Unknown Location
Darkness. It was dark. It was so dark that nothing could be perceived with sight alone.
“Stand down.”
The voice was like gravel, but calm and to the point. It came from everywhere.
A set of glowing orange eyes flared to life, glaring into the darkness with both anger and betrayal.
“They need our help. I thought you of all beings would agree with me.”
“I do. I agree completely that Equestria needs help. But you do not see what the Council, and I, can see.”
A brief burst of flame heralded of snort of derision. “And what does the group of fossils see from their cushy chairs in the clouds?” the younger voice asked in sarcasm.
“Help has already arrived in Equestria. It seems young Celestia’s pupil has returned. The Aether trembles at her rage.”
The glow of the orange eyes dims, and they take on a look of surprise. “Little Twilight? I see… Her power has reached that point already?”
“… She will handle Equestria. Return.”
The eyes narrowed. “You know I hate when you’re being vague, right?”
“Return. Now.”
A sigh. “Fine. But if Equestria is destroyed because of our inaction, I will not be happy.”
“Noted.”
SBSBSB
Equestria
The Everfree Forest
Twilight travelled with her new companions silently. It had been roughly an hour since the seven of them had entered the forest, and so far not much had happened. The six ponies had introduced themselves to Twilight, and her to them in turn, but silence had pervaded since.
Twilight didn’t mind though. She could feel Sunset’s annoyance, and was just waiting for the mare to snap and start demanding answers again. She was holding back a grin, especially since she could periodically hear Sunset’s teeth grinding. And after her minor blow up against the unicorn, Twilight knew she was angry enough to lash out physically. She enjoyed a good fight just as much as the next person, but Tartarus and Equestria had differing ideas of leniency in terms of violence.
Winding others up was fun though. It had benefits as well. For one, it made them sloppy in a fight.
She would have wound up the others, but not only was Sunset easier to annoy just by being silent, but something made her hesitate. The more time she spent with these mares, the more her instincts were telling her something odd was going on. Not wrong, just… odd.
The feeling was especially potent with Rainbow Dash. Something about the rainbow-maned pegasus just felt familiar to Twilight, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.
“Gragh! Why won’t you say anything?!” Sunset suddenly yelled, startling the other five ponies, as well as a few birds in the trees.
Twilight glanced at her over her shoulder, eyebrow raised. “You realize yelling like that will just draw the attention from the predators in the forest, right?” she asked with a smirk.
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were the only ones that didn’t give Sunset a stern look. Sunset was decent enough to at least act sheepish.
“Now, what exactly do you want me to say? I need specifics if you want questions answered.”
Sunset gathered her thoughts. “What are the Elements of Harmony exactly, and what’s your connection to them?”
Twilight shrugged. “According to the Princess, I was apparently supposed to be the bearer of the Element of Magic before my little dimensional road trip. Now she says I can’t use it anymore because of how much said trip changed me.” She motioned to her body to emphasize her point. “As for what they are… that’s a little difficult to explain. The Princess said they were Conceptualized Artifacts, each Element embodying a different concept and drawing power from said concept. The more their bearer aligns with that concept, the stronger the Element is.”
Rarity frowned as Sunset mulled over that. “Wait. How can the concept of Magic itself be distilled into a Conceptualized Artifact? It’s too vague,” she asked.
Twilight shrugged again. “I don’t know. When I asked, she decided then was a good time to start being vague. If I had to guess I’d say it’s not actually magic that’s the concept, and that the name is a play on words. If that’s the case, it could be anything depending on when the Elements were created, as different types of magic were considered the strongest type at different times in history.”
“What are the other Elements?” Applejack asked.
Twilight started counting off her fingers. “Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Generosity,” she listed off.
Everyone hesitated for a moment, before, surprisingly, Fluttershy spoke up. Sort of.
“U-um… those sound… nice?” she mumbled, ducking her head within her long mane in response to everyone paying attention to her.
“I believe what Fluttershy is trying to say is that the Elements don’t sound like weapons at all,” Rarity pointed out.
“Yeah! Those don’t sound like things you’d take into a fight with you,” Rainbow Dash added, and then paused. “Well, aside from Loyalty. Gotta be loyal to something to fight for something.” She shot a smile at Fluttershy.
Twilight shook her head. “I thought they were weapons too, but the Princess says they’re not. They’re supposed to be some kind of “Equalizers that enforce balance”. Those were her words, not mine,” she added.
