“Am I still banned from Cloudsdale, Twilight?”

Twilight blinked, caught off-guard by the wholly unexpected question. Ash and Gale had just returned from a quick test flight above Ponyville in the Lirin, and the first thing out of the unicorn’s mouth when the hatch opened had been that question. Not a comment on the ship’s status, nor an announcement of locating the signature of another Chaotic Gem, but a question about something that had happened years ago during the original hunt for magic gems from another universe. Twilight had actually forgotten that Ashen Blaze wasn’t allowed into the pegasus cloud city, on penalty of arrest for theft, since it had never been much of an issue after the fact.

“Why does that matter?” Traev asked. He and his team had also been waiting and watching the Lirin being put through its paces.

“PC picked up a curiously mingled magical signature moving through the sky, and determined two things. One: it seemed to be heading toward Cloudsdale. Two: that signature was a very close match to a Chaotic Gem or two being used.”

“Well, it’s about time!” Traev exclaimed. “Ash can stay behind.”

“Uh-uh-uh,” Ash said, poking the other grey unicorn lightly on the nose as he tried to walk up the ship’s entry ramp. “Don’t forget who you look like. I made a bit of a mockery of the police ponies in that city, and I doubt they’ll buy your claim of not being me.”

“Besides,” Gale said as she emerged from the Lirin, “we’ll have to arrange alternative transportation. Ol’ Lirin’s not rated for cloud landings.”

“I can probably fix that,” Twilight offered. “The cloud-walking spell should-”

“No thank you,” Ash and Gale said simultaneously.

“Cloud-walking?” Johnten asked, head cocked to one side in disbelief. “You’re not serious.”

“The city is called Cloudsdale for a very good reason,” Gale deadpanned. “And trust me, that’s not nearly the weirdest thing Equestria has to offer.”

“Well, I guess I’ll go charter the hot air balloon then,” Twilight said, deciding not to pry into her friends’ rejection of her earlier suggestion.

“Would we all fit though?” Ash wondered aloud, and Twilight paused as he counted. “Twi and Heart can fly. We should probably bring Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy if she’s willing. Soul and Johnten, Gale and Carrie.”

“You and Traev as well,” Twilight cut in, with a seriously regal look on her face, “because as a Princess of Equestria, I’m granting you a pardon right her and now. If Cloudsdale tries to keep you out, they’ll answer to me.”

“Thank you Twilight,” Ash said with a grin. “That makes six then, plus equipment. Shouldn’t be a problem.” Twilight nodded and headed off, passing Heart and Soul who were approaching the ship from the marketplace wearing empty saddle bags on their backs. “Ah, good timing you two,” Ash said in greeting.

“I assume we’re going to be busy soon, then?” Soul replied. “A perfect time to deal with this then.” He and his sister removed the bags and tossed them to Johnten and Carrie. “Johnten,” Soul said sincerely to his double, “please accept these as tokens of our apology for how we reacted to your explanation of your powers the other day.”

“The apology goes for your sister as well, hence the second bag,” Heart added, “We shouldn’t have judged you by our personal standards. We figured you’d want something to carry the Gems in, so Traev doesn’t have to levitate them around all the time.”

Carrie’s stance shifted slightly as the ghostly Seroh took control briefly to say, “Apology accepted, and I’m sorry I gave you two a fright.”

“Speaking of the Gems,” Traev said, giving Ash an expectant look. Ash didn’t respond beyond turning around and heading inside his ship, emerging a moment later with the three recovered Gems in floating in an orange bubble of magic and PC on his head.

“You’ll have to fetch the gel launcher yourself,” he said to Gale as he passed the Gems to his counterpart. “I don’t want to spoil your Magebane.”

“How considerate of you,” Gale replied, deadpan, as she walked inside to get her equipment. Traev and his group held a quick discussion that ended with Johnten carrying the Sapphire of Water in his saddle bag, Carrie taking the Emerald of Earth, and Traev keeping the Diamond of Light floating around above his head. As soon as Gale re-emerged from the ship with the Gel Launcher comfortably strapped on, everyone set off in the direction Twilight had gone. They found her and the Ponyville hot air balloon waiting for them near the town square, and she had them line up so she could cast the cloud-walking spell on each non-winged pony before they climbed into the basket. Traev looked dubious as the magic swirled around his hooves, but as the spell settled into place he felt a subtle change in sensation and silently acknowledged that something had occurred, even if he couldn’t see it for himself.

