Living Elements of Harmony: Neo Elements

by Intellect Stretcher

Suspicion

The dawn of the following morning came quickly to bring about a new day. The birds chirping outside were noisy and the sun extra bright to the lavender mare barely awake in her bed. She lay on her bed on top of her sheets, apparently she was just rested on her bed and the blanket was poorly placed over her, maybe that’s why she is so cold. She seriously regrets letting herself open her eyes to such blinding light with such a monstrous pain in her head. It was as if she was struck with a sledgehammer.

“Aaaah, my head,” she moans in pain as she tries to somehow sit up from her bed. She sat on her bed with her hooves over her eyes to block the sun’s horrible light. As she rubs her head to ease its pain she wonders, “What happened last night?” she tries to remember, but can’t really think of anything. She could only recall meeting up with her friends at the party; the rest is a blur. She’s worried to the fact she can't remember much, “I really hope nothing too wild happened last night.”

She tries to look around her room, but then when she turned her head to the right at the window she stops before her eyes were burned any more than they already were by the stinging light. Then she suddenly had a smell waft past her snout. “What the,” she sniffs the air, “…muffins?”

Curios to investigate the smell and trying to get used to her morning lethargy, the lavender pony gets up from her bed and tries not to lose balance as she makes her way downstairs.

When she got to the kitchen she expected Spike to be baking some breakfast, not Midnight Shine.

“Good morning, Twilight,” said Spike who was sitting at the table eating some muffins, “good to see that you’re okay.”

“Uh, what’s happening?” Twilight asked.

Turning his head to face the awakened mare, Midnight used his magic to levitate a new tray of muffins out of the oven and set it on the counter.

“Well I came to see if you were alright,” said the colt, “after all you were the drunkest one there, so I did have to bring you home myself,” he chuckled.

Twilight let her squinted eyes widen, “What! What happened last night?” she used magic to teleport herself in front of Midnight, surprisingly he didn’t even flinch to the sudden action made by the purple unicorn. Ignoring the pain from her sudden use of magic with her headache, Twilight continued, “Did I do anything crazy?”

“Relax, Twilight,” he said softly, “you might have been wasted but nothing happened trust me.”

Twilight’s skeptical look on her face meant she wasn’t convinced.

Midnight continued, “You can even ask Spike,” he said pointing his hoof at the dragon.

Twilight turned her head to see if Spike did have anything to say.

“He’s telling the truth, Twilight. He didn’t do anything even though you were the one who wanted him,” said the normally innocent dragon, “and boy were you drunk…” he whispered silently before continuing to nibble on the muffin he’s eating.

“What do you mean I was the one who wanted him?” the mares tone almost angry.

“Ya see here’s what happened,” Midnight and Spike began to explain…

--

Spike is alone in the library cleaning up after the mess Twilight and Pinkie made with the delivery packages. Frustratingly sweeping the floor and picking up the boxes, he started to let talk to himself.
“Jeez,” he says to himself, “you think they would be able to clean up all these packing peanuts if they can put away all those books; I should be asleep by now!”

Eventually he finishes cleaning up and heads to the bedroom to finally get some rest. When he gets there he could barely keep himself standing, “hello, old buddy,” he says as he lets himself fall on his pillow and blanket. He snuggles, rolls himself around in his blanket, and finds a good position before he finally laid still. He sighs thinking he’s done for the night and can finally rest…

Suddenly he heard the front door swing open and bang against the wall,

“Spikey!!” shouted a familiar voice. The unexpected noise frightened the baby dragon and was frustrated to have to go see what’s happening.

“Wow, w-what the, ugh! Twilight?” Spike rushes downstairs.

He gets to the top of the steps to find Twilight on the bottom of them bobbing as she walks with a silly look on her face. Next to her was a gray unicorn with a blue and black mane; he however seemed fine and carried a smirk on his face.

“Oh hi Shpikey! I’am home from the party!” Twilight shouted with a slurred voice trying to look up at Spike.

“So you’re the baby dragon I’ve been told so much about, nice to meet you,” stated the gray colt.
“Uh hi,” Spike said nervously as he slowly travels to the bottom of the stairs, “you must be the new colt everypony’s talking about, Midnight Shine, right?”

“Yup!”

“Well it’s nice to meet…” Spike notices Twilight’s wobbling her body from side to side, then she loses stability and would’ve fallen if Midnight didn’t catch her, “what’s up with Twilight?”

