//------------------------------//
// A kinda sorta sequel but not really 
// Story: The Force of the Elements 
// by LuminousRabbit 
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AN: This story is about my two second-favourite OC's, Dragonsilver and Silver Buckle. This story is set two after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Peace has been restored to Equestria. Or so they think...   

The first thing I remembered when I woke up was the apple tree. 
It was late in Winter, and the tree was bare. I rolled over in the bed, slowly letting the warm tendrils of conciousness flow through me. My mouth was dry from the long sleep, and my muscles needed loosening. I streched, still keeping my eyes closed, and sniffed the air. It was fresh and clean, and the smell of food wafted to me. I couldn't remember what I had dreamed about. 
I opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep from them. The first thing I noticed was that the other side of the bed was empty. But then, Dragonsilver had always gotten up earlier than me. I walked into the kitchen, seeing a flower sandwich waiting for me on the dining table. I smiled, looking at the fillings. Yes - they were my favourites. Dragonsilver knew me so well. 


I ate the sandwich and walked out to our garden, the garden I spent half the day trying to save. But the myseries of the Everfree were too great for either of us to control, and the creepers and darkness had slowly worked it's way into my beautiful garden. 

Luckily my pretty (but leafless) apple tree - which was over the other side, away from the edge of the forest - was untouched. Taking care to stomp on the blackened vines that were creeping their way to my carrot patch, I headed over to the letterbox and collected the mail. When I got back, Dragonsilver was waiting in the kitchen. He kissed me on the cheek, and I handed him his letters. 
'Anythin' interesting?' I asked him, after he had skimmed through them. 
'No,' he said, 'Just the usual ingredient requests and people asking when the next volumes of the books are coming out.' 

And that was our job right there. The reason we lived so close to the Everfree Forest was because it was so shrouded in mystery. When we first moved here, two years ago, we wanted to find out more about it. Dragonsilver and I spent two months collecting samples of different plants, and information about different animals. After two months, we contacted a unicorn in Canterlot, a scientist, and he collected the samples and helped us analyse them. 
Some had medical properties, and proved very valuable in different areas. Others were edible, and we sent boxes of all to every city in Equestria. So that's the ingredient side of the story. 

But Dragonsilver also catalogued every new thing we found, compiling it into two books: Flora and Fauna. It was quite interesting, and even through everything we had found, we had barely scratched the surface of the Forest. We went a little deeper every day, but it was so large, and always full of mystery. The Everfree would never be known or controlled, but it was a living, at least for the two of us. 

We packed lunch, sample bags and Dragonsilver's camera into his saddle bags. As for me, my back was laiden with baskets to collect fruit. Side by side, we entered the Everfree Forest. The sky seemed to turn darker, but it was probably just the dark trees obscuring a greater amount of light. The trees seemed to close behind us, trapping us in. This happened every day, but despite the fact that it was my job, I hadn't gotten used to it. The feeling of the Everfree was more than just it's looks. Dragonsilver had told me, in a brief depressive spiral, that the very trees radiated a sense of despair and hopelessness. I had helped Dragonsilver through, but he was still scarred by it. We both were. 

We walked deeper into the forest. We were in familiar territory, but it was still creepy. The leaves rustled. Animals of all different kinds poked their heads out from the bushes, trying to get a good look, but most left us alone. To be fair, I would have been more on-edge if there were no animals, for that was the sign of the malicious and highly territorial creatures that dwelled deeper in the forest. 
Wind whistled through the trees, streaking through hollows and slicing over leaves. 

Finally we reached the place where we would start collecting today. Dragonsilver pulled me into a hug, knowing that I needed reassurance in this place. Then we went our separate ways. He searched for new plant and animal species, while I bucked the trees for fruit that we recognised. I walked for a minute, inspecting the trees. 
Finally, I came to an unharvested one. The deep blue fruit clung in conglomerations on the ends of the branches, causing them to bend over until they were almost at breaking point. The blue fruit was one that we had discovered quite soon after moving here. 

