The Name Game
Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I write this letter to you not as your former mentor, but as a fellow princess of Equestria. My sister and I fear that darker times are fast approaching our subjects. A recent misunderstanding has put a strain on our relations with Gryphon kingdom and the nation of Minotaur’s. We fear that war may soon be upon us from both sides and if we aren’t ready, many will fall. Our soldiers are no match in terms of numbers and if we are to be attacked from both sides at once, I don’t doubt that Equestria will fall. This is where I must ask you and your friends who bear the elements of harmony to help defend Equestria from terror once again. Though I am sorry to say that the elements will not be enough to stop on coming war. A thousand years ago Starswirl the bearded began researching a form of magic that had been long forgotten known as “Summoning magic”. Starswirl recorded everything he learned about this form of magic in the book I have sent to you with this letter, though I am afraid it has taken damage over the past one thousand years and some of it is no longer legible. He told us that should the fate of Equestria ever come in threat where the elements could not be used to still use this form of magic with extreme caution. He said that if this is handled without careful thought this could be both the saving grace of Equestria and its downfall. I cannot think of anypony who more thoroughly plans things such as this out than you Twilight. And so it is after a very thought out decision that I give you this book and leave it to you to decide if the risk is worth the possible cost. The fate of Equestria once again rest with your hooves.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Twilight must have read this letter a hundred times by now, the words ingrained into her very mind that she could almost quote it word for word. It was an early morning when the letter and book that was mentioned in said letter, now the sun was sinking back into the horizon as the afternoon ticked by on the clock. All of her friends had gathered in her library since noon and were all given a chance to read the letter for themselves. All of them were stunned silent at first when they first read it for themselves before they began pondering on what to do.
“I’m still confused twilight. What does this have to do with any of us? We’re not soldiers or leaders.” Rarity spoke up and Twilight replied shortly after.
“Princess Celestia mentioned all of us for a reason. I think she thinks this is something that we can only do together.” She said as she looked over all of them before looking to the book on the table and the opened letter that laid next to it.
“Well she really isn’t giving much of a choice in terms of whether or not use this thing.” Rainbow Dash spoke up as she stood up from her seat around the table. “If we don’t do anything Equestria is done for. If we do this we still have a chance to make it out alive. This isn’t about if we’re doing this or not, it’s about who’s willing to go through with it.” She stated and Applejack nodded her head in agreement.
“I hear ya’ and I’m all for going through with whatever this spell is.” She said before looking around the table. “If any of ya’ll want to back away from this, I for one will not judge you.” She said as she looked back to twilight.
“As if I were to simply watch Equestria fall into ruin because I was too much of a coward to do something.” Rarity said as she now joined the other two of her friends.
“Count me in, no more Equestria means no more parties. Unless I throw a goodbye party for Equestria…” Pinkie said as she bounced up from her seat with a smile on her face like always. All eyes were now turned to the timid yellow Pegasus who was shaking like a leaf.
“Um, I don’t know about this. I mean it seems like such a big responsibility…” she quivered as Dash walked over and gave her a friendly hug.
“It’s okay Shy, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” She reassured but the yellow pony quickly shook her head.
“No! I’ll do it! I won’t be scared of saving Equestria! If anything I’ll do it for the animals.” She said as she managed to control her shivering as she stood up and gave a determined smile at her friends.
“Then it’s settled.” Twilight spoke up as she rose from her seat at the table and levitated the book with her magic over to her. “I’ll need some time to study the book and everything in it to make sure everything is perfect to ensure nothing bad will happen because of this. For now I want all of you to go about your day to day business and be sure to keep this a secret.” She said to her friends before adding a final note. “Pinkie promise to keep it a secret.” She said before her friends smiled and preformed the pinkie promise. “Good. I’ll have spike send for all of you when everything is ready.” She said smiling softly as she gave each of her friends a hug as they all left, leaving her to study the book.
The following day:
The six ponies gathered outside the ruins of the castle of the two sisters where Twilight had asked them to meet, telling that she was now ready to use the spell in the book. She said that the spell required a large empty place to preform and they couldn’t exactly do this in Ponyville Park. This was supposed to be a secret assignments. As they searched the castle they found that the ruined throne room was more than big enough for them to proceed.
“So how exactly does this spell work Twi?” AJ asked the young princess who looked back to her friends.
“Well from what I could gather from the book, the spell summons someone or something using the magic that resides in all ponies. It isn’t exactly hard to perform at all actually, all that we need to do is draw some symbols on the ground and then use a large amount of magic to activate it.” She explained.
“That’s it?” Dash asked.
“Yup, well the problem is that the book is so old and damaged that it doesn’t tell me anything about the names given. All that’s in here is a bunch of names and the symbols for them. But other than that we’re going into this blind. But take a look here…” Twilight said as she pulled out the book and pointed some words written on the page. On the page were lines of names written next to each other with symbols next to them.
