Prologue
Elixir is a seemingly bold pony who, although her tough exterior, is actually a shy and timid mare on the inside. Her story is begin about one thousand years before the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony, telling her tale right in the time of Nightmare Moon.
"Oh why has it been getting so cold recently?", she complained to herself, "Everypony is getting scared, the nights are getting longer and ponies are going missing! While the Wanderers are speaking of strange creatures stirring around…”
Wanderers where the mares and stallions brave enough to patrol the borders of the Kingdom given the most recent circumstances.
Elixir kept going for a little longer but her mind brought her back to words spoken and deeds done that made tears to roll over her cheeks, “Oh if only I could be free to run and fall in love, but... Father doesn’t want me to, not after what happened to Mother…”
But the mare she got lost in thought and tears, the more she lost her way of going before ending up in the Old Forest. Eventually she crawled back to reality while blinking at her surrounding under a small sniff, "Oh what have I done now?”, was all she could bring out before turning herself into every direction, trying to figure out where she came from.
Eventually she just went into the complete opposite direction then needed and soon enough came to a small field. Her eyes fell upon the peace of the plain but her ears caught up a low growling sound. Elixir carefully made her way over to the middle of field, right into the belly of the beast as something was lurking from the nearby bush.
Without a warning giving of any kind, a loud roar of a Cerberus fell in the mare her ears, freezing her on the spot as the beast jumped out of the bush, having its jaw open to slaughter her almost instantly.
A deafening scream left the mouth of the mare upon the revealing of the Cerberus and she ducked to the ground covering her head with her forelegs.
But something happened to the mighty creature as its fur began to change into a gray coloring and appeared to be turning into stone. The massive, by now, statue dropped to the ground where it cracked softly before looking like a rock that stood there for ages.
While the dust began to clean itself, Elixir carefully peeked at the happened events before standing back up on all four of her hooves and turned her attention to everything there was to be seen, the coolness of night, the moving leaves in the wind and the clouds moving past by their own.
But as she turned back to the rock, something unexpected had come from behind it and was glaring directly at Elixir. A deadly Cockatrice was staring her right in the eyes, “Oh Fiddlesticks…”, was all she could say before trying to get away. But it was already too late, her hindlegs had been turned into stone which resulted in her falling down to the ground, giving the creature free game.
The more the poor young mare tried to pull away the more she seemed to be embraced
by the cold stone imprisonment. One last scream of pure terror did its turn through the haunted forest as faint words followed, “Help! Hel…”
There she laid, trying to escape the deadly gaze of the Cockatrice, one of her forelegs trying to prevent it as the other was used for supporting her body, but everything was for nothing. The last thing Elixir would see for the upcoming thousand years, was the sight of the creature bounding her to stone set on her retina.
Chapter 1
“Oh my, you poor thing! Hey Fluttershy do you mind if we bring this lost pony to your cottage?”, a mulberry Unicorn mare spoke to a yellow Pegasus. The Pegasus just had finished subduing the, or a, Cockatrice and therefore might have saved a lot of lives.
The mulberry was standing before the statue of Elixir and was fearing the worst as the Pegasus came up as well, allowing her eyes to fall upon the mare, “O-okay then…”, was all she could bring out, “But be careful, please Twilight.”
She gave a small nod before summoning an immense amount of magic through her horn in order to levitate the stoned statue. After a lot of mental stress, the imprisoned mare came off of the ground for the first time in a millennium as Twilight softly mumbled, “Wow I never thought such a skinny pony could weigh as much as stone!”
After a long but careful walk through the forest, the Unicorn and the Pegasus did reach the small cottage and the statue was placed in the living room. Fluttershy began to take care for her little critters where Twilight began to do her best to unstone the mare, panting heavily from the already burned up magic.
More and more magic slowly began to surround the statue as the stone started to drip off of the body, revealing a truly feared Elixir underneath it. She slowly regained the strength in her limbs while her bones all cracked from not moving in ages. She wanted to scream from the Cockatrice, but then blinked a couple times as she saw where she was, “Ugh where... Am... I?”, she softly groaned.
