pony shades of grey

by alipopsie

First published September 30th, 2014 17:10

When a battle gets out of hoof, Equestria turns black and white. This affects the ponies as well, tuning them to greyscale. Well, most of them. Somehow Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Discord and the four Alicorns are still in full colour, well, kinda.

Note: this story is not and never will be rated M. Pony Shades of Grey is simply referring to the colour of Equestria in this fic, nothing else.

Chapters

Grey?
colour catastrophe
Fluttershy's Worries

Grey?
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pony shades of grey

Grey?

"What happened?" Twilight asked. "Why did this happen?"
"How're we meant tah know, sugarcube? We're just as confused as you." Applejack replied.
"But you gotta admit, this is pretty awesome!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"Rainbow, darling. Just tell us how, exactly, this is meant to be 'awesome'?" Rarity asked. "Becausewe'retheonlycolourfulthingsformilesandwe'veswitchedcolours!" Pinkie Pie replied in one breath.
"It... It's scary! I don't like it." Fluttershy sobbed.
"We've got to get to the princess!" Twilight tried to sound confident, but instead sounded like she had something in her throat.

~one trip to canterlot later~

"It seems that when you defeated him, the spell that he cast sucked all the colour out of Equestria. The only reason we stayed colourful is that we have enough magic to stand up to the spell, but not fend it off completely." Celestia explained. The Canterlot throne room had 9 ponies and one draconequus sitting in it in a circle on rather comfortable chairs that Discord had conjured out of thin air. "We've all switched colours. I've got Applejack's, Discord has mine, Fluttershy has Discord's, Luna has Fluttershy's, Pinkie has Luna's, Applejack has Pinkie's, Cadence has Rainbow's, Twilight has Cadence's, Rarity has Twilight's and Rainbow has Rarity's."

"Pinkie! Discord! Stop giggling and actually try to help us!" Twilight snapped. The two had been whispering to each other and giggling for the past half hour.
"O-okay, Twilight, I'll try." Pinkie giggled.
"I'm sorry, your majesty," Discord sniggered. "But Lunashy has a wonderful colour pallette going on here." He pointed an eagle claw at the yellow and pink alicorn. Luna's aqua eyes sparkled with rage at the draconequus.
"You know, Discord, I might have been offended by that, if you weren't currently looking so ridiculous in my sister's colours." Luna retorted. She was right, though. Discord looked RIDICULOUS. His usually multicoloured body was snow white, and his short mane was aqua, green, blue and pink, as was the tuft of hair at the end of his snake's tail.
"Oh yeah, well-" Discord started
"ENOUGH!" Shouted Twilight and Celestia together.

Author's Note

Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes.

Sorry on the short chapter, I'll try to do longer next time.

colour catastrophe
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pony shades of grey

colour catastrophe

"Well how are we meant to get our colours back?" Rainbow asked. "We can't stay like this forever! Cadence stole my awesome colours and I need them back! I can't stay in Rarity's colours forever! They're waaay not cool!"
"Excuse me!" Rarity exclaimed, clearly offended. "Sure, my colouring may be different to yours, but there is NO need to be rude! RAINBOW DASH GET YOUR HOOF AWAY FROM YOUR MOUTH THIS INSTANT YOU LITTLE..."
"Girls, I don't think..." Fluttershy trailed off.
"WELL EXCUSE ME, MISS HYPOCRITE! I GUESS SWEARING DOESN'T COUNT AS RUDE, DOES IT!?! ALL I'M SAYING IS THAT YOUR COLOURS ARE WAAAY TO GIRLY!"
"AND I SUPPOSE RAINBOWS AREN'T GIRLY THEN, ARE THEY?!?"
"NOT WHEN THEY'RE AS AWESOME AS MINE!"