It had a thin skin and was filled with a gel that carried it's seeds. The seeds were miniscule and tasteless, but added a slight crunch, like that of strawberry seeds. The gel was light blue and tasted extremely sweet, with a hint of sourness at the same time. We usually sold it to confectionary producers, who made it into sweets and jelly. Because it had no known genus, it had no scientific name, but it had been nicknamed by the scientist who had deemed it safe to eat. He called it 'Globya'. I turned and bucked at the chocolate-brown trunk, once, twice. The fruit wobbled and dropped, landing neatly in my baskets. One missed, and splatted onto the ground. I grimaced, but some of the gel had landed on my front hoof and I licked it up greedily. It sure was good. Finding myself in a cluster of these trees, I bucked at each one until the fruit dropped down. 

By all means I was hardly perfect at it, leave that to the apple farmers, but my baskets were still full to the brim after some time. At the very last tree, one landed with a splat on my face, but I shook it off and licked up whatever was left. I sighed at the knowledge that my fur would be sticky later. 
After taking a short rest, I headed back to the place where Dragonsilver and I shared our lunch. About halfway there, I stopped, hearing a pained whining noise coming from the trees. It sounded like a pony. I broke my way through a tangle of vines to see a mare lying on the ground, covered in blood and moaning. 

'Dragonsilver!' I yelled, 'Dragonsilver!' My red colt came cantering through the bushes. Immediately, he saw the mare lying in pain, and rushed to her side. His horn glowed, surrounded by a blue light, and I saw the wounds begin to heal, just as I knew they would. 
'We should get her back to the house,' I said. 'If something did this to her it could still be nearby.' Dragonsilver nodded, and levitated her onto my back, resting her between the two baskets. He knew that I was stronger than him. 

We took the injured mare back to the house and laid her on the kitchen table. We looked at the scabs. They covered her entire body from head to tail, teensy pinpricks. Around the scabs was a kind of green bruise, just under the black fur and skin. The mare's green mane was untidy but not unkempt. All in all it was a very puzzling picture. 

It got even worse when the wounds reopened, and the blood continued to flow. 'Get some bandages,' Dragonsilver ordered me. I obeyed quickly, fetching them from the kitchen cupboard. With his assistance, I expertly wrapped them around and around her body, legs, and hooves. There wasn't much I could do about the face, but Dragonsilver got a hand towel and dabbed away the blood. 
'Why did the wounds reopen?' I asked. 
'Probably because some sort of toxin was injected that stops them closing,' he told me. 'See the green around the marks? That might be it,' he went to the tap and ran some warm water. 'Clean her down.' I took the water and a cloth, and dabbed away the blood, getting a better look at the wounds beneath. 'Dragonsilver?' 'Mmhmm?' 
'The green is gone,' I told him. He swore. 
'Is that bad?' I asked. 

'Yes,' he said, 'It's now absorbed into her bloodstream. If I'm right, we can't do anything to stop it bleeding, except draining all her blood and replacing it.' 
'But tha's impossible! How do we save her now?' 
'We need to contact Canterlot.' 
'We can't do it. The mailmare only comes once a month. How are we supposd to contact them?' I told him, because it really couldn't be done. 
'Fine. We need to collect a sample of the toxin and create our own antidote. It's the only other thing I can think of.' 
'How are we supposed to do that? Take a blood sample?' 
'No,' said Dragonsilver, mind at work. 'The blood will either be too diluted or contaminated - possibly both - no, we need to find whatever hurt her.' 

'Oh. How in the hay are we supposed to do that? We can't jus' leave her here all by herself, she'll probably die!' I said frantically, my accent of the days gone by returning in my jumpiness. 
'It's our only choice,' he looked me square in the eye, 'You don't have to come.' 
And I looked back at him. 'Ah have no medical training whatsoever. If you go in there, and something happens to her, ah will be helpless. Ah may as well come so that ah can do some good.' 

'I don't want you to get hurt.' I looked at the mare, who had let out a tiny groan, her black face coated in sweat and blood. 
'Ah've had worse. And you were there for me. If you're there for me this time, we can't fail.' I looked at the red pony, into his eyes, seeing him study me. 

Finally he relented. 'You have had worse. And I want to make sure it will never happen again. But some things are out of my control, you have to understand that. I'd do anything to protect you, however capable you are of handling yourself. You aren't weak, you're probably stronger than me. I can't stop you, but I do give you my permission. I'll do whatever it takes to protect you, but that-' he looked at the mare, 'could be you. So you have to promise me to stay nearby, and be very careful.

