//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Flurry Heart's Story: Elements Assemble! // by AleximusPrime //------------------------------// Flurry lay quietly in bed, trying to fall asleep. She had had a delicious supper in the dining room earlier with Spike, Starlight, and Sunburst and then spent some time talking with them in the library. Everything had gone fine that night, but she could not help but still wonder about the map. Feeling it was still not too important, she decided to look into it another time and get some rest. She slowly started to drift off until she heard the call of her name in the form of a deep female voice. “Flurry Heart…” Flurry opened her eyes and jolted a bit. She looked around in her room to see no one there. She continued to stare and then decided it was just her imagination or she was starting to have a dream. She snuggled up to her pillow and tried falling back to sleep. A few moments later, the voice called gain. “Flurry Heart…” Flurry woke up a second time to see once again that no one was in her room, however, this time a bluish-green glow, blinking on and off, was illuminating the room. She stood up on her bed and looked behind her to see nothing, but the glow could still be seen shining on the wall, though she also noticed it was following the shadow of the top of her hair. The glow was right behind her head and following her. Suddenly she looked in a mirror on a small cabinet nearby to find it was coming from her bow. “What the…what’s going on?! You’ve never done this before, bow!” she said, frantically. “Princess…” “That voice! Who’s there?! Show yourself!” “The map, princess.” “The…the map?” It became clear that whatever she saw earlier in the roundtable meeting room was no doubt very important. This voice was trying to draw her attention to it. She hopped down from her bed and opened the door to walk down to the meeting room where the map was. Once she got there, she could already see the same blinking light coming from the crack in the door. She opened it up to find the map had the same glowing orb hovering over it, only this time it was in the shape of Flurry’s bow and it was positioned right over the old Everfree Palace. Flurry stared in amazement at the map. “What is happening? Is there a friendship problem I’m supposed to solve this late at night?” she asked. “The map is calling you, princess.” the voice said to her. “There’s that voice again. Who are you?” “I am the Spirit of Harmony.” “The…the Spirit of Harmony? The teachers told me they’ve met you before.” “Yes, I guided them once in the form of Twilight Sparkle, but I present myself to you in my true voice. You are needed for an emergency, princess.” “An emergency? What’s happening? Is it in the Everfree Palace?” “It hasn’t happened yet, but he is coming.” The hologram on the map zoomed in on Ponyville and showed a red orb hovering over it. “If he finds the Tree, he will destroy it. You must find the New Elements and stop him.” “The Tree? You mean like the Tree of Harmony over in the palace? And what are the New Elements?” “They are yours to find, princess.” “But how will I find them? I’m assuming you’re talking about the Elements of Harmony, but weren’t they destroyed by King Sombra?” “You must find their wielders. They are nearby.” “Wielders?! How am I supposed to find them with such little time?!” “Trust your instincts, little princess. You already know much about the history of the Elements and the Magic of Friendship. You will find the wielders of the New Elements. There is no time to waste. Hurry now!” The hologram on the map began to fade away, but it focused in on the red dot and slowly transformed into a large red beast that resembled a dinosaur-like creature. It had glowing blue eyes with slits, two sharp horns on his head and spikes going down his back and tail. He lifted his head back and roared. The hologram completely vanished and the room darkened, but Flurry’s bow continued to glow. “Wait, come back! I need to know more!” “Flurry?” said a familiar voice behind her. Flurry turned around to see Starlight and Sunburst entering the room and turning the lights on. They were apparently still awake doing some late night studies in the library together. “Starlight! Sunburst!” “Flurry, what are you doing down here?” Sunburst asked. “The map! It was calling me! Something about stopping this monster from destroying the Tree of Harmony! The Spirit said I need to find the New Elements of Harmony!” Flurry said, looking back at the map, frantically trying to find a way to get it to show them the hologram. “Spirit? Wait, do you mean the Spirit of Harmony?” Starlight asked. “Yes! I could hear her talking to me!” Flurry responded. “Flurry, it’ll be alright.” Sunburst said, putting his hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sure what you saw was just a dream. The Elements of Harmony are no more and I highly doubt there’s-” Suddenly, they felt a rumble outside of the castle. All three of them stopped talking and listened as they heard the sound of ponies screaming and objects smashing. “That doesn’t sound good.” Starlight said, nervously. They all ran out of the room and into the corridor that led to the front door. Starlight opened the door with her magic and they ran out to find