> Elements of Harmony - Turn it Up > by Sea Blaze > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Crack in the Sky > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Sweet! This is gonna be one of the best. days. EVER! It's just in the air. And in my awesome headsets, but that's gonna go in the air. Crack in the Sky As told by a rarely sober Rainbow Dash, as written by a huge fan. "Why the buck did I look so low?!" screamed Rainbow while dashing through a lonely cloud, causing it to break apart and dissolve in mid air. "I could've gotten such a better price! But, dammit, weren't it worth the whole of the money I spent on those beauties!" Dash took her eyes of the sky for a brief second, just to make sure the wire from her new headsets was still attached to her pPod. As expected from Scratch and Crimson inc. those nano stereos got the best of her ear, not showing one chance of falling off. Shooting her sights back on the sky she could see Cloudsdale up in the distance. *I just hope this day would've last longer. If not for that long bargain, that actually didn't got me anywhere <>, I could've been way up from my current altitude, practicing. Well, tomorrow ain't a big day. Not yet, at least.* Rainbow finalized that thought with a huge grin on her face. A grin that showed an inner Dash, hungry for adrenaline, hungry for the thrills, hungry for life. Her headphones wobbled a bit as she settled them easily on her table. She sat there, simply looking at them, admiring the artwork and craftmanship behind this masterpiece. There were two straps, one for the back of the head and one for the top, designed specially for the needs of a speeding pegasus. And not just any speeding pegasus. With a special joint made for attaching goggles, this headset was particularly designed for the pegasus who's rainbow adorned head would wear them. Rainbow threw another thirsty look upon her "Sound Rainboom V2" after jumping full on her back on the couch right beside the table. "Tomorrow, my beauties... you're gonna feel the Rainbow experience... I wonder, maybe I could try some new tricks... yeah, that would work... or maybe the triple spiral..." And so Rainbow plunged deeper into dreaming until her eyes closed, and she touched the bottom of her mental well, now swimming along her fantasies. *** "Ready... um... I mean... set... and... whenever you're ready...-" "JUST SHOUT IT!" "GO!" screamed Fluttershy, visibly frustrated. *BOOM* sounded the air around her as Rainbow Dash took off in a majestic Rainbow Circlet. Just 10 seconds after taking off she was in the sky, spinning at such a violent rate that the air around her started twirling. About 20 inches away from her controlled rotating body, a small barrier of wind started forming. As her spinning continued, and even accelerated, the colors of the rainbow mane and tail started to bend in with the surrounding vortex, Rainbow's body melting into an incredibly violent rotating bullet, now bright with the colors of the rainbow, smashing through the air. -HOLD ON TO THE PEGASUS, PREPARE TO DIE! Tuuuurn on the ignition!- a metal song echoed in her ears, the rhythm blending in with her movements, her wings losing capacity to control her flight, but Rainbow was now unable to sense anything. She lost herself in the moment, in the sky. The wind was her, she was the light passing by her speeding body. She was all and one, and nothing could stop her. Continuing her rotation she soon passed Cloudsdale, capacity of controlling her direction being lost, she now sped up towards the towers of Canterlot. Specifically Celestia's rooms. "Hmm... interesting! I think this will make a good daybreak read. "Crack in The Sky - Myth or Reality?". Heh, never really did believe in this myself, but let's see what does the description say... *_ When a pegasus gains such skill, rhythm in her beating wings, that the wind will allow the pony to blend in himself, and the colors of the flier will combine with those of the sky, then the pegasus will have reached the limit. If at this breaking point the named pony somehow makes it into rolling deep in an endless rotation, then the key to breaching the Crack in the Sky is to perform the notorious Sonic Rain- *CRASH* Standing dumbstruck, eyes as wide as a plate's radius, Celestia slowly motioned her body into an 180 degrees turn, to behold the source of the sound. Or, at least what the source had left behind. Right over the tip of the greatest bookshelf in the room, a perfect circle stood as a glassless window to the sky, whilst right over her bed there stood another hole, those two proving to be twins. The perfection of the circles made Celestia realize that whatever went through her room went at colossal speed, and had a perfect conical form. "*Sigh...