//------------------------------// // Friendship is Explosion, Part 2 // Story: A Young Pony's Isekai Sextet: Friendship is Explosion! (MLP x Isekai Quartet and Friends) // by LoriLoud //------------------------------// It seemed it was tradition to host a surprise party for any affluent newcomers to Carneville. Judging by the subtle opulence in the crowd's mannerisms and dress, Argent Silver immediately understood that this was a litmus test to see if you could survive the local nobility. …As well as the local crazies. "Sorry, I never formally introduced myself. I'm Heartstopper! And these are my best friends Princefire and his brother Princewaltz, my stepbrother Hearthbreaker, my other best friends Dreamy Nights and White Nights — they're also siblings! — Miss Green Thumb, she thinks you smell funny — and the absolute best baker I've ever met, Light Touch! Of course, they aren't my only friends, but they're the ones who could make it tonight." The unicorn could barely register the names of the, frankly, unbelievably attractive group of ponies she was being introduced to all at once. Some of them stood out to her — the Prince family owned a sizable amount of land and had sway in local government, if her research of Carneville was accurate, and the Nights family was associated with them — but the sudden barrage of ponies and Heartstopper's endless banter forced Argent into autopilot. A little concerning, considering she's traversed active warzones without being forced into autopilot. A handshake here, a "hello, nice to meet you" there, a trained polite smile and an acceptance of an offered drink everywhere else… It was like suffering a Nazalot Gala, but without the stark presence of her Overlord. Which meant that Argent was going to have to interact with everypony who approached. Thankfully, Vipress was a true blessing and managed to corral half of the conversations towards her, leaving Argent with a more manageable audience. Still, she would be relying on her military-borne ability to schmooze through public relations. "And what's your story, Heartstopper?" Argent prodded, swirling a drink with her magic. "Surely you didn't stumble into such prestigious company." "Eheh… Funny, that! Well, I was showing Princefire around our estate's garden, and then suddenly, I tripped on my own two feet, and —" Apparently, Heartstopper did trip and fall into the upper echelon of Carneville's landowners. She had a leg up, her own family owning the local rock farms, but her actual friendships were forged through a series of strange events involving tree climbing, the Magic Academy for Gifted Equines (how an earth pony like Heartstopper got into MAGE, Argent will never know), and a pirate ship. Heartstopper herself worked as a federal investigator for magical misuse, which is the furthest thing from what Argent thought of the excitable mare. The entire time, though, Argent held down the urge to bolt to her living quarters and slam the door shut until everypony went away. Her literature was sitting in the corner of her room, still begging to be read. She started to grit her teeth every time she smiled. Did she fail her Overlord's test? Was a surprise party, of all things, the one thing stopping her from unfurling this mystery? Hm… come to think of it… Heartstopper may be a mastermind in secret. However, she let it slip that she worked for the federal government — within their Overlord's own chain of command, even, which brought all the puzzle pieces together. So if her Overlord knew that Argent would survive actual combat, then he immediately attacked her weakness in social situations… A terrifyingly simple yet effective approach. As expected of her Overlord. With a newfound respect for Heartstopper, Argent cleared her throat, making the earth pony blink as she stopped talking about how much she liked to farm rocks to commune with the earth. "I'm so very grateful for the impromptu get-together," Argent Silver bowed, before sighing melodramatically, "but I'm afraid our Overlord expects much from tomorrow. I'll be retiring early, but feel free to continue the festivities without me." She offered a hoof to Heartstopper, conceding to the mare's cunning strategy. "It's been a pleasure." Heartstopper took Argent's hoof, but didn't shake it — instead, she held it with both her hooves, her blue eyes piercing into Argent Silver's own. Her big, heartwarming, sparkling azure eyes… "The pleasure is all mine," and oh, that smile, that thrice-damned smile,  "I'm sure Otherworld Day will be glorious, Miss Argent." … Trip and fall, indeed.  