Waiting for the Elements

Again, Twilight awakes. she trotted downstairs expecting the same usual day. opening her eyes, she was right. Another big breakfast with Aleu, Spike, and…Balkin and Lucy!? Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash too!?  She moved to her seat and couldn't help but ask.

"Um…what are you all doing in my house?" Twilight questioned.

"Having breakfast." Balkin answered in a smart alec tone.

"Wow Aleu, these are the best pastries I've ever had!" Applejack complimented Aleu.

"Who knew you kept getting the good breakfast all this time?" Rainbow Dash inquired to Twilight.

"Trying to hide a perk to having Aleu live with you isn't very generous." Rarity added.

Twilight seemed a bit annoyed at their comments, but was then lifted as she took a bite of what seems to be blueberry pastries with a sweet powder dousing over it. Her smile had arrived thanks to a simple dish. Aleu seemed to be pleased with the results and came back with another platter. Everyone was having a nice morning together with a great meal to go along with it.

"So Aleu, what do you plan to do today?" Applejack asked.

"Like I said, no plans made by myself." Aleu answered. "I'm up for whatever right now."

"You have fun with that. I'm gonna stay here with Twilight and do some research on this world." Balkin planned.

"I think I'll go with Aleu. Is that okay?" Lucy asked Balkin.

Balkin sighed and responded, "Alright, only if Aleu promises on his grave he won't let anything happen to you."

Aleu held his hand to his heart and vowed, "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick the knife in the eye."

The girls and Spike looked at Aleu with such a vow.

"Is…is that how you do promises in your world?" Pinkie asked.

"Yeah, why?" Aleu wondered.

"Well, Pinkie has a similar saying, but that…was a change of pace." Applejack quoted.

Aleu shrugged as Pinkie walked up to him as she giggled.

"You're funny! Hey! If you're not busy, wanna hang out?" Pinkie asked hopefully.

"Sure! What do you say Lucy?" Aleu passed on the question to her.

"Yeah, sure!" Lucy responded.

"Alright then!" Aleu said as he ran out the door with the two right behind him. "Adventure!"

"Yeah!" the two girls yelled as they followed Aleu into town.

Balkin sighed as he said, "Does that mean these are the last of the pastries?"

The girls looked at what was left over. though plentiful, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Balkin grabbed as many as they could. Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy sighed as they are quickly taken away.

Aleu was marching with a whistling tune with Pinkie and Lucy in that order following right behind him. They stopped following at one point as Pinkie's tail started to twitch.

"Uh oh! Twitchy tail! Watch out! Something's going to fall!" Pinkie alerted the two.

Aleu looked up and saw an anvil upon them. He gets Lucy and Pinkie to safety under a nearby roof, then jumped to the anvil, kicking it way back up into the air. it had went all the way to a flying cart with pegasus nearby and it landed right on the back of the flying vehicle carried by clouds.

"Whoa! That was amazing!" Lucy commented.

"Watch out! Twitchy tail!" Pinkie warned Lucy again.

"What? What else can fall-" Before she realized it, Aleu fell down a bit farther than expected, over by a block. They ran after his location fearing his safety.

Aleu awoke in the crater he had made. He looked up and saw three figures. These three figures had made Aleu widened his eyes with a great smile. Pinkie and Lucy had caught up to the already standing Aleu. He was walking up to the figures until he saw the two come by.

"Oh good! You're here!" Aleu said. "Look! You'll never believe who's here!"

Pinkie and Lucy looked at three humans in front of Aleu. Aleu then said who they were.

"That's Drew on the right, the one on the left is Mark, and the one in the middle is Shade!" Aleu informed the girls.

"Oh my gosh! This is great Aleu! Now you don't have to worry about them anymore!" Pinkie mentioned.

Lucy looked at the three and began to step back while pulling Pinkie with her as well.

"A-Aleu…they look…a bit frightening." Lucy expressed.

"Really?" Aleu turned back to the three. "Hey, you guys alright?"

As Aleu stepped closer, Shade pulled out his sword and cut Aleu across the stomach. The girls gasped shocked at the sight, but not as much as Aleu as he fell down weakened by the cunning attack.

"W-What? Why'd you do that?" Aleu questioned weakly.

"Our mission was to gather the all the humans sent to this world. Your coming with us." Shade demanded as he pointed the sword at Aleu.

