The Adventures of the Elementals

by AutoKnight01

The Choice

Alright my friends. We're in the final arc of the story now. So get cozy in whatever seat you are in while reading this, and enjoy. I only own my OC's and the plot.

Two more days passed by quickly after that night in Canterlot, and they weren’t very eventful. Life carried on, Cryo and Pinkie still got a few hoof bumps from the town citizens for the blizzard thing, Pyro kept helping Twilight out in the library, making Spike's job easier, Terra helped out on the farm, and so on.

Agua was even true to his word and took Rarity aside a couple hours out of the day to teach her basic water moving stances and some basic moves. Since she was already experienced in karate thanks to Rainbow Dash's teachings, the fashionista had little to no trouble at all standing on her hind legs in a bipedal stance. To Agua's surprise, Rarity caught on quite fast. Her motions were graceful, accurate, and precise. Had she been glowing or something, she would've been a serious threat with water.

That night, Rarity decided to host a dinner party at her house and invited everyone in their main circle to attend. She didn't receive a single no. Pyro and Terra even volunteered to bring some Alamantian stuff to make the meal more interesting. The ivory unicorn was thrilled to try it even though she was aware some of it would be meat.

As the dusk came about the town, they all started to show up. Pyro, Twilight, Cadence, and Spike were first because the young drake was asked to assist with the cooking and Pyro had brought his main side dish. A bowl of super hot sauce. Rarity was a bit nervous to ask why it was called "super". Sweetie Belle however couldn't wait to give it a shot. She was at her sister's house while their mother and father went out of town to Trottingham for a couple of days. And at her request, Rarity allowed the other two crusaders to attend the dinner.

Everything was set to be a pleasant night.

Around 6:00 PM, everyone aside from Applejack, Terra, and Applebloom had arrived at Rarity's house and they had begun to chit chat.

"This is actually quite nice. This is just what we need after a blizzard of gigantic proportions and the revelation of Shining Armor's true feelings." Rarity commented.

"Oh oui beaucoup." Typhoon agreed in French. "And ze smell from ze kitchen ees delightful."

Rarity always loved hearing compliments of any sort.

"Oh I am absolutely positive you and the others are all going to love this meal, Typhoon. And I'm sure the side dishes all of you brought will only make it more divine."

"Rarity, are you sure you're going to be okay with eating meat?" Cadence asked.

Upon realizing there was a good chance that would happen, Agua's mouth turned up into a smirk and he gazed at his ivory partner.

"Oh that I need to see." He said.

"Hush you." Rarity jabbed a hoof his direction before turning to the princess. "To answer your question, it's true eating meat is something I myself thought I would never even THINK about attempting. But like everypony else, ever since meeting our new Alamantian guests, trying new things has indeed crossed my mind. And putting some meat inside my mouth and tasting it is one of those experiences. Oh! I need to go check on dinner."

As she walked back to the kitchen, Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of Agua with his mouth open almost like he was about to say something. But then he turned to look at the princess, closed his jaw, and began to take a few breathes like he was calming himself down.

Rainbow could easily tell what was on his mind. She smiled and tried not to laugh herself.

"You wanted to make a double entendre about Rarity putting meat in her mouth didn't you?" She asked.

"She and Cadence threw it right in front of me!" He shouted.

That earned him giggles from everypony other than Twilight and Fluttershy. Fluttershy because of obvious reasons, her shyness. And Twilight because she didn't have a clue what Rainbow and Agua were talking about. She was still in the process of learning what double entendres and sexual terms and puns were but she was getting better.

In an attempt to change the subject, Gem took a breath of air in through her nose and the aroma from the kitchen to fill her nostrils up with the pleasant smell and bring a smile to her face.

"Mmmmmm. That smells so good." She observed. "I can't wait till it's done."

"Me neither." Scootaloo piped up who was right in between the plasma mover and Rainbow Dash the entire time. "And I bet desert is gonna be even better."

"Who's in charge of bringing desert anyway?" Cryo asked.

"Applejack volunteered." Twilight replied. "She said she had a few new types of apple flavored desserts for us to taste test and this was as good a time as any for us to do it."

"I'm up for some apple sweetness." Pyro said. "She always did say she had a variety of treats. Never got around to trying them."

Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all smiled at him.

"Well then tonight is your lucky night, Pyro! Applejack's apple treats are so good they rival Sugarcube Corner's very best cake!" Pinkie explained.

"And they make some pretty good cakes." Cryo agreed.

Everypony agreed to that right as the doorbell rang.

"Ah! Zat must be zem now. I'll get eet."

