"NOOO!" Spike screamed as he watched Sweetie Belle plummet into the dark chasm. He stared into the blackness, his body shaking with something he never felt before. Then, suddenly, he saw her again. Scootaloo flew out of the shadows, carrying a dazed Sweetie Belle in her hooves. Spike breathed a sigh of relief before turning to the two mares still on the bridge. "She made it." he told them.
"That's great Spike," Pumpkin agreed quickly, fear plaguing her voice. "Now can you help me up before me and Apple Bloom fall off too?"
Spike reached down, grabbed her hoof, and pulled the unicorn to safety. Once Spike had gotten Pumpkin and Apple Bloom onto solid ground again everyone looked to see if Sweetie was alright.
She was gasping for breath and thanking Scootaloo for saving her life.
"Come on now," The orange Pegasus told her, "I would never let my friend fall. Or anyone for that matter.” Her voice was confident but her eyes glimmered with worry, “Just don’t fall off any more cliffs.”
"Still, thank you so much." Sweetie Belle said, "That was terrifying."
"At least we got off on the right side." Apple Bloom said, "Now, where is the castle?"
"Right there," Pound said, pointing towards a massive pile of rocks.
Everyone had to take a second look to realize that the pile of rocks was actually the entrance to the castle. The structure was falling apart, the old stone was worn away by time and left some giant holes in the roof and sides. A couple rooms looked like they had caved in on themselves. It was very large and looked like it had been a grand sight in its prime.
"Well, we might as well go in." Spike said, taking a brave step forward.
* * *
“Rainbow Dash, are you listening?”
Rainbow awoke from her nap at the sharp accusation. “Hu? Oh, ya Twilight.” She reassured the unicorn. “You were talking about why Luna banished Solar Flare to the moon.”
Rainbow thought she actually heated up when the unicorn glared at her, also coming to the realization that they were NOT reading about that.
“No, Rainbow.” The purple filly huffed. “That was a long time ago. We’re on the Elements now.”
“Rainbow always falls asleep during story time, Twilight.” said a new voice to Rainbow’s left.
The blue Pegasus jumped in the air at the sudden voice, but then relaxed again when she realized it was just her sister.
“Fluttershy? When did you get here?” Rainbow stared baffled at the other Pegasus.
“She’s been here for a long time.” Another voice, this time the the right spoke out.
Rainbow turned at saw Applejack smiling at her.
“Wa, hu?” Rainbow said in confusion, she looked and saw that all the fillies and Smithy were huddled around. “When did you all get here?”
Twilight scowled at her, “How long have you been asleep? They came to listen after the first chapter.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck, looking at anything but the angry unicorn. “Sorry, guess I kind of dozed off. I’ll stay awake from now on.”
Twilight glared at her in disbelief, but continued to read her book to the ponies settled back down again. She had not so much as read two pages when she gasped in shock and dropped the book.
The sudden noise roused Dash from the drowsy state she was falling into. “What? What’s happening?”
“What’s wrong dear?” Smithy asked Twilight, who was now hurrying around the library collecting paper and quills.
“Spike forgot to read that part!” Twilight exclaimed, “I need to tell him about it.”
“About what? What part?” Applejack asked, visibly confused.
“How to activate the Elements of Harmony.”
* * *
As the group of travelers entered the crumbling castle, they looked around anxiously, searching for any signs of danger. Even in the burning daylight the shadows cast by what remained of the ceiling gave the castle a gloomy feel. The musty smell and the occasional sound of falling stone did nothing to lighten the atmosphere.
“Kind of creepy in here.” Apple Bloom commented, looking at the spiderwebs lining the walls.
“Ya.” Spike agreed, only half listening. “Wait a second.” There was a churning sensation in his stomach and a hotness that rose slowly up his neck to his mouth. He clutched his stomach for a moment, dreading the feeling whenever this happened. He knew what was coming next, but it still surprised him when he burped green fire that materialized into a scroll.
“Wow.” Scootaloo said, taking a couple of steps back. “Now that’s creepy.”
Spike ignored her and read the scroll.
“It’s from Twilight!” He declared, shocked that she would send him something.
His eyes grew wider as he continued to scan the page.
“How did you just burp a scroll from Twilight?” Pound asked, unable to keep from laughing as he asked. It was an unusual thing, but it was a funny unusual thing.
Spike simply smiled and muttered, “Good girl Twilight.” Then he said louder, “Twilight found out how to activate the Elements.”
“Really? How?” Sweetie asked.
