Twilight gasped as she and her friends arrived at their campsite,
or what was left of it. The tents were all taken down and the ground was
littered with their belongings. “Are you kidding me?” Twilight asked after a
gasp. Pinkie Pie giggled. “This was the worst day ever!” she said with her
hooves out. The whole group burst into laughter.
“Come on, every pony, said Starlight casually, “We can fix this
campsite in no time.”
“Spoken like a true camper,” said Applejack.
“Eh, don’t push it,” Starlight replied with a grin.
“You know if we can survive a day like this, I believe our
friendship can survive anything the world can throw at us.” Off in the
distance, Chrysalis flew toward the moon.
In the meanwhile, Twilight was using her magic to repair the tents
that had fallen over and Rainbow Dash was off gathering fire wood. Soon, they
were relaxing in front of a fire beneath a clear night sky. The six friends
were currently enjoying marshmallows that they were roasting. Pinkie Pie burned
her marshmallow to a blackened crisp and gleefully popped it into her mouth.
Rarity was reminded of her younger sister's burned breakfasts and made a face.
Fluttershy occasionally looked around to make sure that nothing was coming from
the darkness. The purple alicorn cleared her throat.
"I think we all can agree that this camping trip did not go
exactly the way we planned. We did have our disagreements, but the good thing
is that we worked through it in the end."
Rarity sighed in relief. "Thank goodness we did. I was
getting tired of walking around all day and trying to clear up confusions. Not
to mention the dirt in my hooves is driving me nuts."
Applejack rolled her eyes. "What do you expect, Rarity? This
is a camping trip, getting dirty is part of it."
"Well, as long as I have my good friends with me, then I
suppose it's alright for now."
"That's the spirit," Applejack said with a grin and an
upward movement of her hoof.
Rainbow Dash spoke up next. "Does any pony want to hear a
real-life scary story?"
"Sure!" chirped Pinkie Pie. "But aren't the scary
stories made up?"
"Lots of them are," Rainbow Dash replied.
"But I'm referring to what happened earlier today. Is it just me or does
any pony think this trip was stranger than usual?"
There was murmuring and a brief silence.
Starlight added, "Well we did argue earlier and there were
some misunderstandings. Is that what you mean?"
Pinkie Pie made scary funny faces in the firelight. "I think
she means strange as in stranger than usual strange."
Rainbow Dash placed a hoof to her forehead. "That made no
sense, Pinkie."
Fluttershy sat up in thought. "Now that I think about it,
those woodland critters would have no reason to be scared of me." Then she
started to whimper. "Unless I did something wrong..."
Applejack placed a comforting orange hoof on Fluttershy's
shoulder. "Aww sugercube, there would be no reason for those critters to
fear you. You're the kindest pony in Equestria."
Fluttershy gave a small smile. "I...guess you're right. Maybe
I just stumbled into a bad part of the forest."
"Perhaps the forest was playing tricks on us or
something," Starlight suggested. "I almost forgot about it but,
Applejack was acting strange when she said that the camping equipment made me
look silly."
Applejack glared at her. "I already told you, I didn't say
any of that!"
Starlight shrugged. "Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but I
did get a glimpse of your cutie mark. Your three apples were green."
"My cutie mark has always been red! What the hay are
you talking about?" she exclaimed.
Pinkie Pie waved her hooves in the air. "Ooh, did you
decorate your cutie mark as a prank when we weren't looking? Cause if so, you
did a great job fooling us!"
Applejack stomped her hoof on the ground. "Why would I do
something like that? You and Rainbow Dash are the pranksters of this
group."
"Well, yeah!" Rainbow replied. "Seeing the shocked
looks on other ponies' faces is totally priceless!"
"Agree with you on that one!" smiled Pinkie as she and
Rainbow Dash gave each other a high hoof.
Rainbow Dash spoke again. "What I was going to say was that
Rarity at one time seemed off. She thought me and Applejack were plotting to
steal her belongings and she just ran off!"
Rarity looked taken aback. "What?! Why would I do something
greedy like that? I'd much prefer taking my own belongings with me. No offence,
Applejack."
Applejack sighed. "That's fine but...why were you
acting so crazy back there? Your coat also looked gray."
Rarity looked at her in surprise and shock. "My coat has always
been a clean white! Have you lost your mind?"
