Enigma

Sky High yawned and stretched herself out on the cloud she was lying on. It was a predictable beautiful day in Ponyville, and much of that was due to the hard work of Sky herself. thought one should do what’s important first, then you could rest. This, of course, led to many quarrels with her co-worker, Rainbow Dash, who never seemed to do more than show off and take naps, Suddenly, a strong breeze blew sky off the cloud, down to the hard ground below,

“hey, what gives?” She said “Rainbow, was that-” She wilted. “Oh… right.” even though Rainbow had annoyed her, the two were still good friends, and even three years wasn't enough time to cope for the disappearance of one’s friends.

Sky sat up and unfurled her wings, shaking the grass and dirt off of them, as she began her short trek back to Ponyville, all the while thinking of the missing elements.

“Enigma is right.” She thought. “Somepony has to do something… we can’t just wait around for our knights in shining armor from the chaos that is slowly surrounding Equestria…” Earlier that day, Enigma, Dust, Sugar Cube, Heart Sings, and Coal Rock had set out on a quest to find the elements. Sky High had turned down Enigma’s request that she come too. She glanced up at the sun. It was only noon, they couldn't have gone far. Sky shot up into the air and zoomed off in the direction the group was going. She flew for what  seemed like hours, but she saw no sign of them. The longer she flew, the more worried she was that she was too late, that something horrible had happened. But, no, she spotted the fellowship near the Foal Mountains. She closed her wings and dove down right in front of them, spreading them just before she hit the ground.

"Gah!" Heart Sings jumped up in surprise.

"I thought you weren't coming." Coal Rock grumbled. He wasn't very fond of the green pegasus. Sky High gave him a dark stare.

"I... I changed my mind." She said. "You guys wouldn't last five seconds without me here to help you." Sky grinned.

"You're sounding more and more like Rainbow Dash everyday." said Enigma. Sky's ears drooped. "Oh- sorry... I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine" Sky sighed "It's been three years... how did we survive?"

"Just lucky, I guess." Sugar Cube piped in. Just then, the sky darkened and it started thundering.

"Thunder... but no lightning." mumbled Sky to her self. "That can't be right." She started hovering a few feet off the ground. She immediately was whisked into the air and started spinning around. "Whoooaaaa!" She yelled as she was slammed back into the ground.

"AH!" she screamed. Her wing was bent awkwardly. "We... have to get to shelter..." She wheezed. The group began looking around for a place to stay.

"There!" Yelled Hear Sings. She pointed her hoof toward a small cave in the side of one of the mountains. As they moved toward it, Sky cried out in pain again.

"I think i sprained my ankle too..."  she said, blushing out of embarrassment from her accident. Enigma quickly ran over and supported her left side and helped her walk to the cave. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw a dark silhouette of a pegasus flying toward him. He shoved Sky into the cave right as the figure tackled him. Enigma gasped.

"Fluttershy?"

The yellow pegasus stepped off of him and looked around nervously, clearly confused.

"Oh dear..." She said shakily. "Where am I? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry..."

"Fluttershy?" Enigma repeated. "it's been three years... where were you... the elements... Discord...." Then he fainted.

When Enigma came to, Fluttershy was listening to Heart Sings with a horrified look on her face. She was explaining what had happened, how they had been gone for three years.

“I- it can’t have been three years… it was only a few weeks…” Fluttershy squeaked.

“It was definitely three years.” Coal said gruffly. “Do you remember anything that happened to y’all?” He asked.

