Chapter 3 What you Hoped to Find

It did not get better. I hope you are happy, Rarity. Twilight thought looking at the massive Manicore that was blocking the path that Fluttershy had found leading in the right direction. She had felt that Rarity had deserved the roar in her face that had slicked back her hair into a straight line.

⚡︎ ⚡︎ ⚡︎

Rainbow was happy, they had finally found one of the dangerous wild animals that Fluttershy had practically promised them that they would run across. Another chance to save her companions and show how awesome she was. “Take that!” her dive was blocked by a large scorpion tail and she had to veer off before she could land a hit. Fortunately Applejack wasn't faring much better, the manticore wasn't letting her land a hit either.

The other four were being smart and hanging back, the two unicorns were trying to shoot spells at it while not hitting the two fighters. Scratch that, Twilight was trying to shoot spells, Rarity was prancing in place. Probably never learned any offensive spells. Why did she come along again?

“Wait!” A pink glow surrounded Rainbow and Applejack, yanking them back to the group. “Fluttershy wanted you guys to listen to her,” Twilight finished looking a little bashful that she hadn't heard Fluttershy at first either.

“He’s hurt,” Fluttershy called, trotting forward towards the looming monster. “Let me see it.” She reached up with a hoof towards the manticore's giant paws, which Rainbow now saw was cradled against its chest.

The manticore slowly let its paw be dragged towards Fluttershy, only letting out a growl and pulling back slightly when Fluttershy turned it face up and pulled the claws back to reveal a large black thorn stuck deep in the pad of its paw.

“This is going to hurt for a bit,” Fluttershy said, reaching forward and biting down on the thorn. Fluttershy yanked her head back suddenly while the manticore yelped in pain. Rainbow Dash started forward to grab her friend, but the manticore grabbed Fluttershy first. And started… purring?

“Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense,” Twilight spoke up. “The mantacore got hurt and came to look for help.”

“It,” Applejack pointed at the mantacore, “came looking for help. How did it know to do that?”

“Flutter's is a follower of Pan!” Pinkie interjected before Twilight could explain. “It probably knows her and smelled her from afar!”

By this point the manticore had set Fluttershy down and had limped off into the bushes leaving a slightly damp Fluttershy behind.

“Why didn't it just pull the thorn out itself?” asked Applejack.

“Kindness soothes the savage soul, silly filly!”

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Rarity was not having a good day. First Princess Celestia disappeared, then she decided to join a bunch of ruffians to go save Celestia, then they fell down a cliff and then were attacked by a savage beast. And now it was dark. Not the average dark that the Everfree forest had been seconds ago, it was advanced darkness. That's what Pinkie Pie had said. Applejack's lantern had been smashed in the rockfall, and the darkness had completely snuffed out the magic light of her and Twilight's horn.

“Hold on, I’m going to try overcharging a sunspell again.” That was Twilight off to her right. How is she not frightened? Rarity wondered. A few seconds went by and a glow formed a few hoovelenths above their heads. Instead of the brilliant yellow that had been the flare from earlier, this one was a dull orange that didn't cast light very far at all. If anything it made the situation worse.

Rarity found herself face to face with a gnarled face. “AAAAAAAAIIIIIIEEE!” she squealed and started backing up only to feel something grab her leg. Around her she heard four other voices scream, varying from ‘AHHH!’ to ‘eep.’ to ‘YAI YAAAHH!’ and the sound of wood snapping. She herself kicked out at whatever had grabbed her and dashed over to join the others.

“The trees are movin’!” Applejack yelled. “I didn’ sign up to deal with trees! I just farm ‘em not fight ‘em! What the hay do we do?”

“Pinkie?” Rarity looked at the one member of the party who was not screaming in terror or over reacting. “why are you smiling?" she asked cautiously.

“Because the apple farmer is scared of trees.” Pinkie took a deep breath before letting out a guffaw. “The apple farmer is scared of the trees!” she broke down into giggles.

