The Final Element: The Guardian of Equestria

The Fourth Chapter

After another two hours, Princess Celestia was putting the final attention to an official letter which would accompany Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville once she returned with Spike and Eli.

While she proofed her work, to check for errors, Eli found his way to the  first chair he could find to sit in, and reclined back in Luna's throne on the dais of the throne room.

Clearing her throat, Luna glanced harshly at Eli in an attempt to get him out of her seat, to which Eli merely waved her away.

It begs to be said that, Eli Montgomery is a peculiar man, even in a world of peculiarities, he seems to take his eccentricities to high levels, and while he isn't insane, he has certainly given that impression to others, due to his erratic nature, and his ability to go from soft spoken, to out-right loud and boisterous, seemingly in the same breath.

Born the son of a soldier, Eli's world was wracked with trial and upset at a very early age, and while he spent most of his early years in the tender loving care of his mother, his world became the stuff of the bizarre and the strange at the age of ten, when his father seemingly returned from the grave, and took Eli to live with him.

Most of the bizarre and strange that surrounded Eli's life came in the form of his father and the tall tales that he brought back with him from the jungles of Vietnam. Of course, none of those stories had anything whatsoever to do with Vietnam or fighting in some foreign part of the world.

What the stories did entail however, were of adventures in a magical world occupied with strange and fantastic creatures, epic battles and stories so amazing that Eli fell in love with the world of Ethereal Earth and the promised notion of he and his father's return.

Now seated in the throne room of the royal palace in Canterlot, Eli behaved strikingly calm and subdued, especially for a man both living out a far-fetched fantasy, and told he was the living embodiment of the country's hope and salvation.

With another loud clearing of her throat, Princess Luna motioned to the throne which Eli occupied. “You are sitting in my chair.”

Throwing his hands up, and exhaling in defeat, Eli removed himself from the throne and went to stand with Celestia as she rolled the parchment and passed it to Twilight Sparkle.

"Are you certain you are up to this task?" said Princess Celestia as Twilight took the scroll.

"I understand what I have to do Princess, I won't fail you," she said reassuringly.

“The letter will be sent out to all the major cities and towns in Equestria. I've explained the situation as best as I can, and hopefully have prepared them for our new human guest,” said Celestia as she glanced side-long at Eli.

“Yeah, about that,” he said. “I'm not so sure how your royal subjects are going to take to me just wandering around their town. Can't I just stay in the castle?" said Eli. "Besides, it's one thing to be around a few, but a whole town of talking horses is just too creepy. I'm trying to think of you here, if I go crazy I'm worthless."

"What sort of Guardian of Equestria wants to hide in the shadows of the castle keep?" said Luna, scoffing at his behavior.

"Apparently this one," said Spike, a little more comfortably, as four royal guards appeared to escort them to their chariot.

“Regardless, Ponyville is closer to Everfree Forest, and you departing from there is more fortuitous than launching an expeditionary from Canterlot.” Celestia had an eyebrow raised as she said this, and Eli couldn't dispute the logic.

As the group made their way from the inner area of the palace, and onto an adjacent landing, Eli caught sight of their ride. It was a golden and white chariot pulled by four different royal guards. Each wearing a stoic expressionless look to them as they each quickly giving their human passenger a brief once over.

"We are Ponies," said Celestia, correcting Eli.

“What?

“That's what we're called,” she said. “Horses is a bit crude.”

"Yeah well, you weren't always ponies," said Eli, as he cautiously stepped into the chariot, scrunching himself down, so as to hide from anyone that might happen by and spot him.

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked, frowning at him.

Looking over the lot of them, Eli could see that they honestly had no clue what he was talking about. "Man, you guys need new history books. None of you started out as little purple, and blue, and gray, and pink ponies. You were all made that way.”

"What!?" was all Twilight could say, and by the look on Celestia's face, she was in disbelief as well.

"My father said that all the horses in Equestria were huge majestic creatures of the same color, and that sometime after he arrived, they changed." Sniffing indignantly, he added, "It's possible, that it's because of the portals, or gates, or whatever you want to call them; but the bottom line is, those gates are bad news. The longer they stay open, the more chances there are that all you horses will change again.”

