Supernova

Twilight Sparkle and her friends stood within the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Each pony in the group wore a gold necklace around her neck. In the center of each necklace was a gem that matched the cutie mark of its wearer. Of course, there were two exceptions. The first exception was Twilight, who was wearing a gold tiara with a star-shaped magenta jewel. The other exception was Zero Volt, the only stallion among the seven of them, who idly lifted his left foreleg to check his watch. The seven of them had been summoned to the castle by Princess Celestia herself, apparently for some urgent matter.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” The seven of them turned around to see Celestia entering the throne room.

“What is it, Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Celestia said. “But from what I know, something could be very wrong.” The seven of them fell silent. They waited for Celestia to explain to them whatever crisis had surfaced, a few of them growing apprehensive. “I trust that all of you know what Tartarus is.”

“Ain’t that the prison for all those evil creatures that would run amok all over Equestria if they sprung loose?” Applejack asked.

“Yes,” Celestia said, “and I’m afraid that one of those creatures has escaped.”

The seven of them gasped. Fluttershy clasped her front hooves to her mouth. Pinkie Pie screamed in terror and started running around the room, but apart from her and Fluttershy, there was little deviation in their shocked reactions.

“What kind of creature exactly?” Zero Volt asked. “Tell us, Princess, what are we dealing with here?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know,” Celestia said. “Many of those creatures have been imprisoned for so long that any historical records of them have been lost over the centuries. Even if we did know the nature of them, something has been interfering with my magic ever since this one escaped. As a result, I have been unable to properly observe it. What I do know is that this monster is somewhere near Vanhoover.”

“How do you know that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’ve been receiving reports from Vanhoover about temperatures reaching as high as one hundred fifteen degrees,” Celestia said. “The city’s weather ponies wouldn’t schedule such a heat wave, and they have found it impossible to lower the temperature.” Celestia stepped toward the group and stopped in front of Zero Volt. She tilted her head down, bringing the tip of her horn to his forehead, and cast a spell on him. The spell completed almost instantly, though Zero Volt stood still, slightly dazed even after Celestia lifted her head back. “I’ve already sent a reconnaissance team to the edge of Tartarus to investigate how the creature escaped. Your task is to go to Vanhoover and find that creature.”

Pinkie Pie, who had been running around the room and panicking throughout Celestia’s briefing, finally came to a stop directly in front of her. She raised her hoof up to her forehead and saluted the princess, a look of determination set on her face. “You can count on us, Princess!” she declared. Pinkie still held her determined look across her face even as she brought her foreleg back down. At least until she started screaming again. She was about to start running around the room and resume panicking, but Applejack got in front of her. She placed one hoof in Pinkie’s mouth to suppress her screams and another on her chest to keep her still.

Celestia looked at the entire group, even at Zero Volt, who had just shaken himself off from his disorientation. “I’m sure you’ll do fine, but bear in mind that we don’t know the nature of this escaped being,” she said. “Even though you have the Elements of Harmony, I advise extreme caution.”

“We understand,” Twilight said. She and the rest of her friends started to group around Zero Volt. “Volt, are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, more or less,” he said, holding a hoof to his head. “Have you ever had somepony beam a couple of images into your mind all at once?”

“More often than you’d think,” Rarity said. “Does this mean you can take us to Vanhoover now?”

“Yeah. Is everyone ready?” The seven of them all grouped together, making sure they were all in physical contact with one another so that Zero Volt could teleport them.

“Volt, one last thing before we go,” Twilight said. Zero Volt turned his head to face her. “When we find out who or what this escaped prisoner is, could you not say ‘Who?’ when it gives us its name?” Zero Volt raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m just sensing a pattern here, one that I’d rather not have to deal with.”

“Okay…” Zero Volt said. At this point, the seven of them had already grouped together, so he decided to shrug it off and get on with the mission. He closed his eyes and pictured Vanhoover in his mind. Though Celestia had shown him several images of the city, one particular location stood out to him. To get a clear picture of their target destination, he focused on certain details of that location, whether they were transient details like the cloud patterns and the foliage on the scattered trees or fixed details like the pathways that cut through the grass and a nearby ice cream parlor. Once the image was clear in his mind, a green flash filled his and his friends’ visions, and they disappeared from Canterlot.