* And I was just about to go into such a good reading... well, all for the best. Guards!" *** If any pony from Canterlot that, in that day, decided to head over to the outskirts of the city, they could've spotted, in the blink of an eye, a small, incredibly fast rainbow colored bullet sweeping right through princess Celestia's tower and head further into the wastelands just after the capital. With her playlist at an end, Rainbow snapped out of it, and realized that even in this situation, her mind fully aware of what was happening, she didn't really had what to do about it. The spinning reaching such incredible speed, she didn't even see anything except for her own rainbow. Deciding to take a shot for it, she begged for a miracle as she started to try and take control of her direction, if not speed or rotation. What happened next was to her and everyone else in Equestria's surprise. As she was directing her trajectory to face the sky, the speed started gaining lower numbers, allowing her to take a peek at her surroundings. Recognizing the landscape, she tried, hardly not reaching her physical breaking point, to rearrange her flight course back to Ponyville. Whilst successful, during the extreme work she put into turning she barely held herself conscious, and reached a hand to her pPod. Pushing the play button, the music started pumping back in her veins, and she lost herself once again. Speeding up, she rose to as high as she could, still rotating. Then, at the peak... *Fall...* Her wings cracked as she pulled them close to her body, and she plummeted at impossible speed down towards Equestria. In a matter of seconds a circular sound barrier formed in front of the speeding bullet. In just a few other seconds it flattened itself on the mass of rainbow light, thinning its trail behind. Then it hit! *ZZZZZBIIIIIIUM!* A rose red crack broke open in the sky. With a deafening sound it expended forward, to cover all of Equestria, behind the first red line now lining up the rest of the rainbow. In it's wake every bit of blueness crashed out of the sky in the form of color rain, and dissolved in it's fall. The sky purely became a huge, circular rainbow, just before, at the same point were the barrier broke, a bright white sphere broke into reality, and started assimilating the colors spread over the sky. Forming a vortex, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, violet started dying the small sphere. The sky stand white for a few seconds, then the tiny globe exploded in bleu-ciel, covering the sky back with it's original color. *** Back in Ponyville Rainbow stood on a hospital bed, with the exclusive volume of Daring-Do in her hands. Her both wings bandaged this time, and a broken leg, her body looked rather miserable, but when looking in her eyes your whole soul would've turned upside down. In those magenta eyes something had lit up. Something broke through, and transformed in Rainbow. In the place where the color of her iris would meet the cornea there was a fine line that broke into the seven colors of the rainbow. Dash was now no mere pegasus. She gained the great title of Color Reaper, and the first to ever Crack the Sky. "But... how did she survive?... The crash. There's a ten meter crater in that damned place! She couldn't ever survive something like that. And how did she even create that big of a crater?" "Twilight, just listen to me and simply take it in. She was chosen by the rainbow. She is no mere pegasus, no mere pony. She is a Color Reaper. She was born from Spectra, only Spectra can now take her to her judgement. And that is all I know for now... She is immortal." Celestia concluded with a serious look on her eyes. But there was something more in them... something that sparkled just the way... just the way fear poisoned eyes would. > Sparkle, Twilight > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - THAT IS FRIGGIN' IMPOSSIBLE! Twilight, move your buckin' hooves over here. You've GOT to see this. *I wonder what's so important that it got Spike cursing...* Sparkle, Twilight As told by the High Scholar Twilight Sparkle, as written by a huge fan. In the warmth of a late summer afternoon Twilight Sparkle stood on the lower floor of her tree-library, trying to concentrate on her "Variation of Unicorn Magic", already at page 200, after barely half an hour of reading. Well... You know Twilight and her books. A good book? A good amount of time for bringing it down. But today? No. Today she wasn't going to finish this book. Actually, she wasn't going to finish it for a long time. - Hmmm... a unicorn's magic halo depends on the color of the unicorn's coat, and the way the said unicorn concentrates his/her strength directly into filtering the magic out of the Magicka... The Magicka? *Strange... I've never heard of this so-called "Magicka". Maybe there's a book around here regarding it's meaning? Let's see... M... M...