Controlled Chaos

Mrs Cake watched that human and another pony enter Sugarcube Corner with wary eyes.

She’d heard Pinkie Pie’s story of what that human was capable of and willing to do, and she wasn’t going to let her guard down while he was in her store, even if he did appear to be a kind and gentle… being.

She felt herself involuntarily tense up as he approached the counter with a slip of paper in his hand. She wondered what could be on that paper as he casually marched towards her. Maybe it was some kind of cheap joke, or a prank, or…

“Morning, Mrs Cake,” he said with a polite wave. “Pinkie gave me this to give to you.” He handed her the sheet of paper. “She said it would make it ‘on the house’. Hope that won’t be too much of a problem, will it?”

Mrs Cake read the messily written message and frowned. “She’s not done this before though,” she said, looking up at the human as that other pony trotted over after examining the place. “How do I know she really gave this to you and you didn’t just use your chaos powers to make it up?”

“Oh, for…” he muttered, snatching the sheet away from her and scrunching it up. He turned back to the stranger and motioned for her to come over with his head. “Prism, come meet Mrs Cake. I’ll be right back again.”

He vanished suddenly, leaving the stranger to cautiously approach the counter like a scared foal. Deciding that this new pony would be a lot less likely to cause evil misdeeds, she put on a smile and stood up straighter.

“Hi there, miss!” she greeted warmly. “What can I getcha?”

“I’m waiting for James to come back,” the stranger replied. She grinned widely. “Isn’t he just amazing? He has the power to do anything he wants!”

Mrs Cake’s smile faded slightly. “I’d hardly call that amazing,” she said with a slight growl in her voice. “You… must not have seen what he made happen yesterday.”

“Okay!” the human yelled, reappearing with a pink pony in his hands. “Here’s your proof! Tell her, Pinkie!”

“Oh, hi Mrs Cake!” said Pinkie Pie, happily waving at Mrs Cake from the human’s arms. “Is that get-better-soon cake finished yet?”

“It’s still got a few more minutes to cook,” Mrs Cake answered unsurely. She gave Pinkie an unsure look. “Uh… Did you say it was okay for him to bring you back here or… did he just kinda grab you?”

“I take it she doesn’t think very highly of me,” the human said to Pinkie Pie.

“Hey!” the stranger yelled, leaning over the counter to point at Mrs Cake accusingly. “You can’t talk to him like that! So what if he did just grab her? He can do that if he wants!”

“It’s okay, Prism Shine,” the human said, putting a hand on the stranger’s back. He looked up at Mrs Cake and smiled innocently. “Of course I asked her! What do you think I am? Some kind of evil spirit of chaos?” He sniggered quietly. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

“I don’t think you’re evil!” said ‘Prism Shine’, turning to stare up at him. “You’re well within your rights to do what you want! You’re supposed to make chaos!”

“Let’s… get to that later,” the human told her, dropping Pinkie to the ground. “Pinkie, tell Mrs Cake that you wrote that note, please?”

“I wrote that note, Mrs Cake!” Pinkie exclaimed happily, seemingly unfazed by the growing air of hostility between the two mares in front of her. “I’ll make sure to pay it back out of my own money later!” She turned and gave the human a stern stare. “You hear that, mister? I’m paying, so make sure you spend as much as you like!”

“Because that makes perfect sense…” the human muttered.

“It doesn’t have to make sense!” Prism Shine exclaimed excitedly. “That’s what chaos is!”

“I think we’d best just get breakfast and have our little chat, Prism,” said the human, pulling Prism Shine back by the tail gently. He looked down at Pinkie Pie. “Do you want to get back to the others, Pinkie, or would you prefer to wait until that get-better-soon cake is done?”

“I wanna wait until it’s done!” Pinkie yelled happily, bouncing up and down excitedly. She headed into the kitchen behind the counter at a bouncy trot. “A freshly baked get-better-soon cake is much better than a not freshly baked one!”

“Alright then… What’ll you have for breakfast, Prism? Someone else is paying, so don’t overdo it with the price, okay?”

