It's a wonderful friendship

by Ugly-Duckling123

Chapter 8

At the Crystal Empire crystal mines, Twilight, Saturn and Jewel, after a hard 'days' work - and the two extra shifts for Twilight speaking her mind earlier - were walking up to their cabin, for their first sleep.

"Hey, you. Sparkle," a voice called out. "Come here, the King wants to see you."

Spinning around, Twilight saw it was Rarity, arguing with Flash, who called out.

"But what would the King want with her Miss?" Flash asked flaring his wings in anger.

"Are you questioning King Sombra, Sentry?" Rarity asked eyeballing him. "I do not know. But he wants to see her."

Twilight was about to say 'Well you can forget it' when she remembered the rule about no talking. Looking around Twilight saw Princess Luna, wings over Saturn and Jewel as if saying they would be safe, so's not to worry.

"Hey Sparkle, didn't you hear me?" Rarity called "King Sombra wants to see you at the palace. Come on."

Taking one last look at Saturn and Jewel before they closed the door, Twilight began to follow Rarity in silence all the way to the palace, wondering what she would find.

"You know," Rarity spoke up from nowhere, "If you hadn't talked back like that this morning, the kids would have had a better first day here."

That guard was right then, Twilight thought, Rarity can be generous when no-pony annoys her.

The rest of the walk was in silence.

---

After ten minutes of tracking though the camps, the two ponies made it to Sombra's palace. Twilight once again noticing the Crystal Heart was missing. Looking up, she wondered if it was in the same place as before.

"In you go then," Rarity said "No point staring at it."

Going though the door, they walked up to the base of the thrones dais where a dining table for two had been set.

"His Royal Highness, the Lord of Darkness, Sorcerer of Dark Magic and Crystals..." a voice rang out from a pony on the other end of the room, "King Sombra." No applause was given as King Sombra walked into the room in his usual full silver body armor and red cape.

At the sight of him Rarity bowed, telling Twilight to do the same.

"Now, now my dear, there's no need to be so formal," he spoke to Twilight as though she was the only pony in the room. "I simply want to talk. Make sure your first night here for the rest of your life is a good one."

"No thanks," Twilight said getting up and turning away.

"Just hear me out my dear," Sombra said using his magic to pull out one of the chairs at the table. "I have a feeling you don't want you, or those kids to stay here forever. What if I tell you, I can get you out of here."

"After you put us in?" Twilight asked her back to him.

"So I can have a better chance to talk to you," Sombra said trying to stay calm. "Wouldn't you like to talk. Twilight Sparkle. I remember where I saw you now, you came here, when I returned, with that stupid little purple dragon, on a quest to try and save the empire from my dark powers," he recalled "Nice try with the fair by the way. I'm sure if you had some help you would have succeeded." This tore at Twilight who looked at Rarity who was still bowing.

"What do you want Sombra?" she asked turning to face him for the first time.

"Let's have dinner first then we'll talk," he said trying to be romantic.

"No. Tell me now or I'm going right back to my cabin," Twilight said stomping her hoof.

"I want you, and those kids," he said in an annoyed voice "safe back in Canterlot my dear." he said. "Under Miss Rarity's careful eye of course, you and those kids would be safe back home, away from the danger of those mines."

'If I can get to Ponyville from Canterlot, maybe I can get to the Everfree to find the Elements to fix everything.' Twilight thought 'Except I would need to get the others there as well. And Jewel and Saturn would be home.'

"Do we have a deal, my dear?" Sombra said over her shoulder.

Putting on her best fake smile, Twilight said fluttering her eyelashes, "Of course my King."

"Excellent!" Sombra stomped his hooves as a sign of how joyful he was. "Miss Rarity. Go and get the kids that came with Miss Sparkle and then take them all to the train station." he said to Rarity who nodded while still bowing, then got up and ran out the door. "I'll be waiting for you back in Canterlot then my dear," he said to Twilight making her shiver. Then he walked out of the room through the door he came in by, leaving Twilight alone for a while with her thoughts.

---

As Sombra had promised, Saturn and Jewel, with an invisible Princess Luna, were bought back to the train station by Rarity. There they met Twilight and got on the train that would take them back to Canterlot.

In their cabin, a few hours in Saturn spoke up. "Twilight? Where are we going."

"Yeah," Jewel asked. "And what happened with you and Sombra?"

Hearing voices in the cabin next to her, Rarity went closer to the door to see why the Unicorn went with the King's deal.

Twilight looked around at every-pony thinking what to say first. Then... "We're going to get you two home. There, if I can find my friends, who will hopefully work with me, we can get the Elements to destroy these monsters." Then flicking her eyes to the door added "And then get families back together."

Shocked Rarity opened the door, and walked in. "And how are we going to get to the forest then Sparkle?"

Not sure if Rarity was still under orders, or acting tough for the lost of her sister, Twilight let that slide.

"Just before we get to the mountain, there is a track switch, one set goes to Canterlot, the other goes to Ponyville." Twilight explained. "If we change them to get to Ponyville, and you take this ring off my horn, I can teleport us to the Forest to get to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters and get the Elements, hoping they're still there." Taking in a breath she continued, "Then we just need to get everyone and destroy those three."

Seeing Rarity was thinking over this very hard everyone stayed quiet, waiting for her answer.

