“Its not there, Twilight,” Spike said with a slow shake of his head as he walked into Rarity's living room, “plain and simple.”
The dragon had spent the better part of the evening scouring the wreckage of the library for the Elements of Magic and Generosity, apparently to no avail. Twilight sighed in defeat, turning back to the scroll she was cradling in her arms. Through the link, she felt Rarity's spirits likewise droop, which only helped make Twilight feel worse. Both ponies shot each other a “cut that out” sort of glance from across the room, and tried to divert their attention to their various activities. Like it or not, psychic link or not, Rarity still had an order to fill. Both ponies were quickly realizing that one pony's mood could affect the other, leading straight down a slippery slope toward rather heated feelings. Twilight had grabbed a few essential reference guides and retreated with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie to Rarity's house while Spike and Fluttershy combed the debris for the missing Elements. Fluttershy was providing an eye in the sky where one was needed, but Twilight was confident in Spike's ability to be thorough. “If you need something shiny and jewel-encrusted found,” she'd said, “have a dragon look for it.”
“So what does that mean?” Rainbow asked, pacing around the room, “they can't have just vanished, could they?” she looked with alarm at Applejack. “You don't think they broke, do you?”
Applejack blinked and shook her head. “Nah, couldn't happen. Right?” She looked over to Twilight, her expression now matching Rainbow's. “Can they break?”
“I don't think so.” Twilight responded, still reading the collection of scrolls in front of her. “I don't even think they can be lost. At least not for very long. Nightmare Moon thought she'd shattered them, but we were able to bring them back whole and complete again,” she looked up, “and Discord was defeated by them once. He had the opportunity to destroy them when he came back, but he hid them instead, and not very far away. When the Elements were shattered, we felt it, right?”
Pinkie Pie's head erupted from a pile of fabric. “RIGHT!” she exclaimed. “It felt like a pinchy in my chest! But when they were revived it went away!”
Twilight nodded. “The Elements are as much us as they are themselves. I think when they're missing or damaged or in any real danger, we notice. That's why Discord couldn't risk being too drastic with them. It's entirely possible that should the elements be destroyed, they just come right back to their owners, which was the last thing he wanted.”
Twilight shuffled her small assortment of literature, grabbing the Elements of Harmony reference guide.
“What I've read in here suggests much the same thing. The Elements are eternal. Whatever happened to Magic and Generosity, it wasn't catastrophic, and they're probably not too far away.”
“But I searched the entire wreck, Twilight!” Spike insisted, just as he came through the front door. “Honest, they're not there!”
“I believe you, Spike,” the purple unicorn replied, and put a reassuring hoof on her smaller protege. “Somehow they must have gotten scattered when the magic dissipated. But they can't be far!”
Fluttershy had arrived behind Spike, and spoke up, or rather, did what amounted to Fluttershy speaking up. “Um… just how far is… far?” she asked meekly.
Twilight pondered. “I Imagine Discord would have hidden them as far away from us as he could without the magic alerting us, so he could buy himself extra time while we went back and forth. We were in the palace maze while the Elements were here in Ponyville, so I guess they could be anywhere between...” she sighed, slumping in her chair, “here and Canterlot.”
“Oh you're kiiiiidding,” Rainbow groaned. “Do you have any idea how much ground that is?!”
Applejack shot the pegasus a glare. “What are you worried about?” she asked. “Ain't you the one always braggin’ about racing back and forth to Canterlot faster than any pony ever?”
Rainbow met her stare with indignation. “That's a straight line, treehugger,” she countered. “You've never had to do a search and rescue before. You can't just go back and forth, you have to cover everything. In every direction! It takes every pegasus on the weather team just to check the local landscape for fillies when they go missing, let alone a few pieces of jewelry between here and Canterlot.”
Rarity had taken a moment to turn from her work and listen, and chose then to chime in. “Do you think it can be done at all?” she asked hopefully, and Rainbow bit her lip.
“Honestly? No. Not the way we normally do it. We just plain don't have enough ponies. Especially with no idea where to start looking. It’s one thing with lost fillies, ‘cause they want to be found. They move out into open areas and leave trails and tracks and stuff. But a crown? A necklace? It could be anywhere. In a ditch, up a tree, stuck under a bush. That magic tornado thingy was moving reeeeally fast. If it chucked them somewhere...” she shrugged helplessly, “Without some sort of magic finding device or something, we're really just flying around and hoping it catches the light.”
