashing to the ground.

“Uh . . . let’s hide here!” Flash pointed to a large unicorn-shaped topiary which the fire hadn’t reached yet. He jumped into it. I sighed and followed him. We peered at the courtyard through the spaces in the branches. Thankfully Flash’s and my eyes were green and brown respectively. Plant colors. If you didn’t give us a second glance, I bet you wouldn’t have noticed us.

“Remember, no talking,” I whispered to Flash. “But if you have to, be very quiet.”

“Right,” he whispered back.

And so watching from the bush, we saw the scene unfold.

Netro stood up. I was in awe that he didn’t look hurt that much. The alicorn glared at the castle, bellowing, “Going after our daughters? Come out and fight me, you coward!”

Bright light suddenly shone through the hole, and a figure leaped out and landed gracefully in front of Netro.

I gasped at the sight of the alicorn. Luxa looked so . . . different. Her mane, which had been wavy and colored pink-and blue, was spiky and colored red and black. The same went for her tail, too, and the hairs looked like scythe blades. She had been colored a light yellow, but now her fur was more of a dark grayish mustard yellow. She wore a weird spiky crown made of diamond and a tattered red cape. And most startling of all, her wings were now bat wings.

The Mare of Light laughed, the grating sound making me flinch. “Coward?” she asked. “Are you referring to me? Because as I remember it, you were the one who allowed himself to be banished to space. And I will fight you, but . . . you said yourself that I am much stronger than you.”

“It doesn’t matter!’ Netro cried, firing a blast of dark magic at his wife. Luxa just lowered her head so the blast that would have gotten her in the chest hit her crown instead. Besides the crown turning a dark color, nothing happened.

Luxa grinned savagely. “See? You can’t use magic on me. I’ll just absorb it. Give up now, and I’ll let you off easy.”

Suddenly, Celestia and Luna charged out of the castle. “You can’t, Mother!” she cried.

“WE’RE YOUR FAMILY!” Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice in an attempt to be intimidating.

“Celestia! Luna! I told you I could handle this on my own!” Netro chastised.

“Oh, trying to be noble, are you?” The spidery alicorn turned and looked to her daughters. “Hm . . . You two do have a point. Very well. I won’t kill you two or your father.” Luxa turned to Netro, the crystalline material of her crown glinting evilly. “I’ll just do THIS!” The magic stored in her crown turned a bright white, and she fired a beam at Netro. It was a shadowy — or should I say light copy of the beam he had fired at her previously.

The beam was a concentrated blast of light, but the second it touched the dark alicorn, it completely engulfed him. Netro screamed in pain and I could smell burnt hair. We didn’t see what happened after that. The light was too bright and I had to close my eyes. It didn’t help at all. The thin skin of my eyelids only blocked out a bit of the light.

“Is it over? I can’t take it anymore!” Flash whispered like he was watching a horror movie and didn’t want to see the scary parts.

The light abated. “Yes, it’s over,” I replied. “You can look now.” Cracking my eyes open, I saw that Netro was gone. No, he wasn’t exactly gone, I observed, looking down. A black alicorn colt the size of a newborn was in his place. The singed vest that he had been wearing earlier covered him like a blanket.

His intelligence seemed intact. “How dare you!” Netro yelled in his new squeaky voice. “This is degrading and —”

“That’s the point.” Luxa cackled insanely. “Behold, the almighty Netro, god-king of Equestria! Watch how ponies tremble when he walks by! Of course, they tremble with laughter!” She demonstrated such laughter, raising her head and laughing like the madmare she was.

Somewhere to the right, a bush exploded and Celestia came flying out, her horn aimed at Luxa’s flank. Feeling the horn pierce her side, the Mare of Light magically jerked Celestia into the air. Her side tore and blood poured out, but she didn’t seem to care. “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” she said. “I suppose I’ll have to protect my sides more.” She turned to the wound and muttered a spell which closed it immediately.

The attack wasn’t over yet. Luna swooped out of the sky, aiming for Luxa’s crown. However, the yellow alicorn looked up and froze her in place, too. “I’ll just take you two prisoner,” she said to her immobilized daughters. “Of course, one prisoner is easier to keep track of than two, so . . .” She levitated both princesses and smashed them together! I flinched. What the hell was she thinking? Luxa was crazy, though. She had probably thought it would have done something.

Actually, it did. Luxa was now levitating not two mares but one. The mare floating in the air looked like a mixture of Celestia and Luna. She was a dark blue like Luna, but she had Celestia’s mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a combined moon and sun. “Hmm . . .” Luxa mused. “I’ll call you . . . I’ll call you Selena. Oh, I almost forgot!” Her horn glowed bright white, and Selena’s wings disappeared. I vaguely remembered somepony saying that Discord had done something like that to the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

“Now you can’t fly away. I can deal with magical attacks, but I’ll get something to cover your horn soon to make sure you can’t use magic.” Luxa turned and began to walk into the castle.

Flash and I looked at each other.

“Three . . .”

“Two . . .”

“One . . .”

“NOW!”

We charged out of the bush like Celestia had done a minute ago. I wasn’t the fastest runner (hey, I have short legs!), but I kept my head down, aiming to stab Luxa in the leg or something. Flash had an easier time flying at her.

Then she turned around. “Foals!” she hissed. “This is a family matter. I’ll teach you not to eavesdrop!” Pillars of light suddenly erupted from the clouds, dropping down on us.

If I thought the light was horrible when Netro got burned, then this was unbearable. It was almost impossible to close my eyes, and it burned horribly, so horribly . . . My head was spinning and I just wanted it to stop — Nothing. The burning was over, and it was pleasantly dark. Then, there was a rush as I was teleported away.

The first thing I heard was Flash’s voice. “Oh my Celestia . . . I think we were just roasted.”

“Roast whatever you want, I’m taking a nap,” I groaned. The grass we were on was so soft . . . Celestia knows, I needed a nap, and where we were seemed to be a good place to take one.

To my left, I heard a rustling noise as Flash struggled to get up. “Sparky!” he screamed. “I . . . I can’t see!”

Pain shot through my head. I winced. “Maybe you’re not opening your eyes!” I opened my eyes and swung my head to face him. But I didn’t see anything. “NETRO HELP US!” I screamed, seeing as he was the only alicorn who wasn’t evil, imprisoned, or fused to her sister.

Somepony else next to us sighed. “Fine,” he said in a squeaky voice. The pony quickly said a spell. “My apologies if it doesn’t work right away,” he said. “My power hasn’t been fully restored yet, and it doesn’t help that that accursed Luxa turned me into this . . . not that you can see me.”

The spell slowly began to take effect. First, my head stopped throbbing. Then, the pain from my burns gradually stopped. Lastly, my eyesight came back, and with a start, I saw that we were lying in a field. In front of us was Netro the newborn colt.

“Thanks,” I said. “Now where are we?”

“We are on the outskirts of Ponyville,” Netro responded. “Now, where should we . . .”

“Just wondering, were you regressed to a colt or just turned into colt form?” I asked. There is a difference, after all. If he was regressed, then he wouldn’t have a cutie mark. If he was just forced into a colt’s body, he still would. However, there was still the image of a swirling black hole on his gray flank. “Ah, all right.”

Meanwhile, Flash was thinking hard about something. “If you want a place to go, how about we go to the Ponyville library? I heard Sparky talking about a book she read there about you and Luxa.”

“It sounds as good of a place as any,” Netro said. “Let’s go. But there is a problem. How are we supposed to get through Ponyville without attracting unwanted attention? Many ponies are sure to stop by and ask about me, an alicorn.”

“Well,” Flash said proudly, “I have a plan for that.”

“This plan sucks!” I complained. We had initiated Flash’s plan, which was claiming that we were Netro’s parents.

“Hey, is that an alicorn?” someone asked.

“Yes,” I said dryly. “When a unicorn and a pegasus have a foal, there’s a very small chance it will be an alicorn.”

In that way, we passed through Ponyville and managed to get through the library.

“Which book is it again?” Flash asked me.

“The Creation of Equestria. Very original name, if I do say so myself.” I replied.

However, when we looked inside the library, we saw that the book was already being read by a very distressed Twilight Sparkle. “Come on!” she said, using magic to flip through the pages. “This book refers to a prophecy about how Luxa can be defeated. Where is it?”

“Oh!” Spike said. “My bad. I was meaning to give you this.” He handed Twilight the old parchment I had found in the book earlier in the day.

“That’s it!” the purple unicorn exclaimed. “Thank you, Spike!” She levitated the paper over to her and looked at it. “Hmm . . . that has to be the prophecy written in old runes in the bottom! Oh, where did I put that book on how to translate old runes . . .” She searched through the books on the shelves. “It’s not here! Spike, have you seen it?”

“No,” the baby dragon replied.

“Oh my gosh! Then how are we supposed to defeat Luxa . . . The Elements of Harmony will work, won’t they?”

I think Twilight was asking a rhetorical question, but Netro flew in to answer her anyways. “I beg your pardon for eavesdropping, but it won’t work.”

“Huh?” She looked at Netro like the alicorn had come in to kill her. Twilight glanced at the parchment. “Oh my! It’s King Netro!” She quickly bowed down to him. “But why are you a colt?”

“Luxa did this to me,” he replied. “As I was saying, the Elements of Harmony won’t work. Luxa has a crown that can absorb any magical attack and reflect it onto the attacker.”

“Then how are we supposed to — oh right, the prophecy! But I can’t find the guide to reading old runes!” Twilight turned to the shelves. “Oh well. I’ll have to keep looking.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Netro said. “I can read old runes. Would you mind giving me the paper?”

“Of course!” Twilight levitated the parchment over to Netro, who took control of it with his own magic.

Netro stared at the paper. “Hmm . . . Let’s see . . .

“The Mare of Light will be defeated by three

Pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony

To another land they must quest

With the items of power they will be blessed

And only then will they be able to fight

And defeat the Mare of Light.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “So the answer this time isn’t anything like the magic of friendship.”

Netro nodded. “Yes, it’s just good old-fashioned weapons this time. I think I can handle this this time, bearer of the element of . . .”

“Magic,” the mare answered.

“Ah,” the black colt replied. “This time, I think you can have a well-deserved rest.” He must have noticed her panic when we first entered the library.

“Thank you, Your Majesty!” With another bow, Twilight Sparkle disappeared up the stairs.

For a while, we just stood in the library, Netro eying us. It was unnerving to be scrutinized by a newborn colt — or rather, a god-king in the body of a newborn colt.

“What’s with the stare?” Flash asked.

“I think . . . you two may be the pegasus and unicorn in the prophecy,” Netro answered gravely.

For a while, everything was silent. Then, Flash and I started laughing. “Are you kidding?” the cream pegasus asked. “Me and Sparky? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! We’re not heroes, we’re . . . ponies who work on a train!”

Netro rolled his eyes and sighed. “Well, you’re the only leads I’ve got. How about we . . . go somewhere more secluded to talk?”

