Chapters Dark clouds churned angrily in the sky as the Oder-naries approached the citadel of the demon Tau'rin. Despite the gravity of the situation and the fact that they were running short on time, the Spirit Master had to stop and admire the building before him. Whistling appreciatively, he said, "I have to hand it to him, he's really made a good one this time, and in rather short order."
"Come on," the Mage said, tugging his teammate's arm, "We've got a job to do, remember?"
"Yeah yeah," the Spirit Master said with a sigh, "round… what are we on now?"
"I lost count at ten," his sister said.
"This will be the thirteenth," the Mechanic said, "good thing we don't believe in luck right?" she added with a weak smile.
"Nope, just track records," the Mage said as the four approached the citadels' gate, which stood tall and solid before, mocking any who would think of breaching it, "and I don't need to remind you all how terrible ours has been." He pulled a spell card out of his pocket and pressed it against the gate. Orange light slowly spread out from the card for a second, only to retract violently and blast the Mage away from the gate.
"Ash!" the Spirit Master's sister exclaimed in horror.
"I'm good," the Mage said, picking himself up, "nothing broken." He reached up and moved the eyepiece of the computer on his head in front of his right eye. "Basic despell didn't work PC," he said in the computer's mike, "Any ideas?" Text flashed across the transparent eyepiece, and the Mage frowned in annoyance. "Well excuse me for preferring subtlety," he griped, reaching into the bag at his waist. He pulled out a flawless ruby slightly smaller than his hand and held it out toward the door, focusing his magic into it. The ruby glowed brightly before releasing a wide beam of light that hit the gate, causing it to explode in flames. Once the ashy remains of the gate crumbled away, the ruby was snatched out of the Mage's hand by an unseen force deep in the darkness of the citadel. "Skvetch!" the Mage swore, "Played right into his hand!"
"We've still got three of the others," the Mechanic pointed out.
"Truth," the Mage said, pulling out another spell card, "Well, no time like the present. Let's move!" The group ran inside, only to find themselves surrounded by a thick darkness. The Mage attempted several light-producing spells, only to have them swallowed up by the gloom. An evil laugh filled the air, followed by a deep, condescending voice.
"Come now, my persistent foes," it said, "Surely you can do better than this. It's just a simple shadow."
"Tau'rin," the Spirit Master said, "Show yourself!"
"Make me," the taunting reply seemed to come from everywhere at once. The Spirit Master reached out and found his sister's hand, gripping it tight as the two of them began to glow with a blue ethereal fire. The darkness retreated, but only enough to allow the Order-naries to see on another. The sister raised her free hand, and the flames around her began gathering on front of her palm, turning into a disc of energy divided into four colored quadrants. With a shout, she threw it out and directed it as it spun around the group and then spiraled out until it was swallowed by the darkness. Tau'rin laughed again as the Spirit Master and sister scowled in frustration.
"We don't have a choice, do we?" the sister said, reaching into her pack. She pulled out a large diamond that was quickly sucked away into the shadows.
"New strategy," the Mage hissed, "Don't bring out the others."
"Aw, now where's the fun in that?" The darkness vanished and the group found themselves standing before Tau'rin, the demon of chaos, grinning maniacally at them. At his feet sat the ruby, diamond, and three other gems of similar size and cut. "Of course, you'd hardly stand a chance anyway," he said, "Why don't you just give up? Time and again you've failed to stop me from gathering the Gems."
"We won't stop," the Mage said, "Not until we've brought an end to your march of destruction."
Tau'rin's grin faded. "Could it be possible that your attempts to stop me are what really brings down the destruction? Twelve worlds lost to the ultimate chaos under your watch, my adversaries. Does that not drag at you? Give it up, submit to my control, and I may let you live."
"Not now, not ever," the Mage said.
"So be it," Tau'rin said as his eyes began to glow, "then die now." The gems at his feet began to glow, and were quickly joined by those still in the Oder-naries possession. Tau'rin's face went slack as the glowing approached blinding levels.
"Ah, crap!" the Spirit Master said, "Not again!"
"Hold tight everyone," the Mechanic said, pulling the Mage in close to her as she plunged her hand into her pack to grip the Gem inside. The entire group gathered in close and squeezed their eyes as they and Tau'rin became enveloped in the energy of the Chaotic Gems. The ground beneath them began shaking as the combined energy began tearing holes in the fabric of reality. The last thing they heard before the ground gave way under them and they were swept into the numbing void between worlds was Tau'rin's emotionless declaration of "Ultimate Chaos."
It was a beautiful day, just as planned. The only clouds in the sky had been carefully arranged to break up the endless blue of the sky without imposing on the sun's light. Twilight Sparkle was walking down the main street of Ponyville, heading toward the Carousel Boutique to meet up with Rarity for lunch. Lunch was actually going to be hosted by Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, but since Spike had disappeared about an hour ago, Twilight figured she could check the most likely place he'd go and meet up with one of her friends at the same time. Since Spike would do any chore Rarity asked of him, Twilight took a quick look around the outside of the Boutique to see if he was trying his claws at caring for the bushes. He was nowhere to be seen, so she went inside. The bell tinkled as the door opened and Rarity called out from another room, "One minute please, I'll be right with you." Twilight waited, looking over the outfits Rarity had on display, until the white unicorn came down the stairs. "Oh, hello Twilight," Rarity said, surprised, "What brings you here?"
"I'm looking for Spike," Twilight said, "I was wondering if he came here."
"Oh, I see," Rarity said, "He did come by to see me. He was getting underhoof, so I sent him off to fetch some things. He'll probably be back in a few hours."
"Ok," Twilight said, "So, are you still going to Applejack's lunch?"
"Of course I am," Rarity declared with a toss of her mane, "I wouldn't miss it. Just give me a moment and I'll walk with you." She trotted into the back of the boutique and returned with a pair of small saddlebags on her back. As she joined Twilight, the purple unicorn caught a whiff of fresh greens.
"Are you bringing food?" Twilight asked, a little surprised, "I thought AJ was providing everything."
"Well, yes," Rarity said, averting her eyes, "But knowing her, everything will be apples in some form or another. Not that there's anything wrong with apples of course," she added quickly.
"I get it," Twilight said with a smile, "Pinkie's definitely going to bring something anyway. Shall we go?" Rarity nodded and the two turned to leave. Before they took a single step toward the door, the sound of a loud bang ripped through the air followed a few seconds later by the thud of something landing just outside the building. "What in the world was that?" Twilight exclaimed.
"I don't know," Rarity replied, "The first one sounded sort of like the Sonic Rainboom, but that second sound…" The two ponies hurried outside and found a large green gemstone half-buried in a small crater in the ground. "Looks like this is the culprit," Rarity said, lifting the stone out with her magic. She looked it over and smiled. "Why, what a perfect emerald," she said appreciatively, "I simply must find some way to show it off properly." She ran back into the boutique.
"What about lunch?" Twilight called after her.
"Yes, yes," Rarity said, coming back out, "I can't create a masterpiece on an empty stomach. I've just put it away for now. Let's go." The two friends began making their way toward Sweet Apple Acres.
"I wonder where that gem came from," Twilight mused as they walked. A shadow fell over her and Rarity and the two looked up to see Rainbow Dash pulling a cloud through the air. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out.
Dash released the cloud and looked down. "Hey girls," she called back, "Don't mind me. That blast knocked some the clouds out of position. I'll have them fixed in a jiffy."
"Did you cause that blast?" Rarity asked.
"Nope," Rainbow said, grabbing the cloud again, "There's no point doing a Sonic Rainboom if I don't have an audience, and I'd never do one over Fluttershy's cottage. Not without warning her first that is."
"Over Fluttershy's?" Rarity asked, worried, "Did… did you see what happened?"
"Nah, I was looking the other way at the time," Dash said, "It sounded like it came from somewhere around Fluttershy's place or the Everfree Forest though."
"We'll go check it out Rainbow," Twilight said, "sorry to disturb your work."
"Puh-lease," the blue Pegasus said, "I'll have this fixed up in fifteen seconds, flat." She zoomed away with the cloud in tow as Twilight shook her head in amusement for a moment.
"This is strange," Twilight said as she and Rarity resumed their walk, "A sonic boom unrelated to Rainbow, and then a big emerald lands at your doorstep Rarity. I wonder if they're connected?" She looked around as they walked through Ponyville. Many ponies had come out of their houses and shops when the blast had occurred, and most were returning to their normal activities since nothing else had happened. So far as Twilight could see, there were no other craters or gemstones anywhere. I guess Rarity's emerald was the only one , she thought, But that still doesn't explain where it came from. If only someone had seen what caused that- her thoughts were interrupted by a shout. She and Rarity, and everypony else nearby, stopped what they were doing and turned to look. A pale yellow pegasus pony was galloping down the road toward them, yelling for help. "Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, trotting toward the oncoming pegasus. Fluttershy skid to a stop in front of Twlight and took a minute to catch her breath. "What's wrong?" Twilight asked.
"Something horrible has happened," Fluttershy said in her quiet voice, "I was checking on my chickens before heading to Applejack's, when all of a sudden there was this big boom right over my head. I looked up and saw four ponies falling out of the sky. They almost landed right on top of me! I think they're alive, but they're unconscious."
Rarity and Twilight looked at each other. "Well," Twilight said, "looks like Rainbow's guess was right. Rarity, would you mind telling Applejack that I'll be late to lunch?" Rarity nodded and galloped off. "Fluttershy," Twilight continued, "go get the doctor. I'll run ahead to your place in case they wake up before you get back."
"Right," Fluttershy said. She ran off as Twilight headed in the direction of Fluttershy's house. I wonder what happened? She thought as she galloped, mid-air collision? That wouldn't create so much noise unless somepony was trying a Sonic Rainboom. That's assuming they were all pegasi. Fluttershy didn't say what kind of ponies they were, so maybe they're unicorns caught in a failed spell… Her thoughts continued in this vein until she reached Fluttershy's place and saw the ponies lying in a heap just outside the chicken pen. She trotted over to take a closer look. Two of them were male unicorns, one dark grey with a red and orange mane that looked like fire and the other golden yellow with brown mane. The other two were a female pegasus that matched the second unicorn's coloring and a female Earth pony of pale brown body and mud-brown mane. Twilight did her best to untangle them from each other and lay them in a row, and then sat back and waited. A couple minutes later she heard the sound of hooves approaching and turned to see Pinkie Pie coming down the road at her signature bouncy canter.
"What are you doing here Pinkie?" Twilight asked when the pink pony drew near.
"Hi Twilight," Pinkie said, "I heard from Fluttershy that some new ponies just showed up and you know what that means for me, right?"
"Right," Twilight said with a small smile, "However, these four aren't in any shape for a party right now." She pointed to the unconscious ponies. Pinkie walked over and looked at each one in turn.
"Oh dear," she said, shaking her head, "This won't do at all! It's too nice a day to be sleeping right now, especially since there's going to be a party." Before Twilight could react, Pinkie ran inside Fluttershy's house, re-emerged with a pitcher of water in her mouth, and tossed its contents onto the ponies. The grey unicorn started to stir, so Pinkie dropped the pitcher and ran over to put her face close to his.
"Uh, Pinkie," Twilight said, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Sure," Pinkie replied, "You can't feel bad waking up to this face." She gave Twilight a broad, cutesy grin and then turned it on the unicorn. His eyes slowly blinked open, and then widened in surprise as he registered the sight of Pinkie Pie grinning in his face.
He closed his eyes quickly and groaned, "Ah, skvetch . I've fallen back into Sugar Land, haven't I?"
"No silly!" Pinkie said, "You're in Ponyville! Sugar Land sounds like a fun place though. Have you been there before? What's it like?"
The unicorn opened one eye and regarded Pinkie for a few seconds before speaking again. "You're serious," he said flatly, "Wonderful." He opened his other eye, turned his head, and spotted Twilight. "Small purple unicorn," he muttered, "Good. Sensible creatures, usually. Feh." With great effort, he picked himself up, trying to stand on only his rear legs. With a yelp, he lost his balance and fell forward onto his face. "Gravity feels normal," he said after spitting out some dust, "My center of gravity must be off. Why would that…" he trailed off as he looked himself over, his expression growing ever more disconcerted until he lay there as still as a statue, staring at his front hooves like he'd never seen them before.
"Are… you ok?" Twilight asked, concerned.
"I have hooves. Again. Fantastic" the strange unicorn said with growing sarcasm. Twilight and Pinkie, unsure of how to respond, simply stared at him. With a sigh, the unicorn stood up properly and began to pace, muttering to himself. The yellow unicorn stirred, rolled himself on his belly and raised his head with a moan.
"Ash," he asked, "what are you complaining about over there? Where are…" he trailed off as he opened his eyes and looked at the grey unicorn. "No way," he said, "Seriously?"
"Seriously," the first unicorn said, "check out the girls if you aren't convinced." He pointed to the two female ponies, who were just now starting to awaken. The earth pony's eyes opened first, and her mouth dropped open as she caught sight of the other ponies around her.
The pegasus coughed a couple times as she came to, and then looked around in confusion. "Um… ok," she said.
"Good morning," the grey Unicorn said, trotting over and helping the pegasus to her feet while the yellow unicorn helped the earth pony. "Let's get some privacy and collect our bearings, shall we?" he finished, casting a glance at Twilight and Pinkie. The other three nodded slowly and followed him as he trotted away, somewhat clumsily, toward the Everfree Forest.
"Now what was that about?" Pinkie asked.
"I don't know," Twilight said, "But I'm going to find out." She ran to catch up with the ponies and said, "Excuse me." The grey unicorn glared at her and lashed out with a back hoof in her direction. He missed by a mile, but Twilight came to a stop and let them run off. "Fine then," she said grumpily, "I'm only trying to help here." She walked back toward Pinkie Pie and saw Fluttershy galloping up the road followed by Nurse Redheart.
"Oh dear, where did they go?" Fluttershy asked when she arrived.
"They woke up and ran off," Twilight explained, pointing in the direction the strange ponies had gone.
"How did they seem?" Redheart asked.
"Confused and a bit unsteady," Twilight said, "I don't think they got very far; one of them said something about needing privacy."
"After taking a fall like Fluttershy described, the last thing they need is to be alone," the nurse said, "We've got to find them." She ran off in the direction Twilight had indicated, with Twilight and Fluttershy just a few steps behind. A few yards short of the entrance to Everfree, they heard pony voices off to their right and slowed to a stop. As they approached the bushes the voices seemed to be coming from, an ethereal blue glow appeared from behind the bushes for a few seconds, faded away, and then came back again briefly.
"Well, that's just not fair," the grey unicorn's voice said when the glow faded again, "you still have your powers while I'm stuck with next to nothing." Redheart, Twilight, and Fluttershy exchanged a glance and moved cautiously to peer around the bushes. The matching unicorn and Pegasus were sitting next to each other in a clearing facing the grey unicorn, who looked mildly put-out, while the earth pony sat off to the side with her back to Twilight's group.
"This is hardly an ideal substitute for our full power Ash," the yellow unicorn said, "We have to be in physical contact with each other, and we only seem to have access to Element Wheel. Besides, you wound up with a horn this time; that must count for something."
"Good point," the unicorn called Ash said, standing up, "Ok then, here are the facts: The Gems and Tau'rin are somewhere in this world, of course, we have no clues to their location and-" he stopped suddenly upon spotting the ponies in the bushes. "And clearly the concept of privacy is not respected around here," he finished with narrowed eyes. The other three turned to see what Ash was looking at.
"Don't be so harsh," the earth pony said, turning back toward the unicorn, "We did just fall out of the sky after all."
Ash sighed and addressed Twilight and company, "Ok, I appreciate the concern and all ladies, but believe me, we've gone through worse; a simple fall's not going to kill us. Come on Team, we better get searching." He marched off and the others fell into line behind him; they were headed straight into the Forest.
"Where do you think you're going?" Nurse Redheart demanded, stepping out from behind the bush.
Ash stopped suddenly with a surprised look on his face. "That… is a very good question," he said in a low voice. He looked over his shoulder and regarded the ponies for a moment. "One's liable to get lost wandering about in unfamiliar lands," he said at last.
The yellow pegasus's stomach growled suddenly. "Ah," she said, giggle a little, "Food would be good too."
"Really?" Pinkie Pie practically exploded out of the bush, leaping over the startled ponies in front of it. "You should join Twilight and me and everyone else for lunch then!" she declared with unbridled enthusiasm. Ash and his companions just stared at the pink pony.
"I don't think Applejack would mind,' Fluttershy said, "I'm sure she's made enough that four more ponies won't make a difference."
"I am a little hungry," the earth pony said, giving Ash a glance. The grey unicorn returned it and sighed.
"Fine," he said, "lead the way."
The group (minus Nurse Redheart, who had left after making sure nopony had a concussion) arrived at Sweet Apple Acres to find that lunch was barely getting started. A large table had been set out in the barnyard, courtesy of Big Macintosh, and covered with a variety of food. To Twilight's relief, only half the choices seemed to involve apples. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were already eating, and Applejack was reaching for a salad when she spotted the new arrivals. She turned the reach into a wave and called out "Hey y'all! I was startin' to worry ya weren't gonna make it! I see y'all brought some new faces."
"I hope you don't mind Applejack," Twilight said as her group gathered around the table, "These four just… showed up."
"We fell out of the sky," the brown earth pony said, "And we're quite all right, so don't worry about that."
"Ah," AJ said, looking worried and then forcing a smile, "Welcome to Ponyville, I guess."
"Thank you," the yellow Pegasus said cheerily, "This food looks good; did you make it all?"
"Most of it," Applejack said, "with a little help from my folks. Go on and help yerself Miss… uh, I didn't catch your name?"
"Come to think of it," Twilght said, "I don't think you've told me your names yet."
The yellow unicorn smiled, rolled his eyes, and nudged the grey one in the shoulder. "You can thank our leader here," he said, "Master of not letting conversations go where he doesn't want them to."
"You know full well I prefer to limit the number of introductions I need to make," Ash said, aiming a snooty expression at the other unicorn. His face softened into a smile that was reflected by the yellow unicorn and the two stepped back from the table a few steps, where they were joined by the pegasus and earth pony. The grey, fire-maned pony opened his mouth to speak, but then shut it quickly and motioned his fellows into a huddle. They held a quick, whispered discussion before opening up again. "Right," the grey unicorn said, "you can call me Ashen Blaze."
"I'm Soul Mage," the golden-yellow unicorn said, and then pointed to the pegasus, "and this is Gold Heart, my twin sister."
"Sister?" Twilight and all her friends asked at the same time.
"What?" Gold Heart responded, confused, "You can't see it? We look exactly the same, except for these wings I guess…" she concluded, flapping her wings a little.
"That's the thing," Twilight said, "You have wings and he doesn't."
"Ah," Soul said with a face-hoof, "Right, forgot about that… This complicates things."
"Actually," Ashen Blaze said, "I think that helps." He approached the table and put his hooves up on the edge. "You see girls," he said, "My friends and I are not from this world at all. In fact, we're not actually ponies, but whatever flung us here decided we needed to look like the locals."
"If you aren't ponies, then what are you?" Pinkie asked.
"Uh…" Ash said as he looked to his friends. The earth pony and Heart both shook their heads. "That," Ash declared, looking back at Pinkie, "doesn't really matter. Suffice to say, where we come from, it's not strange that Heart and Soul are related." He got down as the other three returned to the table and started looking over the food.
"By the way," the earth pony said, "you call me Gale."
There was an awkward silence for a few moments, and then Twilight spoke up and asked, "So, uh, what brings you to Equestria?"
"Random chance, so far as I know," Ash said before selecting a plate of baked apples and dragging it closer to him with his mouth. "As to why we are here," he continued, "that is a long, repetitive, and rather depressing tale if we told it in its entirety." He began munching on one of the apples, ignoring the stares being directed at him.
Soul rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. "Short version," he said once he had everypony's attention, "There's this monster called Tau'rin that we've been chasing and fighting with across many worlds. Tau'rin seeks to conquer each world we wind up in, and we keep getting in his way. Along with us and Tau'rin, there are seven gemstones that get thrown about every time we travel to a new world. These gems, actually, six gems and a pearl, are the most powerful sources of magical energy we've ever seen. At each stop, we race to gather the gems back together before Tau'rin does, because if he gets all of them, the world we're in… doesn't last very long."
"Just what do ya mean by that?" Applejack asked.
Ash swallowed the last of his apple and gave AJ a sad look. "I hate to be the harbinger," he said, "but if Tau'rin gathers the seven Gems before we can stop him, your world will be destroyed. Sad to say, we haven't had much luck in the past." Gasps of horror rose up from around the table and Rainbow Dash flew over and shoved her face into Ash's.
"What's the big idea bringing all that here?" she demanded to know, "what have done to you, huh?"
"I am truly sorry," Ash, unfazed by the pegasus's anger or proximity, "All we've been able to do in the past is hitch a ride when the Gems and Tau'rin move along. We can't control the destination, and we've yet to find something besides the Gems that can hurt Tau'rin."
Rarity and Twilight exchanged a glance as they recalled the emerald that had appeared outside of the boutique. "These gems," Rarity said, "Would one of the happen to be an emerald?"
"Yes!" Ash said, "Have you seen it?"
"A large green emerald landed outside my store shortly after I heard the sound of your arrival," Rarity said, "I was planning to design a hat around it, since it's far too large for a necklace or dress, but if it's yours, I'll gladly return it to you."
Ash almost leapt up onto the table in his excitement. "Madam," he said, "You have no idea how easy you just made my life! Let's go get it!"
Soul and Gale grabbed onto the grey unicorn and pulled him off the table. "Calm down," Soul said, "We've been here, what, an hour or so? Tau'rin's not going to be able to find and snatch it up so soon. I bet he's still getting his bearings like we are. Let's slow down for a bit, enjoy lunch, and get to know these girls's names."
As Twilight observed the four newcomers as she and Rarity walked with them back to the boutique an hour or so later, she could see that they were definitely not ponies by nature. Their gaits were stiff and careful, as if they needed to think about moving on four legs. Many times during lunch they'd fumbled plates and bowls while trying to move them about, and neither unicorn has used his magic telekinesis at all. And although Gold Heart had shown she could move her wings, she remained as firmly on the ground as Fluttershy usually was. Twilight made a mental note to herself to try and teach them the basic tricks of being a pony after they'd retrieved the emerald. They wouldn't get very far if they couldn't do something as simple as lift an object with magic, after all. Heart and Rarity were discussing fashion while the two male unicorns and Gale were trading quips about things that only they seemed to understand, leaving Twilight to her own thoughts. As those thoughts traced their way back to earlier that day, she recalled that Spike was supposed to be delivering something to the boutique. "Rarity, when did you expect Spike to finish his errand?" she asked.
"Huh?" Rarity responded, caught off-guard, "Oh, let me think… Any time now I think."
"Who's Spike?" Heart asked.
"My assistant," Twilight said, "He's a baby dragon."
"You have a dragon for an assistant?" Ash asked, narrowing one eye at her, "A fire-breathing dragon?"
"Yes."
"You live and work in a library," Ash said, "which is built into a tree, with a baby fire-breathing dragon as an assistant?"
"He's very reliable," Twilight said, "And careful with his fire. He's only burnt up one book so far."
"I'll take your word for it," Ash said, deadpan. After a few seconds, he asked another question, "So, why's he be running an errand for Rarity then?"
Rarity laughed, a musical giggle really. "Oh, he's always trying to charm me," she said, "At least, when he's able to speak around me."
"And me and Heart being related is weird?" Soul muttered, giving Rarity a strange look. He smiled and shook his head when Rarity returned the look. "Never mind," he said, "I'm in no position to criticize."
"If you think I reciprocate his feelings," Rarity began with a glare.
"Ok, ok, sorry," Soul said, shying away, "forget I said anything." Rarity snorted, turned up her nose, and sped up a little to pull away from him. The rest of the walk to the boutique was accomplished in relative silence.
"Here we are," Rarity announced, opening the door, "the emerald's in the back, if you'll come with me." The group went inside and most stopped to look around as Rarity and Ash continued into the back. Rarity opened the door and paused until Ash motioned for her to go through first. "Why thank you," she said, pleased that at least one of the males was a gentleman. As the two entered the back room, their eyes fell upon a small purple dragon who was just about to bite into the large green emerald.
"Oh," was all Ash was able to say before Spike bit down. Ash and Rarity stared in horror for a split second, and then green light began spilling out of the now-broken gemstone. "RUN !" Ash shouted, whirling about and running through the door.
"Wha?" Rarity said in surprise. Ash stopped, came back, grabbed Rarity's tail in his teeth, and pulled.
"I said run !" he repeated before running for the front door. This time Rarity followed him, with the tendrils of green light right on her tail. As they crossed the showroom, the ground began to rumble. "Runrunrunrunrun! " Ash shouted as Twilight, Soul, Gale, and Heart turned to look. They all took one look at the spreading light, which was now starting to flow into the ground as the rumbling increased, and followed Ash and Rarity in their full-speed retreat.
"How far?" Soul shouted over the din as they exited the boutique.
"Heck if I know!" Ash replied, "I just hope we can outrun it!" The earth began to rend behind them, with large rock and dirt spires erupting, collapsing, and spinning about in what could only be described as a maelstrom of earth that quickly consumed the Carousel Boutique and an ever-increasing area around it. Just short of the next closest building, the chaos ceased spreading, but the earth continued to churn within that area for several minutes. The quake threatened to topple other stores, but they managed to remain mostly intact. The six ponies stood a long distance down the road, panting as they watched the rocks finally settle as the earthquake came to a stop. Where the Carousel Boutique had once stood was now a forbidding tangle of jagged stones at least twenty feet tall.
"Muh… muh… my shop!" Rarity stammered in utter shock, "My house! Opalescence!"
Ashen Blaze's left eye began to twitch as he gazed on the mess, and then he reared up with front legs spread wide, threw his head up toward the sky and shouted "Skveeeeetch ! No!" He came back down with a thud and whirled on Rarity. "You!" he exclaimed, advancing on her, "You… you fool!"
"Ash," Soul Mage said, looking worried.
"How could you?" Ash continued, ignoring his friend. Rarity began to back way as Ash continued his slow advance. His green eyes had taken on an unnaturally bright color.
"Ash," Soul repeated in a warning tone.
"Did it not cross your mind to store the Gem more carefully?" Ash continued, oblivious to all except Rarity, who looked like she was about to faint, "That some stupid little gemstone-eating lizard might beat us to it?"
"Ashen Blaze!" Heart and Soul shouted at him in unison.
"What ?" Ash whirled around to face his fellows. His coat had become noticeably darker and his mane and tail were waving about as if they were actual flame. Heart and Soul were standing together facing him; Soul was resting one hoof on Heart's shoulder, she in turn was pointing a hoof at Ashen Blaze, and both were wreathed in ethereal blue flames. Ash's pupils shrank as he looked at them.
"Element Wheel, Water," Heart said quickly, and a small blue disc of energy shot appeared in front of her raised hoof and flew toward Ash. It exploded over him in a spray of water, leaving him sputtering and madder than ever.
"How dare you!" he exclaimed, launching himself toward the matching ponies. Heart rolled to the side as Soul braced himself to take the impact, jumping up at the last second to wrap his legs around Ash. As the two of them hit the ground and began grappling with each other, Heart joined in.
"Hey," Twilight said, moving to intervene. Gale blocked her path and shook her head.
"Stay out of this," she said, "We've got this down to a science." She looked at the tussling ponies and added, "Well, almost." After a minute or so, Heart and Soul succeeded in pinning Ash on his back with Heart holding down his rear legs as Soul sat on his chest. Soul Mage flicked his tail toward Gold Heart, who grabbed it in her teeth, and the ethereal flames returned.
Soul raised one hoof, around which a large amount of the fire was gathering, and then struck Ashen Blaze across the face with it, crying out, "Snap out of it!" Ash coughed and sputtered a little as the yellow unicorn glared at him and started to lecture. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded, "We've been here only a few hours, and you expect some… pony we've just met to comprehend the power of a Gem she found before we told her about it and take precautions with it? And you've been doing so well with your temper up until now!"
"I lost it two worlds back," Ash said, averting his gaze. He sighed and looked toward Rarity, who was still on the verge of hysterics. "My apologies ma'am," he said sincerely, "I had no cause to explode on you like that. I hope you'll forgive me, but I understand if you can't." Rarity didn't respond, she just kept staring at the rocks in shock and finally fainted. Soul took one more look into Ash's eyes, and then he and Heart let him go. By this point, a large crowd of ponies was gathering, throwing out questions and cries of lament left and right. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came flying over the crowd and landed near Twilight as Applejack pushed her way through to join them as well.
"What in Equestria happened here?" AJ asked, staring at the rocks.
"The Emerald broke," Ash said simply, shaking off the dust in his coat.
"And caused an earthquake?" Rainbow asked, incredulous.
"Each Gem represents one of seven elements," Ash said, "The Emerald is the Gem of Earth. As powerful as they are, though, the gemstones themselves aren't indestructible, just… very tough. If a Gem is destroyed, the energies will rush out in search of a new gem to inhabit, leaving behind, well, this." He waved a hoof toward the tangle of rocks. "Although," he said, thinking, "this isn't as bad as the last time a Gem was broken…"
"We were on a hillside, the Sapphire's what broke, and I'm pretty sure that underground reservoir was bigger than they thought it was," Soul said.
"Not fun…" Ash said distractedly. "Anyway," he said, shaking his head, "this is a bad start; not only are we back to square one, someone's house has been obliterated. As first impressions go…" he trailed off with a weak, embarrassed smile.
"Um," Fluttershy said, "Is everypony all right? No one was caught in that I hope."
"Every pony made it out," Ash said, "But there was that purple dragon, who I assume was Spike, and Rarity yelled something about an 'Opalescence' before she fainted."
"What?" Fluttershy said in the quietest horrified voice Ash had ever heard, "Oh no! We've got to see if they're all right!"
"Come on then," Dash said, zipping into the air before anypony could respond. Fluttershy followed at a slightly more sedate pace.
"Well, ok then," Ash said, "Not sure if they'll find anything…" He looked at Heart. "Want to join them Heart? You'll probably see something informational that they'd miss."
Heart looked at her wings and flapped them a little. "Yeah," she said uncertainly, "Let's see if I can…" She jumped up and flapped hard, achieving a hover. She looked around as a smile crossed her face. "Cool," she said, "Be back in a moment then." She flew up above the level of the rocks and then took off after Dash and Fluttershy.
The crowd of ponies was starting to get restless, so Twilight cleared her throat to address them. "Excuse me everypo-ack!" she said as Ash pulled her back a foot or so by grabbing her tail.
"Sorry," the grey unicorn said when Twilight glared at him, "but consider for a moment what you think they should know."
"You told us everything," Twilight said, annoyed.
"Not quite everything," Ash said, "More than enough, but not everything. Again, think for a second. How do you imagine this herd will react if you tell them the world's in grave danger?" He walked away and stood looking at the rocks as Twilight turned back to the crowd, feeling lik a heavy burden had just been placed on her back.
I hope Dash and Pinkie haven't been talking too much , she thought. Looking out at the curious group, she cleared her throat and her thoughts. "Attention everypony," she said, "There's nothing to worry about. This quake was caused by a... magical mishap." That was true enough. "No pony was hurt, fortunately, and it doesn't seem like there's going to be more. So, you can go about your business." She gave them her biggest smile and the ponies began to disperse slowly, until only Pinkie Pie was left standing in front of Twilight.
"So what really happened?" Pinkie asked, "I mean, I can see that Rarity's shop got eaten by the ground, and that's really sad. Did something happen with the emerald they were looking for?"
"Very much, yes," Soul said with a sigh.
"Where's Gold Heart at?" Pinkie asked, looking around, "If everypony got out all right, why isn't she here?" Before anyone could answer, she spotted Rarity, still unconscious, and trotted over. "Wake up Rarity," she said, patting the white unicorn's cheek, "This is no time for napping!"
