> The Elements of the Crystal Empire: Season One
>  by star-girl
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Griffon the Brush Off - Tuesday, June 22nd
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Sunset, do you know where Indigo is?" Lemon asked, joining Sunset as she walked out of the castle. Sunset rolled her eyes involuntarily. She still wasn't used to this whole friendship thing, and sometimes she found that hanging out with other ponies all the time voluntarily grated on her nerves - she still needed her alone time.

"Nah," Sunset told her indifferently. Then she snickered. "She's probably SLEEPING IN A CLOUD AGAIN!"

"Aah!" Indigo yelped, falling out of a nearby cloud. She popped up with an annoyed look on her face. "What the heck, Sunset?" she asked. "I was having a very nice dream, thank you!"

Sunset sighed. "Are your duties as captain of the Shadowbolts done?" she asked.

"Yes!" Indigo said indignantly.

Sunset reminded herself that just because Indigo napped a lot didn't mean that she was lazy. "Well, Lemon here was looking for you."

Indigo turned her annoyance to Lemon. "Whaaaaat?" she whined. "I was having a good dream, thank you - and Princess Luna - very much."

Lemon just grinned.

"What?"

"I heard you like to prank ponies."

Indigo started to smile and Sunset decided very clearly that she was absolutely terrified.





Flame had gone to the Dragonlands now that she was an adult and found out that she was the cousin of the current princess, Princess Ember. She also had a brother named Garble, but she described him as "a huge dick" so she tried not to associate herself with him. She and Ember, however, had really hit it off and now Flame was an ambassador to Equestria for the Dragonlands, and they really couldn't have picked anyone better. Since she grew up there, she was familiar with Equestrian customs and she the fact that she was Sunset's friend - not assistant - helped.

It was a sunny day and Flame was walking out of the castle with no small amount of scrolls in her arms, going to the train station. Unfortunately for her, she was about to become the victim of Indigo and Lemon's first joint prank, which is truly a horrible place to be in.

Lemon had made them both invisible temporarily and Indigo positioned a dark thundercloud over Flame's head, grinning. Lemon mouthed the countdown to her . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .

Indigo kicked the cloud with all the strength in her hoof and it let out a mighty lightning bolt, which Flame barely managed to avoid. It gave her a big case of the hiccups, and slowly all her scrolls disappeared.

Lemon and Indigo revealed themselves, and said together, "Pranked ya!" They clapped hooves.

Flame didn't find it that funny. "Great job, guys," she said menacingly. "Those were all very important and now you've made me send them to who-knows-where!"

The duo gulped at the murderous look on her face, but then Flame collapsed laughing. "You girls should have seen the looks on your faces! I pranked you!"

Indigo grinned. "Good one, Flame. Maybe you can join our pranking group when you get back from your trip."

Flame shrugged. "Maybe I will."





"Hey, Sour Sweet!" Indigo called. Sour came over and gasped.

"Wha-wha-"

All of Sour's kiwis had rotted or were infected with some type of fungus. Sour lowered her head mournfully. "Those were part of my best stock! What happened?"

Lemon snickered quietly as she gave up the illusion of the rot and fungus and they both burst out laughing as Sour stared at her miraculously healed kiwis in utter shock. "H-what-"

"It was a prank," Lemon explained. "I made an illusion."

Sour raised her head and glared. "How dare your pranks be so ridiculously good that even I fall for them?"

"You sound like Sunset," Indigo teased.





Sunset levitated her quill and scribbled down a few notes. Then she went over to her data machine, which was still spewing out . . . hearts, stars, and flowers?

Sunset ran a quick scan of her machine but couldn't find anything wrong. "What in Equus?" she muttered to herself. Then she remembered the pranking pact Lemon and Indigo had made. Her expression turned from confusion to rage.

"Darn you two!" she yelled, and charged outside, asting a quick revealing spell to see Lemon and Indigo clutching each other, terrified. "I was on the verge of a breakthrough," Sunset whispered dangerously. "Run."

They ran.

Sunset grinned to herself and went back inside.





Sugarcoat walked into the storage room. The kitchens needed more flour, so she had gone to get some.

The storage was empty.

Sugarcoat gasped and moaned, "I just bought everything! I'm gonna go broke!"

