Hexed

by Umbra Languish

Curse The Darkness

A shockwave thrummed through the air.

Caught off-guard, Gilda squawked loudly in surprise. Somehow, she managed to tangle up her feathers with the zipper of her satchel, and ended up losing a full twenty wingspans in altitude before she could recover her stability. Regaining her dignity, on the other claw, was definitely a lost cause.

Wow. Hot red rushed to the gryphon's cheeks as she furtively checked around for anyone who might have noticed her embarrassing stunt. No, it looked like she was good. Relatively speaking. Alright.

Stay frosty, girl.

Now that she was safe from the prying eyes of onlookers, she turned to observe the great big clouds of rainbow smoke rising from the distant city of Canterlot.
Yeah, that was new.

"Geez," Gilda groaned. "Those stupid pony jerks must have gone totally nuts, today. What kinda explosion is that?"

Even their horrible mistakes looked strange. Though, heck, a funky mushroom cloud might have been pretty crazy, but at least there weren't any pink clouds or flying pigs appearing out of nowhere. Not like that one time a few months back. It had been a really weird day for the Gryphon Kingdom, and the dumb ponies still wouldn't explain what had even happened. It had ticked off their diplomats no end.

Ah, screw them. They can deal with their own problems.

Just about done gawking, and about to turn back to her never-ending work, Gilda noticed a fuzzy dot. Something was floating, far away, in her perfect, avian vision. She squinted. "Wait … what's—" A jagged blur whizzed by her head, painfully plucking several feathers from her plumage. "Yeah. Okay. Okay. Not cool. Yeah, I don't care what you are, weirdo pink thing! Nobody messes with the feathers!" she roared.

Banking sharply, the gryphon's powerful wings powered her through the air, beating rapidly until she caught up with the arrogant little spitstain. Surprisingly, it turned out to be an inanimate object. A pink jewel in the shape of a butterfly, barely attached to a thick golden setting.

"The heck?" the part-time courier puffed. "A stupid necklace? Did somebody's jewelry box explode? Lame. I thought this was going to be cool."

Gilda stretched out a talon for the unlikely speedster. Oh! Now that she looked at it, the hunk of rock in the middle was obviously a feather, not a butterfly.
Huh. Must have seen it wrong.

The ugly, pink feather felt strangely warm, but it wasn't hot enough to make her worry. It was probably toasted from whatever caused that gross smog over the pony capital. And hey, where there's stupid-looking smoke, there's probably a stupid-looking fire, right?

With a shrug of her powerful wings, Gilda lowered her speed. She wasn't in any kind of hurry to get back home, so she descended to the ground to further examine her prize.

That's when she turned into a squirrel.

Wait, no, she was a mouse. A deer. A worried rabbit, a startled bird, a confused squirrel-badger-spider-frogsnailbugwolfmanti— "Gaaah!" The gryphon yelled as she became all the different animals around her, and then painfully snapped back together. She was reassembled, rebuilt in a twang, wobbling like a giant, feathery, rubber band.

After she stopped becoming things that were stupid, Gilda stood very still for a long time.

Emotion. That was it.
Emotions.

All the emotions around her.

She could feel them.
She could touch them.
She could … twist them.

A white unicorn valiantly attempted to brush out the dust from her fabulous, purple mane, but all to no avail. How tiresome.

"Alright! Back it up, everypony!" Applejack hollered, right into Rarity's ears. "Let's get a few things straight here, 'kay?"

After delicately wincing, and giving her hair up as a lost cause, the fashionista sidled over to where the farmer was collecting everyone from their entirely pointless conversations. As the stragglers arrived, the earth-pony gave a firm nod. "Now then, Twi'? Give us a good ol' rundown, would'ya?"

"Um." The bookish unicorn whipped out a pair of completely unnecessary spectacles, sliding them on with a practiced motion. "Sure. Yes. Well, as a basic primer, our Elements have broken. Discord—"

"Hold it!" interrupted the repugnant force of nature in question. A claw whipped out dramatically to point at the startled mare. "How dare you! I am no longer Discord! Instead, I shall henceforth be known as … Disorder!" A heavy silence greeted his entirely arbitrary announcement.

Twilight had never looked more like a librarian than she did then, raising a single cold eyebrow to match her glacial tone. "And now you want to change your name. Great."

"Mhmm. But do go on, Purple. I'm still listening." The maniac grinned unrepentantly.

