//------------------------------// // Epiphany 5 // Story: Epiphany // by Ninestempest //------------------------------// Despite sleeping on the hard, dirt ground, Fluttershy felt like she had gotten real, genuine rest from that night of sleep.  She woke up, yawning, and gently brushed dirt off her coat and any dried tears from her face and eyes.  The fire had long gone out, and she didn’t see Trixie at the other side of the camp.  Before she could begin looking around, she heard Rainbow Dash stir beside her.  Deciding that the wounded pegasus next to her is more important, she reaches over to gently brush her side.                   She noticed something as she touched her.  She was cool to the touch, and seemed wet.  “Dash?”  She whispered, hoping she’s fully awake.   Dash rolled over to face Fluttershy.  Her eyes were barely open and her voice was weak.  “Hey... Fluttershy... I don’t... feel so well...”                   Fluttershy gasped.  “Oh Dash, what’s the matter?  You were fine last night.”                   “I... actually didn’t feel too good.  I didn’t want you to feel any worse about me running away... or about the medicine you gave me.” she tried to smile, but started coughing again.  They were loud, and ruthless, as they wouldn’t stop for almost a full minute.  She moaned in pain when she finally stopped, and thankfully no blood came out.                   “I... already found out that wasn’t good medicine for you...”  Fluttershy looked around the campsite again.  Trixie wasn’t there, but she had left her bags and cloak.  She must have noticed that  Dash was sick, and went off to find something.  But I don’t know anything natural that can help her now...                   Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to do.  She simply said the first thing she thought of, which was self pity.  “I should have realized that you were in bad shape Dash, this is sort of my fault.  I’m sorry I didn’t find any medicine that could help you.”                   “No big deal.  Just stop apologizing all the time...” she reached out with her right forehoof, the other hoof lying on the ground in its still secure splint.  “I don’t like seeing you sad.  This isn’t your fault.”                   Fluttershy smiled.  “Then I’ll keep a brave face, just for you, okay?”                   “Yeah.”  Rainbow Dash chuckled.                   They were silent for a few moments, before Fluttershy broke it.  “I’m kind of sorry to bring this up, but uh... is there somewhere where it hurts more?”                   Dash raised an eyebrow.  “You mean inside?”                   “Yeah.  If you are bleeding, I think you’re having some blood loss problems.  You should feel some kind of area where it hurts a little more...”                   Dash nodded.  She slowly brought her hoof and placed it on her lower abdomen.  “It... really hurts right here...”                   Fluttershy nodded.  As she got up, Dash moaned again.  The rainbow-maned pegasus tried to stand up, only to collapse almost as soon as she had.  She passed out as soon as she hit the ground.                   “DASH!” Fluttershy yelled, jumping to her side again.  “C’mon, wake up.  Dash, this isn’t funny.”  She nudged her face, finding it soaked in sweat and cold to the touch.  “Dash... come on...” She knew that they had to get back quickly.  Dash had passed out, and showed every sign of blood loss she knew.  It had been about two days of basically no treatment, but it wasn’t until then she knew how dire the situation had to be.  Oh, Dash, if you didn’t fly all that distance, you might be okay right now... but I can’t carry you to Ponyville on my own.                   A tree branch snapped behind her, followed by the hurrying rustling of leaves.  She didn’t even get to turn around before Trixie appeared next to Dash.  She was looking down in panicked worry at Dash as she quickly explained what she had been doing that morning.  “When I woke up this morning, she was sweating, cold, and shivering.  I realized she must have lost a lot of blood, but I thought it might have been from her wing.”  Fluttershy looked to the wing, which was still against her side.  It looked mangled and red, but it wasn’t an open wound.  “I sealed it up with more magic, but I thought she must have had internal bleeding.”                   Fluttershy nodded.  “She coughs up blood sometimes, but before last night she was okay.  I think the wing was a problem before we found her.  Do we have to get her surgery or something to stop the bleeding?”                   Trixie shook her head.  “The only difference is that the opening in the vein or artery is inside, not outside.  Clotting would stop it normally, but inside there’s no way for the blood to dry up or clot, since there’s no air.  She’d need special clotting medicine, and blood transfusions to keep her going while she waited.  Neither of which we can do out here.”  She looked around.  “I have no idea how far Ponyville is from here...”                   Fluttershy nodded again, tearing up a little.  “I don’t... either...” she buried her head in the unconscious pegasus’s chest, crying.  “Oh Dash!  Please stay strong until we can get back to Ponyville.  You’re gonna be okay... you have to be okay...”                   Trixie had no words for Fluttershy.  She had plenty of medical experience and experience in drugs or potions, but never interacted with a patient or even those ponies who volunteered for studies.  She walked around the unconscious pegasus and sat next to Fluttershy, bringing a comforting hoof around her.  