To Fight Against Light

by Yosh Yoshington

Battle of the ACOTRPS

In the Selena intermission, a day passed. However, it just shows us what she’s doing and isn’t that plot-important like the Peach intermissions in Paper Mario. I’ll try to change that later and keep the times consistent.

So this chapter picks up where we last saw Sparky and friends. Hope you’re not confused!

Part 1: Major Trouble in Everfree Forest

Chapter 4: Battle of the ACOTRPS

For a while, the four of us just sat on the trail leading to Everfree Forest, staring into its depths. Even though it was a sunny afternoon, the forest looked dark and foreboding. A couple of times, I thought I heard monsters roaring.

Shivering, I said, “This place creeps me out.”

“Yeah,” Flash agreed. “Lucky for me, I can just fly over the forest!”

“Oh no you don’t,” I snarled. I grabbed Big Mac’s rope with telekinesis and tied the free end around his torso with some complicated knots. “There, now you can’t ditch us.” The cream pegasus tugged at the rope, but he couldn’t undo the knots without being able to use magic.

“Is there a chance you’ll untie me?” he asked sheepishly.

“Nope,” I replied.

“Netro!” he yelled, hitting the saddlebags with a hoof. “Untie me! Please!”

The black alicorn’s head poked out of the bag. “Sorry, Flash. I feel that we should stay together, and if we have to tether you to another pony so you won’t run away, then so be it.”

Flash stuck his tongue out like a colt. “Well, watch this!” He rocketed away, trying to pull himself out of the rope . . . or more specifically, untie the other end of the rope. But on further inspection, the rope was tied to the hairs of Big Mac’s tail. In other words, Flash wouldn’t untie himself that way.

“Hey!” Big Mac yelled, startling us. “Are ya tryin’ to yank mah tail off?”

“No, I’m trying to get this rope off me!” Flash tried to pull himself out again, but all he succeeded in doing was crash-landing in a bush.

“Come on, Flash,” I said. “You’re not ditching us. I don’t know if you want to go on this quest or not, but — look. We’re best friends, aren’t we? Remember when we were little? We made a promise that —”

“Yeah, we did,” Flash said, interrupting me. “So . . . let’s get moving!”

“We must make haste!” Netro said. “It’s going to rain soon, and by the looks of it, it will be a massive rainstorm. I don’t know about you three, but I do not want to be caught in a storm like that. The forest is dangerous enough.”

I scoffed. Like he would get wet! He was in somepony’s saddlebags and had a vest with him! I don’t know if it was because he was royalty or because he had been stuck in space for hundreds of thousands of years, but Netro wasn’t the most empathetic of ponies. Then again, why was I talking? I was pretty apathetic myself, barely caring about anypony else. Except Flash. He was the exception to the rule. On the train, ponies had often asked if we were a couple.

To be honest, I actually had feelings for him — wait, of course I didn’t! My lack of enthusiasm when pretending to be Netro’s parents with Flash to get through Ponyville attested to that. But still, he was my closest friend, because my family — Okay, you get it. I was in some pretty bad denial.

What was the point anyways? We were probably going to die on the stupid quest. But I’m telling Flash how I feel about him when — IF we get to the “other land” alive, I promised.

“Sparky! Are you even listening?” Netro yelled.

“What? I mean of course I’m listening!” Apparently, Netro had been rambling on about something.

“Then what did I say?” he asked.

“Something,” I replied. Why was he singling me out? It wasn’t like Flash and Big Mac were listening, either! Once again, they were too busy talking to notice anything else. What? Were they best friends, now? Did Flash rather want a stallion as his best friend? As the only mare in the group, I was beginning to feel like I was different. Like an alien robot or something. “What about them?” I asked.

“PAY ATTENTION!” the little colt roared at them, magically raising the volume of his voice. Great. He probably just attracted every monster in the forest. Or scared them away. Regardless, it was effective in making Flash and Big Mac pay attention.

“Can we get going now?” Flash asked. “It’s raining.”

He was partly right. But the rain was too light to be called anything but a drizzle. Honestly, I thought he knew more about the weather, being raised in Cloudsdale and all. “Aren’t you supposed to be a pegasus?” I asked. “It’s drizzling. But yeah, let’s get going.”

We started down the path heading into the forest. The first thing Netro did (besides covering his head with his vest) was ask if anypony had a map. Flash had one, of course, but Netro explained he didn’t need a general map of Equestria.

“I have been in this forest many times in the past, but it’s been so long ago that I’ve forgotten the way to the ocean. What I do remember, though, is that the paths through Everfree are extremely confusing. So, does anypony have a good, recent map of this forest?” the alicorn asked.

As it turned out, nopony had one. We didn’t even know we were going to Everfree until we were all done with our packing! Besides, the rain had picked up. Any paper would turn soggy and unreadable in seconds without magical wards around it.

“Oh,” Netro said. “That is unfortunate. In that case, we must use our best judgement. And if you hear any monsters, do not try to fight them. You shouldn’t fight anything here unless your life is in danger. Believe me, the monsters here aren’t to be messed with.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“All right.”

“Eeyup.”

