Discord watched as his prey wandered about in the streets of Canterlot. Rarity and Fluttershy had both been wandering the streets asking ponies if they had any clues as to the whereabouts of the elements. Surprisingly some of the ponies had never even heard of the Elements of Harmony. Unsurprisingly, some were just to snooty to give either the time of day.
"Ooh! This is Pointless!" Rarity exclaimed with a huff as she turned away from the Stallion she had asked about the Elements, He hadn't even known what they looked like, although that's not that surprising seeing as not a lot happened in Canterlot to require their presence. "We must have been searching for HOURS by now!" she wailed.
"Um, actually, its only been about one hour." Fluttershy quietly muttered in her usual shy demeanor. "Do you think, um, we should try elsewhere? If that's okay I mean."
"Well of course, but where? We've only got so many places to search and these ponies are no help whatsoever!", she cried, "If we're going to find the Elements. We've got to put our heads together!"
"Maybe we should try thinking like Discord would." Fluttershy suggested. "If we think like him, maybe we'll be able to think of an area to place them like he would and find them!"
"Wait a minute!" Rarity exclaimed, "If we think like Discord would, maybe we'll be able to think of where he would have put them!" She exclaimed.
"But, that's kinda what I just-"
"No time Fluttershy! We must get a move on before that monster can do too much more damage!" Fluttershy just sighed and followed as she and Rarity began to trot deeper into the city. Before she could get more than a few hoofsteps however a hoof stopped her. She turned to see a white unicorn stallion with a purple mane and tail who surprisingly enough, had the same cutie mark as Rarity did!
"I'm sorry to interrupt you madame but I couldn't help but overhear your friend over there talking to one of the other stallions here in Canterlot about something called the Elements of Harmony?" Fluttershy was at the moment, too stunned to speak so she just slowly nodded her head. "Well then I thought I might be of assistance. You see I've read a book about something called the Elements of Harmony recently and believe it or not. I think I have one! I'm not sure when I got it but I have a necklace that looks exactly like one of those sitting upon my vanity in my estate", the stallion explained, "if you would like, I would be delighted if you and your friend would come and take a look and see if its of any assistance. Say five o'clock?"
"But, there aren't any books that I know of that are recent enough to have the elements as necklaces in them. How could you have seen them?" Fluttershy asked, bewildered that this stallion knew so much about the elements.
"Well I'm not quite sure, but if you wish, I have the tome right here." The stallion said, reaching into his saddlebags and pulling out a tome with a picture of a unicorn on the cover. He flipped it open to a bookmarked page that surprisingly enough had a picture of each of the elements all embedded within their necklaces.
"B-But how? Oh never mind, we would be delighted if you could help us!" Fluttershy exclaimed
"Splendid! Then I shall see you both at this address." He said as he used his magic to write the address down upon a parchment before folding it and levitating it into his saddlebags. He then placed them upon Fluttershy's back.
"Oh no, I couldn't take your saddlebags." Fluttershy tried to protest
"Hmm? Oh don't worry about it. Simply bring them back when you come to visit. Does that sound alright?" The stallion asked.
"Okay" Fluttershy whispered as her mane fell over one of her eyes.
"Excellent, I'll see you then!" He said as he began trotting off before stopping. "Oh Forgive me, I've never even told you my name! I'm Elusive. It's been a pleasure miss?
"F-Fluttershy" she whispered.
"It's been a pleasure Fluttershy. Until later." And with that the stallion trotted off leaving Fluttershy to stand there in a stunned silence.
That lasted all of two seconds before Rarity came trotting back.
"There you are Fluttershy! I was trotting off before I realized you hadn't followed and, say, where did you get those saddlebags?" Rarity asked.
"Well I-"
"And why do they have my cutie mark on them? Are those mine?" Rarity interrupted.
"Well you see-" Fluttershy tried again.
"And what happened? Why didn't you follow me? We have to find The Elements as soon as possible!"
"Well, I may have-"
"Ooh just think of all the time we're losing! Come we mustn't dilly dally any longer!" Rarity said, Levitating the saddlebags onto her own back and trotting off. "And we will be talking about how you obtained my saddlebags later on!" Fluttershy just sighed and began following again.
"Did you find anything Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced around Twilight's old living area. A large room with shelves filled to the brim with books and a giant hourglass dotting the middle of the room.
"Not yet Pinkie." Twilight called back.
"How about now?"
"No, not yet."
"Now?" Pinkie said, her head popping up from inside the book Twilight had just opened, causing her to drop it out of shock.
"No, Pinkie. It may go faster if you helped." Twilight said turning to another book.
"Did you look under E?" Pinkie asked.
"We're not just looking for information on the Elements Pinkie, I'm searching for something that may be a clue as to where they are." Twilight said.