"How long do we have?" asked Celestia.

"How in the hell should I know," said Eli crossing his arms. “There was a lot my father went into detail about, and some things he didn't. That's one of the things he didn't have a lot to say about."

"Any advice on what we should do while waiting on word of the portal in the forest?" asked Celestia.

"Yeah," said Eli, as the chariot lurched forward to depart. “It's probably best if you start praying that we live long enough to see what you change to next."

“That is not very reassuring,” said Celestia, as the chariot pulled away.

“Sorry!” Eli shouted back waving. “It's the best I got!”

The ride to Ponyville was a lot shorter than Eli would have liked, and the fact that Twilight or Spike stared at him mercilessly only compounded Eli's unease. Not that Eli was bothered by flying, he quite liked high places. His problem was that he was in the hands, or hooves as the case may be, of four flying ponies and pulled along the sky high enough, that falling would be disastrous.

He almost told her to kindly look the other way, but it seemed as if something was bothering her, as she wore a worried expression.

"Are we really going to change?" asked Twilight, breaking the silence.

Eli twitched at the sudden sound, which made his unease at the ride-along that much more uneasy.

"Most likely, yes," he said, forcing himself to watch the horizon. "The gateway is an unnatural thing in this world, and it will change everyone eventually." He thought about it for a few seconds; "maybe even me too."

“Oh,” she said, letting out a soft sigh. “I guess it makes sense, considering how much of our history has been changed.”

“Change can be a good thing sometimes,” he said, making a small effort at consolation.

"So what's it like where you're from Eli?" said Spike wanting to talk about something else, for which Twilight was thankful.

"It's... busy," said Eli, unnerved by the reptile in his presence.

"So what do you do, where you're from?" asked Spike, still curious about him.

"I'm a drafter," said Eli, hugging himself with his arms, and briefly imagining that Spike were a cat or small furry animal.

"What's that?" asked Twilight, excited for the change of topic, and eager to learn something new.

"I draw the technical plans for buildings and things, so that other people can build them."

"That doesn't sound very exciting," said Spike, being brutally honest.

"Well," said Eli glowering at the two of them. "That's sort of the point."

Spike gave back a confused look, not understanding why someone would want to purposefully do something boring. To which Eli elaborated.

“I got tired of doing what I did before; the rushing and the nonsense-- and I wanted to do something that was less exciting,” he said waving a hand nonchalantly. “I figured short of being a librarian, drawing technical plans was as boring a life as I could choose, and still make decent money.”

The chariot came to a stop outside of the Tree Library, and Eli hunkered down even further into the chariot, in an attempt to make sure he wasn't spotted prematurely by the locals.

"I just need to take this letter from the Princess to the Mayor, explaining what's going on," said Twilight as she turned to Eli. "You can just wait in my boring library house with Spike until I get back. The last thing we need are ponies flipping out, before they get a chance to hear it officially."

"At which point they'll flip out officially," said Eli with a smirk. "Look, if it's all the same, I think I'll just wait in the chariot." Pulling his jacket collar up higher, and adjusting himself a bit more in the seat.

"Aww come on Eli, this place isn't so bad,” Spike said encouragingly. “I mean there are lots of interesting things here, and interesting ponies too."

There was a loud “ahem” from one of the pegasus ponies that was pulling the chariot; and Eli took that as an indication that he was not welcome to loiter any longer.

"Fine," he said, stepping out. "Let's see what interesting things Ponyville has to offer."

Eli's first reaction to seeing Ponyville was less than enthusiastic, as he took his first look around at a real town in this world. His experiences in life had taken him to many different places, and this one, while rather rustic, reminded him more of a Renaissance recreation in Europe than anything he could relate to in America.

His fascination with the designs of the building notwithstanding, he still wore a heavy frown as he glanced around at the scenery. He could see several ponies some ways away walking about, and some tending to their small gardens, and while he had to keep reminding himself that this was a different world than the one he was used to seeing, he found himself slightly overwhelmed by the idea that he was the only living human on the whole planet.

