"I haven't noticed my bracelet reacting. Maybe the Element got moved somewhere." Leena says as we walk to the circus tents. "How close do we have to be before they give us a reaction Twilight?" I ask. "We shouldn't have to get that close, within a few meters would suffice I believe." As we get closer to the tents, I begin to hear voices like a crowd. "You guys hear that?" "Yeah." Leena answers. "It sounds like there's something going on." We turn the corner to the circus attractions area to see a crowd of people. "Get back, get back!" I usher the group. Carefully we all peak out from behind the stand near the opening to the area. I can see a crowd standing around one of those 'swing the mallet, ring the bell' style games. Simlpe mechanical device, supposedly an accurate indication of one's strength. Never really played any of these kinds of games, too much of a spectacle but it seems like that's all this crowd of people were interested in. Carefully, we creep closer.
"Let's see if this gentleman has what it takes ladies and gentlemen..." a bored voice announces. On small raised platform next to the game was a white haired man in a straw hat and jeweled red vest sitting in an armchair, holding his head in his hands and leaning forward. A man stood up to the game and swung the mallet, the blow causing the small peg in the machine to rise up and ring the bell at the top. "Uhhhhhg. Next!" the man shouted, sighing and wiping his face. He then snapped his fingers and the man who'd just rung the bell quickly turned around and stepped back into the crowd without saying a word. I looked at a few of the faces in the crowd. Eyes glazed over, unblinking. Standing transfixed by the spectacle of a bored man sitting in a chair. "Discord. He must have hypnotized them." I whispered. It had to be him. But what was he doing with these people? "Look! Up at that bell!" Twilight points. At the top of the machine, just under the bell I make out what looks to be an amulet of some kind. Like someone had strung a necklace around the bell. "That's the Element of Strength!" Twilight exclaims. "Are those more of the tea-shirts you were talking about?" Rarity asks, looking up. "Rarity, get down!" I say, trying to pull her back behind the stand. The man in chair looks up, noticing us finally.
"Is that Rarity?" the man asks, standing up and snapping his fingers. The crowd parts in an instant and the man's human appearance quickly changes into the fiendish form of the draconequus we knew only too well. " I just keep running into all the familiar faces today. Seems I can't go anywhere without seeing my old friends from Equestria." Discord says in an almost uncharacterstic threatening ton as he approaches us. Twilight and Rarity immediately exit from behind the stand, followed by Leena, Sam and then me. "" "Let these people go Discord. This is between you and us." Twilight declares. "And if it isn't Nathan Scheffield if I'm not mistaken. It took some time for that blast from the Element to wear off but I was able to manage." "Yeah, uh, well, let's see how long it takes for two to wear off!" I say, trying to be brave. Leena and I brandish our Elements together. Thunder cracks overhead and the pink clouds begin to rain chocolate. "You know your world is quite beautiful Nathan. So random, so unpredictable, so... chaotic. Even some of your own people actually embrace it. It's so much more diverse than what I'm used to seeing in Equestria." "You can be a stone statue here or in the Canterlot courtyard Discord but you're not getting the Elements." Twilight calls to the fiend.
"AhahahahahahahaHA!" Discord lauchs as a lightning bolt cracks overhead. "You got lucky the first time. That WON'T happen again. And once again, we're reached an impasse. You know what that means..." Discord snapped his fingers and instantly, the world around me changed. We were inside the big top, in the stands around the center ring. A spotlight was on Discord who was now sporting a ringmaster's attire in cartoon form. The hypnotized audience members filled the stands around us. Sam tried shaking the person next to him to snap him out of it, to no avail. "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Cirque du Chaos!" Discord announced. As he did, fireworks exploded in the background, showering the in more ways than one captive audience with fish. Sam shouted boo as the stands were bombarded with bass.
"And now for our main event!" Discord announced again and a spotlight appeared overhead, casting a beam on a birdcage descending from the ceiling on a chain made of daisies. As the cage drew closer to the floor, we saw a figure gripping the bars with two blue animated hooves. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight and Rarity shouted simultaneously as they saw their caged friend. "Let me outta here! Discord!!" Rainbow Dash shouted angrily ash she shook the bars. The cage stopped a few feet off the ground. Through the bars we were able to make out a small ball of animated yellow shaking in the center of the cage. "Fluttershy's in there too!" Leena shouted. "Let them go Discord!!" I shouted at the floating fiend.
