//------------------------------// // Chapter XI: The Elements // Story: Faux Pas of the Heart // by Jet Howitzer //------------------------------// (I don't know what really inspired this whole series of events, but I kind of like the way it got the whole universe drawn together just a bit more.) //\\//\\//\\ Present //\\//\\//\\ You let out a small sigh as you recalled some latent bits of that stallion’s life, the moments flashing past your eyes as if you were living them once again. You adjusted your position on the couch slightly, and then you looked over at the mare once again. Her emotions remained hidden to you, but she did seem to be looking at you. You could only hope that she was listening, since you didn’t really enjoy this thoroughly detailed recollection of your past. Truth be told, though, you hadn’t even gotten to the hard parts yet. There was still so much to go through. A bout of concentration brought the small clock to your attention, and you could see that the last bit of your life had cost you just under five hours. “Nineteen hours, Rarity, until I die. Nineteen hours until the culmination of my story, as well. What strange coincidences life foists upon us…” The mare was unmoved by your brief deviation, and so you sighed as you looked back to the journal, ready to continue the tale. “Now we reach the first major point that prevented our immediate attack. The return of Nightmare Moon… //\\//\\//\\ One Year before the Attack on Canterlot //\\//\\//\\ You walked down the street, your guardspony disguise currently unused, in favor of Quill’s guise. It was often easier to move about the city when you weren’t a pony that was recognizable. Although, truth be told, Quill was developing a bit of a reputation amongst some of your neighbors. You made yourself quite useful to the ponies that lived nearby, and so you often found them asking about you when you were nearby. It was a strange sensation for you. They were exuding a weak form of love for you, and it was amazing how pure the love that you received was. It paled in comparison to romantic love, but it was far better than the dregs you were used to. As you rounded the corner that led onto the street you lived on, there was a strange feeling flitting about your belly. You looked around for several long minutes before you shrugged and continued on your way. Feelings like that had often led you on wild goose chases within the city, and you had little reason to suspect that it would be any different this time. You looked out over the city at the setting sun, and you smiled. Today was a good day, in your books. Nothing awful had come to pass, and neither Entropy nor Impulse had seen fit to check up on you for any reason. And, to make matters better, tomorrow was a holiday, and you’d been talking to a mare for the past few weeks about getting together to celebrate the sunrise. Now, as you headed home, you were ready to spend the night with her. Stupid ponies… Well, things didn’t go very well at all during the day following that wonderful day. But, I suppose I should start from the beginning of the day, in order to make things a bit more clear. This is my journal, after all, and things should be laid out in a fashion that is easy to follow. Well, the night was great, no doubting that. She had stamina like nopony you’d ever met before… As you reclined on the bed you wrapped a hoof around the mare beside you. She’d finally fallen asleep just a few minutes ago, leaving you to watch the sunrise on your own. Not that you had any problem with that. It was just a small thing. Celestia would, like she always did, raise the sun at the exact moment that it was meant to rise. Not a moment sooner, and not a moment later, than it was meant to be raised. As you let out a sigh, a massive crack of thunder sounded. It was loud enough to rattle the windows, and you bolted over to the massive bay window to get a look outside. The sky was clear enough, but it seemed different, somehow. As your gaze roamed the sky you noticed a slight flashing. It was way off in the distance, located near one of the small villages near Canterlot whose name you had never bothered to learn. There seemed to be some sort of magical disturbance going on there, and it was clearly influencing more than just the quaint village around which it was centered. You wracked your brain for a moment as you tried to recall what you could of pony magics. They always have had a much greater aptitude for the magical arts than the Changelings. Still, nothing that you could recall would produce such an effect, and so you were quite confused about what could be causing such an impressive display of magical prowess. As you looked away from the growing disturbance you noted that the sun hadn’t risen yet. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any measure of light along the eastern horizon. “Curiouser and curiouser…” Just as you were about to turn to head back to the bed you heard a frantic pounding coming from the door to your home. Seconds later, and you heard the door burst inwards. “Cata… Quill! Quill, are you here?” The voice was familiar, and you rolled your eyes just a bit as Entropy, in her disguise, burst into your bedroom, her mane frazzled and her eyes wide. “Quill, we need to go. Now.” She didn’t even glance at the pony on the bed, her concern being focused on you. “What? Why?” “There’s no time to explain! Nightmare Moon has returned, and with her return the ancient pacts we made with her kin must be honored.” “What pacts? What the Tartarus is going on?” “Ancient and powerful pacts. Signed in Manticore blood under a blood moon. Catalyst, everything we have worked for might be for naught in the next few hours unless we set certain events into motion. Events that must be timed perfectly, or the consequences could be dire.” Without