Twilights Journey: Escape Equestria

Chapters

I (Updated)
II
III
IV
V
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
VI

I (Updated)

"GAAAAH!"

SLAM!!!

The wall cracked and bent, as a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow tail and mane was thrown against it. She attempted to look up, but the impact caused her vision to blur. The darkness of the room didn't help either. However, the dark red glow shinning across the room showed her where her attacker was.

She saw three red glows, understandable. She hit her head hard. She's been in fights before and knew that when this happens, aim for the one in the middle. Yet this was different.

She's been in bar fights, or the occasional scuffles in streets or what not. This wasn't like those times.

This was a matter of life or death.

The cyan pegasus slowly walked along the wall, one hoof against it to keep her balance. With the other hoof, she tossed aside her friends mechanical leg.

She didn't mean to hold on to it for this long. She was planning to return it when she had the chance. Getting attacked so suddenly caused her to forget she was holding on to it, until now that is.

'Sorry I couldn't bring back your leg AJ. But knowing you, I know you can do just fine without it. You always did brag about how you can win a fight with your forelegs tied behind your back. Now lets see how you can do with just three!' The pegasus chuckled to herself at the thought, then stopped. Having suddenly remembered the situation she's in.

As she walked, she heard a sinister laugh from across the room.

"And where do you think YOUR going Rainbow Crash!? I'm not finished with you yet!"

Having nearly made it to the corner of the room, the pegasus stopped and looked over to her attacker.

"Stop calling me that" the pegasus said softly.

The attacker chuckled. "Aww, does somepony not like being called Rainbow Crash?"

The pegasus stomped her hoof and growled. "I said stop calling me that! Its Dash! Not Crash! And you know it! Gah!" The pegasus flinched, placing a hoof to her side. She realized she shouldn't have yelled. Her bodies hurt, and she needs to be gentle. But no pony calls her that name, not even her friend.

Once again, the attacker chuckled. "And what are you going to do about it Rainbow Crash? Fight me? Attack me? Make me eat my words? Well, as much as I'd LOVE to see you do that both you and I know you can't. I'm stronger then you Rainbow, much stronger. I'd even say I'm a better flier then you. Then again, who isn't, anyponys better then you now. Seeing how weak you've become-"

"SHUT UP!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted, on the verge of crying. Crying because those words hurt. Words that came from a friend, even though these words were true. "Just . . . just shut up . . . I don't care how strong you are. I don't care how good you are at flying, or magic, or whatever earth ponies can do. I don't care. What I do care is that your my friend, and no matter how evil you my seem. I know, that deep down, the egghead I once knew is still there. Please, please Twilight, stop this madness. Come home, come with us, back to Pony Ville. Please, we can stop this, together-"

Rainbow Dash was interrupted by her attackers sinister laugh.

"Oh you have no idea how hilarious this is! The irony! You can literally taste it! First I try to save Pony Ville and no matter how much I begged and cried my friends still turned their backs on me and left! Now look at how the tables have turned! All of my friends come crawling to me, begging me to return and help save Pony Ville. Its hilarious! And it infuriates me! You all had the chance to save Equestria and all of you blew it! Now you come her expecting my help? HAH! Fat chance! I left Equestria in search of a new home. A place without chaos, without trouble, and most certainly without any of my old "so called friends" to ever bother me ever again! Equestrias under Discords control, you have a problem with that, YOU go fix it yourself! You had the chance to save it with me and you blew it, well guess what, NO SECOND CHANCES!!!"

The pegasus's vision had regained itself, and the attacker took a step closer, making the attackers features distinguishable.

Her mane and tail were both pitch black with dark red highlights. Her eyes were a slightly lighter red then the highlights, and her fur was dark gray. Her cutie mark was a dark red star, with black sparkles around it. She wore an amulet in the shape of a black and silver alicorn, with red trims on the wings and a red jewel in the center. Her horn was glowing with a red aura around it.

"And you can go straight back to the princess's and tell them personally that their little "errand pony" says no! Their not MY princess's, they can't tell me what to do!"

Rainbow took a carful step towards Twilight. "Twilight, please. Your not you right now. Celestia told us what's wrong with you. Please, we can help you! If you just took off that amulet then maybe-"

"NO!" Twilight shouted. Using her magic, Twilight pushed Rainbow back against the wall. "YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!! NO PONY CAN!!! I AM MY OWN QUEEN!!! I RULE UNDER NO PONY!!!"

Rainbow lifted herself from the ground. "Twilight! Please! This isn't you! You would never hurt us! We're your friends remember!" Rainbow Dash shouted, as she edged her way to the corner of the dark room.

Twilight stood there, facing her former friend. Her horn was charged full of energy, ready to fire.

"Friends? FRIENDS!!! I've told you before and I'm going to tell you again!" said Twilight. She took a step closer to Rainbow Dash, trapping her in the corner.

"I don't need friends!" said Twilight. The red energy around her horn lit brighter, as Twilight took aim at Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight . . . please" Rainbow Dash begged.

It was no use, she had to get away, but how? Her wings were broken, and the only way of escape was either the door or the window. Both of which involved having to get past Twilight, something she could not do. Rainbow Dash thought of all the sticky situations she had ever been in, thinking of how she had escaped those situations. Every thought lead her to the same conclusion: she either fought her way out, or used her speed to escape. She was the fastest flyer in Equestria, but that required her to use her wings. The wings that Twilight broke. She couldn't fight Twilight either. Sure she had gone crazy but Twilight was still her friend, at least, to her she was still her friend.

'I could try and make a run for the window, no she'll shoot me before I could make it. But she'll shoot me if I just stand her! What do I do!? Gotta think of something! Gotta think of something!!!' thought Rainbow Dash, as her eyes darted frantically around the room, searching for any means of escape.

"You should have never came looking for me!!!" Twilight shouted, the red light growing stronger from her horn.

"Twilight! No! Don't do this! We can help you!" Rainbow shouted.

It was no use, she knew it was too late. She knew that her friend was long gone, beyond any help she or any of the others could offer.

'The others . . . I hope their still alive. Please still be alive! I'm not gonna make it, and some ponies gotta stop her! Please! Fluttershy, Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, PLEASE!!! . . . I don't want to lose another friend' thought Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight . . . Don't"

Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash for a moment, before saying "you can't tell me what to do". Her horn shined bright, activating its attack.

"Twilight!" Rainbow shouted.

"Good Bye Rainbow!" said Twilight. The red light grew, become blindingly bright.

"TWILIGHT!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FIVE YEAR EARLIER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The wind blew hard, carrying several trees, ponies, and animals with extended legs with it. Chocolate rain poured hard from the cotton candy clouds above Pony Ville. Chunks of building and land levitated, spun, and twirled in midair. The sun and moon were switching back and forth between night and day, causing the plaid and checkered designed earth to shine bright and become dark at the same time. Pony Ville citizens ran in fright from the chaotic breakdown occurring around them, except for one pony.

A single purple faded unicorn was slowly walking towards Golden Oaks library with her head hung low and a small cotton candy cloud raining chocolate rain on her. There was a flash of light, as a creature made up of various animal parts appeared before her. The spirit of chaos: Discord.

"Oh my stomach!" said Discord, laughing. He disappeared and reappeared floating next to the unicorn. "Twilight! You've got to see what I just did!" said Discord, pointing over to a pink earth pony. The earth pony was being covered in pepper from a floating pepper shaker, making her sneeze. As she sneezed, all of the buildings around her turned flat and collapsed.

"Its priceless!" laughed Discord. He turned to Twilight and noticed her depressive attitude. He disappeared and reappeared in front of her, using a cotton candy stick to scoop up the flouting cloud above Twilight. "Come now Twilight Sparkle, you've got to get in the spirit of things" said Discord, as he took a bite of the cotton candy cloud. "After all this is your new home!"

Twilight turned her head and saw the town hall floating upside down.

"Not anymore" said Twilight, as she turned back and walked past Discord.

As Twilight walked away, Discord leapt into the air and cheered. "Yes! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Day switched back to night as Twilight arrived at the Golden Oaks Library.

"Pack your things Spike, we're leaving" said Twilight, as she entered into her room.

Spike, a baby purple and green dragon, was curled into a ball next to a pile of letters. He was moaning in pain.

"Don't ask where we're going cause I don't know yet. Just not here" said Twilight. She levitated a green suitcase to her bed and began packing it with books. She took the element of harmony off of her head and dropped it into the trash.

Spike moaned, "can't . . . move! The princess . . . has been sending these . . . since I came back upstairs!" On cue, the purple dragon burped and exhaled a gust of green fire. From the fire came a letter, to which it dropped into the pile of other letters. "Make it stop!" Spike cried.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hmph! Some friend SHE turned out to be! I bet she couldn't even use that element if instructions were glued to her forehead!" said Fluttershy. She had just been on her way to return home before an idea came to her head. She looked over to the library and saw the coton candy clouds raining over it. Fluttershy gasped, "oh my! Its raining all over the library! And there's a big hole in the wall! What if the books get wet! Twilight really likes those books, it sure would be a shame if they were to get ruined". She chuckled and began making her way to the library. "Why don't I go and help keep those books dry? After all, what are friends for? But how will I keep the books dry? Oh I know!" Fluttershy grabbed a nearby tree branch, then walked up to a bush that was on fire. She lit the branch on fire and chuckled, "fire can keep almost anything dry! Twilight will be so full of "emotions" once she's seen what I've done!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight had picked up one of the letters and was about to read it, when all of the sudden a flaming tree branch burst through Twilights window, landing on the pile of letters.

From fright, Twilight accidently drops the letter she had into the flaming pile. "What! No!" Twilight shouted. She levitated one of the letters to her and blew into it fiercely. This only caused the fire to grow stronger. She levitated her blankets off of her bed and placed it on top of the fire, hoping it would extinguish it. The fire did not stop, and burned through the blanket. It had covered the entire pile and began burning into the wooden library floor. Twilight gasped and leapt over her bed to the other side of the room. She levitated Spike onto her back and ran down the stairs and out of the library. She placed Spike down and turned back to the library.

"Oh no! What do I do!?" Twilight cried. She looked up to the cotton candy cloud and a light bulb lit inside her head. Using her magic to form a giant bowl made from energy, she used the bowl to catch the pouring chocolate rain drops. Once the bowl was full, she poured it into her bedroom window. She could hear her room sizzle, as white and brown smoke filled the entire second floor of the library. Once the smoke was gone she poured a few more bowls to make sure that the fire was out, then ran back into the library and up the stairs to her room. She burst open the door and gasped. Twilight slowly walked in and knelt down to the pile of ash that had once been letters from the princess.

"What was the princess going to tell me?" Twilight asked, as she picked up some of the ash with her hoof.

"Aw I'm sorry, did I do that? I was just trying to help" said Fluttershy sarcastically. She had just flown through the bedroom window and was sitting on Twilights bed (now half burnt).

Twilight gaped at Fluttershy, "y-you did this? Why!?"

"Oh, well, when I saw the library being covered in rain I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. So I decided to come and help keep the books dry. Silly me, I must have accidently dropped that branch into your window by mistake?" said Fluttershy sarcastically.

Twilight was at a loss of words. She stuttered for a moment, then stood up and took a deep breath. She glared at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy smiled back. "Those letters were sent from the princess. It could have been something important, and now its gone. All because you threw a burning stick through my window" said Twilight, softly.

"Actually it was more of a branch then a stick Twilight. Gee, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one" said Fluttershy.

" . . . . Get out" said Twilight.

"Excuse me?" said Fluttershy, raising a brow.

"I said get, OUT!" Twilight shouted as she stomped her hoof. "First Discord takes over Pony Ville, then my friends abandon me, and now the princess has sent me some information that could have been crucial and you burn all of it to the ground! I have had enough and I want you out of here NOW!" Twilight shouted.

Fluttershy huffed and flew to the window, "FINE! Its not like I wanted to be here anyway!"

Once Fluttershy was gone, Twilight sighed and turned to her bed. The suitcase she was going to use was destroyed, so Twilight took a saddle bag from beneath her bed and filled it with books. She placed the bag on her back and ran out of the library back to Spike.

Spike was still on the ground curled into a ball. Twilight ran to Spike and gave him a slight nudge. "Come on Spike, we need to get out of here before the chaos in this town gets worse".

Spike slowly lifted himself to his feet. "But what about the letters from the princess, did you get to read any of it?" Spike asked.

"No, it all burned thanks to Fluttershy" said Twilight.

"What? Fluttershy did that? Why?" Spike asked.

"It doesn't matter, those were just letters, we can send the princess another letter and ask her what she was trying to tell us".

Spike groaned, "do we have to do that now? My insides are still hurting from the letters that the princess sent us".

"You can rest before sending any letters while were on our way" said Twilight.

"On our way? What do you mean? Where are we going?" asked Spike.

"I told you I don't know, now come on, I don't want to stay around here much longer" said Twilight. She had began walking forward when she noticed that Spike wasn't following her. She turned back to Spike, "Spike come on! We can't stay here anymore".

"But what about our friends? We can't just leave them-"

"There not our friends anymore!" Twilight interrupted.

Spike was taken aback, "what do you mean? Of course their still our friends! Sure they might be acting funny but on the inside their still our friends".

Twilight groaned, "look you wouldn't understand. Fact is they've abandoned us, our friends either stabbed us in the back or completely walked out on us. So now its just me and you, and right now we need to get out of here, and fast!" She had tried to turn back, but Spike still wouldn't follow.

"What happen to you Twilight? Why are you acting different now? You would never leave your friends behind" said Spike.

Twilight turned and glared at Spike, "stop calling them our friends! They are not our friends! Friends wouldn't ditch one another in the middle of a maze! Friends wouldn't lie, hurt, or make fun of each other! And friends most certainly would not try to BURN each others house down! They are not our friends! They are lying, backstabbing, JERKS!!!"

When Twilight was finished, she saw that Spike was shaking and staring at her. "B-But Twilight, can't we just wait here and see if the princess can help us?" he asked.

"If the princess could help us don't you think she would have done it already? Discord has taken over Pony Ville, he's won! And there's not a thing that any pony can do about it!" said Twilight.

"What about us, there's still us!"

"Spike open your eyes! Look around you! All of the things that I've been able to do in the past was because I had my friends with me, and now their gone! Their all gone! And their never coming back! All we can do now is leave and find somewhere safe to live! Now no more stalling, we have to leave!" said Twilight. She turned and started walking, before she heard Spike behind her say, "no".

Twilight turned and glared, "what did you just say?"

Spike shook, apparently regretting what he had just said. "Well, I mean, I don't really . . . want to . . . leave" he said quietly.

"Oh, and why's THAT!" Twilight shouted.

"Well I-I uh just think that it would be better if we stayed. We could try and find a way to fix everything. And we can be with all of our friends again!" said Spike.

Twilight nodded, "oh I see what you mean".

"You do!" said Spike, excitedly.

