//------------------------------// // The Start of a New Story: Part 6 // Story: My Little Pony: The Next Generation // by Song Thought //------------------------------// The sun crept in through the thin layers of the hut, hitting Apple Crisp's eyes. She stirred for a moment before opening them. She sat up from her sleeping bag to find eight other ponies spread across the floor, still sleeping. It was no surprise that she would be the first one up; she was always a morning pony. She was instantly hit with a wave of confusion. Who were these ponies? Where was she? There were too many questions coming to her head too quickly. She looked to the side of her sleeping bag to find another bag full of various items. While looking inside, she found a tape recorder with a piece of paper taped to it. Confused? Just play this and get caught up. She decided to step out and play it to not wake anyone up. Once outside, she spotted other ponies up and about. She wanted to say hi, but she didn't want to get any more confused than she already was, so she hit play on the tape recorder. She walked along the paths of the strange place she was in while listening to the different voices reminding her of where she was, how she got there, and why she was there. While walking, something caught her eye. There was a tree up ahead that grew some fruit that Apple Crisp had never seen before. She assumed it was edible, and she was hungry. She walked up to the tree, placed the tape recorder down, and started to climb. Climbing trees was something she got the hang of doing since she was very young. Having claws seemed to give her a bit of an advantage. Once she got to the top, she reached out for a piece of fruit that hung off the very end of a thin branch. It was just out of her reach, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Listen, Fortune Teller knows a lot of things. Maybe she knew that telling those guys about you and your sister wouldn't have much effect on them. Plus, you did give her permission to tell them," a nearby voice said. "Yeah, I get that, but- I don't know. I don't feel that comfortable with them knowing that stuff about me right away," a second voice said. Ceres and Fangs were walking down towards the hut that Apple Crisp walked out of. She would normally greet the two, but she was focusing on the fruit. She decided to get closer by walking onto the branch ahead of her, which was also kind of thin. As the two came closer to the tree, they were too caught up in their conversation to notice the pony above them. "It's just," Fangs continued, "I may have gotten used to it, but I'm sick of everyone here treating me like a bomb that could explode at any moment. They don't trust me. They don't want anyone to trust me. Why do you think everyone insisted on me having this?" she gestured towards a mark on the center of her chest. It was two symbols that came together to form an abstract picture of a bottle. When Fangs first arrived at the camp and word quickly spread that she came from the ponies that attacked them, everyone grew scared of her. She was only ten at the time, but the ponies thought that she would terrorize them and turn their camp to ruin. Once they learned that she would be staying permanently, they all came together to give her that first mark on her chest. Fortune Teller was opposed to the idea, but it didn't seem to stop them. Now, the sign that she was once the bad guy was forever displayed on her chest for everyone to see. "Don't talk like that," Ceres said, trying to cheer up the mare, "Who knows? These ponies might be different. Some of them know what it's like to be labeled as something bad because of something they couldn't control." "I doubt it. Being labeled as something dangerous without having a chance to explain yourself? In this seemingly perfect world? Ponies like that don't just fall out of the sky," Fangs gestured upwards while a snap could be heard above them. Just then, both of them saw Apple Crisp fall straight to the ground, landing with a loud thud. "Oh gosh! Are you okay?!" Ceres asked the mare on the ground while helping her up. Fangs looked up to see where she came from. She saw that there was a broken branch on the tree above them, then looked down to see the rest of it laying on the ground. "Were you on the tree?" she asked the hybrid. Apple Crisp rubbed the back of her head, "Um... maybe?" she looked at the two of them, "Who are you?" Ceres was reminded of Apple Crisp’s condition and quickly responded, “Oh. I’m Ceres, and that’s Fangs.” Fangs did a small wave when Ceres introduced her; she realized something. “Wait. You have short term memory loss, right?” she asked as she put her hooves on the hybrids shoulders. “Yeah! Ever since I was four,” Apple Crisp paused for a moment, “I think.” “So, you remember nothing about yesterday!” Fangs said, getting a bit excited. She realized she was being loud, so she quickly composed herself. “Hi, I’m Fangs. I’m a totally normal pony and I have nothing going on with me.” Ceres looked at her disapprovingly, but Apple Crisp smiled, “Hi Fangs. I’m Apple Crisp. I can’t say I’m completely normal, but I also have nothin’ goin’ on with me. Also, your eyes are a really pretty shade of purple... or is it pink?” Fangs fell silent at the sudden compliment while Apple Crisp looked around cluelessly, “Oh what’s this?” she said while approaching the tape recorder she left on the ground. She picked it up and pressed play. The other two joined her while she listened to the voices talk about everything that’s been going on. There was a sudden cut, and a new voice was heard. It was Fortune Teller’s. It was the conversation from the previous night. Fangs' heart started to speed up as she heard Fortune Teller say that she was picked up by the group of villains all those years ago. Lying about herself to Apple Crisp was useless at this point. Maybe she shouldn't have in the first place. She was a villain in the past, yes, but now there was no use in trying to explain that she wasn't like that anymore because she lied straight to her face. "That was some nice catchin’ up," Apple Crisp said, "Do ya’ll know where I can get breakfast?" Fangs was surprised that she didn't focus on the fact that she lied. She might've forgotten about it. "Now that you mention it, we were supposed to be going to your hut for that. Hopefully, we didn't keep them waiting," Ceres said as they started to walk down the trail. Apple Crisp and Fangs followed right after. "So, do you remember anything before you started listening to that tape recorder?" Fangs asked. "Yeah, I think so. I remember you two introducin’ yourselves. Hopefully, it'll take me a while to forget. I don't wanna annoy you two and have you keep introducin’ yourselves." "So, you know that I lied to you?" Fangs asked nervously. "Well, it depends on how you look at it," Apple Crisp thought to herself for a moment, "You said you were a normal pony and that nothin's going on with you, right? I just assumed that you left all that stuff about your past behind you and that you consider yourself 'normal' now. If that's not the case, then I understand why you did that." "You do?" "You wish to start over and want to make somethin’ new with your life, but your past affects both you and the ponies around you. You wish to make friends, so you start with the ones who know nothin’ about you, right?" Fangs was honestly a bit surprised. Was she that easy to read, or was Apple Crisp more intelligent than she thought? "Yeah, actually. How did you know that?" "It's simple. Think of the hypothetical situation that you were born with an irregularity of some sort. Because of that, ponies find you weird and scary, all because you’re different than them. Of course, you don't have much experience talking to others because you haven't been out much. Still, every time you interact with someone new, they get scared and runoff. Sometimes, you wish that you were like them so that you can have new friends, but there's no possible way you can do that. So, you just sit there, in all your weirdness, and just wait for a friend who looks past that. Someone who sees you for you," Apple Crisp seemed to zone out and get caught up in her words. It's like she forgot that the other two were there as well. Fangs snapped her out of her thoughts, "Like the fact that you're a part dragon?" "What?" Apple Crisp was quickly reminded that she was there, "Oh, right. I guess it's not that hypothetical after all." She shook her head and sped up a bit, leaving the other mare behind. As they approached the hut, things were silent. All that can be heard was the rustling of the trees and bushes. Apple Crisp was at the front of the group and was looking around her with extreme curiosity. "Apple Crisp!" someone yelled as they jumped out at the hybrid, making her yelp while she jumped back in fear. She covered her eyes and ears while the pony who scared her laughed to themself. "Jupiter! What did you do?" Cream Cheese said as she walked out of the hut. She found Apple Crisp huddled on the ground and approached her, "You scared her half to death. Why would you do that?" "In my defense, I didn't know she would react that way. I just wanted to play a harmless prank, that's all," Jupiter responded, smile not leaving their face. Cream Cheese comforted Apple Crisp until she uncovered her eyes. Apple Crisp looked at the pink pony above her. She pointed at her, her face deep in concentration like she was trying to