//------------------------------// // Into the Earth // Story: The Meaning of Harmony // by KatonRyu //------------------------------// The first part of the trail went through a pine forest. The scent of the trees had a revitalizing effect on Sunset, and apparently also on the hungover Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Within minutes, they were back to their usual selves. Rainbow Dash flew closer to Sunset. “Hey, um, I’m sorry for the way I reacted this morning. I may have had a bit too much cider last night, and I’m never much of a morning pony, sooo….” She sheepishly looked the other way. Sunset smiled at her. “No problem, Rainbow. I probably would have reacted the same way if I were hungover and woken up by an explosion. In fact…” she went on, “I actually was in a situation like that, although nowhere nearly as dangerous.” “You were? What happened?” Applejack asked. “It happened in the human world, the first year I was there for the Fall Formal,” Sunset began. “I’d won the title, actually pretty legitimately too. I could act the part of ‘nice new girl’ quite well, so I got a lot of votes. I had quickly learned that a title like this one gave you social power in school.” The others were all listening, silently looking at her. Even Twilight seemed intrigued. She’d never heard this story either. “Anyway, that night there was, of course, a really big party at CHS. Technically the students weren’t allowed alcohol, but you know how those things go,” Sunset said. “That sounds very irresponsible,” Twilight interjected. “Developing minds should not…” “Twilight.” “Yes, Applejack?” “Why don’t we let Sunset continue her story?” Twilight smiled sheepishly and Sunset went on. “Twilight is sort of right. In Equestria, I never drank. I needed my mind sharp and not clouded by anything for my magic, but in that world, as far as I knew, magic did not exist. I had my plans made and truth be told I was actually quite happy at having won the Fall Formal title. So, surrounded by a bunch of cheering students, I agreed to go have some beer. Since I’d never done anything like it…I got pretty drunk, pretty fast. At that point, the teachers found out we’d brought beer and we had to leave.” Sunset paused for a moment. “So, what happened afterwards?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Well, at the time I didn’t actually have a home yet, so I snuck back into the school through a back door and went to my hiding place, which was in the attic, right above the gym. The next morning was Saturday, so I figured I’d be able to sleep in.” Sunset stopped and looked at Pinkie Pie. “Sadly for me, Pinkie Pie and some others decided to continue the party the next morning, but someone had messed with the volume of the speakers. I thought the school was being blown up, it was that loud. It startled me so much I fell off my makeshift bed. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a worse mood than I was that day. I also don’t think I touched another glass of booze after that day.” The others laughed. Sunset looked at Rainbow Dash again. “So, again, no worries. I’ve been in the same situation. I’m actually amazed you got over it so quickly.” Rainbow Dash gave her a smug look. “Yeah, well, I’m experienced with the drinking of cider,” she said. “Except at the barn party, of course,” Pinkie Pie reminded her happily. “We do not mention that party!” Rainbow said heatedly, once again causing everypony to laugh. “You walked right into that one, Rainbow, serves you right for tooting your own horn,” Applejack said, still chuckling. Sunset saw Twilight looking at her, and walked over to her. “Feeling a bit more at home again?” Twilight asked her. “Definitely. I mean, it’s still strange, but everypony’s so similar to the friends I know at CHS. I guess you know that feeling, though,” Sunset said. Twilight nodded. “I think it’s great what friendship can do. Even though you may not know the pony versions of your friends in the same way, your bond of friendship with them carries on between our two worlds. Whatever magic lies ahead, as friends we can make it through. That’s something I’ve definitely learned in my time in Ponyville. In fact, I think I learned more in my time there than I ever did in Canterlot.” “I used to notice Canterlot was never that social anyway,” Sunset said. “Not that social?!” Rarity interjected with a look of utter shock on her face. “Whatever gave you that idea, darling?” “Well...everypony only seemed to care about themselves. It was all superficial and shallow.” She grimaced. “I guess that rubbed off on me.” Rarity came closer to Sunset. “You’ve got it all wrong, dear. Canterlot is the absolute pinnacle of high society. All trends are made in Canterlot. Sure, Manehattan has its share of grandeur but nothing matches the magic and gorgeous style of the Canterlot elite,” she said passionately. “Begging your pardon, Rarity, but I seem to recall one party where those stylish ponies thought we were a bunch of country yokels,” Applejack said. Before Rarity could protest, Applejack went on, “Although you did tell them we were your best friends and the most important ponies you knew. So at least some stylish ponies have their hearts in the right place.” She winked at Rarity. “You’ve all been through a lot together,” Sunset said slightly ruefully. “No wonder you’re such good friends.” “We weren’t always, really,” Applejack said. “You weren’t?” Sunset asked in surprise.  