Domain of Friendship

by Cold Bolt

Episode 1-4

“Elements, elements… ugh! How am I supposed to stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight Sparkle ran back and forth through the library, frantically flipping through book after book in search of clues. Absorbed in her task as she was, she failed to notice several pairs of hoofsteps behind her.

“Perhaps this might be of use?” Scarlet Starbeam’s magic held aloft a dark red book with a fancy gold trim along the binding.

Twilight immediately yanked it from Scarlet’s magical grip and stared at the cover for a moment before looking up at the trio of ponies in front of her. “‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.’ Where did you find this?”

Waterwing hovered beside one of the bookcases, pointing at a shelf labeled with a large block letter E.

Twilight blinked. “…Oh.” Turning her attention back to the book, she flipped forward several pages, skimming the text as quickly as she could. “Okay, let’s see… embodiment of harmonious conduct… manifest as small jewels or spheres… oh, here we go! 'It is unknown exactly how many Elements there are, but five have thus far been discovered: Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty. The last known location of these Elements is the Castle of the Two Sisters… located deep inside the Everfree Forest…” Her tone quickly turned from eager to fearful as she reached the end of the passage.

“Oh, macguffin hunting! Well that’s straightforward enough.” Tank Buster turned first to Waterwing and then to Scarlet, both of whom met his smile with their own. “We’re pretty familiar with the concept. So where’s this forest then? The sooner we get these elements, the sooner we can put this whole thing to bed. Uh…” He glanced out the window at the dark sky above. “…No pun intended.”

Twilight winced. “I don’t think you understand… The Everfree Forest is - ”

“Hey! We’re coming too!”

A commanding voice from behind the trio announced the presence of no less than five more ponies. As Scarlet and her companions spun around, they quickly found themselves face-to-face with several vaguely familiar faces from the earlier ceremony. The colorful pegasus stood at the fore of the group, flanked by the orange pony who had held her tail and the unicorn from the balcony. Picking up the rear was none other than Pinkie Pie, followed by a yellow pegasus that took Scarlet a moment to recognize as the conductor of the choir. The trio gave the new group a decent berth as they entered the library.

“You know what’s going on here, don’t you?” The orange pony adjusted her hat as she spoke, fixing Twilight with a serious gaze.

Twilight took a deep breath. “I’ll explain on the way if you’re coming along, but we need to move quickly. I don’t know how long it’ll be before Nightmare Moon finds out what we’re doing.”

“For all we know, she already has.” Scarlet stepped forward. “We ought to proceed under that assumption. But yes, time is at a premium; we would do well to leave immediately.”

“Um, wait…” A small voice came from the yellow pegasus at the back of the group. “Who, um… who are they…?” Her eyes, half-hidden by her bright pink mane, darted back and forth between the three strange ponies she didn’t recognize.

Twilight sighed. “Okay, quick introductions from everypony, and then we really seriously need to get moving.”

The orange pony spoke up first, smiling at the trio and tipping her hat. “Name’s Applejack! Proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres! Nice to meet you.”

The colorful pegasus quickly flew in as large a loop as the confines of the library would allow before coming to a stop in front of Scarlet. “I’m Rainbow Dash! Best flier in all of Equestria, at your service.”

“Why, I remember you three from earlier,” declared the white unicorn. “Very bold of you, standing up to Nightmare Moon like that, if only briefly.” Her deep purple mane seemed to flow like water with each movement of her head. “You can call me Rarity, darlings~”

Pinkie Pie bounced forward. “Hi, I’m Pinkie!”

Scarlet smirked. “Yes, Pinkie. We met earlier, if you recall.”

“I know!” The poofy pink pony beamed, her curly tail swishing happily.

Several pairs of eyes soon came to rest on the quiet yellow pegasus. “Oh, well…” She shifted uncomfortably, almost seeming to shrink beneath all the attention. “I’m… um… F-Fluttershy…” She seemed to be avoiding eye contact at any cost, and her voice was barely audible above the ambient noise from outside.

Scarlet’s horn glowed blue for a moment as rings of shining light surrounded the deep red pony, quickly rising into the air and fading from sight. Satisfied with her display, she turned to address the new ponies. “I am Scarlet Starbeam, expert magician and ally of justice.” She punctuated this sentence with a proud grin.

Looking somewhat bemused by his comrade’s flashy introduction, Tank took a step forward and shrugged. “Name’s Tank Buster. I punch bad guys in the face, I guess.”

