Six ponies trotted through the Everfree Forest. Even with the full moon and two light spells, the forest was dark and shadowed. The gloom of drooping tree limbs and the dank air of rotting logs and dead leaves were omnipresent, filling the ponies’ eyes and nostrils. The damp air surrounded them, making the already warm night feel uncomfortably clammy as well. All these discomforts were dwarfed by the fact that it was now over an hour since the sun should have risen, and yet it had not done so, proving that Nightmare Moon had followed through on her threat and managed to overcome Princess Celestia, halting the sun below the horizon.
It was all the more surprising, then, that the six ponies were in high spirits as they travelled the forest. Rainbow Dash, in particular, was justifiably proud of her recent exploits, a fact she made known by recounting the tale to her companions.
“And then whoosh!” she said, zipping over the heads of the other five. For the most part, their expressions showed disinterest. Pinkie Pie seemed enthralled with the tale, her eyes the size of saucer plates and a smile nearly as big as the two put together. She swooned and leapt for joy at the proper places, enjoying the telling of the tale, supplemented by Rainbow Dash’s acrobatics, more than the tale itself; she had just lived it after all.
Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, was showing the great extent of her patience by not casting a silencing spell on Rainbow Dash. It seemed to her that she was the only pony who really grasped the gravity of the situation. The Princess was in danger, Nightmare Moon had begun her eternal night, and Rainbow Dash was taking time to showboat. For all their strangeness, and their unpleasant desire to kill, Twilight found herself missing the humans. They, at least, knew that speed was of the essence.
“I doubled back with Fluttershy to save you, getting there just in the nick of time. After that, it wasn’t too hard to go and save Carter and Daniel from falling. Then, O’Neill gave me this,” Rainbow Dash said, showing the walkie talkie. She had insisted on holding onto the device, securing it in her hooves the whole time. Rainbow Dash had felt that, since O’Neill had entrusted the device to her, it was her duty to keep it safe. “Now, where would you be without a totally awesome friend like me?”
Rainbow Dash hovered just above the ground, only slightly higher than her friends. Behind her, Pinkie Pie cheered the climax of the story while the other ponies were simply glad that it was over. Twilight, for her part, cringed slightly when Rainbow named herself as one of her friends. For as much as the Princess had instructed Twilight to make some friends, she still would have rather done this on her own. It was only SG-1’s presence, and their proclamation of deadly intent towards Nightmare Moon, which had kept Twilight from trying to ditch the five ponies with whom she found herself travelling.
“Yes, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said with an annoyed edge, “I was there. I know how it happened.”
“And wasn’t it awesome?” Rainbow Dash prompted. Her grin was wide and earnest, a fact which didn’t mollify Twilight in the least.
“Yeah, sure,” Twilight said with a sharper edge. “But what’s really important right now is that we figure out how we’re going to find the Elements.”
“Well, duh,” Pinkie Pie said from the background, “we’re going to the Palace.” Her gigantic eye roll and exasperated tone served to show that she didn’t see what fault Twilight was finding with the plan.
Twilight mentally staggered from Pinkie’s obvious statement. She was sure that others could tell, for she had left her jaw working even as it had nothing to say. “But,” Twilight said, “we don’t know what they look like, and we know Nightmare Moon is out there somewhere. She’s tried to stop us once already! We don’t have time to be telling stories or even talking like this.”
Twilight flailed her forelegs about, gesticulating wildly in order to emphasize her point. The tone of her voice was one that, had he been there, Spike would have recognized as a sign to just do what Twilight wanted and give her a wide berth. Her new friends, though, weren’t aware of this, and instead chose to counter her.
“Twilight,” Applejack said, “ya know that you’re the one in front, right?” Twilight nodded back at her with a piercing glare. “Well, that means that you’re the one settin’ the pace. Besides her bein’ a bit annoying, Ah don’t see how Rainbow was slowin’ us down. Honestly, I didn’t really mind the distraction,” Applejack offered. Her expression was both imploring and honest.
