//------------------------------// // Chapter III: The Calm Before The Storm // Story: The Lost Element // by Gordon Freeman_1 //------------------------------// Twilight woke up bright and early, or so she thought. When she got up from her bed and looked out the window she noticed that the sun was fully visible in the north, so it must be way past eight o’clock right now.                 Twilight grabbed her bag and rushed out the door as fast as she could towards the direction of the school house.                 “Alrighty class!” Cheerilee started. “We’re going to go ahead and start even though our co-teacher isn’t here yet-” Cheerilee was cut off by Twilight entering the school house.                 “I’M HERE!” she sprung in breathing heavily. “Sorry I’m late, I over slept.”                 “I’m guessing you don’t start school quite as early?” Cheerilee turned towards her.                 “Hardly, we start at ten o’clock, not freaking eight.”                 “Now that that’s over welcome to class everypony!” Cheerilee walked in front of her desk. “I would like you to meet Twilight Sparkle, our helper for today!” Cheerilee pointed a hoof at her.                 None of the fillies spoke a word. “Good morning everypony!” Twilight walked up next to Cheerilee.                 Nopony still didn’t respond. Cheerilee didn’t know how to respond, most of the time the ponies would start commenting or giggling to what she was saying.                 “Okay then let’s get started on today’s lesson! Today’s we’re going to be learning about different types of brain disorders!” Cheerilee walked behind her desk and Twilight followed her.                 Diamond Tiara broke the silence among the group. “Like the stupid disorder that Applebloom has!” she started laughing.                 Applebloom looked over at her enraged. “Hey!”                 Twilight quickly turned around and had the nastiest look on her face ever. “HEY YOU!” Diamond Tiara quickly snapped into attention.                 “What’s your name?” Twilight walked around to in front of Cheerilee’s desk.                 “D-D-Diamond Tiara,” Diamond Tiara didn’t want to respond.                 “Get up here!” Twilight pointed a hoof at the ground next to her.                 Diamond Tiara got up from her desk and slowly walked to the front of the class.                 “Any day now,” Twilight was growing impatient really fast.                 When Diamond Tiara finally reached the front of the classroom, she had the saddest look ever on her face and she was looking down at the floor.                 “Let me make this simple Diamond Tiara, you’re going to apologize to that filly over there, and you’re going to do it in a way that Cheerilee and I find satisfying.”                 “How s-so?” Diamond Tiara asked.                 “First of all apologize, then give us a good reason why you are sorry,” Twilight smiled evilly.                 Cheerilee joined in on this. “And if you don’t, it’s a week of detention!” Cheerilee was enjoying this more than Twilight.                 Twilight and Cheerilee stepped back waiting for Diamond Tiara’s ‘apology’.  Diamond Tiara stood up there for at least five minutes without saying a single word.                 “Well Diamond Tiara, we’re waiting,” Twilight was tapping her hoof on the floor.                 Diamond Tiara’s head hanged low again. “I got nothing, apologizing isn’t my thing!”                 Twilight smiled. “Well than, a week of detention. You may go back to your seat.”                 Diamond Tiara slowly walked back to her seat and sat down, Applebloom couldn’t stop laughing at what she just saw.                 Cheerilee got back in front of the desk. “Back to today’s lesson, we’re going to be talking about different types of brain disorders. The first one we’re going to be talking about is Autism!”                 “You know Cheerilee, I have autism,” Twilight openly attempted.                 Cheerilee turned towards Twilight. “Really now? Would you like to teach this lesson today Twilight?”                 “Certainly,” Twilight walked behind her desk to the board.                 Twilight grabbed some chalk with her magic and began her lesson. “You see students, we call them ‘brain disorders’ because there’s a genetic mutation in our brain that causes it. You brain is made up of billions of chromosomes which carry our genetic code.”                 Twilight drawled on the board what a chromosome looks like. “The whole chromosome is made up of genetic code, for example this part of the chromosome may make up ABCDE. Or this part may make up EDCBA.                 “By the way chromosomes are all around our body, it’s what makes my coat purple, or Cheerilee sound what she sounds like for example. Anyways! A disorder such as autism is born when one letter of the genetic code in any chromosome is altered. For example is a chromosome is supposed to be ABCD but if it's altered to AACD, it ain’t good news.                 “And there are different types of autism too. For example I have Asperger. I’m very socially awkward and I tend to repeated weird crap I do such as write the same word twice. There’s also Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which can delay your development of your mind so you might not act your age.”                  Twilight on for an hour or two about autism. The students were actually very interested rather than bored like they would be if Cheerilee was teaching.                 It was the end of the day and the final bell ranged. The fillies where walking out of the school house talking about how good of a teacher Twilight was. Some of the fillies asked her to come back again but Twilight had to decline because she had other plans.                 “Well I got to say Twilight you taught those kids better than I ever would have been able too. What’s your secret? How did you get them to comply so easily?”                 Twilight shrugged. “I’ve been teaching for four to five years so maybe I picked up some tricks during that time.”                 “I guess so, but I’ve been teaching for a lot longer than you,” Cheerilee looked slightly down.                 “How about this, try seeing what your students want. What do they want their teacher to teach them you get it?”                 Cheerilee mood brighten up. “That makes a lot of sense actually.”                 “That’s good, well I got to get going, talk to you later Cheerilee,” Twilight was walking towards the door.                 “You too Twilight!” Cheerilee was waving goodbye to Twilight.                 Twilight was walking past all the Ponyville stores. She started thinking to herself, “When do I get to go back to Canterlot? When I do get to go back to Enza?” But she started second thinking herself, she made so many wonderful friends. She doesn’t even know if she wants to leave them or not. She also thought about how much she hated Enza. She was having second thoughts about ever returning to Enza.                 Twilight sat at a park bench and continued to think. “I want to get back to my few friends at Enza, but I made better friends here. I miss Serah, she was always so nice to me, even those days where I was mean to everypony. Then again Enza was a pretty crappy country. Is it worth going back to see the three to four friends I actually had there? Even go back to teaching?”                 Twilight went into a laying position on the bench. “What should I do?”                 Twilight got up from the bench and walked back towards Rarity’s house. She made it back and saw all the lights were off. Rarity must have been out with her friends or something.                 Twilight walked in and turned on the lights to see Rarity on the floor looking like she was drunk.                 “Uh Rarity, are you okay?” Twilight asked.                 Rarity’s eyes popped wide open. “Huh, what? Oh hey Twilight. Sorry I got home from an exhausting day of shopping and fell asleep on the floor.”                 Twilight laughed. “Who where you shopping with?”                 “My dad!” Rarity smiled big.                 Twilight felt a shiver run down her spine. “Your, father?”                 “Yeah, I think he’s upstairs, I’ll go get him!” Rarity turned towards the stairs.                 “No, no, that won’t be necessary,” Twilight smiled nervously.                 “What’s wrong Twilight, never seen your father before?” Rarity jokingly asked.                 Twilight looked down very sad. “Yes…”                 Rarity frozen and turned around. “Wait what? You know I was just joking right?”                 “I know, but I’m not, I’ve never seen my father before a day in my life. He died when I turned three years old. On my birthday….” Twilight began to cry.                 Rarity walked over to her and hugged her. “I couldn’t be anymore sorry, I didn’t know.”                 “I understand,” Twilight could barely talk because of the tears. “I try not to think about it, and when I went to Fluttershy’s birthday party it was very hard not to think about it.”                 “I bet it was, is that why you were refusing to go to the party?” Rarity felt more awful than any other time in her life.                 “Kind of, also for the fact that being with a large group of ponies makes me feel uncomfortable.”                 “Well, I’ll never make you go to a party ever again! Well that make you feel better?” Rarity smiled wide.                 Twilight shrugged. “It’s fine I promise. I’m not mad at you or anything.”                 By the time Twilight finished her sentence, Rarity’s father started hopping right now down the stairs.                 Twilight felt more discomfort than she has ever felt before.                 “Ey Rarity! Who’s yer friend?” Rarity’s father asked.                 “Dad, this is Twilight! Twilight say hi,” Rarity put on the best happy face she could put on.                 Twilight instantly hung her head down. “Hi…”                 Rarity’s father walked over in front of Twilight. “What’s wrong? Never seen your daddy before?”                 Twilight's head snapped back up and her eyes glowed red. “What did you say?” she got right in his face.                 “Uh, did I make you mad?” he nervously asked.                 “Make me mad? MAKE ME MAD?” Twilight back off a little bit. “Not only did you offend me in every possible way, YOU INSULTED ME IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY!” Twilight didn’t even know what she was saying at that point.                 “Look, I’m sorry okay? I didn’t what I said offended you! I’m sorry please!” Rarity’s father never felt so scared in his entire life.                 Twilight took a deep breath and looked at him. “I lost my father, on my third birthday. So yes, I’ve seen other pony’s fathers before, I’ve just never seen mine.”                 Rarity’s father got back on his hooves and walked over to Twilight, he all the sudden got super serious. “I’m sorry Twilight dear, honestly I didn’t know. I’m sorry you lost your father at a young age, I feel your pain.”                 Twilight’s head perked up. “You lost your dad too?”                 “No my mother actually, but I have suffered a heavy lost as well. Do you at least know your mom?” Rarity’s dad smiled.                 Twilight’s mood went down again. “My mom….”                 “Did you ever meet you mom?”                 “No I did, it’s just-”                 “Don’t want to talk about it?” Rarity’s dad smiled again.                 “Yeah, I would rather not,” Twilight smiled too.                 “That’s mighty fine Ms. Twilight. Well, I’m going to go ahead and head back out. I’ll see you later Rarity and Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity’s dad was walking towards the door.                 Rarity was caught in a maze of emotions. “Bye daddy!”                 “Goodbye,” Twilight smiled.                 Rarity’s dad walked out the door. Rarity tugged at Twilight’s tale. Twilight turned to see Rarity eye’s almost drowned in tears.                 “What’s wrong Rarity?” Twilight was slightly confused. “Did you know about your grandmother?”                 “No,” Rarity was getting worse emotionally by the second. “My father always told me she went and lived in a different part of Equestria, I didn’t know she was gone!”                 Twilight walked up to Rarity and hugged her. “I’m sorry, my father died when I turned three due to being caught in a giant machine when he worked for Enza’s power factory. My mom abandoned me six years later due to the stress of not having him around.”                 Rarity looked up, she whipped the tears from her eyes. “What did you do after your mom abandoned you?”                 Twilight stopped hugging Rarity and walked over to a window and started looking out of it. “I was on my own. I was young, confused, and helpless. I didn’t have a home, a mother to nurture me, a father to protect me, I was honestly helpless.                 “The only thing I had during that time was my life, and quite honestly, I was giving up hope on that. I just wondered Flancess Enza, looking for a place to hopefully start over! I was a stupid filly at the time and didn’t know crap.                 “That night when it got dark, I had given up all hope, I walked into a back alley and sat next to a dirty old dumpster. I found a pair of dismantled scissors on the ground next to the dumpsters. That’s when it hit me, nopony needed me, and I was just taking up space at this point. I was about to jab the dismantled scissors into my neck until something grabbed them like magic and pulled them out of my hooves.                 “It was Princess Mespha. Somehow she knew I was about to kill myself and stopped me from it. Like I said I was a stupid filly at the time so I didn’t ask how she knew I was going to end it all, but she knew somehow. I didn’t bother asking her when I became older because it didn’t really matter at that point.                 “Anyways, Princess Mespha was not a nice Princess. She was strict ruler, and a harsh pony. But something inside of me gave her sympathy for me, and she decided to let me stay in her Castle. I wasn’t necessarily her student or anything, she just took care of me. When I turned older, I got a job at a local library and worked there for two years. Then Princess Mespha saw how smart I really became after so long so she let me become a teacher at her unicorn school. But she knew how much I hated Enza, I wanted Enza to go down to the reaches of the underworld! So she decided to send me here for a while to gather information on this place for her school. And I think you know what happens after that.”                 