The Champions of Equestria

by DrakoGlyph

Harrowing of Memories

No, sister, I cannot let you do that! The Day is important to all ponies!

All you have to do is smile, smile, smile, fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

Just trust me!

Applebloom groaned as her body seemed sore. She struggled to open her eyes, but when she did, she didn’t see anything. There was only blackness and shadow. Then all these floating screens came past her, all bearing images of the memories from Princess Celestia, Pinkie Pie, and her sister. She could remember some of those days only slightly differently. All of these scenes seemed to enter her mind as if she were the original holder of the memories, just remembering them after so long. They seemed like they were lost to the annuls of time, only this spell that Twilight had cast on her brought them out again.

I’m sorry, Luna, but this must be done!

I know! A Party!

I would be honored if my family could help out.

She struggled to get up, but even the natural strength of the body she had wasn’t enough. Applebloom looked out among the memories and saw so many moments that filled her with emotions that she knew weren’t hers, but they felt like they were. It was as if she had lived the lives of the ponies she was taking the memories from, while still being so young. She managed to get her hooves underneath her and start standing, but then the weight of the memories crushed her again.

What is this fun thou speakest of?

I would never leave Ponyville hanging!

Sometimes all it takes is a little kindness.

Scootaloo struggled to get to her hooves. This feeling wrapped around her, the darkness that surrounded her, it was crushing, but she knew that she could overcome it. She had to. If she was ever going to be as awesome as Rainbow, she would come through for her friends. She had to. If she wasn’t there, then she would let them all down. She couldn’t do that. She was Rainbow Dash’s student, and as such, she would be there for her friends no matter what.

I am the princess of night.

Sure, I guess I’d be able to take you under my wing.

I mean, if you want to.

Scootaloo heard the memories of her mentor, and the princess that had led her to that day. They gave her strength when her own will failed her. She made it to her hooves and made a solemn vow: “I will do this, for you, Rainbow!” She only made it a few steps before the weight of the memories pinned her light-framed Pegasus body back to the ground.

Why would I ever forget the filly I loved to foalsit for the most?

I will not let this crime against fashion go!

Go, Spike!

Sweetie Belle felt dizzy. The amount of magic that was poured into her still developing mind rifled through it. She was standing by now, and she staggered a few steps forward. The memories around her gave her strength, but it feel like it wasn’t going to be enough. Though she could feel the power of Twilight’s Magic, and Cadence’s love, she wasn’t sure if her young mind could handle it.

This year’s host of the Equestria Games is the Crystal Empire!

I’ll make you all dresses!

Together, we are friends.

Sweetie Belle fell back to the invisible floor beneath her. Her strength failed her. She tried using magic to push back the darkness that was oppressing her, the symptom of having too many thoughts in her own head. She couldn’t do anything more than one spell that only came to her mind. And in fact, she thought it wasn’t even her mind: it was the part of her that was occupied by Twilight’s memories. Her horn glowed green before sending out a bolt that shot off into the deep shadows.

A true, true friend helps a friend in need,

A friend will be there to help them see,

A true, true friend helps a friend in need,

To see the light that shines from a true, true friend!

Together we are one,

And together we are friends,

When our destinies are united,

There is magic without end!

Applebloom heard these lyrics come through the darkness as a green bolt of magic found it’s way to her. When it encompassed her, she felt a connection even stronger to her two best friends in the whole world. The memories she borrowed melted away as she remembered all the times she spent with her friends.

All those crusades, all those times when they fought but remained friends… all that did was make their bond stronger. Even when they released Discord, they were still friends. All of those moments only drew them closer!

Scootaloo swore she could feel the darkness cracking her bones as she lied there, awaiting her eventual defeat. She was no Rainbow Dash. How could she ever be so foolish to think otherwise? She may have her favorite pony’s memories, but that made her no more Rainbow Dash than when she wore the wig to lead the fan club.

A green orb of energy floated toward her until it hit some invisible barrier. It made no sound to Scootaloo. She could barely watch it as it floated around the apparent bubble that surrounded her. She closed her eyes, hoping that her little miserable life would just abruptly stop, so that she could no longer be a disappointment to all those who she loved. So that she would never have to worry about love again.

Tears began to crawl down her face as the Darkness grew ever heavier.

Sweetie Belle watched as the green aura came dancing back. Oh, good. At least I’ll have some company while I’m so stuck on this invisible floor, she thought to herself. She heard hooves following behind it. Then, the voice of somepony she thought she would never see again.

