Ponyville was on fire...
The little peaceful town was covered in flames and ponies all over the town were doing their best to put them out. But as they did that, they didn't realize how something much bigger was going on at this very moment.
In the center of the town, two ponies were staring at each other while all of this happened around them. Summershine was confronting Ashgray who was inside Star Twinkle's body, and on top of that, an Alicorn. Next to Ashgray were Lightbeam and Nightsky who got knocked out by him.
Seeing his friends on the ground unconscious made the stallion angry but at the same time, he still couldn't fully believe that Ashgray was inside Star Twinkle. "Is that really you, Ashgray!?" He asked as confirmation. "How did you steal Star Twinkle's body!? Get out of him!" He exclaimed angrily.
But Ashgray remained calm. "I'm afraid I can't do that. I need him to archive my goal,"
Summershine's sight was then focused on his two friends on the ground. "What do you mean with that!? What did you do with my friends!?" He asked angrily.
Ashgray was confident right now. He didn't plan to hide anything from Summershine because he knew he already won. "I wasn't able to control the Elements of Harmony before..." he said before he looked over to the two Pegasi next to him. "That was because you and your friends are the ones tied to them. I maybe was able to use their power for a moment but as soon as the elements realized that I wasn't chosen by them, I got rejected. Only those who were chosen have the ability to use them," he explained before he looked back at Summershine. "So...I somehow had to find a way to connect myself to the elements, that way I would be able to control them,"
"Connect yourself with the elements?" Summershine asked confused.
Ashgray nodded with a smile on his face. "It was actually pretty easy to figure out what to do. You are able to control the Elements of Harmony because you were destined to...and as everypony knows, Cutie Marks are connected with your destiny,"
Having said that, Summershine instantly noticed that the Cutie Marks of his friends were gone. Before Ashgray turned towards Summershine before, he was using his magic to draw out something from the two. He must have used some kind of spell to take away their Cutie Marks. Summershine quickly put one and one together and had a good guess what exactly Ashgray had in mind.
"You seem to have figured it out," Ashgray said after he noticed how the gears in Summershine's head were turning. "Yes. By stealing their Cutie Marks, the Elements of Harmony will recognize me as the one chosen by them," he said with a victorious smile on his face.
Summershine clenched his teeth. "Your plan will not work! And I will make sure of that!" He exclaimed angrily with his horn glowing in blue light.
But Ashgray smiled in response. "Then go ahead," he offered confidently.
The orange Unicorn was about to instantly take this offer but then he realized something that prevented him to go further. Right now he was aiming at his friend, Star Twinkle. The pony that was talking to him was none other than Ashgray but the body that he was in now was one of his best friends. There was no way that he would attack Star Twinkle.
And Ashgray was well aware of that. "You can't attack me because you would only hurt your friend," he said mockingly. "And that means I already won!" He then exclaimed before flames were rising around him and in front of Summershine, blocking the view of the Unicorn for a moment.
Once the flames were gone, Ashgray was nowhere to be found. He used this as a distraction to get away. In a way, he was glad that he was gone. Now he had the time to check up on Lightbeam and Nightsky. Both of them were waking up but their bodies were shaking.
"I...feel weak..." Nightsky said. His voice could barely be heard.
Summershine didn't know what to do and could only look at the two. "Don't worry! Everything will be fine!" He said, even though he wasn't believing his own words right now.
Then suddenly, with the little strength that she had left, Lightbeam grabbed the stallion's legs. "Please..." she said, panting heavily. "The others...save the others..."
It was just now that Summershine realized that Ashgray was most likely going after them at this very moment. Happytrade, Crash, and Brilliance had no idea what was coming after them right now. Still, Summershine could not let his two friends lay in the middle of the road, especially when there was a fire in town.
It took a lot but the two managed to convinced Summershine to go and warn the others. First, he went to The Golden Oak Library to protect Brilliance. The real problem was that Ashgray knew where everypony lived so getting there in time before he did was still really hard.
Summershine smashed open the door of the library and hoped that he wasn't too late but as soon as he took a look into the room he saw what he didn't want to see at all. "No..." he said in frustration. Brilliance was on the ground, he Cutie Mark was gone, and she was too weak to even move. Ashgray was already there and dealt with the mare.
"Star...Twinkle...why?" She said with a frown on her face.