Twilight's spirits drooped, and she sank back into Rarity's padded cushions. Rainbow was right. Without something that could track them, finding the missing Elements would be a foal's errand.
Track… them...
“The other Elements!” Twilight exclaimed as she sat bolt upright. Her sudden movement caused Pinkie Pie to fall out of the makeshift fabric fort she'd constructed and hit the ground with a thud. Rarity, under normal circumstances, would have scolded her, but she was currently enthused with the emotions of revelation Twilight was feeling.
“What about them, sugercube?” Applejack asked, stepping forward to listen.
“The Elements attract each other!” Twilight explained, “Rarity and I noticed it earlier today. Normally I wouldn't think it was strong enough to help, but that resonance thing we did isn't supposed to be anywhere near as dangerous as it turned out to be. I'll bet that if we focus on using the Elements to find each other, they'll respond to our desire the same way they did earlier today!”
“They responded to our desire by destroying your house, Twilight.” Rarity said flatly.
“Does anypony else think all this stuff about resonating together and responding to desires is sounding juuuuusssst a little...” Rainbow ventured, before every other pony in the room shot her a disparaging look. “Right, sorry,” she finished meekly.
Spike leaned over with a hand to his mouth and whispered, “Relax, sister. I said the saaaame thing.”
“I know, I know, but think about what we were doing,” Twilight continued, “We were thrumming with them, it’s-” she stopped to address Applejack's look, which now rather mirrored Rainbow's upon hearing the word “thrumming”, and sighed with ever increasing exasperation. “IT’S A MAGICAL EXERCISE. It’s untargeted magical conjuring. I think the lack of a target was what caused all the trouble. Every time we've used the Elements, its been as a focus for our attack against some sort of enemy. Without anything to focus on, the power just… bloomed out of control!”
“It didn't feel very out of control while it was happening,” Rarity mentioned, rather hoping it could be explained.
Twilight found she didn't have an explanation to provide, and brooded in her seat. “I still think it will work. I just wish the Princess would write back to me already. She's not usually this late!” Twilight squirmed, and caught the slightest hint of enamored amusement filtering in from Rarity. She looked up at the other unicorn, who promptly covered her mouth with a hoof and restrained her laughter.
“Sorry, sorry Twilight, it’s just… you know how we did this to begin with so you might be able to look at your magic from the outside?”
“Yeah?” Twilight replied cautiously.
“Well I am,” said Rarity, “and I don't think you've ever realized just how… dramatic… you can be.”
Twilight blinked, and raised a hoof in disbelief. “YOU'RE calling ME dramatic?!”.
“Of course,” said Rarity matter-of-factually, “I'm an authority on drama.”
“She does have a point there,” Applejack muttered, but faced Rarity as she did so. “Nonetheless, you do seem to be takin’ this rather well, for somepony that spends most of her time obsessin’ over every little thing. I'd think havin’ Twilight cluttering up yer head would drive you nuts.”
“I,” Rarity declared, “am an ar-teest. I am awash with creativity. Instilled with inspiration. Brimming with bounteous brilliance!” she flourished her tail, then sighed. “In short,” she concluded, “I'm rather used to listening to random voices in my head. Twilight will figure out a way to fix us. She always does. In the meantime,” Rarity walked over to one of her many ponyquins, “I shall treat the situation as an opportunity! Twilight is a dear friend, I'm sure with her mentality helping me, I'll create some amazing designs!”
“Like… this… amazing design?” Fluttershy asked, pointing to a piece of paper on Rarity's desk. Rarity glanced over and nodded.
“Yes! I designed that this afternoon, with my link to Twilight serving as a muse. See? Productivity abounds!”
Fluttershy had bitten her lip, and Applejack had walked over to inspect it. The earth pony cocked her head sideways one way, than the next, and finally looked to Rarity.
“That,” she said flatly, “is awful.”
Rarity blinked. “Wha? Oh come on Applejack, what do you know about fashi-BY CELESTIA!” She'd approached the desk for a second time, and inspected the drawing herself, “THAT'S AWFUL!”