* But no matter how hard she would search, how deep beyond the first row of books she would go, there was no book entitled Magicka, nor any with even slight connotations to what it could mean. Exasperated, she gave up and returned to her previous lecture, writing down a new to-do thing on her mental list. "Ask Princess Celestia about the "Magicka"." Then it hit. Her horn started to pulse with tingly and painful beats. Somewhere along the normal course of magic, a thing, no matter what it was, disturbed it's flow. Being confronted with this kind of disturbances lately, Twilight let it go and tried to concentrate on her reading. Still, it wasn't a normal fluctuation... even Discord's arrival was less of a disturbance. Something was wrong. *** The Redheart Hospital's hallways were now being paced up and down by an impatient Twilight Sparkle. By the door of the patient she was so nervous to see, stood Celestia, flanked by two royal guards. She looked rather absent... something was bothering her. And it was doing it in a pretty good way. - Relax, Twilight Sparkle. We should be allowed into her room somewhere over the next minutes. Pacing up and down isn't going to make time move faster. And neither will it make you feel better. - But Princess, I can't just sit somewhere and stare into nothingness! You saw that crash. You saw that... that... humongous crater it left behind! I never even knew there were things capable of doing THAT in Equestria. And what about Rainbow? I don't think there's a pony, no, not even Rainbow... that could blow a ten meter crater and get out of it without more than broken wings and a backleg! This is just absurd. They are hiding something from us... - Twilight, I was there when she crashed. I saw her injuries. She... was on her feet... and she didn't look even a little... scratched... she was perfectly fine. Until she acknowledged the pain, of course, and fell in... well, she didn't look like she felt the pain... she was just... sleeping. And her rapid recovery's purely astonishing. I'm not sure what happened, but Rainbow Dash is either an incredible pony, or... - Or? Princess? Celestia was staring upon the end of the hallway, her eyes blank and concerned, the sight of the majestic Sun Goddess obstructed by visions of Rainbow Dash... and the Crack in the Sky. - Princess! shouted Twilight, now completely desperate to know what made her mentor fall so hard into deep thought. - Oh, yes, I'm sorry Twilight... It's just that... there is a possibility that our esteemed Element of Loyalty had just took her power level up a notch. What she did is called the "Crack in the Sky". It's a legendary move, attributed to Commander Hurricane, which was said to be used to clear the skies completely, leaving the earth ponies without clouds, thus without rain, crops dying of thirst. But when commander Hurricane commenced with the move, the... the body of the ancient pegasus had immense amounts of damage inflicted upon her exterior as well as her interior tissues. Breaking the sound barrier is one, but breaking it while spinning wildly and then crashing into the ground... it isn't really the healthiest habit. Twilight was just sitting there, her mouth bent in an ultimate gasp. She couldn't believe it. She heard and read of it before, but to think that Rainbow... that her friend, the failure-fobic pegasus, could perform such a legendary feat... and escape almost intact from it. It was barely comprehensible. Taking the closest chair, Twilight fell in her not-so-comfy place of rest, threw her head back, and started thinking. *If Rainbow Dash, an Element of Harmony, was able of pulling the ultimate... "trick"... a feat no other pegasus ever obtained the honor to brag about... and got out unharmed... was it something to do with her being an Element? Is it... is it our capacity as Elements to pull off feats thought incredible? Well... only one way to find out. But first, I see Rainbow." *** It was the first time Twilight had Celestia as a guest. Her tree-library didn't really look royalty inviting, but it was... livable. Ignoring the books thrown here and there, it actually looked pretty well took care off. Of course Spike would waste his whole day cleaning the house, would've thought everyone. Well... not really. Being a baby dragon, Spike needed lots of sleep to feed his growing body with strength to keep on growing. So most of the days of the small dragon cub would be spent in his bed, turning from side-to-side and adjusting his sheets. Holding a plate with 2 tea-cups, a biscuit bowl and a small tea-pot, Twilight approached the princess that laid down on the floor. Celestia still looking absent, Twilight remembered the moment when her mentor appeared to ever show fear. She remembered, yeah... "...only Spectra can now take her to her judgement. That's all I know for now... she's immortal." Recognizing the same concerned... even frightened look from back at the hospital, Twilight sat down next to her Princess, and looked up, a bit shy, to the alicorn's eyes. She still wasn't there. *cough* - Oh! Oh... I'm sorry once again Twilight Sparkle. It's only that... never mind. So remind me, to what do I owe the pleasure of being the first time a guest in your house? asked the Princess, trying to make conversation. - Well... I know that this recent event with Rainbow