The Element of Strength
Part 2
All the ponies rushed in and picked me up, hugging and yelling. It was rather disconcerting. There were tables filled with cakes and food and there were games set up all around Twilight’s house. I pulled away from the crowd and saw Pinkiepie beckoning from over in the corner. I made my through the crowd to her. Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbowdash, and Fluttershy were standing with Pinkiepie in the corner.
“This party was meant for us but I guess everyone else is getting any fun out of it.”I said as I walked near.
“No, silly, this party was meant for you, not for us. You saved everypony, so you get the party.” said Pinkiepie.
“Oh… well, who can I thank for this party then?”
“You have Pinkiepie to thank for this magnificent party.” said Rarity.
“Well thank you then, Pinkie. Is there any way that I can thank you?”
“It’s a party for you, for saving everypony, I should still be thanking you.” replied Pinkie.
“How about I owe you one then.” I said with I smile.
“Can do!” laughed Pinkie.
We all returned to the party. Rainbowdash was raiding the food tables, Applejack was leading everyone in games, Rarity was socializing with a couple of well dressed ponies, I saw twilight lead a group of young ponies outside and I could see them all sitting around a campfire with Twilight telling, what I assumed, where ghost stories, and Fluttershy and Pinkiepie were dancing with everyone. I was being jostled and pushed around as I moved through the mob of ponies. The night went on and on until it was only Twilight, Pinkie, and I left to clean up all the mess.
We grabbed brooms and began sweeping up the mess, which is much harder without hands. I took another hour or two to get all of the trash out.
“Thanks again for the party!” I yelled to Pinkie as she left.
I watched the sunrise as we finished up the last of the cleaning. I was ready for a nap by the time we had finished, but Twilight had other ideas.
“Come on we’ve got some shopping to do.” Said Twilight as she threw her saddlebags over my flank and tightened them with a yank of her head.
We spent the next four hours going from store to store picking up only a couple things at a time from each store. By the time we got back to Twilight house my back was creaking and my legs were shaking under the weight of all the stuff I was carrying. I stood in the kitchen as Twilight unloaded the groceries when Spike came downstairs. He looked at me holding all the groceries with a mischievous smile. When Twilight was done she turned to Spike.
“Spike would you mind cooking up some breakfast, I’m famished.” asked Twilight.
“Of course, anything for you Twilight” said Spike as he glared at me.
As the food cooked I helped Twilight Put away all the groceries. She had bought everything from Asparagus to zucchini, and put them all away in alphabetical order.
“Don’t you think it‘s a bit err… neurotic to buy food like this?” I asked as I put away some eggplant.
“A little, but it helps me keep everything organized.” said Twilight as she stocked away the fennel.
Spike had cooked up a quiche made with cheese and spinach. It was good and we washed it down with home squeezed orange juice.
“You sure are a good chef Spike. Where did you learn it?” I asked
He seemed caught off guard by my politeness, but still answered the. “The royal kitchens, in the Castle.”
“Well they sure did teach you good. You should think about cooking for parties or something. Go to one of the restaurants in town and you’d probably get a job right away.”
“Well thanks, I guess.”
I spent the rest of the day helping Twilight and Spike organize books and clean shelves in her house. When we had finally come to the last few bookcases, I spotted a book unlike the rest in the library. It was a fiction story novel, well actually a box set, entitled “The Amazing Adventures of Daring Do”, and unlike the rest of the books here, it wasn’t a biography or a reference guide.
“Do you mind if I borrow this?” I asked Twilight.
“Sure, they are really good books. Any particular reason you want to read them?” she answered.
“I’m a sucker for a good adventure novel.” I said.
I spent the remainder of the night reading the books. Twilight was right they were good books. Indeed, so good that by the time I decided that I was ready for bed, the sun was rising. When Twilight came down I was just dozing off on the couch.
“Did you spend all night reading those books?” She asked.
“You were right they are good books. I think I’m going to go take a quick nap.” I yawned out.
I stumbled into my room and slept. Images of the adventures of those books flashed through my dreams. I woke a few hours later by a knock on the door. It was Twilight.