It was a good thing that Applejack acted so quickly, for Rainbow Dash’s body language spoke volumes on its own. It was quite apparent to her that Twilight thought Rainbow Dash was the one slowing the group; being called slow was not an insult that Rainbow Dash would suffer lightly. Having been given a chance to reflect, and her outrage being assuaged by Applejack rightly calling Twilight out on the insult, Rainbow Dash chose a different line of conversation.
“C’mon, Twi,” Rainbow Dash said softly, “I told you before that I’d never leave Ponyville hanging. If I thought we’d get there any faster, of course I’d stop. But it’s not like we’re going at a full gallop or anything, so I figured I’d lighten the mood a bit. Besides,” she said, shifting back to her normal, brash tone, “I was really awesome back there.” Rainbow Dash shot into a loop, coming to nearly exactly where she’d started. “Now come on, let’s get going.”
Twilight found it hard to argue with Rainbow Dash’s logic, though it still didn’t sit right with her. It wasn’t worth spending the time mulling over, however. The five ponies who weren’t flying trotted off after Rainbow Dash at a quick pace. Their progress was immediately halted by a loud crackle of sound which burst out of the walkie-talkie.
All six jumped in fright at the sudden, alien noise, reminiscent of candy wrappers being crumpled by unicorn magic. Rainbow Dash caught herself quickly, grabbing up the human device before it could hit the ground. Pinkie Pie was pounding her chest above her heart with her foreleg while Fluttershy peeked out from behind Applejack, who had already lowered her front two hooves back to the ground, having reared up at the noise. As O’Neill’s voice broke through the static, Twilight and Rarity recast their light spells.
“Ponies, come in. This is O’Neill. Do you copy? Over.” O’Neill’s voice said. The static disappeared as O’Neill’s message ended, much to the relief of the gathered ponies.
“Ponies, come in,” Pinkie Pie copied, even adding in a mostly terrible impersonation of O’Neill’s voice. “This is O’Neill. Do you copy?” Breaking out of her impersonation, Pinkie continued, “Yup, we do copy. Or, at least I copy. Do you want the others to copy also? It seems like it’d take a lot of time, and Twilight’s already not happy about how long we’ve taken. Over.” Pinkie screwed up her face into a confused contortion.
Rainbow Dash swooped down and stole back the device which she hadn’t even noticed Pinkie take. The crackle of the static returned as another message from the humans was delivered. “Umm, that won’t be necessary,” it was Daniel’s voice which came through the device this time. His voice carried disbelief, almost certainly directed at Pinkie Pie’s remarkably silly response. The disconcerting crackling of the static continued as Daniel kept speaking. “We’re just checking in, to make sure you’re OK. Have you run into any problems? Over.”
“Nope,” Rainbow Dash said. “Well, Twilight was being a bit crabby, but we’re past that—”
“Hey,” Twilight shouted, incensed by Rainbow Dash’s comment. She ripped the walkie talkie out of Rainbow Dash’s grip, the device enclosed in the telltale aura of magic. “Everything’s been fine, Doctor Jackson,” Twilight said. She released the button and waited for a response, though none came immediately.
“Pssst, Twilight. You have to say over.” Pinkie Pie whispered.
“What? Why?” asked Twilight. To this, Pinkie simply shrugged and tilted her head as if to indicate that she didn’t know and that that was simply the way it was. With a sigh, Twilight clicked the button and, with uncertainty, said, “Over?”
“Good,” said Daniel, “tell us immediately if anything happens. Also, we’ll check in every ten minutes, just in case. Got that? Over.”
“Yeah, got it,” Twilight said. “Over.”
“Over and out,” Pinkie Pie whispered intensely. This time, Twilight decided to ignore her desire to question Pinkie Pie and just go with it. Any other time and she would have dropped whatever she was doing to figure out the why of Pinkie Pie, but there were more pressing matters.
