The screaming train and it's mimicking riders landed perfectly on the tracks at the Canterlot train station, letting it to come to a slow stop at it's designated location. A small bell chimed from inside the cart and the doors poured open, allowing the group to pile out and hug the ground for safety.
"Thank you for riding Chaos Airlines." Discord said in a forced, female voice. "We hope you vote for us to win this years 'most traumatizing experience' award at the new daily Chaos Competitions!"
"That was fun!" Pinkie giggled as she hopped out of the cart with Caboose, passing by the shaking mares and stallions.
"I know!" Caboose laughed, looking upon those that were now getting off the ground. "Do you guys want to go again?"
"No!" The others yelled in unison.
"You're right, the lineup is probably really long anyways." Caboose nodded despondently.
"Yes, Caboose, that is the only reason we're not doing that again." Church said acrimoniously.
"Come on, you guys. We need to get going." Twilight said as she ran into Canterlot with the other Elements. "Rainbow Dash, you scour the skies and see if there is anything that would intercept us, we'll adjust our path accordingly to avoid being slowed any further. Take Tucker too, he has pretty good eyesight."
"On it!" Rainbow Dash said with a salute, then grabbed Tucker by the scruff of his neck and zipped upwards.
"The rest of you, if we run past any citizens who are under duress, help them by doing a bit of damage control."
"But what if I damage my-"
"Rarity, nobody gives a damn about your hooficure, just do it." Grif muttered sickly, flapping his wings lightly to hover above the ground.
"He moves fast when he's under discomfort." Rarity pouted as she followed the others towards their goal.
"Heh, that he does." Sarge chuckled.
While the others ran ahead, Caboose stopped after a few seconds and turned back to look at the ticket collector.
"What are you staring at?" Stubbs asked curiously.
"Can you save me a seat for when we come back? I want to be in the front row!" Caboose told Stubbs, who then glared at Caboose as harshly as he could and slammed the train door shut. "Thank you!"
After Caboose caught up with the group, Rainbow Dash flew down with Tucker and nodded their heads at her, telling her that the way was clear. Rainbow Dash smirked and returned to the skies, followed by a slightly reluctant Tucker. Both surprisingly and expectantly, the way to the Elements was completely clear, and all the ponies they ran by seemed to only have problems they could sort by themselves. Once they reached the building that held the amulets and tiara, they burst through the door and looked around, still expecting the jewelry to be elsewhere.
"They're still here." Fluttershy said quietly as she walked up to her necklace.
"Maybe they're fake." Rainbow Dash suggested, grabbing hers to examine it. "Looks fake to me..."
"I apologize for being brash, but that is because you don't know what you're doing." Rarity sighed, grabbing Rainbow Dash's necklace. She pressed her eyes up against it and held it up to use the light coming in through the window to help her. "These appear to be the real deal, unless Discord found or made some that look remarkably like them."
"Guys, while we get these distributed, you look around to see if there are any others in here." Twilight said as she grabbed her tiara. "He said they were where we left them, but he could have just been referring to the building."
"Right." The guys nodded in unison and went to the separate corners of the room, checking underneath anything and everything they could lift off the ground.
"You guys find anything?" Simmons asked.
"Nope." Tucker replied.
"Zilcho in the best corner." Sarge said.
"Nothing here." Church sighed.
"Ain't found shit." Grif mumbled as he kicked over a potted plant.
"I found a rock!" Caboose exclaimed happily. "It has a happy face painted on it!"
"Same here. I mean, I didn't find anything either. I didn't get a pet rock." Simmons said quietly. "It's not like I wanted one..."
"This place have a basement?" Church asked as he looked up to the ceiling, making sure they weren't hanging from anything above them.
"I don't think so." Twilight said as she nodded at the others.
"Guess those are the real deal then." Church said slowly, squinting at them. "I wonder what he would do if we just didn't show up?"
"Probably just keep doin' what he's doin' until we did." Applejack grunted as she walked towards the door. "Ah'd much prefer it if he hid 'em. Feels like we're just walkin' right on into a trap..."
