Before the chapter begins I want to make a little dedicatory and to tell you to read the final notes:
I want to dedicate this chapter to Yazzi and her great sense of humour and amazing knowledge of our modern world, Queen and her sassy sense of humour that always brings a smile to my heart and Skittles who is like the eggs in a cake, keeping everything together and in its right place.
"Everything will be fine, trust me, really"
"I do trust you Twilight but maybe you should stop repeating that over and over, are YOU okay?" now this was starting to get scary since Twilight had been repeating that motto non stop.
"Yes! I am fine, of course I'm fine Fluttershy, why wouldn't I?" the nervous laugh that followed didn't help "it's just that I, well, I don't want anyone to get injured, I don't want to...to lose control of myself."
Then there was silence.
"Losing control? What do you mean?"
"Once, I was training, with Rarity, and I wanted to try something new that I had been thinking about, something new using both of our wavelenghts and Rarity told me not to, but, we had always work together and when I did that, I ended losing control and I hurt her really really bad" those were sad memories but it seemed unfair for Twilight to not open up when her friend had done so moments ago.
"But, you dind't mean to, right?"
"Of course not, it's just that I'm afraid and, we have always been together, I couldn't fight with anybody else"
Hard declarations that made Fluttershy have the worst or best idea of the day, Fluttershy was a shy person, meek, weak and doubtful of everything but she was ready to give it all to help someone else and a characteristic about her that wasn't present very often was her stubborness, which had increased once she met her friends and just like the rest, once she had planned to help someone, she was going to do it no matter what, which lead to her following words . "Let's try"
"What?" yep, Twilight had no clue of what she meant
"Practice with me and I'll show you that you won't hurt me, that it will be okay" it would be a lie if she said that she wasn't a little scared but she wanted to do this not only for her friend but for herself.
"Are you crazy? Now? Here? You and I? That's an awful idea!"
"No, it is not, it's what you need, you believe that you may be dangerous and that you may hurt someone you don't want to, I sometimes also think that way so what's best than to try this together?"
"You don't get it, if we do that my magic could get out of control, you could even die" what the heck was she thinking?
"Well, then I decide to risk my life and trust you, I know everything will be okay, now you only need to think the same" those beautiful words were accompained by a reasuring smile and it shouldn't be forgotten that now Twilight had some curiosity about the situation, Fluttershy was rather different from her partner and in case of danger it would be beneficial to know how to fight with other people.
"Okay, let's try it, but if something starts going wrong I want you to run as far and as fast as you can"
"Yey!" that was a loud cheering sound, well, loud for her was what for others would be their stardard voice but it was cute anyway, she would need to talk about this with Rarity, the shipping project shall rise, but that was for another moment.
They got in front of each other in a near clearing, Fluttershy was positioned right in front of Twilight and told her what she should do "Since I have many forms I think that the best would be for you to try my ninja sword, it's big enough as to be a nice weapon but you can still manage it easily"
Twilight nodded not seeing any flaw on that plan and got ready, Fluttershy got surrounded by a yellow light that rised and then fell towards Twilight's hands, she opened them and caught the handle of the sword, great, except that the weight of the sword carried Twilight to the ground.
"Fluttershy, I don't want to sound rude but you are quite heavy" while talking Twilight was trying to pull Fluttershy from the ground and lift her a little but nothing changed.
"Twilight, we should connect our souls and then it will be easy for you to lift me, it always happens with someone new"
Seeing the mistake that she had made for not realising something so basic Twilight just blushed and nodded her head trying now to concentrate. Both Fluttershy and Twilight focused their souls to connect with each other, by doing so both of their soul representations came together.
Now a room appeared, it was a small one, two whole walls were covered in books from top to bottom, these looked old and used but they didn't hold any dust and were well preserved, in another wall there was a fireplace that wasn't lit on with a sofa for one in front, on the fourth wall there was a single dark door completely closed, the room was barely lighted since the only things that illuminated the stance were a few dispersed candles that were floating around, the room looked cold and felt like it was trapping those things that it hold but at the same it created a strange feeling of belonging.
The difference now was that, between the fireplace and the door a new space had appeared being connected by a small stone path.
