//------------------------------// // Chapter twelve // Story: Twilight the hybrid // by WolfGoddess1990 //------------------------------// Twilight read from the book, "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now--" Everypony shouted, "The Everfree Forest!" They all looked at the forest, "Whee! Let's go!" Pinkie said starting to go into it. "Not so fast." Twi said stopping her. "Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this on my own." "No can do, sugar cube. We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone. We're stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple." They all agreed going in, "Especially if there are candy apples in there. What? Those things are good." Twi sighed following, deep inside they looked around, "So, none of you have been in here before?" "Ugh, heavens no! Just look at it - it's dreadful." Rarity gaged. "And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria." Twi looked at AJ, "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nopony knows. You know why?" Dash said looking like she was on a hunt. "Rainbow quit it." "Because everypony who's ever come in has never come out!" The cliff gave out when she said that and everyone started falling down. "Fluttershy! Quick!" "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness." Twilight dug her claws into the earth trying to stop falling. She stopped right before a cliff, "I am so glad I got these..." The cliff started to rumble, "Maybe I spoke too soon..." "Hold on! I'm a-comin'!" AJ said sliding down and reaching out her front hooves, "Grab on." "But my claws might..." "Just do it sugarcube." Twi grabbed on to AJ before her cliff gave out on her, "Applejack, what do I do?" If only I was born with wings! AJ looked up, "Let go." "Are you crazy?" "No, I ain't. I promise you'll be safe." "That's not true! I'm a dragon hybrid, not a cat, even I won't survive a fall like that." "Now listen here, what I'm sayin' to you is the honest truth, if you let go, you'll be safe, because our friends will catch you." Twi wasn't so sure they could hold her weight but she let go anyways, Dash and Shy caught her, "Whoa Fluttershy a little more help please!" "Sorry Rainbow Dash, I'm not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two." They finally got her on the ground and both looked tired. "Yeah sorry I'm so heavy it comes with my dragon species, it's the reason why they have larger dragon wings then feather wings." They started walking, "Then how come you don't have any but Spike does?" Twi looked at her bare back, "I'm a hybrid, in genes, you can't get the best of both worlds, my father was a unicorn, so I got the horn but not the wings." "Wait if your father was a unicorn, then your mother was a dragon, how were they able to..." "She can shrink and grow her size, okay!" Twi said blushing. A mighty roar was heard, and they saw, "A manticore! We've gotta get past him!" "You're a hybrid like him, can't you talk to it?" Twi looked at them, "I might be a dragon hybrid but that doesn't mean I can understand other different hybrids." They all tried attacking it in different ways, until... "Wait!" Shy shouted she walked up to it, "Shhh... It's okay." He showed her a thorn, "Oh, you poor, poor little baby." "Little?" "Now this might hurt for just a second." She pulled it out it roared, "Fluttershy!" But then it started to purr and lick her, "Aw you're just a little ol' baby kitty, aren't you? Yes, you are, yes you are." Everyone walked passed the manticore, "How did you know about the thorn?" Twi asked. "I didn't. Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness." Twi smiled a bit, as they walked on. "No, my eyes need a rest from all this icky muck." Rarity said then it got dark, "Well, I didn't mean that literally." They tried to look around. "That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn't even know it." They started bumping into each other, "I didn't see you there, my apologies." "I was right here... ugh..." "Oh wait, I think I stepped in somethin'." "Agh we can't do anything in the dark..." Twi said lighting her horn, then Fluttershy screamed, "It's just mud." Then they all started screaming when they saw the demonic trees, but then they stopped when they heard Pinkie laughing. "Pinkie, what are you doing?! Run!" "Oh girls, don't you see?" She started to dance as music played, "When I was a little filly and the sun was going down..." "Tell me she's not..." "The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..." "She is." "I'd hide under my pillow, from what I thought I saw, but Granny Pie said that wasn't the way, to deal with fears at all." "Then what is?" "She said, 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears." "You'll see that they can't hurt you, just laugh to make them disappear.' Ha! Ha! Ha!" Her laughter turned the trees back to normal making them all gasp, "So, giggle at the ghostly, guffaw at the grossly, crack up at the creepy, whoop it up with the weepy, chortle at the kooky, snortle at the spooky, and tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna laugh!" They all laughed at the trees during her song, Twi wondered where did that music come from? Was this a normal occurrence in Equestria? "And they called me odd in Canterlot..." Twi whispered, looking at the others, they didn't seem put off by music randomly playing, so it must be a normal occurrence, she wondered if she started randomly bursting into song would music play? Most likely, but then she would probably get stared at, was that was what it took to get the results she wanted, to just randomly sing? She shook her head, this really was a strange place, she rammed into another pony as she was forced to stop, how long have they been walking? She looked at what made them stop to see a raging river, "How are we gonna cross this?" Oh, I don't know we have two pegasi who can fly us across? Then again they might be too tired from carrying her to carry the others across... then they heard distant crying, "Huh?" They went upstream to find a sea serpent? "What a world, what a world." "Excuse me, sir. Why are you crying?" "Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply horrid." Twi's eye twitched, she thought it was a guy but it sounds more like a girl the way it talked. "Oh, give me a break." "That's what all the fuss is about?" "Why, of course, it is. How can you be so insensitive?" "Oh, just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales." He sniffed, "I know." "And your expertly coiffed mane." "Oh I know, I know." "Your fabulous manicure." He gasped, "It's so true." "All ruined without your beautiful mustache." "It's true, I'm hideous!" "I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected." She ripped out a scale making him yelp, "What did you do that for?" "Rarity, what are you-" Slash, he fainted moaning, and Rarity used her magic to put her tail on his mustache. "Oh-hohoho! My mustache. How wonderful." "You look smashing." Twi came up to her, "Oh, Rarity, your beautiful tail..." "Oh. It's fine, my dear. Short tails are in this season. Besides, it'll grow back." "So would the mustache." Dash whispered and Twi gasped, "We can cross now. Let's go. Ah!" He came up from under her, "Allow me, by the way..." "Yes?" "Are you a dragon or pony?" Finally, someone who reacts to the fact she's a hybrid! "I'm both." She said as they hopped on his back across. As they traveled Twilight finally spotted what they were looking for, "There it is, the ruin that holds The Elements of Harmony. We made it!" "Twilight, wait for us!" AJ said. "We're almost there. Whoa!" Twi shouted as she nearly fell off the cliff, Dash pulled her back up by her tail, "What's with you and falling off cliffs today?" Twi and Pinkie sighed, "Now what?" Dash flapped her wings, "Duh." "Oh yeah." Twi stopped Dash, "Are you sure you're rested enough to fly across?"