Lord Tirek...
After absorbing almost all the magic from the ponies of Equestria, Lord Tirek became probably the most powerful being that ever threatened this world. He was once trapped in Tartarus but he escaped after Cerberus left his post. Even though that was a long time ago, he only started to move now because he was weakened. He needed to steal magic from others to strengthen himself before he would attempt to show himself in the open.
But Princess Celestia was well aware of his plan and she decided to ask Discord, the Lord of Chaos, to take care of him. Not only was he powerful enough to deal with him but he could also tell whenever there was a unbalance in magic, making him the perfect candidate to track Tirek down. However, this plan quickly backfired once Discord teamed up with Lord Tirek. Now those two dangerous villains traveled through Equestria and managed to get a hold of almost all the magic in Equestria.
And once Lord Tirek was strong enough to overpower Discord, he stole his magic as well. All that was left for him was to steal the magic of the Alicorn Princesses...
Princess Twilight Sparkle...
Once Princess Celestia heard of the return of Lord Tirek, and how immensely powerful he became after stealing the magic of most ponies in Equestria, she realized that it would only be a matter of time until he would go after Alicorn Magic. Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and she came to the conclusion that it would be best to hide this magic from Tirek, or rather entrust it to somepony. This Somepony was Twilight Sparkle.
The Princesses decided to give Twilight their magic so that she would hide it from Tirek and later use it to defeat him. However, having so much magic inside of her made it quite difficult to completely control it and even Twilight needed some time to get used to it. In order to not endanger her friends, she was also asked by Princess Celestia to keep this to herself, meaning that she was left alone to deal with all of this herself.
Eventually, though, she ran out of time and Lord Tirek arrived in Ponyville to go and get the Alicorn Magic inside of Twilight. After Lord Tirek started his attack, Twilight had no choice but to fight back. Her magic was certainly powerful enough to counter Lord Tirek's immense strength. In fact, she was now the only one to stop him...
Nearby Ponyville...
The battle outside of Ponyville continued...
The landscape was beginning to change because of the battle between Twilight and Lord Tirek. The amount of magic that they were throwing around was just too much. Earthquakes, explosions and much more were created by this battle. Luckily all of this was too far away from Ponyville and nopony was put in danger. With that in mind, Twilight had no reason to hold back her attacks.
Twilight shot multiple beams at Lord Tirek, each of them was blocked by him until he decided to attack back. Accompanied by a growl, Lord Tirek smashed his fists on the ground, which created an earthquake, causing rocks to come out of the ground that was blocking the path of Twilight, who was flying straight at Tirek. But those rocks were quickly destroyed by one aimed shot each, causing no problem for her. After her sight was clear again, she began to charge one beam of magic to fire at Lord Tirek. Realizing what Twilight was up to, Tirek did the same. He charged a magic beam for a few seconds before he fired it straight at Twilight. Twilight quickly fired her own beam of magic and soon both beams clashed, causing a magical explosion that was big enough to destroy a small town.
After those two beams clashed, there was a short silence. Twilight and Tirek were both buried under some dirt and rubble but they quickly got back on their hooves and glared at each other.
That was until Lord Tirek stated the obvious. "It appears we are at an impasse," he admitted as soon as he was tired of fighting any longer. The battle was going on for a while after all and there was no clear winner in sight. However, instead of giving up or something, Tirek began to smile and snapped his fingers. "How about a trade, Princess Twilight?" He said before he showed her a bunch of bubbles in which, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Spike, and Discord were in. Twilight gasped in shock as soon as she saw her friends trapped by Tirek. "Their release for all the Alicorn magic in Equestria," Tirek offered with a smile on his face after he played his final ace.
Of course, Twilight's friends protested and told her that she shouldn't take this offer. If Twilight would give Tirek her magic, then he would end up being unstoppable. Twilight knew this all too well but she highly tended to agree to that offer that Tirek made to her. At least then she was sure that her friends would be safe.
"What's it going to be, Princess?" Lord Tirek asked, to further pressure Twilight.
All of her friends knew that Twilight was considering this offer and they all tried their best to let her know that their safety is not as important as Equestria.
"Don't do it, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said from inside her bubble.
"We aren't worth it!" Fluttershy agreed.
Discord was the only one who wasn't trying to stop her and even disagreed with Fluttershy's last words. "Oh, but you are, Fluttershy. You're the pony that taught me that friendship is magic. I had magic and friendship, and now I don't have either," he said in an unusual upset and ashamed tone before he covered his eyes in shame. He was actually regretting what he did to his friends, from the looks of it.
"Enough!" Tirek exclaimed as he stomped on the ground in anger. "I want an answer, and I want it now!" He demanded, clearly losing his patience at this moment.
Despite Tirek pressuring her, Twilight did look up to her friends and took her time to carefully come up with a decision. Then, for a brief moment, the colors of the rainbow could be seen in Twilight's eyes. What followed, was Twilight's answer that shocked everyone, except Tirek.
