The Hidden Student

Mystery walked upstairs, leading the ponies- many of them ready to act if he pulled something funny on them. He opened a door up on top of the stairs to reveal a library of books assorted neatly up against walls- hundreds of books, possibly more than what Twilight even had in her home. It was the center of the ‘library’ though that caught the ponies attention. A large purple bubble with dark purple lightning lines on the insides of it- inside the bubble was none other than

Celestia, her horn glowing and her eyes shut as she was trying to work with her magic.

“Princess Celestia!” All of the ponies, and spike, shouted, breaking her concentration to see them.

“Girls!” she said, though not as happy as she could have been. “Mystery, don’t get them involved in this.” She said, looking to the gray pony.

“Predictable,” Mystery mumbled, the doors slamming shut behind the ponies as he walked up next to the bubble Celestia was in and turned to the six. “I knew the elements of harmony would come to you Celestia. Plus, with the element of truth, she would have very well known if I had lied about holding you here.”

“Predict this!” Rainbow Dash shouted and suddenly took off in the air, aiming for a dive at Mystery. Mystery’s horn only glowed for a moment as suddenly Rainbow’s wings took the shape of barbells- a small tiny piece of iron where her wings once were connected with the outside of the wings nothing more than two large balls with ‘100’ on each of them, sending Rainbow Dash to a sudden stop in the air- and crashing down hard on the ground.

“Rainbow Dash!” The other ponies shouted, all of them then looking right at Mystery seeing Rainbow Dash alright, but struggling to get up.

Of course, Pinkie couldn’t say anything, but her muffled voice made it obvious she was worried over her friends.

Twilight had to calm herself down though and worked her own magic, fixing Rainbow’s wings, and eventually Pinkies lips- turning them back to normal.

“OhmygoshthanksTwilightIcouldntbelievethispony-“ and then the zipper came right back on Pinkie’s mouth with a purple glow instead of a gray. Twilight simply whistled innocently.

“Honestly.” Mystery rolled his eyes with a sigh. “You need to expect some high profiled ponies to come.” He turned to Celestia, then back at the ponies again, mostly looking at Twilight. “Still, as it says in the note, Celestia has a promise to keep, and she’s not leaving until that happens. I advise you all to leave.”

“Not without our princess!” Twilight suddenly shot a beam of magic to hit the bubble Celestia was in, suddenly her beam vanished and a purple bolt shot out and struck her- sending her up in the air with her hair and mane sticking up on ends, then back down onto the ground, groaning.

“Spell number 1,236.” Mystery said with a shrug. “Luna’s spellbook.”

“Luna’s…I never got around to reading that far.” Twilight obtained her book with a flash of magic and browsed through the spells. “1,236- The magic lock places a ‘lock’ onto the activated spell, unless the proper code is given, the spell doesn’t break and it sends a bolt of lightning out at the one who tried to break it.”

Celestia nodded. “I’ve been trying to break it as much as I can, but it’s simply too complex. I can’t break it alone. It's filled with dark magics that I haven't seen in thousands of years."

“She’ll come out as soon as she helps me.” Mystery said casually.

Twilight looked at Celestia, then at the girls behind her. “Alright Spike…hop down. Girls, it’s time to get serious.” She gave a smirk looking over at Mystery. “If you know the elements of harmony, then you must know their power combined with friendship.”

“mmmhmmmffhmm!” Pinkie said. With a sigh, Twilight let her mouth restore to normal once again. “You said it!” Pinkie said, with her voice free.

Twilight then closed her eyes and her tiara started to glow, along with the various girls necklaces- each of them started floating up and glowing white before Twilight’s eyes opened, completely white. With a flash, two rainbows shot out from on top of them and formed one giant rainbow, moving right to Mystery.

“But…I have an ace up my sleeve.” Mystery suddenly closed his eyes and shot back a beam just as large as the rainbow, a gray colored rainbow looking beam coming directly from his horn, colliding with the rainbow the girls had created. The rainbows clashed and moved back and fourth, fighting with each other. Twilight, with her glowing white eyes, grimaced and tried putting in more magic, but it went no farther than it already had gone. With another flash coming from the two rainbows ends, suddenly they both swirled upwards together, hitting the ceiling and dissipating, the glow from the girls fading, as well as Mystery’s own horn.

Twilight blinked a few times to recover from the ordeal she just did, staring at Mystery with her eyes wide. “The power of friendship…it didn’t…it didn’t do anything?!” she shouted, backing away from him.

“There are things STRONGER than the power of friendship.” Mystery said with a grin on his face, suddenly four metal beams shot out of the ground surrounding the heroes, the beams folded into an arc to attach to each other at the top and a bubble, much like Celestia’s own, surrounded them. “You should know, if you TRULY read the book.”

Twilight was dumbfounded; her ears fell to the side of her head. “N-no…nothing is…”

“Then explain what I just did if you’re so intelligent! Pah- ‘friendship’ strength is nothing compared to the power of family.”

“The power of…family?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.” Celestia answered for Mystery. “The power of family can be as strong, or stronger, than the power of friendship I’m afraid. You see, he didn’t capture me just for him.”

Mystery cut in. “I captured her for my little brother as well. She’s going to give BOTH of us our marks on our flanks. That was her promise.” There was other reasons behind his purpose for capturing her, much more how he was able to accomplish such a feat in the first place, but he said nothing more.

“I can’t give you the marks Mystery. I said I knew some ponies that could help you out. If you just met me at the Gala-“

“I WAS AT THE GALA!” Mystery shouted at the top of his lungs. “Just ask your sister! YOU never showed up! YOU never came to help me! And now, YOU are going to give me and my brother our marks, I don’t care if you say you can’t, I guess that just means you’re going to be trapped here with your ‘elements of harmony’ UNTIL I GET IT!”

The rest of the ponies, along with Twilight, were looking downright depressed. The power of friendship was useless against Mystery’s plan- what COULD they do against it? Each of them felt helpless.

Spike though, was trying to cheer Twilight up. “Come on Twilight…you can beat him!”

“No Spike…” Twilight shook her head. “The power of friendship is the strongest spell I have. If he can beat that…then…I can’t do anything.”