My Little Mages: The Lost Student

Chapters

The Beginning of something kept
A Battle for The Elements
A New Land
The Court of Midnight Castle
Games for the Elements part 1
Games for the Elements part 2
Before the Trial
The Trial for Magic
Demon Shimmer

The Beginning of something kept

Prologue

A young woman stood in front of a mirror. She had red hair with yellow stripes that looked not unlike strips of bacon. She wore a long black cloak with a hood. At her side was a backpack and pouch for spell components. She stared into the mirror. “I’ll show you.” she whispered, “I’ll be back and I will show you, Celestia, that I am the only one that can succeed you.” Her voice and confidence rose as she stepped into the mirror showing it to be a portal. “I’ll show you…” her sentence ended there as the vanished into the mirror.

Chapter 1: The Beginning of something kept

The festivities of Twilight's, full name Twilight Sparkle, coronation carried throughout the day and into the early night. Most of the time, however, Twilight was being introduced to a mayor, a governor, a sheriff or some other elected or appointed official governing the areas of Mystica, in addition to the established nobility, gentry and the most prominent business people (ironically Filthy Rich was not among them). She also had to meet with the High Druid and other top religious figures, (shocking, but not surprising, to her was the fact most were part of the larger Apple clan… It’s like the Apples are race onto themselves) she was also introduced to the members of the Mystican Senate, Parliament and House and the chief justices, in addition to the generals, admirals and other top officers of the ESM, along with the rulers and representatives of the allies, tributaries and protectorates of Mystica, of the former lots they were mostly affirming their fidelity and loyalty to the three established princesses and new princess. Those from other nations were mostly there to affirm and solidify the alliances and such treaties that were already established to make sure that there no unexpected changes with the introduction of Twilight as a new princess of the nation. After hours, which felt like years to Twilight, and Twilight wasn’t even halfway through meeting all of the people, Celestia beckoned all of the officials to the main dancing hall of the castle.

Twilight gave a sigh as she was of the last to leave, she meandered to in direction of the hall aimlessly and without focus, until she bumped into something, or rather someone. As she fell, but before she could make contact with the ground, she noticed the person she bumped into taking her hand and pulling her back up. “Gotcha,” he said. Twilight then looked at him, the blue hair, the cornflower eyes, the heater shield aura mark on the breastplate, at his left side was sheathed court sword. As Twilight started to process all this, “We got to stop bumping into each other like this.” he joked as Twilight regained her full balance.

“Flash!” Twilight then dove at Flash and hugged him.”It’s so good to see you again.” she finished as she rubbed his cheek with her’s while her eyes were closed and a small but authentic smile was on her face.

Flash returned the embrace, “You too, Twilight… um sorry, I mean yo…” Flash started but stopped and was fumbling as he recalled that Twilight was also a princess now, however, what really stopped him was the exhausted sigh he heard from Twilight and the slight shake of her body against him.

“Please don’t call me ‘princess’, it's been ‘Princess Twilight met SoandSo from Hereteryonder’ for the better part of the day,” Twilight complained.

“Actually Senator Soandso is from Yonderthere,” Flash cut in as if he was trying to make a joke. Twilight only ended the embrace and gave him a slight scowl. “Sorry, too soon?” Twilight nodded. “Alright, Twilight, I won’t call you princess until we arrive at the hall.” He said as he offered his right arm as to escort Twilight the rest of the way.

“How many people do I have to meet and why so soon?” Twilight asked in a groan as she reluctantly accepted the offered arm.

“Well I know five young women and a dragon that might help that dour mode,” Flash said as he more or less guided Twilight to where a small group of familiar faces was. One of the young woman's hair was like a rainbow and that was let down, with cerise eyes. Over her ears she wore a sort of crown that looked like a set of leaves, her gown was a rainbow, not unlike her hair, around her neck was a golden necklace with a pendant that looked like a cluster of grapes. Her shoes were golden in color and had ankle straps, around her neck was a golden necklace with a large ruby shaped like a stylized lightning bolt, the Element of Loyalty. Overall, she looked like she was part of Pre-Hearth's Warming Skyborn nobility. This was Rainbow Dash, normally her hair was done in a high ponytail with a hairpin with a stylized cloud and tri-colored rainbow of red, yellow and blue and wore black sock-like boats that went above her knees, with a dull purple shirt and light a dull blue shirt with white and gold wing styled sleeves. On her waist, usually, was a quiver with a bow and from her ankles came ethereal wing.

The closest woman to her had had long deep-magenta hair, this was Rarity, she had azure eyes, and she was dressed in a long light purple regal gown with small gems studded into it with golden trims in various folds in the lower part of the gown, she also had a more a very showy tiara with three sapphires cut as kites in the front with other gems going around the tiara, she also had a purple shawl and around her neck was a golden necklace with a large fluorine cut in a kite, the Element of Generosity. Normally she wore a long alabaster gown with some pinkish-purple with a long slightly transparent pinkish red shall going around her back and hanging from her elbows and a similar but simpler tiara with just the three sapphires.

The next woman was a blonde woman, named Applejack, whose hair was done in a triple braid and topped with a style Stetson on her head. She wore green stylized riding gloves, with green stylized riding boots, her gown was green with a brown leather corset-vest that covered most of her chest, and like Rainbow Dash, her arms were, for the most part, exposed. Like Rarity and Rainbow Dash, she also had a golden necklace with a gem, her gem was a spessartite garnet and shaped to look like a stylized apple, the Element of Honesty. Normally she had her done in low ponytail dressed in brown pants, brown boots, a red leather jacket with some pieces of armor most notably pauldrons with stylized apples, brown gloves, a scabbard with a long sword in it.

The next woman was shorter than all the others with bouncing cotton pink hair, blue eyes, this was Pinkie Pie and she had a small hat that had a light blue trim with a small pink bow on it. On her hands were small pink gloves, her gown, itself, was set up with two shades of pink, white and blue, around her waist the dress was striped blue and white like a candy cane. In the white area of the skirt of the dress, there were candy corns and lollipops embroidered on it. Like the previous three, she had a golden necklace with but in her, the gem was an apatite shaped like a party balloon, the Element of Laughter. Normally she wore a bear legged leotard with blue cruelly toed shoes a pink jester coat and a dark pink jester’s hat with three balloons, one was yellow and two were blue.

The last woman in the room also had pink hair like, Pinkie Pie, but her hair was light pink, she was Fluttershy and she wore a gown that was green along the side from her waist down, but the main gown was a light yellow, in the gown, were embroiled vines and small leaves, her dress also had a stylized blue butterfly on her chest and one as a hairpin. Like the rest, she wore a golden necklace, but her gem was a kunzite shaped like a butterfly. She was also barefoot. Normally she was dressed in a green, yellow and light blue dress with a stylized pink butterfly as a brooch for her hood.

Among them was a purple-scaled bipedal reptile with green spines along his back he was about as tall as a twelve-year-old boy, this was Spike the dragon, he was in a tuxedo with a ruby red tie and a sapphire blue vest. “Your grace, may I present to you, your ladies-in-waiting.” Flash said as he gestured to the group, and after getting an ‘hmhm’ from Spike, “and your dragon.”

“W’at about us?” came a soft country drawl, and everyone turned to see that there were three other people in the room. These three were girls about a decade younger than the others. One had spoken was Apple Bloom, Applejack’s little sister, she had bright amaranth red hair with a bright crimson bow in her hair, and gamboge orange eyes, she was in a leather brown dress with a green colored corset-vest that while would cover most of her chest, left her arms exposed save for what was covered by a set of stylized forge gloves and a ceremonial forge apron. All that with a set of stylized riding boots. Normally she would wear a yellow shirt with blue overalls, brown working boots and plain brown forge apron, and armored gloves.

The closer of the two girls next to her had mulberry hair with grayish rose streaks and light green eyes. This was Sweetie Belle and Rarity’s sister. Sweetie was dressed in a charming light charcoal long regal looking dress, similar to the one Rarity was wearing but with snowy white trim and a series of folds. She also wore a tiara with a light green focus gem cut in a pentagon. Normally she would wear a simple light pink and off-white dress a pair of pink dress shoes.

The last person in the room had cerise hair with grayish purple eyes, this was Scootaloo. She was currently wearing a ceremonial red gi, but normally she would be in a pair of blue pants with purple trim that seemed to merge with a sleeveless dull purple top with connected by straps in the front, with orange trim in the front and blue trim the same shade as the pants appearing to connect the two. On her feet were a pair of brown athlete shows with orange wings embroidered on the side, on her hands were purple fingerless gloves with two golden bands on each with dull brown shoulder pads with orange feathers cover her shoulders.

“Correction, your entourage,” Flash joked as he acknowledged the three. “If you ladies would permit me, I would be honored to escort you all to the ball,” Flash said with a slight bow a grin on his face.

“Uh, our own escort, so where do I apply for the position of lady-in-waiting?” Rarity asked with her eyes dilated pleadingly.

“I will think about it… I just hope, it’s not more of the same I’ve been experiencing today since our song ended,” Twilight said with a sigh of exhaustion as they all head out.

Almost out of nowhere, as they all walked down the hallway, Rarity started singing, “A true, true friend helps a friend in need.”

Rainbow Dash continued, “A friend will be there to help them see.”

Pinkie Pie the carried on the song, “A true, true friend helps a friend in need.”

“To see the light!” Applejack joined in the song.

“That shines!” Fluttershy added.

“From a true, true friend!” the five sang together, which brought a much-needed smile on Twilight’s face.

“Oh, you girls are the best,” Twilight then pulled the five into a group hug and after a few hearty laughs, they renewed their travel.

As they walked they traveled by and didn’t notice five women in the service staff clothes with a cart of supplies, one was an Earthborn with cerise eyes, mulberry hair and was cut short with small bangs all around, with raspberry streaks. Also, her hair was a hair clip that looked like a flaring yellow sun and seemed to the one in command. Another in the group was an Earthborn, she had rose hair, with light rose and aquamarine streaks, that was done in a ponytail with a hairpin that looked like three berries on a leaf. She had indigo eyes and just seemed to exude a level of happiness that would give Pinkie a run for her money. There were also two Skyborns, one had dark cornflower blue hair with cerulean and arctic blue streaks, her hair was combed up and back not unlike a mullet. She also had gamboge orange eyes, on her ears were earrings that were stylized yellow lightning bolts. The other Skyborn had opalish gray hair with arctic bluish gray streaks done in two ponytails to the sides of her head. She wore glasses over her orchid eyes and in her hair was hair clip that looked like a set of lips. The final member of the group was a Magicborn, she had shoulder length pistachio green hair with pale green and bright lime streaks, over her ears were a set of earphones with an image of a slice of lemon tart with a gem embedded on both sides, her eyes were closed and she was bobbing her head to the music she was playing, until the mulberry haired Earthborn took them off, causing the Magicborn to open and reveal her amber eyes and causing her to pout, “Lemon, we’re on the job. You can listen to your music later, dearie.” As Twilight et al passed the corner, the mulberry haired Earthborn gave the Magicborn back her headset and turned to the cart, “The coast is clear milady.”

As all the others stopped their cleaning another woman emerged from the chart, she was a Magicborn. She wore a royal purple top which went below her hips, with a yellow skirt, a large orange sash went around her waist with a golden sun with the center vacant as some sort of buckle for the sash on her left side. Part of her top was black leather that went over her shoulders and covered her back and seemed to come back to the front around her navel, there was a series of studs in the leather at her shoulder. That all said her arms and legs were mostly bare save for the black heeled shoes on her feet. On her head was a tiara that was shaped to look like the sun-shaped buckle in the front with a gem that looked like a red and yellow yin-yang but there was no red dot in the yellow and not yellow dot in the red. She had cyan eyes and her hair was sunset red with yellow stripes that made her hair looked not unlike strips of bacon, “Excellent call, Sunny Flare.”

“This is still very risky, security is high will all the dignitaries, government officials, ” the Skyborn with the ponytails and glasses informed.

“Duly noted, Sugarcoat,” the Magicborn with red and yellow hair said with a groan. “But Phase 2 is now complete. Now to phase 3.”

After about twenty minutes, Twilight et al arrived at the ballroom and after their arrival was announced, Twilight was once again swarmed by more of the people that she had spent the day meeting. This forced Twilight’s friends to go ahead without her, not that they were going to wait bored, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo ran to Princess Luna and tackled her in a group embrace, not that Luna minded it, little sisters have to stick together. Applejack was whisked away off her feet by a familiar Wonderbolt, Soarin, just as the announcing ended. Fluttershy spotted a familiar Earthborn man with green hair done in deadlock, with a golden colored leather armored vest, it was Sandalwood. The Skyborn druid elected to float over to her friend. Rainbow Dash also disembarked when she saw someone she never expected, nor was happy about; a harpy, granted she was with a small group of harpies, but she stood out to Rainbow Dash with her gamboge brown wings, gold talons. She also had bright amber eyes and white feather-like hair, some of it going over her face with pink edges. Pinkie and Rarity also left, Rarity was pulled to the side by a couple of the landed gentry of Chantalot most likely to discuss a business deal. As for Pinkie… well, a ball is a party and parties are Pinkie’s thing. Flash and Spike, however, simply stepped to the side but remained close to Twilight.

Fortunately for Twilight, there were fewer people that she had to meet than she expected and their introductions were shorter than before, but it was about an hour before she had met everyone. Just as the Sheriff of Dodgejuction left, Twilight turned to the last of the officials only to see, “Mom, Dad? Your government officials?” Twilight asked as she saw a woman old enough to her mother. The older woman had arctic blue eyes with hair appeared to be stripped with moderate purple and white, she wore a simple sleeveless black dress and a set of pearls, on her dress was a pin with three five-pointed stars. Next to the woman was a man in a simple black tuxedo with a red bow tie, with a lapel pin that was two crescent moons, one smaller in the other and inside the space of the larger one. He had amber eyes and dark blue hair. The two were Twilight’s parents, Twilight Velvet, often just called Velvet so not to be confused with her daughter and Night Light.

“Don’t you remember, your father is the Royal Astrophysicist, that’s low-level nobility,” Twilight Velvet informed as she patted Twilight on the head motherly, causing her daughter to pout with her cheeks puffed out.

“Velvet-cake, we should really tone the embarrassing of Sparkle down, this is her big day,” Night Light playfully scolded his wife, making Velvet pout with her cheeks puffed out. “Besides I descend of a knighted page that grew up in the court of both Princesses before Nightmare Moon. Technically speaking I am of the longest line of nobles in Mystica.” Night Light chuckled. Turning back to Twilight, “You cannot imagine how proud your mother and I are of you,” he said as he embraced his daughter. “My little princess,” he whispered into Twilight’s ear.

“Aw, Daddy,” Twilight teared up as she returned the hug.

After a minute the two ended the hug, “Well, your mother and I got to mingle as per protocol, maybe I get them to start a waltz,” Night Light joked before he turned to Flash. “I am trusting you with her safety tonight.”

“She can handle whatever is thrown at her, she has thus far, but I will guard her with my life,” Flash replied with a ridged but clearly resolute face. Night Light and Twilight Velvet smiled as they left, assured with their daughter’s safety.

With her parents gone, Twilight looked to Flash, an infatuated school girl’s blush growing on her face, like she was a freshman girl having a crush on a boy who was both a senior and the most popular boy in school. Flash also looked to Twilight, and his face matched her’s as much as if the genders were reversed would actually allow. This was not lost on Spike, “JUST KISS ALREADY!” the dragon shouted shocking the two as he left them. “Geez, humans just have to make things so complicated, she’s attracted to him, he’s attracted to her, any other species would be….” Spike muttered under his breath as he headed into the actual ball.

The two gave a nervous laugh as they looked back to each other, “Well, milady, shall we actually go ahead?” Flash asked as he offered his arm. Twilight silently nodded and accepted the arm, once they actually got to the ballroom floor the musicians started to play a waltz. “Will her grace permit me to have this dance?” Flash asked as a confident grin started to grow on his face.

Twilight giggled a little before she answered, “Yes,” Flash then placed his left hand on Twilight’s back as Twilight placed her right hand on his shoulder. Flash then took Twilight’s left hand with his right as he arranged his feet so that his right foot was between Twilight’s feet and soon the two started to waltz. As they danced, Flash used his ethereal wings to left them off the ground. As they danced, and despite all the meet-and-greet, this looked like the perfect day to Twilight, especially with everything that happened the day before. Twilight could not picture anything ruining this night.

Author's Note

And here it is, chapter one of this AU’s answer to EQG. As you can tell, there are some major changes, 1) the location... there was no point beyond marketing for setting the start of the first movie in The Crystal Empire, logically a royal summit would have been held in the capital and where most of the princesses are... and that’s not even addressing how Sunset knew her way around the castle.

2) The timing... yeah with Celestia’s comment of being able to look forward to the Summer Sun Celebration, and compounded with Rainbow Dash saying ‘Our first winter together!’ in “Tanks for the Memory” really doesn’t help with any attempt to theorize an establishable timeline in the show... let alone try to incorporate EQG... I maintain that EQG is a dependent AU, much like the comics.

3) Sunset is not alone in her plot, seriously most operations like an infiltration requires a handful of people. And who are helping her... well it only made sense to ask these five lovely ladies.

“Your attempt to flatter us is as blatantly obvious as a freight train bellowing down the track and is extremely counterproductive currently.”

Did Sugarcoat just....

“Hey, don’t at me, Foxhelm. I’ve been trying really hard to not interact with you in the Author’s Notes.” :pinkiesmile:

:facehoof:

And to answer the question, yes this is chronologically before “My Little Mages: Weight of The Crown” as this is right after “My Little Mages: Enchanted Enigma Elixir”

Hope you all enjoy the ride.

A Battle for The Elements

Twilight did not know how long she had been dancing with Flash, but she couldn’t care less about the exact time. It wasn’t long enough, as the music ended everyone and everything stopped. But this was lost on Twilight as she noticed Flash had closed his eyes and started to lean forward as if to kiss her. She, however, did not recoil but leaned forward and completed the kiss as their lips locked. She felt her heart race faster than she could ever imagine. After two seconds they broke the kiss and placed their foreheads’ on each other, it was a little tricky with Twilight’s focus gem still on, but they were able to manage. All the while their eyes were closed. They then opened them and looked into each other’s, oblivious to what was going on around them.

“Okay nathin’ tah see here, just a young couple havin’ amount, get back tah business, Y'all.” Applejack ordered the gawking nobles, “It ain’t the first time a princess kissed a guard, yall didn’t care when Mi Amore Cadenza did it with Shinin’ Armor.”

“Another Waltz, if you please,” Rarity requested of the musicians and they complied. As the night drew on, the ballroom slowly emptied as the vast majority of the people there had to leave the next day. Ultimately even the musicians left, leaving Twilight and Flash still waltzing in silence as Spike, the CMC, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight Velvet, Night Light and a few others watch one. The others at the table were Princess Celestia, noted for her long implausible floating multi-colored hair, dressed in a white solar theme regal gown, next to her with similar floating hair that was slightly shorter and starry night in a dark blue lunar-themed gown was her sister, Luna. Also there, in another gown with crystal theme and light blue in color was Cadance, Twilight’s sister-in-law. “Aw aren’t they so cute together?” she asked as she turned to a man slightly older than her, he had blue hair and light blue eyes, he was well-built and was in a red high noble's shirt with a golden sash going dialogically from his right shoulder to his left hip. This was Twilight’s older brother, Shining Armor.

“Yeah, but I doubt it will work out, Flash is not high enough in rank to be permanently stationed anywhere and this is just the first time crush, those work out less often than they don’t,” Shining said after he gave a sigh.

“So what are you going to do, Marshall?” Celestia asked.

“My job,” Shining stated and then expanded, “If I have to reactivate the old Everfree Garrison, I will, and if Flash sends a request to transfer there and he meets the requirements and no one else of equal rank applies.” Shining didn’t exactly answer the question asked of him, but they all correctly inferred that he was not going to pull rank within the military to either stop the two or help the two.

“Well now that Twilight is a princess, her security is something we need to discuss,” Luna added after a moment of thought.

“Making Flash the head of her security would put Flash in a place of a conflict of interest, that’s why I asked to not be part of the security detail for Cadance and in fact why I have delegated that to one of my subordinates.” Shining pointed out.

“But I am your princess and I asked you to marry me, isn’t a conflict of interest,” Cadance commented as she was taken aback at what Shining said as if she was insulted.

“At that time Celestia was the sole ruling princess, and I was technically you're equal as the Marshall.”

“Well, that’s a bridge to cross some other time.” Night Light commented as they turned back, “let’s let them have this moment.”

“Well, Nighty, (yawn) it’s time to call it a night. Good night, everyone, your graces,” Twilight Velvet then got up with her husband shortly after.

“We better get to bed too, Shining, we got a long train ride tomorrow, especially with all the stops that it will have to make,” Cadance said as she too got up followed by Shining.

“Well, we better put a few others tah bed.” Applejack commented as she pointed to the three youngest humans having a hard staying awake. She then got up, picked up Apple Bloom and held her to her chest resting the girl’s head on her left shoulder motherly. Rarity followed suit but had Sweetie Belle’s head resting on her right shoulder. Rainbow Dash, also got up but elected to give Scootaloo a ride on her back. “Thanks for spending time with t’em, Princess Luna.”

“We had the most fun night with them,” Luna answered as she got up, “Well, there are dreams We must look through, nightmares We must help our subjects confront.”

“Pinkie Pie then yawned as she got up as well and stretched, “Well I am pooped. This was a great ball, hopefully, the next Gala will be as fun. Night everyone.”

“Well, I have to see everyone off in the morning, goodnight all,” Celestia said as she too got up and headed out with the rest. Fluttershy and Spike were not far behind.

It was wasn’t for another minute until Twilight and Flash stopped. “You’ve gotten a lot better, have you been taking lessons?” Flash asked as they ended and he could not help but smile at it all.

“Well, I had a very patient leader the first time I actually danced,” Twilight said with a blush. It was then that they realized that they were alone. “Looks like it’s just us.”

“Shall I escort you to your chambers?” Flash asked as he offered his arm.

“Aren’t you the romantic?” Twilight giggled as the two head out, lost in each other’s eyes. They walked not looking away from each other until Flash collided with the archway. “Flash, are you okay?”

As Flash regained himself, “Been better.” Flash chuckled as he tried to shrug it off. Twilight couldn’t help but laugh as they continued to Twilight’s room.

About thirty minutes after Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash left, they had tucked their respective little sister figures and had shut the door to the room the three younger girls were staying in, “To think that they will be thirteen soon and will be making their own ways.” Rarity, said with a sigh as the three headed towards their rooms, Rarity was in the center with Applejack on her left and Rainbow Dash on her right. “We’re running out of time to do stuff with them, aren’t we.” Rarity sighed.

“Ah know,” Applejack sighed, “Bloom is like mah own daughter… their teens are gonna be rough on us.”

“Yeah and I just started being Scoot’s big sister. It’s gonna suck when she goes her own way.”

