A Friend Not Met

by Legioner8

The Longest Night - Part 2

Our way through the town was an eerie one. Just an hour ago, Ponyville was full of happy, if a bit crazy, ponies going on with their lives, waiting eagerly to see the Princess. Now it looked like a ghost town. The streets were empty and unnaturally quiet. Most of the lights were out; ponies inside were probably hiding, too afraid to draw Nightmare Moon’s attention. Some of the decorations and banners were knocked to the ground; somepony probably ran into them in a panic. A scene like this would fit nicely in some sort of a horror novel. At that moment, I even regretted not having others with us.

As Tzana left the library, they wanted to follow, undoubtedly leading to more arguing. Still, I didn’t want to delay our departure any longer and convinced them that they should stay with their friends and families and told them that a smaller group of two is much harder to detect than a whole party of seven. They agreed with me, although begrudgingly.

So it was just the two of us, walking through the town that did everything in its power to look abandoned. And its dreary atmosphere was getting to me. I kept looking around nervously, and a couple of times, I could’ve sworn that I saw shadows following us and couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

I glanced at Tzana, wondering if she saw anything. The mercenary looked calm and collected; she glanced here and there on occasion, but other than that, there were no signs that she was at all worried. She’d almost looked like a royal guard on a dull routine patrol, if not for a little smirk on her face.

“Well, aren’t you in a good mood?” I said and was surprised by my voice; it sounded so loud in this ominous silence.

“Hm? Oh, that?” Tzana glanced at me, and her smirk turned into a bitter smile, “I just realized that usually, when I get to some new place, it takes me at least four days to get in any sort of serious trouble, but this time it only took two. So, that’s my personal record, I guess. Yay?” She pumped her right hoof in the air a little. “It’s kinda funny, really. I left The Guild and came to the most peaceful place in the world to taste that peaceful life, and this happens.” She nodded at the full moon looming in the night sky, “Oh, the irony.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of my head, “that’s some bad luck.”

"Luck has nothing to do with it; that’s just my life in general." She let out a light laugh. "It's like the saying goes: Life’s a bitch, and then you die."

I grimaced at her morbid humor. “Please, don’t joke like that; I am on edge as is,” I muttered. “Say, you look so calm, aren’t you at all worried about this whole situation?” I asked, hoping to keep the conversation going; it actually helped to quell my anxiety a bit.

“Worried? Why would I be worried?” Tzana turned to look at me, and, I think, I saw a glint in her eyes. “We simply need to go to the local Death Forest, find a bunch of mystical artifacts that we don’t know how to use, hope that they will help us combat the ancient and clearly insane dark alicorn, who most likely already defeated Princess Celestia, and should we fail this will most likely doom the entire world to a slow and agonizing death via the endless night. So yeah, nothing to worry about, right?”

My eye twitched as I stared at her. She wasn’t wrong; that was basically the extent of our plan, but did she really have to put it so bluntly? Or that might’ve been sarcasm, so maybe she isn’t as calm as she looks? A coping mechanism, perhaps? But she was rather eager to get involved with this whole mess, so I could’ve been overanalyzing. In any case, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself.

***

"Strange," Tzana muttered as we reached the edge of the town.
"What is it?" I asked, looking around for any signs of trouble, but given the situation, literally everything looked and felt strange and suspicious.

"Canterlot." She pointed at the city on the mountainside. "It looks like nothing happened. I can see no signals, no signs of mobilization, no battle going on."

I glanced at Canterlot. And indeed, it looked like it would on any other night. Shouldn't it be surrounded by Shining's shield by now? I felt a chill run down my spine. What if something happened to him? What if Nightmare... I didn't even want to think about it. "Do you think we'd be able to see the fight from here? Aren't we too far away?" I asked hopefully.

"If a damn Goddess would assault a kingdom's capital, you'd think that that would be one heck of a battle." Tzana shrugged. "We'd at least see something. That lack of action may mean one of two things. One - they have already given up. Or two - Nightmare isn't there."

"No," I shook my head. "The royal guards would never give up without a fight!"

"And that’s what bothers me. If Nightmare Moon is not trying to consolidate her power by taking the throne, then what is she doing?" Tzana asked and started to walk a bit faster. "We'd better hurry."

What could be more important for Nightmare Moon than the throne? Obviously, she already did something to the Princess, but what if she decided to go after the Elements next? If they indeed were the only thing capable of stopping her, it would be a logical choice for her to go after them and ensure her own safety.

