Chapters It’s Like I’m Nopony At All
Down a long path, on the edge of Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest, stood a rustic cottage, its roof so covered in greenery that the building looked like it had grown, more than it had been built. Inside, it was more obviously pony built, with walls of warm woods, and rooms full, but not cluttered. It was eclectically, but tastefully, decorated with symbols of hearts, butterflies, and leaves on the furniture and walls. Everywhere there were affordances for animals, warm baskets to sleep in, bird houses with pegs to perch on, and small stairs for animals to run on. This cottage was clearly lived in, and reflected the attitude of its owner, who was just arriving home.
Fluttershy made sure her long pink tail was inside, then slammed the door to her cottage. Anyone else would have called it closing the door. She stamped her hoof on the cottage floor in anger. Anyone else would have called it a tap. “Oooo, I hate this,” she whispered.
“Such fierceness.” Discord popped his head out of the sugar bowl next to the tea pot. The sinuous draconequus slithered out until his full body stood next to Fluttershy. “Whatever is the target of your volcanic rage?”
“Hello Discord, I’m sorry if I disturbed you,” the butter yellow pegasus said quietly.
“It was no bother, I was just scheming.” Discord raised his claws in mock surrender. “Just theoretical scheming, nothing that would harm the fur on anypony.” He leaned in closer. “Now tell me, what has got you in such a state?”
“Oh, I couldn’t waste your time with my concerns.” Fluttershy avoided Discord’s gaze.
“Fluttershy, I literally have all the time in the world.” Discord sat cross legged in mid air, and whipped a notepad and pen from nowhere. “Please tell me, what’s bothering you?”
Fluttershy looked both ways, to see if anypony else was around. When she confirmed the two were alone, she didn’t look Discord in the eye, but began her story. “I was on a picnic with the girls. Rainbow Dash saw a big creature moving in the shadows near the border of the Everfree Forest. The Bugbear had returned and was headed toward the Ponyville schoolhouse. We all rushed over to keep it from causing any trouble.
“Just like the first time the Bugbear showed up, there was a lot of roaring and fighting. Ultimately Twilight made a big curved mirror with her magic. The Bugbear got scared by the larger version of its own reflection, and ran away back into the forest.”
“School foals saved, monster on the run, high likelihood of a group hug.” Discord tapped the pen on the notepad. “What made you mad about that?”
“Because I was useless,” Fluttershy whispered. She dropped her head and her long pink mane fell over one eye. “Everyone else was flying, or throwing lassos, or magic, or cupcakes. I was the last one there, and I ended up cowering behind a tree. When I did get up the courage to try and come up behind it, the Bugbear waved its big stinger at me. I got scared and ran back behind the tree for the rest of the fight. All I could do from then on was try and encourage my friends in their fight.”
“Eminently sensible,” said Discord. “Bugbear stingers can make things very hazardous for ponies who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Even if I got to the Bugbear, it’s not like I could have done anything to help.” Fluttershy put her wings over her head, as if to hide from Discord. “When danger comes, it’s like I’m nopony at all. But my friends are all so brave, and can do so much. I almost never get to really help when there is trouble.”
Fluttershy looked up at Discord, her eyes shiny with tears. “I just wish I was never too slow, too weak, or too scared to help my friends ever again,” she whispered.
Discord looked pityingly down at Fluttershy. He hated to see her so sad. Then he brightened. He snapped his claw. “Done,” he said.
Fluttershy shivered at the sound, then looked up. “I’m sorry Discord, I was so focused on myself that I haven’t been a very good hostess. What did you say again?”
Discord straightened up and let his feet hit the floor. “Nothing you should worry your head about. Fluttershy, why don’t you brew us both some tea. I’ll get some cucumber sandwiches. By the time we are finished eating, it'll be time for you to feed your animals.”
Fluttershy took in and let out a tiny breath to help collect herself, “Those things always help make me feel calmer. Thank you, Discord. You do know how to make me feel better.”
“Better and better,” Discord said. Before Fluttershy could ask, he continued, “I’ll be back with the sandwiches.” Then he disappeared.
The next morning, Fluttershy was outside her cottage in Ponyville. She moved about the yard, giving the animals their morning meal. She heard a loud bang, then the long ripping sound of falling timber. Fluttershy was startled, her eyes hunting for what was making the sound. Far down the path, she saw the source. A large oak tree that had been damaged in the fight with the Bugbear was toppling over.
“AAAAAAA,” came the cry from a small yellow pony with red mane and pink bow. Apple Bloom was up in the falling tree!
Fluttershy shot off at a gallop, down the path toward the tree. Though she was a pegasus, Fluttershy seldom considered flying first when she needed to get somewhere quickly.
“Faster, faster,” Fluttershy thought, as she watched the tree topple. She galloped as fast as her feet would carry her. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Fluttershy sped down the path. Apple Bloom had lost her grip and was in free fall, with the trunk of the falling tree plummeting down just above her. She’d be crushed!
With a final burst of speed, Fluttershy leapt and caught Apple Bloom in mid air. She closed her eyes and curled around the filly like a ball, protecting Apple Bloom with her body. They fell to the ground, still under the falling tree.
The tree hit the ground hard, with a crescendo of loud cracks from branches breaking.
When the impact sounds were over, Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked around. She was surrounded by tree limbs, but was in a pocket where the surrounding branches had broken away from her.
Fluttershy looked in at Apple Bloom. She was stunned, but breathing easily. She felt the filly’s extremities gingerly with her hooves, but could find no signs of injury.
Unfortunately, they were trapped under the fallen tree. Fluttershy carefully laid Apple Bloom down, and tried to stand up, but the broken remains of the tree trunk were directly overhead, pinning her to the ground. Fluttershy got her feet underneath her, and pushed with her back against the trunk. The unstable tree rolled away down the slight hill with more crashing and limb snapping.
Fluttershy could feel her heart pounding. She had reacted without thinking. She hadn’t had time to be scared. Now, the danger was over, and there was nothing to be scared about. She took in a small breath, and blew it out. Her heart rate slowed.
The movement made Apple Bloom stir. “Oh wow.”
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy helped the filly to her hooves.
“I’m good. That was close.” Apple Bloom brushed twigs from her coat. “Thank you, Fluttershy, you came out of nowhere.”
“I actually came from my cottage,” Fluttershy looked Apple Bloom over. “I’m glad I could get here in time and you weren’t hurt.”
“From you cottage?” Apple Bloom scanned up the lane. “Wow, I can’t even see your cottage from here.” Apple Bloom then looked over at the fallen tree. The foot thick trunk was bent almost in two, right in the area she had been climbing. She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if Fluttershy hadn’t been there.
“We’d better get you home.” Fluttershy wrapped a wing around Apple Bloom to calm her jitters.
“Can we just not mention this to my sister, Applejack?” Apple Bloom calmed slightly and started walking.
“Can’t Applejack normally tell when something important has been left unsaid?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yeah, she can.” Apple Bloom kicked the ground, then looked up at Fluttershy. “OK, I’ll tell her.”
Fluttershy smiled, and led the filly down the lane toward Sweet Apple Acres.
A few minutes later, Discord slithered out from behind a large rock and examined the broken tree. He smiled. “Better and better” he said to himself.
Later that day, Fluttershy was hovering near a tree at the top of a small hill overlooking the Everfree Forest. She had just finished putting a birds nest back up after it had fallen. “Here you go Mr. and Mrs. Finch,” she said. The two birds tweeted merrily in reply. “You are very welcome.” she said.
Fluttershy heard a roar from far away. She recognized the sound; it was her friend, Harry the bear. He sounded like he was in pain! She scanned around and saw a cloud of smoke and dust rising deep in the Everfree. She heard a second pained roar. It was definitely coming from the direction of the smoke.
She flew flew in the direction of the roar as fast as her wings would carry her. Fluttershy hated flying over the Everfree Forest. She was never sure what might find her out there. But Harry was in trouble, and she had to help if she could.
Fluttershy crested the edge of a forest clearing, just in time to hear a loud K-ZAPP and then a BOOM. The clearing before her lit up in a blinding white flash, then the wall of a ruined building exploded into smoke and rock fragments.
She halted her flight, hovered, and turned her head to avoid the glare. When Fluttershy looked back she could see Harry and several of his fellow bears cringing behind rocks and bits of ruined wall. A giant crystal spider, taller than any bear, stood over a large hole in the center of the clearing. On the spider’s back, a glowing dome shimmered and emitted sparks.
Harry saw Fluttershy and rose from behind a large rock and moved towards her. The spider skittered to face the moving bear and the dome glowed brightly. The bear spotted the glow and ducked back behind the rock. Lightning bolts erupted from the dome and hit the boulder, cracking it into pieces and knocking Harry down. He howled in pain and had nowhere left to hide.
“Oh no,” said Fluttershy. “Maybe I can distract it, so Harry can get away.” She snatched a piece of fruit from the wild apple tree she was hovering over, then threw it at a wall, away from all the bears. The fruit made a “thunk” when it hit the wall. The spider skittered around to face the movement and noise, then unleashed a lightning bolt that obliterated the wall.
Fluttershy threw another wild apple, making sure no bears were near her target. When the crystal spider turned toward the impact of the second flying fruit, she called out to the bears, “Run into the forest now!”
The bears all rose and bolted for the forest. Harry got up, but was limping painfully. The spider skittered and turned toward the fleeing bears. Fluttershy threw a third wild apple, but this one went low and hit the crystal spider on the dome. The spider skittered to face her. The dome began to glow.
“Eeep!” Fluttershy flew up and tried to get away. There was a loud K-ZAPP and a blinding light. She felt tickles all over her body. She was momentarily blinded and tumbled in the air. Fluttershy kept flying as fast as she could, but couldn’t tell which way she was going.
When her eyes cleared, Fluttershy’s vision filled with the dome on the back of the crystal spider. She was aimed right at it, and was going too fast to avoid impact! Fluttershy twisted in mid-air and all 4 of her hooves hit the back of the spider together.
The crystal spider shattered into a million glittering fragments. The shattered dome gave up all of its remaining lighting at once, filling the clearing with blinding light and and a sound like ripping cloth that went on a long time.
When the lightning storm ended, and Fluttershy could see again, she was hovering just above the shattered remains of the crystal spider. Her body tingled all over. She shivered for a moment, which seemed to help.
A low moan caught her attention. She swooped over to Harry. His fur was singed and he had a few cuts on his leg. “Let me help you,” Fluttershy said soothingly. She heard running water nearby and led Harry to a creak with a small waterfall. Harry grunted as he limped along, telling Fluttershy his story. She cleaned his wounds, calmed him down, and made sure he would come around her cottage later, so she could help him with all of her first aid equipment.
Harry gave Fluttershy a big hug, then turned and walked into the forest. His limp was much improved. Fluttershy checked on the other bears, and was delighted that none of them were hurt.
Once she knew all the animals were safe, Fluttershy took in a deep breath. She shivered for a moment. It had all been terrifying, really. But it had happened so fast that she hadn’t found time to be scared.
Fluttershy looked over the clearing with the giant hole in the ground, and crystal fragments littering the area. “I don’t know what that thing was, but maybe Twilight knows, and can make sure that nothing else like it will try to hurt any of my animal friends.”
Fluttershy flew to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s crystal castle in Ponyville and tapped quietly on the great front door. It took a few taps, but finally, the purple alicorn answered.
“Hi Fluttershy!” Twilight looked her friend up and down, then sniffed the air. “Is that ozone? Is everything okay?”
“Something magical attacked my friend Harry the bear in the Everfree Forest.” Fluttershy pointed in the direction she had come. “The attacker is gone now, and Harry should be okay, but I want to be sure nothing happens to any of the other animals.”
“A magical attack?” Twilight got very serious. “Can you show me where it happened?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Um hum.”
“Tell me what happened on the way,” Twilight said.
They both spread their wings, and took off over the Everfree. Fluttershy filled Twilight in on what had happened. When they got to the clearing. Fluttershy pointed, “That’s where the spider was when I got here.”
Twilight lit her horn. A magenta light settled over the clearing. “I don’t sense any other magic here,” she said. “I think it’s safe to land.” Twilight pulled in the glow of her magic to the area just in front of her, then levitated several crystal fragments. She cocked her head and looked at them closely. “It was shaped like a spider, was taller than a bear, made out of crystal, and shot lighting?”
“Yes! Harry got hurt, but is feeling better.”
Twilight rolled her eyes in thought. “It sounds like one of Starswirl the Bearded’s magical crystal guardians.” Twilight looked at Fluttershy. “I’ve read about them, but never seen one. Starswirl made them to protect important buildings, like the Castle of the Two Sisters.”
“Harry told me he and his friends were pawing something shiny.” Fluttershy pointed to the hole. “Then the ground started to shake and the spider crawled out of the hole.”
Twilight looked at the big hole in the clearing. “It might have been buried here for the last thousand years, until the bears disturbed it.” She looked at the depth of the hole, the volume of crystal shards in the clearing, and imagined a spider taller than a bear shooting lightning. “Crystal guardians were supposed to be very powerful. It must have been very scary.”
Fluttershy ducked her head and looked away. “I mostly just threw fruit to distract it, then got blinded by a lightning flash and ended up flying right into it by accident. It shattered when my hooves hit it.”
Twilight surveyed the clearing and sniffed the air. “There are a lot of marks from lighting strikes, and the air still smells of ozone. Did you get hit?”
“I couldn’t have been hit.” Fluttershy looked away. “I just felt all tickly and tingly.”
“Probably static electricity from near misses.” Twilight surveyed her friend. “You were really lucky, Fluttershy. It was very old, which is why it must have shattered so easily.” Twilight moved over to comfort the pegasus. “You were very brave to help the bears, but the next time you see something like this, please come get help. I don’t want anything to happen to one of my best friends.”
“You know me, Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered. “I’m never brave.”
A few minutes after the girls had left, Discord popped into existence in the clearing. He looked at the shards of the crystal spider and smiled widely. “Better and better” he said.
Author's Note
I made a few small edits just after publication, to add some additional color to the opening description of Fluttershy’s cottage, but no big changes to the plot.
The next day, Twilight got a scroll from Princess Celestia via Spike’s dragon fire. It was a royal summons, requesting all the Element Bearers to come to Canterlot that day. Train tickets on the Friendship Express were arranged for everyone, including Spike. The summons did not detail the reason for the trip, but seemed urgent.
Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike boarded a passenger carriage. The conductor called out, “All Aboard!” The engineers stoked the train engine’s magical heating elements, brought the steam pressure up, and the train chugged merrily away from Ponyville station.
The girls found benches for themselves in the passenger carriage and got comfortable. They were experienced train travelers. After settling in, they speculated on what the summons was about.
“Princess Celestia said in her scroll that some unusual magical energy flows have been detected.” Twilight held up the scroll. “But she didn’t give any details.”
“Probably something nasty afoot, and the Princess wants you girls to take care of it.” Spike, Twilight’s small purple and green dragon assistant, jumped up onto the bench next to Rarity. He carefully scooted until they almost touched.
“Ever since we cleared the taint from the Everfree Forest and reclaimed the Elements, Celestia has stored them in the vault at Canterlot Castle.” Applejack adjusted her Stetson hat. The orange earth pony reclined comfortably. “Makes sense we should go there first, if trouble is afoot.”
“Maybe she has a giant selection of cakes, and needs expert advice about which ones to eat first.” Pinkie bounced on her cushion. The pink earth pony never seemed to stop moving. “That’s easy, all of them!” Pinkie licked her lips with her giant tongue. “Hmmmm. Cake!”
Fluttershy sat on a bench in the carriage next to an open window. She closed her eyes and let the warm rays of the sun wash over her back and wings. Her extraordinarily long pink mane and tail fluttered in the wind, as the train increased speed on the downhill leg of the trip.
“You are looking quite fit today, Fluttershy.” Rarity spoke softly, so as not to disturb her friend. The white unicorn looked over the pegasus with a professional eye. “Your more upright posture is also very becoming. The next time you are at the boutique, we must update your measurements.”
Fluttershy didn’t open her eyes. “Thank you Rarity. The sun feels very... nice... today.”
The wheels of the train made a louder than normal screeching sound. Dash looked out the window. The blue pegasus with a rainbow mane scrunched up her muzzle in a frown. “I like things to move fast, but does this seem like a little much for a train on mountain tracks?”
The train was definitely going faster than normal, and it was accelerating. Twilight looked about the car, but didn’t see any of the train’s personal. “Find the conductor, and see if they can slow the train down.”