"Leave her be sugar cube," AJ said, "she's had a rough time of it, losing her house, her business, and maybe even her cat. She's probably better of asleep for the moment."
"At least while I'm around," Ashen Blaze muttered without taking his eyes off the rocks.
"What was all that about anyway?" Twilight asked, "You looked like you were about to change into something else."
"I have a temper," Ash said simply, still not moving. Twilight looked to Soul and Gale for clarification, but they both just shook their heads. "This is probably asking a lot," Ash said, looking back toward the group, "considering what we've put you all through in these last few hours, but we're going to need a place to sleep during our stay. The quest is going to take awhile; weeks at best, possibly months if Tau'rin decides to be subtle. Any recommendations?"
"Rarity's going to need a place to stay too," Twilight said.
"Well she ain't staying at my place, that's fer sure," Applejack said.
"I'll take her in," Twilight said after a moment to think.
"As fer y'all," AJ said to Ash, "Mah cow barn's not bein' used right now, so y'all can sleep there so long as ya promise not to break anything." She eyed the rocks meaningfully.
"I thought you weren't welcoming guests," Ash said, pointing at Rarity.
"No, I said I wasn't gonna let her stay," the orange earth pony replied, "And I know she'd agree whole-heartedly. Rarity won't have anything ta do with dirt if she can help it. 'Sides, I don't think anypony else had room for four new tenants." Ash looked like he was going to say something, but Fluttershy's return interrupted him. The pale yellow pegasus was cradling a dirty and very unhappy-looking Persian cat in her arms, which gave a pitiful mew as Fluttershy hovered just off the ground. Rarity stirred, apparently called out of her faint by the cat's voice. She brought a hoof to her forehead in a dramatic fashion as she sat up, and then dropped it as she spotted the cat.
"Opal!" she exclaimed, jumping up to her feet, "Oh thank Celestia you're ok!" She ran over, but Fluttershy flew up out of reach.
"Sorry Rarity," she said, "Two of her legs are broken and I think she's in shock. I think I should take her back to my place for now. Uh, if that's ok I mean."
"Well of course darling!" Rarity said, concerned, "You know I'd trust you with Opal above any pony in Equestria." Fluttershy nodded and flew off as Rarity heaved a big sigh of relief. She dusted herself off and looked around. Ash gave a start and hung his head as she locked eyes with him. "As for you," she said, walking over to him.
"I have no excuse for my actions," Ash said, not meeting her eyes, "And I promise, if it's within my power, I will fix this."
"Thank you," Rarity said kindly, putting a hoof on his shoulder, "I forgive you for yelling at me." Ash blushed and looked up at the white unicorn without raising his head. Again as he tried to speak an interruption showed up.
"Make room," Rainbow Dash's voice came from just over the edge of the rocks. Everypony backed away a few steps as Rainbow and Heart flew into sight, carrying something between them. "We found Spike," the blue Pegasus said, "At least… I think so." She and Heart lowered their cargo onto the ground and landed on either side of it. Twilight took one look and gasped. Sitting between the pegasi was a stone statue of a baby dragon with a look of surprise on his face and an emerald with a large bite missing in its claws.
"What happened to him?" Twilight asked.
"Petrified, obviously," Ash said, moving in for a closer look, "Quite in line with the earth element, but surprisingly sophisticated for a raw elemental explosion." He walked round it a few times, giving it very close scrutiny, "Superficial scratches, no evidence of cracks, no chips or dings…" he looked up at Twilight and asked, "anything seem to be missing? Wings or teeth or something?"
"He hasn't grown his wings in yet," Twilight said, looking closely at the statue, "No, he seems to have everything."
"A wounded cat and an intact petrified dragon," Ash said in a conclusive voice, "you girls have no idea how lucky we are."
"It's only lucky if we can fix Spike," AJ said, "So tell me Ashen Blaze, can we?"
"Excellent question," Ash said, not meeting the earth pony's hard look. He took another look at the statue, muttering, "This would be much easier if I could- aha!"
"What?" everypony asked.
"I think my…" Ash started to exclaim, looking up. His voice trailed off as a confused look crossed his face. He looked down at Spike, then back up at the ponies, and then all around him. "Oh, that's either annoying or good," he said, "and my money's on annoying."
"What's wrong?" Heart asked.
"I can clearly see the magic threads swirling around this," Ash said, tapping Spike with a hoof, "Green as moss and fern, but beyond that I've got nothing."
"What are you talking about?" Dash asked, "Can you fix Spike nor not?"
"Not without the Emerald," Ash said, "The Topaz might make a decent substitute, but I'd rather not risk that if I don't have to." He sighed. "It would seem I'm without magic in this world."
"Well, I doubt that," Twilight said. Her horn lit up as she lifted the Spike statue off the ground. "That horn on your forehead isn't just there for looks." Ash's eyes crossed as he looked up at his horn. "Come on," Twilight continued, "Let's go see if any of my books have a spell to undo petrification, and while we're at it I can teach you how unicorn magic works."
"Sounds good to me," Soul said. Ash simply nodded.
Ashen Blaze was always impressed by libraries. Truth be told, he wasn't much of a reader, at least compared to Soul Mage, but the sheer amount of knowledge that even a single book could hold was amazing. The fact that this world he'd been roughly thrown into was basically run by intelligent equines- not the most dexterous of structures- and still had books and libraries in a form he recognized almost blew his mind. It made sense that the unicorns, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity, seemed to be the most knowledgeable of those he'd met after seeing the delicacy Twilight was able to achieve using magic to hold a feather quill as she wrote a letter. "I don't know how I'm going to get this to Princess Celestia," she said after putting the quill down, "I always use Spike's magic fire to send it to her, but…" her gaze went to the petrified dragon on the table next to her letter.
"Fire to send letters?" Ash asked, looking up from the book he was reading, "That's interesting. Why not just throw into the fireplace then?"
"Because only Spike's fire works, silly," Pinkie Pie said. She was standing by a bookshelf, tapping her hoof to a beat only she could hear. Rarity was scanning another shelf, plucking out books that looked like they'd be useful and stacking them next to Ash, while Gold Heart was outside with Rainbow working on her flying technique. Gale was off exploring the tree.
Soul looked over Twilight's shoulder and read the first few lines of the letter. "Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing to inform you of a potential disaster that has fallen upon us here in Ponyville. You really think she needs to know about this?"
"Yes. The Princesses oversee everything in Equestria," Twilight explained, rolling up the letter and tying it up with a ribbon, "It's my duty, not only as a responsible pony but as her student, to inform her of anything that might threaten the peace of the land."
"That's us all right," Ash said grimly, "A regular quartet of trouble hunting out the most dangerous bits of magic this side of… something or another," he finished in a dull voice. "Ah, this book's worthless," he said, slapping it shut with a hoof and almost losing his balance.
"Speaking of magic," Twilight said, "I better teach you how to move things before you hurt yourself." She set the letter back on the table as Ash came over to stand next to Soul, both of them giving her their full attention. "Right," she said, "you've seen Rarity and me doing this all day, so let's get into how it works. Unicorn magic comes from the whole body and is focused through the horn, and more advanced spells will tax your strength based on how much you're trying to change." Ash nodded his understanding. "Moving small objects is not that hard," she continued, "you just need to think. Focus on the object you want to move and where you want it to go." She demonstrated by picking up the quill and moving it around her head once before putting it back, not once taking her eyes off her students. "You don't even need to look at it if you know where it is in relation to you."
"And this is something every unicorn learns from… a very early age?" Ash asked, looking to Rarity.
"Yes," Twilight said, "although everypony has their own level of skill with it, whether it be with details, weight, the number of objects, or a bit of all three. Now, one of you try to move something on the table. Except Spike that is," she added quickly.
Ash looked at Soul, who smiled and said, "You're the real mage, you go first." The grey unicorn nodded and turned his attention to the quill pen. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated on making it move. "So 'etching powerful back home," he muttered, "The old guard would die of laughter if they saw me struggling like this…" Soul poked him in the side. "Focusing," the grey unicorn said before shutting up. His horn began to glow faintly, and the quill wobbled on the table. A very faint smile appeared to Ash's face and the glowing brightened considerably. The quill jumped up and floated a foot off the table.
"Good," Twilight said, nodding, "Now, try to put it down carefully." Ash gave the faintest of nods. The quill descended gradually halfway to the table, stopped, and then settled back onto the table as Ash's horn stopped glowing. "What did I tell you?" Twilight said, smiling, "Easy. With a little practice, you'll be a natural in no time."
"No time eh?" Ash said with a mischievous grin, "That usually means days or weeks." His horn started glowing again and the quill floated up again, accompanied by Twilight's letter and a book. He took up a nonchalant stance as the objects flew to him, orbited once, and returned to their original spots after taking a detour around the now-surprised purple unicorn. "I take it literally," Ash said with a flourish of his right front leg, which upset his balance again. "You'd think I'd be more stable with four legs," he muttered, glaring at his front hooves.
You put too much weight on your back legs," Gale said from the second floor balcony, "You need to start thinking like a quadruped again." She smiled at Soul and said, "How about you Soul? I think it's your turn."
"Right," Soul mage said, turning his attention to the table.
He started to focus on the scroll, but Pinkie Pie suddenly sprang in front of him excitedly saying, "Biped? That means you walk on two legs! Is that your big secret 'real shape?' Because that's not so weird; lots of creatures walk on two legs, like birds. Are you really birds?"
"Not now Pinkie," Twilight said, pushing the pink pony away, "Sorry about that Soul."
"No… it's cool," the yellow unicorn said, still trying to process Pinkie's outburst. "Birds?" he asked, giving Ash a confused look. Ash poked him with a wicked smile on his face. Soul blew a raspberry at Ash and focused on the quill. His horn began to glow, but instead of the usual aura, the glow became an ethereal blue tendril. It stretched out through the air and wrapped itself around the quill.
"Well,' Twilight said, blinking, "That's… unique." Soul gazed at the glowing tendril for a second, and then smiled and gave his head a slight tilt. The quill floated up from the table and wiggled about before returning to its place. The tendril unwrapped and moved toward the scroll. At the last second, it changed course and curled around Twilight's neck. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked.
"Stretching," Soul said as the tendril retracted back into a simple glow around his horn. "Now let's see," he mused, looking around. He locked his eyes on something and flicked his head. The tendril shot out toward a lantern and wrapped around it. "What?" Soul said, "Don't grab it!" He pulled the tendril back and lashed it toward another lantern, which was also wrapped up. "Dang it!" The tendril pulled back and hung down in front of Soul's face. "What the heck?" he said, very annoyed, "It's not that big a difference between a lasso and a strike! Stupid… weird… pony-body rules." The tendril retracted fully and the glow faded.
"What was all that?" Twilight said, "I've never seen a unicorn magic be so… visible."
"Eeeh…" Soul Mage said, scraping at the ground with a hoof, "Let's just call it my own special brand of magic. It's not working quite like I'd like it to, but I guess I'll take what I can get."
"Aye," Ashen Blaze said, "No more 'one-trick pony for you', if you'll pardon the phrase," he added with a glance around the room. No one seemed to get it besides Gale, who rolled her eyes.
Soul nodded, and then blinked as a thought occurred to him. He turned toward a window and called out, "Hey sis! C'mere a minute!"
Gold Heart flew up to the window and poked her head in. "What's up?" she asked.
"Hold still a sec," Soul replied as his horn began to glow again. With a flick, he sent a tendril flying at Heart. It wrapped around her hoof, which she'd thrown up reflexively, and the two yellow ponies were wreathed in ethereal fire. "Ha ha!" Soul exclaimed, dancing in place, "Soul beend !"
Heart looked herself over, and then gave her brother a sideways look tempered with a smile. "Thanks for warning me," she said sarcastically.
"You're quite welcome," Soul said sincerely, pulling back the tendril. The flames vanished as Twilight, Rarity, and even Pinkie stared slack-jawed. "What?" Soul asked them, "Two of you have seen that before, at least. It's a rare gift that allows us to link our spirits and access special powers. And it looks like the link's really spirit-to-spirit, not through physical contact"
"Just like it should be," Heart said, nodding. She backed out of the window and returned to her flight practice.
"Super," Gale said, a note of sarcasm coming into her voice as she put her front hooves up on balcony banister, "The mages are making a comeback and Heart can fly. Where does that leave me?"
"I can't see a reason why your talent for machines or your aim would be affected Gale," Ash said, "you're wonderfully mundane."
"Pony, remember? No fingers," Gale said, holding out her front legs, "And even if I had them, none of my gear showed up here anyway."
"Oooo!" Pinkie exclaimed, suddenly bouncing in place next to Gale, "I know what fingers are too! Spike has fingers 'cause he's a dragon. You're really small dragons, huh?"
"How'd she get up there so fast?" Ash asked quietly, looking to where he last remembered seeing the pink earth pony.
"She's Pinkie Pie," Twilight said, "Most of the time, that's the only explanation."
"Uuh, no," Gale said, answering Pinkie's question. She got back down on all four and faced the pink pony. "So tell me," she asked, "what lets earth ponies stand out from the other types?"
Pinkie gave Gale a confused look for a second, but then smiled and started bouncing again. "Well I throw parties," she said, "and speaking of parties, we haven't had your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party yet! It'll be so much fun; I'll break out the balloons and streamers and candy from Sugar Cube Corner. Applejack can bring her apple pies; she's the best baker in the world you know." Gale had backed away a little under the onslaught of happy but was smiling despite herself.
"I… appreciate the thought," she said, "But I think we'll be ok without any parties."
"I can guarantee you'll be involved in at least one while you're here," Rarity said, looking up from the book she'd been reading since the magic lesson had begun "And you'll have a good time, trust me. Pinkie Pie puts on the most fabulous parties outside of Canterlot."
"It's true," Pinkie agreed. She threw a front leg around Gale's shoulders and said, "And don't you worry about your talent. I'm sure you'll find some way to use it."
"Thanks," Gale said, extracting herself from Pinkie's grasp. She trotted downstairs and went over to the pile of books. "Now," she said, "aren't we supposed to be looking for a way to fix Spike?"
"That we are," Ash said, levitating a few books and setting them up around the room.
A few hours later most of the likely-seeming books had been rejected, a few spells had been tried without success, Twilight had compiled a list of herbal remedies and potions, and Ashen Blaze had determined that he would need more practice with unicorn-style teleportation. He remained stuck on top of a bookcase for several minutes until Heart and Rainbow Dash could pull him loose and set him down on the floor. "That was fun," he drawled.
"Well, it's certainly not the worst attempt I've ever seen," Twilight said kindly, "You sure you don't want to try Soul?"
"No thanks," Soul said, looking up from a book on Equestrian fairy tales, "Teleporting's not in my regular repertoire and I see no reason to try and add it now. I'd probably end up embedded in a wall."
Any reply Twilight might have made was cut off as the front door flew open and a pair of young fillies ran into the library, one a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane and tail and the other a yellow earth pony with a red mane and tail. "Rarity!" the white one cried, running over and rubbing her head against the bigger unicorn's side, "Oh I was so worried! What happened to our house?"
"Oh, Sweetie Bell," Rarity said, nuzzling the filly, "I'm sorry, I meant to pick you up when school let out, but I must of lost track of time. I'll explain everything later."
"Who's this?" Heart asked, walking over.
"I'm Sweetie Bell," the small unicorn said.
"And I'm Apple Bloom," the yellow filly said cheerfully.
"Any relation to Applejack?" Ash asked with a curious tilt of his head.
"Yep," Apple Bloom said, "She's my sister. Nice to meet ya! Who are you?"
Once the four newcomers had introduced themselves, Rarity said, "Thank you for keeping Sweetie Bell company Apple Bloom. I know seeing what happened must have been a shock. It was terrible seeing it happen."
"Quite," Ash muttered.
"Yer welcome Rarity," Bloom said, smiling.
"Say, where's Scootaloo?" Rainbow Dash asked, "You three are never far apart from each other."
"Ah, she had to run home for dinner," Apple Bloom said, "And speakin' of which, I better get goin' afore the folks miss me. See ya tomorrow Sweetie Bell!"
"Hold up," Ash said, catching Bloom before she ran out the door, "Your sister was kind enough to offer us a place to sleep. Do you think she'd mind feeding us dinner as well?"
"I don't see why not," Apple Bloom said, "Come on. Maybe on the way you can tell me how you got your cutie marks!"
"Eh?" Ash asked, looking at Twilight for clarification.
"On your flank," Twilight said simply, pointing with a hoof.
The Order-naries all turned their heads to look. "Oh yeah," Soul said, speaking for them all, "Forgot about those… I honestly don't know."
"how'd ya forget something so life-changing?" Apple Bloom asked, giving them a hard look.
"We'll explain on the way," Heart said, "that's a story we can tell."
Even after telling an abbreviated, kid-friendly version of the story multiple times, the last time over dinner with AJ's help, Apple Bloom still didn't seem able to wrap her head around the idea that the newcomers weren't always ponies. If Big Macintosh was confused, he didn't show it; he simply nodded along with the explanation. "A mighty fine story," was all he said after it was finished.
"Can you at least tell me what your cutie marks mean?" Apple Bloom asked, "I mean, Miss Gale's got a wrench, so I guess that means she's good with fixin' stuff, but what about the rest of you?"
"Mine and Heart's aren't too tricky," Soul Mage said. They each had what looked like opposite halves of a roughly circular blue fireball on their flanks. "I think they symbolize how the two of us have to stick together to work our real magic."
"Okaaay…" Apple Bloom said, still confused, "What about you Mr. Blaze?"
"No comment," the grey unicorn said sourly. His mark was a strange symbol that looked sort of like a letter B stuck onto the side of an M. He hadn't been very happy when he'd discovered that, and had flatly refused to talk about it to anypony.
"Ok then," Applejack said, seeing that Bloom was about to press the issue and putting a hoof on her shoulder, "I think they've had enough questions fer one night. I'm gonna show them to the barn; why don't you help clean up here?"
"Fine," Apple Bloom said reluctantly. She picked her plate off the table and skulked toward the kitchen sink.
"Come on," AJ said, heading for the front door. As the four followed her, she tossed a few of the blankets stacked up by the door onto her back. Gale picked up the rest, and although her toss was a little clumsier, all the blankets landed more-or-less centered on her back.
"We could take those," Soul offered, starting to focus his magic.
"Oh please," Gale said, "we earth ponies aren't that helpless. Besides, how am I ever going to figure out my capabilities if I rely on you all the time?" She smiled coyly as soul blushed.
"R-right," he stammered, following the group outside. They headed out toward the barn, with Heart flying above the group. She hadn't spent much time on the ground since learning she could fly, except during dinner. It seemed to Soul that her flapping was starting to get a little strained. "Come down sis," he said, "gravity's not that harsh a mistress."
"I'm fine," Heart said stubbornly, "Got to build up my endurance."
"Alright," Soul said, not in the mood to argue. They arrived at the barn and Applejack showed them to a rank of stalls along one wall.
"There's a cow herd that makes the rounds of Ponyville's farms," she explained, setting some blankets down in one stall and moving on to the next, "They stay at each place fer about a month or so, grazing the grass and payin' fer room and board with milk. I don't think they're due to come here for another three months, so don't feel y'all have to hurry on their account."
"Oh, we've got plenty of other reasons to hurry," Ash said, arranging the blankets in the stall he chose to suit his needs. "Thank you again for letting us stay here."
"No problem," AJ said. After making sure Gale had unloaded the blankets she'd carried, she bid the group goodnight and left. As soon as the earth pony had left, Heart picked up a blanket and proceeded to make a hammock out of it by wedging it between the boards on either side of her stall. The others settled into their areas in their own way; Ash simply lay down on top of the piled blankets while Soul rolled himself up in one and Gale slipped between a pair as she lay on her back.
They lay still for a few moments, and then Gale turned her head toward Ash's stall and asked, "That mark of yours, it's from your past, isn't it?"
"My cadre emblem," Ashen Blaze said, "As if I need a skvetchte reminder branded onto my flank!"
"Well, it's part of who you are, isn't it?" Soul asked, "Not a very nice part, I know, but we've all got things we aren't proud of."
"Oh, that's an understatement!" Ash said, with a chuckle in his voice. "So," he said after a moment, "What're everyone's impressions?"
"I like it here," Heart said, "Everyone's so nice. It seems like a real peaceful place. Too bad we had to wind up here."
"Here here!" Soul said, thrusting a hoof in the air, "Getting our spirit power to work is a pain in the rump though. That makes sense though; it's meant for human use not… this."
"You'll adapt," Gale said, "You and Ash mastered that telekinesis trick pretty quick."
"I'm not the Thamul Meis for nothin'," Ash said, "I hate the title, but like you said, it's a fact. As for Soul, he cheated."
"Ah, go to sleep ya arrogant magician," Soul shot back good-naturedly. The four friends continued to talk and laugh quietly until they each fell asleep.
The morning dawned bright and clear- there was still no rain in the schedule, although more clouds were going to be allowed in later in the afternoon. Ashen Blaze slowly came awake as the sun shone into the barn. His eyes blinked open… to reveal Apple Bloom's face hovering right in front of him. "Yii!" he squeaked, jumping up and back. "Geez, what is with the wake-up calls around here?" He composed himself as the others started to wake up. "Not that you aren't cute or anything Miss Bloom," he said, "In fact, you'd probably make a good alarm clock except-"
"Really?" Apple Bloom said excitedly, cutting Ash off. She reared up, spun around, and started to gallop off. Ash quickly activated his horn and grabbed her, lifting her off the ground. "Hey! Put me down!" she yelled, struggling.
"What the sam hill's going on in here?" Applejack's voice shot through the barn. She came inside and glared at Ash. "You pickin' on mah sister?"
"I think I'm saving some pony from a rude wake-up call," Ash said, not letting Bloom loose, "I was joking about her being an alarm clock with no snooze button and I think she took me seriously."
"Is that so?" AJ said, turning her gaze to her sister, who gave her a sheepish grin. "Well good catch then. Ya can put 'er down now." Ash obliged and Apple Bloom scampered off, only to return a few seconds later pushing a serving cart laden with plates of pancakes drizzled with syrup and four bottles of juice. "Eat up," Applejack said as everypony gathered around, "You're gonna need your energy for chores."
"Chores?" Ash protested, almost dropping a piece of pancake, "We do have important things to do AJ. We can't spend all day working on your farm."
"And I ain't gonna have any freeloaders sleepin' in mah barn," AJ replied, "I'm not gonna ask much of you, just buck a few apples, pull a few carts, and keep yer living space clean. Shouldn't take more than a couple hours. 'Sides, most of them town-ponies are still asleep right now, and you obviously don't wanna ruin anypony's beauty sleep Ash."
"Botherment..." Ash muttered darkly around a bite of pancake.
After everypony had eaten, Applejack assigned the stallions to strip one tree of its apples and cart them to the apple cellar while she led Gale and Gold Heart off to handle some trees across the field. Soul Mage and Ash took turns kicking the tree as hard as they could, but after five minutes of that they were both sweating and only a few apples had come loose, none of which landed in the baskets. "Do you think she'd yell at us if we used magic?" Soul asked.
"She never said not to," Ash answered, moving the dropped fruit into a basket, "But she might assign us each our own tree tomorrow if we work too fast."
"I'm fine with that," the golden-yellow unicorn said, "We'll each take half and see who finishes faster."
"You're on," Ash said, snagging as many apples as possible and giving them a magic tug. Roughly a third of them came off and flew at him, pelting his face and back. "More control, less enthusiasm," he said dryly, picking up his mess.
"Duly noted," Soul said, grabbing two apples and pulling them loose. Ash finished picking apples off the ground, discarding those that were bruised, and took another, more conservative attempt at harvesting from the tree. At his coaxing, seven apples detached from the tree and settled into a basket. As the two unicorns continued working, it became clear that Ash was able to handle larger loads than Soul, although the latter wound up with fewer rejects over all. In the space of ten minutes, Ash had not only cleared his half of the tree but picked off a bunch from Soul's half too. "I admit defeat," Soul said with a bow, "I was no match for your superior harvesting skills."
"I thought you were doing pretty well Soul Mage," a familiar voice said, startling both of them. The whirled and saw Twilight Sparkle sitting in the shade of a nearby tree.
"Morning Twilight," Ash said, "What brings you here?"
"I was wondering what was keeping you from dragging me out of bed at daybreak," the purple unicorn said.
"And what makes you think we'd do that?" Ash asked.
"I've seen how intense you are about finding your missing gems," Twilight answered, "So I figured you'd be chomping at the bit to start looking for them."
"Yeah," Soul said, mildly surprised at Twilight's choice of idiom, "but the… uh…" He paused, searching for the proper phrasing.
"The what?" Twilight asked.
Soul gave up and simply said, "Applejack insists we lend a hoof around the farm a little. Besides, it's not like we've got much of a clue as to where they all wound up."
"Well, you're welcome to use the library if you think it'll help," Twilight said, "and, if you don't mind, I'd like to join you on your search so I can keep the Princess updated."
"Have you even sent that last letter out yet?" Ash asked, emptying one of the baskets into the apple cart.
"No," Twilight said, "but that's no reason not to chronicle what you do."
"What'cha say boss?" Soul asked, looking at Ash, "In the mood for a tag-along this round?"
"Why not?" Ash said with a shrug, "In fact, any of your friends that want to can probably tag along if they want to. We'll probably need some insight now and again."
"Thanks," Twilight said.
"Now, if you'll excuse us," Soul said, emptying the last bucket and helping Ash hitch himself to the cart, "We need to go see if the Meis of Apples is pleased with our work."
Ashen Blaze froze and glared at Soul. "Excuse me?" he said icily.
"What? Did I us it wrong?" Soul asked, surprised, "Everypony keeps saying AJ's the best when it comes to apples."
"Even if that's truth, you don't have the authority to give that title," Ash said, still giving the other stallion a death glare.
"It's a joke Ash," Soul replied, rolling his eyes and walking toward the farm house, "Lighten up."
"There's nothing funny about Meis ," Ash retorted, following Soul.
"That's because you're such a sourpuss about it!" Soul snapped. The two continued to argue as they walked away from an increasingly confused Twilight Sparkle.
As Twilight walked back to the library, she was surprised to meet up with Rarity coming from another part of town. "Good morning Rarity," she said, "You're up early, aren't you?"
"I could say the same for you," Rarity said, "Sweetie Bell woke up not long after you left, I think, and woke me up demanding breakfast. After I took care of that, I decided to go to the post office and have them forward my mail to the library for the time being. I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all," Twilight said, "I don't much mail any…way…" She stopped and gave herself a smack on the forehead. "Silly me," she said, chuckling, "That's how I can get my letter to Princess Celestia! I'm so used to having Spike send my letters, I forgot we even had a post office in town."
"Why wouldn't we?" Rarity asked, "Really Twilight, you're still not getting out enough, are you?"
"Probably not," Twilight replied, rolling her eyes, "I'm going to run ahead and take that letter to the post office. If Ashen Blaze and his friends show up before I get back, tell them I'll be right back, ok?"
"You can count on me," Rarity said. Twilight ran on ahead while Rarity continued at a leisurely pace. By the time she got to the library, Twilight had come and gone. The sound of approaching hooves made her pause in the middle of opening the door. She turned around and saw Ash, who looked to be overcoming a sour mood, along with his three companions and Applejack, who was wearing a set of full-looking saddlebags.
"Howdy Rarity," AJ said while they were still a short ways off, "Lovely morning, ain't it?"
"It is," Rarity said, "Twilight had to go drop a letter off at the post office, she'll be back shortly."
"That's fine," Ash said grumpily, "What's another few minute delay?" He walked past Rarity into the library, followed by an equally sour-looking Soul Mage.
"Don't worry about those two," Gale said, seeing the look on Rarity's face, "they just took their usual banter a bit too far this morning. They'll be ok."
"Well, I sure hope so," Applejack said, "They're not very good company this way." They went into the library, and Rarity caught the scent of baked goods. She looked at Applejack, who was opening one of her saddlebags. "I hope y'all are still hungry," the orange earth pony said, "I brought some of my famous apple fritters."
"Oo! Oo! Oo!" Sweetie Bell said excitedly as she dashed down the stairs. She skid to a stop in front of AJ and said, "I'll take one please." Applejack smiled as she handed the filly a fritter. "Thank you!" Sweetie said around the mouthful and walked over to a table to enjoy the treat.
"Anypony else?" AJ asked, looking around, "I made plenty."
"I'll take one," Ash said, looking over his shoulder from his spot in front of a bookcase.
Applejack reached into her saddlebag, but then stopped at looked up at Soul, who was standing across the room from Ash. "How about you Soul?" she asked.
"Sure," Soul said dully, "All that work used up most of my breakfast anyway."
"Well then come and get 'em," AJ said to both stallions. They looked at her, then and at each other, back to AJ, and finally back to each other. Smiling, they came over to the earth pony at the same time and claimed their apple fritters.
"Clever," Ash said appreciatively as he went to join Sweetie Bell at her table. Gale and Heart also took a fritter each, but Rarity declined claiming she was still full from her own breakfast. Since Ash and Soul had obviously forgiven each other, the mood in the library lightened considerably and the ponies simply enjoyed each other's company and the food until Twilight returned. The first thing she encountered upon entering the tree was Applejack offering her a fritter.
"Oh, thanks," she said, grabbing it with magic as she walked to her desk, "I wasn't expecting to see you here Applejack."
"Well, I must admit I'm curious what these four plan to get up to today," Applejack said, "'Sides, if y'all wind up going out of town fer some reason, y'all are prob'ly gonna need lunch." She opened the other saddle bag and displayed its contents: a bunch of sandwiches and some apple tarts.
"You're the best Applejack," Twilight said.
"So," Gold Heart said as Applejack struck a proud pose, "what are we going to get up to today?"
"I'm hoping to find the Emerald again," Ash said.
"But, it got broken," Rarity said, "Rather dramatically."
"Truth," Ash said, nodding, "But, that doesn't mean the energy's gone. It will have sought out the closest suitable emerald to take residence in. That means our best hope to find it again will be to look for places where there are a lot of gems. That's still a long shot; however it is our only clue at the moment."
"Oh, I know just the place," Rarity exclaimed, "There's a rock field not too far outside of town that's simply brimming with gems, although most of them are pretty deeply buried."
"Yer not talkin' about those Diamond Dog mines are you?" Applejack asked.
"Diamond Dog?" Gale asked.
"A most uncouth and dirty bunch of canines," Rarity said, putting on the drama, "They inhabit a sprawling mine under the field, always looking for more jewels. Less than a year ago they kidnapped me, hoping to use my natural gift for finding gems to speed up their search. I can't think of a larger collection of gems around here than those mines."
"You can track gemstones?" Ash asked, intrigued, "That would be a very nice skill to have."
Rarity smiled and gave her mane a vain toss. "Then I insist you let me guide you," she said.
"Wow," Applejack said, "I figured those mines'd be the last place you'd ever want to go back to Rarity. You know, what with all the dirt and mud and smelly, mean Diamond Dogs that might try and hitch you up to a cart again?"
"Oh please Applejack," Rarity said, smiling at her friend, "I had those brutes wrapped around my hoof the entire time, remember? And I think I can stand a little dirt if it means helping our new friends." He smiled coyly at Ash, who blinked a few times, and then cleared his throat as an excuse to look away.
"Right," he said, "Thank you Rarity. Anyone else want to come along?"
"I'm coming," Twilight said, beginning to gather writing materials.
"If y'all are goin' to those mines, your definitely gonna need lunch," AJ said, "And if those dogs try to get rough, yer gonna need all the buckin' power you can get."
"Ooo! Can I go? Can I go?" Sweetie Bell asked, bouncing in place, "I've never met a Diamond Dog before."