"Ya, YOU just want to stay because of Rarity, don't you!" Twilight shouted.

"W-What? N-No! I mean, I really do want to stay for Rarity, but I-"

"Ah ha! You see? You don't care about your friends at all! You just want to stay because of your silly little crush! And your going to backstab me just like every pony else! Aren't you!?" Twilight shouted.

"No! I won't backstab you! I swear! But Twilight your really starting to scare me! Please if we can just go and get out friends-"

"Their not my friends! Their YOUR friends now! And if you want to be with them so bad then why don't you just leave and stay with them! Cause I don't need you anymore!" Twilight gasped, she hadn't meant to shout that last part.

Spike froze, as his eyes began to fill with tears. "You don't . . . need me anymore?"

"I . . . Spike I didn't mean . . . I'm so sor-"

"So that's it huh!!! You get abandoned by our friends so now you don't love me anymore!?!" Spike shouted. As he shouted, the color from the tip of his tail had faded. The faded purple color had slowly began rising up his tail.

"Spike your tail!" Twilight shouted.

"What was I Twilight? Huh! Was I ever more then an assistant to you!?! Was I ever even considered family with you!?!" Spike shouted, the faded coloring having reached the top of his tail.

"Spike! Your tail! Its losing its-"

"That's all I ever was to you huh! An assistant! A servant! Some pony you could boss around whenever you felt like it! And the one time your assistant disagrees with you , you throw them away like garbage!" Spikes entire lower torso had lost its color.

"Spike please listen!"

"No Twilight! Not anymore! You say that out friends abandoned us, but what are you doing now!?! I think YOUR the one who's abandoning us! In fact, I don't think YOUR a very good friend!" Spike shouted.

Twilight clasped a hoof over her mouth, "Spike . . . how could you say that?"

"How could I not say that? You just said you don't need me anymore. And you know what, I don't think I need you either" said Spike.

Twilights eyes filled with tears, "but . . . Spike I-"

"In fact if your so keen to leave then why don't you just leave without me! You said you don't need me, so I'll just be in your way! I'm gonna go back to my REAL friends! If your going to leave then fine! Leave! You can go by yourself!" Spike shouted.

"But Spike . . . we've always been there for each other . . . what'll happen if we're not with each other?" Twilight ask, holding back tears.

"I don't know, but why should I care, you said you don't need me anymore". Spike turned, and as he did, the rest of his color had faded completely.

"But Spike wait!" Twilight shouted.

"I'm going to some pony who DOES need me. I'm going back to our friends" said Spike, as he walked into the opposite direction.

"Spike . . . wait" said Twilight.

Spike didn't respond, he continued walking.

"Spike . . . WAIT!" Twilight shouted.

No answer. Twilight stared at Spike walking away, until he was out of sight.

Twilight broke down and began weeping. She didn't know for how long, and with the sun and moon out of whack she couldn't tell the time either. She stood crying for what felt like hours before she finally stopped and calmed herself down.

No friends, no Spike, and no home. She had lost it all in one day. She couldn't go after Spike, after what she had just said she felt she didn't deserve a second chance. She had to leave, there was nothing left for her here anymore.

With her head hung low, Twilight slowly began walking towards the edge of Pony Ville, not caring which way she was going.

"Who needs friends any ways" said Twilight, as a tear fell from her cheek.

Twilight's Journey: Escape Equestria

II

It had been an hour since Twilight had left Pony Ville.

Cotton candy clouds swirling above a destroyed Pony Ville could still be seen in the distance. Normal gray rainclouds poured above Twilight as she walked on the dirt road. She had traveled far enough to get out of the chaos for now, but Discords magic was slowly spreading out of Pony Ville, the cotton candy clouds extending further outwards.

Twilight stepped off of the dirt road and sat under a tree. Using her magic she summoned a purple force field to surround her, preventing her from being rained upon.

She unbuttoned the straps to her saddle bag and extracted a folded paper from inside. Placing the paper on the ground in front of her, Twilight used her magic to unfold the paper, revealing a map of Equestria and beyond. Twilight gazed at the map, searching for the best route she should take.

'I can't return to Canterlot, then the princess will know that I failed, if she hasn't already figured it out that is. Plus, its only a matter of time before Discord expands his chaos magic to Canterlot. Maybe I should travel to Canterlot and warn my family before Discord gets there. No, I can't do that either, then my family will know that I failed! They'll be so disappointed! I can't ever show my face to any of them ever again! Maybe it won't be that bad, I'm sure the princess's will evacuate the city before Discord has the chance to reach them. Ya that's it! I don't need to go to Canterlot! They'll be perfectly safe!' Twilight chuckled weakly to herself. By giving herself this thought she had hoped to make herself feel more comfortable about the situation. However, she had only made herself feel worse. She was confused, not knowing what to do next.

'Maybe I have some friends I can go to in Canterlot, they won't backstab me! . . . Then again, I didn't make friends until after I moved to Pony Ville. Lets just face it, besides from Pony Ville, Canterlot is the worst place to go to in this situation. I have no friends, my parents will be disappointed, and the princess's will be displeased of my failure. If I go to Canterlot, oh! I don't even want to think about what might happen!' thought Twilight. She groaned angrily and placed her head to the ground, covering her head with her forelegs. She remained there for a few minutes, before lifting her head and glancing back at the map. She sighed and pulled the map closer.

'Guess I don't have a choice. Its only a matter of time before Discord not only takes over Canterlot, but the rest of Equestria! This entire country isn't safe to live in anymore! I need to get out of the country, find somewhere safe to live, and maybe then I can find somepony who won't stab me in the back! . . . Then again, why should I even bother trying to make new friends? What if they try to stab me in the back!? Just like my old friends did to me! No, I won't let that happen! I won't let any pony do that to me again! But wait, how will I know if a pony will betray me? What if they really do want to be my friend? I should at least give them a chance. No! Don't do that! If I give them a chance then they'll just take advantage of me! But I have to make friends! No I don't! I can't just travel alone! Yes I can!'

No!

Yes!

NO!

YES!!!

"AAAAAGH!" Twilight screamed, throwing her hoofs into the air. "No! I won't give any pony the chance to backstab me anymore! I'll find my own path out of Equestria, and I'll do it all by myself! I don't need friends! Friends will only get in the way!"

Twilight looked back to the map and pointed to where she was located. She dragged her hoof along the map, mentally drawing the perfect path for her to take. "If I go North then I'll have to travel across the Frozen North, I didn't pack any warm clothes so that won't be a safe path to take. Heading east will take me to the ocean, I don't have a boat so going that way is also out of the question. I could go west, that way seems safe enough. Hmmm . . . ah ha! South! If I travel south I can make it to Zebrica, Zecoras home land! If I tell them I'm friends with Zecora then perhaps the Zebra will be willing to let me stay!" Twilight measured the distance between Pony Ville and Zebrica and sighed. "That's a really far trip, it might take weeks, even months to get there! I really wish I packed more then just books. Dang it! Why would I only pack books and a map, I don't even like reading! . . . Did I just say that out loud? Why would I say that? I love reading! . . . Don't I?" Twilight looked to her saddle bag placed on her back. She thought about pulling out a book and reading just a few pages. But her naturally eager attitude towards reading books was suddenly replaced with boredom. She groaned and looked away, "you know what, I don't have time to read books any way. Discord's chaos is getting closer, I need to start moving if I'm going to keep ahead of it".

Using her magic, Twilight folded the map back to a small square and stuffed it into her bag. She resealed her saddled bag, stood to her hoofs, and deactivated her force field. The moment she did, she instantly felt the cold sting of wind hit her face as rain poured onto her. She stepped back onto the dirt road. As she began walking she activated another force field spell. This time she created one small enough to hover above her head, wind still hitting her but preventing her from being rained upon.

She sighed as she continued onward.

III

Spike had just arrived at the Carousel Boutique and knocked on the door four times. From inside he could hear items crashing and the stomping of running hoofs. He could also hear Rarity and Sweetie Bell shouting.

"I told you to stay away from Tom! Now go to your room!" shouted Rarity.

"Its just a stupid rock!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

"Tom is not a rock! He is the most beautiful diamond I have ever seen in all my life! His huge size and sparkling beauty is far beyond any other diamond to ever exist! He's a beautiful diamond and he's MINE!!!" shouted Rarity.

"Big beautiful diamond? More like a giant dirty boulder!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

Rarity gasped, "you take that back!"

"Make me!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

"You go to your room right now until you learn to treat Tom with the respect he deserves!" Rarity shouted.

"You can't tell me what to do! I'll go to my room because I feel like it, not because you told me to!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

"Fine! Then just leave!" Rarity shouted.

"I'm going!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

"Good!" shouted Rarity

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more!"

"I hate you the most!"

'Sheesh, and I thought my argument with Twilight was bad' Spike thought to himself. He knocked on the door again. He only had the chance to knock once before Rarity threw the door open.

"CANT YOU READ THE SIGN!!! WERE CLOSED!!!" Rarity roared. Rarity's mane was in a mess, and just like the rest of her fiends, her color had also faded. Her color however was worse then Twilights or Spikes. She had lost all color entirely and had changed to a light gray. Rarity looked down and saw Spike lying on his back. The force of Rarity's shout caused Spike to jump back and fall to the ground. "Oh, Spike! Its just you. Wait, what are you doing here? And where's Twilight? You two aren't planning on stealing Tom are you? Cause I won't let you steal Tom! He's mine! All mine! And no pony can have-"

"Rarity shut up!" Spike shouted.

Rarity froze, she had never heard Spike tell anypony to shut up before, especially not to her. It was then that she noticed that Spike's purple and green color had faded. "Spike, what happened to your color?" asked Rarity.

Spike lifted himself to his feet and dusted the dirt off. "There's nothing wrong with my color, and I didn't come to steal Tom. I don't even know who Tom is".

"Oh really? You don't know Tom? Didn't you see the diamond I had earlier at the library?" asked Rarity.

"The big rock you were carrying? That's Tom?" asked Spike.

"He is not a rock he is a diamond! A big beautiful diamond!" Rarity shouted, taking a step towards Spike.

"Okay! Okay! He's a diamond! Jeez!" Spike closed his eyes and pinched the end of his nose, sighing. "Look, I need your help".

"My help? Why would I want to help YOU? I am too busy attending to Tom" said Rarity.

"What could you possibly be doing for that giant ro- er, diamond?" asked Spike.

"Well a diamond as big as this one needs to be properly maintained if it is to sustain its beauty! One does not simply muck around and let a diamond as big as this one collect dust you know" said Rarity.

"Uh . . . sure. But I really do need your help! Twilights gone and I need a place to stay! And I was kind of hoping you would let me stay with you" said Spike.

"Twilight left? Without you? Why would she have done that?" Rarity asked.

Spike hung his head and held back on tears. "She said . . . she said she didn't need me anymore".

Rarity clasped a hoof to her mouth, "my stars! She really said that? Oh Spike you must be devastated".

Spike sniffed, "ya . . . something like that . . . so, will you help me?"

Rarity walked closer to Spike and placed a hoof to his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. "Spike I would love to help . . . but no".

Spike stared at Rarity with a surprised expression. "What?"

"No, I can't possibly help you Spike. I just have SO much that needs to be done!" Said Rarity.

"And when you say you have "SO much that needs to be done", you actually mean your going to take care of Tom? Aren't you?" said Spike, annoyed.

"Precisely!" said Rarity.

Spike sighed, "what if I help you take care of Tom, then will you let me stay with you?"

Rarity looked as if Spike had just committed murder. "You! Touching my precious diamond! Celestia forbid the very thought! I won't have you touch your dirty little claws all over Tom! If you or anypony else so much as touches Tom, oh I swear you will regret it!"

Spike looked at Rarity, deadpanned. 'Did I seriously have a crush on this mare?' Spike thought to himself. Once again, he sighed, "what if I help you with everything else besides Tom? I could clean your bathroom, wash your dishes, take care of the laundry, and everything else that you need taken care of".

Rarity thought for a moment. "I guess so, but I still don't know if I should trust you-"

"And with your house clean you won't have to worry about anything. That way you can spend more time with Tom" Spike interrupted.

Rarity hadn't thought about that. "Oh you are absolutely right! With no chores I can spend as much time as I want with Tom! . . . Wait, what if your just trying to trick me (Spike face palmed)! Your probably planning to steal Tom while we're all sleeping! Aren't you!"

'Maybe I should have gone to Applejack. She's a liar, but at least she isn't crazy over some dumb old rock!' thought Spike. "If your really worried about me stealing Tom then why don't you have Tom sleep with you. That way I have no way of stealing him without waking you up first. Okay?" Spike asked through clenched teeth, becoming extremely annoyed by this point.

"Hmmm, I suppose so. Toms a bit too big for the bed but I'm sure I can find a way to fix that. But wait, what if this is also a trick ('OH MY CELSTIA!!!' Spike mentally shouted)? I'll bet you have some sort of secret devious plan to steal my precious diamond! And I know just how your going to do it!" Rarity shouted.

Spike wanted to head butt a wall from pure annoyance. "Oh really . . . and what exactly IS my plan?"

"Don't pretend you don't know! I'll bet when everyponies asleep you'll sneak into my room and lock the door. Then while I'm distracted with brushing my teeth, you'll sneak behind me and knock me out with chloroform! Then with-"

"How am I suppose to use chloroform while your brushing your teeth? Your toothbrush is in the way?" interrupted Spike.

" . . . . Then while I'm distracted brushing my HAIR (Spike face palmed hard, leaving a mark)! You'll sneak behind me and knock me out with chloroform! Then with me unconscious you'll steal Tom and be on your merry way!" Rarity explained.

Spike was seriously wondering why he had chosen to ask Rarity for help. "So . . . your saying that I'm going to knock you out . . . with chloroform . . . just to steal Tom".

Rarity practically leapt into the air, "ah ha! You admit it! So you are going to steal Tom!"

Spike's eyes bulged and his entire body shook. He was struggling to keep control of his temper. He needed to find a place to live and didn't want to ruin his chance by shouting at the only pony that could help him. Then again he could still go to Applejack.

'Why didn't I go to Applejack?' thought Spike. Spike placed his hand on Rarity's shoulder. "Rarity, I promise you, I will not steal Tom. You've known me for almost a year, do you really think I would take something that's so precious to you?"

Rarity thought for a moment. "No I suppose not. I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you stay for a little . . . wait. Your trying to be nice to me just so I can let you stay with me!

I'll bet!

(Don't say it!)

That this is!

(DON'T SAY IT!)

(DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE!!!)

Trick!" Rarity shouted.

' . . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!' Spike mentally screamed. Spike took hold of Rarity's cheeks and brought his face close to hers. "RARITY!!! I'M NOT GOING TO STEAL YOUR FREAKING DIAMOND!!! NOW WILL YOU PLEASE JUST LET ME STAY WITH YOU!!!" he shouted.

Rarity pushed Spike back and dusted herself off. "Fine, I'll let you stay, but only if you promise to NEVER go near Tom. Understand?"

