Super Sonic Rainboom

by Starkeeper_Ponyfic

Chapter 5: The Nightmare Rises

Rainbow and Sonic found themselves grateful that Twilight brought a lantern with her, and Sonic made a point of thanking her for it.

Twilight shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

“Yeah, I agree with Sonic!” Pinkie chipped in. “It’d be suuuuper dark and spooky without it! Like, we probably wouldn’t even be able to see if the ground was about to collapse beneath us!”

The ground immediately collapsed beneath them.

“You had to say it, Pinkieeee!” Rarity squealed as she began tumbling down.

“Fluttershy, quick!” Rainbow called as she raced toward the unicorn. Fluttershy almost began panicking but steeled herself quickly and rushed to grab Pinkie. The pegasi gently set their friends down on the solid ground below before racing back up to grab Twilight, Applejack, and Spike.

Twilight’s hind legs were off the cliff, and she was clinging desperately to Applejack, while Spike was doing the same to Twilight. Rainbow nodded and prepared to catch Twilight, while Fluttershy got into position to do the same.

“Alright, Twilight!” Applejack stated firmly and clearly. “I’m gonna let y’all go.”

“What!? W-why?” Twilight gasped. “A-Are you trying to-”

Applejack huffed. “Rainbow and Fluttershy are right behind ya to catch, alright? I trust ‘em to catch y’all.” Twilight tried craning her neck to see but couldn’t. “Twilight, Spike, I promise, y’all will be safe. Just trust that I’m bein’ honest.”

Twilight whimpered fearfully but nodded. Applejack let go, and Twilight fell with a scream of fear that immediately stopped itself when Rainbow caught her with a bemused chuckle. Fluttershy grabbed Spike, and they were brought down carefully while Applejack gracefully leapt down a few outcroppings on the cliff.

“Th-Thanks, Applejack,” Twilight offered shakily when the farmer rejoined the group.

“Told ya they’d catch ya,” Applejack chuckled.

“Can we talk about that?” Sonic mumbled worriedly. “The ground just... fell. It... it doesn’t do that.”

“And the timing, too,” Rarity pointed out. “No matter how unnatural the Everfree Forest is, I never thought it would have any sense of dramatic timing.”

Twilight considered their words and frowned. “Those are some good points,” she admitted. “I felt some kind of magic pass by right before the ground collapsed. I would’ve mentioned it but, you know, I didn’t really have time and wasn’t sure it was anything to worry about. I wonder if... maybe Nightmare Moon herself is trying to stop us?”

Rainbow frowned. “She’s got an enormous superiority complex and the power to back it up- it’s not just anypony who could take on Princess Celestia and win. Why would she want to keep a bunch of town ponies from getting to her... unless she thinks we pose an actual threat.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “W-woah, I hadn’t th-thought about that...” she whispered. “B-but why would she-”

A roar split the air as a massive beast charged forward.

“A manticore!” Twilight realized. “It’s blocking our way to the castle. We’ll have to get past it!”

Sonic privately realized Twilight had said “we” and not “I” and couldn’t help a grin despite the terrifying beast rapidly approaching.

The manticore roared again, and most of the ponies prepared to fight, except for Fluttershy, who suddenly grew deeply contemplative. As her friends prepared to charge, she darted ahead of them and called out a meek “Wait!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “What is it, Fluttershy?” she asked. “Y’all got an idea?”

Fluttershy turned to face the manticore. “That roar... it sounded...” she trailed off.

“...Fluttershy?” Twilight asked nervously. “What are you doing?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath and approached the manticore. The manticore raised up a paw to strike her, roared, but then winced.

“Shh... It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see what’s wrong, okay Mr. Manticore?”

The manticore whimpered and held out a paw. Gouged deep within the pads laid a nasty purple thorn.

“Oh, you poor, poor thing,” Fluttershy murmured sympathetically. “Would you like me to get it out for you?”

The manticore nodded vigorously in response and yowled.

“Alright, it’s probably going to hurt for just a second, okay? But then it’ll be better,” Fluttershy explained.

