My Little Pony:
Background Ponies are Magic
By: AbsoluteXero
Episode two: Showing Off is Magic Pt 2A
Soarin could not believe his eyes; he was just too shocked to yell. It was like a nightmare was unfolding before his eyes.
Nightmare Moon continued to laugh. Mayor mare cried out in terror. “Somepony, seize her! She’s the only pony who knows where the princess is!” At her words a few guard pegusi flew up at Nightmare Moon.
Turning to face them Nightmare Moon smiled evilly. “Foals!” Suddenly lighting came down upon the guards and they all fell to the ground. Turning back to the crowd of ponies Nightmare Moon laughed once more before turning into her vaporous state and flying out the door.
“No!” Soarin shot up towards Nightmare Moon, true he was just an entertainer, but he was a fast flier, and somepony needed to keep up with Nightmare Moon, he could not just let her get away. He started to dash after her, when his wing abruptly seized up and he crashed to the ground. “Buck it!” He lied on the ground for a moment realizing his muscles were still shot. This was no time to be in pain though, he would pay the price later, but now he needed to fly. Overpowering his pain he got weakly into the air, he knew he could no longer hope to follow her, but at least he could see where she went. As he watched he saw her mist disappearing into the Everfree forest.
Panting heavily now Soarin started to head back to the ground, as he did so he noticed Trixie hurring towards her cart, dragging a brown earth stallion behind her. “Where are they off to?”
***
Getting inside her cart Trixie brought The Doctor’s face right up next to hers. “Now you will tell Trixie how you knew this was going to happen Doctor. Trixie will not accept any lies, and Trixie will know if you are lying.” She tapped her horn with her hoof at this and it began to glow softly.
“Well... I just have good luck guessing?” At this Trixie’s horn glowed deep red.
“Wrong, try again Doctor.” Trixie looked very irritated.
“Umm...” The Doctor shifted his glance nervously, how was he going to get out of this one? How would Pinkie have gotten out of this? “Well...”
But before he could answer the door to Trixie’s cart was burst open by Ditzy. “Here I come to save the day!” Looking down at Trixie holding the Doctor so close Ditzy blushed. “Or I could come back later...”
Before she could go anyway however, Soarin limped in followed by Vinyl supporting a still very drunk Berry. Walking right up to Trixie, Soarin pointed a hoof. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
Trixie quickly let go of The Doctor, dusted herself off, then stared right back at Soarin. “No.”
“Welp... thathhhs good enough for me.” Berry fell to the ground completely out.
The Doctor shook his head as he picked himself up off the floor. “Yes she does, she just doesn’t realize it because she’s being thick.”
“Hey!” Trixie exclaimed turning to the Doctor. “How could I have known anything!?”
As though expecting this question the Doctor was holding out a book. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the story of the mare in the moon.”
Trixie’s jaw dropped. “That old Mare’s tale!? You’re just like Cele... buck.” Trixie grabbed the book and began to flip through the pages finally getting to the section she needed she read briefly. “Perfect. This is just what Trixie wanted to see...” She slammed her hooves to her face.
The Doctor smiled sardonically. “One thousand years just flies by, doesn’t it?”
Vinyal abruptly spoke up. “If you two would like to share with the rest of us, that’d be great.”
The Doctor turned over to Vinyl his smile dropping. “I think Trixie would be the better one to give a description.”
Trixie looked down, this was not fair. “How could the Princess have expected Trixie to put together that the Mare in the Moon was Nightmare Moon?” Trixie began to sniff trying to suppress her tears.
“Oh no you don’t.” Ditzy swooped in on Trixie and grabbed her in for a hug. “It’ll be okay, we’ll help.” Ditzy then turned around on the group, both eyes staring at everyone. “Won’t we?” She then nodded very conspicuously.
“Oh yes. Quite.”
“Sure, why not?”
“Yeah, alright.”
“Yeeessshhhhhh.”
“Good.” Ditzy nodded her expression softening, she took flight once again. “But right now we need to figure out what to do. Does that book have anything useful to say?”
