The Equestrian Double Gamble

~FC~

I walked out of the house, going towards the lake I saw before.  I need some time to think about what just happened.  I had failed at giving Summer the pride needed to sustain her.  This failure brought up some recent hurtful memories.  I got to the lake and just sat down, letting my sorrow take over.  I just sat there crying, until I heard hoofsteps.  I looked towards the sound and saw Summer. “Why did you follow me, you could have had enough pride to properly nourish you if you stayed.”

“I sensed something wrong. I still care, you know. Not nourishing me shouldn’t be that upsetting for you. So what else are you crying over?” she asked softly.

I wiped my eyes.  “That failure just reminded me how I was pretty much a failure.  It reopened old wounds.  I failed at two colleges, I failed my first job no matter how hard I tried, my parents couldn’t accept me for being a brony and a gamer.  I had to leave them on bad terms.  It took me a while to find a job.  One part of me was glad I left, but another part of me just feels guilty for being a jerk to them.  I just feel like a failure overall. I can’t do anything right.”

“I’ve felt that way more than a few times in the past. I know exactly how you feel. But you wanna know what my parents keep telling me when I do? They tell me to shut up and listen. They then proceed to list off why I’m better than I think, passing off my self loathing as a pity party. And I know they’re right.” She told me, sitting down by my side as she spoke.

“Thanks, I needed that.  You and my other friends have been more family to me than my real family.  You guys always supported me when shit was hitting the fan for me.” I said as I hugged her.

“No problem, dude. Just let me know if you start doubting yourself again. I’ll be there for you.” she promised, hugging back.

I let Summer go after calming down.  “Alright, let’s go.  Considering the deal with the Gambler, we should probably get ready for our first challenge.  Do you think the first one is going to be Queen Chrysalis?”

“No telling who’s first. Might as well just try to get used to our power first, before planning for anything specific.” Summer replied honestly.

“True, but I am more worried, since I mostly use forms, and they tend to scare ponies easily.  Not going to use Darkling or Dragon form yet.  Heck, not even the combo form of those two.  Maybe we should at least stick to physical combat.  I have an extensive knowledge of varying sword fighting techniques from that transfer.”  I replied before getting a mischievous grin on my face.  I then threw Summer into the lake.

At first, nothing happened after that, but then I saw something light up for a second, and a bunch of bubbles rose to this surface. Before she could get up though, I jumped in, changing into my dragon form when I entered the water.  My dragon form is an amphithere, which means the only limbs it has are the wings, and is covered in feathers.  Think of it as like a giant flying feathered serpent.  I swam around, waiting for her to surface. She didn’t surface though. Instead, I saw her form shoot past me like a rocket through the water, her form that of a Kelpie. As she passed me, the water got ice cold, but didn’t freeze.

I was a little impressed and decided to test out a certain ability I had with dragon form.  I dove down and started to change.  The feathers disappeared from my body, and where the fluffy end of my tail was and the feathered crest was before, became fin-like crests.  My wings changed shape to become arms, with large fins coming out of them and ending in long webbed claws.  Finally, my color became the same as the water we were in, allowing me to perfectly camouflage myself in the water.  I wanted to see Summer’s reaction to this.

When next she swept by, she paused to look around in confusion, before spotting me not that far off. “Holy shit, that’s new.” she said, awed. She swam around me a bit to check it out better, looking at every change she could.

“Like it? I wanted to try out the ability that I could do in dragon form.  It is kind of an elemental thing.  I have become a water dragon.” I said with a hint of amusement.

“Like it?! Hell, I love it! You are awesome, dude.” Summer laughed as she replied.

“Hm, I wonder what powers I have in this form?”  With that, I focused.  I felt a source of calm inside and tapped into.  I could feel the water around me become calm too.  I focused on making a wave, and it worked.  I then tried other things, like arms.  I then ended with a blade, and tested it on a nearby boulder, the water blade easily cutting it in half.  “Sweet.”

“Water control… I wonder, do you think you can make an inverse whirlpool to carry yourself part way out of the water? It'd be awesome.” Summer suggested.

“Oh great, I am becoming a dragon version of Poseidon.  Also, I might stop right now, as the Jengu in here are getting a little bit angry over my water control.  I have a great amount of respect for elementals.”

“Jengu?” Summer asked confused, before realizing after a second. “Oh… maybe I should get out of here then.” She then proceeded to jet her way out of the water, flying into the air.

I turned back to my pony form and swam out, shaking myself off on shore.  I could see a jengu come out. Jengu were water elementals, with most elementals being made out of said element they represented.  It had a featureless humanoid top half, the bottom half being a small waterspout as it was flying in the air.

Summer gulped as she looked at it. “Okay then… I guess in this world, you have to respect nature, or it fucks you up. I doubt the world was very happy with Tirek when he and Twilight fought.”

“Actually, considering that, nature is probably pretty angry most of the time in this world, considering ponies control everything except the Everfree Forest.  Maybe the reason the Everfree is so dangerous to ponies because it is angry at them.”  I replied.  I then turned to the Jengu.  “I am sorry for causing a disturbance, I was merely testing out the capabilities of my water dragon form.  It will not happen again.”

The jengu calmed down, the waterspout slowing down.  It made splashing and bubbling noises, which translated to

“Thank you for this, I promise I won’t betray you.” I replied back. Summer took my words as a cue, and bowed to the Jengu in respect, holding it for about three seconds.

“I’ll try to avoid messing with anything too. If I can, I’d rather protect nature.” she told it.

It nodded, seeming to be happy with that response before becoming one with its home again.  I turned to Summer.  “Maybe I should tell you about the other elementals too. Almost all elementals have an upper portion with arms, a swirling bottom portion, and an unique head shape, depending on type. We should start with the Zephyrs and Reivers, considering that is where the biggest conflict is going to be.  Zephyrs are storm elementals, being able to control rain, wind, and lightning.  Zephyrs are the exception to the arms rule, as instead they have two large spikes for conducting lightning.  Reivers are ice elementals, usually made of snow and ice.  They tend to control blizzards and flurries.  Best bet is they would come into a lot of conflict with pegasi, considering they control the weather here.”

“Right, I remember those from that old Super powers RP.” Summer nodded achkowledgingly. “I have to wonder if maybe we can do what you guys did in that and… maybe, hopefully end conflict? Maybe as some sort of ‘side quest’ or something between ‘bosses’ so nature’s not as angry.”

“I hope so.  The only elementals that I didn’t get to yet in that RP were geonachs, cinders, and lobbers.  I remember going over grues, spriggans, ents, and trents.  Geonachs are earth elementals, being made of stone, with one arm for smashing, and another for stabbing and slashing.  Cinders are fire elementals, along with lobbers.  Lobbers are actually bipedal and don’t fly, being made of lava and can throw huge chunks of molten rock that spreads when it hits the ground. I think most fire elementals might be in Tartarus, since that is the closest thing to hell in this world.”

“Good to know.” Summer said simply, lacking interest or conviction in the acknowledgement. I guess she was getting a bit tired of these long winded explanations. “Looks like noon’s passing. Wanna go get some lunch?”

“Yeah, sure.  Maybe we should stop by Vinyl and Octavia again.” I said before we started heading back into Ponyville.  So far the day has been interesting, and I was ready for more to come.