The manticore visibly bit back a roar as Fluttershy pulled the thorn from its paw. She rushed away and quickly returned with a leaf and some vines. She proceeded to carefully place the leaf over the wound and wrap the manticore’s paw in a makeshift bandage.

The manticore fervently began licking Fluttershy’s mane and purring. Twilight and the others took the opportunity to trot past.

“Aww, you're just a little ol' baby kitty, aren't you? Yes you are, yes you are,” Fluttershy cooed. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

After Fluttershy rejoined the group, Twilight asked, “Fluttershy, how did you know?”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy responded.

Twilight shook her head. “About the thorn?”

“I didn’t,” Fluttershy shrugged. “He just sounded like he was in pain, and... I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to show him some kindness.”

Twilight looked like she was considering that and nodded carefully. “Well, I guess if the manticore’s not going to object we should get moving. The map in the book said we’ve got a long way to go.”

Her companions nodded and forged ahead.

The forest around them grew darker as the moon disappeared from view and Rarity shuddered. “I would have liked a reprieve from the sight of all that muck, but... not like this,” she squeaked.

Sonic whimpered and hugged Rainbow’s neck tightly as the darkness grew oppressive and the ponies grew closer.

“Really wish I hadn’t lost the lantern at the cliff,” Twilight groaned.

Fluttershy smacked into Rainbow. “Oh! Goodness, I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Rainbow replied.

An unpleasant squelch preceded Applejack muttering, “Egh, I think I stepped in someth-”

A shriek from Rarity interrupted.

“It’s just mud,” Applejack protested, before looking up and yelping in terror.

Sonic and Rainbow looked around to see menacing, twisted faces all around them and shrieked.

The screams of terror and Fluttershy’s hyperventilating were suddenly drowned out by Pinkie bursting into laughter.

“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked. “Wh-What are you doing!?”

Pinkie giggled and blew a raspberry at one of the faces, and the darkness around them lifted enough that the group could see that the faces were just shapes in tree bark.

A light tune began to play and Sonic cocked his head. “Is that music?”

“C’mon girls, don’t you see?” Pinkie piped up, before she burst into song.

“When I was a little filly and the sun was going down...”

“Oh, tell me she’s not,” Twilight groaned.

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown...”

“She is,” Rarity sighed.

“I’d hide under my pillow

From what I thought I saw

But Granny Pie said that wasn’t the way

To deal with fears at all!”

“W-Well, then what is?” Fluttershy protested.

“She said, ‘Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall

Learn to face your fears

You’ll see that they can’t hurt you

Just laugh to make them disappear!’

Ha! Ha! HA!”

The face nearest to Pinkie vanished in a puff of pink smoke. Everyone else gasped in surprise. Pinkie began pulling everyone to various trees and some force of nature sent them all to giggles and laughter. Pinkie grinned and leapt back into song.

“So, giggle at the ghostly

Guffaw at the grossly

Crack up at the creepy

Whoop it up with the weepy

Chortle at the kooky

Snortle at the spooky!”

“And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he’s got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna...” Pinkie trailed off into laughter before sighing and finishing with a heartfelt, “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!”

The whole group collapsed into giggles as Pinkie’s song finished.

Author's Note:

This was going to be combined with chapter 6 but it was getting a little too long so you'll get three of the Elements here and the other three and Nightmare Moon's defeat with the next chapter.

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Also, in case you didn't see my blog post, I'm working on another one of the stories in this series (which I need a name for, do any of you have any good ideas? Only thing I could come up with is PWNY-ReVerse) for Gravity Falls's Dipper and Mabel Pines as raised by Bright Mac and Buttercup to be released on the show's 9-year anniversary! So if you like Gravity Falls and my writing keep an eye out for that, I guess.

Comments

[luckyboys121]

Another fun chapter

As for a name for the series... how about Multi-Questria since it's all about creatures from across the multiverse being raised in Equestria

[Starkeeper_Ponyfic]

10859021
Ooh, I like that idea!