Applejack sat and scratched the back of her head, “when you do put it like that it is a mite silly.” She grinned before starting to chuckle, “I reckon it’s because that tree looks like my late uncle Johnathan. He always scared me by poppin’ his dentures out at me,” Applejack started laughing at the tree that she had been kicking earlier.

Rarity held back a small giggle, guffawing was for peasants, but she did see the humor in the matter. In the end the laughter was contagious. “And here I was thinking that the trees were trying to grab me like ruffians!” she added, “I suppose we are all very silly.”

“That one looked like Ms. Academia” Twilight added, pointing to another tree. “She always threatened to fail me. I always fell for it.” A smile crossed the formerly worried face.

“I'm ALWAYS silly!” Pinkie exclaimed, “The best laughs are when you laugh with people.”

“Is it just me, or is it brighter now?” Rarity asked after a little bit wiping a bit of a tear from her eye.

“It is brighter,” Twilight responded, shielding her eyes from the sunlight orb that was now throwing bright light in every direction with almost no effort. “Wait, the faces are gone. Why are the faces gone?”

“Laughter is the best medicine for everything I guess,” Rainbow announced from where she was inspecting a broken tree limb.

ʚїɞ ʚїɞ ʚїɞ

The group soon found the ground abruptly stopped sloping downward onto a relatively flat stretch with an increase in fallen logs and denser brush clogging the way. “We are nearing a stream,” Fluttershy called back, “we're in a floodplane and we might have to ford it to get to the castle.”

“I do hope there is a bridge,” Rarity muttered under her breath.

Fluttershy rolled her eyes and continued wiggling through the brush. She might not have the plant and earth connections that Pinkie and Applejack had, but she was in her element here in the wild. The small creatures were getting anxious she could tell. Not only were they wondering why the day hadn't arrived yet, but a large number of them were trying to move away from the stream. Something was wrong with it.

“Be careful," she called back again, “something is going on in the stream, the animals don't know what it is but it isn't good.”

“Agh, it's always something,” Rainbow complained from where she was hovering over the undergrowth. Fluttershy admired her best friend, but sometimes Rainbow's impatience and inability to get along with wild creatures got on her nerves sometimes.

The whole thing was rather stressful. She had to lead four ponies and her friend through the Everfree, in the dark, to find weapons, to fight an evil alicorn. Not for the first time that night she wished Orion was there to help her, but she hadn't had time to get him when Pinkie Pie had grabbed her in the town hall and gently brought her to the Library. Her heart was thumping loud in her ears again and the already tight vegetation was starting to press in. What was she doing here? She should have just refused and hid in bed until someone else had taken care of the problem. I can't do this, I'm going to die here.

“Hey, Flutters,” Rainbow called worried, tinting her voice, “You okay? Are you stuck on something?”

I’m here because they can’t do it without me. My animal friends need me, be strong for them. It will be fine. A few breaths to calm herself down and she answered, “I am fine. Thanks, Rainbow. I just thought I heard something.” She lied and immediately felt Applejack’s gaze bore into her.

That was when the group heard a noise up ahead. It sounded like somepony sobbing, really loud, and a lot of splashing. Mustering her courage, Futtershy pushed ahead. She stepped out of the underbrush onto a tall moonlit cutbank of the stream and found the source of the commotion.

There in the middle of the churning and now muddy stream, a giant purple sea serpent was holding its head in its hands and crying extremely loudly, its lower half flailing all over being the cause for the waves and commotion. “Oh the indignity!” it cried.

Fluttershy held in a huff. Great, a giant Rarity is blocking our path. And I can't do anything about it because it's not wild.

The others joined her on the bank. “What is it now?” Twilight asked, her voice bordering on a whine of annoyance. The sea serpent kept on wailing. The ponies looked at each other.

