Naturally the two hurried back to the campsite to share their amazing find with all of the others. Everyone, including those that were still sore and bruised from that rambunctious game of football gathered around in the mess hall to gaze at the seven crystals that Sunset Shimmer, Twilight and Spike found. Six of the crystals were still colorless but the one that Sunset Shimmer had touched and used still had a faint teal color to it despite the glow having faded. Sunset's appearance had returned to normal as well about a minute after setting the crystal down, the tattoo disappearing when physical contact with it was gone. Naturally there was some excited chatter, the loudest coming from Pinkie Pie, Sonata and the Crusaders who were loudly speculating on if they would get cool powers too if they picked up the crystals.
As for Sunset, she had already fetched her magical journal from her tent and was writing to Twilight. However she did not appear to be in as instead Spike the dragon was the one to write back, asking if she needed anything or wanted to get a message to the princess of harmony.
'No Spike, but maybe you can help me with something. Can you get a map of Canterlot that also contains the Everfree forest on it? On a page about the size of the ones in the journal?'
'Uh sure, we should have a book filled with maps but what am I supposed to do with it?'
'Tear out the page and press it to the page here in the journal.'
'WHAT?!?!?! Are you nuts?! Twilight's going to flip!'
'Well if I needed something normally Twilight would have a spell that would safely transpose the page but I want that map now so this is the way we have to do it.'
'Nuh-uh! Nooooooo way! I'll bet you anything she'll have some weird book sense and teleport in! Then I'll be grounded forever!'
'Look, I know how anal Twilight can get about her books, but come on. You know she can easily repair it with a simple spell.'
'Nope!'
'You can blame it on me for making you do it.'
'Nuh-uh.'
'I'll buy a bunch of this world's comics and sent them to you through the portal.'
'Welllllll...'
'And a carton of ice cream.'
'Make it three.'
'Two. And you can bet it'll be rocky road.'
'DEAL!'
Shaking her head, Sunset waited patiently for the little dragon to get her the map. It might have been helpful to see if princess Twilight could come through the Canterlot portal with some reference books and join them, but these days Sunset was hesitant to use the portals. She didn't doubt that Twilight calibrated everything correctly when she used her machine to open up the portal whenever, but the last time it had been used, time had gone a little wonky. After she had gone through to speak with Celestia and to make amends, the time had jumped a little. While in the human world she'd been gone for little over the day, when Jackie had gone through to make sure she was safe the guitarist came out in Equestria a day later, despite the travel seeming instantaneous for Jackie.
The thought that the machine being just a tiny bit off could make one lose time was a scary thought to Sunset and a big reason as to why she didn't want to just use the portals on a whim outside of the time when they were supposed to be open. If she or Jackie was caught in a jump again, then who knew how much time they'd be gone.
Sunset was shaken out of her thoughts when there was action from the book, Spike having pressed the map to it and the book acting as a scanner. Once it was finished, she thanks Spike and started comparing the map to the one they had of the area. After running through the map and calculating the distance, along with asking Spike for another page of just the map of Everfree in exchange for another carton of ice cream, Sunset's suspicions were given much stronger evidence now. So she stood and clapped her hands, calling for everyone's attention.
"I think I've figured it out. I had Spike from Equestria scan in some maps for me to compare to what we've got. For those of you that don't know, in Equestria there's also a place called Everfree forest, a forest that works very differently than any other place and filled with all sorts of creatures. But more important, inside of it is a location called the Castle of the Two sisters, where underneath of it, in a cave, was something called the Tree of Harmony. This tree was highly magical and created six gems that all of you know as the Elements of Harmony."
Adagio was quick on the uptake, looking highly intrigued as she turned her gaze to the crystals with renewed interest.
"Are you saying that the location of where you found these crystals would be the same location as to where the Tree of Harmony was in Equestria?"
"Yeah. I compared the maps and I even double checked my calculations, the locations match up."
Brow furrowed and deep in thought, Twilight was the next to speak up.
"I guess this would make sense though. Equestria and this world are strongly tied together. After all, the major cities share the same names and it seemed that just about everyone has a counterpart. So if there were places that had a lot of magic in this world, it would match places in Equestria where powerfully magical things like the Tree of Harmony would be. But this is the first case we've seen of powerful magic items that seemed to originate from this world."
"Well, it lines up with the idea that with all of the magic that's been introduced to this world between all the transformation and big battles, the human world is getting it's own sort of magic. That it'd find new ways to manifest itself shouldn't come as a surprise. Although between Starswirl's portal, the new portal in Los Pegasus and that rift between the worlds you opened up, we might take into consideration that the boundaries between the worlds have been weakened and the strong magical areas in Equestria are having a sort of influence on the same areas in this world."
The hypotheticals and theories would of gone on from there if Bobby hadn't politely raised his hand and asked the question on a few people's minds.
"What does that all mean?"
"Oh, uh. well basically since Equestria and this world have such a strong connection, we think that the new magic in this world might mimic some things from Equestria."
This time it was Sweetie Belle who was quick on the uptake.
"Like making it's own version of the Elements of Harmony?"
"Possibly. I mean comparatively, there's seven crystals to Equestria's six gems, these don't even have any color. But they give off strong magical readings and I could call upon magic when I picked one up. They could very well possibly be a human form of the elements, or at the very least they're strong catalysts that we can use to focus and call upon magic."
This lead to a round of excited chatter from all except Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, the two sitting quietly, thinking as they stared at the remaining crystals. At least up until Rarity pointed something very important out.
"That's all well and good darling. But who gets them?"
All speaking became quiet along with a few puzzled looks, which made Rarity clear her throat and go on to clarify.
"There are seven crystals. One of them clearly reacted to Sunset, but who will get the other six?"
