//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Same Boat In A Stormy Sea // Story: Through Loyalty and Love // by Damocles23 //------------------------------// Through Loyalty and Love By Damocles23 Chapter 1: The Same Boat In A Stormy Sea The present… The sound of frightened hooves roared through the streets of Ponyville, as loud screams of panic and dissent lifted off from the smoke and dust which filled the air with a charred scent. Even from afar the sound of debris from Town Hall falling into splinters once again could be heard, only this time it was another pegasus to blame, while the ashes were scattering around like big, oily, grey snowflakes. In the distance a purple glow could be seen, conjured with haste by a young purple unicorn. It was lighting the darkness and piercing the veil of cinders, while the flames were still biting what was left of Town Hall and a few buildings nearby.Although they were taken care of almost immediately before they could spread further before and the citizens seemed to emerge unscathed from the incident. The Royal Guards, few they may have been for such a simple occasion, acted with the speed and might of a thousand ponies at only the slightest gesture of the Princess of The Sun. Her sheer presence was a literal light in the darkness and still could be felt from any part of the village, setting them immediately on the loose and searching for the culprits of such a terrible act. Even though it may have seemed like a particularly bad Saturday in Ponyville, after all you’re kinda asking for it when you build a village so close to the gate of Tartarus itself that the bucking Cerberus becomes with time a common occurrence. It was in fact a Friday and the guards weren’t searching for a demonic three-headed beast from Heck itself. The true culprit, or culprits as we should say, were still running aimlessly from the site of the incident, just determined to get as far away as possible. One was a pink, curly haired earth pony, even though the brightness of her coat wasn’t the same as always. She was sullied by a thick layer of dust and small pieces of iron were stuck in her mane, making it even messier than it already was as if it exploded from within. She kept running with her tongue lulling out and pure, unadulterated distress in her face, frantically turning her head behind, searching for a, very likely to be formed, angry mob. The second one was a cyan colored, rainbow-maned mare, who was flapping her wings as fast as possible. She was trying not to distance her companion, even though she started to feel a little exhausted. The pink pony,however, was probably so nervous that she couldn’t probably even feel fatigue at this point. Her coat and mane were still relatively bright, the problem was her tail which looked like the end of it was burned and chopped. But it still left a trail of smoke as she flew away. Finally, the two mares felt the need to rest and hid in a nearby alley, trying to catch their breath and hoping the darkness would hide them well. Once they stopped, the pink pony quickly started to pick the pieces of iron from her mane and pat herself to get rid of the dust. All the while, she still had the same distressed look from before, a look of pure desperation. “Oh Dashie! What are we gonna do? Whatarewegonnado?! I don’t think anypony liked that prank!” she said. “I don’t know Pinkie, I just don’t know! Let me think…Oooh, think of what?! It’s over! Finished!“ the pegasus retorted nervously, still flapping her wings furiously. She was circling the pink pony and gesturing like a madmare. Then she grabbed her friend by the shoulders and started shaking her. “There was the princess there! The princess! She probably saw us!She definitely saw us!The explosion, the smoke and the crash! Everything!It’s over, Pinkie! We’re enemies of the crown now, do you have any idea what that means?! MY LIFE IS RUINED!” She paused for a second and stopped shaking Pinkie for a second, pondering what to say, while looking supremely perplexed. “What are we gonna do now?!” Still shaking for a second, Pinkie watched her friend dumbfounded. “Oh, don’t worry Dashie.Maybe the princess won’t be so angry. I mean, remember the Gala? You and Fluttershy destroyed something there too. I thought she liked us wrecking stuff, at least that’s what I’ve figured out…” “But this time it’s different! You can’t expect her to just pop out of nowhere and say,‘I’m so glad you two destroyed Ponyville, that place was so boooring.In fact I hoped somepony would finally do that.’Nonono, this time we’ll be shot to the moon!” After that sentence, Dash could’ve sworn to hear the voice of her bookworm friend in her head, Twilight Sparkle, telling the same rant she launched in whenever somepony mentioned Princess Celestia and the moon in the same sentence. “Will you stop being so inaccurate about the princess? She exiled just one pony to the moon, her own sister! One thousand years ago! And she could only do this by using the Elements of Harmony. I mean, you were there, you lived this story and you’re still making this