Friendship Never Fails

by cyberpeajay

Chapter 6: A Stealthy Approach

Continuing in the desert all seven of them were starting to get sore from all the walking. However, a sudden boost in morale kicked in when they saw the edges of desert become less and less prevalent. Eventually they all felt the smooth welcoming texture of dark green dewy grass.

"Grass! Oh how I've missed you!" Rarity gleefully said shuffling her hooves around to make the most out of the feeling. The others eyed her curiously. "Walking on all that dry rough dirt can cause damage to the hoof overtime."

"Oh please..." Applejack muttered to herself looking away from Rarity. But she winced when she saw the sight before her. Applejack nudged Twilight and pointing in the distance without saying a word.

"Canterlot!" Twilight said excitedly. "I told you it was this way girls!" She smiled and walked in the direction of the majestic city. However she stopped and swung around to face her friends. "Remember how powerful that royal guard was that almost caught us back there? Well there's going to be a whole lot more around this area, I can assure you. So lets be discrete." They all nodded and Twilight swung back around towards her home town. "Let's do this."

Spike seemed happy to be back in his home town as well. He was smiling but soon his look turned into curiosity. As they all embarked towards the city they could see smoke rising from some buildings and seemed to be glowing a bit more orange than usual. As all of them crossed the perimeter and into town, all they saw were broken buildings, debris everywhere and random fires. It had an uncomfortable silence where the only sound they could hear was the crackling of fire.

"What... What happened?" Twilight asked herself surveying her once illustrious home town. It was uneasy with the sound of no pony chatting to one another on the street. The whooshing of random gusts of wind sent chills down their spines. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Canterlot was now just a ghost town. Every pony evacuated in a hurry, and it looked like it was forced upon them by higher authority.

Suddenly all their ears propped upwards when they could hear distant chatting in the background between two stallions. The chatting was growing louder indicating they were coming towards them. All seven quickly rushed behind a broken wall of a house on the opposite side of the talking.

Popping her head over the wall ever so slightly was Rainbow Dash to get a look at who the talking was coming from. She grounded herself by her friends still behind the wall. "It's two guard ponies talking. They're just walking by. Let them pass." She whispered and then kept perfectly still. They all held their breath when the two were heard on the opposite side of the wall walking past. Twilight looked to her left and saw them walking down the street away from them now. No pony moved until the chatting sounds dissipated in the distance and were eventually gone.

"Remember what the guard in the desert said, all who opposed evil Twilight were thrown in a dungeon." Twilight said. "So that means all of the rest who are walking around are on her side."

"We best be goin' then. The sooner the better." Applejack pitched in and they all headed cautiously towards Canterlot Castle. They all noticed that the castle seemed undamaged. Nothing was changed on it and still looked as prestigious as normal.

Eventually they all made their way to a market which was in ruins. Stands were knocked over with fruit and vegetables scattered all over the place. Twilight could see in her minds eye that this used to be a very busy block when harmony was still around. Now it was a dark, bleak, depressing place.

"I am kind of hungry." Rainbow said picking a tomato up off the ground and tossing it in her mouth. Between bites she spoke to the rest of them. "I mean, itsch not like they're gonna be needing thre money for thish food."

Once they all had their fill on food in the abandoned market they decided to keep trudging on towards the castle. Spike was the only one who was not satisfied with what he had to eat for the past few days considering gemstones weren't an option.

"Egh, I haven't had any sugar coated candy in a while now. I don't know how much longer my hyper activism can last!" Pinkie said sounding worried over something like that.

"Good!" Rainbow said but didn't affect Pinkie in the slightest.

They were all walking on the side of a main road that led towards the Castle. On both sides of them were just fancy houses reserved for special gifted unicorns.

"Hey Twilight, you could have lived here! See?" Rarity motioned to Twilight showing a sign that said just that. "If I were you I would have never passed on an opportunity to be living in Canterlot, especially near the castle." Rarity said rather mellow dramatically.

"Yeah well I didn't have the option. Remember I was ordered to come to Ponyville to make friends instead?" Twilight replied sounding harsher than she intended. Realizing it, she wanted to shake the tension of the situation off. "I'm very glad I did come to Ponyville though. You friends have opened up my eyes to a vast world of undescribable experiences." She smiled and continued along.

