Harmony and Courage: Running Parallel

by SSJRandomMaster

Chapter 3: The Elements

Chapter 3: The Elements
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Azure Courage lay out on the Town Hall floor, completely numbed. He couldn't just stand there, that much was certain to him, but he had to do something about the evil alicorn that had just come out of the moon. The key problem in his abrupt offensive? He was trying to attack an alicorn, the species of pony that ruled Equestria. Of course he should have expected to be telekinetically thrown through the air, but he very well couldn't have made his way to the flank of the mare in the moon for an indirect assault, which might have yielded marginally better results. It was the best he could have come up with in such a situation.

The cyan colt lay down in the midst of the chaos that soon followed his being thrown. He could still feel the pain in his left side where he'd made contact with the wall. At this point, however, he knew there was nothing he could really do against the mare. He'd need to bide his time and wait for a clearer opportunity to strike.

"Seize her!" the mayor called out. Azure kept his eye focused on the scene before him. Stallions, suited up in armor of gold, no doubt Princess Celestia's royal guards, immediately began charging Nightmare Moon, even though they did sort of see what happened to Azure. Not like he could blame them...they did have a royal duty to protect the sun monarch. "Only she knows where the Princess is!"

Sound reasoning, Mayor, but... To Azure's not-so-immediate surprise, the Royal Guards fared no better against the former moon monarch turned night dictator.

"Stand back, you foals!" With no demonstratable effort on her part, the Royal Guards that attempted their attacks were knocked away. With a laugh, the alicorn turned into a light blue mist and began floating away. Rainbow Dash had apparently shaken off whatever had caused her to hesitate, and charged briefly after her. However, Azure's focus quickly drifted to two receding purple figures.

Twilight, and a semi-conscious Spike.

If anypony knows how to stop that alicorn, it'd be her, the unicorn colt thought, getting back on his hooves with a stumble. His side still ached, but he did sort of bring it on himself. Just hope she can find it before Nightmare Moon can secure her place as ruler of eternal night.

And with that, the light blue colt quickly began moving after them, paying no mind to the throbbing pain on one side of his body.
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It hadn't been good for Twilight Sparkle. Spike was clearly fighting off sleep with every fiber of his being that wasn't already in dreamland, and he was losing that battle more pathetically than Azure had just lost his. Thankfully, she'd reached the library in record time. The baby dragon, her assistant, continued to babble on about how Nightmare Moon had to be stopped, when he wasn't snoring like a train. Finally, as Twilight tucked him into his basket-bed, he immediately fell asleep.

"You've been up all night, Spike," Twilight said gently to him. "You are a baby dragon, after all..." The sound of falling hooves nearby suddenly resonated within her ears, and she turned to see Azure, looking only slightly worse for the wear following his idiotic excursion, not winded, but looking as though he'd been running just as fast as she was to catch up to her.

A mix of emotions welled up in her. She didn't know whether to be frustrated or relieved that he wasn't seriously hurt. She trotted up to him, her voice sounding eerily neutral given the storm within.

"Are you okay, Azure?" Her question sounded slightly awkward, but it fit the bill.

"Yeah, it'll take a little more than that to keep me down..." Azure assured, wincing when he took a few steps forward.

"Good to hear," The relief was gone. Now, her frustration shone through. "Now then..." In a manner that she didn't know she had in her in the first place, she momentarily went up on her hind legs, and delivered a smack onto the back of the colt's head. "What were you thinking charging Nightmare Moon like that?! Are you insane?!"

"Not the first to ask me that..." Azure glared, rubbing the back of his head.

"And I won't be the last. She is an alicorn, you know..."

"What did you expect me to do, stand around and do nothing?!"

"It'd have been better than what just happened to you! At least that way you couldn't have gotten hurt!" She wasn't sure why she was arguing with him. More time was being eaten up with this. For that matter, why did she care about him so much? Granted, she wanted to save the future of Equestria, but as she'd always said before, that did not rest on her making friends. Outside of her family, Princess Celestia, and Spike, Twilight rarely ever spoke to other ponies, wrapped up in her studies. So why were these six ponies - the colt before her, and the five mares...?

"So what do you plan to do? Diplomacy obviously isn't going to work!" Azure called back. "Far as I see it, the only way that we're going to win--"

"'We'?" Twilight stopped.