Without warning—which should have been established by now, that most things are without—Pinkie Pie emerged from a random direction shouting, "Twilight! Twilight!" and rushed upon the three of them as the chariot was pulled away, and screeched to a halt as soon as she saw Eli.

"I can't really talk now, Pinkie," said Twilight, trotting off in the direction of the Mayor's Office. “I have to deliver this letter.”

For a brief moment, Eli stared down at the bushy haired, big eyed, pink pony; and Pinkie stared up at the strange, tall, oddly dressed creature she had never seen before.

"Um, hello," said Eli, figuring he should at least attempt to be cordial, and putting on his best charming smile.

As soon as Eli spoke, Pinkie jumped a few feet off the ground gasping a high-pitched gasp, and bolted away from the three of them as fast as she could.

"Now why does that seem so familiar?" asked Spike, looking after where Pinkie had gone, and scratching at his head.

"Yeah, that was really interesting," said Eli. Then turning to Twilight. "I think maybe you better hurry up, Pony, the panic in the streets is probably about to start soon."

"It's Twilight Sparkle... my name I mean, and my friends are hopefully handling the panic from earlier," she said as she trotted away. "Don't worry, we'll explain everything to them."

“Yeah, just wait till they get a load of me,” he said under his breath. “You may be eating those words.”

Walking into the tree library, Eli suddenly felt as if he were in one of J.R.R Tolkien's novels. Everything looked like it was made and intended for a Hobbit, and not someone one inch shy of being six foot tall.

Amazingly it didn't smell dank, like most of the libraries he'd been in, and it was also surprisingly clean of dust.

"You can just make yourself at home, till Twi gets back from the Mayor's," said Spike, as he busying himself with some menial tasks.

Eli, despite his apprehension at being on such strange soil in a strange world, was rather mystified at the collection of odd books and parchments, and to his regret, he also noted that the library had no electricity, though there was ample lighting from lamps placed about.

Despite any normal person's reluctance at accepting living breathing talking ponies, and then swiftly coming to terms with the fact, Eli was beginning to feel mentally fatigued from all that he had been bombarded with over the past several hours, and as he looked around, the cozy environment seemed to cast a sort of lullaby spell on him, and he wanted more than anything, to just rest and sleep.

Feeling a familiar vibration in his jacket pocket, he reached in for his phone, just as the thought occurred to him that he was in another dimension, and not anywhere near the earth he was familiar with.

As an interesting fact, Eli was a technophile of massive proportions. His affinity and fondness for electronic gadgets and gizmos, was on par with Twilight Sparkle's love of literature, and books. Were Eli capable, he would no doubt remove his heart, and replace it with a Cyan-Rhodes 3500 ambient Processor. But of course, that was fantasy, not real life.

Tapping the standby button on the android phone, it blazed to life with one bar of signal, and indicated that he had gotten a text message.

"I'll be damned," he said out loud. "There is an Easter Bunny, Charlie Brown!"

Amazingly, he had enough signal across worlds to receive a message, but not enough to make a call.

Pulling down the notification bar at the top, he noted that the message was from one of the assistants at the office.

Hey jackass, we've been trying to call you for an hour!

Along with the message, came the realization that Eli had real world obligations, and that he was no doubt going to be unable to call in absent to his job for the next few days, or weeks, or perhaps months. "I Guess this adventure is going to end my career," he said to the message, turning the phone back into standby to preserve its battery life.

"Who's Charlie Brown?" asked Spike, walking into the main room, carrying a dustpan and broom.

"A devout pessimist," said Eli, as he secreted the phone back into his pocket.

Finding a place to sit, Eli regarded Spike the Dragon with a mixture of fright and fascination, as it is not common knowledge that Eli's greatest fear was focused solely on reptiles. Oh sure, surround the man with a horde of ravenous arachnids and fields of rabid bunnies, and he was as comfortable as a newborn nestled in a blanket. Send him out into a battlefield laced with landmines and guts, and he was ready for a relaxing vacation. But place a lizard, or snake within a hundred yards of the man, and he lost his ability to control his calm serene demeanor, and could possible behave in ways that would make him slightly less credible as this new-fangled guardian.

