//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Random Elements // by Stryke //------------------------------// Everypony was staring at the spot where Sparks had just been. Twilight Sparkle was torn between shock that she’d ever act like that, being mildly impressed that her double could pull off the stunningly complicated teleport spell, and full on incoherent rage that Sparks had actually wrecked one of her books. “I’ll find her,” Pinkamena said. Her whole body flickered and like that she was gone without a sound. “Woohoo a challenge! Not if I find her first, meanie-pants!” Pinkie said with a giggle, before zooming out the front door leaving a cloud of streamers trailing behind her. Fluttershy jumped off the top of the bookcase that she’d been sitting on. “Right, I’m going to kill her. Any objections?” “You ain’t killin’ her.” Fluttershy glared at Rock who was hauling herself onto her hooves with a few groans. “And how exactly are you planning to stop me?” “Mainly by doing it first,” Rock said as she charged out the library, ignoring the protestations of her aching body. No pinhead is going to keep me from my sis! Fluttershy laughed, spread her wings and disappeared out of the nearest window. Displacing several books off the shelves in her wake. Twilight Sparkle concentrated. There was the ringing sound of an incredibly fast-moving object hitting an immovable magical force field, followed by a squeaking slide and then a final thud. “AW COME ON!” Somewhat unsteadily the Shadowbolt staggered back through the front door into the library. “Please, Twilight. Y’know that I’m the fastest flyer you’ve got.” “No way!” yelled Rainbow Dash, flexing her muscles. “What’s your wing power?” “Well it used to be 14.2—” “Not bad...” Rainbow Dash laughed. “Shame that I can clock 16.5 easy!” “I did say used to be. I can pull 21.6 now and that’s only if I’m not trying too hard.” Rainbow Dash just looked at her with her jaw hanging open and a certain amount of grudging respect. “But... but that’s not physically possible? Even Spitfire tops out at 20.2 and she’s the best Wonderbolt ever!” Fluttershy extended a wing and spaced out the feathers so Rainbow Dash could see them clearly. In amongst the primaries and secondaries there was a spiderweb of pulsing translucent black shadows in stark contrast to her yellow feathers. “I am a Shadowbolt after all, and that means I get to cheat. Twilight, think about it. If we don’t find your double then you’re stuck with me and I know that you don’t want that.” Twilight threw her forehooves in the air in frustration. “Fine! But no killing! We need her alive to send you home.” Fluttershy nodded and took off again after Twilight had dispelled the purple force field surrounding the library. Moments later there was a boom followed by a black wave reaching across the night sky that blocked out the stars as it passed in front of them. The dark magical wake dissipated and Fluttershy was gone. “I really hope nopony else saw that.” Twilight Sparkle said as she turned away from the window. “Rainbow Dash, you better try to follow her.” Rainbow Dash saluted sharply and took off out of the same window that Fluttershy had exited from. “Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said turning to the last pegasus left in the library. “Would you mind also going out there to look for her?” Rainbow Dash looked down at her hooves. “Sorry, but I’m not that great a flyer. I was barely at flight school for a week before I left. I tried to help out once in Hoofington and all the other pegasi laughed at me for only managing 0.2 on the scale.” “Okay, c’mon then me, you, Trixie and Rarity can check out the houses here in Ponyville. That fine with everypony?” “Sure!” “Wonderful idea, darling!” “Trixie’s going to pass on that as much as she wants to help out.” “What, why?” Trixie put a hoof to her forehead and swooned dramatically. “Oh, Trixie is most overcome after her experience. Trixie will stay here and recuperate,” she said stretching out and getting comfortable. Twilight let out a little growl in frustration. Clearly she’d been expecting too much of the showmare. “Fine! If you want something to eat that’s alright. Just don’t wake Spike up to get it,” she warned. “Let’s get out of here girls, there’s no time to lose!” The three mares galloped out of the library leaving Trixie all alone. ~~~ Far to the north, almost in the shadows of the Crystal Mountains, two unicorn stallions had camped down for the night in the cover provided by their marvelous machine. One of them jumped up with a start. “Flam, dear chap. Are you quite alright?” “Sorry, me old mucker of mine. But I could have sworn I just saw that pink pony from Ponyville pop her head out of one of the valves