“All right,” Twilight said once everypony had managed to squeeze in to the basket, minus herself and Gold Heart, who was hovering nearby patiently, “now we need to wait for-”

“We’re here!” Rainbow Dash announced loudly as she came swooping in to a perfect high-speed landing. Fluttershy was a few seconds behind her, moving a more sane speed. “Let’s do this,” the cyan pegasus said eagerly, jumping back into flight and clapping her hooves together. “Nothing’s taking down Cloudsdale while I’m around.”

“Are we even sure it’s going to be dangerous?” Fluttershy asked, clearly nervous. “I mean, it may just be somepony who found the Gem and is taking it home. Like my mother did.”

“Don’t be naïve,” Traev said scornfully. “Nothing’s ever that simple and harmless when the Chaotic Gems are involved.”

“Says the meis who hasn’t met Fluttershy’s parents yet,” Ash muttered to himself, earning a smirk from Soul and Gale. Twilight untied the anchor rope from the ground and passed it to Rainbow Dash, who was more than willing to add some of her speed to the balloon as it rose into the air and began drifting toward Cloudsdale.

After a few minutes, Soul tapped Johnten on the shoulder to pull his attention from the receding landscape below. “So Johnten, we’ve been introduced to one of your ghost companions,” he said. “Who or what is the other one?”

“His name is Carlez Baker,” Johnten answered. “He was originally a high ranking officer in the…” He paused as his ear twitched, and he cast an annoyed glance off to the right. “Second-in-command,” he said in an amending tone, rolling his eyes. “Sorry, he’s insisting I tell it as accurately as possible. He was the second-in-command of the ghost-hunting terrorist group, but for some inexplicable reason he was ignorant of the group’s true purpose until shortly after we started interfering with their operations. He turned to our side pretty quickly when he found out, and ultimately lost his life trying to take down his former leader and the group from within. He’s normally reluctant to answer my summons, but he has a rare power as a ghost that we’re going to need once we’ve gathered all the Gems and cornered Vanatos.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” Ash asked.

“Oh, just one half of the only method to safely utilize the full potential of all seven Gems without blowing up the universe,” Traev drawled.

“No, seriously,” Ash said, giving his double a flat look.

“Seriously,” Johnten said. “It’s the only sure-fire weapon we’ve got against Vanatos. It has had the consistent side-effect of relocating us to a different universe, but it’s a price we’ve learned to live with.”

“If you say so,” Ash said, shrugging and shifting his attention back to the sky.

Cloudsdale soon came into view, and everypony in the balloon took a moment to admire the sight of the majestic cloud city. Then, a large plume of flame shot up from within the Cloud Coliseum, and Rainbow Dash immediately started pulling the balloon in that direction. Ash had PC focus on the Coliseum, and after a moment nodded. “Strong and very organized concentration of Fire energy,” he said.

“That’ll be the Ruby then,” Traev said, looking more pleased than anypony had seen him since he’d arrived in Equestria.

“I’ll place my money on that as well,” Ash said, “but I’m seeing a high concentration of Air as well, and something else PC can’t quite identify.” Another plume of fire appeared, punching a hole in the clouds that made up the coliseum’s walls. “I’d recommend stepping on it,” Ash said, unnecessarily. Twilight conjured up a couple more ropes tied to the balloon, and then she and Heart each took one and added their strength to Rainbow’s. They brought the balloon up to the top of the coliseum and parked it on the highest tier of seating. As everyone piled out of the basket, they took in what was now clearly the scene of a battle between two unusual beings. One looked like a phoenix the size of a tree and composed entirely of raging red and orange flames. The other was a strange amalgamation of pony, goat, dragon, lion, and several other creatures which was presently leading the fire-bird on a merry chase around the coliseum. The Order-naries recognized the second figure instantly, and groaned.

“Skvetch,” Ash swore. “Just what we don’t need.”

Heart and Soul activated their spirit link and charged forward, the unicorn hopping down the tiered clouds that served as the seating area while the pegasus flew ahead, charging an Element Wheel between her front hooves. “Discord!” Heart screamed, her entire aura flaring in response to her growing fury. Discord glanced her way just as she threw the Element Wheel, and he narrowly dodged its first pass. The movement distracted him from the fire-bird for a crucial second, and it spat a fireball that engulfed his lower half and set the tufted end of his tail alight. The dragonequus considered this, the boomeranging Element Wheel, the giant bird, and the two golden-yellow ponies with what seemed to be mild annoyance, and then started moving again. He looped in the air to avoid Heart’s attack, which then quickly faded, and then snapped his fingers to encase the fire-bird in a giant red and yellow egg, which promptly began to plummet toward earth.

