“So … none of you have been in here before?” asked the lavender unicorn, sounding a bit nervous..
“Ugh! Heavens, no!” replied the white one, her voice tinged with revulsion. “Just look at it! It’s dreadful!” she almost squeaked in fear.
A wisp of barely-luminous vapor watched them through the trees, feeling some satisfaction. The old road had not entirely vanished, but clearly had not been maintained in centuries. Their way climbed a hill, taking the higher route – one which Nightmare Moon knew led up the side of a cliff which had been less-than-stable even in the days of her castle’s glory.
It would the perfect location for her first attack. If she did this right this would reduce their numbers by at least one or two, and probably shatter what remained of their morale. She could win the whole battle, literally in one fell swoop.
“And it ain’t natural,” said the Apple mare, sounding worried. “Folks say it don’t work the same way as Equestria.”
The wisp of iridescent vapor flashed to the cliffside, attenuated, drifted into the rock face through dozens of tiny cracks which had been formed by a thousand years of erosion. Paramagnetic fields shifted, exerting an outward pressure within the rock face.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The lavender unicorn was becoming even more nervous, infected by her companions’ fear.
“Nopony knows,” said the insanely-brave blue pegasus, her voice quavering in mock-menace. The timid yellow pegasus, the white unicorn, and the seemingly-simple pink Earth pony all flinched. The blue pegasus descended to the ground, and pretended to stalk them. “You know why?”
Just a little more pressure … a little more … Nightmare Moon could feel the cracks widen …
“Rainbow, quit it!” scolded the Apple mare, standing near the lavender unicorn on the outer side of the ledge.
The blue pegasus ignored her.
“Cause every pony who’s ever come in … has never … come … OUT!” The one called Rainbow launched herself into the air in front of her three friends, delivering the last in a shout that sent them rearing back, toward the inside of the ledge, almost right up against the cliff face.
The cracks gave way. Reuniting as a mass of iridescent blue mist, Nightmare Moon streaked up into the sky along the cliff face. as the ledge sheared off into two great slabs of rock, one bearing the lavender unicorn and the Apple mare, the other the white unicorn and the pink Earth pony, all four of them screaming as they dropped into the abyss. The two pegasi rose out of the way of the collapse, for a moment frozen in horror at the fate of their friends.
Rainbow was the first to recover her wits.
“Fluttershy! Quick!” she commanded, darting down after her falling friends. The yellow pegasus, evidently Fluttershy, paused for a moment, then followed her leader.
The four other ponies had managed to land on a more sloping side of the mountain and thus slow their descent. The white unicorn and the pink Earth pony had actually managed to get on all four hooves, but were still sliding rapidly, while the Apple mare and the lavender unicorn were skidding downward on their backs, trailing dust. Pebbles and the occasional small boulder bounced down beside them.
Nightmare Moon saw with satisfaction that the slope would become sheer in another hundred or so yards. Beyond that was a sheer drop of several hundred yards to the floor of a canyon.
The pegasi could save at most two of them. The other two would plummet to their deaths.
Rainbow swooped down, snatched up the pink Earth pony. Fluttershy streaked past them, rescuing the white unicorn.
Probably their sworn bloodsisters, realized the Moon Princess At moments like these, you save your boon companions. Too bad for the other pair, the Nightmare commented cruelly.
The Apple mare saw a root protruding from the slope. In a demonstration of quick wits and reflexes, she bit the root, clasping it firmly in her jaws, her neck muscles straining as she managed to stop her slide toward death. Oh, well done, thought the Moon Princess, surprised at the Apple’s presence of mind. I wish I could have that one in my Night Guard. Too bad she’s sworn to my evil sister.
The lavender unicorn kicked out desperately against the ground as she approached the edge of the sheer drop, crying out in fear and frustration as her own momentum merely abraded the slope’s surface instead of stopping her.