Rarity was amazed by Twilight’s story. “I know I said this before Twilight Sparkle, but your story is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never meet a pony who’s been through so much emotional pain and still can bare herself.                 “I can’t bare other ponies though! Did you see the way I acted to your friends?”                 “True, but think about it Twilight, if this was any other pony they would probably be just like you!” Rarity was trying to cheer Twilight up.                 “That’s true, thanks Rarity, you’re a true friend,” Twilight turned back around and smiled at her.                 “One more thing that I never really understood, why do the ponies of Enza hate newcomers? You told me that when you first arrived here.”                 “Oh yeah! About 100 years ago, Enza had the worst civil war ever. Flancess lost a great bit of money and neither of the other cities in Enza didn’t offer their support. Akane Village didn’t, neither did Cloudheavan. Princess Mespha was enraged by this and sent her royal guards to Akane and Cloudheavan to try to see why the hell they wouldn’t comply.                 “Turns out, the mayor of both cities were rebelling against Princess Mespha and refused to offer any support even money to Flancess because they know that’s where the Princess lived. Akane and Cloudheavan both sent their loyal soldiers and the worst war in Enza history broke out. “It lasted for seven years, and ended with Princess Mespha almost being assassinated. And ponies hated it when newcomers come into their house because Akane and Cloudheavan assassins use to roam Flancess entering pony’s houses and kill them and move on. About 1000 Enza civilians died because of that. Ever sense then, you had to make arrangements with the pony before they could come over to your house and so on and so forth.” “Honestly, I can’t blame you for wanting to get out of Enza so badly. I don’t think anypony can! “I know, I just hope Princess Mespha thinks I’m dead or something and won’t send some sort of rescue team after me,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Do you want to stay here forever Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity didn’t seem surprised. Twilight turned towards Rarity. “At first I didn’t, but now I’m starting too. The funny thing is I thought Enza wasn’t that bad until I saw how the ponies here in Equestria are.” “I can’t blame you,” Rarity heard a huge thump outside. “Did you hear that?” Rarity got up and walked towards the window. “Yeah I did, what is it?” Twilight joined her. They looked out the window, they didn’t see anything, until they saw a flag waving back and forward, left to right. It was coming from the north side of Ponyville, near the entrance. Once they got a full view of the flag, Twilight started shaking. “What is it Twilight?” Rarity looked worried. “That’s Enza’s royal army. They’re here to take over Ponyville! And maybe even Equestria!” Twilight started panicking. Rarity joined in on the panicking, then she had an idea. “Twilight, you have to Teleport yourself to Canterlot and warn Princess Celestia about this.” “What? You know what happen to me on the ship! I don’t want to lose any more friends! They’ll kill you Rarity!” Twilight started crying. Rarity walked over to Twilight calmly and put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “We’re all going to die if you don’t warn the Princess right away. Go now!” “Are you sure?” Twilight didn’t want to do this. “YES GO!” “Okay then,” Twilight had been studying the magic spell a lot since she got to Equestria so she fully knew how to use it now. Twilight horn glowed brighter and brighter with every passing second, then she teleported away. Rarity looked back outside, Enza’s army were already patrolling Ponyville, and thankfully everypony was in their house so they hopefully haven’t found anypony yet. Twilight appeared right outside Princess Celestia’s throne room. She barged in while Princess Celestia was sitting by a window replying to some letters. Princess Celestia turned around confused to see Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing here?” “Come quick Princess Celestia! We have a dire emergency!” Twilight looked like she was about to cry. “Oh no,” Princess Celestia got up and followed Twilight all the way up to the top of the castle. Twilight focused the Telescope on Ponyville and made Celestia look through it. “Oh no,” Princess Celestia said again, she could see Enza’s troopers marching through Ponyville taking ponies captive. “We have to do something about this, Twilight, warn the royal guards and I’m going to go find Shining Armor.” “Yes ma’am!” Twilight and Celestia rushed out of the balcony and went separate ways. Twilight found one of the officers of the royal guards and ordered him to meet Princess Celestia and Shining Armor in the courtyard. Twilight had an army