“Are ya comin’ or what?” Applejack called out.

Zero pulled himself together enough to lower his arm and turn towards the group.

“The- I- what just happened?!” he pondered to himself as he caught up with the ponies. His thoughts continued to race as he walked.

“What was that thing, why did it- how did she-“ Zero shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind, all it did was bring his thoughts to how Fluttershy had tamed the beast, how she had recklessly stoped him from ending the creature.

“She could have gotten herself killed!” Zero thought with an unusual anger along with some other feeling he wasn’t able to pinpoint. He was about to try and separate her from the group so he could have a few words with her, but instead, she seemed to drop her way back to him.

Zero was about to start before the mare beat him to the chase. “Why did you attack him like that?” she asked, she sounded angry.

Surely she wasn’t serious?

“You’re mad at me?!” Zero questioned, forgetting for a moment that he was speaking to a civilian and thus shouldn’t talk to her unprofessionally. It was strange, he had seen civilians in danger before, but nothing had quite disturbed him as much as what had just happened.

“I was trying to protect you, before you shoved my gun away! What were you thinking?!” he said as he slightly raised the weapon in his right hand and gingerly shook it, “This thing is dangerous!”

He was about to continue but the mare interrupted him, “Then why were you pointing it at him?” she asked.

Zero took a deep breath to calm his anger, “Listen, I know you have a soft spot for animals, but that thing was and ‘it’ not a ‘him’, and I was attacking it for a multitude of reasons. You all were frightened of it, which means it was likely dangerous, it looked very aggressive, and we have a extremely important mission to complete right now, much to important to risk it over some monster’s life!”

“That ‘monster’ can feel!” Fluttershy started. “And even if he was aggressive, that’s no excuse to rob him of his life!”

“Well if killing something is ‘robing it of its life’ then that thing was a top-tier thief!” Zero retorted. “And you don’t seem all that mad at it!”

“We are gifted with more understanding, “Fluttershy reasoned, “we should know better!”

“So you thought you should go and talk to it?” Zero asked, “What if it slaughtered you? Your friends sure thought it was going to, it wasn’t just me!”

“Something was wrong, I could feel it!” Fluttershy pleaded as she scrunched up a little. Zero was too mad to notice the mare’s growing discomfort. “I just wanted to help! Hopefully keep everyone from delving into violence…”

“It’d be kinda hard to help if you’d been torn to shreds!” Zero remarked.

Fluttershy flinched. “Why do you feel so strongly about this?” she asked in a slightly lowered voice.

“Because you’re taking up for animal,” Zero answered, “even though he was going to kill us all ‘cause of a splinter! I don’t think you understand that you could have died. I was just trying to make sure no one else will get lost to this place!”

The soldier expected to hear some sort of comeback but was surprised to hear nothing come from the mare’s mouth. She just looked at him with a gaze of both curiosity and concern on her face.

“Someone else?”

Zero hadn’t meant to let that slip out. His shoulders sagged. “Uh- n-nothing…” he responded, trying to hide the hint of grief in his voice.

Fluttershy didn’t believe him. “What happened?” she asked, appearing more concerned than angry now.

The soldier let out a defeated sigh. He didn’t want to bring this up, but she didn’t look like she would let it go.

“You know how I’ve been in this forest before? The reason why is because I was looking for my brother-“ as Zero was talking Fluttershy stopped walking, pulling the trooper back with her. She then placed a hoof on his forearm, giving him a nod to continue.

Zero cleared his throat, it was strange talking to a civilian about something like this. “Um- he was in trouble and I was on my way to help him but… I was too late.” Zero said as he shook his head, his shoulders falling even more.

He looked up at the pegasai, though he didn’t know what reaction to expect, it certainly wasn’t the empathy and grief that showed in her eyes.

“Well, I- I, uh…” Zero tried to say something else, but was unable to find any words, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway as Fluttershy intervened into his ramblings to wrap him in a hug.

“That’s horrible! I’m so sorry…” she murmured.

Zero hadn’t really processed Trinket’s demise until now, he was trained to not let grief affect him, to just brush it off. But he never could seem to do that, most of his brothers couldn’t.