"I will give you my magic, in exchange for my friends,"
Hearing those words made all of her friends gasp in shock. The same, however, couldn't be said about Lord Tirek who was more than happy to hear that. "As you wish," he said before he let the bubbles levitate towards the ground and released Twilight's friends.
However, Tirek did not release Discord, much to Twilight's dislike. "All of my friends," she then demanded.
Tirek was surprised to hear those words coming out of Twilight's mouth. "After the way he has betrayed you, you still call him a 'friend'?" He asked.
"Release him!" Twilight demanded once more.
Tirek didn't understand the reasoning about Twilight's action but he also didn't care enough to be bothered about it either. "If that's what you want," he said before he released the Lord of Chaos as well.
The bubble around Discord popped and he landed on the ground next to the rest of Twilight's friends. "Thank you, Twilight," he expressed on his gratitude before he turned his head towards Fluttershy. "I'm sorry," he said in shame.
"I know," Fluttershy replied before she turned her head away with tears coming out of her eyes.
With all of Twilight's friends released, Tirek had kept his word. But that only meant that Twilight had to do the same now. "Your turn," he said before he opened his mouth to steal Twilight's magic now.
Twilight didn't resist and let her magic getting sucked out by Tirek. She screamed in pain as the magic in her was leaving her body before she eventually fell on the ground weakened. And of course, after getting the very last bit of magic from Twilight, Tirek got even more powerful and now grew as big as a mountain due to the amount of magic inside of him.
Lord Tirek didn't seem to bother with everyone else and just enjoyed how powerful he became now so the group decided to go to Twilight to see if she was alright. Twilight managed to get back up on her hooves, although she did seem to have a hard time standing.
"Twilight, what were you thinking?!" Spike said in his reaction to Twilight's decision.
Discord also walked up to Twilight and thanked her for letting Tirek release him. It was also now that he apologized openly to everyone. "Tirek tricked me into believing that he could offer me something more valuable than friendship. But there is nothing worth more. I see that now," he realized as he held the medallion that Tirek gave him a while ago in his paw. "He lied when he said that this medallion was given as a sign of gratitude and loyalty. But when I say that it is a sign of our true friendship, I am telling the truth," he said as he took the medallion and put it around Twilight's neck.
As soon as Twilight had that medallion around her neck, her eyes widened and she felt how some of her magic returned in her body.
The rest of her friends realized that as well and soon Applejack came to a shocking conclusion. "You think that might be the last one we need?" She asked, referring to the last objects that would turn into the last key that was needed to open the chest in front of the Tree of Harmony.
There was not really anything else what they could do so they just decided to give it a try and went to the Tree of Harmony. Fortunately, Tirek was too busy to play around with his newfound power that he didn't realize how the group was heading to the Tree of Harmony to hopefully stop him.
The chest already had five keys inside of it and only Star Twinkle's or Twilight's key was missing. Twilight couldn't help but get a little worried about Star Twinkle and where he was the whole time but she also realized that there was no time to lose now and that every second counted.
Twilight took the medallion that she got from Discord and held it towards the last keyhole that wasn't occupied by a key. Shortly after, the medallion spun around in front of the chest and transformed into the last golden key and inserted itself in the last keyhole.
The very definition of hope could be seen in the faces of Twilight and her friends as soon as that happened. However, Lord Tirek was still out there and he was just randomly destroying the area around him, probably to find Twilight and the others to deal with them for good.
Noticing that their time was running short, Twilight prompted everypony to make haste. "Together! I think we have to do this together!" She said to her friends, after which every single one of them stood in front of their key, ready to turn it around.
As soon as they turned around their keys, the chest responded and released a bright light. Soon, The Elements of Harmony, which were now inside the Tree of Harmony, began to glow as well. The light began to travel to Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and surrounded all of them. They all could feel a familiar and warm presence around them.
Soon every single one of them got confused once they saw a bunch of ponies right behind them. They were a little transparent, like ghosts or spirits but they were still clearly visible for everypony.
The girls all looked behind them and took a closer look at those ponies...
Behind Applejack stood an Earth Pony mare with a red coat, a yellow mane, and purple eyes...
Behind Rainbow Dash stood a Pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat, a white-light grayish and dark blue mane and yellow eyes...
Rarity had a Unicorn mare behind her with a purple coat, a dark purple mane, and light blue eyes, who was also wearing a black pair of glasses...
Right behind Fluttershy was a Pegasus mare with a light blue coat, a white and light blue mane, and orange eyes...
And behind Pinkie Pie stood an Earth Pony stallion with a yellow coat, an orange mane, and red eyes...
Seeing all those ponies behind her friends, made Twilight look behind her as well. When she did, she saw a Unicorn stallion with a dark orange coat, a red mane, and blue eyes
All those ponies didn't say a thing, much to everyponies confusion. All they did was smiling at them. For some reason, everyone had a really familiar feeling after seeing those ponies but no one could quite figure out why.
