Chapter 5
Shadow of the Sun
By Starwin
Chapter 5
The six ponies and Spike gathered around the frozen column of ice. The unrelenting storm of whirling sleet raged just a few dozen hooves away. The friends stood in the calm center, at the eye of the storm. All of them were transfixed by the shining jewelry locked inside the icy pillar.
The purple star-gem, set in the golden tiara, pulsed with an inner light. It glowed like a beacon, beckoning for them to take it. The tiara itself shimmered with blue-ish magic that twisted and moved around the headpiece, making its golden finish ripple and dance.
“Twilight, just what in the hay is your element doing way out here?” asked Applejack. She pulled her eyes away and glanced towards the puzzled lavender unicorn at her side.
“That,” replied Twilight, “is a very good question. And I have no idea.”
Twilight glanced up at the Sun still high above. It had not changed in intensity. It should have been burning hot here. Yet, it was not. They stood on a frozen lake with an ice storm all around them while the world outside was practically on fire.
This was deliberate. The location, the element, the ice. Somepony had put these things here for Twilight to find; knowing she would come this way; knowing that the Sun would stop in the sky and the world would burn. The questions now were who… and why…
Twilight thought she knew who. Only Princess Celestia had this kind of power. However, the answer to the ‘why’ evaded her. Why send the element here? Why not Ponyville where Twilight could have easily found it? Why this lake? Why freeze it?
“What should we do now?” asked Fluttershy meekly.
“Well, I for one think we should take this opportunity to rest,” said Rarity. “I’m sure Twilight is just as exhausted as I am and I think we can spare a bit of time for a break. What do you think Twilight?”
“Uh-huh, yeah, sounds good,” said Twilight absently. She was busy examining the object locked in the ice, hardly having heard any of Rarity’s words.
“Wish we had brought some supplies from the cart,” said Applejack. “This might have been a good time for lunch… or, uh, dinner, whatever the case may be.”
“Nah,” said Pinkie. “You don’t want to eat anything for thirty minutes before you go swimming!”
“Pinkie, I don’t think any of us are planning on trying to swim in a frozen lake!” said Rainbow.
“I’ve never seen a spell this complex before,” whispered Twilight to herself. She was trotting slowly around the pillar, examining the magic from all angles, paying close attention to the details of the spell. “I’m not sure I could cast it even if I knew how it worked.”
“So no hope of casting it on the wagon?” asked Spike. Twilight didn’t respond. “Twilight,” said Spike, trying to get the mare’s attention. “Twilight,” repeated Spike. “TWILIGHT!” shouted Spike at last. Twilight jumped a little.
“What!” cried Twilight in surprise. She looked around at her friends, her eyes filled with shock, like she had forgotten any of them were there.
“I asked if you think you could cast the spell on the wagon,” said Spike again.
“Even if I could, it’s a fixed spell, it wouldn’t move with the wagon,” said Twilight. “It also requires an enormous amount of energy to maintain.”
“Then what, or who, is maintaining this spell?” asked Applejack, looking around as if the pony responsible might step out of the storm.
“I think the element is,” said Twilight. “It looks like there’s some kind of enchantment on it. But I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Twilight took one last glance up and down at the column of ice. “I think this must be a test,” announced Twilight at last. “Otherwise, why have obstacles for us to overcome?”
“Maybe so no pony else picked it up by mistake?” suggested Fluttershy.
“No,” said Twilight with a shake of her head, “we were meant to find this. I was meant to find this… Somepony put this here, and I think it must have been Celestia.”
“Or Luna,” said Rarity. “After all, she did take five days to send you a letter. Maybe she spent that time hiding the elements for us to find?”
“Why would she do that?” asked Rainbow. “Luna’s the one that asked us to bring them to her in the first place!”
“I guess there is only one way for us to know for sure,” said Twilight. “We need to get to Canterlot and find out what’s going on.” Twilight reached out a hoof and touched the icy pillar. “It looks like I’ll have to melt it with magic.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Twilight?” asked Spike.
“We don’t have a lot of options and we can’t just leave it here,” said Twilight. “If anypony has a better idea…”
“If I get enough height, I think I can smash the ice!” said Rainbow. Her wings flapped as she lifted off the ground.
“Or do some serious damage to yourself,” said Applejack. “I bet I can buck that thing hard enough to break it.” Rainbow scoffed at Applejack’s suggestion, making the cowpony glare at her rainbow colored friend.
“Oh, oh! I know, I know! We can try licking it, like this!” Pinkie stuck her tongue out before anypony could stop her and licked the frozen column of ice. However, when she tried to pull away, she couldn’t. “Hewp I’m tuck!” Rarity rolled her eyes.
“Maybe we could just have Spike melt the ice with his fire,” suggested Rarity. Spike blushed at the suggestion.
“Or maybe, we could sing to it?” suggested Fluttershy.
