It has been a full week since Twilight and her friends took over Equestria and the ponies weren't too happy about it. Oh, what's this a brown coated unicorn stallion, with a brown mane and an hourglass for a cutie mark, is being chased by some magenta guards wearing purple armour. "I need to find a hiding spot now. I can't keep on running forever." He said to himself. Then out of nowhere, a mint green hoof grabbed him from a house and quickly pulled him inside, while the guard kept on running without noticing. The stallion was freaking out inside a dark room until he heard a familiar voice talk to him.
"Doctor, please calm down it's just us in here." It was the voice of the wall-eyed pegasus Derpy. After that sentence, he calmed down and took a look around at where he was. He was in a pretty empty room, but that was not important to him. The only thing that he saw and was interested in were all of his friends. Those were the aforementioned Derpy, Bon Bon, Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. After that, he sighed in relief and said.
"Thank Celestia. I thought that some guards caught me. For that matter, I thought they already caught all of you." He said in a slightly surprised tone of voice. After that Vinyl stepped forward helped him to stand back up and when she finished she said.
"The guards all chased us for some time, but in the end, we all gave them the slip." Then Octavia decided to add.
"After that, we were wondering for a few days and after some time we slowly met up and that is how we got together." Then the doctor was in thought and after he finished his mental debate he said.
"Well that's all well and good, but what do we do now?" After that Bon Bon said.
"We do what we did until now. We evade the guard and try to escape this place." He was again in thought after that, but his concentration was quickly broken by Discord dropping in out of thin air.
"What the?!" Said the Doctor with shock on his face which was mirrored by all of his friends. Discord then quickly got up and started to talk in a slightly fearful tone.
"Ah, I finally found someone. Look I don't have much time, but you guys need to save Equestria. I don't have time to explain why, but you need to go to every single district, controlled by one of the elements and find the relics that I've hidden there. Find them and cure the elements." After that, a portal opened behind him and out came Fluttershy's voice.
"Discord~. Get your scaly rump back here." Then a pink lock of hair extended from the portal wrapped around Discord and started to pull him inside, but before he got in he said.
"Find the relics and save all of Equestria." And then he disappeared into the portal and everything was quiet. After around two minutes Vinyl spoke up.
"Well looks like we now know what we are doing. We are going to save Equestria." Then Vinyl noticed a piece of paper on Doc's back. "Hey Doc what's that on your back?" The Doctor then turned around and grabbed the piece of paper in his magick and unfolded it. When he finished doing that he floated it on the ground and let everyone see it. It was a map of Equestria with some places marked on it. When they all finished looking at it the Doctor said.
"It looks like a map of Equestria with six places marked on it, but I can also feel some magic coming from it." Then Everyone gathered around it After some time Lyra spoke up.
"Hmm, it's probably a detection spell and an auto update spell that your feeling." Then She said a little bit more excitedly "He gave us this to help us out in finding all those relics." Then she calmed down slightly and asked. "So which one do we go for first?"
"Let's start with the one here." Said, Octavia, while pointing to the mark that is located in ponywille.
"Yeah, but we have a problem if this map is showing things correctly then the artefact is located on the apple farm and that means that we are going to be facing nightmare Applejack." Said the Doctor.
"Are you sure that we can't start somewhere else." Asked Derpy.
"Look Derpy if we get started now we can finish of this quicker and besides we are so or so going to need all of the relics before we even begin to think about curing Twilight since she is the most powerful one of them all. So let's leave her for last." Said Bon Bon. Then the doctor spoke up.
"Okay then it's settled we are going to get the first relic today." Said the Doctor. Then he extended his hoof and said. "For Equestria." After that everypony else also put their hoof oh his and they all said in unison.
"For Equestria." After that, they put their hoofs on the ground with smiles on their faces, but Octavia's smile quickly fell and turned into one of thought and after some time she finally said.
"Okay if we are doing this now then we are going to need some equipment and supplies if we are doing this. Mostly saddle bags some food and some water." Everyone agreed then the Doctor asked.
"So who has some of this stuff?" Vinyl then raised her hoof.
"I have some high-quality saddle bags at my house." After her Bon Bon raised her hoof.
"I have some canned food and some water bottles at my house, but I don't think I have enough for us to last." After her Derpy raised her hoof and said.
"I have some more food at my place way more than we actually need." After the Doctor heard all of that he said.
"Okay now we have some destinations and the first that I think we should go to is Vinyls place so that we can get those saddlebags, then we can go to Bon Bons to pick up the food and water and then we go to Derpy's. Any objections to the plan?" Then Vinyl raised her hoof. "Yes, Vinyl?"
