Spell 63: The Stallion in the Sun

Dusk Shine and Barbra were being flown to Ponyville by two royal guards pulling a chariot. “So why did Prince Artemus send us to Ponyville, again?” Barbra asked.

“He sent us here so I could make friends,” Dusk Shine replied. “Oh! He also wants me to oversee the preparations for the Winter Moon Festival.”

“But what about the Stallion in the Sun?”

“I’m here for that too.”

Barbra just sat there in silence for a moment, trying to figure out how all three of those things that Dusk Shine just mentioned go together. “Are you sure you’ve fully recovered from that hit you took last night?”

“I have no idea. Hey, we’re here already here.” The chariot landed and Dusk Shine hopped out with Barbra on his back. “Now, let’s get started. We have about five hours to do this and we need to do this right. Ah, and our first task reveals himself.” Just as Dusk Shine said this, a pink stallion with a curly hot pink mane trotted his way. He was sure this was Pinkie Pie. “Hi there,” he said to the pink stallion. The stallion stared back for a moment, but then leapt up into the air, let out a huge gasp, and dashed off in the other direction. “Well, that’s taken care of. Now, if I remember right, I first checked on the preparations for the feast. Let’s go, Barbra.” Dusk Shine then galloped over to Sweet Apple Acres where he expected to see Applejack, meet her entire family, and somehow get sucked into the largest brunch of his life.

He checked on the feast, placed in the control of a stallion named Caramel Apple, who was apparently the equivalent of Applejack. And once again, Dusk Shine could not avoid meeting the entire family and eating more pies than he ever thought possible. After that, he went to check on the weather, which was placed under the control of a stallion named Rainbow Blitz, who wasn’t too hard to recognize as Rainbow Dash. Just for fun, Dusk Shine once again challenged him to clear the sky of all the clouds in 10 seconds flat. Of course, Rainbow Blitz had the exact same skills as Rainbow Dash and cleared the sky in exactly 10 seconds. Later, Dusk Shine went to check on the decorations, placed under the control of Elusive, a stallion who shared the same love of fashion and detail as Rarity. Once again, Dusk Shine was thrown into several crazy dresses and outfits before he actually got to talk to Elusive.

Finally, it was time to talk to Fluttershy about the bird chorus that was going to sing Prince Artemus in. Dusk Shine knew this in particular would be a challenge, but he certainly wasn’t ready for the curveball that was about to be thrown at him. The stallion version of Fluttershy was nowhere to be found. Dusk Shine and Barbra searched everywhere, but they couldn’t find him. Dusk Shine was on the verge of panic when he heard some bushes rustling around a tree. “Hello?” Dusk Shine called. “Is anypony there?”

“Go away!” a quiet voice shouted. (Don’t ask me how that works.) “Keep your dragon away from me!”

“But she isn’t a full grown dragon, she’s a baby dragon.” This instantly got the yellow stallion dashing out of the bush right up to Barbra.

“Wow!” the stallion shouted. “I’ve never seen a baby dragon before! What’s your name?”

“My name’s Barbra,” the baby dragon replied.

“Ahem,” Dusk Shine said from behind the stallion.

“Oh! Where are my manners? I’m Butterscotch. What’s your name?”

“I’m Dusk Shine, and-” Dusk Shine was cut off when he saw that Butterscotch had turned back to Barbra and had completely ignored Dusk Shine’s existance once again. “Ugh, i should have seen this coming. Hop on, Barbra. We need to get back to the library.” Barbra did as she was instructed and got on Dusk Shine’s back. The two then made their way back to the library with Butterscotch following and listening to Barbra’s life story, which was pretty much the exact same as Spike’s.

At long last, Dusk Shine made it to the library with about two hours to spare before nightfall. “Phew,” Dusk Shine said as he walked up to the door. “What a day. At least I can get some rest before the big moment, tonight. Come on, Barbra.” Dusk Shine then trotted inside with Barbra on his back. When he went inside, however, all the lights were off. “Why are all the lights off?” Dusk Shine asked himself. “Uh oh. I remember why the lights are off!”

