“Can you stop laughing for just one second and help me out of this thing!?” Aegis Flare did her best to glare at the rolling figure of Bon Bon, but it wasn't easy with her being stuck in the tunnel of her obstacle course. She had been slowly getting used to her changed body over the past weeks, but she had forgotten to modify the course for her changes, hence her current situation.
“Heh, heh. Oh I really needed that. I can't believe that the great explorer of the Everfree, daughter of two of the top Black Guard members, is defeated by a little tunnel. How did this happen anyways?” Bon Bon looked over the trapped mare before gripping her tail with her mouth and giving an experimental tug.
“I forgot to reset the parameters on the course to account for my changes. Turns out my larger size and these are just too much for what I used to be able to fit through.” Bon Bon glances up and sees her friend fluttering her wings, causing her to pause and drop the tail once again.
“I keep forgetting that you have those now. That shouldn't be possible, you know just what I used to be.” The candy mare rubbed her chin with a hoof before noticing the trapped mare impatiently tapping on the side of her enclosure. “Oh right, sorry.”
Regaining her grip on the tail she began trying to tug her backwards. Unfortunately the alicorn's wings had managed to get far enough in that they prevented both forward and backwards movement. With a sigh Bon Bon released her grip and glared at the glowing tunnel in frustration. “Really, this is going to be one of those days, isn't it? First Twilight shows up yesterday and abducts Lyra when we were supposed to spend the day together, and now I found you stuck like this. What else can go wrong today?”
Aegis Flare winced as she heard this. “Please don't say that. After being around Pinkie all these years I've found saying something like that ends up being an invitation for it to happen, usually with her or Rainbow Dash going on a pranking spree. Though why would Twilight abduct Lyra?”
Bon Bon shrugged as she looked over the enclosure looking for a weak spot. “I'm not sure. She just showed up babbling something about meeting some old friends before she teleported away with her somewhere. I've come to expect her to do odd things, but this was stranger than normal.”
Aegis Flare thought for a few moments before she remembered a recent conversation and sighed. “I think she is trying to meet up with some ponies from Canterlot she used to go to school with. She mentioned that she used to go to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns with Lyra and she never even realized that Lyra even lived in town until I made a mention of it. Makes sense considering what I remember of her all those years ago the few times I saw her.” Bon Bon looked confused for a moment before the alicorn continued.
“I vaguely remember most of it, but every time I saw her she always was buried in a book. Only the princess or Spike seemed to be able to pull her attention away from them, even after some of the things I did to her mane and tail, though Spike chewing on her tail after I braided gems into it often woke her. I can only imagine what she would be like with those that considered her a friend.” Bon Bon rubbed at her chin a moment before she blinked as the tunnel obstacle began to blink before fading, freeing the trapped mare. Looking around she spotted Scootaloo, with a large bat on her back for some reason, over by the control area for the course, causing her to bring a hoof up to her face.
“Now why didn't either of us think about doing that?” Aegis Flare just sighed as she stretched her wings out, trying to remove the kinks.
“Probably because of all the recent stress we've been under. Me with all of this and you with Twilight's little event. I really need to take a vacation, maybe a month out in the Everfree would be a good idea.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she walked up with Scarlett who was beginning to doze off as the morning rolled on.
“That's not the only thing you missed, sis. Why is the sky like that?” Frowning at the filly, both of the mares looked up before their jaws dropped at what they were seeing. Instead of the usual morning like they were expecting, they found that the sky was split into two, one half with the sun reigning over it and the other the moon.
“How the buck did we miss that?” Bon Bon nods before her ears start twitching as an odd sound started to come from nearby. Looking around she quickly noticed the source of the problem and poked at the alicorn.
“Uh, don't look now, but I think the Everfree is coming this way.” Frowning at the earth pony's words, Aegis Flare looked over towards the forest before using a hoof to rub at her face.
“You just had to ask didn't you? Want to ask again and see what else pops up?” Bon Bon just glared at her until she sighed and shook her head before turning her attention back to the black vines that were slowly advancing from the forest. She lifted an eyebrow as she watched one of the vines rise up high above the other to touch a cloud causing it to start growing spiked vines of its own. “Bon Bon? Do you think that you could take my sister somewhere safe before seeing if the flower sisters have some kind of weedkiller to deal with this stuff? I think this may be just the kind of exercise I needed.”
