Chapter 4: Questions and Beasts
The seven mares made it back to Twilight's house rather quickly. The doors and the windows were closed once to ensure that nopony would interrupt their conversation. They all agreed the basement would be best to make it so nopony could hear or see them. All eyes were on Quill, and all tongue were still. Everypony wanted to know what she had to say, and it was that she knew.
"As you all know I have not told you all everything I know, not even you Twilight, nor will I be explaining everything that I do know immediately, however, I will explain everything you need to know, in time. What I can tell you all is that I do have a special relationship with Princess Celestia similarly to Twilight's, but I know more about 'sensitive subjects' than her. Vason, and most things about him, being some of them." Quill began to explain, and then took a breath to collect her thoughts.
"Now then, it's important that nothing, nothing at ALL, learns about anything I tell you about Vason, his comrades, or what he has done to be as well known as he is, as well as anything that happens involving him in the near future. Not only that, I feel I should let you know that everything that will happen in these next few days will reach Princess Celestia's ears, and anything that should be known to the public, will be known." She paused once more and took a breath.
"I need to know that all of you will not let this information out, and do know that what I am going to tell you may be very hard to stomach knowing. Not only that, it may bring... unfavorably events. I am asking of all of you nothing I do not think you can handle, but know it may be hard. Do you all understand?" There was a pause when Quill finished what she said. Rainbow Dash was the first to stand.
"I'm ready to take on the world if that's what this means."
"Ah'm ready ta do what Ah have ta do, whatever it is." Applejack added.
"I-I..." Twilight started, before stopping.
"It's fine if any of you don't want to do this, this is a very big thing to agree to, and I understand if you feel you cannot agree." Quill explained once more.
"No it's just... Everything says yes in my head but I just.... Just can't say... I just can't agree." Twilight replied. As hard as she tried, a single word could not be utter out of her mouth, as much as she tried to will it out, it just didn't come out.
"I know it's a bad idea, and I should help, but..." Twilight asked herself, knowing that she should just say that one word.
Rarity stood up, showing no fear. "We fear the unknown, it is simply our nature to do so. Sometimes, somepony simply has to take a leap of faith. I'm probably going to regret saying yes to this someday, but yes, I will come."
"Rarity is right, I'll... I'll come as well." Twilight said, having felt inspired by what Rarity said, and was free of the lump in her throat.
"I'm ready, my front right leg is a-twitchin' twitchin'. That means there's going to be a trip soon and I plan on coming!" Pinkie Pie stated. Everypony looked to her, and knew she was right. Pinkie senses were never wrong. Those who had already agreed became a bit restless from this, washing she has spoken up sooner, but none of them changed their mind about agreeing. After a moment, all focus came to a single pony, the one who had not said anything. The yellow pony was trying to hide behind her own hair, and her cyan eyes averted from as much of the group as they could.
"Fluttershy, are you alright?" asked Quill, "It is fine if you don't want to do this. What this could become is a life not for just anypony." Fluttershy kept staring, butbwas thinking.
"I-I... I'm scared of this..." she said.
"Well Fl-" Quill started, but was cut off.
"I-I don't want to do this, I-I think that I may someday with this n-never happened..." Everypony waited a moment to see if she had something else to say. There was an unusual aura about the pegasus, one that they never saw. "But I can't just sit on the sidelines, I-I just couldn't do it." She took a breath, holding everpony in suspense once more. "I-I... Can't..." Again she paused. Fear was struck through her, she could not speak, she could not force out what it was that she wanted to say.
"Sugarcube, nopony would blame ya fer not wantin' ta do this." Applejack told her, trying to make it easier on the yellow pegasus, only to get her to stand.
"No! I could never just sit on the sidelines if this turns into... into what I fear it will, but I have to do what I can to help. To help everypony I can. I... I must do everything I can!" she proclaimed, and Quill nodded.
"I know of adventurers who would pick somepony just for that trait. Now that that has been settled upon, I'm going to tell you a story of what Vason has done. This is not his greatest, or his worst, but I feel best fits with this situation." She closed her eyes and sighed, then took a breath. For a moment, she debated wether or not to tell them why this one, but knew it was best to hide as little as possible. "This is because it is a story I fear may be repeated soon." Quill began to tell them a story, a story that she knew was true, and one that was neither too much for them to handle, or softer than they should hear. Quill chose this story because she had heard reports, or more of whispers, that would suggest what Vason faced in the story was coming. She could tell that history was repeating itself.
---
G was on the cliff with his ally J, looking at the town.
"He's awake. I can see him in the town, and I know it was that one mage last time. I was looked for magic auras, not his. Then again it wouldn't have been much better, he was asleep."
"Well then, we going to pillage on the way there?" J asked, some sarcasm in his voice, but not very much.
