The Blizzard Chronicles

PROLOGUE

“I won’t do it! I won’t help you any longer!” he said.

“And why is that?” replied the monstrosity.

The two had met at a place once known as Manehattan. Now, it was in ruins. The streets, once bustling with business, were dead now. Half-decayed buildings were scattered all around. Clouds of black smoke blocked out the sun, leaving the world in eternal darkness.

“He’s my brother! He’s been so good to me . . . everyone has . . .” The stallion made up his mind. He glared up at the thing in defiance. “These ponies were good ponies. And if we’re trying to take them over, if we’re trying to ruin them, then I don’t want anything to do with it!”

“Very well . . .” it decided. Its dark blue mass flowed off of it like flames, black and starry. “GET HIM!”

Immediately, all around, dark pony-like creatures began to surround the stallion. Insectoid wings buzzed and whirred as they came into position. Their empty white eyes stared him down. From their shadowy horns plasma balls began to fly.

The stallion made the decision to book it. With a great leap into the air he dodged everything they threw at him. Spreading his wings he attempted to fly away.

“NO!” yelled the monster. “STOP HIM! DON’T LET HIM GET TO THE PORTAL!!!”

In obedience the wings of the insect creatures flashed to life as they took flight and gave chase.

The stallion knew his target: a bright blue portal swirling high in the sky. There was a skyscraper - or what was left of one - standing right next to it.

If only he could beat them to that portal . . .

Assessing the situation, the monster bellowed in anger. “Sombra! Close the portal!”

From somewhere inside the abandoned building came the reply: “Aye!”

There was a sound like something huge shutting down after a long day of work, and the portal began to quickly shrink. No! the stallion thought. I’ve got to get through, got to warn them!

Wings beating as hard as they could, he leapt for the ever-shrinking portal . . .

Blast was nowhere to be seen.

Twilight had just woke up about an hour ago. Eight o’ clock, town square, she thought to herself. How peculiar . . . She’d been looking for Blast all morning and still haven’t seen him. She looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to eight. Guess I’d better . . .

As she headed for town square, she started to notice other ponies gathering there.

“What’s going on?” she asked Lyra Heartstrings, who was also headed for the center of Ponyville.

“Dunno,” Lyra casually replied, “I only know it’s something important. Something Blizzard, definitely.”

Twilight was puzzled. What in Tartarus is this guy up to? Nevertheless she followed Lyra to the town square. Upon arrival, she was greeted by a very surprising sight.

Everyone in town was there! Whatever Blast was doing, it was clear he’d invited all of Ponyville to watch. He must be out of his mind! she thought. What could he possibly be doing that needs the entire town here?!

There, at center stage, microphone in hand, was Blast. He seemed to be entertaining everypony, suddenly talking like a game show host. He spotted Twilight in the crowd.

“Theerrre sheee iiiiiiissss!” he called. The crowd parted, creating a path leading her to the stage where he was standing.

“Blast? What’s going on? What are you doing?” She started to follow the path.

He replied with an ecstatic enthusiasm. “We got a little surprise for you!” Clearly he was excited about something.

She smiled awkwardly and surprisedly at the crowd as she passed them. She ascended to the stage. “I . . . can see that!” She stared at Blast, looking him up and down. “Seriously, though, what’s going on?”

“I was just getting to that!” Blast cleared his throat. “Centuries ago, a gentleman by the name of Blizzard Storm became the very first, the root if you will, of what is now known as the Blizzard family name. As part of doing so, he invented a spell that has gone down in history as the Freezing Spell, and you’ll see why in just a second.

“The Freezing Spell takes two requirements to perform: first, a non-Blizzard pony must pass a test given by a Blizzard as they see fit. Then, that same non-Blizzard must defeat the same Blizzard in a battle. Then, and only then, can the Freezing Spell be achieved.”

“What does it do?” Twilight wondered. “And why did you invite all of Ponyville?”

“Well what do you think it does?” Blast casually asked her back.

“Does it . . .” Her heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t possibly be . . . “adopt that pony as a Blizzard?”

Blast gave a silent nod. Twilight was starting to see what he was so excited about. “So tell me, what is the answer to that riddle?”

“Well,” she found it appropriate to turn to her audience. “This Blizzard here, Blast, gave this riddle to me a long time ago. He said ‘feeling the cold, and feeling cold, are two very different things’. Since he first gave it to me, I’ve had a long time to think. I soon came to the conclusion that he was talking about something to separate feeling a cold wind from that wind making you feel cold. And I tried to figure out what it was. I never seemed to get any closer to figuring out the identity of this thing, until he said something very important. That’s when I figured it out.”

She paused for effect. “The answer is: love. The simplest and purest form of good, of light, of warm. The very affection that we all can feel for one another, and our deepest desires to protect them against the forces of evil, of darkness, of cold. And when you keep this powerful emotion forever close to your heart, not even the coldest blizzard can pierce it!”

Blast nodded again. His expression was in every sense of the word electrified. He, too, turned to the citizens of Ponyville. “Please welcome, who will soon become the newest Blizzard to the family!”

Powerful cheers resounded. Turning away and again toward Twilight, he began the spell.

With an ethereal silence the warrior spread his hooves wide and low to the ground. A beam of energy shot from his horn to a spot in the air just above Twilight’s head. Blast began to squint his eyes and his teeth ground together harder and harder from the effort. As energy continued to flow from himself through the current, a gem began to form. Its color was pinkish purple and as it grew it became the shape of a heart. From it golden tendrils of light began to sprout. As they grew larger and larger they coiled together into two tentacles, which surrounded the heart gem and expanded out to curl toward each other into the shape of . . .

It soon became evident why it was called the “Freezing Spell”. For at that exact moment, a column of electric blue light zapped downward from the object, freezing Twilight into a block of ice. Her surprised - and somewhat betrayed - expression, frozen forever.

Not quite. It wasn’t long before Twilight’s whole form began to glow a fiery purple color, almost at the brightness of Celestia’s sun. Everypony was forced to avert their eyes.

The ice shattered apart. And what a sight awaited them.

There Twilight stood. The amulet that was created during the spell she now wore as a necklace. It was shaped kind of like Celestia’s necklace. The large center jewel was still heart-shaped, until it expelled a wave of energy and became the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark. The red strands of her hair and her cutie mark had changed color - they were now electric blue. All around her lashes of purple energy floated suspended in air. They looked almost like . . .

“Cold fire,” Blast said with awe in his voice. “Your secondary element is cold fire.”

“What?” asked Twilight.

“Cold fire only exists in legends, Twilight. You are destined for nothing less than greatness as a Blizzard.”

Twilight smiled and even blushed a little.

It was at that precise moment Beam and Daring Do came. They pushed through the crowd a little bit to get to Blast and Twilight.

“Yes?” asked Blast. “Is this about the Elements?”

Beam answered him - Daring Do was out of breath. “Yes. We think we found the Element of Creativity.”

Blast slumped in exhaustion.

ELEVEN

Blast’s horn sparked.

Beam noticed. “Ca va? You don’t look so good bro.”

“I’m fine,” he answered with an exhausted tone. “I just, eh . . .”

Beam looked to Twilight. She could tell what had just taken place, but she didn’t believe it. “You didn’t . . . use the Freezing Spell on her, did you?”

“I most certainly did! We got a new Blizzard!”

“Under any other circumstances,” Beam replied, “I would be excited, but I don’t think now was the best timing ever.”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight. “Now I can help more! This is great timing!”

“Not exactly,” Blast told her with a tone like he was walking through a minefield.

“What?”

“Well, using the Freezing Spell can be . . .” his horn sparked again. He massaged his temples with one hoof. “very taxing. Usually the Blizzard involved can’t even use magic at all for a short time after.”

“How long?” Twilight asked, clearly getting worried.

“Depends. It could be hours, it could be days.” He sighed. “I could be out of commision for as long as a week.”

“That’s not good!”

Beam jumped in. “We’ll just have to leave you here while we find the Element, Blast. It could get too dangerous if you don’t have any magic.”

“I am too coming! I have the Element of Honor, I could help!”

“I’m sorry bro. Not a good idea. Besides, while we’re gone you can . . .” she stared at the crowd. Most had already left, but some stayed to see what was going on. “ . . . chill with your new friends, I guess?”

Blast grumbled. “Fine.”

“You’re sure this is the place?” Twilight asked for the zillionth time.

She wore her new amulet. She was with Beam, Blade, and Daring Do (who insisted she accompany the team) just outside an ancient temple.

It was mostly in ruins, partially torn apart. Pieces of it lay haphazardly scattered across the clearing in the Everfree Forest where it was. Some sort of engravings were once carved into its walls, but worn down by time and the elements, they had become obsolete. The area was overgrown with vines and weeds, and the temple must have been gold originally, because now it was only pale yellow.

Beam pointed to a chunk of rubble lying to their side. “Sure as I can read French,” she simply replied.

Twilight read a set of timeworn engravings on the piece of architecture. It read L’élément de la créativité. She didn’t need another hint. This was definitely the place.

“What’re we waiting for?” asked Daring Do, clearly buzzing with excitement to get the Element. “Let’s get in there!” She leapt to her wings and dove inside.

