Disturbed
'Disturbed'By Onyx-1998
The party was going so well! It had turned one of the biggest attendances Pinkie had seen in a long time, and she was loving it;
The music was blasting out loud and proud,
Everypony was drinking way too much alcohol for their own good,
And it had attracted some big figures!
Hell, even the princesses stayed behind after their monthly visit for this one. Pinkie Considered this a major success as the princesses barely had time for anything lower than the Grand Galloping Gala, which even Celestia herself said was 'always awful'. But making parties was Pinkies super awesome special talent, so when Pinkie puts her party on, everypony gets involved!
But this party was no normal party, oh no. You see, this time she had a little something planned for her friends and it was going to be brilliant. Pinkie Pie had recently caught up with an old friend who just happened to own a clinic in the back of town, and she had access to a multitude of different kinds of drugs. Several of which Pinkie thought would make an excellent improvement to the experience of her parties. She had looked around a bit and found the perfect drug that would make her friends go wild... Literally.
Now Hallucinogenics aren't cheap, she parted with a pretty-bit to get a hold of even a small amount of the drugs for 'Medicinal purposes' but with just a tad of her persuasive powers, Pinkie bought enough of them for everypony. And if she was to be perfectly honest, she wasn't exactly sure how much of what she bought, or how much was safe for that matter. But hopefully nopony would die and everything would go awesomely.
Pinkie made her way across the town hall. There were so many ponies Pinkie just couldn't help but notice the huge grins they had plastered on their faces. Some were dancing, some were talking, most were drunk out of their minds and just waiting for the inevitable hangover, and some were making out with their mare/colt-friends. All of which put a smile on her face but the highlight was yet to come.
She spied the rest of the elements of harmony sitting at the bar... chatting. Chatting? Chatting is sooo boring! Oh, Pinkie was NOT going to let this one by. Bouncing across the floor in her signature bunny hopping motion, she covered the ground in-between them in no time. As she got close, Rainbow Dash heard the party pony coming and turned to face her.
"Hey, sweet party Pinkie Pie! You really out-did yourself on this one." The cyan pegasus grabbed a mug of cider on the counter and downed it all in one swig.
"I concur." Added Rarity. "This is the biggest attendance I have ever seen at a party besides the 'Gala. So you must be doing something right." Rarity had made herself look stunning for the occasion, as usual. With just the right amount of make up to make her look better without ruining the natural look that was underneath, it could be classed as art.
Pinkie blushed and raised a dismissive hoof to go with her joyous smile. "Aww, you guys. And the best part hasn't even started yet!" Pinkie suddenly arose from behind the counter, catching everypony off-guard. She pulled a bottle of Smirbuck premium vodka from the cupboards above and put it down in-front of her friends. Fluttershy took one look at the red label and her jaw dropped to the floor.
"How-what percentage of that is alcohol?" She asked while taking a worried look at Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy barely drunk any alcohol at all which was to be expected from the shy pegasus, as she would never drink something such as the vodka that Pinkie had got for them.
"Only about 44 percent." She answered with a mischievous smile that had 'Drinking contest' written all over it. Fluttershy grimaced at the thought of in taking that much poison into your stomach and shook her head.
"I-I think ill pass, thank you." She looked apologetically at Pinkie Pie. She bobbed an understanding nod at her cream coloured friend and turned her face to the rest of the group. They returned her look in silence until she laid out a set of five shot glasses on the counter and lent on her elbow, waiting for their response. Rainbow Dash immediately got the message and rose to the challenge.
"I'm in!" She shouted and leaned in at the counter with Pinkie and tossed a competitive look her way. Twisting her body, she gave the expression to the other three mares that were potential contestants. Apple Jack sighed and joined her.
"A'h guess there's no turnin' this one down. Ya'll in?" AJ gestured Twilight and Rarity over to the competition and they all sat in a row at the counter, waiting for Pinkie to pour the drinks. The party pony removed the cork on the bottle and gently filled the tiny glasses with the clear liquid.
"First shot!" She said. And the group quickly swallowed their shots before putting the glasses back down for a refill.
"If Celestia has anything for me to do tomorrow, she's gonna' be disappointed." Twilight rolled her eyes and put her head in her hooves.
"Hey, just this one time okay?" Rainbow nudged the unicorn and called for another shot. Pinkie rolled them out just as fast, and the group downed their second shots. Again, and again the tiny glasses added another small amount of the absolutely potent liquid to the mares' bloodstream's. And eventually, Twilight backed out after just 9 shots.
"I'm out girls. That'll do it for me." She shrugged and placed the empty glass down at the counter. rainbow laughed and called her a lightweight, to which Twilight responded with 'Bight me'.
Next out was Rarity at 13 shots. She joined Twilight in chatting about how ridiculous all these 'stupid bar-games' were, and how stupid she felt for getting tipsy over them. The final three were determined to be the winner and out-drink the others, it was going to be great.
More shots were dished out to the three mares and eventually one had to give. Third out of the competition was AJ with 17 shots, who joined the spectators group respectively. And then there were three. Pinkie and Rainbow gave determined looks of determination as well as a creepy grin from Pinkie Pie. One more round was shared out to the pair and they shoved it down their throats with just as much speed as the first.
Meanwhile in the so called 'spectators stand', the outed three watched in horror as the finalists drunk more and more of the strong vodka. Suddenly Rarity hiccuped loudly and scared Twilight.
