no_vampires_plz | Entries tagged with location: fluttershy's cottage

A mark of one's destiny, singled out alone, fulfilled...

Twilight gasps and pulls out of her friends' embrace. "Wait a second, that's it! I understand now. I know how to fix the spell!"

She doesn't bother trying to explain. She just gallops back to the library, with five very confused ponies following in her wake. She picks up Star Swirl the Bearded's notebook from where she left it on the table, summons a quill pen, and starts writing:

From all of us together, together we are friends.
With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end.
As she writes the final glyph, she can already feel power building. The Element stone on her tiara flares with a brilliant light, sending a pulse of magical energy through the room. The other Elements flare in response, each sending a beam of magic back toward Twilight. The sheer force of it leaves the ponies powerless to move--all they can do is stare in shock and confusion.

Twilight, surrounded by an increasingly powerful aura of magic, is likewise paralyzed and shocked--but only for a moment. It's okay, says a wordless voice inside her. This is meant to be. She closes her eyes, and waits for whatever is coming next.

The light increases to a blinding flash.

Then, abruptly, it's gone.

And so is Twilight.

===>

Twilight has been lying on her bed staring out the window for... well, Spike's not sure how long it's been. Too long, is what it's been. He has to do something to cheer her up.

"Come on, Twilight. You'll figure out a way to fix this." He gently lays a claw on the unicorn's shoulder. "These are your friends."

Twilight is silent for a long moment before she responds.

"You're right, Spike." She slides off of the bed and trots over to the mantelpiece, where an old photograph of Twilight and her six pony friends stands. "They mean more to me than anything. My friends..."

My friends...

Just thinking about them--everything they've done for her, everything they've done for each other--gives her a warm feeling inside. One that spreads through her whole body, radiating out of her like light, like magic...

"Twilight? Are you all right?" asks Spike, but Twilight barely hears him.

Everything they've done for me. Everything they've done for each other.

"I've got it!" Twilight's head snaps up. "I know what to do!"

"You do?"

Twilight grabs a jeweled chest off of a nearby shelf--the same jeweled chest that the Elements of Harmony were stored in back in Canterlot. "I may not be able to remind them of who they are," she says as she gallops down the stairs, "but I can show them what they mean to each other." She tosses five of the Elements into the chest and settles the tiara of the Element of Magic onto her own head. "They'll find the part of themselves that's been lost so they can help the friends they care about so much! Come on, Spike!"

Armed with magical artifacts and a newfound sense of hope, the unicorn and the dragon set out into the rainy afternoon.

Despite her misgivings, Twilight passed on Fluttershy's invitation to the rest of her pony friends. At six o'clock that evening, she, Spike, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie are all gathered on Fluttershy's front lawn.

"I can't believe we're having a dinner party with Discord," says Rainbow Dash.

"This evening is sure to be a disaster," agrees Rarity. She looks over her rhinestone-trimmed taffeta gown. "Glad I didn't bother wearing my fanciest outfit."

"Fluttershy thinks this is the way to reform Discord, and asked us to give it a chance," Twilight reminds them gently. Here's hoping she doesn't regret this.

...oh, who is she kidding? She knows she's going to regret this.

"She's really alright with him staying there?" remarks Rarity after Twilight comes out of the cottage.

"That's what she said," replies Twilight with a shrug. Not that she entirely believes it, but she's not about to second-guess Fluttershy's judgment... yet.

"Personally," says Rainbow Dash, "I think we should come up with a backup plan, in case this whole 'befriending' business doesn't work out."

"Rainbow Dash is right," says Rarity. "This is Discord we're talking about, girls. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have another trick up our sleeves."

Twilight smiles. "And I think I know just the trick..."

...well, Twilight wasn't lying. She thought she knew just the right spell to use on Discord as a backup plan. But finding it is proving to be harder than she anticipated.

"That's weird," she remarks to no one in particular as she pages through The Magic of Moods: Better Living Through Mind-Changing Spells. "The spell I had in mind isn't in here. Spike, where are the other books I asked you to pull?"

"Right here, Twilight." Spike is staggering under the weight of a stack of books twice his height.

Twilight levitates the stack out of Spike's hands and lifts them up in a circle around her, flipping through each one in rapid succession. "I really want to have a reforming spell up and running pronto."

"But what if he makes the Elements of Harmony disappear like he did last time?"

"Princess Celestia cast a spell protecting them, remember?" No reforming spell in Arcana Mens Mentis, none in 1,001 Extremely Useful Enchantments, none in Extremely Advanced Magic for Eggheads. Twilight swears she saw a reforming spell in that book just last week, but--

Wait a second.

Twilight drops all the books in alarm. "Uh oh..."

"What's wrong?" asks Spike.

"Princess Celestia didn't cast a spell protecting our books! Everywhere I thought I'd find the reforming spell..." Twilight picks up Extremely Advanced Magic for Eggheads again and fans out the pages. Sure enough, someone has torn a page out of the book.

And it doesn't take an egghead to figure out who.

The date of the Saddle Arabian ambassadors' arrival is fast approaching. Twilight thinks she has her magic routine all figured out, but she has yet to practice it with the other participants yet. Which is why she's visiting Fluttershy today.

"Don't be scared, little friends," Fluttershy reassures the dozen or so mice, bunnies, squirrels, raccoons, and beavers sitting in a half-circle in front of her. "Twilight is wonderful with magic." She turns to give Twilight a threatening look. "Anything happens to them, Twilight, so help me--"

"Aww, don't worry, Fluttershy," interjects Spike, gently pushing the pegasus back. "Twilight's magic has gotten a lot better since she accidentally crushed me and Applejack with a giant snowball."

Twilight cringes a little. You're not helping, Spike.

"Of course she's good with magic. Twilight's great with magic. I guess I just don't want my little friends to be scared--ohhh, look how scared they are!"

(That would be "not scared at all." They all look eager to get started, while Fluttershy is trembling and sweating through her pelt.)

Twilight lays a reassuring hoof on her friend's shoulder. "I promise, Fluttershy, nothing bad will happen to them."

"I know," Fluttershy squeaks through clenched teeth.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

"Your magic has really improved since we came to Ponyville, Twilight," remarks Spike. "Princess Celestia's gonna love it!"

"Thanks, Spike. I have to be at my best when she arrives with the delegates from Saddle Arabia. I can't believe she's trusting me with the entertainment!"

Before Spike can respond, he's interrupted by Rainbow Dash arriving in her usual manner: at lightning speed and crashing into someone. Specifically, Twilight.

"Twilight! Come quick! It's an emergency!"

Fluttershy's cottage is one of the few homes in Ponyville that isn't decked out for Nightmare Night. Twilight hopes that's an encouraging sign for Princess Luna, an indicator that her would-be helper doesn't buy into all this 'Nightmare Moon' nonsense.

"Don't worry, Princess," she says as she leads Luna up the path. "Fluttershy can give you some great pointers. She's delicate and demure, with the sweetest little voice."

Twilight steps up to the door and knocks three times with her forehoof.

[immediately following this thread]

Twilight doesn't gallop all the way back to Ponyville, but she doesn't slow down until the Everfree Forest is well and truly behind her. She doesn't go straight into town, though; she skirts around to the east, until she reaches the hollow oak tree in which Fluttershy makes her home.

She knocks one forehoof gently against the door. "Fluttershy? Are you there?"