Element and Crest

Fluttershy watched the others as they, under Twilights direction, tried to figure out what the symbols meant. Fluttershy wanted to help, but she couldn't see how to decipher them, with the exception of the book that had been left at the library. She wasn't in the middle, exactly. Just kind of near it. She began walking in a circle around the middle, looking for some clue as to say what meant what, when suddenly one of the points lit up as she walked over it. "Aack!" She cried, diving under Twilight.

"That's it! Fluttershy, you're a genius!" Twilight cried. "Stand back on that point! I have an idea!" Fluttershy tentatively returned to the point, which lit up again with a soft, pink color. Twilight, starting on the point to Fluttershy's left as everypony watched, started to traverse the circle. Her point lit up a pale purple after only two ended up being the wrong one. Scootaloo, impatient as ever, jumped onto the point directly to Fluttershy's left, which lit up orange. Applejack and Applebloom both started to search for their points, ending up with Applebloom's lighting up a light brown with a gap of one from Fluttershy, and Applejack's lighting up light green immediately beyond. Rarity found one that lit up red on Twilights immediate right, and Sweetie Belle a white-pink one between Applebloom and Fluttershy. Rainbow found one that lit up an ironic grey color next to Rarity. Pinkie Pie was the last to find her point, standing between Twilight and Scootaloo and giggling as she looked at her dark blue light. The symbols on the pedestals began to glow.

"Hold your ground, everypony!" Rainbow and Scootaloo called. Fluttershy didn't notice; she was shaking and covering her face with her hooves. The statues began to crack, each fracture glowing with the point in front of it. Then there was a bright light, and the ponies on the points collapsed.

"What happened?" Rainbow woke up to hear an unfamiliar voice saying. She lay still, barely opening one of her eyes. "Who are these ponies? What is this place?" The new ponies, which were standing in place of the statues, were all very odd. The one closest to her, which wasn't the questioner, had slate stripes running accross his brown body. At least his short, blue mane made some sort of sense. That wasn't really helpful. Everything was still confusing.

"Take it easy." Came a laid back voice. "You worry too much, Data Stream. The important thing is we aren't made out of stone anymore. Now we can stop Discord and save Equestria!"

"It's quite possible that, in our absence, somepony else saved Equestria." The original voice said. "That would certainly explain the lack of cotton candy clouds." The sound of somepony jumping off a pedestal and landing on the ground sounded from somewhere near Twilight. "It would also explain the fact that we seem to have a new princess, or at least a new alicorn, which is practically the same thing."

"That sounds about right." Said the pony on the pedestal closest to Rainbow Dash.

"We should probably make sure these ponies are okay." Came a voice from near Fluttershy. "They look exhausted, and they're probably the ones that freed us."

"You're right, Gentle Breeze. We should help these ponies." A soft, female voice came from near Sweetie Belle. Rainbow Dash decided it was time to stop pretending to be out.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." She said getting up, startling the ponies and causing the closest to shout and fall back. Rainbow turned and looked at him. "You can get up, I'm not going to attack you." He carefully got up and walked around the pedestal.

"I'm Worry Wart." He said, fighting the quaver in his tone. He certainly looked like one to Dashie.

"How long were you awake?" Said and orange maned blue pony with purple stripes on his coat in much the same pattern as Worry. Rainbow recognized his voice as the one that had been called Data Stream. "And what year is it? When we were turned to stone, it was 342 A.E.D."

Rainbow stepped back. "A.E.D? What does that even stand for? It's 1002 A.L, for pony's sake!" Data Stream sat back on his haunches.

"A.L, huh?" He muttered. "What does that stand for?"

"I'll answer your question when you answer mine! I asked first."

"Yes, yes, you're right. A.E.D stands for 'After Equestria's Discovery'. And A.L stands for..?"

"After Luna, or rather after she was bannished to the moon."

"Princess Luna is banished to the moon?" Panic laced through the weird ponies around her. They all had those weird stripes... "Whatever for?"

"Was. Not is. She's back now. She got all angsty, turned into a pony named Nightmare Moon, tried to make eternal night, all that sort of stuff. Twilight can explain it better." The weird ponies were mostly investigating the ponies in front of their pedestals, with the exception of Data Stream, who though unconscious Twilight was boring in favor of a conscious pony, and Worry Wart, who was investigating Twilight in his place as Rainbow Dash was up and occupied. One by one, modern day ponies awoke, until everypony was finally up and about.

"As much as I'd love to stick around, I'm sure my friends and I have to get going." Twilight eventually said. "We are good in the Everfree Forest at night, you see, and we have homes to get back to." The old time ponies looked around at each other.

"We'll come with you." Said their apparent leader, Pyro Sun. "We know the forest is dangerous at night, too." Twilight nodded.

"Let's go." She said, and everypony started the trek back to Ponyville.