"It wasn't Star Twinkle!" Summershine corrected before the mare got any wrong ideas about all this. He wanted to do something for her but he was running out of time, two of his friends were still out there and in danger. "Stay here! I will take care of everything! I promise!" He said before he left with a heavy heart. He didn't want to leave his friends in this condition but everything happened so quickly and he needed to act fast.
The Unicorn stallion focused his magic like never before. Soon he teleported away. He knew where Crash would be at this very moment and made sure to be there as fast as possible this time. Brilliance could only watch how her friend vanished in front of her. She didn't know what happened here but she knew that right now she couldn't even help anyway which made her rather sad.
In the meantime, Summershine appeared inside the Toys N Stuff shop, Crash's workplace. Soon, he saw Star Twinkle, or rather, Ashgray already absorbing Crash's magic. "No!" Summershine shouted before he readied his magic to attack but Ashgray turned around to face the stallion and dropped Crash to the ground. He was already done and used a teleport spell to get away again but not before smiling at Summershine victoriously.
By now, Summershine clenched his teeth in anger. Not only was he angry at Ashgray but also at himself for not being able to save his friends in time. As much as he also wanted to help Crash and explain the situation, he could not waste any time and straight out teleported away again, this time he headed to the marketplace, where Happytrade should be. Crash could only watch his friend disappearing again and he was confused beyond belief.
"That...was not a really fun prank," he said in a weak voice.
Again, Summershine appeared somewhere else. He was at the Marketplace of Ponyville. If there was any place where Happytrade could be, then it was this place. But to Summershine's surprise, that is not where she was. At first, he panicked, but then he realized that it was actually a good thing. If Happytrade was not at the Market and Summershine didn't know where she is, then there was no way that Ashgray would know her location. That gave Summershine a little bit more time.
In the meantime, Happytrade and some other ponies were busy putting out some flames in Ponyville. The mare gathered some ponies as soon as she saw the fire and decided to take action. "Over there!" She ordered some ponies, who carried buckets filled with water, to a nearby house. Of course, the mare did some work too and tried her best to put every single fire out but she couldn't help but look at the state of her hometown with a frown on her face. "How did this all happen?" She said after seeing the state of Ponyville.
Her luck started to turn around, however, once Star Twinkle walked up to her. She really needed everypony to help her and the others out at this dire moment. The mare rushed over to the stallion who didn't seem to be too bothered by everything that happened around him. Happytrade was about to scold him for this but then she immediately noticed the wings and his horn. Before she could address this, however, Star Twinkle used his magic to hold her in place and walked closer to her. He was about to do the same thing that he did with the rest of his friends, something that Happytrade was not aware of. The only thing she knew was that one of her friends was attacking her now.
"What...are you doing...Star Twinkle?" She said confused and with a sad tone in her voice.
Star Twinkle was about to steal the mare's Cutie Mark, all he had to do was starting the spell. But just before he was about to start, a beam of magic was shot at him, which he managed to notice and dodge just in the last second. Because of that, Happytrade was released by his spell and dropped to the ground. The one who attacked him was Summershine, who placed himself right in front of Happytrade in order to protect her.
"Are you hurt?" He asked in concern while he locked his eyes right at Star Twinkle.
"Yes..." Happytrade replied while she got up on her hooves. "What is going on? Why is Star Twinkle-"
"That's not Star Twinkle!" Summershine immediately corrected. "It's Ashgray! He stole Star Twinkle's body and went after our friends and stole their Cutie Marks! He is also the one who caused this fire!" He explained in a quick rush to the mare.
Happytrade couldn't even process what was said to her before Star Twinkle-Ashgray charged at the two again, his body covered in fire now. Both of them dodged out of the way, to different sides and Summershine countered with a magic beam. Ashgray simply blocked this attack by putting a wall of flames in front of him, separating Summershine from both Ashgray and Happytrade.
"No, you don't!" Summershine shouted angrily. He was long beyond not attacking Star Twinkle's body anymore. His friends were in danger after all. He teleported himself behind the firewall already saw Ashgray trying to attempt going after Happytrade. Ashgray was surprised to see Summershine appearing in front of him and decided to move a few steps back before then preparing another attack. He pointed his hoof in front and a flame beam came out of it, which headed right at Summershine. This was bad. Summershine well remembered when he tried to counter Ashgray's fire attacks the last time and that his magic was too weak against it. All he could do was teleport out of the way.
