The Kingdom of Fiore, a nation with a population of 17 million, and a place filled with magic.... There, magic is bought and sold every day. For most, magic is a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. But for some, magic is an art, and they've devoted their lives to its practise... There are the wizards....Banded together into magical guilds, they........wait, this is just the opening from the first arc of Fairy Tail! Gah, roll the opening!
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In a certain guild in the small town of Magnolia, they were celebrating their victory in the Grand Magic Games, as well as the reacquisition of their old guild hall, the one that they rebuilt themselves after Phantom Lord, Juvia and Gajeel's former guild, brought their old building down 7 years ago.
Well.........they were celebrating....until.....
"ICE QUEEN!!"
"FLAME BREATH!!
"METAL HEAD!!"
...A fight broke out between 3 guild members. One, a steel dragon slayer, the aforementioned Gajeel Redfox, an ice make wizard named Gray Fullbuster, and one of the main characters of this story. Named Natsu "Salamander" Dragneel. The fire dragon slayer, who was raised by the fire dragon, Igneel.
Pretty soon, the whole guild joined in the fight, smashing all sorts of tables, benches, chairs and even the job request board in their wake. All of the guild.......except Lucy Heartfilia, Erza Scarlet and the Guildmaster, Makarov Dreyer.
Sure enough, Erza broke it up, bashing Natsu, Gray and Gajeel over their heads, disabling them and prompting the rest of the guild to stop. "Enough!! Looks like more bills are going to have to be payed for the damages. And you wonder why the Magic Council doesn't like us that much."
The downed trio, still in pain, expressed their apologies through strained replies.
"NATSU!! GAJEEL!! GRAY!!"
The trio's eyes widened as they heard Makarov's echoing voice resonate throughout the guild. "AS YOU STARTED THE BRAWL, YOU WILL CLEAN THIS MESS UP!!" Three brooms then landed in front of their bruised faces. "ERZA WILL SEE TO IT YOU DON'T SLOUCH!! AND AFTER YOU'VE DONE YOU GET YOURSELVES CLEANED UP!! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"
"Y-y-yes, Gramps!!" The three chimed while sweating profusely.
An hour an a half later, and the three mages finally finished cleaning up the guild. Makarov's voice then rang through the guild again.
"Natsu! I'd like to have a word with you for a moment, if you will!"
"Hm? Gimme a break, I was just gonna get myself cleaned up like you asked......."
In Makarov's quarters, Natsu trudged in, his face still covered in a few bruises. "You wanted me, Gramps?
"Why don't you go out and explore for a while, Natsu?" Makarov asked him, his voice calm and collected, unlike earlier.
"Huh?"
"You and Happy. Why don't you just go out and explore? I've already given you the next week off for your good effort at the Games so why don't you take it easy instead of starting nonsensical fights all the time.....we've only been back in this building since yesterday and that's the third fight you've started. I got a letter of complaint from the Magic Council last night right after you left for home."
Natsu thought this over long and hard. Seriously it was long. 10 minutes just standing there, with Makarov slowly starting to lose his patience with the pink haired dragon slayer. Finally, after the tedious waiting, Natsu finally made his decision. "Yeah, alright!" He ran out of the door then shouted "HAPPY!! EXPLORATION IN THE MOUNTAINS!!" And the shrill reply of "Aye sir!!" rang through the guild, making Makarov chuckle at the two.
5 minutes later, Natsu and Happy were about to step out. But Carla shouted after them. "Wait!" They turned to see her. "Be very careful......I had a vision.....but it was very faint.....but I saw you two. Don't do anything stupid."
Natsu grinned at the white Exceed's worry. "We'll be fine, Carla! We always are!"
Happy chimed in. "Aye! Don't worry! I'll bring ya back a fish!!" And with that they left the guild for a week of exploration. Carla sighed before saying to herself "Good luck you two......wherever you end up....."
(Later, in the mountains....)
"I spy with my little eye something beginning with.......R" Natsu suggested.
Happy deadpanned back at him. "Rocks......"
Natsu sighed in annoyance. "Right again........"
The duo continued trudging on in the mountains with their camping equipment, until Happy went next. "I spy.....something beginning with T.."
"Trees....." Natsu interrupted.
This made the little blue Exceed sigh as he summoned his wings and took to the air, looking for more things to hopefully see and keep this little pastime rolling. He kept on ascending and looking around. It's then he saw a bright purple glow in the distance. "Woah......"
"Hey, Happy!! Ya seeing anything?" Natsu bellowed up at his friend. Happy pointed a paw over where the purple glow is coming from.
