Hoofed by Your Own Petard

by Tortfeasor

Band of Mares

Hoofed by Your Own Petard

Disclaimer: 99 bottles of disclaimer on the wall, 99 bottles of disclaimer…

Chapter Four: Band of Mares

Twilight’s bed was harder than usual; maybe she’d fallen asleep on her books again? And the water was running too, that meant she hadn’t made it to the shower first and would be taking a cold shower today. She groped around with a hoof trying to find her small clock to see how late she’d slept in. At least she had half the week off because of the Summer Sun Celebration. The Summer Sun Celebration!

Twilight jumped up, throwing her blanket off her and looked around frantically. She nearly jumped above the treeline when her bags and all her possessions came crashing down around her. Opening her eyes once again she saw Rarity calmly sitting under a nearby tree watching her.

“You very nearly gave me a heart attack when I woke up and saw all your goods floating about.”

“I lost control of my magic yesterday.” Twilight refused to meet the other pony’s eyes. “I accidentally drew way more than I can handle. It’s why I couldn’t do anything with my magic when we met in the streets. It’s happened to me before and when my magic starts going again things like that happen.”

“Well that’s good to know,” Rarity casually lifted herself to all four hooves and with no apparent effort set Twilight’s scattered belongings back to rights, “I’ve no idea how to even begin helping a unicorn who injured their magic and as long as Celestia is missing I doubt we’ll have the opportunity for long rest to let you recover.”

The small hill she and Rarity had finally stopped on after fleeing for more hours than she could easily remember was covered in enough trees to block being seen from the air but still clear enough that they could easily run if spotted. More than that a small river ran at the base of the hill meaning they had clean water.

Seemingly immune to the impact of Celestia being overthrown, a cult of crazed ponies seizing power, and their wanting her head in a very personal way Rarity walked down to the river and began cleaning herself as well as she could.

“I suppose any hair care is simply out of the question,” Rarity said after dunking her mane in the river and shaking free the elaborate curls she’d worn since yesterday, “I dare not hope you packed any personal care items in your saddlebags darling?”

“I’m afraid not,” Twilight shook her head, “I just grabbed food, water, a blanket, and some survival guides when I ran. I didn’t even grab a knife to use until my magic gets back to normal. I should count myself lucky I ran into another unicorn who can handle those sorts of things, I’d be in trouble otherwise.”

“Not at all dear Twilight,” Rarity had tried several hairstyles before settling on letting it fall loose about halfway down her legs, “it’s the least I can do after dragging you into this mess and killing your friend before your eyes.”

“I’m not sure any more if Shady really ever was my friend.” Twilight returned her gaze to the ground, “I mean she was probably the only pony at work I respected and I thought I knew her pretty well. But then she helped overthrow Celestia, and even though I don’t know you all that well trying to kill somepony isn’t something one of my friends would do. She was talking about finishing her high school diploma and getting out of there!”

“I wish I knew what to say,” Rarity had done a surprisingly good job cleaning herself of dirt and grime with the small river’s flow, “but it would be a complete lie to say I have any experience of the sort. If you think it might help I’d be more than willing to provide a friendly ear.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Twilight sighed, “but I always promised myself that when I got out of that place I’d never think about it again. Not quite the exit I’d planned but I think even if we come out of this alive that I’m going to be fired. And I don’t even know where to begin talking about Shady or everything that’s going on.”

“Okay,” Rarity let it slide, “we really should get going though. You slept for quite awhile and I can’t imagine this Nightmare Moon or her cronies will leave us alone forever. It’s slower going through the forest but we should make it to Ponyville in no more than two days even so. Hopefully it’s not too hard to find Sweetie Belle in such a small town and then we can start looking for a library.”

Twilight decided to show her agreement by merely putting on her saddlebags. Or at least that was the idea as when she lifted her saddlebags with her magic they didn’t slowly lift over her flanks but rather shot up what had to be close on fifty feet in the air.

Rarity looked up at the saddlebags slowly rotating in the air, then back down to Twilight’s look of amazement at what she’d just done, and lastly back up at the saddlebags.

“I hope you don’t mind if I take the saddlebags for now. I’d hate to think your food might wind up in Cloudsdale when you tried to get it out.”

Twilight didn’t respond at all as a blue glow overtook her magenta glow over the saddlebags and they floated down to rest on Rarity’s back. What in Equestria was going on with her magic? Her saddlebags were never a test of her magical ability to lift but it felt like she’d unleashed a flood of power when she tried to use the trickle necessary to lift them.