The accented Alamantian fluttered over to the door and opened it up to view not her sister and her orange cowgirl partner. In front of her instead stood a tall set of four legs leading up to the body of Princess Celestia. A couple of pegasus guards stood on both sides of the front door to Carousel Boutique

"Y-your highness." Typhoon was genuinely startled and bowed to her. "What are you doing here?"

All Celestia seemed to do for a good fifteen to twenty seconds was just look dead into Typhoon's eyes. Then she finally responded to the greeting she was given.

"I am sorry to disturb you and your friends at the moment, Typhoon. But there is a pressing matter that I must speak with all of you about. May I come in?"

"Um..yes. Yes of course, your highness." The pink pegasus opened the door up all the way and allowed Celestia to walk in.

She walked by Typhoon's side into the living room where everypony else immediately went into a bow upon seeing who it was. Rarity who walked out of the kitchen a few seconds later also bowed down to her ruler, extremely humbled to have the highest of royalty inside her home. When all of them retook their original positions, the questions began to pour out.

"Aunt Celestia....not that we aren't happy to see you. But what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Cadence asked.

"Actually, Princess Cadence, there IS something wrong. I must speak with you and the elementals...alone."

The "alone" at the end of that sentence was emphasized and her eyesight turned to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo when she said it. Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked at each other for a brief moment and nodded thinking the same thing. Then they turned to look at Agua who had an idea.

"Hey Sweetie Belle, think you and Scootaloo can feed Bobo for me?" he asked them.

The two of them looked more excited to do that than Agua had anticipated.

"You want us to feed your giant clam?" Sweetie Belle said with sparkling eyes.

"Think we'll get our cutie marks in marine biology?" Scootaloo's own eyes looked very determined.

"Yeah sure whatever. His food is under the sink. Now get." Agua couldn't care less.

The two fillies raced out of the room and Rarity closed the door behind them making sure they couldn't hear. She then turned back around to face her country's ruler.

"Is everything okay, your majesty?" Pyro was looking at her face and noticed a fair bit of uneasiness in her eyes. "You seem troubled."

The tall white alicorn took a breath before she opened her mouth to speak her reply.

"On the night you and Cryo went to talk with Shining Armor, something happened after you left. I was alone in my quarters and Nightmare Moon appeared outside my window in smoke form. She told me-"

"Nightmare? Why didn't you send for us?" Agua asked.

"I am capable of holding my own in a fight, Agua." She got back on track. "Besides, she wasn't there to fight. She merely came to threaten me."

"With what?" Twilight wondered.

Celestia let another load of air escape her lungs. There was a heavy load of information about to come their way.

"She told me she would not hesitate to destroy everything in a single wave of destruction if I followed her one demand. That demand.....is to remove the six Alamantians from Equestrian soil and send them home."

The gazes that were already on the princess grew more serious as those last words slipped out of her mouth.

"And obviously you're not going to do it." Rarity confidently said.

That confidence however began to lower once she saw a tiny bit of sadness creep onto Celestia's face. There was no reason for her to be sad about this. Unless....

"You.....you're NOT going to do it.....are you?" She repeated.

All of the twelve beings in Celestia’s gaze were looking back at her hoping she was about to say she was going to come up with a plan to counter Nightmare Moon that didn't involve booting out the six foreigners. They waited a whole minute and a half before anything came out of her mouth again. The tone she used right off the bat revealed to them her answer.

"You all must understand. I have no-"

"Skaldi's mane....you are!" Cryo interrupted horror clear in his voice. "You're throwing us out of the country!"

"Cryo, I-"

"WHAT?!" Pinkie Pie was the one who interrupted this time as she latched on to Cryo. "You can't make Cryo leave! You just can't!"

"Princess, please tell me this isn't what you are planning to do!" Twilight cried.

No change in emotion came to the princess' face.

"It is the only way, my student. I wish there was another."

Twilight's heart began to crack. The unfairness of this was too immense. All that work with Pyro and the others, the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it, it couldn't have just lead up to this. To be all for nothing.

"So that's it?!" Agua stood up and began to yell. "You get one threat and decide to boot us out?!"

"It wasn't just that one threat." Celestia replied. "The citizens of Canterlot are starting to riot, Agua. Cryo saving Ponyville from the blizzard wasn't enough to buy all of them over. A lot of them are threatening to get violent."

Usually in cases like this, the harmony bearers wouldn't speak up against Celestia in matters like this. But this time, all of them, even Fluttershy, found a reason to do so.

"Oh that makes it SO much better!" Rainbow shouted with clear sarcasm. "A few snobs start to complain about them and you actually take their side?"

"Rainbow Dash, this is not about taking sides."

"You sure could have fooled us." Cryo snapped while he tried to make Pinkie let go of him.