A stone bridge was now ahead of them which stretched across a small gape in the town. Looking down Rainbow could see a river a few hundred feet below. She peered over to the bridge and noticed it wasn't in the best of shape. Almost like it was ravaged in some tussle.

"Hmm, this here doesn't seem to be very stable." Applejack said motioning to the crumbling bridge.

Twilight tried teleporting them all to the other side but nothing was happening. It was starting to frustrate her by now considering her magic has been gone for two days now. "It's just a little bent out of shape. It'll be fine." She said walking towards the bridge. A small gust of wind blew and a leaf from a nearby tree fell onto the bridge's rail and the whole thing crumbled apart instantly and its contents broke apart and fell. Twilight immediately stopped and her ears went down. "Never mind..." She grumbled.

The stone bridge collapsing caught a lot of attention from guards and Twilight looked up to see at least six pegasi guard ponies in the distance flying towards their location. "Run!" She shrieked and every one of them fled off in a different direction.

Twilight and Spike hid behind a broken house, Rarity hid behind some dumpsters which she immediately regretted, Pinkie hid behind a nearby hill, Applejack was crouching underneath a deck, Fluttershy was hiding in an apple tree and Rainbow was hiding in a chimney. However they all heard the same thing coming from the road they were standing on near the broken bridge.

"Anyone else see that?" One guard said.

"It almost looked like a few ponies were foolish enough to stick around town." Another said.

"Let's show them what happens to ponies who try and live in OUR town!" Another guard said.

Then they all heard the clip clop of pony hooves walking in separate directions. They all started panicking knowing they were being searched for. The jig was up. One unicorn guard pony was tough enough, but dealing with six pegasi? They would stand no chance, especially since the guards are larger in stature than the six mares.

Rainbow Dash heard the sounds of the guard ponies moving out in search for her and her friends. She contemplated what she should do, if anything at all. She was inside a chimney which was pitch black. No pony could see her if she wanted them to, so Rainbow felt pretty secure in her hiding spot. However if she didn't do anything she knew her friends would eventually be caught and thrown in that 'special dungeon'. Twilight couldn't teleport them somewhere else again and Rarity only knew basic magic spells. Everything sounded like it was up to her now.

"What's the point of coming all this way just to get caught?" Rainbow thought to herself. She knew at any second her friends could be captured so she had to think fast. "What do I do? Think fast, think fast!... Wait a minute..." She stopped thinking of her words and blurted one out. "Fast!" She yelled to herself in the chimney. "My element of loyalty! Of course!" Rainbow darted out of the chimney shaking off the soot that came along and hovered a good distance in the air. This caught the attention of all six guards that were scattering. She shook her limbs in the air taunting them of her presence. "Hey all you sorry excuses for guards! Nah nah nah nah nah nah!" She stuck her tongue out and put her forehoofs on the sides of her head getting them angry.

"Get the rainbow one!" One guard pony said and the other five joined him in pursuit immediately.

Rainbow smirked and took off in the opposite direction her friends were in. "If this isn't loyalty than I don't know what is." She said to herself while flying away from the guards. Rainbow took a sharp turn skywards flying straight up. The guards followed her exact path, the six of them forming a 'V' shape formation. Rainbow looked behind her and saw they were hot on her tail. She pushed her wings into overdrive and was soon pulling ahead. The guards closed their eyes as they pushed themselves to their limit just to keep Rainbow in a good distance. Rainbow was now really high in the sky with the clouds fairly distant below her. The castle was now just a small model looking figurine from where she was. Dash did a complete 180 degree spin and flew straight downward now, cutting right through the formation the guards were in, which caused them to spin in the air for a second and having them to regain their bearings. They took chase going down towards the ground now but Rainbow had a plan. She was gradually going faster and faster as she edged towards the clouds with the guards catching up to her. When they were the right distance away Rainbow sped up to super sonic speeds and a huge explosion radiated outwards like a pebble falling in a puddle. A rainbow colored shock wave exploded outwards causing the guard ponies to be flung a long distance, taken with the sonic rainboom. Rainbow smiled to herself as she slowed down and landed gently on the ground, folding up her wings as they were now exhausted.