"No Sweetie Bell," Rarity said, "this is serious business, not a pleasure trip. Besides, you have school in a few hours."
"Awwww," Sweetie Bell whined, putting on the most pitiable face she could manage.
"Now don't try that," Rarity said, "I'm not going to change my mind."
"Fine!" the young filly snapped, and she ran off up the stairs.
"Who wants to bet she's going to try and follow us?" Soul asked after Sweetie's hoofsteps had faded away.
"If she were Scootaloo or Apple Bloom, I could almost guarantee it," Applejack said, "Sweetie Bell's usually got more sense than to try that, not on her own at least."
"Hmm," Rarity said, "I should probably make sure she gets to school before we head out. Would that be ok?"
"Shouldn't hurt anything," Ash said with a shrug.
As the group headed out of town, each equipped with saddlebags just in case, Gold Heart asked Rarity to tell them about her first experience with the Diamond Dogs. "Well," the white unicorn said, "It all started when Sapphire Shores came into my boutique just after I'd finished a design incorporating my entire stock of diamonds. She was so impressed with it she decided then and there to use it in her next production. However, she also wanted five identical pieces with different colors."
"Sorry to interrupt," Gale asked, "but who's Sapphire Shores?"
"The Pony of Pop of course," Rarity said, "Oh, sorry, I forgot how new you all are. She's one of the most famous earth pony entertainers out of Canterlot. To be asked to design not just one outfit, but six, for one of her shows…" She trailed off with a sigh and a dreamy look on her face. "Anyway," she said, coming back to the present, "Since I didn't have any more gems and a limited time to complete the order, I had to go out and find as many as possible. I took Spike along with me because he can dig faster than me, and I had just had a pony-pedi." She paused and glanced at the out-worlders in case they were confused again.
"I think I get 'pony-pedi,'" Soul Mage said. The other three nodded.
"Good," Rarity continued, "we didn't even know about the Diamond Dogs or their mines at the time, so Spike and I simply sought out the gems buried just below the surface. Unbeknownst to us, the leaders of the Dogs were watching us, and when we stopped for the day they pounced, dragging me underground despite Spike's efforts to save me. He escaped and ran to get the others to come rescue me. As for me, the dogs tried to insist that I do all the work- locate the gems, dig them up, and cart them around. I was not about to be an easy captive, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily I could turn the situation around. By the time the others showed up, the dogs were not only willing to let me go, but insisted I take all the gems I'd found with me."
"So, what was the secret weapon?" Ashen Blaze asked, "You said you had them 'wrapped around your hoof' the whole time."
"I simply demanded the treatment a lady like myself deserves," Rarity said, "and I taught them a lesson on the difference between making a proper complaint and whiiining." Her voice shot up several pitches on the last word, causing everypony to wince.
"That… that would do it I guess," Ash said with an appreciative smile, "And they just let you go?"
"They may be rude, crude, and have no sense of personal hygiene," Rarity said, "but they are not all that violent."
"Speak fer yerself," Applejack said, "We had to fight our way into the mines and buck off some guards tryin' to make us into work-ponies as well. Of course, they didn't give us much trouble after that…"
"I'm just worried about how they'll react to you Rarity," Twilight said, "The send-off they gave us seemed to imply we weren't welcome back."
"Don't you worry Twilight," Rarity said, "I'm sure they can be reasoned with."
"If not, you could give a refresher course in 'Complaint 101,'" Soul quipped. He grinned despite the disapproving looks most of the group gave him. Shortly, they arrived at the rock field and Rarity pointed them in the direction of the mine entrances. When the reached the spot, they saw that most of the large holes in the ground were filled with mounds of dirt.
"Ah, look," Rarity said, pointing, "There's one of those mutts."
"Good," Ash said, spotting the canine head popping out of a hole, "Now we'll know how they'll react." He called out and waved to the dog. Its eyes almost bugged out and it ducked into the hole, which began rapidly filling with dirt. "And there's our answer," Ash continued, "Oh well, that gives me an excuse to try something." He walked over to the nearest filled-in hole and began scraping at the dirt next to it.
"You ain't tryin to dig in are you?" Applejack asked, giving the fire-maned unicorn a strange look.
"Just stand back and watch," Ash answered, etching a complex pattern into the dirt. When he finished, he placed a hoof to either side of it and began focusing his magic. His horn began to glow, followed by the pattern, and Ash began to sweat with the effort of working his spell. After several tense seconds, the dirt in the hole suddenly erupted out of the hole and flew off into the distance. Ash began shaking as the dirt continued to fly away, and just before he collapsed the dirt dwindled into a trickle and ceased to emerge from the pit. "Too much… personal… juice," Ash gasped as his legs gave out.
"Are you ok?" Heart asked as she and everypony else rushed over to his side.
"I'll be fine," Ash mumbled, "Just let me catch my breath. And drink some water. And eat a… lot."
"Here," AJ said, opening her saddlebag, fishing out a sandwich, and holding it out to him. Ash grunted his thanks and ate it quickly.
As he lay recuperating, Twilight and Soul watched the hole for signs of Diamond Dog activity. "That was a really powerful spell for somepony with his level of training," Twilight said.
"You haven't seen him at his peak," Soul said, "He's used to using the energy of the world around him to power his spells, and I think he's not able to do that in this world. Back home or in most other places we've been, that sort of spell might've been child's play. I've never seen him use it before though, so I'm just guessing."
"A pittance of power," Ash said, struggling to his feet. Rarity quickly moved to support him. "Thanks," he said, eliciting a slight blush from Rarity, "I'll be fine in a bit." His knees threatened to buckle a few times as he continued to breathe deeply, regaining his strength. As Soul turned his attention back to the hole, he spotted a face peering up from around a bend in the sloped tunnel. He quickly shot out a tendril of magic and had it chase the creature as it tried to turn and run. The Diamond Dog managed to slip out of sight, but Soul somehow snagged it around a foot and started to reel it in.
"A little help here?" he grunted as the dog slid back into view, scrabbling at the dirt for all it was worth. Twilight activated her magic and with their combined strength the two unicorns pulled the dog up to the surface. "'Sup pup?" Soul quipped, grinning at the dog and swallowing his surprise at the ape-like size of its arms.
"Grrr, why you ponies come here?" the dog growled at him, "We not kidnapped any ponies! Go away!"
"So sorry to bother you," Rarity said, walking over after helping Ash lay down again, "But we're looking for a gemstone and I couldn't think of a better group of… fellows to lend us some help."
"Geeems?" The dog exclaimed, "You're the magic gem-finding pony Rarity. You don't need help! Search on the surface, leave Diamond Dog mines alone!"
"As much as I would like to," Rarity said, a measure of disgust sneaking onto her face for a split second, "My friends are looking for a very particular gem."
"Soooo?"
"So," Ash said, now standing more steadily, "We have no idea where it is and we hear you lot have quite the collection."
"Our jewels!" the dog shrieked, "You can't have them, any of them!"
"How about this," Rarity said, fixing the canine with a stare, "If you let us look for the gem and keep it if we find it, you can keep whatever other gems we may find along the way. And I promise we'll stay away from you from now on."
"Hrrrm," the dog said, thinking. "Fine," he said at last, "but you better be quick and no making the whining noises."
"Ok then," Ash said, "Let's go. Soul, Twilight, I think you can let him go now." The two unicorns cut their magic and the Diamond Dog dropped down into the tunnel. "Down we go then," Ash said, jumping into the hole. The other ponies exchanged a few glances before following him. As they slid down the dirt tunnel, Rarity decided that as rough as the dogs had been, she much preferred being carried down into the mines. Her coat was simply covered with dust by the time she landed next to her friends in one of the many intersections of the mines.
"Oh, this will take hours to fix," she said, looking to her mane. The Diamond Dog gave her a hard look. "I was just making an observation," she told it before turning to Ash. "Now, how do you propose we conduct this search?" she asked.
"Well," Ash said, looking around, "I assume that since the Diamond Dogs are such avid gem hunters, they've got at least one big stash of gems laying around."
"Yes," the dog hissed, "Our gems."
"Which may hold what we need," Ash continued, "However, there's no guarantee the Emerald has been dug out yet, if it's even here. Therefore, I propose we split up. I'll lead one team to sort through the stored gems, while another accompanies Rarity around these tunnels looking for any possible candidates that are still buried. Remember, the Gems are about as big as my hoof, perfectly symmetrical, and flawless. Anything else is Diamond Dog property by default." Rarity seemed mildly disappointed for some reason. "So," Ash said, turning to face their reluctant guide, "Would you prefer finding us another helper to guide one group around the caves, or will you take us all to the storehouse and then lead the mining group?"
The dog's eyes rocked back and forth as he mulled the ideas over, and then marched off down a tunnel. "This way," he said. The ponies followed in his wake as he moved through the tunnels at a fast jog. Every so often, one of them noticed a large, helmeted Diamond Dog staring at them from another tunnel as they passed by, but no one stopped them until they came to a large cavern, where a pointy-eared Dog in a red vest stood in their path, glaring at the guide.
"What is this?" he demanded in a dissonant voice.
"Uh, these ponies are looking for a gem," the guide-dog said, starting to sweat.
"And you let them in?" Red-vest exclaimed, "What is wrong with your head?" Rarity stepped forward into the dog's view, giving him a smile tempered with a mildly scathing gaze. Red-vest's hands flew to his ears as he scrambled backwards shouting, "And you let this one in?"
"This one ?" Rarity said, affronted, "Surely you haven't forgotten my name, have you?"
"N-n-no, uh, Miss Rarity," Red-vest said, "But why are you back? You hate us!"
"Like your friend there said," Rarity replied, waving dismissively at the guide, "We're looking for a certain gem which may be somewhere around here. I assure you I won't stay here longer than I must, but we can't conduct our search if you curs keep getting in our way. So, either help us, or go somewhere where I don't have to smell you."
"You're not going to get to us twice," Red-vest retorted, "Cry, whine, make any noises you want, I will not do what you- eep." He suddenly found himself floating up near the ceiling.
"I think you're confusing us for gentlemen.. er, gentlecolts I guess," Ash said, stepping forward with his horn aglow, "We've struck a deal with your buddy here already: we get to look around for awhile. If we find what we're looking for, we get to keep it. Either way, you keep all the other gems we unearth in the process. You know how good Rarity is at finding them, so I think this is to your advantage. Opinion?"
"Put me down!" Red-vest begged, "Put me down!" Ash brought him down, but kept him just off the ground, giving him a determined look. "All right, fine!" the dog said at last, "Do what you want, ponies." Ash nodded and released him. "Just leave us alone after you leave, please!" He ran off down a tunnel. Ash glanced at the guide, who flinched and began jogging along again. Within a few minutes, the group arrived in a chamber piled to the ceiling with gemstones. "Very nice," Ash said appreciatively.
"Uh, thanks," the guide said cautiously.
"All right," Applejack said, "How're we dividing up? I'll go with Rarity."
"Me too," Heart said.
"And our guide makes four," Ash said, looking at Soul, Gale, and Twilight. "Would you three mind staying with me? That'll give us three unicorns to speed up the sorting and three ponies who know exactly what to look for."
"Fine by me," Gale said as Soul nodded.
"I guess that's ok," Twilight said, looking to Rarity.
"Don't worry about me," Rarity said to her friend, "I'll be fine. A little digging won't hurt me. Much." She prodded the guide with a hoof. "Lead the way if you please," she said. He plodded out of the chamber, followed by Rarity and Heart.
"Here," AJ said, opening one of her saddlebags, "Y'all better take half the food in case you get hungry before we return." Soul transferred the food into his saddlebags, and then Applejack trotted off to catch up with her group.
"Ok folks," Ash said, lifting a bunch of gems out of the pile, "let's start sorting."
After several minutes of sorting, Twilight started to get a feel for the general shape and size the others were looking for, and had managed to collect a small pile of them. Ashen Blaze, Soul Mage, and Gale weren't stockpiling their gems; each time they found a candidate they stepped on it briefly before shoving aside as a reject. Twilight was about to ask for an explanation, but was cut off by the arrival of Red-vest and another, bigger Diamond Dog. "Sup pups?" Soul asked them flippantly. The two dogs didn't answer; they simply sat down by the wall and watched the ponies with suspicion. "Ok then," Soul said, getting back to sorting, "glower away."
They worked on in silence for another few minutes until Twilight's curiosity got the better of her. "Something's been bugging me," she said, "I'm not an expert of transformations or anything of course, but it seems like you three and Gold Heart have adapted rather quickly to being ponies."
"This isn't our first pony world," Ashen Blaze said, "We wound up in a world similar to this one a few jumps ago. I'll spare you the details, but it was probably the worst and shortest episode of our quest, and only partially because I wasn't a unicorn there and thus had no magic whatsoever." He caught the lavender unicorn's eye and added, "From what I've seen so far, I have higher hopes for this version of pony-land."
"Equestria," Twilight said, "It's called Equestria."
"The other one wasn't," Gale said. She dug out a gem, looked it over, and then kicked it into the reject pile.
"Oh. So, how many worlds have you… tried to save so far?" Twilight asked.
"This is the fourteenth, counting our own," Gale said, "Two pony-worlds and twelve like home in some way or another. All in all, I think we've been chasing Tau'rin for… close to four years now."
"Wow," Twilight said, completely forgetting about the gems for the moment, "How'd you four end up being the ones to try and stop Tau'rin? No, wait, let me guess. You discovered a prophesy about him being released from some ancient prison and took on the challenge of stopping it, and then stopping him?"
"That's not a bad guess," Ash said, "Completely wrong, but perfectly reasonable. No, I think Tau'rin and Gems have actually been jumping around from world to world much longer than we've been involved. Soul, Heart, Gale, and I had met up years before Tau'rin appeared in our world and devoted ourselves to fighting evil and chaos. We called ourselves the Order-naries."
"Ordinaries?" Twilight asked, "That's a weird name for a team of heroes."
"No, Order-naries," Soul said, pronouncing it slowly, "As in mercenaries for the cause of Order, opposed to Chaos and whatnot."
"It was luck alone that got us involved with Tau'rin and gave us enough time to figure out how to use the Gems effectively." He rolled his eyes as a wistful smile crossed his lips. "And it was sheer, dumb, once-in-a-lifetime luck that we figured out we could hitch ourselves to the energy of the Gems and get pulled along after Tau'rin unleashed the Ultimate Chaos." His smile faded as he hung his head. "After that, it's been a horrible cycle, and all we've learned is that there's not much besides the Gems that can hurt Tau'rin, but bringing all of them together has always resulted in failure on our part."
"Then why bother gathering them?" Twilight asked, "You're only speeding things along by finding them."
"If we don't find them, Tau'rin will," Ash said, looking at Twilight with a grim expression, "Once, we tried staying hands-off. We barely managed to catch a ride on the out-bound Gem energies before that world collapsed on us. Our only options are to claim the Gems and fight, or die." Twilight stared speechlessly at Ash as he turned back to sorting through the pile of Gems.
"Sorry to put all that on you," Soul Mage said. Twilight just looked at him for a second before pulling out a sheaf of papers and began writing on them.
"I hope the Princess has some advice," she muttered, "And I hope I hear back from her before it's too late."
The guide dog led Rarity's group down a maze of twists and turns, and they stopped every so often when Rarity's horn lit up in the presence of hidden gemstones. At the end of a half hour, they'd filled both of Heart's bags to capacity, forcing the usually airborne Pegasus to walk, and Applejack's empty bag was close to full again. "This is not what I was hoping for," Heart groused.
"No, this is good," the guide said, visibly happier at the haul of gems they'd acquired, "They'll all be so happy with me for letting you in."
"Glad to help," Heart replied with undisguised sarcasm.
"I think this tunnel's cleared," Rarity said, looking around, "I'm not sensing any more gems."
"Come come then," the guide said, running off, "We try this way next!" Heart heaved a sigh as she followed the group down the tunnel.
"You ok sugar cube?" Applejack asked, looking over her shoulder at the golden-yellow pegasus.
"I'll be fine," Heart said, her gloomy term giving lie to her words.
"Don't like it underground much I take it?" AJ asked.
"Well, maybe a little," Heart said, "But it's more… let's just say I'm not used to being apart from my brother for so long." She muttered something else that Applejack didn't quite catch. She was about to pry when Rarity came to a sudden halt, her horn glowing and pointing down a side-tunnel they were passing. The guard continued on for a few steps until he realized the ponies had stopped.
"What is wrong?" he asked.
"There's a gem down there," Rarity said, nodding toward the tunnel.
"Not possible," the Diamond Dog said, "we dug that out completely months ago; no gems are left."
"The horn doesn't lie," Rarity said, walking into the tunnel.
"Are you sure there's nothing down there?" Heart asked the dog.
"Yes," he answered, "Can't dig there anymore anyway- too unstable, unless gems are in the floor."
"Hmm," Heart said, looking at the retreating figure of Rarity. A wry smile crossed her face and she galloped off after the unicorn.
"Guess we're goin' that-a-way," Applejack said, following them.
"Crazy ponies," the dog muttered, sitting down at the tunnel entrance. Heart pulled up even with Rarity and began looking around wildly in the light of Rarity's magic. When Applejack caught up to them, Heart thought she saw the light glint off something in the distance and ran ahead.
"Whoa there," Applejack called out, "Don't go too far! Ya might get lost." Silence was the only response for several seconds. All of a sudden the tunnel was flooded with light, leaving Rarity and Applejack blinking as their eyes adjusted.
"Rarity, Applejack," Heart said, flying back with a large diamond between her hooves and a distinct lack of saddlebags, "This is the Diamond of Light."
"Wow," Rarity said, staring in awe at the diamond, which was glowing with an internal light, "Can… can I get a closer look, please?"
"Go ahead," Heart said, dropping the gem in front of Rarity, "You should probably carry it anyway- I can't handle it and my bags at the same time." She flew back down the tunnel and returned a minute later with her saddlebags hanging loosely from her back. Rarity picked the Diamond up with her magic and looked it over.
"Simply perfect," she said with admiration, "Oh, the outfits I could build around this…" she smiled sheepishly at Heart's look after she said that. She cleared her throat and asked, "So, how does it work?"
"You concentrate while touching it," Heart said, walking toward the tunnel entrance, "but be careful- if you overdo it you might blind someone."
"Say," Applejack said, "Since you were makin' it glow, does that mean any pony can use it, or is that only 'cause y'all are... special?"
"Anyone can do it," Heart explained, "The Gems are so powerful that anything capable of thought can use magic if they hold one. However, that magic would be limited to the Gem's element."
"Interestin'" Applejack said simply.
"Do you want to try Applejack?" Rarity asked, moving the gem to float in front of the earth pony.
"Nah," AJ said, shaking her head, "I've been getting' along fine without magic mah whole life. I don't need to start dabblin' in it now, 'specially since I ain't going keep it, right?" Heart just nodded as Rarity put the Diamond into her bag. When they came out into the main tunnel, their guide gave them a quizzical look. Rarity pulled the Diamond out and showed it to him.
"Pretty," the guide said, entranced by the diamond.
"It's what we came to find," Heart said, "Here, you can take these." She pulled off her saddlebags and tossed them at the dog's feet. "I'm tired of carrying them, so if you want them, you carry them." She jumped back into flight and hovered until the dog slung the bags around his shoulders and began leading them back to the storage chamber.
Back in the storage chamber, Ash's group had sorted through the entire pile, rejecting almost all the gems out of hand. When Rarity's group arrived, Ash had turned his attention to the line of ten gems Twilight had picked out which hadn't been tested yet. Soul waved as Rarity, AJ, and Heart entered. "Hey girls, how'd it go?" he asked.
"We may have found something," Heart said guardedly, eyeing Red-vest, "How about you?"
"About to finish up," Ash said, "mind lending a couple hooves?" Heart nodded and flew over to the line. Soul and Gale also walked over, and each of them placed a hoof one of two gems. Heart kicked away the diamond under her left hoof, prompting Ash to discard the one he had and each took one of the remaining two. They all focused for several seconds, but nothing happened. "Welp," Ash said, kicking his two gems back toward the pile, "That's disappointing. So, where's the Diamond, Heart?"
"Rarity's got it," Heart said, going airborne again. Ash looked at Rarity, who pulled out the Gem. Ash grabbed it and put it into his own saddlebag.
"No offense," he said, "but the last time you held onto a Gem…"
"I understand, believe me," Rarity said, "Now, may we leave this wretched mine? I am in dire need of a full spa treatment."
"I'll pass on that," Applejack said, "but a simple bath sounds good to me."
As the ponies walked back to Ponyville, Rarity tried to talk each of the girls into letting her treat them a spa session and dropped some hints that's she'd consider doing the same for Ash and Soul. Applejack stuck by her earlier statement that all she wanted was a bath, or even a quick dip in the lake to rinse off the worst of the dirt, while Twilight readily accepted. Gale declined, taking AJ's stance until Heart talked her into accepting a warm bath and pony-pedi.
"The baths are really quite nice," Rarity said, turning her attention to the stallions.
"I'm fine, really," Soul said, brushing off a little dirt.
"If I were you," Ash said, not taking his eyes off where he was going, "I'd be cautious with my money since my source of income has been replaced by a bunch of rocks."
"Oh, pish-posh," Rarity said, "I can certainly afford one round of pampering for everypony here. And if I ever do wind up short on cash, I could always sell a few gems. There's always a market for them in Canterlot."
"Pardon my uninformed opinion then," Ash said dryly, "I guess I shouldn't say no to washing off the aromas I've picked up today."
"Very well then," Rarity said with triumph, "To the bathhouse! Step lively!" She picked up speed, taking the lead.
The boys and Applejack finished their (private) baths rather quickly and met up outside the spa, having nothing else to do other than wait for the others.
"So," AJ said, breaking the awkward silence, "I guess that's one down, six ta go?"
"Basically," Ashen Blaze said, pulling out the Diamond and looking it over, "Although, if we stick with the average, Tau'rin will have two or three of Gems by the time we locate him."
"What's this Tau'rin like?" Applejack asked.
"Evil," Soul Mage said, "loves Chaos, and hasn't needed to change his basic plan much in all this time. He'll try and find some pocket of darkness or underground overlord-wannabe to attach himself too, hunt the Gems as quietly as possible, and then try to launch some all-out, world-conquering plan once he can come up with one."
"And that points us right to him," Ash said, "Usually, by the time we meet, all seven Gems are in play, there's a big fight, and the combined energies fling us along just as the power of the Gems overwhelms Tau'rin's limited sanity and reality starts breaking down. It would be tedious if each world didn't give us a new set of people to rope in and different rules to work around. And even then…" His voice trailed off, and he gave the Diamond a spin with his magic, then stopped it and stared intently at it. The Gem began to glow faintly, and then a beam of light shot into the sky.
"What was that?" Gale asked, coming out of the spa, followed by Twilight.
"Just seeing if I could activate the Diamond through unicorn power," Ash said, stowing the gem away, "Where are Heart and Rarity?"
"Still in there," Gale said, inclining her head toward the door, "The two of us decided to forgo the mud facials and whatnot."
"You look good anyway," Soul said, "You should clean up more often Gale."
"Thanks," Gale said in a deadpan, giving the yellow unicorn a slight smile.
"Let's head over to the library," Twilight said, "They said they'll meet up with us there when they're done."
"Sounds good," Ash said, walking off.
As they walked down the streets of Ponyville, Twilight noticed that there weren't very many ponies out about their business, which was strange for the early afternoon. The weather was partly cloudy, but it looked like the weather pegasi were sticking to the schedule of no rain. There weren't many reasons Twilight could think of that would leave the streets so empty, and a glance over at Applejack told her that the earth pony was having similar thoughts, and both of them were probably coming to the same conclusion. The Order-nary ponies were taking in the sights but didn't seem to realize that things weren't quite normal. Twilight took the lead as they neared the library, but as she started to grip the door handle with her magic, she heard a soft "excuse me" to her left. She turned to look and saw Fluttershy peering around the side of the tree. "Sorry Twilight," she said in her soft tone, "But, could I have a word with you? Oh, and you too Applejack. If you don't mind." Twilight and AJ exchanged a look.
"You three go on ahead," Twilight said to the Order-naries, "We'll be right with you." She and Applejack walked over to the shy pegasus. Ash spared them a glance, and then walked up to the door and opened it. Before he could think, he was hit in the face by a mass of confetti accompanied by the sound of party horns.
"What the skeb ?" he exclaimed in surprise. He and his friends walked into the library, which was full of ponies and decorated with balloons, streamers, and a banner declaring "Welcome to Ponyville!"
As the three ponies looked around, Pinkie Pie popped up in front of them and yelled, "Surprise!" Ash yelped and backed up into Gale. "Do you like it?" Pinkie asked, smiling broadly as she leaned forward toward Ash, "I usually hold parties at Sugar Cube Corner, but I figured you were more likely to come here." She dashed over and threw a front leg around Soul's shoulders, gesturing to all the guests with the other. "And just look, practically every pony in Ponyville's here to meet you! Now you'll have lots of friends."
"Uh, thanks," Soul said, forcing a smile onto his face, "This is… quite the surprise."
"Not too unlike my first party," Twilight said from the door. The Order-naries turned around to look at her. Fluttershy was standing behind her, hanging her head shyly.
"Sorry," she said, "Pinkie insisted I make sure that one of you opened the door instead of Twilight."
"Yep!" Pinkie said, releasing Soul and starting to bounce in place, "It's always best when the guests of honor spring the surprise. Now come on, I'll introduce you to everyone!" She bounced away, and then stopped and looked back, "Oh, and don't worry about Spike Twilight, I put him up in his bed so no pony knocks him into something by accident." She resumed her bouncing, heading for the nearest group of ponies.
"Well," Gale said, "If she went to all this trouble, let's enjoy ourselves." Soul nodded, grinning, and the two of them followed the bouncing pink party pony. Ash followed them at a slower pace for a bit, and then veered off toward a table of refreshments. He loaded a plate with a couple of muffins, then plucked a few books off a nearby shelf, and worked his way through the crowd and up the stairs into the living area.
"Oh dear," Fluttershy said, watching him go, "I don't think he likes this."
"Reminds me of me," Twilight said, "Which is strange; he seemed so out-going up till now, if a bit grim."
"What should we do?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know," Twilight asked, "Let's give him some time, maybe he'll come back down on his own soon." Fluttershy nodded and the two friends went to join the party.
When Rarity and Gold Heart showed up about an hour later, the party was in full swing. Having missed the introductions, Heart went to find Gale, which didn't prove too difficult since she'd gathered quite a crowd around her at the Bean-bag Buck game. Bean-bag Buck involved launching small bean bags from a line on the floor and trying to get them into one of the buckets arranged against the wall. Most ponies would toss the bag with their front hooves, or with magic in the case of unicorns, but Gale had decided to take the name literally; she had her back to the baskets, sparing only a brief glance at them now and then, and would then kick a bag into the air with one rear leg and buck it toward the baskets with the other. She never missed the smallest, highest-value basket. Heart watched her with a smug smile for several minutes, and then flew over the crowd to join her friend.
"Hi Heart," Gale said, making another perfect kick, "I like your mane."
"Thanks," Heart said, bouncing her now slightly-curled brown mane on one hoof. "Say, shouldn't you give some other pony a chance?"
"Maybe," Gale said, prepping another bean-bag, "but no pony wants to challenge me."
"You could try to be less perfect," Heart said, watching the bean-bag sail into the basket. Gale rolled her eyes. "How about this then," Heart said. She spun around and pointed a hoof at a random spectator, a brown-on-brown stallion with an hourglass cutie-mark. "You sir," Heart said, "pick a basket, any basket, and we'll see if Gale here can hit it."
"Uh," the pony said, pointing to a mid-sized basket on the right, "That one." Gale looked at her new target, and then looked away, kicked up a bean-bag, and bucked it straight and true into the mid-sized basket.
"Anypony else want to challenge the unerring accuracy of Gale?" Heart asked, flying up to look over the crowd. Several hooves went up.
Meanwhile, Rarity found that Soul and Pinkie Pie had acquired a small audience of their own. The two of them were holding a conversation which had started with Soul being confused about the origin or morality or something ridiculously deep about the game of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, but which had quickly become a sort of game where Soul tried to follow Pinkie's meandering and often abrupt changes of topic without getting "thrown." He seemed to be doing remarkably well, although he broke down into laughter shortly after Rarity joined the group. "Excuse me," Rarity said after the yellow unicorn had caught his breath, "but has anypony seen Ashen Blaze?"
"He went upstairs almost the moment he got here," Twilight said, walking over from the food, "I think he's still up there."
"Well," Rarity said with a toss of her mane, "That simply will not do. I shall go have a word with him right now." She walked away with a determined and regal air in her posture.
"OOOoo," Pinkie said, eyes wide and sparkling, "I think she likes him!"
"What?" Soul asked, giving the pink pony a look of total confusion.
"One point for Pinkie," a lime-green, white-and-blue maned pony said.
"That doesn't… you're keeping score?" Soul sputtered, transferring his gaze to the speaker. "Never mind," he continued, shaking his head and looking back at Pinkie, "what do you mean she likes him?"
"Exactly that, silly,' Pinkie answered, "Our little Rarity has a crush on Ash!"
"Oh," Soul said, looking worried, "That's not good. Ash has never been good with… closeness, the girls and I notwithstanding."
"Should we stop her then?" Twilight asked.
"No," Soul said after some thought, "If she really has feelings for Ash, he'll be the one to set her straight."
Rarity found Ash lying next to Twilight's bed reading a book. He glanced in her direction when he heard her hoofsteps before returning to his book. Rarity stood in silence, not quite sure how to address him. Part of her wanted to scold him for ignoring her and the party, but another part was afraid of angering him, and yet another didn't mind being alone with him. Finally, after a few tense minutes, Ash put the book down, closed his eyes, and said, "I am starting to wonder about what language I'm speaking."
Rarity blinked. "Excuse me?" she asked, confused.
"Barring a few logical changes to common expressions," Ash continued, "The words I hear register as English, and my team and I have had no trouble speaking to anypony. However," he lifted the book and turned it so Rarity could see the spine, "I can't decide if this script is English, Imperial, or something else entirely. And yet, the words make perfect sense to me. Quite the riddle."
"I… I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Rarity said as Ash's words swam about in her head, trying to find something familiar to latch onto.
"That's what you get when you walk in on my studies," Ash said. He opened his eyes slightly and smiled. "Don't let it bother you Rarity, confusion does not suit your face. Although, you may need to get used to it while my team and I are around." He stood up and set the book on the bed. "Am I correct in assuming you were chosen to convince me to join the party?" he asked.
"I came on my own," Rarity said, "The others seemed content to let you be alone."
"My team knows me, and the rest made a good judgment," Ash said, walking over to the basket-bed holding the petrified Spike, "I'm really a solitary critter at heart."
"Is that so?" Rarity said, "Well, you certainly had me fooled. Up until now you've been nothing but a gentlecolt to me and my friends, apologizing for every little inconvenience you think you're causing." Ash snorted in amusement, "Ok, my house being destroyed is a big inconvenience," the white unicorn continued, "but never mind that right now. You even seemed eager to have us along on your search."
"Did it ever occur to you that I'm simply using you?" Ash asked, looking up from the stone dragon, "You in particular with your gem sense, but also Applejack for her simple hospitality, Twilight for her knowledge of magic, and the pegasi for Heart's sake. Haven't you considered that if we weren't in such need, we wouldn't have much to do with you?"
"Your friends are having a good time downstairs," Rarity said, "and you get along with them so well."
"I need them," Ash said, "first and foremost they are my team, my anchors to reality and the only ones I can count on to quench my temper. They're my friends as well, but that's something we've grown into."
"Oh, I see," Rarity said, eyes narrowing, "You think you're too good to spend the time making new friends."
