“So what is your name?”, Star inquired, looking over to Blade next to her in the chariot.
“My previous one? I wouldn’t worry ‘bout that, Bladewings sounds better for this pony body. And, I don’t even remember my original one.”, he replied, staring over the edge at the view below them.
The two then fell silent, Star was so concerned about the situation she had found herself in that small talk was lost on her. Blade was so entranced in this new and different world he could only enjoy the sights, never knowing when or if he’d be able to do so again. While he watched the world go underneath them a thought crossed his mind.
“Hey, Star, what are the Elements of Harmony anyway?”
“Huh? Oh, of course you wouldn’t know. Well... if I remember correctly, they are six ancient relics that have a lot of power, but can only be used by certain ponies. More specifically ‘the six’, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy.”, Star answered, only half of her attention on the conversation.
“Do you know them?”
“No. Why?”
“You knew all their names.”
“It’s called a newspaper.”
“Why would they be in the news?”
“They saved Equestria about... three times now?”
“That Explains why the princess believed they could help.”
Then the two fell silent again for the remainder of their trip to Ponyville.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile deep in the Everfree Forest, inside a decaying ruin, a dark red pegasus mare slowly made her way to the highest floor.
“The boss certainly has an affinity for creepy places. When are we gonna be able to have a head quarters in a mansion or something?”, The pegasus thought aloud.
After a few minutes of silence she found her way to the top of the stairs and forced open the massive stone door. Once she was in the room she walked all the way to the other end of the room and reached into her black saddlebag pulling out a small black device with a deep red sigil on it, then placed it on the ground and pressed the sigil. Smoke began to billow out of the device gradually forming into a grotesque creature, next the shadows in the room all began to move toward the monster continuing to form it’s body, finally a small spark of black flame appeared in the center of the creature causing an implosion of smoke and shadow. When it concluded all that was left was a small ball of black flame, floating only a few feet from the floor.
“This is the specified location?”, A voice came from the ball of flame.
The voice was dual toned, like two voices at once, one was male and very deep and raspy, the other was a mature sounding woman's with a sensuous overtone.
“Yep, the exact center of the source of all darkness in this world. Will it work in reconstituting your body?”, answered the pegasus.
“You have done well as always. What is this body called?”, Questioned the flame.
“I’ve adopted the name Shadow Flare for the sake of moving around in this world. I just looked at this insignia on my rear and concluded that these creatures names seem derivative of them.”, the pegasus explained.
“Very well, Shadow. The inhabitants of this world will move against us sooner than later. I want you to halt their progress.”
“And, how should I do this?”
“On this particular planet they have items known as The Elements of Harmony, they are very powerful and could easily stop me in my weakened state. Keep them from activating them.”
“Again, how? I’m not an omniscient being like you boss.”
“These items have one flaw, all six must be used in unison or nothing will happen. Luckily for us, all we need to do is keep one of the elements from activating.”
“Seems like somebody would have already thought of that... anyway, so I should kill one?”
“No. Simply keep one incapable of using their element. Scout all six and choose the weakest and bring them here. As long as we keep them at a disadvantage they will be destroyed once this is over anyway. No need to hasten it.”
“Where can I find them?”, Shadow inquired.
The moment Shadow finished her question black tendrils shot outward from the flame, each of which wrapping tightly around her head. Shadow convulsed in pain as the tendrils tightened further pulsing black flames into her skull and deeper still, while all this happened her eyes glowed an infernal red and her body smoked. The tendrils finally released, dropping Shadow’s limp body hard to the floor.
“Now you know where. Any further questions?”, the flame inquired coldly.
Shadow slowly picked herself up painfully, still cringing from the lingering pain of the countless burns on her body. “No. I got it.”, she answered through clenched teeth, she then disappeared into a burst of black flame.
----------------------------------------------------------
Star and Blade landed down in Ponyville, thanked the pegasi pulling the chariot then exited to find their next destination.
“So... where were we going again?”, Blade inquired.
“The library.”, Star answered glancing around town trying to discern which buildings were what.
“Okay. But, where is it?”
“Not sure. Never been here before. In fact I’ve never left Canterlot in my life. So, in other words, your guess is as good as mine.”
The two continued through town, studying every building they came across. While Blade looked into the window of what he assumed was a candy store he heard a loud crash behind him, when he turned he saw a cyan pegasus sitting and rubbing her head.
She chuckled, “Guess I still have to work on that one.”
“You all right?”, Blade inquired.
Star walked over from the other side of the street to enter the conversation, “Yeah, and what happened?”
“I’m fine, and I was working on a new trick.”, she chuckled again, “I still think it needs a little work... hey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you two. You new here?”
“Actually, yes, and were looking for the library. Do you happen to know where it is?”, Star said.
