The Seventh Element.

by masorin

Prolog: An Element of Time.

Twilight coughed heavily for a moment, unceremoniously dropping to the floor, her wing hanging limply by her side. She was in pain; she’d been burnt and hindered, but she had made it. Her brother stood beside her, helping the alicorn princess as they made their way to the cave. Shining Armor's horn glowed for a moment and a large purple shield was cast over the entrance to the underground cave.

Despite the dire situation they were in, both, brother and sister smiled for a moment. "It's all over isn't it, Twily?" Shining's voice echoed through the stone cave. Everyone they had sworn to love and protect were gone. Shining let out a small groan due to the headache he was experiencing. This was maybe his fifth shield he’d cast today and it was taking a toll on him, his magic was running low and he didn’t believe he could hold up much more.

Twilight let out a small sigh, the box had been a one time trick, the castle that had grown out of it wasn’t able to do more than allow rule in times of peace, and these times were anything but peaceful and the worst part was, this was all her fault. Outside the cave, a fire roared through the Everfree Forest, even behind the magical shield she could feel the heat from those flames. She never could have believed that any of this was possible. Swallowing, she turned towards her brother knowing that there was only one way out of this situation.

"I have to go back." She said as her mind went off in thirteen directions at once. Everyone she had failed, everything she had missed, all the signs were around her, but she hadn't known it.

Shining blinked on hearing that. He hardly had the energy to move, "After all the sacrifices we made just so I could get you to this tree, you want to go back? Twilight, there isn't anything out there to go back to!"

Twilight shook her head, "I know, but..." She looked up at the tree, when the Elements had been removed from the Tree of Harmony, chaos had taken over in the Everfree. Life here had been different for over a thousand years, as the trees had grown, the winds had shifted and the weather changed all on their own. Independent of pony kind. Still, the tree had survived for almost a thousand years without the Elements, it could survive in this future without them. "I can still go back."

Shining Armor finally understood what she was saying. His wife and his little sister had both been fans of Star Swirl the Bearded's work. While Shining had often been more focused on his duties, he slowly grasped what Twilight was saying, "But Twily in your condition... that's a one way trip... No I can't let you! I already..."

Shining let out a pained groan as he tried to step forward, his concentration on the shield faltering for a moment but he was quick to stabilize it as he almost fell over. "I already failed once, I won't let you!" His voice weaker.

Twilight's mind had been made up since the moment she had set foot into this cave, her horn glowed and the Elements slowly came out of the tree. Looking at the familiar gems she let out a long sigh, they wouldn't be enough, but each one represented the best part of a friend she no longer had the ability to rely on. She had failed them all.

"It's okay Shining, we both failed. These won't be enough to make things right but it's a start." Twilight said as she brought the crystals close to her. Leaning over she kissed her brothers cheek, her eyes wet with tears. "Goodbye."

Twilight had seen this been done before, one pony using all six of the elements to amplify their magic. Twilight sighed as she focused putting forward the best of her friends as she remembered them. Channeling them through spirit, and magic.
Shining watched for a moment but was suddenly struck by a realization, "Wait what do you mean they won't be-"

As if to cut off Shining's words, there was a brilliant flash of light as Twilight's eyes glowed, wrapped in a rainbow of light as she focused and channeled her magic on the one time travel spell she knew. The pain was intensive, and the wind seemed to drown out everything around her, she closed her eyes and grit her teeth from the pain as reality seemed to warp around her, and then she was gone.

"-enough?" Shining Armor was left alone in the cave, falling backwards, confused and dazed for a moment. Twily was gone. The heat was getting to him and he was too fatigued to keep the shield up any longer. The pain was too much, and what was more was that there was pressure on the other side of the shield.