“Not as much as this, dearies.” came a female voice from behind them. The three turned to see three of the maids they passed earlier that night but they were not in their maid outfits, the Earthborn (Sunny Flare) with cerise eyes, mulberry hair and was cut short with small bangs all around, with raspberry streaks and a flaring yellow sun hair clip that seemed to be the one in command. She was dressed in the long robes of a cleric with a holy symbol on her left side, the symbol looked eerily similar to Celestia’s aura mark, but while Celestia’s mark gave the aura of warmth and growth, this sun looked like it was going to engulf the solar system in it’s raging plasma. On her right side was a war mace, as if she was a War Cleric. To her right was the Skyborn with dark cornflower blue hair with cerulean and arctic blue streaks, with her hair combed up and back not unlike a mullet, with gamboge orange eyes, and stylized yellow lightning bolts earrings. She was dressed in what looked like a close fitting variant of what Arcane Monks wear, with bracers that covered most of her forearms, but her leggings were much shorter and the rest of grab much tighter than what monks usually wear. Her ethereal wings were indigo in color and looked more lightning bolts and on her head was a set of goggles. And to the Earthborn’s left was the Skyborn, (Sugarcoat) that had opalish gray hair with arctic bluish gray streaks done in two ponytails to the sides of her head, with glasses over her orchid eyes and a hair clip that looked like a set of lips. The last member of the trio was dressed in a long light brown robe which hid her feet, but her hovering betrayed her nature as a Skyborn. On the front of each of their shirts was a black lightning bolt. “Phase 4 starts now.” the Earthborn War Cleric said.

The Skyborn to her right dove at Rainbow Dash and punched her in the gut sending her back with a gale, as she gave a chuckle she was slapped with Rarity’s shawl. “Get your bow, Dash. We’ll deal with these hooligans,” Rarity declared as she enchanted her shawl to pull the Arcane Monk back.

“Hooligans refer to violent young troublemakers that are often disorganized, undisciplined and sometimes members of gangs, the actual word you are looking for is ‘intruders’,” the other Skyborn informed rather bluntly. “However, we have other matters to attend to,” She then kneeled to the ground, and placing her hand on the carpet which only Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were on, “Kerp, roll back up,” she said and the carpet started to roll up toward the three.

“RUN!” Applejack ordered as she grabbed Rarity and then Rainbow Dash. The then reach a fork in the hallway and separated.

“We didn’t get a single Element,” the Athletic Mage posted.

“They will have to double back, we are too close to their sisters for comfort, Indigo. Also, the plan was not to steal those three at this time. But in five seconds you will have to start going after Rainbow Dash.” Sugarcoat informed. Indigo, full name Indigo Zap, smiled just shy of gleefully. “And Applejack and Rarity should be back in three, two, one,” She counted down and then pointed to show Applejack with her sword and Rarity with a few floating gems, “Now Indigo, show them why your name is ‘Zap’.”

“With pleasure,” Indigo said as she took the stance of a professional runner and put her goggles over her eyes as lighting indigo in color started to form around her. After a second she bolted past Applejack and Rarity. Applejack was barely able to stand her ground, but Rarity was forced through into a door, forcing it open and she landed in the room on the other side, which happened to be her room.

Sunny said as she took out her holy symbol and pointing it forward, “Sunbeam!” from the holy symbol came a bright beam of sunlight that blinded Applejack, causing her to walk backward into the wall. “Follow the plan, but get the Element of Honesty if you can,” Sunny said as she rushed past Applejack as the paladin randomly swung her sword. But Sunny caught it with her holy symbol, “Your sword’s a little cold, dearie. Heat Metal!” the sword then started to glow red as if it was still being forged. Applejack screamed in pain as she dropped the sword. With the paladin disarmed, Sunny continued into the room Rarity was forced into. As the enchantress was still dazed, even as she was recovering, Sunny took out of her pocket some acorns, “Fire Seeds.” She said as she threw them into the air and the acorns exploded like tiny grenades. All this effectively knocked Rarity out, Sunny would have been surprised that the dress was undamaged she and her companions didn’t do their research. As she took off the Element of Generosity and put it on, “Lady Shimmer’s plan has gone as it should,” Sunny whispered before she left, “Nothing personal, dearie.” She finished as she turned back to Rarity.

Just as Sunny started out, “Wait… stop… thief…” Rarity tried to say, but she was in no shape to do much. “Must help...Applejack,” she tried but she could barely walk. “So much for tonight.”

After Sunny Flare ran into the room Rarity was forced into, Sugarcoat watched as Applejack began to get her sight back. For the paladin, it was all a big white blur when Sunny hit her with that Sunbeam. Sugarcoat knew she had the chance to charge forward to take the Element, but it ran the risk of her not being able to stop Applejack from following her and Sunny long enough for the two to get away. All she could do was wait a few more seconds. But she could do something, “I am given to understand that Paladins are resistant to divine magic. Given that my associate is a cleric, that rumors seems to be little less than that.”

“It ain't as black and white as Y'all think,” Applejack said as she closed her eyes and then open them and was able to see, granted still very blurry, “Now that’s more like it. Now, who the buck are yah?” Applejack said as she reached for her dropped sword.

“Applejack Apple, Paladin of Sweet Apple Temple. I’ve heard of you,” Sugarcoat commented as she took out a cloth and took off her glasses to clean them.

“Funny, Ah ain’t heard a lick about yah, Salt Lick. Nor does that answer my question,” Applejack stated as she charged Sugarcoat.

Sugarcoat was able to, from Applejack’s still visually compromised perspective, effortlessly evade her. Tripping the paladin in the process. “Salt Lick, a reference to the somewhat bitter flavored saltlicks used on farms, your current use is meant to indicate that you don’t particularly like a person, as opposed to your more traditional Sugarcube, which is a reference to a treat favored by domesticated equines and implications are self-evident. Not that creative are you?”

As Applejack got back up with some difficulty, “Doesn’t address that ya know me, but Ah still don’t know yah!” Applejack grunted before she felt Sugarcoat place both her hand on Applejack’s back.

“Which gives me all the advantages, Abbelya'akova. Now hold still for a minute,” Sugarcoat stated. Applejack couldn’t move, not even blink. It was just like when the Tanatbus cast his hold spell on her almost a year ago. Walking around to face Applejack, Sugarcoat started to explain. “It’s Truename magic. It only works for a short period of time and only when someone knows the true name of something, in the case of people, it which last much shorter and rarely, if ever, works exactly the same way twice. In the case of paladins and clerics, due to their connection to the Teachings, it’s a one time deal. Which is all I need it to be as it has granted all the time Sunny Flare and I need to escape to our rendezvous with the Element of Generosity,” It was then that Sugarcoat noticed that Applejack was no longer wearing the Element of Honesty, this actually shocked Sugarcoat, “Ditched it when you got your sword, clever.”

Sunny Flare then came out of the room Rarity was sent into wearing the Element of Generosity. “Got it, let’s go, dearie,” she called as she ran past the two. As she placed her hand to her ear as if to communicate via an ear placed comlink, “Sunny Flare reporting in, Sugarcoat and I have the Element of Generosity and Phase 4 is now completed. Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, you both are up to start Phase 5. Indigo, if you have the Element of Loyalty or not, it’s time to fall back, dearie.”

“You might have better luck next time.” Sugarcoat said as she followed Sunny Flare. Applejack could only seeth in divine wrath as she was forced to wait until the minute-long hold spell was up.

After running past Rarity and Applejack, Indigo Zap continued to find Rainbow Dash exiting her room with her bow, “Too slow.” Indigo said, her hands glowing indigo as she closed the distance before the elementalist could take aim. She then punched Rainbow Dash in the sides and gut, forcing Rainbow Dash back as if she was struck by the Magical Missile spell. As Rainbow Dash struggled to recover, Indigo took stock of the elementalist and noted that she was no longer wearing the Element of Loyalty. “Ah poo.” Indigo pouted at that, however, she had just enough time to respond to and dodge Rainbow Dash ‘s rainbow-colored arrow. “WOAH!”

“TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHER FUCKER!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she continued her volley. However, Indigo seemed to dodge each and every bolt like it was going as fast as a leaf falling to the ground on a windless day. “How are you so fast?!”

Indigo chuckled as indigo colored plasma formed around her hands and feet, “What’s the matter, afraid to get zapped?” Indigo then zapped to be right in front of Rainbow Dash. She jammed her right elbow into Rainbow’s chest and then hit Rainbow’s face with the back of her right hand, before punching her in the chest and turning so to roundhouse kick Rainbow Dash sending Rainbow flying back as she was shocked by the charge of the plasma she was punched with. As Indigo started to walk towards Rainbow, she stopped as she heard Sunny’s voice through the comlink, ‘Sunny Flare reporting in, Sugarcoat and I have the Element of Generosity and Phase 4 is now completed. Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, you both are up to start Phase 5. Indigo, if you have the Element of Loyalty or not, it’s time to fall back, dearie,’. Indigo Zap groaned, but she knew it was not worth arguing with Sunny, the plan was going as it should, just would have been better if they could grab the Elements of Honesty and Loyalty. Just as she pouted she spotted the Element of Loyalty on Rainbow Dash’s bed. She grinned as she placed her left hand to her ear, “Phase 4 is a bigger success than expected,” she said as she went in and grabbed the Element of Loyalty, putting it on as she left the still recovering Rainbow Dash, striking the elementalist in the back of her head as she passed, knocking Rainbow out.

Around the same time Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash left the room the CMC were in, Fluttershy was supporting a barely focused Pinkie Pie. The jester was tried but she also drunk, “So Fluttershee, do all Skyborn like to try things?” she asked as if she was trying to court the druid in her drunken state. “Or is it just jocks like Dashie?” she continued before erupting in a very deep laugh.

Fluttershy didn’t know how to respond to Pinkie at first, but did try something, “Um, Pinkie, are you…”

“Nope, but you are so~ cute~, who wouldn’t want you?” Pinkie asked as planted a kiss on Fluttershy’s lips, this froze Fluttershy as Pinkie fell to the ground in a giggling bout, rolling on the floor.

A solid red-faced Fluttershy slowly turned creaking like someone stepping on a wooden step in an old house. “I am going to my room.” she squeaked as she took out her hairpin and covered her face with her long pink hair. She left Pinkie on the floor unaware of two other women very close by. One was the pistachio green haired Magicborn Lemon, Lemon Zest being her full name and the Earthborn with her hair in a ponytail. Lemon was dressed in a sleeveless pale amaranth shirt that also exposed her midriff with a pair of pants grayish arctic blue in color, a black lightning bolt embroidered on the front with a purple plaid skirt. On her hips looked like a small box with a wire that connected it to her headset. The Earthborn with her had a double-headed battle-ax with a handle about a meter long, on her back. She wore a pair of pants that were light grayish gold in color, with a sleeveless shirt made from the coat of a bear, with a black lightning bolt dyed in the front, with the bear’s own mouth as opening for her right arm.

‘Sunny Flare reporting in, Sugarcoat and I have the Element of Generosity and Phase 4 is now completed. Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, you both are up to start Phase 5. Indigo, if you have the Element of Loyalty or not, it’s time to fall back, dearie,’ came Sunny Flare’s voice in the two’s ears.

Shortly then came Indigo Zap’s voice, ‘Phase 4 is a bigger success than expected’.

“Way to go, Indigo! Lemon Zest here,” Lemon said as she placed her right hand on her headset, “Me and Sour…”

‘Sour and I,’ Sunny’s voice stated, ‘please don’t butcher your grammar, dearie.’

“Whatev’, we’re ready, so should Sour Sweet get her target as ‘Sour’ or ‘Sweet’?” Lemon asked.

‘We’ve been over this, Lemon, you attach more with honey than with vinegar, Sour Sweet is supposed to try by being sweet first.’ Sugarcoat informed.

“I’ll try to be… ooh, is that a bunny following the druid. It’s so adorable. Can I pet the bunny?” Sour said in an almost diabetes inducing degree of sweetness.

‘You can call it ‘George’ if it makes you happy, dearie, just get the Element.’ Sunny’s voice responded very patiently with the extremely chipper Sour Sweet.

“YAY!” And Sour was off to pet the rabbit, unbeknownst to her the rabbit was… Angel Bunny.

Watching on before she went to Pinkie Pie, all the while the jester got back to her feet and headed towards her own room, Lemon spoke to Sunny with the comlink, “Something is going to go terribly wrong, and she’s going to lose it, isn’t she?”

‘It was a risk we all had to take. Better get a calming song at the ready for her. It’s all on you, dearie.’

“I’ll get a good one,” Lemon muttered to herself, after changing off of the comlink, she started to shuffle through her collection of music looking for a song. It took less than a second for her to find one and start playing it. As she bobbed her head to the beat, “Sweet,” she then joined in with the song’s lyrics, “I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I've got a nagging fear
Someone else is pulling at the strings
Something terrible is going down through the entire town
Bringing anarchy on all it brings.”

Fluttershy entered her room, forgetting to shut the door. She slumped onto her bed before she felt Angel Bunny hop next to her and affectionately brushed against her arm. “Thank you, Angel,” Fluttershy said as she rolled onto her back and sat up. “Well it was quite a day, I feel bad for Twilight, meeting all those strangers from all over Mystica and the world, I don’t know if I could handle it as well.” Angel couldn’t argue with that but hopped to her side and place his paw on her leg. “Thank you, Angel. People don’t give you enough credit, they just don’t understand rabbits.”

“I love bunnies!” came a very cheerful voice Fluttershy never heard before. The druid turned to see the Earthborn maid that had rose hair with light rose and aquamarine streaks in a ponytail, but she wore pair of pants light grayish gold in color, with a sleeveless shirt made from the coat of a bear, with a black lightning bolt dyed in the front, with the bear’s own mouth as the opening for her right arm (Sour Sweet) in the doorway. “They’re so cute and soft and fluffy.”

“Um… who are you?” Fluttershy asked as she got off her bed and walked to her dresser for her staff and pouch, preparing to fight the stranger.

“My name is Sour Sweet, but my friends call me either Sour or Sweet, depending on my mode.” Sour Sweet answered as she rushed in and picked Angel up from the bed. “Aw, he’s the cutest wittle wabbit ever.” She said as she rubbed her cheek against Angel’s.

Fluttershy was trying to process everything, a stranger dressed in a shirt with one of its sleeveless shoulders as the open mouth of a bear came into her room uninvited and was rubbing Angel’s cheek. “Um… Ms. Sweet… would you be so kind to…”

“I am here to take your Element. My friends and I are here to take them all. So do you mind handing it over, PLEASE!” Sour answered as she continued to fawn over the rabbit. As she stopped rubbing her cheek against Angel she held him in her left hand as she continued to pet him. “He’s such a sweetie.”

Fluttershy didn’t know what to do, should she run or stay. But then she noticed Angel was frowning. That was not uncommon, but he began to growl, or as close to a growl as a rabbit can. “You might want to stop, he doesn’t like being pet by strangers, or friends sometimes,” Fluttershy said.

“But he’s so soft and fluffy.” Sour Sweet replied. Just then she reached out with her right hand to pet Angel again.

Fluttershy saw Angel open his mouth and just as Sour’s right hand was almost in range, “Angel, no, don’t”....”

CHOMP

Too late. Angel bit Sour’s right hand. As Sour started to tear up and give a whimper, Angel hopped over to Fluttershy and gave her a slight scowl, not pleased that Fluttershy didn’t take him away earlier. But before Fluttershy could scold Angel, Sour stopped whimpering and started to breathe forcefully, as if to hold back from exploding. “Not good…” Fluttershy squeaked as she started to connect the dots, the bear coat shirt should have been her biggest clue, Sour Sweet was a Berserker, and her ‘Sour’ state was her frenzy.

Sour took her battle-ax off her back and took it with her right hand. She stopped breathing and roared as she stroke her chest with her left hand. As she took her battle-ax with both hands she looked at Fluttershy with the intent to...“I AM GONNA KILL YOU, AND YOUR RASCALLY RABBIT, TOO!” Sour roared and charged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy cried in fear as she flew out of her room as fast as she could, but Sour was easily able to keep pace. “COME BACK HERE AND TASTE MY AX!”

As Pinkie was about to enter her room she noticed her fingers were randomly tapping as if with an untuned piano, “That’s funny, someone’s singing about Discord,” she commented before looking around.

She then spotted the pistachio-colored hair Magicborn from before, but she was not in the maid outfit but dressed in a sleeveless pale amaranth shirt that also exposed her midriff with a pair of pants grayish arctic blue in color, a black lightning bolt embroidered on the front with a purple plaid skirt (Lemon Zest). She was singing and bobbing her head with her eyes close to the beat, “I’m fine with changing status quo, but not in letting go
Now our world is being torn apart
A terrible catastrophe played by a symphony,
What a terrifying work of art,”

The Magicborn then dropped to her knees and thrust her hand up into the air in a fist, clearly enjoying the song, all that while sliding to be much closer to Pinkie Pie. "I can’t sit idly, no I can’t move at all,
I curse the name the one behind it all!” as she finished that last part she opened her eyes and held out her hand as if to ask Pinkie for a hand up.

Pinkie helped her back to her feet and then joined in with the Magicborn as the two sang, “Discord, I’m howling at the moon”

The Magicborn stopped as if the two were going to alternate lyrics, “And sleeping in the middle of a summer afternoon” Pinkie sang by herself. As she finished she pointed back to the Magicborn.

“Discord, whatever did we do,” the Magicborn sang by herself.

“To make you take our world awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay?” the two sang together, “DISCOORRDD!” The two stopped before repeating and started laughing, having found a common interest.

Pinkie then took a long look at the Magicborn, “You look familiar.” Pinkie commented and then she got it, “You’re the maid, the meanie head maid called ‘Lemon’. She was a big party pooper taking off your headset like that.

“Yeah, Sunny can be such a stick in the mud. Name’s Lemon Zest, dude.”

“ I am…”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie, better known as Pinkie Pie and you are here to say,” Lemon started to sing.

“I’m gonna make you smile and I will brighten up your day!” Pinkie sang and stopped. “I love that song.”

“Yeah, dude, it’s pretty rad. But I am gonna have to take that,” Lemon said as she pointed to the Element of Laughter.

Pinkie followed Lemon’s hand and started to laugh, “Ah that was a good one. You steal the Element of Laughter,” She even started to cry in her laugh, but as she noticed that Lemon’s deadpan. “You’re serious,” Lemon nodded in silence. Pinkie took a step back in thought, it didn’t take her long to have something. “You like music, right?”

“Love it.”

Pinkie then reached into her hair and pulled out an oversized movable subwoofer that was large enough to rival a Party Cannon, “Well, you’ll won’t love this.”

“What is that?” Lemon asked as she looked the subwoofer over from the front.

Pinkie the flip a glass case that covered a big red button. “A gift from a friend, Vinyl Scratch. It’s a BASS CANNON!” Pinkie yelled as she hovered her right index finger over the red button, “And as Vinyl would sign, FEEL THE WUBS!”, which Pinkie signed as she shouted before pressing the button. While the initial shock of it forced Lemon back and off her feet, she was able to get back up and walk into the sonic waves as if it was nothing. “What!!!!” Pinkie’s mind could not understand what was going on in front of her.

Lemon stopped before about halfway in her approach, “I love the wubs.” Lemon then punched the wall causing it crack. “They make me stronger.” Pinke froze with her mouth hanging open, unable to fathom what just happened, with what sounded like a porcelain platter falling and shattering. Lemon capitalized on this and took the Element of Laughter off of Pinkie’s neck. “Thanks, dude, you’re awesome.” She then walked to the bass cannon and turned it around, “Rock on!” she said as she pressed the button firing it. She then put her left hand to the left earmuff of her headset, “Zesty reporting, I got the Element of Laughter, I am falling back to the rendezvous. Can I…”.

‘Whatever it is, you can’t take it, dearie,’ was the surprisingly calm and patient response she got from Sunny Flare, causing the Sonic Mage to pout. But she accepted it, there was no way she could bring it with her.

After a second, Lemon touched her headset to change to restart the song that she had playing and when the lyrics started, she began to sing along again. “I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I've got a nagging fear
someone else is pulling at the strings…”, Lemon started to sing as she was about to walk away, bobbing her head.

However, she stopped as she heard, ”I’M GONNA KILL YOU AND YOUR RASCALLY RABBIT TOO!” followed by screams of fright and then “COME BACK HERE AND TASTE MY AX!” Lemon knew it was Sour Sweet going after Fluttershy. What followed was a shockingly ursine sounding roar. Lemon turned to see Fluttershy coming toward her, tears of fright in her eyes with Sour hacking all the way down the hall.

Lemon looked to the bass cannon and smiled as she went over to it and aimed it at Fluttershy, “Feel the wubs,” she said as she fired it sending Fluttershy into a wall and knocking her out, and slowing Sour Sweet. Making the berserker walk like she was going against a gale. Lemon then walked to the stunned druid. “Thanks, dude,” She took the Element of Kindness and then walked up to the still raging Sour, “Try this on, and check this out,” Lemon said as she the Element of Kindness onto Sour and then her headset. As Sour calmed down she gave a smile. Lemon took the headset back and stopped the music, “Lemon reporting, Phase 5 was a success, you’re up, boss,” Thinking she started the music up again, “Discord, I'm howling at the moon,
And sleeping in the middle
of a summer afternoon…”

‘LEMON, YOU’RE STILL ON THE COMLINK CHANNEL!’ Came Sugarcoat’s, Indigo’s, Sunny’s and a fourth voice, none of them all that happy.

“Oops…” Lemon then corrected that and returned to her song as Sour Sweet traveled with her to the rendezvous spot.

Elsewhere, Twilight and Flash walked slowly through the castle, but they didn’t go directly to Twilight’s room. The two arrived at one of the walls looking out of the castle to the city of Chantalot proper about thirty minutes after they left the ballroom. They then took a seat on one of the benches seating next to each other, Twilight resting her head on Flash’s shoulder. “Guess I misjudge how this night would turn out,” she then gave a blissful sigh. Looking back to the sky, “It’s a beautiful night,” she commented softly.

“And we call it bella notte,” Flash started to sing softly as he turned his head to look at Twilight, “Look at the skies
They have stars in their eyes
On this lovely bella notte.”

“You really like those old songs, don’t you?” Twilight asked jokingly stopping him there with a blush on her face knowing that Flash was not talking about the sky.

“Hey, the classics are the classics for a reason,” Flash joked back. “Unless you want something more recent?” He asked with a confident smirk.

“No, I am good,” Twilight replied as they looked into each other eyes before leaning in for a kiss. Suddenly Flash stopped and looked to his right, “What is it?”

“Something’s wrong,” Flash answered as a scowl started to form on his face. He then got up and took Twilight by her hand pulling her up. “We got to get you to the royal panic room now!” Flash said as he started to pull Twilight behind him.

“Wait! Stop! What’s going on?” Twilight said as she pulled her arm out of his grip. She was shocked at that, not that Flash was dragging her, but that she was able to get out of his hold. Magicborns were not known to be able to break out of the hold of the other races’ grips.

“I don’t know, but … oh no…” Flash said as he looked to see a fire in the direction of the dance hall, “Fire,” he whispered.

Twilight then turned and saw the hall where the ball was smoking, she gasped knowing it was only a short matter of time before it would spread to rest of the castle. “Get Shining Armor and the rest of the guard, get the firefighters, everyone you can, I am going to do what I can to stop the spread,” Twilight then started running back to the hall.

“Wait! Princess! You can’t!” Flash shouted back before he started after her. Normally he would overtake anyone he charged after but now he was racing a demigod. Even the lowest of demigods were leagues above the rest Mystica’ population. “Damn it!” he cursed as he stopped and started to let his ethereal wings build up speed, it would take him a few seconds for his wings to reach the desired speed. “I hate using this boon in a building,” he muttered and then shot in the direction Twilight was running in at the speed of light. While this easily allowed Flash to close the distance, traveling at such a speed left little time to maneuver. Something someone inside a building could capitalize on, a certain red and yellow-haired Magicborn did. As soon as Twilight past an arch away a door was slammed into Flash’s face. After two seconds he recovered, grunting in pain, and checking to see if anything was broken, fortunately, his boon of lightspeed flight offered him a bit of indestructibility, but it still hurt immensely. “FUCK!” he cursed, “Damn it, Twilight,” he muttered as he flew to find another way to back to the hall, while also sounding the fire alarms.

