The Elements of Discord

As Twilight and her friends wandered through the forest, they heard multiple unfamiliar sounds. In one direction, they heard what sounded like carnival music. In another there was the faint sound of a music box. However, the sound that got their attention was the sound of a voice calling to them. "This way to your heart's desire." The eerily voice echoed. Twilight and her friends look at each other and shrug as they headed towards the voice. The voice got lost and louder with every step the ponies took. Then the voice stopped as they came to a clearing. In this clearing was what looked like a small village. A sign stood in front of them. It read "Welcome to Gloomy Town!" There was a pony leaning on the sign with a skull for a cutie mark, but with it there were a few other cutie marks. A bird, a hammer, an arrow, a Shamrock, and a paw print. "How do you do?" Said the mysterious pony. "Welcome to Gloomy Town! The place where all your cutie mark dreams can come true. I am Gloomiér, the town sheriff." He extends a hoof and shakes Twilight's hoof. "Thank you for the greeting, but if I may ask-" The strange multi-marked pony interrupts her, "You are wanting to know why we have so many cutie marks, am I right?" Twilight nods her head. Gloomiér gestures for the group to lean in. "Is this town. It's filed with the magical properties of the cutie pox. Now, none of us have to worry about not getting our cutie mark, bc now we have more than we can handle." The group looks shocked as he muttered those words. Then Twilight steps forward, "We can help you. Our of all those cutie marks, one is real. If you find the real one, then your cutie pox will go away." Gloomiér lets out a loud, maniacal laugh. "And what makes you think we want our cutie mark to appear? Maybe we like having multiple talents. Am I right guys?" Just them, all the ponies start chanting, as if in a trance-like state, "Cutie Pox Forever!" The 6 friends start backing up slowly, but are stopped by Gloomiér. "You don't wanna go back that way. Trust me." The ponies turn around and realize they are surrounded. Then Gloomiér causes the crowd to form a path to the other gate. "You're gonna wanna go that way. Trust me." The ponies start walking as they hear Gloomiér's voice fading behind them. "All your heart's desires are through that gate." As they step through, they find a dead end with pony skulls around. Then they hear the sudden slam of the gate behind them. They turn around to find Gloomiér standing there. "Well... How does it feel to be trapped? Trapped like an animal in a cage?" Applejack steps forward, "It's you! You decided us! Like a sly fox in the woods! You're the Element of Fabrication!" The pony does a bow, as if he put on a good show. "Well now! Aren't we the smart one? Yes... You are Applejack, the Element of Honesty. You couldn't tell a lie to save your life. Good for you that I'll be ending it quickly." Just then, Applejack gets a smile on her face. And starts laughing. The gloomy pony cannot explain how confused he is. "What's so funny?" He exclaims as Applejack controls herself. "Well I reckoned you'd be one for making deals. Seeing as you love being as sly as you are." His ears perked As he heard the word he can't resist. "Deal? What deal?" Applejack pulls a large sack from her saddle bag. "Well if you spare us all our lives. I'll give you all my riches in this here sack." He looks at the sack and stares her dead in the eye. "You're lying! You have no riches in that bag of yours." A smile comes across Applejack's gave once again. "Didn't you just say earlier thati could never lie to save my life?" Thinking back at what he said, he smiles a huge grin. "Your lives for your riches?! Deal! He opens the gates as he hands the bag from Applejack and opens it up, only to find apples within. "What?! How?! It's impossible! You can't lie!" Applejack looks at him and smiles as she responds, "I didn't lie. Apples are the riches in my life. Looks like I deceived the deceiver without even deceiving." The gloomy pony was racking his brain, trying to figure out how he was deceived bya truth teller. As he thought more, he started to glow. "Impossible! I can't be defeated! Nooooooo!" He exclaims as his flesh slowly disappeared until only a skeleton was left. As Applejack touched the skeleton, it turned to dust. In that dust, was a fox mask with the words "TRUST ME" engraved on the forehead. As the dust blew away in the wind, the hypnotized ponies began regaining their thoughts. The cutie pox curse lifted and they had their one cutie mark left on their flanks. As the ponies saw Twilight and her friends off, they told Twilight that they were gonna stay there and fix the newly renamed "Everfree Village" up and get it on the Equestria map. As Twilight put the newly acquired Element in her bag, she thought to herself, "Are the other elements more dangerous than this one?"