Deciding it would be a good idea to check the weather, I looked up. The clouds were thick and black, promising heavy rain later. If we didn’t find shelter by then, we would be soaked. And so would our saddlebags, which could be worse. “Hey, Netro, is there a spell that will make us waterproof?” I asked. “Looks like there’s going to be a downpour soon.”

“Of course there is,” he replied. “However, in order for the spell to affect all of us, we’ll have to combine our powers. And even then, I don’t think we’ll have enough magical power to complete the spell. How about we do the waterproofing spell on just our cargo?”

Since he was in a saddlebag, that meant he wouldn’t get wet. Selfish bastard.

But that was better than nothing, so I said, “Sure, let’s do it. Wait, how are we supposed to share our power to do the waterproofing spell?”

“Just recite the spell at around the same time that I do. If you do that, our powers should combine. Unless anything about magic’s changed in the time that I’ve been gone. I doubt that happening, though.” He went over the spell, and we cast it on everypony’s saddlebags.

Feeling fully prepared, we started for the forest.

The first part of the forest wasn’t that hard to get through. There was only one path that sometimes meandered but stayed relatively straight. However, we soon reached a point where lots of winding paths branched off like snakes having seizures. To make it worse, the rain started pouring. A lot.

“Uh . . . where do you think we should go, Netro?” I asked.

“Let’s just stick to the path that continues on in the direction we’ve been going in,” Netro, who refused to stick is head out of Big Mac’s saddlebags, advised. “If we stay on the path, we can’t get that lost.”

How wrong he was. We followed the path, and soon, we saw Ponyville through the trees. The path must have done a u-turn at some point that we hadn’t noticed. Maybe the path had just gradually turned around and headed back to Ponyville. At that point, Netro had no idea where we were supposed to go. We decided to take the first path we saw that branched off from the one we were on.

That path was long, winding, and very, very muddy. The trees did nothing to block out the rain (if anything, they made it worse), and I kept slipping in mud. To add insult to injury, my wet mane kept getting in my face. Sparky, Netro, and Big Mac, who had much shorter manes that wouldn’t get in their faces much, were half as miserable as I was. Despite the cascade of water from the trees and the muddy path, they laughed and talked. As for me, I was the wet blanket of the group, something which Flash addressed soon.

“Hey! Can we have a snack?” he asked. “I’m hungry . . . I think I’m gonna crash or something!” I was sure he just didn’t want to be covered in mud like the rest of us. Except Netro. Because he was a selfish bastard.

“Sure,” I said. “Everypony else can have a snack, too.” I levitated four plain muffins out of my saddlebags and gave them to everypony.

Flash groaned. “Didn’t you bring anything with sugar in it?”

“No,” I replied flatly. “I don’t have any extremely sugary foods. It’ll just make me fat, and I could live without ponies laughing at how I grow sideways instead of up.”

“Well — it could make you less grumpy! Don’t you know Pinkie Pie?” Flash asked.

“Uh . . . no, not really,” I said.

“Well, she’s one of mah sister’s frien’s,” Big Mac said.

“That’s . . . that’s very helpful,” I replied sarcastically.

“Well, she works at Sugarcube Corner. She eats lots of sugary stuff, and she’s always happy!” Flash Fire pointed out. “If you use logic, Spark, then that means that if you ate sugar all the time, you’d be happy all the time!”

I scoffed. “No thanks. I don’t feel like becoming obese and hyperactive. Now eat your muffin. You were the one who wanted a snack break, anyways.”

We ate the muffins quickly and continued down the path. The bread gave us a little bit more energy, but it didn’t take long for my pessimism to come back.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Besides trying to save Equestria from a crazy fallen goddess, which is much easier said than done.” Really, it did all seem hopeless. We were walking around in a forest with no clue as to how to even get out. And for extra fun, it seemed like waterfalls were coming from the sky. “Oh yeah, we’re walking in circles in a forest with dangerous monsters! Hopeless. It’s all hopeless. It’d be more painless if we went home and tried not to piss Luxa off, or better yet, killed ourselves right now.”

“Don’t be like that!” Netro exclaimed. Apparently, my pessimism was such an important subject for him that he actually took the time to stick his head out of Big Mac’s saddlebag. “Why are you so cynical, anyways?”

I stiffened. The reason I was so rude and sarcastic and mistrusting was because of something in the past. My past wasn’t a thing I liked to tell other ponies about. I didn’t even like thinking about it. In fact, the only other pony I had told about my past was Flash. “I don’t want to tell you,” I said.

“Really, with that kind of attitude —” Netro began. However, Flash interrupted him.

“No, seriously. Sparky’s means it when she says she doesn’t want to talk about it. She . . .” The pegasus trailed off, unsure of what to say next. I thought he was about to tell the story.

“Go ahead, Flash,” I said. “You two are on our team. I suppose you can hear about my past. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to live much longer.”

Flash began to tell the story of my past. I focused on the sound of the pouring rain, trying not to hear the story. The memories in my head were too much as it was . . .

I couldn’t help it. I started crying. What did it matter, anyways? We were all drenched from head to hooves. Nopony would notice. That is, if I didn’t make those stupid sobbing sounds.

When Flash was done telling the story, he turned to face me. “Hey Spark, you — are you crying?”

“Why do you care? Are you gonna take a picture to blackmail me with later?” I asked snidely.

