> Friendship Never Fails
>  by cyberpeajay
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Book
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mandatory Disclaimer: 'My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic' is owned by it's respective owners such as Lauren Faust and Hasbro. I claim no ownership for any content like characters, locations and all basic premises. This is strictly for parody use and there is no financial gain at all for me. This is just for entertainment value and is actually meant to promote the show. You can download individual episodes from iTunes for $3.00 each. 
With that out of the way, I have a few notes for the readers:

1) This is NOT my first fanfic.
2) The story was thought out through several days and was organized throughout a written storyboard for maximum intrigue.
3) There ISN'T any swearing, gore, or sexual content. A mother could read this to her kid as a bedtime story if she wanted to. This isn't to say it's a frilly girly story, I try to stick with the general MLP FiM theme of things and make this exciting for everyone. Mild violence in the later chapters. (Fighting).
4) If you have an imagination and can see clear pictures in your mind, this story will seem like a movie. This is how it's supposed to feel.
5) This story includes adventure, suspense and some comedy.
Description: When Twilight discovers there are Elements of Disharmony lying around somewhere in Equestria, she and her friends go out in search of obtaining them before they fall in the wrong hooves. However the Elements of Disharmony are mischievous, and cause the mane six an extraordinary amount of trouble. All of Equestria is affected by disharmony, now the six friends who represent harmony must save it, before permanent chaos takes over!

Without further Ado, I present to you:


My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic: 
Friendship Never Fails


*****
A long time ago, long before Ponyville, long before Canterlot, long before princess Celestia and Luna, long before The Elements of Harmony... Actually, this is how the Elements of Harmony materialized: The pony's of Equestria were joyful and continued on their simplistic ways. No pony was ever harmed by one another, each and every one respected all. There was no fighting, no mishaps and certainly no wars. You could say this age was harmonic on its own. No special entities were needed, for everything was absolutely peaceful.

However one fateful night, the residents of Equestria were awoken by sounds they had never heard before. Screaming? Out in the darkness of the night was a tirade of chaos. Houses were being torn to shreds and the town within were being devoured. What could have caused this? The infamous pony clan who called themselves 'Ponytact' rolled through. A small group of outcasts who were banished from society due to their disobedience and stoicism. They were the brutes of Equestria and had no respect for others with little care of what they did to any pony. 

Normally the Ponytact's could be chased back out of town. However this time was different... The unicorns could not use their magical abilities to teleport them elsewhere nor could the pegasi drop them out. For Earth pony's the Ponytact's seemed rather strong. Something was changed about them. Their normal eyes were a shade of red and their bodies were a darker shade than once before. With resistance weakening, the most powerful unicorns were sought out to harness all their magical energy together. They were all lined up and shot their magic right into the six rebellious Earth pony's. This slowed them down, but did not stop them. As soon as a Ponytact was wounded, it would unleash another burst of chaos and just like that the wound was gone. However the unicorns were just luring the Ponytact clan to them. 

Eventually the Ponytact's grew tiresome of getting attacked constantly and all lined up for a battle with the powerful unicorns. It was a standoff. The Ponytact group parted. Half moved slightly left, and half moved slightly right. A larger unicorn pony walked in between them and up through the middle slowly towards the other unicorns. Every pony sat there in awe and just stared at the darker, larger unicorn of the Ponytact clan. It  smirked, flicked its wrist and all of the powerful unicorns were flung at least twenty yards away. The rest of the clan walked up and stood before their unicorn ruler. But now the rest of the powerful unicorns stood and smirked themselves. The Ponytact's were confused. What did they have to smirk about? 

Just then giant flashes of light were coming from five different corners surrounding the rebellious clan. They were frantically looking around trying to understand what was going on around them, and how they were being affected. They wanted to flee but couldn't. Their legs wouldn't respond to the commands their brain was telling them. All of a sudden one by one, each Ponytact member was turned grey. They were rock solid and fell to the ground with a thud. With the Ponytact clan turned to stone, the larger unicorn leader even began to quiver. Slowly but surely from the hooves up to the tip of its horn, the great unicorn also came down with an earth shaking large thump. The flashes of light grew to one intense flash and died down. This is how the Ponytact's were defeated. 

The powerful Equestrian unicorns came to the center where the clan was frozen in disarray expressions. Half the unicorns were in charge of hiding the Pontact's deep in their secret temples to never be awoken again, while the other half gathered the stone spheres that were responsible for turning the clan into rock solid sculptures. These round stones were placed in the highest chamber of the most guarded sanctuary in the town. These were dubbed: The Elements of Harmony. For everything good, there is something bad to even out. The now stone sculptures of the Ponytact clan were dubbed: The Elements of Disharmony.

"To this very day the Elements of Disharmony were never retrieved. But if they were to fall in the wrong hooves, the consequences could be catastrophic." Twilight finished, closing the book she just finished reading. She sat on the library floor pondering to herself if she should believe a dusty old book with no credited author. Was any of this true, or was this just a big fairy tale? 

Twilight suddenly jumped up from a loud crashing sound that came from behind. She turned her head and saw a pile of books on the ground with a small purple dragon emerging from the mess. Spike shook his face then looked at the books on the floor. He gave a cheeky grin as he noticed Twilight's uneasy look.

"Sorry about that Twi." Spike said as he was picking up the books one at a time. "I was trying to clean up these books you left lying around and I sorta fell." 

"I can see that." Responded Twilight. "Perhaps you should put them back on the shelves one by one."

"Perhaps you can read them one by one." Spike muttered under his breath. 

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Spike said while reshelving the books. 

"Hey, what's that one?" Twilight pointed a hoof towards one of the books in Spikes hand.

Spike held up a faded purplish, leathery thin book. "You mean this one? Uh.." Spike read the title out loud for Twilight to hear. "Medieval Equestrian History." He tilted the book to its side to see its scarcity in pages. "Isn't this pretty thin for a history book?" He asked. A purple aurora engulfed the book and got ripped out of Spike's grasp as he fell over from the tugging motion. He groaned as he got up and dusted himself off.

"Hmm. This looks exactly like the book I just read... Except condensed." She compared the two books and noticed that she was in fact right. Both books looked exactly the same, except one was much thinner. She scanned the pages of the smaller book and gasped. "Hey, what the? Did you wreck another book Spike?" She asked him calmly.

"No. I only touch books when I have to clean them up." Spike replied while shelving the last few books in his arms.

Twilight walked across the room into better sunlight to see that she was infact seeing correctly. "Well something happened to it then, because there appears to be pages missing." She turned the book so Spike could see that there were indeed pages that looked to be ripped out. 

Spike shrugged. "I honestly don't know Twi." He said, then turned to walk upstairs. "I'm gonna take a nap now. Too many books, ugh." Then flopped on his bed.

Twilight just stood there dumbfounded. She scanned the pages of both books and noticed the book she read, and the book with the pages ripped out, ended at the exact same phrase, 'To this very day the Elements of Disharmony were never retrieved. But if they were to fall in the wrong hooves, the consequences could be catastrophic.' 

"It's almost like the author wanted to hide something, and rewrote the book." She just stood there thinking while staring blindly into space. She shook her head really fast then flopped the books to the ground and talked to herself silently. "Come on Twilight. A book is missing a few pages whoop-dee-doo. It's not like its a mystery or anything." She said smiling and continued on with her daily routine.

*****


"Come on Applejack, ah wanna help!" Applebloom pleaded to her sister.

Applejack just bucked a tree with a bushel of apples falling right into buckets sitting nearby. "Ah know you wanna help Applebloom, but all Big Mac and I are doin' is buckin' the trees today." She responded. 

"Well is there anything ah could do at all?" Applebloom asked.

"What are your friends up to? Couldn't you be doin' that cruisady thing you always do?"

"Ah meant is there anything I could do on tha farm?!" She replied. "Besides, the other two are busy today anyway. That's why ah wanna help!"

Applejack just shook her head. "Sorry sis, but until tomorrow ah'm afraid yer plum outta luck." She bucked the tree again getting the last few apples to drop. 

Applebloom turned towards Big Mac who kicked the tree with one leg which caused all the apples to fall at once. Big Mac looked towards his little sister and just shook his head. "Nnnope." He picked up his buckets and walked towards the next tree.

"We'll be making apple cider and apple juice tomorrow Applebloom." Applejack said. "Then you will be a mighty fine help." She winked at her sister and continued onto the next tree. 

*****


"Ah yes! Blue ribbon always does the trick does it not?" Rarity stated to herself and floated shiny blue ribbon over a minijupe she just designed. She walked backwards and turned to admire her handy work. "Now for some baby blue sapphires and everything will be perfect!"

"Are you sure? I would think some yellow gems would go with it." A squeaky voice came from behind Rarity. 

"Who is the owner of the boutique?" Asked Rarity not removing her gaze from her new dress.

"You are..." Said Sweetie Belle pawing the floor. "Can I go to my friends? I'm so bored." 

Rarity spun around then started to walk slowly towards the chest with sapphires. "No Sweetie. You asked if you could come over and help me, not come over then go to your silly little club house." Rarity said. "Now come. I need you to hold the garment still while I place these sapphires on it."

"What? Why do you need me to hold it still? Does fabric move when in proximity to shiny stones?" Asked Sweetie rhetorically. Rarity just sighed and closed her eyes. "Oh all right." She said and held the dress with a lame look on her face. 

"Oh no! I don't have enough sapphire!" Rarity panicked while holding an open chest upside down with her magic and shaking it." She looked at Sweetie. "You didn't happen to make another art project did you?" Rarity sighed. "Guess I'll have to find some more! But this dress isn't due for another week so I'll just work on another project." 

"Rarity! Now can I go to my friends?"

"Sweetie Belle! Honestly! You said you wanted to help, so help you shall do."

*****


Clouds were just floating gingerly in the sky. That was until Rainbow Dash flew through and punctured a hole in them. "Man what a day." She said as she descended and plopped onto an untouched cloud. "You know what would top this day off? A nap." She slammed her head against the cloud and closed her eyes.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow's eyes opened immediately. She peered over her cloud and saw Pinkie Pie. She floated down towards the pink party pony with a smile and yawn. "Hey Pinkie. What's up?"

"I just wanted to know if you were up for some super duper neato pranks?!" Pinkie said leaning forward towards her friend that she was standing on just her front hooves.

"Maybe some other time Pinkie." Rainbow said. "I'm actually really tired right now. Us pegasi had to get up early for a scheduled rain storm." Rainbow said hiding a yawn. 

Pinkie Pie looked puzzled for a second then grinned again, "I understand Dashie! Your work is important." Pinkie nodded up and down extremely quick. "That's okay. I can just go to Sugar Cube Corner and bake sweets then eat them when they're done! Then maybe afterwards I'll make chocolate cake!" Pinkie nodded again.

"Yeah you do that." Was all Rainbow Dash could contribute to the conversation then flew back up to her cloud. Pinkie waved enthusiastically then bounced off towards her home. Rainbow landed on her soft pillowy cloud and fell asleep almost instantaneous. "What's with the rain storm schedule anyway?" She asked herself before falling into unconsciousness.

*****


"Everyone enjoying their supper?" A soft mellow voice asked. An abundance of creatures nodded their heads as they cheerfully chewed away at their food. "That's good." Fluttershy smiled then went inside her fair cottage. She laid on the sofa and started eating some hay. 

Angel bounced up then pointed to his bowl while tapping his foot giving a sour scowl. Angel caught Fluttershy's attention and she walked towards her animal friend. Fluttershy's eyes went into sorrow mode and apologized. "Oh Angel I'm so sorry!" She got off the couch and trotted over to a counter. "I can't believe I forgot. I never forget." She opened a cabinet and moved just in time to avoid a mug that fell out and smashed on the floor, startling half the animals inside. "Don't worry everyone. It was just a cup that fell." The animals calmed down and continued grazing. As Fluttershy was getting out the food for Angel she couldn't help but look at the broken glass. 

She gave Angel his food and picked up the pieces. Fluttershy noticed this was the mug she earned up in Cloudsdale. It had a picture of a cloud with a rainbow coming out of it and text saying 'Junior Speedsters Flight Camp'. "How could I have been so careless?" She asked herself. "If I want, I could just go get another one. It's a good excuse to be able to talk my old teacher! Oh she would be so excited to see me." She grinned then her ears drooped along with her smile and cowered a bit, "As long as Mr. Griffin isn't there, he yells too much."

*****


It was nearing night and the sun was lowering behind the horizon. Its orange glow bathed Ponyville with a picture perfect sunset and Luna's moon was slowly rising over the opposite side. Twilight's tree house was lit up on the inside and the unicorn was having supper with her assistant. 

"So Twi, I noticed a bunch of books lying on the floor again when I woke up from my nap." Spike said between bites while looking lamely at his what he considered, older sister. 

"Yeah I had nothing to do so I read some more." Said Twilight. Spike just stared at Twilight with half open eyes then peered over to the scattered books. Twilight noticed this and put her sandwich on her plate. "Don't worry Spike I'll put those ones away myself." She reassured him. 

"Yes. You will." Said Spike while taking a bite.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Said Spike. Twilight just gave an odd expression then took another chunk out of her sandwich. 

Later that night Twilight was shelving the books she read and re-read earlier.

"Anything to report to the princess?" Spike asked while holding a quill and parchment.

"Well I didn't really see my friends today so there's nothing to report." Twilight responded. "Also it's not Tuesday."

"Alright." Was all Spike said and set everything down then walked back upstairs. "You coming Twi? It's getting late." he said while looking down. 

"Yeah I'm coming, don't worry."

The full moon was now hovering well above Equestria emitting nice dim light. Twilight trotted up the stairs and slowly slipped in her bed. She leaned up and saw Spike was sound asleep and snoring like usual. She just rolled her eyes and fell backwards into her bed. 

*****


Twilight was standing at the edge of a cliff looking over a vast valley of forest and a river gliding through it. Her mane and tail were blowing in the wind as she stood there. She whipped around to see a Cyan pegasus standing behind her awaiting orders. 

"Windflow, I want you to circle the perimeter of our peaceful village. We can't have those Ponytact's surprise us again." Windflow gave a salute and took to the sky. "Now you!" She pointed at a light yellow pegasus. The pegasus pointed at herself with a confused look. "Yeah you, Skutterfly. Do the same thing, however remain on the opposite side of Windflow." Skutterfly nodded and took off slower than usual.

"Ooh ooh! How about me?!" Bounced a happy looking pink earth pony. 

"I want you and Faddlejack to stay up here and keep a lookout. Got that?" Twilight commanded.

"No problemo Twi-fight Twilight!"

"Err yeah..." Twilight responded. "Finally Scarcity and I will remain on the ground in the village." She said closing her eyes and walking past every pony. She opened them and turned to face the remainder of her team. "With our magic we can defend ourselves. So every pony understand? We must stand guard incase the Ponytact's attack tonight." She slammed her left hoof on the ground. "And if things get rough when they show up, we will no longer try to sway them away. We will unleash our full power!" Twilight said. "Let's go." She motioned to Scarcity and they started walking down the mountain toward the village.

All was calm and quiet through the night. Twilight looked up in the sky to see Windflow and Skutterfly circling. She turned her head and saw the two earth ponies peering over the cliff. Scarcity was walking lazily around. "Do we have to do this all night Twilight?" Scarcity complained.

"Yes. The Ponytact's were spotted not far from here earlier today. We cannot be too careful." Twilight responded.

"Well if they do attack they should make it snappy. I'm missing my beauty sleep." Scarcity replied. "By the way, when you said unleash our full power.. Did you mean?"

"Yes I did. I'm tired of having to fix the mess they cause due to their lack of consideration for others. I will rid these tyrants of Equestria forever. Enough is enough." Twilight said.

"So, are they in place?" Asked Scarcity.

"Yes. I've positioned them in such a way that they will all be affected." She stopped and saw a unicorn sleeping against a house. She trotted over and smacked him in the face. "Man your post soldier!" She snapped which caused the unicorn to stand immediately and salute. Twilight walked back over to Scarcity. "Honestly, some ponies..." Twilight complained to Scarcity. She looked over and saw Scarcity lying on the ground with her eyes closed. "Oh for Pete's sake!" Scarcity opened her eyes and stood.

"I was uh.. listening through the ground if I, heard. Um, hoof steps coming." She grinned.

Twilight looked lamely at her. "Uh huh."

All of a sudden some shouting from above was heard. Windflow and Skutterfly were coming down from the sky. "They're coming!" Yelled Windflow. Just then Faddlejack was yelling from their post confirming this was indeed the Ponytact's headed into town. 

"Enough playing around. This time it's serious." Twilight said as she ran towards her post with Scarcity. A bunch of unicorns came bolting out of houses and stood ground ready to defend their town. They all had stern looks in their faces. But those stern looks slowly turned to fear as they saw a large black unicorn pony wearing some kind of suit and goggles obscuring its eyes from being visible. This unicorn must have been at least three times the size of a regular sized stallion with a horn that extended well over a foot long. 

"Um, Twilight... Who in Equestria is that?" Asked Scarcity.

"I'm not sure... But whoever that is, looks!-" She was cutoff when the black unicorn rammed a house which sent the corner of it crumbling to the ground. The whole Earth shook as that thing walked the ground. Running on both sides of the unicorn was the Ponytact clan.

"Like our new friend?" One asked as it took a torch and lit a house on fire. "It's a little something we managed to whip up!"

Twilight sent a beam of energy from her horn towards the attacking Ponytact. He grunted in pain but just knocked down a wall causing the family inside to scurry out while screaming. Suddenly the Ponytact member was standing normally and just sneered at Twilight. "You don't think that will effect us anymore do you?" Then ran off to cause more damage with his fellow clan members. 

Twilight grabbed Scarcity. "Come on!" She said yanking Scarcity backwards. "We've got to lure them into the Element's boundaries!" She yelled and soon to follow were other unicorns of the town. 

The Ponytact's were right behind them giving chase. Eventually they all stopped and turned towards each other. No pony moving, just staring at each other. The huge unicorn came through as the Ponytact's parted for their boss. The unicorns all focused their power and shot at the large beast, however it just flicked its wrist and all of them were sent flying. The Ponytact's slowly crept towards the unicorns with sly smiles on their faces. However the unicorns got up with smirks across their faces. 

"What are they smiling about?" One Ponytact member asked another. The other just shrugged. Just then a huge flash of light broke through the night sky from five different corners! After that!-

Twilight woke up. She was breathing faster and was sweaty. She leaned forwards and saw Spike was still sleeping, but the sun had risen already. She looked like a nervous wreck. "What a nightmare." She said slowing her breathing. She got out of bed and looked out the window. She saw birds flying and dew on the ground. It was a normal morning. She heard a yawn and Spike stretching.

"Hey Twilight." Spike said. Twilight turned around and just smiled at him. 

She trotted downstairs removing her smile and opened the small leathery book again to the ripped out pages. "The Elements of Disharmony." She said to herself as she shook her head. "The consequences could be catastrophic..."

> Chapter 2: Disturbing Discovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight was just standing there staring at the book blankly. Spike walked downstairs rubbing his eyes. "Are you still going on about that book?" Spike questioned but didn't get a response. "You really should stop obsessing over that thing, remember what happened the last time you obsessed over a book?"

"And it happened!" Twilight blurted as she spun around with a yell. Spike retreated a bit. Twilight sighed, "Sorry Spike, I just had a horrible dream."

"So you're worried about those Elements of Disharmony?" Spiked asked.

"How did you know?" Twilight said.

"Oh come on Twilight, every pony knows you talk in your sleep." Spike said. Twilight's ears just drooped and she had a worried expression on her face. "Oops, maybe I shouldn't have told you that." Spike said. "But anyway, how long have the Elements of Disharmony existed? About a bijillion years and nothing bad happened."

"That's not the point Spike. If any pony does find those elements, which eventually some pony will, Equestria as we know it could be doomed." Twilight said and trotted over to the other side of the library carrying the book still. 

"Couldn't the Elements of Harmony just destroy the disharmonic elements?" Said Spike.

"Yes they could, at least, that's what I read what did happen." Said Twilight turning to Spike once again. "I am an element of harmony. So are my five closest friends." Said Twilight looking out the door. 

"So..."

"So I think I know what has to be done." Replied Twilight. 

"Alrighty, I'll ink a letter to the Princess telling her what's going on." Spike said reaching for the quill and parchment. 

"No!" Twilight yelled and grabbed the quill and parchment from Spike. "Don't tell the Princess."

Spike stood there dumbfounded. "Uh. Can I ask why?" 

"Because, no offense to her or her guards but, she would send the guards to do the job and would probably mess this whole thing up." Twilight closed her eyes and stood tall. "Nope, I'd rather this go unscathed and bring the Elements of Disharmony to the princess personally myself!" She opened her eyes and lowered her head. "I just hope the others understand."

*****


Twilight was running to Sweet Apple Acres as fast as her legs could take her. She had her saddlebag intact and had the little leather book inside. She was getting tired and could feel the burn. She wasn't used to sprinting long distances, but when the opportunity called for it she could push herself. 

She arrived at Applejack's barn house and knocked on the door. Applebloom answered it with a grin on her face. "Howdy Twilight!" She welcomed enthusiastically. "Here fer Applejack?"

"Yes. I need to speak with her right away." Twilight replied. 

Applebloom motioned her to come inside. "Ah'll tell Applejack yer here." Applebloom left the room and Twilight was left sitting in the lobby. About a minute later Applejack came walking in.

"Hey there Twi. What brings you around to these here parts?" She asked.

Twilight stood up, "Well um. It's kinda important and uh... Well..." She thought to herself how absurd this will sound in speaking words.

"Spit it out girl." Applejack teasingly said playfully.

"Well, um... You know how we represent the Elements of Harmony?"

"Yeah... What about it?" Applejack's expression changed to a more serious look.

"What if I told you there were Elements of Disharmony?" Twilight said anticipating her friends response.

"Wha?" Applejack stepped back a bit. "Ah never heard of those before. Are you just yankin' mah chain Twilight?"

"No. Why would I run all the way here and say a slanderous lie?" Twilight said seriously.

"Ah guess that's true." Responded Applejack. "Well if there's Elements of Disharmony, how come ah never heard've them before?"

"Because only a couple books tell their tale. I'm not sure any pony else knows about this, I found two books in my library. A book that tells of what they are and what they do, and a book which I believe, to be the original copy and a few hundred years old!" Twilight levitated the small faded purple leather book out of her saddlebag and plopped it down in front of Applejack. Twilight spoke the last phrase in the book. "To this very day the Elements of Disharmony were never retrieved. But if they were to fall in the wrong hooves, the consequences could be catastrophic." Twilight closed the book and floated it back in her saddlebag buttoning it shut. "The pages get ripped out after that, and that's where the copy of this book ended too."

Applejack just stood there then looked up at Twilight. "So?"

"...So?" Twilight said. "So?! So that means we need to go out and find these Elements of Disharmony and secure them, or even destroy them!" Twilight said frantically.

"Comon' Twi, yer just overeactin' to a fairy tale." Applejack said and was starting to get ready for her day of cider and juice making. "Now if you'll excuse me, ah gotta get tah work." She started trotting past Twilight. Twilight sat there looking depressed. Applejack noticed and sighed. "Look Twilight, ah honestly don't know why yer telling me thi, but-"

"Because we represent the Elements of Harmony! It is our job to prevent things like this from ever happening!" Twilight said back in a quiet screaming tone. "It's eating me up inside! I just gotta know if what I read was real! Believe me, I'm skeptical too, but I have to know!" She sat there with watery eyes.

Applejack just pawed at the floor for a few seconds before responding. "Oh pony feathers... Fine." She said not looking at Twilight. "When do you want to check this out?" 

Twilight perked up from Applejack's agreeing. "Hmmm... An hour?" She said.

"Whathidga?" Applejack shook her face. "Today?! Why today? Why not a day where ah'm not busy?"

"Because every second I go pondering about the Elements of Disharmony is a second of anguish! Not to mention the nightmare I had last night was scream-worthy. I have to get this clear from my conscience."  Twilight explained.

"Well you do look pretty bad." Applejack said. Twilight looked up and beamed a scowl at Applejack. "Looks like you had a rough night is all I meant!"

Twilight smiled at her friend, "Thanks for understanding Applejack. So I'll see you at my place soon!" Twilight said bolting out the door back to town.

"Well, guess I should tell Applebloom it will only be her and Big Mac doin' all the work fer today. Poor filly." Applejack said to herself as she went to find her little sister. 

*****


Twilight had relayed her story to her other four friends and it all went pretty much the same way it did with Applejack. However Pinkie Pie was easy to convince because she just pretty much goes along with anything. 

All six were at Twilight's library and were gathered around her. "So what exactly are we going to do?" Asked a hovering Rainbow Dash. 

"Yes run through it all again.. But in a condensed version please." Said Rarity.

Twilight cleared her throat, "We need to find the Elements of Disharmony and either bring them back to Canterlot for the princess to decide what to do with them, or destroy them ourselves before any pony else will eventually find them."

"Where exactly are these here elements Twi?" Asked Applejack. "You never told me where they were."

"Actually I don't think I told any of you. Sorry." Twilight said looking down, then looking back up towards her friends nervously. Her ears drooped a bit. "They're in um... The ancient castle of the royal Pony sisters..." Said Twilight as she got quieter as she spoke.

"How do yah know it's in there Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"In the book, it said the Elements of Harmony were placed in a guarded chamber, while the Elements of Disharmony were placed in a hidden area around there." Twilight explained.

Fluttershy covered her eyes and cowered. "We have to go back there?!" She said loud, yet quietly at the same time. The other four gasped and talked amongst themselves.

"Well it's not like we have Nightmare Moon to worry about this time." Said Applejack which seemed to calm every pony down a bit. "we'll be in, have a look around, then back out."