“You're in my house”, spoke Fluttershy as she returned into the living room in reaction to the second voice coming from it, “My n-name is Fluttershy and this i-is Twilight Sparkle.”
“And who are you?” Twilight butted in.
“The name is Elixir, and I didn’t realize there was a big town like this around these parts…”
“But PonyVille has been here for years, ever since my grandmother for sure.”, replied Twilight.
“PonyVille? I’ve never heard of it.”, said Elixir as her mind began to think about the name.
“How can you never of heard of PonyVille?”, queried Fluttershy.
“Well last thing I remember is being attacked by a huge three headed dog that froze to stone, but that must just be a dream because that's impossible right?”, stammered
the fatigued Elixir.
“Hmm a Cerberus you say? But they haven't been seen in around a thousand years! But as you say it must just be a dream.”, Twilight eventually concluded, “But how did you end up in the forest?”
“I can’t really remember but in my dream I was wandering around before getting lost… But as you say it must be a dream as I wasn’t alive one thousand years ago!”
Fluttershy then had an idea but she didn’t want to say it in front of her guest. All of the sudden Spike bursted into the normally so quiet cottage. The slamming of the door nearly gave Elixir an heart attack as the little dragon began to speak in a blurted manner, “Twilight, what's the news? Can I help in any way?”
Twilight released a small but thoughtful moan before speaking again, “Well you can start by showing Elixir here around town and introducing her to some of our friends. Come to think of it… I never asked you, Elixir where are you from?”
The mare also began to grind her mind again as she said, “I... I...can’t remember, I just can’t... But you’re saying about a tour around town that sounds nice...”
Once Elixir had left with Spike in order to meet the rest of the group of friends the mares had, see everypony’s houses and the disco of Vinyl Scratch, Twilight hastily turned her attention to Fluttershy and spoke, “I think that when she was talking about her dream I think that it really happened!”
“But that’s impossible, you said it yourself right?”, quivered Fluttershy, “You said a Cerberus-thingy hasn’t been seen for one thousand years right?”
“Yes…”, came the reply, “But remember when she talked about the Cerberus turning to stone? Maybe she was frozen along with it one thousand years ago by a Cockatrice.”
Fluttershy looked a little questioning before saying, “So she’s ad ancient pony, that explains her not knowing about PonyVille…”
“Well done, yes but if a Cerberus was also frozen doesn’t that mean that it’s somewhere in the Everfree forest?”
Fluttershy her eyes grew small as she managed to stutter forward, “Ohhh noooo, think of all the poor bunnies out there, we have to tell someone, or at least you have to...”
After some quick thinking Twilight made up her decision, “We can’t send a message to my brother as he is still in the Crystal Empire so as soon as Spike gets back we have to send a message to Celestia at Canterlot and hope she sends aid in time.”
Time passed by and still no sign from Spike or Elixir. Twilight was about to go and find Spike herself and tell him off for being so long when right at the moment he burst through the door looking rather pleased with himself. “And what is the meaning of this lateness and where is Elixir?”, queried Twilight.
“When we were visiting ponies, Applejack suggested that, because of Elixir’s interest in nature and science, that she should take potions lessons with Zecora, I came back to tell you once we reached her house, she should be coming back soon enough.”
“What?”, yelled Twilight, “Quick, send this to Celestia.” She frantically scribbled down a
message explaining the whole situation down on a piece of paper Fluttershy had laying around. When the dragon was given the message, he rushed out of the door and sent the letter on its way with his breath. But as he did, he was still wondering what he had done wrong.
Fluttershy was quivering in the corner while Twilight was pacing back and forth as her mind was trying to come up with a plan.
Around half an hour had past as Elixir was trotting back home, or to Fluttershy’s cottage, after her first lesson in potion making. But as she wandered through the forest, a familiar roar did its turn in the distance, the mare looked up to who, or what it might be before her brain remembered just what it was. “Oh no, not this again!”, she began to change her pace into a gallop and just ran away from the sound. But it seemed like the more she moved away the closer it got, heart was pounding in her throat as her hooves were moving like a blur.
