//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18 
// Story: An Expression Of Love 
// by Fluttershy20 
//------------------------------//

For a short moment, darkness clouded Fluttershy’s eyes. Her ears rang with the echoes of the screeches of the goblins that had wanted them to become nothing but farm animals, but they soon faded in the long seconds between the real world and the magical one. 

Just when she started to think that they were dead, a bright flash greeted Fluttershy’s vision before disappearing once more. The pegasus instantly closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with a hoof, groaning as though she had suddenly dropped from the sky. Once she felt better, she opened her eyes and curiously looked around. 

She was in a small chamber about the size of her living room, and shaped like a balloon with three entrances to narrow tunnels: two headed left and right at the front of the chamber, while the third tunnel formed at the bottom. Her right ears flicked at the sound of Twilight’s hooves shifting about, getting comfortable.

“Where are we, sweetie?” Fluttershy asked, looking up at the ceiling and at the small, bat-sized hole she could see in the corner.

“Somewhere in the tunnels that we went through to get to Krull’s throne room,” Twilight replied, looking around as well. She turned around to face Fluttershy with a smile. “Well done for spotting that, my love. You have a great pair of eyes.”

Fluttershy turned to face her with a grin, but stopped short and slowly turned it into a look of horror. “Twi… Twilight,” she gasped, her coat paling along with her soul. 

“What?” At Fluttershy’s point, Twilight looked to her chest to see an arrow embedded deep into it, and blood running profusely around it. Twilight’s coat began to turn white as the shock came to her like a freezing temperature. “Oh… my,” she whispered, before tumbling to her side. 

Fluttershy rushed to Twilight’s side in an instant, her eyes wide with fright as the unicorn’s face contorted into pain. ‘Oh, what do I do, what do I do?’ Fluttershy screamed in thought. An idea suddenly hit her. She spread out her wounded wing, and began to unravel some of the bandages that stuck to it. 

Twilight noticed what she was doing, and her eyes widened. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?”

“Giving you some of my bandages!” Fluttershy yelled as she unwound some more, before stopping and ripping it off with her teeth. She ignored the pain she could feel on her wing from the ripping, but instead took a deep breath to keep herself calm and controlled; she needed to be if Twilight was to live. “All right,” she said quickly, as she moved to take the arrow out, “now I’m gonna take out the arrow and then apply pressure onto the wound, that should stop the bleeding and then I will put these bandages on and then you’ll be fine.” Fluttershy choked back a sob as she stared at the arrow, hesitantly reaching towards it. “Oh, please be all right.”

Twilight rested her hoof on top of Fluttershy’s, wincing in pain. “Fluttershy…” she whispered, feeling her body go weaker by the second. “I think the arrow has punctured my heart. Even if you take out the arrow and stop the external bleeding, I will surely die from the internal bleeding. Either way, I will die.” She added in a low whisper, “If this doesn’t work, anyway.”

Fluttershy felt her heart ripped asunder as Twilight’s words sunk in. “Wha… what can I do? There must be something I can do, anything!” She gently wrapped her hooves around Twilight, not daring to let her die without feeling the comfort of the one she loved most. “Please, Twilight. Name it, and I will do it.”

Twilight took another long, shuddering breath. “Just… just stay by my side and look after me,” she said quietly. “I need some time to think and prepare, so I… I would just like to be kept company.”

Fluttershy could feel the fear coming from Twilight’s voice, but also a bit of hope, too – though she wasn’t sure why. With a nod, the pegasus set herself down by Twilight’s head, then gently lifted her marefriend’s head and set it on her lap, the unicorn’s eyes fixed into her own. “Now, yo-you just look into my eyes, Twilight, and you will be fine,” she said encouragingly, though she could feel tears in her eyes and her voice crack.

She began to stroke Twilight’s mane. “Oh, and keep thinking. Yes, that’s right. If you keep thinking, then your body stays alive. Think about anything: your family, your friends, our adventures together… y-your love for me…” 

Twilight’s eyes widened at the words coming from Fluttershy’s mouth. ‘Love? Love! Of course. Now what Celestia taught me makes sense,’ she thought, smiling a little. She closed her eyes, feeling the power within her beginning to grow.

Fluttershy smiled, and felt an ear twitch to the sound of something behind her. She turned around, and gasped in horror at the sight of a goblin standing behind her, a sword raised in the air. “NO!” she yelled, her eyes fixing onto his own, becoming ‘the stare’. She set Twilight’s head down, got up and turned to walk towards the goblin, his eyes locked in terror as he stared at her. “You will not harm Twilight!”

Twilight watched with awe as Fluttershy, unarmed and injured, was staring down and driving back an armed goblin with ease. She could feel her heart growing fonder for Fluttershy than it already did, and her magic building up to the point she thought it might bring her to explode. ‘Maybe this is love that I am feeling? True love,’ she wondered. 

“Ever since we’ve come into this kingdom, we have been shot out, threatened, captured, thrown into sacks, humiliated, injured and now the love of my life has been wounded,” Fluttershy continued, her eyes widening. “But no more! I will not take it any longer! So if you would kindly go away and leave us in peace until my marefriend gets better, then that would be most appreciated by both of us. If not, then you will have to deal with me.” She spread her wings wide, putting her in a defensive position. “Do you understand me?”

The goblin didn’t reply, but simply dropped his sword and ran back through the tunnel, looking over his shoulder with terrified eyes, as if the pegasus would leap after him and strike him down. As soon as he had disappeared, Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm herself down, and ran a hoof through her mane. “I am so sorry you had to see that, sweetie,” she said, looking at the ground. “I was so… so angry with them for what they did to you.”

Twilight smiled comfortingly, though the pegasus couldn’t see it. “Don’t be, sweetheart. It could have happened to any one of– urrgh,” she hissed in pain as she felt something throb within her. ‘That’s magic,’ she realised. ‘It wants to break out. It’s ready.’

Fluttershy spun around at the sound of her marefriend in pain, and leapt forward to help her. “Hold still, let me–”

Twilight raised a hoof to stop her. “There’s nothing you can do for me now, sweetheart,” she muttered quietly. With that, she let her hoof fall to the ground, and then slowly let her head fall to the ground, sighing in content.

Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves to stop the shriek of sorrow from escaping her lips. She shook her head as she leaned forward and began to stroke Twilight’s face. “No… no, you’re going to be just fine. You hear me? I’ll make you all better and we can live together and grow old together, just like we wanted…” She closed her eyes and sobbed as the tears started to fall, one of which landed on Twilight’s cheek. “Just stay awake, for me, please?”

Twilight smiled bravely, though there was a hint of fear behind it. “Hey, now, I’ll be all right,” she said softly, raising a hoof to caress Fluttershy’s grief-stricken face. “I know now that I will be fine.”

“How?” Fluttershy sobbed. “How can you say that? You’re… you’re badly hurt,” she said, unable to bring herself to say she was fatally injured.

Twilight smiled thinly, and then closed her eyes as her horn began to shimmer with magenta-coloured magic. The magic suddenly grew brighter and brighter, until it turned into a whitish gold. Fluttershy inched back, watching with surprise as all of Twilight’s body began to glow with a warmly golden colour. 

“Hold on,” Twilight whispered, before jumping up, wrapping her hooves around Fluttershy and shrouding them both in a cloud of magenta magic. The cloud suddenly turned from magenta to white, and then turned golden as it shot out like an explosion, covering the entire chamber in golden light.

After a moment, the light faded, and the world around Fluttershy returned to the dark and grey colours she had been slowly getting used to. Her head spun and her vision was a blur, so she shook her head rapidly to clear her senses. “Twi… Twilight? What was that? What did you just do?” she asked. She looked to where her marefriend was, and gasped in shock.

It was all she could to stop herself squealing loudly with joy.

Twilight stood before her, smiling and uninjured, with the arrow that had fatally wounded her broken in half and at her hooves. All the other bruises and scratches that she had suffered on their journey were also gone, leaving her looking as though their adventure had only just begun. 

Fluttershy took a hesitant step forward, a hoof lifted and pointing towards the unicorn. “You… you are okay,” she whispered. She prodded the spot where the arrow had been, and saw that not even a pink spot where the arrow had torn off a part of her coat remained. “I… I don’t believe it,” Fluttershy said, amazed, delighted, but also terrifically confused. “You’re all better again.”

Twilight grinned, then lifted a hoof up and gently removed the bandages around Fluttershy’s wing. “And so are you, my love,” she said lovingly.

Fluttershy looked over to her wing to see that Twilight was in fact correct. Her wing was in its proper shape, with all its feathers accounted for and looking as though that had the most amazing wing massage ever. She looked to her side and saw that the scratches and other injuries she had suffered were also gone. 

But how was this possible? Not that she minded, of course, but still, it would be nice to know.

She looked up at Twilight again, who giggled at the confusion on her marefriend’s face. “How?”

“It’s what I call the Deus ex Machina spell,” Twilight joked, giggling at the perfect use of the name. “It has a more complicated name, but I like to call it that one; suits it for some reason. A neat little trick Celestia taught me that can only be used once in a lifetime, which annoyingly means I cannot use it ever again.” 

She stopped talking when the pair heard cries and shrieks from the goblins coming down from the third tunnel. Twilight felt her eyes bulge when a faint glow of torches began to appear. “I’ll explain a bit more as we move. Now run!”

With that, the two ponies turned about and galloped as fast as they could go back down the tunnel whence they came, followed close behind by the sounds of angry goblins.

“So, um,” Fluttershy asked, as they left the turn and fled down a long straight, “would you kindly explain to me how you couldn’t use that spell earlier to heal my wing?”

“Because the spell can only be used when the caster is mortally injured, sweetheart,” Twilight explained rapidly. “When a unicorn is dying, the magic within them starts to build up a separate energy force that tries to keep the pony alive for as long as possible, giving the rest of the body time to heal even the most grievous injuries. Now, Star Swirl the Bearded managed to triangulate both the magic of the unicorn and this energy to create a spell that would heal not only the dying unicorn, but those around the caster, as well.” 

Twilight grimaced as they left the large tunnel and veered sharply into a small tunnel, which went straight for quite a distance. “Of course, the spell does come with some unfortunate side affects.”

“What affects are they?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Well, other than never being able to use the spell ever again, I won’t be able to use magic for one whole day now,” Twilight replied.

“ONE WHOLE DAY?” Fluttershy screeched.

Just as Fluttershy had said that, a tall goblin jumped out from a small hole in the tunnel wall, and raised a large, two handed axe into the air. “This way!” Twilight cried, grabbing hold of Fluttershy’s hoof and dragging her down a tunnel to their left. The goblin hissed and chased after them, its axe raised and ready to take them down if needed. 

Twilight and Fluttershy lowered their heads and put as much of their strength into their legs to gallop faster. But the goblin, despite running on two legs, was able to follow them and worse was catching up to them. ‘We need to outwit them,’ Twilight thought, glancing over her shoulder to see the goblin was not far behind. 

She looked ahead and saw another tunnel coming up to their left. “Down here!” she yelled, veering left down another tunnel. Fluttershy saw where she was going, and spun sharply into the tunnel. Twilight, still galloping looked back and silently hoped that the goblin thought they had fled along the straight still. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the silhouette of the goblin coming down the tunnel towards them, and looked ahead once more to gallop faster. ‘We need to lose him. Now,’ she thought. 

They were about to pass another tunnel, where a goblin suddenly leapt out of, stepped in front of them to block their path, and swung a large battle-axe at the couple. Fluttershy and Twilight dodged by veering away from each other and around the goblin, who tried to get his battle-axe out of the ground, while other goblins appeared from the tunnel and chased after them.

“Oh, how are we going to lose them all now?” Fluttershy whined in dismay, feeling the tiredness in her legs creep into her mind. She looked up and saw a large number of stalagmites hanging from the tunnel ceiling. ‘That’ll work,’ she thought, grinning to herself. 

She stopped, spun around and kicked the wall of the tunnel with as much force as she could muster. Fluttershy winced as she set her legs back down, her hindquarters now feeling sore. ‘I’m not sure how Applejack manages to kick all those trees and still walks straight,’ she mused as she set off after Twilight once more. 