In response, he landed on the ground and draped a wing over my shoulder. “Aw, it’s okay, Spark. It’s over and done with. Right now, you have a happy — well, happy as you can be — life.”

If my coat wasn’t so dark, I swear you could have seen me blush. So I countered the feeling with sarcasm. “Hey, you really got mud on yourself for me?” I asked. “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble just to cheer up a grumpy unicorn.”

“Yeah, I did,” Flash said. “Anything for my best friend.”

Sappy. Unbelievably sappy. Honestly, it was enough to make a pony gag! But it did cheer me up. “What do we do now?” I asked. “For all we know, we could be going in circles.”

“Look on the bright side!” Netro said. “We haven’t run into any monsters. We should consider ourselves lucky.”

“We can’t have gone in a circle,” Big Mac said. “We haven’t seen that yet.”

“Well maybe we weren’t look —” I began. However, looking in front of me, I realized he was right. Standing in front of us was a cliff with a waterfall cascading down it. It landed in a river that flowed off to the right. “Oh. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m taking a drink.” The river didn’t look too dirty to me. I was sure it was safe to drink out of.

“How can you be thirsty with all the water around us?” Flash joked. Even so, he followed me to the river, Big Mac close behind us.

We took quite a bit of time at the river. For one thing, it was partially sheltered from rain by the cliff, which jutted forwards at the top. And we needed time to sit down, rehydrate, and rest. Because of the rain, the river had flooded its muddy banks, and the water wasn’t as clean as I hoped. Still, water was water, and why deplete our water supply when we had some in front of us? Thinking it was safe to say he wouldn’t ditch, I untied the rope from Flash.

Netro, who claimed that he would get washed away if he drank from the river directly, used his magic to levitate spheres of water up to him. He probably just didn’t want to get wet, but still, his use of magic interested me. “How do you do that?” I asked.

“It’s just a simple variation of a levitation spell. Just scoop up the water and bring it to you,” he explained.

Scooping up the water was easy. However, when I was bringing the spheres to me, I “accidentally” dumped the water on his head. From his facial expression, you’d think I shocked him with a high-voltage taser! Due to the waterproofing spell, he didn’t stay wet long. The water levitated itself out of the bag and its cargo and splashed to the ground.

“Be careful, or I’ll catch pneumonia!” Netro admonished.

“Hey, you’re not the one stuck out in the downpour,” I pointed out. “But we’re not really stuck in it now, thanks to the cliff. That reminds me, how are we all gonna get over it? Flash can fly up it no problem, and you and I can just teleport to the top, but what about Big Mac? The cliff’s angle doesn’t make it too good for climbing . . .”

Honestly, what were we going to do? Go back and find another path? No, we were sure this was the right way. Make Big Mac climb it? No, the cliff was almost impossible to climb. Just ditch him and move on? That seemed like the most obvious plan of action. So, I decided that had to be the plan.

“Come on, guys. Let’s get going.” I stood up, addressing Netro and Flash. “Looks like Big Mac can’t get up the cliff, so we’ll have to ditch him. Big Mac, you can go home. Netro, you can hop on my back. I think there’s room in one of my saddlebags since we threw my book out. If not, there’s plenty of space with Flash.”

Their reactions were less than pleased. “WHAT?!” Flash screamed right off the bat. I had to clap a hoof over his mouth so he wouldn’t attract any monsters. “We can’t ditch Big Mac! You’re crazy!”

“No I’m not,” I replied. “But it’s the best interest of the quest. Otherwise, we’ll be sitting here until this cliff crumbles.”

“But he’s one of the heroes in the prophecy,” Netro said. “We can’t ditch him, or we’ll surely fail in defeating Luxa.”

“There’s no other way to get up that cliff, though!” I countered. “We could go around it, but . . .” Shit. That seemed like a good, plausible idea. I had just dug myself a hole and fell in it. “But we better stick to the path! If we get lost, we’re monster food!”

“Hmm . . .” Netro muttered. “Actually, if we combine our magic again, I’m sure we can teleport Big Macintosh and us to the top of the cliff.”

That sounded like as good of a plan as any, so I agreed. “Good idea. Come on Netro, hop on my back. We better scope out the top of the cliff and find a specific place to teleport to. Otherwise, we might end up teleporting halfway into the rock.”

Netro jumped on my back, and we cast the teleportation spell. When teleporting to a new area you haven’t seen before, it’s often a good idea to teleport a couple of inches above the area. Otherwise, you just might get stuck in the ground, which can be lethal if your entire body is underground.

The combined spell had given us too much power, though, and we materialized a couple of feet above the cliff. We would have smashed into the rock if I hadn’t stopped our fall telekinetically and slowly lowered us to the ground.

“Okay, where’s a good spot?” I asked, looking around the cliff. To the left and right were extremely long stone ridges. If we had gone around the cliff, we would probably end up walking for a long time. Behind us, the Everfree Forest continued and a river wound through the trees.

“Oh! I remember this place!” Netro exclaimed. I looked to him for an explanation, but he didn’t say anything more about it. Him remembering the clifftop didn’t seem important. “If we’re looking for a teleportation spot, how about that flat-topped boulder?” Looking in the direction he was pointing, I noticed it. The boulder was more like a flat slab of rock, though. It looked big enough to build a house on, albeit a small one.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s go check it out.” I climbed onto the boulder and paced the perimeter of the top, getting a feel for the area. “You know the area now?” I asked Netro.