"I assure you I am not taking sides in this. If anything I am on your side and forever will be. But what is happening up there in Canterlot, it's a spark. One tiny spark is all an uncontrollable wildfire needs to be born."

"That still doesn't cut it for us!" Agua shouted again. "You're still pussying out!"

Without any warning at all, the door opened up before any of them could say anything else. Through the door walked Terra and Applejack, the latter carrying her younger sister on her back while Terra had a couple of saddlebags with the aforementioned desserts inside.

Immediately upon seeing her princess in front of her, Applejack bowed down and Applebloom followed suit with her head. When they stood back up, their excitement for dinner died down as they looked around and noticed the general tone of the room.

"Wait..........what's going on? Did somepony die or something?" Terra asked.

"The princess has decided in her so called wisdom to throw the six of us out of Equestria." Agua said with clear anger.

His emotions were matched by the mare of earth not even a second later. She directed right at the princess with cold eyes.

"You're deporting us?!" She shouted with fury. "For Gaia's sake why?!"

"Because she pussied out and decided to give in to Nightmare Moon's threat to destroy everything if we don't leave." Agua growled.

"Agua, that's enough!" Twilight shouted at the blue stallion because of his rude words.

"No! I'm not holding anything back here! She's being a coward!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this but Agua is right!" Terra agreed with the blue stallion. "This is just sheer stupidity!"

"Princess, please! You can't do this!" Rainbow shouted standing firmly next to her young partner. "You can't make them leave!"

Her timing couldn't have been worse. Right as Rainbow starting saying that last line, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked back into the house and heard her. The two of them didn't even care Princess Celestia was there.

"Gem's leaving? But.....why?" Scootaloo asked the alicorn.

"Agua may be a jerk but I don't want him to go." Sweetie Belle sadly admitted.

"Ah don't want Terra to go away! This ain't fair!" Applebloom hopped off her sister's back and ran off.

Applejack turned around and gave chase after her sister. Terra remained behind still glaring coldly at Celestia. The princess was basically surrounded by various pairs of sad, angry, and confused eyes. She wanted so badly for things to be different right now but circumstances were just too messed up for that. This was the way it had to be and there was no other way around this.

"I'm sorry but this is the way it has to be. The six of you must leave."

Terra only growled more as the ground around her began to crack open.

"And what if I say no?" she growled as the handle of an earthen hammer began to rise up beside her.

Twilight wanted nothing more than to get in between the princess of the sun and the former princess of the Geo Tribe and tell the latter to step off. This case had her unsure of what to do. On one side, the earth mover looked pretty damned serious about taking that hammer and going right for Celestia with it, nothing held back. On the other side, Princess Celestia was doing something Twilight thought she would never see her do. She was giving up and forcing her friends to leave the country. She didn't know which side to take.

Nopony was sure of which side to take in this potential disaster. Nopony that is except for one certain unicorn stallion who calmly walked in between Terra and Celestia looking right at the former.

"Then you'll have to answer to me."

Every single set of eyes transitioned to Pyro with utter shock as he faced Terra as if ready to defend Celestia. Terra herself just stood there nearly petrified as the rock that made her hammer shattered into a pile of pebbles at her hooves.

"Wha.....Pyro. How could you? Why?"

The stallion made zero changes in his face signaling Terra and the others that he was dead serious about his position. Something to which none of them could believe.

"If this is what the princess believes will better protect her country, then we will abide by her request."

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BURNING MIND?!?!" Agua got right up in his face and yelled at full volume. "YOU OF ALL PEOPLE THINK WE SHOULD JUST PACK UP OUR SHIT AND GO?!?!?!"

"We have been given our orders and we will follow them, Agua. If you wish to challenge me on this, then by all means..." Pyro's eyesight redirected right into Agua's own gaze as he finished his sentence. "....bring it on."

Now it was looking like a battle between fire and water was about to erupt. Rarity was now afraid for two things. The Alamantians being forced to leave, and those two stallions doing some serious damage to her home with their powers. They stared into each other's eyes seemingly ready to fight for what seemed like forever, nopony having the nerve to actually get in between them.

Ultimately, Agua ended up being the one to back off. He could take Pyro but that look in his eyes meant one thing and one thing only. There was no changing his mind about this. Something that the blue stallion just could not believe. Once he backed off, Pyro turned his head back to the princess.

"When do we leave?"

Celestia let her head hang as she gave her answer.

"Tomorrow morning. Early."

"That soon?" Twilight looked like she was near tears. "But......but that's barely enough time to say goodbye...."

The princess turned to walk out the door and left on one line.

"I'm sorry."