Beam turned to the rest of the team. “Well?” They all galloped after their teammate.

The inside corridor was maybe three times as wide as it was high. The walls lining it were smooth, made of bricks overlaid by mortar. It was dim, to say the least. There was no evident light source beside, obviously, the outside sunlight, but they were only a few yards inside and the light filtering in quickly faded away. So fast, in fact, that Blade didn’t see Daring Do right in front of him and almost ran into her.

Calmly she stuck out her hoof to the side. A clear signal to stop.

“Wait.” She let her hoof fall once she had everyone’s attention. “It’s a trap.”

Most light leaking inside from the doorway had eroded away, so the three Blizzards lit magic orbicular torches from their horns.

It indeed was a trap. The ground before them, stretching on for some fifty yards, was split into a giant grid. The square spaces were separate of each other; tiny stone islands in a sea of blackness hidden underneath.

“A standard move,” Daring Do muttered with a chuckle and a confident smirk. “If you step on the wrong tile all of them will fall. But if you can figure out a pattern and step on the right ones with the right sequence, you can pass it.” There was a flash of worry in her eyes and the smirk left her. “Except . . . I don’t recognize these.”

Beam studied the markings. The engravings on the stone spaces formed words. Words she recognized.

“This is French . . .” she said with hope rising. “I get this!” She stared at the tiles. Spotting one that said Tu viens, she immediately trusted her instincts and jumped for it.

“Wait - ” Twilight called, before she saw that Beam was safe.

Beam landed the leap with one hoof and swung herself into a handstand. “You come,” she translated from the square she now stood on. “I get this!” She turned by spinning her hoof to pivot herself. Even reading upside-down, she saw her next target. Coiling her hoof, she sprung into the air with a stylish side-flip - more like she was at a dance-off than on a perfectly serious mission - she landed on a square that read au perfectly balanced on her horn. “You come to . . .”

The team followed Beam through the loopholes of the trap. First Daring Do, then Blade, then finally Twilight came behind in single file, copying Beam’s tile sequence.

Beam, still balanced on the tip of her horn, began to spin like a top and teleported to the next tile, reading Temple. “You come . . . to . . . the Temple . . .” The next tile said être juge, which she reached by summoning an ice staff from the air and spinning it into a circle before skillfully jumping off of her space to wedge the staff between the stable tile and the ceiling. She then grabbed the shaft and swung herself across the room. “ . . . to be judged . . .” She only lightly touched down on the tile before launching herself airborne again. This time she aimed for the wall, which she jumped off of with a swift kick. During her brief time in the air she scanned the nearby tiles for her next target. Spotting it - a square reading digne - she did another handstand on it, this time with both hooves. “. . . worthy . . .” Without hesitation she flipped again onto another tile. “. . . or . . .” She searched for the last remaining space. Only another yard or two to go, and then they’d be home free! Where could it be?

With fading hope she continued to read the spaces in front of her. Finally she found one. One that said mort.

That one word froze her dead in her tracks.

She just stared at it, fear beginning to enter her mind. Mort was the French word for dead.

She had hesitated just barely too long. Daring Do bumped right into her and caused her to fall onto the wrong spaces.

“Oh no,” Daring Do stressed.

A sharp rumbling noise came from under them, like an earthquake. The spaces began to fall into the earth. Acting quickly Daring Do grabbed Beam with two hooves and flew her to safety. Then she turned around to get Blade.

He was hovering above the whole scene, streams of flame shooting from his robotic hooves. “Don’t worry about me!” he said as he flew to the other side as well.

“Wait a second,” Beam paused. “Where’s Twilight?”

The answer came from far behind them, near the start of the trap. Twilight was taking steps backwards as the ground in front of her fell away into blackness. “Uhh, guys?”

“Twilight! Just fly!” Beam called to her.

Taking her advice, Twilight spread her wings and flew to them. As if on cue, however, huge stones began to fall out from the ceiling. One fell directly on Twilight and forced her down into the pit of darkness.

In silence what was left of their team stared down, in hopes that Twilight had somehow survived.

There was a blue flash of light, followed by a purple light, then an explosion. The light grew bigger and bigger, closer and closer, until Twilight ascended eye level to them, floating on a cloud of cold fire. She jumped off onto the ledge and the cloud disappeared.

“Let’s not forget I’m a Blizzard now!” she told them cheerfully.

The look on Beam’s face broke into a grin. “Right!” The team turned.

On the other side the ground they stood on fell away to another cliff face. This time, though, it depressed down into a ravine, at the end of which was something incredible.

There, floating on a pedestal, surrounded by clouds of luminous fog, was the Element of Creativity. Although impressive, it was actually very simple - in fact it looked almost exactly like what the Element of Honor once was: just a simple golden bracelet with an empty golden circle in the middle.

“There it is,” Twilight breathed.

“That’s it?” Daring Do asked to no one, obviously disappointed. “That was the only trap? The only thing protecting the Element?”

“I’m not sure that’s entirely true,” Beam said. “That trap we just barely passed said ‘you come to the temple to be judged worthy or dead’. I’m pretty sure the Element has some sort of magic barrier. So only its wielder can retrieve it, or something.”

“Whatever.” Daring Do was clearly anxious to get it. “Let’s just go get it and get out of here!”

At that precise moment a humongous figure stepped out of the shadows directly in front of the Element. It was hard to tell what it was in the dim light, only that it was enormous. The thing stood almost as tall as the cliff they stood on. Some features could be made out. The large, beefy arms, the elongated horns, the powerful hindquarters . . .

Twilight, at least, could tell exactly who this thing was.

She breathed the word. “Tirek.”

Daring Do gasped. “That’s Tirek?!”

Beam threw a knife at the ceiling. As it dove into the stone surface a ribbon attached to it pulled taut. “Tirek or no, we’ve got to get the element!” She jumped off of the ledge, swinging by the rope until she glided to a stop at the ravine floor.

The rest of the team nodded. Daring Do and Twilight flew; Blade teleported. Soon the whole team was gathered at the base of the ravine. The only thing that stood between them and the Element was the figure.

It took no notice to their presence. Anxiously it reached its huge hands toward the element. As soon as they came in contact with the strangely glowing fog, however, a hissing noise was made, which grew louder and louder. Immediately it drew back and the hissing stopped.

The figure growled. “RRRGH! How hard does this have to be?!”

“Hey!” Beam yelled to grab his attention.

The lumbering centaur turned. It was, indeed, Lord Tirek. Except he looked . . . different. A huge scar following a tear in his shirt was slashed across his chest. Crossing it and creating an X across his chest was a silver sash and on it was stored hundreds upon hundreds of . . . horns. Horns that undoubtedly belonged once to unicorns that he’d defeated. The sight struck horror into Twilight.

“You again,” he snarled. Smashing his fists together, he cracked his knuckles with a mighty booming sound that shook the earth. “Time to die.”

“NO!” yelled Beam, rebounding with matching ferocity. A shock wave of ice was expelled from her, coming to a stop in a circle around her on the floor. Roman numerals appeared across its surface, and two arrows leapt from the center. It was a clock design on the floor. The minute hand blurred around the clock and the hour hand followed. Once the hour hand had made a complete rotation, Beam materialized her signature electric guitar. “C’est l’heure de danser!”

With this she rocketed into the air far above Tirek’s head and smashed her guitar squarely between the eyes. The centaur roared in anger.

Somehow the impact snapped Twilight out of her horrific trance. The next thing she saw was the rest of her team joining the battle; Blade joining Beam in a team effort to hold off Tirek while Daring Do snuck around and tried to get the Element. Twilight threw herself into the fight, lighting her hooves on fire and punching Tirek in the face repeatedly.

“Not this time, princess!” A ray of light shot from one of the horns on Tirek’s shoulder strap and froze Twilight in place in a red aura. With a wave of his hand Twilight floated to the side while he did the same to Blade and Daring Do. Before anyone knew it they were all floating suspended in the air, frozen under the centaur’s power.

He chuckled to himself. “Now whose horn shall I take first?” He scanned over the team, trying to decide who to torture first. “I know . . .”

Suddenly the aura containing Beam slammed into the wall and adjusted to pin her spread-eagle to the wall.

Uncontrollable amounts of fear and dread surged through her. “No! No, no, no!”

A stream of red energy flowing from another horn on Tirek’s strap materialized a gigantic axe. “Oh, yes!” The centaur grinned.

He swung his axe.

Distance narrowed. First ten feet, then five, then one, then inches, then a quarter of an inch . . .

At that exact moment, just before the axe struck her down, a purple blur flew out of nowhere and knocked the weapon right out of Tirek’s hand. Both his axe and the thing crashed to the ground and spun away for a second before slowing to a halt.

Twilight peered at the object that caused the purple blur. Its general shape was very familiar . . . the purple staff . . . the dragon wing . . .

Then, out of nowhere zoomed blur of black this time. It rocketed right past Tirek, opening an ugly gash straight across his face as it smashed into the ground. The auras freezing the group in place disappeared as Tirek crumpled to the ground in pain.

Somehow on the way from her position in the air to the ground, Twilight saw the thing, rather the pony, that had come to save them.

It was Rage.

