//------------------------------// // A Much Needed Chat // Story: The Adventures of the Elementals // by AutoKnight01 //------------------------------// I only own my OC's and the plot. Enjoy! The Adventures of the Elementals Chapter 31: A Much Needed Chat It had been two days since the trouble in Ponyville was quelled by Cryo and Pinkie Pie. In Canterlot, the outraged ponies demanding Celestia to speak finally got what they asked for. The Princess of the Sun told them the problem had been solved by the very pony they all thought was behind causing it in the first place. Of course not all of them were very accepting of that and thought of it just as an excuse. Celestia simply replied that they may feel about it however they so desire but the words she had spoken were nothing less than the absolute truth. The real problem was trying to think of a good explanation for the disaster to begin with. She couldn't tell anypony that Nightmare Moon was back, as that would only cause panic in the streets. With all the recent attacks, it was hard enough trying to keep order. As much as she hated being dishonest with anypony, she, Luna, and their advisors both agreed that keeping them all in the dark for a bit longer was the best route to go. So when questioned further about Cryo's involvement, both the princesses came back saying what they had said before. Cryo was not the problem, but rather was the pony (alongside Pinkie Pie) responsible for not only saving the town from being buried in snow, but also every single pony trapped inside their homes. Thankfully it was enough to tide them over for now, but both the alicorns knew that even though Nightmare's plan was thwarted, plenty of seeds of discontent and uneasiness had been planted. Down in the small town itself, it seemed things were smoothly getting back on track. Nopony there held anything against Cryo save for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. According to Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, their two bullies came into school the next day saying Cryo and Pinkie were too slow and should have been able to go faster. It was obvious to everypony that they just didn't want to show the Alamantian any respect. Speaking of Cryo, he and Pinkie were faced with the highly uncomfortable task of spilling the beans to Mr. and Mrs. Cake about the whole situation. They spared no detail. The Cakes were brought up to speed about Nightmare Moon, the story of the gods, how both the young ponies were reborn from one goddess, and everything in between. Needless to say, by the end of the story, the two baker ponies found themselves unable to speak for at least three and a half hours. They came back down from their bedroom saying that they thought no less whatsoever of Pinkie and Cryo. The two of them were happy to hear that but they both knew that it was going to take a bit more time to get fully accustomed to it. As for everypony else, things seemed to be going well again as life once again picked up. Back in Canterlot, there was still one stallion out of the bunch who's thoughts were racing around faster than Rainbow Dash could fly. Shining Armor had hardly said a word ever since his little chat with Agua. All he ever spoke were orders to his troops and that was about it. On the third night since the blizzard was cleared, Shining Armor relieved himself for the night and headed to his room in the Canterlot Castle. Stationed at his door were two identical grey unicorn guards. As he got closer, the left side guard's horn flared to life and the door handles to the captain's quarters became alit in the same color hue. The doors opened up and Shining Armor walked inside followed by his two guards. They closed the door behind them while Shining Armor used his own magic to take off his armor and set it down on a rack made for the set of metal. "That will be all, soldiers. Go back to your post." The captain said. "Yes sir." One of the guards responded. "Though, captain, if I may, I was hoping to ask you something." This wasn't like their normal behavior at all. Shining Armor knew these two guards a tad better than others since they were the ones always outside his door. They hardly ever spoke to him other than sit reps and such. "Yes what is it?" Shining Armor decided to listen. "We heard about what that water mover said to you. We were just curious to know if it was true." The other guard spoke. Shining Armor became a bit tense at that moment. This was indeed not normal for these two guards. None of his guards ever asked him about matters such as this. Something was off. "Well, cadet, why the sudden interest in my personal thoughts?" "Uhh...just, talk around the others is all, sir. We got curious." The first guard replied. It seemed the higher ranked stallion was onto them...whatever he thought he was onto. "You two have never asked me about my personal life before." He said to them. Before they could say anything else, Shining Armor did a short teleportation behind one of the guards