“Of course, my friend Twilight lives there. It’s the big tree in the middle of town. You can’t miss it. Anyway, I need to practice this trick. Maybe we can hang out later.”, The pegasus then took off like a shot.
“Some interesting ponies here. Did you see her hair? In all my years, I’ve never seen rainbow colored hair.”, Blade remarked still watching the pegasus fly off.
“I think that was Rainbow Dash... oh well, we’ll see her again later. We need to head to the library now.”, Star added, then began walking toward the center of town.
After only a short walk they came across a large tree with a sign out front decorated with the image of a book. Star quickly went to the door and opened it with her magic and calmly walked in, scanning the area around her, Blade followed immediately afterward.
There were very few books on the shelves because the majority were laying on the floor for a reason neither Star nor Blade could come up with. To the far end of the first room two unicorn ponies stood there doing very peculiar things. The purple one picked up one book at a time, eyed the covers suspiciously, then groaned and tossed them to the floor. The white one seemed to be placing the books back, but not in any kind of typical order but rather by color and appearance.
“Dear, you really should stop tearing through your books like this. It makes an awful mess.”, The white one commented to the purple one.
“It is my house, besides I have more important things to worry about other than a little mess, Rarity.”, answered the purple one.
“Little? Darling Twilight, the entire floor is covered.”, Rarity replied.
Star then cleared her throat, hoping to grab the arguing ponies’ attentions. When that failed Blade casually walked up to Rarity and Twilight, cleared his throat, then spoke, “Howdy!”
Star immediately pulled him away with her magic, both embarrassed and irritated. “I’m sorry. He’s an idiot and has absolutely no tact.”
Rarity gave the two of them a puzzled look, while Twilight seemed completely unaffected, still focused solely on her earlier task. “Twilight dear, you have visitors.”, Rarity said, nudging Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight glanced up, she eyed them shortly then looked back at the books. Suddenly, she did a double take at the unicorn. “You must be Star, the princess told me you were coming, and... that’s ‘him’?”, she said as she walked over to Blade and Star all the while studying their appearances.
“Him?”, Blade questioned.
“Sorry. The princess never specified a name in the letter.”, Twilight replied.
“It’s Blade.”, he said.
“Excuse me Twilight dear, but, who are these two?”, Rarity inquired, looking intently at Blade.
“Oh! That’s right, you got here after I sent spike to tell the others. I’ll save the extensive details for later, for now you just need to know that these two are very important ponies and they need our help.”, Twilight answered.
“So you already know all the details?”, Star interjected.
“Yes, and I was actually in the process of finding a book that might help.”, Twilight replied.
“I could help you.”, Star offered.
“Oh, good. That will help move things along much faster.”, then Twilight and Star walked over to the mound of books and began searching.
While the two of them searched the fairly large stack of books, Rarity inched closer to Blade, staring intently at his eyes. At first Blade didn’t notice and was looking around the library, but soon his eyes met Rarity’s.
“Umm... what? Somethin’ on my face?”, Blade asked, trying to hide the blush forming on his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just admiring your eyes. They look like two crystals. They’re quite beautiful.”, she remarked.
“Uhh... gee, thanks.”, he replied shyly, his normally peach face now burning red.
“You simply must let me take you back to my boutique and fix your mane, and maybe make you a handsome outfit to match your magnificent coloration.”
“Umm... I dunno.”, he replied tugging on his bangs, “I like it now.”
“Please, you must. I could make you look fabulous.”
“Maybe... but shouldn’t I stay here in case they need me?”
“Twilight dear, you won’t mind if I take Blade for a second will you?”, Rarity questioned.
“What? No. We have this covered.”, she answered not even looking away from the book she was focused on.
“See? Now please, you simply must let me at least do something with that scruffy thing you call a mane.”
Blade sighed, “Fine.”
As soon as he finished his sentiment a giddy Rarity grabbed him with her magic and dragged him out the door.
“I’m starting to hate this unicorn magic.”, he groaned right before being dragged out of the library all together.
Star suddenly perked up, “Wait... what? Where did Blade and that other unicorn go?”
“I wouldn’t worry, she’ll just give him a forceful makeover.”, Twilight replied.
“Wait, who said I was worried?”, Star inquired, her face turning slightly red.
Twilight giggled, “This book isn’t going to find itself... though that would be convenient.”
-----------------------------------------------------
“So how many lives have you lived through?”, Rarity inquired as she applied the shampoo to Blade’s mane.
“As I said, a lot of memories kinda slip through after so many years. I remember being a human a few times, I was a dog like creature once, a reptilian thing another time, and... a lot of different things. Honestly though, the weirdest thing is when my gender is suddenly switched on me. That always takes getting used to.”, Blade answered, reclining in the salon chair in Rarity’s boutique.
“You mean you aren’t always male?”
“Nope. I’m usually born into the body of the first available infant. Which means it’s always totally random. Really, the only things that stay the same are my eyes and hair, that’s if I have hair.”
