I forced a deep inhalation and jolted upright.
I was on hard wood, the lights out, surrounded by ponies.
I saw Luna, Fable, Seka, Ms. Doo, and countless ponies I hadn’t met.
They were all frowning.
“I can see you all.”
The lights went on.
Luna kicked my side.
“The only reason you’re still alive are these three. They braved the Everfree Forest to find you, and they did. You were passed out on the bed in the old castle there, that ‘gift’ gone.”
I thought for a few moments.
“She said she would send me back, my main goal. I discovered through many errors of hers that she did not send me back, but rather put my mind in a fake world. I basically swore to kill her. Then the world melted and I woke here.”
Luna snarled at that.
“So now you ask for forgiveness?”
“Hardly Princess. First I must ask how do we kill her?”
“You can’t.”
“Then how does one go about stopping her?”
“The Elements of Harmony.”
A faint smile crept upon my lips.
“Tell me more.”
“Very well.”
She told me about them in a long winded unnecessarily long explanation.
I have paraphrased it.
They are the physical embodiments of Friendship.
Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, and Magic.
Although they did have magical items, the true power came from the pony.
So the Elements demanded hosts, who are the only ones who can use their power.
“Then I shall go and find the ones who are the Elements?”
She thought about it a bit.
“And you will tell us everything about you when we are done”
“What about bringing me back?”
“The cold is keeping the spell going, and it is nighttime eternal.”
“Idea…”
I pointed to Seka, Fable, Chicha, Cerridwen, Blitz, and Shy.
“You six are the ones I trust the most. In exchange for me helping you out and telling you about me, you will go south for that stone to bring me back.”
They looked at each other for a few moments.
“Deal.”
The whole crowd dispersed, so I finally stood up.
I began to head to the door to leave the library, and asked Luna one question.
“Got any leads?”
“They are all in Ponyville, and one is already known: One of the royal guard is the Element of Honesty. He is different from the rest, because he is small and soot colored.”
“A pegasus?”
“Yes.”
I left.
I decided to start with the most likely candidates.
Thus my first location was where Redlock was.
The hospital.
After climbing in through the window, I went to her new office by exploring for it.
I entered silently, and she didn’t even notice as she worked on an absurdly large amount of paper work.
“So much paper work… it makes me want to stab whoever though it would be a good idea to move me to surgery. I’m horrible at everything medical, I’m just an assistant.”
I decided she wasn’t the Element of Kindness because of that.
Then I noticed an open book.
“I just need to help them all. Knifer clearly has issues with his sanity, Sekapu is dangerously obsessed with him, Fable has a near uncontrollable urge to study him… What to do?”
An open page in her diary had possibly proved me wrong.
Possibly.
There was not enough evidence to tell.
I went directly across the hall into Dr. Krutz’s office.
He was not there, so I raided his desk for evidence.
Inside was his journal.
I quickly skimmed through it and found an interesting entry.
“I can’t keep my thoughts off of the fact that I lied to him about Celestia funding the procedure. I paid for it myself. I just keep on doing that. Ms. Doo needed to fix broken leg, I paid for it. Blondebolt needed medicine to keep his thoughts off Knifer for a bit, so I paid for it. Everything I do for them I pay for. That’s going to bite my flank in a while.”
I made a mental note: Generosity found.
I then left.
My next goal was Seka.
If she wasn’t Laughter, it had to be a relative.
About half way there I came to a stop, and witnessed a mugging in action.
Five black full body suited stallions, and a white mare with a lime mane.
Being the normal me, I silently approached and tapped the leader on the shoulder.
When he turned, I punched him in the face with my hoof, with far more force than I intended.
His jaw.
Was.
Not.
There.
I saw it skidding across the ground, causing every one of the stallions to panic and run but the one I hit.
He retrieved his jaw and ran for the hospital.
I left the mare, scared, and let her flee when she wanted to.
“Never before have I ever removed a part of something’s body that didn’t happen to be one of those deer.”
I entered her room as she was packing for the trip.
I walked out onto the balcony, so that the endless night would show me.
Instantly I was tackled by her.
I looked at her face, and saw her mood was a mix between anger, joy, and fear.
I knew she was about to rant, so I put a hoof in her mouth.
“I was wondering if you had any fun loving relatives?”
I pulled my hoof back.
“Well there’s Bass and there’s Surprise, but I don’t see why you need them?”
“Element of Laughter?”
“Most likely Surprise. She’s far off in Canterlot though.”
“Ah hell, when did she leave?”
“A few minutes ago, she was just here on this very balcony.”
“…ffffffffffffffffffffffffffFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRKKKKKKKKKK…”
Seka then did what I should have expected, but didn’t.
I got a huge hug.
I landed on my back, her on top.
I couldn’t breathe at all.
She kissed my cheek.
I couldn’t think at all.
Her hug loosened a bit.
I couldn’t get up.
She licked my mouth.
I went limp.
She fell asleep on me.
I couldn’t get her off.
She received blunt damage from my skull’s futile attempts to wake her.
I was forced to wait until she got off my ghostly body from waking up.