Elixir sped through the woods until she stranded upon an small area she knew all too well, on into the woods until she entered a strangely familiar clearing. “Oh please, Celestia help me! Why me, why is it alwa...”, she was abruptly cut off by a blood-curdling roar as the massive Cerberus leaped over the trees and landed right in front of Elixir who was trying to keep calm while slowly backing away until a crack of a dead branch breaking did its turn through the small plain, “Dammit.”, Elixir muttered under a her breath.
The monster turned two of its heads around which both snarled, spinning on the spot, this resulting in large marks to be left in the in the sickly green grass. It snapped at Elixir whom was close to crying. But her mind brought back many memories from her past, memories suppressed so long ago. Memories of how her family was cast out of the settlement they had once called home, how her mother had died trying to fend off a small band of changelings, how she made the mistake of wandering too far and how her father must of felt.
Then in that second a spark of fire appeared in her eyes. Without a hitch she confronted the beast head-on, firing bolts of magic into its eyes before leaping out of the way of giant paws just in time. But then it was over, the fire had been put out and the monster was just even more enraged.
“Oh fiddlesticks”, she panted before bolting away, weaving past trees and animals, leaping over fallen trees while dodging and ducking the beast’s every strike, but she couldn’t keep this up for long, Elixir was slowing down while realizing what was going to happen, she decided that she would use the last bits of her strength on fighting the beast. She was not going to let PonyVille be destroyed.
As she reached the clearing where it all started again, thus having walked in a circle, she skidded round and summoned an immense amount of magic to form a giant chain, it wrapped itself around the Cerberus, tightening and squeezing the beasts three necks and enveloping its legs in a red mass of writhing metal. But then the inevitable happened as Elixir couldn’t maintain such a powerful spell for long which as a result had the beast shattering the chains. As it stumbled, the mighty beast tried to take a hit at Elixir who began to scream in pure terror.
She was just about to be mashed into pony pulp when a white Pegasus broke through the trees and began to fly circles around the monster, Elixir witnessed this sight and just stared at the bold pony, both relieved and love-struck. The Pegasus was of average height and had a grey and turquoise mane, he wore dark shades, his cutie mark was of a Spartan helmet and he had straight, calm features and was risking his life for no reason, thought Elixir to herself in her lovestruck state. But if he knew what was going on, why didn’t he brought any form of extra support, but she couldn’t hate him as he was risking his life for her and being quite the dashing stallion in her eyes.
But then an idea formed in Elixir’s head, she waved frantically to the Pegasus and he seemed mesmerized for a second but then shouted, “You should join the other ponies back at the border my guards will keep you safe.”
Elixir thought for a second, discarding the idea and shouted back, “I have a plan that doesn’t involve you flying aimlessly in circles without even damaging the beast, I learned how to make a sleep potion that will cause anything to dream the deepest dream you can”, the now known to be guard nodded before she shouted again, “It will take a few moments to prepare the concoction, so keep the beast occupied!”
Elixir rushed off into a bush in order to find the necessary ingredients, “Let’s see what do we need?”, she muttered softly, but luckily for her, Zecora was so kind enough to give her some of the required ingredients. “All that is needed now is a few red berries and something to hold the mixture.”, Elixir quickly found the berries in the buses and improvised with a small flask that contained some apple juice from Fluttershy’s house to hold the sticky paste, “Not exactly perfect but it will do!”
At that moment two other ponies burst into the scene while galloping on their hooves, Elixir didn’t think they would be much help as they just stood amazed at their captain doing circles around the beast and diving at its eye. But just then Elixir ran back into the clearing and raised the flask with the very last of her magic.
While she did this, the captain asked to her, “Is that small flask going to be enough to bring down this behemoth?” As much as this was the question indeed, Elixir didn’t give any answer and instead dropped emptied the contents of the flask down one of the Cerberus’ snapping mouths.
As the monster crashed to the ground Elixir saw the beast look her in the eyes and then she had memories of it chasing her and she became weak and lightheaded. The last thing Elixir saw was the guard captain swooping down to catch her fall.