After a minute of sitting and trying to think of what to say, she had an idea.   She patted Fluttershy comfortingly.  “Your friend is made of tougher stuff than that.  She even took on an angry dragon!  Something I’m pretty sure no pony else could have done.  Not even I, the Great and Powerful Trixie!”                   Fluttershy looked up from Dash, with a weak smile.  “She’s strong... but it’s been two days Trixie.  I don’t think she’ll last much longer, especially after all that exertion yesterday.”                   “That’s why I’m prepared to save her, and get us out of this forest.”  She stood up, and walked over to where her things were, retrieving them.                   “Wh-what?”  Fluttershy was utterly confused.  “We can’t make anything to carry Dash with us, how would we get back-“                   “I am a Unicorn, dear girl.”  Trixie said, her voice proud and confident.  “My specialty in life is magic.  Do you think I’m unable to cast a simple teleport spell?”                   “B-but that seems kind of hard...” Fluttershy wasn’t sure what else she could say.  She knew nothing of magic, other than it would make a pony tired if she used, or tried to use something too powerful.                   Trixie nodded.  “Magic... for things like levitating, is easy to quantify.  Weight and distance moved decide what you can do.  For chemistry or medicine, it’s just moving energy around to cause reactions.  Teleporting is... harder...” she looked at Rainbow Dash, then to Fluttershy.    “All I know is how to do it without light, for my shows.  I have teleported before, as it’s something Unicorns do well when their talent is related to magic itself.”                   Fluttershy didn’t move, only sat staring at her.  She couldn’t figure out why a Unicorn she had basically just met, who had been humiliated by her friends in Ponyville, and hadn’t even kept a single home or tie to anypony, would just up and help her.  It was beyond her understanding.  Was it some weird kind of charity?  Did she feel remorseful for what had happened to Ponyville, even if nothing bad had happened?  Was she making up for something else?                   Trixie continued after a short pause.  “Heh, speechless, of course.  I often have that effect on ponies.”  She looked at Rainbow Dash again.  “What you two have, I don’t know what it is.  I don’t really understand what it might even be.  But seeing you two… it’s strange.  I want you to stay the way you are, and I don’t want either of you to lose it.”                   “Trixie…” Fluttershy almost whispered it.  Trixie heard her perfectly well.                   “I suppose this might be something ponies call ‘friendship,’ but I wouldn’t know.  I’ve never had friends.”  Before Fluttershy could respond, Trixie’s horn started to glow.  “I don’t know how far Ponyville is, and I don’t know how much energy I’ll need for all 3 of us.  I’m just going to shoot for about five-six miles, we did travel quite a distance already.  There’s no risk for you two, just for me, that over shooting or even just using this energy… might be bad.  Stay perfectly still and this will go smoothly.”                   Fluttershy, still somewhat unsure but knowing this was the only option left, nodded.  She sat quietly next to Rainbow Dash, who was still passed out.  Trixie’s horn was still glowing, the pale-blue ivory like a lamp that shone an electric blue light.  It encompassed all of them, the glow making Fluttershy almost feel warm.  The glow around the horn grew brighter, the lamp-like shape of the light expanding to be as large as Trixie herself.  She grunted, and the light pulsed, and Fluttershy’s vision became nothing but a shine of blue as she shut them to stop the harsh light from blinding her.   -----                   She opened her eyes.  The area around her was not that of a forest, or that of the town of Ponyville, or that of any location she could think of.  The sky, unobstructed, was a strong yellow, like a sunset, but without a sun and without any mixed shades of color strewn across the sky.  There were clouds.  They were in the sky, and around her.  She looked down, and saw nothing except more dense white clouds.  It was like she was in heaven.  She thought for a second, and wondered if she had died.  She then immediately pushed that thought aside, and thought she must be dreaming, or having a vision, or maybe she was in the sky and she somehow forgot how she got there.  She was still sitting, so she stood up, and walked for a few seconds.  She circled where she was sitting, testing the ground.  Whatever she was standing on, it wasn’t a cloud, as it held her firm but it wasn’t a hard floor, as it made no sound.  She brought her hoof down on it firmly, and it stopped, but it stopped instantly, and brought no pain, nor a loud sound.  It was a hard floor that didn’t hurt, didn’t move, and made no sound.  She thought for a second about how many laws of physics that broke.                   She had just sat down again when she heard a sound of wind from behind her, as it brushed her tail, fur, and wings.  She looked behind herself slowly and saw another pegasus standing there.  Her fur was yellow, and hair was streaks of both pink and green.  There was an uncanny air of familiarity that Fluttershy couldn’t put a hoof on as she stared at the pegasus.                   “Fluttershy is your name, correct?”  She said.  Her voice echoed and seemed to reach Fluttershy’s ears last, after it was done bouncing off the non-existent walls of wherever she was.  