“Garen, Sanguine Garen, Commando Garen. Wait are these the same pony or not?” Dash said looking to Twilight who shook her head.
“I’m not sure, I want to say they are but I get a gut feeling that they may just act different. Like here, this Dr. Mundo he may be a simple doctor but there’s also a Corporate Mundo, he might own a hospital as compared to just being a doctor.” She explained as the other began looking through the names.
“So what, we just pick out a name at random?” Dash asked and Twilight sighed.
“I’m afraid this is all we have to go on. We’ll have to choose based off of their names alone.” She as the group began going through names.
“Oh Rarity here’s one you might like!” Pinkie said happily as she pointed to a name.
“Gentleman Cho’Gath?” Rarity asked as she examined the name.
“That’s the one!”
“Both a warrior and a gentleman at the same time? That does sound rather ideal for me. I wonder if he’s handsome.” Rarity said as her mind began to run away with her as she dreamed up the perfect gentleman.
“Hey AJ how about this one for you.” Dash said as she pointed to another name on the page.
“Braum? Why do you think that one fits me?” Applejack asked who smiled a bit.
“Well it sounds like a strong name. It sounds like it belongs to someone tough and willing work kind of like you.” Dash said as he friend began pondering the thought.
“What about you Twilight? Have you already picked a name?” Fluttershy asked her friend who nodded.
“I did, I picked Vel’Koz, something about the name and how its written makes me think it could be some form of life we haven’t meet yet. Just imagine it, the chance to study a new life form for the first time!” Twilight said smiling gleefully as Fluttershy chuckled.
“What about you Dash? See any that stick out to ya?” AJ asked and Dash shook her head.
“Not really, none of these sound good to me.” She said.
“What about this one. Nightraven Fiora.” Fluttershy said as she pointed to the name on the page.
“What’s a Nightraven?”
“It’s a type of raven, a bird. So maybe this one can fly?” Fluttershy said which lightened Dash’s thought on the name by twenty percent.
“What about you Fluttershy?” Rarity asked the yellow pony who shook her head.
“I haven’t found one yet.” She said before pinkie pointed to a name.
“Oh! This one! Pick this one!” She said as the yellow pony looked at the name.
“French maid Nidalee?” The shy pony spoke out loud.
“Yeah! If you had a maid she could help you take care of your animals.”
“Um, that’s not what a maid is for pinkie, you’re thinking of a vet. But the name Nidalee does sound nice…” Shy said smiling.
“Well that just leaves you Pinkie, have you found one?” Twilight said as all eyes fell on the pink pony.
“I sure did.” The party pony said pointing to a name.
“Dragon Slayer Pantheon?!” The five ponies all nearly yelled at their friend who only nod.
“That’s the one.” Pinkie said smiling.
“Pinkie that sounds kind of dangerous doesn’t it? I mean, what if it take one look at spike and tries to kill him!?” Twilight argued but Pinkie shook her head.
“You’re missing the point guys. If this one can beat dragons that means he’s more than strong enough to protect Equestria.” Pinkie said in a rather serious voice that almost never came from her. Though the other didn’t like it they did see her reasoning.
“Well I guess we can explain that dragons aren’t who we’re fighting.” Twilight said, finally giving in to her friends wishes. “Alright then, does everyone have a name?” She asked aloud and all of her friends nodded their heads. “Okay then we’re ready to get started.” She said as she pulled out some chalk that she had brought with her to draw the symbols with on the ground. The process of making the symbols took less than five minutes at most, the finished product being a magical circle seal with six smaller circles with the symbols on the edge of the bigger circle.
“Alright that’s finished. Everyone step into the circle with the symbol of the name you picked out.” She said as her friends did as asked, each of them stepping into their circles. “Okay now once I cast this spell there is no going back, if you want to back out, this is your last chance.” She said but none of her friends made a move to back away from this, even Fluttershy had a look of determination to go through with this. “Alright then, here goes nothing.” Twilight said as her horned flared with magic.
A beam of pure magical energy shot forth from her horn and into the air above their heads, the magical stream swirling around above them in the form of the circle that was on the ground below their feet. The magical seal below them began to glow with a blinding light as Twilight put all of her magic into the spell. As the last of the need magic left twilight’s horn and was now swirling around above their heads the magical seal was glowing with a faint purple hue much like Twilights magical aura. Soon the swirling magic above their head poured down into the center of the larger seal and it began to glow even brighter until all the magic in the air was sucked into the seal and the glow ceased. Before anypony could move to question if something was wrong the six ponies were engulfed in pillars of magical light that shined from the smaller circles at their hooves. Though none of the ponies could see it, the symbols below them began to appear in front of the column of light that engulfed them, facing into the larger circle. Soon another set of pillars of light erupted up from the larger circle in front of the symbols facing into it. Shortly after the columns of light ceased and all magical glow from the seal was gone as the ponies came face to face with six Champions that they had summoned.
“WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME IS THAT THING!?!?!”