//------------------------------// // The Trials of Friendship // Story: From the Eternal Love of a Sister // by Scootareader //------------------------------// “I didn’t kill them, Luna.” We saw the lightning strike them. Any lightning, even that manifested by magic, is enough to kill a pony. “I didn’t kill them.” She insists on her innocence. “At worst, they got brain damage. I barely even struck them with it.” Is this what the creature of darkness says to defend her wanton actions? She murders several guards, then pretends they will recover so she can sleep peacefully? That their lifeless gazes won’t haunt her vision until the end of her tyrannical lifespan? “Enough! You are such a nuisance! I am the Princess of Darkness, as you are, and you know as well as I why my actions are just. Your pestering will solve nothing and I will feel no remorse for sun-loving filth. Now stop wasting my time.” Time? We’ve naught but time. “Not for long....” The pony trails off whatever she would have said next, focused on six shapes materializing from out of the nearby town. They are heading in Nightmare Moon’s direction, toward... where home should be. Home. We have not been there for many years. It will have changed greatly. Nightmare Moon turns into formless smoke once more, ghosting into the nearby forest to watch the ponies as they prepared their journey to—where? It occurs to us suddenly that we’ve no idea why Nightmare Moon is so interested in these ponies. We think she would be more interested in stopping Princess Celestia. Perhaps the powers of darkness have given her insight that we lack. Perhaps she is more intelligent than we had initially given her credit to be. We honestly haven’t the slightest inkling what these ponies are here to do. From her hiding place amongst the bushes on the side of the road, Nightmare Moon watches the six ponies approach the dark forest. The pink pony who guessed at the name of my host several times gleefully exclaims, “Wheee, let’s go!” That purple unicorn, the one with the knowing gaze, speaks up. “Not so fast.” The others turn toward her, curiosity written on their faces. “Look, I appreciate the offer, but I’d really rather do this on my own.” An orange pony, one who reminds us of the farmers I used to enjoy visiting, replies. “No can do, sugarcube. We sure ain’t lettin’ any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone!” She begins trotting into the woods, the others following her promptly. “We’re stickin’ to you like caramel on a candy apple!” Several of the other ponies present give small noises of agreement. “Especially if there’s candy apples in there.” The purple pony looks at the pink one, who remarked this, oddly. “What? Those things are good!” The lavender unicorn sighs, resigned to the bother of ponies she would rather not be in the company of, and follows them into the forest. Nightmare Moon creeps along the ground and tracks the ponies as they banter about their lives, their families, and their interests. It seems odd that this creature be so interested in a group of friends on a foray into the nearby forest. What are we missing? What does she know that we do not? The purple fog that is us creeps down into the seams of the rock upon which the ponies are currently walking. We pay close attention to what is said next. “And it ain’t natural. Folk say it don’t work the same as Equestria.” The farm-pony is volunteering some advice on a question that has been asked. The purple mare seems afraid. “W-w-what’s that supposed to mean?” The rainbow-maned pony which could afford to learn more manners goes into a predatory crouch. “Noooopony knows!” She begins creeping toward a yellow pony, who backs away uncertainly. “You know why?” The orange one tries to caution her friend. “Rainbow, quit it.” Rainbow ignores the advice and says, “Because every pony who’s ever gone in, has never...” she stalks toward her friend with first one hoof, then another, “come...” she leaps into the air gleefully, “OUT!” Suddenly, Nightmare Moon’s cloud within the rock expands, crumbling the ground upon which the ponies above walk. The two which are pegasi simply rise into the air, but the other four, two unicorns and two earth ponies, slide toward a cliff with fairly certain death at the bottom. One of the unfortunates manages to get enough leverage to slide to a stop, while another is picked up by the rainbow-colored mare. The final two get very close to the abyss, but one of them grasps at a tiny branch, stopping herself. The last one finally comes to a halt with her legs dangling off the edge of the cliff. This one is that knowing pony. The purple one. She is a catalyst, we are certain of it. The other pony—we recognize her as the orange farm-pony now—seems to realize the danger her friend is in, then lets go of the branch and slides toward her friend, calling a reassuring, “Hold on, I’mma comin’!” The orange pony reaches the bottom, where she reaches her hooves out to hold those of her friend and stop her from slipping off the edge. For several long moments, they are stuck there, neither one able to improve the situation whatsoever. The purple pony, obviously in fear of her life, begs, “Applejack, what do I do!” The orange pony—Applejack—continues holding her friend’s hooves, worry written plainly on her face. From where we exist in a cloud above them, we can see that her friend may very well slip from her grasp. To let her friend die like this would be horrifying to such a simple pony. Applejack’s eyes dart up searchingly for a moment, noting her pegasus friends flying by overhead and positioning themselves so as to catch the purple unicorn. She then looks into her friend’s eyes, earnestly encouraging her. “Let go.” “Are you crazy?” She sounds rightly incredulous. We would have reacted the same in her place. We would rather not let go of our friend and plummet to our death, as she believes. “No Ah ain’t! Ah