It entered her mind, and seemed to somehow emanate from her own thoughts at the same time she heard it.  It sounded quiet and calm, much like her voice.                   “Yes.”  She felt comforted by this strange pony, even though she had no idea who she was.  She wasn’t scared at all.  It was liberating.  “What is going on?  Where am I?  Why-“                   “Please don’t ask too many questions.  All you need to know right now is that you’re safe.”  The pegasus smiled.  Fluttershy felt a little perturbed by the smile, and realized why.                   “You look exactly like me, but with different colors of your mane!”  She exclaimed, pulling down her mane and examining it, then looking closely at the other pegasus’s mane.                   “Correct.  Fluttershy, I am the Element of Kindness.  I felt you being touched by powerful magic, and knew this would be a good chance to let my holder know what exactly was happening.”                   “What is happening?  Is Rainbow Dash alive?  Did Trixie successfully teleport us to Ponyville?”  Fluttershy stopped herself suddenly when Kindness threw a stern look at Fluttershy, almost like her own Stare.  “Oh, right, too many questions…”                   Kindness shook her head.  “I do not know any of those answers.  I only know what you feel and what you felt ever since we bonded.  I don’t even know what has been happening to you recently.  I decided that, with an opportunity to get this much magical power, I would use the time it would give me to talk to you.  Fluttershy, holder of the Element of Kindness, remember this.  Someone is trying to take the Elements of Harmony from you, and the other five ponies that hold them.”                   Fluttershy tilted her head in curiosity.  She had a few questions, but was hesitant to ask them.  She did anyway, figuring that they weren’t like her previous ones.  “Two things: Who is trying to take them?”                   Kindness shrugged.  “It is most likely one of great magical power.  It is not a holder of the elements, for they may not hold more than one element at any given time, and would most likely cast the element into nothingness in an attempt to take one.  Upon using magic as powerful as one would need to take an element, their element would do what I am doing now, probably scold them, and tell them it’s impossible.”                   “What do they have to do to take an element?”  She asked her next question without hesitation.                   Kindness thought for a few seconds on this, her hoof at her own chin in thought.  “I do not know.  I only know that I could feel a force being exerted upon Loyalty recently, and it was a very targeted force.  For me to feel something of another element must mean you were very close to them, physically and spiritually and emotionally.  Has something happened recently that felt oddly out of their regular behavior?  That is all I can think of that may weaken an element’s attachment to a pony.”                   Fluttershy was put off a bit by the over-analyzing and calculating nature of Kindness, especially when it carried her own voice.  It sounded like she was boiling down her and her friends into simple behaviors.  She answered begrudgingly, “Rainbow Dash recently got very angry with me, but that was because of a problem she had as a filly.  It wasn’t something I expected, but now that I know more about her, it seems valid.”                   Kindness shook her head.  “We choose our holders because they truly and literally and completely, are the embodiment of that feeling, that ideal.  If Loyalty has done something that would not be loyal to you or others recently, it goes against any moral code she has.  It was brought on by complete foreign influence, be it magical, medicinal, intense sickness, or loss of sanity.”                   Fluttershy thought about what happened exactly.  It was in the forest, the night of the day that Rainbow Dash had fought off the dragon.  When Rainbow Dash had threatened her, and swore at her.  She hadn’t thought of it before, but why did she threaten to hurt her?  Why would she threaten the pony she was having a crush on, with violence?  She mulled over the brief synopsis of her story about Sky in her head, and couldn’t see violence associated with anything.  Trixie’s description of what Fluttershy had given Rainbow Dash gave no indication that she’d feel especially the opposite of what she felt before waking up.  Indeed, it seemed Rainbow Dash had felt out of character, but at the time she could only assume it was an angry Rainbow Dash, who often threatened enemies of her friends with violence.  Did that mean for a second, Rainbow Dash felt Fluttershy was an enemy?                   “Betrayal would be the opposing ideal to the Element of Loyalty.”  Kindness interrupted Fluttershy’s thoughts.  “I do not know for sure what has been happening to you recently, other than it has made you feel sad.  I felt this sadness at the same time I felt Loyalty weaken.  I do not know for sure, but it seems that not embodying your element makes an element’s bond to their holder weaker.”                   “Are you speculating?”  Fluttershy felt sort of incredulous.  “You’re an element of harmony, and you don’t even know exactly what bonds us, or how to destroy that bond?”                   “We have existed for a thousand years, and we have been used twice.  Only now, in more recent times, have we even been bonded to a pony.  We know as much about it as any leading scholar might.  