She stopped thinking when she felt the tunnels begin to rumble, and looked back to see the stalagmites tingling from their places. The goblins noticed, too, and instantly stopped, stared at the pieces of rock, before slowly retreating down the tunnel. They began to leg it as the rocks finally gave way and began to fall on their heads, giving a few several nasty bumps on the head. 

Twilight grinned ecstatically as she watched the rocks begin to fall, blocking the goblins’ route. “That was amazing, Fluttershy,” she remarked, causing the pegasus to blush. She looked back, and smirked as she saw the path was now completely blocked by rocks, hisses and curses coming from the goblins on the other side. “That should get them off our tails.”

The ponies rounded a bend into a tunnel that wiggled this way and that. “Yes, but not for long. They know these tunnels better than we do, they will surely know a way around to catch up with us,” Fluttershy pointed out, glancing over her shoulder every now and then. “So how do we make sure they stay off our tails?”

Twilight bit her bottom lip as she thought about it, her eyes kept ahead as they galloped down a long straight, with only the torches on either side giving them a chance to navigate the tunnels safely. “I’m not really sure, but as soon as we see another tunnel, then we go in there,” she said. Fluttershy nodded, though her face could reveal she wanted a better plan than that, and Twilight did not blame her.

Eventually, Twilight saw another tunnel coming up to their left, and prayed that they were not out of luck. ‘Oh, please be somewhere in there that we can hide,’ she hoped. She flicked her head towards the tunnel. “Through there!” she ordered. Fluttershy had a quick glance at the tunnel, looked back at Twilight, and nodded. 

The pair turned sharply into the tunnel, and then to their surprise saw another tunnel – a much smaller one that was only big enough for a pony to crawl through – rested discreetly against the side of the tunnel wall. Their ears flicked when the sound of goblin screeches echoed through the tunnels. “Quickly, get in there!” Twilight hissed, pointing to the hole.

Fluttershy saw no reason to argue. She crouched down and squeezed through the gap, while Twilight used her head and hooves to help push her in. It felt weird having Twilight’s hooves and head on her backside, but it was of no importance at the moment, especially with their freedoms at stake. ‘Priorities again, Fluttershy,’ she thought as she finally felt herself squeeze through and out the other side. It wasn’t big enough to stand up in, so she continued to follow the route by crawling along her belly. 

When Twilight saw her marefriend’s tail disappear, she wedged her own tail between her teeth, and rapidly crawled through the gap and wiggled her way through and out the other side, leaving no trace of her or Fluttershy ever being there.

The unicorn quickly spat out her tail and let it fall back to the way it was originally, and then looked ahead to stare at Fluttershy – or more specifically, Fluttershy’s bottom. “Are you all right, my sweet?” she whispered.

Fluttershy reared her head up to look over her shoulder, and gave her marefriend an assuring smile. “I’m all right, thanks,” she whispered. She wiggled her rump around to get into a more comfortable position, but all it did was make Twilight blush. “It’s a bit tight in here, but I think I’ll survive.”

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but shut it again and covered her muzzle with her hooves as the goblins ran past the small cave. Fluttershy also clamped her muzzle closed and clenched her eyes shut, praying that they wouldn’t be found; they could easily drag Twilight out if they got hold of her tail, and in her position she would be powerless to stop them.

Thankfully, however, the goblins simply ran past the hole without so much as glancing at it. Twilight’s eyes opened as the sounds of the goblins’ running faded from her ears, and picked her head up when silence reigned once again. She glanced back to see if the goblins knew where they were and were now waiting for them to come out. To her relief, though, she could not see a distinctive shadow waiting for them. ‘Nevertheless, it might be better if we headed down a different path,’ she thought. 

She looked back at Fluttershy. “Can you see if there’s a way forward?” she whispered.

Fluttershy looked through the veil of darkness, squinting her eyes just to see how far this little tunnel went. Unsure, she leaned forward and started using her hoof to poke at the ground, crawling forward little by little when she felt brave enough to do so. “I think it might go on for quite a while, Twily,” she replied quietly. “Do we follow it or go back?” 

Twilight shook her head. “We can’t go back. We might run into more goblins,” she replied. “The best thing we can do is to follow this way and see where it leads.” 

Fluttershy nodded, and began to crawl forward cautiously through the cave. Twilight watched her go along, trying really hard to keep her eyes on the back of Fluttershy’s head, and not avert her gaze to elsewhere. “Besides, it might be the way out of this mountain,” Twilight added, trying to keep herself focused on one thing. It was harder than it sounded. ‘Keep focus, Twilight, and be polite. We might see each other all the time like… that, but you have been taught that it was rude to look,’ she thought.

Fluttershy looked over her shoulder, and stared confusedly at Twilight, whose eyes were drifting between her head and her… ‘Oh my. She isn’t… Nope, she is.’ She looked away again and fiercely blushed, covering her cheeks with her mane. Though she felt embarrassed by Twilight’s staring, she also felt… flattered, that Twilight considered her good-looking enough to be stared at from behind.  

But did she think the same about Twilight? She never really wanted to stare at other mares’ bodies sometimes, but there were times when she couldn’t help herself and look at their curves, manes, tails, the graceful way a mare moved. She had seen this in a load of mares, but due to the stupid promise she made, she never admired her friends’ bodies the way she did others. Including Twilight. 

Now that they were dating – if going on a daring adventure fraught with peril could ever count as a date – she considered having a look at Twilight a bit more. ‘Maybe that might help get me to decide.’

She shook her head to clear out her thoughts, and thought of something to change the subject. She didn’t have long to think. “So, um, you said you can’t use magic for one whole day. Are you sure you can’t?” she asked.

Twilight stopped for a bit and tried to conjure up a quick spell. To no surprise, her horn did not even sizzle. “Nope. Nothing. Not even a chance to levitate. Sorry, sweet,” she replied. 

Fluttershy looked back as she crawled along with a warming smile. “Oh, don’t worry. It’s not your fault you can’t use your magic now. But, um, I was just wondering, if you know the answer of course, why is it that you can’t use your magic afterwards?”

“That’s because when I performed the spell, I used every ounce of magic within me to create it and cast it successfully,” Twilight explained. “You see, every unicorn has something like a second stomach in their bodies that allows a unicorn to store and use magic from.”

Fluttershy saw the ceiling of the tunnel begin to lower, forcing her to set her head against the ground and slow her crawl. “I see. So, if you used all your magic in your, um, ‘stomach’, wouldn’t that mean you can’t use your magic ever again?” she asked, her tone indicating her worry for Twilight; she knew how much her marefriend used and loved magic, and also knew how devastating it would be for the mare if she could never use it again. 

“No, no, I’ll be able to use magic again,” Twilight said assuredly, much to Fluttershy’s relief. “You see, a unicorn’s second stomach is replenished frequently by the magic that exists all around the earth. But due to the vast amount of magic I used in that spell, I will have to sit through a full twenty-four hour cycle just to have it replenished; I’ll know when I can use magic again.” She tilted her head in curiosity. “Did I make that easy enough to understand for you?”

Fluttershy hummed in response. “Oh, yes, I think you did,” she replied. “It just doesn’t help us in getting out of this horrible place.”

Twilight nodded in agreement, even though Fluttershy could not see it. “I know. We just have to bang our heads together and come up with something clever to get out of here.”

Fluttershy glanced behind and nodded, though she didn’t like the idea of banging her head against Twilight’s; it seemed a bit too violent for her tastes. She looked ahead again, and stopped for a moment to be sure what she thought was ahead of her was real. She squinted to have a better look. “Twilight.”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“I think the exit is just ahead,” Fluttershy informed, pointing to what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, and the rocky wall of a cavern on the other side. 

Twilight craned her neck to peer over Fluttershy’s shoulder, and saw that the pegasus was right. She grinned excitedly, a faint squee sound emitting from between her lips. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get in there,” she said. 

Fluttershy nodded, and quickly began shuffling forward once more, with Twilight close behind. 

Once they made it to the exit, Fluttershy stopped before actually leaving the tiny tunnel, and craned her neck forward to look around the cavern. It was rectangular shaped, no bigger than the Canterlot hall where the Elements of Harmony were kept, with hundreds of wine barrels stacked neatly together across one side of the chamber. The other side had massive crates stacked into towers of threes or fours, forming a path that ran along the middle between the two piles, with large arched tunnel entrances at each end. 

Fluttershy swung her head left and right to look for any signs of goblins, her ears pinned high to help her. Yet there wasn’t a single distinctive shape of a goblin’s footprint, or a harsh bark of their cries filling the chamber. “I think it’s clear,” she declared quietly, before wiggling her way through the tunnel and jumping onto the ground below.

Twilight, seeing her marefriend leap out of the hole and disappear out of sight, quickly shuffled forward until she was able to see Fluttershy get up, dust herself off and step out of the way for Twilight to get out. The unicorn leapt out of the hole, and landed on her hooves beside the pegasus. 

“Now that we’re here, I suggest we stop now and bang our heads together to come up with a plan that would get us out of this place,” Twilight said, her eyes wandering around for any signs of enemies.

“Okay, but let’s keep the head banging part out of it, please?” Fluttershy asked. “That sounds like it would hurt.”

Twilight giggled at Fluttershy’s naivety. “I didn’t mean we literally bang our heads together, Flutters,” she said. “We just put our minds together and come up with a solution out of this mess.”

Fluttershy’s lips squashed themselves to form an O shape. “Oh,” she oozed, falling onto her rump. Her eyes suddenly widened when she realised what Twilight had called her. ‘She called me Flutters. Nopony has called me Flutters in ages,’ she thought. “I see. So um, how are we going to do this? How are we going to get past hundreds of goblins who are out to turn us into simple farm animals?”

Twilight followed Fluttershy and fell onto her rump, tapping her chin with a hoof as she pondered. “Hmm,” she mumbled, looking at the ceiling, and then at the ground with eyes that could melt the ground if they could. 

Her eyes lit up in sudden delight, and her mouth curled up into an ecstatic smile. Before she could utter a word, however, the unicorn’s ears twitched at the sound of running footsteps coming towards them. “Quickly, hide!” Twilight hissed, taking cover behind a crate and pointing for Fluttershy to do the same.

Fluttershy squeaked in fright and jumped behind another crate, shivering in fright and trying to keep her voice in check. Twilight saw her shaking, and offered her a comforting smile. ‘She needs it, the poor thing,’ she thought. Fluttershy looked up, and after a moment to stare at her, smiled in reply.

Twilight knew that smile of Fluttershy’s could melt a windigo if given the chance. That smile, always so assuring, so kind and caring, that it made her feel like she could take on anything. And her marefriend, the Bearer to the Element of Kindness and the greatest pony she had ever met, would always be at her side to support her. And right now, that support was all she needed into thinking of ways to get out of the kingdom.

She pressed her head against the crate and closed off her thoughts when the sound of running feet were so loud she figured the owner was right on the other side of the crates. The running suddenly stopped, and was soon replaced by a wheezy breathing sound, as though the creature had gone through a few too many smoke machines. 

Fluttershy began to shake violently with fright, her head covered between her hooves in the hope she would sink into the ground and never be seen. The goblin was so close to them, it could probably smell the fear oozing from her body. ‘What is it doing?’ she wondered, relaxing a little as her fear was replaced with curiosity. ‘Surely it should have run off by now.’

She looked over to Twilight with eyes telling her to have a peek. Twilight, as though knowing what she was saying, nodded, then turned around, moved on the tips of her hooves to the edge of the crate, and peered over the other side to have a look. To her surprise, the goblin was standing a few feet away with its back to her, staring idly at the vast number of barrels stacked along the other side. She quickly noticed the sword sheathed at its hip, and hastily came up with a solution.

Twilight moved away from the crates, tiptoed up to Fluttershy, and whispered in her ear, “I have an idea. When the goblin walks along this side to get to the other end, you stretch you leg out and trip him up.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened, and she brought her head back from her marefriend in disgust. “Why do I have to trip him up?” she demanded. “Why can’t you trip him up?”

