“This place is so pretty at night!” Kas cooes, walking around with starry eyes, even spinning a few times to try and ogle at every detail. Rarity looks up with him, seeming deep in thought.

“I was initially going to say ‘creepy’, or perhaps unnerving, given how dreadful it looked from the outside, but… now that you mention it...” She clicks her tongue, nodding softly. “I can see where you are coming from. The moonlight spilling through those gaps in the leaves is… well, beautiful, for one. Additionally, as you put it, even a bit romantic!”

Rainbow Dash drifts down from above Rarity, raising an eyebrow. “And the constant shuffling in the bushes?”

The white unicorn pauses, frowning. “I suppose I could definitely do without that...”

Twilight, ignoring the prattling of the overs, peers over a ledge to try and get a better view of what they are looking for… not even hearing the crumbling of dirt and rock underneath her. Shrieks are heard all around as the group begins to tumble and slip down the toppling surface, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash quick to take to the skies.

Meanwhile, Pinkie and Kas stay free form and sprawled out as they drift down the crumbling dirt and grass, treating it as if it was just a fun slide at a playground! If fun slides had a drop over fifty-feet, that is. Kas does a quick flip off the edge, landing on an overgrown root sticking out of the crumbling surface, which bends so far it seems like it may break.. before springing back up, launching a spinning Kas into the air. Miracuously, he manages to catch Pinkie, who slides off the edge after him.

Twilight, on the other hand, is hanging on for dear life. Applejack looks like she is losing her grip on her, when Kas pipes up, hanging in the air longer than he should have. “Leave it to me, Miss Jack!”

And Applejack nods, turning back to Twilight with one, simple request. “Let go.”

Kas during his ridiculous airtime can see the look on her face, a flabbergasted one. “Are you crazy?”

“Just truuuust her, Twilight! Catching you ain’t gonna mean much if you’re a pancake at the bottom of this!” He calls out in a warning tone, with even him having his limits of how much he could play hooky with the laws of physics.

She looks up at Applejack, heart beating out of her chest, adrenaline surging… before letting go. It’d be hilarious if it just ended there, but no such chance was present with Kasikov on the scene. He swoops down, knocking his back against the cliffside and sliding along it, catching Twilight in his other foreleg. Twilight looked shocked, and frankly, very much frightened.

“You’re holding both me AND Pinkie Pie?!” She shrieks, Kas quickly landing on the overgrown root, which snaps now, with the extra weight. They are all shrieking now, but Kas and Pinkie’s are more gleeful shrieks.

“Wheeeee!” The grey and pink pony squeal at once, with Kas sliding down the cliffside atop the root, using it like a shoddy snowboard.

The three of them crash into the ground, with Kas taking the brunt of it. They all go tumbling off, with Kas and Pinkie looking at each other on the ground for but a moment... before bursting out laughing.

Twilight looked less pleased, shakily standing up and spitting a clump of grass out. “Ptoo… next time, warn me before you do something like that…”

Kas pops back up to the ground, looking toward a nearby river, where three frogs sat on lily pads in a row. They raised up white cards each, two reading 10, one reading 9.5. Kas rolls his eyes. “Everyones a critic…”

Fluttershy descends holding Rarity, and Rainbow Dash with Applejack. Rainbow is staring at Kas with big eyes, full of amazement.

“Oh.”

“My.”

“GOSH! Here I thought I’d take the case for cool rescue, but then you swoop in like whoosh... then, you like, SURF down the freakin’ cliffside while carrying TWO ponies?! Who even thinks to do something like that!” She drops with a start alongside him, staring intently. “That is some crazy upper body strength, how the hay did you do all that?”

Kas just shoots her a grin. “I’m good at improvising.”

All this banter and gushing is interrupted by the wandering group, by a loud noise.

”GWAAAR!”

All the ponies, save for one in the form of Kas, go ram rod stiff. Fluttershy looks like she might even faint, when a manticore rears its head, trudging out of a thick set of trees. Twilight takes a step backward, eyes wide and fearful.

“A manticore!”