remember something. "Cream Cheese, right?" she asked. The mentioned pony smiled brightly and nodded her head. It was like a parent who just witnessed their baby say their first word. "Hey, look at that. Looks like our little Dory is starting to remember us," Jupiter said. "Who?" Ceres said, giving them a confused look. "Never mind." "Jupiter, Cream Cheese, you two just walked out without finishing your packing. Why are you two out here?" Orchard Drop stuck her head out of the hut. She spotted the other three, "Why hello there, Fangs, Ceres. What are you doing out here, Apple Crisp?" "I don't remember. I just know that I might've woken up before the rest of y’all," Apple Crisp responded while getting up. "Well now that you're here, I recommend that you pack up your things. We still have a bit of traveling to do and in not a lot of time. We need to get moving as soon as possible." "Just make sure to stop by for breakfast before you leave," Ceres told the unicorn, "You know, with the lack of food out there, we don't want you guys to starve like yesterday." Orchard Drop's face remained expressionless, "Thank you for the offer. I am sure the others will appreciate it." She went back inside without saying another word. The other three said goodbye to the camp residents and followed her. The energy among the group of nine ponies was different than the rest of the journey. It seemed like the realization that only later that day would they have to confront these dangerous ponies finally hit them. Some looked at it as their final day, thinking they would die in only a few hours. Only time will tell if their dreaded end will come. The ponies ate breakfast in both a hurry and slowly. They had to be quick because they had to get back to walking, but none of them had an appetite. They also knew that they couldn't just skip the meal because there was no food outside. It was mostly just a lot of taking small bites and trying to keep it down. Once they were ready to leave, they decided to check in with Fortune Teller to see if she had any more information for them. They stepped into her hut to find her talking to Fangs and Ceres while some bertulecos scampered on the ground. "Hello there. Did you sleep well?" she asked. There wasn't a worded answer. Only slight noises coming from some of their mouths, saying that their nights could've been better, but at least they got some sleep. "Well, that doesn't sound reassuring, but I assume that it could've been worse. You all came to know if I had anything else to say, didn't you?" everyone nodded. "I know you're all nervous, and I don't blame you. It’s not every day something like this happens. So, I’ll leave you with this last bit of advice: Work as a team. I know it's not much, but you all have your own strengths that work in different ways. The best way to fight these guys is if you put all of your strengths together and become unstoppable. Work together and you are surely able to come out on top." While it wasn't the advice most of them were hoping for, they had no choice but to accept it. They all exchanged their final good-bye’s and Fangs escorted them out of the camp. They found themselves back at the vacant circle in the middle of the forest. "Hey, Fangs," Sweet Tune called, "Do you mind saying anything about these guys? I mean, you did kinda live with them for a while." Fangs thought to herself for a moment, then took a deep breath, "Just... prepare for the worst. These guys can be pretty ruthless. I mean, you already know that. They won't care that you're young, they will do anything to get rid of you guys. These guys have survived death. Just keep that in mind.” Sweet Tune’s heartbeat sped up a bit, but she nodded and thanked the other mare. She kind of regretted asking because the answer only made her more anxious. Fangs said goodbye and went back into the opening in the ledge, leaving the other ponies alone. After the entrance closed, everyone was reminded of how quiet and eerie the Everfree was. “C’mon guys,” North Star started, “There’s not much left in terms of the distance to the mountain. We should get there in an hour or two. Let’s not waste time.” She started walking out of the circle and back onto the main path, others followed. Many questioned how she could say that so nonchalantly. Wasn’t she aware that meant they could die in an hour or two? Still, they had no choice but to keep walking to the mountain. While North Star walked upfront, she kept her head held high. She just hoped that no one heard the slight shakiness in her voice as she talked. Bud woke up the way he usually did. He was shaking because his room was always too cold, and his blanket was always too thin. He heard the noise of yelling coming from outside. If it wasn’t the sudden cold that woke him up in the morning, it was the yelling of the ponies that he lived with. The conversation was always different. Shadow and Dark Magic arguing as to who was a better fit leader for the rest of them, Dolly whining to Solar Disk about when she was alive and how she was unfairly treated the entire time with the stallion occasionally giving noises of agreement to make her think he was listening, Poison Ivy yelling at Plasma Globe to leave her alone, or maybe even Lunar Eclipse talking to himself. He waited for the noise to die down before he went to go get breakfast. He mastered the skill of opening his door as slow as he could to not make any noise. As he walked to the room where they kept their food, he spotted someone sitting there. When he saw who it was, he sighed a little in relief. It was Lunar Eclipse. Of all the ponies he lived with, Lunar Eclipse would be the one he didn’t mind as much. Their relationship wasn’t great, but it was better than all of the relationships he had with everyone else. It was almost like a breath of fresh air for the young pegasus. Lunar Eclipse sat on the ground and stared at it while saying nothing. At least, that’s what Bud assumed. The older unicorn’s long gray hair was always covering his eyes. Bud realized that he’s actually never seen them. The unicorn was as small as the younger stallion, which meant that they were both tiny. His fur was a very dark violet and it was always shaggy. He had his bottle tied around his neck filled with light blue essence. The thing Bud always found the strangest about him is that he had no cutie mark. He always theorized as to why he didn’t. The simplest answer was that he never had it in the first place, but it wasn’t accurate. Lunar Eclipse was a professor when he was alive, and Bud heard that he loved his job. He assumed that something happened to it while he was possessed. Well, he still is, but when he was alive. Bud went to find food and kept out of the unicorn’s way, not wanting to bother him. They were low on food, but he managed to find a banana that didn’t look too beat up. As he turned to head back out, he came face to face with Lunar Eclipse. He yelped and jumped back in surprise. The older stallion stared at him for a while without saying anything. He normally didn’t speak, so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Bud assumed that he wasn’t going to move so he simply walked around him and tried to get out of the room. “You’re sick of this place, aren’t you?” a voice spoke. Bud turned around to find Lunar Eclipse still at the other side of the room, but he was staring right at him. Bud didn’t know what to do. Lunar Eclipse has never talked to him before. For all he knows, he could be talking to himself again, but he was quiet again, almost like he was waiting for an answer. Bud took a deep breath, “I mean, I don’t know, maybe.” Lunar Eclipse waited a moment, “I had a dream last night. You were in it. I had a dream that you were approached by a one-eyed snake. He came and took you away. I don’t know why, but you never came back.” Bud waited for him to continue, but he didn’t, “Uh... thank you?” he said before leaving the room. “A one-eyed snake?” Bud said to himself, “Probably just another weird dream he had.” While he was in the hall, he bumped into someone and fell back. He looked up to find Dolly staring down at him with a slight smile on her face. He didn’t find it reassuring. “I assume you’re ready for the encounter with those ponies that will be happening later today,” she said, never dropping her smile. Bud looked at her face and saw that her hair was covering one of her eyes, like always. Although, something seemed different this time. Maybe what Lunar Eclipse said just got in his head. She bent down so that they were face to face, “Well, are you?” she asked again. Bud snapped out of his thoughts, “Y-Yeah. I am,” he responded. She stood back up and made her way around him and out of the hall, “Good.” Bud hesitated a bit before he did the same. He went into his room and sat down on the floor to think things over. If Dolly was the one-eyed snake that Lunar Eclipse told him about, what did she want to take him away for? More importantly, why would he never come back? That was something Bud didn’t want to know the answer to. It didn’t take long for Sweet Tune and the others to make it to the foot of the mountain, but that wasn’t the hardest part. They still had to climb. There was a small and jagged path that could take them up to the entrance at the top of the mountain. That was where the enemy resided. “Alright. This is the final stretch,” Sweet Tune started, “Everyone make sure that you’re a good ways away from the ledge while we climb.” “And