"Hey, maybe we all have!" Pinkie chimed in.
"How about we all play hide and seek and get our minds back?"
"Seriously, Pinkie?" asked Twilight with a deadpan look
on her face.
Pinkie Pie giggled. "I was just joking around, Twilight! How
about we just have fun and not think about your schedule for a moment."
"I told you earlier that I was sorry for putting my
plans above Fluttershy's feelings," she replied, trying to keep the
annoyance out of her voice. "Why would you think I would be planning a
schedule when we end this trip and leave in the morning?"
Pinkie Pie paused. "Well...I suppose you have a good
point."
Fluttershy spoke next. "Um, when we leave, could you not
leave me behind in the forest again." She looked at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash held her hoofs up. "What are you looking at me
for? I told you I didn't leave you by yourself out there."
Fluttershy looked at her suspiciously. "Are you sure
about that?"
Rainbow Dash sighed and faced the group. "Look, whatever
happened before is in the past. I promise that I will not leave any pony
behind."
Starlight then turned to Applejack. "So is it true that you
spent your time in the forest for 127 hours by yourself, Applejack?"
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "I do enjoy camping, but I'd
never stay that long, especially not by myself. I always travel with my family
and friends. Where'd you hear that?"
"You told us the story yourself, darling," replied
Rarity.
"I certainly did not," Applejack mentioned.
"Are you sure you're not lying?" asked Starlight.
"I almost never lie, and I swear I'm telling you the honest
truth," said Applejack.
"Almost never?" Starlight asked.
A flurry of arguments spread through the night.
"Every pony calm down!" Twilight yelled. The ponies went
silent. Twilight took a deep breath and continued, "All right, I
know it is been a confusing day for all of us. We all make mistakes at times.
The important thing is learning from them and moving on."
The ponies nodded in agreement. "Sorry about that
Applejack," Starlight said. "I guess I got carried away during this
trip and needed to vent some more."
"That's all right," said Applejack. "Just know that
I would never make fun of you or make up silly stories."
"I'm sorry for not trusting you," Fluttershy told
Rainbow Dash.
"And I'm sorry for making you think that I abandoned you. You
know I would never do something like that."
"And I'm sorry for blaming you on being too focused on your
camping plans," added Pinkie. "All of us appreciate the time you take
to make every trip a piece of cake! Oh, where did those rhymes come from?"
Twilight laughed softly. "I'm sorry as well. I wanted it to
be a special trip that all of us can enjoy."
"Who's ready for a Worst Trip Ever Party?" Pinkie
squealed, shooting a cannon full of confetti that rained in the air. No pony
said a word. "Okay then, I'll save that for another time," she
said.
"I appreciate your kind words," said Twilight. "All
of us can learn a valuable lesson from this experience."
"Which is?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Friendships are never perfect. They are not supposed to
be," Twilight explained. "Like I said before, there is nothing that
the magic of friendship can't handle, right girls?"
There were cheers of affirmation form the ponies.
"Good. Now let's all go to bed. We have a long walk ahead of
us back to Ponyville tomorrow,” said Twilight.
The main six try to figure out what the cause of the strange
events were. When they become suspicious, they talk to Discord in the main
outside area of Ponyville
Discord burst out laughing after Twilight explained the story.
"Hahahaha! You're telling me that all of you acted like your opposite
selves and caused trouble for a day? That's hilarious!"
Twilight Sparkle glared at him. "That's not funny, Discord. I
know you had something to do with it!"
Discord scoffed. "Even though I did use my magic to turn you
ponies against each other in the maze, I can assure you that I had nothing to
do with the troubles you encountered."
Rainbow Dash flew up to Discord, annoyed. "I bet he's lying
again! I bet he turned us against each other for the fun of it."
Discord casually blew Rainbow Dash back with a trumpet. "If,
I were not lying, let's say, then wouldn't you ponies need the elements of
harmony to turn you back to normal? Based on what I heard, the elements were
not used in the situation. My magic would have lasted longer, and quite
frankly, I would have enjoyed quite the show!"
Discord appeared with a large bucket of popcorn in his hands and a
black movie camera to the side. 3D glasses rested on his face.
Fluttershy turned to her friends. "Remember that our friend
is reformed now. He might cause trouble, but he would never do something like
that again."
