"Applebloom! You alright?" Babs asked, sliding down from the back of an Ursa Minor's corpse, followed closely by Spitfire.

"What happened?" Spitfire demanded, the Wonderbolt captain seething at the lack of discipline.

"Sweetie suddenly separated, and then she went down the cliff" Applebloom replied, her avatar disappearing and making her fall face first into the mud.

"She abandoned you and ran in the face of the enemy?" Spitfire hissed, trying to keep her voice calm.

"It was like her magic went berserk" Applebloom replied, spitting some mud that had gotten in her mouth.

"Sweetie..." Babs sighed, looking into the ravine in an attempt to see through the fog. Nothing

Sweetie groaned, moving her head slightly. She was curled up at the bottom of the crack in the land, battered and bruised, but alive. She placed her hooves under herself, propping up. The weight of the Element of Magic was gone. She slowly turned to see the crown embedded in the slop that fell from the erosion. Sweetie trembled in the cold.

"Why did it stop responding?..." she muttered to nothing, moving over to place the tiara on her head again. A spark of purple and the usual purple orb surrounded her. "There we go..." she murmured, willing her sphere to roll. She didn't care which direction it was in, she just moved, suspended by energy bonds. She moved across a crag before seeing something other than rocks and mud. Steaming crystals lay on the ground, some as large as an elephant. It was a veritable graveyard of the mineral formations, many of them shattered and damaged. Sweetie heard a clomping noise and looked up to the top edge of the canyon. A mule was dragging a cart full of the crystals before kicking them into the ravine and heading away. One of them bounced, landing right in  front of Sweetie Belle. Unlike the others, there was a slight glow inside of it.

Sweetie stepped out of her energy bubble, ignoring the gunk staining her coat. The crystal called to her, as if it was the last piece of candy in the world. Sweetie ran her horn across the surface of it, feeling the contours of the large gem. Her horn ran over a small hole, and Sweetie pulled away. It was a simple star shape...exactly like the Element of Magic's gem. Sweetie moved her head forward, putting the crown against the hole with a soft "click". Cracks spread across the crystal, pieces of it falling away. In no time, there was nothing left but what had been held inside. A large alicorn, sleeping like a baby. His fur was a slight shade darker than Sweetie's own, more creamy than alabaster. His mane was an odd sky blue color, white streaks running through it as it flowed in a wild river down his neck. His eyes opened, revealing pink eyes that were more like those of a centaur than that of a pony.

"Good day to you" he said, every word sounding like they had been dipped in sincerity.

"G-good day" Sweetie replied, questions screaming through her head. Who was this?!

"Who are you, fine madame?" the alicorn asked, moving his head up groggily. Again, he sounded unbelievably innocent and sincere, like talking to an intelligent child. But this was no child.

"Fine madame?! I am not important enough to be called that, oh no" Sweetie squeaked, blushing hard at the compliment. The alicorn seemed to ignore him and instead smiled ear to ear, looking at the dull grey sky.

"This is the outside, isn't it?" he grinned, catching a few raindrops on his tongue. "This is rain" he noted, licking up the raindrops before stepping out of the crystals he had come in. He didn't seem to be bothered that the ornamental shoes he wore were ruined. "It's cold, what is it?" he asked, looking at the ground in awe.

"That's dirt..." Sweetie replied, confused even more now.

"It's cold,wet, and squishy, it feels wonderful" the alicorn sighed, moving his back hooves into the mud, making Sweetie cock an eyebrow. What pony did that kind of thing? Without warning, the alicorn moved over, muzzle nearly touching Sweetie's. Understandably, Sweetie froze in place.

"How come you look like me? You have no tail, nor fangs, nor armor. You have nice eyes too, not mean ones" the alicorn muttered,  moving away and circling Sweetie, investigating.

"It's only natural. I'm a pony. A mare" Sweetie said, internally face hoofing at her obviousness.

"And what exactly is a pony?" the alicorn asked, innocent, centaur like eyes wide.

"Huh? Well, they're like you and me" Sweetie responded, looking for any signs of sarcasm. None. "You know, head, hooves, stuff like that"

"There are others like us?" the alicorn questioned, eyes getting even wider than before.

"Well, not exactly the same, but other ponies, yeah" Sweetie mumbled, doing her best to keep from just smiling dreamily. Curse her penchant for finding ponies with good looks.

"Oh, the rain has stopped" the alicorn giggled, looking up at the beginnings of a rainbow as the sky began to clear up. Sweetie looked up too, her jaw dropping a bit. How had it stopped so fast? Were they talking for longer than she thought?

"Yeah, but we need to get out of here" Sweetie said with a shake of her head. There were probably creatures hunting for her right now.

"Alright. My name is Neos, what's yours?" the alicorn agreed, stepping out of the shade of the crystal and into the light. Someone had sprinkled his fur throughly with glitter or something, because he literally sparkled in the light. A fairly common royal treatment, at least back in the day before the Solar Queen.

"I am Sweetie Belle" Sweetie managed to stammer out, keeping the thoughts and words about his appearance bottled up.

"Sweetie Belle...that's a nice name" Next Chapter: Royal Pain Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes