Friendship is Power: The Nightmare Returns

by Aiyonbeam

Chapter 9: Lessons

Luna

As I strode down the corridor leading to the Trial Room, my thoughts turned to the strange voice in my head.
This isn't good. I haven't felt anything close to this since...
I slowed my pace for a moment and shuddered.
Since a thousand years ago.
"Is everything all right?"
It was Celestia. She stopped and put a hand on my shoulder. I stopped as well.
"Just a little shaken up is all." I replied, turning towards my concerned sister.
"Why?"
"It's just... Watching Sweetie Belle fight her sister like that brought up some bad memories. I'm fine."
"If there's anything I can do to help, I'm here for you, Luna." she said, giving me a smile.
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." I said, starting to walk to the Trial Room.
"But..." I heard Celestia say.
"But what?" I said, turning around.
"Luna, you just said that you'd keep my offer in mind."
"I know, and I will."
"I don't..." Celestia trailed off, and I looked at her, confused.
"What's wrong?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Sis, I think the stress of this whole thing is starting to affect you. Maybe you should take it easy." she said, staring at me with a concerned look on her face.
"What about the students?"
"There's no need to be so snappy, Luna. I was just making a suggestion."
"I wasn't being snappy." I said.
"Sorry, Luna. I guess I'm just being a little overprotective."
"I'm confused." I said. "Are you not listening to me, sister? I just said I was not being snappy, and that I will call on you for aid when I need it."
"Let's just go back to the Trial Room, okay?" Celestia said, walking past me and entering the room.
What just happened? Am I going mad or something?
I walked through the door after her.

???
It seems I must lay low for now. She is starting to notice my presence. No matter. By the time Sombra attacks, I will have taken her, and then the world will kneel before the might of the mighty four.

Octavia

A short while after Sweetie Belle had exited the arena, the princesses came back in, Celestia with a worried look on her face.
"Is something wrong, Celestia?" I asked. Celestia looked at her sister, who gave her a scowl, then a worried look.
"Nothing, Octavia. Just... Thinking is all."
I turned away, intent on re-tuning my cello, which had gone sharp after I'd knocked out Nightshade with it.
"That's odd..." I said, noticing something strange about the instrument.
"What is it, Tavi?" Vinyl said, coming over to see what was the matter.
"I don't remember my cello being white." I said, gesturing to the aforementioned cello. Sure enough, where it had before been a beautiful oak, it was now a stark white, as if someone had sucked all of the color out of it.
"Weird." Vinyl reached for her headphones, presumably to listen to some music, but once she picked them up she stoppped and looked over them.
"Hey, Applebloom?"
"Yeah?"
"Which pair of phones did I give you, blue, white, or black?"
"Um..." Applebloom said, rummaging in a bag for the headphones Vinyl had lent her. "Black. Speakin' of which..."
She tossed the headphones to Vinyl.
"Here ya go."
"Okay. This is really weird." Vinyl said. "I don't own more than one pair of black headphones, but look..."
I looked, and saw Vinyl holding a pair of black headphones in each hand.
"And the logo on one of them has changed."
Upon closer examination, I noticed that the earphones in her right hand, which had formerly sported a broken record, like all her headphones, now had an odd symbol, a curved black raindrop with a white outline and a dot in the middle.
I watched as Applebloom sat back down in her chair, only to leap up again, brandishing her mace.
"My weapon's turned brown!"
Upon closer examination, I saw that Applebloom's mace, which had previously been made of iron, was now an odd brownish-gold color.
"Something strange is going on." Time Turner said, gesturing to his hourglass necklace. "This used to have black sand in white tinted glass. Now it's got yellow sand in blue tinted glass."
"My stuff's changed too." said Scootaloo. "The spikes on them were lightning bolts, like Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, but now they're flames."
"This is scary." Vinyl said, glancing around at the group.
"It shouldn't be." Celestia said, striding over to us as Luna and a healed Sweetie Belle walked in. "It means your Elements have changed their physical forms."
"What does that mean" Sweetie Belle asked, sitting down in a chair.
"Well, when me and Luna used the Elements of harmony to defeat Discord and Sombra, they were gems. Then when the old Element bearers - Twilight and her friends - found the Elements, they were stone orbs. Then, when they used them, they changed into necklaces, and when Equestria changed, the necklaces did as well. Now they've changed again, it seems."
"Sweetie Belle, has something happened to your stuff?" Time Turner asked.
"The jewels in the handles of my daggers used to be purple, like Rarity's hair, but now they're blue."
"The change, as with Twilight and her friends, is merely aesthetic." Celestia said. "It shouldn't affect what they're meant to do."
"Which is what, exactly?" Vinyl asked.
"Vanquish darkness, bring light, and restore peace." Luna said. "Just like with me and my sister."
"Precisely." Celestia said. "Now that your elements have manifested themselves, it's time to begin your actual training."

