Zenara the Forgotten Pony

Chapter 8: The Shadow Elements

Zenara and the gang head back to the castle of the two sisters. twilight explains to her friends that they would be in great danger in the shadow realm without the use of light worlds magic. it takes some reasoning but they finally all agree that twilight is right so they say good bye and watch as the shadow ponies return to their world.

After they have left applejack sighs and glances at her friends. "i sure hope i'm wrong but i couldn't help but notice how different they are from us."

fluttershy nods. "oh i know what you mean. it's like how shadowshy liked the animals but not as much as me."

"and while i do believe shadowra had good intentions with her outfits the use of color was... well mediocre to say the best." she frowns recalling that her shadow shelf had indeed shown the knack for sowing and stitching but when it came down to design she was horribly lacking.

"well i have no idea what you guys are talking about shadowdash was just as fast as me when we raced." rainbow replies proudly.

"yeah but she didn't seem to care about it either way unlike you because you hate to lose." applejack replies. "whats more is i could have sworn shadowjack told me... an untruth."

"untruth?" rarity questions. "you mean you think..."

"yup. i'm afraid they on't even represent the elements of harmony." applejack mumbles. "they might have friendship now but i'm not sure they can pull this off."

"we'll just have to trust twilight to figure it out then." rainbow mumbles. "its too late to tell her now."

-in the shadow realm-

Twilight and the others come through at the castle of the two sisters. Twilight is about to explain how they will find the elements of harmony but before she can bring it up Shadowdash flies up high in the sky and waves good bye to them. "well this has been great but i got other things to do see ya later."

twilight stares at her baffled. "wait rainbow come back!?" but it's too late she's already disappeared.

Zenara looks at the sky skeptically. "didn't you tell me one of the qualities of friendship was loyalty?"

"yeah, that was supposed to be her quality." twilight frets ears back. "but if rainbow isn't loyal that means we're missing a critical piece of the elemental puzzle." she thinks for a moment and looks around at the remaining ponies. "no worries i'm sure this will be easily fixed." she begins to wonder if the other ponies even represent the the elements. she decides to test them using the same tasks nightmare moon had challenged her friends with when they first met, but to do this she would need Zenara to give them a nudge in the right direction.

Zenara is quick to understand something isn't right now so she ushers twilight into the next room. "hold on we'll be right back. come on twilight." once in the next room she closes the door and then sighs. "something is wrong i can tell."

"you right something is wrong. rainbow is supposed to be loyal but instead she ran off. i'm afraid that these ponies, while well meaning, don't represent the elements of harmony like in my world." twilight replies. "we need to find ponies who represent the spirits of harmony in order to use them here."

Zenara nods. "as their leader i can just order them to show those traits right?"

twilight shakes her head. "no you must let them be who they are inside. it will only work if they have the true pure spirit of the element by their own choice. don't worry i have a way to test them and see if they have the power to take back this world. it does require you to put them in near danger though. think your up for it?"

"possibly? what'd you have in mind?" Zenara questions.

she whispers her plan to Zenara to insure the others definitely can't hear it then they both return to the group and twilight smiles as she explains her new mission to the others. "the good news is i have a plan to start correcting this world. we'll start with sweet apple acres and get it back for applejack."