When Summershine appeared again, he was a few meters behind Ashgray. Again, the Alicorn pulled up another firewall to separate him and Happytrade from Summershine. And again, Summershine teleported himself behind the wall to protect Happytrade. But that was exactly what Ashgray expected. Once Summershine appeared behind the wall, Ashgray was nowhere to be found. The Alicorn was flying up in the air and prepared another attack, a flame ball was created above his head which he threw at Summershine, who just barely noticed the attack and put up a shield in the very last second.
But the shield broke very easily and Summershine git hit, not directly but the impact of the attack is what got him and pushed him back. It was enough to almost knock him out. Things got blurry and Summershine could feel that he was barely keeping things together. Maybe he even passed out for a few seconds. Whatever happened, it was bad. Because as soon as he could sharpen his view again, he saw how Happytrade dropped to the ground and passed out. Her flank was blank. Ashgray successfully managed to steal her Cutie Mark.
Summershine reached out to her, helplessly and with a defeated expression on his face. He then lowered his head. "I couldn't protect any of them..." he said, completely blaming him for everything that happened.
With Summershine being in this state, Ashgray was not afraid to walk up to him. And as expected, Summershine didn't do anything. What else could he even do at this moment? His friends got their Cutie Marks stolen, Star Twinkle lost his body, and Ashgray was too strong for Summershine to even do anything about it.
And Ashgray was aware of that too. "When we fought at the Castle of the Two Sisters, I made a mistake to try and fight against you first. Going after your friends first was a good choice. They would have appeared and messed up things for me again," he explained calmly.
The fact that Ashgray talked about his and his friends defeat so casually made the stallion really angry. "Why are you doing all of this!?" Summershine asked in his anger.
Ashgray felt as if he had no reason to tell him but he did anyway. There was no way that he could be stopped anymore, not with Summershine's crushed determination. "I will simply return things the way they were meant to be,"
"The way things were meant to be?" Summershine replied angrily. "You held Princess Celestia hostage, tried to steal and even destroy the Elements of Harmony, which are supposed to save Equestria, burned this town, and claim that this is how things are meant to be!?" Summershine asked, his anger almost showing no limit at this point. "All that you are doing is proving that you are nothing more than evil!"
The last sentence made Ashgray furious. He clenched his teeth and threw daggers at Summershine with his eyes. before he calmly walked up to the stallion in front of him. "You and pretty much everyone in Equestria look up to your precious princess," he said mockingly and with some disgust in his voice. Soon the stallion found himself in a state of anger while he summed up everything that he knew. "All without knowing that in reality, she did nothing to deserve all this. The love of everyone, the title of being the ruler of Equestria! Nothing! She stole the title as the ruler of all of Equestria! She sent her own sister to the moon! She took everything away from me! You might think that what I am doing is evil but all I do is make things right again! And I will not let a pony who doesn't know anything call me evil!" Ashgray shouted right into Summershine's face.
A chance opened up!
Ashgray found himself trapped in Summershine's magic and couldn't move. He was too angry to notice that Summershine wanted him to get closer. Summershine did not waste this opportunity and readied his horn to get a good shot at Ashgray from this close. He decided to use all of his remaining magic. It would be enough to finish Ashgray off and end all of this. He would hurt Star Twinkle's body in the process but that was a sacrifice that had to be made now.
Summershine shot. The beam was close enough that it didn't even take a second to reach him.
But Ashgray was still faster. The beam was heading at Ashgray's face but the spot where the beam would hit was blocked by a slim wall of fire that came shooting up from the ground and nullifying Summershine's attack. Of course, Summershine was left in shock after this and didn't know how to react and before he knew what happened Ashgray created flames around him and pushed Summershine away and to the ground.
The Alicorn stood victorious once again. "Nice try," he just commented after this attempt.
Ashgray was too strong...
Summershine could not defeat him, at least not without his friends or the Elements of Harmony. It was now that Summershine realized that. He tried to get up on his hooves again but he figured that there was no point anymore. For one, his friends already got defeated and no matter how much Summershine tried, Ashgray was using Terra Unisus Magic, something that can't be beaten by regular magic.
"Just give up, Summershine," Ashgray said before he, once more, slowly walked up to the stallion. This time, however, he got a close look at him in case he was trying something fishy again. "You are not stupid, Summershine. You know that this is it for you, do you?"
No matter how much he wanted to deny it, Ashgray was right. Summershine could only chuckle in his defeat. "Maybe..." he said with a defeated smile on his face. "I couldn't save my friends in time...and it looks like I can't stop you...I'm all out of magic..." he admitted with a broken tone in his voice.
