Chapters It’ been three whole years since any of us had seen the Elements of Harmony. They just up and disappeared one day. Then Princess Celestia sent Discord out to find them, and poof! He’s gone too. So there goes Equestria’s protection. Yeah, embarrassing, I know. Our main defenses are six teenage mares and an insane draconequus. So for three years, we were plagued by monsters that the Royal Guard were barely able to hold off. More and more stallions were being drafted.
Through these dark times, no one had been able to rise up and bear the mantle of Harmony. I’m sure eventually someone else would come along and save us, but I’m not just gonna stand around and wait, and neither are my friends. We have to help save Equestria, it’s the only way my best friend, Soul Dust, will ever be accepted as one of us, as a real pony. See, Dust has wings and a horn, but she isn’t an alicorn… she’s a changeling.
Yeah, I know, changelings are eviiiilll! But Dust is different. She had nothing to do with the siege that Chrysalis made on Canterlot, in fact… it was the opposite. When Dust was a filly (around one thousand years ago) , she was just a normal unicorn in Canterlot. Dust was a member of Mare Scouts, and one night, the were on a camping trip down by Neighagra Falls. She accidentally became separated from the other fillies. She was discovered wandering around the falls by Mutatio, the Queen of the changelings at the time. Mutatio captured her and flew her back to the changeling hive. That’s when she began converting her into a changeling. Dust described the transformation process to me once… I didn’t sleep for weeks.
For the following 1000 years, she was in the dungeons, all alone. It was enough to drive anypony beyond insane… but not Dust. She knew the dangers of being cooped up alone in the dark for so long, she understood the price would be her sanity. So.. she skipped it.
Dust was a unicorn of insanely powerful magic, because, she was the daughter of Princess Luna. Her father was unknown, because she was born on the moon, in the earlier days of Luna’s imprisonment. Luna used the little magic she had left to send her daughter safely back to Equestria. Anyway, though she was just a unicorn, she still contained Alicorn magic, which she used to speed up time. At least, in her mind’s eye anyway. This was not an escape attempt, but merely a way to save her mind from being broken. She skipped forward a thousand years to present day, right after the Siege of Canterlot.
The changelings had moved the location of their hive years ago, and the dungeon walls were all but eroded away, making an easy escape for Dust. She flew up, out of Neighagra Falls, just in time to see the changelings launched out of Canterlot. She quickly realised what was happening, and cast a protection spell on herself, but in doing so, she greatly weakened her magic, since she has to keep up the spell at all times.
So, Soul Dust went to Ponyville, met me, I didn’t care that she looked different, we became great friends, blah, blah, blah. You don’t want to hear about that part. Now that you’ve heard Soul’s awesome and terrifying tale about shape-shifting monsters and royal conspiracies, let me tell you my tale, of an ordinary, good for nothing pegasus who couldn’t do anything right. I was mostly just a normal pegasus, a face in the crowd, cheering on Rainbow Dash at flight school. I didn’t have many friends, and I hardly did anything noteworthy out of school, or even in school, for that matter. I never really had any friends, that is, until Dust came around.
My name is Enigma, and I’m 15 years old. I don’t have my cutie mark because… well, because I’m no good at anything. Dust says I just haven’t found my calling, but… I know she’s just saying that. But, me and Dust aren’t the only ones, we have other friends too.
Sugar Cube is an earth-pony baker. We met a long time ago, but didn’t become friends until we recently decided to find the elements. Sky High is a pegasus pony that I became friends with in Flight School. Coal Rock is an earth pony miner. Soul Dust met him while she was hiding out in a cave in Everfree. And lastly, Heart Sings, a unicorn musician from Baltimare, who moved to Ponyville to get away from the big city life.
But I am Enigma, and this is my story about how I stopped being a nopony, and became somepony.
Chapter 1: The Symbiote's Return
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."
Chapter 2: Cries in the Night
The screams were getting louder, and what's worse, the seemed to be coming from a different pony each time. The five ponies were ready to either run or fight, with the exception of Sky High, due to her injuries. Then suddenly, the screaming stopped. There were several moments of tense silence until...