“Because I will be the one to pin him down afterwards and relieve him of his weapon,” Twilight replied. She gave Fluttershy a pleading look. “Please, Fluttershy, I need you do this so we can escape.”

“But…” Fluttershy hesitated. “I don’t want to trip up anything, even a meanie goblin; that’s just too rude.”

Twilight hated to do this, but she saw no other alternative to convince the pegasus. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again they were the infamously adorable puppy dog eyes. “Pretty please?” she begged, pulling out her bottom lip for assurance.

Such an assault against the eyes was far too much for Fluttershy; the mare looked too cute to say no to. She sighed. “Oh… darn. All right, I’ll do it. But only for you,” she whispered.

Twilight’s puppy dog eyes disappeared to eyes of delight, and a wide grin stretched across her face. “Oh, thank you, Fluttershy!” she whispered loudly. She leaned forward and kissed Fluttershy’s cheek, causing the pegasus to blush, before spinning around and trotting back to the other side of the chamber. 

She made it without causing a sound, then peered around the corner to see that the goblin was no longer there, yet his feet were still plodding hard against the ground, showing that he was still moving. Twilight crept down the small gap, and peered through the corridor to see that the goblin was now at the far end, and was about to turn around to head up the other side. ‘We’ve got him,’ she thought, smirking.

She hastily walked backwards out of the confines of the crates, and once she was free turned around and waved to Fluttershy, signalling her to make a move. 

The pegasus nodded, swallowing down her nervousness as she did so, and crept on the tips of her hooves through the gap between the crates until she was near the edge. She started to shake violently as the goblin walked closer and close to the place she was hiding. Could she do this? Could she really commit such an act?

But then she remembered the promise she had made to Twilight in the morning. The promise that she would help her in whatever way she could, no matter what. It wasn’t a promise she had made just to get Twilight off her back, but one she had meant to uphold. ‘How could Twilight continue to love me if I don’t hold the promises I make, especially to her?’ To not do anything would be not only condemning them to a life of slavery, but she would lose the trust Twilight had on her.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, took a hesitant step forward, and stretched out her leg, just as the goblin was merely inches away. ‘I hope he could forgive me,’ she thought, bracing for the impact.

She felt one or both of the goblin’s legs touch her leg, which was followed by a shriek of alarm as the goblin tripped up and fell forward. Fluttershy opened her eyes just in time to see the goblin smash its face into the ground, the sound of a breaking nose echoing across the chamber. Fluttershy gasped in shock. “Oh my!” She stepped out from the crates and began looking at the goblin’s long and pointy nose, which was bending upwards at a heavy angle. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to break your nose!” she exclaimed.

Twilight, meanwhile, rolled her eyes and jumped out of her hiding place to see the goblin groaning and struggling to get up and away from the pegasus. She raced over and set a hoof on the goblin’s head, pinning it down. “You’re not going anywhere,” she said. She looked up to her marefriend with a smile. “Good work, Fluttershy. Now, if you don’t mind, could you take the goblin’s sword and keep watch?”

Fluttershy nodded, though Twilight could practically feel the reluctance behind it. “But what about you? What will you be doing?”

“I’ll be asking our new friend here if he would give us some directions to the city and out of the mountain,” Twilight replied, patting the goblin heavily on the head and probably giving him a greater headache than he probably had.

Fluttershy nodded, then leaned down and with her teeth, nimbly pulled the sword out of the scabbard and walked past Twilight, staring at the back of the chamber with the longsword gritted in her teeth. She had always hated weapons, seeing no need for them in an age where few to no enemies existed. They were merely an excuse of power now – the power over life and death.

But at that moment, with the weight of the sword flowing through her and its hilt between her teeth, she felt like a little filly playing Knight, the Princess and the Dragon, and she was the brave knight. “Don’t worry, my fair and beautiful lady, for Lady Whisperwing is here to save you from the terrible fiend!” she whispered to herself, giggling and swinging her sword as she pretended to fight the evil dragon. She soon lost herself in her vast imagination, and started to swing her sword as though she was fighting a dragon.

Twilight paid little attention to the pegasus dancing and laughing with a sword, and looked down at the goblin pinned by her hooves. “All right, you can make this very easy, or very, very difficult for yourself,” she warned, gently pushing the goblin down as he tried to get her off him. “Tell us how to get out of here, through the city and out of the mountain, and no harm will come to you. I promise. If not, then things will get quite complicated between us.” Her eyes narrowed darkly as she leaned her head forward. “So, what’s it going to be?”

The goblin squeaked in terror and pointed down the corridor behind him. “Follow that tunnel down and keep going until you reach a path breaking off at a slope. Go up that path and at the end is a cellar door. Open it and you will find yourself at the top of the eastern side of the city,” the goblin hastily explained. 

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh,” she said. She drew out her bottom lip and nodded; she hadn’t expected to get her answer that quickly. ‘Do I look that intimidating?’ she thought. She shook her head of the thought, and looked back at the goblin below her. “Thank you,” she said, before raising a hoof and knocking him out with a single punch to the face. 

She shook her hoof as she felt it throb with soreness. “Ouch, that hurts,” she groaned, seeing it go red. “I think I need to kick a few trees with Applejack when we get back.” She looked over to Fluttershy to get her to move once more, but tilted her head when she saw the mare dancing gracefully and pretending to fight off hordes of enemies. Though she knew she should be angry with her for not paying attention to the tunnel, the sight of the pegasus acting like a filly forced a smile across her face. “Having fun?” she asked, cocking her head a bit. 

Fluttershy instantly stopped playing, squeaked in fright, dropped her sword and covered her face with her mane, blushing fiercely in embarrassment. “Oh, uh… um, yes, I did, sort of, I mean, no, I was keeping wat… oh my,” she squeaked, falling onto her belly.

Twilight giggled as she moved to Fluttershy’s side. She raised a hoof and calmly stroked the pegasus’s back. “I don’t mind, really. I know I should be angry, but how could I when you looked so happy? Besides, I actually enjoyed watching you move for a little bit,” Twilight said gently. She turned a little, gesturing with her head to the tunnel entrance closest to them. “Right, as nice as this chamber is and we could probably live here for a bit, I think it might be best that we move on.”

Fluttershy brought her head up, and flicked her mane out of her face to gaze expectantly at her marefriend. “Do you know the way out?” she asked.

Twilight nodded, and gestured with her head to the tunnel behind them. “We go through there and keep going until we reach a path going uphill. We go up there and–” She cut herself off when the shrieks of goblins coming from the tunnel in front of them flowed through their ears.

Fluttershy jumped to her hooves in an instant, her eyes wide with terror. “They’re coming,” she stated, as the shrieks grew louder. “They’re coming!”

“Then let’s run!” Twilight yelled, spinning around and breaking into a gallop towards the tunnel. 

Fluttershy moved after her, but suddenly stopped and turned back to stare at the tunnel. As the shrieks of the goblins grew louder, it didn’t take her long to figure out – at a guess – how far away they were and how long it would take them to catch up. ‘We’ll never reach where we need to go in time,’ she realised.

She looked over to the barrels on the other side of the chamber, and cocked her head, pulling out her bottom lip in wonderment. ‘I wonder what they contain.’ She walked up to one, and nudged it a little with a heavy push of her hoof. To her surprise, and utter delight, the sound of sloshing flowed through her ears. She grinned. ‘Perfect.’

Twilight was out of the chamber and galloping as fast as her legs could take her through the tunnel, when she realised she should be hearing the sound of her lover’s hoofsteps either behind or beside her. She stopped and turned just in time to see Fluttershy turning around and picking up the sword with her teeth. ‘Is she mad?’ she yelled in thought, her jaw dropping at the sight. ‘She’s going to take on the entire Goblin Kingdom by herself?’

Twilight galloped hastily back into the chamber, gritting her teeth in anger to suppress the harsh words she wanted to say. “Come on, Fluttershy, we need to get moving!” Fluttershy pretended not to hear her; instead, she spread her wings and hovered just off the ground. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a rather large group of goblins making their way here, and there’s nothing I can do to stop them. Can we please get a move on? And why are you carrying that sword anyway? I thought you hated swords!”

Fluttershy stopped and stared for a second, before swinging her sword around so that it dangled on the right side of her face. “I do hate swords. I just want to use it for this.” With that, she swung her sword down, and slammed the edge into the bottom of the barrel. 

‘I hope this works,’ Fluttershy thought, sweating with nervousness. She pulled it out, to be met with a shot of red wine sprouting out of the crack in the barrel. Some droplets landed on her face, which she licked off with her tongue, but most of the wine spilled onto the ground creating a large and rather slippery puddle.

Fluttershy squealed in delight, ecstatic her plan had worked, and started swinging her sword into more barrels along the line, breaking them open and spilling their contents across the floor to create an even larger puddle. 

Twilight stared in growing wonder as the puddle grew larger. “Fluttershy, you are a genius!” she shouted, before spinning around and slamming a hoof into another barrel, smashing a large hole and spilling out even more wine. As she worked, Twilight had the largest grin across her face. ‘I fell in love with a genius. Guess there is a pony for each of us after all,’ she thought, chuckling.

Very soon, though, the pair had made it to the end of the chamber, and looked at their dirty work. The wine from the barrels had spilled out, and in some cases still was, creating fountains of wine, and created a small lake, making it slippery for those incautious to go slowly – Twilight had tested it and sure enough, she was over and on her side in a heart beat. 

Twilight re-joined with her lover and was about to speak praises for Fluttershy, when the sound of heavy feet caught Fluttershy and hers attention. They looked to the other side of the chamber, and watched as a large group of goblins charged out of the tunnel and into the chamber. For a second, Twilight thought Fluttershy’s plan did not work, but suddenly a goblin tripped and fell face-first into the ground. Another fell over, and then another, and another, until most of the goblins that charged through were on their noses or on their backs, and struggling to get back up.

“I don’t think anypony, not even Princess Celestia, could have done any better,” Twilight remarked with a wry smile, earning both a giggle and a bashful blush from Fluttershy. She gestured with her head to the tunnel behind them, flinching as an arrow hit the cave wall behind her; Fluttershy jumped up and back when another arrow landed at her hooves. “Now let’s get out of here!” the unicorn cried, stepping back as the goblins prepared to launch more arrows at the couple.

Fluttershy nodded, and after dropping her sword the pair spun away from the chamber and galloped hard through the tunnel, their ears pinned up to hear for any approaching goblins and their eyes wide open. The tunnel itself was wide – big enough for a fully-grown dragon to fit in, definitely – and along the sides were braziers filled with torches, covering the tunnels in a sombre mixture of black and fiery orange colours. The passage itself had them going uphill, then downhill, turning right and left at a quick notice, yet not once did the ponies lose their momentum; they were galloping not only for their lives, but also for their freedoms.

As they ran, Fluttershy’s mind turned naughty again. Ever since she realised that Twilight was checking her out, as Rainbow Dash had called it when she caught her looking at a mare one time, she wanted to do the same. And with Twilight just ahead of her, galloping for her life, the time just seemed right. ‘It’s all right, it’s just checking somepony out, after all. It is not wrong, we do it all the time,’ she encouraged herself. She took a deep breath, looking at her running hooves. ‘Okay, Fluttershy, you can do this. Just lift your head up and stare.’

She lifted her head up to stare at Twilight’s behind, only to see in horror that Twilight had stopped and was looking at something or other. Before she could stop herself, she ploughed straight into Twilight’s backside, throwing both mares to the ground. Fluttershy groaned as she felt her eyes roll. ‘When I said I wanted to check Twilight out, this isn’t what I had in mind,’ she thought flatly.

Twilight shook her head to clear her dizziness, and turned around to see Fluttershy’s head pressed up against her bottom. ‘Oh dear,’ she thought, grimacing even as she could feel herself flush in embarrassment. She pulled herself away from Fluttershy, allowing the Pegasus’s head to fall to the floor, panting for air. “Are you all right?” Twilight asked, gently stroking Fluttershy’s head. 

