Applejack sat at a local bar drowning her worries with booze. The bar tender crossed over, and notice her on her fifth bottle.
"Hey, you ok?" He asked this while tipping his hat. Her face had been sitting on the bar counter nearly the whole night.
A sad song was being played by the pianist.
"Don't worry about me, sugar. Ah'm just coping with some losses with some liquids."
"You know, worries and depressions don't drown. They stay way above the booze where you can hear them the most! It's not a good idea to be doing this to yourself, you know?"
"Yea… Well who in tarnation asked for your opinion?"
He leaned in to say, "What's bugging you farm mare? Your crush stood you up or something?"
She hiccuped, "It can't be that obvious… can it?"
"As plain as the nose on my face." That sounded funny to Applejack for some reason. She lifted her head for the first time in awhile to get a better look at the bartender. He had a slicked back mane and normal looking eyes, but his nose was the biggest nose Applejack had ever seen. She chuckled and sat up a bit more in order to talk to him face to face. "Look," the bartender started. "Just because you didn't get the pony you wanted doesn't mean he's gone."
"Actually, uh…" she checked his name tag. "Spills, it's a… mare."
"Different gender, same situation… If you want this pony badly, go and get her."
"But, Ah don't even know if Ah should. We've been friends for a while now, and this feeling just popped out of the blue!" She gently felt her cheek with one of her hooves as she said, "Actually, it was more purple than anything..."
"Chances are the feeling of love was there the whole time," Spills said. "It only just now awakened. That's the curse of love, you see. You may not know it's there until it shows itself."
Applejack realized that everything Spills was saying was logical, and decided to try her hoof with Twilight yet again, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. It was far too late, and Applejack was far too drunk to try and flirt with anypony save for a mirror. She headed out of the bar that night with a stumble, and headed straight home. Although, she had some difficulty because she still felt as though with every step, she teetered on the edge of a cliff.
Meanwhile, Twilight had checked up on all her friends only to learn they had all fallen in love. She demanded that they all gathered at her treehouse. Everypony but Applejack was there. Pinkie was paired up with Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy with Rarity, and Twilight was paired up with a chalk board.
"Okay then, here's what's happening to all of us currently," Twilight said. "This sort of thing doesn't happen without a pattern. I need to know details from each of you about how this started and when exactly it happened."
Her friends hardly heard her saying anything at all. They were way too busy looking into each others eyes to be bothered with Twilight's silly paranoia. At first, when Twilight had gone to Pinkie's home to check on them, they had been secretive, but that didn't last long. Eventually they caught themselves kissing once again, and were unable to stop even while they did this directly in front of Twilight. Rarity and Fluttershy had eventually admitted that they were together, too, but only after Twilight had badgered them with enough questions.
Twilight wasn't exactly irritated with the fact that they all fell in love with each other, though. She was irritated by the fact that it all happened almost directly at the same time. "Please, girls," Twilight begged. To Twilight's amazement, they all stopped and paid attention. "I need to ask just a few questions. After that, you're all free to go... Go and do what? I really don't wanna know."
There was a pause.
"Now then, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash? Roughly what time did you two start thinking about each other?"
Rainbow remembered the image that flashed into her head yesterday.
"I had just finished my clean up duty for the day, and at twelve o'clock, I had an imaginary day dream of me and Pinks here making out."
Pinkie had been staring at Rainbow the whole time. All Pinkie could really do was casually daydream about what they were going to do once they got back to her room within Sugarcube Corner that night. When she heard this detail, though, her mind trailed. She recalled when her Pinkie sense had gone off, and remembered what time it was when she, too, had roughly the same experience.
"Umm, Dashie…? That's a little odd. I had the same fantasy in my head at the same time! And I'm not talking about a minute before or after, I mean the exact same time!"
Twilight levitated a piece of chalk and proceeded to draw Rainbow and Pinkie with a cloud bubble above their heads. In the bubble, she wrote RD+PP. Then she drew an arrow toward the right of the board, and proceeded to jot down the timing.
"Ok, now Fluttershy, do you know what time it was when you and Rarity began having the same emotions, or even a thought about you two?"
"Well… I fed Angel his food at… I think it was twelve yesterday, and it usually takes him fifty minutes to an hour to finish his meals. I had begun imagining myself with Rarity when I was cleaning up Angel's mess, so I'd say at one, probably."
Rarity told Twilight about just how busy she was that afternoon. She simply couldn't remember exactly when it was that she had begun liking Fluttershy so much. "I guess it must have been at about one because I had a very important dress to make. I stopped for less than ten minutes at twelve to eat, and then got right back to work."
Twilight decided that despite a lack of details, the information added up, and formed into a comprehensive pattern just as she predicted. She drew Rarity's and Fluttershy's face together with another thought bubble. Inside the bubble was FS+RB. Then she drew an arrow towards the right of the board same as before, and put down the time.
Then, she drew herself and Applejack together with the bubble on top. Within the bubble was TS+AJ. Then she drew an arrow to the right of the board, and said, "Two..."
Putting down the chalk and turning to face her friends, she asked, "Do you see the pattern now?"
They all stared at it with utterly confused faces.
"I wonder…" Twilight thought aloud.
"Wonder what?" Pinkie asked.
"There's a chapter within... I think it's the book about the elements of harmony that I own. I seem to remember... It said something about the elements being made in pairs… or couples! Spike, would you get me that book please."
Spike climbed up the book shelf and grabbed the bigger, heavier looking book. "Here it is Twilight." She grabbed it with her magic, and after levitating it down to them all, she flipped the pages until she found the index.
"How to use… Folklore… What not to do… Aha, here it is. In the makings… flip to page three hundred and nine…" She skimmed to the desired page and began to read again.
"The elements of harmony were made in couples. Loyalty was made with laughter. Generosity was made with kindness, and honesty was made with… magic! Doesn't that sound familiar to any of you?"
They were all making out except for Twilight.
"It's our elements! Were all coupled the same way the elements of harmony were coupled!" Everyone was so confused and distracted by then.
"There's another thing. There's another book that cataloged all the problems that arose in the preparations and creations of the elements. It's called the Elements of Harmony and the Extra Steps Taken. I don't have that one… Actually, I meant to get it when I first came to Ponyville, but I got so wrapped up with what's been going on that I never did get around to obtaining it. Spike, take a note."
Spike found some paper and a quill, and said, "Ready when you are."
"Dear Princess Celestia. I have been going through some odd researching with the elements of harmony and require a book that might be able to help me and my friends. Please send me the Elements of Harmony and the Extra Steps Taken as soon as possible. It is urgent that I receive the book in order to clear up a brand new mystery that's recently come up. Thank you, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Spike opened the window and sent the letter.
Afterwards, Twilight noticed that Applejack still hadn't arrived for some reason, so she also asked Spike to go get her, too. "She needs to know all of this as well."
What do these strange patterns mean, and why do they seem to revolve around the elements of harmony? Are there secrets about the elements that nopony knows of? Could there be answers hidden within the book that Twilight has just asked for? Find out in the next chapter of The Curse of the Elements.