The Element of Magic
“There’s something… wrong with her.”
The group shifted their eyes as discreetly as possible toward their subject’s home. The Castle of Friendship. Once, a monument that forever marked Ponyville as one of Equestria’s most important villages, now seemed to cast a shadow on all its residents. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, had become… stained.
Yes, stained was the best word that Applejack could think of to describe it. Something had happened to her, but nopony was really sure what. It had been unbearably hot during the days and unfathomably cold during the nights. Maybe she had gotten sick?
No, that wasn’t it. There’s no way her alicorn immune system would have been affected by something like simple weather changes. Well, whatever it was, as her friends, it was their duty to check up on her.
But it was insanely hot. Applejack squinted in discomfort. Not even the brim of her hat was doing much to shield her eyes from the brightness. “Well, yeah,” she responded. “I just hope it ain’t somethin’ worth worryin’ too much about.”
Everypony nodded in agreement as they continued down the trail to the crystalized castle. The sun’s unforgiving rays made it almost blinding to look at, but thankfully, the sun had been setting. The need to squint slowly went away as the light died down and for a moment, the air didn’t feel unnaturally warm or cold.
But then the sun was a mere sliver on the horizon and the moon began to take its place. And then Applejack felt as though her blood might freeze inside of her. “Is it just me, or has it been gettin’ colder every night?”
“It’s not just you, darling,” Rarity assured her, her teeth already chattering. “The days have been getting positively hotter, too. And all since we vanquished that…monster.”
“Well, did we vanquish it?” Rainbow argued. She had dropped to the ground to walk alongside everypony. Was it too cold to fly? It was almost too cold to walk. “I mean, we zapped it with the rainbow, as usual, but it kinda just tanked it and then sank into the floor.”
“I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really get a good look at that,” Applejack told her.
“So it’s possible it’s still out there?” Fluttershy asked weakly, ever so slightly lagging behind. She glanced around nervously, so Applejack fell back to give her a reassuring nudge.
“I’m sure it’s alright, sugarcube,” she told her with a smile, though she wasn’t too sure how much she believed it. She was sure that even to ponies who hadn’t been there to see that battle with that… creature, something seemed off. The sudden change in temperature was definitely noticeable, at least in Ponyville, but there was no reason for it to not be the same elsewhere in Equestria.
Most strange of all, though, was the fact that Pinkie had not been off the rails over-excited since then. She had been quiet. And quiet even by Fluttershy’s terms. She’d also been acting a lot more wary. That was the most worrying part of all. Applejack glanced over to her bubblegum friend and frowned. Just as she suspected, Pinkie had been intently glancing around with a furrowed brow their entire way up to the castle doors.
Applejack sighed. Well, hopefully, they could put an end to all this soon. If Rainbow Dash was right and the monster had not entirely been defeated, well, all they had to do was go out and find it again, right? They’d defeated dozens of bad things before, and heck, even turned most of them good again. A little bit of what Rainbow Dash would call ‘rainbow power’ shouldn’t be such a difficult feat.
“Huh? The door is open.”
Applejack turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who was already peering inside the castle. She trotted up next to her and pulled her head back out. “Careful, sugarcube.”
“What? It’s just Twilight’s castle,” Rainbow argued, but she made no effort to fight back against Applejack or try to look inside again.
“Can’t be too careful.”
With that, Applejack took the lead and slowly entered. She figured if there was anything undesirable in there, she could at least use her strength to give everypony else time to make sure they were safe before trying anything. But when she walked in, muscles bunched and ready to pounce, she realized there was… nothing.
Not even a single peep. The sound of her hooves clip-clopping echoed, then followed by five other sets once she waved the rest of the group in. “Stay ready,” she advised. “Somethin’s off.”
Thankfully, everypony knew to stay quiet as they walked along the empty crystalline halls. Everypony seemed to falla step behind Applejack, who now led the group purely by coincidence. She was glad to notice that the castle’s interior was warm enough so that Rainbow Dash could fly again, at least that was one less set of hooves making noise. Her own legs felt less stiff with every step.
Just as they approached the wing of the castle that housed Twilight’s room, a little dragon burst out of a door and nearly scared Applejack’s cutie mark off her flank. Spike looked panicked as he scurried out into the hallway and nearly bumped into Applejack. His eyebrows were upturned and eyes wide, like he’d just seen a ghost.
“Girls! I’m so glad you’re here!” he yelled into the once quiet hall.
His lack of caution for how loud he was being was strangely relieving, despite his tone. Applejack quirked her head. “Is something wrong?”
Spike’s eyes darted around. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “You guys… aren’t sick, are you?” At everypony’s shaking heads, he visibly relaxed. “Great, because I think Twilight needs your help.”
Alarmed, Rainbow Dash shot forward and dropped to the ground in front of Applejack, physically pushing her back. “What kind of help? Is she okay? Is she sick?”
“Woah, nelly,” Applejack exclaimed as she tugged Rainbow back. “Give him some space, he’s clearly rattled.”
“I’m fine,” Spike assured her, “just a bit tired. Look, after you girls came back the other night, Twilight had been complaining of having a headache, which she chalked up to overusing her magic. But she’s been a little… wrong ever since then.”
“Wrong how?” Rarity chimed in.