"You mean we have to go in there just so Twilight sees it was all a fairy tale?" Rainbow complained. Twilight looked sternly at her. "I mean, heh, ummm... Ah that's exactly what I meant." She said then she flew out the door. 

Every pony began walking outside. "Spike, we'll be gone for probably a few hours. You'll be alright?" Twilight said looking back at Spike. 

"Go on Twilight. I'll probably just nap anyway." He saw that Twilight was still looking at him. "Oh and finishing my chores!" Spike nodded with a big fake grin. Twilight just turned and walked outside closing the door behind her. Spike just stretched then headed back upstairs. "Early nap but I don't care."

*****


Four mares walked contently through the Everfree forest. Pinkie was bouncing with her happy eyes closed and Rainbow Dash was flying above them. It was an uneasy silence between them with the odd cracking of twigs and kicking of rocks. 

"Hey Dashie enjoy that nap yesterday?" Asked Pinkie.

Rainbow Dash opened her half closed eyes as she was alert again. "Huh? Oh yesterday... Uh sure I guess." Rainbow replied thinking it was a strange random question right out of the blue that broke the silence. 'She's just being Pinkie Pie' Rainbow reminded herself. 

"I really need a change of scenery. This icky forest always gives me this unclean feeling." Rarity complained.

The others just rolled their eyes and kept going. "So I didn't really break other pony's plans today did I?" Asked Twilight hoping they weren't busy today.

Applejack was the first the respond. "Well Twi, I was supposed to make apple cider and juice today with mah little sis and older brother, but I can't until we get back. As long as this is important to you, ah can hold off on a day of labor." Applejack said trying not to sound harsh.

"I was going to look for baby blue sapphires today with Sweetie Belle, but I suppose that can be put off for another day. She's with her orange friend with the purple mane today anyway. Ruffian that one is." Rarity said.

"Well I was going to practice some new tricks." Said Rainbow Dash looking down on Twilight. "But then we came here. Tomorrow in the early morning, and I mean EARLY morning we need to make yet another rain storm for Ponyville. Honestly, why all the rain?" Rainbow asked to herself. 

"Well I uh, was going to see my old teacher today. She was such a nice lady." Fluttershy said softly. "I was also going to replace a cup I smashed last night." Every pony stopped and looked at Fluttershy in bewilderment.

"Wow Fluttershy, you sure have a temper when you get angry!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"Um.. It fell." Said Fluttershy hiding behind her mane.

"I was going to create this super insane cool looking chocolate cake today, then eat it!" Said Pinkie. "It's too bad I can't now, but when I told the Cakes I was going on an adventure with you Mrs. Cake offered to pack my saddlebag for me! Such considerate pony's!" She said as she kept bouncing.

Twilight and Rarity just looked at each other and giggled a little to Pinkie's answer. But Twilight quickly looked serious again. "Gee, I didn't know you all had plans." Said Twilight looking down as she walked. 

"No worries hun." Said Applejack. "One day off the farm might actually be good fer me." 

Rarity spoke next, "Besides, this brings back decent memories of how our friendship came to be!" She said a little chipper than normal.

*****


"Hey Twilight, ah just realized, why didn't you bring our elements with us?" Applejack said. 

"Because we're not facing any real threat from the Elements of Disharmony." Replied Twilight. "They're physically encased in the stone." She reassured herself. But then a daunting thought struck her. 'What if those ripped out pages contained the information on how to release the Elements of Disharmony?' Her stomach churned at this sudden realization of the dreaded 'What if' factor. She decided not to tell any of her friends this thought. 'We'll just have to destroy them' she thought to herself.

Twilight felt a sensation at the tip of her nose, then on top of her head and body. It was water, and pretty soon it started raining.

"Dang it! Lousy automatic weather in the Everfree Forest." Complained Rainbow as she slowly flew a little lower. 

Rarity was the most concerned over this. "No not rain!" She said. "My lustrous mane will tangle!"

"Big deal." Replied Applejack, "Why do ya have to be all Hoity Toity in the forest anyway?"

"You know what would be nice? If it was raining chocolate milk!" Pinkie said while still hopping around, her hooves making squishing sounds every time she landed due to the dampening forest floor.

"I like the rain." Said Fluttershy, "It's so peaceful." But suddenly jumped and hid behind a bush when a flash of lightning ripped through the sky.

"Yeah... It's amazing..." Said Rainbow Dash in a not-so-impressed tone. She tugged Fluttershy out of the bush then started walking with the others.

The lightning grew more intense as flashes of light became more frequent. It was now thoroughly raining which caused the six ponies to get soaked in a short amount of time. "Well, what's the point?" Rarity said to herself.  The clouds in the sky were now a dark purple which blotted out the evening sunshine and stretched out as far as they could possibly see. It was now dark in the forest from the storm and the rain was not letting up. "Rainbow, be a dear and clear those clouds please." Rarity asked nicely.

A big crash of lightning through the sky made every one of them jump since it was the loudest one yet. "Yeah, I don't think so." Rainbow replied.

Twilight stopped the group by extending a hoof out sideways. She could see something moving around in the distance through the flashes of light. Every pony was silent as they could see it too. A loud rawr could be heard and soon enough it was in plain sight standing before them in a clearing. A Manticore.

Every pony looked at Fluttershy and she just closed her eyes in contentedness and waltzed over to the beast. "You hurt again little guy?" She asked. The Manticore just screamed right in Fluttershy's face which caused her hair to be spiked backwards. She screamed and ran back to the group just missing the swipe of the creatures claw swinging at her. 

"Something tells me he isn't very happy." Said Twilight.

"You think?" Rainbow retorted. 

All them ran off to the side as the Manticore charged right at them. Twilight used her magical abilities and teleported all six high into a neighboring tree. She was exhausted from having to do that spell with that many ponies at the same time. "There. We should be safe up here." She said between breaths.

The Manticore looked up at them growling. "Now what do we do? We're sittin' ducks up in this here tree!" Applejack said looking at Twilight.

"Ooo that looks neato!" Said Pinkie pointing down towards the beast. All of them looked to see the Manticore unfurling its wings and begin to ascend towards their location.

Rainbow floated down towards it and began kicking towards the creature. It would just dodge the attacks by moving its head slightly left and right and eventually took a big bite in the air which Rainbow nearly avoided. She flew a safe distance and yelled to the others, "I think it's hungry you guys!" The Manticore moved its attention back towards the other five in the tree. and began flying towards them.

"Please stop! Please!" Fluttershy pleaded with both hooves together looking at the Manticore. It flew full speed towards Fluttershy who moved out of the way so fast it could challenge Rainbow Dash's speed. The creature smashed head first into the tree which dazed it. The impact to the tree made it crack. Twilight looked at Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She sighed and conjured the rest of her energy to teleport them back down to the ground. Just as they landed back, the tree made a loud crack and finally toppled over. 

The rain and lightning were even more apparent than earlier and made visibility even worse. All the ponies ran to hide under some shrubs. "Do ya'll think he saw us?" Asked Applejack.

"I don't think so. Maybe we can ride it out here Twilight." Said Rarity. She looked to her left and just saw Pinkie Pie, but no Twilight. "Um, where is she?" The three of them looked out and saw Twilight laying in the clearing, clearly worn out. The Manticore was right behind her and ready to swing.

"Oh no. Twi!" Applejack yelled. She ran out and stopped as the Manticore raised its claw to slash at a defenseless Twilight when a yellow pegasus flew in front of it.

Fluttershy was stern and was yelling at the creature. "Hey! Remember us?! Remember me?! We helped you in your time of agony and this is how you repay us?! By trying to eat us for supper?!" The Manticore lowered its paw slowly with a look of awareness. Fluttershy then applied 'the stare' to the creature which caused it to cower a little. "You're going to turn around, walk away, and not look back! Got it?" She continued staring. "GOT IT?!" She screamed and was right in his face. It gulped and nodded then turned away slowly walking in the opposite direction. 

As soon as it was out of sight the rest of them came out towards Fluttershy and were all cheering and congratulating her for her bravery. Rainbow flew down and gave Fluttershy a noogie. Twilight slowly stood up and bopped herself on the side of her head with her hoof a couple times to regain focus. "Whoa, what'd I miss?" She asked.

"Oh um, Fluttershy just used her physco stare and made it go away." Applejack said.

"The Manticore was right there and was going to get you because you weren't awake but Fluttershy flew in and saved the day with that awesomely terrific bestest stare in the world and saved you!" Pinkie Pie spoke extremely fast then grinned. 

Twilight looked over at Fluttershy who was now blushing from all the attention she was getting. "Talk about timing." Twilight said and friendly nuzzled Fluttershy. "Thanks. You didn't just save my life, but all of ours."

"You saved ours too by teleporting us away." Said Fluttershy, "So we're even." She said trying to muster up a joke and lighten the mood a bit more. They all shared a laugh and eventually began walking again. 

*****


The rain and lightning were still not letting up and the clouds were moving faster than before. A fierce wind was blowing causing the trees to sway violently. 

Twilight squinted her eyes and could make out something familiar... The ruins! "Hey look girls! We made it!" She said galloping towards the place but stopped because the path was broken off. Broken off by a broken bridge to be exact.

"Oh man you gotta be kidding me!" Rainbow said and walked over to the edge.

"So just fly over there and re-tie it like before." Said Applejack.

"There's a reason I haven't been flying since the Manticore. The wind has picked up." Said Rainbow turning towards Applejack. "If I fly over to tie it up, I'll just be tossed around and won't get anywhere." She said motioning towards the bridge.

"Well I have an idea." Said Twilight. "I could just use my magic to tie the rope at the end there."

Rarity interjected. "No no no Twilight, I won't see to it. You've done enough already and you clearly don't have the energy to do this." She said. Twilight looked coarsely at Rarity then realized she was right. Twilight was drained and needed to rebuild her strength. Rarity smiled and walked in front of them and focused her energy into the tying the bridge together. It was a pretty easy accomplishment and she managed to tie it up in no time. "Well then. Shall we?" 

They all thanked Rarity and made their way across the bridge. Rainbow was getting excited due to the thrill of this adventure so far and therefore lead all of them by going first. They bridge swayed and rocked as they were all gingerly walking across. All of a sudden as every pony was near the middle Rainbow noticed the rope was sliding backwards slowly. She looked up in panic and saw the rope that Rarity had tied was loosening and was going to give out any moment now. She gasped and ran to the end which caused the rope to eventually fall. She made it to the land and quickly grabbed the rope in her mouth and was yanking backwards as hard as she could. Her neck muscles have never worked this hard before, but she was holding the bridge up.

The five still on the bridge were screaming and were running towards the land where Rainbow was. The grip was loosening in her teeth as she tried to hold up her friends weight on the bridge. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie all made it when the rope fell out of Rainbow's mouth causing the entire bridge to fall backwards and hang by one end. 

They all looked at each other and noticed something. "Where's Applejack?!" Pinkie blurted.

"Oh no!" Twilight panicked and ran towards the edge to peer downward and saw Applejack hanging onto the cliff side. "I see her!" 

All of them ran over to the edge and saw exactly what Twilight saw.

"Hang on Applejack!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Rarity, can you levitate Applejack from the cliff side up to here?" Asked Twilight.

"No I'm afraid I can't. My magic isn't nearly powerful enough to lift a full grown pony." She said with a look of shame. 

"I can't because I don't have the energy." Said Twilight with a hoof rubbing her horn. "Guess we'll have to do this manually." And spun around looking back to Applejack who was struggling to hang on. Twilight spun back to them. "Alright here's the plan; Rainbow will be lowered down to Applejack who will grab ahold of her, we all hang onto each other in a line and pull Rainbow up along with Applejack. Understand every pony?" They all nodded.

"Wait, why do I have to be the one lowered to pick up Applejack?" Asked Rainbow.

"Because you have wings, and even though this storm will toss you around if you fly, you have a better chance if anything goes wrong. Also..." Twilight sighed knowing this would boost Rainbow's ego even higher. "Also, you're stronger than the rest of us. I'm sure you could hold onto AJ longer than any other one of us..."

Rainbow pumped out her chest and smiled. "Yeah you're right!" She said.

"Um. A little help please!" Applejack yelled.

They wasted no more time and got to business. Rainbow stood at the ledge looking down at Applejack. Twilight grabbed onto Rainbow's hind legs. Rarity grabbed Twilight's, Fluttershy held Rarity's and Pinkie held Fluttershy's. Rainbow motioned she was ready and was slowly being lowered down towards Applejack. Rainbow saw that right past Applejack was nothingness. The canal was pitch black which caused Rainbow's eyes to widen. She shook her head and remained focused on helping Applejack. Her front legs were extended downwards and when she was low enough told them all to stop. 

"Grab on." She said to Applejack. She knew the plan and grabbed Rainbow's front hooves with her own. "Alright I got her! Back'er up!" Slowly she could feel them being pulled upwards. She helped the others by flapping her wings lightly and soon enough had her hind hooves touching grass, then her knees and body then eventually her whole self. When she was close enough, Applejack pulled herself onto the surface panting. They were safe. 

When they all caught their breath Rainbow stormed over to Rarity. "What was that?! Can't you tie a knot properly?! We could have all been doomed!" She was screaming. Rarity was just looking shamefully at the ground not moving. "Well? What's the matter with you?!"

Rainbow turned away and bumped into Applejack. Applejack just shook her head. "Don't worry about it gals, the fact of the matter is that we are all safe and sound." 

They all looked at each other and realized AJ was right. "We are all savin' each others hides tonight huh?... Thanks for not giving up on me." Applejack turned towards her friends with teary eyes. "Also, I think we all owe Rainbow Dash a big thank you for pretty much saving all our lives back there with the bridge."

"Awe hey it was nothing." Rainbow gave with a wave of her hoof.

"Oh now she's being modest?" Twilight teased. They laughed again and started onwards into the ruins, knowing their bond with each other grew even stronger than it already was earlier.

*****


Twilight stood ahead of the pack into the room looking at the bare statue that once held the Elements of Harmony. This flooded back a bunch of memories to all six of them and all smiled at one another, remembering it was their friendship that defeated Nightmare Moon in this very spot a few years ago. 

"Well we're here. So now what?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

"Last time we were here there was no separate room for the Elements of Disharmony. So they must be hidden. Maybe there's a secret latch or button." Twilight said looking around.

All the friends were standing in one spot just glancing around the room for anything that stuck out from the ordinary. "Either they're hidden, or they don't even exist." Said Rainbow again. "Probably the latter though."

"Stop being so skeptical Rainbow!" Twilight said with a tad bit of annoyance. "Maybe we can all look around. Press bricks, pulls vines, just try to find it." 

"Well, I hope we all didn't come here for nothing." Said Rarity.

"We'll see..." Said Applejack while all of them scattered around looking for a secret.

"Um, what if we can't find the bad elements like you want?" Said Fluttershy.

"Then at least I'll have peace of mind. But I want to search every nook and cranny first to be satisfied." Twilight responded. Fluttershy just nodded very slightly and resumed pressing against the wall in various places. 

"Wow, I've been doing this for only a minute and I'm already bored." Said Rainbow.

"Walking in all the mud, and having wind blowing and rain whipping my face had better been worth it. I look simply dreadful." Said Rarity. 

Applejack just rolled her eyes. "Come on ya'll, it's not the end of the world if we have to get dirty."

Pinkie Pie interjected, "I love this! It's like a scavenger hunt!" Pinkie Pie was zooming along the stone floor slamming her hooves on the ground looking for a secret button.

It was well into an hour and there was a break in the clouds. They all looked up and saw the atmosphere color was darkening. "I gotta get to Ponyville for my weather duties by morning Twilight. I need to sleep so I'm outta here." Said Rainbow.

"How will you get back to Ponyville?" Pinkie said surprisingly calm.

Rainbow Dash just flapped her wings as if to point out the obvious. "I can get back to town in a few minutes by just flying over the forest." She spread open her wings ready to fly off.

"Dash, just keep looking. I'm sure we'll find something." Twilight pleaded.

"Yes, aren't you the element of loyalty Rainbow? Aren't you loyal to your friends?" Said Rarity sounding rather peckish.

"I'm also loyal to the ponies in Ponyville, besides, I've been loyal enough today." Retorted Rainbow.

"Ah didn't know there was a maximum loyalty limit." Applejack sneered.

"Whatever! I'll come back tomorrow if you're still here!" Rainbow said rather enraged and took off towards the sky.

"But Rainbow Dash wait!" Yelled Pinkie Pie.

"No!" She yelled while looking back at Pinkie. When she wasn't looking she missed the hole in the ceiling and smashed into the solid stone. Rainbow fell to the ground and landed with a thud having her eyes rolling around in circles. She groaned and slowly got up swaying around. Fluttershy gasped and came over to help her. Rainbow shook her head and regained her balance, not seeming worse for wear. "I'm okay, just a little dazed heh." 

But then the ceiling above was cracking in the spot Rainbow Dash smashed her head into. Fluttershy and Rainbow shrieked and ran away to a safe distance from the cracking. The six were just watching the ceiling crack apart in the one spot and then it just stopped. They all blew a sigh of relief when all of a sudden a very loud cracking sound echoed throughout the ruins and that part of the ceiling just fell straight to the floor beneath it. A giant dust cloud appeared when the ceiling hit the floor which caused all of them to cough.

After they were done coughing Rarity was in Rainbows face, "I've been rained on, have bark pieces in my coat, grass stains on my belly and now I'm covered in a blanket of dust!" She said as she clearly was the dirtiest of them all. 

"Forget about that! Look!" Said Twilight pointing toward the rubble with a hoof. They all looked in awe as they saw a big gaping hole where the ceiling smashed. Apparently the stone ceiling crashed into the floor hard enough to reveal a secret tunnel that ran just under the ruins. Twilight grinned in excitement then ran up and hugged Rainbow Dash. "You found it Rainbow!" She said and ran over to the hole in the floor then turned back around to her friends. "You found a secret passage Dash!" Before thinking Twilight just hopped in the hole.

Rainbow Dash looked a little shocked then gave a heroic pose. The rest of them didn't even notice and trotted over to the hole. The drop was only about eight feet down to the passage floor and saw Twilight looking up at them. "Come on girls! It's safe in here!" Twilight said still excited. 

"I don't care anymore." Rarity said as she hopped in with little pieces of stone falling into her mane.

The rest smirked as they seemed to be a little excited and hopped in the cave. It wasn't that big, maybe only about five feet tall, three feet wide and the floor of it was still dirt. However the walls and ceiling of the tunnel were built from stone. 

"So, we had to smash our way into the tunnel?" Asked Applejack.

"I guess. Perhaps they wanted to seal away the Elements of Disharmony." Twilight assumed. 

"How do we even know those elements are in here? Maybe it's just a tunnel for other purposes." Applejack said.

The cave was dark and colder than the surface. They couldn't see very far ahead. The only light source they had at the time was the moon light shining in through the hole above them. Beyond that was pitch black. Fluttershy trembled but didn't say anything. A spider was walking next to her on the wall and she just ran and hid behind Pinkie Pie. 

"I thought you loved every creature Fluttershy?" Said Rainbow Dash looking back at her friend.

"N-Not spiders. They're... Scary." She responded.

Twilight illuminated her horn for light and asked Rarity to do the same. There was a purplish and bluish glow to the tunnel now that seemed to extend surprisingly only a short distance. They walked slowly down the tunnel and were met by a set of stairs. They were all silent and walked carefully downwards towards the end of the tunnel. There were torches on the wall that were obviously not lit. The tunnel got taller and wider, and at the end saw a giant stone door that must have been fifteen feet tall and twenty feet wide. They were all stunned by this huge door that had markings, designs and carvings in it. Twilight walked closer and read right in the middle of the door: 'ELEMENTS OF DISHARMONY' 

She gasped and then turned to her friends. "Hah! They are real!" She said pointing to her friends, mostly Rainbow Dash. "You all thought they were made up and I was reading a children's fairy tale, but I was right!"

"You're right Twi," Applejack spoke. "I thought you were just spoutin' a bunch of hooey, but I reckon there really are Elements of Disharmony." 

"Yeah yeah. What AJ said." Said Rainbow Dash. 

Twilight turned towards the door again and saw three gear looking mechanisms on the door. "hmmm. Is this a lock?" She looked closer.  "Sure looks like one." 

"It's a mighty big lock. Looks like whatever's inside, is supposed to stay inside." Applejack said.

"I have to know." Said Twilight.

"Don't be stubborn! You know they exist now lets go! I need a shower!" Said Rarity in a higher pitched annoyed tone.

"Well we can't just leave now." Said Twilight. "With that gaping hole in the floor there, any pony or any creature could stumble upon this."

Rarity just slumped down a bit.

"Okay well there's no sense in just sitting here, open that baby up!" Said Rainbow.

"Right." Agreed Twilight and her horn began illuminating a bright white at the tip. She clenched her eyes and teeth as she was giving a ton of energy from her horn. She groaned as her horn grew brighter. With the energy she expelled earlier it was incredible she could do this right now. The mechanisms on the door made a clack noise but weren't turning. 

"I bet these mechanisms haven't budged for over a thousand years." Said Applejack. 

Rarity stepped up and illuminated her horn too. She wasn't nearly as powerful as Twilight but she did help a little bit by applying some pressure to the giant mechanisms. Rainbow and Fluttershy looked at each other and shrugged then flew up and were manually pushing the mechanisms by hoof.

"Come on Pinkie!" Applejack said and ran up to the door pushing the bottom part of the mechanism trying to turn it. A loud sound of something breaking burst out from the door and every one of them stopped pushing and Twilight collapsed to the floor disabling her magic along with Rarity. 

The mechanisms were rotating by themselves now and the door was very slowly swinging open. Twilight stood up and opened her eyes extremely wide. It felt like an eternity for the giant door to finally open up all the way but it was finally finished. It revealed a large square room that had nothing carved into the stone walls. Just sheer flatness. However it also had a stone floor unlike the rest of the tunnel.

They all slowly walked in the room side by side  looking around cautiously. "I... can't believe it." Said Twilight as she walked up to six stone ponies that were all standing in different poses frozen. "This is exactly how the book described it." She explained. "I guess the book should be put in the non-fiction section when I get home." 

There were five normal sized stone ponies in the room, but one giant unicorn posed in a fighting stance in the middle of them. 

Twilight took in this sight as no pony has laid eyes on these in over a thousand years. She lit the torches on the wall so she could give her horn a rest. This lit up the room with a comfortable amount of light. After a few moments of savoring this indescribable feeling, Twilight turned towards her friends with fierce eyes and a wicked smile. "Girls, these are far too heavy to retrieve, so we'll have to destroy them!" 

All her friends felt their heart jump for a second as they thought they would never hear Twilight say that. "Uh, are you sure Twilight?" Asked Fluttershy timidly.

"Yeah I mean, couldn't we just lock this door again?" Said Rainbow.

"No, and I already explained why earlier." Answered Twilight.

"Ah don't know sugar cube, there's a reason why these were hidden and never destroyed." Said Applejack.

"Just... Trust me on this. We must rid Equestria of these elements!" Twilight said.

After a long pause Rarity broke the silence. "I trust you Twilight. You seem to know far more about this kind of stuff than any other one of us." Rarity stepped forwards.

"She does bring up a good point." Said Applejack who trotted up next to them.

Rainbow just shrugged and flew beside them. Pinkie did the same except she bounced over towards them. Fluttershy didn't want to be alone so she flew beside the group. "I'm glad you understand." Twilight said. "Alright lets clear my conscience!" Said Twilight and without warning bucked the giant unicorn statue. It hardly shook. 

"Let me show you how it's done." Said Rainbow and bucked the statue herself. It shook a little bit more but it didn't break.

"Now Rainbow, once again ah hafta show you up." Said Applejack and walked over to the statue. "This is how you do it." With one hard crack of her hind legs she smashed the bottom of the statue apart which fell to the ground missing all of them. "That is how it's done." She crossed her front hoof over another one in victory. 

Suddenly a bright giant light flashed out from the statue! It was such an immense light they all had to shield their eyes and turn away. This lasted about fifteen seconds and then the normal light levels returned from the flickering torches. "What in Equestria was-" was all Twilight could say before becoming speechless. The rest turned around and also couldn't say a single word. They were frozen in fear.

They were face to face with another five ponies and towering over them was a giant black unicorn. The new ponies all wore smiles and devilish expressions. One of them spoke up.

"Thanks so much for releasing us. You have no idea what it's like to be encased in stone." He said in a rather raspy voice.

Twilight and company still couldn't move, couldn't even blink from sheer awe. The giant black unicorn stepped forward and spoke in a rather commanding tone. It's voice was so deep and booming that it could challenge the royal Canterlot voice. The echo within the room amplified its voice even more. "We thank you for releasing us from our bonds! Us, the Ponytact's who are dubbed 'Elements of Disharmony' shall now live on with that title!" Twilight remembered reading about the Ponytact's in her book. Everything in the book was spot on.

Just then another bright flash caused them all to shield their eyes again. When they opened them they were in even more shock. Standing in front of them was... Them! There were now two Twilight's, two Rarity's, two Pinkie Pie's, two Applejack's, two Rainbow Dash's, and two Fluttershy's. The Ponytact's copied their identities. However they still wore devilish expressions, while the original six all had drooped ears and were completely pale.

"You.... You...." Was all Rainbow could say.

"Copied your looks." Said the Twilight Sparkle copy, sounding exactly like her. "But not only that, also your memories and knowledge." 

"My my my." Said the copy of Pinkie Pie. "Don't you ever get tired of sugary snacks? Perhaps I'll eat... A vegetable!"

The original Pinkie gasped, "You wouldn't!"