"Obviously, a single pony isn't going to do much good..." Azure said. "But the only way that we can restore daylight--"

Immediately, the purple mare felt as though she'd been slapped over the back of the head. Yet Azure hadn't moved, and Spike was fast asleep. Apparently, though, Azure had the same realization she had.

"--is if we stop arguing and find a solution..." both said at once.

"As I was saying, what do you plan to do?" Azure asked.

"Oh!" Twilight immediately snapped into attention, uprooting five books at a time from the nearest shelf she could see. "Elements...elements..."

"You mean the Elements of Harmony, the ones mentioned in the tale, right?" Azure asked. "They did work before, but those could be anywhere!"

"The Elements of Harmony are our only hope right now, though..." Twilight responded, tossing the last set off to the side. "You really should have known that..." It was almost unconscious on her part, but it was still a valid observation.

If Azure wanted to retort, he didn't get the chance. There was a "whoosh" that filled Twilight's ears, and so she turned, seeing Azure looking up towards Rainbow Dash, who in turn was looking down at her, glaring daggers. However, soon, she turned her attention to Azure.

"You..." and she pitched her head back to Twilight. "and you...what's going on here?!"

The cyan colt addressed once more looked as though he'd been smacked across the back of the head, only this time, the blue mare throwing her head around didn't actually hit him, though from the look in her eyes, she probably had half a mind to.

"What are these 'Elements of Harmony' you're talking about, huh?!" She was obviously addressing both of them, going a mile a minute. "Why'd you go running away, huh?!" Now she was turning upon Azure. "I thought your name was 'Courage'...! And you!" Now she snapped back to Twilight, making the unicorn wonder why she hadn't developed a severe case of whiplash yet with all the head movement. "Why were you the only one that knew what was gonna happen? Are you a spy?!"

"Dash, I also knew about it too..." Azure cut in, and when Twilight turned to look at him with suppressed bewilderment on her features, he seemed just as surprised at himself for butting in. He then turned toward the door. "The others are coming here, too, huh..."

"Why didn't you say anything before?!" Rainbow now turned back towards Azure, who remained completely calm in the face of a mare yelling into his face.

"Really, Dash...ask yourself this. If either of us had spoken up about it before all this, what would you have done? I doubt you'd have been onboard. Like all the others that knew me back in Canterlot - so basically my mother, father, and cousins, you'd have probably laughed openly in my face." The frankness in the male unicorn's tone was unsettling, and for a few moments, Twilight wasn't sure what would happen next. The pegasus remained hovering for a few more moments, but before she could retort...

"Okay, I think we're all a little on-edge here, so I think we'd better all simmer down," A familiar, southern-accented voice said. Sure enough, just as Azure had pointed out, Applejack, along with Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy had arrived. "Twilight, you seem to know what's goin' on here, and from what I just heard, Az has been watching out for this for a while, so why don't one o' you start tellin' us?"

Twilight immediately took over; partly because she was somewhat afraid Azure would slip on a detail somewhere. The fact these ponies all so quickly came to her aid was a little...unsettling, to say the least. And then there was Azure, who had brashly launched a frontal assault on an alicorn. The fact that he had done that without much in the way of a second thought refused to leave her mind.

"I read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon," the purple mare resisted the urge to throw a snarky remark about how much of the prediction Azure read and how much he skimmed, "Some mysterious objects called the 'Elements of Harmony' are the only things that can stop her, but I don't know what they are, or what they even do!"

She could just see the cyan colt just about to throw up his forehooves in mock surrender when he stopped short, his jaw still hanging partially open. Twilight was just as surprised as he was. In front of her was Pinkie, holding the spine of a book in her mouth. When'd she have time to find it while she was--

"'The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide'," said Pinkie, still smiling as Twilight took the book in a magic hold, magenta overtaking the book. The purple mare didn't know what to say straight away, so she settled on the first thing that came to her mind.

"How did you find that?!" The question came out with such force that it almost made her jump. Apparently, she wasn't the only one thinking that, given Azure was still recovering from the fact she'd apparently found that book in the time it took for her to explain about the Elements of Harmony, or at least, what little she knew about it.

"It was under 'E'!" The pink earth pony sing-songed. The entire library fell silent, and nopony knew quite what to say to that, and for her part, Twilight hoped that everypony there would overlook the fact that she'd been gutting the shelves in search of the book.

"Oh..." Recovering from this mental lag at last, Twilight finally opened the book and began reading from the book. "'There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest..."

There was a small pause.

"The Everfree Forest?!"