The earth pony nodded before ushering the pegasus filly off, complaining the whole way, while the alicorn twisted her head around to loosen it up. “This is what I get for not clearing out the Everfree regularly, guess it's time to get to work.”
As she had never seen this type of plant before, she warily watched it as it steadily advanced on the town. She tossed up a barrier in its path first to see how it would react, and frowned as it just pushed on into it with the thorns easily slicing through her shield. “Well that could be a bit of an issue, though it only seems to be the thorns causing problems. I guess plan B it is then, usually is anyways.”
Rearing back for a moment she unleashed a wave of fire at the vines and, after a moments resistance, they soon caught before steadily burning to ashes. The bat-winged alicorn frowned as she watched this as, while the vines burned steadily, the thorns were unaffected by her magic though the flames created afterwards slowly ate away at them. She let the vines advance again twice more before burning them away to the same effect, though with the massive size of the forest they easily reached Ponyville from other directions. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but this would be so much easier if I was at least a passable flier. I'm just barely getting down how to glide and turn a bit, let alone taking off from the ground.”
As she glared at the vines her ears twitched as she registered an odd sound coming from above her. Looking up her eyes widened as she found that the infected clouds had not only increased, but also looked rather angry now. With a frantic dive to the side she barely avoided being fried by the lightning launched at her from the clouds, to which she quickly retaliated with a barrage of fireballs. While her attacks cleared the clouds relatively well, they were quickly replaced as more swarmed in. With the additional angle of attack, she was hard-pressed to keep the vines back as if she focused on on set of targets the other would soon swoop in after her.
The rest of the bearers of the Elements found her frantically trying to hold her ground against the plants while avoiding injury. She had been mostly successful yet her wings and legs still bore scratches from near misses, though those were slowly healing. “Flare! We've been looking everywhere for you, are you all right?”
Fluttershy and Twilight skidded to a stop next to the thestralicorn while the others repelled the vines with their hooves. “She looks okay, Fluttershy. But how is your magic unaffected by those things? Rarity said that hers was going out of control when she tried to use it to help her sister.”
Aegis Flare only shrugged as she caught her breath now that she had a moment to rest. “Everything seemed to work just fine as far as I could tell. Those thorns are real nasty pieces of work though since they seem to cut through anything I could throw at them and being scratched by them disrupted my casting a bit.”
With a frown, Twilight looked over towards her friends as they fended off the vines before she lit up her own horn. Going on a hunch she tried something a bit different and when a blast of power erupted from her horn to slam through a patch of vines her eyes widened in realization. “Of course! These things infect the area around them in a way much like the Everfree Forest! Using magic the usual way is disrupted but it has no effect on your personal energies so spells cast only with that are unaffected!”
“Yeah, that's great and all, but you haven't gotten around to showing us how to do that yet so how does it help us, Twilight?” Twilight just rolled her eyes in annoyance at Rainbow Dash before firing a beam of energy through the center of the mass, cutting a path.
“It helps since there are now two of us that can clear the way to the source of these things so one of us can rest while the other clears. Now everypony through that hole.” With a nod to her, the seven mares charge towards the opening she had made, while avoiding the thorns left behind, with both her and Aegis Flare using their magic to hold back the vines that tried to fill in the gaps.
Once the group had made it deep enough into the Everfree past the barrier they slowed to catch their breaths while looking around. “Why aren't they coming after us any more? There are still vines all over the place.”
Looking around Twilight frowned at Rainbow Dash's question before shaking her head. “I'm not sure. Maybe it has something to do with how the magic works in here compered to around Ponyville. Whatever the reason we need to find the source of these things and if they are going to ignore us then that's fine.”
As Twilight marched off ahead of them the others glanced at each other before shrugging and following after her. Aegis Flare was the first to catch up to her and kept pace next to her. “So what is going on with these things anyways? With how these came out of nowhere and seems to mess up the magic in an area I'd guess Discord had something to do with it, especially since I've never seen anything like them before.”
Twilight shook her head as she kept an eye on the nearby vines, blasting any that moved towards the group. “We already talked with him and he was offended that we would accuse him of this without asking him about it politely. Of course he didn't do much of anything to help out with solving the problem he seemed to have nothing to do with this. Zecora was driven out by the vines but she was able to bring most of her alchemical supplies, including a rare scrying potion that showed me a vision of some kind of crystal tree that the princesses retrieved the Elements of Harmony from. I think that the tree is somehow connected to all this and might need out help which is why we brought the Elements along... You do have yours with you, right?”