She bumped against an invisible bag of flour and her face changed to suspicion. "Sunset warned me of pranks . . ." Shrugging to herself, she awkwardly picked up the bag of flour and shuffled to the kitchens.

Huffing, Lemon lowered the spell. "Well, that was a fail."

Indigo shrugged. "That's okay."

Lemon fired up her horn and blasted a spell at Indigo which covered her with flour. Indigo mockingly gasped. "How dare you?"

Lemon smiled. "Price of the trade."

They laughed together.





The next day, Lemon was listening to her music on her headphones and going to Indigo's house, which was abnormally low today. Just then, she spotted the peach mare flying with . . . was that a griffon?!

"Hey, Indigo!" Lemon called cheerfully. "Who's this?"

"This is my old flight school buddy, Gilda," Indigo introduced. "What pranks do you have for us today?"

"Well, I was thinking we could have another go at Sugarcoat-"

"Hey, IZ!" Gilda said, speaking for the first time. "Didn't you promise me a flying session, just like old times?"

"Oh, yeah," Indigo said sheepishly. "Sorry, Lemon, I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," Lemon said, and she walked away.





Later, Lemon was helping Sugarcoat out in her restaurant when she spotted Gilda with a horrible expression on her face outside. She didn't like and also didn't dislike the griffon, but something about her face didn't sit well with Lemon. "Hey, Sugarcoat, I'm going to take a break for a while. Is that okay?"

"Sure," Sugarcoat agreed.

Lemon casually walked outside and edged closer to Gilda, just in time to see her steal an apple from a fruit stand. The orange pony manning the boot didn't notice, but Lemon did. Maybe she's going to pay back later, Lemon thought. It wasn't something ponies usually did, but Gilda was a griffon and maybe that was just how she did things.

Casting an invisibility spell and edging closer to her, Lemon watched as Gilda passed by an elderly green mare, probably a relative of the orange pony at the apple booth. Gilda sneered to herself. "Elderly little git. Griffons would never have allowed one of their kind to get so out-of-shape. Stupid ponies. All of them are too soft. IZ is the only good one."

Lemon flinched as Gilda wacked Granny Smith with her tail. Lemon tried to justify the actions, but the monologue was too much. She had to tell Indigo; no matter how close they were, Lemon knew that Indigo would never let someone freely be rude to the residents and visitors of Crystallia.

She found Indigo doing a complex arial ballet, and watched admiringly for a few seconds before clearing her throat. "Oh, hey, Lemon!" Indigo greeted, landing.

"Hey, Indigo . . ." Lemon hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just, well . . ." Lemon explained to Indigo all that she had seen. "You've got to tell her to stop!"

Indigo suddenly looked very nervous. "I dunno, Lemon. Would Gilda really do that?"

"Yes, she would!"

Indigo continued like she hadn't heard her. ". . . and even if she did, she's my old friend! Maybe she was just in a bad mood. I could never just abandon her! I'm the Element of Loyalty!"

"Being the Element of Loyalty doesn't mean not telling your friends when they do something unacceptable," Lemon told her gently.

"I just don't know, Lemon," Indigo said. "I'll think about it."

With that, Indigo flew away.





Lemon couldn't blame Indigo. It was hard to admit that a friend you've known for years did something wrong, and even harder to stand up to them. She could blame her other friends, though.

"I dunno, Lemon. That sounds like something I would do before the whole Elements incident. Maybe not the stealing part," Sunset had added hurriedly at Lemon's incredulous look, "but maybe the just being a jerk part."

So Lemon had gone to Sunny Flare. "Maybe Indigo's right."

One by one, everypony she knew had dismissed her accusation, and it was really getting to her. "You're probably just jealous." Ludicrous! Even if she was, she would never accuse someone of the things Gilda had done. That was just mean, and the one thing that Lemon was not was mean.

She was was trotting through Main Street with her fellow Element Bearers, again trying to convince them of what she had seen and trying to ignore the points and whispers. That was when they saw Gilda blatantly roar at a yellow pegasus mare who had accidentally bumped into her.

"I-I'm so sorry-" the pegasus had tried, but Glida was having none of it.