Fortunately navigation by the stars required no magic beyond that of learning how to do it. Having mastered that art as an obviously unsuccessful attempt to earn her cutie mark Twilight had no problem pointing them towards Ponyville. The next few hours passed mostly silently. Rarity seemed possessed of a single-minded determination to find her sister while Twilight was still trying to absorb the events of the past day.

She had no way to know for sure but Twilight thought it was about an hour or two past midday when they stopped to eat. Eating grass was as un-sophisticated as meals came and Rarity complained the whole time. She however did not have an answer to Twilight’s point that they had a limited amount of canned food and even having grabbed her latest pay before running they weren’t exactly swimming in bits on hoof.

“After mining the gems for the Summer Sun Celebration I thought I would be done with… outdoor labor for some time. I would give my back left hoof for a day at the spa and a proper meal.”

“And I’d give my back left hoof for the sun to come up,” Twilight could hold herself silent no longer, “but I’d settle for some peace and quiet.”

“I’m sorry darling, but even if you’re the only one to hear it I feel like taking this horrible coup without complaining would feel almost as bad as simply laying down without fighting.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie feels you’ve complained more than enough.”

Twilight and Rarity had gotten so caught up that neither had noticed the arrival of the pony responsible for the mess they were in.

“Great and Powerful?” Rarity raised an eyebrow in skepticism, “what, being Celestia’s student wasn’t enough for you?”

“Of course not!” Trixie spat, “You got wealth and fame for knowing the Princess. Everypony clamors for the opportunity to get into the same building as you! And what do I get? Books and lessons, I’m stuck in the library writing an essay about Starswirl the Bearded while you have ponies fawning over your every whim!”

Twilight didn’t dare involve herself between the two mares but she truly would have given her back left hoof for even five minutes in Celestia’s private library. The history she could read, the cultures she could study, and then there was the magic. Even if she’d never have the skills to perform any of it just knowing that magic would be worth a lifetime at Touchy Hooves.

“… I’ve seen the files, you just sabotaged the other ponies trying to be Celestia’s student.” Twilight had apparently missed part of the argument while daydreaming, “You’re nothing but a second rate hack!”

“You did not just call the Great and Powerful Trixie a second rate hack!”

“You’re right, that would be an insult to second rate hacks all across Equestria.”

This was apparently the straw that broke the pony’s back as Trixie let loose a scream of anger and accompanied it with a bolt of lightning from her horn. Rarity’s horn immediately began glowing blue and a chunk of earth in front of her lifted into the lightning’s path just before it struck her.

“How ironic,” Trixie sneered, “the pony who so hates dirt is reduced to using it to fight for her life.”

“Only touching it,” Rarity glared knives at the other unicorn, “a miner should appreciate what the earth can do for them. Like this!”

Several other pieces of earth shot up and sped towards Trixie. They came to an abrupt halt as the blue glow surrounding them mingled with Trixie’s off purple magic. Twilight quickly realized that the fight had turned into one of brute magical strength. A fight moreover that Trixie probably had the edge in due to a good night’s sleep and eating a full meal rather than grass.

Twilight dearly hoped her magic had gone back to normal, or at least normal enough for her to control. The only way she and Rarity were going to get out of this alive would be if she could distract enough of Trixie’s attention for Rarity to win their contest of strength.

Her horn took on its normal magenta glow as Twilight started gathering magical energy. She opted to simply use straight magical force. After the fiasco with her saddlebags she had no confidence that she could throw anything around her let alone something as complicated as lightning. Trixie however noticed this and though it meant the pile of rocks made some distance towards her she conjured and shot a bolt of lightning at Twilight.

The lightning bolt hit the very tip of Twilight’s horn and for the lavender unicorn the world exploded. Had Twilight Sparkle remained conscious of what was occurring she would have seen Trixie’s look of horror as the forest between the two of them simply ceased to be. She would have then seen Rarity staring, slack jawed, as the wall of force obliterated Trixie’s hastily erected defenses and sent the blue unicorn tumbling back.

Had Twilight still been connected to the world she would have seen her companion look, with not a little fear, at her glowing eyes and the very air around her crackling with power. She would have felt the blood start to run down her face and her legs cease to support her weight.