“While those are all… good… suggestions,” said Twilight with a forced smile, “I think I’m just going to stick with melting it by magic.” Twilight lowered her head and her horn began to glow. Magic wrapped around the pillar. A sudden heat flared where the spell touched, trying to melt the ice.
The spell seemed to have no effect. The pillar did not melt but stayed exactly the same. However, the moment the magic took hold the walls of the storm began to close in. The roar of the wind increased and the air became icy cold.
“Twilight, stop!” cried Rarity. The spell halted and its energy faded away, but the storm did not retreat. The freezing wall of snow continued to close in on them and the temperature continued to plummet.
“We need to get that thing and get out of here!” cried Rainbow Dash. She retreated a little from the closing walls of the storm.
“Cold! Too cold!” chattered Fluttershy.
“Ah think Fluttershy is right,” said Applejack, her breath coming out in puffs of frost. “This place aint just cold, it’s freezin.”
“I think I might have triggered some kind of trap,” said Twilight with a slight blush. The purple gem in the tiara was now pulsing rapidly with light. The runes of magic that had crawled slowly along the tiara spun wildly, racing around it in a blur of light.
“Anypony!” cried Twilight in distress. “Any ideas?”
“Qwick!” cried Pinkie Pie. “Hewp me lick!”
The others began to argue their ideas again, the wind making it so they had to shout to be heard. The storm continued to close in around them. They were forced to move inwards, retreating towards the column of ice in the center.
The freezing wall of the ice storm shrunk and the ponies backed away, the eye of the storm shrinking rapidly. If the storm kept closing in they would be engulfed by the cold wind in only seconds.
With precious little room left, the friends backed up against the pillar. However, as they all touched the icy column, something strange happened. There was a flash of blue light that raced out through the ice. The gale of the storm suddenly halted, the winds dying away. The roaring wind went silent and the skies around them cleared.
“Twilight, what just happened?” asked Applejack. In answer to her question the frozen column of ice suddenly returned to water, raining down freezing droplets from above.
The element dropped to the ice, the gem no longer glowing and the magic runes fading away. Twilight grabbed the element of harmony with her magic and placed it inside her saddle bags.
For a very brief moment everything was still and silent.
“Uh-oh,” said Pinkie with a shiver.
The thunderous sound of cracking ice rent the air. The frozen lake beneath their hooves groaned. Another loud crack and Twilight looked down to see a dozen jagged lines running out in all directions from under her front hoof.
“Everypony back to the wagon!” cried Twilight.
The water from the melted column had made the ice very slippery. As Twilight tried to gallop her hooves went out from under her and she crashed down with a painful smack. Her brief burst of momentum carried her away, sliding slowly across the ice.
“Hold on Twilight, I got ya,” said Applejack. The earth pony took a step after Twilight and promptly began to spin out of control. “Whoa… whoa!” cried Applejack as she spun in slow circles away from the group.
The others didn’t appear to be faring much better. While Rainbow Dash was hovering safely in the air, Fluttershy appeared too frightened to fly. Rarity had all four legs spread as far as they would go, trying to keep her balance. Applejack was picking up speed as she continued to spin across the ice. Pinkie Pie and Spike appeared to be the only two who were managing okay.
Twilight watched in horror as a dozen hooves in front of her the ice began to break apart. Large chunks up-ended as they broke away from each other. There was no safe path back across the lake to the wagon. Twilight could hear the screams of her friends intermixed with the rupturing ice. All around her huge chunks of the frozen lake came apart.
She tried to get back to her hooves, but simply couldn’t. The ice slab she was on began to tilt, causing her to slide. As she slid towards the water, the opposite edge of the ice rose higher, making the slope steeper and causing her to slide faster. Desperately, Twilight tried to take hold but her hooves just scraped against the slippery surface.
With an icy splash she plunged into the freezing water. The stinging cold raced across Twilight’s body as she was completely submerged. For a moment she almost felt like she was burning. The breath in her lungs was pushed out of her by the cold and she had to fight the reflexive urge to gasp for air. Her hind legs kicked, struggling to get back above water.
Twilight’s head broke the surface and she gulped in the frozen air. Coughing and frightened, Twilight glanced around, trying to get her bearings. She felt her eyes widen in confusion. The large chunks of ice were rapidly melting away before her eyes. In only a few moments, the ice had vanished completely.
Twilight looked around for her friends. She found Rarity and Fluttershy treading water only a few dozen hooves away. Applejack was doing the same in the opposite direction. Rainbow Dash was still hovering above the lake. Pinkie Pie and Spike were the closest to Twilight, only a few hooves away.
“Is any pony hurt!” shouted Twilight as she treaded water. While she couldn’t make out Fluttershy’s response the others shouts were easy enough to hear. It appeared that they were all unharmed. “We need to get back to shore,” shouted Twilight.
“Uh-oh!” said Pinkie Pie again. Ripples spread out from Pinkie Pie as her whole body shook. “It’s not over yet!”
“Oh what now!” cried Twilight.
