HPNR

Chapter IV: Technical Difficulties

If Twilight thought yesterday was hard, she was in for a real treat today...

Twilight arose from her slumber at the exact same time as any morning, but not in the same way. All the memories of yesterday had flushed their way across her mind, and her disposition was now... gloomy. But, as per usual, Stryker Z would make her feel better with his sunny disposition. He was probably already on, she just needed to turn to 98.6! She did,and Stryker Z's voice filled the room...

"Hello everypony, this is Mr. Alicaster. I'm afraid I'll be filling in for poor Stryker here, he's got a bit of a throat thing. But don't worry, he'll be just fine. Give him a few days. Anyway, uh... good morning. Yup, that's all I got, here's some music for you!"

...or not.

"Yeah, quick recovery, that's for sure!" Twilight's mood soured even more, and decided to just not bother. She turned off the radio, and proceeded to do her daily chores. With no enthusiasm, whatsoever. She figured she mine as well take today to say sorry to everyone and apologize for making them go to Canterlot for no reason. She grabbed a random book off a random shelf, and was about to walk out the door when Spike, who had woken up when he had heard the radio come on, came to find out where she was going. His question, was obvious.

"I'm going to apologize for forcing the girls to come with me to Canterlot when nothing was wrong. It's the right thing to do" Twilight hung her head low.

"Yeah, of course it is." Then, Spike thought of Rarity, and immediately asked another question. "Can I come?"

Twilight looked puzzled, then asked "Why?" Spike shot her a Are you kidding me face? and then Rarity crossed her mind as well. After a quick facehoof and a glare, both Twilight set out for Rarity's boutique, for she was the first target of Twilight's apology list. Yes, she made a list.

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While Twilight was headed in the opposite direction, there were plenty of problems she was currently oblivious to at AJ's farm. Strange thick pink clouds had rolled into the area, and they were uncontrollable by the weather team, naturally, they dispatched Rainbow Dash to handle the situation. In fact, she was in pursuit of a small cloud as we speak...

"Come back here, you! Gotcha!" she hollered as she collided face first into the cloud, however, it seemed much, stickier "Eww, what is this?" She shook of most of the cloud and hesitantly licked the pink substance. "Cotton candy?" She then looked upwards to find a much larger one making a rumbling sound. A single drop of brown liquid dropped onto her forehead. "Wait a second! It's not supposed to rain until tomorrow. You can't just–" was all she could spit out before the cloud began to drench her in chocolate milk. "You did." Then the larger cloud took off to AJ's west fields, and began to pour milk all over her corn crops, causing them to, pop.

"Rainbow Dash, what's going on with this rain? I mean chocolate milk? I mean chocolate milk rain?!" Applejack screamed, about as confused as a deaf bat.

"There's crazy weather all over Equestria! Cloudsdale is getting soaked by a major cola storm right now! But don't worry. I'm not leaving you until I get control of Ponyville!" the cyan mare responded, before returning to her fruitless efforts to shut down this insane forecast. However, Pinkie, who had appeared in the fields below, asked an important question.

"Why would you wanna stop this?" she asked, before returning to her meal, not wishing to be disturbed. A few minutes later, Rarity came in and offered to help.

"Ahem. I heard about your troubles, Applejack, and I came to see if there's anything I can do without getting wet. Or dirty. Or out from under my umbrella." Applejack rolled her eyes, before looking over to her trees, who were bending over unhealthy due to the weight of the apples,who had grown 5 times their size due to the rain. Suddenly, the trees were filled with every bird, bunny, and squirrel in Ponyville as they munched on the ginormous apples. Applejack was furious,and called to Fluttershy, who had come with Angel to see what was wrong.

"Fluttershy! Do somethin'!" she shouted, as Fluttershy spoke to Angel.