“Twilight, Twilight are you okay?” Rarity’s insistent pleading finally dragged her back to consciousness.

“Rarity? What happened?” Twilight’s eyelids felt like they had lead weights on them.

“You put on quite the magical show darling,” Rarity helped her to her hooves, “I had no idea you had that kind of power in you.”

“I don’t,” Twilight rubbed at the dried blood on her face, “my head feels like it’s about to burst. I don’t think I could use my horn as a light right now.”

“Twilight, dear, if you really had as little power as you think you do you truly would be dead after a show like that. Let me get your saddlebags and we can get out of here and on our way.”

Rarity quickly lifted the saddlebags onto her own back and fastened the straps. Twilight meanwhile had shook her head several times and taken a few cautious steps in an effort to regain her bearings after nearly frying her brain for the second time in as many days. Before the two could start off several gusts of air announced the arrival of several royal guards.

“Oh thank goodness,” Rarity sighed in relief at the appearance of the white pegasi in their golden armor, “I think we…”

“Rarity, Twilight Sparkle,” one of the guards abruptly cut Rarity off, “by order of Nightmare Moon you are under arrest for treason against the crown.”

Twilight was beyond words. This had to be some sort of karmic punishment for her daring to think yesterday that things might finally be going her way.

“Seize them!” The same guard who had spoken before shouted.

Twilight’s magic was completely fried. There was absolutely nothing she could do. She closed her eyes and lowered her head hoping at least her end would be quick. The universe though was not done with Twilight Sparkle quite yet. Realizing that the guards were in fact hostile Rarity chose that moment to flare her horn bright enough that one might as well have looked directly into the sun. The guards, all looking at the white unicorn, eyes adjusted to the darkness promptly found themselves blind and in no small amount of pain.

“What?” Even closed during the flare Twilight’s eyes were still watering from its effects.

Rarity’s response was to literally start dragging Twilight with her magic. Twilight quickly recovered and before long was moving alongside Rarity at a brisk trot.

“Sorry for the rough handling dear but I didn’t want them to even hear which way we were going. If this Nightmare Moon has somehow turned the royal guards to her side then we are in very deep trouble.”

“I’m more concerned with how she did it,” Twilight was slightly panting at the brisk pace, “any sort of mind control is normally very difficult magic. If Nightmare Moon really is more powerful then Celestia there’s no telling how many ponies she could make work for her.”

--

Nighttime at Sweet Apple Acres, real proper nighttime. It was always nighttime without the sun but clocks allowed ponies to divide that nighttime into time to work, rest, and sleep. Sweet Apple Acres was this night particularly quiet. The hurried departure of many relations in the wake of the Summer Sun Celebration meant that the sprawling farmhouse felt even larger than normal to its three inhabitants.

Fitfully but deeply asleep none of them noticed the black mist the swirled up from the orchards. Staying low to the ground it flowed over, around, and seemingly through everything in its way to rest, roiling in front of the house. This was not a normal or a natural mist, weather teams all over Equestria were in too much chaos to dream of something so basic.

Already a dark spot in the night the mist turned even darker as it took on form. Wings, a horn, and armor that seemed to diminish what little light there was. The foals opposing her were spread out in little groups and had proved frustratingly adept at hiding. If anything their families were even more widespread, several not even in Equestria at the time. But not here, here she could strike at one of them.

The flames started low and dim. She could have simply wiped the house and its inhabitants from the face of Equestria with a thought but there was a certain satisfaction to drawing out the process like this. Her first goal was surrounding the house with flames to ensure nopony could escape. Again she could have made sure of that quite easily by other means but doing it in such a manner was almost… fun. She took a small shortcut after surrounding the house. It would take some time for the flames to grow large enough to wake the inhabitants and the meanwhile would be dreadfully boring. What had been a small ring of fire grew to a raging inferno in the blink of an eye and what had been the sounds of peaceful slumber grew satisfyingly quickly into screams of terror.

Nightmare Moon’s smile barred her sharpened teeth to gleam in the firelight. It felt good to instill fear in ponies. And surely the now lone member of the Apple family would hear about this and suffer for it.

Applejack shot upright, awash in sweat and adrenaline leaving any fatigue unfelt. She jerked her head about in panic expecting to see the glow on the horizon of Sweet Apple Acres. She knew that was ridiculous, they had put too much distance between them and the farm to see it burn but she still craned her neck towards Ponyville trying to see any clues at the edge of her vision.