"Really? I should turn you into a pony just to teach you some humility."
"You know I could just dispel it G?" J pointed out. He sighed, and shook his head. "You really need to work on those threats."
G turned his head and looked at J with a sharp glare. "How about I silence you, then turn you into one. Not a graceful pegasus or a mystic unicorn, but a regular pony. No hands, no magic, no flight, or in your case decent jumping. The ti top it off, no speech. I'm sure you would learn something valuable." G added, nearly growling at his ally, then looked back to the town.
"Heh, your suggesting teaching a snake to not bite by placing it in too small a cage after doing nothing. Everyone that knows us for who we are knows I'm never ganna learn." He then flicked his hair off his forehead to the right and held his arm in place, left arm under it.
"He could." the pegasus stated, making his cloaked ally laugh again.
"COULD! Let's face it, he isn't, and never will." J proclaimed, G sighed.
"You... You certainly work in strange ways... I'll never quite understand you... Will anyone?" G asked himself.
"Or what about her?" The question froze J. Memories flooded back, about someone from long ago who sent letters printed with a rose stamp. However, before he could say anything more, he was interrupted.
"Don't worry, I'm joking J." G replied, then unfurled his wings and started to fly, "Coming with to find, and only find him?" G asked.
"Eh, ponies won't put up much of a fight anyways, let's just find him." J said, then leapt down the mountain.
---
Vason sprinted around the entire town, trying to find his way to the forest. He had been searching the town with a very simple spell that told you if a specific person was within the range.
"What was it even called here!?" he asked himself, referring to the forest that he had been in. "And worse, where is he? He surely would have gone in my direction with me being gone so long." He stopped for a second, and examined the ponies around him. He saw a light brown pony with a spiky brown mane, a pale rose-maned mare, a pink-coated blonde maned pony with a flower in her hair, and a grey pegasus who was carrying a large bag, but not who he was looking for. Vason kept on moving, trying to find a forest he could not seem in a town he did not know. The time limit on the spell ended, he sighed, closed his eyes, and his horn began to glow. After a moment, he opened his eyes, and a bright light appeared. He squinted, and tried to see what was causing the light. We his eyes adjusted, he could see what it was that was creating the magical interference, a large tree that had been turned into what seemed to be a library.
"Let's see if who I think is inside is inside..." he said to himself, then he used the spell once more to see if and of the seven were inside, starting with Twilight. The spell shined incredibly brightly, both from the interference that was present, and the fact that Twilight, the target of the spell, was indeed within the range.
"My, that is a lot of magical energy..." he said to himself as he began walking up to the tree, blinking to cancel out the spell, then knocking on the door three times.
"Hello, is this building open?!" he called to whoever was inside. He waited again then nocked twice again, but on the third swing, the door swung open, and he hit the air. Twilight looked outside from inside the treehouse, and a surprised look flashed across her face.
"Vason!" Twilight said in surprise. "Just a moment, I need to finish something quick!" She then closed the door, and a quiet click came from the inside.
"Well... Good thing is that he hasn't gone and destroyed the town... and I never really did answer her question. Hah, What a dashing hero, can't even confirm someone's ready to obliterate a town or not, and can't answers a ladies question..."
---
Twilight was quickly back with everypony after teleporting out to see who was at the door.
"Okay it's Vason and I just want to be sure it's fine to invite him in since... Well I don't know if you would flip out if I just let him in here P-Quill." she explained. Her nervousness also made her slip up, and almost call Quill Princess.
"Well go let him in before he leaves, we are just talking about what he has done, if he becomes a problem I'll be sure to make it clear he needs to leave." Quill explained, and with a flash of light Twilight teleported back upstairs to let him in. Not more than a few moments later, the two were at the top of the stairs leading into the basement.
"Hello all, I simply need to ask you a few things quickly, so I'm going to get right to it if none of you mind." He paused to see if anyone objected, and none of them did, so he continued. "Okay, first off I need to know where the forest I came out of is. Any of you?" Dash spoke up first.
"It's south of the town hall, the big building by center of town, the green flag points south just so you know. I picked that up by flying over Ponyville as often as I do." she explained.
"Interesting name for a town. Hmm, oh well. The next thing is where is Gregory, I have tried to find him since I left but to no avail." he explained, and took a moment to breath. "He is the pegasus that you all apparently met yesterday if I am not mistaken. He is an ally of mine, and I must find him immediately." Everypony stared at him, confused because of the mixed descriptions they had made for themselves from when they met him him, the one they had developed in the story, and the one Vason had just given them.
---
G flew through the air to the town and J running along next to him, the two were moving at an incredible pace to reach the town, and despite the cliff being a short ways away they made it to the outskirts of the town in almost no time.