"Ha!" Ash laughed sardonically, "Good?" He walked over and looked Rarity right in the eyes. "If you knew me even a little, you'd hesitate to call me…" he trailed away, eyes suddenly going wide with surprise. His horn began to glow and he vanished from sight in a flash. A loud yelp cut through the party noise downstairs and Rarity ran down the stairs, reaching the ground floor just in time to see Soul run out the door with Ash hanging onto his back like a scared cat. Everypony stopped what they were doing to watch the undignified exit, and then several sets of eyes turned to look at her. Rarity was used to having lots of eyes on her, but this was entirely the wrong kind of attention. She felt her cheeks grow hot as the desire to run and hide grew strong in her chest. Fortunately, Fluttershy flew over to her, giving Rarity a reason to not give in to the fear.
"What happened?" the yellow pegasus asked, concerned only for her friend.
"I honestly don't know," Rarity said, seeing that Twilight, Heart, and Gale were also coming over, "I tried talking to him, but he was being so negative that we started to argue. For a second I thought he was going to explode again; he was staring at me so intently, but then he just teleported away."
"Wait," Gale said, "staring? He was looking you in the eye ?"
"Yes," Rarity said, not sure where the brown earth pony was going.
"For how long?"
"A few seconds," Rarity said, "At least three, maybe four?" Heart and Gale exchanged surprised looks.
"What's the record again?" Heart asked.
"Two, not counting berserkers," Gale responded. The two ponies glanced at Rarity and then dashed out of the library, leaving the others with various expression of confusion.
"All right," Twilight said after a second, "There is no way I'm letting that go without some sort of explanation."
"Me too," Rarity said, joining her lavender friend as she headed determinedly for the door. They paused briefly upon encountering Pinkie Pie, who looked like her hair was about to deflate. "Don't mind us Pinkie," Rarity assured her, "It's a fabulous party, and we'll be back to enjoy it as soon as possible."
Pinkie was silent for a few seconds, but then her smile returned and her mane poofed out more. "Okie dokie loki!" she said and bounced off to brighten some other pony's day.
Twilight and Rarity left the library and walked into the middle of an argument between Soul and Ash, which Heart and Gale were standing well away from. "Are you insane ?" Soul was shouting, "How could you possibly think alienating the only creature we've met who can come close to filling PC's role was a good idea?"
"Do I question your decisions about who to let close to you?" Ash retorted.
"If you think it's interfering with the mission, yes!" Soul said, "You have before and you know it, so don't get all high-and-mighty on me!"
"Well, what would you have done? I swear, one more minute and she'd have…" Ash's rant was cut short as he saw that Twilight and Rarity had shown up. He blew out a long breath and dropped his head a little. "Botherment," he muttered.
"Hi girls," Soul said dully, "Sorry you had to hear that." He looked at the expressions of worry and confusion on Rarity's face and the determined set of Twilight's eyes and gave Ash a smirk. "Looks like you've got some 'splaining to do," he said. Ash just glowered at him.
"Oh, you boys," Gale said, stepping between them, "I'll take this, you two go off and cool down." The male unicorns shared a quick, stony glance and walked away. "Ok," Gale said, looking at Twilight and Rarity, "first, I think Ash owes you an apology or two Rarity. Just make sure one of us is around when you try to get it."
"I just want to know where that melancholy came from," Rarity said.
"He… hasn't had an easy life," Gale said slowly, "He doesn't really open up to people very easily, and even then it takes incredible circumstances to make him say anything about his life before meeting us. The real problem is he never really forgives himself for his mistakes unless he can completely reverse their consequences. If it weren't for Soul, Heart, and me supporting him, I think he'd lose the will to keep going."
"Oh my," Rarity said, looking over at Ash, who was engaged in a quiet, and apparently civil, conversation with Soul.
"So, what was the big deal about his eyes?" Twilight asked.
"I'll answer that," Ash said, coming over with Soul to rejoin the group, "Ordinarily, nothing can meet my gaze for more than a few seconds, except for those under some sort of mind control. However, it seems that detail wasn't included with this pony shape. Soul here actually beat me in a staring contest just now." A smug smile crossed the golden-yellow unicorn's face for a moment. Ash turned to Rarity and gave her a small smile. "It wasn't the way I'd have preferred to learn the fact, but I guess it did spare you from a full-on tantrum from me." He bowed his head. "Forgive me my foul humor."
Rarity regarded the penitent unicorn for a few minutes, and then said, "Think nothing of it. Now, there is still a party in your honor occurring; will you attend it?"
Ash raised his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I'll give it a try I guess."
"Very well," Rarity said, moving to stand beside him, "Then let us go."
While Ashen Blaze was not the greatest party guest ever to attend a Pinkie Pie party, he did manage to last through until Twilight insisted that everypony clear out of the library so she could have some peaceful study time before bed. Applejack had stayed behind to help clean up, so the Order-naries were walking back to Sweet Apple Acres on their own. Gold Heart was flying overhead, pulling loop-de-loops and spins and other simple tricks to use up the excess energy from all the sugar she'd ingested over the course of the afternoon. "Today was awesome!" she shouted, "Finding a Gem, a trip to a spa, meeting new friends, and a party! With food! Food made by ponies, of all things! That tasted amazing ! Best day ever!"
"You're starting to sound like Pinkie Pie up there," Soul Mage said, smiling, "Or Rainbow Dash."
"Don't care!" Heart responded, turning upside down and giving her brother a huge grin, "I'm on a sugar high." With a whoop, she flew off ahead of the group.
"So Ash," Gale said, watching the pegasus fly off, "did you enjoy yourself?"
"Meh," Ash replied, looking straight ahead.
"A c'mon," Soul said, "just because a few ponies laughed at your dancing…"
"That's not it," Ash said, "besides, they laughed louder at you." Soul stuck his tongue out at the grey unicorn. "It's just that we could have used that time to figure out how we're going to locate the rest of the Gems," Ash continued, "Unless you just want to wait for Tau'rin to find them all first."
"Not on your life," Gale said with an accusing look. By this point, the group had caught up to Heart, who was mimicking Pinkie's bounce-trot, in place, about six feet off the ground, to the confusion and amusement of a couple passers-by. She stopped when she saw the others and resumed flying above them.
"So," Ash said, blatantly ignoring Heart's antics, "How do you propose we find the rest of the Gems?"
"Oh!" Heart exclaimed, causing everyone to look up at her, "I was talking to a bunch to ponies about what happened when we warped in. A few of them saw something flying toward that forest near Fluttershy's place. One of them, I think it was the mail-pony; you know, the wonky-eyed one? Anyway, she said she saw two things fly that way after the boom."
"Ok, go easy on the sugar next time sis," Soul said, trying to keep up with Heart's train of thought. Heart gave him a quick salute as she nodded.
"Well done," Ash said, "Tomorrow let's get some information on that forest and organize a search pattern. With luck, we can probably head out after those Gems, if that's what they were, right after lunch."
"You're including the morning chores in those calculations, right?" Soul asked.
Ash slowed down slightly, blinking, and then his eyes narrowed slightly. "Ah skvetch ."
The next morning, to Ash's joy, Applejack told her tenants they would not have to buck any apples that day. That joy turned into disappointment almost instantly when the orange earth pony then instructed Ash and Soul to hitch themselves up to a pair of fully laden carts of apples. "It's my day to mind the stall at the market," AJ said, "and Big Mac's gonna be apple-bucking for tomorrow's stock, so y'all are gonna help me get these apples into town."
"What about Gale and Heart?" Ash asked darkly, eyeing the two mares.
"Somepony's got to help me set up the stall," Applejack said simply.
"I guess we'll see you there then," Soul said, backing into the harness of the first cart. Ash grumbled as he slipped into the second one. Applejack just smiled after making sure they were both ready to go and then galloped off toward town with the girls in tow.
"I'm sick of this," Ash said, watching them go.
"We haven't even started yet," Soul commented, heaving forward to get his cart started. "Besides, a little manual labor in the morning gets you in shape for the rest of the day."
"I'm a mage," Ash groused, plodding along behind Soul's cart, "physical effort isn't my thing."
"Poor thing," Soul said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "That cart too heavy for you? Here, let me help." He reached out with is magic, plucked an apple out of Ash's cart, and put it in his own. "There you go," the yellow unicorn said with a mischievous grin. He accelerated to a fast trot as Ash yelled protests at him. "Speed it up," Soul shouted back, "you'll never catch me at that rate!"
"Skvetchte little…" Ash growled, but the corners of his mouth twitched upward, threatening to spoil his façade of outrage.
By the time the two unicorns arrived at the market, only slightly winded and in good moods, AJ and the girls had just finished preparing the stall. Setting the apple baskets out was the work of a few minutes. "Thanks y'all," Applejack said, "That's all I need ya for today, so go ahead and do whatever ya need to."
"No problem AJ," Gale said, "See you later." With that, the Order-naries made their way to the library. When they arrived, they saw Sweetie Bell trotting away toward the school house as Rarity closed the front door and turned a key in the lock.
"Is Twilight out?" Ash asked as they approached.
"Yes," Rarity said, "She's out shopping for whatever she can find for those potions we found a couple days ago. After that, she's going to Zecora's place to get her opinion on those potions."
"Then where are you off to?" Heart asked.
"Over to Fluttershy's," the Rarity said, "I want to see how my poor Opalesence is doing with her recovery. Did you four need something?"
"We were hoping to get some research done on a lead we've discovered," Ash said, "But if Twilight's not here, that might take too long. We'll... just go see if we can find her in town."
"Very well," the white unicorn said with a nod, "have a nice day." She walked away, seemingly unaware that Ash was watching her with a curious look on his face.
"Do my eyes deceive me?" Soul asked light-heartedly, giving the ashs-grey unicorn a playful push, "or do I see attraction in your eyes Ashen Blaze?"
"You need glasses," Ash said flatly, turning back toward the market, "Come on, we've got a librarian to find." Soul exchanged a satisfied smile with Heart as they and Gale followed their de facto leader.
As they walked past Sugar Cube Corner, they heard a familiar cheerful voice chatting away inside. Heart, Soul, and Gale all smiled and rolled their eyes, only to have those smiles chased away by a big gasp. "Ash! Hey Ashen Blaze! Hold on a second!" The four ponies turned to see Pinkie bounding out of the bakery toward them. "I've got something I absolutely have to give to you right now!"
"What is it Pink…ie?" Ash asked, voice trailing as he saw that Pinkie Pie was wearing a familiar-looking thing on her head. It was a metal device shaped like the right half of a helmet, held in place by a padded wire that went over the left side of her head. From the helmet protruded a small microphone that hung near the corner of Pinkie's mouth, a transparent green screen over her right eye, and what looked like a tiny speaker in her ear. "What… how… where'd you find that?" Ash sputtered, completely surprised.
"This?" Pinkie asked, tilting her head, "Isn't it cool? Guess what? It lets me talk to some pony far, far away from here. He's kind of a mean, sarcastic snarky-pants, but I think I'm helping him brighten up." She paused as a sound the others couldn't quite make out came out of the device's speaker. "Oh, right," she said, "He says I need to give this to you Ash, so here you go!" She pulled the thing off her head, somehow maintaining her balance on her hind legs alone, and held it out. Ash snatched it up with magic and settled it onto his head, a genuine smile of glee on his face as he adjusted the eyepiece, mike, and speaker.
"PC, old buddy!" he said, "Somebody must like me a lot to let me have you this time. You've just made this second pony-world so much easier…" His face fell into a longsuffering expression as the device spoke to him. "No, I'm not," he said, "You just got done spending time with Pinkie Pie and you think I'm the crazy one? Ok, you know what? Shut up and start scanning. Usual signatures, minus the Diamond. We'll settle the sanity issue later." He strode off purposefully in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, leaving an amused trio of friends and a briefly befuddled Pinkie Pie in his wake.
"A pony and his computer,' Soul quipped, "It's a wonderful thing."
"Where did you find it Pinkie?" Gale asked.
"Umm…" Pinkie said, making a show of thinking, "Well, after you guys landed by the chickens and were all 'ohmygoshwherearewe?' and ran off and Twilight and Redheart followed you, I got this pinchy-twitchy feeling telling me there was something hiding in a bush so I went to look and found that thingy. I was curious about it, but then I heard you talking about lunch and I was all 'gaaasp I need to invite them to lunch!' so I forgot about it and came over to you. Then yesterday I got the pinchy-twitch again and found it again and-" Soul put a hoof over the pink pony's mouth to give himself some time to process the story.
"And then PC decided he'd acknowledge you and began pestering you to return him to Ash," he said after his head stopped spinning, "Which you have done, and he's grateful beyond measure. That sum it up?" Pinkie nodded and Soul removed his hoof. "Now, if that's all, we'll be going." He and the girls hurried to catch up with Ash before Pinkie could properly respond. Pinkie watched them go until her brain reminded her that she had cookies ready to put into the oven.
When the Order-naries arrived at the gate to Fluttershy's yard, Rarity was just stepping out of the cottage and thanking the pegasus for taking care of her cat. Fluttershy's acknowledgement of the thanks was cut off by a gasp from Rarity when she spotted the group. "Ashen Blaze," she said, "what is that thing on your head?"
"PC," Ash said simply, "Short for Portable Computer." Ignoring the confused looks on Rarity's and Fluttershy's faces, he turned toward the forest and set PC to scanning for Gems again.
Gale decided to come to the rescue. "It's basically an intelligent tool," she said, walking over to the two ponies, "Ash uses it to locate the Gems, analyze spells and things that stand in our way, and is frequently insulted by its sarcastic sense of humor."
"I don't get insulted, I get annoyed," Ash said, "PC loves to heckle me whenever I ask for his help." The eyepiece flashed and he glared at it. "I know you can hear me," he said, "You're on my head! How could you not hear me?"
"Stating the obvious isn't going to help your case Ash," Soul said.
"You be quiet," the unicorn said to Soul, "you're only getting half the conversation anyway."
"Well, excuse me," Soul said with a snort, "Have you two found anything yet, or has your little debate distracted you?"
"Um…" Ash said uncertainly. The eyepiece flashed again, and the unicorn smiled. "As a matter of fact," he said smugly, "Yes. Two distinct signals- the Ruby and one other that's too far out to identify yet. Both are that way." He pointed toward the Everfree Forest.
"In… in there?" Fluttershy asked quietly, shrinking back a little, "but… that's the Everfree Forest! You don't want to go in there."
"There are two Gems in there, so I think we do," Ashen Blaze said, "What's so spooky about a forest anyway?"
"Oh, it's a horrible, scary place," Fluttershy insisted, her voice gaining some strength even as she began to quiver in fear, "Nothing there works like it should. The weather changes, the even the little animals don't listen to you, and the plants grow all by themselves." Ashen Blaze, Soul Mage, Gold Heart, and Gale simply stared at the meek yellow pegasus slack-jawed for a few seconds until one of them cracked out a chuckle and all four fell to the ground in uproarious laughter. "Wh-what?" Fluttershy asked, looking at Rarity in horror, "did I say it wrong? I… I don't understand." Rarity just gave her a confused look.
After a few minutes, the Order-naries recovered enough to stand back up, although they were all still chuckling and giggling. "Hahahooo," Ash said, wiping tears from his eyes, "You… you're serious, aren't you?" He looked at Fluttershy and almost broke down again. "Ho boy," he said, catching his breath, "Ah, c'mon team, let's get moving. Those Gems are waiting." The four ponies turned and galloped into the forest, ignoring Twilight, who had just arrived with a set of saddlebags and the petrified Spike strapped to her back. The lavender pony watched the Order-naries run off laughing into the forest and then went over to Rarity and Fluttershy.
"I missed something, didn't I?" she asked.
Soul Mage and Ashen Blaze were still laughing as the Order-naries walked deeper into the Everfree Forest, but Gold Heart was beginning to feel bad about it. "Fluttershy seemed so scared," she said.
"Pah, she's the type to be scared of her own shadow," Ash said off-handedly, "Heck, I think that statement might be literal truth." He reared up and waved his hooves menacingly at a random tree. "Oh no," he said in mock horror, "Nopony had a hoof in planting this tree! And it's grown up big and strong without any attention at all! How terrible that nature should work unsupervised!"
"Well," Heart said, "I know for a fact that the pegasi manage the weather around ponyville. Rainbow Dash showed me how she moves clouds around and kicks them away if they're not needed."
"Weather control I can accept," Ash said, "Every magic-based society worth its spells dabbles in the weather."
"It's the animals that get me," Soul said, "I know Fluttershy's a true blue animal lover and all, but the way she was talking about 'the little animals taking care of themselves' makes me think she's coddling the lot. How's the world supposed to work if you feed and protect every single little rodent, bird, and other prey species that you live around?"
"Truth," Ash declared, "and as forests go, this isn't that bad. Sure, the sun's light isn't filtering in through the canopy like I think it should, but I don't see anything scary." A sudden rustling of a nearby bush gave the unicorn a start, but he laughed it off saying, "Ah, it's nothing. Probably just a little critter we scared off." The bush rustled again and a white feathered bird head popped out. "Or a chicken…" Ash said, giving it a strange look, "Must be one of Fluttershy's." The "chicken" crowed as it raised itself out of the bush, and then kept going upward revealing its scaly body and long, serpentine tail. Ash's irises shrank as the cockatrice's eyes glowed red. "Oh, skve -" was all he could manage before he turned to stone. The cockatrice sneered in triumph, which was quite a feat considering it didn't have teeth or lips, before turning on the other three ponies. They all averted their eyes quickly, trying to come up with a plan.
"Heart," Soul said in a low voice as the cockatrice slithered around the trio, looking for an opening in their defense, "Think you could hit it with a blind shot?"
"Possibly," the golden-yellow pegasus responded, covering her eyes with a wing, "The odds aren't good though."
"What do we do about Ash?" Gale hissed, trying to watch the monster's movements without actually looking, "How do we reverse a petrification without magic?"
"I don't know," Soul said. The cockatrice lost its patience at that point and charged the ponies, knocking them into each other so that they went sprawling and left their eyes briefly exposed. The monster locked eyes with Gale and clucked evilly as it readied its stony gaze. Just as its eyes turned red, it was distracted by a loud, angry voice.
"And just what are you doing?" the stern voice demanded. The cockatrice visibly gulped and turned around slowly. The three Order-nary ponies looked up to see the monster quailing under the intense gaze of Fluttershy's Stare. Their jaws dropped as the pink-haired pegasus walked toward the cockatrice, which was making small, terrified noises as it tried to back away. "Oh yes," Fluttershy said, "you're the same one, aren't you? I thought I'd made myself clear last time; you don't go around turning ponies or innocent creatures to stone. This is your second warning young bird. Don't let me catch you doing this again, or I will tell your mother!" Soul's left eye began twitching in response to reaching a level of confusion he'd never imagined possible. He couldn't even begin to describe what was wrong with that logic, and it seemed to be working! Fluttershy kept her gaze on the cockatrice until the thing snapped and tried to run away. "A-hem ," Fluttershy said," Aren't you forgetting something?" The cockatrice hung its head in shame and slithered over to Ashen Blaze. It turned its gaze on the stone unicorn at full power and Ash quickly returned to normal, wobbling on his feet as his eyes rolled in disorientation. "That's better," Fluttershy said in a calmer voice, her eyes soft and kind once again, "now run along." The cockatrice didn't need to be told twice. It fluttered away into the depths of the forest as fast as it could. After it had disappeared, the Order-naires looked back at Fluttershy to see that she'd been joined by Twilight Sparkle and Rarity.
"What… just happened?" Ash asked, still a little dizzy, "Where's that… uh…"
"Cockatrice," Twilight supplied.
"Thanks," Ash said with a nod, "What happened to it?"
"Fluttershy happened," Gale said simply.
"What?" Ash asked.
"Fluttershy got rid of the cockatrice," Gale said with admiration.
"What?" Ash repeated, incredulous.
"Fluttershy gave the cockatrice a scolding and a hard look, and it changed you back before fleeing."
"What," Ash said flatly, utter disbelief on his face," Fluttershy, you… stared down a cockatrice?"
"Yes," Fluttershy said humbly.
"You stared down a cockatrice."
"Y-yes."
"You. Stared down. A cockatrice ?"
"I think we've established that fact Ash," Soul said, annoyed, "Thank you." Ash just kept staring at Fluttershy like he'd never seen her before. The Pegasus blushed and tried to hide behind her mane.
"Uh…" she mumbled, "Could you please… stop staring please… if you… if you don't mind. I'd really like it."
Ash flung himself at Fluttershy's feet, eliciting a squeak of surprise from her. "Oh, I am truly in the presence of a master," he said, prostrating himself, "I beg of you, oh Meis of the Stare, teach me your secrets!"
"Ok," Soul said as he and Gale moved to pick Ash up off the ground, "You're now officially broken, Ashen Blaze. Take a few breaths, drink some water if you can find it, and stopping freaking the poor pegasus out."
"I am fine," Ash declared, taking advantage of Gale and Soul's support to strike a dramatic pose pointing in Fluttershy's direction, "I am merely begging this wonderful creature to bestow her secrets upon me."
"You called her a Meis ," Gale said, "You never do that. You're broken."
"She deserves it! Far more than any being I've ever met!" Ash said passionately. Gale and Soul exchanged a glance, and then dropped the unicorn with a collective sigh. Ash picked himself up, re-adjusted PC, and brushed off the worst of the dirt, suddenly sober again.
"You're right," he said, "We're wasting time here. Onward!"
"Hold up," Twilight said, "You're not thinking of going off alone after what just happened."
"I'm not alone," Ash said, "I've got three other ponies and a snarky computer with me." He tapped PC a couple times and tried to walk away again.
"You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into," Twilight said.
"Well, we know there's a cockatrice out there now," Gale said.
"There are also manticores, hydras, Ursa Majors, and cranky, full-grown dragons among other things," Twilight said, "and that's just the animal life."
"You've seen all this then," Ash said, giving the unicorn a measured look.
"I've traveled through the Everfree Forest many times," Twilight said, "Mostly to visit Zecora, but my friends and I have gone all the way to the ruined castle at the forest's heart."
"Could you guide us then?" Heart asked, "We could use somepony with experience." She gave Ash a meaningful look.
"I'd like to," Twilight said, indicating the stone dragon on her back, "but I need to stop by Zecora's place and see if she can do anything about Spike."
"Which way is this Zecora?" Ash asked. Twilight pointed and the grey unicorn turned to look. "PC," he said, "where are… oh. Ah, that's convenient." He turned back to Twilight and said, "It seems the closer of the two Gems is in that general direction, so we'll go with you, if you'll have us."
"Sure," Twilight said, smiling, "Follow me. And don't step on any blue flowers."
"So," Gale asked after they'd been walking for a while, "If this forest's so… weird to you, what kind of pony would make their home here?" Twilight opened her mouth to answer, only to close it again as a cloaked figure emerged from behind a tree.
"Seven ponies I see," it said, "four of which are strangers to me."
"Hello Zecora," Twilight said, smiling, "How are you today?"
"I am doing well," Zecora said, "From your burden, I see you have a tale to tell. Before we go to my home, will you make these newcomer's names known?"
"Does she always rhyme?" Ash asked in a low tone. Twilight nodded. Rolling his eyes, Ash stepped forward and nodded to Zecora. "I am Ashen Blaze," he told her, "and these are my friends Soul Mage, Gold Heart, and Gale."
"It is good to meet you," Zecora said, "Now come, I have prepared stew." She turned away and led the group through the trees to her hut.
"Ooo, tribal," Soul said appreciatively as he stepped inside, looking around at the masks, rugs, and the simmering cauldron in the center of the room. "Am I right in guessing you aren't from around here?"
"Your guess is correct Soul Mage," Zecora said, removing her cloak, "You seem rather learned for a Ponyvillager your age." Soul would've adopted a smug look if he hadn't been taken aback by the revelation that Zecora was a zebra.
"Uh… thanks," he said.
Zecora turned to Twilight, who was in the process of setting Spike on the floor. "Tell me of the burden you bear," she said, "He seems to be the victim of a cockatrice stare."
"Actually, he's not," Twilight said, "This happened from a magic… accident."
"That hardly does it justice," Rarity said, "He tried to eat a magical gemstone, but when he bit down the energy rushed out and did this to him, along with destroying my shop in an earthquake."
"This is a magic I do not know," Zecora said, looking closely at Spike, "Although I can see around him a green glow…"
"Oh really?" Ash said, surprised, "Not many have the sight to see elemental energy, at least in my experience. If you can see it, maybe you can find a spell to fix him."
"Magic and spells are not my talent," the zebra said, "It lies in potions, teas, and unguents." Heart, Soul, and Gale all looked impressed at that particular rhyme.
"I was hoping to make use of that talent," Twilight said, pulling out a sheaf of papers and floating them over to Zecora, "I've put together a list of potions and salves that I think might undo the spell. I even looked through Supernaturals, although the best I could find was cures for cockatrice petrification." Zecora took the papers and leafed through them, tossing most of them aside.
"Your diligence in research is to be praised Twilight," she said, "Although most of these simply are not right. There are only two here that may cure Spike, but to try them both will require many nights."
"If you need ingredients, I brought as many as I could find in town," Twilight said, removing her saddlebags.
"Again I applaud your devotion," Zecora said with a smile, "But I will need Everfree herbs to complete either potion." She stuck her nose into each bag and sniffed. "Oh," she said in surprise, "I have underestimated your Ponyville stores. With all of these, I require but two plants more."
"Will you need help finding them?" Rarity asked, not looking too eager at the prospect. She hid a sigh of relief when the zebra simply shook her head.
"Welp," Ash said, "I don't think there's any more reason for me and my team to stay here. It was nice to meet you Zecora. I hope you don't mind if we take a pass on the stew."
"Fare you well new friends of mine," Zecora said with nod, "come again when you find the time."
"We'll be going too," Twilight said, "Let me know when you've done what you can." Zecora nodded and saw the ponies to the door.
After they left the clearing around Zecora's hut, Ashen Blaze took a moment to re-orient himself in the Gem's direction. "Definitely the Ruby," he said, grinning, "my personal favorite."
"Which element does it house?" Rarity asked as they began walking.
"Take a guess," Ash said, tossing his head to make his mane dance like the flames it resembled.
"Fire," Rarity said.
"Bingo," Ash said, grinning again, "Not the most constructive of elements, but not the most destructive either. It fits perfectly with my style of battle magic."
"You have an entire set of spells just for fighting?" Twilight asked, "Why?"
"Why not?" Ash replied, "You've got to be ready to defend yourself, and sometimes your opponent just won't respond to gentle persuasion. Tau'rin's the perfect example." He looked at Twilight out of the corner of his eye. "Keep in mind, we Order-naries will be facing Tau'rin at some point in the future. If you aren't willing or able to fight him, don't be around us when the showdown happens."
"When will that be?" Fluttershy asked.
"No idea," Ash said, "Once all seven Gems are accounted for, it will be a matter of days at most. If today goes well, we'll have three of them in hand. Make of that what you will." Fluttershy whimpered but kept up her pace.
After about a half hour of walking, Ashen Blaze began to grow excited as the energy signature of the Ruby drew closer. He was so focused on the data displayed on PC's eyepiece that he didn't see the cliff until Heart flew in front of him with front legs spread wide as Soul snagged his tail in his mouth and pulled the ash-grey pony back from the precipice. "Congratulations," Soul said sarcastically after dropping Ash's tail, "you're an idiot."
"Oi," Ash said crossly, glaring over his shoulder, "That was uncalled for."
"Sorry," the golden-yellow Pegasus said, and then narrowed his eyes and said, "Congratulations, you're blind," in the same tone as before. "Actually," he said after thinking for a second, "that doesn't work as well."
"No, it doesn't," Ash said in a deadpan before turning his attention to the cliff. "It's down there, isn't it?" he asked, and then rolled his eyes as PC responded. "A simple yes will do," he told the computer, "Now… huh? No, no I am not going to argue with you right now. Make yourself useful and find me a way down or switch off." The eyepiece went dark and Ash groaned as he put a hoof to his forehead. "Botherment…"
"Why do you use that thing if it's so rude to you?" Rarity asked.
"I don't have much choice," Ash said, "PC developed that personality on his own, and I don't exactly have the means to replace or alter him right now. He's not usually so bad; I think he's still adjusting to whatever changes were forced onto his hardware… Anyway, how do we get down there?" He looked over the edge of the cliff, and then stepped back as a wave of acrophobia hit him. Twilight approached the cliff and looked down.
"This looks familiar," she said, "I think this is the cliff we fell off while looking for the Elements of Harmony."
"You're right," Fluttershy said, joining her friend, "I can see the place where we encountered that poor manticore."
"Poor manticore?" Soul asked, giving the pale yellow pegasus a weird look.
"He had a thorn stuck in his paw," Fluttershy explained, "It made him very irritable, but when I pulled it out, he calmed right down and let us pass."
"Tames manticores and stares down skvetchte cockatrices," Ash muttered in amazement, "you're just full of surprises Fluttershy."
"Oh," Fluttershy said modestly, "It's nothing, really. I'm just good with animals."
"You said you fell off this cliff Twilight?" Heart asked, looking down, "How'd you survive?"
"Well, there was an outcropping of rock," Twilight said, pointing off to the right, "It turned out that the weight of six ponies was too much for it, so it gave way. Applejack managed to stop herself from sliding off and held me up while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy caught Rarity and Pinkie. After those two sere safely on the ground, Dash and Fluttershy brought me down."
"How'd AJ get down?" Gale asked.
"She hopped down,' Rarity said, "there should be a series of boulders we could use to do the same." She walked along the edge, and then hopped down after finding a promising ledge. "Follow me dears," she said as everypony went over to check on her, "This doesn't appear to be too difficult." She worked her down as the other unicorns and Gale exchanged glances and followed her. Fluttershy and Heart took to the air and flew alongside the others to insure their safety. Within a minute the seven of them were on the canyon floor and Ash was trying to coax PC back into activity.
"I said switch off, not power down," he muttered, removing the computer and looking it over. With a snort he pressed a button he found near the eyepiece and put it back on his head as it booted back up. "Recall our last conversation?" he asked it, and text flashed across the eyepiece in response. "Get scanning then; it's close." He looked around slowly as the computer worked, and then nodded toward the passage leading out. The ponies followed him out into the trees again, where he made a hard left and followed the cliff for a while. He slowed as they discovered a cave in the distance and began looking around again. "Something's coming,' he said, "big something." The relative silence of the forest was quickly shattered by a roar and the ponies scattered as a large scorpion tail swung in their direction from a shadowy clump of trees. The tail's owner, a manticore, stepped out into the light and roared at the group again.
"Friend of yours, Fluttershy?" Soul asked. The pegasus just squeaked as the manticore growled threateningly. "I think I'm going to vote for a retreat," Soul said.
"No way," Ash said, activating his magic, "We're too close to let some beast get in our way." His saddlebag opened and the Diamond floated out to hover near his head. "Let's see how it likes bright lights." He charged forward as the Gem began to glow, only to be swatted back by the manticore's huge paw. Soul caught the Diamond as it flew out of Ash's magical grip.
"My vote still stands," the golden-yellow unicorn said. Ash just glared as he regained his feet and grabbed the Diamond again.
