I could see lights in the distance as we approached the outskirts of town. We pulled off our disguises and set them in the back of the car. Huge spot lights scanned the overcast skies above. Just over the circus, the clouds seemed to be darker. As one of the spotlights illuminated them, I could tell they were pink, animated clouds like out of one of the episodes of the show. "Looks like Discord might already be here. Look, above the circus." I say, pointing to the clouds. "Are those clouds pink?" asked Sam. "Cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate. One of Discord's favorite 'improvements'." Twilight said, her voice icy with determination.
"Why would he go to such great lengths to draw attention to himself?" I asked. "Maybe he knows we're coming. This could all be a trap!" Leena answered. "We could try to find one of the other elements first. Maybe skip the carnival and come back?" Sam said nervously. "Those lights are going to attract people. We're the only ones who can stop Discord. We have to protect those people." Twilight answered. "You're... you're right." I say in a reluctant tone. I looked at Leena. She was actually enjoying being a pony. This was all still so weird. Part of me just wanted everything to go back to the way they were, wake up in my apartment and have My Little Pony going back to being a cartoon. But I knew there was no going back. What was going to happen to me and Leena? Would we be ponies forever? All I could do was stare at the pink clouds as we approached the fairground's parking lot.
"What are we going to do about Rarity? We can't leave her here alone." Leena said as we parked and got out. "One of us should stay here with her. One of us with one of the Elements in case Discord shows up." Twilight said. "I could stay with her." Leena volunteered. There was no way I was leaving Leena alone in the middle of a parking lot in broad daylight with a magic-powered madman on the loose. "No, I'm not leaving you here alone Leena." "Nathan we can't just leave Rarity without someone to watch her." Twilight interjects. "I'm not going to risk leaving Leena alone when Discord could show up." "Nathan, it's okay I have this." She says, jingling her element on her left foreleg. "That's not enough Leena. You don't even know how to use that thing and they do CRAZY things, believe me." I said, remembering the car ride to her apartment that nearly gave me a heart attack. "What do you want us to do? We can't carry her." Leena says back. "I could park her in a safe place and stay here myself." Sam says. "You won't be able to do anything against Discord's magic Sam. You need something to defend yourself with." Twilight answers. "What about these?" Sam says, brandishing his bare hands. "I bet I could take him on by myself if I had to!" "He's not going to fist fight you Sam. If anything, he'll hypnotize you into driving off a cliff or something." Leena says. "I don't care what we do but I'm not leaving you alone Leena." "Nathan..."
"May I ask something?" we all turn back to the car. "Where are we?" Rarity asks, looking out the window. "I guess that solves that." Sam says. "Oh, Rarity thank Celestia you're okay!" Twilight says as she opens the car door with her magic. "We're at the fairgrounds Rarity. We were worried about leaving you here alone in the car while we went looking for the element." "Well, I do appreciate the consideration but I assure you I'm fine. A little shaken but fine. Are those clouds pink?" Rarity asks. "Yeah. Discord must be in there waiting for us." "I see. It is unfortunate our disguises fell apart or we could get the drop on him." "We're going to get the drop on him all right. Let's get going everypony." Twilight says, walking to the main gates of the fairgrounds. "Everypony! This is so awesome!" Sam exclaimed. "Should we hide the car or something in case those gaurds from the mall gave the description of your car to the police?" "Nah, it'll be fine. C'mon, we've got a villain to take down." Sam said. Despite having just joined us, he was already enthusiastic about being here. Just then I thought about my car, still parked in the street. Couldn't worry about anything now. We had to find the next element. We all knew Discord wasn't going to stop with pink clouds.
"So how are we going to find the Element in there?" Sam asked. "I could use a spell on your Elements that makes them react in the presence of the other ones." Twilight says. "We're not splitting up to go look for it. I'm staying with Leena." "Ugh, Nathan I'm going to be fine." "It'll be all right, actually it should make the spell stronger if the two Elements are closer together. Leena and I held out our Elements and Twilight cast the magic upon them. They glowed hot and bright for a moment and then pulsed with a purple aura. "Okay. When we get close to the next Element, it should get brighter." Twilight explained. "Now all we have to do is get close to them."
The gates were wide open and no one was taking tickets. There didn't seem to be anyone around despite the fact there were a few cars in the parking lot. We all stepped through the turnstyles and into the main road into the fairgrounds. Booths with carnival games were on either side of us, kiosks in the middle held other items, information and games themselves. Straight ahead were amusement park rides, a rollercoaster, ferris wheel, the classic setup. The path forked in the middle of a park area with benches. To the right were smaller rides that led up to the circus tents in the back. To the left were other attractions and games that led up to the funhouse, tunnel of love and haunted house in the back. Twilight and Rarity were completely enamoured by what they saw but I kept my eyes out for anything that looked like jewelry. We still didn't see any people. There was a fork in the road turned right, heading down the same route Leena and I had taken when we came here during our first date. "Nathan are you mimicing the same path we took on purpose?" Leena asked sweetly. "Maybe..." I said bashfully. Only this time we didn't stop for anything.