The two argued for several minutes as the others drew more and more bored. Except Fluttershy, who, at each insult, tensed up more and more. After 5 straight minutes of of arguing, Fluttershy finally cracked.
"GIRLS! CAN YOU TWO PLEASE STOP ARGUING SO WE CAN ACTUALLY START WORKING ON SOLVING THE PROBLEM AT HOOF!?!"
Her hooves flew to her mouth.
"I'm sorry..." She whispered.
Everypony looked round, surprised, Fluttershy never lost her temper. Unless, of course, you counted the incidences at the gala and with Iron Will. There was silence for several seconds.

Cadence finally decided to break the awkward silence. "Rainbow has a point. How are we meant to get our correct colours back?"
"Not tah mention the colour of the rest o' Equestria." Applejack added. Pinkie had an idea.
"Hey! I have an idea!" She started. "This seems a lot like Discord's kind of magic, maybe he could change us back!"
"That... That's actually a rather fair point..." Said Twilight, who was obviously surprised. Discord snapped his claw, hoping for the best. There was a bright white flash, but nothing happened. They all sighed in disappointment.
"Well," he sighed. "It was worth a try."

•••

"Oh, come ON!" Twilight exclaimed. "There's GOT to be a book for this in here SOMEWHERE!" The 10 ponies and 1 draconequus were in the Canterlot archives, looking for something to help with their situation. They had been studying there for almost 2 hours, looking through books and scrolls, trying to find something, ANYTHING to get things back to normal. Discord wasn't helping. He had turned every book they had found useless into some kind of book monster that reminded Twilight of a thing in Harry Trotter and the Prisoner of Tartarus called "The Monster book of Monsters" and they kept biting the ponies and flying round the room distracting them. Pinkie had already given up and was bouncing around the place trying to catch the floating books, just causing more of a distraction.

"Discord, Pinkie, could y'all maybe go outside and play in some chocolate rain or sumthin'?" Applejack asked.
"I believe you'll find that there's hardly a cotton candy cloud in the sky!" Discord replied casually.
"Then why not whip some up?" Rainbow asked.
"Why not?" He replied, sounding defeated, yet he was still smiling.
"And speaking of whipping," Pinkie said as they walked outside. "Could you make whipped cream too?"

Soon the castle labyrinth hedges had been turned to whipped cream, cotton candy clouds were raining chocolate overhead, and in the middle there was a life-sized chocolate fountain made of peppermints.

Author's Note

Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes.

Fluttershy's Worries
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pony shades of grey

Fluttershy's Worries

Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably in her spot on the rug. She knew it wasn't a big deal, she knew that they were just friends, but she still didn't like Discord and Pinkie being outside together alone. She looked out the window. They were being their normal, random selves. She had no reason to worry. But then she realised Celestia doing the same thing she was, and she didn't like the way she was watching him. She looked back down at the book.

Some time later, Discord came back inside. "Where's Pinkie?" Rainbow asked, worried.
"She wanted to stay outside a little longer. She REALLY likes that chocolate rain. If I were ever to be seeking her feelings..." He trailed off at the look Fluttershy gave him. "I should probably get back to reading, over here, at the other side of the room." He flew across the room, towards the door.

Fluttershy looked down, clearly upset. "Hey, ah think ah'd like tah go out and have a walk in the gardens." Applejack said. "Fluttershy, can yah show meh the way, ah'm sure ah'd get lost on mah own." Fluttershy nodded and stood up. The two exited the room past Discord, who glanced up at Fluttershy as she flew by.

"Fluttershy, ah know yah like him, but you're just bein' a tad too possessive." Applejack told her.
"What do you mean?"
"Yah were glancin' out the window before when he was outside with Pinkie. It was like you were worr-"
"But did you hear what he said though?"
"Ah'm sure he was jokin'"
"But what if he wasn't!?"
"Yah see, this is what ah mean sugarcube, too worried." The two talked and walked in the Canterlot Gardens, Fluttershy telling Applejack her worries, then having Applejack calm her down slightly more with comforting reason.