//------------------------------//
// I Ask of Thee 
// Story: What Have You Done? 
// by cloudedguardian 
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	From what Velvet understood, The Elements of Harmony were laying in a magically enhanced safe in the North Tower. The fastest way to get there from the reception was straight across the palace courtyards. She estimated that the distance between them and their destination was roughly one hundred and twenty-two yards. It was not a great distance, on a normal day. Today, however, was far from normal. For, if her calculations were correct, and as a professor she had little reason to doubt that they were, there were approximately one thousand two hundred and thirty changelings in that distance, give or take a dozen. 
It had been a long time since Velvet had last been in a battle of magic and might, but thankfully her skills in battle hadn’t faded as much as her memory of it had. The changelings were doing their best to surround them, and Velvet was impressed at how they did their best to not only attack from one’s blind spots, but to also do so with a form that would normally cause hesitation if spotted. It was a beautiful strategy, she had to admit, as hesitation was always costly in war; A term she did not use lightly. It was war, however, and treating it as anything less would be nearly as costly as the hesitation that she could see locking up the limbs of their Princess as she tried to clear the way for the Bearers. 
Three changelings, each taking on the form of an eager, sorrowful Twilight, had caused Celestia to freeze up, as each had claimed to be her beloved student. The price had been paid almost immediately, as five more changelings had tackled the alicorn from behind, forcing her away from the group as she struggled to free herself. 
Velvet’s concentration refocused itself on the battle as four of the swifter, smaller drones dived at her from above. She would only divide her attention between her allies when the fight was simple enough for trained instinct to be all she needed to be effective. Now, a little more strategy and magic would be required, and she couldn’t help but smirk as she logged what forms the changelings had chosen. If they honestly thought taking on Twilight’s so-called friends’ forms would cause her to hesitate, they were sorely mistaken.

Empathic spells were a very high-class refined magic that dealt directly with emotion. Whether it was manipulating them, awakening them, creating them from scratch, or drawing from them to boost inner magic, it all harkened back to the same base refinement of inner magic and emotion. It was unique in many ways, but primarily in that it wasn’t restricted to unicorns. Although rare, even earth ponies and pegasi could learn to use certain kinds of empathic spells. 
In Equestria, there were three unparalleled masters of this strange and powerful branch of magic. Twelve years ago, the first had been her old professor, Ardent Arcane, who was no doubt enjoying his current retirement in Saddle Arabia. The second master had been a pegasus mare who had tested the very limits of it in her attempts to bridge the gaps in ponies’ hearts that hatred could leave behind. The third had been the pegasus mare’s elder apprentice and tutor, Twilight Velvet herself.

