Stuck in a Rainbow

by theRedBrony

Horse Pile (Church)

Previously on Stuck…

Nightmare Moon tries to fool Church by appearing to be his friend, Morgan. Church figures it out, and he and Spitfire high-tail it out of there. Discord pops in and gives them a shortcut to the rest of the mane six. Church mans up and apologizes to Celestia.

---

Celestia is hugging me.

All the other ponies are watching. And they're all going 'd'aww' at the scene.

Except for Shiny. Oh him and his useless guard buddy Cutlass… they're snickering.

Celestia whispers in my ear, "I am so glad you found your way back to us, Church."

"Well, that's me. Good guy Church. Sticks with his team. Heh heh…"

Oh god, she's squeezing me tighter. Must. Resist. Urge to struggle.

"And thank you for the apology. That means a lot to me."

"Yeah, I'm uh glad I got that off my chest. I went through hell to get here and say that."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, this stupid purple cloud kept making things difficult for me and Spitfire over there, I finally figured out that it was… um… Nightmare. I guess she didn't want me to get to you. She even said she could send me home. But I told her to shove it! She also mentioned that she was the one who brought me here in the first place… but I'm not really sure how that would work. Can you let go of me now?"

"Oh, yes, of course."

I turn to Twilight and ask, "So, uh, shouldn't we be finding Nightmare to, you know, fix it?"

"Well, yes…" Twilight answers, looking unsure of herself. "But I'm afraid I wouldn't know what to do with her if we found her."

"Can't you just use those magic thingies?"

"The elements?"

"Yeah, those!"

"Unfortunately, all six of us need to be here." She looks mildly irritated. "The real Rainbow Dash isn't here."

"Well, hey. We gotta try, right?"

"We?"

"I gotta at least try to use the thingy-"

"Element."

"Yeah, that. Because I told Celestia I'd help her."

"But you-"

"Yeah, I know, I said a lot of stupid things. I'm stupid, ok? But I told her I'd help her, and I meant that."

"Well… if you say so. Girls, looks like we're going searching for a Nightmare."

We get collective groans from everyone, Shiny and Cutlass included.

Discord pops in close to us. "You aren't all going to go wandering about, trying to find her, are you? Because when you wasted eight chapters looking for me, it became incredibly boring."

"You got a better idea, mister?" AJ asks.

"Actually? Yes. I do." In a flash, Nightmare Moon materializes right where Discord was standing.

"GET OFF ME, YOU DEMON!" Nightmare shouts at Discord, who's sitting on her back, all casual about it.

"Demon? Moi?" Discord suddenly has red devil horns on his head and he's holding a pointy red pitchfork, yet for some reason he seems utterly insulted, like some high class rich lady would be if you told her that her eye shadow didn't match her evening gown. "Well I never!"

"Discord!" Twilight shouts. "Hold her down so we can use the elements!"

"Are you kidding me? I'm not standing in the line of fire of those things for a third time. Not willingly, anyway. I have a better idea!"

Nightmare starts jumping and bucking, trying to get Discord off of her. Meanwhile he magically pops the horn off her head, and the wings off her back. With just a 'pop' and a flash of light, probably the same thing he did to Twilight's bro. Then he jumps off her back.

"RETURN MY APPENDAGES AT ONCE! FIEND!"

"Ah, ah, ah. No wings. And no magic." He boops her on the nose while she snarls at him.

"Now girls!" Twilight shouts. "…and guy!"

"Go ahead!" Nightmare dares us. "They will not work without your precious loyalty! You must have at least some semblance of the six to make them work! AH HAHAHA!"

Twilight and I exchange glances. The rest of the girls are all in a circular formation, ready to go.

"Do your thing, Twi," I say.

Suddenly, we all start floating gradually higher and higher. My little horse body tingles with some kind of energy. But a moment later, it all stops, and we fall to the ground.

Nightmare laughs.

"What happened?" I ask.

"It didn't work. I knew it wouldn't work. You're no element of loyalty, Church… you're kind of the opposite, actually… you abandoned us, remember?"

"Well… yeah. I guess I did. Wait. No. I came back… didn't I? I damn well did come back! So at least I'm trying. I might not be perfect. Not perfectly loyal… or whatever, but I am trying."

Tia walks over, puts a hoof on my shoulder. "He's right. He did come back. And I'm afraid I am partly to blame for him leaving in the first place. Regardless, it takes a big pony to come back and apologize for such a thing. It takes… a good friend… to do that."

"Well," Nightmare loudly comments. "Isn't this quite the tear-jerker."

"Excuse me," Discord says, "I believe I'm in charge of the snarky comments around here, thank you very much."

"Will you return my appendages yet?"

"Hmm… no."

"Am I to sit here until they figure out their elements are completely useless and just accept their miserable crushing defeat?"

"Either that, or until they blast you with their rainbow-ray. You know, they have managed to get the upper hoof over both of us in the past."

"Are you suggesting a partnership?"

"A-HEM!" Fluttershy loudly clears her throat.

"Oh, no, no," Discord nervously continues. "Merely making an observation, my dear."

" 'Tis for the best. There can be only one throne in Equestria, and it belongs to me!" Nightmare actually snarled saying that.

Discord and Nightmare continue bickering while Celestia pulls me aside. She whispers to me, "It saddens me to know that somewhere deep inside that monster is my sweet sister…"

"I know, Celestia. I know. I guess I'm not loyal enough, or whatever, for this crap to work. I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's alright Church. We will figure something out."

