Hey, Shadowflame here. So yeah, in my last entry, my group had finally made it to the Crystal Empire. Heh, never thought we’d reach this point in the game. Seems like the start of the game had been centuries ago, never mind collecting eight elements after that.
Oh, yeah, I knew there was something I was forgetting in my last entry. Sorry about that, whoever happens to be reading this, but I accidentally left out a detail from our adventure beneath the ice.
You see, after my little pep talk with Violet, where I convinced him that I needed him to raise everyone’s spirits, I had opened up my Player’s Menu to prepare for the trek through the rest of the blizzard. But when I did, an achievement notice had popped up:
Achievement Get: Spirit (Activate the Element of Spirit)
Down there under the ice, I had apparently activated Violet’s element. I wasn’t aware of it before, and I don’t think Violet was either, but what I’d said must’ve changed his resolve so that his Personality File deemed him worthy to use the Element of Spirit.
I kept silent about it though, because this was the task Jupiter had assigned me and Sky, back before we left Canterlot for the Crystal Empire. We were supposed to find a way to activate the others’ elements, just like Sky’s Element of Willpower had. And from the looks of things, it looks like I just found a way.
Of course, now you’re probably wondering how I could leave out something as important as that. Well, even if I’m an alicorn or not, I still make mistakes. But hey, I’m making up for it now! Besides, I was distracted by how amazing the Crystal Empire looked.
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The Crystal Empire was just as amazing as everyone had said it was. The roads looked like they were made of one, completely solid gemstone, and there were just as equally shiny, crystal ponies trotting up and down the streets, just like regular NPC’s do. The houses, the ones that weren’t made of wood, were made of crystals that glittered in the early twilight. At the center of the city stood the Crystal Palace, which shone turquoise blue in the radiant light.
All of these beautiful buildings, yet not one of them was an inn.
Everyone in our group had assembled underneath the base of the Crystal Palace, right in the center of the city. We had previously sent everyone in smaller teams to look around the city for any signs of an inn. But after regrouping, all of us had failed to find one.
“Well, this sucks.” Sky flatly stated, “It doesn’t look like there’s an inn in this whole city.”
“And given a city as big as Canterlot, that’s saying something.” Soul added, before chuckling, “Oh, well. At least I found a few taverns with some smoking hot NPC’s. I’ll have to stop by them later.”
While the members of Team Calvary merely rolled their eyes at Soul, and Cinn looked like he was about to vomit, Sharky spoke, “Well, being one of the developers of the game, I know there were at least two inns in the Crystal Empire.” He scratched his chin with a hoof, “Although, if neither of them are here anymore, then I assume this is Discord’s doing.”
Cinn nodded slowly, “It makes sense. If you don’t have an actual home, then the only way to completely regen your health and magic overnight is by staying at an inn. I’d say Discord took out the inns here because we need to enter a dungeon to fight King Sombra, and if we needed to heal up, then the closest place to stay would be back on the other side of the blizzard.”
Catching on, Eclipse added, “We do have some healing spells, so health shouldn’t be a problem, but magic is our main concern. Without an inn, we could probably only regenerate half our magic in a day, if we don’t use it.”
I visibly cringed, “And without our full magic power, we might not be able to make it all the way through the fight with King Sombra. A few of us would most likely die, if not come close to it.” I sighed, “It seems like Discord’s actually set up a death trap for all of us.”
“A death trap?” Neon frowned, “This is probably the neatest looking death trap I’ve seen.” She giggled as she looked at a distorted reflection of herself on a crystal wall.
Lexus gently tapped her on the side, “Neon, focus please.”
She giggled again, sheepishly, “Whoops, right, sorry.”
Swift spoke up, “Well, if there isn’t an inn here, then why don’t we buy a house for all of us? It won’t be a permanent home, but just someplace where we can heal up if we need to.” He shrugged, “I think we have enough bits to buy a good house, as well as supplies for the dungeon. Plus, we could always sell the house after we’re done here and we’ve defeated Sombra.”
“Hm, sounds good.” I replied, while everyone else voiced their individual agreement.
Sharky pulled up his player menu, “Well, if we’re going to buy a house, we better look at the options we hav-“ He abruptly stopped when he came to a certain page on his screen. He simply stared at it for a few seconds, before his jaw dropped open.
Dylan raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”
Sharky quickly reigned in his composure, “Well, it seems like there’s only one place available to buy, and I don’t think you’re going to like the price.”
“Only one?” Sky asked, “What is it?”
“The Crystal Palace, and it’s selling for five-million bits.”
