The Spirits Of Equestria

Aeolus was confused. He had no idea where he was, as it was completely dark. He raised his hooves up to his face but didn’t feel or see anything, he did hear a voice however.  It called out to him, the voice was soft, like the notes being played on the lyre by the most talented of musicians.

“Aeolus. Wake up my love. Wake up.”

A small light lit up the darkness. Colors floating down from the sky, painting the scene for him. He stood on a cliff, which stood taller than even the clouds. He looked over the edge and beneath the cliff was nothing but black clouds. Black clouds mixed with red. He could hear hooves land on the rocks behind him. Aeolus turned to face a tall white Alicorn.

“Aeolus. It has been so long since I saw you last. Come… come to me.”

Aeolus was suspicious. He watched the Alicorn closely, and slowly made his way closer. As he approached the sky seemed to flicker, behind the beautiful blue sky flickered fire… and lightning. Without really paying attention he found himself in front of the white Alicorn. She looked down at him and smiled.

“Finally. After all this time I’m so glad I found you…. Now close your eyes Aeolus.”

He did as he was told… he closed his eyes and the Alicorn’s voice got distorted. Lowering itself by several octaves.

“OPEN YOUR EYES, FACE ME LIKE A COLT”

His eyes shot open and standing in front of him was no longer the Alicorn but a grey Unicorn. His eyes were the color of metal, he had a long mane and tail, but it was braided evenly, the tip of each braid colored red. In the wind his hair moved like eels in the water, which was fitting since each tip was being connected with sparks of electricity.

They no longer stood on the beautiful cliff, but instead in the town square of Ponyville. The town was burning. Flames were overtaking everything, the rain that fell from the sky was red, almost like blood. Laying behind the Unicorn was everypony he’d seen since awakening with no memory. Twilight… Luna… Fluttershy… all of them, none of them moved. Some had singed fur, like they had been shocked to death. The looks on their faces were looks of fear.

“ITS OVER AEOLUS, I TOLD YOU NO PONY COULD PROTECT YOU FROM ME, DIE! DIE ONE LAST TIME!”

The Unicorns horn glowed red. Lightning flashed for a moment in the sky, then flew down and impacted his horn. He aimed it at Aeolus and shot, Aeolus screamed out in pain as he was hit, Then all light faded again. It was dark and Aeolus felt no more pain, he soon heard another voice. His own.

“That, was Typhoon.”

There was a new light. It was gold, and pure. The light spread itself out and brightened. From the light a new figure spawned. Now standing in front of Aeolus was a white Pegasus.

“Hello.”

“Hello?” Aeolus replied. “Who are you?”

The Pegasus opened his wings, each feather was tipped with gold, similar to the Unicorn there was electricity flowing in between each tip. “I am you. The voice you hear is mine. Or rather is yours, yours from the past. When Typhoon stole your power and memory, only a fragment of your past was left… I’ll do my best to guide you until we are made whole once again. But we can’t do much while you sleep.”

The Pegasi’s eyes flashed gold.

Get up

Aeolus’ eyes fluttered opened as he woke up quietly. He slowly sat up, and saw the sun’s rays shining in from the various windows around the library. He noticed he had been moved from the middle of the room where he collapsed and was now laying on a makeshift bed on the floor, next to the golden Pegasus who was breathing steadily under his blankets.

The pink alicorn was nowhere to be found, but the other ponies were scattered around the library, each with stacks of books beside them. They’d been reading for quite some time it seemed.

Twilight using her magic had at least 5 books in front of her face and was checking back and forth between each one consistently, Pinkie would pick up a book, flip through the pages in a matter of seconds then put the book on her stack and grab another, the others were reading books like normal, skimming through it and stopping to read slowly when they found something that seemed important. Rainbow Dash was getting frustrated.

“This is starting to give off ‘lost cause’ vibes. Anypony else agree with me?” she threw a book to the side and huffed while grabbing a new one. Rarity had glasses on while she read but removed them to respond to Rainbow.

“Now Rainbow Dash lets be a little less selfish. While searching through all these books is time consuming we have to try and find as much information as possible on these storms… and on Aeolus.” Rarity

Aeolus rose fully, and stretched to crack a couple bones. The floor wasn’t exactly a luxury. He approached the others, who were so absorbed in their books that they didn’t notice him until he spoke.