Fluttershy flicked her head and blinked rapidly, stopping her eyes rolling around her sockets, and hauled herself to her hooves. “I’m okay, I think,” she replied, wriggling her nose to get that odd feeling off her muzzle. “I am so sorry about that, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Twilight smiled knowingly. “I noticed,” she said flatly, raising an eyebrow.

Fluttershy blushed, ashamed of being caught. She looked up once more to stare questioningly at her. “Why did you stop anyway?”

Twilight flicked her head to the path ahead of them. “The goblin said that there should be two paths, with one leading off from the main one and heading upwards. Instead, there are three, and none of them go up like I expected,” she stated worriedly. She bowed her head and growled, “That goblin lied to us.”

Fluttershy stepped to the side, and gasped when she saw Twilight was right. The path on the left veered left and went straight down, the one in the middle kept going then turned sharply left, and the path on the right went straight then turned sharply right. 

Fluttershy felt her heart beat faster in worry and her face begin to sweat. “Now which way do we go? How do we get out of here?” She shrieked in fright when she heard the cries of goblins echoing from behind. “Oh, what are we going to do?”

Twilight rubbed her face with a hoof. “I don’t know. Just be quiet for a bit and let me think,” she said. With Fluttershy silenced, though still fidgeting in place, Twilight walked slowly across the forked road, analysing the road for tracks. ‘If I am right, then I have to find the track with the most number of prints heading in and out. That can be the only one where the goblins gain entrance into the city and exit it again,’ she thought, spinning from spot to spot and walking quickly to gain a closer look. 

“Any luck, sweetie?” Fluttershy asked, hopping on the spot as though she needed the bathroom and looking as anxious as ever.

Twilight stopped to answer, but her gaze fell upon the number of tracks running to and from the right path, and grinned. “Fluttershy, it’s this one!” she answered, pointing. The shrieks of the goblins coming from behind, and getting closer and closer, made both ponies jump. “Quickly, run into the other tunnel, then stop and fly back to me!” 

Fluttershy nodded, and galloped into the left tunnel. Before she disappeared into the darkness, however, she stopped and spun around, spread her wings, and flew faster than Rainbow Dash across the gap between her and Twilight. 

When she made it to the other side, she landed and gripped Twilight in a hug. “I’m sorry I nearly lost my cool back there,” she whispered.

The unicorn grinned and returned the hug, before parting and smiling at her. “It’s fine. I was beginning to get nervous myself.” More shrieks emanated from the darkness behind them, prompting the two to start galloping deeper and deeper into the tunnel. This time, there were few braziers and torches to light up the passageway, making it difficult for the pair to not collide with the walls and the sudden turns that made it up. 

Finally, after the fiftieth time Twilight had bumped into the wall, creating another bruise on her side, she saw a torch resting in a holder attached to the wall. She took the torch out and, once she was sure it was firmly between her teeth, she broke into a gallop after Fluttershy, who had raced ahead but had slowed down so that she could keep up.  

After a while, the pair had made it to the start of a steep climb, where at the top they could just make out the silhouette of the door just above, and the movement of a goblin below it. Fluttershy turned her head to look at Twilight, and nodded. “Ready?”

Twilight nodded determinedly. “Ready,” she said, though it was muffled by the torch in her mouth. With that, the pair broke into a charge up the slope, their eyes focused on the door ahead of them, their way out of this place.

A quarter of the way up, Fluttershy’s ears flicked as a sudden groaning sound came from above, and stopped in her tracks; Twilight stopped too. ‘That wasn’t my stomach,’ she thought, ‘and that certainly wasn’t Twilight’s.’ She looked up in fear. “Was that an earthquake?”

Twilight heard the groaning sound as well, and looked up just to hear the sound of something heavy rolling towards them. She dropped her torch in shock. “That, my love…” She turned her head to face her. “… Was a trap.”

As if they were waiting on queue, a large number of perfectly rounded rocks appeared out of the darkness, and were racing down the hill towards them at a rapid speed. Twilight and Fluttershy screamed, then spun around and raced back down the hill. 

Twilight glanced behind to see a smaller boulder race past the others and threaten to trip her up. She veered to the side, watching as it rolled past her. She watched as Fluttershy jumped away from a larger boulder, only to do it again as another came up from behind her, nearly crushing her tail. ‘We can’t let these rocks chase us all the way down,’ she thought, even though she kept on running.

The same thought entered Fluttershy’s mind, too. These rocks would not stop chasing them until they reached the end of the tunnel, and they would be right back to square one with them in goblin sacks. ‘Twilight may not be able to do anything about these rocks, but I certainly can,’ she thought bravely.

Fluttershy dodged another boulder with a swift veer to the side, then spread her wings and took to the air, barely avoiding a larger boulder that seemed bigger than the tunnel. In a flash, she dashed after Twilight, her wing flapping so fast it made her look more like a hummingbird than a pegasus pony. She sped up when she saw a large boulder, bigger and wide than the others, roll after Twilight with a menacing speed. ‘She’s not going to dodge that one in time,’ she realised in horror. With renewed effort, she flapped her wings even harder.

She made it to Twilight just in time, and scooped her up with her hooves and lifted her into the air and out of the path of the boulders. She made it to the ceiling, and put all her strength into keeping her wings going on long enough until the onslaught of boulders stopped. ‘Come on, wings. Don’t let me down now,’ she thought.

Twilight watched as the boulders rolled below her with wide eyes, then looked up to see the most agonising look on Fluttershy’s face. Her face was sweating buckets worth of water, and her wings were flapping so rapidly she could be mistaken for a bee. To see her marefriend working so hard and without aid crushed Twilight’s heart. ‘I should do something to help her. But what?’ she asked herself, ashamed she didn’t have the power anymore to help her marefriend or herself. 

Finally, after a long time of straining for their lives, the heavy numbers of boulders rolling down the slope began to slow into a trickle of rather small ones. Fluttershy noticed this, and began to relax her wings from their relentless flapping. But she dared not to fall to the ground just yet in case more boulders suddenly streamed down from the darkness once more; the goblins were cunning, and could wait for them to appear again.

The last of the boulders rolled down the tunnels and into the darkness, and for a long minute, the only sound that existed was Fluttershy’s flapping wings. Twilight looked up the slope and squinted her eyes to look for any more boulders. Seeing and hearing none, she looked up at the strained and sweating face of her lover. “Fluttershy?” she said delicately, fearing a slight distraction would send them both spiralling to a rather bumpy landing. “You can stop flapping your wings now.” 

At once, Fluttershy’s wings stopped flapping, and the pair plummeted to the ground like stones. Twilight slammed into the ground first with an, “Oomph!” followed by Fluttershy falling flat on top of her. ‘Ow,’ Twilight thought, groaning into the ground.

Fluttershy blinked rapidly to clear her vision, and noticed to her horror Twilight below her, groaning into the ground. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she whispered tiredly, feeling the pain in her wings. 

Twilight nodded. “It’s all right,” she said, pulling her head out of the ground. “I should have been prepared for it.” She looked back to stare at Fluttershy with concern. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy nodded, though her face revealed how unsure she was of her own answer. “I think so. My wings hurt a little, but I think I’ll be all right. I just don’t know if I can fly again for a bit.” She smiled a little and nuzzled the back of Twilight’s neck. “Sorry for landing on you again, sweetie. For what it’s worth, you make a lovely pillow.”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at that, and leaned forward to nuzzle the side of Fluttershy’s face. “Guess I should try to find a spell sometime to change me into one, after all.”

Fluttershy guffawed and lifted herself off Twilight’s back. “Oh, don’t worry about it. I would rather have you to snuggle against than a pillow.” She shook her body like a dog ridding its body of water, throwing off dust that had stained her coat, then turned and took a step towards the slope. “Do we need to go up there?” she asked.

Twilight got up as well, and looked to where Fluttershy was staring. “Yes. Right up there is our only way out of the underground and into the city,” she answered. She looked to Fluttershy again, with concern across her face. “Are you ready?”

Fluttershy swallowed the fear crawling up her throat, and nodded. “Yes. I am ready.”

Twilight nodded, then broke into a gallop up the hill, “Then charge!” she yelled, sprinting rapidly towards the end. Fluttershy shrugged and charged after her, hoping she wouldn’t do anything rash when they made it to the top. 

Shortly enough, after a gallop without incident, the pair made it to the top to be greeted by a goblin atop of a platform supported by pillars digging into the ground with a throwing spear in its claws. The goblin screeched and flung a spear at Twilight, who veered to the side and dodged it. The goblin sneered, then picked up another javelin and flung it at Fluttershy, who stopped and stared in growing horror at the projectile coming at her. 

“Fluttershy, get out of the way!” Twilight yelled in horror.

Fluttershy immediately broke out of her fear, and jumped to the side, the spear digging into the ground at an angle. Twilight sighed in relief, and changed her course to get to the platform the goblin was on and take him out. ‘Nopony flings a spear at my marefriend,’ she thought.

The goblin saw the threat she possessed, and flung another spear at her. It landed with a thump inches before her. Twilight veered around it and picked it up with her mouth, before breaking into a charging gallop to the platform. She leapt up the stairs and swung her spear wide, throwing the goblin off its hooves and onto its back. Just as it lifted itself onto its rump, Twilight spun around and kicked it in the face with her hindhooves, knocking it unconscious.

Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief, spat out her spear, and turned to see Fluttershy on the platform on the other side, staring puzzlingly at three leavers. “Which one’s to release the door and which one’s for the rocks?” Fluttershy called.

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. Try them all!”

Fluttershy threw her a look of worry. “But, wouldn’t that possibly throw more rocks down the hill?”

“Most likely, yes. But that shouldn’t matter since we’re up here and out of the way!” She looked down the slope in case goblins were approaching, and luckily there weren’t any for now; they would soon come down the tunnel to look for their crushed bodies. “Just hurry, before more goblins arrive!” 

Fluttershy nodded, seeing the panicky tone in Twilight’s voice, and looked back at the three levers. “Okay,” she said to herself, “now which one do I go with first?” 

She hurriedly made up her mind and went with the lever on the right. She reared up, wrapped her hooves around the end, and pushed it forward, the lever giving way with a heavy groan. Once she had pushed it to the other end, there was the sound of a click as the lever was locked into place, and she looked to the door in the hope it would open.

After a few seconds, nothing happened. “Try another one, quickly!” Twilight called.

Fluttershy nodded and rushed to the other one, pushing it quickly with all her might. With a sudden jar, the trap door blocking them from the city fell and smashed into the ground, showering the cavern with light from Twilight’s illumination spell shining through like a beam of sunlight.  

Twilight beamed in delight at the sight, and quickly galloped towards the exit. “Come on, let’s go!”

Fluttershy bounced off the platform and galloped after her, grinning with joy. She glanced down the hill one last time, and was relieved to see nothing coming up to stop them. With a renewed effort, she continued to gallop through the trap door and out onto the other side. 

When Fluttershy appeared from the trap door to stand beside Twilight, she gasped in horror as she looked in the direction her marefriend was facing. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Twilight muttered, her ears falling flat in despair.

They were standing at the top of the city, not far from where they had been before teleporting down to the bottom and running into the goblins, and staring at the other side where they needed to go. Across the city, goblins were running across the bridge and over the city’s many levels, seeking them out. 

Fluttershy’s legs began to shake in terror at the sight. “H-how are we going to pass all of them?” she asked. 

Twilight nimbly shook her head, feeling dread and fear run through her. “I’m not sure.” Her hind legs failed and she collapsed onto her rump, sighing. “I really don’t know.”

Fluttershy looked at her marefriend with concern, before inching closer to her and throwing her wing around her shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay, don’t feel like you and you alone should be coming up with an escape plan. I can’t think of one myself, but I know we will both come up with one together.” She nuzzled the side of Twilight’s face affectionately. 

Twilight’s ears pinned upright at Fluttershy’s touch, and a low warmth spread across her face. ‘We’ll probably be blushing at each other’s touch until we’re about ninety,’ she thought. But the contact with her marefriend was what she needed. ‘I shouldn’t be wallowing here. I should be helping my marefriend get through this and get out of here.’

