Deep within the Equestrian mountains, tangerine orange hooves casually scuffed against the mossy surface that they stood upon. One of these hooves rose upwards to tilt back the stetson hat that sat upon the brilliant, wheat-like hair that was the mane of a mare, revealing piercing emerald eyes that transfixed all those who stared into them.
The Mare of Honesty stood there in the daylight, her impressive stature soaking in the gifted rays of Celestia's sun as she looked over the objects that she was asked to examine.
Her emerald eyes blinked once.
Jutting out from the sandy island before her were five palm trees that reached high into the air. But instead of a healthy green, the leaves of the palm trees were instead an unusual blue color covered in a sickly mold
In her mouth, she switched the stalk of wheat to the other corner of her lips.
"Eeyup," she affirmed to herself, "those are some sick palm trees alright."
As if to accentuate her point, a branch with moldy blue leaves detached itself from one of the five palm trees and fell to the circle of water that surrounded the island.
Her deduction stated, the Mare of Honesty could literally feel the roll of eyes next to her without even having to turn her head.
"Gee, thanks, AJ," commented a humorous voice that, while definitely not dripping with sarcasm, was definitely moisturized in it, "I would have never figured that out by myself. I'm glad that I've got you here to tell me these things."
A smirk tugging at her lips, Honesty let out a puff of air escape from her nostrils in amusement, "No problem, Dash. I do what I can," she replied lightheartedly. As she said this her emerald orbs followed the sickly blue branch that had fallen into the pool and had started to slowly sink deeper into the water's depths.
Suddenly, a cyan hoof dipped into the water and reached under the branch to pull it out of the pool. The moldy branch hanged from the hoof and dripped like a wet rag as the cyan pegasus that held it had her violet irises roll over the branch in contemplation, before flicking her iridescent tail in irritation at the sight of it. With a huff, she tossed the branch before the Mare of Honesty's hooves.
"But seriously," said the Mare of Loyalty, casually stretching her great wings upwards in the open sun as she gave her fellow Element a serious gaze, "do you know what's causing this?"
In one of the mountain ranges that dotted the lands of Equestria, a river traversed between the pine tree-covered slopes that covered the surrounding land. A completely average Equestrian river, the running stream was of average width, depth, and had a decent flow to its waters that gave it a peaceful sense. Some ponies would even admit that it had an overall beauty to it, despite its average-ness or perhaps even because of it.
But however beautiful the river may be to some ponies, any acknowledgement for it would no doubt be overlooked by the rare sight of what one of its banks currently played host to.
An enormous turtle, practically the size of a small island, whose massive size caused a multitude of pine trees and many other pieces of smaller foliage to be crushed under its algae-covered shell as it half-dipped its large head into the river for relaxation and occasional drinking. As it relaxed under the bright sun, its wide, green flippers bent the nearby greenery under its weight whenever it occasionally shuffled its body into a more comforting position.
It was a truly unbelievable sight to see, though even the sight of an island-sized turtle was eclipsed by those who stood upon it.
For on this massive turtle's algae-covered shell, next to the pool-surrounded island of sickly palm trees that were at the center of its shell, stood two Mares of Harmony in their splendid glory; the Mare of Honesty and the Mare of Loyalty. Each stared down at the blue branch laid between them, Honesty's entrancing emerald eyes studiously examining the unusually colored branch in its whole and in its every detail, while Loyalty's violet orbs watched on from behind the faded edges of her spectrum mane, occasionally glancing between the branch and the mare as she patiently waited for Honesty to respond.
Finally, the Mare of Honesty raised a hoof in a half-shrug as she answered, "Sorry, Sugarcube, but I ain't exactly sure on what's causin' this."
Fluffing her large wings once, Loyalty gave Honesty a small frown, "Seriously?" she asked disbelievingly, "Not even a clue?"
Returning the frown, Honesty replied, "Now I didn't say that," she corrected, "I've got plenty of clues on what's goin' on with'em trees. Even got a couple guesses on what's wrong with'em. I jus' don't know anythin' specific about why they're all blue like that."
Loyalty gave an exaggerated roll of her violet eyes at Honesty's specifying, before speaking out, "Well, then just lay those on me already, alright?"