"Now, Angel, you really shouldn't–" she was cut off by Angel growing legs as long as yardsticks, and running away with all the other rabbits, who had also grown giant legs. "No! It's not possible! I must be seeing things!" Fluttershy screamed, rushing after him. For the next few minutes, the group fruitlessly tried to remedy the situation, but to no avail. Then, Rainbow got tired of chasing after each individual cloud and posed a solution.

"Ya know, I bet Twilight would be able to fix this within a matter of second, what with her amazing magic!" she said sarcastically, getting a few quick murmurs of agreement.

"You know, she makes a fair point. This problem isn't going to fix itself, and by all means we could use the extra help!" Rarity chimed in. So, after finding Fluttershy, and pulling Pinkie from underneath a cloud, after many objections, they set off towards the library, which of course, we all knew was the wrong direction.

<><><><><>

It didn't take them long to find Twilight, what took so long was explaining the situation, I mean, Pink cloud raining chocolate milk, and giant apples that give rabbits 5 ft. long legs. Yes, makes perfect sense.

"Wait, what? That doesn't make any sense! The anatomy of a rabbit doesn't allow spontaneous growth--" Applejack was getting sick of this, so she decided to break in and end this before it started.

"Look Twi, we understand that none of this makes any sense in any way, but we still need your help! You're the only one with the know-how to--" she realized Twilight was not even paying attention, as she was deep in thought about how this could have happened. She might have stayed like that for another 5 seconds had Spike not cleared his throat, drawing the attention of all 6 mares. In his hand, was a scroll, wrapped in ribbon,with Celestia's "urgent" seal on it.

"Ahem, you've got mail." he said sarcastically, lightly tossing the scroll at Twilight's hooves.

"How long has that--" Twilight began, before being interrupted by Spike again.

"For the past 5 minutes, but you were busy discussing the problem at AJ's farm, so I left you to it."

"Thank you Spike." she opened the scroll, read the few words that were on the parchment, and her eyes opened wide.

"I'm going to take the initiative here, and just go home now. I'll watch the library while you're gone, yadda yadda yadda, goodbye." Spike said, before turning around and taking off towards the library, his comics and gem stash calling to him.

"Twilight, what did he mean...?" Rarity asked.

"Girls, I know what you're going to say, but it looks like Celestia needs us, again..." she looked down at the parchment, rereading it multiple times, making sure she read it right.

"Are you KIDDING me?! Again?!" Rainbow yelled, quickly quieting herself, realizing she was drawing attention from the surrounding pony folk. "Um, I mean, Of course we'd be honored to help the princess!"

"Well, as much as I'd hate to leave the farm in the state it is, the princess may be able to shed some light on this predicament we're in. We aren't getting any closer to a solution, so we mine as well." And on that note, she took off towards the train station, forcing all of them to chase after her, not particularly ready for what was next...

<><><><><>

The train ride had been much like the last one, silent, and uncomfortable, however, as the doors opened at the station, they darted towards the castle, wanting to get this over with. They barged through the caste doors, and quickly found themselves back in the foyer, with Celestia waiting for them.

"Thank you elements, for coming in Equestria's hour of need, it seems, Discord has broken free..."

The elements just stood their, mouths agape, everything she had said now coming into focus. Twilight, was the first one to break the sudden silence.

"Wait a minute, Discord has broken free?! But that means..."

"Yes, I'm afraid so, whoever gave you that information was correct."

"But, that's impossible, how could he have--"

"We don't have time to worry about that! For right now, we have more important things to worry about!" Twilight looked at her dumbfounded, surprised by her sudden outburst. "Ahem, follow me..." she ushered them to the spot Twilight knew they would have to revisit, but she had secretly hoped not this soon. They all followed her into the large room where the elements were kept.

"You all already understand why I've picked you to defeat Discord, so I shall just give you the elements again." She pushed her horn into the slot, dissolving the magic lock, and opening the seal, revealing the chest to still be there, as well as the elements. Celestia had taken the liberty to strengthen the lock on the door 10 fold just in case the small chance that Discord COULD get loose proved to be correct. Anyone else seeing a trend here? Celestia handed them the elements, and told them to go to Ponyville, because most of the chaos seems to be focused on that area, probably because it was a small town to start with as he moved up the chain until he reached Canterlot. The elements nodded in agreement, and took of towards the train station, with Celestia wishing them luck the entire way.