Spike nodded and followed Rarity inside.

IV

Twilight couldn't tell how long she had been walking for or what time it was. The sun and moon were still out of whack. She was certain she had been walking for at least several hours now. Her legs and hoofs had started to feel very sore with each step she took. She was sweating, mostly due to exhaustion then heat. Her wet body from both the sweat and rain made her sting with ice cold pain as the wind blew fiercely. Her body wanted to rest, but she refused. She was determined to get as far away from Pony Ville as possible. Although she had traveled far enough to where the cotton candy clouds were no longer in sight, she still feared about what would happen if she rested long enough for Discords chaos to catch up to her. She was physically tired from the walk, the rain, and the wind, as well as mentally tired from the force field spell she had been using the entire time. She first used the spell to prevent being rained upon, once it had stopped raining she placed the spell in front her, preventing some but not all of the wind from howling against her. She was sore, fatigued, and had a headache that was growing into a minor migraine. She had hung her head low for most of the walk, keeping the wind from directly hitting her face. She took a moment to glance up every now and again to observe her surroundings and make sure she was keeping along the correct path. She had routed the most safest path she could think of, at least, she hoped it was safe. Normally when she travels long distances such as this one she would be accompanied by her friends, she would never travel this far alone. No matter how dangerous the path was her friends seemed to make everything feel safer. Now she was alone, and even though she had walked on this road before, she had never felt more scared in her life. Twilight took a moment to glance up.

It wasn't until now that Twilight realized how many trees this country had to offer. She had been walking on the same dirt path ever since she had left Pony Ville. There were trees lined up along both sides of the road the entire journey. Even though the trees seemed to be thinning, there was still so much nature around Twilight. All these trees, every single last one probably belonging to a forest creature, being used for shelter. All those animals, with families, children, and friends of their own. All the beautiful nature, both plant and animal life, appeared to surround Twilight as she walked. From as far as the eye could see the nature never stopped. She could see trees, bushes, and plants the entire way down the road. Twilight knew that this country was consisted of mostly forests, woods, and other grasslands, but it wasn't until now that she truly began to relish in such beauty. The forests, the animals, the trees, none of them knew what was coming. None of them knew that a storm of chaos was heading their way at this moment, and when it arrives, there's nothing they can do about it. Some will run, others may fight, in the end however, none of them will succeed. Those who run will either get caught trying or will be left homeless. Those who fight will lose of course, there wasn't a doubt in Twilights mind about that. They would lose, every single last one of them will lose . . . just like she had.

Lost in thought, Twilight didn't see a large rock in front of her and tripped. As she slowly lifted herself to her hoofs, she felt surges of pain rush through all four of her legs. Simultaneously, she felt her headache worsen (having become a minor migraine and was now growing to a major one) and her stomach growl.

She couldn't remember the last time she ate. She remembered eating breakfast with Spike, but she couldn't tell exactly how long that was (Twilight really wanted the princess's to take control of the sun and moon again). She skipped out on lunch and dinner, having been preoccupied at the time. She tried to ignore her pain and continue walking, but her bodies protests shouted that enough was enough. Twilight sighed and searched for a place to rest for the night, or day, she couldn't tell.

She spotted a clump of trees that had grown in the perfect spots. The clump had grown thick enough to prevent any wind from hitting Twilight. Walking off the path, Twilight walked to the clump of trees, threw her saddle bag aside, and fell to the ground. She placed her bag beneath her head to use as a pillow. She didn't care how wet or cold she was, she was too tired and sore to care.

Seconds after she rested her head against her saddle bag, Twilight fell into a deep sleep.

V

Spike wiped the sweat from his brow, as he placed the cleaning supplies back into the closet. When he had agreed to do all of the cleaning around the boutique he didn't realize how much there actually was. When he had first entered into the building the entire boutique was in a mess. There were torn fabrics, destroyed sowing supplies, and other wrecked household items scattered everywhere. The only thing that had remained intact was a large boulder that sat in the middle of the room. Rarity had given Spike his chores and immediately sent him to work while she took the boulder to her room and locked herself in.

Several hours later he had finished cleaning the boutique and Rarity still hasn't left her room. After putting away the cleaning supplies, Spike proceeded to the kitchen for a glass of water. He couldn't reach the cupboards so he had to stand on top of a chair to reach. He took a cup from the cupboards, poured himself some water from the sink, and had proceeded to drink before something came crashing through the window, making him choke. He fell of the chair, rolled back and knocked the back of his head to the tables leg. He looked to see what had smashed through the window as he stood to his feet, rubbing the back of his head.

"Sweetie Bell! What's the big idea?" said Spike. There stood Sweetie Bell, Or from Spikes point of view it was Sweetie Bell. He was unaware of Sweetie Bells change in appearance. Her manes purple and pink colors had faded, and her white fur had changed to a light gray. She was also carrying a saddle bag full of food, bits, jewelry, and clothes.

Sweetie Bell shook her head to get rid of the broken pieces of glass in her mane, then turned to Spike. "Spike? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Your sisters letting me stay with you for a while, at least until I can find a place of my own" said Spike.

"Your staying with us? How come your not with Twilight?" asked Sweetie Bell.

"She said she didn't need me anymore then left" said Spike, sadly.

"Twilight said that? That's awful!" said Sweetie Bell.

"Ya . . . it is awful . . . but at least I have you guys, right? Sweetie?" Spike had only looked away for a second, when he turned back Sweetie wasn't there. He walked out of the kitchen and spotted her going up the stairs. Spike followed her up the stairs and into her room. When he entered, Sweetie Bell was pouring her saddle bags contents on her bed.

"What's all that for?" Spike asked.

Sweetie Bell gasped and turned to Spike. "Hey! I didn't give you permission to come in my room! Get out!"

Spike ignored her and walked to her bed, picking up and observing a pearl necklace. "This looks really expensive, where did you get it?" Spike asked.

Sweetie Bell snatched the necklace from Spike and tossed it onto her bed. "Does it matter where I got it! Why do you care?" asked Sweetie Bell, as she avoided making eye contact with Spike.

Spike looked down to the items on Sweetie Bells bed, then to Sweetie Bell as he began placing two and two together. "Wait a minute . . . did you steal these?"

Sweetie Bell put on a fake surprised expression as she gasped. "What? Me? Steal those? I couldn't possibly- you would never- how dare you-" she stuttered.

"You did steal these! Didn't you!" said Spike, as he picked up a couple bits.

Sweetie Bell stopped pretending to be surprised, and instead groaned with annoyance. "Yes I stole those, what are you gonna do, tell my sister? She's not going to make me return those, you know that don't you? She's probably going to keep it all for herself" said Sweetie Bell.

"Ya, good point. No I won't tell your sister, quite frankly I don't care what you do as long as I get a place to stay. But why are you stealing these anyway?" asked Spike.

Sweetie Bell shrugged, "I don't know, its hard to explain. At first I wanted to show her a picture that I drew, but she wouldn't even look at me! She was too busy cuddling that stupid rock! So I started shouting at her, and I may have . . . broken a few things as well-"

"Wait, that mess that took me hours to clean, that was you?" Spike interrupted.

"I didn't mean it! I was just upset that Rarity was ignoring me. But when she saw the mess I made she started talking to me! Well, not exactly. She started shouting at me about the mess, but her shouting at me was better then her ignoring me so instead of saying sorry I fought back. Then she sent me to my room and I told her that I hated her, and she said she hated me too", Sweetie Bell paused and looked away from Spike, holding back tears.

'Oh, so that's what the commotion was earlier' thought Spike.

Sweetie wiped her eye and looked back to Spike. "Then I felt this weird tingly sort of feeling. I can't really explain it but . . . for some reason I felt . . . different. I don't really know how, but all I know is that everything was different after this strange feeling was gone. I wanted to do something bad, something that will make Rarity mad, that way she can shout at me again. I don't like it when she ignores me, so I felt that if I'm caught getting into trouble she'll have no choice but to acknowledge me" Sweetie explained.

"So that's why you stole these?" asked Spike.

Sweetie Bell nodded.

"So you stole these to get Rarity mad at you, I got that. But what was with jumping through the window?" spike asked.

"Oh, I thought Rarity was downstairs, so if I jump through the window she'll run into the kitchen and see what I did. I guess she moved that stupid rock to her room" said Sweetie Bell, sadly.

"Oh yeah, I guess that's my fault. Rarity took that rock to her room so that I wouldn't try to steal it. She's been up there all day, or night. Ugh! Do you have a clock? This whole sun and moon switching thing is getting really annoying!"

"Sure, there's one hanging on my wall over there" said Sweetie Bell, as she pointed to her clock.

Spike looked to the clock and face palmed. The hands on the clock were spinning out of control, the hour hand spinning clockwise and the minute hand spinning counterclockwise.

"Great, now we can't even tell what time it is" Spike complained.

"Well I'm pretty tired, so I guess we can assume its night time" said Sweetie Bell.

"I guess so, speaking of which, where am I sleeping? The only thing Rarity told me was the chores that I have to do while I'm living here, so I don't really know where I'll be sleeping" said Spike.

"Well we have a couch downstairs, you can sleep on that for now until we find somewhere more comfortable. How long exactly are you staying here for?" asked Sweetie Bell.

"I don't know, until I get old enough to find my own place I guess. Until then I have to take care of cleaning the boutique" said Spike.

"Why do you have to clean the boutique? Rarity doesn't even like it when I clean the boutique" asked Sweetie Bell.

"I convinced Rarity that if I clean the boutique she can spend more time with her rock" Spike explained.

Sweetie looked flabbergasted, "you what!"

Spike was taken aback, "what? What did I-"

"Oh thanks a lot Spike! I try so hard to get Rarity to notice me, and now you've made her lock herself in her room with that stupid rock!" shouted Sweetie Bell.

"Well I was trying to find a place to stay! I didn't know you were trying to get her to notice you!" said Spike.

"Do you know how hard its going to be to get her out of her room? She's probably locked in a cuddle with that stupid rock as we speak!" Sweetie shouted.

"I'm sorry! Look, what if I help you get Rarity to notice you? Will that make you feel better?" Spike asked, trying to calm Sweetie Bell down.

Sweetie Bell paused, and placed a hoof to her chin. "Hmmm . . . I guess you can help me, it is your fault after all".

Spike sighed, as he face palmed.

"Alright, you can help me. And in return you can be my number one assistant!" said Sweetie Bell.

Visions of Twilight and the Golden Oaks library flashed before Spikes eyes. He saw all the times that Twilight had called him her number one assistant. Then he remembered Twilight saying she didn't need him anymore, and growled.

"NO!" Spike shouted.

Sweetie Bell froze, and stared at Spike, "no?"

"No! I won't be your assistant! Why would I want to be your assistant!?!" Spike shouted.

"Well I just thought that since Twilight left you it would make you feel better if you were someponies assistant again. That's why if you help me you can be my assistant" Sweetie Bell explained.

Spike growled, "no! I won't be yours or anyponies assistant! I'll help you, but only if you allow me to continue living here for as long as I need to, deal!" Spike extended his claw to shake with Sweetie Bell.

Sweetie Bell looked curiously to Spike before shaking hoof to claw with him. "Sure, its a deal, but I thought you liked being an assistant" said Sweetie Bell.

Spike turned away and looked out her bedroom window. "Not anymore I don't" he said, flatly. He stared out the window and watched as the town continued to break down in its chaotic storm. He sighed, turned away from the window, and walked to Sweetie Bells door.

"I don't know what time it is, but I'm tired so I guess I can help you when I wake up, okay?" asked Spike.

"Ya, sure" said Sweetie Bell.

Spike was about to leave, before Sweetie said, "We made a deal, okay. You help me get into trouble and I'll let you stay".

"Ya sure" said Spike, as he tried to leave.

Sweetie Bell stopped him again, "don't forget, we shook on it!"

"Yes, I know Sweetie Bell, goodnight already!" said Spike, annoyed.

He tried to leave, but was stopped a third time.

"Spike-"

"WHAT!" Spike shouted, interrupting her.

"I was just going to say I know a way for Rarity to get mad at me!" said Sweetie Bell.

Spike sighed, "fine, what is it?"

"Well, Rarity's my sister, and sisters look out for little sisters, right?" said Sweetie Bell.

"Ya".

"So if a colt tries to sleep with their little sister, they'll get mad, right?" said Sweetie Bell, taking a step closer to Spike.

"What are you getting at exactly?" Spike asked, feeling very uncomfortable.

Sweetie Bell walked close to Spike, and brought her mouth close to his ear. "Would you like to sleep in my bed tonight?"

Spike jumped back, away from Sweetie Bell. "Our deal was that I would help you tomorrow! Not tonight! Plus were just kids! That's not a very appropriate thing for kids to do!"

Sweetie Bell narrowed her eyes to Spike and smiled. "Oh come on Spike, we have to grow up sometime".

Spike looked over Sweetie Bells shoulder to the clock hanging on her wall. "Oh would you look at the time! Its broken! Time for bed!" said Spike, as he turned and ran down the stairs. "Night Sweetie Bell!" Spike shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

Sweetie Bell chuckled, "I'll get him. When he least expects it, I'll get him. And with Spike wrapping his arms around me, Rarity will definitely get mad and start shouting at me! But what if she kicks Spike out . . . eh not my problem". Sweetie Bell shut her door, turned off her lights and leapt onto her bed. She laid her head to her pillow and brought her blankets to her chin. "You will be mine Spike, and when your mine, I'll get Rarity too!"

Sweetie Bell chuckled, before drifting off to sleep.

Author's Note

Did you guys know that counterclockwise is one long word? I didn't, I had to google it.

VII

Twilight had galloped until she couldn't hear the chaos from Pony Ville. She panted, as she began walking slower trying to catch her breath. She was no longer on a dirt road anymore, nor was she in a forest area. The dirt road had stopped at a point and had become part of the ground, an unpaved dirt path. The trees population had thinned in this area, and Twilight noticed that it had began to feel warmer. This meant that she going the right way.

Twilight was traveling south, however, traveling south from Pony Ville would have taken her to the Everfree Forest. To avoid this Twilight took a dirt road that would go around the forest and instead take her to the San Palomino Desert. The less vegetation there were, the closer Twilight was to the desert.

As Twilight caught her breath, she saw a sign posted in the distance. As she continued walking, the sign came to view making the words readable.

"San Palomino Desert, thirty miles straight. Los Pegasus, one hundred miles west" Twilight read aloud. Twilight sighed as she walked past the sign. "Thirty miles . . . wonder how long that'll take me. Maybe if I had wings this would be easier, jeez I wish I was a pegasus" Twilight complained. As Twilight walked, an idea popped into her head. "Or, maybe it isn't bad being a unicorn!"

Twilight walked up to a nearby tree, the smallest she could find. Using her magic, Twilight formed a purple saw blade from her energy then proceeded to saw the base of the tree. Once she had sown through, she stepped out of the way and allowed the tree to fall to its side.