Quickly he tried to remove the Element from its standpoint. He first tried levitating it, before deciding that that wasn’t working. In another attempt he dove his hooves into the luminous blue mist to try and dislodge it. He was in obvious pain, but tried still to reach the Element. Although he did, it seemed there was a force field around it which wasn’t letting him take it from its post. Finally the pain was too much for him and he aborted the attempt, his hooves glowing red with stinging heat.

Tirek was recovering. Someone had to do something. And they had to do it fast.

Rage, again using levitation, finally jerked the Element from its pedestal and tossed it to Beam, its circular golden design spinning through the air like a frisbee. “Beam! It’s your call!”

Immediately it stuck itself onto her hoof and a wave expelled from its center transformed into her cutie mark. Her eyes began to glow blue.

“No!” Tirek cried as soon as he saw what had just happened. “No, no, that won’t be necessary!” He suddenly appeared a coward. The gash on his face was just beginning to bleed. “Just go! Just go, I don’t want any trouble!”

With curious looks on their faces the team retraced their steps back through the temple and began the dash back to Ponyville. They didn’t slow their pace to a walk until the temple was far out of sight.

Beam tried to catch her breath. “Let’s just clear the place, before he realizes this Element is a fake.”

The team stopped in their tracks. There was a short silence.

“What?” Twilight asked for an explanation.

Beam grinned. “My master plan! In the case that we were intercepted and we couldn’t get the Element, we’d simply scare the bad guy away! So I grabbed a bracelet I found lying around and painted it into a phony Element!”

“What about the Blizzard State? We saw you use it!”

Beam’s grin only grew. “I painted my eyelids! See?” She shut her eyes. Indeed it was nothing more than blue glow-in-the-dark paint.

“So what about . . .” The team turned. Rage was still with them. They were all, especially Twilight and Blade - who’d witnessed firsthoof his evil side -

“Don’t worry about him,” Beam reassured them. “He turned good.”

“What do you mean?”

“He turned good. Just before Daring Do got me to help her with the temple she found, I ran into Rage. He told me that he turned good and he wanted to help us find the Elements before the other villains from the bad future could get them. So we teamed up!”

“Only one problem,” Daring Do pointed out. “The real Element of Creativity is back there, and so is Tirek!”

“No problem!” There was not even a small lapse in Beam’s confidence. “He can’t do anything to it - the defense spell, remember? We just need to get out of here before -”

A bellow of anger could be heard coming from somewhere off in the distance. The trees shook and birds stirred in a mass panic.

“Now,” Blade, so silent until now, finished her sentence. “We just need to get out of here, period!”

No one had any time to react. In one huge leap Tirek had appeared right in front of them. He chuckled. “Leaving so soon?” With an evil laugh he used his horns to conjure five fireballs and fling them at the team. They came to rest suspended in the air right in front of them and exploded, tossing each of them miles apart.

Beam had lost her teammates. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear. The explosion had knocked her senseless. She could only feel the wind whistling through her mane as she tumbled end over end through the air.

The next thing she felt was . . . a sudden stop to her fall. A very sudden stop.

Face first she slammed into some kind of a brick surface. What hearing was coming back to her was knocked out again by the earsplitting blast of sound. For a few seconds she could feel the stone crumble, fall away, and she was falling again . . .

This fall was more of a drift than anything. Falling. Falling like a piece of paper, drifting down to earth. Again she crashed into concrete, but this time she barely felt it. Her consciousness was fading. The emergence of the situation had melted away, slipping away into a dream.

The last thing she registered was a sensation, of someone . . . or something . . . grabbing onto her hoof . . .

Splash!

Beam coughed herself back into consciousness.

“She’s coming around!” someone shouted.

Gradually her vision cleared.

From what she could tell, she was somewhere in the Castle of Friendship. It was a small room, with two opposite walls lined with full-stocked bookshelves. Sunlight of the late afternoon leaked in from the wall to her back. She was seated in a chair in the center, and around her crowded the worried, and somehow impressed faces of Blade, Twilight, Rage, and her brother Blast.

“I should’ve come!” Blast lamented. “They said you were awesome!”

“What?” Beam uttered groggily, before she snapped herself back into her senses. “Wait! What happened to the Element?! Tirek -”

“Calm,” Twilight told her with a soothing tone. “We’re safe. Tirek is gone. We have the Element. And,” she stole a glance at her crush, “I agree, that was quite the display.”

“What are you talking . . .” Beam began, before she took a look at her hoof. Clipped onto it, just like the fake Element of Creativity once was, was now another golden bracelet, this one decorated with a central jewel of deep purple, cut into the shape of her cutie mark. “Is this the real thing? The Element of Creativity?”

“Yep!” her brother Rage confirmed.

The team spent the rest of the day and well into the night celebrating their victory.

TWELVE

“You idiot!” The thing threw its face into the palm of its hand. It paced the room impatiently, speaking through gritted teeth. “Is there any job you can’t screw up?!”

Tirek pleaded for mercy. “Please, Master, I can explain . . .”

“SILENCE!!!” The temper of the creature manifested itself through the powerful slash of claws it delivered. The centaur took the blow right across the chest, reopening his painful scar, and lumbered backwards two steps. “I have given you my trust . . . and you have done away with it. However, perhaps there is another . . . yes . . .” The creature turned in rage to another figure that stood in its midst.

At its center swirled an energetic, concentrated ball of blackness. Two beady green eyes were inside it, observing the situation with a mild curiosity. From the top of the spherical nightmare two bright red horns sprouted. One was cut short at a jagged line, sparking with red energy. Myriads of tentacles drifted downward from the central ball; horrendous black things with rivers of red electricity at their centers.

“Sombra!” The blue darkness addressed the being. “Can I count on you?”

Besides eyes, the thing that was called King Sombra didn’t have a face. Despite this it was easy to see the evil joy hiding behind his eyes. A blue portal appeared beside him.

“You can.” He laughed a maniacal laugh. “You most certainly can.”

The party the Blizzards threw lasted the rest of that day and the entire following night.

They, especially Twilight, wished they had someone like Pinkie to host their party, but they had decided it was in their best interest their operations remain secret. Especially to Twilight’s friends. On top of all the other stress they had to deal with, saving the world and all, the last thing they wanted to deal with was a mass panic. And if Twilight’s friends heard, they would clearly want to get involved. Help their friend. And that, a point Twilight made clear, was far too dangerous. Putting her friends in harm’s way, especially when unnecessary, was far out of the question.

They did however, have one star to shine for them. That star was Beam. One thing was made very clear to each of them - Beam truly was talented in the arts of music! Most of the party, in fact, was spent just watching her as she performed her best songs (all of which masterpieces she herself had written), and most of which were performed in accompaniment to some sort of fight scene involving one of the other Blizzards. It was, in every sense of the word, fantastic.

Right now it was morning. They had finally run out of things to do to celebrate the retrieval of the Element, and the place had cooled down considerably. So they were just all relaxing, visiting with each other and laughing.

Suddenly Rage caught his sister Beam looking at him funny, her head cocked to one side and a questioning look on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t get it,” was all that she said. She waited before elaborating. “I just don’t get it. Why’d you turn evil in the first place? I remember you used to be about the most peaceable stallion around. Why’d all that change?”

Rage brought his hoof to his forehead like he suddenly had a headache. “In the bad future . . . there’s this thing . . .”

“Yes . . . ?” Beam prompted.

“This villain . . . one villain, that never otherwise existed. It only exists from the combined might of the other villains. Its ability - it exists as a pool of sludge, sentient sludge. Anypony exposed to it -” he paused and shuddered - “bad things would happen to them.”

“Like turning evil?” asked Twilight.

Rage could only nod weakly.

There was a moment of silence.

“Hey, guys?” asked Blast questionably. He was glancing out the window. “You might want to see this . . .”

The entire team rushed to the window to see what he was talking about.

The view that was provided stretched over all the houses in Ponyville, all the trees in the Everfree Forest, and stretched almost as far as the Outlands. The tiny horizon in the distance was lined with mountains and jagged edges. And even though the sun had risen above by now, the sky there was still orange. Twilight hadn’t seen the sky that color since a year ago, during her first visit to the Crystal Empire . . .

This wasn’t all. Red flashes would keep appearing along the horizon, almost like fireworks, but different . . .

“What is that?” Beam wondered out loud. “Could it have something to do with the Elements?”

Twilight was apparently the only one with a clue what was going on. “Undoubtedly. That was King Sombra.”

“What?!”

“And we’ve got to stop him!”

“So why was the Element all the way out here?” Beam scanned the surroundings. “I mean, it’s a little . . . dead.”

Almost the whole Blizzard team - Beam, Rage, Blade, and Twilight (Blast’s magic needed still more time to recoup) - were now in the Outlands. Twilight, leading them with her natural-come knowledge of the tyrant king, had been lucky enough to find a scorch mark on the ground that undoubtedly meant one of the red flashes had occurred at that place. She found another only a few hundred yards away, and she led the team tracking the scorch marks, following a linear path skirting only the edge of the vast desert.

“We don’t know he’s got an Element,” replied Twilight simply. “We only know Sombra’s out here somewhere and that surely means he’s up to no good. And we’re Blizzards, aren’t we? We’re supposed to stop bad guys like this. And if he’s got an Element, that’s an added bonus for us.”