"What happened?" He asked still very groggy. All six ponies looked up at once, putting down their books and approaching him with smiles.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" Rarity sighed. The others nodded and Twilight asked him "What happened? You just blacked out... are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine." he replied "where is Cadence? I need to talk to her" He needed to know what she knew. She knows something about typhoon…

"Cadence is resting upstairs, Spike is watching out for her, she's still recovering... and for some reason we can't send a letter to Princess Celestia, when Spike tries to send a scroll it just burns up! We have no idea what happened! Cadence's horn is injured pretty badly, and I barely was able to revive Flash Sentry thankfully (looking over at the sleeping Pegasus) but he hasn't woke up either. He had extreme burns all over and his wing is broken is several places. Whatever they went through must've been really bad." As Twilight explained the situation, the others went back to their books.

He understood and nodded. "So what are you guys doing now?" he asked looking curiously at the five ponies reading.

"Looking through all my Equestrian History books to try and find anything on this typhoon... This red lightning is no natural phenomenon. Maybe a storm like this has appeared before and if we can find how ponies stopped it maybe we ca-" Aeolus interrupted her

"It's a pony... Typhoon isn't just a storm" he said closing his eyes. This got the attention of everypony except Pinkie Pie.

“And how exactly do you know that Typhoon is a pony?” Applejack questioned him.

“I had this… dream… look I don’t understand it but I think I’m…” Pinkie interrupted him midsentence.

"A-HA! I found you! You thought you could hide from Pinkie now didn’t you! You’re all mine!" She was close to ripping the page out of the book when Twilight did an about face and tore the book from Pinkie’s hooves with her magic, the book was titled Equestrian Spirits: A Historical Journal. The book had an old look to it. really old. Twilight blew the dust off the cover and which depicted four ponies standing in various places. A green Earth pony on the ground alongside a purple Unicorn and blue Earth pony, a white Pegasus flying in the air above them.

“Pinkie Pie what page did you find him on?” Twilight asked

“Well he’s all over the place in the history section, but turn to the back where there’s the actual indextory gloss info guide section… He’s back there too!” She replied quickly.”

Twilight flipped through the pages until she came across a chapter labled “Spirit Guide” Underneath that were some subcategories.

“Spirits of nature, spirits of balance, Spirits of magic, the lost ones, and final entry. Spirits? I don’t understand…. I’ve never heard of any spirits besides Discord.” Twilight had never seen this book before, and she knew every book in her library. She flipped to the next page and saw a page with the picture of a green Earth pony named Terra, Spirit of Earth. She scoffed and flipped through the book rapidly, till she saw what she was looking for.

There was a picture of a dark grey unicorn, with a black and red mane and tail, his horn surged with red magic and he sat atop a black storm cloud, Twilight cleared her throat as she read aloud.

"Typhoon... The Nature Spirit of Storm and Fear. The most dangerous of the evil Nature spirits. He has the power to summon massive storms and create earthquakes. Also had the ability to make your worst memory or fears cloud your mind and judgment in the form of what was called The Black Fog. After the defeat of Discord he tried to destroy Equestria but was defeated by Celestia Spirit of the Sun, Luna Spirit of the moon, and Aeolus The spirit of wind

Twilight stopped for a moment, all of the pony’s jaws were slack “Celestia never told me about this…The existence of these... Spirits. The name of the other spirit that helped defeat him has been written over a few times I can’t read it.” She spoke with hurt in her voice.

“Never mind that! Does it say how they defeated him? I’m sure it was pretty awesome since it was the princesses!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly

“There’s a section here titled Typhoon’s Imprisonment, listen” Twilight got their attention once more.