The orange mare rolled her eyes as she lifted her mane to reveal the Element of Courage at the base of her braid, holding it together. “I figure that I never know when I might need it so might as well always keep it close. Also did Discord actually say he knew nothing about these things or did he just let you all assume that from his antics? I don't think he ever really lies, but that doesn't stop him from using misdirection to make you think otherwise.”
The others glanced at each other for the answer but none of them could recall the draconequus ever coming out and saying so. “Gosh darnit. When we get back ah'm gonna have ta have a little talk with that snake about what it means ta be honest. Sure we shouldn't have just assumed this was his fault but if he knew anything then he should have told us.”
Fluttershy reached over to lightly pat at Applejack's shoulder in concern. “Um, well maybe he had a good reason not to say anything. We did just blindly accuse him which wasn't very nice, but I'm sure there must have been a good reason for him not to say anything.”
The shy mare's comment was met with frowns, causing her to flinch, but Aegis Flare soon just shook her head. “Well whatever caused this we should deal with it after we get rid of these things. How did you even know to come back here, Twilight? Last I heard you had abducted Lyra from spending time with her friend and was dragging her with you to Canterlot.”
Twilight paused a moment before continuing on with a slightly darker tinge to her cheeks. “Oh, you heard about that, huh?” She glanced over to see her friend nodding before continuing with a sigh. “Right, that wasn't my greatest moment, but when I got to talking with her I was reminded of the ponies that I used to be around back in Canterlot. It showed me just how bad of a friend I was back then and how I basically just abandoned them to move here.”
Her speech was met with sounds of protest from her friends, though they turned to look curiously at Aegis Flare who was chuckling. “Yeah, you did ignore nearly everything around you back then. Of course it was interesting seeing you flail around in panic when Spike started chewing on your tail to get at the gems I put it in.”
Twilight's jaw dropped at her friend before she started sputtering. “Wait, that was you! Do you know how long it took to break Spike of that habit!? Until we did I had to make sure to always keep him in my sight or else he would go after it in search of more gems to eat!”
She turned a glare on the rest of her friends, who had started giggling, before she shook her head with a chuckle of her own. “All right, fine. It was a little funny thinking back, but it wasn't then. Anyways when I was in Canterlot with Lyra I tried to reconnect with some old friends. While Minuette, Twinklieshine, and Lemons Hearts were pretty understanding it was a bit harder to reconcile with Moondancer.”
Twilight paused for a second which allowed one of her friends to speak up. “Wait, Minuette? Isn't she the twin sister of Ponyville's dentist, Colgate? Hay, do they get annoyed when you confuse the two of them.”
Rarity rolls her eyes at Rainbow Dash for not knowing the difference. “Oh darling, it's easy to tell the difference. Colgate has the persian blue mane with moderate blue stripes and Minuette has the moderate blue mane with persian blue stripes. Oh, how I wish that they would let me design a set of dresses for them, it's so hard to find twins that look so similar.”
Looking at her friends blankly for a moment, Twilight makes a mental note to pay more attention to who lives in Ponyville before continuing. “Anyways, it took a while, but we finally convinced Moondancer to let me explain everything to her. Thinking back I should have at least stopped by to explain why I couldn't make it to her birthday party instead of just taking off to Ponyville like I did. All of them were actually surprised when they finally noticed my wings, but when she saw them she gave me a chance to explain and she was actually very forgiving when I explained everything that had happened over the years. Actually she practically wouldn't leave my side after that and she kept staring at me when I wasn't looking for some reason.”
Her friends chuckled at Twilight's deadpan tone when she says that as Rarity spoke up. “Well it looks like somepony sure has an admirer.”
Twilight stopped to look back at Rarity blankly for a moment. “Really? Who?”
The lavender mare's friends all look at her for a moment before collectively planting their hooves across their faces and shaking their heads, much to her confusion. Shaking it off she goes back to her story. “It was actually earlier today that I was approached by one of the royal guards while I was spending time catching up with all my old friends. Some time during the night both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna went missing which was when I noticed the phenomenon with the sun and moon. Not only that another guard came running up telling me about the Everfree invading Ponyville and soon I had an entire group of guards surrounding me. The entire castle was in a panic, and since some of the guards noticed me and that I was an alicorn they assumed that I would know what to do and kept calling me princess even though I told them not to. Well it turns out that Moondancer is very well-read and actually knew the required procedures to take in case something like this happened so I put her and my other friends from Canterlot to organize everything there while I came out here to find out what was happening.”
