• Published 17th Mar 2012
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The Adventures of the Elementals - AutoKnight01



Twilight and friends learn to combine the elements of harmony with those of naure to save Equestria

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The Battle of Ponyville (Part 3)

The Adventures of the Elementals

Chapter 37: The Battle of Ponyville (Part 3)

All three soon-to-be combatants remained still in their stances waiting for whoever would make the first move. Twilight’s horn crackled with magic, Pyro’s spade grew red from the heat of the flames engulfing it, and Nightmare Moon’s smirk grew wider. None of them knew who would be the one to draw first blood.

Quickly running out of patience, Nightmare was the one to move first with her eye on the one she considered to be the most of a hindrance.

“Cover me.” Pyro murmured.

Twilight nodded back to him. Since he was more skilled in fighting, he would take care of her up close and personal and she would provide cover fire from as many angles as she possibly could. Staff in hoof Pyro began to charge towards Nightmare making the gap close faster.

With a lunge forward, Nightmare prepared her blade to swing as she ran bipedal to the Ember stallion. It wasn't until he saw the blade's first movement downwards that he moved. The crescent blade of his staff caught the shadow sword successfully blocking her strike. When he moved it away, Nightmare swung again and it was blocked a second time, this time by the spade end. Pyro then took an offensive swing of his own towards her stomach with the crescent again and Nightmare just barely avoided it.

Sparks flew from both blades as they clashed over and over again. As Pyro made a jab with the spade, Nightmare parried it with her blade and then gave the fire mover a harsh kick in his center, making him stagger back off balance. Her chance to follow up with another slash was thwarted when Twilight began to charge forward herself, her horn firing various shots of magic. A few of them hit but the dark alicorn was able to deflect most of them with her sword of darkness. When Twilight neared, she swung at the unicorn but she immediately teleported out of sight and re-appeared behind her. Another full powered blast from her horn hit directly into Nightmare’s back causing her to let out a small cry of pain. It was barely an annoyance to her. She turned around glaring at Twilight.

“Once I’m done with you, I will personally drop your head at Celestia’s hooves.”

Clenching her teeth, Twilight did her best to keep her fear bottled down her throat. Her horn began to charge again but Nightmare beat her to the punch. A blast of dark magic shot out from her horn much faster than Twilight was anticipating and it sent her flying back and skidding across the dirt.

“Uuuugghhh….” She groaned in pain.

Cackling, Nightmare began to walk over, her blade rising over her head. She then noticed that everything around her seemed to be growing brighter. It wasn’t until she felt the heat on her back that she turned around and threw up a force field blocking the massive torrent of fire headed in her direction. Pyro was back on his hooves, and all four of them were ablaze as he held his weapon. The Alamantian once again closed the gap to engage in close combat.

As she recovered, Twilight’s gaze found itself being drawn to her partner. The force of his attacks, the strength he packed with every swing. For the first time since they had met, Twilight was now getting a full demonstration of an unrestrained Pyro. Unlike back in Canterlot, he was unleashing every ounce of power he had to throw at Nightmare Moon. It was visible not only in physical attacks but also his pyrokinetic ones too.

Every time Pyro unleashed any of his elemental power towards his opponent, it gushed out of him like an open hydrant, illuminating the street in an orange glow. She could tell by his face. He wasn’t just looking to protect Equestria like she was. He was angry. Angry for his home country and the war that Nightmare started. He wanted to avenge every drop of blood that was spilt for no reason. And he was dead set in making sure that hers would be the next to spill.

As Nightmare was occupied with Pyro, Twilight got back up and her horn flared to life once more. Multiple shots of back impacted her from behind causing her movements to become sloppy and giving Pyro an opening. Rushing forward, he stuck the crescent end of his staff into the ground and used it to fault towards Nightmare Moon. His rear hooves were still ablaze and the amount of power Pyro was now using increased. Both of his hind hooves impacted into Nightmares chest and a small shockwave of flames burst out of the impact as she was sent sprawling away and past Twilight, skidding across the dirt.

It did a bit of damage but not enough to keep her down for more than a second or two. As soon as she stopped sliding on the ground, Nightmare rose back up to her hooves, her blade still glowing in that sickly dark aura and now looking even more ready to tear its victims apart one limb at a time.