Switching the stalk of wheat to the other corner of her mouth, Honesty elaborated her theories, "Well, considering in all my lifetimes I ain't never seen any plant turn blue that weren't supposed to—'specially no palm trees—then my best guess is that either those trees got infected by some new, mutated virus that's makin' their pigment go all wonky, or some crazy wizard is magically cursin' 'em to be that way for whatever reason."
Loyalty blinked once as she blankly stared at Honesty, the quiet, rippling sounds of the streaming river and the rustling of the pine trees in the wind filling out the silence between them. She then turned to the quintuplet of sickly palm trees with their blue leaves and stared at them for a few quiet moments, before turning back to Honesty with a frown.
"This better not be some precursor to a devastating virus or the return of a horrible wizard that's going to destroy all of Equestria's crops or something," stated Loyalty contemptuously, before casting her violet eyes aside and muttering, "Of course, with our luck..."
Honesty chuckled lightheartedly at Loyalty's response, "Now c'mon, Rainbow, you know it ain't always like that with us," she chastised with a knowing smile, "There's a very good chance that this could be nothin' too bad."
"Either way, I'd rather not have blue, moldy trees growing out of Tank's shell," Loyalty replied as she gave a quick, worried glance toward her familiar's head, before turning back to Honesty, "any ideas on how to deal with them?"
"Ain't it simple?" asked Honesty, before casually gesturing toward the trees with her hoof, "We uproot 'em and get 'em to Twilight. I'm sure with her help we can figure out what's goin' on with yer trees."
Loyalty shuffled awkwardly on her hooves, "Ah, right. Uprooting. About that... that's actually one of the reasons why I needed ya here," Loyalty shifted her hoof through her iridescent mane as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, "The thing is, I'm not entirely sure how deep the roots of these trees go into Tank ...or how connected he is to them. Never really took the time to figure that out, and I don't want to hurt him, so... could you...?"
Placing a hoof on Loyalty's shoulder, Honesty nodded as she gave her a warm smile, "Don't worry, Sugarcube, I'll make sure."
Loyalty returned the smile, "Thanks, Applejack."
With a small hop over the pool of water, Honesty landed on the small, sandy island. Placing a hoof on the trunk of one of the palm trees, she took a brief moment to look up at it in its entirety, before turning herself around. She then raised her hind leg, and gave a quick buck to its trunk. Holding her leg in place after the impact, Honesty stayed quiet in concentration as she felt the vibrations that ran up and down the tree, before breaking out into a grin.
"Good news, Dash! Tank's fine! Roots don't even go that—"
KONK!
Honesty blinked her emerald eyes.
Staring straight ahead, she met Loyalty's, whose shocked violet eyes stared back at her.
Raising an orange hoof to rub the slight discomfort she felt on her head through her stetson, Honesty looked down to find the coconut that had bounced off of her skull now lying on the sand.
She raised her gaze and stared back at Loyalty.
For a long, awing moment, the two only stared at each other in silent amazement.
Then Loyalty snickered.
"Pffft—Ahahahaha!" laughed Loyalty uproariously as she pointed a hoof at Honesty, who only looked on with an unamused expression as the Mare of Loyalty continued to pour out the laughter at the expense of her fellow Element. Frowning at Loyalty's behavior, Honesty quickly gained a devious smirk as she placed one of her hooves directly behind the fallen coconut.
"That was bucking hilarious!" guffawed Loyalty, "Ahahahaha—"
"SMACK!
"Ow!" exclaimed Loyalty, bringing up a foreleg to her face she then rubbed her hoof against her muzzle in discomfort. The punted coconut that had sailed across the distance between the two Elements had struck her face at a speed that would have surely keeled over a fully grown minotaur and left a severe bruising on any normal pony if it were not for the fact that Loyalty was made of sterner stuff the same way the trunk of a tree was to a blade of grass.
With nary a bruise on her face, Loyalty glared at Honesty in annoyance.
Honesty, for her part, let out a bemused scoff at the sight, "Now don't be givin' me that look, Sugarcube. Y'all knew that yeh were settin' yourself up for that one."