"If I can't travel with wings, I'll just have to travel with magic!" Twilight exclaimed, as she repeated the process of cutting another tree. Twilight levitated and placed the two trees on top of the path. Using the magic saw, Twilight sawed off the top and bottom of the trees, leaving the trees flat on both ends. She then sawed one of the trees in half vertically. Place the tree halves aside Twilight used her magic to measure the other tree and burn four marks into its bark. She then sawed at the marks of the tree. Once finished, Twilight had four large wooded circles. Twilight then used her magic to conjure a hammer, a drill, and a carving knife. Twilight used the saw to cut two thin wooden strips from of the tree halves. She then used the carving knife to shape the strips into smooth wooden poles. Once after, she measured the widths of the poles and burned her measurements into the center of the wooden circles. It took a couple of try's for Twilight to get the poles to slide through the circles perfectly. Now she needed a way for the circles to stay in place. using the carving knife, Twilight carved spirals into the poles. She then sawed out four small blocks of wood from the tree half and used the carving knife to shape the blocks into wooden bolts. It took over half an hour before Twilight was able to fit the bolts on the poles properly. She now had four wooden wheels, now she had to build the body for her wooden transportation. Twilight took the untouched tree half and sawed of the round end. With both ends flat, she drilled to holes to each end of the wooden board, big enough for the poles to slide through. Once that was finished, she made her magic tools disappear and wiped the sweat from her brow. She took a step back to admire her work.

It was a very crude piece of work, but Twilight had spent to much time already building her transportation. To Twilight it really was just a block of wood with wheels sticking out, but if it could help her travel faster then she was willing to take it.

Once she had hoped on top of her creation, Twilight used her magic to surround the wheels in a purple aura, making the wheels spin. She hadn't intended for her transportation to move as fast as it did. It had moved so fast that she fell off. She got to her hoofs and dusted herself off. As she did so she could suddenly hear the screams and laughter in the distance again.

"Seriously! How fast is Discords magic traveling?". Twilight ran and hoped on top of her transportation and surrounded the wheels in her purple aura. This time she had her hoofs gripped onto the front of the transportation. 'Hopefully this is faster' Twilight thought to herself as she began spinning the wheels. Her transportation immediately bolted forward, leaving a dust trail behind. Twilight concentrated both physically and mentally to prevent herself from falling off and making sure her transportation moves straight.

Twilight's mane and tail blew back as the speed of her transportation made the wind clash against her.

"Note to self! Make seat belts!" Twilight shouted, as she gripped tighter to the front of her transportation.

Twilight didn't know how fast she was going, but no matter how fast it was she knew that the danger was far behind her.

VIII

From what could have been a three day journey took Twilight an hour thanks to the transportation she built. It was shaky, un-sturdy, and made Twilight vomit (twice), but it got the job done. The forest landscape had now changed to long fields of grassy plains. The further Twilight traveled, the more dry the grass appeared. After Twilight had traveled twenty five miles, she began to slow at the sound of running water up ahead. Once close enough she saw a river and stopped her transportation close to it. She hoped off of her transportation and walked up to the rivers edge.

Twilight opened the straps to her saddle bag and levitated out the folded map. Once unfolded, she looked to the drawing of a long river that stretches for miles, then looked to the river in front of her. This river was the border line to the San Palomino Desert. Twilight chuckled happily as she refolded her map and stuffed it back into her bag. After strapping it shut, she tossed the bag off of her back and proceeded to take a drink from the river. She stopped shortly after feeling a growling pain in her stomach.

'I can't drink on an empty stomach. Maybe I can find a place nearby that sells food' thought Twilight, as she took the map out again. She unfolded it and looked for the nearest civilization. The river started at Los Pegasus which was near the ocean, and since that was over a hundred miles away, Twilight immediately disregarded the option of going there. The river extended east until it connect with the edge of the Everfree Forest. From there the river separated into two directions. One going east which would enter deeper into the forest, and the other would go south leading straight to Appleloosa. She could take that path, but that would mean entering into the Everfree Forest, even if it was only the edge. She figured she could just cut through the desert and head straight for Appleloosa, but there was the risk of heat stroke and getting lost.

Twilight sighed, "I wish I could have just taken a train to Appleloosa, if any of them were still working". Twilight didn't know which way to take. If she followed the river she would have to enter the Everfree Forest. If she cut through the desert she could get lost, that and she hasn't eaten or drunken anything for who knows how long (Twilight didn't know how long, time was still broken. She was really getting mad at Discord for switching the sun and moon back and forth. The sun was up now, but it had switched four times on her way here).

Twilight's stomach growled, and she knew she had to make a choice and leave immediately.

"Going through the desert is faster, but going through the Everfree does seem like a wiser choice. Hmmm . . . which way should I go . . . you know what, buck this" Twilight turned to her saddle bag and pulled out a small purse. She levitated a bit from inside and started spinning it in midair. One side of the bit had Luna's cutie mark, while the other side had Celestia's cutie mark. "If it lands on Luna I'll go through the desert, if it lands on Celestia I'll go through the Everfree" said Twilight as she tossed the bit into the air.

It spun as it was thrown. It reached as high as it could, then dropped and landed in front of Twilight. Twilight looked down to the bit and saw that it had landed on Celestia.

"Alright, guess I'm going through the Everfree" said Twilight. She placed the bit and the map back into her bag and placed the saddle bag onto her back. After she strapped it shut, she gulped as she realized she was going to have to enter into the Everfree Forest, alone.

"I-I've been in there before. It shouldn't be all that bad! What's the worst that could happen?"

At that moment, the sun had switched places with the moon, leaving the grassy plains dark. Twilight could hear wolves howling in the distance.

Twilight sighed, "I hate you so much Discord . . . "

She tried to ignore her stomachs loud growling as she began walking along the river towards the Everfree Forest.

IX

"Spiiiiiiiiiike!" Where aaaaaaarrrrrreee yoooooouuuuu!" called Sweetie Bell as she hopped down the road past a building flooded with grape juice.

Spike was hiding behind a large trashcan in an alleyway. He peered over the top of the trash can to see if Sweetie Bell was gone. When Sweetie Bell had hopped out of sight, Spike sighed and sat down, resting himself against the trashcan.

'How did my day start like this?" Spike thought to himself as he thought about the past half hour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thirty Minutes Ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike was snoring soundly as he slept on a couch downstairs in the boutique. He shifted to find a more comfortable spot when he felt himself rub against something soft. Being half asleep, Spike didn't care what or who it was and cuddled against the furry thing. In his dream, Spike imagined a beautiful mare he had just rescued from a horrific monster. His dreamed had affected him in reality.

"Oh my dear damsel in distress (snore!) if you wanted a kiss (snore!) then you should have just asked" Spike mumbled in his sleep. Spike brought his lips close to the furry thing, before it stopped him.

"Wait, let me call Rarity first!" said the furry thing.

"Sure, call Rarity . . . wait, Rarity?". Before Spike had a chance to process what was happening, the furry thing shouted, "Rarity! I'm about to have my first kiss!"

"What!?" Spike exclaimed. His eyes shot open, and the first thing he saw was Sweeties Bells green eyes. She was cuddled close to him, having her face only an inch away from his.

"SWEETIE BELL! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" Rarity shouted from upstairs. Hoof steps could be heard walking on the second floor, heading for the stairs.

Sweetie Bell gasped, "its working!" She narrowed her eyes towards Spike in a devious way. "Pucker up dragon!" said Sweetie Bell, aggressively.

A girly shriek could be heard from the boutique a mile away as Spike rammed through the boutique door, running through the streets of the chaos capital.

"Aaaaaaaagh!!!" Spike shrieked, as he searched for a place to hide. He spotted a large trashcan in between an alleyway and hid behind it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Present Time~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" . . . Oh yeah . . . that's how" Spiked mumbled, annoyed. 'Well, guess I can't stick around there for a while, especially with Sweetie Bell acting . . . weird. And there's not too much to do anymore with the town destroyed and all. Hmmm . . . maybe Discord hasn't touched Sweet Apple acres yet. I know! I'll go visit Applejack! It'll be nice to spend the day away from crazy ponies (Spike referring to Rarity and Sweetie Bell). 'I wonder how the Apple family is doing?' thought Spike. Spike stood to his feet and peered around the corner of the ally to see if Sweetie Bell was around. Once the coast was clear, Spike ran as fast as he could towards Sweet Apple acres.

As he ran, a stampede of long legged animal ran towards him. He jumped towards a bush, avoiding the stamped. He tried to lift himself off the bush, but the bush suddenly grew vines which held on to him. The bush and other surrounding plants came to life and starting marching towards him. Simultaneously, a cucumber sandwich with french fries for legs as big as a house came charging out of nowhere towards Spike. Quickly, Spike exhaled his green fire breath towards the bush that held on to him, engulfing it in flames. When the vines were enflamed, Spike was released. He jumped forward, dodging the sandwich as it trampled over the plants. It turned to Spike and roared. Spike gulped and starting sprinting down the street. The sandwich was trampling everything in its path as it chased Spike.

Suddenly, Spike tripped over . . . a weird green thumbs up sign.

"The heck is this?" Spike asked as he got to his feet.

A flash of light, and Discord magically appeared. "Oh I was wondering where that was! Ponies have been trying to thumbs up other ponies stories but couldn't because the thumbs up button was missing!". Discord snatched the sign from Spike and observed it with a magnifying glass that he pulled out of nowhere. He tossed the magnifying glass aside and tapped on the sign, causing it to glow. "There, now ponies can have their stories thumbed up again!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Spike.

Discord chuckled, "oh don't worry about it little dragon, I'm just trying to fix something VERY important".

"Why would you do that? Aren't you supposed to do the opposite of fix things? Being the spirit of chaos and all?" asked Spike.

"Well normally that's true, but you can't have EVERYTHING broken. Especially not this! If ponies can't give each other thumbs ups then they won't visit the website anymore, and if that happens, what'll happen to us? This story, and thousands of other stories will cease to exist! Seriously, I may be the spirit of chaos but I still care about keeping our worlds existence intact" said Discord. He snapped his fingers, making the sign disappear.

"I really have no idea what your talking about?" said Spike.

Discord ruffled the top of Spikes head. "Like I said, don't worry about it. I'm merely breaking the third wall, that's all. I'd brake the fourth wall but that would require me to talk to the readers, and I have FAR too much chaos too attend to. Maybe in the next chapter, until then, bye bye!" There was a flash of light and Discord disappeared. No more then two seconds later Discord reappeared behind Spike. "Oh! And good luck with that sandwich!" Discord chuckled, as he disappeared in a flash of light.

"Wait, what!" Spike turned around and was nose to bread with the giant sandwich. He was too distracted with . . . whatever just happened and completely forgot he was being chased by a sandwich. Spike gulped as the sandwich roared at him.

Suddenly, a piano fell from the sky, crushing the sandwich. Spike looked up and saw a faded gray pegasus with blond hair and bubbles for a cutie mark hovering above the sandwich. She swooped down and landed in front of Spike. "Hop on!" she growled.

"Derpy?" asked Spike.

"Its Ditzy, now hop on! Or you might get attacked by another sandwich" said Ditzy.

Spike climbed on top of Ditzy as Ditzy bent her knees. When Spike was on, Ditzy launched into the sky, flying at incredible speed. Spike took hold around Ditzy's neck, he had no idea she was this fast.

"Ditzy! When did you get so fast!" shouted Spike.

"I don't know! It just sort of happened! So, where you headin?" asked Ditzy.

"Well I was going to Sweet Apple Acres until I was attacked by plants . . . then a sandwich . . . is everything alive in this town?" asked Spike.

"Seems that way! Everything seems to be getting crazier the longer this chaos magic stays! I reckon it won't be long before Pony Ville is too dangerous to live in. Heck, I'm surprised there's still ponies living here! It technically already is too dangerous too live in!"

"So why are you still here?" asked Spike.

"I'm trying to get as many ponies out of town as possible. With some its impossible, them being trapped within Discords magic. However some ponies still have the capability of leaving but can't because their either too scared to leave their house or are in danger! So I'm trying to help them escape before I hit the road myself!" Ditzy explained.

"Wow that's really cool! . . . And smart . . ."

"What are you trying to say!" shouted Ditzy.

"Nothing! Nothing! Its just, well I kind of assumed you were a little less . . . coordinated" said Spike, trying not to offend his savior.

"Are you calling me stupid?" asked Ditzy.

"No! Its not that! You were always smart, just not this smart, that's all" said Spike.

Ditzy sighed, "yes I may have seemed a bit bubbly before, hence the most explainable reason for my cutie mark. But I'm not the same as I once was. And by the looks of it, this seems to be happening to most of the ponies around here as well".

"What do you mean?" asked Spike.

"Well, I can't put my hoof on it. But it seems that Discords magic is altering ponies personalities somehow. I just don't know how, and every time I try to think about it something is stopping me. Like this magic is preventing us from researching about it. I don't know, I'm not a unicorn so I won't be much use to this kind of thing. The best I can do is help these ponies escape then leave when the job is done. If there personality is affected then there's nothing I can do about it. We're here". Ditzy slowed her speed as she gently landed yards away from the front of the red barn.

"Thanks Ditzy!" said Spike as he hopped off of Ditzy.

"Don't mention it" said Ditzy. She looked down to a nearby puddle of water and sighed at her reflection. "Curse this eye! It won't stay straight! Hmmm, maybe I should get an eye patch".

"Hey before I go I was wondering. After you help get everypony out of town, what are you going to do?" asked Spike.

Ditzy turned away from her reflection and smiled at Spike. "Oh I don't know. I was thinking about heading south and warning the zebra from Zebrica about Discord. Aside from Saddle Arabia, Equestria is most affiliated with Zebrica. I already have a friend heading to Saddle Arabia to warn them so its up to me to warn Zebrica. And who knows, from there I might join the army and help fight back against Discord" Ditzy explained.

"What! You wanna fight Discord?" asked Spike, his eyes bulging at Ditzy.

"Well someponies got to. I'm not just gonna run away and look for some place safe to live like a coward!" said Ditzy.

"That's great! At least some ponies fighting back! Unlike somepony I know!" said Spike, angrily. He was thinking about Twilight as Ditzy said this.

"Well I best be off, take care of yourself kid" said Ditzy. She extended her wings and launched into the air.

"Bye!" shouted Spike, as he waved to Ditzy.

Spike turned to the Apple family barn house and saw a snoozing Applejack resting against the wall, her hat covering her face.

"Hey Applejack!" Spike shouted, as he walked towards the sleeping mare.

X

Thirty Miles down the river, Twilight could see the tall dark green trees of the Everfree forest. She slowed her transportation down to a walking speed as she entered.

Once inside, Twilight could feel the eyes of the forest creatures staring at her from within the trees and bushes. Twilights heart sped faster as she heard howls from within the distance. She began taking deep slow breaths to help calm herself down, extending her foreleg in and out as she did so.