It was then, they realized somepony's voice was missing. Twilight looked, and with barely restrained exasperation she brought a hoof to her forehead.

"Were you even paying attention?"

"Six Elements, one of which is unknown, located in a dangerous part of Equestria convieniently not too far from here. The five known elements are at the castle within the forest." Azure responded, turning away from the window he was gazing at. "I got all of that, but...I could have sworn I heard something just outside..."
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It hadn't taken a long time for the seven ponies to reach the entrance, considering Equestria was facing a major crisis: no day. No sunlight for whatever crops. Eternal night would bring about more than just a massive satisfaction of an evil alicorn's ego. Azure knew that whatever happened in that forest would definitely put his name to the test. He certainly hadn't expected this turnout, though.

"H-here we are...the entrance..." Fluttershy announced, some of her meek demeanor mysteriously gone. The colt identified this as adrenaline more than anything, but hoped that it'd last until after the incident ended. This was a time to be strong. A silence hung over the group. The cyan colt took a few tenative steps forward. This was it.

"Whee! Let's go!" Pinkie was clearly eager for adventure. That pony was truly something else. No matter what, she almost always seemed to be able to face it with an honest smile, and an oblivious demeanor. Azure began to try to recall if he'd ever seen Pinkie even frown out of honest emotion.

"Not so fast," Twilight said, reaching out in front of the eager earth pony with a hoof. She turned to address the gathered ponies, looking as though she were in deep thought. "Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this without help, or at least, try to minimize it..." Her gaze eventually fell on Azure. With a sigh, she said aloud: "Namely, from somepony who would attack anything standing in his way without a second thought..."

"Oh, you mean me." The colt's reply was so full of sarcasm that he was sure Twilight was going to retort before long. As Azure quickly began trotting along, somepony just had to make her opinion known...

"Yeah, sure," It was now Dash's turn to sound as sarcastic as possible. "Sounds to me like you just want alone time with him..."

Once again, the implications of what Rainbow Dash was referring to flew right over his head. He remained silent while his brain cells worked to process the pegasus's statement.

"Rainbow, he did just attack Nightmare Moon. I'm sure he'd attack other things that stood in our way..." Twilight said, and from the sound of her voice, it sounded like she didn't get it either. It was only now that Rainbow's statement registered within the cyan colt's mind, and he breathed an exhale.

"Is it really a good time to be making that kind of joke..." Nopony seemed to hear his statement. Applejack immediately took control of the situation.

"Sorry, Twi', we ain't lettin' you and Az go in there alone." the orange earth pony said, firmness evident in her tone. "We're stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple." The others gave a "hmph" of agreement.

"Especially if there's candy apples in there!" Pinkie cut in with something that barely had anything to do with the present situation. The colt sighed at this. They'd known him a week, most of which he'd spent at a distance from them; and they'd known Twilight even less time than that, and they considered them both friends.

I can think of a way that they won't do that, but I'm not gonna go there. Azure thought, and turned to face Twilight. "Might as well let them come. They're probably going to follow us anyway."

Twilight gave a sigh of acknowledgement, and did not say much more. Azure turned back to the others.

"I guess that's a yes..."
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The set of seven ponies trotted along, following a high road in the Everfree Forest. They'd been trotting along for the better part of ten minutes. Azure honestly couldn't tell how much time had passed since they'd started since the group had remained mostly silent. Even Pinkie, much to the cyan colt's shock, didn't say much. It was amazing what a crisis could do to a pony. However, the silence couldn't last.

"So, none of you have been in here before?" Twilight asked. Azure couldn't say he had. He'd never really gotten the chance to. There was one time he'd planned on it to do some training, but got sidetracked by something fairly quickly. That, and his first day here, he really didn't feel like hanging around the forest. Seeing the relationship between pet and owner was a little off-putting to the colt.

"Ugh, heavens no!" Rarity responded in her usual manner. "Just look at it, it's dreadful!"

"And it ain't natural," Applejack piped in, as usual. "Folk say it don't work the same as Equestria."

Azure's ears twitched in response to a noise. He kept pace with the group, not knowing at first what the noise was, but whatever it was had to be close. Real close.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Twilight in response to the earth pony's statement.

"Nopony knows," Rainbow said, and at this precise instant, the colt heard another noise nearby. It was even closer, and a little more chilling than before. "You know why?"

"Rainbow, quit it," warned the orange earth pony.

"'Cause everypony who's ever come in has never come out!"

