“Call me Discord”, Twilight Sparkle reread that last line. She had heard that name before, yet, she could not place it. Twilight carefully closed the book, levitating it back up to the shelf and returning it to its hiding place among the ancient tomes.
Continuing on her way, Twilight turned a corner only to be faced with more of the same. Books, countless books, the corridor stretched off into the distance. Each side lined with shelves packed full of books. At any other time Twilight would have loved nothing more than to inspect each and every last one. But now she couldn’t bear to look at them. As she travelled through the labyrinth, searching for a way out, each twist and turn had revealed nothing but more books.
Early on, when she had just awoken, Twilight had been elated at the sight of all these books, but her excitement had long since run dry. Now she just passed them by, not giving them so much as a second glance. It did not matter, from experience Twilight knew that most of these books were just for show. Just like many of the others she had looked into, these undoubtedly were the same, blank. Any books that did have something to them were completely illegible, either written in a tongue long forgotten, and that Twilight had long since given up trying to decipher, or with their text so badly scrawled and damaged that nopony could hope to discern their meaning.
There was only one book that had been an exception to that rule. It was a rather odd book, unlike the others it was written in plain Equestrian. Its leather binding was freshly woven, its single page a pristine white as on the day it was printed. All the books on these shelves were thick and heavy, so heavy in fact that Twilight became exhausted levitating just one of them for longer than a few minutes. Yet that book had only one page, hardly enough to warrant having it leather bound.
Coming to the end of the passage, Twilight encountered another split in the path. Feigning confidence the mare took the left passage in hopes that it would lead her out of this maze. She had been walking for what felt like a life time, the aches and pains of her tiring body making the ordeal no more bearable.
Turning another corner Twilight happened upon a sudden break in the monotony. Revealed before her lay a spacious circular room surrounded on all sides by connecting passages. In the centre of the room sat, brightly illuminated by an unseen spotlight fixed to the ceiling above, a lone reading table with a wooden statue of a horse’s head as its centre piece and a small wooden bench.
Twilight took careful note of which passage she came from, as if it would make any difference, and slowly walked around the room. Counting the passages, she was able to determine that there were sixteen different paths she could take, counting the one she had just come from.
Turning her attention next to the round desk, Twilight couldn’t help but feel that it was familiar. Upon closer inspection she was able to find a number of wrinkled scrolls lying on the desk. Each one delicately rolled and bound tight with a red ribbon. Taking the first from the top of the pile Twilight carefully pulled the ribbon loose and allowed the scroll to unroll as it rested delicately in her magical grasp.
Holding it up to the light she began to read, “Dear Princess Celestia”.
“THUNK”
The hardened wood gave a resounding shudder from Applejack’s hind quarters. Panting with exhaustion, Applejack straightened her hat and turned round to inspect her handiwork.
“Gosh darn’ it, not even a dent! Ah been bucking and bucking but it ain’t done a lick.”
Applejack was standing in a small circle, roughly three meters across, enclosed on all sides by tall apple trees. Their thick trunks packed tightly together to form a solid wall stretching upwards out of view.
Applejack took another pace around the circle, closely inspecting each trunk for signs of a weakness she could use to her advantage. Having found none she returned to the centre, her head hanging low in defeat.
“Well”, Applejack gave a heavy sigh, “I’ll just have to wait for somepony to find me.” She lay down, resting her head against one of the trees and shifted her hat to shield her eyes from the harsh sunlight.
“Applejack!”
Applejack perked up, her ears swivelling to find the source of the sound, “What? Is somepony there?”
“Applejack!”
The voice came again, this time closer. Getting to her hooves, Applejack started looking around all the while listening for the mysterious voice. As she looked up, Applejack thought she saw a flash of blue out of the corner of her eye.
Moments later a gust of wind hit Applejack from behind, sending her hat flying. A blue Pegasus swooped past overhead and, with a flurry of her wings, Rainbow Dash righted herself and hovered momentarily, inches above the ground, before allowing herself to drop down.
“Oh am I glad to see you, Applejack.”
Applejack strolled over to where her hat lay, upturned on the ground. “And I, you, Rainbow” exclaimed Applejack, picking up her hat and brushing it off, “How’d you find me?”
Rainbow Dash waved her hoof in the air, turning it in a circular motion. “Oh, you know. After my own death defying escape, I flew as fast as I could over to where I thought you would be, and what do you know I was right.”
Applejack returned her hat to her head, looking at Rainbow Dash with a look of disbelief, “Really?”
Rainbow Dash stood straight, pushing her chest out in a gesture of confidence, “Hell, yeah!” Applejack continued to glare at the Pegasus, unwavering.