“Honestly, you’ve been a female before and you still can’t take care of your mane?”
“It’s not like I had much time for beauty needs since I got here. Anyway, enough about me, tell me about you. I kinda get tired of explaining my bizarre existence.”
“Not much to tell. I’m a fashionista with great friends, a younger sister, and slightly embarrassing parents.”, Rarity said while rinsing his mane, “Okay, now I need you to get up so I can dry and style your mane.”
Blade got off the chair and sat on his haunches as a towel surrounded by a magical aura roughly dried his mane. Once it finished Rarity walked to him with an assortment of styling implements.
“Ya know, I’m kinda envious of that.”, Blade remarked.
“Of what dear?”
“Your life, I dream of a normal life. Embarrassing parents, siblings or a sibling with which to argue, a job that doesn’t involve fighting a giant monster. Ya know, average.”
“I thought you’ve lived several lives. That means several parents and siblings, doesn’t it?”
“You’d think so, but not a lot of beings want an infant like me.”
“That’s awful!”, Rarity gasped.
“I can’t exactly blame them. I’m not sure how I’d handle a month old infant that has eyes that glow in the midday sun, white hair, oh, and the clincher, occasionally freezes things solid on physical contact.”
“Okay, I can see that as being hard to get used to, but your still their child.”, she then turned in front of him to face him, “You shouldn’t dismiss that so easily.”
“You’re right. After so many times I just stopped letting it affect me.”, Blade replied smiling lightly at her.
For the next minute the two simply looked into each other’s eyes, Rarity was about to say something when the door of her boutique opened and a purple baby dragon stood in the doorway huffing heavily.
“Spike? What’s wrong?”, Rarity said surprised.
He held up a claw in a pausing gesture as he caught his breath, “Twilight wants you and the other guy back at the library, I was sent to get you.”
“That doesn’t sound overly urgent, so why did you run over here?”, Blade inquired.
“Well after Twilight said that you were... I mean, I just felt like hurrying. Now come on, I don’t like making Twilight wait.”, Spike replied, flustered.
“Of course.”, Rarity added, then walked out the door.
“Jealousy isn’t very becoming of a dragon ya know.”, Blade jokingly remarked, with a grin that expressed to the dragon that he was only teasing.
“Jealous? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, Replied Spike.
“Hey, you wanna ride?”, Blade said as he extended a wing down for Spike to climb up.
“All right, but this doesn’t make us friends. I’m still watching you.”, Spike said, then they both began laughing.
“Are you coming?”, Rarity inquired from a few feet away.
“Right. Coming.”, Blade and Spike said in unison.
--------------------------------------------------------------
As Blade, Rarity, and Spike walked into the library many more ponies were now present in the central room. In the center were Twilight and Star, standing around them were an orange pony in a hat, a pink pony with a cotton candy like mane, and Rainbow Dash. Each of which, excluding one, had much more serious expressions gracing their faces.
“Oh, you’re here. Blade, come here.”, Star said waving him over.
Blade stood in the center of the group as the three new ponies studied him carefully.
The pink one was the first to comment, “He doesn’t look that old. I expected an old grandpa pony.”
“Umm... Pinkie, weren’t ya listenin’ to what Twi was jus tellin’ us.”, the orange pony interjected.
“Duh.”, Pinkie replied.
“So o’ course he ain’t gonna be old.”, the orange one retorted.
“Don’t be silly Aj, he reincarnates, which means he isn’t going to be old, who said he’d be old?”, Pinkie replied.
“You jus said you thought he’d be an old grandpa pony.”, Applejack said, now getting frustrated.
“Hmm... I don’t remember that.”, She remarked, ending with a beaming grin.
Twilight sighed, “Well you’ve met Pinkie Pie, the one in the hat is Applejack, and apparently you already met Rainbow.”, Twilight then turned to her friends, “Girls, this is Blade and Star, they...”
Twilight was suddenly interrupted by Applejack, “Beggin' yer pardon Twi, but does anypony else notice that Fluttershy ain’t here?”
“Oh my gosh, you’re right. How did I not notice?”, Twilight replied.
“Well she is kind of easy to miss.”, Rainbow remarked.
“Rainbow! She’s still our friend, Spike didn’t you tell her to meet us here?”, Twilight questioned.
“Of course. She was actually my first stop, seeing as she lives farthest away.”, Spike answered still perched on Blade’s back.
“Everyone be quiet.”, Blade then closed his eyes as a faint white aura appeared around him, “This isn’t good.”
He then ran toward the door, on his way out he yelled at the others, “We need to get to your friend fast!”
--------------------------------------------------------------
“Oh my, I hope I’m not late.”, Fluttershy thought out loud as she stepped out of her house looking toward the sun resting on the horizon.
