• Published 3rd Aug 2019
  • 2,573 Views, 105 Comments

Kindness and the Heart of Shadow - Raven-Flight



Immediately following The Beginning of the End, Fluttershy is ponynapped, and Discord disappears. All of Equestria now hangs in the balance. (A Fluttercord tale)

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A Council of Friendship

“I’m sure she knows, darling.”

Twilight was pacing around the map-table. “If Celestia knows Equestria is in danger, then why won’t she do anything? Anything besides splitting up the army, our only defense, to chase after one natural disaster—one unnatural natural disaster—after another! First the fires in Appleloosa, now the floods in New Horseleans, tomorrow the supervolcano eruption in Timbucktu, or something!”

“Um, because she never helps? At least, not with anything that actually matters.” Rainbow Dash took a seat between Rarity and Twilight and gave her twilighting friend an affectionate nudge. “Look, I’m sure the Princesses are putting together a flawless defense as we speak, and they’re just acting ignorant of the danger to keep the enemy off their tracks. I mean, Celestia has had how many thousands of years of experience defending Equestria, right?”

Twilight sighed. “You’re right, Rainbow. The Princesses’ response shouldn’t be my main concern right now, anyway. No; now, it’s time we got rid of you!” Twilight nudged her friend back.

“What, me?” Rainbow Dash gawked, and Twilight nodded. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain once the others arrive.”

The door opened as if on cue and Starlight and a sooty Applejack came in, taking their seats at the map-table.

“Well, that was fast. Alright girls, we’re here because Starlight and I may have come up with some solutions. I put together a little study on the mechanics of the magic of friendship to try to discern some of its nuances. In short, I think it may be possible to generate the same caliber of magical bursts with any number of participating ponies, regardless of the absence of one from our group!” Twilight surveyed the faces of her friends in excitement. They all stared blankly.

“That’s super-duper, Twilight! I didn’t understand a single word you said!” Pinkie Pie chirped.

“I think what she means is,” Applejack’s brow furrowed with the effort of translation. “We can still do our friendship magic even without Fluttershy. Ain’t that right, Twilight?”

“That—yes, that’s exactly it.” There was a general murmur of relief among the group before Rainbow Dash piped up.

“So… What’s that got to do with getting rid of me, exactly?”

“It doesn’t have to do with getting rid of you, exactly. There were two things I wanted to talk to everypony about today, and that was the other thing. Here.” Twilight handed Rainbow Dash a scroll. “This will tell you everything you need to know about doing friendship magic with fewer friends. I’m going to explain that to everypony else after you’ve left.”

“All this talk of me leaving! Why am I leaving?”

“You’re leaving to help us find Fluttershy.”

“Oh, yeah! I’m totally up for some bad guy plot-whippin’!” Rainbow Dash flew up and threw a few punches as a mock warm-up.

“That’s...not what I need you to be doing, actually.” The alicorn gestured for her friend to return to her seat. “Starlight?”

The named unicorn stepped forward and everypony gave her their attention. “Okay, so Twilight and I did some research in the library, and I managed to put together a spell. Fluttershy and all of you are each bearers of the Elements of Harmony, which obviously still exist even though the gems that focused them are gone. Since you all have that magical bond, my spell can open a channel between you via that bond. It basically means I can use all of you to establish a distance and direction to your missing member. Correlating this information with the map-table should give us a pretty good idea of where Fluttershy is being held.”

“But,” Twilight added, “we need to make sure the information Starlight’s spell yields is accurate. Rainbow Dash, that’s where you come in. I need you to fly as fast as you can to some far-off place. Tomorrow, Starlight will use her spell on the rest of us to find you, and the day after, you fly back and confirm where you went.”

“All alone, at a time like this?” Rarity’s eyes were wide with worry.

“Hey, I can handle myself!”

“I know you can,” assured Twilight. “That’s much of the reason I’m giving this task to you. But please try to go to a city, somewhere you won’t be truly alone, just in case.”

“You got it! Bye!”