“Hi Applejack!” A mass of pink bounced its way into her vision, “you couldn’t sleep either? I mean of course I couldn’t sleep, I hate wasting day. Well night I guess but either way I hate wasting it.”

“Pinkie Pie?” Applejack snapped herself to attention, “We have to turn around. We need to go back to Sweet Apple Acres right away.”

“Did you forget something?” Applejack was far from a delicate city pony but even she was baffled how Pinkie Pie could be so energetic at this hour without coffee. “We could totally send Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy back for it and race them! See how much farther ahead we can get before they catch up to us. I totally bet we can make it all the way to Canterlot before they find us.”

Applejack laughed in spite of herself, “I wish it were so simple. I’m afraid Nightmare Moon already knows who we are and I’m worried she could hurt our families to get to us.”

“Oh silly,” Pinkie Pie’s smile was annoyingly infectious, “Was that what your bad dream was about? Black Snooty wouldn’t need to do that; we’re coming right to her! So laugh that bad dream away and let’s get this day started!”

Applejack’s first few laughs were pitiful at best, but before long she and Pinkie Pie were guffawing with peals of laughter that left her ribs aching. Somewhat unsurprisingly their companions did not remain sleeping through the noise.

“Wha?” Rainbow Dash was perhaps even worse with mornings than Applejack.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy leapt from her blanket with impressive speed, “Oh no oh no oh no oh no! We overslept terribly late. I’m so sorry Applejack, Pinkie Pie, please don’t leave us behind. I promise we’ll get up earlier from now on.”

“Relax girls,” Pinkie Pie giggled, “Applejack and I were just up really early. But it’s great you girls are up early! Because we can get going earlier, and then we can find Rarity earlier, and then we can beat Queen Meanie earlier, and then that means we’re closer to the biggest party ever!”

It was way too early for Rainbow Dash. The pegasus hated being up before the sun with a passion just about as hot as the sun. With the moon perpetually overhead and the sun nowhere to be seen she was convinced she was up too early whatever the time really was. Pinkie Pie’s boundless energy didn’t help matters any. The pink earth pony had spent the last several hours prattling on incessantly about anything and everything.

Despite Fluttershy’s best efforts Rainbow Dash was on the verge of throttling her travelling companion when Applejack motioned them all to be silent.

“What is it?” Rainbow Dash crept up to Applejack and whispered.

“I saw something,” Rainbow Dash could barely hear the other pony mere inches away, “in those trees over there.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t see anything in the trees Applejack pointed to but if whatever was in there thought it had been seen it might be lying low in hopes they wandered into its reach.

“On three,” Rainbow Dash whispered back just as quietly, “one… two… three!”

The two of them leapt into the trees and tackled a pair of ponies to the ground. The unicorn under Rainbow Dash briefly began using her magic but whether through shock or sheer luck it collapsed in a cry of pain.

“Girls! Wait!” Pinkie Pie interrupted Rainbow Dash just as she was about to show the unicorn how bad an idea it was to mess with her.

“Hi Rarity!” Pinkie Pie bounced next to Applejack and started waving at the pony pinned to the ground.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash turned to look at the other pony without taking any weight off the pony underneath her, “I’ve seen pictures of Rarity and that doesn’t look a lot like her.”

“You try being accosted by ruffians in Canterlot, attacked by Celestia’s traitorous student, and then forced to trek through this horrid forest and see if you still look prim and proper. Of course looking at you I don’t think that mane has ever seen a salon or those hooves any sort of spa treatment.”

“That’s Rarity alright!” Pinkie Pie reduced herself to peals of laughter.

“And we would both appreciate it if you would get off us!” When Rarity pushed up Applejack allowed herself to be moved. Rainbow Dash was not so forthcoming with the unicorn under her.

“So who are you and why should I trust you?” She turned back to the lavender unicorn with a glare.

“Her name is Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity answered, “and I assure you she’s quite trustworthy. She’s saved my life twice since this whole method started.”

Rainbow Dash lightly flapped her wings to lift herself off Twilight Sparkle. “Sorry about the rough greeting, but Nightmare Moon is out to get Pinkie Pie and I guess Rarity too so we kinda have to be careful.”

“I know all about Nightmare Moon hunting somepony,” Twilight staggered to her feet, “I fried my magic when Trixie attacked us so I’ve been hoping that the next time something came out way Rarity could handle it. Lucky us you turned out to be friendly.”

