//------------------------------// // Things that just don't occur // Story: The 7th Element // by Tracer0311 //------------------------------// Equestria is a far from perfect world. Anyone who regularly watches My Little Pony can tell you that. Weather it be the resurgence of jealous, revenge driven princesses, the resurrection of powerful, grudge wielding, entities defeated a thousand years ago; or even the continuous assault of mythological creatures on the peaceful establishments of the land. The existence of Equestria itself has been at the brink of destruction more than once, and within the span of time that Twilight has spent learning the lessons of friendship the Elements of Harmony have been called in to action numerous times. Combined with the challenges of everyday life and personal struggles that each character faces one would conclude that Equestria despite its commitment to the values of friendship, and harmony could not be described as a utopia. However compared to our world it would seem a utopia indeed. Every instance of hardship and struggle sees a peaceful end and harmony and friendship always overcome darkness. The level of violence our world experiences on a daily basis is unheard of to the citizens of Equestria. Flash forward to a time not too far into the future of Equestria; more like next Tuesday where once again a previously defeated enemy has made a recovery and is plotting vengeance on those who ruined her plans; (you know, something new) The Queen of the changelings, Chrysalis, who fell to the power of love in an ironic twist of fate had resurfaced and gathered her forces. Her plan was far less subtle this go around however. She needed control of more than just one noble in Equestrian society. She planned to control Equestria through fear and disrupt the dreaded powers of harmony. Her plan was very familiar to our world; cells of changelings were to infiltrate various portions of society throughout Equestria working to destabilize the infrastructure and internal workings of the establishment. These cells would be the start of a much larger operation; where raids on trade caravans and farming settlements would be conducted. Occupying the members of the royal guard and causing chaos she would weaken the dreaded powers of harmony and friendship in a campaign of terror. With the region in complete disarray; she would make her final move to steal the Crystal Heart from the Crystal Empire on the day of the crystal fair. By absorbing its power of love she would be able to defeat Celestia, Luna, and that annoying purple menace, Twilight and claim Equestria once and for all. Such a violent campaign was unheard of in Equestria but evil knows no boundaries. It wasn't long before reports of changeling sightings and raids outside the cities began pouring into Celestia's situation room from all over Equestria; Celestia prided herself in her ability to care for the well being of all her subjects; however the chaos of this new offensive unfolding before her was too much to handle. The royal guard was unprepared for this and rumors of changelings infiltrating important parts of government and military infrastructure were starting to make sense to her. Provided the disorganized nature of developing a strategy and communicating with officials everypony was terrified and nolonger felt safe within the walls of their own cities. Disheartened; Celestia called her sister Princess Luna and the only remaining weapon she had. The elements of harmony and a farfetched and desperate plan. * * * Meanwhile, in another universe I was chilling in my barracks room in Southern California getting ready to chase my beer with some whisky. Yea, another night of drinking before an early work day. That's how it goes around here; we are all alcoholics. Work sucks; specifically in the infantry and everyone I love is back home. There is only one other thing that makes me happy other than alcohol and that is ponies. That’s right, I'm a brony and everyone knows it; just walk into my room and the first thing you see in the four walled tiny two person room is my open locker desk with my TV, Xbox, and pony blind bag collection. I was actually just looking up at it just now. I don’t give two shits about people who think it's weird; I have nothing left to prove to anyone. It’s not an interesting story when people ask why I like the show. Not a lot of things make me happy or provide much enjoyment after returning from Afghanistan. I just tell them it puts a smile on my face and that It is a good show and that I feel a sense of innocence when I watch it. Like I said its one of the only things that I really get enjoyment from. I learn from it and try to reflect the values of the show in my personal life. Having to switch to peacetime Marine Corps sucks and I'm pissed off and angry half the time and depressed for the other half. I don't really know why to be honest; things just seemed to slow down so fast leaving me high and dry. I miss Afghanistan; as much as it sucked I miss doing my actual job. I kind of felt separated from the world when I returned and that's how I was feeling tonight. Thinking about it just made me more depressed. I wondered what kind of night it was and decided to step outside on the catwalk to take my mind off these depressing thoughts. I swung my red metal door open and stepped outside expecting to have a view of the mountains from the second deck of the barracks shrouded in the soft light of the full moon. I didn't have anywhere to go so I planned to just look over the edge of the concrete half wall and blank out my mind. I was decently inebriated by this point and had brought my new bottle of Tennessee Sour Mash with me; the first thing I noticed was that the trees were gone along with everything else; including the cement floor of the catwalk. I can't be this drunk I thought. Maybe I'm blacking out I looked down only to realize I was standing on nothing; then the only sensation I could feel was of being streatched from the front of my face to my feet. This kind of thing just doesn't happen... Far away, in a distant part of the multiverse; a sad, desperate Celestia, looking down from her palace balcony in Canterlot was pondering the same words. * * * Princess Twilight and her friends had hopped on the first train to Canterlot they could when spike delivered, or burped up Princess Celestia's message. Nopony was surprised by the urgency of the letter it had been a week since all hell started breaking loose and Ponyville had seen its share or trouble. Pinkie Pie had discovered an attempt of a changeling group to replace Mayor Mare when she visited the Ponyville mayor's house to inquire about the Mayor not placing her usual order of tea cakes the previous day. She rounded up the gang, and with a bit of hoof biteing action the six friends had bagged two changelings and turned them over to the royal guard. "I hope Celestia finally has a plan to deal with these attacks," said Applejack, "every night more and more food stores go missin and I'm starting to think that my cows may now be changelings!" "She didn't say what she had planned," Twilight replied "She didn't want her secret to fall into the wrong hooves." "Besides she's had the whole Canterlot library staff searching