For the first time he thought about his loss. Trinket was still a relatively new graduate, so Zero didn’t know him that well and now, he never would. Zero blamed himself for the death of his sibling, one who had such a burning passion for the Republic and its people, who would now never be able to share it.

Zero found himself returning the embrace, though its didn’t make the pain go away, something about being so close to someone, someone who cared, and feeling their warmth, their touch, it made him feel a little better. He had never been hugged before, and he would be lying if he said it didn’t make him feel good.

It took a bit before Zero realized how unprofessional it was for him to be making physical contact with someone. He gently left the hug, keeping one hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Er… thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” Fluttershy softly reasoned, “no one should have to deal with that alone.”

Even though he was still hurting, a small smile formed on Zero’s face. The mare looked so sincere, a far cry from the way she had looked at him a while back.

Zero felt bad about how he had talked to her now, after all she must have known what she was doing when she approached the creature right?

“Hey I’m- I’m sorry.” Zero apologized, “For the way I talked to you, and for escalating that situation with the manti-whatsit too quickly.”

“It’s okay.” she gently responded as she again put her hoof on Zero’s arm, “with what you’re going through, and all that you must deal with up there,” she said as she looked at the stars, “I understand.”

“Thank you.” The trooper said as he rubbed the mare’s shoulder for a moment before he removed his hand.

“Just, please try to avoid violence if you can, especially anything lethal.” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ll do my best.” Zero promised with a nod.

The mare shot him a smile before a call rang through the forest,

“Hey, Fluttershy? White guy? Where are you?” shouted a familiar raspy voice.

“Here!” Zero called as he and Fluttershy started to make their way towards Rainbow Dash.

“Where were you two?” asked Applejack. Once they had regrouped.

“I was… stuck with something, and Fluttershy helped me.” Zero said as he gave the pegasus a slight nod.

She appeared to understand his metaphor, and responded with a smile.

“Well I’m glad she did,” Rarity started, “whatever had you bound could have made your armor even more dirty than it already is! And we can not have that now can we?” The unicorn asked as she leaned in a bit towards the soldier.

He noticed she had purposefully ended her statement with a question, which now garnered a response. This was starting to get annoying.

*sigh* “No ma’am.”

The mare lifted her head and closed her eyes as the soldier spoke. Which made Rainbow Dash give her a small shove in an attempt to knock down to size.

“Alright then, can we please get going?” Twilight asked, sounding agitated.

“Sure thing!” Applejack spoke, “let’s move on.”

As everyone started back on their journey, Zero cast a quick glance towards Fluttershy. He had no clue as to why she seemed to actually care about him, especially since, to her, he was an alien.

“Well one things for certain,” he thought to himself, “she may be the kindest person I’ve ever met.”

********************

The team had been traveling for a while, Zero was focusing in on the forest, keeping alert whilst the rest talked amongst themselves.

“Eeewwgh! My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck.” Rarity stated.

She had barely finished speaking when the path they were on took them beneath a thick tree line, making it much harder to see.

“Well I didn’t mean that literally.” the mare stated.

Twilight spoke up, “That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn’t even know it!”

The group started to mutter between themselves, either apologizing for bumping into someone or making statements about the dark.

The lack of light reminded Zero of the last time he was in here, he didn’t like the thought. The trooper began to reach into his belt to find his head-lamps, but was distracted by what he was sure was a purple-ish mist.

“What’s that?” He muttered to himself. It almost looked like the smoke Nightmare Moon had shifted into, whatever it was it warranted a closer look. He began to make his way toward where he thought it was, again reaching for the lamps in his belt, but before he finished pulling them out, he bumped into who he thought was Applejack, dropping them in the dark.

“Blast!” he muttered to himself, as he kneeled down to find them. “Er- sorry for bumping into you.” he said to the mare.

“You’re fine.” she assured before a splotching sound came from where her hooves were.

“Uh wait, Ah think Ah’ve stepped in something…”

“AAAAAA!” Futtershy screamed, causing Zero to instantly abandon his search and quickly back up to where she was. He scanned the forest for what she must have seen, his weapon primed just in case.

“It’s just mud.” Applejack explained, sounding a bit annoyed with Fluttershy’s reaction. Zero turned to look at the orange equine, she was still making her way forward, in front of her was a-

”What is that?!” Zero thought as he saw a bioluminescent, fierce looking, tree?

