//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Pony, Magic and a Fierce Tyrant // Story: Attack on Titan: Friendship is Freedom // by Gidano90 //------------------------------// "What the hell ...?" it was the only thing Elias managed to say when he saw what he was facing: a pack of ponies. A bunch of colorful ponies staring at him, intrigued and at the same time amazed. But the strangeness did not stop there: some of them had wings, some had a horn on their foreheads. One of them even had a hat on his head. Not to mention the larger one that had both wings and the horn, and not knowing how to explain well the reason, looking at that pony in particular with the snake's irises and fangs like those of a ferocious beast, had a very bad feeling, like if the appearance of that strange horse shouted at full force "dangerous". But despite the moment of disorientation, Elias managed to have a clear mind again and quickly began to analyze the situation. "So let's recap what happened ..." the young cadet began to think to himself. "Before I was with Eren, we fought against the Colossal Titan, all of a sudden it disappears into thin air, then opens a kind of ... door? Portal? Gash? In short, a sort of passage that sucks me in. I wake up, and I find myself in what looks like a castle, or a very luxurious house with a bunch of colored ponies staring at me, I can certainly say that some of them are unicorns, there is also some pegasus if mythology books tell the truth, and if my instinct does not deceive me, I can say that they are all females, plus we have the biggest one that is not clear to me what it is that has both wings and horn ... maybe a unigasus ... Pegacorn? but one thing I'm sure: this pony is definitely pissed at me, unlike the smaller ponies, this one's looking at me really badly. " But Elias's thoughts were interrupted by the pony's voice with the snake's irises. "You filthy creature! How dare you hit me, Scarlett Storm !?" The black-mantled alicorn screamed. "And above all how dare you take possession of my artifact ?! Return the amulet immediately! At first Elias was shocked, not only did these ponies have horns and wings, but they also knew how to talk! "Good heavens, these ponies can talk!" Elias thought, eyes wide with amazement. "But wait, when did I hit her?" Actually, I remember bumping into something a little while ago, and then what amulet is she talking about? " Elias wondered, but the answer came immediately when his hand touched something: it was a kind of jewel. A dark choker with a red stone set in the middle in the shape of a horse with wings and horn. "You mean this gem?" Elias asked taking the jewel. "Exactly! Now return it immediately if you do not want to make a horrible end!" She threatened opening her wings and showing her fangs to intimidate the boy. "No, please do not do it!" The unicorn with the purple mantle shouted. "If you give her the amulet of the alicorn, she will use the magical powers contained within it to destroy everything she will encounter on her way and a lot of innocents will be injured or worse, killed! I adjure you not to give it to her!" "I've had enough of you, filthy flea! First I'll take care of all of you once and for all and then I'll get the amulet back from the corpse of that disgusting, hairless monkey!" Elias made a further discovery: not only did these ponies know how to speak and, judging by the presence of wings, fly, but they were also able to do magic! In fact, he immediately noticed that around the Scarlett's horn a strange red aura had appeared, and a sphere of energy of the same color was forming on its tip. "Get out of my sight, forever!" shouted Scarlett, throwing the energy ball towards the 7 ponies. But without even realizing it Elias found himself running to those mares that were about to be killed. Instinct, the refusal to see innocents die, the boy did not know what was pushing him to run towards them, the only thing he knew is that a powerful rush of adrenaline was circulating in his body and that he wanted to save at all costs the 7 ponies. Just before the ball hit the target, Elias took one of his swords and, using the blade plate, deflected the blow by sending it back to the sender, thus saving the mares' life. Scarlett in amazement could not parry the sphere of energy and, this, led her to be hit in full by his own attack. The impact caused a great fuss to rise, stunning the evil pony. "Amazing ...!" The mares were astonished by the heroic gesture of that strange creature. Elias turned to ascertain the conditions of the ponies. Except for the different bruises and, fortunately, not very deep cuts, the mares were fine. "Are you ok?" Elias asked. "Yes, we're fine thanks to you." the purple unicorn answered. "But who are you, and above all what are you? I've never seen a creature like you." "My name is Elias, Elias Schützen, and to answer you what I am, I am a human being." "A human being?!" exclaimed the orange unicorn "How is it possible? I knew that human beings were mythological creatures, characters present only in fairy tales!" "Well, in my defense even where I come from, unicorns and pegasi are characters from fairy tales and mythological creatures." "Really?" The ponies exclaimed in amazement. "Really, now not to be rude or otherwise, but could you tell me who you are, where I am, what happened and what is this amulet, because I have not the faintest idea what's going on." Elias asked kneeling in front of the ponies as the latter reached a height above their abdomen. "Oh, you're right, that careless I am, I'm Twilight Sparkle and these are my best friends: Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie." the unicorn answered, introducing her and her friends to Elias. "Right now you're in Canterlot's palace, the capital of Equestria, and my friends and I came here to stop Scarlett and stop her from winning over Equestria, but she turned out to be more powerful than expected." "By means of this amulet right?" Elias asked showing the jewel. "Yeah, if she had not cheated with that choker we would have kicked her flaccid ass without too much trouble!" An irritated Rainbow exclaimed. "Rainbow, what a language! I understand you're irritated with Scarlett but you do not have to be so vulgar." Rarity said annoyed. "But what exactly is this amulet?" Elias asked curiously. "It's a magical artifact that amplifies the magic powers of the wearer, and makes it so powerful as to match the powers of an alicorn, but it also makes the user aggressive and violent." Fluttershy answered feebly. "And a alicorn would be ...?" "A alicorn is a breed of pony that has the characteristics of all Equestria pony breeds," Sunset replied, but noticing Elias' confused