Safely on the ground once more, the six ponies stood back from the edge of the water and gazed up at the apologetic sea serpent.

“My name is Charles,” he said. “Please forgive me! I had no idea that you came here to vanquish that frightful creature.”

He gestured at his damaged scales. “Ponies haven’t come this way in so long. When she did this to me, I thought ponies had changed and become terribly violent.”

“Nope, just Nightmare Moon and Twilight,” Applejack said. “Sometimes she threatens to put out a pony’s eye she just met. City folk move fast like that.”

Charles looked like he was about to cry. “Naturally I assumed you six were the Alicorn’s minions. I’m so sorry I tried to kill you!”

“Not at all,” Rarity beamed. “Sometimes ponies try to murder each other by mistake. These things happen.”

“It was kind of fun!” Pinkie Pie said.

“You got that right,” Rainbow Dash said. “I am definitely coming back after this for round two. I never get a chance to really fly.”

Charles sniffed. Twilight winced at the way he dragged a long claw just below his eye to wipe away a tear. “I would like that very much.”

“I’m so sorry about your scales,” Fluttershy said. She sounded more pained that Twilight had ever heard her. “I’ll have Rainbow Dash bring you a remedy I can make.”

Charles bowed his head. “I do not deserve it. You are too kind.”

Twilight was less inclined to forgive the sea serpent. Something about a monster trying to kill her put her off.

“Well, we should get going. Got an Alicorn to fight, so we’ll just move right along.”

“Wait.” Charles’s face looked haunted. “I…I have a request.”

“A request?” Hovering in the air, Rainbow Dash crossed her front legs. “You owe us, not the other way around.”

“I know,” Charles whispered. It was the difference between thunder half a mile away and thunder several miles away, which is to say, it was still quite loud. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t extremely urgent.”

“We’ll help,” Applejack said.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“My—my children.” The great serpent’s voice caught. “She took them. I tried to stop her from entering the castle, and after she did this to me,” he indicated his broken scales, “she took my children away. She said if I couldn’t protect the castle, I couldn’t protect them either. She took them into the forest, I don’t know where. They could be—who knows what could have happened to them?”

Twilight blinked.

“But you’re enormous," Rainbow Dash said. "What’s so scary about the forest to you guys?”

“They only just hatched,” Charles said, “and the forest is home to many threats beyond the mundanely physical.”

“That it is,” Rarity said quietly. “I can only imagine how frightened they must be.”

Pinkie Pie hopped angrily. “That terrible no-good rotten stupid mean Nightmare Muck! We’ll definitely rescue your kids for you!”

Twilight agreed with the sentiment if not the phrasing. What Nightmare Moon had done sickened Twilight to her core. Stealing foals and abandoning them in the forest was…there were no words. When you were dealing with ponies like that, calling them “evil,” was a waste of breath.

“A hunt!” Rainbow Dash saluted. “We’ll find your kids in a flash!”

“Absolutely we will,” Twilight said firmly. The other ponies nodded. “Where did she send them? Did she give a direction?”

“No.”

Twilight blinked. “Sorry?”

“No,” Fluttershy repeated. “No, we’re not doing this, not now.” She turned to Charles. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have time.”

Rainbow Dash flew in front of her. “Fluttershy, are you nuts? We have to help him find his kids!”

“Every second matters,” Applejack said. “We should get started now.”

“No,” Fluttershy said.

“It is a matter of dignity, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “We simply must.”

“You’re scared to go back into the forest,” Pinkie Pie said.

“No.”

Twilight strode angrily toward her. “Fluttershy, of all ponies I would never have expected this from you. An animal needs your help! Children are in danger! How can you turn him down?”

Fluttershy didn’t back down. She looked Twilight square in the eye. “Other animals need our help. Other children are in danger. Nightmare Moon is destroying the economy. I don’t know what that means! Only you really do.”

"Exactly! So—"

“So it should be you saying this, not me. Not me, who cares the most.” Fluttershy’s voice was hoarse. “You’re all being very selfish right now. It’s always the pony who cares the most who has to stick the knife in. No pony else is kind enough to do it.”

A dawning realization settled over Twilight. She felt nauseous.

“Right now Nightmare Moon is what we have to deal with,” Flutteshy said. “She’s threatening to tear apart all of Equestria. All the animals and their children are in danger, not just this one whose name we know and is close by. What if we can’t find them? What if you get hurt again, Twilight? Who will face Nightmare Moon?”  

Fluttershy turned her head away. “Don’t make me keep talking.”

Twilight started. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

“‘I’m sorry,’ would do.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said instantly. “You’re right, and I should have known it.”

Fluttershy nodded. She walked past Twilight and faced the sea serpent.

“I’m sorry, Charles,” she said, “but we need to defeat Nightmare Moon as soon as possible. We can find your children afterward when Princess Celestia is free.”

Great teardrops like the clouds themselves had turned to sadness and fallen out of the sky crashed into the moat. Fluttershy blinked off the water that sprayed onto her face and around her eyes.

“I understand,” Charles said. “I wish you the best of luck.” He turned away and sunk below the depths of the moat.

“Let’s go,” Fluttershy said. “Now I’m angry.” Next Chapter: The Five Tests of Twilight Sparkle: Theory and Practice Estimated time remaining: 45 Minutes