Waterwing took her opportunity to fly in circles over everyone’s heads for a moment before landing gently beside Scarlet. With bright eyes and a broad smile, she gave the group before her an enthusiastic wave.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Uh…?”

Scarlet ruffled Waterwing’s mane affectionately. “This is Waterwing. Her energetic demeanor belies her skill with a first aid kit.”

The five new arrivals stood still, offering a variety of expressions in response to the introductions of the three unfamiliar ponies. Applejack in particular quirked an eyebrow. “Those are, uh…”

“…very lovely names indeed!” Rarity stepped forward with an awkward smile, doing her best to cover for her friend.

Tank rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. “Right, like literally being called 'Rainbow’ is any better. Seriously, what is with these names…?”

Twilight pointed at each pony in turn. “…six, seven, eight. Alright, that’s everypony. Now, we can’t waste any more time, so let’s get moving!”

“Yeah! Let’s do it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly threw her hoof into the air. “Wait, so where are we going again?”

---

“The Everfree Forest?!”

A series of incredulous voices cried out as the crew stood at the edge of a dense, ominous-looking wood.

“Whee, let’s go!” Pinkie, however, was as bubbly as could be, and trotted to the front of the group.

Twilight sighed. “I shouldn’t have let the rest of you get roped into this. I’d really rather find the Elements by myself.”

Scarlet sat back for a moment, fiddling with the ribbon in her mane. “Working together in a party will both bolster our chance of success and limit casualties. It is in the best interests of all that we should accompany you.”

Applejack nodded in agreement. “Yup! Besides, we’re not letting any friend of ours head into any creepy forests alone. We’re sticking to you like caramel on a candy apple!” With that, she and the rest of the group made their way down the path into the forest. With another sigh, Twilight followed along at the rear.

“So what’s supposed to be dangerous about this place, anyway?” Tank found himself looking this way and that, peering out over a nearby cliff. “You know, beside the fact that I can barely see five yards ahead.”

“It ain’t natural,” Applejack explained. “Folks say it don’t work the same as the rest of Equestria. The plants and animals living here take care of themselves, with nopony feeding them or watching over them.”

From beside her, Rarity gave an unnerved shudder. “What a dreadful place…”

Tank, however, scoffed. “Wait, are you kidding? A self-sustaining biome sounds perfectly natural from where I’m standing. If that’s really what everyone is worried about, then this is gonna be a walk in the WAUGH”

Without warning, the ground beneath the nine of them crumbled to dust under their hooves. The three pegasi immediately took to the air in reflex, but quickly realized that the rest of their friends were skidding uncontrollably down the cliffside.

“Fluttershy! Waterwing! MOVE!” Rainbow Dash commanded before diving downward at top speed.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Fluttershy glanced over at Waterwing, who nodded, and the two of them dove after Rainbow. In a flash, three of the plummeting ponies found three pairs of wings slowing their descent dramatically. Unfortunately, this did not account for everyone.

“Scarlet!” Tank’s voice rang in Scarlet’s ears as she tumbled toward the rapidly approaching canyon floor below. Closing her eyes in her best attempt at concentration, the ground beneath her glowed a magical green just as -

Fwoomf.

A patch of tall, shaggy grass had sprung up just before Scarlet landed, and now hid her from view. As the pegasi and their passengers landed, the six of them stared at it nervously, awaiting whatever sign of Scarlet’s fate was to come. Sure enough, a dizzy red unicorn came stumbling out of the grass, to a collective sigh of relief from the rest.

Scarlet shook the disorientation from her head and brushed some dust from her ribbon. “Well! I suppose any landing one survives is preferable to the alternative.” It was then that she noticed everyone’s attention had drifted to something overhead. “Hm?”

Twilight dangled from the cliffside high above, clinging to Applejack for dear life. As the seven of them watched, Twilight suddenly released her grip and plummeted toward the canyon floor, screaming the whole way.

“What is she even doing?!” Tank dashed forward, ready to make whatever attempt he could think of to catch her, but soon skidded to a stop; in the time it had taken him to react, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had already snagged her from the air, and were now gently lowering her to the ground. Applejack, meanwhile, deftly scaled her way down the cliffside using a series of narrow ledges just large enough for the purpose.

Tank gave the newly rescued Twilight an incredulous look. “Okay, I’ll admit that took some serious guts, but what in the void possessed you to just let go like that?”

Twilight looked over her shoulder at Applejack for a moment before responding. “I guess maybe I’m learning a thing or two about trust.”