Tzana was right; we needed to get to the elements as fast as possible. I nodded at her, and we started to trot towards the Everfree Forest.

***

As we approached the tall, dark trees, I couldn’t help but slow down my pace to almost a complete standstill. I didn’t want to stop, but my hooves just refused to carry me any further.
Tzana’s right ear swiveled back as she heard my hoofsteps stop. “Twilight?” She glanced back at me, “Is something wrong?”

“Sorry.” My ears drooped, “It’s just... The Everfree Forest has a very, and I mean VERY bad reputation. I’ve read stories... a lot of stories, and most of them described various things that can harm or even k-kill ponies with absolutely no remorse.”

Tzana walked over to me and put her hoof on my shoulder, “Don’t sweat it. That’s why you hired me. Just follow my lead, and I swear by my blade, no harm will befall you.” She released my shoulder and hit her chest with her hoof in some sort of a salute that I didn’t recognize.

“Thanks.” I managed to smile at her. “And I really appreciate your support; it’s just...” I waived my hoof in the air, trying to find the right words, “I am a student and a scholar, I’ve never been to any dangerous places in my entire life, so I am a bit jittery.”

“I understand.” Tzana nodded. She was about to turn but noticed something in the distance, “Hey, Twilight, wanna hear something funny?” She asked, glancing back at me with a smirk.

“Umm... sure?” I was surprised by the sudden question, and I had already decided that Tzana has a rather dark sense of humor, so I didn’t know what to expect.

“That place over there,” she pointed at a large hill beyond a small stream, “apparently that’s where Fluttershy lives. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”

Taken aback by this revelation, I looked at the hill once more, but this time I saw a door and a window in its side, a chimney rising from its top, and a short fence going around it. It wasn’t a hill but a cozy cottage meant to look like a natural hill. And, apparently, Fluttershy lived there.

“That close to the Forest?” I muttered incredulously. That couldn’t be true, could it? That mare was frightened of me, of all ponies!

“Shocking, I know.” Tzana chuckled. “If she can handle it, I’m sure you can too. Besides, I’ve been there myself, and I can say that its deadliness is overexaggerated.”

“Weren’t you the one who told everypony how dangerous it is to go there?” I raised my eyebrow at her.

“I’m not saying that it’s safe.” She shrugged. “Only that it isn’t as deadly as your stories make it out to be. So, come on, time’s a-waistn’.” Tzana turned around and started walking towards the dark forest.

I watched her go for a moment. She’s right, I thought, if Fluttershy can do it, I can do it! My brain did try to remind me that Fluttershy merely lives next to the forest and does not actually go there, but I suppressed these thoughts before they could rob me of my newfound resolve and followed after Tzana.

Now that Tzana was walking in front of me, I was able to get a good look at her sword. Of course, I already saw it sticking from behind her right shoulder. Still, I didn’t pay it much attention, too preoccupied with my duties at first and with finding information about the Elements later, so it never registered how huge it was. Its hilt, topped with a pointy pommel, was long and ended with a wide cross-guard. Its long narrow blade was almost as long as the entire length of her body. The sword did not have a scabbard. Instead, it was fixed on a simple yet unusual contraption that looked like a rather short wooden plank with two hooks near the top. In the center of the plank was a recess in which the blade of the sword was placed, preventing it from swinging when walking and directing it from her right shoulder and diagonally down almost to the ground. Hooks held the sword by the cross-guard and prevented it from falling down. Her sword holder had four belts attached to it, and Tzana simply wore it on top of her coat.

At first, I couldn’t even imagine how she was meant to draw her sword, not to mention swing it. Too used to seeing the earth pony guards using their mouths to wield their weapons, but then I realized that both times she felt threatened, Tzana sprung to her hind legs and held her dagger with a hoof, so she’d probably do the same with the sword. I just hoped she wouldn’t have to.

We walked through the Everfree in silence for some time, and if Ponyville was eerily quiet, the Forest was full of all sorts of sounds, most of which made me flick my ears around like crazy! A hoot of an owl, singing of the nocturnal crickets, skittering of some unseen critters... a twig snap!

“Who goes there!?” I swirled around and strained my eyes to see beyond the light of my horn.

“He-he-he...” Tzana chuckled behind me, “Twi, look down.” She said in a calm voice.