“SURPRISE!” a voice shouted as all the lights came on and the mass of ponies was revealed in the library. Dusk Shine was instantly knocked onto his back.

“Oh, right,” Dusk Shine said to himself. “Pinkie.”

“Hey there, new pony,” a pink stallion said, appearing before Dusk Shine. “I’m Bubble Berry. You said ‘hi’ to me earlier today but i didn't know who you were and that shocked me because I know everypony here in Ponyville and if I didn’t know you that must have meant that you were new to town and if you’re new to town then you must not have any friends and I thought about how lonely you must have felt so I got this amazing idea to throw a party here and invite everypony in town so you could make tons of new friends!” As Bubble Berry took a deep breath, Dusk Shine walked over to the drink table. “So what’s your name?”

“I’m Dusk Shine,” Dusk replied, pouring a drink. “It’s nice to meet you.” Just then, Caramel Apple, Rainbow Blitz, Elusive, and Butterscotch came up behind Bubble Berry. “Good to see all of you, too.”

“Glad to see ya again, Dusk,” Caramel said. “How are you liking Ponyville, so far?”

“It isn’t bad,” Dusk Shine said, about to take a sip of her drink. However, he stopped himself just before the glass touched his lips. “Wait a second...” he said to himself, levetating the bottle he poured his drink from. “‘Extra Spicy Hot Sauce.’ Somepony tell me what that’s doing on the drink table.” He then looked over at Rainbow Blitz, who was whistling and pretending nothing was going on.

“Ooh!” Bubble Berry said. “Sounds super yummy!” He then knocked Dusk Shine out of the way and took several big gulps from the bottle.

“Pinkie Pie,” Dusk said to himself, “you are SO random.”

“Who’s this ‘Pinkie Pie’ you’re talking about, Dusk Shine?” Elusive asked.

“Nopony. Hey, shouldn’t we be at town hall to watch Prince Artemus raise the moon?”

Bubble Berry finished the hot sauce and turned to Dusk Shine. “Of course we should!” he said. “But we still have about two hours before then, so let’s keep this party going!”

“All right, fine,” Dusk Shine said. “Hey, where’s Barbra?” He then turned around to see his baby dragon still talking to Butterscotch. He was about to go over to get Barbra so the two could get going, but then he decided that he made the mistake of missing his first party with Pinkie Pie and he couldn’t afford to miss this chance to party with Bubble Berry, so he left Barbra alone and went over to party with the others. For the first time in a long time, Dusk Shine actually enjoyed himself.

After about an hour of partying, everypony made their way to the town hall where Prince Artemus was going to be. Dusk Shine took his spot in the front row with Barbra on his back and waited patiently for Nightmare Moon or whoever to appear. “Dusk Shine,” Barbra said, seeming to surprise Dusk Shine.

“What, Barbra?” Dusk replied.

“You haven’t been quite yourself, lately, and now you seem as distant as ever. Is there a problem?”

“Not at all. I’m just... excited, I guess.” Just as he said this, the mayor came up and did her speech before introducing Prince Artemus so he could raise the moon.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” the mayor said, “please welcome... Prince Artemus!” The curtain raised and Butterscotch’s bird choir sang their song, but Prince Artemus wasn’t there.

Elusive went to check on Artemus, but came back with only two words. “He’s gone!” A collective gasp overtook the crowd of ponies in attendance, including Barbra, but Dusk Shine was the only one not entirely impacted.

“Okay,” Dusk said to himself. “Here we go, just like last time.” Only it wasn’t like last time. Instead of dark smoke, the balcony where Artemus would have been erupted into flames. The ponies in the crowd began screamming and galloping all over the place in panic.

“What’s going on, Dusk Shine?” Barbra shouted.

“I don’t know,” Dusk replied. That’s when the flames began to die down and standing in the middle of them all was an alicorn who looked similar to Nightmare Moon, only his coat was orange-ish white, armor a screaming red, and mane looking like a fire, itself. “Oh, boy,” Dusk Shine said quietly to himeslf.

“Greeting my subjects,” the alicorn said to the crowd. “It truly has been a while.”

