//------------------------------// // Nightmare saga: Trials revisited // Story: A new Discord // by Galaxy Knight //------------------------------// Chapter 14 The hour was growing later, some of the smaller fillies and colts had gone home because it was so late but Nightmare Night was still in full swing and screams of terror could be heard all across town. As a small group of ponies cherished in the fun I appeared before them. “There you are, where did you go Will? We were getting worried about you.” Twilight said. “Twilight, I think we need to assemble the girls. Something bad is going down.” I said, seriously. “What are you talking about dad? Everypony is having a good time.” Screwball said. “It isn’t that sweetie.” I turned my attention to Twilight. “Twilight, you said ponies have been disappearing recently and it hasn’t been stopping, right?” “What? No, nopony has found out who’s taking them or even how but what are you-“ “I think I may have a lead on it.” She nodded. “I can understand that, what I don’t understand is why you need me and the girls to help you. You’re perfectly capable of doing this yourself.” I sighed; this would be hard to explain. “Please, trust me on this. I can’t explain it properly but I feel this sort of…presence in the air. Something dark is at work and I need you and the girls to help me get rid of it. So...will you help me?” Twilight thought about it for a moment. “If you really need our help that badly…I suppose I can’t exactly turn you down.” I smiled. “Thanks Twilight. Come on; let’s go assemble the rest of the team.” I leaned down to Screwball. “Screwball, do you think you can stay here and have a good time with the rest of your friends?” She nodded. “Sure.” “Great. Spike, I’m putting you in charge of looking after these kids.” “But I-“ “Pinkie, come with me and Twi, there’s work to be done this night.” The three of us walked off, looking for the rest of her friends. The first person we went to see was Applejack, we knew she was in the center of town working the bobbing for apples stand and she was the closest to us so we thought we’d get her early. We walked up to her stand. “Hey Applejack, how’s it hanging?” I asked. “Perty’ good, business has slowed down a bit.” “Good.” The minute I said that she gave me a curious look. “I mean not good but… we need you for something.” “What’s up?” She asked. I explained what I saw and she took it all in. “You think there might be something sinister at work?” She asked me. “I do.” She nodded. “Alright, I’ll help. Besides, if you’re getting everypony else’s help I might as well come along.” Our little band continued down the street. “Okay, three down and three to go. Rarity and Fluttershy will be a bit harder to convince and I have no idea where Rainbow Dash is; Rarity’s boutique isn’t too far from here so we’ll go there next and Fluttershy’s home is on the edge of the forest so that’ll be a good spot to finish.” I said “Why are you explaining everything in explicit detail? That’s usually Twilight’s job.” Pinkie pointed out. “Hey!” Twilight cried, clearly not taking that as a compliment. I chuckled a bit nervously. “Sorry, whenever I’m nervous or super focused I tend to think aloud.” Thankfully, our walking didn’t last very long and we were soon at Rarity’s boutique, I tried to open the door but found that it was locked. She probably didn’t want anypony coming by asking for treats; I banged on the door instead to get her attention. “Rarity?” I called for her. “Go away! We’re closed, there’s no candy to be found here.” “Rarity it’s Will, open the door know before I bust in all ungentlemanly like.” I waited a few more seconds and heard the sound of tumblers turning; Rarity opened the door only a crack. “What do you want? I think I’ve made it very clear that I will not partake in all these silly pranks.” “Rarity, we need you. Element of Harmony business.” I tried to make this short; there was work to be done. “I’m sorry, but I am not leaving my home until these… festivities are over with. Good night.” God, I knew she was stuck up but not this much. Before she could close the door I jammed my arm in it so that it was stuck. As she tried to close it again I looked her in the eyes and furrowed my brow, giving her the most serious expression I could muster. “Listen to me Rarity, you may not be able to sense it but there is a terrible darkness in this place. With every moment you wait here resisting us it grows stronger and more powerful. If you continue to dilly dally instead of coming with us there is no telling how powerful it will become, so I suggest you get your prissy little flank out here right now before we’re all dead.” Rarity looked like she was going to poop herself; she carefully walked out of her home and looked at me with such fear. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know so much was at stake.” “Well…I mean that’s what I think is going to happen, not a hundred percent sure to be honest with you.” “Wha-I-hmph!” She exclaimed angrily. Oh my gosh, the look on her face is amazing. She’s trying to come off as angry but it just fails so completely and totally that it looks hilarious. She turned around and tried to open the door but found that it was once again locked, she pulled against the door as hard as she could but it refused to budge. “Oh no, you’re locked out of your home. I guess you’ll have to come with us now.” I said, with a bit of a smart tone. With a reluctant look on her face Rarity joined us, walking behind us all probably because she was in no mood for this kind of nonsense. As we walked Twilight moved a bit closer to me. “Did you lock her door on purpose so she’d come with us?” Twilight asked I looked shocked at her accusations. “What? Me? Twilight I am hurt that you would accuse me of such things. Although, if I were to lock the door on her it wouldn’t require a lot of magic so the movement would be simple and easy to miss, say a quick clenching of my fist.” I winked at her, saying that I did indeed do it and she winked back at me, telling me that she understood. “All right, next we need to find Rainbow Dash. Any idea where she could be?” “Heck if ah know, that girl’s been going all across town scarin’ folks left and right.” Applejack pointed out. “Honestly, she’s so juvenile sometimes. She’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to go out tonight; especially after what she pulled last Nightmare Night…” Rarity shivered at her memories. “It took me hours to clean my mane out. Hours!” Rainbow could have been anywhere, but she was betrayed by one glaring flaw: she’s atop a thunder cloud. Turns out when your ears are just big holes in the sides of your head you can hear things surprisingly well; as such I could hear the sound of that thunder cloud from over a block away. Rainbow Dash was probably trying to sneak up on us and scare the bunch of us all at once, a good try but I was ready for her. As the sound got closer and closer it eventually remained still at one point. I waited about one or two seconds, then I turned around really quickly, made a scary face, and screamed at the top of my lungs. Rainbow Dash was scared, she also screamed and spazed out so much that she fell off of her cloud, the rest of the group found it very funny and laughed. “Nice of you to drop in on us Rainbow Dash.” I retorted. “Ha ha, very funny.” She said sarcastically as she dusted herself off. “It was a good effort, but you should never try to scare the king of Halloween.” She looked at me confused. “Halloween?” “Human holiday, similar to Nightmare Night. Anyway, we need your help to take down some possibly serious evil, are you in?” “I guess so, since you’ve ruined my pranks.” She said, angry and annoyed. “That’s the happy go lucky Rainbow spirit, come on let’s go.” With her in the clique there was just one pony left, Fluttershy. It was going to be tough to convince a pony who’s afraid of her own shadow to come out of her house on the scariest day of the year into a dark and scary forest, but I think I can manage it. “I don’t see how you’re going to get Fluttershy to help us.” Twilight said. “Ah agree, that girls’ more scared of this night than a mouse at a snake convention.” I smiled. “Trust me; I have a few tricks of my own. But for it to work I need you guys to hide.” They did as I asked and hid in the bushes, as for me I put my plan into action. My way of getting Fluttershy out of her home is simple; I focused and transformed myself into a raccoon, once transformed I got on my back and started coughing to sound sick. Within a minute Fluttershy had run out of her house and picked me up. “Oh no, poor little raccoon, are you okay?” I meant to say “No, I am sick” but all that came out were a few chip and growl sounds. “Oh my, you’re sick?” Fluttershy said. Oh yeah, I forgot she understands animals to a level where it’s almost like telepathy. “Oh you poor dear, don’t worry I’ll make you better.” She scratched my belly a little bit. Ah…this is nice; wait, focus Will. I began chirping a bit more to