“You've gotta be kidding me! The only way to defeat Nightmare Moon, gone!”
This was bad, really bad, if we didn’t find the Elements of Harmony, it wouldn't matter if we made it to Disneyland or not, we would have no way to defeat Nightmare Moon!
“Maybe you didn’t look hard enough Twilight.” Pinkie said trying to encourage us all.
“No Pinkie, we all had our Elements of Harmony in our bags when we came here, and now they’re gone, somepony must have taken them while we were sleeping, and I might have an idea who.”
“It had to be Nightmare Moon,” Rainbow Dash added in, “who else could have, besides Hector, we haven’t seen anyone else here.”
“I have no idea Rainbow.”
“I should have known that Nightmare Moon would have done something like this, what I don’t get though, is how exactly we did it.” Twilight said.
I said, “Well, in order to defeat Nightmare Moon, we have to find those Elements, the problem is, we have no idea where they are.”
And that’s when I started hearing voices in my head.
Look in your backpack.
The voice wasn’t Nightmare Moon’s, but yet it sounded familiar. Nightmare Moon's voice was harsh and well, evil. This voice sounded more sad than anything else. Thinking I had nothing else to loose, I open my backpack, and find something that I never saw until that moment, it was a wooden box. “Well well,” I say, taking out the mystery item, “It looks like someone else left something behind for us.”
When I opened the box, I found a parchment of paper, rolled up.
Pinkie nearly scared the living daylights out of me when she practically hollered, “Oooh, what is it what is it! This is so exciting!”
“Well, whatever it is, we shall find out Pinkie.” Rarity chimed in.
As I unrolled the parchment, I couldn’t believe our luck. “Guys, it’s a map, a map that shows the locations of all the Elements!”
The map also had a message written on it:
To find the Elements you need, a great journey you must trek. Six locations, each with a hidden element for you to find. But be warned,, the farther you get, the more challenging it becomes. When the last element is found, you will see yourself at your journey's end.
Great, just what we need, a cryptic message to go along with a cryptic map that appeared from out of nowhere.,
"It seems like we have no choice," Applejack said, "we're just going to have to follow this map whether we like it or not."
I agreed with what Applejack said, but I just don't like the fact that we have to trust something that we can't be sure if it is a trap or not, but it's our only lead
Looking at the map, I noticed that an element, honesty, wasn't that far away from where we were
"Well, I guess that's where we're starting off. Twilight said.
I didn't tell any of the girls this, but deep down I was terrified if them going out into our world. With all the bad people out there, I'm scared to think what would happen them.
With those thoughts in my head, I hesitantly led the way out of the forest and into the city.
***
"Don't look at anybody, don’t talk to anybody, don't touch anything, don't look at anything..." I rambled as we were going on through the town.
It appeared that everyone who got hit with the blast last night was alright, as the city was it its usual state: a lot of people. There were also a lot of missing children posters as well.This dosen’t seem too bad, I though as the six and I were walking towards the first spot on the map. So far, no one stared, or said anything
"All right, so far so good." I say to myself checking behind me every once in a while, just to see if everyone was alright.
"Boy, it sure seems like there's a mighty amount of rules round here." Applejack commented.
"I'm sorry guys, it's just that a lot can happen here, and people here are, unpredictable, more or less. I just want to make sure something dosen't go wrong:"
"Oh, Hector," Twilight said, "I forgot to tell you, on our way here, I cast a spell on myself and the others, making it that only you can see us. Well technically you, since the spell makes us visible to only those that know us, but that shouldn't be a problem!”
Hopefully it wouldn't be, I thought to myself, considering that there were a lot of people that knew Twilight and everyone else, especially a certain group of individuals.
Ahem.
"Well, good thinking Twilight," I said, "if it weren't for you than I would probably look like a total psyco-"
At that moment, I realized that people wouldn't be staring at the girls, they would be staring at me. As I looked up to see everybody in the city, I was right, everybody was staring at me. Probably because I was talking to miniature ponies that nobody else could see but myself.
"Uhhh..Oh! I can feel those pills kicking in!" I shouted to everyone. I'm not sure if that worked, or made me look more like a psyco, I walked too fast to find out. Pinkie was about to say something, probably why I said what I said, but I just told them not to ask.
***
"Well guys, we're here."