“Are we even hurting her?” Twilight wondered out loud.

She and her partner had dished out quite a bit of power upon the dark alicorn and she didn’t even look like she was fazed at all.

“Sure doesn’t look like it!” Pyro called back.

Swinging her blade around lightly, Nightmare stepped forward cackling more and more.

“I told you two dunces! Your power is useless against me! Just give up and I may make your deaths quick!”

The two partners of fire and magic leaned down ready to engage her once more. But inside their heads they were both asking themselves the same question. If Nightmare Moon wasn’t even being hurt or the least bit affected by their assault, how long would they be able to hold out against her before their friends arrived to even out the odds?

Back in town square, the Shadowmare herd was thinning but it didn’t seem to be doing so fast enough. Shining Armor, even as a captain, couldn’t believe how fast this battle turned up in scale. He was trained for combat, but certainly not for this. As squad of three Shadowbolts began to nosedive towards him, they all blasted shots of dark energy at the captain. Luckily he noticed in time and threw up a magical construct of a shield in front of his face. Thinking quickly, he angled the shield as each blast hit so it deflected off and hit a Shadowmare that was on the ground. Then when the three fliers closed in, he entrapped them in a force field then abruptly made it shrink down to the size of a dodge ball, crushing them inside and thus evaporating.

“Nice shield work, Cap!” Terra called from the side.

“Thanks!” he called back as he dodged a few more blasts. This may not have been a situation he was expecting, but his training had one purpose. To serve and protect Equestria. And that is exactly what he planned to do here. “How are you holding up?!”

“Best I can! Just like the rest of us!”

The mare of earth was truthful in that statement. Each pony was putting their all into this fight. Though there was one mare Terra could tell was overexerting herself out of anger. Being right next to Applejack the entire time, she could easily tell just by how loud she was grunting from her kicks that she was putting too much strength into them.

“Jackie, you have to calm down. These things don’t take much to kill. You’re just gonna tire yourself out.”

“You just shut up! Ah aint got nothing to say to ya!”

Once again, Terra tried to say something to Applejack, and she was met with hostility. On any other day, the geokinetic wouldn’t prod at it too much but given their current position, now wasn’t really the best time for them to be on separate pages.

“Well that’s certainly not true.” Her left side gauntlet plowed through another Shadowmare’s head. “Just let it out. It’s not gonna hurt me or anything. Just be honest.”

“ARE YOU BUCKIN’ SERIOUS!?!?!”

A nerve had officially been struck. With every negative emotion that could be felt at once, and with bloodshot eyes, Applejack plowed her hoof through the head of a Shadowmare in her way and began to march over to Terra. Every enraged stomp was strong enough to crack the ground.

“You. Of all ponies. Do NOT! TELL ME! TO BE HONEST!”

Terra was sure it could never happen, but for the first time ever, she was legitimately afraid of her partner as she closed the gap between them. They were now nose to nose and she could feel the breaths that came out of her nostrils in huffs.

“You have NO idea what honesty means, do ya Terra? Ah trusted ya. We all trusted ya. Mah whole FAMILY trusted ya and look what ya went and did. Ya lied the worst of lies to us. Makin’ all of us think you were dead? How could ya even THINK of doing something so horrible?”

“Jackie, I-“

“Don’t call me that! Ya don’t deserve to! Friends do not lie to each other, Terra! It doesn’t matter what yer reasoning was for it! Did ya even think for a second what your “deaths” did to all of us? We were broken beyond repair! Ah cried for ya! Ah actually cried for ya!”

And she was beginning to do so again as another Shadowmare come up from behind her. It was quickly disposed of thanks to a pillar of the ground rising up and impaling in through the chest.

“Ah care about ya but right now Ah really wish Ah didn’t. That’s how much this hurts, Terra. So please. Ah’m beggin ya to just answer me why. Why in all of Equestria did ya think that this would be okay? Why didn’t ya tell me about this?”

She waited for an answer. Time seemed to just slow down as she waited. A Shadowbolt tried coming in from above to attack but Applejack’s hind legs rose up and bucked it into vapor as soon as it was within range ending that failed assault. Then finally, Terra gave her an answer.

“If I had told you about any of this, would you have promised to not tell anypony about it?”

