Chapter 18: Sometimes the Brightest Lights…
Hill near Ponyville
Local time: 2300
One month, ten days since arrival
Luna and I sat on the hill staring at the silver breastplate that appeared on my chest. I carefully raised my hoof and tapped on it hoping it didn't explode. I didn't have the best record with things on my chest that I didn't put there. After the shock wore off and I was certain it wasn't going to explode I slowly sat up and asked the question we were both thinking. "Uh, Luna… what is it?"
"I don't know Steel." We looked at each other then back at the armor. "I don't know what it is but maybe Tia knows." She got up and started to walk back toward Ponyville, but I stayed where I was. When she realized I wasn't following her she walked back to me. "Aren't you coming?"
"No, no no no, I'm not moving. The last thing I need is for something to happen because I moved. You go to the library and have Spike send a letter to your sister or go get her yourself, I don't care. While you get her here I'm going to stay right here, and not move." She looked unsure, trying to decide if she should leave me alone. I smiled trying to get her to go and at the same time attempting to hide my fear. She still looked unsure about leaving me, but she flew towards Ponyville anyway. As she flew away there was only one thought going thru my head, "Oh my God, this is it. I'm going to die… again." As I waited for Luna to return I stared at the moon and attempted to keep my fear in check.
POV change: Luna
As I flew towards the Ponyville Library I kept thinking about what happened and how scared Steel seamed. "What's going on? One minute everything is fine, then we kissed and there was that bright flash. Now Steel has weird silver armor on him and he's afraid of it causing something bad to happen." Because of all these thoughts going through my head, I forgot I could have just teleported there. When I arrived at the library, I was so focused on what happened and Steel's well being I forgot about the door and crashed through a window. This caused Spike, who was in the room, to emit a girly scream and cause Twilight to come running into the room. I think she asked me what was going on, but I was too focused on writing a letter to Tia. After I wrote it, I hoofed it to Spike, "Send it to my sister." It looked like Twilight was going to say something when there was the flash of a teleportation spell. After the light died down, I saw Tia standing there, "Luna, what happened?"
"I don't know, me and Steel were enjoying a picnic and then we… and a bright flash…" By now I was crying and Tia pulled me into a hug. After a few minutes she spoke up, "We need to go. I need to see what happened to Steel." As I left the library, through the door this time, and flew to where I left Steel thought I heard Spike say something about cleaning, but I was too worried about Steel to care. When I got back to Steel I saw Tia was already there. "Tia how did you… teleportation." I face hoofed when I realized I could have just teleported here like she did.
POV change: Steel
"Now that we're all here, can somepony explain what's going on? I'd rather not die because of this thing." Celestia walked over to me, I was about to tell her to stay back when she raised a hoof telling me to be quiet. As she looked over every part of the breastplate, I stated to get worried that whatever it does would happen while Celestia is standing next to me. Suddenly she looked at me and smiled, "Steel you can get up, if I'm right you have nothing to worry about."
"Are you sure?" She nodded, "Could you two back up anyway? I don't want to take any chances." The princesses moved back to a safe distance and I slowly stood up to make sure nothing would happen I walked in every direction, used magic, and flew around a little. Once I was sure nothing would happen, I approached them, "Well since I'm not dead yet, can you tell me what this is and what's going on." I looked at Celestia, she clearly she knew something Luna and I didn't.
"Maybe, come to the castle tomorrow, I need to do some research. And bring Twilight and her friends. If I'm right they should know about this, too. Luna, you can take Steel home now."
Between Ponyville and Canterlot
Local time: 1400
One month, eleven days since arrival
Just like Celestia had asked, I was on my way to the castle with Twilight and the others. Luna had left sometime last night. I put on my poncho in an attempt to hide the armor since I was afraid something would happen if I tried to take it off. The girls were talking to each other while I looked out the window. "So Steel, do ya have any idea why the princess wants to see us?"