“Allow me,” Applejack said, “You might want to take a step back for this.” She gave them a few seconds to press against the dense foliage before raising her hoof to her mouth and releasing a loud, shrill whistle. The serpent was shocked out of crying for the moment looking around to see where the sound had come from. “Down here!” she called out, “What's the matter that's got you all twisted up for?”

The serpent paused before answering, “well I was minding my own business when a tacky blue thing rushed by here and tore off half of my magnificent mustache! Now it's gone and my look is ruined!" Fluttershy noticed that the dragon had a brilliant gold orange slickback hairstyle and one half of a gold orange mustache that was quite large and curled.

“Really,” Applejack muttered, “That’s what all the fuss was about?”

“I’ll bet that mist was Nightmare Moon on her way to the castle,” Twilight whispered back.

“Applejack!” Rarity almost squawked. “How could you be so insinsitive! This poor serpent had a magnificent look that probably took a long time to cultivate.”

“It did!” the serpent wailed, “It took years to reach that length!”

“It ruins the whole look!” Rarity continued, now in her element. “The complementary colors”

“It was a gift!”

“The immaculately perfect eyebrows,”

“So much hard work.”

“Wonderfully groomed hairdo”

“An hour every morning!”

“Expert hoofacures,”

“It's so hard to find businesses that serve serpents.”

“And it's all ruined without the mustache!”

The serpent was now all but laying in the river having gotten a compatriot to join his pity party. “What will I doooooo?” he wailed, “I can't let my friends see me like this.”

“Come here,” Rarity motioned with a hoof, “Let me get a look at you and see what I can do.”

The serpent rested his head on the bank, big sorrowful eyes gazing at Rarity as she looked over the damaged mustache.

“I need a sharp cutting implement, you wouldn't happen to have a loose scale would you?” Rarity asked. “I don't want to risk a cutting spell, and your scales look extremely sharp.”

“Oh yes, they are,” the serpent agreed before lifting a handful of the plate size keratin shields out of the river. “I’m afraid that these fell off in my distress.”

“These will do nicely,” Rarity grabbed the scale with her magic. Fluttershy knew that it must be hard because serpents were just a subclass of dragons which had magic resistant scales. “Now, how do you feel about a two tone style?”

“It would look marvelous!” the serpent agreed, “What are you going to do?”

The question was answered as the seamstress moved the scale in perfect arc, trimming the ragged edge of the mustache and ending chopping off most of her own tail. There were a few gasps of surprise from everyone. She let go of the scale and let it fall to the ground, instead grabbing the tail and levitating it up to the stump of the mustache, changing its shape along the way. “Twilight, darling?” Rarity asked, her attention still on the floating hair, “would you happen to know any fusing spells? I’m afraid I only know a few spells outside of levitation.”

“Uh, yes,” Twilight responded, “hold on, this will take a little bit because it's a lot of little things not a single object.”

Rainbow Dash yawned, “As long as we get to the castle soon, I’m getting really tired.”

Rarity shot Dash a glare, which Fluttershy completely understood.

“You could stop hovering and walk like the rest of us,” she suggested, “you wouldn't get as tired as fast.” Fluttershy expected Dash to ignore her suggestion but to her surprise, Dash dropped with only a small sigh.

“There,” Twilight sighed and cut the spell, “All done.”

“It's simply marvelous!” the serpent gushed, “I must simply get my hair dyed to match. Thank you for your help in my time of need.”

“You are most welcome,” Rarity spared a glance at her tail now sporting a bob.

“Now how may I assist you?” the serpent went into a bow, “Steven Magnet at your service.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Steven,” Rarity responded. “I'm Rarity, and my friends and I need to get to the other side of this river and to a castle.”

“Allow me,” Steven responded. The coils of his body and tail that had been forgotten swished around in the river before rising up out of it in the shape of a bridge to cross.

“Thank you, Steven,” Twilight called as she crossed the impromptu bridge followed by her companions.

"Aren't you worried about your tail being short?” Fluttershy asked Rarity.