“Wha?” Applejack felt even more offended. Why would she even ask that? “What kind of question is that?! Of course I woulda promised!”

“And there you go. That’s why I said nothing.”

The anger was still there, but now her face morphed from angry into one of absolute confusion.

“What do you mean?”

She wasted no time answering.

“Applejack, what you said was right. Lying to your friends about getting killed is one of the worst lies anypony can tell. There was no chance I was gonna let you be a part of that lie. If I did, who knows what could have happened to the element of honesty? It could have failed or just stopped working altogether. Having to lie to your friends about us to protect us? I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk corrupting your element for us. Granted I don’t really know how the elements of harmony work but either way I just couldn’t take that chance, no matter how much I wanted to. And trust me when I say this, Jackie. I wanted to. So badly.”

Being the carrier for the element of honesty, Applejack had a gift for telling when other ponies were lying or not. Even though she was still angry, she was starting to ease back when she realized Terra was being honest and sincere with every word she spoke. Applejack took a moment to think. Back when Discord turned her into a liar, her element did in fact cease to function. Was that how it worked? She wasn’t a liar by any definition but was she really not allowed to lie at all in order for her element of harmony to keep working?

"Also, let's be fair, Jackie. If you DID know, you totally would have blown it."

It was here at this point where Applejack’s anger level began to rise up again.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?!"

She angrily bucked a Shadowmare into vapor as she shouted that.

"What do you think it means? You're a crappy liar. Everypony knows it. “

“What?! That is not true!”

“Oh really?”

With another Shadowmare in a headlock, Terra turned around to address everypony else.

“Hey everypony! If I were to say. ‘world’s crappiest liar’, who would I be referring to?!”

“Applejack!”

One by one everypony there sounded off Applejack’s name, making the farmer mare stutter trying to find something to say. She found nothing but a blush on her face. Even Shining Armor knew it. Even the Alamantians who WEREN’T her partner knew it.

“Am I really that bad?” She wondered aloud.

“C’mon, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie appeared next to her friend. “Back on my birthday last year, you remember when you tried convincing me that everypony in the barn was doing construction? I may have been mad and thought you were all abandoning me at the time but I totally knew you were lying.”

With that, Pinkie returned to her partner’s side leaving Applejack with her own who was in the process of twisting the same Shadowmare’s neck causing it to evaporate. She knew that being so honest also meant that lying wasn’t easy. But she had lied before for the sake of a good surprise. But she didn’t think she was that bad. Now she was getting concrete proof that she was not only bad, but apparently horrible at the act. She understood. She was a liability.

“Ah……don’t get me wrong Ah’m still mad at ya….” She started. “But….I guess I can kinda see why y’all did what ya did.”

As she set back down on four hooves, Terra began to smile at her friend beginning to soften up again.

“So does that mean….?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Applejack raised a hoof. “What you did was still wrong on every level.”

“And I’m willing to make it up to you on those levels and more. Just so long as I can keep you as my friend.”

Finally, for the first time in what seemed like forever to her, Applejack’s mouth turned up into the faintest of smiles. Seeing that happen made Terra’s own smile grow to a level she didn’t think she could reach. She was being forgiven. Maybe not all at once but she was being forgiven.

“You can start by helpin’ us beat these things and gettin’ our home back.” She said as she raised a hoof to the earth mover.

Eager to get fighting more, Terra brought her hoof to her partner’s and bumped it.

“Let’s get crackin. Literally.”

The two of them chuckled unaware that their cutie marks were slowly starting to turn a bright white.

While this whole talk was happening,

Over with Rarity, she was near Agua beating the Shadowmares with her own brand of graceful martial arts. Every time her partner entered her view though, he was met with a cold stare. And quite frankly, he was getting tired of it.

“I get it, alright!?” He shouted as he drove his axe through the head of a Shadowbolt. “You’re pissed! You have every right to be! But could you stop looking at me like that?!”

“You don’t get it do you?!” the mare of generosity shouted back. “All this time I knew you were a jerk and I know you do despicable things! But I always believed you had a limit! That we….I was the limit! You said back in Canterlot that you wished you and I could have a relationship that the others have with their partners and then you went and pulled this stunt! How am I supposed to even trust you anymore?! I don’t even remember how I trusted you at all to begin with!”