“Eeyup.”
“What was I thinking!?” Rarity seemed unwilling to touch the drawing, as though contact with it might taint her somehow. “Twilight has no fashion sense at all! If this is what I design with her floating around in my head I'll be ruined in under a week!”
“Really? Come on, it's not bad… I like it,” Twilight said with a pout, looking at the drawing. It was a little odd to speak in one's own defense based on something somepony else had done, but she felt the need to nonetheless.
“Twilight,” Rarity insisted, pointing her hoof at the paper, “this is a level of hideous that is only curable with flame. You simply MUST find a way to fix us or-” her speech was cut short by the emotional echo in her head that suddenly radiated between her and Twilight. When the purple unicorn had stepped up to see the picture, she'd crossed into the closer range of the link. Rarity's exasperation and panic rippled through Twilight, back into Rarity, and back again to Twilight in a mounting loop of feedback that drove both their heart rate's through the roof and brought them to their knees.
“Wooooaaah nelly,” Applejack said, and took hold of Twilight's tail in her mouth to yank her back beyond the ten foot line. Once separated, both ponies could catch their breaths as the emotional cascade subsided. The feeling itself had been awful, a mounting rush of never ending anxiety that set Twilight's teeth on edge. But the sheer intensity of the emotional feedback had been beyond any single feeling either pony had ever felt (at least, in regards to bad dress designs, certainly). It left both of them panting, riding the tail end of an adrenaline rush that made both unicorns break into a case of the giggles.
“Th… that.. that right there is a pretty good reason for getting this fixed all on its own,” Twilight stammered when her head had cleared enough to allow it. “It’s going to be awfully hard to do anything together if Rarity and I have to keep a ten foot minimum safe distance from each other.” She felt a flutter of agreement from within the link, Rarity chiming in likewise.
“So we should go with the Elements plan then?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Ahhh, ah ah,” Rarity cautioned, “not in here we're not. And not in Ponyville. I'm not losing my home to another freak accident. We shall travel outside and attempt it someplace clear and open.”
“The hills outside Ponyville go on for a while,” Rainbow suggested. “Unless this screw up ends up even bigger than the last one, we should be pretty safe out there.”
Twilight took exception to the term 'screw up', but held her tongue. From within, she could feel Rarity pass her a genuinely sympathetic feeling, and she felt her mood brighten. It was such a simple thing, but Twilight realized that, for the first time, someone could say 'I know how you feel' and actually know how she felt. There was something rather wonderful about that.
Of course, it had also occurred to Twilight that if they couldn't get this fixed, she was going to know how a LOT of things felt that she was likely better off not knowing at all. There were times when every pony wanted a little privacy, and those times were going to prove more than a little awkward with what amounted to a psychic head floating over her shoulder. The magically inclined mare said a silent thank you to the powers that be that she didn't currently need to go to the bathroom.
“Still nothing?” Twilight asked Spike.
.
The small dragon shook his head. “I sent the second letter three hours ago,” he replied. “She hasn't responded to either. I mean, she might be busy and all, but this is unusual for her, Twilight.” He rubbed his hands together. “I'm worried.”
Twilight draped her tail over Spike to comfort him as she and the others made their way out of Ponyville and into the hills nearby, where Rainbow did a lot of her time trials. It was open country out here, with nothing to stop the speedy pegasus from cutting loose and going full-tilt while she practiced. With the sun now set, the hills shined silver with moonlight and the breeze made the tall grass play in waves. Twilight had always treasured the view; she could see it from her bedroom window. Could, anyway, back when she'd had a bedroom. Regret twinged inside her. She'd never realized just how much she'd loved that tree. She stuffed the feeling down before Rarity could pick up on it, but was unsuccessful. Rarity, however, had noticed not only the regret, but the attempt to hide it, and did her best to avoid any obvious reactions. If Twilight was endeavoring to spare her friend from enduring her guilt, Rarity would at least pretend the attempt was working.
“This is as good a spot as any,” Rainbow declared as they arrived on a hilltop.
Applejack had been carrying the Elements in a saddlebag and opened it to allow each pony access to retrieve and don their corresponding object. The six then spread out far enough to allow Twilight and Rarity to stay outside their ten foot safe zone while still forming a circle, each pony looking across at another.