Too bad, little stargazer, thought the Princess of the Night, feeling strangely sad. I wish this had not been necessary. Maybe I’ll meet you again someday, in your next …
A look of determination came into the unicorn’s eyes as she saw the slope and her life simultaneously running out. At the last moment, she rolled and twisted, digging all four hooves into the ground. Dust and pebbles sprayed out into the void, and her hindquarters went over, but her forehooves had just enough of a hold to stop her. She hung from the cliff’s edge, hind legs trying but failing to find lodgement on the inverted slope below her. The edge to which she clung began to crumble …
Finish her! thought the Nightmare to herself. All it would take would be one more attack, any attack, and at least one of Celestia’s champions would fall to her death. But something – something she could not quite understand – kept her from intervening.
Then the Apple clansmare surprised her for the second time that night.
The Apple saw her friend’s peril; her inability to climb off the edge. She looked regretfully at the root which had proved her own salvation, closed her eyes, sighed, made her decision.
She let go and slid down the slope toward her friend.
Such courage! thought the Moon Princess. Not one in a hundred would have done that, even for a friend!
“Hold on,” said the Apple mare. “Ah’m a `comin!” With casual strength and grace, she used all four hooves and her broad back to control her contact with the slope face, then rolling to her belly, rising and leaning back slightly to skid to a stop right in front of the lavender unicorn.
“Applejack!” cried the unicorn. “What do I do?” She was not panicking, but there was a note of understandable fear in her voice. Her rear hooves scrabbled, dislodging pebbles but unable to find a secure hold.
Applejack leaned forward, contacted the unicorn hoof-to-hoof, the myriad tiny suckers on the Earth Pony’s pads grabbing on to her companions’s carpals. The strength of those suckers was surprisingly great, but proportionately far less than those of a dragon’s talons or minotaur’s hands. Applejack could not simultaneously apply enough force to heave the lavender unicorn out of danger, without risking either breaking the hold of her fore hooves, causing her friend to fall – or worse, breaking the hold of her hind hooves on the slope face, causing both ponies to plummet off the cliff. And the edge continued to crumble.
Both Applejack and the lavender unicorn began to inch downward. But the orange pony refused to let go.
The Moon Princess was rapt in admiration for what she was witnessing. A traitorous voice within her cheered on the efforts of the earth pony. She wanted to see her heroism rewarded with the success it deserved, even though this would mean the failure of her own attack.
Applejack trembled with the effort, not merely of strength but also co-ordination, clearly aware that a single false move would doom them both. There seemed no way for the earth pony to pull her friend to safety, and if they just remained in this position, the edge would give way and tumble them both to their deaths.
Then she looked up, realized something. Nightmare Moon followed her gaze, came to the same realization.
“Let go,” said Applejack.
“Are you crazy?!!” protested the purple unicorn.
“No, ah ain’t. Ah promise you’ll be safe.”
“That’s not true!”
“Now, listen here,” stated Applejack. She seemed to gather some inner strength. “What Ah’m saying to you is the honest truth,” she continued, looking directly into the eyes of her friend. “Let go, and you’ll be safe.”
Something seemed to pass between them. The watcher could feel it – something powerful, something beyond the understanding of the Nightmare, though to the Moon Princess it felt somehow familiar.
The unicorn’s eyes grew very wide. She closed them, gathered her own strength.
She let go.
And fell off the cliff with a shout of surprise.
The unicorn plummeted, shrieking.
But the Moon Princess had discerned what Applejack had already seen. It came as no surprise to her when Rainbow and Fluttershy darted in from either side and simultaneously caught the lavender unicorn.
The unicorn sighed in relief, then yelped as Fluttershy nearly lost control of her side. But the two pegasi regained control before they could fall very far.
“Sorry, girls,” said Fluttershy, as she and Rainbow lowered the unicorn to the ground. “I’m not used to holding on to anything more than a bunny or two.”
Meanwhile, Applejack bounded down the seemingly-sheer cliff in a display of utter athleticism, her strength and coordination allowing her to leap with almost the grace of a mountain goat. The lavender unicorn happily watched her.
The Moon Princess also felt an unexpected surge of joy, which was abruptly cut short. Fool! the Nightmare reminded herself. What are you happy about? This was failure, not success. That trap should have killed one or two of them, and none of Celestia’s champions are even injured!
She darted down the canyon to her next piece.
Clearly, passive ambushes are unreliable against their skills, Nightmare Moon thought. Something more active is needed to stop them.
They won’t come out of this next encounter unscathed, she promised herself. I will see them perish!