“A spark. Just one tiny spark and it will activate all of them.” Spike grinned, “And I can do that easily.” Walking further into the castle, they entered a large dome, which wasn’t in much better condition than the rest of the castle, and had multiple parts collapsed in. The sun shone in through the broken parts of the room, seeming to make the intact parts of the room dark and the broken ones light. In the center, the Elements of Harmony sat on stone pedestals. They were jutting out from a central, larger pedestal, and the structure made Spike wonder how it hadn’t been the first thing to collapse after the place was abandoned.
Spike ran over to the Elements with the others closely following. Luckily, the pedestals weren’t very high, the ones that were being attainable by climbing the fallen pieces of the structure. The elements were easily retrieved one apiece by each pony.
"What do you do now?" Pumpkin asked Spike, looking at the stones once they were set in a pentagon, just like in the book.
“I need to create a spark to activate them.” The dragon told her.
"Maybe we should give you some room." Pumpkin told him, ushering everypony else out of the castle.
Spike stared at the five stones before him, willing his flame to come in a tiny spark. The task proved to be more difficult than Spike had originally thought, but he dismissed this and concentrated harder. As he tried to summon the spark, the light in the room seemed to become brighter, and kept on doing so until the entire room was empty of shadows, the openings letting in light at every direction. Suddenly, there was a deafening boom and a flash of pure light, and the form of Solar Flare appeared in the middle of a storm of flames, blocking every possible exit with it.
“YOU TEST MY PATIENCE, DRAGON!” she boomed, the entire room seeming to quake at her voice. “IF YOU WILL NOT GIVE UP, THEN I WILL TAKE MATTERS INTO MY OWN HOOVES!” Her horn began to glow, and though it was starting to get hot even for Spike, he jumped into the heart of the storm just as it came in on itself.
Spike opened his eyes as the heat departed and looked around. He was in another part of the ruins, higher up, with tree branches jutting through the wall. Solar Flare was standing at the far end of the room with the Elements laying in a circle around her.
“Give me the Elements back!” Spike cried at the white alicorn.
“Why, of course I’ll give them back to you after I just took them away.” Solar Flare mocked.
“If you won’t give them back, then I’ll TAKE them back.” Spike declared as he jumped at Solar Flare, shooting a ball of green fire in in front of him.
Solar Flare was surprised by his sudden attack but quickly shot a searing hot white ball to defend. The two fireballs collided and made a blinding flash of light followed by a dark smoke that engulfed the room. Before it could cloud his vision Spike saw the Elements shatter due to the force of the shock wave.
Spike sputtered for breath as the smoke surrounded him. His eyes tried to penetrate the thick clouds but all he could see was black. The chilling sound of Solar Flare laughing filled his ears.
“Foolish dragon, the Elements have been destroyed, don’t you see that there is no need for this trivial fighting.” Her voice bounced off the walls, making locating the source difficult. “You and I should join together.”
“Why would I join you?” Spike shot another fireball into the smoke, hoping to dispense it a little.
“Because I can help you.” She paused to let those words sink in.
Spike took the bait, “How can you help me?”
“Aren’t you tired?” She said, her voice becoming singsong like. “You’re always looked down upon, discriminated. If you joined me then you could the power to have everyone respect you. No one would run away from you or make fun of you or reject you anymore.”
Spike is not proud to admit he considered it. He had always been left out of things and shunned because he wasn’t a pony. He longed to be accepted and appreciated for once in his life. Why shouldn’t he take this opportunity to achieve power and acceptance?
Then he remembered the gut wrenching feeling he had felt when he saw Sweetie Belle fall off that cliff. The need to save her and the horror that he couldn’t. He never wanted to feel that again, that helplessness. Why had he felt that though? He had never really felt a need to protect anyone but Twilight. He thought that was just a sibling like connection. Why did he feel the same way about Sweetie Belle? Was he in love with her? The thought made his heart drop. No, he felt the same way about everyone in the group. He never wanted to see any of them hurt but he wanted to stay with them, not disconnect himself. If it wasn’t a family like bond and it wasn’t love then what was this feeling?
The dragon hear a faint cry at that moment, the sound of voices. They steadily grew louder and Spike could soon distinguish each individual voice of the five ponies who had come on this quest with him. As he heard each voice something inside him clicked. No, it wasn’t a click. The feeling was more like a.......spark!
“Sorry, Solar Flare,” Spike called out. “but I’d never join you.” He dispersed a wave of heat that pushed back all of the smoke and also knocked Solar Flare backwards.
“Spike, are you alright?” Apple Bloom asked as the ponies entered the room.
“Yes, and I know how to defeat Solar Flare.”