Everyone fell silent, so much that you could hear a bit drop to the ground.
“Eh… How much do we have?” Violet asked.
Everyone quickly opened up their player menus and we added our bits together. The total came up to 3,856,521 bits. We were over a million bits short.
Cinn was the first to groan, “Is that really the only place we can buy?!”
Sharky showed him his player menu, and upon seeing the single place up on the realty screen, Cinn was quickly silenced.
I groaned as well, “One million bits? That’s just as much as we got from selling the old base back in Canterlot.” I looked to the rest of the group, “Well, unless we want to be sleeping out on the streets our entire time here, anyone got any ideas of how to make some more quick bits?”
“I wouldn’t advise grinding mobs.” Sharky replied, “The only monsters around here are inside the dungeon or back in the blizzard, both of which are hard places to train with little reward.”
“What about side quests, then?” Siren asked, “Since nobody’s been here, then all of the good side quests should be waiting for us to take them.”
“Good idea, Siren.” Sky smiled, making a tint of red go into Siren’s cheeks, “Side quests would get us more bits than level grinding, plus they could get us some items we need for the dungeon too.” He glanced towards Sharky, “You think we’ll be able to make a million bits by doing side quests?”
Sharky paused, “Well, it is doable. If the side quests are done quickly, then we should be able to get enough money; although, it’d probably take a whole day at least.”
“Then it’s settled.” I pumped a hoof to the air, “We’re going side quest grinding, everypony!”
“We should split into groups,” Violet commented, “Just so we get this done quicker.”
I nodded, “Yeah, everyone grab a buddy to go on quests with. There’s fourteen of us, so we should go in pairs. It’d be better that everyone not go alone, just in case something unexpected happens, but with seven groups, we’ll get more bits in less time.”
Sharky held up a hoof, “How about we wait first. Everyone can get in pairs tonight, but I think we should all get a quick rest, even if it’s out on the streets. We all just made a long trip through the middle of an eternal blizzard, and most of us are down on health. We should rest for the night, just so we can get most of our health back, and even a tiny bit of magic for the unicorns.”
“So… what? Camp out here?” Soul asked.
Sharky shrugged, “Well, here at the center of the city. I don’t think any NPC guards would like us sleeping right underneath the palace. We can’t sleep in any buildings, because I doubt we want any NPC’s buck-kicking us out of their buildings for falling asleep there.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Wait, does that actually happen?”
Cinn nodded, “Yeah, it’s happened to me twice. Whenever I was low on bits and couldn’t afford an inn room, I’d usually fall asleep in some tavern instead.” He quickly added, “Of course, that hasn’t happened to me for about two months now.”
Sharky continued, “Anyways, I think the best bet would be the grassy areas at the edge of the city.”
I shrugged, “Whatever. For now, let’s get into pairs for side questing tomorrow and then let’s set up some sort of camp.” I grabbed my choice of partner, “I call Sky!”
Sky gave me a bemused look. I guess he had been planning on pairing up with Siren. However, I had a good reason for taking him away from a chance to be alone with his team-mate crush.
As everyone else began pairing up, I quickly whispered to Sky, “Sorry, but I need you for tomorrow.”
He paused, before asking, “Is it about what Jupiter asked us to do? Activate the Elements?”
I nodded. So far, I had gotten Violet’s Element of Spirit to activate by talking him out of his doubt. I figured the same could work for the others. “I’ll explain how we’ll do it tomorrow morning.”
I walked away from him, seeing who had paired with whom. But when I did, I was met by a bit of a surprise for some of the pair choices.
Violet and Soul had paired up with each other for tomorrow. Those two had been best friends since they started in Manehatten, so it made sense. Dylan had gone with Eclipse, though I wasn’t sure why.
I was expecting to see Neon and Lexus paired up, but to my surprise, Neon had paired up with Siren.
“Aw, babe! I thought we were going to pair up for this.” Lexus whined to his girlfriend.
Neon simply giggled in response, “Oh, come on, Lexus. We do almost everything together. Don’t you know every girl needs a bit of day off with the rest of her friends?”
Siren laughed as well, “Don’t worry, Lexus. I’ll make sure no stallions start staring at her flank besides you.”
Lexus rolled his eyes, “Whatever.” He turned his head, “Hey, Cross? You want to pair up?”
Cross, having been silent the entire time we’d come into the empire, simply nodded. Honestly, that guy never said a word now… which was exactly what I was hoping to change. If I was going to activate his Element of Laughter, I was going to have to break through that hard skull of his and help him get over Cloud’s death, no disrespect to the dragon’s memory intended.