That is very little.”                   “Why are you telling me this?  If I’m here, does this mean that you’re just giving me a vision, between the teleport, and landing in Ponyville?”  Fluttershy didn’t care about the elements anymore.  She was growing more worried about Rainbow Dash, even though she figured nothing had actually happened yet.                   “I’m telling you this because the elements hold power, and you must not let anyone collect them-“                   “Why do you say anyone?”  Fluttershy interrupted.  “Don’t you mean anypony?  Only ponies can use magic.  Unicorns at that.”                   “I do not know if anyone else can use magic or not.  It’s not my place to decide if anyone else can besides ponies, so I use the most generic way possible to define the… situation.”  Kindness looked around, and then stopped her head, as if spotting something.  “We have little time left.  Do not expect us to speak again.”                   “Wait, what?”  Fluttershy reached out to Kindness as she floated off, without even flapping her wings.                   “Loyalty may have talked with her holder, if this ‘teleport’ you are worried about is what is bringing a magical power to you and her holder.  She will know as much as I did.  You must try and alert the other elements that they are in danger.  I do not know what happens to a pony if its element is driven or taken from her.  I do not wish to see it happen.”  She started to step backwards, away from Fluttershy.                   Fluttershy nodded.  “O-okay.  I’ll tell the others.  I’ll try and warn them.  They’ll probably think I’m crazy though.”                   “Doubtful.  Magic would only bond with a pony of great intelligence, and surely she will understand some of this, even without having spoken to her element.”  She started to fade, turning almost transparent as she floated away.  “If not, then you can tell the others how to speak with their elements.  Simply have a user of magic bring them into contact with extraordinarily powerful magic.  The elements may have felt tugs or pulls at their bonds, and they will have events like this one happen to them.  Do not forget what we have discussed.”  Kindness finally vanished as she floated up into the sky.                   Her voice echoed once more, this time seeming to emanate from her mind, and then reaching her ears.  “We call this event an Epiphany.  Celestia granted us this power in the hopes that when the holders of the elements are needed, they would realize their purpose in the world, and strive to fulfill that purpose.  Good luck and stay safe.”                   Fluttershy sat for a few more seconds, expecting more words from Kindness, but when she heard nothing, she sighed.  She didn’t know how to feel.  She was immensely worried about Rainbow Dash, but if somepony was attempting to steal their elements… she had no idea what that could mean.  Would they be powerful enough to do what Celestia did a thousand years ago?  Fluttershy shuttered at the thought of somepony being able to channel that power; it was a power that sealed away an immortal monarch who controlled the moon, for one thousand years.  If a power like that could be used however one wished… she knew it was a terrible thing.                   Fluttershy closed her eyes, and fell backwards, hitting the clouds soundlessly.  She was tired, and worried, and scared.  She just wanted to see Rainbow Dash again, to tell her it would all be okay, and stay with her when she recovered, and-                   The sky turned blue and she saw no clouds.  The sun shone in her eyes as she realized she was falling.  She landed with a thud on the ground less than a second later.  She must have fallen only a few feet.  She felt grass tickle her as she brought her hooves to the ground and pushed herself up.  She looked to her left.  Rainbow Dash was lying still, and Trixie was standing, sweating and panting, next to them.  The light was fading from her horn, and she let out one last gasp as she passed out.                   Fluttershy got to her hooves quickly, and glanced around.  There were more apple trees than she could count.  It was Sweet Apple Acres.  They were close to Ponyville!                   “APPLEJACK,” Screamed Fluttershy, running mindlessly around the apple trees that surrounded her.  Fluttershy had never really been out in the fields, not since the harvesting season where Applejack had been too exhausted to buck all the apple trees herself, and had to ask the rest of her friends for help.  After being lost for two days in unfamiliar territory, she smiled at the memories her mind was instinctively bringing forth.  She realized that she had no reason to be running around and flew up effortlessly, seeing the telltale red barn and the Apple family house.  She flew over quickly, and found Applejack and Big Macintosh, Applejack’s brother, just entering the fields.  Fluttershy yelled at them, and they looked up, surprised and amazed to see the shy pegasus.  She floated down to greet them, and they met her with nothing but relief.                   “We’ve been so worried about you, Fluttershy!”  Applejack ran up to meet her friend.  “Ah thought somepony kidnapped ya’ll or something.  Where in Equestria have you been off to?”                   “It’s a long story, but we have to help Rainbow Dash, she’s badly injured.  We have to get her to the hospital!”  The two farmers nodded, and Fluttershy flew off, leading the two back to where her group had arrived.