is... taking it's toll on you Princess- - Oh, but that's ridi- - And I know that there are other, more urgent matters for you to attend to. But I... just before Rainbow crashing I felt something in my horn... it wasn't the same tingling, like the one that bothered me when Discord came up. It was bigger. And even a bit painful... - Well, what Rainbow Dash done is a certai- - Please, let me finish... and whilst it happened, even if I took my mind of it for the next 5 minutes and continued reading, my lecture didn't really have the effect I was looking for. Instead of calming me and taking my mind of the strange magic that disturbed my senses, it merely drew my attention even further. Now, I think I prolonged this conversation enough to get the courage to ask you... - Let it out, Twilight. I'm here to help you in any way I can, remember? Now, just tell me what's on your mind, my little pony. Celestia seemed... calm... Twilight thought she already knew what was in her mind, and was preparing a lie. Wait. *What thought IS that?! Celestia would never lie to me! Come on Twi. Ask her and be done.* - Well... I... do you know what Magicka is? And that's when Twilight got her confidence shaken pretty hard. The princess now opened her eyes completely and jumped to her feet. Looking up from her frightened pupil, Celestia put a frown on her face. She was looking pretty angry... ain't good for ya, Twilight. - Princess, if it wasn't a question to be asked, please accept my deepest apolo- - Come out, Seraphim. Shadows don't fit you well. *What? WAIT! Who's... when... how?!* From the shadows of the nearest bookshelf a silver coated pegasus, wings adorned with silver and emerald green feathers, and his mane falling in a shiny turquoise around his neck came into the light of the approaching dawn. - Well, hi there Celestia! Long time no see, isn't it? *Why is he smiling? He reminds me of Pinkie... But why is Celestia so angry?* - Seraphim. I thought I got you pretty well locked up into the dungeons. I guess I'll have to put you back there. ZENITH! - Oh, shush it Celestia! I'm not out to wreak havoc or shit like that. I'm here to help your little pupil. She wants to know what Magicka is, doesn't she? I know you'll never show her, so I HAD to come here and enlighten her! After all, not anypony can tap into Magicka as well as she did. - That's because she's a perfect ten, my friend. And she's Equestria's perfect ten. Not Magicka's, not yours. She's her own, and you ain't got a word to say in this. Zenith, charge. With this the longsword summoned by Celestia, made entirely out of sun-light, charged head-first into the coat of Seraphim. Laughing, Seraphim simply teleported behind Twilight. *Where is- But he doesn't have a horn! How?! When?! Prin...* - CESS! screamed Twilight. But nobody could hear her now. She wasn't in her tree house anymore. She was somewhere, anywhere, everywhere. Darkness was all around her, and she felt like she was sitting on... blackness. - Hi there, Twi! His joyful voice made Twilight even more nervous than she was. The pegasus from before had now turned into a beautiful alicorn, approximately the size of Celestia.Yet, he looked... younger. - Who- - Celestia's son! he giggled smiling. *Wait. What?* - No... you can't be. Celestia would've told me! You're lying. - What would the reason of lying be, us two caught in infinity's raze, without a chance of getting out until you tap in Magicka? Of course she never told you! Who would have fun telling people her son is mad? Oh, and what a beautiful word. Maaad... HIHIHI! The last sentence was spoken with his forelegs clopping, a huge grin appearing on his face. - So? Gonna get in that river, or spend the rest of eternity with a mad 100 year old? - But I don't even... how am I supposed to even see the river? - But it's inside you, my dear! All you need is a catalyst... that time was your friend's Crack. This time, however, it's gonna be... oh, yeah! Seraphim's White Supernova. Now that should do the trick. But be prepared, 'cause it's gonna take me some life years to produce, and if you ain't gonna tap whilst the effect is still on, then we're trapped here... for forever! I might even fall in love with you, so watch out. With his grin still on his face, Seraphim took off with a boom, just like Rainbow did that day, and started spinning. But this time, his horn gained a greater glow as he was gaining altitude. On his peak, the horn's glow already engulfed the rotating pony. Whilst stopping on his climax, he broke off the rotation into one, brutal move. The spinning light from his horn exploded in a shockwave, causing the darkness to wobble around them. In the wake of the shockwave Twilight's horn blew up with light, her eyes starting to glow, and her mouth dropping in a petrified gasp. From his height Seraphim could see how around Twilight a dome of purple energy formed, continuing to expand. Upon reaching her own climax, the dome shattered into pieces that melted, forming streams of purple energy, flowing around her into circle trajectory, lifting Twilight close to Seraphim's level. With her eyes still glowing, Twilight let loose a disturbing scream, this time her sound causing the darkness to wobble, even harder than when Seraphim's supernova had taken act. The streams of purple energy engulfing themselves around the sound, they started dissipating like ripples on a river. When the ripple ceased, and Twilight regained consciousness, around her and Seraphim was flowing a beautiful, purplish river of energy. 