“Sounds logical,” Rage commented.

Blade followed them in his usual cold silence.

The group followed the marks in the ground until they come to the strangest place.

It was some sort of valley formation. Located just outside Equestria’s borders, it began at an average height before descending quite steeply to make a bowl-shaped depression in the ground. A tall, blue oval floated in the center - the unmistakable shape of a portal. And standing in front of the portal was the strangest being.

It somewhat resembled something Twilight read about once called an ‘octopus’. Its center was a very concentrated sphere, like a black hole. The tentacles that flowed from it were also very black, red electricity pulsing through its center. It seemed to have two horns that curled up toward each other, but one of them was cut short.

The creature growled. “I don’t think your pet likes me very much.”

“Whatever, Sombra,” replied a voice, presumably coming from the other side of the portal. “Just bring the Element.”

No one saw because he was behind them, but Blade stopped dead in his tracks, petrified by his own fear. This was the thing that had almost killed him so long ago.

The rest of his team paid no attention. They leapt into battle.

Rage slammed into the octopod Sombra with a huge ball of purple ice.

Beam materialized her guitar and shot him with lightning bolts.

Twilight set her horn on fire and spun in a circle, becoming a floating fire buzz saw.

Blade stood where he was, scared stiff.

Sombra looked into the portal as the three Blizzards attacked him. “Don’ worry about me, Master. I got ‘em.”

An amused chuckle came from the other side. “That's the spirit!” The portal began to shrink. The chuckle turned into full laughter. “Have fun!”

It disappeared.

Sombra was left alone facing three full-blown warriors.

Using his magic, he reinforced one tentacle with a shadow crystal and used it to block Twilight’s attacks. Although taking no lasting damage, the mere force with which she was dealing her blows was driving him back. Tides turning Sombra brought his crystal-encrusted tentacle up, Twilight still attacking it, and with matching force smacked it down in one fell swoop. Twilight was sent flying all the way back into Equestria.

Annoyed now he turned to Rage, who was pounding him with chunks of purple ice. “You . . .” he snarled. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Master isn’t happy with you . . .” A ball of darkness generating between his two horns flew toward Rage and froze him to the ground, imprisoned in a rapidly growing crystal. Sombra brought himself down to stare the alicorn in the eye, Rage’s nose almost touching his face. “I wonder what she will have to say . . .”

It was then that Beam saw a tiny golden bracelet coiled around one of his tentacles. “Guys! He does have an Element!”

Sombra’s attention turned to Beam. With lightning speed one tentacle lashed toward her and wrapped itself around her. It rose and brought her eye level to him. “Never seen you before,” Sombra commented as he studied the mare from different angles. “You’re kinda cute,” he thought to himself. “Such a shame that I’ll have to kill you.”

It was at this time he noticed the white stallion who waited at the edge of the tiny valley. Sombra saw almost piercingly through the disguises their last meet had brought. The robot leg, the completely mechanical eye, none of it changed who it was that stood before him.

“Well, hello,” Sombra said, his voice dripping with fake friendliness. Blade’s muscles tensed uncontrollably. “Hadn’t seen you for a while!” He took a casual stroll toward the stallion, simply biding his time, striking maximum fear into Blade’s heart. “You must be that pitiful colt I mutilated so long ago . . .” Blade made no reply. His muscles simply wouldn’t cooperate. They wouldn’t let him move out of the way as Sombra generated a blast of energy that sent him flying miles backward.

Blade went through the most excruciating pain he had ever felt at precisely that moment. He found the energy blast so powerful that it was making it hurt again in the places where his robot parts connected to him. Places that hadn’t felt pain for years. It wasn’t until he looked down that he realized why.

The energy blast had actually blown away the robot parts! Where he once had a steel leg there was once again nothing but a black spot on his torso. His hooves were gone, now nothing more than shadowy stumps. His head ached uncontrollably and he found that he could not keep his eyes open - even with his one eye gone his eyelids wanted to operate in unison. And the scar that was once his eye gave him nothing but sharp pains when it opened; pains like none other.

So it was that he suffered pain beyond what he could have imagined, and he suffered it all in silence as he sailed through the air.

And then . . . he stopped.

It wasn’t like crashing into the ground. It felt like . . . he fell into something soft, something that cushioned his landing, something that . . . understood his hurt. Gently it caressed his wounds and all the pain that was in them seemed to melt away. Something, someone was doing this. Was trying to help him. He looked to see who his rescuer was.

It was Twilight.

She and he were gliding on a mass of cold fire. Quite clearly she was multitasking; she had her back turned to him, intently staring off into the distance. He looked down and saw that they were actually covering a lot of ground very quickly. They were headed back to the battle.

“You came back for me,” he rasped in the strongest voice he could muster.

It was at that point that she glanced back at him for a second. She managed a smile that, again, seemed to melt away the pain that he had so intensely felt mere seconds ago. “Of course I did, Blade. We’re family.” She turned her gaze back away from him.

With those last two words a realization hit him with greater force even than he’d taken from Sombra just a few moments ago.

His family was there for him.

His family was always there for him. His parents . . . since the incident happened that turned him into a cyborg, they were there through his every pain. Every time he fell, he had his parents to help him get back up. And his cousins, Blast and Beam . . . they were the best friends he could ever have asked for. He knew they loved him, and they would slay dragons for him. And now this . . .

Right on cue he and Twilight re-entered the battle. Blade did what he could to try and stand. He was finally going to face his fears.

Twilight looked back at him again. Although manipulating the purple fire to help him get up, she wore a very concerned look. “There’s no way you’re gonna fight that thing!” She cocked her head. “You’re in no condition to do that!”

Using what of limbs he had Blade jumped off of the cloud straight for Sombra. He knew what he was going to do.

My family has always been there for me.

Now it’s my turn.

As he neared the villain he readied his remaining front leg for attack. With one eye he stared his worst fear right between the eyes. He bent his leg. As he was just about to hit Sombra he struck the octopod an uppercut blow with his elbow - the one part of him still okay. “I DON’T CARE!” he yelled.

A brave move.

But a huge mistake.

Blade fell to the earth. As he hit the ground some of his weight was put on the black places that he had lost. They screamed at him almost as intensely as they did a few minutes ago. Suddenly Blade felt so powerless, so helpless, so . . . limited. Once he tried to get up, and after a failed attempt he collapsed to the ground in tears.

There was no help for him now. Rage was imprisoned in a still-growing black crystal on the ground, and Beam was still trying to fight her way out of the villain’s grip. He was alone.

And towering over him was the octopod form of Sombra. “So sad . . .” he mused, taking his time to creep toward the shivering stallion. “Even now, you can’t defeat me?” He chuckled, until it grew louder and became full evil laughter. “Even now!”

Then something happened that even Sombra didn’t see coming.

It started with a vibration he felt on his tentacle. At first he dismissed it as nothing, focusing on the stallion and relishing the fear he was emitting. The sensation came again. In annoyance the tyrant king brought up his one tentacle to see what was the matter.

It was the Element. It was moving.

The tiny gold bracelet on his tentacle was twitching. Its movement escalated from a jiggle to a rattle, then a jerk, as if it was trying to work itself free. Without warning it rocketed out of Sombra’s grip and sprang itself toward Blade. Before anyone could react it snapped itself onto what was left of his leg.

Immediately his eyes began to glow red. He started to grow. Like, grow. Still down, he grew larger and larger until he was eye level with Sombra - laying down.

And then he stood.

STOOD. Blade looked down at himself.

His robot parts had been replaced by constructs of luminescent red energy.

The tides had turned on Sombra.

“Aw nuts.”

Blade had no idea what was going on. But as far as he could tell: it’s happening again!

He was again fighting Sombra, but again he wasn’t focused in on the battle. He wasn’t controlling his own movements, his own actions . . . it was just like watching television again. He wasn’t living anymore . . . he was just watching television.

Then, he saw Sombra disappear. Just like last time - a cloud of black fog appeared around the king, enveloped him, and vanished.

And again the Blizzard State left him. His vision returned to normal, everything returned to its normal size. As he finished shrinking, the red energy forming his robot parts vanished and he collapsed to the ground. He was no longer in pain but very tired. The Element remained clipped onto his leg.

Beam ran up to him and massaged his shoulder blades. “Ya done good, cous’,” she told him, “ya done good.”

THIRTEEN

“Ah well,” Beam said with a shrug. “He was due for an upgrade anyway.”

The team - Blast having rejoined them - was in the process of taking Blade to the hospital in Canterlot. They still had no idea which Element they had gotten - despite the fact that it made clear that it had chosen Blade as its wielder, it gave no clues as to which it could be. Twilight had just sent it to Celestia while they waited. Beam was currently checking in her cousin while the rest of the group waited outside.

She was referring to the fact that Blade needed to upgrade his machinery every six months or so. This was simply due to the fact that ponies grow and robots don’t. Much like a snake shedding its skin.

The doctor looked at her funny. “You’re taking this exceptionally well.”

Beam shrugged again. “He was due for an upgrade. Might as well have a little fun on the way, am I right?”

