Friendship, Love, and Magic

Aurora’s eyes widened as she caught sight of the source of the flashing lights. Stars in the sky above, were not still as they should have been. In fact, the stars were rotating. “What the…?!” Aurora uttered as she watched the scene unfold before her. With every passing second, the stars spun faster and fast until it was impossible to differentiate the individual stars. The stars seemed to blend with the speed, forming rings around the sky. The stars glowed brightly as a beam of light formed from all of them. Aurora watched in horror as the beam of light shot down and toward Canterlot. Aurora gasped in horror as she knew exactly what it was, “Oh no…Prince Terrenus!”

Aurora was unable to process what she was watching. Prince Terrenus had indeed returned. She did not doubt that fact. As she tried to compose herself, she backed up and tripped over a potted plant leaning against the wall. As she fell to the ground with a grunt of pain, the pot fell over, making a loud thud against the wooden ground. Zephyr sprung up from her laying position and looked around in a daze. “Huh? What’s going on?” she exclaimed.

Aurora looked up at Zephyr’s dark figure for a moment before she got back on track and stood up. She quickly ran toward the door. She jumped down to the lower floor and burst through the door in desperation. Twilight jumped in surprise and turned to the door to her bedroom. The book she was putting away dropped to the ground as she stopped holding it up with her magic. Aurora breathed quickly in fear as she looked around in worry. Twilight placed a hoof on her chest and smiled nervously, “You scared me, Aurora. Is…everything okay?”

Aurora turned to the front door and quickly dashed toward it. Twilight watched in confusion as Aurora darted out the door. “Aurora?” Twilight said with a tilted head. By this time, Twilight had already seen her fair share of Friendship problems and had quite a good grasp on being able to tell when somepony is upset or distressed. Because of this, Twilight could tell that something was wrong as soon as Aurora galloped out the door. Zephyr entered the room, looking almost just as puzzled as Twilight. Twilight turned to Zephyr with a serious expression. “Is Aurora alright?” Twilight asked, hoping that Zephyr might have an answer.

Zephyr looked at Twilight, her puzzled expression confirmed immediately that she did not. Zephyr responded with a small chuckle, “I don’t know. She just kinda fell from the window and ran out of the room.”

“From the window?” Twilight questioned as she placed her hoof on her chin. “She must have seen something that made her react that way. But…what?”

As soon as Twilight finished speaking, Spike burst through the front door in haste. He looked at Twilight in worry as he spoke, “Twilight! Come quick! Something crazy is happening outside!”

Twilight and Zephyr turned and looked at each other with unsure expressions.

As she walked to the edge of Ponyville, Aurora came to a crowd of ponies, who were all looking forward in a state of confusion. Aurora’s eyes widened as she saw what the other ponies were looking at. In the valley that led up to Canterlot, a large structure, looking like it’s made up of black, spiked rocks slowly slid across the ground. As the structure slid toward Ponyville, it made a low, yet very loud, rumbling that echoed across the valley. “What the heck is that?” A pony wondered, turning to another.

“Haven’t got a clue,” A pony with a country accent responded.

Twilight Sparkle and Zephyr Spark approached behind Aurora as they finally caught up with her. Initially, they focused on Aurora, but soon their attention became transfixed on the large structure moving toward the town. Twilight’s eyes widened in worry, “What is THAT?!”

“Woah! Looks like a giant storm cloud!” Zephyr commented.

Aurora backed away as the words struggled to escape her mouth, “I-It’s…Prince…Terrenus!” Thoughts ran through Aurora’s head. She couldn’t make sense of it. Celestia told her that everything would be alright, so what happened? Aurora tried to calm herself and think of a plan.

“Prince…Terrenus? Who’s that?” Twilight questioned as she tilted her head in confusion. Though Twilight was very well educated in history, information on Prince Terrenus was scarce and she herself had never come across a source that spoke of the ancient ruler.

“I…he…” Aurora stuttered.

“Aurora, do you know what’s going on?” Twilight asked with a serious expression.

The moving structure came to an abrupt halt just fifty meters away from the front of the crowd. As the audience watched with a mix of fear and curiosity, two spires broke off of the side of the structure and fell to the ground, kicking dust up into the air. The spires attached to the base of the structure and locked it onto the ground. With a flash of gray smoke, a figure appeared on top of the spire. Ponies looked up in mixed emotions as a roar of deep laughter came from the figure. A pair of pegasus wings spread from the figure. With a couple of flaps, the figure used their wings to carry themself down and in front of the crowd of ponies, where they could get a good look at the figure.