on the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 7000 XL.” Flim gave his brother a long steady look. “Flam, mate. You’ve really got to stop sampling the product.” ~~~ Fluttershy accelerated into the sky out of the wake of her sonic shadeboom laughing like a madmare. With the wind howling in her face and the air pressing back against her wings she speeded up even further. Rocketing up ever upwards as she embraced the utter freedom of flight the pegasus was unable to stop smiling. Not from the wind forcing her features into a rictus grin, but after two days of being cramped up in a single place and most of that pinned against a ceiling; this was utter bliss as she corkscrewed just for the sheer fun of it. Now she probably should be working on some kind of search pattern. Carefully staking out the nearby area and doing a slow sweep to make sure she shouldn’t miss any sign of the runaway unicorn. But seriously, buck that for a game of guards! Fluttershy let out a little giggle to herself. Sparks would probably turn up sooner or later, but now Fluttershy had a chance to do whatever she liked now that she was out from under the eyes of Twilight Sparkle. She knew exactly what she wanted to do now that she’d got the need for speed out of her system.   She looked around—pleased to see that Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight—Captain Fluttershy did however spot a promising candidate for what she wanted to know. Fluttershy pulled off an impossible gravity defying turn with ease that would have ripped the wings off any normal pegasus. She rocketed back towards the ground with her target in sight. Raindrops had settled down for a quick snooze after looking around for a bit for the perfect fluffy cloud for the night. She had barely closed her eyes when she realised that another pegasus had lightly touched down onto her cloud. “Hi! I’m ever so sorry to bother you, but could you let me know where I might find Fluttershy’s place of residence, please?” the other mare asked with over-the-top politeness. Raindrops looked up to see a yellow pegasus with a windswept pink mane in a pair of goggles. Must be a relative, she figured, as the other mare did look like Fluttershy—not realising due to the dark—that the other mare looked exactly like Fluttershy. “New in town, hey? Okay well see that clock tower over there? If you head past that, her house is right on the border of the Everfree forest. You can’t miss it,” Raindrops said helpfully. “Thank you so much!” The other pegasus shot off in the direction that had been indicated. Raindrops smiled to see such a nice mare and glad that she could help out. ~~~ ***WUBWUBWUB*** “Everypony in the place! Are you ready to make some noise!” Vinyl Scratch yelled at the packed crowd who answered with a matching roar. Octavia cringed beside her in a matching pair of purple shades, just why had she ever agreed to this? A pink pony poked her head out from behind one of the pulsing speakers and not spotting any sign of Sparks vanished again without anypony noticing that she’d been there. ~~~ They’d missed the last train to Canterlot by several hours so the two Applejacks, not having anything else to do that evening, had ended up in a Manehattan pub that Appletini had suggested. “So, what d’ya fancy? Some kind of cocktail?” asked Applejack, after they’d finally managed to secure a table. “Ale would do me fine. Bugmare’s XXXX if they’ve got it,” said Appletini, having to raise her voice to be heard over the raucous noise. Applejack’s eye’s widened with respect and she tipped her hat to her double. “Bugmare’s best it is!” When they both had foaming tankards in front of them Appletini had asked about the incident that had brought her here. Applejack explained about Sparks and how she had cast a spell to bring the six Elements of Harmony from the Nightmare Moon ruled Equestria to the Celestia ruled one. Applejack then had to explain exactly what the Elements of Harmony were. “Honesty? But isn’t that a bit limiting?” “How’d ya mean?” Applejack replied, taking another drink. “Well being able to convincingly bend the truth is a valuable skill to have. Least it is in my line of work,” Appletini said. She really was enjoying herself. Appletini spent so much time with society ponies and she rarely got a chance to cut loose like this. “So you’ve really never ever told a lie?” Applejack crossed her hooves under the table and blushed. “Err well... ah mighta weaseled my way out of a promise once and there was that whole mess with Discord... But otherwise no I ain’t.” “I have, lots actually.” Appletini said, her eyes dancing.   “So, what d’ya do then?” “Philanthropist would probably be the best word for it. Shameless social manipulator might be a better one though.”   “Ah phila-whatist?” Applejack said, having never heard that word before and not sure that she liked the sound of this. It seemed kinda shady. “It means I make charitable donations using my own funds and encourage other ponies with even more than I do to do so too. Mainly by throwing lavish dinners, auctions and other functions fit for high society.” Appletini took another drink, draining her tankard completely and smacked her lips. “It’s fun of course, but it’s also important work and it’s not like the nobility and the business ponies wouldn’t fritter their money away otherwise. Equestria might be doing well—even with the long night— but did you know that many changeling nymphs are going hungry out in the wastes without the required amount of love to grow the thick chitin that they need to survive? I helped fund an expedition of volunteers and now Hive Thorndust is doing well and all the volunteer ponies came back as the Queen promised.” “Ya help changelings!?” Applejack slammed her own tankard down hard on the table and losing a fair amount of ale in the process. Her double looked back at her pursing her lips. “What would you prefer we do? Have Nightmare Moon send the Shadowbolts out and kill them all? They can be reasoned with y’know and with pony help changelings can take their place in Equestrian society. Minotaurs used to be seen as rampaging blood-thirsty monsters, but now they’re finally beginning to actually integrate. Even if most of them do stay on the Isle of Minos after Princess Celestia annexed their previous home Tartaurus for that prison of hers so many generations ago.” Applejack wasn’t to sure what to say to that. She knew that many ponies did still see minotaurs as just monsters. Even now after they hadn’t been a real threat to Equestria for centuries at least that was how Granny had always told it. But changelings? She hadn’t been sure they’d been more than mindless insects, well other than their Queen, when they’d attacked at the wedding. Applejack really wished that Twilight Sparkle was here so she could get a second opinion from somepony who had almost certainly studied this. Changing the subject she asked, “So ya got lots of bits then? How much d’ya send back to the farm?” Appletini paused, thinking about how she was going to address this diplomatically. “I’m sorry, Applejack, but I’ve not had contact with the Apple side of the family since I was a filly. I honestly don’t know how Sweet Apple Acres is doing.” “Well you should!” Applejack said her voice rising. “They are your blood and they need help!” “How do you know that? It’s not the farm that you know, remember?” Appletini pointed out. “Well...” Applejack trailed off. “You should ask though if you c’n help. It’s your roots after all.” “I promise,” said Appletini with a smile not containing a single shred of dishonesty.   ~~~ Meanwhile Princess Cadance and Shining Armour were having their official first ever tiff as a married couple. “I’m going to throw him out and that’s final!” said Shining Armour, stamping a hoof. Prince Blueblood in the other room—completely oblivious to the argument going on in the kitchen—helped himself to some more of the delicious hors d'oeuvres. “But, Shining, he’s my brother!” Shining Armour paced about. “I don’t care! You heard what he just said about my sister.” “I know he said that she had a nice flank, but I’m sure he just said it as a compliment,” protested Cadance. “No he slurred that he wanted to tap that flank! I don’t even know he could possibly be that drunk this early—” “Shiny?” Cadance asked with some concern seeing the look on her husbands face. “Sorry, my love. I could have sworn I just saw my sister’s friend Pinkie Pie, but with straight hair, pop her head out of the sink and then pop back down again.”                  His wife glared at him before giving him a quick kiss. “I think you might have had a bit too much yourself. C’mon let’s see my idiot brother safely home.” ~~~ Rainbow Dash raced laps in the air above Ponyville. She’d completely lost track of the other Fluttershy entirely to her frustration and was half looking for her and half looking for Sparks. She’d just passed Sweet Apple Acres where she saw something else entirely. It was her double holding onto Cheerilee—who was now wearing Trixie’s hat—in a deep passionate kiss. Rainbow Dash came in for a sharp landing disturbing the pair of lovers. “Just what do you think you’re doing?! We’re all supposed to be looking for Sparks!” she yelled at her double. Cheerilee gasped as she looked at the mare who she was still in the hooves of, and then at the mare that had just arrived. “But I... I thought she was you! Wait, does this mean that you're not leaving Fluttershy for me?”