can we please not waste any time? I plan to be up there in half an hour, and I don’t like to be late!” Orchard Drop said as she started to make her way up the mountain, not noticing the others’ annoyed looks. As the others followed, Hurricane approached Sweet Tune, “Hey. How ya doin’?” he asked. He kept going before Sweet Tune could answer, “Do you possibly know what’s the deal with Orchard Drop?” “Yeah,” Jupiter said as they joined the other two, “Don’t you think she’s a little, what’s the word, annoying?” “Oh, she’s just extra snappy today,” Sweet Tune paused, “And she was yesterday. It’s just that this whole thing kinda threw her off her schedule.” “Schedule?” Hurricane asked. “Yeah. She has these sort of habits she does every day, which I boiled down to a schedule. Since this whole thing kind of threw that off, it affected her.” “Habits like what?” “You know, obsessively cleaning every utensil she uses for her meals, turning her lamp on and off before she goes to sleep, just the fact that she hasn’t taken a shower today took a toll on her. She hates being dirty for long periods.” “You say that like it’s a completely normal thing that everyone does,” Jupiter said. “Well, that’s what happens. She’s just anxious and annoyed that nothing’s going her way.” While it wasn’t the explanation the other two ponies were expecting, it was the one they had to work with to get to know Orchard Drop a little better. The best they could do now was to give her space and do what she tells them to do. As Sweet Tune walked on, the other two stayed behind and walked towards the back of the group. Jupiter turned towards the stallion next to them, "So, we finally reunite after ten years. You would think we would have a whole scene for us to catch up by now." Hurricane raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Never mind that," Jupiter continued, "How have you been?" "I mean as good as you can be being isolated for ten years. The most company I had was Aviator and even sometimes we could both be too much for each other to handle." Jupiter gave out a small laugh, "He may have mentioned you being a complete idiot once or twice in his letters." "Well, that's fine. I guess he kind of got used to it since he had you as a friend." Jupiter gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Hey! That's rude." "Well, it's true," Hurricane said, rubbing his arm. "Speaking of siblings, I heard you got a new one recently. Hydrangea, was it?" "Oh yeah, she hasn't shown any sign of having powers yet. I think she might turn out powerless, like Wind Chime. Then again, Hydra might just be a late bloomer." "Hydra? That's her nickname?" "Yeah. Well, I guess only my dad and I call her that. Mom and Wind Chime would rather keep her named after a flower than a monster." "Well, I think it would be better for a literal baby to stick to the flower thing." "You're the one who got named after a natural disaster. You have no right to give your opinion on the matter." The two stared at each other for a moment in silence before breaking out into quiet laughter. "That felt nice. It's been a while since I've had a conversation like that," Hurricane said once his laughter died down. Jupiter nodded in agreement. "Well, you two better enjoy it before things get bad." The two looked up to find Diamond Glow staring at them. They wondered if she heard their entire conversation. "How can you two be this calm when we're basically on our way to fight a battle?" she asked. For the first time in the entire trip, they could see a spark of fear in her blue eyes. "I mean, I know distraction and humor isn't a healthy way to cope with the weight of everything going on right now," Jupiter started. "But what else can we do?" Hurricane finished, "If I focus too much on it, I just get more scared. I also don't want to chicken out right before it." "Does it work?" Diamond Glow asked. Hurricane and Jupiter definitely didn't expect her to say that. She looked a bit worried, maybe even desperate. "I'm sorry, what?" Jupiter asked. "Does the whole humor thing actually help you guys cope with everything?" "Uh, yeah. It works on us," Hurricane answered. He paused for a moment and thought to himself, "Hey Jupiter, remember that time when we tried to bake pies?" Jupiter was confused for a moment, "Yeah? Why?" Hurricane looked at them and glanced at Diamond Glow. Jupiter looked at her to find her still looking at them, interested in what they had to say. "Oh," Jupiter realized what Hurricane's trying to do, "Yeah, totally." "What happened?" Diamond Glow asked. Both Jupiter and Hurricane went on to tell the story of the time Hurricane and his older brother, Aviator, stayed the night at Jupiter's house. They were all a lot younger at the time, and Jupiter was still getting a hang of their chaotic powers. Late at night, they made the wise decision to bake pies to pass the time. Baking them was hard enough, seeing that they were all young and could barely understand how to bake things. It was also hard because the eldest was Aviator, and he had the reading comprehension of a first-grader, making the recipe almost completely useless. It was not long before Jupiter’s little brother, Wind Chime, woke up and found them dumping random ingredients in a bowl. Jupiter said that he could join them if he didn’t tell their parents about it. The idea of doing something like this in the middle of the night got to Jupiter’s head. They felt like a real daredevil at the time. They got cocky and said they could turn the batter in front of them into the finished product. The others didn’t believe them, but they were absolutely determined to prove them wrong. One snap later, and the batter exploded. Fluttershy, Jupiter and Wind Chime’s mother, woke up from the loud noise it made. She made her way to the kitchen and turned on the light, only to find four young foals covered batter, along with the kitchen. They were all forced to clean the kitchen and were grounded for three weeks. Although the bowl they used was shattered from the explosion, Jupiter still kept the broken pieces in their room as a bit of a reminder of what happened. They can still recall their mother’s surprised yet horrified face when she found them that night. “Some of it got in my mouth when that happened,” Hurricane said, “I can still remember the taste. Let me tell you, it was not good.” “Well, I’m sorry. It’s not my fault that the only one of us who could read full sentences was seven,” Jupiter responded. The two of them looked at Diamond Glow to find her with a small smile on her face. It wasn’t sarcastic or mischievous. It was just a genuine smile from the little bit of joy she had at the moment. "Look at that," Jupiter said to Hurricane quietly, "Looks like you didn't have to act tougher to have to be friends with her." Hurricane smiled a bit to himself. "But then again, maybe trying to cheer others up in a situation like this really is a tough thing to do," he said, "I'm surprised you didn't try that sooner." "I was, but I was trying to find the right moment. I guess this was it." "Better late than never," Hurricane said as he gestured above them. The entrance into the target's hideout was visible from where they were walking. Reality hit both of them like a wave. It was so close. Too close. Poison Ivy walked to the end of the corridor she and Bud were never allowed to enter. She had been ordered to meet Dark Magic there. This felt new to her but thrilling. It could be a sign that the others are starting to take her more seriously and are starting to give her more responsibilities. "It's about time," she whispered under her breath. "What was that?" Poison Ivy looked up to find Dark Magic looking at her. He stood in front of a pair of large doors with a carving of a tree on them. "Nothing," Poison Ivy said in a monotone voice, "Why'd you call me?" Dark Magic perked up at the question, "Ah, right. I want to show you something." He turned around to face the two doors. With his magic, he took the cork out of the bottle tied around his neck. The essence slowly started to make its way out of the bottle, swirling around when it did. Once it was completely out, it approached the doors and collided with them, disappearing as it did. It was then that the carving of the tree was being lined with the black substance. A clicking sound was heard when the carving was completely filled out, signaling that the doors were opening. On the other side of the doors, Poison Ivy could see a crystal-like tree with eight branches sticking out of it. On the branches were carvings of different shapes with one being in the middle of the trunk of the tree. They weren't alone. Two other stallions were already in the room before they entered. They were looking down at a sack on the ground. "Solar Disk! Plasma Globe!" Dark Magic called out. The two stallions looked up at the sound of their names. The one named Solar Disk was an earth pony with a dark, faded red coat and a dirty orange mane with black streaks in it. His eyes were a piercing yellow and had a dark ring around the edges due to exhaustion. The very bottom of his hooves had red stains, as well as his mouth. His essence was yellow, and his cutie mark was a burning sun. He was easily the biggest and the strongest built pony they had, but he was always hunched and carried himself rather tiredly. It was almost as he had never slept a day in his life, or afterlife. The other stallion, Plasma Globe, was a gray pegasus with a big brown mane that stood up on his head with the help of static. He had red, bloodshot eyes that had a look of insanity. He had tear stains running down his face and ending at his chin. He wore a torn up and dirty lab coat that was accompanied by the bottle with red essence he had tied around his neck. the bottoms of his hooves were black and burnt. His cutie mark was a skull with sparks of electricity surrounding it. Unlike Solar Disk, this stallion was never tired. He would always fidget and twitch, so much so that the others are annoyed by it. "Dark Magic, hello there," Plasma Globe said, his eye twitching like crazy, “I see you brought Poison Ivy with you. What’s the occasion?” “Yeah, you still haven’t answered my question,” Poison Ivy said. “Alright,” Dark Magic gestured towards the tree in the middle of the room, “You see that? That is only half of our ticket to world domination: The Tree of Harmony. This puppy is basically the charging port for the elements.” “Okay? Why do I need to know this now?” Poison Ivy asked. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention,” Dark Magic turned towards the other two stallions, “Bring me the bag.” Solar Disk picked up the sack and brought it over to the unicorn, gently placing it on the floor. Dark Magic untied the rope that sealed it and let Poison Ivy look inside. Her jaw almost dropped. “The elements!” she exclaimed, “How-? When-? Who-?” “I sent these two on a mission last night to steal the elements from Princess Twilight’s castle last night as sort of a last chance plan for when these ponies arrive. How they managed to do it? Frankly, I don’t wanna know,” Dark Magic answered, “We need to place the elements into the slots in the tree and wait for them to arrive to use them to power up the elements.” “Alright, so where do I come in?” Poison Ivy asked eagerly. “You, my dear, will guard the tree so that no one steals the elements.” Poison Ivy’s excitement left and was replaced with disappointment, “So, you don’t want me to fight? You want me to just stand here instead? You would rather have Bud fight than me?” “Well, that’s the thing. If we were to put Bud here and someone attempted to take the element, there is no way he would be able to put up a fight. I would rather have him be destroyed out there than have the elements stolen. You, on the other hoof, can send them running back home with their tails between their legs.” “Alright, you’ve convinced me,” Poison Ivy said, her facial expression not changing. “Good, because they should be getting here soon. So, we should probably put the elements in their places now,” Dark Magic said while picking up the elements with his magic. While he was placing the elements in the tree, the heard distant hoof steps approaching. Bud then came barging in with a terrified look on his face. “They’re here!” he said. “That was a lot sooner than expected,” Dark Magic replied, “Solar Disk! Plasma Ball! Get out there and wait for them to come in!” The two stallions followed his orders. Dark Magic turned towards Bud, “Does everyone else know?” Bud nodded. “Alright, then what are you still doing here?! Get out!” Bud quickly but worriedly ran out of the room, too scared to question the tree or the elements. Lastly, Dark Magic looked at Poison Ivy, “You stay in here and be prepared in case anyone comes in.” Poison Ivy nodded. Dark Magic started to walk out while the essence that opened the door started to exit the doors and make its way back into the bottle. He barely got out of the room before the doors completely shut, leaving Poison Ivy inside. The unicorn walked towards the entrance of the cave and saw the rest also there. He approached Shadow. “Hello there, Shadow. You have any ideas on what to do once they enter?” Shadow furrowed her brows and a smile spread across her face, “I may have one.” Dark Magic watched as Shadow turned herself into a silhouette and hid in the darkness of the walls. The others who were there must’ve seen because they also proceeded to hide. “Ah, ambush. I like it,” Dark Magic said. He felt a rock hit him. He turned towards Dolly who hid behind a wall. She put a hoof up to her lips to tell him to be quiet. He was going to respond, but before he could, he heard the voices of children approaching. He turned towards the entrance and saw nine ponies walk into the cave. They were all so different from each other. Some were tall, some short. Some normal, some freaks. One had a bottle like his tied around her neck. Hold on, if they got that necklace away from her, they could make up for that one missing spot that opened up 5 years ago. A new objective seemed to appear in Dark Magic’s head: Get the necklace. Something landed in front of him which caused him to snap out of his thoughts. He looked down and saw a knife stuck on the floor in front of him. He looked up and had only one thought on his mind: The enemy was right in front of them. The enemy was right in front of them. Sure, Diamond Glow throwing the knife was a bit of a stupid idea on her end, but what else could she have done? The guy in front of them was zoning out when this was supposed to be the fight that either saved Equestria or destroyed it. She did not travel for two days in an unknown part of the Everfree for him to not care about it. It seemed to get his attention, so it wasn't a completely bad idea. As he looked up, the others could see that his face was torn and mauled. An animal attack is what killed him, so that was no surprise, but the idea that he was some sort of zombie was still extremely new to them. He had a necklace like Sweet Tune's tied around his neck. That must be the essence. Dark Magic: the magician, Sweet Tune thought. "Hello there," he said in a quiet voice, "Welcome to our humble home. Although, I reckon it's almost too humble, with it being a cave and all." "And yet, it's still better than what you deserve," North Star spoke up, catching the older stallion's attention. "Oh, look at that. A strong young lady who speaks her mind," he said in return, "I didn't see many of those in my day. It's kind of refreshing." North Star kept her serious expression and remained standing tall, "This is your last chance surrender. Refuse, and there will be serious consequences." "Surrender?!" they all saw a shadow approach them. It turned into an earth pony mare, "You really expect us to surrender when even death couldn't stop us." Shadow: the pirate The mare was so tall, she looked down at North Star like she was some sort of insect, "Look at all of you. So young and fragile," she said as she examined the group. She stopped at Cream Cheese, "I bet it wouldn't take more than ten hits to break those skinny legs of yours." The earth pony shook at the thought of that happening to her. "Stop that!" Sweet Tune yelled, "We gave you one more chance and you refused. We will have no choice but to get rid of you." Shadow chuckled a bit, "I'd like to see you try." Before anyone could get another word in, the entrance behind them was closed with a boulder, trapping them inside. The one who pushed it was Dolly the performer, she sported the same devilish smile as the other two. 4 other stallions jumped out of their hiding spots as well, the smallest being a bit hesitant at first. The group analyzed them and remembered who they were from the night before. Lunar Eclipse: the professor, Solar Disk: the cook, Dr. Plasma Globe: the mad scientist, and Bud: the colt from Manehattan. It all seemed too real now. They did outnumber them by a few ponies, but that still didn't feel like enough. There's only one way to find out if it was. Sweet Tune took a deep breath, "What are you waiting for?! Attack!" Then everything was chaos. Diamond Glow has been through this type of situation before. She's fought, she's attacked, she's hurt. She knew exactly what to do. And she wanted a challenge. She picked up her knife from the ground and ran. As she was running into the fight, she felt something call her. It was a familiar voice in her head, telling her to come over. She tried to ignore it, but it only got louder. When someone attacked her, she dodged quickly, but they only looked like a blur to her. Everything was blurry and she heard nothing but the voice. She kept walking, hoping everything would just stop. Then it did. Her sight came back, and she could hear the noises going on all around her, but she was separated from everything. She found herself in an empty hallway leading towards a white door, slight whispers were still heard coming from it. When she tried to turn around and rejoin everyone, the voice got louder, and her sight got worse. Whatever this thing was, it wanted her to walk towards the door. When she did, the whispers became clearer. "Come here." "This way." "The white door." "Diamond Glow..." They repeated over and over again as she walked through the hallway. They stopped when she was right in front of the door. It was metal and didn't have a knob, but it did have a keyhole. It was slightly opened like it was waiting for her. She held on to her knife in preparation as she opened it all the way. She wanted a challenge, there was no doubt there, but nothing could have ever prepared her for this. On the other side of the door was a big, but mostly empty, room. The only things in there were a mattress on the ground and a small candle next to it, but no matches to light it. She wasn't alone. In the farthest corner from where she was standing, there was a pegasus sitting down and watching her as she looked around the room. Diamond Glow instantly recognized those dark purple eyes. "You!" she yelled in anger. The other pony got up and smiled a bit too widely. "Diamond Glow, dearie. Long time, no see!" she said in return, "Did you get my message?" "Yes. If you could even call it that. What do you want with me, Night Gaze?" "I simply want to retrieve what I gave to you 5 years ago." It was then that Diamond Glow felt the most excruciating pain in her head she’s ever experienced. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t hear. She thought she had just died. But before she knew it, it vanished. She looked up and saw a dark purple substance make its way towards Night Gaze before entering the bottle tied around her neck. “Wait, was that thing inside me?!” Diamond Glow said as she came to the realization. “Well yeah, of course, how else am I supposed to enter your head?” “You’re the reason I-!” Diamond Glow was so enraged that she couldn’t even finish her thought. Diamond Glow grew up not knowing how to deal with overwhelming emotions very well, especially anger. Taking it out on other things was always her strategy. Whether it be a pillow, the wall, or in this case, an undead pegasus lady known for being a mass murderer. Night Gaze was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Diamond Glow screaming. She was met with the younger mare running towards her at full speed, carrying a knife with her magic. She quickly dodged the attack and let Diamond Glow run into the wall. “And I thought we were going to have a nice time catching up,” Night Gaze said. Diamond Glow turned around and wiped some blood off her nose. There was no sign of her backing down. “Alright then,” Night Gaze said as she formed a scythe out of the essence, “I guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.” Bud couldn’t run into the fight. He just couldn’t. Yes, he’s had fighting experience before, but that was just combat training against Poison Ivy, and he always lost. The idea of grown adults beating the life out of seemingly innocent teenagers was already too much for him but seeing that the other side also had some good and ruthless fighters did not sit well with him. He quickly backed into the hallway nearest to him, but not quick enough. One of the ponies from the other group spotted him and they made eye contact. Before he knew it, he was running down the hallway and into his room. He hid behind his bed, hoping no one else saw him, or that the one that did, didn’t follow him. It was quiet for about a minute, then Bud heard his door open. Right, his door didn’t have a lock. Was it the pony that saw him? Did they really follow him? Bud looked to his right and spotted a large branch that he picked up from the Everfree. It was supposed to be used to chase out rats that would sometimes come into his room, but a good enough weapon to use against someone could also work. He quickly picked it up and held it tight. “I have a weapon!” he yelled, “I will use it if you come any closer!” “Don’t!” the intruder yelled back, “Please don’t. I don’t want to hurt you,” they said in a softer tone. Not want to hurt him? Since when did someone not want to hurt him? He remained in his hiding spot and didn’t let go of the branch. “I saw you run. You don’t want to be a part of this, do you?” they continued, “Don’t worry, I don’t either.” “W-Who are you?” Bud finally spoke up. “Oh, yeah. I’m Sour Patch,” they said, “I don’t know if anyone around here’s mentioned me before.” Bud didn’t let go of his weapon, but he leaned over to see who this intruder was. He didn’t know what he was expecting. Maybe some large guy who wouldn’t hesitate to beat him up if he showed any sign of vulnerability. Instead, he just saw a normal pegasus stallion. “You’re Bud, right?” Sour Patch asked, “You were mentioned maybe once or twice last night. You’re one of the ones who are still alive.” Bud slowly nodded, “Yeah,” he said quietly. Sour Patch took a step forward but quickly stepped back when Bud noticeably flinched. “No, I get it. Personal space,” he said. “You said you didn’t want to be in this fight. Why?” Bud asked. “Well, ya know, I’m not really the fighting type. I don’t know how to throw punches and I’m not athletically inclined, like, at all.” “But you still followed me here. How did you know I wasn’t going to attack you?” “I didn’t. You just looked scared, and I wanted to see if I could help in any way,” there was a small moment of silence, “So, is there anything I could do to help?” “Oh, no. Just don’t tell anyone about this conversation. The others would kill me if they knew I didn’t take this opportunity to possibly kill you.” “Alright? Should I be worried?” “Oh, not of me, but the others? Extremely. Hey, what happened to your eye?” “This thing?” Sour Patch paused for a moment, “I was being stupid and ran into some fire when I was little.” “So, can you see out of it?” “Nope. It’s pretty much useless.” The was another awkward moment of silence before they heard a loud crash outside. “Hey, there’s a fight going on out there and I should probably help before my cousin gets killed,” Sour Patch said as he started to make his way to the door, “Are you going to be fine in here?” “Yeah, don’t worry about me,” Bud replied. Sour Patch gave him a quick smile before exiting the room, leaving Bud alone once again. He thought about the experience he just underwent. Someone was nice to him. Not only that, but it was also someone from the opposite side. Did this Sour Patch guy want to help him? Or did he just want to get information out of him? Either way, a conversation that didn’t involve much yelling did feel like a breath of fresh air. Cream Cheese was not much for fighting. She felt that her skinny body could easily be broken in any type of rough impact. Also, she’s never tried to hurt anyone before. Even if these guys did deserve it, there’s no way she would be able to give a good fight. She didn't know what to do but hide behind a large boulder and wait for everything to die down. It wasn't long before she felt the presence of another pony next to her. She looked over to see North Star with her chosen weapon, a spear, that she picked up at Diamond Glow's treehouse. Cream Cheese could also feel the impact of someone shooting something at the rock. North Star was behind it for protection from whoever was attacking her. "Cream Cheese? What are you doing just sitting here?" North Star asked. "Hiding. I can't fight. I don't know how to. I can't go out there," the earth pony responded. North Star looked behind her to see if anyone was directly attacking them; everyone seemed to be distracted by them at the moment. She let her guard down a little and turned back towards Cream Cheese. "Look, I get that you've never fought before, but you don't have to know how to traditionally fight to take some of these guys out. Just look at our guys. Do you think all of them learned how to throw a decent punch before this? I highly doubt it. But just look at how they use their own specific strengths and unique qualities to their advantage." Cream Cheese looked at the fight and saw that North Star was right. Apple Crisp mainly used her claws to cause damage and her snake-like tail to bind ponies' legs together and keep them still as someone else came in to strike them. Hurricane was a fast and agile flyer, so he was dodging almost every blow. He even managed to lead some of them into punching or running into a wall or rock. Orchard Drop and Jupiter were able to use magic in this area and that was their main source for attacking. She turned back to North Star with an idea in her head, "I can do something, but you're gonna have to cover me until I can get it set up." North Star nodded and flew up, looking to see if anyone would approach them. Cream Cheese reached for her bag and dumped some things out. She knew she would need her tools for this. She picked up a small metal sphere and used a screwdriver to open up what looked to be the power source. Nothing but wires and switches could be seen. She grabbed some scissors and a roll of tape. Some rearranging needed to be done. Meanwhile, North Star was met with a sudden hit to the head, causing her to fall to the ground. She quickly got up and looked around to see who hit her. She spotted a sort of creature running towards her at full speed. It wasn't anyone she has seen yet; she wasn't even sure if it was a pony. Still, she quickly used her spear to stab it as it came closer to her. She took the spear out of its chest and took a good look at it. It wasn't a pony, but it also wasn't like any beast she's ever seen. It almost looked like a large cat, but it was like it had little to no flesh and appeared very, bone-like. It was pitch black and didn't have any eyes. It also had large sharp teeth and claws. Where did it come from, and are there more? The latter was quickly answered as North Star looked up to find about five more of the same creature running towards her. Behind them was Plasma Globe who was using his essence to make more appear. Right, the essence of Discord. He could basically make anything happen, North Star thought. She started to fight them off, mostly using her spear to take them down and stab them. She also occasionally used her magic to blast them if she was fighting too many at once. One came up from behind and scratched her back, causing her to yell out in pain. She used her back leg to kick the creature away as she spun to