"ALEU!" The girls screamed. Drew looked over at Lucy and stepped forward onto her.

"There's another one." Drew spoke.

Aleu's eyes widened, and with enough strength, he got up and kicked Drew to a building. Standing by Pinkie and Lucy, Aleu defended the two.

"You're not gonna lay a finger on them!" Aleu declared.

Mark stepped forward and went after Lucy while Shade attacked Aleu. Aleu escaped Shade's slash and kicked down Mark, then knocked him to Drew, who was getting up.

"Aleu! Keep going!" Pinkie yelled to him.

Aleu fought off Mark and Drew, who then backed up. Shade was the last one still ready to fight. As Aleu readied himself, he shed a tear Shade attacked. Aleu was about to counter it, but an arrow strikes him onto the shoulder, making him collapse. Lucy and Pinkie look up to see a girl a bit older than Lucy, but younger than all the boys. She had red hair, orange eyes, a yellow shirt, and orange pants with yellow hunting boots. She pulled out her bow and aimed at Lucy. After firing, Aleu pushed Lucy out of the way in time.

"A-Aleu! Are you okay!?" Lucy quickly asked him.

"No…they're too strong!" Aleu alerted them. "Go to the others! It's way too dangerous here! Pinkie, go with Lucy and make sure she safely gets there!"

"But what about you!?" Pinkie questioned his planning.

"I promised Balkin Lucy would be safe, and I well intend to die rather than let you get hurt!" Aleu declared.

Pinkie was struggling to leave Aleu behind, but either way, he would die if Lucy were to get hurt. She brought Lucy onto her back and ran to the library while Aleu slowly got up and tried once more to fight off the four attackers.

"I just don't want to fight you…I just don't!" Aleu yelled as the four attack him again.

The scene blacks out and now goes back to Twilight and the others. They were all cleaning up the massive pile of dishes since they had to get so many pastries. Rainbow, Applejack, and Spike were washing dishes, Balkin and Twilight read, Fluttershy and Rarity were chatting.

"What do you think the others are doing?" Twilight wondered.

"Knowing Lucy, anything. But with that Pinkie, everything." Balkin said with an unsure tone in his voice.

Right on cue, Pinkie with Lucy on her back opened the door in a frenzied matter.

"Pinkie! Lucy! We were just talking about you. What's wrong?" Balkin noticed their frantic expressions.

"It's Aleu! His friends and he was all happy, but then one of them attacked him, and, and-" Pinkie stuttered as all she could think about was Aleu, about to die.

"Aleu is in trouble! We need to help him!" Lucy quickly told them.

They all heard Lucy and ran to their side ready to lend aid. Running out to town, the see the end of the battle. Aleu fell while the archer girl and Shade was all that's left.

"Aleu!" Pinkie screamed as she went by his side. "Aleu, are you okay?!"

Aleu coughed before looking up. "Pinkie? Is…is Lucy safe?"

"Yes, we're all here now, so don't worry!" Pinkie assured Aleu.

Balkin went forward to Shade and the archer. He took Aleu's place for the fight.

"I heard there were four of you, what happened to half your team?" Balkin questioned them.

"The bodies they used were not adjusted very well, so I sent them back to make sure everything was in order." Shade replied.

"Let me take care of this one." the female archer suggested.

Shade glared at the girl. "Careful you, if you mess up, I'll have no choice but to kill you too."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." she replied.

Shade stepped back and the battle between the archer and Balkin began. The girl pulled her bow out and shot a stream of arrows. Balkin managed to dodge them and then go in close with his two fist behind him delivering a blow to the girl.

"Dual Fist!"

The girl was pushed back, and the impact had surprised her. She took out her bow again and aimed for the sky. She shot tens of arrows up, confusing Balkin until he looked up to see them all falling back down.

"Raining Arrows!"

The multitude of the arrows struck down all around Balkin. He was unable to block them, but he did manage to survive the attack.

"I can't win if she does that again…" Balkin thought.

The girl aimed her bow at Balkin again, but this time she pulled out an orange arrow with a black stick, and gray feathers. After shooting it, the arrow hits the floor upon Balkin and explodes.

"Blast Arrow!"

The blast indeed pushed Balkin off his feet. Everyone looked to see Balkin seemingly defeated, but he got back up seeming a bit more annoyed.

"Okay, now those arrows are just bothersome!" Balkin said to the archer.