Before anypony could move, the train lurched. “Enough of this, I’m going outside, to see what's going on.” Dash jumped out the open window, spread her wings, and flew toward the train engine.
Fluttershy stuck her head out the window to see what was happening. The train was accelerating every second. The wheels were screeching non-stop and sparks shot out where the wheels met the rails. A cliff dropped away on the right side of the train tracks, and the turn ahead looked extra sharp.
“Hold on,” squeaked Fluttershy, as the engine got to the curve. It was going so fast that the front wheels of the engine hopped up and went straight on. Driven by the power of the engine, and the weight of the train cars speeding downhill, the rest of the wheels of the train engine jumped the rails and the whole engine plowed straight over the cliff. Everypony screamed!
“I’ll try to hold it together,” Twilight shouted. Her horn glowed like a purple sun, and purple magic enveloped the train to kept the cars from falling apart. But she couldn’t keep the train from going over the cliff.
Fluttershy jumped out the open window and flapped her wings to get some distance from the train and see if there was anything she could do. The whole train glowed purple. The engine was fully over the cliff and diving toward the ground far below, while the first carriage had also jumped the tracks and was following it over the cliff.
“Looks like Twilight’s magic needs a little help,” called Dash, She zoomed over to the first carriage and disappeared under it.
Fluttershy could see the rest of her friends were still inside the train carriages, along with a lot of other passengers. Her heart was racing, and panic rose in her chest. But she couldn’t freeze up now, her friends needed her! She had to do something if she could. Fluttershy beat her wings as fast as she could and flew over to the engine. “A little help,” she thought. “I can help a little.”
She flew her body through the purple magic bubble that Twilight was using to hold the train together, put her fore hooves under a flange on the side of the engine, beat her wings, and pushed up as hard as she could. “I hope this will make a difference,” Fluttershy whispered.
The pushing seemed to do no good, as the train engine continued its downward trajectory. Fluttershy could hear continuous grinding of steel against steel, as more cars jumped the rails and started over the cliff. She beat her wings harder and faster, but the small flange was hard to hold onto, and the bulk of the engine kept her from getting full strokes with her wings.
Fluttershy walked her hands and her body side to side, seeking better purchase on the engine and a clearer space to flap her wings. She finally found a long, straight piece to push on, where her wingbeats were unencumbered.
Still the train was falling. Fluttershy closed her eyes and grimaced. She beat her wings as fast and as hard as she could. “Please...” she pleaded. “Let me help Twilight save the train.”
The engine shuttered under her hooves. She felt her angle of flight shift, from flying straight down, to flying slightly forward. Fluttershy redoubled her effort, wings buzzing like a humming bird. Her angle kept shifting, until Fluttershy was finally flying straight ahead.
She opened her eyes. The train engine and the cars behind were no longer falling. She had hand walked her way completely under the train engine, and her hooves pushed on the front axle. It felt like a giant tiller, as she had seen on once before on a boat. “Twilight’s magic just needs to be steered,” Fluttershy thought. “I can do that!”
The now horizontal engine had stopped falling, but Fluttershy could still hear terrified cries from the rest of the train behind her. The carriage cars attached to the engine drooped down in a long curve. The caboose was pointed nearly straight down, and the train conductors in it were holding on for dear life to keep from falling out.
“I can’t stop pushing to go help them, I need to keep steering,” Fluttershy thought. “Dash always said one cure to a sagging back end was to go faster.” She beat her wings harder, pushed on the axle, and the train leaped ahead. The cars behind the engine rose until the entire train was speeding horizontally through the sky. The cries of the ponies turned to cheers.
“This can’t go on forever,” Fluttershy thought. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and she was afraid that if she thought about what she was doing too hard, she would roll up into a little ball. “I can’t stop now,” she thought. “I’ve got to find a way to help my friends get back to the ground safely.” In the distance, she spotted a long, straight, empty stretch of track leading into Canterlot. “Maybe that will work.”
“I hope you can feel what I’m doing,” Fluttershy whispered. “Please follow my lead, Twilight.” She pushed up on the right side of the front axle. The train slowly banked left. She stopped pushing up on the right side and pushed up on the left side. The train slowly banked back to the right, until it lined up over the track. Fluttershy leveled the front axle, and started into a slow dive and began losing speed. She spotted Dash behind her.
“Dash,” Fluttershy called, “I’m just steering this train, Twilight is holding it up with her magic."
"That's not gonna last forever," Dash called back. "We need to get the train back down on the ground."
"I'm going to try to steer the cars onto the track," Fluttershy said. "Make sure the wheels line up with the rails on all the cars as they come down. The caboose is going to touch down first.”
“If it’s not too much trouble,” her mind added, but she didn’t say it.
“Got it,” Dash said. She turned sideways out of Twilight's purple magic bubble and was caught by the slipstream. Seconds later, she was back at the caboose and outlined the plan to the engineers.
Fluttershy adjusted her pressure on the axle, and the train slowly lost altitude and airspeed. She maintained her position directly over the tracks that lead into Canterlot. The cars behind the engine drooped, until the rear wheels of the caboose were inches from the track.
She heard Dash grunt as she pushed the caboose into alignment then yell “OK”. Fluttershy let the train drop just enough to put the rear wheels of the caboose onto the tracks. They met with sparks and loud screeching, but Dash had made sure the alignment was true. She heard another grunt and another “OK”, then she let the front wheels of the caboose down as well. Moments later Dash yelled, “caboose away” as the conductors decoupled the caboose from the rest of the train and brought it to a halt. One car down, only six more to go.
All the rest of the carriages, but one, came down cleanly, with grunts from Dash, sparks and screeching wheels, and determined flying from Fluttershy. The carriages were left stranded on the rails, but the passengers were safe.
Only the engine and the last carriage were left. “Twilight and the girls are in the last carriage, so we have to bring these down together,” yelled Dash.
The purple bubble around the two cars flickered, but held. They were running out of time.
“Twilight’s magic is fading, we can’t go around again,” Fluttershy thought. “Canterlot Station and the end of the line is approaching fast, so we only get one try.” She felt her panic rise again, but pushed it back down. Her friends still needed her.
Fluttershy dove down until her hind hooves were just above the rails, then hooked her fore hooves around the front axle and pulled for all she was worth to stop the train.
The train stopped its furious forward motion. The carriage wheels met the rails, sparked and screeched, then the carriage bounced back into the air. The rear wheels of the engine hit the rails next, and the coupling pulled the carriage back down. Only the front wheels of the engine were in the air, with Fluttershy underneath.
The purple bubble around the carriage and train engine burst with a blinding flash. While everypony was blinded, there was a loud crash as the front wheels of the engine met the rails.
When their eyes cleared, The train engine and carriage were stopped on the rails in front of the Canterlot Station platform. The train cars looked a bit bent, but were intact.
Fluttershy stood in front of the train engine. She gave a great sigh. She had been blinded by the magical flash and barely able to scramble out from under the train before it crashed to the ground.
“Is everypony Okay?” called Dash. She spotted Fluttershy standing in front of the engine unhurt, nodded quickly, then dove to the platform. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Spike were helping a dazed Twilight out of the carriage. The train’s engineers dismounted and stood wobbly kneed on the platform.
“We are all oaklie doklie, except Twilight,” said Pinkie Pie looking concerned at her friend. “She’s all ‘Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh’.”
“It’s the backlash from her spell collapsing,” said Rarity, “I’ve seen this happen to her before. She should be allright in a few moments.”
“I was so worried,” said Fluttershy.
“That was awesome flying, Shy,” said Dash.
“Oh, I was just steering. Twilight was keeping the train together and holding it aloft.” Fluttershy instinctively ducked her head to avoid any attention.
“Thas not wight...” Twilight said haltingly.
“Keep calm, dear.” Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Preserve your strength.”
“But thee’s wong, Flutterspy is wong.” Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head to clear it. She opened her eyes and continued. Her voice was stronger this time. “Fluttershy, my levitation held the train together, but I was inside the bubble. I don’t know how to generate lift when I’m inside my own bubble.”
“But that can’t be right, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “For that to be true, I would have to be able to lift up a train.” She slipped a fore hoof under the front of the train engine and lifted.
The massive engine came off the ground with no more effort than lifting a bunny.
Fluttershy stood, stunned, holding up the front of the train with one hoof. Her friends and the crowd at the station were equally shocked.
“Well, that’s a thing,” said Applejack. The crowd on the platform burst into panicked cries and galloped hither and yon.
Atop the roof of Canterlot Station, Discord popped his head out of an unused chimney and surveyed the chaos. “Better and better,” he said.
Author's Note
Slight edit to add Discord's appearance to the end of the chapter.
You Can Do Things Nopony Can Do!
Quickly, the Royal Guard arrived to quell the panic. Some guard ponies led the girls and Spike to Canterlot Castle. The guards were silent and kept their distance from Fluttershy. Spike, on the other hand, was talking to her non-stop.
“It was very cool when you were flying the train, Fluttershy,” said Spike animatedly. “Just like a Power Pony. When did you know you could do that?”
“I didn’t know...” Fluttershy whispered.
“And then when you just reached out and picked up the train, like it weighed nothing! How did you do that?”
“I didn’t know...” Fluttershy whispered a little louder.
“And if a train was so easy for you to carry, how strong are you? Ten times? A hundred times? A thousand times!”
“I didn’t know!” Fluttershy said and raised her foot as if to stomp in frustration.
Applejack quickly put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Whoa there sugarcube, maybe you oughta be a might careful with that hoof until we know more about what could be happening." She turned. "And you Spike, stop bothering Fluttershy. Them’s good questions, but you’ll probably learn the answers as soon as anypony.”
“Sorry Fluttershy,” said Spike.
Fluttershy froze. She never liked to get angry, especially at a friend like Spike. But what would a little stomp do?
Then she realized, it might not be a ‘little’ stomp. It might be a ‘big’ stomp! Fluttershy didn’t know what a ‘big’ stomp might do, but suddenly she didn’t want to touch anything or anypony. She shrunk away from her friend’s touch.
“You okay, Shy?” asked Applejack.
“I don’t want to hurt anypony,” whispered Fluttershy. She shut her eyes and shivered.
“You’ve done nothing bad, and a whole lot o’ good so far,” Applejack pulled her hoof away slowly and straightened her hat. “Just step lightly like you always do and you’ll be fine. Let’s go to the castle and see the Princesses. They and Twilight will figure out what’s going on.”
Fluttershy opened her great blue eyes and looked at Applejack.
Applejack had seen fear in those eyes many times before. But she had never seen Shy afraid of herself.
Fifteen minutes later, the guards led everyone through the great iron shod gates, into Canterlot Castle. The entry hall huge and ornate, with golden adornments on lavender walls and giant windows of stained glass. The guards detoured the group around the throne room, and moved down a series of smaller corridors. Even these side routs were lavishly decorated, with fantastic statuary, elegant paintings, and luxurious tapestries. The group was led through a door and into a large outdoor garden, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were waiting.
“Welcome my little ponies.” Celestia smiled radiantly. Sunshine glistened off of the large white alicorn’s golden regalia. “I was troubled to hear of the distress on your journey, but gladdened to hear that nopony was hurt.”
“We hear tales of extraordinary deeds.” Luna stood ramrod straight. The midnight blue alicorn’s dark regalia was polished to an equally high sheen. “Let us adjourn to the Royal Study and you can tell us what hath occurred.”
“And we can tell you, why the Element Bearers have been summoned to Canterlot.” Celestia gestured toward the door.
Before anypony could move, all were shocked by a feeling, like something unimaginably powerful had shot through the garden past them, but otherwise left no blade of grass disturbed. A moment later there was a sound like thunder from within the castle.
Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all stood bolt upright, their eyes shocked fully open. They had all felt an immensely powerful magic spell shatter, like glass.
“The Keystone spells,” cried Celestia, “Come Luna, we will do what we can inside. Twilight, take charge outside.” Celestia and Luna bolted into the castle, leaving naught but golden and midnight blue trails in their wake.
“It's an emergency! Get everypony out of the castle,” Twilight cried to her friends.
“I’ll alert the commander of the Royal Guard!” called Spike.
The rest of the girls galloped and flew toward the castle door.
Twilight took off into the air. Then she had a thought; Fluttershy had done several amazing things recently... maybe she could help. Twilight called back, “Fluttershy, follow me!”
Twilight sped off, leaving a long trail of purple magic in her wake. Fluttershy followed. If anypony were left to notice, they would have seen a long yellow and pink trail behind her.
Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie rushed into the castle entry hall. Crowds of ponies were all atwitter, disturbed by Princess Celestia and Luna zooming past. But they were not sure what the excitement meant. Applejack yelled out, “Everypony evacuate the castle by orders of the Princesses!” Now they knew. The crowds bolted towards the doors.
“I’ll spread the word up in the tops of the towers,” called Dash. She sped away up the wide winding staircase, calling out, “Everpony, out of the castle!”
“I’ll take the Throne Room and the Archives” said Rarity, and galloped away down the hall.
“I’ll take the kitchens and the barracks,” said Pinkie, disappearing into the crowd of rushing ponies.
“I wish I knew what we are evacuating from,” said Applejack. Then the castle shuddered, and a loud grown drowned out Applejack’s voice. The ground dropped out from under her hooves a few inches, and the castle seemed to... tip... just slightly.
“That must be it,” Applejack opened the nearest door and called out, “Everypony out, now!”
Canterlot Castle was built on a plateau on Canterlot Mountain. A third of alabaster castle, including the highest tower that housed the suites of the Royal Pony Sisters, cantilevered majestically over the valley. The castle’s magical construction was one of the wonders of the ages, a testament to pony aesthetics, ingenuity, and mystic power.
Twilight and Fluttershy sped around the spires of Canterlot Castle until they passed the final castle wall and flew over the valley. They could hear the castle groaning, and there were rockslides wherever the castle attached to the rock.
Canterlot Castle was falling off the mountain.
Twilight and Fluttershy stopped a pony-length from the bottom of the castle and hovered.
Twilight grimaced in concentration. Her horn sparked, then flared like a purple star. The field she created was larger than anything Fluttershy had ever seen Twilight do before. The flare spread to cover the entire bottom of Canterlot Castle.
Fluttershy retreated and cringed away from the blazing purple magic. She started at the crash of falling rocks. Her body shook with fear.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight called through gritted teeth. “I need your help!”
“What am I supposed to do?” Fluttershy whispered.
“It’s just like the train,” Twilight pointed at the castle. “It's easier for me to hold things together when I'm outside the field, rather than inside, but still don't know if I can do this. And I don’t know how much you can help. But I know we are better when we work together!”
“Help you with the entire castle? I could never do that. Nopony can do that!”
“Just like nopony could shatter a crystal guardian, or carry a whole train. Right now you can do things nopony can do!”
“This is crazy!” Fluttershy thought. She couldn’t stop shaking. But Twilight needed her. That was more important than her fear. Tentatively she inched forward into the aura of Twilight’s magic. The purple field tickled as it rippled over her body. Fluttershy lightly touched her hooves to the bottom of the castle. She took in a breath, steeled herself, and started to push.
Inside the castle, Applejack finished clearing the last rooms on the ground floor and ended up back in the entry hall. Dash and Pinkie rushed into the hall from different directions moments later. “Clear?” asked Applejack. They all nodded.
“Where's Rarity?” Dash looked around.
“She was headed to the Throne Room and the Archives. We'd better go get her out.” Applejack led them down the hall yelling, “Rarity, where are you, we got to get out now!” The Throne Room was clear, so they went on to the Archives.
Dash got there first and flew inside. The Archive’s main hall was filled with rows and rows of massive wooden bookcases, stocked with ponydom's greatest collection of the wisdom of the ages. Near the back of the hall, next to the wall that faced the mountain, there was a great swirling mass of shadow. It roiled like it a boiling liquid. Around the edges of the shadow, sunlight from outside filtered through the cracks between the side walls of the main hall and the back wall against the mountain face.
“Over here!” Rarity yelled. She was up against the back wall, cut off from escaping by the shadows roiling about her.
“I’ve got you!” Dash sped toward Rarity. The shadow bubbled and popped, tentacles emerging and swiping at the blue pegasus. But Dash was too quick. The swipes were always a few hoof-lengths behind her.
Applejack and Pinkie scrambled through the Archive’s door, just as Dash scooped up Rarity. Tentacles of shadow converged toward the pegasus and the unicorn.
