Chapter 22
Return of the Destrals
“Why didn’t I think of the elements?” Twilight wheezed as we all charged through Ponyville. We recieved many strange glances as the ten of us stampeded through town, and a few angry shouts as ponies dodged to avoid being run over. We were headed for the library where they were kept.
“We’ve seen ‘em defeat magic more powerful than this before.”
“This is bound to fix us!”
Twi barged in the door and headed right for the glass case. The rest of us had to file in a little more slowly to avoid another pile up. Wild Flower and Applejack wasted no time in removing the glass lid, and we all took our respective elements. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride upon placing the familiar amulet around my neck. The white jewel encrusted in an intricate gold inlay matched the fire of my cutie mark perfectly. Only, it wasn’t my cutie mark anymore. I looked down at a start to Twilight’s six-pointed star. The others seemed to be realizing this at about the same time.
“Uh, Twilight? Do you think this will still work?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, setting the crown on her head.
“Well, you’re the Element of Magic, but you don’t have a horn anymore.”
“Huh?” She looked up past my blue strands of hair. “Oh. Right.”
“Maybe we should switch them?”
“Good idea.” Necklaces were passed to and fro until the jewels all corresponded with their proper cutie marks. I reluctantly surrendered my amulet, but froze upon recieving Twilight’s crown.
“Wait! I have no idea how to use magic!”
“The elements do most of the work for you,” Twilight assured, sliding my element over her neck. “You just have to channel it.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Concentrate!” She rolled her eyes as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“On what?” I pressed, just as frustrated as she.
“Fixing us!”
“HOW?”
“Girls, calm down,” Cedar begged. “We’ll never get anything accomplished if we start this again.”
“Twilight, Acrylic has never had any training in this kind of magic, remember? You can’t expect her to instantly catch on. I’m astonished she got the hang of levitation all on her own. In a good way, of course,” Torchwood playfully nudged me.
“You’re right,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I just want to get back to my own body. I miss my horn.” She rubbed the bare spot on my forehead. “Alright, how do I explain this? Just... try and see if you can use the elements to pull me out of your body and back into mine. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll understand what I mean when you activate them.”
“Are you sure about this? What if I end up mixing us up even more?”
“I honestly don’t think that’s possible at this point, Acrylic,” Rainbow laughed. I took the humor lightly, and nodded.
“Alright.” Before I’d gotten a chance to even try and begin, however, they were all lifted off the ground by their glowing amulets.
“Yeah! You go, Acrylic! Just jump right on in there!” Pinkie cheered.
“I’m not doing anything!” I practically screamed, trying to get the magic under control.
“Then who is?”
“Who cares? Make it stop!” All their energy was being diverted to me. It was welling up in my head, pounding as it demanded release. I closed my eyes from the intense pain. What was I supposed to do with it? All you have to do is channel it, Twilight had said. Desperately, I tried to force it all out her horn. When I opened my eyes again, they were glowing white. The next thing I knew, we were all being enveloped in a pocket of white light.
“Did it work?” I finally dared to open my eyes after the whole fiasco, and found myself looking right back.
“No,” I groaned, hanging my head.
“You tried your best,” Blaze attempted to console me, picking himself right back up.
“My best wasn’t good enough!”
“That’s alright. Look, we’ve still got our elements. We can try again,” Twilight assured. “My guess is that sudden surge of energy accidently set off a teleportation spell instead.”
“There was so much magic building up, I just wanted to let it out. I didn’t know what I was doing when I released it,” I admitted.
“So where are we now?” I realized that we weren’t in the Golden Oaks library anymore. I was sitting in the dirt, and it was dark. I no longer had the night vision of a thestral, so I had to wait for Twilight’s eyes to adjust.
“I know this place!” Rainbow realized.
“We all do!” Rarity concurred.
“The Tree of Harmony!”
“How’d we end up here?”
“Were you thinking of the Tree of Harmony when the magic surge came over you, Acrylic?”
“No,” I denied.
“Well, maybe since the elements are connected to the tree it took us here by default?” Twi suggested.
“Or maybe the elements are tryin’ to tell us somethin’,” AJ pointed to Twilight’s saddle bag, which I was still wearing. It was glowing. I removed the orb from the bag, but I could barely see it for the blinding light now emitting from it.
“That’s it! Try using the elements on the orb!” Twi excitedly cried. I gulped. The first time had been rough enough. I didn’t want to go through that a second time. Cedar put his hoof on my shoulder. I turned into the face the dark brown coals my husband had for eyes. For the moment, I forgot it was really Cedar underneath. The reassuring gaze of Torchwood was what I really needed just then.
“Alright. Let’s try again.” I shut my eyes so I could picture the orb floating to the center of our ring, and tried activating the elements. They didn’t put up a fight, and again, it felt too easy, like I wasn’t really doing anything. The magic began welling up, but I was prepared this time, and aimed Twilight’s horn at the orb. The magic flowed right through me, almost as though the orb was soaking up our energy.
