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The World Holds Its Breath...2,059 words
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Great and Powerful?2,075 words
The Clouds Gather3,568 words
Five Trials of Harmony2,080 words

Five Trials of Harmony

The journey into the Rambling Rock Ridge was, at best; a rough one, and at worst near-impossible. The rocky, mountainous terrain had only grown worse in the days since Twilight's ascension to power; the land becoming twisted and jagged, old paths destroyed or blocked up by landslides, entirely new paths left unmapped and unexplored, as the risk was much greater than it had been before. Many a time, the six mares traveling narrowly avoiding being buried under an avalanche or stumbling off the dangerously thin patches of ground between them and certain doom. True; Fluttershy did help on many instances, and Scootaloo... Her lack of ability to fly was a curse that had been placed upon her since fillyhood, and even though her wings had grown much since those day; they were simply not powerful enough to lift her more than a few feet off the ground for a few minutes, the best she could get out of the appendages being a glide, which in and of itself had plenty of ups and downs.

Still; they persevered; carrying on through the rough environment and to the cave Fluttershy had visited once before. A puff of smoke from within carried with it a foul air, like the breath of a creature that didn't know how to brush, or in this instance; was too big to brush.

"Phew, for a big guy that eats gems, his breath sure smells awful." Babs commented as they approached, Sweetie Belle giggling at that little matter of fact, while Applebloom and Fluttershy cracked a smile.

"Right, then... This is it... So... Who wants to wake him up?" Scootaloo asked, shifting nervously.

"I will. Hopefully he'll recognize me, even after all the time that's passed." Fluttershy said, bravely stepping forward to the mouth of the cave, clearing her throat and standing firmly. "Hello... Spike?" She asked, her semi-whisper slightly louder in an effort to gain the attention of the creature within, a sudden and abrupt end to the infrequent puffs of smoke emerging from the cave and an awkward silence creating a shroud of tension.

Then he emerged from his resting place; a mighty serpent, a dragon so majestic and terrifying, yet as Spike rose from his slumber and brought himself out into the daylight for the first time in years; they could see in his eyes that some semblance of his old self still existed. To what extent, they couldn't be sure; for now all marveled at the dragon's impressive and a tad terrifying length and size; no longer the short and cute baby dragon, but rather; a proper, fully grown and proper addition to the reclusive species ponies had feared for generations.

The dragon turned his gaze down on the group that had gathered, stretching a little to work out the stiffness caused by inactivity. He then lowered his head to be more level with the ponies, looking them all over sternly initially, in a bid to appear more intimidating, though upon recognizing the group... "Finally, you're here! Celestia told me you'd come eventually... Her word was the only thing that kept me here for so long. You all look so... different." Spike said, happy to see friendly faces again after all the years of isolation in this old dragon's nest the Elements had visited so many years ago, evicting the previous tenant.

"You're one to talk, big guy." Scootaloo replied with a smirk, she and the others calming down some, satisfied that the mighty dragon still seemed to be the same spike they knew and loved back in Ponyville.

"Heh, well; Celestia did a good job making me as fierce and dragon-like as possible; even gave me wings! I didn't have wings last time, did I?" He asked, still not quite remembering what transpired during that instance where he had gone through a natural dragon-growth spurt rather than a magically induced one.

"No, I don't believe so." Fluttershy answered, drawing Spike's attention to her above all ponies.

"Fluttershy...?" Spike asked in disbelief, scooping the Pegasus up gently with a massive clawed hand, holding her level with his head. "Fluttershy; you were there with Twilight when... You know. Did she suffer? Is she in pain? I-is she still aware...?" Spike asked, knowing very well what had happened to his long-time friend and caretaker, at least according to what Celestia had told and shown him. It was difficult enough staying here to guard the elements and not take action to help bring such a close pony to her senses, and not knowing these things only made it that much harder, as he could draw his own conclusions, and even then he dreaded certain answered even more than the lack of an answer itself.

Fluttershy broke eye contact, not at all looking back on that day fondly, and she trembled with a mix of anger and frustration at her inability to do anything more than flee, and lament for her friends who had fallen to whatever dark energy had consumed Twilight in that cave. "Spike... I don't know if there's anything left of our Twilight in there. As far as I know, which isn't saying much; she seems to be doing this of her own free will... I can't honestly say, I wasn't there with her when..."

Spike set Fluttershy down, his eyes glazed with tears now. Holding a hand up signaling Fluttershy to stop, he wiped the offending liquid out of his eyes, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly, having come to terms that might get such undesirable answers. Still; the hope that his friends and acquaintances gathered here would pass the trials and become the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, just as Celestia had foretold, drove him onward. Focusing once more on the matters at hand; he looked over the others, aware that they had all lost somepony, or something, important to them as well during this time of troubles. Today would mark the beginning of the end of such a time, however; the great serpent retreated into his cave, leaving the others standing outside feeling varying degrees of confusion and sympathy for the dragon. "You can come in if you'd like..." He called out from within the cave, the six ponies making their way into the cavern one-by-one.

