Twilight hated to admit when she couldn't figure something out.
She had gained a reputation—and rightfully so, although she did not possess the ego to admit it—for solving, or at least helping to solve, her friends' problems. Whether it was something as simple as settling an argument between Rainbow Dash and Rarity or as complex as writing a brand new spell to fix their accidentally-swapped cutie marks, Twilight tended to be a beacon of solution for the group, despite how capable they tended to be on their own.
And that made her inability to solve this problem that much worse. The last thing she ever wanted to do was let her friends down, and unless she could fix things, that was exactly what she would be doing.
But what kind of problem was being too nice?
Most of the situations her friends had described to her sounded like they had simply done something a little nicer than usual, and she couldn't see the problem in that, nor could she understand why they perceived them as major issues. Sure, Rarity had given Minuette too much of a discount, but she made a fair amount of bits as it was, and she was pretty much guaranteed a repeat customer from how happy her generosity must have made her. Fluttershy being kind to others was nothing new, and although she sounded like she was being more of a doormat than she should have been, it didn't sound like anything to be terribly concerned about. Something would happen soon enough to teach her to assert herself. Something always did. Pinkie's issue was a little odd, but it wasn't like a bit of laughter was out of the ordinary for her. Although it was kind of strange for her to laugh at a pony getting hurt...but it had to be a fluke. She'd probably just happened to think of something funny as it happened.
Rainbow's issue, though...that one did seem problematic. She was known to be very defensive of her marefriend and her other close friends, but her loyalty had never led to a physical attack on another pony before. At the same time, she supposed it was entirely possible that Rainbow had just gotten caught up in the moment. It wasn't like she wanted to hit Caramel; she was clearly incredibly distraught that she had done so. But outside of suggesting an anger management class, Twilight was at a loss for what to do about it.
It was admittedly a bit odd, upon further consideration, that all of these "problems" had happened right around the same time. Even odder still was the fact that they had all happened around the same time as the new little situation she was dealing with. She glanced over at the large dry-erase board next to her. That hadn't been there before, but her horn had not only summoned it without her input, but written down notes on her friends' goings-on as well. Her magic was now acting before she commanded it to, and she was both perplexed and amazed by it. She would have been more concerned about it, but it wasn't doing anything she wouldn't have wanted to do. It was actually more convenient than anything. Now if it could only poof up an answer to what her friends' problems were and a solution to said problems, that would be just wonderful.
The library door burst open once again, and Twilight rolled her eyes as she turned towards it. Just as she expected, Applejack had finally arrived, and probably had a dubiously-problematic situation of her own to ask Twilight to solve. What she did not expect was the look of absolute panic on Applejack's face or the cold sweat she was experiencing. The others had looked upset, but strong, stable Applejack looked downright terrified. This detail had not gone unnoticed by the others, who were now flocking over.
"Poor, poor Applejack!" Fluttershy whimpered, wrapping her forelegs around her.
"Can I get you anything at all?" Rarity asked. "I brought this water for myself but you may have it if you like."
"Did somepony do something to you?" Rainbow asked, fire in her eyes. "I'll destroy them!"
Pinkie just laughed.
"Girls! Give her space!" Twilight insisted. She felt her magic light up suddenly, and watched helplessly as it shoved the other four away from Applejack. She had considered trying to excavate Applejack from the group, but apparently her magic had different plans. She gulped and offered a hoof to help the group up, all of whom were now glaring at her. Once they were all standing again, she made her way to the terrified farmer.
"What is it, Applejack?" Twilight asked gently.
"I..." Applejack began, shaking a bit. "...I can't lie."
Twilight's eyebrow rose.
"Well...yes, you're a very honest pony..." Twilight began, but Applejack cut her off.
"That didn't mean I couldn't lie before!" Applejack shouted. "Just that I didn't like to...but now I flat-out can't!"
