The Seventh Element

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 3: The Everfree Forest

“Seize her!” the mayor commanded. “Only she knows where the princess is!” Three of the royal guards present for the event obeyed, all of whom had wings. They charged through the air at our new queen. She didn’t like that idea much.
“Stand back, you foals!” Nightmare Moon tossed them back like crumpled pieces of paper with a mere wave of her mane, bringing lightning down to do the work for her. After another round of haughty laughter, she imploded on herself, transforming entirely into a swirling ball of mane energy. That done, she slithered out the door, causing everypony to scatter in her wake. I was included in that number, ducking behind a table in terror.
What happened to me now? Thestrals wouldn’t be very affected by the everlasting night; we were nocturnal anyway. We had adapted to the night life. Should I go back home? Then I realized how foolish I was; even thestrals would be impacted by this dramatic change, perhaps even more so than the rest of Equestria. We didn’t farm in the Everfree, we merely lived off of roots and whatever else we could gather. Without sunlight, nothing edible would grow even in the tough and hardy forest. And besides, that was no longer my home. I lived here now. I wasn’t going to abandon my new friends just because times got a little tough. I’d chosen my side, and I was sticking to it. That left only one option: we had to stop Nightmare Moon.
I straightened back up, conquering my fear in coming out from behind the table. Not many ponies were left in Town Hall. Rainbow Dash had been one of the first to leave in an attempt to chase down the queen. Twilight was right on her heels, though she had another destination in mind. I charged out to catch up with Applejack, who was following the purple unicorn. Rarity didn’t often risk sweating, but even she put such thinking to the side in this time of need and joined us. Pinkie Pie joined in the fun by bouncing along behind us, somehow still keeping up.
Applejack led those of us on the ground into the library, though Rainbow Dash had already zoomed in. Twilight had not yet noticed our presence. She was scrutinizing the shelves instead.
“Elements, elements, elements... Ugh! How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?” she muttered.
“And just what are the Elements of Harmony?” Rainbow Dash demanded in a somewhat accusing voice. She had locked noses with Twilight, forcing her back. “And how did you know about Nightmare Moon, huh? Are you a spy? Whoa!” AJ yanked her from the air to calm her down.
“Simmer down, Sally,” she ordered. “She ain’t no spy. But she sure knows what’s goin’ on, don’t ya, Twilight?”
“I read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon. Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can stop her, but I don't know what they are, where to find them; I don't even know what they do!”
“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide,” Pinkie distractedly read.
“How did you find that?!” Twilight exclaimed, pushing her way over.
“It was under ‘E!’” Pinkie happily bounced.
“Oh, right,” Twilight blushed. She proceeded to levitate the book and read a passage from it. “There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now…” she gasped in the place of the actual location.
“What is now…?” I prompted.
“The Everfree Forest!” she stammered. We all gasped, but while everypony else’s was out of fright, mine was in surprise. My eyes widened. That was my homeland!
Twilight nervously headed out, the rest of us trailing after her. My mind was working through this whole mess so quickly I didn’t notice we’d arrived until I bumped into AJ. The dark shadows of the Everfree forest was looming over us.
“The Everfree Forest!” we all said in unison.
“Whee! Let’s go!” Pinkie exclaimed, starting off for the dark woods.
“Not so fast.” Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks. “Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this on my own.”
“No can do, sugar cube. We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone. We're stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple.
“Nun-uh,” we all agreed, trotting in without her. Pinkie was the only one that remained.
“Especially if there’s candy apples in there!” I heard her add. “What? Those things are good!” Pinkie then trotted up to join us, and Twilight reluctantly followed with a heavy sigh.
“So… none of you have ever been in here before?” Twilight nervously asked. I felt my heart skip a beat. Should I lie, or give a half-truth? I let the others answer while I considered my options.
“Ugh, Heavens no! Just look at it- it's dreadful.” Rarity declared.
“And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nopony knows,” Rainbow Dash said in a ghostly voice in an attempt to scare our company. I rolled my eyes, mostly because I was familiar with the woods and didn’t find it frightening at all. “You know why?”
“Rainbow, quit it!” Applejack demanded as she started to creep along the forest floor.
“Because every pony who's ever come in has never come out!”
“I did,” I sarcastically interjected, mostly to spite her.
“WHAT?!” everypony else exclaimed. I flattened my ears. Whoops.
“WHOA!” we all screamed. The ledge we had just been standing on gave out, sending everypony but our two pegasi companions sprawling down the steep slope. Rarity was lucky, and managed to stay upright as she attempted to slide to a stop. I was hopelessly bouncing down, getting more bruised and battered with every bump in the surface. Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie while Fluttershy slowed Rarity down by yanking on her tail. I really needed my wings, but I couldn’t let them see. Come out bruised and possibly broken or come out safe but friendless? I opted for broken. They couldn’t know what I really was!