“Worried is generous, darling,” came the wistful reply, “I'm more sad that I have less options for styles now. But don't you fret, I'll figure something out.”

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“Everypony, stop, please.” Fluttershy called out. “There's a ravine, and the bridge is out on the other side.”

Applejack pushed aside the last of the branches coming out onto the ledge that overlooked a deep, fog filled ravine. On the other side, standing in the moonlight stood the group’s objective, The Castle of the Two Sisters. “Whew! That's a sight,” She let out a low whistle, “Any way around?”

“Not that I can see,” Fluttershy responded, “It wraps around the castle, It might have been a moat at one point.” The others joined them on the ledge.

“It looks like the Bridge itself is fine,” Applejack pointed out, “If I could get to the other side I could fasten it with my extra rope.”

Twilight looked at Rarity. “Do you think you could levitate her across? I'm starting to run low on magic and I want to save some for an emergency.”

“I'm afraid that despite my talent for control, I can't reach that far, darling,” Rarity replied.

“Hey, I could airlift her across,” Dash spoke up, “I know how to tie knots too, griffin scout here.”

Applejack let out a sigh, it would have been easier if she was by herself but she had learned to not look a gift basket in the fruit selection. “Sure, I could use the help. Beside,” She motioned at the ravine, “the fog is rising and it would be a good idea to have another pony over there in case something happens.”

Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and flapped over to where Applejack was standing before wrapping her hoves around the farm mare and taking off once again. Applejack felt a little dizzy as the ground fell away and then abruptly disappeared into the mists in the ravine.

“Thanks for flying Rainbow Air,” Dash joked as they crossed, “Please keep your hoves inside the ride at all times.”

“Not funny, Dash,” Applejack held onto her stetson with one hoof. Never happier when they finally touched down on the other side.

Dash let out a giggle and a, “be right back!” before diving into the ravine to grab the loose end of the bridge. While she was gone, Applejack began preparing. She didn't know how much rope she would need, so she left it on the ground while she began inspecting the anchor points for the bridge. There was still rope in the holes with flat edges not yet frayed. Carefully she extracted them and made sure the stone posts themselves were still good.

At that point Dash came back up with the end of the bridge, panting with effort. Applejack grabbed the ropes from her and let her collapse on the ground.

“Take a breather, I'll get these ropes tied,” Applejack grunted around the mouthful of rope.

“Nuh uh,” Dash replied, “You need someone to hold the weight of the bridge so you can get a good knot.”

Applejack had to admit that she was right, it would be easier to tie the knots with someone holding the weight. “Then, I'll hold the bridge while you tie,” She argued, “I know you are tired and just as good at makin’ knots as I am.” She held out one of the ropes.

Dash took the offered rope and started to tie it around the anchor point it went to.

“Raaaiinbooow… Daaash…” A voice called softly from the darkness.

“What the hay?” Applejack muttered, “what was that?” Rainbow finished the first knot and grabbed the second rope from Applejack.

“I don't know, but it can't be good,” Dash responded.

“Rainbow Daaash,” The voice called again. Applejack saw three figures moving farther up the path.

“Who are ya?” Applejack called back, “An’ what do you want with RD?”

“Nothing that concerns you, mud pony.” The leader was now close enough that she could see the black and deep purple skintight suits that all three were wearing. “We are here for Rainbow Dash. We are the Shadow Bolts, the best stunt flying team in Equestria, and we've heard about the legendary Rainbow Dash. So we've come to recruit you to our team. Fly with us and we will go beyond anything the Wonderbolts could ever dream of.” The leading stallion held out his hoof.

Dash looked up from where she had almost finished the knot. “You've heard of me?” she asked before regaining some of her usual bluster. “I mean, of course you've heard of me. You want me to join your team? Sign me up!” she paused, “As soon as I get this bridge fixed.”

“No.” The shadowbolts took a step closer.