She began hurriedly walking down the pathway from her door, until she was stopped by another pegasus mare.
“Oh, umm... I’m sorry, but would you mind moving, I’m in a hurry. I mean, that’s if you want to.”, She said in her nearly inaudible, soft voice.
“Fluttershy, the element of kindness, also the meekest pony in all of Equestria.”, the pegasus remarked not looking at Fluttershy, but instead her garden.
“Excuse me?”, Fluttershy replied now baffled with this pony’s knowledge of her.
“The name is Shadow Flare, nice to meet you.”, she said, turning to Fluttershy with a sinister grin.
Fluttershy was taken aback by this pony’s appearance. Her coat was a dark, deep red like dried blood, a mane and tail blacker than anything she had ever seen. Most of all, she was transfixed with her eyes, the iris was the same red as her coat but had a faint glow like a dull flame, and where there was normally a vast area of white surrounding it there was black. Fluttershy felt as if she could fall into the black of her eyes, they seemed to have no depth like an endless void of darkness.
Fluttershy began slowly backing away trying not to show her fear, “Well... that’s very nice, but I really need to go. My friends are waiting for me right now. So if you don’t mind...”
She was suddenly interrupted by Shadow pushing her to the ground. “I’m afraid I can’t let you see your friends. You pose a very great threat to my boss.”, Shadow said, standing over Fluttershy now pinned onto her back.
“What are you going to do to me?”, Fluttershy questioned.
“Well I intended to kidnap you, but now that I get a better look at you. I can see an untapped well of dark feelings locked up in here.”, Shadow said placing a hoof on Fluttershy’s chest.
Suddenly small black flames began crawling from Shadow’s hoof and washed over Fluttershy’s chest moving up her neck and to her head. Each wave of flame affected Fluttershy’s mind, each one turning her more mean and aggressive. As the final wave washed over her she kicked Shadow off of her and glared through dark red eyes in a sea of black, at her previous attacker.
“This doesn’t seem good.”, Shadow said rubbing her stomach and inching away from the new, darker Fluttershy.
“Shut up.”, Fluttershy barked. “You got what you wanted, so what now genius?”
For awhile Shadow could only stare in bewilderment at the immediate shift in personality. Once she composed herself she grinned lightly, “Sweet. I didn’t expect that much change, but I’ll be damned if I don’t love it. As for what’s next, How much do you care about your old friends.”
“I don’t.”
“Awesome. How ‘bout you help me squash them like the insects they are?”
“Fine. Just quit talking, Your voice is annoying.”
“Hoo boy, I really love it.”
Suddenly a large spike of ice slammed down next to Shadow’s haunch, as Blade and the others ran up to the scene.
“Fluttershy?”, All the elements yelled in unison, once they noticed her eyes.
“Heya buddy. How you been? Your aim is awful.”, Shadow casually acknowledged Blade.
“You made yourself a mare, what... are you trying to hide all that evil behind a pretty face?”, Blade replied.
“You really think it’s pretty, you flatterer you. Sadly I don’t have time to play verbal chess, me and my new friend here have to go and get to work on destroying this weird pastel world. Ciao.”, Shadow said with a grin then both her and Fluttershy disappeared in bursts of black flame.
“Dammit!”, Blade yelled as he failed to catch them before the flames vanished.
Rainbow Dash immediately flew into his face, “What in Equestria just happened to our friend? And, why didn’t you do something?”
Blade just stood there with his head down, shaking with rage.
“Well?”, Rainbow demanded.
“Rainbow stop, he did all he could.”, Rarity interjected.
“No. Rainbow Dash is right. I failed. My power is too weak, I should’ve been able to sense that creep well before she got to your friend.”, he mumbled, his head still hung low. “However, I won’t fail again.”, he then lifted his head. “Star, come with me.”
Star almost shuddered at her name, she had never heard him sound like this. Rage and anger seemed to be nearly foreign to him, until now. At first she wanted to ask where they were going but given his disposition she couldn’t bring herself to.
He walked up to Twilight, “Did you find that book?”
“Oh, right, yes. Here.”, she replied, quickly floating the book from her bag to Blade, who clamped it under his wing.
“Hey! Fluttershy just got taken, you can’t just walk away.”, Rainbow yelled.
“I’m getting your friend back, but first I’m going to teach Star how to turn that bastard that took Fluttershy into a light bulb.”, Blade said, then slowly walked away with Star trailing closely behind.
“Wow. He seemed kinda angry.”, Spike commented.
“And, I’m sure somepony didn’t make that any better.”, Applejack said shooting a look at Rainbow dash.
Rainbow dash finally calmed down and landed, “Sorry. I guess I got a little carried away.”
“What should we do Twilight?”, Pinkie asked in an uncharacteristically somber way.
“I don’t know girls. We just have to trust that Blade and Star can help us.”, Twilight replied staring off in the distance.