Applejack shook her head. “Rarity and I never really got along at first.” Rarity took over. “But over time, we grew to understand each other a lot better, and that brought us closer together.” She and Applejack gave each other a small smile. “I used to think that friendship only existed to manipulate others,” Sunset said. “I never really believed anypony genuinely cared about anypony else.” She paused, looking off into the distance. “The only ponies I ever truly cared about were my parents. When I began studying under Princess Celestia, however, I lost contact with them. I was too absorbed in my study of magic, too concerned with becoming more powerful. I don’t even know how they’re doing right now.” Twilight put her wing on Sunset’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sunset. Once we’ve found the Forges and defeated the dark force you can go and visit your parents. They’ll be so proud of you, I know it.” Sunset blinked a few times to clear away the tears that had formed in her eyes, almost unnoticeably. “Thank you, Twilight.” She looked at the others. “Thank you all…for being my friends.” “Don’t get all sappy on us, now,” Rainbow Dash said with a wink. “We’ve got a long way ahead of us, you know.” “I know. And I wouldn’t want anypony else with me on that long way,” Sunset replied. As the group traveled further into the mountains, the trees began to thin out and the path got steeper. It was only very late in the afternoon when they reached the Fender outpost. It was a small wooden cabin built from whole tree trunks, facing a sheer cliff on the west side of the path. Despite being small, it still had two floors. The group headed inside and found the lower floor had a fireplace. There was an open staircase upstairs. The upper floor was only half as big as the ground floor, and apart from a very small guard rail completely open. The upper floor didn’t have beds, so the ponies simply shrugged off their saddlebags and decided to sleep in their sleeping bags. Twilight headed over the wall furthest away from the stairs and turned around to face Sunset. “Sunset, why don’t you put your stuff next to mine? That way I can cast an inverse shield spell on us so we won’t blow up the outpost if we have a nightmare again tonight.” She looked at the others. “And it will keep things quiet for you as well.” “Very kind of you,” Rainbow Dash said drily. “Now let’s go outside. Watching the sunset from the mountains can be quite breathtaking…although not as cool as seeing one from the sky,” she added smugly. She flew downstairs, but before she could reach the door Sunset had already overtaken her. She galloped over to the edge of the cliff and gazed out over the countryside of Equestria, towards the setting sun. There, in the distance, she saw it. The heat haze in the air, glowing red in the rays of the setting sun. She felt energy rushing through her as she finally witnessed the sunset shimmer again. It had been so long… “I’m guessing you like the view?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying slightly above Sunset. Sunset simply nodded, truly taken in by the beauty of the land, bathing in the red glow. “It’s beautiful,” Twilight said, walking up next to Sunset. “It really suits you,” she went on. Sunset looked away from the beauty for a moment to give Twilight a confused look, but Twilight just kept looking ahead, so Sunset turned back to it as well. The others joined in too, and together they watched as the sun disappeared behind the western horizon. That night, after eating their fill from the supplies at the outpost, the group got ready to get some sleep. Sunset sat staring into the fire in the fireplace, mesmerized by the flames and lost in thought. She was anxious to go to bed, yet also quite tired. The thought of having to face her nightmares again wasn’t a pleasant one, however. “Sunset?” Twilight said softly behind her. Sunset sighed and got up. She used a dousing spell to put out the fire and lit up the ground floor of the outpost with her horn. “I’m coming, Twilight,” she said. “Don’t worry, Sunset. We’ll get through this together,” Twilight said encouragingly. Sunset smiled at her. “I know we will,” she said, putting on a confident face for her friend. In her heart, though, she shuddered as she climbed the stairs and unrolled her sleeping bag. Twilight cast the inverse shield spell, and after a quick ‘good night’ she went to sleep. Sunset, meanwhile, lay