"It's supposed to. This guy seems to want to break us down, make us be suspicious of everyone and everything. Including each other." Tex sighed, pushing ahead of them. "We just have to trigger his trap and trust each other to get out of it."
"I don't feel comfortable talking about another dude's trap." Tucker said quietly, coyly slinking towards Rainbow Dash. "You, on the other hand-"
"Hoof." Rainbow Dash smirked.
"Whatever."
"We should call it an ambush." Caboose said quietly.
"Guys!" Church yelled in frustration. "Can we please just focus? We know it's a trick, trap, ambush, or whatever the hell else you want to call it. So let's just keep our heads down, stay quiet and be ready for anything, okay?"
"Sounds like a plan, Blue." Sarge muttered reluctantly. "I still think my plan is better."
"If worse comes to worse we'll use Grif as a distraction, okay?"
"Okay." Sarge nodded.
"Oh, fuck you guys." Grif mumbled, still a little on the green side from the not-so-treat he had earlier. "I'll probably die from food poisoning soon anyways."
"Quit whining, you'll just sleep it off tonight anyways."
"Yeah, but I wish I could just sleep it off now..."
The mares and stallions stopped talking as they made their way to the throne room, checking around every corner in case something would happen, knowing in their hearts that nothing would. When they entered the castle, they were greeted by a guard trapped in chocolate, hole in front of his mouth to allow him the grace of air needed to survive. Caboose stopped by the guard and opened his mouth over his flank.
"Bad, Caboose! No!" Church yelped fearfully, pushing Caboose away from the candy coated consort. "What have I told you time and time again?"
"People aren't food." Caboose said sadly.
"Exactly." Church smiled, breaking a piece of chocolate off of the guards ear to toss to Caboose. "You okay in there?"
"I-I think so." The guard said, trying to nod through his prison. "I-it all happened so fast! One moment the Princess went to attend matters in Ponyville, the next thing I know-"
"You got trapped in chocolate." Twilight said quietly, breaking the chocolate off of his eyes.
"Mine!" Pinkie yelled, jumping at Twilight, snatching the chocolate with her mouth.
"Did you see anything before it happened?" Twilight asked, walking in front of him.
"Twilight, thank goodness it's you!" The guard said happily, instantly recognizing the Element of Harmony and student of the Princess. "I saw him when he walked in through the front door, but I've just been standing here for an hour, unable to move."
"Was anypony with him?" Twilight pressed lightly, wanting more information on Discord's backup.
"No, it was just him. But he did say to let anybody in." The guard sighed. "Not like I could do anything about it, though..."
"Thanks anyways." Twilight said, turning to the throne room. "Come on, it shouldn't take any longer than a minute to get there!"
Sarge began running with the others to face Discord, but stopped by the guard and kicked him in the side, shattering the chocolate mold around him.
"Thank you." The guard said thankfully. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"What, and abandon your post?" Sarge asked sternly. "Maybe I should tell your superiors about your lack of discipline..."
"No, sir! I'll stay at my post, sir! S-sorry sir!"
"Damn right you're sorry." Sarge grunted as he went to catch up with the others.
The Elements and the ones they were charged with watching burst through the door to the throne room, instantly looking around the room for anything off. The only thing that was off was a bar that was now located in front of one of the windows, along with Discord standing behind it, wearing dark sunglasses and a floral shirt while he mixed some drinks.
"Discord! Where are the Princesses?" Twilight growled, lowering her front half to point her horn at the creature sitting behind the light blue counter.
"Nuh-uh-uh. That would be telling." Discord tutted playfully as he poured the liquid in the container into some glasses. "Now come, why don't you have a seat and grab a drink? I offered the Princesses, but they shot me down. As to be expected from most mares, I suppose."
"Maybe this guy isn't so bad." Tucker smirked, instantly starting towards the bar, only to be stopped by Rainbow Dash biting onto his tail. "Why aren't you fun anymore?"
"Because this is serious." Rainbow Dash muttered, releasing his tail when he stopped trying to go to Discord.
"Pft, see what I mean? All mares do is ruin good old fashioned fun." Discord scowled, then poured one of the glasses into his mouth and lightly licked his lips. "Ah, heavenly. Are you sure I can't convince you all to just take a seat? I'm sure your morale will go down significantly pretty soon, so you might need a little boost."
