When Friends are Said and Dun

by xenos29

Chapter 1

“Twilight, are you ok?”

Twilight awoke slowly, blinking several times before she saw Spike and remembered where she was. They were standing on the platform of Ponyville’s train station. Rather, Spike was standing on the platform, while Twilight was unflatteringly slumped over the chest containing the Elements of Harmony, feeling less than excited about being awake.

“Yes, Spike, I’m ok,” she said in a yawn.

“You fell asleep again. How late was everypony up?”

Twilight shut her eyes again and sighed. “Pretty late. We were still studying when the princesses showed up.”

Twilight’s eyes shot open, with the look of a student who had forgotten to do the reading for class today. Earlier in the evening, both Princess Celestia and Luna had come to the study with very serious looks on their faces, told her that they had to come to the Everfree forest, and that they would explain everything on the way. Not only had Twilight slept the entire train ride, but she had dozed off simply standing at the station, and still didn’t have any idea what was going on!

With Spike and chest in tow, Twilight hurried to the other end of the platform where everypony was waiting. She sighed in relief. Thankfully, it didn’t look like she had been sleeping on the chest for very long. Her friends must have sent Spike to get her once they saw she had fallen behind.

While the princesses seemed fine, a closer look at her friends told Twilight that they were just as exhausted as she was. Rainbow Dash’s head was drooping so low, her muzzle almost touched the ground. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity politely did their best to hide their fatigue, but the lines under their eyes spoke volumes to Twilight. Even Pinkie, who should have been hopping about like a slinky come alive, had decided to simply play with her mane, lazily spinning it around her hoof like cotton candy.

Twilight screeched to a halt, so quickly that Spike bumped into her, almost sending him and the chest onto the ground. “Princess Celestia! I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to fall asleep on the way over. I know that this is important, I don’t know why I couldn’t-”

“It’s alright, Twilight,” the Princess assured. She added light-heartedly, “You were all already on the train and fast asleep before we left Canterlot. We decided you could use the rest.”

Luna cut in, “My apologies, but time is of the essence, and there is much you all must know. The guards have gone off ahead; we should hurry.”

Together, Twilight, her friends, and the princesses walked in silence for a short time from the station, following the edge of the Everfree forest. Finally, they came to an old cobblestone path that appeared to lead straight to the heart of the forest, but instead stopped dead at the edge, blocked by a thorny thicket. Two royal guards were pulling it apart, though with little success. The ponies couldn’t simply go around the thicket either; the trees to the left and right of the path were large and close together, forming a wall that stretched far along the edge of the forest.

Finally, one of them, a unicorn, decided that she had had enough, and gave the thicket a powerful blast from her horn. The trees splintered at the bottom of their trunks, allowing her pegasus partner to knock them aside with an armored hoof.

The unicorn guard turned around. “Sorry, Your Highnesses, but it’s going to take forever to get through this way. The path’s completely overgrown. No way for us to use the chariots.”

Princess Celestia nodded thoughtfully, “Of course, I should have expected as much.” The princess turned to Twilight, “This path used to lead straight to the castle. I was hoping the path would still be clear enough to use.”

Rainbow Dash chimed in, “Uh…hello? Let’s just fly over there.”

“There’s a thick canopy blocking the clearing where the castle is,” explained the guard. The unicorn shook her head,” We couldn’t cut through it, not even with magic.”

Magic-resistant plants? Twilight thought for a moment, recalling everything she had ever learned about the subject. It wasn’t much. The Everfree forest had always been a strange place, but never in her studies had she come across anything, animal or plant, that could just shrug off spells like that.

Applejack nodded. “Then it looks like we’re hoofin’ it,” she said, with no shortage of determination.
Rainbow Dash groaned. “All the way to the castle? Remember how long it took last time?”

“We don’t have a choice, Rainbow,” said Twilight, gesturing her friends towards the opening.

One by one, the ponies entered the opening: first the guards, followed by the princesses, and finally Twilight and her friends. Being the last to enter, Twilight took a deep breath and squeezed through, taking care not to prick her wings on the thorns.

As they moved deeper into the forest, the light from the opening quickly faded, and soon the ponies found themselves in total darkness. With a single thought, the end of Twilight’s horn glowed, bathing everypony in a rich violet light. Twilight took a moment to place her hoof around Fluttershy, whose trembling was starting to match a hummingbird's wings.

Twilight nodded to Spike, and he opened the chest with the elements. Gathering them up in her magic, Twilight silently placed them on each of her friends. They all stared down at their elements with a mix of worry and weary interest as Twilight carefully stepped through the undergrowth, taking the lead. Whatever was going on, she knew Princess Celestia would know what to do, though if she and Luna were worried, then it must be serious. Twilight’s thoughts seesawed between confidence and doubt, but she quickly decided that whatever was waiting for them at the castle, she and her friends would face it together. With that in mind, the newly-minted princess set the pace for the group, trotting confidently into the depths of the pitch-black forest.

Comments

[Kitcat36]

Wait, I'm confused. The prologue said this story was post-Tirek, didn't it? So how do they have the elements? Did a time jump occur?