Full Moon Fever: A MoonLight Prompt Collab

by TheLastBrunnenG

91 Lord of the Rings by Kean

Lord of the Rings
by Kean

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My faithful student,

Enclosed within this scroll, you will find a single golden ring. What it’s for and what it does doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is an artifact of great evil and must be destroyed. Your task is this: Return it to Mount Doom and cast it into the fires from which it was forged. Really: It’s that simple.

Regards,

Celestia

P.S. Take Nightmare with you. She’s been bothering Luna almost non-stop for the past few weeks. We believe that she needs to get out more and this is the perfect opportunity.

Twilight stared at the letter, then the ring laying on the table, then the letter again, ignoring Nightmare, who was reading over her shoulder, and Spike, who wouldn’t take his eyes off the small gold band.

“Mount Doom? That’s over one thousand leagues away!” Twilight groused. “And it’s in the Badlands. Changeling territories. Why couldn’t she just…” Twilight sighed, resigned to her fate. “Fine. With flight and teleporting, it should only take us about two weeks back and forth if we don’t-“

“No.”

She turned to Nightmare, pulling the ring away from Spike with her magic. “’No’?”

“We must walk,” Nightmare said resolutely.

Twilight picked Spike up in her magic and tossed him in a closet before locking it for attempting to vault over her to get at the ring. “Walk? No, that would take weeks, if not months, to get there if we walk. Flying would be faster.”

“It is not about getting there, Twilight, it is about the journey.” Nightmare nodded at her own words. “And besides, your friends will no doubt want to go with you and not all of them can fly.”

“I- but-” Twilight let out an exacerbated groan. “Fine. But don’t complain to me that your legs hurt half way there.”

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Twilight was… somewhere within the Everfree. Applejack had lead her away from the group, taking her to a small ruin that must have been blasted away from the old castle. She sighed, leveling a blank stare at the farmer as she demanded Twilight give her the ring.

“And what, exactly, are you going to do with it? You’re an earth pony; you can’t use its magic, and you don’t have anything it could fit on to wear it,” She stated, unamused. “The most you could do with it is use it as a paperweight.”

“I don’t wanna use it,” Applejack stated as if it were the dumbest thing she’d heard. “I’m gonna sell it. That there ring is gold, innit? It could keep my family fed for years! We could even hire a few extra ponies year round and not have to worry about money. So just give it here.”

“You- you think-” Twilight shook her head, holding back laughter. Applejack was normally always level-headed, but when it came to her family… “You want to sell it based on its value in gold? A bit has more pure gold in it than this. And, seeing as it’s an ancient evil artifact, anypony who does know what it is would probably just steal it from you anyway.” Twilight shrugged. “Steal it, or kill you, and then steal it.”

Twilight left it at that, only acknowledging Applejack’s apology with a nod, intent on finding the source of the sound of rushing water. She heard what sounded like a fight as she neared the source, a river, but ignored it. It was probably just Rarity trying to blast Rainbow for her taunts again, or Nightmare attempting to subdue Pinkie because she was driving her mad. Again. Either way, it wasn’t important.

What was important was finding a way across the river. Teleportation was out – Nightmare would sense it. Flight was out – Rainbow might see her. Luckily, someone had left a boat on shore on the side she was on. A boat. Who in their right mind goes boating in the Everfree? At the sound of Nightmare calling her name, she stopped questioning her luck and galloped toward it. With a push of magic and a leap, she landed in the boat, another push putting her halfway across. She grinned inwardly, seeing Nightmare standing on the shore.

I’ll just get far enough into the forest that she can’t sense me, teleport out, and fly the rest-“ Her thoughts were cut off by as the boat rocked with a solid thud. She turned to see Nightmare folding her wings, a triumphant smile on her muzzle. “That’s not- You said no flying!”

“Ah, but I did not fly. I simply made myself lighter, jumped, and glided,” Nightmare replied smugly.

“That’s the same thing!” Twilight stamped her hoof in frustration. “You can’t just…“ Feeling wetness on her fur, she looked down to see that she had put her hoof through the wood and water was starting to flood in.

“Son of a…”

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Twilight stood alongside Nightmare, staring over a cliff at a column of ponies marching through the Badlands, armed to the teeth with spears, bows, and armor. “You’re telling me that they’re all mercenaries, hired by the changelings, with the promise of wealth and power?”

“Yes.”

“And that the only reason that the changelings are mobilizing and gathering an army is because they know we have the ring, and they want to stop us from using or destroying it?”

“Yes.”

“So, then, are you going to admit that it’s your fault that so many are going to die in a war because you won’t let me fly? Because this would be over by now if I did. What exactly does this thing do, anyway?”

“It is said that it holds many abilities. Most notably that it can control those who wear others like it. But it also increases the wears innate magical power it also-“

“Well, I don’t really need that. I could just blast anything that tried to threaten Equestria until it gave up at this point. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always the-” Twilight smacked her face with a hoof. “We could have just used the Elements on it…”

“-renders the wearer invisible,” Nightmare finished without missing a beat.