waiting for a response your sister bolted from the return, trusting that you would follow. After looking between the sleeping mare and the empty doorway you knew where you had to go. “I’ll be back, Wing. I promise.” You quickly dashed from the room, taking the entire flight of stairs in a single bound, your wings fluttering a few times as you jumped. Entropy was waiting at the doorway, and her eyes had a strange sheen to them. She just turned and ran out the door as she saw you, and you followed right behind her, trusting her to lead the way to wherever your destination happened to be. “We need to get to the caves beneath the palace. The Elements need to be sent on their way soon.” “What are you talking about? What elements? Does mother know about this?” “I’ll explain when we get there. But for now we need to focus on making sure that we get to where we need to go.” As she spoke she wove her way through the gathering crowds of ponies. Most were looking towards the east, confused expressions written on their faces. You did your best to keep up with Entropy, but at times you nearly lost sight of her as she effortlessly made her way through the crowds. It took nearly an hour of running to get to your destination which was, oddly enough, outside of the city, near a small hole in the wall. No, seriously, it was a hole in the wall. Entropy shed her disguise as she entered the hole, her horn casting a sickly green glow into the darkness of the opening. You followed behind her, casting off your own disguise as well. From there it was another half hour of crawling through neck deep pools of water, flights through massive caves, and squeezing through openings almost too small to fit through. By the time all was said and done, though, you found yourself standing before a massive stone door. The door was featureless, and the only reason you knew it was a door was because Entropy had told you that it was the ‘Door of Ages’ or something like that. Something that clichéd didn’t belong in real life, but you weren’t going to point this out to your agitated sister. After ten of the tensest minutes you’ve ever experienced, the door opened. While you had been silently hoping that it would just open and you’d have to do some small task, you were disappointed, and a bit scared, to see Princess Celestia standing in the now open entrance. “It is good to know that your people remember your debts.” “Debts forced upon us by Discord, due to a laxity in your duties.” The Princess just stared at Entropy for a moment before she just shook her head a bit. “No matter. You are here, and the debt can be paid. Follow.” Without waiting to see if you were actually following, the mare turned and began heading down the hall, you and your sister following. There were many halls leading off of the one you walked down, some of which seemed to have some sort of magical barrier preventing anypony from seeing what was behind the massive stone doors. You paused as you passed a separate chamber that had no massive stone door before it. Suspended inside of a sphere of magical energy was a grey pegasus, his eyes widened with what you assumed was fear. There was something off about his appearance, though. Some small detail that seemed to escape your perception. “Come, Catalyst. Knight is no concern of yours. He is my burden to bear, for the time being. And, soon enough, my sister’s burden.” You backed out of the room slowly, never breaking eye contact with the suspended stallion. When you finally left the room you had to gallop for a moment to catch up to the duo as they silently proceeded down the halls of the labyrinth. They finally stopped in front of an unimpressive set of doors, the only noteworthy detail being a five pointed star engraved on the door, with a six pointed star inscribed in the pentagon within the star. “I can go no further, Changelings. It is now up to you to do what must be done. Just remember that more than your own fate rests on the two of you.” With her task seemingly done, the princess vanished in a flash of white light. You looked towards Entropy for a moment before you looked back at the door. “Ladies first?” Entropy didn’t think your joke funny, and so she just pushed the door open with her magic, the ancient stone yielding to her magical coercion. The room was fairly large, and in the middle, centered inside of a column of light was a pedestal, on which rested six pulsing spheres of light. Each one was a different color, and each one pulsed with a different rhythm. As you grew closer you felt a strange sense of calm overcome you, and when you finally stopped a few steps away you felt completely at peace with yourself. “The Elements of Harmony, the tool first used countless millennia ago to forge Equestria. Then, just a few millennia ago, they were used to shackle Discord to his stone prison. In the process, though, our race was cursed, sentenced to a life of parasitism. After the battle was done, we owed a great deal to the Princesses, and so we signed a compact with them, promising that we would wield the Elements without accepting the mantle of controlling them.” You just looked at the spheres for a moment, and then back at Entropy. “What?” A massive groan escaped your sister, and then she looked at you. “We need to teleport them to the new bearers so that they can wield them against Nightmare Moon. But in order to do that we need to use them. By using them we are given the choice to accept the mantle of ownership.” “Again, what?” “Just teleport the stupid things!” Her voice was unusually tense, and so you decided that now wasn’t the time for questions. Focusing your magic, you began building up to teleport the spheres to… To… “Where are they going?” Your voice was laced with the strain of holding back the charged spell, and Entropy suddenly looked quite