The forests interior was just how she remembered it. Dark green trees so thick you couldn't see through the forest. The clouds above were moving on its own and there was a thin white fog engulfing the area.

Twilight moved her wooden transportation forward with caution, making sure to avoid anything that might seem dangerous. She drove over wet puddles, holes, bushes (using her magic to levitate the transportation), and around a patch of poison joke.

'Don't want to go through any of that again' though Twilight. She was suddenly reminded of the time when Zecora first came to Pony Ville and she and the rest of her friends accidently ran into a patch of poison joke.

All seemed calm and well for Everfree forest standards. The forest appearance screamed for a predators surprise attack, yet none came. Then again, Twilight felt it was because she was only at the edge of the forest. Things were probably a lot safer in this area.

After traveling at a slow speed for nearly twenty minutes, Twilight felt that it was safe enough to increase her speed. Nothing bad has happened yet so she figured, 'why not?'

At fifteen miles per hour, Twilight immediately felt the forest become bumpier with her increase in speed. As she began tearing through bush after bush, Twilight had the sudden feeling that something was different, like there was a sudden change in the forests unusually calm state. Observing her surroundings, Twilight found that there was nothing wrong. She continued to speed through the forest with ease.

Twilights heart began slowing to a normal pace, and she returned to breathing normally. For a trip in the Everfree forest, it was surprising to Twilight that nothing was happening. She was expecting to get pounced by a predator the moment she entered. Fall into quick sand, get tangled in vines (some of the vines were alive), or even get caught in poison joke, and she specifically made sure that THAT didn't happen again. Yet nothing was happening at all. Besides from the howling she heard in the distance, the Everfree forest was, surprisingly enough, calm. At the same time, it was actually very relaxing. The forest thick mass of leaves left little to no sun light to enter into the forest (if the sun was out, it was still the moons turn), and the patches of bluish green grass was thick and soft enough to make a good resting spot. These two combinations made the forest seem like a very nice place for taking naps. The scenery wasn't all that bad as well. The trees did look a little creepy to Twilight, but she still felt at peace as she traveled the quite calm Everfree forest.

Twilight couldn't ever remember the forest having been this nice before. She assumed it was because she was always preoccupied in some sort of situation to notice the forests beauty. The first time she had ever gone into the forest was when she had to stop Nightmare Moon by looking for the elements of harmony. Her first impressions of the forest were the opposite of nice thanks to that night. The second time she had gone into the forest she was turn to stone by a cockatrice and wasn't revived until several hours later by Fluttershy. All and all her experience in the forest has given her the thought that this place was completely dangerous. Now however, Twilight felt as if she didn't give the forest a fair assumption. Sure she had been in sticky situations before but technically it was her fault for traveling without protection. The night with Nightmare Moon didn't count because technically the forest didn't place them in danger, Nightmare Moon did. Now, the forest didn't seem that dangerous anymore.

'I think I'd actually like to visit this place more often, if it wasn't for the fact that Discords chaos is spreading' thought Twilight. She smiled as she allowed herself to fall into incautious, comfortable state of mind. 'Maybe this place isn't so bad after all. Ha! Silly me, getting myself all worked up over nothing! There's nothing wrong with this place at all, heck, I'd even say the creatures aren't all that-'

Before she could finish her thought, Twilight suddenly heard the sound of stomping hoofs behind her. The ground started shaking, and Twilight could hear trees and bushes crashing, as if something was trampling over it with ease. Twilight turned and gasped.

Behind her was a stampede of every known creature to live in the Everfree forest. From manticores to tigers, cockatrice to snakes, timbre wolves to bears, all of them, every single last one.

' . . . Well . . . that was short lived' thought Twilight. Using her magic, Twilight forced the wheels of her transportation to move at the fastest speed she could manage. This wasn't easy, she was no longer on a flat path like before and now struggled to maintain her transportations maneuverability as well as prevent herself from falling off. She drove fast, avoiding obstacles in her path. She hopped over sand traps, drove through bushes, and occasionally ducked from low branches.

Suddenly from within the distance, Twilight could see light piercing through the edge of what seemed like an opening in the forest. Two trees separated from the thick clumps of trees, leaving a gap wide enough for Twilight to drive through.

It was the edge of the forest, and the light indicated that the sun had switched from the moon.

She leaned forward to accelerate her speed, determined to break through the opening. She didn't turn back, she was too concentrated on her driving to even take a moments glance behind her. She knew however that the danger was approaching closer. The steps of the creatures had came closer, causing the ground beneath Twilight to shake violently. Twilight came closer, and closer to the gap. Concentrating, Twilight surrounded herself and her transportation with her magic aura and prepared herself. As the creatures were mere feet away, Twilight drove through the gap and levitated herself quickly. She panted and wiped the sweat from her brow as she levitated herself high enough to be out of dangers reach. She watched as the stamped ran out of the forest, breaking through the trees thus widening the gap.

'What could have made the animals in such a frenzy?' thought Twilight. She levitated herself high above the forest altitude and narrowed her eyes to look into the distance. Twilight couldn't see it clearly, but she was able to detect a slight pink color in the distance. 'That must be a cotton candy cloud, Discords getting closer. His chaos is most likely driving the animals out of the Everfree Forest' thought Twilight.

It took five minutes before the stamped had completely left the forest. When Twilight was determined it was safe, Twilight gently place her and her transportation back to the ground. She quickly unstrapped her saddle bag and pulled out the folded map. Unfolding the map she pointed her hoof to where she was located. She looked to her left and saw that the river she had been following was a couple of yards away.

'Okay, so if I'm next to the river then all I have to do is head south. Then I'll reach Appleloosa and I can replenish on . . . wait a minute, which way was the stamped going?' Twilight turned to the large dust cloud running south in the distance. She gasped, "There heading straight for Appleloosa!" shouted Twilight. She hopped onto her transportation and stuffed the map back into her bag without folding it. After strapping her bag shut, she surrounded the wheels in her purple aura and began driving south as fast as she could.

"Gotta warn them before the stamped gets there!" shouted Twilight.

XI

"So now I'm living with Rarity and Sweetie Bell. Although I'm starting to regret making this decision" said Spike.

Spike was sitting against the Apple family barn next to Applejack. Currently he was explaining to her how the past day has been while eating an apple. Applejack sat listening, eating an apple as well. However, she ate the apple in reverse. Returning bites to the apple instead of consuming it (Spike had no idea how she was doing this but chose not to question the mare).

Applejack had just finished returning all the bites from one apple and threw it aside. She then picked up a nearby apple core and proceeded to return the bites from this apple. "So Twilight's not in Pony Ville anymore? Ha! Good riddance! Who needs her anyway? Ah reckon we can take care of Discord by ourselves anyhow!"

"So why aren't you stopping him then?" asked Spike.

Applejack looked away, making sure not to make eye contact with Spike. "Well ah would but I- uh, ahm tired from apple buckin, yeah that's it! I've been doin lots ah apple buckin!"

Spike looked to the fields and saw that the apples were harvesting themselves just fine. Some would explode to confetti every now and again, nonetheless the apples had no need for ponies to harvest.

"Uh, ya, sure. You sure seem like you've been hard at work" Spike said sarcastically.

"So, you sayin Sweetie Bells been givin you trouble?"

"Yeah, she's been getting really touchy around me. And I don't mean "sensitive touchy". I mean she's literally been grabbing me and trying to make me . . . uh . . . well, she's just been really grabby. All and all, she's doing this just to make her sister angry at her. So that Rarity can yell at her, making her feel attention again" explained Spike.

"Well if there's anything I've learned from the many relationships I've been in. Its that mares can get grabby when they want to. So the best thing you need to do is walk right up to that filly an give her what she wants!" said Applejack.

Spike looked to Applejack, his arms crossed and brow raised. "Was that entire sentence by any chance a lie?"

"Ah have no idea what your talkin about" said Applejack, avoiding eye contact again.

Spike sighed and face palmed. 'Guess going to my friends for help isn't gonna work, I might as well just leave town like Dinky did'. Spike lifted himself to his feet, dusting himself off as he did so. "Well its been nice chatting with you AJ but I should get going".

"Pfft, fine with me, ah didn't wanna talk to you anyway" said Applejack.

Spike was about to walk away, before Applejack stopped him.

"Hold on a sec sugar cube! I need you to do me a favor".

'This can't be good', Spike thought to himself as he turned back to Applejack. "Can't you get Applebloom to do it?"

"Eenope! She's out an about doin . . . eh . . . well . . . actually, ah have no idea where she went. But ahm sure she's fine! Here, I need you to take this package over to Fluttershy's house. She left her bunny grooming kit here and ahm sick an tired of waitin on her to come here an get it herself! You think you can take this to her for me?" asked Applejack.

Spike stared at Applejack, dumbfounded for a few moments. Then crossed his arms, glaring at her. "Really? I iterally just told you that Fluttershy nearly burned down my home. And now you want me to go and see her?"

" . . . Ya, sure!" said Applejack.

" . . . HA, HA, HA, HA, no. You want that package delivered you can just go and do it yourself! I am no ponies assistant! Got that! And there is no way in tartarus that I am EVER going to see Fluttershy EVER-"

"Oh Spike! Are you over at the farm!?" shouted Sweetie Bell from a distance.

Spike immediately snatched the package from Applejacks hooves.

"Whelp I'm on my way to Fluttershy's, BYE!!!" shouted Spike, running full speed towards Fluttershy's cottage.

A few moments later, Sweetie had just made it to Applejack.

"Hi Applejack! Have you seen Spike by any chance?" she asked.

Applejack thought for a moment, then turned away to avoid eye contact. "Eenope, ain't seen him no where".

"Oh, well please tell me if you find him, okay?" said Sweetie Bell.

Applejack smiled, "of course sugar cube. I'd do anything for a friend!"

Sweetie Bell returned a smile and hopped away. Oblivious to the fact that Applejack was snickering from behind.

XII

Twilight was sweating profusely, as she strained her magic to keep pace with the Everfree animals. Twilights wooden transportation's condition was worsening the faster she traveled. The wheels were beginning to looses, she could feel the board she sat upon start to crack. She needed to slow down or her transportation would break. Yet by doing so would be to let the animals make their way to Appleloosa.

She had to think quickly, she could see Appleloosa up ahead. It was still a far distance away. The farthest that the eyes could see. At the speeds they were traveling in, however, they would be there within minutes.

While concentrating on her speed and direction, Twilight formulated a plan. She couldn't teleport to Appleoosa and warn the town folk. That would require lots of magic, magic she had already spent in keeping up with the stampede. She could attempt to maneuver the stamped. To do that she would have to travel to the front and force the leading animals to divert their original course. That could work, if it wasn't for her transportations condition. It was already breaking at her current speed. Any faster and it'll break to pieces, with her still on it. Yet it was the only plan she had. There wasn't anymore time to think additional plans, it was now or never. Perhaps she could alter the plan a bit, she had little enough time for this. With the knowledge Twilight possessed, this would be simple.

With some quick thinking, Twilight estimated that with her transportations current conditions as well as the deserts rough landscape giving additional negative effects to her transportation. With the current speed she was traveling in and how fast the condition of her transportation was worsening. She estimated that if she attempted to increase her speed any faster, she'll have exactly eight seconds before her transportation falls to pieces. Yet if she continued her current pace, that'll leave her with two minutes. Either way, her transportation was going to be destroyed.

Eight seconds would allow Twilight to travel close to the mid section of the stampede before her transportation breaks. 'But what next!?' Twilight mentally shouted. 'I can't make it to the front! If I try I'll either be thrown into the ground or the stamped! Then I'll be trampled! Unless I land on top of the bigger animals then . . . hold on. The bigger animals, there's lots of them in the stamped! Their too distracted running in the stampede, they might not notice me! Even if they do, they can't do anything about it. If they try to do anything to me, they'll only cause themselves to be trampled! If I use the bigger animals to make my way to the front, I can divert the stamped away from Appleloosa! One wrong move though, and I don't think it'll end well for me. It shouldn't be that difficult, I've seen Applejack do this kind of thing all the time. Then again, that was with cows and sheep, not Everfree Forest animals. Its risky, but its all I've got!'

Setting her plan into motion, Twilight increased her speed as fast as she could. Instantly, she could feel the wooden boards and wheels of her transportation start to break. Timing her trajectory, Twilight bent her knees, preparing to jump. Just as she predicted, eight seconds later Twilight heard the sound of wood snapping, cracking, and breaking. As soon as she heard this Twilight jumped, aiming for a nearby manticore. She landed on his back, and quickly wrapped her legs around his neck to prevent herself from falling off. She looked back and saw the shattered remains of her transportation falling back into the distance as they traveled away. Turning her head back forward, Twilight searched for more large animals that were close enough for her to jump to. Spotting a bear, Twilight quickly jumped off the manticore and landed on the bears back. Nearly slipping, Twilight bit onto the bears ear and pulled hard, pulling herself up to the bears back. The bear roared in pain but could do nothing about it. Just as Twilight had predicted, the bear was more concerned with the stamped then the faded purple unicorn traveling on his back. Twilight repeated the process to a few more large animals. Making two successful jumps.

On the third, Twilight jumped to another manticore. Seconds before she landed on his back, the manticore was suddenly pushed out of Twilights trajectory. This caused her to land face first into the ground. She rolled across the burning desert ground for a few seconds before she manage to bite onto the tail of the manticore she had attempted to jump on. Keeping her jaw locked on his tail, Twilight was dragged on her back for several feet, before she managed to balance herself onto her hind legs. Now dragging across the ground on her hind legs, Twilight used her magic to create a rope out of her purple energy. Tying one end of the rope over the manticores neck, Twilight managed to pull herself up and onto the manticores back. This choked the manticore momentarily, so Twilight hastily removed the rope as soon as she was on. Taking only a second to catch her breath, Twilight immediately jumped to a tiger in front of her and the manticore. She was now at the front of the stamped.

With only seconds to spare, Twilight used the remaining energy she had left to conjure a large rope made out of her purple energy. Just like the rope before, only this one was bigger, much bigger. Moving the rope like a snake, she managed to wrap the rope around most of the animals within the front of the stamped. As soon as this was done, she grabbed hold of her energy rope and pulled as hard as she could to the right. This cause every animal that was tied to the rope to turn to the right spontaneously. All of the animals behind the front line quickly followed in their new direction. A few more seconds of tugging later, Twilight released the rope and turned around.

She had managed to divert the course of the stamped mere seconds before they could enter Appleloosa. Literally ten feet away from the front town border.

Twilight sighed with relief in her victory.

Her victory only last for a few seconds, however.

The tiger she was on had jumped to avoid a large bolder. Taking her by surprise, Twilight was thrown off straight into the stampede. She tumbled, rolled, and dragged across the hot dirt. Animals ran into her as she did so. She could feel the paws and hoofs of the stampede hit every part of her body. Then at the last part of the stampede, she felt a manticore paw trample onto her head, slamming her head into the ground. The weight plus speed of the manticore caused the force delivered to Twilight to be a powerful one. To Twilight it felt like a child having just stomped on the head of a large beetle.

