//------------------------------// // Courage Mounteth With Occasion // Story: Hoofed by Your Own Petard // by Tortfeasor //------------------------------// Hoofed by Your Own Petard Disclaimer: The power of Twilight Sparkle compels you to realize I don’t own My Little Pony! Chapter Seventeen: Courage Mounteth With Occasion (King John) “Well,” Applejack said, “I guess question one is how do we get from here to Canterlot? In case we’ve all forgotten, there’s an army, two in fact, between here and there. And they don’t seem particularly interested in picking up and going somewhere else.” “Easy,” Rainbow Dash opened her wings and preened, “I’ll just go out there and pull off a sonic rainboom whenever they start getting too close. We can just walk there and they’ll never be able to touch us.” Twilight should have known something like this would happen. “I don’t know about that Rainbow Dash. Can you do a sonic rainboom multiple times, on demand? And I don’t think we can make it from here to Canterlot in a day. What happens when you have to go to sleep? If we wake up surrounded by Trixie and Gilda’s armies I don’t think a sonic rainboom is going to help us all that much.” “Fine,” Rainbow Dash huffed as she turned to sulk. “So who else has an idea how to get out of here? We kinda don’t have the Elements of Harmony to blast our way out in case you hadn’t noticed.” “Well,” they all turned to see Fluttershy meekly looking at them, “we could try waiting. Lots of ponies don’t like being in the Everfree Forest. Plus we know that there are lots of big, scary, and mean creatures here so Trixie and Gilda can only keep all those ponies here for so long before they have to leave. Once they’re all gone I’m sure it would be much easier to get out.” “One problem with that dear,” Rarity tried to speak as gently as possible. “If we don’t go now they’ll surround and flood the castle with guards and Nightmare Children. We’d never sneak in there to get the Elements.” “Oh,” Fluttershy dropped her gaze to the floor completely. “Sorry for wasting your time.” “It’s cool Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash put a hoof over Fluttershy’s shoulders. “It was still a good idea. It just didn’t work out. It happens all the time.” Fluttershy looked up to smile at her friend but before anypony could say anything a huge gasp from Pinkie Pie made them all jump and look over at her. “What is it Pinkie Pie?” Twilight lit her horn with a wave of magical force at the ready. Pinkie Pie gasped again, even louder. Apparently unable to form words for a change she pointed a hoof at Rainbow Dash. Twilight looked past her friend at first expecting to see something coming to attack them. But when Fluttershy gasped and jumped away from Rainbow Dash, Twilight looked back at the pegasus and saw what everypony was so excited about. Rainbow Dash had gotten her cutie mark. A blue, yellow, and red lightning bolt streaked from a cloud on her flank. Beating an Ursa Minor might not have been enough to get Rainbow Dash her cutie mark, but pulling off a sonic rainboom to save their lives seemed to have done the trick. They all cringed again when Pinkie Pie produced a noisemaker from seemingly nowhere and went completely wild with it. Rather she went completely wild with it till Rarity yanked the noisemaker from her mouth and replaced it with a hoof. “Pinkie Pie, do you want Trixie and Gilda to come crashing through the doors and roof to kill us?” Pinkie Pie shook her head no. “Okay then,” Rarity slowly removed her hoof. “We’re all terribly excited for Rainbow Dash but we have to be careful with how enthusiastically we show it. We are in a little bit of danger right now.” “Sorry,” Pinkie Pie grinned before continuing on in a much more appropriate voice. “But I’m just so excited! I mean it’s been forever since I got to celebrate somepony getting their cutie mark! And just when we needed to have a party so badly Rainbow Dash went and got hers.” “We’ll just add it on to the list of things to celebrate when we beat Nightmare Moon. Twilight was truly happy for her friend. But a small part of her couldn’t let go of the fact that now she was the only pony she knew of even remotely her age who was still a blank flank. And if it had taken a sonic rainboom to get Rainbow Dash her cutie mark what was it going to take to get Twilight hers? “Hey,” Twilight wasn’t surprised that Rainbow Dash was the one to guess what was on her mind. “We’ll find your cutie mark before this is over. And even if you don’t have a cutie mark after we blast Nightmare Moon back to wherever she came from we’ll still stick by you.” “You don’t think we really care whether or not you have a cutie mark do you?” Applejack asked. “Pinkie Pie and I were just about the latest of late comers to our cutie marks so we know what it feels like to be waiting for one. And most of the time I ignore or even forget that you don’t have your cutie mark. You’re plenty smart and talented without one and we’ll all be your friends even if you’re a hundred without a cutie mark.” “Absolutely darling,” Rarity said. “You don’t really think we’ll just