She smiled at Fluttershy, who smiled back with the same, cute smile she always wore, and then looked around. Several derelict buildings stood proudly, as they had done when they were standing here before, upon rotting, wooden platforms. Twilight turned her head again to look right, and saw the path veer to the left, ending on a sharp turn that went down to the next level. ‘That must be the same with other levels below. Stairs for single ponies, and ramps for carts and such,’ Twilight theorised. 

Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened as an idea formed into her head. “We need to find something big that can run down that ramp at an unstoppable speed. With it, we can clear the way and give us a safe passage over the bridge,” she said, indicating with a hoof to the path heading left and with the other towards the bridge.

Fluttershy followed Twilight’s hooves at the different places. “O… kay,” she said, turning back to face Twilight with a questioning eyebrow. “But where are we going to find something big enough for us to use?”

Twilight shrugged. “That’s what we gotta look for,” she replied, her eyes wandering around for anything that could roll and be turned. Her eyes caught something at the end of the street – something large and possibly, judging by what light she had, moveable. “I think we may be in luck, my dear,” she whispered, walking over to the object. “Let’s take a closer look.”

Fluttershy watched Twilight walk off and trotted after her, wondering what she had seen. ‘Oh, I hope it is something we can use. I don’t know about her, but I am starting to feel claustrophobic,’ she thought. 

The pair soon made it to the object, and Twilight gasped in delight at the sight of the cart. “It’s… its perfect,” the unicorn whispered, striding around it, looking at every joint for any faults. Twilight made her way back to Fluttershy, who stood at the side and watched her as well as the road behind them for any signs of goblins coming after them, and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Too perfect. A cart like this shouldn’t be looking as brand new as this one.”

Fluttershy felt inclined to agree with Twilight. The cart was in immaculate condition. Its wheels were finely shaped, its joints were shining new, and the harness at the front wasn’t rotten at all. “Maybe the goblins renovated it just so they could use it to bring food in from their farms,” she suggested. 

Twilight slowly nodded her head in agreement. “But what adjustments have they made to it for them to move it better?” she wondered aloud. She jumped up onto the cab seat, and stared admiringly at a smaller wheel set in the middle. “They’ve attached a steering wheel of some sorts to the front wheels to make it turn easier.” She leapt out of the cab in joy. “We’re in luck, Fluttershy, we can use this!” 

Fluttershy grinned as well, but that grin faded as a shriek of alarm echoed across the city. The cries of hundreds more goblins followed in its wake, their cries so loud the pegasus feared the ceiling would crack apart and fall on them. She didn’t need to look down to know why they cried out like that. “They’ve seen us,” she whispered in terror.

Twilight cantered around the cart. “Get on, Fluttershy, we’re getting out of here!” she declared determinedly. Fluttershy nodded and jumped onto the cart, sitting behind the wheel. With her on board, Twilight reared up, pressed her forelegs against the cart, and began to push it forward. 

It was heavy, much heavier than she thought it would be. She wanted to take into account the fact that there was a pony with a bit of a pudge on board, but then that would be saying that Fluttershy was fat, and her marefriend was not fat – just a little pudgy, that’s all. ‘She looks cute with that pudge, anyway,’ she thought, smiling to herself. 

She threw herself out of her thoughts when she felt the cart slowly begin to move on its own accord, and threw herself into the back. Fluttershy looked back and stared in wonder at her. “Um, if you’re not pushing the cart, then who is?”

“Gravity, my love,” Twilight replied with a wink, even as she felt the cart gradually start to build up speed. “The city levels are going at a downhill slop, small enough to be unnoticeable, but going down enough for gravity to take over and give us the force we need.” She pressed her legs into the cart as their escape vehicle began to move even faster. “You drive the cart around the corners, while I’ll try and keep any goblins from getting on board. Ready?”

Fluttershy nodded as bravely as she could. “Ready,” she answered, and turned around and put her hooves to the wheel. To be certain that it was working properly, she turned the wheel right. Sure enough, the wheels responded and the cart veered slightly to the right. She tried it by turning it left, and the wheels responded in kind. Fluttershy grinned to herself. ‘Now I’m ready,’ she thought, her eyes narrowing in determination.

Her eyes widened suddenly when a large horde of goblins appeared around the corner, and were charging blindly at the cart. “Please get out of the way!” she called, gesturing with a hoof to make them move. The goblins halted at the sight of the moving cart before them and collectively squealed in horror. Some jumped out of its path and cowered under or inside the houses, while others dropped their weapons, spun around and ran in the other direction, flaying their arms about and screaming like little girls. 

Twilight craned her neck and watched as goblins squealed and ran for their lives, and could not help but snigger. ‘Not so intimidating now, are they?’ she thought.

She changed her mind when one managed to jump onto the back of the cart with her, sneering venomously and brandishing a large sword. The goblin lunged forward and swung its sword from over its head. Twilight squeaked in alarm and jumped back, missing the sword strike by a few inches. She spun and kicked the goblin in the face with her hind legs, throwing the goblin off the cart and throwing other goblins that were trying to jump on to the ground. Another goblin clung to the end, trying to haul itself into the back.

Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder to watch Twilight step on the goblin’s fingers and throw him back to the ground, then looked ahead again to see to her horror that the sharp turning to the lower level was ahead. “Hold on!” she squealed, and yanked the wheel to the left. 

Twilight screamed as she felt the world spin for a bit, and she landed on her back with a thump. She then felt herself drift to the side of the cart, just as it began to rapidly turn around the corner and begin the descent to the next level. She took a deep breath and got back onto her hooves, ready to fight again if she had to. 

Fluttershy felt her heart hammer against her rib cage, as she repositioned herself after the turning. ‘I gave that a bit more than I should have,’ she thought. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and put her hooves on the wheel once more, feeling terrified, and yet, at the same time, tremendously excited. The cart was going rapidly, allowing her mane to fly through the air like a kite, and she could feel the air rushing against her face. She barely suppressed the thought of squealing with joy, despite the many goblins trying to get onto the cart and failing. ‘Why am I loving this so much?’ she wondered. 

Her excitement died in her heart and her stomach when she looked ahead and saw goblins armed with javelins spread across the road, and preparing to hurl them at her. “Duck!” she screamed, and took cover as the first goblin threw its javelin.

Twilight looked confused. “Why would a duck be in this city?” she asked herself, just as she saw the javelin sailing through the air towards her. “Ah!” she cried, before leaping forward to take cover behind the back of the seat. The javelin slammed tip-first into the cart, spraying splinters of wood across the cart. Twilight threw a hoof up to her face to protect herself from one splinter, which scratched at her leg and fell to the floor in front of her.  

She rolled out of the way of another as it came crashing down towards her, landing in the spot she had previously occupied. She saw another coming down, heading right towards Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, look out!” she screamed.

Fluttershy heard her warning and looked up, then shrieked in fright at the javelin coming down like rain towards her. She leapt into the back of the cart with her marefriend, feeling a pinch of wooden shrapnel hit her hind leg as the javelin destroyed the wheel and punctured through into the back.

Twilight stared at her prostrated marefriend for a second, then looked to the goblins standing in their way with murderous rage. ‘Right. Time to give them a taste of their own medicine,’ she thought. She stood up, and picked up one of the fallen javelins with her hooves. As she tried to get it straight and in a throwing position, it occurred to her that very rarely did she hold things with her hooves – she had always relied on her magic to keep things aloft. Now, she looked extremely awkward with it.

Yet, she would endure it for her marefriend’s sake.

She finally got it to point to the air, and with an almighty throw, lunged it at the goblin line. The javelin sailed through the air for a few inches, before diving back down and landing at an angle just in front of the wheels of the cart.

“Um… They got us, Fluttershy! Time to abandon cart!” Twilight screamed. She took Fluttershy by the hoof, and leapt off the back of the doomed vehicle, landing in a crumpled mess together on the ground.

Fluttershy was the first to raise her head, and looked behind to see what was about to happen. The cart slammed into the javelin, but instead of crushing it or a wheel breaking off, the cart simply rolled its right wheels along the titled javelin, which sent the cart onto its side. 

But the cart did not stop.

It began to spin and break apart, throwing large planks of wood everywhere and even throwing wheels. The goblins owning the javelins jumped to the side of the road, some missing a few pieces but others being hit across the head and chest with pieces of wood or metal. In the end, the cart stopped at the end of the road and exploded into a million pieces. 

As the goblins gathered themselves from the floor, Twilight and Fluttershy sprung to their hooves, and Twilight looked around them for anything that could give them a hasty escape. ‘There must be something to get us out of this,’ Twilight thought, looking at the debris scattered around her.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, was looking at something else. Her eyes, wide with horror, watched as several goblins on the level above them moved large ballistae into position, their bow-shaped fronts bent down so that the bolts nestled in the middle were aiming at the two ponies. The pegasus looked left and right, and saw goblins racing towards them with a look that curdled her blood. She finally looked down the other levels and saw more goblins running up the stairs to cut them off and take them prisoner – again.

As far as she could see, they were trapped.

Twilight, however, saw a way out; three large pieces of debris from the cart, nailed together and looking more like a sled than a part of a cart, resting just a few inches from the pair. She poked Fluttershy’s shoulder with a hoof, and with the other pointed to the pieces. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked, grinning maniacally. 

Fluttershy knew from Twilight’s look what she was intending, and she dearly wished she didn’t. “Um, that it might be best we surrender and hope to escape some other day?” she ventured, grinning sheepishly. 

Twilight’s grin disappeared to be replaced by a disappointed frown. Then, in a whirl of motion, Twilight grabbed the planks, turned it around so that it was facing the stairs, and stepped on the front; the goblins watched with curiosity. “Put all your hooves around my waist, spread your wings out, and hold on tight,” she ordered, sitting on her haunches.

Fluttershy quickly complied, and stepped onto the sled with a frantically beating heart. She threw her forehooves around Twilight’s shoulders, and wrapped her rear hooves around Twilight’s waist. “I’m ready. Go,” she squeaked, clenching her eyes shut and burying her head in Twilight’s mane. 

Twilight nodded, though she began to feel the nerves of what she was about to do fill her heart. She lowered her body closer to the wood, and with her forehooves pushed towards the stairs. “Hold on,” she said, before giving a final push over the edge and down the stairs.

Twilight could feel the air of the cavern rush past her face, tingling every nerve, every hair on her coat, and every bump they hit as they went down, making her eyes water at the speed they were going. She could hear the cries of alarm from the goblins they had just left behind, as well as those in front, especially the terrified screams of her marefriend directly behind her, sending painful ringing into her ears. 

She suddenly heard another sound – one that was neither screaming nor cries of alarm, but of utter destruction. She looked left, and her eyes widened in horror as a ballista bolt fired by the goblins had shot straight through a part of the frames keeping a house level against the mountainside, and the house was falling after them.

“Keep hold of me, sweetheart!” Twilight yelled, and suddenly swerved left off the stairs and back onto the winding road, missing another ballista bolt as it slammed into another house, throwing parts of rock into more goblins trying to catch up to them. 

The pegasus watched the building fall apart and disappear down the side of the mountain, possibly crushing some goblins. Fluttershy turned her head away, sickened by what she had seen. ‘Such a pointless waste of life,’ she thought.

A thundering thud beside her brought Fluttershy out of her lamentation, and turned just to see a large bolt land beside their makeshift sled. They quickly left it behind. Another smashed through a house’s stands in front of them, slowly throwing the ancient structure to the road and the two ponies. “Go right!” Fluttershy yelled, pointing to the intended direction. 

Twilight saw the house’s structure beginning to break apart, and instantly tilted her body so that the sled veered right. Thankfully, the sled complied and began to move towards the edge. The unicorn sighed quietly in relief, and then looked back at the building ahead of them. To her horror, the house was beginning to collapse faster than she had calculated, and was now sliding rapidly down the short length of hill and towards the path. ‘We’re doomed,’ she realised.