look, she pointed out which pony breeds existed at Equestria. "So the psychopath is psychopathic because of the amulet?" "No sugarcube, that's psycho and crazy like a bull who sees red without the amulet" Responds Applejack "But being a nature alicorn can take advantage of a hidden power of the jewel: Stealing the magic of another alicorn." Sunset said. "In fact, Scarlett used the amulet of the alicorn to steal the magic of Princess Celestia, sovereign and most powerfule mage of Equestria and my and Sunset master of the magics arts." Twilight said. "But if Scarlett was so powerful, why did you go to face her?" Asked Elias amazed by all these revelations. "Because if we allow her to do what she wants, Equestria will be lost and a lot of innocents would be killed for her thirst for power, so we took the elements of harmony and we went to face it!" Twilight said. Elias could not help but admire these ponies: despite the great danger they were facing, they still decided to fight to protect the innocent. After all, although the look was completely different, they did not seem so far from him, and from all the soldiers who faced the Titans for a greater good. "And what are these elements of harmony?" "There are 6 magical artifacts that protect harmony and peace in the realm of Equestria. Each of them represents a virtue: Magic, Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity and Laughter and are respectively held by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. " Sunset replied, but Elias noticed something strange in the voice of the unicorn, as if talking about this topic was a sore point for her. "But even though we had the elements on our side, Scarlett proved to be more powerful than expected, and we thought it was the end, then you came and the rest of you knew it." He concluded Twilight. "I see, but by chance you can tell me how ..." Elias said before being interrupted by Pinkie. "Look at girls! It's Scarlett!" Elias and the girls quickly turned their eyes in the direction indicated by Pinkie. Scarlett Storm came out of the dust caused by the magic sphere. If the looks could kill, the black alicorn would have done a massacre at that moment. With bloodshot eyes, teeth grinding with rage, Scarlett turned to the young cadet in a tone full of rage and resentment for the offense she suffered. "You?! How dare you?! You know who I am?! I am Scarlett Storm! I am the most powerful alicorn in all of Equestria! How dare you stand against me?" Elias not at all intimidated by the furious tone of the alicorn, stood up, and with a serious look turned to the enemy in front of him. "The most powerful alicorn of Equestria? I believe that you are the greatest cowardly of Equestria!" The cadet exclaimed. "How dare you?!" the anger and contempt that Scarlett was feeling for the creature in front of her was growing in immense levels. "How dare you say? I dare to say this because you say you are the strongest, but you use a talisman that increases your strength and you have to steal the magic of another alicorn. This for me is just a sign of weakness!" Elias exclaimed, exposing the amulet of the alicorn "I really want to see if you're so strong as you say if I destroy this thing now!" and so the young soldier began to crush the jewel in his hand. At the sight of this Scarlett began to laugh. "Ahahahaha! Do you really believe you can break the amulet of the alicorn with your own strength? You are a fool! No instrument or magic can destroy that ..." but her words died in her throat when she saw the amulet shatter in the hand of Elias, from within the jewel came a magical aura that headed somewhere who knows where. "Impossible ... but how ... ?!" Scarlett was paralyzed by the vision that stood before her eyes. The amulet of the alicorn, an artifact impossible to destroy, had been shattered. Taking advantage of the moment of distraction, Elias turned to the ponies. "Twilight! How long does it take to use the elements?" "We need at least a couple of minutes to load the magic." The unicorn replied, recovering from the amazement of Elias's action. "Well, here's what we'll do: You together with the others, prepare the elements and at the right time hit Scarlett with all the power you have." Sunset, instead you and I will keep Mrs Snake Eyes in order to give the girls time to load Elements of Harmony. " "Do you think we can resist her?" Asked Sunset "Now she no longer has the amulet on her side, so she will be much weaker than before, I bet what you want we can give the girls all the time they need." "But I do not know if ..." Sunset began with a low look before being interrupted by Elias. "Sunset, listen to me." Sunset rested her gaze on Elias. "If I understood correctly you are a student, along with Twilight, of the most powerful sorceress of Equestria right?" Elias asked looking into the orange unicorn's eyes. "Yes." "So it means that you are a sorceress with extraordinary magical abilities, right?" "Well ..." "Of course Sunny is very good with the magic ! She is the best!" Pinkie answered in a joyous tone. "Nobody can compete with Sunset when it comes to magic, the only thing that can do is Twilight because they studied together with Princess Celestia." Applejack answers with a decided tone. "But how can I help you? I have nothing special, I was not even chosen by the elements, how can I help if I do not even have the means to do it." Sunset replied disheartened. "Oh darling, but you're special," Rarity replied. "Yeah, remember who helped us defeat Nightmare Moon and had no element of harmony? You Sunset." Rainbow added. "But it was you who purified Nightmare Moon!" "It's true, but if it were not for your exceptional magical skills and your intellect we would never have defeated Nightmare Moon." Fluttershy said in a gentle tone. "Our friends are right Sunset: Maybe you did not become a keeper of the Elements of Harmony, but what makes you special is here." Twilight said placing a hoof on the height of the heart of Sunset. "So Sunset we ask you: Can you help us defeat Scarlett Storm?" Sunset after hearing the words of encouragement, began to feel his heart lighter, the doubts and uncertainties that were inside her from the events of Nightmare Moon were disappearing. "Then Sunset ..." Elias began "Your friends trust you, I trust you, are you ready to kick the ass of a magical snake-eyed tyrant?" He concluded Elias holding out his hand to Sunset. "Yes, I'm ready!" Sunset exclaimed, shaking hands with Elias. In the eyes of the cadet and the young unicorn burned a fire of determination that nothing in the world could have put out. Ready and loaded, the soldier and the sorceress got in position, ready to face the enemy and save Equestria!