Harmony Revisited

by deli73

Erroneous Encounters

As he rushed to get away from the scene (it probably wasn't a good idea to hang around when he'd just knocked a filly unconscious), Jake couldn't shake the feeling that there was something odd going on. It wasn't just the cotton candy clouds and flying popcorn, there was some kind of strange power in the air. He knew what magic felt like; he'd been in its presence plenty of times. This was similar, but somehow different.

He couldn't let himself get distracted from the task at hand, though. He had a hunch that Rarity wasn't going to be home for a long time. He might have to break in, as distasteful as that might be.

He shook his head in disbelief, disturbed at the number of crimes he would have to commit to keep Equestria safe. Assaulting a child and burglary were just two more things to add to his guilty conscience. At least it was for a good cause, or that’s what he kept telling himself.

With the help of his magic detector, he quickly deduced that there was indeed an artifact inside, and a powerful one at that. Perhaps it was THE powerful one. The one he'd been seeking for years. It was probably the one that had caused the others to disappear since that's all it ever did, as far as he could tell. Every time he got close to finding it the signature vanished into thin air. He wanted so badly to know how it worked. It must be more than just a simple teleportation spell – it seemed to always disappear when nopony was looking.

Jake looked around and tried to figure out the best way to get in. If only he had Whooves' sonic screwdriver, he could unlock the door with the press of a button. As it was, he had no lock-picking tools or time traveling devices.

Glancing at the door again, he was surprised to notice that it didn't have a lock. He had heard that Ponyville was a trusting community, but he'd never expected it to be quite this trusting. Either way, it worked to his advantage. He pushed the door open gently with his hoof, and heard a sharp hiss.

"Oh no," Jake groaned. Nopony had told him that Rarity had a cat.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Flora got lucky again. Admittedly, there may not have been much luck involved as the blaring dubstep could be heard from a long distance. She didn’t even need her detection system to help her find the problem, she thought with a wry smile as she stepped into Vinyl Scratch's DJ room.

"Hey, 'sup!" Vinyl gave a quick wave to Flora.

"You have to turn off the music! Those speakers are cursed!" Flora said frantically.

"Nah, these speakers work fine," Vinyl laughed. "They’re loud, just the way I like my music!"

"But they’re getting louder!" Flora retorted.

"What?"

"I SAID, they’re GETTING LOUDER!"

"WHAT?!?"

Flora growled in frustration and unplugged the speakers.

"Hey!!" Vinyl complained. "You can't just--"

Suddenly, the speakers started playing again, even louder than before.

"What did I tell you?" Flora tried to scream over the noise. "THE SPEAKERS ARE CURSED!"

She stuffed in a pair of earplugs and pulled out her magic neutralizer, attaching it to one of the speakers. With a shower of sparks and an audible pulse both ponies could feel in their bones, the sound suddenly ceased.

Vinyl gaped at the fantastic display, mildly annoyed at the interruption. "Whatever." She shrugged, removing her purple lenses. "Those were junk heap speakers. I've got spares in the back, anyways."

Flora pulled a device out and zapped the speakers, making them vanish into a temporary parallel universe for storage, then exited the room without another word.
***

Jake wasn't all that enthusiastic about animals, but for the most part they didn't bother him. For some reason, though, cats were different. He hated cats. They were always so solitary and rude, waving their tails around with an air of disdain.

Cats reciprocated his enmity, a fact made abundantly clear by Opalescence's violent reaction to Jake's intrusion. He could only gape in horror as the vicious feline lunged at him.

Three minutes and several painful scratches later, Jake stumbled out of the house with an odd stone tablet in his hooves. He took a moment to gasp for breath before stashing the object in his backpack. That was certainly quite an ordeal, but he had experienced worse...hadn't he?

Regardless, he had finally done it! He checked his watch. It was time to head back!

Something's odd, Jake thought as he walked on an odd checkered surface past several upside-down buildings and uprooted signs. He'd been in some weird places, but he knew Ponyville wasn't supposed to look like this. What could have caused it? Another artifact?

No, it was too powerful to be the work of a magical object. This was the work of a skilled mage, one that was maniacally evil, but skilled nonetheless. Hadn't he heard a legend before about something like this? He couldn't remember.

“Something is seriously wrong here,” he commented as he walked up to Flora. She replied with her signature look that some say could send Nightmare Moon herself flying back into space with shame. She preferred avoiding meaningless conversation when a steely eyed stare would do.

Jake, however, was unfazed. “So how many did you get?” He asked casually, as if they weren't surrounded by a sea of chaos and senselessness.

Flora held up the parallel storage device. “Two.”

Jake nodded. “Same here. That means we've got all three of them, plus a bonus!” He pulled out the tablet.

Flora's eyes widened. “No. That isn't-”

“It is.”

Both ponies ripped their gaze away from the impossible object as a flash of light blasted into the sky a few streets away. A rainbow then proceeded to bloom over the top of the town and split into two, creating a solid dome of magic around it in iridescent colors, which then promptly dissipated.

And just like that, everything was back to normal.

“DAMMIT!” Jake yelled, looking at his empty hooves. “Not again!”

Author's Note:

And we're done! I got this finished way earlier than I expected. Oh well!
Again, thanks to Dash-O-Salt for his help with the editing! The story would not be the same without his help.

Comments

[panzerbrony]

only error

Every time he got close to finding it the signature vanished into thin air.

recommend adding a comma between "it and "the"