Vinyl
The next four months pass in a blur of study, sparring, meditation, and lessons from the princesses. When the fifth month rolls around, Celestia and Luna gather us in the training room where we'd gathered when they'd told us about Sombra and the Elements.
"You've all progressed so much in your training." Celestia said. "I'm so proud of you all. You've learned how to control your Elements, and you've mastered your weapons."
"Now it's time to finish your training." Luna said. "Each Element has two special abilities; by the end of these two months, you will have mastered them both."
I glanced at Octavia and our eyes met for a moment. We both nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly.
I turned back to face Luna, a determined grin on my face.
Bring it on. We're ready for whatever happens.

Later

Music pounding from my Element-phones, I concentrated on the practice dummy in front of me, crafted in such a manner that if I hit it, it would swivel and attack me at an odd angle. At first, it'd caught me off guard, the many limbs swinging in from almost every direction. "In real battles, you can't expect an enemy to come at you where you expect them to. You have to be prepared to react fast and move faster." Luna had said.
Pausing, I turned to look at the clock on the wall of the training room. 5:50. Almost time for my one-on-one training with Luna. I sheathed my practice katana and set it on the rack with my real one. Luna had said not to bring a weapon, though at first I hadn't exactly relished the thought of parting with The Needle. Turning off the light in the room, I grabbed a towel and left. As I walked down the hallway to Luna's private training room, I let my mind wander.
I wonder how Tavi's been doing? Besides at lunch, I don't really get much time to talk aside from our group training sessions, and even then the only way I can talk to her is when we're sparring together, and during that I'm too busy dodging her arrows. Even with fluffy balls on the ends, those things hurt when they hit...
I arrived at the training room just as Sweetie Belle left, soaked and dripping.
"How's the training been going?" I asked, holding out the towel. After the first few weeks of our one-on-one sessions, I'd gotten into the habit of taking a towel with me to Luna's training room; Sweetie Belle always went before me, and she always came out sopping wet.
"Really well, actually. I'm getting better at controlling water." She replied, taking the towel and drying her hair. "Although Luna never has enough towels."
"Glad I can help" I said, smiling, as I walked into the room. Luna was there, sitting cross-legged on the floor as always, deep in meditation. I sat and joined her, clearing my mind. After a few minutes, Luna said the same thing she'd always said from the first day I trained one-on-one with her.
"I thought I told you to always interrupt my meditation when you arrive, Vinyl. I do not want to waste any of your training time."
I opened my eyes to see Luna smiling at me.
"Sorry, Luna." I said, returning the smile. "But you looked so peaceful, I thought 'maybe this one time I shouldn't disturb her.'" It was the same reply I used every time since the first day. The exchange had become its own little inside joke for us.
"Shall we begin?" she asked.
"Of course."
We stood, and I concentrated, sensing more than seeing my body fade away, leaving only my shadow. As I watched, Luna sank slowly into her own shadow until we were both only shadows.
"You've gotten better." she thought at me.
I've been practicing. I thought back.
"I believe it's time for you to begin working on the first extension of your shadow state, your first ability. The first of the two is always an extension of the powers afforded an Element bearer, the second one being an extension of the first."
Alright, let's get started then.
I started to clear my mind, but Luna stopped me.
"No. For this to work, you must let your mind wander. Think about something. Focus on that line of thought until you get lost in it, then start again.
I focused on Sweetie Belle always needing a towel, how there were never enough, how no matter how violently she dried her hair, it always came out perfect, how... And so on until I had almost forgotten where I was.
"Good. Now focus on a place... The roof of the castle should suffice for now."
I visualized the roof, its blue shingles, the odd way the sun reflected off of it, the sloped roof of the towers, the edge that jutted over the balcony to protect those below from rain...
And suddenly I was there. When I looked around me, I saw the outside of the west wing towering over me. When I looked at the ground, blue shingles greeted me.
I did it.
I reverted back to my normal form and looked over the edge of the roof. The balcony to the central training room was just below me.
I did it!
I looked up at the sun and grinned.
I DID IT!
"Yes, you certainly did."
I looked behind me to see the shadow of a human on the ground. I faded away, and my shadow moved to join Luna's.
"I didn't expect you to get the hang of teleportation so quickly. I'm impressed."
Thank you, Luna.
"However, there is still much to learn."
Shall we begin, then?
"Of course."