His ears perk up at Twilights words, recollection flooding his head of the familiar sound. He bounds towards the manticore. “FLUFFY!” His call causes the manticore to falter for a moment, pawing at the ground quietly. It lets out a strained, raspy meow as Kas nears it, scritching at its cheek. Everyone else looks on, stunned.

“Hm…” He frowns, turning back. “He’s wincing… Fluttershy, can you lend a hhhhoof.” He’s getting better at it.

She nods slowly, walking over and examining the beast… only to find a thorn in its paw. Calmly, and slowly, she removes the thorn.

The manticore’s expression turns to one of fury, but it is dulled by the petting behind its ears from Kas. It instead idles to lick Fluttershy’s face. Kas perks up, giggling softly as he pats Fluffy on the head.

“Well then… onward!” Kas decrees, hopping aboard Fluffy’s back as the group soldiers on, this time into a very creepy neck of the woods Despite how frightening everything had been, with Kas leading the charge and treating everything so loosely, it was ultimately brightening everyone’s spirits. His carefree nature was different from Pinkie Pie’s, like fearlessness of the especially stupid variety.

Before everypony could even so much as shiver as the trees around them wore haunting faces, sending growls their way… the growls were drowned out by uproarious laughter. Kas wipes a tear from his eye, looking back at the others. “C’moooon, you guys really think these trees are scarier than Fluffy? They can’t even move!” He snickers, hopping off Fluffy and trotting over toward a tree. He flips out a marker that didn’t exist before, drawing angry eyebrows and an evil moustache on one. “Now THIS is scary!”

This time, the others join him and Pinkie in their laughing, with even Twilight stifling a few snickers, despite how serious she was. The pink pony perks up, a wide grin. “Ooo, ooo! This reminds me of a song Granny Pie used to sing to me!”

Everypony feels their face go pale, except Kas, who just throws a forehoof at Pinkie, which flops against her head, tumbling down it. “No time for dat’, Pinkie… we gotta save this got dang world…”

She just stares for a second, before breaking into a fit of giggles once again. The trees around them seem to shake as they all merrily walk off, seething in rage.

And next, they come upon an unruly sea serpent, or maybe it was another dragon. Kas could never tell. The creature was wailing, and lamenting. A power couple when it came to grief.

Twilight was the first to speak up, though clearly was uncertain about it. “Excuse me, sir. Why are you crying?”

“Well, I don’t know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke-”

But the serpent is cut off by Kas, who peeks out from behind Twilight. “How can a cloud be ‘tacky’?”

And then Pinkie peeks out from behind him. “That’s what I was wondering, but I wasn’t gonna say somethin’ if nopony else did!”

The serpent lets out a weary sigh, pressing an arm across his head ‘woe is me’ fashion. “Purple is just a simply dreadful color! Overdone to death! The only more dreary, less creative color would have to be green, I’d say!”

Kas stares at him. In particular, his purple scales. He looks to Twilight, who clearly looked annoyed. Then he looks to Rarity, who seems to have donned a classic customer service face. “Dearie, while I may disagree with your grievances regarding certain colors… I can see clear as day what the problem is.”

The serpent parts his fingertips, gazing through them at Rarity. “You do…?”

Rarity smiles confidently. “But, of course! A magnificent moustache maiming of the highest order!”

Kas grins, reaching a forehoof out. “Nice aliteration.” And a bit confused, she bumps it with her own.

Applejack is squinting, as if trying to understand some hidden meaning about the situation. “So… yer’ bellyaching cuz’ of a piece a’ hair,” She pauses, locking her gaze with the serpent. “one that grows back pretty gosh darn fast fer’ most folks at that,” The mare clicks her tongue, getting back on track. “Got cut off.”

The serpent smooths his hair back with a hand, nodding. “Yes. Everything you just said matched up with perfect accuracy.” While the cowpony just shakes her head, tugging her stetson down as she shoots a sideglance at Rarity.

“Ah’ swear, I’ll never understand you fashionfolk.”

Rarity snickers, stepping forward towards the serpent. “Not to worry, I understand them well enough for the both of us!” She stomps her hoof, determine. “Tell me, does anyone have a sharp untensil? I have come up with the perfect solution.”