As if on cue, a loud crack suddenly echoed, and a few moments later, the cliff the seven were walking on gave way. Fluttershy and Rainbow immediately began to take to the air, aiming to help whoever they could, Azure assumed. He didn't think he'd need it, even as he fought to assert some dominance over gravity, back when he was freegalloping alongside his cousins.

"You just had to say it like that, didn't you?!" Azure yelled, though over the screams of the others, he couldn't tell who was saying what. He slid past Rarity, who was just being lifted up by her tail by Fluttershy, and Pinkie, who had Rainbow bearing down on her for the rescue. Applejack and Twilight continued to slide down. Applejack immediately grabbed onto an exposed tree root with her mouth, slowing her descent, but Twilight...

The cyan colt immediately threw caution to the wind. He managed to find some purchase among some rock formations, and began to jump from them, heading quickly. While the orange mare was holding her own, Twilight wasn't doing so good. She was getting a little close to the cliffedge.

It was then, Azure came to a split-second decision.
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Twilight was overwhelmed. One moment, the cliff they were walking on had been relatively safe, and the next, the cliff had quite literally turned on its side, and shook them all off like water. She couldn't see how well the others were doing; all that she knew was that the cliff's edge was getting close. The purple unicorn might have been more amazed that Applejack's hat didn't come off during all that if she wasn't distracted with the issue of survival.

It happened so fast that she wasn't even aware of what had happened straight away. Her lower body began to dangle, and Applejack was just now turning to realize she needed help--

Suddenly, she felt something push up against her backside, and with a startled gasp, she realized that her lower body had momentarily found purchase against the cliffside again. The mare blinked, then looked back, just in time to see a cyan form starting to fall down the cliffside.

"A-Azure...!" she called out after him, completely in shock from what she'd seen. A moment later, her rear legs once again slipped out from under her, but this time, Applejack caught her by the forehooves. "Applejack, Azure went over the edge...what...what do I do?" Panic set in. She couldn't tell what had happened to him, but Twilight was assuming the worst. Plus, it almost felt like she was about to be pulled over anytime, and would take Applejack down that nasty fall with her.

"Let go..." This was Applejack's response, which utterly startled her.

"Are you crazy? What about Azure? He clearly let go..."

"Listen here, Twilight, what I'm gonna tell you is the honest truth. One, Az is a little more physically capable than we give him credit for. Two, if you let go, you'll be safe."

Twilight blinked. She took a deep breath. Could Azure still be okay among the path below? Was Applejack telling her a truthful reassurance? There was only one way to know for sure...

The scream left her mouth before she was even fully aware of what was happening. She was sure that she would fall, and see something rather deformed as she hit terminal velocity right before her own grisly end came, but suddenly, her velocity was stopped dead in mid-air. She looked, to see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash holding her safely.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, which turned into a strangled gasp when Fluttershy's grip somewhat loosened.

"Sorry girls, I'm not really used to holding anything more than a bunny or two..." the yellow pegasus apologized. She could hear Applejack making her own way down the mountain, but, for some reason, all she could think about was the colt that had evidently pushed her up just a little longer, allowing Applejack to reach her in time.

The group was on a lower route now, down from the broken cliff. Twilight reached the ground, looking around. The others already there looked worried too.

"Where's Azure?" Rarity asked. "Oh! I saw him go over the cliff! Is he...?"

"I wouldn't worry..." said Rainbow, now hovering a good deal above the group. The group fell silent, even as Applejack finally reached them, having jumped her way down the cliff. Suddenly, a loud rustling came from one of the trees nearby, like something was moving rapidly. A cyan figure suddenly bolted out from the upper branches of a tree not too far from where the cliff had fallen. Twilight almost couldn't speak. Applejack was being honest...

"I'm good..." Azure was breathing heavily, now in a sitting position. Since his back was to her, she couldn't tell if he was frightened, in the middle of an adrenaline rush, or both. He did sound oddly calm given that he almost fell over the edge of a cliff, though. The purple mare was right next to him in an instant.

"How'd you...?" she started, completely unable to articulate her words.

"There were some stepping blocks on the cliffside. I called upon freegalloping lessons I learned when I was playing with my cousins." Azure said, turning to her. Here, she'd noticed there was just a little dirt on his horn. "It was a lot harder than I thought it was, but thankfully I didn't fall too far from where I'd pushed you up before I found some solid ground I could use."

