//------------------------------// // Trust and Darkness // Story: The Legend of Brave Rick // by Exelion //------------------------------// Twilight watched over like an eagle, her horn glowing, ready to summon her spells quickly. Her eyes were heavy and she fought sleep. Twilight descended from the watchtower that she had improvised with stones and headed to an ever-shrinking pond, splashing her face with water to fight off her tiredness. Water was becoming scarce, so she used only enough to fill her canteen and wash her face. As for the rest of her body, she hadn't washed it in days. She looked into one of the caves, expecting to see Spike, but he was already gone. Spike and the other ponies were out searching for food. Though she knew he’d return soon, she was afraid she’d never see him again. In the shadows, Twilight saw a figure sneaking through through the cave’s other entrance and followed in pursuit. The cave was humid and dimly lit by torches. Twilight lit her horn. Her ears pricked up when she heard the splashing of water deeper in the cave, and she started galloping towards the sound. She was gaining on the figure, until it stopped suddenly and turned to face her. She recognized him and he recognized her. He immediately turned to flee again, but Twilight caught his foot with her magic, causing him to tumble. “Well hello, Richard,” Twilight said, her horn beginning to hum. “Give me one reason not to shoot you, right now.” “No, wait!” begged Richard as Twilight lunged at him. “You were trying to escape to reveal the hideout's location,” she said, pinning him to the ground. “It's not what you think!” he exclaimed. “I was just looking for something I left outside.” He turned so he could look Twilight in the face.   “Please,” he continued, “it’s really important to me.” Twilight had no reason to trust him, but he did sound genuine. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Fine,” she sighed. “I'll help you find what you’re looking for. But,” her voice became serious, “I'll be keeping my eye on you, so don’t try anything.” She stepped off of Richard. “So what is this thing that’s so important to you? “I left my bag outside by a big rock. It has a phone inside that speaks directly to base. The General uses it to receive my reports,” Richard explained. They arrived at a stone wall. Richard was confused. “Isn’t this supposed to be the exit?” Twilight shrouded her horn with magic to cast a spell. “Hold on. I'll open the door for you.” She pointed her horn towards the wall and started transmitting magic, drawing a violet semicircular figure on the stone, making it translucent and allowing the forest outside to be seen. Richard’s jaw dropped to see such a display of magical talent, but he was also worried. Twilight saw that, and hurried to explain. “Don't worry, it's a two-way mirror spell. We can see out, but nopony can see in. It’s a useful way to watch the area and check that it’s all clear.” She transferred a bit more magic, the mirror disappeared, leaving only a faint magical glow on the solid stone wall. “Now, walk.” “What? But it isn't…” “Just walk. Now.” Richard didn't fully understand the unicorn's order. “Let me show you,” said Twilight and she passed straight through the violet threshold. Richard was perplexed at the intangibility spell, he had never imagined ponies were capable of that. He had seen combat spells before, but this was something new, something far more useful and marvelous and he spent a while trying to analyze it. Twilight suddenly poked her head out out of the wall, starting him. He stumbled backwards and tripped over, falling backwards onto the floor. “C'mon, Richard! We don‘t have time for you to sit around!” He nodded, and with trepidation he reached through the wall. It was an indescribably weird sensation. His right leg followed. With half of his body still inside the cave, Twilight was growing impatient. “I don't have all day!” She bit Richard on the hand and dragged him through to the other side. “Ouch! You didn't need to bite me!” he complained. “Oh, I'm so sorry,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “Now move, before somepony sees us!” Richard ran to get his bag where he had left it. He checked that everything was in there and put it on his back. Twilight laughed at the fact that the big bag stuck out above his head. “All done. We can go back,” said Richard. They stepped through the threshold again. Richard still felt a unsure around her. The walk back through the cave seemed to be longer than on the way here now that they weren't running. One question had been bothering Twilight since the moment she’d been introduced to Rick. “Hey, Richard, how was it that you got interested in searching for us?” “I wasn't. I didn't care what would happen to you at all.” “I see…” she said sadly. “Well, not until the day you and your cowgirl friend came out of nowhere. We chased you for a while and…” He stopped a moment, thinking about it. “And what?” Twilight insisted. “I'm sorry…” “What do you mean?” she asked confused with a frown. “About your hoof. I was the one that hurt you when you were escaping.” He said, clearly grieved about it. “Oh… this? It's no big deal. You only grazed it. But I accept your apology. Carry on though.” “And… oh yes, then you threw lightning that had a scroll. I found it and…” “Wait!” she interrupted. “Did you find the report? How did you survive?” “Survive? What do you