“Well, here are some faces I haven’t seen in a while,” he said in a loud and cheery tone, which only made Heart and Soul scowl more as they came a stop a theoretically safe distance away. Discord looked at them and their ethereal blue auras, and then up to the group that was making its way down after them. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, “but that bird was not my fault. At least, I’m not the one that made it.”

“Sure, and I’m a monkey,” Soul replied. A tendril of spirit energy started to lash out from his horn, but then Fluttershy threw herself between him and Discord, forcing Soul to reel his power back in quickly.

“Wait,” the soft-spoken pegasus said. “If he says he didn’t do it, I believe him.”

“Fluttershy, have you lost your mind?” Ash exclaimed as he jumped down next to the twins. “It’s Discord.”

“A lot has changed in the last two years,” Twilight said, alighting in front of Ash and flaring her wings pointedly.

“Truth,” Ash admitted, giving the alicorn a suspicious look. “But, he’s still the skvetchte Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.”

“I am a reformed dragonequus, Ashen Blaze, thanks to this little pony,” Discord said, grabbing Fluttershy and holding her out in front of him as he approached, full of confidence. He set her down on the cloud and gave her a couple friendly pats on the head.

“He is good now,” Fluttershy vouched, “trust me.”

“He’s still a pain in the flank most of the time,” Rainbow Dash added, “but he tries not to upset ‘Shy, at the least.”

The Order-naries – Gale had just caught up to her friends – didn’t look convinced, but then PC beeped and spoke into Ash’s ear, relating a discovery that the ash-grey unicorn quickly repeated for all to hear, staring intently at Discord. “You have the Chaotic Gem of Air on you.”

Discord blinked in surprise for a second, and then laughed heartily. “Well, that was a refreshingly out-of-the-blue, and correct, guess Ash,” he said, giving Ash a polite golf clap. “Maybe I managed to rub something off on your dull, rigidly structured mind. Let me guess, you’ll be wanting me to hand it over now?”

“That would be most appreciated, sir,” Traev said, stepping forward.

Discord looked at him and Ash, and then took notice of Johnten and Carrie and chuckled. “Looks like Celestia wasn’t exaggerating after all,” he said in a low, disappointed tone. “Ah well,” he continued, shrugging dramatically, “you did ask nicely. Just a second.” He pulled a small periwinkle purse out from behind his back and reached in to it until his griffon arm had vanished inside nearly to the shoulder, digging around while keeping one eye trained on the space below the coliseum. After a moment, he pulled out a large, flawless yellow topaz, and the purse vanished in a puff of smoke. He started to launch into some kind of flourishing presentation, but was cut off as Ash and Traev both reached out with their magic to pull the Gem out of his hand. “How rude,” the dragonequus pouted.

The two ash-grey unicorns eyed each other as the Topaz floated between them in the opposing pulls of their telekinesis, but then Ash relinquished his hold on the Gem and let Traev test it. Traev touched the Topaz to the tip of his horn and closed his eyes, focusing as the Gem began to glow. “It’s genuine,” he said, and then sent it floating into Carrie’s saddlebag.

“Discord,” Fluttershy asked, “where did you get that gem in the first place?”

“And what was with the giant phoenix?” Rainbow added, eyeing Discord warily.

“I’d love to tell you,” Discord answered apologetically, slowly spinning upside down and keeping his gaze locked on something below the coliseum. “I think you’d all get a kick out of it, but something tells me I won’t have enough time to tell it.” Everyone walked up to the edge of the clouds and peered down, and they saw that the fire-bird had broken out of the egg and was quickly climbing back up to their level with powerful wingstrokes. “Here’s the short version though,” Discord said, “the bird’s after the gemstone, not me. Good luck.” He vanished in a blink of light.

“Yeah,” Dash said dryly. “Probably should’ve seen that coming.”

“Well,” Carrie said, smiling dangerously, “if it want the Topaz, then we’ll give it the Topaz. Traev, take my bags; I think it’s high time we gave the Primal Force a go.” She pulled the yellow Gem out her saddle bags as Traev magically undid the buckles and lifted them off her back. Carrie gripped tightly the Topaz between her front hooves, staring into its depths with a look of intense concentration. The Gem glowed, becoming brighter and brighter until both it and Carrie were hidden within it.