scared. “Entropy…?” “I… I don’t know!” “Fuck it, improv time!” “No..!” Everything seemed to stop as you released the energy of the spell. The six spheres did nothing, except pulse a bit stronger for a moment. You stared at them in disbelief as you saw them consume the magic you had just released. “..o! You can’t just improvise a teleportation spell of such distance!” “It didn’t work…” “What?” It was nice to hear her confused even if this wasn’t quite the time to relish such an event. “They just… ate the magic. My spell went off, but, clearly, they didn’t go anywhere.” Your sister looked from you to the inert magical artifacts, and then she just sat down, staring at the floor. “So, we did everything we could, and we failed? We had a thousand year old debt to repay, and we failed?” “Better to try, and fail, than to never try at all, right?” “If I wasn’t so pissed right now I’d flog you for saying something like that.” As she spoke, you circled the Elements, trying to see if there was something you were doing wrong. As you looked at each one it seemed, somehow, to call out to you. A tiny voice, echoing through your mind. But, of all the voices, there was one that stuck out the most. One voice that was audible above the others. “… Because the other Elements are right here!” As the words ran through your mind you felt the magic begin running out of your horn, and into the stones. The flow was intense, and you almost buckled under the sudden strain. Entropy, noticing your slight stagger, rushed to your side, her words lost in the searing pain lancing through your body as the magic was drawn out of it. “… The spirit of honesty!” As those words ran through your mind the first of the six Elements began glowing with a strange orange glow. “Catalyst, what are you doing? You don’t have enough magic to keep this up!” You were unable to respond to her, though, as the surge of magic running through you took all of your concentration to maintain. “… The spirit of kindness!” “Catalyst! You can’t do this! Not even mother at the peak of her power had enough to do this!” “I have to. And I can’t stop it…” The flow of magic through you began to waver for a moment as you realized that what you had just said was all too right. You couldn’t stop it, and you knew that you didn’t have enough to do all six if they kept draining you as fast as they were. ”… The spirit of laughter!” As the third Element began to glow you collapsed forward, your legs unable to support your weight. You let out a sharp gasp as the pain shooting through you increased once again, your eyes involuntarily closing. “… The spirit of generosity!” The fourth Element began glowing, and you felt Entropy touch her horn to yours, donating her reserves of magic to your own. Had you been able to you might’ve laughed at the irony. You’d just heard about the element of generosity, and now your sister was giving you her magic. Still, it wasn’t enough to fully remove the strain from your body, and you felt your heartbeat slow inside your chest. “… The spirit of loyalty!” For the hive, for the queen… As the final Element began drawing on your reserves of magic you felt a sudden shift. Rather than the magic flowing out of you, it reversed direction, flowing into your body at a rate far faster than you had just been using it all up. This sudden influx was just as hazardous as starvation, and you knew that you had to find an outlet, or it’d force an outlet. “… The Element of Magic!” As those words echoed through your mind you knew where you had to send the elements, and the teleportation spell occurred in a heartbeat, each of the Elements flashing brightly before vanishing before your eyes. That was the last thing you saw before blackness claimed you. As you slowly opened your eyes, you saw Entropy’s eyes looking back into yours, small trails of water marring her cheeks. When she finally realized that your eyes had opened, she threw her hooves around you, shaking just a bit at your revival. You also slowly came to realize that you weren’t in the vault beneath Canterlot anymore. You were in Entropy’s home. Her room, to be specific. “By the Creator, Catalyst, I thought you were dead! You weren’t breathing, and you didn’t have a pulse… Celestia promised that you weren’t dead, but…” She trailed off, her voice still shaking just a bit. You slowly sat up after she released you, and then you let out a massive yawn, the unconsciousness that you had been forced into not being the most restful way to get some sleep. A sharp, and sudden, slap across your face got your blood flowing in a hurry, and you quickly glared at your sister. “That’s for scaring me like that.” Her voice had regained its usual tone and attitude, but you could still see the relief in her eyes. “Won’t happen again, sis. Believe it or not, but I didn’t much enjoy almost dying.” “And I didn’t enjoy spending almost a full day harvesting love just to pour it into your seemingly dead body. I’m amazed, honestly, that you haven’t started showing any of the royal traits given how much magic you’ve been getting over the past few hours.” She got up from her seat as she finished, making her way for the door. “Impulse has been helping me quite a bit in keeping you alive, so do us both a favor and stay out of trouble for the next few days, okay?” You just nodded your response, sinking back into the bed, the brief rush from the slap wearing off. Sleep was long in coming, despite your exhaustion. You couldn’t help but wonder just what it was that you had put into motion earlier. And, more than that, what the magical disturbance had been caused by. Sadly, things like that had a tendency to remain unanswered until the answer was no longer relevant. (Go ahead, hate what I've written. I don't even care. All I know is that I've got plans, comrades. Plans that are already in motion.)