Violently, Agua snapped another Shadowmare’s neck as her words reached his ears. He knew why other ponies couldn’t trust him. He’s lied a lot, for less than respectable reasons. But to hear that his own partner didn’t trust him anymore hit him a lot harder than he expected it to. He opened his mouth to say “I’m sorry” but he quickly realized that doing that would just get him even more of a tongue lashing.

“I wasn’t lying when I said that in Canterlot.” The stallion of water said as he sliced another one. “Believe me or not but I meant it and I still do.”

“Your words don’t have any weight to me anymore.” Rarity snapped. “Show, don’t tell.”

It was something to work toward, but he accepted the challenge. Angrily, he gripped his axe and started to put extra strength into his attacks, mowing down each and every Shadowmare that dared get near him and Rarity.

The fashionista kept glancing over to him, noticing the grunts he made with each strike. They were filled with frustration. But she didn’t care. What she said was how she felt and he needed to hear every last bit of it.

With every slash the stallion of water took, one or two Shadowmares were in his way and they were slashed to vapor. Like his partner, he too glanced back at Rarity every so often, watching her hold her own. But then he noticed the Shadowmares were starting to group up not far from her. And they were charging up.

Six Shadowmares were glowing. Seemingly charging up an attack but instead, they were fusing together to form an even greater beast. When the fusion was complete, the creature now stood in the form of a mutated buffalo. From the horns on its head, another blast of dark energy began to charge. And right as Rarity noticed the creature was there, it fired.

Rarity’s eyes shrunk to mere pinpricks as she watched the blasts get closer. Time seemed to slow down into extreme slow motion while the glow of the dark energy grew brighter against her face. Before they hit, she could have sworn she saw a hint of blue out of the left side of her peripherals before she was violently shoved to the ground. Her body collided with nothing but dirt as the blasts hit a new target.

Not wasting any time, Rarity shot right back up to her hooves and advanced upon the Shadowmares that dared attack her. With a few swift yet violent motions, she made them all vaporize and looked to where she stood before she was pushed. Where her hooves were, there was now just an axe lying on the ground. And not far from that spot, there was the house that belonged to the resident florists of Ponyville, which now had a stallion sized hole in the wall.

Picking the axe up, Rarity rushed to the flower house and jumped through the hole gasping to see her partner on the ground bruised, bleeding, and groaning in pain. Rushing in and not thinking about staining her coat, she rushed over to Agua and pressed her hooves into his wound trying to make the bleeding stop.

“Oh no….uh…why…..you….you…you idiot! Why would you do something like that?!”

Wincing, the blue stallion of water rose up a bit while Rarity kept the pressure on him. He spoke in a low soft tone.

“You’re the one who said show, don’t tell. Well how’s that?”

She wanted to slap him right across his dumb blue face right then and there but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He DID just jump in and take what could have been a fatal blow for her in an act of selflessness.

“You’re right about me. I’m a jerk and I do despicable things. But there is one thing you’re wrong about.”

He paused to groan in pain. The few seconds that passed while he did felt like several minutes to Rarity as she wanted to hear what it possibly was she was wrong about.

“I DO have a limit…..it’s you.”

“W….what?”

“I don’t know what it is about you, Rarity. For the most part I still see you as an overdramatic mare who whines about everything dirty.”

Rarity’s eyes rolled. If this was supposed to be an apology it did not have a very good start.

“But…..I do care about you. More than I thought I would ever be able to. I don’t know what it is about you but…you just being my friend…..makes me want to be better. I hated going along with this stupid plan. Every…ugh….every minute I wanted to punch something just for doing it….for hurting you.”

He started to sit up but Rarity kept a hoof down on his chest, advising him to keep still.

“You can not believe me all you want. But it’s the truth, Rarity…..word of honor.”

She didn’t want to. She wanted to keep believing this stallion was just a piece of garbage who lied to her. But she couldn’t. Not after that little act of selflessness he just performed and took a deadly hit for her. Rarity was no Applejack but she could tell. Agua was being sincere.

“Oh, Agua….”

With tears in her eyes, Rarity threw her arms around her partner and hugged him tight. As Agua put his own around her back and patted it softly, neither of them noticed an odd dim light coming from their flanks.

