//------------------------------// // The truth shall set you free // Story: Friendship was always there // by Skyeheart //------------------------------// As the group steadily trekked deeper into the forest, the foliage soon thinned and parted to reveal a broken down ruin, sitting directly under the moonlight. "There it is, the ruin that holds The Elements of Harmony. We made it!" Twilight started to break into a gallop, hurrying ahead of the others. "Wait! Hold it!" Nectar started. "We're almost there. Whoa!" Twilight flailed forward as her hooves suddenly touched down on thin air. Scraping against the ledge wall, she barely managed to backpedal to a safe standing. "As I was about to say..." Nectar continued. "Last time I passed by here, the entire keep was encircled by a huge ravine from all sides. Making simply walking inside it impossible." Twilight looked helplessly across the gap that was too wide to jump. "No! It's so close! There's got to be a way!" Lyra looked downwards into the chasm, mist shrouding her view of the bottom, making no way to tell how far it went. "Hey look!" She pointed to the side of the ledge. "A rope bridge!" "Yeah, too bad it's broken," Twinkleshine dryly observed. Minuette inspected the posts, then leaned over to take a closer look. "Hmmm, all the boards seem intact. I think the rope just needs retying on the other end." "Except how do we reattach it over there when we're all over here?" Lemon Hearts asked. Moondancer raised an eyebrow, her horn glowing as the bridge rope started to pull itself back up under her magical grip. "Oh...right." Lemon Hearts chuckled sheepishly. A few self tying knots later, the rickety rope bridge was back in commission for crossing. Twinkleshine tapped her hoof against the first creaky plank a few times. "Are you sure this is safe?" she asked. "We don't really have any other options here," Twilight insisted. "Now let's go!" "Single file please," Minuette chimed as the ponies began to cross. "Final stop on our Everfree tour, the castle of the royal pony sisters!" As the final mare stepped onto the bridge, a black mist slowly crept up from behind and started to envelop the tethered ropes. It wasn't until the last two unicorns were the only ones left crossing when a sudden snapping sound jolted the bridge. "AAAH!" Twilight instinctively latched onto the remaining railing with her front hooves as the entire left side gave away, her legs now dangling in midair. "What just happened?!" The other remaining pony clinging to the side, Moondancer, looked behind Twilight to find the cause. The support posts from the end of the bridge they had come from were burning in a black fire, and the flames were eating away at the rope with an alarming speed! "Fire-" That was all she was able to get out of her mouth before the dark conflagration severed the other line. The pair of unicorns screamed as they vanished downward into the misty trench, the fading voices of the other four unicorns crying out to them on the other side were all that seemed to follow. Twilight weakly opened her eyes, her vision slowly clearing to bring into view a sticky, swampy carpet of weeds and mud as far as she could see. The cliff walls surrounding the pit stretched upwards beyond her sight and into the nighttime darkness. "Oh no..." With great effort and aching, she pulled herself up from the side, knee deep in the muck. Fighting against the viscosity, she crawled to the nearest side, her hooves scrambling to climb up with no avail. "No...no no no no!!!" Trapped. She was trapped at the bottom of the chasm with no foreseeable way out. It couldn't end this way, coming so close only to starve to death in an abandoned moat! No, scratch that, she'd dehydrate before she starved. Unless, of course, she got a cut down here and died of infection! And then the consequences she'd face in the afterlife! Provided there was one, that is. She had failed the most important mission in history, condemning her world to an eternity of frozen darkness and eventually making all life unsustainable. This practically made her an associate to mass genocide! Her soul would be thrown into the deepest, blackest corner of Tartarus, subject to a never-ending series of torments until the end of time! A sloshing noise from behind suddenly took her breath away, which was inadvertently good since her train of thought was starting to push her to hyperventilate. Spinning around, she came face to face with the mud-encrusted coat of Moondancer. "Seems there was enough sediment and water at the bottom to cushion our fall," she said as she cleaned her glasses off. "Although based on the soreness of my flank, I would