Rainbow Dash let out a yelp of pain before dropping out of the sky and into the water. Before Twilight could ask what was wrong steam began to rise from the surface of the lake. Quickly the icy cold water became warm, then hot.
“Oh no!” cried Twilight. “Swim to me everypony!” Not waiting for an answer, Twilight began to swim as hard as she could towards her friends.
Twilight could feel the water staring to burn her. They needed to hurry! The sound of splashing brought Twilight to a halt. All of her friends had made it.
“Dive,” said Twilight without an explanation.
“You can’t be serious!” said Rarity indignantly.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight dove under the surface. Through the murky water she could make out her friends doing the same.
Twilight’s horn began to glow and a bubble expanded out around her, pushing the water away so that the inside was filled with air. One by one, as the bubble expanded, her friends were brought inside. Once everypony and Spike was safely within the spell, Twilight focused harder and the bubble began to descend. Slowly, it sank into the depths of the lake.
“Whew, is everypony okay?” asked Applejack. The temperature around them was once more becoming tolerable.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Rainbow Dash, shaking herself dry. “Does anypony want to explain what the hay just happened?”
“I think the lake is boiling away,” said Twilight, her horn still glowing gently. The bubble continued to sink. The surface and the Sun were now shadowy and distant above them. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, I figured that much out,” said Rainbow. “I meant more like why, or how? Is it really hot enough to boil water?”
“No, I don’t think it is,” said Twilight after a moment. “It’s hot out but not hot enough for that. I think when I removed my element the spell collapsed violently. The effect is most likely localized right above us.”
“Fantastic,” said Spike sarcastically.
With a plop they reached the murky bottom of the lake. Down here it was very dark. Only the magical bubble gave off any light. They couldn’t see very far in any direction. Through the limited light they could make out a little of the muddy lake bed around them.
“What do we do now?” asked Fluttershy timidly.
“We walk,” said Applejack. “Back to the wagon.” Twilight nodded, her face a bit strained. “You alright there sugarcube?” asked Applejack in concern.
“Fine,” grunted Twilight. “I’m just holding back millions of gallons of water.”
“Here, let me help,” said Rarity. Her horn glowed as her magic added its strength to Twilight’s.
“Thanks, Rarity,” said Twilight, her strained face relaxing a little.
“Alright, let’s get going,” said Applejack, taking the lead.
The six ponies and Spike began to trot slowly along the bottom of the lake. Only a thin membrane of magic protected them from the enormous amount of water overhead. For some reason, Twilight thought it should be much harder to hold back so much water. Yet, with Rarity helping her it was almost easy.
Twilight wondered why she had never thought to try casting spells with other unicorns before. The answer of course was simple. Her books never talked about it. All the spells, all the examples, were for one unicorn.
Twilight hoped they could maintain this spell long enough to get out of the lake. She didn’t know what would happen if the spell suddenly collapsed, or what they would do when they did get out of the water. Would she be in any shape to keep up the shield spell?
They walked silently through the blackness of the lake. Twilight had completely lost track of time. Her mind was focused on only two tasks, walking and keeping up the spell. She hadn’t even realized that the ground beneath her hooves had been steadily sloping upwards.
The sound of hissing and bubbling halted everypony. At first Twilight had thought they’d reached the surface of the lake. She was partly right. In truth, the surface of the lake had reached them.
Above them the boiling surface rushed down towards the ponies. In a moment it was upon them. Massive clouds of steam billowed around them as the water evaporated. In another moment more the water was past them, leaving them to stand on the momentarily muddy slope of the lake. Then the ground dried up, leaving only cracked earth.
Twilight could feel the heat. Her bubble spell popped and she and Rarity cast the shield spell at the same time, having to endure only a second of the Sun’s wrath. Even Rainbow Dash had let out a cry of discomfort at the momentary touch of the Sun.
Twilight glanced behind her and watched as the lake shrunk smaller and smaller, almost like somepony had pulled the plug at the bottom. Huge clouds of steam rose into the air before vanishing into the blue sky as the water boiled away before their eyes.
The last column of steam rose as the final small pool of water lingered at the very bottom of the lake bed. It resisted for only a moment before vanishing in a cloud of steam, leaving nothing but a massive hole in the ground where a lake had once been.
It didn’t take much longer to make it out of the empty lake bed. The wagon was not far from where they had come out. For some reason, maintaining the shield spell was not as draining as before. Even walking as she was now, Twilight found the strain to be minimal. It took less effort than before, something Twilight found odd. If it was getting hotter, then why was the spell easier to cast?
Indeed, in her fatigued state, Twilight would have believed the shield spell nearly impossible. Yet, there it was. Twilight didn’t have thoughts to spare to the issue. Focus and conservation were key. When they found another spot to rest, hopefully some place that wasn’t trying to kill them, she would ponder it.