We ended up walking to Sweet Apple Acres. Not many ponies passed by that way, so we could talk freely. Netro had enough forethought to bring the parchment with him. On the way, the paper glowed and kept attaching itself to my face and Flash’s face.

I had asked what was going on and Netro explained that it was enchanted to locate the heroes once the prophecy was spoken aloud. So there was no doubt about it that Sparky and I were the pegasus and unicorn in the prophecy.

We had sat down in a grassy area. “So, what are your special talents?” Netro asked.

I sighed. “Driving trains.” I shifted my flank so he could see my cutie mark of an engine car. “I got this after I first tried to drive the magic-powered train. It’s nothing much.”

“And yours, Flash Fire? That cutie mark of a fireball seems abstract.”

“I can fly like a meteor!” Flash boasted. “But that’s nothing compared to Rainbow Dash. Seriously! You should see her fly! Especially when she does that Sonic Rainboom . . .”

I waved a hoof in his face. “Earth to fancolt.”

“Hey!” he yelled. “I was just saying!”

“Yeah, whatever,” I replied. “Now, who do you think is the earth pony?”

“I don’t know,” Netro replied. “But the parchment will reveal it. Sooner or later. Even if we have to walk through all of Equestria —”

“Except Cloudsdale. Earth ponies, remember?” Flash pointed out.

“Then we can use the train!” I realized. “Hey, this won’t be as hard as I thought —” Suddenly, I yawned. All the excitement of the day was making me tired. “I’m taking a nap, guys. Wake me up if something interesting happens, ‘k?” I rolled on one side and went to sleep.

It couldn’t have been long when Netro started poking me in the side with his horn. It was still a little nub, so it didn’t hurt. “Huh?” I asked, sitting up.

“The parchment,” Flash said. Looking at it, I noticed it was hovering in the air. There was no colored magic field around it, so it couldn’t have been a unicorn messing with us.

The parchment quickly flew away. “After it!” I yelled, lunging after the paper. Flash flew along, and Netro . . . Netro had to leap on my back. The colt was surprisingly heavy, and I staggered as I tried to follow the paper. It moved slowly, though, and we had no trouble catching up to it when it did attach to somepony’s face.

“Sorry!” I called out when I saw the big red stallion that was the parchment’s target. “It’s the wind! The breeze must have acted up and blew the old parchment we were studying in your face.” I levitated the paper out of his face and saw that it was Big Macintosh, one of the members of the Apple Family that owned Sweet Apple Acres. Well, he was an earth pony.

“Why did you tell him that?” Netro whispered harshly. “There’s no need to lie to him, he’s one of the heroes!” The alicorn jumped on my head.

“Augh!” I exclaimed in surprise. “Warn me if you’re going to do that, would you?”

“Sorry,” he whispered back. “Excuse me, sir. I don’t know what she was talking about, as the parchment landed on your face for a specific reason. A reason that is too sensitive to discuss here. Do you have time to take a break for a bit and following us to a place where we can talk without the fear of anyone listening in?”

“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh replied.

We led him to the glade we had been resting in earlier. When we had settled down, Netro’s voice suddenly echoed in our minds. Excellent! I can still use telepathy in this form.

He explained all that had happened — from when he had come down from space for the first time to the present day — and then explained the prophecy, even reading it out loud (well, out loud in telepathy). Netro concluded by saying that the three ponies he had gathered with him were the three heroes.

Big Macintosh hadn’t spoken once through all that. “Do you believe him?” I asked.

“Nnope,” he replied.

“Well, neither did we!” Flash said. “I mean, how likely is that? Maybe Netro’s desperate for ponies that can help him!”

“I am not!” Netro retorted. “The parchment has spoken, and you three must go on the quest whether you doubt it or not, and that is final!” A bolt of lightning crashed down dangerously close to us.

“Now that I’ve got your attention,” Netro said, “I think we should go over what we are going to bring with us.”

I looked through my house, searching for what Netro had recommended for us to bring. He said we needed food, money, medical supplies, thick blankets, and weapons. And he had also requested that somepony bring candles or incense, but he hadn’t explained why. “The rest is up to you,” he had said.

I took out my biggest pair of saddlebags and put in all the food I could find in my house, a first-aid kit, my wallet, a thick quilt my mother had given me, and some candles I found lying around. Weapons . . . Now, those were hard to find. I ended up packing some kitchen knives. The rest was up to me. But I had no idea what to bring.

I just stood in front of the door for a while. I was the unicorn of the group. That meant I was responsible for everything magical. However, I didn’t know much magic besides focusing my energy into an area, levitating things, and teleporting, which I had trouble with. I needed something that could help me with advanced magic.

“Celestia, this is impossible!” I complained, stepping forward. My right hoof hit something rectangular and heavy. At first, I thought it was a brick. That was stupid. Why would I have a random brick in my house? Looking down, I saw that I had kicked the copy of The Advanced Guide to Magic and Spellcasting my parents had given me. My parents had hoped I would be a great magician who would go to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Didn’t happen. Let’s just say they were extremely pissed when I came home with a cutie mark of a train. Since I sucked at magic, I never used the book. I just kept it around for kicks.

The book seemed useful on the quest, though. I levitated it into my saddlebags. Then, I used my magic to levitate the bags onto me and fasten the strap. That bag was heavy. But I needed all the stuff in it, so I tried to bear it without whining. Now that I was fully prepared, I could go out and meet up with everypony else who was going on that crazy quest.

When I stepped outside, Flash, Netro, and Big Mac were already there. Netro in particular was glaring at me. Uh-oh. Guess I took too long packing everything. I apologized quickly before sizing everypony up.

Flash was wearing the wing bracers he used when he was about to go flying for a long time. The pegasus was still wearing Netro’s neon orange shutter shades. He was sparsely packed, and his small saddlebags looked pretty empty. Typical of him. We would probably have to share supplies with him. Then again, we would probably have to pool all our supplies together.

On the other hoof, Big Mac seemed like he had enough supplies for everypony in his large saddlebags. In addition, he had a rope tied to his tail. I knew he was pretty strong, but I couldn’t help but wonder how he could carry all that stuff. And it didn’t look like it was causing him problems, either. Then again, I had seen him pull big carts.

“What’s in your bag?” Netro asked, looking at the bag I had put my book in. “It doesn’t look like you can carry it.”

“True, but it does look like I need it,” I replied, levitating the book out of my saddlebags. “It’s a copy of The Advanced Guide to Magic and Spellcasting. But yeah, it is causing me problems.” It was probably pretty rude of me, but I wanted to ask Big Mac if he would carry the book for me. “Hey Big Mac — is it okay if I call you that?”

“Eeyup.”

“Anyways, do you have any room in your saddlebags for this book? I need it, but it’s pretty hard to carry, and —”

“Sparky, that is extremely rude,” Netro scolded. “But do you have any room in your saddlebags to carry me?” I gasped. That hypocrite!

“Eeyup.” Celestia, did that stallion say anything else besides “Nnope”?

One of the bags was half-full of apples, and there was enough room for the colt. Clutching his vest in his teeth, he flew inside and nestled down into the piles of fruit, draping the vest over him. I had to admit, he looked kind of cute with his head hanging out like that. But that Netro was still a selfish hypocrite.

“Selfish —” I began, but Netro just glared at me. All I ended up saying was, “You better not eat all those apples. They’re provisions for this stupid quest.”

“Now, I’m not selfish. If you let me walk or fly, I’ll just be a burden,” Netro explained. “In this form, I have limited endurance. And you don’t need that book. I can teach you essential spells.”

“But . . .” I began. “But I suck at magic! All I use magic for is levitating things and powering the train’s engine!”

The black alicorn stared at me thoughtfully. “Then, I suppose some preparation will be useful. To the glade! Did anypony bring the candles or incense I requested?”

“I did,” I told him. “They’re in my saddlebags.” But first, I had to get rid of that book. I magically flung it into my house, wincing when I heard the sound of something fragile breaking. Then, I took the candles out and showed them to Netro.

“Excellent!” the colt cried. He tapped Big Mac with his hoof. “To the glade!” he ordered like he was the — wait, he was the king. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t acting like a brat.

“What are we doing?” I asked, walking after him.

“Helping you,” Netro said. “I’m going to try to see how much magic you’re capable of doing so I can gauge how much I’ll need to assist you. Besides, we need to be fully rested for our journey.”

“You’re right,” I said grudgingly. “As always.” I really didn’t get why I didn’t respect Netro anymore. Well . . . maybe because it was so ridiculous that the king of Equestria was a newborn colt. But he was still the king, so I made an effort to be nicer to him so he wouldn’t order me executed or anything. “And thanks in advance for attempting to teach me magic,” I added with a little of my old pre-Luxa and Netro sarcasm.

“So . . . what are you doing?”

We had returned to the small glade near Sweet Apple Acres. A blanket had been spread out in the approximate center of the clearing. Four of my candles formed a square on the blanket, and in the middle of it sat Netro, his eyes shut.

The black alicorn cracked open one blue eye before answering my question. “I am meditating. Clearing your mind helps you harness your magical energy more effectively, you know.” I didn’t know that. Then again, I didn’t care for that chakras-and-flow-of-energy spiritual crap. Netro patted the spot next to him. “Come and join me, my dear.”

Yes, a little colt had called me ‘my dear’. Stifling a laugh, I stepped over the candles and sat down next to him. The candles smelled nice and made me drowsy, but besides that, nothing happened. “So . . . what am I supposed to be doing?” I asked.

Netro sighed. “Just close your eyes and clear your mind. Try to reach out to the energy around you.”

Closing my eyes would probably just make me fall asleep, but I did what the alicorn said. He certainly knew more about magic than I did.

I waited . . .

And waited . . .

Nothing was happening. Just when I was about to open my eyes and scream at Netro for being crazy, I felt a strange feeling in my horn. I really didn’t know how to describe it, but it was the feeling I got whenever I was using magic.

Without opening my eyes, I nudged Netro. “I felt something,” I said.

“Wonderful!” he replied. “Now your mind is more open for magical abilities. Now, I want to see how much magic you can do. Try levitating something large. Try levitating . . . Big Macintosh.”

“Are you kidding me?!” I shouted. “My brain will probably blow up if I try levitating him!”

The black colt groaned. “I said ‘try levitating Big Macintosh’, not ‘magically launch Big Macintosh into space’. I just want to see if you can do it.”

“And I can’t do it!” I exclaimed. “How many times do I have to tell you that I suck at magic? You have more magical ability than I do in colt form!” It was true. Netro had healed and teleported us, and when I tried to teleport myself, I almost threw up.

“You’ll never know until you try,” Netro advised. I hated that phrase! My parents had always used it when trying to get me to do some spectacular display of magic, which was pretty much what Netro was trying to get me to do.