“We gotta distract it Pinkie!” Applejack twirled the rope she always carried and lassoed one of the tentacles. Pinkie pulled a mini-party cannon from her mane, and set it off, showering the shadow with confetti.
The roiling shadow roared and advanced toward the ponies at the door. This left Dash free to fly Rarity up and over the shadow and drop her with the girls.
The castle groaned and lurched again. The crack between the mountain side walls and the rest of the castle widened. “Time to take our own advice and get out.” called Applejack.
The floor fell away from them. They all scrambled in the air, and all but Dash began to fall.
Outside, a third of Canterlot Castle detached from the side of the mountain and began to fall. Twilight’s purple levitation magic kept the Castle together, but could not stop its descent. The only thing between the castle and the valley floor was a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane and outstretched forehooves.
The bottom of Canterlot Castle dropped into Fluttershy’s hooves. She winced, tensed every muscle in her body, and flapped for all she was worth. It didn’t help, the castle kept falling. Fluttershy beat her wings faster... harder. The castle still fell.
Twilight screamed in agony. Purple magic roiled about her horn. The levitation field around the castle roiled in sympathy. Still the castle fell.
Fluttershy groaned and redoubled her effort, wings moving so fast they were buzzing. Her wings and shoulders burned. She closed her eyes. It had worked once before. “Please...” she pleaded. “Let me help Twilight save my friends in the castle.”
The fall continue, hoof width by hoof width. Then half a hoof width. Then a quarter. Miraculously, the castle’s decent slowed. Fluttershy beat her wings even harder, and the descent finally stopped!
“We’re doing it!” Twilight called.
“We are?” Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked up at the great expanse of stone, wrapped in Twilight’s purple magic. The enormity of the great castle she helped hold aloft with her wings and hooves loomed above her. But, she felt that together, the two of them could keep the castle from falling “We are!” Fluttershy called.
“I can feel great magic being worked. It’s Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, reweaving the Keystone spells from somewhere inside Canterlot Mountain,” Twilight was breathing heavily. “The spells anchor the castle to the ancient crystals in the caves there.”
Fluttershy’s wingbeats had slowed. But each beat was deliberate... powerful. Her panic was set aside for now. She could do this. Barely. “How long will it take the princesses to fix the spells?”
“I don’t know, but it feels like the spells are almost back,” Twilight scanned the places where the castle had come loose from the mountain. “I know this is crazy, but is there any chance we can push the castle back up to where it used to be? The castle and mountain will fit together perfectly then, so the Keystone spells should be stronger.”
Twilight wanted her to do more? Fluttershy felt panic returning, her heart rising in her throat. She swallowed hard to force it down. Her friends needed her.
“We can try.” Fluttershy put both hooves under the castle and accelerated her powerful wingbeats.
Inside the Castle Archive, the floor shook a final time and stopped falling. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie crashed into a heap on the floor of the Archive. They scrambled to their hooves. When the floor stabilized, the shadow retreated toward the back wall.
“Isn’t that the vault where the Elements of Harmony are stored?” Rarity pointed a hoof at the back wall, where the shadow was thickest.
Black tentacles converged on the back wall, penetrated the stone with a loud crash, then pulled a large, metal door off its hinges. The shadows covered most of a series of golden flashes, as dozens of protective spells were overpowered and shattered. The tentacles tossed the massive door toward the ponies at the archive’s front door. They all scrambled to get out of the way, and the door hit the floor with a mighty CRASH!
Tentacles flowed into the open vault, and moments later flowed out, with five necklaces of gold, each set with a unique jewel, and a golden crown with a jeweled purple star.
“Hey, those are ours, give ‘em back you tentacle meanies,” cried Pinkie.
The castle groaned and lurched again. But the sound was different this time, and the floor bucked up, rather than falling down. The cracks along the back wall closed, so no sunlight could get through anymore.
“Just right, hold it there, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “I can feel the Princesses reweaving the Keystone spells. They’re almost finished.”
“OK,” Fluttershy replied. Once she got over the bizarreness of the situation, there really wasn’t much more to be said about holding up the castle. Both ponies beat their wings in powerful steady beats. Twilight was straining, but looked like she could hold up her magic for a while longer. Once Fluttershy got into position, and her wings found their rhythm, all she had to do was keep flapping.
“I think you got hit,” Twilight said.
“Got hit by what?”
“I don’t think the crystal guardian shattered because it was old,” Twilight turned her head to face Fluttershy. “I think it shattered because you hit it really, really hard with your hooves. And if the spider was at full power, I think you got hit by lightning. Maybe many times. I’ll bet you were strong then and didn’t even know it.”
“When the spider flashed, it didn’t hurt... exactly.” Fluttershy ducked her head..
“It fits together," Twilight continued. “I don’t sense any levitation magic on the castle, other than my own. You must be pushing with an unimaginable amount of force to help keep the castle aloft. Your body would have to be incredibly tough in order to withstand the strain.”
“Oh...” Fluttershy whispered. She looked down at her body. It didn’t look any different than before.
Canterlot Castle suddenly lit up, with a golden radiance that rivaled the sun. Moments later, a deep indigo magic glow replace the golden radiance. The castle flickered, gold, then indigo, flickering faster and faster, until the castle seemed to glow both gold and indigo at the same time. There was a sound, like a chorus of bells ringing throughout the land, then both glows flashed to the horizon and disappeared.
“The Keystore spells are restored,” cried Twilight. “Celestia and Luna did it!” She smiled widely. The castle had been a home to her for years, and she was overjoyed that it was safe once more. “Let’s pull our support away slowly, Fluttershy, it should be safe now.”
Fluttershy released one hoof from below the castle. Feeling no strain, she released the other hoof. When nothing untoward happened, Twilight released the purple flare that had encompassed the bottom of Canterlot Castle. The castle made no unusual movement or noise. It was as again as solid as the mountain.
“Wooo…” whispered Twilight. She was dizzy from the strain of using so much magic. Her wing beats faltered.
Fluttershy zipped over to support the alicorn. After a moment, rhythm returned to Twilight’s wing beats. “I’m okay,” she said.
Twilight felt an anomaly in the flow of magic around her. She looked up toward the top of Canterlot Castle. “Look, up there!”
A loud rumble rocked the top of Canterlot Castle. Twilight and Fluttershy separated, and watched in horror as an explosion blew a huge hole in the roof, and black clouds billowed out. Three streams of shadow, like black rainbows, shot out of the hole. Two rocketed across the land toward the horizon in different directions, North and East. The third rose infinitely into the sky.
Fluttershy pointed at the stream flying North. “It’s taking the Elements of Harmony, I can feel Kindness receding to the North.”
Twilight did some mental calculation. There was no way she could keep up with the receding shadows. But..
“Can you follow it?” Twilight said.
“I don’t know.”
“There’s nopony else. Try to follow them, or we could lose the Elements,” Twilight said. Fluttershy looked hesitant. “Follow if you can, return if you can’t. For the girls. For Equestria!”
“I will,” Fluttershy said. She turned toward the North. The tail end of the shadow trail was already fading. She had no time to lose. With powerful wingbeats, she rocketed off after the Elements.
Twilight eyed Fluttershy’s departure. She compared Shy’s speed to the shadows, and did some more mental calculations. This just might work.
Discord slithered out of a crack in the side of Canterlot Mountain. He peered under the portion of the castle that cantilevered over the valley. His eyes scanned the underside, until her spotted two tiny hoofprints. Discord smiled. “Better and better!”
The Girls Are Counting On Me
Shaking her head, Twilight flapped her wings and rose toward the hole in the roof of Canterlot Castle. She hoped everypony inside was okay.
As she got to the roof, Twilight summoned a wind to blow the billowing black clouds away so she could see inside. Looking down, she saw that the hole went down through multiple floors, deep into the castle.
Movement on one of the floors caught her eye. A pink head poked out into the hole and looked up. “Hey Twilight, down here!” Pinkie bounced and waved a hoof.
Twilight flew down carefully, avoiding any hanging debris. She got to the level Pinkie was on and hovered. The hole continued down into the depths of Canterlot Mountain.
Twilight recognized the remains of the archive. It was a disaster zone, with bookcases blown over and books scattered everywhere. Her heart sank as she surveyed the devastation. This had been her second home while she studied with the Princess as a fillie. “What is it about villains blowing up libraries,” she thought. “First Golden Oaks, and now this!”
“The mean black thingies took the Elements!” Pinkie exclaimed. She pointed at the whole in the back wall. Twilight recognized the opening to the vault where the Elements had been stored. Peering inside she could see there was nothing left. Fluttershy and Pinkie were right, the Elements of Harmony had been taken.
The girls rushed over and all talked at once. “Are you alright?” “Is it safe to be in the castle?” “Where’s Fluttershy?” “Have you seen the Princesses?”
Twilight took a deep breath, “I’m fine. The castle is safe. Fluttershy is trying to track the Elements. And I haven’t seen the Princesses. They were supposed to be deep inside Canterlot Mountain saving the castle.” She looked over at the hole that lead deeper down. “And that looks like the fastest way to get down there.”
The girls moved to the edge of the hole. Rainbow Dash hovered over the hole and peered down into the darkness.
“Ready girls,” Twilight asked. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity gathered close. Twilight lifted off and picked them up in a field of magenta magic. Rarity lit her horn so they could all see. Dash flew ahead, and the girls moved down the hole, a bubble of light descending into the darkness.
High over Equestria, Fluttershy followed the shadow trail North. She could feel the Element of Kindness receding away from her. “Got to go faster,” she thought, and increased the rhythm of her wing beats. The air was like a wall, buffeting her face, and keeping her from speeding up.
“How does Dash do this?” she thought. Fluttershy imagined how Dash flew when she wanted to go really fast. Hind legs straight back and touching. Fore legs straight out and parallel. Head hunkered down between the fore legs. Eyes straight ahead. Wingbeats small and fast.
Fluttershy adjusted her body to emulate Dash. She took in a breath, gritted her teeth, and flapped for all she was worth. Faster she went, and faster still. The Elements were still receding. She made her wingbeats smaller, but faster. They were practically humming. It wasn’t enough.
The air around Fluttershy turned milky white. “I don’t know if I can do this.” She beat her wings faster. The air turned yellow. The Elements were still receding. “I don’t know if I should do this.” The air turned pink. “Sorry Rainbow Dash,” she thought. “Nopony but you should do this. But I can’t lose the Elements. The girls are counting on me.” Fluttershy beat her wings even faster. The air exploded around her, creating shockwaves of yellow and pink in her wake.
Strangely, after the explosion, it go easier to fly even faster. Fluttershy kept her body posture straight, and her wings humming. The yellow and pink shockwave behind her appeared to be so solid, it looked like somepony could walk on it.
“I’m gaining on them,” Fluttershy thought. “I can feel myself getting closer to Kindness.” The shadow trail was descending now, taking the Elements of Harmony toward the Crystal Mountains. She had flown halfway across Equestria in her pursuit.
Fluttershy looked down and saw the glittering towers of the Crystal Empire as she rocketed past. The yellow and pink shockwave behind her spread out and covered the countryside, rustling trees and rattling buildings as she flew over.
Fluttershy scanned the sky for the Elements. At the front edge of the black trail, she saw glitters of gold. It was them! She put on another burst of speed, to try and catch the Elements before they got to the ground.
Then she saw where they were headed.
The Elements, carried by the shadow trail, angled down toward a huge, smoking volcano in the middle of the Crystal Mountains. Fluttershy banked left and right to avoid the plumes of smoke and heat that rose from the volcano. But before she could catch them, Fluttershy watched in horror as the Elements splashed down into a lake of lava and disappeared from view.
The girls kept descending into the dark and finally found the bottom of the hole, deep within the Crystal Caves beneath Canterlot Mountain. Dash got there first and hovered. Twilight landed and released her magic. “Whew,” she thought, “my horn is getting tired.”
Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity dropped to their hooves, and spread out to examine the area around them. The crystal walls of the cave glittered in Rarity’s light. It reflected and spread out far and wide.
“What are we looking for, sugarcube.” Applejack scanned the area for anything she could recognize.
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were down here re-weaving the Keystone spells that keep Canterlot Castle attached to the mountain. They were successful, I felt the spells return.” Twilight looked around the crystalline cavern. “But they haven’t emerged. Maybe they’re still down here.”
“After all the explosions, I suggest we stick together,” Rarity said. The others nodded. They began a methodical search of the caves, looking for signs of the Princesses.
Pinkie bounced over to a crystal pillar and looked up. The ceiling curved as it rose up and receded into the darkness far above her. Pinkie bounced over the pillar next to it, and watched it curve toward the first pillar and recede into the darkness above as well. Pinkie turned her head far to one side, and then far to the other. The rubbernecked pony decided these pillars were worth checking out.
“Twilight, how high is the ceiling here,” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Pretty high up, I’m not sure how far.”
“And how much do these pillars curve?”
“From the part that is in the light, they appear to be pseudo ellipsoids, with a compound radius of...” Twilight stopped. “Rarity, point your light up to the top of these pillars.”
“Of course, darling.” Rarity narrowed her light into a beam, and directed it to the ceiling. At the apex, the curved crystal pillars met, with a giant wedge shaped crystal between them. “It’s the keystone!” Twilight pointed up. “You’re a genius Pinkie.”
“I get that a lot!” Pinkie smiled.
Rarity shone her light around the ceiling. Pillars arced in from every direction, all terminating at the giant wedge. She followed one pillar down, and then another, and another. They were in a veritable forest of crystal pillars, all focused on the crystal wedge.
“It looks like that there wedge is holding up this entire cave.” Applejack gazed up and shook her head.
“I think it’s holding up the entire mountain,” Twilight answered in awe.
“If that’s the keystone, the Princesses must have done their magic around here somewhere,” Dash said. “Look for signs.”
“I don’t see any signs,” said Pinkie. “Just two black sooty circles on the otherwise clean crystal floor.”
The girls rushed over to Pinkie and saw the blackened circles. “Don’t anypony touch it,” said Rarity. “The crystals on the floor there feel wrong to me. Very wrong.”
Twilight looked at the blackened circles and saw small black crystals around the edge. “Dark magic, like Sombra used,” she said.
Everypony else backed up half a step.
“I don’t dare use my magic on the black crystals, I don’t know how it will react.” Twilight pondered what to do next. What had happened to the Princesses was a mystery, but she couldn’t even touch their best clue. She looked around the crystal cave, and had an idea. “Rarity, is there any Golden Amethyst in this cave?”
Rarity looked about, both with her eyes, and with her gem finding magic. “There darling, the big flat crystal there is Golden Amethyst.” Her spell made the gem glow so everypony could see it.
“Perfect!” Twilight said. “Some crystals absorb the light that shines on them. Golden Amethyst is especially good at holding light for a short time. I have a spell that will make the gem radiate the light back in the order it was absorbed. It will be like a moving picture show. No sound though.”
Twilight lit her horn and surrounded the Golden Amethyst with a field of magenta magic. “I’m going to be out of it while I keep the spell running. Can you girls please watch and tell me what you see when we’re done?” They all agreed and gathered around.
Twilight closed her eyes and scrunched up her muzzle in concentration. After all of the magic she had been using today, this spell felt like it was one too many. Twilight was running on empty. But they needed to know what had happened in order to help the Princesses. So Twilight gritted her teeth, dug deep, and unleashed her magic one more time.
The surface of the Golden Amethyst danced with light. The two images that appeared were soft... out of focus. A moving white shape and a moving indigo shape. Gradually the images sharpened, until they resolved into Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
The girls were looking at the diarchs from behind. Each alicorn had their wings at full extension. They swayed back and forth in synchronization, as if dancing to music the girls couldn’t hear. Celestia directed a stream of golden magic back and forth in rhythm with their movement. Luna directed a stream of indigo magic in the same rhythm. When the streams crossed, they intertwined, forming a mystical forest green tapestry that was slowly covering the crystal walls.
“They really are re-weaving the spell,” Applejack said. “It looks just like Granny Smith’s knitting.”
The image the girls watched started to shake. Crystal shards fell into the picture, impacting the alicorns. Luna winced in pain, but Celestia mouthed unspoken words, and the two resumed their rhythmic task, even as the cavern threatened to collapse around them.
“Come on...” Dash urged the Princesses. “You’re almost done.”
The Princesses crossed their streams one last time, and the magical tapestry was finished. It reached from ceiling to the cavern floor. The tapestry glowed brightly, then was absorbed into the very crystal of the walls and pillars. The cavern glowed with emerald light that flowed through the crystals toward the wedge shaped keystone in the ceiling. The Keystone glowed for a full minute. Then the shaking stopped, and the glow faded. The spells were complete.
