Applebloom
"So, what do you think we should get?"
"I dunno. Maybe a ball and chain?"
"You're kidding me, right?"
"No. It'd be cool to use."
"Scootaloo, it's, what, three times your size? How on earth will you fight with something that big?"
"How do you think Pinkie Pie does it?"
"She's Pinkie Pie. Things just don't affect her the same way they do us. You know that."
"But-"
"Stop it, guys!"
I cut into the argument Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were having. We were on the train to Canterlot, and we were only a few minutes away from what was rumored to be the best and most extensive collection of weapons and armor in all of Equestria. And, naturally, they were arguing over what to get.
"It's no use arguing over what to get." I said. "Are you two going to get the same thing?"
"Well, no, but-" Scootaloo started to say, but I cut her off.
"Then it doesn't matter, now does it?"
"I guess not." Sweetie Belle said. "Sorry. We're just excited, is all. What are you planning to get, Applebloom?"
"I don't really care," I said. "as long as I can use it well."
We were sitting in the front car, right behind the engine. Lyra and the older girls were in the car behind us. Lyra had insisted on going, as she wanted to learn new forging techniques from the smiths in Canterlot. We were supposed to meet the princesses in a few hours, so our big sisters - and Rainbow Dash - had arranged for Lyra to take us to the Canterlot Armory and pick out some weapons.
When we got there, our jaws dropped.
How is it even possible to fit that many weapons in one building?
There were weapons and armor everywhere. It looked like the place had blades and spikes sticking out of every available space. There were swords, bows, chestplates, whips, flails, helmets - everything you could name was contained in one building.
"All right, now you girls stay out of trouble. I'm gonna go mingle." Lyra said, walking towards two muscular men leaning against a wall behind the Custom Requests counter.
What to try? Where to start? I'm overwhelmed here.
I looked at Scootaloo and Applebloom.
I guess I'm not the only one.
I gathered my bearings. Close range weapons. We'd start with close range weapons.
"Come on, girls. We're wasting time. Let's start over here."
The Next Day
Time Turner
Vinyl's place was not a very nice place to wake up. There's nothing quite like resting in your bed one minute and being scared half to death by loud, angry-sounding music coming from your alarm clock the next, with no visible way to shut it off. The rooms appeared to be soundproof, as Vinyl didn't notice until she was right outside my open doorway.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Here, allow me."
She pressed a button I hadn't noticed was there. It was white, the same color as the alarm clock, and nearly flush with the clock's surface, making it extra hard to find.
"Sorry. I really should label those buttons. Now, did I press Snooze or Off? Oh well. Other than the rude awakening, how was your night?"
I've had better.
"Fine. Yours?"
"Oh, I didn't sleep much. I'm an insomniac, so I spent most of the night working on a new dubstep track that I've been working on for weeks now. It's specifically designed to help wake sleepy people up. What you just heard was an early prototype. I need to update the alarm clocks. My new version is much, much better."
"Forgive me if I take your word for it." I said, getting out of bed and stretching. The bed itself wasn't very comfortable to sleep on, but I guess when you don't sleep much anyway, there's no real use for a super comfy bed.
"Well, it's the day of the meeting." I said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Yup."
"Should we get Octavia?"
"Nah."
"Why not?"
"She's probably already ready to go."
"Oh."
There was a long pause.
"So, dubstep." I said, remembering something Vinyl had said earlier. Anything to break the silence.
"What about it?"
"You make it?"
"Yes."
"Ah."
There was a very long pause.
"I don't think she's ready."
"Don't worry about it. I know her a lot better than you do. She's either ready or getting ready as we speak."
"Ok."
I left the room, wishing I had more to say. There are types of silence that I don't quite like.
When I got to the kitchen, Octavia was making eggs on the stove in the shared kitchen.
"Oh, good morning, Time Turner. Did you have a nice night?"
"Yeah. You ready to go?"
"We've an hour or so yet. How many eggs would you like?"
"The usual amount, thanks."
Vinyl walked in behind me, grabbing a nearly empty carton of milk from the fridge.
"I meant Time Turner."
"Oh."
"Just two, thanks." I said, sitting down at the table.
"Here." Vinyl said, pouring half of what milk remained in the carton into a cup and placing it on the table in front of me.
"Thanks."
She drank the rest of the milk straight from the carton, crunched the carton against her head, and threw it away.
"Yo, Octavia. We're out of milk."
"I've noticed. We'll get some on our way home from the castle."
Octavia finished with the eggs she was cooking, and put them on a plate.
"Here you go, Time Turner."
I took the eggs, thanking her. We ate in silence.
"Well, I suppose it's time to go." I said, putting on my coat. We left at around noon.
We're going to be late...
I started floating, anxiously trying to get the others to go faster.
"Oh, calm down, Time Turner. Canterlot Castle's not that far away. We'll be there on time." Vinyl reassured me.
"Are you sure she wanted us to bring our weapons?" Octavia asked, nodding to the cello slung across her back and the katana at Vinyl's hip.
