She’d put it off long enough. Two days was all she’d managed before they finally just… came over. Now they knew. All of her friends, including Trixie, knew about Arcane. He was none to happy about it.

“So this is the stallion that was with Celestia huh?” Rainbow asked, flying slowly around the silently fuming unicorn. “Pretty nice colors. The white, red and blue mane and tail stand out against the dark grey coat.”

“Nice? Darling, his coat is a marvelous shade of slate gray. I would love to design an outfit for him for the Gala. That is, if the gentle stallion would allow me the chance to measure him.” Rarity said and he finally took his eyes off of Twilight to smile at the unicorn mare. At least Twilight hoped it was a smile. That mask hid everything.

“Of course Miss Rarity. It would be my pleasure to model for your designs.” he said and Twilight had to watch as most of her friends all but swooned. The only ones who remained unaffected by his voice alone being Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“Your voice is so gorgeous darling. Tell me you sing from time to time. You must be a bass. At least a low baritone.” Rarity said and he nodded.

“You would be correct. My mother is Violet Aria. Singing is in my dna.” Applejack whistled.

“Violet’s mighty popular round these parts. Real good country singer but she does do some opera sometimes.” she said and he nodded.

The introductions went relatively smoothly. Twilight’s friends asking him questions about his past during his training. Starlight needling him about the mask, which he shrugged off easily. Rainbow eventually asked him to take it off and Twilight froze.

She hadn’t seen him without it on. Even when he slept, and she’d managed to follow him to his room at least once to see him take it off. She pretended to scold Rainbow, Rainbow actually flinching back a little when Twilight yelled, but her eyes were on Arcane. She wanted to see it too. She went silent when his horn lit, and the clasps of his mask were undone. Would he really take it off? Just like that? Simply because someone asked him too? The bottom of the mask came lose and they all turned as he took it off. There were no marks on his muzzle, no marring features they could see. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“That’s it? So… do you just like wearing the…?” the question went unfinished as he drew his lips back in a pantomime of a snarl. His teeth, from his canines to his molars, were razor sharp. A squeak from Fluttershy and the false snarl disappeared as the shy yellow mare dove under her rainbow maned friend. Twilight took note for a moment that the eyepatch stayed on before turning to Fluttershy.

“It’s ok Fluttershy. He’s still a pony. He’s just… different from us. That’s normal.” Twilight said and Fluttershy looked at him for a moment before crawling out from under Rainbow.

“That’s impressive, but there was somethin’ else Princess Celestia said ‘bout you. Ya make Twilight look like she’s still in magic kindergarten?” Applejack asked and he looked at her as he put his mask back on.

“An exaggeration. Twilight is former barer of the Element of Magic. The Elements of Harmony wouldn’t have chosen her as that element’s barer if there were a pony stronger.”

“Still, Ah think we should see ya use some o that magic.” Applejack said and he stared at her for a moment before nodding and turning away, walking away from them a fair bit. They had started to follow him at first until remembering what he was about to do.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. His horn lit and everything was normal. Then gravity was suddenly pulling everything towards the ground. Even Rainbow hit the dirt pretty hard and immediately went to her knees. Twilight looked around and realized it wasn’t gravity. It was air pressure. He had increased the air pressure by a very significant amount in the span of half a second.

Just as quickly as it had gone up, it was back to normal. The air pressure was normal again. But now it was boiling hot. Applejack stood and fanned herself off with her hat, Rainbow using her wings to blow cool air on the other ponies. Twilight’s horn lit to keep herself cool, Rarity doing to the same and the effect spread to the other mares present as soon as Starlight’s horn lit as well.

Suddenly it was too cold for the cooling spells. Their magic snapped off immediately as the temperature dropped rapidly. Normally, a sudden rise and sudden fall in temperature like this would mean heat stroke or frost bite. But it wasn’t that it was cold. Twilight and the others quickly realized that they weren’t cold. They were drenched. The air temperature had returned to normal but suddenly there was a mist so fine yet thick that they were soaked through to the bone.

They were just about to dry themselves off when the moisture in the air disappeared and was replaced by rapidly moving air currents all around them, blowing at them from every direction at once. They were being air dried where they stood.

The air went back to normal, as did their coats and manes. They were suddenly invigorated, ready to take on the world. Twilight wanted to go back to the castle, go straight to the library, and reorganize the entire library by alphabet. From the looks on her friends faces, they felt it too.

Everything went back to normal within a blink of an eye and Twilight looked at Starlight. The entire time, she hadn’t taken her eyes off of Arcane. His horn had been lit through each change. Every time something had changed, his magic had changed color and a section of his cutie mark had lit up, as if fueling his magic.

“I’m sure that’s not enough to really show you what I can do, but it’s a taste.” he said and the mares all stared at him for a moment before Starlight’s eyes went wide. Trixie seemed to come to the exact same conclusion at the exact same time.

“You can control the Elements.” Starlight said and he nodded. Twilight had to think for a moment. He couldn’t possibly control the Elements of Harmony, they chose their barers and they were sealed within the Tree of Harmony to prevent the spread of the Everfree Forest. Then it clicked.

She remembered reading somewhere about other elements. “Five Elements of Nature. The element of water, which heals the wounded and gives sustenance to the land. The element of earth, which grants stability of mind and foundation to thought. The element of wind, which guides change through the land and offers clarity of mind. The element of fire, which grants life and restoration to the soul. The element of Spirit, the most powerful of all, housing the very being of all who live on this plane.”

They had just witnessed a single stallion command all five of the Elements of Nature. She watched him for a moment before noticing something. He was shaking. He still stood on his hooves, but his legs were shaking. His chest was also moving quite a bit more rapidly than before and his horn was smoking. It took her a second to realize what she was looking at before she teleported over to him just before he collapsed. She’d seen magic overheat before, experienced it herself. She knew the signs.

His head hit her back just as his body hit the ground and she dropped with him. Rather to cushion the blow than let him pass out and possibly hurt himself. Her friends joined her a second later, all of them concerned for him.

Four hours later, Arcane finally woke up, a carrot stick in his mouth. “Overheat?” he asked, and Twilight nodded. “Bad?”

“Not really. You pushed yourself to show us your magic and it made you pass out.” Rainbow said, hovering nearby, close to the ground. He crunched into the carrot while looking around at them. They’d only taken off his muzzle. His eye was still covered. “Twilight said you might need something to eat when you woke up, so AJ ran back to the farm and grabbed some things.” she said and he looked at the banquet of food on the table near him.

Apple tarts, apple pies, apple bread, even cider and a few other apple-based foods. Looking at them reminded him of the first time he’d overheated. His mother had brought him a slice of pumpkin pie with a pile of whipped cream covering the whole thing, half of a whole carrot cake, a barrel full of his favorite drink, and five sub sandwiches he was certain she’d made herself. “Thank you.” he said as he picked up an apple tart and bit into it.

They all watched him as he froze, the apple tart still in his mouth. “Oh shoot… ah did somethin’ wrong didn’t I? Yer allergic t’ apples. Dang it, Ah shoulda…”

“No… no it’s… it’s fine.” he said and they all looked at him. He knew his voice sounded choked, like he was fighting something back. “I’m not allergic to apples. Just remembering.”

His mother used to make the best apple tarts.

Author's Note

Dun, dun, dun? Some back story, as well as a show of incredible magical power. Might have jumbled up a bit, with the "is" at the start in reference to Arcane's mom and then the "used to" at the end, also in reference. It wasn't a flub, I promise, it's on purpose. Ya'll are gonna have to wait until a later chapter to find out.