and tried to strike him in the back of the head. He wasn't expecting a dodge to his attack, but that's what happened. The guard evaded the strike in a fashion Shining Armor didn't remember ever teaching in combat practice, and then he found himself pinned up against the door in a bipedal stance. The guard's nose was only millimeters away from his own. "Relax, Shining Armor. If we were here to hurt you, we would've already done it." From the tip of the guard's nose, a small ray of light shone and dimly began to go up into his face. As it traveled up to his forehead, his coat began to change from grey to a slightly darkened red and the mane and tail turned from a very light blue to a bright red and streaked orange. After he released Shining Armor from his pin, Pyro stepped back and did a short teleportation. His body went a couple feet but the armor he was wearing did not. It clanged together in a small pile on the ground. Then the second unicorn guard began to shed his disguise and then he teleported like Pyro did letting his armor drop. Cryo then circled around and looked at Shining Armor with a nervous sort of look. Shining Armor on the other hoof was stunned. "H-how did you do that?" He asked. "Cryo and I can't get magic sickness. And if you were raised Alamantian, you would find a shapeshifting spell to be easy." Pyro answered. "We thought if we knocked you would've just slammed the door." Cryo added. It was a valid point, and Shining Armor knew he was most likely correct. Had they just knocked on his door and he opened it up to see them, he would have just closed it. But there was one little thing that got him concerned. "Where are the two guards that were supposed to be stationed there?" he demanded to know thinking something bad had happened to them. "We just told them under disguise that you had relieved them of duty for the night and we were assigned to their shift." Pyro answered. The captain was able to take a great sigh of relief knowing his two guards were alright. But he was still annoyed to see two of the Alamantians had taken their place. "Why are you here?" "We wish to talk and nothing more." The fire mover said with pure honesty. "Agua told me about the small exchange you and him had during the whole storm fiasco." After now knowing the reason why he was there, Shining Armor didn't dare to look at him. "..........what about it?" "I just want to know if it's true and if it is, why?" Pyro answered his question with a question. "Shining Armor, are you really.....JEALOUS of us?" Cryo then took his turn to ask something. The royal unicorn still didn't turn back to look at their faces. He should have known better than to think it would have stopped there with just Agua. But still, even after all of that, he held his position. "Why do you think it's any business of yours?" He asked them. "It probably isn't but that's not the point. The point is, everypony, especially your wife, is very concerned about you. Even us. Sure we think you're....kind of a jerk at this point, but we're still genuinely concerned for you." Cryo explained. "I find that hard to swallow." "Yeah well swallow it because it's the truth." Pyro said. "Get out of my chambers." Shining Armor sounded like he was threatening them. It did very little to nothing in terms of intimidation. "Not until we finally get what your deal is with us." Cryo said firmly. "You've been acting so abnormally it's starting to look like you got swapped out with a changeling this time. Shining Armor, please just tell us. What is your deal with us?" "I can't tell you." Shining Armor growled. "Why not?" Pyro angrily shouted. "BECAUSE WHAT YOUR BROTHER SAID IS TRUE! I FAILED!" All sound in that room ceased to be as the two Alamantians looked at the captain with quite a bit of surprise. Not at the fact that he truly was jealous of them but because he was starting to actually talk to them. And he was not finished. With a deep sigh, he knew he now had to let it loose. Out it all came. "I'm the one stallion in charge of leading the entire Canterlot guard, the most elite military unit in all Equestria. It was my job during the wedding to make sure anything that wasn't supposed to happen didn't occur. And what did I do? I was so blind to see that the love of my life, the kindest mare I have ever met, was being so opposite. She was rude, blunt, everything that Cadence isn't. I let Equestria down and....I let her down too. "When I first heard you tell us that Nightmare Moon was back, I saw that as my chance to finally redeem myself for the massive failure I let happen. But....I felt and still do feel that I need to deal with it to regain something that I think you two are familiar with. I need my honor. I lost it the moment I spoke my first words to the changeling queen under disguise. ".....I completely failed my country, I failed in the line of duty, and....I failed the love of my life." It wasn't hard for the two Alamantian brothers to see where he was coming from. It had to be a huge weight