<><><><><>

When they got back to Ponyville, it was a mess. They were lucky the train even made it into the station, because now the entire thing was made out of cake. After literally dragging Pinkie from the newly confectionized building, they raced towards Town Square, where Discord was sitting on his throne, changing houses into stacks of cards, and having buffaloes dancing in tutus across the now checkerboard ground.

"Discord!" Twilight yelled, enough to make Discord turned around and faced the elements whilst saying "Yes? That's me!" Then he looked at them, and saw the elements, and asked, "Well, if it isn't 'Twilight' and her band of merry elements! What took you so long?" before laughing maniacally again.

"The train ran late" Twilight said sarcastically, before adding "Princess Celestia gave us these to end your reign of torment!"

Discord stopped laughing at this, realizing she was serious, if he wanted to get out of this, he was going to have to think fast. Oh she did, did she?" And then a very devious plan took form in Discord's mind. Something he was going to have to use now, if he wanted to avoid being turned to stone again. "Well, that WOULD work, but, you're not the real elements, are you?"

The elements stared at him with blank looks on their faces. Applejack spoke up "What in tarnation does that mean?"

"Well, I just thought that Celestia and Luna were the elements, not some random 6 ponies she found off the street, I mean, come on!" Discord disappeared for a moment, then appeared behind Fluttershy, who jumped backward in shock. "An animal over who's afraid of her own shadow!" He slithered over to Rarity, and said" A 'fashionista' whose only real skill is putting colored cloths together! Not to mention a racing pony whose dreams to become a Wonderbolt will never come true! You're shooting to high, I think being a lowly Weather pony is just your style. Let's see who else, oh yeah, a dirty farm pony who couldn't add 2+2 to save her life, a Pink party pony whose blood sugar is high enough to make taffy out of!"

"Enough Discord! Stop this, my friends and I are ready to fight you, no matter what you say! Right girls? Uh, girls?" She looked behind her to see that they had all stopped and were hanging there heads low. "C'mon girls! Don't believe anything he says! He's wrong, I bet---"

"Now just hold it right there, I'm not finished, have we forgotten to mention that you of all people believed a radio announcer over anything else, Ms. 'Most Faithful Student'"

That did it, Discord's words carried power, like literally, he was influencing them to force more feeling of loss into them, making them give up. He had finally broken her, unfairly yes, but broke her nonetheless

"I just, I was just asking a question..." Twilight said.

"Ooh, yes, a simple question, that forced her to go on high alert and drag you and you and your so-called Elements of Harmony all the way to Canterlot. Twice!. Face it, you're not the element of magic, you're just a failure, all of you!" Discord paused at that, he had never been this harsh before, why was he doing this now. He then pushed this though out of his mind as he saw his words working their magic. One by one the color drained from their manes and fur, leaving nothing but grey all over their bodies. Before Discord could add to his statement, Applejack spoke first, finishing the job.

"Ah don't know about y'all, but, I think he's right,we're not cut out for this..." Applejack began to walk away, leaving the rest standing there, without hope. "I think she's... right" Twilight said, draining the last of the hope from her mind. They all walked their separate ways, not uttering another word, taking their elements with them.

"Bravo, Harmony in Equestria, is officially DEAD. Discord rules, Celestia drools. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get back to de-harmonizing this place!" Discord snapped his fingers, and he disappeared in a flash of dust. As the elements walked away, completely oblivious to the doom they have sent Equestria sent to, a small figure hidden behind a building, inside a bush, whispers quietly to himself.