“Whhaau!” Applejack yelped as she saw the figure and jumped away.

Zero moved forward to pull the mare behind him as he kept his eye on the ferocious looking flora.

He heard what sounded like a gurgling noise to his right, a quick glance revealed that another tree had somehow appeared to the side, followed by more growling to the left, then his behind!

“We’re surrounded by these, things!” Zero thought as he backed up towards the ponies. All of the plant life were grunting, sounding like they were frothing at the mouth, every one of them bearing hideous faces.

Zero didn’t know what to do. The trees weren’t moving, but in this place, that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t dangerous. He was waiting for anything to happen, something to react to, but they were all completely still, growling like they wanted to destroy the makeshift squad.

Everyone behind Zero let out a scream as more and more trees appeared, which didn’t exactly help the soldier’s nerves, everyone yelled except Pinkie who was, laughing?

The other ponies sounded as surprised as Zero was as they all turned to look at her. The pink pony was directly in front of one of trees, making faces at it then laughing in hysterics.

“Hey hey hey!” Zero called to her, “get away from that!”

“Oh, come on, don’t you see?” she said before she started to move up and down in a rhythm, for some reason the area they were all in started to brighten up.

🎶When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooown!🎶

…

…

“What is she kriffing doing!?

“Tell me she’s not-“ Twilight began before Pinkie Pie interrupted her with her song. A song. A. Song!

Bouncing around like a pinball, the mare sang an up-beat tune as she hopped from tree to tree, all of which didn’t seem to be doing anything to her.

Zero decided to get a closer look at the flora himself. Cautiously walking over to one, he studied it in its entirety. The bark appeared to be made of a dark purple wood and had darker pink, bioluminescent carvings all over it. The plant sure looked like it had a head or face or whatever but apart from that didn’t show anything else unusual.

Zero bent over to pick up a rock which he chucked at the tree, nothing happened. Prepping his gun, he then got closer and rested his left hand on the bark, still nothing, not even when Zero placed his hand in the thing’s mouth.

“Guess these things are harmless, just a little eerie is all.” he thought.

By now Pinkie had started dragging everyone over to the trees as she sang, Zero wasn’t exactly listening to the lyrics but from what he understood, the gist was she was trying to get the group to laugh at the flora instead of be frightened by it.

Songs were never really Zero’s cup of tea, perhaps he would have been more open to hearing Pinkie’s show if they all weren’t on a desperate quest to save the world. Still, she seemed to be brightening everyone’s spirits.

Zero had to admit, watching everyone start to laugh at the trees made him see the humor in some of them as well. There was one to his right who’s eyes were crossed and who’s mouth was curled in a snarl, but in the brighter light it just looked goofy. Then to that tree’s left was another one which looked so comically mad, he could promise it just lost a bet on a podrace or something.

He was starting to snicker at the plants before one in particular caught his eye, it was one further away, and was partially blocked by others, but something about it…

Its mouth almost protruded from its head and was lined with two rows of teeth. Its eyes were large and bulgy and each looked like it had multiple pupils.

Looking at it made Zero’s head hurt exactly where his head wound was, as well as a dull pain somewhere that felt like it was deep in his mind. He wasn’t sure why, but the sight unnerved him, he couldn’t even take his eyes of it.

Something grabbed hold of him which made him uncharacteristically jump. He spun his head to see it was Pinkie, who yanked him towards a nearby tree, still singing her tune and trying to get his spirits up.

His head’s ache started to ebb as he looked at the thing. Though part of him was still wondering as to why he had just felt the way he did. The bigger part of him was too distracted by the tree in front of him.

This one didn’t even look like it was trying, its lips were curled inward and its eyes were both looking outward. It was enough to warrant a little chuckle from the soldier.

He could hear the rest of the team laughing in hysterics especially Pinkie, who had now stopped singing as was rolling on the floor, grasping for each breath in-between her laughter.

Something about the tree in front of him, and Pinkie’s laughter beside him made Zero’s little chuckle turn into a small bout of laughter. He didn’t know why he laughed, the tree wasn’t that funny, it must be Pinkie Pie’s hysterics. Something about the way she laughed just made Zero want to smile, like just hearing it was funny.