"Wait," Fluttershy said suddenly, "don't hurt him. I recognize this manticore now." She spread her wings and flew cautiously toward the beast. It growled and raised its tail, but hesitated as Fluttershy made reassuring noises. It sniffed her a few times, and then settled back as recognition registered in its eyes. "Oh good," Fluttershy said, smiling, "You do remember me. I'm so sorry that we've bothered you, but we're looking for something important and eep ." She had tried to fly past the manticore, only to be met by an upraised paw with extended claws. "Sorry," Fluttershy whispered, backing away, "but, why? Are you protecting something?" The manticore's eyes shifted briefly in the direction of the cave and Fluttershy flew up a little to get a better look. She saw movement in the mouth of the cave, and then another manticore, female by its lack of mane, stuck its head out. "Oh, I see" Fluttershy said, "You've found a lady friend. That's nice." She looked again and gave a tiny gasp of understanding as a couple little felines also emerged, only to be ushered back inside by the female. "And kittens too," she said, coming back down to look the manticore in the eye. "You're protecting your family, aren't you?" she asked, receiving a nod in response. "I understand," she said, "but we really need to look around here. I promise you we won't hurt your babies." The manticore didn't look convinced, and Ash started focusing his magic again before Heart shoved him with a shake of her head. Fluttershy glanced back at the group, trying to think. "There are too many of us," she mused, "what if… would you let just me go look around? You know you can trust me, right?" The manticore tilted its head left and right as he regarded the little pegasus, and then stepped back and sat down. "Oh, thank you," Fluttershy said, "Just give me one moment." She flew back to the group and landed in front of Ash. "So," she said, suddenly shy again, "I… I hope this is ok with you."
Ash smiled and patted Fluttershy on the shoulder. "It's fine," he said, "just look for a red gemstone the size of your hoof. Don't worry if it glows or gets warm when you touch it; they react to some people more readily than others." Fluttershy nodded and turned away. She walked past the manticore, who watched her closely as she began to hunt about in the brush and rocks. Ash watched her for a few seconds, and then consulted PC. "Any chance you could narrow things down?" he asked it. The computer worked for a while before giving a response. "Ground level," he called out to Fluttershy, "Somewhere to your right."
"Maybe you should have given PC to her," Twilight said.
"Are you kidding?" Ash retorted, "She's a real charmer, but I doubt she'd be able to put up with PC's sarcasm. Believe me, he can be real rough." He rolled his eyes as PC displayed a comment.
Fluttershy lifted her feet off the ground as she continued her search to allow herself a little more maneuverability. With occasional help from Ash whenever she went too far in one direction or another, she began flying in tighter and tighter circles until she was hovering over a thick, tangled bush. She landed next to it and lay down to see if she could see anything under the branches. She saw something red just within her reach and extended a slightly quaking hoof toward it. When she touched it, it gave off a brief flash of red light that made her pull back for a second. "I… I think I've found it," she said, not quite loudly enough for the others to hear. Wiggling forward a little, she was able to grab it between her hooves and pull it free. Like Ash had warned her, the Ruby grew warm in her grasp, but didn't become too hot to the touch. Making sure she had a solid grip, she spread her wings and flew back, dropping the Gem at Ashen Blaze's feet. Ash picked it up with his magic and coaxed another glow out of it.
"Well done Fluttershy," he said, putting the Ruby and the Diamond into his saddlebag, "You've been a great help."
"It was nothing," Fluttershy said meekly. She turned toward the manticore and said, "Thank you. You can go on back to your family now. We're going to leave soon." The giant creature nodded and walked away, casting glances over its shoulder at the ponies.
"So, where to next?" Gale asked Ash, "You did say there were two Gems in this forest."
"Ash nodded, already checking on the location of the next energy signature. "Out the other end of the canyon," he said, "and pretty deep into the woods. By the way, what time is it?"
"Hard to tell," Twilight said, looking up at the sky, "I think it's the middle of the afternoon."
"Oh dear," Rarity said, "I should be getting back to town soon; Sweetie Bell will be getting out of school soon."
"Head on back then," Ash said, "I'd rather not have to come into this place twice if I can help it."
"Well, I'm not going to walk through these woods all by myself," Rarity declared.
"I… I think I should stay with you," Fluttershy told Ash, "You know, in case you need my help with any more animals. Uh… if that's ok I mean…"
"I'd be glad to have you," Heart said. Soul nodded in agreement.
"Sorry Rarity," Twilight said, "but I'm going with them. I've got a funny feeling I know where the next Gem will be close to."
Rarity gave a long-suffering sigh. "Oh, very well," she said, "I should have known it was a bad idea to follow you and Fluttershy in here…"
The seven ponies walked for a good long while, encountering nothing unusual except for a grove of dead-looking trees that, to the Order-naries's confusion, seemed to give Twilight, Rarity, and even Fluttershy a case of the giggles. A scan from PC revealed nothing magical or remarkable about the area, so they just shrugged it off and moved along. A short time later, Rarity turned to Twilight and said, "I think I know where you're expecting the next Gem to have landed."
"Actually, there are two," Twilight said, "we should be coming up on the first one soon."
"Yes," the white unicorn replied, "I wonder if that sea serpent will be there this time?"
"Sea serpent?" Soul Mage asked, "What's a sea serpent doing in a forest?"
"He's technically more of a river serpent," Twilight said, "Rarity helped him out the last time we came this way."
"Helped him how?" Heart asked.
"I supplied him with a replacement for his ruined moustache," Rarity said, and then grew excited. "Oh, I do hope he's around. I simply must see how well it has grown back in." She sped up, leaving a quartet of confused ponies and two amused friends in her wake. When they caught up to her, they found her staring at a deep, dry riverbed cutting across the path. "Good heavens!" Rarity exclaimed, "What has happened here? Where's all the water?" A sniffling sound from the left attracted her attention and she trotted off to investigate. The others followed closely, coming upon a very sad-looking purple sea serpent with a moustache, half of which was purple with a distinctive curl, laying his head upon the banks of the former river. He looked up when the ponies approached, and a slight smile came to his mouth upon seeing Rarity.
"Well, hel-lo ," he said, "If it isn't the little pony who saved my moustache! How are you?"
"I'm doing well," Rarity said, "but if I may say so, you don't look well at all."
"Oh, I am most certainly not ," the serpent said, "not only has fabulous moustache failed to grow back in after all this time, but… well you can see." He gestured toward the dry river with one arm.
"Your stache looks fine to me," Soul said, "even though its… hold on." He looked at the purple half of the moustache, and then to Rarity. "That… is that half from your tail Rarity? The color and style are a perfect match."
"It is," Rarity said, "although, it's worrisome that your natural hair hasn't grown back yet. It's been over a year." She walked closer and gazed intently at the purple hair. "Oh my," she said, "Perhaps I did too good a job attaching it. I think my tail's taken root in your moustache's place."
"Oh?" the serpent asked, stroking the hair a little, "I suppose you're right."
"Let me fix it," Rarity said, "If I cut this purple half off and graft in part of the other half, that should restore the color. Of course, your moustache won't quite so good for a while…"
"Go right on ahead my dear," the serpent said, "I'm sure you'll make a good job of it. Here." He plucked one of the scales off his body and handed it to Rarity, who took it in her mouth with grace and proceeded to use it to slice off the former tail.
While Rarity worked, Twilight looked up and down the riverbed and asked, "So, what happened to the water?"
"Something very strange," the serpent said, holding as still a possible while Rarity measured out his moustache, "just yesterday, it all just jumped up and started flowing through the air deeper into the forest. If you were to keep going upstream, you'd see where it's still happening. I can't get around as well on dry land, so I've been stuck here all day."
"Rivers don't just jump their banks," Twilight said, "even here."
"The Sapphire," Soul said, "I'd bet anything that's what's behind this. However, that also means somebody's using it… You girls don't have any other… acquaintances living in this forest, do you?"
"Not that far in," Twilight said, "All that's left beyond here are the ruins of the ancient Castle of the Princesses. They're… more or less that way." She pointed across the river and off to the left a little.
"Hmm…" Ash said, looking, "Twilight Sparkle, you just pointed toward the Gem signature. We need to get over there."
"Allow me to help you," the serpent said, "I can at least give you something to walk across on."
"Not quite yet," Rarity said, moving the freshly cut moustache half to the other side of his face, "I'm almost finished." She positioned the hair with her magic and then, with a tilt of her head, made it fuse onto the purple roots, changing them to the serpent's natural orange in the process. "There," Rarity said, stepping back, "A little brushing, and that will look just fine."
"Wonderful!" The serpent said, straighten up and admiring his new look for a moment. "Now, allow me." He turned around and stretched until his head lay upon the opposite bank. "Cross away my friends," he said, "I'll wait here for your return."
"Thank you good sir," Rarity said, leading the ponies along the serpent's back. Once they'd all crossed, the serpent rose up and bowed to Rarity, who smiled and bowed back. "Come along," she said, turning toward the path, "let's get this over with."
"Ok, question time," Soul Mage said. The group had arrived at a rope-and-plank bridge spanning a deep chasm and Twilight Sparkle was checking its ability to take weight.
"Still in good shape," she said, "come on." Rarity, Ashen Blaze, Gale, and finally Soul Mage followed her as she crossed while the two pegasi flew alongside them. "What's your question Soul?" Twilight asked.
"You, Rarity, and Fluttershy are all familiar with this part of the Everfree forest," Soul said, "and yet Fluttershy tried to warn us against coming in here earlier today. What would cause you three, along with AJ, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie, to come so far into the forest if you fear it so much?"
"We needed to come here to find the Elements of Harmony," Twilight said, "My research had told me they were hidden away in the old castle, which is where we're going right…" Her voice trailed off as she came to a stop, staring at the sight that had just become visible through the last of the trees. The ancient Castle of the Princesses was before them, and was engulfed in a thick shell of water shaped roughly like a fortress covered in spikes and crowed with two horn-like towers. A river of water flowed through the air into the side of the fortress, obviously stolen from the sea serpent's river.
"Oo-wee," Ash said, "That's got Tau'rin written all over it."
"Already?" Gale exclaimed, "but, there should only be one Gem here, right?"
"There is," Ash said, pulling the Ruby out of his bag, "Looks like we stumbled upon his hide-out early. He's only got the Sapphire to work with, hence all the water." He smiled triumphantly as the Ruby began to glow in his magic grip. "This is an opportunity we can't miss."
"We've only got two Gems ourselves," Gale pointed out, "One of which isn't the best for attacking, and I have nothing."
"Here," Ash said, pulling out the Diamond and flinging it at the brown earth pony, "Improvise; it's what you're good at, right?"
"Yes sir," Gale said sarcastically, trying to figure out how to carry the Gem. Soul extended his magic tendril and put it on Gale's back. "Thanks," she said.
"So, is this it?" Twilight asked, "The big fight you've been worried about?"
"Not exactly," Soul said, "not all of the Gems are here, so there won't be any reality breaking or world-hopping involved."
"There will be a fight though," Ash said, "So if you three want to stay out of it, don't follow us inside." He turned his gaze to the in-flowing water and tilted his head to tap the Ruby with his horn. Several thin streams of red light shot out of the gem and struck the river in several places, causing it to tremble and then collapse, spilling out onto the ground. Ash turned toward the fortress and sent out more light, which began dismantling the walls of water blocking access to the ruins. As the water fell and flowed away, a cry of surprise and rage rose up from inside. "Now that he knows we're here," Ash said, "Let's go say hello. Order-naries forward!" He and his team reared up and began to charge forward, only to skid to a stop as a large creature vaguely resembling a winged bull straight out of a nightmare with a large sapphire embedded in its forehead, came running at them from the ruins entrance.
"Order-naires!" it bellowed, "You'll regret finding me! Die!" The Order-naries, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy dodged as the beast thundered past them. It skid to a stop and spun around, steam blowing out of its nostrils as it glared at the ponies.
"Tau'rin?" Heart asked, incredulous, "That's… a new look."
"It is an inconvenience," Tau'rin snarled, "I'd gladly destroy this world just to be rid of this body. Your forms look even less useful; surely you agree it would be better if we left?"
"Not at your price," Soul retorted, extending his magic toward Heart. The tendril wrapped around the pegasus's midsection and the two golden-yellow ponies became covered in ethereal flames. Heart took to the air and brought her front hooves close together as a disc of energy began to build between them. Tau'rin's Sapphire began to glow, and two tentacles of water shot out of the fortress to knock the linked pair down.
"Skvetch ," Ash muttered, glancing between the demon in front and the water behind him, "We're surrounded."
"What should we do?" Twilight asked.
"The Sapphire's not much use without a lot of water around," the ash-grey unicorn said, "I can take out this supply he's built up, but not if he's trying to stop me." He shoved Twilight aside and blasted the water tentacle Tau'rin had decided to send at her, canceling the magic out with the fire element. "Help Soul and Heart," he said, "keep Tau'rin distracted. Either that or try to find a way to get to safety."
"Don't waste your time," Tau'rin said, "I can just draw the water out of the ground if you break down my construction. Behold." The blue gem glowed as water rose out of the ground around him, beginning to form into a ring above his head. Gale charged forward, the Diamond on her back aglow with power. Tau'rin sneered at her and tried to hit her with a lash of water, only to be blinded by a sudden blast of focused light in his eyes. The Diamond slid off Gale's back as she spun around to kick the bull-demon in the leg with all her might before retreating to a safe distance. Tau'rin lost control of the water around him as he flinched in pain, shaking his head to try and clear his vision. "Cursed little…" he muttered.
"Our turn," Heart said, in the air and charging her attack again. The energy took on the form a disk colored red, blue, yellow, and green, which Heart threw out with a cry of "Element wheel!" The disk spiraled and grew in size as it flew, aiming for Tau'rin's head. The demon recovered just in time to try and dodge, losing a horn as the disk cut through it and dissipated. "Dang it," Heart hissed, beginning to charge another disk. Tau'rin began to prepare another attack of his own, and then noticed the Diamond lying on the ground near him.
"Ah, how nice of you to leave this here," he said, creating a claw of water that reached toward the Gem. He paused and blinked in confusion as he suddenly found himself surrounded by colored lights and illusory shapes of all kinds, including a few copies of the Diamond. The real one jumped off the ground and joined the illusions, flying around randomly.
"Not so fast you brute," Rarity said. Ash and the others turned to see her glaring at the demon, her horn lit up with intense magic. "You think you deserve such a beautiful thing?" she asked, "Can you even pick out the real one?" Tau'rin snarled at her and began focusing his power through the Sapphire, only to have the bolts of energy he shot out blocked by a red barrier from Ash's Ruby.
"No cheating," Ash said in mock severity. Tau'rin growled and turned his attention back to the milling Gems, extremely frustrated now that he'd lost track of the real Diamond in the shuffle. The lights and other illusions from Rarity's spell added to his distraction, and finally he squeezed his eyes shut and lashed out with a hoof, disrupting an illusory diamond.
"Sorry, wrong," Rarity said, tilting her head back quickly. The real Diamond flew out of the mess and came to a stop next to the white unicorn.
"Why you little-" Tau'rin bellowed, only to be cut off as a fireball struck his face.
"Don't finish that sentence," Ash said dangerously, "Now, having lost the game, you forfeit your pretty little Sapphire."
"Spare me your humor, little magic pony ," Tau'rin said
"I'm sorry, was that supposed to be an insult?" Soul quipped, "I think you're just jealous because you're a cow." Tau'rin bellowed and lowered his head in preparation to charge, only to take a glancing blow from Heart's second Element Wheel that left a gash on his forehead and took off his other horn.
"You cocky brats," the bull-demon hissed, "This is not over yet. The rest of the Gems are mine, and once I have them, we'll see who- argh !" He recoiled in pain as a white aura surrounded the Sapphire in his forehead.
"I won't let you destroy my world," Twilight Sparkle said through gritted teeth, focusing her magic on pulling the blue Gem loose, "So I'm not going to let you keep that gem." As she continued to pull, Tau'rin collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony that seemed to go beyond the pain of the forcible removal of the Sapphire. With a final pull from Twilight, the gem came free with a 'pop' and rocketed over to the ponies. As soon as Twilight brought it to a halt and set it aside, Ash let loose a wave a fire in Tau'rin's direction. He maintained it for several seconds and then forced the flames to die away before any trees caught fire. The spot Tau'rin had occupied was now vacant.
"Did that do it?" Gale asked, "Is he finally dead?"
"No," Heart said sadly, pointing upward. Everypony looked up and saw a dark figure retreating into the sky, yelling incoherent curses in their direction.
"So. Close!" Ash snorted in frustration. His breathing grew heavy and ragged as he stamped the ground, and his mane tail began waving of their own accord.
"Is he…?" Twilight asked, backing away.
"Losing it again? Yeah," Soul said.
Rarity shot the golden-yellow unicorn a concerned look. "Aren't you going to do something?"
"He's angry at Tau'rin," Soul said, "I'll let him have this one unless he goes overboard."
"Skvetch !" Ash howled. His mane and tail burst into true flames as the Ruby and his horn began glowing with almost blinding red light. He reared up and punched at the air, sending a veritable stream of fireballs after the retreating Tau'rin, all of which fizzled out long before reaching him. Ash unleashed one final blast of fire before coming back onto all fours and dropping the Ruby. His mane and tail returned to normal as he took deep, calming breaths.
"You ok?" Heart asked after a minute.
"I'm good," Ash said, "Thanks for letting me get that out of my system." He turned to Twilight and smiled. "Good work pulling that Sapphire off of him," he said, "I was starting to worry we'd have to let him keep it." He picked the three Gems up and passed the Sapphire to Soul Mage as he put the Ruby and Diamond into his own saddlebags. "Let's head home everypony."
Twilight and Rarity nodded, but then Twilight realized something. "Where's Fluttershy?" she asked in alarm.
"Over here," a timid voice said from behind a boulder. Fluttershy stepped out into view and smiled shyly at her friends. "I'm so glad you're all ok," she said.
"Same to you," Twilight said, going over to hug the pegasus. She turned back and looked at the ruins, which were still half-covered in a watery shell. "You should probably take that down guys."
"The spell's already degrading," Ash said, "That water will be gone in an hour or less. We should probably make sure the river gets back into its old course though."
"Well, lead on," Soul said, "I'm starting to get hungry."
After restoring the river's flow, and surviving the sea serpent's rib-cracking hug of thanks, Soul Mage and the others made their way back through the Everfree Forest. They stopped by Zecora's hut to find that not only was the zebra at home, but she was willing to share her supper with them. With sated appetites and elation at the successful day, the Order-naries, Twilight, and Rarity bid farewell to Fluttershy at her house and continued on to the library. When they arrived the Order-naries scattered to lounge around in their own fashion while Twilight began another letter to Celestia chronicling the day while Rarity sorted through the mail that had arrived. She found an envelope made of fine parchment with Twilight's name written on it and held closed with the royal seal. "It seems the Princess got your first letter Twilight," she said, floating the envelope over to the lavender unicorn.
"Oh, thanks Rarity," Twilight said, taking the envelope and opening it. She pulled out the letter, read it quickly, and then set it aside with a small smile. "Well," she said, "I'm now officially required to follow you four and report what happens."
"Great," Ash said with a hint of sarcasm, "It's always nice to be at least somewhat legitimate." He resumed his browsing of the bookshelf, stopping as a particular book caught his eye. He pulled it out and read the title, "The Elements of Harmony. You mentioned this back in the forest Twilight. Didn't you say they were in those ruins?"
"They were," Twilight said, "but they haven't been there since last summer. If you're worried that Tau'rin might use them, don't worry; he'd never be able to activate them- especially not by himself."
"What are they anyway?" Ash asked.
Twilight put down her quill and thought for a few moments. "I can show you," she said, "but first, tell me more about yourself Ashen Blaze."
"Excuse me?"
"I've seen you 'lose your temper' twice in the three days you've been here," Twilight said, facing the ash-grey unicorn, "both times I've felt a dark power coming from you, and you seem to become an entirely different pony. If there's a story behind that, I'd really like to know it so I can understand you better."
Ash looked away and scuffed at the floor with a hoof. "I'd rather not revisit it," he said.
"Oh, come on Ash," Soul Mage said, "It's not like you'll summon your old buddies here by talking about them."
"Confession's good for the soul," Gold Heart added.
"Very well," Ash said with a sigh, "but I'm not going into details." Twilight nodded and produced a fresh sheet of parchment. "I don't know if my temper is part of my basic nature," he said, "or if it's a product of the powers I once wielded. Back home, my earliest memories were of being Meis Thamul , which roughly translates to Greatest Mage, but which really meant I was one of the leaders of an army of darkness. The overlord I served had his sights on ruling multiple planets, and I was one of his best agents for years, harnessing darkness and fire to spread fear and chaos before me. One day, however, I witnessed an assault by one of the resistance groups on my old master's headquarters. He decided to deal with it personally to showcase his power, which was above and beyond my own. The leader of the resistance was quick to realize his assault was doomed to failure, and so he sacrificed his own life to give his soldiers time to retreat. Such respect and love for those of lower positions was unknown to me before that time, and it struck me to the core. Keeping my crisis hidden, I eventually decided that I could not hope to defeat the overlord on my own, and I doubted any of the resistance would welcome me, so I fled to the far side of the galaxy, where the war I'd known had not yet reached. I made a new home on a peaceful-looking planet and swore an oath I would try to protect that peace. A few years later, I met Soul, Heart, and Gale, and we eventually joined forces to become the Order-naries. You know the rest after that."
"Oh my," Rarity said quietly. Ash looked over at her, expecting to see shock or horror on her face, and was surprised to see admiration instead.
"I'm haunted by the fact that I never worked up the courage to go back and try to right the wrongs I'd committed," he said, turning his face away from everypony.
There was an awkward silence for several minutes before Twilight cleared her throat and said, "Well, I guess it's my turn then." Ash remained where he was as the other Order-naries gathered to hear the story of Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony, and how Twilight made her first real friends.
A few hours later the rain had stopped, Gale had managed to get the taffy-puller half put together, and Ashen Blaze found himself gazing at more muffins than he thought were possible to bake in that space of time, and that was after accounting for the appetite-killing number he, Soul Mage, Gold Heart, Pinkie Pie, and Gale had consumed as "taste-tests." At least they'd made a wide variety of flavors, so Ash figured he'd had a more-or-less balanced supper and dessert already.
"I've never been one for muffins," Heart said, "but those all came out really good."
"Thanks," Pinkie said cheerfully.
"We better get going," Ash said, "Twilight and others will be waiting for us."
"Have fun," Gale said around her screwdriver, waving at them off-handedly as she reattached another piece of the taffy-puller.
"We should do this again some time," Pinkie said, "Only, I think next time we'll make cupcakes."
"We'll… see," Ash said diplomatically, "Soul, Heart, let's go." The golden-yellow ponies nodded and followed their ash-grey leader out of the bakery and toward the town square. When they arrived, they saw that Twilight, Rarity and the mayor were in the process of spreading out a hot air balloon in preparation for inflating it. Or, rather, the two unicorns were spreading out the balloon while the earth pony mayor waited to ignite burner. As the three Order-naires approached, the mayor glanced in their direction and abandoned her post to walk over to them.
"Hello," she said, "You must be the new ponies Twilight was telling me about. I'm the mayor of Ponyville, and please let me apologize for not giving you a proper welcome to town before now."
"We got a good enough welcome thanks to Pinkie Pie," Ash said, "Besides, we prefer to stay low-profile. Speaking of which, what has Twilight told you about us?" He shot a questioning glance toward the lavender unicorn in the distance.
"Only that you're new, you have business in Cloudsdale, and that there were four of you," the Mayor said, a confused look coming onto her face as she spoke.
"Gale's not joining us," Soul said, "She's busy at Sugar Cube Corner."
"I see," the mayor said, "Well, welcome to Ponyville. I trust you to pass that along to your friend." Ash, Heart, and Soul nodded.
"Pardon me Ms. Mayor," Rarity called, "but we're ready over here if you are."
"Ah, very good," the mayor said, "Just a moment." She ran back to the balloon and fired up the burner. The balloon began inflating and rising up as the air inside heated up.
"Couldn't you just use magic to lift that thing?" Soul asked, walking over to the balloon.
"Probably," Twilight said, "but that would get tiring after a while."
"Interesting how it's the one with the less legitimate claim to the possession of magical ability between the two of us is the one who always suggests magical solutions, isn't it?" Ashen Blaze asked with a cocky smirk at Soul Mage. Soul blew a raspberry at him in response.
"Mind explaining that?" Twilight asked.
"It's just an old debate between them," Heart explained, "Ash has always claimed the soul link my brother and I can form doesn't count as real magic."
"And I say he's narrow minded," Soul said, "If he can't duplicate it, it's not magic so far as he's concerned."
"I bend the very flow of the elements to my will," Ash said, "you and Heart power your abilities with your combined spirits. Our skills belong to entirely different classes, and mine is magic."
"Boys," Heart said firmly, stepping between them. "Sorry," she said apologetically to Twilight, "I didn't mean to set them off."
"Well, I did ask," Twilight said with a slight smile. Ash and Soul eyed each other over Heart's back for a few seconds and then let the issue pass.
As the balloon continued to fill, Rainbow Dash arrived, pushing a reluctant Fluttershy along the ground as she flew. "Come on Fluttershy," Dash was saying, "you haven't been back to Cloudsdale in forever. This will be fun, trust me."
Fluttershy was in a seated position, digging her front hooves into the ground just enough to make her point without inconveniencing her friend too much. "I can't just leave all my animals alone again," she said quietly, "I mean… I spent all day away from home yesterday. They need me."
"It'll just be a few hours at most," Dash insisted as she pushed Fluttershy the rest of the way to the group, "Besides, you told me they all had their lunch already, Rarity's cat is sleeping, and Angel practically runs the place for you half the time anyway."
"Well…" Fluttershy whispered.
"I'd love it if you joined us Fluttershy darling," Rarity said.
"You're going Rarity?" Fluttershy asked, surprised, "Well, I guess it will be ok if I go for a little while."
"Wonderful," Rarity said joyfully. She looked at the balloon and, seeing that it was almost ready said, "Into the basket everypony and let's be on our way!"
"Hold on a second," Twilight said, pulling out her spellbook, "Let me set the cloud-walking spell first."
Once the balloon was in the air, Rainbow Dash guided it toward the cloud city while Twilight Sparkle managed the burner to give them the proper altitude. Gold Heart and Fluttershy flew along behind the balloon, leaving plenty of space in the basket for the four unicorns. Soul Mage kept his eye resolutely inside the basket to keep his stomach from flip-flopping. He wasn't afraid of heights per se, but he wasn't fond of flying. He seriously hoped that Cloudsdale wasn't peppered with too many gaps in the clouds, but considering it was a city populated entirely by flying ponies…
Ash watched the scenery pass by below him for a while before turning his attention up to the sky. "Hey Dash," he said, "when you say all the weather is made in Cloudsdale, what exactly do you mean by all the weather?"
"Well, I guess it's not all the weather," Dash said, rubbing the back of her head, "They don't do anything with the sun of course, besides making clouds to cover it. If it has to do with clouds though, it's mass-produced in Cloudsdale's factories- snowflakes, rainbows, hailstones if they're really needed, and clouds themselves. Any pegasus with weather control training can make small clouds and stuff, but if weren't for Cloudsdale we'd be working our tails off day and night just to make a fraction of what they can produce. It's pretty cool, but not something I'd ever want to do."
"That is quite… I don't know how to feel about that," Ash said, a look of grim confusion on his face, "Such a degree of control over your world…" He shook his head and fell silent, ignoring Rainbow's impatient requests for him to complete his thought. Finally she gave up and turned her attention back to steering the balloon. Shortly the balloon moved around a particularly large cloud and Cloudsdale came into view.
"Wow," Heart said, taking in the vast city of clouds and rainbows, "It's beautiful. Gale's going to be upset she didn't get to see this."
"I'll bring her up some time," Rainbow said, "You know, when we're not busy." She looked at the approaching city and glanced back toward Twilight. "Bring it down a little Twilight," she said. The lavender unicorn released the burner and opened the vent to let a little hot air out. The balloon descended as Dash guided it toward a clear area of cloud near the edge of the city. Twilight brought the balloon down further until it rested on the clouds and the three pegasi alighted around the basket. "Welcome to Cloudsdale," Rainbow Dash announced. Twilight hopped out of the basket and landed on the cloud, followed by Rarity.
"Well, come on," the white unicorn said to Ash and Soul, who were looking doubtful about putting their hooves on the fluffy, white, vaporous-looking stuff, "the cloud-walking spells works perfectly, see?"
The tow unicorn stallions looked at each other. "On three?" Ash asked. Soul nodded. "Ok. One… Two… Three." They jumped out, eyes screwed shut, and landed softly on the clouds. They opened their eyes and cast embarrassed looks at Twilight, who was quite unimpressed at their lack of faith. "Uh… right, ok then," Ash said, trying to recover, "Let's, uh… let's see where that Gem is hiding." He fished around in his saddlebag and pulled out PC.
"Oh, put that away," Rarity said, causing Ash to pause, "We've already have all we need to find it." She turned her gaze toward Rainbow Dash. "I imagine we could find it at Lavender's store," she said.
"What, you expect me to know where it's at?" Dash scoffed.
"No," Rarity said bluntly, "but if you take us to the business district, I'm sure I'll have trouble at all finding-" She cut off as she picked up a quiet "Um" from Fluttershy. "Yes dear?" Rarity asked the yellow pegasus.
"Oh," Fluttershy said, surprised to have been noticed, "You… you're talking about Lavender Sunset, right? I…" the rest of her sentence was intelligible as her voice dropped into a mumble.
"Come again?" Rarity asked, stepping toward the shy pegasus expectantly.
Fluttershy stared nervously at the very attentive unicorn, and then took a deep breath and squeaked out, "I know where her shop is."
"Oh, wonderful!" Rarity said, clapping her hooves together in glee, "Please, take us there, at once!"
Fluttershy nodded rapidly and began to walk. "T-this way," she whispered.
Gold Heart was completely enraptured by the architecture of the cloud city. As Fluttershy guided the group around, Heart kept resisting the urge to rush about and take a closer look at the columns, rainbow buttresses, and the many eye-catching shapes the cloud buildings had been molded into. I'm a pegasus, she kept telling herself, I can't go looking like a star-struck tourist, but ooooh… As they neared the marketplace, she finally gave in enough to discreetly brush a wall with a wing, sending wisps of vapor spiraling off of it. Suppressing a giggle, she caught up with the rest of the group.
"You do so much with so little," Ash was saying appreciatively, "I mean, it's all made of water, air, and…" He poked a rainbow that was framing a shop window and came away with some of it on his hoof. "…sticky, fluid light of some sort?" he finished uncertainly, looking at his hoof. He felt tempted to lick it, but remembered Pinkie Pie's warning and scraped it off on the ground instead. "The point is," he said, "I'm amazed at how easy it is to tell each building apart." He nearly stumbled into Fluttershy as he looked around. The yellow pegasus had come to a dead stop.
"What's up Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.
"It's right there," Fluttershy said, pointing at a store a good ways down the road. It had been molded into the shape of a square-cut gem with a large phoenix perched on top.
"Great!" Rarity exclaimed, "Come on then." She ran off toward the store, barely holding in her excitement.
"Yeah" Ash sighed, "Let's get this over with." He, the golden-yellow ponies, and Twilight began to run after Rarity, only for Twilight to slow and look back at her pegasus friends.
"I'll just stay here, if you don't mind," Fluttershy said, sounding unusually confident.
"Yeah," Dash said, "Me too. I'd rather not have to put up with Rarity trying to charm Lavender." Fluttershy cast a thankful glance at the rainbow-haired pony. Twilight nodded and ran to catch up with the others. She arrived at the store to find Rarity blocking the doorway as she searched through her saddlebags for something. The Order-naries were standing off to the side; Ash had a long-suffering look on his face while Soul was tapping a hoof in visible impatience.
"Oh, I just know I packed a sample of my work in here somewhere," Rarity said, so distracted that she didn't notice that a deep lavender Pegasus mare with burnt-orange hair who stood about half a head taller than most of the group had appeared in the doorway and was glaring at her.
"Excuse me!" she said indignantly, "You are in my way!" Rarity looked up, and whatever her reply was going to be died on her lips as she realized whose path she was blocking.
"Lavender Sunset!" she gasped, prancing out of the way, "My apologies."
Lavender snorted and then looked at the ponies gathered around her door. "What are unicorns doing here?" she asked.
"Cloud-walking spell," Twilight said simply.
