Friendship, Love, and Harmony

by LovelyFlowerBloom

Elements of Love Part 2

Aurora looked in the mirror as she tried on different pairs of glasses. Dusky flies onto Aurora's desk with a raised eyebrow, "Why are you worrying so much about what you look like for the festival? You've never really bothered with your look. Why the sudden change?"

"Oh, y'know, just…big event. I just wanna look presentable." Aurora says, rolling her eyes.

Dusky smirks and flies up to Aurora's face, "Is it because of that mare you met in the library?"

Aurora blushes profusely before swatting Dusky away, "N-No! Of course not! Why would I try to look good for somepony?"

Dusky flies into Aurora's cheek, "Because you're in LOVE!"

Aurora points her face away from Dusky in a pouting manner, "Don't be ridiculous, I barely know her."

"But you totally like her!" Dusky says, flying in front of Aurora once again.

"Of course I have a positive opinion of her. She's a student of Princess Celestia. And she seems like quite the studious one!" Aurora says, perking her mussel upward and closing her eyes, "Anyway, enough of that. The Earth Festival is about to start."

"Right." Dusky says.

Aurora and Dusky made their way to the town square of Ponyville. Nearly everypony in the town is there, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Princess. As Aurora shifted her ways though the crowds, seemingly looking for something. After a bit of wandering, Aurora's eye catches Twilight Sparkle. She freezes up almost immediately, "Dusky! H-How's my mane?"

Dusky flies off Aurora's head and places a hand on their chin to observe Aurora's mane, "It looks fine to me."

Aurora breathes a sigh of relief, "Okay, just talk to her. It's easy."

"And you say you don't like her." Dusky says, landing on Aurora's head and leaning on her ear.

"I never said I don't like her. I'm simply nervous to speak to a former student of Princess Celestia who's been regarded as the best student she's had. I simply want to learn more from her." Aurora says as she walks closer to Twilight.

Twilight turns her head as she notices Aurora, "Oh, hey. Aurora, was it? Word through the grapevine is that you're a student of Princess Celestia?"

Aurora places her hoof on the back of her head, "O-Oh, heh…you heard of that?"

Twilight nods, "She sent you to oversee preparations for the Festival? That's the same thing she did for me before I moved to Ponyville."

Aurora is fascinated by this information, "Really? Wow, what a coincidence."

"I'm sure she views you very highly if she gave you such a momentous task to take care of. We should hang out some more. I'd love to get to know you a little better." Twilight says with a smile.

Aurora looks away, her face red, "U-Uh, yeah! I'd like that too."

Twilight lifts an eyebrow, "Are you alright? Your face is red."

"Yeah, just a little hot." Aurora says.

Twilight looks at the surrounding crowd, "It is a bit crowded here. Maybe you should get some air."

Aurora nods, "Yeah, I could use a breather."

Twilight proceeded to lead Aurora out of the crowd and into some open space. Twilight smiles as Aurora appears more comfortable, "I understand the feeling. Crowds sometimes make me a little stressed, too."

"Yeah, but you'll probably want to go back. It'll be hard to see the Princess from here." Aurora says, looking back at the large crowd.

"It'll be fine. We'll see her when. She sets the sun." Twilight says

Suddenly, the sky goes dark as the sun quickly sets. Aurora and Twilight look at the sky in confusion. Twilight places her hoof on her chin, "That's strange. There's still some time left before the sun sets."

Aurora points at the sky, "Twilight! Look! The stars!"

Twilight looks up to see a large group of the stars in the sky swirling together. Aurora goes wide-eyed, "Oh no! I-It can't be!"

Twilight looks at Aurora in confusion, "What? What can't be?"

Aurora begins backing up, "Princess Celestia told me I was reading too much into it. I took her word for it."

The swirling stars spin faster and faster until they vortex down, close to the ground. The shining light of the stars morph into the shape of a pony. They begin to shape a horn and then after, a large spread of Pegasus wings. The light dims and reveals an Alicorn. His coat is Iron Gray, his mane is dark green and short, partially spikey. His eyes are a cold midnight blue. The Alicorn flaps his wings as he keeps himself afloat in the air, "It's been so long since I've seen anypony other than Luna. I'd almost forgotten how small you little ponies are." His voice is low and thundering, evoking a sense of paralyzing superiority. The Alicorn slowly descends before landing on the ground. The crowd of ponies before him backed up almost in sync.

"Quite the festival prepared here. A perfect occasion for the Arrival of your true ruler." The Alicorn says, looking around.

Rainbow Dash quickly flies up to the Alicorn, "Hey! I don't know who you think you are, but I-"

"-of course you don't!" The Alicorn says as he pushes Rainbow Dash out of the way. He proceeds to walk through the crowd of ponies as they all part from his way, "My name has not been uttered by the mouths of ponies in centuries. But I'm here to change all of that. From now on, your ruler is I! And Princess Celestia is no more."

Rainbow Dash scowls, "What did you do to the Princess?!"

"Oh, she'll be quite alright. You don't need to worry about her…Rainbow Dash." The Alicorn says

Rainbow Dash is taken aback but quickly shakes her head and scowls at the Alicorn, "How do you know my name?"