With her story finished, Twilight turned her attention back to where they were going and did so just in time as her next hoofstep met empty air, causing her to let out a shriek of panic as she scrabbled at the edge. “We're here!”
All eyes turned towards Pinkie who had just started hopping down a set of stairs while the others only now noticed that they were at the gorge by the Castle of the Two Sisters. “Did... did we really just follow Pinkie Pie all the way out here?”
The other nod to Twilight before she shook her head and muttered about it 'Just being Pinkie' before they all followed her. As they traveled down the stairway they wondered how they could have missed it the last few times they were here as it started right next to the bridge across the chasm. As they reached the bottom of the stairs they found their next obstacle. “Dagnabbit. Now how are we going ta get through all of that?”
Applejack pointed a hoof towards a nearby cave entrance that was overrun with the vines as well as some sort of bulbous pod-like thing with a mouth attached to the end of some of them. Before any of the others could respond, a swarm of needles, scissors, and various other sharp object went flying by in a blue glow to start pruning away at the blockage. Within moment the cavern was cleared and the mares turned to look at a breathless Rarity. “What? I am tired of all this icky stuff and I just want to go back to the spa. The faster we are done here the faster I can go.”
The alabaster mare teetered a bit as she took a step forward. “Oh my. I had forgotten how much using my magic like that wears me out.”
Twilight shook off her shock before moving over to support her friend. “Are you crazy? Casting like that without proper training can burn out your magic or even worse! I didn't even know you knew how to do that much.”
Rarity just waved her off as she regained her balance. “Oh I'll be fine. My father showed me this trick when I was younger and told me to only use it in an emergency. Seeing as my regular magic doesn't work right this seemed like the perfect time to do so.”
Watching the alabaster alicorn walk towards the open cave, the others just shook their heads at her recklessness and followed her. As they entered they were halted as Fluttershy gave out a shriek of fear before cowering behind the others. “Dragon!”
Looking around the mares couldn't find what she was talking about until Rainbow Dash groaned and pointed at the spires lining the inside of the cave. “Fluttershy, that's not a dragon. It's just those stalac-thingies that are always inside of caves like this. It does kind of look like a dragon's maw though gaping open to bite down on us though.”
As Fluttershy tried to back further away the others glared at the prismatic mare before Aegis Flare moved to put her wing over Fluttershy's back to calm her. “Not helping, Rainbow.”
After a few moments of reassuring the shy alicorn, the group was able to continue and soon came upon the Tree of Harmony nearly cocooned in vines. Not quite sure how to proceed, Twilight flew up to get a closer look but was soon grabbed around a hoof by a vine. She easily severed it before it could do anything, but she noticed that it was much weaker than the previous ones causing her to take a closer look at the tree. “Girls, I think I know what we have to do. We have to give it the Elements of Harmony.”
The other mares just stared at her blankly for a moment before they all spoke collectively. “What!?”
Rarity was the first to recover out of them all. “How are we meant to rein Discord in if we can't use the Elements to turn him back to stone?” She ignored Aegis Flare's comment of maybe doing something more 'permanent' next time.
“Twilight... The Elements of Harmony... They're what keep us connected no matter what.” Twilight just lightly smiled at the others before she responded.
“You're right about one thing, Applejack. The Elements of Harmony did bring us together. But it isn't the Elements that will keep us connected. It's our friendship. And it's more important and more powerful than any magic. Our new forms may bring about many changes and challenges, and our friendships may be tested, but it will never, ever be broken. There's no time to lose.” She turned to face the tree with the others after the sadly nodded. “Everypony ready?”
Removing the Elements from her friend's respective necklaces and her crown, Twilight prepared to send them back towards the tree until the vines reached out to entangle her and attempt to grab the magical gems. This was a last effort by the plants as the gems, as if they had minds of their own, dart around swiftly before coming to rest on the branches of the tree with the Element of Magic at the trunk's center. The gems began to pulse with magical energy which flowed into the tree causing it to steadily glow brighter until it was impossible to look at. Once it reached it's brightest it released a wave of energy outwards that caused the vines to disintegrate as it touched them leaving the tree in a pristine condition.
Soon all that was left were two cocoons of vines which slowly faded away as well revealing the two missing princesses. On seeing them, Twilight quickly rushed forward to embrace the larger of the two who leaned down towards the smaller alicorn. As the two conversed, the tree glowed bright once more and a small sprout began to grow until it bloomed revealing a chest. Most of the mares were focused on the new object, but one of them was looking at something else with interest which was soon noticed by Princess Celestia. “Aegis Flare? Why are you looking at the Tree of Harmony like that?”