"That's...that's impossible..." Twilight said, even though with all the strange things going on, she had no reason not to believe her, even without factoring in her typical honesty.
"Well apparently it ain't!" Applejack yelled. "On account of I can't! I tried to, and it was near impossible! And then..." Her ears fell as she recalled the final moments before she left the farm. "I finally managed it...but then my lie wasn't a lie no more."
"What do you mean it wasn't a lie anymore?" Twilight asked. Applejack sighed heavily, then reached for the water that Rarity had offered her earlier. As the others watched, she stared at it, concentrating. She had the same difficulties at first that she had with the apple back at home, but was eventually able to break through again.
"This is apple juice!" Applejack shouted. The faces of the others went from confusion to utter shock as they watched the water shimmer, pigmentation flowing into it until it had indeed become apple juice.
"T'ain't a lie no more," Applejack said, her trembling beginning anew. She looked up at Twilight with pleading eyes. "What's happening, Twi?" Twilight found herself unable to form words, completely unprepared to respond to such a phenomenon.
"Whoa! Awesome!" Rainbow suddenly shouted. "Quick, say I'm a Wonderbolt!" Rainbow's enthusiasm was not matched by her friends, who—save for Pinkie's unstoppable, uncomfortable chortling—were silent as they glared at her.
"This is even more serious than I thought," Twilight mused as she comforted her distraught friend. "What in Equestria could be causing all of this?"
"You're the bookworm, Twilight!" Rainbow said. So now that you've seen what the heck is going on with us, why don't you hit the books and figure it out?"
"I think that might be the best course of action," Twilight agreed. Her magic lit up and suddenly granted Rainbow a little sticker on her chest that read, "Thoughtful." Twilight blushed at the little glare Rainbow gave her. "I promise I didn't do that on purpose."
"Probably the first time anypony's said that about her," Applejack said. She gasped, covering her mouth with a hoof. Her mumbled apology was only barely enough to quell Rainbow's anger, and Pinkie's giggling reminder that Applejack couldn't lie didn't help matters.
"Alright then," Twilight said once the awkwardness passed. "You girls head home, and we'll reconvene at 3:00. With all the books on magical maladies I own, I'm certain I'll find something useful by that point. Just try to lay low and keep out of trouble, okay?"
The others gave Twilight uncertain looks, but as they were well aware, there was never a problem that Twilight couldn't find a solution to. Plus, knowing Twilight's study habits, they were better off keeping out of her way. The more room they took up by being there, the less there was for the books she needed. It was a slightly uneasy agreement, but an agreement nonetheless.
Twilight sighed as she watched her friends depart. She could already tell that this was going to be quite the undertaking. She just hoped that she would be able to find something, because from the looks of it, unless this was fixed soon, things would get worse before they got better. Applejack's issue had already taken quite a turn. She had to fix this before the same happened to the rest. Part of her thought she should have maybe asked the girls to stick around so she could keep an eye on them, but surely they couldn't get into too much trouble in two hours.
~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight was just as surprised as the others when, at precisely 3:00, her horn suddenly lit up and teleported her friends into the library. Locating and teleporting five ponies from five different places was a particularly strong effect for her magic to do without her input, and it was starting to be more worrisome than intriguing.
A glance around the room at the others proved to be even more worrisome. All of them looked varying degrees of frazzled, and even though Twilight had expected Applejack to be the most frazzled of the bunch, she was surprised to see Rarity looking much worse for wear.
"Twilight!" Rarity cried out, throwing her forelegs around the alicorn. "It's...terrible! The worst possible thing!"
Twilight was accustomed to Rarity's bouts of exaggeration at this point. Everything had to be dramatic with the seamstress, and even the littlest things could often send her into hysterics. This time, though, Twilight had enough reason to believe that she was being truthful.
"What is it, Rarity?" Twilight asked, hugging her friend close. Rarity looked up to Twilight, her mascara already running down her cheeks.