The archer didn't hesitate to shoot another group of arrows into the sky showering over Balkin.

"Raining Arrows!"

Before they hit the floor, Balkin was suddenly wrapped by an energy. The arrows landed on him without leaving a scratch. It was Twilight protecting Balkin from the arrows. The girl was shocked and soon Balkin came in with a flurry of punches going all around. They had soon reached to the archer as she was too late to pull out another arrow.

"Fist of Fury!"

The attack had hit her multiple times with the flurry of punches going everywhere. The punches had beaten her out of consciousness and she fell down defeated. Balkin sat on the floor tired.

"Okay! I won! Good…" Balkin stated.

The girls and Spike sighed in relief as Aleu rested alongside with them. The relief was over as the girl awoke and stood back up again.

"W-Where am I?" She wondered.

"W-What the!? I just beat you down! How are you okay already!?" Balkin said shocked to see her okay.

The girl was suddenly stabbed by Shade as he came in and said to her, "You lost…like I said, now you have to die."

They were all shocked at the turn of events. their enemies turned on each other.

"Aren't they…comrades?" Twilight muttered at the insane moment.

Aleu awoke, and suddenly with a sudden burst of energy, Aleu jumped to Shade and kicked him down, blowing him to the floor.

"It doesn't matter what happened…" Aleu said to Shade. "You can't ever turn against your friends!"

Shade got up with a sore cheek. He looked at Aleu feeling uncertain he could win. Shade decided to retreat. A black goop from a bottle Shade pulled out splashed the floor, which then released a massive smog covering his escape.

Aleu fell down exhausted with the girl nearby. They rested from their serious wounds while the others checked on them immediately.

"I think he's alright!" Twilight said reassuringly.

"What do we do with her?" Rainbow questioned the girl nearby lying next to Aleu.

The archer was bleeding and lying on the floor unconscious. Both attacks from the battle and Shade had wiped her out.

Balkin looked at her for a while and said, "Let's just take care of them both."

Twilight looked at Balkin a bit surprised. "Are you sure we can trust her?"

Balkin shrugged as he said, "Well, we could help her, or let her die on the sidewalk. It's not up to me since I think you should take charge."

Twilight looked at the girl one last time and sighed. "Alright, we'll help her." She said unsure. "But we should keep an eye on her, or else she might get us while we're not looking."

Agreeing, the girls brought the injured to the hospital. Injuries like these were too serious for any first aid a house could provide. As the six ponies, Lucy, and Spike awaited in the guest room, the doctor came out with the clipboard.

Rainbow jumped up and quickly asked, "Hey, are those three okay?"

"They seem to be fine. I can't say the same for the blonde one though, he's had it the worst." the doctor informed them. "If any worse, well, I don't know what would happen."

They all sighed and Lucy came up to the doctor asking, "Can we go see them?"

"You can see the boy and the girl, but the one I just told you about is asleep. Whatever he went through must have tired his mind out." The doctor explained before leaving the girls to check on the humans.

Inside the room of the patients, Balkin and the girl were talking.

"So…you were captured?" Balkin made sure.

"Yes…" the archer responded.

"Then they took control of your mind?" Balkin continued.

"Yes…" She responded again.

"And your name is…?" Balkin continued.

"Eris."

Balkin sighed as he crossed his arms while tilting his head. "So that's why his friends attacked him…but who would do that?"

Twilight and the others came in on cue with happy faces seeing the humans alright.

"Balkin! Good to see you're okay!" Applejack said before giving him a hug.

"Thanks, by the way, have you met Eris? Apparently she told me what's going on and what happened to Aleu's friends."

They all turned to Eris who seemed as if she was sick. Twilight approached her with steady carefulness.

"Are you…alright?" Twilight asked.

"I'm fine, thank you…" Eris said with a pleasant smile, but turned back into a frown.

Pinkie turned to Balkin quickly remembering something.

"Oh! Balkin! I almost forgot! Aleu was protecting Lucy really, really, REALLY good!" She inquired.

"Really? How good?" Balkin asked.

"He was willing to die for your promise!" Pinkie said surprising Balkin. "He really meant it too!"

Balkin turned to the sleeping Aleu as he gave a saddened look.

"You…kept your word…" Balkin said quietly.

All of the humans seemed a bit out of balance. It was a day where everything turned for the worst.