"Uh, no…" She looked at me, damn her. "Ok, what's goin' on sugercube? Ya look extremely nervous and ya just lied to us." I tried to think of an excuse, but Pinkie saw something shiny under my poncho. Immediately, she tackled me to the ground and tore off my poncho while repeatedly saying 'shiny'. As soon as my poncho was removed I heard the girls, minus Pinkie, gasp. Pinkie was probably distracted by how shiny it was to care what it was. "Darling, where did you get such a magnificent peace of armor? The design is incredible and it has one of those bullets from your cutie mark." I got up grabbed my poncho, put it back on and moved to the other side of the train car.
"That's the problem, I don't know how I got it. Luna and I were enjoying a picnic, some things happened, and it just appeared on my chest. I don't know what it is, I don't know if it's dangerous. All I know is that Celestia might know something and she wanted you to be there with me when she tells me what she knows." Everypony was silent until Rarity spoke up. "So Steel, what exactly happened on your picnic with Princess Luna?"
I scratched the back of my neck nervously and blushed slightly, "Uh… nothing important." She was stunned, "Nothing important?! You were on a date with Princess Luna, how is anything not important?!" Now everypony was looking at me with socked expressions and their mouths open. I'm not sure if they were shocked that I didn't think my date with Luna was that important or if it was because of how Rarity reacted. "Nothing really happened." Dash must have noticed my blush that was getting more intense every second, "Really? Then what did you two do that would cause you to blush when you think about it?" My cheeks must have looked like a tomato by now. Luckily before I had to come up with a response, the train pulled into Caterlot's station. Once we were off the train, we headed to the castle. At the gates to the castle some guards escorted us to the princesses. I noticed they weren't taking us to the throne room where, to my knowledge, the princesses usually tend to their royal duties. The guards lead us to a large room with multiple stained glass windows depicting historical event, some I recognized, others I didn't. On the other side of the room Celestia and Luna stood with the Elements of Harmony. We approached them and bowed, just because we know them doesn't mean we shouldn't give them the same respect everypony else does. I stepped forward and my left hind leg was slightly shaking. "Thank you all for coming. Steel where is the armor?" asked Celestia. I took of my poncho, "Ah, any reason you didn't take it off?"
"Well I didn't want to accidentally level Ponyville when I did. I was hoping you and Luna could put a shield over me while I take it off in case it explodes or something." Celestia sighed, "That won't happen, it's an Element of Harmony and therefore unable to cause harm to anypony. Why do you keep thinking its going to explode?" Twilight and the other stared at her, mouths agape, while my brain attempted to make sense of what my ears heard. "Well the last tim- wait, what?!" We sat there unable to comprehend what she just said. Twilight was the first to recover, "But how, there are only six Elements of Harmony."
"No, there were more Elements of Harmony, but over time the rest have been destroyed or lost. Last night I looked for any information regarding another Element of Harmony, I didn't find much, but I did find two historical records from the time discord ruled and a prophecy. The first historical record states that there were originally hundreds of Elements of Harmony, but after Luna and I found the first one Discord was made aware of their existence. He traveled the land trying to find as many as he could and destroyed them. The second record says that a group of ponies who wanted to end Discord's rule went out and looked for them as well, they found some, though the actual number they found was not written. It also says the ponies hid them somewhere since they knew they wouldn't be able to handle the power of the Elements of Harmony." Celestia gave us a minute to contemplate what she said before continuing. "The prophecy was made after Nightmare Moon's imprisonment on the moon by Starswirl the Breaded. The prophecy says 'When the Elements are recovered they will stop the nightmare, chaos, and shape shifters. Than a stranger from a strange land will come and will rediscover another Element of Harmony, but for every light there must be a shadow and vice versa.' The prophecy is quite clear, however I do not know what the last two words mean."
"Those words are from a language from my planet, I have no idea why it would be written here." I said, "I don't know the exact translation but I know what it means. The prophecy said 'for every light there is a shadow and vice versa.' If you use vice versa correctly the prophecy would then read, for every light there is a shadow and for every shadow there is a light." Once I had finished speaking the girls started asking questions all at once but I stayed silent. "Calm down my little ponies." Luna noticed I wasn't saying anything. "Steel, are you ok? You're very quiet." I walked over to one of the windows and looked out at the city. "I'm sorry everypony, I never should have come here, I've doomed you all." They all looked at me confused, "What are you talking about Steel?" said Twilight. "Discovering another Element of Harmony is a good thing."