several ponies running away from Ponyville. The town was in fact under attack from the same creature that Flurry saw in the hologram. “That’s him! That’s the beast the map showed me!” she called. “Whoa, what is that thing?! I’ve never seen anything like it!” Sunburst said, adjusting his glasses. “I don’t know, but it’s going to destroy the whole town if we don’t get help! I’ll go alert Twilight right now!” “But Starlight, there won’t be enough time!” Flurry called back to her. “Flurry, come on inside! It’ll be safer!” Sunburst said. Flurry looked to the town and back to Sunburst. Reluctantly, she followed him inside. Sunburst closed the door with his magic and they both ran down the corridor to find the library. “Flurry, go down to the lowest level. You’ll be safe down there just in case that thing tries to destroy the castle too.” Sunburst said, handing her a small candle that he lit with his magic. “Uh…alright.” Sunburst ran off to the library. Flurry could see Starlight was already speaking with Spike in there and she quietly walked in. “Spike, I need you to send an emergency letter to Twilight!” she called to Spike. “Wait, what’s going on?” Spike asked. “Ponyville’s under attack! Flurry, do as Sunburst says. Go down in the cellar and hide there. Spike, when you’re done, go down there with her and keep her safe.” “Got it!” Spike said, saluting to Starlight and then preparing a quill and paper. “Alright, I’m ready.” “Ahem! ‘Twilight, it’s Starlight. We need you in Ponyville, STAT! Bring your best guards with you. There’s a horrible beast rampaging through the town. I don’t have much time to explain. Be quick!’ Alright, did you get that?” “Yeah, I haven’t written that fast in a while!” Spike said, rolling up the paper. He blew his dragon fire onto it as the paper faded away into ashes and green flames, traveling through the air at high speeds to Canterlot. Out in the hallway, Flurry continued to the cellar with her candle. She noticed her bow was still glowing. “This isn’t good. I have to find the Elements, but I won’t be able to do it at this rate. How will I even know who…” She stopped walking and looked to her side at a portrait of the teachers back when they were students. It was a picture taken of them when they graduated from the school several years ago, wearing their gowns and caps. Suddenly, the answer came to her. “…wait. That’s it!” she said as she dropped her candle to the ground and rushed back out the front doors. She ran into Ponyville, doing her best to avoid the monster. She could not see him at the moment because he had moved on to another part of town, but she could already see some of the damage that had been done to some of the buildings. Some lanterns had been knocked over and there were a few ponies running around. Suddenly, she tripped and fell into a hole in the ground. She shook her head around and looked to see the hole was actually a footprint that came from the beast. It had three large sharp toes and a very wide base. “Whoa, this thing must be really big. What kind of creature is it though? I don’t think I’ve seen any monsters like that in any encyclopedias before.” Just then, she could hear very loud footsteps behind her. The ground began to shake and tiny little stones flew up in the air and back down. She looked behind to see ponies running past her and the monster just a few yards away. This mysterious creature stood well over ten feet tall on all fours. He appeared just as monstrous as she saw him in the hologram, only much more fearsome up front. “FOOLISH PONIES!! WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS THE TREE?!” he roared with a monstrous, booming voice. Flurry leaped out of the footprint and did her best to escape by flying, but he had already spotted her due to her glowing bow. “YOU! Tell me where the tree is, little one!! I have grown tired of searching this miserable town!” he hollered to her. “I know what you want, monster!” she said to him. “You’re not getting the Tree! The Elements of Harmony can stop you!” “HA! Foolish girl! The Elements are no more! If you won’t tell me, I WILL FIND OUT MYSELF!” The monster’s horn began to glow an evil shade of green and he zapped her with a small beam of light. Flurry was about to fly away, but she was already too late. She fell to the ground as the beam began to beat down on her head. It was surprisingly not very painful, but that was because he was not actually trying to harm her. Starswirl had told Flurry about spells like this. The beast was casting a mind-reading spell and trying to extract information from her memories. Inside the head of the beast, he saw quick snippets of everything Flurry had witnessed on the map. He heard the voice of the Spirit of Harmony telling her where the Tree was; however, he did not hear the part where the Spirit told Flurry about how she can find the wielders of the New Elements. “Ow…” Flurry said as she dropped to the ground. “So that’s where it is.” the beast said. “FLURRY!!!!!!” shouted a voice from above. Flurry looked up to see the voice belonged to Spike. He landed right in front of her with his wings spread out wide in an attempt to look intimidating to the monster. Flurry got up and Spike looked back at her. “Flurry, stay behind me! I got this!” he said. “Pick on someone