“Ugh!” I yelled. “Fine, I’ll do it, if you’ll just get off my case!” I stood up, searching for Big Mac so I could get it over with. He was sitting near the trees, talking with Flash. Since I was so pissed, I didn’t feel like warning him. I probably wouldn’t even be able to lift him, anyways. Then again, the meditation seemed like it actually helped.

Nah, that’s stupid, I decided. Meditation was a whole bunch of spiritual mumbo-jumbo. Sighing, I decided to try levitation.

Flash screamed like a filly when he saw his companion being enveloped in a sky blue magical field. “Calm down!” I snapped. “This is magical training!” Flash gulped and nodded without saying anything, and I silently thanked Celestia for that.

Let me tell you, levitating Big Mac was almost impossible. As soon as I got him off the ground, my head started throbbing. “Can I stop now?” I asked Netro.

“No, keep going unless you think ‘your brain’s gonna blow up’ as you put it,” he replied. “You’re actually doing a good job at levitating somebody twice your height and weight.”

I snorted. A colt had no right to be making fun of my height, even if he was a god and the king of Equestria. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, King Netro.”

“Actually, I am no more of a king than you are. Luxa has taken over, and she doesn’t seem like she wants to share her regained power.” He huffed and stamped his hoof petulantly, making him seem even more coltlike. “And anyways, all the power has been passed on to my daughters . . . er, daughter now.”

“Oh,” I said. Then, I turned my attention back to levitating Big Mac. I was able to get him half a foot off the ground, but I couldn’t keep him steady. The red stallion (actually, my magical aura made him look pretty purple to me) jerked wildly in the air. I was surprised he didn’t hurl from how much I was shaking him around. My head still hurt, but somehow, I was able to keep him in the air. Then, the pressure in my skull became unbearable, and I thought my brain was going to blow up, so I released the spell. Poor Big Mac was smashed face-first into the ground. Flash gasped.

“Was that necessary?” he asked.

“Yeah!” I answered. Sure, Flash was my best friend, but bothering him was just so damn fun. “Didn’t you hear me or Netro? We were practicing magic and he wanted me to levitate the heaviest thing possible. Or were you too busy listening to Big Mac? Not that he says much anyways.”

Flash got to his hooves and spread his wings. “Well, you —”

Netro cleared his throat, making us turn to him. “If I may interrupt,” he began, “it would do well if you two didn’t argue. Our quest hasn’t even begun yet!”

“Sparky started it!” Flash whined. “If she had just told me yes, it was necessary, and left it at that, then we wouldn’t be arguing in the first place!”

“You’re kidding!” I yelled. “You were the one who asked if it was necessary for me to levitate Big Mac, and it was! Netro made me do it!” Wait, if Netro made me do it, then that meant . . . “So this is Netro’s fault!”

The pegasus’ green eyes lit up. “Yeah . . . you do have a point. Blame Netro for this!”

The black alicorn looked bewildered. “Wha — You can’t blame me! I basically created Equestria! You have no right to —”

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t make us argue,” Flash Fire said triumphantly. “Hey, what do you think, Big Mac?”

We looked over at the earth pony. He was still recovering from being smashed into the ground. “. . . Wha?”

“Never mind,” I said.

To that, Netro agreed vehemently. “Yes, never mind. Sparky, you are not exceptionally talented at magic.” So in other words, I was right. I did suck at magic. “But if there is one thing you are good at, you can sustain your magic for long periods of time, which is why you are suited for driving the train.”

“Yes, yes, I’ve heard that before,” I said. “That would happen to be why I have a cutie mark of a train.”

“Well, some magic is better than no magic at all,” Netro said. “Then again, I am a uniciorn, so . . .”

I didn’t let him finish. “Thanks for making me feel better,” I hissed.

The alicorn’s blue eyes widened. “No, I’m not saying I don’t want you on this quest — the parchment has chosen after all — but . . . your ability for sustaining your magic is sure to be useful. Let’s see . . . can you levitate yourself?”

“Sure,” I said. I managed to lift myself a few feet off the ground and even move around in the air some. Well, maybe being small wasn’t that bad . . .

Touching down on the blanket, I looked at Netro expectantly. He seemed to be deep in thought. “Well, that’s good. In case we ever need to fly, three out of the four members of our quest are capable of flight — or levitation, in your case.”

“Wait,” Flash cut in. “Four? Netro, are you coming with us? Not that I don’t want you around. I’m just curious!”

“I am,” Netro said. “I won’t be much help in a fight since I tire easily, but I’ve already demonstrated healing abilities, which are sure to be useful on our dangerous journey. And besides, I am extremely knowledgeable because of my extremely long life, even if at least half of it was spent in space. If you ever need any exposition, ask me and I’ll provide you with all the information you need.”

“Good idea,” I said. “So, now that we know that I can use some magic and we’re done meditating, are we going to go now?”

“Yes, we are.” Netro blew out the candles. I levitated them into my saddlebags, making sure there was no liquid wax on them.

“Uh . . . where are we supposed to go?” Flash asked. “Oh, by the way, I’m folding up this blanket.” Netro and I stepped off it so he could do so. Amused, we watched as Flash tried folding it with his hooves. “It would be so much easier if I could use magic!” he groaned. If he was trying to get Netro or me to help, it wasn’t working. But at any rate, he managed to fold it into a fairly neat square. “Here you go, Big Mac,” Flash said, picking up the blanket and placing it in the stallion’s saddlebags for hin.

I smirked. “Aw, come on, Flash. Don’t treat him like a foal. I’m sure getting smashed into the ground didn’t take that much out of him . . .”

Flash chose to ignore me. Instead, he repeated his question of where we were supposed to go again.

“Hmm . . .” Netro shut his eyes. “The parchment says that we must go to another land to seek the items of power, whatever they are. Strange, I haven’t heard of them before. They must have been made after I was banished to space.”

Another land? As far as I could tell, all the other lands were across the ocean. “Does that mean we’re going across the sea?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Flash said. “Hey, how close is the ocean again? Wait, I have a map! One second!” He pulled a piece of paper out of his saddlebags and spread it out on the grass. “We are here,” he said, putting his hoof down on the paper.

“No, here,” Big Macintosh corrected, pointing to a different spot on the map.

“Whatever!” the flustered pegasus retorted. “But anyways, if we’re here, then the fastest route to the ocean is . . . through Everfree Forest!”

“Everfree Forest?!” I exclaimed. “That place is full of dangerous monsters!”

“Not as dangerous as Luxa,” Netro commented sadly. “We should be able to handle them, and if we can’t, I’ll just teleport us out and we’ll go around the forest.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“Then let’s get on with it!” Flash exclaimed.

That’s the end of the “prologue”. If you’re familiar with Paper Mario, then next chapter’s going to be a Selena intermission! Yes, I know Selena is the name of a moon goddess. But whatever. Selena’s kind of a mix of Celestia and Luna, so that’s why I chose the name.

Selena Intermission: An Unfree Goddess

If you’re wondering where I got the story concept from, I watched the show’s new intro. The one with trains and Big Macintosh in it. Then I played some Paper Mario. And that’s why two of the heroes are Big Macintosh and a train-driving pony. As for Flash Fire, I made him up on the spot to be the conductor.

Chapter 3: An Unfree Goddess

Canterlot was once a beautiful city, the jewel on the crown of Equestria. But now, it had been transformed into fuel for a massive fire. The first thing our mother had done as queen was to fly out and destroy all the dissidents, which was practically everypony. Then, she had dealt with us.

Luxa locked us in the tower that our student Twilight Sparkle had once stayed in. To make sure we would not escape, she forced us into the highest floor of the tower and removed all the windows and doors save one small window in our room. This, she had explained, was so that we could do our duty of raising the sun and moon. However, she had placed some sort of bracer on our horn that cancelled our magical abilities. So whenever the sun or moon was to be raised, Luxa would have to fly up to our window and unlock the bracer.

On the first night of our imprisonment, we had thought that we had a chance to escape by using the stars to write “HELP ME” in the sky. But Luxa had caught on to us.

“Don’t do anything but what you’re supposed to do, because if you try anything, I’ll just have to saw your horn off and control the sun and moon myself,” she warned. “Oh, wouldn’t that be lovely? If I was the supreme goddess of everything . . . ah, but as a mother, I care about you.” She smiled evilly at us. “And to show that I do, I’ll bring up all your meals, and I won’t take your duty away from you! Aren’t you grateful?”

“Yes,” we replied flatly. “We are ever so glad that you haven’t torn that one bit of freedom away from us.”

At that, her mood had instantly changed. “You little ingrate,” she snarled. “Keep taking it for granted, and I will take control of the sun and moon and leave you here to rot. Understand? Oh, and stop talking in that ridiculous royal we. You’re not royal anymore. You’re not even an alicorn!”

“Because you took away our wings,” we reminded her. “And we talk in the royal we to remind ourselves that we are two mares forced into one body.”

Luxa scowled. “I was going to sneak you a treat for dinner, but you’ve been misbehaving tonight. All you’re getting is some grass and a cup of water from . . . I don’t know what that water’s been used for. Goodbye, Selena.” She turned and flew back to her castle.

Once we were sure she was out of earshot, we let out a relieved sigh. How dare she pretend to love us after she had already tried to kill us? And now that she was gone, we had time to ruminate over our means of escaping. Manipulating the skies wouldn’t work. But then what would we do? Jump out the window and die? Luxa had thoughtfully dug a trench around our tower and placed impossibly sharp crystal spikes in it.

Maybe when Luxa flew up to do something, we could stab her, in the wing preferably. Then, she would fall into the spikes and die. Since almost everypony disliked her, we were sure to be freed soon after. But as for our wings . . . we hadn’t the slightest idea. We’d just have to live without them. Being wingless and free was far better than being an imprisoned alicorn.

But we had the worst feeling that even if Luxa was impaled by spikes, she would keep coming after us. And then there was her magic to contend with . . . How were we supposed to fight back against her?

Defeated, we headed to the small pallet we had been provided with and collapsed onto it, straw spilling out of the ragged hole in the mattress’ side. We were so tired and worn out . . . We felt like lying on that mattress for the rest of our lives. Day, night, neither . . . none of it mattered anymore.

It didn’t take long before a tray with a lump of dry, almost-dead grass and a small cup of murky water landed next to our mattress. “Eat,” Luxa said, looking at us sternly through the window. “I know it isn’t much, but this is the standard fare for prisoners. Don’t get me wrong, I tried to convince the cooks to give you more, but they wouldn’t listen.” She snorted. “Imagine that! They wouldn’t listen to me, their queen. I’ll have them executed for that!”

We knew she was a liar. She had previously hinted that she was the one that prepared our meals. This was further reinforced when Luxa placed her hooves on the windowsill. Her crystal shoes were smeared with grass and dirt. Luxa had just been fabricating the story so we wouldn’t see her as evil.

“But,” Luxa continued, “if you’re a good filly for the rest of the night, I’ll bring you treats for breakfast tomorrow.”

We smiled sweetly. “What about the cooks? Won’t they not allow you to bring us treats?”

