My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition

by SuperPinkBrony12

Chapter 165: Seeking Darkness

The pillars accompanied Shining and the others back to Ponyville and were soon lead to the throne room to see the magical map that displayed all of Equestria. They were very impressed.

"Something about this map and this castle seems strangely familiar, as if I've seen it before," Starswirl pondered. "Hope you don't mind, but I wish to try something. It shan't take more than a moment."

Shining bowed his head. "By all means, go ahead. Just be careful not to accidentally deactivate it, Starswirl. We need that thing to work."

Starswirl lit up his horn and aimed a beam of magic at the map. The map responded with a shimmering glow and displayed a projection of the Tree of Harmony, a sight that the pillars had never seen before and the stallions hadn't seen since Tirek's defeat.

"Did you know he could do that?" Sunburst whispered.

Twilight nodded. "He's Starswirl, Sunburst. He can do anything he sets his mind to."

Meanwhile, the old wizard fondly proclaimed! "A-ha! I might have known it! This tree and by extension this castle have grown from the seed that we planted here over a thousand years ago!"

"Then it did work after all!" Rockhoof declared as he brought a hoof down on the table. "And you all had your doubts."

"I prefer to be a realist myself, we had no idea what it would do when we planted it." Starswirl politely responded.

"Hold on now, what are you talking about?" Sunburst wondered. "None of the stories about you mentioned anything about a tree."

Somnambula smiled as she explained. "It is really quite simple. Before we departed to Ponhenge, each of us infused a crystal seed with our magic. All in the hope that it would grow into a mighty tree."

"It was really my idea, though I shouldn't take all the credit for it," Mistmane replied in her aged tone of voice. "We were commissioned by King Michael and Queen Lauren to make a contribution to the castle in the Everfree Forest, they hoped to have their daughters move there when the time was right. As for us, we wanted to leave something behind to protect the realm in our absence."

"But we had no idea that our little seed would grow into somethin' so powerful and so magnificent!" Mage Meadowbrook fondly exclaimed! "It's truly taken on a life of its own."

Flash Magnus then declared. "And it seems the tree did indeed leave something behind for us to use. Those trinkets that hang on its branches, they must be quite powerful."

"They sure are. In fact, they're called the Elements of Harmony," Big Macintosh commented in response. "So I guess that means you six are the ones who created 'em in the first place?"

Soarin scratched his head. "But I thought the Elements of Harmony were meant to embody the virtues of Equestria's founders, and were the last gift of King Michael and Queen Lauren before they were felled in battle against Discord?"

The pillars all gave confused looks for they had not been around to witness any of this.

"You know, the things that form into necklaces and that big crown whatchamacallit that Shining wore," Braeburn told the pillars and proceeded to list each one in order. "Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic! Ring any bells?"

Somnambula gave a reply. "They are indeed reflections of attributes you could assign to the six founders of Equestria. But I suspect they are also a reflection of the elements we six were known for: Hope, Strength, Beauty, Bravery, Healing, and Sorcery. Most likely, when we were sent to limbo alongside The Pony of Shadows, the Tree of Harmony had to change the attributes into ones that could be wielded by the young sisters."

"I guess they ain't so young anymore if they've gone and kicked bad guy butts," Mage Meadowbrook commented. "I always felt off bein' the youngest of the group by a considerable margin. The rest of you were always so much older and wiser, made me feel like I was a child by comparison."

Mistmane laughed. "You should cherish your youth while you have it, Meadowbrook. Though I know I made the right call to give up my outer beauty to restore it to the land, there are days where I wish more than anything I could feel young again."

"For the record, I assure you I am quite young for my age! A part of me never fully grew up!" Somnambula boasted. "Yet from the way ponies tell the story of the sphinx, they make me sound like this battle hardened warrior. I tell you, that sphinx was but an ill behaved child without a proper mother. No fully grown sphinx would ever dare play such games. I'm just glad the part where it tried to imprint on me has been cut. For something so young, that sphinx could give quite the killer hugs. Lucky for me she liked playing games far more."

"Putting aside the issues of age," Starswirl coughed into a hoof. "We no longer need the power amplification of Ponhenge to perform the banishing spell. We can draw upon the power of the Tree of Harmony itself to do so," As he spoke, various dark swirls appeared on the map. "Our foe is a creature of shadows, so he will undoubtedly seek out places of darkness from which to draw power. That cannot be allowed to happen! I shall set to work on my banishing spell, so that we may strike as soon as you find him!"

But Braeburn protested. "I can already tell ya not to bother with that dark spot down in the desert. Those are the Appleloosan Wastes. At first they were pretty bleak, but ever since we settled things with the Buffalo that place has become a popular square dancin' destination! It's got quite the night life!"

"And that dark spot just a ways north from here is Manehattan, the city that never sleeps," Big Macintosh chimed in. "I should know, I've got plenty of relatives who live there. At night it can get so bright, you can't even see the stars."

"That doesn't even begin to mention the Ghastly Gorge," Thunderlane commented. "There's enough settlements there that light pollution is starting to become a real problem."

"So there are fewer dark places in Equestria than this map indicates," Starswirl concluded. "Even so, we should still investigate. Just because we know they're not very dark doesn't mean The Pony of Shadows does."

Flash Magnus then added. "And if we can catch him in a weakened state, we can stop him before he can do anymore damage. We may not even need a banishing spell to contain him."

"That would be ideal, but it's not going to happen if we just sit around here and discuss it!" Starswirl bluntly commented. "The time for talk is over! Each of you must fan out at once and look for any sign of The Pony of Shadows! If you find him, inform me at once!"

"It'll be an honor to save Equestria with you all!" Big Macintosh proudly declared, and then all left the castle except for a few ponies. Starswirl stayed to work on his banishing spell, while Shining Armor, Twilight, and Starlight decided it would be best to look for a possible alternative. Twilight didn't like the idea of having to send the pillars back to limbo after they'd just been freed. There had to be a way to keep them around.

Author's Note:

Back in 2016 when I started this universe's equivalent of Season 4, I established that the Elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony were actually tied to Celestia and Luna's parents, with King Michael and Queen Lauren being nods to Michael Vogel who used to be vice president of Hasbro and Lauren Faust who created the show.

Obviously, at the time I had no way of knowing "Shadow Play" would come along and finally offer an in-universe explanation as to the origins of the Elements of Harmony. But since it happened, I knew that was a contradiction I would need to address. While I was at it, I reckoned that with Braeburn and Big Macintosh being in the group, they would know right away what we found out in "Shadow Play" about places that used to be dark but aren't anymore (namely the Appeloosans Wastes and Manehattan).

Lastly, that bit towards the end with Somnambula is a reference to this fan comic. It was simply too good to pass up.

Now, for the next week (and thus the final week of updates) I will be doing things slightly differently. Since Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I'll be uploading a chapter a day through Wednesday. And when this arc is done, so too will the updates for 2018. I will not update again until roughly the second or third week of January 2019.

Comments

[GlimmerShine]

yseys eyfse quite good quite good i thorgualu enjoyge dthe smilies tand the amethaorhphros utilizes tind this partiuclar rhetowricla materspiece

[Comickook]

Excellent work on this chapter, as usual. In addition to the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up being, naturally, well done, I also liked how you addressed both the stories of the Elements' origin AND the canonically revealed explanation.

I'll very definitely be looking forward to the third act/final four chapters.

And Happy Thanksgiving in advance.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

9296109 What?

[Yoshifan30]

I do like How you gave the pillars like different personalities when they talk and I did read one of the official comic books of them pretty interesting too