Zero looked over at the other ponies, they were now all lying down on their backs, all laughing together. Seeing their joy and unity in this star-forbidden place warmed his heart. Watching them laugh in a grim situation reminded him of his own experiences with his squad.

And just like that, Zero’s heart sank back down.

“Where are they?” Zero thought as he tried to look to the sky that was blocked by the tree line. He both missed, and was worried for his brothers. The soldier still couldn’t remember how he had ended up here and had no idea how many troopers could be elsewhere on the planet. For all he knew, most could have been killed in some sort of attack and he was one of the sole survivors.

Zero shook the thought from his head, worrying wouldn’t solve anything, if he wanted to know what happened then he needed to locate his brothers, or find some way to contact the Republic.

“The Republic…” Zero thought, “What’s going to happen once I do call them?”

Zero had earlier taken a shot at Nightmare Moon, and though she was threatening a whole planet, he had attempted to use lethal force on a non-combatant, something the Republic did not take lightly.

“I sure hope this ‘Celestia’ is gonna be grateful when we rescue her, I am most certainly going to need her to vouch for me if I want to keep from being court marshaled.”

Zero rubbed his throat, “And I especially want to avoid what would happen after that.”

For a moment, Zero wondered why he was risking his skin for people who weren’t Republic citizens, but shook the thought from his head. The way he saw it, he was born to uphold the constitution of the Republic. The constitutions goal is to help and protect people, so in a way, he was born to help others. Moreover Zero didn’t value his life over the lives of the people on this rock. And if he could have a do-over, he wouldn’t take it.

“Actually, I would.” Zero thought, “I would have made sure to hit her...”

Remembering the urgency of their mission, Zero called to everyone, suggesting that they continue on their way.

Still giggling, they all brought themselves to their hooves, and began to trudge back to the path they were walking.

As they passed him, someone slugged Zero on his arm.

“Don’t have a sense of humor then, huh?” Applejack sarcastically asked, still smiling.

“It’s not that,” Zero stated, “it’s just that we should be moving now.”

“Nah it’s fine, I get it,” the mare teased, “that bucket you wear on you head must drain all the fun from ya.”

Zero let out a chuckle, he couldn’t help but go along with her. “Oh yes, it is my burden to bare.”

Applejack snickered a bit as she made her way to the others. As serious as this situation was, it was good to take a moment to have a little fun.

Now able to see better, Zero went to retrieve his head-lamps, finding them resting in the grass. He then jogged to catch up with everyone.

Pinkie Pie was leading the way now, bouncing along and still giggling, same as the rest. She was headed for a raging river that she had somehow not spotted yet, once she did, she came to an abrupt halt, causing the ponies behind her to collide with each other.

“How are we gonna cross this?” Pinkie questioned as she stared down the roaring waves.

“Well, we can always swim.” Zero said, immediately feeling awkward about his dumb joke.

Twilight responded with an appropriate eye roll, thought Zero was pretty sure he saw Applejack smile a bit.

Just then, a puny wail rang out to his left. The first thing the sound made Zero think of was and old lady who got her foot ran over by something.

He decided to examine the source of the noise and found that it was coming from behind some bushes.

He shoved his way past them looking for the origin of the moan, and was now staring directly at… it.

…

…

…

Zero’s jaw hit the floor.

“What a world, what a world!” wailed a humongous, purple, scaly sea serpent… with hair and half a mustache.

Surprisingly, this was the first thing Zero saw on this planet that truly freaked him out. It was almost too much for him to wrap his head around, he just stood there, taking very deep breaths, barely moving.

“Uh, excuse me sir,” Twilight spoke up, “why are you crying?”

“Well I don’t know! I was just sitting here, minding my own business when this, tacky little cloud of purple smoke just just whisked past me! And tore half of my beloved mustache, clean off! And now, I look simply horrid!”

The serpent then let out a wail so dramatic that it sounded like it had just lost its entire family, before it fell over into the river, sending a large splash of water directly on top of Zero and the ponies.

The mares all ducked or scrunched up when the water hit them but not Zero, he was still just standing there.

“Are you okay? Are you breathing?” Fluttershy asked Zero. He gave a nod, at least, he thought he did. He wasn’t sure.