“W-well . . .” the alicorn stuttered nervously, “I’ll eat the grass myself and give you some things from my breakfast.”

“Ah . . . you do that,” we said, swallowing some of the grass. “Now, we think you should get back to the castle. As queen, you shouldn’t spend your time talking to your prisoners.”

“Oh, no!” Luxa said. “I’ll stay here as long as I want because nothing’s more important than my daughter!” If that was really true, she wouldn’t have imprisoned us. She wouldn’t have tried to kill us, either. “I love you more than anything, you know.” And with that, she flew back to her castle.

We finished the grass and even tried some of the water. It was a little muddy, but water was water, and it didn’t seem like it had anything in it that would make us sick. Finishing off the water, we dragged ourselves back to the mattress.

As we drifted off, we began to think of happier times in the past, times when Luxa meant it when she said “I love you two more than anything.” Now, all she loved was power. We thought of the times when our family was all together, before jealousy and the desire for eternal power drove us apart.

Tears dripped from our eyes onto the dusty pallet, making miniature rivulets of mud. Our coat must have been stained with dirt, but we didn’t care about such trivial things. All that existed for us was captivity.

We curled up on the mattress, shielding our eyes from the meager moonlight that shown through the window. What was the point in living? Better off to die than to live in captivity and humiliation. Besides, we didn’t want to spend another second with the twisted shadow of our mother.

We are going to leave this place one way or another, we pledged. Then, we drifted off to sleep.

“Wake up,” our mother’s voice said.

For an instant, we forgot all about how she had gone crazy and answered “Mother?” Then we opened our eyes and saw the evil mare hovering just outside the window.

“Yes, dear,” Luxa said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “Like I promised, I brought you something good for breakfast!” A metal platter with a large domed cover was levitated towards us. “Enjoy!” She smiled, showing her unnaturally sharp teeth.

The meal did not interest us in the slightest, and we rolled over on the pallet, facing away from the platter. We had promised to leave the tower, and if the only way was starving to death, starving it was.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want breakfast?” Luxa asked. I snorted. How dare she act like she cared? “Are you upset with me? Look what I brought! Your favorites!” The domed cover on the platter glowed white and disappeared. She had brought us several pomegranates, a glass, and a bottle of red wine. We loved pomegranates and red wine . . . how were we going to resist trying to eat them?

“I remembered that both Luna and Celestia loved pomegranates and red wine, so Selena would surely love it if I brought some to her!” Her smile turned cruel. “You’ll eat if I have to force-feed it to you. I won’t have you dying on me now.”

“How?” we asked. It was no use pretending that we were clueless. “How do you know what we’re about to do?”

“Mother’s intuition,” she replied. “Of course not!” Luxa added, cackling. “I can read minds.”

We gasped. So that meant the only way we could escape was if we didn’t think of it or waited until Luxa was gone.

Sighing, we got up and walked to the platter. “Fine, we shall eat.” Forcing a smile on our face, we looked up at Luxa. “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” she replied curtly. “But first, raise the sun. You don’t want everypony getting mad at your mother because of what you’ve done, do you?” We looked at her in shock. Why did we have to have such a pretentious mare for a mother? But she hadn’t always been that way . . . All we wanted was for her to go back to normal. “What’s wrong with you?” she shouted, seeing us just standing there. “Hurry up and raise the sun already, you disgrace of a daughter!”

Our nostrils flared at the insult. Really, the disgraceful one was her. But we complied, stepping over the platter to reach the window. Luxa unlocked our bracer and levitated it nearby so she could clamp it on our horn the second we were finished. Shutting our eyes, we began to focus our magic towards the moon, guiding it towards the horizon. The task was difficult; we usually did it outside in the open, as opposed to a stuffy room. We leaned our head out the window as we moved the stars aside. Then came the hard part: raising the sun from under the horizon.

Oh, how we needed to get out in the open . . . The fresh air and early morning breeze beckoned to us, and we placed our front hooves on the windowsill. We reached out to the sun, but it barely moved. All we had to do was get it out above the horizon, and it would do the rest itself. But we needed to get closer.

It was risky, even lethal, but we hung our hooves over the sill so that half of our body was out of the tower. What Luxa was thinking, we didn’t know. And frankly, we couldn’t care less what she thought. We reached out to the sun again, and this time, it moved. Suddenly, our body started slipping. Opening our eyes, we found the crystal spikes rushing up to meet us, and then we would have escaped, never to be locked in the tower again —

Abruptly, our fall broke. It wasn’t by physical means; when we opened our eyes, we saw that the spikes were inches away. We were wrapped in a pure white magical aura, and Luxa flew around us, her bat wings swishing noisily as she circled the moat.

“Oh my!” she said. “If I hadn’t saved you, it wouldn’t have been a pretty sight . . . You’re so clumsy. Do I have to shrink the window so only your horn can fit through? She levitated the bracer onto our horn and locked it. Then, we were taken back to our prison. On the way there, Luxa whispered, “Stop messing around. The only thing allowed to take your life is me. Understand?”

“We understand,” we said, too frightened and shocked to say anything else. So the only way we would ever escape was through Luxa. Somehow, we would find a way to escape, but first, we wanted to eat our breakfast. “M-mother?” we asked meekly. “Would you please cut open these pomegranates for us?”

“Why of course!” She formed a blade of glowing white magic and sliced the three fruits in half. “And remember, I can easily do the same to your head,” the alicorn mare added darkly. And on that grim note, she departed.

We let forth a shudder that we had been repressing. Luxa . . . she was truly insane. Who else could go from (pretending to be) kind and caring to menacing and threatening? We were sure she could say she loved us and sound like she meant it while torturing us in the most brutal way possible.

“Thinking about it won’t help matters, we should eat now,” we said out loud. And so we stretched out on the grimy wood floor and began to eat the seeds in the fruit. Luxa had selected the sweetest fruits for us, but that gave us no comfort. She was just trying to keep us from seeing her as the antagonist. There was nothing else to it. But the caring pretense . . . well, to be honest, we rather quite liked it. When we had banished her, we longed for a mother figure, and now we had one, even if she was only pretending. It was depressing. Depressing and pathetic. But what else were we supposed to do in such bleak situations? A little ray of happiness was better than nothing at all.

We swallowed the last mouthful of pomegranate seeds and turned to the bottle of wine. How were we supposed to open it? Before, we used our magic to remove the cork. But we couldn’t use magic, so there was no way that would work. Magic had been an integral part of our lives. Not being able to use it was almost incapacitating. But there had to be a way to open the bottle without magic. There had to.

In the end, we found that clamping the bottle between our forelegs and pulling the cork out with our teeth was the best way to open a bottle of wine. The fumes coming from the bottle smelled inviting, and it took all of our willpower not to drain the bottle then and there. Luxa would be sure to punish us if she found us drunk. Instead, we picked the bottle up and poured some of the red wine into the glass.

For a while, we just sat on our pallet and stared out the window, taking small sips of wine and refilling the glass when needed. That was the most relaxed we had been since our merge and capture, and if there was any time to think of an escape plan, it was that time. If we weren’t so drunk, that was. As we brainstormed, each idea gradually became more and more convoluted and ridiculous. How were we ever going to make an effective escape plan? When we poured the wine again, only a few drops came out. Reaching for the glass, we found that we couldn’t hold our hooves steady and almost dropped it a few times. That was all the wine we had. Now, we had to escape. We looked at the window. Luxa wasn’t around. We could —

No, we thought firmly, curling up on the mattress and closing our eyes. If we could sleep . . . We would wake up with an awful hangover, but with increased mental clarity. How were we supposed to defeat the Mare of Light? Something tugged at the back of our mind, like we had heard a solution but couldn’t remember it. We had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and it would be impossible to remember every detail. The alcohol wasn’t helping, either.

And since there was no point staying up, we drifted off to sleep.

“So, Premonition? Do you see anything?”

With a gasp, we realized we were in the royal library. Standing in front of us was a moss green unicorn and . . . us, from before we were merged. It seemed like it had happened long ago, as Celestia’s mane and tail were pink and Luna was small and light-colored, the size of a filly.

“So?” Celestia repeated.

“This is important! Mother . . . you said she’s going to return and somepony will defeat her, right?” Luna seemed hysterical, but it seemed just of her. It must have been right after we had banished Luxa to the white hole.

“Oh!” we exclaimed. We recognized what had happened. “There was a prophecy about Luxa’s defeat, and it was . . . honestly, we don’t remember!” But nopony looked at us. It was like we weren’t even in the room! To test it, we carefully tapped the table in front of us — or attempted to, at least. Our hoof passed through the wood like it was an illusion. So in our dream, it seemed like we would have to observe.

The unicorn turned back to the table, where a crystal ball was sitting. “No, I can’t say I do.” He squinted, looking at it from a number of angles. “There’s nothing. I don’t think this is the right time —”

Luna placed her hooves on the table. “Crystal Premonition, please! You need to come up with something, or we’re — Equestria is doomed!”

“I know, Your Highness,” Premonition said patiently, “but if the crystal ball refuses to show us anything, then you simply must return at another time.”

“No!” Luna shrieked, her blue eyes flashing. “You have to see something now, you miserable old fortune teller!”

Being called a fortune teller seemed to infuriate Premonition, as he stiffened when the words left Luna’s mouth. “With all due respect,” he said in a voice that strained to stay even, “I am a seer, not a fortune teller.”

“Please forgive her,” Celestia quickly said. “My sister is rather traumatized from our mother’s attack on us.” Hanging her head, she murmured, “To be honest, I’m horrified too, but as the eldest, I have to be strong. For both of us.”

Now that he knew the reason for Luna’s outbursts, the green unicorn began to seem more sympathetic. “Oh, I see. My deepest apologies, then. There is no way to be sure the ball will display anything related to Luxa’s defeat now. I might have to sit here for the rest of the day. Perhaps I will need to sit here for days. If so, would you tell some servants I would like my dinner brought here? I do not think it is prudent to leave the crystal ball unattended.”

Speaking of crystal balls, the sphere on the desk began to fill up with white fog. “Oh! The crystal ball’s doing something!” Luna exclaimed, making Crystal Premonition look to it.

“Oh, yes!” he said, focusing on the fog. The second he looked into the ball, the unicorn seemed to go into some type of trance. His amber eyes glazed over as he stared into the haze. We were curious as to what he saw in the crystal ball, and seeing as we were unseen, we walked over to the table and took a seat next to him. The mist swirled around, but we couldn’t make out anything in it.

Premonition must have, as his horn began to glow and a quill pen in front of us began to write on parchment. The paper had already been decorated with two images of our parents, and it was near a stack of other papers that had already been written on. We looked down at what he had written. It was a short six lines, but in the ancient runes. To be honest, we had forgotten how to read and write with the runes, so we had no definite idea as to what it said.