"Alright," she said going over to take the ring off Twilight's horn. "If there's any way to get rid of those three monsters so I can be with my sister again, I'll take it." Twilight was about to say something when... "But don't think that this makes us friends, you're still my prisoner." And she went back to her own room, leaving Twilight not knowing what to say.

Then, "Why are you working for Sombra, Miss Rarity?" Jewel's voice called out stopping Rarity in her tracks.

Without turning around, she said. "He learnt how I have the power to find hidden gems," Then she left.

---

After some rest Twilight heard someone calling her.

"Hey Sparkle. The track switch is coming up, better do your stuff if you want your plan to work."

This woke Twilight up. Running over to the window, she could see the switch was coming up. Closing her eyes to concentrate, knowing with each second, time was running out, Twilight shot a beam of energy at the switch flicking it and with a 'CLICK' knew the tracks changed. Panting, smiling with glee, Twilight pulled herself back into the cabin to see Saturn, Jewel, and Rarity standing there.

"What now Twilight?" Saturn asked hope in his eyes.

"Now we wait 'till the train gets us to Ponyville," she said "After that, like I said I can teleport us to the Everfree Forest, where we can head off to the Castle to look for the Elements."

But that plan was easier said than done. For, for today's 'main chaos' in Discord-ville, Discord made a roller-coaster ride of the train tracks, with five giant loop-the-loops and an almost vertical drop at the end.

After going though that torture - well torture to the mares, a life time for the foals - they all got out rather dizzy.

"Wow! That was the best thing ever!" Saturn said with joy.

"Yeah," Jewel agreed "Can we go again?"

"NO!" both mares said holding their stomachs hooves over their mouths trying not to be sick.

Then... "Hey you!" two of the guards at the train station had seen the unscheduled train come in and called for back up. They were surrounded.

"You might want to do that trick of yours Sparkle..." Rarity said under her breath.

"I'm not sure where we'll land," Twilight said back, "I'm still a bit dizzy."

"As long as we don't get caught..."

A purple light surrounded them all and with a flash and a bang, they were gone.

---

In the middle of the Everfree Forest, Applejack was still following her sister and her friends, staying quiet so as not to draw anything to them.

Suddenly a bright light appeared and Applejack pulled the Crusaders behind a tree to keep them safe.

"Wow that was even better than the roller-coaster," a young colt's voice called out.

"Yeah" said a filly's. "Let's go again. Let's go again."

"Maybe later," a new voice answered. "First we need to get you back to the Castle to keep you safe." Hearing this, Applejack stepped out.

"And just how do ya'll know about that Castle?"

Getting all four ponies attention they spun around.

"Miss Applejack!" the two Earth pony foals cried running up to to her tears in their eyes. "We so sorry," they wailed together. "We won't ever sneak out of the courtyard again!"

Understanding that these foals were the ones Braeburn and Strong-heart told her about, she looked at Twilight and Rarity very annoyed.

"I may not know who you both are," she said "But foal-napping is a big crime in these here parts. And as leader of the Rebellion against the Three Rulers... Ya'll are going to come with me so I can get the answers I need."

"Wait, Applejack!" Twilight called. Stopping Applejack in mid turn.

"Just how do you know my name Purple?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter. What I have to say is that you've got it all wrong," Twilight began. "It was Discord that took them. It wasn't me, or Rarity..."

"Rarity?" a small voice called out from behind a tree. A small white Unicorn in a red cape walked out to see if she heard right. Then seeing her sister, ran straight to her tears in her eyes, "Oh Rarity, I missed you sooo much," she said sniffing.

"Oh Sweetie Belle," was all Rarity said tears forming in her eyes too.

"Sweetie Belle," two more voices sounded. Apple-Bloom and Scootaloo popped out from around the tree, shocked to see Sweetie Belle hugging some-pony.

Then howls came from the trees around them.

Suddenly, something pink and something blue came racing in to the clearing. it was... it was...

"Rainbow and Pinkie?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie looked over to who said her name. "Oh boy!" she said hoping around full of joy. "Twilight and Rarity are here. Now all we need is to find Fluttershy, and the Elements and we can buck those three meanies off of their thrones and save Equestia!"

Rainbow looked over to Twilight too. "I thought I sent you to the Crystal Empire." she said flaring her bat-pony wings.

"You did Captain," Rarity said stepping in front of Sweetie "But then King Sombra sent her back."

More howls, then three Timber Wolves jumped out, eyes glowing green. The Crusaders ran forward protecting the older mares.

"Please, they mean no harm, we swear," Apple-Bloom said looking at each of them not seeing Lupin. "My sister just wanted to speak with Lupin to see if he knew anything else about the Elements of Harmony."

Here the wolves looked at the older mares seeing one step forward.

Then one of the wolves recognize Rainbow Dash, even though her bat-pony Nightmare Guard look, and stared at her. After a while it howled.

Then out of the trees came...

"Fluttershy," all who knew her called out.

"Eep..." she said hiding behind her mane. Then she looked up and saw who had called her. The three Cutie-Mark-Crusaders from before, a purple Unicorn who she didn't know and... "Rainbow Dash...?" she asked the bat-pony in the blue and silver uniform with Nightmare Moon's cutie-mark on the breast plate. All this becoming too much for her, Fluttershy fainted.

Comments

[ShadowLDrago]

Wow, Discord really liked sscrewing with peiople's heads and with the fabric of reality.