"Something shiny!! From over there!!" He shouted back to the dragon slayer.
Natsu slapped on that massive grin of his then sped towards the object, leaving behind a trail of dust. When he came to it, he got a full view of what the object was. The object was what looked like a tiara. A golden one. It had what looked like blue gems lining the golden rim, while atop it, a huge purple star like jewel.. But right now it was glowing like crazy as Natsu looked in awe at it. Happy flew back down and landed right beside Natsu, taking a closer look at the strange glowing item.
"Whaddaya think it is, Natsu?" Happy asked with curiosity in his voice.
"I dunno, Happy........" Natsu replied while taking a few steps towards the glowing tiara, reaching out to grab it.
"Be careful Natsu........." Happy warned with cautiousness in his voice.
"Relax, Happy...." Natsu assured in a calm voice. "What's the worse that could happen?"
He grabbed the tiara and slowly brought it up to look at it closely, Happy flying up to it, looking at it.
They both stared wide eyed at it. "Whoaaa.........."
All of a sudden, the tiara started glowing brighter than before, blinding the Fairy Tail duo.
"What the hell's going on?!" Natsu asked in fright.
"I don't know!! It's getting brighter!!!" Natsu shouted as his whole line of sight went white.
"I hate being right!!" Happy shouted as he covered his eyes completely.
Before long, the white light vanishes, along with the tiara, Natsu and Happy.
Meanwhile, in a different place entirely....
Night time. In the sky, the moon and the stars shine brightly, courtesy of Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, a land populated by ponies. Ponies here come in different colours, different sizes, different shapes and different races. There are the earth ponies, who's best attribute is their strength.There are the pegasi, who have wings to fly and who's best attribute is their speed and agility. And there are the unicorns, who instead of wings, have their horns. But they aren't well known for their strength or their agility. So they make up for that with their magic abilities.
Right now the focus is in the town of Ponyville. Located there is Golden Oaks Library. This library is different than most, in that it's a large, hollowed out tree. As it's night time, the library is closed. But not everypony there is asleep. A purple unicorn mare is laid in front of the fire, reading a book. This unicorn mare is quite different than most. For one, she's probably the most talented unicorn in Equestria when it comes to magic. Which would make sense, as she's the student of one of the co rulers of Equestria, Princess Celestia. When she was just a filly, she enrolled into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. In her enrollment exam, Rainbow Dash, her friend, who she didn't know at the time, broke the sound barrier, performing a Sonic Rainboom, and the intensity caused her's magic to spew out of her control, and the immense power she demonstrated, as well as hatching her dragon friend, Spike, showed Celestia what the unicorn was capable of, and after getting the situation under control, she recommended that she tame her abilities through studying.
Her name is Twilight Sparkle. Element of Magic.
After the defeat of Discord, a week ago, her element had mysteriously vanished without a trace. Celestia had sent the letter to Twilight as soon as she found out, and recommended that Twilight find some way of getting it back. So since then, she looked through all the books in the library to find any clues that may lead to the whereabouts of her element. But so far, she hadn't found anything. So she gave it a rest and the book she had now was a book about different types of known magic, including the regular magic that she uses herself...
"Unicorn magic.......that's what I use.......pegasus magic.....I presume that's how they're able to walk on clouds and manipulate the weather.......earth pony magic.........dragon magic.........dark magic? That's forbidden......chaotic magic. That's what Discord uses....right? Gah, I dunno. I don't even wanna remember that......" She turned her head to the window, looking outside at the moon shining in the night. "I wonder how many more types of magic are out there?" She turned her head to the side to look at her little dragon friend Spike, who's asleep snuggled against her. She always thought of him as a little brother, despite them not being the same species. Or even her own son, as she was the one who hatched him with her magic in the first place. Whatever they are, they've always been very close as long as they've known each other. She lifted one of her front hooves and ruffled his head playfully. This made Spike smile and fidget while sleeping, sighing as he does so. But then, all of a sudden, he woke up with a jolt, holding his belly. "Oof...."
"Spike?"
BRAAAAAAAP!!
He belched out a scroll in a flurry of green flame. This was how Twilight and Celestia communicated with each other. Through dragon fire. Whenever Twilight or her friends wanted to send something, they dictated it to Spike, who wrote it down on a piece of parchment. Afterwards, the parchment was rolled up, then Spike breathed flames on it, which sent it to Celestia all the way in Canterlot. And when a letter was coming from Celestia to the library, Spike literally burped it out. It was a convenient way of communication.