“What?” Dash seemed taken back by the statement. Applejack looked at the two knots that were done. She didn't want to put weight on them yet, not until at least three of them were done to hold the weight of the bridge. The bridge was getting kind of heavy.

“This is a one time offer, Dash” the leader spoke in a semi threatening tone. “Come with us now or be relegated to obscurity forever.”

“Dash, the bridge is getting a little heavy,” Applejack muttered, the only sign that the pegasus had heard her was an ear turn in her direction.

“That sounds cool and all,” Dash looked the trio up and down, “But I have some friends that need my help. Obviously you don't really want me, after all, if you really want me, you'll be back with a better offer.” She turned to finish tying the second knot and said; “Besides, if I am awesome enough to bring a few up and coming wa’na’bes I'm good enough to attract the Wonderbolts or make it myself. But we could use some help, you see-”

One of the ‘bolts charged Dash and hit her in the side, pushing her away from the knot and to the edge of the cliff. “Then die a failure!” the leader announced rising into the air with a few flaps. Applejack shifted her grip on the rope to give a bit slack.

“GIRLS!” she yelled, “WE HAVE A SITUATION!”

“Shut up the mud pony!” the leader snarled, thrusting a hoof in her direction. The third Shadowbolt darted forward at Applejack.

Applejack saw the move coming and moved the two bridge ropes to her mouth diving to the side. At this point only the left two ropes had been somewhat secured, so she dove right. The ropes met the stone pillar and tugged her off her path swinging her around and over the edge of the cliff. She tucked her legs close to her barrel managing to fit between the two support ropes before extending them in a rapid buck meeting the face of the bewildered pegasus. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Dash and the other Shadowbolt tumbling on the ground.

The Shadowbolt she had bucked was staggering from the impact, but she wasn't able to do much more while still holding the ropes. They better get their flanks over here.

“Hi there!”

“Who said that?” The leader looked around bewildered, only to get a face full of apple pie as Pinkie popped out from behind him and slammed a freshbaked pie in his face. “Gaahh!”

Pinkie dropped from his back and pronked over to Applejack, “Hi, sorry it took so long.” She glanced back at the leader who was now careening wildly trying to get the hot filling off of his face. “I had to make sure it was warm. Someponies just don't appreciate a good hot apple pie.”

Applejack looked on with a faint sadness. She knew that somehow it was an Apple Family pie, it didn't deserve to go out like this, it deserved to be enjoyed with some whipped cream and family gathered around. She handed Pinkie the ropes while she took off her hat and held it solemnly over her chest.

“Ok, the ropes are tied!” Pinkie called as she finished the last rope.

“YOU INSOLENT, INSIGNIFICANT INSECTS!” the leader roared, having finally wiped the pie off of his face. “You will PAY for your rebellion against the Queen of the night!”

“No, darling,” Applejack turned back to the bridge to see Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight join them on the castle side of the bridge. A light blue glow surrounded the leader and started flinging him about. “I don't think we shall.”

Pinkey was trying to pry the Shadowbolt off of Rainbow Dash as they wrestled near the edge. Applejack ducked as the leader whizzed over her head screaming in a high falsetto before being encased in a glow and sent hurtling into a wall.

“I bucked that guy over there in the head pretty hard, Twilight,” Applejack said, not taking her eyes off the spectical of the leader, “I think they got this in the bag. They tried to recruit Rainbow but she wouldn't have any of it, not while we were needing her.”

“Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself!” came from the other direction where Pinkie now had the one ‘bolt all to herself and had placed a dunce cap on his head. Applejack almost felt pity for the poor stallion as Pinkie hooved the sucker a sparking black ball and ‘nyuk nyuk nyuking’ her way behind a pillar before the object exploded leaving black soot on his shocked face. Correction, almost sorry, they were working for Nightmare Moon after all.

“Uh, Applejack?” Rainbow asked as she sat down beside the other three, “Where is the third one?”