Ashgray was set to steal Summershine's Cutie Mark now. It would mean that he would have all Cutie Marks from the bearer of the Elements of Harmony. If what he said before was true, then he would get full control over the elements. And what would happen after that? Would that be the end of Equestria?
"Wait!" Summershine said right before Ashgray was about to use his magic against him. Surprisingly, Ashgray did stop in the last second, even if he didn't really like to. But he was curious about what Summershine still wanted. "I know I am not in a position to demand anything but..." Summershine started before he looked the Alicorn straight into the eyes. "Release Star Twinkle's body!"
The gray pony raised his eyebrows. "I can't do that," he replied. "I need his body to keep going. My body was turned to stone after all. I know you don't feel too happy that I am in control of your friend's body but I need one to archive my goal,"
"Then take my body!" Summershine exclaimed.
Ashgray widened his eyes confused for a moment. "What!?" He asked confused.
"You heard me," Summershine said before he managed to get up on his hooves again. "You need my Cutie Mark because you need my element, right? Just take my body instead and you can have it,"
"You offer me your body just so that I can release Star Twinkle's? Why?" Ashgray asked.
Summershine began to smile. Ashgray did not seem to be completely against this idea, which managed to calm Summershine down a little. "I just want Star Twinkle to be safe. Even if I couldn't stop you to go after my other friends, the least I can do now is save one of them," he explained. Ashgray did not say anything in return and kept a serious expression on his face. Summershine then bowed down. "Please. He is my best friend. I can't let him end up like this. I need to save him!" He begged, his voice starting to break while saying those words.
Instead of looking down on Summershine, Ashgray could feel sympathy. He knew exactly how he felt at this moment and looking at him reminded him to himself.
"Okay," Ashgray replied. "I will take your body instead,"
The head of Summershine raised up immediately after hearing that. "You promise to not hurt Star Twinkle?" He asked with wide-open eyes.
"I promise," Ashgray assured.
What followed was Ashgray walking even closer to Summershine. He closed his eyes and spoke the same words that he said to Star Twinkle before. "You are me, and I am you...by giving up my body...I shall continue to live inside yours!"
An orb of light came out of Star Twinkle's body which transferred itself into Summershine. The red-colored eyes of Star Twinkle returned to their light green color and the stallion collapsed to the ground, passing out.
Summershine closed his eyes and accepted what was happening. He knew that by giving up his body, he pretty much gave Ashgray a complete victory. Depending on what exactly Ashgray was planning to do from now on, Equestria was doomed. But knowing that he protected Star Twinkle in the last moment, made him feel happy and relieved...
A little later...
"Happy?" A female voice said, far away.
Things got a little blurry once Happytrade opened her eyes again. She saw Lightbeam who kept pushing the mare to wake her up.
"You're awake!" Lightbeam said relieved, holding her chest with her hoof.
The mare managed to stand up again, slowly. Lightbeam, Nightsky, Crash, and Brilliance were standing around her. "What happened?" She asked with a dizzy tone in her voice. But then things started to flash through her mind. Pictures of what happened before she passed out. "Star Twinkle!...no...Ashgray!" She said.
The town was also still burning, things were still in chaos. The group desperately wanted to do something against that fire but unfortunately, they had bigger things to take care of now.
"Ashgray...he stole Star Twinkle's body, right?" Nightsky asked.
"And he attacked us!" Lightbeam added angrily, at least as angrily as she could, given the condition that she was in now.
The group was still weak after Ashgray's attack. Having their Cutie Marks removed was taking away a lot of their strength, some of them could barely stand right now.
"What happened to Summershine?" Crash then asked confused.
Happytrade could answer this question. "He fought against Star...err...Ashgray! But I don't know what happened because I passed out,"
Nightsky looked over his shoulder. "It looks like Summershine won the battle, look," he said before he pointed at what made him think that. Star Twinkle laid in the middle of the road, just a few meters away from them. "We tried to wake him up but he is knocked out cold, maybe even hurt," he figured.
"But there is no trace from Summershine! Where is he?" Lightbeam asked.
As on cue, Happytrade spotted exactly him, walking over to the group from afar. "There, look!" She said causing everypony to look over to him.
Summershine walked over to the group. The expression on his face was serious. As if that wasn't concerning enough, he was levitating the Elements of Harmony above his head. Nightsky and Brilliance were the only ones who noticed that something was not right. The dark blue stallion pulled his sister behind him to protect her.