"Oh dear goodness... it's, it's me!" Rarity exlaimed. We turned to see her running over to a game booth that gave out My Little Pony plushies as prizes. Rarity was immediately captivated by the giant piece of fluff shaped in her likeness. She used her magic to left it off its shelf and examine it in mid air. "It... it's me! I... I don't know what to say... there's so many of them! Look, there's Rainbow Dash, oh and you Twilight! And Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, oh this is too much!" "Oh wow! It there are dolls of us!" Twilight said, walking over. "I forgot to mention, your show is really popular. You and all your friends from Equestria are, well, famous." I said, remembering that I too am a fan. "Yeah. Check out my t-shirt. Twenty percent cooler oh yeah!" Twilight and Rarity looked puzzled at Sam. "What is a 'tea-shirt'? A garmant one wears for tea?" "Uh, no it's just a shirt or something I guess. I've never really thought about it really." "What does twenty percent cooler mean?" "It's from the show! When you were making Rainbow Dash's dress and she said it needed to be about twenty percent cooler! That line became famous!" Sam explained. "I think I do remember that. Interesting... and you, humans I mean, you put trendy phrases on these tea-shirts?" Rarity asked. "Well, yeah." Sam answers. "Very interesting. I wonder if I could put some trendy sayings on my own designs in Ponyville." Rarity pondered. "Well, a t-shirt isn't really formal, it's more for comfort than anything else." "I see." Rarity says. "Um, guys? We're looking for magical artifacts, not clothes. Let's get moving." Twilight refocuses the group. Rarity took one last look at the fluffy little doll and set it back down on its shelf, brushing its mane a few times before leaving.
We approached the tunnel of love, a simpler more romantic ride where couples sat in small boats and traveled down a heart-shaped corridor while sappy music played and bubbles fell from the ceiling. The ride was supposed to be romantic but really it was a scam to sell pictures to young couples for extravagant prices. Taking Leena on it for our first date had been a move many considered forward but after dunking the clown that evening, I'd felt confident enough to pay twenty dollars for a couple tickets. The picture that had been taken at the end of it was still in my wallet.
"You think it's in the tunnel of love Nathan?" Leena asked playfully. "Well... let's find out." I said. "Oh yes!" Leena said, trotting off. "Wait a minute, what would the element be doing in there?"Sam asked skeptically. But Leena was already galloping toward the ride with Twilight and Rarity quickly following her. "You never know. Maybe someone was wearing it and they lost it on the ride." I said to him over my shoulder as a race to catch up to Leena. She quickly runs up to the terminal and starts the ride, the tunnel lighting up and sappy music playing. We all hope into one of the boats, a tight fit but we're able to manage. The ride starts and the boat heads inside.
I look at the element on my foreleg and so no reaction. Leena was snuggled up next to me though as bubbles began to descend from the ceiling. So for a few minutes at least, I decided to forget about the circumstances we were in. Behind us, Rarity was still fascinated with Sam's shirt. "I could bring the thrill of tea-shirts to Ponyville! This could revolutionize fashion all over Equestria! Do you have any other patterns in your wardrobe I could examine Sam?" "Uh, I really wouldn't call it a wardrobe, I mean, I just-" "Oh don't be modest! You must be at the height of fashion!" "It's just a shirt..." Sam tries to explain. Twilight seemed to be ignoring them, looking quite enamoured at the bubbles.
"Oh Nathan can we get a picture? That way we'll have one of us as humans and one of us as ponies!" "Do we really need to? It takes so much time." I say, trying to disuade her. "But Nathan I want us to remember being ponies!" She begs. "I just want to get us back to human and then forget I was ever a pony." "What's wrong Nathan?" "Nothing, it's just I really hope we can just find all the Elements and everything will just go back to normal." "Nathan, what if we don't get back to normal?" The question shocks me. "What if? That's why we're looking for the Elements, to get things back to normal!" "Nathan, we just found out that My Little Pony is REAL. We just got turned into ponies, I mean, seriously does that not just blow your mind?!" "It does but... but we can't stay like this forever." I say, not believing what she's saying. "What's so bad about it Nathan?" "What's so bad about it? I can't drive, I can't open doors, I can't use a phone, I can't do anything for myself." "But we have each other... isn't that enough?" She looks up at me, her eyes watering. "It... it is but I... I can't believe what you're saying." "Why not?" "Are you not happy with what we had? I want that back. Everything was so perfect and-" "Nathan, sometimes you just have to take what life gives you. Maybe I'm happy being a pony."
"Wait... so you don't want to go back?" "Why would I?" "Are you even listening to yourself? We won't be able to do anything in this world, people will want to lock us up, study us, experiment on us. We're not going to be able to see our friends and families. This just isn't normal Leena!" "Who cares if its normal or not Nathan? We've got each other here and now, that's what's important. We'll find a way to explain it to our friends." "What are other people going to say? I won't be able to get a job, you're not going to be able to go to school." "Since when have you cared about what other people say? You weren't ever ashamed of being a brony, now you're a pony and things are suddenly different?" "I didn't have people aiming guns at me because I liked a cartoon." The ride ended abruptly. Twilight, Rarity and Sam were silent in the back, trying not to listen.
Leena got out immediately, not even bothering with the picture automatically taken during the ride. She turned to me, "People thought you were weird for liking My Little Pony before Nathan. Now that you actually are a pony, the only thing that's changed is how they react. But you didn't care about their reactions before. Why care now?" "Because they didn't want to capture me and study me back then. They think we're that strange." "We don't know how people are going to react. But we're together. That should be enough for us to just take a chance. Normal is what you make of it anyways." she said as she trotted away. "She's got a point dude." Sam said as he passed us. "Yeah, say that again when animal control specialists are pointing rifles at you." "Really, that dart didn't phase me at all Nathan and with all the excitement I may have needed the rest honestly!" Rarity says as she passes. "I really don't think they were going to get that worked over seeing a few ponies Nathan." Twilight says as she too trots past me. "Hey, you don't know what these people are like." "I know you, Leena and Sam, so at least there's some good people. And I believe that everypony has the potential for good. That's good enough for me." Twilight says, looking over her shoulder. "Hey, guys wait up!" I shout as the group that has just gone past me is now heading for the circus tents on the other end of the fairgrounds. I looked at the bracelet attatched to my arm and then at the pink clouds overhead. Getting back to being human again wasn't the only reason I wanted to find those Elements.