Original Twilight had a weird expression on her face. "So what, the disharmonic element of Pinkie will make her eat vegetables? That's your master plan?"

Copied Twilight spoke up again. "Oh We'll do much more than that. Trust me, I have some ideas."

This just made all the originals slump down. "Oh this is going to be soooo much fun." Said copied Rainbow Dash.

The copies trotted out of the room and turned around back towards the originals. The copied Twilight lit up her horn and instantly the opening to the tunnel from the door had a purplish aura of energy like a barrier extend from the floor to the ceiling and wall to wall. "Consider yourselves getting off lucky!" And the door was slammed shut. 

The six friends could hear the mechanisms clicking and soon enough stop. They were locked in the room. Twilight ran up next to the door and tried to use her magic but nothing happened with it. After a while of trying with nothing happening Twilight turned around to her friends with a look of worry. "That purple barrier is a magic neutralizer! I can't get through it!" They were trapped, and their copies were out and about doing Celestia knows what.

	
> Chapter 3: Disharmony for all!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Well, just teleport us outta here then like last time Twi!" Applejack insisted. Her pupils were small and she was sweating a bit.

"I can't! That magical barrier is blocking all access out!" Twilight said panicking. 

Rainbow Dash looked worried, however that worry turned to anger as she flew up in the air and beamed a darting glare down at Twilight. "You just had to find these Elements of Disharmony didn't you professor egghead?!" She flew towards Twilight and stopped right in front of her and imitated Twilight mockingly, "Oh uh, the Elements of  Disharmony this and that. Blah blah blah, some pony will find them blah blah blah. You should have just let them be! They were secluded here! It's a miracle even we found them!" Rainbow paused to catch her breath but kept going, "We were intentionally looking for them! How could some pony stumble across them?!" Twilight looked away with tears forming in her eyes. "Now we're trapped in here forever and it's all your fault!" Rainbow landed on the ground and threw her nose at Twilight as she trotted away to the other side of the room.

"I.. Uh." Twilight couldn't speak as she was afraid she would burst into tears if she did. She wanted to run away, but there was no where to run. Twilight simply turned away from her friends and laid down on the stone floor sulking. 

Pinkie Pie wasn't so bubbly anymore and realized the seriousness of the situation. She quietly sat on her haunches and just stared at nothing. She wasn't moving. 

Rarity tried to use her magic, but the barrier just blocked her abilities from passing through. "I can't believe this is how I'll be known when we eventually get discovered. 'The Dirty One.'"

Fluttershy simply sat down and did nothing much like Pinkie. 

Rainbow turned her head to see all her friends in such a depressing state. It was dead silent in there, much like how it will be forever. But one thing struck her mind. "Doesn't fire need oxygen to stay lit?"

Applejack nodded, "Yes ma'am."

"Well, we've been here for a while, and with four torches lit and us breathing, shouldn't we have run out by now?" Rainbow said.

Twilight sniffled then turned her head, "You know... You're right." She said.

Rainbow was really focused on the dead silence sound, but she heard something within it. A faint whistling noise. She cocked her head and saw one of the torches flickering more wildly than the other ones. She walked up to the torch and the whistling was a tad bit more noticeable. "Hmmm."

"What is it Rainbow Dash?" Rarity questioned as she trotted over to her pegasus friend. 

Rainbow put her face closer to the whistling sound and her mane was moving slightly with a small breeze. "What the?" Was all Rainbow could say. This caught the attention of all her friends as they looked over to see what she was curious about. Twilight dried her tears and walked over to the breeze with her ears down in shame still.  She reacted quite differently which swung her mood completely around. 

"I know why we're getting air!" She then quickly faced away from the wall and bucked the stone really hard. Without warning a small chunk of stone shattered and collapsed revealing another tunnel. "An escape route! Incase any pony got trapped in this vault like we have!" They all smiled and looked down the tunnel.

"An escape route! WOOOOOO!" Pinkie Pie said all enthusiastically again. 

Applejack looked down the tunnel as well, "I gotta say! Nice catch Dash!" She winked at Rainbow and then winked at Twilight.

Rarity looked down the tunnel and noticed it was a very steep decline but she didn't care. As long as it was a way out she was happy. 

They all stepped into the tunnel at the same time and before they knew it, they couldn't stop themselves from moving. Gravity was doing its job and pulled them down the steep slope and just continued sliding! They were all screaming except for Pinkie who was having a blast. Down and down they went, and soon Twilight worried they were just going to get stuck even deeper underground. The tunnel twisted and turned causing the six to sometimes bonk heads together, or against the wall. Twilight lit her horn again for light to see ahead where they were going. Rarity was getting dirt thrown in her face by the ponies in front of her and turned her head away to breathe. Twilight noticed the tunnel was getting brighter even though she wasn't illuminating more magic than before. She saw at the end of the tunnel a faint bluish light. As they got closer, the light was getting brighter. 

The six were coughing and felt themselves getting hit by droplets of water from above. Fluttershy opened one eye and saw green. She opened the other and raised her head to see a bunch of wet plants surrounding her. She looked up and saw a thunderstorm. She was never this happy to see a raging storm above her. She jumped in the air and screamed "YEAAHH!" With a hoof high in the air.

The others realized where they were too and also gave a celebratory shout and grin, then looked at Fluttershy. Fluttershy finally noticed her shout and pose then quickly hid behind her mane. "I mean... Yay." 

Twilight looked up and saw that they were shot out of an exit chute at the bottom of the cliff. She looked higher and saw the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters way up at the top. Looking slightly right she saw the broken bridge where they had that incident with Applejack. Peering her head down was the blackness of the canal ahead of them.

Rainbow Dash walked over to Twilight with her head hung low and her ears back. She looked up at Twilight with sorrowful eyes. "Twilight...I just wanted to appol-"

Twilight put a hoof over Rainbow's mouth. "I forgive you Rainbow." Twilight softened her expression a bit. "I was angry at myself too. I deserved everything you said, but everything turned out alright didn't it?" Rainbow raised her head and gave Twilight a smile, then a hug. 

Fluttershy raised the awkward meter with an "Awwww." Rainbow and Twilight opened their eyes quickly and ended the hug retracting fast. Twilight looked away and rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. 

"So we good?" Asked Rainbow.

"Yep." 

"Uh gals, since we found the Elements of Disharmony and all, and now they're loose, what do ya'll suppose they're doin'?" Asked Applejack.

"Well they have our memories and knowledge supposedly." Twilight said responded to her orange friend not looking at her, but rather the night storm above them. She then faced Applejack. "Whatever it is, it'll be..." She gulped remembering her book, "Catastrophic." Her pupils got tiny just thinking about that.

"Well we must stop them!" Rarity yelled out behind them.

"How do we do that? Should we assault them with cake 'till those meanie weenies leave?" Asked Pinkie Pie. 

"No Pinkie." Twilight's expression changed to a commanding one then turned to face her friends. "We use the Elements of Harmony!"

*****


(In the rest of this chapter, all mane six characters are the COPIED disharmonic versions of themselves.)

"What's say we have a little fun with these new costumes?" Asked Rarity. "You know, before they've served their purpose."

"Ah agree with 'Rarity'" Applejack said putting the emphases on her name. They all laughed and were nearing the outer edge of the Everfree forest. 

"All right then ladies, lets have a little fun. Since we know their knowledge and memories, lets abuse this privilege and meet up at the library later." Twilight said, who was the obvious leader of the group. The leader of the Ponytact's was the large unicorn, the beast was now a copied Twilight. 

"Time to ruffle some feathers!" Yelled Rainbow Dash.


The Group charged off towards Ponyville to cause havoc.

*****


It was now mid afternoon. It was a perfect day. It was warm and sunny with just an odd white cloud floating here and there.

Applebloom was busy helping Big Macintosh make apple juice. It was easy. Applebloom would squash an apple over a strainer, and the juice would drop into a barrel. Big Mac would lid and stack them inside a barn.

Applebloom wiped the sweat from her brow and noticed a figure in the distance. "Applejack!" She squealed and ran up to her sister. She gave Applejack a big hug. "Where were you sis?! We were worried 'bout ya!" 

"Out of mah way Applebloom." Applejack pushed Applebloom off to the side and trotted up to the barrels of apple juice. Applebloom just got a little teary. Applejack had never wanted her out of the way, especially if they haven't seen each other in a while. Applejack looked at the barrel, then at Big Mac. She had a puzzled look on her face. "You make this here juice?" She asked.

"Eeyup." He responded.

Applejack opened a barrel and looked inside. "Well I gotta say, this is the worst looking juice I'd ever seen in all mah life!" Big Mac dropped the hay straw out of his mouth in surprise. "Take it from me Macky, I wouldn't drink this if mah life depended on it." She stomped a hoof to the ground. "Good gravy..." She looked over to see Applebloom.

"Why... What... What'd we do wrong?" She asked in disappointment.

"What did you do wrong? What didn't you do wrong is what you should be askin'." Applejack looked back at the barrel. 

"We, *sniff* we did our best." Applebloom looked at the ground where a tear fell. She looked away trying to stay strong. 

Applejack shook her head. "Disgraceful sis. I'm truly disappointed. What a waste of apples. Thanks a lot!" Applejack was walking away with a sinister smile on her face that no pony could see. She quickly trotted back and snorted at her siblings. "Pitiful ya'll." She then bucked a barrel on the bottom of a pile which caused a bunch of barrels to fall and smash apart, spilling all the apple juice, and ruining Applebloom's and Big Mac's efforts. She then walked back to the house-barn smiling.

Applebloom plopped down on the ground instantly and started crying. Big Mac came over and comforted her while shooting her supposed sister a glare. What was Applejack's problem? She had never snapped at her sister before, no matter what the mistake was. However Big Mac knew this juice was just perfect, and Applejack destroyed it. He wasn't upset for the fact that the juice was gone, but that his youngest sister was excited about helping all week, and she poured her heart and soul into this. Applejack wasn't even grateful for her sisters help. Instead she seemed to be the complete opposite. 

Big Mac galloped towards Applejack and stopped in front of her with a look of determination. "Nnope!" He said rather angrily. 

Applejack just turned around and bucked him straight into the side of the house without even changing the normal looking expression on her face. "Looks like you have injured ribs again brother!" Applejack said and walked into the house laughing. Applebloom ran over to Big Mac wiping away the last of her tears. 

"Big Mac! Oh my gosh are you alright?" She said concerned. 

Big Mac just laid there with a grimace and groaned, "Nnnope."

*****


Rarity turned and bucked her door open to the Carousel Boutique. "Rarity! You left me all alone for a really long time! I'm hungry!" Sweetie Belle squeaked at her sister while coming down stairs looking rather annoyed. Her stomach growled and she held it. "I haven't been able to reach anything in here."

Rarity shot a glare at her sister. "Well maybe you should learn to use your magic pip-squeak!" Rarity yelled. Sweetie shrunk in place as Rarity walked up towering over the little filly. "Now get ready. We're going sapphire hunting." She gave a nonchalant wave of her hoof to tell Sweetie Belle to get ready. She got a small bag and carried it in her mouth. Rarity looked at the bag and ripped it from Sweetie's grasp and stomped on it with a hoof. "Do you honestly think this thing will be enough?" Rarity said. She magically got a bag the size of the entirety of herself and flung it over Sweetie Belle. "We'll be filling this one up."

Sweetie poked her head out from under the bag as it was the size of a blanket compared to her. "We need to fill THIS huge bag with rare sapphires?!" Sweetie cried. 

"...Yep!" Rarity said. "Now here's the deal my dear sister, I find the sapphires, you dig them and carry them in that bag, then I make you something to eat when we're finished."

"When we're finished?!" Sweetie blurted and jumped out from under the bag. "I'm hungry now! This bag will take forever to fill!" She yelled and lifted a corner of the bag with a hoof looking at it quite angrily. 

"Well we best get started then?" Rarity asked rhetorically. 

Sweetie sat there with her mouth agape. Was she really supposed to fill this whole bag before getting food? 

Rarity was heading out the door and called back. "Sweetie Belle! Get over here right now and do as your big sister commands!" She pointed a hoof out the door with her eyes closed.

Sweetie was flustered, but did as she was told. She put the big bag in her mouth, dragging it as she walked out the door. Rarity closed the door and locked it. They both knew where to find sapphires and were heading in that general direction. 

Sweetie saw an apple on the ground and felt instant happiness. She let go of the bag and ran for the apple. She picked it up in her hoof ready to take a bite when Rarity swatted it out of her hoof and stepped on it, squashing the apple into mush. She put on a thin smile and looked down at Sweetie Belle. "No." Is all Rarity simply said and handed the bag back to Sweetie to put in her mouth. "We're not done yet Sweetie. Oh why, we haven't even begun!" She started to trot towards her destination again. Sweetie was already starting to feel weak, and had no idea why her sister would deprive her of one of natures natural and most simplistic needs.

While walking down the path she saw Scootaloo walking the opposite way and they greeted each other excitingly, well, at least Scootaloo did. "Hey Sweetie Belle!" She said enthusiastically. 

"Hi." Was all Sweetie could muster.

"Hey Sweetie, What's with the bag?" Asked Scootlaoo.

"I'm filling this up with sapphires for my sister..." She started to tear up and looked over secretly to see that Rarity was far enough away not to hear her. Sweetie whispered in Scootaloo's ear while looking at Rarity. "You need to help me! Bring me some food! I haven't eaten all day and Rarity won't let me eat until this bag is filled which will takes hours!"

Scootaloo's face immediately changed from happy to concerned. She also looked to Rarity and noticed she was standing a ways away not looking at the filly friends. She whispered back to Sweetie Belle. "What?! That's awful!" She continued looking at Rarity. "No pony should have to go through this. This is just slavery!" She darted her eyes back and forth. "Come with me to my place. We'll take care of you there and you can hide there until your big sister comes to her senses." 

Just then a flash of blue light appeared around Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, teleporting them right in front of Rarity. "You're so thoughtful little sis!" Rarity said rather mellow-dramatically and looking at Scootaloo. "It's so nice that you convinced your friend to help too!"

Scootaloo flinched and looked at Sweetie then back at Rarity with small pupils. "What?! I never agreed to-"

Rarity cut her off. "I said, it's nice you convinced your friend to help too." She said between gritted teeth.

*****


Rainbow Dash was flying full speed towards the sky. However a voice calling out to her stopped her in mid-flight. "Rainbow Dash!" Yelled an ill mannered mayor. Her eyebrows slanted downwards indicating she was upset. Rainbow Dash came down to see her at eye level. "Whatever happened to that rain storm you were supposed to create this morning? It was your job!" 

Rainbow Dash closed her wings as she landed on the ground. "Look, I can do it now." Rainbow said.

"You can't just do them whenever you feel like. Your job is scheduled!" Said the mayor.

"I said I'll do it!" Snapped Rainbow without hesitation.

The mayor just stepped back a bit. "Well uh, make it snappy then." She said more calmly. She was not used to being yelled at.

Rainbow unfurled her wings and flew off towards the sky at full speed talking to herself. "You want a rain storm? You got it." She said with much determination. She gathered loose clouds and plumped them all together. With each cloud she added, the storm cloud grew bigger and darker. Rainbow grinned sinisterly as her creation was beginning to reach dangerous levels. Rainbow kicked it, and it spread throughout the sky with ease. 

Thunder was beginning to rumble and Rainbow looked at the cloud one last time before darting off. "Here's your rain storm!" She bucked the cloud as hard as she could and flew upwards to a safe distance from the storm. Thunder and lightning were flashing and banging everywhere at a fairly constant rate. Then, a downpour of rain came flooding from the sky. Within seconds everything was soaked and small puddles already began to form.

Rainbow Dash then flew back down and punctured a hole in the cloud which automatically filled itself again. She flew under a nearby shelter and landed next to the mayor. "Stormy enough for ya?" She asked sarcastically. 

"Tone down the intensity at once!" The mayor commanded.

"Why? Afraid you'll get wet?" Rainbow Dash teased before bolting out of there. The mayor just had her mouth hanging open as she didn't understand why Rainbow would do this all on purpose. 

A bolt of lightning came down and struck a nearby tree causing it to catch fire. However the downpour of rain dowsed the flames immediately. A few more trees were hit and had the same effect. The rain quickly created large puddles and small streams of water to run down the streets.

Rainbow looked back at the cloud hovering over Ponyville and just smiled while patting herself on the back. 

*****


Pinkie Pie came running into Sugar Cube Corner desperate to get out of the rain as quickly as she could. She shook when she got inside getting her surroundings wet. 

"Boy it's a doozy outside." Said Mr. Cake to Pinkie.

"Duh." Said Pinkie as she walked over to the counter. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other and just shrugged. Mrs. Cake walked towards Pinkie. "Pinkie, you wouldn't mind creating the rest of the orders tonight would you?"

Mr. Cake stepped up. "We have to deliver our orders today, and with the rain it'll take longer than normal since we have to protect them." Said Mr. Cake and pointed towards a few delicious looking trays of desserts covered by a tarp.

"Oh I sure can! You can count on me!" Pinkie said trying to sound as convincing as ever. She walked behind the counter and gave the Cakes a silly salute. 

When the Cakes had left, Pinkie rubbed her hooves together and looked down at the different cakes behind the display case. "You're mine now." She said as she ate the cakes one by one. "Wow! Eating something in over a thousand years sure makes the food taste that much better!" She figured she still had a good amount of time until the Cakes came back.

"Alright lets see..." Pinkie said taking out the order sheet. She noticed she had to bake three more cakes by tonight. "Hmm, I could just not do them but where's the fun in that?" She asked herself. Then she had a great idea. 

Pinkie was creating a nice chocolate cake and it looked absolutely wonderful. It was a double stacked cake covered in chocolate icing and had some candies stuck to it. Pinkie then walked over to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and took out some ear medicine. "I just wish I could see them taste it!" She said excitedly and trotted over to the chocolate cake just sitting there. She popped off the cap to the medicine and slowly tilted the bottle downwards until a little bit of drops fell onto the cake. She spread the medicine throughout the cake evenly and looked proudly at her handy work. "That's one baked bad." She gleefully scurried away. 

"Nurse Red Heart will have her hooves full tonight." She exclaimed. "Alright! Onto the next order!"

*****


Fluttershy was in her cottage and all the animals were fed. Angel hopped over and pointed to his food dish again noticing Fluttershy forgot to put food in there. "Oops. Let me put some food in there for you pal." 

Angel closed his eyes and stood happily next to dish awaiting his fill. Just then a loud thud was made and Angel looked to see what was dropped in his dish. His eyes watered and ears drooped. He shook his head and had an angry scowl on his face again. He picked up an old rotten flimsy carrot with mold growing on it and threw it on the ground forcefully. 

"What's the matter? Don't like it?" Fluttershy said with an evil grin. "Well then starve tonight."

Angel had a shocked look on his face and then looked back down at the carrot. Fluttershy simply snickered to herself and then opened the door. Angel knew something was up. Usually Fluttershy wouldn't be so cruel and she was scared of lightning storms, but she simply took off without a care in the world.

"Now to go talk to Fluttershy's old teacher, Mrs. Cotton Cloud." She said as she flew above the storm cloud towards her old city, Cloudsdale. 

After a few minutes of flying at a quicker pace than usual she arrived at her destination. "Oh right, I also needed a new mug. Might as well get that since I'm here." Fluttershy landed on a cloud and walked towards a nearby souvenir shop. She looked around for a bit inside the store and noticed there was an abundance of items. From Clocks to watches and spoons to mugs, however she never saw a 'Junior Speedsters Flight Camp' mug.

"Excuse me." Fluttershy got the attention of the clerk. "Where's the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp cups?" 

"What?" The clerk was taken back, "You can't buy those, you earn them by passing that certain camp class."

Fluttershy's expression turned to anger. "Oh of course!" She shouted rather quietly. She huffed and left the store, but as she was halfway out the door she whipped her tail at a plain white mug which fell off a shelf and through the cloud floor to the grassy ground. Before the store clerk could do anything, Fluttershy had taken off and disappeared.

A little while later Fluttershy arrived at her old flight camp. This brought up so many memories, however she knew those memories weren't exactly hers but she digressed. Walking into the camp building was a taste of nostalgia as things haven't really changed in the surroundings. She walked around a bit and eventually came to a door that had the label of 'Mrs. Cotton Cloud'. She grinned mischievously. 

She entered her old teachers room and noticed an old frail pegasus pony marking sheets of paper. The teacher looked elderly, almost as old as Granny Smith but was pure white in color. She had Orange eyes and a picture of a cumulus cloud cutie mark. She stopped marking and tilted her head to left noticing a figure standing beside her. 

"Is that? No it can't be..." She sat there pondering with a hoof on her chin.

"Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus simply said.

"Oh my Fluttershy it's been so long! How are you?" She said standing up rather shakily but had a big smile on her face.

"Oh I've been fine... Wow Mrs. Cotton Cloud, you sure look old." Fluttershy stated. The teachers smile remained.

"Yes haha, I've aged a few since we last saw each other." Fluttershy was about to say something but Mrs. Cotton Cloud interrupted her, "I'm so glad my past students still remember me. It's quite the gesture to come all this way to see me." Fluttershy was about to say something again but the same altercation happened. "I honestly didn't think any pony would remember me. But enough of my moment, what are you up to nowadays my dear?" 

Fluttershy waited a few seconds in case she got cut off again and began to speak when she felt it was fine. "I help sick animals and unlike a lot of pegasi, I live near the ground." She then looked right at her teacher. "So any pony fail flight camp? If I recall you were a pretty bad teacher." Fluttershy was laughing inside at her insults. But to her shock this didn't seem to bother the teacher in the slightest.

"Yeah I wasn't exactly the best teacher a pony could have, but I've improved." She kept looking at Fluttershy with a smile. "You see, the older you get the more mistakes you make. However a pony learns from mistakes and gets better and better at whatever they've been doing for a while. So my teaching abilities have improved since you were my student." 

Fluttershy stood there looking puzzled and was getting angry. Why couldn't she break her teachers spirits with these insults she was throwing at her? "Well I don't really notice a difference. You just look like an old pegasus who should have left the game years ago."

Mrs. Cotton Cloud winked and returned grading her papers. "Never give up my dear. This is something I love to do. Helping little fillies and colts fly just brightens my day."

Fluttershy just groaned loudly and left the room, unsatisfied that things didn't go exactly as planned. "Come back anytime Fluttershy!" Was all she heard as she trotted down the hallway frustrated. 

"Am I rusty after being a statue for over a millennium?" She asked herself as she snatched an apple out of a young fillies hoof, took one bite then threw it away.

"Hey!" The filly yelled at Fluttershy as she kept trotting away and taking off in flight not even caring about the young filly whose apple she just wasted.

"Nah, she's just a senile old lady." She concluded to herself and flew back towards Ponyville.

*****


Spike was lounging in a chair with his head resting in one of his palms. He was finished his daily chores and had no mess of Twilight's to clean up since she had been gone since yesterday evening. Just as he was dozing off Twilight magically opened the door and walked in with her eyes half closed and a smug look to her face. She then slammed the door closed causing the baby dragon to open his eyes wide.

"Twilight you're okay!" Spike said giving his mentor a hug around Twilight's neck. Twilight pushed Spike back.

"You know Spike, I've had it up to here with you." Twilight said raising a hoof in the air.

Spike broke the hug and looked back at Twilight looking confused and shocked at the same time.  "Wha... What do you mean Twi?" He stepped back giving some personal space.

"Well for starters you always complain when you have to pick up books and do chores, and this thing you have going on with Rarity is just... Weird." She said walking in no particular location.

Spike stood there not expecting a lecture as soon Twilight returned home from her trip. Especially one completely random as this.

"Now clean up those books!" Twilight turned her head towards Spike.

Spike looked around, "Uh, what books Twi?" He asked since the place was spick and span.

"Those ones!" She pointed a hoof to the corner and magically lifted all the books off of a shelf and dropped them to the floor in a tussle. "Make it snappy Spike, I'm expecting company in a bit."

"What?" Spike laughed. "Oh I see what you're doing Twilight, you had me going there with this whole 'acting tough' persona." Spike pumped out his chest when he said that.

Twilight walked over to Spike and magically lifted him in the air so he was face-to-face with her. "Clean up those books or you're in big trouble mister." She said between gritted teeth. 

Spike's happy smile was replaced by a look of terror. He's never seen Twilight so angry over reasons unknown. The magic ceased and he was dropped to the floor with a thump. Spike got up and dusted himself off. He slowly walked over to the pile of books and sighed with his head hanging. 

"You see Spike?" Twilight said to her assistant. "You always complain about this sort of thing." She looked on as Spike didn't respond and was picking up a pile of books. "Fine, now you have to clean this." She unloaded another shelf beside Spike and another pile of books fell to the floor.

Spike dropped the books he was holding and spun around to look at Twilight across the room. "You know what Twi? I'm not cleaning any of this!" He yelled back at Twilight. This was the first time he's actually felt extremely angry directly towards her. 

Twilight just scoffed and unloaded another shelf full of books. She pointed towards the pile in a grumble manner without saying a word. "Clean it up!" Spike just stood there with a lame look on his face. "Fine, be that way. This is not the Spike I know and love. In fact, I don't love you at all Spike."

Spike's angry emotion was gone instantly. He felt his heart sink in his chest and started to tear up. He marched upstairs and out of Twilight's view. With a crack of lightning the entire tree house went dark and silent. A small flickering lantern gave off its presents in the upstairs room. Spike came down with it in hand, and holding a bag that was closed in another hand.

"What's the meaning of this?" Twilight asked. "You still haven't picked up those books!" She yelled in his face with dilated pupils.

Spike walked around her and headed towards the door. He stopped there and turned around. "I'm leaving Twilight. If you're going to act this way and treat me with no respect or as a butler, then I have no reason to be here." He opened the door.