Trixie rubbed her eyes and smiled softly. “It mentions these mystical artifacts called The Elements of Harmony.”
“Oh, well then this book should be helpful.” The Doctor was standing nearby with another book.
Trixie turned to the doctor confused then reached over to grab it. “The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. Where did you find this?”
“The old Library. Under ‘E.’” The Doctor smiled.
“But... how did you know to get it?” Trixie was thoroughly confused. This stallion was acting like he knew exactly what would happen.
“Doctor-sense.”
“Doctor-sense?”
“Doctor-sense.”
“...Doctor-sense...”
Trixie just stared at the Doctor with dead eyes. Did he actually think that was a satisfactory answer? “Argh! Trixie does not have time for this!” Trixie quickly turned back to the book and flipped through it. “There are six elements of harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. Perfect. How are we supposed to find the sixth?” Trixie sighed, then went back to the book. “It is said, the last known location of the five Elements was in the ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It is located in what is now... fun...”
***
“Alright, so let me get this straight, while I was sobering up the princess was kidnapped, a seemingly all powerful replacement stepped in threatening ponykind with eternal night, and we all decided to go to the Everfree Forest to get some magical artifacts we’re not even sure exist to try and fight her off?”
“Yep. This is why you shouldn’t drink so much BP.”
“Vinyl you need to stop imposing nicknames on ponies, not everypony appreciates them.”
“Trixie certainly didn’t.”
As this debate was raging on the six ponies were wandering deeper into Everfree. As the ponies approached a cliff the debate reached fever pitch.
“I will not apologize for art!”
“Giving ponies stupid names is not art, it’s just aggravating!”
“You’re more fun when you’re drunk.”
Berry rounded on Vinyl. “That is it, you’re going down!” Berry was about to charge when the ground abruptly gave way. “What the buck!?”
Everypony was falling, except the pegausi. Trixie looked up to the sky as she fell, a strange purple mist was drifting off. “Nightmare...” Her anger was quickly replaced by panic though as she realized she was falling to what was quite possibly her death.
Vinyl was falling fast. “Not good, not good, not good.”
The Doctor was sliding down, but seemed way too calm. “5... 4... 3...”
Berry was the luckiest of the sliders. Next to her were some roots which she bit in all haste. “Mthh mthwh hweh hew thhhhps.” (Well, suppose it could be worse.)
Soarin was watching the situation in panic. “Come on Ditzy, we need to get them!” Both dived down.
Sorain quickly grabbed the Doctor. As he grabbed him the Docotor exclaimed happily. “0! Perfect timing.”
Ditzy first started heading to Trixie but quickly noticed Vinyl was about to fall completely off. Quickly veering over Ditzy swooped down. “I’ve gotcha!”
Vinly looked up. “Thanks, I was so lost.”
Ditzy smiled. “Well, that’s why I saved you!”
Trixie oh the other hoof, was in full on panic as half her body was now dangling off the cliff. “Trixie does not want to die!” She could feel her hooves slipping.
Berry glanced down. Look, a pretty blue unicorn. Look, a pretty blue unicorn about to fall to her death.
...Wait a minute...
Berry let go of her roots and bounded down, “I’m coming!”
Trixie looked up to see Berry hurtling towards her. “Trixie thanks you for saving her!”
Berry pressed her hooves over Trixie to hold her in place. “Don’t worry. I never let a pretty mare get away.”
“You what?”
“A good friend. I never let a good friend get away.” Smooooooth Berry. Real smooth. “Alright, I’m gonna pull you up now.”
“Yes please. Pull Trixie up!” Trixie squeaked in panic.
“Alright.” Berry pulled. “Any moment now.” She pulled again. “Okay, here we go.” Berry attempted one last tug. “Buck.” Okay, time to rethink this strategy. Berry then noticed something behind Trixie. “Do you trust me?”
“What?” Trixie did not like the pulling had stopped.
