One could say the start of any hunt is the longest part. The preparation, the tension, the planning. However, the scavenger hunt was so damn easy thus far that the only thing left was the rabbit, fish, and donkey. And considering two of the three could be found at Fluttershy’s cottage, you took the lead of leading the group there as you all discussed the final item, the needle in the haystack. “Ok, so, you guys mentioned Applejack hid a needle somewhere. Did she say what haystack? Or where it was at least? A clue? Anything?”
Ocellus shook her head. “Unfortunately no. When she discussed the activity with us yesterday, she said she would hide it in a haystack of her choosing. Erm, which could be any haystack in Equestria. Or at least one close to the school. I’d think we could just check her farm, but I’m afraid that even with the five of us, there really is no way of finding it in time.”
“Well, that shouldn’t get any of us down, right?” Sandbar said as he rushed ahead of everyone, looking back at them as he tried to raise all your spirits with his optimism. “So what if we can’t find the needle? Who cares? If we can’t find it with our own amazing group, then nocreature else can either! So whatever, let’s just give it our best shot, and whatever happens happens.”
Smolder shrugged at that as she smirked. “Sounds good to me. Though, I was thinking, I could just torch every haystack we see and see if a needle shows up in the ash.”
“I’d be all for that!... Ugh, if our ‘professor’ wouldn’t get cranky about it. Egh, so it seems like she’s kind of expecting us to find HER needle rather than A needle. Oh look, a fish.” You point out as one jumps from the side of the little bridge leading to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Got it…” Gallus says as he peered over at the cottage while marking the sheet, his mind still trying to find a way to get that final checkmark. He pondered for a moment, and as he pondered, he looked over at Sandbar, who already would probably be against anything underhanded he might think of. Gallus sighed, as something did enter his mind, but he wasn’t willing to go through with it at this point. “Look, I get it, we’re not gonna cheat. But I’m just gonna put this out there, what is going to stop everycreature else from marking it off their sheets?”
“Hm? What do you mean, Gallus?” Ocellus asked, a little more naive to Gallus’s words than one should.
“I mean Professor Applejack said we don’t even need to bring any of this back to her, as in, nocreature even has to fake it if they want that grade. All they have to do is mark it and BAM! It’s over.” Gallus explains.
“I don’t think that’s right. Wouldn’t Professor Applejack know that isn’t the truth?” Ocellus asked.
“Well, she did say there’d be no questions asked. Remember, she said it’d be all based on a system of trust or something like that.” Smolder said as she began to scratch at her chin. “But wouldn’t there be a problem if everycreature else showed up with it marked?”
“Who knows? if she did ask something, they could just say they found it in a haystack in her farm, since that is where she probably hid the thing. I feel like a sucker right now. I mean, I really want to mark it, but…” Gallus sighed as he looked to the rest of the group. “I guess it doesn’t feel right, since, well, none of you want to do it.”
“Gallus, c’mon.” Sandbar said as he approached his friend, slinging his leg along his back and hugging him close. “Forget about all that, man. Let them do what they want. As long as we’re honest with ourselves, then that is all that matters, right?”
“...I guess.” Gallus said with an eyeroll. “What about you, Anon? Not even tempted to use that weird horn thing?”
“I mean, I could. Nocreature would have to know. But then you guys would know and it’d turn into a thing and bla bla bla. Look, all I really want to know is where that needle even is. If I at least had… Wait. Sandbar, what was that last part you said again?” Oh no, was it… Was it that obvious?
“Er, the honest with ourselves thing?” Sandbar asked, feeling a little awkward as he looked at your wide eyed expression.
UGH, GODDAMMIT, APPLEJACK! Holy shit! It was so damn simple! It was a red herring! Not only is it truly impossible to find the needle, there is literally no point in looking for it, it isn’t part of the lesson! Hell, even the rest of the list is a red herring. Everything is really easy to find because it was meant to be easy to find, because it honestly isn’t part of the lesson. That final one, the needle in the haystack, is the lesson. Applejack probably didn’t even hide a damn needle… Well, she probably did if she said she did, but it was probably in some place stupid and ridiculous simply to make sure it was never found! It is an honesty test, she just wants to see how many groups can resist checking off the final box. Well, haha, you have her figured out. “Yeah, that’s exactly it. Guys, everything, and I mean everything, is a test. Applejack doesn’t care about what we mark or anything like that, what she cares about is that we don’t mark the last one, because marking it would be dishonest. Ocellus is right, there is no way we’re finding that needle, and there isn’t any point to finding it anyway. The whole thing is a trick. She just wants everycreature to be honest with what they mark down. Anycreature who marks down that last one, for any reason, I guarantee will fail.”