And the water begins to slow, the serpent feeling his eyes grow large again. “You haaave?” He gazes down towards his scales, a small smile forming on his face. “Well, I suppose I could-”

“Would these work?” Kas pipes up, interrupting once again as he fetches a pair of hedge trimmers out of a nearby bush. Rarity stares in silence, before shrugging.

“That’ll do.”

With a quick cut, and a bit of finesse, Rarity fastened her severed tail as a replacement for the severed moustache on the serpent, who let out a resounding ’oooooooh~!’ upon experiencing the solution. “Maybe purple isn’t so bad after all…”

Kas throws his forehooves up as the serpent lets them cross, even going as far to let them use him as a bridge. “Yay! Character development!” Pinkie squeals, bouncing along next to Kas.

Off in the distance, they finally saw it. Everypony except for Kas, that is, since he was idly kicking a rock and trying to keep up with it.

“There it is! The ruins where the elements are!” Twilight gallops off, Kas following alongside in hot pursuit of this rock. Twilight is yanked backward, Rainbow biting her tail and yanking. “Eek! Rainbow! What was that… for…” She peers into the abyss below, a broken bridge in front of her.

She flushes in embarrassment, Rainbow snickering alongside her. “Sheesh, going for the world record of cliff diving today?”

Pinkie giggles from behind, pointing a forehoof forward. “Kas-eeeeee, stop defying the laws of physics before they seek retribution on you, silly.”

Kas realized he was still kicking his rock alongside Twilight, and now ahead of Twilight, standing in the open air on nothing. “Oops.” Then, he instantly starts to fall, yelping. His tail is grabbed as well, Fluttershy straining to drag him up back onto the ground, huffing and puffing afterward. “Thanks, Miss Shy!”

She waves a forehoof dismissively, trying to catch her breath. “No… no problem.”

Pinkie, meanwhile, rubs her chin, looking into the seemingly bottomless pit. “Well… what now?” Kas springs up next to her, grinning.

“I got it! I’ll pick you up, and throw you across!”

The mare meets the crazed grin already on his face with one of her own. “Love it!”

Rainbow tries to interject, holding up a forehoof. “Uh, guys-”

“Or- OR,” Kas hums, bouncing in place. “We scavenge around here for a tree with the proper dimensions, get an oversized rubber band, and shoot ourselves across!”

Pinkie nods rapidly. “Efficent, AND practical!”

Rainbow stomps her hoof. “Guys?”

They parrot a few ideas back and forth, before Pinkie leans in, beaming in excitement. “Or! Or! Or! After you finish digging out the mine, we can smelt up the materials to create one of my party cannons! Only this one will be big enough for SEVEN ponies, and when we get blasted over there, we got a party raring to go to calm down Black Snooty! And then-”

But Pinkie is cut off, by Rainbow yelling this time. “GUYS.” The two of them stare, as she flexes her wings.

“Oh yeah…”

She rolls her eyes, dashing into the fog across the bridge.

Then, the others all stand and wait. Some sit, and Twilight gets a bit restless. “What is taking her so long… you don’t think something ambushed her, do you?”

Applejack shakes her head, looking into the fog. “Sure as sugar, ain’t nothin’ that’d stop that mare from doin’ what she wants to do. Just have faith, Twilight.”

Then, being the two closest to the edge, Kas and Twilight hear an unfamiliar voice. “It’s them, or us. Pick now…”

Hearing creepy voices making ultimatums out in the fog is bad on a good day, but Twilight seems panicked once more. “What’s taking so long, Rainbow? Don’t listen to them!”

Kas pipes up as well, leaning across the ledge so he is more audible. “Miss Dash, don’t take candy from strangers!” Twilight looks at him, a look that clearly read as her being unable to tell if he was serious or not. Kas just shrugs.

Ten more seconds go by, before Rainbow glides back in, fastening the ropes on the bridge and being met with cheerful cries from everypony. Twilight lets out a relieved sigh, while Applejack shoots her a knowing grin.

Across the bridge they go, having to depart with Fluffy since the bridge was on its last legs as it was. The ruins are… quiet. Empty, and hollow. Clearly not occupied by another being for years, decades even. But things were darker than they should have been, with a pillar of moonlight illuminating the elements.