scatter to the winds after all this do you? I for one would never stand for you returning to a hovel in the Undercity. I know you still need to actually get your diploma, but I think of this as a month plus letter of recommendation to fill one of the spots at the mining company I know are going to open up after all this.” Twilight opened her mouth to thank them but the breath was knocked out of her lungs and her friends piled on her in a group hug. Twilight dearly loved her friends, but sometimes she wished they weren’t so huggy. She always seemed to end up at the bottom of the pile. “Girls,” she croaked, “can we get going before I turn as blue as Rainbow Dash.” The others laughed and piled off her. They made a quick check to make sure they all had everything they were supposed to have, and then they faced the inevitable. Hoping that her darker coat wouldn’t show up as much against the doors to the castle they decided Twilight would be the one to poke her head out the door and see what they were up against. “They’re gone,” Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “I can’t see anypony, or any griffon for that matter.” The others were understandably skeptical, but they each took a turn looking through the cracked door and all agreed that the army of ponies that had been hunting them had simply disappeared. Applejack scratched at her head. “I suppose it’s probably too much to hope for a dragon or an Ursa to have come along, eaten Gilda and Trixie, and then simply left.” “I dearly wish you were right,” Rarity paced back and forth, “but it’s clear they’re up to something and we need to figure out what it is.” “Come on,” Rainbow Dash said, “isn’t it obvious? They’ve been chasing us all over Equestria and they haven’t beaten us once. They finally wised up that it’s never going to happen and gave up.” “Yay!” Pinkie Pie jumped about in obvious joy. “We totally did it girls. We’ll just walk to Canterlot and when we tell Queen Meanie to bring the princess back she’ll have no choice!” Twilight sighed. “I wish it was that simple. But Trixie and now Gilda have been chasing us from the very beginning. I doubt Nightmare Moon would let either of them give up. If they aren’t fighting us here it’s because they want to fight us somewhere else.” “Um, excuse me,” Fluttershy had actually raised a hoof like a filly in school, “but I think you’re both right. Nightmare Moon does still want to fight us, but she thinks Trixie and Gilda can’t do the job anymore. Remember how we were just talking about the only way to get the Elements of Harmony is probably to go through Nightmare Moon? Well that’s probably exactly what she’s counting on. We have to go to Canterlot if we ever want to win, and she can fight us there on her home ground.” “You’re right Fluttershy,” Twilight looked out across the Everfree Forest. “But we can’t just leave Nightmare Moon in charge of an eternal night. There has to be a way into the castle that we can sneak in, get the Elements, and get out alive. Once we have them I’m sure Nightmare Moon is going to come after us herself, but hopefully using the Elements of Harmony won’t be nearly as hard as getting our hooves on them.” A look at Rarity told Twilight she didn’t want to hear what was coming. “Well I hate to ruin the mood, but unless you known of a way into the castle through the undercity I’m afraid I don’t know of any secret passages or entrances we could make use of.” “The undercity is totally out of the question. The lowest levels of the undercity are where most of the Nightmare Children we’ve seen are coming from. They never saw the sun and they thought Celestia and everything she stood for was holding them down. I can’t be sure but I’d bet that since Nightmare Moon came to power they’ve been converting ponies in the middle of the undercity.” “Let’s figure that out when we get to Canterlot.” Rainbow Dash started flying around them. “Standing around here isn’t doing us any good.” “You’re right,” Twilight sighed. “But I’d love to stay here and study these ruins. Imagine how much history there is in here. I mean this structure clearly dates back to when Celestia fought Nightmare Moon for the first time if not even earlier. If we weren’t betting all our hopes on the Elements of Harmony I’d want to stay here to see if we could find some other way to beat Nightmare Moon.” “Plan B,” Applejack said as she put an exploratory hoof on the bridge they’d used to cross over to the castle. “If we can’t get the Elements or we can’t make them work then we can come back here and look for another way to beat Nightmare Moon.” Twilight approved of that. Not that she didn’t want them to not beat Nightmare Moon or anything, but she was happy they had a fall back plan, and that it involved a chance to come back here and explore these ruins more thoroughly. They crossed back into the forest one at a time and started making their way towards Canterlot. The forest seemed empty, but then they’d had no clue Trixie and Gilda were there until she and Rarity had lit up the area they were in. Still, it seemed like Twilight’s first impression of the Everfree Forest