NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 22

((Second update today, yesterday's writing went up @ 1:20am or around there...))

“But...” Further discussion was cut off by the bird swooping in for another attempt. Twilight heard Fluttershy yelp and Applejack snap, “No yer don’t, yer feathered menace!” before there was sound of hooves connecting with something hard.

With a painful screech the bird went tumbling down the ledge, nearly hitting Twilight on its way down and fell further again, below the fog line. The unicorn peered over the edge, trying to see it but there was too much mist in the way for her to see what had happened.

“Twilight? Yer okay?” Applejack bellowed down to her, sounding worried. “Where’re ya?”

Twilight thought for a moment then sent up a flare of light, an emergency beacon that had been the first thing that Celestia had ever taught her, just in case something happened. At the time she had not seen the use for it, but now, with her friends out of sight, she recognised that it would help.

The burst of purple light that her power manifested bathed the area in a slightly eerie glow, but allowed the ponies on the trail to see each other. Pinkie Pie waved down to Twilight who could not help but smile ruefully and wave back.

Applejack started tying her rope around herself as Twilight tried to work out how far up the side of the cliff she could get via her ledge. The answer was not very far and the unicorn let out a frustrated huff. She had been learning a teleportation spell when Celestia had stopped her studies for the holiday and she was not sure how confident she was that she would be able to cast it and not put herself a couple of foot to the left or right. Appearing in the middle of the rock face would be a gruesome way to go and would not aid anyone and placing herself in midair would be just as bad.

Twilight’s train of thoughts derailed when Applejack threw the other end of the rope down to her. “Tie it roun’ yerself.” The earth pony filly called down, “I’ll pull ya up.”

Twilight was not too sure about it. She knew Applejack was supposedly very strong, Pinkie had mentioned her strength being impressive several times and part of being an earth pony was being stronger than the other two types, but she was not sure that it would be enough to manage her weight. Still she followed direction, trusting her friend and let out a startled yelp as her hooves left the floor.

She was a few yards off of being safely on the higher ledge when there was a deafening screech and the bird was on them, seizing the rope and dragging both Twilight and Applejack into the air. Neither pony knew what to do as they were pulled higher and higher into the air, easily losing their other friends in the fog. The only one that managed to keep up with the bird was Rainbow Dash and even she struggled a little with her injuries.

Twilight kind of wanted to demand that the bird put them down, but she had no idea how far it was to the floor below and she did not have wings. Her Alicorn form did but she did not know how to cause the change and she refused to risk another pony’s life on a whim. Applejack seemed to be of a similar mind as she remained silent right up until they passed a ridge and the bird let go, dropping them both. They only fell a foot before they connected with solid ground, but it felt like a blessing to both ground bound ponies. A tainted one as the huge bird landed in front of the and squawked at them furiously, pecking at the air just in front of them, but a blessing none the less.

“What is tha’ bird?” Applejack asked as she narrowly avoided being pierced by the huge beak, which snapped the rope connecting the two ponies.

Twilight laughed, a nervous, slightly hysterical laugh as she realised she did not know. Once again she did not know something important. This whole day so far had been full of things she did not know or could not remember and she was going a little bit crazy because of it. She was the one with the answers, she never ever either did not have answers or could not find them out. “I don’t know, I really don’t know...”

“I do.” Rainbow called as she hovered between Applejack and Twilight, glaring at the huge clearly carnivorous bird before her, “It’s a winged-beast. A duel monster, just like those Silver Fang. Must be the third task.”

They did not have a chance to discuss further as the duel monster in question took off, the down draft nearly knocking both non-winged ponies off of the ridge and sending Rainbow Dash tumbling through the air. Twilight saved her from being pierced by the sharp beak of the worrying quick, but not very agile bird by blasting the winged-beast with a bolt of her magic. It let out a screech and tumbled a few feet and by the time it had righted itself, so had Rainbow.

The pale blue pegasus swooped over the heads of Applejack and Twilight as she tried to row for height, only to find that she did not have the strength left in her to manage more than a few yards higher. That was fine though as Applejack managed to tie the cut rope together and make a lasso that she used to catch one of the creature’s legs as it chased her. Twilight grabbed her as she started sliding forward and tried to prevent the bird taking off with them holding onto the rope by conjuring a heavy weight that she tied to the end with her magic. It helped a little, giving Rainbow a chance to buck the bird in one of its eyes, causing it to let out an agonised screech and lash out at everything in range. The rope snapped again and both earth pony and unicorn went tumbling as the now half-blind duel monster tried to eat Rainbow.

The pegasus was no foal and knew she could not outrun the bird as she was. Instead she took cover in a narrow cave that provided enough cover that the winged-beast would not be able to get her.

“Hey!” Twilight yelled, casting another beam at the duel monster and fumbling for her deck, aware of at least one thing within it that could fly, “Leave her alone!”