"WHAT IS WITH YOU STUPID PONIES?! TOO SOFT, ALL OF YOU!" she declare-roared.

Everypony watched, horrified, at Glida rant at the poor mare. "I'm sorry we didn't believe you," Sunset whispered to Lemon, an apologetic look on her face. Everyone contributed their hushed agreements.

"You have to stand up to her, Indigo," Lemon told Indigo firmly. She put a hoof on Indigo's shoulder. "We have your back."

Indigo took a deep breath. "You're right." She walked up to Gilda. "And just what do you think you're doing?" she asked.

Gilda glanced at her, surprised. "I thought you were cool, Indigo," she said. "You were down with this kind of stuff."

"Correction: I didn't have the guts to stand up to you and lose a friend," Indigo corrected. "But now I realize that I should have ditched you a long time ago."

Gilda glared. "Until we meet again, Zap." She took off into the sky.

Indigo took a deep breath. "That felt a lot better than I thought it would."

"Why don't we write a letter to Emperor Sombra about this?" Sunset asked. "He asked me to report to him on my findings on the Magic of Friendship, and I think this is the perfect example."

"Yeah," Indigo agreed. Sunset brought out a piece of paper and began to write.

Dear Emperor Sombra,

Today my friend and the Element of Loyalty, Indigo Zap, learned a very important lesson. You see, a friend from Indigo's old flight school was visiting - Glida the griffon - and behind Indigo's back she was being rude to all the ponies of Crystallia.

Lemon (Element of Laughter) was the only one to witness this, and as she had been hanging out with Indigo a lot before Gilda came we all thought she was just jealous.

Indigo didn't want to stand up to Gilda, but she had to when Glida started roaring at a yellow pegasus mare and could have hurt her.

No matter how close you are to them, if your friends are doing something wrong, then you should always try to resolve the problem and stand up to them.

Your faithful student,
Sunset Shimmer
> Chapter Two: Boast Busters - Tuesday, June 29th
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay," Sunset muttered to herself. "You can do this, Shimmer. You can do this."

Sunset was trying to acquire the highly talented skill of self-levitation - a skill that only the most powerful unicorn mages could master. Ever since she'd become the Element of Magic, Emperor Sombra had raised her to Elevated Magical Curriculum, which meant that her lessons progressed a lot quicker. It also meant that Sunset had set higher standards for herself and self-levitation was one of her newly self-imposed classes.

Lighting up her horn, Sunset clearly envisioned the spell matrix and her soaring in the clouds like pegasi in her mind, clearing her mind of all else. Emperor Sombra had described the feeling to her in great detail: she had to clear her mind of all else, and wait until she felt a tingly feeling in the middle of her chest. The feeling would spread through her entire body (kind of like a toned down version of the feeling she had when she placed the crown on her head) and once this happened she would be levitating. The trick was to not think of the ground at all, because if she did she would find herself on the floor faster than you could say "ouch."

I'm as light as a feather, free as a bird. I'm part of the sky and I can fly. This was the mantra that she had found produced the best results.

Light as a feather . . .

There it was! The tingly feeling! She couldn't get distracted now.

. . . free as a bird . . .

Every part of her body felt like it was being electrified. Her coat stood on end and her determination increased (as did a mild headache).

. . . part of the sky . . .

Tears of determination leaked out of Sunset's eyes. Lemon Zest walked in and went quiet. She decided to get the rest of the Bearers. Sunset stretched on her tiptoes, her entire being tugging her upwards.

. . . I can fly.

Her feet lifted off the ground and into the air. She soared upwards. Hardly daring to believe it, Sunseet opened her eyes to find herself six moons off the ground. She gasped with happiness and flew out an open window, smiling down at her cheering friends. Ponies pointed upwards, open-mouthed, as the fiery unicorn enveloped in a turquoise aura laughed out loud and swooped through the cloud.

I CAN FLY!!!!





Sunset groaned to herself. "Curse this headache," she moaned. Sour Sweet chuckled.

"Well, that is what you get for overexerting yourself," she chided. Sunset sighed.

"Why do you have to be so insufferably right about everything?" she asked.

"Hey you guys!" Indigo announced, poking her head into the door of Sunset's suite in the Crystal Palace. "There's a traveling caravan in town!"