Nightmare was pressing hard. Though she had to color herself impressed with the two unicorns. She did not expect them to be as powerful as they were, without unlocking the power of Agni yet. She had to give them credit, they were both taught well by their mentors. But it was time to teach them what real power was.

As Pyro came in for another slash with his spade, the dark alicorn raised up her blade and blocked it yet again, but this time, the two weapons locked. The sickly dark glow of Nightmare’s sword and the burning light of fire and Pyro’s spade both began to intensify as they began to try and push the other back. Twilight teleported to the side and tried to fire another blast of magic at Nightmare, but it was easily deflected with a force field. She then gave a harsh push forward sending Pyro back and off balance, giving Nightmare the perfect opportunity to strike. Which she did with a harsh punch to his stomach, sending him sprawling on the ground at Twilights hooves. His weapon now lied in the dirt.

Before either of them could do anything else, they both felt their bodies tense up as they were caught in the telekinetic grip of Nightmare Moon. Both of them rose up off the ground unable to move as Nightmare drew closer to them, laughing smugly.

“It just goes to show you I guess. What they teach you in school nowadays just isn’t enough to take on the real world with.”

That jab was aimed at Twilight. How dare she insult her teachings! Celestia herself taught her all the best spells!

Then she turned to look at Pyro.

“Poor little ember.” She growled. “Your father left you. Your mother killed. No other relatives to love you. You’re all alone.”

Loud growls escaped his mouth as he tried to force her hoof off his chest and get free. How much he wanted to shove another punch right into her jaw. Twilight was feeling a mutual anger for their opponent as she too struggled against her restraints. But a mere few seconds later, she stopped.

“Now, how shall I….what? What are you smiling at?”

Smiling? Pyro wasn’t smiling. He looked to the left and saw that Twilight was though. But why?

“I suggest you turn around.” The mare of magic kept her smirk as she spoke.

Thinking it was just a trick, Nightmare almost didn’t do it. But what could they do in her grasp? She turned around and what she saw made her do a double take. Pyro couldn’t believe it himself once he saw what Twilight did. Not far away from them, there stood Terra, Applejack, Rarity, and Agua. All four of them looking more ready to fight than they had ever been in their lives.

And all four of them were glowing in their eyes and cutie marks.

“WHAT?!?!”

Not just one pair, but two pairs of ponies at once had discovered their true power. Terra and Applejack were glaring down Nightmare Moon with the ground beneath their hooves sensing her movement, and an assortment of large rock chunks hovering above their heads.

Rarity pointed her hoof towards the water tower which could be seen from a distance. Slowly, it began to rumble from the inside. A second later, the water within burst out the side and flew in a giant stream over the buildings of Ponyville and gathered above her own and Agua’s heads.

“Take her down, you guys!” Pyro called.

“Don’t worry about us! Just get her!” Twilight added.

They didn’t even need to be told. Applejack made the first move. She charged forward than jumped up, slamming her hooves into the ground, and literally cracking it open. A series of pillars erupted from the ground at her command, heading in a straight line towards Nightmare. Spreading her wings, Nightmare took to the air and released Twilight and Pyro, whom immediately got out of the way. Now in the air, Terra unleashed the barrage of stones she had in her own grasp at the dark alicorn. Each one was a direct hit, knocking Nightmare back.

Then it came Rarity’s turn. With her grasp on the massive amount of water, she gracefully whirled her arms and unleashed a harsh high pressure torrent right for Nightmare. Like the earth before her, it was a hit. Nightmare was pushed back down to the ground where Applejack was waiting. She and Terra both raised their hooves to the sky and began to call upon all the loose ground and rock around them. The rocks answered their call and before long, the two of them each had a gigantic hammer made of earth in their grasp. The heads of which were about the size of a small house.

As the hammers began to come down, Agua was doing his part. The water he still had a grip on, he began to make it swirl. Faster. Faster. And faster until it was almost as fast as a tornado. As the hammer heads got closer, Agua and Rarity both brought that swirling water down upon Nightmares body at the same time the hammers collided, created a loud boom that was heard for miles.

When the dust cleared, there stood Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy with their partners and Shining Armor, looking at the gaping crater that was just created. The battlefield now completely void of Shadowmares. And not far from there, the four ponies responsible for creating it lied motionless on the ground, no longer glowing.