Before they all could come up with something though, the ponies vanished again, and everypony was surrounded by a bright light that shot out to the sky. The group vanished on the spot and seemed to have been absorbed by the chest.
Shortly after a sphere of magic shot out into the sky above the Tree of Harmony. Lord Tirek noticed this as well and wondered what this was all about. He covered his eyes because of that blinding light coming from this sphere of magic. Soon he saw Twilight and her friends inside of it, all of them having a big change of appearance inside this magic sphere.
All the girls went through a drastic change. All their manes were bigger, wider and more colorful, having the colors of a rainbow inside of them. Also, in Twilight's, Rainbow Dash's and Fluttershy's case, their wings seemed bigger and more colorful as well. It was like they became one with the Elements of Harmony.
Needless to say, Lord Tirek was not too excited to see this happening in front of him so he decided to stop the girls. He fired a beam of magic at them but he was surprised to see that it didn't do anything at all. "How is this possible?! You have no magic!" Tirek said confused after his failed attack at them.
"You're wrong, Tirek!" Twilight replied confidently. "I may have given you my Alicorn magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!" She said before she and her friends started their counterattack.
Multiple shots came out of the sphere that surrounded the girls, all of them directly hitting Lord Tirek. He couldn't defend himself and before he even knew what was going on, all the magic that he had stolen, quickly vanished in his body again, making him shrink and return to his original and weakened form. Shortly after, a portal opened behind him, on the other side was an all too familiar place to him...Tartarus. Lord Tirek released a scream once he realized that he was beaten and only seconds later, he vanished behind the portal and was imprisoned in Tartarus again.
After this villain was taking care of, the sphere around the girls released a giant shockwave that was sent through all of Equestria. It returned the magic of everyone who was attacked by Lord Tirek and returned them all to normal.
In the meantime, the girls were landing near the Tree of Harmony again. Their transformation was already wearing off again but there was still something happening to the tree. The light that surrounded the girls vanished and returned to the tree again. Shortly after, a rainbow came out above the chest, causing it to fly towards Ponyville. The girls followed this rainbow to see what was happening there. What they saw there heavily surprised them.
In the middle of the town, there was a huge castle coming out of the ground, towering over all the other buildings in Ponyville. The castle had a quite unique look. It looked like the Tree of Harmony but with a castle on top of it but the whole thing itself looked as if it was a castle.
"Sweet Celestia! Are you all seeing what I'm seeing?" Rarity said confused, taking the words out of everyponies mouth.
But as they looked at that castle, something caught Twilight's attention. She turned around and saw one of the ponies from before when they opened the chest. It was the Unicorn stallion with the orange coat, the red mane and the blue eyes, or at least a spirit or ghost of this pony again.
"You have to help him..." he then said before he ran away.
The group was not sure what to think about this but as soon as Twilight was looking around her, she noticed that Star Twinkle was nowhere to be found. "Does he mean..." Twilight mumbled to herself before she convinced her friends to follow this pony.
She had the feeling that he was leading them to somewhere really important. Since this pony gave her and her friends a rather familiar feeling, they decided to follow him to see if the pony that they were supposed to help the one who they thought it was.
In the meantime...
Outside of Ponyville, the chase between Star Twinkle and the pony wearing the gray hood was still ongoing.
"You! Wait!" Star Twinkle screamed after the pony in order for him to stop.
But the pony didn't listen and continued running. Star Twinkle wasn't even sure why exactly he was following him. All he knew was that the pony's name was Summershine. He just knew. Something deep down in his mind was telling him that. And something else was telling him that he couldn't let him run away.
All Star Twinkle could see now was that pony running away from him. Everything else around him was gone. As if that wasn't enough Star Twinkle could hear voices in his head again. It was the same voices and the same words that he heard before on multiple occasions.
"I don't expect anything in return...if I can make my friends happy with a simple act of generosity then that is completely fine with me..."
"I wanted to stay with my friends...I wanted to spend time with them right here, right now..."
"Hearing my friends laugh is the best thing ever...and there is nothing in this world that I wanted to exchange for that..."
"Sometimes being too kind is probably a bad thing...if you end up hurting your friends..."
"Things can be a little bit easier if you just bend the truth a little...but I rather want to live a harder life then being dishonest to my friends..."
For some reason, those words only motivated him further to get to Summershine. Eventually, Star Twinkle managed to catch up to Summershine and jumped right at him, making them both fall to the ground. Star Twinkle tried his best to hold him down on the ground, especially since Summershine tried his best to shake him off.
"No! Let me go! I can't let you get close to me!" Summershine said in an almost begging tone as he tried to shake of Star Twinkle.
"What!? Why!? What are you talking about!? I just want to ask you some questions!" Star Twinkle replied as he tried his best to hold down the stallion on the ground.
After some more struggling, Summershine decided to stop resisting and looked with his purple eyes at Star Twinkle but he slowly closed his eyes after a while and looked away as if he was ashamed to talk to Star Twinkle.