Twilight starts forward abruptly, before stopping, examining the ground in front of her, and slowly approaching. A cliff somewhere sheds a tear, never having been prouder. The elements were up on a podium, when Twilight’s eyes went wide.

The distant sound of something splintering could be heard. Not just in the cracked, stone brick walls, but also on a more temporal and cosmic scale. Small cracks formed here and there, but this… this was something else. “Get back!” Twilight shouts, diving away from the elements as what seems to be several, minature comets shoot down from the sky, striking the spaces where the seven ponies stood, them all having narrowly dodged it thanks to Twilight’s warning.

Wisps of swirling, starry darkness spin around the elements, before Nightmare Moon appears once more, one of her eyes twitching. “I collapse a cliff, nearly killing you all… and you turn it into a JOY RIDE.” She hisses, constellations forming behind her portraying several bows and arrows, all aimed at the group.

“I injure and sic an enraged manticore upon you all… only for you to laugh it off and treat it as a mere housepet!”

She slowly starts to step forward, the building seeming to shake now.

“The living trees? MOCKED.” They can hear her teeth gritting from here. A bead of sweat rolls down Twilight’s forehead as she notices that Nightmare Moon seems even more powerful than before. Was her magic being amplified by her emotions? “That melodramatic serpent… even that physical manifestation of a worthless dream!” Rainbow clearly looked offended, opening her mouth to interject, before a glare from Applejack silences her.

“All of it! Just… brushed off. Treated as a mere joke. An opportunity,” She stomps her hooves, dust falls from the ceiling as cracks spiderweb out from where she stomps. “For BANTER?!"

She stands upright, a slightly crazed look in her eyes. “Well! You want to laugh so much? Why not let me join in!” Nightmare Moon sneers maliciously at Twilight. “Not only are your precious elements incomplete…” And then, in a surge of adrenaline, Twilight lunges forward.

“Wait, don’t-”

Twisting cyclones of inky, harnessed night sky spin down, sending shrapnel of broken elements exploding in all directions. Twilight stares onward with a broken stare, smoldering marks left where the elements once were.

Nightmare Moon leans down towards them all, smiling wickedly. “Ha. Ha. Ha..” She chuckles, locking her gaze on Kas, this time. “How about you? Anything to laugh about now, you insufferable welp?”

Kas thinks on his answer. Long, and hard… before marching up to her. “Eh, just one more.”

She leans down further, eyebrow raised. “Hmmm?”

And then, Kas clocks her in the face, snapping everypony out of their terrified trance. “Slapstick! Catch me if you can, Black Snooty!” The grey pony cartwheels away, an ear piercing shriek heard as the alicorn launches herself towards him, the pony laughing the whole way as he narrowly avoids her berserk hail of attacks.

Twilight feels like she couldn’t get more shocked, until she notices Pinkie booping her nose. “Heyo! He’s giving you your opening! I’ll help stall Queen Meanie, while you work on saving us!” She springs off, pulling a banana cream pie out of her hair and sending it sailing straight into the alicorn’s face.

Everyone forms a shield around Twilight, watching with uncertainty as the two keep the ballistic alicorn busy. Then, Rainbow Dash heads in to help, divebombing from above every so often. Then Rarity, trying to slow her down with her magic. Next, Applejack, who bucks chunks of stone and dust in the way to mess up her path. And lastly, Fluttershy, swooping down and frantically dragging anyone out of the way that is getting cornered.

It is then, that Twilight feels… proud. They all put all their faith into her, and with that, she feels a twinge of recognition.

Then, a spark.

Her glow surrounds every shard of the broken elements, and they begin to swirl around. Nightmare Moon had Kas pressed against a wall, strangling the pony via her magic when her glare flicks over. “Tch, you’d be foolish to think you can just put those back together. Are you really that desperate?” She sneers, Kas starting to go a bit blue in the face. “Should I let you fetch some glue? I’m sure your friend will hang in there…”

Twilight stares deadpan at her. “I don’t need to. Because the spirits of the elements themselves… are in this very room!” She gestures outward, her horn glowing brighter, and brighter.