“Oh, well, that’s just amazing, isn’t it? I know at least twelve different spells to make myself invisible, and none of those include the ones that are in the restricted archives in Canterlot!” Twilight shouted, not caring if the ponies below heard. “I can make every part of my body transparent, I could make my fur perfectly mimic the colors of my surroundings, or I could make my fur not reflect or absorb any light. And that doesn’t even begin to get into what I could do with illusions. So far, this thing is on par with a fourth year foal at Celestia’s school.”

“It’s also said that it’s possessed, that it has its own will,” Nightmare proffered.

Twilight lifted the ring to her muzzle. “Hey there, ring, how’s it going? What’s that?” She raised the ring to her ear, nodding to it. “Uh-huh, uh-huh. What’s that? You always wished you could fly?” She turned the ring toward Nightmare, staring at her through it, her eyes narrow.

Nightmare was silent for a while, focusing on the marching ponies. “Twilight…” Nightmare muttered.

“Hmm?”

“My legs hurt.”

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Twilight stared up at her changeling captor, now hovering a few inches above the floor with the aid of a sword surrounded by a sapphire aura through its barrel. She blinked and it fell, revealing Nightmare standing behind it. Nightmare lifted her to her hooves with one of her own and looked down at her, worry evident on her face. “Are you well?”

Twilight bristled. “I was paralyzed by a giant spider, wrapped in a cocoon, and captured by changelings. What do you think?” She calmed quickly, seeing Nightmare hang her head. She stepped forward and gently nuzzled her cheek. “Sorry. Thank you for rescuing me.”

Nightmare nodded with a small smile. “Of course. Though I wouldn’t have had to had you not listened to Spike instead of me.”

Twilight groaned, dragging a hoof down her face. “How was I supposed to know he wanted the ring that badly?”

“He is a dragon. The ring is a golden magical artifact. The signs were there.” Twilight conceded her point with a nod. “We are close to our goal. We should procure some armor so we can make the rest of the trip unnoticed.”

Twilight stared at the recently deceased changeling. “Changelings use their carapace for protection, they don’t make armor.”

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“This is stupid.”

“Shh.”

“This isn’t going to work.”

“Shh.”

“You had to stitch three of them together to fit you!”

“So?”

“They’re going to notice you.”

“Shh. We are close.”

“We’re going to die.”

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“Wipe that grin off your face. Just because it worked doesn’t make it any less stupid.”

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Twilight stared over the precipice, looking down into the fires of Mount Doom, the ring held over the undulating magma. “You know what?” She turned to face Nightmare. “After all this, I think I’ll keep it.” She laughed at Nightmare’s questioning stare before placing the ring on her horn and disappearing. “And the next time there’s a problem that being invisible would simplify? I’m sending you. And I’m going to make you have to do it while glowing!”

Nightmare moved to intercept her, but felt something land on, then jump off her back. She looked up to see Spike vaulting over her yelling, “Mine!” He stopped in mid-air, grasping Twilight’s invisible head before opening his mouth wide and biting down. Twilight cried out and flung him off her head, the ring slipping off her horn, stuck between Spike’s teeth.

“Twilight, help!” He screamed as Twilight watched impassively as he flew over edge, into the magma.

“You’re a dragon. You’ll be fine.”

There was a pause.

“Oh, yeah.”

Twilight sighed. “Whatever. Let’s just go home.” As she turned to leave, the entire mountain began to shake. “Oh, come on!”

“This is gonna be awesome!”

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Twilight and Nightmare stood watching the magma swallow the entire side of the mountain except for the outcropping they occupied. Spike floated by, waving as he lazily swam through the magma on his back. Twilight sighed, shaking the ash and soot from her wings, only for them to be recoated almost immediately. Even if they hadn’t been weighed down, the air was too turbulent to even take off.

“We could teleport,” Nightmare proffered.

Twilight turned on her, but calmed quickly, sagging. What’s the point? “No, you wanted to do this without teleporting or flying. We can wait this out.” She moved to the edge of the outcropping and laid down. Nightmare laid next to her.

“So we wait here for death?”

Twilight looked over her shoulder before shrugging. “It shouldn’t reach us before it starts to cool. Unless something falls on us, we’ll be fine. If it gets close, we can teleport.” She leaned against Nightmare, watching the magma swallow everything in its path.

Sometime later, Twilight blinked wearily, feeling something dig gently but securely into her shoulders. She looked up to see a large creature above her, its large wings powering through the turbulence. Rainbow Dash peeked over the side, grinning. Twilight followed the powerful legs down from the creature’s body and sighed, seeing the gleaming golden talons.

She looked behind her at Nightmare, also being carried by a Griffin. “Now I see the reason why we don’t want to go to war with you.”

The Griffin carrying Twilight looked over her shoulder at Rainbow who shrugged.

“You’re actually allowed to use your bucking wings!”

Comments

[Exaxxion]

made me giggle

[BarrenBaron]

"my legs hurt"

And I'm dying.

[Kean]

5874653
5874256

Please do not support this kind of degeneracy.

[Exaxxion]

5874877
cant help it its what we came to see

[Raven Flight]

So incredibly silly! Thanks, Kean!