Obviously Spike was a baby dragon, and for all intents harmless, but what surprised Eli the most was how obviously domesticated he seemed especially given the fact that he had not encountered a living breathing dragon before this day.

"You wanna play a card game, while we wait on Twilight?" asked Spike, reaching over behind some books on a table and producing a deck of small cards.

"Sure, why not."

~   ~   ~

Not far from the center of Ponyville near some shops and quaint buildings stood the town hall. A respectable building that rose several stories in the air, and peaked at the top. Around the base was a large wooden platform which served as a stage for large gatherings and meetings, and for the occasional school production.

The town hall of course was relatively new, though mostly just renewed construction, as it had recently been remodeled on account of the weather ponies, and some errant bolts of lightning that waywardly wandered into the top of the building, causing substantial roof damage.

Now, it should be pointed out that while the office of the mayor is an elected position, the current mayor was so well loved and respected that she has retained her role for well past the normal duration of time the position permitted.

After the third re-election, the ponies in town simply refined the voting process to a show of hooves at each election gathering, to simply affirm that Mayor Mare would hold the office another term.

Seated inside the town hall, behind her ornate redwood desk, Mayor Mare scrutinized the letter from Princess Celestia regarding the recent events. It didn't take an expert to know that she was clearly disturbed by the news, hoping like the others would, that the events were something simple, and easily remedied; such as a volcano, a rampaging dragon, or a series of natural disasters that caused the continent to split down the middle.

"So the plan is to excavate the town while this Eli human searches out Everfree Forest?"

Twilight merely nodded.

“I have to say, this isn't the news I had hoped to get back from the Princess on the mater of today's earthquakes,” said Mayor Mare as she glanced from Twilight, and then back to the letter.

"Is he certain that the second key is somewhere in Ponyville?" the Mayor asked.

"He seems sure, as does the Princess," Twilight said.

There was no denying that the mayor's reaction was reserved. Twilight had her suspicions though that despite the calm and cool exterior, there was much turmoil underneath.

“The worst part of this, is the fact that everything that we thought we knew about ourselves has come to mean very little,” Mare said. “Not to mention that the burden of informing the ponies has fallen to me, and I don't have to remind you that they can be a fickle lot.”

On multiple occasions throughout the Mayor's terms in office, one crisis or another had arisen, and despite her best efforts, the ponies of Ponyville were dead set on unified panic as often as they could manage. Whether it be an infestation of Parasprites, or a horde of runaway rampaging bunnies, the slightest disturbance to their normal daily lives was grounds for sheer unrestrained chaos.

“I wish we could do more Mayor,” said Twilight feeling caught between wanting to help the town, and following the Princess's wishes.

“There's nothing to be sorry for. If the Princess asks that we help find this lost artifact, and if it will help us stave off a terrible ruin, then we will of course do our part.” Mayor Mare patted the document in front of her. “Besides, there is some small part of me that looks forward to seeing this human with my own eyes.”

Taking a long drawn out deep breath, the Mayor looked at Twilight thoughtfully, then asked, “Do you believe that this Eli Montgomery can really save us?”

“From what I've seen of him Mayor, I don't really know,” said Twilight truthfully. “But the way I see it, having him on our side is better than not having anyone at all."

Giving Twilight a hard frown, the Mayor adjusted her glasses with her right hoof. “Well, I certainly agree that having a protector is better than nothing. Though there is still no telling how the ponies of Equestria will react.” Thinking more, Mare said, “What happens if he cannot protect us from these Legions that are coming through the forest?”

Twilight just shook her head, causing her deep purple mane to toss slightly. “I don't really want to think about that Mayor.”

"Neither do I," Mayor Mare said, as she contemplated the discussion thus far. "Very well, I will call a town assembly in an hour; please let some of the others know, will you."

~   ~   ~

Seated on the floor of the tree library, Eli was frowning at the cards he had in his hands, as he took another quick glance at the "dead" cards he had already lost, and were placed in a neat stack on the floor next to him.

The game seemed to Eli to be some sort of Go Fish combined with Canasta; and Eli was certain that the little purple dragon was taking advantage of his nubile understanding of the rules, considering how many times he had to toss cards into the now growing pile of death.