Swift and Comet had paired up, which was probably a good choice. With two pegasi in a group, they could handle side quests that happened to be skyward. That was good thinking on their part… actually, now that I think about it, the two of them seemed to be paired up ever since we left Westfalia before the blizzard… oh well, it must’ve been a coincidence.
The last pair was Sharky and Cinn… though, judging by what Cinn had said back under the ice, about Jupiter having sent him to find Sharky, I guessed he just wanted to keep his eye on the former admin.
I quickly took note of each of the groups, before nodding once I had it memorized. I called out to everyone, “Alright, let’s get a camp set up. We’ll be waking up bright and early in order to do as many side quests as possible in a day.” I said the last part with a hint of disdain. I hated waking up early.
___________________________
Yup, I still hate waking up early. Actually, the world shouldn’t be allowed to exist before 6 AM.
After everyone grudgingly got up off the grassy field we were sleeping on, as well as eating a quick breakfast, we geared up for action.
Once everyone was ready, everybody got in their groups of two. I was finalizing our plans for the day,
“Okay, here’s how we’ll do things today. Everybody search for any side quests, do any that you think will pay well, and after you complete each one, send a message to me saying how many bits you’ve earned on that quest. I’ll count our total bits up, and once we reach enough bits to buy the palace, I’ll message everyone that we can stop the side quest grind. Got it?”
Everyone voiced their agreement.
“Alright, ponies! Roll out!”
_________________________
Sky and I walked into the city on our own, everyone else having dispersed in their own groups.
Sky glanced towards me, “So how are we going to activate the others’ elements?”
“We’re going to talk to them.” I answered.
The darker cyan unicorn raised an eyebrow, “And how is talking to them going to help them be more like their element?”
I shrugged, frowning, “Well, back down under the ice, I had a talk with Violet. He said he was having troubles believing that we’d actually get through this game alive. After a little pep talk, I was able to convince him that we needed him to raise everyone’s spirits, and I think that change in mind he had is what activated his element.”
“So basically we go around to the other elements, find why they aren’t acting like their element, and reverse it with a little pep talk?”
I shrugged, “More or less, as far as I know.”
“Hm, figures. I was never good at pep talks.” Sky grumbled under his breath, “Although, I think everyone else is going to get suspicious of what we’re doing if they notice we haven’t earned a single bit from side quests.”
I chuckled sheepishly, “Well, uh, about that… I sort of bought some gold bars to save my bits in my inventory. I didn’t count those when we were totaling up the group’s money, so I have about 250,000 bits in gold bars I could sell.”
Sky blinked in surprise, “Hm, cool.”
I nodded, “Well, let’s get started, then.” We broke into a gallop down the street, “Let’s go find Soul. Might as well go in order of how we got the elements.”
_______________________
It took us a little while of searching, and asking the other groups we passed for directions, to find Soul and Violet. But we soon found them just at the outskirts of the city, though it looked like they were in the middle of a side quest.
“Violet, cut them off!” Soul shouted, wildly swinging his dual blades in the air, as he chased three, little animals.
Violet galloped right in front of the animals’ path, hooves outstretched in anticipation to grab them, “Gotcha’ now, you fuzzy, litt- *Oof*!”
Violet winced as one of the animals had leapt up on top of his head, bounced off down to his back, and landed on the ground behind the tan unicorn, all the while its companions ran past either side of him.
The three, tiny, crystal ewes regrouped far behind Violet and bounced away without a care in the world.
Violet grumbled to himself as he glanced back at the little sheep, “Gah! How do they keep doing that?!”
That’s when Sky and I arrived, laughing our heads off at the display the ewes had made.
I snickered as we approached them, “Having some trouble, guys?”
“You could say that.” Violet replied, bemused, “It’s bad enough that you can’t catch those little beasts directly with magic.”
Sky managed to get his chuckling under control, “Here, why don’t I help? Shadow needs to talk to Soul about something anyways.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sky give me a slight nod, as if to say, ‘I’ll leave him to you’. Hm, very subtle. Nice job, Sky.
Confused, Soul hesitantly agreed, “Okay…?” Shrugging, he put away his swords as Sky took his place in the side quest.
I motioned for Soul to come with me over to the side, so we were out of earshot of anyone else.
Once there, Soul looked at me confusedly, “You have something to talk to me about?”
For a moment, blanked out. I hadn’t exactly thought of how I was going to bring about the subject. What else was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, Soul. Your element never activated, so I don’t think you’re as loyal to us as you let on. Are you a spy?!’