“Why didn’t you listen to me and leave the Cerberus?” Beside a mares hospital bed a stallion lay crying with tears rolling down his cheeks, it was late in the day and the stallion had been there all day just watching and being filled with gut wrenching guilt. Eventually the stallion cried himself to sleep and in his dream he seemed to have travelled back to past events. He and the other guards had to travel on hoof to reach Ponyville as the Canterlot station is under maintenance. As they galloped through the forests and valleys of Equestria, shimmering guardian (who was the captain of this band of stallions) heard murmuring from the ranks and inquired, “Who do I hear chattering behind me? We need to stay focused on the task; no distractions allowed”.
After this comment none of the guards spoke another word except one young, headstrong stallion who couldn’t just stay quiet and asked Shimmering Guardian, “Why are we going to Ponyville? No pony briefed us, we were just told to meet you at the castle”. At this sentence all the other guards pricked up their ears which indicated to their captain that this was what they were talking about and he realised he had forgotten to brief the guards on their task. He then turned his neck around to them and shouted to make sure he would not need to repeat himself. “This is perhaps the hardest foe we have faced, according to a source from Ponyville a Cerberus has been spotted in the Everfree forest right outside Ponyville but that is not our target, our target is to secure the mares of harmony and bring them to the safety of Canterlot. Has everypony got that?” as he finished all the guards looked at him and nodded.
A few minutes later, Shimmer, using his wings with such grace, flew up to see a view of Ponyville and to see if they would need to hurry or not. At first everything seemed fine until he heard a thud and incoming from the distance was a huge beast that knocked over trees when it walks. Once Shimmer saw the threat he dropped back down to the other guards and exclaimed hastily “Let’s step it up guards of the empire we have ponies to save and we are as close to Ponyville as the Cerberus”. Once he shouted these words the guards galloped harder than they ever had apart from Shimmer who took a short cut over the road and over the forest realising that they would not make it in time to secure the six before the Cerberus reached Ponyville. However, the closer he got, the closer the beast got to their primary directive. After a minute of flying intensely he reached Ponyville but noticed that the Cerberus was not attacking the town so he waited for his guards to reach Ponyville.
He gave orders to the first stallion to reach him and then he would relay the messages to the rest of the guards. The first guard to reach the captains side was the young stallion obviously wanting to prove he was better than the others and he stood to attention breathing heavily and asked shimmer “Sir! What are your orders?” Shimmer then explained what he saw and what he and the other guards are to secure the six and evacuate Ponyville, under his orders. “No matter what happens to me you need to carry on with your job and Shield, you’re in command”. After this order was given to the guard he nodded knowing what would happen to Shimmer as soon as he left for the Cerberus to stop himself from considering what would befall his captain as he fought the terrible beast, he turned around the other guards and told them what to do and kept them as busy as possible.
Shimmer didn’t look back at his decision and flew up trying to scout out after the Cerberus. He thought for a few seconds that his eyes deceived him as he saw a lone mare trying to take the Cerberus one on one but he saw that she was getting tired of running away and dodging its attacks when she only scraped the huge animal. Without another moment’s hesitation he swooped down and grabbed the attention of the animal. He also appeared to have the attention of the unknown mare yet he was too busy to even notice her as he was weakening the Cerberus down but at the same time he was wearing down his own stamina too.
Several minutes after Shimmer had left the other guards to evacuate Ponyville and secure the six, they had completed their task and Shield and the young stallion went in search of their captain. They immediately heard the uproar being caused by the weakening Cerberus and galloped towards it as they feared the worst had happened to their captain. Little did they know that on the other side of the trees that the mare that had stayed back until she had formulated a plan as she realised that it was too large to take on with just the two of them, the mare began waving her arms to catch Shimmer’s attention. Shimmer then turns round to see her waving her hooves frantically but he took one look at her and was mesmerized by her beauty and the longer he looked at her a flame of passion became from an ember to a roaring flame.