Twilight got even angrier at her little dragon ex-assistant. "Fine! Leave! See if I care!" She made a shooing motion at Spike.

Spike sighed, "Goodbye Twi, I'll be back when you aren't being so disrespectful." With that, he walked outside with a heavy heart into the cold stormy dismal Ponyville streets and closed the door. 

Twilight could see him walking down the street getting soaked. Spike looked back at the tree house one last time, and turned his back towards it, walking away in the muddy streets. When Spike walked around the corner and was out of sight from his former home, he broke down in tears and sat against a houses exterior. He had his hands in his face and was sobbing uncontrollably. He raised his head and noticed the streets were completely empty do to the fact that the storms intensity was still raging on. Looking up he saw random pegasi trying to break apart the storm, but it was just too strong. Spike looked back down to the ground not caring if he was getting drenched. He felt nothing but emotional pain right now. "How could she not love me at all?"

Back in the library Twilight was looking out the window. She turned around with a grin on her face. Walking up to a lantern she lit with no effort from her horn.  She sat there waiting for the rest of her clan to meet up with her. 

*****


It was dark outside now and nearly midnight. The storm that Rainbow Dash created had finally dissipated and cleared up. The night sky was pitch black with the exception of Luna's star spotted universe and moon illuminating as the only light source in all the land. It was completely silent out now since most ponies were in a deep sleep. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all arrived at Twilight's library at pretty much the same time and they all stood in her living room.

"So, every pony have fun today?" Twilight asked her fellow clan members.

They all nodded and smiled. Rarity gave a grin and bragged that she made her sister and her sisters friend work for her throughout the day. "Then, they both ran off!" Rarity finished her story and they all laughed. 

"Yeah I was pretty rough with my 'family' too!" Applejack proudly stated. "Why, I wouldn't doubt they all hate Applejack now." They all laughed again.

"A little while earlier Pinkie was fired from Sugar Cube Corner!" Pinkie stepped in. "Purposely sabotaging peoples orders and admitting them to the hospital." Pinkie rubbed her hooves together devilishly.

"Fluttershy better not go to a certain store in Cloudsdale." The yellow pegasus spoke. "I just don't really understand her old teacher though." 

"I think you all know what I caused!" Rainbow Dash blurted and pointed a hoof outside. They all nodded.

"Great work every pony." Twilight said. "I managed to get Spike out of here and out of Twilight's life! Playing the family love card always works." She said closing her eyes standing up tall. "But now that our families are questioning our actions, I say we have the general public do the same." The group stood there listening to their leader intently. "We have to do something... Something big." She stood there thinking for a while. "Oh lets just do what we normally do. Vandalize and destroy."

"Sounds good tah me." Applejack said. The rest agreed and nodded.

"Then lets do it..." Twilight said, and lead her group out the door and into the empty, dark, damp streets. "Oh wait! I have to get something first." Twilight walked into her library for a few seconds and returned with a saddlebag. 

"What's in the bag?" Asked Rarity.

"Just a few important objects." Replied Twilight.
	



> Chapter 4: A Slight Detour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(In this chapter, all mane six characters are the original versions of themselves.)

*****	


"Come on girls we're almost home!" Twilight Sparkle Yelled back to the rest of her friends as they galloped through the Everfree forest. She could see faint buildings in the distance to indicate they were almost out. Rainbow Dash was flying above them at the same speed the rest were running at.

It was still the darkness of night and the moon was high in the sky, giving the six the light required to see where they were going. It was a rather uneventful run through the forest. No creatures tried to harm them, nor did they get lost. The group was basically worrying about a copy of themselves running amuck, tainting their names and reputations that they weren't even concerned with the Everfree Forest's terrors.

They finally exited the forest and were in a grassy clearing. They all stopped and plopped down to the ground laying on their belly. They were all gasping for air, trying to regain their energy. However after being awake for so long, not eating and going through an undoubtedly large amount of stress in the past day took their toll. 

"We can... Sleep here... Can't go on... Anymore!" Said Rarity who was still looking like a living pile of dirt that walked. 

"Fer once ah agree with Rarity." Said Applejack. "I'm tired n' hungry, we can't go after our copies if we're all tipsy-con-korted." She said as she lay on the grass still.

"I vote for rest." Said Fluttershy sounding rather exhausted. 

"Whatever, I missed my scheduled weather duty yesterday morning anyway. Who cares about the next one?" Said Rainbow.

Even Pinkie wasn't energetic anymore. The depletion of sugar from her body showed and she was just lying there with her eyes closed half asleep.

"It's just a little ways to town girls, we can sleep in my house until tomorrow." Said Twilight.

"Dang it Twi! Just rest here! Ah can't take another step!" Applejack yelled rather uncontrollably at Twilight. Twilight's ears went down and she shrunk where she was sitting. Applejack closed her eyes and sighed, "Sorry Twi. It's just been a rough couple o' days. Now rest up for tomorrow." She rolled to her side, the grass was her bed tonight.

Twilight decided every pony else was right and rolled over on her back with closed eyes. She opened them and saw the blackness of space above her with Luna's stars faintly shining light years away. She has stargazed and studied the universe before, but never actually slept beneath them nor just appreciated their sheer beauty for joy. She looked over to her friends who were already sleeping due to them being completely wiped out. She looked back up and saw a single streaking shooting star fly across the black sky. Twilight shook her head in a daze and remembered she had a big day ahead of her, and closed her eyes, drifting off to a welcoming unconscious state.

*****


Fluttershy awoke first, to see all her friends still peacefully sleeping. Rainbow Dash was the only one there who was snoring quite audibly, but the rest were too tired to take notice and slept right through it. Fluttershy's stomach growled and reminded her that much like her friends, she was in desperate need of nourishment. She looked back towards the Everfree Forest and saw some shrubs just at the edge of it. She slowly walked over towards them with a yawn and rubbed her eyes.

*****


The sun was slowly getting higher and higher in the sky while the others kept sleeping. It must have been almost noon until the rest were waking up one by one. A big red blob caught their attention sitting on the grass. They all looked over and saw the blob was in fact a big pile of wild berries sitting there. Fluttershy winked at them. "Have some breakfast." Was all she said.

It took a moment, but all of them walked over and started gracefully eating. The graceful eating turned into full fledged gluttony as their hunger got the best of them. They were all stuffing their faces except for Rarity who kept eating the berries one at a time, not cramming a hoof full in her mouth.

Eventually they all stopped and blushed a bit, noticing they acted like pigs.

"Our job sill isn't over." Said Rarity who waved a hoof.

"So what do we have to do in order to beat these nasty meany-weenie bad guys?" Pinkie spoke up.

"Well we'll need to harness the Elements of Harmony like we did with Nightmare Moon and Discord!" Twilight said. "So we should get going. Oh and thanks Fluttershy for getting berries. They were delicious." All the friends gave their thanks and trotted towards town. They could see smoke rising up from some buildings and the entire place looked like a complete disaster. "Oh no. I think we're too little too late!"

The trot turned into a full gallop when Twilight put out a hoof which stopped them all. She didn't say a word but instead pointed to a piece of paper stapled to a tree. Twilight looked up in horror with her friends following suit. "I can't believe it." Twilight said.

"We're... We're!..." Was all Rainbow Dash could say.

"Criminal scum!" Applejack finished. 

Up on the tree trunk was a picture of all six of them, currently known as Equestria's worst fugitives. They all stood there in silence, jaws agape. According to every pony around, Twilight and company were tyrants. Rarity spoke up to read the wanted poster out loud. "Six ponies by the names of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are hereby wanted for the devastation caused to commercial and private property. However the six fugitives pulled off the biggest heist in Equestrian history when the Ponyville bank was robbed, with the six successfully getting away with a substantial amount of bits then destroying the bank shortly after. Princess Celestia is giving the award of ten-thousand bits for the capture of each fugitive." She stopped reading and fell to her haunches. 

"Princess Celestia? My mentor! My proactives! My future! It's all gone!" Twilight was tearing up and fell over to her side.

Applejack walked over to comfort Twilight and took her hat off, holding it against her with a hoof. "Guess it's up to us to capture these here disharmonic elements." She said.

"Well now how do we get the Elements of Harmony? We can't exactly walk through Ponyville to get to your library Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said floating a few feet off the ground.

Twilight sat up and just stared at the poster. Her tears went away and her face was soon replaced by anger. She stood up and turned to her friends. "I've had enough of this, even if it has been just a day since they've awakened!" She angrily said making Fluttershy hide behind Rarity. "They singlehoofedly destroyed our lives and our homes! I'm not sure about you, but I want to turn them into stone slowly enough so they realize they'll be encased for all eternity!" She slammed her hoof on the ground.

"Well, what's the plan then?" Asked Applejack.

"Hide?" Was all Fluttershy contributed.

"You know that's a good idea." Said Rarity. "We need a spot temporarily just to get our bearings and a plan together."

"Yeah, it's a miracle no pony found us sleeping out here in the open last night." Said Applejack.

They all scanned the land around them looking for a hidden spot they could use for a short time home. Rainbow just shrugged and pointed towards the Everfree forest. "No pony is crazy enough to go in there... Well, except us. We should find a spot in there maybe?" 

"You know, we don't have many options." Said Twilight. They all trudged over to the forest again, and entered the same place where they left. They were all walking slowly, scanning their surroundings for any type of hidden shelter. Just a little while later they were deeper in the forest, but could still make out the town in the distance. Pinkie bounced up and down while pointing excitedly to a massive shrub that had an entrance to go inside.

"I don't know Pinkie, that looks occupied." Said Twilight unconvincingly. The party pony bounced over to the bush and hopped right in. They all cringed and noticed Pinkie wasn't making any noise and she hadn't come out. 

"Pinkie!" Dash flew in there at full speed. A couple moments later she poked her head out and gave a smile, then waved the rest of them to come inside. They all walked inside carefully and noticed it was hollowed out and seemed to be perfect for hiding in. A little bit of sunlight was making its way inside. The ground was surprisingly bare, it was just flat dirt with a few pebbles here and there but also had three gemstones tucked into the branches.

"I wonder if there's any chance this is some ponies or something's home?" Applejack asked herself out loud eying the gems.

Rainbow Dash was busy sealing up the entrance by placing branches of trees and leaves in front of their little hiding spot. "I can't stay cooped up for too long in here." She said. "My wings get very sore and itchy if I don't fly. I honestly don't know how you do it Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus gave a little blush. 

"Alright lets see." Twilight started as her five friends gathered around her. "One: The Elements of Disharmony has pretty much made us the most infamous ponies to date." She turned her head to look the other way. "Two: We need our Elements of Harmony for a chance to set things right." She looked back again. "Three: All the while Princess Celestia has to know it wasn't us, but imposters. What's the point of turning them into stone again if our reputations remain tainted?" They all nodded in agreement. "Four: We must remain undetected." She sat there for a while before speaking again. "This is quite the conundrum girls." 

The branches and leaves Rainbow just recently placed at the entrance were getting thrown off to the side from something on the outer region. They could all hear mumbling and became as silent as space. They were sick to their stomachs. "Oh no, some pony saw us!" Twilight thought to herself.

"What's all this doing here?" They heard a familiar voice come from the entrance. Just then a purple and green figure walked in holding a few gemstones. He dropped them and walked backwards slowly, unsure of what to make of this situation. Spike stammered and tripped over his own feet and landed on his back. 

"Stay back! Especially you Twilight!" Spike got up angrily and was ready to run out of the shrub, but Twilight surrounded him with her magic and levitated him back in the place. Spike started screaming, "Help! Some pony help!" But a cyan hoof covered his muffled screams.

"Spike, we're not fugitives!" Twilight said to him.

Rainbow Dash removed her hoof from Spike's mouth. "Yeah right like I'm going to believe that!" Spike said with a growl.

"Spike, it's the truth!" Applejack spoke up.

"You're all crazy! Let me go!" Spike struggled, but Twilight's magic was too strong for him to escape. 

"Whatever you heard or saw us do, well... It wasn't us!" Twilight said trying to convince her assistant.

Spike stopped struggling and burst into tears which caused the ponies to retract a bit, thrown off by the sudden burst of emotion from the baby dragon. They were all silent and looked at each other, then Spike looked up at Twilight with watery eyes. "Why don't you love me anymore Twilight? What did I do?"

Twilight looked at Spike with concern. "Spike of course I love you. You're family to me, and I love you with all my heart." She took a hoof and wiped away some of Spike's tears. "Why on earth would you think differently?" She released her magical hold against him and he landed on the ground softly. 

"Why? Well you said it yourself Twi." He sat there slumped forward.

"Listen to me Spike, that was not me."

Spike looked up, looking more confused than sad now. "How could it not be you? You were right there when you said it!"

"Remember the quest to find the Element's of Disharmony we all went on Spike?" Spike shook his head slowly. "Well, we found them. However we awoke them, and-"

"We awoke them?" Rainbow blurted out. She then cowered when everyone looked at her. "Sorry."

Everyone returned their attention to Twilight. "Anyways, they're powerful beyond words. They duplicated themselves to look like us, and now our identities are tainted."

Spike looked up to the ceiling and put a hand on his chin and rubbed it. "You know Twilight, that kind of makes sense. I had a feeling something was wrong with you... Well not you, but, well you know what I mean." He stood up and turned around to face the rest of them. "So all of you that basically destroyed a good chunk of Ponyville last night, wasn't you?" They all nodded. Spike put a hand on top of his head and ran it down his spikes. "Oh thank Celestia. I thought you all just lost your mind." His tears stopped and looked normal again.

"So you see Spike, this is us. We've just been framed for a huge crime." Twilight said, then she perked up just thinking about something. "I've got a plan!"

The rest all leaned forward. "What is it Twilight?" Asked Rarity.

Twilight looked down at Spike and grinned. She then looked at the rest of her friends. "Spike can bring the Elements of Harmony to us here! That way we don't have to risk getting caught if we went to get it ourselves!" They all murmured in agreement and Twilight turned towards Spike. "What do you say number one assistant? Care to help?"

Spike pumped out his chest and gave a salute. "You can always count on me Twi!" He was ready to walk out the shrub, but then he stopped and turned around. "Um Twilight, actually, all of you."

"What is it Spike?" Twilight asked.

"Maybe we should come up with a secret word. You know, just so I know it's you and not the other you's." He explained.

"Well if it makes you feel secure partner, ah think that's a swell idea." Applejack interjected. 

"Cotton Candy Swirl Cherry Chunga Chimney Thinking!" Pinkie said enthusiastically, jumping just low enough to not hit the ceiling of the shrub.

"I don't know Pinkie." Dash said. "No really, I don't know. I already forgot what you said."

"How about 'element'?" Rarity said.

Twilight put a hoof to her chin then shook her head. "No, the word should be something not used frequently. It should be out of context."

"How about, 'pancake'?" Spike suggested. 

They all nodded until Pinkie said something. "Ooo! I love pancakes! Especially with sugar!" They all just stood there looking at Pinkie.

"Yes, pancake is our secret word." Twilight said. Spike nodded then left then came back again. "Is there anything else you want while I'm gone?" Spike asked.

"Actually a little food would be great for the future." Twilight said.

"No problem. Pancake, don't forget!" He pointed at them then walked out from the shrub towards town. 

Rainbow Dash was lying on the dirt floor holding her head up with a hoof. "Well, now what?" She asked looking a little bored. "Does Spike even know what book our elements are held in?"

"I think so." Replied Twilight. "He must. He saw it when you all were playing keep away with it." She shot a glare towards Fluttershy who blushed again. She waved a hoof in the air. "but that's all ancient history and Discord's doing." She said trying her best not to make her friends feel guilty about that ordeal. 

Rarity lifted her mane with a hoof to inspect it. It was all over the place and covered in caked up mud and dirt. She was still a big mess. Rarity sighed to herself. "You know, we better get somewhere soon. I don't think I can hold on much longer being icky like this." She stared at the ground then back up at Twilight. "I should have had Spike fetch me a bucket of water and soap." 

"Honestly Rarity, we don't care. Especially at a time like this." Rainbow Dash retorted. "Now, I think I'll take a nap waiting for Spike. I had a rough sleep last night." 

Twilight created a temporary hole in the shrub by opening one with her hoof and peered out towards town. She saw Spike in the distance still walking towards town. "hmm, maybe I should have told Spike to run." She put her hoof back down causing the shrub to fill in the hole immediately.

*****


Spike walked in the shrub when the sun was just starting to set. "Sorry I took so long guys. I just couldn't find the book considering the shape of our home Twi."

Twilight looked up with smaller pupils than normal "What?! What happened to our tree house Spike?" She asked sounding a little panicky. 

"It's just that evil Twilight pretty much emptied all the shelves onto the floor." He was about to hand Twilight the book but then put it behind his back. He waved a finger in front of him. "Uh uh uh! Not until you say it."

"It?" Twilight asked herself before realizing what Spike meant. "oh right!" She looked at him and winked with a small smile. "Pancake." Spike gave the book to Twilight and she put it on the ground in front of her. "Finally to fight fire with fire!" She said happily and unlocked the snaps to the book. Every pony face turned to horror as they saw the elements were not in the book! There was only a piece of ripped paper with a short sentence on it. 'The Elements of Harmony are now ours!' Twilight looked straight up and snapped the book closed with authority. She then face hoofed herself and clinched her eyes shut. "Of course. They have our memory and knowledge. They knew we were going after them!"

Spike put a basket down on the dirt floor. Inside was assorted types of food. However no pony had an appetite at the moment. 

"Well, now what?" Applejack wondered.

Just then all of their ears perked up. "What the?" Rainbow poked her head outside and came back in quickly. "TIME TO GO!" She screamed panicky. The distant noises they heard were getting louder. Twilight opened the shrub again and turned completely pale. 

In the distance was a mob of ponies. They were all angry and were storming towards their hideout. Twilight quickly closed the hole up. "The jig is up! It seems like the entire town is coming at us!" Out in the distance she could hear that they followed Spike, knowing he would lead them towards the framed fugitives. "Spike they followed you!" Twilight turned towards her assistant. "You didn't..."

"Of course not Twi! I wouldn't purposely bring them here!" Spike said rather loud.

"Whatever, we're goners now!" Said Rainbow Dash.

"No we aren't! Good thing I haven't used a substantial amount of magic for a while! Hang on!" Her horn started glowing a bright white light. She groaned and started sweating. "Come on, come on!" She was grimacing just saying that.

The mob of ponies was now just a few trees away from raiding their hiding spot. Just then a brown colored pony with a sand timer cutie mark poked his head in the shrub. "We got you now!" He said as he reached in. Just then a huge flash of light exploded from within the shrub, causing most of the mob to fly backwards from a shockwave of magic. The shrub itself blew apart into pieces and all that remained was a small crater where the seven of them used to be. The mob got up all confused and looked around the surrounding area, but couldn't find any of them.

All seven of them reappeared out in the middle of no where, all fizzled and burnt. Twilight immediately fell onto her stomach and was knocked out from sheer energy loss. The rest of them shook hard enough to get the burn remnants off their bodies and saw Twilight just lying there.

"What is Equestria did she do?" Applejack asked.

"Being a unicorn myself, I think I know." Rarity said. "She exerted so much magical energy, her body is now physically drained." She looked around. "No wonder she's out cold, she teleported a total of six ponies and one dragon way out here!" She pointed a hoof outwards. The rest looked around. They were in the middle of a desert with rocky mountains around the landscape and no town in sight.

"Twilight teleported us all the way out here?! Geez!" Rainbow said taking to the air. "She was out for a few minutes just teleporting us away from that Manticore, I can't imagine this."

"Well, we best be going then. At least out here there's no threat of any pony searching for us. At least ah hope." Applejack said. She flung Twilight's unconscious body over her back and could feel her inhaling and exhaling, a good sign. 

"Umm, which way to the nearest... Whatever it is we're looking for?" Fluttershy quietly asked.

Spike looked up skywards and noticed the sun was starting to set behind the distant mountains. "We should find some shelter. I read that it gets really cold out here at night time." He said.

Rainbow Dash just shook her head towards him. "Nah you got it wrong Spike," she closed her eyes contently. "It gets chillier when you go higher, not night time in the desert."

*****


"Guys, I'm cold." Rainbow shivered. Spike just rolled his eyes. He was sitting beside the still unconscious Twilight Sparkle, clearly worried about her. Rainbow saw this and walked over and sat beside Spike. "Don't worry Spike. Twilight's a tough pony, she just needs all the rest she can get."

Spike looked up at the cyan pegasus then looked down at the ground. "I know Rainbow. It's just that Twilight is like my big sister. She's the only family I've got."

Just then Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were in sight. They were carrying a small amount of wood with them and they dropped it in a pile when they reached Rainbow, Spike and Twilight. "Spike, will you do the honor?" Rarity asked.

"With pleasure my lady." Spike stood up and gave a proper bow and walked over to the wood. He blew a green flame onto the wood and it instantly lit up and provided a nice warm sensation that comforted them all. He walked over towards Twilight again but turned around quickly when he belched more fire into the sky.

"Whoa nelly Spike! You don't need to do that anymore." Applejack said.

When the fire dissipated a rolled up scroll appeared in the air and fell straight into Spike's hands. The rest of them looked at each other then back at Spike. "What does it say Spike?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Is it an invitation to a party?" Pinkie bounced up.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what it is." Rainbow said sarcastically. "It's obviously from the princess. What does it say?"

"Oh no." Spike said and turned around to the rest of his friends. He put a hand to his mouth and cleared his throat and began reciting the letter.

Dear Spike,
As you have probably heard, Twilight Sparkle and her friends have single-hoofidly became criminals overnight. I'm not sure what could have sparked this senselessness, but it would appear they have no other intentions besides spreading chaos and havoc across Equestria. As painful as this is, I have decided Twilight is no longer my student as she is hereby expelled from my teachings. Your services however are still needed, and you will be assigned to assist a new pupil eventually. Please come to Canterlot Castle A.S.A.P. without Twilight or her friends. 
- Princess Celestia

"That's all it says." Spike rolled the scroll back up and placed it on the ground. He looked over at Twilight and tears formed in his eyes again. "I don't want to leave Twilight." He turned back towards his concerned looking friends. "I don't want to leave any of you either."

"Oh Spike. We can head to Canterlot and meet with the princess ourselves and tell our side of the story." Rarity waved a hoof.

"Now there you go on Rarity without a' thinkin'! We'll be imprisoned before we even get past the entrance to the city there!" Applejack said rather annoyed. "After all we're..." She shuddered for a second and gulped. "Criminals."

"Oh um. You're right." Rarity said and looked down. 

"Imprisoned? I couldn't stand that. I think I'd go crazy with all the other scary ponies around me!" Fluttershy started freaking out. 

Spike burped out another scroll and held his stomach from it aching. He reached down and picked up the newest scroll. He cleared his throat again and read it.

Dear Spike,
Please disregard the previous message. Stay away from Canterlot for your own safety! Twilight and her friends are here and my royal guards are having a very hard time containing them! Some of the guards have turned stance and are siding with Twilight. Just make sure you stay away! stay a!!/]/>,,./..

The letters ink seemed to trail off into nothing more than windy scribbles. "Well that throws a wrench in our monkey." Spike said.

It was quiet until Fluttershy spoke very softly. "Maybe not." She hid behind her mane after saying those words. 

"What was that?" Asked Rainbow.

Fluttershy stood up and spoke clearly. "Maybe it doesn't throw that wrench at a monkey."

"How do you figure that?" Spike wondered out loud.

Fluttershy turned to face him. "Perhaps the Princess will realize what happened and will listen to us if she notices there's two sets of us. It's definitely better for her to see, because at this point she wouldn't believe we were telling the truth."

Applejack rubbed her chin. "You know, you do have a point there Fluttershy." She said nodding her head.

"One thing is really bad about this though." Rarity said. "If the evil Twilight is getting the royal guards to work for her like the princess said, won't she send them out to look for us?"

"I never thought of that!" Rainbow flew and hovered a few feet off the ground looking around nervously. 

"So it wasn't a party invitation?" Pinkie asked.

All of them looked at each other again then at Pinkie. "Ah don't think you understand the seriousness of this situation we're in Pinkie." Applejack shook her head.

"Another question is, how are we going to even get to the castle?" Rarity brought up another valid point. "Without Twilight's powerful magical abilities we wouldn't stand a chance against all those guards." 

"I just hope Twilight gets better. We need to all pull together as a team if we are to meet with the princess... Even if our chances are slim to nothing." Rainbow stated.

"Let's just sleep on it and figure this out tomorrow mornin'." Applejack said, seemingly taking an alpha role of the group. Without speaking a word, the rest of them silently agreed and got into comfortable positions for the horrible sleep they were bound to have.

> Chapter 5: Bad Moon Rising
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The five ponies awoke one by one, however the sun didn't even rise. Actually, the moon and stars were still high in the sky, as if nothing moved or time itself was standing still. Applejack placed her hat on her head and stretched out along with the others.

"Now don't that beat all?" Applejack started. "I feel rested an' refreshed, but the sun ain't even close tah risin' yet." She said looking upwards.

"Also, it has been quite the sleep. Look." Rarity pointed towards the charred wood, which burned itself up and ran out of fuel for the fire quite some time ago. "I mean, do you think?" Rarity put her hooves over her mouth in trepidation. 

"When Celestia sent those letters to Spike, do you think the castle was being stormed by our evil twins?That still sounds ridiculous." Rainbow asked in a fearful tone.

"They ain't our Twin's Rainbow, they be imposters posing as us!" Applejack said. "But you do bring up a good point. Where's that letter?" She turned her head in several directions looking for the scroll. Spike handed her the second scroll he received earlier. "Thanks Spike. Let's see here."Applejack was reading the letter silently to herself then face hoofed. "Ah can't believe I was so bean-brained earlier."