But soon that shameful expression turned into one filled with pain again. Star Twinkle didn't know what was going on but he wanted to help for some reason. Then suddenly, the eyes of Summershine popped open and they had the same red color that they had a while ago. What followed was a magic shockwave coming from the pony, that knocked Star Twinkle away from him.
Star Twinkle didn't get hurt by that but he did get startled by that sudden attack and decided to quickly get up again. So did Summershine. This time he had a really angry and determined expression on his face.
"I am not risking to let this chance slip by now!" Summershine said before he charged a beam of magic in his horn.
Instead of running away, Summershine was on the attack again and Star Twinkle wasn't really prepared to protect himself. He wasn't transformed and that sudden change from Summershine's behavior again caught him off guard. Before he could even process what was happening, a magic beam came flying right towards him. Star Twinkle knew that it wouldn't help but he held his front leg in front of him to protect him.
But...just like before with Tirek, Twilight appeared right in time to protect him. She used a shield spell to protect him in the very last second before she turned her looks at Summershine while having a mean expression on her face, which soon turned into a more confused one as soon as she realized how this stallion looked like.
Star Twinkle was confused by the sudden appearance of her since she was fighting against Lord Tirek a while ago. As soon as Star Twinkle asked her what happened to Tirek, the rest of his friends appeared next to him as well.
"That has been taken care of!" Rainbow Dash said victoriously and with a smile on her face.
"Yes!" Pinkie Pie added excitedly. "You should have seen how we looked like when we defeated Tirek! It was amazing!" She exclaimed happily.
Star Twinkle didn't feel as if this was the right time to talk about that since there was another threat right in front of them. Applejack was also hinting at that. "I hate to spoil our victory but can somepony explain to me why the pony that we followed here is suddenly attacking Star Twinkle?" She asked confused as she pointed towards Summershine.
As soon as he was pointed at, Summershine began to have an even more serious expression on his face. He did not seem to like the support that Star Twinkle had now. He began to remove the hood that he was wearing and threw it away, revealing his Cutie Mark for the first time. His Cutie Mark consisted of five little symbols that looked like far away gray lights, or rather five shines that could be seen from far away.
"It seems as if I was destined to fight against the Elements of Harmony again," he said before the Unicorn took a deep breath and focused. "I already got one half the last time...and now I will get the second!" He said angrily before his body was surrounded by light for a second. Shortly after, something happened to his body. His Cutie Mark seemed to change. Behind the five shine symbols appeared a flame. Then on his back, two wings appeared.
"He grew wings!?" Star Twinkle said in shock as soon as he saw that. It was exactly like his own transformation. He grew wings out of nowhere.
"He's an Alicorn?" Fluttershy asked confused.
At the moment, he was. Star Twinkle was an Earth Pony that could only grow wings or a horn at once but Summershine was a Unicorn that grew wings and became an Alicorn. It was most definitely the same transformation that Star Twinkle was able to do.
"Here he comes!" Twilight said as soon as she saw Summershine making a move now. Without any more words wasted, Summershine flew only centimeters above the ground and waved his front leg in front of him. Shortly after, a wave of fire came right flying toward the seven ponies. "Stay behind me!" Twilight said before she used another shield spell to protect everypony, except Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who instead avoided the attack by flying up in the air. The rest, however, stood right behind Twilight so that the shield would protect them. As soon as the wave of flames clashed with her shield, however, Twilight seemed to struggle to hold it up. She actually expected this shield to protect her and the others a little better but only after a few seconds, the shield was destroyed and the five remaining ponies on the ground had to jump away to not get caught by the flames.
Still, the fire was starting to spread everywhere and Summershine stood there, watching how everyone managed to avoid his attack in the last second and he prepared his next attack. But as he was preparing himself to attack, Rainbow Dash came charging out of the sky directly at him. Summershine only moved his eyes towards her and shortly after, he was covering his whole body in flames to protect himself. Realizing that she couldn't charge at him now, Rainbow Dash hit the brakes in midair and Summershine moved his hoof in her direction, shooting a blast of fire at her. Rainbow Dash had way too much speed to dodge out of the way in time but luckily, Fluttershy came jumping from the side and dragged her away from the attack.
Summershine removed the flames around his body again and focused his sight in front of him. Little did he know that Twilight came right at him with a magic blast fired at the stallion. Summershine responded by creating a pillar of flames in front of him that completely blocked Twilight's attack. Twilight was shocked how her attack was blocked that easily but she quickly responded by teleporting a few meters to Summershine's left and firing another beam at him but Summershine moved his leg towards her and fired a fire blast at this magic beam. Twilight's attack didn't stand much of a chance and Twilight had to dodge out of the way to escape the attack.
She jumped away and ducked on the ground but got quickly back up on her hooves. Still, she was confused about how her attacks were having no effect. "My attacks only seem to have little effects against those fire attacks," she said.
"Of course," Summershine replied. "Terra Unisus Magic is superior to regular magic. Your magic will have no effect, no matter how strong it is," he informed before he raised his leg towards Twilight to start another attack.