Fluttershy saw the potential collision course as well, and immediately started to think. ‘Come on, Fluttershy, think, think, think,’ she thought, mentally tapping her head. ‘We need to go faster than we are now, or else we’ll be crushed by that thing. We need a boost of some sort, something like… wings.’ She looked back at her wings, which fidgeted excitedly at her sides, and smirked. 

With a rapid spin, nearly knocking Twilight off the sled, she firmly set her back against Twilight, wrapped her hooves around the unicorn’s belly, and regally spread her wings out. With her teeth gritted together, and a prayer to keep her strong, she pulled her wings back slowly, and once they were as far back as she could put them, thrust them forward. 

Twilight felt a massive surge of speed beneath her, and pressed her hooves into the sled even harder to keep herself on. ‘How is this possible?’ she wondered. She looked back, and her eyes widened and her mouth hung open as she watched Fluttershy flap her wings forward and send them going faster and faster. ‘She really is the pony for me,’ she thought, smiling. She wordlessly looked ahead again and concentrated on avoiding the building breaking apart ahead of them, as well as the many ballista bolts being hurled at them from above. 

Twilight swung the sled to the left as a piece of the house rolled in the front of her, the noise it made with its rolling sounding like thunder. Twilight didn’t have time to celebrate, as an even bigger piece was coming down and heading straight for them. “Faster, Fluttershy!” she yelled. She lowered her body down to make the sled faster and more streamlined.

Fluttershy heard her, and began to flap her wings even faster, putting her all into forcing the two of them to slide faster. Luckily, her wing power was just enough to get them away from the falling building and away from other debris that rolled or flew down the hillside and slammed into other houses, smashing them asunder and joining the mass landslide that was now happening across the city. 

Fluttershy could only stare in horror at the sight before her. Thousands of years of history, a city created before she was even thought of, was coming down the hill like an avalanche, throwing goblins off their feet and crushing them, and all of this caused by the goblins themselves – well, they too had a part to blame for this destruction since they were the ones being shot at. 

Fluttershy’s ears flickered at the sound of quiet sniffing, and turned her head to see Twilight staring ahead, her face a mask of concentration, yet nopony could miss the tears building up in her eyes. “So… much… history… gone,” she whispered excruciatingly, trying not to look back out of fear that she would be wailing at the knowledge being destroyed.

Fluttershy stared at her sympathetically, and gently gave her back an affectionate nuzzle. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer, anyway. Just concentrate on guiding us out of here, like getting us past that turning there.”

Twilight’s eyes snapped back to full attention, and saw to her alarm that a turning was coming up. “Hold on!” she called, and tilted her body to the right as they entered the turning. Fluttershy tightened her hold on the mare as pressed her hooves into the sled, praying she wouldn’t slip off. 

Yet, even with the pressure she was adding to the sled, it didn’t seem to be enough. 

Just as the two rounded the bend and about to go onto the straight, Fluttershy felt one of her hooves slip off the sled and drag across the ground. She tried to lift it off the ground and back onto the sledge, but it caught against a rock, pulling her off Twilight. With a scream, she fell forward and rolled off the sled.

Twilight felt the lack of pressure against her hips, and looked back. She could only stare in horror as Fluttershy rolled to a stop, and as another house began to fall towards her. “FLUTTERSHY!”

Fluttershy looked up at the scream of Twilight’s voice, and then turned right as the building began to rapidly fall towards her. ‘Time to go,’ she thought, gulping in fear. She leapt to her hooves and began to gallop after Twilight, paying little heed to the ballista bolts being fired blindly in her direction. One landed just by her side, throwing up patches of dirt. Another sailed over her head and smashed its way through another building, sending a whole corner of the house into piles of rubble.

Fluttershy breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then looked up once more at the houses coming down. To her horror, more and more buildings were now starting to join the mighty avalanche that was raining down on them; she could make out several goblins trying to escape the mindless destruction their brothers were causing, only to disappear into the dust clouds. Though she considered them enemies, she didn’t wish any serious harm on any of them. ‘I hope they managed to get out all right,’ she thought. She looked back at the buildings and saw that she would never escape the majority preparing to roll onto the path ahead of her. ‘Time to think of something else.’

She saw another building coming towards her, and, with her wings, brought herself to a halt. She waited like a pony would wait at a level crossing for a train to pass as the building tumbled down the hill, across the path and down the other end. Fluttershy puffed out a breath of air, before galloping after the rolling building.

Twilight, meanwhile, was doing her best trying to avoid the ballista bolts being fired at her, while also trying to veer past the loose debris of the city as it collapsed around her. She swerved the makeshift sled left as a bolt slammed into the ground, and crouched low as a piece of debris hopped and flew over her head. ‘This is getting crazy,’ she thought, her eyes widening as she watched a whole house fall down the hill ahead of her. ‘Oh, I hope Fluttershy’s okay.’

She wanted to stop and wait for her marefriend to catch up so that the two could escape together, but secretly, she knew it would be a terrible idea to stop. Not only would it risk them being captured once more, but it would risk one if not both of their lives, especially if one decided to stay in one place and wait for the other to catch up. It was a logical thought, but one that Twilight hated herself for bringing up. ‘I’m sure Fluttershy has thought of something to catch up with me,’ she assured herself.

She looked back to be sure, and her eyes widened further than she had ever thought they would. “What in the world?” she shrieked, her mouth hanging open like an inviting cave.

Fluttershy was galloping across the tops of the houses as they fell down the hillside. Her wings were spread out, as though she was ready to fly at a moment’s notice. Her eyes were fixed ahead into a concentrated stare, wandering every now and then to look for something she could stand on. Yet she didn’t look afraid that she might be crushed by heavy rocks, or miss or get a calculation wrong. She just looked like it was a normal day for her. 

It reminded Twilight of how a panther would get around by leaping from branch to branch on trees in the jungle regions of Terra. And she couldn’t have been more amazed by it. ‘Knowing her, she probably had practice with a few of her animal friends,’ she thought, imaging Fluttershy running through the jungle with a group of panthers behind her. 

The slamming of a ballista bolt beside her forced Twilight to look ahead again, and concentrate on getting to the bridge below. ‘Just one more level to pass through and then it’s over the bridge. Keep going, Twilight.’

Fluttershy had almost forgotten the last time she had jumped from tree to tree like a kitty cat in the jungle. Yet as she pressed her hooves into the stone, concentrated as her life and her love depended on it, the memories and the training came back to her. ‘Just watch for any opportunities, calculate the distances carefully, and jump and pray you can make it,’ she reminded herself. 

She watched as a smaller piece of city building slid down the hill at a rapid rate, and saw her opportunity. She leapt from the building, tucked her legs in and glided after the smaller piece. Fluttershy smirked thinly as she soon caught up with it, and landed gracefully on the top. Her weight slowed down the debris, but not by much, which she was surprised about. ‘Surely I must have lost a lot of weight since we started this adventure,’ she thought.

She put that thought to one side when she saw a group of goblins on the road ahead, aiming their bows at Twilight, who was coming down the path at a rapid speed. Fluttershy knew she had to act fast. “GOBLINS!” she bellowed.

The goblins instantly turned at her call, and their eyes widened at the sight of more of the city coming down at them. They instantly turned their aims to her, and loosed. Fluttershy could hear Twilight screaming at her to get out of the way, but the pegasus was prepared. Just before the arrows could hit, she jumped back, landed on the ground and slid down the hill on her bum, using her wings to keep herself steady. 

Fluttershy heard a screech or two emitted from the other side of the rock, followed by the sound of rock smashing into flesh. She looked left and right, watching as goblins were thrown to the ground like bowling pins. “Sorry!” she called to them, even as she could see their eyes rolling in their sockets.

She made it to the flat, and set herself back on all fours while looking at the city around her. Most of the eastern side by now was destroyed, with many of the buildings of the higher levels crashing into the homes on the lower levels. Thanks to them, most of the avalanche was stopped, but a few buildings’ remains had made it to the bottom and were now blocking the bridge. ‘I guess we will have to climb over all of that,’ Fluttershy realised, slouching a bit. 

She suddenly felt something akin to a hoof holding her own, and looked up just in time to see Twilight whooshing past her, her hoof still holding onto her own. “Uh oh,” she whispered, before screaming in alarm as Twilight dragged her behind the sled. She quickly recovered, however, and lifted herself into the air to the point she was gliding like a kite.

“Are you all right, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, glancing back at her with a look of concern and, to the pegasus’s surprise, awe. 

“I’m fine, thank you,” Fluttershy replied, trying her best to reply normally with the speed they were going. She looked ahead, and her eyes bulged in fright. “Look out!”

Twilight shot her head around to look ahead once more, and squeaked in fright as they entered the turning too quickly, and heading straight for the wall. “Jump!” she cried, and quickly pushed herself off the sled, skidding across the ground and bruising her belly. The sled itself smashed into the wall, shredding itself into a thousand pieces.

That didn’t matter to Twilight now. It did its job. They had made it to the bottom of the city. 

Fluttershy fluttered to the ground, her hoof still in Twilight’s hold, and gently hauled her up. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, the familiar sound of a ballista bolt being loosed from its machine filled her ears. 

“Get down!” Twilight yelled, and instantly pushed Fluttershy and herself to the ground. A bolt glided over their heads, threatening to take their manes with it, before crashing into a small stone hut situated by the side of the canyon. The top half of the hut disappeared into the canyon, leaving only the crumbling bottom half dangling over the edge. 

Fluttershy was the first up, panting heavily from her run from building to building, and quickly looked behind to see the goblins racing down the hill towards them. “Twilight, get up, they’re coming down!” she yelled, shaking the unicorn.

Twilight instantly brought her head up, her mouth forming an O in horror. “Come on!” she shouted, taking her marefriend’s hoof and breaking into a gallop towards the bridge, which was now just on the other side of a pile of rubble, the height of a house and the length of a garden wall. “That was amazing, by the way, you leaping from building to building. How did you do it?” she asked as Fluttershy raced ahead. 

“Ask me again when we get out of this,” Fluttershy replied breathlessly. She leapt onto the pile of rubble and began to climb up, little caring of where she put her hooves but with freedom first and foremost on her mind. 

Twilight followed seconds later. She could feel her limbs shake and ache heavily with fatigue, to the point she thought she might collapse from the strain she was putting them through. Yet she carried on, for freedom’s sake. And her marefriend’s. 

She glanced to her right, and saw to her horror a group of five goblins were now level with them, and preparing to loose their bows at the pair. “Leap up!” Twilight cried, just as the goblins loosed their arrows.

Fluttershy heard her and without thought, she leapt forward, only to find herself on the other side of the wall with only a straight drop below her. She yelped as she made the short drop to the ground, landing on her belly with a squeaky, “Ow!” She glanced to the top of the wall behind her, and sighed in relief when she saw the large number of arrows resting where she had been standing previously. ‘We survived that. Now we have to get over the bridge,’ she thought, the image of fresh air and wide-open spaces pleasing her greatly. 

A low grunt of pain to her left swung her head around, and she frowned worriedly as Twilight got up, rubbing her belly. “You okay, sweetie?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked her way and smiled assuredly, nodding. “I’m fine, thanks,” she replied. She broke into a gallop, just as another arrow slammed into the ground between them. “Now let’s get out of… here,” Twilight said, her confident grin fading into a look of horror as she stared ahead.

Fluttershy followed her gaze, and nearly screamed in fright at the sight of Krull and an army of goblins armed with spears, swords and bows barring their way over the bridge. She could even see the one that had given Twilight the bandages by Krull’s side, brandishing a massive broadsword. Krull himself held around his fat fingers a large one-headed axe, rusty and as fat as its owner was. 

Twilight turned around to try to find another way past them, only to find more goblins had positioned themselves on the high ground, aiming sharp and rusty arrows at the couple. ‘We’re trapped… again,’ she realised, slumping in defeat. Fluttershy inched closer to Twilight, her coat rubbing affectionately against hers. 

