“So you’re saying in some old ruins in the woods we can find some trinkets that use the power of “harmony” and will allow you to kill Nightmare Moon?” I ask just to make sure I’m properly understanding this plan.

“Defeat. Not kill. You sound like you have no faith in this plan, but according to this book these same trinkets were what sealed her in the moon last time.” The purple unicorn known as Twilight responds.

“Even worse! I can’t get back to my dimension if we can’t find Celestia and Nightmare is the only one who knows where she is!”

“I thought you were supposed to know magic? We have tracking spells. We’d just need a guard to go to her room in the palace and grab something that belongs to her and we can find her. In fact they’re probably doing that as we speak. We really need to leave though, I can tell she’s severely weakened right now, whatever she did to the Princess combined with the fact that she was in a sealed state for the last 1000 years had her running on near empty and the longer we leave her alone the stronger she’ll be.”

“You mean that monster wasn’t even at full strength? There’s no way!”

“Then why didn’t she chase after us? Why let the only ponies that put up a fight get away?”

“.... I don’t know, but she’s way too strong and I don’t wanna see what she can do at a full power. So fine, let’s go.” I finally concede as we stand up and start going towards the door of the library.

Some context here, apparently Twilight was sent to town yesterday to make sure all the preparations for the celebration were coming along nicely after trying to warn the Princess that this celebration would mark the return of Nightmare Moon. Princess Incompetent told her that she’s crazy and needed to go touch grass.

Along the way Twilight met the 5 other ponies that are currently walking with us through the forbidden forest and those same 5 ponies are the ones that decided it being night time forever is a bad idea. Let me give you a quick rundown of these 5.

Applejack, orange pony blond “mane” I don’t wanna get talked to again for calling it hair. We already know her she’s the one that kept me in a barn and seemed somewhat nice. Turns out she’s actually pretty strong.

Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She’s the one that joined me in my insane effort to beat up what I’ve now been informed is basically a capital g, God.

Pinkie Pie, a fitting name for a pink pony with a pink puffy mane. She’s pretty random, hype, and loud.

Rarity, another unicorn, I don’t really have a vibe from her yet. She’s pure white with a purple mane, but it’s pretty stylized. She seems nice enough?

Fluttershy, a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t said a word so far, but if she did I was too zoned out to hear it. The poor thing seems terrified, but respect for trying to do the right thing. Hopefully she doesn’t hold us back.

“So what exactly is so spooky about this forest?” I ask to break the silence.

“It don’t work like the rest of Equestria, it ain’t natural.” Applejack replies.

“That literally doesn’t answer my question at all. I don’t know how the rest of Equestria works.”

“All the plants and trees grow on their own and the weather is completely random. It can be sunny for a few hours and then a huge storm comes through.”

“That’s not how the rest of the world works?”

“Colt you really don’t know anything, huh? The pegasi control the weather and don’t none of the plants grow without our earth pony magic.”

“Right. Sure. The big magic horse can apparently move the moon and sun, so I guess weather manipulation isn’t unbelievable.”

Applejack probably had something to respond with but before she can say anything Pinkie Pie starts literally vibrating. “Oooooh wow this is gunna be a doozy!”

I’m just about to ask her if she’s having a stroke when suddenly the cliffside we’re walking on collapses.

1. +6 Acrobatics. 18.

The only 2 ponies completely safe are the ones with wings, Rainbow and Fluttershy, the other 4 ponies start tumbling down the side of the mountain with me. Digging my ankles into the dirt to slow my descent I grab Pinkie Pie by the hoof and move her towards a root sticking out of the ground that she stops herself with. Rainbow Dash catches Applejack and Fluttershy manages to slow down Rarity enough for her to stop herself. Twilight on the other hand goes over the side and is hanging onto the edge for dear life.

“Shit, shit, shit. Hang on!” Right as I get to the edge her hooves slip and she starts to fall.

Well, I hope an 18 is high enough for this! I go over the edge and grab Twilight, holding her forehooves while I dangle upside down by my feet.

I start to feel her slipping and decide I’m going to try to throw her back up onto the ledge, but before I can I hear Applejack, “Ignis, just let her go.”

“Are you insane?! There’s no way she can survive that fall!”

“You have to trust me just let her go or you’re both going to fall, and then we can’t help.”

“Screw that!”

I bend my knees and start building momentum back towards the edge. Flexing my entire core I transfer the momentum into my arm and fling Twilight back towards the cliff. She safely lands back on the incline and Applejack steadies her, but my feet lose grip in the process and I fall into the void.

As I’m falling I see Rainbow come speeding into view and she banks down, barreling straight towards me. “I gotcha!” She yells.

She grabs me and we slow down to a stop, just hovering in the air. “Sweet save Rainbow, now just bring me back up.”

“I’m trying dude, but you’re really heavy. Last time I already had a lot of force when I grabbed you, but I’m trying to start from zero now and to be honest I don’t think I can bring you up.”

She really is breathing hard and it makes sense. I’m like 3 times the size of these ponies I’m amazed she’s even holding me up right now. “Alright Rainbow, just let me go. I’ll be fine. Twilight said I’m looking for a castle right? I’ll keep heading in the same direction from this lower path and we can regroup at the castle. You go with them in case something like this happens again, I can handle myself.”

Rainbow goes silent for a few seconds, it seems like she really wants me to stay with the group, “I don’t think I have it in me right now to bring everyone else down to where you’ll be, and I can’t bring you up so I guess I’ll follow your plan. Watching what you did to Nightmare Moon I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m not dropping you though I’ll slowly bring you down and then go back up with the girls.”

She places me on the ground and gives me a wave before flying back up through the foliage to reconvene with the others. On one hand it’s good they were there because it means I didn’t have to use Feather Fall and managed to save a spell slot, but on the other hand I can move a lot faster through these woods without them constantly doing double takes and jumping every time a tree looks scary. Splitting up is probably the best idea.

This also gives me the perfect opportunity to cut loose and actually figure out how the hell my power works. Very unexpectedly, I see that tinge of blue overtake my vision indicating time has stopped, but instead of seeing dice I just see 2 big words.

“TUTORIAL START”

Author's Note

I know not a lot happened this chapter, but I wanted to post something and this seemed like a good stopping point.

Next chapter is already like 30% done, as in I have the outline completed and the END of the chapter written. I just need to fill in all the stuff leading up to the end. The end of the chapter is really good though so look forward to it :D.

I'd probably be putting out longer chapters more often, but I'm a bit addicted to a game at the moment... sorry :(