Ugh. Purple? Rarity mouthed the bulbous word in distaste. He kept using that word. Is that what Discord actually thought, the brute? Twilight's coat was obviously mulberry. Clearly, quite different. Much trickier to design for.

"Okay then." The irritated, mulberry mare gave the draconequus a testy glare, pushing up her glasses until they glinted in the afternoon sun. "It seems Mister 'Disorder' has decided to be as infuriatingly unhelpful as equinely possible."

She received a mocking bow in reply.

"Hmph." The unicorn grumpily turned to a different page in her notes, creasing the paper to a deadly point with her hooves. "Anyway, I've done a little research in the palace library. The Elements of Order were the predecessors to Harmony, reputedly comprised of six magical forces. Historically speaking, it's very interesting reading. Unfortunately, when the legends come to saying what those forces were, everything gets a little unclear. Some of the tales I read included magical basics like fire and water, while the more adventurous ones used vague, conceptual ideals. Stuff like honor, sacrifice, confusion, or—"

"Sacrifice?" Rarity swooned dramatically. "Oh my stars, how horrifying!" She stifled a smirk. "Confusion sounds very much suited to Pinkie, though. It's practically made for her."

"Hey! I'm not confused!" the baker complained, to a round of muffled snickering.

A hit, a very palpable hit! Chalk up one for the unicorn, and … many, many more for Pinkie. Yes, well, fine. Rarity thought it was about time she won a point. Social maneuvering was a delicate game, and it never truly ended. As her mother always said, the only way to lose was not to play.

Noisily clearing her throat, Twilight brought everypony's attention back to the matter at hoof. "The problem here is that we no longer represent the powers of the Elements. Applejack was a wonderful example of Honesty, for instance, but if her aspect changed to something like … Fire, then there wouldn't be much of a connection. Presumably, our Elements will have sought out more suitable Bearers. That's a capital B, by the way. To be a Bearer sounds pretty special, and all the books mentioned it in some aspect. We should probably be careful. I'm guessing superpowers may be involved."

"So we gotta go find 'em, right?" Rainbow asked. She expertly kicked the air a few times. "I bet we gotta take 'em all down and buck some flank along the way. Aw yeah, totally called it! Who called it? Me! Hey, time for an adventure, you guys! Woo!"

The librarian blinked guilelessly, folding her glasses back up. "Uh, pretty much. Find the necklaces, stop any unscrupulous enemies from winning, and try not to die. That's my overall plan."

Well now. Rarity thought that sounded like a rather good strategy. In fact, she intended to complete all three of those objectives to the best of her ability. Especially the third.
She was a perfectionist, after all.

Big Mac chewed on a juicy stalk of hay.

As he idly flicked an ear to shoo away a persistent fly, the well-muscled stallion continued to stare at the enormous, smoking crater in front of him. It was right where Apple Bloom's house used to be.

Hmm.

Now just hold on a second. He may have been a bit tired when he woke up this morning, but he was pretty darn sure that a giant hole hadn't been here. He would have remembered that.

Well, that was bad news. Something had destroyed his sister's club-house, and if she had been inside it, she could have gone down with it. But … what had happened?

Apple Bloom turned watery eyes on her confused brother. "It wasn't mah fault, honest!" she pleaded.

"Nnope." Big Mac ruffled the little filly's red mane reassuringly. He knew it wasn't her fault. Apple Bloom couldn't explode a treehouse, even if she tried. Scootaloo was similarly innocent. That girl could barely fly, let alone destroy an entire building.

He wasn't so sure about Sweetie Belle, though.

Trixie snorted, and fell out of bed.

"Bgah! What?" Caught in a panic, she fumbled for the light, and was soon staring at the dank, cramped interior of her second-hoof caravan.

Oh. The unicorn sighed in relief, parting her tangled mane with a trembling limb. She must have nodded off. In the middle of the afternoon, no less.

"But it was all just a dream. Thank goodness." Trixie paused, and instinctively puffed herself up. "I … I mean, The Great and Powerful Mare of Mystery would never … be …"

Her voice faded away to nothing, as her gaze fixed upon a gap in the crooked floorboards. She didn't have an audience. Not here. No friends to impress, no critics to sway. There wasn't anyone here who needed convincing.

Nopony except herself.