had been right. They’d spent close to an hour in the castle, but that was still not a lot of time to move a whole army’s worth of ponies far enough to be invisible. “Okay, where is everypony?” Rainbow Dash looked as nervous as the rest of them felt. “Just let me fly ahead a bit, and if I see them we know I can get away.” “We know they’re somewhere out there,” Rarity sounded calm even as she cast nervous glances about. “Our best bet is to simply use the fact that there are only six of us in a very large forest and even with as many of them as there are it’s still a lot of ground to cover. Scouting about may tell us where they are, but it’s just as likely to tell them where we are.” “I know,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “I just hate not doing anything. It’s like we’re just hoping we don’t run into them.” “That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Applejack pointed out. “But I don’t think you’re really going to tell me we can beat a whole army in a stand up fight and expect me to believe it. We managed to fight them off in Manehatten after getting the books because we could run away while we did it. But we have to go to them here. It would be like our trying to fight our way into the Manehatten library. It would have been suicide then and it would be suicide now.” “Fine, we’ll just hope we don’t run into them. But when a whole army comes down on us and we didn’t know about it I told you so!” No army ever did come down on them despite the fact that they spent the whole day jumping at every noise in the forest. There were several times Twilight almost gave in to Rainbow Dash’s standing offer to go off and scout. But each time she reminded herself that the reasons she’d had to refuse the request in the first place were the right ones and if she changed her mind now it would be a decision born of fear. Near what should have been evening, but didn’t look at all like it due to the unmoving moon overhead, they neared the edge of the Everfree Forest at the base of the mountain Canterlot rested on. Twilight had lived most of her life on top of that mountain, but until she had to climb it the hard way she’d never stopped to think how high up Canterlot really was. It was not going to be fun climbing the mountain. Carrying heavy saddlebags and having to do it by moonlight would make it even worse. “Normally I’d say we should wait until the sun came up to climb this,” Rarity was craning her neck to look up at Canterlot. “But we all know that’s not going to happen so let’s try not going mountain climbing while we’re tired. I’d at least like to get one last halfway decent night of sleep before we have to madly run because Nightmare Moon herself is on our tails because we stole the Elements of Harmony right out from under her.” “I can totally fly you guys up there,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “We’ll be in there and out with the Elements before they knew what hit them. By the time they think we stole anything we’ll have already beaten Nightmare Moon.” “Nice plan,” Applejack sighed, “but it won’t work. No offense, but I don’t think Fluttershy is going to be able to handle us. Maybe she can carry some of our saddlebags. So you’d have to carry four grown mares up to Canterlot, steal the Elements of Harmony, carry us back down, and then be able to fight and run until we can use them. Do you really think you can do that?” Rainbow Dash seemed on the verge of saying that she was in fact capable of such a feat, but a withering glare from Applejack made her rethink the idea. “Well girls,” Pinkie Pie was as perpetually cheerful as ever. “If we’re going to be sleeping here tonight then dibs on first watch.” They all stared at her. “What? We’re right outside Nightmare Moon’s evil lair. If she’s going to try to catch us anywhere it’s here.” “How does she do that?” Twilight whispered to Rarity as she took her saddlebags off. “The whole crazy one second smarter than all of us put together the next.” “I’ve known Pinkie Pie since we were both fillies. And I think I started asking that question about five minutes after we met. When I have an answer I’ll let you know.” Pinkie Pie was right though. Twilight grabbed several stalks of grass of varying length and held them between her hooves so nopony could tell which one was which. One by one her friends came up to her and picked a stalk of grass. Only when they were all done did they show off which stalks they’d each drawn. “I guess it’s up in the middle of the night for me.” Twilight looked at the shortest stalk. “That’s terrible.” Fluttershy had the first watch. “You’ve been working so hard Twilight. Let’s switch so you can get a good night’s sleep.” “I’ll be fine.” Twilight didn’t think she could force Fluttershy to wake up in the middle of the night. “I’m actually the best choice for this time. I worked nights before all this started so I’m used to sleeping, getting up and going to work, and then going back to sleep.” “If you’re sure.” As Fluttershy had said, she wasn’t good with confrontations. “It’s okay Fluttershy,” Twilight laughed. “By the end of this we’re all