“As you wish, almighty spirit,” Prism answered, bowing slightly.

Oh, wasn’t that just wonderful? That human was making ponies worship him now! As if he couldn’t get any worse! He muttered something to himself and shook his head at Prism Shine lightly, no doubt for how pathetically that crazy pony had bowed to him. Prism turned to Mrs Cake and sneered mockingly.

“What’s the cheapest item on your menu?” she asked cruelly. “I’ll have that.”

“Get out of my store,” Mrs Cake said simply. “We have a zero tolerance for bad behaviour policy, so I have to ask you to leave.”

“Just… go wait outside, Prism…” the human muttered, pushing Prism back gently. “I’ll take care of this.”

“You too,” Mrs Cake added to him. “After everything you’ve done, and what you’ve no doubt made her do, that policy applies to you more than any other customer I’ve had in this store.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Get out of my store before I fetch the authorities, please.”

“So go get them then!” Prism yelled, slamming a hoof on the counter. “They can’t stop him! He’s stronger than all of them put together!”

“Leave it, Prism,” the human whispered, pulling her away from the counter. “I’ll ask someone else if they can sort something out.”

Prism scowled at Mrs Cake one last time before turning, flicking her tail at her crossly, and marching towards the exit. The human gave Mrs Cake something that looked like a look of disappointed apology, as if she had done something wrong as well, before following that crazy pony out of the store.

When they had left, Mrs Cake sighed in relief. That could have ended badly, but she had kept a cool head in the face of danger and come out victorious.

Well, of course she had triumphed there! Wasn’t it normal for the bad guys to be defeated?

-=-=-=-=-

Applejack spotted James and a pony she’d seen once before – earlier that morning – leaving Sugarcube Corner with a sense that something bad had happened. She trotted over to meet them, and the one that was probably Prism Shine smiled at her when she spotted her approach.

“Hello again!” Prism greeted warmly. “Did you find the friends you were looking for?”

“Uh, you must be Prism Shine,” Applejack stated, smiling unsurely. She looked up at James slowly. “James, ah gotta speak to you about… that thing.”

“Ah, that thing,” James replied solemnly. “I’d forgotten about that.” He looked down at Prism and smiled at her weakly. “Prism, sorry to be so all over the place, but I have to ask you to wait right here again.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Prism replied, spinning around to grin at him. “The spirit of chaos staying in one place for too long wouldn’t be chaotic at all! You’re just showing that you’re good at what you do!”

Applejack gawked at Prism behind her back before James caught her and made a ‘stop it’ gesture at her with his hand. As Prism turned to see what Applejack was doing, James led the way away from her and Applejack hurried after him. When they were out of Prism’s sight, Applejack gave James a very anxious look.

“That pony might be a problem, James,” Applejack said quietly. “Twilight said something about what happened last night, and ah think that pony’s responsible for that.”

“I see…” James reasoned, looking down and scowling. He glanced back up at Applejack. “I’ll chat to her a little bit, but she seems a bit… unstable for her mind to be wiped of that event.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she seems like she’s got a few screws loose.” He glanced past Applejack’s head to see if anyone was watching them. “She’s... She’s been treating me like I’m some kind of almighty deity.”

Applejack tilted her head in confusion. “Like you’re a princess or something?” she asked. She shook her head disapprovingly. “You can’t let her do that. While I’m sure you’re powerful like a princess, ah don’t think you should be…”

“Worshipped like one?” James suggested, finishing Applejack’s sentence. “I know, but she’s a bit… deluded. I’ll wipe her memory of what happened last night, but I’ll see what else needs to be done when I talk to her. Don’t worry about it; I’ll sort it out.”

“Ah’ll hold you to that,” Applejack replied, nodding. “Now, ah’m gonna head back to check on Spike. Anything you need at all?”

“Well, we were kicked out of Sugarcube Corner, so I’d say we need some breakfast.”

“How’d you get kicked out?”

“I don’t think Mrs Cake likes me.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “Or Prism Shine, for that matter.”

