//------------------------------// // Force-A-Nature // Story: The Ponyteers // by RainbowWarrior //------------------------------// "What did you say?" the stunned Brooklyn pegasus asked. "You have powers over the element of fire. All of you wield the powers of the natural elements. You, Kwame have earth." Twilight pointed to him. "You Gi, have Water. And Linka, your power is Wind." Twilight concluded. "And you........."she pointed to Ma-Ti. "I don't know what your element is, but does it have something to do with love?" Twilight asked as she looked behind the colt. "You are close, Miss Twilight. My element is Heart." Ma-Ti responded. Rainbow Dash just snickered before she bawled laughing. "BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Heart? Your element is heart? What kind of lame power is that?" she chuckled out. But in spite of her amusement, none of her friends joined her. The Planeteers just glared at her. "Rainbow Dash. Please." Rarity chided out with mild disgust. "But how did you know that we bear and control the elements?" Gi interrupted. "Ooh! I see it now!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she jumped up and down. "Your elements match your cutie marks!" "Our cutie whats?" asked Linka. "What Pinkie here's saying that yer respective elements match those tattoos on your flanks, like mine." spoke Applejack as she pointed to the three red apples that decorated her muscular back legs. The Planeteers looked at their own as well and each saw either a mountain top, a flame, a gust of wind, a wave of water, or a heart. Twilight turned back to Wheeler, with the door still open. "Please, Wheeler." begged Twilight. "The reason you're all here was all an accident. I tried summoning a magical manifestation of the natural elements that govern our physical world, but brought its bearers here by mistake somehow. None of us mean you any harm, and you see yourselves as some important people in your world. Don't leave us; we can help you." The purple unicorn started to frown with worry, knowing Wheeler might reject her with distrust. It was her fault that he and his friends were on this world, and in an unnatural form. She had to do something. Wheeler just paused and stood there for several moments. "Alright." he conceded. "I shouldn't deny help when someone offers it. And I believe you, Twilight." "I believe we should also tell everyone who we are and about our powers." Kwame added. He yawned as his eyes started to grow heavy. And as he yawned so did Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Then everypony else did in contagion. "But save it for mornin'. That spell you got must have knocked some energy out of ya or sumthin'. Why don't y'all come over to my place. It's big enough for all of ya to sleep tonight." The Planeteers agreed. Applejack led them out of Twilight's tree house as they followed her to Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight's friends disbanded to their respective houses, but Rarity stayed behind for a moment. "Twilight, do you think there's something you can do to reverse your spell and send them home?" "That's the thing, Rarity. I have no idea where their home is. I can't do teleportation magic without knowing exactly where I send them to." "But there's a way for them to return, right?" "There must me. Princess Celestia may know the answer. I hope so. I really do." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The next day around noon, Twilight and her friends barring Applejack made it over to Sweet Apple Acres to check up on their new friends. Before they opened the barn doors, Applejack opened the side door where the farmhouse was and greeted everypony else. "What took ya so long, Twilight? Kwame and his friends already got up well before you showed." "Sorry about that. Rarity dragged me over to the spa to get me cleaned up the minute the place opened. She made me get the full treatment, massage, hoof-icure, facial, sauna, you name it. Plus, I had to get train tickets to Canterlot." "What for?" asked Applejack. "Your magic can do just about an'thing!" "Not reverse something like this." Rarity pointed out. "She's going to get help from the Princesses. Maybe they have an answer." "Maybe who has an ans-uh?" said a familiar stallion voice. Wheeler poked his head out behind a corner and tried flapping his wings to glide over. He flew barely a foot off the ground as he traveled about 20 feet. "AAY! I did it!" he exclaimed in triumph. But trying not to be boastful, he said "........Soht of" right afterwards. "Twilight's mentor happens to be a Princess of Equestria. She'll sort things out for ya. Anyway, Did you find Sweet Apple Acres okay?" Applejack asked. "I've got to admit. It's a pretty nice place. But