"What is it?" Fluttershy asked taking a step towards her friend.

"You see how this here letter abruptly stops?" She showed the rest. They all nodded. "Well, it looks as if the princess couldn't finish her letter and was stopped forcefully." They all looked at the letter confused for a moment then gasped in unison when it dawned on them that Applejack was probably right.

"Do you think something bad happened to the princess?" Pinkie asked in a surprisingly serious tone.

"Well, that would explain why the sky hasn't changed at all." Rarity said looking at the moon. 

"So does this mean our sun is gone... Again?!" Rainbow asked rhetorically and started gnawing the edges of the hoofs while she lifted herself in the air slightly.

"Nightmare moon is back?" Spike asked.

Applejack shook her head. "No Spike, it just seems as if BOTH princesses can't do anything about the moon and sun space stuff." 

"Were they captured or..." Rarity stopped in mid sentence.

"I hope that's all what happened to them." Applejack responded. "One thing's for darn sure, we better help the princesses the only way we can, food can't grow with no sun. It was our awakening of the elements of disharmony that lead to this mess. It's our responsibility to clean it up." She immediately broke the leadership attitude when she heard a faint groan in the background. 

They all turned and looked to see Twilight blinking her eyes slightly and lifting her head off the ground. "Where... Where'd we go?" Was the only thing she could sputter out. Spike ran over and hugged Twilight around the neck and she slowly stood up under her own power. She shook her head and bonked it a few times with one of her front hooves.

"Twilight! You're alright!" Fluttershy happily trotted over and gave her friend a friendly nuzzle. The rest joined in and showed their concern for their friend and how happy they were that she was finally awake. 

"How long was I out for? It must have been a couple hours at least, it's night time!" She acknowledged the sky in her statement. 

"Um, Twilight. You may want to read these..." Rarity scooped up the two scrolls and gave them to her fellow unicorn friend. Twilight thanked Rarity and held up the scrolls with her magic. At least she tried to hold them up. Her horn spouted a few faint sparks but nothing happened.

"What the?!" Twilight said shocked and tried again. She concentrated with all her mental abilities however the scrolls just wouldn't move. "My magic! It's... Drained!" She said touching her horn. "No no no no no this can't be!" She started trotting back and forth then stopped. "I've never actually passed out before from using magic. I mean, it was only for a couple hours but did I exert more energy than I already had?"

"Sugarcube... It was more than a couple hours." Applejack said.

"What? But the moon is only halfway up the sky." Twilight responded.

Rarity shook her head. "It should be morning by now, the sun should be rising but the moon and stars are stuck in the sky."

Twilight tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "How can the moon be stuck? Are you okay Rarity?"

Rarity nudged the scrolls to Twilight then held them up for her with her own magic. This made Twilight feel a certain embarrassment since she couldn't do the simplest of tasks by herself but read on, using the moon as a source of light. She cringed and soon turned pale.

*****


The moon and stars were high in the sky, and in fact, have not moved at all yet. Twilight knew both princesses were in trouble. The letter specifically read that they were currently 'in Canterlot', the letter was cut short and the moon has yet to set and make way for the sun. The disharmonic elements were living up to their full potential.

"If the Ponytact's have enough power to over siege both princesses, who knows how far the extent of their power will go?" Twilight said looking concerned towards her friends as they were walking aimlessly in the cold desert. None of them replied because they were all thinking the same thing.

Twilight was kicking a stone as she walked slowly with her head down. She tried to use her magic to levitate it, but only a small spark would show up and disappear as fast as it came. Twilight never felt so powerless in her life. She remembered when she was a little filly just learning about magic, and the struggles it was to do the simplist of tasks. No. This was actually different. She knew how to do everything she wanted with her magic, however nothing would happen if she tried. Things were just not going to plan.

"That's it! I've had enough!" Rainbow yelled towards her friends. They all looked at Rainbow bewildered wondering how the sudden outburst was triggered. "I'm not an Earth Pony, I need to fly! I haven't flown fast in a few days! My wings are getting tired of being tired of doing nothing!"

"Wha...?" Applejack squinted her eyes trying to comprehend what Rainbow Dash just said.

Just then Rainbow flew straight up at top speed and disappeared into the clouds high above. "Rainbow Dash! Stop!" Twilight yelled but to no avail. "Remember what the princess wrote? That some of her guards have sided with the Disharmonic me? Well there's no doubt she sent at least a few out to find us in case we escaped!" Twilight said to her friends with her pupils being smaller than usual. 

"Gah! All these flaws and schemes are starting to get me dizzy!" Pinkie said spinning around and landing on her back with her eyes rolling around in opposite directions of each other. 

The others just looked at Pinkie in silence for a bit before Rarity spoke. "Yeah anyways, Rainbow is making an easy target of herself, flying around like that."

"I haven't seen any guard ponies yet though." Spike said intervening. 

"I wished it wasn't so dark. It gives me the creeps." Fluttershy said sounding frightened. All the attention they were getting made her feel uneasy even more so. 

Twilight tried her hardest to use her magic but the same result just sparked from her horn. "I could teleport all seven of us at one time, now I can't even teleport a lousy stone from one hoof to another." She said sounding bummed out. "I would just teleport Rainbow Dash back here but it's just impossible at this point." 

"Teach me some of your magic Twilight." Rarity said walking towards her.

"Uhhh no offence Rarity, but all my spells have been super advanced and were just meant for ponies who are advanced in magical abilities." Twilight said, partially telling the truth and partially saying that for selfish reasons. She didn't really want Rarity to know how to do those spells. Between her and her books, she wanted her friends to believe she was the most powerful pony around. Being modest about her abilities when Trixie showed up a few years ago made Twilight realize she was one of a few who could do almost anything she wanted with her magic. A rare kind of unicorn. Twilight wanted to be known as one of a select few. 

"Um, Twilight?" Rarity asked shaking her friend out of a daze with a hoof.

"Huh?" Twilight snapped back to reality, wondering why she started thinking of these selfish thoughts. 

"Teach me a few spells, now would be the perfect time to learn them would it not?" 

"Oh yeah... uhh.. I would but umm.." Twilight looked around and she spotted Rainbow Dash flying at ground level speeding towards them. "I would but Rainbow Dash is back and I really need to lecture her now." She said then stopped Rainbow with a clothesline. Just as Twilight opened her mouth to scold her friend, Rainbow smiled on the ground and started talking excitedly while getting up. 

"Guys, I found a town! Finally civilization!" Rainbow said grinning. 

"Just what would be the point? We'd be caught faster than a dog catching a bone if we just waltzed right into a town. We are basically Equestria's most wanted." Applejack retorted.

"Yeah but Spike's not in any trouble, maybe he can walk in town and see if any pony knows about us. It's worth a shot." Rainbow Dash said.

"Hmmm, I hate tah admit it, but Rainbow does have a good point." Applejack said bringing a hoof up to her chin in thought.

"What? No! I'm not some errand boy!" Spike said folding his arms.

"Actually you kind of are Spike." Twilight said rubbing a hoof on the top of Spike's head. 

"Oh come on! Last time I did something like this, we ended up in this position." Spike spoke back.

"That was Ponyville Spike, this is... Well, whatever place it is, it isn't Ponyville." Rarity  got close to Spike and batted her eyes and dilated her pupils while looking at him. She then stroked him under the chin with a hoof. "Will you at least do this little favor for me, Spikey Wikey?" She pawed at the ground. 

Spike's eyes turned into hearts and his tongue stuck out. "Yeah okay. I can do that for you Rarity." He softly said and leaned forwards with his lips puckered. Rarity simply stepped back and returned to her usual self while looking at one of her front hooves. 

"Thanks Spike, sounds great." She said and trotted away towards the rest of her friends again. 

Spike's eyes had returned to normal as well and didn't say a word. Twilight walked over and glared at Rarity. "Don't toy with his emotions Rarity!" She said in an angry whisper tone. Rarity's ears flopped downward.

"So which way was it towards the town?" Spike asked Rainbow who was hovering low to the ground looking a bit chippier than before. 

Rainbow flew a bit higher and motioned towards Spike the general direction. "It's north of here. It will probably take you a while to get there considering it's over those mountains." She pointed a hoof towards some tall standing mountains that looked to be of the extremely tall variety.

Spike stood there in disbelief. "You want me to go over that?!" He stood on the tips of his toes and turned towards her. "... Are you insane?!" 

"Whoa whoa whoa... The town is way over there?" Twilight stepped up.

"Yeah, now that I think of it, that would be dangerous for Spike to go venturing out like that on his own." Rainbow said.

"You think?!" Spike asked sounding displeased about this whole situation.

"Well I mean, I could just fly Spike over there couldn't I?" Rainbow suggested.

"No! We can't risk you getting caught if you're known over there Dash. We'll just have to come up with another plan."

"Sounds like some pony needs a disguise!" Pinkie said startling all of them. Some balloons and streamers exploded towards the others and Pinkie threw a lab coat and glasses with a fake nose and mustache towards Rainbow which landed perfectly on her. 

"What? But I... Pinkie, where did these come from?" Rainbow merely asked her pink party friend. 

"I don't know!" Pinkie smiled and joyfully bounced in place with a big grin.

Rainbow just shrugged and fixed the lab coat to feel more comfortable on her body. Spike was holding in a small laugh and pointed towards Rainbow Dash. "Oh yeah a scientist, that's totally you Dash!" He said sarcastically. Rainbow just had a lame look on her face as she floated in place. 

"Be right back you guys." Rainbow said scooping up the snickering dragon and flew towards the town. 

Fluttershy stepped forward and stood beside Twilight watching Rainbow Dash and Spike disappear towards and eventually over the mountains out of sight. "Why do we want to go into town again?" She asked. Twilight kept watching the mountains while replying.

"We need to have proper rest and just basically recharge. We need a proper meal and nourishment if we want to take on the Elements of Disharmony eventually. It's like... A place where we can reset ourselves. A safe haven sort of."  Twilight responded.

"Okay?" Fluttershy didn't really understand her logic but decided not to question it since Twilight pretty much knew what she was doing. Except for accidentally awakening the Elements of Disharmony she thought...

*****


It didn't take long for Dash to fly over the mountains and spot the town she found a few minutes ago. She felt extremely uncomfortable with the lab coat flapping in the wind as she flew at a high velocity. She looked to her right and saw a bunch of apple trees. "Doy!" Rainbow Dash said and crossed her eyes. 

"Hey, this place looks familiar." Said Spike. 

"Appleoosa." Rainbow responded. "I should have known the first time I saw all those apple trees!" 

As they neared the town she started slowing down and eventually came to a soft landing, letting Spike plop onto his feet. "Man that was way faster than if I had to do it myself." Spike said. Rainbow Dash didn't respond, instead she was fiddling around with her lab coat Pinky gave her, trying to make it feel tolerable at least. She eventually stopped and gave an expression of annoyance.

"I look like such an egghead." Rainbow said."Alright lets go. The sooner we know if we're wanted here, the sooner I can get rid of this silly disguise."

Since she landed on the outskirts of town they just had a little ways to walk towards it. It was a quiet walk towards Appleloosa since Rainbow and Spike didn't have much in common, nor did they really speak much to each other anyways. 

They made it to town and what they saw was pretty depressing to say the least. Ponies were looking worried and had no idea what event was currently taking place. They saw a few of them running towards the apple trees in a frantic pace. 

"Oh thank Celestia!" Rainbow turned around to see a brown pony walking towards them. He was wearing a hat and a vest with a star pinned to it. "I'm glad we got a real scientist here! Maybe you can tell us what's going on." Spike laughed a little to himself considering this pony thought Rainbow Dash was a scientist. Before she could open her mouth the brown earth pony spoke again. "Oh now where are my manners? Howdy, I'm sheriff Silverstar." He stuck out a font hoof.

"Uhh, hi. I'm uhhhh..." Rainbow was trying to think of a different name frantically but couldn't think of one.

"You'll have to excuse Ms. Skylight." Spike said. "She's a little disoriented from the current solar event." He put his hands on his sides and closed his eyes in a proud stance. 

"Um. Yeah? Sorry. I'm Ms. Skylight." Rainbow said putting on a fake grin and shook Silverstar's hoof with her own. She pushed her glasses up to her eyes again with a hoof afterwards. 

"I'm Spike." Spike said extending his hand for a shake. Silverstar reluctantly shook it then looked back at Rainbow Dash. 

"So do you know what's going on Doc?" He asked with concern in his eyes.

"Well uh," She pushed her glasses back up. "I'm not too sure but I might know when I do some tests around here. Because that's what us scientists do... We um. Test things." She put the fake grin back on. Spike just face-palmed and sheriff Silverstar tilted his head a bit with a strange look on his face. 

"Um. Okay?" Silverstar said. "Well I'll let you get on with your tests then. If you figure something out let me know. I'll be in my station." He pointed towards a small wooden building and walked in, slamming the door. 

Rainbow looked down at Spike. "Skylight? Really Spike?" She asked sounding displeased with the name he gave her.

"Sorry Rainbow, Skylight came to mind because it rhymes with Twilight." Spike said shrugging. Rainbow just rolled her eyes and decided she didn't care. It's just a temporary alias anyways. "So what should we do?" He asked.

"I guess we could search for wanted posters and ask the towns folk if we're wanted." She responded looking around her at the small town. 

"That's it? You're going to ask people, 'Hey am I wanted around here?'" Spike said imitating Rainbow's voice and doing a horrible job at it. Rainbow lowered her eyes looking quite angry at Spike.

"No dragon breath, I'm going to take off this stupid disguise and walk around here for a bit and see if any pony recognizes me." She grabbed the lab coat and threw it to the ground along with her fake glasses. 

"You can't do that! You might get spotted!" Spike quietly yelled at her flailing his arms in the air.

"I'm breaking the rules boo hoo. It's faster this way." She stepped on the glasses and shattered them. She looked around and everything still seemed to be the same. Passing ponies didn't give a second glance at her. "Alright let's go." She trotted around town trying to stand out, but not making it so blatantly obvious. She flew up into the air and did a few tricks. No one seemed to care. Meanwhile Spike was just walking around looking for posters that said his friends were wanted like the ones in Ponyville. 

After almost half an hour of aerial tricks and searching for posters, the two met up where they originally split up before. "Anything?" Spike asked.

"Nothing. You?" Rainbow asked in reply.

"Couldn't find anything saying you're in trouble." He said rather quietly so no one else could hear. 

"Alright, well I say we go and get the others and tell them it's alright here." Rainbow said scooping up Spike immediately and began flying back over the mountains.

Silverstar saw this from his window and ran outside. "Hey Doc! You forgot your coat!" He yelled so she could hear him. Rainbow just grimaced and kept flying. Silverstar shifted his eyes left and right then flung the coat over his back as he ran into his building.

*****


"Now you're certain we won't be noticed?" Twilight asked.

"Trust me Twilight! We'll blend in just like the rest of them!" Rainbow said hovering sounding quite confident. "Also um. It was Appleloosa I saw earlier. So yeah."

"Appleloosa huh?" Applejack said walking towards Rainbow then looked over at Twilight and smiled. "I guess it's just good luck ain't it Twi?" She said.

"Good luck?" Asked Fluttershy.

"We can stay with my cousin Braeburn fer a day or two, as a picker upper." 

"Sounds good to me, alright let's go." Twilight said leading the way into Appleloosa.

*****


As soon as they were in a good section of the town one random pony immediately walked towards them and pointed at Twilight.

"Hey I know you!" Twilight gulped and her ears went back. The pony who was pointing smiled. "You're the one who was trying to settle the dispute between us and the buffalo." Twilight gave a sigh of relief and returned the smile. "Thanks for trying, we should have listened but at least things turned out alright." The random pony waved and walked towards her destination. 

"I thought we were spotted wrongly." Rarity stated from behind. 

Spike walked up beside Twilight and nudged her then whispered in her ear. "I don't think any pony will remember Rarity." They both looked back at her who was trying to push the dust out of her hair. She was still a complete mess. Twilight turned back and laughed a bit.

"How much further is it to your cousins Applejack?" Rarity asked. "I've been a complete mess for far too long now and I'll go crazy if I can't have a proper bath soon. I mean, no offence, but you've been cleaner than me!" 

Applejack just glanced back not letting Rarity get to her. "Hold yer horses Rarity, Braeburn's place is just a little ways away."

Some other male pony walked up to them, but was most interested in Pinkie Pie. "Hi!" The stallion greeted.

Pinkie perked right up and gave a big smile. "Hi!" She said excitedly. 

"You're the one that caused the buffalo to attack! I don't really like you." He said and his sarcastic smile went down to a frown then trotted off. Pinkie's smile drooped and she got teary eyed.

"Don't listen to him pinkie, you were only trying to help." Twilight said trying to cheer up her friend.

"Yeah, who cares about some jerk and his dumb opinion." Applejack said. "Hey where's Fluttershy?" They looked over and their mouths opened from what they saw. Fluttershy was giving the stare to the stallion who looked really frightened. A minute later he walked up and apologised to Pinkie then ran off as fast as he could. Fluttershy just crossed a front hoof over her other and closed her eyes contently. 

"No pony talks that way to any of my friends." Fluttershy said. Twilight smiled and looked over at Pinkie who was now also smiling. 

"Usually Fluttershy is so timid." Rarity spoke to Applejack, however Fluttershy overheard her.

"If something hurts my friends in any way, I lose it. My friendship with you girls is too powerful. I can overcome any problem if it involves any of you because our friendship is just too strong." She said walking forward. 

The rest of them couldn't believe it but Fluttershy seemed a little more assertive than normal. But they decided it's probably for the best right now in their situation.

*****


After a few more minutes of walking they finally managed to reach Applejack's cousins place. It was a small simple home that had a ceiling with a slight slant downwards. It looked old and rickety and just as dry as the desert, but to her cousin it was a great shanty. They all walked up onto the wooden planks around the door and AJ was the one to knock. After a few seconds they could clearly hear hooves walking towards the door from the inside. A lock was heard clicking out of place as the door swung open. There stood a yellow stallion wearing a cowboy hat covering gold colored hair. He was also wearing a brown vest and had one big red apple as a cutie mark. 

"Is it? Cousin Applejack?" He said perking up a bit.

"Darn tootin' Braeburn." Applejack responded giving a friendly smile.

"Not to sound rude, but what exactly are you doing here? Doesn't your family usually make apple juice this time of year?" Braeburn asked.

"Yes but uh."	

"Howdy Brae!" Pinkie poked her head around the corner and greeted him with a seemingly too-much-effort-for-a-smile smile.

"Oh hey I remember you. Yep, won't ever forget it." Braeburn said not sounding quite as enthusiastic . He looked around the corner to see the rest of his cousins friends. They gave a friendly half-hearted greeting smile. "Uh, are you all taking a vacation to Appleloosa right now? Things seem a bit messed up." He said taking his hat off and scratching his head in confusion. 

"No we just stopped by is all." Applejack said. "Remember when you said if ah ever need a place a stay for a while I'm always welcome at your place?" Applejack continued with her voice crackling a bit.

"Can't say I-" Braeburn started but was cut off mid sentence.

"Well I'd appreciate that gesture now. Thanks cuz." Applejack said and walked into the small house motioning the rest to follow her in. They all trotted in bowing their heads a bit as they felt uncomfortable barging into someones place uninvited.

"What's this all about AJ?" Braeburn said closing the door and re-locking it again.

The five ponies and one dragon all simply stood inside waiting to be officially welcomed.

"Ah just thought mah cousin would want to see his cousin Applejack is all... and uh, her friends." She motioned towards them and they all gave a weak wave. Braeburn looked over at them then back to his cousin. "But if you would rather be alone and shoo out family then-" Now this time it was Applejack who got cut off.

"I'm always happy to see you Applejack! I wouldn't mind a visit. Since ya'll are here maybe you can help me with apple buckin' tonight!" He said smiling a bit more now. "Well it seems to be night time for a while now. I'll just say later then."

Applejack smiled, "Thanks cousin, come on girls." She guided them to a small room which they would have to share for the night. 

Rarity poked Applejack to get her attention. She whispered to her friend just so she could hear her, "Well now that we have a place to stay do you think I can finally get all this crud off me? I've been a mess since that big thunderstorm before all this even started!"

Applejack had her eyes half closed and trotted past Rarity talking in her normal tone. "I don't know. Ask Braeburn."

Braeburn turned around from where he was as his attention was caught. "Ask me what?" He looked to Applejack and noticed she was motioning to Rarity. He looked at her and had noticed she did seem a bit... Disgusting. He just grimaced a bit and just nodded his head. Rarity quickly ran to the bathroom and in a couple seconds all of them could here a shower head activate. 

Applejack was in the living room with her cousin making general chit-chat, mostly apple farm lingo, Rarity was in the shower and the remaining four and Spike were in the bedroom. 

"So how do you play this game Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.

"It's easy Dashie! There are nine squares. One of us marks a square with an 'X', the other marks an 'O'. You have to make a line of three to win!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly bouncing up and down in place. 

"Um, okay I get it I think." Rainbow said marking an 'X'. Needless to say she lost and Pinkie won the game. "Yeah I think I'll pass on this one."

Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike sat on the floor at the other side of the room. "So let me get this straight, evil 'yous' are in Canterlot castle right now assuming power of the throne." Spike said trying to wrap his head around the entire situation.

"Correct." Twilight said.

"Hang on I'm not done. They have some royal guards working for them now, possibly out of fear AND have possession of the Elements of Harmony?" Spike finished.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other for a second then back at Spike. "Well, yes." Twilight confirmed.

Spike was looking at the floor then back to his big sister. "It seems you guys are between a rock and a hard place."

The three of them didn't say anything after that as their stomachs churned even more. So many possibilities of what could have happened to the princesses. They just didn't want the worst possibility to be the true one. If that was the fact the night would be endless. Thinking of that Twilight's stomach churned even more. It felt like someone was grabbing her stomach and twisting it with all their might. She tried pushing those thoughts away by using her magic to illuminate the room even more. Just like before only a little sparkle of magic sparked from the tip of her horn and disappeared instantly. 

The door to the room opened up and Rarity came in with a towel on top of her head covering her hair. Her coat was pure white again seemed a little more shiny than she has been the past couple days. She removed the towel from her head and swung her nicely curled purple hair around as she did so while having her eyes closed. Spike's tongue stuck out involuntarily as he was stunned by the beauty he hasn't seen for a while. 

"Ladies, Rarity is back." Rarity said batting her eyes. "Finally!"

She was the only one who seemed excited by her cleanliness. Spike was more entranced by this but Twilight nudged him to bring him back to reality. 

Braeburn knocked on the already ajar door and poked his head in, "Would any of you gals like some apple cider?" He asked holding a tray with mugs full of cider.

"Don't mind if I do!" Rainbow flew up quickly and grabbed a mug with a big grin. 

*****


After relaxing and talking, Applejack came in the room. "Remember when Braeburn asked for help to buck apple trees? It's time. Don't worry, ya'll don't have to go super fast this time." She exited the room and headed outside.

"It only seems fair. After all this is his hospitality we're taking advantage of." Twilight said standing up and stretching her back. The rest agreed and followed suit then headed out the door. Outside was a big apple orchard with buckets lying everywhere.

"It's my responsibility to harvest the apples from this section of the orchard." Braeburn said proudly. "With eight of us, this should go eight times faster! Why, we'll be done in no time." 

"Twi, why don't you lift the apples out of the tree with yer-" Applejack stopped in mid-sentence then cowered a bit. "Er, sorry." She trotted off to help Braeburn start. Twilight looked up and saw the moon was still in the same exact position. With just the moon as their only source of light it was still a bit hard to see everything, especially in an apple orchard where the trees made shadows in an already dark world. 

After a bit of learning and understanding every one of them was helping and doing their share of the work. One pony would buck the apples, the other would take the buckets and empty them in large barrels. Spike was teamed with Twilight, Rarity with Fluttershy, Pinkie with Rainbow Dash, and Braeburn with Applejack who were obviously the more productive team. 

About an hour passed by the time Braeburn called it a night. Every one of them were sweaty and sore but felt like they earned their stay. Even if it was just for one night to recharge. "Good work all of you!" Braeburn commended. "We got every last one of those trees. No apple was left behind." He turned to Applejack, "Feel free to come anytime and bring your friends too!" They all shared a laugh. It was the first bit of happiness they had all felt in a while. Except for Rarity who was happy to be clean earlier. 

They all walked in the house and Applejack read the time from the clock out loud. "Nine O' Clock. Feels later than that, or earlier, ah don't know." She shrugged. 

"Maybe we should hit the hay. We have a super duper hooper shooper day tomorrow!" Pinkie said find the energy to bounce in one spot still. 

"Big day?" Braeburn tilted his head.

"Uh, yup. Ah agree." Applejack said giving Pinkie a glare. 

"Um, okay. I think I'll head off to bed too. G'night ladies!" He said entering his own room and closing the door. He opened the door a crack to peak out. "and the dragon guy." He closed his door again. Spike didn't look too impressed but he just shrugged it off. 

All seven of them walked into the bedroom and plopped down on the floor. They spread out a couple blankets to make the hardwood floor a bit more cushiony. After all, they wanted to have a good sleep to be awake and alert for what could possibly be the biggest day of their lives tomorrow. They had their eyes closed but Rainbow started fidgeting around. 

"Rainbow could you please stop? I can't get to sleep with you moving around erratically like that." Rarity said opening and eye to look at Dash. 

"Sorry it's just that I can't sleep on something so uncomfortable." Rainbow kept moving around. 

Rarity opened both eyes now. "Adjust then! Do you think I was comfortable walking around with all that muck in my mane and coat?" 