As soon as he had finished writing the last verse, Premonition snapped out of his trance. “Ah . . . you two are in luck! I foresaw the defeat of Luxa. It takes place hundreds of thousands of years in the future, but at least it happens, doesn’t it? And to make sure this happens, I have written a prophecy about her defeat based on what I’ve seen.”

“Excellent!” Celestia looked at the paper. “Is this it? She began to read,

“The Mare of Light will be defeated by three

Pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony

To another land they must quest

With the items of power they will be blessed

And only then will they be able to fight

And defeat the Mare of Light.”

“Yes,” Premonition said.

“Does it have to rhyme like that?” Luna asked.

“No, it doesn’t,” the unicorn replied. “I just wrote it as a rhyme so ponies will be able to remember it with greater ease. And now, I should enchant the parchment.” He recited a spell about the paper flying onto the faces of the heroes. When Premonition’s incantation was finished, the black lines on the parchment began to glow white. A second later, the glow died down.

“What did that do?” Celestia inquired, presumably curious about the nature of the spell. “I know the spell will make the paper fly in the heroes’ faces, but how will that help?”

“Ah, but it’s more complex than you think!” Crystal Premonition said. “I have enchanted the parchment so that when the time comes and Luxa is released,” — everypony shuddered — “the parchment will reveal the identities of the heroes by flying onto their faces. However, that must be activated by somepony reading the prophecy out loud.”

“I see,” Celestia said. “What are you going to do with the paper? It can’t be preserved for all those years unless you magically seal it.”

“Which is why I’ll do just that!” Premonition exclaimed. He levitated the prophecy onto the stack of papers. “I’ve written a history of your family, and the prophecy shall be the last page, disguised as a regular illustration.”

Luna leafed through the pages. “Why are you writing it like you’re far in the future?”

“I saw it,” Premonition said. “You see, in addition to seeing the future, I can use my magic to travel through time!”

“Why didn’t you just do that to defeat Luxa yourself?” Celestia asked. “Or travelled back and somehow stopped her from going mad?”

“Alas, when I time travel, I can only observe, not act.” That was very similar to how we were! Had we somehow managed to use time travelling magic in our sleep? “And it happens spontaneously. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes I can’t. But please don’t worry, Your Highnesses. Rest assured, Luxa will be defeated.”

That was right. There was a prophecy that Luxa would be defeated soon after her return. We had nothing to worry about. That dream gave us more hope than any perfect escape plan could have . . .

But what would happen if the memory was distorted by the influence of alcohol? Or worse, an illusion created by Luxa? We knew well how she could dangle hope in one’s face . . .

And how quickly she could take it away.

You can see a difference between Selena’s and Sparky’s narration, right? (besides the more formal language and royal we)

Yes, this chapter is short. Those Peach intermissions in Paper Mario weren’t too long, either.

Join us next time for Chapter (part in this fic) 1: Major Trouble in Everfree Forest!

Battle of the ACOTRPS

In the Selena intermission, a day passed. However, it just shows us what she’s doing and isn’t that plot-important like the Peach intermissions in Paper Mario. I’ll try to change that later and keep the times consistent.

So this chapter picks up where we last saw Sparky and friends. Hope you’re not confused!

Part 1: Major Trouble in Everfree Forest

Chapter 4: Battle of the ACOTRPS

For a while, the four of us just sat on the trail leading to Everfree Forest, staring into its depths. Even though it was a sunny afternoon, the forest looked dark and foreboding. A couple of times, I thought I heard monsters roaring.

Shivering, I said, “This place creeps me out.”

“Yeah,” Flash agreed. “Lucky for me, I can just fly over the forest!”

“Oh no you don’t,” I snarled. I grabbed Big Mac’s rope with telekinesis and tied the free end around his torso with some complicated knots. “There, now you can’t ditch us.” The cream pegasus tugged at the rope, but he couldn’t undo the knots without being able to use magic.

“Is there a chance you’ll untie me?” he asked sheepishly.

“Nope,” I replied.

“Netro!” he yelled, hitting the saddlebags with a hoof. “Untie me! Please!”

The black alicorn’s head poked out of the bag. “Sorry, Flash. I feel that we should stay together, and if we have to tether you to another pony so you won’t run away, then so be it.”

Flash stuck his tongue out like a colt. “Well, watch this!” He rocketed away, trying to pull himself out of the rope . . . or more specifically, untie the other end of the rope. But on further inspection, the rope was tied to the hairs of Big Mac’s tail. In other words, Flash wouldn’t untie himself that way.

“Hey!” Big Mac yelled, startling us. “Are ya tryin’ to yank mah tail off?”

“No, I’m trying to get this rope off me!” Flash tried to pull himself out again, but all he succeeded in doing was crash-landing in a bush.

“Come on, Flash,” I said. “You’re not ditching us. I don’t know if you want to go on this quest or not, but — look. We’re best friends, aren’t we? Remember when we were little? We made a promise that —”

“Yeah, we did,” Flash said, interrupting me. “So . . . let’s get moving!”

“We must make haste!” Netro said. “It’s going to rain soon, and by the looks of it, it will be a massive rainstorm. I don’t know about you three, but I do not want to be caught in a storm like that. The forest is dangerous enough.”

I scoffed. Like he would get wet! He was in somepony’s saddlebags and had a vest with him! I don’t know if it was because he was royalty or because he had been stuck in space for hundreds of thousands of years, but Netro wasn’t the most empathetic of ponies. Then again, why was I talking? I was pretty apathetic myself, barely caring about anypony else. Except Flash. He was the exception to the rule. On the train, ponies had often asked if we were a couple.

To be honest, I actually had feelings for him — wait, of course I didn’t! My lack of enthusiasm when pretending to be Netro’s parents with Flash to get through Ponyville attested to that. But still, he was my closest friend, because my family — Okay, you get it. I was in some pretty bad denial.

What was the point anyways? We were probably going to die on the stupid quest. But I’m telling Flash how I feel about him when — IF we get to the “other land” alive, I promised.

“Sparky! Are you even listening?” Netro yelled.

“What? I mean of course I’m listening!” Apparently, Netro had been rambling on about something.

“Then what did I say?” he asked.

“Something,” I replied. Why was he singling me out? It wasn’t like Flash and Big Mac were listening, either! Once again, they were too busy talking to notice anything else. What? Were they best friends, now? Did Flash rather want a stallion as his best friend? As the only mare in the group, I was beginning to feel like I was different. Like an alien robot or something. “What about them?” I asked.

“PAY ATTENTION!” the little colt roared at them, magically raising the volume of his voice. Great. He probably just attracted every monster in the forest. Or scared them away. Regardless, it was effective in making Flash and Big Mac pay attention.

“Can we get going now?” Flash asked. “It’s raining.”

He was partly right. But the rain was too light to be called anything but a drizzle. Honestly, I thought he knew more about the weather, being raised in Cloudsdale and all. “Aren’t you supposed to be a pegasus?” I asked. “It’s drizzling. But yeah, let’s get going.”

We started down the path heading into the forest. The first thing Netro did (besides covering his head with his vest) was ask if anypony had a map. Flash had one, of course, but Netro explained he didn’t need a general map of Equestria.

“I have been in this forest many times in the past, but it’s been so long ago that I’ve forgotten the way to the ocean. What I do remember, though, is that the paths through Everfree are extremely confusing. So, does anypony have a good, recent map of this forest?” the alicorn asked.

As it turned out, nopony had one. We didn’t even know we were going to Everfree until we were all done with our packing! Besides, the rain had picked up. Any paper would turn soggy and unreadable in seconds without magical wards around it.

“Oh,” Netro said. “That is unfortunate. In that case, we must use our best judgement. And if you hear any monsters, do not try to fight them. You shouldn’t fight anything here unless your life is in danger. Believe me, the monsters here aren’t to be messed with.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“All right.”

“Eeyup.”

Deciding it would be a good idea to check the weather, I looked up. The clouds were thick and black, promising heavy rain later. If we didn’t find shelter by then, we would be soaked. And so would our saddlebags, which could be worse. “Hey, Netro, is there a spell that will make us waterproof?” I asked. “Looks like there’s going to be a downpour soon.”

“Of course there is,” he replied. “However, in order for the spell to affect all of us, we’ll have to combine our powers. And even then, I don’t think we’ll have enough magical power to complete the spell. How about we do the waterproofing spell on just our cargo?”

Since he was in a saddlebag, that meant he wouldn’t get wet. Selfish bastard.

But that was better than nothing, so I said, “Sure, let’s do it. Wait, how are we supposed to share our power to do the waterproofing spell?”

“Just recite the spell at around the same time that I do. If you do that, our powers should combine. Unless anything about magic’s changed in the time that I’ve been gone. I doubt that happening, though.” He went over the spell, and we cast it on everypony’s saddlebags.

Feeling fully prepared, we started for the forest.

The first part of the forest wasn’t that hard to get through. There was only one path that sometimes meandered but stayed relatively straight. However, we soon reached a point where lots of winding paths branched off like snakes having seizures. To make it worse, the rain started pouring. A lot.

“Uh . . . where do you think we should go, Netro?” I asked.

“Let’s just stick to the path that continues on in the direction we’ve been going in,” Netro, who refused to stick is head out of Big Mac’s saddlebags, advised. “If we stay on the path, we can’t get that lost.”

How wrong he was. We followed the path, and soon, we saw Ponyville through the trees. The path must have done a u-turn at some point that we hadn’t noticed. Maybe the path had just gradually turned around and headed back to Ponyville. At that point, Netro had no idea where we were supposed to go. We decided to take the first path we saw that branched off from the one we were on.

That path was long, winding, and very, very muddy. The trees did nothing to block out the rain (if anything, they made it worse), and I kept slipping in mud. To add insult to injury, my wet mane kept getting in my face. Sparky, Netro, and Big Mac, who had much shorter manes that wouldn’t get in their faces much, were half as miserable as I was. Despite the cascade of water from the trees and the muddy path, they laughed and talked. As for me, I was the wet blanket of the group, something which Flash addressed soon.

“Hey! Can we have a snack?” he asked. “I’m hungry . . . I think I’m gonna crash or something!” I was sure he just didn’t want to be covered in mud like the rest of us. Except Netro. Because he was a selfish bastard.

“Sure,” I said. “Everypony else can have a snack, too.” I levitated four plain muffins out of my saddlebags and gave them to everypony.

Flash groaned. “Didn’t you bring anything with sugar in it?”

“No,” I replied flatly. “I don’t have any extremely sugary foods. It’ll just make me fat, and I could live without ponies laughing at how I grow sideways instead of up.”

“Well — it could make you less grumpy! Don’t you know Pinkie Pie?” Flash asked.

“Uh . . . no, not really,” I said.

“Well, she’s one of mah sister’s frien’s,” Big Mac said.

“That’s . . . that’s very helpful,” I replied sarcastically.

“Well, she works at Sugarcube Corner. She eats lots of sugary stuff, and she’s always happy!” Flash Fire pointed out. “If you use logic, Spark, then that means that if you ate sugar all the time, you’d be happy all the time!”