Twilight caught the scroll with her magic then opened it up to read. Spike looked up at her. "What does it say, Twilight?"
She cleared her throat before reading: "Dear Twilight: As you are aware, your element went missing from the vaults a week ago. Just after Discord's defeat.
"Well as Luna was watching over the night, both of us felt a burst of magical energy. Luna also said she saw two bright glows coming the Ponyville area........one of them coming from the same area Spike and Rarity encountered the Diamond Dogs. The other one came from the other side Ponyville, near Sugarcube Corner. I know it's late but I think it's a necessity to investigate this."
Spike raised an eyebrow, deadpanning. "Seriously? At 10 at night?"
"It felt familiar as well. Me and Luna have both been speculating that it might be the Element of Magic. But whether that's true or not remains to be seen. Do make sure to investigate as soon as possible, Remember how vital it is that the Element is kept safe. And the sooner it gets back here, the better. Best of luck, Twilight.
All the best.
Princess Celestia."
Spike spoke first. "So basically we've gotta go down to the plains.....in the dark?"
Twilight nodded with a sigh. "Yup."
"Wow, I feel safe right about now......"
All of a sudden, there was a loud knocking at the door, starting both Spike and Twilight. It was Twilight that answered the door. There stood a tan skin coloured pony with a spiky rosy pink mane and an equally pink tail. He had a flame for a cutie mark and on his right shoulder was a dark reddish tattoo that looked like a fairy. He was also wearing a scale patterned scarf. He looked tired and exhausted. Twilight tilted her head in curiosity. "....Hello there........are you alright?"
The pony looked up at her, exhaustion clear in his eyes.
Twilight's expression turned to worry. "Don't overwork yourself in your state. A friend of mine did that and it wasn't pretty to say the least."
The pink maned pony managed a chuckle and a toothy grin.
Twilight giggled at the pony's grin. "Sooo, what are you doing knocking on the door at this hour? It's very late and everypony here's in bed...."
The pink maned pony's eyes started drooping "........Bright light......tiara........purple star.....Happy...." and then he collapsed in the doorway of the library.
Twilight was startled by the sudden collapse. "Spike!! Help me get this pony in!" Spike immediately hurried over to the door and saw the pony.
"A stallion with a pink mane and tail? Now there's something ya don't see everyday...."
Disappearances and Rainbow's Anger
The night in Ponyville passed for Ponyville. And the next morning, Twilight woke up to the sweet smell of pancakes cooking in the kitchen. Looking at Spike's bed, she figured out that it was Spike doing the cooking as he wasn't currently asleep.
Twilight yawned and stretched her legs. She then got out of bed, tidied it up, then walked over to her mirror to comb her mane into shape.
"That pony last night......it's the first time I've seen him around here.....if there's one thing I'm hopeful for is that he isn't related to those disappearances.......he's a strange pony indeed, but that's just going by what I saw last night. What baffles me is his cutie mark. Fire? Oh, Celestia, he isn't an arsonist is he? I haven't brought an arsonist into a library that's a tree, have I? That's the last thing anypony wants to see right now.....the library on fire....."
She sighed and put the comb back into her drawer. "I hope there hasn't been any more disappearances overnight. We really need to get a move on and find these ponies already. I'll go and check the missing list on the town noticeboard later."
She walked out of the bedroom, then walked down the stairs. The checked the couch and saw the pink maned pony was still asleep. Only one thing. He was snoring quite loudly. Twilight flattened her ears to drown out the noise and carried on walking to the kitchen. There she saw Spike merrily working on the pancakes, humming a little tune.
"Morning, Spike!" Twilight greeted with a smile.
"Morning, Twilight!" Spike returned the greeting with a grin. "You're just in time! Breakfast's almost ready!"
Twilight smiled and nuzzled her little friend. "I gotta say you're a better cook than I am. Remember what happened last time I tried?"
Spike rolled his eyes. "How could I forget? We spent the next hour keeping the fire tamed!"
Twilight turned her head back into the main room. "Speaking of fire, what do you make of that pony's cutie mark?"
Spike brought his claw up to his chin and thought. "Well it's different......I'll say that much. It's certainly not something you see around here every day. So there's gotta be more to this pony than meets the eye.......you know how dragons have an enhanced sense of smell?"
Twilight gave him a curious look. "Yeah?"
"Well.........call me crazy, but.......this guy kind of has the scent of a dragon....."
Twilight's eyes widened. "The scent of a dragon?! But...how can that be possible?!"
Spike held his claws up. "I dunno, that's what I'm trying to figure out! Well that and why the only ponies to have disappeared recently are unicorns........"
