The Elements of Nature, Book 1: 火 & 水 (Fire & Water)

by Superior-Doc-Fossil

Chapter 2, The Spirit World

On their way to Canterlot, Firebrand is eager to get started. “Can’t this train go any faster?” He said with annoyance.
“The train is going as fast as it can, sugar cube.” Applejack said two rows behind him and Twilight.
“I know. It just that I never really understood who or what I am. This may be my best chance to figure that out.” Fire' said as they enter a tunnel.
“Don’t worry. We’ll be at Canterlot soon.” Twilight said, trying to comfort Firebrand. He smiled at that.
Pinkie then shows up in between them and points out the window. “Oh, oh. There it is! Canterlot!”
When Pinkie went back to her seat, Firebrand leans in close to Twilight. “Is she normally like that?”
“Unfortunately.”

In the castle, Princess Celestia is reading a letter from Twilight she received earlier. “Dear Princess Celestia, I have met a pony who can somehow control fire (he calls it firebending), but he doesn't know how he does it. If I may, is it all right if me and my friends look in the royal archives for clues. We will be arriving today. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,” is what it said.
Celestia then looks at the train station and sees the train from Ponyville has just arrive. She gets up and heads down to meet Twilight.

The train arrives and comes to a stop. The main six, the CMC, and Firebrand get off along with a few others. They are then greeted by Celestia. “Hello Princess Celestia.” Twilight nervously said.
“Good afternoon, Twilight Sparkle.” She then notices Firebrand, “This must be the pony you told me about.”
“Wait. You said-”
“I didn't.” Twilight responded, then she realizes something. “Spike!”
“Uh, oops. Hey, you know I’m not good with secrets.”
“Huh, can we still see the archives, Princess?” Twilight asked.
“Of course. Come.”

At the archives, Twilight and her friends, Firebrand, the CMC, and Celestia are looking through them to find some clues. “Nothing but spells that have nothing to do with fire.” Twilight said after a few hours.
“We need to keep looking, I have a feeling that something in here will help.” Firebrand replied. The doors then open, and Princess Cadance and Shining Armor come in, back from their honeymoon.
“Cadance! Shining! Your back already.” Twilight said out of joy from seeing her older brother and sister-in-law.
“I can’t believe you're in the archives.” Shining replied. He then notices Firebrand. “Who's that Twiley, your new boyfriend?”
Fire’ then begins to blush. “Absolutely not!” Fire’ said.
“No way!” Twilight said to Shinning.
“Who are these two anyway?” Fire' asked Twilight.
“Shining Armor is my older brother while Cadance is his wife,” but before she could finish Apple Bloom yelled out.
“I’v found somethin’!”. The others soon head for her.
“What is it, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked.
Apple Bloom is looking at a large red book with magic symbols on it. “I think it's some kind of revilement spell.”
“A spell of revilement? What does it do?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know. But it says here that it takes a lot of concentration for it to work.”
“I can do that at the library back at Ponyville.”
“OK, but can you do it as soon as possible?” Firebrand asked.
“Sure. Princess, can you keep looking for some clues.” Twilight asked her mentor.
“Of course.” Celestia said.

On the train back to Ponyville, Twilight is reading more about the spell Apple Bloom found. “This spell sure is advanced. I guess it's a good thing Apple Bloom and her friends came with us.” She said to Firebrand.
“Yeah, it was a good thing.” He replied. Twilight then blushes a little.

Back at the royal archives, Celestia, Shining, Cadance, now joined by Luna and some archivists, continue to searched. “Twilight and Fire’ make a lovely couple, don’t they?” Cadance said to Shining.
“Yes, they do.”
Bastion Yorsets, one of the judges at Twilight's entrance exam, finds a strange scroll. He opens it and finds a diagram of six different crystals, one of which looks like Firebrand’s cutie mark. The others look like a wave of water, another looks like a rock, the third looks like a lightning bolt, the fourth looks like a tornado, but the last one is unrecognizable. With the crystals, there are symbols that he can’t read. The symbols are, 火, 水, 土, 雷, and 气. He also notices that there are diagrams of not only controlling fire, but ones involving water, earth, lightning, and air, and that everything is in a different language. “Princess, I believe I found something.” He then shows the scroll to Celestia.
“Interesting, do you know what it says Bastion?”
“No, but I will have it translated right away.” The blue Unicorn said as he leaves with the scroll.