I scoffed. “No thanks. I don’t feel like becoming obese and hyperactive. Now eat your muffin. You were the one who wanted a snack break, anyways.”

We ate the muffins quickly and continued down the path. The bread gave us a little bit more energy, but it didn’t take long for my pessimism to come back.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Besides trying to save Equestria from a crazy fallen goddess, which is much easier said than done.” Really, it did all seem hopeless. We were walking around in a forest with no clue as to how to even get out. And for extra fun, it seemed like waterfalls were coming from the sky. “Oh yeah, we’re walking in circles in a forest with dangerous monsters! Hopeless. It’s all hopeless. It’d be more painless if we went home and tried not to piss Luxa off, or better yet, killed ourselves right now.”

“Don’t be like that!” Netro exclaimed. Apparently, my pessimism was such an important subject for him that he actually took the time to stick his head out of Big Mac’s saddlebag. “Why are you so cynical, anyways?”

I stiffened. The reason I was so rude and sarcastic and mistrusting was because of something in the past. My past wasn’t a thing I liked to tell other ponies about. I didn’t even like thinking about it. In fact, the only other pony I had told about my past was Flash. “I don’t want to tell you,” I said.

“Really, with that kind of attitude —” Netro began. However, Flash interrupted him.

“No, seriously. Sparky’s means it when she says she doesn’t want to talk about it. She . . .” The pegasus trailed off, unsure of what to say next. I thought he was about to tell the story.

“Go ahead, Flash,” I said. “You two are on our team. I suppose you can hear about my past. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to live much longer.”

Flash began to tell the story of my past. I focused on the sound of the pouring rain, trying not to hear the story. The memories in my head were too much as it was . . .

I couldn’t help it. I started crying. What did it matter, anyways? We were all drenched from head to hooves. Nopony would notice. That is, if I didn’t make those stupid sobbing sounds.

When Flash was done telling the story, he turned to face me. “Hey Spark, you — are you crying?”

“Why do you care? Are you gonna take a picture to blackmail me with later?” I asked snidely.

In response, he landed on the ground and draped a wing over my shoulder. “Aw, it’s okay, Spark. It’s over and done with. Right now, you have a happy — well, happy as you can be — life.”

If my coat wasn’t so dark, I swear you could have seen me blush. So I countered the feeling with sarcasm. “Hey, you really got mud on yourself for me?” I asked. “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble just to cheer up a grumpy unicorn.”

“Yeah, I did,” Flash said. “Anything for my best friend.”

Sappy. Unbelievably sappy. Honestly, it was enough to make a pony gag! But it did cheer me up. “What do we do now?” I asked. “For all we know, we could be going in circles.”

“Look on the bright side!” Netro said. “We haven’t run into any monsters. We should consider ourselves lucky.”

“We can’t have gone in a circle,” Big Mac said. “We haven’t seen that yet.”

“Well maybe we weren’t look —” I began. However, looking in front of me, I realized he was right. Standing in front of us was a cliff with a waterfall cascading down it. It landed in a river that flowed off to the right. “Oh. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m taking a drink.” The river didn’t look too dirty to me. I was sure it was safe to drink out of.

“How can you be thirsty with all the water around us?” Flash joked. Even so, he followed me to the river, Big Mac close behind us.

We took quite a bit of time at the river. For one thing, it was partially sheltered from rain by the cliff, which jutted forwards at the top. And we needed time to sit down, rehydrate, and rest. Because of the rain, the river had flooded its muddy banks, and the water wasn’t as clean as I hoped. Still, water was water, and why deplete our water supply when we had some in front of us? Thinking it was safe to say he wouldn’t ditch, I untied the rope from Flash.

Netro, who claimed that he would get washed away if he drank from the river directly, used his magic to levitate spheres of water up to him. He probably just didn’t want to get wet, but still, his use of magic interested me. “How do you do that?” I asked.

“It’s just a simple variation of a levitation spell. Just scoop up the water and bring it to you,” he explained.

Scooping up the water was easy. However, when I was bringing the spheres to me, I “accidentally” dumped the water on his head. From his facial expression, you’d think I shocked him with a high-voltage taser! Due to the waterproofing spell, he didn’t stay wet long. The water levitated itself out of the bag and its cargo and splashed to the ground.

“Be careful, or I’ll catch pneumonia!” Netro admonished.

“Hey, you’re not the one stuck out in the downpour,” I pointed out. “But we’re not really stuck in it now, thanks to the cliff. That reminds me, how are we all gonna get over it? Flash can fly up it no problem, and you and I can just teleport to the top, but what about Big Mac? The cliff’s angle doesn’t make it too good for climbing . . .”

Honestly, what were we going to do? Go back and find another path? No, we were sure this was the right way. Make Big Mac climb it? No, the cliff was almost impossible to climb. Just ditch him and move on? That seemed like the most obvious plan of action. So, I decided that had to be the plan.

“Come on, guys. Let’s get going.” I stood up, addressing Netro and Flash. “Looks like Big Mac can’t get up the cliff, so we’ll have to ditch him. Big Mac, you can go home. Netro, you can hop on my back. I think there’s room in one of my saddlebags since we threw my book out. If not, there’s plenty of space with Flash.”

Their reactions were less than pleased. “WHAT?!” Flash screamed right off the bat. I had to clap a hoof over his mouth so he wouldn’t attract any monsters. “We can’t ditch Big Mac! You’re crazy!”

“No I’m not,” I replied. “But it’s the best interest of the quest. Otherwise, we’ll be sitting here until this cliff crumbles.”

“But he’s one of the heroes in the prophecy,” Netro said. “We can’t ditch him, or we’ll surely fail in defeating Luxa.”

“There’s no other way to get up that cliff, though!” I countered. “We could go around it, but . . .” Shit. That seemed like a good, plausible idea. I had just dug myself a hole and fell in it. “But we better stick to the path! If we get lost, we’re monster food!”

“Hmm . . .” Netro muttered. “Actually, if we combine our magic again, I’m sure we can teleport Big Macintosh and us to the top of the cliff.”

That sounded like as good of a plan as any, so I agreed. “Good idea. Come on Netro, hop on my back. We better scope out the top of the cliff and find a specific place to teleport to. Otherwise, we might end up teleporting halfway into the rock.”

Netro jumped on my back, and we cast the teleportation spell. When teleporting to a new area you haven’t seen before, it’s often a good idea to teleport a couple of inches above the area. Otherwise, you just might get stuck in the ground, which can be lethal if your entire body is underground.

The combined spell had given us too much power, though, and we materialized a couple of feet above the cliff. We would have smashed into the rock if I hadn’t stopped our fall telekinetically and slowly lowered us to the ground.

“Okay, where’s a good spot?” I asked, looking around the cliff. To the left and right were extremely long stone ridges. If we had gone around the cliff, we would probably end up walking for a long time. Behind us, the Everfree Forest continued and a river wound through the trees.

“Oh! I remember this place!” Netro exclaimed. I looked to him for an explanation, but he didn’t say anything more about it. Him remembering the clifftop didn’t seem important. “If we’re looking for a teleportation spot, how about that flat-topped boulder?” Looking in the direction he was pointing, I noticed it. The boulder was more like a flat slab of rock, though. It looked big enough to build a house on, albeit a small one.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s go check it out.” I climbed onto the boulder and paced the perimeter of the top, getting a feel for the area. “You know the area now?” I asked Netro.

“Yes. You?” When I nodded in reply, he said, “Okay, let’s teleport back down.”

I stared over at the cliff edge and a strange feeling came over me. I just wanted to jump off that cliff. Since I could levitate myself with no problem, it wouldn’t be lethal. But it would still be one hell of a thrill. And it would be amusing to watch Big Mac and Flash’s reactions. “You do that, Netro,” I said. “I think . . . I’m going to get down another way.”

Giving myself a second to compose my demeanor, I shut my eyes and galloped straight off the cliff edge. Falling still gave me that gut-wrenching sensation, but after a few seconds, it became almost normal. It was cold. The air blowing by was freezing, and the rain didn’t help.

Flash, who was flying slightly above the treeline, looked up and saw me. “Oh my Celestia!” he screamed. “Sparky’s trying to kill herself!” He tried to fly up and save me, but he wasn’t fast enough. When I was about to hit the trees, I telekinetically stopped myself and looked up at Flash.

“What are you worrying about?” I yelled. “I’m not trying to kill myself!”

“Aw, Spark!” All of a sudden, Flash came down on me, hugging me so hard I could barely breathe.

“Quit . . . it . . . Flash!” I managed to gasp out. “If anypony’s killing me, it’s you!”

“Oh. Sorry, Sparky.” The pegasus laughed and let go of me so I could lower myself onto the ground.

Once I was at the river, Netro suddenly popped out of his saddlebag, startling me. “Sparky, what was all that fiasco about you jumping off the cliff?” he questioned.

“I was entertaining myself,” I told him. Really, that was all there was to it. Somepony as boring and grumpy as me deserved to have entertainment sometimes, or so I said.

“And you think nearly giving your best friend a heart attack is entertainment?” The black colt sighed and slumped down in the bag. “I must be way behind the times.”

“Nah, ponies like me aren’t too common around here,” I said. “Now, we should get going up the cliff and find some shelter. Unless you guys think we should set up camp under the cliff, that is.”

“No,” Netro said. “Once you get up to the top of the cliff, there’s an excellent place to rest. Like where we are now, there’s a source of water. However, it’s more sheltered and enclosed.”

It sounded like a good plan, so the rest of us ended up agreeing. “All right, I’m going up there!” Flash called. In five seconds, he was at the top of the cliff. That was our cue to teleport up there.

I stood next to Big Mac and shut my eyes, visualizing the flat top of the boulder. “Ready?” Netro asked.

“Ready,” I confirmed.

We cast the teleportation spell. I felt the sickening rush as we disappeared from existence and reappeared on top of the boulder. However, because of how much magic there was, I wasn’t as sick as when I teleported myself to the castle earlier that day. Yes, it was earlier that day. It seemed like weeks ago, but it had only been in the morning.

“Sparky?” somepony asked.

“Yeah, what?” Coming back to my senses, I realized that everypony else was heading into the forest while I was stuck to the rock. Of course, I wasn’t physically stuck to it, unless I had done the teleporting wrong, which I probably had done. I raised each hoof. None of them were stuck to the rock. “Wait! I’m coming!” I yelled, galloping after them.

“So . . . where are we headed?’ Flash asked. “I know it’s a place with shelter, but what kind of shelter?”

“It’s hard to miss. In fact, you’ll have to be blind not to see it!” That was all Netro would say about the place. It must have been a sensitive subject for him, like how my past was a sensitive subject for me.

I decided to intervene before the conversation became awkward. “Netro, what will we do if we run into any monsters?” I asked.