“I knocked him out over there…” Applejack realized that the pegasus she had knocked out was gone. “Where in tarnation did he go?” She whipped her head around looking for the missing ‘bolt. Her eyes caught a streak of black in the moonlight and her brain registered the direction it was headed in.

There was no time to warn Rarity. She had her back to the rest and was focused on swinging the now concussed leader in arcs over her head into the ground like a raging beast. Applejack couldn't even start to open her mouth.

The air filled with the thunk of hooves meeting flesh at a speed even faster than AJ could kick. Rarity didn't even cry out.

The stallion stopped.

The glow around the leader disappeared at the apex.

Rarity sailed through the air.

The leader sailed through the air.

Like a tossed ivory handkerchief she seemed to hang in the moonlight.

Like a drunk tossed from a bar, he shot towards the canyon.

She smashed into the wall of what might have once been a guard house.

The air was filled with the sound of bones snapping, Rarity's limbs splayed in unnatural angles, her jaw crooked and-

Applejack looked away, finally able to move her legs toned from years of apple bucking, launching her at her target. Years of herding cattle, rodeos and farming coursed through her veins.

Both front legs land, bend. Back land, crouch. Just like barrel racing. Launch. She left the ground a cannonball of orange determination.

And like a cannonball she hit. Barely able to make out the stallions scream of shock as he crashed to the ground. “YA KILLED RARITY!” she heard herself scream as she turned and delivered a buck like no other. The pegasus flopped and laid still.

Calm, AJ, keep ahold of yourself girl. Applejack let out a huff of air and looked around.

Fluttershy looked about to cry, the poor thing. Applejack doubted that anypony here knew Rarity on a personal basis before this night, but they all knew that she would go out of her way to help around the town wherever she could. Rainbow had a far away look on her face, no doubt thinking the same thing.

Twilight’s mouth hung open in shock, AJ doubted that she had ever seen a death. Pinkie had stopped messing with the remaining ‘bolt and had tied him up and was dragging him to the rest of the group. Her hair had lost it's usual puffiness and was hanging in straight lines down.

“Wha…” Twilight gasped.

“She's dead, Twi,” Applejack almost whispered, Rarity had a younger sister right? Sweet Ball right? How would she react to her sister being dead? AJ felt her throat get hard with a lump, she knew how the others must feel, Rarity just died so suddenly, but AJ was sorrowful for her sister. She turned away from where Rarity had collapsed after hitting the wall, her limbs folded in angles they shouldn't and body deformed by sharp angles.

The night was silent as if in mourning the loss of the unicorn who gave all of herself.

Author's Note

Uhhhhhhh. I can explain. Just give me another chapter. Then we should be done with the regularly scheduled rewrite and the introduction part of the Nightmare Arc. Yes, the Nightmare Arc goes beyond the first 2 episodes and it will be harder for me to plot out sequences. I'll have to make lots of Red Slippers for episodes I want to remain canon but don't want to rewrite (Read, can't figure out how to make it work and just lazy). Sorry for the lack of a song, I wanted to be original but I suck at writing songs. Also a major thing here that I want to get out of the way. Excuse me while I get out my J.R.R. Tolkien cosplay;

This is a work of FICTION set in a FICTIONAL WORLD, meant for FUN and ENJOYMENT. There IS NO allegory, or purposeful parallels to current events, political factions, groups or ideologies. This work does NOT reflect the author's ideals, religion, beliefs, or worldview. Advice given by characters are specific to the situation and are given by flawed characters written by a flawed human being. Any attempts at drawing parallels between the story and real world will result in Pinkie kidnapping you and… well… ever heard of cupcakes? (I can't stop her, and she would rather not do it, but she is adamant about this).

TL;DR, This is a work of fiction not meant to have deep meaning or lessons, so don't take anything too seriously. Seriously. This is me being serious. Thank you. Please comment and enjoy. Let me know if you guys actually read this far....
And don't forget to ask a character a question, no character is off the table. Even dead ones.