In this new space there was a clearing of dirt, it hadn't had much green, the most noticeable were a group of trees growing in all directions looking sad, as if there was something avoiding them to grow and reach the sunlight, as if they desperately were trying to hold on to the small sun rays that got in the space, at the same time near the roots of a tree there was a small bunny plushie next to a small watering can with an equally small shovel, these three objects were next to a basket that hold some fabrics with some felting needles sticking out. Near the group of trees there was also a trail of a small river that seemed to origin somewhere distant to the place itself. Both places had enough light as to be able to see something but not enough as to allow anything to grow.
In the middle of both spaces there were both girls, Twilight in the room and Fluttershy in the clearing, they advanced towards each other watching exactly how the other was and they found a lot of similarities between each other's souls, they both felt sad, tired and knew that they had more problems on their inside that what could be seen on the outside, Twilight stuck out her hand and Fluttershy gave a small smile to her friend and seeing this Twilight decided that the best was a hug, when Twilight opened her eyes she realised that now she could lift Fluttershy without problem noticing how light she truly was.
"Yey, we did it! Now let's try to cut some of those fallen branches and after that we could try with another form ok?" Fluttershy spoke with a noticeable happiness in her voice and with this Twilight nodded once more and they started their practice.
Quite some distance away from were both girls were, a certain someone was callig her partner's name "Fluttershy! hey Fluttershy! are you here?!, ugh, were is she? She always comes to this part of the forest, maybe she went back home, ugh, why is she always so complicated?!" when she finished screaming Rainbow Dash could hear a scream coming from behind some bushes so she prepared herself, she charged her soul wavelenght on her hand and got ready to attack, "who the fuck is there? come out now or I'll make you explode!"
There was silence for some seconds and then a quiet voice answered "Rainbow?" then a pair of blue eyes appeared from behind the bush.
"Rarity? What are you doing there? And what happened to you?" Those were good questions since Rarity had branches in her hair and mud in her face "You won't believe what happened to me darling, when Twilight left I though that she would come back home shortly after that, but when she didn't I got worried so I went to look for her and I ended here, I tried to get out of the forest but then a flock of birds started chasing me and I fell on some mud and then I got lost and now here I am" man, she looked awful AND felt awful.
"Uh, well, if you are looking to get out you could accompany me, I'm looking for Fluttershy so come along" Rainbow wasn't really sure of what she should do so she just decided to go along with it and continue her task, she could worry about that later.
"Yes please, don't leave me here on my own" with this Rarity got out of the bushes and grabbed Rainbow's shirt not letting her go too far, she didn't want by any mean to get lost once again.
"Uh, Rainbow Dash, you said that you were looking for Fluttershy right? Did something happen to her?"
"Oh no, it's just that when she is tired or needs time to think she comes to this part of the forest so she is usually here but today I wanted her to come back sooner, to make a last minute training but, since I dind't told her on the morning I came to look up for her" Rarity nooded and kept following Rainbow trying to focuss on the way they were going through and not in the path they were leaving behind.
Both girls were walking now in a right line, Rainbow looking in both directions and calling her partner's name and Rarity clinging and getting scared by every little movement that she detected.
"Hey purple curl, can I ask you something?" said Rainbow looking upwards but directing the question to the girl behind her. Ignoring the horrendous nickname that was chosen Rarity simply made an affirming sound and Rainbow continued "is it weird to be a witch and a weapon at the same time and to have a witch meister? I mean, is it different to not have a normal meister?"
Trying now to ignore the adjective normal to refer to those who weren't witches Rarity tried to answer in a calm tone "well, I have never tried to fight with anyone else who isn't Twilight and I suppose that my magic may alter some of our attacks but I wouldn't say that a lot changes, for example, when you fought against us you used your wavelenght and that gave you enough time as to build another attack but Twilight couldn't do that, so I guess that our magic just makes things different, maybe is not as the rest but I am proud of being with her and studying to be a weapon"
"Oh, okay" and with this Rainbow kept walking not talking again continuing her path in a very quiet way wich was not very normal for her.
"Um, Rainbow, is everything okay?"
"Yeah, why you asking?"
