No more. I'm done.
Shining Blade struggled to lift his hoof and pull himself up the last step out of the gorge, panting heavily as his strength ebbed away. As he dragged himself up to flat ground, Nyx gracefully landed beside him.
"Was the climb really that hard?" she asked, concerned rather than mocking.
"Hey, after the day I've had, I'm surprised I didn't crash sooner," Blade replied, mustering the energy to stand back up. As he did, he noticed a bunch of ponies approaching them. As they got closer, he noticed the golden armor each one wore; they were members of the Royal Guard. "Good. We can tell them what went down here, maybe have those two looked into."
A few seconds later, it dawned on him, too late, just how odd it was for the Guard to be in the Everfree Forest...before all five soldiers pointed their spears at his barrel.
"Halt, Shining Blade!" The lead guard ordered. "You are under arrest!"
"WHAT!?" Blade asked, shocked. "What did I even do!?"
"What did you do?" the guard repeated, angered and incredulous at Blade's ignorance. "You kidnapped Nyx, the reincarnation of Nightmare Moon, who's supposed to be under the tight guard of her mother. And in order to keep your hostage, you assaulted and nearly killed Night Guard Lieutenant Thatch. Do you deny these claims?"
"Wha- Of course I do!" Blade replied, though he doubted it would help. As soon as he heard Thatch was a soldier, he knew he was screwed. "I didn't kidnap Nyx; we got trapped together in that old castle. And Thatch attacked me!"
Blade's defense was answered with a spearhead pressed against his throat. "You won't worm your way out of this one with such blatant lies," the lead guard scolded him, enraged. "You're coming with us to Canterlot, to await your judgement. And you, Nyx...allow us to escort you home."
At this point, Blade was ready to just take his unjust punishment. There wasn't really much he could do in this situation, and he might have found a higher authority willing to hear him out at his trial. And Nyx would be able to go home and have her troubles end there. Except...she didn't. She cowered away from the knights, retreating behind Blade. Was something wrong?
"Come now, Nyx, you have nothing to fear from us," the lead knight comforted her. "Just let us take you home and this can all be over."
At that, Nyx cowered even more behind Blade, practically curling into a ball at his hindleg. Something was definitely wrong. She probably didn't know what it was, but her instincts were telling her not to go with the guards. Perhaps they weren't simply lied to. Perhaps, whatever Thatch and his friend were doing, these guards were in on it. Blade prepared himself to fight his way out of this predicament, when everypony heard a faint buzzing sound. As everypony tried to figure out what was causing the sound, it got louder and louder...
Suddenly, Scootaloo came zooming in on her scooter, knocking down most of the guards like bowling pins. The one that remained standing realized what was happening, and prepared to skewer his assailant as she caught air off of the last knight she hit. Using what capacity her wings had to hover, she twirled in place and threw her scooter at the knight with all the momentum she had built up. It hit him square in the face, knocking him out, and bounced right back into her hooves before she let herself drop to the ground.
"Scootaloo?" Nyx asked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I heard some crazy story that Mr. Blade kidnapped you, and thought I'd come to the rescue," Scootaloo replied. "Looks like that story wasn't accurate though, thank Celestia."
"Wait, that lie's spreading back in Ponyville?" Blade inquired, his spirits sinking. "Why can't anything go right for me today?"
"Yeah, they've got a whole bunch of guards all around Ponyville waiting for you to come back," Scootaloo answered. "Probably best not to go home tonight."
"...your life is over," Blade thought, remembering the mystery unicorn's words. Dammit, so that's what she meant.
"And if they're waiting for Mr. Blade, they're waiting for me," Nyx realized.
Blade sated Scootaloo's curiosity when she gave her friend a confused look. "It looks like there's some sort of conspiracy going on within the ranks of the Royal Guard, and Nyx might be a part of that. Her instincts are telling her to stay away from them, and I'm inclined to agree with her. You, on the other hand, are not part of this. The guards aren't a problem for you, so go home. It's bad enough one child's involved; I don't need to involve another."
Scootaloo just shook her head. "No can do. If Nyx is in trouble, I'm gonna help her. Got a plan?"
Blade stared into her eyes, and sighed. He wanted to argue with her some more, but it was clear nothing he could say would make her leave. "First of all, I'm not going to be able to do much with this dang kidnapping charge over my head. We need to get word of this conspiracy to someone who'll actually listen."
"How about the princesses?" Scootaloo pitched in.
"Not a chance. After this fiasco, even Twilight is surrounded by guards. We'd never make it near any of them."
At this point, Nyx had an idea, one pony they could possibly turn to...but she shrugged away from the idea. He lived in Canterlot, a city full of guards, and even if they made it to him, she associated so many bad memories with his face. Unfortunately for her, Blade saw her reaction. Her body language was all he needed to see the danger and pain involved in this option, but he didn't have much choice.
"Nyx, who do you have in mind?" he asked, and was answered with a timid whisper:
"...Spell Nexus."
A chill ran down Blade and Scootaloo's spines. They remembered the uprising when a horde of ponies possessed by Nightmare Moon tried to bring Nyx back as their master. Though he was not himself at the time, Spell Nexus was at the head of that cult. However, he had been freed from Nightmare Moon's control, and returned to his position as headmaster of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Going to him was probably Blade's best option.
"Well, let's get moving," Blade told the fillies, resigning himself to the task. "No going back to Ponyville, so we'll have to find another way out of the forest-"
As he said this, a monster jumped out at him from the shadows. Before he could draw his sword, Scootaloo had already run the creature over and beat it into submission, using her scooter as an unwieldy hammer.
"Guess the creatures here are still crazed," Blade noted. "Wonder how long that'll last..."
"I don't think we should stay here," Scootaloo pointed out the obvious. "C'mon, let's get going." As the trio made their way out of the forest, the sun finally set on this nightmare of a day.