The Element of Chaos

Pinkie’s heart soared when she saw her friends jump into fighting stances beside Discord the moment their bonds had been released. Maybe her friends really did care about her after all. Maybe even Discord – she quickly squelched that train of thought before it had even properly begun. Discord might seem like he was helping, but it had to be some sort of trick. She could believe in her friends, but she had to remind herself that no matter how much she wanted it to be true, Discord was not her friend. She wouldn’t let him trick her again.

“What?” Sombra shouted. “How dare you release my prisoners! Guards! Guards!” Like a ghostly chill in the midst of winter, dozens of wraithlike windigos flew through walls and doors, surrounding the group of would-be rescuers. The temperature in the room plummeted.

“H-how are w-we s-supposed to fight g-ghosts?” Rainbow Dash stuttered, rubbing her arms for warmth.

Discord rolled his eyes. “They’re not ghosts, they’re windigos. They feed off negative emotions, so only a surplus of positive energy can defeat them. You need to use the elements. Sunset should be powerful enough to wield the element of magic.”

“Me?!” Sunset cried eyes wide.

“Well it’s not like there’s anyone else here with a bunch of magic and friends!” Discord replied.  “Just do whatever you all did before with Twilight and aim it at them.”

“Uh, we’re gonna need Pinkie for that, and she doesn’t really seem to be in the mood to be the element of laughter right now,” Applejack pointed out, as the windigos started to swirl around them, making the room colder. Discord looked over at Pinkie who had moved so she was sitting cross-legged on the floor before Sombra. She stared back at him suspiciously.

“Don’t worry,” he told the girls. “I’ll deal with her. Just try not to freeze to death in the meantime.”

“Wait a minute!” Fluttershy said. “Where’s Rarity?”

“She was here just a minute ago,” Sunset said, looking around.

Discord sighed and rubbed his temples. “Alright. Sunset and Fluttershy, I want you two to look for Rarity. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, try and stop the windigos from freezing all of us. At least until we can get the elements working, anyway.”

“H-how are w-we s-supposed to d-do that?” Rainbow said, her teeth still chattering from the increasing cold.

Discord threw his hands up in exasperation. “Figure it out! And here,” he snapped his fingers making thick coats and gloves appear on all the girls. “That should help for a bit. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a friend to cheer up.”

Applejack looked over at Rainbow as Discord walked away. “Got any ideas?”

Rainbow scrunched her face up thoughtfully. “You wouldn’t happen to have any rope on you, do you?” she said after a moment. Thankfully, the blue coat Discord had given her warmed her enough that could speak properly again.

Applejack smirked, realizing just what Rainbow was thinking. She pulled out several long lengths of rope. “Always.”

“Where do you think Rarity could have gone? You don’t think one of the windigos killed her do you?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Sunset reassured her. “She probably just left to check her make-up or something.”

“In the middle of a rescue mission? Rarity wouldn’t do that,” Fluttershy said. Behind her, Applejack rode on a windigo’s back as it ran about wildly on all fours, trying to buck her off, while Rainbow tackled another windigo painfully to the ground. Fluttershy and Sunset didn’t even notice them.

“You’re right,” Sunset replied with a guilty look. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m still not quite used to this whole friend thing. Come on, she can’t have gone far.”

It was at that moment that they heard a scream. “I think I just found her,” Fluttershy said quietly, her eyes wide in shock.

Next to her, Sunset’s eyes were just as wide. “What is she doing?”

The first thing Rarity realized once she and the other girls were poofed into the atrociously decorated dining room of the even more atrociously decorated hotel was that Sombra was absolutely gorgeous. Those dazzling green eyes! That flowing mane of black hair! Even his cheekbones seemed to be chiseled by a master craftsman! Why, he was so beautiful, she could almost look past the ghastly red and black assemble from fashion hell he wore. Almost. If only it wasn’t quite so tacky or screamed quite so loudly “Look at me! I’m an evil tyrant!” then maybe Rarity could have let it pass, but, alas, she could not; not even when her friend was in dire need of rescuing – or, perhaps especially when her friend was in dire need. To be honest, Rarity was quite worried about Pinkie, but wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation, so she focused on clothes. Clothes she knew. Clothes she could fix. And now that Discord had so kindly released her and the other girls, Rarity knew exactly what she needed to do. She pulled a pair of shiny silver scissors out of her pocket and smiled with a slightly manic look to her eyes as she gazed at Sombra’s clothes. While the others were distracted, she made her way over to the curtains by the stage and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Thanks to the rambunctious actions of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, that moment came sooner than expected. While Sombra was disctracted by the fight, Rarity tackled him onto the floor with a wild scream.

“Unhand me, wench!” Sombra shouted, struggling to get the unexpectedly strong girl off of him.

“Wench? How dare you! I, sir, am a lady!” She said, straddling his chest and fussing with the buttons on his shirt. “Now hold still while I take off your clothes.”

He immediately stopped struggling and stared at her in confusion. “What?”

“Oh don’t worry!” Rarity reassured. “I’ll put some other ones on you.”

“What?!” he shouted.

Rarity pursed her lips in thought. “How do you feel about the color green?”

To say that Discord was not surprised by Rarity’s sudden attack on the dark wizard would be a lie. In fact, he was very much surprised by it, and wished he could stop for a moment to watch and enjoy the scene properly, but he didn’t have time. He needed to get to Pinkie, and since Sombra was so conveniently distracted, now was the perfect time.  “Alright Pinkie! Time to join your friends and defeat the big bad Sombra and his ghoulish goons,” he said, hopping onto the stage and grabbing Pinkie’s arm.