"Positive."
"Very well, then."
We walked the rest of the way in silence. When we arrived at the castle, a guard stopped us.
"Halt. Let me see your weapons."
I shot a glance at Octavia.
The two presented their weapons.
"I don't fight." I said when the guard looked at me expectantly.
"Hmm. There is one on the list..." His voice trailed off. "There is only one way to be sure. Do you have a necklace?"
I looked down at my neck, where the hourglass necklace I'd made just five days ago in honor of my first successful repair as a human hung. I pulled it out of my coat and showed it to him, the hourglass spinning slightly as the sand drained from the top section. It had a small motor that flipped the hourglass every time the top drained so that the sand was perpetually falling.
"Very well. You three may enter. Be careful. Canterlot Castle has changed. There are still some places as yet unexplored. Follow the signposts, and you'll be fine."
"Thank you." I said, and we walked in. The castle was huge, with a maze of halls and rooms. We followed the signposts, and came to a small room near the northern edge of the castle. There were small clanking noises coming from behind the door.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Vinyl asked. "It doesn't look like anything the princesses would use as a royal chamber."
"That's because it isn't." a voice said from behind the door. It swung open to reveal Princess Celestia, katana belted at her waist, with Luna standing away from the door, katana drawn. They were both sweating, and Luna was breathing hard.
"This is a sparring chamber, Time Turner. Come in. We were just having a practice bout while we waited for you." Luna said.
We entered the chamber, getting a closer look at it. There were practice dummies like in Vinyl and Octavia's training rooms leaning up against one wall, and a rather large rack of katanas along another. The third wall was a balcony overlooking the courtyard.
"Now all we need to do is wait for the other three,"
"What other three, Your Highness?" Octavia asked.
"Please. No formalities here, Octavia. I am referring to the three girls who camped with you the day of the change."
"You mean Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? Why do you need them to be here?" I asked.
"Yeah, why do you need us to be here?" Applebloom said.
"Where'd you guys come from?" Vinyl said.
I turned around to see the three girls, along with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, walk through the door of the sparring chamber.
"Ah! Thank you all for coming." Celestia said. "But before we start, we seem to be down one person. Where is Fluttershy?"
Twilight looked at her feet, a sheepish look on her face.
"I tried, princess, but she won't come out of the Everfree Forest. I've tried to talk her into coming into town, but she says that the forest is where all the monsters belong, so she should stay there. She seems to think that that little outburst with the dragons means that she's going to turn into a monster. I don't know what to do. I'm sorry."
"It's quite all right, Twilight. Luna, if you could please get a look at where Fluttershy's hiding, you can be over there shortly."
"Of course, sister."
Luna stepped over to Twilight and put her hands on Twilight's head.
"Now, Twilight. Think about where Fluttershy's hiding. Visualize the place where she is. It will help if you are there, of course; it would be most startling if I appeared to her alone."
Twilight closed her eyes, as did Luna.
Then they seemed to melt into the floor, disappearing.
Soon afterwards, they reappeared with a loud 'fwoom,' but with Fluttershy.
"How did you-" I started to ask, but Celestia cut me off.
"I'll explain later. Or, rather, Luna will. At any rate, now that we're all here, I can begin. You might want to have a seat. This will take a good while to explain."
We all sat down on the floor, and looked at Celestia and Luna.
"Alright. Luna, I shall need your help with this one. Its too big of a story for just one to tell."
"Yes, sister."
"First of all, some congratulations are in order. I see some of you have new weapons." She looked at the three girls.
"Oh, yeah." Applebloom said.
"We forgot to tell you." Sweetie Belle added.
"We got some stuff from the armory." Scootaloo finished.
Applebloom had a mace belted to her hip. She pulled it out, and the bulb at the end made a loud 'thunk' as it connected with the floor.
"It's a bit top heavy," she said. "But Lyra tells me that that's a good thing. And look!"
She held the bulb at the end of the mace up, and I saw that it wasn't a bulb. It was an apple. Applebloom was holding a metal pole with a large metal apple on the tip.
"Isn't it the coolest thing? This way, no matter where I am, as long as I have this, I have a little piece of home to hold on to."
She put her mace back, and Scootaloo held up her hands.
"I got these."
They were gloves made of iron, with bumps on the knuckles and a small spike shaped like a lightning bolt on either side of the palms.
"I figured if Rainbow Dash has a piece of armor as a weapon, then so will I. The lightning bolts are like little daggers. See?"
She made a fist, and the bolts did indeed look like daggers.
"I guess it's my turn, then."
Sweetie Belle reached towards two small sheathes at her waist and pulled out two giant needles wound up with thread.
"My fingers fit perfectly in the eyes of the needles," she said. "and they'll always remind me of my sister."
We turned to Celestia as Sweetie Belle sheathed her daggers.