"Yes," Rarity said, still rummaging in her pack as she shifted her gaze between it and the Pegasus designer, "I am Rarity, of Ponyville, owner and renowned designer of the Carousel Boutique."
"Can't say I've heard of you," Lavender said, giving Rarity a condescending look, "now, if you will all excuse me, I am late for an appointment." She ignored Rarity's look of shock as she stepped out of the store, closing the door behind her. Without another glance, she began walking down the street.
"Wait," Rarity called, abandoning her search for whatever she had in her saddlebag as she trotted after the Pegasus, "You must have heard of me," she said, "I've designed dresses for Hoity Toity, and Sapphire Shores!"
"What proof do you have of that?" Lavender asked stuffily, "I admit I'm impressed at the effort you took to come up here, but so far as I can tell you're just…" She trailed off as her gaze fell upon a pair of pegasi who were standing at a store window looking at the items on display. One was blue with a distinctive rainbow-striped mane, and the other a pale yellow with long pink hair. Rarity, caught between insulted and dejected, stood speechless as Lavender came to stop and looked at the two pegasi as they turned away from the window. They both gave a start when they saw Lavender, and the yellow one's eyes shrank as they locked with the lavender designer's. "Fluttershy," Lavender said in amazement, "My, what a surprise to see you here." Twilight and the others had caught up in time to hear this, and Twilight's face took on a look of surprise to match the slack-jawed looks on the faces of Dash and Rarity.
"Fluttershy," Rarity said, "you… know Lavender Sunset?"
"Well…" the meek pegasus began, only to be cut off by Lavender.
"Of course she does," the designer said, "She's my daughter."
Lavender Sunset allowed the fresh round of shocked silence to hang over the ponies for a moment before breaking it. "Now Fluttershy," she said with a not-exactly-sweet smile, "don't be rude. Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" Her smile vanished as Fluttershy tried to make her voice work and her friends glanced about uncomfortably, unsure of whether or not to come to her rescue. Finally, Rarity and Soul Mage both tried to speak up only for Lavender to cut them off with an aggrieved sigh. "Still lacking confidence I see," she said. Something in Fluttershy clicked at that point and she looked up to meet her mother's eyes. In a flurry of words, she identified each of her companions, including the Order-naries, and brought up Rarity's desire to talk shop with Lavender. "Much better," Lavender said in approval.
"Pardon me Ms. Sunset," Ash said, starting to step forward, only to be interrupted by the lavender pegasus, who was still focused on Fluttershy.
"You must go see you father," she said, "And, as luck would have it, I was just on my way to meet him for a late lunch at home. Join me. Your friends can come too." She wrapped a wing around Fluttershy and began guiding her down the street. Ash cast an annoyed glance toward the closed fashion store before joining the group in following Lavender.
"Rainbow Dash," Rarity said in a quiet but accusing tone, "Why have you never mentioned that Fluttershy and Lavender sunset were related?"
"I didn't know myself," Dash hissed back, "And even if I did, you never asked." She looked thoughtful and added, "This explains her freaky knowledge of sewing though."
"How could you not know?" Rarity asked, "You knew each other as fillies."
"Only from summer flight camp," Dash said, "I only got to know her well enough to feel obligated to protect her from those bullies. We never talked about our families."
"I think I can see why she wouldn't want to talk about it," Gold Heart said, motioning with her head toward the lavender pegasus, who was determined not to let Fluttershy slip away from her. Rarity watched them for a moment before nodding sadly.
"Yes, I suppose I can see why myself," she said.
Lavender Sunset led the ponies out of the business district and to a surprisingly modest-looking house near the edge of the city. Well, it was modest-looking in comparison to the mansion-like houses it was nestled amongst and after taking into account the general degree of auspiciousness inherent in cloud-based architecture. They were met by a butler pegasus who took their saddlebags (much to Ash's reluctance) and then flew off to warn the kitchen to prepare additional food for the meal. Lavender had released Fluttershy out of necessity and the poor yellow pegasus was standing stiff-legged as far away from her mother as she dared: two short steps.
"This way," Lavender announced, "We will talk in the parlor until lunch is ready." As she led them down the hallway, Ash hung toward the back, grumbling about wasted time and the risk of leaving his stuff unguarded. As they passed an open doorway, something caught the ash-grey unicorn's eye. He looked inside and saw what appeared to be a sewing room. A number of winged pony mannequins stood around the room wearing outfits in various stages of completion, along with tables covered in well-organized piles of material. What caught Ash's eye, however, was a large yellow gemstone inside a glass case sitting on the center table. His surprise was quickly replaced by a satisfied smile.
"Ash!" Heart called out, bringing him back to reality.
"Coming," he called back, running to catch up. They were waiting for him in front of another door down the hall. "My apologies," he said to Lavender, "I just saw that lovely topaz in your workroom." Lavender regarded him neutrally before turning to the door and opening it. Dang it Ash thought, Strike two . The group filed into the lounge, which was furnished with not quite enough cloud couches for everypony, especially since one was taken up by a strong-looking, navy blue pegasus stallion with black hair and a storm cloud for a cutie-mark.
"Stormchaser," Lavender said, pushing Fluttershy ahead of her, "look who's come home."
"Fluttershy," Stormchaser said flatly, "It's been far too long."
"Hi Dad," Fluttershy said dully.
"And who are these?" Stormchaser asked, looking at the rest of the group.
"Friends of our daughter," Lavender said, motioning to each pony in turn "This is Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash-"
"Rainbow Dash?" Stormchaser asked, looking surprised, "Last year's Best Young Flier champion?"
Dash's cool demeanor faltered for a second at the recognition from one of the world's best weather ponies. Recovering, she put on her best proud look and said, "That's me!"
"I was quite impressed with your performance," Stormchaser said, "to think I'd be witness to the first ever Sonic Rainboom-"
"Second actually," Dash said, "I earned my cutie-mark while pulling off the first one." She turned slightly to display her flank to the navy-blue pegasus.
"Amazing," Stormchaser said, "I think Fluttershy could learn a thing or two from you."
"Yeah," Rainbow said, her inflating ego making her blind to Fluttershy's growing distress and the disapproving look Rarity was shooting her, "I've tried helping her building up her confidence in flying, but not every pony can be like me." She finally noticed the sad look on Fluttershy's face and realized what was happening. Trying to salvage the situation, she added, "Besides, she doesn't need to be the world's best flier to take care of her animals." Fluttershy winced, confusing the rainbow-haired pegasus for a split second before Lavender spoke.
"Animals?" she asked, giving Fluttershy a dirty look, "Is that what you've been doing with yourself? That's earth pony work!"
"What's wrong with earth ponies?" Rainbow asked, coming to her friend's defense.
"Nothing," Stormchaser said, "But pegasi are ponies of the sky. For one to spend her life caring about little, scampering, ground-dwelling animals… It just isn't done."
"I care for birds too," Fluttershy said, the beginnings of a Stare coming in her eyes.
Ash had watched this exchange waiting for a chance to step in and change the subject. Seeing that an argument was looming, he leaned towards his teammates and muttered, "I'll be right back." He slipped out of the room without waiting for a response.
"Where's he going?" Twilight, the only pony besides Heart and Soul to notice Ash's exit, asked quietly. Soul shrugged.
"I always wondered why you never came back home after that summer at camp," Stormchaser said to Fluttershy, "and why you never mentioned your cutie-mark or job in the few letters you wrote to us. You do have a cutie-mark, yes?"
"Yes," Fluttershy said, displaying the trio of pink butterflies on her flank, "It shows how well I can care for animals and-" The sound of breaking glass interrupted her, and her confidence shattered with it.
"What was that?" Lavender exclaimed.
"Three guesses," Soul muttered to himself as he preceded everypony out into the hall. "The first two don't count," he added upon seeing Ashen Blaze dash out of the sewing room with his saddlebags lying sloppily on his back and a large topaz floating along behind him.
"Stop thief!" Stormchaser shouted, shoving his way through the group to pursue Ash. With sighs and rolling eyes, Soul and Heart made chase as well, followed by Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Once they made it out the front door, all the pegasi except Fluttershy took flight for extra speed. Oddly, it didn't help; Dash almost fell out of the sky when she saw Soul was somehow keeping pace with her.
"What?" she exclaimed.
"Don't know," Soul said, "If I had to guess, Ash is moving the clouds under him to speed his retreat, and they're still moving for us."
"That's cheating."
"Perhaps," the golden-yellow unicorn said flatly.
Ash led them on a chase through the streets toward the edge of Cloudsdale. When Heart saw that the unicorn was making a beeline for the end of the clouds, she moaned and said, "Oh, please tell me he's not."
"Oh, he is," Soul said flatly.
Ash ran to the very edge of the clouds, leaped off into a forward somersault, and dived into the air crying, "Kemo Kiyaski !" The pursuers skid to stop and looked down at the rapidly shrinking figure of Ash.
"Wow, he hasn't done that in a long time," Soul said.
"What, jumped to his death?" Rarity exclaimed.
"No," Soul said, "that battle-cry. Come to think of it, the last time he used it was just before an impromptu sky-dive as well, so I guess you're right."
Rainbow stared aghast at Soul's casual attitude for a second before diving off the cloud, making sure to clip Soul as her wings spread. She flapped her wings as hard as she could to gain speed. Rainboom number three she thought to herself, and I'm using it to save another idiot unicorn from falling to their death . She gritted her teeth and held her legs out straight to cut the wind resistance. Gradually she grew closer to Ash as the air began to bend around her in a tighter and tighter cone. "C'mon, c'mon," she muttered as she neared the breaking point. All of a sudden a grey blur shot up past her, and over the sound of the wind she thought she heard something like "HiDashbyeDash." Startled, she lost control for a crucial second and then had no choice but to brace for the catapulting rebound she knew was coming. The mach cone snapped back, flinging her upward at an incredible speed. She prayed she didn't hit anything important before she could regain control, and then suddenly felt herself decelerating faster than she expected. Once she was going slow enough, she righted herself and opened her eyes. She saw Ashen Blaze floating nonchalantly in mid-air, the glowing Topaz hanging next to him. Rainbow tried to ask how that was possible, but her tongue refused to work from the surprise.
"Topaz of wind and air," Ash said, explaining the obvious question, "I'm no expert with it, but I can use it to produce enough upward-blowing wind to cancel gravity's effect on me, or slow a pony down."
"Oh," was all Dash could say. Ash looked up and then sighed. Dash followed his gaze and saw several pegasi dressed in city watch uniforms flying down toward them.
"Sorry about this Dash," Ash said, "I don't want you associated with me on this." Before Rainbow could react, the grey unicorn summoned a tornado from the Topaz that knocked her away from him and threw the watch ponies into confusion as it rocketed Ash toward the surface of Equestria.
Gale wiped her brow and sat back. It had taken her a bit longer than she expected, but the taffy-puller was finally back together. "All right Pinkie," she said, turning to the pink earth pony who was sitting nearby with blocks of taffy by her side, "Let's give it a try."
"Okie dokie," Pinkie said, picking up a taffy block and carrying it to the machine. She dropped it inside the bowl and gave Gale a nod. The brown earth pony returned the nod and switched the machine on. The two sat back and watched the taffy-puller go to work, and Gale hid a smile as she noticed fewer discordant sounds coming from the machine. She'd managed to tweak it just a little as she put it back together, and her itch to tinker and upgrade was finally gone. "Good job," Pinkie said, "It's as good as new."
"Thanks," Gale said proudly, "Nothing less than the best. That's my motto." A crashing sound from upstairs cut off any response Pinkie was going to make, and the two earth ponies shared a glance before running up to investigate. They arrived in Pinkie's room to find Ashen Blaze sprawled out on Pinkie's bed, which was basking in the light of a new, roughly pony-shaped skylight. A large yellow gemstone was laying on the ground near the bed, being gummed by Gummy. "Ash!" Gale exclaimed, rushing over to his side. Ash moaned and stirred a little.
"Aig," he said, "I can't feel my toes."
"You don't have any toes, smart guy," Gale deadpanned.
"Oh, right," Ash said, eyes opening, "By all rights I should be paralyzed right now. Next time I try to make a tornado while I'm in mid-air, stop me. That being said, these pony bodies seem to be much more resilient than human ones."
"Ha! So that's what your secret not-a-pony species is called!"
Ash winced at the high pitch of the pink pony's voice. "Oh, great," he moaned, "Hello Pinkie Pie."
"Hello," Pinkie said, shoving her face into Ash's view, "Soooo, you 'humans' walk on two legs and have fingers. What else?" Ash cast a pleading glance at Gale, who tapped on Pinkie's shoulder to get her attention.
"Come with me and I'll explain," she said, "give Ash some time to bounce back." Pinkie nodded eagerly and Ashen Blaze breathed a sigh of relief as Gale led her out of the room.
Left to himself, and figuring it would be a while before he would have to answer for his actions in Cloudsdale, Ashen Blaze brushed most of the debris off the bed, rescued the Topaz from Gummy, and lay down to reflect. Four Gems in almost as many days, he thought, one of which we took from Tau'rin himself! This already blows away our record by a landslide. … Note: never say that aloud around Soul Mage. Anyway, that's worrisome; we've barely had time to settle in and get the lay of the land, let alone come up with a new strategy for fighting Tau'rin. Hmm… Twilight and Rarity were useful last time, but I don't think I want to count on Tau putting up with illusions and games again. We can't slow down though- if a Gem shows up and we don't grab it, Tau'rin will. I wonder… what would happen if we got all seven Gems and Tau'rin had none? Dare I even imagine that possibility? He really didn't like Twilight's magic pulling the Sapphire off of him… maybe… His thoughts began to lose coherency at that point as his much abused body demanded sleep.
"You are not allowed back into Cloudsdale Ashen Blaze." Several hours had passed before the group returned from Cloudsdale, and it hadn't taken them long to track down Ashen Blaze, since the hole his fall had punched in the roof of Sugar Cube Corner was still present. None of them were particularly happy when the ash-grey unicorn greeted them, but it wasn't until the Order-naries were walking back to Sweet Apple Acres after dinner that he found out why. Soul Mage had apparently drawn the short straw, and so it was he that had broken the news.
The ash-grey unicorn with the fire-like mane shrugged. "Meh," he said flippantly, "It's not like there's another Gem up there anyway."
"I'm serious Ash," Soul Mage said, looking straight into Ash's eyes, "It took us hours to convince the city watch not to arrest us as accomplices to your petty theft."
"Petty theft?" Ash said, insulted, "I stole a hoof-sized, flawless topaz from a famous fashion designer's house in broad daylight. Surely that qualifies as Grand Theft, or at least a felony."
Soul glared disapprovingly at the grey unicorn in silence for several seconds before continuing. "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash got off easy," he said, "Dash because she tried to catch you, and Fluttershy because… well, she's Fluttershy. The watch didn't even think for a second a fragile-looking, nervous waif like her could've had anything to do with a theft. Twilight got off because of her connections to Princess Celestia, and Rarity made an excellent case for herself. As for Heart and myself, we only got off if we swore an oath to turn you in if you ever set foot in Cloudsdale again."
"Again, meh," Ash said, "It's not like there's another Gem up there."
"You're in hot water," Soul said, "It won't be long before the story spreads across the world. Cloudsdale weather ponies do a lot of traveling you know. Step out of line again…"
"Step out of-" Ash started to protest, but then thought better of it and sighed. "You're right," he said, "It won't do to lose the trust of Twilight and her friends. Especially since Applejack's letting us crash at her place."
"So you'll behave yourself?" Soul asked, "No more stealing Gems, no matter how easy it may be?"
"You have my word," Ash said solemnly.
"Pardon me Fluttershy." The pale yellow Pegasus almost dropped the carrot she was holding in surprise. She set it down gently in front of Angel Bunny before turning around to face her surprise visitor. Angel picked the carrot up and scampered off to eat it in peace as soon as Fluttershy's back was turned.
"Oh, hello Ashen Blaze," Fluttershy said, "What brings you here?"
Ash took a few steps past the gate around Fluttershy's yard before stopping, not quite meeting her eye. "Where," he said hesitantly, "where do we stand, you and I?" Seeing Fluttershy's confused expression, he tried again. "What I did yesterday," he said, "I can make a lot of excuses about it, but the fact stands I stole from your parents. You didn't seem to be having a good time with them, but they are your parents…"
"Oh," Fluttershy said, "Uh… you don't have to worry about that."
"Yes, I do," Ash said, "You didn't have to come with us. You didn't want to come, but we made you, and that led to, well, everything that happened. We shouldn't have involved you."
"No, no, it's ok," Fluttershy said, adopting the soothing tone she usually used on her animals, "You didn't know, and I could have kept quiet about knowing where… mother's store was. To be honest, I was hoping, just a little, that if I had my friends around me, my parents might be…"
"More approving?" Ash asked.
Fluttershy nodded. "Father was right," she said quietly, "My talent's not what you'd normally expect of a Pegasus, especially one born in Cloudsdale like me. I'd never been to the ground before that day when I got my cutie-mark." A happy smile came to her face as she thought back.
"Really?" Ash asked, "No offense, but with your apparent weakness in flight…"
"Oh, you can walk just about anywhere in Cloudsdale," Fluttershy said, "It takes a few years for Pegasus wings to get strong enough for flight. Summer Flight Camp's purpose to help train your wings, but even considering that, I was one of the weakest fliers attending that year. There were some colts that were making fun of me, and Rainbow Dash stood up for me and challenged them to a race. They had me wave the flag to start them off, and their speed left me spinning and I fell off the cloud I was standing on. A swarm of butterflies was nice enough to catch me and…" She trailed off upon seeing Ash's incredulous reaction to that sentence. "What?"
Ash shook his head and muttered something. "Never mind," he said, "continue, please."
"Ok," Fluttershy said, trying to regain her train of thought, "Uh… when I landed, I met all these cute little animals - squirrels, raccoons, birds – and fell in love with all of them. Just a few moments later, Rainbow Dash pulled off her first Sonic Rainboom and the sound sent all the animals running in fear. As I tried to calm them I realized that was my special talent, and my cutie-mark appeared." Ash nodded as he looked at the pink butterflies. Fluttershy's face fell a little as she spoke again, "I knew my parents wouldn't approve, so I didn't tell them anything about my cutie-mark or the animal-tending job I found here in Ponyville. I write them occasionally, just to let them know I'm still ok, but yesterday was the first time I've actually seen them in years."
"Sorry again," Ash said, "I guess things will be a bit tougher for you now."
"Oh, I'll be ok," Fluttershy said unconvincingly, "Besides it was…" she blushed deeply. "What you did shocked them both so much, and I…"
"Felt a little satisfaction from it," Ash supplied. Fluttershy's blush deepened and she turned away from the unicorn, ashamed. "Twilight told me you embody the Element of Kindness," Ash said, "So I guess it's hard to admit when somepony's misery makes you happy. I admire that Fluttershy, such purity's hard to find. Don't ever change. Somebody has to balance me out." He smirked at the confused glance Fluttershy gave him. "Well," Ash said, preparing to turn away, "it was nice talking to you. I'll let you get back to work now." A sudden rumbling of the ground coincided with his turn, throwing him off his feet. Fluttershy squeaked in alarm and shrank to the ground until the shaking stopped.
"Oh dear," she said, looking around at the chaos breaking out amongst the animals in her yard, "Oh dear, please calm down everyone!" She stood back up and began running around, trying to corral and calm her charges.
Ash tried to get to his feet, only to be knocked down by another tremor. "Ponyville's not given to earthquakes normally, is it?" he asked, standing up at last.
"N-no," Fluttershy said distractedly.
"That bears investigating then," the unicorn said, "I'll be going then, if you don't need any help?" Fluttershy was too busy gathering her animals to respond, so Ash shrugged and headed back into town at a gallop.
He arrived at the town square to find the entire town gathered in front a large stone stage complete with a curtain of earth. He worked his way through the mass of ponies until he found Soul Mage, Gold Heart, and Gale standing toward the right-hand side a third of the way from the back. Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity were a short ways off with Rainbow Dash hovering over them. "What's all this?" Ash asked.
"Dollars to donuts it's somepony using the Emerald," Soul said, "This stone wagon of some sort rumbled into town and turned into that. We've been standing here trying to figure out what it is, but most of the ponies here seem to be expecting a show."
"Well, it is a stage," Heart pointed out.
"If the new Emerald's involved," Ash said, "Whoever found it would have had three days at most to master its use. That's impressive; I'd like to meet them."
"I think we're about to," Gale said, pointing. The dirt curtains were shaking violently, and then collapsed in a cloud of dust that was quickly sucked into the stage. In their place stood a blue mare with silvery-blue hair wearing a purple, star-studded cape and a matching pointed conical hat. Murmurs went up from the crowd as she grinned sardonically at them.
"Her?" Rarity exclaimed, "She's got a lot of nerve showing her face here again."
"You can say that again," Applejack said sourly. Rainbow Dash was just glaring at the mare. A large portion of the crowd seemed to share their sentiments, but the pony on the stage wasn't deterred.
"Yes," she said in a loud voice, "your eyes do not deceive you. The Great and Powerful Trixie has returned, and this time her power will not be denied."
"Who's this?" Ash asked, lifting his voice to carry over to Twilight's group.
"Just watch," AJ replied, "You'll catch on in a moment, I'm sure."
"All of you," Trixie said, "you who doubted the Great and Powerful Trixie and laughed her to scorn, behold her power!" She raised her front legs into the air and the stage broke free of the ground and flew up several feet. Jaws dropped all around as every pony craned their necks to look up at the sight. "I am the master of the very ground!" Trixie declared, bringing the stage back down, "Is there any pony who can doubt the Greatness of Trixie now, Ponyville?" She scanned the audience, and located Twilight, who was as awestruck as the rest. "But perhaps a better demonstration is in order," she said, "I challenge the pony who shamed me to match her power against mine."
"Don't," Ash advised Twilight, fishing around in his pack for PC, "She's using a Gem, and she's good at it."
"I wasn't planning to," Twilight said, "I don't use my gifts to show- eeep !" The ground beneath her suddenly rose up, turning into a floating platform that carried her over the crowd and dumped her roughly onto the stage.
"Stand," Trixie ordered. Twilight got to her feet and tried to speak, but Trixie cut her off. "Show Trixie your power again," the blue unicorn demanded, "Let us see how you do without an Ursa Minor to lull."
"No Trixie," Twilight said, "I'm not going to play your game. I never wanted to compare my talent with yours; my only thought was to protect Ponyville."
"That's right!" Rainbow Dash shouted, flying to join her friend, "She doesn't have to prove anything to a braggart like you!"
"Braggart?" Trixie said, insulted, "Could a simple braggart do this?" She stamped the stage and a stone wall shot out of the ground to block the Pegasus. Dash tried to fly around it, only to find herself caught in a tiny tornado of rainbows that spun her around and threw her back into the crowd.
"That's it," Ash said, placing PC on his head, "We need to take action before somepony gets injured." He started to push through the crowd, only to find his progress stopped by a tug on his tail. He looked back to see Heart holding his red and orange tail in her mouth. "What?" he asked.
"You shouldn't go up there," Soul said, "Promise or no promise, I don't think you can keep your temper if you confront her."
"You have a better suggestion?" Ash asked, "We need to get the Emerald away from her."
"Soul and I will handle this," Heart said, dropping Ash's tail, "All we need to do is pull off a stunt she can't top."
"And you think your skills can do that?" the ash-grey unicorn asked, "What are you going to do? Tear up the stage with Element Wheel?"
"We can use the Gems too you know," Heart said, "Even Gale can. Just…" She looked to her brother. "Actually, what could we do?" she asked. Ash scoffed and turned away again.
"Wait," Soul said, "I have a plan. Ash, where exactly is she keeping the Emerald?"
Ash narrowed an eye at the golden-yellow unicorn before turning to look at the stage and made PC scan it. "Embedded in the stage," he said, "near the surface at center-stage. She's tapping its power with her magic."
"Ok," Soul said, "we'll need the Sapphire and Ruby to pull this off. Heart, you take the Sapphire and follow my lead."
Ash gave the pair a questioning look as he produced the two Gems and gave them to Heart and Soul. "Good luck, I guess," he said.
"Come on," Trixie said impatiently, "I know you have the power. Show it to me, and see if it can match this." The stage morphed around Twilight, creating part of a cage around her. Twilight gulped and glanced about nervously, but held her ground.
"No," she said, "I won't be bullied."
"Come on!" Trixie howled, "Ever since that night, I've dreamed of this day, and you will not deny me of it! Show Trixie your power so she can show you how weak it is now!"
"Oi! Arrogant and Obsessive Trixie!" The two mares looked toward the shout and saw a brown-haired, golden-yellow pegasus carrying a matching unicorn through the air, followed by gemstones. Gold Heart dropped Soul Mage onto the stage and landed next to him as Soul completed his challenge, "You want a contest, we'll give it to you."
"Who are you?" Trixie asked.
"Soul Mage," said, striking a pose, "and this Gold Heart, my… partner. You don't object to a team effort do you?"
"…No," Trixie said, eyeing the ponies suspiciously, "now, what makes you think you are better than the Great and Powerful Trixie?"
"I could go on for hours on that," Soul said, "but, you only care about our skills. I can tell you this with certainty: we know where your power's coming from, and we can use it better than you."
Trixie blinked in surprise, her eyes darting briefly to the gems floating around Soul's head. "Is that so?" she asked, "Well, prove it then."
"Just a moment," Soul said, holding up a hoof, "I'm in a betting mood, so let's make a wager. If you win this contest, you can have one of these Gems here, you're choice. Each has power equal to the one you're using, but in different elements. If we win, we get your Gem." Out in the audience, Ashen Blaze facehoofed. Don't risk our Gems! he yelled mentally, forcing himself to give Heart and Soul a chance.
"Trixie is intrigued," the blue unicorn said, rubbing her chin, "Do you have a specific challenge in mind?"
"Yep," Soul said with a confident nod. He turned to the audience and shouted, "Back away ponies, we'll need a lot of open space to work." As the crowd slowly moved back, Soul turned back to Trixie and said, "The challenge is this: we'll each use the power available to us to create a stone statue. The more impressive one wins. For fairness, Heart here will create a veil of mist to hide our work until we're done, and the audience will decide which one wins."
Trixie mulled that over for several minutes before nodding. "Trixie accepts your challenge."
"Great," Soul said, "Heart, if you will?"
"Are you sure about this?" Heart asked him a low voice as she took flight and grabbed the Sapphire.
"Just stay in link range," Soul muttered back, "I might need your help managing the power." Heart nodded and flew up higher, activating the Sapphire as she went. A heavy mist rose up from the nearby river and flowed toward the stage, creating a thick curtain that separated the audience from the contestants and the contestants from one another. A heavy rumbling shook the ground as the two unicorns set to work.
"I really hope this works," Ash muttered.
"What, yah don't trust them to do a good job?" Applejack asked.
"I trust them to do their best," Ash replied, "But I've never known Soul to be an artist. Not that we ever had much opportunity to share hobbies with each other…" He sighed and sat down to wait, the only pony not even slightly upset by the shaking ground.
Several minutes went by, and then the ground settled and Soul's voice rang out from within the mist, "You ready over there Trix?"
There was a pause before Trixie responded, "Ready." The two unicorns stepped out of the mist and turned around to face the curtain.
"Show us the first one Heart," Soul said. Gold Heart nodded and began circling as the right half of the mist curtain flew up to gather around her before flying back into the river. Sounds of awe and polite clopping greeted the first statue, which was a nearly perfect likeness of Trixie rearing up with her cape billowing out behind her, only three times the size of the real thing and stone-grey throughout. Trixie couldn't keep the pride out of her posture as Soul gestured for the audience to voice their opinions. "Number two now," he called out once the noise died down. Heart quickly removed the rest of the mist, and a collective gasp went up from the crowd. Trixie stood slack-jawed at Soul Mage's creation, which looked like a phoenix preparing for flight, wings spread wide and with its head cocked to one side as if regarding the audience. The amazing thing about it, however, was that it was glowing. Embedded in the Phoenix's visible eye was the Ruby, which was heating the statue's wings and body under Soul's command, causing the rock to glow in numerous shades of red and orange in a pattern that gave the stone phoenix the illusion of subtle, life-like movement. "Well?" Soul asked the stunned crowd, managing to keep a neutral tone in his voice. The response was almost deafening.
"You… you cheated," Trixie yelled at Soul over the noise.
"Not so," Soul responded, "I told you, whatever power we had available was eligible for use. It's your own fault for not thinking to try and use the Gems I brought up with me." Trixie fumed, but she knew she'd been beaten fair and square. She couldn't talk her way out of this humiliation, just like the last time…
"Fine then!" she shouted as the cheers and applause died down, "Take your prize." Twilight barely had time to jump off the stage before it and the Trixie statue collapsed. A large emerald flew out of the remains of the stage, wrapped in Trixie's magic, and flew toward Soul Mage. Soul reached out his magic to take it, only for it to be snatched away by another. Ash, who had worked his way to the front of the crowd during the fanfare, looked the roughly-cut Gem over critically before placing it in his saddlebag.
"You surprised me Soul," he said, "I never knew you were so creative."
"I have to be," Soul said with a smile, "As you're so fond of pointing out, I have a smaller set of tricks I can use, so I have to put more effort into making them work for me. I got the idea for this from the buildings in Cloudsdale. I figured that since the Emerald lets one mold the earth like… well, wet clay, I could easily copy those cloud sculptures."
"Clever," Ash said, smiling back, "The fire glow was a nice touch." Soul nodded appreciatively as Ash turned to Trixie. "You have quite the gift girl," he said, "It's a shame you're wasting it."
"What do you mean?" Trixie asked testily, "I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. I have the power to amaze and astound, and you must admit I did that here."
"For the wrong reason," Ash said, "quiet the ego for a second and let me give you some advice: the livelihood of the performer depends on the audience's reaction to them. Please the audience first, yourself second."
Trixie mulled that over for a second, and then turned her nose up and said, "Hmph, what would you know?"
"He has a point Trixie," Twilight said, coming over to the group, "And by the way, I don't blame you for what happened last time. You didn't have to run away; we would have helped you fix yourself up."
"S-shut up," Trixie stammered, backing away, "Trixie does not need your help!" She activated her magic and created a burst of light and smoke and ran away while everyone was blinded.
"Pleh," Ash said once his vision cleared, "Drama queens…"
"Hey, at least we're up another Gem," Soul pointed out.
"Yeah," Ashen Blaze said, "Five out of seven. This is going way too well."
The first thing Soul Mage and Ashen Blaze did with the Emerald was to clean up the mess Trixie had left and take down the phoenix statue to retrieve the Ruby. Several ponies, including the mayor, were upset at the wonderful piece of art being dismantled, but the two unicorns were insistent on making the town square just like it had been before. Once the rocks and dirt were back where they belonged, or at least close enough, they went to rejoin Gold Heart and Gale and found themselves being set upon by Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and, seemingly from nowhere, Pinkie Pie.
"That was so awesome!" Rainbow said, clapping Soul on the back.
"Great job showin' her up," Applejack said, "She ain't gonna show her face round here again now I reckon."
"That statue was just darling,' Rarity said.
"And you got another of your Gems!" Pinkie declared, "I'm going throw you a party!" She dashed off before anyone could respond.
"Girls, please," Ash said, trying to get himself and Soul out of the press, "Give us some space." The trio backed off and Soul slinked over to Heart and Gale while Ash turned to Rarity and pulled out the Emerald. "It's time I fulfilled my promise to you," he said, "And to Twilight, if Zecora hasn't been able to fix Spike."
Rarity blinked in confusion before she remembered. "My house!" she exclaimed happily, "Right! You must get to that, immediately!" She began pushing Ash in the direction of the tangled stone mess where her shop had once stood. Ash chuckled as he let himself be herded. The others followed them at a distance. They arrived at the site, and Rarity sat back, looking expectantly at Ash.