“After Celestia and Luna were given the Elements of Harmony and used its power to defeat Discord, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony and also Equestria’s current ruler at the time. Typhoon went on a rampage across Equestria to avenge his fallen master. Spawning a massive land hurricane that destroyed many towns in its path. Celestia and Luna learned of the Spirit of wind, who from the beginning of recorded history was known for using his magic to give Pegasi the ability to fly and help him to control the weather. When Discord captured him, Typhoon wanted him as his own prisoner so Discord handed the wind spirit over to him. Celestia and Luna freed the wind spirit from where Typhoon imprisoned him in the Crystal Caverns underneath what is now Canterlot. Together the three of them confronted Typhoon, their battle lasting days across the skies all over Equestria. When they finally defeated him in the old city Whinnieapolis, using the Elements of Harmony they confined Typhoon to the very same Crystal Caverns that the Wind Spirit was trapped where he was to sleep for eternity. The Spirit of wind took over the control of the weather, clearing the storms and giving Pegasi the ability of flight once more. He created the Pegasi city of Cloudsdale, and continued to watch over the Pegasi and weather from then on.” She finished.

Aeolus couldn’t move. His heart hammered in his chest.

Wind Spirit… That seems right. Yes. That is right.

Aeolus agreed with the voice inside his head. Something about Typhoon’s story seemed correct. He just couldn’t figure it out. Spike came down the stairs and lifted a claw while beginning to speak, but Twilight had an outburst before he could do anything else.

“Oh no… Typhoon must have escaped from the Caverns! I can't believe it.”

“What is it Twilight?” the soft spoken Fluttershy asked

"I’ve been down in those caverns. During Shining Armor and Cadence’s wedding. Chrysalis put me down there, but I didn’t see anything like Typhoon. He must’ve escaped then captured The Wind Spirit again, which must be why the Pegasi can’t fly… and neither can Alicorns for that matter!” When Twilight finished everypony was quiet. The voice that finally spoke up was the voice of the other Alicorn in the building.

“Yes Twilight, and we must find and free him. The Elements of Harmony alone cannot defeat Typhoon.” Cadence limped down the stairs, groaning softly as she got to the bottom, Rainbow went to her side and Cadence leaned on her for support.

“Cadence!” Twilight rushed over to her, Cadence thanked rainbow and walked over to Flash laying a hoof on his forehead to check and see if he was ok, then sat beside him on a pillow, she smiled at everypony until she noticed Aeolus, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Cadence what happened to you? The state you and Flash arrived in… why were you in Ponyville and what happened?” Twilight asked.

Cadence opened her mouth to explain, but Aeolus spoke before she could.

“The train crash… the red lightning…” Aeolus couldn’t think straight… Twilight reading Typhoon’s history… he felt like he himself wrote it. He saw the images from his flashback, the burning village, the lightning. He understood now who he was. But he didn’t understand how it could be possible.

The other ponies looked at Aeolus confused. Cadence spoke out to him “yes… how did you know about that?”

“L…Luna showed me, I don’t know why, but she told me you’d be coming. She said you had been targeted. By Typhoon. I was there… I saw them all die.”

“Aeolus, what’s wrong?? What do you mean Luna showed you?” Rarity asked him.

“Yeah how do YOU know the princess? I was supposed to introduce you to her!” Pinkie Pie shouted, with a pretty hardcore pout to match.

Cadence’s eyes widened intensely. She could barely speak “D—did you say Aeolus? It can’t be that simple…”

Twilight didn’t understand. “What do you mean? Do you know something about him? My friend Zecora found him yesterday, he fell from the sky and crashed into the Everfree… He has no memory other than his name.” She explained to Cadence.

She didn’t answer Twilight’s question, she only asked for somepony to give her the History book. Her horn was burnt at its tip, rendering her magic was useless at the time being. With Rarity and Pinkie trying to help Aeolus up, left Spike closest to the ancient book. He brought it to Cadence who began to flip back through the pages. Reading through the names of the spirits till she found the one she wanted. She began to read aloud:

“Aeolus… the Nature Spirit of Wind and Sky. And the polar opposite to Typhoon, Spirit of Disaster and Panic. Was the original Pegasus. The first with the power to control weather, bringing about balance in nature. Was the creator of Pegasi and responsible for given them the ability to fly. He helped Celestia and Luna defeat Typhoon and has roamed the skies ever since, protecting his Pegasi and watching over weather patterns in Equestria.” She finished. The picture showed a white Pegasus, with a blue mane, and beautiful white wings, with gold tipped feathers flying upwards, towards the moon.