Snorting once, Loyalty relented her glare and looked away from Honesty, "Yeah, I guess. Heck, I'd probably do the same thing anyways," she conceded in a lackluster fashion, before turning back to Honesty with a cheshire grin, "except I would've nailed a pony between the eyes instead of just hitting them on the snout like you."
Emerald orbs rolled in exasperation at Loyalty's boasting, "Oh, now don't yeh start with any of that," replied Honesty, "and since you're done busying yourself laughin' like a schoolfilly, why don't yeh come on over an' help me uproot these things?"
Under the daylight sun, the mountain river rippled over itself calmly as it streamed downhill. Birds chirped their songs throughout the air, and pine trees rustled their leaves and branches in the soothing wind.
One of the green pine trees had some of its branches suddenly crunched into the maw of a giant turtle, who tore the branches from the tree's trunk and began meticulously chewing on the crunchy greenery.
On the back of the massive animal's shell, the Mare of Honesty and the Mare of Loyalty were laid across it as they casually watched the giant turtle enjoy its meal; their bellies pressed against the shell's algae while their forelegs were partially dipped into the pool of water at its center. They had uprooted and removed the sickly palm trees with the blue leaves from the small island and pushed them off the side of the shell onto the forest floor. There, a group of pegasi in royal armor were tasked to lift the trees and secure them into Honesty's canvas wagon.
Honesty had grumbled discontentedly when Loyalty had called down the guards from her cloudy abode—which had been detached from her familiar and left to drift low in the sky when she had brought Tank to the ground—to finish the work they had started, but nonetheless took the reprieve offered from Loyalty, albeit grudgingly.
"I don't see why yeh had to call down yer house guards just to finish up our work when we were completely fine doin' it ourselves," grumbled Honesty as the two Mares of Harmony watched the guards work from atop the turtle's massive shell.
Loyalty glanced at Honesty with a mischievous grin, "Seriously? You don't see why?" she asked humorously, "I mean, do you not see the bunch of muscly stallions working in the hot sun? Their muscles flexing under that tight armor as they strain to load and unload huge pieces of lumber right in front of us? Their coats glistening as they sweat from the intense, burning heat?"
For a long while, Honesty only stared at her fellow Element, her face deadpan and frowning, until finally, "...If I go on into yer home right now and look through yer bookshelf, it ain't jus' gonna be adventure novels that I'm gonna find, ain't it?"
"What? Of course not," objected Loyalty, "believe it or not, Applejack, but I have broadened my interests over the centuries. I now have detective novels, horror novels, and even a couple of the lesser techno-babble science fiction novels that Twilight recommended to me. All of which I read in my downtime," she stated sincerely, before turning to give Honesty an overly pleasant smile, "or, you know, whenever I'm not letting stallions plow me."
Honesty's hoof met her face as Loyalty laughed uproariously next to her.
"Sweet Luna and Celestia," Honesty swore under her breath, "I ain't one to really preach a smidgen of chastity to a pony, but between yeh an' Rarity, I'm startin' to think that we may need that as the seventh element or somethin' jus' to reign everypony in a bit."
Quickly finishing off her boisterous laughter, Loyalty let out a snort, "Chastity? Please. I mean come on, we're centuries old and eternally destined to guide the ponies of Equestria. I think we're allowed to have a bit of fun," she then gave Honesty a sideways smirk, "or a lot," she chuckled, before allowing her smirk to grow "but hey, so long as we're talking about reigning in ponies, maybe we should add temperance as the eighth then. What do you think, Applejack?"
Snapping her head fully in Loyalty's direction, Honesty's powerful eyes narrowed to such a degree that it was any wonder that beams of hate didn't escape from between her eyelids, "I think yeh need to shut yer mouth. That's what I think," she stated seriously.
Loyalty did no such thing, in fact, considering just how loudly she laughed, it can be safely said that she was doing quite the opposite to what Honesty voiced. But this was alright, for it was not long before Honesty's own chuckles of laughter soon joined with Loyalty's to dance together in the air.
As the echos of their laughing soon receded across the river valley, Loyalty incidentally glanced down at the laid-down belly of Honesty in the throes of her chuckling and could not help but voice her concern at the sight.