“Applejack, reassuring me and saving my life with her honest heart…”

Shards begin swirling around Applejack…

“Fluttershy, displaying her compassion and kindness, helping a beast that could have easily ripped us to shreds…”

More swirl around Fluttershy this time…

“Rarity, for so freely being generous and offering up what little she had to help one in need…”

They then surround Rarity…

“Rainbow Dash, for being loyal and dedicated to her friends, even if it meant turning down a dream of hers…”

And around Rainbow…

Nightmare Moon drops Kas, looking around with wide, fearful eyes. “No… no!”

“And…” Twilight looks out, Towards Kas and Pinkie with uncertainty, but her horn glows even brighter. Cracked bits of stone are pulled off the wall, spinning around erratically, before blending with the shattered element… and surrounding Kas and Pinkie.

Necklaces form all around on everypony’s neck, all matching their cutie marks. A bead of nervous sweat rolls down the alicorn’s forehead. “That’s… six? But… but how…”

The glowing gets even brighter, Twilight illuminating the whole room and shunning any darkness away as her friends stand with her. Despite how sharp she was, Miss Sparkle didn’t catch onto what was off just yet… until she noticed just how bright her horn was getting. A flash of light explodes around her, and there sits atop her head a crown, matching her cutie mark. The wonder and confusion in her gaze is quickly shaken off, as she locks eyes with Nightmare Moon. “Well… I guess the real elements…”

The alicorn feels her gaze go icy, and somehow even more angry. “Don’t… you… DARE...”

“...were the friends we made along the way.” Twilight finishes, smirking.

With a bloodcurdling shriek, Nightmare Moon flings herself towards the group of friends, who become surrounded by a ribbon of rainbows, spearheaded by a brilliant bright light. It shoots into the air, before coming crashing down on the alicorn, intercepting her and washing away all the darkness and malice, her screams barely audible past the torrent of magic.

Light washes over the room, the seven ponies on the ground, before groggily rising up. Kas groans, rubbing his head. “Erk… third worst headache of my life…”

Twilight is once again stunned, having been stunned more times tonight than she had been in an entire month. “But… then if my element is magic, the sixth element… then what…?”

“Perceptive as always, my faithful student.” A voice hums from behind, everyone turning at once to meet the gaze of a towering alicorn. She was stark white, with a long horn, splendid wings, along with a shimmering rainbow mane that seemed to flow magically… not to mention that regal bling she was rocking.

“Princess!” All but Kas squeak, since he was still not an official citizen of this country, and didn’t recognize her as his ruler. He started the bit with Black Snooty, he’d be damned if he just gave up on it.

Oh, she was staring at him. The fact that he wasn’t fawning over her may have been a dead give away. She looks toward Twilight next. “There are supposed to be but six elements indeed, and the sixth one itself is Magic, but…” Her head nods off to the side. “For some unforseen reason… we bare not one, but two elements of laughter.”

Twilight was nodding slowly, while Kas walked off to the side, noticing something else that piqued his interest way more than whatever it was he broke this time.

“But Princess… if there was only six elements when you used them before, where did the seventh come from?” Kas hums softly as Twilight desperately tries to understand the scenario, while he helps up a blue alicorn.

“Hi miss! Are you okay?”

And just as Celestia is dwelling upon her answer to Twilight’s question, she catches the alicorn out of the corner of her eye. She looks crestfallen, turning away from her student and to the alicorn. “Princess Luna… it has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this…”

And Luna struggles to her hooves, Kas supporting her. She turns away at Celestia’s stare, seeming almost ashamed in her gaze. “Please, let us put this ceaseless fighting behind us, little sister… I miss when the two of us could rule together… as friends and siblings.”

Twilight and Rainbow seemed baffled by this. “Sister?” And Kas shoots them a weird look.

“Oh, c’mon! Celestia, Nightmare Moon? Her name is literally Luna!” He exclaims, throwing his hooves out dramatically. Pinkie shoves his head down, shushing him.

“Shh, it’s starting to get good!” She squeaks, Kas fumbling to the ground.

Tears well up in Luna’s eyes as she falls against Celestia. “Oh… I missed you so much, big sister!” She wails the words out, the aftermath of a friendship beam seeming hellbent on bringing any lingering feelings jams up to surface.