“Yes. You?” When I nodded in reply, he said, “Okay, let’s teleport back down.”

I stared over at the cliff edge and a strange feeling came over me. I just wanted to jump off that cliff. Since I could levitate myself with no problem, it wouldn’t be lethal. But it would still be one hell of a thrill. And it would be amusing to watch Big Mac and Flash’s reactions. “You do that, Netro,” I said. “I think . . . I’m going to get down another way.”

Giving myself a second to compose my demeanor, I shut my eyes and galloped straight off the cliff edge. Falling still gave me that gut-wrenching sensation, but after a few seconds, it became almost normal. It was cold. The air blowing by was freezing, and the rain didn’t help.

Flash, who was flying slightly above the treeline, looked up and saw me. “Oh my Celestia!” he screamed. “Sparky’s trying to kill herself!” He tried to fly up and save me, but he wasn’t fast enough. When I was about to hit the trees, I telekinetically stopped myself and looked up at Flash.

“What are you worrying about?” I yelled. “I’m not trying to kill myself!”

“Aw, Spark!” All of a sudden, Flash came down on me, hugging me so hard I could barely breathe.

“Quit . . . it . . . Flash!” I managed to gasp out. “If anypony’s killing me, it’s you!”

“Oh. Sorry, Sparky.” The pegasus laughed and let go of me so I could lower myself onto the ground.

Once I was at the river, Netro suddenly popped out of his saddlebag, startling me. “Sparky, what was all that fiasco about you jumping off the cliff?” he questioned.

“I was entertaining myself,” I told him. Really, that was all there was to it. Somepony as boring and grumpy as me deserved to have entertainment sometimes, or so I said.

“And you think nearly giving your best friend a heart attack is entertainment?” The black colt sighed and slumped down in the bag. “I must be way behind the times.”

“Nah, ponies like me aren’t too common around here,” I said. “Now, we should get going up the cliff and find some shelter. Unless you guys think we should set up camp under the cliff, that is.”

“No,” Netro said. “Once you get up to the top of the cliff, there’s an excellent place to rest. Like where we are now, there’s a source of water. However, it’s more sheltered and enclosed.”

It sounded like a good plan, so the rest of us ended up agreeing. “All right, I’m going up there!” Flash called. In five seconds, he was at the top of the cliff. That was our cue to teleport up there.

I stood next to Big Mac and shut my eyes, visualizing the flat top of the boulder. “Ready?” Netro asked.

“Ready,” I confirmed.

We cast the teleportation spell. I felt the sickening rush as we disappeared from existence and reappeared on top of the boulder. However, because of how much magic there was, I wasn’t as sick as when I teleported myself to the castle earlier that day. Yes, it was earlier that day. It seemed like weeks ago, but it had only been in the morning.

“Sparky?” somepony asked.

“Yeah, what?” Coming back to my senses, I realized that everypony else was heading into the forest while I was stuck to the rock. Of course, I wasn’t physically stuck to it, unless I had done the teleporting wrong, which I probably had done. I raised each hoof. None of them were stuck to the rock. “Wait! I’m coming!” I yelled, galloping after them.

“So . . . where are we headed?’ Flash asked. “I know it’s a place with shelter, but what kind of shelter?”

“It’s hard to miss. In fact, you’ll have to be blind not to see it!” That was all Netro would say about the place. It must have been a sensitive subject for him, like how my past was a sensitive subject for me.

I decided to intervene before the conversation became awkward. “Netro, what will we do if we run into any monsters?” I asked.

“Oh, we should stop and take a moment to think about that,” he replied. Ignoring the driving rain and thick mud, we sat and rested while thinking about the best way to combat monsters. I could confidently say I had no experience in the field, so I probably wouldn’t be of much help.

“Big Mac, have you ever seen your sister fight monsters?” Flash asked. It was a good start. We could have asked Netro, but his memory of fighting monsters had probably failed him. Besides, he had probably fought them when he was a full-sized alicorn and not a colt. In fact, he probably still lived in space when he was a colt.

“Nnope.”

Flash groaned. “Never mind then. Netro, you remember anything?”

“Not really. But I still stand by what I said previously: direct confrontation is not the answer. Maybe we should . . . we should create a diversion! Sparky, do you know any illusion spells?” he asked me.

“Not really . . .” I admitted. “But I can try. It sure beats getting eaten by monsters by a long shot.”

“That’s the spirit! When doing illusion spells, focus the magic into the air around you and concentrate on what you want to be seen as. The air should act accordingly,” Netro instructed. “As to what we should use the illusion for . . . it has to be something nonassuming . . . something that doesn’t pose an active threat to monsters . . .” He disappeared into the saddlebag to think some more and escape from the rain.

“How ‘bout cows?” Big Mac suggested.

“Cows?!” From my limited knowledge of livestock, cows lived in wide open pastures, not gloomy forests populated with monsters. “Why would cows wander so deep into Everfree Forest?”