The seven ponies reappeared at their destination, a park in Vanhoover. However, a wave of heat washed over them as soon as they reached the park. They all stumbled and groaned momentarily, each overcome by the sudden spike in temperature around them. “Ugh, how hot did Princess Celestia say it was here?” Rainbow Dash asked. “One-fifteen?”

“Yeah, she did,” Twilight said. Looking around, she noticed that there wasn’t a single pony outside. There weren’t even any pegasi flying above to manage the weather. She turned toward the buildings and streets near the edge of the park, reasoning that the citizens were probably trying to stay as cool as possible indoors. “Does anypony else think we should have come with water and maybe a few hats?”

“That certainly would’ve been a good idea,” Rarity said. Holding a handkerchief in the air with her magic, she applied it to her face and removed a few beads of sweat that had already formed. “I just know that this heat is going to ruin my mane.”

“Oh, quit you’re whinin’, Rarity,” Applejack said. “Ah deal with this every day when Ah’m buckin’ for apples.” She lifted a foreleg to her head to wipe the sweat from her brow. “Whew, though Ah usually get a bit of shade from the apple trees.”

Rarity wasn’t paying attention to Applejack. Instead, she was focusing her magic on a particular spell; one that she hoped would alleviate the effects of the heat wave on them. After a few seconds, she had gathered the magical energy necessary, and the desired effect of her spell began to manifest. At the same time, the others started to notice the immediate area around them getting darker, though when they looked more than a few feet in any direction, the rest of the park and city were still brightened by the afternoon sun. By the time they looked up, a light blue screen had formed above their heads, blocking most of the sunlight shining down on them.

“There,” Rarity said, panting more from the heat than from any difficulty in casting the spell. “That should make things easier.”

Her friends all turned to her, each of them a bit perplexed. “What did you do?” Twilight asked.

“I cast a reflective screen above our heads so that the sun won’t bear down on us while we’re here,” she said. “Sometimes I use that spell around the boutique so that I don’t have to hold several mirrors in the air all at once. It’s a very simple spell, and I’ve grown quite adept at it in the last few years.”

“It’s not helping much with the heat,” Rainbow Dash said. By this point, she was beating her wings at several different angles, not to lift off of the ground, but in a vain attempt to fan parts of her body. “The heat’s coming from down here, not up there.” Rainbow was partially right. The cause of Vanhoover’s temperature spike was somewhere in or near the city itself, and Rarity’s spell wouldn’t do anything about that. However, as brutal as the heat already was, the summer sun had only exacerbated the situation before Rarity cast her spell.

“At least it’ll take the edge off,” Fluttershy panted. “But how do you think we’re going to find that escaped creature?”

“Didn’t the princess suggest that it was causing this heat wave?” Zero Volt said. “Maybe it’ll get even hotter the closer we are to it.”

“Like a game of hot or cold?” Pinkie Pie asked. The heat was even sapping her enthusiasm, and she could only manage a weak smile at the idea of playing a game.

“Yeah, but instead of cold we get hotter,” Rainbow said. “I’ll fly up and check out the city from above.” She stopped using her wings to fan herself and started flapping them to take flight. It didn’t take her very long at all to pass through Rarity’s reflective screen, and as soon as she did, she could feel the sun’s heat against her back and wings again. The first thing Rainbow noticed as she flew up was that, in some ways, her ascent was a little easier than it usually was. Apparently, the unnatural heat wave had heated the air around her, giving her some powerful thermals. Of course, she was still struggling under the heat wave itself. In addition to her sweating and panting, she could even feel the sun glaring down at her, seemingly helping to try to bake her alive. Considering the tradeoff she was dealing with, she decided that the stronger thermals weren’t worth dealing with this heat.

Before long, Rainbow Dash ascended high enough above the city and started looking around. From this altitude, it was even more apparent that the ponies of Vanhoover had either sought shelter or evacuated. For at least a mile in every direction, every street and every area of the park was deserted. There was one exception however, and Rainbow noticed it when she turned in the direction of the town fountain. From where she was hovering, she could see that it was a pony, a pegasus to be exact, with a white coat and an orange mane. The pegasus also had a large body, perhaps as large as Celestia herself, but Rainbow was more concerned about the fact that this pony was in the middle of this heat wave in the first place. Either way, it was enough to convince her that something wasn’t right about this pegasus.

Rainbow Dash flew back down to meet her friends. “Hey, Dash,” Zero Volt said. “Did you see anything out of place?”