It took a bit of effort to get both Twilight and Rarity back into the wagon without breaking the shield spell. Climbing slowly, with the help of their friends, the two unicorns managed to get back to their seats, with the shield only flickering once as they were hoisted up into the wagon.
Pinkie and Fluttershy hooked up once again, ready to get them back on track. Applejack and Rainbow Dash resumed their spots at the back of the wagon. Spike, pulled out the map he had brought with and examined it. They couldn’t go back up the steep incline of the hill they had come down, so they would need another path.
“I think this is the lake,” said Spike as he looked over the map. He tapped the rough outline of a lake with the name Whispering Waters Lake. “It looks like there should be a trail not too far away.” Spike pointed off to their left. “Someplace over there.”
“Then lets get going,” said Applejack. With a jerk, the wagon started to move again. The uneven ground made the wagon bump and jostle but their pace was slow enough so that it wasn’t too bad.
As they walked, orange leaves began to tumble down around them. Soon the air was filled with a cascade of brightly colored leaves of all kind. The wagon didn’t stop but all of the ponies looked up at the trees.
“Wow,” said Rainbow Dash. In every direction leaves drifted down from the trees like winter had come early. The leaves passed through the shield and piled into the wagon.
As the leaves continued to fall their colors began to change. It wasn’t long before the orange had gone, replaced with brown. The dried leaves crumbled in on themselves before dissolving into dust. In minutes it was as if they had sped through all of fall and the branches of the trees above them were bare.
Eventually, they spotted a path, winding through the brown grass. From the path’s condition it was obvious that nopony took care of it. This was not a path meant for carts but rather for walking. However, it was a path and it had to lead some place.
The progress was slow. If they moved faster they risked damaging the wagon. Pinkie and Fluttershy did their best to avoid the biggest potholes in the path but the way was narrow with little room to maneuver.
The road split, with no visible indication of direction. Spike studied the map before finally instructing them to go right, only to call for a stop twenty hooves later and go back to take the left path.
The winding road seemed endless as they stayed at level ground in the valley. The few paths that led up the hillsides were too narrow for the wagon. They had also lost sight of the train tracks. It felt like they were wandering in circles under the relentless sun.
“Alright!” cried Pinkie just after they turned another bend and found nothing but more endless path. “Break time! I need some water!”
“Didn’t you get enough in the lake?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Nope!” said Pinkie, missing the sarcasm. She slipped from the harness and bounced to the wagon, Fluttershy following after her.
“Ah reckon it’s our turn to pull again,” said Applejack.
“Sure,” said Rainbow with a stretch. “I would rather be doing anything other than sitting.” The four ponies all swapped places. Applejack and Rainbow slipped into the harnesses, while Pinkie and Fluttershy seated themselves in the wagon.
They began to move again.
“I’m so thirsty I could drink a lake!” said Pinkie as she worked the top of the barrel off. However, when it came loose she let out a gasp. “Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh!” exclaimed Pinkie.
“Pinkie, what’s wrong?” asked Twilight in concern. But she didn’t need the pony to answer, Twilight had turned to look and saw what had upset Pinkie Pie. “Oh no!”
“What’s wrong!” called Applejack.
“The water,” said Rarity. “The water barrel is empty.”
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OH SHOOT! I KNEW IT!!!!!! Oh, this is not good, and this fic is getting more and more interesting.
Oooohhh snap.
Irony overload with them being in a lake minutes before.
Shouldn't it be "faring" instead of "fairing"?
1940408
Fixed, thank you very much
And then all the ponies died horrible excruciating deaths.
That's what my money's on, anyway :D
SHIT JUST GOT REAL!
If combining magic is so easy and helpful there's no way it wouldn't be well known. One possibly is that it isn't normally possible but the elements are somehow 'special'.
Dat cliffhanger...
Can't wait to see what happens next! :D
When they started the journey, I thought it would only involve a strained arrival at Canterlot, followed by some exploring, then a confrontation and revelation, and a big climax. The mission to find and free the six Elements was interesting for two reasons: one, it seemed unlikely that anything interesting would happen out in a dying, sun-scorched wilderness; two, they would have needed to reach Canterlot pretty damn quick, and wouldn't have had time for any further endeavors. I really like how you're handling the journey's difficulty level. It was already going to be a serious strain to keep the spell up, and now, after things have gotten worse and they went through an ordeal with no time to recharge, Twilight's Element has made things easier. And this is all on top of the fact that much of their success relies on chance. You're giving them resources while keeping their situation bleak. I actually didn't think about the water evaporating from the wagon until Pinkie started freaking out. That means either my brain is all aderp or you are very good at drawing readers into a story and keeping them distracted from an obvious development. Let's go with the latter, since it reflects better on both of us.
I also like that Spike has taken the role of navigator. Ever the number one assistant, he is.
Once again another fantastic chapter
As for the lake evaporating, I knew that was going to happen as soon as I learned that Twilight's element was powering the cold.