Twilight managed to get to the dance hall only to see that what she saw was a whole lot of black smoke, but only a small fire, “That doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight muttered to herself as conjured a small cloud and had it pour, putting out the fire. With it completely out she walked up to the burnt wood and picked some of it up. As she examined it, she tried to identify the species, but it was a type of tree she knew nothing of.

“Rubber is a very interesting tree. Can be used to make a shock-absorbent lining for the wheels of a wagon and chart, if not entire wheels, but when set on fire, well a little goes a long way,” came a female voice that was slightly deeper than Twilight’s own voice and had a more sinister tone. Twilight turned to as a female Magicborn somewhere in age between her and Cadance. She wore a royal purple top which went below her hips, with a yellow skirt, a large orange sash went around her waist with a golden sun with the center vacant as some sort of buckle for the sash on her left side. Part of her top was black leather that went over her shoulders and covered her back and seemed to come back to the front around her navel, there was a series of studs in the leather at her shoulder. That all said her arms and legs were mostly bare save for the black heeled shoes on her feet. On her head was a tiara that was shaped to look like the sun-shaped buckle in the front with a gem that looked like a red and yellow yin-yang but there was no red dot in the yellow and not yellow dot in the red. She had cyan eyes and her hair was sunset red with yellow stripes that made her hair looked not unlike strips of bacon. “Surprised to see me, Sparkle.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Twilight asked as she prepared to fight, her focus gem glowing.

The other Magicborn only leaned against one of the walls and started to sing mockingly waving her right index finger back and forth as if to match the rhythm of the song in question, “The Princess Twilight cometh...Behold, behold," She stopped singing as she squeezed both her hands and opened them to reveal two fireballs, “Oh give me a break. FIREBALLS!” she shouted the last part as she sent both her fireballs at Twilight. Twilight responded by firing magic missiles from her focus gem as she took to flight. However, the Magicborn teleported in a ring of fire and re-appeared above Twilight kicking her in the face. This forced Twilight to the ground and the Element of Magic from her. The other Magicborn then dove at the Element of Magic in a ball of fire. “Too easy,” She commented as she started to leave the hall.

Twilight, however, recovered faster than her assailant expected and ran after her calling out, “STOP HER! THIEF! HALT! THIEF!” After a few meters of this as the thief was about five meters ahead of Twilight, Twilight elected to teleport to right in front of the pyromancer thief. “Gotcha!” However, before she reclaimed her tiara the pyromancer teleported five meters ahead. “Huh?” Twilight asked herself, but she teleported again, and again her query teleported ahead.

There is a quote from a Earthborn scientist that goes, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each and every time,’ sadly, that definition applied to Twilight in this situation as the two went deeper and deeper into the castle, past Celestia’s personal studies, to a part of the castle Twilight didn’t recognize in the slightest. But Twilight knew one thing, as a demigoddess, she could keep this teleport thing up longer than even the most powerful Magicborn. Before Twilight knew it, the thief arrived at a door and was about to open it. Twilight seized her chance and tackled the redhead. In the immediate scuffle, they forced the door open. “Give me back my Element!” Twilight ordered.

“Not a snowball’s chance!” the thief replied as she tried to keep the tiara from Twilight. As they continued to struggle, Twilight failed to notice that in the room there was a large mirror, a full body mirror at least one and half times the size of Big Mac, and it seemed to give off a faint glow like a was a clear pond reflecting moonlight. The pyromancer grunted in annoyance, “Not now!” she exclaimed before she threw the tiara in the direction of the mirror. Twilight tried to go after it, but she was pinned to the ground, forcing her to struggle to get her foe off of her and get to her tiara. All the while the tiara bounced on the ground going to the mirror until it made contact with the mirror. However, as it passed through it, Twilight froze utterly shocked at what she witnessed. “So Celestia never told you. Interesting,” the Magicborn commented as she saw Twilight’s confusion and capitalizing on it, broke free of Twilight’s and started to the portal. “I bet she didn’t tell you about me either.”

“Who are you and how do you know Princess Celestia or this place?” Twilight asked as she regained herself and tried to stop the woman by sending an ice blast at her.

The pyromancer responded very fast by evoking a firewall around her melting the ice, “Well let’s just say you are the failed attempt to replace me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” The pyromancer than started to laugh at Twilight, “That’s not funny!” Twilight exclaimed as she prepared to cast another spell.

“Oh it is, I knew she couldn’t replace me and if you’re the best she can do…” Just then the five maids that Twilight and crew passed entered the room, but now in their other outfits.

“Time to go, Lady Sunset Shimmer,” the mulberry haired Earthborn said as she and the other ran to the mirror. Twilight could not help but see that four of them had four of her friends’ Elements.

As the recently identified Sunset Shimmer started towards the mirror after the five, “Wait! Stop!” Twilight yelled as she ran to stop them.

Sunset Shimmer only chuckled in victory, “Give Celestia my regards. Later,” and dove into the mirror after the others.

As Twilight got to the mirror, the glow ended and the mirror looked like it was a normal mirror. All she could hear was Sunset Shimmer’s laugh. “No,” she cried as she pushed against it. “No,” she continued as she used her magic to try to make the portal open again, to no avail. “No,” She continued as she started to hit the mirror. “NO! NO!! NO!!!” Twilight screamed as she started to actually pound on the mirror. Unbeknownst to her, her friends arrived, each having barely recovered from their own encounters and managed to follow the five other young women to this room. All, however, too late to do anything.

Author's Note

There are a few things that need to be addressed.

First, the Shadowbolts as presented, much like Catrina, Somnambula, and Grogar, are subjectable to retcon. Unlike the three villains who are subjectable to retcon from the show, the five Shadowbolts are from Didj's art.

Second, Sugarcoat's magic is loosely based on how magic functions in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, if she knows something's or someone's true name, which is the etymological root of a word. Don't worry there are limits.

Third, I think it's obvious by now, I am a FlashLight shipper, however, I will concede that the execution of the relationship in EQG was... well if it was written out of the movie, EQG wouldn't have lost anything. There will be more in this story, and all I ask is for people to judge this story according to its own merits... although how I manage Sunset Shimmer from this point on in the story will be the major thing.

Fourth, I originally had it planned that the Shadowbolts would take all but Honesty and Loyalty but after some thought... it just seemed that Indigo would go out of her way to get her prize, as for Sugarcoat, well it seemed like she'd waste AJ's time

Well, see you all later.

A New Land

An hour later, Celestia, Cadance, and Luna, who were in nightgowns which were surprisingly both on theme for them and able to project their regality, (Twilight’s own nightgown, by comparison, was on point for her cute librarian vibe that she seemed to emanate from time to time but failed to give off the regality of her new station), Spike was out of his tuxedo and Shining was still in his ball suit. With them was a handful of guards in their uniform, counted among them was Flash Sentry still in his ballroom suit, joined Twilight et al in the room with the mirror that Sunset and her cohorts used to enter and exit the castle. Twilight et al just finished telling them what happened. “How did this happen? Where were the guards on patrol in this area?” Shining asked as he was fuming to the guards. “Who let this breach happen?”

None of the guards spoke up, they knew Shining while not pleased with what he might have viewed as a break in protocol, which it wasn’t, was really angry over that his sister could have been killed and the first who would challenge him… well, it would not end will. Flash took a breath and stepped forward. “With all due respect, sir” Flash started, “you are the one who let this breach happen. You ordered most of the castle security and royal guard to protect the all the government officials and dignitaries of our national allies, all of whom are staying in another part of the castle. You also assigned more than the normal guard to guard against threats actually from the outside of the castle. And sir, you elected to simply leave Princess Twilight’s security in my hands alone, Sir.”

Shining was not too fond of that answer, but Flash was telling the truth, Shining had been so focused on external threats he neglected possible internal ones. Shining took a calming breath, realizing he was actually more angry with himself and that he shouldn’t take it out on the other guards. “Fine. But how did they even get into the palace in the first place, we have more security around the facility than normal. It was so tight a spider should be hard pressed to get in without authorization.” Shining muttered as he tried to figure out what happened.

“Well, they did exit through this mirror. Must have cast some spell on it to enter and exit the castle through it.” Pinkie said as she pointed to and walked up to the full body mirror. “But what’s so special about it, given that it’s located so deep in the castle?” Pinkie then started tapping on the mirror.

“This is no ordinary mirror,” Luna started to explain as she had her magic encircle Pinkie Pie and pulled her away from the mirror stopping her from tapping on the mirror and to be with the rest of the group, “it is an artifact from a time long past that leads to another realm.”

“Um, with all due respect, Princess Luna, when you say ‘a time long past’, how long ago are yah talking, and when ya said ‘to another realm’, could ya be a little more specific?” Applejack asked getting to the heart of the matter, this was not a time for vagueness.

“It was made by Star Swirl the Great and predates Bullion’s coronation as king of the Magicborn in his own youth, by about 100 years,” Celestia answered as she walked to the mirror.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute! It predates Bullion’s coronation! Bullion, the king that ruled the three founding tribes, tenuously, for 500 years as the legend goes?” Applejack asked.

“That is not a legend, Bullion’s reign was in fact 500 years, Bullion the Undying, as he was once called. So yes, which would make the mirror about 2600 years old.” Luna answered the paladin.

Everyone turned to face Luna and in utter shock shouted “2500?!?!” After that pretty much everyone’s mouth dropped open, only Cadance was not shocked to the point of being agape.

“Hold on, if Star Swirl made the mirror 100 years before Bullion’s reign and Star Swirl was alive through that entire reign and into both of yours’ early reign, just how old was Star Swirl when he finally died?” Shining Armor recovered first and asked the question on everyone’s minds.

“Ridiculously,” Celestia replied leaving everyone but Luna again agape, “We have no idea why it exists or its purpose, but Clover did teach us how to use it,” Celestia answered all the while looking at the mirror. “A lesson I haven’t shared with either you or Cadance, Twilight,” Celestia said, during the last part, as she angled her view to see Twilight alone.

“But how did those thieves know? Who were they? And why would they want the Elements? And how did that ‘Sunset Shimmer’ know you?” Twilight asked pulling her hair.

No one noticed it because they were all focused on Twilight, but Celestia froze for a second at the name. “I have ruled over Mystica by myself for almost a millennium,” Celestia started to answer whiles she still looked in the mirror. “And as a demigod I am mortal, so I had to make arrangements for my inevitable end,” she continued as she turned to face everyone, “One of those plans is engaging in apprenticeships and given my long life thus far, I have had almost a hundred before you, Twilight.” Celestia took a breath, “Sunset Shimmers was the last apprentice I had before you. She was actually the most promising, even more than you, but she didn’t have your patience and unlike you, she saw that the knowledge she acquired was little more than a tool for power alone and that the power she would acquire was for power’s own sake.” Celestia then turned away and looked back to the mirror, “There are only a few things that haunt me… Sunset’s departure when she thought I was holding back what she believed she was owed... “ Celestia didn’t finish.

“We need to get our Elements back. Teach us how to use the portal.” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Go get provisions and all that you will need, Spike get Twilight’s things, I will teach her how to use the portal, I fear you might have to bring the Element of Honesty as well, Applejack. However, I fear Sunset will be expecting you six, maybe even Spike as well, so you will need something to throw her off.” Celestia informed as she looked at the six bearers and Spike. She then turned to the guards and singling out one of them, “Captain Sentry,”

“Captain, you were promoted again?” Twilight asked caught off guard that Flash was yet again promoted.

“Just last week,” said Flash with a sheepish grin, “I’m still not sure why or how I got promoted.” Cadance looked at Shining Armor with a playful smirk, most likely recalling when Shining had used almost those exact words.

“Ahem.” Celestia coughed and everyone turned back to her, “Captain Sentry, I want you to accompany them.”

“With all due respect, your grace, these six ladies have bested everything that has been shown as an obstacle in the past, I hardly think my presence would even be warranted.”

“There is an old saying, ‘a single grain of rice can tip the scales.” Celestia countered. “I care for my current apprentice, sentinel. Also, Sunset will have many advantages where she went to, the odds are against the Bearers, we need to alter as many odds into our favor as we can, if that means adding additional variables, then that is what it needs to be.”

Flash takes a breath and signed knowing he could not win this debate, “I’ll get ready. But before I go, is there anything that might help us, any knowledge about the other side?”

“If there is any information regarding what lies beyond the mirror, Celestia and myself do not have access to it,” said Luna, “there is a good chance that this ‘Sunset’ character took all those resources with her when she left, assuming there were any records regarding the subject, to begin with within any of the archives. We,” she gestured to Celestia and herself, “know what we do because it was part of our more advanced studies before being given the official authorities we hold now.”

“Well, we ain't gonna get our Elements back standing around here, Be back here in an hour, and Rarity, when it comes to packing up, if AJ wouldn’t back it, then you should leave it.” Rainbow Dash said as she started out. Rarity rolled her eyes as she and the rest followed leaving Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight alone.

Twilight turned to the mirror and looked it over, this time she was much calmer than she was when Sunset escaped. She started to notice series of spirals and stars and while the same spirals and stars were on both sides of the mirror, they didn’t align. She then placed her right hand over one of the stars on the mirror’s left side and saw that it responded to her moving her hand up and down. “It must be some sort of realignment of the stars and spirals?” Twilight asked as she continued to match the stars. Once all the stars were matched she started to repeat it with the spirals, but they would not move. She then hovered her left hand over the mirror’s right side and she started to move the spirals to align with the spirals on the other side. “Looks like she figured it out for herself,” Cadance commented as the mirror itself started to glow like a pool with reflecting moonlight. “So it’s mostly aligning the stars and spirals?”

“So how do we open it from the other side?” Twilight asked.

“I wish I knew, Clover never thought to teach us, and I doubt Star Swirl intended it to go both ways, which is why Spike will be most helpful, as soon as you are ready to come back he can send a message back to us and we will open the portal from this side, unless you somehow arrange to learn from Sunset.” Celestia informed, “But you can cast a timer spell on the mirror, opening it at a selected time.” She placed her hand on the mirror and timer appeared above the door. “You better get ready.” Twilight nodded and left the room leaving the three with the mirror.

Once Twilight was out of earshot, “There is more to this ‘Sunset Shimmer’ being your apprentice isn’t there?” Luna asked getting to the point.

“We’re on your side, Auntie, you don’t need to hold information back from us. We can help you. Please stop playing your cards so close to your vest.” Cadance added only for both to see Celestia also walk out of the room, her demeanor cold and expression stoic. The two remain princesses sighed, “Was she like this when you both ruled?”

“No, she was very much open to Us, but a millennium on her own…” Luna sighed, “Sometimes We wish Platinium, Hurricane, and Puddinghead never stepped down.”

An hour later, Twilight was back in the room with the mirror in her normal clothes which included a dull blue robe with large golden cuffs, pink pants and brown boots that went up above her ankle. She also had a backpack with a bedroll and some traveling rations. Twilight’s friends were in their usual clothes, save Rarity who was wearing flats in lieu of the heeled shoes she normally wore, and they all had similar packs, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, being Earthborns, had larger packs with more of the gear the group might need. “Well, we are about to go into a brave new world.”

“You’re seriously going to leave without me,” everyone turned to see Flash not in the golden colored armor that was the standard uniform for ESM soldiers, but in a Guard expedition outfit that was colored in dull browns and greens. However, his aura mark depicted was patched over his heart and he was otherwise armed and armored with an arm-sword sheathed on his left side and a blue heater shield with a yellow lightning bolt painted on it was secured to his left arm. On his back was his own pack, which was slightly larger than what any of the girls had, and definitely bigger than Spike’s, also of note was the patches of cloth on the suit that could be used to cover the signina if the need should arise hanging snuggly next to the points that had his mark. “First you try to give me the boot, then you left without a note, and now you’re stringing me along. I get you want only the best man, but could you cut a guy some slack?” How Flash said all that with a straight face, even he couldn’t figure out, but a second later he started to chuckle. “Sorry for the bad joke, but the air is so thick with seriousness, you’d need a saw to make any progress.”

“So are you going to be a gentleman and let the ladies go first?” Rarity asked.

“And have Shining breathing down my neck for letting civilians go into a potentially dangerous area without forming a security perimeter? Sorry, but I got enough monkeys on my back, I can do without that ape.”

“Making jokes about my brother is not going to help matters.” Twilight deadpanned.

“You’re going to have to catch me to make me apologize.” Flash then winked and then took a breath. He then looked in the mirror and in an instant ran through it drawing his sword as he entered the portal.

“Did he just… Man, I gotta know how he did that.” Rainbow Dash asked as she realized that Flash ran at lightspeed.

“Ah think the fact that his flash having no effect on us, not even making a sonic boom, should be addressed first.” Applejack pointed out.

“Well, we ain't getting answers standing here,” Rainbow commented, but as she started to the mirror she was the first to notice that Applejack, brought with her the Element of Honesty. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to bring that?”

“Honestly, no. But we might end up havin’ ta use tha Elements and if this one is back here.” Applejack pointed out. “Also they might have planned Ah leave it behind and sneak back ta get it. If it’s always on mah, it’s less likely tah be stolen.”

“That makes no sense, except for us probably needing them for some big problem that needs rectifying,” said Rarity.

“Yeah, there’s always the chance you could lose it through happenstance,” said Pinkie, “like forgetting it where you bathe, it gets snagged on something as you pass by a piece of the environment jutting out, or it’s pawned for the local currency.”

“Ah would never do somethin’ like that,” said Applejack.

“Oh, we all know you wouldn’t,” said Pinkie, “but I never said you would do the pawning.” Applejack’s gaze drifted to Rainbow and Rarity, both of whom gave somewhat sheepish grins which prompted Twilight and Fluttershy to have their palms meet their faces rapidly.

The whole thing hadn’t even officially started and they already had problems cropping up. To make matters worse, they also had to contend with who knows how many unknowns in addition to the girls that had snuck in with Sunset Shimmer. “Hey girls, are you coming or not?” came Spike’s voice as he headed for the mirror, “Oh and Twilight, we’re going to need to hide the fact I’m a dragon. Who knows what kind of trouble we’d have if we don’t.”

Pinkie gave a huge smile, “I know just the disguise!”

Flash waited on the other side of the portal, his sword back in its sheath, which was little more than an open patch of grassland close to a temperate rain forest, as Flash could tell by the excessive amount of moss growing on the trees and the low-level clouds-mist-fog mixture around him. And late in the morning, not yet midday by the position of the sun in the sky. After around a minute or two, the girls finally exited the portal. First was Applejack, she was scanning the area as if she trying to detect something. “Nothin’ Evil around.” Applejack said just before Rainbow Dash came rolling out and had her bow ready. Clearly, Rainbow Dash has been watching too many fictional military based action films, if she paid more attention during her semester at Wonderbolt Academy she would have learned that an infiltration is based on stealth. Next was Fluttershy who was much more cautious, a little too cautious for Flash’s liking, then Pinkie Pie came skipping out like it was a walk in the park, a huge smile on her face. Rarity followed, however, she strutted through as if she owned the place.

“Oh come on Spike, it’s not too bad. We all think you look cute,” came Twilight’s voice as she finally passed through the portal.

A second later a small purple furred dog, well more of a puppy, with a greenish-gray underbelly, green eyes, a darker shade of green fur on its head and ears a lighter shade of green than the eyes. It also had a spiked collar with a dog tag that had Twilight’s aura mark on it, and on the hind legs were patches of light gray fur shaped like a rhombus, a pentagon, and a triangle. “But I don’t want to be cute!” the pup said in Spike’s voice. “You could have turned me into a human and let me keep my fangs.”

Flash could not help but chuckle a little, but he stopped, “Alright, this area appears to be clear. Now we just have to find which way they went, they have a three to four-hour head start and they know this place. Let’s move out.” As he pointed out a set of human footprints, they were hours old and how they weren’t worn away, Flash couldn’t imagine. He didn’t fully trust them but he had few other options.

After an hour of walking, following a nearby river and coming across nothing but normal animal, nothing magical like the creatures back in Mystica, no unicorns, no flying horses, no manticores, nothing, even a single parasprite would have been a welcomed sight to Twilight et al. It was as if this place had almost no magic. As the next hour started the band arrived a ledge, looking beyond it, they saw a city. The city was not more than three kilometers away. It looked to be more advanced than Magivillie, but far from matching Manahatten, Chantalot or most of the other advanced cities of Mystica. Within the city was a castle, which looked older than the Castle in Chantalot but newer than the Castle of the Two Sisters, “Well, hopefully we can understand their language and they ours,” Flash commented before taking the lead again, addressing the fact that they might not speak or write in the same language.

“Can’t we rest for a moment?” Rarity asked as she sat down on a fairly large rock.

Pulling Rarity back to her feet with the enchantress’ backpack, “If wah can get a room at an inn, ya can sleep until the storm king cometh, Sugarcube.”

“Well shoop-be-doo-shoop-shoop-be-doo, the storm king, might as well say when the Seaborns rise from the depths. Like that will ever happen.” Rainbow Dash dismissed as the rest continued to walk ahead and to the city. Rarity pouted, but the thought of soaking her feet later was enough to keep her going.

“Well Nightmare Moon turned out to be real,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “Say, let’s play a game, 20 questions. Okay, Spike, think of something.” Rainbow Dash groaned as Pinkie started asking questions at lightspeed.

At that moment in the city, at an open-air restaurant, Sunset was silently steaming in anger, with her cohorts seated around her as a server placed six glasses of water on the table and a pitcher for them, No one said anything, Sour, Lemon and Indigo could not keep their hands off the respective Element they took, happy at their handiwork. Sugarcoat was silently drinking her water as Sunny seemed to be in thought about some matter “How did Abacus even know where to look for the portal?” Sunset final shouted as she slammed the table, her hands on fire.

“I advised against underestimating my mother, dearie.” Sunny started. She knew she was poking a bear but Sunset had dropped the ball having forgotten the other powers at play and Sunny had already fulfilled her end of the deal, but Sunset could use a reminder, “She has dealt with more people that have opposed her than you and for longer than you have been alive. One doesn’t become Baroness of Midnight Castle and keep it for as long as she has without knowing how other contenders tend to think. Why do you think Longhorn is still little more than a gang leader and his gang is all but gone.”

Sugarcoat then took off her glasses to clean them and turning to Sunny, “While all that is true, Baroness Cinch did advise you that, and I quote, ‘no one wins the game of power, at best you die without having lost, it’s all come down to others’ perceptions and expectations, and how to met or exceed them, and the best way to not lose to exceeded expectations.’ unquote.”

“Doesn’t explain why we left the trail.” Indigo pointed out, no longer reveling in her victory over Rainbow Dash.

“Because we still need the Element of Honesty, how do you expect them to find us if they didn’t have a trail?” Lemon asked as she bobbed her head to beat of whatever song she was playing. “SHOUT!
SHOUT!
LET IT ALL OUT!”

Sour removed one of the earphones and shouted, “SING TO YOUR MUSIC ON YOUR OWN TIME! WE’RE IN A MIDDLE OF A DISCUSSION HERE!”

Recovering from the audible assault, “Alright, fine.” Lemon pouted.

“Well ladies, are you ready to order?” came the voice of the server as he tried to make his presence know tactfully.

“No, there are six more of our group coming, they should be arriving shortly. But maybe a light salad.” Sugarcoat said and the server left the group. “Well aside from Sunset dropping the ball with her Element, the plan has gone as it should.”