It had been quite a while since Trixie had been run out of Ponyville – for the second time, no less. In the end, despite her best efforts to reclaim her life, to turn over a new leaf, she had ended up falling back on her old routines. Projecting an image of superiority was vital for this line of work, and she had no other method of employment. She had no other skills. She had to boast to survive.

And on the stage, only the Great and Powerful could succeed.

But … spending so much time doing the same unscupulous things was beginning to get the unicorn down. Maybe she should quit showbiz. All this lying and posturing, just to get one more hoof up on the other ponies? This wasn't what she really wanted. This wasn't what her parents had wanted for her.

Trixie was getting so tired of—

Her painted, pine door suddenly shot across the room, irrevocably damaged. Hot wisps of steam gushed into her caravan, soft ribbons of white mist obscuring the deep cracks in the splintered wood. The creaking of her home sounded like a wounded beast to her shocked, twitching ears. Whatever was out there meant some serious business.

Trixie shot to her feet, horn aglow, ready to fight for her life.

After several, tense minutes of nothing at all happening, she carefully peeked her nose out of the doorway. She itched to hurl some incredibly embarrassing spells, but her plans were confounded by the continued absence of a culprit. A quick glance around the campsite revealed no other disturbance. An act of gutless vandalism, then? How despicable.

"Worthless scum!" she shouted to the night. "Cowards! You'll pay for this!"

Scowling in anger, Trixie turned back to her ruined abode, only to spy a glint of gold. Something was glittering in her newly-rearranged doorframe, wedged between two smoking planks. A twist of mental effort, and the object soon hung before her. It spun slowly, suspended in an unseen web of azure will and power.

For a moment, she thought it was one of her past mistakes, come back to haunt her.
After all, a jeweled necklace with a diamond-shaped gem? The similarities were startling, to be sure. But no, it was a royal gold and purple in color, not silver and red. And there wasn't any alicorn iconography to be seen on the thing.

"Bah. A mere bauble, then? A nice one, yes, but it is a very odd gift. And an even odder manner of delivery."

Curious, she turned the jewel around to inspect it further. "Purple, though. Trixie supposes it matches her costume, if not her mane."

Maybe she would just make sure that the gold was real. Yes. If it was, perhaps she could pawn it off to repair her wagon. Then this whole calamity wouldn't be another miserable loss in a long series of miserable losses. Perhaps the gem was even worth a slight gain? Trixie tapped it with an investigative hoof and glanced at her ruined home doubtfully. Probably not. That was a lot of damage on a pretty worthless house. It would be cheaper to scrap it and buy a new one.

Then the purple diamond clinked. The linear, geometric shape, in an eye-watering maneuver, somehow folded itself into a round medallion. A small, delicate disk was born, with a beautiful wand emblazoned upon it. Just like her cutie-mark.

Ringing jolts of noise shot through her as a series of incomprehensible numbers scanned through her mind. The value of her cart, the loss of sale price due to the hole, the origins of base materials, cost and worth and ability and purpose and function, all blended into a continuous stream of unending information – it was overwhelming!

Oh, but there was a pattern. The scattered reams of data all dealt with value, and value alone.

And those numbers looked delicate, too.
Almost … malleable.

Was what she was planning even possible? Trixie was never terribly good at mathematics. Even now, she knew she couldn't just make the hole in her wagon disappear. This wasn't the Alicorn Amulet. As far as she knew, this strange necklace could not give her power, nor the ability to break any magical rules. Everything would have to originate from her, in the end. No shortcuts.

Besides, everything had a price. Trixie could see that now.
She could see that all too well.

But … perhaps she could move that price. It was pure supposition, but the idea felt right, somehow. In the end, what would happen if she just reached out, and made a Sacrifice of something else? Something unimportant, like that boulder over there.

The boulder splintered under the devastating force applied to it, shards of stone flaking off and falling away.

And in stark contrast to the rocky carnage she had inflicted, her caravan stood tall once more. Completely undamaged. Totally whole.

A slow, creeping grin slid over her face, even as her paltry reserves of magic depleted. Trixie had used her own feeble magic to perform a much greater task, something she would never have been able to do before. Yes, it was just like leverage. She got more effect for a smaller effort, but she put in all the power the spell required.

So this wasn't cheating at all.

"Trixie understands now," she whispered. This was her answer. She didn't need to break the rules to be great. All magic was possible, it was simply a matter of how much you were willing to pay.

And what you were willing to Sacrifice.

The spirit formerly known as Discord snored really loudly. Like, really loudly. He even had a floating leaf bobbing up and down over his mouth, balanced aloft by his breath.