"So you got a little dirty, boo hoo." Rainbow said turning on her back to see Rarity upside down staring at her. 

"I'll have you know that-" This time Rarity was cut off. 

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Spike said standing up pointing his finger at Rainbow. "You! Sleep on the couch in the living room!" Rainbow raised her eyebrow as Spike then attempted no argument as the couch did sound more comfortable than the floor.

"Actually there's probably room for three of us on the couch and armchair out there." Applejack interjected. They all were deciding who would be more comfortable where in order to get the best nights sleep as they possibly could. In the end, it was Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie sleeping out in the living room while Spike, Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack volunteered to stay in the room. 

Dash and Rarity were laying on the coach with their heads at opposite ends and their back hooves barely touching each other but they didn't care. Pinkie was curled up on the armchair using her tail as a pillow. But opened an eye. "Hey, Dash!"

Rainbow remained still and kept her eyes closed but replied. "Yeah Pinkie?"

"Will you play tic-tac-toe again sometime?" Pinkie asked.

"I doubt it." Rarity cleared her throat but didn't say anything after that. "Oh, sorry Rare!" Pinkie said and closed her eyes again, not taking too long to drift into sleep. 

The four in the other room didn't say a peep. As soon as the others left they tried to sleep. All of them got to sleep pretty fast except for Twilight. She couldn't get horrible scenarios out of her head of what might have happened to the princesses. Eventually though, she managed to push those thoughts out of her head and fall asleep like the rest of her friends.

*****


Twilight awoke in the morning not looking so well. Her hair was a frizzled mess and she had bags under her eyes. It was quite obvious she didn't have a great sleep. She was folding up her blanket to put away but stopped mid fold. She stepped back and concentrated really hard with her magic to fold it for her. Usually this would be such a simple task, but to no avail. She sighed and continued folding the blanket manually. 

Spike yawned and stretched then scratched his head with half open eyes. Even through his blurry vision he saw his big sister did not have a peaceful sleep. "Hey Twi, um, you don't look so well." Twilight just rolled her eyes.

"I just didn't have a good sleep... Must have been these sleeping conditions." She lied to Spike and knew perfectly well why she couldn't relax. She was keeping this a secret from everyone but herself; She was having reoccurring nightmares of the Elements of Harmony. Her first dream she had with them, back when they were not fugitives, kept coming back to her sub-conscious as she slept. 

Twilight opened a closet door and placed the blanket she slept on inside. Spike followed suit and placed his on a lower shelf. They looked around the room and saw that Fluttershy was still sleeping very quietly, but Applejack was not present. "I guess it's that farm mentality to wake up early." She guessed and Spike absentmindedly nodded. Twilight tip toed her way down the hall, past Braeburn's room through the living room where her other friends were still sleeping and noticed something outside. She got closer to the window and saw an orange figure rarely moving. 

Twilight opened the door to go outside and heard whimpering coming from Applejack sitting on the porch. "Applejack?..." Twilight asked softly walking slowly towards her friend.

"Leave me be Twi-Twilight." Applejack tried to say firmly, but her non-characteristic stutter gave her away. She tried to hide her face with her hoof blocking the side that Twilight was on.

"Applejack, talk to me. Maybe I can help?" Twilight offered.

"Just go!" Applejack yelled without turning her head. Twilight backed up a step then frowned when she saw one of the toughest ponies she knew break down and slam her face into her hooves and began weeping. 

Twilight approached her friend and put a hoof on her shoulder. Applejack didn't resist and for a second felt a little more comfortable. Twilight sat beside AJ contently waiting for her to say something.

Applejack eventually slowed down and wiped some tears from her eyes. Her cheeks were a crimson red shade and her eyes were watery. She eventually got the courage to face Twilight, feeling a little ashamed that her friend saw her like this. "Ah-ah..." Applejack took a deep breath so she could speak without stuttering. "When ah heard we were near Appleloosa and we weren't known for the bad things our doppelganger's did, ah was as happy as ah was when we were still in Ponyville." She took another deep breath and her tears stopped. Twilight just kept listening contently making direct eye contact. "When we were buckin' the apples ah felt like ah was... Home." Applejack looked up at the exact same sky that has been there for a while now, frozen.  "What ah wouldn't give for things tah be back t' normal..." She looked down at the ground. 

Now it was Twilight's turn. "We've been away from home for a long time now. I can understand that you're homesick-" Applejack interjected right there.

"Not exactly Twi. You get to see your family, that being Spike. He also knows the truth of what's exactly goin' on. Mah family probably thinks I'm an awful criminal. Ah hope nothing happened to my family." Applejack was starting to look normal. Her face was a shade of orange again and wasn't stuttering anymore. 

Twilight put her foreleg around Applejack's shoulders and patted her on the back. "You know what AJ?" She started saying with a stern tone. "We're going to get the Elements of Harmony back, defeat the Disharmonic ones and set things right!" She gave a big grin.

Applejack felt much better now. She tipped her hat and returned the smile. "You're right Twi. Let's put this mess behind us!" Applejack said confidently. They both walked into the house and saw that their friends were all sleeping. Spike was the only one awake sitting on a chair, but seemed to be dozing off again. 

Braeburn came walking out of his room looking like his usual self with the vest and hat on. He whispered to his cousin to be sure not to wake the others up. "Want some breakfast?"

*****


The clock read six O' clock when the others finally woke up. They were woken up with the smell of freshly cooked breakfast. Rainbow Dash flew up into the air slightly while stretching and scratched her side. "Man that was a great sleep." She said stretching again. Fluttershy walked out of the guest room and greeted everyone. 

"OOoo! Breakfast!" Pinkie said excitedly as if she never slept. 

"Dig in ya'll." Applejack said placing separate dishes down on a table consisting of fried hay, sliced apples and oatmeal. All of them dug in put Pinkie eyed the plate carefully then looked up at Applejack.

"Oatmeal, are you crazy?" She said with a serious look to her face. Applejack's face was one of confusion when Pinkie laughed. "I'm kidding! But seriously where's the sugar?" 

After eating, Applejack patted Braeburn on the back. "Well thanks cuz, that was delicious." All of them also gave their thanks and piled the dishes neatly in the sink. 

"Let me help you with those." Rarity offered and turned on the sink with her magic and started cleaning the dirty dishes. Twilight saw that from where she was sitting and just scoffed a bit. Rarity never noticed. "It is always polite to help clean up after being a guest." She said with her eyes closed turning off the faucet.

"Um, should we get going?" Fluttershy contently asked while looking at the floor.

"I reckon Fluttershy is right." Applejack agreed and nodded her head.

"You gotta go? The train doesn't show up here until noon." Braeburn stated.

Twilight made a slick save as to why they were leaving. "We don't want to impose anymore than we already have. You've been a great host. Besides we're leaving to see the buffalo!" She grinned and shifted her eyes around. Everyone else gave the same grin and nodded their heads. They weren't about to tell Braeburn the whole story, he wouldn't even believe them. 

"Well um, alrighty then. It was nice to see you all. Enjoy the rest of your time here in Appleloosa!" Braeburn said rather happily.

"Yeah we will bye!" Applejack said slamming the door as everyone left the house and stood out on the dirt street. 

"Now, back to business." Twilight said. "We must head back to Canterlot to retrieve our elements!" Applejack nodded. 

"But which way is Canterlot?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof while looking upward. Suddenly she had a great idea. "Canterlot, that's east of here! I know that because the train ride here went past Canterlot."

"But which way is east?" Rainbow said.

Twilight took her hoof off her chin and pointed towards a bright white star up in the sky in the distance. "You see that star?" She continued pointing. "Luna always places that star in that very location all the time. It's called the 'North Star'. If we are facing it now, then east is to the right of us." The hoof she was pointing at the sky with was now pointing east, towards an empty desert. "Canterlot is that way."

"Egghead." Rainbow said quietly enough so no one could hear her. "Okay here's another question, how far is it?" 

"Oh it can't be too far. If we start walking now we should get there by nightf-" Twilight stopped and looked around the dark sky. "We should get there later." She said lamely.

*****


They were all walking except for Rainbow Dash who was flying just as fast. All they could see was dry earth. It didn't seem as cold like when they first arrived here. But they weren't about to complain about that. After another 30 minutes of walking there was a big rock that jutted out from the ground. It must have been at least twenty feet tall and ten feet around. It was a nice change of scenery even if it was just a rock. 

Just then Twilight's pupils got extremely tiny and her face turned pale. "Run for the rock!" She yelled to them and bolted towards the grey protrudence. No one gave thought and just ran for it and hid under a small shelter the rock gave.

All of them squeezed under neath and Rarity was getting uncomfortable. "What's the matter Twilight?" She asked sounding angry in a yelling-whisper voice. Twilight jolted her head to the right and daintily pointed towards the general direction. All of them stuck their heads out to see a royal guard trotting towards Appleloosa. They all quickly hid under the shelter the rock gave them on the opposite side of the guard when they thought they saw him tilt his head towards the rock. 

"Did he see us?" Rainbow asked. 

Fluttershy was just hyperventilating and panicking. "What if he did?! Oh no!" 

...

They all remained silent for a while. However they heard the clip-clop of pony hooves walking on the other side of the rock. All of them stood perfectly still and didn't move a muscle, not even to blink. It felt like an eternity when the hooves stopped moving on the other side. They weren't sure if the royal guard pony was going to walk around the other side of the rock and see them. Sweat was starting to run down Twilight's face.

"Hmm, I guess it was just my imagination!" The guard pony reassured himself and turned around to get back on track. 

"Phew! That was a close one!" Pinkie said happily and rather loud.

All of them darted their eyes to Pinkie. "Wait a minute!" The guard said and ran around the rock to see all of them standing there. "NO PONY MOVE!" He yelled and stood tall. He was a bright white unicorn with gold body armor and was about twice as big as any of them. 

"Pinkie!" Applejack yelled. The white unicorn looked over at her. "Quiet! From now on you will speak when spoken to! You are all coming with me!" He reached into his armor and pulled out several cuffs that were chained together. 

"No pony try any funny business!" He demanded and started walking towards them. Rainbow bolted towards the guard pony to try and attack but he glowed his horn and caught her in mid flight where she suddenly stopped. "What did I JUST say?!" He got right in her face and cuffed Rainbow Dashes legs and forelegs together. Rainbow was struggling but to no avail. His magic was overpowering her. "Ow!" Rainbow said and winced in pain as the cuffs were more like shackles and were a tad too tight.

Fluttershy was shaking in fright, but a thought popped into her head of what she said the day before, "If something hurts my friends in any way, I lose it. My friendship with you girls is too powerful. I can overcome any problem if it involves any of you because our friendship is just too strong." Fluttershy leaned her head forward and growled, stomping at the ground with her front right hoof getting ready to charge. 

The white unicorn saw this and just merely grunted. "Oh please. Don't attack, whatever shall I do?" He sarcastically said with a roll of the eyes then enveloped her in a yellow glow and with that, floated Fluttershy over to him. He grabbed the next set of shackles that were attached to Rainbow Dash and started levitating them towards Fluttershy.

The other four were tentive to see what Fluttershy would do. Twilight wanted to help but felt useless since her magic has still not returned. "Oh no what do we do?!" Twilight asked herself while yammering all four legs in place. She looked over at Rainbow who was still struggling with the shackles, she then looked over at Fluttershy and finally the royal guard. A thought struck her and she knew exactly what Fluttershy was planning.

"Oooh I'm so scar-" The white unicorn said then froze in mid sentence looking at the yellow pegasi deep into her eyes. She was using her patented stare while floating in font of him, still being controlled by his magic. Twilight darted towards the free set of shackles and snatched them up. She raced towards the guard pony who was still in a trance, grabbed his hooves and chained them together like he did with Rainbow. Twilight grabbed the key out of his armor and tossed to Rarity. Fluttershy finally stopped using the stare causing the glow to dissipate and her to fall flat on the ground beneath. Rarity had the key magically floating in front of her and ran towards Rainbow Dash.

The guard pony shook his head fast as he was still dazed a bit. "Give that back to me!" He used his magic to try and take the key away from Rarity's grasp who was trying to jam the key into the locks that bound Rainbow. It was a tug-of-war for freedom. But the yellow glow disappeared from the key suddenly and Rarity was able to unchain her friend quickly. She looked over to see that Applejack and Pinkie had tackled the guard. Rainbow stood up and shook her hooves to wake them up. They were throbbing but no worse for wear. 

Spike quickly dug a whole where Rarity dropped the key into. He quickly covered the hole back up and sat on it with his arms folded. Now all six of them were standing around the guard who had his legs shackled together struggling to move, but could only squirm. "Let me go right this instant!" He bellowed loudly and was giving a concentrated look of anger that even made Applejack feel uneasy. "Who has the key?!"

Twilight trotted towards the guard and stood over him. "I have a few questions if you don't mind."

"You'll all be sorry! Each and every one of you!" The guard screamed from the ground looking up towards Twilight who from his angle was upside down. 

Twilight just frowned and cleared her throat. "As I was saying I have a few questions."

The guard just snorted, "What makes you think I'll answer any questions?" He said with a calmer tone.

"Because we have the key, and the only way out is with that. So I suggest you co-operate." Twilight leaned forward with an angry expression, emphasizing that remark in an attempt to intimidate the guard.

Applejack took the remaining shackles and wrapped them around the white unicorn constricting his movement entirely. "There! Tied up like a turkey!" She said proudly. 

"Now you have absolutely no movement. You can answer our questions and leave, or you can stay out in the desert forever." Twilight stated. "Even your magic can't help you now." She said in a smoother tone.

The guard sighed loudly and closed his eyes. "I can't believe I- oh, fine." He surrendered. The six all smiled at each other and were all listening attentively to the answers they were wanting. 

"First of all, why is the moon not lowering to make way for the sun?" Twilight asked.

The white unicorn sighed again and answered. "Because our new leader has them caged up in her own magical boundaries."

"Magical boundaries? New leader?" Twilight asked quizzically.

"Yes, our new leader has both Luna and Celestia inside a cage made up of magic to ensure there is no chance of escape. The moon cannot be lowered without Luna's magical abilities."

"Just who is this new leader?" Twilight asked.

The guard pony looked up at Twilight again making her look like she was upside down. "It's you." He said, "Well not exactly you, but some pony who looks just like you." Twilight looked up at her friends and narrowed her eyes but looked back down at the guard who continued speaking again. "There were also these other five ponies as well, they all looked exactly like every pony here." 

"Just as I thought." Twilight said, "Actually it was quite obvious. So next question, why are you working for your 'new leader' and not being loyal to the princesses?"

"Because our new leader is so powerful! If she can constrain the ex-princesses, imagine what else she could do! No pony can fight against her or the five others! The ones that did try, are all locked in the dungeons forever." He turned his head to the side to get more comfortable. "Whoever swore their loyalty to the new leader, or as she likes to be called, 'Ms. Sparkle'" Twilight cringed but the guard continued, "whoever swore their loyalty to her got to be free and work for her. It didn't take much convincing when she made an example of a few other guards who refused."

"Well what was her orders 'fer you?" Applejack stepped forward.

Without moving his head the guard answered. "We were told there were imposters that looked exactly like them. We were told to find you, and lock you all in a special reserved dungeon."

It was silent for a bit as Twilight walked to her group of friends and talked quiet enough so the guard couldn't hear. "So we have confirmation on a few things, but there's still one thing I don't understand. Since evil Twilight locked us in the ancient pony sisters underground hidden temple-" She was cut off by Pinkie giggling to herself.

"Evil Twilight." Pinkie said and giggled again.

Twilight just lowered her eyelids halfway then continued. "If we were locked up in that place, why would she send guards out in search for us?"

"Maybe that magical force field was only temporary?" Rarity contributed. 

"Maybe." Twilight acknowledged. "Bottom line is, we're still Equestria's most wanted." 

"That's probably it!" Applejack said suddenly. "It's probably their backup plan in case we actually did escape. We would still not be safe even if we did make it out of there."

"I guess that makes sense." Rainbow agreed.

Twilight parted from the group and walked over to the still constricted guard. "I have just one more question." She said.

"What is it?" He said rather annoyed.

"Did you happen to see ugh, Ms. Sparkle have a book with a picture of six different elements on them?" She was anticipating his response.

"As a matter of fact, yes I did see something like that next to the throne she sat in." He said sounding like he didn't care. Twilight looked up and nodded to her friends. They knew for sure where the elements were now, and had their questions answered based on an insider. The guard looked back up at Twilight. "Alright I held up my end of the deal, now let me go."

Twilight smirked a bit while looking back. "Sorry, but I don't trust you." She said starting to walk towards her friends.

"What?! Get me out! We had a deal!" He screamed towards her.

Twilight spun around to face him. "I don't recall us literally making a deal!" She said. "But I will let you out once we've had a head start. We'll tell some pony where you are and where the key is." Twilight finished and spun around back to her friends.

"You sure he's gonna be alright out here Twi?" Applejack asked. 

"He'll be fine. Hungry, but fine." She simply replied.

"So now what's the newest plan?" Rainbow asked who was now hovering above again. 

As the rest were trotting Spike hopped on Twilight's back. Twilight replied, "Let's go give Ms. Sparkle a surprise visit."

> Chapter 6: A Stealthy Approach
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Continuing in the desert all seven of them were starting to get sore from all the walking. However, a sudden boost in morale kicked in when they saw the edges of desert become less and less prevalent. Eventually they all felt the smooth welcoming texture of dark green dewy grass. 

"Grass! Oh how I've missed you!" Rarity gleefully said shuffling her hooves around to make the most out of the feeling. The others eyed her curiously. "Walking on all that dry rough dirt can cause damage to the hoof overtime." 

"Oh please..." Applejack muttered to herself looking away from Rarity. But she winced when she saw the sight before her. Applejack nudged Twilight and pointing in the distance without saying a word.

"Canterlot!" Twilight said excitedly. "I told you it was this way girls!" She smiled and walked in the direction of the majestic city. However she stopped and swung around to face her friends. "Remember how powerful that royal guard was that almost caught us back there? Well there's going to be a whole lot more around this area, I can assure you. So lets be discrete." They all nodded and Twilight swung back around towards her home town. "Let's do this."

Spike seemed happy to be back in his home town as well. He was smiling but soon his look turned into curiosity. As they all embarked towards the city they could see smoke rising from some buildings and seemed to be glowing a bit more orange than usual. As all of them crossed the perimeter and into town, all they saw were broken buildings, debris everywhere and random fires. It had an uncomfortable silence where the only sound they could hear was the crackling of fire.

"What... What happened?" Twilight asked herself surveying her once illustrious home town. It was uneasy with the sound of no pony chatting to one another on the street. The whooshing of random gusts of wind sent chills down their spines. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Canterlot was now just a ghost town. Every pony evacuated in a hurry, and it looked like it was forced upon them by higher authority. 

Suddenly all their ears propped upwards when they could hear distant chatting in the background between two stallions. The chatting was growing louder indicating they were coming towards them. All seven quickly rushed behind a broken wall of a house on the opposite side of the talking. 

Popping her head over the wall ever so slightly was Rainbow Dash to get a look at who the talking was coming from. She grounded herself by her friends still behind the wall. "It's two guard ponies talking. They're just walking by. Let them pass." She whispered and then kept perfectly still. They all held their breath when the two were heard on the opposite side of the wall walking past. Twilight looked to her left and saw them walking down the street away from them now. No pony moved until the chatting sounds dissipated in the distance and were eventually gone.

"Remember what the guard in the desert said, all who opposed evil Twilight were thrown in a dungeon." Twilight said. "So that means all of the rest who are walking around are on her side."

"We best be goin' then. The sooner the better." Applejack pitched in and they all headed cautiously towards Canterlot Castle. They all noticed that the castle seemed undamaged. Nothing was changed on it and still looked as prestigious as normal.

Eventually they all made their way to a market which was in ruins. Stands were knocked over with fruit and vegetables scattered all over the place. Twilight could see in her minds eye that this used to be a very busy block when harmony was still around. Now it was a dark, bleak, depressing place. 

"I am kind of hungry." Rainbow said picking a tomato up off the ground and tossing it in her mouth. Between bites she spoke to the rest of them. "I mean, itsch not like they're gonna be needing thre money for thish food." 

Once they all had their fill on food in the abandoned market they decided to keep trudging on towards the castle. Spike was the only one who was not satisfied with what he had to eat for the past few days considering gemstones weren't an option. 

"Egh, I haven't had any sugar coated candy in a while now. I don't know how much longer my hyper activism can last!" Pinkie said sounding worried over something like that. 

"Good!" Rainbow said but didn't affect Pinkie in the slightest. 

They were all walking on the side of a main road that led towards the Castle. On both sides of them were just fancy houses reserved for special gifted unicorns. 

"Hey Twilight, you could have lived here! See?" Rarity motioned to Twilight showing a sign that said just that. "If I were you I would have never passed on an opportunity to be living in Canterlot, especially near the castle." Rarity said rather mellow dramatically. 

"Yeah well I didn't have the option. Remember I was ordered to come to Ponyville to make friends instead?" Twilight replied sounding harsher than she intended. Realizing it, she wanted to shake the tension of the situation off. "I'm very glad I did come to Ponyville though. You friends have opened up my eyes to a vast world of undescribable experiences." She smiled and continued along. 

A stone bridge was now ahead of them which stretched across a small gape in the town. Looking down Rainbow could see a river a few hundred feet below. She peered over to the bridge and noticed it wasn't in the best of shape. Almost like it was ravaged in some tussle. 

"Hmm, this here doesn't seem to be very stable." Applejack said motioning to the crumbling bridge. 

Twilight tried teleporting them all to the other side but nothing was happening. It was starting to frustrate her by now considering her magic has been gone for two days now. "It's just a little bent out of shape. It'll be fine." She said walking towards the bridge. A small gust of wind blew and a leaf from a nearby tree fell onto the bridge's rail and the whole thing crumbled apart instantly and its contents broke apart and fell. Twilight immediately stopped and her ears went down. "Never mind..." She grumbled. 

The stone bridge collapsing caught a lot of attention from guards and Twilight looked up to see at least six pegasi guard ponies in the distance flying towards their location. "Run!" She shrieked and every one of them fled off in a different direction. 

Twilight and Spike hid behind a broken house, Rarity hid behind some dumpsters which she immediately regretted, Pinkie hid behind a nearby hill, Applejack was crouching underneath a deck, Fluttershy was hiding in an apple tree and Rainbow was hiding in a chimney. However they all heard the same thing coming from the road they were standing on near the broken bridge. 

"Anyone else see that?" One guard said.

"It almost looked like a few ponies were foolish enough to stick around town." Another said.

"Let's show them what happens to ponies who try and live in OUR town!" Another guard said. 

Then they all heard the clip clop of pony hooves walking in separate directions. They all started panicking knowing they were being searched for. The jig was up. One unicorn guard pony was tough enough, but dealing with six pegasi? They would stand no chance, especially since the guards are larger in stature than the six mares.

Rainbow Dash heard the sounds of the guard ponies moving out in search for her and her friends. She contemplated what she should do, if anything at all. She was inside a chimney which was pitch black. No pony could see her if she wanted them to, so Rainbow felt pretty secure in her hiding spot. However if she didn't do anything she knew her friends would eventually be caught and thrown in that 'special dungeon'. Twilight couldn't teleport them somewhere else again and Rarity only knew basic magic spells. Everything sounded like it was up to her now.

"What's the point of coming all this way just to get caught?" Rainbow thought to herself. She knew at any second her friends could be captured so she had to think fast. "What do I do? Think fast, think fast!... Wait a minute..." She stopped thinking of her words and blurted one out. "Fast!" She yelled to herself in the chimney. "My element of loyalty! Of course!" Rainbow darted out of the chimney shaking off the soot that came along and hovered a good distance in the air. This caught the attention of all six guards that were scattering. She shook her limbs in the air taunting them of her presence. "Hey all you sorry excuses for guards! Nah nah nah nah nah nah!" She stuck her tongue out and put her forehoofs on the sides of her head getting them angry.

"Get the rainbow one!" One guard pony said and the other five joined him in pursuit immediately. 

Rainbow smirked and took off in the opposite direction her friends were in. "If this isn't loyalty than I don't know what is." She said to herself while flying away from the guards. Rainbow took a sharp turn skywards flying straight up. The guards followed her exact path, the six of them forming a 'V' shape formation. Rainbow looked behind her and saw they were hot on her tail. She pushed her wings into overdrive and was soon pulling ahead. The guards closed their eyes as they pushed themselves to their limit just to keep Rainbow in a good distance. Rainbow was now really high in the sky with the clouds fairly distant below her. The castle was now just a small model looking figurine from where she was. Dash did a complete 180 degree spin and flew straight downward now, cutting right through the formation the guards were in, which caused them to spin in the air for a second and having them to regain their bearings. They took chase going down towards the ground now but Rainbow had a plan. She was gradually going faster and faster as she edged towards the clouds with the guards catching up to her. When they were the right distance away Rainbow sped up to super sonic speeds and a huge explosion radiated outwards like a pebble falling in a puddle. A rainbow colored shock wave exploded outwards causing the guard ponies to be flung a long distance, taken with the sonic rainboom. Rainbow smiled to herself as she slowed down and landed gently on the ground, folding up her wings as they were now exhausted. 

Fluttershy flew over to Rainbow and gave her fellow pegasis a big hug. "Thanks Rainbow!" Fluttershy said uncharacteristically. "I was terrified." 

"We were all scared." Rarity pitched in.

"I wasn't!" Said Rainbow who pumped out her chest in a victorious stance.

"Right, anyways great job getting rid of those guys... However..." Twilight looked skyward where the rainbow wave from the sonic rainboom was dissipating. "I think that may have caused more attention than a falling bridge!" She looked around but saw no guards. 