Fluttershy flew over to Rainbow and gave her fellow pegasis a big hug. "Thanks Rainbow!" Fluttershy said uncharacteristically. "I was terrified."

"We were all scared." Rarity pitched in.

"I wasn't!" Said Rainbow who pumped out her chest in a victorious stance.

"Right, anyways great job getting rid of those guys... However..." Twilight looked skyward where the rainbow wave from the sonic rainboom was dissipating. "I think that may have caused more attention than a falling bridge!" She looked around but saw no guards.

"We better git a move on before they arrive." Applejack said.

"Ooo, so that's what a sonic rainboom looks like." Spike said in awe which inflated Rainbow's ego.

"Hey, where's Pinkie?" Rarity pointed out.

Just then they all looked across the chasm and saw Pinkie on the other side waving enthusiastically again. "How did she get over there?" Applejack questioned. Pinkie read her lips and pointed to another bridge just west of the one that crumbled. When they saw there was a second bridge they all just face hoofed and shook their heads.

"Wee wee woo!" Pinkie was bouncing around hyper actively.

"Pinkie, I thought you said it was hard to maintain that sort of hyper behavior?" Asked Rarity.

"It was! But then I saw that!" She motioned towards a sweets shop nearby with crumbs leading from the door to where Pinkie was standing.

"Whatever, look we're almost there!" Rainbow exclaimed and pointed to a large wall. The wall was tall and wide and seemed to merge into a mountain side. They all followed the wall with their eyes from the base all the way to the top. At the very bottom was a door which seemed miniscule compared to the structure. Next to the wall was an outdoor pathway that led to the very top of the structure, It was a steep grassy hill with a dirt path.

"We better go inside and enter the castle through the back entrance." Twilight said while walking towards the huge concrete wall. "We don't want to risk any other royal guards catching us, I think we've been having too good of luck up to this point." Spike hopped onto Twilight's back in which she showed no response to.

"Nah, I think I'll just fly to the top!" Rainbow said and started to bolt off but Applejack grabbed her tail with her teeth and held her back.

"Now wait a minute! Remember when ah said safety in numbers n' all when we were goin' up that mountain to get that dragon tah' move?" Applejack explained. Fluttershy shuddered at the memory.

"Oh all right we'll go in the stupid structure." Rainbow said folding her hooves in front of her as she slowly flew in the air with the rest of them.

Twilight was leading the group and carefully opened the door with a hoof by just pushing it gently. The door made a loud creaking noise as it opened. When it was opened a crack she poked her eye in but saw no pony. She opened the door the rest of the way so she could make her way in. It wasn't a very well lit structure, and when she looked up, all she saw were brown metal stairs that criss-crossed over each other all the way to the top.

Rarity sighed loudly, "This is going to be a long walk upwards."

Pinkie was bouncing around and hopped up the stairs skipping a step now and then. Twilight shrugged and they all walked upwards, each step getting harder and harder as they were getting tired. The entire structure must have went up at least 200 feet.

"Pinkie, slow down and stick with the group!" Twilight scolded. But the pink party pony was no longer in sight. Even the sound of her bouncing hooves hitting the metal disappeared. "Pinkie!"

As they walked up about another five or six flights of stairs they all stopped and saw a door to a side room slightly ajar with a yellow light coming out from it. Twilight opened the door and saw Pinkie was cuffed on the floor with tape over her mouth.

"Pinkie!" Fluttershy ran over to help her friend but a cage fell down from the ceiling and trapped the yellow pegasis in small confines.

The rest of them gasped when they saw what happened. They all walked inside the room cautiously when the door slammed shut behind them with a small locking sound. Out from behind the door came a familiar voice and walked forwards. It was a light blue unicorn wearing a magicians cape with a magic hat and wand for a cutie mark. She picked the rest of them up with her magic and squinted her eyes at them.

"Well well well look who we have here!" Trixie proclaimed in a flamboyant accent.

"Trixie!" Twilight yelled.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie corrected.

She looked at all of them with an egocentric smile. "We have the ego-maniac rainbow pegasis, the post-green haired distraught unicorn, the hog-tied apple lover," Trixie then looked towards the two ponies who she captured. "The bouncing annoying pink one, the timid overly protective pegasis!" Fluttershy was starting to get teary eyed since she was still trapped in that cage. Trixie quickly turned her head and saw her foe. Her smirk disappeared and walked right up to Twilight's face. "And you. The one who humiliated The Great and Powerful Trixie."