The object of the card game was relatively simple, the first player to lose all their cards is the loser, and the player with the most cards is the winner. Any additional players that still have cards but are less than the player with the most are also losers.

To achieve this, the deck is properly shuffled, then split between how many players are present. If more than four players, then two decks are used, and if more than eight, then three. Any player with an Ace must hold the card until someone with a Joker card calls for Aces to be dead, since players with a Joker card could call for two suits to be dead.

Just as Eli was about to call out that all “5s” in play were dead, the door to the library thrust open and Applejack and Rainbow Dash both entered in excitement.

They had their mouths open to shout things at Twilight, but as soon as they saw Eli seated on the floor playing cards with Spike, their mouths went from that of forming words to a huge jaw drop, and Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt, causing Applejack to ram into her from the back.

Startled by the impromptu entrance, Eli visibly jerked, and almost sent his cards in his hand into the air.

"Oh hey ladies. If you're looking for Twilight, she's gone to deliver a letter to the Mayor, and will be back in a while," Spike said, as he turned to Eli, and tapped the floor in front of him. "It's your turn by the way."

Briefly, the two ponies regarded the human as he did everything he could to lower himself down, not sure what to expect. Based on the pink pony's reaction earlier, Eli wasn't sure he would get a similar bit of fright, or sheer panic from them.

After a couple of seconds, that seemed to drag into moments, the orange pony wearing a cowboy hat was the first one to break the silence, as the blue pony with wings wore an angry expression, and held her head high staring down her nose at him.

"Um, sugar," said Applejack, with some hesitancy to her voice. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend here." She was a little uncertain of what to make of Eli, while Rainbow Dash stomped up to him, and snorted once giving Eli her best “stink eye” stare, which caused Eli to move away from her closeness.

"Well, he was supposed to be introduced by the Mayor, but since Pinkie already saw him, and since you ponies are here, I guess it's okay to show him to you."

Figuring that this was as good a time as any to work on his diplomacy with the locals, Eli slowly rose to his feet, towering over them, and caused them to both look up and take a step back. Which only seemed to make the blue pony more uncomfortable, and irritated

"This is Eli," said Spike gesturing toward him. "He's been brought here by Princess Celestia, with Twilight's help."

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash were speechless, while they stared up at Eli, who only lifted an eyebrow, and smiled flatly. He had a feeling that his efforts at diplomacy were failing him.

After a long pause, Applejack was the first to respond. "Beggin' yer pardon, but..."

"What are you?" said Rainbow Dash cutting off Applejack mid sentence.

"Yeah... what she said," Applejack said, still looking up at him, while Rainbow Dash began fluttering around Eli eyeballing him from every angle.

"I'm a human," he said holding out his hand to Applejack, making some effort at civility. "See?"

Rainbow Dash landed back on the floor in front of him, and regarded his outstretched hand toward Applejack, eying it suspiciously.

Wiggling his fingers at her, Applejack delicately brought her front hoof up and stroked the palm of his open hand, at which point he strummed his fingers around her hoof, causing her to jump with a short chuckle.

"Yeah right. Humans are like a myth, fairy tales and such," said Rainbow Dash as she resumed hovering off the ground eye to eye with him, and slapping the back side of her hoof into the other for emphasis. “In other words... they, don't, exist.”

"Yeah well, pegasai don't exist on my world," said Eli, with a touche.

“They don't?” Rainbow asked, surprised at the come-back.

“Nope,” Eli said, shaking his head. “At least, if there are any, they don't like being seen.”

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash still persistently giving Eli a stern looking over, and even going so far as to tap at his jacket hem with her hoof.

"Like, um, Spike said, Princess Celestia and Twilight brought me here from another world, so I could help them with a bit of a problem they have, and well... here I am. Behold the myth."

Suddenly, Eli's arm began shaking up and down fast, as Applejack had his hand in both of her hooves shaking it vigorously. "Well, I reckon that any friend of Spike's here is sure good enough for us."

"My name is Applejack, and that there pony with the rainbow mane is Rainbow Dash. I'm not too sure I follow what all is going on, but if y'all are here to lend us pony-folk a hand, and if'n the Princess herself brought y'all here, then we is sure excited and glad to know you Eli."