I mentally winced as I tried to carefully piece out the question, “Um, Soul? Is there anything… er, troubling you right now? Something… I don’t know, related to loyalty perhaps?”
Soul’s features went visibly rigid, as if something had put him on edge. But just like the poker player he was, his face stayed emotionless in a mask, “What do you mean?”
I frowned. Sure, he didn’t sound like he knew anything, but his body language said otherwise. I didn’t know what it was he went rigid about, but I was going to have to play along if I was going to get anything out of him.
I cleared my throat, “You know what I mean, Soul Cards. You might as well spill it before I bring it up for everyone to hear. After all, it’s only a matter of time before everyone else notices.” Wow, I’m actually quite good at making fake accusations… not too sure if that’s good or not.
But to my satisfaction, it worked to a degree. Soul’s poker face slipped for just a second, and he knew it. Whatever this cat was, it was now out of the bag from his perspective.
Soul sighed, “Alright, alright, fine. It’s true. I’ve been selling some of Violet’s stuff he makes in the forge for extra money to gamble.”
“WAIT, WHAT?!” I shouted. If that was the case, no wonder his Element of Loyalty wasn’t activated.
Soul blinked in confusion, “… Oh, wait, you weren’t talking about that?”
“No, I was totally ‘BS’-ing my accusation.” Before Soul could protest, I added, “But I knew something was up! Why didn’t you tell anyone? How long has this gone on?”
Soul seemed a bit conflicted, partially because I had weaseled the truth out of him. But sighing, he replied, “It started last month, when the poker NPC’s actually began beating me in the taverns. I was losing money to them, but I needed more if my reputation was going to keep up with my player poker buddies.”
But to my surprise, Soul’s expression drooped, into one of sorrow, “I didn’t think of it much back then, since I was just doing it to keep doing what I love. But when you and Violet went under the ice back in the blizzard, I was worried about my best friend.”
He sighed, “I’d been stealing behind Violet’s back, and while we waited for you guys, I was worried that he’d died. I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if the last thing I did to him was steal from him. You can’t imagine how relieved I was when you guys returned.
“That whole ordeal, it made me stop and think for a bit. I’ve been thinking and I’ve realized that I’d been betraying my friends, and I’m the Element of Loyalty for pete’s sake! How could I live with myself now when I know-“ He sighed again, cutting himself short, “Forget it. This is my problem to fix, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t tell anyone about this.”
Well, he made a convincing point. He was no doubt chewing himself out with his own guilt, but who knows how long it’d be before he apologized for what he’d done? I couldn’t risk it going too long if we were going to be ready to fight Discord… I needed to do something now.
I shrugged, “Sure, why not? After all, I was planning on telling Violet about this if you didn’t.”
Soul’s eyes widened, “Don’t you dare! I told you, this is my problem, not yours!”
I gave him a flat look, “No, a team mate’s problem is my problem too. I can’t let you prolong an apology, ‘cause who knows when that could hinder you guys when you’re needed the most.”
He still didn’t look like he was going to listen to me. Sighing, I countered, “Besides, Violet’s your best friend. You said it yourself! If anything, I know Violet can forgive a friend, even if he’ll be stormy about it for a while. So why don’t you go tell him now, before he finds out on his own in some other way and gets the wrong idea.”
Soul paused, his poker face masking any trait besides stubborn refusal. But after a moment of silence, the unicorn let go of his façade and sighed, “You know, as much as I really hate to admit it… you’re right. I need to tell Violet, though I doubt you’re going to let me take some time before I tell him, right?”
I shook my head, “Not a chance, I want this settled between you two before we regroup tonight.”
Sighing wearily, Soul chuckled weakly, “Figured you’d say that. Don’t worry, I’ll tell him the truth… though I’ll probably hold off on telling the rest of the team for a while.” He looked at me in the eyes, a stone expression on his face, “After putting up with all this guilt, I don’t want to relive it again. I know I’ll never do something like this again.”
“FINALLY! I GOT YOU LITTLE MOTHER-BUCKERS!” Both Soul and I glanced over to see a scruffy looking Violet squeezing a tiny ewe between his forelegs in a sort of a head lock, the unicorn’s expression one of manic fury. Behind him, Sky carried the other two ewes, which had been hogtied.
In an instant, Violet’s expression turned from one of a sadistic pony to a cheerful blacksmith again, as if his comical fury had never been there in the first place, “Hey, Soul! Let’s get going and return these ewes back to that shepherd filly!”