“Sweetie Belle! Your magic! It’s so powerful!” Appearing out of the darkness, Applebloom put a smile onto Sweetie Belle’s face. The green bolt hummed the lines over again, and as Sweetie Belle listened to them, she could feel the power grow within her heart. The darkness was warded off and she could rise to her hooves.

“But where’s Scootaloo?” Sweetie asked, concerned for their missing friend.

A thousand years, We are stuck on the very symbol of the night We created. This is certainly irony, sister. Why would they not love our beautiful night? Did We not do it carefully enough? All thou doth is shine a bright light over the land and drown out all the beauty that We create. There are plenty of things that only the night can bring!

Scootaloo laid there, under ever more oppressive darkness. It felt so heavy, as if the whole weight of everything she had ever carried were perched on her, planning to crush her flat. She could feel the pain of the Moon Princess as she lamented in her memories of her banishment.

Did you not love me, sister? Could you not see the pain I was going through, being the younger sister always in the shadow of the elder? I… I loved you, sister.

Could you not love me?

Scootaloo felt so abandoned. She was alone here. The darkness was bearing down on her with all its weight, and this little green orb was growing dimmer and dimmer, or perhaps she was seeing less and less as the darkness was buried deeper and deeper into her soul.

She had heard that the eyes were the windows to the soul, and it only made sense to her that her eyes would stop working when her soul was so broken. She didn’t want to see the faces of all those she disappointed by being so weak, being so easily defeated that she couldn’t even take one step.

Not that anyone would notice her absence anyway.

The sound of laugher that was so familiar to her, she couldn’t place it, but she knew she had heard it before. Either that, or someone in her memories had. It was a hearty laugh with a tone of evil behind it, ready to do whatever it needed to.

Dearest Celestia, We hope thou canst forgive us. We have been so foolish. Thou were right. We just want to come home.

Scootaloo wanted to go home. Wherever that would be tonight. She could never fly up to Rainbow Dash’s house, her wings were too small, and apparently even now that she was grown, her wings would not lift her more than a few feet off the ground. Scootaloo had never even been to Cloudsdale, but after seeing Fluttershy’s memories, she was sure that she would be teased so much more.

And she didn’t want to be an animal tender either. There were plenty of ponies in Ponyville that could handle the pets if Fluttershy up and left. She was a useless pony. She had things that she loved to do, but none of them ever led to her cutie mark. She was destined to be the only pony in all of recorded history never to have one.

Why hast thou forsaken thy sister? What did We do to lose thy love? What did I do? If thou canst not forgive us, then we will come back to take thy throne by force!

Anger welled up in Scootaloo’s heart, ready to overtake her. She had no friends. There was no one there for her when she needed them. Sure, Applebloom and Scootaloo had been there, but did they really care? Did they really want to be her friend?

The answer Scootaloo came to was no. There was the sound of breaking glass as the windows into the memories returned to her vision. Each one telling the stories of her failures and her misgivings. Each one telling her of how she wasn’t loved. Before her stood the white unicorn and the yellow earth pony. When Scootaloo spoke next, she startled her so-called friends with the depth and volume of the voice that she spoke in.

“Why hast thou come back? Come to prod more fun at our failure?”

“What do ya mean, Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked. There was something strange about her friend. Instead of her normal purple eyes, the irises had become a deep indigo, almost bordering on black.

“Thou know what We speaketh of.”

“Scootaloo? You’re scaring me,” Sweetie Belle said, the timidity in her voice carrying some sort of vile pleasure to the heart of Scootaloo. A toothy smile spread across her face as she realized the fear that she invoked across the two of them.

“Seriously, Scoots, stop it,” Applebloom commanded. “This isn’t you.”

“We know what we talk about. We are most certainly we!” Scootaloo gave a fierce expression that caused Sweetie Belle to backstep a few paces.

“This ain’t normal behavior for a pony!” Applebloom said. “In fact, I’ve only heard of this kind of behavior…” Applebloom shuddered as she watched the change in Scootaloo. Since the orange Pegasus didn’t actually have magic, the residual magic from the memories of the Alicorn that had chosen her filtered through her. Her purple, normally messy mane slowly dissolved into black, with a starry appearance behind it. The orange coat she had deepened to a deep blue reminiscent of the night sky.

“Night Mare Moon!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both shouted as they started running.

“Thy have all spurned the night! Our Night! We will be loved!” The sound of hooves came following the two remaining Cutie Mark Crusaders as they ran off into the darkness that surrounded them.