“Oh right, well Twilight is-” he stops for a few chuckles, “well she’s wasted.” He laughed a little more and hiccupped after speaking.

“… Are you drunk too?” asked the confused Spike.

Midnight’s smile shrinks a bit, “Sort of, but don’t worry I can still kinda think straight,” he then lifts up Twilight’s right front leg and puts it over the back of his neck and she leans on him, “but right now let’s get this one to bed before she passes out and hits the floor or somthin.”

“Alright,” Spike goes to give support to the other half of Twilight’s body, “let’s go Twilight.”

Midnight and Spike take Twilight up stairs, but while going up the steps the mare couldn’t help but speak her immediate thoughts.

She looks to her left down at Spike. “Shpikey, y-you know you’ll always be my best frwend and number one ashistent; Owluispish sgot nothing on ya!”

Spike couldn’t help but smile at the comment, even if Twilight was drunk while saying it.

Twilight hiccupped and then turned to her right up at Midnight, “and you, are a very handshome colt! Take me to the bedroom!”

Instantly Spike bursted in a chain of laughs meanwhile Midnight’s face turned completely bright red.

“Sorry Twilight,” he said, “but I aint that kind of colt.”

“Aww, come on!” whined the mare.

“Sorry but I don’t think you’ll like that when you wake up tomorrow.”

“Your lose!”

Eventually they made it the bedroom a laid Twilight on the bed. She almost immediately passed out and went to sleep. Midnight levitated a blanket over the sleeping mare then he and Spike started walking back downstairs.

“Wow I haven’t seen her that drunk in a very long time, and rarely does she wobble like that,” remarked Spike.

“She does this often?”

“Very…”

--

“So that’s what happened,” Midnight announced, “still don’t believe me?”

Twilight, who was now sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, had the look of shocking embarrassment and her face became a tint of bright pink that would make even Pinkie Pie jealous.

“I did not really say that, did I?” she asked nervously letting her eyes wonder and head sink into her shoulders.

“Why would we lie to you, Twilight?” Spike responded as he took another bite of his muffin, “and besides you should be grateful Midnight isn’t like most colts.”

Twilight took a moment to think and look at the honorable colt sitting across the table from her.

“I suppose so…” she softly says, but after a quick stare she quickly turns her mood back to an interrogative tone. “But that can’t be the only reason why you’re here,” she smiled again before continuing, “or are you just that thoughtful?”

Midnight chuckled and gave smile. “Well I did come here for a copy of that book I lost,” he started, already Twilight’s question was answered as she remembered, “but then I looked around in the library and found a few more books I would like to check out too.”

“Oh… well that’s great,” Twilight understood that feeling completely, “is there any other reason?”

“Well I guess you can say I’am that thoughtful.”

Twilight’s smile grew and so did Midnight’s. They remained for a few moments looking at each other with dreamy eyes, and they didn’t even notice Spike doing a gaging motion with his claw and tongue.

-----

Meanwhile at Sugar Cube Corner, the rest of the mane six are sitting together trying to get over their hangovers. All except for Pinkie Pie, who astonishingly was already past her headaches.

“Wow, that was an awesome party!” she shouted as she suddenly popped out of her seat and leaned herself over the table, her friends in response all groaned in pain.

“Pinkie please not so loud,” Rarity whined while placing her hooves over her head and ears, “some of us are hungover.”

“Yay,” added Rainbow Dash, “how can you be such a light weight and yet we have never seen you with a headache, Pinkie?”

“Oh don’t bother askin her that,” Applejack remarked as she kept her head laid on the table not moving and next to Fluttershy who was doing the same, “it’s already a mystery to us how she does what she already does…”

“Ugh,” Rainbow sighed then leaned on the table to rest her head on her hoof.

Ignoring the reaction her friends made Pinkie continued to show her typical cheerfulness.

“Anyways I had fun, how about you?” she asked addressing the four of her friends, who now seemed excited to talk.

Applejack and Fluttershy lifted their heads up,

“You darn right we had fun,” Applejack eagerly announced.

“I had fun,” said Fluttershy, voice like a soft loud whisper.

“I suppose I enjoyed it too,” Rarity absently remarked.

“Heck yeah it was awesome,” proclaimed Rainbow, “and I have to say, never have I imagined anypony would ever beat me in a drinking contest!” admitted the usually proud cyan pony.