not recommend going through that a second time." The relief that some kind of swamp monster lurking around in the depths of ravine hadn't snuck up on her soon faded as Twilight's thoughts soon turned back to the predicament she had come to. "What are we going to do? What are we going to do?! There's no way back up! We're trapped like-" "Twilight! Moondancer! Are you okay down there?" Twilight would have jumped from the spot she was trying to pace in place if it weren't for the fact that a foot of mud was anchoring her legs. "Was that Minuette's voice I heard echoing?"she asked. "Volume control spell," Moondancer surmised. "She's magically amplified the sound of her voice so it can reach us down here. We should reply in kind." Twilight nodded, her own horn lighting up. "We're fine, but we're stuck down here. We can't climb out!" "Okay. Just hang on! We've got an idea! Nectar's going to fly down and find where you are down there, meanwhile the rest of us are going to tie some vines and whatever's left of the rope together to pull you out. Just stay put for awhile, okay?" "Oh thank goodness!" Twilight slumped down in relief. "It's not over, I still have a chance to stop Nightmare Moon..." "Right, that what matters, isn't it?" Moondancer said in a lower tone. A moment of silence passed as they waited for their rescue to arrive. "What are you going to do after you after you defeat her and bring the sun back?" she asked. "Well, fortunately, this all happened on break, so I won't have to catch up on much when I get back to my studies. I'll probably want to set some time aside for composing a dissertation on the Elements of Harmony. I'm sure I can get research access to them after I bring them back to Canterlot." "...And that's all, huh?" Moondancer's tone seemed to be usually short. "You know, a lot of ponies will probably treat you like a hero once they find out what you accomplished. You'll likely have quite a few banquets and celebrations made in your honor." "I'm sure that's nice, but I've had more than enough celebrating with ponies this past day than I've had in my entire life," Twilight chuckled to herself, reflecting on how crazy the past 24 hours had been for her. "I'd really rather not bother with going through all that pomp and circumstance if I can avoid it." Moondancer half-lidded her eyes. "Like how you tried to avoid my party?" "Huh?" Twilight's head swiveled around to meet Moondancer's gaze. But before another word could be said, a small droning buzz came from the distance. "There you two are!" Nectar descended upon the pair, a long coiling rope in her clutches. "Here, tie this around yourselves and give two tugs. I'll stick around in case something goes wrong." Twilight eagerly reached out for the rope, but a pale white aura suddenly pulled it high out of reach. "Could you go up and tell the others to give us a few minutes?" Moondancer asked. "I've just realized there's something I need to talk to Twilight about, and I'm not going to get another chance like this." "Moondancer?" Twilight tried to pull back the rope with her own magic, but Moondancer held it firm. "What are you doing? We don't have time for this!" "Well for once, you're going to make time Twilight! Because I've been doing a lot of thinking about you since this afternoon, and now you're going to listen to it. Not later, now!" "Okay...I see this something that's probably private between you two, so I'll just head on up and let the others know you're not ready yet." As Nectar flew back up, Twilight started to glare back at her suddenly hostile companion. "Alright, Moondancer. What's this all about?" "This is about me working up the nerve to tell you how I feel about you not wanting to come to my party." "That's it?! Moondancer, we're in the middle of stopping eternal night! Why in the world you be delaying that for something as trivial as a party?" "It was my party, Twilight. My first party! And you just saw it as an annoyance the whole time when the others kept trying to include you!" Twilight huffed impatiently at Moondancer's raising voice and stomping hooves. "I was on assignment for Princess Celestia! I think that takes a little more precedence than your-" "Just admit it! You said so yourself I wasn't your friend! Even if this whole Nightmare Moon stuff never happened, you still weren't ever planning to show up to my party, were you?" "Alright fine, I didn't want to go to your party! I wanted to do something more productive, like advance my studies. Something that would accomplish more in my life. It wasn't important!" "It was important to me! And when you tried to brush it off, you pretty much ruined it!" "How?! Why