Ahem. Otherworld Day: a national holiday, wherein the nation mourned the dead and simultaneously wished them well as their souls reincarnated into another life. Thankfully, everything went according to plan. Rainmaker's team was able to complete the festival grounds in time, and by the time the evening approached, there were carnival games and food stalls abound as Carneville celebrated. Familiar faces were abound, with Heartstopper stopping by to say hello before being manehandled by her friend group, and Code Break checking in to see if she was doing fine. She even spotted Keepaway possibly having fun. Possibly. Appreciative of the downtime, Argent Silver participated in some games herself. The shooting gallery netted her an easy prize (a Death Knight plushie that she gave to Vipress), but the ring toss was, naturally, rigged. Most of her time was spent playing catch-up on the available texts on Being A and the Elements of Harmony, however. Work before play, after all. The original Elements were used by their Overlord and the forty Supreme Equines, their names and history now lost to time and purposefully censored by the throne as a protective measure. After their last usage, they were scattered throughout the realm, and a do-not-search order was issued. Sightings were documented, but it seemed they grew more sparse as the centuries went on. Most equinologists seemed to agree that it would be impossible for all forty-one Elements to still be intact by the modern day if left to the wilderness, so the leading theory was that their Overlord likely knew something about their whereabouts. Still, the lead from her Overlord indicated that there was some possibility that they could be used — and that he expected her to find them. And… The main stage lit up, and a great hush fell over the audience. Ah. It was starting. The spokespony acknowledged the venue-goers and the sponsors cheerily before getting to the main event. "And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who rules over the heavens and the earth, the powerful, the invincible, the most wonderful emperor of all Equestria…" The curtains opened, and encased in a sickly-blue crystal was their Overlord's frozen body. Argent Silver's heart sank. You could hear a pin drop. She looked over all the details of the skeleton alicorn. The stature, the shoulder horns, down to every last ring on his bony wings, it was him. And the legendary artifact in his stomach… Gone. "Oh, my devout apostles… It's been so long since I've seen a congregation of this size." A runic circle erupted from the main stage's floor, and a pillar of blue light arose before a different alicorn stepped out from the magic. A pure white coat, with a watery mane that was almost like crashing waves, robes like that of an archpriest… And a halo and six billowing wings. The crowd gasped. Somepony fainted. "Oh? Too enamored by how divine I am? Ara ara, does anyone even remember the name of their goddess after a thousand years of purifying the rivers of reincarnation?" "Sounds like a pretty useless goddess to me, if nobody remembers you," Keepaway snorted, "Hey, there's one. Useless Goddess. Goddess of Party Tricks? Goddess of Drama?" "Tch," the alicorn swished her horn, and Keepaway yelped as he was suddenly trapped in a circle of silencing runes, "Much better. Any other guesses?" "Being A," Argent Silver growled, her eyes turning into pinpricks. Her horn lit up with explosive spells, ready to take down the greatest threat to Equestria to date. "Hmph. So Whiny Rhiny decided to use that cringeworthy name. Talk about bad taste." Rolling her eyes, Being A suddenly erupted in a surge of magic, sending an explosion of energy out from her body. The spell was immediate, such that Argent could barely even react to it. Her first explosion spell rocketed through the air, but the magic missile stopped just short of Being A's snout. She pushed the missile away haphazardly, and all Argent could do was watch from within frozen time. Being A had temporally stopped absolutely everything within the area. It was the single most potent use of time magic she'd ever seen, second only to her Overlord's own. Argent even spotted Code Break's wife and child — Torrent and Kathode — firing off their draconic breaths, but even their respective fire and lightning stopped just short of Being A. The cursed creature, damn her, just yawned and stretched in the grayed-out world of