Keep it up! And the new schedule is nice, but don't over work yourself
oooooh the buuuuurnh
OHMYGOSH!!!! 17. JANUARY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!! BEST.PRESENT.EVAAAHHH!
Nice chapter! Keep it up and keep the good stuff coming!
Great chapter. Like where this is going. Only confusing thing is wouldn't it only be getting hotter if thensun was getting closer, not just out longer?
1951018
Not an easy question to answer without getting into a long winded explanation (even though this got a little long) but the short gist of it would be, the longer you heat something, the hotter it becomes. There is a maximum temperature something can reach based on the energy amount coming from the source. The characters have no way to measure how hot it actually is, so all we have is their guesses. Thus it may be getting hotter or they may simply believe it is, after all this is the longest duration any of them have been out under the Sun.
The lake boiled away mostly due to magic so we can't really use it as a gauge.
Well, crap. This isn't good. Sure, they got the Element of Magic back, but the lack of water...
Unless Twilight can generate water by colliding hyrdrogen and oxygen atoms together, I think, they're screwed.
You now have my full attention. For the love of god, MOAR!
What an incredible, fun, adventure story that seems in line with the feel of the show! So glad that I saw this on the featured box. Great job!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The six ponies and Spike gathered around the frozen column of ice. The unrelenting storm of whirling sleet raged just a few dozen hooves away. The friends stood in the calm center, at the eye of the storm.
-Quick recap of the scene as it stood at the end of the last chapter. Good for things in a serial format I guess (I don't do it myself, maybe I should, if only as a separate section at the start of each chapter, or separate chapters like "Paradise" does).
The tiara itself shimmered with blue-ish magic that twisted and moved around the headpiece, making its golden finish ripple and dance.
-Can't remember what I guessed before. Going to guess this is Luna's aura. Perhaps it reacted badly to her attempts to wield it, perhaps she is intentionally telling it to attract the attention of its current bearer.
“That,” replied Twilight, “is a very good question. And I have no idea.”
-Yay for the scientific approach.
Somepony had put these things here for Twilight to find; knowing she would come this way; knowing that the Sun would stop in the sky and the world would burn.
-Ok, I think I started commenting on this chapter once, and lost the comment before I posted it. I say this because I remember saying something about the idea that it seems to me that, for all Twilight knows, the Element could have been sent to its current location AFTER the sun stopped. I realize it might sometimes be hard to think in terms of what a character knows, rather than what you as the author know. Am I missing something?
The questions now were who… and why…
-And "When" if you think I am correct in my above analysis.
Twilight thought she knew who. Only Princess Celestia had this kind of power.
-Plausible, but the glow is the wrong color.
Why not Ponyville where Twilight could have easily found it?
-Didn't have the range? Something lurking around Ponyville that might have been tipped off?
Why this lake? Why freeze it?
-Not sure why the lake, unless the element or sender did some last minute course corrections to pick something that would react with the Element's attempt to counter the evil heat directly in a way that would attract attention. The pillar could be the splash from when the element crashed into the lake... although if it flash-froze the pillar I would think there would be ripples frozen into the lake too... of course the blizzard might be obscuring those.
“Well, I for one think we should take this opportunity to rest,” said Rarity. “I’m sure Twilight is just as exhausted as I am and I think we can spare a bit of time for a break.
-Sounds wise to me... bit of an odd analogy, but when rock-climbing you don't pass up an opportunity to stand in a relatively stable and relaxed position to rest your legs and ESPECIALLY arms. Similar theory for stopping and almost every good shelter you find. They could even take some of the ice with them for extra cooling and water... OK, so accidentally saw peoples' comments about the water vanishing, but the theoretical basis stands as of this point in the chapter.
“You don’t want to eat anything for thirty minutes before you go swimming!”
-Her way of saying that when the remove the Element the water might spontaneously unfreeze?
“So no hope of casting it on the wagon?”
-Well, maybe if she were wearing the Element. She doesn't actually need the blizzard for instance.
“It also requires an enormous amount of energy to maintain.”
-Well, depending on how big the "battery" on the Element of Magic is... of course, that doesn't count if Luna is powering the cold spell... have I mentioned that Luna is affiliated with cold in my fanon, like Celestia is with heat/fire?
--Going to break this here actually.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
“Then what, or who, is maintaining this spell?”
-Looks like I may get some data on my Luna guess... or I guess it could be Cadance. Isn't her magic light blue?
“I think the element is,” said Twilight. “It looks like there’s some kind of enchantment on it.
-Ok, so the Element is the power source, but who cast the enchantment? Who is at the controls?
“I think this must be a test,” announced Twilight at last. “Otherwise, why have obstacles for us to overcome?”