“Twi-twilight started acting strange.” She began. “She said that the princess had given us a special mission, and that we couldn’t tell anyone about it… she took us all the way to Vanhoover, where we boarded a boat, and just sailed off. Twily said the princess had found a new island inhabited by a new magical species… but then, on day three of our journey, she just collapsed. When she came to, she couldn’t remember anything about where we were going… When we eventually found the island. There was nothing there… only darkness.” She shuddered. “It was night all the time. We searched around the island for the magical creatures Twilight had talked about but we didn’t find anything. Not until Apple Jack found a cave. We climbed down into it… and we got caught in some kind of web. I knew how to deal with spiders, so I wasn’t scared… but it wasn’t spiders. A just saw a great big arm reach out of the shadows and grab Rainbow Dash. Then I fainted. When I woke up, it was just me and Twilight. She looked weak and skinny. Then the arm came back. It grabbed her, but before it took her away, she cast some spell on me. And now I’m here.” She finished.

Sugar Cube stepped up to comfort her. “That didn’t make a lick of sense.” Coal Rock blurted. Sugar glared at him.

“What Coal is trying to say-” before she could finish, a loud humming sound and a bright, red light filled the room. Everyone looked around wildly.

“Oh dear.” said Fluttershy quietly as she looked at her back left hoof. Around it was a beaded bracelet with a blood red gem on the end of it. The gem was pulsing. “I’ve led him right to us…” The ceiling of the cave crumbled and collapsed. Stones fell onto the ponies, knocking them out cold.

Enigma woke to the sound of Fluttershy screaming. He looked up to see her in the grasp of a shadowy arm that was protruding from the clouds. A long, black, needle sharp finger pierced her chest. Black tendrils stretched out from the wound, covering Fluttershy’s body.

Soon the screaming died out and was replaced with silence. In Fluttershy’s place was a jet black pegasus with glowing, blood red eyes and razor sharp fangs. The only factor of the yellow mare that was left was her tail and her main, which were drained of their color. The clouds opened up, and another dark horse flew from them. This one’s hair had different shades of gray stripes.

“No…” Enigma wheezed “Fluttershy… Rainbow Dash…” The two NightMares flew towards him. Fluttershy lifted him out of the rubble and began to take him to the dark hand in the clouds. But then, a blue mare with a rainbow colored mane knocked Fluttershy down. The Rainbow Dash NightMare looked at her, shocked.

“I am Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty!” Yelled the stranger as she freed Enigma from the NightMare’s grasp. The mare winked at him. She flew up into the sky and cast a spell, confounding the Rainbow Dash NightMare. The symbiote peeled away from Fluttershy’s face.

“Rainbow Dash is an alicorn?!” She gasped. Rainbow Dash was so shocked that Fluttershy could still be saved, she broke concentration and turned back into a changeling. The symbiote began covering Fluttershy’s face. She glanced over to the real Rainbow Dash, who was snarling at Soul Dust.

“Oh… that’s you.” Fluttershy said, as the symbiote rebonded to her face. In that moment, Enigma snapped out of his daze. We have to get everypony out of here!” He flew over and began to lift Sky High out of the rubble.

Dust pulled up Heart Sings. “Wake up, Heart!” She yelled. Her eyes flew open. “We need your help! Distract those NightMares while we wake everyone up!” Hear nodded and ran over to the creatures, where she began shooting spells at them.

Enigma lifted Sugar Cube out and laid her on a rock. They both had to work together to hull Coal out from under the rocks.

“Come on!” yelled Sky. Coal ran in the opposite direction of the NightMares, closely followed by Sugar Cube and Soul Dust. Enigma ran to Sky and helped her get away.

"Heart, we need to get out of here!" The unicorn was still firing spells at the two NightMares in order to distract them from the rest of the group.

"No! I have to keep distracting them!" She called. "It's the only way you can escape!" Enigma quickly realized he couldn't convince her. He glanced at Coal. He understood. Coal Rock ran over and started supporting Sky. Enigma ran to Heart and swooped her out of the way of a long, pointed finger that was just inches from her flank. He flew off in the direction the others were going right after kicking a NightMare in the face to stop it from following them.

He touched down next to Sugar Cube and let Heart hop off. They stopped and rested when the could no longer see the NightMares. "I think the worst is behind us." Said Coal. Just then, a blood chilling scream pierced the air. Sky High sighed.

"You wish."