The Key to Friendship

by ImperfectXIII

Chapter 9: Sinister Shadows

The ponies all took a fearful step to their rear. From Applejack’s mouth came the voice of Nightmare Moon.

‘Applejack’ stared down Twilight with a smirk. “Amazing. It’s almost inconceivable that something so rudimentary would give me away.” She spoke with a lilt that was both pleasing and menacing to hear. “You’re not like your fellow chosen, are you, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight, scowling, held out her cracked Keyblade and asked simply, “Where’s Applejack?”

“Hm. Where indeed?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I swear, Nightmare Moon, if you did anything to her…!”

The alicorn wearing Applejack’s face pursed her lips. “Now, now. Mustn’t let our emotions get the better of us. We wouldn’t want a repeat performance of our earlier altercation, would we?”

“…” As much as she wanted to unleash all of her anger on the mare of darkness, Twilight forced herself to calm down, at least until she learned of where the real Applejack was hidden. “…I’m only gonna ask one more time: where is she?”

Nightmare Moon’s cowpony-shaped body suddenly turned into blue and purple mist, and her voice echoed from nothingness. “…You’ll have to catch me first…” it said with a chuckle before flying away.

“After her!” shouted Twilight to the others, prompting the five of them to give chase.

My Little Pony: The Key to Friendship

~ Chapter 9: Sinister Shadows ~

Across several miles of dimly lit soil, the group of ponies sprinted after the indigo-colored stream of mist – the only tie to their missing orange companion – as Nightmare Moon’s wicked laughter echoed in their ears. At the party’s head, Twilight kept her eyes focused on the vapor that floated just inside her field of vision. Each time the vapor veered off, Twilight reacted swiftly and accommodated for the change in direction. Nightmare Moon had taken both Spike and Princess Celestia from her; she refused to let her have Applejack as well.

At some point during the heart-pounding pursuit, however, the mist seized in place for a moment…

Hah! Gotcha now!

…before it suddenly split off into over ten different directions.

Twilight planted her hooves down and skidded to a sudden halt, causing Pinkie Pie and Rarity to bump into her from behind. Their collective eyes darted about in their sockets looking to the various directions Nightmare Moon had fled in. Even now, the alicorn’s ringing laughter openly mocked them.

“Where’d she go?!” yelled Rainbow Dash as she caught up.

“I-I don’t know!” a frantic Twilight cried back.

Pinkie Pie added, “What about Applejack?!”

“I…” Twilight looked to the left. Then she looked to the right. Then straight ahead. Every path appeared exactly the same. Nightmare Moon could’ve been down any of them. And every second she spent hesitating distanced her ever further from finding Applejack. She was at a lack of sound ideas. So… “Applejack!” Twilight called out to the dark. “Where are you?!”

To her surprise, the others joined in, drowning out Nightmare Moon’s laughter with shouts of “Applejack!” and “Can you hear us?!”

Twilight lightly hung her head. If there’s even a small chance that witch stashed her somewhere close by…!

Just then… “Ah’m over here!”

Her head shot upright. Yes! She IS here!

The group bolted toward where the voice with the southern drawl originated, and within seconds, something came into view: Applejack herself, suspended in the space between two trees by what appeared to be black webbing. “Applejack!” the five ponies yelled in unison.

“Thank Celestia!” the blond Earth pony said as her friends arrived. “Get me outta here, y’all!”

Twilight sighed with relief and approached. “You got it.”

“Wait!”

She stopped. Turning away from Applejack, she faced left. There, a second Applejack was held in place by black webbing.

“That’s not me!” the other Applejack said. “Ah’m me!”

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh, my gosh! Two Applejacks! The apples have been doubled!”

“Uhhh… Not quite,” Rarity said.

The group glanced around and grew increasingly uneasy.

Not two…

Not three…

Five. Five Applejacks arranged in a semicircle around the ponies, all of them restrained to their respective positions.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“Don’t just sit there like rottin’ tree stumps, y’all!” said the first Applejack. “Cut me loose already!”

