Friendship is Magic

Its been three days since the battle with Luna.  Pinkie and I had spent nearly every minute in each others company, sneaking away whenever we could to train.  Already, as Celeste had feared, agents of Discord had begun to appear.  So far, the incidents themselves were small and isolated but I had a feeling that would change soon.

And the agents were hideous.  Mutant things from another world only vaguely resembled what they originally were.  I could recognize a few of them, though.

Like the dog that currently had me pinned on my back.  It snapped its massive teeth, trying to wrap its powerful jaws around my head.  The only thing that kept it from fulfilling its wish was the fact that I was holding it up with a hand gripping each front leg and a knee in its chest.  Unfortunately, this left me no freedom to attack.

Pinkie was dealing with the second dog, screaming and making a noise I swear sounded like sobs.  She sounded like she was beginning to panic.  I had to get this beast off of me as quickly as possible.

“Hang on, Pinkie.  I'm coming.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw motion.  Pinkie had somehow fashioned a pair of skates out of ice and was using them along an icy path she laid out as she went.

“C'mon, doggie.  You can't catch me!” She taunted, squealing and laughing.

“What?  You're not in danger?  You're actually having fun?  How could you be having fun?”

Her dog was in hot pursuit, slipping and sliding on the ice as it tried to catch up with her.

Suddenly, she stopped, turning to face the beast.  “Gotcha!” She declared.  She opened her hand, turning the ice under the dog to water, which flowed up and around it.  Quickly, she made a fist, turning the water back to ice and trapping the beast.

She abandoned the ice-made skates and calmly walked over to the creature.  “Be a good doggie and open wide.”  She forced the dog's mouth open and reached inside, her face screwed up in concentration.  The dog growled menacingly but found it didn't have the leverage to bite down on Pinkie's arm.  Finally, she gave a triumphant cry and yanked her arm back out, holding something in her fist.

“So this is a Discord jewel.”

Her beast vanished as she crushed the gem in her hand.

“Pinkie!  A little help!”

She wandered over and watched me wrestle with the dog for a bit. “Still didn't beat him, eh?”

“Obviously.  I need your help, please.”

“But I've already removed my transformation.  Two against one isn't fair.”

“You know what else isn't fair?  Me being killed before we can find the other Elements!  Now get down off of your high horse and help me!”

Pinkie blinked in confusion. “I'm not on a high horse.”

“PINKIE!”

“Oh, right, right.  This is a male doggie, right?”

“I think so.  I didn't really check.”

“Then it's easy to beat.” In one swift motion, she swung her leg up, her shin connecting solidly between the beast's legs.  It let out a squeal of agony, coughing up it's gem in the process, and vanished.

I sat up and used the hem of my shirt to wipe the saliva from my face.  “Thanks.”

“What else are friends for?”

I walked over to where the jewel had landed and plucked it out of the grass.  “It's hard to believe that this tiny thing is the cause of all of our problems.”

I had contacted Celeste early that morning and demanded an explanation for the attacks and the reason behind the dark crimson shard we kept pulling out of the beasts.

“I call those 'Discord Jewels'.  Discord is a Draconequus, a being made up of many different animals but, most importantly, dragons make up a good part of his anatomy.  When he fought Celestia and Luna, aeons ago, they dealt severe attacks upon him.  These blows knocked away many of his scales which fell back to Equestria to be absorbed by creatures there.  Each scale contains some of his essence and mutates the creature that absorbs it.

“Because these scales contain part of his essence, Discord has power over the creatures that contain them.  He's sending those creatures into this world in order to find and destroy the Elements of Harmony.  Now, since his aura is still very weak, he can only control weak creatures but, over time, as the December Eclipse draws closer, his essence will grow more powerful and he'll be able to control more powerful creatures.”

I dropped the jewel and smashed it beneath my shoe. “We need to hurry up and find the others.  We can't keep up this up forever.”

“Do you have any ideas on how we could find them?”

I shook my head. “None whatsoever.”

