//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Return of Harmony (EQG Style) // by Bookpony579 //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie skipped with her usual joy as she approached the amphitheater, seemingly unaware of the dire situation Equestria was in. When she got there, she saw the entire place was set up for a party! Even better: it was filled with balloons! The balloons bore smiling faces and laughed among each other. It was the most amazing thing she's ever seen! "Oh! This is the greatest balloon party I've ever seen!" She remarked as she skipped and laughed among the balloons. "Well, it's the first balloon party I've ever seen, but still! I don't even care that their somehow sentient and capable of laughter in the first place!" Suddenly her foot got caught in one of the balloons strings and fell flat on her face. The balloons continued to laugh, but now it was more menacing and directed at Pinkie. "Hey! That's not nice!" She protested. "What's the matter, Pinkie Pie? I thought you appreciated a good laugh?" Discord appeared and asked her. "Well when it's laughing with people, not at them! Then it's being mean!" "What do you mean? Your friends laugh at you all the time!" Discords head then proceeded to turn into a balloon, leaving behind his headless body. "No they don't!" "Oh Really?" The Discord balloon proceeded to quickly circle around her, laughing all the while. Pinkie tried to run, but everywhere she was blocked by hordes of maniacally laughing balloons. She even saw five balloons who resembled her friend's....and they were laughing right at her! Pinkie Pie had never felt so hopeless and overwhelmed. "No! Stop it!" She begged, lying on the ground and covering her face in a vain attempt to hide from the mocking balloons. "Stop laughing at me!" She pleaded. "Oh, poor Pinkie Pie." The Discord balloon said with fake sympathy as he approached her. She uncovered her face and looked into two spiraling eyes. " And here I thought laughter made you happy." Pinkie looked into the spirals and felt herself pulled in. Then the color drained from Pinkie as glared. "Happy? I don't think so." She said gravelly. The balloons all quickly popped away, with the Element of Laughter falling out from one of them. Pinkie picked it up and was about to leave when... "Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie looked to see Lyra and BonBon running towards her. "What's going on!?" Lyra asked. "We were having a picnic nearby when suddenly it started raining chocolate milk! Which is awesome, of course." Bonbon rolled her eyes at this. "But then we were attacked by ants the sized of elephants! They even took our lunch!" Lyra's eyes began to tear up at this. Bonbon ignored her girlfriend and continued. "Do you know what's happening?" Pinkie continued to glare. "Certainly nothing that you can laugh about!" Lyra and Bonbon stepped back. "What?" "You two just want us to fix this so you can go back to you're smiling and being happy! Well, I don't think so!" Pinkie finished her rampage and grumpily walked back to school, glaring at everyone along the way. Lyra and Bonbon looked at each other. "That was weird even for Pinkie Pie." Lyra said. "Definitely." Meanwhile... Sunset was riding her motorcycle, almost home when she heard scream. Immediately stopping and looking around she saw that a set of electric poles had come to life! They were waving their electrified power lines around like massive whips. People were running around in a frenzy, only barley avoiding the electric wires. "And I was complaining about getting left out of the action." Sunset muttered to herself as she parked her bike and was about to help when she head a voice call her name. She turned and saw a familiar guitar player running towards her. "Sunset! What's going on!?" Flash asked when he saw the live poles. He had been going to pick up his sister and her friends when he saw the commotion. There wasn't much time to explain, so she summarized as best as she could. "Discord. Ancient spirit of chaos. Twilight and the girls are dealing with it. Now help me!" Sunset and Flash worked on getting as many innocent bystanders to safety as possible. While Flash was working on crowd control, Sunset telekinetically wrapped the brought-to-life electric poles' power line whips around the poles themselves; leaving the poles too securely tied up to threaten any more innocents for the time being. "That's six power line poles down, but I have a bad feeling that this will get worse before it gets better." Sunset admits "And Twilight and the others are probably having an even worse time of this right now." Flash agreed, his concern for Twilight insultingly obvious. *RAAAAAAWR* The two teens turned and saw people running out of the nearby Burger Queen. They ran in and saw a soda machine monster spraying cola everywhere. "On second thought.....maybe they're faring better than we are." Rarity strutted through the community garden like she was on the runway at a fashion show. "I must admit, there are certainly worse places to search." Rarity noted as she admired all the greenery and colorful flowers that remained untouched by the chaos outside. As she walked, something sparkly caught her eye. She wandered over to the rock garden portion and noticed three perfect, sparkling diamonds in the ground. "Oh my..." she gasped. She had never seen jewels this beautiful before! A familiar laugh caught her attention and an even more familiar figure's reflection appeared in each of the diamonds. "Welcome to your lucky day, Rarity. You've found the one thing in Equestria that could rival my face for sheer beauty. What do you think? You like?" Rarity was completely entranced by the rocks."Yes... I like very much..." She felt herself drawn closer to them as her eyes took on a familiar swirl... "NO!" She suddenly pulled away and stepped back dramatically. " Must find....element....to save....Equestria..." She managed to drag herself a few feet before hightailing back and sinking her hands into the dirt. "IT"S MINE!" She cried as she took on a greyish tone. She dug for several minutes until she had her prize. She had her Element, of course, much more importantly she had found an enormous diamond! "Well, Rarity. It took forever, but it was worth it. Who knew three little gemstones would turn out to be this handsome hunk of a diamond? Now to get you home." She struggled but managed to lift it and her element off the ground and begin to carry them back to school. "Look! It's Rarity!" Rarity turned her head and saw two familiar students from her school. Sandalwood and Micro Chips? Run up to her. "Rarity! It's good to see...." Micro's voice faded and he gave her a questioning look. "....Why are carrying that giant rock?" Indeed, while it looked like an enormous diamond to Rarity, in reality....it was nothing more than a big rock roughly the size of a soccer ball that had been buried in the garden. It was neither as big nor as glamorous as Rarity imagined it, but still quite heavy. Rarity gasped in disbelief. "What are you talking about? This big beautiful bedazzling rock is a diamond!" Suddenly she was glaring at the two boys. "And it's all mine. Keep your envious little eyes off it! I found it and it's mine fair and square!" She grunted as she carried her treasure away. "Ooookay..." Sandalwood said as she left. When she was out of earshot, he turned to his friend. "That was weird right?" "Very weird." Micro agreed, nodding his head.