Some of the ponies seemed agitated. “Oh gimmie a break!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“That’s what all the fuss is about?” Applejack joined in.

“Why, of course it is!” Rarity stated. “How can you be so insensitive!” she remarked in her classy accent as she walked over to the serpent who had now rested its head onto the bank.

“Oh just look at him!” Rarity said in a babying tone. “Such lovely luminescent scales!”

The serpent let out a whiny sniff, “I know!”

“And your expertly elegant mane!”

“Oh, I know, I know!”

“You’re fabulous manicure!”

“It’s so true!”

“All ruined without you beautiful mustache.” Rarity finished.

“It’s true!” Wailed the sea snake, “I’m hideous!”

“I’m simply cannot allow such a crime against fabulousity go uncorrected!” The mare insisted.

With that, she leaned toward the snake and bit off one of its scales.

“Ow!” It screamed as it flailed its arms, sending more water at Zero. He didn’t even bother wiping the liquid off his visor.

“What’d you do that for?”

The pale mare raised the sharp edge.

“Rarity what are you-“ Twilight started before cutting herself off after witnessing what the white mare had done. She had sliced off a large portion of her very well-styled tail.

Throwing the scale away, she used her ‘magic’ to pick up her tail and levitated it over to the serpent. She somehow was able to ‘forge’ it with the snake, giving it a different colored, more swirly, second half to its mustache.

“Oh! Ho ho ho hooo!” The serpent bellowed, “My mustache! How WONderful!”

“You look smashing!” the mare commented.

“Oh Rarity, you’re beautiful tail!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh, i-it’s fine my dear. Short tails are in this season, besides, it’ll grow back.”

“So would the mustache…” Rainbow Dash observed.

Twilight gave out a small gasp before heading across the now still river. “We can head across now! Let’s go!” she said before something below her hooves started shaking. She was lifted by the snake.

“Allow me!” It’s said politely as it laced its body across the water.

As the grouped started to cross, Zero tried to move, but found himself still grounded.

“You comin’?” Applejack called.

“…Er…yeah.” Zero softly called back. He gingerly walked across the body of the snake, crossing over to the other river bank. The serpent gave a final farewell before casting a strange look at the trooper and plunging into the water, swimming away.

Zero was not sure what he had just seen and he didn’t want to be. He just tucked what he saw away in the back of his mind and refused to acknowledge he ever witnessed it.

“Let’s, move…” he told the team as he started his way down the path.

“Hold on there.” Rarity said as she trotted over to the trooper’s left side. She was “holding” a large, wet leaf with her magic that she must have dipped in the river.

“It’s nothing like what I have at home but it’ll have to do.” she stated as she started to wipe down the troopers armor, removing most of the loose dirt as well the majority of grime.

It was quite unusual to be touched by a floating leaf, having it wash all around his upper armor. Watching it levitate reminded him of the stories he had heard from some of his brothers about Jedi lifting and moving stuff without any physical contact.

“Well, that’s the best I can do with this.” Rarity stated as she tossed the leaf away.

“Um, thanks.” Zero said.

He thought it was highly unusual for someone like her to even conceive the idea of washing armor, much less actually doing it. Come to think of it, maybe it was just her voice but she reminded him so much of the dignitaries and politicians back on Coruscant who would rather buy ten more expensive robes than to wash one themselves. Also, the way she earlier had so quickly decided to sacrifice her own appearance to satisfy the wants of some large worm genuinely impressed Zero.

“Hey,” he spoke the the unicorn, “that thing you did, you did good.”

“Thank you, I was happy to help.” she responded.

“Well it couldn’t have been easy, couldn’t’ve it ma’am?” Zero said with a slight, humorous grin.

The mare answered with her own smile. “No, it wasn’t, trooper.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, Zero let out a chuckle before he heard a sound to his left. It was a low-pitched growling noise and it sounded close. The rest of the team heard it too and were frantically looking for its source.

Quick as lightning, a tall, mangy, snarling monster charged out of the growth directly at Zero. Rarity, who was in between the two, let out a shriek as the beast rambled closer. Immediately Zero grabbed her and dove to his side, narrowly avoiding one of its paws as it slashed down at them.