“Sometimes it happens,” the red stallion replied. From what I saw of Sweet Apple Acres, I was sure there were cows there. That meant that Big Mac probably knew more about cows than I did. So I decided to shut my mouth and stop talking about it.

“Cows it is, then,” Netro said. “So, Sparky, let’s try the illusion spell.”

“All right,” I replied. I shut my eyes and concentrated, focusing on the air around us and making us look like cows. When I opened them and looked around, I saw that everypony else in our group had been replaced with a cow.

“It worked!” said a small calf, who I assumed was Netro. “Now, let’s take the illusion down, but you have to be ready to cast it at a moment’s notice. And remember, you must use the spell in conjunction with me, or our powers will not combine right.”

I nodded. “All right. Should we send somepony as a lookout for monsters, then?”

“I’ll do it!” Flash volunteered. “If I hear any monsters, I’m going to check it out!”

Just then, there was a loud roaring sound coming from deeper in the forest. In addition to the roar, it sounded like something was making massive splashes. “Looks like your first job as lookout,” I said to Flash. “Go on.”

“And tell us everything you see!” Netro added. “We might be coming close to —” It was too late. Flash was gone.

It took a surprisingly short time for Flash to come weaving through the trees back to us. “So, I hid in a tree, and it’s a good thing I did! There was this lake, and an old castle just behind the lake. And then a massive ugly green lake serpent was rampaging in the middle of it. I think it was roaring about not having any food.”

“Aha! So we are close to the castle!” Netro exclaimed, flapping his little wings in excitement. “Okay, now is a good time to tell you about the castle. When Luna and Celestia were fillies, they wanted a castle of their own. So we got one built for them here in this forest. Of course, they don’t use it anymore. I’m astonished it hasn’t collapsed by now! At any rate, it’s a good place to find shelter.”

So that was where he wanted to stay. It seemed like a good place to stay, even if we did have to fight a lake serpent. It was out of the rain and all that. “Hey . . . is that the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters?” I asked. “I think it sounds familiar.”

“Mah sister and her frien’s fought Nightmare Moon there,” Big Mac explained.

We were close to a castle that Netro’s daughters used to live in. Had he been only thinking of shelter, or did he want to be there for sentimental reasons? I thought it must have been a mixture of both reasons. Or maybe he was curious about his younger daughter’s dark side. Would he think it similar to Luxa’s dark side? Of course, referring to good as light and evil as dark wouldn’t work anymore. Not when we were working with the good Stallion — well, Colt now — of Darkness to defeat the evil Mare of Light.

“Ah, and with the Elements of Harmony, or so Flash Fire said,” Netro said in response to Big Mac’s comment. “So the magical presence there will be strong. My daughters and the Elements of Harmony have recently been there. It will be a perfect place to practice all kinds of magic, don’t you agree, Sparky?”

What? Why was he asking me about my opinion? Oh wait, I was the group’s unicorn! Somehow, I had forgotten about that. “Yeah, good idea! But it has darker magic around, due to the presence of Nightmare Moon. What if it takes over us through our horns and makes us evil?” I asked. I had seen many a movie like that. One of them, Night of Nightmare Moon, is my favorite movie. And no, it has nothing to do with the holiday Nightmare Night.

“I don’t think it will,” the alicorn replied. “The Elements of Harmony purify all evil magic once it’s used. The only exception is chaos, since harmony cannot destroy chaos. The reverse is also true. In short, we’ll be safe. Unless Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon by means of chaos energy. Then, as ponies here put it, we’re screwed.”

Well, that made me feel a whole lot better. I was unsure if I meant that sincerely or sarcastically, as I had no clue as to how Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon.

“Okay, then,” I said. “Netro, let’s put the illusion spell up and see if we can get around that lake without attracting the lake serpent’s attention. If not, get ready to fight.” As a precaution, I moved the knives to the top of my saddlebags so I could take them out at a moment’s notice.

“Of course!” Netro was a little stunned that I was calling the shots with the magic, but nonetheless, we were soon disguised as cows.

“There’s nothing that can break the illusion, right?” I asked.

“Magic,” Netro said. “However, of all monsters, only dragons know any magic. Lake serpents, while related to dragons, cannot use magic. They are also not as intelligent and probably won’t suspect an illusion spell. Let us proceed! And remember, no talking. Speaking will reveal our disguises.”

We proceeded into the clearing, trying as hard as we could to keep up the cow façade. Like Flash had said, there was a lake from which the river stemmed from. And swimming and thrashing around in the lake was what looked like a long, skinny green dragon with no legs or wings. A large fin ran down the majority of its back, and its tail was tipped with a powerful fin. When it opened its mouth, I could see its long, bloodstained teeth, each as big as a large knife. I gulped and tried to appear calm.

We had ambled down part of the lake shore when the lake serpent noticed us. “COWS!” it roared, drool and blood dripping from its fangs. “COWS ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS! NOT MANY IN THESE PARTS . . .”

“Think again!” I yelled. “Netro, illusion down!”

We revealed out true forms to the lake serpent, hoping to discourage him from eating us. However, we just made him more excited. “PONIES ARE MY FAVORITE FOOD!” Well, I hadn’t been expecting that. He lunged at us, and we booked it to the trees.