"Thanks," Eli said, smiling as his arm continued to rise and fall with fervor. He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at her Southern accent, which made the brown hat all that more explained.

Being born and raised in New York, Eli was unfamiliar with Southern accents and dialects as his own regional dialect superseded most other forms of speaking, and he had grown up hearing Southern twang mostly in films and television.

While serving in the military, Eli once encountered an officer from Fort Hood, which spoke in a somewhat Southern accent, though nothing as refined and deep as what the orange pony had just spouted at him.

It is not known if the Apple family learned their Southern dialect through natural phonetic evolution or if there were more direct involvement, but Eli found it mesmerizing to his ears.

After Applejack let go of his hand, Eli extended it toward Rainbow Dash, who eyed it briefly, then grabbed it with her hooves. "Rainbow Dash," she said. "I'm the fastest pony in Equestria; practically a legend."

She gave a single firm brisk shake, then let go.

"Really?" asked Eli. "I once did the 500 meter in one minute and eight. Maybe we should race sometime."

"Uh, I wouldn't take that race Mister Eli, Dash here likes to cheat and use her wing power whenever possible," Applejack said leaning around and frowning.

"I do not!" Rainbow Dash retorted as she turned to face her accuser. "It was one time!"

"Now what's this y'all said about Princess Celestia needing help?" said Applejack ignoring the argument that Rainbow Dash was about to start.

"Oh, right," said Eli, sitting back down to be more level with them. "It's like this. Apparently that earthquake earlier was the start of a whole bunch of bad, and well not to put too fine a point on it, I have to take this key into Wrathbo... I mean, Everfree Forest, and close a gate before a bunch of bad guys come through and make trouble for all you hors... um, ponies.”

Fishing in his back pocket, Eli presented the cylinder shaped key to Applejack and Rainbow Dash for their inspection. "If I don't use this to close the gate for good, then it could be real bad for this world."

“Is that right?” said Applejack, looking from the key to Eli with interest.

“It's possible that the armed men that come through will attempt to destroy Equestria.”

"Now when you say, 'Destroy Equestria,'" Rainbow Dash said. "Are you talking places like Cloudsdale too?"

"I don't know," said Eli. "I wasn't the one to shut the gate the last time. My father was, and I only know what he told me; and what he told me, was that the Kelpersv... the Dark Legion are bad business."

"You mean this gate thingy has been opened before?" Applejack asked.

"Yes, a long time ago.”

“Sounds fishy, if you ask me,” said Rainbow, glaring at Eli nose to nose, and cutting her eyes at him. “You're not telling us everything. Why don't you fess up mister!”

“Whoa there. Take it easy,” Eli said, while bringing his hands up defensively. “No need to go all Tony Soprano on me, I'll talk.”

“Why don't you sit down Rainbow Dash and let him speak his peace,” Applejack said, pulling Rainbow away from Eli, scooting her back a few feet.

“It's a long story,” said Eli.

“Then just give us the quick version,” Rainbow said, sitting down on her haunches stubbornly.

The fact is, Eli was not good at telling stories, and since most of his recounts of events were for debriefings, he had a proclivity for facts and not much else, which made people uneasy when he got to parts that should be worded more delicately.

Under normal circumstances, he would take his time, but after the entire afternoon had been spent in a lengthy back and forth session between himself and the Princesses, he was all too eager to get to the chase.

“Well, here goes,” he said, clearing his throat. “About two thousand years ago, my father came here with seven other humans, and helped someone named Stella fight off a horde of evil nasty men called the Dark Legion. All the humans on the planet were killed, as were lots of ponies, and lots of pegasus and unicorns, and in the end, my father barely pushed the army back and closed the gate.”

Taking a deep breath, Eli continued before they could interrupt. “Eventually my father goes back to his world, and now after a long, long time, the magical spell used to seal the gate in Everfree Forest has been broken, and thinking I was my father, Princess Celestia and the purple unicorn brought me here to close the gate again. Only this time we have the key, and we can close the gate for good, and save the whole world from total annihilation.”

