Twilight was ready, as she and the others knew what they need to do in order to save Equestria. Sacrificing the elements would certainly help, but in the long term how would any of them expect to continue to protect everypony should danger arrive yet again.
As Twilight levitated the elements around her the vines came and wrapped themselves around her and attempted to the elements. However she was able to use her magic to bring each gem to its original place where the Celestia and Luna had found before them. With that the vines let her go as the tree began to glow a magnificent light which caused the vines to disintegrate all the way to ponyville. With the tree restored of its magic the remaining vines near it vanished, reveling both Princess Celestia and Luna. Overwhelmed by emotion Twilight ran to the two princesses and gave a warm embrace.
“We know how difficult it must have been to give up the elements,” Celestia said still hugging her former student,” it took great courage to relinquish them.”
But Twilight then noticed the tree had begun to glow yet again. The five outer element shot a stream of light toward the center, connect with the element of magic, sending down a light, through symbols that resembled the princesses cutie marks to the root of the tree. A sapling rapidly grew out from there that quickly became a plant about the size of Twilight. She gave it a small tap causing it to blossom out what seemed to be a small case.
“What’s inside it? How am I supposed to open it?” Twilight asked.
“Six locks, six keys.” Luna had observed.
The two look toward Celestia, but her only response was, “I do not know where they are, but I do know it will not be a mystery you will be solving alone.”
However the tree did not seem to be finished as it started to glow again much brighter than the two previous times. This event caught everypony off guard as the ground began to shake beneath their feet. The gemstone set in place all radiated with energy and then shot out beams meeting at the singular point right in front of the case. The eight ponies and dragon witnessed before them a portal forming before their very eyes. After it finally stopped, Pinkie Pie was the first to comment of what had just transpired.
“Wow that was great, let’s do it again!”
Dumfounded, Twilight asked “Princess do you have any clue what this is?”
“No unfortunately I do know what this is, thought it seems very similar to the portal you traveled through to retrieve your crown.”
“Then it’s quite possible the answers we seek about the case must lie on the other side.”
“If that is true, do you plan to enter it alone, like last time?”
With that Twilight looked back to her friends and replied, “No, my friends deserve to see what new world lies within, not just me.”
The others gave quite joyful cheers, “All right this is going to be so awesome, “Rainbow Dash yelled.
“Yeah! And when we’re all finished I could throw a traveled to another world party!” Pinkie Pie happily screamed.
“Alright then girls are you ready then?” Twilight asked.
“Ah think we’ll be as ready as we can get,” Applejack replied.
Thus they all jumped into the portal, not knowing where it will take them, but ready to take on anything they may run into.
***
“Yes! Schools finally over,” Bryson yelled out as the last bell rang. After a long year he was ready for school to be finally over for the summer as he dashed out the hall and into the school parking lot. Being 17 and licensed was probably the best thing for him as he could enjoy the freedoms of driving. Out there he could see his friend Kendall. “Hey Kendall, are you ready for dinner later tonight.” He asked.
“Of course I am, who else is coming?” Kendall responded.
“Well both Andrew and Timmy are coming for sure, and I think Will and Zach will be there as well.”
“Great then I’ll see ya later than,” and Kendall left toward his car to go home and get ready. Bryson was about to do the same when he saw both Will and Zach hanging out by the school entrances. He decided to make sure that they were coming so he approached them.
“Hey guys,” as he greeted the two, “are you going to go with the rest of us to get dinner later?”
“Of course we are” Will stated, “After all I did come up with it.”
“Unfortunately, I’m going to be a little late, so you can start without me,” Zach replied.
“Ok then, I’ll see you guys then,” Bryson said, and headed back to his car so he can get ready for it.
About an hour before the guys planned to all meet, both Andrew and Timmy were relaxing in their room, excited that school was finally over. At first glance one would assume they were twins, given their very similar looks, However Andrew was the older of the two by about a year.
Man, it’s hard to believe I’ve graduated from high school, Andrew thought, Seems it’s only been yesterday I was just a young man trying to find my place in school. His train of thought was broken when his brother asked.