As Twilight et al walked into the city, they stood out and not only for their pack and the fact that Twilight herself was a demigod. They have been in populated cities before, but even in practically Earthborn exclusive cities like Appleloosa and Dodge Junction, there were a handful of Magicborn and Skyborn, and the same is true for almost Magicborn exclusive cities like Chantalot with a handful of Earthborn and Skyborn of the actual population, factoring out the ESM, heck even Cumula had a few Magicborn and Earthborn. But here, there wasn’t a Skyborn to be seen flying anywhere or a Magicborn electing to levitate a purchase from the stands to whatever bag or pack they have. “They all can’t be Earthborn?” Rarity commented as they all looked at the people. Most of the people, men, women, and children, looked at the group for a second, shook their heads and moved on, not like most of the residents of Manahatten.

“Well, they all certainly ain’t the most welcomin’ bunch.” Applejack pointed out as she took off her pack and sat on it as she took a drink from her waterskin. “A lot like Sunflower Seed,” she muttered after finishing her drink. After taking another drink, “At least her little sister Babs actually writes tah Apple Bloom and the rest of the family their age.”

“Maybe we can find the Elements with a spell, you know like that Detect Magic you tried on my uncle Tanzanite and Nightingale?” Pinkie Pie suggested to Twilight after seeing no one else had a plan.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a breath before her focus gem started to glow. This was not unnoticed by the bypassers, all of them froze as their mouths hang open, as Twilight lifted into the air about half a meter, a purple light formed a line then shot from the focusing gem and flew in the direction of the open air restaurant Sunset and the others were at, the appearance of that line of purple light was lost on no-one. Twilight then floated back down to the ground and opened her eyes, “Follow me!” She ordered as she started following the line of light. The others followed, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Flash flying which only added to the shock of the people in the city.

Spike was the last one of the group, “Wait for me! I have stupidly short legs!” He said which gave a few of the city’s residents reason to faint.

After about ten minutes they arrived at the open air restaurant that Sunset and the others were at. As soon as they reached the table, Sugarcoat took out a watch she had, “You’re fifteen minutes late,” she deadpanned. She then actually looked Twilight’s group over, like the others of her own, as they all spotted Flash, Sugarcoat took off her glasses and cleaned them hurriedly as if she did not believe what she saw, granted the only one at the table not showing any signs of shock or surprise was Sunset. Once she was confident that Flash was not an illusion, “Although Soldier-boy is a nice addition.”

Before Flash or Twilight could comment about Flash’s presences, “Well excuse me for not sticking to your schedule.” Rainbow declared fairly annoyed. “Now give us back our Elements.” Rainbow Dash ordered as she drew her bow from the quiver she had on her waist and readied it to fire at Indigo Zap. “Or do I have to force the rainbow down your throats!”

Applejack lowered Rainbow Dash’s arms and bow, “Easy there, Sugarcube. We already made a big enough scene, murdering them ain’t gonna help us.”

“Yeah, but it would make me feel better to see one of them pierced through the leg or arm,” Rainbow gritted.

“So uncouth,” said Rarity and Sugarcoat in unison.

“Well, I am a little peeved too, and if that means using less polite tactics to get my Element back, so be it,” Fluttershy commented, her eyes temporary flash red and the pupils took on a bat-like appearance, but it was a blink-and-miss-it moment.

“Not helping,” Pinkie said plainly. She then turned to Lemon, “And we sang Eurobeat’s Discord together, does that mean nothing?”

“Actually I had the Living Tombstone Remix playing, and you blasted me with a Bass Cannon.” Lemon countered.

“You stole my Element of Harmony, Element-stealer.”

Flash remained silent to this point, he coughed getting everyone’s attention before things further devolve. Once all the ladies turned to face him, “While Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity should have their Elements returned to them now, if for no other reason than to wrap this scene up.” Flash then pointed to all the people watching this interaction between the twelve girls. “We’re short an Element, namely the Element of Magic.”

“I don’t have it,” Sunset answered. “It was stolen before we got through the portal.”

“We, what we, dearie?” Sunny asked. “You mean, my entourage and I.” Sunny challenged. It was only then that Twilight et al noticed that unlike Lemon, Sour, Indigo, Sunny and Sugarcoat, Sunset didn’t have a matching lightning bolt depicted anywhere on her clothes.

Before anyone else could say anything, “Well it doesn’t matter, in order for anyone of us to get the Element of Magic, we’ll have to play by the rules imposed by one who currently has it.” Sunset started while glaring at both Sunny and Twilight.

“Who has it?” Twilight asked, electing to get to the point.

Sunny elected to answer the question as she got up from the table and started towards the castle located in the city as if to lead everyone there, “My mother, The Lady of Midnight Castle, Baroness Abacus Cinch, dearie.”

The Court of Midnight Castle

Author's Note

This chapter is a lot shorter than I planned, but I couldn't write more without making it ridiculously long.

Updates and new stories will take a little longer than I want for the next couple of weeks. I have my vacation...

"You mean ConnectiCon 2017?" :pinkiehappy:

Yes Pinkie, but the following week... less happy news...

"Why?" :pinkiesmile:

Well, Pinkie, My grandfather died and the memorial service is in Denver the weekend after next.

"I am so sorry," :pinkiesad2: , "We all are." :fluttercry: , :applecry: , :raritycry: , :ajsleepy:

It was a long time coming, his health and his mind had been failing for years. He died in his sleep, in the home he had made with my Grandmother, knowing he was cared for and loved by her, my mother and in the hearts of my brother and myself as well. I share this not for pity, sympathy, empathy, just to get this off my chest.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, everyone.

Foxhelm

The Court of Midnight Castle

A woman that appeared to be in her mid to mid-fifties with grayish fuchsia eyes and hair of five different shades of purple. She wore a pair of half-moon reading glass that rested on the bridge of her nose, three pearl earrings in addition to a woman’s business dress suit looked out a window in the castle. This was Baroness Abacus Cinch, the current Lady of Midnight Castle and ruler of the realm. Next to her was a small table with a teacup on a saucer. Also in the room was a much younger woman in her twenties, she wore what was expected of a young secretary, also with glasses that rested on the bridge of her nose, but were more akin to glasses worn by women her age. The younger woman also had azure eyes with cerulean hair with very green like arctic blue streaks did in two low ponytails. On her blouse was a blue-and-green juniper leaf on a pocket on the left side of her chest. Baroness Cinch finally spoke, “Miss Montage,” the Baroness addressed her much younger secretary.

“Yes, Baroness,” Miss Montage, given name Juniper, answered as she took a pen and notepad and prepared to take notes.

“We should be expecting my daughter and her associates soon,” Cinch said as she picked up the saucer with her left hand and then took the teacup with her right hand and drank some of it. “While this arrangement she has with this Lady Shimmer is… questionable, I must concede putting a potential rival of hers in her debt now that she doesn’t have power was clever.”

“Not to sound out of place, Baroness, but I do have concerns about you allowing her to engage in what can be viewed as treason.” Cinch only gave Juniper a slight scowl, which caused the younger girl to take a couple steps back, “But you are prepared nonetheless.” Juniper gulped as Cinch returned to look out the window.

A second later the door to the room opened as a man in his thirties stepped in, “Milady, your daughter has…”

“Send her and her associates in.”

“But they’re…”

“All of them,” Cinch ordered as she looked at the large ornate wooden desk. The man left as Cinch opened a drawer in her desk and took out Twilight’s tiara which housed the Element of Magic. “Let’s see how Sunny will play,” Cinch whispered to herself. Half a minute later, Sunny Flare, Sunset Shimmer, and a young woman Cinch didn’t recognize with purple and gold metallic wings coming from her back entered with Sunny Flare’s four friends, the five were collectively referred to as ‘The Shadowbolts’ which was actually a nod to the Baroness's late husband and consort, who also happened to be Sunny’s father. Also, with that group were two Earthborn women, two Skyborn women, a Magicborn woman, a purple-furred dog and a Skyborn man. “It seems that you have made quite a few friends in your adventure to Mystica,” Cinch said starting the conversation directing it to Sunny.

“Don’t play games with me, Cinch!” Sunset said as her hands ignited in red fire, “I know you conspired with Longhorn to get the Elements of Harmony once we came through the portal!”

“I didn’t, Miss Montage can be quite stealthy when needed.” Cinch countered which made Sunset pout as her hands returned to normal. Cinch didn’t express any emotions but anyone could tell she was happy with the result. Turning to Twilight, “So I assume you too have a claim to this, Miss?”

“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“It seems that Princess Celestia has issued a bargain sale for the title, this what, the third princess added to her reign in just as many years.”

“Princess Luna use to rule with Princess Celestia…” Twilight started. Trying to find the best way to put it, “there was...an incident a thousand years ago that resulted in her prolonged absence, she has since begun reclaiming her duties.” Abacus gave a look that said she believed the timeline wasn’t quite that long. Nobody seemed to notice Sunset Shimmer’s look of astonishment for a moment. While Sunset had been aware Celestia had not been the sole ruler of Mystica for some time she had also had fragmented knowledge regarding Celestia’s personal life that few were privy to, one such set of pieces was information regarding Princess Luna’s relationship with Celestia.

“I am well versed in Mystica’s history, in fact, I might be more versed in it than you.” Cinch countered, which gave Twilight some pause, this was so much like the incidents with Nightmare Moon and Discord. If Cinch noticed she didn’t show any sign and continued, “I should be surprised that the name of this place seems to mean nothing to you, but it seems that Midnight Castle means little to Princess Celestia.”

“So this place is called ‘Midnight Castle’, so what?” Rainbow Dash asked rather tactlessly.

“Pardon my friend, your grace, Baroness Cinch was it?” Cinch nodded silently, “ Well Dashie can be rather cranky when she doesn’t get enough sleep.” Rarity attempted to defuse a potentially explosive situation before things got too far out of hand.

“Let’s just cut to the heart of the matter, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Lady Sunset Shimmer each has presented to you a claim that the Element of Magic is theirs. The question is now, how do you intend to resolve this dispute.” Sugarcoat said as she took off her glasses and cleaned them rather mindlessly utterly ignoring the concerns everyone that know Cinch was expressing with nervous faces.

“Miss Montage, when are the games scheduled?” Cinch asked as if unphased by the blunt statement made by the Truenamer.

Juniper started to look through her notes, “Um, they start tomorrow, but the Shadowbolts and Longhorn’s band of… well...um...thugs better known as the Rustlers are the only two teams confirmed…”

“Not much of a competition, since the better part his gang got busted three years ago. And then there was Longhorn’s internal shakedown last year.” Indigo gloated.

“Wait! You can't offer my tiara as the prize! Sunset here stole it, she and her friends stole the Elements of Harmony from me and mine.” Twilight exclaimed trying to reassert her claim.

“I won’t call the Shadowbolts my friends, we have … arrangements.” Sunset stated begrudgingly, Twilight did pick up on that there was more at play here with Sunset and the locals but she was not here to resolve a domestic dispute.

“Actually I believe my mother was thinking more along the lines as the prize just between you two, the one whose team has more points than the other of the two would have the Element of Magic as the prize, dearies." Sunny explained correctly inferring what her mother was implying. As she gave it some more thought, "Although the populace would love to see Twilight and Sunset go head to head in a full-on magic duel, there is an older version of the games, in which someone can empower the members of their team, but they themselves cannot compete.”

Everyone else froze at that suggestion, however, Flash saw an opportunity that might also help get the other Elements back. “If I may speak, Baroness, Lady and Princess,” he started, “How about we put each of the Elements of Harmony as stacks for certain games. Applejack here would compete against Sugarcoat and both against this Reges Longhorn’s team and the winner between Applejack and Sugarcoat would claim the Element of Honesty. Rainbow Dash would compete against Indigo Zap for the Element of Loyalty, Pinkie Pie against Lemon Zest for Laughter, Fluttershy against Sour Sweet for Kindness.” As Flash listed off the pair off he pointed to each of the contenders pairing them off. “And I will face Sunset’s Champion for the Element of Magic.”

Everyone fell silent and for good reasons, Applejack had everything to lose and nothing to gain in her match up against Sugarcoat, and the same was true for Sunny, Indigo, Lemon and Sour, they each already had the Elements in question and as far as they were concerned Cinch already honored the later four’s claims to their respective Element. In addition, Flash had no claim or say in the matter. However, before anyone could verbally object, “I am game,” Sunset cut in, “There are actually five team based games, but a duel between my champion and soldier-boy would make a nice addition as the finale to them. But let’s go the way with it. Let’s make it a trial by combat!” Sunset finished with a devilish smirk.

“A trial by what now?” Applejack asked.

“A trial by combat, it’s an archaic way to prove a case, often for innocence or guilt concerning a crime. The two parties would have a champion, or one who could not fight either by age, sex or other circumstances would have one and they would fight to the death. If the champion of the accused won the accused was deemed innocent but if the champion lost…” Sugarcoat stopped allowing the others to infer the outcome.

“And in a case like this, if Flash wins then I am deemed the legitimate owner of the tiara,” Twilight muttered not knowing she was actually thinking out loud.

“I’ll take that chance,” Flash said without missing a beat.

Before Twilight could counter, “Let’s do it.” Rainbow exclaimed. “We all got scores to settle make sure there are witnesses this time.”

“You’re on! Let’s see if you can keep pace in the biathlon.” Indigo accepted the challenge

“If Dashie’s in, so am I.” Pinkie joined in bouncing.

“Let’s see if your clowning around can hold a candle to my gymnastics,” Lemon added.

“I am going to make you tap out, ten seconds flat.” Sour challenged Fluttershy.

“I am a lot stronger than I look. I am in,” Fluttershy stated with a degree of confidence few expected.

Seeing the contestants more or less agree of their own accord, Juniper stepped in to address the last two events as she jotted everything down in shorthand, “That leaves two games, the pheidippidiadromos,… which is a three day 300-kilometer endurance race, with Sugarcoat being the reigning champion…”

“Ah ain’t too keen on gamblin’ mah Element, but Ah ain't gonna give Sunny any room to opt out of competing with Rarity for the Element of Generosity. Ah'll see ya on the other side of the finish line, Salt Lick.”

“I think you grossly overestimate your chances, Applejack. I have not only my true name magic but the home field advantage. This will be a cakewalk for me.” Sugarcoat countered with a smirk on her face.

“Alright,” Juniper said while she finished jotting everything down in, “Now all that leaves is the capture the flag.”

“Uw, that is right up my alley.” Rarity exclaimed and finished with a giggle. “I’ve always had an idea for the details.” Seeing everyone look at her oddly, "I am fashion expert and an enchantress, darlings."

“You won’t be giggling when my claim to the Element of Generosity is the one honored, dearie.” Sunny retorted. She then turned to her mother, and for a femtosecond, she could have sworn she saw her mother’s lips raise in a small smile.

As Juniper finished jotting that and turned to Twilight et al, “That still leaves what you’ll call your team.”

Before anyone else could offer, “We’re ‘The Rainbooms’.” Rainbow Dash declared if she was running or flying she would have made a sonic boom with that speed of response.

“Rainbooms… like a Sonic Rainboom?” Twilight asked while the other four women groaned, leaving a perplexed Flash Sentry. Spike simply chuckled as the rest blinked in confusion.

“What? It’s how we all discovered our aura marks!” Rainbow countered shocked that her friends did not agree with her a slightly insulted.

After a second, “Alright Rainbooms is our team name. Now we are going to need rooms to sleep during our stay here…” Rarity started listing off with the matters settled as they can be for now. Juniper elected to be their guide with Lemon, Sugarcoat, Sour and Lemon also leaving, mainly to prepare for the games. This left Cinch, Sunny, and Sunset in the room alone.

“So much for your plans, Lady Shimmer.” Cinch commented offhandedly.

“Once I am finished with my replacement, I’ll deal with you.” Sunset growled, she then turned to Sunny, “Backstab me, and you’ll be the first I burn.” The pyromancer drove her point home by scorching the carpet at Sunny’s feet before she left.

After the door shut, “You play a dangerous game with her.” Cinch commented.

“I at least keep my greatest rival close enough to stab her in her heart while she expects the dagger in the back, mother-dearest. How is the Reges Longhorn matter going, if I might know?” Sunny asked before she too headed out. Not getting an answer she left Cinch alone in the room. Cinch gave a smirk, Sunny was shaping out well in her book.

Games for the Elements part 1

Author's Note

Hey Everyone,

I am back. I had a great time at ConnectiCon 2017. And the memorial service for my Grandfather was great, there was a lot of people that knew him. He was a man that viewed life was too short to be taken seriously.

Well on to the show

Games for the Elements part 1

The following day, just outside of the castle but still in the city was a large amphitheater and the populace was slowly pouring in, several having placed bets on the results, although the introduction of the Mystican Rainbooms did actually shape things up, the Shadowbolts were still the favorite to win. As the populace took their seats, in one of locker rooms kept out of view the Rainbooms were in their sporting attire, which were sports bloomers and sports bras for Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy with a stylized five-nailed horseshoe with a rainbow coming from the curve and trailing into stars depicted on the chest right over their hearts. What contrasted Applejack was that she still wore the Element of Honesty, it was not going to be out of her sight. Of the four, three were not self-conscious about the get-up, “Um Rarity… could I have something that doesn’t…” Fluttershy started to ask but couldn’t finish her sentence as she hid all but her head behind a locker door. “Maybe something more like Pinkie’s?”

Pinkie was bouncing up and down in a one-piece leotard that had a pattern much like her normal one but without all her other clothes, and like Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had the team’s logo over her heart. Rarity gave a slight groan, “Pinkie, you’ll get all sweaty and exhaust yourself before your gymnastics against Lemon Zest.” Rarity scolded as she took Fluttershy’s uniform and started to alter it to be more like Pinkie’s leotard.

“Not gonna work, Sugarcube.” Applejack commented seeing that only make Pinkie all the more excited. She then came up with an idea, “Hey Pinkie, let’s play a game…”

“I am not Apple Bloom, I am not falling for the ‘who can remain still the longest game’ gimmick.” Pinkie remarked having stopped and looked at Applejack with a nearly comical serious look as if she caught Applejack in a poorly executed equivocation.

“You’re up, Rainbow,” Applejack tapped Rainbow Dash in as she stepped aside to stretch her legs and back, this was going to be a long track for her, she needed her joints and muscles to be loose.

“I spent one night with her and everyone thinks I can reel her in.” Rainbow groaned. After giving a sigh she looked at Pinkie with a stern look on her face, “Pinkie, if you don’t dial it down, I am not going have you host my birthaversary party.”

Pinkie gasped in horror, dropping to her knees and hugging Rainbow Dash’s legs like a frightened child, “Please, please, don’t get another host!” She pleaded with tears in her eyes. “I have so much planned. Please, anything but that.” Pinkie was on the verge of tears. “I’ll do anything!”

Twilight was also in the room, if for nothing else solidarity and emotional and spiritual support, “Birthaversary?” Twilight asked.

“Rainbow Dash moved to Magiville on her 17th birthday.” Fluttershy answered as she accepted the modified uniform from Rarity before donning it behind the locker door, “Not that she was kicked out, but she wanted to prove she could live on her own as soon as possible. So it’s her birthday and the anniversary of her moving to Magiville, hench birthaversary. Oh, don’t be surprised that during the Summer Sun Celebration, Pinkie also throws a ‘Twilight moving to Magiville’ anniversary party.”

“Killing two birds with one stone,” Pinkie said but then recalled one of the others in the room and started to laugh weakly and apologetically. “Sorry.” Fluttershy just gave a sigh as she stepped out. With that done everyone headed out, Twilight to the booth that Cinch and Sunset were sitting as the rest headed into the arena.

In the amphitheater as Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity entered they were greeted with cheers. As the five looked around, they saw several things within the arena, one was an artificial mountain with fake snow with a series of archery targets going down the slope and a series of more targets in a row. “Well, that’s going to be a little tougher than I thought.” Rainbow Dash commented.

Fluttershy tapped her shoulder, “Remember that poster you have back at your parent’s house, the one with the tortoise on it?” she asked the elementalist.

Rainbow took a breath as she shut her eyes and tried to remember the poster, “When the going gets tough, the tough don't notice because they have hard shells.” As she opened her eyes she turned to her druid friend, “So that’s why you suggested Tank for my pet. You’re Awesomeshy now.” Fluttershy blushed until she saw the elevated fighting stage as she started to tremble, she felt Rainbow’s hand on her shoulder reassuringly, “You got this, you’re a druid, you can change forms. So show that crazy bitch what a bear can really do.”

Also in the arena was series of various gymnastics equipment from a trampoline to a tightrope and more, “I actually feel bad for Lemon, you’ve set up more… um…” Rarity struggled to find the right word as she looked it over, “unique events, darling.” Pinkie looked it over as well but while others might have been daunted by it, she could barely contain her excitement, by her own standards. Rarity turned to the other three, “I am a little afraid Pinkie might overdo it.”

“Um… this is Pinkie we’re talking about.” Rainbow Dash pointed out which gave Rarity pause for second before she face-palmed herself over her own misjudgment over her friend. After recovering from that everyone noticed that there was a starting line at one end of the arena that led out of the amphitheater and a finish line at the other end as if someone was going to enter the amphitheater. “Sure you want to do that race?” Rainbow asked Applejack.

“300 kilometers on foot.” was all Applejack said, making Rainbow Dash not question the setup anymore. Mostly because the way Applejack had said it implied it was something the Paladin did regularly.

“Well, it looks like you won’t be backing down so easily, dearies.” came Sunny’s voice as the the five turned to see the five ‘Shadowbolts, they were in similar sporting bloomers and bras as the Rainbooms,but theirs was colored like the plaid skirt Lemon wore and had a black stylized capital ‘S’ with a stylized wing coming from the top left corner of the ‘S’ (from the viewer's point of view) and a stylized lightning bolt from the the bottom right corner of the ‘S’(again from the viewer's point of view). Sunny and Rarity both happened to be at the center of their respective lines, with Indigo to Sunny’s immediate left mirrored by Rainbow Dash. To Rainbow’s right was Fluttershy and mirrored by Sour. On Sunny’s immediate right was Sugarcoat who was in turn mirrored by Applejack and round it all off was Pinkie on Applejack’s left with Lemon mirroring her.

“And why would we? You stole our Elements of Harmony. I demand justice! But I will settle for just beating you.” Rarity replied, muttering the last bit to herself, turning back to Sunny et al “You might have the spectators fooled but we know what you really did. Artifacts like the Elements can only bestow you their power if you earn it, not take them when it’s most convenient for you.”

“And what if we were able to take them because the Elements deemed that you are no longer worthy of their powers?” Sunny countered. “They are very ancient artifacts after all and more dissimilar than similar to other artifacts.” Rarity and the others were left speechless, there was no counter to that point. No one really understood the Elements of Harmony, not even Celestia, and Luna. Seeing that the enchantress et al were speechless, the Shadowbolts smirked to various degrees with Indigo and Lemon crossing their arms.

Pinkie Pie wanted to growl at Lemon but then she felt her left heel started to itch, she sat down and started to scratch it, “What is it, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked everyone but Rarity was surprised.