Tank scratched his head for a moment and opened his mouth to speak, but settled for simply shrugging instead.

Scarlet stepped forward. “If everyone is still in one piece…”

Twilight nodded. “We haven’t a moment to spare. Let’s go, everypony!”

---

“…and then we were all like, WHOOSH, and caught you right in the nick of time!” Still riding the rush of excitement, Rainbow Dash did a midair roll over Twilight’s head and landed beside her, beaming with pride.

“Yes, Rainbow, I haven’t forgotten. That was less than ten minutes ago.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “And I’m very grateful, but we really - ”

“…ought to identify the creature up ahead, as it appears to be blocking our path.” Scarlet pointed ahead of them at the creature in question, which gave an irritated growl in response. It resembled a lion in most respects, down to the mane and paws, but also sported a pair of leathery bat-like wings and a long, segmented tail ending in a likely venomous stinger.

Twilight recoiled in alarm. “A manticore!”

“A what?” Tank quirked an eyebrow and glanced over at Waterwing, who simply shrugged and shook her head. “It just looks like somebody glued wings and a tail to a lion. Whatever, let’s just beat it up and move on.” He turned to Scarlet. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

“Um, wait…” came a small voice from behind them, but no one seemed to notice.

Scarlet straightened her ribbon. “I will attack from the front to draw its attention. Tank, stay against the wall there and wait to flank. Waterwing, maintain a height of at least - ”

“YAAAAH!” Scarlet’s plan was interrupted by the cry of one Rainbow Dash as she took off like a bullet, aiming straight for the manticore, but was quickly knocked away by a quick swipe of its tail.

The rest of the group stared blankly for a few seconds, after which Tank sighed. “Or, y'know, we could just charge in blindly instead. That’s kind of like tactics, right?”

“Wait…!” the small voice again insisted. The manticore chose this moment to charge at the group at full speed, but as the rest of the ponies scattered, Rarity stood her ground and turned the attacker away with a sudden powerful kick to the face.

“Ha! Take that, you ruffian!” By this time, however, the manticore had already recovered from the blow, and let loose a furious roar right in Rarity’s face, eliciting from her a terrified “EEP!” and causing her to quickly retreat.

“Wait!” the voice commanded a third time, finally resulting in Waterwing whirling around to find Fluttershy standing there, her normally meek demeanor replaced with a rather uncharacteristic determination. “I have an idea. Cover me.” Waterwing blinked and tilted her head, but this earned her no further elaboration from Fluttershy in response. With a quick shrug, she nodded and took to the air, hovering several feet over Fluttershy’s head.

As the rest of the group looked on in confusion, the two pegasi approached the manticore slowly. The creature raised a clawed paw into the air and prepared to strike, but Fluttershy didn’t even flinch. Instead, she took a step forward and gently nuzzled the manticore’s other paw with her snout. “Shhh… it’s okay…” she whispered, causing the manticore to pause. After a moment, it seemed to find her nonthreatening enough to lower its claws, and instead turned over its other paw to reveal a large thorn embedded in it. “Oh, no, you poor thing!” she concluded, looking it over carefully. “This might hurt just a bit…” Grasping the thorn in her teeth, she yanked it out in one quick motion.

Waterwing winced as the manticore roared with pain, preparing to dive and pull Fluttershy away from the creature, but soon realized that it wasn’t angry; rather, Fluttershy giggled as it happily licked her mane. Satisfied that it seemed no longer inclined to fight, Waterwing wiped a bit of nervous sweat from her forehead and landed slowly a few feet past the manticore, motioning to the rest of the group to follow as she did so.

As the other ponies moved on ahead, Twilight, Scarlet, and Waterwing waited for a moment to let Fluttershy catch up, staring briefly at her disheveled mane.

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “How did you know about the thorn?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I didn’t! I just wanted to see if there was a way for us to avoid a fight. I think it’s better for everypony that way.” She brushed at her mane for a moment, only partially succeeding in straightening it. “I just needed a little backup first. Thank you for your help, Waterwing.” She offered a soft smile, and Waterwing nodded happily.

Scarlet rubbed at her neck. “Avoiding confrontation whenever possible is a policy I often give too little credit…”

Twilight spoke up again as the four of them trotted along behind the others. “Rock slides and manticores though… What else is this crazy forest going to throw at us tonight?”

Scarlet frowned. “I fear we may have your answer all too soon…”

Comments

[zero504]

nice story so far, I hope you keep it up. Can't wait to see how things go.