"That is not Summershine," Nightsky said cautiously.
"What!?" Happytrade asked confused, not believing him at first.
But Nightsky pointed out something that no one noticed yet. Summershine had wings. He was an Alicorn. It was exactly like with Star Twinkle before. That alone gave him and his friends a really bad feeling.
Summershine stopped moving eventually, in the middle of the road. He didn't say a single word while walking towards the group. There was a short moment where he and the five ponies were looking at each other cautiously but soon Summershine finally spoke.
"I'm surprised that you could still move after I took your Cutie Marks."
Everypony instantly widened their eyes in shock. This pony didn't even try to hide anything anymore. The eyes of Summershine were not dark blue but instead red. He was an Alicorn. He had the Elements of Harmony with him. He just said that he stole everyponies Cutie Mark. There was no mistake. This pony was not Summershine.
"You are...Ashgray!" Happytrade said in her realization.
The Alicorn nodded. "Yes, I am," he admitted. "And before you accuse me of stealing your friend's body, you should know that he offered it to me freely,"
Crash looked at the pony in disbelieve. "Why would he do that!?" He asked.
Ashgray looked over to Star Twinkle, who was laying on the ground a few steps away from him, still unconscious. "I was in control of Star Twinkle's body before, as some of you might know. Summershine wanted me to trade Star Twinkle's body for his own in order to save him,"
Nightsky smiled upon hearing that. "Sound like something he would do,"
Ashgray continued. "I promised that I would keep Star Twinkle out of this, and I will keep my promise," he assured before he moved his head towards the five ponies again. "However, he didn't mention anything about you guys so I assume he doesn't care too much about what I can and can't do to you,"
It was an attempt to make the ponies feel worried and sad but the group instantly corrected Ashgray. "You're wrong!" Lightbeam said. "Summershine does care about every single one of us!" She added while she threw a glare at the stallion.
"Maybe," Ashgray replied unaffected by the mare's glare. "I think he pretty much gave up on saving you after I got a hold of your Cutie Marks,"
Again, Nightsky smiled. "I know Summershine long enough to know that he wouldn't have made that choice without reason. He probably knew that he couldn't defeat you and had to resort to this. But..." he said before he paused for a moment and formed a serious expression on his face. "Don't you dare talk about him as if he gave up on us!"
"Yes!" Brilliance added with a serious expression on her face as well. "By giving up his body he saved Star Twinkle," she pointed out.
"But he didn't save you," Ashgray said menacingly before he levitated the Elements of Harmony above his head now. A bright light was forming around the pony and he started to levitate above the ground. Just the mere sight of this left the five ponies in shock and helplessness. "I'm sorry but if I want to reach my goal, I need to make sure that nopony will stand in my way. I can't afford to risk you messing everything up for me. You are the ponies chosen by the Elements of Harmony and I have to remove you!"
The light around Ashgray became brighter and brighter. If the five ponies weren't the target for the attack, then they would admit that this was a rather pretty sight but instead they felt that an unavoidable doom was heading towards them.
Crash looked at Ashgray in shock. Happytrade backed up in fear before she then turned towards Brilliance's shoulder, who hugged the pony in return and kept her eyes locked on Ashgray. Nightsky offered Lightbeam his hoof. She took it and they both held hooves as the attack was starting to come after them now.
A rainbow shot out from Ashgray and headed right at the five ponies. They were directly hit and the light was completely covering them. And after the attack was done...the five ponies were gone...
...
It was quiet. The only noises that could be heard were the sounds of the flames that were still all around Ponyville, accompanied by some stressed voices far in the background.
Ashgray landed slowly on the ground again. He looked at where the group of ponies was standing only to find no one left anymore. He won. There was nopony left to stop him now. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony were gone. He and he alone was in control of the Elements of Harmony, the strongest magic in Equestria. He was the strongest pony alive now and Ashgray was fully aware of this.
But rather than showing happiness, the pony transformed back into a Unicorn and let out a sigh in relief. "It's done..." he said before he looked up at the sky. The pony closed his eyes and thought back at his past. "Mother...Winter...it took a long time but I am really close to making sure Equestria is heading in the right direction again. Now that I have the elements, I can bring you both back," he said with a slight smile on his face.
The stallion then lowered his eyebrows and formed a determined expression on his face. "Right after I dealt with Celestia," he said in with a serious tone in his voice.
...