1 Month Later

Octavia
"I think you're getting the hang of this."
"Thank you, Princess."
"Octavia, please..."
"I know. Call you Celestia."
"It makes me uncomfortable enough to be reminded of my station every time I leave the castle. Please don't extend that discomfort to within the walls as well."
"Yes, Celestia."
"Thank you."
Sweat dripping from my brow, I exited the training room and headed for the dining hall. Training, as always, had required much mental exertion, and the usual headache was beginning to form. I sighed and entered the spacious room; lined with tables and chairs, it could fit hundreds with room to spare, yet only the six of us were using it for now. The three younger girls were chatting together at the middle of one table. Time Turner sat a ways away, staring up at the high ceiling.
"Yo, Tavi. Over here."
Vinyl stood, a plate of food in her hands.
"Get some food and come sit by me."
I smiled and walked to the other side of the room, where the entrance to the kitchen was. Entering the kitchen, I saw our midday meal already prepared for us and laid out on plates, and numerous ones at that, in case one was not enough to sate our hunger, though one always was.
Walking back over to where Vinyl sat, I noticed the tiredness in her eyes, the lines on her face from constant exertion, the look of exhaustion that only comes from a hard day of work.
I hope I don't look like that.
"How goes the training?" I said, sitting across from her.
She frowned. "It's not."
I raised an eyebrow. "Really?
"Yeah." Vinyl looked at me, and I saw an expression foreign to her: worry.
"I have teleportation down pat. I can turn into a shadow as easily as you can lift your arm. I can read the emotions of others through their shadows like open books with giant words. But no matter how hard I try, I can not figure out how to use my other ability."
"Which would be..."
"Well, when I turn into a shadow, supposedly, I can clone myself. But I can't. I've tried clearing my mind, focusing, and hours and hours and hours of meditation, but nothing's working. I even train through the night, Octavia. Through the night. I don't get any sleep."
"You're the Element of Shadow, Vinyl. According to the princesses, you don't need sleep."
"But still..."
"I understand. For the longest time I couldn't figure out how to create light from nothing."
"Yeah, but you figured it out."
"It was a fluke. Celestia startled me during training, and it just happened."
"Luna's tried that. It hasn't worked."
"Have you tried taking it up with her?"
"Yeah, but she just said I needed to need to do it, whatever that means."
"I don't really know what to say, except not to give up. I'm sorry."
"You shouldn't be. You're not a failure."
At the word 'failure' my mind flashed back to my lessons with Celestia.
"Seeing as how you've mastered your first ability early, I feel I can take a break from the usual training today to teach you about something more important than your powers." Celestia said as I walked into the room.
"What's that"
"Friendship, Octavia. Friendship."
"Why teach me about that? The only friends I have are you and the rest of the Elements. Do I really need any more?"
"I'm not teaching you how to make friends. I'm teaching you how to save them."
"Save them?"
"Yes. Do you recall when Discord was unleashed?"
"Yes. I was stuck perpetually playing the banjo while Vinyl went around deaf for a few days."
"Do you know how he defeated Twilight and her friends?"
"No."
"He turned their Elements against them. He made them fight amongst themselves. But most devastatingly, he made them give up."
"How was that devastating?"
Celestia looked me straight in the eyes, and the look on her face almost made me take a step back, it was so serious.
"When one of the Element Bearers gives up hope, the others are weakened considerably. When all of them give up, their power is lost completely. Octavia, you must listen to me. This cannot happen again. Even if it's over something small and trivial, hope must be kept alive. My own sister turned into a monster purely because she felt she wasn't good enough, that she was a failure. None of you were, are, or will ever be failures. Make sure the others know that with every breath. Do you understand?"
There was a long pause as I considered what she had said.
"I do."
"Good. Promise me that you will help your friends that forget. As the Element of Light, you are to be a beacon of hope to all those who need it. That is your duty."
"I promise."
"Thank you."
I looked at Vinyl, her head low, sitting across from me. My fingers curled into a fist.
"Vinyl?"
She looked up, her eyes watering.
"Yeah?"
"Let's see you grit those teeth."
Vinyl's head shot back as my fist slammed into her jaw, hard.
"Ow! What was that for!?"
"Listen to me, Vinyl, and listen well. Nobody here is ever allowed to lose faith in themselves. I want you to promise me that whenever one of us starts to lose hope, the other will be there to knock some sense into them, okay?"
Vinyl rubber her cheek.
"Okay... But did you really have to hit me that hard?"
"No." I said. "But you looked like you needed it."
She smiled at that.

End of Chapter

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long break in between updates: I'm working on a side project and have been juggling that and school along with this story, so updates will be less frequent but with more material.

Aaaand I forgot to publish this chapter - and therefore the above AN - before I got sick, then went on vacation, then forgot again, then went on ANOTHER vacation, and then got sick again. Geez, I need to step up my game.

"The next four months pass in a blur of study, sparring, meditation, and lessons from the princesses."
This not-even-one line of text used to be an entire chapter, but due to my strange writer's block described in Chapter 10.5, I had to reduce it to that one sentence. Hopefully Inspiration will strike me, and then I'll come back and expand it, and then Cadance and Shining Armor will be in the story again.
Waiting on you, Rarity...

Comments

[reader238]

okay saying it now I see what you did there Time Turner's hour glass having yellow sand and tinted blue glass can any one say T.A.R.D.I.S lol