It was a Pony. They were a tall stallion, with an iron-gray coat that with the dark of the night, looked as black as a void. On his head was spiky, dark green mane that flowed with dark sparkles of black. His eyes pierced through the ponies with daggers, giving great presence to their midnight blue color. Worn all over the stallion, is dark silver royal regalia with green gems. The group of ponies seemed to back up in sync as the presence was revealed. Everypony’s eyes widened as they noticed a defining feature of the pony. The pony smiled as he knew exactly why the ponies were staring in awe.

The stallion pushed his chest forward, giving presence to his well-built body, almost akin to that of a work pony. He spread his wings apart, showing off their tremendous size. And lastly, he raised his neck and head, drawing attention to the great and long horn on his head. “Your eyes do not deceive you,” he spoke in a low and terrifying voice. “Your gaze is indeed falling upon a true Alicorn!”

The crowd of ponies gasped as these words were spoken by the large stallion. Twilight was struck with confusion. “An Alicorn? That’s impossible! Princess Celestia and Luna should be the only Alicorns in all of Equestria!” Twilight said in disbelief.

The dark stallion laughed, “Unfortunately, you are mistaken. There is another Alicorn of Equestria. I…am Prince Terrenus!” The stallion looked around at the awe-struck ponies. The self-proclaimed prince smiled as he spoke his next words, “It comes with great satisfaction that I must inform you that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are no longer your rulers.”

“What?!” Many of the ponies exclaimed.

“That’s right,” Terrenus chuckled. “I have rid Equestria of the two sisters’ pitiful rule. From this moment forth, I am your ruler now!” Terrenus roared with laughter as he announced this to the ponies.

The ponies watched the laughing stallion, stricken with fear at his might. Ponies whispered and mumbled to each other, debating what the large figure means and if what he said is true. “That’s impossible!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. With a swift flap of her wings, she launched herself forward in the air and flew up to Terrenus. Terrenus’ laughter stopped as he looked at her with a confident smirk. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, stared into Terrenus’ eyes with anger. “You’re no ruler of ours! What did you do to the Princesses, huh? Tell me now or I’ll pummel it out of you!” Rainbow Dash shouted with a deadly serious tone.

“Oh, I haven’t harmed them…yet. I wouldn’t worry your pretty little hair about it…Rainbow Dash,” Terrenus responded as he continued to smirk at the rainbow-maned pony.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she was shocked at the fact that the alicorn knew her name. “What?!” Rainbow Dash trembled, and her confident demeanor faded for a moment. “How do you know my name?”

“I know all the names of the ponies who defeated Nightmare Moon,” Terrenus responded. “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and last but not least…Twilight Sparkle. I was watching, waiting, and observing from the stars. It is incredibly disappointing that the great Nightmare Moon was defeated by a group of mares wearing a few necklaces. But fortunately for me, it allowed me to hatch the perfect plan to make sure that what happened to her doesn’t happen to me!” With a devious smile, Terrenus stomped his front hoof onto the ground. With a light rumble, a spire made of rock sprouted from the ground and like a tether, quickly wrapped around Rainbow Dash’s body, capturing her.

Rainbow Dash was not quick to react, by the time she realized what was going on, she was already captured. “H-Hey!” Rainbow Dash growled as she wiggled her body in an attempt to escape. “Let go of me!”

Terrenus flapped his wings and flew up to Rainbow Dash’s level. His mouth curved to an even bigger smile than before as he placed his hoof upon Rainbow Dash’s chin. “I have taken your precious Elements of Harmony. Without them, you little ponies have no way of stopping me,” Terrenus said. He took his hoof off of Rainbow Dash’s chin, smacking it in the process. He turned to the rest of the ponies. “Now, nothing will stand in the way of my complete and total takeover of Equestria. Except for Sombra, but I’ll deal with him later. Now…KNEEL BEFORE ME!!! YOUR NEW RULER!!!”

Twilight scowled and stepped forward. She moved through the crowd and made her way to the front of it. It was one thing to do something to her mentor and princess. But it was a whole other thing to hurt her friends. “I don’t think so,” Twilight yelled toward Terrenus. Terrenus turned his attention to Twilight. He smirked as he realized just who it was that was speaking to him. “We won’t be bowing to you. Our rightful ruler is Princess Celestia.” As Twilight stood to confront the Prince, her friends joined her. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie came out of the crowd.