Applejack #3 protested. “Don’t listen t’ her! Ah’m the real Applejack!”

“No, you ain’t!” said #4. “Yer freckles are all wrong!”

“Oh, yeah?! Well, yer hat’s the wrong shade o’ brown!”

The five Applejacks all talked on top of each other, filling the area with grumbling southern noise.

Rainbow Dash shoved her hooves in her ears. “I’m getting a headache!”

“QUIET!!!” Twilight screamed, causing the duplicates to instantly clam up. “Relax, everypony. Nightmare Moon’s wasting her time. I told her she can’t duplicate another pony’s light. I’ll figure out who the real Applejack is in no time.” Confident, she closed her eyes and concentrated, projecting her awareness onto the five Applejacks, with the intent of identifying the odd one out. She found the process was not unlike casting a mind-reading spell. “…Huh?” However, she found it to be more difficult than it was earlier. “Wait… That can’t be right.”

“Well?” Rainbow Dash said, impatient. “Can you tell who the real Applejack is or not?”

“I… I don’t know. I can’t sense…anything in them.”

“So they’re all the same? Then they’re all Nightmare Moon!”

“I can’t confirm that either. If they were all Nightmare Moon – if they were anypony – I’d be able to sense something within them, but… I can’t sense anything at all. It’s like they’re not even there!”

“What the hay does that mean?!”

“I think…the light and darkness in them is being masked.”

…Very perceptive.

Twilight gasped when she heard the voice again. “Nightmare Moon! What are you--?!”

Quite the moral quandary, isn’t it? As it stands, I hold your friend’s heart in my grasp. Will you endeavor to save her and hope your decision is the correct one? Or choose wrong and lose her to the darkness forever? Or are you even certain she’s among these five at all? What to do, what to do…

Rainbow Dash snorted. “She’s toying with us! I bet they’re all Heartless in disguise or something! I say we get rid of ‘em all!”

Fluttershy voiced her objections. “But what if one of them is the real Applejack?! We could hurt her!”

“Twilight, what ‘cha waitin’ fer?!” Applejack #2 asked. “Get me outta this black gunk!”

“No, me!” shouted another. “Ah ain’t no imposter!”

Twilight’s ears flopped down against her head, and she shrank down to the ground. Nightmare Moon’s taunting laughter and the five Applejacks’ noisy grumbles didn’t make the decision before her any easier to make. Free one and doom the others? What if she made the wrong choice? She would be directly responsible for Applejack’s condemnation to the darkness. Take Rainbow Dash’s advice and eliminate them all? Same problem. And if the real Applejack was indeed among them, Nightmare Moon’s mention of having Applejack’s heart in her grasp meant she could seize it at any time. For all Twilight knew, she was simply running out the clock.

It wasn’t even a question of whether or not Twilight cared about Applejack as a friend anymore. She couldn’t be responsible for allowing another pony’s heart to be swallowed by the darkness. She wouldn’t be able to shoulder the burden of what is essentially sentencing another to death. Unfortunately, this only made her decision that much harder to make. Applejack’s fate wasn’t in Nightmare Moon’s hooves; it was in hers. The pressure was too much for her. She clenched her eyes shut and retreated into her shell. She almost felt like crying.

“…Twilight…”

The unicorn cracked an eye and looked up. One of the Applejacks was staring back at her.

“Listen, sugarcube,” the blond pony said. Her tone was soft, but somehow came in clear over the other Applejacks’ voices. “Ah can tell how much this is weighin’ down on ya, and Ah’m awful sorry fer puttin’ ya in this situation to begin with. But you know me.”

“No, I don’t!” Twilight wailed. “We haven’t known each other for twenty-four hours! I don’t know you at all!”

“Ah know, and Ah’d really like to get to know you better. But after ya helped Mac and me on the farm today, and the way ya cheered up Apple Bloom, Ah knew deep down you were somepony Ah could trust. And Ah do trust ya, Twilight – completely. So Ah’m askin’ ya to send some o’ that trust mah way. Believe that what Ah’m sayin’ to ya is the honest-to-Celestia truth. …It’s me, Twilight. You just gotta believe me.”

