//------------------------------//
// Party 
// Story: Fixing Flashlight 
// by Neroson40 
//------------------------------//

	“So…” Ventus’ Guardian said. “You’re Guardian Tenebrae? I’m Soarin, Guardian Ventus.” He stuck out his left hand while resting another weapon, a long stick with a pointed tip, on his shoulder with the other. I took his hand, and we shook. I have to say he looked familiar
“Flash Sentry, you seem to know which Guardian I am.” I got a good look at this guy. His skin was a light blue, like the sky was painted onto it without any clouds or faults to it. His hair was combed back until it reached the area behind the ear and it just stuck up and out from there. His eyes looked the color of a leaf, here in the forest. He was about as tall as I was. He wore goggles around his neck, blue at the rims and yellow band. He had a green jacket that seemed to cover his hands when they were down at his sides. His pants were as baggy as mine, thought they stopped before the ankles so I could see his feet clearly. A rush of wind alerted me to the presence of something else behind Soarin. I knew it had to be Ventus, but what was I expecting him to look like? Well certainly not a green hawk with strange runes on its wings, which it didn’t even need to flap to stay airborne.
“We searched the caves, Tenebrae,” He said. It was a higher pitch voice when compared to Tenebrae’s but it reminded him more of a breeze than a bird. “Kayen has the spirits in a large room with a lot of otherworldly spirits, under some form of hypnosis.”
“Spirits?” I asked. “I thought Twilight was the only one.”
“And I thought it was just Rainbow Dash,” Soarin looked at Ventus for an explanation. I looked at Tenebrae and realized something… they wanted to make this personal for us. Twilight for me, I understand… but who was Rainbow Dash to Soarin?
“I’m afraid that the only pony who will be able to continue will be Shining Armor,” Tenebrae said. When the group tried to protest or ask why, Tenebrae just told them something even I wasn’t expecting. “He’s the only one of you who needs to go on.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it somehow made sense, which really annoyed me. Shining went in front with Tenebrae and Ventus. I hung back with Soarin.
“So,” I said. “What can you tell me about Rainbow Dash?”
“What do you know about her already?” Soarin asked.
“Well, I met her officially after Tenebrae took my memory and I was stationed in Ponyville as Twilight’s guard.” I explained. “First thing she said to me was ‘Sorry’.”
“What did she do?”
“Dislocate my wing, I couldn’t feel it anyway, but then she yelled at me for hurting Twilight.”
“That sounds like Dashy,” Soarin said with a snicker. Then he looked stoic as he went into detail about his life with her. “She moved in with my family the year before she started weather work. Her family died in an accident the year after I joined the Wonderbolts-”
“Oh that’s where I know you from!” I said. “Just to let you know I think you’re the best on the team.” He didn’t look too happy about the compliment.
“Thanks… but I didn’t want to join them,” that’s a shocker, no sarcasm intended. “Being a Wonderbolt was Dashy’s dream. Weather work was mine. If she’s still my friend it’d be a miracle.”
“Then why are you going to save her?” I asked. He glared up ahead. Not at me, to me he was trying to look determined. 
“Because I’m still her friend. I have to do this for her sake!” we reached a stone slab with six marks on it. A purple star, a red bolt, a sky balloon, a pink butterfly, a blue diamond, an orange apple, in that order from the twelve o’clock position clockwise.
“This is the place?” Shining asked.
“This is the place,” Ventus repeated in confirmation. Tenebrae went up to the door and used something like a skeleton key (no seriously that’s what it looked like), and pushed it against the rock. There was a loud crack as it split perfectly down the middle and slid apart. What we saw on the other side was not what we were expecting. It looked like one of Vinyl Scratch’s concerts, only everyone looked like Soarin and me. Shining stepped beyond the door, and turned into one of us. He got a look at himself after I tapped his shoulder and pointed to his hands. He took it as a sign to stand like we were, and got up shakily.
“Wow… this is weird.” Soarin said. I looked to the end of the party opposite the way we came in and pointed.
“I see them!” they looked Human too. I couldn’t make out what clothes they were wearing, but I definitely saw their faces. And it killed me to see those blank expressions, especially Twilight’s.
“So, boss,” Soarin said. “What do we do?” I expected Shining to answer when I looked at him. but he was looking at me expectantly and I saw that Soarin was talking to me.
“Wait, me!?” I whispered. “Shining’s higher up in the military!”
“But, I’m not with the Elements, and Tenebrae said you were the leader.”
“What makes me the best choice for the leadership position?”
“Well, everypony during your training while you had amnesia followed your example,” Shining said. “Besides, I’ve got no idea how to fight like this.” He had a point. I didn’t want to start a fight and draw attention to us, so I just told them to lay low and move slowly to Twilight and the others. We finally reached them, and I tried to trigger something in Twilight’s memory, Soarin tried the same thing with Rainbow Dash… but there was nothing… and they all pulled out various weapons on us.