mean?” “Well, I accidentally dropped the report, so I cast a spell for it to become a bomb so that it couldn't be found. The spell should have caused anypony who touched it to fall into a deep coma, living only with nightmares.” Richard looked terrified. He felt lucky to be alive. He looked at Twilight who was trying to figure out what had happened. Had she cast the spell wrong? Was she ready for a spell of that level? Was she worthy of being named the princess's ‘faithful student’? It seemed it was affecting him too much. He put his thoughts aside and Twilight asked, “do you have it?” “Have what?” “The report, do you have it here?” “Oh yeah, give me a moment.” Richard loosened the knot of his right boot and took it off. An unpleasant smell emanated from both his boot and foot. Twilight's face turned green from the horrible odor and with a spark from the tip of her horn, she sprayed a lavender-scented deodorant over it, leaving the boot perfumed. With a clothespin on her nose, she asked Richard to give her his foot so that she could do the same. He accepted and she left him with a similar scent. Richard took the report out and gave it to Twilight. She read the first words to confirm that, in fact, that was the same one she’s written in the library before she’d met with Applejack. The same report that should have been delivered to Celestia. “Tell me what happened after you found it.” And so Richard told her his dreams, his nightmares, doubts, guilt, the talk with Samuel, the General, the expedition, and the encounter with Rainbow Dash. Twilight was astonished, how could a simple human escape from her spell? Although more than just an escape, it looked like the spell had been an aid to him. Maybe something about him made the spell change its nature, she didn't know, these were just speculations. She rolled up the scroll and saved it so that she could give it to Princess Celestia. When they arrived at the hideout, they didn't realize ponies were still sleeping. Twilight returned to her post, while Richard lay back down on the hard rock. He didn't know when the others would wake up, but a few more minutes of rest would be welcome. Hours later, while the soldier slept like he hadn’t in a long while, the elements and the princess discussed how to use Richard in their favor. “We could send him back to the base with a bomb and blow him up into a million pieces!” suggested Rainbow Dash. “Can’t you think of something other than hurting him, Rainbow?” Applejack asked. “Besides, we need him alive,” Twilight said, emphasising the final word. “So what should we do then?” asked Rarity. “I had been thinking of a plan that we could use if we ever had an opportunity like this one. And if Richard gives us the information we need, then I think it could work.” Rarity was intrigued. “What's the first step, dear?” “Wake him up” Twilight answered. The ponies looked at Richard with malicious faces. “Wake up maggot!” A bucket of cold water surprised Rick, the girls looked him with smiles on their faces. Rainbow, who had thrown the bucket, was laughing proudly. “What? How? When?” he said as he coughed, wiping water off his face with his hands. Rainbow stood over him. “You say you’re sorry. You say you want to help us. Well, now it’s time to step up and prove it. Show us you’re on our side!” “Listen, Richard. We need you to draw us a plan of your base, including weaponry locations, supplies, guards, and the portal. Think you can help with that?” Twilight asked. “Sure, I'm willing to give you all the information I have,” he said purposeful. “Good, now I will need the Elements of Harmony.” “What?! But the Elements were useless against them, sugarcube, why would you need them?” asked Applejack. “First I need to know that we count with them. I'm not going to waste time creating a plan that won't work,” Twilight replied. “What do you think, princess?” “I'm sorry, Twilight,” said Celestia, “but we left the Elements in the castle vault. I didn’t think they’d be much use anymore. If I went to get them, they'd most likely catch me. We need someone with stealth to retrieve them.” “Do you have someone in mind?” “Only Luna, but…” “Excuse me, princess” Rarity asked, “shouldn't Princess Luna have come back from the moon by now?” “I'm worried about that too, my little pony,” Celestia said sadly, her eyes welling up in tears. “Surely she must think I'm a monster for sending her back to her old prison.” Everypony looked at her with pity, but Celestia composed herself. “Twilight, talk to Richard and get started on that plan. I'll bring Luna back, just wait for me.” The princess unfolded her wings and left the hideout flying. She looked for the nearest cloud and sat on it. She closed her eyes and made her horn glow. There was only one way to get in contact with Luna. She had used it during the first years of Luna’s banishment to try to reason with Nightmare Moon before she’d realized that that was hopeless. She never thought she'd have to use it again. The rest of the ponies huddled around a desk, Rarity holding a quill in her magic. Twilight began questioning Richard. “Okay, tell us the layout of the base.” “The base is something like…” He stopped, an unusual sound penetrating the cave’s silence. The ponies desperately looked around to find the source of the noise. Twilight was honing in on the origin of the sound, and was surprised to see Richard heading to his bag. At that instant she