Twilight found in this Applejack’s eyes a look similar to the one in Fluttershy’s eyes earlier. But where Fluttershy’s eyes held a gentle inspiration in them, Applejack’s eyes held an unyielding sincerity – one that Twilight felt was incapable of deception and telling lies. Despite Nightmare Moon’s efforts to mask it, a sliver of Applejack’s light shone through. And it was unmistakable. Twilight moved to stand upright. “…” She summoned the Academia.

Applejack’s eyes widened a little in worry. “T-Twilight…?”

One swift motion of the Keyblade later…

…she was freed.

The black webbing shriveled under the force of Twilight’s weapon and slid off of Applejack’s body like melted butter.

Once she worked the knots out of her joints, Applejack met Twilight’s eye. She smiled as she secured her Stetson and said, “Thanks, Twilight.”

Twilight returned the smile. “…It really is you.”

“Heh. Darn tootin’.” She looked to one of her duplicates with scorn and walked up to it. “Usin’ mah face to mess with mah friends…! Nopony does that and gets away with it!” Once she was close enough, Applejack spun around and kicked harshly at the imposter with her hind legs. Expecting it to dissolve into dust like a lowly Nightfoal, Applejack paused when she felt one of her legs get caught on something. She craned her head back. “!!!” From the point of impact between her hoof and the Applejack duplicate’s chest, the cowpony’s leg had gotten lodged in its chest cavity, a black sludge seeping out from the opening and keeping Applejack’s leg wedged. She felt like she was ankle-deep in thick mud. “W-What in tarnation?!” Adding fuel to the already nightmarish fire was the fact that the duplicate she was glued to started to liquefy. Its form became as liquid and was soon a puddle of viscous goo at Applejack’s hooves.

All around the group, the three other duplicates faced the same change in matter, turning into puddles of black slime on the grass. As they gurgled and bubbled, they swelled outward, joining into a single larger pool and covering the entire field.

Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity all screamed in panic as the sludge wrapped around their hooves as well and pinned them to the ground. Only Rainbow Dash was fortunate enough to push off the dirt with her wings in time. Any and all attempts to free themselves proved futile, and Twilight’s efforts to teleport away were just as pointless; her magic reserves were being suppressed. Whatever energy she could muster was currently devoted to keeping her Keyblade afloat.

Fluttershy cried out to her airborne friend, “Rainbow Dash, help!”

“I gotcha, ‘Flutters’!” Rainbow Dash immediately flew over and wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy’s barrel and tugged straight up, trying to pry her loose from the sludge. But the thick goop held fast to her hooves.

To everypony’s added horror, the sludge began to pull them down into it, dragging them down slowly like quicksand.

Rarity’s kneejerk writhing caused her to sink faster than the others. “Aah! It’s in my mane!” she whined. “Get it out, get it out!”

“Rarity, quit yer kickin’ and screamin’! You’re only makin’ it worse fer yerself!” Applejack yelled from across the field, though she wasn’t much better off, as the tar-like blackness had swallowed her up to her shoulders by this point.

Rainbow Dash could only watch helplessly as her friends sank into the black flood. “Alright, that’s it! I’m pounding this mud ‘til it’s nothing but powder!”

“No, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted at the blue Pegasus. “You’ll get stuck too!”

“What else can I do?! If I can’t pull you out, then…!”

Twilight glanced as far around herself as her neck would allow. Within moments, she and the others would be completely submerged. She had a short-term plan in mind, but it required use of her magic. “…Quick! Take this!” she said to Rainbow, flinging the Academia at her.

She caught the flung weapon by its handle with her tail. “What are you gonna do?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

“The only thing I can think of right now,” Twilight answered, focusing power to her horn once more.

In a series of soft pops, pink air bubbles appeared over each of the five trapped ponies’ heads. At least if they were dragged below the sludge’s surface before they could get free, they wouldn’t be in immediate danger of drowning.

Twilight turned back to face the hovering Pegasus. “It’s all up to you, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “Find the Elements of Harmony. Use them to stop Nightmare Moon once and for all.”