The diarchs collapsed to the floor, spent from their great task. They silently mouthed words to each other. They displayed weak grins and the satisfaction of completing a difficult job.
Suddenly a huge shower of crystal shards battered the alicorns from above. Moments later, two great waterfalls of shadow crashed down upon them. Before Celestia or Luna could react, they were swept up by the shadows, as if being carried in sacks. The shadows bucked and bulged, a testament to the struggles of the sisters. But as fast as the streams of shadow had fallen from above, they receded, taking the Princesses with them. Nothing was left but two rings of black crystals where the Princesses had been.
Rarity gently nudged Twilight Sparkle. “We’re done dear, you can stop now.” There was worry in her tone.
Twilight’s jaw relaxed. She opened her eyes and looked at Rarity. “Did you see anything?” she asked.
Before Rarity could answer, Twilight’s legs wobbled. Rarity tucked herself under one of Twilight’s wings to keep her from falling. “No more magic from me for a while.” Twilight said weakly.
Fluttershy was despondent as she felt the Element of Kindness recede from her, under the lava of the largest active volcano in the Crystal Mountains. The Element felt like it was still intact, just impossible to get to.
“I can’t lose the Elements,” Fluttershy thought. “The girls need them. Equestria needs them.”
Fluttershy zoomed low over the giant pool of lava, searching for options. A large bubble appeared in the lava, right in her path. She was going too fast to dodge! the bubble burst, showering her in molten rock.
“Aaaaaaaa!” Fluttershy screamed. Everywhere the lava touched her burned, worse than any fire. She blindly zoomed up, climbing away from the danger. Her hooves madly clawed at her barrel, Trying to brush away the molten stone. Everytime she brushed a piece off, her hooves burned as well. It hurt so much! She couldn’t take in a breath, and the pain almost made her blind. Through her tears, Fluttershy’s gaze darted from her hooves to her barrel. Where she brushed off the lava, she was in agony, but her fur and skin were not burnt! The fur was not even singed.
Twilight's words came back to her. “Right now, you can do things nopony can do!”
Nopony could survive touching lava. But today, maybe she could. Everywhere the lava had touched her hurt worse than anything she could remember. There was only one pain that she conceive of that could be worse: failing her friends.
Twilight was the smartest pony she knew. Fluttershy decided to trust her. If the lava brought pain, but not death, then she would just have to learn to live with the pain.
“I’ve got to do this now, before I panic.” Fluttershy thought. “I have every reason to panic, and only one reason not to: my friends.”
Fluttershy could still feel the direction to Kindness, down in the lava pool. With a powerful beat of her wings, she launched herself downward, closed her eyes, and did a power dive into the lava. The lake received her with a giant splash that showered the rim of the crater.
Pain exploded across every surface of Fluttershy’s body. Her face, neck, barrel, legs, and wings all burned. The pain was worse than before because the lava touched all over her body.
Through the pain, she could still feel the Element of Kindness, shining like a beacon in her mind. She had to make this pain worth it. She had to get Kindness.
The lava was thick. Moving through it was like a combination of swimming with her hooves, flying with her wings, and working really hard not to scream.
Fluttershy kept her eyes closed, and used her connection with the Element of Kindness to make a beeline for it. It came closer and closer in her mind, until she felt it slip around her outstretched left fore hoof.
As soon as she touched the Element of Kindness, she could feel the other Elements around her. Her pain did not cease, but it receded. The feelings of Kindness overwhelmed the burning sensations. Fluttershy swam under the lava from Element to Element, until her hooves were full of 5 necklaces and a crown. Then she rolled until she was facing upwards, and with a mighty flap of her wings, rocketed out of the volcano and into the sky.
Molten rock fountained high, sucked into the air by her ascent. A great cloud of lava and smoke followed in her wake. Her pains receded even further, until they were naught but a memory.
In the open air, Fluttershy opened her eyes, set her body, and accelerated until the air glowed yellow and pink around her once again. She turned towards Canterlot and kept accelerating. Her yellow and pink shockwave did more than just rattle buildings this time.
Molten rock ran in rivulets in all of the cracks and hollows of her body. It streamed behind her, solidified in the supersonic wind, then fell to the mountains below and shattered on impact. Fluttershy shook her head, to dislodge any last drops from her mane, then focused on flying as fast as she could back to the castle. Fluttershy had to get back to help her friends.
The girls galloped and flew out of the castle into the castle garden where they had first met the Princesses. Applejack had an exhausted Twilight Sparkle unceremoniously slung across her back.
The garden was abuzz with government officials, Royal Guards, and castle staff. Commander Fairweather, a large white pegasus in golden armor and a helmet with a purple crest, was the head of the Royal Guard. He had taken charge in the garden and was directing operations with crisp commands.
Spike was by his side, relaying orders to the proper ponies. He spotted the girls and hustled over. “Twilight!”
Fairweather’s gaze followed Spike. “We need a medic over here for the Princess!” he called. Two earth ponies with nurses caps rushed over.
Twilight rolled off of Applejack’s back and dropped onto all four hooves. Her head was bowed, her tail and wings drooped. She struggled to raise her head and look confident. “I’m fine Spike,” she said weakly, “just tired.” Twilight looked at Fairweather. “We need to talk, without so many ponies around.”
Rarity nonchalantly saddled over next to Twilight and gave her a body to lean against. Twilight silently took advantage of the support.
“We’ll go to the gazebo over by the garden’s edge,” Fairweather said. “It has cover from the sun and places to sit.” He turned to a pair of guards. “Make sure we are not disturbed.” The guards saluted and took up positions between the gazebo and the bustle of the rest of the garden.
The girls, Spike, and Commander Fairweather gathered in a circle in the gazebo. Twilight flumped onto a bench and didn’t raise an objection when the nurse ponies started fussing over her.
“Did you find the other Princesses?” Fairweather asked.
“We’re pretty sure they’ve been taken.” Twilight bowed her head.
“We saw them get swept up by streams of shadow magic after they finished saving the castle,” Dash said.
“And I saw streams of shadow explode out of the roof of the castle.” Twilight looked to the sky. “One went straight up, and another went East to the horizon.”
“Toward the noonday Sun and the location of tonight’s rising Moon,” Rarity gasped.
“If the Princesses have been taken to the Sun and the Moon, I don’t know any way for the Royal Guard to get there to rescue them.” The commander slumped, then looked up at Twilight and the girls. “You are the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. This sounds more like your territory. How can the Royal Guard support you?”
“Unfortunately, there was a third stream of shadow that took the Elements out of the castle and headed North.” Twilight scratched her head with her hoof. “Fluttershy, the bearer of Kindness, flew North to track them, but hasn’t returned yet.”
“Why don’t you pop up and see if you can spot Shy anywhere to the North, Dashy,” Applejack said.
“I’m on it!” replied Dash. She rocketed into the sky, rainbow trail in her wake. All pegasus had good eyes, and Rainbow Dash was extremely proud of her keen vision. “I see something yellow and pink, coming in from the North. It’s moving really fast.”
Everypony scrambled out of the gazebo and looked up into the sky. Before they could blink, a yellow and pink comet impacted in the center of the garden. There was a great BOOM. Dirt and grass erupted into the air. A yellow and pink shock wave washed over the area, accompanied by a long sound of thunder.
When the dust settled, Fluttershy was standing in a shallow crater in the middle of the clearing. Her head was high and her wings were at full extension. She wore the Element of Kindness around her neck. The other elements hung around her fore legs.
“Fluttershy!” everyone yelled. Royal Guards scrambled toward her, but Fairweather recognized the famous pegasus and waved them off.
Fluttershy looked around at the mess her landing had made. She ducked her head in shame. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
But no one heard. They rushed up noisily. “You got them!” “Are you okay?” “That was amazing!”
Fluttershy recoiled from the rush and the noise.
“Woo, woo, back off everypony!” Dash rose up on her hind legs and spread her wings to protect Fluttershy. “Give her some room.”
They all backed off and quieted down. Rarity approached a half step and spoke quietly. “Fluttershy, we are so happy to see you. Are you well?”
“I’m... alright,” she replied in a whisper.
“That is good news,” Rarity said. “Your landing was... sudden.”
“I’m sorry about the garden,” Fluttershy ducked and hid behind her long pink mane.
“Don’t worry about it, state of emergency and all that,” Fairweather said. “You have retrieved the Elements?”
Fluttershy pulled away, then nodded her head.
“A wonderful job dear, let me distribute them for you,” Rarity said. Fluttershy put out her fore hooves. Rarity lifted the Elements with her magic and distributed them to the Bearers. They all put them on. There were looks of relief and all the Bearers stood a little taller. Everypony felt better when the Bearers were together and they all had their Elements ready.
“Bring on the bad guys!” called Dash. They all smiled.
“Except we don’t know who the bad guys are, where they are, or what they’ve done with the Princesses,” Applejack said.
“Sounds like a research project,” said Twilight, hopefully.
There was a loud rumbling sound from the direction of the valley below the castle. The ground began to shake.
“Or, we could see what’s making all the ruckus,” Applejack replied.
They galloped and flew over to the edge of the garden and looked far down into the valley below.
A great geyser of shadow erupted from the valley floor. The shadow rocketed into the sky, and reached as high as the tops of the towers of Canterlot Castle above them. A massive pool of roiling shadow, several miles across, emerged from the base of the geyser and spread across the hollow.
“Time to show those shadow meanies,” Pinkie said.
“I hope the Elements can reach that far,” Twilight thought. But her voice was strong. “Ready girls?”
The Element bearers all instinctively moved into formation and nodded their heads.
Commander Fairweather stepped back and motioned the nurses to step away as well. “This is hero work.”
Pinkie focused her ever present happiness and optimism into her Element. Her Element sang back in her mind, filling her with energy and joy. No matter what darkness was before them, Pinkie believed with all her heart that tomorrow would be filled with laughter.
Rarity focused her charity and selflessness into her Element. Like all generosity, her Element returned it a thousand fold. For all of her cynical exterior, Rarity was sure the future was brightest when everypony gave all they could for the greater good.
Applejack focused her unstoppable determination into her Element. It returned the honest emotion with seemingly limitless vitality. Applejack had a rock solid conviction that no evil would stand against a fair reckoning.
Dash focused her will to be the best into her Element. Her striving was echoed back to her again and again as a certainty that united they would triumph. Dash reveled in her belief that if they all worked as hard as they could for each other, their loyalty would be rewarded with victory.
Fluttershy focused her infinite reserves of gentleness and affection for all into her Element. It returned the gifts with confidence and assuredness. All doubts and fears were banished by the embrace of her element, and Fluttershy exalted in its grace.
Twilight focused the magic of her friendships into her Element. Magic was her special talent; friendship her life's work. Her Element was a friend who opened up the vistas of infinity for her and flooded he being with power. Twilight’s heart sang in response.
But the song of the Elements sounded somehow different this time.
The Element Bearers glowed rapturously and levitated. Their individual lights expanded and merged into a single great iridescent globe. Twilight’s eyes glowed all white in the center of the globe. Twin streams of rainbow shot into the sky, higher than the towers of Canterlot Castle, circling and intertwining as they rose. At the apex of their travel, the streams merged into a single broad rainbow stream, and rocketed down.
Straight into a flabbergasted Fluttershy.
They’re Coming Back For Round Two!
The remaining 5 Bearers all turned to face Fluttershy as the rainbow engulfed her in a tornado of color. Their Elements all tugged towards Fluttershy, then shot forth beams shaped like their gems. The beams struck the rainbow tornado around Fluttershy. Their power made the tornado grow and spin even faster. The colors in the rainbow got brighter and brighter, until they were a blinding pure white flash of light.
Then everything was still.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked tentatively.
Before them stood an immense, proud pegasus. As tall as Celestia, with equivalent wingspan and a similar form of equine perfection. Butter yellow body. Exceedingly long mane and tail; translucent shimmering pink, purple, and teal; all blowing in an ethereal wind. Broad yellow wings with pink and teal highlights. No horn. A large pink butterfly cutie mark, surrounded by a flock of smaller pink and teal butterflies. And great blue eyes that looked down at her friends.
“Uhmm?” Fluttershy said, as she examined her body. It felt perfectly natural, even wonderful. But the perspective of looking down at her friends felt... wrong.
“Fluttershy, your Element,” Rarity whispered. Everyone looked. Her Element had become a broad golden peytral, with a large pink butterfly jewel at the center. Above the butterfly was a medium sized six pointed purple star jewel. Flanking them were smaller jewels of a balloon, diamond, apple, and rainbow lightning bolt. Fluttershy also wore matching golden hoof boots with pink butterfly jewels.
“Her Element? What about our Elements,” Dash said. Everypony checked and saw their crowns and necklace were now empty of jewels. The remaining gold hung heavy. The items no longer held any power.
“You been doing amazing stuff all day Shy; you had to take our Elements too?” Applejack said.
“I didn’t mean to...”
“Hold on.” Twilight thought fast. “I don’t think Fluttershy did anything we haven’t done every other time we used the Elements of Harmony. I think the Elements themselves decided to do something different.”
“Why the switcheroo?” asked Pinkie.
“Maybe because this time, hitting the shadow thing down there with a rainbow wouldn't solve the problem,” Rarity said.
“And maybe Rainbow Shy can?” asked Dash.
Before they could all settle the debate, reality reared its ugly head.
“Incoming!” cried Commander Fairweather. He and the nurses all leapt and rolled to the side.
A giant tentacle of shadow, thicker than the tallest tree in the Everfree Forest, reached up from the valley floor and over the edge of the garden. It slammed down with the force of a falling building. The girls scattered. The gazebo was crushed to splinters and the ground shook.
The geyser of shadows had solidified into a dozen monstrous black tentacles, all reaching toward the castle and its surroundings.
“Them shadows have a powerful mad on about this castle,” said Applejack.
“Here comes it’s big brother!” Pinkie called.
A second shadow tentacle, taller and thicker than the first, hammered down toward the ponies in the garden.
“I’ll handle it; nopony but I can!” Fluttershy made a single powerful beat of her wings, and rocketed up to interposed herself between the shadow and her friends. The tentacle hit her with the force to shatter buildings. There was a rainbow flash. Fluttershy didn’t move an hoof-width; the top of the shadow tentacle shattered instead.
The remains of the tentacle slammed down into the cliff at the edge of the garden. The cliff face fell away. Rarity and Pinkie were knocked off the cliff and began plummeting toward the valley floor.
“I’ve got Pinkie, you get Rarity!” Dash called to Fluttershy. She rocketed into the air, made a sharp turn and headed down.
Fluttershy looked down and saw her falling friends. Dash was making a clean pickup on Pinkie. But Rarity was falling fast. Fluttershy kicked her back hooves in the air to flip around, beat her great wings, and zoomed down as fast as she could after Rarity.
Giant shadow tentacles lashed at Fluttershy as she sped straight down. She ignored them, and they shattered when they hit her.
Somehow in all the excitement, Fluttershy was too busy acting to be scared. And after all she’d been through, she wasn’t so much scared of being hurt, as she was of doing the wrong thing. She could do things nopony could do. So long as she kept doing the first thing that came to mind, she might be okay. Now she just had to catch Rarity.
Fluttershy wrapped all four legs around Rarity to hold her tight. Once Fluttershy got her grip, she glanced down, and realized her error. She was too close to the valley floor, and was moving down so fast, she didn’t see how she could stop in time.
She decided not to stop. She extended her wings to the maximum, and leaned over, converting the downward movement into a high speed left turn. The force of the turn was so great that Rarity let out a loud groan, then blacked out.
As Fluttershy got near the valley floor, still diving at considerable speed, the roiling shadow rose to meet her. She continued her turn, and flew parallel to the ground, weaving between giant bursting bubbles of black shadow. Fluttershy didn’t want to find out would happen to Rarity if the bubbling black goo touched her.
In a flash, Fluttershy emerged from the depths of the hollow and flew past the edge of the roiling shadows. The valley floor rose quickly, and her turn was not tight enough to avoid an impact. The extended primary feathers on her left wing hit the rising ground... and the ground lost.
Her wing tore up great divots, shattered boulders, and threw soil hundreds of feet into the air. Fluttershy’s flight path was undeterred. She quickly completed her turn and climbed to a safe distance.