Twilight didn't blink and stared a continuous glare at Trixie. "Why are you doing this Trixie? Do you know the-"

"Yes I know the whole story blah blah blah." Trixie turned her head away. "Capturing you benefits me in so many ways." She turned back to Twilight and gave an evil smirk again. "You hang in there now, Trixie will be back with guards." She started to trot towards the door when she suddenly stopped. She looked back at Twilight and trotted towards her. "There's just one thing the Great and Powerful Trixie does not understand."

"Oh, and what might that be?" Twilight asked sarcastically.

Trixie grimaced and gritted her teeth for what she was about to say. "It's obvious that your magical ability is almost as powerful as mine, why haven't you freed yourself from Trixie's magic?"

"I um, don't want to leave my friends. If they get captured, then so do I." Twilight blatantly lied. Trixie saw right through her and knew something was fishy.

Trixie rubbed her hoof on her chin for a second. She picked up a nearby piece of crumpled paper and threw it at Twilight. Twilight gave a puzzled look but then Trixie picked up a chair and pointed it towards Twilight. Trixie hurled the chair straight at her nemesis. Twilight tried to use her magic to stop it but it only had a spark fly out and disappear. Twilight closed her eyes shut but the chair never hit her. She opened an eye to see the chair floating in front of her, but with Trixie still controlling it.

"Ah ha!" Trixie said in glee. "You have lost your magical ability! This makes me, er, Trixie, happy beyond belief!" Trixie looked over at Rarity and just waved a hoof at her. "I don't need to worry about Ms. Green Hair."

Rarity just narrowed her eyes.

"Be right back!" Trixie said unlocking the door to let herself out. She left and closed the door behind her.

They were all still floating in the air in one spot unable to move except for Pinkie who was cuffed to one spot and Fluttershy who was trapped in a small cage. Rainbow was flapping her wings as hard as she could but couldn't move.

"You know, this is getting old." Rainbow said glumly.

"If only my magic would actually work!" Twilight said frustrated with herself.

"Do you know any counter-magic spell Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"No offence Rarity, I mean, don't take this the wrong way but... You're not powerful enough to use a spell like that." Twilight said.

Rarity just frowned and looked stern at her friend. "Just tell me how!" Rarity yelled. Twilight was taken aback and surprised that she was getting yelled at again.

*****

Five guard ponies were following the light blue unicorn at a running pace. "They're down these stairs!" Trixie called back at them and they raced down the dark halls of the depressing looking metal stairway. Trixie flung the door open to the side room. "Here they are!" She ran in and skidded to a stop. "What?! But?!" Trixie started running around the room frantically. "Where are they? Where'd they go?! How'd they escape?!"

"Lady," A royal guard pony said. "Giving false information to authorities is a crime!" He reached in his armor and pulled out metal cuffs.

"No! You can't! They were in here I swear!" Trixie said with small pupils backing away from the royal guard.

"No, they're not." He said uncaring. Without Trixie noticing, two guards went behind her and she bumped into them by accident in which they grabbed Trixie hooves and cuffed them. "No playing around! In the dungeon she goes!" The guard said and the two unicorn guards used magic to take Trixie away back up the stairs.

Trixie tried to free herself with her magic but couldn't do it. The combination of both guards' magic was overpowering her.

*****

Looking down from the ceiling was Twilight and gang. They were holding themselves up by stretching their legs across ceiling beams keeping perfectly still and quiet. Twilight couldn't help but smile when she saw Trixie getting taken away by royal guards, who thought she was lying. The sound of a door closing could be heard, but they all waited for a bit until they thought they would be safe and let go of the beams. With a loud clang they all landed on a metal platform and their eyes were rolling around for a bit until they got their bearings again.

Rarity looked over at Twilight. Twilight sighed and walked next to her fellow unicorn. "It seems I was wrong. You are actually a pretty powerful unicorn Rarity." Rarity smiled and closed her eyes.

"Thank you Twilight."