He rolled as he hit the ground, though he almost regretted it when Rarity rolled on top of him. The weight of the equine almost drove the breath from the trooper, but he managed to quickly shove her aside and climb to his feet.

He the turned to face the creature, its head had two, swirling horns on either side of it, below of which were two sets of three eyes. Its mouth appeared lizard like and had a tentacle looking tongue. The thing stood on two, small, fragile looking legs, and had a tail almost as long as its body, which looked like it was at least two humans tall. It also possessed a set of long, fierce looking forearms that it was about to use to attack Pinkie!

Zero instantly raised his weapon and fired at the animal, not at its head or heart, but at its arm, hitting it right before it took a swing at the pink pony.

The monster let out a frothing roar that didn’t sound like it was in as much pain as Zero had hoped it would be, before it turned to face the soldier, preparing to charge.

Remembering his promise to Fluttershy, Zero set his weapon to stun, enough to knock out a wookie for over an hour, then he fired multiple shots at the fiend.

All the stun particles landed on the creature’s head. It certainly did something as the monster looked like it lost all concentration and even started to fall over.

Zero weaved to his left to avoid getting crushed by it, just before it slammed into the ground right in front of Rarity. The mare quickly turned her body and kicked the creature with respectable force, though unfortunately, to not much effect. The animal swiped one of its paws at her, but Rainbow Dash swooped in to lift her away in the nick of time.

The monster clambered up to its feet, looking for its next target. Zero’s immediate response was to find and protect Fluttershy but the tactical part of his mind told him the Twilight was who he should really be protecting. Begrudgingly, he scanned the area for the unicorn, spotting her near the back of the group.

“Fluttershy! Get her out of here!” Zero commanded, hoping to get them both to safety.

“I-I-I can’t just l-leave you here!” she squeaked as the beast lunged for Applejack.

A instantaneous volley of shots from Zero’s blaster again dazed the creature enough to give the orange equine time to hop out of the way.

“Do it now! That’s an order!” Zero shot back at her.

The pegasus looked shocked by Zero’s hard tone-of-voice, but she did as she was told, lifting Twilight away to, well, anywhere else.

As the mare carried her friend to safety, Rainbow Dash came barreling towards the monster, slamming right into its chest.

It definitely sounded like it did some damage, and was followed by a subsequent buck from Applejack which also looked like it hurt.

The fauna was now more mad then before, it swung its arm at Applejack, knocking her far away. It then spun around with the same motion, trying to hit Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus dodged. She got overconfident though, as she eyed the creature with a look of mild triumph before the animal back-handed her.

Watching the mare slam to the ground, Zero started to devise a plan to lead the monster away from the others. In about two seconds, the trooper decided to go with ol’ reliable.

Switching his gun back to ‘lethal’ for a moment, he took a shot at the fauna’s rear, causing it to howl in pain.

“Hey ugly!” he called, “Come and get me!”

The monster began another ferocious charge. Zero tuned tail and began to retreat into the growth.

“What’re you doing?!” Applejack called.

“Distracting it!” Zero called back, “I’ll handle this, you all run!”

The soldier dodged and weaved his way through the more tight areas of the forest in an attempt to put more space between him and his hunter. He had no such luck though as the creature started to gain on him fast! Zero tried to dodge to his side again but this time the monster was wise to it and grabbed Zero with its tentacle tongue.

It brought Zero up to its mouth and was about to take a life-ending bite out of him, Zero had other plans however, as he took a shot at the inside of the creature’s cheeks. It bellowed in excruciating pain as it bent over, spewing out over a buckets worth of saliva all over the trooper, lubricating the suction cups on the tentacle enough to release him.

A wet Zero landed on the grassy floor with a thump, he tried to get up, but the foul fiend was now trying to stomp him into the ground. He rolled left and right, narrowly evading death each time, but he was now trapped.

He had no room to get a clean shot off, and was about to be crushed any second now. Luckily for him, a flash of blue collided with the beast’s back, causing it to fall forward. Zero rolled far to his right as the creature landed with a thud. He quickly clambered to his feet and was dismayed when the flora did the same.

He needed a plan to take this thing down for good. His stun blast seemed to daze it and Rainbow Dash was able to harm it. Then if they worked together, they had a chance of defeating this thing. Zero gave a volley of shots at his foe in order to buy him some time to relay his haphazard plan the the pegasus.