"Um, well, you are very quiet and that is normal due to this situation but you know, it is not so normal for you"
"I'm just thinking, I do that sometimes as well"
This took Rarity a little by surprise "Of course darling, I never said that you didn't"
"I don't smack my head against a wall all day either, just for you to know"
"Of course, I didn't mean to imply anything similar to that darling, I just meant that you well, usually you are a little more talkative"
"Yeah, sure" and with that Rainbow got quiet once again continuing both girls their path in silence, Rarity wished that she could find Twilight or Fluttershy soon because she felt like she needed support but until then she knew that Rainbow wouldn't let her get hurt so that gave her a calming feeling that she took ahold of while following Rainbow.
While these two pairs of friends were together in a small appartment another two girls were getting prepared for supper, "Hey yo' Pinkie, pass me the lettuce will ya'?"
"Coming right away AJ" setting the lettuce along with other vegetables in front of her cousin to cut them down Pinkie got close to the oven to watch what it contained "Uhhh, look Jacky, the cookies are rising really well, the girls will surely be glad that we bring these for the train travel"
Looking at her for a moment AppleJack resumed her work cutting down the vegetables for the dinner and she smiled "They sure will be sugarcube, but don't get too excited okay? Rarity and Twilight ain't used to how y'are 'kay?"
"I know silly but luckily I made enough cookies as for them to be distracted and not get too worried" said Pinkie happily while still looking at the oven and then she added very quietly but not enough as for AppleJack to not hear her "I hope that those mint cookies will get a smile from Fluttershy" and after that she giggled to herself which made AppleJack also smile knowing how much Pinkie worried for Fluttershy"
The cousins kept smiling to their own reasons, then they ate supper and after talking animatedly they made a last check of their equipment and got to bed wishing each other a good night.
Going back to the forest Fluttershy and Twilight were having the time of their life "Okay, and now launch" and then Twilight launched one scythe cutting a small brach that was sticking out of a nearby tree. "Ha! Great!" Now she was domaining the chain scythe form of Fluttershy but while she was picking the scythe she got too excited and the scythe ended hitting her on the face, luckily it didn't hurt but the metal had impacted hard on her face.
"Are you okay Twilight? You were doing great, now what you need to improve is the catching, keep going"
"He he, thanks Fluttershy, clearly your chain scythe is the form that I domain the best but let's keep trying, you know, I want to thank you truly, if you hadn't proposed this I don't think that I could have gone to sleep in peace" at the mention of this Fluttershy got transformed and put a hand on Twilight's shoulder.
"Twilight, I'm also glad to have practiced with you but you should talk about this with Rarity, sure that she would have a conversation about this with you without problem"
Getting a little separated from Fluttershy Twilight looked at the groud with a thoughtful face "I know, she is a great partner, well, she is a great person but I don't want her to be always worrying about me, I don't want to be a burden"
"I know how you feel but it's for that same reason that I'm telling you this, since I met Rainbow I could feel freer and thanks to the rest of the girls I am braver, I know that I'm better even if sometimes I save some things for me, you don't need to share everything but you should talk to her"
"You know what? You are right, Rarity is my friend and partner and I would give anything for her, I'll talk to her right when I get back, it's kind of late, I just hope that she hasn't worried a lot."
When both girls decided to get back home they heard a great noise and saw the smoke of an explosion, knowing that it was probably a demon the girls went to look since they couldn't let it get to the city and attack innocents. Once they could see what it was, they saw a huge red mass with arms so big that a finger could be as big as one of them, they realised that there was another demon, this one was smaller and seemed to be trying to take down the bigger creature but seeing how that wouldn't happen the demon decided to turn around and run being followed by the bigger one.
"Come on, let's follow them and wait until they stop" nodding, Fluttershy followed her friend having to run to catch the demons' speed.
"Um, I could swear that Fluttershy would be by here, will something have happened to her? I don't think so"
"Well Rainbow, we have been looking around for quite a while, maybe Fluttershy decided to go back home, she found Twilight and she did the same"
"Maybe, well, let's head home then" said Rainbow with a gesture of her shoulders seeing how that was a possibility.
Right when the both of them were going to turn back a noise was heard and by breaking several trees two demons appeared in the clearing where they were.
"Oh fuck, hey, can you fight alone? I can take down the small one but I need a distraction for that mass, my wavelenght works better if the objective doesn't move"
"What?! No! I can't fight alone, I need a meister, other way I can't fight!"