Dash looked enviously over at the comatose draconequus. Aw, man. Taking a nap sure sounded pretty good right now. The pegasus was bored out of her mind by all this lame arguing. It just went on and on and on! What was Twilight even doing with her twinkly whatchamacallits? Ah, never mind, ignore that question. It looked totally yawn-worthy.

She yawned, just to prove her point.

"And 203.55 by 56.48 degrees," read out the unicorn. She scrawled down the last message from her magical doodad, and dispersed the thing into shiny smoke. "That should be the last one."

Applejack tilted her Stetson to scratch behind her ear. "So, uh, what's all that gibberish mean? You track'em down yet?"

"Um, yes. As far as I can tell." The librarian nodded. Horn glowing, she flicked a quill around on two identical maps. "I can't be certain, you understand. Magical vapor trails are hardly the most accurate way of determining location, so any predictions are educated guesses at best."

"Well, you've got the best education of anypony Ah know, Twi. Ah'm sure it's fine," said Applejack.

Wow. That was a pretty terrible compliment, so Dash couldn’t resist butting her technicolor head into the conversation. “Anypony Applejack knows, huh? That's not saying much,” she teased.

“Hey!” The farmer tried to glare at the pegasus, but ruined the serious mood by breaking down in chuckles. “Y’know, that means y'ain’t that educated yerself, genius, seein’ that yer somepony that Ah know’n all. Guess yer just as dumb as little old me.”

Oh. Hoisted by her own canard. Rainbow indicated her loss with a grin and a nod. Touché, Applejack. Touché.

Hey, she never claimed to be smart. Just fast. Really, really fast.

After Twilight had finished giggling at Dash's expense, the unicorn continued her explanation. "Ahem. Well, here's the most likely landing spots I've determined. Again, they're general areas, not exact positions." Finishing her scribbles, she levitated the maps so the others could see. "It seems, aside from my tiara …" The librarian's voice wavered slightly, and trailed off.

Woah, why was everypony suddenly sad?

Um. Right. The princess. Rainbow most definitely did not turn to look at the new Sovereign in the Sun. See? She was totally tactful. Eat it, Rarity. Her hooves were nowhere near her mouth.

"… two of the gems headed towards Ponyville." Twilight frowned. "A different one appears to have crash-landed in Canterlot, and the last two headed further out, to the North and East, respectively. Those will be the hardest to find."

"Hrm." Applejack looked pretty serious, both her brows drawn in as tight as they would go.

Oh. That was a bummer. One of the circles was smack-dab in the middle of the Apple family's farm. Big Mac could take care of himself, but Applejack's sister and granny lived there, too. Dash hoped they were all okay. The Apples. And the actual apples. Both the fruit and the ponies, come to think of it. Haha. No, stop, this was serious.

Twilight tapped the map. “In summary, since there are so many directions to go, I think we should split up.”

"No.” Luna regally shook her head. “Absolutely not. You are forbidden from searching individually. Against the full power of the Elements, we cannot be too cautious. It is imperative that we keep you six safe from harm."

"But if somepony finds one, they might release its power!" the unicorn cried. "Who knows what would happen?”

In reply, the princess closed her eyes, doing some sort of princess-ish royal-type face. “We are blessed with the capacity to hope for the best, but our duty is always to plan for the worst. Our worst-case scenario is that all of the Elements have found new, powerful bearers. As you are now, each of you would fall.”

"Psh, yeah right! Rainbow Dash never loses!" Rainbow boasted, striking a dashing pose.

And Luna brushed her off with a dismissive wave. “No, none of you would stand a chance. But … I agree with your sentiment, Twilight. It appears this is a balancing act. We must split our forces to retrieve the Elements quickly, and I must also keep you safe. As such, you may only divide once. You may split into teams of three, no less."

Pinkie shot up excitedly. "Great! It's just like picking sports teams! Can I be a captain?" she chirruped.

"Sports teams?" whimpered Fluttershy.

Ooh, sports teams. Sore point.

Yeeah. The yellow mare was always chosen last for those in flight school. Nopony wanted the ‘pegasus who couldn’t fly’ on their team. Not that Dash was very popular, either. In hindsight, outshining everypony else was probably just as bad as failing horribly, or being a gryphon in a pony school. She hadn't made many friends in her short time there.