"Ok," the ash-grey unicorn said, moving the Emerald onto the ground in front of him, "Stand back a little folks, and brace yourselves; this might get a bit crazy." He placed one hoof on the Gem and another on the rock in front of him. Closing his eyes, he began to concentrate as his horn took on the same green glow that began to come from within the Emerald. A similar glow began to spread from his outstretched hoof into the rocks, which began to quiver with power. With a resounding Crack they began moving, slowly but surely untangling where possible and breaking apart when they couldn't move past each other. The ground began to shake under the ponies's hooves as the rocks slid back into the ground, and a small crowd began to gather to watch the show. After several minutes, the last of the rocks vanished beneath the ground, leaving a flat, featureless circle of dirt that showed no signs of ever being disturbed. Ash released the Emerald and swayed slightly as he regained his balance and rubbed his forehead at the base of his horn. "There," he said weakly, "No more rock pile. Pardon me."
"Wait, is that all?" Rarity asked as Ash tried to walk away.
"Were you expecting to find your shop all put back together?" Ash asked sourly, looking over his shoulder at Rarity, "The earthquake obliterated it, remember? There wasn't enough left over to build a decent table. So, unless you want a copy made entirely of stone, which would take days of painstaking detail work if I recall the place's appearance right, I've done all I can. Now, please excuse me; I need food." He began to walk away again, only to stop next to Twilight and say, "I need money for food, don't I? Skvetch…"
"Here," Rarity said, walking over to him and holding some bits out to him, "I'm sorry I expected too much from you."
"Keep your money," Ash told her, "You're going to need it more than me. I'll be fine."
"I insist," Rarity said, pushing the money at Ash.
"Calm down Rarity," Applejack said, "He's got a point; yer gonna need a lot of bits ta pay fer rebuildin' yer store. How's about I pay for lunch, fer all of y'all?"
Rarity sighed and put her money away. "Very well," she said, "Thank you Applejack."
"No problem," AJ said. As the group walked off, the orange earth pony leaned toward Ash and said, "By the way, I'd be willin' ta pay if ya do some extra chores 'round the farm." Ash just shot her glance and kept walking.
During lunch, the topic of conversation turned toward Soul Mage and Gold Heart. "I haven't seen you two use your special powers very much," Twilight said.
"There hasn't been much reason to," Heart said, "They're more suited to fighting than anything else."
"And,' Soul added, "For some reason I can only guess at, our powers are more restricted in these pony bodies. What you've seen us do is about the extent of it: our spirits link and allow us to lend each other energy, Heart can create the Element Wheel spell, and I can focus the energy into my hooves. I used to be able to form a whip out of the energy, and both of us could fire small blasts of energy. Tau'rin finds those rather painful, so not having access to them is a pain."
"That is an understatement," Ash said. Soul gave him an odd look. "What?" Ash said defensively, "Just because I keep giving you grief over calling it magic doesn't mean I don't think it's useful. Anything that'll help save the world is ok in my book. Not that that's worked out so well up till now," he finished in a mutter.
"What's the matter Ash?" Rainbow asked, "You've got, what, five of your gems now? That Tau'rin guy's not going to stand a chance against you."
"It's not a question of who holds which Gems," Ash said, "So long as all seven are nearby, Tau'rin has the chance to activate the Ultimate Chaos."
"Why not leave a Gem or two behind when you go to fight him?" Rainbow suggested, "If you're fighting him, he can't sneak around behind you and steal them, right?"
"That's not a bad idea," Gale said, "The Diamond's element isn't that useful for fighting. We don't need it."
"If Tau'rin gets the Amethyst, we'll need it to counter the Dark element," Soul pointed out, "And that Gem has a habit of winding up in Tau's hands."
"One of the others then," Gale said, "We've got the entire Classic Element set now, so we don't need to worry about canceling any of those out. Leave the Emerald in somepony's care."
"Last time we did that, somepony's house got eaten by rocks ," Ash said with a narrowed eye.
"Simple solution," Soul said, miming spreading out a banner, "Store it under a sign saying 'do not eat under pain of petrification' with a big flashy arrow pointing to it. Modify the text a little and we could leave one of others behind if you're so intent on crushing Tau'rin with a cave-in." Ash just gave his fellow unicorn an unamused look.
"We can't leave any Gems behind," Heart said, "You haven't forgotten about my vision, have you?"
"What vision?" Twilight asked.
"Back when we found the Gems for the first time," Heart explained, "The Diamond did something to me when I picked it up. I was given what I'm sure was either a vision of the future or a prophesy associated with the Gems and Tau'rin. Whatever it was, I distinctly saw all seven Gems being present as Tau'rin was engulfed in their energy and destroyed."
"We've tried to fulfill that thirteen times already Heart," Soul said, "Not once have we accomplished anything besides giving Tau'rin the fuel to destroy another world. It might be time for a new tactic."
"We'll help you," Rainbow Dash said, thumping the table for emphasis, and then looking at Twilight Sparkle, "We do have the Elements of Harmony after all; that ought to count for something."
"I guess so," Twilight said uncertainly.
"Tau'rin seemed to like the touch of your magic as much as he does Soul and Heart's power Twilight," Ash said, "I'd be happy to have you by our side if you're willing. And," he turned toward Gale, "I'll think about leaving a Gem behind if you can find a way to insure it won't get chomped by some random dragon or something."
"Speaking of dragons," Rarity said, "I wonder if Zecora has had any luck restoring Spike."
"I think we should give her one more day to try," Twilight said.
"Why?" Soul asked, "We've got the Emerald now. With it Ash can un-do the petrifying in no time."
"It'll be easier than pie," Ash said when Twilight gave him a curious look, "I shouldn't need anything more than a stick or a piece of chalk to scratch out a simple spell-weave, the Emerald, and half a minute."
"Well then," Twilight said, standing up, "What are you waiting for? Let's go! Oh, and thanks for lunch Applejack."
"Yer quite welcome sugar cube," AJ said with a smile, "Now go get that rascal Spike fixed up." The group waved as Ash and Twilight exchanged a quick nod and galloped out toward the Everfree Forest.
On their way to the forest, Ashen Blaze and Twilight stopped to check on Fluttershy. The meek pegasus was fine, having suppressed her own anxiety over the numerous tremors from Trixie's show that had been felt even at the cottage by keeping her pets and animal neighbors calm through all of them. She was very happy to hear that Ash and Twilight were on their way to restore Spike, but declined their invitation to come along. They left her as she began to administer to the still-frazzled nerves of her chickens. Twilight led the way into the Everfree and down the path to the zebra's hut. No sound came from within, and after Twilight's knocks went unanswered for the second time, Ash went to peer through the window.
"Doesn't look like she's home," He said, "the fire's out and the cauldron looks like it's just been cleaned out."
"Is Spike in there?" Twilight asked.
"Not where I can see," Ash said. He walked back to the front door to see Twilight holding a piece of parchment up against it as she wrote on it. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Writing a letter to Princess Celestia," Twilight answered, "Once Spike's back to normal I'll have him send it to let her know that he's ok."
"So I take it we're just going to wait here?" Ash asked.
"Zecora should be back soon," Twilight said, "she's probably just out collecting ingredients."
"Still," Ash said, glancing around, "Wouldn't it be a bit… safer to wait at Fluttershy's?"
"We'd just have to walk back here to check if Zecora's home," Twilight said, and then a slight smile crossed her face. "You're not scared are you? You were quite confident about the Everfree two days ago."
"We had the Meis of Glare with us," Ash said, not denying Twilight's playful jab, "And I'd rather not meet another cockatrice. The irony would kill me."
At that moment, Zecora strode into walked into the clearing, a smile evident on her lips as she tossed the hood of her cloak off her head. A satchel full of various flowers and plants was hanging around her neck, evidence of a very fruitful foraging session. "Monsters have learned to avoid the sight of my home," she said, "I have taught them it is not a fun place around which to roam. If you are here about Spike, he is still made of stone. I was about to start the second potion, and I hope it is the one."
"Isn't it hard putting a rhyme into every statement?" Ash asked, "That last one seemed a bit weak to me."
"I am used to speaking in rhyme," the zebra said, "It is the way of my people; a tradition from ancient time."
"Ok then," Ash said, giving Zecora a strange look for a second. "Anyway, we're here because we've got a foolproof way to fix Spike."
"Only a fool calls a plan foolproof," Zecora said, "There is always a way plans can get out of…" she trailed off as Ash pulled out the Emerald. "An mighty aura of magic surrounds that," she said in amazement, "To the aura around the dragon, it is a perfect match!"
"This is what stoned him," Ash said," Or, rather, the power in it did… Spike tried to eat the old housing and- never mind, it's complicated. Point is, I can harness the power and reverse the spell."
Zecora stared in awe at the Gem for a second, and then shook her head and walked toward the door, Twilight stepping out of her way.
"Come," Zecora said, opening the door, "I will get Spike so you can set things right." She trotted inside and went over to a cabinet as Twilight and Ash walked in. Zecora opened the cabinet, revealing the petrified Spike nestled amongst stopped bottles filled with various colored liquids and jars of crushed plants and unidentifiable powders.
"You're keeping him in a cabinet?" Twilight asked, looking a bit upset.
"I preferred to keep him out of my way," the zebra said, removing Spike and setting him gently on the floor, "I have other tasks to accomplish throughout my day."
"Well, he won't have to go back in," Ash said, walking over to the petrified dragon and setting the Emerald down near him. "Do you have chalk or something I can use Zecora?" he asked, "I'll need to draw some stuff and I don't think you'd like having your floor permanently marked." Zecora gave the unicorn a strange look before fishing a small piece of charcoal out of her fire pit and holding it out to him. "Thank you," Ash said, grabbing the coal with his magic. He turned his attention to the stone dragon and began to focus his magic. The Emerald twitched and began to glow green, matching the color around Ash's horn as he began to sketch a pattern on the ground. He muttered to himself as he drew, eyes darting between the pattern to Spike, the charcoal never lifting up until Ash dragged it across the pattern a final time with a bit of flourish. He tapped the edge of the sketch with his hoof and the black lines took on a green glow. Lines of green energy became visible, wrapping around Spike like creeping vines and reaching out to connect to the Emerald. "No. Problem," Ashen Blaze said, grinning, "One little tug here and…" One of the lines around Spike seemed to snap and then began to unwrap itself from the dragon, taking the other lines with it until they had all flown off the statue and into the Emerald. A sigh escaped Ash's mouth as the glow around his horn, the Emerald, and the pattern on the floor all faded away. Color began to spread across the grey statue, and within seconds the stony texture had changed to scales and tissue. Spike's eyes spun as he wavered slightly on his feet, a clawed hand going to his temple.
"Whoa," he said, "What… what happened? Where am I- aaack!" Twilight had rushed forward and caught him up in a rib-crushing hug.
"Welcome back Spike," she exclaimed happily.
"Twi…light," Spike gasped, "Can't… breathe." The lavender unicorn loosened her hold a little, smiling sheepishly. "Why are we at Zecora's?" Spike asked, looking around, "Last thing I remember, I was at Rarity's about to enjoy this luscious looking emerald she'd set out for me."
"That wasn't for you," Ash said flatly, "but I'm guessing Rarity should've put more thought into where she put the thing."
"Who are you?" Spike asked, giving Ash a suspicious look.
"Ashen Blaze," Ash said with a slight bow as he stowed the Emerald in his saddlebag, "leader of the Order-naries, mage extraordinaire, and Cloudsdale exile."
"You've missed an interesting few days," Twilight said in response to Spike's confused expression, "We'll explain on the way back to town, but for now," she produced the letter she'd written, "Do you think you could send a letter to Celestia?"
"Princess Celestia wants to meet you four." The Order-naries, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rarity, and Sweetie Bell were gathered at the library eating dinner. About halfway between Fluttershy's cottage and Mane Street, Spike had, to Ash's surprise, belched up a response to the letter he'd sent before he, Twilight, and Ash had left Zecora's. Twilight had perused the letter quickly and then invited Ash and his team to eat dinner with her so she could break the news to all four Order-naries at once.
"I'd ask why," Ash said dryly, "but I think I know the answer already: she wants to meet the ponies who've made such a splash around town in the course of five days and decide if it's worth the risk to let us continue running around."
"Uh," Twilight said, pulling the letter out and reading it again, "That's… another way to put it I guess. She's going to send a carriage for us tomorrow around ten AM."
"Us?" Soul Mage asked.
"Spike and I will be going with you," Twilight said, "We're from Canterlot originally, so we know our way around."
"Yep," Spike said around a bite of hay fries, "Maybe after we're done I can show you my favorite donut shop."
"Wow, you guys are lucky," Sweetie Bell said, "I wish I had a chance to meet the Princesses."
Rarity chewed her food thoughtfully for a second before swallowing and saying, "Sweetie, how would you like to go to Canterlot with me tomorrow?"
"Really?" Sweetie said, eyes shining in excitement.
"You're going to Canterlot?" Twilight asked.
"Don't worry, I'm not planning to impose myself on you and the Princess," Rarity said, "I just need to shop around to see how much it will cost me to rebuild the Carousel Boutique and replace all my equipment. Once I know that, I may need to see if I can talk Hoity Toity or some other designer into hiring me part-time or buying jewels from me to cover the cost. And don't you start to apologize again Ash," she added, seeing the guilty expression on the unicorn's face, "You've done more than enough of that already."
Ash sighed and looked down at his plate like it had just insulted him. "Royalty," he muttered darkly. "I'll tell you this right now," he said, looking up at Twilight, "Political leaders make me testy. Most expect you to answer to them without doing anything to deserve your respect, and 'royals' are the worst in my opinion." He looked around at the disapproving looks coming from Soul and Heart and the appalled expression on Rarity and Twilight's faces. "I'm not refusing," he said, "but you might want to warn your Princess that I may be less than pleasant company." He stood up suddenly and said, "And now that I've made this situation very awkward, I'll take my leave. Thank you for the food Twilight. Good night."
A silence hung over the group for a moment after Ash left the library. Finally, Soul cleared his throat and said, "He's… actually that way with everyone. When you first meet him, you can only gain his respect, pity, or grudging tolerance. He doesn't take reputation or the opinions of others into consideration- the way you treat him is what he'll build on. I don't think he's met a leader yet that was able to put up with that."
"Princess Celestia's a very kind pony," Twilight said, "but… I should give her some fair warning I guess."
"After dinner," Spike said, "I'm still eating here."
Ash was having a dream of some sort when he was roughly shaken awake by a pair of hooves. Mumbling, he opened one eye to peek sleepily at what looked to him like a brown, pony-shaped blob. "Wake up Ash!" the blob shouted with Gale's voice.
"What?" Ash asked grumpily, rubbing his eyes to clear them and looking around. "Geez Gale, it's still dark out," he said.
"I know," Gale said, "Get up."
"Why?" Ash's annoyance was clear, "What's so important it can't wait until proper daybreak?"
"Well," another, country-accented voice said as Applejack's head slid into Ash's range of vision. The orange earth pony was wearing a gold necklace bearing a red, apple-shaped crystal. "The Celestial Almanac said sunrise is supposed ta be at 5:47 AM today," she said "Right now, it's eight o'clock."
"That… That is a problem," Ash said, quickly coming to full wakefulness.
"No duh," Soul said from his stall.
"Any idea why?" Ash asked, still not happy about the wake-up call, "No wait, I've got it: Princess Celestia slept in." To the surprise of the other Order-naries, he actually quailed under the glare Applejack gave him.
"I woke y'all up 'cause I thought you'd offer ta make yourselves useful," she said coldly, "If your just gonna make jokes about this here dire emergency, then just go back ta sleep. I'm gonna go see if Twilight needs me ta help her get the Elements of Harmony gathered up." She galloped off toward town, leaving a humbled Ashen Blaze in her dust cloud.
"Smooth one Blaze," Soul deadpanned, "There's a reason I'm the comic relief on this team."
"Let's just follow her," Ash said, returning to his normal emotional state, "Let's parse out the Gems; anyone have a preference?"
"Topaz," Gale said, "As usual." Ash nodded and slid the gem into the saddlebag Gale was putting on. Soul grabbed the Sapphire for himself and Heart decided on the Emerald. Ash moved the Ruby to his left-side saddlebag to balance out the weight of the Diamond.
"Huh," Soul said as the four ran after the quickly shrinking form of Applejack, "The earth pony takes the Air Gem and the flying pony takes the Earth Gem. Ironic." Ash rolled his eyes as the girls chuckled.
Applejack was pleasantly surprised to see that Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Fluttershy were gathered outside the library, each wearing their Element of Harmony necklace, or tiara in Twilight's case. "Hey Applejack," Twilight called to her as she approached, "I was expecting you to show up a bit earlier."
"I'm used to getting' up with the sun," AJ explained, "Took me a couple minutes to even start thinkin' somethin' was up. I really hope you got a different reason for this than I do."
"I can't think of anything besides Nightmare Moon," Twilight said sadly, "Although I can't even begin to guess how that's possible; Celestia would've warned me if Luna was starting to backslide."
"Dang," AJ said, hanging her head for a second, "Well, we're gonna need Pinkie and Dash if we're gonna do anything about it."
"I'll go wake up Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said, spreading her wings.
"Good luck dear," Rarity said as the yellow pegasus flew up.
"I'll get Pinkie then," AJ said, turning to gallop toward the bakery. As she ran off, the Order-naries showed up and AJ gave Ash another hard look.
"Order-naries reporting for duty," Soul Mage said with a salute toward Twilight, "specializing in monster slaying, restoration of the status quo, and sarcastic in-fighting." Ash almost jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow before realizing that doing so would rationalize Soul's quip. The golden-yellow unicorn grinned at him anyway. Sobering, he looked back at Twilight and said, "But seriously, we're willing to help if you want us."
"Thank you," Twilight said with a smile, "once the others get here, we're going to Canterlot and see if we can find any clues as to what happened, assuming Nightmare Moon's behind this and that she's set up somewhere else."
"So, we're operating on something slightly better than a wild guess," Ash said dryly, "Lovely." He fished PC out of his bag and put it on. "PC," he said when the computer turned on, "maximum scan range, look for… night magic." The computer responded with a combination of text and audio, all of it sarcastic. "Darkness with a magical undertone then," Ash replied, rolling his eyes, "straight ahead and narrowed, if that'll give you more range and… hold a second." He turned to Twilight and asked, "Canterlot's that castle on the mountain, right?" The lavender unicorn nodded, bemused, and Ash turned his gaze in the proper direction. "Scan." After a few moments, he looked dubiously at the output on the eyepiece and sighed. "There might be something out there," he said, putting PC away, "but it's too far away to be sure."
"So your information is just as speculative as Twilight's," Gale said, "That's a great help Ash."
"Feh," Ash replied.
"How are we going to get there anyway?" Heart asked, "It's a long way to walk from the looks of it."
"That's a very good point," Rarity said, "We had to leave here at noon to get to the Grand Galloping Gala on time. It started just after sunset," she added for the Order-naries's benefit.
"It's only half an hour by air," Twilight said, thinking, "But we only have two, no, wait, three pegasi and no air-coach big enough for… seven, which would probably be beyond the pulling capacity of three pegasi…" She started to pace, thinking hard.
"This is probably a dumb, dead-end idea," Soul said, "but what about teleportation?"
"I could move ten ponies," Ash said, "provided I had a way-point established in Canterlot. Which I…" he trailed off as Soul gave him an "I know that already" look.
Twilight shook her head. "I can teleport myself and anything I'm carrying, and only across town at best," she said. "I guess we're walking then," she added with a sigh.
"What, and leave these guys with nothing to do?" Everypony looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering in front of a quartet of Pegasus stallions in gold armor harnessed to a large white-and-gold carriage. The rainbow-maned Pegasus had her front legs crossed as she smiled smugly down at the surprised ponies below her. She fluttered to the ground as the royal pegasi flew over their heads to land a short way down the street. As the group trotted over to the carriage, Fluttershy stuck her head out the window and smiled at them.
"Where'd this come from?" Twilight asked, amazed.
"The Princess-" one of the harnessed stallions began, only to be interrupted by a loud gasp.
"Oh wow!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced down the street toward the group with a smirking Applejack on her heels, "A royal carriage! This will make our trip to Canterlot soo much easier!" Several ponies opened their mouths, only to shut them upon deciding not to question Pinkie's intuition.
"As I was saying," the Pegasus stallion said, eyeing Pinkie with trepidation, "The Princess, Celestia, managed to get a message to us before she… disappeared, ordering us to retrieve you at all costs. However, we were only expecting there to be six of you…"
"I could fly alongside you," Heart suggested.
"Me too," Dash said, "and Fluttershy, if she's up to it."
"The carriage can fit eight," one of the other teamsters said, "it'll be a bit tight though…"
"I'll fly too," Fluttershy said quietly, slipping out of the carriage, "I… I don't mind, really."
"Let's load 'em up then," Applejack said, leaping into the carriage over the startled Fluttershy's ducked head. The yellow pegasus quickly moved aside as the other non-winged ponies worked their way into the carriage, with Ashen Blaze being the last to squeeze in, shutting the door behind him before simply laying down on the floor between the benches. The carriage jolted a little as the pegasi galloped down the street before taking flight and orienting themselves in the direction of Canterlot.
About fifteen minutes into the flight, Ash got off the floor and squeezed between Soul and Applejack to look out the front window at the teamsters and the approaching mountainside castle. "So," he said, "You guys wouldn't have some idea of what's happened, would you?" he asked.
"No," the lead pegasus said, "All I know is that we had to scramble to stay ahead of a wave of dark magic that started spreading out from the castle as we left." Ash grimly turned his gaze to the castle, ignoring the discomfort he was causing to the ponies on either side of him. Soul slid onto the floor with a sigh to relieve the pressure, knowing that Ash wasn't likely to move for a while.
A few minutes later the carriage slowed to a stop and hung in the air as the teamsters backpedaled into a controlled hover.
"What's going on?" somepony asked.
"Barrier," Ash said simply. The ponies scrambled over each other trying to look out one of the windows. The entire city of Canterlot and a large part of the surrounding mountain and airspace was encased in a barely visible bubble of blackness. "Pardon me," Ash grunted, trying to get his saddlebag opened, "I need to test its- no!" He'd managed to get the Diamond out, only for it to slip out of his magic grip and go flying out the front window. "Again?" the unicorn exclaimed, watching helplessly as the Gem flew toward the barrier. A rainbow blur cut across his vision as Rainbow Dash flew out and grabbed the Diamond in a tight, four-legged grip against her belly and tried to fly back to the carriage. She was failing.
"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed, flinging out her telekinesis to grab the blue pegasus. Rarity, Soul, and Ash all added their power and together they managed to drag Dash back toward the carriage. As she drew near, Ash wiggled out the front window and climbed to the top of the carriage.
"Bring her to me," he said, "We've got to get the Diamond put away." Dash angled her wings to gain the necessary altitude as the unicorns pulled her up alongside Ash. Transferring his grip to the Gem, Ash helped Rainbow transfer it back into his saddlebag and closed it up tight. "Oh no you don't," Ash grunted as the unseen force continued to pull at the Diamond, "It's mine!" He stared intently at his saddlebag, and then quickly swung his head to sever an invisible thread of power, ending the pull. "Ok," he said, turning his attention back to the barrier, "The Gems do not come out into the open under any circumstances until I find out where Tau'rin got that attraction spell."
"Tau'rin's in Canterlot?" Rarity exclaimed.
"Yep," Ash said, "This barrier and that attempted Gem theft both have his signature underlying them. Somehow he managed to take control of your capital in one night. He's been a sneaky little meeper…"
"How do we get in?" Gale asked, "I mean, I'm sure you could take that barrier down with the Diamond, but if you can't even pull it out..."
Ash stuck his head over the edge and smiled at Gale through the window. "I don't need to pull it out," he said, "I've only been doing that out of habit. So long as I can touch a Gem with my magic, I can use it."
"Ok," Heart said, "so that lets you and Soul use your Gems, but what about Gale and me?"
"I think you're out of luck," Ash said, "Sorry." He pulled his head up and looked at the barrier again. Hope I'm right, he thought as he focused his magic again, splitting his attention between establishing a link to the Diamond and looking for a weakness in the barrier before him. His horn glowed brighter as the Diamond's energy flowed into it, and Ash allowed himself a small smile. Have to keep it small and focused, but looks like I can do this. He fired a beam of light from his horn, which pierced through the barrier. With a toss of his head, Ash sliced the beam through the darkness to create a large hole in the barrier. "Go!" he shouted at the pegasi in the harnesses as he threw himself flat on the roof of the carriage.
"Uh, sir," one of the pegasi said," shouldn't you get back-"
"GO! " Ash shouted. The teamsters whinnied and began flapping their wings hard, quickly picking up speed as Ash grumbled under his breath. As the carriage neared the hole, Ash carved at its edges to keep it open until everypony made it through. "That'll be the easy part," Ash said, looking back, "count on it."
Contrary to Ashen Blaze's prediction, the flying carriage and its pegasus escort didn't have any trouble covering the distance from the darkness barrier around Canterlot to the landing area attached to one of the castle's towers. Ash leapt off the top of the carriage as Twilight and the other five non-winged ponies got out. "Ok Twilight," Ash said to the lavender unicorn, "This is your old territory, right? Where should we go?"
"I don't know," Twilight said, "I'm not even sure who we're up against anymore, Tau'rin or Nightmare Moon."
"My money's on both," Soul said, "That barrier was apparently Tau's work, but he's never been able to mess with the rotation of a planet."
"Different rules here, remember?" Gale said.
"Ok," Soul said, rolling his eyes, "but he's only got two Gems at most, and I doubt that'd be enough to take down two ponies with enough power to move the sun and moon without assistance."
"I suppose we should try the throne room then," Twilight said, "If Luna has become Nightmare again, she'll want to be where ponies can come bow to her. Follow me." She trotted toward the door leading into the tower, glancing in cautiously before entering with the others close behind.
"Good luck," one of the pegasus teamsters called after them.
"Oh," Fluttershy said, stopping and looking back at them, "What about you? What are you going to do?"
The four pegasi glanced at each other. "Uh," one of them said, "we'll… we'll be ok." Fluttershy didn't look convinced, but when she saw that the others were leaving her behind, she squeaked and ran to catch up. As she disappeared through the door, the four pegasi began to unhitch themselves from the carriage, just in case something jumped out at them as they went to look for shelter. They'd barely finished, however, before they found themselves caught up in a pool of paralyzing dark magic that began seeping up through the ground, part of which branched off into a tendril that stretched toward the tower door in pursuit of the ten would-be heroes.
The group was crossing a landing two stories down when the darkness caught up to them, the tendril springing out of the ceiling to grab Gold Heart. She struggled for a second before the power froze her movements and began to carry her away as more tendrils appeared to attack the rest of the group. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were captured before the others could respond. Soul Mage threw his magic around Heart, weakening the tendril slightly as the aura of spirit power engulfed Heart but not enough to loosen its grip. Ash pushed his limits sending out several lancing bolts of light to sever the tendrils coming for him and the ponies around him. Taking advantage of the cover, Fluttershy and Rarity did their best to prevent AJ and Dash from being dragged away while Twilight tried to free them, pouring her magic into the darkness ensnaring them. Pinkie Pie bounced around, her Pinkie Sense allowing her to predict the movements of the tendrils chasing her so she could dodge them effortlessly until Ash could spare a moment to reduce their numbers.
Soul struggled against the force of the tendril that was trying to kidnap his sister, but he was starting to lose ground. As he felt his hooves begin to slide on the floor, he began to panic. "No," he grunted, trying to get a more solid stance and slipping a few more inches, "You are not taking her. Let. Her. Go!" His horn flared and three ethereal bolts of blue energy shot out in a curving path to strike the tendril just behind Heart. The darkness around the golden-yellow pegasus dissipated and her limp form flew toward Soul from the strength of his pulling. Soul yelped as Heart crashed into him and the two rolled across the floor. Untangling himself, he shot a quick glance around the room before shaking Heart gently. "Wake up," he demanded weakly. Heart moaned and stirred, eyes blinking open slowly. Soul breathed a sigh and relief and stroked Heart's cheek. "Rest," he said, "I'll protect you." He straightened up and stood over Gold Heart in a defensive posture, soul aura aflame as he linked to her spirit. "We need to end this," he said, channeling his magic into his horn and firing out bolt after bolt of it at the tendrils coming from the ceiling.
"That we do," Ash replied, smiling as he saw that Soul had recovered one of his old skills, "Any suggestions?" He nullified three of the tendrils Pinkie was baiting before taking out one that was about to snag Gale.
"Something with a larger area of effect would be nice," the brown earth pony said. She ran to add her strength to Fluttershy's efforts to keep Rainbow Dash in the room.
Twilight finally managed to break Applejack free of her captor and sat back to clear her head. "Will a big flash of light do?" she asked.
"It'd help at the least," Ash said, starting to tire himself. More tendrils were coming his way, preventing him from doing anything to help Dash, who was dangerously close to one of the walls the darkness was taking over.
"I'll handle it Twilight," Rarity said, "Catch your breath and then get Rainbow." The lavender unicorn nodded as the white one's horn began to glow brighter and brighter until she released the magic in a blinding flash of light. The darkness retreated up to the ceiling and about half the tendrils withered away, including the one surrounding Rainbow Dash.
"Please to be doing that again," Soul said, blinking rapidly. Rarity obliged, and the dark magic was reduced to a small spot on the ceiling that Soul quickly blasted away. Everypony waited tensely for a few moments, but when no more tendrils or shadows showed up, they breathed a sigh of relief and began to take stock of their situation. AJ and Dash were still mostly paralyzed, but Heart had recovered enough to stand up.
"That was intense," Heart said, "thanks for saving me Soul."
"Hey, I couldn't just let them have you sis," Soul said, "I'm worthless without you."
"Do you think that darkness got anypony else?" Gale asked, "It seems like a pretty effective way to take control of a place."
"We won't know until we explore further," Ash said, lying down, "for now, I recommend we take a break. Unicorns, we'll trade off keeping an eye out for a second attack and hoping it doesn't come."
Once Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Gold Heart were ready to move, Twilight led the group down a few more flights of stairs and then out into the castle proper. "The throne room's this way," she said, "We just need to get through this hallway and the antechamber." The group proceeded cautiously, organized with the four unicorns split between the front and back and the pegasi on the ground in the middle of the procession and everypony on edge, watching for any signs of an ambush.
"So," Applejack said, trying to ease the tension a little, "We've got five of yer magic Gems- Light, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. What are the two Tau'rin'll have?"
"The Amethyst of Darkness," Ash said, "which we've already seen plenty of evidence for. The last Gem is the Pearl, and I must admit it's a mystery to me."
"How so?" Twilight asked.
"Well," Ash said, "It tends to stay out of play until near the end, and we've only had it in our possession in about half of the worlds we've been to, so there hasn't been much time to figure it out. I know that it can summon lightning, but I suspect its actual attunement is to Aether, the only magical element without a known opposite. Mastering the use of Aether beyond controlling lightning is a feat few were able to achieve back home, and I'm not one of that group. I don't think even Tau'rin knows the full capabilities of the Pearl, and his fate is tied as closely to it as to the other six Gems."
"Sounds to me like he's going to be push-over," Dash said smugly, "You magic users can beat back the darkness, and with a weather pony like me around you won't have to worry about any lightning."
"Don't get cocky," Ash warned, glancing back at the pegasus, "It won't be natural, cloud-born lightning like you're used to. Besides that," he added in an angry tone, "we've already lost our chance to keep one of our Gems out of the equation."
"Couldn't you just hide one somewhere around here?" Pinkie asked.
Ash shook his head. "Tau'rin and Nightmare Moon have this place filled with Darkness, and that element's quite useful for finding hidden things, and that Gem-stealing spell's probably still active anyway."
