//------------------------------// // [Chapter Seven: A Sticky Situation] // Story: Tale of the Shadow Pony // by AtomicShockwave //------------------------------// I flew through the air with my new wings. I flew over Ponyville and looked down upon it. The wind flowed through my mane and I felt a great rush of Adrenaline. I saw the Mane Six hanging out in a field on Sweet Apple Acres. I dived down to them and did a quick landing. I looked at each of them as they all had their jaws dropped. "W-wow..." Fluttershy said to me. "I survived. And I was gifted with these amazing things." I said as I stretched out my wings. "Awesome! That means I have a new flying buddy!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "So, what was that grand endeavor all about? Surely it couldn't have been just for wings." Twilight asked. Spike walked up to me and said nothing as he examined my wings. Everypony gave focus to me and had a serious expression on their face. I took a deep breath and thought to myself for a moment. "Equestria is faced with a horrible fate... A fate that will envelope the world in a shroud of Darkness." I said to the group. "My, you can't be serious darling... Is this true?" Rarity said. "It's true. Unfortunately..." I said. "What was the purpose of the portal?" Twilight asked. "They will prepare me for preventing this tragedy." I said. "What did it look like there?" Rainbow Dash asked. A flashback of what I went through in the Silent Realm sat in my head for a moment. "Not much..." I said with a sigh. Suddenly a pink could came out of nowhere and covered Rainbow Dash. "What the hell!?" Rainbow Dash yelled as she popped her head out of the cloud. More clouds started to fill the sky. "What's going on?" I said as I looked around. A storm of brown rain began. "It's not suppose to rain today!!" Rainbow Dash said with a rage as she burst out from the cloud. "My beautiful mane!!" Rarity whined out. The scent of chocolate milk filled my nostrils. I hesitantly lifted my head up and opened my mouth and caught some. It was in fact chocolate milk. "So... Leon's revealing his silly side... huh?" Twilight said looking at me. I quickly gulped the chocolate milk down. "I don't know what you're talking about." I said as I looked over at Pinkie and noticed that she was doing the same. Suddenly the apples on the trees grew enormous and weighed so much that the trees started to tip over. Many wildlife animals were eating the grand apples. "Angel, you know you shouldn't be eating this much before dinner." Fluttershy said as she picked up the white rabbit. Suddenly the wildlife gained strange stick-thin legs that were at least 10 feet tall. "What the hell is happening??" I yelled in confusion. "Well anyway, don't everypony worry! I have a spell that will surely fix everything!" Twilight said as she got into a stance and charged a strong magical spell. I covered my eyes from the blinding light, and when I uncovered them. Nothing was changed. "W-what?? That was supposed to help with everything!! Spike! What should we do now?" Twilight said with a sudden panic. "Give up?" Spike said with a shrug. "There has to be something we can do." Twilight said thinking to herself. Suddenly the corn in the field started to pop into popcorn. I looked around at the chaos set before us. "I got it!" Twilight said, attracting everyone's attention. "Rainbow! Corral the clouds in one part of the sky! Applejack, you will then lasso them and bring them down to the land!" Twilight said. "Got it!" Rainbow Dash said with a salute and a quick fly away. Rainbow Dash gathered the strange pink clouds tightly together and Applejack promptly wrapped them in a lasso and pulled them down to the field. "Fluttershy, you know what to do!" Twilight said. "Oh my, look at all this cotton candy cloud goodness, I hope no one comes along and takes it." Fluttershy said. "You and me both sister!" Pinkie Pie said as she rushed to it and started to eat the bundle of strange clouds. Frantically the warped wildlife rushed to the cloud and knocked Pinkie Pie out of the way. They than began to proceed on devouring the bundle of clouds. "And when all of you are done with that, there will be plenty of popcorn for dessert!" Applejack said to them. "Another problem solved! See Spike, you should never give up when things hit a climatic moment." Twilight said. "What is the source of all this?" I asked. "I'm not sure... It's nothing I've ever seen before. Let's head back to my house and put some research into it." Twilight said. Spike suddenly seemed like he was having chest pains. "Spike! Are you alright?" Twilight asked? With two hits to his own chest, he belched a green flame and a scroll tied with a red ribbon popped out of Spike himself. "That doesn't look like any heartburn I've ever seen." I said. "A letter from Princess Celestia?" Twilight said as she picked up and unraveled the scroll. Twilight took a moment to read the letter and she then closed it and looked at us all. "Princess Celestia needs to see us in Canterlot as soon as possible!" Twilight said to us. "Princess Celestia?" I said out of curiosity. "How do you not know about the Princess?!" Twilight said with a confused... almost angered tone. I tapped my head and gave her a dirty look. "Right... Sorry. She rules over all of Equestria and controls the setting and rising of the sun. There's also Princess Luna who controls the rising and setting of the moon." Twilight explained. "Right... Well then lets get going" I said. "We'll take the train." Twilight said. "Everypony! Follow me!" Twilight said as she ran towards the train station. The other 7 of us followed closely. As we arrived at the Train station an announcement came over the loud speakers. "Departure for Canterlot in 60 seconds!" It said as Twilight ran to the ticket booth. "8 Please! For Canterlot!" Twilight said. "That will be 240. 