Twilight hadn’t been expecting some great feat of oration from the rainbow maned pegasus but staring at her flank was really coming out of left field and kind of creeping her out.

“You’re a blank flank.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said defensively, “what about it?”

The pegasus responded by loosening her saddlebags, when they fell down Twilight gasped to realize that she too had no cutie mark.

“You don’t have a cutie mark either,” now Twilight was the one staring blatantly at the other pony’s flank, “I’ve only ever met one blank flank my age. He was working for Nightmare Moon so it didn’t go over too well. ”

“That doesn’t sound like fun. But I can’t believe I’m really meeting another grown up blank flank! Finally somepony who actually gets what I’ve been through my whole life. Oh, I’m Rainbow Dash by the way.”

Twilight took the proffered hoof, “Twilight Sparkle, but you already knew that. I can’t wait to compare notes on what you’ve tried to find your talent. I mean obviously we can both do things the other can’t, but maybe I’ve thought of things you haven’t and vice versa.”

“Not like we’re gonna have lots of time to try stuff while we’re running around trying to save Equestria from eternal night. Hey, maybe something we do trying to beat Nightmare Moon will get us our cutie marks! I mean it can’t be a simple as hocus pocus and she’s gone. This is gonna be complicated, lots of stuff to do, lots of chances to get our cutie marks.”

“Deal,” Twilight said, “let’s promise that we help each other get our cutie marks before the sun comes up again.”

“That was so sweet,” Rarity’s voice caused Twilight to turn to see four other ponies looking at her and Rainbow Dash.

“You see Rainbow Dash,” a yellow pegasus said, “I told you that someday you’d meet another pony like you and you would help each other get your cutie marks.”

“You were right Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash groaned, “again.”

“I hate to rush us along,” an orange earth pony with a blonde mane interrupted, “but you said something about a possible way to defeat Nightmare Moon.”

“Ah yes,” Rarity said, “Twilight this is Applejack. Sweetie Belle is safe and sound at her family’s farm so we can go looking for your book if you’d be so kind as to enlighten us.”

“It’s not really a plan,” Twilight protested, “more like an observation. Trixie said she knew Nightmare Moon was coming back, and she even had a good idea of when. I’m sure we’ve all heard of Nightmare Moon even if only on Nightmare Night but just as a scary story. I’m thinking that for Trixie to find out exactly when Nightmare Moon was coming back it had to have been written down somewhere. And if there’s one copy of that book there might be others. I’d bet she read it in the royal library, but if we can find another copy somewhere else it might tell us how Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon the first time around.”

“Alright girls we’ve got a plan!” The pink pony who had recognized Rarity shouted, “But the Ponyville library was already locked down. Where could we find another copy of Twilight’s book?”

The look of concentration she took on was almost comical but she was shortly interrupted by Applejack.

“Manehatten, I live there so I know my way around and we’d have someplace safe to say. It’s also a large city so it would be easy to blend into crowds if Nightmare Moon’s thugs try to stop us. And most important there are several large libraries where your book could be and it could very well prove difficult for them to track down and destroy.”

“I guess it’s a plan,” Twilight was feeling a bit uncomfortable with everyone looking to her for guidance, “unless anypony can think of anything else I think we’re off to Manehatten.”

“Manehatten!” Came the unanimous agreement.

Comments

[sarokcat]

ok this is definitely starting to get interesting now. Seriously enjoying this story and can't wait to see where it goes from here now that the elements are all together at last. Also loving the interaction between the elements and looking forward to seeing how that develops now, especially with Reporter Applejack and the others.... And the blank flanks Twilight and Rainbow...

[Juicer]

The flames started low and dim. She could have simply wiped the house and its inhabitants from the face of Equestria with a thought but there was a certain satisfaction to drawing out the process like this. Her first goal was surrounding the house with flames to ensure nopony could escape. Again she could have made sure of that quite easily by other means but doing it in such a manner was almost… fun. She took a small shortcut after surrounding the house. It would take some time for the flames to grow large enough to wake the inhabitants and the meanwhile would be dreadfully boring. What had been a small ring of fire grew to a raging inferno in the blink of an eye and what had been the sounds of peaceful slumber grew satisfyingly quickly into screams of terror.

This got me hooked to the story as it Triggered my Friendship is Tragic PTSD and had to know if this was just a dream of AJ