Twisted Chaos

By the time Crazed Candy finished reading the storybook her head was spinning like a top and she couldn't even see correctly. She felt extremely dizzy, but as promised the hedge next to her disappeared. "Ah, finally!" Crazed sighed in relief and continued down the path, if that was just the first test she didn't even want to know what the next test was going to be like, but she kept her head up and slowly walked down the path. "I hope I never have to that again!" The white Earth Pony said to herself. As she moved down the path her headache grew worse, and she had a bad feeling she wouldn't make it through the labryinth much longer. She wasn't the strongest out of the group and she had one of the easiest weaknesses. She hoped Bitter Tart would understand if she DID get eliminated.

Star Dim shielded her eyes. "Oh my, it's so awful! I can't look!" She surrounded by bright neon colors. Her eyes were beginning to sting. Had she really done this? Just to play a game, that she probably wasn't going to win? What was the point, if she was going to fail at another test? "Alright you pink Unicorn! I'm tired of your games, you can take me out of the labyrinth I don't care!" Eternal Rays appeared in front of her. "Are you sure Star Dim? Once you leave you can't come back......" Star Dim looked around her, it had only been the first test and she was already tired of this place, her eyes were burning from looking at the colors, not to mention that she couldn't stand the look of this place. She wanted Silverpants, she was tired, she didn't care what happened. She just wanted this to end. "Yes I am certain." Eternal Rays nodded. "As you wish....." Star Dim sighed. "Moonlight, I'm sorry but I can't keep this up. I know you can finish this, along with the rest of our friends."

Discord and the other stallions were all growing more and more worried by the minute until Eternal Rays returned with Star Dim. Silverpants ran to her. "Star Dim darling! What happened? Are you alright?" Star Dim wrapped a hoof around her husband. "Oh Silverpants it was awful! I couldn't take it anymore! I'm sorry if I let you down..... it was so organized and bright and my eyes and head are burning!" Silverpants took her to a corner with pillows and blankets. "Now calm down dear, I'm here and you're alright. Lets try to relax, you tried your hardest and I'm proud of you." Silverpants wrapped a blanket around her and snuggled next to her. While the rest of them wondered how their wives were doing, we're they tired, confused and possibly in pain? Bitter Tart was pacing around the room, while Butterscotch was getting a headache from worrying so much, Raspberry Pie had done nothing but dig at the ground until there was already a two foot hole in the floor. Discord kept staring out the window, hoping that Moonlight was okay. And that whatever she was going through wasn't to bad. If she decided to quit he wouldn't be mad at all, he would be waiting here for her. To give her comfort and to help her relax, if Star Dim was like this after the first challenge, what would the others be like?

Cotton Feathers' head was constantly being flooded with nice thoughts, some of them were extremely girly even for her. Isn't this place so nice? You get to have lots of fun! Then you'll get to meet your friends again! Then you can have a good time, you can dress up, and meet cute animals, draw pictures, and everything pretty pink!" She was practically being driven insane! She wanted it to stop, but she wasn't going to be a coward and give up now. She started this, and was going to finish it. Or at least try; she came across Eternal Rays with Discord next to her after walking through the labyrinth for the next fifteen minutes. "Alright Cotton Feathers, are you ready for your next test." The Pegasus smiled. "Oh I would love that! Yes please!" She replied with delight, but quickly covered her mouth. Did she really just say please? Eternal Rays smiled. "It appears the kindness lessons are beginning to take good effect." Then she turned to Discord who once again touched her forehead causing more generous and sweet thoughts to flood her head. Now her colors were changing, her coat was becoming a pale purple and her mane was turning into a bright orange. She almost looked like her daughter, Flutterbreeze! Cotton Feathers had as light frown on her face, but Discord's magic was causing her to smile. Apparently each test would raise the amount of nice thoughts in her head and would affect her actions. Cotton Feathers didn't know how much longer she could take this.

