Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy were bombarding Applejack with questions. After Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight had come through the portal, Paul and Spike had been called in to hear Applejack's explanation.
"So, Rainbow Dash found another prophecy while we were in the tunnels, and Ah managed to find mah way through a portal into the castle. The prophecy was about me an' gettin' the power of portals, or so we think."
"It makes sense, I mean, What happened to Applejack matches the prophecy, and who just randomly gains a power without any sort of reason?" Pinkie Pie said
"She has a point, I think that the prophecy was the reason for Applejack's power as well." Rarity agreed.
"I think it's awesome! And if Applejack gained a new power from the prophecy, why wouldn't Twilight? And maybe there are other prophecies for us!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"So Applejack dear," Rarity began, ignoring Rainbow Dash "Can your portals take you anywhere?"
"Ah don't know, it took me to the castle twice, each in a different place, an' when Ah went back to the tunnels, it dropped me right in front o' Rainbow Dash."
"Yeh, be more careful next time you do that." Rainbow Dash complained, looking at her, once again, bandaged wing.
"Sorry, Ah'll try to be more careful to stop accidents from occurring." Applejack apologized. "Ya could at least slow down now ya know what ah c'n do."
"When I can fly again."
"oh, hush Rainbow, it was nopony's fault. Neither of you knew the other was going to be there." Fluttershy told her friend.
"So Applejack can go from place to place as if she were teleporting? Cool!" Spike exclaimed. "So, I take it you're calling off the search then?"
"Yeh, I don't think it's going to be in one of the caves on the mountain anyway."
"Twilight, If you don't mind me asking, but, why did you go on that search this morning? The prophecy clearly says that it will happen at twilight." Rarity said.
"What?" Twilight stared at her friend in disbelief.
"The prophecy says 'at the time between day and night', so it must be referring to twilight, or at least evening. So, my question is, why did you go out this morning?"
"WHAT? Why didn't you tell me before??"
"Well, I tried to, but you were to busy."
"Ughh, great. You made me waste an entire morning just to go on some pointless adventure?" Rainbow complained.
"It weren't a waste. Ah got some new powers!"
"Well ok, that's the only thing that makes the trip cool, but, if it weren't for that, the entire trip would be pointless! I could have been practicing my stunts!"
"Rainbow, what's done is done, stop complaining." Rarity scolded.
"Ughh, fine."
Twilight was annoyed, she could have been saved the entire morning. An entire morning when she could have been searching up on the elements of harmony! The Canterlot library must have a book on the elements. She called over to Spike and told him that they were going to be studying up on the elements of harmony. Sighing, Spike followed her to the library. Paul had followed too. When they got to the library, Twilight began to search for the books she was looking for. It took her a while, but she eventually came across a book called 'Elements of harmony-the beginners book'. She opened it to the correct page and began reading. The book wasn't as detailed as she'd like, (And definitely not as detailed as the book the CMC found) but it gave her an idea of what the elements where. 'Friendship and faith', friendship was made up of kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, loyalty and the sixth which nopony knew, while faith was made up of hope, chance and courage. The book said that when the five elements of friendship were present, a spark will show where the sixth element resides. 'Hmm, but the five elements are present, no spark has occurred. Maybe, maybe I need to use magic, or something...'
"Spike, tell the others to grab the elements and bring them to the ballroom. I'm going to try and get the sixth element." Twilight said. Spike saluted and ran off. "Paul, can you,..you can understand me, right?" She asked. Paul nodded. "Right, can you find anymore books on the elements of harmony and bring them to the ball room?" Paul nodded, a bit unsure, but he began to search for more books. (Twilight will never understand why a timberwolf was helping them, even if it had befriended Pinkie Pie and had been a figment of everypony's imagination.) Then, Twilight ran off in the direction of the ball room.
All of Twilight's friends were now present in the ballroom, with the elements. Paul had succeeded in finding one more book on the elements of harmony, it was called 'Ancient artifacts'. Twilight picked up the elements in her magic and placed them in a circle. Then she began to charge her magic. She focused on the five stones and searched them for any magic trace that might show the sixth element. Several minutes had passed but she had still found nothing. She dropped the spell and looked around at her friends. They looked back expectantly. Twilight shook her head sadly.
"Don't worry Twilight. You'll figure this out soon." Spike encouraged.
"'Soon' isn't soon enough!" Twilight complained. Just then, three small faces ran through into the ball room, closely followed by Shining Armor.
"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity cried, anger and relief flooding her voice.
"Applebloom!" Applejack shouted, relieved.
"Squirt!" Rainbow called, almost casually.
"What are they doing here?" Twilight asked.
"Twily! They came to see you guys." Shining Armor exclaimed.
"What? Why? Shouldn't you three be in Ponyville?" She asked, turning her attention to the three fillies being hugged to death, or in Scootaloo's case, praised to no end.
"We were in Ponyville!" Sweetie Belle said.
"But then, we found this book on the elements of harmony!" Scootaloo added.
"We found out that ya'll represented the 'friendship' part o' it an' we represented the 'faith' part!" Applebloom chimed in.
"So we all came here to help you guys!" All three finished.
"What? We don't represent the elements." Twilight told them.
"Yeh, ya'll do! No need ts hide it from us anymore!" Applebloom said.