“No!” Pinkie replied angrily, yanking her arm out of his grasp. She stood up and glared at him. “You’ve done nothing but lie to me since I met you. How can I trust you now?” She yelled. “You might be doing all of this just to gain my trust, only to turn on me when I least expect it! At least Sombra’s been honest about wanting to devour my soul!”

Discord held up a finger in protest. “Er…technically he wants to devour your feelings of fear and pain as he slowly tortures you to death, but I suppose soul works too.”

“Stop changing the subject!” she shouted, jabbing a finger painfully into his chest. “You are an evil, lying mcliar pants and have never really cared about me one bit, so why did you really come here?”

Discord sighed. “Are we really going to do this now? I mean, I would love to chat about our feelings and everything, I can assure you, but can we do it sometime when we’re not all in mortal danger?”

“You obviously didn’t come here to save me,” Pinkie continued as if Discord hadn’t interrupted. “So why? Why are you here? Why are you trying to make me think you’re a good person? Are you trying to lead my friends into a trap? Are you and Sombra besties and plotting to steal the elements together? Is that it?”

He shook his head. “Of course not! I came to save you! You’re my best friend, Pinkie! Not Sombra!”

Pinkie huffed and folded her arms. “Likely story! I’m not falling for that whole ‘best friend’ routine again, mister!”

“But it’s true!” Discord insisted. “All I care about is your happiness! If you don’t want me to steal the elements then I won’t. If you want me become,” he grimaced, “friends with your friends then I will. I don’t care about ruling the world anymore, Pinkie. Not if you’re not there beside me. It just wouldn’t be worth it.”

Pinkie’s look softened slightly, but she didn’t quite believe him. “Prove it then!” she demanded. “Prove that you care about me! That you’re still my friend!”

Discord growled. “Fine! If that’s what you want then okay!” He grabbed her face in his hands and gave her a deep, passionate kiss. Pinkie just stood there with wide surprised eyes as he pulled away.

She blinked, and then smacked his arm angrily. “That’s not what friends do!”

“They don’t?” he yelled, equally as angry. “Well I guess we’re not friends then ‘cause I really want to do that again!”

Pinkie glared at him. “Well so do I!”

“Oh yeah?!” he shouted, taking a step closer to her.

“Yeah!” She shouted even louder. Suddenly, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled his lips down to hers as his hands moved to her hips. She giggled as Discord pulled away from the kiss, and her hair poofed back into wild, messy curls once more.

“Now come on,” Discord said with a grin. “We need to help your friends. Oh wait a minute.” He looked down at her black dress with a scrutinizing expression and snapped his fingers. Suddenly the dress was replaced by jeans and a fluffy pink coat with matching gloves. “There!” he said. “That’s better. Now we can go.” Taking her by the hand, they moved over to Rarity. Somehow the normally mild-mannered girl had a tied a very bewildered and bare-chested Sombra up to his throne using bits of cloth from his shredded silk shirt. She held different styles and colors of shirts up to him, while he just stared at her, unsure how to react.

“This is a good look for you Sombra,” Discord quipped. “Very feral. I whole-heartedly approve.” Discord’s voice seemed to have broken Sombra from his confused state, for the wizard suddenly looked very, very angry.

“I will not stand for this!” he shouted vehemently. “I am an all-powerful king and will not be subdued by some peasant in my own castle!”

“Oh stop that!” Rarity chided. “You are not a king and this is a not a castle. This is a hideous hotel that should have been bulldozed years ago. Now stop acting like a child!” She brandished her scissors threateningly at him. “I warn you, my patience is wearing very thin right now. Don’t make me snip something off that can’t be replaced!” Sombra’s eyes grew wide at the implication.

“I think you should do it anyway,” Discord said with a smirk. “It’s not like he really needs it.”

“How dare you, cretin!” Sombra cried, utterly outraged.

Rarity ignored both of them and held a poufy dark green shirt up to Sombra with a thoughtful expression. “What do you think Pinkie?” she suddenly asked. “Too dark?”

Pinkie got a wicked glint in her eye. “You should make him wear pink. Lots and lots of pink.” Sombra gulped, horrified at the very thought.

“Pink?” Rarity frowned. “But pink doesn’t really – oh wait, I see what you’re getting at.” She grinned evilly. “How about some lace and ribbon too? Ooh! And bows? Bows would look adorable!”

“I hate to interrupt what is sure to be some excellent blackmail material down the road, but,” Discord pointed to the growing number of windigos that were pouring into the middle of the room from all sides. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and even Sunset and Fluttershy were fighting the wraiths back valiantly, but whenever they thought they had one cornered, it would dissipate, only to reappear somewhere else. It was a losing battle. “I think the others might need our help.”

“Yes, I see your point,” Rarity agreed, putting the shirt down on the ground regretfully. She pointed her scissors at Sombra and fervidly told him, “We will finish this later.”

“Don’t worry,” Discord reassured. “Old Somby isn’t going anywhere. You’ll be able to play dress-up with him later. Promise!” He turned to Pinkie. “Do you still have your party cannon?”

Pinkie smiled brightly. “Never leave home without it!”

“Good,” he replied. “We may need it.”