"Huh?" Ashgray said in confusion. "I...can't move!?" Ashgray said with his body trembling in the meantime. No matter how much he tried to, he could not move. Something was wrong, and he didn't like it. "What is going on!?" He asked in a panic.
"That is enough!" An all too familiar voice said inside his mind.
Suddenly, Ashgray found himself in another plane of existence. He found himself in a completely white place. He looked exactly like he did before he stole Star Twinkle's body, his mane and coat were gray and his eyes red. In front of him stood Summershine, who had a serious expression on his face.
"I may have not been able to save my friends but I will not let you continue anymore!" Summershine said determined to make those words come true.
But Ashgray just smiled at the stallion in return. "You are trying to fight back?" He asked mockingly. "I am in control of your body now! You are not strong enough to break free from my control!" He said confidently before he concentrated his magic.
A gray-colored magic aura was heading straight at Summershine who countered with his own magic, that took form as an orange-colored aura. The two auras collided and tried to consume each other in the middle. The two of them were evenly strong but Ashgray had still something to turn things into his favor. He grew wings on his back, it was his Terra Unisus Transformation. Once he was in this form, his magic aura grew wider and stronger. It easily managed to consume Summershine's aura, who had a lot of struggle to fight back now.
Ashgray smiled as soon as he saw how much trouble his opponent had. "I told you! You are not strong enough to beat me!" Things seemed dire. Ashgray was about to deal the finishing blow and let all of his magic consume Summershine.
But then...
Five lights appeared above the two pony's heads. Both of them looked very confused, especially Ashgray. Summershine looked up at the five lights but he couldn't really afford to concentrate on them since he was about to lose now. But strangely, his strength seemed to have increased. No. It was rather as if someone gave him support. A familiar feeling. Summershine smiled soon after he realized what it was.
In the meantime, Ashgray found himself struggling once he saw how those five lights began landing next to Summershine. They began to take the form of five ponies. It was Happytrade, Crash, Brilliance, Nightsky, and Lightbeam. All of them gave him a serious look.
"You!?" He said in his confusion.
The five ponies had magic auras coming out of them now as well. Each of them in the color of their coat. Those five auras joined Summershine's and created a much bigger magic aura that was soon heading towards Ashgray. The gray pony looked a lot more nervous now, he clenched his teeth and didn't know what to do.
"I am not alone, Ashgray..." Summershine said in the midst of the attack, causing Ashgray to widen his eyes. "I am not strong enough to beat you. But we are!" He said in a determined tone before he let out a scream and released huge amount of magic at once.
The magic aura completely consumed the gray magic aura of Ashgray and hit him directly. "No! I was so close! I was...so...close!" He said before he screamed in fear and shock before his voice faded out and soon Ashgray was completely gone.
The only thing that was left was the six ponies. Summershine looked over to his friends and gave them a thankful smile, which was returned by smiles from his friends.
...
Soon this strange place vanished and Summershine found himself in the middle of Ponyville again. His eyes were no longer red but blue again, just like how they were supposed to be. Summershine released a deep breath. Ashgray was no longer in control of his body. He looked around and saw how most of the fire was putting itself out for some reason as if Ashgray's absence was making it disappear.
The stallion turned towards Star Twinkle who laid a few steps next to him. He looked at him with a relieved expression on his face. A few moments later, the five lights from before appeared again, and once more turned into his friends. However...something was wrong. His friends were not completely there, at least that's what Summershine figured at this moment. He could look right through them as if they were ghosts.
That was, of course, not unnoticed by them as well. "What happened to us?" Lightbeam asked confused as she literally looked through her own hoof.
"I don't know..." Happytrade said. "But I feel really...tired..." she added. Looking from everyponies expression, they all seemed to feel the same way.
"We were his by the Elements of Harmony..." Brilliance pointed out. "Maybe that is why we are like this?" She guessed.
Summershine formed a frown on his face. He knew that the state of his friends was not normal. And he had a really bad feeling that it would only get worse. "This might be a stretch but..." Summershine started. "Your bodies are gone and it looks like your spirits are the only thing that is left now. Remember, Ashgray took away your Cutie Marks and your destiny, and then he took away your bodies. You are pretty much in the same state as Ashgray was once his body turned to stone,"
There was a mix of confusion and realization in the group. Their bodies were gone and now their spirits wandered around aimlessly. They managed to help Summershine with his battle against Ashgray because their spirits were inside his body, that is why they were able to help. At least that is what Summershine puzzled himself together.
"But..." Happytrade then started. "What happens to us now?"