Rarity recovered consciousness, and grabbed on, chest to chest in Fluttershy's firm grip. She opened her mouth to thank her saviour, when her whole body shuddered. Rarity traced the feeling of revulsion to her treasure finding sense.
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.
“Just repulsed,” Rarity replied. “Not by you, darling. By a veritable underground mountain of hideous black crystals full of the dark magic that Twilight warned us about. So long as the crystals are there to power the tentacles, I don’t see how we can stop them from attacking the castle.”
“What are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t know,” Rarity replied. “But I do know I am forever grateful for your timely rescue. Rarity put a hoof up to give Fluttershy a friendly pat. Her hoof brusted Fluttershy’s golden peytral, and naturally went to the glittering diamond from Rarity’s Element. The diamond responded to her touch, flaring brightly. Both Rarity and Fluttershy’s eyes opened wide.
“I feel it,” Fluttershy said. “I feel the dark mountain underground.”
“We’re sharing my special talent” Rarity replied. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
Fluttershy didn’t respond. She was using Rarity’s special sense to map out the location of the dark mountain underground. She fixed the perimeter and the depth in her mind. Then she spotted the divot her wing had made, and had an idea.
Dash flew back down after depositing Pinkie back in the garden. “You caught Rarity! Good save, Shy!”
“Dash, can you get Rarity back to the girls? I have an idea I want to try.”
“Got it,” Dash said. “Rarity, it’s your turn for the Rainbow Express!” She grabbed Rarity from Fluttershy and sped back to the castle garden.
“This is crazy,” Fluttershy whispered. “First a train, then a castle, and now this. Nopony can do these things. Well, as Twilight said, today I am that nopony!”
Fluttershy rolled into a dive, then beat her wings to accelerate. Faster and faster, until the air before her started to luminess. She flew round and round, just above the ground, encircling the underground mountain. Her turning speed was so great, she flew perpendicular to the ground.
Then she dipped the primaries of her left wing into the ground, with no more trepidation than Dash skimming her wingtips across a pond. However, the effect was far more dramatic.
In an instant, Fluttershy dug a trench all the way around the roiling black shadows, and the dark underground mountain that powered them. With each revolution she dove deeper, and by the third she had disappeared from view. The mark of her passing was a giant rooster tail of shattered stone and soil.
Above the Canterlot Castle Garden, Twilight had her hooves full, keeping the tentacles from smashing castle. She was holding off some with blasts from her horn, keeping others from impacting with magenta shields, and flying like crazy to keep the rest from swatting her out of the sky. She was quickly using up the power that triggering the Elements of harmony had gifted her. And she had been so busy fighting that she hadn’t been able to find out anything more about their enemy.
Her friends had been heroic as usual. Dash saved Pinkie from falling and moments later brought Rarity back to the garden after she also fell off the cliff. Applejack galloped every corridor in Canterlot Castle, and directed the second evacuation of the day in record time.
The Royal Guard also rose to the occasion. Pegasi saved ponies from falling into the valley after attacks. Unicorns volley fired magic blasts that diverted hammering tentacles. And Earth Ponies saved countless compatriots from falling debris.
“But this is all for nothing if something doesn’t break our way soon,” Twilight thought.
An amazingly loud RRRRRRRR sounded from the valley below. It didn’t stop, but went on and on. The tentacles suddenly stopped attacking and waved in agitation. They receded and criss crossed, ignoring Canterlot Castle and probing the valley floor.
“Something like that!” Twilight called.
A wall of flying rock and dirt encircled the shadows. When a shadow tentacle probed the wall, it swiftly pulled back. Its tip had been shredded.
Fluttershy had to have made the wall. Twilight wasn't sure what she was doing, but it was working!
“Think, Twilight. think. It’s what you’re good at. Fluttershy’s given you your first moment to think since this started. Don’t waste it.
“I need knowledge. I need to know what is going on in order to help. And right now, the action is happening down there with Fluttershy.
“What else is down there with her? Shadows. They’re no help. She’s alone. So there’s nopony else I can contact.”
Twilight got an idea. Ideas made Twilight smile.
“Fluttershy has the all Elements. Including the Element of Magic. I’ll bet it will respond to me, even if it’s being worn by another. I’m sorry you had to take the fall for me to learn that, Sunset Shimmer.”
Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated on her connection to the Element of Magic. She imagined all the times she had triggered it, the many more times she had studied it, and the even more times she had simply worn it. “Friendship is magic,” she thought. “And the Element is magic. So the Element is my friend.”
Twilight’s eyes went white. The connection was made.
Fluttershy was deep in the ground and flying blind, except for the beacon of Rarity’s special talent. She had carved a trench all around the underground mountain of black crystal. Then she tightened up her turn to slice the black crystal above from the clean earth below.
Dirt and boulders battered her body as she flew through the ground, but they shattered on impact and didn’t even slow her down. Her wings and magic powered her through the ground as fast as they had powered her through the air. The problem, was the moment she moved on, any separation she had created with her body was instantly crushed by the huge mass above her.
“Fluttershy?”
She turned her head to find the sound, which was absurd because she was alone, deep underground, and plowing through solid rock at nearly the speed of a rainboom.
“Can you hear me?”
The voice was coming from within her own head, which was a good thing because the continuous sound of shattering stone would have overwhelmed any actual speech. But a voice in her head also seemed like a bad thing. After everything else crazy that had happened today, was she going to start hearing voices?
But she knew this voice.
“Twilight?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Twilight’s voice said. “It works! We’re connected through the Element of Magic.”
“But I’m wearing it, you don’t have your Element.”
“Nothing gets between me and my friends, and the Element of Magic is an old friend of mine!”
“So, what's going on and how can I help?” thought Twilight.
Fluttershy explained her situation. “I’m trying to use my body to separate the black crystals from their surroundings. I cut a trench around the crystals to cut them off from the sides, but everytime I try to cut off the bottom, the ground collapses and closes back up.”
“You’ve got all the Elements of Harmony working for you,” Twilight told her. “I think I can show you how to fix that.”
With a respite from the attacking tentacles, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Dash helped Commander Fairweather restore order around Canterlot Castle Garden, and make sure everypony was okay.
Applejack swiftly but gently transported wounded ponies over to the nurses. Dash re-formed flights of scattered pegasi guards Pinkie brought the nursing ponies whatever supplies they asked for, even if nopony could say exactly where she got them from. Rarity helped Commander Fairweather direct the rescue operations. The Commander gave military orders and Spike made sure they got to the right ponies in the guard. Rarity gave crisp orders to the castle staff like she had been doing so her entire life.
Dash flew back toward the garden, at the apex of a great V of pegasi guards. She scanned the valley below and saw the walls of flying rock and stone fade away. The black surface of the hollow roiled higher, and the tentacles grew back toward the castle.
“They’re coming back for round two!” Dash called.
“Heavy Armor Earth Ponies to the front. Unicorns assemble behind them,” Commander Fairweather ordered, “Pegasi in reserve in case anypony falls off the cliff.” Squads of Royal Guards followed his orders and rushed into position.
A dozen shadow tentacles reached up over the edge of the garden, and continued to climb into the sky, until their tips were above the tops of Canterlot Castle. En masse the tentacles struck down towards those assembled in the garden. There were so many tentacles attacking simultaneously, there was no where for anypony to run to.
Before the tentacles could impact, the valley filled with multi-colored light. There was a sound, like a massive explosion, except that it went on and on, and seemed like it would never stop.
The tentacles halted their attack, quaked, and again retreated below the edge of the garden cliff. Ponies scrambled over to the edge, shielded their eyes with a hoof, and gazed down.
A circle of shimmering rainbow, miles across, lit the valley and encircled the roiling pool of blackness. The shadow tentacles were disintegrating, pieces falling into and outside of the pool. The explosion sound was clearly coming from the direction of the pool.
Rainbow light flared up, rays shooting out of the encircling glow, and painting the valley walls with color. The explosion roared even louder.
Everything within the rainbow circle started to slowly rise. Only a few pony-lengths in the first few seconds, then faster and faster it climbed into the air. As it passed the level of the Canterlot Castle Garden, everypony could see a literal upside down mountain, miles across and equally tall, was accelerating into the sky. Any remaining bits of shadow tentacle or black goo that fell were explosively vaporized by a great beam of rainbow light that encircled the flat top of the mountain, and shone down into the valley below.
And glowing brighter than everything else was Fluttershy, under the bottom of the mountain, lifting it on her back and into the sky.
The assembled in the garden stopped whatever they were doing and looked on, slack jawed. Then, Dash called out, “Go! Shy Go!” And everypony joined in the cheering.
Discord slithered out from under a pile of rubble that used to be part of the Canterlot Castle outer wall. He watched the rainbow covered mountain rising past the castle. He was especially interested in the glowing yellow pegasus pushing it into the sky. “Better and better!” he said.
Discord grinned. He snapped his claw. Nothing happened. He frowned and brought his claw up in front of one eye to examine it closely. Discord snapped his claw again, and this time he disappeared.
Something Goes And Raises The Stakes
Twilight flew straight up, keeping pace with the rising mountain. “Fluttershy?” she thought.
“Yes...”
“I’m worried that we didn’t get all of the black crystals.” Twilight scanned the valley, far below. “The rainbow was vaporizing the pieces that fell off, but...”
“Oh they’re all here, Twilight, I made sure.”
Twilight was surprised. “Did the Elements tell you?”
“No, when I caught Rarity, she touched her Element, and suddenly we could both use her special talent,” Fluttershy thought. “I could tell where all the black crystals were, so I made sure I dug up enough rock to get them all.”
Twilight’s mind raced. Sharing a special talent suggested an incredibly close bond. Then Twilight had an idea. Ideas made her smile. “Can you still feel where the black crystals are?”
“Just a little, enough to know I still have them all.”
“Then there’s still a connection,” Twilight said. “Cover your metaphorical ears.” Twilight pushed the magic she had used to contact her Element into the Element of Generosity. Then she projected as loud as she could. “RARITY!”
“A true Princess doesn’t need to shout, Twilight,” Rarity replied. “Wait... Twilight... I thought you were up there. And I don’t see you down here. Is this some sort of mind magic?”
“We’re all connected through the Elements of Harmony,” Fluttershy thought.
“Oh my,” thought Rarity. “Does this mean you can hear my thoughts, become aware of my deepest secrets?”
“I know I didn’t ask first, Rarity, but this is an emergency,” Twilight thought.
“Think nothing of it, Twilight, glad to be of assistance,” Rarity replied. “It just seems like something we should have talked about and set up some guidelines for is all. We shall all just have to guard our thoughts and make the best of it. How can I help?”
“We still don’t know who, or how, or even why all this is happening.” said Twilight. “Princess Celestia had invited us all to go to the Royal Study. There may be some answers there. I need you all to go there and see what you can find.”
Because of the evacuation, no ponies were in the castle to keep them away from the closed doors to the Royal Study. Rarity used her magic to try and open the doors. A bolt of lightning erupted from the door handles and shocked her into the corridor wall.
Applejack and Spike rushed to Rarity. “That was rude,” Rarity said slowly.
“Ooooo, sorry about that,” Twilight said inside her head. “When the castle was attacked, it must have automatically triggered extra defensive wards to lock down the study. I’ve heard rumors of special defenses in important areas of the castle, but Princess Celestia never told me how to disarm them.”
“Makes me feel a little bit like a second class Princess.” Twilight mumbled. “So you you’ll just have to break the wards down, Rarity.”
“I think you overestimate my magical prowess,” Rarity said. “These doors are likely protected by every powerful ward that a millennia of Princesses and Arch Mage’s could devise.”
“True, but I have a friend who can help you,” Twilight beamed. Rarity could feel her smile though the connection. “Meet, the Element of Magic!” Twilight facilitated the connection and introduced two of her best friends. Power and understanding flooded Rarity’s consciousness. She levitated off the floor. Her eyes went white.
“Give her some room,” Applejack said. The girls took a step backwards.
Wisps of magic circled around Rarity’s horn. Her own blue. Twilight’s magenta. And a rainbow of other colors. The wisps raced around, faster and faster, thicker and thicker, until her horn was encased in a tornado of mystic colors. The tornado turned into a flat sheet of rainbow and blasted into the study doors. There was a sound like thunder happening a pony-length away. The doors disintegrated.
“There goes a thousand years worth of defensive wards,” thought Twilight.
The blue returned to Rarity’s eyes, and her hooves settled onto the ground. She shook her head to clear it. “Go on in,” she said to Applejack, Pinkie, Dash, and Spike. “I’ll be right behind you once I clear my head.” They rushed inside.
“Twilight,” Rarity thought slowly. “Is that what it’s like to be... you?”
“”I’m so sorry...” Twilight apologized.
“No. No,” Rarity thought. “I mean, when I looked at all those wards, they were as simple as a dress pattern. And when I cast, I felt my magic go through them like scissors through silk. Is that what it’s like for you and your magic all the time?’
“Not ALL the time...” Twilight thought. Rarity could feel her cheeks blushing through the link.
“I have been remiss in my duties and have been wasting a great opportunity,” thought Rarity. “A lady must always strive to improve herself, and I have been best friends with one of the greatest magic users of the ages and never sought her tutelage. Twilight, when this is over, would you be willing to help me improve my magical skills?”
“Rarity, it would be an honor,” replied Twilight.
Rarity, Twilight, and even Fluttershy, who had been silent during the exchange, all felt infinitely close being linked through the Elements, even though they were physically miles or even hundreds of miles apart.
“I think we can take it from here,” Rarity thought. “I’ll “speak up” when we have found something.”
Fluttershy, her flying mountain, and Twilight continued their ascent into the sky.
“That was very... nice... of you, Twilight,” thought Fluttershy.
“Thank you, I’ll bet teaching Rarity will be... interesting... for both of us,” Twilight thought. “How are you doing, Fluttershy?”
“Lifting a mountain is surprisingly... inconvenient,” Fluttershy replied.
“Not the response I was expecting. Is it tipping? Or falling apart?”
“No, the Elements seem to be keeping it together and upright.”
“So... inconvenient?” Twilight asked.
“The mountain is on my back, so I can’t see where I’m going. All the glowing rainbows make it hard to see where I’ve been. All the rocks make it hard to make full beats with my wings. And the tip of the mountain is starting to dig into my back at the base of my neck,” Fluttershy ranted.
Twilight stifled a laugh. She could feel Fluttershy’s annoyed response.
“Sorry. Sorry,” Twilight thought. “I was wondering if there might be some kind of danger or emergency. Or that a mountain might be, you know, heavy?”
“I said it was inconvenient, not a crises,” Fluttershy replied.
“Point taken. It’s just everytime I think my mind has been blown today...”
“Something goes and raises the stakes.”
“Yeah.”
In the Royal Study of Canterlot Castle, four mares and a baby dragon deployed like they had done several times before. They had all been done emergency research before, in libraries in Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, and in the Castle of the Two Sisters. Everyone took a portion of the room, scooped up what papers, scrolls, and books they found, and methodically started going through them.
Twilight had even drilled Spike and the girls in some rules for “Combat Studying” to help them make progress faster. Scan all titles and seals for any indications of useful information within. Check books with bookmarks in them first. The bookmarks showed an active interest in a specific passage. Then notes, scrolls, and books, in that order. Within a group, check the more recent volumes before the ancient ones. Anything that was in a language you couldn’t read would get passed to someone who could read it.
“An amazing amount of this is government red tape,” Rarity said. “It seems beneath the Princesses to waste their time so. As All Team Organizer and fellow Princess, Twilight simply must work out a way to free them from this minutia.”
“Maybe after we get them back from the Sun and the Moon.” Applejack flipped through her pile.
“Priorities. Got it.” Rarity resumed her search.
Applejack held up two pieces of parchment. “I’ve got two reports about magical energy flows out of Tartarus.”
Spike rolled his eyes in remembrance. “Didn’t the letter from Princess Celestia to Twilight mention strange magical energy flows?”
“I’ve got a scroll about Tartarus.” “Another book.” “And a note.”
“As good a starting place as any,” Rarity said. “Share all the references to Tartarus in the center of the table. Read them all and call out if you spot anything.”
References came thick and fast after that.
Fluttershy kept flapping and pushing. The mountain kept accelerating into the sky. Twilight kept Fluttershy in view by climbing and keeping pace, a couple of miles to the south.
“So what are we going to do with this thing?” Fluttershy asked.
“I thought you knew? Twilight replied.
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“Oh. Okay. Let me think. We can’t just drop it on land, it would make a big crater, and shatter, and scatter evil black crystals everywhere. I wouldn’t even wish that on the Wastelands.”