“Neither did I, nopony here in Ponyville or Cloudsdale had ever gotten close,” added Fluttershy.

Applejack chuckled, “Just goes to show you how great of a pony Midnight Shine turned out being,” she looked around at her friends who all nodded in agreement, “it’s always good to make a new friend,” everyone in the table smiled and nodded.

“Hey where is he anyway?” asked Pinkie.

Rainbow was willing to give an answer, “I haven’t seen him since he and…,” she came to a realization mid-sentence, “he and Twilight went to the library…”

Everypony in the table gained expressionless faces, even Pinkie Pie. It went silent for a moment, until Rainbow’s bravado gained momentum. “Well I’m proud of that egghead,” she admitted, “finally she got some.”

Rarity seemed disgusted by what the cyan mare said, “Rainbow Dash, I find it appalling that you would say such a thing, I can assure you Midnight is not that kind of colt.”

“I have to agree,” added Applejack, “Twilight might’ve been out of it, but Midnight was not that drunk.”

Rainbow seemed surprised that her friends would protest so truculently to her mostly joking remark, but she couldn’t help but to keep the conversation on the subject.

“Come on, think about it, they’re both so much alike: they are both unicorns, both from Canterlot,” she started.

“They’re good with magic,” added Fluttershy.

“They’re smart and like reading,” said Pinkie

“Exactly,” Rainbow finished, “and they both have…” the cyan mare had readied another point to her argument, but then when she realized it she started wondering about it, “…uh this might sound stupid and I mean really stupid but… what was Midnight’s cutiemark again…?”

Everyone sitting at the table went silent; they all started to wonder the same thing. They all looked to each other and gave either shrugs or remained quiet and moved to gaze at the next pony. They were all confused and disoriented to the fact that not a single one came up with an answer to the question. The silence became awkward until Applejack felt like speaking what she and all her friends were thinking,

“How is it that not one of us has taken time to see Midnight’s cutiemark?” her tone left no trace of sarcasm.

“Um…”

“I don’t…”

“Uh…”

“…”

Again it went quiet for a moment before Rarity decided to enter her thoughts to the mix,

“I suppose we just didn’t think about it at the time…”

Pinkie jumped in, “Well actually it’s not that we didn’t think about it; it’s more like something just came up and interrupted us from trying to see his mark…” she puts her chin in her hoof realizing that what she said might not have made sense and though of a way to rephrase it.

“Exactly,” Fluttershy joined in the conversation, “but not quite like that exactly.”

Rainbow Dash was getting confused, “Whatever you guys are talking about it’s still no excuse; I mean you were with him all day!”

“You were spying on him before he even came to Ponyville, so you should’ve been the first to see it!” Pinkie quickly countered.

“Yeah,” Applejack added to the argument, “and I saw when he exposed you; you were on the ground with him when you met him, so you have no excuse either.”

Rainbow crossed her hooves and leaned back on her chair with a frown, “Shut up,” she whispered knowing her argument was invalid. What annoyed her most is that she still couldn’t figure out how Midnight knew she was following him the whole time, and what’s more is that he let her follow him the whole day yesterday. But why? The only reason she was following him was because it just seemed suspicious for somepony to come out of nowhere like Midnight did. Nothing special was happening and there wasn’t much to this town, well except for the…

“Wait a minute,” Rainbow ordered; everypony looked at her, “does anypony know why Midnight came to live in Ponyville?”

“He wanted a change in scenery I think,” answered Pinkie.

“Is that it,” the cyan mare made it clear in her voice that she wanted more than just that.

Rarity spoke up, “He said that he came here to start new. Since he didn’t make many friends and didn’t leave a good reputation with the ponies in Canterlot, he came here to make some friends and change his ways.”

Rainbow took a second to think before she realized something,

“Wait a minute, isn’t that the same reason why Twilight decided to stay here?”

For a moment it went silent as the others realized the same thing. Applejack, again, spoke what everypony was thinking and broke the new silence.

“What else do you think they have in common…? Y’all think their cutiemarks are similar too…?”

Everypony sitting at the table started pondering the same thing. Again for the third time it went silent. At some point Applejack’s and Rainbow’s wondering eyes met and they looked at each other for a few seconds as they had a silent agreement. Then the nodded and both suddenly got up from their seats and started heading out.

The other three ponies sitting down turned their heads to look at them. Curious of the unexpected movement, Fluttershy asked,

“Where are you two going?”