“Mind speeding up whatever you’re doing?” Gale asked, peering over the edge of the clouds briefly before backing up and taking a firing stance. “Because it’s almost go time.” On cue, the giant fire-bird erupted into view, and Gale hit it square in the base of its neck with a Magebane gel. The construct reeled back as the flames composing its head snuffed out for a few seconds, the magical energy drawn inexorably into the beige gel until it broke down. Gale loaded the Gel Launcher again and started lining up another shot on the frantic, recovering fire-bird, but before she could pull the trigger there was a sound like a gust of wind and the yellow glow of the Topaz shrank away.

Both Carrie and the Topaz were gone, replaced by what appeared to be visibly swirling air in the shape of a lean pony-sized fox with eyes that glowed yellow. “Oh, well this is a little different,” it said in Carrie’s voice, although its mouth didn’t move. “I like it. John, going to join me?” Without waiting for an answer, she leaped off the cloud and flew toward the fire-bird, kicking its regenerating head as she passed before turning to fly tight circles around the bird, forming the beginnings of a tornado.

“Wow,” Twilight said, impressed. “I never imagined a single… creature could generate that much wing power all by themselves.”

“I’m not surprised,” Ash said. “She’s become an air elemental. Somehow,” he added, giving his double a questioning look.

“Wind typically feeds Fire though,” Johnten said, wriggling out of his saddlebags, which remained floating in the grips of one of his ghost partners, and then dug out the Sapphire of Water. He squeezed it in the same manner that Carrie had, and when the Gem’s reaction was complete he’d become a large falcon made entirely of blue water. “‘A little different’ she says,” he muttered as he took flight.

“Ok, what the skeb are we seeing here, Traev?” Ash asked.

“The first secret of the Chaotic Gems,” Traev answered, pleased. “Four of the seven Elements belong to a subset we call the Primal Force – Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Every person’s soul reflects one of those four more powerfully than the others, and by attempting to draw upon enough of the appropriate Gem’s power, the Gem will fuse with you, transforming you into something that can wield the elemental energy with greater power and ability than any mere mortal. My own element is Fire, but since we don’t have the Ruby yet…

“Anyway, the transformations aren’t usually so… elemental. Normally we turn into half-human, half-animal warriors, but perhaps since we aren’t human to start with in this universe the Gems decided to go a different way.”

“You say that like you think the Gems might be intelligent,” Heart said.

Traev shrugged. “Who’s to say they aren’t, after a fashion?” he asked. “With as much magical power focused into a single point as there is with each Gem, something like a will or intelligence could emerge.”

While Traev had been giving his explanation, the water-falcon that was Johnten had drawn roughly half of the lowest tier of the coliseum’s seating clouds into himself as pure water before joining the battle between the giant phoenix construct and wind-fox Carrie. The mini tornado Carrie had created kept the fire-bird from moving, but it continued burning and held its shape even as the vortex pulled the air away from it, and lashed out with wings, talons, and exhaled fireballs trying to hit the near-invisible fox. Johnten hovered in place just outside the tornado for a moment of thought, and then dove down and came at it from below, shooting all his gathered water up into the funnel. Carrie picked up on his plan quickly and altered her wind to focus the water into a tight spout that doused the fire-bird’s core in a might hiss of steam. Within seconds, the magical flames were overwhelmed and faded away to nothing. Carrie came to a stop and both she and Johnten watched the spot where the fire-bird had been for a while longer. They then returned to the group, looking mildly disappointed despite the victory. They touched down on the cloud, and in twin flashes of blue and yellow light were restored to their pony forms, the Sapphire and Topaz balanced on their backs.

“It didn’t have the Ruby inside,” Johnten said apologetically to Traev.

“It’s fine,” Traev said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Vanatos created that thing from his own power.”

“Bravo, bravo, what a fantastic show!” Discord reappeared in the air, wearing a tailcoat with a carnation that couldn’t seem to decide what color it wanted to be in the lapel, a black top hat, and a giant, half-full bag of popcorn tucked under one arm as he applauded. “Two thumbs up for that quick yet surprising battle.”

“I’m so glad we have your approval,” Soul Mage drawled.

“Well, I wasn’t talking about you anyway, sarcasm-pants,” Discord said, turning his nose up snootily. He banished his costume and props with a snap, and then floated down into the middle of the group, arms held wide as his mood switched back to cheerful. “Now that the excitement’s over, I bet we’ve all got some exciting stories to tell. I’m feeling a bit famished too, so how’s about Fluttershy treats everypony to dinner while we talk?” Before anyone, particularly Fluttershy, could formulate a response, he snapped his fingers and everyone vanished from Cloudsdale. A few moments later, Cherry Berry appeared in the abandoned hot air balloon, wearing her flight goggles and looking completely disoriented.

“What just happened?”

Author's Notes:

Cherry Berry