Kwame and Ma-Ti are in some state of ecstasy. They're in love with it." "Well then! Even alien ponies love my apples." Applejack smiled in confidence. "I thought they were some alien fruit dat looked like an apple. But Kwame is some sort of self described "crop expert" and somehow he knew dat these are just like the same apples we 'ave on Earth." Applejack just grinned and rushed off to find Wheeler's friend. "HEY KWAME!" yelled Applejack, getting his attention. In the distance, a deep blue stallion rushed over to her. "You called for me, Miss Applejack?" Walking back to her friends, she said :"You can just call me Applejack. Now, why didn't y'all tell me you were an apple farmer like me?" "Not just apples. Barley, wheat, corn, flowers, any plant really. I was the one who help tend the crops in the village where I was born. And here, me and my friend Ma-Ti could really feel something in the ground. It's like I could feel the trees grow, and he could feel your animals from a distance." "Well, that's surely something. Me, my big brother, and my little sister lived here on our orchard our whole lives and never felt something like that." "I'll ask that to Twilight later. Ah! Everyone is here!" Kwame said as he saw Wheeler and the other Planeteers with Twilight's friends, sitting on bales of hay. "Um......Take a seat, Kwame. You were going to tell us your world and your powers?" asked Fluttershy. "Right so." He joined his friends while Applejack joined hers as they each took a seat on a hay bale. The two factions faced each other as they seated. "Earth is a wonderful and diverse place." Kwame started. It has tall mountains, rivers of crystal-clear water, fields of green, and oceans full of life. In fact, the landscape just like your Equestria. But the main difference is the fact that humans rule it, not ponies. And like I told you, humans had their own civilization that managed farms and built massive cities. They had their own trades, religions, cultures, traditions, and even more things that made them diverse. Humans were also intelligent, like yourselves we had the ingenuity and cleverness spread around the entire world, rather than limited to a kingdom." "So where do you come in?" impatiently asked Rainbow Dash. "Ve are getting zere. Do not vorry." interrupted Linka. "Another question. How come you sound like you're from Stalliongrad and Wheeler's from Manehattan?" replied Rainbow Dash, wondering about Linka's Slavic accent. Wheeler rolled his eyes about the equine portmanteaus of actual cities on Earth. "Oh. Zat. Because groups of humans developed differently from one another, Ve had our own ethnicities, languages, governments, and religions. It even affected speech patterns. Me and Wheeler's nations just stand out ze most." Rainbow Dash nodded. "Getting back on track." Linka continued "I don't know anything about pony history, so I can't assume the same has happened to you. Anyway, humans vere smart, but ve vere covetous and jealous of each other's wealth and prosperity. Ven a crop failed or a dispute over land or ownership occurs , humans would go as far to fight to ze death over it. Unfortunately, this still exists in our present day. And zey used fear of our differences between warring groups of humans as an excuse to fight." "Well that's not very nice. We ponies have gotten WAY past that! I cannot imagine what that's like to still kill over everything!" spoke up Pinkie Pie, shuddering on the word "kill" "It got better and worse as centuries wore on." Continued Gi. "Science and Technology has improved our agriculture, transportation, communication, health, and overall, our knowledge about the world. But there was a terrible side effect. Weapons also improved to destroy armies. Industries that could produce a mass amount of goods could yield to human's instant gratification, but made these harmful wastes that if left unchecked, damage the very earth we lived on. Smoke could turn the sky black. Waste made our waters dirty and muddy. Garbage piled up in mountains as trees were being cut down to make room for an exploding population. All that damage is what we call pollution." "Yeah! And it was hurtin' us too!" interrupted Wheeler. Seeing as it was his turn, he continued the tale. "All dat hatred 'cause of your skin color or who you worship got ugly. Dey were looking fo' any reason to start a fight. And a lot of our leaders grew lazy and greedy too, only wanting money and powuh. Revolts happened, wars got started. And we had the technology to wipe out da entire human race. That's when Gaia saw the damage we was doin' to Earth and to each other." "ummmmm.....Who is Gaia?" asked Fluttershy, raising her hoof and hoped no pony ignored her. "Gaia is the Spirit of the very