I gave Soul an amused glance, “Now I seriously doubt he’s going to hold a grudge against you for very long.”
Soul simply nodded as he began trotting over to Violet. But as he did, he glanced back over his shoulder, smirking back at me, “I won’t betray my friends’ trust again, Shadow. After all, every one of you guys are my friends; probably the best I’ve ever had.”
I smiled back, “Thanks.”
It wasn’t long until Soul and Violet rejoined each other and headed deeper into the city to deposit the ewes. Sky trotted back up to me, looking a bit disheveled from chasing the crystal ewes.
He gave me a questioning look, “So, how’d it go?”
“Better than I thought.” I replied, tapping into my player menu:
Achievement Get: Loyalty (Activate the Element of Loyalty)
I grinned, “Much better than I thought.”
_________________________
With Soul’s and Violet’s elements activated, that only left Eclipse, Siren, Lexus, and Cross. (As well as mine, but I figured we’d get to that later. After all, I’m being as courageous as I possibly can at the moment.)
So, four ponies left to convince to be better people. Sounds doable.
Since Sky and I didn’t know who was closer to us at the moment, or how we’d activate the other’s elements, we decided we’d just improvise by wandering around until we found somepony we were looking for. So, with me using my wings, and Sky evaporating into smoke, we flew through the empire.
It didn’t take long before we found Dylan and Eclipse… or rather, the thieves they were chasing after.
“Outta our way!” A generic, burly stallion screamed, swinging a knife at any NPC’s in his fleeing path. Right behind the thief, another one followed.
Eclipse and Dylan galloped as hard they could after the thieves, though it seemed like they had been at this for a while.
“Can’t you make it so that they’re in zero gravity or something?” Dylan asked, a bit frustrated that they couldn’t catch up to their targets.
“I’m trying, but it’s hard to do a spell like that while running this hard.” Eclipse bitterly grumbled.
I swooped down to the ground from the air, landing straight into a gallop alongside them, “Then why don’t we help?”
Sky followed suit as he reformed into a unicorn, chuckling at his brother, “Gosh, Dylan. Having trouble much with catching a pony? I thought you were the parkour expert here.”
Dylan rolled his eyes, “Easy for you to say.”
Eclipse quickly cut in, “We’d appreciate the help. I’m not sure if I can run for much longer. Man, why does it seem like side quests here are so much harder?”
“No idea.” I glanced towards Sky, “Fly ahead and cut the thieves off with a barrier. Dylan,” I looked towards the colt, “Make sure you keep up with them, so you can beat the snot out of them when Sky stops them. Eclipse and I will catch up after he catches his breath.”
The two brothers nodded and raced ahead, while Eclipse and I slowed our pace to a trot, until we finally came to a stop.
Eclipse took a deep breath as he stretched out his legs, “Huh, good thing Dylan has that earth pony endurance, because I’m not sure if you or Sky could complete this side quest for us, since you weren’t there when it started.”
“Huh, good thinking.” I replied.
We stood there for a moment, but I was at least glad that I got him and Dylan separated, just like how I did it with Soul… although, now I was facing the similar problem of how to get the info I needed out of Eclipse. Could I just B.S. it out of him? Nah, I doubted it’d work with the Element of Generosity, since it’s a slightly different case than Loyalty.
Well, Generosity is the opposite of greed… maybe Eclipse has been getting greedy with his bits? Maybe his items? No, wait, I don’t think that’s it either. He doesn’t seem like the greedy type of person… Well, maybe-
“You know, I don’t understand how you do it.” Eclipse spoke, gazing off towards the way Sky and Dylan had run.
“Huh? Do what?” I asked.
He shrugged, “You know, leading.” He gestured down in the direction of Sky and Dylan, “You gave those two orders as if they were breathing to you. You seemed like you knew just what to do in a situation like this, and you didn’t even hesitate to send Sky and Dylan off to fix it.”
I nodded slowly, though a bit unsurely, “Um, thanks, I guess. I’ve been the leader of my team ever since the start of the game, so I guess it’s just become second nature to lead.”
Eclipse gave a tiny smile, before it drooped into a sad frown, “You know, I’ve been the leader of Team Vortex ever since Cordon left the guild and left me in charge… but I’m not good at leading. I can’t give out orders, I sometimes don’t know what to do when a situation arises… sometimes, I think my team isn’t the best they could be because I’m not a good leader.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked, though slightly wondering, Does this have something to do with his element?