stopped time. "Haa… I finally get to give something other than the usual "you died, pick where to go" speech. I'll make this good." She lifted a hoof with the most despicable grin that Argent had ever seen, preening, extending her wingspan to show off her misbegotten power. "I am Axis Order! The goddess of the afterlife! And now… goddess of the heavens and earth. You shall be freed from the evil clutches of the undead usurper, Rhine Allgone, and his unholy kingdom! And my blessings shall be upon this world… FOREVER!" Maniacal laughter was all that the unicorn heard before time resumed — and her body was flung to the ground, and the world faded to black. "Harmony, Harmony, Harmony…" Argent Silver had made a mad dash back to the Silver Wings Library, frantically tearing through bookshelf after bookshelf to try and find anything at all that would shed light on the superweapon that defeated a monster of Being A's caliber. Overwhelmed, overpowered, and outmatched in barely a moment… is this how enemies of their Overlord felt, during the war? Argent Silver was fully aware that Equestria had the luxury of a modern military and an unparalleled logistics train, as well as the raw resources and marepower to back it up… but to be on the opposite end of such a monstrous strength? It made her want to dash her medals on the ground. Argent was pulled out of her self-loathing stupor, however, by the sound of Vipress and galloping hooves. This had better be good, if it got her adjutant to directly disobey orders during an active skirmish with an unknown force. "Major! I know you said not to let anypony disturb you until you found what you needed, but —" "I know where the book is! The Elements of Harmony, right?! You need to know where they are?" Once more, Argent was shocked into silence as she assessed the pegasus gasping for air in front of her. Her initial doubts about Zero Regret returned at full force, since he seemed to know about her personal business and now, the solutions for said business, before even she did. A spy. A double agent. A cultist. Slowly putting down the useless book she was holding, Argent stood up straight to meet his eyes. "How did you know…?" "That…!" Zero begun, before seething and pressing a hoof to his chest, "...It isn't important. What's important is that there's only one in this library. It's under the E section, but it's wedged between the bookshelves." Well. If he was trying to waste her time, it was a sorry attempt at doing so. She had no choice but to follow his lead: it was the only one she had. Running over to the banisters overseeing the library, Argent leapt from the third floor, levitating herself to slow her fall as she descended to the first floor. Just as he said, a dusty, ragged spellbook titled Elementum Harmonia Referendum sat wedged between two old bookshelves. Yanking it from its place, she waved away the ensuing plume of dust as she tore it open and scoured its contents. "Er, one of my closest friends was the previous librarian…" Zero Regret said, clearing his throat as he descended, wings flapping. "She used to whine about how this book was impossible to decipher, and the only spell she got from it was a scrying spell. "So even the ancients wrote useless things, I suppose!" was what she said…" "And I'm assuming she never made the connection between the spell and the Elements of Harmony," Argent concluded, skipping over the esoteric theorycrafting and getting to the actual spell instructions. A mental incantation and a movement was all it took. Performing the actions, Argent Silver's eyes widened as golden letters filled the book, in text that was plain for just about anypony to read. ERROR: ELEMENT OF PASSION NO LONGER EXISTS. ERROR: ELEMENT OF DETERMINATION NO LONGER EXISTS. ERROR: ELEMENT OF SOLACE NO LONGER EXISTS. ERROR… Argent flipped through the pages rapidly. By her count, there were thirty-five error messages stating that some element or other didn't exist. She flipped frantically to the very last page with bated breath. ELEMENT OF MAGIC DETECTED: LOCATION UNKNOWN. ELEMENT OF HONESTY FOUND. ELEMENT OF KINDNESS FOUND. ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER FOUND. ELEMENT OF GENEROSITY FOUND. ELEMENT OF LOYALTY FOUND. LOCATION OF KNOWN ELEMENTS: TOMB OF NAZALOT… "...Everfree Forest?!" Heartstopper exclaimed, putting both hooves to her cheeks in shock. Keepaway winced, muttering about her being too loud, while Zero Regret looked pensive. "Yeah. I've flown overhead before, and I remember seeing an old building. It's probably that one." Rainmaker hummed, tapping their hoof to their chin in thought. "I think I remember something like that too. Sometimes our team heads in there to gather materials, since bark there grows faster than normal Equestrian trees, but I made sure they never went too deep." "Hence why I need your help getting there." Argent sighed. "I'm the last pony to want to put civilian lives in danger, but I'm inexperienced in the conditions of the Everfree, as it were." In truth, Argent Silver was lying through her teeth. Self-cycling nature was the norm anywhere that ponykind weren't — including all the enemy territory that she'd traveled through during the war. A wild forest was hardly anything to balk about. No, her main issue lied in the fact that there were five, possibly six Elements of Harmony all stored in one location, and anypony could make the connection between the number of Elements and the number of wielders. She needed five other ponies to make the trek with her, and the ponies here were the only ones she acknowledged as vaguely competent in this insane town. She'd ask Vipress to come, but… the Supreme Equines were equines, and Argent wasn't going to take any chances with wordplay. Still, she had some heart left in her. "I won't hold it against you if you decide to reject my plea for help. Vipress has already secured a perimeter around Carneville with Code Break's family and the Adventurer's Guild, so you'll be safe if you stay in town. You'll be holed up in a house praying for our Overlord to break out of his prison, but you'll be safe." Argent Silver's eyes narrowed, and her voice took on a tone that was worthy of the title "Devil of Rhine". "But if you come with me, I can't guarantee your safety. In fact, I promise there will be mortal peril. This will be a march across an unknown battlefield to face off against an immortal monster, for the potential chance that there will be a magical superweapon that can defeat her. Our only lead is a dusty old tome, we have no clue what awaits us, and if we fail, our souls fall into the hooves of the mare trying to kill us." A silence loomed, and Argent steeled herself for a five-way rejection. She was already going through other candidates in her mind. Princefire? Luna? That Megaflare sounded like she had a strong explosion spell… Then, of all the ponies, Code Break stepped forward. The earth pony who was only in this group because Argent knew she lived near the Everfree and had the gall to marry a fully grown dragon. "...You know, if you say it like that, there's literally no way we would refuse, right?" Argent blinked. "Eh?" "Obviously! We'll totally be the heroes of the day!" Zero Regret smirked. "Well, I'm up for saving the world as much as anypony else." Rainmaker shrugged, with a what-can-you-do expression. "With an actually decent party? And our Overlord'll probably compensate me for the biggest monster kill ever? …I've survived worse. Free cider forever, here I come!" Keepaway hummed, already trotting in the direction of the Everfree. "Eh? Eh?" "Woo, it's adventure time! This is like one of my choose your own adventure novels! Oh, I hope I don't reach a bad end." "Bad end? Forget that, I hope Keepaway's right about that free cider thing…" Code Break grumbled. Argent Silver shook herself out of her stupor, turning around to see the other five ponies already entering the forest. She was lucky they never enlisted. Knowing the brass, they'd send these battle maniacs straight to her battalion, postcard and everything! The road to the Tomb of Nazalot was a lot of hiking. The distant sound of howling and bird cries echoed through the jungle, and every so often, some wild animal would flutter or skitter through the treeline. Curious eyes watched the herd of ponies from between the leaves — but they'd disappear just as quickly, if you didn't look hard enough. Thankfully, her entourage didn't seem entirely demoralized by their first introduction to self-cycling ecosystems. By far, Heartstopper was the most easily spooked by the wildlife, probably more experienced with urban espionage than army marching, but she had enough steel in her to keep going. Then, when the path diverged, a blue light erupted in the middle of the crossroads. Fearing Being A's retaliation, Argent casted a group-sized barrier spell — before two earth ponies stepped out from the light. Both had brown coats, blonde manes, and heterochromatic eyes. One seemed more masculine, and