your own size, monster!” “Impudent dragon! I already have what I need!” the beast replied. Flurry and Spike watched as the monster reared away from them and turned towards another road in the town. He quickly dashed off towards the Everfree Forest. “Flurry, are you alright?” Spike asked her. “I’m fine, but-” “Don’t you ever scare me like that again! Starlight told you to go to the cellar!” “But Spike, that thing is going to destroy he Tree of Harmony! Remember when I thought I saw the map glowing earlier today?” “Uh, yeah?” “That was it! It was trying to warn me about this creature. The Spirit of Harmony was talking to me while I was looking at it. She told me he’s going after the Tree and I need to find the new wielders of the Elements of Harmony.” “Whoa, whoa, hold on. You spoke to the Spirit of Harmony?” “Yes, and I think I know who the Elements are calling to.” “The Elements? But they were destroyed by King Sombra years ago.” “I know, Spike, but the Spirit told me. Look at my bow. Don’t you wonder why it’s glowing like this? The image on the map showed my bow hovering over where the Tree is in the Everfree Palace.” “Okay, but who do you think the Elements are meant for this time?” “The teachers. They’re the ones, Spike.” “Well, that does make sense. They did use the whole rainbow thing on the Trio a while ago. Still, what I don’t get is the part with the Elements of Harmony. Wouldn’t we technically not need them since we didn’t use them against the Trio?” “That might be it. Don’t tell them about the Elements just yet. We won’t have time to look for them and the teachers might not actually need them, but we have to get to the teachers now. Where do they live?” “Thankfully they live right down the street he took. I’d say it’s too dangerous for you to go, but we might need you if what you say is true. There must be a reason the map called you there. Hopefully…” “Alright, quickly then! We need to go get them now before it’s too late!” Over on the other end of Ponyville, inside a large cottage just outside of the Everfree Forest, the teachers all relaxed, playing games and eating snacks. Silverstream and Smolder were playing pool on one side of the living room while Yona, Sandbar, and Gallus all sat in some couches as Ocellus prepared some snacks. Ocellus came in with a tray full of cookies for them and they began to eat. “Silver, Smolder, here’s more cookies when you guys are ready!” she called. “Alright, Smoldy, I’d say I’m ready for a break now. How about you?” Silverstream asked her dragon friend. “If it means more chocolate chip cookies, I’m in!” she said, rushing over to the tray to take two cookies. “Well guys, you think Flurry can handle Ponyville for a few weeks?” Gallus asked the others. “Totally! We gotta find her some friends in town though. You guys got any good ideas?” Sandbar asked them. “Ooh ooh! The Cake Twins! They’re gonna love her!” Silverstream said. “How about Apple Twins? They also very nice!” Yona added. “How about Rainbow Dash’s son, Storm Streak? Think she can handle him?” asked Gallus as the others laughed. “Flurry’s going to have a great time.” Ocellus added. “Though I do think it would be nice if we could convince her parents to stay a little longer. Two weeks just doesn’t seem like…whoa…WHOA, WHAT’S THAT?!” “EARTHQUAAAAAKE!” Silverstream squawked as she grabbed hold of Gallus. The entire house began to shake as some rumbling could be heard outside. The balls on the billiard table bounced around and some fell down the holes. They all got down on the ground and covered their heads, but the rumbling slowly faded away and the shaking stopped. They could still hear loud thuds in the distance outside, but they got softer and softer as time went on. “Something just ran by the house!” Gallus said as he rushed outside to see what happened. The others followed Gallus out. They looked around and saw large footprints on the dirt road, leading in to the Everfree Forest. They could also see some trees being knocked over as something rampaged through the foliage. “What the hay was that?” Smolder asked. “GUYS!!” shouted Spike a few yards away. The teachers all looked in the other direction to see Spike and Flurry flying towards them. They stopped right in front and began panting as Flurry tried to speak. “We…have to…follow that monster! The cutie map was warning me about him earlier and he’s going to go try and destroy the Tree of Harmony!” “WHAT?!” Gallus said as the others gasped. “He’s gonna get the Tree?!” Silverstream said, anxiously. “Yes! See how my bow’s glowing? I looked at the map and it showed my bow hovering over the Everfree Palace! It also showed me that monster in Ponyville while he was in there earlier! We have to stop him!” “Then what we all waiting for?! We go get monster now!” Yona said, running off into the forest. “Yona, wait up!” Sandbar called, trying to catch up with her. “Well if what Flurry’s saying is true, we don’t have much time to waste! Come on, guys!” Smolder said, flying off. The rest of them followed close behind, rushing down the new cobblestone road through the Everfree Forest that had been constructed recently for ponies who wished to visit the Tree of Harmony. “Please please please don’t let us be too late!” Flurry prayed as she flew toward the forest.