The doctor’s questioning look grew only worse. “I suppose . . .” His expression changed quickly to that weird candy-coated friendliness that all medical people seem to have about them. “Well it can’t be too long. We should be done sometime tomorrow.”

Beam flashed her immaculate smile. “Thanks!” She went outside to meet the others.

Twilight, Rage, and Blast greeted her. “So how is he?” Blast questioned.

“Fine. They said he’ll be out sometime tomorrow. It’s basically just a routine upgrade after all.” She paused. “So . . . what’do we do now?”

There was a short silence.

Twilight came forward. “I guess we can just -” She never finished her sentence.

In a flash of light a stranger appeared before them.

He was a caramel-brown stallion with electric blue eyes. His midnight blue mane was unkempt and evidently hadn’t been properly done in a while. There was a holster strapped onto his hoof, which appeared to be occupied by a sleek handgun. His cutie mark resembled a boulder that was struck in two, its two halves separated by a straight line. He looked around at the four ponies he had appeared to.

“We need to talk,” was all he said.

“Please . . .” pleaded the octopod Sombra. He hated to see his master angry, largely because she had a nasty habit of destroying things.

“AGAIN!!! FAILED AGAIN!!!” raged the thing that he called ‘Master’. At first it went to strike Sombra across the face, then it refrained, then it threw fits trying to harness its temper. Its claws carved deep gashes over its face as it tried not to explode into a fit of wrecking things. This was of no issue to it; it was made of sludge, it never took injuries like that.

Finally it calmed down enough to control itself without physically constraining itself. “Perhaps we can still win this . . .” Still fuming, it addressed one of its smallest servants: “Chrysalis! A favor, if you please . . .”

“The Element of Justice?!” Beam exclaimed. “In Canterlot?!”

The stallion nodded.

They had all gathered at a remote area in the Gardens out of earshot of passersby. The stallion introduced himself as Blizzard Quake, the warden of Crystal Caverns, and Blade’s father. He had quite the story for the team: he had reason to believe that the Element of Justice was hidden somewhere in Canterlot.

Blast was at a loss for words. “Wha - wha -”

“Last night,” Quake began. “It was last night. I was taking a walk through the Gardens when I saw it: somepony getting attacked by . . . something. I’d say it was a Changeling, but it wasn’t exactly, it was . . . different. The holes it had in its hooves were filled in by this weird green energy, and it was noticably larger. They were in a corner where nopony would see them. From the looks of it the Changeling had been there for a long time, possibly playing cat-and-mouse with the poor mare.

“I tried to intercept them, but just as I got there the mare’s eyes turned gray and she . . . didn’t seem in control of herself anymore. She got up and ran away. Then the Changeling noticed me and took the form of the mare it had just attacked.

“This is the weirdest part. The thing talked. It saw the look on my face and snickered. ‘Three days,’ it said with a raspy voice. ‘Three days I had to work with her. She had a strong heart.’ And then it flew away.”

“Whoa . . .” Blast marveled.

Rage clearly saw the emergence of the present situation. “That kind of Changeling is from the evil future!”

The statement stunned Quake. “You . . . know . . . these things?”

Rage nodded. He remembered that his uncle didn’t know of the existence of the bad future - let alone that he was from it himself. “These Changelings are much more powerful than the ones we know. These ones can suck out the very life force of a victim - the process can take anywhere from hours to days to even a week. But when it’s complete - the Changeling can take not only the form of that pony, but their powers, their knowledge, all of that.”

A realization was beginning to hit Twilight. “And if these things are attacking Canterlot . . .”

Blast got the exact same brain wave. “. . . The Element of Justice!”

Beam was starting to realize what exactly was going on as well. “Celestia!” The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

As if on cue, a demonic whining noise began to resonate through the air. Its horrible ring echoed through the entirety of Canterlot.

The alarm.

Quake was quick to take the wheel. “Fan out! If you find anything just use the Beacon!”

It seemed to Twilight she was the only one who didn’t know what this was.

Beam and Twilight somehow found themselves working together. They worked their way down the streets, scanning for any kind of Changeling activity. The alarm still sounded, and the roads were suddenly abandoned - like a ghost town. To anyone else, this may have been unsettling, but the two paid no mind - they were on a mission.

“Where are these little guys?!” It was clear that Beam was very disappointed by the lack of fighting going on. “Can they be this hard to find?”

Twilight kicked in with her usual deductive logic. “Well the warden did mention how long it takes for a Changeling to completely copy somepony. They’re probably hiding somewhere.”

“True.”

“By the way, the warden said to ‘use the Beacon’. What’s that?”

“Oh!” Only then did it occur to Beam that Twilight still had much to learn as a Blizzard. “The Beacon’s basically like a backup system so if one of us Blizzards are losing a fight, we can call in some support. It’s really just a magic firework we shoot up that explodes into our cutie mark. Blast did it to call me over back when Rage was evil.”

“So like that one over there?” Twilight asked innocently. She pointed to one side where a firework was going off. It exploded into a design like a rock splitting in two.

There was nothing innocent about the look on Beam’s face. “Yes! Let’s go!”

The Beacon had appeared in the sky only on the next street. It didn’t take long for them to loop around and swing in to the scene. But one thing was wrong.

“ . . . there’s nothing here,” Twilight uttered, bewildered. The street was empty and as dead as the last one. “But - how can that be? You saw that - didn’t you?”

“I most certainly did,” Beam reassured her. “Somethin’ funky’s going on here . . .” She stared with a testy aggravation down the street - at nothing. “. . . and I would be very excited to find out what it is.”

Meanwhile, down in the Crystal Caverns . . .

“NO!” Quake yelled at the being. It skirted the shadows of the tiny cave. “You’ll never get the Element of Justice!”

“Funny thing,” she, Chrysalis, thought half to herself. “It was two years ago I hid away in these very same caverns.” A flash of evil shone in her grin. “And now, even after they discovered these caverns they still haven’t found me.”

Her servant Changelings surrounded the stallion. As they closed in on him he tried to fight back. Green shafts of light flew from their horns to his own and froze his horn solid in insectoid green goop.

This was it.

He couldn’t use his magic.

The Queen of the Changelings stepped into the light.

She looked almost the same as she used to, except for some stray details every here and there. An eyepatch shielded her left eye from view. The holes in her hooves and horn were filled in by flowing plasma, just like with her Changelings. Resting in the middle of her horn was a shining green gem.

“We’re going to find the Element of Justice,” she said with a very serious voice. “You’re going to take us there and unlock the Element.”

“No.” Despite being completely surrounded, the stubborn Quake stood his ground.

Taking a silent cue from its queen one Changeling stepped forward. It approached the stallion with an air of almost mechanical calm. In one sudden move it thrashed a kick straight across Quake’s face and knocked him to the ground. He slid across the ground a distance before coming to a halt.

Anger was beginning to enter Chrysalis’ one-eyed glare. “Yes. You will.”

“No.”

The Changeling beat him again. Harder this time.

“Yes.”

“No.”

One final time the Changeling struck him. This time the force knocked the wind out of him and he fell so hard that the crystal ground he slammed into was beginning to crack.

“YES. YOU WILL.”

One more time Quake got back to his hooves. He had to admit it. He didn’t have a choice. Either unable or unwilling to speak, he simply nodded.

The look on Chrysalis’ face broke into a grin. “Excellent. I knew you would come to reason. Now, where is it?”

Quake only signaled to follow him before leading the group out of the room.

He could not believe that he was going through with this. He, Quake, the warden of the greatest enforcer of justice in Equestria was leading his mortal enemies to something that could bring his kind total destruction. But there was nothing he could do. No one knew what was going on down here in the Crystal Caverns (at least no one who’d help him - the place was full of criminals he’d made mortal enemies with), and he couldn’t use his magic anymore. He was basically out of options. Unless . . .

He led them through the top floor of the prison before turning down a hall and into his office. Neither Chrysalis nor her servants noticed Quake’s discarded holster on the desk - still housing his trusty pistol. Quake played it cool and payed no mind to it.

There was a back door behind his desk - a simple blue rectangle in the center of a perfectly flat crystal wall. It had no doorknob.

“This is it?” asked Chrysalis wonderingly.

“Behind here,” Quake explained. “But this is a magically protected door. It requires unicorn magic to open, and it’ll only respond to my energy signature.”

He was right. Chrysalis was getting impatient. His ploy was working. “Well?” she turned to one of her Changelings. “Get ‘im working!”

“But queen,” the Changeling responded with a raspy, grinding voice. “What if he’s tricking us? If we give him his magic back . . .”

Chrysalis considered the thought. In all of two instants her temper flared and she whirled at Quake. “You’re bluffing! There’s no magic protection here!”

He yielded no reply.

Chrysalis leapt toward the door. She used her own magic to try to open it.

A serious mistake.

A blinding white bolt of lightning shot from the door and zapped Chrysalis so hard she went careening across the room and crashed into the opposite wall.

It was all according to plan. Quake smirked, his confidence growing.

And he struck.

With one leap he dove toward his desk. As he jumped he did a cartwheel over it, grabbing the leather bag containing his pistol with one hoof. He pulled off a perfect landing and ripped out his pistol. An instant later the gun weighed three bullets less and three Changelings lay dead on the floor.

