The Element of Chaos

“Okay Fluttershy,” Applejack began comfortingly. They had sat Fluttershy down in a chair off to the side. Someone had gotten her a cup of punch, which she gripped in her hands a little too tightly. Applejack put a supportive hand on her shoulder. “I’m gonna need you to start over from the beginnin’, sugarcube. Now what exactly happened to Pinkie?”

“Well…you see, Pinkie was already outside by the time I caught up with her,” Fluttershy explained. “I found her alone by a tree. The poor dear was crying, curled up in a ball. Worst of all, she was shivering! I didn’t think it was that cold, but she must have been more upset than I thought. I felt so bad for her, but when I tried to get closer, this huge gust of wind blew me back and made me fall over. I’ve never felt wind that strong before! By the time I got back on my feet, the wind was gone, and so was Pinkie.”

“Wait a second here, Fluttershy, are you trying to tell us that Pinkie was kidnapped by a gust of wind?” Rainbow Dash gave her friend an incredulous look.

Fluttershy looked down at her punch bashfully. “Well, no, but there was something awfully strange about it, and well, when it blew me back I could have sworn that I saw,” she bit her lip.

“Saw what, darling?” Rarity prompted her. “It’s alright, you can tell us.”

Fluttershy looked up at the girls shyly, eyes scared and uncertain. “A face,” she said quietly. “I thought I saw a face in the wind, but that can’t be right, can it?”

While Fluttershy had explained things, Discord had stood off to the side a little bit away from the group, quietly listening in and trying not to draw attention to himself. Upon hearing Fluttershy’s last statement, however, Discord couldn’t help but curse. “Windigos,” Discord spat angrily when all the girls turned to him.

Sunset gazed at him curiously. “Windigos? We have stories about those in Equestria, but I thought that that’s all they were, stories.”

“Oh they’re very real,” Discord said. “And very dangerous. If we don’t get to Pinkie soon, there may not be a Pinkie left to get to.”

“We? What do you mean we? If anybody’s gonna save Pinkie it’s gonna be us, her friends,” Applejack said. “If I recall, that does not include you. Pinkie made that very clear.”

Discord growled. “Why you little-“

“Stop it!” Fluttershy uncharacteristically shouted. Everyone looked at her in surprise. For a moment, she looked as if she had surprised even herself and would soon hide behind her pink hair and never say anything ever again, but instead she took a deep breath and hardened her expression. “I’m sorry,” she began fiercely, “but Pinkie is missing. We don’t have time to stand around arguing!” She turned to Discord. “Discord I only need to know one thing. Do you care about Pinkie?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Applejack, is he lying?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, um,” Applejack said hesitantly. “No, but-“

“But nothing,” Fluttershy interrupted. “If Pinkie is in danger we need all the help we can get. If Discord knows what happened to her then he should be able to help. Agreed?”

All the girls except for Applejack nodded. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at her. “Aw fine,” Applejack caved. “But if he tries any funny business then I’m gonna see to his removal from town personally.”

Discord snorted. “As if you could!”

“Deal!” Fluttershy said quickly before they could start fighting again. She took a deep, calming breath. “Now, Discord, what are windigos and what do they want with Pinkie?”

Discord turned away from Applejack with an angry huff. “Windigos are wind spirits that feed on negative emotions,” he explained. “For the past couple hundred years or so they have also acted as Sombra’s personal henchmen. You see, Sombra was a wizard who dabbled a little too freely in the dark arts. Eventually he found a way to not only enhance his power, but also his life by feeding on the negative emotions of others, especially fears. Oh he is an absolute genius when it comes to torture! He replays his victims’ darkest fears over and over again until they go insane. Even I’m not that cold-hearted.” The girls gave him several dubious looks and he frowned. “Okay, so maybe I’ve done a few bad things, but Sombra’s worse. Once he’s done with his toys, he doesn’t just turn them loose like I do. He kills them. If he has Pinkie we really need to get to her soon.”

“Well what are we standing around here for? Let’s go kick some wizard butt!” Rainbow Dash punched her hand for emphasis.

“Rescuing Pinkie is not going to be that easy.” Discord shook his head. “Why is Sombra even here? Last I heard he was in Europe,” he stroked his chin. “No, this expedition is going to require a bit more finesse than a simple ‘butt kicking’.”

In an abandoned hotel on the edge of the city, Sombra studied his newest acquisition with a wicked grin on his face. “Oh you’ve done well today, boys!” he said to the pair of windigos flanking the pink girl tied up on the floor. Pinkie stared at the dark haired wizard with wide, confused eyes. “She’s just oozing with sorrow and wretchedness! And is that -” he moved closer to her and wafted the air around her with his hand. Pinkie backed away from him. “- betrayal I sense?” he continued. “Oh it tastes delicious! Not quite as good as fear, but we’ll soon fix that!”