"We better git a move on before they arrive." Applejack said.

"Ooo, so that's what a sonic rainboom looks like." Spike said in awe which inflated Rainbow's ego.

"Hey, where's Pinkie?" Rarity pointed out.

Just then they all looked across the chasm and saw Pinkie on the other side waving enthusiastically again. "How did she get over there?" Applejack questioned. Pinkie read her lips and pointed to another bridge just west of the one that crumbled. When they saw there was a second bridge they all just face hoofed and shook their heads.

"Wee wee woo!" Pinkie was bouncing around hyper actively.

"Pinkie, I thought you said it was hard to maintain that sort of hyper behavior?" Asked Rarity.

"It was! But then I saw that!" She  motioned towards a sweets shop nearby with crumbs leading from the door to where Pinkie was standing.

"Whatever, look we're almost there!" Rainbow exclaimed and pointed to a large wall. The wall was tall and wide and seemed to merge into a mountain side. They all followed the wall with their eyes from the base all the way to the top. At the very bottom was a door which seemed miniscule compared to the structure. Next to the wall was an outdoor pathway that led to the very top of the structure, It was a steep grassy hill with a dirt path.

"We better go inside and enter the castle through the back entrance." Twilight said while walking towards the huge concrete wall. "We don't want to risk any other royal guards catching us, I think we've been having too good of luck up to this point." Spike hopped onto Twilight's back in which she showed no response to. 

"Nah, I think I'll just fly to the top!" Rainbow said and started to bolt off but Applejack grabbed her tail with her teeth and held her back.

"Now wait a minute! Remember when ah said safety in numbers n' all when we were goin' up that mountain to get that dragon tah' move?" Applejack explained. Fluttershy shuddered at the memory. 

"Oh all right we'll go in the stupid structure." Rainbow said folding her hooves in front of her as she slowly flew in the air with the rest of them.

Twilight was leading the group and carefully opened the door with a hoof by just pushing it gently. The door made a loud creaking noise as it opened. When it was opened a crack she poked her eye in but saw no pony. She opened the door the rest of the way so she could make her way in. It wasn't a very well lit structure, and when she looked up, all she saw were brown metal stairs that criss-crossed over each other all the way to the top.

Rarity sighed loudly, "This is going to be a long walk upwards." 

Pinkie was bouncing around and hopped up the stairs skipping a step now and then. Twilight shrugged and they all walked upwards, each step getting harder and harder as they were getting tired. The entire structure must have went up at least 200 feet. 

"Pinkie, slow down and stick with the group!" Twilight scolded. But the pink party pony was no longer in sight. Even the sound of her bouncing hooves hitting the metal disappeared. "Pinkie!"

As they walked up about another five or six flights of stairs they all stopped and saw a door to a side room slightly ajar with a yellow light coming out from it. Twilight opened the door and saw Pinkie was cuffed on the floor with tape over her mouth. 

"Pinkie!" Fluttershy ran over to help her friend but a cage fell down from the ceiling and trapped the yellow pegasis in small confines.

The rest of them gasped when they saw what happened. They all walked inside the room cautiously when the door slammed shut behind them with a small locking sound. Out from behind the door came a familiar voice and walked forwards. It was a light blue unicorn wearing a magicians cape with a magic hat and wand for a cutie mark. She picked the rest of them up with her magic and squinted her eyes at them.

"Well well well look who we have here!" Trixie proclaimed in a flamboyant accent. 

"Trixie!" Twilight yelled.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie corrected.

She looked at all of them with an egocentric smile. "We have the ego-maniac rainbow pegasis, the post-green haired distraught unicorn, the hog-tied apple lover," Trixie then looked towards the two ponies who she captured. "The bouncing annoying pink one, the timid overly protective pegasis!" Fluttershy was starting to get teary eyed since she was still trapped in that cage. Trixie quickly turned her head and saw her foe. Her smirk disappeared and walked right up to Twilight's face. "And you. The one who humiliated The Great and Powerful Trixie." 

Twilight didn't blink and stared a continuous glare at Trixie. "Why are you doing this Trixie? Do you know the-"

"Yes I know the whole story blah blah blah." Trixie turned her head away. "Capturing you benefits me in so many ways." She turned back to Twilight and gave an evil smirk again. "You hang in there now, Trixie will be back with guards." She started to trot towards the door when she suddenly stopped. She looked back at Twilight and trotted towards her. "There's just one thing the Great and Powerful Trixie does not understand."

"Oh, and what might that be?" Twilight asked sarcastically.

Trixie grimaced and gritted her teeth for what she was about to say. "It's obvious that your magical ability is almost as powerful as mine, why haven't you freed yourself from Trixie's magic?" 

"I um, don't want to leave my friends. If they get captured, then so do I." Twilight blatantly lied. Trixie saw right through her and knew something was fishy.

Trixie rubbed her hoof on her chin for a second. She picked up a nearby piece of crumpled paper and threw it at Twilight. Twilight gave a puzzled look but then Trixie picked up a chair and pointed it towards Twilight. Trixie hurled the chair straight at her nemesis.  Twilight tried to use her magic to stop it but it only had a spark fly out and disappear. Twilight closed her eyes shut but the chair never hit her. She opened an eye to see the chair floating in front of her, but with Trixie still controlling it.

"Ah ha!" Trixie said in glee. "You have lost your magical ability! This makes me, er, Trixie, happy beyond belief!" Trixie looked over at Rarity and just waved a hoof at her. "I don't need to worry about Ms. Green Hair." 

Rarity just narrowed her eyes.

"Be right back!" Trixie said unlocking the door to let herself out. She left and closed the door behind her.

They were all still floating in the air in one spot unable to move except for Pinkie who was cuffed to one spot and Fluttershy who was trapped in a small cage. Rainbow was flapping her wings as hard as she could but couldn't move.

"You know, this is getting old." Rainbow said glumly. 

"If only my magic would actually work!" Twilight said frustrated with herself. 

"Do you know any counter-magic spell Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"No offence Rarity, I mean, don't take this the wrong way but... You're not powerful enough to use a spell like that." Twilight said. 

Rarity just frowned and looked stern at her friend. "Just tell me how!" Rarity yelled. Twilight was taken aback and surprised that she was getting yelled at again.

*****


Five guard ponies were following the light blue unicorn at a running pace. "They're down these stairs!" Trixie called back at them and they raced down the dark halls of the depressing looking metal stairway. Trixie flung the door open to the side room. "Here they are!" She ran in and skidded to a stop. "What?! But?!" Trixie started running around the room frantically. "Where are they? Where'd they go?! How'd they escape?!"

"Lady," A royal guard pony said. "Giving false information to authorities is a crime!" He reached in his armor and pulled out metal cuffs.

"No! You can't! They were in here I swear!" Trixie said with small pupils backing away from the royal guard.

"No, they're not." He said uncaring. Without Trixie noticing, two guards went behind her and she bumped into them by accident in which they grabbed Trixie hooves and cuffed them. "No playing around! In the dungeon she goes!" The guard said and the two unicorn guards used magic to take Trixie away back up the stairs.

Trixie tried to free herself with her magic but couldn't do it. The combination of both guards' magic was overpowering her. 

*****


Looking down from the ceiling was Twilight and gang. They were holding themselves up by stretching their legs across ceiling beams keeping perfectly still and quiet. Twilight couldn't help but smile when she saw Trixie getting taken away by royal guards, who thought she was lying. The sound of a door closing could be heard, but they all waited for a bit until they thought they would be safe and let go of the beams. With a loud clang they all landed on a metal platform and their eyes were rolling around for a bit until they got their bearings again. 

Rarity looked over at Twilight. Twilight sighed and walked next to her fellow unicorn. "It seems I was wrong. You are actually a pretty powerful unicorn Rarity." Rarity smiled and closed her eyes.

"Thank you Twilight." 

"Um guys, castle? Princesses? Disharmony?" Rainbow reminded.

Without a word, the group walked up the last flight of stairs. Rainbow was waiting for them up top and carefully opened the door to peak through a crack, then eventually opened fully when she noticed the coast was clear. They all walked in and Twilight walked ahead of the pack. "I know where we are!" Twilight said quietly and excitedly to her friends. She turned around to face them, "Ladies, we are-" She stopped when Spike cleared his throat and tapped his foot. "Um, ladies and Spike, we are officially inside the castle."

"We made it!" Rainbow said excitedly. "I can finally get back to practicing!" 

"I can finally throw a party again! Which I'm definitely doing when this is all done!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves. It's not over yet." Said Twilight. They all hushed and were immediately against a wall when they heard a guard pony whistling. They all looked at the end of the small hall they were in and saw him walking past. He eventually walked by with no incident.

Spike hopped onto Twilight's back again without making a sound. "I know my way around the castle. We might encounter some dark areas, so I need you to light them up Rarity." Rarity nodded. Twilight felt useful to be the map they needed of the large castle. Her unicorn magic was still gone unfortunately. 

"Who's ready tah save Equestria ya'll?" Applejack asked with a smirk. The group smiled and raised a hoof. "Then let's get goin'." She said and they started their trek through the castle. 

"All in all we've been to Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, the temple of the Ancient Pony Sisters, Appleloosa, Canterlot and now we're in the royal castle." Twilight stated. "Let's not go through all that for nothing." 

"Well to be honest Twilight..." Rainbow Dash said rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. "It has actually been a pretty adventurous week for me, and we all know I love big adventures. It's been nice spending time with you all, even if it wasn't under the greatest circumstances."

"It's been tons of fun!" Said Pinkie while bouncing silently not too high.

"Even though I was covered in muck I'll agree." Said Rarity.

"I've been keepin' faithful that our lives would return back tah normal." Said Applejack. 

"Remember those berries I shared? It reminded me of feeding my little animal friends. Oh I hope they're alright... We need to get back to Ponyville to see right after this." Said a timid Fluttershy.

"I've lost my magic. But our magic together makes up for it and more." Said Twilight.

"Blegh!" Spike said sticking out his tongue. "Enough Namby-Pamby cheesy stuff."

They all frowned at him but turned to Fluttershy when she spoke. "Yes. Let's do this."

Walking to the end of the hallway, Twilight peeked around the corner and looked to her left and right. She motioned the rest of the group to come forward and Twilight turned left into a dimly lit hall with no windows. The hall was made of generic drywall with a metal floor. Pipes were coming out from the walls and ceiling with steam escaping from the odd one. The steam was a good sound blocker since it made loud hissing noises as it escaped from the pipe connections. "We're currently in the basement." She shouted over the steam to her friends as they walked down the hall. The hall eventually opened on the right side, revealing metal grates as walkways with pipes coming down from the ceiling and large machines working away.

With all this commotion and intimidating noise with steam bursting out through cracks in pipes once in a while made the confident Fluttershy lower her ears in fear again. There were no guards in here except for a maintenance worker who was snoozing away in a chair. They all tiptoed around him but he snorted and woke up when Pinkie accidentally bumped into him. 

"Wha? Huh?" He was an old pony with a gear for a cutie mark. He was grey with black hair and glasses. He cowered when he saw the six ponies. "Oh! Terribly sorry your highness! Please don't throw me in the dungeon! I'll work twice as hard and never fall asleep on the job again!" He pleaded. Twilight knew this guy was afraid  since he thought those were the evil versions of themselves. 

"You better not! Or next time you will get tossed into the dungeon! Am I clear?" Twilight said trying to convince the worker.

"Crystal!" He slowly hobbled over to the machines to work on them.

"What in the hay?" Applejack looked to Twilight.

"We have to play like this if we want to convince any pony we're the Ponytact group, you know, to divert suspicion." Twilight explained.

"Ohhhh. Gotcha." 

They walked up to a door and Twilight just opened it without being cautious and just walked in the next room. There were no guards around here so she trotted up the small set of stairs there which led to another door. "Okay, this here takes us into the castle courtyard. Be very alert and keep a low profile." 

Opening the door carefully, she did the normal routine and motioned the rest to follow. They hid behind a large shrub and Twilight gave the basic instructions. (You can imagine Twilight explaining this while seeing in your head what she's talking about). "So here we go. This is where it gets dangerous." She took a small twig and drew in the dirt a small layout. "Across this courtyard is a pair of double doors. We have to sneak around shrubbery while avoiding detection to make it in. Once inside we'll be in the ballroom where we held a birthday party I had once. We would enter in the middle of the rooms length. It should be safe in there but we need to stay low so we can't be seen through the large windows. Next we get to the end of the room and open another door to the outside. We'll be on a large concrete balcony. There might be guards outside the area patrolling so we need to be extremely careful since it's pretty open out there. We will turn right and walk over a lengthy piece of balcony which will lead us to the main castle. If we were to go right again, we would walk right into the main hall. You know, the entrance we took for the Grand Galloping Gala. But we're not going that way." Twilight stopped to think for second to continue on. "The royal corridor that is near the main entrance. We will enter through a back door which leads into a great hallway. It's the hallway where Celestia explained Discord to us. Down at the end is a large purple door. This is the door where the Ponytact's should be, because that is where the Royal Room is located. Since it's the Royal Room we can expect guard ponies outside and in. This will be a tough area, but I know we can pull through. We enter the room, take the Elements of Harmony, turn the Ponytact's back into stone, free the princesses, Celestia will raise the sun, explain to the citizens the story to clear our names and we live our lives normally again!" Twilight grinned.

The rest of them just stood there in confusion with their eyes wide open.

"Any questions?" Twilight asked.

"I got one." Applejack said. "What's the plan?"

Twilight's ears drooped and she just face hoofed herself. "Look, just follow me okay?"

"Mhmm." They all nodded. Twilight erased the layout of the castle in the dirt she drew with the stick she held. She then opened a hole in the shrub with her hooves to look around. She saw three guard ponies out there walking around, doing their normal duty. The moon light was actually lighting the courtyard up pretty well. 

"Hmmm. Every time one guard gets to one side of the courtyard, the other two reach the other end, and they all turn around at the same time." Twilight said.

"Talk about having your job down to a tee." Rainbow remarked. 

Twilight looked over and saw a shrub that was closer to the guards, but could still hide all of them. "Okay, when the guards pass each other, the middle will be a safe place to be considering they will all be looking away from that area." She explained. As soon as the guards did just that they all tip-toed to the next bush without the guards noticing.

"They're like robots." Fluttershy said.

Twilight pointed out the same plan and they all tip-toed to the next shrub. The ballroom was getting closer and closer. "Rainbow, there's a skylight in that room, I need you to fly inside and unlock the door. When you see Rarity's horn light up dimly, that's your cue to quietly unlatch the door and open it. We'll all make our way inside while the guards' backs are turned."

"Got it." Rainbow said quietly and waited.

The guards all passed each other, Twilight gave Rainbow a nod and she flew up and onto the roof of the ballroom in a stealthy manner. She saw the skylight Twilight was talking about and flew inside and landed softly. It was very dark in there since the lights were out. The only light given were streams of moonlight pouring over the marble floor. Rainbow poked her head up over a window. She could see out, but no one could see in. 

"Now." Twilight lightly poked Rarity and she shone her horn very lightly, but enough so Rainbow could see. Rainbow unlatched the door, which she could barely see and opened it a crack. 

Sweat was running down Twilight. "Okay girls, on my go we head on over to the door and inside." She waited until the guards crossed paths again and their backs were turned away as they walked. "Now." They all walked very quietly but in a fast pace. They made it to the door and opened it a bit more where they could all walk inside single file. The guards turned around and one of them spotted the door closing. 

"Weird." He said and opened it with his unicorn magic. He walked inside where it was still dark as anything. He looked around but didn't see any shadows moving around in there. "Guess it's just my mind playing tricks on me." He walked out and shut the door, then began walking in his formation again.

Huddled in a dark corner were all seven of them. Spike was hiding behind Twilight's neck but sat up when the guard closed the door again. "That was too close." Said Applejack quietly. 

"Next up is the balcony outside on the opposite end of the this ballroom." Twilight said and started walking in a crouching position along with the rest, except for Pinkie who was starting to bounce again. 

"Pinkie! Get down!" Rarity yelled in a quiet tone. "Those guards could see you through the window with movement like that."

"Oops, sorry!" She said cheerfully and made a serious face, while doing it playfully and walked low like the rest of them. 

Once they got to the other side, Twilight opened the door to the balcony. She looked around and saw it was deserted. "Let's go." She whispered and opened the door fully.

"Oooo pretty!" Pinkie exclaimed. They all had to admit the scenery was nice. They were perched up high on the balcony looking down at the rest of Ponyville in the distance. With the full moon out and stars with no clouds, it was one of the best scenes night could offer.

"During the day it's better." Rarity said. "I miss the day."

"We all do, especially mah trees." Applejack said.

Twilight broke her trance and frowned a bit. "This scene would look nicer if Ponyville wasn't a complete disaster... Come on." She started walking across the balcony.

They all took one last look and moved on. That was their home down there, and they were so close, but yet felt so far. The group walked over a draw bridge where two guard ponies were standing, but had their backs turned to them. Silently Twilight reached for the doorknob to a door nearby and twisted. She opened it up, and noticed the royal hall was completely dark. She looked around and to her surprise there were no guard ponies inside. They walked in and shut the door carefully.

Twilight's ears perked up when she saw a small sliver of light flickering from under a small gap of the door that separated this hall from the Royal Room. But what really caught her attention was some murmured voices she heard coming from that room.

"Stay quiet and let's get to that door." Twilight instructed and walked silently. As they walked, they were looking around at the stained glass windows letting in small amounts of colored light. Rarity's horn gave off some light so they could see better. Looking around Twilight noticed the stained glass window of the six of them defeating discord. She swung her head over to her left and saw the window of them defeating Nightmare Moon. 

Pieces of body armor were scattered around the floor from royal guards, probably guards who refused to bow down to the Ponytact's and were forcefully taken to the dungeons. 

"You fool! I said cold water!" They all heard from the inside of the Royal Room. Then they heard a loud sound of glass breaking. "Bring me cold water this time or you're next to go!" Twilight gulped. The voice she heard was... hers.

"And bring me more carrots!" Pinkie's voice could be heard from inside. 

Pinkie cringed and stuck out her tongue. "Those monsters!" She said hitting the floor with a hoof. 

"What are you standing around for? Get me my water!" Twilight's voice yelled and a second later the big door swung open hitting all six ponies. A royal guard was carrying a big drink cup with his magic as he bolted out into the hallway not noticing the group he just crushed with the door. The door swung back closed and the six peeled off the door like paper and floated to the ground where they all plumped back out to their regular selves. 

They shook the cobwebs out of their heads. Twilight looked down at Spike with sorrow in her eyes and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Spike... I need you to stay out here in the hallway. This isn't your fight."

"But Twi-" Spike got stopped with a hoof over his mouth. Twilight's eyes watered up a bit with a single tear falling to the floor. Spike decided it was best if no words were spoken.

"In case anything happens in there, I want you girls to know these past couple of years have been the most fulfilling of my life." Rarity said.

Applejack took her hat off and held it close to her with a hoof. "Just in case, I'm plum happy tah have known ya'll." She put her hat back on and stuck out a hoof. 

Fluttershy didn't say anything except whimper a bit.

Pinkie was being serious and teared up a bit as well. "It's been fun times." She stuck her hoof in the middle.

Every one of them did it except for Rainbow who flew a bit in the air. "Come on guys! Don't give us these 'just in case' stories, we'll be fine! We'll go in their and kick some tail!" None of them said anything except continued looking at Rainbow Dash.  Rainbow flew back down and landed beside her friends eventually. She stuck her hoof in the middle and teared up a bit as well. "You guys are awesome." She simply said.

"Good luck." Was all Spike could say stuttering a little bit and put his claw on all their hooves. They all raised their hooves (and claw) into the air at the same time and wiped their tears away.

"This is possibly one of the scariest moments of my life. But it's comforting knowing I'm going through with this with my best friends." Twilight said. They all remained silent and nodded. After a couple seconds, Twilight cleared her throat and put on a stern look. "Girls... Let's save Equestria!" 

And with that, they all burst open the large door and barged into the Royal Room...
	
	
> Chapter 7: The Showdown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(In this chapter, the Ponytact versions and regular characters speak amongst each other. To indicate if a Ponytact is talking their name will start with E. (name here). E. is abbreviated for Evil. The regular characters have no name change indication.)

"It's about time you brought me that water!" E. Twilight was yelling. "I was almost thirsty!" She opened her eyes and saw that it was regular Twilight and friends standing at the open doors. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a bit. "YOU!" She shouted and jumped off the royal throne onto a red prestige carpet. "You were all supposed to be trapped in that temple forever!" 

"A magical barrier can't keep us locked in!" Rainbow yelled back at E. Twilight. 

"You made it Twilight! I knew there was something fishy going on when she spoke of clones of yourselves!" Princess Celestia pointed at E. Twilight with a hoof. However both princesses were trapped in a small rectangular pinkish barrier. The regular six immediately identified it as the same magical barrier that blocked them in the temple. But this was a magical box with the princesses enclosed from all sides, bottom and top. Even their magic wasn't strong enough to break it apart.

"It seems to be strong enough to contain your precious princesses in though." 
E. Rainbow Dash spoke. 

"If you blocked them inside a temple, why were you sending our guards to search for them?" Celestia asked.

E. Twilight spun around to face the princess and straightened out her crown before she spoke. "Because you can't be too careful." She raised her voice a bit now so all the guard ponies in the room could hear her. "But these dumb guards couldn't do a simple task of spotting a large group of ponies that look like us!" She glared at the remaining guard ponies in the room who cowered a bit. 

"We let you off the hook last time, willing to let you rot in the temple. But now we will finish you ourselves." E. Rarity stated.

"What were you doing in the temple anyways Twilight?" Celestia asked.

"You mean to tell me a student is keeping royal secrets from her royal mentor?!" E. Twilight smiled more as she said it, then all the Ponytact's broke into a laugh. 

Twilight's ears drooped a bit again when Celestia gave a disapproving shake.

They all stopped laughing immediately and E. Twilight straightened her crown again. "I guess your time is up now." She said to the original six. "You spent so much energy just to get here. All of that for nothing, it's a shame really." She then quickly turned her head to look at the guard ponies in the room. There were five of them, two unicorns and three pegasi. "Leave the room. We wish to take care of these ponies by ourselves, personally." 

The five guards ran out of the room. All that remained now were fourteen ponies. Six original, six Ponytact's and two princesses. The door slammed shut and locked quickly. There was now no way out of the room. It was a well lit room so lighting was no problem. There were two giant pillars in the room, very tall windows, marble flooring with a red carpet rolled out through the middle and a giant chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling. The princesses were trapped in the magical box on one side of the room out of the way. It was completely silent in there, with every one of them looking at one another. It felt like a wild west standoff. 

"Funny thing about causing chaos and destruction." E. Twilight said. Just then she shot a purple laser right out of her horn in front of Twilight causing a burn mark to appear on the floor! "The more we cause, the stronger we become!" She then charged at the originals shooting more lasers right at them this time. 

The original six all screamed and ran in separate directions. Rainbow flew up in the air but was caught but her evil self. E. Rainbow smirked but Rainbow quickly got out of her grasp and bucked her right in the gut and continued to fly to the other side of the room. E. Rainbow growled and chased her around.

E. Twilight was still shooting but Twilight was hiding behind one of the pillars. "Come on! Come on!!!" Twilight was desperately trying to use her magic but nothing was happening. Not even a spark was coming from her horn. "COME ON!" She shouted closing her eyes tightly trying to get her horn to work. She eventually opened her eyes and stopped trying after tiring herself out. Nothing was working. 

"I know you're there Twilight Sparkle!" E. Twilight yelled and ran around the pillar.

Pinkie bounced over to E. Pinkie really fast and got nose to nose with her. "How can you eat all those vegetables and healthy stuff like that?! My name is Pinkie PIE!" E. Pinkie just grinned and threw a baby carrot at her face. They both got distracted when Rainbow flew past them with incredible speed. They both screamed when E. Rainbow was headed in the same direction. She also screamed and the three of them were tumbling on the floor when E. Rainbow crashed into them.

"Sorry Pinkie!" Rainbow called out.

"It's alright." Both Pinkie's said at the same time. Realizing this they immediately stood back up and roared at each other.

"Oh my, you wanted to save Equestria but yet you stopped for a bath?" E. Rarity said to Rarity. Rarity just huffed at her counterpart. "That's a shame!" Her horn lit really bright and fell over laughing.

"What's so funny ruffian?!" Rarity asked but turned around to find her mane laying on the floor. She screamed a high pitch and looked at her reflection in the marble floor. She patted the top of her head where only a short amount of hair stood out. The other Rarity was still rolling on the floor laughing. "HOW DARE YOU!" She yelled out and tackled E. Rarity where they began to tussle.

Twilight was running around the room screaming while dodging E. Twilight's laser shots. She was right behind her with an angry look chasing down Twilight.

"Stand still so I can get you!" E. Twilight Commanded.

"AHHH!" Was all Twilight could say as she ran past the princesses cage. Celestia wanted to help, but she couldn't.

"Howdy partner." E. Applejack gave Applejack a nod of her hat then wasting no time spun around and landed a powerful buck on Applejack, causing her to fly backwards into the wall, leaving a crack where she hit. Applejack got up a bit woozy but seemed fine and retaliated by running full force and head-butted her clone. E. Applejack turned around and landed another powerful kick right on to Applejack's head, causing her to wobble a bit and fall over.

Fluttershy was standing there trying to figure out if she should help her friends. Just then E. Fluttershy flew up to her and looked at the ground while pawing it. They nervously exchanged looks but it was E. Fluttershy who broke the silence.

"I um... Don't want to hurt you." She said.

"I don't like fighting either. It's senseless." Fluttershy said.