“Maybe I can’t use my magic,” Quake said with a confident smirk. “but then again, I’ve seldom needed to.”

The remaining five insects launched an immediate attack. Two of them rushed forward to pin him down, but Quake maintained an advantage. They were opposite each other in the room - the Changelings had too much ground to cover. Another two shots took care of them.

Something strange happened with the last three. The green spheres embedded in their hooves removed themselves, as if they were larva leaving the honeycomb for the first time. They floated suspended in the air and started to circle the three Changelings. They started going slow but orbited faster and faster until, finally, they hurled themselves toward Quake.

This was not a move the warden suspected, but nonetheless he reacted with lightning speed. Trying to multitask, he did another cartwheel to the side - most of the acid balls slamming themselves into the wall - while reloading his handgun with another bullet cartridge. The rest of the acid balls he either dodged or intercepted in the air with his precision aim.

Before the Changelings could make another attack he again dove across the room - this time toward the door that had the Element of Justice. Shoving the door open he thrusted himself inside and slammed it shut.

While it did stand true that only Quake could open that door, it didn’t require the use of his magic. As the warden of the Crystal Caverns, he had long ago decided that he would train himself to never rely on his magic - this way he could keep his identity as a Blizzard secret. He even had the secret door modified so that it did not require magic to open - as was previously intended in its design.

Long ago Quake had already discovered the Element of Justice during the Crystal Caverns’ early days, in a secret temple where it was soon planned to expand the prison. It had already chosen himself as its wielder. He and Celestia only knew about this important finding, and it was soon decided that it be hidden in his office - in the case of a mass outbreak, they agreed that he would need all the help he could get.

Quake chuckled to himself. Chrysalis was right about one thing: he was bluffing. But it wasn’t about the protection spells on the door. It was in the fact that it required magic to open. He wanted the queen to catch him making a bluff and then try to open it herself. When that failed, he would have an opening to attack, get to the Element, and guard it from her Changelings. A double bluff, if you will. A perfect plan.

A voice behind him seemed to read his thoughts. “But not perfect enough.” It was the voice of Chrysalis.

Quake whirled. Chrysalis wasn’t there.

And neither was the Element.

FOURTEEN

It was the following evening.

Quake took his time returning to the surface. He wasn’t in any rush. He’d just failed his greatest assignment - protecting his Element - and he wasn’t happy about it. The whole way back he kept internally beating himself up. Because of his sloppy actions, the entirety of Equestria would fall beneath the united forces of evil. At least he could use his magic again.

When he finally showed up he was met with the other Blizzards, including a teary Beam rushing to him with her arms open like she was a little girl again.

“We were scared, Uncle. We were scared the Changelings copied you.”

The look on Quake’s face melted into a tired, saddened smile. He stroked his niece’s mane with one hoof. “Nope. Takes more’n that to get rid of me.” What he had of a smile quickly left.

Blast saw this. “Something the matter?”

“The Element of Justice. I lost it. Chrysalis has it now.”

The team’s initial reaction was clear - very worried and a little bit panicked. Just barely too late they realized this could hurt Quake’s feelings and hid this. He noticed.

Blast spoke up. “Don’t despair,” he reassured his uncle. “We can win it back.” He came forward to hug him too.

Quake laughed a sad laugh. “You really are your father’s kids.”

In the background, Twilight flinched - ready for any reaction this could elicit from Blast. Nothing. Apparently, Blast really had come to terms with his father’s death.

It was only then that Quake realized he hugging in front of people - let alone an alicorn princess. He suddenly cleared his throat and stood up. “Well, it’s been a long day,” he said as he watched the sun set below the mountains. “What do you say we hit the hay and re-hash this whole Element thing in the morning?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Rage agreed.

“I got a summer home here,” Beam pointed out. “We could just stay at my place. It’s just down this street aways.” The team followed her down the road to her home.

Except for Twilight anyway.

She felt the feeling of a hoof around her. She looked down and, indeed, saw a blue hoof hooked on her. It tugged her into a bush on the side of the road. The rest of the team took no notice and left her.

Twilight tried to gather herself. The inside of the bush was hollow, and moonlight leaked in through the branches and leaves. Some of it fell on a figure standing before her.

“What the - ” she began. “Blast? Are you always going to be like this?” He couldn’t have just asked if they could talk? You think you know this guy . . . she thought.

“We need to talk with Celestia.”

“What the - what? What’re you talking about?”

“I can explain,” Blast told her as he backed up to the edge of the bush, “but on the way.”

Twilight followed him at a trot to the front gates. On the way, he explained to her something strange he found on the Element of Honor    . . .

“Another riddle?” Twilight could not believe this guy.

“Yes. But this one isn’t mine. I found it.”

“Engraved into the Elements, you said?”

“Yes. At least my Element. On the inside of the bracelet part there were the words: hold the key. Something like that.”

“Huh. What do you think it means? Like what holds the key? And what does it unlock?”

“No, no, and no. That is to say, I dunno anything what it means. I’m hoping the other Elements we’ve gathered so far could give us a clue. They probably combine to give us some form of larger message.”

“You know . . .” Twilight was starting to understand. “That might just get us somewhere! Smart, Blast!”

A nod of his head was the only reply. They had arrived at the castle gates.

Twilight was able to negotiate their way in with the guards. Soon they found themselves in the throne room conversing with Celestia. The two together relayed the information to her.

Celestia contemplated the possibilities. “I think we’ll need to get Luna in on this,” she finally told them. “She knows the Elements of Unity much better than I.” She left Twilight and Blast alone.

For a few minutes there was simply an awkward silence. Soon it grew so much so that Twilight couldn’t stand it anymore and she told Blast, “I think it’s so cool how you love your family. That’s a rare quality, you know.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, “It wasn’t an easy one to develop. Nor a painless one.” Blast chuckled to himself. “I guess you gotta just roll with the punches.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight guessed she was about to witness another rare unfolding reveal of his past.

“You see,” he began, “I never had friends. Ever. I know you kind of can understand how that feels, what with your pre-Ponyville life and all that, but I never got any friends like you did. The only friends that ever came my way were the ‘fake friends’. Kinda the parasitic type of people, the people that never listen to your problems, the people that you’re just resources to them, you know? People who, deep down, don’t really care about you.

“And this brought me to rely a lot on my family. They were the only people in my life who really cared about me. Recognized me as another being that was in need. Were there through my every pain. They were always there to help me get back up. I knew that I could always rely on them, because they would never turn their back on me. My relationship with them grew, every day stronger and stronger. I started to return the favors. I had their backs and I knew that they had mine.

“A lot of these feelings came to me from my dad. I remember when I was really little, I technically wasn’t even supposed to leave home yet, but my dad could tell that The North was no place for me. He took me with him down into Equestria to train me to become his own warrior. His own hero. I remember these were the best days of my life.

“Then one night -” Blast’s breath caught in his throat and he choked back hot tears.

Twilight could tell the flashback was a very emotional one for Blast. She laid a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “Relax,” she told him with a soothing voice. “I know the rest. It’s okay.”

This clearly had a very relaxing effect on Blast. Although his eyes were still misty, the tears stopped coming and his muscles, which she only just realized had begun to tense, were beginning to loosen again. “Thank you.” He was clearly very grateful for not having to recall his father’s death one more time.

Twilight nodded. “I thought you’d come to terms with it.”

“Technically. I mostly just try not to think about it.”

Before Twilight could reply, Princess Luna entered the room. “Am I . . .” Luna searched for the word as she saw the exchange between the two. “. . . interrupting something?”

“NO.” Blast’s response was a little drastic. “I mean, no. No, you’re good. So,” he cleared his throat, “about the Elements of Unity -”

“Celestia told me.” Luna waved off the question. Using her magic, she materialized a small box out of the air. “And, I do think I remember there was something written on them. A combined message, I think.” She used levitation to draw three gold bracelets from the now open box. One had a green center jewel in the shape of Blast’s cutie mark, another displayed a purple heart pattern, and in the center of the third was a red crystal.

“By the way,” Luna pointed out as she laid out the Elements on the floor, “I’ve been looking at the cyborg’s Element - it’s unmistakably the Element of Courage.”

“Really?” Twilight inquired. Her brilliant mind scrolled through the process of elimination. “So the only Element we haven’t uncovered is -”

“The Element of Wisdom,” finished Luna.

Twilight looked at the insides of the bracelets. None of them had any sort of writing on them. “Why aren’t the -” She was cut off by a strange sight. A tiny wave of energy grew from the Element of Honor, a wave that distorted the background that it passed over. Kind of like a heat wave coming off of something metal when it gets really hot - she’s seen those before. Appearing as the wave expelled were the words hold the key engraved in cursive along the edge. The energy wave dissolved into the air.

Twilight was only further confused. “What?”

Blast stared down at his hoof. “Maybe the words are protected. It’s possible it reacted because it can sense its wielder nearby.”

Luna gazed at him with a little curiosity. “Do you think the others will react to you?”

“Worth a shot.” Blast shrugged. “I don’t think it’ll work, but definitely worth a shot.” He waved his hoof over the other two Elements. With apparent patience he waved his hoof back over and the other way again.