Twilight was ready to dodge any second but somepony was already stopping Summershine's attack by trapping him with a lasso. It was Applejack was trapping him. "If magic doesn't work then we just do it the old fashion way!" She said as she tightened her grip with her lasso. But Summershine wasn't impressed and simply lighted his body on fire again to burn the lasso, much to Applejack's shock. "Oh...kinda forgot about that..." Applejack said embarrassed before she had to jump to the side to dodge another one of Summershine's fire blasts.
By now Summershine lost his patience and walked up to Twilight while having a flame in one of his hooves. He seemed to have set his sight to Twilight now. But once he was getting closer to her, a magic beam was shot at him from behind. Summershine managed to duck under it in the last moment and looked at the pony who was shooting at him. He was positively surprised once he knew who it was. "There you are, Star Twinkle," he said before he turned around to get to the stallion.
Star Twinkle stood ready to fight him and so did Twilight who was starting to attack now. Unfortunately, Summershine had enough of those interruptions and created a wall of fire behind him. After that, he proceeded to create even more flames around him. The flames formed a circle of fire that only had Star Twinkle and him inside of it. However, Star Twinkle didn't let himself get intimidated by this and fired one magic beam after another at Summershine. Unfortunately, no attack seemed to work because Summershine created a wall of fire each time a shot was fired at him.
"Nothing of this is working!" Star Twinkle thought in his frustration. Not even Twilight could do anything against this guy so his chances to win in a battle against him were very slim. The stallion looked up at the sky and saw how high the flames were going up. There was still a little gab that he could escape through so Star Twinkle changed from his Unicorn Form to his Pegasus Form to fly upwards and escape this fire prison.
But Summershine was spreading his wings and flew right after him. It didn't take long until Summershine managed to catch up to him. He used a spell to keep Star Twinkle in place in midair and prevented him from escaping. Star Twinkle couldn't do anything to escape and just struggled in mid-air as Summershine was slowly flying towards him while flames were surrounding the two ponies.
"Now let's get this finally over with," Summershine said before he attempted to do the same thing that he tried before. He concentrated magic in his horn and prepared himself to absorb what looked like Star Twinkle's magic.
Star Twinkle didn't know what to do, let alone what was going on. He thought that Summershine was a friend of him, judging from the pictures that he saw in his head but all he could see now was this very pony trying to take away Star Twinkle's magic. It didn't make sense for him and he quickly found himself lost about what to do.
"Star Twinkle!" Twilight then said from above him. She, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were right above the two and tried to enter this giant fire prison. They were all worried to see Star Twinkle unable to move in midair because of Summershine's magic and tried to come at his aid. However, once Summershine was aware of this interruption, he closed the little gap above them to trap both of them in this fire prison for good.
But to his surprise, Twilight appeared right in front of him via a teleport spell and was ready to attack but Summershine was still keeping his guard up and flew to the side to dodge, all while keeping Star Twinkle in the same place. Twilight flew accidentally past the stallion and Summershine used that opportunity to launch an attack at the mare by shooting a fire blast at her, causing her to fall to the ground in pain.
"Twilight!" Star Twinkle exclaimed as soon as he saw how Twilight was dropping on the ground below him.
Summershine then returned his focus towards Star Twinkle again. "This could have all been prevented if you just cooperated with me," he pointed out in order to calm Star Twinkle down again.
But instead, of calming down, Star Twinkle only got angry at Summershine and clenched his teeth. He didn't even notice how Summershine already started to absorb his magic. But he didn't care about that. All he had in his mind was confusion, anger, and frustration. All directed towards Summershine.
Shortly after, Summershine's attempt to absorb Star Twinkle's magic, was for some reason interrupted. He looked at Star Twinkle and figured that it was his doing but he had no idea how he did it.
Star Twinkle himself didn't seem to notice that he just broke free of Summershine's spell and just proceeded to glare at the stallion. "I don't really know what's going on...but I know that you're after me," he said while a white light surrounded Star Twinkle's body. "So don't go and hurt my friends instead!" Star Twinkle exclaimed before he released a shockwave to throw away Summershine, making him fall to the ground.
After Summershine was pushed to the ground by that shockwave, he instantly got up and looked up to see Star Twinkle being surrounded by a white light. "What!?" Summershine said in shock after he looked at the stallion, who continued to glare at him in anger. "Wait...that is-" but before Summershine could complete his sentence, Star Twinkle came charging down towards him.
Summershine responded immediately by flying upwards to the stallion. The two ponies were charging right at each other, they decided to end this battle in one last clash. But Summershine had other plans. He focused all of his magic in his hoof and shot a fire blast towards Star Twinkle, who was, unfortunately, still charging right at him.
Star Twinkle didn't plan to dodge this attack. For some reason, he felt as if he could do anything now. He looked straight at the fire blast that came towards him but for some reason, he knew that he could deal with it. All Star Twinkle did was lifting his right hoof towards him which was surrounded by a blinding light. As the fire blast came closer, Star Twinkle punched right towards it.