“Twilight Sparkle! Celestia’s prized student! So nice to finally meet you,” Terrenus stated humbly. “You’re quite the pony. Your intelligence is certainly a force to be reckoned with. I’m particularly impressed with how you pieced together what the spark for the Elements of Harmony was. Very well done.”

“Put Rainbow Dash down right now! Whatever you did to the Princesses, release them immediately!” Twilight demanded, ignoring Terrenus’ words. Twilight’s face softened into one of uneasiness as she realized that she had no way to make Terrenus listen. “Or-”

“-you’ll do what?” Terrenus laughed. “You don’t have the Elements of Harmony. You wouldn’t be able to find where I’ve hidden them even if you had a hundred moons! Sorry, but whether you like it or not, I am the new ruler of Equestria.” Terrenus stood tall and drew attention to his wings and horn once again to solidify his dominance among the weaker ponies in front of him. “Now, my little ponies,” Terrenus announced. “Kneel before your Prince!”

Twilight and her friends backed up in fear. They were unsure how to handle the situation. The group of friends turned their heads to look at Twilight for guidance, as she was the one who typically had the answer as to what to do in this situation. “What do we do, Twilight?” Applejack asked her friend in worry.

Twilight looked at Terrenus in stress. She hated not being able to come up with a plan. With the Elements of Harmony out of reach, she knew that there was no way that she, a unicorn pony (or anyone else for that matter), could stand up to Terrenus. Whether one wants to admit it or not, there is no denying that an alicorn is objectively perfect. An alicorn has far more magical potential and strength than any other common pony.

“Twilight? questioned Rarity. “You do have a plan, right?”

“I-I’m sorry. But…there’s nothing we can do. Without the Elements of Harmony, we have no way of standing up against an alicorn,” Twilight faltered. She backed up as she continued to look up at Terrenus with fear.

“So you understand that there’s no hope for my defeat? Even so, you’re too much of a danger to not deal with. Don’t take this personally, Twilight. But I can’t have you finding out something!” Terrenus said as he raised his neck upward. The tip of the alicorn’s horn began to glow with white light. With a smirk, Terrenus whipped his neck forward, shooting a beam of magic at Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she was unable to react. However, she was pushed out of the way just before the beam hit her. Twilight fell to the ground and quickly turned to see who shoved her. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaims.

Almost immediately after she was hit, Applejack’s body began to turn to stone quickly from the hooves up. Applejack turned to the friend she just saved with a worried expression. “Get outta here, Twilight! Hurry!” Applejack yelled just before her body was completely turned to stone.

Twilight quickly stood up. She looked at her now petrified friend. Twilight was unable to move, having just seen this happen to her friend. “A-Applejack,” Twilight uttered as tears began to form in her eyes.

Terrenus looked at the ponies with an unfocused gaze. “Huh, well that happened,” Terrenus spoke with a casual voice. Terrenus smiled as he prepared another beam of magic. “Oh well, won’t again!” Terrenus once again whipped his neck forward, blasting another beam at the unicorn mare.

“TWILIGHT!!!” screamed Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.

Twilight clenched her eyes shut and tilted her head away in preparation to be hit by the beam. “I’m sorry, Applejack!” Twilight thought to herself. Twilight expected that the next thing she would feel is the impact of the magical beam on her face. Instead, it was the feeling of somepony’s front legs wrapping around her. She opened her eyes and turned to see who it was as they tackled her down. It was Aurora Borealis. Aurora’s face was pale with fear and worry. Her horn glowed a cyan color, the typical color of her magic aura, as she cast a spell. Just before the two mares hit the ground, their bodies vanished. The beam crashed into the ground, turning a patch of it into stone.

Terrenus’ eyebrows raised as he saw the two vanish. “What the-?!” Terrenus blurted in confusion.

As Aurora fell onto Twilight, they were in a new location. Twilight gently opened her eyes to see Aurora’s face, contorted in pain, as she was slowly getting off of Twilight. Though Aurora was not the one who took the brunt of the fall, she looked as if she did. Twilight looked at Aurora in a moment of confusion. Her mind went blank for a moment as she uttered, “Aurora…?”

Aurora stood up and panted in exhaustion. She clenched her eyes shut and placed a hoof on her head. Twilight finally snapped out of it and her eyes started to dart back and forth at her surroundings. The last thing she knew, she was about to be hit by Prince Terrenus’ beam of magic. But now, she was safe and somehow away from danger. “Wh-What happened?” Twilight stuttered, almost at a loss for words.

