//------------------------------//
// Stemming the Tide, Part 1. 
// Story: Meta Gamer in Equestria: Champion's Folly 
// by reflective vagrant 
//------------------------------//

Scraps, Zecora, Speaks with Talons and myself were told to hold tight in a waiting room of the local castle while Tempest and Fluttershy spoke with the princess, who was already slightly panicked when we had arrived, in the central meeting room.
The little dragon I had seen around the castle before was kind enough to wright down and flame deliver a letter to the princess in the capital that Archimedes had been assisting.  This let me briefly explain the sudden urgency and ask them to get ready before blindly calling my partner back to me.
He might have been as scrawny as any old owl, but his insight in a situation as uncertain as this one might prove useful.
All would have been fine as we waited except Scraps was in a bit of a panicked whimper and I could swear I could feel my magic pulsating weirdly.

We waited with the tiny dragon for several minutes, just trying to stay calm.
Finally, the dragon flame-burped out a scroll and read the white princess's reply of how Archimedes understood and was ready to be summoned back as soon as I was ready.
I pulled my arm forward as a perch and did a two step process of willing Archimedes to his pocket dimension then summoning him directly to my arm.
"I am here, partner," he mentally called to me with a far less amount of disdain in his words than his usual levels.  "And thank you for checking in before summoning me."

It was another several minutes of my magic pulsating inside me before the princess that Fluttershy and Tempest were meeting with summoned us.
We entered the room with the large table we had seen in our vision.  I had seen the table once before, during the rift war, but I think it was at least Scraps's first time in the room.
The two things I noticed immediately as I entered was that my pulsating magic finally died down and that two other servants of the Animus Mundi were present.  Specifically, the pony, Tree Hugger, and the dragon, Wild Storm.
"Scraps relieved!" Scraps called out.  "Scraps's teeth not pounding!"
With this, he ran over to Tempest's side.
The princess looked back at me and asked, "What about the rest of you?  Did any of you feel something when you got here?"
Zecora and Speaks with Talons glanced at each other.
With a nod from the zebra, the griffin spoke up. "Zecora and myself felt a rhythmic throbbing in our bones that stopped when we entered this room."
Looking at me expectantly, the princess asked, "and how about you?"
I nodded in kind as I pressed my amulet.  "If I focus, I can feel a kind of pressure from what I can only describe as a sixth sense, which tells me how much magic I have left.  Normally I only notice it without focusing when I expend some of my magic, but it was pulsing from the same time Fluttershy's cutie mark started flashing until just now."
A meek voice spoke up from behind Wild Storm, "That confirms it then."
That's when I noticed the small grey changeling, Mandible, hiding behind Wild Storm.
The dragon gently put a claw on the changeling's head.  "That it does."
When he saw the confusion in my face, he nodded at the princess to explain.
In response, the princess brought up the illusion of a crystalline tree.
"You may recall that Fluttershy, myself and a few other ponies are called element bearers.  Well, these elements came from a tree created by the pillars of light over a thousand years ago."
When she saw me doing the math in my head, she lightly tapped the floor to get my attention.
"Before you ask how they could be alive today, they were suspended in time for most of it.  Moving on."
She re emphasized the illusion with several sections glowing.
"Each of the six pillars contributed a seed of their power that eventually grew into the elements today, but there is an inconsistency in the records."
Bringing up the image of an old tapestry, she continued.
"While there are indeed only six elements, several old depictions of the tree's creation shows it was done by seven sources of magic."
With a gesture of her horn, she made the corresponding images in the tapestry glow in kind.  With her hoof, she then gestured to a green cluster of power present only in the tapestry that wasn't glowing with the others.
"The seventh source was not a pillar of light, but rather a closely trusted servant of the Animus Mundi.  Using the Animus Mundi as an anchor rooted in something other than the quintessence in the elements and the Æther that was used to initiate its creation, they were able to help ensure the tree still had some magic even if nothing was powering the elements at any given time.  This would ensure that the Tree of Harmony would not simply die off at any brief bout of strife that disrupted the elements."
She meekly dipped her head down and blushed as the images she was producing faded.  "At least that is what Wild Storm was telling me just now."
Tree Hugger came up to the table, put a hoof on it and gave us a chill smile.
"The Tree of Harmony is only what Equestrians call her.  We among the servants call her the Crystal Sister.  She rarely is active in the world when it comes to interacting with us, and often simply acts as an adviser to those who know how to reach her through the Animus Mundi."
Tempest came up and put her hoof on the table too.  "That is the side of the tree that promotes life, but if what the princess tells me is correct, the quintessence side of her energy promotes something else entirely.  When its power grew strong enough, the tree created not only the table you see before you but this entire castle.  Through this table, it has summoned many ponies, and one or two other creatures, to fulfill quests.  Quests of friendship and problem solving that have aided in ending conflicts and bringing harmony among the creatures in this land."