“FOOLS!” The alicorn cried. “The Elements are destroyed, there is no way to stop me!”
“They aren’t.” Spike declared. “The spirits of the Elements of Harmony are here.”
“What?” Solar Flare scoffed.
“What?” The five ponies asked.
Suddenly the shattered remains of the Elements began to glow and flew over to the group of six, circling them.
“Pumpkin Cake,” Spike started, gesturing to the orange unicorn, “who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of Honesty.”
Shards of rock wrapped in an orange glow started to revolve around Pumpkin.
“Sweetie Belle,” Spike continued, feeling more confident than he ever had in his life. “who tamed the Cerberus with her sweet words, represents the spirit of Kindness.”
White glowing rocks surrounded Sweetie Belle.
“Pound Cake, who helped us escape the Timberwolves when he laughed in the face of danger, represents the spirit of Laughter.”
The rocks the circled him had a brown glow.
“Apple Bloom, who helped the distraught dragon, represents the spirit of Generosity.”
Red rocked circled around the Earth Pony.
“And finally, Scootaloo, who...” Spike stopped and looked at the Pegasus. “What did you do exactly?”
“I got tempted in that fog.” Scootaloo told him. “I didn’t do it though.”
Spike nodded, “Doing that, Scootaloo represents the spirit of Loyalty!”
Thankfully purple encased stones did surround her.
“The spirits of these five ponies got us through all the challenges we had to face to get here.” Spike finally finished.
“You still don’t have the sixth element though.” Solar Flare stammered, “The spark, it didn’t work.”
“When I heard your voices I realized something and the Spark alighted inside of me.” Spike said to the ponies surrounding him. “I realized how much I cared for all of you, wanted to stay with you. I realized that you all.....are my friends!”
A flash of light and another stone appeared directly above Spike’s head.
“When the spark ignited inside of me,” It was now Spike’s turn to taunt. “It revealed the six Element, the Element of....” He hesitated and stared at the stone. Part of him wanted to say faith, for it fit the pattern of the Elements. Another part of him though, it knew that it was something those made up. Friendship? No, that didn’t make sense. Something that friendship was. “The six Element is the Element of Magic!”
Suddenly all the elements lifted everyone up condensed around their necks and around Spike’s neck. Everything grew fuzzy for a moment and Spike could only barely make out a rainbow of color.
When the world returned to normal all Spike’s friends were dazed and each had an individual necklace.
“My bow!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. He bow now sat neatly on her head as if it had never left.
“Apple Bloom that looks amazing!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, staring at the Earth Pony.
“It ain’t that amazing.” Apple Bloom said, confused by the sudden complement.
“No, no.” Sweetie Belle explained. “Not your bow, your necklace. It looks just like your cutie mark.”
Apple Bloom’s necklace had a red hammer in the spot a pendent would be.
“So does yours.” Apple Bloom pointed at Sweetie’s neck, where a white bell sat.
“All of ours do.” Pumpkin stated, staring at the orange cake shape.
Spike stared up at his head. A crown that looked like it would belong to a king sat there, a green fireball as the pendent.
The room was then shrouded in a silvery glow and then Princess Luna materialized.
“Princess!” Spike said, everyone kneeled before her royalty as Spike ran to her. Luna looked hurt, there were bruises all over her body and her night sky mane was a mess. “What happened to you?”
“I’m fine.” Luna waved off Spike’s concerns. “Solar Flare imprisoned me in a place that couldn’t be opened unless she was defeated.” The Princess’s eyes wandered over to the other alicorn in the room. Solar Flare had lost all her armor and her blazing hair. She was considerably smaller than before and a plane white. Luna walked over to her and helped her up. “You need to end this here.” Luna said, “The time has come for us to rule together, sister.”
Everyone in the room held their breath as the white alicorn considered her options. Finally she broke down in tears and hugged Princess Luna, “I’m so sorry sister!” She cried.
“It’s alright,” Luna soothed her, “we can start new and you will be welcomed back into the palace. As for you six,” She turned towards her student and his friends. “you have all shown that you are brave and noble and I think you are all worthy to be the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”
“Did you know that this would happen all along? Is this why you wanted me to make friends?” Spike asked his mentor.
“Partly,” Luna confirmed. “I knew that my sister would come today and that we needed to find the Elements of Harmony. I did not know that you would be able to complete the task or what type of friends you would make but I never doubted that you would prevail.”
“Thank you Princess.” Spike said blushing a little at the praise.
“Do you know what we should do now?” Pound said excitedly.
Everyone stared at him in Confusion.
“Go and see the fillies!”
THE END