"I know all the names of those who took out Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle. I was watching, waiting, observing. It's quite upsetting to hear that Nightmare Moon was taken out so easily by some mares and a couple of necklaces. But it allowed me to hatch the perfect plan to make sure what happened to her, doesn't happen to me!" The Alicorn says. A bright light shines from the alicorn's horn as he fires a magical beam st Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash yells as a group of vines sprout from the ground and grasp onto the pegasus pony, "H-Hey! Let me go!" The pony struggles.

The Alicorn flies up to the captured pegasus, placing his hoof on her chin, "Your precious Elements of Harmony have been taken. Without them, you little ponies have no way of stopping me. Therefore, nothing can stand in the way of my complete takeover of Equestria. Except for Sombra, but I'll deal with that when it's relevant."

Rainbow Dash struggles some more before stopping, "Just who are you, anyway?"

The Alicorn curves a menacing smile, "I…am Prince Terranus! The rightful ruler of ALL OF EQUESTRIA!!!" The Alicorn proceeds to laugh as his voice carries across the land.

Twilight scowls and steps forward. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity all join her, "I don't think so!"

Aurora attempts to stop Twilight, but the attempt is futile.

"Twilight Sparkle! Celestia's prized student and the bearer of the Element of Magic. How nice to finally meet you." Prince Terranus says, humbly, "I'm a huge fan. Your cunning is quite the force to be reckoned with. I especially liked the part where you were able to figure out the location of the Elements of Harmony so quickly."

Twilight scowls some more, "Release the Princess right now. Or-"

"-or what? You'll use your Elements of Harmony on me? I hate to burst your bubble. But I've taken the liberty of discarding those things. You ain't finding them anytime soon! And you'll never be able to!" Prince Terranus smashes his hooves into the ground, sprouting large vines that quickly dash in the direction of the 5 ponies.

"Twilight! Watch out!" Applejack yells as she pushes Twilight away.

Twilight falls away from the vines as they ensnare Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack. Twilight extends her hoof as her friends are taken away.

Prince Terranus scowls, "Looks like I missed. Well, it won't happen a second time!" Like before, he smashes his hooves into the ground, sprouting vines that extend towards Twilight.

Twilight covers herself in preparation to be caught, but Aurora grabs Twilight at the last second and uses magic to teleport the two of them away from the town square.

Twilight opens her eyes and looks at Aurora in surprise, "Y-You saved me!"

Aurora looks in the direction of Prince Terranus, "We have to get out of here."

"We can hide out in my Library for now. Come on! He'll find us soon." Twilight says as the two unicorns go to the Golden Oak Library.

Once the two are in, they quickly shut the door behind them in haste. Aurora grunts in frustration, "I should have just gone with my gut. Why did Princess Celestia say I was reading too much into things? How could SHE misjudge the situation?!"

"Hold on!" Twilight says, "You knew this would happen?"

"Yes, I-" Aurora says before she's interrupted by the front door opening. Aurora and Twilight both back up in fear, but through the door walks Blossom Night, Amber Gem, Ruby Frost, Star Dream, and Hazel Bloom.

The group is led by Blossom Night, "Hello? Anyone here?"

Aurora goes wide-eyed as she walks forward, "What are you all doing here?"

The 5 ponies look at each other. Star Dream steps forward, "We followed you when Ruby Frost heard the noise of a distant teleportation spell."

"We were all together since we're all the heads of the preparations, we were all together and followed Ruby Frost to the source of the sound." Blossom Night says

"Where we saw you come in here." Amber Gem says.

"You can't be here. You're all in danger if you're with us." Aurora says.

"She's right. You need to leave immediately!" Twilight says before turning to Aurora, "Aurora, you said you knew about Prince Terranus. What do you know?"

"You know about what's going on?" Hazel Bloom asks

"Why didn't you say anything?" Blossom Night asks.

Aurora pauses for a moment before using her magic to pull out the book on Element of Love that Twilight found for her, "Before I came to Ponyville, I was reading a book that mentioned the Elements of Love. Out of curiosity, I began researching more about them in order to figure out what they are. I came across a book that mentioned Prince Terranus and the prophecy that said he'd return."

"Just like Nightmare Moon. But without the Elements of Harmony, we don't have any way to defeat him." Twilight says

Aurora shakes her head, "Not quite. Apparently, back when Princess Celestia defeated him, she didn't use the Elements of Harmony. She used the Elements of Love."

"Well, what are they? And where are they?" Star Dream asks

Aurora turns to Twilight before looking back at the book to read it out, "The Elements of Love. There are 6 in total. Commitment, Truth, Compassion, Passion, and Communication. The sixth itself is unknown. Their last known location is the old Castle of Prince Terranus. Which can be found on the northwest border of the Badlands."

"The Badlands? All the way over there?" Twilight says

Aurora nods, "Yeah, we need to find the Elements of Love. It's the only way we'll stop Prince Terranus."

"Then we should get going, since we're coming too." Star Dream says.

"What? No, there's no reason to. There's no point in putting yourselves in danger like that." Aurora says

Blossom Night smiles, "Equestria is our home too. If we can help save it, we're in."

Ruby Frost nods, "Same here, I'm with y'all."

Amber Gem nods, "Here Here."

"Mhm." Hazel Bloom nods.

Aurora smiles, realizing that these ponies she has come across can actually be great friends. Twilight smiles and looks at Aurora, "Looks like another thing we have in common. Five friends who are ready to help you no matter the cost."

Aurora steps forward, "Alright, girls. We have to be careful when sneaking out of Ponyville. We set out immediately. Let's go!"