the other seemed more feminine, but they both seemed fairly androgynous. "Er, h-hello… We're the guardians of this path… Ah, that is to say…" "Hey! C'mon, do the introduction properly!" "Ah, sorry, sis…!" Argent raised an eyebrow as the two ponies bowed simultaneously, before suddenly speaking in full synchronization. "We are Marelion and Aurelion, of the Tomb of Nazalot. One path leads to death, and the other leads to harmony. To choose the correct path, answer our riddle of truth." "And if we don't?" Zero Regret asked. Both of them smiled at the same time, almost mechanically. And then, suddenly, the noise of the jungle… stopped. No more howling, no more birds. Even the smallest rustling of the leaves stopped. Argent looked to a nearby branch, and saw a gecko staring right at her. Then, she looked to another tree, and saw an owl… also staring right at her. No choice but to answer, then, if they didn't want to raze the forest down in their wake. "Fine. We'll play. What's your riddle?" And just like that, the Everfree erupted into noise once more. "Y-You may only ask us a single question." "One of us will answer with the truth!" "And the o-other will answer with a lie." "Choose your question wisely." Argent Silver furrowed her brows as she considered the riddle. Only one question… The obviously wrong answer would be to ask which is the path that leads to harmony, but then they would point to different paths. Asking a question to verify which one was the truth-teller would waste the question. Before she could ponder any further, Keepaway had trotted to the leftmost path, in front of Aurelion, and crossed his hooves. "Which path would the other sibling say is the right one?" Aurelion pointed to the rightmost path. Marelion pointed to the rightmost path. "Right, we're going this way." Heading down the path, Keepaway started budging past Aurelion and Marelion, who reeled back in shock at his absolute nonchalance at this matter. "E-Eh? But we thought so hard about this riddle…" "Did you? Or did you steal it from the riddle book at your elementary school?" The siblings reeled back as Keepaway got in their face, a look of disdain etched into every line on his muzzle. Argent Silver could already tell an angry rant was coming. "Because I've heard this one a billion times from every other Overlord-damned "trickster creature" that I've had to deal with, and I've been attacked by too many of them to forget the answer. Honestly, come up with more original material? At least talk about the mare with four legs in the morning and two at night. Or, better yet, get out of our way!" Marelion started tearing up. Aurelion put a comforting leg around Marelion's neck, giving Keepaway a dirty look. "Marelion, it's okay, we can use that one next time… when there isn't a complete manure pile to ruin it! Let's just go home…" Dejectedly, the two guardian siblings disappeared in a flash of blue, and the rest of the group gave Keepaway a similar uncomfortable look. Even Argent had the decency to look at least a little embarrassed by the social faux-pas. Despite all this, the green unicorn scowled and doubled down on his convictions. "We are literally saving the world. If you think I'm going to let some jumped up foals waste our precious time for the sake of being nice, you clearly don't know me. Now let's go." …Well. She could appreciate the sheer pragmatism, at least. Continuing onwards at a standard pace, Argent Silver narrowed her eyes as she considered the implications of Marelion and Aurelion. "Of the Tomb of Nazalot"...? Either they were working directly for Being A, or they were a security measure for the actual Elements of Harmony. In any case, they were obstacles. Annoyingly childish ones, but the implications of their power… The six ponies found themselves at the edge of a quiet river when Argent's barrel was suddenly burdened with a great weight. She didn't feel anything pressing down on her, though, but she gritted her teeth as she struggled against the pressure. Was this another trial…? Trying to fire up a levitation spell to release herself from the sudden gravity, Argent Silver could feel the magic in her horn sputtering out. Even Zero Regret and Rainmaker seemed to have their wings clipped and shivering uncontrollably from the sheer force of it all. The other ponies weren't faring any better — Keepaway and Heartstopper were holding each other and blabbering about how they were too young to die, and Code Break was muttering silent apologies to a