Twilight Sparkle's Story

"Ohhh...!! Where did I put it?! Which self did it get put in this time?!"

Rushing frantically around the library is a purple pony with a grooved horn and feathered wings. She seems to be looking for a certain book, but then got distracted by the fact that all the books were out of order. Using her unicorn magic, she levitated every book in the library out of their shelves and dropped them down on the floor. Looking over them, she levitated a medium stack of the first titles (alphabetical order) and plopped them down into the arms of the young purple dragon nearby.

"Urk - !" He struggled carrying the books over to the first shelf while the pony sorted through the rest of the books. "Twilight, I'm pretty sure only two or three books were out of order..." the dragon commented.

"Two or three? Spike, try TWELVE!" the pony, Twilight Sparkle, retorted. "And if I don't do this often enough, I won't remember the right order they should be in! That won't be becoming of a future ruler, now will it?"

The dragon, Spike, just gave a confused sigh - it was clear that he wasn't going to talk her out of this.

Finally, Twilight Sparkle and Spike have finished re-sorting all the books in the library.

"{relieved sigh} That's much better~" said Twilight. "Now it should be much easier to find what we're looking for! Alright..." She looked over in the "A" section. "...Ah, here we are! Astronomical Mysteries & Phenomena!"

"Wh - that was one of the first books we re-shelved just now!" Spike exclaimed as Twilight took out the book and opened it.

Meanwhile, Twilight found the astronomical phenomenon she was looking for in the book.

"Here! 'Only one thing is bound to the Bell Tower - and that is the mysterious Tower Key. Every 500 years, the key is manifested in the form of several key shards, which spread themselves amongst the lands. The first five are visible to the eye, but the following two are even more secretive.' Hmmm..."

"The following two are even more secretive?" Spike puzzled. "What does it mean by that?"

"Well..." Twilight thought this over. "I'm not...completely sure yet...but perhaps finding the other five shards will be the higher priority."

"So are we going yet? I wanna see what the secret of the tower is!" Spike said.

"{chuckles} Hold your wagons, Spike," Twilight replied. "First, let's rendezvous with Rainbow Dash again. She was the one who spotted the supposed falling stars, after all. She might still remember any possible bearings."

Twilight and Spike met up with Rainbow Dash, a cyan pegasus pony with multicolored hair who was napping atop a cloud. She was the first to see a shooting star fall to the ground.

"Wait - you think that shooting star is a key?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah, to the Bell Tower in the Yuyake sea," Spike replied.

"You wouldn't happen to remember where in Dream Valley it fell, would you?" Twilight asked.

"Hmmm..." Rainbow thought for a moment. "It fell at a bit of a curve, tradewind and all...I'd have to say it fell... {points north} in the Crystal Lands!"

"The Crystal Lands?" Twilight repeated. "Alright, good to know. C'mon Spike, it's gonna be a blustery trip!"

"Got it! I'll go pack the blankets and lanterns." With that, Spike ran back to the library.

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash's curiosity has been piqued. "What do you think is in that tower, anyway? Treasure?"

"Well...Nopony really knows, Rainbow," Twilight replied. "But if the keys become available once every 500 years, there must be some significance behind it."

Spike returns to Twilight and Rainbow Dash, with a large knapsack filled with essentials. "All ready!"

"Well..." Twilight Sparkle said to Rainbow, "guess this is it. We'll write to you when we get the chance. Wish us luck!"

With that, Twilight and Spike headed off toward Crystal Land. "Oh! Uh, yeah! Good luck!" Rainbow Dash called out. As the alicorn and dragon vanished into the horizon, Rainbow thought to herself on the possible treasure. "Hmmm...I wonder what that tower is hiding...Must be something awesome if everyone around the world is on a hunt for it..."

A thought then hit Rainbow Dash. "(!) Then that means Twilight's up against some serious competition! Heavily-armed competition, I bet! She's not used to fighting much...and Spike, there's only so much the tyke can do..." Reaching a decision, she pounded her forehooves together with determination. "Right! One thing to it, then!" With that, she sped off after the two.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike, bundled in scarves, made their long trek through this blizzardy wonderland. Somewhere around here is the key that supposedly fell.

"How m-m-much f-f-further...?" Spike stuttered.

"Shouldn't be...too far in...!" Twilight replied.

It took a while, but they soon found an emblem glowing in the snow in the distance, with something hovering just above it.

"(!) There! That must be the key! C'mon, Spike!" Twilight led the baby dragon toward the emblem.

"Hold it right there, kiddos!"

Here comes the big cat himself Big Bandit Pete. Somehow, the guessing game worked. He was looking for the key for days until he realized that this would had been a good start to look at.

Wario and Fawful followed suit (both wrapped in bandages). "That's-a right! We'll be takin' that-a key now," Wario added.

"We accept no more competition!" Fawful laughed.

Twilight and Spike are, needless to say, shocked at this turn of events. "Y-Yeah, well...we found the key first! We're taking it!" Spike threatened, raising his dukes.

"Alright...have it your way!" Twilight spat, flaring up her horn's magic.

Just before the two groups could face off, however...a white/blue blur rushed in and snatched the key! That's right, Valentine strikes again.

"Again, distracted. You're all making this too easy~"

"You again?! Don't you know when to back off?!" Pete shakes his fist at Valentine, "Give that back or I'll have my cohorts take you down!"

"Come and take it if you can!" Valentine taunted.

"Don't-a mind if I do!" Wario laughed as he ran toward the nurse. However, he was blocked off by...Wario? Someone who looked just like Wario was standing right in his path! "Eh - ?"

"(?!) Two of him??" Spike couldn't believe what he was seeing!

The two Warios looked at each other, observing and matching the other's movements exactly. Then, one of the Warios clenched a fist and uppercut the bandaged Wario!

"Owww - !"

The other Wario's eyes turned red as "he" morphed into what's best described as a total abomination. "Your blind greed will be your undoing!" Spike's eyes went wide as he fainted at the sight of this monster.

"Rrrgh...! What-a you mean our undoing??" Wario retorted.

"Face it, Pete - you couldn't beat me before, and you had lots of help that time," Valentine chuckled. "And I've got my partner Double with me this time. You may as well give up."

Twilight gritted her teeth. If types like Valentine and this Double are after the keys, it can't mean anything good.

"I don't know the words 'give up' and 'run away', but I know the words 'beatings' and 'pummeling'! Say your prayers, missy!" Pete begins to run in place in a comical fashion then charge himself at Double with his big bulging arms. "HERE COMES PETE!!!"

Double merely stands for a moment...before turning into a giant mouthed hand that seizes Pete with "hand" tongues.

"The day shall be ours like the candy from an infant! I have power!!" Fawful fired several dark star shots from his raygun at Double, but Valentine intercepted them with her red-cross shuriken. However, while she was distracted, Twilight flew into her from behind, making her drop one of the three keys in her possession!

"(!) Rrgh...You'll pay for that - !" Valentine swings her bonesaw at Twilight, who suffered a long gash across her right foreleg. Spike rolled in and grabbed the dropped key. "Twilight! I got it!"

"Hey! That's-a mine!" Wario ran after Spike, who responded by running away from him in a panic.

As Valentine jumped toward Twilight, ready to impale her with some kind of toxin-filled syringe, the alicorn used her telekinesis spell to seize Wario. The fat man stopped running when he realized her wasn't even touching the ground. "Wha - ?" He was then yanked in the way of Valentine, who ended up stabbing the syringe into Wario's hiney. "(!) Oh my."

"WAAAAAAAAHAAAHAAAAAAAAAH!!"

"SALIVA!?!! ERRRGGHHHH!!! And I thought I had bad hygiene!!" Pete complained, but since brought that up, he hadn't cleaned himself for over a week.

Double clenched Pete between her hand-jaws.

Spike rejoined with Twilight with the key in hand. "So what now??"

"Well, um..." Twilight quickly checked back on the astronomy book. "It says that five keys appear on the terra firma. When they're all claimed, all that have made prolonged contact with the keys' essence will be brought to - "

Twilight was soon interrupted by a drop-kick by Valentine. "To the site of the last two keys. So I guess I can't stop you from going there now..." She then brandished several bo-shuriken scalpels. "...without taking grisly measures!"

Valentine threw them at Twilight, who blocked them with a magic barrier. However, this distracted her from Valentine's next attack - swiftly scooping the pony and dragon into a body bag! She zipped it up tight and slammed a foot down on it as she brought out her IV-stand yari. "Well, thanks for playing~" She brought the spear down on the body bag...

SHING!!

...but it got blocked by a diving hoof-kick - by none other than Rainbow Dash! The pegasus then kicked the spear away from Valentine and swiftly tackled her back. The ninja caught footing on the snow, skidding to a stop.

"No one does that to my friends!" Rainbow Dash growled. "Is this treasure so great you gotta kill for it?!"

"...I won't give my reasons to just anyone," Valentine spat. "But if you want to be in the way as well, so be it!"

Valentine and Rainbow Dash proceeded to face off in head-on melee combat, matching hand with hoof, hoof with foot. Wario, meanwhile, felt a bit numb from the toxin that Valentine injected into his posterior. "Owwwww...Mama mia...!"

Pete breaks free from the sticky grip of Double's hand-jaws and pokes her in the eyes and then kicks her rear to get ground. Pete resumes getting to the key so he can snatch it from anyone.

...What rear? What eye? What Pete jammed his fingers into is another hand, which slapped him upside the face.

Twilight had just torn through the body bag, her and Spike gasping for air. But, just then, all the combatants - Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Valentine, Double, Pete, Wario, Fawful - were engulfed in a prismatic shine.

"(!) H-Hey, what...what is this??" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"The keys...all five must have been found!" Twilight realized. "And now...!"

"Alright...now the real game begins," Valentine stated.

"{rubs sore rear} Ow...the real game?" Wario groaned.

And with that, all eight vanished with the glow...

A prismatic shine flared out on the golden-yellow surface of this moon. When it cleared, there stood Heavy, Steve, Jurgen, Dr. Y, Zenmei, Peacock, Double, Fawful, Twilight, Jagger, and Ted.

Dr. Y adjusted his sunglasses and looked around.

"... Where's the rest of the crew?" he asked himself, after noting that Qwark and Ramses were nowhere in sight. He then turned to the others. "I take it you all are treasure hunters?"

Zenmei looked around at the new group he, Dr. Y, and Heavy have gotten into. Double had already shifted to her nun form, but had her shut-eye stare focused on Jurgen. "..."

"So, uh..." Zenmei broke the ice. "you guys are after the Tower Key, too?"

"Tower Key?" Jagger asked. "What's that about?"

"Yeah, what's this about a Tower Key?" Peacock inquired. "And how come I wasn't informed of it sooner?"