With a knowing grin, Pinkie stuck out her hoof as if picking a toy at a carnival. "I pick Fluttershy!"

"R-really? You want me on your team?" the shy pegasus stammered.

Hooves on her hips, the baker puffed out her chest. "Of course I do! That way, we'll be ready for parties and wild animals! It's the perfect team combination!"

Woah, Twilight was twitching at that sentence in a weird sorta way.
Probably because it made no sense, or something.

Eh, whatever. So Dash was obviously a captain, too. Right? It was only natural. She was the best! So, considering her choices, she could choose from Rarity, Applejack, or Twilight. "Okay. I choose … Applejack."

"Darn tootin'!" the farmer nodded in approval.

"Okey-dokey! Then we get Twilight!" Pinkie chirruped. "Because you two are super strong, and we might need to lift something really heavy like that Ursa Minor that she lifted that one time when Trixie was in town!"

Rainbow practically preened at the obvious praise. "Well, I'm not gonna say we're not awesome! Rarity, looks like you're with us."

The white mare nodded distractedly, busy re-curling her fancy mane with magic. Again.

Great. Dash sighed. At least Applejack would be there. Maybe they could make a race out of the search? This adventure was going pretty terribly, so far. There had just been a lot of fussing around and ponies getting sad. Lame.

Satisfied at the arrangements, the princess trotted over to look at the maps. "Very well. I propose we send one of your groups out to retrieve the furthest Element, and one towards the closest. In the meantime, I can start to track down the two that lie in Ponyville."

"Soooo," Pinkie drew out the syllable teasingly. "Can we be Team Pink? Or Pink-Tank? The Pinkertons? Pink and be Merry?" She beamed happily at her own puns.

Luna raised an unamused eyebrow. "Does nomenclature truly matter? Perhaps you would be better served by putting phrasing aside, and deciding how to divide your resources. Each of you must take care of two Elements. I advise you to choose … carefully."

Rainbow had thought about doing that. Yeah. But then she figured she'd leave the strategizing stuff to the ponies who really enjoyed it. She was generous like that.

As expected, Twilight carefully considered the map, before turning a serious face to her other team members. "I think we should go for the far-away one. I should be able to teleport all three of us a couple of times, which will get us there pretty quickly, allowing the other team to work nearby."

Huh? Dash decided to take offense. "Wait!" she blurted. "If you want fast, why aren't you asking me to do it?" She raised her amazing, totally awesome wings to illustrate her point.

The unicorn blinked. "Oh! I didn't mean to offend you, Rainbow. It's just a long way to fly with two ponies on your back."

Two ponies on her back? That sounded uncomfortable, yes. Perplexed, Dash glanced over at Rarity, then caught sight of Applejack and grimaced. "Oh yeah. My bad. Forgot about Applejack," she admitted. "Never mind. Even I can't do that."

The farm-pony's gaze narrowed dangerously. "Excuse me? You sayin’ Ah’m heavy?"

Aw, funk! Don't answer that one, Rainbow. It's a trap. You say yes, and you'll get a face full of angry farmer. You say no, and you'll set off the dishonesty alarm (because Applejack totally is heavy), and get a face full of angry farmer. Keep your mouth shut, that's a plan. Turn aside, and pretend not to listen. Mmm.

Meanwhile, Rarity was smiling genuinely at the other team. "Oh, how nice of you! I appreciate being given the shorter journey, girls. It's very kind. This hooficure is brand-new, you see, girls. I mustn't wreck it just yet, or the girls at the spa will be so cross. Thank you."

Fluttershy didn't answer, she just flushed and pawed at the ground. But Pinkie laughed cheerfully at the compliment. “No problemo! We'll be back before you know it! All we have to do is go grab some shiny rocks, right? How hard could this be?"

"That's the spirit!" Twilight nodded proudly at her teammates, and turned to the princess. "We'll be off then, your Highness. Please make sure Ponyville is safe."

The alicorn stood straighter, before nodding solemnly at the three. "May luck be with you all," the immortal pony whispered.

With a strained grunt from Twilight, the mares glowed, and swiftly disappeared.

Hmm. It seemed kinda quiet now. Too quiet. Just the breeze blowing through the distant trees, and a crabby old dragon-thing choking and spluttering on something he'd inhaled.

“Ah asked you a question, Dash! You callin’ me fat?"

Yeah. Quiet.

“Answer me!” Applejack raged.