"Hey, Applejack," spoke up Loyalty, slight concern in her tone, "you want a towel or something to lie on? Because you're kind of making the algae around you grow pretty wildly."
"Hmm?" Honesty glanced down to find the algae under her had grown exponentially in the short amount of time that she had been lying down. To the point that it had lengthened up her sides and was now pointedly sticking to her tangerine coat. "Ah, that's alright. Nothin' a little leg-shakin' won't fix," she replied, wherein then Honesty raised herself up and proceeded to do said leg shake, which kicked off the residue algae.
"Sorry about that," apologized Loyalty as Honesty laid back down next to her, "should have grabbed you something while I was up in my house. I know how plants get around you, and with Tank's algae already pretty magical on their own..."
"Now don't yeh start frettin', yeh darn well know I'm already quite used to this sort of thing," chastised Honesty, "although I've gotta tell yeh, Tank's moss always seemed to grow faster than most other plants do when around me."
"Probably has something to do with this mystical pool right here," commented Loyalty as she splashed a bit of water with her dipped hoof, "I'm pretty sure the magic in the water is causing the algae to grow stronger or something?"
"Oh, yeah. Nearly forgot about yer magical pool here," said Honesty, "what's so mystical about it again?"
Loyalty shrugged her large wings nonchalantly, "Ah, you know. Sometimes it shows me things that were, or are, or have not come to pass yet. The usual kind of clairvoyant shtick," she glanced back at Honesty, "what about you? You've got something similar, right?"
"Yeah, I've got a cooking pot in my wagon that basically does the same thing when yeh pour enough water into it," informed Honesty casually, before grunting discontentedly, "which can make supper pretty awkward when I've got ponies with me and the brew starts spewin' out past calamities and such in front of everypony."
Letting loose a few chuckles, Loyalty gave her a cheerful smile, "Yeah, that can be annoying sometimes," she said, before turning her gaze away from her fellow Element to look out across the nearby river, her violet eyes glazing into the distance, "but never tiring though..." she muttered.
As silence reigned between the Mare of Loyalty and the Mare of Honesty, the leaves of the mountain pine trees bristled in the blowing wind, while Loyalty felt Honesty's worried eyes upon the back of her head as she stared off into the horizon.
Tearing her gaze away from the mountainous horizon, Loyalty found Honesty staring back at her with those emerald eyes of hers; those deep, piercing eyes of Honesty that could draw out the self of any pony that stared into them. Even now, as Loyalty's violets met Honesty's emeralds, she could feel the facets of her soul being consciously prodded for an opening; not one to be found and plundered, but to be willfully created and let flow out what needed to be shared.
Honesty opened her mouth, "Rainbow—"
"Applejack," interrupted Loyalty; her words tense, but eyes soft, "you know you don't have to do that with me, right?"
Staring for but a moment, Honesty blinked her eyes once and the entrancing power of her emerald orbs quickly lessened to their usual vibrancy, while the prodding that Loyalty had felt upon her soul disappeared completely.
"Sorry 'bout that," apologized Honesty as she offered her friend and equal a small, sincere smile.
Returning the smile with a gentle one of her own, Loyalty gave her a short nod, "It's okay," she uttered quietly, before casting her eyes downward. Her violet eyes meeting her own in the pool's reflection as she laid there quietly.
Honesty looked on in silence, this time patiently waiting.
"I don't feel old," Loyalty finally spoke, her tone distant as she stared deeply into her reflected orbs, "I've been alive for centuries now and I don't feel old," she turned to look directly at her friend, "and I'm not just talking about how our bodies are kept fit and everything. Every time I look back, every time I try to remember everything... in my first life I used to feel winded, taken aback at all of those memories that I had gathered in my life." A breeze threw strands of her rainbow mane before her face, causing her violet eyes to be clouded behind a spectrum of colors as she kept her gaze locked with her eternal friend, "But now... even compared to how long I've been around now, all of my memories and all of my experiences feel little more than a drop in an enormous chasm. A chasm that is just aching to be filled up by even more little drops ...by what the future has to offer, because that's what it was made to endure."
Honesty said nothing, she only turned away and looked off into the distance, over the pine tree-covered mountains. Loyalty soon joined her, the wind blowing their manes listlessly as they lay quietly upon the shell-covered back of the massive turtle.