convey my thoughts. “What’s that? You wanna tell me something?” I nodded. I moved my claw in a motion that beckoned her closer, she moved her head closer to mine and I made some small chipping noises to convey my thoughts. “What do you mean trick or treat?” She asked curiously. I jumped out of her hooves and in midair I transformed back into Jack. I landed on the ground with a smile on my face. “Hi Flutters.” “Ah!” Fluttershy was clearly scared by my appearance, she tried to run back into her house but I waved my hand and closed the door with my magic before she could get inside, causing her to slam right into it. And now she lay splayed against her own door, somehow defying gravity. “Sorry Fluttershy, I don’t like tricking you but I knew it was the only way to get you out of your home.” “Oh that’s okay; I know that I can get really scared sometimes.” “Well we need your help now. Something bad is going down and we need you to come with us.” “Um, if it’s all the same to you I’d rather stay here.” She said, almost silently. Alright, let’s see if this will work. “Fluttershy, I understand that you’re scared, I know what that feels like but I also know how to get over your fear. You have to find something to believe in, a sort of anchor that stops you from being afraid; this anchor can be a person, a belief, or something that you would fight for, something that no matter what you won’t abandon. Do you understand?” She seemed to think about it for a few moments until her eyes seemed to focus. “I…I understand.” “Good.” I went to her door and pulled her off, setting her on the ground gently. “Now come on, we’ve got a mission to do.” “Oh…okay, that sounds good.” We began walking and Rainbow Dash moved to the side to talk to me. “Wow, that was some pretty inspirational stuff. Where did you hear that?” Rainbow asked me curiously. “I didn’t, I learned it from experience.” Rainbow now looked at me with a certain sense of…I don’t know, I’d call it slight surprise and bewilderment. “You…used to feel like that?” I nodded. “When?” My memory drifted to my past, my fist clenched as I remembered all those days I’d be in a blind rage for one reason or another. Always someone to insult me, look down on me, to fight me; so many days spent afraid, angry…hurt. “It was a long time ago; I’d rather not talk about it.” I picked up my pace and walked ahead of her, not wanting to talk any further. Our group was assembled; we walked back into town to get back towards the part of the forest where I saw that strange pony enter. Since it was on the other side of the forest I thought it would be easier to just go straight through town. Once we were on the border of the forest, we all stood ready. “All right guys, are you ready?” I head a bunch of “Yes” Yeah!” “Absolutely not.” Wait, what? I turned around and saw a very tall very familiar navy blue figure walking up to me. “Luna, look I know this is a bit sudden but…” “But nothing, you are not leaving us again. You invited us out for a pleasant evening to celebrate this holiday we were hesitant to take part in. At first we were having fun, but then you disappear without a trace leaving us alone and now you’re going again without a word.” Aw man, now I feel really bad. “Luna, I’m sorry, I truly am. I didn’t mean to leave you by yourself, it’s just…this is something I feel that I have to do.” “You don’t HAVE to do this what you HAVE to do is stay with us for the duration of the night, as you promised.” Wow she was stubborn; I needed to get out of here. “Luna this is something that I need to do, and you can’t stop me from doing it.” Luna snarled with anger but then it disappeared and turned into a…grin? “Very well, if you will not stay with us then we shall stay with you.” …What? “What?” “We shall accompany you into the Everfree forest. Would you like that?” “Ummmmm…” Damn it she was clever, she knows that I wouldn’t intentionally bring her into danger and so the only other option was to stay here. As I struggled to find an answer I saw Pipsqueak behind her and my mind decided that instead of taking the direct route I would take the more deceiving and distracting one. “Hold that thought.” I moved over to Pipsqueak. “Pip my boy, how would you like to meet Princess Luna?” His eyes went wide with excitement. “Boy would I!” “Come on.” I rushed him over to Luna. “Luna, there’s a little colt here who is very excited to meet you.” She looked down at him and the huge smile he had on his face, she didn’t know exactly what to say so she went with