“What are we going to do?” Sweetie Belle asked between panting and huffing from the exertion.

“Try that spell ya used on me!”

“I don’t know how I did it!” Sweetie Belle almost cried as they both continued on. The sound of hooves behind them had faded away, so they both stopped running to catch their breath.

“But ya did it once, didn’t ya?”

“I… I think it was Twilight somewhere in my head!”

They both looked at each other. “What are we going to do, Applebloom? I’m starting to get scared.”

“Ah think that’s the right thing to feel right now.”

“Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle said.

“What is it, Sweetie?”

“If you’re beside me, then who’s that breathing on my neck?”

The both of them spun around to see Night Mare Moon right behind them.

We hope you can forgive us, sister. We were so foolish.

But of course, Luna. I will always love you.

Scootaloo laid there, still enveloped in the dark orb. The green bolt hovered around the orb. She felt like she was running, but she was lying on her stomach. The very weight of the darkness crushing her, holding her so that she couldn’t even open her eyes now.

The evil laugh she had heard earlier, it was so familiar! How could she forget who it came from? How it haunted her. But somehow the face that she sought the memory of eluded her. Even with a total of four ponies’ memories, she had completely misplaced the one about that laugh. She was sure that if she knew who that laugh belonged to, she could solve this whole thing and be out of this nightmare.

As it was now, Scootaloo was failing, the thing she felt she had done best since she was young. She wasn’t any good at all sorts of things. And she certainly wasn’t good at what mattered most. Because she wasn’t any good at this friendship thing, she would fail the task set before her by the Princesses. The task that they said only she could perform.

The pressure of her failure collapsed on her even more. She felt like she was running once more, but again, she was lying on the invisible, black floor. The green little bolt barely was able to light through the darkness that emitted from Scootaloo.

She wished she could just stop breathing altogether, to leave this pitiful life of catastrophe and let those who did actually accomplish things go on without her hindrance. She didn’t even remember why her parents left. If they had died, or if they simply didn’t care for her enough to keep her. She remembered the first time she saw Rainbow Dash, the cyan-blue Pegasus that could clear all the clouds out of the sky in ten seconds flat, when she first moved to Ponyville. She had wanted to be more like her since she could remember. Though, with these useless wings and this empty heart, there was nothing she could do.

She was nothing like the pony she wanted to become. Rainbow was perfect. Scootaloo had never seen her fail. There was no hope. And since she wasn’t perfect, Rainbow would never truly love her. Nopony could love her. Not her parents, not Rainbow, not Applebloom, not Sweetie Belle, and certainly not herself.

The only thing Scootaloo could do now was cry, trapped in this cage of darkness.

“I just needed some love.”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were again running from Night Mare Moon.

“We can’t keep running on much longer, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle stated between heavy breaths as her body began failing her.

“I’m not going to leave you behind, Sweetie!” Applebloom said, lifting Sweetie onto her back and running off. Even with the extended strength that she picked up from her rapid age acceleration, the whole weight of another pony slowed her down. She was sure that it would slow down Big Mac too. In fact, the only thing keeping her going right now was the adrenaline rush from trying to escape Night Mare Moon.

“Thou shalt not escape our wrath! For spurning us, thou will all perish under eternal darkness!”

“Sweetie, Ah would really appreciate if ya would work on a spell!” Applebloom requested.

“I’m trying to think, but with all of Twilight’s Memories, I can’t think of anything that’s going to work!” Tears started to well up in her eyes as she realized that she was going to be destroyed by a monster-driven version of her own friend. Scootaloo was there for her, before Applebloom made them the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She was her first, and she liked to think, best friend. How could it be that she was so confused that she was attacking them now?

“Ah think Ah’m slowing down,” Applebloom panted as the sounds of hooves behind them grew even louder. “Ah… Ah can’t go on.”

“Then we need to turn around and face Scootaloo, I mean, Night Mare Moon head on.”

As the pair of them awaited the results of their fallen friend coming after them, a voice echoed out around them, full of sadness and despair. It was the familiar voice of their friend, Scootaloo. “I just needed some love.”

“Applebloom, do you trust me?” Sweetie Belle said as something sparked inside her.

“Of course, why?”

“Then take my hoof,” she said, holding out her left one toward Applebloom.

“Okay?” The yellow mare followed the command, but to her great confusion. As soon as she did, an aura formed around Sweetie’s horn, and they both leaped forward, straight at Night Mare Moon.