'I promise,' I said, trying to sound like a Manehattenite or whatever they were called. I saluted, knocking my stetson off my head. Dragonsilver picked it up and placed it back where it belonged. We smiled, and prepared for the journey. 

'...Okay, this could take a while, so we need to be adequately prepared. Food?' 
'Check,' I said, tucking some apples and sandwiches into a saddle bag. 
'Map and compass?' There was no proper map of the Everfree, but we had a rough estimate, and a more detailed one that Dragonsilver had done over the course of a couple of expeditions. 
'...Check,' I said. 

'Rope?' 
'What do we need rope for?' I asked quizzically. 
'There are so many uses for rope that I cannot begin to explain them all. I could, however, go through a couple with you after this crisis is over,' he said, giving me a small wink, 'In bed.'
'Okay then. Check,' I said, strapping a coil to the side of a saddle pack and ignoring his comment.
'First aid kit?' he asked me. 
'Yes indeedy. All checked and ready to go,' I said. He looked at my packing work. 
'Good.' 

Before we left, we had to make the mare comfortable. However, in this situation, there wasn't much we could do. I slid a pillow under her head while Dragonsilver closed up the pinpricks once more. 'What good'll that do?' I asked him, 'You're just wasting energy.' 
'I will take some time for them to open again. We're holding her life in. We'd best get going,' he said. 
'Then let's do it.' 

Without another word, we left the house, passed the overgrown garden, out the gate, and into the Everfree. We walked until we found a thin trail of blood streaking the ground. We followed it to a clearing. 
'If it was an animal that poisoned her, we have no hope of getting an antidote. I suspect it's a plant, however, and that's what we need to find,' he looked at me, 'If you do find it, do not go any closer. It may not have had it's fill yet.' I gulped, and we started searching.The

The clearing was about ten metres in diameter, edged with vines and dark trees. The sky was obsured by a thick canopy, the leaves every shade of brown, black and green. I walked around, inspecting the ground, but all traces of blood were gone. This puzzled me, because it should have just dried and left a stain. I looked around the clearing, at the hard dirt ground. The dirt was scuffed, showing signs of a recent struggle. So it had been here where the mare was attacked. I looked around for Dragonsilver, but it seemed he had gone to investigate elsewhere. Taking a deep breath, I puffed up my courage and walked to the other side of the clearing to look further. 

Halfway across, I tripped on a thick, green vine and fell to the hard ground, cursing. But I was fine, apart from a tiny scrape on my left forehoof. Kicking the vine angrily, I increased my pace and made a mental note to watch where I was going. A second later, however, I felt a tug at one of my back legs and I fell to the ground again. Looking back, I saw the vine curled around my leg. 

Kicking ferociously, I freed myself and tried to escape, but several more vines were now curling around me. I struggled silently for a few more minutes, kicking up dirt and making a fuss, but seventy or more vines had now joined the fight and were restraining me quite efficiently. Pain streaked through my leg, impossible, terrible pain, almost equal to the pain I had felt in that dungeon, two years ago. I screamed, and the vines withdrew, covered in blood. I saw my leg, and it was filled with the green liquid, blood streaming out, just like the mare. 
'Dragonsilver!' I screamed, 'Dragonsilver!!' I tried some more, but the vines curled into my mouth chokingly, and the writhing mass started to drag me to it's source. I no longer wasted my breath screaming, as it took all I had just to keep dragging the air in and out. Scraping my face along the ground, the plant dragged me into the bushes, and out of sight. My stetson was knocked off, and I was feeling woozy from blood loss. 

Then I saw it, the plant that the vines protruded from. It was a giant flower, all blue, white and silver. Watching more closely, I saw tiny needle-like thorns extending from one of the vines. I tried with all my might to keep them at bay, but they sunk into my other leg. 
I felt the sickening feeling of liquid being squirted into me, and sucked out of me. I was close to the flower now, and even through all the pain I could see the massive amounts of my blood it was absorbing. More pain shot through me as my left flank was pierced, but instead of darkening, my vision grew brighter. I wasn't giving up just yet. I looked around for tools, anything to aid in my escape. 

Tearing one foreleg from the greenery, I snatched up a rock and lobbed it into the very heart of the flower. It didn't seem to do anything, but I still had a couple of seconds before my foreleg was out of my control. Grabbing a sharp rock from the ground, I tore through one of the petals. It was made of tough stuff, but I managed to sever some nerves, if things like that even had nerves. 