"I saw 'im movin' like that. There were a good mess o'ledges below."

"Momentum is everything..." Azure summarized. "Crimson Blitz taught me that much. He's better at this stuff than I am. I slipped a little on the way down, but I'll be alright..." His breathing evened out. "But hey, we're all in one piece. Best keep going."

The others all gave a murmur of agreement, and soon, everypony save for Twilight herself was walking in the direction of the temple again, or at least, that's what he thought.

"But...how did he...push me...?" Twilight asked.

"Like I said, sugarcube," Applejack responded, and here, the purple mare realized that her orange companion was still standing there. "He's a bit more physically capable than he lets on. I managed to turn to see you about to fall just as Az was goin' over the edge. He did lead with his head, but he managed to get one of his rear legs up below you and give you the push ya needed to stay on the cliff. Think he found enough traction in one of the crevices just next to ya."

Twilight took in all the information, but a single question loomed over her head.

"But...wasn't he scared of what'd happen if he fell?"

"I can't tell ya for sure, Twi', but we'd better catch back up to the others. From what he tried to do against Nightmare Moon, he might not be the easiest colt to give a fright."

Realizing that she was in fact wasting time worrying about Azure Courage's sanity, the studious mare quickly resolved to figure it out later. What she did know was, the orange earth pony that had helped her get to safety had emphasized her own honesty. Not wanting to read too much more into it at the moment lest she get distracted again, Twilight quickly took off at a gallop, taking off after Applejack and hoping to catch up to the others.
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I scaled down a mountain by the skin on my horn, and Rainbow Dash is acting like she did the best job... Azure thought to himself, adding to the list of pains he'd suffered today a headache from where he'd actually used his horn on the rock wall to slow his descent enough to help Twilight, as well as a slight pain in his left rear leg from where he'd slipped while managing his jumps.

"...and caught Twilight right in the nick of time!" finished Dash, once again recounting the tale of how she'd saved Twilight from falling with the aid of Fluttershy.

"I'm pretty sure that's hard to forget, Dash. We all have a functioning set of eyes." Azure said. "Save the stories for after this."

"Thought I'd repeat it for your benefit, since you were trying to figure out how to keep plants out of yours..." the rainbow-maned mare said with a cocky grin. The colt was just about to retort when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

It was a large animal. It resembled a lion, with a black mane--Azure's mind immediately stopped upon seeing the lion body.

What's that creature doing here?! His legs momentarily refused to work. Whatever it was, it looked angry, and issued a terrifying lion's roar. Azure's eyes widened. Don't tell me that's a c--!

"That's a manticore!"

Twilight's voice broke Azure from his trace at once, and he shook his head to clear it of the haunting vision. It was a bad camping trip, that much was for sure. It was a day in his life that the cyan pony could honestly say he would not want to relive, least of all now. He took in the rest of the details as the beast roared again.

The thing had a red scorpion's tail, and it only had the one head. It also had red bat wings, but now that the colt knew what he was up against, he didn't need to worry anymore. The fear receded just as quickly as it had happened.

"We've gotta get past him!" Twilight continued on, having not noticed Azure's lapse. The cyan colt was grateful for this, but somepony unexpected had beaten him to the punch. He noticed the white unicorn, Rarity, running forward, and dodging a swipe from the manticore, rearing up and delivering a solid back kick to the manticore's face.

"Take that, you ruffian!"

Of the seven of us here, I'd have expected something like that from just about any one of us except Fluttershy and of course, Rarity. I just didn't expect her to have it in her. Crisises can really shake up a pony... Azure thought, pausing in mid-gallop. Wait, what am I doing?!

Of course, the cyan colt was met with a reminder of why he didn't think Rarity would play rough. The manticore recovered from Rarity's attack, and belted out a roar, peeling Rarity's mane back. A few moments later, the white unicorn's purple mane, normally finely curled, poofed out as though she'd used a hair dryer.

"My mane!" With that, Rarity immediately turned tail and ran. Azure breathed a sharp exhale as he realized he needed to get off his rump and start helping. There was no time for any distractions, especially not...

"Yee-haw!" This was Applejack, having gotten the drop on the enraged beast. She then proceeded to ride it as though it were some sort of rodeo. He didn't know what ponies rode at the rodeo, but if he had to guess, it'd be beasts simliar to a manticore. Azure blinked, and immediately took off at a run. He could have sworn he heard a weak voice calling out to the group, but paid it no mind as he gathered momentum enough to gallop on the sides of the tree. "Get along, little doggie!"