“I think yer made it mad.” Applejack commented nervously as its head snapped around and it narrowed its one good eye at them, as if deciding that it really did not like them and they looked tasty. The screech it let out as it turned towards them, deciding to come back for Rainbow Dash, was deafening and all three ponies covered their ears with their hooves to try and block out the high pitched squawk. 

That gave the bird the opening it needed, allowing it to rake the ridge and seize Twilight in its talons. The unicorn let out a terrified and pained cry as she was once again wrenched from the solid ground, this time crushed in a painfully tight grip.

This was it. She had not only failed to beat Nightmare Moon’s trials, not only failed Princess Celestia when she had been counting on her, but she was going to die here. She could not breathe with the talons squeezing her so hard and even if she could, the fall when the bird dropped her would kill her.

“Hey!” Twilight let out a sharp squeak as Fluttershy of all ponies flew up in the bird’s face. She could not see what was going on, but she could hear that the normally placid and sweet pegasus was furious, “You do not hurt my friends!”

The winged-beast hovered in place, its grip loosening slightly as it squawked at her furiously.

“No. You put her down right now!” Fluttershy snapped, her tone sharp and stern. Twilight could almost imagine her pointing at the ground with her hoof.  

The bird shook its great head and yet its grip loosened again and Twilight found herself having to adjust herself so she did not slip between the claws and fall to her doom.

“Put. Her. Down.” Fluttershy demanded again. The unicorn was stunned as the bird actually chirped, the tone sounding apologetic as it moved towards the rock below. Fluttershy descended with it, moving into Twilight’s field of vision and look she was giving the creature explained its sudden obedience. Twilight herself would not want to disobey the pegasus if she was looking at her the way she was staring at the winged-beast.

It slowly and carefully released Twilight onto the ground and bowed its head apologetically before taking off, the down beat blowing everyone back as it took off into the sky. Twilight was surprised to see a rather frazzled looking Rarity and a slightly less bouncy than normal Pinkie Pie were there too.

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 19

“Yes, darling, that was simply marvellous.” Rarity agreed with an impressed look.

“It wasn’t…my idea first.” Twilight admitted, looking embarrassed, “Those wolves were duel monsters. Nightmare Moon must have summoned them as our first task. I just worked out how to copy her.”

“Hey if it worked it worked.” Applejack laughed, budging her with a smile. Twilight nudged back, happy when she felt a little of the pressure that had been weighing down on them lift, as if her theory was right and they had passed their first trial.

“Oh yeah, one down, four to go!” Rainbow laughed, weaving between the branches with much more ease that she had before, while Pinkie Pie looked a little more bouncy and Fluttershy actually smiled, looking a little reassured.

“Excuse me, Princess Twilight?” Fluttershy asked shyly as they continued though the forest, both Twilight and Rarity using a basic ‘candlelight’ spell to create little balls of light that hovered just over their horn tips to light the way a little better, “What’re the other Elements?”

“Yeah, if Laughter helped us get past the first trial, the others might help with the rest.” Dash agreed as she hovered above them.

“I’m not a Princess, not really.” Twilight sighed, “I don’t know why Nightmare Moon keeps calling me that. I mean I still don’t know how I managed to transform myself last time, but it must have been a spell or something…” She paused and took a deep breath and moved away from the subject, hating that she did not know something, “There’s five Elements that are known,” She settled into lecture mode, “Laughter is one of them, then we have Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness and Generosity. I’m not sure how we could weaponize any of those though, I think we’re probably going to have to just play it by ear a lot of the time.”

“Well laughing at the wolves worked, so I bet we can work it out somehow.” Pinkie Pie seemed unbothered by the uncertainty, an attitude that both bothered Twilight and made her slightly envious. She knew she generally over thought things, it was a part of who she was. She was not like a lot of other ponies who could jump into something and change the plans. She had a weekly schedule and she stuck to it like glue. This whole fiasco was ruining it but for once it was okay, purely because her plans had been to celebrate the rising of the sun with Spike, which she obviously could not do without a sun in the sky.

Sometimes though she envied the ability of most of the other ponies she knew. They could adapt and change their plans without feeling stressed or worried and act on a whim. Twilight had to plan time to do things like that into her schedule. She even had assigned ‘worrying’ times. She could not help but wonder if the mess she was in countered as one of those and if she could move one up from further in her timetable in order to reorder her week once this was over.

The woods seemed a little less scary with the knowledge that they could frighten off the creatures made from the darkness with a simple laugh and their pace picked up, especially once they made it past the canopy of trees that cut the river that trailed through the Everfree Forest off from the rest of Equestria. Rainbow Dash let out a whoop and shot skyward, enjoying the open air. She soared upwards, needing to spread her wings after being cooped up under the trees for so long.

“Aren’t you going to join her?” Twilight asked Fluttershy curiously, only for the light yellow unicorn to shake her head.

