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Rainbow Unicorn: Friendship is Magic

by Hopeful_Ink_Hoof

Chapter 17: Left Hanging

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After the conversation with Applejack, Rainbow Burst found herself feeling a little better about the whole thing. She still felt this whole thing was a bad idea, but at least she no long felt like she was as separate and different from the others as before. Even if they were about to face something dangerous and risk their lives against a nearly god-like being, at least they were going to do it together.

Hence why only a little better.

Still, it was enough that she was willing to continue on with the others. She had even been willing to take the lead, moving to the front of the group and walking ahead of the others as they followed along the trail.

As they walk, a fog appeared around them. It was quite sudden too. One moment, everything seemed to be clear and fine. The next, there was a thick cloud surrounding them, making difficult to see more than a few inches ahead. Despite their best efforts, Twilight and Applejack could do nothing about it. It just refused to dissipate.

The density of the fog did seem to vary. There were points where it got so thick, the ponies had to hold onto each others tails to make sure that none of them got lost. At others, the fog seemed to stick close to the ground, coming up to their chests, but not really blocking what they could see for the time being.

It was during one of the latter moments that the six of them saw something up ahead: a castle. It stood high and proud, a silhouette of shadow against the starry sky.

"That must be the castle," Rainbow shouted, running toward it. "Now we can get in there, see if we can find anything about the el- AAAAHHH!"

The rest of the unicorn's statement was lost in a scream. In her excitement, Rainbow had headed for the castle as quick as she could, heading for the bridge right in front of it.

Unfortunately, the bridge was gone. In her haste to get to the castle, Rainbow Burst stepped right off the edge of a cliff.

Twilight Comet shot up and over the cliff side, chasing after the falling unicorn. Wings flapping hard, she pushed herself to catch up. Reaching Rainbow, Twilight grabbed her and shifted. The pair of them skimmed less than a foot above the ground before heading back up toward the others.

"I got you," Twilight said, "again."

"Heh," Rainbow chuckled as she clung to her savior. "Thanks."

The pair quickly made their way back to where the others were waiting.

"You know," Applejack said with a smirk, "if you two just wanted some time alone, you could've just asked. Though now really ain't the right time."

Twilight and Rainbow both stared at Applejack. The pair's cheeks were turning bright red as the others started snickering.

"It's not like that," Twilight snapped. "I was just saving her from falling. I'm not interested in her like that."

"Yeah," Rainbow declared before stopping. "Wait." She turned to Twilight. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Twilight turned to Rainbow, mouth open in surprise.

"Are you seriously asking me this now? Is this really something you care about?"

"No!" Rainbow yelled. "I'm just... curious... Why wouldn't you be interested in me?"

"I barely even know you," Twilight shouted back. "We just met yesterday for crying out loud. Even if I was looking for a relationship, I don't know anywhere near enough about you to figure out if you're my type."

Rainbow looked away, shifting as she considered the statement.

"I guess that makes sense," she conceded.

"Are you two going to kiss and make up now?" Pinkie asked, receiving snickers of amusement from Applejack and Rarity, a smirk from Flowershy, and more blushing from Rainbow Burst and Twilight Comet.

"If we're done with the teasing," Rainbow growled, as she glared at the others, "we still have a bridge to cross and a castle to get to."

"Well it still looks like it's tied on this end," Applejack announced as she checked the edge of the bridge. "Bit loose though. Twi, why don't you check the other end and see if you can fix it? I'll make sure this part won't give out while we're crossing."

"I'm on it," Twilight said as she took off again.

While the pair of pegasus ponies took care of the bridge, the other four were left with little else to do besides just wait. Pinkie Pie started to dance in place while humming loudly to herself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWM2joNb9NE

Twilight floated down along the inside of the crevasse. She looked along the remains of the rope bridge as she went, mentally counting off the distance from the bottom as best she figured after chasing Rainbow down. She was practically landing when she finally reached the end.

That's odd. It's all seems to be in one piece. Shouldn't it have broken more toward the middle?

Flying closer, she took a hold of the rope and looked at it. Unfortunately, it did her no good. Twilight had learned a little about tying knots, so that was no problem for her. She had read stories where the hero would look at the rope and be able to tell if it had been cut. Although she was familiar with the concept, she had no idea what a rope would look like if it was cut as compared to chewed or if it had frayed naturally. So she could tell that there was enough rope that she might be able to tie it back in place, but had no idea whether it had been sabotaged (which she kind of suspected, considering), or had broken naturally from fraying.

Getting a firm grip on the rope between her teeth, Twilight started up to exit the crevasse on the other side. It took longer than she expected to lift the entire bridge back up where it belong and get to the ground again. Now she had to keep it up there and tie the ropes to the supports once again.

Where the other five were waiting, they watched as their side of the bridge started to rise up.

"Great," Rainbow said as she started to walk for the bridge. "Now we just need to walk across and-"

She stopped as she felt a firm yank on her tail. Turning to look back, she found that Applejack had grabbed it.