“I’ll stun it! You hit it as hard as you can in its head!” Zero ordered.

“Who put you in charge?!” demanded the mare.

“Just do it!” yelled Applejack as she ran up to join them.

The monster had now recovered and took a swing at Applejack who ducked under it. Zero raised his weapon to fire.

“Hold on!” Applejack yelled as she barely escaped another swing. “Ah’ll distract it, Dash, get a running start, Zero, wait for my signal!”

The mare then bucked her opponent to aggravate it even more before charging right past it, using her superior mobility to lead it in a haphazard circle. Out of the corner of his eye, Zero could see Rainbow Dash had already flown a considerable distance away, and had started her run at the beast, a very fast run.

“Now!” Applejack hollered.

Zero immediately placed two shots on each of the creatures knees, causing it to buckle and slow down, he then hit it as many times as he could in the head, causing it to start to keel over from the repeating force slamming in its cranium. Right when it landed on its knees, Rainbow Dash nailed it in the head with authority, a thunderous, high-pitched crack rang through out the forest.

The monster’s head jerked right from the impact before it turned back to the front. Zero was beginning to think they were going to have to have another go at this, but his doubts fell away just as the animal went crashing down.

Applejack started to approach the creature to make sure they got it.

“Stay back.” Zero told her, preferring that he do it himself.

Once he got up close he could already hear its shallow, rhythmic breathing. A couple of pokes on the shoulder confirmed what he thought. They had knocked it unconscious.

“We got’em!” Zero called out triumphantly.

Rainbow Dash retuned right as Applejack let out a hardy “yee haw”. “Did we get him.” she asked.

“See for yourself.” Zero said as he stepped aside from the beast.

“Aw, yeah!” Rainbow Dash cried a she stuck a pose. “Did ya see me!”

“Kinda hard not to!” Zero praised, “Here I was, thinking you were a pegasus instead of a rocket!” he joked as he raised his hand for a high-five.

“How about both!” the mare said as she smacked her hoof against Zero’s hand.

“And you,” Zero said as he turned to point at Applejack, “that was some great coordinating! My C.O. would’ve been proud!”

Applejack looked like she didn’t know what a ‘C.O.’ was, but she took the complement regardless.

“Mighty thanks! Maybe you’ll remember this next time you think about going off on your own to get yahself torn to bits.” she teased.

“Eh I had everything under control.” Zero remarked.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen anypony call rolling around like a fish out of water ‘under control’.” Rainbow Dash sarcastically stated, garnering a snicker from everyone.

“Well alright then,” Applejack started, “now that we got that varmin’ taken care of, we should start on our way again.”

Zero and Applejack walked back to the path they were on while Rainbow Dash flew off to find the rest of the group. She had accomplished her goal by the time the other two returned to the walkway.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked as she hurried over to Applejack and Zero.

“We’re fine sugarcube.” Applejack answered.

Fluttershy looked at Zero to get his confirmation, he answered with a nod.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, insinuating that see had got this treatment as well.

“W-what about the injuries you already had?” the mare asked.

“They’re fine.” Zero stated, glad that the reliever he took hadn’t worn off.

Rarity walked over to Zero as well, he suspected her to ask him similar questions once she started to look him up and down.

“And I had just washed all that off!” she whined.

“Or not.”

********************

The group walked in relative silence for a while apart from the occasional chat. In fact, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were discussing something in this moment, before they were interrupted by Twilight’s gasp.

“There it is! The ruin that holds the elements of harmony, we made it!” she stated before she made a beeline for the fallen castle.

“Twilight! Wait for us!” Applejack yelped as she and the others ran to catch up. Zero followed behind from a distance, making sure to keep a closer eye on the foliage after what happened awhile back.

“We’re almost there!” Twilight exclaimed, right before she almost fell into a gorge. Luckily for her, Rainbow Dash had grabbed the unicorn’s tail in her mouth.

“What’s with you and falling off cliffs today?” she remarked after she pulled Twilight to safety.

The other ponies gathered next to the cliff side along with Zero, there was a rickety bridge that used to connect this side of the cliff with the other, foggy side the castle was on, though it had disconnected years ago.

“Now what?” Pinkie wondered aloud.