joke, wheredidthisjokecameoutanywaywhocouldbesocoldheartedtopainttheprincessassomekindoflunaticmoonshootingponybanishinmachine….” As the imaginary voice began to fade out, Dash was fairly creeped out by the realization that Twilight had the power to lecture anypony without even being there. For the duration of the mental rant, which was more or less two minutes, she kept staring at Pinkie with lifeless eyes, only being brought back to reality by her friend as she tapped Rainbow’s nose with her hoof. "Please Dashie, don’t black out like that, it’s already so dark out there!” “Gah,I thought it wouldn’t happen again! ...Where was I?” “The moon…” “Yes! The moon! Worse, THE SUN! Or sent to the moon and then throwing the moon in the sun, and THEN throwing that sun in another bigger sun!” Pinkie gasped loudly of fear, then she abruptly interrupted herself saying,“Waitwaitwait, I have an idea!”while pointing her hoof upwards. “What” Dash retorted, without even trying to make it sound like a question. More like the failure to put together something more articulate. “We should tell the truth, I’m the one to blame for the prank!” She looked sadly at the ground, averting the gaze of her friend. “You just wanted to help me, you’re not to blame. I’m the evil,meanie mastermind!”Pinkie reasoned. Trying to not chuckle after picturing Pinkie dressed as a flamboyant Daring Do villain, complete with a cat on her lap, smiling evilly about her plans of taking over the world with pranks, Rainbow paused unable to say anything. “It’s true Dashie. I came out with the plan. I’m the one to blame. They probably haven’t seen you. That’s because you flew above the smoke, you were so fast! You swooshed up there and I ran down there, we just met at halfway and then we started talking in this alley…” “I think I know this part already…” “Anyhoo, you just helped me with a tiny part.I set up everything, so it’s all my fault! I couldn’t let my besty-bestest best friend take the blame for something she didn’t have any hoof in it, that would be mean!” ________ ________ 12 hours before the incident… “…And that’s what I need for my plan, Dashie! What do you think of it?” Pinkie chirped loudly, suspended in the air by a good deal of balloons tied to her. Rainbow Dash was resting on a cloud with her legs curled beneath her body, looking puzzled and having just woken up from her second siesta, or was it the third? She couldn’t remember things while sleeping, for pony’s sake! “Ya know, I’m always up for a good prank and, don’t get me wrong, this sounds simply AWESOME with capital A, but...doesn’t this seem a bit dangerous to you? I mean, I don’t know how anything from your list could be used together.” Pinkie scratched her chin, looking lost in her thoughts.Her bright blue eyes pointing sideways. “Hhhmm, you could be right, but don’t worry Dashie. Did your buddy Pinkie Pie ever disappoint you when fun is on the line? What if we use noodles instead of that big block of frozen Sarsaparilla?” “I‘m still missing the point of either of them…” muttered Rainbow, saying her thoughts out loud. “But you must admit that the rainclouds are just perfect! No, scratch that, it just can’t be the same without the rainclouds, they are the NEXUS of everything!” The pink mare emphasized the word ‘nexus’ with gusto while flying and gesturing like a particularly bombastic actor from Trottingham. Or a very bad one, theline between the two is very, very thin. Rainbow could’ve swornshe was hearing her voice boomed and distorted while she was saying that, like she was provided her own personal audio editing studio. “And I guess you need me to gather the rainclouds for your N..thinghy, right?” “Well, duh, you’re the coolest, bravest and most importantly, awesomest pegasus I know! And I know I can totally count on you for that” Pinkie said.She was leaning her face closer to Rainbow Dash with a sheepish smile and a certain look in her eyes that. If the pegasus didn’t know better, she would’ve thought Pinkie was going to kiss her, she was that close. The only thing missing was some swelling music in the background for the moment. This was impossible obviously, “Pinkie was cool”,she thought. Really weird and totally unpredictable but her kindness and joy of living was enough for being loved by basically everypony in Ponyville and she couldn’t have asked for a better friend, but that was it. Obviously she was seeing more into Pinkie Pie than her just being Pinkie Pie and scoffed at the thought, instead asking herself how this prank would’ve turned out and why her internal thoughts were suddenly narrated like an embarrassingly cheap romance novel. “You forgot radical!Aaaand the only one in the weather team who’s going to help you with this crazy plan, but I’m in! When exactly do you need this stuff?” “Oh, that’s no hurry, tonight would be perfect. I’ll get the noodles, some saddles, apple jam, six or seven typewriters, streamers, a mast and a jukebox. You’ll just need to gather the rainclouds, ok?” “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me how this is going to work?” “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, silly! No, scratch