And just like you have every time before, everyone… Well, everyone but Ocellus, gave you a wut face.
“Woah, woah, woah woah, woooah. So what you’re saying is we were worrying about all this for nothing?” Gallus asked, confused, and a little pissed that he felt he was tricked. “Why would the professor put this in as part of the hunt if it was impossible?”
“Actually, what Anon says does make sense. Let me try to explain it more clearly, erm.” Ocellus flew ahead a few inches then looked towards all of you as she began to explain exactly how things were regarding the scavenger hunt. “Basically, what Anon is saying is that this is a test about being honest to ourselves, as Sandbar said, and to each other, including to Professor Applejack. This is an honesty class, after all, so it all makes sense. We're just supposed to tell the truth.”
“Huh…” Smolder said, scratching her head for a moment, then looking back towards the town “Well, uh.” She then looks to you “Good job, I guess. Though, uh, weren’t we going to pass without all that because we were going to be honest anyway?”
“Hey, whatever, it helped making me stop wanting to mark it off. But, uh, what about the rest of the stuff? Are we still looking for them?” Gallus asked.
You just shrugged. “Might as well, considering we're supposed to tell the truth. We only have two to go anyway. Come on, my Aunt’s pet is probably inside. All we gotta do is spot him and that's it.” Heh, Anon, you truly are a genius.
“And that means all we have to do is find a donkey. Doesn’t that donkey couple live somewhere nearby? I really liked meeting them the other day." Ocellus asked, her voice becoming cheerier now that everything was figured out.
“Oh, you mean Cranky and Matilda? Yeah, and once we see them, then we’ll be done. Wow, guys, see? I knew it all along. All we had to do was talk it out, be honest, and we’d get through this no problem! I bet the professor is totally going to be proud of us!” Sandbar said, feeling rather accomplished about the whole thing.
“I bet, especially if we show up before anycreature else. Can’t believe it was this easy.” Smolder said, a little bewildered on how easy the assignment truly turned out.
“Yeah, I wonder if we’ll get a few extra gra-Hm?” Gallus stopped short of the three statues by the cottage. Of you, Discord, and Fluttershy. He just points to the Discord statue, finding it the odd one out. “Who is that guy?”
“That’s my Dad. The lord of chaos himself. Which kinda makes me the prince.” You say with a cocky chuckle as you check to see if the door is locked.
“Really? Don’t want to insult you or anything, but it kind of looks like a bunch of unqualified surgeons just put him together. Is that really what he looks like?” Gallus asked as he gave the statue a few taps. It was clear Discord was someone he had never seen before, and was in disbelief that anything like that could exist.
“I can confirm that’s him. I know he looks scary, but he can be kind too. Er, sort of? I-I guess not throwing us back into Tartarus was nice. Erm, I know he has done a lot of nice things for Anon and Professor Fluttershy too.” It was clear Ocellus had some fear of Discord. No doubt, during your times out and about, that Discord probably abused them once or twice for no reason, or some reason. Nothing too bad of course, if Chrysalis herself was able to bounce back from it everytime.
“Looks like some kind of weird furry dragon to me. But the guy has to be packing some serious magic if Anon is anything to go by. I know you all know about Anon's magic. But that guy? That’s where it all comes from. It’s weird though, all that power…” Smolder then turns to you. “And Headmare Twilight and her friends beat him? What did he do, just stand there?”
“Er, yeah, don’t mention that in front of him though, unless you want a long and crazy explanation on how it was all part of his plan or something like that.” You say as you twist the handle and give the door a push. It was open, Fluttershy must have forgotten to lock it. Or maybe she left it unlocked to let some of the animals in or whatever. Either way, upon opening the door, you could already see Angel trying to pry open the safe with a screwdriver. “Well well, looks like we found our rabbit.”
“Oh, hey, it's Angel! Professor Fluttershy brought him to class before, he was pretty nice. What’s he doing though? Is he trying to w-woah, what’s with that look?” Sandbar had to take a step back as Angel suddenly turned his head towards you, fury in his eyes as he pointed over to you and threw the screwdriver to the side.
Yesssssssssssssssssss, soooooo gooooood. “Oh, he’s probably trying to get into that safe. He’s basically spoiling his lunch time by trying to get to something he shouldn’t.” Angel had began to hop over at you madly as you said this, seemingly coming to demand you open the safe he probably has been spending forever trying to open. You just time it, wait for him to get closer, and then slam the door shut right as he got to it, a loud thud emanating from the door as he crashed into it. “Welp, that just leaves, er, what was it again?”