stab it. She felt herself breathing heavily, but only more creatures came. If only there was a way to take out Plasma Globe or distract him, but she couldn't go to him because then the creatures would attack Cream Cheese. North Star caught a yellow blur in the corner of her eye. Jupiter. "Jupiter!" she yelled, grabbing the other pony's attention. Before Jupiter could say anything, the alicorn pointed towards the stallion sending the creatures. Jupiter got the message and quickly floated towards where North Star was pointing. "Excuse me, sir, but your demonic monsters are hurting my friend. Do you mind not sending them to attack her anymore?" they asked Plasma Globe. The stallion laughed in their face, "You think that will get me to stop? You might want to stay out of this, getting involved might get you severely hurt." "Yeah, but here's the thing: You may have the essence of The Lord of Chaos, but I have the powers through genetics. So-" Jupiter snapped their fingers and sent a giant cupcake down on Plasma Globe, crushing him when it landed. Jupiter approached the cupcake, took some of the frosting with their paw, and tasted it. "Geez, old ponies can be so rude sometimes." North Star managed to take out a few of the last creatures, but one managed to come out of nowhere. North Star was barely able to block herself with her spear, but it managed to break the sharp end clean off, sending it sliding away from them. North Star had no time to think, as the creature went in for another attack. She took the remaining part of her weapon and blocked herself again. She used the rock behind her to lean on as she used her remaining strength to try to force the creature off of her. There was a split second where she thought that this would be the end for her. That she would be killed by this monstrous thing. As she felt herself about to collapse, she heard a loud bang, followed by a shrill screech coming from the beast. It went limp and she managed to push it off of her. As it fell, North Star spotted a large hole in its chest. "Wait, did I kill it?!" North Star turned around and saw Cream Cheese peering over the rock with a metal sphere in her hooves. The sphere had a hole that appeared to be red but was slowly getting darker. It must’ve been what created that hole. North Star looked back at the creature on the ground, “Yeah, looks like it.” “Oh my! What happened to your back?!” Cream Cheese worriedly asked. North Star turned her head to find the wound she got earlier. It suddenly started to hurt again when she remembered she had it. "Oh, this old thing? Yeah, it's gonna end up being an epic battle scar one day. If I don't die from an infection," she responded. "Oh yeah, I think I may have something that will fix that." "Do it quick. This battle's not quite over yet." Hurricane quickly dodged another attack by Solar Disk, sending him into the wall. He's already taken so many hits to the head that he fell straight to the ground from being knocked out. Hurricane stood over him. "You know, you're a lot denser than I thought you would be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not that smart either, but I thought anyone would be able to catch on to the fact that their opponent would try to dodge every attack and change up their strategy. But I guess all those hits to the head don’t do too well on the ol' brain." He stood up and turned around but was quickly stopped by Lunar Eclipse standing in front of him. Hurricane jumped back in surprise. "Hey there, creepy old dude. Are you going to try to hit me, or are you just going to stand there and stare at me?" Hurricane asked him, "You should know that I like attention very much, and I haven't received much this whole time. This feels kind of nice." "The little mare with the knife. She is your friend, is she not?" Lunar Eclipse said after a short silence. Hurricane realized who he was talking about, "Diamond Glow? I guess you can say we're friends. Why are you mentioning her?" "Andromeda informed me that she is in grave danger. If she is not helped, her estimated death will be in about ten minutes." "What?!" Hurricane was too worried about Diamond Glow to question anything else that the other stallion said, "Where is she?! "They said to look for the white door," Lunar Eclipse answered. He didn't say anything else. Instead, he just walked away. Hurricane wanted to go see if she was alright, but what if it was a trap? But if he didn't go, there was a chance that she could die. He looked around the room and saw that she wasn't anywhere to be seen. If he went, there was a chance that he could get hurt, but if he didn't, Diamond Glow would for sure die. He flew as fast as he could around the cave until he spotted a dark hallway with a slightly open white door at the end of it. He heard various noises coming from it: thuds, grunting, laughing? He walked towards the door to see what was going on. On the other side of it, Diamond Glow was being thrown around like a rag doll by Night Gaze. It looked like Diamond Glow did manage to get a few hits in because Night Gaze looked a bit bruised here and there. Meanwhile, Diamond Glow looked absolutely terrible. She had bruises, she was bleeding everywhere, and she had a black eye. When she was thrown down, she could barely even stand up. When she did, she avoided using her upper left hoof; it was broken. And still, she tried to run towards the other mare, but she wasn't so successful. Her knife was on the other side of the room, so she had no weapon to fight with. "It's adorably pathetic how hard you try! Just give up and let me kill you already!" Night Gaze yelled at Diamond Glow who could barely keep herself upright. Hurricane had to think quickly about what he could do to intervene. She was a ruthless fighter and killer who gave no one mercy. It looked like the only reason she hasn't killed Diamond Glow yet was so she could get a couple of laughs in. "Then again, you wouldn't survive no matter what you did," Night Gaze continued, "But maybe putting you out of your misery now would help us both." She charged at the unicorn, fully set on killing her. Hurricane quickly grabbed her knife, flew in between the two, and used it to stab Night Gaze's arm. Night Gaze gave out a yell from the sudden pain and stepped back. She looked up and made eye contact with Hurricane. "Oh look, another one," she said under her breath as she held on to her arm, "No, it's fine. I can just kill both of you. Yeah, I can do that." "Hurricane?" Diamond Glow whispered. Hurricane turned around and ran up to her. She was on the ground and tried to keep her head up. "Hey, why did you think you can take her on alone?" Hurricane asked. He used the bandages that Diamond Glow kept in her bag to cover up some of her more critical wounds. "I had to, okay? I couldn't bring any of you guys into this. She's the one who's been giving me all those nightmares. It was my responsibility to handle her," Diamond Glow responded. "It's not your responsibility to almost get yourself killed. You could've at least asked for some help." As Hurricane was helping Diamond Glow, the unicorn spotted something behind him. It was Night Gaze with her scythe running towards them. “Hurricane! Watch out!” was all Diamond Glow could scream at the moment as Night Gaze launched herself at them. But something stopped her suddenly. She was being held in place by magic. She tried to move but there was no success. Hurricane looked back at Diamond Glow, but she just looked back with the same look of confusion on her face. “Hello? What are you two doing distracted in a room with one of them? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?!” Everyone turned to the door and saw Orchard Drop using her magic. She was the one keeping Night Gaze still. “Well, don’t just stand there! Get out of there!” she yelled. The two did what she asked, Hurricane having to help Diamond Glow walk out of the room and behind the other unicorn. Orchard Drop returned her focus onto Night Gaze, who gave her a nervous smile. Orchard Drop ignored it and started to effortlessly throw the older mare around the room with her magic as the two behind her eagerly watched. “Couldn’t you have just done that from the get-go?” Hurricane asked Diamond Glow. “No, I’m actually terrible at magic,” Diamond Glow answered, “The biggest thing I could pick up was the spear that North Star borrowed. That was a rare find, so if she ruined it in some way, I would actually kill her.” Night Gaze hit the ground with a loud thud for about the dozenth time. Now she looked as bad as Diamond Glow. “Please, don’t hurt me!” she yelled out, “I surrender! Just please stop!” Orchard Drop let her go but still kept her full attention on Night Gaze, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you off of this mountain right now.” “I admit, there isn’t a good reason. Just hear me out.” Orchard Drop picked up her scythe with her magic, broke in half, and threw it across the room just to be sure that she wouldn’t try to hurt any of them. She gave the older mare a nod to signal her to go on. “Alright, here it goes,” Night Gaze paused for a moment, “For a smart mare like yourself, you really are stupid.” The three ponies looked at each other confusedly while Night Gaze started to chuckle a bit, “What do you think throwing me around a bit and having me fall off the mountain is going to do to me?! Absolutely nothing! I’m already dead, genius! You can’t just kill me again! You’re just going