“Hey would you mind helping someone out for? Time Turner is making a repair on the clock tower and needs someone to hold a gear in place for him.” She asked
“Yeah sure.” I said as I climbed out of the bed.
Standing at the front door was a nervous looking pony. He had a brown coat and a brown spiky mane and an hourglass cutie mark.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but you seem to be the only pony strong enough to hold the gear, I had to get Big Mac to hold it for me last time. Come on follow me.” He said.
“So how big is this gear, anyways?” I said as we galloped to the clock tower.
“It’s made of wood and is ten feet in diameter.” He huffed.
We arrived at the tower and entered. It was a giant jumble of wooden cogs, gears, and iron springs of every size. Time Turner led me up a few flight of stairs and across a catwalk. Behind the clock face was a giant gear.
“So I’m assuming that’s the gear I have to hold?” I asked.
“Yep. It should only take a few minutes. I’ve got to replace a few worn out brackets. You might want to put this on your back too.” He said as he handed me a thick wool sheet.
I obliged, and tossed it onto my back. I got under the gear and Time Turner undid the bolt holding the gear in place and it fell with tremendous force on to my back. I held still and reminded myself to breath as I held up the gear. After a few minutes of tinkering around above my head he told me he was finished.
“Now just give it a little buck to get back on the rod.”
I strained all the muscles in my body and after a moment of collaborative effort I bucked the gear into the air. It landed perfectly in place with a quite “schnick”. I let out a big breath, my legs shaking from the effort.
“Thanks for the help. You know the way out. I’ve got a few things to finish up here.”
I stumbled out of the tower and returned to the library. I had just sat down when somebody knocked on the door. It was the Cakes.
“Would you mind carrying in a table for me, I’m just not strong enough?” asked Mr. Cake.
I nodded and he lead me to Sugar Cube Corner where there was a large table sitting in front of the door. I huffed and levered the table onto my back. I waddled under the weight of the table and I squeezed it through the Cakes front door. I finished and returned to the library. I was about to sit back down on the couch when another pony knocked on the door. They had more heavy lifting for me to do. My day continued on like this until well after the sun had gone down. I dragged myself back to the library where Twilight and Rarity were talking.
“If anyone else knocks on the door tell them that I’m dead” I groaned as I flopped onto the ground.
“That’s not a good thing to say. You should be happy that you can help people in town.” said Rarity.
“I’m glad to help, but I haven’t eaten today or gotten too much sleep either, and when they want my help they usually need me to carry something big and heavy.”
Someone knocked on the door and Twilight stood up to get it. She rushed back and looked panicked.
“It’s Pinkiepie. She’s gone missing.” said a distraught Twilight.
We all hopped up and rushed out, though I did backtrack into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. Twilight led us out to a group of ponies, most of which were holding lanterns. As we arrived the Mayor stepped up and began to talk.
“All right everyone is here. We know that Pinkiepie went missing earlier this afternoon on her way to Peachy Sweet’s peach orchard. We’ve never had to deal with a missing pony before. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do?” she asked.
Nobody raised their hooves or offered advice. I had to take charge.
“I do mayor. I need map of the area. A big one.” I said.
Someone brought out a large paper map of the area surrounding Ponyville and we pinned it up so that everyone could see it.
“Ok so we know that the orchard is here.” I said as I pointed to an area to the northwest of Ponyville. “We need to split into teams of two and grid the area around the orchard and around the path. Twilight I need you to stay here and coordinate everyone, and you too mayor. Every group needs a lantern. Come on Rarity your with me. I need any pegasus to do a constant flyover of the area as well.” I shouted out onto the crowd.
Twilight organized everyone into groups. Rarity walked over to me, her horn alight as a improvised lantern.
“You make a very good leader.” She said as we walked.
“I couldn’t just sit there. Somebody had to do something.”I said, my eyes scanning the ground for hoof prints. “Look, over there it looks like Pinkiepie’s prints.”
“How can you tell, our hoof prints look exactly the same?” asked Rarity.