“Oh, we should stop and take a moment to think about that,” he replied. Ignoring the driving rain and thick mud, we sat and rested while thinking about the best way to combat monsters. I could confidently say I had no experience in the field, so I probably wouldn’t be of much help.

“Big Mac, have you ever seen your sister fight monsters?” Flash asked. It was a good start. We could have asked Netro, but his memory of fighting monsters had probably failed him. Besides, he had probably fought them when he was a full-sized alicorn and not a colt. In fact, he probably still lived in space when he was a colt.

“Nnope.”

Flash groaned. “Never mind then. Netro, you remember anything?”

“Not really. But I still stand by what I said previously: direct confrontation is not the answer. Maybe we should . . . we should create a diversion! Sparky, do you know any illusion spells?” he asked me.

“Not really . . .” I admitted. “But I can try. It sure beats getting eaten by monsters by a long shot.”

“That’s the spirit! When doing illusion spells, focus the magic into the air around you and concentrate on what you want to be seen as. The air should act accordingly,” Netro instructed. “As to what we should use the illusion for . . . it has to be something nonassuming . . . something that doesn’t pose an active threat to monsters . . .” He disappeared into the saddlebag to think some more and escape from the rain.

“How ‘bout cows?” Big Mac suggested.

“Cows?!” From my limited knowledge of livestock, cows lived in wide open pastures, not gloomy forests populated with monsters. “Why would cows wander so deep into Everfree Forest?”

“Sometimes it happens,” the red stallion replied. From what I saw of Sweet Apple Acres, I was sure there were cows there. That meant that Big Mac probably knew more about cows than I did. So I decided to shut my mouth and stop talking about it.

“Cows it is, then,” Netro said. “So, Sparky, let’s try the illusion spell.”

“All right,” I replied. I shut my eyes and concentrated, focusing on the air around us and making us look like cows. When I opened them and looked around, I saw that everypony else in our group had been replaced with a cow.

“It worked!” said a small calf, who I assumed was Netro. “Now, let’s take the illusion down, but you have to be ready to cast it at a moment’s notice. And remember, you must use the spell in conjunction with me, or our powers will not combine right.”

I nodded. “All right. Should we send somepony as a lookout for monsters, then?”

“I’ll do it!” Flash volunteered. “If I hear any monsters, I’m going to check it out!”

Just then, there was a loud roaring sound coming from deeper in the forest. In addition to the roar, it sounded like something was making massive splashes. “Looks like your first job as lookout,” I said to Flash. “Go on.”

“And tell us everything you see!” Netro added. “We might be coming close to —” It was too late. Flash was gone.

It took a surprisingly short time for Flash to come weaving through the trees back to us. “So, I hid in a tree, and it’s a good thing I did! There was this lake, and an old castle just behind the lake. And then a massive ugly green lake serpent was rampaging in the middle of it. I think it was roaring about not having any food.”

“Aha! So we are close to the castle!” Netro exclaimed, flapping his little wings in excitement. “Okay, now is a good time to tell you about the castle. When Luna and Celestia were fillies, they wanted a castle of their own. So we got one built for them here in this forest. Of course, they don’t use it anymore. I’m astonished it hasn’t collapsed by now! At any rate, it’s a good place to find shelter.”

So that was where he wanted to stay. It seemed like a good place to stay, even if we did have to fight a lake serpent. It was out of the rain and all that. “Hey . . . is that the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters?” I asked. “I think it sounds familiar.”

“Mah sister and her frien’s fought Nightmare Moon there,” Big Mac explained.

We were close to a castle that Netro’s daughters used to live in. Had he been only thinking of shelter, or did he want to be there for sentimental reasons? I thought it must have been a mixture of both reasons. Or maybe he was curious about his younger daughter’s dark side. Would he think it similar to Luxa’s dark side? Of course, referring to good as light and evil as dark wouldn’t work anymore. Not when we were working with the good Stallion — well, Colt now — of Darkness to defeat the evil Mare of Light.

“Ah, and with the Elements of Harmony, or so Flash Fire said,” Netro said in response to Big Mac’s comment. “So the magical presence there will be strong. My daughters and the Elements of Harmony have recently been there. It will be a perfect place to practice all kinds of magic, don’t you agree, Sparky?”

What? Why was he asking me about my opinion? Oh wait, I was the group’s unicorn! Somehow, I had forgotten about that. “Yeah, good idea! But it has darker magic around, due to the presence of Nightmare Moon. What if it takes over us through our horns and makes us evil?” I asked. I had seen many a movie like that. One of them, Night of Nightmare Moon, is my favorite movie. And no, it has nothing to do with the holiday Nightmare Night.

“I don’t think it will,” the alicorn replied. “The Elements of Harmony purify all evil magic once it’s used. The only exception is chaos, since harmony cannot destroy chaos. The reverse is also true. In short, we’ll be safe. Unless Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon by means of chaos energy. Then, as ponies here put it, we’re screwed.”

Well, that made me feel a whole lot better. I was unsure if I meant that sincerely or sarcastically, as I had no clue as to how Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon.

“Okay, then,” I said. “Netro, let’s put the illusion spell up and see if we can get around that lake without attracting the lake serpent’s attention. If not, get ready to fight.” As a precaution, I moved the knives to the top of my saddlebags so I could take them out at a moment’s notice.

“Of course!” Netro was a little stunned that I was calling the shots with the magic, but nonetheless, we were soon disguised as cows.

“There’s nothing that can break the illusion, right?” I asked.

“Magic,” Netro said. “However, of all monsters, only dragons know any magic. Lake serpents, while related to dragons, cannot use magic. They are also not as intelligent and probably won’t suspect an illusion spell. Let us proceed! And remember, no talking. Speaking will reveal our disguises.”

We proceeded into the clearing, trying as hard as we could to keep up the cow façade. Like Flash had said, there was a lake from which the river stemmed from. And swimming and thrashing around in the lake was what looked like a long, skinny green dragon with no legs or wings. A large fin ran down the majority of its back, and its tail was tipped with a powerful fin. When it opened its mouth, I could see its long, bloodstained teeth, each as big as a large knife. I gulped and tried to appear calm.

We had ambled down part of the lake shore when the lake serpent noticed us. “COWS!” it roared, drool and blood dripping from its fangs. “COWS ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS! NOT MANY IN THESE PARTS . . .”

“Think again!” I yelled. “Netro, illusion down!”

We revealed out true forms to the lake serpent, hoping to discourage him from eating us. However, we just made him more excited. “PONIES ARE MY FAVORITE FOOD!” Well, I hadn’t been expecting that. He lunged at us, and we booked it to the trees.

Panting, I said, “We’ll have to fight. Fortunately, I have weapons.” I passed out the knives that I had to everypony. We all held knives in our teeth. Flash hovered above us and held a knife in his hooves, Big Mac tied the handle of a knife to his tail, and Netro and I both had a knife levitating in front of us. In my case, I was levitating the cleaver I had brought.

“Leth do theh,” Flash mumbled through the knife in his mouth.

We charged out of the woods and threw ourselves at the lake serpent. For a second, he was overcome by surprise, and we were free to cut away at him. However, he recovered enough to lunge at us. And this time, we were too close to the lake to move away from it. I levitated my cleaver so it pointed up, hoping it would defend me. A knife that must have been Netro’s suddenly shot into the roof of the snake dragon’s mouth. It roared, blasting us with hot air that smelled like blood and rotten fish. I swung my cleaver at a nearby fang and was surprised to see that it cracked. The monster roared in outrage and strained to snap its jaws around us, but it couldn’t.

Why not? I looked back and saw that Big Mac was standing on his back legs and using his front hooves to jam his knife in between the monster’s teeth, effectively prying its mouth open. Though the stallion was strong, I could see his legs trembling in the strain to keep it up. “Chop off th’ tips of his fangs!” he called to us. “And quickly! Ah ain’t gonna be able to keep this up much longer!”

Taking his suggestion, we began to hack away at all the fangs we could, cutting the needle-sharp tips off. We were able to cut about half of the monster’s teeth when it realized it had a tail it could use and slammed it into us, knocking us away. Netro and Flash were able to recover and fly off before they hit the ground. Big Mac and I weren’t so lucky, and we crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of us. It was like being kicked in the gut. We couldn’t move or do anything. We could just watch as the lake serpent, in all its ugly glory, loomed over us, hissing. Blood from its mouth showered us. I don’t know about Big Mac, but I thought it was pretty nasty. The monster didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to kill us. It probably got a kick out of slowly torturing things to death.

Suddenly, a black telekinetic aura enveloped one of its teeth and the monster’s head was tugged sharply to one side. Then, a cream-and-orange blur sped out of nowhere and struck the monster in the side of its head. Flash and Netro had saved us! Not wanting to be useless, I got up and sent both knives flying into the serpent’s nostrils.

“Why didn’t you guys get out of the way?” Flash asked. “Not that I had a problem dive-bombing that thing, but still.”

I recovered the knives and sent them flying at the serpent’s underbelly. When they struck, I used my magic to yank them down, forming two red lines that bled profusely. Then again, that serpent was so big I had no idea how bad the injury really was. “You try moving when there’s an angry monster looming over you,” I said in response to Flash’s previous question. “Now, I think if we overwhelm it, we can manage to kill it. If it doesn’t die of blood loss.”

Many gashes covered the serpent’s body, and of course, most of his teeth were broken and bleeding. I think his scales were supposed to be turquoise, but they were all red now.

“Sure, Sparky. Let’s go get Netro and Big Mac.”

Flash and I raced around opposite ends of the lake shore. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do to a slow runner such as myself. It didn’t take long to reach Big Mac, who was preoccupied with driving his knife into the base of the monster’s tail.

“Hey!” I yelled, galloping up to him. “Come with me! We’re charging the lake serpent!” It was probably a stupid idea to yell the plan in front of the monster, but it looked like he was too preoccupied in trying to eat us.

“D’ya have a plan?” he asked as we galloped back to meet with the other two ponies.

“Nah, unless you count chopping it up until it dies of blood loss,” I replied. “Which looks like it’s working so far, so don’t worry about plans!”

Netro and Flash, who could fly far faster than we could gallop, were waiting for us. “So, to get this straight, you think the only way to kill him is to all attack him at once?” Netro asked.

I nodded. “He’ll be surprised at all of us are coming at him, so we should be able to get some good hits in. Speaking of getting hits in, where’s that monster? It hasn’t been trying to eat us in a while.”

Just as I said that, the surface of the lake erupted and the monster shot out of it, lunging at us at amazing speed. “Sneak attack!” Flash yelped. “Everypony scatter!”

“No, wait!” Netro exclaimed. “Hold your ground, and when he comes close, attack!” At the command, Flash gulped and anxiously hovered above us. A second later, Netro joined him. “NOW!” he yelled.

We leaped into action. Big Mac swung his tail, sending the rope and knife flying at the monster. The blade whizzed by, barely missing Flash and Netro, and lodged itself in the serpent’s tounge. When Big Mac pulled it out, the serrated knife took out quite a bit of flesh with it. I winced when the knife embedded itself in the ground, right next to my hoof.