“Well, if I were in this position-”

“You are in this position.”

“-I would start at the school.  That's where we met and your sister said that the Elements often don't know that they're always together.  If we brought the jewels with us and we'll see if they react to anything.”

My eyes widened.  She was absolutely right. “Pinkie, you're a genius.”

She laughed. “No, I'm not.  It was only simple logic.”  She wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “We have to find our magical friends!  Let's get started!”

The next day, at school, we began our search.  Since I was still fairly new, I was relying heavily on Pinkie as a guide.  As we wandered down the Fine Arts wing, the sound of a cello drew me to a door.  I pressed my nose to the glass and saw a girl inside.  The cello was balanced against her knee and she was drawing the bow neatly across the strings as her fingers danced between the frets.  Her ebony hair shifted slightly as she turned her head, closed her eyes, and lost herself in the music.

“Oh, it's beautiful.  Pinkie, who is that?”

“Oh, her?  She's Octavia.  She's an exchange student from Wales or someplace like that.”

I dug the four remaining jewels, still safe inside their mold, from my pocket and carefully examined each one, even using my hand to shield them from the lamps above me.

Not a single one of them glowed.

“Well, Pinkie, I didn't really expect us to find one on the first try.”

I heard a high-pitched snore beside me.  Pinkie was leaning against the wall, lulled to sleep by Octavia's cello.

“Pinkie!  Wake up!  We need to keep looking!” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

Pinkie picked the next spot to check, which wasn't far.  She opened the door to the school's auditorium and led me inside.  Low bass beats shook the walls and floor around me and, on the stage, I could see a younger girl with electric-blue hair and purple sunglasses stood behind a pair of turntables.  She gyrated to the rhythm from the speakers.

I hurried to check the jewels before my eardrums split.

Nothing.  Thank God!

“Pinkie!” I shouted over the noise of the speakers, “The jewels aren't reacting!  We need to go!”

“No way!  I love this song!”

I grabbed Pinkie's collar and began to drag her towards the door.  “Let's go!”

“Awww!  I wanted to dance.”

x----x

Pinkie and I spent all of our time between classes searching for potential Element Bearers, but, with each negative, I began to doubt that they would even be here.  If they weren't here, where would we find them?

During our lunch period, we wandered around the school.  Pinkie pointed out a blonde-haired girl who was sitting on a bench near the front gate, quietly eating a muffin.

“Try her,” Pinkie suggested.

I pulled the mold from my pocket and checked the jewels. “I'm sorry, Pinkie.  There's no reaction.”

Pinkie frowned, “That's a shame.  Ditzy really likes my muffins.”

I spotted the girl I had first seen on my first day, Fluttershy, but I hadn't spoken to her since.  She was crouched down under a tree, feeding a bird.  I approached her, jewel mold in my hand.  The bird suddenly took flight, darting just over my head.  I flinched, ducking slightly.  When I looked again, Fluttershy had vanished.

Pinkie spotted someone else and, before I could react, snatched the mold from my hand and took off.

“Hey, girl, come here a second.  I just need to see something,” Pinkie called as she chased the rainbow-haired girl.

“Keep away from me, you crazy girl.”  Rainbow-hair cried over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner with Pinkie on her heels.

After a moment, Pinkie reappeared. “I lost her.”

x----x

Finally, school had ended.  Pinkie and I hung out in the park near the school, wondering where we might go next to search for our Element Bearing friends.

“Well, the school is a total bust,” I said. “Where should we look next?”

Pinkie shrugged, “I have no idea.  I thought this was really our best chance.”

Suddenly, the Generosity gem began to glow.

“Pinkie, look!  It's glowing.”  I was excited by this development.  Perhaps today hadn't been such a bust after all.

“It's Rarity,” Pinkie said, pointing.

I stared at the class president then at the glowing jewel.  I shook my head. “No, it's impossible.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She's the most popular girl in school.  Everyone knows that popular girls are obsessed with fashion and think only of themselves.”