that, the biggest surprise ever! For you, for me, for everypony, if it goes well!” Pinkie announced with a big smile. “Oookay…”Dash still looked confused, especially when she included herself in the people who should be surprised. “Then I guess I have to start working on your big plan, right? See ya later Pinks!” The pegasus immediately stood on all fours, spread her wings and flew away finding the time to wave goodbye to the pink mare, slowly looking like a tiny dot in the distance. “She’s so random” she thought while flying away. That was the twentieth time she thought that…this week at least. “Bye Dash!” Pinkie shouted while affectionately waving at her friend. After that, she became lost in thoughts again with a soft smile in her face. Sometimes, when we think that our best friend is coming onto us, 25 % of the time she’s indeed coming onto us (statistics obviously provided by a complete quack).Even if she wouldn’t have used such a crude language, in fact her intentions were very pure even if a bit misleading. Pinkie liked Dash. A lot. Though she didn’t show it very often, the affection she felt for the pegasus was deep and abiding, even if not always requited. For the lack of better words, Pinkie always thought of herself just being way out of Dash’s league. She had absolute faith of her dream of being a future Wonderbolt and saw it as an eventuality almost as much as Rainbow. Not to mention her stunts, her speed, her grace, heck even in her brief time as a costumed superhero she needed the assistance of all her other friends to outshine her. Dash obviously had a life outside their little circle and as much as she loved her as a friend like anypony else, the pegasus could get every stallion ormare she wanted. She was just a simple screwball baker,shewould never be enough for the great Rainbow Dash. Talking with the other girls about the topic was a big no-no. After all she was fully aware of how her friends saw her. She was the always hyperactive, fun-loving pony and, with her as the first pony to admit it, not particularly competent with romance. Not as much as, say, Rarity and Fluttershy. Probably they wouldn’t have taken her seriously and she didn’t want to insist, fearing that she may turn into a complete jerk like the other time and Celestia forbid it. The big prank of hers was, in itself, a prank, an excuse to hang out with Dash on that particular night. She wanted to bond over something they both loved independently on the result. She wasn’t even sure if that big pile of things would have worked together, the plan wasn’t even THAT complicated. The true nexus of the thing was simply entertain Dash with some ruckus hastily put together. The kind of thing that she expected from silly-old-Pinkie and…ask her out on a date, waiting for Dash to be in the right mood, just that. She knew that wasn’t enough to confess her true feelings, for once she wanted to act slowly and carefully with her crush. Even if with time she didn’t think of Rainbow as a friend anymore, she surely wasn’t going to ruin everything between them. As ignorant as Pinkie was of that crazy little thing called love, she was pretty sure of one thing. If it doesn’t work out between friends, it’s over. Your relationship we’ll never be the same as before, not even with all the parties in the world… Even if her line of thinking was coherent (for Pinkie’s standard anyway), she forgot a little detail. As she gazed at the horizon, completely alone and still suspended in the air by the balloons, she shouted at top of her lungs. “HELLO?! COULD SOMEPONY HELP ME BACK ON THE GROUND?! DASHIE?!” ________ The present… “So, what are we going to do now?” asked Dash, still pondering about everything and looking very discouraged by her friends offer. “Tell the truth, Dashie. Only the truth.” “And you think that would just solve all of our problems, Pinkie? We went too far, sent to the moon or not, we’re not getting away with this. Not this time…” “Then what should we do?” “We could run away, hide for a few days maybe. We have to disappear, Pinks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally a lame way to solve things but this time it’s too much, it’s just too much!” “You keep saying we.” Pinkie sounded confused. “Isn’t that obvious? I’m coming with you!” remarked the Pegasus, with determination. Pinkie raised quizzically an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that look, I’m serious!” “But…” “No buts, Pinkie!” the tone of her voice was gravely. “BUT!” she practically attacked her with the sheer insistence of the second ‘but’. “I’m not listening andI’m definitely not changing my mind!” She covered her ears with herhooves and closed her eyes to emphasize the fact that her decision was final. And nothing else mattered. “I can’t see my friend taking all the blame for something like that and I can’t let you run away alone. I can’t let you do that! I won’t! And even if you did that, what about me? Do you think I will just stand there and do nothing, while you are on the moon or in some Celestia-Forsaken place still on the run, just because I sat here and did nothing? You’re my