As they began to come to, their friends all helped them back up to their hooves.

“Oh….oh wow….so…did we just..?” Terra asked her partner.

“Ah think we did. So that was the power of Gaia.” Applejack answered.

“And you two must have unlocked Poseidon! Awesome!” Rainbow beamed as she helped Rarity up.

“Yes we did….” Rarity looked over to the crater. “But was it enough?”

That was a question all of them wanted an answer to. There didn’t seem to be any noise or anything coming from the crater. Was that it? Was that all they needed to end this? The answer came two seconds sooner. And they didn’t like it.

A harsh screech came from the crater and out of it shot a very angry Nightmare Moon. She looked battered but she was still alive.

“Oh come ON!” Agua shouted. “What do we have to do to kill you?!”

“And here I thought you read that stupid prophecy.” Nightmare taunted.

Like before with Twilight and Pyro, Nightmares horn ignited and she grabbed all of them before they had a chance to move with her telekinesis. They couldn’t move their limbs, they couldn’t use magic, they were all helpless.

“I have had enough fun with all of you. The time has come for me to put an end to that stupid prophecy once and for all.” As her blade of darkness formed yet again, she marched over to Twilight, holding it ready to slash. “You will be the first to go.”

“NO! TWILIGHT!” Shining Armor began to uselessly squirm.

“You stay away from her!” Rainbow shouted.

“Nightmare Moon, don’t you dare try!” Pyro threw an empty threat.

Their words fell on deaf ears. This was it. Twilight was going to die and she had to accept it. She couldn’t though. All she could do was shut her eyes in absolute fear as the sword came down.

Only to impact a pillar of rock that rose up in front of the unicorn.

“What?”

Immediately all eyes turned to Terra. But she looked just as clueless as the rest of them did.

“Hey don’t look at me! I didn’t do that!”

“Then….who did?” Fluttershy wondered.

That was another question they all wanted an answer to. As Nightmare rose her blade to try and strike again, she felt her arms being tugged back by what the others all saw as a whip made of plasma. Instead of coming from Gem, it was coming upon a new figure. This one wearing a dark brown cloak, hiding its face from view with the hood. But how was it wielding plasma?

With another harsh yank, the figure pulled Nightmare away from Twilight and rose its front legs and a familiar style of martial arts.

“I do not know who you are, fool. But if you value your life, I suggest you stay out of my way.”

She raised her blade yet again to strike but she stopped herself when she saw the hooded figure make a move. With a step forward, he swayed his front legs and with the motion, came light. From the left side, the light came from the flames that now engulfed his hoof. And his right side hoof became encased in crystalline water.

“He can move fire and ice too!?!?!” Cryo shouted.

“Who is this guy?!” Shining Armor asked anypony.

No one had an answer. As the figure dodged Nightmare’s attacks, it moved in closer and threw out a jab and a cross, shooting out a single shot of fire and ice, each shot making their mark on her neck. It then stomped the ground and made a punching motion again, sending a pillar of earth right into her center causing her to fly backwards and skid on the ground.

That hit was enough to break Nightmare’s concentration and the thirteen ponies were free. As they all landed on their hooves, they approached this hooded figure.

“Thanks for your help. But who are you?” Twilight asked.

“And how are you doing zis?!” Typhoon added on frantically. “You’re moving more zen one element! Are you Alamantian?”

“Calm yourself, Typhoon. We don’t have much time for explanation.”

The figure spoke. And out of the thirteen there only six tensed up at hearing the voice. The six Alamantians looked at this figure now with a pretty good idea of who it was. Eager to know and confirm it, Pyro stepped forward to get a better look.

“I’ve searched for so long…..is it….is it really you?”

As if to answer, the figure moved for the hood of his cloak and removed it from his head, revealing the face of an elderly dark red stallion sporting gray hair and a long beard growing from his chin. A chunk of his left ear was also missing, seemingly chopped off.

It was confirmed. There he was. The other reason the Alamantians had come to Equestria was standing right in front of them. And after hearing Pyro ask him that question mere seconds ago, the Elements of Harmony knew as well.

“Master.”

They were looking into the eyes of Master Ma.

Author's Note:

I own nothing but my OCs and the plot of this story. MLP and its official characters are all owned by Hasbro, DHX, and Lauren Faust