"Some royal guard I turned out to be." He muttered darkly, he had failed every single princess he had ever guarded, and in the end even as the last living member of the royal family for two different kingdoms he couldn't even guard himself. Turning towards the figure that came into the cave he said, "She's already gone." He coughs were accompanied by a little blood each time, wincing at the pain in his ribs. They were already at the point where they had nothing left to lose, so now, there was only one thing left that he could do. As the beast walked forward and raised it's arm for an attack, Shining steeled his resolve, "Cadence..."

~~~~

Lightning cracked outside Spike’s window and he jumped upright in his bed. His chest heaving for a moment as he woke up in what felt like a cold sweat. The pegasi had fallen behind thanks to Tirek's attack, and had allowed for nothing but sunny weather while the Earth Ponies and Unicorns around Ponyville had all pitched in to fix the houses that had been destroyed in the attack. The end result of that, however, was that the pegasi needed to create a heavy storm in order to catch up on the drought.

Spike’s door opened wide as a young Pegasus guard bolted inside the room and stood at attention, "Quick Quill reporting, Sir Spike! How may I be of assistance?"

Spike blinked, momentarily forgetting that even he had an assistant, now. The castle had been given a contingent of royal guards it’s own staff to do all of the cleaning and cooking that normally would have been his job, and what was more, the castle currently had a few refugees whose homes had been more than just damaged. Spike waved a claw as he got to his feet.

"I'm okay, I just need a glass of water." He said, fully intending on getting up and grabbing it himself, however Quick Quill was gone and back in a matter of seconds holding out a glass filled with water. He blinked and sighed taking up the cup and drank it. "Thanks."

Spike stretched, now that he was awake he certainly wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep anymore. The storm outside pattered against his window, creating a cascade of light that was illuminated with every passing lightning bolt. "I'm gonna take a walk... Please don't follow me."

"By your command, Sir Spike." Quick Quill replied and walked back to his post outside of Spike’s room. Spike, on the other hand, made his way down one of the many long hallways of the castle. It was a little surprising at just how large this place was, he still wasn’t used to it as he was constantly getting lost.

Almost by accident, he made his way down to the throne room. The round seating arrangement was a little odd, and among all the chairs that were around them there was one that seemed all the more odd. Why did a box with six locks, give them seven chairs? He walked to his own seat, he hadn't been anything special before, and in the moment it wasn't like any of the other ponies had been thinking of him, so why did the Tree of Harmony give him a seat?

He appreciated the sentiment, but it was all the more confusing, almost like there was a peace of the puzzle that was missing. Spike jumped onto the smaller seat, finding it rather comfortable. He was alone in the room, and as he sat down he looked at the back of his chair. No cutie mark was displayed on his chair, unlike the other six it was smaller, and it was right beside where Twilight would sit.

Normally when they used these seats it was just a place where Spike would take his notes, but why would the tree even care enough about the note taker, an assistant who never asked for anything on his own. Why did he get a seat?

As Spike gave it more thought, a cold wind blew through the throne room. He shivered slightly at the chill atmosphere and was momentarily blinded by the bright flash of rainbow light that appeared out of nowhere. Following the flash, a burnt and broken Twilight fell on to the castle’s floor, the Elements of Harmony dropping besides her and they were released from her hold.
Spike jumped to his feet, "Twilight!" He ran up to her, only to be pushed back by a weak hoof.

Twilight could hardly stay awake, her magic was drained, her body broken, and her spirit fading. She was dying Spike could see that, but didn't want to accept it, even as he was pushed back he could feel the wetness of blood on Twilight's hoof.

"Spike..." Twilight's voice was weak, as she looked up at him.

"Twilight! What's going on?" Did the girls go on some kind of adventure that he didn't know about? It wouldn't have been the first time. He looked at the Elements of Harmony, scattered around the floor.

"Spike... You have to take them." Twilight said referring to all of the Elements, but Spike’s legs wouldn't move. He was shocked, scared, and unable to move.

"Spike... Listen to me and take them!"

That did it, her screams nudged him into action and he started gathering the Elements of Harmony. His eyes were starting to water up at the sight of Twilight, all the while he was highly confused about what was going on. The last he’d seen Twilight was when she’d gone to bed. Now, here she was, looking like she was on Death’s door and he was afraid to even ask if she was going to leave him. His voice a little shaky, he asked, “Twilight, what’s going on?”

"Spike, listen I don't have a lot-" Twilight coughed violently, feeling a heavy pain in her chest. Wheezing for a moment as she felt blood pooling up in her lungs. "-of time. I'm from the future.. Three months..." Twilight collapsed, getting visibly weaker. Her body was failing her.