Before Applejack could question the matter any further, there was a loud crashing sound from the direction they had come from. They glanced at each other worryingly before hurrying back to see what the noise was. When they rounded the corner, Applejack’s jaw dropped and James cursed under his breath.

One of the windows of Sugarcube Corner had been shattered, and there was one very satisfied looking pony stood right beside it.

“Who threw that?!” roared Mrs Cake, peeking her head out the door with a furious snarl on her face. She caught sight of Prism and marched towards her. “Did you throw that?! What am I saying, of course you did! I hope you plan on paying for those damages!”

“I’m not paying for anything, you old hag!” Prism cackled, leaning down to pick up a stone off the ground. “You wronged the spirit of chaos, so you need to be punished!”

She hurled the stone at another window powerfully. It crashed through the window and shattered it completely, making Mrs Cake gasp and stare at the damage. She slowly turned to face Prism as she literally shook with rage. Prism giggled evilly and leant down to pick another stone up.

“James, ah think you better do something,” Applejack said quickly, looking up at him.

“Don’t know why I didn’t do that already,” he replied before snapping out of existence with a whooshing sound.

“You wretched creature!!” Mrs Cake screamed, slapping Prism across the face and knocking her to the ground. “Who do you think you are?!”

“Mrs Cake, I’m gonna have to ask you to calm down,” said James, materialising behind her.

She bucked out at him furiously, but he disappeared before she could touch him. He reappeared in front of her with his hands held out to placate her.

“You!!” she screeched. “You’re the cause of all this!! If you weren’t here, that crazy pony wouldn’t have done anything!!”

“I… I’m not crazy…” Prism muttered as she stood up beside James.

“No, Prism, you’re not,” James reassured her. He gave Mrs Cake a stern glance. “Mrs Cake, if you don’t stop this right now, someone’s gonna get hurt.”

“I hope it’s you!!” Mrs Cake roared, lunging at him.

In the flash of time that she was moving towards him, time seemed to slow down. Prism yelped in fear, recoiling slightly, and James moved much faster than even Applejack could see. He was suddenly beside Mrs Cake, there was a flash, she was suddenly in a straitjacket, flash, he was beside the cowering Prism, flash, she was cradled in his arms, flash, and then they were gone.

Applejack blinked as time sped back up again, wondering what had just happened. She shook her head to snap herself out of it and hurried over to Mrs Cake. What had stopped her moving to help all this time?

“Get me out of this thing!!” Mrs Cake shouted, wriggling and writhing in her restraint.

“Mrs Cake, you really gotta calm down!” Applejack yelled, leaning down to help Mrs Cake.

“Why should I be calm?!” she yelled back angrily, giving Applejack a cold and furious glare. “She damaged my property!! Who’s going to pay for that?!”

“Ah’m sure it’ll get sorted out!” Applejack answered, fumbling with the straps on the back of the jacket. “But you really need to calm down or you’re gonna start hurting the wrong ponies!”

Applejack had a flashback of the night before suddenly, making her shudder. That could never happen again.

“Honey, what’s the matter?” asked Mr Cake, stepping out the front door of Sugarcube Corner. He gasped at the sight of his wife garbed in restricting clothes. “What happened?! Why are you in a crazy pony jacket?!”

“It should be somepony else in this thing!!” she replied angrily, shaking the jacket off as Applejack finally undid the straps on the back of it. “Some crazy pony shattered the windows!! She should be locked up!!”

“Apples, make sure you get her calm, clear?” James’s disembodied voice whispered to Applejack. “She’s scared, angry and out for blood. You make sure she does not go back into Sugarcube Corner like this. By any and all means necessary.”

“Ah got it,” Applejack replied with a confirming nod. “Good luck with Prism Shine, James.”

“I’m gonna need it,” James replied before a snapping sound marked his disappearance.

Applejack sighed and put on a brave face before marching over to the frantic Mrs Cake and her anxious husband. She tensed up as Mr Cake received a slap across the face after he tried to calm his wife down.

Applejack grimaced at the idea that James had done something again, but hopefully he had wised up after the last time he had done something like that.