"Ughhh, for fuck's sake, okay, go look for someone, I'll need support!"
It was curious that these two didn't thought of teaming up to try and take down the demons together, Rarity started to run and got lost quickly among the trees. Rainbow jumped to take down the smaller demon knowing that after that she could center her attention and energies on the bigger one.
"Here is were you fall down you bug!" then she launched herself towards the small demon avoiding one claw from the bigger one, Rainbow took down the demon against the ground and with one big shock made its head explode just in time to avoid another hit from the fat demon. "Ha! You know what? I don't need support, I don't need a weapon, since when goodesses have needed someone else? mwah ha ha ha!"
With this Rainbow jumped once again deciding to shock the demon and after that crush it someway that she hadn't think of but that would be a-wesome, sadly the demon didn't had the same idea and as soon as she was on the air the demon punch her sending her flying until she was stopped by crashing with some trees, "ha, so you want to make this difficult, you bastard" Rainbow tried to get up but found this difficult to do so immediately.
"Oh gosh, what happened? I just left for like 2 minutes!" the panicked voice of Rarity allerted Rainbow Dash "what are you doing here?!"
"I couldn't find my way out, that's why I followed you in the first place"
"Well, don't get in the middle!"
After this Rainbow tried to end the demon getting nowhere since it would over and over hit her sending her away making her injuries worse and worse.
"Okay Rainbow, I know that you told me to not get involved but maybe we should get out and look for help"
Barely being able to get off of the groud Rainbow spat out in an angry way "never! only those who are weak run away, I'll only stop when I'm dead" and with this she kept trying to get on her feet before the demon got closer but her legs didn't want to respond.
It's in that moment when a scythe appeared from among the trees capturing one of the demon's arms which turned around to look at its new attacker, a certain witch appeared from among the trees being full of energy and shouting "Hiyaaa, this is your last attack you beast" when saying this Twilight pulled the arm at the same time that she tried to get onto an epic position but while trying to do so the demon also pulled catching the chain of the weapon and the witch at the end of it, the demon put Twilight at its eye level and Twilight was now frankly scared "I guess that you don't want to rethink your actions, do you?" sadly the demon wasn't having any of it and using the chain as a rope spinned Twilight in the air and launched both girls onto some trees, luckily Twilight realised that they were going to crash against the vegetation and stopped them in mid air flowing a little above the ground.
"Are you okay Twilight? We are lucky that you can float" said Fluttershy worried that that attack had let her companion in game over.
"I'm fine, let's end this okay?" Fluttershy gave a short approving sound and they focused on the big demon, it wasn't too fast but it was horribly strong and big, Twilight went on to try and cut one of the grotesque arms of the demon, using her mini floating abbility she went jumping and moving more fluently than usual, in a moment when the demon tried to crash them Twilight got out of the way and this time she could cut its arm, the demon protested angry and became more violent so they had to end the fight now, "Here we go" Twilight advanced until she was close to some trees making the demon trip and fall, she then captured the body with the chain and was able to cut its head in a swift motion letting only the red soul to float.
"Fiu, we did it" Twilight was completey exhausted, she usually didn't have to move so much and it was hard to try and contain her powers at the same time that she tried to addapt to Fluttershy but at the end their teamwork was effective and that was one less demon which brought a small smile to her lips feeling great, "that was great Fluttershy, we totally controled the situation"
Fluttershy transformed and also smiled feeling content of having being able to work with others and helping a friend at the same time, she was going to say something but then the dust cleared of and an angry voice shouted to them.
"So you were here eh?" Rarity didn't seem very happy, she approached in a very angry way to Twilight and started poaking at her chest while shouting, "so, I was worrying about you because I thought that you were scared or in danger and what I find is that you are having the time of your life, that's FAN-TAS-TIC Twilight Sparkle!"
"No, that's not like it, Fluttershy and I were, we were..." but she couldn't get her words out, she didn't want to explain that she had been afraid and that she feared hurting her dear friend.