Spike stopped looking over the Elements and ran to Twilight's side, "I-It's going to be okay, Twilight, I can get you a doctor!"
Twilight's head brushed lightly against Spike’s as he held her up, "Spike, I'll be okay... Listen, the Elements... One is missing, and has been for a very long time. Stolen before Celestia ever removed it from the tree. Find it, Spike... I’m so tired.. Let me just.."

Spike held Twilight up, nodding slowly as he held her against him as she closed her eyes and slowly stopped breathing. Adrenaline had been the only thing really keeping her heart pumping, once she had delivered her message, there was nothing to keep the alicorn alive. Spike didn’t move, tears beginning to spring from his eyes.

"Spike, what’s all the..." Twilight stopped talking as she entered the room, her eyes going wide as she saw exactly who Spike was holding in the darkness. She gulped and just stood there, frozen as the guards behind her looked around in confusion.

Author's Note:

So I usually do cross overs, but I really wanted to do something a little different and with time travel. All while working with my all time favorite character Spike.

Really i was inspired by two different thing. One was the last episode of season 4 when i first noticed that Spike had a chair in the throne room, and Dr Wolf's chat about a 7th element of harmony. It's an idea I've wanted to play around with for a while and that is kind of how all of this got started. Updates will happen, but probably not more then once a week at the moment.

This chapter has now been edited for your reading pleasure.

Comments

[MasterSpike]

Spelling errors here and there, but other than that nice job! Gonna go ahead and follow this thing.

[Krazy Stargazer]

Sounds cool

[DARKPHANTOM13]

That is an interesting idea and I can't wait to see what you have in store for us.

[Rainbow of awesame]

nice story it was great so keep writing

[Flint Sparks]

Well, the title is far from creative (just use the google search bar on Fimfiction), but I have to give you props for the premise. Not bad at all.

[MegAnimefreakx3]

From the title I thought it was a Doctor Who crossover but other than that i liked it

[masorin]

4493676
I actually used to write Doctor Whoof cross overs, my first two stories revolved around the good doctor and the main six saving the day. I kind of got burnt out by the third story, and it's quality wasn't as good as i wanted so i took it down and stopped writing them.

4493316
Yeah the titles not as good as I would like either, but then again we are supposed to be talking about a mysterious seventh element of harmony so I thought it was fitting though I agree it's not very original. Hopefully the chapter names are a little better though I doubt it, naming things was never a strong point of mine.

[pendrake72]

@masorin...

1. Your story premise is good, but your fan-fiction is being dragged down by the noticeable amount of Technical Writing Errors (spelling, grammar, tense, format, etc.). I would strongly advise you recruiting an Editor &/or Proofreader(s).

2. For finding an Editor & Proofreader(s) here on FiMfiction site itself...
~ a. Looking for Editors
~ b. The Proofreader Group

As the general rule for literary writing, you should only have a single Editor, but you can have multiple Proofreaders.

[masorin]

4494967

Thank you for your recommendation. I do know my technical writing skills are not the best, and I didn't know that there was an editor group so I put up a request with them. I will certainly try make sure that my story gets the cleaning up it needs.

[NebulaNyx]

This looks like it could be the start of something great. Hopefully you can maintain this quality of writing all the way though. I wish you luck.

[NebulaNyx]

Hey a quick warning, The title is kinda spoilery, You might want to consider changing it.

[masorin]

4499787

While I do think my tittles are hardly original in the long run I don't consider the fact that this story revolves around a seventh element of harmony a spoiler of any kind. It is both in the short, and the long description of the story as well as mentioned in the first half of the prolog.

Now what the element entails, and why it's important that is slightly more of a spoiler, but while I am considering a tittle change I wouldn't really say that the tittle is spoiling anything for the reader.

[NebulaNyx]

4499845 fair enough. Authors decision after all.

[Nameless cow]

Hmm... Seventh element will be spike. Maybe he is the element of (scrapegoatism/suffering/betrayal/alienation/comic-relief/spare element/rebooted-loyalty/other)
^Joke^

Also... Could he be the beast mentioned in the first part of the story?

[Mazamba]

There's actually been a hint at a seventh element before the chair. When twilight was ascended, her astral cutie mark had six stars surrounding it, not five like her actual cutie mark does. Since her cutie mark has long been accepted to be a variation of the elements, I'd say this is a fairly good hint.

[Chicago Ted]

4880225
I did a little poking around, and I have to say, you're right. I shall now present the Evidence:

Exhibit A:
i.imgur.com/7BUQA0S.png

Exhibit B:
i.imgur.com/dFklZ2c.png

Exhibit C:
i.imgur.com/8Grqpvd.jpg

Exhibit D:
i.imgur.com/GKglfx9.png
(Check the tapestries in the background.)

All of these images were captured from the Season 3 finale.