For a second, Velvet let herself enjoy the irony as she wove the spell she needed together. Those twelve years felt like they had gone by in a blink. The pegasus she had once tutored had soared past those limits, breaking them altogether, and found ascension there in the art of weaving love. Although Velvet had never come close to the mastery that Cadence now possessed, she had found the level of perfection she desired in her own magic. Velvet couldn’t create, or awaken, and manipulating simply wasn’t to her taste, but she could wield, and when she discovered that the emotions she had found easiest to control were the ones that shouldn’t exist at all, she knew that wielding was all she could ever want, or hope to need.
That was where the irony lay as well, given the thought. Wielding Hatred against beings that had crashed the wedding for Love, all while chasing after Friendship’s allies for her sake. 
An ear-splittingly shrill shriek came from the changelings around Velvet as her spell lashed out at them. Anger and hatred came a little too easily to the unicorn mare’s call for her liking when she looked at the forms of her daughter’s friends. She knew she shouldn’t be enjoying the look of fear that flickered across their faces, even if they were false masks worn by truly terrified changelings. 
As the drones crashed around her hooves, unconscious and bleeding, Velvet turned to face the changelings that had attacked Celestia. She barely blinked before blasting her spell at the largest of the changelings pinning the alicorn down, who had taken on a twisted mix of a form between Luna and Nightmare Moon. The lilac magic collided with the figure and knocked it both out of the illusion, as well as out cold. The smaller drones around it felt their illusions flicker and fade away as they grew dizzy and weak on the miasma the spell left behind. Velvet cringed inwardly as she quietly noted to herself that she had probably put a little too much into that last shot. 
Celestia rose to her hooves again, shaken, but otherwise uninjured. Velvet couldn’t help but wonder if the alicorn was shaken from the blows to the head she had taken, or by the backlash of the spell that had been cast. It would do little to harm a pony, hatred wasn’t poison to any equine, and a wielding spell could not create or even awaken- But they would still feel the intent behind it.
The look the two shared for a moment was strange, both appraising and wary. Then it was gone as they broke contact to fight, to continue clearing the way for the sake of the ones they loved and cared about. 
The fighting style of the Bearers was... Unusual, no doubt. Rarity fought with a brutality that Velvet would not expect from such a refined mare, yet somehow the blows, as direct and sharp as they were graceful, suited the seamstress in a style.
Rainbow’s fighting was as rough and careless as the daredevil was, and while perhaps not as effective as a more controlled style would be, the aerial dynamics she pulled off were certainly frightening and fitting in their own right, and Velvet could see a hint of wariness slowly creeping into the drones flying formations as they shifted their strategy again and again as they attempted to keep up with the speedster's attacks. 
Applejack’s focused purely on her powerful kicks and agility, and Velvet couldn’t help but smile a little as she heard chitin crack under the force of the earth pony’s bucks. The changelings were becoming less and less willing to try and sneak up behind the mare.
Pinkie’s however, was the strangest by far. Where she had pulled that cannon from, Velvet had no idea, but it easily blasted a path through the hordes as they advanced forward. That wasn’t the strangest part, however. The strangest bit was that the pink pony continuously left her back wide open to attack, and even though none of her friends’ were guarding it for her, not a scratch landed upon it. Velvet spent the most time out of all of them watching her work her way through the masses, and was soon rewarded by the answer to how she could fight like that so effectively. Whenever a changeling dived to take advantage of that blind spot, it would soon find itself staggering or flying off balance before crashing dizzily into the ground. Although she’d probably never get to ask, Velvet couldn’t help but hypothesize that Pinkie was, perhaps unconsciously, wielding an empathic spell of her own. As the Element of Laughter, perhaps that was fitting as well.

With a final blast of Solar and Empathic magic, the last of the changelings were roughly evicted from the north tower, and the doors were slammed unceremoniously shut and locked tight. Celestia slumped against the double doors with clear exhaustion, her mane dulled from her over-use of magic.
“We.... made it,” Applejack gasped out between pants, “Did you... see Twilight...while you were up there... Rainbow Dash?”
The pegasus was barely winded, and she was zipping hastily throughout the tower, making it difficult for Velvet to keep eyes on her.
“Not a glimpse of her. I was hoping she’d be in here somewhere. I don't know- Does Twilight know any invisibility spells?”
“No, she was never able to hold the control it took to manipulate light to the degree necessary.” Velvet was mildly surprised at herself for answering, but after catching the surprised looks on Celestia and the Bearer’s faces, she smiled slightly as she finished her explanation. “The idea of disappearing scared her too much, and she’d lose focus.”
“Oh.” Rainbow Dash stopped abruptly, before gently lowering herself to the ground to look around at everypony. “Well, if Twilight isn’t here, then where the buck is she?”
“Rainbow Dash, language please,” Rarity snapped without thinking, which earned her a returning glare from the pegasus.
“Do you girls hear that?”
Pinkie’s sudden question stopped the ensuing argument before it could truly begin, and silence fell in the room as they strained to hear what Pinkie was listening to past the thuds and crashes that echoed in from outside. For a moment, the pounding of the changelings against the doors was all that could be heard. 
A moment later, recognition seemed to pass across the girls’ faces as they seemed to catch what was beyond hearing. Velvet closed her eyes, and tried to focus on just the sounds of the room, but had no idea of what they spoke of when Fluttershy piped up.
“There’s whispering coming from the vault! Oh dear, d-do you think some changelings got in there? And th-that they’re just w-waiting for us to open it to pounce and d-d-devour us?!”
Even when panicked beyond reason, the young mare’s voice barely rose louder than a mouse’s squeak.
“Well, we’ll just have to open it and find out. We can take’em!” Rainbow declared proudly.
As Celestia stepped forward to open the doors, Velvet held her eyes closed, listening to the sound of the Princess's hoof-steps against the carpet. She still couldn’t hear the voices that the girls had started to discuss. It was only as the solar magic flared up, unlocking and swinging the safe wide open, that Velvet realized what she had been missing. Celestia's spell had been like strings plucking at the edge of her mind, and it reminded her that physical sound wasn't the only kind one could hear. Magic could be felt as sound too, whether as music, static, or incomprehensible whispers, and it was as she tuned into the magic around them, did she finally hear it. It was voices, just barely there, but each one distinct and clear in words she couldn't quite make out. It was if a great distance was between them, leaving understanding just out of reach.
As Celestia stepped back to open the magical case surrounding the Elements, the magic suppressants on the vault began to shut off one by one, and with each one the voices grew a little bit louder. Then, as the case was thrown completely open, all magic now out of the way, the voices grew to an almost deafening din, as there was nothing left to muffle their cries.