Panting, I said, “We’ll have to fight. Fortunately, I have weapons.” I passed out the knives that I had to everypony. We all held knives in our teeth. Flash hovered above us and held a knife in his hooves, Big Mac tied the handle of a knife to his tail, and Netro and I both had a knife levitating in front of us. In my case, I was levitating the cleaver I had brought.

“Leth do theh,” Flash mumbled through the knife in his mouth.

We charged out of the woods and threw ourselves at the lake serpent. For a second, he was overcome by surprise, and we were free to cut away at him. However, he recovered enough to lunge at us. And this time, we were too close to the lake to move away from it. I levitated my cleaver so it pointed up, hoping it would defend me. A knife that must have been Netro’s suddenly shot into the roof of the snake dragon’s mouth. It roared, blasting us with hot air that smelled like blood and rotten fish. I swung my cleaver at a nearby fang and was surprised to see that it cracked. The monster roared in outrage and strained to snap its jaws around us, but it couldn’t.

Why not? I looked back and saw that Big Mac was standing on his back legs and using his front hooves to jam his knife in between the monster’s teeth, effectively prying its mouth open. Though the stallion was strong, I could see his legs trembling in the strain to keep it up. “Chop off th’ tips of his fangs!” he called to us. “And quickly! Ah ain’t gonna be able to keep this up much longer!”

Taking his suggestion, we began to hack away at all the fangs we could, cutting the needle-sharp tips off. We were able to cut about half of the monster’s teeth when it realized it had a tail it could use and slammed it into us, knocking us away. Netro and Flash were able to recover and fly off before they hit the ground. Big Mac and I weren’t so lucky, and we crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of us. It was like being kicked in the gut. We couldn’t move or do anything. We could just watch as the lake serpent, in all its ugly glory, loomed over us, hissing. Blood from its mouth showered us. I don’t know about Big Mac, but I thought it was pretty nasty. The monster didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to kill us. It probably got a kick out of slowly torturing things to death.

Suddenly, a black telekinetic aura enveloped one of its teeth and the monster’s head was tugged sharply to one side. Then, a cream-and-orange blur sped out of nowhere and struck the monster in the side of its head. Flash and Netro had saved us! Not wanting to be useless, I got up and sent both knives flying into the serpent’s nostrils.

“Why didn’t you guys get out of the way?” Flash asked. “Not that I had a problem dive-bombing that thing, but still.”

I recovered the knives and sent them flying at the serpent’s underbelly. When they struck, I used my magic to yank them down, forming two red lines that bled profusely. Then again, that serpent was so big I had no idea how bad the injury really was. “You try moving when there’s an angry monster looming over you,” I said in response to Flash’s previous question. “Now, I think if we overwhelm it, we can manage to kill it. If it doesn’t die of blood loss.”

Many gashes covered the serpent’s body, and of course, most of his teeth were broken and bleeding. I think his scales were supposed to be turquoise, but they were all red now.

“Sure, Sparky. Let’s go get Netro and Big Mac.”

Flash and I raced around opposite ends of the lake shore. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do to a slow runner such as myself. It didn’t take long to reach Big Mac, who was preoccupied with driving his knife into the base of the monster’s tail.

“Hey!” I yelled, galloping up to him. “Come with me! We’re charging the lake serpent!” It was probably a stupid idea to yell the plan in front of the monster, but it looked like he was too preoccupied in trying to eat us.

“D’ya have a plan?” he asked as we galloped back to meet with the other two ponies.

“Nah, unless you count chopping it up until it dies of blood loss,” I replied. “Which looks like it’s working so far, so don’t worry about plans!”

Netro and Flash, who could fly far faster than we could gallop, were waiting for us. “So, to get this straight, you think the only way to kill him is to all attack him at once?” Netro asked.

I nodded. “He’ll be surprised at all of us are coming at him, so we should be able to get some good hits in. Speaking of getting hits in, where’s that monster? It hasn’t been trying to eat us in a while.”

Just as I said that, the surface of the lake erupted and the monster shot out of it, lunging at us at amazing speed. “Sneak attack!” Flash yelped. “Everypony scatter!”

“No, wait!” Netro exclaimed. “Hold your ground, and when he comes close, attack!” At the command, Flash gulped and anxiously hovered above us. A second later, Netro joined him. “NOW!” he yelled.

We leaped into action. Big Mac swung his tail, sending the rope and knife flying at the monster. The blade whizzed by, barely missing Flash and Netro, and lodged itself in the serpent’s tounge. When Big Mac pulled it out, the serrated knife took out quite a bit of flesh with it. I winced when the knife embedded itself in the ground, right next to my hoof.

Predictably, the monster didn’t take well to having part of its tongue torn out. He roared and lunged at us again, but Netro and Flash swooped at him and cut at his neck, trying to slit his throat or something.

It was now my turn to attack, and I had a pretty good idea of how to kill the lake monster. Or at least, it would show it that we weren’t to be messed with. Sighing, I focused my mind the way Netro had taught me. I levitated both of my knives and shot them at the serpent, embedding them straight in one of his eyes. Thankfully, when I took them out, the blades didn’t take the eyeball along with them.