“If you look at the step pattern, you can see that she wasn’t walking, she was jumping, and the only pony I know who does that is Pinkie.”I said.
“That’s very intuitive. Where did you learn to think like that?”
“I read a lot.” I smiled.
We followed the hoofsteps for almost ten minutes. They ended in the middle of an opening. We walked into the middle and looked for any sign of where she could have gone. The ground suddenly started shaking and Rarity jumped away. A hole opened in the ground right under me and I fell through. As I fell I watched as the hole closed. I landed in a pool of water with a loud splash.
“Who’s there?” asked a voice.
I clambered out of the water and looked up to see Pinkiepie holding a large rock above her head.
“It’s okay, it’s only me. Pinkie, do you know where we are?” I asked.
“No. I was just on my way to the peach orchard when the ground started to shake and I fell through a hole. I’ve been looking for a way out of this room all day we can’t get out.”
“No way out, now that’s just crazy, then how did I get in here?” said a voice from behind me.
I turned around to see a something I’d only seen in my head. It was Daring Do. She was a light tan and had a gray mane and tail and her cutie mark was that of a compass rose.
“I’m Daring Do. It’s nice to meet you two. I know a way out, just follow me.”
We did follow Daring Do. She led us through a hole on the other side of the pool of water that opened into a hallway.
“That wasn’t there before.” said Pinkiepie with a confused look on her face.
We followed the hallway for a while. We rounded a bend and we could see a light. We all galloped to the light and found a desk occupied by a very dull looking pony.
“There are lanterns and food in the box on to your right. Once you enter the maze you will exit it in the destination you were trying to get to. Get to the end and you win. Good luck, you’re going to need it.” droned the pony.
He hit a button on the wall and a door opened. We all grabbed bags and lanterns, which we lit off of the one sitting on the desk, and entered. The door slammed shut behind us and we could only see by the light of our lanterns. The walls were made of an odd brick and were covered with moss.
“Whish way should we go?” asked Pinkiepie.
“Hmm… the exit is to the west, but which way is north?” said Daring Do.
“How do you know that?”I asked.
“My special talent is navigating” she said as she pointed to her cutie mark “I always seem to be able which way takes you out.”
“Well it no good if we don’t know which direction we’re going.” I said.
We walked in silence for a while. As we walked the walls seemed to change, from moss covered brick to a smooth marble, the same as the stone in Canterlot Castle. At the end of the hallway was a door with torches on either side. In the middle of the door was the picture of three stars, just like my cutie mark.
“I think this door I meant for you.” Said Daring Do.
I approached the door slowly. I pushed against and it swung open. I looked upon a scene of utter horror. It was my house except that lying on the floor was mother. My dead mother. Her neck was split gruesome open, her blood splattered across the room, and around her was my friends. Not my friends from Earth, but those from Equestria. Twilight, Pinkiepie, Rarity, Rainbowdash, Applejack, and Fluttershy, all huddled around my mother. The evil Twilight looked up at me, blood covering her mouth and spoke in a voice like nails on a chalkboard.
“You humans are very delicious why don’t you come closer so that we have some seconds.”
Just as I was about to step out of the room Pinkiepie pushed me forward and came in beside me.
“Silly, Twilight doesn’t eat ponies. You need to get your facts straight.” She laughed at the image of the cannibalistic Twilight.
The image glared at Pinkiepie before the entire thing burst into a cloud of dust.
“What did you see?”I asked Pinkiepie
“I just saw the six of us eating a pony that looks like your mom.”
“And you just laughed at that!” I asked incredulously.
“You have to see the parts that don’t make sense in your fear and concentrate on that, and it becomes funny.” She said suddenly very serious.
I went further into the room. In the middle sat what looked like a glass box filled with a swirling mass of darkness. I walked up slowly and looked into. I could still see the same scene in the box but I just made me angry now. I reared up on my hind legs and smashed down on the box, shattering it and sending pieces of glass everywhere, the darkness dissipating into the air. I looked around and left the room, slamming the door behind me.
“What was in your room?” asked Daring Do.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
We continued walking down the hall Pinkiepie and Daring Do trying to get me to talk.