“Erm, Anon, is he going to be ok? He seemed upset about whatever was in that safe.” Ocellus asked, a little distressed from the evident anger on Angel’s face before the door was slammed shut.
“What, Angel? He’ll be fine. The safe has some stuff for my aunt’s sanctuary, something he shouldn’t be touching. So, y’know, he’s upset for no reason.” Bwhahahaha. The guy can’t even make up shit either, you have four other witnesses who can back up your story. Checkmate asswipe. Anon, you are in the fucking zone today.
“Oh. Well, all we have to do is visit Mr. and Mrs. Doodle?” Ocellus asked as he looked over to Sandbar for an answer.
“C’mon, guys, I'll lead the way.” Sandbar said as he waved his hoof, guiding everyone to Cranky’s home
And so, as you all began your trek to Cranky and Matilda’s home, Gallus couldn’t help but think more deeply about the honesty lesson he just learned. He had thought about cheating, he had thought about just marking it down as done anyway, and yet, with the lesson over, he found it more and more difficult to think about doing such things, considering it would have screwed his friends over. “Y’know, this honesty stuff, really could use some of that in Griffonstone.”
“What do you mean, Gallus?” Sandbar asked. “Aren’t a lot of griffons honest? I know you are.” Sandbar replied, naive to Gallus’s true earlier intentions and the origins of where he is from.
“No. Like, just… No. Griffons are anything but honest. Even my ‘guardian’ doesn’t really like any of this, like, the idea of it. Its crazy, it really is, that you all think like this. I would have just marked everything off and that would have been it. Now? I guess it doesn’t feel right, especially since it wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere. But any other griffon would have just marked off the whole sheet without even finding anything. To tell you the truth, I thought this whole thing was going to be dumb. I guess I was the dumb one, huh?” Gallus said as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his talons, feeling rather bashful about the whole thing.
“Nah, it's just how we were raised. Dragons, before Ember became a princess, were just taught to be mean, steal, and be overall jerks, even to each other. This kind of lesson would have never flown in the Dragon Lands before. Now though, dragons could learn a thing or two about friendship and harmony, instead of beating each other up over every little thing.” Smolder said, trying to cheer up Gallus by sharing some of her own experiences.
Ocellus nodded to that. “And changelings? Well, for a very very long time, all we knew was conquering and ruining the lives of everycreature else. We’d be in Tartarus if we kept up our ways. In a sense, we’re very lucky to have Thorax as our king, things have been much better since we learned to love for ourselves, instead of taking everycreature elses.”
As lovely as that all sounds, you couldn’t help but think that this was something that was going to sound like a broken record sooner or later. Either way, seems Applejack’s lesson on honesty worked, even if it seemed a little half baked at this point. Oh well, it was shit you already knew, so all you had to do was… Wait, you were going to see Cranky and Matilda? As in Cranky Doodle? The guy who you didn’t even properly apologize to? Shit… Would he still be mad about you just teleporting right onto his flowers? Well, you didn’t have to talk to him, just see him and go. “Yeah, I sort of know how that’s like too. But, er, are we just going to say hi to them? Or just mark it down the moment we see them?”
“Well, I’d think that if they are busy, then we just mark them down when we see them. But if we don’t see them, we’d have to say hi. But if they aren’t busy, I think it’d be good to say hi anyway. We all met them while we were in Professor Pinkie’s class the other day. Well, except for Smolder, Gallus, Silverstream, and Yona. They all got held up meeting you. I guess you guys had a really long chat, huh?” Sandbar said, obviously ignorant of the events between you and the group from the other day. So much for honesty. “I was wishing I was there, but now I get to hang out with you everyday. And wow, you’re as smart and cool as they say.”
“Yeeeah, mhmm. Sure am, ahaha. Ugh…” Why are you getting nervous, Anon? That was so long ago! It was during that whole crystaliing thing, or whatever it was. Things are gonna be fine. Or rather, you thought it was. Because as you all soon approached Cranky’s cabin, you could already see a group of five students running away in a panic as yelling could be heard in the distance.
“Why?! Hm?! Why?! Of all the places you pegasi could have landed on, you decide to land right on my flowers! Why are you all coming over to my home, anyway?! Hm?! Darn it! Ugh…” You could see Cranky in the distance tending to some of his flowers, which had bent and fallen apart from being trampled on. Did some of the pegasi students accidentally land right on top of them? Huh, that’s even worse than you randomly teleporting onto them and… Oh god, he was totally going to remember what you did. Geez...