30 for Each." The ticket vendor said. I pulled out 30 bits and placed them down. As did everypony else. Everypony was in such a rush that no one got Spike a ticket. "I got it" I placed another 30 bits down and passed Spike a ticket. "Wow, Thanks Leon!" Spike said. "Yep..." I said as my heart contained a familiar feeling. We headed to one of the cars and it was perfect for the 8 of us. I sat at one booth with Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash. Nothing was said for the first few minutes of our departure. Suddenly I felt a strange burning in my chest. "Hnn... What the..." I held my chest for a moment. "You alright?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Y-yeah..." I said as I looked at me hoof. A strange dark aura was emitting from it. The strange ponies of darkness started to rise from the floor of the car. The same ones that Arklida manifested. "Everypony get down!" I said as I started to fight one of them. "Not a chance!" Rainbow said as she took one to fight for herself. "Count me in!" Applejack said as she began her own fight. "I'll help too!" Twilight said as she started to fight with her magic. "Woo! A party!" Pinkie Pie said as she started to bounce on top of one of them. "Stay away from me you creepy and plain imitation!" Rarity exclaimed. I picked up the one I was fighting and threw it at the one stepping towards Rarity. The two faded away and I then quickly jumped between another and Fluttershy. I put it in a headlock and slammed it into the ground. The rest of the ponies finished their respective battles and then all looked at me. "Did you create those things??" Twilight said. "No, I didn't. At least I don't think so.." I said as Spike slowly came out from underneath one of the booth's benches. "What were those things?" Spike asked. "Enemies" I said as I sat on the bench. "Well where did they come from?" Twilight said. "I don't know." I said as I sighed. "Will they come back?" Twilight asked. "I don't know." I said. "Well why did they attack us?? I want some answers!" Twilight asked. I slammed my hoof down on the booth table. "I don't fucking know! Alright! Back off!" I snapped back. Twilight didn't respond and sat at a different bench. No other pony sat by me. Whether it be out of fear, or out of just being uncomfortable. I slid over to the window and watched outside of it. Nothing else was said during the trip. The constant thought of those questions lingered over me though, but I was unsure of any answers I could provide. We arrived at Canterlot and I headed out of the Train Car. I looked around at the grand city that was placed before me. "Let's go Everypony, the Princess needs us." Twilight said as she headed towards the castle. Every other pony looked at each other and nodded as we followed Twilight. We headed through a couple side roads of the city and got onto one large main one. "This way." Twilight said as she headed straight down the road, at the end of the road was a large castle. We ran up the stairs at the front of it and without questioning or hesitation the guards took one look at Twilight and let her and the 6 others in, except for me. The guards immediately stood in front of me. "Halt, who may you be." The guards asked. "The stallion that's going to kick your!" "He's with me, back down." Twilight said as the guards stepped out of the way and back to their spots. Twilight looked at me, and gave me a soft smile. She then nodded to me to follow them. We headed into a grand foyer with a large staircase at its back wall. "We're here Princess Celestia!" Twilight said aloud as a bright flash occurred and before our eyes a large white mare with a flowing blue pink and green mane appeared on the top of the stairs. She was slightly smaller than Arklida though. "Thank you for coming Twilight... Thank you all." The Princess said as she had a serious look about her. "Is this about the weird weather? Or the crops changing inordinately? What about the animals behavior and transformations! My magic isn't even doing anything! What's going on Princess!? Is there-" Twilight seemed to go silent immediately after her ramble as the Princess raised a hoof. This seemed to be a sign to request silence, and/or a moment to speak. "Come, I have plenty of answers to those questions." The Princess said as she trotted up the left flight of stairs a couple of levels. The castle looked alot smaller on the outside. The Princess remained quiet as we entered a hallway filled with windows of stained glass. "I've called you all here for a matter of great importance... A mission. One that I'm sure the six of you could handle." The Princess said, not bothering to look back. "But Princess-" Twilight said before being cut off again. "Don't worry, I believe you girls will have the strength to pull this off no problem." The Princess said as Twilight looked back at me. I shrugged and waved my hoof. I didn't really mind not being noticed. In fact I was a bit busy looking at the windows made of stained glass. "An old foe of mine... One who I believed to have defeated alongside my sister long ago. Has returned..." The Princess said as she stopped. I walked over to one of the windows which had a strange creature on it. I was dwarfed compared to the large display. It looked like a child creation from it's imagination. Or a jungle puzzle that got swapped around. "His name was... Is...