Pinkie snorted, “That's only a stereotype.  I'm sure she's very nice.”

“You've never spoken with her?”

“Well, she's always surrounded by those girls from the student government board and it's almost impossible to get anywhere near her.”  Pinkie paused, “Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen her alone like this.”

We looked up again but Rarity was nowhere to be seen.

“Good job, Pinkie.  She's gone.”

“Well, I told you not to talk so much, Twilight.”

“What?  You were the one who kept babbling!”

x----x

We trudged about the town, checking anywhere we thought Rarity might have gone.  She couldn't be found at the mall, the salon, or the boutique.

“How will we find her now,” Pinkie whined.

I sighed, “It's late.  We should get home.  Maybe we can catch her at school tomorrow.”

A glow caught my eye and I pulled the jewels from my pocket once more.  Generosity was shining again.  We were standing next to a rather run-down building on the outskirts of the business district.  There was no way Rarity would be caught anywhere near here.

“Look!  There she is.”

I turned and saw Rarity through a window.  She was wearing an apron over her school uniform, busily stacking bowls and wiping down tables.

“What do you think she's doing,” I wondered.

Pinkie grabbed my hand and dragged me around to the door. “Let's find out.  Hey, Rarity!  Hello!”

Pinkie's shout startled the girl, who looked up with wide eyes, “Yes?  Can I help you?”

“We go to the same school,” I explained.  “This is Pinkie and I'm Twilight.”

“But, what are you doing here?”  She gasped and hurried around the counter to us.  She took both of my hands in both of hers and fixed me with a look that bordered on desperation. “Are you here to help?”

“Yep,” Pinkie chimed in. “Helpful Hannas, that's us!  What do you need us to do?”

Rarity's smile was genuine. “Thank you.  Oh, thank you so much.  You've no idea how much this means to me.”  She disappeared into the kitchens and reappeared a moment later, carrying a pair of aprons.  “Put these on and I'll tell you exactly what to do.”

“Pinkie, what do you think you're doing?”  I whispered fiercely as we put on the aprons.

“Don't you think that helping her is a great way of learning about her?  Who knows, maybe you'll learn that not all popular girls are what you think they are.”

After a moment of thought, I nodded, “I suppose.”

It turned out that the place was a homeless shelter where Rarity volunteered every Wednesday after school.  The people who lived there spent their days looking for work and only came back for a meal, a shower, and a bed.  There had to have been hundreds that came through our line.  I would fill a bowl with soup and hand it to Pinkie, who placed the bowl on a plate with a slice of bread and hand it to Rarity, who would hand it across the counter to somebody.  There wasn't very much and the food didn't look that appetizing but each person seemed genuinely grateful for what we were able to give them.

Finally, the last person took their food, the doors were closed, and we were relieved.  I sat down on a vacant table with Pinkie while Rarity went to see to a few last-minute things.

I let out a sigh of exhaustion. “Never in my life have I served so many plates.”

“Yes,” Pinkie agreed, “but it was fun, wasn't it?”

“I'll admit this feels...good.”

x----x

Rarity dried the clean dishes that Pete, the shelter manager, handed her and stacked them on a nearby shelf.

“You're really lucky to have friends like those two, Rarity.”  Pete commented as he handed her a bowl.

“They aren't my friends,” Rarity replied, drying the dish. “In fact, this is the first time I've ever met them.”

“Don't you think they'd be the friends you'd like to have, instead of those other girls you've told me about?”

She glanced over her shoulder at Twilight and Pinkie, “I suppose.”

“You should go talk to them.  I can finish up here.”

She dried her hands and took off her apron.  “If you're sure.”

“As sure as I can be.  Go on, I'll see you next Wednesday.”

“Bye, Pete.  See you next week.”

x----x

Rarity came back through the doors that led to the kitchen and smiled as she came over to us.

“Would you mind if I sat with you two while we waited for our rides?”

I smiled, eager for the chance to get to know her better. “Not at all.”