friend Pinkie. You’ll always be…And I don’t want to lose you. Ever. End of the story!” Dash felt her ribs strangely compressed all of a sudden. Opening her eyes, she saw the pink pony hugging her with all the strength and warmth that only a Pinkie Pie hug could give. Dash calmed herself down and returned the hug, just not as strongly, that would’ve been impossible. They stood like that for a couple of minutes, still in the alley, far from the worries of the outside world at least for a little while until that moment was broken by Pinkie. "What about the girls?” “Hhhm?” “You know, who I’m talking about…Aren’t they your friends too? Maybe they can forgive us…” “I’m not really sure, Pinkie. Surely not Twilight, she’s furious, I know that. We chose the day of Princess Celestia’s visit. She’ll be disappointed by us. We made her look terrible in front of her mentor.That is not something you can easily forget, especially for her. Applejack will think the same, this responsibility stuff is way too important for her. Rarity is cool once you know her well but she’ll probably be upset of being associated with the two madmares who bucked up everything. Like you always say,‘Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend…‘ ” “…forever” she grimly completed the sentence and also giggled after realizing the part before that. “If we’re gonna be outlaws, that nickname is bit long, don’t you think? And don’t tell me you think the same of Fluttershy! What if Fluttershy is the only pony who can understand…” “And then what? Cowering herself in a corner and asking very politely to let us go?” Dash retorted with a dry look. A look so dry that far at the frontier of Equestria, began another great drought. Pinkie looked at her friend with her jaw dropped. “That was plain mean, Dashie! I know you’re nervous and I’ll pretend you didn’t say it…Buuuut you kinda have a point.” She shrugged. “I hate saying this about ‘Shy, but she’s probably the only one, and only one pony isn’t much of a difference. I love all of them, but after today…” she stared in the distance, toward the zone of the disaster. The flames were still gleaming. “It’s the only way Pinkie…” Still hugging her friend, the pink mare directed her gaze towards the same spot Dash was looking. Sadly, she had to admit that Dash was right. Nopony could have predicted that it would go THAT wrong, but it happened anyway. A part of her was deeply saddened by this turn of events, a big part of her actually. Leaving everything behind, her village, her friends, every single ounce of happiness she gathered in the course of her life had to be forsaken for an uncertain road. But at least she had something or, better, somepony. She still had the will to smile, because the reason she learned to smile was still with her, still willing to protect her, still willing to risk in the difficult journey ahead of them just for her sake without any hesitation. Just like the Rainbow Dash she knew and loved… And she immediately hated herself for that. Everything started because of a selfish desire, innocent though it may have been, that dragged Dash into this mess and worse, she knew that no matter what, every chance of ever confessing her, well, everything was gone, at least for now. Rainbow put everything on the line for her friend’s sake, she didn’t deserve to be used like this and couldn’t pretend more from her, how could she? It would have been really awkward to say: “Hey Dashie, you know that total mess I dragged you into, that made you leave behind your life, your career, your friends and everything? Turns out I did all of that because I like you! Can we make it out now?" No, that had to remain a secret but, after all, she has waited so long for this, waiting some more wasn’t a problem. Preparing for whatever journey laid in front of them, that was a problem. And she didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do. Not even the tiniest bit… Crap… Meanwhile, hidden in a secret cave located in the darkest bowels of the planet, a menacing giant pair of flaming eyes flashed in the darkness, revealing the silhouette of a unicorn. Soon, a cavernous voice spoke, its words making the very earth tremble and weep. “At last, the pieces are moving! The Great Work shall now begin!” The unicorn stood on two legs, into a flamboyant pose and declared: “Yes, and it shall be Great…And Powerful! Muhahahahaha!” “You know, your catchphrase is kinda trite…” “Hey, Trixie doesn’t tell how to do your job!” To be continued… Author’s Notes: Well here it is.The first chapter of probably my first fanfiction ever! Feel free to give me some advice for the things that don’t work and also for the things that do. I had the idea for some time but only recently found a way to wrap up everything(spoiler alert: it’s even more complicated than it seems). And before you even ask.Yes,the title is a quote AND probably the worst pun ever created, lovingly described by my dad as “worse than opening the Ark of Covenant from Raiders”. Hope you enjoy it and stick around for the next chapter. Feel free to ask me anything in the comments, I’ll answer when possible.