“'Why did you do all this for me?' he asked.
'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.'
'You've been my friend,' replied Charlotte.
'That in itself is a tremendous thing.'"
-- E. B. White, Charlotte's Web

~ ~ ~

"Sweetie!" Rarity shouted with a hoarse voice. She had lost sight of her sister hours ago, and had been roaming the streets of Ponyville calling out for her since. "Sweetie Belle! Where are you?!"

Luna's night had fallen fast. The dim light of the lampposts softly lit Rarity's surroundings as the ponies returned to their homes for the night. Lovers walked side by side, sharing their warmth with each other. Exhausted parents guided their energetic foals with kind words and gentle nudges. If only she had shown Sweetie Belle such compassion earlier, then maybe...

Her hope plummeted as a filly Rarity didn't know ran past her, only to stop beside a young mare up ahead. She couldn't hold her tears back any longer. How could she have messed up so much, she wondered. Why was she so bad at being a sister?

Fluttershy had snuck up on her while she wasn't looking. She looked like she was on the verge of crying too, just from seeing Rarity's tears.

Rarity wiped them away with a hoof and a sniffle. It wouldn't do to make Fluttershy cry; her conscience was guilty enough.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I made a mistake." Rarity didn't know why she was apologizing to her. Fluttershy wasn't the one she hurt.

Leave it to Fluttershy. Somehow, without knowing any of the details, she knew exactly what to say. Of course they could still have a happy ending! There was no doubt in her mind that Rarity had failed at being a big sister, but that didn't mean she had to keep failing. She had to find Sweetie Belle and put things right, for both their sakes.

"Fluttershy... Thank you." Rarity pulled her into a hug, producing a cute little "eep" from her friend. "I promise I'll fix it, so we can all be happy."

A sudden boom shook the earth, sending both of them sprawling. She heard Fluttershy gasp, looking at something over her shoulder as the entire town became bathed in an eerie blue light. Rarity turned, and quickly saw why. A bright blue beam of magical energy was being shot into the sky, somewhere out of the Everfree Forest.

A feeling of dread washed over Rarity as she continued to gaze at it. Sweetie Belle was over there, she knew it. She could feel it.

"Fluttershy, I have to go," Rarity said as she got back on her hooves. "But first, can you do a favor for me?"

~ ~ ~

Rainbow Dash sat at the window of her cloud home as she watched the magical light show. The energy made her hair stand on end, sending a shiver down her spine. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew it wasn't good. Energy like that never lead to good things.

Dash blinked as she noticed a pegasus approaching from the direction of Ponyville. "Fluttershy...?

"Woah!" Rainbow threw herself sideways just as Fluttershy came barreling through the window. She landed with a light poof on the cloud floor, completely exhausted and panting for breath. "Hey, Flutters', you alright?" Rainbow asked, swooping to her side. "Speak to me!"

Fluttershy took a few moments to catch her breath. Her wings were shaking from overexertion, with feathers jutting out all over the place. What could have made her fly so hard, Rainbow Dash wondered.

"Rarity... needs... our... help..." she finally managed to say between pained gasps.

Of course she did. How? How did these things always seem to happen to her and her friends? Rainbow looked back outside. The light was gone, no traces of it to be seen.

Oh well, there was no use whining about it. She offered her hoof to help Fluttershy up, determination burning in her eyes. "Tell me everything."

~ ~ ~

Apple Bloom had watched the light from her bedroom window until it finally faded from sight. The afterimage still burned in her retinas as she pondered all the possibilities for the light's origin. Witches? Mad scientists? The Occult? The more crazy ideas that popped into her head, the more she wanted to go out there and find out the truth.

A rapid knocking at the front door distracted Apple Bloom from her thoughts. Who in the hay would come knocking this late?

She hopped off her bed and headed out of her room and down the hall to the stairs, until the front door came into view. Apple Bloom knelt there at the top step as Applejack opened it for Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I wouldn't have come unless it was really super important."

Applejack sighed. "Let me guess. This got somethin' to do with that weird blue light that went off a few minutes ago. Right?"

What? Sweetie Belle was connected to that light somehow? Sudden worry for her friend felt like a weight in Apple Bloom's chest.

"Rarity's already gone ahead to the forest," Rainbow continued. "She sent Fluttershy to get me, you, Pinkie, and Twilight."

"Don't worry, Fluttershy made her Pinkie Promise that she would wait for us," Rainbow assured her. "Otherwise I would have flown ahead to get her myself."

"Well, that's good at least." She turned to head up the stairs, causing Apple Bloom to scurry behind the wall. "Ah'll be ready to go in a minute, first I gotta tell Apple Bloom where Ah'm off to, and then--"

The stairs creaked as Applejack stopped walking. "What do ya mean?" The question almost sounded threatening.

Rainbow Dash didn't heed her tone as she explained, "Telling Apple Bloom that her best friend may be in mortal danger; are you sure that's the right thing to do? I know if I heard that, nothing would stop me from following them, no matter how dangerous it might be."

AJ said nothing for a long time. Apple Bloom stared at the faded wallpaper in front of her, not daring to breath as the silence between them stretched on.

"Of course tellin' her that her best friend is in danger is the right thing to do..." Applejack finally spoke softly. "But... maybe, just this once, doin' the wrong thing is better. Ah know she would go after her, even after Ah tell her no. That's just the kind of friend she is."

Apple Bloom sat there until she heard the screen door close, and then she continued to sit. Her sister had just left to go save her best friend, without telling her anything. She didn't know whether to be angry or sad at that. She finally settled on a mixture of the two as she stood. Damn straight she would go after Sweetie Belle! If her friend really needed help, she would never forgive herself for sitting inside and doing nothing. It was time for this filly to make a stand. Buck the consequences.