-To my mind, Celestia either a back-up plan OR doesn't make things harder than they have to be. I think that she could have dealt with the dragon in Dragonshy personally, let alone bringing Luna and/or a squad of elite guards into the picture by her side. With the Crystal Empire, she had Luna champing at the bit to go (granted it takes a bit of fan-wank to say that she wasn't risking getting the operators of the foremost super-weapon in the setting locked away for another thousand years). With Discord and Chrysalis, Celestia pulled out all the stops. In any case, I think that this isn't actually a test (Twilight think of many things as a test...) or that it is absolutely necessary for some incrimental character growth that will be needed to operate the Elements at a high enough power level (perhaps to purify Nightmare Flare, rather than banish her?) or to find the right way to the right time and place to employ the Elemental Regalia.
“Maybe so no pony else picked it up by mistake?”
-Reasonable thought.
“we were meant to find this. I was meant to find this… Somepony put this here, and I think it must have been Celestia.”
-Probably not Celestia, based on the color of the glow. Then again... *Goes to rewatch the activation of the Elements in S1E2* Ok, you COULD be thinking of the color that Twilight and her elemental-stone-sphere were glowing when they defeated Nightmare Moon, (FWIW I think that is just an optical illusion given the background).
“Or Luna,” said Rarity. “After all, she did take five days to send you a letter. Maybe she spent that time hiding the elements for us to find?”
-Yeah, here is what I am betting on.
“Luna’s the one that asked us to bring them to her in the first place!”
-... except my bet is more "Took five days to decide to crack the vault, actually crack the vault, and then TRY to teleport the Elements right to Ponyville, at which point they scattered at the touch of the former Nightmare Moon."
“If anypony has a better idea…”
-I am going to be disappointed if they don't try dragon-fire. Then again, I don't know why MELTING it with magic would be a bad idea.
“If I get enough height, I think I can smash the ice!”
-That works too, and we know the the Elements can recover from being smashed...
“Or do some serious damage to yourself,” said Applejack. “I bet I can buck that thing hard enough to break it.”
-Eh, whichever...
“Maybe we could just have Spike melt the ice with his fire,”
-There we go... I wonder if they are going to quarrel in an un-Friendship-ly fashion and that is what is going to throw things off so they end up losing the water when Twilight casts in frustration?
“While those are all… good… suggestions,” said Twilight with a forced smile, “I think I’m just going to stick with melting it by magic.”
-Hey, three out of five of them are quite good.
However, the moment the magic took hold the walls of the storm began to close in.
-And her comes desperation. It also occurs to me that the Elements could have been scattered by a returned NMM(with Celestia knowing that once she lowers the sun she won't be able to get it back up again) or other villain, perhaps as soon as the Diarchs withdrew them from the vault. Still doesn't seem like Discord, and he is the only villain I can see cracking the vault.
“Qwick!” cried Pinkie Pie. “Hewp me lick!”
-Not the most productive idea, although if Friendship is all that is required, it might actually work (which would be hilarious, but isn't going to happen).
The others began to argue their ideas again, the wind making it so they had to shout to be heard. The storm continued to close in around them.
-Stealing tricks from the Windigo? Probably not. Probably just a simple trap, but it could be a reproduction of the Windigo effect where only "Team!" action is effective.
However, as they all touched the icy column, something strange happened. There was a flash of blue light that raced out through the ice.
-Well, that is "Team!" in physical arrangement, if not in mood... which may explain why the dispelling of the effect goes strange.
In answer to her question the frozen column of ice suddenly returned to water, raining down freezing droplets from above.
-Well, at least the ice they are standing on didn't melt, and it IS just melting. I wonder how the thing with the water vanishing will happen? Then again, the FIRST thing that Twilight's overload at her entrance exam did was exactly what she wanted: It hatched Spike. Is each Element going to re-create in analogy the way each Bearer got their cutie-mark? Unlikely, but possible. I think that the tainted Friendship is more likely to be the reason things go wrong, or maybe a separate spell that Twilight casts, perhaps, ironically, trying to melt deep enough into the lake for them to re-fill the water barrel.
Twilight grabbed the element of harmony with her magic and placed it inside her saddle bags.
-I guess it is the easiest Element to have fall off, at least in theory. In practice is might adhere very strongly.
For a very brief moment everything was still and silent.
“Uh-oh,” said Pinkie with a shiver.
-Right... delayed problem. I wonder if Twilight will be drowning and vanish all the water in a panic? Seems unlikely.
Pinkie Pie and Spike appeared to be the only two who were managing okay.
-I was going to say about Pinkie... given she skated on soap just fine... Spike also makes sense since he has built in crampons just by curling his toes.
There was no safe path back across the lake to the wagon.
-And she panics and vanishes the water (perhaps with a boost from the Element in her saddle-bags... or maybe she even puts it on), rather than teleporting to each one who is in trouble and then teleporting them to the shore.
With an icy splash she plunged into the freezing water.
-Right... drowning in icewater, can't find a gap in the ice to breath in, hypothermia and suffocation start to set in, and reasoning goes to Tartarus. Panic-casting and bye-bye water... I wonder if she will try to work out the reverse of the spell, so as to summon water? Seems unlike she will try, and even less likely she will succeed.