"Well," Summershine replied before he then realized that he had the solution. "The Elements of Harmony!" He exclaimed. He quickly found the six elements laying on the ground next to him. "Ashgray managed to use them to take away your bodies so they should-" but he stopped in his sentence once he realized something different. The Elements of Harmony were turned to stone, and on top of that, there were only five. "What!?" He said confused. "What happened to them!? And where is the sixth one!?" He said in his frustration.
As usual, despite the situation, Brilliance remained calm and shared her thoughts. "The elements got back their powers after we came in contact with them. But since were are technically gone..." she said before she stopped, knowing that Summershine already expected to come to the same conclusion.
"But..." Summershine said in his frustration. "Then how are you supposed to get your bodies back!?" He said helplessly.
Lightbeam, by now, had a real problem to stay awake. "I feel really tired..."
"Yeah, me too," Crash added as he rubbed one of his eyes. "Weird, normally I am always full of energy,"
Soon, the bodies of his friends started to fade more and more, like light bulbs that were about to run out of energy. "What will happen to us now!?" Lightbeam said afraid.
"I don't know..." Nightsky replied with a frown on his face. "I guess, we're gonna vanish..."
Summershine felt helpless. He had no idea what to do. His friends were about to vanish and all he could do was watch. Tears came down running on his cheeks. Were his friends really gonna vanish forever? Was there not one solution that he could come up with to save them? What even was about to happen to them? He wished that Star Twinkle was awake to help him in this situation. The stallion looked over to Star Twinkle, who was completely unaware of what was happening now. It was in this moment when Summershine saw one last ray of hope, one last solution that would, in a way prevent his friends to leave forever.
"No, you're not," he said before he walked closer to Star Twinkle. "You guys need new bodies. You are pretty much in the same state as Ashgray was before we turned him to stone. But he managed to exist still, by going into Star Twinkle's body," he explained before he turned towards his friends again. "You all need to do the same!"
Of course, this idea was met with confusion by his friends. "We need to go inside Star Twinkle's body?" Crash asked in the name of the rest of his friends.
Summershine explained further. "I don't know what happens if you vanish now so the best thing I can think of is that you should rest inside of him. At least until I can figure out how to get you all back completely!"
Having brought that up, there was one thing that Nightsky wondered. "Wait. What about you? Can't we go inside your body?" He asked.
"No," Summershine quickly replied.
"Why not?" Happytrade asked.
Summershine gave back a quick answer. "Ashgray," once he said that name, he, again was met with confusion. "I...can feel that he is not gone. He will be back I know it. And if you all reside in my body, and Ashgray takes control of it again, then he will be able to use the Element's of Harmony again. You need to be out of reach of him, and fortunately getting inside Star Twinkle's body is one of two things that will make it harder for him,"
"One of two things?" Nightsky asked.
The orange pony took a deep breath before he gave his answer. "There is one more thing I need to do after that," he paused. His friends would not like what he was about to say now. "I need to cast...the Memory Erase Spell,"
Everypony was perking their ears up after hearing that. "You what!?" Happytrade exclaimed despite the condition she was in now. "Why do you need to do that!?"
But Brilliance knew why. "To keep us safe," she replied, which still didn't make much more sense to Happytrade.
The Memory Erase Spell was a spell that was brought up by Celestia after Ashgray's attack. A spell that would remove someone from everyone's memory under the condition that the removed someone no longer existed physically. Right now, his friends would match this condition.
"If I remove you from everyone's memory, then Ashgray will no longer know who to go after. And he certainly would not go after Star Twinkle because he doesn't know that you are inside of him,"
"But..." Lightbeam said with a frown on her face. "Everyone will forget about us...even..." she then looked over to Star Twinkle.
It was a pretty strange situation. There was no win-win situation. Summershine's friends would be gone either way, most likely, and Ashgray could return any time and ruin everything. All of this was happening way too fast and even thinking about this situation gave everypony a headache. But despite all of that, Nightsky raised his head confidently at the sky.
"Alright, let's do this," he then said out of the blue, causing his friends to look over to him. "Listen. We are six ponies, chosen by the Elements of Harmony. We are partly responsible to protect Equestria. But...we are not the only ones. I am sure that out there, are ponies who are just as strong, just as brave, and just as a good team as we are. And if Ashgray does return, and we are not here, somepony else will arrive and stop him," he then smiled and looked over to a still unconscious Star Twinkle. "I mean, wouldn't it be funny if Star Twinkle would be one of them?"
