Twilight and Spike ate their pastries back at the treehouse. The cinnamon buns were no different from what they usually were-cinnamon and sugar baked into a delicious fluffy roll, with nothing but the best icing to top it. Needless to say, they were gone pretty quickly.
"Twilight, what do you think got into Pinkie and the Cakes?" Spike asked, licking the remains of his breakfast off of his claws.
"I don't know, Spike," Twilight answered, her brow wrinkled in concern. "That's what I was asking myself on the way here. And plus, everypony else seemed kind of grumpy as well... I just don't see what's wrong with everypony."
Spike shrugged. "Maybe you could ask somepony about it. Like maybe, I dunno, Rarity?"
Twilight almost laughed but knew Spike had a very serious crush on her, and besides, she wasn't really in a laughing mood. "Sounds good to me," she said, allowing him to hop on her back as they made the trek to the Carousel Boutique.
***
They walked in the door to Rarity's place and found that the dresses on display were oddly plain. "Rarity?" Called out Twilight anxiously.
Rarity trotted in with her usual "Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique. How may I help you?" Upon seeing Twilight, she grinned. "Oh hello darling! Marvelous to see you. What brings you here today?"
Twilight sighed with relief that at least somepony was acting normal. "Rarity, we went to Sugar Cube Corner today and Pinkie and Mr. And Mrs. Cake seemed very... Out of sorts, I guess. Grumpy and mad."
Rarity giggled daintily. "Oh, you know Pinkie Pie! She is definitely a bit of an oddball."
"So you don't think there's anything wrong with Pinkie yelling more than usual?"
"Well, she has a bit of a loud personality, wouldn't you say?"
Twilight nodded in agreement. "Well, I guess you're right. Just my imagination I guess. But, um, I did want to ask about one more thing, if that's all right."
"Of course, dear! Ask me anything."
"No offense or anything, but don't your dresses usually have a little bit more, uh, 'bling' on them?"
Rarity's eye twitched. "Bling? As in... Gems?"
"Well yes, I suppose that's what I was getting at."
"Why share such shining beauties with others when I can keep them all for myself?"
Twilight backed away a bit, nervous. "What do you mean, Rarity?"
"I mean no one must lay a hoof upon my beauties! You're trying to take them, aren't you?! That's why you came! Well I shan't allow it!" She exclaimed as she ran upstairs. "Momma will protect you, my beauties!"
"Twilight... I'm scared..." Spike stated tremblingly. "Nopony is acting right."
"You seem to be right, Spike. Let's talk to the other elements and see what's going on."
"So... Who should we visit first?"
Twilight pondered this. "Rainbow Dash. If everypony is acting as weird as this, at least she'll have the least amount of relatives or animals attack or anything."
Twilight took to the sky in search of Rainbow Dash and found her napping on a cloud. Pulling over another cloud for her to stand on, she confronted the prismatic pegasus. "Dash, what's going on?" She asked.
Rainbow cracked open an eye and glanced at Twilight. "Well apparently I'm being woken up from my nap. What do you need, Twi? I'm kind of tired. I mean I'll help you if you need it, but I really need to rest up for the academy." She seemed less confident than usual.
"Will you please tell me what's going on? Pinkie Pie is being a grump, and when I asked Rarity about it, she started being all possessive and stuff."
Dashie yawned, standing up and stretching. "Sounds about right to me."
Twilight's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "What?! What do you mean 'sounds right'?!"
Rainbow Dash gave her a funny look. "Are you okay there Twi? Do you have amnesia or something? Pinkie is always grumpy and Rarity is always greedy. That's just their elements, the Elements of Disharmony." As Twilight and Spike's jaws dropped open, Dash rolled her eyes. "Don't act so surprised. Anyways, speaking of elements, I gotta go. It's almost time for training, and I'm not gonna lie, I would rather do that than stay here and talk. Gotta go!" With that, she flew off.
Tears formed in Twilight's eyes and she felt as though her knees would buckle. "Oh, Spike, first the cutie mark thing and now this? What have I done? Maybe I'm just not fit to be a princess..."
Spike shook his head to clear the shock. "Don't talk like that, Twilight! You solved the cutie mark problem pretty easily, so this one should be a cakewalk for you!"
Twilight wiped her eyes. "Well... Maybe. But last time it was just the elements, but remember how the cakes treated Pinkie? What if it's the whole town?"
Spike looked down to see they had floated over the schoolhouse. "Well, how about we go and check it out?" Suggested Spike, motioning down towards the foals who were having recess.
Twilight sighed and began her decent towards the bright red building. Landing gently, she headed towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Hello, girls, I-" she began, stopping mid sentence out of shock.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had their cutie marks-and not only that, they were teasing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon... Who didn't have their cutie marks!
When they saw her approach, they immediately stopped and let the two previously pompous fillies flee. "Hey Twilight, why are you here?" Asked Scootaloo, more out of curiosity than animosity.
"I just, uh... I was, um, going to talk to your teacher. That's all. Carry on with your... Activities."
She found Cheerilee grading papers, joyously scribbling "F"'s on most of them. "Cheerilee?" Twilight asked cautiously.
"Why hello, Twilight. Why are you here?" Cheerilee asked relatively pleasantly, not taking her eyes off the papers. Suddenly, the color drained from her face. "Did the princess send you? I've been filling my quota, I swear-"
Twilight cut her off. "No, I came here myself. "I was just wondering... Well, um... Maybe you could give me a refresher course on history?"
Cheerilee smiled. "Sure, anything for the new princess! Before the reign of our fair leaders, Princesses Celestia and Luna, a dragonequus named Discord ruled over the land. The Princesses staged a coup, using the elements of disharmony to encase him in stone. Ever since then, they have ruled over us fairly. Anypony who goes against their law or insults their principles is up for the utmost punishment. And can you believe some ponies are Discordist? A few pleaded with the princesses to let him free and for him to be used for their will. Well, after slaughtering them, they pondered it decided it would actually be a splendid idea, so they let him out and forced him to do their bidding. I think that's pretty much until recently. You should probably remember the rest, unless you would like me to tell you more?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, I've heard more than enough, thank you."