All eyes turned to Aeolus, he felt like he was about to pass out again but he managed to keep himself conscious.

Twilight was shocked. The lord of all Pegasi was standing in her library. Rainbow jumped over to Aeolus.

“OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH… You are the first Pegasus! The first to fly and to give Ponies wings!! This is so awesome! You could totally teach me some new tricks! Well… you know if you had wings… but we’ll figure it out! Maybe whenever I can fly again you can give me tips and I can finally join the Wonderbolts!!” she continued to ramble in Aeolus’ face, Twilight levitated her away with magic and placed her next to Fluttershy whose eyes were extremely wide from the shock of who Aeolus was to her. Rainbow squeezed her and continued to smile.

“Ummm…What’s a Wonderbolt?” Aeolus asked innocently.

Nopony answered him. Applejack walked over to Aeolus, Pinkie and Rarity slowly backed away, they seemed intrigued but also a little nervous of him.

“Is this true?” She asked him.

You know in your heart it is.

“Yes, I don’t remember anything of my past. But hearing the words on this page just seems so damn familiar. It has to be me… But I don’t have wings. Or any power whatsoever. I don’t know how I can help defeat Typhoon.” He finished.

Cadence got up and walked over to him, and did something no other pony expected. She bowed before him.

“All my life I’ve heard stories about you Lord Aeolus. It is truly an honor to meet you. We can send word out to Celestia. I’m sure she’ll know what to do.”

Spike spoke up “I’ve been trying to send a letter to Celestia since you guys got here, they just burn up! It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well… maybe since the storm is over it’ll work… if you don’t want to try it I understand, I’m probably wrong anyway” Fluttershy said

“Actually Fluttershy that makes sense!” Twilight grabbed a scroll from the desk, and took a moment to write a letter. She then levitated it over to Spike “here, give it a try!”

“Here it goes” Spike closed his eyes and blew fire on the letter. It turned into smoke and began to float in the air, Rainbow Dash jumped up and opened the nearest window. The smoky scroll flew out the window and disappeared.

“Yes! It worked! Hopefully the princess will respond quickly” Twilight beamed… she walked over to the window and looked towards the mountains in the distance.

All the ponies began to shoot questions at Aeolus.

“What was it like to be the first pony to ever fly?!”

"Are your wings really golden tipped? That’s so beautiful!”

“Dude how old are you anyway?”

Aeolus didn’t know the answers to any of these. He raised his hooves, silencing everypony instantly.

“Look guys I have no memory. Please I just met you I don’t want to be treated like I’m royalty… please.”

I like it, don’t tell them to stop! Its cool!

He felt like hitting his head, but that probably would’ve looked really weird.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion of magic in the middle of the room, everypony gasped. A big bright red and yellow orb appeared and the light was nearly blinding, everypony looked away. When the light and noise died down they looked back and saw two very important ponies standing where the orb had been.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” Twilight walked over to them, Cadence not far behind.

“Hello Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence. I’m so glad to see that all of you are safe after last night’s storm. When I received your letter Luna and I had to come out here immediately. She looked at Aeolus, the princess’ hair flowed like Luna’s except hers was rainbow colored, and it covered one eye but did not hide the concern clearly showing.

“Twilight tell me everything.”

Twilight began to re-explain the day before entirely she did not mention Aeolus trying to escape however. Then when the time came Cadence pitched in the train crash incident, when they both finished Celestia looked at Luna, who simply nodded… having them both stare at him made him quite nervous.

“Hello Aeolus, it’s nice to see you again in person.” Luna said to him. She reached her hoof out to touch him, but then retracted it with a sigh. She looked at Aeolus with sad eyes, he locked his eyes with hers and for a moment she seemed to be desperately trying to tell him something. After a few moments of looking into the eyes of Aeolus she looked away, cleared her throat and walked towards the back of the room… the darkest part. Aeolus was confused but before he could follow her Celestia stepped into his path.

Celestia began to speak to him “Aeolus, I understand Typhoon shot you with red lightning when you faced him over the Everfree forest?”