Spike had certainly done a lot with the place; carving tunnels and chambers into the mountainside, stockpiling mountains of gems he had recovered during his digging, and... Well, little more than that, really. It was still impressive to Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Babs, and Scootaloo; all of whom had never seen how a dragon lived before, at least not a proper dragon. Trixie, meanwhile, remembered a time she stumbled upon on old dragons horde; shuddering at the unpleasant memory of the place, which wasn't quite as abandoned as she'd thought. Still; she outsmarted the brute and fled with her life and a singed stub that was her tail, which took forever to grow back, it seemed. She never suspected she'd ever find herself in the lair of a dragon again, especially a friendly and familiar dragon.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, remembered this place; how she and her friends had forced the previous dragon that resided within this cave to leave, lest Equestria find itself covered by dragon smoke, which wasn't bound to end well for anypony. She smiled, looking back on Pinkie's attempt to make friends with the dragon through laughter; Rainbow Dash's hot-headed, full-frontal assault on the beast; and how she'd finally been the one to persuade the beast to leave using her "stare". Better times, for sure; though her thoughts were brought back to the here-and-now as they arrived in a chamber with six pillars, each of which contained one of the Elements of Harmony.

"Right; it's time to end this once and fer all!" Applebloom declared as she and the others approached the Elements, Spike suddenly positioning himself between them and the elements.

"I'm sorry, everypony; but I can't just hand you the elements." Spike said and five sets of stairs descended into the pillars containing five of the elements. "Well, except Fluttershy, of course; she's still the Element of Kindness, after all." Spike added, picking Kindness up off its pillar and handing the necklace to Fluttershy, turning back to the others. "Each of you have to face your own trial before the elements will become yours to control. According to Celestia; these trials will put you to the ultimate test, to determine whether or not you are worthy of bearing the Elements of Harmony. She never told me who gets which element, exactly; though she left a vague hint that the element you'll inherit used to belong to the pony who had the greatest impact on your life."

The five mares thought about this for a moment, some figuring out what this meant almost right off the bat. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom figured it was their sisters respectively; the two descending the stairs beneath Generosity and Honesty. Scootaloo determined Rainbow Dash not long after, standing above the stairs beneath Loyalty for a moment, before taking a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds as she descended into the darkness beneath the pillar, not knowing what challenges she'd face in her attempt to prove herself worthy, though her resolve to obtain Loyalty drove her forward, the young Mare disappearing into the darkness as her two friends before had.

Trixie, meanwhile, had an easy time determining her element through the process of elimination. Few ponies had ever really had greater impact on her than Twilight Sparkle; and her search being limited to an Element of Harmony made it so much easier for her to guess between Magic and Laughter. Standing on the verge of darkness, Trixie looked back once, and only once, before returning to the task at hand and making her way down to face the test that would determine whether or not she was worthy of inheriting Magic.

Babs, on the other hand, was left alone with the last element; laughter. "Wait... What? I don't even know the last pony who owned that! How could I..." She questioned, stopping for a moment and looking up at Spike, who shrugged; just as confused by the matter as she was.

"You never know; sometimes the most unlikely ponies are the greatest heroes. I admit; I never thought I'd be one to help save Princess Luna from her own demons, or help defeat and later befriend an ancient god of chaos who used evil and underhanded tricks to turn my friends and I against each other. Give it a shot, Babs; you might discover something about yourself you didn't know before." Fluttershy encouraged, leaving the final decision up to the young Earth Pony.

Babs thought about this for a while, wondering if she could ever possibly be a hero of the same magnitude... It was a ridiculous idea and the normally down-to-earth Mare knew she should have refused and walked away now, her cynicism urging her to turn away now rather than pursue some fantasy she knew might very well not be reality... But she had taken a chance on Fluttershy's letter back in Manehattan, why should this instance be any different? Her mind made up; she descended the stairs beneath Laughter, ready and waiting for what fate had in store for her as she made her way through the dark and, in all honesty, rather eerie hallways, dimly illuminated by a bright light on the opposite end, which she slowly walked towards, ears pinned flat against her head, torn between turning back and pressing on... But no; she'd come this far; best to see it through to the end... Right? If she had time to consider before, there was no more now; as the light began rushing towards her, consuming Babs and blinding her temporarily in an experience that was both frightening and odd at the same time, certain her friends and comrades were experiencing a similar phenomena as they pursued their own elements.

Author's Note:

Here you go, everyone; the latest update to Twilight's Corruption. I've also been working on earlier chapters; adding a bit more to Chapter 1, for example; and fixing minor spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. I hope you enjoy and I should have the next few chapters, covering the trials themselves, up within the week.

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