//------------------------------// // 41 - The 3rd Element // Story: Re:Harmony // by starcross7 //------------------------------// Chapter 41 - The 3rd Element Applejack resisted sleeping as the Clone troupe filed into the cavern's mouth. Hidden behind bushes and binoculars, she kept watch on Gaea's forces while the Unicorn Hunters, Winona, Owlowiscious, Angel, and Gummy rested. It had not been long since they found the secret shed where Angel kept the cache of stolen weapons. With new gear and guns, they were tempted to go in blazing away at the Clone Soldiers. This was where Gummy led them after his narrow escape. The baby alligator did draw on the dirt a giant lizard-like creature when Applejack asked him about who her friends' captor was. She didn't want to believe it, but if Spike's existence was anything, then the rumors were true that Gaea had actually captured a fully-grown dragon. Several hours had passed, and the convoy had emerged from the cave. They did not come back with the two hover trucks filled with condemned prisoners, but they did bring back several canisters marked with the sign of radioactive danger. It was yet another hour for the convoy to completely disappear and be at a safe distance for the ponies to make their assault. Applejack softly bucked Ingrid and Bella to waking, and the two leapt from their rock perches to follow the orange pony and their animal companions down an incline. Upon reaching the dirt road, everypony took cover underneath the foliage once more. Per the plan Applejack and Ingrid concocted, Owlowiscious, Angel Bunny, and Gummy snuck in and took out moving surveillance cameras installed near the cavern gate. After that, the ponies and Winona immediately ran to hard-to-reach panel. Even with an injured leg, Ingrid managed to keep up, albeit with a pained hobble. "I memorized the code that professor punched in," said Ingrid, "but we got the problem of voice recognition." "And that ancient language," said Bella. "Does anypony know how to speak it?" "No," said Applejack, "but there's always the old-fashioned way. Stand back everypony." She was about to summon her Sword of Truth when suddenly the door panel's sensor opened up to reveal a mechanical eye, which then fired a scanning laser on the jewel of Applejack's necklace. The scanning eye retracted back into the panel, and its screen started scrolling through all sorts of moving hieroglyphs overlaying the image of an apple. After its chime, the screen turned green, and the gate whirred to life. "AUTHORIZED USER RECOGNIZED. GRANTING ALL-ACCESS PRIVILEGES. WELCOME BACK, KNOWLEDGE-SEEKER TWILIGHT." "Did that thing just call you Twilight?" Bella asked Applejack. "I think this thing is broken." "It worked, didn't it?" said Ingrid. "Rebel Applejack, don't stand there and dawdle. Your friends are in danger." The orange pony almost forgot. She galloped alongside the animals and behind the Unicorn Hunters wondering how and why her own Element of Truth would open the gate so easily. At the same time, Applejack wondered why it would mistake her for Twilight. It couldn't be that she still had half her soul with her, but as evidenced by the device's ancient language, perhaps it mistook Applejack for Twilight the First Unicorn. Yet the greater mystery to Applejack was that she understood every word that ancient computerized panel spoke. Several roars echoed in the long tunnel the ponies and the animals galloped in, and they were only halfway. They doubled their pace and soon reached another set of large gates with a similar door panel. They heard the cries of a pony from behind. Applejack didn't have any time for any entrance ceremony run by ancient technology. Even if the doors started opening for her, they were too slow, and Applejack immediately summoned her Sword of Truth to quickly cut it down into several pieces. She then galloped in and saw... ...Fluttershy, cowering before a green dragon, who soon turned his focus on the orange pony. The orange pony looked to her left, and found Spike unconscious. To her right, Twilight lay splayed with her eyes open. Beside Verde were the bodies of both Pinkie Pie and Sunny slammed into the ground in their own individual craters. The dragon did not care how the orange pony got in or who she was. To him, Applejack was but another pest he needed to get rid of, but little did he know the anger boiling from within the orange pony. Applejack's jaw clamped so hard on the handle of her katana that her gums started bleeding. A furious yell forced out from her clenched teeth, and she charged in to what seemed like a futile fight. Yet nopony expected the violent beast unleashed from Applejack. Verde efforts to confuse the orange pony with his portal-based attacks failed. He