probably going to be so tired an hour of sleep one way or the other isn’t going to make much difference.” Everypony laughed rather nervously at that. This was almost certain to be their last night of even halfway decent sleep for quite awhile. Unless Nightmare Moon fried them all or by some miracle the Elements of Harmony were far simpler to use than they dared hope. For all her talk of being used to late nights Twilight was a less than thrilled pony when Applejack nudged her awake. “It’s been quieter than Fluttershy around here. Just sit around for about an hour and a half and then go wake up Rainbow Dash.” Speech was still a bit beyond Twilight’s muddled brain so she simply nodded to Applejack and waved the other pony to her blanket. And then she sat. Applejack was entirely right when she’d said there was nothing and nopony to see around where they’d decided to camp for the night. Just how had Trixie and Gilda gotten so many ponies to move so far so fast? Maybe Nightmare Moon could teleport legions of ponies over vast distances? She thought that was unlikely since if it was true they probably would have been caught several times over by now. More likely they’d had a plan in place in case they couldn’t keep Twilight and her friends from the Elements. Still that meant there was likely most of an army up on that mountain between them and the Elements of Harmony. Getting into the castle, let alone out of it, was going to make everything they’d done to this point look like a leisurely walk in the park. Other than an occasional breeze through the woods the only noises Twilight heard was the breathing of her friends and her own hooves when she got up to stretch and walk around a little bit. By the time she was starting to think about waking up Rainbow Dash staying awake had proved the hardest challenge of the night. “Hey Twilight,” Twilight nearly jumped out of her fur at the voice. “Rainbow Dash?” She whirled around to see the pegasus already up. “You just about gave me a heart attack sneaking up on me like that!” “Sorry about that.” Rainbow Dash surrounded uncharacteristically serious. “We’re probably not going to come out of this one are we?” Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to start with a hopelessly optimistic reply. But before the words could come out of her mouth she shut it and thought before replying. “We’re six ponies who met pretty much out of nowhere going up against the ruler of all Equestria with a ruthless army at her back. I thought we’d be toast before we were halfway to Coltcinnati. We’ve done far better than I ever could have imagined and we’re really looking at a chance to pull this off. But yeah, I was just thinking that this is going to make everything else seem like one of Pinkie Pie’s parties.” Rainbow Dash laughed without any humor. “I kinda wished I’d last long enough to see one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. They sound totally awesome and I was looking forward to going to one after all this. But yeah, I think you’re right that this is going to be just about impossible. If you don’t mind, there’s something I’d kinda like to get off my chest in case we don’t make it back.” Twilight had had plenty of dreams about somepony confessing their undying love to her. She had to admit that she had never dreamed it would be her friend, another mare for that matter, or that it would happen in a place and at a time like this. “Rainbow Dash,” she began. “You’re one of my best friends and I care about you a lot. But I don’t like mares like that. I know it takes a lot…” “What in Equestria are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash interrupted her. “You don’t think I’m… Twilight, I’m sure there’s somepony out there for you. But no, just no. I mean where do you even start thinking something like that?” “Well,” Twilight blushed with embarrassment. “In all the stories when ponies spend a lot of time together on an adventure like this it’s pretty normal for one pony to start having feelings for another pony in their group. Usually, actually always that I’ve read, it’s a stallion and a mare. But it’s just us here, and we’ve all been spending an awful lot of time together. So…” Rainbow Dash had to bite her hoof to hold back her laugh. “Twilight, that’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. You actually think real life works like one of those egghead romance novels? Oh that’s good. I’m glad I had a last laugh like this.” “Okay, so if that wasn’t what you wanted to get off your chest than what was?” Rainbow Dash’s smile died almost immediately. “You remember back in Coltcinnati how I screwed up when we were fighting Arabus? Well I may have been a bit more ticked off than I let on that all of you thought I’d screwed up…” Twilight became progressively more and more stunned as Rainbow Dash continued her tale of being approached by the Shadowbolts and their offers to her. She hadn’t suspected a thing, and she didn’t think any of the others had the slightest idea that Nightmare Moon’s personal guards had tried to talk Rainbow Dash into joining their side. Or for that matter how