There was no more communication from the humans after that, which was as much as could be expected. The mares did not, however, continue on in silence. Talking with the humans reminded Applejack of what the aliens had said before they entered the Everfree.
Killing, of course, was against Equestrian law and basic morality. Even the Royal Guards, who were armed with lethal weapons and trained in combat, shied away from taking life. None of the ponies could even begin to understand how SG-1 would resort so quickly to a lethal course of action, much less how the aliens could live with themselves.
Applejack felt the need to break the silence which had reigned since the end of SG-1’s communication. “Ah know it ain’t something any of us want to think about,” she said,” but what are we gonna do if we can’t get the Elements and make ‘em work?”
“What’re you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked from above. “Of course we’re going to find them. We’ve got my girl Twilight here, and she’s the biggest egghead I’ve ever seen. If she can’t find the Elements, then nopony can.” Twilight shuddered slightly as Rainbow Dash pulled her in with the crook of her foreleg.
Drawing back from the invasion of her personal space, Twilight said, “I hope you’re right, but I really don’t know that much about it. Right now, all of you know just as much about them as I do. Besides, if Nightmare Moon shows up at the Palace, I don’t think she’ll wait for us to figure the Elements out.”
“Even so, we can’t let them just kill her.” A hint of disgust entered Rarity’s voice as she referred to the humans and grew significantly on the subject of killing.
“‘course not,” Applejack said. “All Ah mean is, we should figure out what it is we plan to do. Maybe we could hog tie her or... somethin’.” Applejack received a second of blank stares. During the moment, a soft mumbled statement was made, though it went unheard as Twilight Sparkle spoke again.
“I don’t think we could trap her, I mean, she was able to... do... something to the Princess.” Twilight said. “Besides, she can turn into that purple mist stuff.”
Once again, a quiet mumbled statement was made. This time it was drowned out by Pinkie Pie as she said, “Maybe we could throw her a party. Then she’d stop being such a meanie pants. I mean, Twilight loved her party, right?” Twilight’s expression conveyed whatever sentiment lies furthest from agreement, but Pinkie went on regardless. “So all we have to do is get to the palace first, and then set up a surprise party. I should have enough on me for a small fiesta, though we might be able to stretch it into a bash if we try really hard. Do you think you could make streamers out of vines, Rarity?”
“Well, of course I could, but I don’t see how it would help,” Rarity said.
“It would let us put up more decorations, silly. Streamers don’t go very well in my party cannon, so it’s usually better to hang them by hoof.”
Rarity rolled her eyes at Pinkie. She knew the party pony could be eccentric, but had never spent so much time in conversation with the mare. It was a truly surreal experience to try and understand Pinkie Pie’s leaps in logic; it was as if she and Pinkie thought on two completely different planes.
It was in this moment of thought that Rarity heard Fluttershy mumble something which she couldn’t quite catch. “What was that, dear?” Rarity asked, drawing the group’s attention to Fluttershy.
With the full attention of five mares focused on her, Fluttershy could barely find the will to speak. She never did well in the spotlight; old foalhood experiences with mockery and embarrassment left her frightful of attention, lest it turn to laughter at her expense. It was only the sight of Rainbow Dash’s reassuring smile that gave Fluttershy the confidence to speak. Even so, she could barely raise her voice above an audible threshold, mostly because she knew that what she had to say would certainly be ill received.
“Maybe,” Fluttershy said, “they’re right.”
“What?” came the chorus of replies. Not everypony spoke the word, necessarily, but their faces all shouted the question. Not only that a pony would favor killing as a plan, but that Fluttershy would be the one to do it.
Seeing that she was already in impossibly deep, Fluttershy decided to just keep talking. Maybe if she could explain herself then the others wouldn’t make fun of her for it. “I... um... was just thinking that maybe Daniel, or Doctor Jackson, was right.” Fluttershy withdrew as she spoke, not into any particular thing, but rather from everything around her. She simply seemed to draw in towards herself. “About it being kinder to... put Nightmare Moon down...
