The Monster in the Twilight
Lies
Thoughts shuffled through Trixie’s mind like cards through a dealer’s hooves while she galloped along with her newfound ‘friends’ through the dark woods. Decisions, facts, theories, plots and schemes rattled around, shifting into different structures every time she looked at them much like those hellish times in school when it was all she could do to keep from running away and soaking her head in bourbon until the sensation of overwhelming chaos went away. Admittedly she had not succeeded in her battle against Monsieur Diable Bourbon every time, for what fun would that have been? Whenever Trixie returned after her brief ‘vacations,’ Celestia had always been waiting for her with that look of disappointment on — No!
A sharp pain of spasming muscles lanced down the side of Trixie’s face when she ground her teeth together in a fit of frustration and rage. The solid thump of the bourbon bottle across her back was not helping either, as Monsieur Bourbon whispered out his enticing call. That infernal Applejack probably gave it to her knowing the battles Trixie had with the bottle, most likely in revenge for the evenings she had spent out at the Sweet Apple Acres trying to get up the nerve to become ‘friends’ with the hick farmer’s handsome brother. Celestia had sent her to this rustic, backwards, inbred, hell-hole three times now, and the closest she had gotten to making a ‘friend’ like her teacher had commanded was that one time the big red lug had carried her off to his own bed, tucked her under the sheets, kissed her on the cheek… and then went downstairs to sleep on the couch! Admittedly the memory was bourbon-blurred to near illegibility, but it still made her swish her tail in frustration on long, cold nights.
There was something horribly wrong with this whole night, from Celestia’s behavior to her sister’s. Everypony wanted something no matter what they claimed. Words meant less than nothing compared to actions. Uncle Quartermane had taught her that many years ago, and the lesson had been hammered into her thick skull by every pony since.
Trixie had been so absolutely positive Celestia had been prepared to sacrifice everything to fight her sister, but she would never have placed innocent lives in danger again like when she fought Nightmare Moon in the Everfree.
Therefore, Celestia had not planned to fight Nightmare Moon in Ponyville.
Nopony, not even the Princess of the Sun, could have cast such a powerful escape spell into the sun unless they had prepared for it. Therefore, she had planned on vanishing into the sun. The only reason for doing that without a fight would be to drag Nightmare Moon along with her, but Celestia had not even tried. What changed her mind? The appearance of that twisted purple powerhouse and her five… friends? Could they be Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, and Somethingelse. Grumpy? Sleepy? Annoying?
* * *
The sharp bend in the path towered a full hundred feet of sheer drop over the placid Everfree river, winding its way along the green forest floor so far below. Centuries of intermittent flooding had undermined the cliff face, collapsing the edge of the earthen wall in an inexorable progression of erosion hundreds of times over the years. Still, the narrow dirt path on top of the bluff was fairly safe, unless there was some sort of disturbance to break loose the soil in yet another avalanche. Anything would do. An earthquake. A storm.
The shattering noise of a teleport spell sent shockwaves through the surrounding vegetation, air, and incidentally, ground. Monster never even broke stride when several hundred pounds of earth fell beneath her hooves, then she galloped around the sharp curve the path took at the top of the cliff, only to vanish with another deafening explosion of sound once she had made the corner and could see far enough down the path. Several hundred more pounds of soil vanished along with the unicorn, leaving behind only an echo when the air smashed together into the sudden vacuum.
Deep inside the cliff face, a line of pebbles shifted slightly.
Silence held sway over the Everfree Forest in a very small and limited area, a silence slowly overridden by a very persistent whining noise, as if a large hummingbird were attempting to lift an anvil, or a very small pegasus were pulling a wagon containing three other little ponies at an extremely unsafe rate of speed. In a matter of moments, the pegasus propelled contraption came into view, accelerating to a higher velocity when the driver spotted the pile of fresh earth as a very tempting-looking—
“RAMP!” shouted Scootaloo with glee, leaning into her wingbeats with abandon and uttering a completely superfluous, “Hang on!”
Featherweight barely had time to stuff his camera away and fly down to grab the back end of the wagon before the whole thing smashed into the rising wall of earth, rocketing all five of the little ponies up into the air.
“Turn!” squealed Twist, hanging on with all four hooves as the pathway far beneath them made an abrupt turn to the left, and they did not.
Scootaloo was a very strong young pegasus with unfortunately very little of the natural pegasus talent for reducing their own weight or the weight of things they were carrying. Featherweight, on the other hoof, had limited wing strength, but was extremely talented at reducing the weight of things he carried. It was his special talent, after all.