“I think we should rest.”I said after what must have been hours.
“I do too. There’s no point in exhausting ourselves and being too tired to navigate.” Said Daring Do.
We sat down a put the sacks that we had been carrying on the floor. We opened them to see what kind of food we had. There was a loaf of bread, a couple apples and a canteen of water in my bag. I looked around to see what the others had got, and their bags where exactly the same.
“Well kind of boring, but at least its food.” I murmured before I ate it all.
The food was bland, but at least we had water. I turned down the lantern so that they didn’t use up all of their oil and slept using the bag as a pillow. I woke up before everyone else and woke them.
“Come on we should get moving” I said “this place is giving me the creeps.”
We walked for a while when the floor began to change again. This time it went from the white marble to well worn wood. The path started to meander and when it straightened out we saw another door. We walked up and saw that door had Pinkiepie’s cutie mark on it, three balloons.
“It’s your door Pinkie, be ready.” I said.
She glanced at me and pushed the door open. I waited a second before a looked at her fear. It was her running through the maze. From watching It felt like the image Pinkie was had been running forever. I looked at the real Pinkie to see her face a blank expressionless mask.
“You want know what’s funny about this Pinkie?” I whispered into her ear“What’s so funny is that we will get out of here and we will see everyone again. I promise you that.”
As I watched I saw a small smile appear on her face.
“I believe you.” She whispered as she nuzzled her head against my neck.
The image of Pinkie looked up at me and smiled and burst into dust.
“Pinkiepie, you need to destroy the cube.” I said.
She nodded and walked over to the cube and stomped on it, reducing it dust. There was a flash of light and I felt a tingle. We were suddenly standing in bright sunlight. I blinked the water out of my eyes and let out a loud laugh. We were at the peach orchard. Pinkiepie laughed at me as I ran around, reveling in the open space.
“Well this is goodbye, I guess.” Said Daring Do.
“This isn’t goodbye silly; you can come with us to Ponyville and meet our friends.” said Pinkiepie.
“No, I can’t, I was only there to lead you out of the cave. I’m not actually Daring Do. I’m just a creation of the maze.” Said Daring Do. “Once I saw how much you two cared for each other I knew that even a thousand of those doors wouldn’t stop you two, so I let you out. I had a good time with you two.” She finished and we watched her turn to dust and drift away in the wind.
“Well you better get your peaches so we can head back to town. I bet everyone is worried about us.” I said to Pinkiepie.
She nodded and we headed into the orchard. We spent the next hour talking, laughing, and picking peaches.
“So what were the peaches for anyway?” I asked Pinkie.
“I was going to make my famous Peachy Keen Cobbler.”
“Well that’s sound’s delicious.”
We left with bags full of peaches and headed back to Ponyville, though we didn’t go by the normal path. We stayed out from under the trees. I guess you can’t laugh away a few irrational fears. We arrived at Ponyville, where everyone was sitting in the field where the search party had gathered the night before. They were all looking up at Twilight and Rarity, who looked distraught and worried. We walked up behind the crowd and listened to what they were saying.
“… and we have lost two very special ponies, one a dear friend of mine, who is known as one of the most fun loving ponies in all of Equestria, the other a new member of this town, but a selfless pony willing to risk life and limb to save anyone who needed his help. I am very sad to say that our search was inconclusive and … oh my gosh their right there!” shouted Twilight.
Everyone turned around and looked at us. They all cheered and stomped their hooves, rushing in to hug and greet us. Twilight and Rarity charged through the crowd and grabbed Pinkiepie, squeezing the air out of her. I smiled as I watched the friends reunite.
“Your back! What happened to you two, you’re both absolutely filthy.” said Rarity.
Pinkie and I told them the story of our adventure through the maze and they all listened intently. When we had finished everyone returned to their homes. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity and I went back to the Library where Pinkie and I were both washed heavily by Rarity.
“Thanks for the bath, Rarity” I laughed.
We went back into the library to dry off when Pinkie looked up at me.
“You don’t owe me one anymore” she said.