awake a bit longer, looking at Twilight. She was capable of maintaining a strong shield even in her sleep. Sunset wondered if Twilight even knew just how unique she was. While magic without conscious upkeep was widespread, it was seldom done on such intricate spells. Then again, Twilight wasn’t just a unicorn anymore. Yet even for an alicorn, creating and maintaining a shield designed to block uncontrolled violent outbursts of magic capable of leveling a building couldn’t be easy. And Twilight did it in her sleep. “You are one amazing pony, Twilight…” Sunset muttered. Then she turned onto her other side and tried to get some rest. It was nearly morning when Sunset once again had the nightmare. Just like before, she walked through the crystallized, cold forest, and reached the clearing where her friends were waiting for her, already turned into crystal. And, just like before, her magic exploded out of control before she could reach them. Yet this time, when her magic went rogue, she felt a slight trace of something else. Something warm, kind, and familiar. Before she could dwell on it, however, the explosion happened. Magic still crackled in the air when Sunset opened her eyes. She immediately looked at Twilight, who was staring back at her. “Are you okay?” Sunset asked. Twilight nodded. “I think we woke up at the same time. Being so close together must have caused the nightmares to happen at exactly the same time,” she said. “At least the shield held, though.” Sunset looked around, and indeed the magenta bubble was still looking just as strong as it had when Twilight had first cast it. She looked past the magenta walls at the others, who were still asleep. “What time is it, anyway?” Sunset asked. Twilight glanced at a watch she brought along. “About four,” she replied. She sighed. “I guess we can go back to sleep for a bit…even though we need to get up in two and a half hours.” Sunset got up and stretched. “I think I’m going to take an early morning walk. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep again now, anyway,” she said. “Alright. Make sure you get back in time,” Twilight said as she lay back down. Sunset nodded and stepped out of the shield spell. Twilight had told her the spell sequence to allow her passage, so she’d be able to get out if Twilight was asleep. Quietly, Sunset made her way downstairs. She stepped outside and shivered in the cold early morning air. The sun hadn’t come up yet and the sky was still dotted with stars. Sunset decided to scout ahead on the path the group would be taking that day, and headed deeper into the mountains. It seemed eerily quiet, something that reminded Sunset of her nightmare. As she walked she began thinking about the different elements of it. Every time, it began somewhere in a forest which was already crystallized. Every time, the air felt unnaturally cold. What could it all mean? Was the nightmare a vision of what would happen if the dark force they tried to stop managed to defeat them? If so, then why did only princesses get the dream? Was there something special about those ponies, something that others lacked? It couldn’t have anything to do with being an alicorn, at least, because Sunset wasn’t. She hadn’t even been a pony at all when the nightmares began. That meant there was another reason for it, but what? Destiny? Sunset had never cared much for the notion of destiny if it didn’t involve her becoming powerful. If she was completely honest with herself, the idea that her actions were ultimately not hers had scared her back then, and it still did now. Even her cutie mark, proud of it though she was, sometimes made her feel like she had no choice in anything. Perhaps that was why she had decided to rebel against Princess Celestia. Sunset had always maintained, even to herself, she’d done it to claim what was rightfully hers, but hadn’t she just been afraid of the truth? “Ugh!” Sunset angrily kicked a small rock off the path. She knew that getting angry about the things that had happened was useless, as was getting angry at things yet to come. She had her friends, Princess Celestia had forgiven her, and she was on a quest to save Equestria. The future hadn’t been written yet, it couldn’t be. “I make my own choices…” Sunset muttered. She sighed and looked up at the sky. It was already beginning to get lighter. If she didn’t get back to the outpost soon, she’d miss breakfast. She turned around and began to head back. With each passing step, the terrain seemed to become rougher. The path was just a faint outline now, recognizable only because it was much dustier than the surrounding rocks. What sparse trees there had been before were now far behind the group. Sunset was glad she was in her true, equine form, because climbing a trail like this as a human would have been torture. As a pony, though, it wasn’t all that easy either. Nopony spoke much, not even Rainbow Dash, who was flying above the group, unbothered