suffered deep cuts to his claws and tail, and to his surprise, Applejack was literally cutting apart the flamegates like paper. Applejack might appear unmatched compared to the dragon, but cut after cut on the thick scales was driving the dragon back. He tried desperately to throw everything at the orange pony, including his own body. Applejack just cut away. She didn't care what came at her. In her eyes, he was the monster who killed her friends, and this cave was but an extension of him. Applejack could defeat the dragon. It was highly likely, but the hatred and the rage deeply saddened the pegasus. Surely their friends would be avenged, but this wasn't the way to win the fight against hatred and anger. Verde deserved to be punished, but it would be cruel to do so against a dragon fearing for his life. He feared ponies. Fluttershy feared ponies as well. Ponies cut down trees, hurt animals, and they also hurt each other. Right then, Fluttershy began to remember a time when as a filly she witnessed a family of poor ponies trying to survive at the edge of the Everfree Forest. They had cut down a few trees that housed a few nests of birds. The nestlings and their parents survived, but not without injury. As such, the angry Fluttershy commanded her animals to scare away the pony family and demolish their home. It was then that Granny Smith rebuked her for committing such an act. "They hurt friends," the filly told Granny Smith. "It was no reason for you to burn their home," said Granny Smith. "They deserve it! Ponies hurt friends!" "Listen here young one. What you doin' is nothin' but an act of revenge, and revenge ain't gonna save your animal friends in the end." "But Gran-Gran fights for Fluttershy." "There's a difference between protecting and revenge, and what you did ain't protectin'. Did you ever consider that that family might return with soldiers, and that they will come in to burn the forest? If you keep goin' commitin' these darned acts, you'll be fightin' forever, and you'll never know peace and happiness. "I've been fightin' for as long as I can remember. I am tired. I am tired to see my family die off one by one in a battle for freedom and to clear our name. Maybe our ancestor really did betray Chancellor Puddinghead. Maybe he didn't. All I want is to see my grandchildren to live happily without fear, and that day may not come for me. "Fluttershy, if you ever run into my grandchildren, I want you to make sure that for their sake they don't go down the path of revenge. See to it that they will live as happy as I intend them to be." Applejack was close to killing the dragon. Fluttershy won't allow that happen. "STOP IT NOW!" The scream echoed loud enough for Applejack and Verde to stop fighting. Then from the sunken Chamber, sparkles of lights from the surrounding bones flowed into the carved stone butterfly. The stone butterfly glowed with an alternating pulse before exploding into a column of pink light. Floating within was a golden necklace with a butterfly-shaped jewel. Thus, into Fluttershy's soul the necklace spoke: "Thy call hath been heeded. Thou art the sympathy who desires to free oneself and others from perpetual pain and suffering. Receive thy power, bearer of the Element of Empathy, and instill compassion unto those ravaged by apathy." Entranced by the voice, Fluttershy's wing miraculously healed, and she found herself hovering at the same level as the Element of Empathy. The Element itself shot off from the across the chamber in the form of a beam of pink light, and reappeared wrapped around Fluttershy's neck. It was that time Sunny miraculously rose to her hooves. She bowed before Fluttershy, and then said: "I accept thy gift, the Gift of Flight." Sunny's body glowed pink, and in a flash of white light, she reappeared with a complete set of pegasus wings. Yet despite all these miracles, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Twilight remained unconscious, perhaps worse--and the green dragon was still alive, albeit dumbfounded. "We still got a score to settle, dragon," said Applejack. "No," said Fluttershy as she flew between her and the dragon. "Put down your sword. You will not fight him." "Fluttershy, he killed our friends." "That won't happen." "So, that's the Element of Empathy," Verde laughed. "If you are truly empathetic, then you will allow me to take revenge against those who killed my dragon kin." "No," said Fluttershy. "You're not excused from your sins, Emerald Verde." "Me? Sinful? I'm the victim here! The earth ponies have subjected me to unspeakable tortures before imprisoning me here. They took my wings!" "I am so sorry for your loss, but you should know better than to brutally kill those weaker than you. You yourself turned into the very