The Return of the Everfree Kingdom

Chapter 2: Enter the Earth and Sky duo

The Treehouse that the student of Princess Celestia was using for accommodation was slowly being entered by five different coloured ponies all being greeted by the student herself and her assistant Spike. The day had gone by so quickly and the world embraced the night sky but the lingering cold air still gave chills to ponies that weren’t clever enough to wear something to keep them warm.

Soon all five of Twilight’s guests were in the treehouse in a circle chatting about why they were called to their friend’s house. “Good evening everypony” Twilight said walking into the room with a letter being levitated by her horn “I’m glad you all could come here on such short notice, I’m sorry if you girls were doing something when I called you over all of a sudden.”

“It’s alright Darling” a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail said to her friend “it’s better to be here than in the cold anyway.”

“Yeah, although I do hope none of my animals cause a mess while I’m gone” a yellow pegasus also said her head hanging near the floor.

“Ah reckon those animal friends of yours will be perfectly safe Fluttershy” an orange mare with a hat on her mane said patting Fluttershy on the back with her hoof.

“Girls, sorry we have no time for this” Twilight Sparkle said out loud to her friends each of them turning their attention towards her “Spike received a letter from the Princess not too long ago”

“We received a message? From Princess Celestia herself?” the other unicorn mare beamed with delight.

“Ah think you should simmer down there Rarity” the orange mare said her accent very clear in her voice “ah don’t think Princess Celestia would send a message unless it was important.”

“You are right Applejack” Twilight had announced “this letter is important, I haven’t even opened it yet”

“What?!” came a high pitched voice “isn’t that the point of a letter? You are meant to read it” Pinkie Pie had a look of confusion on her face, which made practically every other pony in the room struggle not to sigh or face hoof.

“Pinkie, I haven’t read the letter yet because of this” Twilight levitated the letter towards them; all of them leaned in to see that on the back of it there was one sentence.

Dear Twilight Sparkle, please make sure that you and your five friends are present when you open this letter. All six of the elements of Harmony have to be present, for the content of this letter is for all of you and no one else.

“Well we can open it now right?” Rainbow Dash asked “come on I want to see what the Princess wrote in the letter” Rainbow clearly not wanting to wait any longer.

“Okay Rainbow” Twilight said sighing using her magic to levitate the letter to Spike to read, he opened the letter clearing his throat preparing to read it out loud.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle and friends, I hereby send you this letter to warn you that something terrible is going to happen soon and that Equestria needs your help.” Spike stopped looking towards the others with a worried look before continuing “this danger could very well destroy all of what we hold dear, I am sorry to suddenly bring this bad news but it is only the power of the Elements that can defeat this threat.” Spike once again looked towards his pony friends seeing their shocked and worried expressions “but do not fret. I am sending a special teacher to help you girls. This pony was the one who taught me most of the magic I know so I can vouch for his knowledge and his excellence in his field, he will be arriving shortly.”

Spike finished reading the letter for a third time looking at the six ponies in front of him letting the contents of the letter sink in.

“WHAT?” they all cried out in unison except for Fluttershy who immediately rand and hid behind Rainbow Dash whimpering in the process, while Rainbow Dash was too stunned to even sigh let alone even look around to see the expressions of her friends.

“This can’t be” Twilight said reading the letter again frantically “something dangerous is going to happen to Equestria and we are the only ones who can stop it.”

Applejack quickly reacted when the white unicorn fainted in a dramatic fashion “whoa there Rarity, don’t you go fainting on us now” she said catching her as she fell.

Rarity shook her head trying to wake herself up “oh, sorry Applejack, also could you please not touch me, I just washed my coat.”

Applejack sighed before dropping Rarity to the ground with a loud thud “if you didn’t want my dirty hooves touching you then I should just let you fall to the ground then, little miss clean and tidy.”

Rarity got back up staring Applejack with daggers in her eyes as she did “it’s not my fault that somepony doesn’t take care of their hy-”

“Oh no, not this argument again you two” Twilight said interrupting Rarity “we have more important things to do than argue now”

Applejack and Rarity seeing the wisdom in Twilight’s words both backed down without a fight “I’m sorry” they said in unison, Rarity in her lady like tone and Applejack in her accent.

“It’s alright, huh?” Twilight levitated the letter closer to her eyes as she read out loud “also ps this pony that is coming to help you guys decided not to take the pegasi chariot to Ponyville and decided to walk it, I don’t know why but the only reason he would give was that he didn’t like being in the air.”

“OH. YOU. HAVE. GOT. TO. BE. KIDDING. ME!” Rainbow Dash yelled face hoofing in the process.

Twilight just continued staring at that one line on the letter “the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance and the pony who Celestia sends to help us decided not to take the quickest route cause he doesn’t want to fly?” she ask herself trying to figure out what possible realistic reasoning this stupid pony had for not doing so.