“Duh.” said Rainbow Dash as she wiggled her wings. She took off in the sky before diving down into the gorge grabbing the end of the bridge and soaring up towards the other side, disappearing into the fog. Zero was impressed with how much she could carry, much less whilst flying!

One of the tethers looked like it tightened. Rainbow Dash must’ve tied it to something. Zero waited for the other tether to tighten, it didn’t.

“What’s taking her so long?” he thought as he tried to peer through the fog. Just then a sense of worry overcame him. His helmet could see through the thickest of smoke so why couldn’t it see through this?

Zero waited some more, the other ponies were starting to get concerned as well.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called. “What’s taking so long?” she asked, echoing Zero’s thoughts. “Oh no.” she said as she peered into the mist.

Zero looked for what see could have seen, but saw nothing himself.

“Rainbow Dash!” he called.

Silence.

Zero reached for his grapnel and attached it to his blaster. If he had to, he was going to shoot the cable to the other side and shimmy over the abyss to find out what happened.

But before he did, he decided to wait just a bit longer. He was glad he did as the other tether finally tightened and the pegasus flew out of the fog and landed on the bridge, striking a pose. She was met with praise which didn’t make much sense to Zero as all she did was tie a knot.

“Me and the boys had to dig a multi-kilometer long trench once. A couple thousand men worked on that and not one of them got a ‘thank you’.” He grumbled to himself.

“See” I’d never leave my friends hanging! Or you I guess.” she teased Zero.

“Aw come on now.” Applejack jokingly started, “don’t talk to him like that, why he so worried sick about you he was about to go crawl over a wire to make sure you were ok!”

“Say what!?” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“More like I was about to go see why you were taking your sweet time, but yeah, ‘worried sick’.” Zero joked.

Once everyone had crossed the bridge, they all entered the ruins, they looked much bigger inside than out which was strange, even warranting a “woah” from Rainbow Dash. Stones and old supports were laying everywhere and the whole building had been reclaimed by the surrounding foliage that had been growing through cracks in the walls, and the numerous, giant, broken windows.

“Now come on Twilight,” Applejack started, “isn’t this what you’ve been waitn’ for?”

Twilight Sparkle was eyeing a stone structure in the center of the room. On it, were five engraved stones, each on their own pedestals.

“The elements of harmony!” Twilight exclaimed, “We found them!”

Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy went to retrieve the precious artifacts.

“Careful, careful!” Twilight warned.

“One, two, three, four…” Pinkie counted, “there’s only five!?”

“Where's the sixth?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“The book said,” Twilight began, “once the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed.”

“What in the hay is that supposed to mean.” Applejack wondered.

“I’m not sure but I have an idea.” Twilight answered. “Stand back, I don’t know what will happen.”

Zero and the others backed away as Twilight began to work her magic.

“Come on now y’all, she needs to concentrate.” Applejack stated as she lead the others outside the ruins. Zero only followed half way.

“I’m gonna stay here, make sure Twilight stays safe.” he declared.

Applejack turned to look at him, she appeared like she disagreed with his idea.

“I’ll be quiet.” Zero said as he motioned her to keep moving. Applejack reluctantly turned back to walk with the others.

Zero found a fallen support near one of the walls, he sat there and observed Twilight as she did her thing.

He then looked up at the sky, the ruins had no roof so he had a clear view of the stars.

“I wonder if there are any Republic ships up there…” he thought before he returned his gaze to Twilight, only to see a purple mist was heading right for her!

Nightmare Moon

“Twilight!” Zero yelled as he raced toward her.

Twilight let out a gasp as the smoke swirled around into a miniature tornado, scooping up the stones.

“The elements!” Twilight exclaimed. Before she jumped into the whirlwind, vanishing in a flash.

Zero didn’t know wether to follow her in or not, and now he didn’t have time to think as the tornado started to destabilize.

“Blast!” He muttered as he jumped into the violet, raging mist, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Author's Note

I stayed up like five hours to finish this. Safe to say I wasn’t expecting it to take that long.

As I said, I wrote this mostly at night so if you see any errors feel free to point them out.

Also, if you wish, you can tell me what you have liked about the story so far and what you haven’t. All this helps to make the next chapter better than the last :D (hopefully)