//------------------------------// // Don't Say Mayo- // Story: Legends Never Die // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// Sunny resolved to not stop until they reached Bridlewood, and though the other ponies did look tired, herself included, they agreed that it would be best to get to shelter as fast as possible. They walked all through the day and well into the night before the thick forest terrain of the unicorn forest came into view. “Come on, everypony!” Izzy said cheerfully, looking happy to see her home. “We’re almost there!” Everypony else let out varying sounds of exhaustion and annoyance but didn’t complain. Even as tired as they all were, they couldn’t help but get a little suspicious at the slight change that seemed to occur to the forest. The signs slandering earth ponies and pegasi were abandoned, looking like they had been in the process of being taken down, like they were when Sunny and Izzy left, but forgotten as the ponies moved on to more pressing matters. The trees seemed darker and more foreboding, sending chills down Sunny’s spine, and she’d been living in Bridlewood for a while. “Am I just crazy, or do the trees look like they’re judging us?” Zipp asked carefully, stepping away from the edge of the path. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re just tired,” Sunny insisted, though even she looked antsy. The five ponies staggered to Izzy’s house and immediately fell asleep as soon as they hit a couch or a bed or even the floor. Sunny was happy to be resting, as she felt like she could hardly take another step, but her dreams were far from peaceful. She dreamed that her father was back, and, like she always did when she dreamed about her father, she burst into tears and ran towards him. “DAD!” Sunny cried, wrapping her arms around him. “Hello, Sunnybunny,” he said playfully, hugging her back. “It’s so good to see you! Wait… why are you crying?” Sunny wiped the tears from her eyes and stepped back, looking at Argyle Starshine as he regarded her with concern. “It’s just… you know how you always wanted the three pony tribes to come together? Well… we did it. Me and Hitch and Zipp and Pipp and Izzy… they’re my friends. We brought everypony together, but now they’re separating again, and I’m scared, and I just really, really miss you…” Her words dissolved into tears, and she sank into her father’s embrace once again. “Oh, Sunny, Sunny, it can’t be that bad,” he said encouragingly. “If you brought everypony together before, you can do it again! Remember what I told you?” Sunny sniffed and wiped her eyes. “That I should stand up for what I believe in?” “That’s right,” Argyle said, his voice rising over the roaring noise that was slowly getting louder and louder. “Now did you…” The rest of his words were drowned out by the noise, now so loud that it was rattling the ground. “What?” Sunny yelled. Her father’s mouth kept moving, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying. A bright green light enveloped him, and he disappeared, replaced with Sprout’s giant war machine that he had made before magic had been brought back. It rumbled forward, pushing past Sunny, up the road towards her lighthouse. Only it wasn’t her lighthouse this time. Instead, it was the large tree in the meadow outside Zephyr Heights, the one with the strangely pink leaves. The giant thing crashed into the tree, which cracked and splintered and tumbled to the ground. “No!” Sunny yelled, running forward. The war machine disappeared into a puff of green smoke, and Sunny skidded to a halt at the edge of the cliff. Instead of the glittering blue ocean she was used to seeing, instead it was a huge meadow, with lines and lines and lines of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, glaring daggers at each other. With a defiant cry, they broke the somewhat calm and began attacking each other. “No!” Sunny screamed. “NO, stop it! Everypony stop, please!” Tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her face as she spotted Izzy, Hitch, Zipp, and even Pipp fighting each other on the battlefield. Her blurry vision picked out Alphabittle blasting innocent earth ponies with horn lasers, the poor ponies screaming as their brains melted; Queen Haven digging her sharp fangs into the neck of a unicorn; Thunder and Zoom swooping down and dragging ponies into the clouds; Sprout and Phyllis manning splatapults and wearing anti-mind-reading hats. Sunny collapsed onto the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. “...Sunny? Sunny?” a voice called from a long way off. Her eyes snapped open. Her friends were gathered around her, looking worried. Izzy had been the one saying her name. When she saw that she was awake, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank hoofness you’re okay!” she cried, offering Sunny a hoof to help her up. “You started crying, and we weren’t sure what was going on, and we were all so worried, and please don’t do that again!” Izzy wrapped her arms around Sunny, who laughed shakily and pushed her off. “I’m fine. Really,” she insisted when her friends gave her suspicious looks. “Just had a nightmare. It’s been a rough couple of days.” She shook herself, desperate to change the topic. “Nevermind that. So, what do we have to do to make sure that the unicorns won’t wage war with the pegasi and earth ponies? It has to be quick; we still have to warn the earth ponies before they get too scared.” “I was thinking we just all go around telling everypony not to,” Izzy suggested. “But that probably won’t do much coming from other ponies, will it? No offense to any of you,” she added hastily. “But maybe we could talk to Alphabittle, and he could help spread the word?” “Great idea, Izzy!” Zipp said, already pushing open the door. “Come on, everypony. Let’s hope we can get the news out before the fear sets in.” “Crystal Tea Room or bust!” Izzy yelled happily as she trotted through the