For a moment she almost felt like she was burning. The breath in her lungs was pushed out of her by the cold and she had to fight the reflexive urge to gasp for air.
-Good description, from what I hear.
Twilight’s head broke the surface and she gulped in the frozen air.
-Ok, probably no suffocation in the mix, but she could go under again either from weakness, or getting hit by a piece of moving ice. Depending on if the lake has a drain, the ice might not be moving much, since the only source of motion would be the ponies themselves. I guess they might cause tipping which might translate into horizontal motion. I wonder how many ponies Rainbow Dash has managed to get to shore by this time? It also occurs to me that the water in the wagon might have evaporated just from NOT being under the shield for all this time... but that seems to violate Occam's Razor for the water in the lake to get seperately vanished... I suppose some of it could run down a (now dry) river that was blocked with ice before, but I think some of it would remain.
In only a few moments, the ice had vanished completely.
-Right, no impacts. Also, the magic itself may get rid of the water. Seems a little overboard, but whoever is controlling it probably doesn't have very fine control, or the Element may be reacting to Twilight's subconcious impulses ("Ugh, this water is TOO COLD! I wish it would just GO AWAY!").
Rainbow Dash was still hovering above the lake.
-Not even one save? She did better in the first episode.
Pinkie Pie and Spike were the closest to Twilight, only a few hooves away.
-Right, so nobody is in terrible distress (well, depending on what the water temperature is), so I am going to say that panic casting is not going to be the issue.
Ripples spread out from Pinkie Pie as her whole body shook. “It’s not over yet!”
-Pretty strong reaction -> Pretty strong effect incoming. I guess this will be where the water vanishes. Perhaps it will start heating up to a boil faster than the ambient temperature would indicate? In which case they will be scrambling to get out before they get scalded.
Rainbow Dash let out a yelp of pain before dropping out of the sky and into the water.
-The return of the heat hit her that hard? Or did she catch the edge of an even stronger heating spell that is overshooting when melting the ice? Is the spell releasing all the thermal energy it drew out of the water to freeze it and keep it frozen?
Before Twilight could ask what was wrong steam began to rise from the surface of the lake. Quickly the icy cold water became warm, then hot.
-Well, I called the temperature over-shoot, but the exact cause may need to be further specified (at least at some point). Twilight would try to figure it out maybe? Then again, she is an excellent STUDENT (and library researcher), and DETECTIVE, but I don't know that she has ever put the two together to be a good RESEARCH SCIENTIST.
“Oh no!” cried Twilight. “Swim to me everypony!” Not waiting for an answer, Twilight began to swim as hard as she could towards her friends.
-I guess it makes sense that the heat-shield would work in water as well... I wonder if it will protect the water, until it runs out (since they aren't going to end up in a hole in the lake-bottom or anything statistically.
“Dive,” said Twilight without an explanation.
-Well, that would actually help regardless of magic if the sun is the source of all the heat. Other than that... I guess the heat can't get much ABOVE boiling below the waters surface. (sorta like how digging into snow can shelter one from cold), which would mean the shield would have less work to do. I was going to say that she should tell Rarity to cast the spell once they are under, but that should be easy enough to figure out when Twilight casts it.
“You can’t be serious!” said Rarity indignantly.
-Worried about ruining ALL of her mane? Probably not.
Twilight’s horn began to glow and a bubble expanded out around her, pushing the water away so that the inside was filled with air.
-Conjuring the air, or drawing it down from the surface. In any case, that might serve as a moderately good insulator and should increase how long they can stay down. I guess a lake takes a while to boil away. Plus maybe the heat-shielding spell DOES only work in air (and since the Harmonized Dual-Casting hasn't been tested much Twilight might not want to take chances).
The temperature around them was once more becoming tolerable.
-OK, so the heating does seem to be linked to the surface, rather than effecting the entire lake equally.
“I think the lake is boiling away,”
-Obviously.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
-I see RD agrees with me.
The effect is most likely localized right above us.”
-Right... and I guess it will effect the entire lake and still have some energy left over (would be too convenient if it was exactly enough to boil away the water). Also, I wonder if you are balancing the energy of the cooling to the boiling? It isn't TOO hard to look up the necessary numbers online, and the mass of the water cancels itself out.
Down here it was very dark.
-Fairly deep lake then. Or at least with a lot of floating matter.
“What do we do now?” asked Fluttershy timidly.
-Wait it out. If the spell burns itself out mostly (or for all they know, entirely) before the water runs out, then they swim+walk out. If it doesn't then they make a break for it and hope the effect is localized enough they can get through it without being burned. I wonder if Twilight can make measure such things magically without the bubble collapsing? Or maybe Rarity can do that sort of things since a customer might bring in a dress that needs the spells on it re-touched.
“We walk,” said Applejack. “Back to the wagon.” Twilight nodded, her face a bit strained.