From where we were, we could see Applejack's element, problem was, it wasn't going to be easy to get. Apparently someone else found it and now using it to his advantage. You know those games that people set up near airports, they lure you in because it looks simple, just follow the queen of hearts or whatever card they use. Soon you're all in, putting money into the game because it's so easy. And then, right at that moment, you loose, the guy gets away with your money, and you have nothing to do about it. I've been told that the secret to this was at the last game, the guy somehow switches the cards, making none of them the queen of hearts, ensuring the player looses.
And now we were going to be forced to play this game, which was impossible to win.
Let me get something clear first, the guy who set up the game never told us his name, so for the sake of the story and comedic irony, I'm going to call the guy Guy.
As we approached Guy, he was in a game with a little girl, poor thing, she probably wanted Applejack's element
"Alright sweetie, if you win this one, the necklace is yours!"
And so he began mixing the cards. I already knew the poor girls fate, and as she picked a card, she lost. The guy didn't even had a chance to tell her that she lost because she just ran off, poor thing had tears in her eyes.
"Anyone else up for the challenge?" Guy said rather loudly. He faced me then said, "Well how about you there, the orange horse with the hat?"
Even I was taken aback by this, I didn't expect Guy to see Applejack and the others! I didn't even have to look at Twilight to tell she did not expect this.
Pointing a hoof to herself, the only thing Applejack could say was, "M-me?"
Guy responded, "Yes, you darling, get over here!"
Following Applejack, I put a dollar on Guy's table, for the bet money. Guy gave me an, are you kidding me? look. So I gave him a Well, I know what you do, so you know that I'm going to give you the minimum bet, deal with it face. But knowing my luck, the face I gave him probably made it look like I was constipated or something
After the money was placed, Guy explained the rules to Applejack, pick the right card and move on. And so he began, Applejack got the right card, and so Guy moved on.
"Why do you seem so worried dear," Rarity asked me, "this game looks to be fairly easy, Applejack should get the element in no time!"
"That's the thing Rarity, what usually seems easy in my world, isn't."
As I expected, Applejack got the right card attempt after attempt.
"I beg your pardon Guy," Applejack said while keeping her eyes on the cards, "but when am I gonna get that necklace?"
"Hmmm, seems important to you."
"Erm, well I'm no rush to get it, just askin'. I think that it'll look mighty fine on me."
I silently applauded Applejack for her quick thinking.
"Well, funny you should mention that, this here's the last round darling, just remember, keep your eyes on the card."
And so he began shuffling. Now I was sweating, I knew there was no way Applejack was going to win this, so it was going to have to require some quick thinking from me to get the element. Then I noticed that Guy was shuffling the cards even faster than normally, hopefully Applejack had a good eye. When guy finished, he let Applejack choose. Applejack took her time, contemplating each card.
"Well, I think I made my mind, I'm choosin' this one." Pointing her hoof in the card in the middle, Applejack made her decision.
"Well then, lets see." As to further intensify the situation, Guy lifted the card ever so slowly. And as Guy lifted the card so everybody could see it, I couldn't believe it.
Applejack got the ace.
"Whew doggy! I'd knew I'd get it!" Applejack hollered with joy. Apparently Guy was just ad shocked as I was. While Applejack and the other girls were celebrating, Guy just kept on looking at the ace, as if he were expecting for it to change or something.
"I'll be takin that thank you very much!" Applejack said as she took her Element of Harmony.
As we were walking away, I just couldn't help but occasionally look back at Guy, every time I did, he still had that dumbfounded look on his face. It was hilarious.
While walking, Rarity came to me and said, "See darling, I told you Applejack could do it."
At this point, I was questioning the intelligence of Guy, then, I took a look at Twilight, out of all them, she seemed the happiest, and her trot was a little bouncier than usual. Suddenly, a thought hit my head, at first I dismissed it, but as time passed by, it became more plausible. I asked Twilight, "Hey Twilight, I don't suppose you had a hand in Applejack's victory today, did you?"
"Well, I-"
"Twilight Sparkle!" I said in the most ridiculous parental voice I could, “I did not expect this from you! It seems like there is another side to this pony!”
“Well, you know just as much as I do that we needed to get that element, I just put a spell to ensure that Applejack got the right card. But can we keep this between us, I want Applejack to enjoy this moment”
So I agreed. One element down, five more to go!
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