Everyone exchanged glances. “Well… they are called the Elements of Harmony, and harmony is a balance between two or more forces, so… maybe they would weaken Nightmare Moon if we used them on her, making her equal to us?” Sunset offered, now honestly considering how concepts such as those could be so powerful as to defeat a maddened Alicorn.
She had expected something like The Element of the Assassin, or the Element of the Guardian, or even the Element of the Berserker. Things that were useful in a fight, or at least useful in survival. Those sounded like, well, flowery little girl fantasy things.
Twilight came to a halt almost on a bit, bring the ponies following her to a stop as well. She held up her hand. “Hang on,” she said quietly. “I hear growling.” Her other hand reached for her sword.
At that moment, a large blur burst from the foliage to the group’s left, charging straight for Twilight. Twilight quickly reacted by batting the blur to the side with the flat of her blade. Small though the sword may be, combined with a solid grip, solid footing, and liberal amounts of reinforcement magic, it was almost child’s play to hit something like that as if it was a baseball.
The blur slid to a stop on clawed paws, revealing itself as very angry looking Manticore. The ponies gulped, realizing they were on the menu.
Twilight just grinned.
The Manticore roared, nearly creating a concussive wave from that act alone, and lunged for Twilight. The human/pony hybrid whirled around the paw swipe, her sword flashing out and neatly severing it.
Fluttershy wasn’t the only one to gasp as the Manticore’s severed paw hit the ground, twitching. The Manticore itself gave a roar, but its gaze oddly remained fixated on Twilight.
“Not ready to give up?” Twilight asked, still grinning. “Alright.” She lowered her stance, bracing herself. “Come on then,” she taunted.
“…stop…”
The Manticore made another lunge at her, and Twilight once more seemed to dance out of the way, her sword flashing into motion. The Manticore proved capable of learning however, ducking to avoid the swing. Its eyes glinted, and Twilight found herself frantically pulling her sword back in front of her to block another swipe.
Then its scorpion-like tail lanced in from over its shoulder, aiming for Twilight’s head. She jerked her head to the side, barely avoiding it, and pushed away before it could try again. She slid to a stop, but didn’t immediately charge back in, the Manticore doing the same.
“…Stop…”
Twilight frowned, eyeing her foe critically. She had assumed it was just an instinct driven predator looking for a quick meal, but it proved to be intelligent… and intelligent predators don’t focus on other predators. They go after the sick and feeble.
Something wasn’t right here.
“STOP!!!”
The shout from Fluttershy was so unexpected that even the Manticore seemed startled… but unfortunately it recovered quicker than anyone else, turning its gaze on her. With a roar, it darted for her and closed in, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight and aimed straight for her neck.
Fluttershy only had a moment to realize she was in danger. Everything around her slowed to crawl, and she saw the most important moments of her life flash through her mind.
With a clarity that only came with the knowledge that you were about to die, she realize she regretted a lot. She had spent her entire life hiding from the world, terrified of what it would bring to bear against her. Her family had always been there for her, and always encouraged her to face the world bravely... but she never could. She could barely even fly five feet off the ground, she was so scared something would go wrong, let alone around a city in the sky. It was a wonder she survived.
In the end, she just could never find a reason to be brave. Oh, plenty of reasons came her way, but they were the reasons of other ponies. They wanted her to be brave for their own reasons, selfish or not. She tried using those reasons, but it never stuck. Her father wanted her to be brave because he wanted to see his baby girl succeed. Her mother wanted her to be brave because she wanted her daughter to not fear opportunity. There were more, but they all ended the same.
They never fit.
In time, ponies began to think she was some kind of defect, a failure of a pegasus. This, of course, led to the bullying. Flight School for Fluttershy was an exercise in determination more than anything... and she often found herself lacking even in that. Most days she stayed away from ponies, and on some days she didn't even go to school, too scared of the bullies to try.
And then Rainbow Dash came along. Without any hesitation, the polychromatic mare just started defending her. She didn't ask for anything in return, other than friendship, and she never told Fluttershy to be brave. She just accepted her for who she was, fear and all. Fluttershy became her friend with an ease that still surprised her sometimes, and she knew she would never deny the rainbow maned pegasus anything. She owed her all the kindness in the world for just being there for her in ways even her family couldn't. She had actually once asked her how she could pay her back, and Rainbow Dash had only said she just wanted her to "stay you, Fluttershy".