Once he hit the blast, flames began to spread all around the area because of the impact. Summershine thought that Star Twinkle went crazy and formed a confused expression on his face. There was no way that Star Twinkle could block this attack after all. But soon Summershine realized that he did exactly that. The flames were blown away and Star Twinkle was right in the center of where the fire blast was. Summershine had a shocked expression on his face, he couldn't believe what just happened.
This was the perfect chance for Star Twinkle to put an end to this fight. His right hoof was still engulfed in light and he continued to charge right at Summershine. The stallion couldn't move in shock and just flew there on the spot helplessly.
Then, Star Twinkle took a really wide swing and punched Summershine right across the face. Judging from Summershine's pain-filled expression, it must have been a really strong punch. The stallion was crashing towards the ground and Star Twinkle was the only one left to stay in the air.
Summershine was knocked out. He was done. That one punch was enough to take of him for good. Coincidentally, the flames around Star Twinkle were slowly vanishing as well. As soon as the flames were completely gone, the rest of Star Twinkle's friends were approaching the stallion, who was just now making sure that Twilight was okay from the last attack.
Twilight seemed to have been unconscious during the last attack but she woke up as soon as Star Twinkle was shaking her a little. "What happened?" She asked as soon as she was awake again.
"Twilight!" Rarity said in concern while she and the others walked up to her now.
"What were you thinking by teleporting in those flames like that!" Rainbow Dash scolded, which was weird since she was usually the one who did the most reckless stuff.
Twilight's response was simple. "I just had to help Star Twinkle, I couldn't leave him to deal with this pony on his own,"
As soon as Summershine was mentioned, Star Twinkle looked towards the stallion, who was still laying there on the ground. He decided to walk up to him t see if he was really knocked out. But much to his shock, Summershine slowly opened his eyes and looked at Star Twinkle. This caused Star Twinkle to keep his guard up again for an incoming attack. However, the stallion's eyes closed as soon as he said only one thing.
"Star...Twinkle..."
Those words gave Star Twinkle a completely different feeling about Summershine. He stood there confused and had no idea what to think about it. But he figured that there was only one thing to do now, even if his friends wouldn't like what he had planned.
Later...
Everything was black...A headache is all that could be felt right now. There were voices in the distance. They got louder every second and soon those voices were accompanied by images. A bunch of ponies could be seen.
"Looks like he is up now," a familiar female voice said.
It came from Rarity who was getting everyponies attention towards Summershine who was now sitting inside a hospital bed and looked around himself confused.
"Where am-" he said before suddenly a cage appeared right around him, that completely trapped him now, much to his confusion.
"Discord!" Fluttershy scolded as soon as that happened.
"What?" Discord replied while he laid there on another bed while he was grinding his claws with a file. "You told me to keep an eye on him if before he could do something dangerous,"
"Yes! If he does something dangerous!" Twilight pointed out bothered.
Discord shook his head and simply snapped his claws to remove the cage again. "Well, suit yourself,"
Summershine was not really sure how to deal with this whole situation and just looked around himself to see all those ponies keeping a close look at him. "What's going on here? Why am I here?" He asked confused. "You clearly don't seem to trust me, judging from all the looks that you are giving me," he said, even if saying it made him feel a little bad.
Rainbow Dash explained. "Yeah, you're right! We haven't forgotten what you tried to do a few minutes ago!" She pointed out.
Applejack continued. "In fact, Star Twinkle was the one who demanded that we should put you in here,"
As soon as Summershine heard that name, his eye widened. It was now that he noticed how Star Twinkle was staying a little further in the back with a glare on his face that was directed towards Summershine. Shortly after, Star Twinkle walked closer to the hospital bed and got straight to the point. "You're gonna explain some things to me," he simply said with a rough tone in his voice. "I have some questions for you,"
After a short pause, Summershine replied. "Go ahead," he said in an almost monotone voice.
That is all that Star Twinkle would accept as an answer. He quickly asked his first question. "Your name is Summershine, right?"
"Yes," Summershine replied.
"And...we know each other...right?" Star Twinkle asked.
"Yes," Summershine replied once more.
Hearing those short answers were a little too less for Star Twinkle but it was better than nothing so he continued. "We are friends...right?"
"Yes," Summershine replied in the same monotone voice again.
Suddenly, Star Twinkle clenched his teeth in annoyance. "But that doesn't even make sense!" He exclaimed. "If we are friends then why did you attack me!?"
Summershine moved his head away in shame. "I'm sorry..." is all he could say.
Star Twinkle was clearly not up for more conversations after hearing that and looked away in anger. Seeing that reaction, gave Twilight finally the opportunity to ask a few questions. "We saw you after we opened the chest next to the Tree of Harmony," she started, causing Summershine to move his head towards her now. "There were also a bunch of other ponies that we saw. Why is that? Why did we see them after opening the chest?"
"I'm not sure..." Summershine replied in all honesty.