“I need you to trust me and let go.” Berry nodded encouragingly.
“WHAT!!??” Trixie’s voice cracked. “NO! Never!”
“Alright, well if I can’t just convince you.” Berry let go of one of Trixie’s hooves to reach behind her her hoof returned with a flask. “Open up.”
“Wha-!?” Trixie was about to ask, but as soon as she had Berry stuffed the end of the flask into Trixie’s mouth. Trixie swallowed a bit of the burning liquid before gagging. Spluttering she spit the flask out of her mouth. “What was... th..... th....” Trixie’s head fell, she had passed out.
“A drink no pony can handle...well...almost no pony.” She called out to Soarin and Ditzy who were hovering below. “She’s coming down, catch her you two.” Then she let go of Trixie’s hooves.
***
Trixie drifted into consciousness several minutes later. “But I don’t want to go to school... I want to see Daddy.” At these words a chorus of laughter erupted which startled Trixie into full consciousness, along with the memory of what Berry had done. Opening her eyes she saw Berry and pounced. “What in the name of Celestia were you thinking!? What if Trixie had died!?”
“Woah! Calm down there Trix.” Vinyl called out levitating Trixie off of Berry still trying to suppress a laugh.
Berry coughed and dusted herself off. “Soarin and Ditzy were right beneath you. You wouldn’t let go willingly, so I had to improvise.” She shrugged like drugging a pony was a completely standard course of action.
As Trixie’s hooves touched the ground she looked like she was still ready to murder somepony, but after a moment of deep breathing she calmed down. “Very well, we need to continue on anyway. The castle should be up ahead.”
ARRRRRRGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!
“What was that!?” Trixie turned to look down the path she had just pointed. “Oh no...”
Standing before them was a Ursa Minor, and it did not look happy.
“Oh my...” Soarin took a step back, he had heard that creatures like this existed in the Everfree Forest, but he had hoped he would not see any. “This is not good.”
Berry stared right at the beast. “Buck. Bukity buck buck buck. Buck.”
Vinly looked around her ever-present smile flickering a little. “Umm... hey... guys.... what are we gonna do?”
The Doctor looked around. Okay, who’s going to take care of this? I get the scary trees next, this is someone... somepony else’s job.
Ditzy meanwhile was busy looking around on the ground. “Did anyone see a muffin around anywhere? I think it fell out of my bag earlier.”
Trixie rounded on Ditzy. “Forget about your muffins for a moment, we are about to die! Trixie is about to die! Trixie does not want to die! Is a muffin more important than your life?”
Ditzy turned to look at Trixie, tears forming in her left eye, her right eye looked at her angrily for a moment before glancing up. "Is there a difference?" A moment later her left eye followed her right, her tears disappearing. “Oh! There it is!”
“There what is?” Trixie turned around confused before noticing a muffin falling. A very, very large muffin, and it was about to fall right on top of the Ursa. “How did that get up there, and how did you even fit that in your bag?” Trixie could not take her eyes away from the spectacle that was about to occur.
The Ursa slowly approached the ponies. It held it’s mouth open, everypony could see the saliva dripping from its mouth. It slowly licked its chops and grinned evily. Leaning back on its haunches the Ursa was about to pounce when... THUD!
A giant muffin landed right in front of him.
“Oh come on! You have got to be kidding Trixie! That was aiming right for his head!”
Author’s Note: Oh my readers, I missed you. How long has it been? Way too long. Sorry for abandoning you all for so long! Anyway, here we are, the first instalment of the second episode; I hope you all enjoy! As always, comments and critiques are appreciated.
Extra note: Because I know some people are worried about this, I want to just lay a few fears to rest. The intermissions with the original Mane 6 are purely extra. They will have roles to play as characters, but they will not become main characters by any stretch of the imagination. The intermissions themselves were actually created as a bit of a bonus to make up for abandoning you all for so long. And because someone else voiced this fear, the story is still going to be happy and silly. So don’t worry, this is not going to turn into some grim-dark crazy thing.