Our Inner Ponies 3: A New Villain

"Why are you doing all of this?" I demanded, the only question burning through my mind right now. Kayleigh shrugged as if what she was doing wasn't even a big deal.

"Simple really," she replied, before her eyes morphed into the most serious look I've ever seen. "When I found out about Maya's secret obsession with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I decided to do some research on the show. It wasn't so bad, but when Maya started hanging out with you more and me less, you bet I was angry."

"You don't know what we've been through," I said. "There's a reason why we stuck closer than ever by each other."

"Oh, believe me I know," Kayleigh snapped. "I was really ticked off when Maya didn't come to me for advice. I mean, if my friend told me they transported to the 'magical' land of Equestria, I'd stop being friends with them. But if she would've told me she had a problem and needed a few hints of advice, I'd give it to her." My eyes widened at the sentence after Kayleigh said she was ticked off at Maya.

"How...how did you—?"

"Maya didn't have to tell me," Kayleigh interrupted. "She was really stupid for wearing that Element necklace when we had that one sleepover. And she made the fatal mistake of talking to herself while we were sleeping about when her 'next adventure in Ponyville would be.' I swear, brainless people hurt my head."

"Don't call my friend brainless!" I scoffed. "If anyone's brainless it's you! How could you destroy your poor hometown just because Maya stopped being your friend?" Kayleigh was silent for a moment before she crossed her arms, eyes brimming with angry tears.

"I didn't do all of this just because she stopped being my friend," she whispered. "I did it because I couldn't believe she hid the biggest secret in her life from me. Me! Her best friend!"

"You're not her best friend." I nearly had a heart attack when Lucky spoke for the first time. Kind of forgot that he was standing next to me.

"You're not her best friend," Lucky repeated, "because a true best friend wouldn't destroy the world just because of a hidden secret. That's why Zaria's her BFFL. Get your facts straight, Kayleigh." Kayleigh's eyes widened in shock, and I couldn't help but gloat by laughing in her face. She just got owned by a human-alicorn!

"We'll see who's the first to laugh when one is dead," I heard Kayleigh murmur, which caused both me and Lucky to back away slowly. "Let's play a little game, shall we? It's called Find the Lost Human. Who'll be first?" Without waiting for a reply, Kayleigh outstretched her palm toward Lucky—which sent him a five feet into the air!

"Put him down!" I demanded, trying to malfunction Kayleigh's magic. It only seemed to make things worse; as I fought with Kayleigh's glowing hand, Lucky just flew left and right in the air like rag doll being thrown around.

"I'm not finished with the game yet," Kayleigh said, smirking widely. With flick of her wrist, she sent Lucky flying somewhere to the west—past burning buildings and forlorn people. "Now go find him, Zaria."

I was so mad I could knock Kayleigh's teeth out! Lucky had been right; she was no true friend to me or Maya! A real friend would never go this far in order to show their feelings!

"Wait a minute, I'm in the game too, so we might as well make it fair," Kayleigh went on with her lame Find the Human game joke. "So how about—" A dark purple glow surrounded me as I was lifted into the air like Lucky—"I find you?" This is bad! This is so bad! my mind thought frantically as my heart raced. I could get killed, and then I'd never see my friends again.

"Okay, calm down Zaria," I coached myself as Kayleigh spun me around slowly. "What would Maya tell me in a time like this?" Trying to fight back dizziness, I thought back to the time Discord had been ruling our town. She said something about concentrating on something...but what? My eyes snapped open once I realized I was thrown in the opposite direction Lucky had gone, and my whole life flashed before my eyes as the wind smacked my face.

"Goodbye Maya!" I cried, squeezing my eyes shut. "Goodbye my amazing pony friends!" I slowly opened my eyes as a building not too far off appeared before me. "Goodbye Lucky." I felt tears streaming out of my eyes; I didn't want to end this way, but it had to happen. I braced myself for the impact of the building...but I never felt it. I didn't know if I had flown past it and was heading for an even taller building, but when I opened my eyes again, I found myself face-to-face with the building's wall, surrounded by an orange glow.

"I forgot about my Element," I murmured to myself, looking down at my necklace. "If I forgot about it, I'm pretty sure Maya did too." Then I had an idea; I visualized myself floating backwards at a rapid speed, bumping into Kayleigh, and when I heard a sudden "What in the—AHH!" I immediately knew my own kind of magic had worked.

"B-but, I threw you...and you, you're here now. And I—"

"Are you going to be finishing any of those sentences?" I asked, releasing myself from my protective force field. "If not, then quit wasting the time sputtering when we should be battling." Kayleigh gave me a challenging glare, firing up her palms in the process. I simply made myself glow a bright white, excited to unleash what secret power I had waiting for Kayleigh.

"You know, I really don't feel comfortable doing this," I heard her say as we walked in a slow yet threatening circle. "You remind me so much of Maya. Oh well, guess I'll have to hold back the guilt of pounding your face into dust."

"You'll never stop me," I replied in a giggly voice. "You'll never stop us." Kayleigh raised an eyebrow, getting closer to my face.

"And who are the 'us' you speak of?" I took a step back and smiled, my glow glowing brighter than ever. Suddenly, it just fizzled out. Now it was Kayleigh's turn to laugh in my face.

"You call that magic?" she cried between laughter. "What a phoney!"

"Oh, I'm just getting started," I explained, draining all of my energy for concentration and fighting up the nerve to say my next corny line: "'Cause in this situation...friendship always wins." Kayleigh gave me a what-the-heck? look before I saw out of the corner of my eye eight silhouettes take form beside me. A gust of wind took place behind us, and as the silhouettes took form of a human body, a burning hot force shot out to Kayleigh, making her scream in pain. I kept my eyes closed, concentrating until that scream faded away.

"Thank God," I breathed, falling to my feet. A second later, I was propped back up.

"You did it! You saved us! All of us!" Pinkie's way to cheerful voice exclaimed in my face.

"I knew you could do it, darling," Rarity added, patting my sore back. "We all knew you could." I gave a tired smile in reply before looking at Maya, who was making her way toward me at a snail's pace.

"I'd be shocked too," I told her. "Now give me a hug, BFFL!" Maya let out a happy scream and practically sent both of us down with her bear hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" she screamed. "I thought I'd never see you again!" I had to laugh, but then I stopped.

"Holy shrimp, Lucky!" I shrieked, receiving a "What?" from Applejack. I gently took Maya's arms off of me and used the last bits of energy to drag Lucky back to me in a faint little orange bubble.

"Geez, he doesn't look so good," Twilight commented, kneeling down toward Lucky's shoulder. No kidding! The dude's clothes were dirty and torn, his hair was like a giant puffball, and his wings—I, I just couldn't look at the crumpled pair of cyan wings. I blocked out the vision and leaned near his face, praying to myself that he was still breathing.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow. I noticed Lucky moving on the ground little by little, in a weak attempt to sit up. He muttered something unintelligible (which to me sounded like "Magic rainbows and fluffy bunnies"), and I got extremely happy inside when he opened his icy blue ices.

"My favorite color eyes!" I screamed, jerking my head forward and planting a big smooch on the guy's lips. When I pulled back, Lucky was staring at me as if I'd lost it.

"What?" I asked innocently before smirking. "I can't kiss my love bird?"