of pressure Shining Armor was under during that time and chances are he wasn't always one hundred percent most of the time. He had to order every single troop around, supervise preparations, not to mention keep that giant force field suspended around the entire city. It was easy to see things from his point of view. But even after looking at things that way, there were things the captain was overlooking in terms of how harsh he was being on himself. Sure most of it fell to him but there were other branches on the group of friends that some of the blame needed to fall upon. "Shining Armor...you can't put all the blame for that day on yourself. Everypony was busy during that time. Not even Celestia nor Luna could see what a poor imitation the queen was doing of Cadence. So it wasn't just you that screwed up. Everyone was at fault." Cryo said in an attempt to help him get his head higher. "Twilight wasn't." Shining Armor went on. "Twiley was the only one who was able to see that Cadence was acting weird. And when she tried to call her out on it, I yelled at her and defended a bug.....a monster." "You didn't know she was a monster at the time, Shining Armor. And in your defense, Twilight, although right in the end, had put you in an impossible situation. She was making you choose between her and your future wife. Had I been in your place I would have been in a pickle too." Pyro added. "Hell, every guy would've been caught in that same pickle. I know I surely would have." Cryo spoke again. "We're not so different from each other, Shining Armor. You made mistakes that any other pony in this world, even us, could have made." "Not so different. Heh. What a laugh." That was the only part Shining Armor seemed to hear. "Why is that a laugh?" Pyro asked. "We DO share similarities, Shining Armor. Like you, we want to protect this land from Nightmare Moon and keep this country safe." "Yeah.....but the difference is....you can actually pull it off. I can't." Pyro took one step closer. "Come on, Shining Armor, would you just-" "Will you stop talking to me like you and I are equal?" Finally, Shining Armor turned around to look at the two stallions face to face. "You don't think I saw you and the others fight that night here? I watched every move you all made. You outclassed me in every way. Even without your powers you made me look like I took training from a low level security guard at a fashion show. Even the little plasma one could probably kick my flank back to Ponyville." "That isn't true." Pyro's voice went stern. "IT IS TRUE!" Now the captain was yelling. "Cut the act, Pyro! The six of you have powers and abilities beyond all Equestrian normality! The two of you right here can't even get magic sickness! So don't you dare stand there and tell me that we're alike! We are NOTHING alike!" With that, Shining Armor stormed off to his bedroom and slammed the door. In most other circumstances, Pyro and Cryo would have taken this as their cue to leave and try again some other time. But this was not the case here. The words that were screamed at them just now if anything made them even more aware of what Shining Armor was feeling right now. He was jealous, but there was also another feeling that crept up his spine. The two brothers of opposite elements glanced at each other and nodded. They then marched towards his bedroom door, opened it up, and saw the captain staring out the window. "She needs you." Was what Cryo said upon first stepping hoof into the room. "W-what?" Shining Armor was both surprised he said that and that they didn't leave. "I know that look, Shining Armor. Once you saw what we could do, you didn't just feel jealous. You felt....useless. Obsolete. No longer needed." The icy stallion was determined to make this guy see things differently on this night. "But you're wrong. You are so so SOOOO wrong. You are so much more needed than you realize." Once again, Shining Armor turned around to look at the two of them but this time he was confused and looking like he wasn't buying the speech. "Yeah? Like where?" "Well for one, Cadence needs you." Pyro took his turn again. Immediately after hearing that, Shining Armor's look of doubt vanished and was replaced with one that looked like his brain just got woken up with a sack of bricks. "She needs you to be the love of her life, the stallion she can always hold on to whenever she's feeling sad, or lonely, or scared. Twilight needs you to be her BBBFF again. Cute. The princesses need you to be the strong soldier you are. All of Equestria needs you to be the dependable captain of the guard, the strong stallion ready to lead his soldiers into battle no matter how reckless. And......we...us six Alamantians....we need you too." Pyro concluded. "Wha....." Now Shining's face was one of confusion. "In what possible way do YOU need ME?" "We need you because even if you are in a serious place of doubt right now, you are still strong. VERY strong. And we could use your help as our ally in the battles that are