This caused his friends to laugh for the first time what felt like forever. "I can't believe he is still unconscious. He always had a habit to oversleep things, didn't he?" She said jokingly.
"I'm sure if there is one pony that will protect Equestria, then it would be him," Brilliance said happily.
Lightbeam chuckled. "Well...if I am going to rest somewhere, then I guess Star Twinkle wouldn't be the worst choice. Maybe it's really roomy in his head," she said with a grin on her face.
"Yes!" Crash added. "And if somepony tries to go in his head and do some weird stuff to him, we will kick them out again!"
Despite this very dire situation, everypony managed to get a good laugh out of it. Summershine could only smile before he gave them all a look filled with determination. "I will find a way to get you all back! I promise!"
His friends smiled at him. They had no doubt that his words would come true. They were five ponies, who's existence was about to vanish now. Their bodies gone, only their spirits remain, which were about to leave anytime soon. The only thing they could do was to reside in one body and wait until they had their bodies back so that they could exist again. That is all they could do right now, even if it meant vanishing from everyone's memories.
The five ponies did as Summershine told them and turned into five magic orbs that would soon fly into Star Twinkle's body before vanishing in his mind. They were no longer and rested inside of him. They couldn't talk with each other, nor could they see or hear anything. It was as if they were gone.
Summershine was about to cast the Memory Erase Spell. It was pretty ironic that he had to use a spell to save Equestria, which he only heard about one day ago. He only managed to even cast it now because he spent all night informing himself about it in some books. He just hoped that it would work, now out of all times. A bright light surrounded the Unicorn and moments later, it was flashing through all of Ponyville and then around the minds of everyone who ever met the five ponies.
They were now gone from Equestria...
Later...
The fire in Ponyville was of course, not unnoticed by Princess Celestia who just arrived at the town. When she arrived, however, she was met by confusion. She asked around to find out how this fire started but nopony knew the answer. For some reason, she wanted to check out the Castle of the Two Sisters. She felt as if she needed to check the Elements of Harmony but she didn't know why and thinking about it, made her head hurt.
Once she arrived at the castle, she saw them in the same state as usual. They were five stone balls. She somehow expected them to have changed or something but that wasn't the case. Then there was something else. A pony was laying in front of the elements. A green Earth Pony with a dark green star-shaped mane.
Next to Star Twinkle was a scroll. Princess Celestia picked it up with her magic and gave it a read.
"Whoever reads this, please make sure that Princess Celestia is informed about this...
This pony in front of you, his name is Star Twinkle.
I have a request...
Make sure that his safety is assured. At least for a while...
Sooner or later he will be targeted because of his connection with the Elements of Harmony.
This has to be prevented at all costs.
I cannot go into much detail about this...neither can I tell you who I am.
I know that you don't have a reason to trust me but all I want is this ponies and Equestria's safety.
All I ask for...is some time...
Until I made sure to deal with everything..."
Once she read through it, she looked back at Star Twinkle and remained silent.
...
In the meantime, Summershine was already walking away from Ponyville. He looked only once back at the town and hoped that by the next time he would be there, everything would be settled. Ashgray, his friends, everything should be back to normal once he could figure out everything. First, he needs to make sure that Ashgray would never return, then he needed to find a way to return everyone's bodies, only then could he face Star Twinkle again. Only then. With that thought, he left, dealing with all of this on his own, he was the last pony who would eventually save Equestria by doing all of this. And he didn't plan to fail.
Later...
A new morning in Equestria began...
Early in the morning, the sun was slowly rising in the sky and gave everypony a sign that a new day was about to begin. The beams of the sun began to shine through the window of a wooden house and into the still-closed eyes of a light green coated stallion. Awoken from the sunlight, the green-coated pony looked out of his window and saw the sun rising on the horizon. It was a beautiful sight outside but the pony didn't seem to be impressed at all and let out an annoyed sigh. He slowly got out of his bed and stretched a little. He had enough sleep but he slowly crawled through the room as if he was half-asleep.
"...Another boring day begins," Star Twinkle said with an almost expressionless voice accompanied by a bored face before he got out of his bed and started his daily morning routine. Before he left his house, he took on more look into a mirror to inspect himself. His eyes wandered to his flank, which was blank and had no Cutie Mark on it. Just looking at it made him sigh. Eventually, he forced a smile on his face and left his house to go to work and start his normal and boring life, just like every other day in his life.
A life without friends...