Instead of the serpent fleeing from us like I hoped, he actually became more aggressive. He lunged and swiped with head, tail, whatever. We only had just enough time to flee out of his reach. Well, almost all of us.

Flash collapsed to the ground on the lake shore, panting. “Celestia, Sparky, what the hell did you do?”

“Take out his eye,” I replied. “But don’t worry. All of us can attack from a distance, so this won’t be too bad.”

“What about me? I don’t have magic or a rope or anything,” Flash Fire pointed out.

“Well, you can fly pretty fast,” I said. “And what about those amazing aerobatics you’re known for?” Buttering him up seemed like the best idea, especially since he seemed to be mad at me.

Unfortunately for me, even praise didn’t work on Flash. “I dunno about that . . . I’m pretty tired from all the high-speed flying that I’ve been doing.”

I sighed. “If you want a breather, I suppose I can do tha —”

WHAM. Flash was suddenly knocked on his back by the pissed off lake monster. Its head was getting closer . . . Flash was about to get eaten! He was my best friend, and yes, I liked him more than a friend, so I decided it was time to act. I took up my knives and leaped at him, aiming for the other good eye. With luck, I would reach him before he reached Flash.

However, I didn’t need to. Big Mac, seemingly coming out of nowhere, suddenly gave the serpent’s head a good kick with his hind legs. To my complete surprise, there was a snapping sound, and the serpent’s head was violently jerked to one side. He collapsed onto the shore, dead.

Of course, I was still mid-leap, and I landed inches away from the monster’s gaping maw. Looking to the left, I saw Flash getting up on shaky legs. “That was . . .” he began. “That was . . . so badass! I mean, you just snapped that lake serpent’s neck!” He ran over to Big Mac. “Thanks for saving me!”

Then, he walked over to me. “Hey, Spark. I know Big Mac was the one who killed him, but I saw you. You were trying to take him out too, huh?” I nodded silently. “Well . . . thanks for trying. I was surprised you weren’t put off by how I was mad at you for pissing the serpent off. I mean, even with that, you still tried to save me!”

I smiled, actually genuinely smiled, back at him. “No problem, Flash. I mean, what are best friends for? Even though I kinda failed epically and the fact that you almost got eaten is my fault . . .”

At that, Flash’s expression and mood changed. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said coldly. “You know, maybe I’ll get Big Mac to be my best friend. He saved my life and all that, after all.”

I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t. My heart hurt so bad and I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything but stand there with my mouth open. Then, I came to my senses. “Well, suit yourself,” I said, starting to march away from the pegasus.

Flash must have done a backflip or something, because he landed right in front of me. “Aw come on, Sparky! You know I won’t bet mad at you! I’m alive, am I not? That’s all that matters.” He lunged forward to give me a hug, and I awkwardly patted his back.

Shaking myself loose of him, I said, “Yeah, Flash. It’s just . . . you mean a lot to me.” More than he knew.

“Hey, you mean a lot to me to,” Flash said. Awkward silence. I think I blushed a little. Again, thank Celestia for my dark blue coat. He must have been able to tell that he had said something awkward, so he said, “What are we standing around for? Let’s get going to the castle already!”

We nodded in agreement and trotted around the lake, coming to a stop outside the front door. I looked up at the castle, still dignified and regal in its old age, and down at my mud-caked engineer’s uniform. I felt inferior, somehow, even though I never thought of it around Netro, the king of Equestria. I guess I was getting used to him.

“You guys do that,” I said. “I’m gonna wash this stupid uniform of mine . . . dammit, forgot the —”

“Soap?” Big Mac asked, taking a bar of the stuff out of his saddlebags. “Ah reckoned somepony would want ta do some washin’.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, grabbing the soap and backtracking to the lake. There, I magically removed the engineer’s uniform — a black jacket and light gray jumpsuit with the engineer’s cutie mark emblazoned on the flank — and dumped it in the water, letting it sit for a little bit. The water turned most of the dirt into mud and washed it off the clothes, but there were still stains left behind. Keeping the jacket and jumpsuit in the air, I took the soap and scrubbed them clean.

When I returned to the castle, I was surprised to find Netro, Big Mac, and Flash sitting on a blanket on the middle of the room. I set the dripping clothes down on the marble floor and went to join them, returning the soap to Big Mac.

“Ah, there you are, Sparky,” Netro said. “Now that you’re here, we can develop a plan. I think that we should stay here for at least a day to rest for the next leg of our journey. We’re approximately in the center of the forest, and believe me, the journey will only get harder from here.”

A gust of wind blew through the wide open doors, sending a fresh chill through my soaked coat. “Ugh . . . Is there any way we can build a fire here?” I studied the walls: old marble covered with ancient threadbare tapestries depicting alicorns and stuff. “Maybe we should take down those tapestries and burn them.”

“No!” Netro replied as soon as the suggestion left my mouth. Those tapestries must have had some sentimental value to him. “There’s plenty of kindling outside.”

“Plenty of wet kindling,” I said. “That won’t do anything but make smoke.”

“Not if we conjure magical fire,” Netro replied. “It will still work with wet wood.”

“Sounds nice,” I said. “We’re gonna get hypothermia if we don’t warm up soon.”

“Yes, but to get this fire . . . you three need to go outside and get kindling for the fire.”