Discord: "Ding ding! Looks like Fluttershy got the right answer."
In an instant, he changed his clothes and wore light blue suit that a TV show
game host would wear. "There you have it, my little ponies." He
transformed back to his usual self.
Rainbow Dash looked at the group. "So if Discord didn't use
his magic on us like he claimed..."
"Then who did?" asked Rarity.
Twilight Sparkle thought hard, then came up with a realization.
"Wait! Do you think that they might have been clones of us?"
Panic emerged in Fluttershy's eyes. "What makes you say
that?"
Pinkie Pie jumped in. "Clones as in the clones that were
created from the mirror pool?" Two Pinkie Pies materialized out of nowhere
and spoke in union; "Is some pony spying on us?"
"I don't think they came from the mirror pool," Twilight
deduced. "From what we have gathered, they sounded very much like us when
we were corrupted."
"But how could our opposite clones be created in the
first place?" asked Applejack.
"It must be some kind of dark magic that was involved.
I can't quite put my hoof on it." Twilight replied.
"Well I'll leave you ponies to figure it out," said
Discord. "Try not to get too worked up." He got into a red sports car
that appeared and drove through thin air and vanished.
"So much for that idea," Rainbow Dash grumbled.
Deep in the shadows of the forest, Chrysalis stomped her black
hooves in anger. “I can’t believe this!” she seethed. “I was so close to getting
my revenge on those pesky ponies.” Strands of her teal hair moved slowly in the
breeze. “All my minions had to do was divide the Main Six and gather the
elements to bring to me. But no, they had to disobey my orders behind my back!
I can’t believe that Twilight clone was more powerful than her own creator. I
will figure something out.”
Chrysalis thought back to what had happened the previous night.
The evil clones had found the campsite that the Main Six had set up.
“Urgh what is this garbage?” asked evil Pinkie in disapproval.
“Uh…badger installation art,” evil Applejack lied. “You see…”
“Just retrieve the elements!” Chrysalis ordered the clones.
The clones trotted down the steps and happily tore down the tents.
Evil Pinkie crawled on the ground, bored
and grumpy. Evil Fluttershy stomped onto a green tent and tore another one down
with her teeth. Evil Rarity laughed insanely when she grabbed hold of an apple
cider mug, rocks, a checkered quilt, a backpack, a scroll, and a stick used to
hold up a tent with her magic. They were surprised that the Main Six were not
already there but it was assumed that they had gone on a long nature walk to
come back to their tents later on.
Evil Twilight picked up evil Pinkie with her hoof and gathered the
group together. “Once we get the power of the elements…no creature, not even ‘Her
Majesty’ can tell us what to do. Just follow my lead, got it?” The other ponies
giggled darkly and followed her.
Soon enough, the Mean Six had made it to the Tree of Harmony. Evil
Rarity pointed to her diamond element on the tree and said “Oh ho ho ho! That
one’s mine!” with a laugh. The diamond turned black for a moment. She walked
forward but was tripped by evil Fluttershy. “Oops,” she grinned. “I’m sorry…but
I’m not,” she said, getting in evil Rarity’s face. Evil Rarity and evil
Fluttershy rolled into each other in a fight. Evil Fluttershy’s element turned black on the
tree for an instant. “Stop it, you fools!” ordered evil Twilight. “We need the
elements to take out Chrysalis!”
The shadow of Chrysalis appeared as the queen entered the chamber.
“How dare you?!” she yelled, as she approached evil Twilight. “I created you!”
Chrysalis fired a green blast at evil Twilight from her crooked
horn. Evil Twilight formed a magenta shield around herself and grinned. She
then fired back with a magenta blast of her own. Beads of sweat appeared on Chrysalis’
dark face as she felt her green magic beam being pushed back. She was reminded
of the time when she had pushed Celestia’s magic sun beam back at her during
the battle at the Canterlot wedding many years ago. Only this time, she was not
the one who was winning.
Evil Applejack kicked the tree hard and her element briefly turned
black. Evil Pinkie shook the trunk and laughed as her element turned black. Evil
Rainbow Dash flew lazily onto the ground to rest, before her element briefly
turned black. Evil Twilight grinned as she got closer to overpowering Chrysalis.