2 inches above it, the unicorn's head bent down, and stared inside the flowing stream of Magicka. Upon making contact with it, the whole river started flowing UNTO Twilight. Desperate and frightened, she screamed for Seraphim's help, but the alicorn was now joyfully playing around, flying in high loops singing "We're going out and you're immortal, we're going out and you're immortaaaal! HIHIHIHIIII!" When the river felt Twilight's limit, it was already drained more than half. Expanding with a boom, and then contracting into the unicorn's body, the river now spilled away, leaving Twilight to free-fall, heading head-first into the black floor just below her. Seraphim watched, with a huge grin on his face, as the unicorn was heading right to the point where the portal to reality was going to break open. - Help... please... help... whispered Twilight. But that whisper was about to be gone. She had gotten mad. And she could feel how her own feelings drove the magic around her, bending the world. She let her anger out. Right before she hit the floor... - FUCK YOU! *BOOM* The darkness wobbled once more, and from Twilight's horn strings of purple energy, capable of cutting through one and everything shot out, aiming for Seraphim. - HAAAAHAHAHIIIHI! Dodging Twilight's shots, Seraphim flew over the darkened world, turning into loops and twists. Even madder, Twilight started gathering energy balls, and sending them homing after her target, along her strings of energy. Getting harder to dodge the enraged unicorn's attacks, Seraphim soon found himself using his horn as well, for shielding. He threw himself back into spinning, and flew around the scenery in the same bullet stance as Rainbow, only spinning a lot slower. Still dodging, his horn protecting him and engulfing his bullet form into protective silver energy, he simply drew out more anger from Twilight's behalf. Her eyes turning into energy emanating orbs, Twilight simply drew out a ball of energy to surround her, rose up in the air, and whilst Seraphim still flew in a circle around her, the unicorn compressed the energy sphere to the size of a golf ball, and detonated it. Herself untouched by her magic, the Darkness now gained colors. Seraphim wasn't spinning anymore. He didn't seem like he was even breathing anymore. Celestia starred in awe, as her student sat in the center of the reading room, her coat dyed in purple, feet having gained a silver color, and her horn sparkled with the deepest purple energy ever to be witnessed from the creation of the Magicka. *** Back at the hospital, Twilight sat in Rainbow's former bed, with Celestia at her bedside. Ever since the incident the unicorn was unable to gain focus on the world around her. Her eyes, completely purple, continued to stare into nothingness, her horn still glowing violet. After 2 days in the hospital, when Celestia returned in Twilight's room she saw her student finally getting some rest. Poking her gently with her horn, Celestia woke Twilight to check on her eyes. Just as Rainbow's, where her iris met the cornea Twilight's eyes gained a purple circlet, spanning from the lightest to the darkest purple all over the circumference of the circle. - Good morning, Twilight. - Good morning, Princess liar. Author's note : Zenith, the design of Zenith and idea of Celestia wielding a sun-light longsword all belong to the author of the story "Ponies make War". Go check it out. It's worth a good > Fabulously Lethal. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fabulously Lethal As told by Lieutenant "Gem-Sage" Rarity As written by a huge fan. It was a fabulously sunny day. Sky as clear as it can be, and inspiration flowing through every particle of her coat. Lacking the ability to hold herself back when inspiration hit, Rarity prepared her material and kicked it up a notch, preparing a massive project. Sewing and cutting, she was already half through one of her biggest dresses, when it hit. Just like it did to merely every other unicorn in Ponyville, the Crack caused a burst of magic to flow through Rarity's horn, her eyes glowing diamond white, and her horn emanating sparks. In the wake of the passing shockwave, the windows of her Boutique exploded, sending shards of broken glass everywhere, including towards Rarity. Her coat would've never gotten a fuller, brighter shade of red, as it would've got when the shards should've sliced through the designer's body. But they didn't. Positioning perfectly, in front of every little shard, a small, impenetrable force-field showed up, it's strength being provided by the energy flowing through the strings attached to them, strings flowing from Rarity's horn. But the shattered glass wasn't the only threat. In the bushes, next to Rarity's shop, a gang of burglars was preparing their move against the unicorn's boutique. Their plan set up from as far as two weeks earlier before, seeing the advantage the shockwave gave them, by breaking the windows, the gang rushed inside. 