//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Where the Duck Nuggets are we? // by Chrysanthemum //------------------------------// After we got the blueberries, we headed into the forest, hoping that those weirdos who called me Nightmare Moon wouldn’t find us. “...Hey Max..?” I mumbled, kicking the ground “Yeah. What is it?” “What if we never get home…? I mean…we did kinda die.” I muttered, staring at the ground sadly. Max did a double-take, staring back at me. “Don’t think like that! We carried on when Lilyann died, and we have to carry on now! Don’t you dare give up!” he growled. I reeled back, before hanging my head. “Sorry…I-I just don’t know how to handle this…” Max shook his head. “Let’s keep moving. I hope we find someplace to sleep..” he trailed off as we stumbled into a clearing. A huge, abandoned looking castle sat in the middle of it. “Wow. Talk about luck.” “More like ‘speak of the Devil and he doth appear,’” I chuckled, and trotted towards the castle, only to come to a giant ravine. I skidded to a halt. “Looks like we have to fly across.” Max announced. I shifted in my spot, before giving my wings a couple flaps. I backed away from the ravine, building my courage up, and dashed forwards. I flapped my wings softly, and I landed on the other side within a few seconds. Max cheered, as he landed next to me, “Great job! I knew you could do it!” “You called me fat when I failed.” I deadpanned. “But I’m the queen!” He whined. I rolled my eyes and walked towards the castle. Half the door was laying on the ground, so I pushed it up with my nose. Max sighed and pointed at my horn. “Use your magic, Miss Magical Moon-Butt!” he shouted. I facepalmed....Or would it be facehoofed? “Oh yeah. Wait. How does one perform the magic?” I questioned, tilting my head. Max shrugged, and slipped into the castle. He reeled back. “This place is filthy!” Max pulled a white handkerchief out of the sevenspace, and tied it around his mouth and nose. He pulled another out and wrapped it around his mane, “Time to go Cleaning Fairy on this place!” I poked my head in, before pulling back out. Max pulled another out, and handed me it. I tied it around my mouth and nose, and reentered the castle. “You are correct, my fair lady. We need to clean this place. But first, let us pick an area to sleep and live in.” I said with a Shakespearean-ish flair, calling over my shoulder while trotting back into the building. I randomly picked a stairway and door, pushing the door open to reveal a old and beat up kitchen. I left the door and trotted up the stairs a bit, opening random doors, until I had only one in front of me. It was a deep blue, and had moon handles to open it. I pulled the double doors open, and trotted in. A large, empty bedroom laid before us, pale blue walls peeling from age. “Wow. This looks nice. And it matches your mane, Mikayla!” Max commented, following me in. “Yeah, but we can make do, and maybe find some furniture that hasn’t been destroyed!” I smiled, looking around, “And if we can sneak into town, we could get some nice food and maybe a fridge or something like that, cause I need my waffles!” “Oh! My king hasn’t had her daily waffles?! What ever shall we do! The daily waffles keep sickness at bay and you may just perish from a cold!” Max sounded quite melodramatic. “Do not fear, my queen! I shan’t die without my death bed waffles of twelve!” I shouted, trotting farther into the room. “This shall do, but we need to clean up a bit.” With that said, I trotted over to a broken down pile of wood, and began to push it towards the wall. Max came over, and started to help out. “We could make a fire with these.” he pointed out, shifting a few pieces to the wall. I nodded, trotting towards the door. “I’m going to go fix the front door, and the kitchen. After that, we might want to practice flying a bit, and see if we can figure out my magic.” I told him, leaving the room. “‘Kay!” Max shouted back. I continued to trot down the stairs, when I heard three voices. I froze in my spot, the voices were obviously childrens’. “Come on, Sweetie! We could get our cutie marks in Filly Saving!” one voice spoke. Another started speaking, probably Sweetie. “I know, Scoots, but I heard Rarity say it was Nightmare Moon that took Sharp Twirl! We might get really hurt!” So Max is named Sharp Twirl. Nice to know. Hehe. Do they do knife tricks? “We won’t get hurt, Sweetie! Ah’m sure of that!” the last voice. Kinda like the blonde pony that yelled at us by the river, all country and stuff. I nervously poked my head around the corner, looking at them. “Uh.. Why does everyone keep calling me Nightmare Moon…? I mean, sure I got a really cool mane thats all starry and crap, but I hate nightmares…” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. How I did so may never be known. A sharp yelp came from the children, fillies, or whatever their called. “C-cause you are N-nightmare Moon!” The one I guessed was Sweetie stuttered out. I simply shook my head. “No, I’m not. I am Mikayla Summer, not some weird Nightmare Thingie,” I moved into the doorway, plopping