This spectacle went on just long enough for the cyan colt to get a good angle of his own on the raging beast. Which was a good thing considering that Applejack just got bucked off the manticore's back and sent flying. Her hat once again managed to stay on her head despite the fact she was being launched through the air.

"All yours, partner!" she said to somepony. A few moments later, a rainbow shot past Azure's vantage point, and began rapidly engaging the manticore. The beast seemed confused and roared even louder, swatting madly at the pony encircling it. Azure saw his chance, throwing all his weight into the jump.

Roll in the air, and... He began doing this action, and uncoiled perfectly, extending both his back legs as he tensed his rear for an attack, when he was forced to shut his eyes as he too was sent flying, a throbbing pain in the opposite side of where he'd been flung into the town hall wall earlier. A split-second later, he heard Rainbow Dash grunt, indicated she too had been hit. Azure realized he was about to hit the ground, and began spinning. By some miraculous force, he'd wound up on his feet, dragging them along the ground.

It was one of those things where desperate times called for desperate measures. The others began to gallop towards the raging beast, and Azure managed to gain control of his momentum again, and began charging after them.

Something yellow, formerly meek, and a pegasus pony, soon blocked their way.

"Wait!" she said, loud enough for them to hear. Azure skidded to a halt, obliging to the mare's command, though not knowing what the heck she planned to do considering she didn't do anything in the battle. The yellow pegasus quickly turned, and just as casually as possible, trotted up to the face of a roaring manticore. The cyan colt felt an instinct to charge in, but to his surprise, an orange hoof cut in front of him.

"I don't know what she's doin', but rushin' over there ain't gonna help..." Applejack said. "Sit tight, Az, much as I hate to say it."

The manticore reared back as if to attack, but to Azure's shock, Fluttershy began nuzzling the other paw of the beast. It looked down, almost shocked, at what the pegasus was doing. The look of anger in its vision was all gone.

"Shhh," the pegasus said, "It's okay." The manticore blinked, as though confused, before flipping up its paw, revealing, what Azure could barely see, a thorn jutting out of its paw, purple in color. Fluttershy winced. "Oh, you poor little baby..."

"'Little'?" Rainbow asked. Azure felt inclined to agree, but now he was confused. Usually, beasts didn't listen to reason...

"Now this might hurt for just a second..." The meek pony then proceeded to lift her hooves around the offending object, and gave a sharp yank. The manticore roared loudly, and everypony immediately feared the worst.

"Fluttershy!"

Just as quickly as their worry set in, it abated. The manticore's look of anger and confusion were completely gone. It looked absolutely harmless now, purring like a cat one-tenth its size.

"Awww, you're just a little baby kitty, aren't you? Yes, you are, yes you are..."

As the manticore rather sloppily licked her face like a dog, leaving her mane hilariously slicked up on one side, the others began filing past the soothed beast. Well, except for Twilight. She turned and inquired about what had just happened.

"How did you know about the thorn?" was her specific question.

"I didn't," was Fluttershy's response as she started moving toward the receding forms of the others. "Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness."

Twilight's facial expression eluded him at this point, but Azure realized he was wasting time worrying about what just happened.

Didn't stop it from nagging him to no end, though.

Okay, we're all fighting that thing, more or less, and then Fluttershy comes in and calms it? Well, okay, sure. Tack that one onto the "Things I Wasn't Prepared For" list. Azure breathed a sigh before falling into step with Twilight.

"Are you alright?" she asked again of him.

"Don't worry. I'm not out of this yet." he assured.

"You seemed a little spooked by the manticore when I caught up..." she asked.

"Ancient history, but I had the species wrong anyway, so it doesn't matter." The cyan colt quickly moved to defend himself.

"I've gotta ask...you risked your life for mine earlier, right? When you pushed me up a little?" Twilight asked.

"That's right," Azure responded, not at all knowing where she was going with this.

"Azure, aren't you scared at all of anything?" Twilight asked. The cyan colt had to stop and think about it. Of course he was scared. The cliff was falling out from underneath him and everypony around him who didn't have wings was sliding fast.

"A little," The cyan colt admitted. "Gravity is a pain. But I won't let fear stop me from helping a pony in need..."

She smiled somewhat to him, and then shook her head.