“That’s odd,” Rarity muttered, “the last time she had an itch like that was when that bullish Iron Will…” Rarity stopped as she whispered before she looked to see the other team competing, it was made of five male minotaurs, they all were wearing leather vests much like what Applejack’s cousin Braeburn but were black in contrast to the brown one Braeburn wore and little else, save for one who also wore what looked like a skirt with a long sash that went across his chest. One was thinner and smaller than the rest and had a pair of glasses like he was a doctor, one’s coat was black and white, one was much furrier than the others. However, those four seemed to have more in common with domesticated bulls… as domesticated as bulls can be. The last one was much larger, his horns much longer, not unlike the cattle that are wrangled in Dodge Junction, but there seemed even large and overall the last one gave off the aura of not only authority and power but of deep feral nature. “Minotaurs.” Rarity stated with an atypical degree of bluntness she rarely if ever showed.

“They are the Rustlers. The one in the kilt is Angus McSteer, the one dressed more like a frontier doctor is Doc Holstein, the one that with black and white fur is Jersey Shore, the hairier/furrier one is Beefy Bill and the towering cultured brute is Reges Longhorn.” Sugarcoat informed. As everyone seemed to size everyone up. Under normal circumstances, most of the contests would be in the bag for the minotaurs, but both the Shadowbolts and the Rainbooms were not normal, well compared to the rest of the population living in the domain of Midnight Castle or Mystica for that matter. It seemed that it would be a close match up, too close for any of the Rainboom’s likings, save Pinkie Pie, this was going to be so much fun.

As the trumpets and other fanfare ended, two men dressed in business suits, one’s was pale blue in color while the other’s was was more of a dull white, sitting at in one of the box seats with two microphones started to speak, first one the on this left, “Good Morning, Everyone, this is Blue Moon and with me is my co-host North Star and we are about to start the games.” the self-identified Blue Moon paused allowing the audience to cheer.

“That’s right, Blue, and we have a couple of special treats this year. In addition to the standard trials by a contest of Longhorn and his Rustlers,” North Star paused as the entire audience booed and threw rotten fruits and vegetables and other garbage at the five minotaurs. “Well we got a passionate audience don’t we, but as I was saying, we have a new team competing, all the way from Mystica, across the ocean, the RainBOOOOMMMSSS!” North Star shouted, drawing out the title much like the announcer for a televised wrestling match. Everyone seemed to cheer for the Rainbooms, which prompted Rainbow Dash to jump into air fly around the edge of the arena high-fiving everyone and leaving a rainbow trailing be her, all the while a huge toothy grin on her face with her eyes wide open, barely able to contain her own excitement.

Blue Moon then took over speaking, “Well, they seem an excited bunch, let’s see how things are at the end. However, there is more. Both the Shadowbolts and Rainbooms are actually competing on behalf of two people. The Shadowbolts will be competing on the behalf of Lady Sunset Shimmers and the Rainbooms on Mystica’s newest Princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle. With a trial by combat to be the last event.” Blue Moon then stopped as the audience erupted in a cheer at the idea of a trial by combat. This was unsettling for Twilight but brought a devilish grin on Sunset’s face. Blue Moon then continued to inform the people in the audience after they calmed down, “We do know that Princess Twilight already has a champion ready to fight, but we still don’t know who Lady Shimmer’s champion is yet. But with that, the question that I think is on everyone’s mind is how will this all play out. Now onto the first event, the pheidippidiadromos.”

“Well as my grandfather would say and I quote, ‘Well, that’s a four dollar word.’unquote. But he did have a point, most people call it the 300-k.” North Star interjected it was as if these two would go back and forth throughout the games.

“Well that’s partially correct, the pheidippidiadromos is a three hundred kilometer endurance race that goes for three days. Now it’s time to announce the contenders. First up is the reigning champion, Sugarcoat,” There was a pause as the entire amphitheater erupted in cheers for the local Truenamer. Sugarcoat waved her hand in the air a small but distinctive grin on her face as she used her wings to fly over to the starting line. After letting the cheering die down, “and her two challengers, Angus McSteer for the Rustlers.” There was another pause as stadium exploded in boos at the minotaur as walked over to the same line.

“The fans don’t seem to like McSteer, do they Blue?”

“Well North, McSteer did not compete last year, it seems that Longhorn is running out of members of his gang who are not incarcerated… and it’s not like the Rustlers are a loved lot, to begin with.”

“That’s true, Longhorn is on the last few ‘free-men...minotaurs’ of his gang. However, we cannot forget the final contestant. Running for the Rainbooms, a paladin all the way from the oldest and longest continuously run holy-site of Mystica, Sweet Apple Temple, Applejack AaapplllEEE!!!” Blue Moon announced much like how North Star announced the Rainbooms. Applejack only gave a nod as she was cheered on by about half the stadium. She knew she was the favorite to win but she provided a much-wanted competition. She took her spot on the same line as Sugarcoat and McSteer, as all three got into a runner’s starting stance. Applejack rolled her eyes, an act that no one else seemed to notice outside her friends, there were plenty of holy sites that had been running longer than her home, maybe none run by the same family, hers had just had a standing community around it longer, than any other besides maybe Chantalot but the nation’s capital was a whole other barrel of produce.

Cinch stood up from her seat and walked up to the microphone in the booth she shared with Twilight and spoke, “Racers, on your mark, get set.” she paused as accepted a racing gun from Juniper and holding it up into the air she pulled the trigger, firing the gun. As the sound of the gun going off; Applejack, Sugarcoat and McSteer were off. McSteer swiftly took the lead, However, both Sugarcoat and Applejack knew this would be his undoing, this was a race not for speed but of endurance, 300 kilometers was not a distance covered by running as fast as one could.

“Well folks they are off, and we will have regular updates at each 50-kilometer marker. So before head over to the biathlon, there are a few questions, but they are not so much the next four contests, but will Lady Shimmer have a champion for that trial by combat or will Princess Twilight win it by default?” Blue Moon not really asked but stated it rhetorically.

“While possibly nerve-racking, that is still a back-burner topic. Next up is the biathlon. First up is the reigning champion of this event, Indigo Zap, for the Shadowbolts!” North Star replied and announced Indigo as the audience erupted in cheers as the Athletic Mage jumped into the air and seemed to eat up the cheers much like how Rainbow normally does. “Well, the crowd is alive and well. But the next competitor, playing for the Rustlers, Beefy Bill!” The audience then fell so quietly that not even crickets would chirp. Beefy Bill roared in protest but got no response. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” After a second, “And now introducing a new competitor, and part of the Rainbooms, Rainbow DDAASSHH!!!” Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and directed some of the cheerings, it was a little less than half of the stadium cheered, but it was still a lot of people.

Blue Moon then spoke as the cheer died down a little, “This is going to be an interesting set-up, North.”

“Why do you say that? Indigo has this in the bag!” North countered.

“Well North, while the Rustlers track record doesn’t bold well for Beefy Bill, we can’t count Rainbow Dash out yet, we have to remember this kid was the youngest person to ever got into Mystica’s Wonderbolt Academy and has recently successfully pulled off a Sonic Rainboom less than a year ago.”

“Actually Rainbow Dash has pulled off three Sonic Rainbooms in her life to date, the first was when she was 9…” the two announcers panned their view to the right to see Pinkie Pie in a more festive version of their attire with a microphone that looked more like a balloon on a straw than some piece of professional gear as the trickster chimed in. “As you might be aware the second was during last year’s Cumula’s Best Young Fliers Competition and the most recent was as part of the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, better known as Princess Cadance, to Princess Twilight’s own, and I quote, ‘Big Brother Best Friend Forever’ or ‘BBBFF’ Marshall Shining Armor. Back to you, Blue Moon and North Star.” The two men were utterly speechless at what happened. Noticing this, Pinkie continued. “Well, folks it looks like we’re not going to have the reporting in the field until Blue Moon or North Star snapped out of... whatever funk they are in.” Pinkie Pie skipped as she followed Indigo, Rainbow and Beefy Bill to an elevator that took them up the artificial mountain in the arena to start the biathlon, before it shut, “Oops, I forgot, Hello everyone, I am Pinkie Pie.”

The stadium was silent before Rainbow Dash took the microphone, “Trust me, don’t question it and go along, you’ll keep more brain cells.” and everyone just gave an ‘oh’ in response.

At the top of the track the three competitors started by looking over the bows, well Indigo and Rainbow Dash anyway, Bill simply grabbed the largest and heaviest bow, it would make some sense as a minotaur he was stronger than any human, but one of the biggest issues with large and heavy bows is the bow’s draw weight and its relationship to rate of fire. Simply put, larger and heavier bows have higher draw weight which results in lower rates of fire. Bill then strapped on a set of skis and headed down the track. Bill did not fare well, he started his ‘run’ with almost no balance on his skis, he barely hit half the targets along the track, crashed into about as many of the obstacles and ran out of arrows before the last target. “Wow, that was … really, really bad. Now, I am no expert in this sport, but I think the goal was to avoid all the obstacles, hit the bullseye of all the targets going down the track and get all the bullseye of the targets at the end as fast as possible and Beefy Bill… well… he stuck. Now while we let the attendants clear the targets for the next contender. Let’s see who goes next, ladies.” Pinkie said into her microphone as Rainbow Dash and Indigo finished their bow selection and strapping on their skies. The two contestant, while sitting next to each other started a game of rock-paper-scissors, Indigo won two of the three rounds and prepared for her run.

Indigo’s speed and agility shocked Rainbow as the former reached the end of the track very quickly and evaded the vast majority of the obstacles and was able to hit every target and her rate of fire was faster, leaving a very distinctive trail of indigo in the air. After finishing her run, Indigo held up her bow and was greeted with an eruption of cheers. However, Rainbow saw that Indigo’s accuracy still had significant room to improve as the latter failed to make a single bullseye and if it were all on one target her arrows would be scattered about the target in all the areas.

Rainbow knew she was not going to be as fast as she wanted to be, obstacles all along the track But she knew if she was close enough and focused on her bowmanship, her aim, and rate of fire. She took a few deep breaths as she prepared her start, as she calmed herself she recalled something Spitfire said during Rainbow’s time at the Academy, ‘Speed ain’t everything, kid. You got to put on a show.’. “Give them a show, huh. Well, I’ll give them a show,” she whispered as she started. “WOWOWOYEAH!” she shouted as she grabbed her bow and knocked her first arrow as she leaped over the first obstacle. She drew, aimed and fired at the first target, bullseye. She was able to evade each of the other dozens or so obstacles by veering left, right, jumping and or ducking. Little did she know she glazed her left-arm on an obstacle. She reached the end of the track in slightly less time than Indigo, but she nailed each target’s bullseye and when it came to the last set of targets at the base of the track, she managed to hit each target’s bullseye in ten seconds, breaking Indigo’s record.

Rainbow looked around as the stadium was so quiet the Magiville cemetery had as much life as rave DJed by Vinyl Scratch in Manahatten in comparison. Soon a clap started with a small chanting of ‘Rainbow Dash’, Rainbow turned to see it was Indigo applauding her and starting the chant-like cheer. Soon the other Shadowbolts who were sitting on a bench, and then the Rainbooms joined, then the stadium slowly but steadily grew in applause and cheers, even getting a few claps from Juniper before Sunset growled at the secretary. “And Rainbow Dash is the winner. She might not have gotten down the track as fast as Indigo, but her accuracy and rate of fire made short work and place her in the lead. This puts The Rainbooms in the lead. Now I’ve got to get ready for my event, Blue, North, are either of you able to take over?”

“Um… thank you for covering the biathlon, Miss Pie…” Blue Moon started as he and North Star finally showed signs of coming out of their shock.

While the announcers were going on and on, Rainbow Dash and Indigo headed to the locker rooms. Once in they each opened their respective locker as they prepared to change clothes to join Twilight and Sunset in the booth they were in, “You were pretty awesome with that bow. Maybe a few more archery lessons and you could match me.” Rainbow said with some justified gloating.

“Yeah but your skiing… I’d laugh at that if it was slightly better.” Indigo countered. The two then looked at each other and smiled, they had each earned the other’s respect, Rainbow had bested Indigo’s main event and Indigo had shown that Rainbow still had a lot to learn in order to reach her goal to be the best flier and elementalist. Indigo then took out of her locker the Element of Loyalty and gave it back to Rainbow. “A deal’s a deal.” Rainbow accepted the Element with a surprising amount of candor. “You’re pretty awesome, Dash.”

“You too, Indy.” As she donned the Element, “Race ya to the booth.” She then started to run but then took to flight. Indigo followed suit both playfully bumping each other along the way. It was only as they entered the booth that Cinch, Sunset, and Twilight were in that Rainbow Dash noticed the cut on her arm, “Buck.”

Before she left to head to the infirmary, “Let me take of that.” Juniper offered as she took out a portable medicine kit. Rainbow Dash silently agreed, unaware of the test tube and the collecting of her blood before the wound was cleaned and bandaged, in her defense, this was unnoticed by all the others as their focus was on Beefy Bill’s desperate attempts to escape. Before Rainbow or Twilight asked, “The Rustlers have agreed to trials by competition, the five here are the last ones to be tried.”

“This is a little… barbaric, what about evidence, witness statements?” Twilight asked turning to Cinch.

“They asked to be tried in this manner, they believed that a trial with evidence and such would result in unfair guilty verdicts,” Cinch answered. “They are not wrong, the verdicts would be guilty.” Not looking but able to tell of Twilight’s confusion “Mystica is not the nation with a legal system. And it would benefit you immensely to learn other nations’ and to respect them.” Twilight had no comment as all she could do was sit back down in her seat, pray that Pinkie would at least outperform Lemon, Rarity would find more of the flags than Sunny and that Applejack would make it to the finish line before Sugarcoat and prayed beyond hope that Fluttershy would beat Sour. Of the lot, she feared the most for Fluttershy, but she did remember that the druid had several tricks up her sleeve.

Games for the Elements part 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Before the Trial

Author's Note

Before this chapter starts there are a few things that need to be stated, mostly some historical facts.
1) Swords are rare as a weapon historically, Don't believe Hollywood, Game of Thrones, etc, the vast majority of people who fought used axes, hammers, maces, spears, etc. and learning to fight with a sword was far from easy, mainly due to the time it took.
2) The average sword was between 2.5 to 4.5 lbs, but when we get to over 5lbs, these are the much longer swords, the claymores and such and they are the ones the skew the average towards 4.5.
3) Swords are incredibly hard to make, you need a special set of skills, and special equipment to forge the blade, while all other weapons a blacksmith could make and during the Middle-Ages and Renascence, most swords, or rather the blade and the core of the hilt, were made by one of the handful swordsmith guilds.
4) When training, people used wooden weapons that were often twice as heavy and if they used a shield, a wooden shield also twice the weight
5) Most duels never reached 2 minutes, don't believe Hollywood, Game of Thrones, etc, these fights rarely if ever got past 1 minute 30 seconds, and if that was the case either because the two fighting took a few seconds to size each other up after declaring the fight or neither know what he was doing.
Now with the history info dump out of the way, on with the show

Before the Trial

Flash had been up before the dawn. He stood along one of the eastern walls of Midnight Castle where he had a good view of watching the sunrise. He took out his sword and genuflected on his right knee as he saw the first hints of the sun’s light. He placed the tip down in an open spot in the stone that he stood on and held the actual blade, leaving the handle and pommel exposed, on the pommel was a rendering of Celestia’s aura mark. On Flash’s back was his shield. As the sun began to rise he began to speak softly as if to himself, but if Applejack happened to have stumbled upon him, she would have recognized that he was praying, affirming his fidelity as a Sentinel to the divine being that he was devoted to, the demigoddess Celestia. Once he finished his prayer the pommel flashed a solar gold. He then got back to his feet and nodded to the sun, “I’ll not fail your student,” he said.

“Who are you talking to?” The voice caught Flash off guard. He turned to see Spike as the dragon-turned-dog stretched his left ear with his left hind leg.

Flash spoke while turning his head as he forgot that the girls elected to transform Spike into a dog before the went through the portal, “In a way, Princess Celestia.”

“Like how Applejack sometimes talk to Zacherle and/or Faust?” Spike asked not quite sure of what Flash had done.

Flash had to think about it for a moment, it wasn’t a one-to-one comparison, Celestia actually resided in this world, but she was back in Mystica, while the major Avatars were no longer physically there in the world, they seemed to still be present on a certain level everywhere, “More or less,” he answered while he sheathed his sword and started away from that spot on the wall and started to look for where the guard or militia would train and practice. He needed to keep his skills as sharp as possible with the trial by combat he was going to face the following day.

As he walked, Spike then followed after him, “Where are you going? Shouldn’t we be getting ready to join up with Twilight for the games? They were your idea,” the dog barked trying to keep pace.

“Fair enough,” Flash replied as the two walked, all the while keeping his eyes peeled for where he could hone his skills. “But I have to keep myself fully trained and ready for the Trial by Combat.” Spike seemed to be able to follow him, however Flash knew that he could use some help, turning to the dog, “Do you mind helping me find the official militia training ground, if that turns out to not be an option then we’ll look for a good open space away from everything else.”

“But what about Twilight and the others? They should know what you're doing.” Spike pointed out.

Flash stopped, “Yeah, they should know, that I might be late.” Before Flash could say anything else Spike was off to inform Twilight. How the dragon-turned puppy seemed to know his way around the castle was surprising, but Flash elected to press the matter later. Within a minute he found a castle guard who directed him to the barracks and training grounds.

Spike returned to Twilight’s room, the latter having changed out of her sleepwear, “Flash is going to spend most of the morning training for his duel tomorrow. Can I help him?” Spike asked from the doorway.

Twilight turned to her familiar, “Wait, wasn’t this whole competition thing for the Elements his idea?” Twilight countered slightly annoyed.

“Given that he’s facing a battle to the death tomorrow…” Spike trailed off. Twilight sighed as she headed out of the room, “So, can I help him? We’ll be there for the last game the girls compete in today.” Spike said as he begged while giving big puppy eyes and a small sad whimper.

Twilight couldn’t help but shake her head with a closed-eyed smile, “Sure, just be there as soon as you both can.” Spike yelped happily in response and bolted to find Flash.

Flash was standing among several of the guards of Midnight Castle, everyone else was wielding hammers, wooden axes, blunt spears and such while Flash was holding a wooden sword slightly longer than what he normally wielded. The wooden sword was also noticeably heavier than his sword, being about 1.5 kilograms, while this wooden sword was about two times the weight, which was to be expected. Flash was not surprised that most of the guards did not wield swords, while he couldn’t and didn’t assert that Midnight Castle had a similar military to Mystica’s or a similar history, he knew that swordsmithing was a long and laborious craft known to only a handful of people (which in Mystica was a select few of the Apple Clan) and that swordsmanship was also rare (he could count all the current members of the ESM, outside of the Apple Clan paladins, with any type of sword as a weapon with both hands with digits to spare), as axes, hammers, maces, spears and such weapons did similar jobs on the battlefield, were easier, less expensive and less time consuming to make and replace and were easier to train with (more so maces and spears) and could be used to perform other tasks around the camp (more so hammers and axes), and the sword is a predominantly offensive weapon with little defencive use especially in comparison to the other weapons employed. This gave Flash a few advantages, especially since he has been training against others who wield the other weapons, but he knew better than to underestimate them. He recalled the last time he thought he had the advantage because he wielded a sword.

It was two years ago, Flash was in the tavern boasting about he bested pretty much his whole barracks. While he finished his current mug of cider, “and then I…”

“We were there! Sentry. Sweet Celestia, will you shut up!” another member of the ESM shouted before attempting to drown his rage with his drink.

“You’re just jealous I train with the superior weapon.” Flash brushed off as he slammed his mug on the bar, “Serving wench, another cider!” he proclaimed as he also placed a fifty bit-note in the woman’s cleavage and slapped her rear as she left to fill his order (not that she minded, soldiers of the ESM tipped too well and they 9,999 times out of 10,000 kept themselves and each other in line, which was more than could be said of the rest of the Chantalot population, sans those that recently moved into town and Princess Celestia’s staff).

“You know, a sword is a tool and like any tool, it’s only as useful as the user,” came the voice from a hooded and cloaked man in a corner.

Flash scoffed at that remark. His own blade was older than Mystica and had been in his family when Bullion bounced Platinum on his knee, granted it had to re-tempered and reforged every so often. “Ha!” Flash laughed, “Prove it. You, me the Chantalot Barracks at noon. Use whatever weapon you want.” Flash then took the mug he paid for and drank it all. Flash then left to the barracks to sleep off his drink, never once seeing who he spoke to. As Flash left, the man took off his hood. All the soldiers gasped.

The next day before noon, Flash was in the training yards of the Chantalot barracks, in all his gear on and sword out of his scabbard and his shield on his arm. Just before noon, the same cloaked man entered the grounds, he had a spear and shield. “No magic, just our weapons.” the man said. Flash nodded and the two then charged at each other. Flash tried to use his shield to do divert the spear, but his opponent was able to back up and keep Flash at bay very successfully, even scratching Flash’s exposed section of his arms able to get around the shield. Flash had best spear-user before, but this one very much had him on the ropes as he was forced to attempt to hack at the spear in order to get closer, to no avail.

After about a minute and a half of this back and forth, Flash’s opponent was able to slip his spear into Flash’s under-protected armpit of his sword arm and was able to use his spear as a lever to force Flash onto his knees and ground. “I yield,” Flash shouted before the man proved the point deeper into Flash’s body. After redrawing the spear, the man took off his hood, revealing himself to be, “Marshall Armor…” Flash muttered in disbelief. Shining said nothing only cleaned off his spear. There was no need for him to say anything, the silence spoke volumes.

Back to the present, Flash had taken the silent message to heart, as he faced each of the guards that have elected to help him train. Each boat lasted more or less a minute, Flash winning some and losing some. This went on with a few breaks on Flash’s part until the noon as Spike encouraged him with his barks. As Flash was drinking some water, one of the guard’s turned on a radio to check on the status of the games, then came Blue Moon’s voice, “Well, North before we start with the individual events, but we have an update on the pheidippidiadromos…”

Flash’s eyes shot open and his pupils constricted, he had missed most of the games, “Twilight’s gonna kill me.” He heard Spike speak up, letting slip that he could still talk.

Before anyone could question, “Ventriloquism, I’m a little rusty.” Flash said as he returned the training equipment he borrowed and reclaimed his actual gear before grabbing Spike. “Gotta go, thanks for helping me train. Bye!” Flash then had his ethereal wings manifested and start to beat at an ever increased rate. “I hope you haven’t eaten anything less than two hours ago, Spike.” Flash said as he then muttered, “Solar Dash.” and left the are traveling at the speed of light in the direction of the stadium. It took him less than a second to get to the stadium, once there he could only use small short bursts to get to the Baron Cinch’s booth.

Just as he arrived, Twilight had finished saying to herself, “They should have been here by now.”

“So they didn’t witness our awesomeness, so what, we all won,” Rainbow said as she reached into Pinkie Pie’s hair.

“What are you doing?” Spike asked.

“Oh Spike, there’s bound to be a complete concession stand worth of snacks in her hair, you can find just about everything else,” Rainbow answered not noticing she just identified one of the two absent parties, until too late.

Everyone turned to see Flash and Spike, “Sorry, we’re late. Flash got a little carried away with the training.” Twilight only gave them both a humph with an upturned nose and turned away, giving them the cold shoulder.

“I’m in the pound, aren’t I?” Flash asked as he looked to the other four.

Rarity was the only one to speak as the other three looked away nervously, “Sadly, darling, that would be a yes.” Rarity then turned back to Flash, “Just give her time, she’ll come around eventually, we managed to become her friends after crashing her home with a surprise welcome party, anything is possible.”

“Thanks, Rarity,” Flash said as he placed Spike down so that the dog could go to his ‘master’. Flash then started out, “Well I got some more training to do. Sorry I missed the games.” When he left the booth, “I am an idiot,” he could not help but mutter to himself.