The two trotting mares stopped.

“We’re going to see how Midnight’s doing this morning…” Rainbow gently said to the yellow pegasus. Oddly Rainbow didn’t really look back at Fluttershy when she spoke. But there was something wrong, her tone and voice is slightly off from the usually tomboyish raspy tone; almost like she were a few years older.

“Yeah, we’ll be back later,” added Applejack, who also barely turned her head to respond, but there was something else. Strangely her voice was also a bit off; there was no sign of her southern accent.

Both Applejack and Rainbow started trotting again. Before leaving through the door both said in unison, “Don’t wait up.”
Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie remained staring at each other being somewhat confused by the sudden difference in the other two pony’s voices. But they refuse to think much about it. Deciding it was nothing, they too got up from their seats and went their separate ways without saying another word.

-----

Inside her private study with the window and curtains closed, Princess Celestia waits patiently in the darkened room for her general to arrive for an emergency meeting. In the meantime she gathers her thoughts by recording them on a piece of parchment.

“I can sense it very clearly,” she writes, “… It’s the only logical reason, and that’s what it has to be.”

She writes more of her thoughts down. “I’ve been ignoring this feeling for far too long; it’s time to deal with-” she abruptly stops writing and lifts her head up to look across her desk. “Good, you’ve arrived, Maroon Mars.”

“Well you did say it was an emergency meaning,” said the red unicorn nonchalantly while standing across the desk, “So… what is this about?”

Celestia’s expression turned into a serious one. She looked like she wanted to speak, but the next voice didn’t come from her. Out of the shadowy corner of the room,

“We are sure you know why you are here, Ms. Mars” said the Princess of the night, Luna, as she comes from the darkness to stand next to Celestia’s desk.

“Oh, hey Luna, what an unexpected surprise,” said Mars in an excited tone. “But sorry, I actually don’t know what this is about.”

Red Star looks innocently at the two stern Princesses. Then out of nowhere a luminous green glow came from the other dark corner of the room and it sealed the window and the doors of the room with magic. Then another voice came out of that same corner,

“I sealed the windows and doors with a magical field, now this room is completely sealed off and nopony can hear us talk, Red Star.” The new voice turned out being the lustrous Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and she too stood next to Celestia’s desk opposite Luna.

Red Star stood there with her expression just as solemn as the princesses’, and understood that now wasn’t the time to mess around anymore.

“Well it’s nice to see you too, Cadence,” the red mare started off. “But anyways, does this meeting have to do with that little ‘feeling’ we’re all having?”

“Yes but I’am sure you have realized by now what it is we’re sensing,” said Celestia. “After all, the three of us did.”

Red looked slightly nervous. “Yes, of course I know what it is, but the thing is that I don’t know what to do about it.” The look she wore on her face showed that she seeks guidance from her superiors.

The three princesses looked at each other before Celestia continued.

“Maroon Mars, to be honest… we don’t know what to do either,” she seemed hesitant to admit it.

Red Star was stunned in surprise. “W-what? What do you mean that you three don’t even know what to do?”

“We regrettably never planned for this, mainly because we didn’t, and still don’t, have any lead to go on.” Luna explained.

“Well do you at least have something to base our next moves?” Red wanted answers.

“Yes, we do have something we need established before anything more can be done,” Cadence started. “You see, we make up four out of the five of the most powerful force in Equestria; we are the only real defense against this threat now.”

“Since the fifth force, the strongest, is now become the liability…” Red hesitantly remarked.

Luna continued the explanation. “Exactly, and now we’re not even sure if they can be trusted anymore.”

Celestia took off where Luna left off. “What we need to do is be able to keep a close eye on them; the only way we can do that is if we bring them over here in Canterlot.”

“Here, in the capital city?” Red abruptly said. “What if they…”

“When something does happen, we will deal with it to the best and safest of our ability. Besides, we have no other choice here; you know very well why else we need them here, Red Star.”

“… Yes, I understand, Princess.”

“Right now we need to send over a group to pick them up, and I know just who to send.” Celestia said as she eyed Cadence who in turn is looking back at Celestia with an emotionless gaze.

-----

“Boy do they sell saddlebags cheap in this town,” Midnight exclaims to himself as he trots alone alongside the forest. “I’am so glad I was able to get all these books to fit,” he happily remarks.