Confused by her chill reaction, I did what she said and saw a broken twig. Exactly where my right hind leg was a moment ago... “Oh...” I felt a blush spreading on my face.

“Relax, Twilight. We barely entered the Forest. Nothing dangerous lives this close to the edge.” Tzana pointed out. “Well, other than timberwolves, that is. But they won’t be a problem for quite a while now.”

“Yeah...” I let out a sigh and rubbed my face. Talk about being jumpy. “I almost jumped out of my skin,” I shook my head as we continued on our way, “this is so embarrassing.”

“Well, no one’s here to judge, so no big deal.” The mercenary waved her hoof off.

“Hey, Tzana, may I ask you something?” I asked carefully. Ever since we entered the Everfree, I wanted to strike up a conversation to ease myself but was too afraid to distract her if she was on the lookout for any danger. But seeing that Tzana just confirmed that we were in the clear, I decided to give it a go.

“Shoot.” She nodded.

“There is something I’ve noticed about the way you talk,” I began carefully, “you always say ‘someone’ or ‘no one’ instead of the usual ‘somepony’, why?”

“Oh, I could give you a lengthy lecture about how this is disrespectful towards other beings and how even in Ponyville, ponies are far from the only beings around,” Tzana said, giving me a stern look, which made me fold my ears and take an involuntary step backward.

“I could tell you all that,” suddenly her stern look was replaced by carefree one, “if I’d give a flying fuck about that sort of thing.” She laughed, causing me to cringe a bit at her vulgarity. “Truth be told, I simply think it’s a mouthful and just sounds stupid. Besides, ponies aren’t exactly common where I'm from, so that word never rubbed off on me.”

“I see,” I muttered. Was it really disrespectful? I never thought of it that way... “Oh, by the way, where are you from?” I asked, eager to keep the conversation going.

“From everywhere.” She shrugged. “I’ve been all over, never stuck for long.”

“I mean, where do you live?” I specified.

“In AJ’s barn at the moment.” Tzana waved her hoof dismissively.

Okay, she’s messing with me! I thought, rolling my eyes. “And where do you usually live?” I asked more specifically, giving her an unamused look.

“Taverns, inns, camps, you name it. I’m not capricious; if it’s dry - that’s good enough. If there’s booze - it’s nearly perfect.” She shrugged again. She did it a lot, actually. A compulsive movement, maybe? “Although...” Tzana rubbed her chin in thought, “I'm most used to the Guild barracks, I guess.”

So she had no place to call her own, a drifter and a mercenary. I guess some ponies could find this romantic, but I felt a little sad for her. I couldn't imagine what it would be like not to have a place to go back to, a place where ponies are waiting for you.

“You mentioned the Guild before,” I decided not to dwell on the sad thoughts, “what is this Guild exactly?”

“Oh, you know, The Guild,” Tzana said it like it was self-explanatory, but I only tilted my head in confusion. “The Mercenary Guild? Sometimes called the Adventurers Guild?” Tzana tried to be a bit more specific, but it didn’t ring any bells. “The world’s oldest and biggest handler for all sorts of mercs and bounty hunters?” I definitely never even heard of it, so I just shook my head. “Damn...” Tzana muttered, “well, I guess Equestria doesn’t really need us all that much, huh?”

“I guess?” I rubbed the back of my head, hoping that I didn’t upset her. “By the way, didn’t you say that you left the Guild?”

“Yeah, I did.” She said and went quiet.

“Why?” I probed after a few moments of silence.

This time Tzana didn’t say anything; she just shrugged.

Just as our conversation died down, the trees in front of us parted, and we found ourselves near the edge of a high cliff.

I looked left and right, and it seemed that the cliff went far in both directions until the trees once again swallowed their edges.

“Okay, where to now?” I asked.

“According to your book, the castle is in the very heart of the Forest, so there.” Said Tzana and pointed forward. “We need to get down.”

We peered over the cliff’s edge. At a glance, I’d say it was about fifteen meters high, and the cliff itself was really steep, with only a few small outcroppings here and there. There was no way we could safely climb down; we’d have to find another way.

“That’s not too high,” said Tzana. “we can climb down.”

“What? No, we can’t!” I looked at her, hoping that she was joking, and saw that Tzana’s eyes traced the path down from one outcropping to another. Nope, she was serious. “Or at least I can’t,” I added, looking down once again. Just a simple thought of climbing down the cliff gave me a feeling of vertigo.