Aurora responded, with a hampered voice, “I wanted to act sooner. But…I didn’t want to do anything too rash. I’m sorry, if I did something earlier, your friend wouldn’t have been…” Aurora’s voice faded as she stopped speaking. She was still trying to catch her breath.

Twilight stood up and turned to Aurora with a shocked face. “You saved me with a teleportation spell?” Twilight asked. Her voice hinted at a bit of admiration but was otherwise drowned out by the very apparent shock in it.

Aurora’s breathing slowed and became more stable as she prepared to speak. “Yeah, learned it a couple of years ago. I didn’t study it much though, thought it was moot at the time,” Aurora responded.

Twilight looked around. Her eyes landed on her library. She walked a bit forward as she looked at the structure. “The library,” Twilight spoke to no one in particular.

Aurora quickly sprinted toward the library. “Quick! we have to get in,” she said in haste.

“Right,” Twilight agreed as she followed behind Aurora.

One inside the library, the pair of mares were quick to close and lock the door. They sighed contently as they were now, at least relatively, safe. As they turned toward the inner part of the room, they gasped in synchronization. Standing in the center of the main room was Blossom Night. She stared at the two mares with a serious glare. “Blossom Night!” Twilight spoke up. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw what was happening outside,” Blossom Night responded. “I was out of the loop when Nightmare Moon attacked. I wanted to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” Blossom analyzes the two mares and their state of panic. “By the look of things, you two know what’s going on. Judging by your expressions, it must be something bad.”

Aurora opened her mouth to speak up. But before she could, she was interrupted by something slamming into the window with a loud thud. The three ponies in the tree house turned to the window in fear. “Oh no!” Aurora said. “He found us!” Before the ponies could discuss what to do, they heard a sound from outside.

“OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW!!!” something, or some pony, howled from outside. The three ponies’ ears perked up quickly as they recognized that voice.

“Hold on a moment…is that?” Twilight questioned as she tilted her head. Blossom was quick to act as she walked to the door and opened it.

“Blossom! No!” Aurora shrieked.

“It’s okay,” Blossom said as she reached her hoof forward. She quickly pulled somepony into the view of the other ponies. It was Zephyr Spark. “It’s just this featherbrain.

Blossom quickly pulled the pony into the library and shut the door. The three ponies quickly circled Zephyr as she seemed unwell. Zephyr’s eyes twirled around as she was incredibly dazed. Zephyr chuckled, “Eheheh, sorry everypony. Back at Cloudsdale, the windows are all just openings in the house. So I’m used to just flying right through them.”

“You nearly scared us to death, Zephyr. How’d you know we were here?” Blossom said.

Zephyr shook her head to get her out of her dazed state. She looked at Blossom and smiled. “I didn’t know where you were. I just came back here for a nap because I didn’t know what else to do,” Zephyr explained as she walked out of the small circle of ponies. She turned to Twilight with excitement. “So who was that Terrenus guy? Does he come around often?”

“Weren’t you listening to a single thing he was saying?” Aurora grumbled.

Zephyr turned to Aurora with a continued smile. “Nuh-uh.”

Twilight turned her attention to Aurora and gave a serious look. “Actually, I’m sure we would all like to know what was going on there. You seemed to know,” Twilight said.

“What?!” Aurora said as she backed up.

“You ran out of the library. You knew about Terrenus, didn’t you?” Twilight said as she approached Aurora.

Blossom approached Aurora with an annoyed expression. “Yeah? Mind filling us in?” she asked.

Aurora looked wide-eyed at the three ponies, who had turned their complete attention toward her. Aurora looked down as she tried to come up with the precise words to explain the situation. With a deep sigh, Aurora proceeded to explain everything. “Before I here from Canterlot, I read a book about the history of Equestria. It was a book I had never seen before. It recounted a different history than other books. It said that one thousand years ago, there were in fact, actually three alicorn rulers. Celestia, the Princess of the Sun; Luna, the Princess of the Moon; and the final, Terrenus, the Prince of the Earth.” Aurora turned away from the other ponies before she continued. “Prince Terrenus had planned to take over Equestria. But…he was stopped by Princess Celestia. She used some things called the Unity Gems to banish him into the stars.”

“Unity Gems?” Twilight said as she rubbed her chin. “I’ve never heard of those. What are they?”

“I second that,” Blossom said.

Aurora responded, “I’m not sure. I couldn’t find any more information on them.”

Twilight looked down and tried to think of what they could do. “Without the Elements of Harmony, we have no way of combating Terrenus,” she said as she looked up at Aurora and gave a smile of cautious optimism. “But if we can find these ‘Unity Gems’, maybe we’ll have a chance.”

