Chapter 8
The Past (...and Present...and Future...) of Spry Canyon pt.2
The morn following the Three’s first encounter with Spry’s past went without a hitch. Eagletone seemed not to be able to sleep late like he usually did, and woke up around the same time as last. He decided to go on a flight and contemplate all that had happened within the last number of days, like he often found himself doing, so by the time he returned, the other two of his friends had awoken, unlike the previous day. They ate breakfast together with few ponies besides; almost all were either still asleep or had already left, preferring to rise even before the sun did.
They walked across town to Spry’s small wooden lodge, beginning to build a routine, and knocked.
Spry had, of course, been expecting them to arrive, and nopony else would have knocked. Indeed, he seemed almost a stranger to the little town despite his living there for several years. As was so, he wasted no time in opening the door and welcoming his guests for another session with the past.
“Salutations on this fine morning,” he greeted warmly.
Eagletone nodded, getting right to business. “And a good morning to you. Now, we all know why we’re here, so let’s do this.”
“Hmm, no idle talk?” Spry questioned, finishing with, “No matter, let it begin.”
The Three got into the formation again, with Cache facing Spry and the two others with a hoof on one shoulder each.
***
Their vision was replaced by a familiar fog. “Let us start where we left off, shall we?” Spry’s disembodied voice said.
Unlike the other pony that just appeared in Starswirl the Bearded’s arcane laboratory, this young, silver pegasus stallion did not instantly blackout from the pain caused by the changing of one’s form without magical control. In fact, he only seemed a bit phased, even speaking.
“All right, what do we have- “ he began as he looked at his surroundings, interrupting himself quite rudely. “Holy mother of Celestia! Starswirl the Bearded!” he exclaimed with a backwards leap.
Indeed, and of course, Starswirl was certainly present. And at the present, he was repeatedly pounding his head with his gray hoof.
The new pony that suddenly appeared in Starswirl’s lab then calmed down and noticed that another pony was present. “What’s up with him?” he asked.
“You appeared at a rather coincidental time,” Rob replied, choosing his words carefully.
“How so?” the pegasus inquired in a tenor voice.
Starswirl came out of his small bout of self-abuse and replied to this question. “Rob here,” he began, gesturing at the respective Earth pony, “To put it simply, suddenly appeared out of an entirely different dimension! By our standards, this would be impossible, seeing as the boundaries between dimensions has never really been found, and has certainly never been penetrated. Something I did that I should not have may have caused this occurrence: I traveled through time.”
The brow of the new pegasus told of both confusion and unimpression. “Two things,” he responded, “One: Dimensional travel is totally possible! I’ve done it loads of times! That’s actually how I got here, even if it was an accident.”
Starswirl was dumbfounded.
“And two,” the silver pony continued, “Didn’t you make a time travel spell that was quite safe? Where you can only be there for a few moments, and you can only do it once?”
The blue-clad unicorn nodded understandingly. “I did, but I made another one. One with no limitations.”
The pegasus was clearly impressed. The green Earth pony seemed lost, but he knew his fair share of sciency things and terms to know that this was very impressive.
“Just think: Permanent time travel, as many times as you want, and with however many ponies as your magical strength can handle!” He exclaimed with a flourish.
Rob cut in at this moment. “There are, of course, major drawbacks as well, making this even more dangerous than perhaps anything else: Anypony could do it. They could wreak havoc, even destroy the entire universe.” Wait, anypony? he thought. Strange.
Starswirl continued on. “Of course, I had thought of that before I even attempted to unlock the first time spell. I may not be the wisest pony, but I certainly have the foresight to know what might happen if this kind of magical knowledge got out... I don’t believe I got your name...?”
“Silver Bullet,” the pegasus said proudly.
The unicorn put a hoof to his beard. “Seems a bit ironic, don’t you think, seeing as silver is pitted, causing it to have, terrible accuracy in projectiles.”
Silver Bullet’s brow now showed an expression of slight annoyance. “Yeah, my friend tells me that, too.”
Starswirl sat down and sighed. “Well,” he said in resignation, “You two were obviously here for a reason. I suppose I should skip any more formalities, now that the basics are taken care of, although you two certainly raise some rather interesting questions. It is time that I told you my best theory at the moment: When I used my ultimate time travelling spell, I decided to travel to the farthest reaches of time itself: The Dawn of the Elements of Harmony. Little did I know what would happen.
“When I appeared on the other side there was nothing but white; white as far as the eye could see, like a blank canvas. There was nothing that is, except for the elements that shone even brighter than the empty plane of light. There seemed to be an... inaudible music playing... It was peaceful. As I gazed upon the colored jewels of the Elements of Harmony off of the flat world around it, I noticed there was more than there should be; eight in fact.
“I looked at the extra three (for the last Element of Harmony is undiscovered), and a voice unlike any I had ever heard before spoke. It said to me, ‘Starswirl the Bearded, you notice that there are three extra Elements. They are here for a reason. That reason is you. Take them.’ Of course, who was I to defy a voice without a source, so I complied.
“I asked, ‘Why am I to take these back with me; what makes them different?’