At last, the stampede had traveled past Twilight. Twilight could barely hear the sounds of the stampede travel away as she lay on the ground. Her body ached, her ears were ringing, and her sight was blurred. Slowly and shakily, Twilight lifted herself to her hoofs. As she did, she saw a red liquid leak into her eye and stinging it. Quickly wiping the liquid out of her eye, she looked to her hoof and immediately recognized what the liquid was. Just as she did so, she could see drops of red liquid fall onto the ground. Placing a shaky hoof to her head, she felt that her entire head was damp from this red liquid.

" . . . Blood?" Twilight muttered, before she lost her vision entirely.

Everything had suddenly turned black and Twilight found herself no longer feeling any pain at all.

She fell to the burning desert ground.

XIII

Spike knocked hard on Fluttershy's cottage door. As he did he looked around at the area around him. All of the plants were dead, the once green and well watered grass was now yellow and dry, and the cottage itself looked in no better condition. The windows were borded, there were holes and crackes in the walls and ceiling, and Spike could see the blades to some sort of sharp object protruding through the door (Spike assumed someone had thrown a knife at the door from the inside).

All and all, this cottage didn't show any sign of having been altered by Discords chaos. To Spike, it looked like one of those houses that belonged to angry alcoholics. The ones that like to throw and break things.

Then again, Spike assumed that Fluttershy was either as bad, if not worse then an angry alcoholic.

Spike was about to knock again, until he suddenly heard someone laughing from within the cottage.

"Oh Angel, look how beautiful your fur is! Its so nice and clean. Oh dear, but there is still one little problem". Spike heard the sound of a knife, dragging threw a knife sharpener repeatedly.

SHRING! SHRING! SHRING!

"How am I supposed to enjoy the beauty of your fur, when its still on you!" Suddenly, Spike heard a slushing sound, then laughter. "You're going to be perfect in my shed!"

Spike gulped and walked back slowly. Losing his balance, Spike fell back into Fluttershy's fence, breaking it. Panicking, Spike ran and jumped behind a nearby bush. Peaking through, he saw the door to the cottage open. Fluttershy walked out, wearing an apron that was badly stained brown and red. She looked around and asked, "is anypony there?" After receiving no response, Fluttershy shrugged and said, "guess I'm only hearing things". Spike sighed with relief as he saw Fluttershy turn back to the door, then froze as he saw her stop abruptly. Slowly, Fluttershy turned her head directly into Spikes direction. Smiling sinisterly, Fluttershy said, "Well, if it isn't little Spikey Wikey. You can stop hiding, I know your there".

Spike gulped and slowly exited his hiding place. "H-Hey F-Fluttershy! W-What are y-you up to?"

Fluttershy chuckled as she walk over to him. "Oh don't pretend you didn't know. You were listening through the door, weren't you?"

"W-What!? Me!? N-No I would n-never-"

Before he could finish, Fluttershy reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a surgical knife. Spike gasped and shivered in fear as he felt Fluttershy place the cold blade to his throat. She chuckled as she saw his fear. "Oh calm down "Spikey Wikey". I'm not going to hurt you. Even if I wanted to, I don't have anything strong enough to penetrate dragon scales, yet".

Spike gulped at her last word.

"So what brings you here anyway?" asked Fluttershy.

Spike having momentarily forgotten what he was doing, reached into the bush he was hiding in and pulled out a box. "I-Its your bunny grooming kit. You left it at Applejacks".

"Oh so that's where I left it" said Fluttershy, grabbing the box out of Spikes claws. "I was wondering where this went, I needed this when I was cleaning Angel. Now that I have it, I can really make his coat shine! After I finish taking it off of course".

"Wait, what!"

"Nothing! . . . Hey, where's your bookworm friend? I thought you two were always together?" asked Fluttershy.

"Twilight? She left me after YOU tried to burn down our house!" said Spike angrily.

Fluttershy laughed. "Oh don't blame me! I was only trying to help keep your books dry! So Twilight left Pony Ville? Where exactly did she go?"

Spike shrugged. "Beats me. Last I saw her we were in front of the library. Asides from that, I don't know where she is. Wait, why do you want to know?"

"Oh no reason, I'm just curious".

"Okay then".

There was an awkward silence before Spike said, "well, I'm just gonna go, so-"

"Ah, ah, ah! Not so fast!" Grabbing Spike by the neck, Fluttershy placed her face close to his. "I don't want you telling anypony about what you heard today, agreed? Especially Derpy!"

"W-Why not Derpy?" asked Spike, genuinely concerned for his friend.

"Do you know what a toaster cozy is?"

"Y-Ya".

"Well I need one".

"What does that have to do with-".

"Never you mind! Just don't tell anypony about what you heard, or so help me I'll find a knife that DOES work on dragons!" Agreed?"

Spike gulped, "Y-Ya! No p-problem Fluttershy! I won't tell anypony!"

She released him and smiled. "Good, oh, and one more thing. Do you see that shed over there?" she asked, pointing to a large brown wooden shed near the Everfree.

"Ya" said Spike, holding onto his neck.

"Well there's something I want you to do". Fluttershy leaned close to Spike and whispered in his ear, "stay out of my shed". She leaned back, smiling. "Now get out of here".

Spike didn't need telling twice. He quickly bolted out of there, leaving a trail of dust behind him. "Yup! Definitely worse then an angry alcoholic!" he said to himself.

As soon as Spike was gone, Fluttershy chuckled to herself. "So, Twilight couldn't handle a little chaos and decided to leave. Well that wasn't very nice of her, leaving all her friends to rot away in this town while she's off somewhere safe! Hmmm . . . well I was planning on finishing the decorations for my new shed, but I guess I'll have to deal with this first. After all, friends are most important! Twilight seems to have forgotten this, guess I'll have to remind her what it means to be a true friend!"

Fluttershy laughed maniacally as she gently stroked her surgical knife.

XIV

Spike panted as he leaned against a market kiosk. He had sprinted as fast as he could away from Fluttershy's cottage and was now in the market district of Pony Ville. Wiping some sweat off his brow, Spike sighed as he looked around him. "Now what" he said to himself. He had gone to Applejacks, hoping it would have been better then hanging around the Carousel Boutique. However, being around Applejack wasn't nearly as pleasant as he thought it was going to be. Better then the Carousel Boutique but still not good. Fluttershy's cottage was definitely the worst place in all of Pony Ville to be. With Twilight gone that left him four more friends to find: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Applebloom. However, going to Pinkie Pie was also a bad idea. If a kind sweet pony like Fluttershy could harm forest animals (and Spike didn't even want to know what was inside her shed), then who knows how Pinkie Pie is acting. And if Sweetie was still looking for Spike, then chances are she would ask the other crusaders for help. Not wanting to take any chances, Spike decided that the last pony to hang out with was Rainbow Dash. Of course, he'll have to find her first since no pony actually knows where she flew off to.

With that in mind Spike had proceeded to begin his search for Rainbow Dash when a bright light suddenly appeared, momentarily blinding Spike. When the light was gone and Spikes vision had return, Spike saw standing in front of him none other then the Spirit of Chaos himself. He was wearing 3D glasses, had a can of cola with a licorice for a straw in one paw, and a large bag of chips, popcorn, and other various theater snacks in the other.

Spike sighed, "great, now YOUR here? Haven't I been through enough already!?"

Tossing a handful of popcorn into his mouth, Discord chuckled and said, "my, my, someone seems upset. What's the matter? Didn't enjoy your visit with dear old Fluttershy?"

Spike scowled and walked past Discord. Discord disappeared and reappeared a few feet in front of him. "I must say, I honestly wasn't expecting to have such astonishing results with my chaos magic! Sure she would turn evil, but this! This is out right sinister! I mean have you seen the inside of her shed? She has such a unique taste of décor, It almost makes me want to remodel my own bedroom with the fur of innocent woodland creatures. But I won't, wouldn't want me being a copy cat!"

"Just leave me alone!" shouted Spike, increasing his pace.

With a snap of his fingers, Discord conjured a bicycle with square wheels out of no where and was riding in mid air next to Spike. "Oh don't be such a party pooper Spike! Oh! Speaking of party pooper. If you thought that Fluttershy was interesting, wait till you see Pinkie Pie! Ha! I've never seen a pony more menacing!" Suddenly, Discord disappeared and reappeared wrapped around Spike. He had shrunk himself to the size of a small snake. Discord cupped his paw and claw over his mouth and whispered in Spikes ear. "By the way, don't eat the cupcakes. I'm actually concerned on what is going through that ponies head. I might have to see how my chaos magic is effecting ponies. Because seriously, it was suppose to change their personalities, not turn them into psychotic murderers!" He disappeared and reappeared in front of Spike, back to normal size. "Oh well, you know the saying. "Beggars cant be choosers". I wanted chaos and here it is! In the form of cupcakes made out of ponies! . . . . Okay, actually scratch that, even I have my limits. Its one thing to skin innocent animals alive, its another to butcher ponies and turn their remains into cupcakes. I can't have ponies killing each other willy nilly, then there wont be anypony left! I can't rule a country if there is no country left!"

"Ugh! Do you ever stop talking!" said Spike, annoyed.

"Pfft! Such attitude! Here I am about to help ponies by stopping Pinkie Pie from her little cupcakes fan fiction (oh and spoiler, Rainbow Dash is with her right now. I bet you all know what that means!), and here YOU are! Being rude to me!"

"Why would I like someone who enjoys seeing ponies skin animals?"

"Oh its not that bad Spikey, believe it or not I've been to places that have creatures that actually kill other creatures for sport! This little planet called Earth for example, you probably haven't heard of it, it is in another dimension after all" said Discord.

"I don't care about that! Why are you here! Why are you bothering me! . . . . Wait, did you say Rainbow Dash is with Pinkie?" asked Spike.

"Oh don't worry about that right now, she'll be fine . . . probably . . . . any who! I've just come to apologize. I know I said I was going to appear in the next chapter back in chapter nine. But I got side tracked watching some interesting characters from another dimension. Oooh! You would not believe the chaos that goes on in there! I would have kept watching but then the me from that dimension goes and dies! Gets killed by Pinkie Pie! Of all ponies! Me! Spirit of chaos! Dies by the hoofs of that pink party addict! And to make matters worse I end up giving my chaos magic to some wanna be named Marco! Just before I die! Really!?! Pfft! As if! I would never give my magic to anypony! Dying or not! But then again this is another dimension, and apparently I'm suppose to be the hero in this alternate story. Discord: Equestrias only hope! Coming to save everypony from Pinkie Pie! Element of Laughter! Blah, blah, blah! I am so disappointed in the me from that dimension. Everyone else were great characters! Even the Crusaders were better then me! But me! I die! If you ask me that completely ruined the story!" Discord crossed his arms for a moment, then snapped his fingers, making the theater snacks and 3D glasses disappear. He then gave Spike a devious grin. "Sorry about that Spike, I sure am feeling chatty today. I keep getting sidetracked! For you see, after I had witness my own demise from the other dimension. Then saw the disgusting display of me sacrificing my own magic to that wanna be! I became very upset and thought to myself "Now this has put a damper on my day, whatever shall I do to make me feel better?" Then I realized! Pony Ville is the chaos capital of the world! And do you know what every great city needs?"

"Uh-"

"Right! A statue! And I thought "now what would be the perfect statue?" Then I realized of course! The perfect statue that shows everypony what chaos is all about!"

" . . . And your here because you need me to help you make a statue?" asked Spike, giving Discord a confused expression.

Discord laughed. "What? Make a statue!? Spike I could just make a statue with the snap of my paw! Oh no, no, no! I don't need you to help me make a statue. I need your help because you ARE the statue!"

"Wait, WHAT!"

Before Spike could react, Discord tapped Spike on the forehead. There was a flash of light. When it was gone Spike stood there, frozen in solid stone.

Discord took a second to look at the young dragons features. "Hmmm . . . nope, this won't work at all! Your face clearly shows to much fear! Here, let me just-" Discord grabbed Spikes body and began changing his shape and appearance, as if his stone body was actually made of clay. A few moments later, Discord had now changed Spike to appear older. He was lean and taller then a grown pony, yet shorter then Luna. His head was cocked to his left and he gave a wicked smile. His expression had a combination of pure evil and insanity. "Perfect! Now for the rest of the statue".

With a snap of his claw, Discord conjured his statue out of no where and placed it in the middle of the market district.

The statue was of Discord, sitting on top of a tall throne. He was using Celestia and Luna as hoof stools. In front of Celestia and Luna were the Elements of Harmony. Except, this statue had a different named engraved into each of them. Rainbow Dash was betrayal, Applejack was deceit, Fluttershy was cruelty, Pinkie Pie was despair, Rarity was greed, and Twilight was magic. At the base of the statue had the engravings "Elements of Disharmony, Discords lovely puppets". Each statue showed different signs of their new personalities. Rainbow held a knife above Applejacks back, a pun to show she was "stabbing her in the back". Applejack seemed to be in an argument with Fluttershy. Fluttershy smiled sinisterly at Applejack, who appeared to actually be enjoying the argument. Pinkie Pie was next to Fluttershy, also shouting at Applejack. Rarity, the farthest to the left was holding a large rock, making sure her friends couldn't get to it. And in the center of the statue was Twilight. Although her friends looked angry and fought with one another, she was the only one who looked sad. She had her head hung low and was crying. All of the statues had chains around their necks, which Discord held the chains in his claw.

"And one more piece!" Discord levitated Spike next to the statue of himself. As he did, he noticed that something was missing. He smiled and with a snap of his claw, a stone jester hat magically appeared on Spike. "Perfect! The chaos capital statue! Its magnificent! Oh if only Twilight could see this, she would love to see her favorite dragon be part of such wonderful art! Hmmm . . . That gives me an idea!"

There was a flash of light and Discord disappeared.

Spike tried to scream for help but it was useless. He couldn't move, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't breath, he couldn't eat. Not that he needed to do any of those things anyway. He was now made of stone, and stone doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breath. He was trapped, forced to be a statue, staring at the market district day in and day out. No pony could save him, no pony at all.

He was trapped for what seemed like forever.

XV

[Twilights POV]

It took me several minutes to catch my bearings.

One minute I was in a desert, the next I was . . . actually, I don't know where I am. This place seems familiar but . . . how did I get here? I remember being hot from the desert and in pain from . . . well being dragged across the desert. And stomped against the desert, and having my head smashed into the desert . . . I think I was just killed by a desert. Can deserts kill ponies? The heat and lack of water can kill ponies, but to physically kill a pony? No . . . no it can't . . . that's because something else was there, in the desert with me. But who? Or what? . . . No, no not a what, or a who. But several what's and who's! A whole bunch of them!