"Uhh, If we all represented the elements, don't you think that these rocks would have responded to us already?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"But look in the book! It has a picture of 6 gems! And each of the gems look like your cutie marks!" Scootaloo pleaded. She held the book out to Rainbow Dash, who took it and opened it to the page where she had learned about the elements of harmony.
"Uhh, where's this picture?"
"On the next page!" Applebloom told her. Rainbow Dash turned the page, and on the other side, it had a picture of 9 gems. 6 of them had a shape. There was a red lightning bolt, an orange apple, a yellow balloon, a green butterfly, a blue diamond and a purple star. The three gems underneath, had no particular shape, but they where: red, white and purple. The red gem, was a slightly more pink shade than the red lightning bolt, and the purple gem was a lighter shade than the purple star was. Rainbow Dash looked at the gems in shock, then looked at all her friends and their cutie marks. The apple's on Applejack's flank matched the apple gem, the butterfly gem, looked like the butterfly's on Fluttershy's flank, the blue gem looked the same as the diamonds on Rarity's flank. The yellow balloon gem, matched the yellow balloon on Pinkie Pie's flank, the purple star looked like the purple star on Twilight's flank. Rainbow Dash looked at her own cutie mark. The red lightning bolt gem, looked like the multicoloured lightning bolt on her own flank. Rainbow Dash handed Twilight the book silently. Twilight saw the gems and her friends cutie marks.
"We do represent the elements." A spark went off in Twilight's eyes. Inside her mind, Twilight heard a voice. It sounded like the wind whistling through the trees, but Twilight could make out what it said.
"'The youngest will perform a sonic blast, bringing the six together for harmony at last. Talents for showing others talents, these three shall become hope, chance and courage' Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty and magic! Together you six create friendship!
Outside of Twilight's mind, the stones that were the elements of harmony had begun to glow, each a different colour of the Rainbow, from red to blue. In the middle of the circle formed by the elements, another stone appeared, this stone, glowed purple. A massive wind then came through from nowhere, though it didn't touch anything. Nopony's hair flapped in the breeze, no sheet of paper blew away. The wind seemed to be talking, but nopony knew what it was saying.
After the wind stopped talking, a bright light shone. Soon, it faded away. Twilight had expected more from that experience. She felt as though Nightmare moon should have been defeated, but she could tell that she hadn't been. When Twilight could see again. A necklace hung from her neck. Other necklaces hung from her friends necks'. Each necklace held a gem. Each gem was in the shape of the bearers cutie mark, and each gem was a colour of the rainbow. Twilight looked outside, the sun was setting, 'twilight' she thought. Twilight looked over to her friends. Observing them one at a time, to make sure that they weren't hurt. For some reason, Twilight felt as though she could read their minds. Applejack was thinking 'what in tarnation happened?' Rarity seemed to be thinking 'Oh my goodness! What a beautiful necklace! I could make a whole fashion line based around this!' Pinkie Pie appeared to be thinking of a ping pong match between Celestia and Nightmare moon, neither side was winning, Fluttershy was thinking about her necklace too, but she wasn't thinking of making a fashion line, Rainbow Dash didn't seem to be thinking anything, her mind was void of any thoughts, then, suddenly, as if a flood gate had opened, hundreds of thoughts flooded her head, most of them were things like 'Is everypony ok?' and 'What just happened?' but one stood out from the rest; 'That. Was. Awesome!' Twilight giggled at Rainbow's response, then, happy with everypony's well being, she spoke.
"I think that went well."
"Ah'm not so sure Twi. I still don't rightly know what just happened. Care ta explain?" Applejack inquired.
"Well, we got our elements! Us 6 represent 6 of the elements of harmony, we represent 'friendship'."
"Ok, that still don't explain nothin'" Twilight looked out the window again, it was still twilight. Then, something clicked in her brain and she remembered something. 'At the time between Day and Night, the one who's title is just that, deep in the cave which twists minds, shall see the truth and find their place.' 'The prophecy! Of course! The prophecy has come true! The cave was my mind! My mind was the cave that twists minds! Ha! This prophecy does have a more complex and deeper meaning!'
"Well, I think our prophecy just came true."
'But, we're not in a cave Twilight. The prophecy said in a cave.' The thought swirled through Pinkie's mind. She was just about to say it, when Twilight answered her, as if she had already said it.
"I know we're not in a cave Pinkie, but, the prophecy meant my mind. When it said 'deep in the cave which twists minds' it meant deep into my mind, which is where I've just been."
"I never said anything Twilight, but thanks for the information." Pinkie Pie sang, bouncing happily.
"I know you didn't say anything, I just knew you were thinking it."
"So, you're, like, psychic?" Rainbow Dash asked
"I knew it! HAH! I knew twilight was psychic!" Pinkie shouted suddenly, making everypony jump.
"Umm, okaaaay. Ughh, I don't think I'm psychic, i just thought that was what Pinkie Pie was thinking, I guessed right."
"That's a bit of a coincidence, don't you think then?" Rarity asked.
"Yeh, I mean, you did just go deep into your mind, where the breeze that blew through here spoke to you and said a couple of prophecies and told you that, together, us six, represented 'friendship' and that we are, and I quote, 'Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty and magic!' and then the voice vanished and you were left back here with us and you read our minds to check if we were ok and you were a bit weirded out by what I thought because I was thinking of a ping pong game between Celestia and Nightmare moon and neither side was winning." Pinkie Pie said, with a huge grin on her face.
"How did you know that?" Twilight asked in shock.
"Just a hunch."