close these Shadowbolts had come to securing Nightmare Moon’s victory. What would have happened if Rainbow Dash had said yes to them? According to her, Twilight and her other friends would have been ‘saved’ and locked away in a velvet cage. But Twilight couldn’t get the fake world Trixie had manufactured back in Manehatten out of her mind. She was certain that they couldn’t succeed without all six of them. So if one of them actually switched sides to work for Nightmare Moon would the rest of them follow? Some questions were better left unanswered. After Rainbow Dash wound down her tale Twilight sat there and thought. She would have liked to sit and think the whole night, but a look at Rainbow Dash’s face said she needed Twilight to say something. “That’s a lot to digest in not a lot of time. I don’t think you expected me to go jumping around in joy like Pinkie Pie after telling me all this, and I’m not, but even though you should have put your hoof down with them a lot earlier you still said no every time. And I have a bit of a hard time blaming you for trying everything you can think of to save our lives when it looked like we were going to die. So I’m not really happy with you, but part of being friends is still being friends even when you’re not happy with each other. Plus you’re not the only pony here with something in her past she’d rather forget or do over. I’d give my back left hoof for a chance to go back and tell myself that I never needed to set foot in Touchy Hooves. And I’m sure Pinkie Pie and Rarity would rather forget just about everything they ever had to do with Diamond Dogs.” “You’re not gonna scream or yell at me? I mean I almost betrayed you guys for a cushy position and power. I’d be ready to throw me in the deepest ditch I could find and pile dirt on me.” “And I don’t think you should be spending a lot of time alone with the Shadowbolts. But the important thing is that you didn’t betray us. I’d definitely be careful with all this if I were you. Like you guys said back in Manehatten when I was moping over you finding out that I used to be a stripper, until you give me a reason not to be your friend I’m still going to be your friend.” “Thanks Twilight.” Tension visibly seeped from Rainbow Dash Twilight knew she needed as much sleep as she could get. But Rainbow Dash needed the company more, so they sat together in silence until it was time to wake Rarity up for her turn. Six tired ponies walked along the base of a mountain. Despite their best efforts none of them had slept particularly well with the weight of what they were about to attempt bearing down on them. “This looks like a good place.” Applejack paused by a shallow part of a small river running at the base of the mountain. “We should be able to climb the mountain and not hit the main road to Canterlot until well up the mountain. Hopefully most of the guards will be below us and we can sneak into the city before they know we’re coming.” “I refuse to get myself soaking wet crossing this river.” Rarity turned her nose up at the running water. “We’ve all endured quite enough during this trek and there’s no need to suffer even more.” Twilight chuckled and looked around for a solution. “Think we can use some of the downed trees as a bridge?” “Brilliant darling,” Rarity smiled at not having to ford the river. “I’ll hold them while you cross, we can both hold them while the others cross, and then I’ll go last.” Twilight quickly crossed the river and climbed onto a small rocky outcrop. The surrounding landscape appeared clear so she took hold of the logs with her magic and signaled for the others to cross. Rainbow Dash unsurprisingly flew across and joined Twilight on the outcrop. Fluttershy however preferred to remain on the ground with Pinkie Pie and Applejack as they filed across one at a time. Just as Rarity let go of her end of the logs several rocks detached from the mountain and crashed down onto the improvised bridge. “The Great and Powerful Trixie did not say you peons could go any closer to Canterlot.” “You again?” Rarity rather calmly turned to face the pony who had somehow snuck up on them. “I thought you’d somehow managed to learn your lesson by now.” “Hang on Rarity!” Twilight shouted across the river. “We’ll get back over there as fast as we can.” “No need darling,” Rarity easily floated her saddlebags to land at Twilight’s hooves. “This is a chat long overdue between Trixie and myself.” “Agreed,” Twilight still thought Trixie looked silly in her imitation of Nightmare Moon’s armor. “You’ve thought yourself The Great and Powerful Trixie’s equal for far too long. After this all Equestria will know Celestia only took a weak and incompetent unicorn like yourself as a student out of sheer pity.” “Do hurry on up the mountain dears. I’ll be right along after I beat her senseless and bury her up to her mane in the ground. After all, I’m sure Celestia can come up with far more inventive punishments than I ever could.” As much as Twilight wanted to stay and help, or even just watch, she reluctantly picked up Rarity’s saddlebags and started climbing towards Canterlot.