Twilight was just having a fine first day in Ponyville, and it just had to be ruined. After Nightmare Moon announced her presence, Twilight was determined to solve the problem by looking for the Elements of Harmony. Unfortunately, fate had determined their display of the exact elements to be worrying. The Lord of Chaos had decided to play a little Dungeons and Discord, and Twilight had rolled a 1. The worst possible result. Of course, he still wanted her to succeed. But he wanted it to be as bad as possible. So he furrowed his brow, smirked at some ideas, and laughed a crazy laugh as he thought of the perfect ruining of her defeat of Nightmare Moon.
In the dark forest, Applejack had Twilight by the edge of the cliff, unable to pull her up. "I'm just being honest, let go and you'll be safe." She reassured. But her honestly combined with bad luck combined found herself speaking additional nonsense out of nervousness. "I... I know what this looks like. 'Long live the king' and all from that famous animated movie. But I'm definitely no Scar and you're not even a king. I mean, you might be the princess of friendship one day, but... Gah! What in tarnation am I saying?"
As Twilight followed suit and was rescued by Dash and Fluttershy, she raised her eyebrow in confusion. Honesty was good and all, but... surely there was a limit? Was Applejack really fit for the element of harmony? How did Applejack even know what the "princess of friendship" was? This was becoming maddening. Twilight shook it off, determined to go on.
They continued onwards to meet the manticore. With the thorn in its paw revealed to Fluttershy, she kindly took care of the animal. But her eyes felt strange as she gave in to her personality. Nopony could even think some pony could be "too kind" until now. She asserted that she must ensure the manticore will not have any more harm come in its way. So she brought along the uncertain creature with the party. And Twilight was astonished once more, rolling her eyes. This was truly getting absurd.
The dangerous trees were up next. As Pinkie laughed at them, assuring that mere optimism could solve the problem, despite even the manticore showing fear, the mane six found that Pinkie's element of laughter was fantastic. But once again Pinkie's humor became overwhelming. She continued to make annoying and silly jokes one after another. She was on a roll. Her pranks were now slowing down the journey and she was showing off unnecessarily. She even looked you, reader, right in the eye, to ensure the joke was successful. Despite Dash's laughing with Pinkie, Twilight sighed, now finding it truly absurd that half of her friends' "elements" were starting to feel like more of a hassle than anything else. She only hoped the other half were better.
They were not.
As Rarity found herself face to face with the sea serpent who desperately needed a mustache, she felt unnaturally generous today. It had been such a great day after all. They rescued Twilight, a manticore, and got past the scary trees. After offering her own tail, her eyes went wide with madness, trying to look for diamonds, mascara, and more outfits to make for the serpent. Needless to say the serpent was mildly uncomfortable and weirded out. It was only with Twilight's interruption that they made it past the sea. What nonsense, Twilight thought.
Dash was next, up against the shadow bolts. At first she held true to her loyalty to her new found friends. But then her other side of loyalty also shone through. She struggled immensely against herself. Just how well did she really know Twilight and the gang? Was the obligation towards these nearly strangers matching up to her obligation towards her dream? Indeed, loyalty against loyalty battled, as Twilight face palmed at another stupid situation. As the other mane four tried to sway Dash over, Dash reluctantly obliged and turned down the shadow bolts as she originally did. But as the dreamy look stayed in her eyes, Twilight was really in doubt now, just what kind of loyalty this was.
As Twilight and her friends rushed into the final hall where Nightmare Moon proclaimed her rule, Twilight announced that they had the element of magic needed to defeat her. As the rainbow shockwave hit Luna, she screamed against the intensity of the magic. The wall behind her exploded. The forest behind was now on fire. And... did she even hit the next town over? She heard a shout as a resident ran out of their home. The manticore winced at the blinding light. Oops. Looks like she over did it.
With Luna now redeemed and the day saved, Celestia congratulated the mane six on the work they did. While they accepted eagerly, as soon as they were out of the castle Twilight couldn't help but speak her worries. "What is wrong with you five! Like seriously, I know you're all element of harmony, but, I didn't expect you to be this ... true to your elements!"
"Oh come on, we were awesome just now!" Dash said, punching left and right, though still remembering seeing the shadow bolts' mighty image. "Let's worry about that later!"
Twilight bonked her head with her hoof, annoyed at how lightly this was going to be taken. In the mean time, somewhere in the distance, the spirit of chaos laughed at glee at how chaotic this success had been. Who could know, that instead of reversing the elements, making them even stronger would still yet be a handicap, and be harder to notice? "Ohohoho!" Discord clapped his hands, tears in his eyes.
In the mean time, Spike looked disappointed, crossing his arms while listening to Discord's warping of the tale. "Why am I not in the story, Discord?! You know, I helped contribute a little as well."
"Oh, don't worry," Discord said, "There's more to that later... perhaps let's see if we can roll another 1 in 'Secret of my Excess'." Spike smirked along with him, knowing that too much generosity would lead to much disarray...