“Hehehe…. All I can think of is how stupid your little lover is, betting his soul on one of MY games!” Discord cackled, he leaned over the side of his throne to look down at Twilight.
She glared up at him, “He’ll win! Just you wait and see! You’ll be put back in stone where you belong!” She roared, Discord responded with a laugh.
“Ha! You still think there’s hope? Well get use to this Twilight…” He gestured to the chaos all around them, from the multicolored uneven ground, to the upside down houses. “This is the future of Equestria, and nothing is going to change that!”
Please Orion… You have to do this, not only for my sake and all of Equestria’s, but for yours! She thought silently to herself, quickly looking away from the Draconequus. Discord may cheat and do whatever he can to stop you, but I know you’ll try your best…
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“By s-s-sundown? But that’s only a couple hours away! And you only have two of the Elements!” Fluttershy stuttered, doing her best to keep up with Orion who was galloping down the street at a frightening speed.
“I know! If Discord would stay out of the damn way this would be a lot easier…” Orion yelled back to her, his eyes set on the large pink building ahead of them. “I hope Applejack’s gotten Pinkie under control, she wasn’t looking well when I saw her last…”
He burst through the door of Sugarcube Corner to find the place a complete mess. Frosting, huge pieces of cake and muffins, and sprinkles littered the entire store. It looked like a hurricane had passed through the building, leaving it in an utterly devastated state. In the middle of all this, Applejack was panting behind a table and Pinkie Pie was shouting some very rude things.
“Great job Applejack seems like you got a lot accomplished here…” Orion rolled her eyes at her.
The exhausted cowpony replied with a scowl. “Well Ah’d like to see you do better! She ran out of thing to throw at me, so now she’s just yelling!”
“And another thing! My last birthday present? It was awful! How could you possible think I would like something so pink?! Some friend you are! Stupid jerk!” Pinkie Pie screeched, not caring that Orion and now Fluttershy had entered the store.
Orion grinned, “Just watch! I was able to get Fluttershy back to normal, and she was a whole lot ruder! This should be a piece of cake!” He paced up to pink pony with a smug look on his face.
“Oh look who it is! Twilight’s coltfriend, what in Nightmare Moon’s name do you want?”
“Listen Pinkie, you aren’t acting normal. Just take a second to calm yourself and-”
Orion was cut off, as Pinkie drove her right hoof into his face. He stumbled back, holding a hoof to his bruised face. “Ow! What in the buck was that for?!”
“Stay away from me, egghead! You know, you and Twilight are perfect for each other! You both think you’re smarter then everypony, and you never shut up!”
Maybe this won’t be so easy… Before Orion was able to try again, Fluttershy calmly paced up to the pink pony.
“Um, P-pinkie Pie… Could you maybe stop yelling for a second? If you didn’t mind that is…” She asked her voice as timid and shy as ever despite the situation.
Surprisingly, the angry look on Pinkie’s face vanished and she seemed to calm down for the moment.
“And you shouldn’t say such mean things to Applejack… She’s your friend, remember? I’m your friend; we defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord together!”
Pinkie Pie’s lip curled and she stood passively for a few moments. Eventually, the color to her coat slightly returned, and a small smile on her face formed. “Yeah… I do remember!”
Fluttershy returned her smile, “Good! We’re all friends, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity! Remember all the great parties we had?”
“Yeah, yeah!” She said, her smile turning into a full blown grin. Her coat lost all of its grey tinge, and was now back to its usual bright pink. “I’m real sorry for what I said Applejack…” She apologized, turning her head to the cowpony.
“T-that’s okay Pinkie… Fluttershy, how in Equestria did you do that?” Applejack asked, completely amazed by the pegasus.
“Oh it was easy. Some ponies just needed to be treated with a little kindness, that’s all.” Fluttershy grinned before going to Orion’s side.
The unicorn’s mouth was hanging open, hardly believing that the shy pegasus had soothed the raging beast that was Pinkie Pie. “Okay… Let’s just find this Element. Applejack, you explain everything to Pinkie.” Orion nodded to Applejack before he went searching through the ravaged store, Fluttershy quickly accompanying him.
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As before, it only took a short time for them to find the Element. Now three golden necklaces were packed away safely in his saddlebag. Only three more to go…
“Alright, we need to split up if I’m going to have any chance of winning this.” Orion said to the three mares, Orange Taffy had begun cleaning the store and felt it best that he stayed out of their matters. “Applejack and Fluttershy, you two go to Rainbow Dash’s house. Get the element, you shouldn’t run into any trouble because she’s well… Don’t worry about it…”
“What’s wrong with Rainbow?” Fluttershy quickly asked, concerned for her friend.
“Discord’s got her, but we’ll help her soon. We need to do this first. Pinkie Pie, you and I will go to Rarity’s. Then that’ll just leave Twilight house…”
“Alright!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “Let’s do this!” She rushed out the door, Orion quickly trailing behind her.
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“B-b-b-b-but Reinaldo, how could you do this to me?!” Rarity cried out in anguish between her fits of bawling.
“Ah mi amor, you have to understand!” The large stallion replied while he threw all his belongings into a carrying case. “Your new hair, it does not, how do I say this? Fit you well…”
“GAH!” Rarity screamed, breaking down into another storm of tears. Her voice was muffled by her bedroom wall, but the stallion could hear her cries clearly. “But you can’t leave me! My hair will grow back, I promise!”