"Oh-er, surry deer twilyt, hehe." She slurred out, giggling after the sentence. Then she reeled back and frowned in confusion. Reaching out to touch Twilight's horn, she gawped in awe and apparent amazement when she made contact, causing Twilight to freeze in place, blushing furiously.
"Uh, Rarity? What are you doing?" She went cross-eyed looking at the mares hoof before it was retracted. Rarity laughed and blushed heavily in return.
"Jus nver seen yer hornn glow rainbow befor." Her eyes slowly began diluting, staring beyond Twilight and into the wall behind her. She then grew a strange smile and made a panoramic observation around the room, staring at the walls in utter ecstasy. Twilight frowned and leaned over to Apple Jack, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. AJ picked her head up lazily and turned to her. The farmers once unbreakable gaze was now confused and slightly scared. Twilight cocked an eyebrow at this but carried on anyway.
"Apple Jack, are you seeing this?" She motioned to Rarity, but AJ simply looked past her at the crowd of ponies behind, and gave Twilight a relived look.
"So you saw em' too? Thank Celestia. I thought a'h was goin' crackers cause' it walked right in plain sight n' nopony saw it." She put an foreleg round Twilight's shoulder and pulled up close to her ear. Twilight was a little scared now, and was beginning to worry that they had consumed a bit more than cider and shots of vodka that night. Then she heard Apple Jacks breathing, she was genuinely scared, something she just never was.
"A'h saw one of em', Twi'. A Changeling. Hidin' among us, watchin' us." Her voice cracked at the word and sounded almost paranoid. Maybe Pinkie put something in their drinks and they were hallucinating, but the again maybe Rarity was just really alcohol intolerant and AJ was actually telling the truth. She glanced over at the two contestants, still taking shots. Which was backed up by the completely intoxicated look on their face's.
Twilight sighed, either way tonight was gonna be a big night and she was going to forget all about it tomorrow, like it never happened. She slid of her bar stool and almost screamed when the ground rippled with waves of water, along with a low pitched echo like you would get in a cave. The walls shimmered with light that looked like it was reflected off' water, again like a cave. The sounds of the party slurred together to create a monotone droning in the background, and bits of a roof covered with a wallpaper of the shining stars collapsed onto the grand with a loud crunch to reveal a rusty metal grate roof while the floorboards rotted away to reveal bare stone underneath. The party-goers set alight and slowly burned away to ashes, floating away on a non-existent breeze that blew away from her and into a large spinning metal fan that made swooshing noises as its blades sent wafts of air her way.
Twilight's jaw hit the floor and panic started to worm into her brain as she took in the twisted sight that un-raveled itself before her. She slammed her eyelids shut and shook her head violently. The droning exploded into the sounds of chatting, laughing, and shouting again as she opened her eyes to reveal that everything was completely normal.
"What in Tartarus..." She cocked her head on its side and blinked a few times to make sure everything was still ok. She had no idea what just happened but this was some serious stuff going on. Raising a hoof to her head, she felt that her temperature had risen a bit but she was still A-ok.
"Twilight..." She jumped when Apple Jack rested a hoof on her back. AJ was looking at her with a concerned look and sweat running down her face slightly. "...Are you ok? What about findin' that bug?" Twilight faked a laugh and smiled.
"Yeah I was gonna ask, were did it go again?" AJ just pointed in the direction of the toilets across the room to her. Twilight let out a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second to help her calm down. But she could not clear the image of what she just witnessed from her head, and she had so many questions. But most were drowned out by the one word that seemed to describe her confusion
What?
Taking a deep breath, she began to make her way across the floor. With each hoofstep second thoughts seeped into her brain. Had somepony cast a strange spell over her and her friends? Were they poisoned? So many possibilities could be involved. The only thing she knew that could relate to what happened was Sombra's magic, but Apple Jack said she saw a changeling so was this some sort of crazy revenge attempt by Queen Chrysalis?
She had to make herself know to shuffle through the mass of ponies. The world blurred around them, giving them more focus. And they gave her strange looks and parted to let her through, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being observed by something sinister, something evil. The face's of the ponies started looking more twisted and vile as they stared intensely at her. Sweat built up on her forehead as she could feel their sharp eyes piercing her body and into her soul. A tingling gripped her hoof and climbed her leg, but she ignored the sensation. Somewhere in the crowd, an evil face caught her eye, its face was pale and rotting away like it was long dead and strips of the flesh in its cheeks were cut away to give the disturbing illusion of a deep and toothy grin. Its black pupil's were surrounded by clear white irises that seared rings in her brain. Twilight immediately forced her frightened eyes to face the floor. her now tearful eyes refusing to look at anything around her for fear she was being stalked. But then she saw the source of the tingling, a black vine curling around her leg and squeezing the blood vessels, blocking the flow of blood. Its spine's grew out rapidly, digging into her flesh and allowed the crimson red liquid to ooze out. Oddly though she felt no pain.
"Its not real..." She repeated over and over again in her mind. "Its not real and there's nopony dead or alive following me." The sentence burrowed into her inner being and she made herself believe that nothing was happening. Slowly but surely, the sights seemed to evaporate into the air. Hesitantly looking behind her, she found that once again everything was completely fine and nothing had changed. Now she was 100% sure something was absolutely and definitely wrong.
Taking a deep breath, she advanced from a walk into a trot, quickly making ground on the mares rest-rooms in no time at all. By the time she reached the doorway, she was determined to find out what was causing these strange hallucinations and report it to Celestia as soon as possible. And considering she was already here at the party, that wouldn't take too much time. Plus she could just call for her help if necessary.
Either way, she was going to get to the bottom of this...