With a sharp lurch, the scooter and wagon leaned to the left as it soared through the air. Both pegasi flapped and pushed for all they were worth until all six wheels once again made contact with the dirt path with a mighty crash, sending tremors through the unstable earth of the riverbank. With a buzzing roar of pegasus wings, the wagon and scooter passengers rapidly resumed their pursuit, five little ponies rocketing down the dark path to save their friend.
Leaving the forest quiet. Briefly.
“…(untranslatable) nymphs and their (untranslatable) contraptions running through the (untranslatable) forest in the (untranslatable) middle of the (untranslatable) night need to be (untranslatable) (untranslatable) (untranslatable)…”
Tallgrass cursed viciously as he galloped along in pursuit of the little ponies, still wearing his Royal Guard disguise despite the froth of perspiration building up on his coat. The alternative was his natural form, which was not suited for long runs through the humid forest due to a lack of natural cooling. Yet another earthen dirt pile loomed up ahead in his path, and some inner instinct made him rise up into the air on feathery wings, slowing his pursuit to make the sharp corner above the crumbling cliff before landing to resume his headlong gallop.
Behind him, the earth shifted impatiently.
Before the normal noises of the Everfree returned again, the thunder of galloping hooves echoed around the cliff as seven ponies hurled themselves down the well-used path. One after another, they jumped over the heap of earth that marked the remainder of Monster’s teleportation spell (and Scootaloo’s ramp), except for the last pink ‘alicorn,’ who skidded to a halt in front of it and opened her mouth to cry out a warning.
Deep inside the cliff, a final bit of earth released its friction-driven hold once the vibrations of their passage shook loose a tiny pebble.
With a deep rumble that drowned out whatever Zecora was shouting, the earth slid in the direction of the far below river, cascading four ponies in a tumble down the sharp slope. A unicorn and earth pony vanished over the edge, followed almost immediately by the two pegasi in headlong dives regardless of the horrible noise of shifting dirt and rock.
Still skidding down the slope were an earth pony and a screaming unicorn, both of whom came to an abrupt stop at the very edge of the crumbling cliff. The Great and Powerful Trixie found herself dangling free above the fatal drop in an escape artist feat for which she was very much unprepared.
Above them both, and after a quick glance to make sure Applejack was safe, Zecora gave intense study to the hoofprints of Trixie’s ‘guard’ and how they stopped a few yards away from where the cliff broke free.
“Interesting move for one so meek, that you would fly when the ground is weak.”
* * *
“Honesty!” blurted out Trixie right into Applejack’s face as the farmer fought to keep her hind hooves dug into the unstable ground and her forehooves gripped on Trixie. The sudden shout caused both of them to slide fractionally towards the precipitous drop, and Applejack gritted her teeth in concentration as well as aggravation.
“What in tarnation—”
“I stole your grandmother’s false teeth for the Puppet spell,” gasped Trixie, her eyes closed in anticipation of the long drop off the cliff and the short stop at the bottom. “And I was trying to seduce your brother because Princess Celestia ordered me to make friends when I went to Ponyville and all I could think of was having him as a well not really a friend but more as a handsome lover and that worked out so dammed well every year—”
“Shut up!” bellowed Applejack, feeling the loose gravel under her chest slide slightly.
“—and I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you just dropped me right now right over the edge and let me go splat all over the ground because I let your sister go off into the Everfree Forest with her idiot friends where she’s probably going to be eaten by a big scary bear—”
“Hey!” whispered Fluttershy, hovering behind Trixie’s left shoulder with a scowl across her normally kind face at the insult to her furry friend.
“— or a manticore or a turtle or a lion because I’ve been such a beast to the little brats and all they want is their stupid butt marks but they keep doing crazy things to me—”
“And everypony else,” said Rainbow Dash, hovering at her other shoulder while Trixie gasped for breath.
“Are you braggin’ or apollogizin’?” shouted Applejack, having finally gotten her hind hooves solidly planted.
“It’s pronounced apologizing, you inbred half-wit hayseed!!”
Applejack crouched frozen with her hooves gripping the Great and Powerful Trixie, who in turn remained dangling over the cliff face between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
“Ah. AJ? You want us to fly her down to the bottom of the cliff?” Rainbow Dash glanced back and forth between her angry friend and the pretty-awesome-but-not-quite-friend-if-only-she-would-be-less-annoying Trixie.
“Ah’m thinkin!”