"But there are always magic shows in Crystallia," Sunset said, puzzled. "How's this any different?"

"Well, she's probably a fraud, but her skills seem to be pretty good. We should at least go check her out!" Indigo argued. "Besides, Sunset said herself that she didn't specialize in illusion magic."

"No," Sour said firmly. "Sunset needs to recover."

"I can just cast a spell," Sunset reasoned.

Sour raised an eyebrow. "We both know that when it wears off, you will have two times the migraine."

Sunset hesitated. "Ah, come on!" Indigo complained. "Everyone's going!"

"Fine," Sour sighed. Sunset, grinning, cast the spell and sighed with relief.

Indigo nodded approvingly, and the three Bearers trotted out into the sunlight. Little did they know that things were about to go very, very wrong.





Ponies from all over Crystallia assembled in the town square, and this alone had them impressed. The square was a hard place to book, and a show there was bound to be good. Unfortunately, the only thing there was a decrepit old wagon. Uneasy muttering broke out. The tickets hadn't been cheap, and no one wanted to be conned.

The crowd parted to let Sunset and the Bearers through to the front. As if the wagon had been waiting for this, with a flourish of fireworks it turned into a stage. Sunset raised her eyebrows. The spells themselves were very simple, but the way this magician had woven them together was ingenious.

Of course, she herself could have done it better.

Stop thinking like that, Sunset! she scolded herself. Some things never change.

A stage extended from the machine of transportation and with a poof of pink powder, a light blue mare came on the scene. "Welcome, Crystallia citizens!" a disembodied voice sounded. "Please give thunderous applause for the GREAT AND POWERFUL STARLIGHT GLIMMER!" A lilac mare appeared in a poof of pink onto the stage. No one was really impressed by this, but Starlight knew she could change at least some of their minds. "Let me tell you the story of how the Great and Powerful Starlight got my Cutie Mark! It was a dark, cold night in Sire's Hollow, Starlight's hometown, when there was a commotion down Main Street. Starlight poked her head out the window, and was horrified to see a huge Ursa Major rampaging down the street! Starlight valiantly ran outside with her wand and cast a spell, and the Ursa Major was vanquished!"

No one except a few small foals believed her. "That's a load of horseapples!" somepony in the crowd shouted.

Starlight mock-sighed. Sunset raised her eyebrows. If she didn't know any better, she would say Starlight was giving off the complete aura of telling the truth. "It's up to you to decide what you think," Starlight said, "but Starlight hopes she at least got your attention. The show starts now!"

Sunset watched with interest as Starlight performed no shortage of tricks. I always thought that illusion magic was a waste of time, Sunset thought begrudgingly, but she's pretty good, and even if I don't use it, it may be a good skill to have.

"For her next act," Starlight said, "the Great and Powerful Starlight will need a volunteer from the audience. We will duel, and the Great and Powerful Starlight will show just how Great and Powerful she really is!"

Come on, Sunset. You know that you could crush this bug with the stomp of a hoof. Show her what true power is!

Go away! Sunset thought. I don't want to be a braggart. That was my old life. I wouldn't be any better than Starlight if I did.

Sunset got the distinct impression that the voice in her head facehoofed.

Starlight chose a random unicorn from the crowd and completely totaled her. Though, Sunset thought, spying the mare's Cutie Mark, Starlight chose a mare with such a specific special talent that there's no way she would have been beaten. Smart mare.

Sunset wasn't sure if this was the voice in her head or herself, but either way it disturbed her. The mare ran off in tears.

After the show, Sour Sweet was enraged. "How dare she do that to that poor mare! Someone needs to get her off her pedestal!" She turned to Sunset. "Please, Sunset! You're powerful enough to challenge her - and she couldn't say no to someone of your status!"

Sunset shook her head, ignoring the pleas of the voice in her head. "That's exactly the kind of pony I'm trying to get rid of, Sour," she told her friend. "I don't want to go back to the pony I once was."

"B-but-" Sour sputtered.

"I need to go," Sunset said, and she turned and ran.





That evening, two unicorn fillies were bouncing around the forest on the outskirts of Crystallia, looking for flowers to give to their grandmother, who was sick.

"Don't go far!" their father said. "If you get lost, use that flare spell I taught you, okay?"