"Why don't we split up and get this done faster?" She asked.
"Because I'm going with the mentality there is strength in numbers. So any other questions?" Everyone shook their heads in denial. "Okay then let's go." With that said they opened the back door and started to sneak away, but little did they know that they were being watched by yellow eyes.
***Everfree forest castle throne room***
"Did they buy it Discord." Asked Fluttershy. Discord then pulled his head out of the tear in reality and said.
"They did and are already on their way to get ready to get the first relic on Applejacks farm." Then Applejack stepped forward and said.
"Okay, then Discord transform me and beam me to my farm." Discord then snapped his fingers and Applejack started to transform. First, she started to grow until she was the size of Celestia. After that, her coat started to change from orange to black. Her mane and tail also grew out by at least ten centimetres. Then her hat transformed into a golden helmet and for the final touch, a golden yoke with the element of honesty on it appeared around her neck. "Is it done?" She asked after a minute.
"Almost I just need to add two more touches and then I'll teleport you to your farm." He snapped his fingers one more time and her hair started to wave like it was in an invisible wind and her cutie mark changed from a shiny red apple to a black apple with a red outline. "And done. Okay then get ready for the teleport." After that she got ready, he snapped his fingers and she teleported to her farm.
"Do you think we are doing the right thing?" Asked Fluttershy.
"Look I'm going, to be honest with you I don't know. For me, this is awesome because I can spread my chaos over the entirety of Equestria and besides were not hurting anybody we are just scaring them a bit. Now if you excuse me I need to bring this information to Twilight see you in a minute." Then he snapped his fingers and left Fluttershy alone with her animals to keep her company.
"Oh, I hope the others are having a better time than me." After that, she looked at a nearby clock and noticed that it was time to feed her animals. "Oh would you look at the time, it's time to feed you all." With that said she left the throne room with all of her little animal companions following her as well.
***Ponywille streets***
The Doctor and all of his friends are currently waiting for Applejacks guards to get lost so that they can cross the street and get into the alleyway across the street. "This is taking too long." Whispered Vinyl.
"Patience Vinyl. It's only a matter of time before they have to switch out and speak of the devil." He whispered back. After he did the guards walked away. With their opportunity now open, they all quickly made it across the street and into Vinyls house through the back door. Once inside Vinyl said.
"Okay, then you guys wait here while I go upstairs and get those saddle bags. In the mean time make yourselves at home." With that said she made her way upstairs while everybody else just sat down and waited. All except for Doc. He went to the window and checked if the guards have returned and of course they have. After making sure that they didn't spot him he closed the curtains and then he said.
"Okay, we are going to have to be allot more careful now, because the guards have changed positions and if the time that it took for them to change is correct they switch between every fifteen to twenty minutes. So we are going to need a distraction to get out." After that Octavia spoke up.
"I noticed that Applejacks guard is mostly made out of earth ponies. Can't we use that to our advantage somehow?"
"Possibly, but we can't risk anyone of us getting caught. If what this map shows is anything to go by there are six relics one for each of us. If one of us is caught then we can not cure the elements of harmony. Maybe we could distract them by creating a distraction with our magic or let Derpy fly us over th..." The doctor would have continued but was interrupted by Vinyl returning with two pairs of saddle bags levitating in her magical grasp.
"Here you go Doc." She said while handing one pair to him. Then she placed the other on herself and went to the kitchen. "I'm going to grab some stuff from around here that may come in handy later on." She said and left to go to the kitchen while the Doctor rolled up the map and placed it into his bag. After some time of her walking around the house and gathering up some things. When she finished she asked, "So what's the next step?"
"Now we need to go to Bon Bon's house to get some water and after that, we go to Derpy's. When we have everything we are finally going to go to Sweet Apple Acres and get the first relic. Now, let's go while we can still hide under the cover of night." Said the Doctor. Everyone agreed and with that, they made their way towards the back door so that they could sneak out. When they were outside the Doctor quickly told Vinyl that they need to distract the guards and after a second of thought she picked up a rock and threw it across the street.
"What was that?" Both of the guards said. "We better check it out." Said the right one. Then they both went to check out what made that noise. When they were far enough away that our six protagonists knew that they were safe, they made a mad dash towards Bon Bon's candy shop which also doubled as her home. The shop was located a couple of blocks down the street from Vinyls house. When they got to the shop Bon Bon quickly opened it and ran inside and just in time because there was a patrol coming down the street right when they closed the door. They were all pretty surprised that they even made it.