door, her friends following. Sunny laughed, but the moment the attention was diverted away from her, her face fell. She remembered her dream, with all the pony races divided and fighting. She shivered. It was just a dream, she told herself firmly. Just a dream. There’s nothing to worry about. She took a deep breath and followed the other ponies into Bridlewood. The Crystal Tea Room was packed, as usual, and Alphabittle was sitting behind his little counter, watching with a smug look on his face as an earth pony struggled to figure out the Rubix cube in front of him. The large gray unicorn glanced at the clock on the wall and, if possible, looked even smugger as he rang the bell. “Time’s up! Pass it over, Cookie,” he said brightly as the avocado green pony groaned and tossed the unfinished cube to the unicorn, who solved it in five seconds. “Winner!” Alphabittle announced cheerfully to the room, taking the earth pony’s box of freshly baked cookies. He spotted Izzy and her friends and grinned. “Well, would you look who it is!” he said, sliding the box under the counter. “What can I do for ya?” “Hey, Alphabittle!” Izzy responded cheerfully, her smile lighting up the room. “We want to talk to you.” “In private,” Sunny specified, looking cautiously at the gathered ponies. She was happy to see a few pegasi and earth ponies sprinkled in with the unicorns. Alphabittle glanced at the worried look on her face and quickly got the message. “Right-o,” he said, gesturing for them to follow him into a back room stacked with boxes of tea leaves. “So,” he whispered once they were alone, lighting his horn for light, “what’s going on?” “The pegasi are rebelling,” Zipp said before Sunny could speak, which she guessed was fair, since Zipp was a pegasus, and a princess that they were rebelling against. “Somepony vandalized a unicorn’s shop in Zephyr Heights a few days ago, and in the chaos, they managed to rile everypony up. They want the monarchy gone, and we’re worried that they might declare war on the unicorns and earth ponies.” Alphabittle’s eyes widened. “So, you want us to arm ourselves?” he growled, his horn glowing brighter. “No!” Pipp cried. “Innocent ponies will get hurt! We came here to ask you to help stop the three pony tribes from separating again, not to encourage it!” Alphabittle’s horn quieted. “So… what exactly do you want me to do?” “Make sure the unicorns don’t want war with the pegasi and earth ponies,” Hitch said, glancing at Sunny to make sure he was using the right words. “Try to maintain peace for as long as possible, and if they do want to fight, then stall them. We have to keep the three pony tribes peaceful for as long as possible while we go… um, Sunny, what exactly are we going to be doing while this is going on?” The five ponies all looked at her questioningly. Sunny took a deep breath and let it out to calm herself. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But I think we should do what my dad wanted us to do: find out what happened to make the three pony tribes separate in the first place. Maybe we’ll find some information that could help us here.” Izzy nodded. “Alphabittle, can we trust you to please keep it down and not raise a panic that would cause the unicorns to want to go to war?” The large unicorn nodded. “I’ll try not to get involved in any war,” he promised. “Unless I have too. Then I might.” “Alphabittle,” Hitch said warningly. “Don’t make me say the forbidden word.” His eyes widened. “You wouldn’t-” Hitch took a deep breath. “MAYO-” Alphabittle shoved a hoof in his mouth to keep him from continuing. “All right, all right, I get it!” he said. “I won’t do it, I promise, just please don’t say the forbidden word!” The group of five friends left the Crystal Tea Room in a slightly better mood. At least the unicorns wouldn’t get involved in the conflict yet. All that was left was to make sure the earth ponies wouldn’t be inclined to go to war. The pegasi would hopefully see that the other pony tribes didn’t want to fight and calm down a little bit. “So,” Hitch said conversationally as they walked out of Bridlewood after a quick stop at Izzy’s house to pick up supplies. “After we go to Maretime Bay and convince Sprout not to build a giant war machine, where to we go next?” Sunny had no idea, but she pulled out her map that her father had left her and studied it. “I think we should see if we can find what’s left of Ponyville,” she decided after a while. “Look, it says that it was just outside of Canterlot. Perhaps there’s some ruins there that hold more answers. Or maybe there’s something in here that could help.” She pulled the journal the Guardians of Harmony had written and flipped to the empty space where the map once went. “I wonder how my father got his hooves on this, but only got the map,” she wondered aloud. “Add it to the list of things we need to find out,” Izzy said cheerfully. “Don’t worry, Sunny, we’ve been on a quest before. We’ve totally got this.” She grinned at her friend, and Sunny gave her a small smile before immersing herself in the journal as she walked. She felt drawn to it, like reading the journal would help her find the answers she needed. If the Guardians of Harmony had dealt with Wendigos like she thought, then surely they’d have some notes on what to do if all of ponydom divided and magic was at stake. “Hey, look, guys!” Zipp called from up ahead, hovering just above the ground. Magic had gotten a bit more stable in the last day, and while she could never stay flying for long, she would take what she could get. The friends raced up the hill as the pegasus princess landed, except for Sunny, who was still reading. Below them was a quaint town by the ocean, with a small cliff that once housed a signature landmark that was now destroyed and completely cleared out. The town was familiar to all of them. “Maretime Bay,” Hitch said, savoring the sound of his hometown. “Home sweet home.”