the first thing that came to mind. “Um, hello.” “Hello princess, it’s great to meet you. Are you enjoying the festival?” He asked excitedly. “It is…nice.” He jumped up. “I know! This is my first one ever and it’s already my favorite holiday ever!” Luna was surprised at his excitedness. “Well, that’s very good to hear.” “And now I’m hanging out with my favorite princess!” Well, that caught Luna completely by surprise. “Are you referring to me?” She asked. “Yeah! You’re awesome.” I saw Luna smile, but this wasn’t a normal smile. It was small but I could tell that it was a deep smile, like it meant a lot to her. “Well, that is very nice of you to say. Tell me, have you tried some of the games here?" “Oh yeah, I’m really good at the spider launching game, do you want to try?” She nodded. “I think I will.” She walked off with the child and away from us. “Well that takes care of that, all right girls let’s go.” I said We all started walking towards the forest; the entire group was pretty close together. As we walked Twilight walked up to me. “Wait a minute, did I miss something? You just ditched Luna?” I nodded “Yes.” “And you did so by tricking her and completely ignoring her request to stay by your side?” I nodded again. “Yes.” “You…are in trouble when you get back, aren’t you?” “Probably, I’ll deal with that later. For now let’s focus on the mission on hand.” We entered the forest and I led them to the glen where I saw that stallion. “He was right around here and he walked…” I remembered the scene that played in front of me and then pointed in a direction. “That way. Follow me.” We began our long walk through the forest; no talking, not even any sound of leaves underneath our feet and hooves, only silence. It was unnerving, like there was something shadowing us that we could not see. Eventually, the amount of trees around us lessened and we could see the night sky again; we were also at the edge of a cliff and unsure of where to go next. As we looked out towards the rest of the expansive forest we all heard a low rumbling. “What was that?” I asked. “That was probably my tummy; I’ve had a lot of candy tonight. Like, a lot a lot. Like a whole candy store.” Pinkie said in her chipper tone The rumble came back but this time it was louder than before, and it seemed very close. “Uh pinks, I don’t think that’s your stomach.” Now the rumbling was very loud and was followed by a cracking sound. I looked underneath my feet and saw that the ground was beginning to crack. “Oh that’s the opposite of good.” I said aloud. I jumped over dodging the crumbling earth, but the rest of the group wasn’t so lucky. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t fall thanks to their flight abilities and they managed to catch Rarity and Applejack but Twilight and Pinkie continued falling. “Girls, hold on!” I jumped off the cliff and dived down towards them, I kept my body straight so that I would reach them faster. I managed to catch up with them and grabbed hold of them to keep them safe. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you two.” “Great, but what’s gonna stop us from falling?” Twilight screamed. “Uh…I didn’t really think it through that far.” I said sheepishly. Both the girls continued to scream as we fell closer and closer to the ground. As we got closer I saw a rather large tree approaching us and had an idea. “I have an idea! Girls, hold on to me and don’t let go.” They both grabbed on to one of my sides. I outstretched my arm and formed a green slimy spiral bracelet around me that could save us. “Soul robber!” I thrust my arm forward and the Soul robber outstretched, creating a slimy hand that attached itself to one of the higher up branches. Using our velocity I had enough forward momentum to swing us away, only missing the ground by a few feet. Once we weren’t in danger of plummeting to our death’s the hand detached itself from the tree and we all fell on the ground and rolled over on the ground, grunting a bit in pain. Once we stopped moving I took roll call; Twilight and Pinkie? Check. Aare they still breathing? Check. The rest of the group safe? Check. “Is everypony okay?” I asked. We all started getting up from the ground; I stretched myself out to make sure nothing was pulled in that fall. “A bit roughed up, but I’m fine.” Twilight said. “Good. Pinkie?” Pinkie got up and shook herself like a wet dog would. “Right as reign.” The rest of the group descended down to our location. “Thank goodness y’all are okay; I feared the worst when the