“Hey Andrew are you happy that you’ll be headed to college pretty soon?”
“Of course I am, though I think you are glad I’ll finally be gone so you can get this room all to yourself,” He responded.
“Yeah and I’ll definitely be ready for football season and my senior year, too bad you won’t be there often,”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to catch all the important games coming up later, say you want to head out now, probably best not to be late.”
“Yea let’s get going.”
By the time the brothers made it to the store it seemed the others, sans Zach, were there waiting for them. While this location wouldn’t be considered a normal place for a group of teenage boys to hang out and eat together, they certainly enjoy the quiet locale, especially considering how good the burgers that the deli made fresh were. By the time their orders came Zach had finally made it there.
“Hey guys, did you make sure to get one for me?” He asked, sitting down at the table the group set up.
“Yeah, of course,” Will said, handing him the sandwich, “I’m pretty sure we’ve gotten use to you arriving later than everyone else.”
Now the group began to converse with each other about the school year they had just finished along with the goals for next year. Being in their final years both Kendall and Timmy wanted to leave a legacy that people would never forget.
“Man now that James has graduated it up to me to put out team on my back and get into the playoffs,” Timmy said. Considering how poor the varsity team preformed last season was a painful feeling as they finished had finished with an awful 2-7 record. The same was said of the basketball team as they just failed to make the playoffs going even with 12 wins and losses.
“Hey man, don’t worry, with us taking over the captain spots we’ll get our teams back into shape.” Kendall said. Despite being only a junior he was able to get the starting forward position. Though he played fairly well for being younger, he knew that the experience would allow him to get the team into the State championship. The two young men were most likely to take over as team captains, given that they were able to work their way up onto the varsity roster the past season.
The six had finished up their meal and notice that most of the employees either had left or were in the back taking care of some last details. While the store wasn’t huge or anything, it still was big enough that any remaining members would not have noticed the boys were still.
“Well, I suppose we should head home now then.” Andrew said, grabbing his jacket from the chair. However, right after saying that the ground shook violently beneath them.
“Whoa guys, this must be an earthquake,” Will yelled out. Just then a light began to form in midair, right in front of the group, growing bigger until it was about their size. Once it reached full size the shaking subsided and there was just silence for a minute. Bryson was the first to break the silence.
“What is this?” He asked.
“I don’t know, but it seems to be a portal of some kind,” replied Zach.
“Here, I’ll check it out,” Andrew stated, “just stay back guys.” While the other back away from this mysterious portal, Andrew slowly walked right up to it. As he got right in front of it, his eyes peered within the vortex when all of a sudden oddly colored objects came shooting right towards him. Before he could react six strange looking creature quickly shot out of the hole hitting and knocking Andrew back several yards.
“Oh my, what are these things?” Timmy asked, as he could see the creatures begin to get up.
“Andrew! Watch out!” Screamed Kendall, warning his friend of the impending danger. Hearing that, Andrew quickly jumped to his feet and ran back to the safety of the group. They were caught off guard when they heard the purple one talk.
“Ugh, girls are you alright?” Twilight asked her friends while still trying to regain her bearings. She looked up and saw six people, who looked similar to the ones she encountered before. What? There’s no way we could have ended back there. Hmm, I still have my pony body, and same goes for the other girls. Maybe this isn’t the same. She couldn’t help but ask. “Who are you?”
“Well I think we could say the same thing to you,” Zach replied, “What exactly are you things?”
“That is not how you treat a lady when you first meet her,” Rarity rebuffed.
“Ok let’s not get to confrontational guys,” Andrew said, trying to defuse the situation. “We don’t know what they are capable of.” Tense moments passed before another word was uttered.
“Alright, just what kind of things are you?” Timmy finally said, trying to get thing moving in the right direction.
“Well, it’s kind of difficult to explain,” Twilight responded. “I suppose the best way would be to start from the beginning.” She told the group where they had come from, and the most recent encounter with an unknown evil. They were informed of the tree of harmony and the mysterious portal that opened when they relinquished the elements of harmony. “… and the next thing we knew, we ended up here.” Time past before Bryson broke the silence.
“Surely you can’t be serious.”