A door slammed open, revealing the Speaker of the Fey running in quite irately.  "Oie!  That's all well and good!  But will you get on with what the loudmouth crystal tree wants with us?  Our entire village heard that racket!  I had to fly on one of the pegasus patrolling the forest to hurry here and shut the tree up!  My wife is with child back in the village, so I really don't want to be away for any longer than I have to."
Wild Storm rolled his eyes.  "You know, for creatures not native to this world, you certainly have a knack for acting like you have seniority among those the Animus Mundi chose to bless."
The Speaker gave Wild Storm a death glare, though it looked pathetic when considering their size difference.  "Don't get me started.  You might have unlocked a slowed aging process like us, but I'm still at least a dozen times older than you.  I am your senior.  And dragons and griffins weren't always native either."
When I looked to Speaks with Talons, he calmly explained.
"From what I am told by other servants, the original griffins migrated over during the time of the first war.  It took every single griffin that was not born of Equis passing away before any new born griffins were considered native in the eyes of magic.  Normally it only takes the passing of a few centuries for a race to be turned native, but the Fey live far longer than even dragons, and their strong connection to the Animus Mundi extends that lifespan further still.  This is why the Speaker is not considered a native.  He is of the transitional generation.  He was born here but he has ancestors from the other world that are still alive."
Wild Storm glanced over as the griffin explained, then looked back at the Speaker.
"Though, those among dragons that have heard the tale deny their ancestors ever being from the other world."  Speaks with Talons added, respectfully.
With the explanation finished, Wild Storm broke silence as he continued to glare back at the Speaker.  "And I still refuse to apologize for aiding Star Swirl in the creation of the Tree of Harmony all those years ago.  Quintessence can be abused, but it is not evil.  Neither is our creation that wields it."


"Boys!"  Tempest called out to both of them.
Once she had their attention, she directed them back to the map on the table.  "You can go at each other's throats another time.  The fact is we have an impending disaster on our hooves.  More creatures will be coming to the castle, needing coordination and assignments to avoid this 'oncoming storm' the Tree of Harmony seems to be so scared of."
Looking at the table, I saw the cutie marks of Tree Hugger, Tempest, Fluttershy and one other pony I didn't recognize circling the image of the castle.  Alongside them, faces of Zecora, Speaks with Talons, Scraps, Mandible and many other creatures, all were gathering above the castle too.  I saw my face, but half of it was oddly changed to the form of a bear—my most frequent go to for battle for the longest time and first creature I had ever transformed into.
Suddenly, the faces of Speaks with Talons, Mandible, Scraps and myself moved from the castle alongside Tempest's and Fluttershy's cutie marks.   Stopping together, they landed at a spot in some mountains to the east that had no apparent settlements nearby save for a small train station a small ways off.
The princess and Fluttershy looked at each other in surprise.
"Well, that tells us where you guys are going, I guess.  I just hope coordinating the rest of them when they arrive is this..."
She looked back at the tension between the Speaker and Wild Storm.  "...Easy."