“Can we drop it in the water?”
“No, it might cause tidal waves, and ruin the lives of sea ponies and other creatures. And again, shatter and scatter evil black crystals, this time all over the sea bed. I want to meet sea ponies someday. I don’t think bombing them with a mountain of dark magic is a good way to make friends.”
‘Well I can’t just keep pushing it into the sky forever.”
Twilight was silent for a moment. “Rarity, if you girls think of some way to safely get rid of this thing, we’re all ears.”
In the Royal Study of Canterlot Castle, Dash was tired of studying from books. She was a learn-by-doing kind of mare! Dash shielded her eyes with her wings and peered up and out a massive window in the study. All she could see were rainbow lights, high in the sky, climbing higher every second. The lights were so high, that she couldn’t even see the mountain they were supporting anymore, let alone Fluttershy or Twilight. “We’re gonna lose them in a minute if they keep climbing,” Dash said.
“I’ve lost them already,” said Applejack. “I don’t got eyes like a pegasus.”
“If only we had a device, especially made for seeing bright objects far away,” Pinkie said. She put her hoof to her chin, and scrunched her muzzle in deep thought. “Oh yeah, we do have one of those. Right there!” She pointed her hoof at the study’s balcony.
“The telescope!” everyone chorused.
Dash flew to the balcony and rotated the telescope toward the receding rainbow in the sky. The rest of the girls got there just as Dash focused the telescope.
“You know how to work this thing?” Applejack asked.
“Sure, I learned watching falling stars with Twilight through her telescope,” Dash replied. “Which is totally awesome, and not eggheaded at all.” The telescope had a screen, so all the girls and Spike gathered around to get a better view. Rainbow slowly rotated a dial with one hoof, to keep their target in view and in focus. The screen was filled with the flying mountain, the great beam of rainbow light that encircled the flat top of the mountain and the brighter glow of Fluttershy, flapping her wings and pushing the mountain ever higher. Twilight flitted around the outside of the rainbow lights, surrounded by her own bubble of magenta magic.
“How high are they?” Rarity asked.
Pinkie stretched her neck and turned her head at a right angle to see the readings next to the dial Rainbow Dash was using to aim the telescope. “With that angle of inclination, I’d say two hundred and fifty two miles up,” Pinkie said. “Give or take a pony-length.” She bounced up and down and seemed quite pleased with herself.
“But, hasn’t Twilight said in the past there is no air up that high?” asked Rarity.
“No air? How are they flying?” said Dash.
“Probably with a lot of magic,” Pinkie said.
Fluttershy and Twilight had flown so high, the sky had turned from blue to black. Though they had considered several options, they had not found a good solution to how to get rid of the mountain of black magic.
“Fluttershy? Twilight?” Rarity called out, mind to mind.
“Yes?” “We’re here.”
“We’ve been watching you both through the telescope and discussing your problem with the mountain,” Rarity thought. “Applejack has a suggestion, and simply demands I pass it on.”
“Oh, what does Applejack suggest?” Fluttershy replied.
“It’s not the kind of thing that a proper Lady normally says in public.”
“You don’t have to say anything if you find it too embarrassing,” Fluttershy nodded to herself.
“Thank you my dear, however this is an emergency, so perhaps some loosening of the normal social rules is appropriate...”
“If you think so...”
“Oh just say it!” Twilight called.
Rarity was affronted.
“Please?” Twilight added.
“Thank you,” Rarity took a moment to compose herself. “Applejack says to... buck it.”
There was silence in the connection.
“Applejack has reminded me that her exact words were, ‘Have Fluttershy buck it really, really good.’”
“Fluttershy’s turning, can you zoom in?” cried Applejack.
Rainbow Dash adjusted the telescope. Fluttershy and her brilliant glow filled the screen. She tucked all 4 legs in close to her body and flapped her wings once to rotate until her rump was aimed at the bottom of the mountain.
"I recognize that position." Applejack had a huge grin.
The rainbow faded from around the mountain until just Fluttershy was glowing. Twilight wrapped a giant funnel shaped magic shield around the mountain, with Fluttershy near the opening at the small end. Fluttershy coiled her body in tight. In an instant, she explosively arched her back, extended her wings, and kicked out with her hind legs. Her golden shod rear hooves slammed into the top of the mountain. And the entire mountain shattered into dust and rocketed into space.
“She bucked it!” Applejack cried. “She bucked a mountain! And that was an A Number One buck. Yea Haw! I am inviting Fluttershy to come help out at Sweet Apple Acres next apple bucking season!”
“Great job, Fluttershy! I can feel the dark magic receding.” Twilight pumped a hoof. “Every grain of black crystal dust is headed out to space. At the speed they’re going, I don’t think they’re ever coming back.” Twilight's magic funnel shield disappeared with a pop. She kept the shield bubble around herself.
Fluttershy made a maximum stretch of her neck, her wings, and all four legs. Then she reached a foreleg back and rubbed the sore area between her wings. It helped. But with the momentary respite, came nagging doubts. Sure, so far nothing she had done had caused a disaster... that she knew of. But it was all so... big. One wrong move, and something really bad could happen. “I wish I was back at my little cottage with my animals.” Fluttershy thought to herself.
The emergency over for the moment, Twilight took a minute to catch her breath and look around. The universe had a magenta cast to it because she was looking through the magical bubble she’d conjured to breath and fly above the atmosphere. But even with the interference of the bubble, she could see more stars than she had ever seen before. And she could see something more. She was still joined, at a distance, with the Element of Magic. The Element enhanced her magic, but it also broadened her perceptions. And looking out at the oceans of stars, Twilight saw something she had only seen once before in her life.
“Oooooo,” she said, pointing a hoof at the stars. “Pretty!”
“The stars are beautiful up here,” Fluttershy replied.
“No, not them. I mean, yes the stars are pretty too,” babbled Twilight. “I mean the MACHINE.”
Fluttershy looked left and right, but saw nothing but stars. “What machine are you talking about?”
“The CELESTIAL MACHINE.” Twilight's thoughts were thick with awe. “I saw it once before when all the Princesses gave me their magic so Tirek wouldn't find it. I had to lower the moon and raise the sun. When I did, I saw the machinery that runs the cosmos. The CELESTIAL MACHINE is a series of titanic magical energy rivers and physical forces that flow across the face of the cosmos. Everything, from the largest galaxy to the smallest grain of space dust, is connected through them. Interesting fact, Celestia and Luna don’t actually lift the sun and the moon to move them. They connect their stellar bodies to the flows and trigger the CELESTIAL MACHINE. It moves them across the sky.”
Twilight stared and drank in the glory of the machinery of the stars. But even in the face of wonder, Twilight’s mind never stopped working. She turned her head. Her eyes narrowed to slits.
“What do you see?” asked Fluttershy.
“It’s not moving,” Twilight whispered. “Once the sun is raised, the MACHINE should move it across the sky. But the sun is stopped.” Twilight needed more data to understand what was going on. “Find the moon, we might be able to see it from up here.”
“There!” Fluttershy called. She pointed to the farthest edge of the world below them.
Far to the east, Twilight could see the first glimmering of the Moon. It would still be below the horizon in Equestria. But the moon was clearly in position for Luna to raise it, as soon as the Sun was set. Over the years, Twilight had examined the Moon in great detail, both with the naked eye and with her telescope. When she lived in Canterlot, she had studied the Moon to learn more about the Mare in the Moon. After moving to Ponyville, she had studied the Moon to better understand the prison where her friend, Princess Luna, had been banished for a thousand years. She knew every crater and mountain. And something was wrong.
“Look at the shadows on the Moon,” Twilight thought. “What do they remind you of?”
“A pony-head, with a horn.” Fluttershy was taken aback. “I haven’t seen a shadow on the Moon like that since...”
“Since before the return of Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight.
Twilight’s mind raced, and she felt her panic rise. “No,” she thought, “figure out what’s going on first. Panic later.” Twilight tripled the magenta shields in front of her, and turned them towards the sun. The shields protected her eyes from the glare. The same shadow was there, on the surface of the sun. Head and horn; an Alicorn. “I think that confirms what happened to the Princesses,” Twilight said. She looked closely at the starry sky. No star, comet, or asteroid moved at all. "And whatever banished them also broke the heavens."
“The sun, moon, and all the heavens have stopped.” Twilight thought to Rarity and Fluttershy. “It’s a disaster.”
“It’s worse than you think, dear.” Rarity replied.
“Worse than breaking the sky? What did you find out?”
“Long ago, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna discovered a horrible, but empty, parallel dimension called Tartarus. They turned it into a prison and banished creatures there who were threats to Equestria. Tirek is an example,” Rarity summarized. “The Princesses crafted a spell called the Gates of Tartarus to control access to and from Equestria. Luna recruited Cerberus to guard the location of the Gates.”
“The movements of the Sun and the Moon power the the Gates of Tartarus spell. According to recent reports, something weakened the Gate spell, and magical energy, including dark magic, is flowing between the dimensions. If these reports are true, Tartarus is getting ever closer to Equestria and the power coming out of Tartarus is likely what is fueling the black tentacles that attacked the castle and banished the Princesses. And if the Sun and the Moon don’t get back to where they’re supposed to be, the Gates will collapse completely, giving the denizens of Tartarus free access to Equestria.”
“It would be like Tirek’s escape, times a thousand,” Rarity cried.
Everypony in the link was silent.
“I’m sorry, Rarity, but we need you to go to the Gates of Tartarus.” Twilight thought very quietly. “We need to have somepony with their eyes on the Gate. Somepony who can communicate with us through the link.
“I was afraid of that,” Rarity replied. “But you are correct.”
“Keep Spike out of it,” thought Twilight. “I don’t want him near Tartarus.”
“Of course, darling. Leave that to me.”
Twilight nodded. They quickly agreed upon their plans.
Rarity turned to Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, and Spike. “Twilight has a plan. She needs us to get to the Gates of Tartarus to report on what is going on and intervene if needed.”
Pinkie bounced up and yelled, “Road Trip!”
“How does Twilight expect us to get to the Gates of Tartarus?” Applejack asked. “Only Dashy here can fly.”
“Twilight suggests we talk to Commander Fairweather,” said Rarity.
“Let’s go, we’ve got no time to lose.” Dash rocketed out, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake..
They ran, flew, bounced, and galloped out of the study and down to the garden where Commander Fairweather was directing the Royal Guard.
“Hi Commander!” Pinkie called. “Twilight said you might be able to help us get to Tartarus, toute suite!”
“Pinkie, where did you-all learn to speak Fancy?”
“Partying in Prance!”
“Ladies!” the Commander barked, to get their attention. “Tartarus?”
“Documents in the Royal Study pinpoint The Gates of Tartarus as the likely source of our woes.” Rarity stood up tall, like a lady. “Princess Twilight told us to ask you about swift transportation.”
“She also told us to break into the Royal Study,” Dash said. “Rarity kinda blew up the door, so you might want to get a couple of guards up there to protect anything, you know, secret.”
Commander Fairweather looked in surprise at Rarity. She nodded her head, like she’d seen Princess Celestia do many times before to acknowledge her “little ponies”.
The commander’s eyes flicked back and forth over the group. He mumbled, “Hero work... right.”
“After Tirek’s escape, we established an outpost of the Royal Guards that watches over the Gates of Tartarus, alert for anything escaping.” Commander Fairweather addressed the group. “We built a Unicorn Circle into the outpost, so the guards could teleport away with any information in case of emergency.”
“Is there a matching circle here?” asked Rarity.
“In the outer garden,” replied the Commander. "But it only goes one way, from the outpost to here. and it will only transport four ponies before recharging."
"Show us the circle." Rarity sighed. "We may have a friend who can help."
Rarity had read that Unicorn Circles were a recent mystic innovation. They allowed long distance teleportation between fixed points. Two identical circles would be constructed in separate points, and then mystically linked. Unicorns would charge the circles with magic, and then anypony could use the circle to teleport from one circle to the other.
She knew they were fiendishly difficult to build, requiring rare and expensive components and the services of many powerful unicorns working together to enchant. The Unicorn Circle in the Royal Garden was a beautiful construction, three pony lengths in diameter. The floor was a tiled mosaic of gems and rare stones in runic patterns. A trio of trilithons, also adorned with runic mosaics, formed the outside of the circle. The circle whispered magic to those sensitive enough to hear, and random sparkles, like fireflies, glistened in the shadows.
“Twilight, we are at the Unicorn Circle,” Rarity thought. “It is connected to it’s sister near Tartarus, but only goes from there to here. Is it possible that your friend could help?”
“Gladly, Rarity” Twilight replied. She connected Rarity to the Element of Magic again. Rarity’s eyes went white and she rose a stride-length into the air. Everypony else took a step back.
The magic in the circle suddenly looked simple, trivial for Rarity to understand. The unicorns who had enchanted the circle had been formidable, but... uninformed. The connections between the circle and the natural mystic flows, the ley lines beneath Canterlot, had been created to be symmetrical, rather than connecting harmoniously. Natural flows were seldom symmetrical. It was either lack of understanding, or unicorn hubris by the enchanters, that lead them to try to force symmetry on nature rather than working in harmony. Their mistake limited the circle to one way travel. But their mistake could be repaired.
Rarity floated into the center of the Unicorn Circle. A glowing ball of rainbow light formed at the tip of her horn. She pointed her head and horn down at the base of the northernmost pillar of one of the trilithons. A beam of magic sprang from the rainbow ball, and bathed the pillar. The runes in the floor and the pillar glowed. Rarity rotated in a circle slow, moving her head and horn to bath every rune with magic. Runes to the north and east were bathed in orange and yellow, to the south in blue and gold, and to the west in magenta and pink. When Rarity finished her revolution, the entire circle lit up in white, so bright that everypony had to look away.
When the radiance died down, Rarity was standing in the center of the Unicorn Circle. Her eyes were normal again. The circle was so full of magic that it was humming, and the firefly sparkles were racing around the outside of the circle, visible even in the sunlight.
Rarity took in a big breath and huffed it out. “Spike, you stay here and coordinate with Commander Fairweather. We will send messages through the circle if we have news.”
“Got it Rarity!” Spike called back.
“Girls, we have a date with a gate.” Rarity extended a hoof and invited them into the circle.
Applejack entered the circle wearily. “Awful lot of trouble to get to someplace no sane pony wants to go to.”
Pinkie bounced in. “Just more crazy fun time!”
“Was that supposed to be ironic?” Dash landed in the circle. “Please tell me it was ironic.”
Pinkie smiled and zipped her lips.
Rarity shook her head, lit her horn, and the four of them disappeared in a blue flash of magic.
In the broken sky, Twilight had finally lost it.
“We have too many crises and mysteries!" Twilight ranted to Fluttershy. "I had to make a list to keep track of them, we have so many.
Twilight made a deep sigh. She lowered her head, pulled in her wings, and sulked.
"It is a lot," whispered Fluttershy. "How do you normally decide what to do first, when you've got too many things to do?
"What everypony does," Twilight sighed. "Find dependencies, determine what's time critical, decide what can be delegated. Then prioritize everything, start at the top, and work through the list." Twilight's voice was stronger. It was easy for her to fall into, "lecture mode."
"I don't think everypony does do that," Fluttershy said. "Lots just do the first thing that comes to mind, or do the easiest thing first."
"Are they crazy?" Twilight cried. "Think of how inefficient that is or how many critical things could fall through the cracks."
Fluttershy pointed a hoof at Twilight. "That's why you're the All Team Organizer."
"I do organize stuff all the time, don't I?"
"It's practically your second special talent."
Twilight took in and blew out a deep breath. She fluffed up her wings and held her head high. "Thanks Fluttershy. Let's organize the Tartarus out of this!"
Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Dash appeared in a flash of blue magic. At first glance, it wasn’t apparent they had moved at all. The Unicorn Circle was identical. But beyond the circle, they no longer saw the Royal Gardens. This circle was in a small courtyard, surrounded on one side by a small brick building, and on the other three sides by a pony-height brick wall.
“This must be the outpost Commander Fairweather talked about,” Applejack said.
Pinkie bounced over to the north wall and peaked over. “And that must be what we all came to see!”
All the girls gathered at the north wall and peaked over. A half mile away, across a barren, rock strewn, depression, was a giant cave entrance in a tall cliffside. An unearthly glow flickered inside the cave.