A little while of trotting later he reaches a large grassy field. He gets to the middle of it and lays himself on the soft grass and his saddlebag next to him, and sighs as he looks up at the blue sky. After a few minutes of silently gazing at the clouds, Midnight pulls out one of the books from his bag. Getting familiar with the book, he flips through all the pages with a single stroke and then skims through the written summary on the back before turning to read the first page of the manuscript. However before he can finish reading the first paragraph, he had no choice but to stop, for he wasn’t alone.

He sighed before laying the book down, standing up, and saying, “You know if trying to be sneaky didn’t work the first time, it’s not gonna work the second time, Rainbow Dash!”

The immediately after Midnight finished, Rainbow Dash swooped down from one of the clouds and landed softly on her hooves in front of Midnight. She looked at the colt with an expressionless look on her face and didn’t say a word.

Midnight smiled, “But I guess you weren’t really trying to hide were you?” He kept the smile but the serious tone he used next was in conflict with his expression, “Also you are not really Rainbow Dash are you…”

The cyan pony didn’t respond and kept her expression serious.

Midnight’s smile vanished, “Who are you?”

“You know very damn well who I’am,” the mare bluntly said with a matured voice that obviously wasn’t hers.

“I know I was just joking; no need to be so harsh,” Midnight regained the smile and laid back down on the grass with his book. “But the real question I have is why have you come here and what are you doing using that body as if it was yours? You know how dangerous that is, right?”

“Before I get into that I’d like to ask you a few questions as well. What are you doing fraternizing with these ponies; do you know how dangerous that is?”

“Oh relax, I’am being careful, after all I didn’t let a single one see my mark,” he wafted his hoof over his flank at the cutiemark only he can see; his proud smile grows the longer he stared at it.

Rainbow started to get annoyed at Midnight’s lack of seriousness.

“You know that cheap magic trick won’t hide it forever, and those ponies are already started to become suspicious of you.”

“I won’t need to hide myself for long, so it doesn’t matter.”

“So you do know why I’am here?”

“You came here to inform me of something I already know.”

Out of nowhere from behind Midnight came a new voice,

“So you know what to do then?”

Midnight turned around to find the unfamiliar tone comes from a certain orange farmpony. Being unsurprised by the sudden appearance, Midnight continued to speak.

“Yes I know what to do. Now on an irrelevant note, I can understand why she,” he pointed at Applejack, “still would need to use that body as is it was her own for now, but you,” he turned his hoof to point at Rainbow Dash, “you don’t need your host anymore. In fact it’s dangerous for you and your host to stay in there for long.”

“I know what I’am doing,” the cyan mare angrily said.

“Well you better,” he turned to face Applejack before continuing. “Anyways back on topic, do the others know what to do?”

“Yes.”

“Do they know when the right time to do so will be?”

“… They know when it’s appropriate…”

“Good!” Midnight went back to his happy attitude. “Now if you two would excuse me, I want to read this book in silence.”

“Book?” asked Rainbow. “What use do you have for such things?”

“What don’t tell me you don’t enjoy a good book, after all doesn’t your host like to do that now?”

“She does; I don’t.”

“Pfft, typical,” he looked back at Applejack, “and you?”

“It’s okay way to pas time, but overall I feel indifferent about reading.”

“That does sound like something you’d say,” Midnight’s eyes started skimming through the pages of his book. “I personally think that reading…” his smile grew slightly, “… keeps the imagination fresh.”

The two mares next to him didn’t respond for the first few moments.

“That sounds like something that you would say,” declared the farmpony standing behind the gray colt.

“I know,” he said, not taking his eyes off the book for even a second. “Now would you two mind ending this conversation, and make sure you leave those bodies back where you found them?”

The two mares looked at each other and had a silent agreement. Midnight lifted his eyes above his book to see that he was alone now. He sighed and said, “Good…” before continuing to read.

Comments

[Kuroyami Fukaikuro]

Okay, so, comments on this chapter specifically:
About the ending: What?
Also, when transitioning or showing flashbacks, it looks better if you actually say when/where you're transitioning to.
For example:

(Number of) Days Ago

Or:

Meanwhile, at (place)

Other than that, the same things from my last comment apply.
-Kuroyami Fukaikuro

[Gboyd]

The plot continues to thicken... Midnight, just who exactly WHO exactly are you and your... companions?

Hm... 'Neo Elements'... Oh.... Well alright then, author. Please. Continue....