Chapter 7: EleMENTAL

Every pony in the room...including Spike....gasped.

"Princess Luna." Twilight broke the silence. "What are you doing here?"

"Twilight Sparkle. I see all of Ponyville has started to prepare for the fast-spreading disease" Luna stepped inside and closed the door. "As for the 7th Element...yes, I know what you are speaking of."

A second round of gasps sounded.

Luna continued, "Whenever the 6 Elements of Harmony came into existence, a 7th was rumored to be found...but those were only rumors."

"There has to be some truth to it. Princess, when we tried to use the elements against the diseased ponies of Canterlot, the only thing it did was hurt their bodies, and not even enough to keep them down." Twilight spoke to her.

"That's strange, Celestia and I have never had that problem." Luna pondered.

"Princess Luna, if you don't mind me asking. What all do you know about this 7th element." Rarity stepped forward and asked.

"Well, from the rumors I heard. Ponies were saying that is wasn't...in sync...with the other 6. That it could work on it's own. but that it was more powerful combined with them. I had also heard that for a pony to use it, they didn't have to have a certain trait, such as the 6 that you all represent, but they had to be either pure good or pure evil."

"Well that doesn't sound too promising." Rainbow Dash said, landing in front of them. "What if one of the diseased ponies gets it?

"That's one thing....but how do we know they're pure evil?" Twilight asked.

"How could there be any good in them? Believe me, I know evil when I see it, and those ponies are it." Rainbow responded.

"If that's the case, then we need to act fast." Luna replied.

"Do you have any clue where this element might be?" Twilight asked.

"Last I heard, it was believed to be inside a cavern deep in the Ever Free Forest...but that cavern could be covered by now." Luna said.

"Could we possibly look up any news about this in the archives here in ponyville? Even if a lot of this is just rumors?"

"There might be some information there. I remember reporters writing about it in papers and magazines. We can always check." Luna stated.

"Now is a good time to go." Twilight turned to everyone else. "Will all of you stay here while I go to the archives with Princess Luna?"

"Of course we will, Twilight! We got your back!!" Pinkie shouted before any pony else could answer.

With that, Luna and Twilight made their way through Ponyville and to the main archives.

---

"You know, Derpy, you might want to get inside where it's safe, instead of being outside delivering mail"

The Blonde haired, gray pony turned around to see Ms. Cheerilee speaking to her. She was carrying bags of groceries and had a very concerned look on her face.

Derpy smiled. "Cheerilee, I gotta get these letters out to the ponies. What if one of them is really important. Thank you for being worried about me."

Cheerilee put on an understanding smile. "It's good you want to help the others, but take care of yourself too."

Derpy nodded. "I will, the other Pegasus ponies are looking over us, so I think we're ok for now."

"Well, be safe." Cheerilee said to her, nodded her goodbye, and trotted off.

Derpy went from house to house delivering mail for the ponies, as far as she was concerned, she could be eaten alive...but as long as she had made sure to help every pony, then that wouldn't matter. After finishing her rounds, she made her way home.

She walked through the living room and into her kitchen where she was about to cook dinner, when she heard a noise.

She turned around. "Hello?"

Her front door opened and slammed shut. Derpy backed into one of the counters, knocking a few bowls down onto her head.

Steps were heard coming toward her, she did the only thing she could think of. She opened one of the larger cabinets and squeezed herself inside, shutting the door and holding it.

"Derpy..." A small voice called her name, it sounded almost like a weak cry for help.

Scared out of her mind, Derpy held the door even tighter, hoping the creature would go away.

"Derpy, I need your help..."

The voice was beginning to sound familiar. Familiar but distorted. Her grasp on the door relaxed slightly.

"D-Dinky?" Derpy spoke softly.

"Derpy, please..." The small voice became more frantic.

Derpy opened the door and saw the poor little unicorn filly laying on the floor of her kitchen, panting.

"Dinky? What happened?" Derpy approached her, trying to lift her up, "What's wrong?"

"It's the...the..."

Suddenly, Dinky's eyes began to bleed as her breathing grew more rapid.

Derpy might have been slow, but she wasn't stupid. "Dinky...it's the infection isn't it? We gotta take you to a doctor."

"No, Derpy. I can't infect them too.."

"But...I have to do something."

"Take me out of the city, put me outside the walls so I can't hurt anyone here..." Dinky hacked, her skin was getting warmer by the minute. Sweat drops poured from her mane just as blood droplets poured from her eyes.

Derpy contemplated. Dinky was like a daughter to her, she couldn't just abandon her.

"Derpy, please...I can't...I can't..."

Dinky let out an earth shattering groan that worked it's way from her stomach and up through her esophagus. her eyes popped open, brimming with red and devoid of the friendliness they once held.

"Dinky..."

The small filly jumped from her arms and faced her, her back arched and her face narrowed.

"You should have listened..."

---

"Fluttershy." AppleJack walked over to Fluttershy as she laid on Twilight's bed, staring out the window. "Something the matter?"

Fluttershy looked to her orange pony friend. "I'm worried."

"Well, sugarcube, we're all worried." AJ spoke calmly to her, sitting next to her. "But we gotta stay strong. We're all in this together."

"You think they'll find anything about the element?" She asked.

AJ contemplated. "Possibly, the Ponyville archives has a large amount of books from what I know, and I figure many of them deal with history...." Her thoughts traveled off.

"I'm sure they'll find out something, Darling." Rarity reassured the two ponies. "With princess Luna here, we have an even greater chance of stopping this thing."

There was a twist of the knob on the front door and in came Twilight and Luna, holding a scroll, smiles beaming on their faces.

All the ponies rushed to them, asking questions at once about what they found.

"Calm down, calm down everypony. Let's not get too excited, we have work to do. Gather your things and let's head out to the Ever Free forest." Twilight announced.

"Oh, um...maybe I should stay here, with the animals." Fluttershy proposed.

"Fluttershy, we need you, what if this element doesn't work unless we are all there?" Twilight pleaded.

Fluttershy sighed and nodded.

Each pony began to pack necessities needed for the journey. They were all very eager to find the element and stop this virus. So many ponies had already been killed or turned into monsters, they couldn't risk this happening to any pony else.

So with the lives of every pony in their hands, they gathered their things and began their trek to the Ever Free forest.

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Author's Note:

I know a lot of the fandom portrays Derpy as being a single mom to Dinky, but I didn't want to start anything...and I didn't feel comfortable portraying Derpy as a complete mess up lol :) Thanks for reading, I'm so happy that I have fans of this story!