Celestia smiles, an expression that almost looks kinda odd on her, at least from Kas’ view. “I missed you to.” Pinkie is tearing up next to him, and frankly, he is almost on the verge too.

“Agh… Pinkie! Don’t cry…” And the waterworks come for him, tears streaming down his face. “Or yer’ gonna make ME cry!” Pinkie blows her nose, sniffling a little before she looks up at everypony.

“Hey… y’know what this calls for?” Kas holds his forehoof up, grinning. She snickers, pointing at him.

“A fade to black with ominous forshadowing?”

She shakes her head, grinning back. “Nope! A party!”

Later...

There is cheerful cries and music audible all around as what is the third celebration of the day rages on, with Celestia even seeming to enjoy herself quite a bit, though planned on leaving soon in order to bring Luna home, who was currently resting.

Twilight eventually manages to snatch Pinkie and Kas out of the fray, barely escaping the clutches of the party itself before she drags them all into the library interior.

“Twilight, darling, what is this all about? I should hope we don’t have to worry about Miss Luna turning into Nightmare Moon again…” Rarity sighs, taking a seat at a nearby table. Thankfully, she is reassured by Twilight shaking her head.

“No, no, no. Nothing like that. The elements should have helped purge that from her system…” Twilight replies, muttering a barely audible ‘at least, I hope so’ under her breath. “No, Princess Celestia wanted to speak with us all.”

And as if on cue, the towering alicorn steps out, looking at Kas and Pinkie. “Particularly, I would like to speak to you, Kas.”

The grey pony frowns, and though it was hard to tell, his face had gone a bit paler. “Am I in trouble?”

In another dimension...

“Whatta goddamn mess…” Cameras were flashing all around upon an empty, padded cell. There were some scuff marks and smoldering left on the ground, which was currently blocked off by small pylons.

A man stood tall, wearing a long trenchcoat, with several armored agents on his sides, the ones snapping photos wearing slightly lighter looking armor, which was colored white. All, save for the gruff looking man were bearing helmets with gas masks.

“This’d help leagues more if any of you told me a lick about the fella’ that broke outta here.” The man grumbles, a blue flash next to him this time.

“Detective Ramsal, as of right now you are on a Need To Know basis.” A gangly man with a white grunts, bearing a medallion on his neck as he locked eyes with the detective. “And what quantifies as Need To Know is at my discretion. So if this is too difficult for you-”

Ramsal feels his eye twitch at that word.

“-then we can find someone else to take on the job.”

The detective fishes a ciggirate out of his pocket, lights it, and takes a long drag. “Calm yourself, chairman. Nothing is too hard a case for me.” Smoke flows and twirls from his mouth unnaturally, creating a skull and cross bones in the air as Ramsal leans forward towards the chairman. “Now… I’d appreciate if ya’ quit sullying my crime scene. God only knows where you’ve been.”

Despite being less than pleased with this reply, that much evident on the glare that spreads across the chairmans face… he vanishes in another flash of blue.

Ramsal clicks his tongue, hands stuffed in his pockets before he turns back to the room. “Aight. Get the fuck out.” All the personell look up at once when he addresses them. “C’mon. We’ll debrief with what you found later. I need some goddamn peace to do my own lookover. Then we’ll compare notes.”

They all nod, filing out and letting the detective enter alone. He crouches down by the mark on the floor, raising his hand. A spinning circle of runes and symbols dances against his palm, growing before it shifts to settle on the mark. “Now… where’d you scurry off to...?”

And back in Equestria, but this time further away...

The Canterlot garden had a gorgeous selection of statues, which one might think difficult to enjoy when some were actually enemies of Equestria imprisoned in stone. It was a scary thing to think about, especially when you might think that maybe, just maybe, it could be you on display there, one day. Provided things went down the wrong path, or maybe you just had one bad day. Who knows.

But one such statue in particular almost seemed to be… decaying.

A crack had formed at the base of it, reaching upward.

A crack that had formed alongside several other cracks. Each harder to comprehend than the last.

And it might’ve not even been that worrying… had the crack not been on a certain creature, looking akin to a chimera, or amalgmation between other animals. One such creature known very aptly, as a Draconequus.

Author's Note

And at long last, we now break off the beaten trail.