"How long do we have before that happens?" asked Rainbow Dash with a stern serious expression.

"I don't know. Days, maybe weeks," said Eli, looking from Applejack to Rainbow Dash. “I do know that with this key, I have a better chance of saving your Kingdom, though I could probably die in the process.”

Applejack felt nauseated at the information she had just been told. Everything in her pony heart told her that what the human had just told her was the truth, as her inner element was that of honesty, she had a sixth sense for truthfulness, and there was nothing devious and dishonest about the words he said.

For several seconds, they watched Eli as he frowned back at them. Rainbow Dash was visibly upset, and wanted to stomp her hooves in frustration, but she held her attitude in check for the sake of not looking hot-headed in front of the stranger.

Like Applejack, Rainbow knew all too well that what she was told was the truth too. No one could concoct such a harebrained story, and based on the events, the letter from Celestia, and Twilight coming straight back to visit the mayor's, this was all too real.

“I'm sorry,” said Eli softly, as Rainbow Dash grew fidgety and began to pace around Eli. “It seems that everything you've ever known about the world has been wrong. It shouldn't come from me, not like this.”

As they sat there in silence, Spike took the chance to sneak a peak at Eli's cards he sat down before the conversation, and eyed them with interest, while Eli glanced up at the ponies sitting around him.

For a second or two Eli wasn't sure he saw what he saw, but without even thinking about it, he reached his hand out and touched Rainbow Dash on her flank, on what was clearly a picture of a cloud and rainbow lightning bolt.

The instant Eli's hand touched her, Rainbow Dash spun about on her hooves, and growled at Eli. “Where the hell do you think you're touching buddy? It's called personal space!”

“Sorry,” he stammered, annoyed with himself at the thought that he just touched her on her butt. “I just never noticed your brands before.”

“So what? You just go around touching everything? What are you blind?” Rainbow Dash was visibly agitated, as she rubbed at the place Eli handled. “They're not brands, they're called cutie marks.”

“Well, excuse me,” said Eli in defense. “I don't make it a habit to go around staring at a horse's ass.”

“Now just simmer down Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said, raising a hoof to her friend. “I'm sure he just didn't know any better.”

It hasn't been mentioned at this point, but a Cutie Mark is something similar to a tattoo on each pony's flank, and is a sign or symbol of their inner talent. Each pony on Ethereal Earth receives one at a certain time in their life, and usually signifies their purpose.

Of course, the marks themselves are somewhat mysteriously exclusive to nature, and are impossible to duplicate or simulate. Any attempts to artificially create a cutie mark has been met with failure, as the patterns or marks disappear as soon as they are applied.

It should be especially noted that there is no requirement for a pony to do or follow after the type of mark they get, but there are many purists that believe once a pony receives his or her cutie mark, that they are destined to become the thing for which it stands.

Many books have been written on the subject of cutie mark lore, and of them, the most popular among the young ponies is the book, Your Cutie Mark and You by the famous earth pony philosopher, Dandelion Dew. In which Dew explains that cutie mark acquisition for ponies usually occurs around the time of their puberty, and scientifically attests that it is a subconscious thing, which manifests on the flanks of ponies as a result of latent magical abilities present within all ponies in the world, including earth ponies.

The ideas while controversial are big selling stuff, and the young ponies buy more and more copies of the book each year. Currently it has been on the Manehattan Book Review's Top Fifty best-seller's list for 174 weeks.

Rainbow Dash herself has a white cumulus cloud with a rainbow colored bolt of lightning descending from the bottom, while Applejack has a trio of bright red apples adorning her flank. These signify that Rainbow Dash's inner talent is flying and speed, and is presumably destined to achieve great things with that strength of character.

Applejack's talent is closely tied to that of her family's heritage, and thus it signifies her natural desire to be close to the family orchards and farm.

Before Applejack had an opportunity to explain to Eli the point of a cutie mark, the door to the library opened, and Twilight entered, looking about at everyone gathered around Eli. "Well, I guess you've already met then," she said with a crooked smile.

Everyone in the room had a strained look on their faces, and Twilight knew instantly that something was amiss.

“What did I miss?” she asked glancing among them.