"Um guys, castle? Princesses? Disharmony?" Rainbow reminded.

Without a word, the group walked up the last flight of stairs. Rainbow was waiting for them up top and carefully opened the door to peak through a crack, then eventually opened fully when she noticed the coast was clear. They all walked in and Twilight walked ahead of the pack. "I know where we are!" Twilight said quietly and excitedly to her friends. She turned around to face them, "Ladies, we are-" She stopped when Spike cleared his throat and tapped his foot. "Um, ladies and Spike, we are officially inside the castle."

"We made it!" Rainbow said excitedly. "I can finally get back to practicing!"

"I can finally throw a party again! Which I'm definitely doing when this is all done!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves. It's not over yet." Said Twilight. They all hushed and were immediately against a wall when they heard a guard pony whistling. They all looked at the end of the small hall they were in and saw him walking past. He eventually walked by with no incident.

Spike hopped onto Twilight's back again without making a sound. "I know my way around the castle. We might encounter some dark areas, so I need you to light them up Rarity." Rarity nodded. Twilight felt useful to be the map they needed of the large castle. Her unicorn magic was still gone unfortunately.

"Who's ready tah save Equestria ya'll?" Applejack asked with a smirk. The group smiled and raised a hoof. "Then let's get goin'." She said and they started their trek through the castle.

"All in all we've been to Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, the temple of the Ancient Pony Sisters, Appleloosa, Canterlot and now we're in the royal castle." Twilight stated. "Let's not go through all that for nothing."

"Well to be honest Twilight..." Rainbow Dash said rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. "It has actually been a pretty adventurous week for me, and we all know I love big adventures. It's been nice spending time with you all, even if it wasn't under the greatest circumstances."

"It's been tons of fun!" Said Pinkie while bouncing silently not too high.

"Even though I was covered in muck I'll agree." Said Rarity.

"I've been keepin' faithful that our lives would return back tah normal." Said Applejack.

"Remember those berries I shared? It reminded me of feeding my little animal friends. Oh I hope they're alright... We need to get back to Ponyville to see right after this." Said a timid Fluttershy.

"I've lost my magic. But our magic together makes up for it and more." Said Twilight.

"Blegh!" Spike said sticking out his tongue. "Enough Namby-Pamby cheesy stuff."

They all frowned at him but turned to Fluttershy when she spoke. "Yes. Let's do this."

Walking to the end of the hallway, Twilight peeked around the corner and looked to her left and right. She motioned the rest of the group to come forward and Twilight turned left into a dimly lit hall with no windows. The hall was made of generic drywall with a metal floor. Pipes were coming out from the walls and ceiling with steam escaping from the odd one. The steam was a good sound blocker since it made loud hissing noises as it escaped from the pipe connections. "We're currently in the basement." She shouted over the steam to her friends as they walked down the hall. The hall eventually opened on the right side, revealing metal grates as walkways with pipes coming down from the ceiling and large machines working away.

With all this commotion and intimidating noise with steam bursting out through cracks in pipes once in a while made the confident Fluttershy lower her ears in fear again. There were no guards in here except for a maintenance worker who was snoozing away in a chair. They all tiptoed around him but he snorted and woke up when Pinkie accidentally bumped into him.

"Wha? Huh?" He was an old pony with a gear for a cutie mark. He was grey with black hair and glasses. He cowered when he saw the six ponies. "Oh! Terribly sorry your highness! Please don't throw me in the dungeon! I'll work twice as hard and never fall asleep on the job again!" He pleaded. Twilight knew this guy was afraid since he thought those were the evil versions of themselves.

"You better not! Or next time you will get tossed into the dungeon! Am I clear?" Twilight said trying to convince the worker.

"Crystal!" He slowly hobbled over to the machines to work on them.

"What in the hay?" Applejack looked to Twilight.

"We have to play like this if we want to convince any pony we're the Ponytact group, you know, to divert suspicion." Twilight explained.

"Ohhhh. Gotcha."

They walked up to a door and Twilight just opened it without being cautious and just walked in the next room. There were no guards around here so she trotted up the small set of stairs there which led to another door. "Okay, this here takes us into the castle courtyard. Be very alert and keep a low profile."