"But… if Tau'rin can get at all of them…" Fluttershy said, ears flattened in worry. Ash glanced back at the yellow pegasus and slowed to a stop, unsure of what to say. The others also stopped, the weight of what they were walking into hanging over them like a dark storm cloud.
"We'll just have to do our best," Gold Heart said at last, nuzzling Fluttershy reassuringly, "Who know? Maybe the Elements of Harmony will tip the scales in our favor this time. Or maybe we'll be able to deal with Nightmare Moon first and free Princess Celestia so she can help."
"Yeah," Pinkie said enthusiastically, "Just think about what could go right!" Fluttershy smiled thankfully at the pink pony. She looked at Ash and gave him a confident nod, which Ash returned before gesturing for Twilight to lead on again. "Hey, how about a song?" Pinkie asked. Without waiting for a response, she added a bit of bounce to her gait and Gale could've worn she heard music starting to play…
"How about no?" Ash said, "You'll give away our position."
"You really need to have more fun," Pinkie said, still bouncing with each step. Ash just shook his head slowly, feeling his patience starting to wear thin. He prepared to snap as Pinkie started to sing, only for both song and reprimand to be cut off as the group rounded a corner and discovered a stretch of hallway full of ponies frozen in place, many in poses indicating that they'd been trying to run away.
"Ok then…" Soul said slowly as they walked cautiously toward the statuesque ponies.
"I think they're still alive," Applejack said, leaning her head in close to one as they passed by, "They're warm at any rate."
"This would be us if we'd lost that last fight," Ash said, "This isn't a pure Dark element spell though…" He stopped to take a closer look at one of the ponies – a tall white unicorn stallion with amber hair and wearing a very stylish tuxedo and large bow tie. "Yeah," he said at last, "basic stasis spell, enhanced for duration. Breakable, but it should wear off on its own once the one who cast it is incapacitated. How much further Twilight?"
"Just past these poor ponies," Twilight said, pointing down the hall to a pair of large doors. Ash nodded and the group made their way down the hall, although Rarity paused for a second to smirk at the expression on the tall unicorn's face. They came to stop in front of the doors, which Ash and Twilight both looked over, searching for anything unusual. "Looks clean to me," Twilight said, "Maybe they didn't expect us to get this far?"
"Not enough resistance for that," Ash said, "One of Tau'rin's biggest failings, if it can be called that, is he prefers to take us on personally once he knows we're around. Let's go." Focusing his magic he flung the doors open to reveal a waiting room containing a few more frozen ponies. Disappointed, Ash walked to the next set of doors and flung them open as well. The throne room spread out before him- a large, open room broken only at need by stone columns with more arched windows than walls. At the far end was a high dais topped with a golden throne. Occupying that throne was a tall, elegant black alicorn with a mane and tail that rippled in some un-felt wind and resembled the starry night sky. She narrowed her eyes at the intruders, an expression matched by Ashen Blaze as he strode purposefully into the room ahead of the others.
"Well, well," the alicorn said, "It would seem you have made some more friends Twilight Sparkle." She spread her wings and glided down to the floor, landing a short way away from the dais. "I've made one myself, and I think you've already met him." A vortex of darkness formed next to the alicorn, out of which stepped the winged bull demon Tau'rin. His horns were still gone, and he still bore a mark on his forehead where the Sapphire had resided. A large amethyst and an equally large pearl were embedded in the remains of his horns, and both were glowing with power.
"This ends here Order-naries," he said in a growl.
"Agreed," Ashen Blaze said as Soul Mage, Gold Heart, and Gale formed up beside him, ready to fight.
"I'll give you this final chance to think," Tau'rin said, "I can tell you've brought all the Gems. Thirteen times we've done this, and every time it has ended the same way."
"We defeated you once," Ashen Blaze said, channeling his magic through the two Gems in his saddlebags, "It may not have ended the way I would've liked, but I know we can beat you. By the way, have you told your new girlfriend just how dangerous you are?" He turned his gaze toward Nightmare Moon. "If the stories I've heard about you are true, all you want is a little appreciation, maybe some loving worship. Tau'rin here will destroy the world, and what will that leave you with?"
Nightmare sneered at the ash-grey unicorn. "You know nothing, outsider," she said, "I have seen the truth. I shall never have the love and respect I deserve from this world, so if it must be destroyed, so be it. I and Tau'rin will simply find another more deserving of our control."
"No!" The Order-naries turned to look behind them for the source of the cry. Twilight Sparkle was glaring daggers at Nightmare Moon as the starburst gemstone in her tiara took on the glow of her horn. Around and above her stood the other five Elements of Harmony, their necklaces aglow as the six mares were surrounded in an aura of magic. "You are not even the Nightmare Moon that Celestia banished to the moon, let alone Princess Luna! Remember the lesson you learned!" Twilight closed her eyes as the magic around her grew in intensity. Nightmare Moon gasped as Twilight levitated up into the air and then opened her eyes, now glowing white from the power she was channeling. A rainbow of magic shot out from her and her friends, arcing over the heads of the amazed Order-naires and zeroing in on Nightmare Moon. The alicorn flinched and screamed as the rainbow neared… and splashed harmlessly off a black barrier that sprang up.
"Hahahaha!" Tau'rin laughed, the Amethyst in his head glowing with a nearly black light, "Foolish little ponies. You think we'll be defeated so easily, by such… lovey magic? Behold, this is true power!" Both of his Gems glowed and a trio of black lightning bolts fired toward the group.
Ash reared up and thrust his front hooves forward, creating a red-tinged barrier that spread out to cover his teammates and friends, blocking and deflecting the bolts toward a window on his right. "This is two different fights," he said, focusing his magic again, "Let's stop getting in each other's way. Order-naries, with me." He dropped back to the ground, lowered his head, and charged toward Tau'rin. Trusting their leader to have plan, Soul, Heart, and Gale followed him, the two golden-yellow ponies establishing their spirit link as they ran.
"Foals," Nightmare Moon said, preparing to answer the charge with one of her own. Ash side-stepped around her at the last second, distracting her long enough for Soul to knock her down with spirit bolt and allow him, Heart, and Gale to join Ash between the alicorn and the bull demon. Ash quickly reached his magic into Gale's saddlebag, activated the Topaz, and unleashed a blast of wind that blew Nightmare closer to the Elements of Harmony and Tau'rin and the Order-naries to the other end of the room. A wall of flames sprang up from the floor, dividing the room in half. As Twilight and friends took in this spectacle, Nightmare Moon regained her feet and glanced between the fire and the six ponies.
"Princess," Twilight said, "I know you're in there."
"Silence!" Nightmare shouted, mane swirling around her, "There is no more Princess Luna, only me!"
"We'll see about that," Applejack said, "You ok fer another try Twi?"
"I think so," Twilight said, still a little dizzy from the previous blast.
"No," Nightmare said, as Twilight began to build up power again, "You can't. I won't let you stop me again!" She transformed into a vortex of swirling night mist and flew at Twilight, intent on interrupting the spell. She struck just as the aura surrounded the Elements again and was thrown back by the power, collapsing to the floor. "No," she said weakly as the Element Bearers floated upward and Twilight's eyes began glowing again in conjunction with the rainbow's appearance. The magic swirled around Nightmare Moon, rooting the anger and darkness out of her and sealing it away once again. With a final flare of power the spell came to an end and the seven ponies fell to the floor, momentarily exhausted from the effort. Twilight was the first to come to, followed by Rainbow, Pinkie, and then the rest. Princess Luna, smaller in size and lighter in color now that she was free of Nightmare Moon, was curled up on the floor looking pitiful.
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed happily, running over to the purple alicorn, "Are you ok?"
Luna sniffled and avoided Twilight's gaze. "I'm so sorry," she said, "I… I don't know what came over me."
"Shh," Fluttershy said soothingly, coming over, "Don't you worry, we don't blame you. Everything will be ok now."
"No, no it won't," Luna said, "That… creature, Tau'rin. He'll destroy Equestria if he's not stopped."
"Our friends are dealing with him," Twilight said, her gaze going to the wall of flame, "But I get the feeling they'll need our help."
Being the one who'd cast the wind spell, Ashen Blaze was the only one still on his feet when it stopped, and he quickly followed it up by creating a flame barrier to prevent the two fights from coming back together. Maintaining that barrier required him to divide his attention, so he wasn't expecting to be very useful in the upcoming fight. He leaped back from a wildly shot lightning bolt from Tau'rin and proceeded to help his teammates to their feet. "Gale, try to keep your distance," he said, "Keep the Topaz as far away from him as possible. Soul, Heart, You'll have to lead the offense; I'll cover you."
"Stubborn fools," Tau'rin said, standing up, "You just don't get it; you'll never destroy me. Someday you'll be unable to maintain this-" He ducked his head just in time to avoid taking an Element Wheel to the face, and the energy disk barely missed clipping the Pearl as it spun past.
"Yeesh, that was close," Heart said with a grimace.
"Careful," Ash warned unnecessarily. Heart rolled her eyes and tried to bring the Element Wheel around for another go. Tau'rin shot the disk with a darkness bolt and it disintegrated. As Heart concentrated on forming another Wheel, Soul sent out several spirit bolts, only one of which hit Tau'rin before he could erect a barrier. Spreading his wings, Tau'rin turned the barrier into a wave of magic that Ash was barely able to deflect and then took to the air.
"The one thing I like about this form," Tau'rin said, "Is the flight. Now come on, where are the Gems? If you're so sure they're the key, use them !"
"If you insist," Ash snarled, sending a barrage of fireballs at the flying bull. Heart sent out her second Element Wheel alongside the fireballs and managed to carve a gash in Tau'rin side as he tried to dodge the fire. A few fireballs also found their mark before Tau'rin forced Ash back onto the defensive with a dark lighting strike. The fire wall wavered as Ash's stamina began to run low. Tau'rin laughed at the panting unicorn, and then noticed Gale trying to stay out of sight next to the throne dais.
"Poor little mechanic," he said mockingly, "Not so useful without your precious weapons, are you?" He laughed at Gale's defiant glare and created a vortex of darkness. "Die," he said, sending the vortex toward the earth pony.
"No!" Dropping his hold on the wall of fire, which quickly vanished without a trace, Ash threw himself between Gale and the incoming attack. He tore open his saddlebag and, fighting against the magic that tried to steal it from him, pulled out the Diamond and unleashed all the power he could get from it. The blast of light consumed Tau'rin's attack and continued upward, knocking the surprised bull demon out of the air. He landed hard on the floor and struggled to his feet, one wing hanging limp and useless.
"Give me that Gem," he growled, and Ash felt the pressure on the Diamond increase. Grunting, he pulled it toward his body and threw himself down on top of it to prevent it from reaching Tau'rin. "Give it! " Tau'rin roared, and Ash began to move as the Diamond slid across the floor. The unicorn tried to retaliate, but couldn't muster the energy for an attack while keeping his grip on the Gem. Soul Mage was preparing to fire a spirit bolt when Rainbow Dash zoomed in and delivered a fierce two-legged kick to the back of Tau'rins' head. Concentration broken, the attraction spell died and Ash was able to, tentatively, relax his hold on the Diamond.
"Hey guys," Rainbow said, pulling a tight loop to bring herself back above Tau's head, "Need a hoof or two?" Without waiting for an answer, she dropped down and caught Tau'rin in a choke-hold.
"Little wretch," Tau'rin grunted, "Get off of me! " The Gems on his head began to glow, and Soul and Ash barely managed to pull the pegasus to safety before she was fried by the lightning that arced over the bull's head.
"Stick to hit-and-run," Ash advised as he released Dash.
"Fine," she said grumpily. She flew up toward the ceiling as Tau'rin tried to decide who to go for next.
"This is becoming very annoying," he growled, "you're ponies; you shouldn't be this tough to destroy."
"They're not just ponies," said a voice behind Tau'rin. He turned to see Princess Luna hovering behind him, front legs raised high in preparation to strike, "They're friends." She brought her hooves down hard, one smashing Tau'rin's head down onto the floor and the other striking the Amethyst and taking a big chunk out of it.
"Oh no…" Heart said in absolute horror.
"Run, yes?" Soul asked, casting a glance at Ash as purple-black energy began to flow out of the damaged Gem and over Tau'rin's body. Luna backed away in horror as the bull-demon began to bellow in pain, more or less frozen by the darkness that was starting to consume him.
"We'll never make it," Ash said, "At least, not me." He put one hoof on the Diamond and screwed his eyes shut as he concentrated. A white bubble of light formed around Tau'rin, containing the energy that was starting to expand out from him. "Go!" he shouted to Luna and the Element Bearers, "Get out of here; I'll hold this in as long as I can!" He glanced to his teammates and said, "you three-" he was cut off by a resounding crack inside the bubble that briefly drowned out Tau'rin's cries. The Order-naries gaped in horror as the purple-black maelstrom inside the light barrier began to turn to a purple-grey streaked with electric blue and white.
"And there goes the Pearl," Soul said. He pulled out the Sapphire, placed it next to Ash, and stood on it, focusing his magic. A watery-blue barrier sprang up around the first barrier.
"What are you doing?" Ash asked, "Aether doesn't have an opposite. If Light can't hold it in, Water certainly won't."
"I know," Soul grunted, "but together, they're stronger." He spared enough power to reach a tendril into Ash's bag and pull out the Ruby, "And three are stronger yet." He set the Gem down and put his other hoof on it. A red barrier appeared around the chaos, which was starting to wear away at the first layer.
"I see your three and raise you another," Gale said, running over to place and activate the Topaz, creating a fourth barrier.
"And Earth makes five," Gold Heart said, adding her Gem's power.
"Guys… thanks," Ashen Blaze said. He released the Diamond for a split second and reformed his barrier around the other four. "It's been an honor to have you as my friends."
"Ash?" Rarity said worriedly. The ash-grey unicorn looked up, surprised and angry that Luna, Twilight, and the rest were still there, watching the Order-naries try to contain the energy of two destroyed Gems.
"What are you still doing here?" he exclaimed, "I said run!" He wanted to sat more, to explain that this containment was temporary, that the energy would destroy at least part of the castle before it dissipated, that he wanted as few causalities as possible, and the hope that those ponies out in the hallways were mobile again. He couldn't spare the effort though- his barrier was the most important, since it was holding the others in place and was the only one with an element that could reliably reduce the power of the chaos it was holding at bay. He didn't even take a moment to see if his instructions were being followed.
After about three minutes or so, the light suddenly went out of the Sapphire and the innermost barrier collapsed. Before Soul could react, the blue Gem slipped out from under his hoof and flew toward the roiling, Aether-charged, screaming darkness, moving through the barriers like they didn't exist and being swallowed up by the chaos. "Oh, you have got to be skvetchte kidding!" Ash exclaimed. To everypony's surprise, however, nothing changed about the mass except for it expanding to crash against the next barrier. A few minutes later that barrier collapsed as well and the Ruby was torn from Soul's grip to be absorbed to no visible effect.
"What… why?" Soul asked, flabbergasted. He sat back for a minute before slowly making his way away from the group. Gale's barrier lasted for another five minutes and Heart's held up for six, but finally Ash was left alone to hold back the violent storm with the Diamond, the last Gem still intact.
Soul approached Ash, who was visibly shaking with the effort of maintaining his spell, and tried to touch the Diamond and lend his strength. Ash brushed him away, telling him to leave in a strained voice. "Minimize… casualties," he panted. His back legs gave out and the barrier began to waver. Growling, Ash tried to coax more power into the barrier, and then collapsed. The bubble of light thinned and stretched as the darkness began to break out, and then came to a stop as an aura of magic surrounded the bubble followed by the swirling rainbow of Harmony magic. Ash and Soul looked to see Princess Luna and the six Ponyville friends adding their power to the new barriers. Smiling, Soul reached toward the Diamond to refresh the light barrier, only to pause as the screaming from within the roiling chaos suddenly stopped. Seconds later, the darkness collapsed in on itself and vanished, leaving nothing behind except the now unnecessary barriers, which were quickly taken down as Luna relaxed her magic and the Elements of Harmony released their six bearers from the magic. The ponies stood looking at each other in silence for several moments as they caught their breath.
"Is… is that it?" Gale asked, "Is it over?"
"I… I think so," Ash said. He looked down at the Diamond and prodded it a few times before stepping down firmly and focusing his magic. The Gem didn't respond. "It's dead," he said, shocked, "All of its magic is gone."
"The other Gems are gone too," Soul said, "besides the Amethyst and Pearl, none of them reacted to being sucked into that… thing."
"Their purpose has been served," Heart said. Everyone turned to look at her, confused. "I think I understand that vision better now," she said, "The Gems and Tau'rin were linked by fate; so long as Tau'rin existed, the Gems were there as a means to stop him, if used right. Now that he's finished, there's no need for the Gems."
"So, that's it then," Ashen Blaze said, "Fourteen worlds and uncounted years, and we've finally ended the nightmare. Uh, in a manner of speaking," he added, looking at Luna.
The alicorn princess smiled at him. "I'd say that's a very appropriate way to put it," she said. She looked at Twilight and bowed her head briefly. "My sister will be quite grateful to you and your friends," she said, "As I'm sure she'll tell you once she finds her way out of the dungeon Tau'rin had me stick her in."
"Which, while appropriate, was a disappointingly uninspired location to wake up in," a kind, regal voice with a trace of humor said from the throne room door, coinciding with the flood of morning light from the eastern windows. The Order-naries's jaws dropped as everypony turned to see Princess Celestia walking into the throne room. She towered over the ponies, all of whom bowed except for Luna, who ran a short distance toward her sister before stopping and hanging her head, and Ash, who simply regarded the giant among ponies. Celestia met Ash's gaze and arched an eyebrow, but then turned her attention to her penitent little sister. "Dear Luna," she said, nuzzling the smaller alicorn's neck, "Whatever the reason for your transformation this time, I doubt it was your fault. And in any case, you're back to your old self again, and that's what matters the most." Luna looked up, smiling gratefully at her sister. "Rise, all of you," Celestia said to the ponies as she and Luna walked toward them. They obliged, and moved aside as Celestia walked straight to Ashen Blaze, whose face was virtually unreadable. "You must be Ashen Blaze," Celestia said with a hint of a smile, "Twilight has had much to say about you."
"I hope it was accurate," Ash replied neutrally.
"That remains to be seen," the Princess said, "On behalf of myself and all of Equestria, I thank you for your heroic efforts to save us."
"Feh," Ash said, "Heroic? All I've done is be stubborn and obsessive. If you want heroic, look to them," he motioned toward Twilight Sparkle and her friends, "They had no reason to follow me and my team when we showed up unannounced, and many reasons to abandon us along the way. When you get down to it, we caused as much trouble as Tau'rin, and they fixed it all."
Celestia regarded Ash for a moment, and then laughed. "As I understand it," she said, "You have nowhere to go now, and no means to get there if you did. I look forward to getting to know you and your friends better."
Ash regarded the great white alicorn for a second, and then smiled. "I'll try not to make you regret that Your Highness," he said.
The next morning, after grousing his way through his apple-bucking – he was working a single tree alone this time, as he'd feared – Ashen Blaze planted himself on the observation deck of the library, hoping that the increased height would help PC pick up the energy signatures of the remaining four Gems or clues to Tau'rin's new hide-out. As lunchtime neared without so much as a blip, he lay down with a groan and considered taking a quick nap before lunch. He put PC on standby and stowed it away and started to close his eyes.
"Hey," a voice said from slightly above him.
"Geez!" Ash said, startled. He looked up to see a blue Pegasus with rainbow-striped mane hovering in front of him. "Rainbow Dash," he said, "Can I help you?"
"Nah," Dash said, "I just thought I should tell you we're going to start a little rain shower in a moment, so you might not want to take a nap here." Ash looked past the pegasus and saw that the sky was almost filled with grey, heavy-looking clouds.
"Thanks," he said, standing up, "That's quite considerate of you."
"No problem,' Dash said as Ash walked toward the stairs. "Say," she said, following the unicorn inside, "Is it true you guys beat up that bad guy you were talking about?"
"I wouldn't say beat up," Ash said, "We did send him packing though, without the Gem he had when he showed up."
"Dang," Dash said, "I was kind of hoping he'd show up somewhere around here so I could a few hits in him myself."
Ash gave the pegasus an amused glance. "Don't you have rain to… whatever it is you do to make it rain?"
"Ah, I've done my part already," Dash said, nonchalant, "Now, tell me, what was this Tau guy like? Gimme all the details so I can help you out when he shows his ugly face again." Ash chuckled as he headed for the stairs to the second floor, only to end up with a magazine in his face as Rarity came running up the stairs and stopped an inch short of colliding with him.
"So sorry Ash," Rarity said, "but you have to see this!"
Ash backed up a couple steps so he could read the magazine's cover. "Haute Couture Weekly. Why are you pushing a fashion magazine into my face, Rarity?"
"Look," Rarity insisted, "See what the Pegasus in the corner is holding?" Ash's eyes scanned the cover until he found the photo. It depicted a deep lavender pegasus mare with burnt-orange hair holding up a large yellow gemstone that complemented her daisy-yellow outfit.
"You're kidding me," Ash said, taking a closer look, "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that was the Topaz, the Gem of Air and Wind."
"It might just be," Rarity said, pulling the magazine back and opening it, "Listen to this: 'Star fashion designer Lavender Sunset has just announced that she has come into possession of an amazing yellow topaz that she intends to use as the inspiration for her next year's line of spring fashion.' It says later that she found the topaz just a couple days ago as she was flying through a wildflower field, the same day you showed up."
"Interesting," Ash said thoughtfully, "It could be a coincidence, but I should probably investigate. That'll be better than sitting around here all day at least."
"You're going to try and get a fancy gem away from Lavender Sunset?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Good luck with that!"
"You know her?" Rarity asked, incredulous.
"Of course," Rainbow said, "She's one of the biggest names in Cloudsdale outside of the Wonderbolts. And she happens to be married to one of the best weather ponies in Equestria, after yours truly of course."
"Have you actually met her?" Rarity asked critically.
"No," Dash said, rubbing her neck, "But I grew up in Cloudsdale you know, and even back then you couldn't go a day without hearing about Lavender Sunset at least once. Apparently she's one of the best designers for pegasi."
"That she is," Rarity said as a dreamy look came into her eyes, "To have chance to meet and exchange notes with her… Idea!" She flung the magazine away and grabbed Ash by the shoulders. "This will be the perfect opportunity for both of us," she said, "Hopefully my reputation precedes me, and together we can talk her into giving us, er, you the Gem!"
"Uh, you know she lives in Cloudsdale, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh,' Rarity said, deflating, "That's right… Well, if I can go into the depths of the Diamond Dogs's territory, I can certainly manage a few hours up in the clouds. I'll just make sure Twilight uses the walking-on-clouds spell on me this time…"
"Dumb question," Ash said, looking from Rarity to Rainbow, "but, this Cloudsdale place, it's in the sky, isn't it?"
"Duh," Rainbow said, "It's only the biggest pegasus city in Equestria, and the place where all the weather is made."
"Super," Ash said dryly, "the other Order-naries would kill me if I didn't at least ask them to come along. Can I assume you'll be joining us Rainbow Dash? We could use a pony who knows her way around."
"Of course," Rainbow said, "I'll go see if I can convince Fluttershy to come too." She zoomed away before anypony could react, faltering for a second as she exited the building and flew into the rain that she'd completely forgotten about. Ash moved past Rarity and began descending the stairs.
"Twilight has to come of course," he said, continuing his list.
"Where am I coming?" Twilight asked from downstairs, having heard Ash.
"Cloudsdale," Ash told her, reaching the ground floor, "There might be a Gem up there."
"I see," Twilight said. She walked over to a bookshelf with a thoughtful look and looked through it, eventually pulling out a book and opening it. "We'll need the cloud-walking spell then," she said, "Pegasi are the only ponies who can stand on clouds naturally. Who else is coming?"
"My team of course," Ash said, "assuming I can find them in this weather."
"Try Sugar Cube Corner," Twilight said, "they were headed that way a little while ago. Anypony else?"
"Rarity here," Ash said, pointing behind him at the white unicorn, "along with Rainbow Dash and maybe Fluttershy, but they won't need your spell. Nor will Gold Heart now that I think about it…" Twilight gave Rarity a surprised look, but didn't say anything to her.
"Right," she said, turning back to her reading, "After the rain clears I'll go see if the mayor will loan us the hot air balloon for the day. Meet me at the town square by the pavilion when you're ready."
"Right," Ash said, "better go get my crew then."
"Would you like some company?" Rarity asked as Ash headed for the door.
"I'll be fine," Ash said, a trace of annoyance creeping into his voice, "If I get lost, I'll just listen for the sounds of Pinkie Pie." He opened the door to reveal the pink earth pony herself standing just outside with an umbrella hat on. "Speak her name and she shall appear," Ash muttered in amazement.
"Hi Ashen Blaze," Pinkie said, her normal cheerfulness surprisingly subdued, "I've got a teensy-tiny favor to ask you."
"What?"
Pinkie took a big breath and launched into story at a rapid-fire pace to rival Apple Bloom's best, "You see, I was giving your friends a tour of Sugar Cube Corner and Gale looked at the taffy-pulling machine and went 'Ohmigosh can I try it?' and I said 'sure, have fun!' so she put some taffy in and turned it on and watched for a second before saying 'this is inefficient;' inefficient's a big word isn't it? Anyway! She found Mr. Cake's tools for fixing stuff and started taking the taffy-puller apart, although she was a bit clumsy with the screwdriver for a minute. She looked like she was having fun so I didn't want to stop her, but it's been a while and she hasn't put it back together right yet and we reeeally need to make more taffy soon because we're almost sold out!" She took several breaths and then asked, "Can you help?" at a more normal speed.
Ash blinked several times as he processed the story and then sighed and shook his head. "Sounds like Gale's entered her mechanic zone," he said, "I'll see what I can do Pinkie, but I can't promise much."
"Great!" Pinkie said, "Let's go!" She spun around, paused, and then spun around again and produced another umbrella hat from somewhere and placed it on Ash's head. "There we go!" she said, "You gotta stay dry!" With that, she spun around again and bounced off toward the bakery.
"Ok…" Ash said, looking askance at the hat as he followed Pinkie.
After the library door closed, Twilight turned to Rarity and asked the question that was burning in her mind, "Are you feeling ok Rarity?"
"Perfectly fine darling," Rarity said, surprised, "why do you ask?"
"Well," Twilight said, "ever since Ash and his friends showed up, you've been acting a little out of character. First you willingly went back down to the Diamond Dogs, then you followed us into the Forest without any reason beyond keeping us company, and then you took part in that fight with Tau'rin."
"You did as well," Rarity pointed out, "Unlike Fluttershy, I couldn't just fly away from there, so it was either help defeat that beast or just stand there in everypony's way."
"Ok," Twilight said slowly, "but, now you're going back to Cloudsdale, and eagerly. After what happened there last time, you said you'd keep your hooves on solid ground from then on. Why are you suddenly so casual about going to places that hold such bad experiences for you?"
"I've just moved on," Rarity said, "Sometimes you just have to get over yourself and give things another chance. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must prepare for our trip." She walked back upstairs as Twilight watched her with growing concern. There was something else making Rarity do these things, but Twilight couldn't quite put her hoof on it…
The storefront room of Sugar Cube Corner betrayed no signs of the chaos in the kitchen except for the strained expression on Mr. Cake's face, which relaxed only slightly when Pinkie Pie and Ashen Blaze entered the store. "We're back," Pinkie declared, "don't you worry Mr. Cake, we'll have that taffy machine back together in no time!"
"Hopefully," Ash added. Pinkie led him into the kitchen, which was a proper mess of machine parts with a brown earth pony in the middle of it all, hopping about on three legs with a pair of pliers in her mouth and a look of manic frustration in her eyes. Gale was hopping about because she'd taped a Philips-head screwdriver to one hoof in such a way as to prevent her from putting weight on it without putting holes in the floor. Soul Mage and Gold Heart were standing at the periphery of the mess with looks of defeat and embarrassment. They looked over as Pinkie bounced in with Ash following slowly in her wake.
"Hi Ash," Heart said.
"Hello," Ash replied, "What's the situation, beyond the obvious?"
"Gale's gone crazy," Soul said, "She keeps muttering about friction and mechanical inefficiencies and other stuff I can't understand thanks to that tool in her mouth. She won't respond to anything we say."
"Hmm," Ash said, watching Gale hop about, "Didn't her teacher have some sort of code-word or pet name he used to break her out of these states?"
"Kara Mello," Heart said with a nod, "we tried that, but it seems it was as much his voice as the words that did it. Neither of us can fake it well enough."
"Nor can I," Ash said, "I don't even remember what the old man's voice sounded like…" He sighed and approached the manic earth pony. "Gale," he said calmly, "What are you doing?"
"It's so inefficient,' Gale said, dropping the pliers, "I could hear it, all the rubbing metal and scraping… so much energy lost to heat…"
"Gale," Ash said, firmly but quietly, "It's a taffy-puller." Gale didn't respond as she continued hopping about, picking up a piece of metal only to drop it somewhere else. A thought occurred to Ash and he spoke again, "It's a taffy puller Gale, you don't need to overclock it."
"Overclock?" Gale said, stopping, "Overclo-" She stared at Ash like he'd just said the dumbest thing ever uttered by man or pony. "You don't… You can't overclock a taffy-puller!" she exclaimed.
"Then what do you do with it?" Ash responded hotly, narrowing one eye at Gale.
"I…" Gale said, stunned. Her jaw worked for several seconds, but no sound came out. Her eyes began wandering around, taking in the scene she was in the middle of as the mania drained out of them. "Oh… dear, what have I- ow!" She'd tried to bury her face in her hooves, only to jab herself with the screwdriver. Grimacing, she tore the tape off with her teeth and let the screwdriver drop to the ground. "Oh man," she groaned, "I've really done it now. This is what happens when I don't have my own gear to toy with." She spotted Pinkie and fell into a begging posture. "I'm so sorry Pinkie Pie," she said, "I can fix it, make it just the way it was. I promise!"
"Are you sure?" Pinkie asked solemnly.
"If she goes nuts again, just say the word 'overclock,'" Ash said with a grin. Gale shot him a sideways glance.
"You did that on purpose," she said, "You knew how stupid that statement was. Overclocking a taffy pulling machine? Really? Was I that out of it?"
"Eeyup," Soul said in a fair impression of Big Macintosh.
"I'm so pathetic," Gale moaned.
"Aw, it's ok," Pinkie said, "Everypony has bad days. I had a really bad one once, when I thought all my friends weren't my friends anymore, so I made new friends out of rocks, turnips, lint, and a bag of flour. And Gummy, but he's always my friend." A smile crept onto Gale's lips as she cast an odd look at the pink pony. She stood up and began taking stock of the damage she'd done.
"Well," she said, "At least I'll be used to working with hooves by the time I'm done with this."
"Any idea how long it'll take?" Ash asked, "Because I think we've got a lead on the Topaz."
"Where?" Soul asked as he and the girls looked attentively at Ash.
"Cloudsdale," Ash said.
"Oh, I love that city!" Pinkie said, and then her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "Don't taste the rainbows- they're reeeeealy spicy."
"I'll… keep that in mind," Ash said, "Anyway, we're leaving once the rain clears and Twilight gets a hot-air balloon prepped."
"I'd like to come," Gale said, "but don't bet on me being finished with this before then. I'll just be another body up there anyway; here I'm actually doing what I'm good at."
"All right, if you're sure," Ash said, and then turned toward Heart and Soul. "We'll meet at the town square. Shouldn't be too hard to find- just look for the big balloon."
"Ok," Soul said, "what are your plans in the meantime?"
"Uh…"
Soul walked over and threw a front leg around Ash's shoulder. "You're hanging with us then," he said, "And since I'd rather not go out in the rain, we're going to enjoy ourselves here."
"Woo hoo!" Pinkie shouted, rushing to the pantry, "Let's make muffins!"