After what seemed like an hour of staring at her beautiful face, Shimmer eventually snapped out of it and yelled “You should join the other ponies back at the border my guards will keep you safe”. After seconds of doing this the mysterious mare replied “I have a plan that doesn’t involve you flying aimlessly in circles without even damaging the beast, I recently learned how to make a sleep potion that will cause anything to dream the deepest dream you can”. Once she explained her plan Shimmer nodded and the mare told him “It will take a few moments to prepare the concoction so keep the beast occupied”. As she went to go get the ingredients the two guards arrive on the scene and are stunned to see the captain fighting the gigantic beast single handed he saw the guards and told them “stay back and don’t make any loud noises” both of the stallions looked at each other in perplex wondering how being alone will help him.
A few minutes later the mare returned with a small flask filled with a purple liquid, Shimmer saw her immediately and he revelled in her beauty for a while yet somehow not crashing into one of the many trees in the forest “Is that small flask going to be enough to bring down this behemoth” he yelled doubtfully to the purple mare. She then gave no reply and ran to the front end of the animal and used her magic to raise the flask above her head way up to the mouth of the Cerberus she then, using her horn opened the flasks topper and poured it into the mouth of the beast. The Cerberus then became slower and fell to the floor with a loud yawn and stared at the mare. She then fainted for reasons unknown to the guards, fearing the worst for her, Shimmer scooped her up into his hooves, turned to the two guards and said, “I will get our saviour to a hospital in Canterlot, you two and the others get this animal in captivity and oversee recovery efforts”.
Both the stallions nodded at the captain yet both knew why Shimmer was taking the mare to the hospital personally. Shimmer then hoisted her into the air as if she were precious cargo as he did this the six looked into the air at him or so he thought, they began chatting to one another and he flew his way to Canterlot hospital faster than he had ever flown and as they got close he spoke to her 4 words, “Hang in my love” he spoke so sincerely even though he knew she couldn’t hear him. Slowly Shimmer awakens once more at the side of the mares bed he sees her awake and he is unsure of what to do so he breaks the ice with, “Hello my name is shimmering guardian are you feeling well now ma’am?” He hopes she will answer him soon and as she looks at his magenta coloured eyes, she says in a light tone, “I am thanks to you. My name is Elixir so don’t call me ma’am and why did you saveme? The nurses told me that you brought me in last night in a hurry, as if I was hurt but even though the doctor told you I had only passed out you never left my side. Why?”
Elixir looked at Shimmer searching for an answer he begins to blush, Elixir realises why he was blushing and asked Shimmer in a questioning voice, “Do you like me?”. At this point Shimmer was not in a state to talk so he only nods lightly and all of a sudden a tear comes to Elixir’s eye she. Seconds later she was in tears and Shimmer goes closer to her to comfort her he then asks, “Why are you crying Elixir?”, then, through the tears, Elixir turns around to Shimmer her cheeks soaked and stares deeply into his eyes and as he does the same to her she finally breaks her glance and says to him, “I can’t remember the last time I felt like this”, she then hugged Shimmer hard.
Then he tenderly spoke to her “Maybe this will refresh your memory”. After speaking he kissed her cheek and Elixir blushed. As Shimmer began to leave he said “I will be back in about half an hour you aren’t going anywhere are you” he looked for an indication from her but she was still blushing from the one kiss, she then snapped out of her thoughts and spoke very quietly to Shimmer “Yeah I guess that would be ok” obviously oblivious to what Shimmer actually asked her. Shimmer then returns to the hospital in exactly half an hour true to his word holding a freshly picked rose in his mouth then he walked into Elixir’s room and saw her reading the latest fashion magazine to see what gets called fashion when she saw Rarity in it and gasped. This was when Shimmer coughed intentionally and Elixir looked up and as soon as she did she began blushing again. She then placed down the fashion magazine then she asked her guardian inquisitively “Where did you go?” Shimmer then looked a bit embarrassed asked his mare in distress “Would y-y-you like to go for a p-picnic with me?” he was waiting for the crushing blow from Elixir. She looked at his face and almost instantaneously spoke “yes of course I would love to”. She looked at her guardian with a grin and then Shimmer trotted closer to Elixir and gave her the freshly picked rose and said to her, “I hope you like roses” Elixir then began to weep once more and then she kissed Shimmer tenderly on the neck.