ground started to crack.” Applejack said. As we were all relieved that we survived I looked to the cliff that we fell off of and noticed something strange. “Hey guys, come check this out.” We walked over to the base of the cliff and saw a large cluster of pointy rocks. “If we hadn’t saved ourselves we could have fallen on these rocks and killed ourselves.” I pointed out. “Well then it’s a good thing we all stayed safe isn’t it?” Rarity added. "But that’s just it; this rock formation was directly underneath us as we fell down. Look around, the rest of the stuff around here is grass, no rocks to be seen.” “Well, I suppose that’s true.” “And these rocks-“I poked the tip of one with my finger, it was sharp and it hurt. “They’re sharp, almost unnaturally so. Like they were meant to be that way.” “What are you saying?” Rainbow asked. “Call me paranoid, but I think these rocks were sharpened on purpose.” “You mean you think someone wants to get rid of us?” "Like I said, I could just be paranoid about this but I’ve learned to always be careful about these kinds of things. We should probably keep moving.” Silently, the group agreed and we continued to trek through the forest. As we continued on I felt that same presence from before grow larger, making me feel a bit unsafe. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Rainbow asked. “Yes.” I responded. “And where is that exactly?” “We’ll know when we get there.” She had an unsure look on her face. “So you’re lost?” “I’m not lost, I just-“ We were interrupted by a large roar, and out of the shadows jumped a large beast that I recognized. “A manticore!” Twilight screamed. I looked at the best with its giant scorpion tail and bat wings, and its fearsome barred fangs. The other ponies behind me may have been scared but I felt this spark in my heart that screamed for battle. “Oh yeah, I have just the theme for this fight! Hit it!” I bobbed my head to the sound of this tasty beat but Twilight and the other’s looked at me with much confusion. “What’s he doing?” Rainbow asked. “I have no idea.” Applejack responded. The manticore interrupted my jam session with his load roar. Out of my rock and roll trance I stared at the monster with determined eyes and our battle began; he started by charging at me and me at him, the Soul robber began to morph and form a large clawed hand. We clashed, matching each other’s strength blow for blow neither one of us able to get the other hand. I tried a different strategy, I retracted the claw hand and the manticore was free to attack, he tried to slash me but I was fast enough to dodge all his blows and then when he was tired I morphed the robber into a giant fist and punched him hard, knocking him into a tree. Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with horror. “Will stop this! Don’t hurt him!” “I’m sorry Flutters but this beast isn’t going to listen to us, it’s too enraged.” She looked at me with such wanting eyes. “Please…let me just talk to it, maybe I can get it to calm down.” I sighed. “Against my better judgment, go ahead.” She carefully trotted up to the dazed beast and looked him right in the eyes. “Um excuse me mister manticore, I’m really sorry to bother you but could you maybe calm down and not attack us? If that’s possible of course.” As the beast came back to its senses it looked down at Fluttershy; I could see his eyes, they were…caring and calm, for a moment I thought he was going to turn. But then in a second all that compassion was replaced with anger and I could tell that he was ready to attack. “Fluttershy look out!” I whipped the Soul Robber forward and it latched onto her, I managed to tug her away just before the manticore tried to bite her with his massive jaws. I stepped up again; diplomacy didn’t work so now this is an all-out brawl. “Kid gloves are off now.” The beast snarled at me, as if it understood that I wasn’t going to hold back. I smiled an insane smile and morphed the robber into a long mace. “Let’s finish this.” We both ran toward each other again, but this time before he could attack me I jumped up into the air and smashed the mace end of my Soul Robber into the manticore’s back, knocking him to the ground. As I landed I turned to the beast and walked over to it to see if it was down for good, unfortunately while I was distracted I barely saw its tail rise and try to stab me. I tried to move out of the way but it still grazed my side, I clutched at my side in pain and before I could react the manticore got up and slapped me with