The Magic and Mysteries of Friendship

by The Stainmore Phoenix

Honesty, how do you Like Them Apples?

The group continued onwards after the trust exercises. Applejack was glancing around, taking in all the different sights and sounds. She was feeling slightly skittish because of the place she had to travel through.

“I swear this place is haunted!” some pony called out.

“Haunted? By what?” Twilight asked.

“Princess Celestia’s crown!” White Orchid cheeked off. “Nah, mate, we mean ghosts.”

“Ghosts don’t exist!” Twilight huffed.

“For once, I agree,” Dragonstorm said. “Ghosts don’t exist.”

No pony disagreed with them, but something didn’t sit well with the group. They were soon to find out why. Making their way along the woods, they came to a branching path, with two arrows-one pointing to the left and saying “to the Castle of the Two Sisters” and one to the right saying “The Start”.

“Really, they couldn’t be more obvious,” Rainbow Dash hissed.

“The obvious isn’t always obvious in the right way,” Dangersignal said.

“He correct,” Applejack said.

“English?” came every ponies’ demand.

“Well, if we look at that writin, then y’all see it’s upside down and looks like it’s backwards,” she said. “Dangersignal, mind helpin’ me turn them there signs ‘round?”

“Not a problem,” he said and with some good old fashioned elbow grease and lots of grunting, he had the two signs down and with some magic and makeshift tools, he had the signs replaced.

“Always good to have some stallions who aren’t afraid of hard work,” Applejack teased.

Dangersignal gave her a dirty look. She had heard that he was always used to hard work, from his younger brother. Deciding that complaining about that wouldn’t do any good, he offered to take her up into the air to verify her statement.

“Thank ya,” she said and climbed onto the stallion Alicorn’s back and wapped her hooves around his torso after he flared his wings. With a few bats of his wings, he was air born and flying over the left path first to find out it looped back on itself. Making his way back to the junction and they flew over the right path.

“Looks like I was right,” Applejack said.

“Yes indeed,” Dangersignal said.

They soon returned and lead the group down the right path. It seemed that the challenge was too easy. Continuing onwards, they started to notice that something was off about the location. Just then, Shadow Prowler came along side Dangersignal.

“We’re in a rockslide zone,” he said.

“Right, tell the others to keep it down,” came the order.

Shadow Prowler told them individually to keep their voices low, as they didn’t want to set off a violent rock slide. They began to trod carefully through the rockslide zone. Something told the group that something big was coming.

“Look at that!” Rarity cried out.

Every pony glanced up just in time to see Nightmare Moon releasing a ton of weakened rock.

“Let’s see you battle this!” she snarled and disappeared.

Dragonstorm took charge and summoned a dome of lime green flames, which hardened into a shield. Rocks slammed hard against it, causing it to crack and Dragonstorm to flinch. Dangersignal was not going to let anyone get hurt, so with a quick motion, there was a deep maroon shield up in no time.

“Take it easy, little bro,” Dangersignal said. “I gave my word of honor to our parents that I’d protect you if it ever came to extreme circumstances. For the longest time, it was you being there for me, now it’s time I return the favor.”

The others were astounded. Dangersignal glanced through the dark maroon wall and noticed something. Applejack was still on his back, so he prompted her to stand up and look through the maroon shield.

“I don’t know, standin’ on an Alicorn’s back, especially since I’m an earth pony could be risky,” she said.

“Aquatis Storm, Rainbow Dash, act as Applejack’s guide. I can fair up under a great strain,” Dangersignal said. “Right now, I need her to verify something for me and speed is of the essence!”

Acting quickly, the two pegasi propped the earth pony up and she looked through the shield at where Dangersignal gestured with a hoof.

“A clearing!” she cried. “Your not going crazy! We can move under your shield. If I am honest with ya, after we get clear, ya need to rest and save yer magic! I know the ya and yer brother are Alicorns, but we’re gonna need ya both at yer peak.”

“Fair point,” Dangersignal conceded, then barked out. “Double time it!”

The other guards took that at it’s purist and simplest meaning and started to take to the air. The others figured out and while the pegasi took the air, the others galloped through the danger with Dangersignal basically being the shield using Alicorn. Applejack looked back and noticed everyone was accounted for.

Dangersignal’s shield dropped and he just about fell over had White Orchid not caught up to keep him stable.

“I am not Shining Armor,” he gasped. “How he does it, I’ll never understand.”

“His specialty is Shield Spells,” Twilight pointed out. “Haven’t seen his cutie mark?”

“Yeah,” Dangersignal panted. “But it’s tiring work, and he makes it look easy.”

“Well, when you practice shield spells for quite a while, you get good at them,” Twilight said. “Still, you and your brother impressed us with your usage of shields.”

Dangersignal panted some more, and after standing up, he looked at them. Something showed in his eyes as he glanced around at the group.

“I’m starting to see something here,” he said. “Something that our enemy overlooked.”

The others stared at him. He chuckled and looked at each pony before continuing on. He wanted them to have an idea of what he was talking about. It suddenly dawned on them that he was on to something.

“Nightmare Moon is trying to get us to fall as individual ponies. She believes that each element will be rendered useless without a corresponding pony,” he said. “Now think, what has been shown so far?”

“Honor,” Rarity said.

“Trust,” Pinkie Pie said.

“And Honesty,” Fluttershy finished.

“Correct,” Dangersignal said. “Now do you recall anything spectacular about the events surrounding those discoveries?”

“Well, for honor, we saw that you were willing to betray us to not only get at the enemy, but to show that you’re a stallion of your word and are willing to protect us,” Darkseige said.

“Dragonstorm saved me, but had me trust in him to a ‘T’ despite not knowing him,” Twilight said.

“And Applejack showed that she was honest, by showing Dangersignal that she could be honest when he doubted what he saw,” Rainbow Dash said.

The group began to see where Dangersignal was coming from and seeing what he saw. He could read their faces and grinned. He knew what they were doing and grinned broadly.

“Noticing something that makes you happy?” Gemstone asked.

“You guys are starting to read the surroundings, which is something that me and my brother use a lot to tell if somepony was lying or hiding their emotions,” Dragonstorm said.

“But Applejack can tell if someone is lying by our methods, which makes her more of a threat to me and Dragonstorm than any of you if she were to switch sides,” Dangersignal pointed out.

“That must be a good thing, if her element makes the two most experienced guards quiver,” Shaydefire said.

“Correct,” came the reply. “Now, we need to press onwards. Nightmare Moon needs to be stopped. We have her cornered like a rat, but I warn you, a cornered rat will fight. Nightmare Moon is a foe that will put us all to the test, even me and my brother.”

“A test? Bring it!” Rainbow Dash hissed, a broad grin crossing her face.