"Wh … What happened?" A hazy landscape swam into view above him. Blueblood stretched out a hoof and saw two wavering outlines of his oddly distant limb. His back felt sore, probably because he was lying on the cold, hard ground.

The ground? What in the world?

"I was … knocked out? But where are the doctors? Why am I alone?" he asked the air. Surely he should be receiving medical attention? It was his right! His birthright!

No answer was forthcoming from the painfully indifferent air.

Oh, how despicably thirsty he was! Hungry, too. It seemed he had been insensate for an unconscionably long time. Oh, he would truly give anything for a glass of water right now! And perhaps a cucumber sandwich. Petits fours. A velvet cushion wouldn't go astray, either. How uncomfortable the floor was. He'd never really noticed.

Then again, it wasn't like he'd ever slept on anything but silk.

A few agonizing minutes passed, allowing his vision to ever-so-slowly clear. His two left-hooves reluctantly resolved into one. Eventually, Blueblood felt well enough to stand, and after a few false starts, he carefully attempted to do so. Feeling very hard done-by, the injured aristocrat lifted his head to glare at the doors. Behind that wooden aperture were his useless guards.

Except they weren't. They were already here.
All twenty of them, along with a full cadre of medics, were sprawled in a rough line from him to the entrance, painting a disturbing scene. These twenty-nine ponies were either asleep, or—

Blueblood shuddered.

"Is somepony out there?" he shouted at the locked doors. There wasn't a single quaver in his regal, commanding voice, of course. Not one iota of discomfort. "W-what is g-going on? H-Help!"

Perhaps just one iota.

The door clicked and cracked open slightly, a pale, watering eye peering through. "Your Highness!" a tearful maid gasped, throwing open the door. "You're alright!" She seemed deliriously happy that her employer had not died.

As soon as she stepped into the room, though, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and a strangled wheeze exited her lips. The cream-colored mare collapsed with a muffled thump. Then, to Blueblood's utmost horror, and with the most disconcerting ringing noise, a glowing aura separated from her body. It swam over to the prince. Flustered, he tried to avoid it, but the energy deftly slipped inside him, adding more power to his internal well of magic.

A well which was thirty times as large as it should have been. 

"Wh-what? What is going on?" Blueblood's normally charismatic words came out as a miserable whimper, but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. "Am I … eating ponies?"

Trixie trundled her portable home over the cobblestones, and into the central square of a nondescript town. This little hamlet had the dubious honor of being a small village in the middle of nowhere. It was nowheres-ville, by any sense of the word.

Yes, perhaps she could begin to salvage her reputation here. At least they'd be easy to impress.

Sighing, Trixie fixed her hat and swirled out her cloak. The clasp to the patterned cloth was brand new, a purple gem with her cutie-mark set into it. It hadn't taken long to make the adjustments at all, despite her lack of experience at the task. As for the solid-gold setting, she had ended up hiding it in her hat. If she ran low on funds again, she could always pawn it for some quick cash.

She looked up as somepony stopped in front of her. "Oh, are you a performer?" the stranger asked.

A curious passer by? That meant it was time to begin the show. It started far before the actual act began. "A performer? Hah! The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most magical pony in all of Equestria! With her abilities, she can perform amazing feats of sorcery! She can even reshape the world, right before your very eyes!"

Trixie quickly and easily spun her well-rehearsed advertising spiel. For some reason, it rang truer than usual.

"Ooh! Sounds exciting! Hey, everypony!" the other mare yelled. "Come watch this!"

Within minutes, a crowd had swiftly formed, ponies babbling excitedly about the new act. The perfect time to begin would be in ten seconds … five … now.

Jumping backwards, Trixie opened up her caravan with a flick of magic, twirling and flipping acrobatically in the air. As her stage slid out, she clacked her hooves down safely on the wooden surface. The gasps of the audience were drowned out by a set of fireworks igniting.

"Let the show begin!" she shouted. The crowd cheered wildly.

Now to try out the newest addition to her routine. With a flick of her hoof, she tapped her clasp, causing it to glow and hum at her throat. The numbers began to scroll down past her eyes again, but they only distracted her for a moment. She could hear the song of the medallion. It sounded a glorious knell of anticipation, and Trixie's very spirits raised. The unicorn laughed in clear exultation.

"Watch." She smirked. "And be amazed."

Three ponies burst into being.

"Gfuh!" Twilight gasped articulately. The exhausted unicorn flopped to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut.