“Me?! What about you?! I can’t just--!”

“The Elements are more important. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something. As long as I can do magic, I’m not entirely useless. I’ll figure something out.”

“But what if you don’t?!”

Twilight didn’t blink. “…”

“…”

The last thing Rainbow Dash heard Twilight say before the blackness swallowed her whole was “…We’re counting on you.”

The winged pony pressed her hooves to her head in dread. All she saw beneath her was a pool of pulsating black and purple. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-NO! This can’t be happening!”

Poor Rainbow Dash… The last mare standing…

Rainbow jumped in surprise. She spun around in the air and took notice of the indigo mist drifting several yards away from where she hovered. She gritted her teeth. “You! What did you do with my friends?!”

Sinister chuckles echoed from the amorphous haze. “Calm yourself, my little pony,” Nightmare Moon said. “Your friends will live. Let’s just say I’ve…put them away in my toy box.”

“And I’m supposed to just take your word for it?”

“Well, that’s entirely up to you, isn’t it?” Nightmare Moon taunted. “Now what was it you said you’d do earlier? ‘Kick my flank all the way to Tartarus’? …You want me, little Pegasus? Come and get me…!” Her laughs faded into the night as she left for parts unknown.

“Come back here!” Rainbow yelled after the fleeing alicorn. After tonight, an invitation was just what she’d been waiting for. She’d have liked nothing more than to mop the floor with Nightmare Moon’s face and use her horn as a toothpick. And wouldn’t you know it? She had just the tool to do it with: Twilight’s Keyblade. Speaking of which… Rainbow Dash brought her tail around to study the weapon. It had seen better days, but still seemed pretty durable. Then again, this was her first time even holding a Keyblade, so she had nothing to base her assumptions on.

“…Probably should’ve asked Twilight if this thing came with a manual…”

---

Black.

That was all Twilight could see: a colorless, lightless void that appeared to stretch on forever. Like space, but with no stars.

Making stronger the comparison was the sensation Twilight had of floating, as if she was in a weightless environment. Her movement wasn’t anywhere as limited as it was at the “surface”. Speaking of the “surface”, she wasn’t even sure which way was up anymore.

When the last few drops of her magic reserves depleted, the energy sustaining her air bubble released and scattered. Twilight deeply inhaled, fearing airlessness in this space, but was forced to exhale after several moments of holding her breath. To both her surprise and great relief, Twilight found she was able to breathe as freely and normally as she could in the world above. A trifle in the much grander scheme, but ‘small blessings’ and all that. Unfortunately, this left her cut off from the rest of her magic supply.

She wondered where this place was. She wondered what this place was. Not even the light of the Equestrian moon seemed to touch it. Is this what it was like to be swallowed up by the darkness? She expected it to be much colder. Was there any way to escape? Would she become a Heartless soon?

She wondered where her friends—uh, traveling companions were. They were nowhere in sight. But why? They were just a few feet apart before coming here. Did the darkness separate them from one another? Were they alright? Unharmed? …Or were they now Heartless as she was afraid she would soon be?

Twilight looked and listened close for a sign of them, any sign. Something that told her they were safe.

She looked.

She listened.

…Nothing.

“Hello…?” Twilight reluctantly called out into the abyss, hoping somepony would answer. “Applejack?” she called out after a few seconds of silence. “Rarity? Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy?” Still nothing. Could they not hear her? Were they…? An ill chill crept slowly up Twilight’s spine, and she buried her face in her hooves. It was all her fault, she mused. She never should’ve let them convince her to bring them into the Everfree Forest with her. Because she did, she allowed not one heart, but four to fall into darkness. She hoped dearly that, once Rainbow Dash came through with the Elements of Harmony, those four could be saved somehow. Without her Keyblade or her magic, she certainly wouldn’t be saving anypony herself any time soon.

Suddenly…a glimmer of light peeked in through the fine hairs on her forelegs and hit her eyes.