"That's not what I'm talking about. It's the last line of the prophecy, 'but for every light there is a shadow." By awakening this element I have set in motion a chain of events that will create a new evil here." Luna walked over to me and wrapped one of her wings around me. "It's ok Steel, I'm sure it's nothing the elements can't handle. Besides, I think I speak for everypony when I say that we would rather have you as a friend and face this new threat than have never met you at all." They all nodded in agreement. I half heartedly smiled, happy that they care about our friendship this much and saddened that my presence here has created a new evil. I turned to Celestia and asked the question that has been on my mind since I found out this breastplate was an Element of Harmony. "Is there any way to tell what element this is?"
"From my research I believe this is the element of courage." This caught me off guard, "If it's the element of courage, how did I awaken it? I wasn't doing anything courageous at the time."
"The Elements of Harmony cannot be wielded by somepony who does not have harmony in themselves, your mind was in a state of discord with your heart saying one thing and your mind saying another." I was about to ask how she knew about my inner struggle when she continued. "As soon as Cadence heard what happened she came to see me. I told her what I discovered and she told me about your struggle with your feelings toward Luna. Personally, I don't see how you thought you weren't good enough to date my sister, but this is a discussion for another time. After what happened on your picnic, you were in harmony within yourself. The element revealed itself to you since you had already shown your bravery on many occasions, including the time you saved me and Luna from those assassins, not to mention the other two times you saved Luna's life." I blushed a little and the girls looked at me expectantly when the picnic was mentioned. "I believe you awakened your element when you save our lives, but couldn't wield it at that time. Steel, I must ask you to leave it here. We can't risk somepony trying to steal it." I nodded in agreement and began to take it off. "Celestia, any reason my element is silver while the girls' elements are gold?"
She only shrugged as I hoofed her my element. "I don't know, I've know about the elements for along time and I still don't completely understand them. Perhaps mares get gold and stallions get silver, I honestly don't know." She locked all seven elements in the vault, "It's getting late, I'll have some rooms prepared for you. Now if you'll follow me, I'm sure you're all hungry." As if on command, seven stomachs growled at the same time. Luna blushed while we all laughed. I wasn't surprised Pinkie's stomach didn't growl, I've given up trying to understand her. She could probably live under water for a year without air and it wouldn't surprise me. After we ate, we were lead to our rooms and coincidentally I was in the same room I stayed in after the failed assassination attempt. I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow
POV change: Luna
I walked into Tia's room and saw that she was asleep. I began to wake her up knowing that she doesn't like to be disturbed when she sleeps. Her eyes slowly opened and she and an irritated expression on her face. "What is it, Luna?"
"It's Steel. I was making sure everypony was sleeping peacefully, as is my duty, but when I tried to enter his dream I couldn't. I went to check on him and he was tossing and turning in his bed. I think he's having another nightmare." I paused for a minute to consider what I was going to say. "I think we should enter his mind. If we can find the source of these nightmares perhaps we can end them." She nodded and slowly stood up. Once we got to Steel's room, we moved to the sides of his bed and Tia preformed a spell so we could enter his mind.
Once we were in his mind, we looked around. We appeared to be in some sort of graveyard. "This looks similar to the nightmare he had a week ago. If I'm right he should be around here…" I didn't get to finish my thought because we saw Steel running away from everypony that died under his command. "Tia, I have an idea. Put a barrier in front of Steel." While she did that I put up a barrier on his left and another on his right, effectively trapping him. When he ran into the barrier, he was confused and tried to run in the other two directions. When he realized he was trapped he began to hit one of the barriers trying to break it down. "I hope you know what you are doing, Luna."