Several hours later, as the night came and it was long past dusk, two hours ago there was the third update on the 300-k race, Applejack, Sugarcoat, and McSteer all reached and passed the halfway point, the 150-k marker. Further down the path, McSteer had elected to go one farther while Applejack and Sugarcoat took a short break. However, Twilight could not focus on Applejack, there was nothing she could do without giving Sugarcoat grounds to accuse Applejack of cheating, nor could she sleep at all, she tossed and turned in her bed, haunted by the prospects of the next and final contest of the sixth to reclaim and keep the Elements. While the return of each of the other stolen Elements might have brought some comfort to her because her friends had their back, there was still the battle to come, the trial by combat. Not helping the matter was how cold she was to him all day. After another fifteen minutes, she gave up and still in her (cute) librarian-eques nightwear she left her room in the dead of the night, being as quiet as possible as Spike slept in a ball on her bed. It took her five minutes, but she arrived at the door to Flash’s room and found it slightly ajar. She knocked on it, “You can come in,” Flash replied before Twilight could ask for entry. Twilight then entered.

Flash had just gotten up from kneeling before he turned to face his late-hour guest. “Flash, can we talk?” Twilight asked as she walked in.

“Scared about tomorrow and my duel against whoever Sunset recruits?” Flash asked getting to the point as he sat on his bed and patted on the bed to his left which was closer to the foot of the bed. Twilight nodded in silence as she joined him. Flash looked forward, not looking Twilight in the eye, “you’re not the only one in this room who is,” Flash sighed.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to all this.” Twilight said as she looked to the next day and the fight Flash was going into, “I can’t ask someone to…”

Flash placed his right hand on her shoulder, cutting Twilight there, “Part of the employment agreement form of enlisting, I am to fight to protect the lives of the people of Mystica, the princesses, etc, and that means I might die,” Flash said with a shrug. “Not only as part of the ESM but also as a Sentinel.”

Twilight remembered the term and that Celestia referred to Flash as one, she knew it was a class of combatants but she didn’t know much about it, “What exactly is a Sentinel?”

Flash scratched his head as he took a minute before he answered, “Sentinels are the rarest of soldiers in the ESM, our magic is tied to things we can do thanks to boons, or blessing, we are given by a divine being. In my case, I am a devotee to Celestia, granted you’ll find few if any that aren’t, Luna has been gone for a thousand years, Discord has sealed away in stone, if you follow either Zacherle or Faust, or the Teachings directly as a sentinel would you’re a paladin, Cadance has yet to fully establish what her boons are…” Flash stopped unsure how to proceed.

“And I just became one a couple of days ago,” Twilight finished as she turned to look at the only mirror in the room. She sighed, “So far I am a pretty lousy demigod.” She whispered before she felt her body turned to face Flash.

Flash’s face was stern like a father scolding a child, “Don’t you ever sell yourself short like that again. You earned your status! You did! Celestia didn’t earn it for you! Nor did Shining Armor and Cadance! Nor Your Friends! YOU DID! THESE WINGS?” Flash asked rhetorically as he touched Twilight’s metallic wings, “YOURS! THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC?” he then moved his hand to the six-pointed star at the made the base of the wings’ joint, “YOURS!! MY LOVE? “ he continued as he took hold of Twilight’s upper arms, “YOURS!!!” Flash then froze as realized what he just said.

“You…” Twilight started, “love…” she couldn’t finish the question. “Flash… I…” She didn’t finish as she was pulled closer to Flash, so close their chests separated only by their clothes.

“I love you, Twilight,” Flash whispered his mouth so close her’s it was almost a kiss. He then kissed her with his eyes closed. As he broke the kiss, about a second after he initiated it, he turned away slightly ashamed of himself and his actions, “I am coming on too strong, aren’t I?” he asked realizing the lines he was crossing. Before Twilight could reply, “I should…” he started only to be rendered mute as Twilight kissed him in turn with at least ten times the force he applied.

Four seconds after she initiated the return kiss, Twilight broke it. Looking pleadingly into Flash’s eyes, “I love you,” Twilight whispered as she placed her hands on his back and where the back of his head met his neck. Flash pulled her close to him as he leaned back onto his bed taking her with him. Before anything else happened Twilight took her left hand and used her magic to shut and lock the door. As the door shut, the insignia on the pommel of Flash’s sword barely flashed a solar gold to a stellar purple.

About the same time, in a dark alley, Sunset stood next to a street lantern, she watched the moths gathered until she heard the sound of bovine hooves on the cobblestone. She turned and saw Longhorn. The once proud minotaur with long horns was battered and his horns broken and then filed down near to his skull. “Surprise you are willing to show your face after you got your ass handed to you by Sugarcoat. Guess the only saving grace is that you weren’t incarcerated as well as the last of your crew.” Sunset knew she was poking an injured bear, rubbing salt in its wounds and adding insult to injury, but she could not help but smirk all the while.

“Watch your tongue.” Longhorn growled as he prepared to strike Sunset with a clenched fist as if to punch her with an undercut, “You’re in no better shape.”

Sunset dismissed the bull’s ire with a brush of her hand, stepped to the side and said, “I have to differ, but I am here to make a deal.”

Long was not sold on the idea, he needed to see what he “What can you offer that I can’t get any other way?”

“Your gang, all of them, busted out,” Sunset answered looking at her nails board.

“How?” Longhorn raised an eyebrow not fully believing that Sunset could do it.

“I am a pyromancer trained by none other than the greatest of demigods, Mystica’s ruler, Princess Celestia,” Sunset answered as she had a small fire dance among her left hand’s fingertips while bending the fingers, all that time looking at the fire almost as if she was bored. “I have my ways.” She then vanished the evoked fire and turned her full attention back to Longhorn. “But here is the offer, be my champion in tomorrow’s trial by combat and if you win, I will personally bust your crew out of prison.” She held out her right hand to seal the deal, in more ways than one.

The minotaur was not convinced that Sunset would honor her word, she did have dealings with Sunny Flare, the heir apparent, “What assurances can you give?”

“None, but if Angus doesn’t beat Applejack and Sugarcoat in the race... well, you made the wager that if your entire crew was proven guilty by these trial by contests you’d give Cinch your head.”

“And if I lose?” Longhorn asked raising an eyebrow.

“It's a trial by combat, if you are my champion you win or you die,” Sunset stated bluntly. Longhorn looked away in thought.

Out of nowhere a beat started to play as Longhorn started to voice his thoughts and his once nearly prosperous, for a lack of better term, army and time, “I remember a time
When I resigned sublime,
There was plenty of loot in our hold.
We’d run wild and free,
And frighten a village,
With nary a worry or care!
Then along came this Shadow
With deceit in his marrow,
As he ratted us out in the end,”

Sunset then cut in as she started walking away heading towards the castle and its dungeons by conjuring a ring of fire functioning as a portal, “So rally the troops!
You were meant to regroup,
And return to your roots once again!” after a pause as Longhorn seemed lost in contemplation as he reluctantly followed her, “Are you in or out?
Gotta know without a doubt!
You're the one I need for this dirty deed,
You're the best, success is guaranteed!
Are you bull or cow?
Decision time here and now!
You wanna be a fearless leader, one that's strong and stout?
Better fight for me.
Are you in or out?" Longhorn followed her and the two were in the dungeons but outside of the cells.

Upon seeing his small army of twenty, most of them little more skin and bones, “We used to be feared, yes,” he commented.

Sunset added rather dismissively as she rolled her eyes, “Horrendously heartless,”

Then various members of the Rustles started to joining, “In ravaging raids, we were rough
We knew what we had
To be blissfully bad;
Then came Shadow Bolt with his sensitive stuff!”

Sunset then tapped on Longhorn’s shoulder and making him look to her, “And you strayed from the path
Of your rigorous wrath;
Now they're taking a bath in the dust!” the last part she pointed back to the entire gang as they were all not that far from death.

Longhorn seemed to show he was starting to buy Sunset’s offer with a massive grin forming on his face as he looked at his crew, “But I'll reclaim my winnings,
my humble beginnings,
In turmoil and torture, I trust!”

Sunset again pressed the question, “Are you in or out?
Double-crossers or devout?
Put your faith in me,
Pretty soon you'll see
I’m Misses Congeniality.”

All the Rustlers present then shouted trying to keep pitching the deal to their boss, “Are you foe or friend?”

Sunset added still in song as she returned Longhorn’s attention to her, “Here's the path I recommend!
You want a ride to fame?
I know the fastest route;
What's it gonna be?
Are you in or out?”

As Longhorn continued to contemplate, the Rustles again renewed the pitch, “We'll go robbing in all the right places,
To Mystica beyond the Sea
Imagine the fear on their faces
When we drop by for cookies and tea.”

As Sunset seemed to conjure a set of fiery wings and float above and in front of Longhorn, “Come along, boy!
Follow me!”

The Rustlers while in awe of Sunset’s all asked in song, "Are you in or out?"

Sunset lowered herself back to the ground and turning to the Rustlers,“If you're with me, give a shout.” Sunset then pause for a second as the entity of the gang presented shouted, ‘Yeah!’, “I'll guide you all the way,
Back to the glory days,
You'll begin a life of crime that pays!”

The entirety of the Rustlers looked to Longhorn pleadingly, "Are you out or in?
Make your choice, boss, sink or swim!"

Sunset then conjured a ring of fire to function as a teleportation portal, as she stated the situation that Longhorn was in from her point of view, “You can fight for me, or stay behind and pout.”

The Rustlers then added, with what seemed to be the final push, "What's it gonna be?"

Sunset then began to step through the portal as she held out her right hand towards Longhorn, “Consider carefully.
Are you in or out?”

“I am in!” Longhorn declared as he took Sunset hand and shock it ignoring the burning sensation he felt, little knowing that the fire was slowly working its way into his marrow. After Sunset teleported the two out of the dungeons, “Well, I better be off and prepare for tomorrow, not that boy will be much trouble. He’ll be begging for death before I am anywhere near done.” Longhorn chuckled as he headed off.

Sunset also smirked, what Longhorn didn’t know was that he was now hers and when the right time came, his will, his mind, his identity and so much more would be burnt out of his body, leaving only her fire. “And Cinch thought she offered him a Faustian bargain.”

Meanwhile, on the track of the 300-kilometer race, somewhere between the 175-kilometer mark and the 200-kilometer mark, about 183 kilometers into the race, Applejack and Sugarcoat stopped for a short rest, they were far ahead of schedule and Applejack was actually faring much better than Sugarcoat. As she handed Sugarcoat her waterskin, “Drink up, Sugarcube. Ah don’t want to win by default.”

“Thank you.” Sugarcoat then had a swig of the water. Handing the waterskin back, “You think I am evil don’t you?”

“Ah thought that before wah squared off today.” Applejack said as she took a drink and passed the waterskin back. “Can’t blame me for casting a detect evil.”

“So what did you find out, am I evil?” Sugarcoat said after accepting the waterskin and taking another swig of water, while showing no signs of being affected by Applejack’s assumptions, not that she had any grounds to counter.

“Will the odd thing was that only those minotaurs were the only actually evil beings in the stadium. Don’t get me wrong, Sunset and your baroness are in that gray area between neutral and evil.” Applejack answered. After some thought, “It might not be any of mah business, but why do yall call yourselves the Shadowbolts?”

“We’re half-sisters with the same father. His name was Shadow Bolt, he was an Earthborn from Mystica, some sort of cross of an umbramancer and electrokineisist, he exiled himself almost thirty years ago and arrived here. Back then Cinch’s hold was much less absolute, Reges Longhorn and his Rustlers were more like a freelance mercenary army running a muck then. Shadow Bolt made a deal with Cinch, he would use his Mystican powers to fight on her behalf in exchange he …”

“Ah can connect the dots, so what happened to him?”

“He forced Longhorn’s hand was killed. However, with his death Cinch was able to arrest all. the Rustlers. Seeing that try couldn’t get a fair trial by jury or judge, they all agreed to trial by a contest.” Seeing Applejack’s confusion, “It’s not unlike a trial by combat, but instead of two people fighting each other, it’s competing over an event.”

“That’s one backward legal system yall got,” Applejack commented before she got up, “Well, Ah don’t know about yah, Sugarcube, but Ah…” Applejack stopped as she sensed something. “SUGARCOAT LOOK OUT!!!” she shouted as she dove to Sugarcoat taking them both to the ground and rolled away as an ax was buried in the spot Sugarcoat was resting it. The two looked to see Angus retrieve his ax. “Now that can’t bah legal.” Applejack muttered as she and Sugarcoat got up.

“It’s not.” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “What are you doing, Angus? Killing us won’t help you.”

“There’s a river two kilometers ahead, I can throw the weapon and your bodies in there and it would be a month before they find you. And I’ll be long gone.” Angus held his ax with both hands as he stomped his right foot as if he prepared to charge.

“That truename magic would bah mighty useful now.”

“I can’t use it on him. His true name is his common name and that is common knowledge, there’s no power in knowing it.” Sugarcoat answered.

“So that’s why he’s here. He has the best chance to circumvent your magic.” Applejack muttered to herself as she scanned for a way out. But she couldn’t come up with one before Angus charged. Applejack dove to her left and shoved Sugarcoat to Applejack’s right to maximize the distance between the two, reducing the odds of Angus hitting either. However, Angus was able to glazed Applejack’s arm with his horn and ended up running over and breaking Sugarcoat left tibia and fibula. Sugarcoat cry of pain didn’t fall on deaf ears. Applejack got back up and grabbed a fairly large stick, a makeshift-club, not perfect but it would do. As Angus turned his attention slowly to the crippled truenamer, preparing to bring his ax down, taking his sweet time savoring the moment. “Faust and Zarchele, and all their messengers, Celestia, Luna, and all other demigods, and even you, Discord, please, grant me the strength of a bull and stop this murderer. Amen.” Applejack prayed, her hands then glowed a deep golden delicious yellow and the stick glowed a deep red delicious red. Applejack then roared, causing Angus to turn only for him to be struck in the head by Applejack’s makeshift club. The glowing red stick was the last thing Angus saw. Applejack the broke the club and finding some bittersweet vines, she rushed to Sugarcoat. “This is gonna hurt, but we’re not in a place where we can properly cast it.” Applejack said as she straightened Sugarcoat leg, properly aligning the bones and then sprinting the fracture. She then picked Sugarcoat up, so that Sugarcoat was on her back and Applejack was able to hold her thighs, “Wah gotta boggy.” She soon noticed that Angus was starting to stir. Following another kick to his head stunning him again, “Yah sure yah can only use yahr true-name magic on mah once? ‘Cause wah need tah put as much distance between us and him before he wakes up and Ah can’t cast any speed spells.”

Sugarcoat closed her eyes, and tried to concentrate. Truth be told, she was never in a place where she ever had to use a person’s true name more than once, Sunset told her to expect it wouldn’t work as well, and most people never put her in a place to attempt it, just seeing it used once on one person was enough to get most people to do what she and her half-sisters wanted. After a second, “Run as a falcon flies, Abbelya'akova.” As she finished the last syllable, Applejack started running at a rate that would build up to what would be almost 110 kilometers per hour. “Is this an appropriate time for and an appropriate use of the term…” Sugarcoat started only to be cut off with a…

“YEEEEEHAAAH!!!” Applejack shouted, “EAT MAH DUST RAINBOW DASH!!!”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Sugarcoat deadpanned as she felt her injured leg jar. “Take it easy, I have a broken bone.”

Applejack gave a slightly apologetic laugh, “Sorry, Sugarcube. Never ran this fast before in my life.”

Sugarcoat could only roll her eyes, it was already a long night, “Don’t follow the main road, it would too easy for Angus to follow.”

“All right, but I can’t keep this up for an hour.” Applejack informed.

“If you can last at least 10 minutes, tonight, that should be enough of a cushion of space until the morning, before he wakes up.”

“Can’t make any promises.”

The Trial for Magic

Author's Note

Hey Everyone, a few things from the last chapter and for this.
First from the last one:
1) The back and forth between Sunset and Longhorn is a modified version of the song 'Are You In or Out' from Disney's direct to video movie 'Aladdin and The King of Thieves'

2) Whatever you have inferred to have happened after Twilight used her magic to shut the door, you might just be right. :raritywink:
Now for this chapter:
1) I am not just a brony, I am a fan of the Transformers, namely the original animated series, the Beast Wars, and Transformers: Prime, and I regret nothing! :rainbowdetermined2: Take away Stan Bush with Dare

2) I know I made a big deal in the author's notes of the last chapter about real-world dueling and their average time length, however, I must concede that a duel lasting less than 2 minutes in fiction only narratively works if it's clearly a one-sided fight and since this is not a one-sided duel... I ain't proud of myself :ajsleepy:

The Trial for Magic

Twilight woke up with a stretch. As she slowly got up, still in the bed, and using the bed sheets to cover herself, she saw the starting of the dawn and that she was back in her room. She looked down and saw that she was dressed, she looked and saw a note on a nightstand. She took it and was about to read it when she heard knocking on the chamber doors, “Twilight, Darling, I don’t mean to interrupt your beauty sleep, but I have the most dreadful news.” It was Rarity speaking, as Twilight tried to process everything, “Twilight, I will open this door and dump a bucket of cold water on you if I have too!” Twilight jumped out the bed and went to the door. However, she noticed that her step was a little uneven. Before she could deal with that, she opened the door. Rarity didn’t let Twilight ask, “Applejack and Sugarcoat are not on the path of their race. Agnus seemed to have attacked them last night, we don’t know where they are.”

Before Twilight could press, “And Meanie-weenie Sunset Shimmie got someone to fight in the Trial by Combat.” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in a very comical panic state, not unlike when Kerberos was in Magiville.

Before Twilight could reply, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy rushed news, “Applejack is okay, a few scratches we’ll have to tend to when she gets here, they just passed the 250-kilometer mark.”

Twilight then asked, “How? AJ doesn’t know any speed based spells that I am aware of.”

“You can always count on AJ to carry you out of a bad situation,” Rainbow answered as Twilight turned to her a little confused. Electing to explain, “She’s carrying Sugarcoat, who has a sprained leg. Three guesses who’s responsible for that.”

“That doesn’t explain… oh, Sugarcoat used her true-name magic to give AJ a speed boost of some sort.” Twilight concluded after a second or two of thought.

“Hopefully Cinch will call this particular contest and the wager over the Element of Honesty off.” Rarity commented on this new information.

“Indeed, my mother has, dearies.” They all turned to see Sunny. Next to the war cleric were Lemon, Sour, and Indigo. “In fact, we’re going to help get our sister out of there. Before you ask, we all have the same father, different mothers. If you want to help your friend, you better come.” As Twilight headed to where she stored her clothes, “Except for you, Princess, the trial by combat is still on and you have to be present.” Sunny informed.

Twilight gave a nod of understanding, if she wasn’t present for her “champion” during the bout chances were the whole thing would be rendered ineligible regardless of who the victor was, above all else she had to make sure the Element of Magic returned to its proper place, especially with what Princess Celestia has stated about it.

“I’M COMING AJ!” Rainbow shouted as she dashed past her friends and the Shadowbolts.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” Indigo shouted zapping to catch up with the elementalist. Everyone else rolled their eyes at this before they started after save Sunny, Rarity and Twilight, the latter was far from being dressed for the occasion

“We’ll be back as quickly as we can, Darling. Give Flash our regards.” Rarity said as she and Sunny then left.

Twilight then got her clothes as Spike got off the bed and walked outside, “I’ll wait for you out…” Spike stopped and sniffed the air he then sniffed the floor next to Twilight’s feet all the way to her feet. “Uh” he commented somewhat confused but elected to shrug it off, “you must have taken a shower last night after I went to bed. Well, I’ll be outside.” Spike shut the door behind him not noticing the deep red blush on Twilight’s face, as what happened last night and likely earlier this morning dawned on her.

Twenty minutes later as she and Spike were on their way to the stadium, “Pleasant dreams last night, princess.” The two turned to see Sunset leaning against one of the walls looking at her fingernails utterly bored. Spike started to growl and snarl as a puppy could. If he was a dragon again smoke would be seeping from his mouth. Twilight also scowled. Sunset was not phased by this. “Ah, he’s so adorable, he thinks he’s threatening.” Sunset mocked the puppy. “Hope soldier-boy is up for the task. It’s more than the Element of Magic on the line.”

“What do you mean by that?” Twilight frown didn’t let up and seemed to intensify.

Sunset walked up to her, not unlike a high school bully, “Simple, it’s his life. Trials by combat only end one of two ways. Don’t you remember?” Twilight snarled and gritted her teeth at Sunset. “Hope you don’t have any plans for him after today. Unless he left you with something to remember his face by.” Sunset did not let up on her mockery, closing her eyes as she spoke the last part, laughing as she headed off ahead of Twilight.

Spike somehow managed to get onto Twilight’s shoulder, an impressive feat when you considered his current condition, and whispered into her ear, “What is her deal? The way she talked to you sounded like she was above you, a classic case of a Superiority Complex.”

“It's like she thinks she’ll win,” said Twilight before she took a calming breath, “regardless of the outcome. I have to agree with your assessment. I’m sure Flash won't let us down, too much is riding on this for that to not be the case.” Twilight then followed after Sunset, the trial was about to begin.

An hour later, Flash, in his standard issued Mystican golden color armor, electing to go with the most protection he had while making at some level a show of Mystica’s might, with his shield secured to his left arm, his sword in its scabbard, stood in the middle of the arena. He could tell that most there didn’t care if he won or lost, they wanted a show. He also knew that there were a handful that did care if he lost and died, with one only caring if he lost. He looked at Cinch’s booth and saw Baroness Cinch, Twilight, Sunset, Juniper, and Spike. He didn’t know why the others save Applejack and Sugarcoat weren’t there, not that he could blame them for not being there to witness this fight. However, his focus was on the only other being in the arena, his opponent, Reges Longhorn. Flash was not unfamiliar with minotaurs, Iron Will and a handful of others while not formally part of the ESM, were welcomed militia. But Longhorn made Iron Will look like a calf, even with his filed down horns. “Scared boy?” Longhorn asked as he held his hammer aloft, while armored in little more than a pair of pants, exposing his chest and arms, in an attempt to incite the audience to cheer, it was met with only boos. Flash knew that this was how Longhorn intended to prove his prowess, showing that he didn't fear death. Flash also concluded that Longhorn was planning to turn this into a show, prolonging the duel needlessly.

Flash was unphased by the minotaur’s bravado, he knew Longhorn was nothing compared to Sombra (Not that knowing Longhorn could not defeat him as easily as Sombra did was actually helpful, which Flash regretfully had to note). Flash also remembered some of his practice bouts with willing minotaurs, something he was now thankful that Shining Armor had insisted on, although he would never admit it to the marshal’s face, a man had to have some show of pride. His only response was to ready his shield and simply say, more to himself than anyone else, “True warriors can claim victory regardless of what everyone else says, and know actions are the only dialogue really needed on the field.”

“Well ladies and gentlemen, this year’s pheidippidiadromos was just called off, Angus McSteer has in fact cheated.” North Star started to announce, as a projection from what was most likely some sort of small cameras on Sugarcoat, showed the scuffle last night. Just as Applejack yelled ‘YEEHAA!’ the projection was cut short. “Last we heard they had passed the 250-kilometer mark, which is impressively fast and will likely be here soon and Angus will be taken into custody to join his fellow Rustlers in their incarceration, assuming he doesn’t try anything that would justify the use of lethal force.”