Chocolate Pie bounced along the path so far, this had been easy. She began to grow more confident, and now she was ready to end this. She could tell she was halfway through the labyrinth because she could see the tallest towers of the castle at the end. Soon she came face to face with Eternal Rays. "Hello Chocolate Pie." The brown Earth Pony frowned. "You really thought you could fool me with that fake look-a-like! HA! I'm ready, come on! I want some fun!" Eternal Rays smiled. "As you wish." They were both surrounded by a bright light. When the glow faded Chocolate Pie saw her friends, they were all crying. Moonlight and Discord were arguing, but not in the good, fun way. "I can't believe I thought you would ever love me! I was always a monster to you wasn't I!" Discord yelled. Moonlight put her face up against Discord's. "You were never the monster, I can't believe you betrayed me for them!" Chocolate knew she was referring to Celestia and Luna. "I betrayed YOU? You were always leaving me because you thought I didn't care about you! But you were right, I'm not the monster here my dear......YOU are." Discord said in a cold voice. He grit his teeth and took his eagle claw and scratched her left eye. Moonlight jumped back, Discord leaned toward her and slapped her extremely hard Moonlight dropped to the ground. When she got up her wing was bent and the left side of her face was scarred. Discord kept the other four from reaching her. He got closer to her. "You wanted a part of me, well now you have a mark to show the entire world you knew me. And just in case......" He took the ring he gave her and placed it on a chain, he put it around her, and cast a spell preventing her from taking off the chain. "Now everyone will know who you belong to...." Discord stated. He got closer to her but was greeted by a shove and a small slap on the face. Discord put his claw up to the part she hit and growled. He gave her an angry look and flew away. Moonlight looked at her hoof, like she felt guilty for hitting him. Then she began to silently cry.

Chocolate gasped and felt tears beginning to form, "Hey! This is not fun!" Eternal Rays' voice could be heard from behind her. "What do you mean, this is exactly what you do to other ponies." Chocolate shook her head. "NO IT'S NOT!" Eternal Rays stopped. She didn't like seeing other ponies hurt, so she tried something else. "You don't like seeing them unhappy do you?" Chocolate Pie stared at the ground. "No....." She said in a sad tone. Eternal Rays put a hoof around her. "That's right, see? Friendship can help bring them together. You don't like seeing Moonlight and Discord fight because you and I know they love each other." Chocolate looked mad. "Exactly, which is why we don't need friends! Friendships cause heartbreaks, arguments, and disagreements. But nopony understands, so we show them how it feels, we don't need to have a heart all the time.." Eternal Rays sighed. "Yes Chocolate Pie, you know that if I win this Equestria will be the way it should be. And you don't want to be sad, you don't want you friends to be sad, you don't want Discord and Moonlight to feel sad. You don't want them to split up like you saw earlier, you like creating laughter and happiness to yourself. You don't want other ponies to laugh at you so you laugh at them, but do you want to get blamed for seeing them so unhappy?" Chocolate Pie shook her head once again. "No....." It was true, she loved seeing them happy, because they made her world of happiness, they made her who she was. She didn't want to go through anymore, even if they lost, she would make sure everything would be okay. She was going to make sure of that. "Stop.......I don't want anymore." Eternal Rays gave her a gentle pat on the back. "Are you certain?" Chocolate nodded. "Yes....."

Star Dim and Silverpants had just woken up from their nap to discover Chocolate Pie and Eternal Rays appear. Raspberry ran to her and squeezed her tightly. "Chocolate, sweetie are you okay?" The female Earth Pony nodded. "I was so worried about you Raspberry, I need to do something." Chocolate walked over to Discord. "Will you promise me something?" She asked in a quiet voice. Discord looked down at her. "Chocolate Pie dear, what's wrong?" She looked up at him and asked, "No matter what happens, promise that you will never stop loving her; don't let her hurt you. Don't hurt her......." Discord didn't know what she had seen but he could tell it was important. "I promise my dear, now show me that beautiful smile of yours." Chocolate Pie gave him a gentle smile and was pulled into a warm hug. "Now, I think a certain stallion is looking for your attention....." Discord noted. Chocolate nodded and snuggled next to Raspberry, and in a few minutes they were giggling every few seconds that went by. Star Dim eventually joined her and the two of them went into deep conversations. Discord went back to looking out the window. Chocolate Pie and Star Dim were both eliminated from the game, that meant that Discorded Swirls, Crazed Candy, Cotton Feathers, and Moonlight Chaos were still in the labyrinth. Discord didn't even want to think about what Moonlight was going through for him, but then again, she had encountered far worse before.......

Moonlight was getting annoyed. Ink Illustration always had to be RIGHT next to her, he was making her talk constantly. But it was going to take more then this to make her quit. She hoped her next challenge would start soon. Almost ANYTHING would be better then this....almost...... "So Moonlight my darling, could you tell me a little more about that chaotic husband of yours?" Moonlight gave Ink Illustration an odd glare. "Seriously?" She asked, she wanted to know if he really meant it. Ink nodded. "Of course, I know how much you care about him.......I love it when you talk about something you like. You become so passionate and very in depth..." Moonlight rolled her eyes. Truthfully she didn't know how to feel about this. Glad? Angry? Offended? Interested? Slowly she started to tell the story. "If you really want to know, it really happened when we were both very young........." Ink Illustration nodded and began to listen. If he wanted any chance on winning her back, he needed to pay attention to everything she said. No matter how boring, even if he had to fake every single part of the act.....