"I do not get you at all..."
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It had been another five minutes of continuous trotting along the path Fluttershy had opened up via calming the manticore. Azure wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it did allow the seven of them to advance, so he wasn't going to let it ruffle his fur too much. Rarity and Fluttershy had also returned to their normal mane-styles over the course of the last five minutes, mostly because Rarity had used magic to restore hers and Fluttershy's back to normal.

Of course, the group was heading even deeper into the forest, into what could have easily been one of the swamps in the Everfree Forest. The colt did not know the interior of the forest, but whatever the case, it was getting real swampy, real quick. Rarity, of course, voiced her disapproval.

"My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck." Inexplicably, after Rarity said that, the entire forest went pitch-black. Azure couldn't see heads, wings, tails, or horns of anypony, not even his own. "Well, I didn't mean that literally..."

"Are you familiar with the saying, 'be careful what you wish for'--" Azure promptly walked into something firm face-first, adding to the headache he was suffering following saving Twilight from falling over. "Ow!" He reached up in front of him, trying to confirm what he hit, and felt something firm. "A tree...?"

He could hear the sounds of the others bumping into things, but more than likely each other.

"That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn't even know it..." Twilight observed.

"I didn't just walk into it..." Azure said, trying to follow the voices of the others. He was bad with direction, so if he got lost in here, he'd never find a way out. If there was one thing the cyan colt didn't want Rainbow Dash to be right about, it was the whole "never coming out" thing. "No worries here..."

"I didn't see you there, my apologies," This was Rarity again, having just bumped into somepony else.

"Right here..." Rainbow Dash piped in, though that could have been anywhere considering Azure could not see a thing. She gave a sharp grunt, but for what reason, Azure didn't know, since he still couldn't see his own hoof in front of his face, much less a cyan pegasus pony.

"Oh wait, I think I stepped in somethin'..." said Applejack, and for a moment, the light began returning to the forest. It was just enough so Azure could see himself and maybe those immediately around him. Somehow, he hadn't gotten too far away from the mares. However, the lighting seemed a little off. The light didn't seem to be coming from above. Rather it seemed to radiate from around--

The trees suddenly came alight with a dim violet glow, and each of them, as Azure swiveled around while the others screamed in sudden terror to look at them, each were roaring and alive.

"It's just mud," The orange farmer mare confirmed her potential issue, then was caught off-guard like the rest of the ponies. The sounds of feminine screams filled his ears, but Azure wasn't in the mood to get caught flinching by animated demon trees. Quickly, he searched through the throng of purple glowing trees, trying to see if there was a way out of them. The cyan colt was pretty confident he could handle the trees; not only were they just that, plants, but they didn't really appear to be trying to eat any of the ponies, or otherwise make any physical attack.

The sound of a high-pitched giggle completely broke the sounds of terrified shrieks and Azure's concentration as well. Confused, he looked over, and saw what could have easily been Pinkie taunting the demon trees.

"Bleh, ooo!" The pink party pony proceeded to go back to giggling while making funny noises. If Azure didn't hang out with Virid most of his life, he'd have just assumed she was taunting the trees. They weren't attempting to attack in spite of whatever she was doing, however.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?!" Twilight called out, clear fear in her voice. "Run!"

"Oh, don't you see?" Pinkie asked.

Inexplicably, the pink party pony started to sing...

"When I was a little filly and the sun was going down..."

"Tell me she's not..." The purple mare's fear was instantly replaced with vague annoyance and strong disbelief.

"The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..." The pink mare didn't even seem to hear the question.

"She is." This was Rarity, in an equal amount of disbelief.

Uh yeah, apparently this is now happening. Azure thought to himself.

"I'd hide under my pillow to hide from what I saw, but Granny Pie said that wasn't the way to deal with fears at all!" Pinkie continued to sing, an impressive rhythm in her tone. The cyan colt began to nod.

"Then what is?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding skeptical.

"I can think of one wa--" Azure responded, though it wasn't his question to answer, evidently. The pink earth pony continued singing, as though he hadn't spoken.

"She said: 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears! You'll see they can't hurt you! Just laugh to make them disappear!" Still looking just as happy as ever, Pinkie turned to the nearest demon tree, and proceeded to laugh in a surprisingly normal way at it. The tree, utterly defeated by a mare laughing in its face, immediately reverted to normal, to the surprise of the other ponies, including Azure. For a moment, he wanted to join in the spectacle, with each of the mares taking turns laughing at the demon trees, but decided against it, watching with utter disbelief evident on his face.