Blue Moon then stepped in, “And as soon as Applejack and Sugarcoat are brought back, they will be taken to the infirmary. In related news, the rest of the Rainbooms and Shadowbolts are part of the extraction team, so it looks like they will be alright in the end.”

“We can only pray. However, there is still another matter at hand, Blue. The other reason why we are here.”

“True, North, the Trial by Combat. And for the sake of clarity,” Blue moon then continued, “the subject of the trial is the ownership of a tiara. Now both Lady Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight Sparkle have made a claim ownership of it. For Lady Sunset Shimmer, Reges Longhorn has been given one last shot.” Everyone then booed, heckled and cursed at the minotaur. “And for Princess Twilight Sparkle, an up and coming member of Mystica’s Military forces, officially the Earborn-Skyborn-Magicborn Coalition, better known as ESM, Captain Flash Sentry!” The audience then cheered for Flash, well not so much for him but against Longhorn.

Flash’s focus, however, was on the matter at hand as he drew his sword and faced Longhorn. “You can run back to your mother’s skirt now and no one will think less of you. Not that we think highly to begin with.” Longhorn started again. Flash was not phased by this, he knew that in a real battle, Longhorn’s trash talk would have gotten the minotaur killed by now, but this was a duel of champions, normal rules of battle or rather the lack thereof didn’t apply and trash talking was in. Flash elected to remain quiet as he waited to come-up with the best comeback. “THIS BOY IS SO SCARED, HE’S SCARED STUPID! BWAHAHA!” Longhorn bellowed and continued to mock Flash.

“You call that a laugh, I heard a ghost’s chuckle with more life in it,” Flash said calmly as everything died down from the last mock. Longhorn glared at Flash, “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” Flash asked, “I’ve heard that cow tongues make great pet treats.”

“You better run, boy. I’m feeling sporting, I’ll give you time to drop your shield.” Longhorn said as slowly walked towards Flash.

“I am not leaving unless it’s with my shield on my back or my back on my shield.” Flash then shut his eyes. “Solar Dash”, he whispered expecting his ethereal wings to start beating at so that he charged Longhorn at the speed of light. But Flash’s wings did not move. When noticed that, “What?” he asked in a whisper. Seeing this hesitation, Longhorn swung his hammer from his left to his right hitting Flash in his chest and sending him flying a fair distance before rolling in the sand. Longhorn only chuckled as he held his hammer aloft as if triumphant. It couldn’t be, could it? Thought Flash. He then remembered Celestia once telling him to pay attention to his wording around supernatural beings and deities, mostly because of the implications, but she had expressed quite strongly that deity-like beings like herself may not be the ones entirely responsible because it also came down to emotion and intent. Flash suddenly remembered last night, his declaration to Twilight, the embrace, the kiss... and he mentally facepalmed himself, he just had to go and change patrons unintentionally before a fight in the name of the new patron. This meant he literally would be relearning his boons in the battle, not a good time when so much was on the line and that assumed that Twilight would make the same realization.

That being said; Flash had fought people bigger than him, people that wielded hammers, and people that were both bigger than him and wielded hammers. The only thing Longhorn had over Flash was a lack of combat discipline, which meant he was not as predictable as most of the people Flash fought. And Flash could fly. Just as Flash had finished shaking off the blow as Longhorn was more focused on the audience than him, music that sounded like it was part of a Vinyl Scratch Retro-Night rave started up. Flash looked to see Pinkie and the others, sans Applejack and Sugarcoat, having entered the booth coming from the stadium’s infirmary. The jester holding over her head an oversized portable stereo. “Come on, Flashy.” Pinkie said and started to lip synch with the lyrics as they finally started.

‘Sometimes when your hopes have all been shattered
And there's nowhere to turn’
You wonder how you keep going
Think of all the things that really mattered
And the chances you've earned
The fire in your heart is growing
You can fly if you try leaving the past behind
Heaven only knows what you might find.’ As the first verse of the song played Flash and Longhorn charged each other, this time Flash was able to avoid the blow of the hammer, but he was not able to do anything to harm. However, Flash didn’t let up as tried again and again.

‘Dare - dare to believe you can survive
You hold the future in your hand
Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
It's time to take a stand
And you can win if you dare’ This time around Flash was able to deliver a few cuts and jabs, but none of them seemed to do more than superficial damage, while Longhorn was more to keep Flash at bay and knock the Sentinel around. Flash had hoped this fight would be over very quickly, but it seemed that Longhorn was going to turn this into a show, a show of his might, even with his broken horns.

‘Everybody's trying to break your spirit
Keeping you down
Seems like it's been forever
But there's another voice if you'll just hear it
Saying it's the last round
Looks like it's now or never
Out of the darkness, you stumble into the light
Fighting for the things you know are right’ As the next verse started, Flash was again bashed around by Longhorn, but he recovered quickly and was able to evade the more damaging blows. However, he could tell unless he could deliver a crippling or miming, all the bones in his left arm were going to break due to the sheer amount of blunt force trauma that the shield by its design would not absorb.

‘Dare - dare to believe you can survive
The power is there at your command
Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
It's time to take a stand
And you can win, if you dare’ As the song continued Flash was finally able to make what would have been a killing thrust, but instead of slaying the minotaur, Longhorn seemed to engulf himself in flames, transforming himself into a fiery demonic being, with fiery horns emerging from the file-down stubs. Flash’s sword melted all to the hilt. As Flash stepped back in confusion, Longhorn charged him ramming the soldier into the wall, just under the private booth, partially burning Flash and aggravating the back-break Flash suffered from his fight with Sombra. “FLASH!!!” Twilight cried out as Longhorn backed up and taking Flash by his ankles and threw him to the other side of the stadium.

There was an instrumental, during which Twilight saw the hilt of Flash’s sword which landed next to her following Longhorn ramming Flash into the booth. On the pommel was a copy of her aura mark, which didn’t make sense, because if Flash was a Sentinel to Celestia why would the pommel of his sword… ‘he’s my…’ Twilight connected the dots and picking up the handle, threw it at Flash; as arming one’s champion was not against the rules in a Trial by Combat. As the hilt landed next to Flash’s right hand, Twilight didn’t know why or how, but she started lip-synching with the song Pinkie had playing.‘Dare - dare to believe you can survive
You hold the future in your hand’ As Longhorn charged, Flash took the hilt and shouted “STAR SABER!!!”, as a bar of blue-colored plasma formed from the hilt as he slashed at Longhorn as he rolled out of the way, leaving a cut in along the minotaur’s chest.

‘Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
The power is there at your command’, Flash then felt something emit from the hilt, beyond the blade of plasma. He felt his body actually heal from all the bashing he received, even the aggravation of the break in his back dulled away, it felt like how he felt when the Crystal Heart activated… No, this was when he learned what his class was when Celestia gave him the first boon he ever received, the boon which allowed him to have the epiphany that revealed his Aura Mark.

‘Dare - dare to keep all your love alive
Dare to be all you can be’ Flash looked up to see Longhorn charging at him. Flash steeled himself and wait just long enough.

‘Dare - 'cause there is a place where dreams survive
And it's calling you on to victory’ As the verse started Flash again shouted, “STAR SABER!” and slashed Longhorn along the minotaur’s gut, successfully evading the savage’s hammer swing as if he simply stepped to the side and a victor’s grin forming on his face.

‘Dare’ As the final word of the song ended Flash held out his sword arm, holding his new sword, as metal replaced the plasma, in the air as Longhorn stammered to Flash’s right and reverted back to his previous state and fell to the ground, grievously wounded as sizeable slash went along his gut. The audience cheered and start to chant, ‘Flash, Flash, Flash,’ until Cinch stood up and held up her right hand as silence fell. “Captain Sentry, while it seems that you have won this duel, as the jury has so declared, the trial by combat is not over until either Longhorn or you is dead.”

Flash shot Twilight a quick look that she understood instantly, without knowing why, “That statement might indeed be quite factual,” Twilight started, “however, this is also a sporting event. While sports during the last time the Trial by Combat was used were a bit more of a gore fest, much to the displeasure of those who have been educated in our modern age, the rules the event and practice were never updated with other sporting events, at least in this nation.”

“If you are trying to weasel a way out, for your champion’s incompetence then you can just stop there,” said Cinch.

“Not at all,” said Twilight, “the fact is all of the sporting events that were display here had their development stunted, the Trial by Combat is the only clear case I can see of outright refusal to change with the times. If you had done as detailed a look into Mystican legal and sports practices as you tried to project you would have seen something like this coming,” as if to prove her point Twilight produced a dozen tomes seemingly from midair and placed them before Abacus Cinch, “those are all the latest in policies and principles in Mystican sports and legal code. If you are unwilling to read them, at the very least have the appropriate advisor and/or aids read through them.” Suddenly the entire stadium was filled with Twilight’s voice, “the fact of the matter is Flash did manage to incapacitate his opponent and under Mystican combative sports code that was enough to satisfy the event, I read up on your sports code,” Cinch’s face betrayed her surprise for a few seconds before returning to impassive, “and according to your own combative sports code, which a Trial by Combat falls under, any combative rules and traditions of representatives of a foreign power will be respected until the departure of said representatives. The judges were in clear violation of the very rules they were judging when passed down their verdict, something they should have been fully aware of. The only reason I can see for them to have passed such a verdict in earnest is that they were either not permitted to read up on Mystican sports codes regarding the event, something we willingly turned over when asked before the start of all this, or were told to disregard those codes. Either way, the blame for their apparent ignorance in this matter falls squarely on the higher power that decided this. The only power with that authority at this time is yourself, Abacus Cinch.”

Everyone then turned to Cinch, save one, then they all started to hear a deep laugh, sporadically interrupted with coughs. They all turned to see Longhorn, having gotten to his feet and holding his gut with his left hand, his right hand firmly gripping his hammer, still refusing to submit, “You seem to (Cough) ignore that according to (Cough) Mystican Law, local costumes supersede Mystican Law if there is a contradiction in rules (Cough) and there are no established diplomatic relationships betwixt the other nation and Mystica. (Cough) On top of that, I am not a subject of Midnight Castle. I am an outlaw, (Cough, cough) which means that I am outside of the law’s protection. SO COME ON BOY!!!” Longhorn then charged Flash.

Flash readied his shield and his new blade, the ‘star saber’ was going to be helpful but he needed another boon, he needed to be able to charge his foe too. He took a breath and thought for a second. It was all the time he needed as his ethereal wings, having flashed the color of Twilight’s Aura Mark, started to beat at a rate that would allow him to charge Longhorn at the speed of light. “STARBURST!” he shouted as he thrust his sword arm out and collided with Longhorn. It was over in a flash. Flash had flown past Longhorn leaving his sword in the minotaur’s chest, the point coming out the back. As Longhorn once again fell to his knees, Flash walked back to face Longhorn. Once face to face again, as the minotaur was left struggling to breathe and unable to do anything else, Flash took his sword by its handle and placed his left foot on Longhorn’s chest. He proceeded to both pull his sword out of Longhorn and push, well kick, Longhorn off of his sword. Longhorn’s heart stopped beating before he finally bit the dust. Flash then looked to the crowd as they cheered his victory, he took a cleaning cloth off of his belt and cleaned his blade before sheathing it back into its scabbard. Once done, “SUBJECTS OF MIDNIGHT CASTLE!” they all fell silent, “This here marks the end of The Rustlers and the terror they held over you!” Everyone then started to chant ‘Flash, Flash, Flash,’ until he held his right hand up again, after taking his shield off his left arm and using the strap on it to have it on his back. “Let this be the first many mutually beneficial exchanges between Mystica and Midnight Castle!”

As everyone cheered and chanted Flash’s name, Cinch turned back to Twilight, “Your champion seems very knowledgeable on handling a crowd.” Twilight was slightly taken aback, did Cinch just compliment her, “Miss Montage, bring the box, and then escort the victorious party to the infirmary.” Juniper did what she was told, handing the box with the tiara to Cinch before heading to the field as Flash started to finally stagger.

In the booth Twilight accepted her tiara and looked to deal with Sunset, only to find the pyromancer had left. “Looks like you were right, Spike.” Twilight then looked to the ground to find her dragon-turned-dog, but he was not there. “Spike? Spike!”

Demon Shimmer

Meanwhile, Applejack and Sugarcoat were lying down, each on a bed in the infirmary. Sugarcoat had her broken leg in a proper cast and elevated, while Applejack was in a somewhat better shape with regards to visible injuries, only having her wounded arm and its shoulder bound in bandages, but she was in a less focused state. While as an Earthborn she had a much higher endurance than pretty much any Magicborn or Skyborn, and as a paladin and a farmer she had higher endurance than most Earthborn, but running like she did under the spells Sugarcoat cast on her last night and into this morning pushed her too far. “Thanks, for saving me. I owe you one.” Sugarcoat said without her usual bluntness.

“Paladin, Sugarcube.” Applejack said between somewhat labored breaths, “what else would Ah’ve done? Leave yah tah yah death?” she asked rhetorically with a labored chuckle.

“I believe that you are owed an apology at least on my part for what happened. You see one of the side effects of true-name magic is that there is always a balance, you can’t make it sunny one place without causing it to be cloudy elsewhere. In this case, your body seems to be going through a temporary decompensation in order to compensate for the stress that it went through.”

“No kiddin’.” Applejack joked before she finally passed out of sheer exhaustion.

At that moment, Juniper arrived helping an exhausted Flash. “What happened to him?” Sugarcoat asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“He fought a Trial by Combat against Longhorn for about five minutes give or take.” Juniper answered as Flash was guided to a bed, “And yes, he won.”

“Well soldier-boy, you’re more than a pretty face after all. Killing Longhorn is no small feat,” Sugarcoat almost reluctantly complemented the Sentinel.

Flash rubbed the back of his head and neck with his right hand a little nervously, “I couldn’t have done if Twilight didn’t give me a boon or two.”

“Boons? So you’re a Sentinel? I’ve heard about them,” Juniper said as she went over to get some medical supplies to do some basic first aid for Flash, discreetly getting a couple of test tubes. “I thought they all were devotees of Celestia.”

“A common misconception.” Sugarcoat pointed out, “A Sentinel is actually very similar to a Paladin, however, they have a more immediate connection with the demigod they are devoted, which is not limited to Celestia, than paladins have to the Teachings. It just so happens that Celestia has been the only demigod present on this planet continuously for the better part of the last millennium, but Luna, Mi Amore Cadenza, Discord, and now even Twilight can have Sentinels,” While she spoke Juniper tended to the small injuries Flash received from his last charge at Longhorn, while also filling a test tube with his blood.

“Hey, what’s that for?” Flash asked, unlike the others he had noticed it.

“Full diagnosis, just to make sure all is well, and to make sure in the case of you needed a blood transfusion, we know exactly what you need,” Juniper answered. “Which reminds me, I should also get a sample from Applejack as the paladin recovered and was more functioning. Just in case things go for the worse.” Flash didn’t question as Juniper finished with collecting the sample from him and then collected a sample from Applejack before she left the three.

Applejack had a feeling that something was off, thanks in part to both her training as a paladin and her connection to the Element of Honesty but still saw it some sound logic. “Ah suppose that makes some sense,” said Applejack, “but Ah expect ya ta share tha results with the wid us when they come through, et’s a bad practice ta do those sorts o’ tests than not inform the folks ya got tha samples from!”

“Yes, Miss Apple,” Juniper called back. This didn’t fully satisfy the paladin, but Applejack had to accept the answer.

As Juniper left, Twilight and the rest of her friends came in, “Spike is missing. I can’t reach him through our master-familiar link!” Twilight announced.

“Fluttershy could yah cast a few cure wounds spells, so wah can help yah find him.” The paladin said as she got up.

“Was Sunset in the booth when you got the tiara?” Sugarcoat asked. Twilight shook her head. “Have you considered that Sunset took him when she left?”

“But where would she go?” Rainbow Dash asked the question on everyone's mind as they were... well clueless about Sunset's movements.

“She managed to convince Longhorn to be her champion, she had to offer him something.” Rarity interjected. "She likely went to retrieve it so it can be used to her benefit."

Sugarcoat’s eyes widened in terror as she heard Rarity’s statement. “The dungeon! I told Sunny that trusting that bitch was a bad idea.” Everyone turned to Sugarcoat as Fluttershy finished restoring Applejack. “She’s got something planned with the Rustlers. We have to get to the dungeon before she releases them.”

“Indy, me and the others will meet ya there.” Rainbow then flew leaving a rainbow in her wake before anyone had the chance to correct her grammar.

“Are all Mystican Skyborn like that?” Sugarcoat asked the rest.

“Sadly, it is pretty much the rule, ” Flash answered as he went over to Sugarcoat bed, “Need a lift?” Sugarcoat nodded as Flash became a human crutch for Sugarcoat and the group started towards the dungeons.

Twilight had a little more to add to Flash’s statement, as Sugarcoat directed the group, “Or at least it seems so. From my observations, they seem to have four settings, which Rainbow tends to cycle through. Those are Half-cocked, which she just so happened to demonstrate; genuinely caring, you should see her with her pet turtle some time; totally competitive, she takes challenges way too seriously and lazy as all get out, I can not begin to tell how many times I caught her just lounging about somewhere for no good reason beyond her terrible explanations.” Flash and Fluttershy shared a look basically saying to each other, ‘she has no idea what she’s talking about.’

Spike was snarling and growling as he was tried to break the leash that Sunset used to keep him to the wall in one of the empty cells, but he gave up once he realized that he was grossly ignored by Sunset as her attention was recounting the results of duel to the minotaurs and elected to just watch and see what Sunset was doing. Once she told about how Flash was given a new weapon by Twilight, “We have heard enough,” Doc Holstein said. “Longhorn is dead isn’t he?” Sunset only gave a closed-eyed sad looking nod. The minotaurs looked at each other as if they were having a silent conversation. Doc then turned back to Sunset, “If you will set us free, give us the power you gave Longhorn, and let us avenge our leader, we will fight for you.” Doc said as he took a knee, the other minotaurs then followed suit, “We will help you claim Midnight Castle. We will give you Mystica.”

Sunset hid her toothy evil smile as they all also bowed their heads at this. She raised her head and put her left foot in between the bars, the soul of it lifted up slightly at an angle. “You know what to do,” she stated. With some reluctance and hesitation, each of the minotaurs lowered himself to walk on his knuckles and knees, his head down and once close enough to her foot licked it in subjectivization, and after licking her foot they remained in a kowtow state as the others did likewise. Doc was the last one do so, but he did not kowtow like the others standing on his knees looking up to Sunset like he was the first of her disciples. Sunset brought her foot back and her hands started to glow a bright opal as they passed through the bars.

Spike, with his draconic eyes, saw something amiss in the glow. His eyes widened in a blend of terror and horror as if in a memory in a dream and a dream in a memory he had showed him the same spell used on someone he cared for. “NOOOOO!!!” he shouted revealing that he could still speak. Not that is stopped anything.

‘NOOOOO!!!’

Twilight et al had arrived at the entrance to the dungeons, the guards there were looking at each other utter confused at what they all just heard. Sunny, however, didn’t stop and went to the guards. “Open the door! By the authority as heir to Midnight Castle, Open the door.” Sunny’s holy symbol flashed and the guard with the key ring took it off his belt and went for the key to the door. It took him a second or two, but it felt like a solid minute for Sunny et al before he opened the door. The group more or less pushed the guards aside as they entered the dungeon

“Take one more step,” they heard as they saw Sunset at the other end of the dungeon with Spike in an orb of bright opal magic floating next to her left hand, her left hand and focus gem both glowing the same color as the orb, “And Fido here will be crushed to death.” She then tightened her grip and Spike start crying in pain as he was being crushed.

Twilight was about to run past everyone but was held back by Applejack, “Don’t hurt him!” she pleaded as it was clear Applejack was not going to let her go until she calmed down.

Applejack then shot a disapproving glare at Rarity, as she was levitating a block to send it flying at Sunset. “But she’s hurting Spikey-wikey,” Rarity challenged. However, the paladin won the silent test of wills as Rarity reluctantly let the block fall back into place.

Sunset loosened her grip. “That’s better. Now here is how this is going to work. Twilight send me her crown via levitation half way along the dungeon. I will then send Spikey-wikey…”

“You heartless bitch! Don’t you dare think you can call him that!” Rarity was about to charge at Sunset, but was stopped by Rainbow and Pinkie, “The little dragon is the sweetest soul in the world and that affectionate name, is how I show my appreciation for all he has done for me!”

Sunset could not help but chuckle at this development, and “I knew he wasn’t a dog, thanks for the confirmation, surprising he's actually a dragon. Well more than meets the eye." Sunset then cleared her throat. "But as I was saying, I send Spike here half way and we swap. Or else…” Sunset then began to tighten her grip again. Spike whimpered and struggled to force back the magic crushing him. After a second, Sunset loosened her hold. “Do we have a deal?”

“You have to be aware that if Twilight agrees to that, once she has Spike, she’ll do whatever she can to get the Element of Magic back and you won’t be able to use him as a shield.” Sugarcoat pointed out the flaw in the plan.

Sunset smirked in response with a chuckle, “She’ll try." Turning back to Twilight, "So princess, do we have a deal?” Twilight took a breath to calm herself, she might have lost to Sunset before, but she knew better and she wasn’t alone, she also had one thing Sunset didn’t, an ally that covered the distance at the speed of light and there was nothing that could trip him up. Twilight then verbally answer, but took off her tiara and began to levitate it to halfway between her and Sunset. “You choose wisely, princess.” Sunset then sent Spike toward the same spot. Once the dragon-turned-dog and the tiara were right next to each other, the magic surrounding each change and Twilight brought her familiar to her at a near neck-break space and hugged him with a big closed mouth and closed-eyed smile. In the meanwhile Sunset finally held the Element of Magic. Sunset started to laugh at her moment of apparent victory. “Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s mine. Everything I’ve worked for. Everything Celestia denied me. It’s finally mine.” Sunset then lowered the crown onto her head. There was a sudden jolt that forced Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash back, as if they felt the vibrations of something out of tune and from the Elements of Laughter, Loyalty, Kindness, and Generosity came in a flash of light that matched Lemon’s, Indigo’s, Sour’s and Sunny’s Aura Marks but them seemed to peter out as if whatever magic placed on them had been dispelled. However, what got everyone’s main focus was on Sunset as she screamed. Her eyes become fields of white as from the Element of Magic a ball of bright opal colored magic with what seemed to be a black vortex spiraling in it appeared before she started to cry with tears streaming down before the opal and black colored magic started to creep and Sunset’s body, as it passed over her body until it finished her skin became a fiery red, her ears became pointed and bat like, from her back came bat-like wings that were the same shade of red on the front but black on the black, the whites of her eyes become black and her face took on a more beastly shape, several of her teeth becoming fangs, and her hair defied gravity spiking upwards. After the transformation Sunset started to laugh as if some part of her was glad to be this, all the while the ball of magic remained. “The power… the power… it’s… ahh...” Sunset said as she held herself as if she was high on a euphoric drug.

Twilight then turned to Sugarcoat and Flash. Both Flash and Twilight recalled what Sugarcoat said when Sunset asked if there was a duel. Sugarcoat reached one arm out to Sour to have the Berserker be the human crutch allowing Flash to draw his sword and get his shield. Sunset noticed that and chuckled, “Oh, you think you actually stand some sort of chance, that would adorable if you didn’t look so pathetic.” Flash was unfazed as he bent his knees reading to flash at her, “Sadly you’ll have your hands full.” Sunset then sent a blast of magic into the cell that the minotaurs were in. The bars vanished allowing the minotaurs to exit and form a wall between Twilight et al and Sunset. However the minotaurs looked more like how Longhorn looked when Flash stabbed him before his sword’s blade melted, but they all seemed to be individually weaker than Longhorn was Flash more so than anyone else knew that while numbers alone don’t convey victory, quantity is quality all its own. “Have fun. I got few scores to settle before the big one.” Sunset blasted the wall behind her, which led out to the castle’s courtyard. “Tata,” and Sunset flew out the opening.