They ran, flew, bounced, and galloped across the depression to the cave entrance. Inside, the girls could see a great shimmering shield, just a few pony-lengths away. Through the shimmering shield, the blurry silhouettes of a host of creatures moved. Some were pony shaped, but their size or proportions were... wrong. Others were huge, or had limbs where they shouldn't. Every creature was throwing themselves at the shield in a frenzy. As the girls watched, the shimmering shield flickered once, and small cracks appeared in the center. This drove the creatures on the other side mad, and they threw themselves at the shield with re-doubled frenzy.
The girls recoiled from the cave entrance. "The Gates of Tartarus could come down at any moment," Rarity called to Twilight, mind to mind. "What do you want us to do?"
"Keep sending reports as long as you can," Twilight replied. "Be ready to run to the Unicorn Circle at the outpost the moment the Gate collapses. After you get away, destroy the circle in Canterlot so nothing can follow you."
"Got it," said Rarity. "What are you and Fluttershy going to be doing?"
"Impossible things," Twilight replied.
Twilight and Fluttershy floated in broken space.
"To strengthen the Gates, step one is to get the Moon back where it’s supposed to be," Twilight told Fluttershy, mind to mind. "It should be here." She pointed a hoof and projected a location just above the Eastern horizon to Fluttershy. "Step One A, I hold on and you fly to the moon as fast as you can," Twilight said. "I don't know how fast that is, but we need to find out." Twilight got on Fluttershy's long back, wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy's neck and barrel, laid her head next to Fluttershy's, and strengthened the hold with layer after layer of magenta magic.
"Ready?"
Fluttershy nodded.
"Go!"
With a single beat of her mighty wings, Fluttershy exploded forward. The cosmos roared with a sound like thunder and a great glowing cone of yellow and pink flared behind her. It rivaled the sun in intensity and was visible from The Crystal Empire to Appleloosa.
Twilight felt her eyes crush into the back of her head. All breath left her lungs. And for all her Earth Pony strength and Alicorn magic, she was positive she was going to slip off Fluttershy's back, fall into the cone, and be reduced to a whisp of smoke.
But the way she lay on Fluttershy, Twilight's empty crown touched Fluttersy's massive petryal. The purple gem from the Element of Magic recognized both of its physical homes, and both of its worthy bearers. It created a bridge between the two ponies, and power flowed from Fluttershy's seemingly infinite reserves into Twilight. The Elements made sure their was no danger of the two ponies becoming separated. Power flooded into Twilight. Suddenly the impossible felt possible. She opened her eyes. The stars in front and behind had collapsed into small clusters. The stars to the sides were long strings from the front cluster to the back. She looked for their destination, the Moon. In a moment, it went from the size of a two bit coin, to a world that filled her vision. They were here. Step One A was done. On to One B.
The girls made plans near the entrance to the cave that housed the Gates of Tartarus. “Rarity, you and Applejack should retreat to the outpost," Dash said. "Get the Unicorn Circle warmed up. I'll keep watch here. If the shield falls, I bet I can fly faster than any of those monsters can travel and get to the circle first. I'm not sure you two can out gallop everything that could come out of here."
"What about me?" Pinkie asked.
"I'm not sure how you get anywhere, Pinkie," Dash said. "You just do what comes naturally."
"Okie dokie lokie," Pinkie said. "I always do."
"Can't say I'm crazy about us splitting up," Applejack said. "But I ain't got a good argument against your plan. Come on Rarity."
Dash watched the shield in the Gates of Tartarus flicker again. More cracks spread across the face.
"Oooooo... Pretty!" Pinkie called.
"What's pretty about the shield collapsing?" Dash asked.
"Not the shield, silly, Fluttershy!" Pinkie pointed a hoof at a great yellow and pink cone that spread across the sky and disappeared over the horizon to the East.
"Go get'm girls," Dash said. "I hope you’re fast enough."
On the Moon, Twilight scanned around with her magic and noted all of the places where the Moon was tied to the CELESTIAL MACHINE. With Fluttershy's power and the perceptions granted by the Element of Magic, Twilight gently unhooked those ties, until the Moon was unconnected and existed outside the bounds of normal space and time. Step One B down. Step One C next.
"OK Fluttershy, we need to light up the rainbow, just like we did for the mountain of shadow crystals," Twilight said.
"Around the whole moon!?" Fluttershy cried.
"Yup," Twilight said. "It's one of the impossible things."
Fluttershy descended to the lunar surface. She hung upside down, with her two fore-hooves on the surface. Twilight was still clutching to her back. The two ponies reached through their connections into the Elements and made their wishes known. Rainbow light flooded out onto the surface, and they could both feel when the field covered the moon. Step One C, was completed.
"How is it going at the Gates, Rarity." Twilight thought.
"I was about to call out to you," Rarity replied. "The shield is flickering and is cracked so much, it is more not there than there. I can SMELL Tartarus, even through the field. Dash and Pinkie are watching the Gates. Applejack and I have prepared the circle if we need to make a quick escape."
"Good idea Rarity. Call if there is any news."
"Now Fluttershy, time for the biggest impossible thing so far," Twilight said. "You need to push the moon into the right place!"
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Fluttershy replied.
"Are you really afraid?" asked Twilight.
"No, and that's what scares me." Fluttershy sighed. "Let's do this."
Twilight kept a hold on the back of Fluttershy. She filled her mind with images of the rainbow field supporting the Moon.
Fluttershy filled her mind with images of flying hard and pushing great objects. She did a fore-hoof stand on top of one of the places the Moon normally connected to the CELESTIAL MACHINE. Once she was settled, she began to beat her powerful wings.
The first wing beats were futile. The mass of the Moon cared not for their efforts. They were as gnats that crawled upon it. Their scales were too divergent. But with each beat, Fluttershy redoubled her efforts, and even the mass of the Moon is vulnerable to an exponential power curve. The first movement of the Moon was almost imperceptible. It could easily be mistaken for a slip or fatigue. But the next wing beat doubled the force again, and the movement of the Moon was perceptible... real. With every wing beat from then on, the Moon accelerated. Twilight held the Moon together with rainbows and navigated. Fluttershy provided neigh infinite pony power.
"On my mark we stop pushing here, fly to the opposite side of the Moon, and push there to stop it in the right place," Twilight called. She projected the place through their connection. "Two full beats on the opposite side, no more."
"Got it," Fluttershy replied.
"Counting down, 3 beats to go, 2 beats, last beat..." Twilight said. "Stop pushing."
Fluttershy stopped pushing on the Moon, made a half turn, and the next beat of her wings sent them rocketing along the rainbow covered surface. The force that had been moving the entire Moon, propelled two ponies halfway around the lunar globe in the blink of an eye.
"Here!" Twilight yelled. Fluttershy made a half turn towards the surface, did a fore-hoof stand among the rainbow glow, and made two mighty wing beats, each twice as powerful as the last.
Then Fluttershy turned away, and Twilight willed away the rainbow shield. The Moon was exactly where it would have been, if Princess Luna had raised it on time and the CELESTIAL MACHINE was moving it across the sky.
"Rarity, what's happening at the Gates?" Twilight called.
The luminous shield that seals the Gates of Tartarus flashed, and when Dash could see again, it was glowing brighter than before and had stopped flickering. However the cracks remained.
After the flash, the creatures on the other side of the shield stopped their attacks. The Gate was strangely quiet. Then there was a roar by every creature on the other side, and they resumed their attacks. There was a sound of rocks being crushed, and the shield surged toward the opening of the cave. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie recoiled, but kept watching. When the shield finally stopped moving, it was half as far from the opening as it had been before.
"Pinkie, tell Rarity that whatever Twi and Shy did helped make the shield stronger, but the creatures are not giving up and time is running out."
Above the Moon, Twilight was on a roll. "Great, Step One is done! On to Step Two."
"More impossible things?" Fluttershy responded.
"Pretty much the same impossible things, only on a larger scale," Twilight said. "Now we need to move the Sun."
"Eeep!" Fluttershy cried. "But you said even Celestia doesn't actually move the Sun."
"True, but Luna doesn't actually move the Moon either," Twilight said. "And look what we just did." She pointed a hoof at the partially risen Moon. "It's not as crazy as it sounds," Twilight continued. "OK, any other day it is that crazy, but not today. Today, you, and I, and the Elements are not just anypony."
"I am nopony," Fluttershy whispered with determination.
"Because today we do things nopony can do!" Twilight smiled. "But I said moving the Sun was not as crazy as it sounds. Because I was keeping very exact track of how hard you were pushing the Moon. I had to, in order to make sure it ended up in the right place. And I confirmed that with every wing beat, you pushed twice as hard as the beat before. Princess Celestia once told me that the Sun is about 27 Million times more massive than the Moon. She should know, she raised them both for a thousand years. If after each beat, you push twice as hard, how many beats will it take you to push over 27 million times harder? "
"A lot?" whispered Fluttershy.
"Twenty five." Twilight was grinning like a mad mare. Math was fun! "Can you make twenty five extra wing beats?"
"I can!" cried Fluttershy.
"Let's go move the Sun!" exalted Twilight.
Discord slithered out of a crater on the Moon and looked up, following the rapidly retreating cone of yellow and pink light. He stomped on the Moon. It didn’t move. “Hmmm. Better than I thought.”
He raised a claw and snapped it. Nothing happened. He snapped his claw rapidly a dozen times. Still nothing. “This can’t be good.” He raised both arms up, brought them dramatically down, and snapped both claws at the same time. Discord finally disappeared.
That Attitude Right There
From inside the courtyard, the top edge of the opening to the Gates of Tartarus was visible to Rarity and Applejack over the wall of the outpost. Wisps of Rarity's blue magic slowly circumnavigated the Unicorn Circle. She had the circle primed, in case the girls had to get out fast.
Rarity had done more powerful, complex magic today than she had ever done in her life. "Probably a side benefit of getting introduced to Twilight's friend, the Element of Magic," she thought. Her horn felt painfully hot. But Rarity persevered. No fainting couch for her while the girls were on an adventure.
"Look, up in the sky!" Applejack called.
In a moment, a huge glowing yellow and pink cone was drawn across the heavens. It started at the barely risen Moon, and ended at the Sun. The glow filled the yard with warm colors. Even the hillside visible above the wall was painted by the glow.
"Fluttershy's colors," Rarity said.
Applejack shook her head. "I'm used to Twilight doing big things, like swapping blasts with Tirek..."
"The Elements have allowed us all to do extraordinary things, Applejack." Rarity looked her friend up and down. "When you were all rainbowed up, you looked particularly fetching with your long blond mane and apple marks everywhere."
"But the Elements have always treated the five of us pretty much equally." Applejack scrunched up her muzzle. "I never begrudged Twilight the crown and the glowie eyes, because it didn't seem to make much difference when there was a monster needed stop'en. But even without your Element, you been doing lots of spiffy magical things today. And Fluttershy's been out of this world!"
"Pun intended, I presume?"
"Ya caught me," Applejack smiled weakly.
"My magic is strictly borrowed." Rarity sighed. "Twilight is pairing me up with the Element of Magic, remotely."
"Neat trick." Applejack's smile turned upside down. "I guess I'm just jealous that the Elements choose Fluttershy, and not me."
"Maybe it was just her turn, dear," Rarity replied.
"Maybe. I shouldn't begrudge one of my best friends a chance to do some good in the world." Applejack looked embarrassed. Movement caught her eye. The shadows cast by the walls of the outpost were moving. Which meant either the walls were moving, or... Applejack looked up. The Sun was covered in a rainbow shell, and seemed to be taking an afternoon walk across the sky. She tried to imagine where the Sun should be at this time of day. As a farmer who worked outdoors everyday, Applejack was acutely aware of where it should be at any time. The Sun moved into the place she was expecting, and stopped. The rainbow colors faded.
And a roaring sound erupted from the direction of the Gates. Rarity and Applejack scrambled to get a look over the wall. Light poured out of the cave mouth leading to Tartarus. The ground shook and rocks tumbled down the side of the cliff. Pinkie and Dash backed away from the opening, and made a break for the outpost. They were bathed in the light emerging from the cave as they retreated. A cacophony of rock crushing and falling sounds accompanied a great cloud of illuminated boulders and dirt exploding out of the cave mouth. When the dust cleared, the luminous shield stretched tight across the opening. Its surface was unblemished, and glowed brightly. The cracks were gone. The shadow silhouettes of monstrous creatures were visible through the glare. There was another roar from behind the shield. The attacks resumed with even greater ferocity. The shield stretched outwards, like a bubble about to pop.
Twilight encased herself in a dozen layer thick bubble of magenta magic to protect from the fury of the Sun. The bubble was barely holding up. "How are you doing Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy groaned and stretched her neck, legs, and wings to full extension. No shield protected her, but the sun's fury washed over her like it was mist, and with no more effect. The glow from the Elements of Harmony in her petryal competed with the intense sunlight that glittered off of her golden adornments. "That's better," she sighed.
"Twilight!" Rarity yelled over their connection. " Dash and Pinkie have retreated to the outpost with us. Things have just gotten dramatically worse. The Gates of Tartarus are about to fall!"
"Oh no, no, no, no," Twilight cried. "We have to get to the Gates right now."
Without wasting a moment, Fluttershy spun, and flew her body between Twilight's hooves. Twilight gripped tight with all four legs and tucked her head. Twilight's necklace touched Fluttershy's petryal. At the touch, the Elements connected them again for travel. With a mighty flap of her wings Fluttershy exploded towards the tiny blue green orb of her birth, painting the sky yellow and pink in her wake. Light from the sun would take over 8 minutes to travel to the planet. Fluttershy's power had physically pushed the sun across the sky. That power, applied to a pair of ponies, made a mockery of the laws of physics, shredding limits like tissue. They would be at their destination in moments.
Half way between the outpost and the Gates of Tartarus, the world erupted in pink and yellow fire. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Dash all ducked down behind the brick wall of the outpost and tightly closed their eyes to protect them from the intense glare. Fire roared over their heads. The sounds of an explosion went on and on. Finally, the fire faded, as did the intense light. The girls peeked their heads over the wall.
A perfect circle of magenta magic stretched across the land from just in front of the Gates to just before the outpost wall. The ground outside the circle was pristine. Inside the circle was a deep crater. The floor was cracked and shimmering glass. Fluttershy stood in the center, her head high and wings at full extension. Overhead, Twilight hovered, inside a magenta bubble shield. A pillar of roiling pink and yellow flame rose infinity into the sky over the crater. It slowly dissipated from the ground up. There had been clouds in the distance before the arrival. Now the sky was clear from horizon to horizon. Twilight doused all her magenta magic.
The golden shield across the Gates of Tartarus stretched across the cave opening. Pink and yellow highlights danced across its flat surface, reflecting the light from the column of fire. The shield was pristine, but if it moved any farther it would fail. Tartarus and Equestria would become one. The silhouettes of the creatures on the other side of the shield moved slowly. A single booming, guttural voice called out, in a language that none of the girls understood. But the creatures responded, arranging themselves in an evenly spaced line across the opening. The voice boomed again. The silhouettes of the creatures raised up. The voice boomed a last time. The creatures moved as one.
“Fluttershy, push the shield back into Tartarus, before they can push it into Equestria and destroy it!” Twilight shouted. “Nopony else can do that!”
None of the girls actually saw Fluttershy move. One blink she was standing in the center of the crater, the next there was a pink and yellow trail to the shield, and Fluttershy was against it. All four of her hooves were braced on the ground, her wings were at full extension, and her head and neck were to the side so she could push on the shield with her whole body. Then the hammer blow came, the synchronized might of every villain in Tartarus, slamming against the shield. Sections distorted from the force, shockwaves rippling across the surface. But Fluttershy, and the center of the shield, held. Now it time to put the shield back where it belonged.
“Grrrrrraaaaa!” Fluttershy cried, as she flapped her mighty wings, and pushed the shield one step back toward Tartarus. The creatures panicked. They pounded on the shield individually, and growled wildly. Fluttershy flapped and cried out again, stepping farther this time, and pushing the shield deeper into the cave.
“That-a-way, Shy!” called Applejack. The rest of the girls joined in the cheering.
Before anypony could say more, the guttural voice boomed once again from behind the shield. The creatures responded, ceasing the random efforts, and crashing down upon the shield as one. Fluttershy and the shield were driven back a step. Her golden shod hooves dug lines in the cave floor. Fluttershy turned her head to get even more leverage for her next push. She flapped her wings again, and drove forward with redoubled effort. The shield moved again, regaining the lost step, but no more.