monster that brought you here." "I am fully aware of the irony, pegasus, but I am a dragon. Pony laws mean nothing to me." "You are bound to the laws of life, Verde, and you will answer to them. Element of Empathy, I summon you!" Fluttershy's golden necklace detached from her neck and transformed itself into an angular pink butterfly of light, the Butterfly Star. The Star multiplied in four, and three of them flew to hover the bodies of Pinkie Pie, Spike and Twilight. The fourth Butterfly Star transformed into a mask that covered Fluttershy's eyes, and from her eyes she beamed pink lasers into Verde's eyes. When the beams stopped, Verde spun away and soon noticed that a mark of a pink butterfly was branded on his belly. "This is my Empath Stare," said Fluttershy. "Now you will feel the pain of the all those you killed tenfold!" "Ponies..." growled Verde. "Filthy, and vile creatures. All of you! I'll show you pain, pegasus!" He lunged a claw towards Fluttershy, but stopped midway. There was nothing invisible that ensnared him, and he did not stop it by his own volition. It was no ordinary magic, and this began to cause him severe pain. More cuts in addition to the ones Applejack dealt to him appeared, but then his fingers started cracking, and then breaking. He then staggered backward while grabbing his severely wounded claw with his other claw. More gruesome wounds started appearing all over his body, as if he was attacked on the outside and the inside by an invisible deity. Applejack and Sunny stared in shock and awe at Verde's downfall, and yet even more shocking was that of Fluttershy staring coldly at the dragon who begged and begged for her to stop whatever she was doing. As Verde writhed in utter agony, Twilight and Spike's wounds were healing underneath the light of the Butterfly Stars, and they soon rose back to their hooves and feet respectively. A fully recovered Pinkie Pie bounced back to her hooves with a wide smile and her trademark poofy mane and tail. "No more!" Verde cried. "Stop this at once! I can't take it anymore!" Verde now appeared as a bloodied, twisted, and pathetic beast. At his last scream, he collapsed into the useless wealth that nest, which upon impact threw a wave of gold coins and jewels. The butterfly mark vanished from his belly, and all the Butterfly Stars gathered into one form and transformed back into its necklace form around Fluttershy's neck. Friends had been miraculously healed, and from varying parts of the cavern they gathered towards the center for an outburst of joy and group hugs. Even Applejack, after hugging Twilight, tolerated Sunny licking the unicorn from midair thanks to her new wings. Their animal companions also participated in the celebration, and Angel Bunny bounced up from a pile of gold bars and leapt into Fluttershy's front legs. She gave him a quick snuggle, and after landing, Pinkie Pie appeared out of nowhere for a quick glomp on her back. "Party member get!" Pinkie Pie cried. "We got ourselves a new Element Bearer!" "I always suspected that Fluttershy was one of the chosen candidates," said Sunny. "Couldn't you have told us that before?" asked Applejack. "I wasn't too sure back then, but it does seem like that those who are destined to become Element Bearers will surely be drawn to one another." "Then what are we waitin' for? Let's skedaddle out of this place before the Government finds us." The dragon uttered a painful murmur that frightened and froze all the ponies and their animal companions in their places. "Or before this dragon gets back up on his feet," said Applejack. "He isn't dead," said Fluttershy. "All the more reason we gotta get out of here." "Pegasus Fluttershy," said Verde. "Come." "He's probably gonna spring another trap," said Pinkie. "I like surprises, but his are mean and nasty." "Please," moaned Verde. "He deserves all this for hurtin' all our friends," said Applejack. "Let's leave him be." "Not yet," said Fluttershy. "It seems he want to say something to me." The yellow pegasus flew on over and bravely landed very close to Verde's head. Nopony could hear what he was telling her, and they should given his natural amplitude. Eventually, all his words were whispered, and then Fluttershy then patted his snout with a sorrowful gesture. The dragon smiled peacefully before closing his eyes, and his breathing slowed to a stop. "We can go," she said after flying back to the group. "Verde will no longer hurt any innocent creatures any more." "He said something to you," said Sunny, "but you two were positioned in a way that I couldn't read your lips. "He told me his name." "But he already told us his name," said Pinkie Pie. "Emerald Verde." "He told me his real name; a sacred name dragons give to those most worthy."