"Okay, Dad!" the elder said, beaming. They'd begged and begged and begged for this, and their father - against his better judgement - had finally relented. He just hoped they wouldn't get lost.

They got lost.

"Pearl, I'm scared," the younger whimpered, edging closer to her sister. "Cast the spell Dad said, please?"

Pearl swallowed and tried to remember the spell matrix. Come on, come on come on come on COME ON!

She managed to only get a small spark out of her horn, which barely made it a few inches upwards before petering out. She tried at least twenty times, but each time it only got weaker.

"You said you were good at it!" the younger accused.

Pearl flushed. "I lied, okay? But that's not important. For now, let's just find someplace to sleep and wait for morning."

The younger whimpered again, but didn't voice any complaints as they set off in search of shelter. Soon, they came upon a cave. It was quite dark. "Hey, Pearl, can you cast that light spell - that is, if you didn't lie about mastering that, too?"

"Don't sass your elders!" Pearl snapped. "And, for the record, I can do that one." She scrunched her face up in concentration. The ball of light flickered for a few seconds, but soon it had a steady glow to it.

"Great job," the younger said sarcastically.

Pearl didn't even dignify that with a response - because she was too terrified. "Um, Peony?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Peony slowly turned to see what her sister was looking at. "A-an UrSA MAJoR?" Her voice went through multiple voice cracks.

The bear cracked its eyes open and roared in fury at the two sisters. Too terrified to be still, the girls bolted away, their hooves somehow carrying them back to Crystallia, the pissed bear right behind them. "D-didn't that show mare - Starlight - say she vanquished an Ursa Major?" Pearl asked.

Peony wordlessly changed their course to the showmare's wagon.

Screeching to a stop, Pearl furiously knocked on the door, on the verge of breaking it down when Starlight, an eyemask hanging crookedly off one ear, poked her head out the window. "What the buck is wrong with you? What do you-"

She was cut off by a roar, which had many ponies hightailing it out of their homes and converging near the Crystal Castle, watching in twisted awe as the great bear destroyed their homes. Starlight's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Did you SUMMON that thing? Again I ask, what is wrong with you?!"

Pearl huffed. "We would never! But you said you'd vanquished one!"

Starlight put her head in her hooves. This is what you get for lying, she thought. Well, she could at least try to hold it off until real help got here.

Gulping, she stepped out of the wagon and used her magic to have a rope slither up and mesmerize the bear. She then got it to tie the bear's two front legs together, making it fall. Then she summoned a thundercloud and had lightning scorch the bear, but it didn't do anything.

Please, let help come soon.





"Sunset! Sunset!"

Sunset was shaken awake by Indigo Zap.

"Ugh, what is it?" Sunset whined. "I still have the stupid headache!"

"Well, stop bitching and take a painkiller because we need your magic," Indigo snapped. "This is important, Shimmer."

Sunset blinked but she didn't argue. Casting the spell again, she galloped out of the castle and stared, horrified, at the Ursa Major.

Letting out an unholy screech, she galloped forward and went to Starlight, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "I'll take it from here."

Starlight swallowed and nodded, stepping back.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Gritting her teeth, Sunset lit her horn and a haunting lullaby drifted through the streets, seemingly carried by the wind. Ponies started pointing at Sunset, whispering about the Bearer of Magic. Ignoring them, Sunset continued. She levitated the water tower - causing a layer of overglow - and stored the water safely away before filling it with milk and giving it to the sleepy bear, who began sucking on it. Then, she levitated the bear itself, forming yet another layer of overglow on her horn. She moved it back to its cave and into the grasp of its mother, before taking back the water tower, refilling it with water, and settling it back. Then she cast a healing spell over Crystallia, fixing all the buildings. When she finally released her magic, she leaned into Sugarcoat, who was by her side first.

Everyone started cheering.

"Sunset? Are you okay?" Sugarcoat asked.

Sunset groaned and summoned a piece of paper and a quill, and started scratching out a message.

Dear Emperor Sombra,

Today a showmare named Starlight came to town, and she humiliated a mare. My friends urged me to knock her off her pedestal, but I was so afraid of reverting back to how I once was that I didn't have any confidence in myself.