“So… what do we do?” Fluttershy asked, looking to Twilight for guidance. “We normally have the Element of Magic to coordinate everything.”
“We'll just have to do without,” Applejack said, giving Twilight a reassuring smile when the purple pony didn't provide an immediate answer. “Come on, y'all,” she continued, “just focus. These are our Elements, all we need to do is feel out where the other two are. Close your eyes and feel.”
All six ponies did as instructed, clearing their minds as best they could and looking to the Elements on their chests to guide them. Twilight could feel the gravity of power around her, pulling her inward as the other pony's necklaces began to drift forward, floating just off their bodies. Each individual stepped slowly toward their Elements when the gentle tug on their necks told them to do so. Rarity and Twilight's emotions began to intermingle excitedly. It was working! The Elements were calling to them. Excitement at a potential victory rushed through Rarity's body and leapt to Twilight's where it mingled and fed off her own, driving both ponies into a steadily increasing state of quivering anticipation that gradually cycled through various states of emotional being, becoming mutated and transformed as it surpassed states that could no longer contain its level.
What began as something akin to awaiting a birthday gift or receiving a surprise party had escalated into the tease of a lovers touch and upward still to the trembling, ragged edge of a withheld orgasm screaming desperately to be allowed. It was Twilight's innate recognition of something wrong that saved her from completely abandoning the task at hand and following the feeling to its conclusion when she realized that the only reason she should be feeling this so intensely is if she and Rarity had gotten too close to each other.
Her eyes opened, and locked on the light blues of the other unicorn standing not two inches away. Both ponies were panting deeply, with soft currents of steam rising off their bodies in the cool night air. They'd walked toward each other, unintentionally, and they were not alone. The other four ponies were right there with them, though in a considerably more composed state. They seemed unaware of the hormonal cascade that had just ravaged both unicorns. They had, however, come to a rather startling conclusion.
“The Elements aren't missing,” Pinkie Pie said suddenly, stepping back and pointing at the pair of them. “The Elements are YOU!”
Twilight and Rarity blinked, looking back behind themselves. Their cutie marks were glowing, matching hue and brightness with the stones around each other pony's necks.
“She’s right.” Twilight said, only barely believing it herself. “We were all pulled forward toward each other. Somehow, when the energy dissipated, the stones, and the Elements, were pulled IN to us!”
By now, Rarity had paced backward far enough to clear her from the feedback loop, but the effects still had her brain a little addled. She felt annoyed at having been cheated out of a very pleasant experience by bad timing. Worse still she felt annoyed at her annoyance, which was entirely uncalled for. This time, it was Twilight's turn to pass her friend a sympathetic feeling. Rarity had to force herself not to make a spiteful retort. A few too many feelings had been passed back and forth today. That, or not enough.
“But… what does that mean?” Rainbow asked. “If YOU are the Element, how do you use it to fix this thing with you and Rarity?”
Twilight bit her lip, trying to defog her thinking. “I… I don't know.”
The gravity of the admission was muted by a crack in the sky and a sudden rush of air and streaming moonlight. A black shape with a shimmering, night sky mane plummeted at frightening speed from a teleport tunnel in the sky, landing with strength and authority on the grass. When the tunnel flickered, the light caught the sleek lines and powerful shape of a creature that, for a thousand years, had been used by parents as a means to frighten foals into compliance under threat of death by devouring. Tonight, however, the only thing Twilight felt was relief. Help was here.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE,” came a voice that could only belong to the Mistress of the Moon herself.
“Princess Luna! Oh are we glad to see you-”
“THEE AND THINE SHALL ACCOMPANY ME TO CANTERLOT ON A MISSION OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE,” Luna continued, drowning Twilight out. Her eyes were hard, and her stance was firm. Something was wrong, Twilight could see it in the way Luna's mane flickered. The unicorn stepped forward.
“Luna,” she asked softly, using her tone and demeanor to remind the princess that they had established a casual friendship. Luna rarely needed reminding. To resort back to the royal Canterlot voice meant something had unnerved her badly. “What's wrong?”
Luna's lip quivered, and Twilight could see a shimmer of liquid in her eyes. “It’s Celestia, Twilight...” Luna said softly. “Something has taken my sister.”