its paw, knocking me into a tree. I tried to get up from the blow but as I tried to get up I fell back down again, my head slanted to the side. My friends looked at me with concern and fear, they wanted to help but they knew what had happened the last time when they tried to fight a manticore and now that he was even angrier it would be a foolish idea. The beast took its chance to jump me; it leapt up into the air and planned to come down on me with his massive jaws. It opened its mouth preparing to bite down on me, but before it could I rose up quickly and thrust the Soul Robber forth; it grabbed the manticore by the throat and then I spun around him constricting it further around his throat. By the time I finished it was completely wrapped around his neck twice and I was standing behind him, pulling on it. “Step into my shadow hell beast!” I pulled back on the strand and his neck began to squeeze, I just needed to pull a little bit harder and… Crack! (Song ends) That was it, I snapped his neck. I stopped pulling and the manticore’s body fell to the ground, limp and lifeless. When the battle was over the girls walked over to me and stared at the creature that lay at my feet, they were shocked and maybe even a little disgusted. Fluttershy was the most shocked; I could even see some tears in the corner of her eyes. “How-how could you do that? He was just-“ She began to say. “Wait. Look at him.” I commanded. She stopped talking and looked down at the manticore, the color began to drain from his fur and he turned a very bland gray. Then his entire body began to melt and it broke down into these little black blobs of energy. “Not this time.” I said. I reached into my pockets and pulled out a glass jar, and then I scooped up some of this black matter and put the lid on the jar. “Now let’s take a good look at you.” Twilight moved closer to the jar. “What is that stuff?” She asked. “This is what our manticore friend was made of, I had a feeling that he wasn’t real because of the mindless way he acted and that he was able to resist Fluttershy’s natural sway over animals. Only something without a conscience would be able to resist her.” Rainbow got a good look at it as well. “So…what? Is this like the other monsters that fought you?” I shook my head. “Probably, but this one was different. He seemed to be smarter, and he wasn’t black like the other monsters I’ve fought.” “What does that mean?” I put the jar back in my pocket. “I think it means whatever’s causing this is getting smarter, it tried to hide itself so I wouldn’t know. If everypony’s ready I think we should get moving immediately.” They all nodded and we continued on our trek again. This trip was more dangerous than I thought and it’s getting worse by the minute. “At least Luna’s safe.” I thought silently to myself, glad that I left her behind. Meanwhile in Ponyville… Pip and Luna were in the middle of playing pumpkin launching, you would put a pumpkin in a small launcher and then try to hit a target that was several feet away. Luna lined up her shoot and flung the pumpkin but it missed the target by quite a bit, then Pip took a turn and the pumpkin hit dead center. “Yes! I win!” He cheered. Luna was disappointed that she didn’t win, but she smiled and the colt’s enthusiasm. “Well done Pip, you are much better at this game than I.” “Yeah, but you’ve never played this game before.” He hopped down the road. “This has been so much fun! I can’t wait to tell all my friends that I got to hang out with an actual princess.” “Friends…” Luna said to herself, then her eyes widened as she finally realized something that had happened. “Curse him!” Pip looked up at Luna. “What’s wrong?” “It appears that my friend has tricked me into not following him.” “Why would he do that?” “He wanted to head into the Everfree forest without me and I tried to stop him.” Pip looked shocked. “Well of course he did.” Luna didn’t understand the boys comment. “What do you mean?” “The Everfree forest is really dangerous; there are lots of scary monsters in there, he probably just didn’t want you to get hurt. “You think so?” He nodded. “Yes, when I lived in Trottingham there was this little lake next to us that froze up in the winter. One day I wanted to go ice skating on it but my mother told me no because she was afraid it would crack underneath me and I’d get pneumonia. Later that day some of my other friends were skating on the lake and one of them fell in; he had the flu for about a week after that.” “It seems your mother is