"This is the town he's in..." G explained barely winded, "We must mo-" he paused.
"What i-" J started, and paused when he noticed something, "I sense it too Gregor..." G then closed his eyes and looked for something nearby with magic, it was not what he liked to see.
"Shadow beasts..." he whispered, the two flipped around to see a group of entities that took the shale of wolves and were made from a sparkling violet fog with a purple-pink, outline that were heading towards them from a little bit away.
"Grrr... He succeeded in merging his shadows with this... native stuff..." J mumbled, and the pegasus just shook his head.
"I know that, why bother explaining?" Gregor asked, J shook his head slowly.
"I... I don't know... Something compelled me to I dunno, break the fourth wall?" J explained, and Greg just waved his hooves in the air.
"Jackson you moron, we aren't IN a show, or a book." G yelled as his wings shot out in a flash of light, and thin metal blades appeared on them. "Maybe a story one day, but this is not the time!" He then took to the air, and summoned a spear as well. The first few creature had arrived and jumped at them, Jackson moved to his right so fast it seemed it was a teleport, he then drew a sword and slashed into a beast, wounding it.
"Not quite what I'm used to, but this is the best for now..." he said as he dive-bombed the the creatures, ready for battle.
"GERONIMO!"
---
"-and yes, he's not out to get me... for the seventh time already." explained Vason as he rubbed his forehead with his hooves.
"He sure looked like he wanted to do something, and he was veeeeeeeery focused on finding you." Pinkie Pie added, Vason moaned.
"You have asked that alone three times Pinkie Pie, and besides that question, which I have explained why twice already, I have only answered Twilight's question from the clinic, and a question about if I really have hit things with pointed metal. So can we PLEASE get to a new question?" Vason asked the group, hoof on his face the whole time.
"The ponies in the story call you a human, but you're a pony. How do you explain that? Also, aren't humans imaginary creatures?" Pinkie Pie asked, Vason's eye started twitching a bit then took a breath.
"One moment, I need to do something real quick." he said, he then walked over to wall and caster a spell, a bubble formed around him, and he placed his head against the wall, he also seemed to be talking, but there was no noise leaving the bubble.
"How is THAT supposed to explain anything I just asked?" Pinkie Pie asked, while everypony stared at Vason. He removed his head from the wall, and dismissed bubble, and returned to answering the question.
"Okay... I feel better now..." Vason began, "The reason why is because of the fact that Greg has access to shapeshifting magic, referee to as Polymorph Spells. He can assume any form he absorbs, and give anyone any form he has access to. He can also change the details of a form, or use details from another to make more unique forms, and mixed ones. Basically I'm a pony-shaped human, because Greg used a polymorph spell on me, and himself." Vason sighed feeling much calmer. "Is that all?"
"You only answered half the question sir, could you explain the reason why a mythical creature exists?" Rarity asked, wanting to know as well.
"I suppose I did not. However, the short answer is that unicorns, pegasi, and talking multi-colored ponies in general are considered mythical creatures. Mythical, is dependent only on the world and location that you are in." Vason explained.
"Very true Vason. Some of the things inn your stories are far beyond the imagination of most ponies, and yet, you still act as if they are just everyday things, which they are to you."
"That is true. I'm still somewhat amazed at how widespread magic is here, and yet how many more limitations it has compared to the that of my world. Now then, is... there... what in the world..." he began, but trailed off. Vason sprinted upstairs to look out the window upstairs.
"We should see what he's looking at." Quill said as she got up to follow, the rest did so as well.
He was looking out the window to a purple glowing sphere of energy in the air and a white beam coming from it to the ground, when everypony got up to the the balcony, there was a rumble in the ground.
"Is there an earthquake!" called Rainbow Dash who saw everything shaking, and a number of books were falling off their shelves downstairs.
"No, no this is bad..." Vason mumbled. "I must go, stay here it's going to be too dangerous for all of you!" he called out, then began to go out to the door, but was blocked by Twilight, who had teleported in front of the door.
"And it's not too dangerous to go alone?" she asked.
"I'm taking this," He levitated up his wooden staff to show everpony. "and even if it's not, well let's just say I'm not left hoofed, and this here is my back left leg." He attempted to get past the lavender mare.
"No, we are going to help you Vason!" she declared, and Vason shook his head and sighed.
"Newbies... This should be enough proof hopefully." he said, then his horn began to glow, every book in the library was removed from the shelves, and moved to the center of the room, even the ones that had fallen out of their place. Before anypony could ask what was going on, his eyes began to glow, and every single book shot out from the center of the room. Everypony thought they were going to be hit by some, but nopony was hit with anything more than some dust and wind.