to have to come to terms that you just can’t get rid of us!” They noticed the broken scythe turned into essence that went back into Night Gaze’s bottle. They saw that she even started to turn into a similar-looking substance as well. Night Gaze’s chuckles turned into uncontrollable laughter. “No matter what, you’re always going to end up losing! Face it, friends, we’re going to be around until YOU die!” Those were the last words she said before she turned completely into a cloud of magic and left the room. Her roars of laughter could still be heard where she stood. Sweet Tune had her target locked as she went in for the final blow on Dolly, who was being held still by Apple Crisp. She had to admit, they made a great team. Sweet Tune managed to catch something in the corner of her eye as Apple Crisp made sure that Dolly had really fainted. It was two doors with a tree carved into them. “Sweet Tune? What’s wrong? You’re zonin’ out,” Apple Crisp said as she waved an arm in front of the other pony’s face, “Well, I’m not really one to talk. I do that all the time.” Sweet Tune was snapped out of her thoughts, “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just a little tired from all of this, that’s all.” “Well, that’s understandable. This has been a very tirin’ day for all of us, I think, but it looks like everything is finally startin’ to die down.” Sweet Tune looked around. Apple Crisp was right. There wasn’t another pony from the other team in sight, besides the ones who were knocked out. Could the battle finally be over? “Finally,” didn’t seem like the right word; more like, “already.” Everything happened so fast. Too fast. When she thought about it. She hasn’t seen Dark Magic or Shadow since the start of it. Where can they be? “Sweet Tune! Look at your necklace!” Apple Crisp yelled. Sweet Tune looked down and saw that not only was the essence glowing again, but it was floating. “Do you know what it means?” Cream Cheese asked as she approached the two ponies. Sweet Tune shook her head. The glowing seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the room. What no one did expect was that the necklace started heading into a certain direction, as if it were trying to lead Sweet Tune somewhere. “What’s it doing?” Sour Patch asked. “I don’t know, but I think I should follow it,” Sweet Tune answered as she started walking to where the essence was leading her. The others followed her to find out as well. They all walked into a hall and stopped in front of the two large doors that Sweet Tune saw earlier. Why would it take them here? Sweet Tune saw that the essence was trying to get out of the bottle. She was about to uncork it before Orchard Drop stopped her. “Sweet Tune. Are you seriously going to let that out after we learned how dangerous it can be?” “I think I have to. There could be something we need behind these doors and I don’t know how to open it, but maybe this does,” Orchard Drop gave her an unsure look, “Droplet, this is what alerted us and caused us to do this whole thing in the first place which didn’t end up necessarily bad. Don’t you think that maybe this could end up the same way?” The two stared at each other for a moment in silence. Orchard Drop then sighed and nodded, letting Sweet Tune carry on. She uncorked the bottle, and the essence quickly got out and slammed into the doors. The carving of the tree turned into the same teal color that the essence was. There was a clicking sound, and the doors opened. Everyone was in awe of what they found inside, but also extremely worried. The Tree of Harmony they found amazing and beautiful, but the elements? “How did they get a hold of the elements?” North Star asked, “I made sure they were in their place yesterday before we left. How did they get here?” “Can’t you see? They stole it last night while we were gone,” Jupiter answered as they floated closer to get a better look at them. “Well, we have to grab them and get them out of here before these guys try to do anything with them,” Diamond Glow started, “So I recommend that we get on that.” Apple Crisp made her way to the tree and reached for The Element of Magic. As she did, a vine came out from behind the tree and grabbed on to her arm, yanking her behind it. “Apple Crisp!” the ponies yelled. They heard laughter coming from the other side of the room. A silhouette emerged from the shadow the tree was making. “Poor, naive little ponies. You really thought we were going to let you get away that easy?!” the silhouette turned into Shadow as she walked towards them. “You should’ve seen their faces when it happened. They were absolutely priceless.” Everyone turned around and saw Dark Magic standing at the door with a conniving grin on his face. “And lookie here,” everyone turned back towards the tree to see Poison Ivy emerge from behind it, using vines to lift her, “We even managed to catch one. Not the one I wanted, but she will do.” She revealed Apple Crisp struggling to escape from a vine she was tied up in. Sweet Tune tried to run towards her but was quickly stopped when Poison Ivy put her hoof out. “I wouldn’t recommend doing that if I were you. Take one step and the freak gets it,” Poison Ivy said as sharp thorns came out of all vines except the one that was holding Apple Crisp. Apple Crisp winced at the thought of her being stabbed by those. The others didn’t know what to do. For the first time, they were actually stuck with no way out. “So, what you’re saying is that if we give up the elements and give you all complete control of Equestria, you’ll give her back to us.” Everyone looked at Hurricane who was looking at Poison Ivy with a somewhat confused face. “Hurricane, what are you doing?” Diamond Glow whispered. Hurricane just covered her mouth and waited for a response. “D-Did you not just hear the entire conversation we just had,” Dark Magic asked. “Yes, but I just wanted to restate it for our good friend, Apple Crisp, because, if you didn’t know, she has short-term memory loss.” “Okay?” Poison Ivy said in confusion. “Don’t ‘okay’ me. It’s a serious condition that she has been struggling with for ten years. You don’t want her constantly asking you what’s happening while we work things out, because it’ll get pretty annoying. It takes a few explanations to get it through her head. So, if you don’t mind, the plan is that if we give up the elements and-“ “Silence!” Shadow interrupted, causing Hurricane to jump a bit, “Why are you doing this!” “Because you see, Shadow, while humor and distraction are a somewhat okay way to cope with heavy amounts of stress,” Hurricane started. It was then that Jupiter appeared behind Poison Ivy with a giant hammer and hit her over the head with it, knocking her out cold. “It also works as a great fighting strategy,” Jupiter finished as Poison Ivy hit the ground. Apple Crisp also started to fall, but Jupiter managed to catch her. “Get the elements!” North Star and Dark Magic said at the same time. Everyone in the room went for the tree to retrieve them. North Star spun on Dark Magic before he had the chance to get there, “Oh no you don’t,” she picked up her broken spear, which was more like a large stick that this point. Dark Magic looked at it and laughed to himself, “That’s your weapon? What are you gonna do? Poke me?” North Star used the weapon to swiftly knock over the stallion. When he was caught off guard, North Star used her magic to throw him out of the room. “No, but I hope that suffices,” she said under her breath as she turned around to join the others. Meanwhile, behind the tree, Jupiter was unraveling Apple Crisp, trying to avoid the thorns on the ground. They both heard a quiet moan coming from Poison Ivy. They looked over to see her stirring. They backed away a bit as they saw her open her eyes and get up. The vines moved around and retracted back towards her. Apple Crisp looked at her face in deep concentration. Her face then lit up as if she had just remembered something. "That's it!" she yelled out, "You look like Fangs!" Poison Ivy used one of the vines to violently push her down. "Don't you ever mention that traitor here!" she said. She tried to run towards the hybrid but was stopped by Jupiter blocking her way. "I wouldn't advise you to keep going. I've had my limit with putting up with merciless serial killers for today." Their eyes turned red as they bared their teeth and growled. Both of them heard a shot sound and Poison Ivy hissed as one of her vines was shot clean off. She held the stump as she quickly retreated out of the room. Jupiter and Apple Crisp turned around and saw Cream Cheese with her weapon. "Sorry. Did I interrupt?" she asked. "No, no, you're fine," Jupiter responded, not knowing what else to say. "Okay, then come on. The others are almost done getting the elements and we need to get out of here asap!" As the three of them came out from behind the tree, the others were putting the elements in a sack they found on the ground while fighting off Shadow and Dark Magic. Orchard Drop grabbed the last one with her magic and tied up the sack with rope to keep them inside. Sour Patch was starting to head out once he saw that they had all of the elements. As he got closer to the door, he felt a hoof grab onto his arm and pull him out of the room. He ended up face to face with Bud, who was slightly panicking. "Listen, there's no time to waste, so I'm only saying this once: even if you manage to make it out of this cave, they'll still follow you. I know this