remembered what he had told her about "reporting to the General” with a strange object. “Hey where do you think you're going?! Applejack, Rainbow, get him!” “What the...?” Richard exclaimed as a lasso ensnared him, preventing him from answering the phone. “You're not going anywhere!” Applejack said, barely intelligible because of the rope in her teeth. “I knew we couldn't trust you, you treacherous rat!” Rainbow said coming from behind Applejack and flying towards Richard. He looked behind him, and saw a very mad pegasus flying straight at him. Without thinking twice, he dropped to his knees, managing to dodge Rainbow's attack, and making her crash against the wall. “Listen to me! I don't want to betray you, but if I don't answer this call, my General will think that that something happened to me, and won't think twice about searching for me everywhere. He'd blow this whole place up if need be.” The ponies looked at him distrustfully. “Please. Applejack, right? Untie me. I can give you more time to put together Twilight's plan.” “Don't listen to him, Applejack! Don't be fooled!” the pegasus cried. “I don't care how you created that double… triple… quadruple,” she added, as her vision blurred from the collision. “There is enough Rainbow Dash to take on all of y--” Her head flopped over and she passed out on the cave floor. The phone was the only thing making a sound. The ponies looked at each other searching for an answer in each others faces. Applejack's mind was going at a thousand miles per hour. Could she really trust him? When Twilight grasped her hoof with his hand, she realized that if her friend trusted him, then why shouldn't she? Applejack approached Richard and bit the knot, untying it. He headed for his bag and opened it, took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Captain Richard here!” “Richard, any news on the ponies? I called you a while ago but you didn't pick up. Was there a problem?” “Problems? No… no problems. There wasn't any, it was just that… it seems like… I overslept.” In fact, Richard wasn't the best at lying. During his upbringing they had been very strict on him, and all that enforced honesty had left its mark on him. Twilight facehoofed and Richard hoped he didn't mess up too badly. “That's fine, Richard, but remember you have a limited time. If you don't have any clue, you should return immediately, and I want you to call next time. You got that?” “Understood, General, over and out” he said cutting the transmission. The General hung his phone, deep in thought. He picked up a picture of his squad, his best friend was on the top right corner. The General’s face was indecipherable, he was worried about the last events that were taking place. “I know you're lying to me friend. Just think clearly before contacting me again.” “Pardon sir?” a soldier asked. He hadn't realized the  soldier was there, waiting for him in the front of the desk with pile of papers. “Ah, sorry, I didn't see you there. What do you need? “I came from the other side. HQ sent me to deliver you these papers. They need to be signed urgently.” “Alright, leave them here.” He flicked through the pile of papers. “This may take some time. Take a walk around the facilities if you wish, or go back to Earth and come back later.” “Thanks, General. Oh, one more thing. My superiors beg you to use a better handwriting next time you fill in papers. Now, if you excuse me, I'll take my leave,” said the soldier leaving the General alone. “Better handwriting? I'll give you ‘better handwriting’," he said, angrily picking up the first paper in the pile. “Now that I think about it, that vacation doesn't sound so bad right now.” Back at the hideout, Richard stared blankly at nothing. Twilight walked over to him and with sympathetic voice she said, “I know it's hard, but you're doing the right thing.” Richard couldn't agree more. He started at those sparkly eyes of hers. It was a rather emotional moment until a roar from both their bellies asked for food. “I'm really sorry, Richard, there is no food. Spike and some of the ponies went in search for some but they haven’t come back yet.” “I don't wanna be a burden. Besides, I'm your prisoner.” “Don't think of it like that. You're our ally, not our prisoner. But we can make the most of it. It's time for you to tell us all about your base.” “Look over there!” Rarity exclaimed. Entering from the other part from the cave, Spike's group came back from their search, loaded with the fruits and forest berries that Zecora had checked to make sure they were edible. Spike ran up to Twilight and gave her a hug. The other Elements of Harmony threw themselves at him. “Oh, Spike, you're safe!” Rarity said happily. “Yes, we were so worried about you!” Twilight added. “Well done, cowboy, you got us food!” Applejack cheered. “Food!” yelled Rainbow waking up from her swoon and knocking Spike down. “Easy, Rainbow! There's enough for everypony,” said the dragon, moving away and taking out some fruits from a brown bag stained with red. Twilight was intrigued. “Where did you get that, Spike?” Spike looked at her seriously, almost sad, remembering the origin of the bag. “Twilight, where's the Doctor?” “Why do you…” “Just... just tell me where he is, please,” he implored. Twilight pointed with a hoof. “He's over in that corner.” “I'll be right back.” He walked with the bag in his claws, a knot in his throat. He approached the Doctor who