"If Discord his them, why would their location be in your old library?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, the last time Discord hid them, they were inside the book that I originally found information about them. I doubt Discord would put them there a second time, but maybe he put some sort of clue about them somewhere." Twilight stated matter-of-factually.
"But why would he do that?" Pinkie asked, continuing to bounce around looking at the names of books.
"Because if I know anything about Discord, its that he always has a way for us to win. Even if its harder, he'll give us some sort of clue."
"I Found something!" Pinkie then Shouted from across the room. Twilight turned to look at her pink friend who help up a book she had found on one of the shelves. The book's cover had a poorly drawn image of Discord giving a thumbs up on it "Finding The Elements For Dummies - Chaos Edition," Pinkie read aloud, "that sounds like something Discord would say."
"Great work Pinkie!" Twilight said taking the book in her magic. She set the book on a stand, opened the cover, and began to read.
Finding the Elements for Dummies - Step One
Lose Elements.
Step Two.
Search for Elements.
Step Three.
Wait approximately 15 more seconds before Element Finds YOU.
That last part caught Twilight off guard, she had been expecting something out of the ordinary, seeing as Discord wrote this. But the last sentence confused her. She turned the page to find the same thing written on all of the other pages in the book. She was getting frustrated to the point where-
"What are you doing in here?" A voice asked from the other side of the room. Twilight and Pinkie both looked towards the door to see another purple unicorn standing in the door way. His coat was a light shade of violet while his mane was a dark purple with a pinkish stripe running down it.
"What are we doing here? What are you doing here? Huh!?" Pinkie asked getting right up in the stallions face.
"Uh, I live here?" The stallion said with a rather annoyed expression before he walked past Pinkie. "And I'm going to need to ask you both to leave before I call the guards." He said as he looked around.
"I'm sorry but I believe you have the wrong place, you see this is where I live. Or rather, where I used to live. But the Princess would have informed me if she was giving this place to someone else." Twilight said.
"I'm sorry but I believe you are mistaken." The stallion said as he looked at Twilight but then he froze. Maybe he simply did not get quite a good enough look at her, but he was now. "Strange, I've never met anypony whose coat and mane colors were so similar to mine." The stallion said. It was then that Twilight also realized just how similar the stallion looked to her. Regardless, she was wasting time and didn't need to upset this pony any longer.
"Fine, we'll be out of here just as soon as we-" As Twilight said this she looked back to where the book had been only to discover it was no longer there. In its place, however, was a single piece of paper with the words "Figure it out yet?" written on it. Twilight was stumped as Pinkie Pie trotted back over to her and read the paper as well.
"Great, Now how are we supposed to find the Elements?" Pinkie said, before putting a hoof to her muzzle as if deep in thought.
"Excuse me, but what do you need the Elements for?" The stallion asked giving the two of them a wary glance.
"To stop Discord silly!" Pinkie said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Hmm." The stallion said before levitating a book off of a shelf near the front of the room. "Do you mean these perhaps?" He said, opening a page in the book and showing Pinkie and Twilight. The page contained a picture of all six elements, but what was strange was that it showed them as their necklaces instead of simply the gems.
"How did you get a book with such recent pictures of the Elements?" Twilight asked, amazed that there was already such a tome.
"I got it just recently actually," the stallion said, "whats more is that I have one of them." He said before both the mares ran up to him.
"What!?" They yelled simultaneously.
"I said-" The stallion began to repeat himself but was cut off.
"We heard that, where is it?" Twilight asked with a grin.
"Just over there on the stand." The stallion said pointing a hoof towards Twilight's Desk. Sure enough, the all too familiar tiara was resting upon it, however something was missing.
"Wheres the Element?" Pinkie asked. And she was right to. The tiara was there however the violet star shaped gem was not.
"Ok, where's the gem?" Twilight asked, giving an accusatory glare to the stallion.
"How should I know? I don't even remember how I got that thing. It was just sitting on that desk once when I came home." The Stallion explained, Twilight was about to retaliate when suddenly a big "Boom" was heard and the building shook a bit. Looking out the window, the three ponys could see a spiral shaped rainbow emitting from the Canterlot Colosseum. The Famous Sonic-Rainboom.
"Come on Pinkie, we better go check that out." Twilight said, running for the door.
"But don't think we forgot about you! Um...." Pinkie said before realizing she never got the stallions name, "Whats your name?" She asked
"Dusk Shine" The stallion replied as he began to put the books away.
"Oh, Well anyway, Don't think we forgot about you Duck Spine! We'll be back!" Pinkie said in a menacing voice.
"I said it was Dusk Sh-" The stallion began to say but they were already gone. "Oh whatever." He said as he resumed putting the books back on their shelves.