Applebloom bounded out of the front door and leaped over the porch steps. She hadn't gotten very far when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

She skidded to a halt and turned to see her other best friend emerge from the darkness. "Scootaloo? what the hay were ya doin' around the side of mah house?"

"I've been throwing rocks at your window for like five minutes," she said accusingly. "When you didn't come out I tried a bigger rock, but I think that just broke your window."

"Hey, you're the one that wasn't in your room! Besides, we have bigger fish to fry. Like finding out what that crazy light was all about!" Her wings buzzed excitedly as she leaped at the thought of adventure.

~ ~ ~

Three friends were gathered outside the Everfree Forest in the dead of night. Twilight read a book while Applejack had her lasso around Rainbow dash's tail as she tried to fly into the dark forest. They were arguing at the same time about whether to wait for the others or not. As soon as Rainbow realized Rarity had broken her Pinkie Promise and gone into the forest alone, it was all AJ could do to stop her from going in herself. Twilight felt the same as Rainbow Dash, but she knew running in blindly wouldn't help the situation. The best thing she could do for them until the others arrived was to find out what that light was. That's why she was now nose deep in a book titled Ancient Magics and Lore.

"Dammit, AJ, let me go! I gotta go help her!" Rainbow Dash pleaded again, only to feel another tug on her tail.

"Ah know. Don't yah think Ah feel the same way? But we need to wait for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie."

"Just think," Twilight added, "what if you needed to use the Elements of Harmony in there? Like it or not, we have to wait for everyone."

A sudden burst in Rainbow's strength caused AJ to be pulled forward a few feet like a plow, leaving a long trough behind her.

She replanted her hooves for a better grip. "Stop bein' a drama queen, that's Rarity's job."

"Oh my, what happened?" Fluttershy touched down a good distance from the two playing tug of war, Pinkie Pie hopping along behind her. "Where's Rarity? Wasn't she going to wait for us?"

"Nope. She broke her Pinkie Promise, and now she's probably being chewed on by some inter-dimensional space creature, and we're sitting around here like it's Hearth's Warming Eve or something!" Rainbow Dash's frustration was turning into anger, causing Fluttershy to make herself smaller. Twilight just frowned.

"Well we're all here now, so we may as well head out," she decided, slipping her book into her saddlebag. "I just wish I had been able to find out what that light was first. I don't like walking in without a plan."

"Here's the plan," Rainbow explained, already halfway to the tree line. "We save Sweetie Belle, we save Rarity, and we crush anything that tries to get in our way."

"I like it," Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced along after her. "It's simple, and easy to remember... like cupcakes!"

Twilight had a sinking feeling in the pit her stomach as she followed her friends, but she tried to hide her anxiety for their sakes. "Me too, Fluttershy. Me too."

~ ~ ~

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked side by side through the dense undergrowth of the Everfree Forest. The darkness around them was so oppressing they could barely see their own hooves, let alone the path.

Scootaloo groaned. "Yes, for the thousandth time, I'm sure. I was watching the light when it vanished, so I know exactly where it is."

Scootaloo stopped moving, halting Apple Bloom with a hoof. "Hey, shh. Do you hear that?"

Apple Bloom recognized the voice first. "That sounds like Rarity! That must mean the others are nearby. Come on!"

The two started galloping through the darkness toward the shouts. They grew louder and more intelligible as they approached.

The light from Luna's moon stung their eyes as they emerged from the darkness. The stark silhouette of a crumbling castle met their sight, but it was the two ponies in the foreground that immediately caught their attention. Sweetie Belle was halfway across a rope bridge that spanned the width of a chasm, walking away from Rarity who stood with all four hooves on solid ground. Her pleas seemingly fell on deaf ears as Sweetie Belle got further and further away.

"Girls?! what on earth are you doing out-- Oh, never mind. I can't get through to Sweetie Belle, there's something wrong with her!"

Sweetie stopped for a moment and looked back at them. But it was only for a moment, and then she went back to walking away.

Apple Bloom's eyes went wide as she tried to comprehend what she'd just seen. "What in the name of Celestia..."

"Gah, who cares what color her eyes are!" Scootaloo fumed. "We can fix that later! Right now we just need to get her back to Ponyville!"

"Have ya tried goin' out there an' just pickin' her up?" Apple Bloom asked, turning to Rarity.

"Of course I have," she replied defensively. "But when I got close, she threatened to cut the bridge and kill us both--"

Apple Bloom and Rarity both turned to see Scootaloo racing across the rickety bridge towards her friend, much to their horror.

Their cries were just as ineffective as before, leaving them to helplessly watch whatever happened next as they sent silent prayers to Luna and Celestia.

Scootaloo was already past the halfway point by the time Sweetie Belle reached the other side. "I don't care what's wrong with you!" she shouted angrily, tears stinging her eyes. "Do you know why?! Because we're going to bring you back home! And then we're going to cure you! And then we'll play together everyday, and we'll go on so many crusades, that you'll never, ever be sad again!"

Sweetie Belle finally turned around, when Scootaloo was mere seconds from barreling into her. In that split second, their eyes locked, and she felt an immeasurable sadness in that moment. Her friend's eyes were indeed blue, but that wasn't what made Scootaloo sad. It was the look behind the eye. It was as though a stranger were looking at her through those eyes.

Sweetie Belle's horn glowed with that same icy blueness, and then the sound of snapping ropes filled the air. Scootaloo could no longer feel rickety planks of wood beneath her hooves, and for a fleeting instant, she allowed herself to believe she was flying. Reality came all too soon. Scootaloo fell, the disinterest on Sweetie Belle's face her last sight, and her friends pained shrieks her last sound. A stillness settled over her mind as she understood her demise. All that was left was to close her eyes as that final darkness embraced her.

No Love Lost

by Eyvind

What Are Friends For?