Earth we came from, and our leader." this time from Ma-Ti. "One day, she became dormant after watching over Earth for thousands of years. Unfortunately she fell asleep right when humans made that huge step in technology making, which I think she said was about two hundred years ago. Then one day, a powerful and incredibly wealthy tycoon tried to drill for a power source that fuels our modes of transport. And it was right under a place that forbade human development so animals and plants could be protected." The Elements of Harmony, especially Fluttershy shuddered and became sickened about who would harm and destroy the homes of such creatures for money. "But little did he know, he awakened Gaia." "And she kicked his flank, right? using an earthquake or hurricane to stop him?" asked Rainbow Dash in anticipation. "THAT." Wheeler replied "is the part where we come in. Gaia didn't stop him. Because she knew that if she fixed all the world's problems, humans won't learn a thing about protection. What's the point of cleaning things up if it just gets dirty again the next day, right? So she created and sent out these." Wheeler held out his hoof that held a thick silver bracelet with a ruby embedded in it. When he did so, the other Planeteers showed theirs. "These rings (well I guess, bracelets now thy fit over our pony legs, but we'll still call them rings.) contain a fraction of Gaia's powers. They control those natural elements that, I guess you already know about. She sent them out to a different part of the world, where the five of us Gaia chose were to have it power. Wanna see?" "See what?" Twilight asked. "Hey, Rainbow." Wheeler said as he stood up, and grabbed the bale of hay he was sitting on. "Can you fly up and throw this bale into the air?" "Sure, I guess." she complied. She took his bale and spread her wings to start flying. She flew up 20 feet before she hurled the hay high into the air. Wheeler had a smirk on his face as he raised his ringed hoof up. "FIRE!" he yelled. Suddenly, a bright scarlet light emitted from his gemstone before surrounding his entire hoof. It then shot out a bright ray of red that zoomed towards the mid-air hay bale. When the ray made contact, the bale immediately burst into flames! the burning bale tumbled down and slammed into the ground, still ablaze on impact. The Elements of Harmony held their mouths open in awe. Wheeler saw the conflagration start to spread to the grass beneath him slowly. He turn to his magenta unicorn friend, saying "Gi, do you mind?" She nodded. "WATER!" she exclaimed. Behind her was one a conveniently placed barrel full of water. It seemed to defy gravity as a blue beam shot out from Gi's hoof and met with it. The barrel-sized volume of water soared over Gi's head, and then as it doused the burning bale of hay. As the smoke cleared, the fire was gone, and Gi was still manipulating the bubble of water in front of Twilight and her friends, mouths open as wide as ever. "It's okay, you can breathe now." said Gi, wondering if their new friends stopped respiration in their magical acts. But in her lapse of concentration, she deactivated for her ring. The bubble instantly started to collapse, and was about to soak Rarity and Fluttershy in its path. With only a split second, she wished "If there was someway for water to freeze in its place-." With her eyes closed, she heard a quick crackling; but there was no splash sound. She opened her eyes and held her mouth open like when they saw her and Wheeler's powers. In place of the bubble was a pillar of ice. It was inches away from Rarity's face as she poked it, testing its strength. "Amazing, Gi!" said Kwame in sensation. "I've never seen you do that with your ring!" "Her ring didn't do that." Twilight stated. "I saw her horn glow when she froze that water. It was her magic. Gi's a unicorn now, and she can do perform feats of magic related to her talent; and hers seems to be of hydrokinesis." "Hydroki-what?." said Rainbow Dash. "She can manipulate not only the motion of water, but its states as well." "So I can make ice now? That is pretty....awesome!" said Gi as she smiled. "I have much to learn about magic." "I can continue this." spoke up Kwame as he pointed his gold and green ring over the the ground to his left. "EARTH!" he cried out. At his word, a green beam of light shone out from his hoof and covered a tablecloth-sized patch of land. A fissure in the earth appeared as a low rumble danced across the ponies' hooves. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the air, thinking Kwame started a full-blown earthquake! But as they watched from below, they saw that the vibrations didn't even make it to the barn. In fact, it only seemed to concentrate around the widening fissure. It was like he was controlling the quake! As the fissure widened, it revealed a grey, pony-sized boulder. I faintly reminded Rarity of Tom. Kwame then surrounded his green beam to focus on the boulder. He lifted it up, above the ground and over his head before levitating it over the ice pillar Gi made. With great force, he slammed it back onto the pillar where the boulder now lay on top a pile of tiny ice crystals. Kwame then gently rolled the giant stone off the ground as he cast off his ring. "WIND!" Linka interrupted as a tiny vortex with streaks of white erupted from her ring. It swept up the crystals into the air in a mini-tornado. It flew up into the air, higher than where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash hovered as the crystals dispersed. The Russian pegasus cut off her powers as the fine crystals gently fell back to earth, making a tiny snowstorm for Twilight and her friends. "So Rainbow Dash, you said something about my "lame" powers?" Ma-Ti asked as the snow cleared. "HEART!" he yelled out as his ring glowed a golden yellow. At that moment, Rainbow Dash felt like somepony had invaded her mind; except that it didn't feel an invasion. She felt a warm presence in her thoughts, like someone was there to watch over her with great benevolence, not force. "Ma-Ti! I can feel you, somehow!" she thought. "Yes, it is what my power can do." Said the young Planeteer's vocal projection. "I can communicate through your thoughts with my ring. Oh, and call my power lame again, and I'll tell your friends you constantly wet your bed until you were six years old." Rainbow Dash nodded in slight embarrassment. As Ma-Ti shut off his ring. "What happened between you and Dashie?" asked Pinkie Pie. "My heart ring allows me to read the minds of other people and establish a telepathic link between them. But Dash has a point here: my powers are more passive than the other four. But I do have the greatest power of them. I can influence and persuade people to do my bidding, even acts of violence. But I don't. Gaia made me the Ring of Heart's bearer because I'm exactly the person not to do use it for that." "Okay, I admit it, Heart is a cool power." said Rainbow, defeatedly. "Oh wait! Did you use those powers of yours to kick the tar out of that mean driller?" "Well, no. Not exactly-"said Wheeler before whispering in Kwame's ear: "Should we really summon the Cap just to say Hi? There's no burning building or monsters made out of factory smog for him to stop." Gi joined the two. "I don't even know if he can even retain his form here since we're not on Earth anymore." "Captain Planet is an amicable person. He won't mind saying hello. Plus with us being in this new pony world, he'll have some time to adapt to its changes. But I am confident that he'll remain intact." Kwame stepped forward and held up his hoof. "Let our powers combine! EARTH!" "FIRE!" "WIND!" "WATER!" "HEART!" "GO PLANET!" the five said in unison. As their beams collided in the air, a plane of energy grew. And it grew and grew until a large pony figure with a horn and wings took its place. "By your powers combined, I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!" shouted a rich tenor voice as the energy matrix around the figure cleared. It revealed a massive alicorn, taller than Princess Celestia. His coat was a shimmering cyan like the sky. He had a long, green, grass-hued mane that flowed down past his neck. His hooves seemed strong enough to turn boulders into gravel. He wore some red leather armor around his chest and hooves. And his cutie mark depicted a yellow ellipse with horizontal and vertical grid lines fit to curve within it. The alicorn flapped his wings slowly to descend upon his fellow teammates. He looked at his new form: hooves, a snout, a long, spiral horn, and a pair of wings that could start a hurricane upon flapping. "Well then, It looks like I'm a horse of nature!" "Captain Planet, welcome to Equestria." Kwame explained the situation from below. "There's no danger here, but us Planeteers have been turned into ponies. We're not on Earth anymore." "That's okay Kwame. As long as I can combine within an Earth-like atmosphere, I can still form without missing abilities. Still, this Equestria place is much like our beautiful Earth." The demigod saw that his teammates have taken on an equine form, and could tell who they were do their color and hairstyles. But then spied some ponies he didn't recognize. "Who are your friends here?" "Captain Planet, meet Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy." "Put 'er there!" he boomed out in his boisterous voice as he held out his hoof. Twilight Sparkle shook it. "This is amazing." she said. "You must me some energy being in a