With that, she was out the door and it closed behind her because of her magic. The dinner was cancelled right there on the spot and everypony left Carousel Boutique aside from Rarity, Agua, and Sweetie Belle. Once everypony was back at home, the six supernatural guests began to pack up what little belongings they had for their journey away.

On a scale of tame to hysterical over this, the six harmony bearers were all experiencing different levels of it all. The highest one on that scale was the town's librarian. At Golden Oaks Library, Pyro was down in the basement putting his assorted things into a small saddlebag by using a shrinking spell. While he calmly did that, Twilight was right behind him pacing frantically and letting a pile of words spill from her mouth.

"This can't happen. Celestia knows that this isn't acceptable in the least bit. Not one tiny bit. I mean this is just pure insanity. I've never heard of anything like this. She's giving up. Throwing in the towel. Admitting defeat. That just isn't like her at all. We need to find out what it is that's really going on and....Pyro will you please stop packing?!"

"No, Twilight. Just stop it." He answered. "This is what's going to happen. Me and my siblings are leaving. That's all there is to it."

For the second time today, Twilight looked upon a pony swearing she was looking at a clone who was doing a poor job of impersonating him. It was almost like a flashback of the wedding in Canterlot. But the difference was the stallion in front of her was no clone. It was the same Pyro.

"Pyro.....why are you going along with this so easily? Don't you care? Everything we worked so hard for, all those fights, being trapped in a blizzard, and putting me through all those times where I thought you were gonna die....doesn't any of that mean anything to you?"

"Of course it does, Twilight. I'd be an idiot if it didn't."

"THEN WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?!"

The stallion cringed. A lot of times he was void of emotion and for good reason. Even here Twilight was under the assumption he was deadpan. She knew there was a reason for his emotional distance but she thought there were times where he could show it. But alas, Pyro ceased using his horn and turned to look at her, his top eyelids and his mouth straight flat, no little sign of emotion in sight.

"Twilight, I don't want to go. I really don't. But Princess Celestia is scared and she has a right to be. The rest of us need to leave because that is what we were ordered to do. If this is what Celestia believes is best for her country, then I shall meet her request with nothing but honor."

Twilight's eyes began to brim with tears.

"But what about....what about me? Does your honor involve leaving a friend in sadness? Pyro, back in Canterlot I had to watch you almost die. I know at that time we hadn't known each other very long but the thought of never seeing you again....it really hurt me. Deeply. And now you and the princess are making me feel that all over again. Only this time it's worse because....you're CHOOSING to leave!"

Right there, the dams that held back the water in Twilight's eyes broke and she started sobbing right there in front of her partner. Finally, Pyro's eyes softened up and his mouth made a frown when he saw her do it. Slowly, he extended a hoof to try and rub her back but before he could, she teleported away and his hoof only hit air before it went back to the ground. Silently, he blinked his eye and let small tear roll down his face. Halfway down, it grew hot and evaporated off him in a cloud of steam barely even visible to the eye. He mouthed the words, "I'm sorry" and turned back to pack his things.

Upstairs, Twilight appeared in her bedroom and threw herself on top of her bed sinking her head into the pillow as her body convulsed with every sob that escaped. Meanwhile on the first floor, Spike and Cadence heard the entire conversation from the basement doorway. All it did was make them frown as well. It was even worse once the crying began to bleed through the cracks of Twilight's bedroom door. For Spike, one of the hardest things he'd ever needed to endure was having to listen to her weep. Cadence sighed hearing it herself.

"I know how hard this is for her." She said as she looked back down the staircase. "Twilight has done a great job making friends ever since Celestia sent her here. But this is the first time she's ever had to truly say good-bye to one."

"This isn't fair in the least bit." Spike replied before looking up to the pink alicorn. "Cadence, you're a princess too. Isn't there ANYTHING you can say to Celestia to convince her to let them all stay?"

Cadence sighed and walked over to the couch to sit down on.

"I really wish there was, Spike. But the fact is, I'm not a princess that rules over Equestria. I don't have any real power when it comes to law and other related business here. I just watch over my aunts' shoulders and learn."

That only made Spike frown even more.

"So in other words....there's absolutely nothing we can do other than just stand by and watch as our new friends leave Equestria."

Cadence sadly nodded and expelled another sigh.

"I'm afraid that is the case."

Spike's head hung down as he sat next to Cadence now filled with solely sadness.

"I just hope the others are taking it at least a little better than Twilight is." Spike added.

That in a way was true. In some cases the waterworks still came but for most of them, they were fine. But the overall tone of the events transpiring, could easily be identified as upset, depressing, and overall, sad. And why wouldn't it be? They may not have been together for very long but they were together long enough to develop close bonds with their partners. Close bonds. Deep bonds. Personal bonds.

Tomorrow was going to be one of the most difficult days of their lives.