Opening the door carefully, she did the normal routine and motioned the rest to follow. They hid behind a large shrub and Twilight gave the basic instructions. (You can imagine Twilight explaining this while seeing in your head what she's talking about). "So here we go. This is where it gets dangerous." She took a small twig and drew in the dirt a small layout. "Across this courtyard is a pair of double doors. We have to sneak around shrubbery while avoiding detection to make it in. Once inside we'll be in the ballroom where we held a birthday party I had once. We would enter in the middle of the rooms length. It should be safe in there but we need to stay low so we can't be seen through the large windows. Next we get to the end of the room and open another door to the outside. We'll be on a large concrete balcony. There might be guards outside the area patrolling so we need to be extremely careful since it's pretty open out there. We will turn right and walk over a lengthy piece of balcony which will lead us to the main castle. If we were to go right again, we would walk right into the main hall. You know, the entrance we took for the Grand Galloping Gala. But we're not going that way." Twilight stopped to think for second to continue on. "The royal corridor that is near the main entrance. We will enter through a back door which leads into a great hallway. It's the hallway where Celestia explained Discord to us. Down at the end is a large purple door. This is the door where the Ponytact's should be, because that is where the Royal Room is located. Since it's the Royal Room we can expect guard ponies outside and in. This will be a tough area, but I know we can pull through. We enter the room, take the Elements of Harmony, turn the Ponytact's back into stone, free the princesses, Celestia will raise the sun, explain to the citizens the story to clear our names and we live our lives normally again!" Twilight grinned.

The rest of them just stood there in confusion with their eyes wide open.

"Any questions?" Twilight asked.

"I got one." Applejack said. "What's the plan?"

Twilight's ears drooped and she just face hoofed herself. "Look, just follow me okay?"

"Mhmm." They all nodded. Twilight erased the layout of the castle in the dirt she drew with the stick she held. She then opened a hole in the shrub with her hooves to look around. She saw three guard ponies out there walking around, doing their normal duty. The moon light was actually lighting the courtyard up pretty well.

"Hmmm. Every time one guard gets to one side of the courtyard, the other two reach the other end, and they all turn around at the same time." Twilight said.

"Talk about having your job down to a tee." Rainbow remarked.

Twilight looked over and saw a shrub that was closer to the guards, but could still hide all of them. "Okay, when the guards pass each other, the middle will be a safe place to be considering they will all be looking away from that area." She explained. As soon as the guards did just that they all tip-toed to the next bush without the guards noticing.

"They're like robots." Fluttershy said.

Twilight pointed out the same plan and they all tip-toed to the next shrub. The ballroom was getting closer and closer. "Rainbow, there's a skylight in that room, I need you to fly inside and unlock the door. When you see Rarity's horn light up dimly, that's your cue to quietly unlatch the door and open it. We'll all make our way inside while the guards' backs are turned."

"Got it." Rainbow said quietly and waited.

The guards all passed each other, Twilight gave Rainbow a nod and she flew up and onto the roof of the ballroom in a stealthy manner. She saw the skylight Twilight was talking about and flew inside and landed softly. It was very dark in there since the lights were out. The only light given were streams of moonlight pouring over the marble floor. Rainbow poked her head up over a window. She could see out, but no one could see in.

"Now." Twilight lightly poked Rarity and she shone her horn very lightly, but enough so Rainbow could see. Rainbow unlatched the door, which she could barely see and opened it a crack.

Sweat was running down Twilight. "Okay girls, on my go we head on over to the door and inside." She waited until the guards crossed paths again and their backs were turned away as they walked. "Now." They all walked very quietly but in a fast pace. They made it to the door and opened it a bit more where they could all walk inside single file. The guards turned around and one of them spotted the door closing.

"Weird." He said and opened it with his unicorn magic. He walked inside where it was still dark as anything. He looked around but didn't see any shadows moving around in there. "Guess it's just my mind playing tricks on me." He walked out and shut the door, then began walking in his formation again.

Huddled in a dark corner were all seven of them. Spike was hiding behind Twilight's neck but sat up when the guard closed the door again. "That was too close." Said Applejack quietly.

"Next up is the balcony outside on the opposite end of the this ballroom." Twilight said and started walking in a crouching position along with the rest, except for Pinkie who was starting to bounce again.

