Forgotten friendship

by Chocolate milk!

Escalation

"Find anything Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked while at the same time eyeing through four books she had brought with her from Ponyville and now placed on a huge table of the royal library. Rainbow dash flew past her and gave off a big sigh of boredom.

"I know that reading can be cool and all but these books are seriously wearing me out Twilight. Why are you interested in this old stuff anyway? Who cares what happened in the past, its not like there were any Wonderbolts heck, not even Cloudsdale existed back then."

A purple sparkling feather controlled by Twilight's magic was writing furiously on a blank piece of paper.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, everything we have today is thanks to the ponies that lived before us and the things they managed to learn back then can still be useful to us. You know the past doesn't need to have a direct connection to the things you like but in some small way the events back then helped shape everything that exists around you today."

"Pss yeah, whatever. Still doesn't change the fact that there is no action in any of these dusty old tomes. Didn't anyone have any adventurous side back then like Daring Do? I had at least hoped there would be one pony who shared my need for speed but the only ones that actually wrote anything back then were a bunch of old farts."

Twilight peered at a small piece of text that had faded over the ages and nodded.

"I guess the world can only handle one Rainbow Dash every millennium. If there would have been anypony like you I doubt she would have had time to write anything."-Not to mention the patience for it.-

A book dropped down with a loud bang right in front of Twilight both startling her and snapping her out of the trail of thought she had been on the last couple of minutes.

"Yeah that's true. I mean I can barely find time for my fans or contain this energy inside me. Legends do come in awesome packages." said the rainbow colored Pegasus, clearly pleased with herself.

Twilight Gave Rainbow Dash an annoyed look and tried to gather her thoughts once again.

"What?" the young Pegasus asked, blinking her large crimson eyes at her friend.

"Was there anything in that one?" Twilight asked and pointed her hoof at the book that had just barely missed her head a moment ago.

"Same as the other two. I know you're a serious bookworm and all Twilight but reading the same exact story five times over like this is a bit much, even for you."

Twilight smiled then tapped her hoof on one of the books.

"You notice a difference between them?"

"What's there to notice? It's five dusty old books filled with ancient history."

Twilight shook her head and started opening the books all to the first couple of pages.

"Not all of them are the same age and yet they all seem to have been written by the same author, the one you just found is over two hundred and fifty years old while the two from my library date back to the time just after Nightmare Moon had been sealed away."

"So what? They must have republished them."

"But they are all hoofwritten, none of them have been printed. I have been searching for other books that are somehow related to the same subject but in the end all I ever find are the these. It's the exact same story in every library; none of them have ever seen a different book about the lunar republic."

Rainbow Dash leaned in and took a closer look, she read the dates with somewhat renewed interest.

"Exactly who has written these books then? I can't find any name. Hold on a minute, there is something about this text that seems familiar but I just can't put my hoof on it." she said and scratched the bottom of her chin.

Twilight looked at her a bit more hopeful about the possibility of making progress with her investigation when suddenly a bone chilling scream could be heard from the outside hall. The two friends looked at each other for a brief moment then dropped what they were doing and ran out to see what was going on. What they found shocked them considerably. On the floor lay one of the royal guards with his jugular cut open barely alive and trying desperately to stop the blood flow. Barely conscious he looked up at the scared mares.

"What the hay happened?!" Rainbow Dash asked while looking around nervously.

The blood kept flowing from the guard's neck; it took them a while to notice it but something was a bit strange about it's color, a kind of black liquid appeared to be mixed with the normally red blood.

"And what is that stuff?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight managed to break the grip of fear that had rendered her motionless and placed her hoof on the guard's neck, trying to put pressure on the wound.

"Hurry and rip off a piece of his mantle, we need to stop the bleeding immediately."

She knew it was too late for him but a part of her was unwilling to accept it. Just a few seconds after they had managed to bandage him the guard stopped breathing; his dead eyes stared at them. Before they got a chance to get sick or process what had kust happened another scream could be heard further down the hall towards the southwestern end of the building.

The horrible experience they both had just shared made the two mares somewhat reluctant about examining what was causing the screams but in the end their will to help others in need proved stronger than their fear. But when they rounded the corner they both came to regret it.