Finally, Honesty spoke, "I know the feelin'."
Loyalty glanced back to her friend momentarily, before throwing her gaze back into the distance, "...I suppose that this is what they meant when they told us that we'd be ready for our new lives ahead of us."
A burst of wind picked up that blew their manes wildly, before settling down again after a moment's pass.
"...Eeyup."
The Mare of Honesty tested the ropes that kept the sickly blue palm trees strapped into the wagon with a great, big pull of one of the spare ends. When everything was held in place, Honesty showed off an approving grin and turned toward the Mare of Loyalty.
"Well, looks like yer guards did alright without our help, Dash," proclaimed Honesty.
"Of—ha ha!—course they did fine without us, they're—hey now!—military! They don't need—ew!—us to hold their hooves with something as simple as—CAN YOU GET HER OFF OF ME NOW!?" shouted Loyalty as she tried vainly to get the massive, four-eyed beast that was Honesty's familiar off of her, and subsequently to stop the great beast from licking and slobbering all over her face in its enthusiasm.
"Now Dash, yeh know Winona is only just showin' yeh how happy she is to see yeh," chuckled Honesty with a bright grin, before letting out a loud whistle, "alright, Winona, that's enough!"
"Woof!" barked out the large canine as it ceased its licking of the rainbow mare's face and jumped off of her to run around in the mountainous forest.
Standing back up on all fours, Loyalty gave Honesty a dirty look as the cowpony chuckled at her expense, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," grumbled Loyalty, "just remember that next time I'm gonna get Tank to jump on you."
"Yeah, I'm sure," stated Honesty sarcastically, before raising a hoof to Loyalty, "anyways, here's hopin' that these trees aren't a forewarnin' to anythin' too bad."
Loyalty let out a humored snort, "I wouldn't bet money on that," she said as she bumped hooves with Honesty, "in fact, I'd doubt those blue trees are anything good."
Honesty glanced back at the collected pile of unusually colored trees secured to her wagon. She eyed them for a full couple seconds before facing Loyalty again with a tender smile, "Well... I wouldn't say that," she replied, "I'd say that they've got one good thing goin' for 'em."
"Really?" asked Loyalty, her tone more pleasantly curious than anything, "like what?"
Tilting her stetson back, Honesty looked upwards into the blue sky, with Loyalty soon doing the same. There in the air was Tank, Loyalty's massive familiar, floating in the sky as it waited for its master to return, its shadow being cast across the landscape.
"We jus' uprooted blue palm trees from the shell of a massive flyin' turtle," she stated as she leveled her gaze downwards with Loyalty's, "so if anythin', at least these trees will take an interestin' place in that chasm of yers."
Loyalty stared blankly at Honesty for little less than a second before letting a small smile appear on her face, "Yeah..." she said as her eyes drifted to the pile of palm trees, "they're one of the many notes in the long journey that is our life if nothing else," she paused; looking straight ahead, she slapped her hoof against her face and groaned out, "oh wow. Did I really just say something that cheesy? Okay, now I feel old."
"Make that two things," corrected Honesty with a chuckle.
Dear Rainbow Dash,
With extensive assistance from Applejack, we have discovered through detailed scientific analysis and experimentation that the reason why those palm trees growing from Tank's shell had had their pigment turn blue was due through exposure to the mystical pool that surrounded them. It turns out that the magic from the pool seeped into the palm trees, giving them an extended long life (How did you not notice this? Most palm trees only live some one-hundred years. Did you not get that guidebook of arecaceae I sent you?). When the trees eventually did start dying it seems that they tried to absorb as much magic as they could from the pool, which caused some side-effects (their pigment turning blue, and overgrowth of mold) on top of just not being able to prevent their expiration.
Your princess,
Your friend,
Twilight Sparklep.s. The next time this happens don't burn, bite, or consume the branches in any way when they turn blue. Consumption has a high chance of causing hallucinogenic episodes of events that may or may not have happened yet.
p.p.s. Seriously? A devastating virus or an evil wizard? You and Applejack need to be a bit more optimistic. I mean come on, those two things have only happened four times overall in the half-millennium that we've been doing this.