"Oh I'll let them go." he said, hovering over to our section of the stands. "Only if you help me find the rest of the Elements of Heroism and activate them. If not..." Discord snapped his fingers and two spotlights casted beams on two cannons at the the side of the ring, both aimed directly at the caged pegasi. Discord flashed an evil grin. "You let the go RIGHT NOW!!" Leena shouted, standing and pointing at Discord. As she did, her Element of Honor glowed and shot out a bright yellow beam. Discord tried to dodge but it collided with his left arm. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed in pain as his left arm turned to stone. He fell down onto the stage, rolling through the audience, knocking people over until finally coming to a halt in a heap next to the center ring.
"Your Elements must respond to emotion just like the Elements of Harmony! That means you can use their power by focusing on strong thoughts and feelings!" Twilight explained. "Why didn't you tell us that before?!" Leena asked, clutching her Element. "I didn't get a chance to read much about them, I had no idea they'd work the same way!" Twilight said, looking at the Element. "So if we concentrate, we can use their magic?" I ask, looking at my own element. "Yes and the effect should be amplified by the strength of the emotion." Twilight said. We had Discord right where we wanted him. The audience members, still entranced stood where they had been knocked over, making a path that lead right to Discord. I climbed over the stands and made my way down to our foe who was still struggling to get up with only one working arm.
"So how about it now Discord? Let Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy go or the fairgrounds is going to have a art piece on display." I say over him. Slowly, Discord stands. "So that's how you want to play it eh? Fine. Let's play some carnival games." he says through gritted teeth. He makes his right arm a fist and his left arm begins to shake. The stone around it shatters into pieces. He snaps his fingers and again my vision twists. In an instant, the circus tent is gone. Leena, Twilight, Rarity and Sam are gone, so are the hypnotized audience members around us. I appear to be in a funhouse looking down a corridor of mirrors, the floor creaks under my hooves. I must be in the funhouse on the other side of the carnival.
I walk forward, having no other choice. I see my cartoon image distorted in several mirrors as I pass them by. The corridor turns and leads me into another hall of more mirrors. Suddenly, I notice my reflection replaced in the mirrors I'm passing by the familiar draconequus. I stop, he stops, mimicing me as good as my own reflection. I look him right in the eye and raise my Element of Luck right at him. "I know it's you Discord. What do you want? Where are the others?" "Why this is a carnival Nathan! The others are off having fun. No harm will come to any of them I assure you." "Right." I say, starting to walk again. "So is this the part where you try to turn me grey?" I ask the image in the mirror. "Turn grey? Whatever do you mean?" Discord asks, being coy. "Don't try to fool me. I've seen that episode before where you turn Twilight and her friends grey and their Elements lose their power." "Well aren't you the clever one." Discord says, hands on his hips floating down the corridor. "But I wonder how clever your friends are."
Discord's image fades and replacing it I see the a picture of Sam, holding some sort of mallet, trapped in some sort of giant whack-a-mole game. He swings and misses, turning to each new target, unable to make his hits find their mark. Another image appears, Leena in the tunnel of love again, only this time, holding her head down, covering her head with her hooves as laughing bubbles circle her. Next to that image, I see Twilight Sparkle on the rollercoaster, screaming as the ride goes upside down. And in a fourth image I see Rarity, desperately trying to win a carnival game where the player knocks over bottles. She uses her magic but can't see that the bottles are really just a cardboard cutout pasted to the wall.
"Leave them alone!!!" I shout at the mirrors, hitting them with my hoof. "Stop it! STOP IT!" The halls begin to fill with his meniacal laughter. I run from the images, down the halls, turning the corners, following the only path that's out. "What's the matter Nathan? You all knew the risk." His voice echoes and the images continue to play in every mirror, on every surface, everwhere I look. I turn another corner and stop with seven doors ahead of me. "You placed your girlfriend in danger Nathan. How could you?" "Shut up!" I yell at the walls. "You promised to keep her safe but you risked her safety didn't you?" "I... I had to." "You didn't have to involve her at all. You chose to." "I... I..." the room began to spin and I almost felt faint. The doors seemed to follow me whichever direction I turned. I couldn't shake it off. "You risked her safety Nathan and now she's paying for it." It was like his voice was whispering directly in my ears. "Sometimes the safest bet to make is to stop playing Nathan. There's no risk if you never take a chance." My legs buckled and I fell down on the floor in a heap.
I struggled to get up but my legs felt like jelly. I realize I was shaking. I struggled to speak. "I did. I risked her safety." "But I also risked my own safety. I placed myself in the same danger because... because I knew that I'd be stronger with her." Slowly, carefully, still shaking, I got up. "I didn't care what we faced so long as we did it side by side. And we have." The room stopped spinning, I felt feeling return to my body and the 'multiple doors' refocused in to just one, marked 'Exit'. I turned and looked at myself in the mirror. Same light tan coat. No grey. "Was that your plan? Get me to give up on ever taking a chance? Nice try but you're not getting the Elements." I say to the mirrors, turning back towards the exit. Discord materializes again, this time in the exit door. "You don't understand. Those Elements were mine to begin with!"