8 ponies, each of them wearing dark coat-vests and head's covered entirely by black silk, with a small opening for each eye, broke inside, only to get stunned in their places by the image that has unraveled before their eyes. In the middle of the room sat Rarity, her eyes still glowing. Seemingly unconscious, the unicorn's horn continued to work, magic repairing the damages done to the shop. Having sensed the intrusion, the magic now started channeling itself on blocking any escape path the thieves might have used. Windows now barred with transparent force-fields, the doors reinforced with magic, and wall breaking not being one of the abilities of anypony in that room, except for Rarity's magic, the gang was now trapped in what was to become the last place where they would've ever drew breath. - You... dare... enter... fabulous... Rarity'... BOUTIQUE?! screamed an inner, demonic voice, through the roughly gasped mouth of the unicorn. - NO! Please, mercy! We came here only for the dresses! We never knew she was here, we never wanted to hurt anypony! - Mercy... is not... in... my... capability... die. simply ended the phrase the voice that started to take the tone and sound of Rarity's. Still screaming, the eight ponies were getting ready for the worst. Three gems and one, spherical, orb of gold flew from different corners of the room, positioning themselves in a semi-circle, facing two of each pony-thieves. Rarity, now backed against the furthermost wall, and the eight ponies, lined in a semi-circle as well, by the exit wall, became mere spectators to what the out-of-control entity created by the unicorn's magic was preparing to achieve. Ruby, emerald, sapphire, and the sphere of gold, were now being connected to Rarity's horn by a string of magic, each colored in the gem/metal's specific color. Rotating the gems to a vertical position, from each of the levitating objects streams of silver colored light manifested, forming the shapes of four, lethal weapons. A silver longsword, handle colored ruby-red, the blade encrusted with millions of tiny rubies. A silver battle-axe, the blade being a huge sapphire itself. A pair of daggers, each one having a blade with only one half of an emerald, designed as so as to combine into one, swift-killing dagger, and a huge, golden spear, tip as silver as Rarity's magical light. Unable to move any of them, the weapons simply levitated there. The thieves now paralyzed in fear of where the blades of each weapon will be directed, saw in horror how from one of the furthermost corners of the room, levitated a bright, perfectly cut diamond. Soaring over the semi-circle of weapons, the diamond broke into four pieces, and settled it's parts on each of the blades. With the touch from the diamond, the weapon's blades twisted, gaining incredible forms. The longsword's blade was now arched into a fabulous display of grace, as from the tip dripped down petrified flows of magic, connecting it to the handle and the rest of the blade. The axe's blade now span a long, thin spike, coming down from the bottom of the blade, and making contact with the end of the handle, creating a surface of contact big enough to barely swing a little, and cut in half. The emerald daggers now had double blades, each with a quarter of the original gem, each blade spanning from the top and bottom of the handle, still designed to connect and form a single, semi-circular blade. And the last, but not the least, the spear span two spikes from each end of the tip, spikes falling down to connect with the middle of the spear, forming a hybrid between the original spear and a battle-axe. The morphing ended, each weapon now emanated a light, each shaded differently, coloring the room into a beautiful light-show. Rarity, with a huge grin on her face, was now able to move the incredibly heavy magical weapons, and with a single swing from each one of the lethal, fabulous weapons, the thieves were now laid down, two of them having been brought to a two-part set. After the massacre ended, Rarity's horn started glowing with dimmer light, the energy spawned windows now shattering. Ending the display, the weapons dissipated in mid-air, each gem binding itself on one of Rarity's ankle's, ready to be summoned again, when needed. The gem's and metal laid tattoos on each of Rarity's leg. Her left foreleg, a ruby-red tribal tattoo growing up to her coat. Her right foreleg, an emerald-green spiral, point of start being the gem itself, span up her leg. Her