I insisted on driving. Keeping an eye on traffic, exits, and offshoots kept my attention off the still aching hole inside.
I was wearing my collar, and I was sure there was a thrum in the metal now, quickening slowly as we moved further east. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack also had donned theirs. Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow were following us in Rarity’s car.
Twilight tucked her phone away in her back pocket. “Timber said he’d have the gate open for us,” she said with a shy smile.
“Ya sure you’ll be ok seein’ him again, Twi?” AJ asked.
“Yeah,” she said, a little more certain. “I’m happy where I am now and the past is what made me so.” She reached over and squeezed my thigh affectionally.
I clicked on my blinker before merging into the exit lane. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that had made the correlation in the car between road rage and signal lights. I’m sure every car has them. I even helped install new one’s on AJ’s truck when the original ones finally died. It’s right there on the steering column, for Celestia’s sake!
“So I’m still the only one feeling anything from the elements?” I asked.
“I’m starting to feel something, but it could just be vibration from the car,” Fluttershy said. She still had her hospital bracelet on under the sleeve of the sweater Rarity had lent her in place of her bloody and shredded blouse from earlier. “Should we be?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It may be because I have a gem and it’s the gem that’s resonating, but I’m not sure.” I frowned. “But I’m cut off from magic, so I shouldn’t be able to feel anything.”
“Maybe yer magic’s comin’ back,” AJ offered.
I reached inside, but I didn’t feel the warm glow I usually did this close to Twilight. I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t feel like it,” I said. “Anything from yours, AJ?”
She shook her head. “Ah tried t’ pony up while ‘Shy was getting ready,” she sighed. “Nothin’ happened.”
I turned off onto a forested road, gravel crunching under my tires. I saw the large sign for the camp up ahead. Memories drifted through my mind, including the giant wall of thorns that sealed the camp during Gloriosa’s rampage. The final moment where Twilight had finally cast off her fears of Midnight Sparkle.
“I never did hear what happened between you and Timber,” Fluttershy said. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “He just wasn’t as ready to leave the camp as he thought he was, and I found out later I was a bit more interested in someone else.”
I felt a bit of heat rise to my face.
“It still hurt a bit,” she admitted. “But I have some good friends. You may even know them.” She turned at that sentence and winked.
I pulled into the parking area for the camp and saw a battered old SUV with its back hatch open. Timber came into view soon after we had all piled out of the car, a duffel bag in his hands.
“Hey, ladies,” Timber said. His voice had lost none of the good humor since the last time we saw each other.
“Hey Timber,” Twilight said. “Going someplace?”
“Yeah,” he said as he shut the hatch of the SUV. “One of our cousins is graduating from college later this week and Gloriosa and I are heading out for the ceremony.” He dusted off his hands. “I left the lock open, so when you guys are done, just lock up the gate behind you, ok?”
“You aren’t going to stay until we’re done?” I asked. The vibration in my element was impossible to ignore now.
“Look, after what you guys did last year, I think I’d be more worried about things happening to me than you all,” he said. “Just don’t burn anything down and I think I’ll be ok with leaving you all to…” he waved his hands vaguely. “Whatever you’re looking for.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV and the engine rumbled to life. He waved as he pulled away, leaving us seven to find out what it was my element had signaled about.
The cave loomed in front of us.
“Is it just me,” Rainbow said. “Or is the entrance bigger than the last time we were here?”
I agreed. The boulders still sat where Twilight had shoved them, offering a comparison to the cavern opening. It was bigger, and visibly so.
“It doesn't make any sense,” Twilight said. “There’s no debris showing a recent seismological event that would have increased the size of the opening. This is completely contradictory to any speleomorphology I’ve ever heard.” Her eyes flashed for a second. “Though if magic had a hand in the speleogenesis, then I suppose I can’t rule anything out. I wonder…”
I reached over and booped her on the nose. “Explore first,” I said. “Theorize later.”
She rubbed the end of her nose. “You know that tickles, right?”
“Yes,” I said, stepping forward to lead into the cave.