A pitch black NightMare broke through the ground in between Sugar Cube and Coal Rock. Four slimy tentacles protruded from its back with a pony in each of them. The creature's jaw unhinged and it let out a horrifying screech. Another tentacle shot from the back of it, latching onto the neck of one of the ponies in its grasp. The pony was a magenta earth pony that Enigma recognized as Berry Punch. The tentacle yanked on the pony's neck, ripping it clean off. A loud snap filled the air. Enigma, who had been flying up to help her, got his hooves drenched in her blood. Her lifeless head rolled over to where Sky was standing, an expression of terror still fixed upon her face.
There was a pause, in which Enigma realized he was enraged. Enraged that an innocent pony had been brutally murdered, enraged that three others were on the way, enraged that some creature of unknown evil, was causing this all at the hand of none other than Twilight Sparkle, one of Ponyville’s friendliest residents. In that moment, the blue pegasus made a decision: He was going to make these creatures pay. This wasn't a quest of self discovery anymore, it was a quest to save Equestria, and to destroy those who put it in danger. It was a quest for revenge.
Enigma flew at the creatures left most tentacle, which contained a gray earth pony named Lucky Clover.
“Grab my hoof!” He yelled. Lucky Clover obliged and grasped tightly onto his front right hoof. Enigma pulled with all his might and tore the stallion free from the symbiotes grip, toppling down to earth as he did so.
Heart Sings, realizing what he was trying to do, levitated Cloud Kicker, a pegasus who was also in the grasp of the symbiote, and pulled her free. Coal started distracting the symbiote by bucking at it and throwing stones.
However, this couldn’t keep the symbiote at bay for very long. It quickly realised what was happening and as Enigma was pulling to free the last pony, an aqua unicorn named Lyra Heartstrings, the symbiote started pulling the other way.
“Help me.” She gasped, as the symbiote tugged at her. Before Enigma realized what was happening, the sound of her spine ripping echoed through the forest. Enigma quickly let go as Lyra screamed. Soul Dust flew up and bit the tentacle with her razor sharp teeth, causing it to drop Lyra.
Enigma flew under her and caught her as gingerly as he could. She was out cold. He flew over to Heart Sings.
“Get her to the hospital! We’ll meet up with you as soon as we can.” Enigma said. Heart nodded and teleported away with Lyra and Sky High. “Okay, guys, ” He shouted “We can’t let that thing follow us back to Ponyville!” Before he even finished talking, Coal Rock bucked the symbiote in the face.
And that set everyone off. Enigma began trying to tear off one of the tentacles and Soul Dust tried to tear the symbiote off Twilights face. Sensing it was in danger of losing its host, the symbiote let out a burst of energy, knocking the four ponies back. The symbiote had peeled off of Twilight’s face as it receded back into the forest. Tears were streaming down her face.
“I’m so sorry.” She cried. And then she was gone.
The ponies stood there for a while, staring into the forest. Enigma broke the silence.
“Come on.” he said, shakily. “We have to meet up with Sky High and Heart Sings back at the hospital.” And so the carried out their trek in silence, not speaking a word until reaching the entrance to ponyville.
“ You guys go ahead to the hospital. I need to do something first.” Said Soul Dust. She walked away from the others. She came upon the library. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the entrance of the home of a dragon.
"What are you doing in here?" Growled spike. In the three years Twilight had been gone, almost no one had seen Spike. He had grown to almost the size of a stallion.
"Spike..." said Soul "We found Twilight." Spike froze.
"What?"
"She and the rest of the Elements have been infected by some sort of symbiote. So far, we don't know how to cure it, but we saw her in Everfree." Spike was still silent.
"Leave." He said.
"What?"
"I said, LEAVE!" Spike roared. Soul backed out of the library, looking shocked. Spike slammed the door and immediately turned and started looking through books.
"Symbiote... symbiote..." He pulled out a book called Strange Secrets of Equestria. The room started rumbling, the shelf moved to the side, revealing a secret passage.
"You shouldn't have down that." Said a mysterious voice.