“I’m sorry mi amor, but better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all, no?” Reinaldo said, grabbing his luggage.
“Goodbye, Rarity…”
“REINALDO!!!” Rarity yelled, which was soon followed by more crying. She simply refused to get out of her room and let the world see her bald head, even if her husband was leaving her. She heard the front door slam shut, and she only cried harder.
Orion burst through the door of the Carousel Boutique, only to have his ears assaulted by Raritys cries. He placed his hooves against his ears in a vain attempt to block out her screams.
“That sounds like Rarity!” Pinkie Pie yelled over the noise, she guided him to a set of stairs and to the door to the unicorn’s bedroom. “Rarity!” She pounded on the door, “It’s me, Pinkie Pie!”
“W-wh-what?!” She stammered, “P-P-Pinkie?”
“Yes, now come on out! This is important!”
“NO! I can’t let everypony see me like this! I refuse!”
“Oh don’t worry Rarity, everpony’s hiding inside thanks to Discord!”
“No! I am simply NOT going out there when my hair is like this! Not only that, Reinaldo left me! I’m never coming out of here!” She screamed, breaking into another fit of tears.
Orion rolled his eyes, Sheesh, what a drama queen… “Come on Pinkie, we have to hurry! You try and convince her to come out, I’ll find the Element!” The stallion hurried down the stairs and began searching the rest of the store.
“Come on Rarity, just wear a wig! We really need you!”
“A w-w-w-wig? Well… I g-g-guess that could work… But what’s so important?” She hiccupped back.
“Discord! Once we get all the Elements were sealing him back in stone! We can’t do this without you!”
There was a long pause before Rarity spoke again. “Well, alright… I’ll find a wig…”
After about twenty minutes of her searching for a wig that fitted her best, the door to her bedroom finally swung open. She had long, wavy brown hair instead of her fabulous purple mane. It was nowhere near as beautiful as her old mane, but it was a far better improvement then being bald. Orion had been waiting impatiently, as he had been unable to find the Element anywhere else. As soon as Rarity stepped into the hall, Orion pushed past her and scanned her room for the necklace.
“There it is!” He immediately shouted, grabbing the golden necklace from the top of a pile of silk. “Now let’s get going!”
The three of them hurried out of the boutique and onto the road, only to find a massive crevice cutting through the ground.
“Oh great, just how are we supposed to get past this?!” Orion shouted in frustration as he looked along the giant gap. It ran as far as the eye could see to the left and right, and it was at least a five meter jump to the other side.
“That’s easy!” Pinkie Pie answered with a smile. “Just a hop, skip, and a jump!” She did just as she said, and the two ponies watched with amazement she cleared the huge gap.
“P-P-Pinkie! How in Celestia’s name did you do that?!” Orion questioned, his jaw hanging open.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, almost as if what she did was easy. “Like I said a hop, skip, and a jump!” Just as before, Pinkie hopped, skipped then jumped the entire crevice. She stood on their side, a grin plastered on her face.
“Alright… I guess we’ll have to do that…” Orion mumbled a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he gazed down into the darkness of the huge crevice. He always had a fear of heights, ever since he had fallen down a dark well as a foal. Well, actually that never happened… But still… “Well… uh, ladies first?” He gestured a hoof towards Rarity and she pouted.
“Hm, fine! If you’re too scared to go first, some gentlecolt you are! Uh, can you show me again Pinkie?”
“Sure!” The pink pony did her simple jump and made it to the other side. She looked at them expectantly.
“Alright Rarity… It’s easy, just a hop…skip… and a JUMP!!!” Rarity did as Pinkie had done, and she was soaring through the air. She just barely made the jump, her back hooves teetering on the side of the crevice. She let out a sigh of relief before looking to Orion.
He swallowed hard. Alright, this is easy! Pinkie did it; Rarity did it, that means you can do it too! Just a hop, skip and a *gulp* jump, easy as that… He stared into the darkness for a few more minutes, trying his very best to rouse up some courage. Come on Orion! We don’t have much time left, you have to do this! For Twilight…
After letting out a long sigh he looked back up. He took a few steps back to insure he would have a running start. After a few moments, he began galloping, he hoped, skipped then finally, jumped. He soared through the air and over the gorge; he smiled seeing that he would make it.
However, he didn’t jump quite far enough and only his front hooves landed on the ground. He clawed and struggled in fear, trying desperately to heave himself up. Rarity and Pinkie Pie quickly grabbed his front hooves and tried to haul him up.
Don’t look down, don’t look down… He told himself repeatedly, keeping his eyes clamped shut. However after a moment he opened them, only to see the never ending darkness below him. "GAH!" He panicked and the two mares’s almost lost their grip on him as he flailed about.
“Calm down Orion, we’ll get you up!” Pinkie Pie urged, tugging with all her might.
After a short time of struggling they were able to pull him up, Orion quickly kissed the ground in happiness. “Oh thank Celestia, I thought I was going to die there!”
“Come on Orion, we haven’t got all day remember?” Pinkie Pie urged, tapping her hoof against the ground in annoyance.
“Huh, wha?” He glanced up, momentarily broken out of his panic. “Oh uh, right! Let’s get a move on then!” Orion took point in front of the two mares, who after exchanging an awkward glance followed him.