“W-what do you mean?” Pinkie stuttered. She tried to smile and laugh like she usually did when confronted with scary things she didn’t understand, but she had just been betrayed by one of her best friends and this situation was a lot scarier and more confusing than she was prepared for at the moment. “Why did you bring me here?”

Sombra smirked. “Oh you’ll find out soon. Don’t you worry about that.” A black jeweled ring on his finger suddenly began to glow with a dark aura. Soon the aura encompassed his entire hand. With a wicked laugh, he lifted the hand towards her, and the aura shot out at Pinkie so quickly she could do nothing but gasp. As the darkness encompassed her, scenes flashed before her eyes. She saw her friends laughing, but it was not a friendly, happy laugh; it was cruel and heartless.

“You’re so stupid, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said coldly. “Did you really think we were friends? That’s freakin’ hilarious!”

“Why in the world would we be friends with someone like you?” Rarity said with a flip of her long hair. “You’re nothing special.”

“Not even my animals like you,” Fluttershy said.

Sunset sneered at her. “You’re such a freak!”

“Pathetic.”

“Idiot.”

“Airhead.”

“Stop it!” Pinkie shrieked. She put her hands over her ears to block out the voices, but it didn’t help any. They came anyway. Their mocking echoed in her mind, slashing at every little insecurity the unfortunate girl had ever had.

“Poor, poor Pinkie.” Discord tilted her chin up as her friends laughed at her in the background. “What happened to all your little friends? Did they abandon you like you abandoned me?” His face hardened.

“I didn’t abandon you! You lied to me!” Pinkie shouted, pushing him away. “And now you’ve done something to my friends, haven’t you? What did you do? Why are they acting like this?”

“Oh foolish Pinkie,” Discord said with fake pity in his voice. “I didn’t do anything to your friends. They’ve always been like this. Don’t you remember? Your friendship has been torn apart before.”

Pinkie clenched her fists. Discord was right. Sunset Shimmer had broken their friendship apart before. It hadn’t even been that hard. Just a few well-timed e-mails and texts and suddenly they were no longer talking to each other. Twilight had been the one to bring them back together. She was the element of Magic, of Friendship, after all. Without her, what chance did they have? Their friendship was so very fragile. What was the point of friends if all they did was hurt you in the end?

Discord put an arm around her. “Don’t be sad, my dear. You don’t need such false friends. You have me after all! And just look around at what I’ve done for you!” Pinkie’s friends disappeared and were replaced with a scene of the town in absolute bedlam. Several houses were on fire. Giant plaid lizards roamed the streets as people screamed in terror. Spiky pink clouds rained acid on the town, burning pockmarks into the brick and wooden buildings.

Pinkie stared at the turmoil in shock. “Discord,” she said, turning to him. “How could you do this?”

“What’s wrong, Pinkie?” he grinned, stroking her jawline seductively. Pinkie tried to bat his hand away, but found that she couldn’t move. Discord moved his hand to the small of her back and put his lips close to her ear so she could feel the warmth of his breath as he whispered, “I thought you liked my chaos.”

“Ah, yeeesss!” Sombra moaned, basking in Pinkie’s fear and misery as she lay curled up on the floor. “This girl’s emotions are particularly strong. I don’t think I’ve tasted anything this delicious in centuries!” With mock tenderness, he brushed a bit of straight, pink hair out of her tear streaked face. “We should be able to feed off her for a while. Where did you two pick her up?”

The two shades said something in a strange, whispery language that sounded like the moans and sighs of a winter wind. “A school, you say?” Sombra replied. “Interesting.”

He looked back down at Pinkie as she moaned. New tears fell down her face. “Please Discord,” she whispered. “Don’t do this.” She pulled her knees in closer to her chest. “Please.”

“Very interesting, indeed.” Sombra took a closer look at her face. “Now why would an innocent school girl know anything about Discord?” He stood. If it wasn’t for the strong energy Pinkie possessed, Sombra wouldn’t have thought much of her fear of Discord. Perhaps she had lived in a city he had once terrorized or maybe she heard a story about him somewhere. Anything was possible, really. But the two facts together were too much of a coincidence. It reminded him of why he had come to the town in the first place.

He steepled his fingers in front of him, deep in thought. “Take the girl into the throne room,” he commanded after a moment. “I think we might have a guest soon.”