//------------------------------// // Part 3 // Story: The Nightmare Festival // by Omegafr //------------------------------// As the princesses and their guard headed to their next destination, our friends, still locked up, had regained use of their bodies again, despite the apparent injuries. "Girls, are you all right?" Asked Twilight puzzled as she pressed her back against the bars. "Do we look okay for you ?" Pegasus nodded, finding the question silly. "Just being polite Rainbow, this is not the time or place for this!" Contested Rarity who had a terrified Fluttershy in her arms, sobbing silently. "We've got to find a way out of here!" Applejack called Applejack back. "No way!" reprimanded a deep voice behind her. Of course, their enemy's five dummies were watching them closely. In fact, they hadn't even noticed when they got up that they'd surrounded the cage and each had a weapon at their disposal. The girls were going to avoid taking their member out of the cage too much now. Our friends couldn't sneak out to talk about a plan, but they had to get out of here, and quickly. Twilight began to feel a strange tingling throughout her body, from the tip of her horn to the tip of her wings. "Girls, I think... I don't have magic anymore!" She said, worried. "It's true Twili, even I can't do it." said Rarity, trying to shine her white horn in vain. "That's why!" Said the farmer's mare, raising her head, seeing the device that was shining earlier. "We suggest that you keep your mouth shut if you don't want to start being pricked." warned the tall stallion who had operated the lever earlier, a lance ready to be used. Seeing they wouldn't be quiet, the girls began to gather in the center of the small cage. Even as they glued themselves together, the size of their weapon was enough to reach them, they were going to have to whisper more quietly than they would have done in their whole lives to get out of it. "So what did we do?" Asked the Pegasus, hiding her face with her wings so they couldn't see her talk. "I don't know, we've got to keep away from the evil stallions!" Say Pinkie, which seemed obvious to the rest of the group. "Are you girls stuffed or what? You want to suffer more, that's what you want, BECAUSE IT CAN BE ARRANGED!" Shouted a white pegasus that came dangerously close to the cage, threw at the hoof. "Harri, don't hurt them mortally, Light wants them alive for now." warned the great black stallion, blocking it temporarily with his magic. Light? Harri? These were the names of these stallions, at last when they lived peacefully before being corrupted by this spirit, understood the elements of harmony. Twilight had an idea when she realized that they knew each other before these events, but decided not to tell the other one for safety. Without warning, she began to move away from the others and approached the strong iron bars. She looked into the eyes of that black stallion who was a unicorn, and saw only the hatred that was overwhelming her, but it did not discourage her. "So Harri, Light, what are your names, others?" She asked politely. The great dark stallion pointed his spear at her, but did not move out of his place. The girls wondered what Twilight had in mind, and couldn't help her for the moment. The stallion didn't answer, but kept eye contact with her, which was his mistake. Twilight finally managed to detect a tiny glimmer in his eyes, and even though it was probably only a thousandth of the content of his mind, she had to exploit it. "Well, since we're stuck here, I figured we could get to know each other!" she suggested, no one answered, she continued. "How did you meet together?" At that moment, the question was clear to her friends, so they began to do the same, innocently approaching the end of the cage. There was a stallion on either side, and a member of the elements of harmony was facing him, except Fluttershy who remained in the center. As they were each about to begin an interrogation, a new voice was heard. "You mean how did we become friends?" Asked for a thin, brown, unimposing land pony. "JOHN, none of that word here! The white pegasus flew over the cage and landed in front of him. Or you'll have a bad time too." Cry the white pegasus. "That's right!" Said the princess as she moved towards him, Applejack was in front as well. "Will you please tell me about it?" His eyes, he was much brighter than the other stallions, almost a tenth of his pupils were colored. He seemed to be the least affected of the group, so he was the one to focus on. "We've never met before." said the earthly stallion, which led to confusion and disappointment in Twilight's mind. "Well said." replied the pegasus. "Now I'll take care of them." "He's lying." said Applejack, bringing confusion to all minds this time. "What? Said the stallion, surprised at his answer, seemingly starting to fear her, backing away from a hoof. "I can see it in his eyes that he's not honest! You must be the element of the lie then." she infers. "YOU WILL SHUT UP!" shouted the white pegasus as he hit the cage with his spear, creating a very high-pitched noise that could make you deaf. "SHUT UP, THAT'S THE LAST TIME I'M GOING TO TELL YOU, THEN I'M GOING TO STING YOU !!!" He threatened them. "Lance, take John to the other room, she mustn't use him against us." intervened the great black stallion. The other unicorn in the group then took the element of lie. It was their only way out, and they had to take advantage of it. "WHERE YOU MEET? ON THE STREET, IN A CLUB, AT SCHOOL?" Twilight began to try every possibility by clinging to the bars. "THIS WAS NOT AT SCHOOL!!!" Shouted the