I had finally gotten a grip on the whole sliding issue, though I was now sliding backwards. I dug my hooves in, failing to get some traction. I saw Applejack hanging on a root as I slid down, finally slowing. Twilight hadn’t been so lucky, and was now dangling off the side of the cliff. I was heading her way, and only just managed to avoid her as I toppled off the side.
“Acrylic!” she screamed upon learning that my predicament was worse than hers. This was it. I had to show my dragon side or die. I began to angle myself, but narrowed my eyes instead. Maybe not. I angled myself so that I was now diving headfirst for the rock face. Once I was parallel with it, I stretched out my hooves until I was running down the vertical slope.
I focused on the task at hoof, eyes narrowed, pouring all of my energy into it. I had to, if I wanted to stay alive. It was nearly time. The treetops were getting close. I heard my friends yelling for me. Even Rainbow Dash wasn’t fast enough to catch me now. I closed my eyes. This was it. In a literal leap of faith, I jumped off the rock face, landing on a tree branch. As I’d hoped, it bent like rubber under my weight, and sent me shooting back off into the sky upon rebound. I had enough time disguised in the trees to briefly use my wings to angle myself the right way, but barely had time to retract them before shooting out of the thick canopies. I clutched at my beloved hat which I hadn’t taken off since Rarity gave it to me, only to find that it had already been blown off. Ugh. Figures. Distracted by this discovery, I barely had time to remember to hold my breath as I landed in the pond below.
I pushed off the bottom and scrambled for the surface, hooves flailing. I finally surfaced soaked to the bone and shivering with cold, but alive. I dragged myself into the grass and shook off as much water as I could. I let my friends come running over to meet me, panting with the exertion. That could have been so much easier with wings. Still, I had to smile; the extra effort paid off in the concerned faces still crowding around me.
“Are you alright?”
“Oh, you poor thing!”
“That looked fun!”
“Should I get you anything?” Fluttershy quietly offered.
“What are you going to get her? We’re out in the middle of the Everfree Forest!”
“Acrylic! I’m sooo sorry! Fluttershy wasn’t strong enough to handle Twilight by herself, and I wasn’t fast enough to get you both...” Rainbow Dash bit her lip in guilt.
“It’s okay,” I assured. “I’m fine.”
“Really?” Rainbow criticized every inch of my body, double checking to make sure there wasn’t a scratch on me. Realizing I spoke truth, she backed off. “Oh, yeah, of course. Hey, wait a minute. That. Was. AWESOME!” she burst, doing excited loop-the-loops in the air. “Did you guys even see that? I didn’t know you were such an athlete!”
“That was not awesome, that was CRAZY!”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“Alright you guys, cut it out. Acrylic’s right. Everypony’s safe, and that’s all that matters right now.”
“Can you walk?”
“Of course I can walk.” I stood up from my warm ball to demonstrate, but regretted it as soon as the bitter cold bit into my legs.
“Alright, then. We’ve got to keep moving. I saw the castle from up above. It’s this way.”
“Oh, by the way,” Rainbow went on, hovering above me as we moved on, “I thought you might like to have this back.” She displayed Rarity’s beret from behind her. I almost jumped for joy.
“My hat! Thanks, Rainbow!” I eagerly snatched it out of her hoof and returned it to the top of my head like a treasure being displayed on a pedestal.
“That was truly awesome! You zoomed right down the side of the cliff like you were defying gravity! Then BAM, you turned a tree branch into a diving board! How’d you do that, by the way? It takes a lot of skill to get the timing and angles right. I don’t even know if I could do it! And no offense, but you don’t strike me as the most athletic pony in town.”
“Just lucky, I guess,” I quietly answered, not letting on how much knowledge I had in that field. Luckily, Rainbow didn’t seem to notice.
“And what about me and Fluttershy, eh? We were pretty good too. Once Pinkie and Rarity were saved, WHOOSH! Me and Fluttershy loop-de-loop around and WHAM! Caught you right in the nick of time.” Twilight rolled her eyes as I noticed for the first time just how much Rainbow Dash liked using onomatopoeia.
“Yes, Rainbow, I was there, and I’m very grateful, but we’ve got to-” Her sentence was cut off by a loud gasp. We all stopped dead in our tracks behind her as a ferocious beast appeared on the path before us. “A MANTICORE!” Twilight exclaimed. The lion-like creature reared up, releasing a thunderous bellow that seemed to shake the whole forest.
I was the first to recover from shock, and thrust my head low with a loud snort to hold my ground. We dealt with these all the time back at the thestral encampment.