"Hold on there," Applejack said as she released the tail. "We need to give Twilight time to make sure she has her end tied up." She grinned and chuckled. "Don't want you falling again. 'specially since your girl is a bit too busy to save you."

Rainbow's cheek burned as she let out a huff of annoyance, but said nothing. Teasing aside, Applejack made a valid point. It would be stupid to rush across a bridge before they knew for sure it could support them.

Across the gorge to the other side, Twilight landed. She stepped on one of the ropes, digging her hooves against it and into the ground to try and hold it in place (would be pointless if the entire bridge fell again while she was trying to tie off the supports). Once certain that nothing would slip out from under her, she began to tie one of side of the bridge to the support post.

Twilight.

Twilight froze, ears perking as her muscles tensed. Her eyes scanned the fog as she listened.

After fifteen seconds of nothing else happening, Twilight continued to tie the rope. Once satisfied that it was taut and strong, she worked to put multiple knots into it and make sure it would support the group so they could cross it to the castle and back.

Twilight Comet.

Twilight released the rope and turned around. Her wings flared out wide as she looked around. She knew she had heard something say her name this time.

"Who's out there?" she called out. "I should warn you, my brother is in the royal guard and has taught me about hoof to hoof combat."

He had tried to, anyways.

"So you better just reveal yourself, or else I might have to do something we both won't like."

"Twilight Comet," a voice called out again. Twilight turned look for the source, this time seeing the silhouette of three forms coming out of the fog.

The figures were just in black and purple jumpsuits. They moved closer, looking at Twilight.

"We are The Shadowbolts!" the one in front proclaimed. Strangely, this announcement was immediately followed by the group being back-lit by a flash lightning as thunder boomed.

"Shadowbolts?" Twilight repeated, staring at the three ponies in front of her. It was then that she noticed that while the two followers were had the normal, feathered wings of a pegasus, the leader had bat-like wings.

"That's right," the leader said as she took another step forward. "A new aerial stunt team from here in The Everfree. A team that is ready to make itself known to the world. Well... almost."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, one of her ears giving a flick.

"You see, we have speed." The Shadowbolt leader stepped forward. "We have agility." She moved closer, causing Twilight to take a step back.

"What we need is... a pony that is smart."

Twilight smiled at the compliment.

"A pony that knows how to organize and plan."

"I am quite good at that," Twilight said with a grin.

"A pony that can create a schedule and make sure we can stick to it."

Twilight grinned more as she gave a hop, her wings giving a little flutter.

"That is so me!" She shouted, barely containing herself.

"Exactly," The Shadowbolt said. "You're just the kind of pony we need to make our name famous all across Equestria."

"Great," Twilight said as she turned to the other side of the bridge. "We still have to deal with Nightmare Moon first. But as soon as we're done-"

"NO!"

The yell made Twilight jump in surprise.

"If you want to be one of us," the bat growled, "you have to come with us now. They--" she pointed toward the other side of the bridge "-- are only holding you back."

She took a step closer.

"What's it going to be: us, or them?"

Twilight stared at The Shadowbolts, then turned and looked back across the bridge to where her friends were waiting.

"Are you serious?!" Twilight snapped, turning to face The Shadowbolts. "Do you really think that I would leave my friends out here, alone, at a time like this? What even kind of choice is that?"

She groaned and rolled her eyes, turning back to the rope and starting to tie it up.

"I mean -- seriously! -- who in Equestria would expect anypony to say 'yes' to an offer like that? 'Oh, we're going to grant you your biggest dream. All we ask is that you abandon your friends in the middle of a creepy dark forest while an insane alicorn is trying to take over the entire kingdom.'" She gave a shake of her head.

Once the knot was tied, Twilight gave one last hard tug to make sure it was secure. Once satisfied, she opened her wings and stepped onto the bridge. Making her way across, she would occasionally stop and stomp on it to make sure it would hold up. She continued to grumble to herself about the matter, not realizing she was across to the other side until Applejack spoke to her.

"You alright, sugar cube?"

"Huh?" Twilight blinked. "Oh. Yeah. I'm fine."

"Who were those ponies you were talking to?" Rainbow asked, staring across to the other side.

"Forget them," Twilight grumbled. "The bridge seems to be ready."

"I'll go first," Applejack decided. "Just in case they try cuttin' the ropes or somethin'. Once I'm across, y'all can decide who's next."

With that, she started making her way across the bridge.

"So..." Rainbow turned to Twilight. "While we wait, why don't you tell me what happened?"

Author's Notes:

I thought about actually having Pinkie Pie jump onto Rainbow Burst and sing the song aloud while dancing on her. While funny and would have been an entertaining scene, it seemed excessive. Kind of like having her trying too hard to be random and goofy during a moment that is somewhat serious.

Next Chapter: Into the Castle Estimated time remaining: 33 Minutes
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