area at the end of the hallway where my room is that is holding up this huge boulder. I'm going to destroy it. The boulder will cause so much of an impact that it will cause the cave to close up, trapping these guys inside. You have to get your friends out of here before that. Got it?" Bud said a little too quickly. Still, Sour Patch understood and nodded. "Alright, get out, quick!" Bud said as he ran away. Sour Patch ran back in to tell the others, but as he did, he was almost trampled by the others running out of the room. Once everyone ran out, the essence got out and went back into Sweet Tune's necklace, closing the doors while doing so. As Orchard Drop held the sack, she was attacked by Dark Magic pinning her to the ground. She struggled to look up and saw Hurricane flying above her. "Hurricane!" she yelled out, catching his attention, "Catch!" She threw the sack at him. Hurricane caught it and the attention of both Shadow and Dark Magic was turned on him. He started to fly away as they shot at him. He accidentally dropped it when he had to quickly stop to not get hit by the blast of magic that was all too close. As the sack fell, it was caught by Diamond Glow struggling to use her magic to bring it over to her. She let go of it and caught it with her mouth as she started to run as fast as she could with a broken leg. She tripped over a crack in the ground and let go of the sack, which disappeared before touched the ground. It reappeared in Jupiter's arms. As the sack kept getting passed around, Sweet Tune saw that the opening to the outside was still blocked by the large boulder. She went up to it and used all of her strength to push it and create an opening. It wasn't open all the way, but it was big enough to go through it. "Sweet Tune!" she looked over and saw North Star throw the sack towards her. She barely caught it before running out of the cave. When she got out, she looked around to see what she could do. "Stop right there!" Sweet Tune felt a chill down her spine as Shadow approached her, "Don't take another step!" Sweet Tune turned around. She started to back up as Shadow slowly walked towards her. She had to stop at some point because she felt herself get closer to the edge of the path. One more step backward and she was dead meat. Shadow laughed to herself. "Looks like none of your friends are here to save you now. The freak show's all alone. And don't even think about using magic against me, it won't work out here." Sweet Tune looked down and saw that she never corked her bottle, yet the essence stayed inside. Maybe it can help once more. "Here's the thing, Shadow," Sweet Tune started, "Turns out you don't know everything about me. Because this?" she tapped her changeling horn, "I never learned how to use, but this?" the essence floated out of the bottle and went in between the two mares, "I guess I can say we've gotten pretty well acquainted over these past few days." The essence hit Shadow back and she went flying back into the cave. Before she could stand up again, the mountain started to shake. Sweet Tune had to keep her balance and walked forwards to keep from falling over the edge. "The cave is collapsing! Everyone out!" Sweet Tune heard Sour Patch say from the inside. She saw everyone run out of the cave, trampling Shadow while doing so. They all bunched up together as the cave started to get filled up with various large boulders. Shadow looked around in horror as her hideout was being destroyed. She was so focused on everything around her; she didn't notice the boulder heading right down towards her. With a thud, she was gone. Dust covered the air, and it was hard for everyone to see. Everything soon calmed down and the ponies waved the dust away from their faces. They saw the entrance being completely blocked by various rocks and boulders. Everyone looked around to see if everyone was alright, other than the injuries they got before the cave collapsed. "Wait, Sweet Tune," Orchard Drop said, "You still have the elements, right?" Sweet Tune held up the sack, "They're right here." "So, we won?" Cream Cheese asked. Sour Patch smiled and nodded. "This part is over, but we still need to get back home and get these injuries treated," North Star said, "As triumphant as this moment is, I don't want to die of an infection from a scratch wound and I'm pretty sure Diamond Glow is sick of having a broken leg." "You can say that again," Diamond Glow responded semi-jokingly, it did get a few chuckles out of the others. The walk back was a lot easier than the one they took the day before. Who knew that having fewer obstacles and being able to use magic can make a journey less difficult? Still, they had to help each other with their various injuries. Everyone used Diamond Glow's bandages to stop some of the bleedings, and Hurricane and North Star took turns carrying Diamond Glow on their backs to keep her from injuring her leg anymore. They passed by where the camp was. They saw Fangs, Ceres, and Fortune Teller come out of the bushes. They were concerned about their injuries but were still aware that they succeeded. Fortune Teller mentioned that she got a message saying that they were able to complete their mission. They told the three that they were alright and that they were going back to Ponyville. They asked if they would like to come with, but they politely refused, saying that they had to spread the word that Equestria was safe. Coming across Cream Cheese's broken boat signaled that they were back that the river, and this time it was a lot calmer. Jupiter was able to snap their fingers and create a boat for them to get on safely. The voyage was smooth and, before they knew it, they were at their stop. About half an hour later, and they were already passing by Diamond Glow's treehouse. They were already almost back to where they started, and they couldn't be more excited. Ponyville was still pretty empty when they got back. Granted, no one knew they were back yet. They made it to the castle at the end of the town and knocked on the door. A small orange pegasus colt with a dark blue mane opened the door with a surprised look on his face, "North Star? Who are these guys? Why do you look so bad?" "Geez, Orion, could you at least treat our guests with a little bit of respect?" North Star replied entering the castle. The others followed, exchanging a few smiles and waves with the young colt, who they all assumed was North Star's younger brother. In the hallway, they ran into Twilight, who was over the moon to know that they were alright. She ran up to her daughter and hugged her. "I'm so glad you're all okay. I was so worried; I couldn't get any sleep last night. I was almost too tired to have guests over," she said. She let go of North Star when she saw that she was making muffled sounds, signaling that she couldn't breathe. "But you look okay now. I think guests over isn't the worst thing right now," North Star said after she caught her breath. "Oh, not you guys. I'm glad you're all here, don't get me wrong, but I was also expecting some other company," Twilight said as she led everyone towards the library. As they rounded the corner, everyone saw the three queens sitting at the table in the middle of it. “Mom?” Sweet Tune said. D.J looked up at the sound of her name and made eye contact with her daughter. A smile slowly spread across her face. “You’re safe! Oh, thank Celestia you’re safe!” she said as she ran up to Sweet Tune, taking her into a hug. Sweet Tune didn’t know what to do. This was the first hug they shared since she was four. It took her a while, but she hugged back and smiled. “Not too tight,” Sweet Tune complained, “You’ll break the elements.” D.J let go and saw that Sweet Tune was carrying a sack. Twilight grabbed them with her magic. “So that’s where they went,” she said, “I’ll have to keep them safe until we find out a way to restore their power.” As Twilight left to put the elements away, the others walked into the room, “What’s going on? Why are you guys here?” Orchard Drop asked. “You see, Twilight called us over to discuss everything when she found out that the elements were stolen,” Rainblossom answered. “While that was our main priority, we also had a lot of time to talk about other things,” Sugarhearts added. “What does she mean?” Sweet Tune asked her mother. “We started talking about how things could change for us once you got back. How this event could make Equestria safer and how we could take advantage of that. We also realized that the only way to bring power back into the elements is through a strong bond between friends, and we can’t keep a strong bond if we hardly see each other,” D.J answered. The others were intrigued. “So, what are you saying?” Sour Patch asked. “From this day on, we don’t need to live in fear anymore. We’ve decided to get rid of the isolation law. You guys can go out and explore to your heart’s content,” D.J said with a big smile on her face. Sweet Tune couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “Are you serious?” “I haven’t been more serious in my life.” “You hear that? We can go outside now! No more stupid barrier!” Sweet Tune told her cousins. She hopped around excitedly while the others watched. “We’re never going to let her live this moment down, are we?” Orchard Drop told Sour Patch quietly. Sour Patch smiled, “I say we just let her have her fun. Like she said, ‘I feel like today is the start of a completely new chapter in our lives.' … But yeah, never."