Twilight shuddered. "So who's disappeared so far?"
"Well so far on the list there's Lyra Heartstrings, Vinyl Scratch, Mochacchino, Amethyst Star, Lemony Gem, Minuette, Pixie, Perfect Timing.......the list just goes on........I'm worried, Twilight. What if Rarity goes missing...or you....?" Spike trailed off, his head hanging low. Twilight smiled and gave him a tight hug.
"Don't worry, Spike. We're gonna get those ponies back from whoever's doing this. And I won't let myself get caught. That you can be sure of."
Spike hugged Twilight back. "Hehe. Thanks, Twilight."
It was then they heard a crash and a yelp. "Arrrgh! What the hell is going on?!"
This made Twilight and Spike nearly jump out of their skins. They then rushed into the main room and saw the pink maned pony, and judging by the sound they jumped at, it seemed he woke up in quite a bit of shock. How? Because his eyes were wide and he was sprawled on the floor.
"Where the hell am I?!"
Twilight immediately answered his question. "Y-you're in the library! You came to our door last night and collapsed on the floor!!"
The pony seemed to calm down slightly. "I did?"
Twilight nodded. "Don't you remember?"
The pony then thought on for a minute. "Well I remember finding a tiara thing and waking up and..........oh yeah. Oh crap, Happy!!" He got up off the floor and galloped out.
Twilight widened her eyes and followed him out. "Wait!! Who or what is Happy?!"
He stopped for a second and turned around. "He's my friend! We musta got separated coming here. Stupid tiara thing with it's stupid star and it's stupid purple glow...."
Twilight widened her eyes. "Wait, what was that?"
The pony tilted his head in curiosity. "What was what?"
"'Tiara', 'star', purple glow'?!" Twilight asked quite frantically.
The pony raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why? Is that so important?"
Twilight's eyes widened even more. "Yes, it is!! You found the Element of Magic!!"
"The Element of........what? 'Magic'? You can use magic here?!" The pony asked with excitement.
It was Twilight's turn to tilt her head. "Uhh, yeah? You're a unicorn too, you should know! Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Twilight Sparkle. And this is my best friend, Spike." She motioned to he dragon, who gave a smile and a wave. "And what's that symbol on your shoulder?"
"Oh, I'm Natsu Dragneel! And this mark on my shoulder is the insignia of the Fairy Tail guild!" He stated with a grin.
"Fairy...........wha...?" She asked with a look of confusion.
"A guild of wizards that do jobs and missions and also help out those who need it. We're also like one big family. And that's why I'm not gonna rest until I've found Happy!" Natsu claimed with a serious look on his face.
The idea of a guild of magic users that treat each other like their own family and go around helping others excited Twilight for a moment. But then she was snapped out of that thought when she saw a yellow pegasus with a pink mane galloping up to them. She had a panicked expression and tears were streaming down her face as she ran. As soon as she reached the group, she collapsed to the ground, buried her head in her hooves and sobbed. This pony was Fluttershy, Element of Kindness. She had a cutie mark of three pink butterflies and true to her name, was quite shy, rather timid and a little bit sensitive.
"T-Twilight...!!" She shouted out in between sobs.
Twilight immediately trotted over to her friend and laid a single hoof on her shoulder. "Fluttershy! What's wrong?!"
Fluttershy looked up at her unicorn friend with her teary eyes. "A-another.......on the list.......you need to come look...!"
Twilight's eyes widened and she galloped off to the town's noticeboard. Natsu, not knowing what's going on, leaned down to the timid pegasus. "What was that all about?" Fluttershy slowly looked at the pink maned unicorn.
"M-missing....unicorns....list...in the town square..." She said before her eyes widened. "Eeep! Twilight, wait!" She immediately got up from the floor and flew off in the same direction Twilight went. Natsu was a little taken aback by this. He turned to Spike.
"Missing unicorns?"
Spike nodded. "We don't know why it's just unicorns getting kidnapped. But the last time I checked the remaining few unicorns in Ponyville were........" It's at this point Spike's eyes widened considerably. "Oh no..........." And with that he ran off in the same direction as the last two ponies. Natsu decided to follow the two.
In the midst of the commotion, they'd all forgotten to lock up the library, and some sort of figure was able to sneak in and close the door without any suspicion.
In the town square, ponies had gathered around the noticeboard and were looking crestfallen about it all. Twilight approached the noticeboard and noticed three fillies stood right in front of it, one of them tears streaming down her face sobbing into her hooves, the other two comforting their friend. Twilight approached and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Sweetie Belle? What's wrong...?"