The train the main six, the CMC, and Firebrand are on suddenly stops due to a broken piston and they get off. They are at a clearing when Spike gets an idea. “Say, Twilight, can you do the revilement spell hear?”
“I guess I can.” She said nervously. A bit later, Fire’ is in the middle of a pentagram Twilight drew with candles at the 5 points. Twilight is outside the pentagram concentrating. Her horn begins to glow.
“Come on now, y'all. Lets give her some space. She needs to concentrate.” Applejack said to the others so they step back a little.
The pentagram begins to glow and theres a flash of bright light. When its gone, the only things left are the candles, still lit, Twilight and Firebrand. “Well,” Twilight said, “did it work?”
“I...” Fire’ painfully said, “Don't know. It fells ... like my head is splitting apart!” Suddenly, his eyes begin to glow red along with his mane and tail.
“Whats happening to him.” Rainbow asked with fear in her voice. The fire on the candles then begin to flicker faster and soon air begins to fly around and circle Firebrand as he is lifted up into the air.
“FIREBRAND!” Twilight yelled out as he begins to float in the air. Then a strong beam of red light shots out from his horn into the sky.

On a warship around the size of Sugarcube Corner, in a river in the Everfree Forest, the beam does not go unnoticed. “Finally!" A young Earth Pony stallion said. His coat is charcoal black while his mane and tail are flame red along with his eyes. His cutie mark is a piece of burning wood. "Uncle, do you realize what this means?!”
He said to another Earth Pony stallion at least 50 years younger than Granny Smith. He has a black coat and dark gray eyes. His cutie mark is a tile with a white lotus on it. His mane and tail are varying shades of gray, indicating his age. The stallion is playing some sort of card game.
He answers calmly while looking over the tile he's holding toward his nephew. "I won't get to finish my game?" He said.
"It means my search is about to end." The younger Earth Pony said. The older stallion then just sighs uninterested. "That light is coming from an incredibly powerful source! It has to be one of them!"
"Or it's just the celestial lights, or a Unicorn made a mistake while doing a transportation spell. We're taking a big risk being in Equestria. Celestia and Luna, especially Luna, won't be pleased to see Fire Nation ponies here." The older stallion said. He then looks at the tile in his hoof that depicts a symbol of firebending, which is stylized, tulip-shaped flame forked into three tongues that curve outward like flower petals, with a spiral at the base.
"I also don't want you to get too excited over nothing." He then places it on another tile that depicts the symbol of airbending, which is a closed, counterclockwise, inverted triple spiral triskele. The other three ties have either a circle comprising a stylized rightward-facing ocean wave with three spiral crests breaking over three wavy diagonal lines representing water, a tall rough isosceles trapezoidal shape, the base of which is made up of the Bagua trigram Kun, denoting earth. Inside, at the top, is a spiral running left. Or a thunder cloud with lightning bolts coming out of it.
The older stallion then gestures toward the open place at the other side of the table and continues in a soothing voice. "Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?"
"I don't need any calming tea! I need to capture one of the Avatars!" The young Earth Pony said out of pure rage. "Navigator, head a course for the light!"

Back at the Castle, Celestia, Shining, Cadance, & Luna see the light. “Why do I get the feeling that Twilight’s spell went horribly wrong?” Shining said.
“Lets go!” Celestia said before flying off toward the light. The others soon follow.

In a corridor, Bastion Yorsets is still studying the scroll when the letters begins to glow bight blue, surprising the Unicorn. "What the hay!?" Was all Bastion could say as the light intensifies.