Twilight moved her hooves away and blinked at the faint white light in the distance – a breach in the blackened space. A way out? Wherever it led, anywhere was better than here. As some light is shed on her surroundings, Twilight looked around her once more and found the others there, floating aimlessly around her, not ten feet away from where she herself drifted. They all looked like they were sleeping. Her headache finally weakened, and she could feel the connection to her magic supply reestablishing. Quickly taking advantage of this, she conjures a much larger bubble to safely hold her and the others as she pulled toward the far-off light.

As the distance closed, Twilight’s magic grew stronger, her confidence hardier. She squinted in the intense light, but kept going. She would be free of his place. She’d make sure the others were too. And there, in the overwhelming brightness, just before she collapsed with exhaustion…

…she saw the moon.

---

…Twilight awoke what were likely just moments later, the feeling of soft grass under her body greeting her. She let her eyes adjust before making any attempts at sudden movement. As she picked herself up, an excited voice hit her ears.

“Hah! I can’t believe that worked! I’m even more awesome than I thought!”

After hearing that voice so many times today, Twilight could recognize it in her sleep. She rose to her hooves as the image of a certain blue Pegasus came into focus. “R-Rainbow Dash!”

The winged pony flicked her rainbow-colored mane to the side and gave a smirk. “You sure you don’t want my autograph?”

Twilight turned to face behind her and saw the others slowly coming to as well. They all stood in the same field that saw them get dragged into the dark depths.

Applejack secured her precious hat again. “Everypony alright?” she asked to the others.

“Yes, I’m okay,” Fluttershy responded, working the kinks out of her wings.

“Heavens!” exclaimed Rarity as she shook off her dizziness. “Now there’s an experience I’d care not to repeat!”

“Tell me about it!” Pinkie Pie added. “That black, ooey-gooey stuff was stickier than the stickiest Sugarcube Corner taffy! And it didn’t even taste good! I say, if you’re gonna go to the trouble of trapping somepony in sticky stuff, you should at least make it taste good!” she huffed. “Awww… Now I want some taffy…”

Twilight turned back to Rainbow. “Rainbow, did… Did you just do…what I think you did?”

“Hay yeah, I did!” the blue pony bragged. “Not even sure how, but just goes to show how awesome I am.”

“But what about the Elements? Nightmare Moon?”

“And abandon you guys? Not a chance. That moon hag can push my buttons all she wants; I never leave my friends hanging …Oh, yeah. I think this is yours.” Rainbow Dash held out the Academia with her tail and presented it to Twilight.

Twilight absorbed the Keyblade into her cutie mark without breaking eye contact with Rainbow Dash. Against her better judgment, she suddenly leapt forward and wrapped her forelegs around the Pegasus’ neck.

Rainbow Dash patted Twilight’s back in return, startled but nevertheless accepting of the gesture. “Ha-ha! Jeez, you’re so weird, Twilight!”

Twilight only slightly tightened her grip around Rainbow. That Rainbow Dash stayed behind to help her friends, knowing she’d never wielded a Keyblade before and at the risk of Nightmare Moon finding the Elements of Harmony before them, had touched her more than she realized.

What in Equestria was happening to her? Before today, Twilight would’ve laughed off or snubbed any silly notions of making friends. And yet, over the course of the past few hours, she found herself…liking these ponies. Enjoying their company. Respecting them and their values. Caring deeply about them. And now this: willingly hugging Rainbow Dash. The only others she’d ever hugged were her parents, Shining Armor, Spike, and Princess Celestia. Whatever was happening, it made Twilight feel strange, act strange. But stranger still was the fact that…she liked this feeling. It gave her warmth. It made her want to smile and laugh.

…Was this friendship? Were these ponies…her friends?

---

On the final stretch toward the ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, the pony party was met with mercifully little resistance in the way of natural forest dangers and Heartless. Though a couple of them couldn’t help but wonder if Nightmare Moon was simply toying with them some more – lulling them into a false sense of security before deciding to flatten them beneath the weight of her immense power.