was laughing and playing with his daughter, Dinky. Spike instinctively hid the bag behind his little body. “Hello, Doctor, how was your day?” the dragon greeted him. “I gotta say it was good, there is no point in being negative,” he responded curtly. Never had Spike broken news this in his life. It was hard for him, but he had begged the group to be allowed to be the one to do so. “I've got bad news, Doc. I found this in the woods,” he said, showing the Doctor the bloody bag. The Doctor seemed to recognize it. “Wh-where did you find it?” he said as his voice faltered. “It was… it was next to Derpy's body. I'm sorry.” “How is that…? No, no that's not possible… Not my dear Derpy! This can't be…” The girls watched the scene. Bad news just kept coming and coming. The last messenger was dead and there was no other way to contact other cities about the situation. Spike tried to comfort the Doctor on his shoulder. Dinky asked what was happening, but hearing her father repeat the name of her mother between his tears was enough for her to cry next to her father. Richard was crestfallen. The memory of Samuel's story gave him goosebumps. He hadn't been there, but he still felt guilty for it. Twilight noticed the look of her friends, and hurried to say, “c'mon girls, let's go eat.” With Spike and Richard, the ponies gathered in a circle. They ate the forest fruits, but they were hard to chew and swallow given recent events. Twilight looked up towards where the sky would be. “I hope you're lucky, princess.” Somewhere on the barren moon, Celestia's soul emerged from a crater. It was strange coming back after all these years. Memories flooded her mind, but there wasn't time to reminisce. She stepped out of the crater with a skip, helped by the reduced gravity. She wanted to find her sister to explain the situation. Even though much time had passed since her time as Nightmare Moon, Luna still suffered from after-effects. A situation like this would only serve to worsen her depression. After exploring some of the lunar surface, Celestia stopped to rest on a rock. Droplets of sweat ran down her neck from exertion. Once she had recovered her breath, she started running with all her strength. She propelled herself upwards with her hind legs when she saw a wide crater, and rose higher than before. She looked down, and noticed a light shining out of the side of the crater. She tried to drop down but the lack of gravity played against her and left her rising slowly into space. Her wings were useless without any air and didn’t help at all. She remembered every spring she spent with her sister, running through the royal gardens, growing up, fighting against Discord and King Sombra until the fateful day of Luna’s banishment. Space was making her its prey, playing with her a moment before engulfing her completely. Then a glowing blue lasso with a grey center caughted her hoof and pulled her towards the cave in the crater. She plummeted to the ground, making dust fly everywhere from the impact. On recovery, Celestia saw a shadow sneaking through the corridors. “Luna, wait!” She roamed the hoof-crafted corridors. It seemed that her little sister had kept herself occupied during the millenium she was up here. The corridors were lit by stone lanterns burning with a strange light blue flame. The shadow was faster than Celestia, she could barely keep up with it. Her eyes widened once she stepped into an enormous cavern. A giant lamp hanging from the ceiling illuminated walls filled with carved drawings of events from Equestrian history. But the most surprising thing was the drawing on the ceiling, which showed Nightmare Moon taking over Equestria, with the power of lightning shaped as a moon. It was painted in a melancholy colour that Celestia couldn't put into words. In the middle of the room sat her sister, looking at the ceiling in despair. “Luna? Are you okay?” “It didn't seem like a bad idea at first…” “What do you mean?” she asked, worried about her sister’s response. “I mean this! About using my prison to bring you eternal night. But not even all the stars in the universe could have given me the power I'd need to bring my plan to fruition. It was frustrating at first, but I discovered how to use them to return to that fateful day.” Luna's voice started to change, it was becoming more evil, as a black aura started to form around her on the floor. “Luna, I… I am sorry about acting the way I did. I only wanted what was best for you…” “That was the same thing you told me the first time you sent me here. Has nothing changed?” “But this time I did it to protect you. The humans could have captured you, and you know it,” Celestia said. “Lies!” Luna howled. “I'm sure you've already won the war, and you are now in the newspapers as ‘the Great Celestia, our Savior’ while the weak and defenseless Luna takes refuge on her precious moon just to protect her royal plot!” Darkness covered Luna’s legs and tail, rising through her body and turning her coat as ebony as the night sky. “Luna, please, you're scaring me! Let's talk civilly… You know it doesn’t have to be like this…” Celestia said, retreating, knowing that Nightmare Moon was now talking in her sister’s place. “Surely telling me that you wanted to be my friend was also a lie! Tell me, sister! WAS THAT ANOTHER OF YOUR LIES?!” she shrieked. Her body released a powerful dark flash like an explosion, obscuring the room in an instant.