for a week for anything that could help us against the changelings I'm sure they found something ." Twilight was a little disappointed that she herself had not been asked to help find a spell or ward to help with the crisis but she understood why her mentor had asked her to keep a low profile. As a newly Christened Princess and the bearer of the Element of Magic she was defiantly a target of opportunity. It felt good to finally be let in on the action. News from all over Equestria arrived daily of raids on farms and villages along with imposters being discovered; and the sudden loss of contact with the neighboring Griffon kingdom. That last one made her worry however; had Chrysalis invaded them as well? Why would they not contact the Princesses and ask for aid? She looked around the train car, devoid of light and relatively empty save for her friends and a royal guardsman at the rear door. They had left early in the morning before day light and all but her and Applejack had elected to go to sleep. Shutting the lights off on the car had been Rainbow's idea. Apart from wanting to go to sleep Rainbow insisted that keeping the lights off would make the car appear empty thus keeping a low profile and not giving any changeling raiders a reason to attack. "And I thought Twilight had all the smart ideas" she had teased. Applejack's family had loaded half of their remaining food stores on the cargo car in order to supply Canterlot with what she could provide. The Raids were taking their toll and she was convinced that the train would come under attack any minute making sleep her second priority and standing guard over her shipment priority one. Twilight was just her usual self; to wrapped up in what was going on to even consider sleep. Outside her window the lights of Canterlot burned out the night and the dawn began over the horizon. Twilight let out a soft sigh. "What have you found, Celestia? What will it take to defeat an enemy so well hidden?" * * * "Where did you even find this spell sister?" asked Luna; staring at an open book with pages covered with glyphs and symbols. "This would require more concentration and magical energy than any one of us could provide" "I know it looks that way sister; Celestia replied "but the spell is designed to channel the energy of more than one pony." She pointed at a pile of books that were clean in comparrison to the dusty tomes that were the library's standard. "It was here in the Starswirl the Bearded wing under a hiding spell." The Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot library was a wreck. Books and scrolls covered the floors and tables where the Princesses along with their scholars had searched endlessly for anything helpful. Equestria had long since overcame war and unrest and distant history provided nothing usefull; defensive spells were non violent and the only spell they had found was an identity spell that revealed imposters. Though it was indeed useful it didn't help against the violent attacks plaguing the country side. It was infact an accident how they found the book of reality bending spells. Starswirl had consealed the book as a simple scroll of light. Celestia remembered that Starswirl and her had hid many of his spells and projects a thousand years ago because of their dangerous nature. She already had Discord running around changing reality and she didn't need foalish ponies getting their hooves on the ability as well; it was while initially casting the identity spell as a test that many scrolls suddenly turned into books. This one in particular was decorated with stars and planets superimposed over different stars and planets. "I can see why it would be concealed” Luna said. "What is unclear is what it does; all I can decipher are the words branching out into the cosmos" "From what I understand from the workings of the spell" Celestia explained. "In a time of need the caster invokes the magic of reality itself and reaches into the multiverse; a concept where multiple realities exist all at once." Luna looked puzzled as Celestia continued. ”The spell is organic with a will of its own, of good nature, but of its own intentions. It sees the troubles of the caster's world and reaches out to another world for help." "I have a hard time believing in this multiverse concept" Luna replied. "I don't claim to understand it either; Celestia said. We both know the limitless ability of magic and that all creation and reality revolve around it" "That we do sister. Including the limits of our own magic. I do not think we have the ability to meet its requirements.” Celestia knew this but she had a plan to enhance her sister's and her magic. Along with Twilight; her student turned princess and the Elements of Harmony, the magic provided should be enough. It would be taxing however and would take some time to recover from. "Princess Celestia!" A familiar voice chimed "we came as fast as we could!" Celestia smiled for the first time in a week. * * * The Throne room; normally vast an empty was bustling with activity. Twice as many guards were stationed outside the great door and ordered to prevent anypony from leaving or entering without Luna or Celestia's permission. Twilight and her friends were gathered around the podium that the spell book Celestia had shown them was held. Celestia and Luna stood on their respected thrones above it the page open to the first incantation. Everypony wore their elements and stood in the standard formation they had become accustomed to when using the Elements of Harmony. Others stood by in attendance scholars from Celestia's school, high ranking members of the royal guard, and The Canterlot palace medical staff, all ready to leaned a hoof if need be. All had been briefed on what the spell supposedly did andTwilight was particularly eager to begin. She had a hard time standing still and her newly acquired wings flapped about anxiously. "Ready girls?" She asked her friends. "Ready" they all said in unison. She turned to Celestia and gave her a nod. "Now when we begin; channel the element's magic into me" Celestia said; "and repeat the incantation silently in your heads. Out to the cosmos we reach, through the fabric of space find the one that understands and may bring peace to our race" With that Celestia's horn began to glow Luna took her queue closed her eyes and channeled her magical energy to her sister. The Elements of each pony began to glow and the room was soon filled with a blinding white light. * * * My face and upper body was being pulled to the extent that I was sure if I was able look down I’d see myself as a spaghetti noodle. I started to sober up and as sense returned to me I became very afraid. This wasn’t a dream or it didn’t feel like one at least. As powerful as the force stretching me was I wasn’t in any sort of pain; that was odd indeed. All too soon my feet seemed to pull up to my head and I was rocketed forward. I landed on my knees on a brightly colored marble floor. "That hurt" I said; before I could look up my guitar, busted laptop, and various Items from my desk smashed into the back of my head. "So much for the previously painless experience" I thought to myself. Disoriented and sick to my stomach I puked and blacked out; that sort of thing did occur, a lot.