“The voice answered, ‘Because the Elements you are holding, the Elements of Balance, were created for one purpose and one purpose only: To destroy a thing which never should have existed. As for what makes them different, the Elements of Balance can take a life.’
“I was a bit mortified at that prospect, but knew that if I were to take a life, I would do so in righteousness.
“I took my time taking everything in for a moment before I left; white, endless white, with nothing to supplement it save for myself and the glittering Elements.
“the voice told me one more thing before I departed: ‘The End of All, Oblivion, comes swiftly but the end of some comes moreso. There shall be Three to wield them, there shall be Six to stop It.’
“I thanked the voice then left, focusing my magic equally as hard as the last time, in order to get back to my own time. I was incredibly lucky, of course, to come back almost immediately after I had left. Come to think of it, I could have sworn I saw a moderately large group of ponies just as I vanished.
“I think that the Three this voice spoke of are us, the Three Bearers of the Elements, though I know not of who the Six are. I should think that we are also part of the Six, seeing as we wield the Elements to destroy Oblivion, the End of All.”
By the end of his speech, the bearded unicorn had his eyes closed, his face wrinkled by much more than age. The other two were wearing similar visages.
“I don’t like the prospect of taking a life,” Rob said, “But it is better that one thing be endings than all things perish.”
Silver Bullet sighed. “Alright, there’s no point in wasting time, so let’s do this,” he said with a tired determination. “Show us these Elements.”
Starswirl in blue took off a leathery saddlebag.
Strange, Rob thought, I didn’t think ponies would kill animals for leather.
The unicorn opened the bag and removed its jeweled contents. In it were three large jewels: A simple red ruby in a diamond-shape, a green emerald in a more-or-less shield-shape, and a more complicated sapphire that seemed to be composed of three jewels somehow held together to form a seven-pointed star. They were each glowing an aura the same color as themselves. Each pony instinctively knew what to do:
Rob reverently placed a hoof on the ruby. “Power, the Warrior,” he said, his voice obtaining a magical tone. The jewel began ringing at two C’s above middle.
Silver Bullet placed the tip of his wing on the emerald. “Courage, the Leader,” he declared, his voice becoming like that of Rob’s. The emerald rang at the next A.
Starswirl placed his horn on the sapphire. “Wisdom, the Speaker,” he spoke, his voice also becoming similar to Rob’s. The magical sapphire rang at the E after the emerald’s pitch.
***
Bass Clef’s response in the real world was abrupt; he pulled his foreleg off of Cache’s shoulder, knocking him free of Spry. This disconnected the vision, pulling the others from it as well.
“Wait a minute,” Bass said as soon as he had recovered enough to speak, “Seriously? ‘Power, Wisdom, and Courage?’ What are we, ripping off of Legend of Zelda or something?”
“Only a little bit,” Spry replied hastily, “The Elements, as you already know, are a bit different from the Triforce.”
Bass rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
They all reassumed the ‘visionary’ position and continued.
***
With the last note forming a triplet, the resonant frequencies audibly created the missing notes of the inverted A minor chord. The melodious cacophony sounded as if a six handed beast with perfect pitch were playing an assortment of finely tuned wineglasses.
The rather pleasant sound slowly raised in pitch and volume as the three ponies slowly came off the ground, their jewels glowing more and more brightly.
Then the three ponies spoke in unison, there voices impossibly combining into one: “Together, we are Balance, to rid this world of that which was never meant to be.”
The sound abruptly stopped as a magical whooshing sound was heard, the jewels suddenly becoming blinding, then they were all standing once again, no longer in the air and no longer glowing.
The three ponies once again spoke in unision, though not in the same voice.
Starswirl exclaimed, “Incredible!”
Silver Bullet said, “Whoa!”
Rob, slightly confused, simply asked, “What...?”
Despite this, Rob was the first to understand. As he looked down, shaking his head in confusion, he noticed he was wearing something besides the clothes he wore as a human: A simple, yet elegant breastplate that went around the neck and forelegs, with shoulderplates seamlessly connected. It appeared to be gold with argentine gilding, but was much too light and hard to be so, and most prominently, it had a large red ruby right at the middle of his chest. Two ends of a deep red cape with the lighter outline of a diamond were fastened, almost converging, about the neck-part of the piece of armor, yet the cape seemed magically enchanted as to not get in the way as capes often do. He thought it looked quite good: Simple, efficient, protective.
He spoke his surprise unintelligibly, the others gazing at the beautifully crafted protection. They then realized that they had some plate of their own.
Silver Bullet wore a similar (but slightly more fancy) breastplate with the emerald in a position that appeared upside-down; the shield shape was so, but with it like that, it looked much more like a speeding arrowhead, he realized. He also had a unique piece: wing protection. It was light addition, following only the bone structure and not the actual feathers, save for the tips. He also had a green bandana tied sweatband-style around his forehead and fastened by another upside-down shield shape at his forehead. “Sweet!” He exclaimed.