She met all the worried, confused and angry faces of her friends as she looked up from the letter “well girls there is nothing we can do know, we should get some sleep, it is getting late and you all should get some rest after what we just heard.”

“Is Equestria really going to be in Trouble Twilight?” the yellow pegasus asked whimpering underneath a table.

“No Fluttershy, not if we have anything to say about it, but we won’t be doing any saving if we’re all tired and sleepy.”

All the ponies except Twilight exited the library, it took a while for Rainbow to leave since she was muttering how hard she was going to buck the pony who decided to take the scenic route.

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The bright shine of Celesita’s sun broke through the dark clouds hanging over the town of Ponyville, pegasi were busy moving the dark clouds while unicorns and earth ponies were busy taking off the braches from the trees in the area.

Rarity, using her unicorn magic wedged a couple branches off a tree “well you seem to be doing mighty fine there Rarity” Applejack said walking up to Rarity “at least you aren’t decorating them anymore like you were last time.”

“And I see that you’re being cautious when you rip off branches too Applejack” Rarity commented as her orange friend lassoed another branch off a tree.

“But really, just last night we heard about how something bad was coming but now we’re just acting like it never happened and we also have another doozy of a storm coming our way” Applejack commented spitting the lasso out of her mouth.

“Do you really think that pony the Princess sent will actually arrive?”

“Ah don’t know, if this pony was willing to walk all the way instead of taking a pegasi chariot here then their apple tree must not be growing enough apples”

“Who’s growing apple trees?” Applejack and Rarity jumped from surprise when they spotted a red unicorn stallion and green pegasus mare behind them smiling and waving their hoofs a couple meters away.

“Blimey you startled us there, mah heart almost leaped out of mah chest there” Applejack said taking in deep breaths to calm her down.

“Why aren’t you two inside? There’s going to be a storm soo-” Rarity was about to say but just as she was ending as if right on cue the storm started and the four ponies were being pelted by rain.

They all scrambled to find some shade from the rain and lightning “Over here” the four ponies heard Twilight’s voice from her treehouse library, the four of them rushing inside as fast as their hooves could take them.

“Not this again” Applejack commented walking inside “and so nothing like that happens again” she shoved her forehooves into Rarity’s face “see, this time I didn’t step in any mud.”

“Okay, okay darling you don’t need to mess up my face with your hooves” Rarity replied pushing down Applejack’s hooves with her own.

“Umm I’m sorry to interrupt but isn’t a tree the wor-” the green pegasus was saying before Twilight interrupted

“Worst place to be in a storm? Well I have a magical lightning rod so we are completely safe from lightning”

“Well not exactly safe from other tress” Rarity commented earning her looks from the other four ponies in the room, “but anyway who are you two?” she asked coming closer to the two new ponies as she inspected them with her keen eyes.

“Oh we’re new to town” the stallion unicorn answered “I’m Diglet and this delightful mare over here is Steady Skies” the mare known as Steady Skies waved with her hoof blushing a little bit as she did so.

“Ya know” Applejack said poking her chin with her hoof in thought “you look a lot like a skinnier unicorn version of mah brother there Diglet.”

“Oh, I do” Diglet asked as he gave himself a look over.

“Yeah, sure ya do” Applejack said smiling patting him on the back “buuut I reckon you ain’t as strong though.”

“Well it doesn’t matter how strong he is Applejack” Rarity interjected “but he does look like he could be a good model for some of designs.”

Rarity circled around Diglet looking him over before jumping back with a yelp “oh dear, what happened to your tail?”

Applejack and Twilight made their way to Rarity where they spotted that Diglet had no tail what so ever “umm sugarcube, I hate to ask the obvious but why do you have no tail?”

Diglet and Steady sighed in unison before Diglet cleared his throat “as my name implies I am good at digging and whenever I used to dig my tail kept getting caught in something or was stuck in a small crack, so I asked somepony to cut it off.”

“Well how about I help you with styling your tail?” Rarity asked “I will craft it in a way that is fashionable and doesn’t get in your way and Steady I would just LOVE to do something with your luscious green mane.”

“Umm thanks for being so kind but we only just met you ponies” Steady Skies said standing between Diglet and the others “and we haven’t even moved into our new house yet, how about you let us do that first before we go and do any favors for you ponies.”

“Oh yeah” Twilight said “my name is Twilight Sparkle, and the white unicorn over there is Rarity, she owns the local boutique” she said pointing towards her white coated friend “and there’s Applejack of the apple family, they buck and grow all the apples in the area.” Applejack scratched the back of her head when Twilight pointed towards her.

Applejack then walked over to one of the windows and looked outside, she looked around and let out an amazed whistle “hoh boy, looks like it’s raining cats and dogs out there.”