“Why must you consider fleeing from us, ponies?” Krull asked pleadingly, taking a step towards them. The goblins behind bent their knees and prepared to attack. “Can’t you see that we only want to keep you safe? Cause if you plan to head that way, and leave this mountain,” he pointed towards the bridge, “then only death awaits you both.”

Fluttershy began to shake in fright as his words sunk in. Twilight, however, seemed unfazed by the thought, and defiantly stepped forward. “I would rather die by my own choosing than forced to live my life as a slave to a bunch of greedy goblins, all but forgotten by everypony I have ever loved,” she declared, taking another step forward. 

“But surely that is better than the short life you will surely have if you leave this mountain?” Krull queried. He threw his arms into the air. “If you stay, the pair of you will be hailed as gods! Givers of life, food, and goodwill to the goblins under my reign! You will even be allowed to wander the mountain as you both see fit, even see the farms that you will help provide!” Krull’s voice lowered into a gentler tone. “You can both be married here, too. Wife and wife, free to wander the range and watch as the years pass by, free of the strife that plagues the civilised world. Here, you will only find peace.”

Fluttershy’s eyebrows slowly went up through Krull’s speech, until they were at the top of her forehead. ‘You gotta admit, he makes a pretty good argument,’ she reasoned to herself.

Twilight still didn’t see the benefits of staying, however, and slowly shook her head. “We will still be prisoners here, Krull. Cages or none, we are still bound to the mountain and the space around it, unable to leave, never to see our home nor our friends and family,” she replied. “No matter what you do, we will still be prisoners to your mercy, and that is something I cannot go through with.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and moved herself to Twilight’s side. “Neither can I,” she said, keeping her head held high. Although Krull had admittedly made some good points, she knew that Twilight made the most sense. To stay here would mean they would still be prisoners, and that’s what they had been running to escape from since their first encounter with the goblin king. 

Krull snorted, his hold on his axe tightening. “So you still refuse to surrender?”

Twilight lowered her head, snarling, and prepared to charge like a bull. “Yes. We will not – we cannot surrender,” she responded, willing and ready to fight if she needed to.  

Krull made no move to attack, yet he did back down. He simply stood there, his eyes wandering between the two ponies as though judging by which to strike first. Fluttershy instantly took a step and moved to stand behind her marefriend, whimpering in fear. Around her, goblins trained their bows on Twilight, knowing she would be the one to give them the greater resistance. 

However, they should not have forgotten the strength the pegasus knew she had in her. All she needed to do was to bring it forward and show the meanies that she meant business… but then again, judging by the arrows aiming their way, she was perfectly happy just standing where she was. 

Twilight chose to ignore her fidgeting marefriend for a moment, and instead locked her gaze with Krull’s, waiting for the moment that he would strike and Fluttershy and herself would be locked in a vicious battle for their lives. [i[‘We should attack first. We have surprise on our side, for they will never expect two ponies to attack a king and his army of around two hundred goblins first, cause we will be killed instantly. You know what, forget surprise,’ she thought. So she simply waited. 

She didn’t have much longer to wait. 

Krull let out an almighty roar, the sound of which caused the mountain above them to tremble slightly, then charged for Twilight, his axe head over his shoulder. He only made a single step before stopping once more, and made no move afterwards, his face locked in a fierce struggle.

Twilight took a step back in shock. ‘What’s happening to him?’ she wondered. She could see from the goblins behind the king that they had little to no idea what was happening as well. She looked back into Krull’s eyes, and her coat hairs stood up on end as she saw flashes of dark green and black race across the goblin’s vision.

‘No… it… it can’t be.’

Fluttershy noticed the growing look of horror on Twilight’s face, and moved to comfort her. “Twilight? Twilight, what’s wrong?” she asked, setting her hooves on the mare’s cheeks. Twilight didn’t even look away, prompting the pegasus to stare at Krull. ‘What is she even looking at?’ she wondered, tilting her head left and right to decipher what had her lover so terrified.

Before she could really understand what it was, Krull blinked repeatedly, the darkness shrouding his eyes disappearing and showing the blue of his eyes a lot clearer than they just did, and he staggered forward, throwing the head of his axe to the ground. The goblins behind rushed forward to help, but he raised an arm up, ordering them to stop. 

“Twilight, what the heck just happened?” Fluttershy whispered, swinging her body round so that that her side rubbed against her marefriend’s. Twilight did not reply, but continued to stare at Krull as he brought himself upright, staring menacingly at the two ponies. 

For a long moment, silence reigned across the ruined city, save for the sounds of clinking armour, shuffling hooves and swords being partially drawn from scabbards. Twilight and Fluttershy glanced at one another, wordlessly telling themselves to be ready to fight, and together they prepared to break through with hoof and teeth if need be. 

Finally, the Goblin Master spoke. “Fine,” he wheezed, clearly wounded by whatever happened to him. “If you two so wish to die in the wilderness, then I will not stop you.” He straightened his back, raised a claw to the air and yelled, “STAND DOWN!” 

Twilight stared incredulously at Krull, disbelieving of his words, and then looked around at the army surrounding them. A few goblins reluctantly lowered their bows, rested their spears and sheathed their swords, but most of them appeared to be just as confused as she was, keeping their weapons aimed at the ponies yet looking around with raised eyebrows. ‘Why is he doing this?’ she wondered, looking back at Krull. 

“I said stand down!” Krull yelled once more, the sound of agitation plain in his voice. “And clear the city! I want everyone back underground right away! Do it, or there will be no rations for those who ain’t underground in less than half an hour!”

At once, the ponies seemed to be all but forgotten by the mention of rations. The goblins rested their weapons and fled into the darkness, each of them shoving their way towards the nearest entrance to the goblin caves. Fluttershy, stunned by the sudden turn of events, could only stare with wide eyes and an open mouth as the goblins all but abandoned the city. 

Finally, all that was left of the goblin army was Krull, twenty of his followers, and the ruined eastern side of the city. “If you both should ever return to this city, then I will not be so merciful with you as I was,” he warned, causing Fluttershy to inch closer to Twilight, trembling in fright.

Twilight snorted, her eyes narrow with anger. “You can try,” she stated disdainfully.

Krull sneered, but did not say a word in response. He bobbed his head to the pair, then turned around and led his close followers to an open trap door waiting for them. Krull went through first, followed one after the other by his followers. Eventually, the last one went through, and the trap door closed, leaving Twilight and Fluttershy standing alone and before the bridge.

Fluttershy’s eyes wandered the now desolate city, her breathing loud and heavy and her eyes wide. She couldn’t believe it. After all of that, after Twilight was fatally wounded, and subsequently healing herself minutes afterward, running from a horde of goblins and avoiding a few chances of death, the goblins had simply given up and gone home. 

‘What… what just happened?’ she asked herself. Was it a trick? Surely it was a trick. The goblins couldn’t have simply given up like that. She looked up at the slopes of the city above her, checking for any sign of movement, or at least a ballista being cranked into position. But not even one of those caught her ears or met her eyes. They were all gone, as if they were not ever there. 

“Fluttershy?” The sudden gentleness of Twilight’s voice caused the pegasus to shriek and jump in fright, only to quickly calm herself when she remembered she wasn’t alone after all. “Are you all right?” Fluttershy gave a few rapid nods in response. “Then let’s get out of here before they change their minds,” Twilight stated, before throwing one hoof forward. 

For some reason she was not sure why, Fluttershy felt compelled to stay where she was. “But what about the go–?”

“There’s no time to think about that,” Twilight replied quickly, almost rudely. “We have to go. Now.” With that, she broke into a gallop towards the bridge. “Come on, sweetheart!”

At the sight of her marefriend crossing the bridge without her, Fluttershy’s legs freed themselves from their prison and she began to walk forward. “Wait!” she called after her, breaking into a hasty gallop. As she made it onto the bridge and over the black ravine below, Fluttershy briefly wondered what had Twilight so worried. ‘It has to be something about what happened to Krull,’ she reasoned to herself, just as she was catching up to Twilight. ‘I will have to ask her about it when we get out of here.’

With the pair free from the goblins, and the way opened to them, the ponies galloped over the bridge, through the city, and on the road out of the mountain.





The river before her was wide, faster than the stream she had outside her home, but like that, there was a crossing for them. A large group of rocks were clustered together and sticking out of the river like a group of fingers from a hiding dragon, ready to clench around its prey and eat them in one bit. 

Fluttershy shook her head at the thought of a dragon, and took a deep breath to calm the sudden growth of fear she had felt rising in her chest. ‘Try not to think about a dragon,’ she told herself. 

She soon felt as calm as she could be again, and took a good look around. Covering the ground, the edges of the river, even some of the mountainsides that she could see, were a large amount of pine, oak, acorn, and an assortment of other trees she could name. On the other side of the river, a dirt road, barren of prints of any shape or size, veered into the forest and out of sight. Beyond the forest, two great mountains stood like guard towers at the end of the valley, parts of their sides sticking out like balconies to a great castle. 

“I take it we have to go between those mountains there, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, pointing with half a leg raised. She looked behind her, and nearly screamed in shock when her marefriend was nowhere to be seen. “Twilight?” she asked timidly, looking around for any trace of her. “Twilight!”

“I’m here!” Twilight yelled in reply. “I’m all right, I’m just, uh… busy.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she whispered. “Okay. Sorry if I disturbed you, I should have realised. I’m just here, if you need me at all. Don’t let me stop you.” She turned back towards the mountains, humming a cheery tune to herself and scraping an idle hoof against the ground. ‘I hope she doesn’t take too long,’ she thought. She sat on her rump and looked at the sky, which had a bright orange glow just above the edge of the horizon as the sun started to disappear, reflecting on the events that brought them here. 

Once the pair had made it out of the mountain, they found before them a long, steady slope heading down the mountain and into a valley. Bigger than the Everfree Forest and Whitetail Woods combined, a ring of mountains surrounded the valley, with a single gap in the northern edge to form a pass. Within the valley were two large forests, divided by a single river that ran through the middle and into the pass beyond. And here and there were large clearings, where the ground was tended to and a few small huts with smoke flowing out of the chimney were situated.

“I guess those are the goblin farms Krull wanted us to ‘help’ with,” Twilight guessed, creating little quotes with her hooves to emphasise the word ‘help’. 

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “We better avoid those if we want to get out of here,” she said. 

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Should be easy enough, so long as we stick to the main road.”

“What main road?”

“The long brown thing running down there,” Twilight replied, pointing at the bottom of the mountain where a dirt road wound its way through the forest, passing by the farms as though they didn’t exist. 

Fluttershy followed the road right until she couldn’t see it anymore, and nodded. Silently, the two ponies began the exhausting trek down the mountainside, straining to hold themselves steady and not slip and fall the whole way down. Fluttershy slipped several times, but thanks to quick thinking and her wings, she was able to steady herself a bit later and continue as if nothing had happened. And with her in front, Twilight was able to keep steady and not tumble as well. 

After they had made it to the bottom of the mountain and began the walk through the valley – intending to make it to the very end before the night set in – they passed ancient ruins of old earth pony huts that used to dominate the landscape, but were now the home of creepy crawlies, or cuties as Fluttershy liked to call them. The buildings themselves were just a small square with an open roof, or had part of a roof but it was covered in vines and such; the floor of the houses were covered in weeds, plants and grass that was growing through cracks. 

‘The world’s taking back this place,’ Twilight had thought, staring solemnly at the ruins they passed. ‘And soon nothing of our ancestors’ homes will be left for ponies to find.’

The melancholy nature of Twilight did not go unnoticed by Fluttershy, who found herself glancing back at her every so often to be certain that she was all right and still following her. ‘Come on, Fluttershy, ask her what’s wrong and help her. It’s what you are meant to do, being her marefriend and all,’ she thought. But every time she was about to ask her, she turned her head away at the last second, too afraid of what might happen if she did. ‘I shouldn’t pry like that. She probably has enough on her mind to think about. I don’t think she would appreciate having little old me barge in on her business.’

