Second Chances

by Detsella Morningdew

Chapter 1: Discovery

"Spiiiike!"

The dragon in question raised his head blearily from his pillow. He looked at the clock and sighed. "Twilight, it's four A.M."

Twilight brushed him off. "No time. We need to get the girls."

"Why? Like I said before, it's four A.M. None of them are going to be-"

"I think something's happening to the Elements of Harmony!"

"Um... what?"

"I said, 'I think something's happening to the Elements of Harmony!' What did you think I said?"

Spike groaned. "Nevermind."

Why couldn't she have this revelation at a more reasonable hour? Like, at noon or something.

-------------------------

About ten minutes later, they all stood at the edge of the Everfree Forest. That is, except for Spike, who was presumably back in bed.

A few of them (but mostly just Rainbow Dash) were grumpy at being woken up, but they quickly understood the severity of the situation once Twilight mentioned the Elements of Harmony. Well, that's not completely true. Pinkie Pie never did seem to understand seriousness, period.

"Whee! Let's go!" she said, starting to walk with an overly bouncy gait.

"Pinkie! This is serious! The Everfree Forest is dangerous!"

Applejack looked at Twilight incredulously. "Twilight, we've all done this many times before. If we all stick together, we'll be just fine."

"I most certainly agree," Rarity said approvingly. "As disgusting as the forest may be, the path to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is one of the safest places in here. Twilight, you worry far too much."

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. "And I can totally handle it even if it does get dangerous."

Rarity gave her a disapproving glare.

"Umm... I mean, we could totally handle it. That's totally what I meant."

Twilight sighed. "I suppose you're right. All of you. This whole thing is just making me so nervous. I mean, if something is powerful enough to affect the Elements of Harmony..."

"You never did explain that," Applejack pointed out. "How exactly do you know anything is wrong with them, anyway?"

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Oh, right. I didn't explain that. Sorry. Well, my connection to the Element of Magic felt funny."

"I didn't know you can feel the connection to your Element." Fluttershy said, confused.

"Neither did I," said Twilight. "I only noticed I could this morning, when it changed, all of the sudden.

"It didn't... break, did it?" she asked, worried.

"No," said Twilight, a bit confused herself. "It just... changed slightly. I don't know how to explain it. Sorry, I don't understand it myself. It seems like none of you are affected, which probably means it's only the Element of Magic involved. But if somepony else got a hold on even just one of the Elements, they could cause a lot of destruction. Which is why we need to hurry! Come on!"

Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight, confused. "Isn't that what I said just now?"

-------------------------

The six friends stood facing the Tree of Harmony.

Twilight gasped. "I was right? My Element is missing!" She frowned. "But who took it? Where is it now?"

"Um," began Fluttershy quietly. "There's somepony under the Tree, Twilight."

Twilight looked where Fluttershy was pointing. How had she missed that? It looked like a small white foal with a deep purple mane. Unconscious, of course. Probably didn't even know where the thief went.

Twilight became confused as her view of the foal was blocked by Fluttershy. Why would she try to do that-

Oh, wait, she's just trying to help it. Which I should probably have been doing a while ago instead of staring. Oops.

Twilight rushed over to help, examining it (or rather, him) for wounds. Suddenly, she gasped.

"What is it?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Is it bad?"

"Thief!" she shouted, pointing at his chest, which the others could see now had the Element of Magic embedded in it. Twilight's eye was twitching quite annoyingly. It made it harder to see the thief.

"Um, Twilight, you okay?"

"Give it back, thief!" Twilight, grabbing her Element in her magic, pulled hard.

"Twilight! What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash shouted, landing in front of her.

As Twilight had hoped, her Element came loose. She did not, however, expect the thief in front of her to glow brightly. Or dissolve into light.

No, she did not expect that.

The strange, rather solid-looking light flowed into the gem held in her magic, which grew slightly larger.

The six of them froze in shock. Then five of them turned sharply towards Twilight, who shrank away from their glares.

"Um... oops?"

-------------------------

"What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, Applejack, I just... sort of got caught up in the moment."

"'Got caught up in the moment'? Your'e an alicorn, Twi'. You can't afford to get 'caught up in the moment'. All right. Let's just assume for a moment that this was a perfectly normal situation, exactly like you assumed it was instead of... whatever that was. Say some villain got a hold of your Element and managed to stick it to himself. Do you really think it would be a good idea to just rip it off? It would have killed him, Twi'. Killed him." Applejack looked at the Element sitting on Twilight's dining room table. "Not to say you haven't already."

Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but shut it after a moment. She sighed, hanging her head. "You're right, Applejack. I wasn't thinking at all. I always knew that my mind could get away from me. I just never imagined it could be this..."

"Hey, Twilight!" Spike said cheerfully, coming down the stairs. "Back already? See, I told you it would be just fine... Wait, why is Twilight's Element on the table? Isn't it supposed to be in the Tree now? And where are the other Elements?"

"Why does everypony look so... sad? I've never seen Pinkie Pie's mane straight before."

Rainbow Dash looked to her left towards Pinkie Pie. Slowly, she edged away from her. "Hey, girls, cheer up!" she said in a voice clearly meant to be encouraging, but the fear in her voice kind of ruined the effect. "I-I'm sure he didn't, like, die or anything. Just got sucked into the gem. That makes him fine, right?"

Pinkie Pie's mane inflated slightly, along with her expression. "Y-yeah. Maybe it'll be okay. Maybe he can come back or something. Or he could be stuck there forever. But... but maybe that's fun, too. I've never been in a gem before."

Spike took a few steps backwards. "I think I'll let you girls handle it," he said, turning his body around to further expedite his escape.

He was a bit too late. The Element started glowing, rising into the air as the same tangible light surrounded it, taking the form of a unicorn foal, who fell back on the table with a loud "thunk".

And so he woke for the first time.

The first thing he saw was the face of the purple alicorn he knew so well.

"Mommy!"

Six mouths dropped open. One dragon fell in a dead faint.

"What?!"

-------------------------

Rarity spoke first. "Twilight, I never knew-"

"Because I didn't."

"Oh." She seemed oddly disappointed.

Well, I don't know why he thinks I'm his mother, but this is getting a bit too weird. I think Celestia needs to know about this. She knows more about the Elements of Harmony than anypony alive."

"But who's going to take care of him until then?" Fluttershy asked, worried.

"I will, of course," said Twilight, surprised. "He thinks that I am his mother. The logical course of action, therefore, is to have him stay with me, the pony he is most familiar with."

"Um... not to be rude or anything, Twilight, but... I don't really think you know everything that comes with that."

"What? Of course I do. I have read numerous books on that subject," she said, as if this proved her point.

Pinkie Pie shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no, no. Books are one thing, Twilight, but this requires experience. It wears you out, Twilight. Even me."

"It's okay, Pinkie. I'm fine getting behind on my studies a bit."

"No, no, no. Nononono. Twilight, this would mean zero study time. Zero. Trust me."

"Why are you all so sure I can't handle it?" Twilight said, irritated. "You know what? I am going to take care of little Nova here. And I am going to be fantastic at it."

Rarity leaned over and whispered in Pinkie's ear. "Did she just name him?"

Pinkie grinned madly. "Yep."

Rarity looked at Pinkie Pie with an appraising look. "Did you just-"

"Yep, I sure did. I just had to make sure. If it wasn't, that would be bad for everypony involved."

"I never do give you enough credit, Pinkie." They all watched as Twilight frantically prepared for the new member of her "family".

Twilight looked up at her five friends, all watching her. "You know, you can all go now if you want. I'm sure you have better things to do."

Rarity broke out of what looked like a trance. "Oh, of course, dear. Come on, girls. Let's leave our new mother to her work." The five of them left, entering the streets of Ponyville, now busy with the morning rush.

Now alone, Twilight finally appreciated the weight of her decision.

What did I get myself into?

-------------------------

Nova was, quite simply, the easiest foal to take care of. He never seemed to cry, slept soundly, and was at just the right age to handle solid foods. Well, it was slightly worrying that he wasn't speaking yet, but it wasn't that unusual to be this late. And if Twilight was correct, he was just made less than a day ago. Quite understandable.

Soon enough, however, and perhaps sooner than she would have liked, it was time for her appointment with Princess Celestia. Of course, Celestia had reminded Twilight that she no longer needed an appointment to see her, but she insisted that she should wait until Celestia had time free.

Which she did now. In fact, the royal chariot was already outside. For her transportation.

She would never get used to that. She much preferred the train.

Nova stayed completely silent the entire way. That was getting a bit worrying. He had barely made a sound the entire week.

Well, he is the Element of Magic. Not exactly a pony. More like a rock. A sentient rock.

But under that reasoning, he should have the knowledge and experience of centuries. So what is he?

I suppose that's the reason why I'm meeting with Celestia. She found the Elements of Harmony in the first place. Not to mention figured out how to use them by herself. She'll know what's going on.

-------------------------

"I have no idea what is going on here."

Twilight facehooved. So much for that idea.

"This should not be possible."

Twilight looked back up at her mentor. "What do you mean?"