“I guess,” she continued, “it’s like when a pet is unable to even eat on their own. Sometimes, if they’re in a lot of pain, it’s kinder to end it quickly rather than force them to suffer.” Fluttershy personally hated euthanizing pets, though she did see the need for it. On those occasions when she was treating particularly old pets, it was sometimes the only kindness that could be shown.
The shock of Fluttershy’s statement was felt most heavily by Rainbow Dash, who felt betrayed that her friend would suggest such a thing. “Are you saying you’re OK with doing... that to another pony?” she asked a little more heatedly than she had intended. To Rainbow Dash’s surprise, Fluttershy didn’t immediately retreat, but rather spoke clearly and calmly.
“No, of course not,” Fluttershy said in a voice quite similar to the one she used to explain euthanization to a pet’s owner. It was one of the tones of voice she hated the most, but that was only for the fact that she used it almost exclusively to deliver bad news. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider it. I mean, if what the humans were saying is true, then it actually might be worse to be alive like that than...” Her voice trailed off. As familiar as she was with the speech, and as much as she’d dealt with death, and even the killing of animals, this was something totally separate.
“You just can’t do that to a pony. It’s not right,” insisted Rainbow Dash. By this time the group had come to a full stop just before a large crag.
Applejack humphed as she began to speak. “As much as Ah don’t like to admit it, Ah think Fluttershy may have a point.”
“Now you want to kill her too?” Rainbow Dash asked pointedly.
“Hold on there, Ah didn’t say that. All Ah meant is that she has a bit of a point.”
“Surely you must be joking,” Rarity said. Her normally pristine mask of aristocracy broke along with her voice. She was afraid of herself; some part of her was entirely convinced of Fluttershy’s argument.; of course it would be better to give up some unnamable part of herself, innocence perhaps, to rescue some poor soul from an eternal torment. The rest of her, every fiber of her being which remained true to itself, revolted against the idea. It was just too much to even contemplate.
“That wasn’t a joke, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “It wasn’t even funny. Now pratfalls, those are—” Pinkie slipped on a banana peel, having only just devoured the fruit which it had contained, and fell on her rump. She giggled a desperate giggle as she looked around. The others, however, were not in the mood and none laughed at the meta-humor. All Pinkie knew was that the whole conversation was extremely uncomfortable and not funny in the least. She just had to find a way to break the tension and move onto a happier topic.
As things stood, it seemed unlikely that the others would change topics on their own. Providence was kind to Pinkie Pie, however, as it was just then that the human device burst to life once more. The unearthly noise shattered the flow of the unpleasant conversation.
“Come in, ponies. Are you there? Over,” O’Neill said via the device.
There was a moment of confusion as the ponies switched gears from their dark conversation. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash remembered that she was the one with the walkie talkie, having stolen it back from Twilight earlier.
“Yeah, we’re here,” Rainbow Dash said darkly. “Oh, uh, over!” she added hastily.
Evidently, O’Neill could not discern Rainbow Dash’s tone through the device as he simply said, “Good to hear. Run into any trouble yet? Over.”
“Not really, we’ve just sort of been talking. And trotting. Over.”
“Excellent. We’ll check back in soon, and make sure to let us know if there’s any trouble. Over and out.” With that, the walkie talkie went dead and the six mares were on their way once more.
They found themselves at the bottom of a chasm. Cliffs rose up on both sides of the path, hemming in the ponies and increasing the claustrophobic feel of the forest. None were sure whether or not they should be thankful for the moon’s clear light which cut straight down through the near vertical gap between the cliffs. Above them, the brush rustled at the cliff’s edge. Rarity could have sworn she saw a figure watching them, but training her light spell on the spot revealed nothing. Her silent fears and reliefs were cut short by a sudden and massive roar from the other end of the chasm.
“A manticore!” Twilight shouted, her voice lost in the beast’s bellow as it pounced at them.