pony, stopping dead in his tracks, he seemed more and more fragile, it was a good sign for them. "LANCE, HURRY!" Insisted the black stallion. "WE WON'T SHARE ANYTHING WITH YOU, NEITHER WATER, NOR FOOD, NOR MEMORIES!" He warned, taking an expression of pure hatred. Won't share anything, eh? The element contrary to generosity, selfishness. "DID IT LONG?" Applejack asked, ignoring the threat of the other stallions present, they and Twilight had eyes only for this John. "WE KNOW THEM FOR A FEW HOURS!!!" He began to flex his hooves, inevitably falling off. He seemed upset, as if he knew the situation was not good, but he couldn't help lying, as opposed to being honest. Even Lance, who was supposed to be escorting him, was only trying to pick him up. He might not have responded, but he couldn't help it, and he was bringing hope back to our friends. "DAMN IT,WHY ARE YOU USUALLY SO QUIET EXCEPT NOW JOHN, HUH?" the black stallion yelled as he approached him. But unlike before, he wasn't angry anymore, he seemed to be worried about his friend, he even threw his spear away. "Because that's what he needs to remember before, right JOHN?" Next comes Rainbow who had also been getting closer to the bars. "Before... IT WAS AWFUL!!!" He said without trying to hide his sobs, he didn't care anymore. "Before... it was simple, but it was good." said the dark blue unicorn. He too had let go of his spear, seemingly remembering the past, his eyes betrayed his thoughts, they were full of longing and endless memories. "YOU WON'T GET IN IT ALSO!" The white pegasus shouted and hit him on the head. Ouch... Element of villainy, no doubt. At that moment, they were all gathered around their friend John, still mourning their past and the good old days. Our friends had also gathered as close to them as possible, all glued together and glued to the cold bars. Hope had returned, and they could already feel my freedom, even if the urge to make stallions cry wasn't there. "What were you doing together?" she continued. "I said, NO SHARING OF OUR MEMORIES!!!! STOP!" the black stallion shouted, even though a tear was already streaming down his cheek. "We stayed... we stayed together all the time, we were inseparable." replied the unicorn, also on the verge of tears. "LANCE, YOU WANT ANOTHER OR WHAT ?!" He continued to scream, but the girls had felt the crunch in his voice, even he was beginning to get exhausted. As the tears kept flowing, our friends were starting to blame themselves for their actions, wondering if it would be enough. Twilight looked again at the eyes she could see, only Lance was standing in front of the cage. They were almost luminous, the darkness was almost gone from their eyes, and thus from their souls. Even without their magic of harmony, the girls still had the role of bringing people of all races together at all times. They felt that they had accomplished their mission for this group of stallions, except for Light, who would have to be brought back to reason as well. "You've been friends for so long, remember what you all went through together!" Insisted Twilight, as if to give the final blow. This last sentence brought the stallions to their last stronghold. And the girls couldn't explain it, but she could see the memories of these stallions, as if they had shared them with them. The time they spent in class when they were foals, chatting and helping each other. Some for homework, some to defend them from some bad ponies. Memories revealed their names, the black stallion named Drew and the last land pony of the Teddy Band. Then they grew up together and saw each other outside of class. John, Light and the black stallion would spank sports together. Lance, Harri and the last land stallion in the group were trying to earn their cute marks, which made our friends think of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scotaloo. Then came their day together where they were all six for a tumultuous exploration of the Everfree forest, with Light as their headline. As the memories unwrapped in front of our friends, the stallions finally stopped their common sobs, united in both pain and joy. "Uh... where are we?" The black stallion asked, looking around the place until he saw the imprisoned mares. "OH, NO, I REMEMBER! WE'RE SORRY!" He begged their forgiveness. "Excuse accepted, but could you release us, please?" The white unicorn asked, pouting her pout adorably with her puppy dog look. "Yes, right away." he said. He didn't have the key on him, but his sheer willpower and Herculean strength allowed him, with the help of the other stallions but also the mares, to push the cage door hard enough to break the lock, freeing the elements of harmony. "Thank you, we were suffocating in there." she said, giving a kiss on the cheek to each of them, which made them blush. "Listen girls, we didn't want to do what we did!" Explained the black stallion named Drew. "Don't worry, you weren't yourself so you didn't have a problem with it, she reassured them. Now we have to stop Light." Explained Twilight. "But how do we do that? He's as overpowered as he stole your powers, and I doubt if reminding him of the good times will work on him, he's too affected by this thing." commented the dark blue unicorn named Lance, bringing some disappointed and insecure looks to the situation. "Since he looks like he's the leader of the band, he must have a ton of memories still in his mind, you can always try." the cyan pegasus insisted. "We'll make it!" Said a voice coming from the wide open castle entrance, and a voice very familiar to our friends, smiling at the sight of the pony that had arrived.