I'm starting to remember! I was . . . trampled in a stampede? But how did I end up in a stampede? Wait, why was I in a desert, with a stampede? And where exactly am I now?

Its not like the desert, this place feels . . . like nothing. Its dark and there's nothing here. Wait, its not dark. I can see myself clearly, my body doesn't have the slightest shade to it. This place isn't dark, its just black. A big, black, empty place. Yet it feels so familiar.

"Hello! Is anypony there!"

Suddenly a gray light appeared. When it was gone, there stood . . . me?

She smiled and ran to me, embracing me into a hug.

[Your back! I'm so glad your okay!]

The moment she released our hug is when all of my memories had suddenly returned to me.

I was inside my head, which meant that I was asleep or unconscious. Now I remember how I got here. I stopped that stampede from entering into Appleloosa. But I fell into the stampede, and that manticore stomped on me. The last thing I remember before falling unconscious was the blood, coming from my head.

"I-I'm fine. Just a little . . . shaken. Hey, are you okay?"

Discorded me looked like she was on the verge of tears. She was staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. [I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get us hurt, I was just trying to help]

"What do you mean? You didn't do anything wrong" I said, slightly confused.

[Yes I did! I'm in control of our body when we're awake! I chose to stop that stampede! And now your hurt because of me! I-I could have g-gotten us killed! What was I thinking! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!]

Discorded me broke down and started crying. I wasted no time rushing to her and gently wrapping a reassuring leg over her shoulder. "It's okay, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. We may be hurt, but that was a really brave thing you did. You probably saved a lot of ponies. I would have done the exact same thing".

Discorded me sniffed and looked into my eyes, [r-really?]

I smiled and said, "of course".

She gave a tearful smiled back and rested her head against my chest while I gently stroked her mane. We sat in comfort for several minutes before Discorded me said, [do you want to continue our conversation from last time?]

"Sure, there are still things I need to ask you".

[Okay, I'll continue from where we last left off. I was telling you about the effects of being discorded and how your fur color can determine how deeply discorded you are]

"My friends fur is gray which means their at a deeper state of being discorded, correct?"

[Yes, at the state their in they no longer have any control whatsoever of their original selves. You see how you and I are able to interact in our subconscious?]

"Yes".

[Well they would have been able to as well. However, the discorded versions of your friends took over before they even had a chance to fall asleep]

"But I don't get it, the discorded versions of my friends took over their bodies before they had a chance to interact with one another. But how come they we're able to do it so fast? How come they weren't like you?"

[That's . . . a bit more complicated. It has to do with your personality and morality Twilight]

"But my morality doesn't tie in with my personality, or does it?"

[That's the thing Twilight, this is what I tried to tell you last time before we ran out of time. For you see, right now at this current moment, you are in the early stages of being discorded. But even if you fall into a deeper state of being discorded, his magic cannot truly change who you are. Your key differences to your personality is learning, studying, and becoming smarter and better at using magic. However, even Discords magic cannot make you force yourself to become stupid. It can alter a ponies personality to make them smarter, but not the other way around. The best Discords magic can do to you is make you stop learning and hate reading. Asides from that, his magic cannot change you. Except for your ability of making friends, this is where your morality ties in. Out of all of your friends, you, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all have moralities that tie in with your personality. Except, yours is more minor then the other two. For you see, besides from learning and loving books, your key personality is making friends. You enjoy making new friends and being with others. In other words, Discords magic can change your friendship making skills, and yet it cannot]

"But that doesn't make any sense! I can see how my morality can tie in with my friendship making skills, but how can Discords magic affect me and at the same time NOT affect me?"

[This is where it gets confusing. Yes, one of your key personalities is making friends. But tell me, what were you doing before coming to pony Ville?]

"I mostly studied".

[And how many friends did you have?]

"Well there was Lyra, and . . . um . . . Moon Shimmer? I think that was her name but I cant exactly remember".

[You see, you can't even remember their names! You had no friends before coming to Pony Ville. You spent your life studying, not making friends with anypony. You barley learned the meaning of friendship eight months ago. Your eighteen, so out of your entire life you have spent seventeen years and four months not knowing the meaning to friendship. Yes you did learn the meaning of friendship, but it was only for a short time. You haven't learned it nearly long enough to have made a physical impact on you. Personality wise that is. You love to make friends, but that only started eight months ago. That's why Discords magic cannot truly affect you, your personality and morality is neutral]

"Neutral?"

[Neutral, as in your weren't bad, but you weren't good either]

"I don't think I understand".

[Think of it like a math equation. Discord has taken the numbers of each of your friends and changed the numbers into negatives. Imagine a scale from one to ten for example. Positive numbers are nice ponies, the higher the number, the more kind they are. Vice versa with the negative side. Now put Fluttershy on this scale, she would most certainly be at a positive ten on the scale. But now that she has been discorded, her number has been flipped, changing her to a negative ten. Same with Pinkie, I reckon she would be a positive nine. Only, now that she's been Discorded, she's a negative nine now. Now this is where YOU come in. For you see, Discord cannot flip your number because your number is in the middle of the negative and positive scales. You are a zero. Spending your whole life thinking about your studies, not caring about anything around you. You haven't done anything wrong, yet you haven't done anything good either. You have done nothing, nothing at all. Therefore, your morality is neutral]

"What do you mean I haven't done anything good? I was a nice pony before going to Pony Ville. I used my manners, I respected others, and I took great care of Spike".

[Oh did you now?]

"Yes!"

Discorded me stared at me with an "are you serious?" expression before using her magic to create a bright light. When the light was gone I found myself in my old library, the one I used to live in before moving to Pony Ville. "What? How did you-"

[This is just a memory, no pony will see you nor hear you]

At that moment I saw Spike come out of a room and walk towards the front door. He was holding a present in his hand and was humming to himself as he did so. Right when he reached the door it had burst open, throwing Spike to the ground. The present fell beneath him and his tail stabbed into the present as he landed.

I watched as the rest of the scene unfolded. I hadn't even cared about knocking Spike to the ground, I was more concerned with Nightmare Moon.

"I-I see your point. But I know I took care of Spike, he was more then just an assistant. He was like a brother to me".

[If that's true then tell me, where was Spike during Pinkie Pies birthday party? All of your friends were invited except for him. And what about at the gala? Where was Spike then hmmm?]

"I, um-"

[You have no idea where he was, because you left him the moment you entered. He tried to have the six of you spend the night together, but in the end you all left him. I don't mean to sound mean Twilight but lets face it, you never truly considered him as your brother, or even a friend. Spike has been an assistant, nothing more, nothing less]

"I-I . . . N-No! I would never, I didn't, I wouldn't! I . . . I . . . I did treat him like an assistant. Spike was right, he deserved to be mad at me. I . . . I'm a bad pony".

[No your not]

"How could you say that! After the way I had treated him! How could you say I'm not a bad pony?"

[Because you were unaware of your actions. Sure what you did was wrong, yet you did not realize what you were doing was wrong the entire time. You were a child, learning, slowly distinguishing the differences between right and wrong. But now you know, you have learned from your mistakes. If you were to return to Spike and continue to treat him this way, then you will be doing something wrong. But now that you have learned, will you?]

"No, of course I wouldn't . . . but, I don't think I can see him anymore anyways. I left him back at Pony Ville".

[With Discords magic still influencing our actions, it would be impossible to speak to Spike. We would only make the situation worse. For now it would be best to continue our journey and hope that someday we can dispel Discords influence and return back to Spike in our normal form. Then, you can tell Spike that you are sorry]

" . . . I see . . . your right, we'll just have to wait. Maybe I can see him again someday. So, based off of what you've told me so far. Discords magic will have very little affect on me because of my personality being so . . . mundane?"

[That and your morality is neutral. In short, you are a completely average, normal, nothing special whatsoever kind of pony!]

" . . . Gee, I've never been so happy about being not special, thanks for telling me that" I said sarcastically.

Discorded me snickered before using her magic to vanish the memory around us, returning us to the empty nothingness. [Now that that's out of the way-way-way, I think we should discuss what our next course of action will be]

"What do you mean, we're heading south until we leave Equestria. Then we're going to travel across the sea until we get to Zebrica. That's our plan".

[That's our plan for now. Yet what will happen after we get to Zebrica? Are we just going to live-live there and wait for somepony to take care of Discord-Discord-Discord {You cannot run forever}- AGH!]

Discorded me fell and began fading in and out of existence.

"Are we out-out of time?"

[I seems that way. Your waking up-up-up. Your waking up. I will hurry-hurry-hurry and get us to Appleoosa. Your injured-injured- your injured. I will do my best, until next time Twi-Twi-Twi {You will not survive}]

Discorded me disappeared, as she did-did-did so I could feel my own mind being p-p-p-pulled out of my head. The same feeling I had last time when I wa-wa-wa-was brought back into realty. As I-I-I-I {Embrace your fate, you are my puppet!} WAKE UP!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

!epacse lliw I !niw tonnac uoY

Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Leaving, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Without, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Saying, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Goodbye, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, To, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Your, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Friends?, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Don't, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Worry, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, I'll, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Fix, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, That!

Enjoy your get together - D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight groaned as she felt the pain in her head slowly increase as she came closer to becoming fully conscious. Without opening her eyes, Twilight placed a hoof to her head. She felt that it had been wrapped in something soft, a bandage she assumed. At the same time she realized that she was no longer on the hot desert ground anymore. Instead she felt something cool pressing against her torso. Confused, Twilight attempted to sit up until she felt somepony gently place their hoofs against her, making her lay back down.

"Easy now miss, I wouldn't reckon gettin up till that head a yers fully heals" said a stallion with a western accent.

Startled, Twilight opened her eyes and looked to the pony above her. He had light yellow fur and a dark orange mane and tail. He wore a brown vest and had an apple for a cutie mark.

"Who are you?" asked Twilight.

The pony gave Twilight a smile and said, "Now Miss Twilight, don't ya remember yer good friend Braeburn? Or is that head a yers more broken then a ol' wagon wheel?

Author's Note

Special thanks to Rune Caster the First for helping me finish this chapter.

XVI

"Braeburn?" Twilight said slowly as she looked to her surroundings.

She appeared to be inside a wooden house. Western décor could be seen all around the room. The window shades were closed, leaving the room dimmed. A clock hanging on the wall told her that time was currently still broken. Yet she didn't need the clock to know that it was currently the suns turn to be placed into the sky. Looking at her body, Twilight saw a large white cloth wrapping something cold placed against her chest. She hadn't realized until now that she had bandages wrapped around her left shoulder, leg, and hoof. She assumed the left side of her body received the most damage, especially based off the sore, burning, painful feelings she felt on that particular side. The right side felt sore, yet not nearly as bad as the left.

"Are you hungry?" Braeburn suddenly asked. He left Twilights side and into what Twilight assumed was the kitchen. She heard cluttering silverware and dished for a few moments. Then saw Braeburn return with a bowl of soup and water on a tray. He placed the tray next to Twilight on the nightstand, then gently helped Twilight to sit upright. "I hope you like dandelions. I never was much of a fan, but I heard you Pony Ville folk really enjoy these types a flowers" Braeburn said, smiling and offering Twilight the dandelion soup and a spoon.

Instead of thanking Braeburn or taking the soup, Twilight stared at him and asked, "how did I get here?"

Braeburns smile faltered slightly as Twilight showed no acknowledgment to the food he had prepared for her. He quickly regained his smile as he placed the bowl back onto the tray. "A couple a the towns folk found you lyin out in the desert. They brought you back here and luckily I was one a the first ones to reach you when they got here. I recognized you the moment I saw you and had the ones who found you bring you into ma home. I been takin care a you ever since. Your still gonna be sore for a few days, but that's what happens when you get trampled in the desert. Yer gonna get cuts, bruises, and burns. But I gotta say Miss Sparkle, that was a mighty brave thing you did back there. Risken yer hind quarters for Appleloosa by steerin away that stampede! Boy let me tell you, I ain't seen no animal wranglin like that since Aunt Amata tried to steer cattle over a canyon just to get ahead a schedule!"

"Um . . . thanks?"

"No, thank you Miss Sparkle! That there stampede coulda destroyed the whole town! You did us a huge favor takin care a that stampede. But I gotta ask, where did you learn to wrangle critters like that?"

"Oh, I was just caught up in the moment. I let the adrenaline take over, if you know what I mean".

"I getcha, I just thought maybe my good cuz back in Pony Ville been givin you pointers. Speakin a which, where is cousin Applejack? I thought she'd be with you if you were planin on makin a trip to Appleloosa".

"Oh . . . I . . . Braeburn, you do realize what's been happening back in Pony Ville, right?"

"Back in Pony Ville? A course we know what happened in Pony Ville! Who wouldn't!? That darn chaos spirits magic's been makin our town go all coockoo!"

"Yes, well you se- . . . wait, YOUR TOWN!?!" Before Braeburn had a chance to stop her, Twilight leapt out of bed (ignoring the incredible amount of pain pulsing through her entire body) and rushed to the window. Twilight gasped as she pulled the curtains aside and saw the outside world.

Buildings were upside down, animals with extended legs running everywhere, chocolate milk rained from cotton candy clouds, and from the distance Twilight could see that Discord had turned the desert into . . . a dessert? Twilight thought for a moment if Discord was trying to do a play on words before setting her mind back into the matter at hoof.

"Discords magic has reached this far! But how? When I stopped that stamped his magic was miles away from here! It hadn't even entered into the desert yet!"

"Well ya, but Twilight you've been out of it for a while now".

"Out of it for . . . are you saying that I've been asleep the entire time it traveled to Appleloosa?"

"Well that's what I meant when I said you were out of it, didn't you know what I-"

Cutting Braeburn off, Twilight ran to Braeburn and placed her face close to his. "How long was I asleep for!?!"

"Yer a bit close Miss Spa-"

"HOW LONG!!!"

"Four days!" Braeburn shouted, backing away from Twilight.

Twilight froze as she slowly sat onto her hunches. " . . . Four days . . . I've been unconscious . . . for four days".

"Miss Sparkle, are you alright?"

"Ya . . . fine . . . just fan-BUCKING-TASTIC!" Looking around frantically, Twilight found her saddle bag hanging from a coat rack. Levitating and strapping it to her, Twilight proceeded to walk to the front door before Braeburn stopped her.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on there Miss, I don't know what's got you riled up but I can't let you leave. Not in the state that yer in".

"I'm fine, I just need to- agh!" Twilight yelped in pain as she had tried to walk on her left leg. Rushing to the window and to Braeburn intensified the pain she had already felt on the left side of her body, she couldn't ignore it any longer. She nearly fell to the ground before Braeburn caught her. "See what I mean? You are in no condition to leave. Besides, Discords got the whole town in a doozy right now. If we leave, we might end up like the others".

"Others?"

Braeburn nodded. "Whatever Discords doin its affectin all a the towns folk. Turnin their fur gray and makin them not act like themselves. Ma own neighbor tried to steal my clothes so he could, and I quote, "savor ma scent". I don't even want to know what he meant by that!"