Twilight landed at the outpost. “Is everypony okay? she asked breathlessly.
“We’re okay, but Shy’s in trouble,” Dash cried. “We’ve got to help her!”
“According to my calculations, Fluttershy should win easily,” Twilight raised her head to check out the action at the cave. “Her power doubles with every step. Once she wins back one step, with the next push she should win two steps, then four, and so on."
“I think them monsters got their own calculations.” Applejack shook her head. “That looks more like a stalemate than a victory.”
The struggle in the cave reached a kind of horrible stasis. The creatures, striking as one, could drive the shield a step towards Equestria. Fluttershy, putting all her power into a single push, could move it back a step closer to Tartarus. If either were to falter, even for a moment, the other side would swiftly be victorious.
Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. It seemed to strengthen the bond Twilight shared to the Element of Magic. “Look at the magic power coming around the edges of the shield,” Rarity said, with awe and terror in her voice.
Twilight adjusted her perceptions and really LOOKED at the the shield. Torrents of power streamed around the edge of the shield from Tartarus into Equestria. They came from every side, turned, then slammed into Fluttershy! After every wingbeat and step, the torrents got thicker and faster. Between each torrent of power, Twilight could see power also going the other way, from Equestria into Tartarus. Now that she saw it, Twilight could feel a tug on her own magic, and all of the magic around her. “That’s impossible!” Twilight sat back on her haunches. “Unless... they’re both drawing from the same ever-doubling power source!”
“They can’t keep doubling their power forever,” Rarity said.
“No.” Twilight frowned. “Something will break. The shield. The creatures. Fluttershy. Even Tartarus. Or Equestria.”
“That all sounds really, really, bad.” Pinkie pouted.
“So let’s make sure none of it happens,” said Dash.
“Ever since Shy got all the Elements, the dangers just keep getting bigger and bigger,” Applejack said.
“But it started before we used the Elements,” Dash said. “Remember the train!”
“Or the Crystal Guardian before that.” Twilight looked thoughtful. “If we can figure out what magic started this whole thing, I may have a way for all of us to fix it.”
“So present company excepted, who do we know that does really big magic and is connected with Fluttershy?” Applejack asked.
“Discord!” they all cried at once.
“Oh, thank chaos, I’ve been waiting for your call.” Discord slithered out from behind the outpost building. “I am so drained right now that I can’t just come and go as I please.”
“Fix what you did to Fluttershy!” Dash cried.
“And have all the denizens of Tartarus come party crashing?” Discord shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Dash pointed her hoof at Discord. “So, you did do something!”
“Oh no, I’ve been mentally out maneuvered by Rainbow Dash,” Discord struck a fainting pose and put a claw to his forehead. “Stone me now.”
Everypony frowned at Discord.
“Look, I was just trying to give Fluttershy what she asked for.” Discord looked away, unwilling or unable to meet their gaze. ”You know I would never do anything to hurt her on purpose.”
“I’ll bet you can’t fix things from here, even if you wanted to.” Twilight got back on her hooves. “If you can’t come and go as you please, you probably can’t change magic this powerful from so far away.”
“Ding, ding, ding!” Discord rang a small bell. “Give that Princess a tiara.”
“Everypony into the Unicorn Circle,” Twilight said. “It will make this easier.” As soon as they were all inside the circle, Twilight lit her horn. The Element of Magic helped her reorient the circle so she could teleport the entire group at once into the teeth of the magic storm. A magenta bubble enclosed them all, then they disappeared.
“This is getting very lonely,” Fluttershy thought. She leaned into the shield across the Gates of Tartarus. She grunted and flapped and pushed forward to gain a step. The booming voice on the other side of the shield sounded, the creatures pushed as one, and she lost a step. She knew she was pushing harder each time. She could feel it. Pushing the sun around was nothing compared to what she was doing now. She was pushing around the entire dimension of Tartarus.
Nopony else could do what she was doing now. So nopony could help her. And nopony was. Maybe being nopony meant being alone.
Her next push was marked by a heavy sigh, rather than her usual grunt. When she pushed, the shield held fast instead of yielding to her power. The booming voice, sensing advantage, was louder than ever. The pushback by the creatures was overwhelming. She called out “No!” as she retreated and tried to find new purchase. She lost not one, not two, but three steps before stabilizing the shield. It was now almost at the lip of the cave. Almost in Equestria.
“I can never let that happen again!” Fluttershy thought. The fate of every creature and every pony, depended on what she did here. Fluttershy was determined to not let them down. Even if she had to do this alone... forever.
A small magenta bubble emerged from nothing behind Fluttershy. However it did not instantly expand and pop like teleport bubbles normally did. Buffeted by the torrential streams of power pouring into Fluttershy, the bubble could not find purchase in reality to complete its journey. It flitted through the cave, searching for a safe place to deposited its cargo. It expanded, collapse almost to nothing, then finally expanded to full size and popped between two of the streams.
Discord, Twilight, and the rest of the girls all tumbled into a pony pile. “Let's do that again!” cried Pinkie, as she bounced to her feet.
Everypony else, even Discord, looked more shaken up. “Not until Miss Purple Pony Princess learns to drive. I oughta get your teleport license suspended for that one!” said Discord.
“I’ll apologize to everypony later!” cried Twilight. “Do your thing, Discord!”
The draconis snapped his claw. Nothing happened. He snapped it a second time, and then a third. Still nothing.
“I very much appreciate everypony coming here, but it is very dangerous and nopony but me can do this.” Fluttershy did not turn to look at the group. “Please go somewhere else that's safe!”
“That’s the problem,” Discord pointed to Fluttershy. “That attitude right there is blocking me.”
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Applejack said.
“And Twilight has a plan, darling,” Rarity said.
“Yes in-deed-a-ly-do she does,” Pinkie said.
“Can all your friends help share your burden, Fluttershy? Twilight asked.
“I don’t want all of you trapped here forever too!” cried Fluttershy.
“Win, lose, or draw, we are all in this together,” Dash said. “And me? I’m partial to winning!”
“Please, Fluttershy,” Discord said, “come back to me.”
Fluttershy strained and dug in all four hooves. Tears were streaming from her eyes. “Okay,” Fluttershy whispered.
“Places girls,” Twilight said. “Discord, we are only going to get one shot at this.”
“My timing will be impeccable, don’t you all mess it up”
Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Dash, and Twilight all laid a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. Startled, but pleased by the intimate gesture, Fluttershy gave a weak smile.
“We’re using the Elements. Light’em up, girls!” Twilight called. The power of the Elements of Harmony flowed between all six girls. Some of the Element's power flowed away from Fluttershy and into the others. The creatures could feel the lessening of resistance. And with a booming growl, the leader of the creatures of Tartarus urged his minions to make one final victorious attack.
Before the attack could land, Discord snapped his claw, and cut off the flow of magic in both directions.
Even cut off from their power, a synchronized blow from all the creatures in Tartarus was powerful. But compared to their empowered blows from a moment before, it was a feeble thing. And it was a blow that the shield of the Gates of Tartarus was designed to resist. The cavern rang with the sound of the blow, but the shield did not move.
Still touching, the girls all levitated. Six gems detached from Fluttershy’s petryal and orbited the girls at increasing speed. All at once, the gems rocketed into the openings in the necklaces and crown of their bearers. The items hummed with power, and each of the girls arched their backs and grinned like mad-mares. Twilight’s eyes went white. Six rainbow ribbons whirled about the group, each finding a bearer. They all glowed until it was too bright even for Discord to see them.
When the light faded, the girls were in their full rainbow empowered forms. Their manes and tails were extra long and colorful. Their cutie marks had multiplied in number, and were spread across their flanks, faces, and fetlocks. The wings of the flyers shone with new colors. They all glowed with their own personal color of the rainbow.
Fluttershy’s look now matched the rest. No longer Celestia sized or adorned, she matched her friends in size and splendor, including her familiar necklace, the Element of Kindness.
The six moved easily in all directions, galloping and flying vertically as well as horizontally. They formed a six pointed star, around the outside edge of the shield. Then, like shepherds, they guided it back to its rightful place, deep in the cave and far from Equestria. The creatures on the other side were repulsed by their rainbow power, and tumbled back deep into Tartarus. Finally, the shield locked into place with a satisfying sound of thunder.
The girls landed, flashed white, and lost their rainbow empowerment. They gazed up at the glowing shield, and took satisfaction in a job well done.
Twilight gathered the girls up in her magic, and they all hugged like sisters. Twilight even reached out her magic to Discord, and he let himself be taken up so he could hug Fluttershy.
They held the hug for a long time, until they all heard a popping sound and saw a golden light. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stepped regally forward after teleporting into the cave. Spike was at their heels. The Element Bearers, save Twilight, bowed.
“Rise, my little ponies, for once again you have saved the day.” Princess Celestia nodded to the group.
“Celestia, Luna, you’re back!” Twilight cried happily.
“Freed from the prisons of our aspect, and hale and hearty once again!” Princess Luna called. “We watched your deeds from our our celestial bodies. You all did well. Though the heavens were in a most unusual state when we emerged. Was this the actions of our foes?”
“Some of them and some of us. We kind of had to run things manually for a bit,” Twilight said sheepishly. Spike ran over. Twilight picked him up in her fore hooves and hugged him.
“Worry not, Twilight, the proper workings of the heavens have been restored,” Princess Celestia said. “But I am sure Luna and I will be interested in hearing about your... manual manipulations, at a later time,” She looked up at the shield with a practiced eye, then nodded in satisfaction. “Discord, were you also involved in saving the day?”
“As always, I serve naught but chaos,” Discord responded. He looked down at his butter yellow friend. “And Fluttershy, of course.”
“Which means he was part of causing all the chaos, but was also critical in fixing it.” Twilight looked at Discord then returned her gaze to the Princesses. “Canterlot Castle got pretty beat up, do you need our help in the repairs?”
“Tis thoughtful of you to ask Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, “But we have a large staff that prepares for just such emergencies. And you and yours are fresh from victorious battle. A celebration is in order!”
Twilight checked with her friends. They all gazed back with weak but warm smiles. Everypony looked exhausted. “If you don’t need us in Canterlot, I think we’d all just like to get back to Ponyville. Sleeping in my own bed tonight sounds wonderful.” All the girls nodded in agreement.
“So be it,” Princess Celestia said. She wrapped them all in a golden bubble and moments later they were in front of Twilight’s castle in Ponyville.
“I want to thank you once again for your most extraordinary services,” Princess Celestia said. “You have saved my subjects, and freed my sister and I. We are, as ever, in your debt.”
“But we must return to Canterlot,” Princess Luna said. “Until next time, my friends!” She wrapped a sphere of indigo magic around Celestia and herself, and then they were gone.
“Anypony want some coffee or tea before you head on home?” Twilight offered. “Yes Discord, the invitation includes you.” They all nodded agreement, and went inside Twilight’s castle. They gathered in the kitchen. It was much cosier than the map room, with its great thrones adorned with the girl’s cutie marks.
After the castle had appeared, Applejack had made over the kitchen in a rustic theme. It was spacious enough to house the army of cooks that might someday serve grand occasions in the castle. But this day, the girls, Spike, and Discord only used one stove and gathered around one smaller table. Soon the kitchen was filled with the competing scents of coffee and tea.
Twilight brought out some apples and sweet bread she had purchased just this morning. That early morning trip to the market square seemed like it had happened an eternity ago. Discord magiced up some cucumber sandwiches from... somewhere. They all ate hungrily.
By unspoken agreement, the girls made small talk about everything but the adventure they had just been on. The talk of the weather, crops, spas, pets, and books helped reinforce the bonds they shared. They all spoke, except for Fluttershy.
Fluttershy sat on a chair off to the side by herself. She was very quiet as she contemplated the steam rising from her tea cup. Pinkie bounced up, with a small basket in her teeth, with two pieces of sweet bread inside. Fluttershy smiled weakly, but shook her head and went back to staring at the steam off her tea.
Discord slithered up. “Buzz off, pink party pony, I need to speak to Fluttershy.” Pinkie put her basket down next to Fluttershy, looked up at Discord, rolled her eyes, and bounced away.
“Hello Discord.” Fluttershy whispered. She didn’t look up from her tea.
“Fluttershy...” Discord stopped. Words wouldn’t come. He lowered his voice and tried again. “Fluttershy, it seems I am very bad at trying to do good.” Discord snapped his claw and a conical dunce cap appeared on his head. “I don’t know how a real friend is supposed to act. This is the first time I’ve tried to be one.
“You looked so sad yesterday. Then you said what you wanted, and I thought it would make you happy. So I found a power leak, and tied that power to what you wanted.” Discord snapped his claw. The dunce cap went away, and a piece of paper with a crayon drawing of the Gates of Tartarus appeared and floated next to him. Drops of silver liquid dripped out of the gate and splashed onto the floor.
“At first, even though there was chaos, you seemed to enjoy helping. But then...” The liquid dripping out of the picture became a stream, and then a torrent. Discord shook the paper. It, and all the liquid, disappeared.
“What I wanted?” Fluttershy looked up at Discord, confused. Then she remembered. “I just wish I was never too slow, too weak, or too scared to help my friends ever again,” Fluttershy whispered.
“I’ll try to do better next time.” Discord straightened up, and looked at everypony. Then he snapped his claw and disappeared.
Seeing Fluttershy alone, Rarity seized the opportunity, She saddled up to her friend and sat down next to her.
Fluttershy looked up at Rarity. “Did you hear all that?”
“Discord is anything but circumspect.” Rarity looked at her friend kindly. “A bit for your thoughts, dear.”
“Oh they’re not worth a whole bit,” Fluttershy whispered. Rarity gave her a warm smile, and the time to speak more if she wished. Rarity was an old hand at getting Fluttershy to open up. When Fluttershy did finally speak, it came out in a wave.
“I thought near the end, I was going to have to stay at the Gates forever, battling with those things, to be sure they never got out. And it turns out it was all because I felt useless before and Discord tried to help me.
“While I was pushing on the Gates, I started regretting all of the things I have on my list of ‘could have dones’, but haven’t because I was too scared. Like taking Dash up on any of her invitations to go flying. Or your invitation to sing with the PonyTones. Or Zecora’s offer to learn about the animals from her homeland.
“Or even making more friends. Not that you aren’t all great, and more than I deserve. But Bon Bon seems really nice. And Derpy is always so happy. And I have a standing invitation to come to Cheerilee’s class or have the class come to my cottage, to teach the children about animals. But I have been too scared to do any of it.
“But today I did things even though I was scared. And it makes me want to do some of the things on my list. Even just one thing. Just to say I did it.”
Fluttershy finished her rant with a great sigh. She seemed to melt into her chair, her head down and eyes looking away.
Rarity gave her a few moments, to make sure Fluttershy had no more to say. She smiled, and touched hooves with her friend, very lightly. “You aren’t useless, dear. Why before all this business with Discord happened, who suggested that the Bugbear might be scared off by a bigger monster?”
“I did mentioned that,” Fluttershy whispered.
“And that was the key to saving the school.” Rarity picked up one of Fluttershy’s hooves in her own. “Twilight may have made the mirror with her magic, but she wouldn’t have know what to do without your insight.”
“I was so foalish.” Fluttershy sank even lower.
“No, but you may be being foalish now.” Rarity leaned in closer. “You said nothing wrong to Discord. His actions, and his decision to keep you in the dark, were purely of his own choosing. And once things started to... get out of hoof... you acted extremely heroically. You should be very proud of yourself.
“Today we were confronted with things outside our comfort zone.” Rarity held both of Fluttershy’s hooves in her own. “You had to be more physical and direct than you are accustomed to. I had to use more magic. It is both humbling and enlightening to have to... stretch so.
“And I am ever so happy to hear that you want to do more things in your life. If there is ever anything I, or one of the other girls, can do, please ask. It would be our great pleasure to help.”
Rarity sat up straighter and engaged Fluttershy with her gaze.
“But I also suspect that in moments of hindsight, some of today’s activities may be... disturbing. When those times come, please talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be now, and it doesn’t have to be me. But do talk. It’s the way we make sense of the parts of our lives that seem... out of balance.
“You’ve been my sounding board at the spa more times than I can count. And each of the girls, in their more contemplative moments, have provided me words of wisdom or even just a friendly ear.“
Fluttershy looked up, her great eyes shimmering with almost tears. She knew asking for help would be the hardest thing she would ever have to do. But she also knew that when, not if, but when she did ask for help, her friends would be there for her. To them, she wasn’t a nopony at all.