"Alright, then. Now to the biggest thing." Celestia said, turning to Twilight and her friends. "The Elements have changed. Now, I know that you six can still use them to some effect, but ultimately, the Elements no longer belong to you, as you no longer personify them. The new Elements are more physical now. They're not qualities that one possesses, but rather actual elements - Fire, Lightning, Earth, Light, Shadow, and Water."
Luna spoke, and I turned to see her looking at us intently.
"And you six - Time Turner, Vinyl Scratch, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Octavia - now possess the ability to use them."
There was a collective gasp as everyone in the room stared at us.
"What is more," Luna chimed in. "you six now possess skills and abilities that are unique to your Element. The only thing that remains is to find out which one of you has which element."
"Exactly, Luna. That's why we've called you here - to train you."
"You see," Celestia continued. "Luna and I also possess certain skills and abilities. However, we're still not connected to the Elements, so we don't actually possess them. Whether this is because we're alicorns or because we raise the sun and moon we're not sure, but somehow, I seem to possess Light, Fire, and Lightning, while Luna has Ice, Earth and Shadow. We are sure about one thing, though; We need to get you six trained up, because something bad is happening."
"What-"
"Please, Octavia, let us finish." Luna said, cutting Octavia off before she could say any more.
"As demonstrated by the dragons," she continued. "wild animals and other creatures are getting much, much more powerful and aggressive. But that is not the major problem."
"Precisely." Celestia said. "You see, when we defeated the dragons, me and my sister noticed something. When they dissolved, they took on a form that should be familiar to some of you. We managed to trap some of it."
Celestia reached into her robe and pulled out a thin glass vial with a small patch of thick, black smoke with purple specks in it. There was a crystal at the bottom of the vial, and as I looked, it seemed to grow bigger.
Twilight and her friends gasped.
"But that's impossible. That's-" Applejack started to say.
"Yes." Luna interrupted. "It's King Sombra's smoke. And that can only mean one thing..."
"He's returning." Celestia finished.
We all gasped.
"As my sister stated before, we need to train you. We do not have much time left. At the rate the creatures have been attacking and the severity of their attacks, I would say we have about a year's time before he decides he has recovered enough to strike back at Equestria."
Me and Vinyl looked at each other in shock.
King Sombra? Surely she doesn't mean that evil king Twilight saved the Crystal Kingdom from a year ago, does she?
I'd only heard rumors, but according to what I'd heard, it was amazing. Twilight and Spike managed to find some sort of Crystal Heart that had turned Princess Cadance into a crystal pony and destroyed Sombra. And now he was back? My head swam with all this new information. Me, possess an Element? Me, have powers that the princesses themselves had? It was a lot to take in. An understanding look crossed Celestia's face as she studied our expressions.
"I feel I could've explained that better." Celestia said. "I'm sorry if it's too much to grasp at the moment. Feel free to stay the night here in the castle while you process this."
"It is a lot of new information to handle, and most of it might seem to far-fetched to be true, but I assure you that me and my sister are completely serious about this." Luna put in. "You six have great potential; powers yet untapped, limits yet to be broken, and abilities yet to be refined. Even Celestia and I are still trying to find out what we can do. As my sister has said, feel free to stay the night while you take in this information. Once you feel you are ready to learn what powers you may or may not possess, meet me and my sister right here."
We all sat in stunned silence. King Sombra returning, me and my friends possessing special powers, Celestia and Luna having the powers of three Elements each...What exactly was going on here?
Well, whatever it is, I've got to deal with it. If I can go from being a pony to being human in three days, then I can adjust to having powers. I have to. For my friends. For the princesses. For Equestria.
"Thank you for the offer," I said, rising to my feet. "But I'm ready now. Whatever it takes."
"Me too."
Vinyl stood up beside me, and put a hand on the hilt of her katana.
"I'm ready to see what I can do."
"As am I."
Octavia was getting to her feet as well. She looked at us with a relieved glance. She spoke as well.
"If what you say is true, and I do not doubt it is, then I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to save Equestria."
The girls looked at each other.
It must be hard for them to take. They must be going through some serious inner turmoil. They've gotta be-
"Count us in, princess." Applebloom said.
"An adventure? Saving Equestria? Special powers? How much more appealing could you possibly make this?" Scootaloo asked, fire in her eyes.
"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and we stick with our friends no matter what. End of story." Sweetie Belle finished.
"Well, then." Celestia said, smiling at us and giving an 'I told you so' look to Luna. "We'll begin your training right away. Twilight, you and your friends can go back to Ponyville now. You should work on other things. Don't worry about your younger sisters; me and Luna will take very good care of them. You will see them in several months, when their training is complete. I await your letters, as always."
They nodded, and left the sparring chamber.
"Most excellent." Luna said, stepping towards the doorway. "We shall begin by finding out which one of you possesses which element. As the guards may have warned you, there are parts of the castle that have strange and powerful enchantments placed upon them. We will go to one of those rooms now."
As we left the chamber, walking down the stone corridors, I considered what exactly I'd gotten me and my friends into.
This is going to be an interesting six months.
Chapter End