Already they were starting to elicit some form of reaction. The energy wave that they’d seen with his Element were starting to show themselves on the others. They grew a little bit, then seemed to hesitate.

“Come on,” Blast whispered through gritted teeth. His tone of voice exhibited mostly urgence, although still backboned by some patience.

The reactions completed themselves. The waves flew outward and disappeared. Two more phrases revealed themselves: Only together and they will free.

Twilight scratched her head. “What can that mean?”

On the side of the Elements opposite them, Luna was concentrating so hard Blast thought her head would explode. “I could swear I can remember what they mean . . .” With a look on her face half like she knew what she was doing and half like she was Derpy trying to play chess, she tried to rearrange the Elements on the floor. “I think I can remember at least how they went . . .” She finished moving them around. “There!”

The message that the amulets created went as follows: Only together ________ hold the key _________ they will free.”

“That leaves so many blanks though!” Twilight freaked out. Her OCD mind couldn’t take all the stress from it not being perfect and complete. “Like who’s they? And what does their key unlock? Is it some sort of monster or something? WHAT?!”

“Calm down,” Blast tried. “We still need the Elements of Justice and Wisdom. We can’t expect the message to be complete without them.”

“Well, yeah, but STILL!”

Luna’s expression quickly grew concerned. “Maybe you should . . . get some rest, Twilight. We can figure this out at a later time.”

“If you say so . . .” she grumbled. She stormed out of the castle dragging Blast along with one hoof. “Thanks for the help Luna!”

“Anytime!” came the reply just before the giant doors slammed shut.

Blast and Twilight approached the house where they’d be staying for the night.

Blast chuckled a little. “You think they’re mad? They got to have noticed we were gone by now!”

Clearly Twilight was still very annoyed by the blanks left by the message. “Don’t know. Don’t care.” Judging by the tone in her voice, she was about ready to blow something up - something most knew her to do a lot when she got mad. Blast did not want any trouble from an angry Twilight, so he did what seemed to him the wisest decision: stop talking.

Twilight burst through the front door. The lights were all on inside. Beam, Rage, Quake, and a surprise guest - Daring Do - had themselves situated and were conversing in the living room. At the arrival, however, of a very steamed alicorn princess dragging a limp and clueless Blizzard, they all instantly fell silent and stared at the pair.

Quake finally spoke. “So where did you two disappear off to?”

“That’s none of your business!” Twilight snapped.

Beam saw an opportunity to tease her little brother. She rolled her eyes and her voice dripped with sarcasm. “Don’t worry about it Uncle, they were just kissing in the alley again.”

“WHAT?!” The reaction this evoked from Blast was almost explosively defensive. “NO!” Despite it being the truth that they did no such thing, Blast still blushed furiously at the thought.

Twilight saw this. Apparently Blast was prone to this kind of teasing and can never seem to defend his case, no matter how much of it was truth.

“I’m just messin’ with ya, bro.” Beam winked. Evidently Blast’s reaction was, by far, satisfactory for her and definitely worth it.  “Ch’lax. You look like you got stabbed.”

Quake repeated himself. “Seriously, though, where were you?”

“We were,” Twilight searched for the right word, “exploring.”

“Exploring? Exploring what?”

“The Elements. There’s a phrase engraved into each one, and it’ll only reveal itself to its or another Element’s wielder. They combine to give us a larger message, but with two blanks left to go - between Justice and Wisdom - we don’t have the whole thing just yet.”

“Well,” Daring Do cut in, “We may just be able to help with that.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Daring Do drew an object from a pack she was carrying. It was a small plate. Engraved on it was a series of markings. “The Element of Wisdom. I think this can lead us to it.”

Beam stood up and joined them. “She and I were trying to translate it while you were gone. The most we could make of it was depths of darkness and something about a glowfish and a black spotted octopus.” She looked from Twilight to Blast and back. “Can either of you make sense of that, because none of us can!”

“Hmm.” Twilight thought hard. “Depths of darkness . . . glowfish and the black spotted octopus . . . well, both of those things are aquatic animals. Depths of darkness must be talking about how much sunlight is at the depths of which those two things live.”

“Huh?” asked everyone in unison.

Twilight ignored them. “There’s a formula. Oh . . . what was it . . . that’s right! Twenty multiplied by point nine-seven-five raised to the x power!”

That answered no one’s question.

“That’s the formula for how much sunlight penetrates through x feet of water! Twenty multiplied by point nine-seven-five raised to the x power!”

Still no one seemed to follow her logic.

“So let’s see.” She brought her hoof to her lip as she thought. “The glowfish lives about 100 feet down from the surface, and the black spotted octopus can usually be found only in the first five feet or so.” She paused and turned to the others. “Fun fact: Black spotted octopi don’t eat. They use their black spots to absorb sunlight. They’re the one animal in the world that uses photosynthesis for energy. That’s why they live in such shallow water.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said a somewhat exasperated Beam, “that’s fascinating. But what do these numbers mean?”

“Dunno just yet,” Twilight replied. She was clearly excited to get the Element and finish that combined message. “I’ll have to figure it out in the morning. Let’s just get some rest. It’s late.”

FIFTEEN

“Bro!” Beam stopped her little brother in the hallway. It was only a few seconds after the team parted for bed.

“What?” Blast innocently replied.

“You got some explaining to do!”

“I do?”

She ran up to him. “You have a crush on Twilight.”

“WHOA, that’s a little bit - eh,” The sentence only fell into awkward silence. “Was there a question in that?”

Rather dramatically she stared him right between the eyes. “You tell me.”

There was a pause. Blast slapped his hoof to his forehead. “WHY is this kind of thing just SO hard with you?!”

Beam laughed. “Well whatever of a secret it is is safe with me.” She smiled and headed off for bed. “‘Night”.

If anything, that only further worried Blast. His insides churned. He was doomed.

It was next morning.

Everyone had had a good night’s rest. Everyone, at least, except Twilight. She’d forgotten that calculators didn’t exist in her dimension and had to do all of the math with only the aid of ink and a quill. It took her all night. The others woke to find her with dark circles under her eyes.

“Umm . . . Twilight?” Rage asked. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I just . . .” she paused to let out a monstrous yawn - her mouth opening three times as wide as it should go - “I - I’m good. And I got some great news!” It was easy to tell that loss of sleep has cost her nothing in spirit - excitement was shining fresh behind her weary eyes. “I figured out the numbers - and what they mean!”

Twilight didn’t wait for a response. “So the amount of sunlight that penetrates through to a black spotted octopus’s habitat is about %17.6219 and the glowfish’s realm has %1.5903. Together that makes 19.2122.”

“What does that mean, though?” asked Quake. “That could mean anything!”

“Glad you asked! It took me forever to figure this out - but I think it’s talking about time. Something happens on the 19th of every month at twenty-one twenty-two hours that can lead us to the Element of Wisdom.”

“That’s today!” gasped Beam as she glanced at her grandfather clock. It also told the day of the month. “The 19th!”

“But where?” Rage cut in. “It didn’t tell us anything about where!”

“Ahh.” With a smile and a twinkle in her eye, Twilight held up one hoof. “Ahh, but it did, my friend. There’s only one place in Equestria where the glowfish and the black spotted octopus both live.”

The group was silent.

“The lake. The lake by Ponyville.”

The moon shone high over the scene. The group - composed now of Blast, Twilight, Beam, Rage, and Quake - were gathered at the lakeside. Beam was the only one who was doing anything to pass the time; she skipped rocks across the surface. One she threw skipped three times, after its third skip finally falling into the water with a tiny splash. The ripple it caused shattered the moon’s reflection and disrupted the otherwise peaceful lake.

“How much longer?” she complained. “It’s cold out here.”

“Shouldn’t be long,” replied Twilight with a nervous glance at her watch - something she managed to snag before they got here. It read 9:21. “Any minute now -”

She was right. The watch ticked the minute and now said 9:22. At almost the exact same time the ground began to shake. It started small and grew bigger and bigger, until the earth shook so intensely Twilight wondered if it were an earthquake. Gradually again it cooled down, shaking less and less by degrees, until it was peaceful again.

Then Twilight saw it - a tunnel. A tunnel whose opening was embedded in the ground to their side. Its mouth was a simple circle, perfectly carved into the ground. The tunnel evidently stretched on for a long time, because she could only see blackness inside.

“Okay, everypony. This must be it.” She jumped down the hole and with more than a little reluctance everyone else followed.

Twilight couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything. It was all a black. She could only feel the sensation of sliding. Sliding down a chute of some sort. Its surface was cold, hard stone. She felt the end of the slide coming, falling onto a solid floor.

The others soon followed. First Blast, then Rage, then Beam and finally Quake landed on the stone floor.

It was completely dark. The only source of light was the moonlight leaking in from outside.

Until Twilight’s watch ticked the minute.

The hole closed up.

They were trapped.

“Uh oh,” Rage muttered.

“Should’ve seen that coming,” Twilight uttered to herself. She lit up her horn and flooded the scene with light. “Ah, well. Keep moving forward, as they say!” A strange optimism was seeming to envelop her.

The area in which they now stood was completely blank. It was a perfectly smooth-edged rectangular room, which continued on in one direction about as far as Twilight’s horn would light up. It was a tunnel.