The filly looked up to Twilight. "L-look........the bottom name......" Twilight did so and scanned the name list.
When she caught sight of the bottom name, her eyes widened. "No............Oh, no........"
At that point, Natsu and Spike reached the noticeboard as well and saw Twilight;s widened eyes. Spike looked up to the noticeboard and when he saw the last name on the list he fell to his knees and shouted into the air, "NOOOOOOOO!!"
The last name on the noticeboard was the name of one of the Elements of Harmony. The name read "Rarity". This particular pony was the Element of Generosity. The filly, Sweetie Belle, was her little sister who she lived with. And her two friends who she was with were Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Natsu looked on at the scene and it reminded him that his guildmates probably saw the glow and are out searching for him around the mountains.
Twilight regained her composure and shook Spike, snapping him out of his moping. "Spike! We need to get back to the library and alert Princess Celestia! Now!!" She galloped off in the direction of the library with Spike following. Natsu was about to follow as well when something slammed into him and sent him flying through a few a few market stalls.
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He flipped himself upright and landed on his hooves, facing his assailant. A cyan pegasus with a messy rainbow mane. She was in an attack stance, was pawing her right hoof at the ground and had a meeeaaan look on her face. She snorted mist once before shooting right at him, her speed taking Natsu by surprise. She brought a hoof back and slammed it into his face, the force of the punch boosted by her momentum. It sent him flying back again and this time,, he flipped himself and bounced off a tree which he was close to hitting.
But to his surprise, she wasn't there. All of a sudden, he felt something which he presumed to be the pegasus, slam into his back and plow him into the floor. "Whoa, this pony could give Jet a run for his money...!"
"Rainbow Dash, calm down!!" An orange pony with a stetson shouted before running up and tackling her to the ground. "Ah know that y'all wanna help the missing unicorns but this is NOT the way to do it!!"
Natsu soon got up and glared at this pegasus, who he presumed was named Rainbow Dash. She, in turn, glared back at him, and it's then he saw the look in her eyes. It wasn't the look that said she wanted to beat him up just for the sheer joy of it, it was a look that said that she was desperate to find her friends. He recognised it well as he wore it once. When his guild and the whole of Magnolia was sucked into Edolas from the Anima.
At that point, everypony there turned their heads towards the library as they heard a screaming coming from there. Rainbow Dash immediately forgot what she was doing, then shot to the library. 30 seconds passed, and she came back with a sullen look on her face. On her back was an unconscious Spike and in her hoof was a rolled up piece of parchment. Surprisingly she threw the parchment to Natsu, who caught it in his mouth. "Read. Now."
Natsu complied with Rainbow Dash's demand. He put the piece of parchment on the floor and opened it with his snout, then proceeded to read what's on it out loud. "Dear Ponyville. Should you be reading this, we have managed to capture all of your resident unicorns. We're not gonna reveal too much but one thing we will say is that we'd like to see you try and get them back. No, seriously, we would! It would be so entertaining! Anyway, you should know where we are. After all, we have managed to get ahold of one of your precious ponies before! And then she whines about how she's not getting the treatment she deserves, then her friends roll in and take her back! It was so humiliating! So just try and stop us. Because this time, we'll be ready... Oh, by the way, we also have a weird talking blue cat. Don't know if it belongs to anypony.
Signed
Rover of the Diamond Dogs."
"Happy...?"
"THOSE CREEPS?!" Rainbow Dash immediately shouted at the top of her voice. "Why I oughta.." She was about to fly off before she felt somepony grabbing her by the tail. "Ugh, AJ, let me go-" She turned around, ready to force AJ to let her go when she saw it wasn't AJ keeping her from going, it was Natsu.
"Listen, I don't know what these Diamond Dogs are or what they're planning, but you can't do this alone!" He stated through his teeth.
Rainbow Dash hovered there, dumbfounded for a couple of seconds before arguing back. "And why not?! They have friends of ours hostage! We've been wondering where they are and now we have a lead! I'm not about to let it go!"
Natsu narrowed his eyes. "They also have a friend of mine held hostage too. I want to get these guys just as much as you. Besides, wouldn't it be nice to let your friends in on the action as well?" At that point, he flashed his toothy grin while chuckling.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this pony's attitude, then sighed. "Fine. But can ya let me go, please?"
Natsu nodded and let the pegasus go. He was thinking for a moment and then a sudden realisation came to him. "Hey, when the hell did a bunch of dogs learn to read and write?!"