“IT’S WORKING!” somepony screamed over the obnoxious buzz of magic. The orb seemed to be glowing brighter than the sun, if that was possible. Combined with the light already emitting from my eyes, it was too much. I had to shut them to avoid damaging Twilight’s sight permanently.
Abruptly, everything stopped. We all dropped from the air like stones, and the orb went dark. Torch rushed from the sidelines to help me up. He was still in Cedar’s form, and I was still Twilight.
“What happened? Why didn’t it work?” I looked up. The orb was the only one of us that hadn’t dropped from the air. I hadn’t switched us back, but I’d done something.
“Look everypony!” Cedar jabbed a hoof at the tree itself. The indentions that once housed the elements in their raw form were glowing.
“I think I understand,” Twilight mused.
“What do you mean?”
“I know what we have to do to switch back.”
“We’ll do whatever it takes to get back to our old selves,” Applejack declared, noting her doubtful expression.
“I think we have to give the elements back to the Tree of Harmony.” My eyes widened. I wasn’t the only one unhappy about this, for we all broke out into an uproar.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Without the elements, how are we supposed to protect Equestria?” I finally managed to pick Rainbow’s voice from above the clamor.
“How are we meant to rein Discord in if we can't use the Elements to turn him back to stone?” Rarity added.
“Twilight... The Elements of Harmony... They're what keep us connected no matter what,” Applejack sadly but fondly stroked the element belonging to Rarity, then brushed her hoof against her own. Twilight returned her sad smile.
“You're right about one thing, Applejack. The Elements of Harmony did bring us together. But it isn't the Elements that will keep us connected. It's our friendship. And it's more important and more powerful than any magic. Our friendships may be tested, but it will never, ever be broken. Just look at how we all handled ourselves today! It might have been a little difficult at times, but to be honest... it was kind of neat being a thestral.”
“I guess I did enjoy figuring out your magic,” I confessed.
“It was cool to know what wings feel like, even if I didn’t really get to use them,” Spike put in, flapping Blaze’s wings to demonstrate.
“It was definitely awesome borrowing your wings and all, Wild Flower, but I’m ready to have my own body back,” Rainbow declared.
“Uh huh!” the rest of us agreed.
“There's no time to lose. Everypony ready?” We all removed our elements, me reluctantly so. I’d only gotten to use mine once. Now it was being taken from me again. But when I looked to my mismatched family, there wasn’t a thing that mattered more. Now I almost smiled as I took off the crown.
“Acrylic? Magic would make removing the elements a lot easier,” Twilight prompted, nodding to Pinkie who was currently wrestling with her amulet to remove it from the gold setting.
“Right.” I was finally getting the hang of levitation, too. With only a little difficulty, I plucked all the jewels from their casings, and guided them to their places on the tree. The indentions molded to perfectly fit with their new shapes. As soon as the last one had been placed, they began to glow brighter. The whole room shook as they summoned up their power. The energy was focused into one massive beam of light that struck the hovering orb. It didn’t take very long for the sphere to absorb the magic. The elements finally stopped glowing, but the orb didn’t.
Still floating, the sphere suddenly burst into light once more, now independent from the elements’ power. It exploded into a pulse of energy, enough to knock us all over. Torch curled himself protectively over me as we hit the wall, and I clutched Blaze to my chest. I’d never felt any force so powerful. Not even the elements could control a force like this. It was like a swirling vortex of pure energy, converging on the orb. The familiar warmth of thestral fire washed over us first, but the sheer power could have matched Celestia’s alicorn magic. Twilight’s short hair lashed me from the wind kicked up by the vortex. I buried my head in Torch’s arms and sheilded Blaze as best as I could.
The hurricane died down slowly and gradually. I didn’t dare move until it had completely subsided. When Torch lifted his wings, I assumed it was safe to look. We were all still stuck in the wrong bodies. It was where the orb used to be that change had really taken place.
The mysterious orb had been replaced by an even more mysterious mare. She was tall, even taller than Torchwood, which wasn’t an easy feat. She was almost entirely entangled in her own hair. Masses of brown and blue curls graciously cascaded down her back. A unicorn horn poked out from it near her forehead. Her coat was a pastel green, creamy in color.
When the mare shifted, she let out a quiet moan. Something underneath her curls moved, but in perfect time to her breathing. By the way her hair draped over it, I guessed it was a wing. Had we just released another alicorn princess? It wouldn’t be the first time. I thought back to how my friends had first used the Elements to destroy Nightmare Moon and bring back Princess Luna. Was this mare as dangerous as Nightmare Moon, or cleansed and purified by the Elements?
Slowly, the mare stood. Her eyes weren’t open yet, and she seemed to be concentrating solely on keeping her balance. When she finally did open her eyes, though, I was met with shocking electric blue irises. More of her hair fell away as she righted herself. I could now identify a cutie mark. It depicted the Tree of Harmony itself!
Who was this mare? She couldn’t be dangerous if she was connected to the tree, could she? My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t believe how wrong I was. This was no alicorn princess. The last of her hair had finally fallen away, revealing her leathery dragon wings. I practically choked on the word.
“Destral.”