Yeah. That was weird.

But, look! "Ooh! That mountain range is super-close now!" Pinkie pointed out.

When no-one answered, the earth-pony turned back around in indignation, only to realize that their team leader was totally indisposed. The librarian was just lying on the ground, panting for air.

Fluttershy was unharmed, of course, but the mare was busy fanning Twilight with her wings, desperately trying to cool the unicorn off.

Neither of them were paying attention to Pinkie, though. And that was unacceptable.

No, hold on! Without Twilight giving clever orders all the time, it slowly dawned on the pink pony that this was her chance to shine! Ponies were depending on her to save the world! She couldn't let them down.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes, and put a particularly mean pout on her snout. Game face, on.

"Fluttershy, I need a sit rep, stat!" Commander Pie barked.

The pegasus stared at her, while continuing to rotate her wings. "I, um, don't know what that means, Pinkie."

Huh.

"Neither do I, Fluttershy," the baker admitted. "Neither do I." This leader thing wasn't turning out so well. Those books had lied to her!

She scratched her head with a hoof. Maybe she needed some advice.

"Hey, Twilight?" Pinkie turned to the exhausted unicorn, who was struggling to raise her head. "How many sit reps are there in a stat?"

Twilight groaned in almost physical pain, and thunked her head back down.

The baker didn't take offense, because she knew that head-butting random objects was just one of those strange things other ponies did sometimes, mostly around her. "Also, I don't know what any of those words mean. Oh, except sit! I know sit."

Fluttershy stepped forward. "Pinkie, let her breathe. She just did a lot of magic, she needs to rest." The pegasus ushered her away gently.

Now sitting a safe distance away, the earth-pony pondered this alien concept of 'rest'. Was it something to do with music? Rarity had said something about that, once. Party music? Maybe it meant they should have a party! Even if it didn't, who doesn't like parties, right?

If only she had her party cannon. Everyone loves cannons.

"Well, maybe you should lay off the apple pastries! No wonder you're heavy!"

"Ah'm heavier than you 'cus Ah don' have hollow bones, y'featherhead! It's you who's stupidly light!"

"Well maybe you should lay off the bones then, you … apple tree-hugger!"

"Oh, that don' make a lick a'sense, y'numbskull!"

That was it. Luna couldn't take it any more.

"Rrrragh! Enough!" she shouted. The bickering duo of mares froze, to Rarity's visible relief.

The princess cleared her throat, sending a disappointed look at the arguing ponies, who had found themselves in a rather compromising position during the heated debate. Rainbow quickly shoved Applejack off, and they both stood up, shifting ashamedly.

"This is not the time for that," she admonished them. "Find the Element in Canterlot. I will fly to Ponyville, to question the citizenry."

The abashed trio nodded and swiftly left, headed towards the city's wealthiest district.

Bemused, the princess shook her head. Really, that little group of ponies might have been incredibly important, but you certainly wouldn't know it by looking at them. They acted more like children than anything.

'Disorder' leant his chin on a hand, and waved an arm lazily from his prone position. "Have fun!" he called to the vanishing trio, before a jaw-cracking yawn overtook him. Flopping back, the draconequus rolled over, obviously intending to go back to sleep.

Luna chuckled nastily. It was payback time. "Oh no, no, no. I'm not letting you out of my sight, Discord. Much like a recalcitrant foal, you require constant supervision. And as the only adult around, that duty falls to me."

"Disorder. Oh, and how are you going to watch over me, hm? I thought you had to go to Ponyville." He smirked.

Slowly, the princess nodded her head. "Yes. I do." Then an unpleasant grin grossed her face. "So that must mean you're coming too. Get out your wings, Discord. We have a long way to fly."

Yes, that made the cretin stop smirking.

With a careful look around, Apple Bloom bumped her door shut, and placed the necklace carefully onto her bed. Careful does it.

She hadn't told her brother about it, yet, even though she probably should. The sparkly blue ball was something special – a treat that she didn't have to share with the rest of her family. The filly felt pretty bad about hiding it from Big Mac, but he didn't seem to think there was anything missing from the crater, so it was probably buried treasure, in which case, finders-keepers!

That's the law. Pirates made that law, so it had to be true.

Besides, Rarity had a gem-finding cutie mark, right? Maybe Apple Bloom just needed to practice, and then, bam! Cutie mark! It'd be like hide-and-go-seek! But with only one pony. Who already knew where to look. And couldn't tell her family to hide the gemstone for her. Oh.
Darnit, now the flaws in her plan seemed so obvious.