"Uh, about me not wanted to hurt you." E. Fluttershy said.

Fluttershy looked up at her clone. "Yeah?"

E. Fluttershy put a sinister grin on her face and lowered her eyebrows. "I lied." She then flew up in the air and straight down towards Fluttershy's back. She screamed and hopped backwards, making E. Fluttershy collide head first into the marble ground.

"Oh my, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked shaking her evil self.

E. Fluttershy popped her face off the floor and grabbed Fluttershy's foreleg she was shaking her with. "I'm fine, but you won't be!" She stood up and grabbed Fluttershy's foreleg with her two front ones and swung her around, letting her go causing her to slam into one of the pillars. 

Fluttershy hit it forcefully and fell to the ground in a heap crying. Pinkie ran away from her evil self to attend to Fluttershy. "Hey what happened?!" Pinkie asked but Fluttershy just put her head into her forelegs and cried. Pinkie put a hoof on her and looked up at E. Fluttershy with fire in her eyes. 

E. Fluttershy just walked up them. She pouted her lips out and opened her wings. "Awww, poor Fluttershy's sad? Does she want another ride?" 

Pinkie stepped between them and blocked her. "No more!" 

E. Fluttershy didn't even hesitate to grab Pinkie by her font hooves and fly her up near the ceiling. Pinkie screamed, "AHH! Put me down put me down!"

"You got it!" E. Fluttershy said and dropped Pinkie from nearly the ceiling.

Pinkie screamed and almost hit the floor when she didn't feel a rough impact. She turned her head to see that Rainbow Dash caught her as she was still flying away from her evil self. Rainbow looked at Pinkie and smiled. She motioned her head backwards and Pinkie knew exactly what she was thinking. Pinkie nodded and with a thrust, Rainbow tossed Pinkie behind her in the air. Pinkie landed right on E. Rainbow, causing them both to crash into the floor, but caused E. Rainbow to feel the most of the impact on that.

Twilight was hiding behind the throne still trying to get her magic working but still nothing was happening. Twilight was starting to think that her magical energy was gone permanently from overworking it a few days ago. E. Twilight was taking shots at the throne which was now smoking and had a few holes blown through it. Twilight dove out of the way from one of the lasers. The laser went right through the throne causing it to basically explode into pieces. 

Rarity noticed the situation Twilight was in and got off her evil self and ran towards E. Twilight. 

"Get back here!" E. Rarity called out but Rarity ignored her.

She Bolted towards E. Twilight and rammed her head straight into her target. The impact caused E. Twilight to fall over onto the floor. She got up and glared directly at Rarity with a rage filled face. "You're going to wish you never did that Ms. Rarity."

Rarity was grabbed in a full nelson by E. Rarity so she couldn't move. "Say goodbye!" E. Twilight aimed her horn at Rarity. Rarity closed her eyes but nothing happened. She looked down at the floor and saw E. Twilight laying there getting up again. Rarity looked to her left and noticed Twilight standing there. 

"If I can't use my horn for magic, I can make some use out of it!" Twilight yelled. She turned 180 degrees and bucked E. Twilight with all her might.

Rarity was released when E. Rarity went to tend to her leader. Rarity used her magic and envelope E. Rarity with a light blue glow.

"Put me down this instant!" She yelled at her.

"Why, of course!" Rarity said and dropped her right on top of E. Twilight. E. Fluttershy was now heading full speed towards Rarity to tackle her but out of no where a yellow blur tackled E. Fluttershy.

"NO MORE!" Fluttershy yelled in the face of E. Fluttershy, causing her mane to fly backwards. She grabbed E. Fluttershy's mane by her teeth and swung her around really fast until they were a tornado of pink and yellow. Fluttershy let go with a scream which sent E. Fluttershy flying right through a wall causing a huge hole. "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?!" She yelled and flew in the hole to the room beside after her evil self. After a few seconds another hole was blown through the wall, with E. Fluttershy flying back into the Royal Room landing on her back. Fluttershy landed gently in front of E. Fluttershy. "No more." She softly said.

The rest that were standing stood there with their mouths agape. Even Princess Celestia and Luna were surprised by Fluttershy's rage and strength. 

Applejack hobbled back up onto her feet then put her front hooves up. Her eyes were crossed and she had birds flying around her head. "Put 'em up... uhhh, partner!" She struggled to say. E. Applejack smirked and gave another powerful buck, but missed this time. Applejack quickly dodged and laughed. "Ya think I can go down that quickly missy?" Applejack turned around gave a buck of her own, sending E. Applejack to land on top of E. Twilight and E. Rarity. 

E. Pinkie came running towards Twilight but she slipped and fell on her back from the baby carrot she threw.

"ENOUGH!" E. Twilight screamed loudly and got up forcefully, causing the two ponies on her to plop back onto the floor. The six original friends stood together in front of the cage the princesses were trapped in. E. Twilight closed her eyes and a big beam of pink light was growing from her horn. E. Twilight's eyes shone in pure white and a huge laser shot exploded out of her horn straight towards them. Twilight and her friends screamed and dove out of the way, singeing the tips of their tails. The huge energy beam made direct contact with the magical cage, making it crack and fall apart, freeing the princesses.

"Girls!" Celestia called out. The six were laying on their stomachs from diving out of the way but turned their heads to look at Celestia. They got up and ran over. Celestia pulled a book out from under the platform where the throne sat.

While E. Twilight was getting her bearings still from using a huge amount of magical energy, Celestia opened the book and gave each of them their elemental necklace with her magic. She then levitated the tiara onto Twilight's head. "I saw them stash it there." Celestia said with a smirk. "Now show them just how magical harmony and friendship is." 

Twilight gulped. She knew her magic was gone. How could the element of magic, not be magical? They all lined up together, their evil counterparts staggering to do the same. All the Ponytact's widened their eyes except for E. Twilight when they saw the Elements of Harmony were now in possession of the original six. 

All but Twilight started having their element glow. They levitated into the air with a white light surrounding them. Luna hid behind the platform. She remembered that. Twilight couldn't muster any magic to do her part. She still sat there on the ground trying her best. They needed all six elements to work in order for them to complete the objective they set out to do. 

Celestia took a step back and lifted a hoof in the air. "What's going on Twilight?"

Twilight just dropped her head in shame and a tear fell out of her eye. 

"How pathetic. The element of magic can't even be magical!" E. Twilight yelled at her and laughed.

The other five had worried looks on their faces looking down at Twilight. Their elements stopped working causing them to fall to the floor in a thud. 

"Perhaps the magic of friendship isn't so strong after all huh Twilight Sparkle?" E. Twilight called out to her. "Enough of this, let's light this candle!" E. Twilight said, then made a bright ball of energy grow larger and larger on her forehead.

'Perhaps the magic of friendship isn't so strong after all huh Twilight Sparkle? Perhaps the magic of friendship isn't so strong... Perhaps the magic of friendship... Magic of Friendship... Magic of Friendship... Magic of Friendship...' Twilight's pupils dilated when those words echoed in her head. 'Magic of Friendship' Twilight smiled and quietly whispered,


'Friendship is Magic'


E. Twilight shot the huge energy beam right at the original six, but it didn't connect with them... Twilight was creating a force field with her magic! The force field grew in diameter, slowly reaching E. Twilight. E. Twilight stopped shooting her energy beam when she realized things weren't going to plan. The other five elements flew up into the air with their necklaces glowing a bright white. The force field died off and Twilight's eyes glowed pure white. She flew straight up in the air, joining the other elements. The ground rumbled and the whole castle was shaking.

"Retreat!" E. Twilight yelled to her fellow Ponytact's, but they had no where to go. A bright white flash enveloped the group of the original six floating in the air. It was blinding to look at, so both princesses shielded their eyes. Suddenly the light exploded throughout the room causing all the windows to shatter into pieces with a fierce shock wave that lifted floor tiles into the air, made the chandelier shatter and caused the columns to crack apart. Just then, a huge rainbow came flying out of the center of the group and spiraled around the Ponytact's. 

They all screamed and tried to run, but the rainbow circling them all kept them locked in position. From their hooves on up they were solidifying into stone. The rainbow never stopped until the Ponytact's were completely solid. They were frozen in a screaming pose, but E. Twilight was stuck in an angry pose. Her whole body and neck was stone by now. "We'll be back! Some pony is bound to find us again, just like you did! We'll be back!!!" She screamed until her entire head was frozen. 

The rainbow disappeared and the bright white light illuminating them did as well. All six of them dropped to the floor gently, before voluntarily collapsing to the floor. They were all breathing heavily and had their eyes closed. Luna came out from hiding and Celestia walked over to the six of them. Eventually they got up and smiled to each other. They didn't say anything to each other, they just walked over to the Elements of Disharmony and eyed them. They were all standing there, completely frozen, basically looking like they did the first time Twilight and her friends discovered them, except they looked just like themselves.

The big door fell off its hinges and landed with a loud bang as it hit the floor. Spike was standing there in a pose of him knocking on the door that just fell over. He slowly walked in the room and noticed it was basically destroyed, like a bomb went off. "Uhhh, did I miss anything?" Is all he said.

> Chapter 8: Friendship Never Fails
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"That's the last one, be very careful." Celestia instructed the guard ponies who were carrying away the stone statue of Twilight. It was placed in a room that looked more like a cave. Twilight and Celestia were standing there watching the pegasi and unicorn guards lock up a huge vault door made of solid steel with a bronze coating. The vault door made hissing sounds when closed then gear noises could be heard interlocking with each other. "That should hold them." Celestia said turning to go back in the elevator. 

Twilight followed her mentor in, and the doors closed. The elevator was moving at a fairly fast pace towards the surface. It was an awkward silence, but Celestia broke it. "Twilight," Twilight looked up. "What did your disharmonic element mean when she said you were keeping secrets from me?" Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"Well..." Twilight shifted her eyes then looked up at her mentor. "I heard about the Elements of Disharmony in an old historical book I found. I wanted my friends to come along with me in search to find them. We did, and well, you know the rest." Twilight bit her lip nervously.

"You didn't intend for me to know this?" Celestia asked.

"I didn't want you to know because you'd probably send some guards with me to haul the disharmonic elements away before I could satisfy my curiosity by knowing they were taken care of personally." Twilight said sweating.

"Yes I probably would have. How did things turn out doing things your way?" Celestia asked rhetorically.

Twilight just looked away without saying a word. *ding* The elevator buzzed and the doors opened up. Celestia and Twilight stepped out and walked down a small hallway to where her friends were standing. Applejack had some bandages around her waist, Rainbow had her left wing bandaged as well. Pinkie was holding an ice pack up to her forehead and Rarity was wearing a fashionista hat covering her bald head. Fluttershy just had a couple band-aids on, but wasn't too hurt. 

"Well, Equestria has a lot of work to do." Celestia said. "Canterlot is basically rubble and Ponyville is no better." They all walked out onto the balcony to look at the destroyed cities. However, the warm bright sun was welcoming and felt good. For that reason their spirits weren't too far down in the dumps. At least they defeated the Elements of Disharmony. Luna walked up some stairs and behind her following was a large group of guard ponies without their armor. They were the most loyal to the princesses and got locked up in the dungeon. They all just continued on towards the kitchen, no doubt they were hungry. 

A guard pony unicorn trotted up the stairs and past the six of them before he stopped and ran backwards to see them. He feircely yelled at them and lifted them all up with his magic. "YOU! You're the ones that tied me up and left me in the desert!" Twilight and her friends chuckled nervously. "Is this funny to you?"

Celestia released them of his magic. "Did you six really do that?" 

They all nodded their heads and the royal guard stood proud.

"Well he probably was going to arrest you and throw you in the dungeon, I know the story so I don't blame you."

"Wha- what?!" The guard was surprised. "I was just following orders!" 

Celestia glared at him. "Yes, following orders from some pony else! I have plans for the guards who weren't loyal to the real princesses, and sided with an evil one."

The guard pony just hung his head, sighed and trotted towards the castle.

"Anyways, Luna and I will be back shortly. We don't normally do this, but this is a situation where we really have no choice." The six of them leaned forward in anticipation. "We are personally going to each neighboring city to explain to the ponies what really happened, and not to fear or be angry with you." Celestia unfolded her wings but turned her head to face them before she left. "Congratulations girls. You are no longer known as criminals. Enjoy life!" She then took off to the air. Luna ran up from behind and flew over the six of them in a different direction. They watched as the princesses flew away.

"Well, now what?" Applejack asked. 

"Now... You know what? We deserve a little rest. At least until the princesses come back later." Twilight grinned. 

The rest grinned and nodded then left the balcony.

*****


The sun was setting when Celestia and Luna got back to the castle. They haven't slept in a long time and were very tired. Just as they were walking into the castle, Twilight and the rest were heading out. Spike was on Twilight's back again, but she didn't care. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight ran up to her mentor. "Thanks. For everything."

"Don't mention it Twilight." Celestia said.

"It is us who should be thanking you!" Luna commented.

"Have a great rest of the day Twilight. We have set up a personal carriage to take you and your friends back home." Celestia then walked in the castle and Twilight looked back at her friends. Just then a carriage pulled up, like Celestia said. 

*****


It was night by the time Twilight opened the door to her tree house. She turned on the lights and evaluated the place. It was a total disaster. Books were scattered everywhere and many of Twilight's possessions were broken. Her chemistry set to her telescopes to her windows were smashed apart. Spike sighed and began picking books up off the ground.

"Spike, don't worry about it." Twilight said warmly.

"Seriously? You don't care?" Spike asked.

"Oh I care. I just think I should help from time to time. But for now, let's get a proper nights sleep at home." Twilight said with the same exuberance. 

"All your stuff is broken too Twilight." Spike said poking at a test tube which instantly cracked and shattered. He immediately brought his claw down and hoped Twilight didn't see. "You have nothing left Twi."

Twilight walked over and gave her number one assistant a hug. "I have you Spike. You're my family, and that's all I'll ever need to be happy. I love you Spike."

Spike embraced the hug and eventually they broke apart. "I can't believe I thought your evil self was really you." Spike said twisting a foot on the floor.

Twilight just smiled and walked upstairs. "Come on Spike, let's get some sleep."

"You're talkin' my kind of language!" Spike said and eagerly hopped up the stairs and jumped into his warm cozy bed. Twilight did the same in hers.

"Goodnight Spike." She said leaning over her bed and patted Spike on the head.

"G'night Twi." He said closing his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

*****


"Sweetie Belle! I'm home!" Rarity called out. She looked around and surveyed the damage in her boutique. The place was destroyed like Twilight's but seemed cleaner. "Not too bad I guess." Rarity said to herself and walked up the stairs. "Sweetie Belle!" She called back out.

"I'm sorry I ate a few of your apples! I'm so so sorry!" Sweetie Belle trembled in a corner with her eyes closed tight turned away from Rarity.

"Why do I care if you eat? Every pony needs to." Rarity said.

Sweetie Belle opened an eye and stopped trembling. "You're... Not mad?" 

"Why would I-... Oh." Rarity just had a thought. "Sweetie, let me tell you a story." Rarity told her sister the entire story of what happened to them. It took a good half an hour to explain the whole situation to her, and Sweetie started looking like her normal self again.

"That makes sense, I guess?" Sweetie said sounding a little confused. "Well in that case, you should come look in here." Sweetie walked into the next room and pointed over to five full chests of Baby Blue Sapphires. 

Rarity's eyes glistened as she saw the high quantity of rare sapphires. She walked over and grinned at the sight. "Baby Blue Sapphires! OOooOO!!!!" She squealed in delight. "Hmm, maybe evil Rarity was onto something?" Rarity said.

"Rarity!" Sweetie yelled.

"I'm just joking of course!" Rarity turned around and hugged her sister. When she did this, her hat fell off her head and Sweetie pulled back and saw Rarity's mane was cut short.

Sweetie fell backwards on her back and started laughing like crazy. Rarity just closed her eyes halfway and sighed.

*****


Applejack got out of the carriage and saw Sweet Apple Acres. She was finally home. It didn't look bad like Ponyville, the place was actually all in one piece and seemed like normal. Applejack walked up to door and pushed it open while tapping lightly. "Uh heh, knock knock." She said and stepped inside. 

"Applejack!" Applebloom surprised her sister and gave her a big hug. "You are Applejack right?"

Big Mac walked downstairs when he heard Applebloom. His ribs were bandaged up but he seemed happy to see her.

Granny Smith wobbled into the lobby, "Applejack. Oh we heard everything that happened! The Princess told us the whole story."

"It's mighty nice tah see every one of ya'll." She tipped her hat to them. "Say, what happened to you Big Mac?" Applebloom just pointed at her sisters hooves then at Big Macs ribs. "Oh um, heh, sorry partner." 

"Eeyup." Big Mac said as he grabbed a mug of apple cider.

*****


Rainbow flew up to her cloud home which was untouched. She went into her bed and fell asleep fast. She knew the mayor would have been told about her recent attitude, so she'd go talk to her in the morning. Nothing much else happened.

*****


Pinkie walked into the Sugar Cube Corner. "Did I do something bad here?" She asked when Mrs. Cake walked out from behind a wall. She gave Pinkie a smile, which made her feel happier. 

"You didn't do anything bad here, but 'you' did." Mrs. Cake made quotes with her hooves and chuckled a bit. Mrs. Cake opened the door to behind the counter and motioned to Pinkie that she was welcome to come back.

Pinkie perked right up and rushed in wasting no time to bake. "I haven't baked anything in a very long time! It was super-dooper-no-funner-bummer!" She said bouncing around. Mr. Cake opened a door and walked into the shop area.

"Ah Pinkie! I knew that voice sounded familiar!" He said and rubbed Pinkie on the top of the head. "We had go out and grab more ear medicine for little Pound Cake."

"Wha?" Pinkie looked up confused.

"Oh, nothing." He said and grabbed her in a headlock and gave her a noogie. "Welcome back kiddo!" Pinkie was laughing uncontrollably at the attention she was receiving.  Everything was turning back to normal.

She walked to one of the empty tables in the room and noticed a plate with a few carrots on it. She slowly picked up one of the carrots and took a bite as quick as she could. "Hmm, not bad."

*****


Fluttershy burst through the door of her cottage in a panic hoping her animal friends were alright. "Is everyone okay?! What happened?! Is something the matter?!" She stood in the middle of the room hyperventilating. 

All her animal friends inside were fine. They looked at her in a quizzical manner before continuing on with their normal routine.

"Oh Angel Bunny, is everything alright?" She asked bringing her head down to his level. The Rabbit just turned away, folded his arms and closed his eyes. 

Fluttershy looked over him and saw old disgusting rotting vegetables that they were living on. "Oh dear. Let me make you something fresh!"

Angel Bunny turned around to face Fluttershy and smiled a bit. Fluttershy was making a nice salad for him and was talking while doing it. "Sorry I've been gone for so long. Something bad came up, but you probably heard all the ruckus outside before.

When Fluttershy was finished she had a memory. She was going to buy a Junior Speedsters Flight Camp cup. "Well, some things are more important than glass mugs." She said happily and pet Angel. She was just relieved to know her animal friends were alright and that she could tend to them again.

*****


The next morning was another sunny one. Twilight and Spike woke up to the sound of machinery. They looked outside and saw ponies cleaning up debris and fixing houses and businesses that were partially damaged from the chaos the Elements of Disharmony caused. The roads were being cleared and even some market venders were back in business selling food for bits. 

Twilight and Spike dragged themselves out of bed downstairs and started cleaning up the books. Twilight was placing the books in the shelves with her magic that returned while defeating their clones. She was so relieved her magical abilities were back. In fact, she felt her magic was even more powerful than it already was. Spike was placing the books in the shelves by hand and was dozing off while doing it. 

After all the books were cleaned up, Twilight grabbed a broom and pan to sweep up broken glass on the floor caused by her chemistry set and windows. After a couple hours the place was cleaned up, but some possessions were still broken. Twilight wasn't worried about those, she grabbed Spike by the arm and rubbed her head against his. 

"Okay okay Twilight I get it! You're happy!" Spike said sounding like he didn't want the warm fuzzy feeling. 

Twilight let him go and chuckled to herself. "Sorry Spike!" She grinned and levitated a scroll and parchment over to Spike.

"But it's not Tuesday Twi." Spike gave a smug look.

Twilight just giggled to herself and looked at Spike, "Guess we'll have to bend the rules for this one." She smiled and cleared her throat.

"Dear Princess Celestia, my past week or so has sent me on great adventures," 

Applejack was bucking trees, teaching her young sister how to do it properly. Applebloom hit the tree with all her force and one apple fell down and conked her on the head. She was a bit dizzy, but picked it up and showed her sister that she finally did it. Applejack congratulated her and they were both proud.

"sometimes friendship has it's rocky moments where you might fight or argue, that's normal, but at the end of the day, your friendship is still intact. The magic of friendship binds you together, and a small tussle doesn't break it apart."

Rainbow Dash took the bandage off her wing and started punching holes in the clouds and kicking them apart, to keep the sky clear. She was doing flips and zig-zags, keeping her job exciting. Rainbow was having a blast flying around. It was nice to be able to do that without worrying if some pony else spotted her. Being free is a key component for a Pegasus. Mayer Mare was looking up at Rainbow Dash, she was grateful to have such a devoted member of the weather team.

"When you're stuck between a hard place and rock, you can always count on true friends to support you. Never give up."

Pinkie was behind the counter at Sugar Cube Corner happily dishing out sweets and selling cakes. She was a hard worker, and sales were through the roof. Between customers, Pinkie would run upstairs and decorate her room with streamers and balloons, preparing for a party she was about to throw. 

"Trusting your friends, and them trusting you is a special feeling. True friends understand the pressures and are respectful of your problems and may even help out with them."

Twilight was remembering back when they were walking through the Everfree Forest together. They were trusting Twilight, and even with the dangers they had to go through, they continued on until they reached their destination.

"With perseverance, teamwork, respect, co-operation and understanding, you and your friends will have built a solid friendship that cannot be broken apart."

Rarity was playing Dress up with her sister. Scootaloo was there and just stuck her tongue out. It wasn't exactly her idea of fun. She walked into the other room and even she couldn't help but be in awe when she saw an over-the-top dress covered in sapphires.

"When you first sent me down to Ponyville, I had no intentions of making friends. I never had any, nor did I want any. Who would have knew my thought process would quickly change?"

Fluttershy was feeding all her animal friends who were happy and mellow. Fluttershy sat on her couch relaxing, knowing everything was back to normal. She gave a sigh of relief and closed her eyes in contentness.

"I now know there is no limit to how strong friendships can be. They keep growing all the time, nothing will break apart our friendship. With ours being the way it is, we will be best friends until the end. The Elements of Harmony are here to stay. Even though mine is classified as the strongest element of them all, I'd like to think we are all as equally important. No friend is better than another. We all have friendships that treat each other with the same amount of respect. I know that my magic is inspired by friendship, and I know that friendship IS magic... Friendship never fails."


THE END
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Friendship Never Fails
Written by: cyberpeajay

All characters by MLP; FiM
Written over a period of two months, this story took a ton of effort, and I am proud of this work. I never thought I'd finish writing this, but I'm glad I did... 
Hope you enjoyed MLP; FiM - Friendship Never Fails!
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Bonus:
--- 1000 Years Later ---


It was dark outside, the moon was full and the fog was thick. "Come on guys, this way!" A small brown unicorn pony called out to her two other friends. 

"What's so special about these ruins?" Asked a navy blue colored earth pony. 

"Yeah, it's the ruins of Canterlot Castle, big whoop." Said an orange pegasus stallion.

"I heard there were once these things called 'Elements of Harmony'. Not sure what they would do, but I'm too curious to find out!" The brown unicorn squealed with excitement. 

"Calm down Orra." The navy blue one said. "You can't believe everything you read." 

Orra, the brown unicorn looked back behind her to her group. "Oh yeah because a certain pony a thousand years ago would write a letter to a princess they once had and be lying their tail off." The navy blue pony said nothing and just grumbled. After twenty minutes of walking over debris and destroyed castle remains, they came to a small room with bars.

"What's this?" She asked and they all walked in.

"Some kind of chamber maybe?" The orange stallion said and leaned against the wall. Without knowing it he pressed on some hidden buttons.

The chamber powered up and some lights flickered inside. The three ponies looked at each other before trying to bolt outside, but doors slammed closed locking them in. Orra grabbed the orange pegasus by the wing and got right in his face. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!" He defended, but a small *ding* sound was made and they all felt themselves moving downwards.

"What's going on?!" The navy blue pony asked. Orra lit up her horn so they could see where they were. After a few minutes of being trapped, the doors opened up with another *ding* sound. This time the doors revealed a dark damp cave they were in. They all slowly walked out and saw treasures and statues on the ground. 

A big round door caught the attention of Orra and she ran up to it. She studied it for a bit and then scoffed. "Pfft, such prehistoric mechanisms." She lit her horn up and the whole door fell down in aheap causing a loud thud and making the ground shake momentarily. All three of them slowly walked inside the vault and they saw six grey sculptures standing inside. "Could it be?!" She ran up and saw a label that read:

'ELEMENTS OF    HARMONY'


"It is! It's the Elements of Harmony!" She spun around to her friends. "I found them I found them! They are real! HA!" She pointed at her friends who rolled their eyes. "So these are the Elements of Harmony? How so?" She slowly walked over and examined one that had a design of a mare with a stripe down its tale and mane. It was a unicorn and seemed to have an angry expression chiseled into it. As she walked around it, she accidentally bumped her leg on the label which caused dust to fly off it, revealing the full title that read:

'ELEMENTS OF DISHARMONY' 


"Maybe you can get them to work if you break it open?" Orra asking no one in particular. She lined up a shot and bucked the statue with all her might. A bright flash exploded out of it...