yet to come. We sure as hell could have used your power in the Canterlot fight." Pyro said again. The more they talked, the more his brain began to fill with more sense of realization at what could have happened had he played his cards another way. "You......you're saying that if I had just asked to go out there with you......you would have let me?" The moment after he asked that question was the first time Pyro smiled at him since the day they met. "Shining Armor, after what Twilight had said about you the days before you and I met, I would have been honored to fight alongside you." It didn't take long for Cryo's mouth to do exactly what Pyro's did. "It would still honor us if you would join us in the battles that lie in the future. With everything Nightmare Moon is throwing at us, we could use all the help we can get." The captain once again turned around and poked his nose out the window looking up into the night sky. He started to think about every interaction he had with the Alamantians not counting the time with Pyro when he didn't know he WAS Alamantian. All the yelling, the angry words, the racist insults, they could have all been avoided had he just told them he wanted to be out there with them in the face of danger alongside his sister and her friends. Then there was Cadence. He let his anger get the best of him and he jeopardized his marriage because of it. She walked out on him crying her eyes out and he just stood there and let her. All at once, the feelings of regret, sorrow, and sadness flowed into his mind and he didn't dare let the two stallions behind him see the tears dropping from his eyes. "Thank you for coming here to talk to me." Softly his voice spoke to them. "I still have a lot of things I need to think about though. Can you please leave?" It didn't seem like a lot from him at the moment. However over the course of their whole talk, a whole dump of information and revelations were just put in front of the two Alamantians. For now, it was enough. "Thank you for your time, Shining Armor." Cryo muttered. After that, he and Pyro turned around, and walked out of the captain's quarters. While the door closed, the two of them made their way not to the front door of the castle to leave, but rather to the throne room. Along the way they both thought hard about the reaction Shining Armor gave. They could tell he was sorry but for whatever reason he just wasn't ready to say it yet. They didn't think much about it. They only focused on walking to another part of the castle. The door to the throne room opened up and in they walked to see not only Princess Luna, but also Celestia, their four other siblings, Cadence, Spike, and of course the six mares they have grown close to since meeting them. Cadence stepped forward first, a look of nervousness and impatience in her eyes. "Well? How did it go? Was any progress made?" she asked. "I think so." Cryo replied a bit unsure in his tone. "He finally spoke to us about what was troubling him but not much else was said after that." "I think he's just ashamed now, and to be fair, I think he has a right to be after everything we just heard. It’s not like we're happy he is though." The red stallion added. "We know, Pyro. None of us are happy he is like this." Princess Celestia said to soothe his mind. "Tell us in detail what was said between the three of you." Luna requested. Surely enough, the two unicorn stallions did in as much detail as they possibly could. Every word that came out of all three of their mouths was repeated again in front of all of their friends and the royalty running the country. When they were done, they waited if anyone had anything to say. "He's ashamed for the wedding incident as are we." Luna spoke for herself and Celestia. "The changeling queen did indeed do a poor impersonation of our niece." "We all wish we woulda just slowed down a tad and seen it." Applejack muttered. "Well there's nothing that can be done about it now. It's dead in the past." Terra added. "Just admit you screwed up bigtime and move on." "Oh we have, Terra." Rarity assured her. "Well now we just have to wait for Twilight's big brother to come out and say he's sorry." Pinkie Pie said with a big smile. "No, Pinkie." Cryo was against it. "I wanna hear him say it too but we've done all we can tonight. All we can do now is just catch a train back to Ponyville and just wait it out." All of them agreed that was the logical thing to do. Before they did, Fluttershy turned to Cadence and asked her a question. "Do you want to stay, Cadence?" After hearing the results of the talk with Shining Armor, Cadence had been thinking about the answer to that question very hard. Shining Armor was indeed sorry but he was still defiant to say it. There wasn't much she felt she needed to think about after that. "No. I stand by my word. Until he comes to me, I'm not coming back." Her answer was given with confidence. "We should go, zen. Ze train leaves een twenty minutes." Typhoon found that out spanning out her