She could still show it to her friends, though! Scootaloo … probably wouldn't care, but at least Sweetie would think the sparkly thing was cool! Whatever it was.

"Tha's righ'! Th' heck are ya, anyway?" Apple Bloom asked the blue orb, as if it could talk like a real people could. "Y'ain't a normal gem, that's fer sure." It did something right funny to her head. Now there were all these crazy shapes and colors in the corners of her eyes, but they weren't there when she twisted her neck round to look. She kept getting this feeling that if she turned just right, she'd be able to see them. It was … like there was an extra direction on the compass. North, South, East, West, and Blurgh.

What kinda crazy necklace did that? Blurgh weren't on no maps she'd never seen. None of the good ones, at least.

Hmm. Maybe Sweetie Belle would known what this doodad was. Aw, but then she'd have to walk all the way into Ponyville, and it was getting late! Granny would be real mad with her if she was still out after dark. And besides, she was really curious. She wanted to know now, not later!

"Dumb rock." The frustrated filly poked the gemstone.

When a miniature bolt of lightning zapped her with a tinny fizz, Apple Bloom jumped and hissed in a breath in a purely involuntary reflex. The electric shock didn't really hurt; the spark was much too small for that. But now she had a nasty black scorch-mark on her hoof! Blech. Rubbing the spot, she blew an angry raspberry at the necklace.

Hoh, wait a sec! She could just perform a simple technomagical spectrographic chemical decomposition, taking into account the aberrant weight and, hence, density of the spheroid in question! She had the tools to do it, too! Or, at least the tools to make the tools to make the tools. Hah! That sounded much easier than walking into town. Why didn't she think of that before? Boy, she was dumb.

Apple Bloom clattered off to find some scrap metal, two sandwiches and a screwdriver. Forget her homework, she had real work to do! Hahah!

Back in her room, alone once more, the blue gem glittered atop her pillow.

The distinctive yowl of a manticore echoed throughout the dry forest.

For Gilda, the grating call seemed particularly loud for this time of year, and in this region of the woods. Of course, that sense of misplacement was just because one of the chimeric monstrosities was right in front of her. Totally understandable, yeah. Made sense that she'd freak out a little.

A drop of sweat rolled down onto her beak as she stared at the horrifically lethal creature. It gave a menacing growl, and licked its slavering chops, seemingly chuckling at her fear. It probably was.

Gilda gulped weakly. "Okay, even I can tell that this isn't going to end well."

What a sucky situation. She could tell the manticore wasn't going to leave her alone. A little earlier experimentation had revealed the power of the magical feather-dealie, which turned out to be the ability to feel what others felt. Or at least, it was something pretty close to that. It worked on animals, anyway.

The manticore? According to pink-and-twinkly, it just felt really hungry. Ravenous. It probably hadn't eaten for days, considering the season.

Fantastic.
Yep, it looked pretty bad for her, she had to admit. Was this the end of Gilda? How depressing. Ending up as manticore-chow wasn't what she wanted to be carved into her tombstone. Better ways to die? Maybe going out in a blaze of glory while punching Celestia in the face? That sounded way cooler. Pity.

Her pink feather startled her when it twitched with a heavy thud, making a muffled, buried sound like the internal thump of bone on flesh. As if it had sensed its owner's distress, the crystal mirrored her fear and beamed it outward, forcing the predator to a shuddering halt. Gilda wasn't sure how she understood the mechanics of what was obviously crazy magic, but she wasn't going to knock it. For this … mode of the feather, all she knew was that everything else would feel what she did, except magnified many times over. The emotional dial was pushed up to ten. It was like a backwards version of the usual empathy power, but put on broadcast instead of receive.

The manticore didn't move.

Um. The gryphon hesitated, before waving a nervous talon. Okay? So, uh, what happened? Should she try to scare it off?

“Uh, grrr?” she half-heartedly snarled, raking her claws in the air.

It turned out that her growl was the final straw. The apex predator whined like a beaten housecat, and retreated from its not-so-fearsome opponent. Gilda watched, dumbfounded, as the terrifying monster that haunted her nightmares fled, mewling in fear.

For a long time, she was speechless. The implications … boiled away at her. This ugly, pink, little trinket had enormous power. And the thing had just fallen right into her lap.

Then she began to laugh.