Friendship in Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own the show My Little Pony or any of its characters, all rights go to Hasbro. Joker, Jester, and the rest of their family are mine however, and cannot be used without my permission.

The morning of their arrival in Ponyville came quickly and calmly, as though all of Equestira simply chose to ignore the true importance of this day. The twins, who had long since forgotten their nervousness, were zipping about excitedly.

Fairy Tale gave a small smile, “Joker, Jester, I know you two are excited, but please calm down.”

Her request managed to distract Joker long enough for her to give a sheepish smile, “I’m sorry mama, but we just can’t help it! We’ve never been this far from Applewood before. Are we there yet? What’s Ponyville like? Is it nice?”

“Easy there sweetie, you know we can’t understand you when you get excited like that.” Laughing Stock chuckled, “Now, we should be arriving in a few minutes. As for whether or not Ponyville’s a nice place, well, you’d have to ask Bobbie that one.”

Immediately two pairs of wide, excited eyes turned to Bobbie, who could only manage a smile as he shook his head.

“I’ll only tell you if you two sit down and behave first.”

A dull ‘thud’ sounded in the car as the twins quickly took their seats, staring at Bobbie expectantly.

“Ok then, guess I’ll tell you. You know, I only visited Ponyville once, and even then I was just passing through, but it seemed like a nice enough place. It’s not as big as Applewood, but everypony there is really friendly, it is where the kingdom of Friendship is after all.”

Before Bobbie could continue the speakers in the car came to life, and the engineers voice rang through, “Next stop Ponyville.”

Laughing Stock stood, “That’s us, everypony grab your bags.”

The twins all but leapt from their seats, making a dive for their saddle bags. Their parents and older brothers simply rolled their eyes at their antics, before calmly gathering their own bags as the train came to a stop. When the family of seven stepped off the train they were surprised at what they saw.

Nothing … there were no other ponies around, the entire station was empty. Immediately tensions rose, filling the air like a thick morning fog. Unconsciously, the twins were pushed into the middle of a protective circle.

Jester huddled close to his sister, whispering nervously, “Where … where is everypony?”

“Hiding, they knew we were coming.” Joker scoffed angrily, hurt evident in her voice as she glared at the ground.

“The kingdom of Friendship isn’t looking so friendly to me.” Laughing Stock snorted.

Suddenly, a new voice called out, “… Mr. Laughing Stock?”

Turning the family found two Canterlot guards approaching them.

“Yes, that would be me. Can I help you two gentlecolts?”

“We’re here to escort you and your family to Princess Twilight’s castle. She and her friends are expecting you.”

Without another word the guards turned, heading in the direction of Twilight’s castle. There was a moment of pause before the family followed. Joker and Jester were flanked on all sides by their family members, Fairy Tale and Laughing Stock in front of them, Doodlebug to their right, Show Stopper to their left, and Bobbie Blue bringing up the rear.

The trip through town only served to heighten tensions, as it was just as empty as the train station. It also didn’t help that occasionally one or both of the guards would cast suspicious glances over their shoulders at the twins, which were returned by a glare and a snort by at least one of the older stallions. This tension was temporarily relieved when they were presented to Princess Twilight and her friends, only for it to come back in force when they discovered that both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were also in attendance.

Laughing Stock bowed, followed by the rest of his family, “Your majesties, we did not expect to see you here today. To what do we owe this honor?”

Celestia gave a warm smile to the stallion, but her eyes fell on the two young Pegasii, “We’ve heard of many interesting things regarding you and your family, Laughing Stock, and when we heard that you were coming to Ponyville we decided to investigate these things ourselves.”

“Yes, tell us, why have you come to Ponyville?” Luna prompted.

“We’ve come to speak to Discord.” Laughing Stock answered without hesitation, his face set with determination.

This got many surprised looks throughout the room, followed by soft mutterings between the Princess of Friendship and the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna however remained unfazed, and simply waited for the stallion to continue.