Rainbow Dash touched down and pointed in the direction of the city. “There’s a pegasus standing next to a fountain over there,” she said. “That sound out of place to you?”

“Nopony in their right mind would be out in the middle of this heat,” Rarity said.

“That’s not true,” Pinkie Pie said. “We’re all here and we’re in our right minds.” Almost all of them looked at Pinkie Pie, apparently with the exact same question on the tips of their tongues. “Maybe he’s friendly.”

“Friendly or not, it’s worth a look,” Applejack said. The seven of them started off toward the city. Rainbow Dash led the way on hoof, choosing to say on the ground rather exerting herself too much. While no one else was in the streets at the time, the seven of them occasionally saw indications that everyone else was inside. There was movement in some of the buildings, either from any ponies inside or from fans. There was even the odd air conditioner droning on in the background, cooling whichever house it was installed into.

Eventually, they reached the fountain and found the pegasus Rainbow had mentioned. As they approached the stallion, they noticed a few details that she had been too far away to see, namely his yellow eyes and the bright yellow circle that comprised his cutie mark. The pegasus turned and noticed them as they arrived near the fountain.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Do you have anything to do with this heat wave that’s going on?”

“Yes, I am,” the pegasus said slowly. “In fact, I’m the one causing it.”

“Then you’re the creature who escaped from Tartarus recently,” Twilight said. “Who are you?”

“I am…” the pegasus started to say.

“Helios,” Zero Volt interjected.

“Wait, what?” Twilight said.

“Who?” Pinkie Pie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight shouted, slightly annoyed.

“You know who I am,” Helios said.

“Nope, never met you before in my life,” Zero Volt said. The six young mares around him all stared at him in disbelief, but he paid them no attention. “But you’re something like a deity of the sun, aren’t you? In fact, you once were the sun, right?”

Helios stayed silent for a moment. He scowled at the ponies in front of him before responding. “Thousands of years ago, I was bonded to the sun,” Helios said. “I controlled its position in the skies above, until your kind took it for yourselves and imprisoned me in that pit! But now that I’m free, I will soon reclaim the sun as my own. When I do, I will hold it above this land without reprieve and burn you all.”

“So… water not under the bridge,” Zero Volt said. “Okay, I’ve heard enough. Girls, fire when ready.”

“Don’t order us around, Zero,” Rarity said. At this point, she and the others already had the same idea in mind and were now activating the Elements of Harmony. Five of them transmitted their power to the Element of Magic, and their bearers floated above the ground. Once they were ready, the Elements unleashed their magic on Helios, consuming his entire body within a multicolored beam of their power. A few seconds later, the Elements stopped, and the bearers floated back onto the ground. However, when the magic they unleashed faded away, Helios stood where he was, completely unscathed.

“Odd magic that you’re using against me,” Helios said. “But that was a futile effort nonetheless.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Twilight said. “How could the Elements of Harmony not work?”

“Yeah, that’s starting to get a little old,” Zero Volt said as he moved his right hoof to a blue scabbard strapped to his side. Sheathed within the scabbard was a sword with gold markings running along its blue crossguard. Once he grasped the hilt between his hoof and fetlock, seven glowing spheres of light emerged from his sides and forehead and entered the hilt. He drew the sword from its scabbard, flipped it around his hoof by its grip, and held it outward with his hoof gripping it tightly. As soon as the seven glowing spheres transferred into the sword, a soft white glow enveloped its blade.

“You bring a piece of steel against the wrath of the sun?” Helios asked calmly.

“You’d be surprised what this piece of steel can do,” Zero Volt said. He teleported in front of Helios and slashed horizontally at him. Helios jumped back and flapped his wings, evading the sword swing. Flames erupted momentarily from his feathers as he spread his wings, and when he flapped them, he threw those flames at the ground in front of him. Zero Volt teleported again to avoid those flames as they hit the ground, setting fire to what they touched.

After avoiding the sword slash, Helios landed on the ground again and folded his wings, only to feel something slicing into his right side. He turned and saw Zero Volt, who had just slashed into his side with the sword. Zero Volt swung again, but Helios lifted his right hoof and used it to block the swing. Fire coursed through Helios’ hoof as he held back the glowing white blade of the sword.