Starswirl’s array, though, was certainly the most impressive: Starting from the bottom up, he had a silver bracelet about his left forehoof, a deep blue cloak similar to the one he was previously worn but with silver cloth at the ends. Covering much of that was a golden chestplate, decoratively swirled at the sides with silver lining like the others. His had his seven-pointed sapphire star and bronze flourishes all around. On his head, he had a blue, extremely wizard-y hat, also lined with silver. All of the silver, it seemed, had intricate, magical-looking runes scrawled in lines. On closer examination, almost all the runes’ forms were rather vaporous and constantly changing and moving around, except for one rune at the front of his bracelet, which was larger than all the rest and appeared to be in the shape of a clockwise-swirl. His enormous beard, of course, covered up almost his entire front, though, so it was only through parting the facial hair and looking at the plate did he see.
Silver was the first to speak. “Aw, yeah!” he exclaimed enthusiastically.
Starswirl and Rob had to agree, but Swirl broke their rejoicing.
“Indeed, this is rather exciting, but you must recall the reason why we are wearing this armor and clothing: To destroy the Evil,” he said, his old voice possessing a sobering quality.
“Oh yeah, that,” Rob said sarcastically.
Starswirl walked over and seemed to perform a spell on the door. As he did this, the runes on his clothing lit up, and the door flew open, slamming loudly on the wall. Starswirl was a tiny bit surprised, but not completely frazzled. “Interesting,” he said, once again rubbing his beard, “These runes must be the most powerful I’ve ever used; I hardly applied any force at all!”
“Anyways,” he continued, “The day has worn for me and I am exhausted after everything that has happened today... and a hundred-thousand years ago.”
Rob nodded. “Indeed, although the day was halved for myself, I am rather taxed of my energy.”
“Yeah,” Silver Bullet agreed laconically.
Starswirl opened the door to leave the laboratory. “I have a guest bed, but the age difference may be... Awkward, to say the least,” he said.
“I’m used to sleeping on the ground,” Rob volunteered.
Starswirl nodded and said as he left (with the other two following), “Then let us get some rest. I imagine we’ve got a long day ahead.”
The image slowly blackened until it was completely dark. “This seems as good of a place to stop as any,” Spry Canyon commented in the dream-like voice of the vision.
***
The formation was broken for a second time that day, this time by Spry. The Three awoke again with headaches and sore arms, but were prepared this time.
“Now, what have we learned?” Spry asked in the voice he used for teaching students.
Bass Clef raised his hoof. “The Elements of Balance bond with the Three Bearers from their gem-form, and it looks so awesome!”
Spry nodded.
Cache imitated Bass. “There are Three who Bear the Elements, but Six who help them.”
Finally, Eagletone came in, tying everything together. “I think Starswirl’s theory was partly wrong,” he said after a while. “He and his two friends were not the Three of legend, but only placeholders until the real Three came... Us three and those three must be the Six to stop It!”
If Spry had fingers, he would have snapped them. “Exactly!” he exclaimed. “But, my little students,” he went on jokingly, “We’ll get to that later. Class is now dismissed.”
The Three said their farewells and were off, but this time it wasn’t quite so late. The sun had not yet set, and it was (,so far as Eagletone could tell,) summer. As such, he judged the time to be approximately the second hour of the watch - About Eight O'Clock.
Eagletone was both looking forward to and fearing what he was going to ask Spitfire after they got back to their place of slumber. Shipping, he thought. It’s a lot better in real life than it is in books.
It was still uncomfortably hot, the cold of the desert night not having quite taken grasp of the small town, and so they traversed the path across town as quickly as a walk could take them. They opened the door to the saloon- bar- tavern- ...The establishment currently housing them, and Eagletone was fortunate enough to immediately find the mare he was looking for.
The fiery pegasus greeted them, and they greeted back. Eagle broke off from his two friends and cleared his throat. “Hey, ah, Spitfire... Could you, ah, com’ere for a moment?” he asked with the grace of a hippopotamus, motioning towards the stairs.
The Wonderbolt nodded, smiled, and got up to follow her new close friend.
They walked up to the slightly more secluded halls of the housing quarters of the place, and Eagle asked his question.
He cleared his throat. “So... I was wondering if you could, ah, go with me to a- on a...”
“- A date?” Spitfire finished gently.
“Yeah. That thing... Sometime... Somewhere.”
“Sure.” she replied with a bright smile. “Where to?”
The red pegasus with a large feather tied to his ear stared, stuck between three thoughts: “She just said yes,” “where do we go,” and, ”Oh crap I did not plan this out very well, did I?”
“Ah...” he said unintelligibly. Of course, that’s not to say unintelligently, although he certainly felt that way at the moment. He finally thought of something to say. Though the words were not quite brilliant, the location was, and was incredibly simple as well. His face lit up at the thought of it. “I’ve got a place I know of. When do you have some free time?” he replied somewhat surreptitiously.
The orange pegasus gazed with a look of slight befuddlement mixed with an ounce of eagerness to see what crazily brilliant idea Eagletone had thought of this time as she slowly turned to trot away.
“Lokisday,” she replied with a grin.
Eagletone stared back with a rather pleased smile on his face. Saturday is now what it was originally supposed to be called, he thought.
End of Chapter 8