Two more dead guards lay before them; the same kind of deep cut could be seen on one of them but the third one had been truly unlucky. His head had been cut off.

"Don't look at it" Rainbow Dash said while covering Twilight's eyes with her wings.

"Believe me you don't want to see any more of this."

Twilight raised her head and tried to avoid looking down at the floor, that was when she saw the cause behind the bloodshed. Just a few meters away stood a gray Alicorn clad in a black blood drenched armor. The gray mare raised both her wings and two blades smeared with blood retracted under them. Behind the intimidating Alicorn stood a peculiar looking earth pony that was carrying the unconscious princess Luna on her back.

"You told me this area was less guarded, so far I've killed five of these foals and it seems there will be far more of them waiting for us outside" said the gray mare while her blades protracted, they splashed a red colored cloud around her.

"I lied. What fun is there in a plan working out just the way you have imagined? Look on the bright side, this way you get a chance to warm up before the big show" said the strange looking earth pony.

Rainbow Dash placed herself in front of Twilight in order to shield her with her own body.

"Who are you weirdoes and what do you think you're doing!?" she shouted out trying her best not to sound scared.

"More of them?" said the Alicorn and turned towards them, her sapphire blue eyes fixed at Rainbow Dash.

"One with a fighting spirit it seems" she said with a sad smile then smelled the air around her.

"You are free from her corruption; I do not smell its vile stench on you. So why don't you just run away like a good little filly?"

Twilight studied the black armor and immediately reconized the scarlet crescent mark as the very same the Lunar republic had placed on their property. A mark that now was forbidden.

"Oh you have a friend with you?"

Rainbow dash raised her wings and hid Twilight's face.

"You leave her alone or ill pummel you!" she shouted with a voice filled with both uncertainty and anger.

"She is important to you; young love is a beautiful thing."

Rainbow Dash's face lit up red as a tomato, she stomped her left hoof at the ground and stuttered.

"S-hut up, y-you know nothing about it! Now release the princess or I'm going to get angry!"

"I would love to drop this deadweight, she is heavier than she looks but I've got a contract to follow and I just hate being told what to do" said the earth pony with the pink swirly eyes while nodding for herself.

"You are Twilight Sparkle are you not?" asked the Alicorn and moved closer.

"Watch it! Or im going to make you experience a sonic ranboom hoof to the face!"

"Yes." Twilight answered and pushed Rainbow Dash's wing to the side.

"The armor you are wearing is not supposed to exist anymore, not to mention those weapons; they were all melted down after Luna's defeat. I have only seen them in books; they have been lost to us. Where did you find them? Who are you and why are you doing this?" Twilight asked when her curiosity got the better of her.

"So it's true then, she really did her best at erasing us from history. No this armor was not found, it has been a part of me since the day I swore my eternal fealty to Luna and it will be buried with me the day I take my final breath. My name is Freya, knight of both the old and the new Lunar republic, as long as I fight there is hope, as long as I live we exist. You remember us though Twilight, that warms my heart."

"Twilight this isn't the kind of pony you have a nice little chat with, she is covered in blood and more than likely to make mincemeat out of the both of us the first chance she gets" Rainbow Dash whispered in her friend's ear.

Freya studied Twilight's face more closely, you could tell she was thinking something through very carefully and when she came to a decision she nodded slightly and turned to her partner in crime.

"There has been a change of plans Screwball, we'll let her live."

Screwball bopped her head from side to side then leaned against one of the stone pillars that were lined up in the giant hallway.

"If that is what you want I doubt I'll be able to convince you to choose door number two, even though this is incredibly stupid. You know who she is, what she is and what she will become in time. It could all be stopped here and now."

Freya shook her head.

"It would only postpone it until she found a replacement. Besides, she's got good eyes" she said and massaged the back of her head with her left hoof.

"Humph I got far better eyes, my daddy made them perfect in every possible way" Screwball declared while her eyes spun with their hypnotic swirl patterns.

"I doubt you would trust anything I say at this moment so rather than trying to convince you of the truth I will simply say this, history is written by the victors" said Freya.

Twilight thought about the words that had been written by Mareiavelli, a historian and philosopher during the Equestrian renaissance but she was abruptly interrupted by three guards galloping down the hall behind the intruders.