In a temple in the Himalayas, an old unicorn is meditating in front of a painting of a pegasus with a green coat and a blue coat. She also has gold yellow fans in her front hoofs. The eyes of the mare then begin to glow white. The light is so strong that it cadets a long shadow on his face. "It is time."

At the north pole, another temple is glowing bluish white, as some pegasi are watching. "Why is the ancient water temple glowing?" A mare asked.
"I think I know." A stallion said.

In a island nation, at another temple, its roof is glowing with a reddish light. Inside the temple, a Sage is leaning out a room where the light is emanating from. "Send word to the Fire Lord immediately! The Avatar has returned!" He yelled to another Sage. The expression on the recipient Sage's face then turns to one of fright

At the field, Twilight and the others try to snap Fire’ out. They tried rain, magic, even throwing stones, but nothing works. The Princesses and Shining arrive soon after. “What is going on here?” Luna asked them.
“We don’t know. I tried the spell after the train needed to stop. Then he just started to float and this started. We tried everything but nothing works!” Twilight said as Celestia steps forward.
“Stand back.” She tried to make the ... whatever it is to stop, but when she tries she gets knocked back by a blast of fire, but she doesn't get hurt. Luna then goes to her sister to see if she's okay as the others begin to yell out Firebrand’s name.

Meanwhile, in a strange forest, Firebrand opens his eyes when he hears Twilight calling his name. “FIREBRAND!” His name begins to echo around him. The forest he's in is like a forest tigers live in. Theres a fog that obscures what appeaser to be a cave with lanterns. He walks toward the entrance.
When he enters he sees what appears to be a dragon, but instead of it being like the others in the series, its more Chinese like. It walks over toward him. At first, Fire’ wants to run, but he senses that the dragon means no harm, so he stays. “The Avatar?” The dragon said, “Where have you been?” Firebrand then begins to hear his friends calling out to him.
“Fire’!”
“Firebrand!”

Firebrand begins to float down and when he lands he passes out. “Firebrand!” Twilight yelled as she runs up to him

Later at Ponyville, Fire’ wakes up in the Apple Family barn at Sweet Apple Acres. He sees that the others are right next to him. “What happen?”
“Thats what we were going to ask you.” Luna said.
“I don’t know. I wasn't sure if it was a dream or not. I was in this strange forest, I went into a cave and I saw this dragon.
“A dragon.” Fluttershy nervously said.
“Yes, but it wasn't like others. It talked to me, calling me the Avatar. Do you guys know what that means.”
The normally all-knowing Celestia only said one thing, “Not a clue.”
Fire’ gets up and notices that his hooves, which used to be orange, now have a flame pattern going up slightly beyond his ankle. His mane and tail have change to, becoming like Spitfire’s. “What happened to my hooves, mane, and tail?”
“They were like that after what happened last night.” Cheerilee then comes running in with Big Mac and some of her students.
“Miss Cheerilee? Big Mac? What are y’all doing?” Applejack asked.
“Some strangers came into town with, well, I'm pretty sure tanks. I wanted my students to be somewhere safe. So I ask Big Mac if we can be in the barn until its safe.”
As usual, Fluttershy acted in her own way. “Strangers!” She then hides at the top of the barn.
“Stay here, we’ll see what they want.” Twilight said to Firebrand and the CMC. She and the others then left with Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Shining. Sweetie Belle then walks up to Fire,’ carrying her bag.
“Uh, Fire,’ I wanted to give you this to make you feel better about what happened last night.” She opens her saddle bag and then gives him a dark red cape with a hood with gold silk under it. On top of it there's a flame design that's like his cutie mark in gold silk.
“Thanks Sweetie.” He then puts it on along with the hood, it perfectly hides his cutie mark, mane and tail, like Zecora's.
“Rarity is going to kill you for taking the gold silk again.” Scootaloo pointed out.
“I know.”