“Okay. Can you magic us down there?” She asked, looking at me expectingly.

“I know how to teleport, but I have little to no experience with the spell, so it won’t be safe to use on that distance, especially to teleport both of us. The elevation difference doesn’t help either. Sorry.” I said, hanging my ears. “Maybe...” I rubbed my chin in thought, “I can levitate you down, but I’ll be stuck up here all the same. It's not that hard to levitate a living creature, even though its natural magic field can disrupt the spell, making it a bit hard to maintain a stable grip, but it’s usually not a problem for a quick lift. But levitating myself is a different story; caster’s magic will be reabsorbed back into their body way too quickly, making it really hard to hold oneself in the air. This requires a strong and constant flow of magic. One mistake can throw the caster off balance and make their concentration waver, however—” I cut myself off, realizing that I accidentally started an impromptu lecture, and gave Tzana a sheepish smile. “Anyway, usually, it’s not a bad thing… unless you are fifteen meters above the ground, that is,” I concluded.

“Okay then,” Tzana let out a sigh, “let’s find another way down.” She turned around and was about to walk back the way we came.

“Wait.” I said, looking back down. “This cliff is big. Who knows how long we’ll be searching for an easier way down? We’ve lost enough time as is. Let’s try magic.” I nodded to myself.

“You sure about that?” Tzana raised her eyebrow. “You didn’t sound too keen on this a moment ago.”

“I know, but I’ll manage,” I said, trying to sound confident. “After all, I am Celestia’s student! Magic is my life!”

“If you say so.” Tzana shrugged. She then smirked and tapped me on a shoulder, “And hey, if the worst comes to pass, I’ll try to catch you.”

“Yeah... thanks,” I muttered, not sure if her promise made me feel more or less worried. “Okay! Let’s get—“

There was a sound of crumbling rocks, and I felt the ground go out from under my hooves! The cliff edge we were standing at began to crumble!

It’s hard to describe that sinking feeling when you realize that you are falling. My heart skipped a beat, and I guess that would’ve been the moment I started screaming, but my breath caught in my throat. It felt like I was in slow motion. I could only stare in shock as the world began tipping forward, desperately trying to think what I could do, but a pair of strong hooves grabbed me and threw me backward.

As I flew through the air, I saw Tzana standing on the crumbling cliff, her forelegs still outstretched after she threw me. She bent her hind legs to jump, but the piece of rock she was standing on gave way and fell off, bringing Tzana down with it. Her eyes widened as she fell. With lightning speed, her right forehoof dove under her coat, drew out the dagger I saw earlier, and slammed it into the edge as she fell, wedging the dagger’s blade between the stones.

That was when I hit the ground. The landing was rough, but I didn’t have time to wallow in pain. I immediately rolled back to my hooves and looked at where Tzana was.

She was hanging from the edge, holding on to the hilt of her dagger. The ground next to the dagger was riddled with cracks and was still crumbling away.

I wasn’t sure for how long she’d be able to hold on, but it couldn’t be too long. Either her grip would slip, or the ground would crumble enough to dislodge the dagger, so I did the first thing that came to my mind and dove forward.

“Hang on!” I shouted as I slid on my belly towards the edge and grabbed her hoof.

“What are you doing!?” Tzana shouted, looking up at me. She was trying to find a foothold, but her hind legs kept slipping.

“I’m trying to help you, obviously!” I shouted back, trying to pull her up, but it felt like I was trying to lift a mountain. “How are you so heavy!?”

“Twilight, back off before—“ She began, but, with a loud rumble, a big chunk of rock we were on partly broke off from the rest of the cliff and tilted, causing me to slide a bit forward and Tzana to lose her footing completely.

“Oh-oh...” I draw a shuddering breath, realizing that it happened because I added more weight to the edge of the cliff.

“Hey, gals! Ah found em!” Sounded a shout from behind.

“Applejack!?” I shouted in surprise; it sure sounded like her. I turned my head around and saw a familiar orange earth pony running towards us.

“What is she doing here!?” Tzana questioned, lifting herself a bit and trying to look behind me.

“Hang on, ah’m coming!” Applejack shouted, getting nearer. She probably got the same idea I did and was about to step on the cliff edge that could barely hold the two of us.

“No!” Shouted both Tzana and me in unison. At that moment, the piece of rock we were on shook and tilted even more.