“We’ve got to get past him,” Twilight declared. The manticore didn’t seem too happy about that. First, he charged at Rarity, who surprised me with incredible agility as she dodged the blow and planted a pitiful lady-like kick to his snout. I shook my head in disappointment, but she seemed quite proud of herself, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Take that, you ruffian!” she proudly snorted. It returned with a roar so close to her face I’m surprised she didn’t blow an eardrum. The force of his screech did cause slight damage to her mane, which seemed to trouble her more than the beast itself. I knew he wouldn’t stop at merely destroying her hairdo, so I leapt forward to protect her. Rearing in defiance, I delivered a crushing hit on the top of his nose, the most sensitive part of a manticore’s face aside from the whiskers. He howled as I ushered Rarity to the sidelines. Applejack mounted the beast and rode him like a true rodeo pony before he could come back on us.
“Yee-haw! Get along, little doggie!” she gleefully cried. It soon kicked her off, but she flew through the air with such grace that she swiveled to land back on her hooves. “All yours, partner,” she winked to Rainbow mid-arc.
“I’m on it,” the blue pegasus saluted before diving at the manticore. She spun in such tight circles around it that all we could see was a rainbow colored blur. He grumbled and gurgled in frustration, unable to catch her.
“WHOA!” Finally, he stuck a scorpion tail out in her path. She just missed the stinger, but was thrown back to the ground. Landing with a hard thud, she skidded to a halt at our hooves. Those of us remaining narrowed our eyes and formed a tight wall. The manticore scraped the ground anxiously. We did the same. Twilight led us in a charge as we prepared to ward off the menace.
“WAIT!!!” Fluttershy screamed, louder than I’d ever heard her. She had flown between us and the monster, causing us to skid to a halt before we bowled her over. Having gotten our attention, she then proceeded to calmly walk up to the manticore. It snarled, and raised claws as sharp as daggers to swipe her off of her feet. We all gasped and hid our faces, too petrified to move. No scream ever came.
“Shh. It’s okay,” a soft voice cooed. “Oh, you poor, poor little baby.” I opened my eyes along with everypony else, astounded to find her tenderly nuzzling the massive paw with a giant thorn sticking out of it.
“Little?” Rainbow sarcastically echoed.
“Now, this might hurt for just a second.” Fluttershy gripped the intruding bur between her teeth and gave it a hard yank, tossing it to the side. The manticore furiously yowled, bringing Fluttershy up to his level.
“FLUTTERSHY!” we all screamed. Our fear was short lived, for the manticore began purring contently and fondly licked her mane in gratitude.
“Aw, you’re just a little old baby kitty, aren’t you? Yes you are! Yes you are!” she giggled. Relieved, we all trotted past to let her deal with the manticore. She had it under control. Twilight hung back to receive her after the miraculous feat.
“How did you know about the thorn?”
“I didn’t. Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness.” I shook my head, amazed at her bravery. She could make a great thestral.
The others’ legs were beginning to grow weary from so much walking. The stress was getting to us. Rarity had the shudders.
“Eww... my eyes need a rest from all this icky muck,” she shivered. As if on cue, we entered into the thickest part of the woods, and we became shrouded in shadow. “Well, I didn’t mean that literally,” she quietly whimpered.
“That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces, and we wouldn’t even know it,” Twilight grumbled. I blinked my eyes a few times, allowing part of my thestral physiology to take over. My irises turned to slits, and the blue pupils glowed slightly. They were better equipped for the dark, but I kept my eyes to the ground so no one noticed the shining dragon eyes. I almost gave myself away when I looked back as Rarity bumped into me.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there. My apologies.” I just nodded, but our whole train suddenly broke into a clamor as ponies started tripping on roots or bumping into each other.
“Is that you, Rainbow?”
“No, I’m right here. That’s a tree. Guh!” I heard her clunking into something.
“Oops, sorry.”
“I can’t see!”
“Ow!”
“Oh, wait, I think I stepped in somethin’.”
I took a minute to step back and watch my friends colliding with each other, unsure what to do. I couldn’t take the lead without exposing myself, but we wouldn’t make any progress this way, either. Fluttershy’s scream brought all eyes around, and I barely had time to shut my glowing eyes before they attracted attention.
“It’s just mud,” Applejack tried to assure. When the rest of them screamed as well, AJ realized it wasn’t about the puddle. I blinked back to reality with standard pony eyes, and jumped myself at first. We were in a grove of trees with luminescent bark, and the swirling patterns they created almost implied snarling faces.
I screamed with the rest of them at first, heart pounding. I’d never seen anything like this before, and I was raised here! A series of giggles brought me out of my thoughts. Pinkie was making goggly faces at them.
“Pinkie, what are you doing?” Twilight urged. Pinkie Pie just giggled again.