"What do you mean?" I ask the picture in the doorway. "Oh? Your precious little t.v show didn't tell you did it? The Elements of Heroism belong to me." "How do they belong to you?" "I wasn't always the fun-loving chaotic individual you know so well. A long time ago, I used the Elements of Heroism to vanquish a demon that threatened to destroy all of Equestria! After my victory, the citizens made me their ruler!" "Why didn't Twilight tell me this?" "You'd never find this story in any of those books of hers. Someone becomes a villain and they tend to forget about all the good you tried to do. Then when it comes time for some leniency, they turn you into a statue and set you up in the courtyard like a trophy." Discord finishes. "The point is, those elements are mine and I will have them." I raise my Element at him and try to focus on the moment when I protected Leena from him. "What are you doing? Wait!-" The element blasts out a ray of energy that collides with the door, blowing it off its hinges.
I carefully trot outside to see Discord hovering in midair, one of his antlers turned to stone. I raise the Element again, concentrating while he's off gaurd and it fires another blast, this time hitting his tail. He plummets to the ground with a screech. I turn around the back of the funhouse and head over to the tunnel of love to see Leena getting off the ride, still white but not grey thankfully. "Nathan!" she yells as we run over and embrace. "I'm so happy to see you!" I say, almost in tears. "Me too but we need to go find the others." "Twilight's on the rollercoaster and I think Sam and Rarity might be in the arcade." I tell Leena. "Okay, let's go!" We gallop off to the other side of the theme park as fast as we can. We arrive at the circus area to see, surprisingly Twilight and Sam, walking out of the rollercoaster and arcade respectively. "Guys, you're okay?" I ask as I trot up to greet them. "Yeah, no sweat. I needed a workout." Sam said, still holding the mallet I saw him with in the image. "I must say, whatever that 'ride' was it was exciting!" Twilight said, seeming a tad winded but no worse for wear. "I don't really know what happened. One minute I was in the circus and the next I was playing some kind of giant whack-a-mole game. I don't know who had the high schore but I'm betting it was a hack." Sam said, gripping the mallet. "What happened to you guys?" he asked. "I tried out Discord's funhouse. Wasn't impressed." "He turned the tunnel of love into a tunnel of hate for me. I just held my head down and it was over in a few minutes. I don't think I want a picture from that ride." Leena said.
"Oh I'm so happy you all enjoyed my fun!" Discord said, trying to compensate for drag while flying towards us. "You all seemed to be forgetting something." He snapped his fingers and the circus tent unfolded, revealing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, still caged in with the people from the audience surrounding them, the cannons pointed at them all now. "Give me my Elements or your friends will be reduced to elements." Discord snapped his fingers again and the wicks lit immediately. "No!" Twilight called out to her friends. "Leena, we can take Discord down. Twilight, Sam go move those cannons!" "Okay!" Leena and Twilight both answer. "Discord!" I call out. "You want the Elements? Here, take em!" I shout as Leena and both unleash blasts from our Elements, they hit him square in the chest and he falls to the ground, begining to stone over. "You fools, even with two Elements you'll never be able to move that cage in time. "We're not trying to move the cage, we're trying to move the cannons." I tell Discord with a slight smirk. "I can tell you two are going to be more trouble than you're worth. If I can't have those Elements, I'll just have to get rid of both of you!" Discord says as he breaks out of the stone and rushes towards us.
"Yo Discord!" Sam shouts. "What?!?!" The fiend shouts, looking in his direction. "You never told me what I'd get if I won!!" He shouts as he slams the mallet down on the strength gage machine in front of where the circus tent was. The peg hits the bell with tremendous force with a loud ring. All of a sudden, the bell seems to glow and releases a bright flash of light. The light blinds Discord for a moment, and I focus on a blast from my Element right at his face. He falls headfirst into the dirt. The mallet that was in Sam's hands flies off the platform and lands on the ground next to it. Sam seems to be lifted into the air by the light released from the necklace that was hung around the bell. "He's activated the Element!" Twilight shouts. "Whoa! What is this?!" Sam asks as the light envelops him. In a flash, he's transformed into a blue pony, like us, the same color as his t-shirt. "Did that... just happen?" Sam asks he walks forward. "What... what's happened to me? I'm a pony too now!" "Sam, you activated the Element of Strength! It's transformed you into a pony so you can use its power!" Twilight explains for the third time now. "This... is... awesome!" he says. "Where is the Element? I don't see it." he says, checking his hooves. Just then we see wings extend off his back. He looks up at us. My jaw about hits the floor. "Uh, Sam, the Element, it's on your..." "My what? My... uuooohhhhhhAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" He shouts with the realization that he's a pegasus pony. "I... I've got... I've got... WINGS!"