in the sun and stars would a single pony like me trying to leave your party ruin it?!" "Because the party was supposed to be about you Twilight!!!" Twilight's mouth hung open as her heated mind just stopped dead. Moondancer, meanwhile started to tear as her rant gained ground. "Yes, Twilight. I threw the party for you. To thank you for being my first friend. I had no one but my books and obscure facts when I first came to Celestia's school. Nopony approached me for weeks until you became my lab partner. Then you started doing study sessions with me, trading books, comparing notes. You were the first pony that ever had anything in common with me, and above that, spent time with me!" She jerked a hoof upwards without even giving a glance in that direction. "It wasn't long after that when they started wanting to spend time with me as well. They noticed me because of you noticing me! I never had this many ponies wanting to do things with me! It made me think they wanted to be friends with me, that you wanted to be my friend! That I was a pony worth being friends with! "I told you this was the first party I ever had, the first time I put myself out there. And you, the guest of honor, didn't even want to be my guest! Do you have any idea how humiliating that makes me look in front of the others? How humiliating that makes me feel?! How scared I am they don't want to be my friends either now?! I thought for so long that we were friends Twilight. I wanted to be your friend so badly. And YOU! DIDN'T! EVEN! WANT! TO! COME!" And with that final outburst, she collapsed in sobbing heap in front of Twilight, her hooves covering her face and muffling her sobs. As she continued to sob, Twilight's brain wracked itself for a response. Something, anything! But there was nothing, not even in her books about social interactions and conventions that could address the swirling mix of emotions she was experiencing now. Finally, she just knelt down to her level, and said the first thing to pop into her head. "I'm sorry." Moondancer sniffled as she looked up into Twilight's guilty expression. "That party really was important to you, and I really didn't take your feelings into consideration when I first refused your invitation," she continued. "I didn't realize how much I meant to you, and what that party was supposed to symbolize between us. I know I was being angry and frustrated when I said it, but I guess I really wasn't your friend, not a very good one anyways." She pulled Moondancer to her hooves, wiping the tear stains from her cheeks. "Thank you for telling me this Moondancer, because now I know how you feel, and I don't want you to keep feeling this way. So, when this is all over, let's try that party again. I'll come for real this time." "D-do you mean it?" Moondancer said with a hiccup. "I promise," Twilight assured. "I know there's absolutely nothing academic about it, but...I guess you and the rest of the girls really are my friends. I mean, now that I think about it, no other pony would even think about sticking with me here for this long if they weren't. Plus, you all really did help me out quite a bit. And if you're all putting in so much effort to be so, it wouldn't hurt to for me to try and be a better friend back, if you still want me to." Before she knew it, Moondancer had her hooves wrapped tightly around her. "Thank you, Twilight. I never realized how much I needed to hear that." A buzzing noise signaled that Nectar was returning. "Um, the others up top are wondering if you're ready yet?" she asked. "We've just finished up," Moondancer nodded in reply. Her magic released the rope's length to the ground level. Nectar prepared to spot them as she hovered over a large pink flower with yellow thorns while they started to tie the rope around their barrels. "Well that's good, because-" Her leg barely brushed against one of the black anthers around the center, and suddenly they all lashed out and seized her. Before she could even let out a cry, the petals of the flower snapped closed around her like a mouse trap. Twilight stared in shock along with Moondancer before finally finding her voice again. "The flower...ate her!" Just then, a series of small black eyes opened around the ring of petals, and with an earth shaking rumble, a large purple serpentine body erupted from the red, leafy base. It's eyes swiveled to the unicorn pair, and it opened it's maw again with a hungry, saliva spitting roar. "That's no plant!" Moondancer cried. "That's a tatzlwurm!" Twilight gave two very panicked tugs at the rope as the beast lunged at them. Almost instantly, they were heaved upwards as the tatzlwurm crashed into the