Resurgence of Chaos

It had disappointed Feather Quill that she had been unable to find even one unicorn or pegasus that had been at least nonplussed over having experienced a bit of chaos, but in the end she returned to Screwball’s house with her head hung crestfallen with her lack of success. Literally all of them had done was belly ached to her how horrible it was to have had their precious horn or wings taken away for a measly hour and how they were glad that a creature like Discord was now locked away in a stone prison up in Celestia’s vaults and would never have to be subjected to such a horror again. Not a single one of them realized that they were saying it to an Earth pony who had never experienced either such events herself, being born without either her entire life, and was a perfectly functioning member of society, nor did they notice the stares they got from their Earth pony friends that they were hanging around with at the time. It had especially been agitating that none of the pegasi had even noticed that while they had their flight privileges revoke, none had sustained any injuries. All those that had been in the middle of a flight had found themselves suddenly standing still on the ground and those in the clouds had inexplicably found they were marooned but still able to stand on them.

She refused to let this turn of events sour her mood completely and in an act of defiance to the mounting displeasure dove into a tray of Mr. Cake’s famous cinnamon-swirl French toast. They were delicious, and it quickly brought a smile to her face. She let herself relax for the remainder of the city-wide party; after all, she had an interesting night still ahead of her.

…

When Feather Quill arrived at Screwball’s home late in the evening, but more early in the morning, she was astonished at what looked like all the Earth ponies in Ponyville, save the Elements of Harmony’s of course, crammed into her friend’s home. It was quite clear that many others shared the same notions on the whole Discord “fiasco” that had befallen Equestria as she.

About the room could be heard tales recounting the awesome thrills that had been unleashed upon them during Discord’s short stay in Ponyville. One mare with some grapes as a cutie mark was laughing, quite loudly, recounting her story on how the effects of black pepper triggering a sneeze had turned houses to plywood replicas, and how she was relieved that it had really happened so wouldn’t have to give up on her favorite pastime.

Squeezing through the crowd she slowly made her way to Screwball, who was talking to a colt with a grey coat. Upon getting closer to the conversation it had something to do with jelly and how he had been able to change his body into it. The colt had a smile that was bordering on the psychotic, clearly making Screwball nervous, so Feather Quill stepped up and excused the colt saying that she needed to have a private word with her friend. Obliging the colt meandered off to continue his story to others who would listen.

“Well, looks like all that’s going to show up has” said the brown mare, a little dejected that she hadn’t seen horn nor wing of anypony else but Earth ponies.

With a loud erherm, from Screwball, the crowd began to slowly quiet. “Fillies and gentlecolts, you, as I, are here tonight…”

“Erm, technically it’s morning” said a brown gelding with an hourglass cutie mark.

“…………. this morning, to discuss a matter that we all feel needs to be discussed. The recent escape and re-incarceration of Discord. As well as, how it may not have been a completely just action.”

The ambiance in the room began to shift at those words. A few ponies began to shudder a little at the mention of the draconequus. Even though many of them shared mixed feelings about the incident, they could all agree upon the fact that things had become radically different from the peaceful lives they had known as he had gallivanted across Equestria.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Screwball mustered her courage and said, “I think it might have been the wrong thing to imprison him in stone.”

And with that, the room was sent into an uproar.

“Free Discord?!?”

“What, defy the Alicorn princesses?!?”

“Especially now that Princess Luna was free?!?”

“Defy the Princesses’? What about all the other pegasi and unicorns?”

“This is madness!”

“He ruined my cabbages!”

The raucous noise was becoming unbearable, and if continued for much longer would it would probably the whole of Ponyville, when suddenly the lights went out. A few high pitched screams went up followed quickly by some embarrassed male coughing. A few were getting their nerves back, and a few mumbles of “who turned out the lights” and “someone get a candle” began to swirl around the room.

At the edge of the room the tell-tale tinkling sound of magic moved the crowd to dead silence as the light of a glowing green horn lit up a small corner of the room, silencing everypony, and stopping a few from breathing. With a flicker of movement the glow encompassed the recently used light-switch and flicked it back on, revealing the mint-green Lyra Heartstrings, the resident harpist, though more infamously known as a conspiracy nut.

“Well, well, well. Seems some ponies have finally got it into their little heads to question the world around them,” she smirked.

“Why are you here?” came an indignant cry, hidden in the crowd.

“Well it’s certainly not to crush this little rebellion,” Lyra replied coolly.

The room grew more silent, if possible, at those words, until a voice in the crowd groaned, “Oh sweet Celestia, guess we know who put Screwball up to this,” as his hooves began to beat a path to the front door, followed by a slow, but quickly growing number of hooves, and jovial voices and giggles at what a ‘silly filly’ Screwball was to get herself tangled up with such a character.

As the last pony exited Screwball’s house, politely shutting the door, Lyra gave a small smile, “Looks like my reputation precedes me,” and looked over to the two remaining mares, “so you’re the two little question askers. You know, if you wanted to cause a ruckus, there were easier ways to do so than pose questions that could get the ear of the military.”

“What are you talking about?” came the quick, and huffy, reply of Screwball, who was far from happy at Lyra, seemingly to have single hoofedly ruined her meeting.

“I’m not being mean,” Lyra replied in a quick tone, but softened as she said, “I’m trying to help you. Look, just, if you two really care, at all, about what happened to you five days ago, you’ll come visit me in the next couple of days, I’m practicing for an orchestral piece so I’ll be at home. Just come when it’s most convenient for you two.” Lyra then lit her horn and pulled the door open before quietly shutting it behind her as she left.

Feather Quill was the first to recover, and sedately made her way to the now empty sofa, flopped down upon it and said, “Well, that happened.”

Screwball cracked a small grin, always surprised at how simple she could make nearly any situation no matter how extravagant or curious, and made her way to the other side of the couch, her jump causing Quill to jostle some as Screwball settled in, and said, “Yeah, heh, I guess it did.”

The exhausted silence stretched on for what felt like minutes, but was closer to thirty seconds, until Feather Quill said, “So what do you want do?”

“I don’t know, things just escaladed pretty quickly. I think I might actually have to think about this.”

Quill gave a small chuckle, “Oh my, the famous Screwball taking time out to think, Tartarus must be freezing over.”

For that Feather Quill got a light cuff to her forehoof, which only made her laugh all the harder. It had been a long, strange, day, and she, much like Screwball, was rather tired.