Twilight simply continued with her questions. "Since they appeared in front of the Tree of Harmony...all I can think of is that you are connected to the elements as well in some way,"
Suddenly, Discord threw in a few words as well. "He is," he casually threw in, causing everypony to look at him confused. Discord then further explained. "Star Twinkle has pieces of every Element of Harmony inside of him and so does Summershine. There has to be a connection," he figured.
As soon as Star Twinkle heard that, he suddenly felt part of the conversation again. "Wait! Does that mean you know something!?" He asked.
But Discord wasn't too sure himself. "Well, it's more like having some bits and pieces of knowledge in my head, my memory is a little fuzzy because of this memory erase spell," he explained.
Twilight quickly recalled hearing that before. "Princess Celestia mentioned that spell before. It's when you remove a certain someone from the memories of everypony," as soon as she recalled this information, she quickly turned towards Summershine again. "Do you know anything about that?"
Summershine gave a quick answer. "Yes...I was the one who used it to remove myself and my friends from everyone's memory..."
"Why?" Twilight asked.
"It was the only thing I could do at that time," Summershine replied.
"That time?" Twilight replied.
But Summershine didn't want to give any more answers and stayed silent. But as soon as Star Twinkle was hearing that, only one thing came immediately into his mind. "That fire..." he said, causing Summershine to widen his eyes in surprise. "There was a fire in Ponyville...right?" He asked confused.
As soon as that was brought up, Applejack tipped her chin. "Yeah, I remember that there was a fire back in the day,"
Rarity remembered as well. "Yes, but nopony knew how it started, right?" She pointed out.
Twilight quickly turned her attention towards Summershine again. "Do you mean that?"
Summershine didn't like to give more information but he still replied. "Yes...but I can't tell you more...it's something that I have to deal with on my own..."
By now, Star Twinkle had enough of those short answers and walked up to Summershine even closer. "Listen, I don't know what happened but I would like to know! As far as I know, I am also involved in all of this because of those weird dreams that I have!" Star Twinkle exclaimed angrily.
Twilight got a little worried about how Star Twinkle was slowly losing his temper. "Calm down, Star Twinkle!" She said in order to calm him down.
"No!" Star Twinkle exclaimed unintentionally angry. "I have a right to know! I'm sick of walking around without knowing what is really going on!" He expressed as his eyes were focused on Summershine who was starting to feel a little bad by now. "At least tell me one thing! Discord said you and I have both pieces of the Elements of Harmony inside of us. Do you know anything about them? Do you know why I was chosen by them?" He asked in his frustration and in the hope to get an answer.
Summershine looked with his blue eyes right back at Star Twinkle's eyes. "You were not chosen by them..." he simply said.
"Huh?" Star Twinkle replied before he lowered his head in frustration. Of course, he wouldn't get an answer that he would understand right away.
However, Summershine was not done. He began to smile, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. "I entrusted them with you...because I know that they would be safe with you," he said happily. For some weird reason, Star Twinkle was a little happy to hear that, deep inside but he had no idea why. Then suddenly, Summershine grabbed his head and had a little pain-filled expression on his face. "Sorry but...I think I need some sleep...my head doesn't feel too good... it's like as if somepony gave me a really hard smack across the face..." he said, which was weird since that was exactly what happened to him. But strangely, Summershine didn't seem to remember that.
The stallion then laid down on his bed and closed his eyes and before he knew it, he was already drifting off to sleep.
"He is already asleep?" Fluttershy asked confused.
"Oh! You want me to wake him up?" Discord said as he prepared a bunch of musical instruments to play them all at once. "Certainly, you have some questions left to ask him right?" He asked towards Star Twinkle.
"No..." Star Twinkle replied surprisingly before he decided to walk out of the room with his friends following him close by. The last words from Summershine were still bothering him. "I was entrusted The Elements of Harmony...by him?"
Later, outside...
"Yes...that really is a castle..." Star Twinkle said as soon as he laid eyes on the castle that his friends showed him.
It was the castle that was created after Lord Tirek's defeat. The castle that looked like half Tree of Harmony and half castle. All of Star Twinkle's friends stood there as well and wondered what the appearance of this castle meant for them or why it appeared in the first place.
"But... whose is it?" Twilight asked confused into the round, to which she only received shrugging shoulders.
"I believe it is yours, Princess Twilight," Princess Celestia then said, who was landing next to Twilight and her friends along with Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Spike and Discord.
The whole group decided to go inside to take a closer look at the castle. From the inside, it almost looked quite similar to the castle of the Crystal Empire which made sense since it was created by a crystal tree. As they all walked through the halls of this castle, Princess Celestia was sure that Twilight now knows what her role as a princess of Equestria was or what she was meant to do.
After all what happened. Twilight was actually more than sure about the answer. "As princess, I believe I have the power to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. That is the role I am meant to have in our world! The role I choose to have!" She said before she looked over to her friends. "But I didn't defeat Tirek on my own. It took all of us to unlock the chest!"