Predictably, the monster didn’t take well to having part of its tongue torn out. He roared and lunged at us again, but Netro and Flash swooped at him and cut at his neck, trying to slit his throat or something.

It was now my turn to attack, and I had a pretty good idea of how to kill the lake monster. Or at least, it would show it that we weren’t to be messed with. Sighing, I focused my mind the way Netro had taught me. I levitated both of my knives and shot them at the serpent, embedding them straight in one of his eyes. Thankfully, when I took them out, the blades didn’t take the eyeball along with them.

Instead of the serpent fleeing from us like I hoped, he actually became more aggressive. He lunged and swiped with head, tail, whatever. We only had just enough time to flee out of his reach. Well, almost all of us.

Flash collapsed to the ground on the lake shore, panting. “Celestia, Sparky, what the hell did you do?”

“Take out his eye,” I replied. “But don’t worry. All of us can attack from a distance, so this won’t be too bad.”

“What about me? I don’t have magic or a rope or anything,” Flash Fire pointed out.

“Well, you can fly pretty fast,” I said. “And what about those amazing aerobatics you’re known for?” Buttering him up seemed like the best idea, especially since he seemed to be mad at me.

Unfortunately for me, even praise didn’t work on Flash. “I dunno about that . . . I’m pretty tired from all the high-speed flying that I’ve been doing.”

I sighed. “If you want a breather, I suppose I can do tha —”

WHAM. Flash was suddenly knocked on his back by the pissed off lake monster. Its head was getting closer . . . Flash was about to get eaten! He was my best friend, and yes, I liked him more than a friend, so I decided it was time to act. I took up my knives and leaped at him, aiming for the other good eye. With luck, I would reach him before he reached Flash.

However, I didn’t need to. Big Mac, seemingly coming out of nowhere, suddenly gave the serpent’s head a good kick with his hind legs. To my complete surprise, there was a snapping sound, and the serpent’s head was violently jerked to one side. He collapsed onto the shore, dead.

Of course, I was still mid-leap, and I landed inches away from the monster’s gaping maw. Looking to the left, I saw Flash getting up on shaky legs. “That was . . .” he began. “That was . . . so badass! I mean, you just snapped that lake serpent’s neck!” He ran over to Big Mac. “Thanks for saving me!”

Then, he walked over to me. “Hey, Spark. I know Big Mac was the one who killed him, but I saw you. You were trying to take him out too, huh?” I nodded silently. “Well . . . thanks for trying. I was surprised you weren’t put off by how I was mad at you for pissing the serpent off. I mean, even with that, you still tried to save me!”

I smiled, actually genuinely smiled, back at him. “No problem, Flash. I mean, what are best friends for? Even though I kinda failed epically and the fact that you almost got eaten is my fault . . .”

At that, Flash’s expression and mood changed. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said coldly. “You know, maybe I’ll get Big Mac to be my best friend. He saved my life and all that, after all.”

I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t. My heart hurt so bad and I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything but stand there with my mouth open. Then, I came to my senses. “Well, suit yourself,” I said, starting to march away from the pegasus.

Flash must have done a backflip or something, because he landed right in front of me. “Aw come on, Sparky! You know I won’t bet mad at you! I’m alive, am I not? That’s all that matters.” He lunged forward to give me a hug, and I awkwardly patted his back.

Shaking myself loose of him, I said, “Yeah, Flash. It’s just . . . you mean a lot to me.” More than he knew.

“Hey, you mean a lot to me to,” Flash said. Awkward silence. I think I blushed a little. Again, thank Celestia for my dark blue coat. He must have been able to tell that he had said something awkward, so he said, “What are we standing around for? Let’s get going to the castle already!”

We nodded in agreement and trotted around the lake, coming to a stop outside the front door. I looked up at the castle, still dignified and regal in its old age, and down at my mud-caked engineer’s uniform. I felt inferior, somehow, even though I never thought of it around Netro, the king of Equestria. I guess I was getting used to him.

“You guys do that,” I said. “I’m gonna wash this stupid uniform of mine . . . dammit, forgot the —”

“Soap?” Big Mac asked, taking a bar of the stuff out of his saddlebags. “Ah reckoned somepony would want ta do some washin’.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, grabbing the soap and backtracking to the lake. There, I magically removed the engineer’s uniform — a black jacket and light gray jumpsuit with the engineer’s cutie mark emblazoned on the flank — and dumped it in the water, letting it sit for a little bit. The water turned most of the dirt into mud and washed it off the clothes, but there were still stains left behind. Keeping the jacket and jumpsuit in the air, I took the soap and scrubbed them clean.

When I returned to the castle, I was surprised to find Netro, Big Mac, and Flash sitting on a blanket on the middle of the room. I set the dripping clothes down on the marble floor and went to join them, returning the soap to Big Mac.

“Ah, there you are, Sparky,” Netro said. “Now that you’re here, we can develop a plan. I think that we should stay here for at least a day to rest for the next leg of our journey. We’re approximately in the center of the forest, and believe me, the journey will only get harder from here.”

A gust of wind blew through the wide open doors, sending a fresh chill through my soaked coat. “Ugh . . . Is there any way we can build a fire here?” I studied the walls: old marble covered with ancient threadbare tapestries depicting alicorns and stuff. “Maybe we should take down those tapestries and burn them.”

“No!” Netro replied as soon as the suggestion left my mouth. Those tapestries must have had some sentimental value to him. “There’s plenty of kindling outside.”

“Plenty of wet kindling,” I said. “That won’t do anything but make smoke.”

“Not if we conjure magical fire,” Netro replied. “It will still work with wet wood.”

“Sounds nice,” I said. “We’re gonna get hypothermia if we don’t warm up soon.”

“Yes, but to get this fire . . . you three need to go outside and get kindling for the fire.”

“What?!” Flash yelled, almost falling on his back. “We’re going out there again? Being out in a downpour and almost getting killed by a lake serpent was bad enough!”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Big Mac and I will get the kindling, and you can just sit here like a sissy, you sissy.” If pissing him off didn’t get him up, I didn’t know what would!

Just as I suspected, Flash leaped up like he had been stabbed in the ass with a hot metal poker. “I’m not a sissy!” he shouted. “And to prove that, I’m going out and jumping in the lake!” I was in shock. That would just get him pneumonia and delay the mission, and I wanted to get that over and done with as fast as possible!

“Hold on!” I yelled as Flash raised his wings, getting ready to fly. “Don’t do that. You’ll just get sick and we’ll be stuck here for . . . I don’t know how long, but we’ll be here a long time! Just help us get some kindling!”

“Fine, fine,” Flash groaned. He obviously wanted to jump in the lake. Surprisingly, he suddenly brightened up. “But to prove I’m not a sissy, I’ll get more kindling than the two of you combined!” He flew off.

“’S he always like that?” Big Mac asked me.

I sighed. “Pretty much. Come on, let’s go.” We walked out the castle doors and headed straight for the forest. During the lake serpent’s rampage, several branches had been snapped off the trees. I levitated as many of those as I could carry.

Off to the left, where Big Mac was, I heard a sharp crack and looked to the left. The stallion was up on his hind legs, holding onto a large low-hanging branch with his forelegs. He pulled down sharply, causing the branch to crack off. Big Mac dropped the branch in a pile with several other branches. “Oh my Celestia . . .” I said under my breath. Big Mac was so strong that he could pull thick branches off trees and snap lake serpents’ necks. Nopony fucked with Big Mac and lived!

“Ya got enough kindlin’?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “This is pretty much the amount I can carry comfortable without getting a headache.” I added that last part since I had successfully managed to levitate Big Mac before. But I had gotten a migraine in the process. A really bad one. Seriously, I hoped I never needed to levitate him again! If I did, then . . . I’d make Netro do it. Somehow.

Flash flew up to us, carrying a couple of thin branches — they looked more like twigs to me — in his mouth. Remembering how he said he would get more kindling than me and Big Mac combined, I smirked. “Didn’t you say you were gonna get kindling?” I reminded him.

The pegasus spit his sticks onto the ground. “Well, that’s all I can carry while flying!”

“Yeah, whatever. We’ve got enough kindling, so let’s get out of here already.” We returned to the castle, dumping the branches in front of Netro.

“Excellent!” the little alicorn said. If he was disappointed in Flash’s meager findings, he didn’t say it. “We’ll be warm and dry in no time!” His horn took on that black glow I was becoming familiar with, and then a black fire suddenly sprung up from the wood. Flash sighed in relief, almost flinging himself in the fire in an attempt to get warm. If he hit it, he’d probably light up on the spot. You know, like a flash fire.

All lame puns aside, I was fascinated with that fire like a little filly or something. “Whoa . . .” I gasped. “How do you do that? Conjuring fire seems like a useful skill.” More useful than lifting stallions twice my size, I figured.

Netro seemed honestly surprised at my question. “You really don’t know how to conjure magical fire? As I remember, it’s one of the first thing unicorn colts and fillies learn when they learn magic.”

I laughed. “You really are behind the times. As I remember, they stopped teaching how to conjure fire once almost every school in Equestria was burned down. Now, they only teach it in those high-profile magical academies.” I hung my head. “Never got into one, seeing as all I do is drive trains . . . My parents were pissed, let me tell you.”

“I know,” Netro replied. “Flash Fire told me.”

Oh yeah . . . I had forgotten Flash had filled in Big Mac and Netro on my past. Before the memories could overcome me, I said, “Yeah, and so that pretty much means I have no clue how to make magical fire. Would you show me? Please?”

“Of course, Sparky.” Netro told me the one-word spell, and invited me to try it on a random twig that had been tracked in. Focusing, I made my horn glow and whispered the spell. To my complete surprise, a sky blue fire the color of my magical aura sprung up on the twig.

“Magical fire really is something, huh?” I commented, lying down on the blanket and watching the fire burn itself out.

“It is,” Flash replied, curling up as close to the fire as possible. “Thank Celestia for this wonderful fire . . .”

Netro gave a small cough. “Actually, you should be thanking me for two reasons. One: Seeing as Celestia is just a unicorn now and fused to her sister Luna, who is also an alicorn, I am the only benevolent alicorn left. Two: I actually made that fire.” I thought he left out three: because he was an egotistical prick. But I digress.

“Yeah, thanks,” Flash yawned, curling up more on the blanket. Without so much as a second thought, I scooted over to him and pressed against my side.

“What?” I asked irritably when he shot me a look. “It’s cold and you’re warm.”

“In fact, Sparky makes a good point,” Netro said, flying over to us and curling up on my left side. “We should huddle up when we sleep. That way, none of us will be likely to catch a cold or anything more serious.”

Off to the right, I heard what was probably Big Mac lying down on Flash’s other side. But I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, so sleep I did.

I really have no clue why I made Sparky have feelings for her best friend Flash. I hate it when people ask if me and my best friend are dating, so . . .