But then the Cloudsdale Incident happened, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had to drop out of Flight School and leave Cloudsdale altogether. Rainbow Dash had been on the fast track to success, being the star athlete. And just like that, it was gone. Her one shot at her dream of being a Wonderbolt went up in ashes in the span of one hour.
And Fluttershy never forgave herself.
As those incredibly sharp teeth drew closer, Fluttershy closed her eyes.
Rainbow Dash didn't need a scaredy-pony holding her down. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe... this was the best kindness Fluttershy could give her friend.
"I beg to differ."
Fluttershy's eyes snapped open, and time reasserted its hold on reality.
"FLUTTERSHY!!!"
The Cloudsdale icident?
Sorry do i need to reread the story been awhile.
Or will it be revealed in the future chapters?
ehhh sorry.
There's a special spot saved for you on the gallows.
7751137 No no, you didn't miss anything. It's just me building up Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's backstory.
Uh oh...
7751147 i still hope twi gets the element of magic not sunset or i shant be happy
7751143 It's right next to the spot for people that like Flash x Twilight.
*giggles* i bet you can't guess why i'm giggling
Not much I can say other than, excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. And, if you say it's important to both plot and character development, I'll at least give you a fair chance before breaking out the rope. :-D At any rate, I will definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
Eh, a little part of me dies inside with every anthro story, but it's my own damn fault for reading them
Seems well-written so far, and it's got an intriguing story, so I'll give it a follow. Thanks for sharing, and I hope it continues to surprise me!
7751750
Don't work it is only Twilight that is anthro like. Everyone else is still a pony.
Interesting very interesting. I thought that Celestia hadn't told Twilight that she was a potential bearer for Magic. Now I will say it fits that Fluttershy is somewhat suicidal and let's see where you take her! If anyone complains just politely listen while making your ultimate plans.
You deserve a fate worse than tarring...
*chains you up in Pinkamena's basement and locks the door behind me after she comes in*
*Ender gets his red hot sword* Don't you just love the screams?
Rather dark. Maybe fitting. Interesting development, do continue.
Twilights gonna shoot tht manticore. I can see it comming.
So Sunset will get the element? Or are you simply misleading us?
Nice chapter.
7761094 Let's just say Celestia could give Lelouch a run for his money.
7761125 Nopony can reach Lelouch's level...
...thought Trollestia may make a close second.
7751228
We're already swerving around the canon storyline in this AU so Twilight getting that Element of Magic is a bit iffy. It would not surprise me if during the Rainbow Fireworks it also targets her as well as Nightmare Moon, blasting them both. Nightmare Moon returning to just Luna while Twilight is restored to her unicorn self. It's been twenty years for her since she had a horn and the sudden loss of hands after fifteen years could lead to some very awkward stumbling about, not to mention having to remember how to use her horn-- and not rear up, pointing her hooves at things in order to cast spells... which looks rather silly.
Pretty sure Sunset won't get the Magic Element, she's got a rotten attitude, isn't good friends with any of the others, isn't as good at magic as Twilight is, and plans on bailing from Equestria the moment this whole disaster is over.
The only confusing detail I have is Twilight's current form. Is she still a centaur based on Tirek's design or did she go fully humanoid? I remember the past chapters telling us that Tirek changed her into a centaur but we're never told when she was made humanoid, "like a minotaur" as one pony says it after she arrives in Equestria. It just seems to happen like a quick off-scene change. Surprise!
7763282 i think she is more anthro so bipedal pony bottom human top but still with coat
7763282
7763303
There is so much I want to say, but I have to limit myself to just reconfirming that Sunset will not, I repeat, Sunset will not be chosen by the Element of Magic.
Take from that what you will.
7764088 Possibly, it has to do with the fact that Equestria is currently under siege by shadow monsters that have so far proven much more malevolent than Twilight.
Just a guess.
I could be wrong.
7763303
Ah, so more like a dryad of sorts? I personally have no problem with it, just need to be kept in the loop with the rest of the cast as to what I'm supposed to be seeing versus what I remember last. It's a tricky thing to handle when characters physically change so dramatically. In a graphic novel, it's right there, but when you're limited to text, things can be forgotten weeks and months between chapters. (Or years in the case of some stories on this site like Quantum Castaways)
7764392 i know that feeling im waiting for quantum to read the latest still fun as fuck there plan
*cracks neck*
Get your tar here! Got tar and feathers here!
Delete those apostrophes, m8
8255982
Fixed! Nice eyes, I had completely missed it.
Slightly suicidal makes sense to me.