“TRAITOR!” 
“Liar...”

“Selfish Foal”

                                                                  “How could you?”

“How dare you...”  
“Leave” 
“Why?”
 
“How cruel.”
 “IDIOT!” 
“AVARICE!”                                           
 
“Don’t turn away”                                              
  

The Elements themselves were speaking, and they were furious. Each element had darkened past their natural colour, but none so dark as the one that Velvet was staring, stunned and horrified, at. The only one who's voice wasn't calling out in anger, even as the ones surrounding it sparked and hissed and growled. Her daughter’s Element. The Element of Magic. A dark magenta as deep as the night sky, now, it stayed silent. Velvet reached out with her magic, could feel an utter sorrow coming off of it, but not a word was spoken. There was not a drop of anger anywhere in the strings of magic that surrounded and connected it to the other Elements, just sorrow, and almost a grievous longing.
Velvet tore her eyes away too late, not fast enough to shout a warning at Rainbow Dash as she flew forward to touch the lightning-bolt shaped jewel that had been her own. With a wave of anger that made Velvet's feel like a drop of water in an ocean, the Element of Loyalty blasted its bearer across the room with a roar that sounded much like crashing thunder, as well as suspiciously like the word “traitor.”
“What the hay?” Rainbow groaned, as she carefully picked herself up from the ground, her left wing trembling from where it had slammed into the wall.
“Judging us the way we judge ourselves...”
Rainbow’s head snapped around to stare in confusion at Pinkie, who had been the one that had spoken, even as her mane fell straight around her like a curtain.
“I can hear my Element. She sounds like Pinkam- I mean, she sounds like me.”
Velvet knew this was a conversation she was not involved in, that in a way, she was eavesdropping on something far above her, but she still closed her eyes and strained to hear, strained to know and understand... If only for her daughter’s sake. Perhaps the Elements recognized that, for when Loyalty spoke again, it let her hear, even though the words were to the pony that had once been its bearer. 
“When you chose your homeland over your friends, you threw me away, saying you weren’t worthy, because you’d chosen one precious loyalty over another. I fault not my bearer for loving, for being loyal to many. But you cast me aside for that petty little thing. But now, you come to me? After choosing a stranger over your friend?  Fame and praise over loyalty? How dare you. I reject you as my bearer.”
Velvet opened her eyes to see each bearer staggering back, and she knew that each Element had scolded them similarly. What Loyalty had snapped to Rainbow Dash made only little sense to Velvet as she knew not what times it spoke of, but the effect its words had were obvious, as tears of anger had begun to stream their way down the pegasus’s face.
“I reject you as my bearer.”
The elements were still speaking, growing faint to Velvet’s ears, but somehow louder still to the others.
“I reject you as my bearer. I reject you as my bearer. I reject you as my bearer.”
Velvet’s eyes locked back on the Element of Magic, the voices drifting out of her hearing range and into silence, even as the girls covered their ears in a futile attempt to quiet them. Her daughter’s Element was growing darker still, and it was now a black whose only colour was a purple shimmer that seemed to glow in the fading evening light. Velvet wasn’t sure if it was a whimper from behind her, or only in her head, or if it truly did come from the Element which she could not look away from.
“Please don’t throw me away.”
The final light in it faded. That last faint trace of colour in it remained, but it seemed dead. A horrible feeling sank in Velvet’s stomach, as she gently reached out a hoof, and placed it against the jewel. She could hear Celestia crying a warning for her not to, but it was ignored as Velvet felt the ice under the black glass. The element was cold, as if it had sank to the bottom of the darkest ocean. The Element that was linked to her daughter’s precious, fragile heart.
Velvet’s eyes filled up with tears, understanding filling her past what she could explain, even as a single question echoed out in her mind, before finally being asked in a choked out single sentence.

“What have you done?”