That was nearly three hours ago. Now, the solemnity coming from Twilight was starting to affect Fluttershy, and it was annoying her. ‘I can’t keep going on like this. I should ask her straight and firm what’s bothering her, and seal the deal with a hug,’ she thought. She nodded to herself, a smile growing on her face at the thought. A hug would be perfect for something like comforting a girlfriend. 

When Twilight finally emerged from the bushes, her tail flickering, her strides heavy, and her lips formed into a deep frown, Fluttershy leapt forward and wrapped her forelegs around the unicorn, nuzzling her neck affectionately. Seeing her looking that miserable was something Fluttershy could not stand. Not anymore. 

Twilight’s eyes widened and her mouth opened at the feeling of the hug, and she instantly shivered as she felt Fluttershy’s coat hairs rub against her own. “What… what is this for, sweetheart?” she asked, hesitantly moving a hoof around her partner’s back in return.

“You looked as if you needed one,” Fluttershy replied, humming as she nuzzled the back of Twilight’s neck with her face. The pegasus pulled away, never letting her hold of the unicorn go, and smiled worriedly. “What’s wrong, Twilight? You haven’t been acting right since we left the goblin kingdom. Aren’t you happy that we’ve escaped?”

Twilight smiled assuredly. “Of course I am. It’s just that…” she tried to think of what to say and explain it to her, but nothing easy to understand came to mind. Instead she sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head. “It’s nothing. Really. It’s nothing.” She let go of Fluttershy and walked around her, staring towards the river. “I take it we need to follow the river out of here?”

Fluttershy, however, wasn’t buying the change of subject, and she didn’t want to let it slide. She cantered past Twilight and blocked her path once more, glaring at her. “Don’t shut me out, Twilight. We promised we would never hold secrets from one another from now on.” Twilight looked away, ashamed of herself. Fluttershy continued. “I know you. Something has you worried and thinking more than you like to.” Fluttershy’s glare softened, allowing the unicorn to once more look at her marefriend without shame. “Please, tell me what’s wrong. I only want to help you.”  

After a moment, Twilight subtly nodded. “I know.” She began to walk slowly, gesturing with head for Fluttershy to follow. “I suppose you noticed that Krull acted strangely before he let us go?”

Fluttershy thought for a moment, taking the time to watch her steps for sharp rocks as they crossed the river. Once they reached the other side, their legs dripping wet and leaving a trail in their wake, she nodded. “Yes, I did. Before he gave the order, he sort of froze in place. It was as if something else was in his place.”

Twilight nodded, glancing ahead of her as they walked up a small incline and deeper into the forest. “Yes. So did you notice anything strange in his eyes at that moment?”

‘In his eyes?’ Fluttershy repeated the question in her head, noting the strangeness of it. This time, she shook her head. “Sorry.”

Twilight giggled. “No need to apologise for it, my dear. I imagine you couldn’t see it due to its nature. Even most unicorns can’t see it, save the most powerful, like the Princess, Star Swirl the Bearded said he did, and…”

“And you?” Fluttershy finished, gazing at her admirably.

Twilight felt her cheeks modestly turn pink at Fluttershy’s flattery. “Well, yes, that could also mean me, but I don’t think so. I don’t believe I could ever surpass Star Swirl’s abilities in magic. But anyway, I’m going off topic.” She shook her head rapidly, and her face returned to its grim frown. “I believe what I saw going through his head was negative magic, or ‘dark’ magic as it is better known.”

Fluttershy visibly paled at the words coming out of Twilight’s mouth. “Dark magic?” Twilight nodded. “You mean like Discord’s magic?”

Twilight shook her head, lessening the pegasus’s fears. “Not exactly like Discord’s, my love. You see, magic is divided into three casts by philosophers who study it: Positive magic, negative magic, and chaos magic. Chaos magic, strangely, is neutral, as that can help benefit ponies as well as hinder them. Though Discord was a nuisance, and a tyrant, he used his powers to create a playground for himself, which never ultimately caused everlasting harm.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, before Twilight continued. “Positive magic is created through the thought of harmony, like love, kindness and the want to help without any self-gain. This involves healing, levitation, and most magic used across Equestria, come to think of it.”

Fluttershy nodded, though she could feel a mild headache coming on about all the different elements of magic. ‘Why couldn’t magic be just one simple blob like Play-Doh?’ she thought. ‘Learning it would be much simpler.’ “I see, I think,” she said aloud. “So that once in a lifetime regeneration spell you used on yourself. Does that count as positive magic?” 

Twilight nodded, grinning. “Now you’re getting it,” she said. She looked ahead again. “Yes, any type of healing, no matter how powerful, are born from positive thoughts or emotions such as love.” She lowered her head and bashfully muttered, “Like the love I have for you.”

Fluttershy squeaked and spluttered bashfully upon hearing Twilight, her cheeks – her whole face, actually – burning pink. Though bashful about it, she was ecstatic to know she had helped Twilight in willing the spell to be cast.

Twilight merely giggled and looked away, deciding to keep silent for a bit. The pair stayed silent for a while, taking a moment to enjoy the scenery around them and the stillness of the valley. Above them, the moon was already up, a dull silver sphere in the twilight sky, even as the sun was halfway under the horizon. 

It was when they entered a rocky and hilly clearing did Fluttershy break the silence between them. “So what about negative magic, if you don’t mind me asking? How does that work?”

Twilight’s smile gradually faded into a solemn frown. “Negative magic is a terrible power, Fluttershy, and is unfortunately the most powerful of the three forms. The three Princesses are the only ones I know of these days that can wield it as well as the two casts of magic. You see, negative magic is born from thoughts of hate, fear, ambition, aggression, that sort of thing. It was the power that corrupted King Sombra when he took over the Crystal Empire, and what nearly took hold of Trixie when she possessed the alicorn amulet. It was that power running through Krull’s mind, my love. It was that power, the power of another being, which allowed us to escape the goblin kingdom.”

Fluttershy’s mouth parted in growing horror, yet her mind was settling into mild confusion. “But… how is that possible? Wouldn’t we have seen the caster?”

Again, Twilight shook her head solemnly. “Not entirely, my love. Like I said earlier, negative magic is born and created from negative thoughts and emotions. When magic is cast, it gives out a shockwave of power, like an aftershock, that if powerful enough could encircle the entire world. The same with negative magic, except that if their hate or whatever is strong enough, the cast will be more powerful, and could mildly influence other ponies’ behaviour.”

“Mildly? You mean, negative magic users can corrupt ponies from the other side of the ocean?”

Twilight hesitantly nodded. “Only the most powerful negative magic casters could do that, and not even Sombra was capable of such a feat.” Twilight turned away, almost to mutter to herself. “So for Krull to be corrupted and influenced the way he was, the caster must be extraordinarily ancient and powerful to do that, and must have a source somewhere in this area for him or her to cast that type of power.” Twilight’s face hardened into a concentrated stare. “Whatever’s happening around here, I will find out what.”

Fluttershy could only mutter to herself, “I am so confused,” as the pair trundled on out of the clearing and back into the clustered woodland.

Hours later, as more and more stars began to appear and light the sky up like beacons, the couple finally made it in the shadow of the mountains, and the gateway leading out of the valley and into the other kingdoms. 

Though it wasn’t the flat and wide space between the mountains that they were expecting, however, but a massive wall of rock about the height of Twilight’s library. “Must have been a giant rockslide that caused this,” Twilight said aloud, her eyes wandering across the many rocks that piled on top of one another. 

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, her legs shaking under her weight. “Twilight… I don’t think I could go on any further… I’m… I’m exhausted…” To prove the statement, she took another step, then fell forward. 

Twilight instantly jumped forward and caught her in her grasp, whooshing out a breath of air as Fluttershy’s body fell onto her. “Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” she whispered, softly stroking Fluttershy’s mane. She looked above and beyond the wall, and to her delight saw an entrance to a cave just on top of the wall. ‘Perfect for the night, at least,’ she thought. 

After throwing the exhausted pegasus on her back and making sure she was comfortable, Twilight began the climb up the rockslide and to the top. It was easier than it looked, with ample places for her to set her hooves firmly in place, and even better the rocks did not shift in place; it was as if they were glued together. ‘Could it be a wall the earth ponies built to keep unicorns and pegasi out of their valley?’ she wondered. If it was, then there was even more evidence that their hatred for one another was more than just one-on-one squabbles and the like, but all-out war. 

But the weary unicorn put any more thoughts about the world around her and her girlfriend back for the moment, as she was too knackered from so much thinking, running, healing, dying that she didn’t want to think again. ‘Tomorrow. When I am fully recovered, then I can think again.’

She soon made it to the top with no difficulty, and sloppily walked towards the cave. Once inside, and no longer feeling the cold wind against her coat and face, Twilight took a good look around. The cave itself was long and narrow, with a large space at the far end with a single pillar holding the ceiling up, and surrounded by jagged walls. As she walked further in, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no potential places for predators to hide and snack on them later. 

“This will do,” Fluttershy said quietly, letting out an adorable yawn when she finished. “Won’t it?” 

“It will do just fine, my love,” Twilight whispered, falling to her knees and allowing Fluttershy to get off and land on her side, panting for breath. After that, Twilight dragged herself over to the pillar and set herself along it. Once she felt comfortable, the unicorn let out a sigh of relaxation. “Come here, Fluttershy. We can stay together to keep warm,” she said gently, patting the spot in front of her.

Though Fluttershy was exhausted, she couldn’t turn down a time to cuddle with her marefriend. With little effort, she dragged herself to Twilight, until her side was resting against her; Twilight’s head was resting on top of hers, and the unicorn’s hooves were wrapped around her, caressing her gently. 

For a moment, the two simply enjoyed the pleasure of feeling each other’s presence, and the sound of their content breathing. It was when the darkness of the night finally shrouded the pair did Twilight finally speak. “That was amazing, by the way.”

Fluttershy opened her eyes and glanced behind her. “What was?”

“You jumping over the buildings as they collapsed and fell around you,” Twilight replied. “How on earth did you learn such a thing?”

Fluttershy blushed. “Oh, well, before I met you and we all became best friends, I would sometimes go to other places and see and help other amazing animals. Well, once I went to the jungles south of Equestria, and that’s where I came across a panther and his family.

“They were awfully sweet to me. They protected me from other, more fearsome creatures, showed me their world, and even taught me how to run through the jungle like them. I thought the techniques would apply to the falling buildings as well as frozen trees.”

Twilight was glad that it did, or else she wouldn’t have someone to hold tonight. “I’m glad, too,” she whispered. She suddenly let out a yawn. “Well, I guess we should get some sleep. We got a long day or two tomorrow.”

“Or five,” Fluttershy said, smiling. She rested her head back on the ground. “Goodnight, sweetie.”

“Goodnight, Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered in response, continuing to caress her lover’s body. She allowed her head to gently fall on top of Fluttershy’s, and slowly closed her eyes, her hoof caressing her lover’s body beginning to slow. 

Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open upon feeling her marefriend’s hoof stop its soothing caresses, and she could feel her cheeks start to burn. “Um, Twilight, sweetie?”

Twilight hummed in response, nuzzling the back of Fluttershy’s neck and drearily opening her eyes. “Yeah?”

“Is that your hoof on my, uh… cutie mark?”

Twilight’s eyes shot open as well, and she glanced down her shoulder to see that her hoof was now resting on Fluttershy’s flank, right on top of her three butterflies. ‘Eep,’ she thought. She quickly pulled her leg away and set it around the pegasus’s barrel once more. “Sorry.”

Fluttershy smiled widely as her eyes fluttered shut. “It’s all right. I should have expected it, really. You are the ‘horny one’, after all,” she said, giggling in remembrance.

Twilight merely grumbled in annoyance, while Fluttershy continued to giggle quietly before she went to sleep, feeling safe in the warm embrace of her lover.

Twilight finished her grumbling and looked down at her marefriend, feeling a faint smile spread over her face at the sight of her sleeping partner. ‘How can I grumble at such a cute little thing like her?’ she asked herself. She lowered her head on top of Fluttershy’s once more and closed her eyes.

Before long, she was away in dreams of the future, dark and bright, sad and happy, yet no matter what it was, Fluttershy was always there for her.