Ever other pony in the room all trotted up to a window staring at how hard the rain was coming down, lightning could be seen striking the ground off in the distance. “What in tarnation?” Applejack asked making everypony else look out her window.

In the pelting rain was a purple earth pony running around, dancing in the bad weather having a blast.

“What in Equestria is that pony doing?” Twilight asked going for the door, trying to open the door only to be buffeted the fierce winds of the storm “ahhh, I can’t get out.”

As Twilight shut the door the rest of assembled ponies looked out to see the dancing pony still prancing around without a care in the world.

“Do you think he even knows it’s raining?” Steady asked turning to the others.

“Ah don’t reckon he does, but it seems like he’s having the time of his life over there.”

The purple earth pony stopped in his tracks, stared at the direction of the tree library almost as if staring at the ponies inside. He waved a hoof in their direction before quickly galloping off away from them.

“What in Equestria was that strange pony doing?” Rarity inquired looking to the other ponies hoping they might know the answer.

Diglet and Steady looked at each other before turning to the others shrugging “we only just got here.” Steady said “we don’t know anything about what you strange ponies do for recreation.”

“I don’t think any of us would consider dancing in the rain while there is a storm a recreational activity” Twilight stated “well maybe that pony went back home.”

“Huh? Oh would you look at that” Diglet said as he looked out the window, ever other pony looked out a window to see that the rain had stopped, the black clouds still loomed overhead but at least the pelting rain was no longer there.

“Now we have a chance to quickly run home Diglet” Steady said nudging Diglet with her elbow “we still have a lot of unpacking to do.”

“Thanks for letting us stay here for a little bit” both of the new ponies said before galloping out at full speed.

“Well they seem like nice folk, don’t they?” Applejack asked shifting her hat as she trotted over to the door “well as fun as it is to spend time with you all I have to head back and see how Applebloom is doing.”

Rarity also started to trot towards the door “Sorry Twilight but I do have to make sure that Sweetie Bell is safe, I don’t want her to be alone.”

“Bye girls” Twilight shouted to her friends as the galloped towards their respective homes.

She walked back inside her treehouse to see Spike asleep in his little bed that was at the foot of her bed, she nuzzled his neck as he mumbled in his sleep “don’t worry Rarity, I will save the day.”

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Diglet and Steady galloped quickly to the house that was given to them. As they ran inside they shut the door behind them both of them looked up to see a purple earth pony lying on one of their couches with a big grin on his face “oh man, I LOVE dancing in the rain.”

Diglet and Steady sighed as they trotted towards their smiling purple guest “Rain Prancer, what were you thinking?” Diglet asked.

“Aww, come on Diggy you know how I get whenever it starts to rain.” Rain Prancer answered with a moppy face “I just couldn’t help myself, besides it’s not like anypony saw me enter the house of Ponyville’s latest and hottest couple.”

Both Diglet and Steady blushed, they quickly realized and turned away from each other “I’m still not so sure about this, what does our leader have in mind making us three infiltrate this place?” Prancer asked as the fake couple quickly regained their senses.

“He said that he needed time to set some things up, he’s using a lot of his powers at the moment” Steady answered “apparently he has a spell that will help us with our training, and a spell that powerful needs time to prepare for.”

“But” Diglet said out loud “he also said that this “Mentor” pony also knows this spell that is why he is trying to save up his magical power now.”

“I wonder when he” Prancer said before looking at Steady “or she, gets here”

“Who knows” Diglet and Steady said in unison shrugging.

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Twilight felt her stomach growl and rumble “oops, guess I forgot to eat anything” Twilight said making her way to the kitchen of her library treehouse.
She stepped inside only to find she was unable to move any muscle in her body “What the?” She asked herself trying to move, but found out she couldn’t budge even an inch.

“I see you triggered my trap spell” Twilight looked around frantically trying to find the source of the voice, the voice sounded close, but somehow sounded young.

“What do you want with me?” Twilight yelled as she tried to use her magic to dispel the trap.

“Using your magic won’t save you, that is an ancient holding spell, but I congratulate you on your determination.” The voice said getting closer.

“Who are you?” Twilight shouted fearing for her life and scared for what will happen to Spike “are you what the princess warned me about?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The voice asked before Twilight could see a small figure trot out from behind a chair, her eyes were wide with shock as she saw her captor.

A small figure in a brown hooded cloak walked out from behind a chair, the small cloaked figured reached for the pulling it back revealing a colt with a black coloured coat, white mane and bright red eyes, Twilight also noticed he was wearing a bandana with the words ‘teach’ in bold letters.

“If you haven’t guessed it yet” the small colt said clearing his throat “I am the one who your Princess sent to teach you and your friends, oh and also I am afraid you are out of tea, sorry I may have drank it all while I was waiting.” The colt said smiling.