Seeing this, Applejack slid to a halt. “Twilight, listen ta me carefully!” She shouted, maintaining the safe distance, “You’ll have ta let her go, or y’all both fall!”

“What!?” I looked at her incredulously; how could she suggest something like that!? “Are you insane!? I won’t let her go!”

“Ya have ta!” The earth pony pleaded desperately, “Let her go, and ah promise, y’all be fine!”

“No! I’ll—“ I was about to protest again, but Tzana interrupted me.

“She’s right, Twilight.” She said in a calm voice, that was really out of place in that situation. “This rock is about to fall. Let go of my hoof and carefully crawl backward. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine.” She looked me straight in the eyes while saying that, and in her eyes, I saw confidence.

As if urging me on, the noise of shifting stones was heard again, and the rock shook once more, and if it tilted further, I would not be able to crawl away from the edge. “I’m sorry!” I shouted and let go of Tzana’s hoof.

“Attagirl,” Tzana said with a smile. With a quick yank, she dislodged the dagger and disappeared over the edge; all I could hear was the sound of metal scraping against rock.

“I got you!” Suddenly a cyan blur rushed from somewhere up above and dove down after the mercenary.

I was struggling to push myself away from the edge when a pair of yellow hooves wrapped around my chest and lifted me off the rock. “Hi, Twilight.” sounded a soft voice next to my ear.

“Fluttershy?” I tilted my head and indeed saw the yellow pegasus from before. She smiled at me, but her smile was visibly strained as she quickly flapped her wings, trying to maintain a steady flight.

“You, um, don’t mind me carrying you?” Fluttershy asked, averting her eyes.

“Not at all. Thanks.” I said as we began our descent. When I looked down, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Tzana standing on the ground safe and sound. Rainbow was hovering in front of her face, gesturing enthusiastically. Also, Pinkie Pie was with them already. Somehow. She saw us flying and gave us a friendly wave.

“... and, mare, aren’t you glad that I swooped in and saved you right at the last moment?” I heard Dash’s voice when we were within earshot.

“You do realize that I was already standing on an outcropping when you “saved” me, right?” Tzana gave her an unamused look.

“You were only halfway down; bad things could still happen!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and pouted.

“Riiight.” Tzana grinned, probably amused by how easy it was to get under her skin.

“Pff, whatever.” Rainbow flapped her wings and flew up the cliff. A few moments later, she was back, holding an extremely unhappy-looking Rarity in her hooves who, upon reaching the ground, immediately began fixing her mane.

Just as Fluttershy lowered me to the ground, Applejack came down the cliff, hopping from one outcropping to another. Honestly, she made it look way too easy.

“Girls, what are you doing here?” I asked, looking at the five mares in front of me.

“Well, it didn’t sit square with us when we let ya go by yer selfs,” Applejack began explaining. “so, after checking on our families, we got together again and decided ta follow ya.” Everypony smiled and nodded at that.

Tzana let out a sigh. “Listen—“

“Tzana, no.” I interrupted her, remembering how adamant she was about them not coming with us. It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was going to say. “They came all the way here to help us, and we should be grateful for that,” I said and gave them the warmest smile I could muster. “Besides, it is too late to tell them to go back, isn’t it?”

“Fine,” Tzana shrugged, “you’re the boss.” She then turned to look at the orange earth pony. “Hey, AJ, what was with this ‘you have to let her go’? Couldn’t you phrase it any other way? It sounded like you were making her choose whether she would let me die or die with me.”

“Did it really sound like that?” Applejack looked at me, and I gave her a silent nod because that was exactly how it sounded to me. “Aw, shucks, it sounded better in mah head,” AJ said with a nervous smile and rubbed the back of her head.

“Well, I don’t think there was any better way to put it.” I tried to reassure her that it was alright. “We were all panicking and—“

“Oh, by the way, Twi.” Tzana tilted her head a little and looked at me, raising her eyebrow, “Why didn’t you just levitate me? I mean, you almost gave me a lecture there, so I assume you can do that.”

“...”

I opened and closed my mouth several times. How could I forget about the most natural and effective solution? Why did I just jump forward and try to pull her with my hooves? I am a unicorn, for Celestia’s sake!

“Girls, excuse me for a moment.” I walked away from the group, trying to maintain my dignity, got to the nearest tree, and slammed my forehead on its trunk several times, muttering: “Stupid... Stupid… Stupid…”

Author's Note:

A huge thanks to Pomp-neigh for proofreading this chapter!