"If I'm right the only way to end these nightmares is for Steel to face them." As the 'zombies' got closer, Steel began to hit the barrier with more force. The closer they got, the more he began to panic and I could here them asking, "Why?" Eventually, Steel gave up trying to break through the barrier. He got into a fighting stance and readied a spell. I even think I heard him whisper, "I'm sorry."
When they were a few feet from him, they stopped. "Why?" they asked, "Why do you blame yourself?" This question caught Steel off guard, "There was nothing else you could have done." I looked at Steel and saw tears starting to form in his eyes. "There must have been something…" he replied. Seeing that our work was done, we walked to a spot far enough away that Steel wouldn't notice us leaving. As my vision became blurry, signaling that I was returning to reality, I thought I saw a white alicorn with a golden mane watching Steel with a smile on his face, but when I blinked, he was gone.
I saw Tia walking out of Steel's room, most likely to go back to sleep, and decided it was time to return to my room. I looked back at Steel and saw that he seamed to be sleeping peacefully. I walked across the hall to my room and continued my duties.
Canterlot Castle, Canterlot
Local time: 0800
One month, twelve days since arrival
I woke up the next morning to the sound of somepony knocking on my door. I slowly got out of bed and walked to the door. I opened it enough to see through, and when I saw Steel standing there I opened it fully. "Good morning, Steel."
"Good morning, Luna. I wanted to thank you for what you did last night. I didn't see you, but I had a feeling you were there, so thank you." I smiled, "Now, everypony else is at the dinning hall, would you care to join us?" I went back into my room put on my royal regalia, quickly brushed my mane, and rejoined Steel. "I'm ready." He chuckled at my response and we walked to the dinning hall.
POV change: Steel
After breakfast the princesses prepared some chariots for us and we set off for Ponyville. The chariots dropped us off at my place, so I said goodbye to eveypony and walked inside. Unfortunately for me, today was my designated cleaning day. Since it gets dusty and dirty in every home, I have one day every two weeks to clean my place. After cleaning for a while, I realized I had spent a good three hours cleaning. Deciding that I didn't want to do anything too exhausting for the rest of the day, I decided to go over to the library and get a book on magic. Since I no longer had somepony teaching me, I haven't learned anything new and have just been practicing what I already know. When I walked into the library, I saw Twilight panicking about something. She kept pacing in circles and didn't even know I was there until I stepped in front of her. "Uh, are you alright, Twilight?"
"No, I am not alright. I promised Applejack that I would help her today, but I also need to get some things from Zecora. I don't have time to do both." For somepony so smart, she has problems seeing obvious answers. "Can't you just go to Zecora's tomorrow?" She finnaly stopped pacing and looked at me. "No, Zecora is going on a trip and she's leaving tomorrow. I've already planed the rest of the week and I don't have time to help Applejack." Forget what I said before. Good thing I have a plan.
"Don't worry, I can go get the stuff from Zecora. I'll just need a list and directions." She ran up to me and gave me a hug. A few minutes later I had a map and the list of things Twilight needed and started walking to Zecora's.
POV change: Twilight
Thirty minutes later…
"Thanks for yer hel,p Twi," said Applejack who was admiring her now organized barn. "Ah don't remember the last time it was this organized."
"You're welcome, anything to help a friend." Suddenly the doors to the barn flew open, subsequently hitting the wall hard and knocking lose many of the things the girls had just put away. Spike came running into the barn out of breath. "Twilight, a message from the princess." He gave her the scroll and she began to read it.
Twilight,
I need you and your friends, including Steel, to gather at the library. I'm sending a chariot to pick you up and bring you to Canterlot
Princess Celestia
"Applejack, go get Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. I'll get Rarity and Pinkie. Spike, go back to the library."