The others looked over to their friend now that her interest had been pointed out and she raised a hoof to point at the Element of Magic. “I was always curious about what signs you saw in Twilight becoming an alicorn, and seeing this it actually makes a bit of sense now, though she isn't the only one with a mark like that really.”
Her eyes lighting up in understanding, Celestia just lightly smiled before nodding. “Yes, when we found the tree it already had the sun and moon on it yet until young Twilight came along the star was always a mystery. I had thought it was just due to the shape of the Element of Magic but when she had that surge that fateful day it all became clear. True it was not the only sign, but it was the one that had me the most hopeful.”
“But what about our cutie marks? You were so surprised when we all became alicorns but if this is why you thought Twilight would become an alicorn then shouldn't you have expected it of us as well?” Celestia looked down at Pinkie Pie in confusion before looking at the tree again.
“I do not see what you mean. The tree is unchanged since my sister and I first found the Tree of Harmony and retrieved the Elements from it to battle Discord. We have returned many times to study the tree but never once have we seen your marks on it.” Pinkie Pie just tilted her head a bit while squinting up at the tree.
“Hmm, nope! They're still there! See there's mine, then Rarity's, Applejack's, Rainbow Dash's, Fluttershy's, and Flare's!” With each name she pointed at the respective Element of Harmony. Princess Celestia's eyes widened as each one was pointed out though none of the others noticed as she was facing away from them.
“Pinkie, those aren't the tree. Those are the Elements... of... Harmony...” Twilight's voice trailed off as she noticed her mentor doing something she had never seen before. At that moment the larger princess had her hoof buried squarely across her face as realization finally caught up to her. Princess Luna, having followed all this, chuckled as she patted her sister on the shoulder.
“Well sister, it seems that you have finally been given a sign. Shall we go through with it all now?” The smaller mares looked confused at her words, but Celestia just rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Fine. But I will not be the only one doing all the work. You shall be helping just as much.” Princess Luna just nodded and looked proud at getting her sister to concede for once as the older sister turned back to the group. “We shall need all of you to come to Canterlot in a weeks time. That should give you ample time to prepare as well as give Twilight time to study that chest a bit.”
“Prepare? Prepare for what?” Aegis Flare wasn't sure if she wanted to know, especially if it involved more of the princess' plans involving them.
“You'll see.”
<><><><><><><><><><>
When the seven alicorns arrived back in Ponyville, the princesses having rushed to get back to Canterlot, they found an odd sight awaiting them. “Spike? Why is Discord hiding behind you like that?”
Spike looked behind him for a moment before he ran his claws through his head-spikes. “Well that's an interesting story. You see when you left me here to keep an eye on him I kind of got a bit bored and asked what all these things were. He explained told me how they were an old trap that he had set for the princesses when they first fought that he had completely forgot about. After hearing that I happened to mention how Flare wouldn't be too happy with him and he proceeded to use me as a shield until you all returned.”
“Wait, we went through all that trouble and Discord knew what was going on the whole time!?” Rainbow Dash snorted and made as if she was about to charge until a hoof stopped her. Aegis Flare glared at the draconequus for a moment, causing him to flinch away, before she just sighed and turned away.
“Just leave him. He'll get everything he deserves some day but right now I'm too tired to bother with him. Besides, I doubt he even could have done anything even if he wanted to. I may not know everything about chaos magic, but I do know that alone it is inherently unpredictable and mixing chaos with chaos is a really bad idea. Knowing our luck it would have probably caused all the vines to explode, violently.”
Multiple jaws dropped at that before they slowly back away from Discord. Forgetting his fear he looks offended at the avoidance. “Oh come on now. The chances of that happening is too small to measure. It's more likely that the town would get a new layer of sour cream than that. Of course why would I even bother changing something that I created in the first place?”
Both Pinkie and Fluttershy look at him sadly for a moment before the former pegasus responded. "Even if you couldn't do anything, you could have at least helped in some other way. That's something that friends do when their friends are in trouble.”
Discord froze up before looking guilty at the two ponies that had given him a chance and even helped find creative ways to satisfy his chaotic urges. With a snap of his fingers he teleported away to consider just what they meant to him, as well as what he could do to stop disappointing them.