Rainbow Dash slumped over in defeat, “You got me. I don’t know. The last thing I remember was falling from somewhere up there,” Rainbow Dash pointed to the tree tops. “Then, seeing you lying down here, all I could think to do was scream your name before having to pull myself from the dive.”
“Well now we both need a way out ’a here,” Applejack gestured toward the trees surrounding them. “These things are hard as buck. I’ve been beating them all day, an all I’ve got to show for it is, well, nothing.”
“I could probably fly us over them.” Rainbow Dash looked up at where the trunks disappeaedr into the distance above. “I mean, they have to end eventually. However high they go I could keep it going to reach the top.”
“I don’t know, Rainbow. What if you get tired, flying on your own is one thing but... carrying me too?”
Rainbow Dash trotted over to where Applejack was standing, “I can handle it; I’ve been training for ages. If I couldn’t fly with passengers then what hopes do I have of getting into the Wonderbolts. Anyway, if I start getting tired we can just come back down, rest up, and try again. And when I was falling from way up there I passed by plenty of branches strong enough to hold both our weight.”
Applejack glanced up at the trees; “Yeah bu—” Cutting her off, Rainbow Dash scooped Applejack up and made a beeline for the free tops. They quickly ascended as they spiralled round the perimeter of the circle, but before they could make any substantial progress a stray tree branch whipped across Rainbow Dash’s face sending the two tumbling back to the ground.
“What in tarnation, Rainbow!” Applejack exclaimed as she got back to her hooves. Shooting a glance at Rainbow Dash, she picked up her hat once again. “I was bout’ to say. I don’t think they would be too happy to let us leave.”
Still massaging a headache from the fall, “What are you talking about? show me this they and I’ll give them a reason to let us go.”
Applejack pointed to the apple trees, “That they. These trees don’t want us to go.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “They’re trees. Even if they did want us here, I don’t think they could do anything.” She got to her hooves and extended her wings, “Look, I just missed that branch. I won’t make that mistake again.” With that Rainbow Dash launched herself into the air to demonstrate. She immediately began spiralling upwards again, but was quickly sent crashing to the ground by yet another branch.
Blushing profusely, “Th -that was just for practice, now watch!” Rainbow Dash got up and launched into the air once again, and again she came crashing to the ground.
Her cheeks an even darker shade of crimson, Rainbow Dash got up again, “Not. A. Word.” She then went up for her next attempt, this time spiralling the other way around the trees.
Applejack watched on in amusement as the Pegasus steadily rose. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to reach fifteen or so meters, Applejack was astonished to see a branch come shooting out of a tree trunk to block Rainbows’ path.
Applejack held Rainbow Dash back just as she was getting ready for her next attempt. “I know, I know, Applejack. I’ll…” Rainbow Dash trailed off as she followed Applejack’s gaze to where she had just been flying. Sure enough there was a single tree branch sticking out there. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped in gaping awe as, with a sudden shake, the branch retracted into the trunk leaving no trace of its existence.
Twilight, now sitting on the small bench, had the last of the scrolls floating in front of her. All the scrolls had begun and ended the same way, with an address to a Princess Celestia, and with her signing off as Celestia’s personal student.
It was the actual contents of the scrolls that had held her interest for far longer. They all communicated a different lesson in friendship she had learned, but more importantly they offered a small glimpse into her life, a life filled with amazing friends that made her happy and who she had gone on countless adventures with.
However it was the last scroll, the one Twilight was currently staring at, that was of the most significance. Unlike the others, this one had virtually no writing. No address to Celestia, no sign off from the writer, just a large picture affixed in its centre.
In this picture were depicted six ponies, with Twilight among them, all smiling happily at the camera. To her left was an orange earth pony, leaning to one side and smiling with a tilt of her Stetson hat. To Twilights right was a dazzlingly white unicorn, standing there with a calm and collected demeanour. Behind them hovered two Pegasi, a blue one with a multicoloured mane and a smug grin on her face and, at her side, held in a warm embrace was a yellow Pegasus trying in vain to hide her eyes among her pink locks.
Lastly right in front, spread out on her back across the ground, with an assorted mix of cake frosting and twigs clinging to her tangled mass of a mane, was a pink earth pony. The pink pony clearly didn’t care as she was wearing an outrageous grin from ear to ear.
Underneath the image were delicately written all of the names of the ponies mentioned in the previous scrolls, the names of her friends.
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy
Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity
And on the last line, scribbled in thick brightly coloured crayon.
Pinkie Pie