wife she was about to leave widowed. From the depths of the river, a great evil arose, its glowing eyes boring down into Argent's soul. Its body seemed to stretch until the horizon, and the sky itself seemed to part in fear of this monster's presence. Argent's fight-or-flight reaction roared to life, and she attempted to instead aim an artillery spell at the horror — but once more, her magic sputtered, only rendering her even more useless. "Wh-What…?" "Hm. Your entire party hasn't fainted from my killing intent alone… That, in itself, is commendable. I believe an introduction is in order." Then, the unspeakable being reeled back an appendage — An arm? A fist? — and the pressure increased tenfold. Attempting multiple shield spells and feeling them all die out, Argent Silver was certain she was about to die here, more certain than during any dogfight she'd survived. The air was like the cold deadness of the sky, glacial to the point where it struck to her very bones. "My name is Sebas Magnus, of the Tomb of Nazalot. Die." The evil struck almost in slow motion, a creeping death approaching inevitably. Argent closed her eyes, wishing she hadn't failed to stop the cursed Being A — "No!" Zero Regret stood in front of the group, wings totally unfurled, hooves wide open as if to defend them. The entirety of the party's eyes snapped open to regard the young stallion sacrificing himself in the face of absolute destruction, panting heavily but staring it down with a fierce glare. "Not this time! We made a promise to fix this. I made a promise to come back… but if it means everyone else is safe, then I can suffer one more time." Zero Regret's head snapped back to the group, fire blazing in his pinprick eyes. "Run while you can, I'll hold off this thing for as long as I still live!" That snapped everypony out of it. The five of them stared at Zero Regret, his barrel heaving from the primal fear coursing through his veins. And in front of him, with a gargantuan fist only inches from his muzzle… A black sea serpent with neat white hair and a perfectly trimmed beard nodded in satisfaction, retracting his arm. So, this was a trial. Anti-magic along with a powerful fear effect? She'd never heard of "killing intent", much less its ability to completely shut down a pony's ability to think and function rationally. The Everfree was a strange place, indeed. "Young pony, you're quite impressive," the sea serpent folded his arms behind him, "what's your name?" The group fell silent. Heartstopper pushed Zero forward, the pegasus visibly flabbergasted. "Zero Regret, sir," he gulped, skipping his ridiculous introduction. "A pleasure, Zero Regret. Your name reflects well on your convictions. I shall consider this trial thoroughly passed. I wish you and your party luck in your endeavors." The sea serpent bowed politely, before swimming gracefully down the river and disappearing in a flash of blue once he was out of sight. The group looked at Zero with a newfound respect, Argent included. Facing death was something she did plenty of times, but that amount of self-sacrifice for the sake of the objective… well. He'd have made for a fine soldier. Logistically speaking, it wasn't looking good for Argent Silver's operation. She was practically escorting five unwitting citizens in the dead of night through enemy territory, and from what she'd witnessed, the countermeasures stationed at the Tomb of Nazalot were far stronger than her, but likely less strong than Being A. The only thing stopping this from being a suicide mission was the fact that the countermeasures acted more as litmus tests of worthiness rather than actual guards. That, and Being A's sudden disappearance after her grand entrance. Keeping an eye out for the next possible trial, Argent, Zero, and Rainmaker all decided to fly up and scout the path leading to the Tomb. Concentrating as she maintained her flight spell and casted a vision spell to check the surroundings, Argent Silver's eyes landed on a strange mire in the middle of an otherwise temperate forest. It seemed like it had rained recently, even though the evening sky was relatively clear. "That seems suspicious," Argent grunted, turning off the vision spell, "I'm going to go investigate. Rainmaker, stay behind me and be ready to flee and regroup if anything happens. Zero, go relay this to the others." "Got it, boss," the darker pegasus saluted, before flying back to the ground. Rainmaker and Argent flew forward, Rainmaker grabbing a piece of cloud to