I learned that true power means nothing if you don't have any confidence, but having that confidence doesn't mean being a braggart.

Your faithful student,
Sunset Shimmer

Starlight was standing in front of Sunset with a sheepish expression. "I'm sorry about lying," she muttered.

Sunset shook her head. "It isn't me you should be apologizing to, Trixie. Apologize to the mare." She turned her gaze to Pearl and Peony and raised an eyebrow.

The fillies squeaked and ran to their parents, apologizing profusely.

The spell wore off and Sunset swayed, leaning into Sugarcoat again. "Sunset?" she asked again.

"With great power . . ." Sunset stifled a yawn. "Comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up never."

Sugarcoat shook her head, grinning.
> Chapter Three: Dragonsweet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sour Sweet picked another kiwi off the branches of the bush in her garden and put it in her basket, humming contentedly as she worked. Ever since the Summer Sun Celebration, her life had become better than ever. She had friends - real, true friends - for the first time in Faust-knew how long.

She inhaled - and caught a faint wisp of smoke on the wind.

Smoke?

Sour frowned and glanced up at the sky, puzzled. There, she saw a huge cloud of black smoke winding its way across the clear blue sky. Her eyes widened and she rushed into the house, putting her kiwis in the pantry and calling out, "Lockdown!"

The command activated rune protections surrounding her home that instantly sealed all the doors and windows and carried her most valuable possessions down to the basement, because Sour Sweet had read up on all kinds of creatures that could harm her garden, and with a friend in Flare, she'd studied dragons - and the smoke rapidly covering the sky was the sure sign of a dragon.





Running out of her house, for only she and a select few others could go in and out, she weaved her way across the streets to the palace. Suddenly, Emperor Sombra - with Celestia and Luna flanking him - appeared on the balcony of one of the towers. Sombra seemed to cast a spell on himself and when he spoke, there wasn't a resident in Crystallia that hadn't heard.

"CITIZENS OF CRYSTALLIA! I IMPLORE YOU TO TAKE REFUGE INSIDE YOUR HOMES AND PUT THEM ON LOCKDOWN MODE, FOR A GREAT AND TERRIBLE DRAGON IS BEGINNING TO WAKE UP FROM HIS MILENNIA-OLD SLUMBER IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS. WE ARE ASSEMBLING A TEAM TO DEAL WITH HIM AND I HOLD THE HIGHEST CONFIDENCE THAT THEY WILL SUCCEED IN THEIR MISSION, BUT UNTIL THEN YOU MUST TAKE THE UTMOST PRECAUTION."

A few screams later, the streets of the capital were virtually deserted. Sour Sweet, undeterred by the declaration, kept on running to the castle. Guards were protecting the entrance.

"Bearer of Kindness here, now let me in."

After casting confirmation spells on her, they let her through and she ran to the throne room, where Sunset and the Bearers were assembled.

"Girls?" Sour panted.

Sunset turned to her, her face grave. "Sour. You're here." Sour fell in line and Sunset addressed them. "This dragon was thought to be going to the Crystal Mountains to die - at least, that was what he told the Dragon Lord and Emperor Sombra. Sombra has his doubts, but the Dragon Lord insisted and eventually he allowed it." She cleared her throat and continued. "He actually went into hibernation, but now he's waking up, and we need to convince him not to take action against Equestria. The Dragonlands and Equestria were enemies back then, and he no doubt thinks so now."

Gulping, Sour nodded, along with the rest of the Bearers. Sunset finished. "Emperor Sombra has assigned us and Flare to go speak to him. Go pack and meet back here in an hour."





Once everyone was back, Sunset levitated a map out of her saddlebag and scanned it. "Okay. Come with me."

Sour, however, fidgeted. She didn't really want to go on this trip . . . "Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do we need to go on this trip? Won't Flare be enough?"

Sunset sighed. "We're the last line of defense. I have an emergency flare, and I'll fire it if the situation gets out of control. Military personnel will show up, and if that doesn't work, we'll need to use the Elements. I just hope it won't anger Dragon Lord Ember."

Sour sighed and nodded.





They started on their way up the mountain, and Indigo was whispering to Sunset.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to take Sour, too?" she asked. "She's always had this irrational fear of dragons, and look at her!"