left backleg now adorned with beautiful, sapphire-blue flames, and her right backleg sparkling with gold coming from her tattooed knee-guard. ******************************* Two days later, on the evening of one of her high-placed friend's party, Rarity showed up dressed in a beautifully decorated dress, and assorted hat. But the dress and hat were the least intriguing and attention grabbing pieces of her outfit. Each of her legs bared special decorations, created perfectly to draw attention upon her tattoos. Each gem and the golden sphere having been given a silver-frame, frame from which exceptional shapes wrapped themselves around Rarity's ankles, specially framing the forms of her tattoos. And if this still wasn't enough to leave everyone with a gasp on their faces, Rarity's horn would've topped everything. Each circle of the spiral having been given a particular color, her horn now gained a red-green-golden-blue-silver palette. *Fabulous, dear Rarity! You are simply fabulous! And capable of killing any of the ponies in this room... but why would we want that, now? We protect, we don't destroy! Come on now, shine!* > Ten Thousand Paws in the Air > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As told by Druid Fluttershy the Spiritual As written by a huge fan. It was, as any other day on the side of the Everfree Forrest, a sunny and quiet day. Birds could be heard humming and singing everywhere, and small animals were running all over the place. In the middle of the scene sat a peaceful Fluttershy. Enjoying the hum of her animals, she simply stood there, with a smile on her face. For her, this was the perfect way to spend a day. Sitting in the middle of your garden, listening to the sound of nature... but heck, I would love that too! Still, as aerie a scene like this was, today wasn't really the simple, peaceful day in the Everfree Forrest. Today was the day the ten hundred tree tops in the forest were to bow, kneeling in front of the Crack's shockwave. The moment Rainbow threw the legendary move, Fluttershy was just sitting up, preparing to head over in the forest for a meeting with Zecora, concerning a cure for the recent sickness Angel acquired, as well as going over to visit her pet animal, who was hospitalized in the zebra's shack. A moment after opening her wings, Fluttershy felt an air current bending her feathers, and before she even realized she was thrown back by the impact of the Crack, which took place far too close to Fluttershy's garden. Recovering from the shock, the yellow pegasus rose to beckon a view the aftermath of Rainbow's stunt left. Her garden. Ruined. Animals, running all over the place, panicked. She was paralyzed. She could feel it. If she would've stick her tongue out she would've as well taste it. The fear. The desperation. It was thick in the crimson lighted air around her, and it grew harder and harder to hold up, gaining pounds proportional to the speed the color of the sky changed. By the time the formerly blue dome regained its colors, Fluttershy broke. Her eyes lighting up with a peculiar green shade, her wings grew and incredible opening diameter, her feathers spanning spikes at their tips. Growing larger and larger in size, the pegasus soon rose to the height of a half-adult Spike, and her wings were now wrapped around the Everfree Forest, and right before closing up, a desperate zebra was seen galloping out of the trees shade. Watching over her forest, with a frown, Fluttershy howled "GATHER, MY DEARS! IT'S TIME FOR US TO MARCH ON! WE STOOD HIDDEN UNTIL NOW, BUT WHEN OUR FOREST IS THREATENED, WE TAKE ACTION! ONWARD, TO DEADWORLD'S SPINE MOUNTAINS!" -For those of you wondering what "Deadworld's Spine" mountains are, they are the mountain range encircling Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest. About a month before Rainbow's crack, the animals from Deadworld's Spine started marching down, heading for the Everfree Forest, led by the one and only Gilda. At the edge of the forest, Fluttershy, The Mayor and Rainbow Dash stood in waiting, animals gathered behind them. Trying to reason with the griffin, the mythical animal only accepted a cease-fire treaty, a treaty spanning over the time of a month, for Fluttershy and the forest to prepare. Scared to her bones ever since then, Fluttershy grew a deep sense of paranoia, greater than before, so it's not a big surprise that she took the Crack as a sign of offensive from the enemy.- The animals, rallied by Fluttershy's impulse, gathered outside of the forest, and marched forward onto Deadworld's Spine. With their paws, claws, hooves and sometimes fists, in the air, in the back of the army a legion of birds, with a chorus of parrot-baritones and tenors were singing, following the rhythm played by the enraged bears with their stomping feet. "You will remember the night you were struck by the sight oooof... TEN THOUSAND PAWS IN THE AIR!" *** Fluttershy grinned evil. She wasn't "shy" anymore. She was assertive. She was... powerful!