use as a self-defense weapon. After some silent flying, the blue pegasus decided to make a comment. "You can't afford to have him martyr himself if another fight breaks out," Rainmaker guessed, after a pause. "Self-sacrifice is nice and all, but I'd rather have someone willing to stay in position." "Kinda cold." "I'm not exactly rainbows and butterflies." They landed. The immediate first thing that Argent Silver noticed is the climate. Whereas the rest of the landscape had a dry heat of a summer's night, the mire was emphatically hot and humid. The second thing was that when she stepped in a puddle, she pulled back her hoof with a hiss. It was uncomfortably hot. Not quite scalding, but enough to steam. The third thing was the giant, crystalline insectoid slumped in the center of it all. It was barely holding itself up, using a broken halberd made of ice as a crutch. His exoskeleton seemed to be melting off of his skin, chunks of crystal having sloughed off of his carapace. Fearing another trial, Argent Silver readied a shield spell and an explosive spell, aimed at the insect. Following her lead, Rainmaker formed the cloud into a stormy, thundering mass. Lightning bolts were a familiar tool for pegasi, so it was good to see that Rainmaker knew the technique. "Who are you? State your name." The insect hacked and coughed, attempting to stand up straight as it registered the two ponies in front of it. It barely succeeded. Every breath left it shuddering, a cold mist escaping its mandibles. "I. Am. Coldcytus. Of. The. Tomb. Of. Nazalot." The voice was masculine, and also severely strained. He attempted to raise his frozen weapon, but stumbled on a leg as a result. "Face. My. Trial." "What happened to you?" Rainmaker asked, lowering the cloud in their hoof, "Did somepony attack you?" "It. Matters. Not. I. Shall. Not. Fail. Again." So, a yes. And if Being A was as associated with water and rivers as Argent was led to believe, then the steaming mire made much more sense. And was far more alarming than the broken-down guardian making his last stand in front of her. "I'm assuming, based on your name, that ice and fire don't do much to you…" Argent surmised, before raising her horn to Coldcytus, "But you failed to account for boiling rain." Coldcytus said nothing. He simply exhaled more mist. Rainmaker trotted between both him and Argent. What was with ponies doing that? Didn't they know the meaning of crossfire? "You're hurt," Rainmaker said with concern, before approaching Coldcytus, hooves already molding the thundercloud into something more chilly, "here, hold this cloud and just wait, okay?" "What…?" The insect said unwittingly, before a snowy cloud was thrust into his lower set of arms. Rainmaker zipped around, gathering every cloud he could out of the sparse sky, until the weather was as clear as it could possibly be. Coldcytus, on the other hand, was surrounded in a freezing fog, at a temperature that would freeze water if you flung a bottle of it into the air. The insectoid lowered his weapon, looking at Rainmaker warily. "Why. Would. You. Help. Me?" "Same reason I helped the dragons and the griffons and the diamond dogs, I guess," Rainmaker shrugged, before crafting a blanket made of icy mist and laying it around Coldcytus's giant pauldron shoulders, "because I can." Coldcytus fell silent, fingers clenching around his halberd. Rainmaker, noticing this, put a hoof on his head. "And, for the record, I don't think you're a failure. Or a disgrace. I've seen too many ponies think that of themselves. You did your best. What matters most is living another day to do better. So get some rest, okay?" The pegasus smiled at the insect, and Coldcytus finally seemed to calm down, his body going slack as a huge burst of mist escaped his body. "I. Thank. You…" Settling into a seat, Coldcytus laid his weapon down and seemingly fell asleep. It was hard to tell for insect species like his, but Argent Silver was relatively certain that he was asleep. The rest of the group decided to arrive by then, as Rainmaker patted Coldcytus on the back and regrouped. "Woah, did you beat another trial?" Heartstopper asked, looking over Argent's shoulder to see the dozing guardian. "In a way," Argent muttered, keeping tally of the Elements of Harmony. Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity… Her thoughts were cut off by the approaching sunrise, the illuminating heavens a bad omen of things to come. "Being A's onto the Elements. We're running out of time."