"So, giggle at the ghostly! Guffaw at the grossly! Crack up at the creepy! Whoop it up with the weepy! Chortle at the kooky! Snortle at the spooky! And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna...hehehe...hahaha...heh..."

"LAUUUUUUGHHHH!!"

Azure Courage didn't know what was more ridiculous: the fact Pinkie Pie improvised a song about literally laughing in the face of danger or the fact that the act actually worked.
---------
Twilight Sparkle did not know what to think of what just happened, but she had to say it worked. The darkness that was in the section of the forest had lifted, and the trees had returned to normal, no longer glowing that eerie, violet hue. Yet, within, even as the afterglow of the moment faded, her thoughts drifted to what happened just a few minutes ago with Fluttershy, and earlier still with Applejack.

It just seemed odd that these ponies had kindness and honesty, respectively, on their side, and used it to allow the group to proceed into the forest. Now Pinkie Pie had literally laughed away a lot of evil-looking trees, and had convinced the others to help in the effort. Her mind couldn't help but drift to those. Then there was Azure, who seemed ready to jump off a cliff if he could help somepony. That colt was truly a strange one (not as strange as Pinkie, but still).

The sound of somepony or something choking snapped Twilight out of her thoughts. The six ponies all got up, and looked over to the origin of the noise. They saw one last evil tree, choking on something, and Azure, turning to them with a neutral expression on his face.

"By the way, you missed one," he observed, as the tree hacked up a rather large rock and returned to normal, thoroughly defeated. "Just threw a rock down its throat with magic."

The silence was deafening after his statement. The cyan colt stood on his hind legs, and kicked his forehooves in an expression of confusion.

"What?"

"Well, I guess that's...another way to make danger go away..." Twilight responded, even more at a loss with Azure's behavior. She then realized she didn't hear him scream when everypony else save for Pinkie was frightened by the evil trees, nor did she hear him laugh in the face of danger in the manner perscribed by Pinkie.

"I'm sure he's laughing on the inside!" Pinkie observed, not even phased by the fact Azure didn't take her advice.

"Let's put it that way, Pinkie..." Azure responded, sighing.

"We'd better get moving," said Twilight, turning back in the direction of the palace, which was now just visible on the horizon. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to get to the palace of the royal sisters in time to put Nightmare Moon's ambitions to rest."

The instant the words left the purple mare's mouth, she internally paused in disbelief. She did not break her stride whatsoever, but inside, she just wasn't sure anymore.

These ponies, all of them, have been nice to me. Obviously, they care about me...do I care about them? She'd remembered her reactions to Azure and Pinkie when they were up against something that might have gotten them seriously hurt or worse, as well as Rainbow when she'd been hurt by the manticore. I do. I wonder if I was wrong about my policy on friends...

Realizing she was wasting time worrying about it for the time being, the purple mare raised her eyes towards the group's goal: the place where the Elements of Harmony were last seen.
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The Season 1 Episode 2 "re-enactment" had to be split into two parts; Chapter 4 contains the rest of it. And, even if you absolutely hate this, at least give me feedback in text form so I know where (aside from the OC + Canon re-enactment thing) I'm going wrong with.

Comments

[Tesla Moon]

Okay you better add another challenge so that azure becomes another element bearer

[TheArchive]

I've got to say, I enjoy the story. I like how you stay true to the show and characters without adding any unnecessary drama.

However, I find that this story is running into a rather major problem that I tend to see when it comes to OCs, which is that nothing he does or thinks matches his backstory. At all. This guy has put more thought into NMM returning than even Twilight, yet absolutely nothing he does in the fic makes this look true. He seems just as shocked, and the only plan he had was to just go on a full frontal attack while yelling a stupidly clichéd line like a moron. Seriously, you could completely remove his knowledge of NMM from the story, and his actions would match up. As it stands, I have to call bad writing on handing him an idiot ball to make sure nothing changed. The only other thing we know about him is his free-running skills and other training with martial arts, but again nothing in the story seems to back this up. Sure, he got down the cliff (as did everyone else, so good job), but when it comes to actual fighting ability or strategy or, literally, any other useful skills such activities should have given him, he has nothing to show for it.

When nothing in a character's background has any kind of effect on his actions, then they might as well have never happened in the first place. The only thing I can hope for now is that you decide not to make him an element and go for a more original route (such as not needing a deus ex machina to be a decent fighter). With the way things seem to be going, I don't think I'll hold my breath.