very wise.” “Yeah, she really cares about me and that’s why she always tries to keep me safe even if sometimes I don’t like it.” Luna thought about it more. “Perhaps that is what he intended, he wanted to keep us safe…because he cares about us.” Luna looked up at her night sky and smiled to herself. “Be safe Will, and know that I care about your safety as well.” Back in the Everfree… “Well…this definitely doesn’t seem safe.” I said. After walking around a bit we came across a glen of trees that looked old with very dark wood and twisted branches. Shortly after we arrived a blanket of fog seemed to appear out of nowhere and now we could barely see each other. “Hold on guys, I’ll see if I can clear this fog away.” Rainbow said Rainbow readied her wings but the second she leapt up off the ground her wings tensed up and she fell down to the ground. “I…I can’t use my wings!” Rainbow cried. “Don’t worry Rainbow, Estoy seguro de que todo estará bien.” I said. “Wait, what was that last part?” “Are…are you speaking Spanish?” Twilight asked. “What? No, odio a español. ¡Ah! Está sucediendo de nuevo!” I screamed, this is my worst nightmare come true. “I…I think we should get out of here. I’m starting to get really frightened.” Fluttershy said. “Yeah, we need to…we need to…why don’t I remember what we were supposed to do? Why can’t I remember?” Twilight screamed. “Um girls, I think we have more troubles than just this.” Applejack pointed out. Applejack saw a pack of timber wolves approaching us, she wanted to back away, she wanted to run, but her hooves wouldn’t move her. They began to circle her now, ready to attack. “Help! They’re gonna get me!” She screamed. I looked over at Applejack but I couldn’t see anything, whatever she’s scared of wasn’t really there. Wait… Rarity was just incoherently babbling, Pinkie was staring into space and her mane was deflated…that’s it! Something about these trees is bringing out our deepest fears, I needed to stop this. “Fluttershy! Ven rápido por favor.” I called to her. She looked at me with confusion. “Necesito que me...” I fought back the urge in my brain. “I need you to push me out of the fog, please.” Fluttershy looked at me with such fear; in her eyes she could see dozens of pairs of glowing red eyes, all staring at her. “I-I can’t! I won’t make it!” “Fluttershy, this isn’t real… Tienes que ser valiente. Por favor! Tienes que ayudarme!” Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut out of fear, but she knew she needed to help. She galloped forward as fast as her hooves could carry her and she head-butted me, knocking me out of the fog; once I was outside of it I could feel the hold in had on my mind be loosened and I could think clearly again. “Time to do some trimming!” I cried. The Soul Robber extended and had the blade of an axe, I pun around as the blade traveled with me and it chopped down the four or five trees that surrounded us. When the trees were down the fog around us began to dissipate and everypony returned to normal. “What…what just happened?” Rarity asked. I tried to piece it together myself. “It appears that these trees were making that fog and while we were inside of it we experienced our deepest gut fears. Rainbow loves flying so much her greatest fear would be being devoid of her wings, Twilight relies on her knowledge so much not being able to remember anything would be a nightmare, Applejack hates timberwolves, Fluttershy…is scared of a lot of stuff to be honest, Pinkie was devoid of happiness-“ “Actually I imagined I was in a bakery but all they had were sugar free treats.” “Sugar free?” I asked. “Yes! It was horrifying. Have you ever tried a sugar free cookie? It’s disgusting.” “Right… Anyways, I think we’re almost there so it shouldn’t be too much longer. I’m sorry I took you girls on such a dangerous mission.” Rainbow batted her hoof. “No sweat, we’ve faced way worse than this. I’m sure that the worst is behind us.” I nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure it’ll be much safer from here on out.” It wasn’t. We continued on our amazing mission through the forest, as we walked Rainbow walked right up next to me. “Seriously, your biggest fear is the Spanish language?” I looked at her seriously. “I hated taking Spanish in school; it is the language of demons.” She looked at me like she wanted to laugh but didn’t out of courtesy. “Pretty lame dude.” I sighed. “Aléjate de mí caballo gay arco iris.” She looked at me confused. “What did you just say?” “You don’t want to know.”