But as usual, Star Twinkle felt left out. "Yeah...all except me..." he thought after realizing that he wasn't part in the victory against Tirek at all.
But Star Twinkle didn't say a thing and let Princess Celestia continue. "Then it is unlikely you are meant to take on this task alone," she said before the door to what looked like the throne room opened. There a huge room with seven seats in the middle of the room could be seen. All of them having the Cutie Marks of Twilight and her friends on them, all Cutie Marks except Star Twinkle's
"You are now Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship," Princess Celestia announced. "But what is the princess of friendship without her friends?" She added, which caused everyone to walk up towards Twilight. Every one except Discord who was hiding in a corner and was still feeling bad about what he did to everyone. But no one really held a grudge at him, especially since Discord really seemed to regret what he was doing, so Twilight quickly used her magic to invite him to a big group hug, something that he really appreciated right now.
Though there were a lot of things that were circling around in Star Twinkle's mind, he decided to say some cheerful words in the name of everyone else. "Tirek is defeated, we opened the chest, Twilight knows what she is supposed to do now...I would say that everything turned out well, right?" He said with a fake smile on his face.
His friends agreed and cheered once they heard him say that, however, the princesses were the only ones who still had some worried expression on their faces. "I'm afraid not everything turned out too well..." Princess Celestia said in a worried tone.
"What do you mean?" Twilight replied confused before she walked up to the princesses.
Princess Cadance started to explain. "It seemed to have happened after Tirek was done stealing the magic in Canterlot,"
Princess Celestia then decided to went straight out with the problem. "Mystic and Fade are gone..." she said with a serious expression on her face.
The group reacted in shock after hearing that. Some time has passed after hearing those names the last time but they all knew them all too well. Mystic was the pony who took over the Storm Wings to use them and making them steal the Elements of Harmony. And Fade was the leader of a group of ponies who called themselves the Outcasts. They were the one who captured the Princesses in order to create a so-called new world. Those two ponies were both really big threats to Equestria and hearing that they were gone instantly gave everypony a bad feeling.
"You might remember that Mystic was imprisoned in the dungeon of Canterlot after the Outcasts were defeated. It seems that Mystic has taken advantage of the state that Canterlot was in after Tirek's attack and broke out of his cell,"
"And as if that wasn't bad enough," Princess Celestia interrupted. "He took Fade with him. Although he was still turned to stone after you used the Elements of Harmony against him, having him not under our watchful eyes, still bothers me..."
Hearing that news right at the end, certainly dropped the mood a little. Fade and his Dark Magic was something that to be wary of and Mystic was also pretty crafty and powerful when it came to magic. It was still unclear if Fade was still turned to stone or not but it is like Princess Celestia said, having him not in clear sight at all times was really a bad thing.
Princess Celestia and the other princesses assured everyone to look for those two but it would still be hard to find them. Right now, all that Star Twinkle and his friends could do, was to look out and be wary at all times.
But as if those news weren't bad enough, one more thing came right up.
"Princess Twilight!" A stallion exclaimed as he ran inside the castle. It was actually one of the doctors of the Ponyville hospital. "I have bad news!" He said before he went on with his explanation.
Later inside the Ponyville hospital...
"He's gone..." Star Twinkle said after he saw the bed where Summershine was inside only around an hour ago.
"I can't believe he ran away..." Twilight said.
"Yeah," Pinkie Pie added. "I mean, he wasn't that bad of a guy after all," she pointed out.
"Yes, he was very friendly," Fluttershy agreed on.
But Rainbow Dash remembered the two of them of something. "You do realize that he attacked us before, right?" She pointed out.
Despite the others having mixed feelings about all this, Star Twinkle was the one who was affected by the most of Summershine's escape. Twilight realized that and put a hoof on his shoulders to comfort him. "Star Twinkle I-"
"No..." Star Twinkle replied in a calm voice. "It's okay. I may not completely know who he is or why he is doing what he is doing now but..." he turned his head around to look at Twilight with a determined expression on his face. "I know that we will meet again...and when that time comes...I will get more answers...I just know..."
With those last words, Star Twinkle decided to be a little more patient. He had the feeling that it would not be long until he would meet Summershine again. And hopefully then...he would get his answers.
About him...
About Summershine...
And about the Elements of Harmony...
Meanwhile outside of Ponyville...
Summershine was not too far away from Ponyville. It was still in clear sight for him. He looked back one last time with a frown on his face. This time he was not wearing his gray hood as if he no longer cared about other ponies recognizing him.
"I took way too long already...I even brought Star Twinkle and the others in danger..." he said in shame while he held his head for a minute. "I was afraid back then...when I faced Arcana...but now...I'm prepared! I will find you again...and then...I will set things right!" He said determined before he walked away from Ponyville to continue his travels.
What he was after or what he tried to do was still a mystery but no one really had to know what he was after because it was obviously too important for him to even return to his friend.
One could only hope that this quest would not hurt him anymore and that it would soon end...