"Yes you do." Twilight says, examining his wings. "It seems the Element has bonded to you on one of your wings." "Where's Discord?" Sam asks. We turn to see Discord trying to pick his now statufied head off the ground, to no avail. "Let's finish him off." I say, walking over. "Good idea." Leena agrees. "So how do I work this thing?" Sam asks, carefully trotting over. "Focus on the emotion you just thought of when you rung the bell and just point it at him. "Okay, I'm still getting used to having wings." Carefully, he extends his right wing and a blast is unleashed from the band strung around his feathers. Leena and I follow suit with a couple round fired from our bracelets and before anything could be said, Discord was a stone statue again. "Looks like we didn't need all the Elements after all." Leena announces. We take a step back and examine Discord, looking very much like a statue with its head stuck in the dirt. "Now, let's go get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy!" Twilight says.
The crowed, no longer hypnotized was beginning to disperse. There were shouts, confusion but we just ignored them and walked over to the cage. "About time you guys showed up. I was beginning to think we were going to be stuck in this cage forever!" Rainbow Dash says as we approach. "All these people... firstt they didn't talk but then they did and then they didn't and now they're walking a way..." Fluttershy said. Twilight uses her magic to carefully bend the bars of the cages allowing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to walk outside. "Finally! Now, where in the hay are we?" Rainbow asks. "Hi I'm Nathan and this is Earth. This is my girlfriend Leena and our new friend Sam. We uh, just became ponies today so we're kind of new to it." "Uh huh.... why is it so cloudy here? Are your pegasi lazy or something?" "We don't really have pegasi to control the weather here." Leena explains. "That's weird. Well, you're in luck. I can clear the sky in-" "Ten seconds flat! We know, we watch your show all the time! I even have that saying on a t-shirt!" "Wait, what?" Rainbow asks, confused. "They know about Equestria from watching us on t.v." Twilight says. "Oh... so my awesomeness has already hit another dimension? Well, can't be all that bad if there's fans of me here." Rainbow boasts. "Um... where's Rarity? Wasn't she with you?" Fluttershy asks timidly.
"Oh no. We forgot about Rarity!" We turn to see people running from the entrance to the circus area as a grey Rarity comes from around the corner dragging a wheelbarrow full of carnival prizes. "Back! Back all of you! I won them all, they're MINE!" she shouts. "Rarity... now calm down now. We don't want any of your prizes, we just want you to..." Leena tries to approach her calmly. "I SAID GET BACK!" Rarity says, using her magic to throw a teddy bear at us. "Discord must've actually gotten to her. What should we do?" I ask the group. No one had any ideas as Rarity continued dragging her overflowing wheelbarrow of goods through the square. "Wait, I know!" Sam says. Carefully flapping his wings, he attempts to fly. At first he just hovers but soon it seems he gets the swing of things as he flies up to the platform and retrieves his t-shirt. "Rarity!" he says, bringing it to her. "Rarity, remember this? It's the t-shirt I was wearing. Remember how you said it inspired you? How you wanted to bring a whole new style of fashion to Ponyville?" Rarity huffed and gritted her teeth as she stared at the pegasus holding a t-shirt in front of her. "You can have it! I can't use it anymore anyway!" He said, throwing it over her. "I... I don't know what to say, that's just so very... so very... generous." Slowly, color returned to Rarity's body.
"I don't know what I was thinking, doing with all those prizes. Where would I even keep them all?" "It was Discord again, let's not even worry about it." "Oh yes, HIM. What happened to him anyway?" Rarity asks. We headed back over to where his statue was, only to find an imprint left in the sand. "Looks like we need to get going. Where to next?" Sam asks. Carefull, I unroll the parchment that was tucked behind my element. Examining the old paper, we see a few other clues. "It looks like we've found 3 so far but this thing only lists 2 others." I explain. "We found the one here in the carnival because we had a clue to go by, written on the back. It doesn't look like anything else is written here though." "Maybe the page itself is a clue." Twilight says, looking at it. "It's a page out of a book right? There's only one library in town. Maybe we could find what book it came from?" Leena says. "My brother and his girlfriend work at the library." Sam says. "Maybe we should give them a call, explain things and have them come pick us up?" I ask. "Sounds like a good idea to me. But I don't think either of them have ever seen MLP: FiM." "Well be sure to tell them when you call them, because they're about to see it soon." I tell Sam as we head to the parking lot.