“Do you really not feel this?” Happy Hoof asked as he set his back against a tree on the side of the road, seeming like he was having trouble breathing as he did so. “It feels like I’m breathing through a straw…”

“Just lay down for a while and get some air, okay?” the mare instructed. “We’re over halfway ta Twilight’s castle. Once we get there, Ah’m sure she’ll have some sorta magic spell ta use on ya ta make you all better, and if not, we can take ya to the hospital a bit further away. Just don’t pass out on me or somethin’.”

“I’ll certainly try not to, but Equestria sucks… it’s just overflowing with magic and getting all over me. It’s bad.”

With that the two of them went silent, Applejack watching over him and he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, taking in as much oxygen as he could. As he did, AJ thought over the events that happened, going through each step along the way. Some creature has taken on her appearance and sent her to a place called Earth, then she ran into Blue and Angelina, then drove over to some store to try and find Blue’s mother, then met Happy Hoof who said he knew her and sent her back to Equestria, and then came face to face again with-

“Wait a minute,” she said aloud, causing the stallion to open his eyes. “How did ya know how ta do magic?” she asked. “Ah mean, ya said it was in that book, but why would some creature like that ever put it in a book ta begin with or tell anypony about what was gonna happen? It didn’t seem like the kind of pony ta wanna give other ponies a heads up. It doesn’t make sense.”

“I mean, I don’t really know why either,” Happy Hoof replied. “All I can tell you is what he told us, which was that he wanted to make our lives more uniform or something.”

“What? That doesn’t make sense, cause that thing told me it spent years tryin’ ta get back to Equestria. Somethin’ doesn’t add up.”

“I don’t know. I can only tell you that he showed up here out of nowhere. Maybe a few years ago at most? Probably less than that though. Let me think... he said he wanted the world to be more perfect, I remember that, and he definitely talked a lot about uniformity and how it mattered so much. He didn’t say how it would be more uniform, only that it would. In fact, a lot of people just started calling him ‘Unity’ because he talked about it so much. I don’t know if that was his actual name, but that’s what we used. Um…” He put a hoof under his chin to think as he continued, “He did talk a lot about the Elements of Harmony and how they would be here soon, which is why I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when you got here. I actually took it as a good thing because, with what he was doing, I knew that none of you six would put up with it. Ah… um… then he, um... ah... it’d be easier to think if I weren’t so out of breath, I’m sorry.”

“Do ya think you can push through it at all?” AJ asked. “Like Ah said, we’re more than halfway to the castle…”

“Ugh, okay…” he answered, although he struggled greatly to stand back up. “Do you mind if I lean on you for a while? Just a couple dozen yards or so?”

“It’s no trouble at all fer me. Like Ah said, Ah don’t want y’all passin’ out now.”

He did just that, slowly walking over to her and leaning his whole body weight onto her. Being an earth pony, it wasn’t any trouble, but she was very concerned, especially at the slow pace they were moving at. She didn’t want this to take one second longer than it needed to. She wanted to get to Twilight and hopefully put a stop to all of this right away.

By the time they reached Twilight’s castle on the outskirts of Ponyville, the mare was practically carrying the stallion who leaned on her shoulder. The two quickly entered and went up to the main meeting room of her castle, expecting the alicorn to already be there strategizing with Applejack’s other friends, and perhaps the princesses as well. In fact, they were almost shocked to not see them there, the map-table that they used to host such meetings being completely empty.

“Wow, this place is bigger than I thought…” Happy Hoof said breathlessly as he sat down at the table in Fluttershy’s seat. “I thought they would be here though. I don’t see why they wouldn’t… ugh. I’m gonna close my eyes for a while.”

“Ah thought they’d be here, too, honestly,” the mare agreed. “Twilight’s usually on top of these things, so much so that she’ll panic over somethin’ that ain’t even there. What do ya think we should do, Happy?” She turned to him to see him not moving, breathing deeply with his eyes closed and his head slumped over on the table.

“Happy? Please tell me y’all ain’t out right now. Ah need ya here ta help me. Ah can’t do this all on my lonesome.”

“I know, AJ. I’m not passed out, I’m just thinking… ugh, I don’t know. I feel so sluggish…”

“Well, just try and think of somethin’? Anything?”

“Hold on, give me a second…” he sighed, still keeping his eyes closed as he thought for a moment before saying, “We could try calling for Discord? I mean, doesn’t he just show up if you say his name? Plus, he’s like a deus ex machina, so I don’t see why he couldn’t snap his fingers and fix everything back to normal… god, this sucks.”

“Ah doubt it. From what Flutters tells me, he can’t really do much in the way of fixin’ things. He’s a creature of chaos, and if things are too orderly, he starts ta get sick from what Ah hear. Besides, he ain’t really around much anymore these days. He’s normally off doing whatever it is he does in… Ah don’t know where he lives. Point is, he don’t really pop around if ya just say his name like most ponies seem to think.”

“Then I don’t know. We could just- I don’t know! Is there no way to signal Twilight to come back to this castle?” he asked. “I mean, she has to be obsessive enough to have something set up.”

“If she does, she didn’t tell me. I think we’re gonna have ta go all the way to Ponyville since she ain’t here.”

“Fuuuuck, I’m not gonna make it all the way to town…” Happy Hoof complained, Applejack worried that it might not be an exaggeration. “Let’s try and look around here for something first before I go back outside and start to die, cause I really don’t think I’ll make it…”

Author's Note

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