“I don’t need the sky like Dash does.” The animal loving filly replied with an embarrassed smile, “I tend to stay a lot closer to the ground. I mean I can fly, but…”

“You don’t like to?” Twilight asked softly. Fluttershy shook her head, blushing slightly and scuffing the floor with her right fore-hoof. “That’s okay, you can help us to work out how to get across the river while Rainbow’s stretching her wings.”

The river in question looked placid but that did not mean anything. It could be hiding a rapid current underneath that, could catch them as they tried to swim across. If it did it would quite easily drag them under and they would never make it to the other side, yet alone the Palace of the Two Sisters.

Rainbow swooped overhead, doing a loop-de-loop which looked very pretty with the rainbow trailing behind her, but was not helpful. Twiilght realised she was not trying to be when Applejack let out a startled exclamation and a trio of black pegasi shot past in hot pursuit, driving Rainbow further up into the clouds.

The pale blue pegasus in question was hard pressed to keep the trio off of her tail as she lost sight of her friends because of the cloud cover. She had no idea where they had come from, but they were shockingly fast, almost as quick as her and that was saying something. They were not as agile though and that was where she had the advantage.

They were dressed a lot like the Wonderbolts, except their jump suits were a dark purple, their goggles were all the same shade except for the glass which was a bright and slightly glowing purple and their head gear was black. What creeped her out a little was the cutie marks emblazoned on the flanks of their jumpsuits. A white pony skull with a wing extending from it made it quite clear that they were not fooling around.

“Found you.” One of them, the only mare of the group if she was right, crowed as she appeared from below Rainbow, “Boys, she’s over here!”

Dash did not give the other two a chance to arrive, doing a wingover and vanishing into the cotton like clouds. The mare let out a frustrated noise and followed her, calling out, “Rainbow Dash, we just want to talk...”

‘Which was why they tried to knock me out of the skies.’ Dash thought sarcastically, staying silent, ‘There’s no way they should know my name either. They have to be a trick or a summon, like those wolves...’

“Forget her.” Rainbow’s train of thoughts got derailed when she heard one of the stallions talking, “She’s long gone, probably back to the barrier out. Let’s go deal with the others, especially the Princess.”

Oh no. That was not happening. She was not allowing it to happen. Dash dove through the cloud cover and emerged the other side in time to see her friends who had been crossing the river carefully being divebombed by the trio of pegasi who had been chasing her a few moments earlier.

“Hey! Did I say you could ignore me?” Rainbow demanded before barrelling into the mare who tumbled in midair, nearly sending both of them into the deeper waters just a little further down.

“Who said we wanted to ignore you?” The mare smirked as she righted herself, “We want you on our side, Rainbow Dash, and we’ll do anything to get it.”

Rainbow did not get a chance to ask what the hell she meant before one of the stallions slammed into her, knocking her skywards, away from both the river and the mare.

“Rainbow!” She could hear Twilight’s worried call and saw Fluttershy actually take off, as if to help.

She did not react to either. Instead she smirked at the triad of dark pegasi and shot skywards, leaving behind a challenge of “If you want me, come and get me!”

The trio of pegasi followed at such a pace that Rainbow was hard pressed to stay ahead. It was exhilarating as much as it was scary and Dash caught herself letting out a genuinely delighted laugh as she narrowly dodged a sideswipe from the bigger of the two stallions.

The dark pony in question yelped and dropped a couple of foot at the sound, making Dash take in a sharp intake of breath. They were not ponies anymore than the wolves had been. The pegasi chasing her were simply a product of the darkness or something summoned by Nightmare Moon in order to stop their progress.

That revelation cost her though and she let out a pained cry and tumbled nearly twenty foot straight down as the bigger of the two stallions collided with her deliberately. Before she could right herself the second stallion had slammed into her and sent her rocketing sideways where she collided with the side of a mountain before bouncing off of the solid rock and tumbling down, stunned by the pain and dazed by the collisions.

It was, shockingly, the mare who stopped her painfully colliding with the floor. The false pegasus moved a cloud into Rainbow’s path. The pale blue filly landed on it instead of the hard, rocky ground below.

“Y...You helped me?” Rainbow stared at the mare in shock as she tried to pull herself to her feet, wincing as her muscles protested and her injuries pulled.

“I told you Rainbow Dash, we want you for our team.” The mare replied, “Which means you’re no use to us dead.”

“What team?” Dash snorted, preparing to take off again and flinching as her wings snapped open but pain flared down her right side, “You’re not real.”

“Oh we’re just as real as you are, Rainbow Dash. When Nightmare Moon told us that the best flyer in all of Equestria was passing through we just had to meet you and get you to join our team. Forget the Princess and those losers and come work with us. We could be better than the Wonderbolts and we want you as our captian.”

It was too good to be true. Which was a shame because it sounded wonderful.