spot where they were just seconds ago. But relief was short lived as the tatzlwurm reared its head up and caught the ends of both their legs with its writhing mass of long sticky tongues. Both mares could feel themselves slowly being reeled in as the tug-of-war leaned in favor of their predator. It was then Moondancer spied a particular patch of berries growing on a small ledge. With a glow of her horn, she ripped off as many as she could and splattered them all over herself and Twilight. "Ack! Hey! What was that for?" "No time to explain! Cut the rope now before the others are dragged over the side with us!" "What?!" Twilight's eyed bugged out. "Are you crazy?!" "Twilight, you said you wanted to become a better friend for us, right?" "Of course I do!" "Then trust me...like a friend would. We'll be alright." Twilight looked down into the gaping maw of the tatzlwurm, gulped, and then with her eyes squeezed shut, snapped the line with a blink of her horn. The pair were instantly slurped up into the tatzlwurm's mouth. A few seconds later though, the creature's eyes widened in surprise. It squirmed and convulsed like its belly was on fire. Finally it raised its head high, and coughed out three mucus-covered, pony-sized objects. One second, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Lyra Heartstrings were braced upon the edge of the ravine, hooves dug deep into the ground and teeth gripping a long rope like their lives depended on it. Then with a distant snapping sound, they found themselves tumbling over backwards until they piled up against the large tree that had been their anchor. A few more seconds later they saw a very slimy Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer, and Nectar shoot up from out of the depths and land squarely on top of the pile, sharing the goo with everyone. "Ewww...dare I ask what this is?" Twinkleshine said as she got up to try rub the ooze off. "A tatzlwurm's stomach lining," Moondancer answered instinctively. That drew out a round of ewwww's from just about everyone, even the changeling. "At least with arachne, you aren't digested alive..." she grumbled. "What...was...that...you just did?" Twilight asked Moondancer in bewilderment. "The berries I slathered ourselves with were from a mandragora plant," Moondancer explained. "Known in pharmaceutical terms as mandrake root, it's roots are widely used in medicine to create anesthetics-" "-but the fruits they produce contain toxins that are used to induce vomiting!" Twilight finished. "That's brilliant!" "So, let me get this straight," Lyra said. "You guys got swallowed by a giant worm down there, and used some weird medicine berries to make him puke you up." "That about sums it up," Moondancer said. A moment of silence passed before Minuette shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, sure. Why not? Anyways, the final hurdle awaits!" "Hold on!" Twilight raised a hoof. "Before we go any further, there's something I'd like to say...to all of you." Everyone stood at attention, looking expectantly to Twilight. Twilight turned to Moondancer, receiving a small nod before she took a deep breath and began. "I want to say thank you. You really have helped me a lot, accompanying me through the Everfree Forest. I probably wouldn't have even made it this far if it hadn't been for you. And also, I'm sorry for denouncing you as friends. I've come to learn over the course of this night that, you all really have been good friends to me, but I haven't been one to you. But I promise from now on, I'll do everything I can to make up for all the times I took each of you for granted. Can you forgive for that?" To her surprise, the mares before her all giggled. "Come on, Twilight!" Minuette insisted. "Didn't we already tell you before we didn't mind all that? It's not like we weren't used to that from you!" "Yeah, none of us hold it personally," Twinkleshine agreed. "But it is really good you want hang with us more now," Lemon Hearts assured. Twilight smiled warmly at all of them. "Thanks girls, that actually means a lot to me." "Hey, you all thinking what I'm thinking?" Minuette asked with a cocked eyebrow. Lyra, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts looked to each other and back to Minuette. "Group hug?" "GROUP HUG!!" And with that, the mares were groped together in a big embrace. They even found a spot for their changeling guide to squeeze in. Unbeknownst to all of them, a glowing pair of eyes observed them from above within the shadow of the ruined castle. "How sweet, I'm getting cavities just watching. Go ahead little ponies, enjoy your happy moment. It'll be the last one you ever have..."