Aeolus had a confused look. “Yeah… I guess…”

“I remember his magic quite well. He must’ve used his power to weaken you and corrupt your memories, He then destroyed what makes a spirit so special, he destroyed the elements of harmony inside you.”

Twilight was now the pony who was confused. “What? The Elements inside him? Does that mean he’s a bearer too?”

“No Twilight. Aeolus came before the elements. He came before me, and Luna. He came before Equestria.” She then lifted the History book up with her magic.

“This book was written by Star Swirl the Bearded. It details the history of this planet. From the very beginning. When Aeolus was born his parents were the purest ponies that ever existed. They were the ones who created everything, Laughter, Loyalty and all the others were what was used to create Aeolus and the others. Pure Spirits are living embodiments of the Elements of Harmony. But Typhoon has taken those elements away from him. He is now mortal. He can die, and his magic that gives Pegasi flight is gone, which is why nopony can fly. It’s up to you all, the Spirits of friendship to help him now.” Her explanation was shocking to everypony in the room, even Cadence didn’t know about it all.

“Well gee Princess, what can we do? I don’t suppose we can put our elements on and just shoot a rainbow at him.” Applejack said with a hint of sarcasm.

Luna appeared from the shadow behind her and answered her question. “No Applejack, you and the others must teach him the elements of friendship. When he truly what the elements are, and learns how to utilize every element within himself, he’ll break the curse of Typhoon and be able to use his power once again to defeat him.” Applejack jumped in fright from Luna’s quick teleport between the shadows, and began to blush slightly. “Sorry Princess, I meant no disrespect.”

There was a groan from Rainbow Dash. “UGH! We don’t have time to teach him about the Elements of Harmony! Can’t you guys just use your magic to break the curse? I mean you are four Alicorns after all!” She crossed her hooves and huffed loudly.

All the other ponies began to complain to each other, except Pinkie who began to sing a silly song to ignore everyone complaining. After a moment of listening to their nonsense Celestia tapped her hoof on the ground twice, immediately bringing everyponies’ attention back to her.

“I understand all of your frustrations, but a pure Spirit’s power is very different then general magic… especially one like Aeolus. The more he learns about the elements the more he will gain back power and memories. Once he is back to full strength it will take us all to stop him, including possibly some others” Celestia looked out the window at her castle. She knew she needed to find them all. And soon.

Others? What does she mean by others? Quick ask her!

But Aeolus was interrupted by Luna

“My sister and I will fight against Typhoon as much as we can, and try to protect the towns and cities of Equestria from being destroyed by his wrath. During the day Celestia’s magic can keep him from starting storms, but at night he is much more powerful. To try and stop him from spreading panic not only must I keep the moon in the sky, but I must also enter the bad dreams of anypony and calm them. That is why he makes it storm so terribly during that time. And the more destruction he causes, the more there will be fear, and panic. Which will increase Typhoon’s power.” Luna added in. Cadence had a bit of her own input.

“I must return to the Crystal Empire at once. If Shining Armor and I can keep the love and hope in the Empire at a peak. That can help repel Typhoon’s attack on Equestria… but Flash Sentry is in no shape to travel.” Cadence looked at Flash who was breathing softly underneath his covers.

Twilight finally was able to talk. “Celestia… why doesn’t any other pony know about these spirits? Why didn’t you tell me?” she had a fear tears in her eyes. But Celestia wiped them away with her hoove.

“There were certain… events… that made many of the spirits split up, and go into hiding. There are also spirits that work in hiding, allowing nopony to see them. I suggest you read that book from the beginning. To get a better understand of how important these beings are to world. If Typhoon is returning I have no doubt in my mind others will as well.”

When Luna spoke all the ponies turned to face her. “You and the other bearers of the Elements must train and teach Aeolus. It will be an odd task. But it is one my sister and I are sure you are capable of completing.”

Twilight began to object but Celestia cut her off.

“Don’t worry about us Twilight, we will keep Equestria safe as long as we can from Typhoon. You all need to focus on your task at hand. I know you will be able to do this” Celestia smiled at them.