This made Jackie scratch the side of her head, more puzzled than ever now.
"Well, I guess five would go to me, Tino, Poppy, Bobby and Sandy. Dunno where the sixth one would go."
"But I and the others were also the original Elements of Harmony in this world. It's possible they would go to us."
This earned a snort from Poppy, who did not bother to voice her thoughts so Rarity had to go beyond raising a brow at the mechanic.
"If there is something you wish to say..."
"Well... all things considered. After the way you fucked over Sunset awhile back, why do you think you'd get them?"
That was certainly an excellent way to open a can of tension. All five from Canterlot visibly tensed after that comment, some looking ashamed, others looking unhappy to have what was perhaps their greatest fuck up thrown in their face. It was definitely awkward for all others, except for Jackie who was mentally happy that she wasn't the one that said something stupid. But seeing how everyone was uncomfortable, her girlfriend included, the guitarist cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.
"Look, we can all guess about who gets what, or we can get scientific all up in here."
Smiling sheepishly at the deadpan stares all around, Jackie rubbed the side of her neck and continued on.
"Well, I don't remember much from my high school science classes, but like... if you got a question then don't you test it? So why don't we test it to see who gets what?"
That seemed to defuse some tension in the room, Twilight and Sunset mulling it over before both agreeing some field tests would be the best way to go. Heading out of the mess hall since they figured it might be better to do this outside, they headed over to the sun dial where Sunset placed all of the crystals onto it, but kept hers to the side for now.
"Alright, who wants to give it a try first?"
Immediately Jackie raised her hand and stepped forward, looking among the crystals before her hand was drawn to a particular one. As she picked it up, it started to faintly glow silver, her tattoo that was once black now silver as well as it slowly started to appear on her body. She gave a cheer before setting it back down and stepped back to let the next person try. Next would be Applejack, the crystal she was drawn to glowing a faint green as a green tattoo slowly started to appear on her body before she placed it back down. Next would be a Los Pegasian (since that seemed to be a pattern that was starting to get going) and the crystal she picked began to glow a faint, pale-gray lavender.
This went on on the same manner as Pinkie Pie and Tino went next, the crystals they picked starting to glow faintly with the same color as their eyes with unique tattoos to match. But then things became interesting when Rarity's hand was drawn to Tino's crystal as well, the lime green giving way to a rich dark blue that matched her tattoo. This was repeated when Bobby picked up Applejack's crystal and Fluttershy picked up Jackie's, the colors changing to their eye color as they held the crystal in their hand, an intrigued Sunset commenting on the situation.
"Huh, I wonder if this means both groups equally share power over the crystals? They've both used magic before after all..."
"Or perhaps the crystals are more blank slates at this point. While certain individuals are drawn to certain ones, until they're held they don't have any color to them."
Twilight's conjecture certainly sent Sunset's mind to work thinking over these possible implications. Assuming that if they were even faintly like the elements in Equestria, representing a certain trait of harmony, if they were blank slates then could that mean they could be used by anyone? Influenced by anyone? It was proved that magic was very finicky in this world, crowns and magic drained from others could turn people into demons one moment and in the next provide power that seemed the complete opposite. At any rate, what they had in their hands was something very powerful and potentially dangerous.
"I think we should run more tests. Each of you should try working with your crystal. You too Twilight."
"Huh? Why me?"
"There's seven Twilight, I'm pretty sure the one extra goes to you."
Sunset's smile slipped slightly as she noticed the young woman's hesitation, but Twilight tried to cover it with a smile and a shake of her head.
"No, it's fine. Besides, I'll want to watch and take notes!"
The matter seemed closed for now as Twilight quickly ran off to the mess hall to get her notebook and a pen from her backpack, leaving Sunset Shimmer to watch her go before turning back to the others, watching as they all discussed who would go first in using the crystals. All except Sandy and Rainbow Dash. They hadn't stepped forward to pick up their respective crystals at any point, instead staying back and seeming uncomfortable. Curious, Sunset decided to address Rainbow Dash first.
"Don't you want to try it out?"
"Huh? Oh, nah I'm good. Poppy can have the crystal."
"Are you sure? It might be best for everyone to try it out."
"I said I'm good."
Before Sunset could get another word out, the athlete stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets and headed off towards the tents. That was probably yet another conversation that would have to take place, but for now there was still Sandy. When asked about why she wasn't stepping forward to take a crystal, the white haired woman hesitated before explaining herself.
"I simply don't want to, Sunset."
"Why?"
"Well... I know it's important to figure out what's going on with this world, but what about my life? Because of magic I couldn't get any roles on the stage, I've had to work as a busker where I wouldn't be fired if all of a sudden I grew ears and my hair grew out."
Seeing the guilty look on Sunset's face, Sandy put on a smile to try and reassure the younger woman.
"I don't blame you for it, Sunset, I know it's not something that could have been controlled at the time. But I'm not needed for this and I don't want to keep doing this. Please respect my wishes, Pinkie Pie can have sole control of the crystal."
It was sad to think that Sandy wouldn't join them for this, but Sunset really couldn't say anything against her decision at the moment. While the elements in Equestria only worked when they were all together, there was still no telling yet if these crystals worked in the same way so she could not say for sure that the crystals needed to stay together. She couldn't even argue and say that they all needed to be together in case something like a hydra came into town, that sort of thing really only happened in Equestria.
"... alright Sandy, you don't have to be apart of this if you don't want to."
With a relieved sigh, Sandy gave a grateful smile to Sunset before stepping aside to join the rest of the peanut gallery (the Dazzlings, the Crusaders, Twilight and Spike) while the others seemed to have sorted out who would have first go with the crystal. Once everything was settled, the testing began...