"No, no, NO! This is my fault, this is not good! How am I going to fix this!?" The figure thought to itself quietly, before coming up with a really stupid idea. "Ok, it might work, but I've gotta work fast, and I've gotta do it right!" The creature took off into the Everfree, with a plan, a ludicrously stupid plan, but a plan nonetheless.

<><><><><>

Twilight had officially given up. She was done. No more elements, no more student, no more Ponyville. She was leaving, to where, she didn't know. But she was a failure, just like Discord had said. She didn't need to be here anymore, she would just mess it up again.  As she reached home, her disposition turned to anger, and she furiously went up to her room.

"Pack your things, Spike, we're leaving." Spike, looking up from his comic, looked absolutely puzzled.

"What, why? Where are we going?" Spike was confused, this had never happened before, well, it actually had, but this time it was different, this looked like angrily leaving, not "moving somewhere to be with friends."

Twilight forced the crown off her head, and threw it into the trashcan. "Don't ask, 'cause I don't know yet. Just not here."

"What, why are we leaving?!"

"I'll explain later, but right now just pack your stuff!"

Spike sighed, then replied, "Fine, but can I at least listen to one more song?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, and said "Fine, but make it quick!" she yelled, before stuffing various things into the travel case she had produced from under the bed. Spike went over to the radio, and turned the dial to 98.6, only to hear static from the speakers.

"Aw...." Spike said, before being magically hoisted onto Twilight's back, who was about to walk out the door, when Mr. Allicaster's frantic voice filled the room.

"HALT! STOP! NO! Listen, if you're hearing me right now, stop, listen closely, and let these sweet tunes fill your ears. I will explain EVERYTHING after the song. Please, listen to this."

Twilight would've just walked out the door right there, but something, something deep in the back of her mind made her stay. Just to listen to the song. She dropped the travel case, and went up and sat on her bed. Then the music started.

"You say yes, I say no.

You say stop and I say go go go.

Oh-no.

You say goodbye and I say hello...

Hello, hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Hello, hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello"

At first, Twilight was confused, then she figured it out. The song might be directed at her. He was trying to tell her not to leave. But, how did he know? She was listening to the song, regularly interested now. As the song powered through, she felt more and more sure Allicaster was right, but, what could she do? She was a failure... a failure. She would've cried right then and there had the song not ended there and Mr. Allicaster filled the room with his voice again.

"Alright, now I bet most of the people who stayed to listen for that are really confused. Truth is, I've got a confession to make: that song for wasn't for all of you. It was for a specific six mares, and you should know who they are. You see, I recently watched the elements of harmony fall prey to one of Discord's attacks. And I am NOT going to stand for this. If you are one of the Elements, and you are listening to me, please stay, because I've got something to say.  Now, I know you all think you're worthless, but that's not true. Discord has tricked you into believing that, somehow, but trust me, he's wrong. He told you all lies, Fluttershy, you may be a little well, shy, but when it comes to kindness, you supply, and our willing to help out your friends even in the scariest situations! Applejack, I doubt that Discord was serious when he said that, because I know you're ready to solve any problem that comes your way, always telling the truth, and a hard-worker! Rainbow Dash, you're dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt are not in the least bit stupid, I can tell you have the courage. the determination, and the skill to become CAPTAIN! Rarity, I believe Discord was WAY off describing your talent, you are one of the best dressmakers, and the most generous, ponies around. Pinkie, you may have more energy than the average pony, but that's what makes you, YOU! Your parties never disappoint,and without your crazy lifestyle, Ponyville would be rather dull. And Twilight. It's not your fault, you asked a simple question. If anything it's mine. You're not a failure, none of you are, everypony makes mistakes, trust me, this is just Discord. Now I'm asking the six of you to try again. Because I *know you can do it---"*

Mr. Alliacaster's voice was soon taken over by static again, but not before his words made their impact. Mr. Allicaster was right, somehow, he knew exactly what was going on, and he knew just how to fix it."Well, can't argue with that logic!" Spike said. But Twilight was already out the door, running to find her friends. Lucky for her, they already had the same idea.