"Sorted, dusted and pages bent in the book have been flattened and some creases made less noticeable, plus some pages that would come out were fixed. Now I go, the proof of my abilities are present here." he explained, then vanished in a flash of light.
"And he had barely even taken a look in the library itself..." Twilight said to herself.
---
Vason ran throughout the town, having had teleported out of Twilight's house, and was running to the place where the explosion was.
"What in the world happened..." he asked himself while he ran to the location where the explosion happened. There were mixed reactions in the streets, some were going to the place to see what caused the explosion, but there was mostly ponies running for their lives from there being an explosion and earthquake. Vason sprinted to the location, and any of the ponies who saw what was happening decoded to flee at the sight that was occurring. Greg and Jackson were fighting the hoards of these beings. The two were surrounded, and were fighting the beasts that just kept coming, their numbers seeming endless to them. Vason continued sprinting to them, and levitated his staff behind him, and enchanted it with magic for battle.
---
Earlier
---
The group stared at where Vason had just been standing when he had teleported from for a moment, nopony breaking the science.
"And he had barely even taken a look in the library itself..." Twilight said to herself.
"Ah'm surprised at how quick he managed ta do that. That ain't even something y'all can do with all yer practice in libraries an' magic Twi." Applejack commented.
"I... I couldn't do something like that, not that fast with that much accuracy." Twilight humbly answered.
"You know, h-he might have a point. Perhaps we should stay here, he w-would know more about stuff like this than we do, and this is probably going to be very dangerous if we do go. We should stay here and let him do what he needs to do." Fluttershy suggested.
"Ah recon we should help Silver out anyways. He could need our help while we jes' sit here an' do nothin'." answered Applejack.
"No, Fluttershy is right, they do that sort of thing all the time. Not only that, you all are the Elements of Harmony. While it may seem like I might not care about them, you six are far more important to the world than they are, and I would love to help them, but some very bad things could happen if something were to happen to you six." Quill pointed out. Everypony in the room looked to her, mixed reactions on what she had just explained. Arguably the worst was Rariy's glare of suspicion.
"The Elements of Harmony darling? That's not exactly public knowledge." Rarity commented, and leaned forward towards Quill.
"Miss Rarity, I'm not exactly the general public. I know more than I will ever let you know." Quill explained to Rarity.
"How much do you know that you aren't letting on? Are you a spy?" Rainbow Dash added to what Rarity said.
"Girls, I'm sure that Quill means well, and we don't know what WILL hasince if something happens to us since we are the Elements of Harmony. Could we even face what's out there?" Twilight pointed out, coming to assist her mentor. Applejack walked up to Twilight and looked her in the eye, but her hat hid most of her eyes from Twilight's view.
"They got a mighty strong argument Twi. Y'all never mentioned a Quill, ever, and she ain't even told us her real name. Do ya really expect us ta just take her word so quickly?"
"Quill might as well be my name Applejack. Pinkie Pie doesn't go by Pinkamina after all, so why am I that much more suspicious?" Quill asked back, using her knowledge of the group to her advantage.
"And might I add, that nopony ever told you Pinkie's full name. You're not edactly helping your point." Rarity injected.
"I mentioned it in one of my letters to her, it's not like it's a great big secret. Fluttershy, I'm sure you have something to say about this, don't you?" Twilight answered. She was hoping that Fluttershy, being the element of kindness, would surely help her cause.
"Actually... I{-I don't have {anything to say, {Twilight...}}}"
"Really? Not even you, the Element of Kindness, has anything to say? Don't you trust me?"
"I... don't have anything to say."
"Not even just a tiny-little, 'I trust Twilight' Fluttershy?"
"I-I don't want to hurt {anyponies feelings...}" Fluttershy answered. Twilight's pupils shrank as she realized what exactly Fluttershy said meant. Even she wasn't trusting Quill, and Twilight began to become incredibly worried about the situation.
"Looks like there's an agreement here Twi. Why don'tcha explain yerself Quill, o-"
"EVERYPONY STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!" Pinkie Pie yelled. The room fell dead silent, except for Pinkie Pie's heavy breathing. Every pony looked to her as they all waited for what Pinkie Pie had to say. "This... This isn't how the Elements of HARMONY are supposed to act. We're supposed to keep the world in order, so just stop it everypony." The words struck a chord in all of them, and they all lowered their heads at this. Quill came to Pinkie Pie and gave her a hug.
"That's exactly right. However, nopony is perfect, not even Princess Celestia herself. Now then, if you all are determined enough to go out there and help Vason, then I will not stop you." Quill said to calm Pinkie, and to gain the trust of all the ponies once more.
"Okay, then let's get going and see if they need help!" Twilight called out, and the group began out the door to see if Vason needed help.