telepathy on a stallion working at the train station. "Yeah......" Twilight seemed a bit saddened Shining Armor didn't come with them into the room. "Come on, we don't want to miss the train." All of them bid farewell to the princesses with a bow and then made their way out of the throne room. Rainbow Dash spoke as they walked. "And just for the record, I have seen Gem fight and I've seen her practice too. She could totally take Twilight's brother in a fight." Gem was not as appreciative of the attempted compliment as Rainbow Dash would have thought her to be. If anything she felt a tad embarrassed and the tiny blush on her face confirmed it. Also there was a hint of lacking confidence. "I....I wouldn't want to fight him..." She softly said as the door opened. "Oh I know that." Rainbow caught on to her tone. "I'm just saying if it ever happened, you could take him." Agua chuckled. "I wanna fight him one day. He seems built enough to take a beating from me and walk away." His ivory unicorn partner looked at him with confusion. "I honestly can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult." She commented. "It's both. It's a complisult. A compliment and an insult all rolled into one." Agua clarified. While he and Rarity started arguing about that being a real word, Celestia bid Luna good night and left the throne room herself leaving her younger sibling in charge for the night. A matter of minutes and a few hellos from the night guards later, she found herself back in her chambers. She shed her body of her royal attire and prepared her bed for her to enter. But right before she walked to the mattress, something began to materialize outside her window. A puff of black and purple smoke and from that cloud came two unfortunately familiar eyes. "Well, hello my dear Celestia. How long has it been since you and I spoke directly? 1002 years? Much too long hasn't it been?" Celestia's horn immediately began charging up in a bright yellow glow. "Put yourself at ease. I am not here to fight. You and that Pyro character are always so tense." That did nothing to make Celestia any less tense than she was at the moment. Her horn remained powered up and ready to fire upon command. "What do you want?" the solar princess growled. "I am here to merely to talk. You see, your precious element bearers and the six Alamantians you have allowed to live here have been valiant in their attempts to thwart my every move. And so far they have been successful. But no more. As amusing as it was I have grown tired of this little game. So here is what is going to happen. "I am going to unleash everything. And I mean every little ounce of power I have in one swoop across this entire country. Nothing will be missed in the wake. Every single building, every flower, every living thing both pony and not, will simply cease to be." Celestia had dealt with Nightmare Moon before. Granted it was Luna in the shell but this was still Nightmare Moon. She could tell the mare of the moon wasn't lying and she knew very much that she could destroy everything if she so chose to. The glowing in her horn finally stopped. "Although you can prevent it all from happening. If you follow my one demand." Nightmare said. "And that demand would be?" "Simple. Take those six Alamantians, put them on a boat or whatever, and send them away to wherever." Now Celestia in her day had heard some incredible and sometimes stupid threats. This one fell into the category of stupid sounding. "If I send those six young ponies away, that just means your chances of taking this country over increase dramatically. Tell me why I would do it." "Because you know I could do everything I told you I would do. And you know how I would start? With every loved one of the elements, all of their friends outside each other, their mothers, fathers, siblings, and then they would learn it was you who had the power to prevent it all but stopped it. And I wonder how they would react to it. I wonder how all of Equestria would react to all the murders and pain after all that." Celestia wanted nothing more than to throttle this puff of smoke and send her back to the moon for another thousand years. But all she could do at the moment was growl. "Take some time to think. But you only have three days. Spend them wisely." With that, Nightmare vanished and Celestia shut the windows. There was now one more chore she had to do before she headed off to sleep. All the windows and curtains were shut, the candles around the center of her room were lit up, and she sat down on her haunches with her front hooves brought together at her chest. When her eyes closed, she immediately let her focus go to her center. "Hitashi, we must speak." She had to wait for a few minutes to get a response. But the old pony's voice came to her head. "I apologize. I needed to find someplace quiet for this. Why do you call me so suddenly?" "Do you recall that plan you and I spoke of?" "Yes...what about it?" "......I'm afraid there is going to be a drastic change."