Suddenly, the elements on the tree of harmony all turned black. Black tendrils
lead from Twilight’s star element on the tree to the others. White streams of
light drifted out from the dark elements and wrapped around each of the Mean
Six. Evil Twilight gasped in surprise as she was yanked back toward the tree. Chrysalis
gained a surprised look on her face.
To her horror, the bodies of the Mean Six gradually began to melt
like candle wax. Evil Twilight spoke through her partially formed face, “You
imbeciles! You ruined everything!” After a flash of white light, six small logs
of orange, light blue, yellow, white, pink, and light purple fell to the floor
in front of the crystal tree.
“Servants always fail you in the end,” Chrysalis muttered. “Just
wait Starlight! I will have my revenge!” She flew off toward the moon in the
distance.
Back to the present, Chrysalis began hatching up more plans, all
of which could not be carried out. Not only was she outnumbered, but she wasn’t
quite sure what to do next.
If Chrysalis and the Main Six had gone back to the Tree of Harmony
in several weeks, they would have noticed a slight change in the elements on
the tree. They would have seen them turn black and stay black for longer
periods of time as the days went by. Long black cracks appeared in the crystal trunk
and crept toward the branches.
Usually, the tree of Harmony would shine with a silver crystal
light. Now, however, the tree looked sick and dull. The crystal covering of the
tree gradually grew darker until all of it appeared black. The ground started
to rumble and more cracks appeared near the roots. Neon green whips of smoke
flew through the cracks and entered the six small logs nearby. Slowly, the
healthy white crystal appearance of the tree of Harmony came back. The tree
groaned in relief, as if it was free of a horrible disease it couldn’t keep in
for long.
The wood from the colored logs expanded throughout the area and
turned a regular brown. Soon, there were full grown trees that filled up the
space, the same ones that Chrysalis had used earlier. The trails of light
whipped at the new brown trunks of the trees, already brimming with dark magic
inside. Even as the white wisps of light sliced parts of the trees off, the
dark foliage were already opening up. With several loud cracks, the six trees
split open into wooden circles on the ground. The Mean Six clones appeared from
figures of the green light. The clones opened their eyes: Applejack, Rarity,
Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and finally, Twilight.
Evil Twilight created a magenta shield over all of her companions,
protecting them from the wisps of light. Cracks began to form in the shield and
evil Twilight knew they could not keep the defense up for long. She closed her
eyes in concentration and briefly pushed the magic wisps back with the power of
her horn. Wasting no time, she and the rest of the imposters made a run for it
into the woods, the wisps following not too far behind.
Evil Applejack: Element of Dishonesty (Appleslack) Gem: a rotten
apple core
Evil Rarity: Element of Greed (Snarity) Gem: a black diamond
Evil Rainbow Dash: Element of Betrayal (Banebow Lash) Gem: a
crooked lightning bolt
Evil Fluttershy: Element of Cruelty (Fluttersly) Gem: a spider
Evil Pinkie Pie: Element of Negativity (Pinkie Sigh) Gem: an angry
face
Evil Twilight Sparkle: Element of Power (Midnight Shimmer) Gem: a
dark crown of black stars
When the Mean Six become too powerful, they use the elements of
disharmony to cause chaos and destruction to Equestria that even leaves Discord
surprised. Chrysalis wanted to restore her hive and be the ruler of the
changlings once more. At first, she is satisfied that the Mean Six were ruining
the lives of her enemies, Starlight, and the Main Six. However, there was a
nagging feeling in the back of her head that would not go away. ‘I should have
been the one to overpower them. As queen, I should have been able to use the
elements to restore my changling subjects to what they were before and feed off
of the love of this land!’ She briefly felt victorious, but at the same time,
she was furious at the fact that her creations beat her at her own game. Her
plans, as well as her dignity had been ruined. She knew that she would
eventually have to deal with the threat of her own creations, as well as
Thorax, the princesses, and the Mane Six, if she were to plan further.
While the main six, face off against the Mean Six, Thorax and
Starlight fight Chrysalis in a heated battle above the Badlands.
With the fate of Equestria at risk, Chrysalis may have to resort
to joining Thorax and the Mane Six in order to defeat them.
Eventually, their combined efforts along with the tree of Harmony
result in the Mean Six being turned back into logs. Thorax, Starlight, and the
Main Six celebrate their victory but Chrysalis flies off, still bent on
revenge.
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