“Oh, girls, don’t you see?” Pinkie did a little shake, and began swishing her hooves to inaudible music. However, to my astonishment, faint music did start to play, coming out of nowhere, and then got louder and louder, as if by magic. It played in perfect time to Pinkie’s dancing. I’d never encountered anything like this in the Everfree before, either. I really wanted to know where it was coming from. “When I was a little filly and the sun was going do-o-o-own...” She sang.
“Tell me she isn’t,” Twilight begged.
“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me fro-o-o-own!” Pinkie concluded the verse.
“She is,” Rarity sadly affirmed.

“Then what is?” Rainbow interjected as though this was an ordinary conversation. I had a bad feeling I was going to be getting this a lot.

We gasped as Pinkie’s laughter caused the menacing glowing veins to vanish, leaving an ordinary tree in its wake. Motivated to get rid of the creepy faces, the others opted to take a few extra minutes and join in the singing.

“And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha...” Pinkie somehow got all of this out in one breath, so she took a deep breath to replenish her supply after the long spew. “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuugh!”
Pinkie’s grand finale found her rolling on the grass along with the rest of us, sides aching from the laughter. Even I had gotten into the spirit of things, bouncing around with everypony else and even singing along. To my disappointment, the music faded as Pinkie had finished the song. I’d have to try that sometime.
“We have to... keep moving,” Twilight gasped between cackles.
“Okay,” Pinkie agreed, pounding the ground with her hoof in an effort to calm down.
When Applejack and I finally lifted her to her hooves, she recovered, but continued to bounce with glee. Her energy made my smile stretch ever farther. Everypony else caught on, and soon we were bouncing after her, still in a fit of giggles. Pinkie took the lead this time.
We had barely rounded the first row of bushes before we stopped again. We had failed to noticed the loud rushing of water over our laughter. Luckily for us, Pinkie did, and stopped in time. We all collided with her on accident. Fortunately the new predicament had gotten our giggles under control. I furrowed my brow. I didn’t mind getting wet, as I had demonstrated with the pond dive, but these rapids looked hazardous.
“How are we gonna cross this?” Pinkie cheerily questioned. Over the deafening crash of water, we somehow picked out a distressed wailing. Twilight again took the lead as we pushed through some bushes in the direction of the cry. From there, we could see an immense purple sea serpent thrashing in the water, kicking up the deadly waves.
“What a world! What a world!” it wailed, pounding the water once more.
“Excuse me, sir,” Twilight stepped forward. “Why are you crying?”
“Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply horrid.” He resumed the horrid, screeching wailing that had drawn our attention in the first place. Unfortunately, this came with another flop into the water, sending a tidal wave crashing down on us. I shuddered, soaked once more.
“Oh, give me a break,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, shaking the water off.
“That's what all the fuss is about?” Applejack grouchily agreed. Even I had to admit, he was overreacting.
“Why, of course it is.” Rarity continued forward to coddle his head, now beached on land while the rest of his spindly body continued to writhe in the water. “How can you be so insensitive? Oh, just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales!”
“I know,” the serpent agreed with a sniff.
“And your expertly coiffed mane,” Rarity continued, using the flattering tactic she was so well known for.
“Oh, I know, I know,” the reptile went on, vanity taking hold.
“Your fabulous manicure.”
“It's so true!”
“All ruined without your beautiful mustache.” This reminder triggered a fresh flow of tears.
“It's true, I'm hideous!”
“I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected.” Eyes narrowed, she leaned in close to the serpent and took a big bite out of his chest, wrenching one of the giant purple scales out of place. This earned a loud yelp from the serpent.
“OW! What did you do that for?” He looked about ready to cry again as she prepared the scale’s pointed tip.
“Rarity, what are you-” All of our eyes bugged out as she used the scale like a blade to slash her beautiful, perfectly kept tail down to a stump. The serpent howled in anguish, as though this crime was as terrible as slashing off the other half of his mustache.
“Oh-hohohoho!” He promptly fainted. Rarity then proceeded to take the purple curls from her tail with levitation magic, and somehow affixed it to the stump of the serpent’s mustache. While discolored and the curls mismatched, it returned to its proper length. “My mustache! How wonderful!”
“You look smashing,” Rarity assured.
“Oh, Rarity, your beautiful tail...” Twilight sympathetically moaned.
“Oh. It's fine, my dear. Short tails are in this season. Besides, it'll grow back.
“So would the mustache,” Rainbow hissed. Applejack giggled, but I was still struck dumb. Rarity had just parted with her tail. Her cherished purple locks were gone!
“We can cross now!” Twilight realized with a gasp. “Let's go. Ah!” She squealed as she was tossed off balance and lifted out of the water by the serpent’s coils.
“Allow me,” the serpent offered with a bow. I gratefully hopped along with everypony else, glad I didn’t have to get any wetter than I already was.