"You know, I said it before, but I want to say it again. I know I say a lot of crap, but when I commit to something, like I told you I'd be your friend, when it really comes down to it, I mean it. And I don't think I've ever had a sibling get possessed by an evil demon bent on making it nighttime forever, but I have lost some good friends. Over stupid things. And… I know how shitty that feels. So I'm gonna do whatever I can to help you. I just… wish I could do something."

"Hey Churchie!" Pinkie bounds over to me. "Churchie, look! Your thingy's glowing!"

"You mean my element?"

"Yeah, that! It's glowing, look!"

Huh, so it is. The little lightning bolt shaped gem in the necklace is glowing. "Hey Twilight! I think it's working! Let's try again, yeah?"

Twilight looks around, then looks up at her crown thingy. "No Church… it's just yours. I'm not sure why it's doing that."

"Yeah but… it's working! Let's try again!"

"Well, I guess it can't hurt. One more time, girls!"

It doesn't work, and Nightmare is oblivious to our failed attempt, she's still bickering with Discord.

Twilight points at my element. "It seems like yours is working fine, Church. But the rest of ours aren't. I wonder why."

"It's probably because you guys hate me," I say.

"We don't hate you…" Flutters says.

"Well I reckon we just…" AJ starts.

"…Don't particularly care for..." Rarity continues.

"We totally don't like you at all!" And Pinkie finishes…

"Wow… what the hell, Pinkie?"

"Shots fired," Shiny comments.

"What?" Pinkie shrugs. "It's ok Churchie! We can still be friends! Even if we don't like you. Just look at Discord!"

"Uh, I guess? Still doesn't solve our problem. Twi, if my element is working, can't we just make the rest of them work?"

"No… I don’t really know how I could do that, they've only worked with us. Except in the past, when Princess Celestia used them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on. You mean Tia can use them?"

" 'Tia'?" Celestia remarks.

"How come we didn't just give the elements to her in the first place?"

"Church," Tia says in a hushed voice, "When I used the elements against Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago, I was not able to purge the evil from my sister. Instead I could only seal her in the moon for that great amount of time. I will not risk that happening again. I will not… I cannot lose her again."

"So how come the elements didn't work right, way back when?"

"I am afraid it is because I am not truly the embodiment of the elements of harmony." She sighs. "I'm just close enough."

"Well, look. How about you and I try it, huh? Because mine is working and we know you can use them."

"No… I cannot risk it."

I walk closer to Tia. "You know… I know that’s your sister and you care a lot about her. So you have to try, right? You have to try for her. I can't do it alone, they can't do it with me, you can't do it alone, but maybe, just maybe you and I can do it together. I'm here for you… so let's save your sister, together."

Celestia gulps hard, and a tear rolls down her cheek. "And what if you are wrong?"

"Yeah, maybe I am. But I have a good feeling about this. I feel like it's going to work. Call it intuition I guess."

She nods in agreement. "Alright."

The girls fork over their elements to her, and we try again. Just me and Tia.

We get Nightmare's attention this time. "Are you two serious? The one who botched it last time, and the disloyal alien?"

Already I can feel the tingling sensation all over me. We float up above the ground, rainbow-colored light swirls around us. It feels right this time. "Oh yeah! It's gonna work!"

Nightmare is worried now. She stands up, and snarls at us. "HOW CAN THIS BE?"

Discord snaps his fingers and in a flash, Nightmare suddenly has her horn back. She points it and blasts us.

I flinch.

Opening my eyes, though, I see nothing has changed. Her magic just harmlessly bounces away from me and Celestia.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS-"

A giant rainbow manifests itself and targets the enemy! I take this opportunity to say an epic one-liner.

"Nightmare's over, bitch."

"NOOOOOO!!!"

The rainbow ray obliterates Nightmare moon, leaving behind a blue pony princess with baggy eyes, huddled on the ground. Celestia gallops over to her sister, and holds Luna in her pony arms.

Luna awakes with a start, "Sister! 'Twas not my fault, I swear it!"

"I know, Lulu, I know."

" 'Twas… 'twas not my fault." Luna tiredly nods off.

"Everything is fine, Luna. You're safe now. Church," Celestia beckons to me, "come here."

I comply and for my trouble I get a big, slobbery horse kiss on the cheek from Princess Celestia.

"Thank you, Church! You helped save my sister. You helped me do what I could not do!"

She kisses me again. Yuck.

The Nightmare is gone and Luna is – finally – back to her normal, sleep-deprived self.

Twilight comes over to thank me herself. "Thank you, Church. Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to judge you after all. I guess we can be friends, even if you're a bit of a…" She trails off and looks at Discord.

"A douchenozzle?" I suggest.

"Heh. Yeah, but we can still be friends."

"Well, I gotta say, you guys aren't so bad yourselves. I pulled a lot of shit with you and you gave me a second chance. It takes a pretty big person to do that, probably wouldn’t have been able to do that myself, to forgive someone like me. So yeah, I guess we can…"

The rest of the girls smile at that. Then they all come at me for a group hug that turns into more of a dog pile. Or horse pile. Whichever. Celestia included. Man is she heavy.

"Get off me!"

---

Author's Note:

'Tis not quite the end.

This climax part – with Church using the element of loyalty with Celestia using the other ones – was conceived on my car trip home from BronyCon '14. I pulled out my phone, activated the voice recorder, and just rambled on about this story until I came to a conclusion. Transcribed the voice notes to proverbial paper, and turned each section of notes into dialogue and narration. Nice way to work, actually.