Eclipse shrugged, but looked downcast, “I’m… not sure. It’s just that, whenever I compare myself to you and Violet, you guys seem way better than I am as a leader. Both of you know what to do almost immediately, but me… I think I might be holding back a bit. I think it’s because I doubt myself in some ways, but…” He sighed, “I really don’t know.”
I frowned in response. I wasn’t frowning at Eclipse, but more at my mind as a thought came to it. He says he’s ‘holding back’, as opposed to giving his ideas to his team, or maybe even his group… If he’s holding back his ideas, wouldn’t that count as a form of greed, the opposite of Generosity?... Maybe, but it might be the only lead I have at the moment. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to try again later.
I put a hoof on Eclipse’s shoulder, reassuringly, “Eclipse? It’s alright if you think your ideas as a leader are bad. But you should at least try to say them to your team. I know I’ve made some pretty bad plans in the past, but my team was always there to fix them before we dove head first into a fight.”
I gave a smile, “We’re all here for each other, and that includes helping each other by giving our own ideas. Who knows? Maybe one of these days, you’ll have an idea that none of us had and it ends up saving our hides!”
Eclipse paused, “You think so?”
“Eh… maybe.” I replied sheepishly, “But all I’m saying is you should voice your own ideas, because with your own input in play, I’m sure it’ll help you become a better leader. From now on, don’t keep your ideas to yourself… unless they’re downright gruesome.” I winced at that last part.
Eclipse got a chuckle out of that one, “Okay… alright, I’ll try.” His expression drooped a bit though, “Although, I think I might need a bit more time before I do anything like that all of the time.”
I smiled, “Don’t worry about it. Just take your time, and I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”
He nodded, before his eyes caught somebody walking down the street towards us. It was Dylan and Sky, returning with triumphant looks on their faces.
Eclipse called out to them, “How’d it go?”
“Got ‘em.” Sky answered, nonchalantly.
“And the item?” Eclipse asked.
Dylan raised his arm, a small, brown bag resting on his hoof, “Got it! Let’s head back and get our bits.”
“Alright.” Eclipse glanced back towards me, “See you later, guys. And thanks for the talk, Shadow. I think I needed it.”
I nodded, “Anytime.”
Eclipse and Dylan then set off to collect their reward, Sky checked back with me.
“Did you get Eclipse’s element activated?”
I pulled up my Player Menu, but no achievement notice had appeared. I sighed a bit in disappointment, “Looks like he’s going to need a bit more time. I think I might have gotten the ball rolling for him, but if not, we’re just going to have to try again later.”
Sky quietly groaned, as the two of us began trotting back down the city’s streets, “Hm, who knows how long this is going to take us at this rate.”
I shrugged, “From what I’ve seen so far, I think it’s going to be different for everyone. They all have their own problems, and I don’t think all of them can be solved at once.”
“Speaking of which,” Sky frowned, “I’ve been thinking about that. Jupiter said that the elements could only be activated when their bearers have them. That could mean the others might already be ready to activate them, but they just need to do something to prove it again.”
“Hm…” I mulled it over a bit, “I guess that could be true as well. We know that Siren’s the Element of Kindness, and we both can agree that she’s the kindest person we know, but her element isn’t activated… so, you think it will activate if she does something especially kind to someone else?”
Sky shrugged, “Maybe. I don’t know.”
We were nearing the end of the street, so we rounded a corner, while I suggested, “Maybe we should look for Siren next, then. If we’re right, then it should be easy to-“
I stopped abruptly, as did Sky, when the other side of the corner we turned on gave us a sight neither one of us could have expected.
Swift and Comet were making out on a bench, off to the side of the road. The two pegasi were almost on top of each other, just chewing off each other’s lips.
“Um…”
“Uh…”
Sky and I shared a quick glance, before slowly backing away from the scene, deciding then and there, that we’d either never talk about that again.
__________________________
Swift Vapor and Comet
Swift and Comet’s lips broke away from each other’s.
Comet gave the other pegasus a questioning look, “Did you get that piece of hay sandwich I had stuck in my teeth?”
Swift, grinning like a goober, nodded, “Yup! Told ya it’d work.”
Comet smiled back, “Thank you, then.” But she frowned, rather confused, “Though it is certainly an odd replacement for a toothpick.”
Swift paused, “Well…” He waggled his eyebrows, “Would you like to try it again?”
Comet frowned, “But I don’t have food between my teeth. Wouldn’t it be unnecessary?”
“Yup, but who cares?” Swift pulled her back into another kiss, to which Comet didn’t resist.