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight caught her enthusiastic friend in her magic. “First, don’t forget your scroll. You can read it while you’re waiting around tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And second, I need to cast a cloaking spell on you. It’s not the same one our enemy is using on Fluttershy, but at least we know if Starlight’s location spell can find you even when you’re cloaked, it’s more likely to be able to find Fluttershy, too.” Rainbow Dash nodded, and Twilight powered her horn.

“There. You may not feel too hidden, but the spell I just cast only disguises your magical presence, not your physical presence. Trust me when I say that from a magical standpoint, you’re now totally invisible.”

“Cool!” With a few quick goodbyes, Rainbow Dash was off.

“I sure hope she stays out of trouble,” Applejack worried when her friend was gone.

“It’s a risk we need to take, and, knowing Rainbow, I don’t think the risk is all that great. Now, back to the matter of friendship magic.”

“LET’S MAKE SOME RAINBOWS!” Pinkie Pie bounced in her seat. “What do we need to do, Twilight?”

“The magic of friendship isn’t exclusive to our group of friends, so we know it’s not the group, the specific combination of all six of us, that works the magic. It’s the bond itself, and as long as there are at least two ponies present with the same kind of bond, they’ll be able to work some kind of friendship magic.”

“Okay, okay, and?” Pinkie Pie was still bouncing.

“If we want to produce strong friendship magic, like we did with Fluttershy present last time we defeated—well, thought we defeated—King Sombra, we need all six elements of friendship represented among us. That means we each need to embody every element at the same time.”

“But Twilight," Rarity protested, "wouldn’t it still work if we just got another pony to stand in for Fluttershy as kindness?”

“Only if that other pony were as good a friend with all of us as Fluttershy is.”

“Not it,” Starlight exclaimed. “I know I’m not a friendship student anymore, but I don’t think I’ve had enough practice yet to embody kindness as fully as Fluttershy does...”

Twilight resumed. “Essentially, Rarity, your suggestion works in theory, but I don’t think it’s going to be practical for us at the moment, and we can’t waste any time.”

“But now we gotta wait for Rainbow to get back anyway.” Applejack made it her business to be the voice of reason.

“I was hoping we could try it now, actually. The four of us will have to compensate for both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s absences, but if we can get at least something to happen, it will be a good sign that my theories about friendship magic have merit.”

“I’m down! Let’s do it! Let’s make some rainbows!” Now Pinkie Pie jumped onto the map-table and resumed her bouncing.

“Why don’t you guys take it outside?” Starlight suggested. “You know, in case something does happen?”

The four of them marched out to a grassy spot far enough from any structure to avoid posing a threat. Starlight watched from the safety of a window and took notes for Twilight. Nothing happened when the friends joined hooves, but a faintly-glowing dome of magic encased them when Twilight began reciting the names of all six elements, and the others closed their eyes in concentration. When the alicorn powered her horn, the glow intensified, the four began to rise, and their manes started flowing. Rainbow-colored sparks emanated from the points of contact between their hooves.

“It’s working!” Twilight’s eyes glowed white.

“I just don’t know how Fluttershy does it!” Rarity’s eyes looked normal. “I’m trying so hard to channel her kindness, but I can’t stop thinking about her captor, and I just can’t get myself to feel kind to such a vile creature!”

“And I sure don’t feel like laughin’ when my loyalty to my family in Appleloosa is callin’ me back out to the fires!”

“Hang in there, girls! I think we can—” Just then the glowing sphere appeared to pop and the floating ponies fell back to the ground.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Rarity dusted herself off and didn’t look up.

“I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to embody all of ya’ll’s elements! Honesty comes so naturally to me, I didn’t think the other elements would feel any different.”

Pinkie Pie was frowning. “We didn’t get to make any rainbows. Twilight, can we try that again? Pretty please?”

Twilight looked around, but her friends looked as deflated as she felt. “No, Pinkie, not today. Maybe it will be easier when Rainbow gets back. For now, I think we’ve at least proven that we can get something to happen.”

“Until we try that again, I think I’m going to go and practice all of the elements of friendship as much as I can. Like Applejack said, none but my own element comes very easily.”

“Good idea, Rarity. Just remember, we don’t know who our enemy is or when they’ll strike next. We need to be prepared to work our magic at any moment. The fate of Equestria may depend on it.”