down on the ground. “and I have no clue why everyone seems so scared of me. The most scary thing I can recall doing is turning the fire alarm on at school, and then making gunshot sounds with my phone. That was a great prank, mean, but great.” I laid my head on my hooves. “Also, what’s this about me taking a filly? If I remember correctly, Max, or Sharp Twirl as you called him, was on my back, telling me to get blueberries for him.” “B-but...you look l-like N-nightm-mare M-moon!” the country filly shouted. “Yeah, I noticed. FYI, I love her mane. So pretty and full of stars!” I rolled over onto my back, playing with the cosmos that was my mane. The other filly, I think it was Scoots, said to her friends, “She’s either lost her mind….or she’s not Nightmare Moon.” I pawed at my mane, mumbling about how pretty it was. Max chose this moment to come down. “Hey, Mikayla, I thought you were…Who are they? And Jesus, stop playing with your hair. You’ll get it all dirty and I’m not gonna listen to you complaining about your ‘cosmos of a mane’ getting filthy.” he muttered the last part, kicking my shoulder. The other three fillies stared, awestruck, as I mumbled “okay...” and sat up. “Why does she listen to ya?” the country filly asked Max. “Cause I’m her twin brother, and she knows I’m not scared to confiscate her waffles and pranking privileges.” Max deadpanned, as I whimpered. “Brother! Why must you be so mean? I can’t live without pranking others and my waffles! I might perish from it!” I whined, playfully stomping one hoof. “Now, who are you three? And how’d ya get across the giant ass hole in the ground?” Max asked, stepping past me, as I pulled myself back to my hooves. The country one was the one to answer, “Ah’m Apple Bloom, and they are Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. And we went over a dead log, but it broke after we crossed.” “Now if we want to leave, we have to fly, again. Just great,” I muttered. Max rolled his eyes, looking at the three. “So...you’re stuck here. Just great. And I doubt my idiot of a sister will be able to help carry any of you over the hole.” He glanced at me. “You go and get us some water. And fix the door like you went to do in the first place.” I nodded and began to trot towards the door, passing by the fillies. “No problem. And I had better grades than you, so you are in no way allowed to call me the idiot!” I chuckled, smiling. I suddenly turned to Sweetie Belle. Since she had a horn, she knew how to use magic, right? “Hey, Sweetie Belle? Do you know if you could teach me to do magic?” She looked down and kicked the ground a bit. “...I can’t do magic that well…but I could bring a couple books…” her voice squeaked a few times, but that doesn’t really matter. I’ma get me some magic books! I thought, as I nodded to Sweetie, turning back to the door. “Okay. Thanks. For now, I’ll do some old fashioned repairs. Hopefully.” I muttered, pushing the door back up, as the fillies had pushed it down. I moved the door into it’s place, it was quite heavy. I straightened up, and trotted out the door, heading for a well I saw from the room we started cleaning. It was covered that could gather in an open one. I flapped my wings a bit, before taking to the air, and flying to the well. I landed a bit clumsily, stumbling. “Okay. Operation Well is ago.” I mumbled, glaring at the stone covering. How I wish I knew how. Before I could understand what was happening, the stone was covered in a blue light, started to crack and break apart, and float to the ground. “Woah…” “Well, Operation Well is done. Now to get the water.” I moved over to a bucket, picking it up, and trotted over to a small river. I dipped the bucket in the water, before pulling it back out, checking for leaks, and dumping it out. I pulled some vines down from the wall, and tied it to the bucket, lowering the bucket into the well. When I pulled it up, the water was crystal clear. “Hey, Max! I’m back with water!” I yelled, trotting into the the room we met the fillies in. “Hey. Since we lack a certain thing called cups, we must just drink from whatever you used to bring the water.” Max told me, looking at the fillies. I smiled, sitting the bucket down. “I sorta figured a bit of my magic out! On accident.” I grinned, pushing the bucket towards the fillies, “Drink up. I know I am thirsty, so you must be too!” “That’s what she said.” Max smirked, until I glared at him. “Those jokes started when we were twelve! Staph with it, and maybe drink some brain bleach, it’ll clean those jokes out.” I deadpanned. He grimaced, looking away. “I know… I couldn’t help myself!” he whined. I rolled my eyes, before smiling. “I missed this. No school, no work, no friends. Just us.” Max nodded in agreement, about to say something, when Sweetie Belle spoke up. “You had no friends?!” she shouted, a look of pity and horror on her face. I nodded, “We didn’t need anyone else, and the others never liked us. We’re too ‘weird’. We’re too ‘hyper’. We’re too ‘annoying’. We’re too ‘immature’.” I muttered, moving to go back upstairs, “I’m going to sleep.”, so it might be safe.