Sunset glanced back. Sour was lagging behind, and her steps got progressively slower, until she wasn't moving at all. "Hurry up, Sour!" Sunset called.

Sour eeped and sped up. Her nerves seemed to be on hyper-alert.

"I'm saying it for her own good," Indigo said.

"I know," Sunset sighed.

"Hey guys?" Sour called. "I-I'm going to take another way around, okay?"

Sunset turned to look at her, suspicion in her eyes. "Why? We're going the fastest way up the mountain."

"If someone would hurry up, that it," Indigo muttered to herself. The pegasus didn't exactly have the best patience.

Sour blushed. "Please? I'll meet you guys on the other side!"

Sour's puppy eyes won out. Sunset heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Sure."

Sour beamed and immediately trotted away.





Sunset groaned and put her hoof on her forehead. They'd been at the agreed rendevous point for hours, and Sour hadn't shown up! Sunset's constant tracking spells showed her alive, healthy, and moving, but she was obviously taking her time. "Where is that pony?"

Lemon and Sugarcoat where on their 3,294th game of tic-tac-toe.

"Here I am!" Sour sang cheerfully, ambling into the grove. She looked well-rested and well-fed, while the rest of them where quite hungry and tired. Sunset was at the end of her rope.

"What'd you do, take a nap?" she snapped. "The rest of us are super tired, because, if you haven't noticed, you took the whole fucking day to get here, and we didn't eat because we were waiting for you!"

Sour blushed, mollified. "For your information, Sunset, I did take a nap, and I think waiting for me to eat was kinda dumb. Anyway, we should set up camp now and set off in the morning, right?"

Sunset groaned again. "You're right."

She didn't notice Sour's sigh of relief.

Flare was silent, but she cast Sour a suspicious glance.





The next morning, the six Element Bearers set off to finally get to the dragon's cave. Sour was getting increasingly nervous. It seemed her ploy to buy more time hadn't worked; Sunset was determined to make up lost ground, and the others seemed to share her sentiment. Everyone was annoyed with her, especially Indigo. She'd had a Wonderbolts show today, and they were supposed to get back yesterday. Now, Indigo would have to clean the locker rooms for a month.

Sour sighed. She wanted to tell them, but then they would just laugh at her.

They continued.

Soon, the past was split by a huge chasm. Sour saw another oppurtunity to slow them down. "I-I'm afraid of heights," she stammered.

Indigo groaned and put her head in her hooves. Everyone jumped across. Flare smiled. "I could carry you," she offered.

Curses.





The gang finally made it to the dragon's cave at the very top of the mountain. Sour squeaked and hid behind a boulder.

"Sour? Come on!" Sugarcoat said.

"D-don't wanna," Sour squeaked from behind the overgrown pebble.

Indigo put her hoof down. "Sour, we need to know what's wrong," she said firmly. "You've been dragging us down this entire hike, and I need to know why."

Sour winced. "It's a stupid reason."

"So what?"

Sour sighed. "When I was young, I was sent to live with my grandmother for a few years. We lived near the border back then, and tensions with the Dragonlands were at an all-time high. My grandmother kept on spouting nonsense about how dragons were the most dangerous beasts in the world. Especially after meeting Flare, I know that it was just the mad ramblings of a xenophobe - but it really left an impact on me. I-I-"

"Hey," Indigo cut off. "It's okay. We can face this together, and I know we'll be fine. We're friends, Sour. No matter how stupid you think you or your likes, dislikes, and reasons are, we stick together because that's what friends do. Got that?"

Sour took a deep breath. "I got it."

Flare, Sour, Sugarcoat, Indigo, Lemon, Sunset, and Sunny walked into the cave together.





Dear Emperor Sombra,

Today I learned that no matter what you think about your feelings, you should always talk to someone if you feel like they're going to hurt yourself and others. It's never a good idea to have your emotions bottled up; that just leads to outbursts and bad things all around.

Sour Sweet, our Element of Kindness, had a fear of dragons instilled into her by her late grandmother. She knew that it was wrong, but she was young when it happened. Indigo helped her reveal her secret, and now she's seeing a therapist and seems much happier with herself.

Your faithful student,
Sunset Shimmer