"Pinkie! Get down!" Rarity yelled in a quiet tone. "Those guards could see you through the window with movement like that."

"Oops, sorry!" She said cheerfully and made a serious face, while doing it playfully and walked low like the rest of them.

Once they got to the other side, Twilight opened the door to the balcony. She looked around and saw it was deserted. "Let's go." She whispered and opened the door fully.

"Oooo pretty!" Pinkie exclaimed. They all had to admit the scenery was nice. They were perched up high on the balcony looking down at the rest of Ponyville in the distance. With the full moon out and stars with no clouds, it was one of the best scenes night could offer.

"During the day it's better." Rarity said. "I miss the day."

"We all do, especially mah trees." Applejack said.

Twilight broke her trance and frowned a bit. "This scene would look nicer if Ponyville wasn't a complete disaster... Come on." She started walking across the balcony.

They all took one last look and moved on. That was their home down there, and they were so close, but yet felt so far. The group walked over a draw bridge where two guard ponies were standing, but had their backs turned to them. Silently Twilight reached for the doorknob to a door nearby and twisted. She opened it up, and noticed the royal hall was completely dark. She looked around and to her surprise there were no guard ponies inside. They walked in and shut the door carefully.

Twilight's ears perked up when she saw a small sliver of light flickering from under a small gap of the door that separated this hall from the Royal Room. But what really caught her attention was some murmured voices she heard coming from that room.

"Stay quiet and let's get to that door." Twilight instructed and walked silently. As they walked, they were looking around at the stained glass windows letting in small amounts of colored light. Rarity's horn gave off some light so they could see better. Looking around Twilight noticed the stained glass window of the six of them defeating discord. She swung her head over to her left and saw the window of them defeating Nightmare Moon.

Pieces of body armor were scattered around the floor from royal guards, probably guards who refused to bow down to the Ponytact's and were forcefully taken to the dungeons.

"You fool! I said cold water!" They all heard from the inside of the Royal Room. Then they heard a loud sound of glass breaking. "Bring me cold water this time or you're next to go!" Twilight gulped. The voice she heard was... hers.

"And bring me more carrots!" Pinkie's voice could be heard from inside.

Pinkie cringed and stuck out her tongue. "Those monsters!" She said hitting the floor with a hoof.

"What are you standing around for? Get me my water!" Twilight's voice yelled and a second later the big door swung open hitting all six ponies. A royal guard was carrying a big drink cup with his magic as he bolted out into the hallway not noticing the group he just crushed with the door. The door swung back closed and the six peeled off the door like paper and floated to the ground where they all plumped back out to their regular selves.

They shook the cobwebs out of their heads. Twilight looked down at Spike with sorrow in her eyes and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Spike... I need you to stay out here in the hallway. This isn't your fight."

"But Twi-" Spike got stopped with a hoof over his mouth. Twilight's eyes watered up a bit with a single tear falling to the floor. Spike decided it was best if no words were spoken.

"In case anything happens in there, I want you girls to know these past couple of years have been the most fulfilling of my life." Rarity said.

Applejack took her hat off and held it close to her with a hoof. "Just in case, I'm plum happy tah have known ya'll." She put her hat back on and stuck out a hoof.

Fluttershy didn't say anything except whimper a bit.

Pinkie was being serious and teared up a bit as well. "It's been fun times." She stuck her hoof in the middle.

Every one of them did it except for Rainbow who flew a bit in the air. "Come on guys! Don't give us these 'just in case' stories, we'll be fine! We'll go in their and kick some tail!" None of them said anything except continued looking at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow flew back down and landed beside her friends eventually. She stuck her hoof in the middle and teared up a bit as well. "You guys are awesome." She simply said.

"Good luck." Was all Spike could say stuttering a little bit and put his claw on all their hooves. They all raised their hooves (and claw) into the air at the same time and wiped their tears away.

"This is possibly one of the scariest moments of my life. But it's comforting knowing I'm going through with this with my best friends." Twilight said. They all remained silent and nodded. After a couple seconds, Twilight cleared her throat and put on a stern look. "Girls... Let's save Equestria!"

And with that, they all burst open the large door and barged into the Royal Room...

Comments

[Literature]

Ooh cliffhanger!