POV change: Steel
As I walked back from Zecora's hut with Twilights supplies, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I then remembered I was wearing my forest camouflage poncho, which covers everything except my legs and head, and that the inhabitants of the forest aren't too smart. As I continued to walk, I saw something move in the bushes to my left and when I turned in that direction I saw it. It was a griffin, it looked exactly like the griffins that tried to assassinate the princesses, but it had a cast on its leg, "The one that got away." I looked at it and it looked back at me. Suddenly, it unfolded it wings and shot into the sky, I dropped Twilights supplies, the answers I planed on getting from the griffin were more important, and took off after it. It led me deeper into the forest towards where the ruins of the castle were, if I remember correctly. For a minute, I lost sight of it over the castle ruins and just as I was about to give up I saw it through what used to be a window. Flew through the window and started to search the room for it. I felt a gust of wind behind me so I turned around expecting to see the griffin, instead I saw what I can only describe as a ball of darkness a few inches from my face. Without any time to react, it impacted me and it felt like my body was ripping itself apart and I lost consciousness.
POV change: Luna
Tia and I were waiting in the throne room for Twilight, Steel, and the others. "What's taking them so long, Tia? Do you think they were attacked?" Before she could say anything, Twilight and her friends entered the room, but Steel wasn't with them. "Sorry we're late princess, we were waiting for Steel." I looked at my sister and saw that she had the same worried expression I did. "And where is Steel?"
"He was doing me a favor and went to get some supplies from Zecora. We waited for awhile when the chariot arrived, but he still wasn't back. I told Spike to tell Steel to teleport here when he gets back." I looked a Tia not really wanting to know the answer to the question I was about to ask. "Tia you don't think…" She levitated the Elements of Harmony to their respective wielders and put Steel's in a saddle bag, which she put on her back.
"We need to return to Ponyville and find Steel." They all started to look worried and were about to ask what was going on when she continued. "Griffins similar to the ones that attacked me and Luna were seen near Ponyville. We need to make sure Steel is okay. Get close to me. I'm going to teleport us to the library." They got around her and they disappeared in a flash and I followed with my own teleportation spell. "Tia, I think it would be best if we split up into two groups." She nodded in agreement; we split up and began searching all over Ponyville for him.
POV change: Steel
"Uh…" When I opened my eyes my vision was blurry. Once my vision returned, I noticed I was in some sort of cell. I also quickly discovered I was chained to the wall. "Good you're awake. Now we can begin." I couldn't see the owner of the voice since they were in the shadows. But once the stepped into the light, my jaw dropped. He was an alicorn with a black coat, a blood red mane and tail, and he had red eyes. "Who are you?" He began to laugh manically and a feeling of dread started to settle in my mind.
"Who am I… who am I! Well, I don't have a name, but since I used your genetic material to make myself a body so I guess I should give you some credit. You can call me Shadow Steel. You should remember this day for when I rule Equestria and free my master. You can tell other ponies that you made it all happen." Using his self confidence to my advantage and attempted to get information from him. "Really? Who is your master?"
"Discord. When he ruled Equestria, he started to create me, but he was entombed in stone before he could make me a body. I used most of my energy to escape from the princess so I fell into a hibernation-like state. And when my master escaped a few months ago, his excess energy revived me. With how powerful I am now, I can tap into my master's chaotic energy even though he's encased in stone." Even imprisoned, Discord can still cause problems. "So how do you plan on getting rid of the princesses? They're not just going to give you control of Eqiestria." He started laughing again, "You must think I'm an idiot, I know your trying to get information from me." Knowing I wouldn't get any more info from him, I tried to escape. "Don't bother you won't get escape. Besides why would you want to escape? Your friends will be here soon. When they find you, they will wish they hadn't." Before I could ask what he meant, he began to change and after a few seconds, an exact replica of me stood there. Then it clicked. He was going to impersonate me to get close to the princesses and kill them. "I've got some time to kill before they get here so… why don't we play a game?" He had a crazed look in his eyes and levitated a knife in front of me. I didn't know what he was planning, but I knew it would hurt.
Important Notices:
1) I know many people don't like reading stories where somepony becomes a seventh Element of Harmony, but in my story it's just a formality. The Elements of Harmony have been involved in every major event in Equestrian history. Steel becoming an element was just to indicate the severity of the following events, him being an element will not play a major role in the story.
2) I would like to thank SpitfireUSN for his help creating a better cover for the story. If anyone else is interested in making a cover, PM me.