On a large portion of land that seemed to mark the edge of the mountain, a once-great, now-ruined castle stood. The central castle tower consisted of nothing more than a small flight of stone steps that led to some wood-carved double doors, smashed walls and shattered glass windows that reached not much higher than the doors themselves, and copious amounts of plant overgrowth.

The six ponies warily approached the tower’s doors, which welcomed them with a deafening creak as they opened.

Sitting in the tower atrium, at the center of the room, was a monument of fieldstone and marble, also somewhat overlaid in vine and moss, with intricate patterns carved into it. Near the pedestal’s crown, five thinner columns stretched out from the much broader pillar in the center in a pentagonal arrangement. Perched atop the tips of these columns were five large stone spheres, each bearing a different symbol.

Twilight stepped to the middle of the group and beheld the monument with starry eyes. “The Elements of Harmony…!” she spoke, relieved. “We found them!”

Flying up to the Elements’ monument, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy delicately pick the five stone orbs and carry them over to the ground at Twilight’s hooves.

Pinkie Pie counted off the number of orbs in her head and softly gasped. “There’s only five! Didn’t the book say there were six?”

Twilight kneeled down to examine the Element closest to her. “‘The sixth Element,” she began, reciting the reference guide’s words from memory, “is believed to appear only when a spark between the other five ignites the magic within.’”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Meaning…?”

Twilight summoned the Academia. “Stand back. I’m gonna try something.” As the others took a step back, she thrust the Keyblade into the floor and focused energy to her horn. The air shifted, and a cool wind blew over the atrium. Twilight’s power output intensified, and the wind grew stronger in kind. The five ponies around Twilight watched in awe as the wind coiled around the stone Elements and carried them up into the air.

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash marveled. “Far out, Twilight…!”

The Key-bearing unicorn in the middle cracked an eye open. They shot fully open when she realized what was happening wasn’t her doing. “W-Wait! What’s going on? I’m not doing that!”

The heavy winds that blew throughout the room became ever stronger, and started to carry the Elements further upward, out of Twilight’s reach.

“The Elements!” Instinctively, Twilight pushed off the stone floor and jumped into the eye of the whirlwind…

…just as the Elements vanished into thin air, and Twilight with them.

“Twilight!!!” the five ponies cried in unison.

---

A blinding flash. A burst of purple smoke. Twilight coughed as the smoke cleared away and she tried to get her bearings. No mistaking it: that was a teleportation spell. But to where? If the cold, hard feeling under her hooves was any indication, she was still in the castle. Glancing around, she noticed the much larger space and greater abundance of pillars and windows – the throne room perhaps?

Just then…laughter. And a clap of thunder.

Twilight looked to the other end of the chamber and, through the settling dust, saw a black-coated alicorn with wings at full extension.

She stood with a wicked magnificence that only a mistress of the moon could employ. As her vaporous mane and tail flowed freely, lightning crashed all around her, only adding to her evil majesty. Five stone orbs hovered around her.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed, and her grin widened. “…Hello again, little filly.”

Comments

[ImperfectXIII]

Unoriginal "Trial of Honesty" is unoriginal! (Applejack is not amused. )
Inspiration for Twilight's scene in the Realm of Darkness was drawn from one of the last cutscenes in Birth by Sleep, after the final boss. And in case you're wondering where Nightmare!Spike is, expect a big return for him next chapter.

[ShadowBrony]

That was awsome and I felt like I can belleive that Applejack is the element of honesty better in this version. Also RD is awsome. But why hasn't pinkie started to sing yet? did she already and I just forgot? Oh well I look forward to the next chapter.

[DarthPony]

And now we present to you the mandatory KH tradition of Boss-Fight right before the real Final Boss Boss-Fight.

Good job.

[Hatty_Hattington]

AAAAWWWW SNAP!
Shits bout' t go down

[Hatty_Hattington]

AAAAWWWW SNAP!
Shits bout' to go down

[621Chopsuey]

The next chapter is gonna be so wizard!
i.imgur.com/QMwX24n.gif

[Bahamut Omega]

So did Twilight just Bequeath her Keyblade to Rainbow Dash?