"That was way too close for comfort." Said, Octavia, while wiping off the sweat of her brow.
"You said it. Now if you excuse me I'll go and quickly grab the water." Said Bon Bon and left to grab the aforementioned supplies. While she was doing that the Doctor decided to pace around and think while the rest sat down and relaxed for a bit. After some time of silence, Derpy spoke up.
"So how are we planning to get to my house it's not like we can just run there it's on the other side of town."
"That is what I am trying to figure out." He said. Then Bon Bon returned with about eight two litre water bottles balanced on her back. When she was close enough she said.
"Here this should last us a while." She then passed him four while she gave the rest to Vinyl. He took them in his magic and placed them in his bags. Vinyl did the same. After that, the Doctor again started to pace around and think. He was trying to figure out a better way to sneak around town and that is when he noticed a couple of cardboard boxes, which were just big enough to fit a pony inside, and that is when he got a stupid idea.
"I've got an idea on how we can get to Derpy's house without getting caught." After that, he levitated the boxes over to his friends. When he did that they just looked at him like he was crazy. "What? If anyone of you has a better idea then let's hear it." Then they just looked at each other, shrugged, took a box, placed them over themselves and went out the back door of the shop.
***
On their way towards Derpy's house. Nothing of interest happened. They walked past some guards and the doctor swears that he saw a grey pony equipped in body armour and holding a cigar in his mouth doing the same technique as they are. After he filed that away for later investigation they continued and soon enough they arrived at Derpy's house and quickly entered. "Okay, I'll be right back with the supplies." Said Derpy and flew off towards the kitchen to gather up the food.
"Make sure it's either dried or canned. We don't want anything spoiling on our travels." Said the Doctor.
"Okay." With that, she returned to her task.
"Alright, so what is our plan of attack? How are we getting the first relic?" Asked Lyra. The Doctor then pulled out the map and unfurled it on the table for everyone to see and after some time of thought, he said.
"Well, Lyra that is going to be a little tougher because we have two problems. The first one is that we don't know what she did to her farm for all we know there could be a lava river surrounding the entire farm."
"And the other thing is?" Asked Octavia.
"This map doesn't show where the relic is located. It only tells us the general area. So we are going to have to split up there. As much as I hate to do that." He answered.
"Well then we have the building blocks for a plan, but we still have a lot of unknowns. I suggest that we scope out the area to figure out some of the unknowns." Said Bon Bon and when she did the Doctor got an idea.
"I've got an idea, but we should wait for Derpy to return because she is going to be the main asset to that little idea." Then they simply waited for Derpy to return and when fifteen minutes passed everyone got a little worried.
"Um, shouldn't she be back by now?" Asked Vinyl.
"Do you think she got captured?" Lyra added.
"No, if she was then they would probably sweep the house and capture us as well. I'll go check it out and if you hear a fight going on then quickly pack up everything and run." Said the Doctor and left the living room and went into the kitchen to look for his missing friend. Once there he quickly checked around to see where she was. After he was half way finished he heard some noises coming from the pantry. He charged up a knockout spell then he slowly went over to it and opened it. When he did he found Derpy inside tangled in some towels. The Doctor dispelled the spell and said. "Really Derpy how did you even get tangled up in towels?" When he finished his question he started on untangling her and while he did that she said.
"I just don't know what went wrong. I was just trying to find a couple of bags for the trail mix, but then I bumped into a shelf and all of the towels on that shelf fell down. I tried to get out, but then I got tangled up even more." After she finished her explanation the Doctor the same with untangling her and started on folding the towels and placing them back on the shelf. When that task complete he helped Derpy finish up her trail mix and brought it to the main room. Everyone in there was extremely relieved to see that Derpy is alright and when everyone quieted down Vinyl asked.
"So doc what's are we going to do to scope out the area around the farm?" Then the Doctor explained his plan and when he finished they put their boxes back on and immediately went towards Sweet apple acres.
***
Once they were there they put Doctor's idea into action. The Doctor cast an invisibility spell on Derpy while Vinyl cast a soundproofing spell on her. After that Derpy flew into the air and started on circling the entire place and what she saw wasn't good. First, of the red barn that was once, there was turned into jail cells and the Apple family house was transformed into a large castle. It had three spires and was made of wood of all things. It still had the aesthetics of their home only now it looked like a castle. The fields, where the Apple family would usually work, were now filled with Ponywille residents that were being forced to work by Applejacks guard. And speaking of Applejack she was currently walking down the rows of apple trees checking if everyone was doing their job properly. After that Derpy made another fly around and then she returned to her friends and told them about everything that she saw and after she did the doctor said. "Well, it looks like we are going to have to wait a little bit. Until Applejack goes back inside the castle after that we can start exploring. Derpy did you perhaps see something that might look like the artefact?"