Spike nervously fiddled with his claws. “I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like she’s in extreme study mode, but she’s not really doing anything. Just pacing around on her balcony in the sun and then pacing around in her room when it turns to night. She won’t eat or sleep and it’s kind of freaking me out. It’s not like her.”
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy whispered. “That heat can’t be good for her, either.”
“Exactly,” Spike nodded. “I haven’t left just in case, but I’m hoping you girls can talk some sense into her or… I don’t know, rainbow blast whatever’s wrong with her out.”
“That ain’t really how the magic works, Spike—”
“Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it!” Rainbow interrupted. “Just take us to her.”
Twilight’s room was dark. The only source of light was a dripping candle on her table that seemed about ready to snuff out and the light of the emerging moon.
And surely enough, there was Twilight at the door of the balcony, simply staring outside and watching the sun fully disappear into the horizon. Spike motioned at her with a frown, then cleared his throat. “Twilight, your friends are here.”
Twilight whipped around and stared at the group with wide eyes before blinking a few times and smiling widely. “Oh thank Celestia! I was hoping you girls would come.”
Applejack noted the crown on Twilight’s head. It was the Element of Magic. She raised an eyebrow. Why would Twilight have it on? She wasn’t usually the type to wear it unless it was absolutely necessary. “Is everything okay, Twi?”
Twilight closed the distance between them by flying and landed on the floor a few hoof-lengths away from Spike, who took a slight step back. “Everything’s fine, AJ. I was just thinking about that creature we fought the other day. I have been trying to find information on it, but it’s hard to look up a monster made of smoke. All I find is King Sombra!” She let out a curt laugh. It didn’t match the dark circles under her eyes. “B-but I do think that we made a mistake, girls.”
“I told you,” Rainbow cut in. “We didn’t actually defeat it, it just went away!” She walked up to Twilight and gave her a soft tap on the foreleg. “Hey, don’t sweat it, Twi! Next time it pops up, we just go over there and finish what we started, magic of friendship style.”
“No!” Twilight chastised, which made Rainbow flinch back. “No, that’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is that I think we were wrong about everything! I-it was trying to help. It let us hit it with the beam because it needed to absorb the magic.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. Her ears slowly lowered. Was she frightened? “Why would it need to do that?”
“Because,” Twilight continued. The gem on her crown flickered. Or had it? Applejack wasn’t sure, it happened so fast. “It’s going to stop the Princesses from killing us all.”
“What?!”
Everypony reeled in shock. What was Twilight talking about?
“Twilight, think about what you’re sayin’,” Applejack told her slowly. She took a step back, bumping into Rarity, who didn’t so much as let out a squeak.
Twilight pushed past Rainbow Dash and grinned at the doorway behind them. Her horn lit up, and the entire group braced themselves for something. Anything.
But nothing came. Applejack opened an eye she hadn’t realized was shut and noticed that Twilight had brought over the rest of the Elements. “Come on, haven’t you noticed the weather? They’re doing it.”
“The Princesses?” Pinkie Pie yelled, surprising Applejack. “Twilight, you’re not thinking clearly! The pegasi control the weather.”
“Actually,” Rainbow Dash cut in quickly, urgency evident in her voice, “that wasn’t us. The weather team’s been trying to stop this mess.”
“You will help!” Twilight snarled, droplets of spit spraying from her mouth, shutting Rainbow up. It was almost as if her pupils shrank. Actually, maybe they did. “Whether you like it or not.”
“Twilight, what’s wrong with—AAARGH!!” Applejack fell to the floor in agony as the necklace of Honesty clasped around her neck. Before she could even let out a full scream, everypony around her fell, too. Even Spike fell as Twilight shot a beam that surrounded him in a hot pink glow.
“Don’t fight it,” Twilight suggested. She turned around as her friends squirmed on the floor.
Applejack’s body felt as if it was burning. She could describe the pain solely as if her insides were melting out of her. She gasped for breath as she struggled to turn her head. She made eye contact with Fluttershy, then Rarity, then Pinkie Pie. The pain forced her eyes shut before she could meet Rainbow Dash’s gaze.
The spot where the necklace tightened around her neck burned so much she thought it would set her on fire, but she was helpless to it. Applejack heaved out. Her hoof twitched as she tried to reach out for Twilight. “W-why?”
“I’m just trying to save us,” was her simple response.
And then, in a moment that was simultaneous relief and the most agonizing pain that Applejack had ever felt, the Element burst out of her chest, which it had begun to dig into, and joined the rest of its set. Even the gem on Twilight’s crown had broken from its prison, sending Twilight down. Applejack’s body went limp along with the rest of her friends. And while the pain went away in waves, she felt her body return to her. But it felt... wrong.
“What is this?” Twilight asked, glaring angrily at the Elements. She charged a spell in her horn, but before she could use it, the gems’ glow grew brighter and brighter until they burst. Or at least, that’s what seemed to happen. But after the blinding light had gone away, there were no shards to be found.
The Elements… were gone. Truly gone? Applejack could no longer feel their passive power. It no longer lingered within her. She felt weaker.
Weaker… but stronger still.
At once, everypony, excluding Spike, who remained passed out on the floor, stood, slowly rising. Legs shaking, coats prickling, they all turned to Twilight, who stood within a cloud of darkness. “The Elements have betrayed us. Celestia wanted to use us, to weaponize us. But we are free now.
“And we must fight back.”