Sins of The Past

The earth pony was the first to rise.

"Don't worry kid. If we're any good at what we do - and trust me, we are - then you'll see your friends again in no time."

Twilight sniffed and wiped her eyes, her resolve steeling.

"What do you have that makes you better suited than the Elements of Harmony?"

The earth pony cracked a smile.

"Brute force. But, you should probably know who we are before we show you our power. I'm Burning Ebony," he said, pointing to himself. "That over there -" he pointed to the pegasus "- is Aimless Thunder."

"I am Defiant Frost," the icy unicorn said, looking at them with a blank expression. "Together, we're able to destroy anything in our path. Your princess made a tough, but the correct, decision."

Ebony looked at Frost like he was stupid and started a small fire under Frost's hindquarters, making them melt slightly.

The unicorn turned around, his eyes narrowed. "Hey! Stop that!"  Seeing that Ebony wasn't going to respond to a polite request, he simply froze the flames currently melting his body. They flickered and gave off light, even warmth, but the ice didn't budge.

"Parlor tricks? You call that power?" Twilight was taken aback -- this was what her friends were traded for?!

"Well, if you have a place where I could spread my metaphorical wings without risking everyone here with a painful death by burning, you should tell me," Ebony said, clearly unimpressed by Twilight's skepticism.

Shining Armor raised a hoof, "Well, there's plenty of open fields outside of city limits ..." he offered, shrugging. The trio nodded in succession.

"You just show us where."

The large field was cleared of anything that could cause the fire to spread, and then they retreated. As soon as they were out of blast range, everything caught fire. Ebony stood in the middle of it all, a dark blot in the inferno, deftly manipulating fire like it were nothing at all. Suddenly, Frost charged towards him, leaving ice in his wake.

The inferno shrunk away from the unicorn, who froze every licking tongue of it until none remained but tall spires of what was once fire. Thunder ran at the spires, mane sparking, and crushed his entire body against one, lighting it up like a Hearth's Warming tree. Suddenly, the affected spire sparked and electricity spread to the others, hitting Ebony and Frost with static shocks. The three ponies dropped to their bellies as the ice itself exploded, sending razor-sharp shrapnel every which way.

Thunder was the first to pop up.

"Did I do it right?!" he asked, glee almost dripping from his words.

Twilight could only stare, mouth agape.

"Teach me how to do that," she said, eager to figure out the secret of combined magic.

Hours later, and after much begging on Twilight's part,

"It's a form of what you'd call 'friendship magic'," Ebony began, salting the soup in front of him. "We're closely allied enough to where Frosty can link our minds and our respective magics."

"Not necessarily our first choice, but --" Frost interupted himself to ask the waiter for more bread, then continued, " -- should anyone go rogue, whether willingly or not, we know where he is. The caveat is, if he doesn't know where he is, then we don't either."

Twilight was about to ask how she could get that, but Frost anticipated the question.

"Trust me when I say you don't want to be a part of our little trio. Not only does it transmit location via the subjects memories, but it also allows for voyeuristic viewing of each others thoughts." Twilight faltered, considering the implications of having her thoughts available to anyone in the loop who wanted to hear them.

Nope.

She wasn't going to ask to join. Her thoughts were hers alone.