“Go! I got this.” Flash said as his blade glowed purple like Twilight’s hair and his wings flashed the same shade of purple before he burst to the wall cleaving a path for the girls and Spike to go through before doubling back to buy them time to get past the score of demonic minotaurs. Most of the girls made it through the first time Flash bolted through the line. Twilight, however, was still at the other end with Spike. She was writing on a piece of paper, most likely a note to Princess Celestia. Flash could not help but roll his eyes at how poorly timed this was. Fortunately Twilight was a… well stupidly... fast writer and Spike’s message breath still worked. But that didn’t help matters as much as it could… twenty fiery demonic minotaurs about to encircle Twilight and a fallen demigod/demon on the lose… It went without saying, but Flash had his hands full. After his first double back, “Now’s not the time, Go! Go, stop Sunset, your friends need you, I can handle them. Go!” Flash sheathed his sword and taking Twilight by her arm and grabbing Spike before he bolted the two the rest of the group. Once there Flash drew his sword and charged at the minotaurs, while there were still twenty of them, all of the girls could tell that Flash was the only one of the twenty-one about to fight to going to come out of this alive.

The girls continued through the opening to see Sunset was sending various fireballs throughout the courtyard, some simply scorching the stone wall, some causing small craters in the earth, some sending the castle guard that came to fight the demon back, some were used to destroy every projectile and arrow fired at Sunset, etc, simply put Sunset was mostly showing off her new powers. “LADY SHIMMER, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” Cinch called out before ducking behind one of the pillars for one of the walkways in the castle that looked out to the courtyard. Juniper was cowering under the wall next to her.

“It’s called collecting the devil’s due.” Sunset sent another fireball at Cinch, only scorching the pillar, but the point still stood.

“Sunset!” Sunny called out, Sunset turned to face Sunny and the others as they took their weapons, save Applejack and Sugarcoat, the latter never had a weapon and the former had her sword with her usual clothes and armor, and both were still in the clothes they ran the 300-kilometer race in. “You’re still in debt to me, dearie.”

Sunset chuckled before conjuring another fireball and sent it to the eleven young women and the dragon-turned-dog forcing them to more or less scattered, unable to counter. Sunset didn’t let up forcing everyone to be farther and farther from Twilight, who she managed to corner. “So much for friends.” Sunset did not let up until she felt she was certain that Twilight’s friends could not help the demigod. Once she there she conjured a massive fireball and sent it at the trapped Twilight.

Twilight used her arms to cover her face in a desperate attempt to shield herself from the massive fireball, empowered by the Element of Magic, Sunset cast and sent towards her. However, before the fireball hit her she was forced out of its path. As she opened her eyes she saw Flash using his shield covering them as he flew her out of the area, however, it was clear the fireball did do a number on him, his shield was scorched and he had to get it off of his left arm, lest it touching it caused a flesh-melting burn, as Flash the clutched his arm, it was clear the force alone sprained the muscles, ligaments, and tendons and very likely nearly broke the bones. “Flash…”

“Occupational hazard,” Flash chuckled.

Twilight would have also chuckled, but she called out, “Look out!” too late as Sunset sent another meteor into the ground next to the two, sending flying. Twilight was able to recover and land safely, Flash, however, was not so lucky as he got the brunt of the impact’s blast.

Sunset chuckled at the sight, “So much for your hero!” Lifting her hands into the air conjuring and sending another fireball at Twilight, a fireball so large Twilight could not dodge it. “BUT I IT’S ALL OVER NOW!!!”

“Not quite, said,” Twilight, surprisingly unfazed, “you’re forgetting a few things about the Elements. Here’s a hint for one of the things regarding the Element of Magic, it doesn’t like having its power forced.”

Sunset just laughed and said, “Of all the final words you could possibly say, that’s it. No speech about friendship, no hyperbole about my ‘poor’ life choices, no statements about how you and Mystica will be able to get by without your element, just a declaration about why this won’t end the way I think it will. I mean there’s pathetic, there’s idealistic, there’s pathetically idealist, then there’s you. Celestia could have done so much better in finding someone for my old position when she was looking for a new student, the best choice she had was you.” Sunset held the fireball up with her arms held out as it grew to be many times its size. Her eyes became solid… and her voice changed to be more like a stereotypical guttural demonic voice. “NOW DIE!!!” she roared as she sent the fireball at Twilight.

Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash saw this and ran to shield their friend crying “TWILIGHT!!!”

Before the fireball hit Twilight, beams of light came from each of the Elements worn by Twilight’s friends at intersected and dispelled the fireball as if nothing happened. However, the magic didn’t fully vanish only changed its form pulling the six together. Seeing Sunset utterly taken aback at this development. As the magic that pulled her friends into a circle around her, much like their first group photo, Twilight spoke up, “And the Element of Magic get’s its true power from the other Elements of Harmony; Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty. And it is with all these Elements together that true Magic is accomplished!” All the while the Elements of Harmony glowed as did the magic around Twilight and her friends. Once she finished the word ‘accomplished’ was finished, the Element of Magic seemed to fly of off Sunset’s head of its own will and lowered itself onto Twilight’s head. “The magic of Harmony.”

In that second the six’s eyes become fields of white and spoke in unison, “SUNSET SHIMMER!” their seventh announced as the six in their bubble rose to look down at Sunset, “YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO FORCE THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC TO BEND TO YOUR WILL! YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CHANGE THE HARMONY!” there was a pause as the six looked at Sunset, they didn’t see the demon she looked like, they saw a little girl, a girl that felt cheated after pouring so much of her life into something, a girl that had the same expectations Twilight had placed on her by others, but many more she foolishly placed on herself and cracked up it all. They didn’t see a monster, only a girl on the edge, desperately clinging, a soul on the verge of being lost. “PREPARE YOURSELF FOR YOUR JUDGEMENT!” was all they said as a rainbow much like the one that struck Nightmare Moon jettisoned from the six and struck Sunset forcing her to the ground.

Once the rainbow and the magic dispelled, the six were back on their feet and the only signs of the skirmish aside from Flash starting to recover and the ashen remains of the Rustlers was an unconscious Sunset once again human, but her clothes were tattered and she was covered with scuffs, scrapes, and bruises. “What the actual…” Rainbow swiftly devolved into random groans and grumps and mutterings as she pulled at her hair. She then roared as she grabbed her bow and walked towards Sunset. “That’s it!”

“Rainbow, don’t! The Elements knew what they were doing!” Twilight tried to stop the elementalist as she took her bow and manifested an arrow with one purpose.

Looking down at Sunset aimed and drew back the ‘string’ all the way to her ear. “The Rainbow tasted you, it’s time it returned the favor.”

“I WON’T LET YOU HURT HER ANYMORE!” came a roaring voice that bore a level of authority that matched the sun’s power as Princess Celestia teleported to be right next to the unconscious pyromancer, shielding her from Rainbow Dash’s bow with her wing. In a panic, Rainbow Dash leaped into the air and flew as far back as she could. “ALL OF YOU GET BACK!” Celestia roared, not unlike a mother bear as she conjured a ring of sun quality plasma and used it to force everyone else back. No one was injured, but it was way too close for anyone’s comfort. As everyone was a fair distance away, Celestia kneeled down placed her right hand on Sunset’s left cheek. She then turned to look at everyone else around her, “I can’t lose another one! Not one so young! I can’t bury her! I won’t let you, any of you, take her away from me! Not this one!” She then looked back down at Sunset and whispered, “Not again, never again.”

“What is she talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked while everyone both recovered from Celestia’s outburst and tried to process what the solar demigoddess meant. “It’s not like…”

“Mama…” Sunset said weakly as she began to phase into and yet also out of consciousness.

“Yes, my sunshine, it’s me.” Celestia whispered as held Sunset’s face with both of her hands, “I’m here.”

“Mo…” Sunset started as her vision began to return somewhat erratically and saw a woman with metallic sun-themed wings on her back, violet eyes and implausibly floating hair in a white gown.

Yet she didn’t finish as Celestia moved her right hand to hold Sunset’s left cheek in the palm. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know how much I love you, So please don’t my sunshine away.” Celestia shedding a few tears as she sang. When she finished the song as she pulled Sunset into a maternal embrace

“I am so...Mama… can you...” Sunset then, for the first time in so long broke down and cried. “Mama!”

Predictably the onlookers were very much confused, Twilight having gotten such a great shock that it seemed as if a light breeze could tip her over should it blow through the area, granted the reasons for their states of shock were entirely different from each other. “Ahem.” Cinch coughed as she stepped forward. “Princess Celestia.”

Celestia got back to her feet and turned to face Cinch, both gave a slight scowl, neither were really pleased to meet each other, but they both knew how to put up the facade of working together peacefully, “Baroness Cinch, you’re looking well, I am sorry about your late husband.”

Cinch took off her glasses and cleaned them with a cloth she had in one of her pockets, “May we dispense with the pleasantries,” both leaders knew that Cinch was electing to cut to the chase. Once the glasses were cleaned and placed back on, “What pray tell brings you here?”

Celestia gave a sigh before she answered, she had hoped that Cinch’s stance with her had softened over the years, but it didn’t surprise or shock her that the Baroness was a cold as ever, “I am here for my children.”

“It should be expected that you play fast and loose with that word, ‘princess’,” Cinch commented clearly not amused by how fast and lose Celestia uses certain terms. "If you wish to take your newest ‘equal’, and her ladies-in-waiting, go right ahead, but for Lady Shimmer’s…”

“Life imprisonment in Stonlingrad,” Celestia said almost too fast, cutting Cinch off. Cinch was taken aback, Stonlingrad was almost impossible to get out of, most of the inmates sentenced to life there died within a year with the exception of Nightshade the disgraced Wonderbolt. If Celestia was offering this, it could come out her nation’s revenue, something the taxpaying subjects would object to on principle, “At my expense.” Celestia finished, seeing Cinch ponder and knowing what gave the baroness pause.

“And should she be pardoned of her crimes in Mystica, that doesn’t translate here, however, if a convincing enough argument can be made, I might agree to commute the sentence.” Cinch was not agreeing, merely stating some of her own terms to this negotiations. Celestia knew that as well, she had dealt with other political powers in various places around the world to be foolish to assume that the deal was set.

“I do suppose that if we were to agree to any commuting of Sunset’s sentence, it would behoove us to have stronger ties.” Celestia knew better than to actually make the first offer in this regard, but she knew she had to be the to set the stage, she had ruled a continent-wide nation for the better part of a millennium on her own.

Cinch, also knew better to make the offer too, but she also knew Celestia could run out the clock, she, on the other hand, could not. Knowing she would have to make the first actual pitch, “Perhaps we start with a small retinue of the ESM, for training purposes at the least.”

Celestia knew it was only a start, but having a support garrison only goes so far, a lot of Mystica’s relationships with its allies was strongly re-enforced with trade, “And it would benefit us both more if we were to start trading goods more directly. There is a portal that leads to the greater area of the domain from Mystica, which can be moved to the Chantalot marketplace, and very likely adjust this side’s entrance to be much closer.”

“Although it would erroneous to leave it unprotected if it were to be left open indefinitely. Perhaps the retinue would be best stationed there, a short flight for any Skyborn and realistic distance for teleportation spells for Magicborns, of course, one or two members of the garrison actually residing at Midnight Castle on rotation.” Cinch suggested.

Celestia knew Cinch was about to accept the offer the deal, but she also knew she had to be the one to make the final pitch, it was nature of the beast, “We can start building tomorrow.”

Cinch gave a small grin, Celestia knew the deal was accepted, but there was still one more song and dance. Cinch’s smile faded and “Miss Montagne,”

“Yes, Baroness.”

“Get a quill and parchment, Princess Celestia and I have a treaty to write up.” As Juniper went to fetch the items in question. “Oh and make sure the injured parties currently not en route to the infirmary are escorted to it and see to that they are treated on your way.”

“Of course, Baroness,” Juniper said as she and a handful of guards led Twilight, Sunset, and Flash to the castle’s infirmary.

The following day, after as the garrison's construction was underway, before the portal was opened for Twilight and her friends’ return to Mystica, Celestia having taken Sunset the afternoon before to be replaced by a century of the ESM who were currently constructing the garrison with some help from the locals, Twilight found Flash sitting down on a log, he was on his break, she elected to join him. They sat in silence for a few seconds, Twilight had no idea what to say or where to start. If Flash was going to be assigned here indefinitely then, “It sucks, doesn’t?” Flash asked breaking the silence, after assessing what kept Twilight herself silent.

“Yeah, being so far apart, even with your letters or if the other end was put in Magiville…” Twilight trailed off. She never fully grasped that being in love while young could be so hard until this moment.

Twilight then felt her right hand being gripped and squeezed tenderly. She looked up to see Flash had turned to face her. “I don’t like it either. But unless something happens and I am somehow stationed much closer to Magiville, as if Shining would elect to reactivate the old Everfree Keep, we’ll only be chasing a dream.” Both dipped their heads and looked away. “For what it might be worth, if anything, I will always be your devotee for the rest of my life.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s worth a lot,” Twilight said as tears slowly started to form in the corners of her eyes. She soon felt her face being held by both of Flash’s hands as he dried her tears with his thumbs.

“I know I just said we’ll only be chasing a dream, but if you would let me, I really want to see if I can catch it.” Flash leaned in, closing his eyes, and kissed Twilight.

Twilight, however, pushed him back, “I am sorry, I can’t…” she was starting to cry as she ran to meet up with the others to head back home. Flash could only sigh as he too got up from the log, he had to get back to the construction. After about ten minutes, Twilight arrived at the portal to see her friends waiting for her along with the Shadowbolts to see them off.

“If you want to, you can visit Magiville, I think I find the perfect rabbit for you.” Fluttershy offered. “Angel… he’s not a good fit for you.”

“Yeah. Although I might need a stronger pet, got a bear.”

“I think Harry might have a friend that will get along with you.”

There were a few other conversations between Twilight’s friends and the Shadowbolts. “Well, we best be going.” Twilight interrupted the group.

“Well, Sugarcoat, maybe wah can have a rematch sometime.” Offered Applejack

“If what my father said about sporting events in Mystica is true, there will be the Mystica Games at the end of the tail end of the summer and start of the fall. I think that would be an adequate time and place for a rematch.”

“Deal.” and the truenamer and paladin shook hands. There were several more arrangements setups between the rest of the Shadowbolts and the Rainbooms, but it was time for them to go. They had a train to Magiville to catch. After one more farewell, the six young women and Spike left.

Once back in Chantalot, finding that the mirror was moved from deep within the castle’s depths to Twilight’s room during her stay, Spike was once again a dragon, “I am glad to be back here, and a dragon again, so next stop home...” Spike continued on as he walked out followed by all but Twilight.

Twilight lingered for a couple of seconds, “Goodbye Flash.” she whispered as she shed one more tear.

The following day, after Twilight et al returned to Magiville and a little over a week before the Summer Sun Celebration, Twilight was going over her books, mostly on the wing anatomy of non-Skyborn fliers, namely harpies and the rare but still occasional half-human-half-harpy hybrids known as kestels. There almost nothing on demigods in her own collection and that which already belonged to the Magiville library. Finding little that seemed helpful in the book she just finished reading she levitated it and stuck her tongue out blowing raspberries as a disgruntled child. At that moment she heard the Golden Oak front door open and slam shut followed by Pinkie Pie shouting, “OH COME ON YOU’RE NEW IN TOWN, I HAVE TO THROW A PARTY FOR YOU!”

Twilight sighed as she walked down stair to see who the poor unfortunate soul was that thought the Golden Oak was going to offer sanctuary to anyone running from a Pinkie Pie Welcome Party. As she got far enough down to see who else was there. “Captain Sentry of the Everfree Keep Garrison reporting for duty, your highness,” Flash said with a bow.

Twilight couldn’t contain herself and dove at Flash forcing the two to open the library door and out of the library. As she cuddled Flash, brushing against his neck and under his chin like a happy kitten, she even purred, “Um...maybe you got all the welcoming you need… I’ll go and throw the party for the rest of the barracks,” Pinkie said as she side-stepped away from the scene.

“I can get used to us bumping into each other like this.” Flash joked as he returned the embrace.

Epilogue

Around the same time, Celestia stood in front of Sunset’s cell in Stonlingrad. The cell itself use to be Nightshade’s, “I was a terrible mother.” Celestia started, blaming herself for how things turned out, as she placed her right hand on the clear barrier between her and Sunset, clearly wanting to actually embrace her long lost child.

“Not always,” Sunset commented as she placed her left hand on the clear barrier between the two inline with Celestia’s right hand as if to return the embrace. “But even when you were at your worst, I can’t say you were a bad mom, you had a continental-wide nation to rule, no matter how much you delegated, you always had your hands full.”

Celestia could barely hold back her tears, “That doesn’t change what happened between us, my daughter.” Celestia then gave a sigh full of grief before she continued. “I don’t want to see you here.”

“You’re still the reigning princess… well technically you’re more of an empress, but yeah, but I am not above the law.”

Celestia had a thought, it was a way for her daughter to be free, but it was foolish, risky and had an extremely low likelihood of her seeing Sunset alive again, but the thought of her daughter wasting away… “Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead use to have this policy where people convicted of crimes would perform acts that ran the risk of death for the state and have those acts count towards their sentence.”

“Like some sorta suicide squad?” Sunset asked as she raised an eyebrow

“No, something worse,” Celestia gave a downtrodden look to the young pyromancer, “they would send them out on a quest that they were sure was either was certain to fail or had an objective they knew full well couldn’t be completed. A task that goes beyond a fool’s errand, an endless mission. But many of that day had a different name for it, they called a ‘suicidal quest’, it was something terrible, something Luna and I never wanted to see again.” Celestia stopped as she looked at the floor, she couldn’t hide the tears that were starting to form in the corners of her eyes. “And now, in order to give a chance at continuing to live, I have to revive it.”

“That’s not a bad way to go,” Sunset lied, “so, give me the impossible quest. If memory serves, you, Luna, your protege and her friends have done the impossible before. What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t try to live up to the example my mother set?” That brought a bittersweet smile to Celestia. “I admit, I let my ambition get in the way and drive me in a direction that dragged your example through the mud, but if doing an impossible quest is the only way to even come close to cleaning it then I’ll do it, no matter how long it actually takes, then I’ll take on the challenge. Besides if my older sister and my kid sister can become demigods, so can I,” Celestia freeze, which went unnoticed by Sunset, “Not biologically of course, in spirit.” Sunset laughed at the idea, Cadance, Twilight and her; all three of them, sisters to each other, to her, a ridiculous notion. All the while not noticing a shift in Celestia’s eyes, before Celestia also chuckled. After the laugh, “I suppose you probably need to get going, you know getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration, it’s about a week away.”

Celestia gave a sad nod of acknowledgment. A thought crossed her mind, “Warden, jailer, left the barrier for a minute!” Celestia’s order rang and echoed but did not fall on deaf ears, reluctant and hesitant, but not deaf, the barrier rose and in a second, Celestia was holding Sunset like any other loving mother, “I love you, Sunset. I hope to see you on this side of the barrier soon.”

“Me too, Mom. Me too.” The two broke and the barrier was lowered. Reluctantly, Celestia left, there were various things she still needed to attend to. Sunset went back to her bunk, she looked at items in her cell, one was a book, the book that she used to communicate to Celestia, she opened it to her last entry, an entry full of rage, anger, hate, only to see that there was a response, many responses, almost half the rest of the tome’s worth, there were pleas of coming back, tear strained apologies, well wishings, updates on Twilight with hopes that if Sunset would come back, the older girl would help the prodigy with social skills, to challenge her as only a sempai can, how much Cadance missed her kohai, and so many others that Sunset skimmed through to see the last entry by Celestia which seemed to have been written two months ago, it was three simple words, ‘I love you’.

At the same time deep within Midnight Castle, Cinch, Juniper, and Sunny arrived in what appeared to be some sort of laboratory. With computing machines and a large cylinder in which was a bath of a clear liquid and an array of other experiments, such as but not limited to tesla coils providing power, “You have the blood samples from Princess Twilight and Lady Shimmers?” Cinch asked Juniper.

“Yes… Baroness.” Juniper said as she took out of her satchel a collection of multiple test tubes each full of blood. “I also have samples from Twilight’s champion and the rest of her group. Although I still don’t know why I had to collect all these, I thought the samples from the Shadowbolts was enough,” she pointed out as Cinch accepted all the samples and took them to a machine right next to the cylinder.

“My sisters and I were born and raised here, not in Mystica and none of us have achieved a state like Twilight or Sunset. In addition, Mystica has been nurtured by the presence of a demigod for a thousand years as their ruler, image what we could be like with something more powerful.” Sunny commented, “Also, dearie, there is more than one way to beget a demigod.”

“So is this why you were permitted to side with Sunset, to get samples of all their blood, to make a demigod? But what about the whole Elements of Harmony thing?” Juniper asked still not following.

“How else could I get Sunset’s help, dearie?” Sunny asked as if Juniper could not see the obvious. “Also with the small tamperings I was able to impose on the Elements Lemon, Indigo, Sour and I were able to still enabled to have Sunset actually tap into power at the heart of the Elements, granted it turned her into a demon, but you need some darkness to balance the light.”

“However, all this was only part of it. The other main reason I allowed all this was to make an alliance with Mystica. And with a support garrison here...” Cinch stopped as she looked to Juniper as if leading the secretary to her reasoning.

Juniper thought for a moment, “they have a vested interest in maintaining your or Sunny’s sovereignty and will have to fight alongside us should any of our external threats invade. And with Longhorn killed and Sunset incarcerated in Mystica, there no more domestic threats,” Juniper then looked to Sunny Flare, “aside from...possibly Sunny… maybe revolting. Please forgive my lack of tact.” She said as she hid her face behind her notepad.

Sunny and Cinch looked at each other and rolled their eyes ever so slightly, “Regardless, soon we will have the ultimate weapon…” Cinch said as the three turned to witness the machine finished processing the samples and soon something was released into the cylinder.

A zygote.

Meanwhile just near the coast closest to Midnight Castle, what looked like three stars fell into the water from the heavens. Within four seconds three female voices were heard singing fainting at first, barely able to get over the waves bashing on the shore, “Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh.”

At the same time, deep in the Everfree Forest, in a cave under the Castle of the Two Sisters a crystalline tree was surrounded black thorny vines, in fact, they were actually wrapping around the tree.

Author's Note

Well, that concludes 'The Lost Student', and a year since I finished My Little Mages: The Revenge of Nightmare Moon

This has been a longer ride than I expected when I started, much like with My Little Mages: The Phantasm of Philanthropy

So we have the plundervines making their move now (go to My Little Mages: Weight of the Crown), Cinch is planning something very, very... well I can't say anymore.

:raritywink: .

Let's see what's nex...

"I will claim what should have been long ago!"

Tirek? O_O

"Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh, You didn't know that you fell,"

The Sirens? O_O

I have my work cut out for me. And that's not even Season 5... O_O

Well, hopefully, I will be much closer to the Season Eight finale this time next year than I am to the Season 7 finale (still unaired), well I am closer to season 7 finale than I was to the season 6 finale last year. :yay:

Well, see you all soon.