I dimly heard behind me an exasperated sigh and smiled. I flicked on the flashlight I had and panned it around, its beam being joined by several others. We stopped at the impromptu stage we had played on and found a small fissure in the wall.
AJ played her beam across it. “That wasn’t there last time,” she said, leaning in and staring down the shaft. “There’s somethin’ glowin’ in there,” she remarked.
I stepped up and looked down, seeing a faint lambent glow. I also heard a faint chiming, like bells. It was familiar, and I slipped through the crack to the corridor beyond.
“Sunset, wait!” Twilight said. “It may not be stable!”
I ignored the shout and turned a corner, following the glow and the chiming. My collar began to tremble around my neck, almost starting to pull against me. I came to another corner, and when I turned past it, I stopped.
It wasn’t anywhere near as large, barely more than a sapling, but it was obvious as to its identity. The crystal limbs and jeweled branches were twins of the Tree of Harmony. I heard Twilight and the gang catch up to me, their awe causing them to slow and stare.
“It’s lovely!” Rarity said, her voice a little distant.
“The Tree of Harmony?” Twilight pondered. “How are there two?”
“How are there two of all of us?” Fluttershy countered.
“Magic,” Pinkie chirped. “It’s simple, really. Anything of direct power would influence the development of morphological entities in direct correlation to its spatial counterpart. The amount of change would depend on the interval between the two points - being defined as the square root of the sum of the squares of the separation between the points along three spatial dimensions - but it still allows for a great deal of identical growth.”
We all blinked.
“What?” she asked. “Do I have something in my teeth?” she started to run her tongue along her teeth, pulling a small mirror out of her pocket.
Sometimes I’m convinced she only pretends to be as innocent as she seems.
I took a step closer, and I felt my collar fly off my neck, hovering before the tree. A golden light began to link the two, and the tree began to grow, branches spreading, six in particular. I heard gasps as the girls were relieved of their collars as well, and I felt my geode pull free of the chain it was suspended from. I saw several other colored spheres fly forward, circling the tree. The golden glow began to increase, obscuring the activity and causing my eyes to water. The chiming was growing louder in my ears.
“What’s happening?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I wish I knew,” I said.
The glow died down, and hovering in the air were our seven collars, now each embedded with a gem. They floated over to each of us, fastening around our necks. I felt a surge as the clasp sealed, a feeling like a warm blanket washing over me.
Turning to the girls, I saw we had all ponied up. Faint light came from each gem, the geodes evident inside each of my friends' new accessories.
“Actual Elements?” Applejack breathed. “Land’s sake!”
“The geodes must have just been protoform magic,” Twilight said, pulling her’s in front of her enough to look at it. “The tree hadn’t grown enough to provide power to energize it until we brought magic from Equestria’s tree to revitalize it.”
“Protoform magic still needs something to stem from, Twilight,” I said. “It doesn’t just happen in a vacuum.” I rolled my shoulders, feeling some tension in the muscles.
I saw they were all staring at me.
“What?”
“Um, Sunset,” Twilight said, pointing.
I turned around, but as I did, I felt something tug at my back. My eyes widened. "Oh, horseapples," I spat.
“You, uh, appear to have wings, darling.” Rarity said.
They were small, barely visible from my peripheral sight, but they were certainly there. I also felt a bit of pressure grow in my head, centered above and between my eyes. Twilight and Rarity started to rub the same spot, and I saw spectral horns appear just as I had a few months ago.
Then the tree pulsed with another strong chime, and I stumbled, feeling magic wash through me. When I regained my footing, I looked around, seeing that the magic had affected us all.
Rainbow and Fluttershy’s wings were a little larger and sleeker, their feathers having taken on an additional bit of color. AJ and Pinkie were visibly more stocky, AJ’s muscle tone even more evident. Twilight, Rarity, and I all had horns growing from our hairlines, and the wings Twilight and I had were laced with iridescent feathers.
I looked at each of us, seeing that our hair had also taken some complimentary colors. I reached up and felt my horn, feeling the dim tactile sensation I was used to in pony form.
“Ok,” I said, feeling my wings furl slightly. “This is officially beyond anything I can even explain.”