“What?!” Flash yelled, almost falling on his back. “We’re going out there again? Being out in a downpour and almost getting killed by a lake serpent was bad enough!”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Big Mac and I will get the kindling, and you can just sit here like a sissy, you sissy.” If pissing him off didn’t get him up, I didn’t know what would!

Just as I suspected, Flash leaped up like he had been stabbed in the ass with a hot metal poker. “I’m not a sissy!” he shouted. “And to prove that, I’m going out and jumping in the lake!” I was in shock. That would just get him pneumonia and delay the mission, and I wanted to get that over and done with as fast as possible!

“Hold on!” I yelled as Flash raised his wings, getting ready to fly. “Don’t do that. You’ll just get sick and we’ll be stuck here for . . . I don’t know how long, but we’ll be here a long time! Just help us get some kindling!”

“Fine, fine,” Flash groaned. He obviously wanted to jump in the lake. Surprisingly, he suddenly brightened up. “But to prove I’m not a sissy, I’ll get more kindling than the two of you combined!” He flew off.

“’S he always like that?” Big Mac asked me.

I sighed. “Pretty much. Come on, let’s go.” We walked out the castle doors and headed straight for the forest. During the lake serpent’s rampage, several branches had been snapped off the trees. I levitated as many of those as I could carry.

Off to the left, where Big Mac was, I heard a sharp crack and looked to the left. The stallion was up on his hind legs, holding onto a large low-hanging branch with his forelegs. He pulled down sharply, causing the branch to crack off. Big Mac dropped the branch in a pile with several other branches. “Oh my Celestia . . .” I said under my breath. Big Mac was so strong that he could pull thick branches off trees and snap lake serpents’ necks. Nopony fucked with Big Mac and lived!

“Ya got enough kindlin’?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “This is pretty much the amount I can carry comfortable without getting a headache.” I added that last part since I had successfully managed to levitate Big Mac before. But I had gotten a migraine in the process. A really bad one. Seriously, I hoped I never needed to levitate him again! If I did, then . . . I’d make Netro do it. Somehow.

Flash flew up to us, carrying a couple of thin branches — they looked more like twigs to me — in his mouth. Remembering how he said he would get more kindling than me and Big Mac combined, I smirked. “Didn’t you say you were gonna get kindling?” I reminded him.

The pegasus spit his sticks onto the ground. “Well, that’s all I can carry while flying!”

“Yeah, whatever. We’ve got enough kindling, so let’s get out of here already.” We returned to the castle, dumping the branches in front of Netro.

“Excellent!” the little alicorn said. If he was disappointed in Flash’s meager findings, he didn’t say it. “We’ll be warm and dry in no time!” His horn took on that black glow I was becoming familiar with, and then a black fire suddenly sprung up from the wood. Flash sighed in relief, almost flinging himself in the fire in an attempt to get warm. If he hit it, he’d probably light up on the spot. You know, like a flash fire.

All lame puns aside, I was fascinated with that fire like a little filly or something. “Whoa . . .” I gasped. “How do you do that? Conjuring fire seems like a useful skill.” More useful than lifting stallions twice my size, I figured.

Netro seemed honestly surprised at my question. “You really don’t know how to conjure magical fire? As I remember, it’s one of the first thing unicorn colts and fillies learn when they learn magic.”

I laughed. “You really are behind the times. As I remember, they stopped teaching how to conjure fire once almost every school in Equestria was burned down. Now, they only teach it in those high-profile magical academies.” I hung my head. “Never got into one, seeing as all I do is drive trains . . . My parents were pissed, let me tell you.”

“I know,” Netro replied. “Flash Fire told me.”

Oh yeah . . . I had forgotten Flash had filled in Big Mac and Netro on my past. Before the memories could overcome me, I said, “Yeah, and so that pretty much means I have no clue how to make magical fire. Would you show me? Please?”

“Of course, Sparky.” Netro told me the one-word spell, and invited me to try it on a random twig that had been tracked in. Focusing, I made my horn glow and whispered the spell. To my complete surprise, a sky blue fire the color of my magical aura sprung up on the twig.

“Magical fire really is something, huh?” I commented, lying down on the blanket and watching the fire burn itself out.

“It is,” Flash replied, curling up as close to the fire as possible. “Thank Celestia for this wonderful fire . . .”

Netro gave a small cough. “Actually, you should be thanking me for two reasons. One: Seeing as Celestia is just a unicorn now and fused to her sister Luna, who is also an alicorn, I am the only benevolent alicorn left. Two: I actually made that fire.” I thought he left out three: because he was an egotistical prick. But I digress.

“Yeah, thanks,” Flash yawned, curling up more on the blanket. Without so much as a second thought, I scooted over to him and pressed against my side.

“What?” I asked irritably when he shot me a look. “It’s cold and you’re warm.”

“In fact, Sparky makes a good point,” Netro said, flying over to us and curling up on my left side. “We should huddle up when we sleep. That way, none of us will be likely to catch a cold or anything more serious.”

Off to the right, I heard what was probably Big Mac lying down on Flash’s other side. But I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, so sleep I did.

---

I really have no clue why I made Sparky have feelings for her best friend Flash. I hate it when people ask if me and my best friend are dating, so . . .