Zero Volt struggled against Helios, but found himself unable to throw back the hoof that was blocking his blade. At the same time, he began to notice how much hotter it was in Helios’ proximity. While the rest of Vanhoover was under an unusually brutal heat wave, his face felt like it was being held too close to an open furnace. Even more sweat poured down his face, and he continued to push back against Helios’ hoof.

Meanwhile, Helios found himself somewhat surprised, not by Zero Volt himself, but by the sword he was holding. While parrying the sword, he had enveloped his hoof in flames in order to render the blade unusable. However, the sword’s blade was not softening or warping against the heat and force exerted by him. He tried to push harder against the blade, only to find himself overbalancing on his right hoof when Zero Volt teleported away. Helios quickly put his hoof back down and balanced himself again when something suddenly slashed his left flank. He was about to look back, but saw Zero Volt teleport to his right side again.

Zero Volt slashed at Helios’ right side again, this time cutting into his shoulder and slicing through his right foreleg. He teleported again, but when he reappeared in front of Helios and saw him, something surprised him. He remembered cutting through Helios’ foreleg, and could even see the wound around that leg. However, and despite all logic, Helios was still standing on what should have been a severed leg. Not letting the anomaly stop him, Zero Volt started hacking away. As he attacked, he began to note how much he’d improved ever since the princesses told him to get trained as a swordspony. Only four months ago, he couldn’t even swing a sword without losing his balance. Now he was careful to keep himself steady with each swing, occasionally shifting or twisting his body to keep his weight on his other three legs.

Within a few seconds, Zero Volt had made several slashes through Helios’ chest, forelegs and even his neck. Yet even after all the damage he sustained, Helios seemed unfazed by the assault. Zero Volt would have continued his attack, but before he could make another swing, his two-second warning activated. Anticipating a threat, he stopped attacking and teleported several feet back. A second later, Helios’ entire body burst into flames, but he continued to stand still, staring at the seven ponies ahead of him. Zero Volt was a safe distance away from Helios, but despite the relatively short fight, he already found himself exhausted. Much of his body was drenched in sweat, and he was panting from both the heat and his exhaustion. A few seconds later, his legs gave out, and he collapsed on the ground, releasing his grip on his sword.

Meanwhile, Helios glared back at the seven ponies in front of him, every square inch of his body still aflame. After a few seconds, the flames finally died away. When they did, all of Zero Volt’s work over the last minute had been undone. Every wound, from the deep gashes in his sides and chest to the somehow harmless dismemberment of his forelegs and leg, had been completely healed by the flames.

“Enough,” Helios said. “I don’t have time to waste on you. I can sense the pony who controls my sun, residing in a baroque castle in the center of a mountaintop city. Once I reclaim it from her, you’ll burn with the rest of your kind.” Helios’ wings erupted in flames as he took flight. He turned and started to fly southeast, in the direction of Canterlot. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends walked over to Zero Volt, watching Helios as he left Vanhoover behind.

“Did he really just call Canterlot Castle baroque?” Rarity said. “As in extravagant and overdone?”

“I’m not surprised,” Rainbow Dash said. “His idea of architectural style is burning down Equestria.”

“Zero, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. She walked in front of Zero Volt and placed a hoof on his forehead, only to pull it back almost immediately. “Oh dear. You’re really hot, aren’t you?”

“Wait,” Zero Volt panted. “Were you all standing there the whole time? Why didn’t you try to help out?”

“Because we already brought out the big guns a minute ago,” Rainbow said.

“Because watching you jump around with a sword is fun!” Pinkie added.

“Because if any of us should be assessing how deadly our enemy is, it should be you,” Rarity added.

“All good answers… I guess,” Zero Volt said before standing back up. He picked up his sword and returned it to its scabbard. “Now that Helios left, I’m guessing Vanhoover will start getting cooler. Let’s head back to Princess Celestia.”

“Agreed,” Twilight said. “We need to warn her about Helios and think of a new plan.” She and her friends all huddled together, making sure they were all in contact with one another. Once they were all ready, Zero Volt teleported them from Vanhoover, bringing them all back to Canterlot Castle.

“You’ve returned,” Celestia said. “But you have not stopped the escaped prisoner.”

“We’re sorry, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said. “The Elements of Harmony didn’t work on him, and neither did Zero Volt’s sword. Now he’s coming here to attack you.”

“This is very troubling,” Celestia mused. “What else did you learn about him?”

Twilight opened her mouth, but hesitated to explain what they had found out about Helios. She turned to her friends, who all looked amongst themselves. One by one, they decided that Zero Volt should be the one to explain everything, and all looked at him. “His name is Helios,” he said. “Before your reign, and even before Equestria was founded, he controlled the sun’s position in the sky.”

“That would explain why I am having difficulty controlling the sun with my magic,” Celestia said. “Yet it doesn’t explain why he was imprisoned in Tartarus, or why the sun is now controlled by equine magic.”

“Actually, those two kind of explain each other,” he said.

“I see,” Celestia said. “Then the unicorns imprisoned Helios and used their magic to control the sun.”

“Hard to say why,” Zero Volt said. “Either they did it to have a bargaining chip for getting food or they thought they could give the earth ponies a better harvest by creating a summer season. Considering what race relations were like back then, both accounts have their biases.”

“I’ve never heard of any of this,” Twilight muttered. “And I’ve read a lot about Equestria’s history. Volt, where are you getting this information?”

Zero Volt didn’t respond at first. Twilight took a step toward him, and the others started to turn in his direction. “I’m a little embarrassed to say,” he said, awkwardly looking to his left.

“Come on, Volt,” Rainbow Dash said. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“Well…” Zero Volt said, still hesitating. “I’m getting this all from a voice in my head.”

The eyes of every single mare in the throne room widened. They all exchanged glances amongst each other, occasionally looking back at Zero Volt as well. Eventually, Applejack stepped toward him slowly, trying to seem as nonthreatening as possible. “Yah feelin’ alright there, Volt?” she asked. “Maybe yah’d like a glass of water or apple juice?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Yah sure ‘bout that?” she said. “Hearin’ voices in your head usually ain’t normal.”

“Yeah I know.”

“Normally I would agree,” Celestia said. “But this voice in Zero’s head seems to know more about our current predicament than we do. As for the predicament itself, I may have an idea.” The others turned their attention to Princess Celestia. “You are all familiar with the Elements of Harmony as they are now: Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Honesty, and Magic. You’ve seen their power firsthoof, and have used them to perform several miraculous feats. However, the Elements of Harmony were mere legend when Luna and I first learned of them, and when we first set out to find them, the legends spoke of seven, not six.”

“Are you saying that there might be another Element of Harmony we haven’t found yet?” Twilight asked.

“It’s possible, but I can’t say for certain,” Celestia said. “Even after my sister and I found the other six, we were unable to find a seventh Element. When we used them to seal Discord in stone, we decided then that the seventh Element wasn’t necessary. Years later, I considered the possibility that it simply didn’t exist.”

“Well if it does exist, we could use the extra firepower, right?” Zero Volt said.

“Firepower?” Twilight said. “You don’t get how the Elements of Harmony actually work, do you Volt?”

“To be fair, you girls only ever use the Elements as a tactical weapon,” Zero Volt shot back. Twilight didn’t respond to his comment, at least not verbally. She waited three seconds before flexing a set of muscles on each of her sides, revealing a pair of lavender wings. Fully stretched out, her wings were visibly larger than those of her pegasus friends, though still nowhere near as strong as Rainbow Dash’s. “Okay, I’ll give you that. Anyway, if there is another Element of Harmony, let’s go out and find it.”

“Not so fast, my little pony,” Celestia said. “Even if a seventh Element does exist, we still don’t know where it is hidden. More importantly, we don’t know who its chosen wielder is.”

“Okay, then we’ll hold auditions for its wielder after we find it,” he said.

“It is not that simple,” Celestia said. “By nature, the Elements of Harmony invariably set trials before those who seek them. Only the chosen bearer of an Element, one who stands as a paragon of its virtue, will be capable of passing its trial. To borrow your analogy, the audition is held while you search for the Element, not after you find it. However…”

Celestia briefly concentrated her magic and conjured six ancient rolls of parchment in front of her. She laid out the scrolls in a row on a nearby table. Carefully, she unfurled the pieces of parchment and motioned the Element bearers and Zero Volt to look at them.

“That doesn’t mean that we cannot begin a search for the seventh Element,” Celestia said. “These scrolls give the location of six shrines scattered throughout Equestria. Each of these shrines once contained one of the Elements of Harmony, where Luna and I first found them. Those shrines may hold clues to the location of the seventh Element.”