“Who are you?” shouted Rainbow Blitz. “What have you done with Prince Artemus?” He tried to fly up to attack the alicorn, but Caramel Apple bit Blitz’s tail and pulled the angry pegasus back.

“You mean you don’t recognize your true king of the sun?”

That’s when Dusk Shine decided it was time to speak up. “I know who you are,” he shouted, followed by a collective gasp from the crowd. “Almost nopony here knows, but I do. You’re the Stallion in the Sun, Solar Flare!”

“Ah, you are a very well educated pony indeed... Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wha-? How do you know... What?”

“You think being sealed away in the sun keeps me from knowing what goes on in this world? In your world?” Dusk Shine just stood there, trying to make himself as small as possible while everypony in the building stared at him. “Now then... do you still think you know what I’m here to do?”

“I... uh...” Dusk Shine stammered, everypony still watching him.

“I’m here to bring eternal sun and burn Equestrion to ashes!” (Yes, that’s what I’m calling the stallion world.) “And when this world burns, I’ll burn your world, as well!” Solar Flare laughed evily and disappeared in a roar of fire.

“Dusk Shine,” Barbra called, breaking Dusk Shine out of a daze. “Dusk Shine, I think we need to get out of here.”

“You’re right, Barbra,” Dusk Shine replied. He then galloped out of the building towards the library.

Later at the library, Dusk Shine and Barbra were frantically searching for the reference guide for the Elements of Harmony. They were searching in general silence for a while, but then Barbra broke the silence. “Whas what Solar Flare said true, Dusk Shine?” she asked. “Are you really from a different dimension?”

“In a way,” Dusk Shine replied, “both yes and no. Technically, I’m still the old Dusk Shine that you knew for however long, but I have the mind of a pony from another dimension called Twilight Sparkle. In my dimension, I’m an alicorn, but the events of this dimension are slightly delayed in comparison to my own, so obviously, Dusk Shine isn’t an alicorn, himself.”

“Wow. How’d you even wind up here, then?”

“And just who exactly are you?” Rainbow Blitz asked flying in right in Dusk Shine’s face. “Because you obviously aren’t who you say you are. Are you some kind of spy for Red Team- I mean, Solar Flare?” (I don’t play tf2, I just thought that would be funny.)

Caramel Apple grabbed Rainbow Blitz’s tail and pulled him back. “Now calm down there, Blitz,” Caramel said, “He ain’t no spy, but he does, indeed know something we don’t.” Caramel and the others closed in on Dusk Shine, cornering the unicorn.

“Okay,” Dusk Shine finally said. “I’ll explain what I can, but there are a lot of things that are different from what I expected. First, help me find the book on the Elements of Harmony.”

“Is this it?” Bubble Berry called from the other side of the library, holding the exact book Dusk Shine was looking for.

“Yes, that’s it. Exactly like my old friend, Pinkie Pie.” Dusk Shine levitated the book in front of him and flipped through the pages, finally stopping on one. “Okay, what I know is that there are six Elements, and each of us are destined to wield one. Caramel Apple, element of honesty. Butterscotch, element of kindness. Bubble Berry, element of laughter. Elusive, element of generosity. Rainbow Blitz, element of loyalty. The book doesn’t say what the sixth element is, but I know what it is. My own element, the element of Magic. When we unite the Elements of Harmony, we can defeat Solar Flare and return him to his old self.”

“Okay,” Elusive said, “but where exactly are these Elements of Harmony?”

Dusk Shine flipped through the pages to try to find where they were located. He knew that at first, the Elements were in the Everfree Forest, but with all that’s gone wrong in this world, he wanted to make sure. At last, Dusk found where the Elements were located and gasped in horror. “You guys aren’t going to like this,” he said to the others. “because I sure as hay don’t. The Elements of Harmony are hidden deep within... Violent Volcano Fields.”

The six stallions and Barbara stood before Violent Volcano Fields, a massive sea of lava and volcanoes that just screamed ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here.’ Oh, Twilight, Dusk Shine thought to himself, what have you gotten into, this time?