“Yeah, but who knows where we could find them?” Blossom commented.

“Why don’t we just look for a book?” Zephyr suggested with a cute smile.

“We aren’t gonna find a book like that just lying around,” Aurora asserted as she waved her hoof to disregard the pegasus pony’s suggestion. “Information on the Unity Gems is scarce enough as it is.”

Twilight’s face perked up as she remembered something. “Perhaps there IS a book just lying around,” she said.

Aurora is surprised by this. She leaned forward and asked, “What makes you think that?”

Twilight walked toward one of the many rows of shelves that hold the hundreds of books contained in the library. She stopped at the row labeled with the letter ‘U’ and began looking through the books. “When Nightmare Moon appeared, my friends and I easily found a book that gave us information on the Elements of Harmony and where to find them. So maybe we can also find a book on the Unity Gems just as easily,” Twilight said. As she scanned through the books, she finally pulled one out with her magic. “Aha! Here we go!” she announced as she looked at the title of the book. “The Unity Gems: The Great Treasure of Equestria!”

“You…actually found a book?!” Aurora queried with speculative eyes.

With a smile, Twilight responded, “Apparently so.”

Twilight opened the book and used her magic to pass it on to Aurora. Aurora’s horn glowed cyan as she held the book with her magic. As she flipped through the pages, her expression became more and more shocked. “This…this is it!” she said with a half smile. The other three ponies proceeded to surround her, waiting for her to read it.

“Well? What does it say?” Blossom asked with a tilted head.

Aurora flipped to a page and proceeded to read it out for them. “The Unity Gems. Known as the Great Treasure of Equestria. This trio of gems existed within Equestria long before the arrival of ponies. With the exception of the Elements of Harmony, these three Gems are the most powerful ancient artifacts known to ponykind. Each one possesses the magic of the three pony races. The three gems are The Earth Sapphire, The Pegasus Topaz, and the Unicorn Ruby. The power of each gem can only be used when it's charged by the source of it's magic. After usage, the three gems will separate and spread across the entirety of Equestria. The last known usage of them was by Princess Celestia when she used them to defeat the evil Prince of the Earth, Terrenus.”

Blossom rolled her eyes as she was growing impatient. “Okay, that’s all well and good. But where can we FIND them?”

Aurora looked up at Blossom and then back at the book. She flipped to the next page and found exactly where it told of their location. She proceeded to read out, “After the usage of the Unity Gems, to pay respects to the banished Prince, she left the gems in Prince Terrenus’ castle, which is located in…” Aurora paused and looked up. “...the Badlands.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “The badlands?” she questioned to make sure she wasn’t hearing things. “You mean we have to venture all the way over there to get them?”

Aurora closed the book. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down in thought. “There’s no guarantee that they’ll actually be there after all this time. But we have to check anyway,” she said. She turned to Twilight. Twilight’s expression turned to one of determination as she nodded to Aurora.

“Then we better get going,” Blossom said as she started walking toward the door.

Aurora shook her head at Blossom. “I think it would be best if Twilight and I went alone.”

“Oh heck no!” Blossom said. She had turned back to Aurora with incredible speed. “I’m not gonna just stand by and do nothing. I’m going with you guys. You could use an extra hoof.” Blossom slammed her hoof into the ground and smirked. “Especially a hoof such as mine.”

“No, Blossom-” Aurora started before she was cut off.

Zephyr jumped in front of Blossom with a resolute smile. “I’m coming too!” she announced.

“You too, Zephyr?” Twilight questioned.

Zephyr nodded rapidly. “I wanna be helpful! And it could be fun,” she cheered as she closed her eyes and smiled. Blossom knocked her hoof into Zephyr’s head. “Ouchie!” Zephyr yelped. She looked up at Blossom with a raised eyebrow. “Hey! What was that for?”

“It ain’t about fun, featherbrain. We’re trying to save Ponyville here. Or in fact, we’re trying to save all of Equestria,” Blossom snapped.

Twilight nodded. “It’s settled then! We’ll all go!”

Normally, Aurora would completely object to bringing along a pegasus and earth pony. They would normally get in the way, considering that magic was required in this endeavor. However, she thought of the fact that these two ponies could use magic. They could prove to be useful. Aurora looked up at the other ponies with a determined, yet nervous expression and said, “We need to leave soon before Terrenus finds out where we are.” The other three ponies nodded as they prepared to set off.

To Be Continued…