“Please, we come before you in desperation. My children, Joker and Jester, were born with the magic of Chaos inside of them. We’ve tried everything to help them control this gift, but we’ve run out of options, nopony else is willing to help us. As a father I beg of you, let us speak to Discord, he’s the only one who can help my children control their magic.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up suddenly, “Whoa, hold up! You honestly expect us to believe that these two, these Pegasii, have the ability to use Chaos magic?”

Fairy Tale stepped forward, “It’s true! You have to believe us!”

“I’m sorry, but what you’re saying just isn’t possible.” Twilight argued.

“It is possible, and they can prove it.” Laughing Stock insisted, turning to the twins, “Go on, show them what you can do.”

All eyes fell onto the twins, and that’s all it took to finally break the tension. The white of Jester’s eyes suddenly began to glow green, and a purple smoke leaked from the edges while his pupils narrowed into slits. All at once, hell broke loose.

Images from tapestries on the walls jumped to life, a pile of books that had been sitting by Princess Twilight’s chair took flight, and several paints and brushes leapt from Doodlebug’s saddle bag and began coloring the walls of the castle. Gasps of surprise quickly turned to shouts of terror as the objects began going after the Princesses and Elements of Harmony.

Laughing Stock turned to his youngest son, “Ok Jester, that’s enough, you can stop now!”

Jester gave a panicked shout, “I’m trying! I can’t control it!”

Suddenly, laughter began to ring through the room, followed by a flash of light. When the light faded, everypony found that everything had been put back to normal. The tapestries were lifeless, the books were neatly stacked, and the paints and brushes were back in Doodlebug’s bag. Instead, Discord stood in their place.

“Oh, that was absolutely wonderful! I give you two claws up, that was simply stupendous!” The Draconequus cheered, wrapping his paw around Jester, “I do have one itty bitty piece of criticism however. My dear boy, you’re trying too hard.”

“Huh?!” The collective cry seemed to echo through the castle, and all eyes turned to give the Lord of Chaos a confused stare.

He simply chuckled, “Exactly what I said, you’re trying too hard to control a magic that wasn’t really meant to be controlled in the first place. Don’t think, just do.”

Silence fell over the room for a few short seconds, before it was broken by a sudden explosion of confetti. Startled, the ponies in the room turned to find Joker sitting with her eyes closed, purple smoke wafting from the edges. Slowly, she opened one eye, revealing a similar green glow and cat like pupil that Jester had earlier.

A wide grin broke out on her face, “Hey, nothing exploded this time!”

“And that’s just the beginning! You’ve done fairly well on your own, but you’ve only barely begun to scratch the surface of what your magic can do! I’d be more than happy to teach you … that is, as long as Princess Twilight approves.”

“Wait … what?” The twins and their family demanded dumbly, not quite believing what they were hearing.

The Draconequus turned to the Princess of Friendship, “Princess Twilight, I hereby request that I be allowed to take these two Pegasii under my wing, as Students of Chaos. I wish to help them learn all there is to know about Chaos, and how to use it in the name of Friendship, of course.”

A muttered discussion broke out between Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony then, and the twins and their family waited with baited breath. Luna and Celestia simply sat and waited, as this was not their decision to make, and they were each lost in their own thoughts.

It did not go unnoticed by either Joker or Jester that Celestia had not taken her eyes off of them through it all. For the most part her face was expressionless, but there was something underneath it. Something in her eyes looked unsettled, and there was a slight tension in her body, as though she expected the twins to attack at any moment.

Finally, the discussion ended, and Twilight gave her answer, “… I will allow you to take these two on as your students only on two conditions. First, these two must stay in Ponyville, where these lessons will be taught. And secondly, they must check in with either me or one of the Elements of Harmony at the end of every week and give us a report on their progress. Do we have a deal?”

The only answer she received was a vigorous head shake from the twins, who were so shocked they had forgotten how to speak.

“Then it’s settled, as of this moment forward, Joker and Jester shall learn the ways of Chaos magic as Discord’s students.”

A resounding cheer burst forth from the twins, echoing with the voices of their family members. Laughing Stock was so relieved, that he actually broke down crying, nearly crushing Discord in a thankful bear hug.

Finally, things were looking up for his family.