“Cadence, I will take you and Flash home, he’ll be safe don’t worry.” Luna walked over to Flash and used her magic to lift him onto her back. She then opened a purple portal and prepared to step into it, but she stopped, gave one last look at Aeolus, and then went into the portal, disappearing instantly. Cadence began to walk towards it before looking back at Twilight and her friends.

“Don’t worry Twilight, there is nothing you all can’t handle, good luck. I’ll be in touch.” She smiled at them and then went through the portal as well, it closed behind her.

Celestia put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder “I’ll send someone to check on your progress soon Twilight, don’t worry you’ll do just fine. I must get the Train incident from last night cleaned up before anypony realized what has happened… then I must return to Canterlot and try and keep the ponies there oblivious to Typhoon’s return. If panic spreads he becomes more powerful. Imagine the amount of mass panic there would be if he had killed Cadence.” She walked away from Twilight and back to the middle of the room. Her horn began to glow, but before she left she gave Twilight a warning.

“Keep Aeolus indoors at night. If Typhoon were to learn of his exact location, there is no doubt in my mind he will destroy anything to get to him.” Celestia disappeared in a flash of magic.

The Princesses of Equestria came, and went. Dropping on the elements of harmony the most important talk they’ve had yet. With no idea how to get started.

"Great, how am I supposed to teach somepony loyalty!” Rainbow complained.

“Calm yerself Rainbow. Now the princesses gave us a job, and we gotta see to it that it gets done... somehow.” Applejack replied.

“My concern is how to teach him magic when he is an earth pony… well he technically is like a Pegasus god… but you know what I mean. If we take turns spending time with him, I’m sure he’ll learn something about the elements from each of us” Twilight said... but she didn’t sound too sure of herself.

Aeolus didn’t feel godly. In fact he felt quite useless. He had no memories of his past or his powers and no idea how to begin learning how to “use the elements of harmony” within himself. But he figured what the hell. You gotta start somewhere.

“Twilight, I’m ready to begin. What do you need me to do?” he asked full of confidence.

Twilight had no idea. Pinkie then appeared in between them from out of nowhere “oooo! Twilight I have an idea! How about he comes with me into town today? I can show him everypony in Ponyville and he’ll have a lot of fun! And I’ll tell lots and lots of jokes and make him laugh! And then I can introduce him to Improv and he can make him laugh too! And then they’ll be so much laughter! How can he not learn about laughter from laughter? Am I right?” Pinkie sounded super sure of this idea.

Twilight looked at the others who all shrugged. By this time they all knew to not really question the party pony when she had an idea. She smiled at Pinkie.

“That sounds like a great idea Pinkie, Aeolus do you mind going with her? I know we all had a stressful night, I’m sure having some fun would be good for you and a great way to start this process. Me and Spike will do some more research on… well you, and see if we can find anything else to help.” Aeolus nodded happily, it did sound like it could be enjoyable.

Spike however groaned. “Yay, research.” The sarcasm practically made the room’s paint peel.

“I have to head on over to Sweet Apple Acres to make sure Granny Smith, Apple bloom, And Big Macintosh are ok. I’ll come back later to check up on ya’ll.”

Applejack began to head towards the door, Rainbow and Rarity right behind her, Rainbow wanted to find her coltfriend Storm to try and explain to him that the creator of all Pegasi was in Ponyville, Rarity wanted to check on her cat Opal and Sweetie Bella and make sure her shop was undamaged. Fluttershy started to leave too. She rushed out with no explanation and no goodbye. The others had all agreed to meet back up that night to check on Pinkie’s progress with him. When they were all gone Pinkie grabbed Aeolus.

“Come on! It’s time for you to have the most fun you’ve ever had! And I Pinkie Pie will ultimately be the one to make it so!” She zipped out of the library, Aeolus in hoof. Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled at Pinkie’s silliness. She looked down at the history book, seeing the picture of Aeolus… she was amazed by how important this pony was to the world, she then flipped a few pages and found Typhoon’s page again, his picture was so sinister, and frightening. He had to be stopped.

“Spike, it’s time for a history lesson!” She said to him, excited to read and learn more about the history of spirits.

Spike simply sighed. “Ok Twilight.” He brought a quill and parchment over, and prepared his claw for any and all notes Twilight would ask for. It was gonna be a long day.