by the rough terrain. Sunset didn’t know how long they had been walking for today, and she had no clue how far there was still to go. She couldn’t really focus on much more than just continuing to walk up what felt like a sheer cliff by now. Because of that, she didn’t immediately notice the faint stirring in her magic. It was subtle, almost like how thinking of a feeling can put a ghost of that feeling in one’s mind. When Sunset noticed it, she at first thought it was just some trace of the nightmare, but the feeling gradually became stronger, though never more than faint brush against the outer edges of her magic. Even so, the feeling worried her. She walked closer to Twilight. “Do you feel that?” she asked softly. Twilight nodded. “Yes. It’s that same kind of magical resonance.” “What do you think it means?” Sunset asked. “I wish I knew. I think this feeling means we’re getting closer to the Forge, though. I don’t know what else could be causing it,” Twilight replied. Sunset nodded slowly and took a deep breath. There was no sense in getting too worked up over this, not yet. And yet, as she looked at each of her friends, she saw glimpses of them frozen in crystal in that dark forest… She was shaken from her musings by Rainbow Dash. “Hey! I think I see the entrance to the mine, just a bit further!” “Oh, thank Celestia!” Rarity exclaimed. “My delicate hooves aren’t made for this kind of terrain.” “Doesn’t bother me,” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. “Rainbow, darling, I seem to recall you wanted me to fix your Wonderbolts uniform after your little training mishap. It would be such a shame if something happened to it, wouldn’t it?” Rarity asked sweetly. Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously and mumbled, “Shutting up now…”  Applejack chuckled. “Nice once,” she complimented Rarity, who replied with a dignified, yet smug smirk. The terrain began to level out as the group approached the entrance of the mine and Sunset could feel the strange feeling in her magic getting just a little bit stronger still. She glanced at Twilight, who looked a bit worried, but still kept walking towards the mine’s entrance. The mine was carved into the mountainside, with all that protected it from the outside being a pair of rickety old doors that had evidently seen better days. A couple of ponies wearing helmets and blue coveralls walked around outside. One of them, an imposing looking stallion, came over when he noticed Twilight and the others. “Good afternoon, Your Highness. My name is Gemdust, the foreman of the Cheyenne Mines. I presume you’re here to investigate the strange discovery we made here?” he asked. Twilight nodded. “We are. Could you tell us more about it?” The stallion inclined his head. “Of course. I’ve worked in these mines for many years, but this is the first time we ever came across something like this. One of the miners had discovered found an area with an unusual concentration of gemstones. We wanted to build another tunnel in that area to take advantage of his discoveries, but our engineer said that there was a cave system just beyond the point where we wanted to build our tunnel. We opened it up, and it was immediately obvious that this wasn’t just a cave filled with geodes. There were a lot of crystals there, but many of them had been very precisely cut, and there were markings on the floor.” Twilight had taken out parchment and a quill and was noting down everything Gemdust told her. “Anything else that stood out?” she asked. “Well, there is a very strange aura in that room. It feels like some kind of magic is in the air there, and it’s much colder in that cave than anywhere else in the mine. It’s making everypony rather uneasy, so we’re very happy to have you here to check it out.” Twilight nodded slowly and then looked at her friends. “Do you reckon this is the place?” Applejack asked. “I’d imagine so. I’ve never heard of any ancient construct that matches this description.” “Well, then what are we waiting for?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Let’s go inside!”  Twilight looked at Sunset, who could now clearly feel the unease in her magic, and knew Twilight was feeling the same way. She gave Twilight a small nod of encouragement. “Right. Gemdust, could you show us to the cave?” Gemdust nodded. “Of course, right this way.” Gemdust led them into the mine, which consisted of a long hallway, with lockers and carts full of gemstones lining the walls. Both Spike and Rarity were looking at the gems with wide eyes and Sunset chuckled. “I know Spike eats them, but I didn’t expect you to drool over these gems, Rarity,” she said. “Darling, these gemstones are of exquisite quality. They haven’t been cut or polished yet, and yet they’re this lustrous. It’s remarkable,” Rarity replied, barely even bothering to look away from the glittering stones. At the end of the corridor, there was an elevator that looked like