After this Shimmer began to blush and he helped Elixir out of bed. Later, after Elixir was discharged from Canterlot hospital, Shimmer took Elixir for a tour of Canterlot, they ended at Canterlot castle but by now it was midday and Shimmer spoke to Elixir “Come inside I need to grab something from the kitchen quickly” Elixir nodded at Shimmer’s request. As they both trotted down to the kitchen holding hooves they passed by Celestia who began to giggle for a reason that was unclear, as they reached the royal kitchen there were a few saddlebags on the counter reading “have fun Shimmer sincerely, cook” as he read them Shimmer grabbed the bags and explained to Elixir “Would you like to eat the picnic in the royal gardens I have a favourite spot where you can see the moon glimmer so perfectly at night”. He then turned to Elixir awaiting approval and she nodded her head in excitement.
After a while of trotting through Canterlot gardens, Shimmer stopped suddenly and began setting up the picnic blanket and as he did this Elixir began to giggle uncontrollably thinking about the prospect of having a very special somepony. Shimmer turned around and pointed to the picnic blanket and asked Elixir “will you sit on the blanket and have some lunch” Elixir then trotted over to the red and white checkered blanket and replied “I would love to sit down. Isn’t his dinner as it is almost night?” Shimmer nodded and joined her on the blanket they then tucked into the delicious buffet that was given to Shimmer by the cook, as they ate Shimmer saw Luna walk out of the Canterlot spire and was about to raise the moon.
Both Shimmer and Elixir looked at the sky as it turned from a dim red that created a beautiful scene then almost instantly the sky became a beautiful azure blue that was dotted with small glimmers of light and a big statuesque moon that lit up the night sky. Both ponies gaped in awe at the beauty of the night then they both turned to each other Elixir spoke first “this day has been perfect” they were lost in each other’s eyes until Shimmer moved closer and spoke “Maybe this will make it better” he then passionately kissed Elixirs muzzle and as he did so she was first was surprised but she then passionately kissed him back. After a minute they broke the tender embrace for air and as they did no one spoke until Elixir spoke quietly “You really are my guardian and my hero” Shimmer then looks at her about to comment on the bright stars when he sees that Elixir has drifted off to a sleep and all Shimmer does is look into her eyes and speaks to her “Goodnight my love may you sleep like a filly” after speaking those words Shimmer joins his special somepony in the realm of sleep. Shimmer is abruptly awoken by a laughing sound in front of them he looks up and sees it is Celestia and stands to attention.
Whilst doing this he interrupts Elixirs sleep and she awakens to the princess and stands straight up with a curtsy. Celestia begins to walk and Shimmer follows asking whether he can return to PonyVille with Elixir but before he could finish his request celestia says sarcastically, “I thought you said that girlfriends made a soldier weak” she laughs little did they know that behind was Elixir with a bright red face. Shimmer replies to celestia “That was before I met Elixir” both still oblivious that Elixir was listening her face became as bright as Celestia’s sun and her heart melted for Shimmer. Although what Shimmer said to Celestia, Celestia still said no to his request as she still needed a captain of the guard as shining armour and cadence were still in the crystal empire on their honeymoon and to keep an eye on the crystal ponies. Shimmer eventually persuades Celestia “Let me return to PonyVille with Elixir to check on every pony and to see whether the Cerberus has been placed in captivity” after he speaks these words Celestia finally gives in to Shimmer’s hopes.
He turns round and sees Elixir, who he realised had heard the whole conversation he then tries to get a word out of his mouth but he can’t and the longer he tries the brighter his cheeks get. Celestia is standing beside him and whispers one inspirational sentence “Go to your love” he then turns to Celestia, nods and gallops to Elixir and passionately speaks to her “Lets got to PonyVille my love” we then see the mare and her very special stallion walk to the PonyVille train station both still holding hooves and their flames of passion at an unbeatable roar.