"We're not interested. Girls!" Twilight called out.
The six Elements of Harmony formed a small circle in front of Discord and closed their eyes. They then began floating in the air, pieces of dust lifting up with them and slowly beginning to circle them, creating a small tornado of dust. The amulets that the girls wore each shot a beam of light into Twilight’s tiara. The tiara then began glowing a soft purple, but grew brighter and brighter with every second. A six stranded helix shot out of the Elements of Harmony, each one a different color. The rainbow helix then surged towards Discord, who was now covering his face. The helix then wrapped around the yelling Discord. As the light tightened around Discord and his screams died out, the girls relaxed slightly, but kept their gaze on it. The light suddenly stopped moving, then a small noise came from the inside, much like the sound of something hitting thin glass.
"I guess I should thank you for such a delightful light show, hm?" Discord asked with a small laugh as the light around him cracked and broke apart like a priceless vase, revealing his trademark fang which lead to his evil smirk.
"How?" Twilight asked quietly, voice filled with worry.
"I guess it's time to introduce my nefarious backup, hm?" Discord asked playfully as he snapped his claws, extinguishing all light in the room. "Let's see here... normally there would be seven, but I don't want this to be completely unfair, do I?"
"Oh no, I am blind!" Caboose yelled.
"Caboose." Church warned him quietly, then tried to adjust to the darkness, but it was so absolute that he couldn't make anything out. "Watch out guys, he might try to take us out one by one while we can't see."
"Please, violence is the most basic form of chaos, and I am far from basic. I prefer breaking ponies down." Discord said in an offended tone as a spotlight shot onto Tucker. "So let's get started, shall we? The first in our line up is this strangely colored, bluish-green pegasus. It has been said that statistically, stallions think about... naughty things... every seven seconds. While that might not be one hundred percent true, the fact that Tucker stops thinking about said naughty things for one second every six hours is! The lust in his loins outweighs my love for chaos twenty fold. And let me tell you, I love me my chaos."
"What?" Tucker asked, looking around him. "Where'd everybody go?"
"Please keep all questions until the end of the presentation, thank you." Discord mumbled and the light disappeared off of Tucker and reappeared on the war-loving stallion. "Next up there is the leader of the Red team. This one wants nothing but to be respected by others, and is willing to kill his own soldiers until they do! Let’s hear a round of applause for the pride loving Sarge! No?" Discord chuckled and a light appeared on the maroon tinged tailor. "Then how about Simmons? This stallion is always willing to work hard and often gets snappy when others get recognition. But how does he feel now that he is being treated as an equal? He is now envious of ponies who have things to work towards! But hold onto your hats, mares and gentelcolts, for the next stallion who represents sloth, ironically enough, also gets to be an absolute glutton." Discord said loudly, a soft, orange light surrounded the golden Pegasus. "Give it up for the double whammy, Grif!"
"What in Equestria is he going on about?" Rarity asked.
"Ah, thank you for reminding me, dear Rarity. We can’t we don’t want to discriminate against the girls, do we?" Discord asked himself and a light went over the skull flanked mare. "Well how about we throw in Agent Texas? This mare is willing to do almost everything for a buck as her greed leads her actions! And for out final act comes my personal favorite. This stallion is filled with so much hate, so much anger, so much mistrust that it makes me want to weep for him. He hates himself so much, in fact, that he cannot even trust the other parts that make up the real him. The ever wrathful Church!"
The lights above the Church disappeared and darkness enveloped the room once again. Then the lights began turning on one by one, all in a row, presenting the six that were called out once again.
"Tucker, the lusting libido. Sarge, the pride of the pack. Simmons, the envious individual. Grif, the slothful and gluttonous beast. Tex, the greedy mercenary. Church, the wrathful wraith. Together they make an unstoppable team, a team which is explosive towards each other, but cannot drag themselves away from each other. They are the only one who can counter the Elements of Harmony..." Discord howled with delight, clapping his claws together while everypony in the room's jaws dropped when the realization clicked. "Give it up for the Elements of Chaos!"