The seven of them grouped around the table to study the scrolls individually. Each scroll identified one of the Elements and gave the location of the nearest town to that Element’s shrine. Some of them also gave directions to the shrine starting from that town. “If we split into groups, we should be able to search these places more quickly,” Twilight said. “Volt, since we can both teleport around Equestria, the groups should form around us.”

Without warning, Pinkie Pie popped her head out from between Twilight’s forelegs. Apparently, she was lying on her stomach directly underneath Twilight. “I call Twilight’s group!” she chirped, apparently unaware of the surprised reactions of the rest of the group, or even Twilight’s bewildered reaction to having her suddenly appear directly under her. “Come with us, Dash! It’ll be fun!”

“I’ll go with Zero,” Fluttershy said, walking up next to Zero Volt. That left Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash to choose a group. Rarity decided to join Zero Volt and Fluttershy, partly because their group still lacked a unicorn. Rainbow Dash joined Pinkie and Twilight for no better reason other than because Pinkie seemed more enthusiastic about it. Applejack, the last to join a group, went toward Zero Volt to make sure both groups would have the same number of shrines to search. With the two groups complete, Twilight and Zero Volt each took three pieces of parchment from the table. They gave them one last look before rolling them up and putting them away.

As soon as they were ready, the seven of them all turned to face Celestia. “While you search for the seventh Element, I will be screening the citizens of Equestria for anypony who may be its rightful wielder,” she said.

“But what about Helios?” Twilight asked. “He’ll be here at any minute to attack you.”

“I have already thought of that,” Celestia said. “For him, I am going to need some outside assistance.”

“Outside assistance?” a voice echoed throughout the throne room. The eight ponies in the room all looked around for its source, though most of them knew who it belonged to. “If you want my help, why don’t you just ask? Though I do find it ironic that a little bit of chaos is exactly what you need right now.” At the end of that last comment, a draconequus appeared from under the carpet that cut through the room. Despite the lack of any discernible bulge to indicate that anything would be under the carpet, he emerged completely from under it and hovered above the ground. “Discord, Spirit of Disharmony, at your service.”

“Who?” Zero Volt said. Suddenly, they all heard an audible smack. They looked back at the table, which Twilight had apparently slammed her head onto in frustration.

“You’re that other friend that these six ponies made a while back, aren’t you?” Discord said, offering his paw for Zero Volt to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, even if you did once refer to me as a ‘failed biology experiment.’”

Zero Volt accepted Discord’s paw with his hoof, though he also cocked an eyebrow at him. “Uh…” he uttered in confusion. Discord rolled his eyes at him. Using his power, he produced an image in front of Zero Volt. Zero Volt examined at the image, apparently of one of the stained glass windows in Canterlot Tower. The window depicted the battle between Discord and the royal pony sisters, featuring Celestia and Luna circling around a petrified Discord. “Okay, so that’s you.”

“Oh, come on,” Discord said. “Don’t you remember calling me a failed biology experiment?”

“No, but that sounds like something I would say as an offhooved comment,” Zero Volt said. “I mean, if Dash ever said that something needed to be about twenty percent cooler, she’d probably forget having said it by the end of the week.”

“Anyway,” Celestia said. “Discord, I need you to prevent Helios from reaching me or causing any damage to Canterlot. Feel no need to hold back when you engage him.”

“I would never dream of it,” Discord said. “But first…” Discord snapped the talons on his left claw, and several storm clouds formed above the heads of Twilight and her friends. A downpour immediately started over them, causing the seven of them to cry out, partially due to surprise and partially in discomfort. After a few seconds, they were already soaked, and they glared at Discord. “What? You all needed a shower.” The seven drenched ponies continued glaring at him. However, the expressions of some of them softened, Fluttershy’s in particular. After a while, Discord produced seven towels in front of them. Each towel floated in front of one of the ponies, its color matching that of the corresponding pony’s coat. “Towels?”

Each of the ponies stepped out from under the clouds and grabbed a towel. They all took a minute to dry off, though a few of them took a little extra time to fix their manes. Meanwhile, Discord removed the clouds from inside the throne room, as well as the puddles of excess rainwater that had remained on the ground. As soon as Twilight and her friends were done, they all returned to their groups. Twilight already had her group’s first destination in mind, and once Rainbow and Pinkie were nearby, she cast her spell. A magenta flash swallowed the three of them within a split second, and when it was gone, so were they. At the same time, Zero Volt waited for Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity to group around him. As soon as they were in contact with each other, he teleported the four of them out of the castle.