"Stop right there criminal scum, you will pay with your blood for what you have done!"

Before they knew it Freya had already turned around and closed the distance between her and the soldiers with one simple wing stroke. She flew low and with a speed that was breathtaking, the blades below her wings shone red with the blood from her previous victims and once again they cut through her enemies. Freya passed the three guards gracefully, chopping off all of their legs and sending them flying through the air. The soldiers fell to the ground shrieking in horrible pain as they flapped around what remained of their legs.

"You monster!" Rainbow Dash screamed and then charged at Freya's back.

Twilight watched in horror, unable to speak after the gruesome event she had just witnessed.

"Rainbow six o'clock!" shouted Screwball and bounced out of the way.

Freya saw the spectral colored Pegasus in the corner of her eye just before the impact that threw her forward right into a pillar, knocking the air out of her and leaving her lying dizzy on the floor. Rainbow Dash recovered quickly and stomped with all her might at the gray mare's left wing. Freya gritted her teeth and swung her right blade at the young mare that had surprised her so completely. It missed but it did manage to make the young Pegasus jump back. At least it gave her some breathing room.

"Back off! I've got no quarrel with you but if you force my hoof I will not hesitate to kill you." said the gray mare while trying to force air down her lungs.

Rainbow Dash growled at Freya and followed every move she made very closely. It seemed they had reached a stalemate then Twilight heard a voice she knew very well.

"Twilight, what in the world is going on?" asked princess Celestia now standing by her apprentice's side.

"You!" screamed Freya with a voice that was filled with hatred and pain.

"Princess it's too dangerous here." said Twilight her voice weak and barely audible. The terrifying things she had seen seemed to have shocked her greatly, her body felt weak. She leaned against the princess and closed her eyes.

"Don't call her by that name, she has no right to it!" screamed Freya while spreading both her wings thereby revealing the extent of damage Rainbow Dash had done to her. A bone was sticking out of the left wing and her feathers had been ripped off in several spots.

"Freya" said Celestia. Her voice unusually cold and devoid of any emotion.

Celestia stared at the wounded Alicorn for a while, dead silent and with nothing to reveal what kind of emotions that were stirring in her heart. Then she looked down at the dead and wounded guards she had seemed to have been completely unaware of. After that she turned her gaze towards Luna that still slept on Screwball's back.

"So this is the choice you have made? You choose this path again?" she asked coldly.

"What other choice is there?! I would choose her over you any day! You will not deceive me again. No more, I've had enough!" shouted Freya while tears began to build up in her eyes.

Screwball trotted over to her friend, clearly nervous about the solar goddess.

"This isn't good Freya, not good not good not good, really not good!" she whispered in the gray mare's ear.

Screwball started to shiver when Celestia's eyes met her own. She ended up hiding behind Freya with her eyes tightly shut.

"You have a very strange friend there Freya, as always you turn to ponies that will only end up disappointing you in the end. Another backstabber on a long list of traitors for you i'm sure. There is no way out of here so why don't you just give up? It can be just like the old days, I forgive you" said Celestia and held out her right hoof.

Freya ignored the offer and whispered to Screwball.

"How much of your father's power do you have left?"

"I'm not sure, maybe enough to reach daddy but we may end up losing a limb or two if I'm wrong. Considering our predicament we have very little choice."

Freya smiled and spat at the ground in front of Celestia.

"You can take that offer and shove it."

Screwball took a deep breath then blew a giant soap bubble out of her mouth, it quickly engulfed her and the two other ponies meant for the journey. The massive bubble filled up with a blinding light then burst as suddenly as it had appeared. Once it was gone, so were the intruders.

Celestia stood stil for a while with her hoof still stretched out then placed it on Twilight's head instead. The blank expression on her face still lingered. She patted her apprentice's head gently.

Twilight's eyes caught a glimpse of something moving on the ground, when she took a closer look she could see the black liquid once again that seemed to have been a part of the guards blood. It was moving, creating new shapes and trying to create something tangible. Then an eye popped up from under the black substance, it blinked at her. Twilight Sparkle finally fainted.

Comments

[janushyde]

I wonder what Screwball and Freya were implying about Twilight. Also this black substance is rather intresting as well.