Stabbing again and again, I tore the giant petal up until it was nothing but useless shreds. The vines seemed distracted now, searching for the source of the pain, leaving me almost unrestrained. But even if I was completely uninhibited I doubted I could move by myself. 
I had to get to Dragonsilver. 
I tore the last vine away from my mouth and yelled to him as loud as I could, again and again. Then he broke through the bushes and we made eye contact. In less than half a second he was working his magic, already having assessed the situation. Vines snapped in two, left right and centre, and the flower was surrounded by a blue aura. 

I was free now, but the pain in my legs was too great, and I couldn't move. I shivered as the blue aura surrounded me as well. I was lifted up into the air, and gently set down out of the way. Dragonsilver's horn grew brighter as he subdued the flower. Eventually it settled down, and Dragonsilver collected a sample of the toxin from one of the larger vines. Then the pain became too much, and I blacked out. 

I woke up to the singing of the birds, a rare thing at this house, for only the bravest birds dared to venture this close to the Forest. Consumed with the thought of trying to recapture my lost dream, I rolled over... ...And gasped in pain. 
The memories came flooding back, not of my dream, but of the events past. I pushed back the covers on my bed, and inspected my hind legs. They were both wrapped in a clean, white bandages, and there was no sign of the blood. It seemed my legs had been expertly taken care of, but I didn't dare to stand, not yet. Lying back, I waited. 

After some time, Dragonsilver came by to check up on me, and noticed that I was awake. 'Welcome back to the world of the living,' he said with a smile, the kind only he could do. 
'Thanks... I think? What time is it?' I asked him, trying to gain some knowledge of time. The curtains had been drawn over the window, but some light had managed to crawl through. 
'It's about mid-afternoon. You've been out for two days,' he said. Huh. 
'So... What happened?' I asked him. 

'I managed to get you back here, and mix up an antidote in time. The reason you were out so long was just the natural healing, you're fine. I'm not a doctor, but there's probably going to be some permanant damage, I'm sorry.' I looked at him, horror-struck, and he backtracked a bit. 'The tissue damage was quite... Particular. I suspect you'll still be able to do anything you would normally, but the bone will break more easily, so you'll need to be more careful.' Dragonsilver eased up to me, and I embraced him, in need of some reassurance. 

We kissed, and I managed to lose myself, just for a second. Forget the pain, forget the worries. There is only Dragonsilver, there is only me. Something triggered, 'The mare!' 
Dragonsilver pulled away. 'Oh, yes.' 
'What happened?' I asked, but I didn't have to. The answer was written all over his face. 
'She - well, by the time I'd gotten you back, and mixed up the antidote, she'd lost too much blood. There was nothing I could do.' 

Now it was my turn to comfort him. 'It wasn't your fault. You did everything you could. If we were reversed, there would be two bodies, not one. You saved a life, don't put yourself down! It wasn't your fault, and it never will be, sugarcube.' 
He smiled a little. 'You're right.' 

A week and a half later, I took my first steps outside. It was evening, and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. Light streamed across the grass and trees, giving the Everfree a kind of bittersweet look I had never seen before. 
I was scared, yes, but I wasn't going to let the fear defeat me. 

Dragonsilver supported me, and together we walked over to the apple tree, where the first blossoms were beginning to bloom.   


Applejack closed the book, and looked across the campfire at her friends. 
'After Dragonsilver and Silver Buckle passed away, their relatives, Granny Smith included, moved to that very spot, built some houses, and started an apple orchard. We now know that orchard as Sweet Apple Acres, and the town as Ponyville!' 
'That was great, Applejack! Okay,' said Twilight, 'Who wants to tell a story next? How about you, Rainbowdash?' 
'Oh, please, no!' said Rarity overdramatically. 'I'm sorry, Rainbow dear, but I simply cannot tolerate another of your Wonderbolt stories.' 
'Aww, come on Rarity, the Wonderbolts are so awesome!' 
'Marshmallows are ready!' said Pinkie Pie, handing the perfectly toasted marshmallows around to her friends. 
Twilight accepted a marshmallow from Pinkie, then looked around. 'How about you Fluttershy? You haven't told a story yet.' 
Well, okay,' said Fluttershy. 'Once I met this green-jay...' 

The End.