it was nowhere nearly strong enough to haul up even a single pony, let alone carts full of gemstones, but it seemed to be the only way of getting deeper into the mine. Gemdust opened the doors of the elevator and turned around. “I’d advise all of you to leave your bags up here and put on coveralls and a helmet. We haven’t had any collapsing shafts, but sometimes small rocks do fall from the ceilings. Aside from that, it’s pitch dark down below. You’ll need the light from the helmets to see anything, although many of our unicorn workers prefer the light from their horns.” “So…pitch dark and cramped, huh?” Rainbow Dash said nervously. “Scared?” Applejack said teasingly, giving Rainbow Dash a sideways glance. “Of course not!” Rainbow Dash said a little too quickly. “I mean, I’ve been in plenty of caves before, haven’t I?” “Most ponies, even those who regularly explore caves are bothered by the mine shafts because they’re so deep and cramped. I imagine it’s even worse for a Pegasus like yourself. But I assure you, it’s completely safe here. We have regular inspections on the structural integrity of all of our tunnels and we haven’t ever had any incidents,” Gemdust said. “If you say so…” Rainbow Dash said, now not even trying to hide her nervousness. A short while later, the group was clad in miner’s clothes. “The color of these coveralls clash horribly with my mane,” Rarity pouted. “I look absolutely ghastly.” “If you’d rather get rock dust all over your coat…” Applejack said with a shrug. Rarity shuddered. “I see your point,” she conceded. “Are we all ready?” Twilight asked curtly. Sunset knew that the weird resonance in her magic was making her uncomfortable, and she didn’t blame her one bit. The sooner they got to the Forge, the sooner they could go back out. One by one, everypony nodded. “Good. Gemdust?” Gemdust nodded and beckoned them into the elevator. He pressed a button, and with a loud rattle the doors slid shut. The elevator jerked and began to descend into the depths. Deeper and deeper the elevator went. As it did, the temperature began to rise. “Aren’t we there yet?” Fluttershy asked softly. She looked a bit paler than usual. “The cave is at the lowest point of the mine,” Gemdust replied with an apologetic look on his face. “We should be there shortly, though, and the cave is a bit more spacious than the tunnels, so you shouldn’t have as much trouble with your claustrophobia, miss,” he added, with a look at Rainbow Dash, who was breathing very quickly and shallowly. Rainbow Dash gave a small nod, but no other reaction. Meanwhile Sunset wasn’t feeling too great either, though her unease had nothing to do with claustrophobia. Her magic was agitated at the foreign presence and it was pushing at it, like the immune system fighting a disease. It was a far cry from the levels it took in the nightmares, but it was still clearly noticeable and Sunset knew Twilight was feeling it too, perhaps even stronger given that her magic was more powerful. “Are you okay?” she asked softly. “My magic is getting restless. I don’t know what to expect when we’re close to the Forge,” Twilight replied. Sunset put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I don’t know either, but we’re all together here. We can do this,” she said. Despite not feeling as confident as her words made her sound, Sunset could still feel a warmth in her magic now, a warmth she’d felt before, but she couldn’t quite place it. Regardless, her magic seemed to calm down a bit because of it. Twilight, too, seemed to notice it because she looked confused for a second, but then she smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.” With a short lurch, the elevator came to a stop and the doors rattled open. “Here we are. The cave lies at the far end of this tunnel, on the right. I’ll remain here at the elevator. Wouldn’t want to get in the way,” Gemdust said. “Thank you, Gemdust. We’ll be back soon,” Twilight promised. With a quick look at her friends, Twilight lit up her horn and stepped forward, followed closely by the others. Together, they headed into the darkness of the mineshaft. The tunnel wasn’t extremely long, but because it was so dark it felt much longer, and with every step the strange magic became a bit stronger. Eventually, they reached the end. On their right side was another short tunnel, which opened up into a cave unlike any Sunset had ever seen. It was almost perfectly round. Even the roof was a perfect dome. The walls were lined with crystals, and around the cave, evenly spaced, there were six gems that glowed a cool blue, illuminating the cave, but strangely nothing outside of it seemed to be lit by it. The short tunnel heading into the cave was completely black. At various places throughout the cave, massive crystal arrangements had been placed. Some were highly reflective, some seemed more prismatic, but all had clearly been cut and carefully placed. “This is amazing,” Twilight whispered. “These arrays must have been used for exceptional magic.” She turned towards her friends. “There’s no doubt about it. This is the Forge, it has to be.” She began exploring the cave, and Sunset followed suit. The floor of the cave was just as lined with crystals as its walls were, but on the floor their distribution wasn’t as random as in the rest of the cave. Complex spiraling and fractal patterns were everywhere, the grooves lined with deep purple crystals. Sunset recognized some of the fractals and spirals. They were used to focus magical energy in powerful ritualistic magic, and these particular markings were far more complex than she’d ever seen before. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Applejack said, as she looked around in amazement. “It’s all so sparkly!” Pinkie Pie said happily, admiring her distorted reflection in a group of crystals. “It feels…wrong, though,” Fluttershy said softly. “I feel it too,” Rainbow Dash said. Now that she wasn’t in a cramped tunnel anymore, she was a lot more like her usual self. “It doesn’t feel like any other magic I’ve felt. It’s…cold,” she went on. “You’re feeling it too?” Twilight asked, surprised. She looked troubled for a moment. “This is the kind of magic Sunset and I keep feeling in our nightmares. It’s making our own magic restless and…almost angry,” she went on. “Rarity, what about you?” Rarity, who was eyeing a group of particularly shiny gems in a section of the wall, turned around. “Well…I agree it feels rather…frigid…in here, but my magic is quiet. I mean,” she gestured at the walls, “There’s not much reason for me to use a locating spell, is there? This cave is absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen this many gemstones in one location. I wonder if Gemdust will let me keep a few…” She trailed off and resumed her inspection of the gems. Twilight, meanwhile, looked troubled, but walked over to a series of crystalline discs of varying colors, some convex and some concave, arranged in a complicated construction which wouldn’t have looked out of place in an art show and which seemed to be aimed at the center of the cave. “These crystals…magic sent through here would be diffused and refocused in various ways. Look at the runes on their edges, too, they’re used to amplify or mute the magical energy while it’s being focused or diffused, allowing for extremely precise manipulations of the magic,” she said in a tone of unmistakable reverence. “Did…anyone get that?” Rainbow Dash asked with a confused glance at her friends. “It basically means that these…let’s call them lenses…were used to take in a certain kind and then focus it, while applying very subtle changes to it. I know it sounds vague, but that’s the best I can explain it without getting technical,” Sunset said. She walked over to a different crystal formation, this one mainly hard and angular, but no less captivating than the other structure. “These crystals are used to break up a beam of magic, just like a prism breaks up white light into colors. The resulting beams are then broken and redirected a specific number of times in order to filter one specific type of magic from the input.” She paused for a moment. “I’ve never seen an arrangement of this kind, though. This is absolutely stunning. You wouldn’t believe the amount of calculations and spells go into even a simple arrangement. This here must have taken a whole group of unicorns weeks or even month to get just right,” she continued. “That’s all well and good, sugar cube, but um…how does it work? I mean, we’re here to activate the Forge, right?” Applejack asked. Sunset shot a glance at Twilight, who looked around the room. “Judging by the…lenses and prisms,” she said with a look at her friends, “The endpoint of all the magical lines and formulae is right at the center of the room. Since this is the Forge of Generosity, I presume that every single rune and crystal is meant to extract and focus that aspect of friendship magic, while using the rest of the energy to power the process.” She shook her head in amazement. “It would have taken an extreme amount of magical power to create the Element, but I believe that we should be able to create a small magical resonance that will sustain itself for a while.” “How do we do that?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight walked over to one of the glowing gems on the wall and looked at the floor beneath it. A small smile appeared on her face. “I suspected as much. These six crystals aren’t here just for illumination. There would have been a unicorn beneath each of the crystals. Six wizards, six Elements. I’ve often seen the number six coming back as a powerful magical number in my studies, but I had never really linked it to the Elements,” she said. “So…six of us stand underneath those crystals?” Rainbow Dash asked, already positioning herself under the nearest one. “Spike and I will wait in the tunnel,” Sunset said, “You only need six ponies, after all, and the six of you are the rightful bearers of the Elements.” To her own shame, Sunset heard the edge of resentment in her voice when she said that. She couldn’t believe that she would feel jealous of her friends even now, at this point, but thankfully the others didn’t seem to have caught it. Sunset and Spike stepped into the dark tunnel and watched how their friends positioned themselves around the room. Twilight stood at the far end of the room. She looked a bit nervous, so when she looked over at Sunset, Sunset gave her an encouraging smile. Faint jealousy or not, she knew Twilight could pull this off. Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed, a glow which extended around her entire body. A moment later, the same glow appeared around the bodies of her friends, sans Sunset and Spike. The glow brightened, and thin beams of magic shot from Twilight and the others into the network of crystals, bathing the room in a magenta light that chilled Sunset to the core. It was the exact same light she saw every night and her breathing became ragged as she tried to prevent herself from rushing in and ruining the spell. “Sunset, are you okay?” Spike asked with a worried look. Sunset nodded tersely. “I’ll be fine.” With a small, strained smile, she added, “Thanks.” The magenta glow intensified, and for a moment Sunset saw the spiral and fractal patterns on the floor of the cave beginning to glow, beginning at the outer edges of the cave and slowly moving inwards. Then, however, the magic faded and the patterns dimmed. Twilight was panting heavily and her friends were giving each other confused looks. “What happened, Twilight?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone. “Are you all right?” Twilight nodded and took a few more deep breaths. “I’ll be fine. It’s just…incredibly difficult, more than I had imagined. I can’t sustain the power for long enough and the magical resistance is too great.” Sunset gave the room a thoughtful look. This Forge had been built to create an Element of Harmony. That meant that, like Twilight said, the energy that would eventually reach the focal point of the room would be predominantly that magic. She knew from her studies that magic, unlike magnets, attracted itself rather than its natural opposite. Her eyes lingered on Rarity, who noticed Sunset’s intense gaze and gave her a nervous smile. “Everything okay, darling?” she asked. Sunset’s eyes widened and she stepped into the cave. “I think I know a solution,” she said. “Really? What?” Twilight asked. “We lack the raw power to use the Forge, but it’s built to focus the magic of Generosity. Rarity embodies Generosity, so…” Twilight broke into a wide grin and said, “Moonbeam the Elder’s Law means she would be attracting the magic! Sunset, you’re a genius!” Sunset blushed lightly. Part of her reveled in the praise, but for the most part she remained focused. “Rarity, could you stand in the center of the room?” Sunset asked. “Don’t worry, since the magic that comes out of the crystals and the patterns on the floor is of the very Element you embody, it won’t hurt you,” she added after seeing Rarity’s apprehensive look. Rarity nodded slowly and stood in the center of the room, while Sunset moved to fill the spot Rarity had left. “Is everypony ready for one more go?” Twilight asked. They all nodded, and once more Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The magenta glow appeared around her body, and soon around those of her friends as well, this time including Sunset. She felt a kind warmth, and only now did she realize that it was the same feeling she’d had in the elevator. Her magic and Twilight’s mixed together and she relaxed, allowing Twilight’s spell to draw her power out, into the Forge. This time, the patterns on the floor remained lit up, and the energy snaked its way across to Rarity, who looked a bit scared to be at the center of so much magic, yet also determined to see it through. Eventually, all the magical paths converged on Rarity who became enveloped in a deep amethyst glow, which expanded and began to take over the magenta color of Twilight’s magic, until at last the whole room glowed with a deep purple light, even the crystals one the wall, which had been blue at first. Sunset felt her magic stir and a stab of sheer cold went through her, as if someone had stabbed her with a blade made of ice. With a bright flash, the magic evaporated and Sunset felt to her knees. She felt drained, as if she’d been running while casting all the spells she knew for hours. The crystals on the wall remained purple, and the patterns on the floor gave off a faint but steady glow of their own. Rarity was still surrounded by a purple aura, but with the magic feeding it gone, it soon dissipated. “Did…did we do it?” Rainbow Dash asked, sounding about as tired as Sunset felt. “Yes,” Twilight said weakly. Then she smiled. “The Forge is active.”