-I WONDERED if the air would hold out that long. I don't know how long air lasts (should be about the same per unit of body-mass for Ponies, or maybe higher since the brain is the biggest consumer of oxygen in humans, and that might stay at a constant oxygen requirement despite teh down, scaling). This is the best tactic if they assume that the heat will outlast the water (or at least their air).
“I’m just holding back millions of gallons of water.”
-Well, I guess she is tired, unlike she was before her mega-telekinesis in "Boast Busters" and "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well".
Her horn glowed as her magic added its strength to Twilight’s.
-Rarity OTOH is an unknown as far as high telekinetic force. Every little bit helps, and maybe they will get a Friendship synergy like they did with the heat-shield. Come to that, I wonder if Twilight could try putting on the Element of Magic and casting through it, the way that Luna/Cadance/whomever was with the ice.
Yet, with Rarity helping her it was almost easy.
-Friendship Synergy Bonus. Would be interesting to see how she can adapt it to include the non-unicorns. I ASSUME that such synergies will be happening across racial lines before the story is over, but maybe not. Don't push for it if it doesn't come naturally to the story though.
Her books never talked about it. All the spells, all the examples, were for one unicorn.
-I have a theory that Celestia was intentionally tweaking things so that Twilight stayed socially isolated (but perfectly happy). This would have left her more open to the other Mane Six, and made the thing more of a surprise for Nightmare Moon*. Celestia may have kept her away from those books. Can't explain why that covered team-casting didn't end up in the Ponyville library, unless maybe Twilight was only ordering books she knew the names of. Seems like Batmare!Celestia would have found a way around that. We know that team-casting almost HAS to be possible, because the Unicorns appeared to move the sun as a team before Celestia. It if was possible for a single unicorn to do it, then Twilight should have tried. Maybe team-casting is only possible for the Bearers? Or at least very good friends? I can't see Celestia repressing the technique, unless she was afraid of a team of evil unicorns that really like eachother from doing exactly what is happening now. That would be interesting. Badguys can have friends too...
*Most of the fandom seems to agree that Celestia set up Twilight to meet the bearers by selecting them to work various jobs for the Summer Sun Celebration, except for Pinkie Pie, who meets EVERYPONY. She may have done her research about the Rainboom, knowing the magical connection between ponies who will be friends can exist. I imagine that Cutie-marks are registered somehow, if only as part of economic census data (since they tend to represent the job-skills available, and working outside one's cutie-mark can bad for mental health).
--Going to break this here...
SPOILER ALERT!!!
She didn’t know what would happen if the spell suddenly collapsed,
-Burst eardrums would be at the low end of the scale. Getting slammed into eachother or just knocked around by the water would be a bigger issue.
Would she be in any shape to keep up the shield spell?
-Good point. If the ultra-intense heating is localized enough, a short-range teleport could be indicated, but I can't remember if you said it goes up to unreasonable levels with increased mass, even over shorter distances.
In truth, the surface of the lake had reached them.
-Yep... or maybe "met them part-way" would be a better phrasing?
In another moment more the water was past them,
-Thermodynamics means this is impressive. Magic means it may not be.
Even Rainbow Dash had let out a cry of discomfort at the momentary touch of the Sun.
-Rainbow Dash being temperature tolerant, or just "a tough mare"? Probably "a tough mare" (I would say "macho" but despite the context that might seem gender specific).
For some reason, maintaining the shield spell was not as draining as before.
-Probably a passive boost from the Element of Magic. Might be better if she was wearing it, but then again, the "battery" may not be infinite.
Soon the air was filled with a cascade of brightly colored leaves of all kind.
-Mini-Autumn, or is their passage causing sun dried leaves to fall?
The wagon didn’t stop but all of the ponies looked up at the trees.
-I guess we will find out.
The dried leaves crumbled in on themselves before dissolving into dust.
-Ah, super-high heat. Might even reach ignition temperature, which might be a problem with smoke inhalation, even if the heat-shield holds (and the incremental heat shouldn't be much). Seems to be fast-forwarded time-wise though.
In minutes it was as if they had sped through all of fall and the branches of the trees above them were bare.
-COULD be a mystical combination of Autumn and heat, but I doubt it. Autumn is probably just an analogy. It would be the only point of comparison they would have.
“Break time! I need some water!”
-And the problem will be discovered... Not that it would have helped if they had known earlier, since ALL the water in the lake boiled off.
said Pinkie as she worked the top of the barrel off.
-It was capped with no bung-hole on top? It should have popped off if not shot into the air like a champagne cork if it boiled away. I guess they might not have looked at it very closely. I wonder if the wood warped in the heat and it sprung a leak? Sealant between the staves melting?
Dun Duun Duuuuuuunnnn!!!!!!
I love that Pinkie was, essentially, correct. Her idea would have worked right off the bat! I also love Spike the Navigator. Why didn't I read this eighteen months ago?
Not much to say about this except that the Element of Magic is clearly giving Twilight a boost. Now we have only to see how long that boost will last.