promise you’ll be safe.” She offers calm words of reassurance, trying to get her friend to... trust her? We see no reason for this exercise. The unicorn shares our skepticism. “That’s not true!” “Now listen here. What Ah’m sayin’ t’ you is the honest truth. Let go, and you’ll be safe.” This lavender mare must be crazy herself, to follow this friend’s advice. She is dangling halfway off a cliff, has no established safety net, and is in legitimate fear of her life. Yet, she—trusts in what another tells her, unconditionally. She believes her friend would not kill her. That may very well prove to be her downfall. Nevertheless, she lets go of Applejack’s hooves, screams briefly before being caught, then is lowered down to the ground. Nightmare Moon does not appear interested in what happens now. She spirits away from the assembled ponies, seeming to search for something. After a few moments, she finds her target: A manticore. She morphs quickly into a thorn—shapeshifting magic?—and stabs herself into the paw of the manticore. The creature is obviously enraged, pain now rippling through its leg as our host holds herself against the body of the beast. In pain and confused, the manticore notices the six ponies trotting towards it, its simple mind concluding that perhaps they caused its pain. It runs in front of them, rears up on its hind legs, and lets out a challenging roar. The lavender mare once more speaks up. “A manticore!” She is quite learned with the creatures of Equestria, it would appear. “We’ve gotta get past him.” The manticore doesn’t seem particularly aggressive, only angry and hurting. This doesn’t stop a white unicorn from bucking her hind legs into the poor creature’s jaw, adding insult to injury with a “Take that, you ruffian!” Now the creature is hurt, confused, and has a newly bruised jaw. It opens its mouth and roars mightily at the pony which struck it, the aggressor noticing first that her hair has been ruined, then that there is a carnivorous beast staring at her. She gives a yelp of terror and darts away. The manticore glares angrily at the retreating pony, then feels a weight thump down upon his shoulders. The Applejack pony is gripping him from on his back, seeming ready to ride him. The manticore obviously is not very pleased with this development, attempting to throw this pony off, eventually succeeding. He is free from his tormentors, but only for a moment. Almost immediately afterward, the rainbow-colored pony begins flying around the poor creature at high speed, beginning to form a tornado. To toss him to safety, perhaps? Whatever she is attempting, it is all in vain. The manticore lashes its tail out at a precise time, striking the pony and knocking her away. The group of ponies takes a moment to recover, then they look menacingly at us, the purple one scraping her hoof against the ground as if to charge. The manticore similarly challenges this, preparing a charge of his own. We wish we could stop this senseless violence. We have only just come back to Equestria, and already we have had more than our fill of anger and resentment. Nightmare Moon is insatiably bloodthirsty. When the two forces are moments from clashing, the yellow pegasus pony dives between them. “WAAAAIIIIIIIT!” Why did she not speak up sooner? She turns her back on her friends and approaches the manticore. This creature was just being attacked by these ponies. It is rightfully aggressive as it prepares to swat the offender. The pony simply speaks calmly and reassuringly. “Shh... it’s okay.” She nuzzles the creature’s paw where Nightmare Moon is concealed. The manticore turns over its paw to display Nightmare Moon’s hiding place. The pony’s eyes fill with concern. “Oh, you poor, poor little baby!” she cuckolds. She braces herself against the mighty creature’s paw and warns it by saying, “Now, this might hurt for just a second.” She grips the thorn that is Nightmare Moon within her jaws and yanks us out of the creature’s paw. Pain once again rippling through the manticore, it instinctively picks up the pony and roars mightily. Her friends are rightfully afraid as they call out her name. “Fluttershy!” However, their concerns are unfounded. The manticore is licking this Fluttershy in thanks. She speaks to it as if it were a filly. “Aw, you’re just a little old baby kitty, aren’t you? Yes you are, yes you are.” From where we lie forgotten upon the ground, we witness the parade of friends continue on their bizarre journey. The lavender pony halts a moment to beg a question of Fluttershy. “How did you know about the thorn?” Fluttershy replies matter-of-factly, “I didn’t. Sometimes we just need to be shown a little kindness.” After the ponies have safely departed, Nightmare Moon turns once again into a cloud of wispy smoke, disappearing into the surrounding forest to continue stalking them. Trials. She appears to be trying to stop them through indirect confrontation; we know not why. Perhaps she enjoys games. These only strengthen whatever kinship these ponies feel toward one another, however. Whatever they are here to do, we believe they may be the source of her downfall. We hope that whatever these ponies are hunting for will defeat Nightmare Moon once and for all. Even were it to kill us in the process, this creature must not be allowed to roam free. We also cannot shake the feeling that she already knows these things. What does Nightmare Moon desire? "Decisive victories. Examples of the usurpers." The voice floats from the air around us, telling us what it thinks we want to hear. And what if the plan backfires, Nightmare Moon? "Then I will bide my time and rise up once more. I will overtake Equestria, even if it takes me another thousand years." We believe you will be defeated. We hope you never return. "Hating yourself solves nothing. You will learn to accept this side of you in time." This is sickening. We ignore her as best we can.