"The Elements of Harmony have a limited intelligence, true, but they aren't really... alive. They have magic, but no wellspring. No real life. Nova here does. He isn't just the Element of Magic. Life has to come from a source."

"All right. I think I get it. But why is that impossible. Sure, it's unlikely, but it seems perfectly possible, if difficult."

"The Tree of Harmony is the only entity capable of such an act, but doing so just wouldn't make sense. It would be going against the Tree's character."

"Why?"

"To take a wellspring from a pony..." Celestia shuddered. "It would be worse than murder. The only possible way for it to happen would be terribly unlikely."

"What is it?" asked Twilight, now apprehensive.

"If the pony was already dying. The wellspring would still be there. Taking it like this would be possibly the only way to save their life."

"Hmm... as a theory, that might work. Still, it's incredibly improbable."

Their thoughts were interrupted as Discord appeared out of thick air. "Do my ears deceive me? Did somepony say something doesn't make sense? Where is it?"

"Huh?"

Discord looked around. And asquare. His eyes rested on the white foal standing directly in front of him. Discord picked his eyes back up, shoved them back in his face and looked at it in horror.

"What happened to you?"

Twilight spoke up. "That's just what we were discussing. Our initial theory was that-"

"I mean, it just stripped away anything that was interesting about you!"

Twilight stared at Discord, forgetting that she should probably be annoyed at his interruption. She realized suddenly that she had never actually seen him angry before. Sure, he was annoyed plenty of times, but this... this was new.

Discord looked at Nova intently, snapping his fingers. There was a flash of light, and his coat suddenly turned pitch black. He grew suddenly, aging several years.

Twilight looked at Discord accusingly. "What was tha-"

Suddenly, Nova collapsed to the ground. There was a flash of anger from the two Princesses, but it faded as he climbed back to his feet, apparently unharmed. He shook his head dizzily.

"Whoa... that was weird."

He turned towards Discord gratefully. "Thanks! That's a lot better!"

Twilight gaped.

"See?" Discord said smugly. "Somepony appreciates what I do."

Nova looked at himself. "Huh?"

Comments

[Detsella Morningdew]

For anyone following this story, I'm going to busy this week and even more the next week, due to an All-Europe band concert that I am in. There is a chance that I can get a chapter out before this weekend, but next week, it will be absolutely impossible to do anything. I'm sorry, it's especially painful, as I already have a lot of the story written down, if not on a computer. It just takes a while to transcribe and edit it. After next week, though, it should be more consistent, at least one or two chapters per week. I hope. Again, I apologize. I'm getting ready for college, and everything is so hectic, especially with moving everything (I live in Germany currently).

Anyway, thank you for your patience, and I hope you at least enjoy the part of the story that is out already. (Trust me, it gets better.)

[Detsella Morningdew]

7013520 I quite understand your thinking. I was considering making a change like that, but I decided to go with my initial age. I know quite a few people who knew that sort of thing at 8 years old, while still being emotionally immature enough to run away.

Also, he was a bit more... logical about running away, not just going off in a fit of anger, but planning it out, and having a very specific purpose for leaving (even though that reason was still immature).

Let me know if this makes sense to you. If it's confusing, or just not evident enough in the story, I might change the age like you suggest.

Thank you very much for your feedback, and please let me know if anything else is unclear or confusing.

[Mix-up]

this is a surprisingly good story so far, at first is really had a beginner child writing vibe to it, but when I saw that the kid, how thought that he was so smart by reading up on survival in the forest book and then underestimating the amount of physical labor that he was just not used to, got my attention. I also like that you managed to bring out on the forefront your characters flaws of biting more than they can chew and manage to make joke or gag about it surprised me. I like the childish style of writing that you have and I hope you will keep on writing like that for the rest of the story.I loved how Twilight overreact about the foal of trying to take the element of magic away from him, I don't think that anyone would have guess that the colt would have disappear like that, but still Twilight needed to be scolded for her brashness, and that after her reappear she takes him as her son, talk about flipflop. I am curious to know why Discord had to tamper with the colt in order to restore mind back to normal, and not the Tree of Harmony couldn't? I wander if Twilight will show off the colt to her parents, I would expect them to be very shockingly surprised by the news, and I thing that whey would be event more surprised if Discord play it off as being the father to them just to screw with them. Still, I wander if the boy can ever comeback to his family, I supposed so but I don't think that he could return as a human or that his family wouldn't accept him again as he is wholly unrecognizable to them or that he could only hope to expect to be hidden away from the rest of the world, for his own security because of his form. I wander why he has the element of Magic embedded in him?