"No sorry I didn't find anything that would fit that description." The Doctor then started to formulate a plan. When he finally finished all the details he said. "Okay, then we are going to split up here me and one of you guys are going inside. When we do we are going to knock out two guards and go exploring until we find the artefact. With that said who is going to go with me?" And then everything went silent and then after a minute of that silence Octavia sighed, stepped forward and said.
"Okay, I'll go because I guess that you are going to be using magic to hide your horn so that you look like the guards on the farm." She said.
"You would be correct about that. Now if no one else has any suggestions then let's go." After that, he took out the map and placed it into his mane while passing his saddle bags to Derpy. When they were both ready they took their boxes and started to sneak inside the farm. Once they were in a place where they could reach a guard they discarded the boxes and waited for one of them to arrive. After some time passed one of them finally walked by. With their chance now open Octavia quickly grabbed the guard while the Doctor quickly knocked him out using a spell.
"Well that's one now we need to wait for another one." He said. After a minute another one went by, so they repeated the process and then they started on removing the armour. Said armour was made out of iron which was buffed to perfection. When they removed it from the two ponies their coat colours changed from orange to whatever their original ones were. After that, they put the armour on, the Doctor hid his horn and they both hid the knocked out bodies.
"So what do we do now Doctor?" Asked Octavia.
"Now we go and explore until we find something that looks like the artefact. Until then act natural." With that said they both made their way out of the alley and started their search for the aforementioned relic.
***
After about an hour of searching, they were stopped by Applejack who spotted them when they were inspecting the cells. "Ho there you guys. The fields are that away. Now get back to supervising the townspeople. You know that I can't stand any lollygagging" At first, they both froze, but then the Doctor got an idea so he said.
"I'm sorry Miss Applejack, but I'm shoving the new recruit around here so that she doesn't get lost you know how rookies can be. After I finish well both go to the fields right away." He said at first she looked at them with scepticism etched into her facial features, but after some time her face returned to normal and she said.
"Okay then, but don't dilly dally. Now git." With that, they both saluted and went back to their search while Applejack returned to the castle to do whatever she does at that time in the day. When she was sure that Applejack was out of their earshot Octavia said.
"That was close."
"You said it now lets quickly find that artefact before we get discovered. Because I'm pretty sure that we won't survive another encounter such as this." With that, they continued their search. After some time passed the map started to glow. Octavia noticed that and told Doctor. "Well, would you look at that it is. That must mean that we must be nearby the relic." Then he simply took it out, held it in his mouth and then made a 360-degree turn and when he pointed it towards a window it started to glow brighter but the only thing on that window was a simple pie tin.
"A pie tin? seriously." Said Octavia.
"Well, you must put into consideration that it is Discord who hid these relics so it was bound to get weird." Said the Doctor. Then he tried to reach for it but was then shocked by the magic inside of it. "Ouch." he said while shaking his hoof.
"What happened Doc? Why can't you pick it up?" Asked Octavia in a frightened tone.
"I don't know maybe It didn't allow me to." Then he got an idea. "You try to pick it up." After that Octavia was surprised.
"Are you crazy. I don't want to get shocked because that looked painful and..." The doctor only raised his hoof to shut her up and said.
"Trust me. If my hypothesis is correct then you are going to be all right now go and pick it up before we get spotted." After that, she looked at him for a second, but eventually, she relented and released a sigh. Then she simply stepped forward and said.
"Okay, I trust you." Then she reached for it, but she didn't get shocked and when she finally made contact the pie tin started to glow and morph. When it finally stopped glowing it was already around Octavia's neck and turned into something completely different. It was a golden necklace that looked allot like the elements of harmony. The only difference that was there was the centre piece. The gem was shaped like her cutie mark (a treble clef) and was coloured a solid purple colour. When it was finally done she looked at it and smiled.
"Okay, now we've got it now let's go before someone finds us." Right on cue, the two guards that they knocked out appeared from around the corner followed by even more of them.
"There they are. Get them." With that said they quickly made a run for it discarding the armour on the way. When they finally outran them and when they stopped looking for them. They returned to their friends to show them what they got and to plan out the next heist.