"I-I ran into a drifter on my way back home..." Rarity whined, only just barely keeping her composure. "He had nowhere to go...he had lost his home and I...I just..."
"You what?" Twilight asked, her voice shaking a bit.
"I gave him the deed to my house!" Rarity cried out, before bursting into tears. "He-he insisted I just give him a meal and send him on his way, b-but I simply could not stop myself...Twilight fix this no-ho-hooooow!!"
Twilight's jaw dropped as she clutched her sobbing friend. She had been certain that leaving the group alone for a scant two hours would be a short enough time for them to keep out of trouble, but clearly she had misjudged the situation. As their friend, she should have known better, and the fact that she had allowed this to happen was tearing away at her.
"Oh, um, I should probably throw him a housewarming party..." Fluttershy said, before looking about as shocked that she said that as the others did.
"What?!" Rainbow shouted. "Rarity's your friend, Fluttershy! What the hay is wrong with you, saying something like that?"
"Yeah," Applejack chimed in. "That's about as insensitive as something Rainbow Dash would say."
"Hey, shut up!" Rainbow shot back. "And stop laughing, Pinkie!"
"I want to!" Pinkie whimpered between giggles. "I really, really do!"
"Enough!" Twilight shouted, her magic setting off a loud siren sound to get everypony's attention. "You all know as well as I do that we don't mean to say the things we're saying! If we get mad at each other because of it, we're never going to get anything done!"
"Twilight's right," Applejack agreed, as Fluttershy scooped Rarity up into a hug. "So you brought us all here. That must mean you found something, right?"
"Well...somewhat," Twilight said, looking embarrassed. "My magic kind of brought you here on its own. But I do think I figured something out that might help."
"What is it?" Pinkie asked, only just barely managing to keep from laughing long enough to get the full sentence out.
"Well," Twilight started. "I looked in every book I could find, but couldn't find anything that matched what we were going through. But after a bit of critical thinking, I think I might have realized something that could help get to the bottom of this."
"Well, spit it out already!" Rainbow shouted. Then she blinked. "Sorry for yelling, I just..."
"It's fine, Rainbow," Twilight said. "And as far as I can tell, it fits with my theory."
"Theory?" Fluttershy asked.
"Theory," Twilight repeated, her magic spelling the word in glowing letters behind her. "And the more I think about it, the more sense it makes."
The others made sure to find comfortable places to sit. They'd seen this look in Twilight's eyes plenty of times before. She was about to go into drawn-out exposition mode, and finding a nice place to sit and listen was imperative when Twilight got like this.
"You see," Twilight began, "We've each been dealing with our own odd phenomena since yesterday. And while they might seem unrelated at first..." Her horn was having a field day with this as it brought to life little magical illustrations of each of her friends' happenstances. "They all share one thing in common."
"What's that, Twilight?" Rarity asked, having somewhat calmed down by this point.
"Simple, Rarity," Twilight responded. "Each of our problems has been linked to the element we bear. Rarity's being too generous for her own good. Fluttershy's kindness is getting out of control. Pinkie can't stop laughing. Rainbow's loyalty is fiercer than ever. Applejack literally can't not be honest, and my magic is acting without me even invoking it."
"I was kind of wondering about that," Applejack said as she grabbed at her hat, which Twilight's magic had apparently decided was better purposed on the head of the Applejack it had created to illustrate Twilight's earlier point.
"I thought it was a good thing at first," Twilight said, grinning sheepishly. "Something interesting for me to study. But it's clearly gotten a bit out of control."
"So what we do about it?" Pinkie asked. "I need to stop laughing this much! Laughter is special and should only be used when there's something worth laughing at!" She unintentionally accentuated her point with a loud laugh that she was clearly trying to hold back.
"That part, I'm not completely sure about," Twilight responded, watching the no-longer-needed illusions from before fade out. "But I do have a hunch. If the Elements are involved, then it would only make sense to go check..."
"The tree!" the others said simultaneously.