"You WHAT? Speak, say something, you always say that we are a great team and now here you were fighting with someone else and for what I have seen having much more fun, am I wrong? Come on, tell me" Rarity was waiting for a response from Twilight praying that she was wrong but Twilight remained silent just lowering her head with a sad expression which made Rarity even angrier, "okay, don't speak, you never tell me anything anyway so who cares, let's go home, apparently you don't care so neither will I"
Twilight just nodded looking back at Fluttershy with an apologetical look that they shared, when she looked behind her she saw Rainbow Dash with an estoic expression looking seriously at her so she just went on in following Rarity into a new path that had been created because of the fight and from were the exit could be seen.
Rainbow on the other hand got next to Fluttershy but didn't say anything so Fluttershy took the opportunity to speak "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I know that you have been worried and I should have looked for you instead of just allying with someone else, I'm deeply sorry"
Rainbow didn't react, she just looked at her, gave a small smile and said in a calm tone, "that's cool, nothing wrong ok? Let's go back home"
Fluttershy nooded but she knew that Rainbow wasn't too happy and if she could have done so, she would have run out of there since all the tension and anger of Rainbow was suffocating her in an awful way but she knew that she couldn't complain now, she hated to face her problems, that was the part that she hated the most about having problems. They went, just like the other two girls, directly to their homes in silence, some angry, others shocked and others sad, the real question was to know who was carrying which feeling.
The following morning a group of six where on a train, four were silent and the other two were a little weird out by this. This train was practically empty since the place where they were going to was very apparted, it's for this same reason that the girls had a whole wagon for themselves, still they had chosen to sit on a double seated table which had two seats with space for three people each, on one of them AppleJack was seated right next to the window with Rainbow in front of her and Pinkie to her left, Pinkie had Fluttershy in front of her which left Twilight to Fluttershy's right and Rarity on Pinkie's left.
Rainbow was looking at the view out of the window and Rarity was ooking a little at everything inside of the wagon to avoid looking to the front, Fluttershy and Twilight on the other hand were looking to the table and occasionally to each other going back to looking at the table soon after their eyes crossed.
Pinkie and AppleJack looked at each other questioning what may have happened to this four to be like this, yesterday they were perfectly fine but today since they encountered each other in the morning those four hadn't said a word apart from a "good morning".
Not wanting to stand the silence much longer AppleJack decided to ak directly, "okay your four, what has gotten into ya'? You were alright yesterday and now you're as quiet as Winona whe she breaks something in the house and it's quite difficult for that dog to be quiet so spit it out will ya'?"
Rainbow and Rarity didn't move while the other two just moved uncomfortably on their sits without saying a word, Pinkie tried to test her luck this time, "come on girls, you can't be angry at each other, that's wrong, friends shouldn't fight and look, if you tell us what's wrong we will help you and I'll give you a cookie, what do you say to that?" Pinkie had got almost on the table showing a great smile to the four but seeing a similar reaction than before the smile on her eyes started to fade and the one on her lips started to turn upside down.
It's when Pinkie decided to sit down that Rainbow spoke "I don't want any cookies, I'm not hungry" and Rarity decided to reprise "I don't any cookies either, thank you very much, but maybe you shouldn't ask us but Twilight who was having a GREAT time yesterday" the last words had a lot of sarcasm and resentment and brought some tears to Twilight's eyes, she didn't cry though.
"We don't want to talk about it, there's nothing to talk about, we should take this time to rest before the mission" Fluttershy tried then to distract the attention and direct it to their mission hoping that that would be enough to start a conversation and leave the subject of last night behind, not having the desired reaction Rarity got up and walked to the front of the train telling that she wanted to see if there was anything important, Rainbow jumped on the table and went to the back part of the train wthout saying anything, Twilight also got up and seemed to want to go after her weapon but she seemed to rethink it and instead chose to seat on the table next to the one where she was firstly seated hiding her head in her arms while looking away.
This let Pinkie and AJ more confused on the table and Fluttershy even sadder looking to be at the verge of crying but it seemed that Twilight had won and was already crying, Fluttershy tried to keep her tears from falling and gave a timid smile, or try of smile, to Pinkie while asking, "Pinkie, could you give me a cookie?, I know that I haven't tell you anything but that cookie would really help me right now"
Pinkie nooded and got the tin of cookies, so fast that she almost throws it and lets it fall, she caught it before it could and offered one that Flutteshy took thanking her in the process, then silence was almost the only thing that could have been heard if it hadn't been for Twilight's cries, this was going to be a really long travel and a really really long mission, that was clear.