-" "Discord...." I said before the Princess could as I looked up at the creature still. I wasn't even sure how that name got into my head. But as it popped into my head, more information came in fast. As if someone was feeding it into my mind. "The spirit... Or as he likes to call himself... God of Chaos..." I said aloud, but it was almost recited... or automated. I involuntarily pushed this information out in the form of words from my mouth. But I could still not understand how I knew such a thing. "Yes... That's correct... Mister...?" Princess Celestia said looking at me with a confused look. Whether she was confused on where I came from, or how I knew so much about this Discord... Creature, was beyond me. "Leon..." I said turning back and facing Princess Celestia. "L-Leon...?" The Princess said, almost in a worried tone. I could feel our eyes meet. There was silence, no pony said a thing. It got to the point where it felt like time had stopped, and the Princess was no longer looking into my eyes. She was looking deeper... As if she was looking into my soul. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you Leon! Sorry that the girls here dragged you on a more business related trip." She said cheerily with a soft smile as a strange sensation of snapping back into reality took me over. "Now, back onto track. Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony... Before me and my sister stood up to him, he ruled over Equestria in an eternal state of chaos, unrest and unhappiness." Princess Celestia said with a sigh as she looked up at a stained window depicting the creature known as Discord being a puppeteer towards an Earth Pony, a Pegasus and a Unicorn. "He made life miserable for all kinds of ponies alike. After me and my sister saw this, we discovered the Elements of Harmony. Using the Elements we stood up against Discord and used their powers... Turning Discord to stone." Princess said as she looked over to another image which seemed to be her, and who could only be her sister, smiting Discord and transforming him to stone. "Alright Princess!" Rainbow Dash said with a cheer as this returned her smile. "This... This is Canterlot Tower. The place where the Elements are kept ever since you six have retrieved them. I need you all to team up and use the Elements of Harmony once more to take down our foe known as Discord!" The Princess said as she stood in front of large door decorated with gems the size of large watermelons. She was standing before us, filling the group with a sense of intentness. A grand mission given to us. "Alright... Don't get me wrong here. I love kicking the ass of bad... things as much as the next stallion. Even though I'm not going to be involved I have to say something for the ponies who will be." I said stepping in front of the Princess. "Leon no..." Twilight said to me as she seemed to get a bit embarrassed. "Don't worry, I got it. I'm pretty sure this question is in the mind of at least one of you." I said looking back as I looked up at the Princess afterwards. "Why them? You said it yourself, you and your sister used these Elements to defeat Discord! Or well, At least turn him into some ugly lawn decoration. So... the main question is why can't you and your sister do it once again." I said standing before her. She seemed angered for no more than a second. But then she smiled. "I'm glad to see that you care for your friends. And you have a great question and I have a... well not so great answer... Me and my sister are no longer connected to the Elements. When that connection faded... that's how Discord was able to break free. We lost that connection when the six here we're chosen as the new bearers of the Elements and joined as one to defeat a powerful foe and save Equestria in the past." Princess Celestia. I slowly looked back at Twilight and turned my head a bit. "Well that would've been nice to know... "I'm Twilight, I like reading, studying magic, star gazing Oh! And I SAVED the world this one time!" Damn, giving me so much praise for saving a town while you all saved everyone!" I said as Pinkie Pie spoke out. "We sure did! Lookie Lookie! It's right here!" Pinkie said bouncing up and down as she looked at yet another window showing the six ponies going up against a large dark mare. "You six wielded the Elements and were able to bring out their full potential. I need you six to wield them once more... Harness the power of your friendship and love between one another and although it was I and Luna who once wielded the Elements it is you that are connected and now control their power. And it is you that must use them and put an end to Discord!" She said, more assertively then before as she stretched out her wings. Filling the room with grace and vigor. Twilight smiled and looked at the other five of her friends. Then at me as I was leaning against the wall on my hind legs. I gave her a nod and she looked back at her other friends. Who nodded back. "Princess Celestia, We'd be honored to use the Elements once again in your favor!" Twilight said stepping closer to Celestia. The Princess smiled and turned around. Facing the large door which had a small hole in the center. She stuck her horn into it and using magic she had unlocked the gem covered door. Stepping back a bit she let the door open on it's own. And within it was a blue chest covered in gems upon a stone altar. "Forget the Elements! Just look at the wonderful case!" Rarity said practically ready to grab the case and run off with it. "With these..." The Princess picked up the chest with her magic and lifted it in front of the group. "There is not a single doubt in my mind that you all won't be able to take down Discord!" She said as she opened the chest. Within in the lining of it was a pink velvet fabric. But nothing else. There were no Elements of Harmony with the chest. I stared and got off the wall, going back onto all fours. The entire group, excluding myself gasped as the Princess dropped the chest. Which only caused Rarity to throw in another gasp. "Welp, I'ma go outside with my large squiggly straw and have at it with the chocolate puddles!" Pinkie Pie said eager to trot away without any concern. [End Of Chapter]