of guards right behind her as she walked out of the castle and went to the castle courtyard. Princess Celestia ordered the guards to stand right in front of them and she even called Twilight for a mini-meeting. Twilight and Celestia talked behind Shining Armor as he was gathering the troops. “Listen Twilight, I want you to be a one of the Commanders in this hold out against Enza’s army, if you’re up for it.” Princess Celestia knew she could trust Twilight with this job being that she’s the one who reported it to her. Twilight put on the most serious face in the world. “Princess Celestia, after seeing the life here in Equestria, I hope Enza burns to the ground. I will happily fight for you against Enza,” Twilight bowed before Princess Celestia. Twilight and Princess Celestia joined next to Shining Armor who had already arranged all the guards. Princess Celestia stood up and was ready to make a speech. “The land of Enza is invading Equestria, right now they’re making a raid in Ponyville and who knows how many ponies they have already taken captive/killed. “Our job is to is to kick there asses back to Enza forever! We might face heavy casualties, or maybe hardly and casualties. The point is, defeat is not an option! Is everypony ready?!” They were beyond hundreds of guards sitting in the courtyard. They were all cheering at Celestia’s speech. Princess Celestia stepped back and Twilight Sparkle took her place. “Alrighty everypony, Enza’s army is very, very strong. I know, I lived in Enza.” The army started getting suspicious. “How do we know you’re not a spy?” one of the guards called out. Celestia stood before Twilight. “Enough, Twilight Sparkle is not a spy, she’s the one who reported this to me so she’s not spy, and anypony who objects can speak to me personally later!” The guard who was talking sat back down and stayed quite. “Now then, Twilight what were you saying?” Celestia turned back over to Twilight. Twilight stepped back up to the plate. “Enza’s strong, I don’t know how strong you all are, but I bet if we worked together, we can beat their asses down to the ground!” Twilight held up a hoof. All the guards seemed satisfied with Twilight’s attitude and started cheering for her. Twilight stepped back and Shining Armor was the last one to step up. “I haven’t know Twilight Sparkle for long, but she seems like a perfect commander. She will serve by my side and Celestia’s throughout this whole battle. Everypony, ARMOUR UP!” the guards cheered one last time and got up and started going into the castle one by one. Twilight and Shining Armor turned towards Celestia, Celestia stepped to the side to reveille three suits of golden coloured armour. Twilight and Shining Armor didn’t show any emotions when they first laid eyes on it. They thought it looked really cool, but that was beside the point. “Since I’m the leader and you two are my loyal commanders, we need different coloured armour. Anyways, armour up everypony,” Celestia started putting on her personal suit of armour. Twilight and Shining Armor put on their set of armour. It covered their backs/stomachs, all parts of their legs, and all of their necks, it was also in a scaly format for better protection. They had helmets that matched their armour and covers the back of their heads, and had a long strip of metal that ran all the way down to their noses, and of course they had heavy boots on all four their hooves. Twilight also decided to braid her mane and tail. Celestia’s armour was the same way except she had wing protects on some of the edges of her left and right wing. Her mane was also braided so it wouldn’t get in her way. The three commanders walked to the front of the castle where their army was ready for the battle. Celestia stepped up. “Remember, no mercy.” “NO MERCY!!” the massive army chanted. After they said they, all of them turned around, and marched towards the exit towards Canterlot. Celestia flew off and Shining Armor was about to run off with the army until Twilight stopped him. “Shining Armor,” she started off. “I haven’t known you for that long, but thanks for saving my life that day.” Twilight smiled. Shining Armor turned towards her. “Twilight, I don’t have many friends, and you’re, a friend. This for all I know might be the last time we see each other, but your optimistic attitude may and great knowledge on Enza maybe what leads us to victory.” Twilight walked up Shining Armor. “Thank you Shining Armor, now let’s do this thing and let’s come out alive.” Shining Armor kissed one of Twilight’s exposed cheeks, Twilight blushed. “Well, we have a war to fight.” Shining Armor walked down the steps and followed the rest of the army. Twilight was still blushing but came to her senses. Twilight walked down the steps and trailed behind Shining Armor. Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and Princess Celestia were ready for the battle, of Equestria.