There seemed to be nothing interesting about the room. But Beam heard a swoop.

“Guys?” she asked nervously. “Did anypony else hear that?”

Twilight was beginning to lead the group down the tunnel. “Hear what?” The rest of the team ignored Beam.

They were grateful Twilight brought a watch - it was hard to keep track of how much time was passing. The tunnel would change direction every so often, but its shape remained the same: a perfectly smooth rectangle. For what seemed like hours they followed the light on the end of Twilight’s horn, lighting up the same box in front of them.

“Blast?” asked Rage for his brother’s attention. He spoke in a whisper.

“Yes?” Blast slowed his pace, and he and Rage fell to the back of the group, just out of earshot.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Wow,” Beam cut in. She was just ahead of the two and had clearly tapped in on their conversation. “Do you know how many people die from doing that every year?”

Both Rage and Blast were silent.

“Sorry.” Beam trotted to the head of the team with Twilight.

Rage continued. “I’ve been with you guys on every adventure looking for every Element. I even got the Element of Honor. The Element of Creativity? Been there. Done that. Courage? Check. Justice? Done.”

“What’s your point?” asked his little brother Blast.

“ . . . Well, all of you guys got Elements. You got Honor. Beam got Creativity, Blade got Courage. And now Twilight’s going to get the Element of Wisdom. So . . . where’s my Element? Am I just not worthy?”

Blast thought deeply about those questions before he answered. “I can’t say I know what role you’re meant to play.” He spoke with a whisper and a delicate tone. “I can’t say I know your destiny. I don’t even know my destiny. But I’ll say what I can say, which is that I know this much: when you side with the cause of good, especially if you make a sacrifice on the way, it will always be worth it.”

He waited for that message to sink in before continuing. “That’s something I learned during my experience with the Element of Honor. When you do what’s right, no matter what, the favor will always be returned.”

Rage was silent for a moment. If anything he looked even worse than before Blast told him that. “There’s . . . something else. Something else that’s been on my mind.”

Blast gestured for him to continue.

The black stallion sighed. “That . . . thing, that turns people evil - it can’t do that to everyone. Sometimes, there’s a pony whose heart is too strong and the thing can’t do anything to them. In that case, it only steals their abilities and uses it to become stronger.”

He sighed again. “My heart wasn’t strong enough. It turned me evil.”

Blast didn’t know how to respond to that.

Luckily he didn’t have to. A voice - Twilight’s voice - drifted back to them with a hearty “We made it!”

It was the end of the tunnel. It ended in front of them with an abrupt, blocky stone wall. Two blank doors were carved into its surface. On both of them - about where a knocker would go - was a strange-looking totem. They were both identical in design: troll-like faces with twin canines jutting out from either side. Both totems were carved from silver and from the top of their heads leapt the only source of light in the cavern - twin green fires. Between the two identical doors, engraved into the wall, was a tablet of writing. Twilight came forward and read it aloud.

“Behind one of these doors is the Element of Wisdom. Behind the other is certain death. The totems can tell you which will lead you to your goal, but there is a catch. One will always lie, and the other will always tell the truth. You may only ask one question to one totem. Then you will select a door. If you pass this test, you are worthy to wield the Element of Wisdom. Good luck.”

Blast took the first move. “Why don’t we just ask one which door to take?”

Having lost herself in the puzzle, Twilight only muttered to herself.

“Hmm,” Quake thought. “Couldn’t you ask the totem whether it’s the truth one?”

Rage was quick to find the error. “The problem with that is if the totem’s the lying one then it’ll say it’s the truth one, wouldn’t it? Besides, that wouldn’t tell you anything about which door to take.”

Beam heard it again. A swooping noise. It seemed to come from somewhere off to the side. “Um, guys? I heard it again!”

No one paid any attention to her.

No one, either, could seem to crack the code. Even Twilight seemed stumped. She thought to herself, occasionally muttering incoherent things to herself like: “one lie”, “the truth”, and “bounce back”, until her expression lit up with an obvious eureka! moment. “I got it!” she announced. “It’s - ”

She was cut off by the sensation of someone crashing into her side. It caught her completely off guard, and its force knocked the wind out of her. She fell to the ground. Looking up, she saw it was Blast.

Just as she was about to demand an explanation she felt a strong wind. It passed over her face with force like a whirlwind and almost touched her nose. The thing appeared to be a bright green vine, a tentacle of some sort.

A sight that was all too familiar.

It passed right over her and wrapped several times around Blast. Only then did she realize that Blast saw what was coming and sacrificed himself to get her out of the way. The thing that ensnared him now brought him suspended in the air. The figure that owned the tentacle stepped out of the shadows.

It was the Mane-iac.

Well, sort of.

She looked drastically different from the last time she and Twilight had met. Instead of her regular pony body that was attached to her octopod form, there was only her head, which was encased in a glass orb full of green fluid. At the base of this glass orb there was a robotic assembly that attached to her new tentacular form.

Then Mane-iac had a weird spasm. A green electrical current coursed through her mechanical green tentacles and she shuddered. She was laughing uncontrollably. Three more tentacles lashed out and grabbed everyone else - Beam, Quake, and Rage - and levitated them up in the air.

“Mane-iac?!” Twilight exclaimed. Was this even possible? Mane-iac was supposed to be in another dimension!

While Mane-iac was still laughing hysterically a recorded voice could be heard, evidently coming from somewhere in her mechanic parts. “So we meet again, Twilight . . .”

“Who are you?” asked Twilight. The only place she ever heard that voice before was . . . when they were going after the Element of Courage, Sombra talking into the portal . . .

“Nevermind that,” the voice continued. “Poor little Mane-iac. I found her stranded in her own dimension, mentally destroyed forever by you and your unsavory crew. I was able to give her a new body, but a mind - a mind can never be replaced. She can still take orders, though - and a good thing, too!” It paused. “So . . . what is the answer to that puzzle?”

Twilight stared up at the giant in defiance. “I’ll never tell you.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” As if taking a silent cue, the demonic Mane-iac turned her gaze to the rest of the group, trying in vain to fight their way out of her grip. “Now,” the voice wondered, “which of your friends to torture first?”

Twilight only stood there in silence. To herself she thought, not Blast, not Blast, not Blast.

Whoever owned the voice seemed to read her mind. “This one looks good,” it muttered to itself. Taking another silent order, Mane-iac turned to Blast. The tentacle tightened around him and he let out a cry of pain. Another spasm attack followed and a green electrical current followed through and electrocuted him.

The look on Twilight’s face quickly grew to one like she got stabbed. “Wait!”

Mane-iac stopped. The voice sounded aggravated. “Yes?”

Reluctantly, Twilight turned her back to the villain and approached the totem on the left-side door. “Excuse me,” she addressed the totem with a tone like Fluttershy.

The totem came to life. Literally. It let out a huge yawn, showing off its huge front teeth, and smacked its lips. It stared tiredly into the eyes of the adorable mare who had addressed it. “Sorry,” it quickly apologized, though it still seemed very tired. “I was just having the most relaxing nap.” It yawned again. “I assume you have a question for me?”

“Yes.” Once more Twilight hesitated. This was her last chance. “Which door would the other totem tell me to take?”

“That good-for-nothing numbskull over there?” the totem chuckled. “He’d tell you to take my door.”

“Thanks.”

“Not a problem. Now if you’ll excuse me,” the totem yawned one more time and shut its eyes. “I think I’ll be . . .” It didn’t finish it’s sentence. It snored for a moment and returned to its “nap”.

The voice emanating from Mane-iac was getting excited. “Did he say his door?”

Twilight nodded her head. “Yes, but -”

Mane-iac didn’t wait. Her hold on the four Blizzards disappeared as she leapt toward the door and threw it open.

Well, it opened . . . but it wasn’t the Element of Wisdom that lied in wait behind it.

A shaft of brilliant flame flew from the mouth of the door and sent Mane-iac flying. An enourmous figure crawled out from the door. A figure with a beak the size of the doorway, with wings that barely fit through the tiny opening . . . the figure that now stood before the team was a dragon.

Luckily for them, the dragon happened to be standing in a room with five Blizzards. Before it knew what hit it the creature had been frozen, melted into plasma, electrocuted, compressed into a solid rock, frozen again, and mashed into pieces.

Twilight ran to what was left of the Mane-iac. The glass orb that housed her head had been cracked severely and was starting to leak. Her vegetative tentacles were on fire in many places and the mechanical disk had taken a beating as well.

She looked at the squid-like thing that lay before her with a look of disgust. “Tell me where the battle is going to be.”

“Never!” replied the voice that was clearly not Mane-iac’s.

“Suit yourself.” Twilight summoned a hammer from the air and began to smash at the metal disk.

“WAIT! If you do that you’ll kill Mane-iac!”

“I know,” replied Twilight with a flat, firm tone. She continued to smash the assembly.

“WAIT!”

“I want to know where your battle is.” Twilight raised the hammer, threatening one more strike. “I won’t wait forever.”

“THE HAILSTROM!” cried the voice as the busted form of Mane-iac began to vanish in a black cloud. “THE HAILSTROM!”