pony form. You have power that could even rival the Princesses!" "So are you some sort of superhero?" asked Rainbow Dash, reminiscent of her childhood days. "That's right, Rainbow. Normally the Planeteer's powers are normally too weak to go up against evil directly. The rings have been used more as tools than weapons." "I beg to differ." Wheeler coughed out quickly. Fortunately, no pony heard him. "So when the going got tough, they combined their powers and summoned me. I have the full range of elemental powers and some others to boot." He stood up and concentrated to try summon some lightning from his hoof. But it shot out of his horn and struck on of Applejack's trees! It immediately exploded into mushed Apples and splinters as there was nothing left of it if a charred trunk. Applejack was flabbergasted. "Not to worry, I specialize in this kind of stuff." He flew over to an a pile of apple pulp and pulled out a seed. He then went over to the damaged tree and placed a seed within the stump. He planted his rear legs down on the ground where something remarkable happened: His back legs and tail glowed as they turned into wood and roots sprung up from the ground. "Super- Enriched soil......" He cast a blue beam from his horn high into the sky as a pony-sized cloud appeared and turned gray. It suddenly started to downpour as it soaked the charred trunk. "Add some water.......now give it some energy...." he said as his front hooves glowed green and put them on the trunk. After the ground started rumbling, and without warning, a wide brown column shot up for the stump, complete with green foliage as the new tree blossomed with apple flowers. He turned his legs to normal flesh as he admired his work. Applejack's mouth of shock immediately turned up its corners into a massive smile. "That........is..........INCREDIBLE!" applauded Applejack. Her friends cheered wildly after she clapped her hooves. "Well, thank you for the gratitude. If there's nothing left to ask, I'll be going now." The Captain said. "Going?" said Twilight after the applause died down. "Why do you have to go?" "Periodically, I tire out and get weak from my enemies. That's because they have weaponized the very pollution I sought to to fight against. Excessive pollution is my weakness. And when I tire, I return to the Planeteer's rings to restore myself. Oh, and their elemental powers don't work when I'm out of them." "Still........" Rarity added. "Why would the powerful nature spirit of a planet entrust some potentially dangerous artifacts to ponies like you? None of you sound like you're past eighteen!" "Hahaha. Excellent Question, Rarity!" Captain Planet laughed out. "Because by giving it to younger people, it means that their generation one day will inherit the Earth. Do you really want to be given control of a world riddled with pollution and corruption?" "No, I suppose not." "Well let that be a lesson for ya. You ponies will inherit your world, if you haven't already. Keep it clean! If there isn't anything else, then THE POWER IS YOURS!" A multicolored aura appeared Captain Planet as he started dissolving into energy. Then like his summoning in reverse, the energies separated into 5 beams of green, red, white, blue, and yellow light before being sucked back into the Planeteer's rings. "Princess Celestia would sure like to meet him!" Twilight said. Remembering her obligations she said "Also, I have train tickets for all of us to go to the capital city of Canterlot with meet with the Princesses today. They'll figure out a way for you to get back." "Ven does ze train leave?" asked Linka. "In about half an hour." "Well let's get going!" Wheeler said in anticipation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The eleven ponies made it over just in time to the Train station to wait for an arriving train. When the locomotive pulled up, it showed it was pink and purple and decorated with hearts. It made Wheeler sick just looking at it. The ponies all boarded and pushed themselves into a car towards the front. Moments passed as the train lurched forward towards its next destination: Canterlot. On the way there, Twilight would tell them all about Equestria's history and the Elements of Harmony. Meanwhile, on a desolate island once teeming with life. Zarm was awoken from his rest and was alerted of a familiar presence. "The amalgamation of the five elements. They formed.....HIM! There's no denying it now! Captain Planet and the Planeteers are here on this world! And without Gaia to guide them, and their lack of a home field advantage, I can defeat them once and for all! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed malevolently as he emitted bursts of plasma from his horn that went westwards...........