I stepped back from the abyss, a warm euphoric feeling came over me. Do ponies really get a second chance? My left hoof ached from nine years of writing the same story with no end in sight. Had my mother been right? A dark moon clouded my vision. Where were my friends when I needed them? The throb of my hoof hampered my ability to think clearly. What to do next? Tears rolled down my cheeks. Why did the best always seem to upstage me? I could think of 100 others who wouldn't spare ,me a second glance. If only I could have jumped higher. They say every journey begins with the first step. Mine was a trip and it almost ended in a fall. Damn my left hoof. If you don't understand your own history, your bound to repeat it. They say repetition makes the material your own- and in his case, I wanted no part of it. I back up, and run forward, taking a leap of faith. A life lived in fear isn't worth living. I had to soar... or there was no meaning to my life. I had to do that for my best friend. I stumbled as I hit the other side, a craggy, barn wasteland of rock. The sun glistened with a draining, horrid life squelching darkness.
But I got up. Where was my opponent now? Brave as my enemy seemed as he had struck down my friend, it was nowhere to be seen. I reached back, hopeful that I had something to sustain my thirst. I readied myself for a hidden attack from my opponent, yet I felt nothing. Suddenly, there it was. My darkest fear.
It had to be it. I recognized it. If only I had the strength to fight him off the first time. Emboldened by the taste of battle, I sprang into action, muscles quivering in my three good legs. I would do it for her or die trying. She was my everything. I would make her proud. There was the biggest, baddest, darkest horse on the horizon, stomping and rearing with a mighty shrill neigh. Suddenly it turned towards me. It against me, the fearsome, muscle rippling, powerful, and the frightening against I. I, the black earth pony with blue mane and tail, who knew of nothing except the art of writing and rewriting. The horse was chasing me. My left foot and the unnatural gait I housed lead to an un- predictable pattern that the horse mis-predicts and leads it to its demise, plunging over a canyon.
My weakness was its undoing. Tears rolled down my cheek. Somewhere, my best friend sighed. To ere is pony- to forgive is divine. As he fell, I found the strength to forgive. Suddenly a gorilla appeared, basking in the same sun that sent my first opponent in a tither. Basking in a false sense of security, I relaxed for just a moment. Why so many enemies? I had live my life honorably. What was with these villains? I collected myself under the bonzai tree, and tried to get a fresh start. What had my best friend done to anger so many villains? The river wound to my left, and I thought, maybe I had to go under. Then the gorilla turned and charges, its hairy, frothing being closing the suns light from my eyes as it bored down on my run to the river.
I jumped in and let the icy cold water overwhelm me. Gasping for breath a hundred yards later, I came up to spot a leopard. Why so many villains? What had she done to anger so many beings? Energy depleted, I slashed out at a salmon floating upstream. Sustenance. The energy filled me. A pony must do what a pony must do to survive. The salmon felt like poison as it brushed my tongue, but it gave me the energy I needed to survive. An escape route provided itself, a trail of trees turning fall colors. I slogged with my three good hooves towards it. Ten-thousand enemies couldn't keep me from seeking vengeance for my fallen friend. I dragged my quivering, spent body out of the water and padded down the trail. Nothing could stop me. I was filled with the spirit of my fallen comrade. I reared up and charged forward ever faster.
Did my eyes deceive me? There on the horizon was my friend, Derpy. I cried out.
"I thought you were gone! Old friend, come to me!"
How could it be? I thought she was gone, and yet she stood before me.
"Mortal? Or do my eyes deceive? How can this be? I can't say what a joy it is to see you."
A calm came apon our presence where disarray existed. I smiled. Derpy held me and pressed to my bad left hoof.
"I saw everything you did when you thought I was gone, and I was moved. But I was never really gone. I was always there in spirit."
A hummingbird appeared. Glimpses of radiant sun flowed through the wings lighting the scene with iluminosity un-parralled. The tears abated, and I was filled with the same foreign glow I began with. I remembered what my father said to me.
In life, you must do what you have to do, even if its not pleasant.
And we both galloped off in the bright sunset, our manes entangled in a rainbow of colors.
Its worth fighting for a loved one, even if she appears to be gone. The fight was the reward. The battles fought were not meaningless. They became the meaning. My muscles ached, but my mind was finally at ease. My best friend at my side for all eternity. Whatever battles lay ahead, I knew I had the strength to fight them as long as we were together. She had been my inspiration and now she was the reward. And pray to Celestia that we would fight together again.