'Darn! Discords magic has completely taken over Appleloosa. If I was unconscious for four days, then Discords magic is most likely close to the edge of Equestria by now. I can't stay here, not when I'm this deep in his magic. But Braeburns right, I won't make it far when I'm this injured. I need to rest, but I can't stay here either! . . . What if I rest and leave at the same time? I'll need a new form of transportation, one large enough for a pony to sleep in. At the same time I'll need somepony to drive that transportation while I heal. Maybe Braeburn will be willing to help me? Ugh! Ask a pony for help, as if! I don't need anyponies help, I can do this on my own! But for how long can I do this on my own, not long I can assure that! But he'll slow me down! No, he'll make traveling faster and easier. You can get out of Discords magic and rest at the same time! But I don't want him to come with me! To bad, I'm asking him for help! NO! I don't need help! Yes I do! No I don't! Yes! No! Yes! No! YES! NO! YES!!!'

"Miss Sparkle, are you alright?"

Twilight broke from her thoughts and looked to Braeburn, who was giving her a very concerned look. "Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you were kinda mumblin to yerself, then you started sayin yes and no over and over again".

"Oh, you heard that?"

Braeburn awkwardly nodded.

"Oh . . . well I uh . . . it's just . . ." Twilight sighed, "Braeburn the thing is, I need your-" Before she could finished, her mouth sealed itself shut against her own will.

"Um, pardon?"

Forcing her mouth open, Twilight tried to say, "I need your-" before her mouth sealed itself again.

" . . . You uh . . . got somthin stuck in yer throat?"

Twilight shook her head. 'Why can't I ask him for help? For some reason my mind is telling me no. Come on! Ask him for help! You can do it!' Using all of her will power, Twilight forced her mouth open and slowly said, "I . . . need, y-y-your!-"

XVII

"HELP!" Twilight finally shouted, before collapsing to the floor in exhaustion.

Braeburn watched Twilight with a confused expression for a moment before slowly asking, "you need ma help?"

Twilight suddenly leapt back to her hoofs. "Yes! That's what I need! Your heeeaaaalllll! . . . Don't make me repeat it, but you know what I mean! Please, can you!"

"Can I what?"

"You know! The "H" word".

" . . . Help?"

"Yes, that!"

"Help you with what exactly?"

Twilight opened the window curtains and pointed outside. "Discords magic has completely taken over Appleloosa and there's no pony who can stop him. We need to get out of here as fast as possible. Problem is, is that I'm hurt and can't do this by myself. So I need your hheeeaaallllmp . . . your assssnnc, oh come on! I can't say that either! UGH! I need you to get me a form of transportation and get me out of here. When I've healed enough, you can rest and I'll drive the transportation. We can switch between resting and driving, that way we can conserve our energy and leave Equestria as fast as possible".

"LEAVE EQUESTRIA! Now wait just a darn minute, I am not leavin Equestria! This is ma home! Ma friends and family is here, I can't just leave em!"

"I know what this sounds like Braeburn, and what I'm about to tell you, your not going to like. But I need you to listen to me. All of your friends and all of your family have been taken over by Discords magic, they are not themselves anymore. It's useless to stay here with them, if you do, you'll get caught by Discords magic too. If you come with me, we can wait until somepony takes care of Discord. When they do, we can come back to Equestria, together!"

Braeburn thought about this for a moment. "I don't know, I see what you mean by leavin for a bit and commin back when the coast is clear. But it still doesn't feel right, leavin everypony behind! What about ma family? What if they haven't been taken over yet?"

"I can assure you, they have".

"What? How can you just assume that-"

"Applejacks been taken over by Discords magic. She won't stop lying, and she betrayed me back in Pony Ville. The reason Discord is still around is because the Elements of Harmony had failed to defeat him. I, out of the six of us, am the only one who hasn't been taken over".

Braeburn gaped at Twilight for a moment then said, "ma cuz has been taken over? And so is the rest a yer friends?"

Twilight nodded.

"So . . . that's why you came here alone. You couldn't fight Discord no more cause he got to all yer friends".

"That's correct. Without my friends, I was to weak to fight him".

"But, how did you make it out a there? How come you weren't taken over as well?"

"Don't know, just lucky I guess".

Braeburn gave Twilight an unconvinced expression before asking, "are you sure you ain't taken over too? The others turned gray, but you seem a little . . . faded".

"That's just from the stress, trust me, my mind is one hundred percent Discord free".

"You sure?"

"Braeburn, do I look like my minds been taken over?"

"Well you were just actin a bit odd".

"And your not going to blame the manticore stomping my head into the ground for that?"

" . . . Good point. So you were the only one who hasn't been taken over and ma cuz has. Although this does hurt, I don't see how this involves the rest a ma family".

"Braeburn, Applejack was taken over within a few hours of Discords rein. He's been at this for nearly five days! Do you have any idea how many of your family members could have been taken over during that time! Tell me, what have you been doing the past four days?"

"I've been in this house, taken care a you".

"And if I had never come here? If I had never gotten hurt and you never had to take care of me, what would you have been doing then? Especially around the time Discords magic came?"

"I would be outside tryin to fend of his magic as best as I can".

"Exactly! During the entire time you were in here taking care of me, what do you think your family was doing?"

"I-I suppose they were . . . all out there, tryin to fend off his magic and protect Appleloosa".

"And does Appleloosa look safe to you?"

" . . . no".

"Than what does that mean?"

" . . . It means that ma family was out there . . . and they couldn't stop his magic . . . they . . . they-"

Before he could finish, Twilight said, "chances are all of your family has been taken over Braeburn. I'm sorry, but I think your the last Apple standing".

"I-I . . . I can't . . . I just can't", Braeburn fell to his knees and stared at the ground in realization. " . . . I'm the last one. Even if I'm not, Discords probably pickin ma family out one by one".

"And he's going to get to you next if we don't do something!" Twilight walked up to Braeburn and placed a hoof to his shoulder. "I know it hurts, but standing here in the middle of the chaos isn't going to save anypony. The best we can do is get out of her while we still have a chance!"

"But . . . ma family . . . even if their taken over I stll gotta be with them. Apples stick together, no matter what!"

"Braeburn, your not going to leave them forever. Think of this like a disease. You can't stay with your family the entire time their sick, you need to leave them in the hospital. If you get too close, you might just catch what they have. It's best to leave and let the doctors take care of your family. Then you can pick them up from the hospital when their all better. Discords magic is like a disease, infecting everypony it comes across. We need to get out of here so that we don't get sick. Once Discord is taken care of and everypony gets better, you can come back and see your family again. Your not going to leave them forever, your just going to wait until their better".

Braeburn looked into Twilights eyes with an expression of uncertainty. "A-Are you sure? I'm not leavin them forever?"

Twilight smiled. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye".

" . . . I don't-"

"It's a special promise, one that I can never break".

"Oh, well then if that's the case I guess I'll have to take yer word for it. I'll help you on yer journey Miss Sparkle. But we should pack a few things before hand just to be safe".

"Do you have transportation?"

"That I do! I'll go grab a few duffle bags from ma bedroom. Be back in a jiff!"

Once Braeburn left into his room, Twilight turned away and whispered to herself, "I just made a Pinkie Promise. I can never brake it, I have to keep the promise forever, isn't that right Pinkie?"

Twilight waited, yet no response came.

"How long do I have to keep the promise for Pinkie?"

Again, no answer.

"How long do I have to keep the promise for!"

Still, no answer.

Twilight smiled deviously as she realized what this meant. Normally if she or anypony else had asked how long they needed to keep a Pinkie promise for, Pinkie's voice could be heard from the distance shouting "forever!" However, upon receiving no answer from Pinkie meant only one thing.

"Since Pinkies been discorded I guess her promises no longer have any meaning and can no longer affect a pony. A Pinkie Promise, is now an empty promise. Guess she wouldn't mind the little "fib" I told Braeburn. Such a silly cowpony, he honestly thinks there's still hope? No pony is going to defeat Discord, and he'll never be able to see his family ever again".

Twilight looked over to the nightstand (the one on the opposite side of the bed, without the tray of food) and noticed a picture of Braeburn with his family. Twilight chuckled deviously as she turned away from the photo. "Not my problem. My concern is escaping Equestria and that's exactly what I'm going to do. By any means necessary!"

XVIII

Fluttershy hummed calmly to herself as she casually strolled to Sugar Cube Corner. She ignored all of the chaos that surrounded her as she did so. Mostly due to fear, the chaos appeared to be doing the same and keeping its distance away from Fluttershy. At one point a hay burger the size of a coach had tried to eat Fluttershy. She bit, clawed, and ferociously attacked the poor girl.

After suffering for several minutes, the burger finally collapsed.

Upon seeing this display, any inanimate or animate chaos filled object did not dare to come close to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy entered Sugar Cube Corner finding little to no difference to the bakery at all. The store looked exactly the same it had before Discord took over (except for the dancing doughnut with the bikini in the corner, that was new).

"Pinkie Pie? Are you in here?" Fluttershy shouted, walking to the front counter. She rang a bell that sat on the counter a few times and waited. After receiving no response for several minutes, Fluttershy grabbed the bell and repeatedly smashed it against the counter. Making the bell ding until she heard a voice from upstairs.

"I'M COMMING!" the voice shouted.

"So that's where Pinkies been" Fluttershy said to herself.

She heard an aggravated Pinkie Pie mumbling to herself as she walked down the stairs. As soon as she arrived at the bottom step and made eye contact with Fluttershy, she growled and reached for a knife beneath the counter.

Thinking Pinkie Pie was going to attack her, Fluttershy reached for a dagger she had hidden within her flank pocket. She quickly relaxed when she saw Pinkie Pie reach into her mane and pulled out a large box of apples and began chopping them with the knife she had initially grabbed beneath the counter.

"So, what do YOU want? Here to laugh at me some more?"

Fluttershy smiled deviously at Pinkie, "As much as I would love to spend my time laughing at you, I have a very important errand to run. I'm not sure how long I'll be leaving Pony Ville for so I'm going to need you to make me two dozen of your "special" cupcakes!" she said, licking her lips.

Pinkie huffed as she aggressively stabbed the front counter. She then reached for a mixing bowl and a bag of flour beneath the counter. "No can do Shy, Discord made me stop making my "special" cupcakes".

Fluttershy's smile immediately dropped into an angry frown. "WHAT!?! WHY!?!"

"Pfft! Buck if I know! From what I got out of his annoying rambling he said that if I continued turning ponies into cupcakes then there won't be any ponies left in Pony Ville. Such a shame too, I was right in the middle of making a one of a kind rainbow cupcake when he just poofed in and stopped me. Dashy would have made such a great cupcake too!"

'Well that's stupid, you'd think the spirit of chaos would have enjoyed something like this'. Fluttershy sighed, "fine, no special cupcakes. Just get me two dozen pastries and I'll leave".

"Whatever" Pinkie said bluntly. She walked into the kitchen for a few minutes, then returned with two large pink boxes. "Here's your pastries Shy. Fifty bits or-"

"Or you'll shank me, I know, I know. Just wait!" Fluttershy reached into her flank pocket and pulled out a coin wallet. She dropped a fifty piece bit onto the counter and was about to grabbed the pastries before Pinkie Pie placed a hoof atop the boxes.

"Hey, you said you were leaving Pony Ville? The buck are you going anyway?"

"Why the tartarus should I tell you?"

"Just curious, how long of a trip are you making that you need all this food?"

Fluttershy sighed and stared at Pinkie with a dull expression. "Pinkie, if I wanted you to know I would have already told you. As of right now I am trying to leave with my pastries and get on the road as soon as possible. Problem is, your disgusting pink hoof is on the box. So I'm going to ask you kindly to please remove your hoof before I keep it and put it on a plaque on my wall".

"Oh? Is that so? And what are you going to do if I do this?" said Pinkie, grabbing the boxes and placing it beneath her while seting her hind hoof on top of the boxes.

Fluttershy, now becoming extremely annoyed asked, "hey, would you like to come inside my shed?"

Before Pinkie could respond, the two mares heard someone laugh sinisterly behind them. Turning to see who it was, Fluttershy and Pinkie saw Discord sitting at one of the booths, sipping on a smoothie while watching the argument. "You should probably give those pastries to her Pinkie, Fluttershy's done some pretty unspeakable things inside that shed of hers!"

"Discord!?!" both mares shouted.

"Hello ladies! Sorry for interrupting that lovely argument you were having. But, something has popped up and I have a favor to ask of you both".

Fluttershy laughed. "Ya, sure, like we'll do any favors for you!"

"Actually Fluttershy, I think you'll be quite interested in this favor".

"And why's that?" asked Fluttershy.

Discord smiled sinisterly, "because your not the only one who wants Twilight to come back to Pony Ville!"

XIX

"So let me get this straight, you want me, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack to track down Twilight and bring her back to Pony Ville?" asked Fluttershy.

Discord, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were sitting at one of the booths, each of them eating carrot cake with a milkshake on the side.

"Correctomundo Fluttershy! Bring Twilight Sparkle back to Pony Ville and you can do whatever you want to her! As long as you let me show her what I've done to her assistant first!"

"Spike? Why would you want to show her Spike?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Because I want her to see how he makes such a wonderful addition to my statue! The one that I placed in the middle of town!" said Discord.

Fluttershy chuckled, "are you talking about that piece of crud that has me and the rest of the elements chained?"

"Piece of crud!? The nerve! I worked hard on that statue! Going through the trouble of turning that little dragon of Twilights into stone! Molding him into the perfect form! It takes a lot of concentration and talent!"

"I've seen better talent come from Mauds pet" said Pinkie, chuckling.

"Or from a blind rabbit" said Fluttershy, joining in on Pinkies chuckling.

Discord crossed his arms, "everyponies a critique!"

When the chuckling died down, Fluttershy asked, "so that part of the statue with Spike, that's actually Spike turned to stone?"

"Well I wanted the statue to look as life like as possible! I would have made all of you a part of it, but you all make Pony Ville so interesting! I just couldn't!"

"I thought you said you didn't turn ponies into stone?" asked Pinkie.

"Yes, PONIES! I never said anything about DRAGONS!" said Discord, smirking with a troll face.

" . . . Eh, I can live with that" said Fluttershy, smiling.

"I didn't like him anyways" said Pinkie.

"Back to the matter at hoof. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, will you two assemble the rest of your friends and bring back Twilight Sparkle! If you agree, I'll show you where she is so you can be on your way!" said Discord.

"Wait, you know where Twilight is?" asked Fluttershy.

"As long as she's within the boundaries of my chaos magic, I have a complete visual on her destination. The poor girls just been in an accident and is resting in a house in Appleloosa".

"Appleloosa? She made it that far in just a day?" asked Pinkie.

"Twilight's desperate. She is frantically making her way to the edge of Equestria! If she succeeds, she'll escape Equestria and try to head south towards Zebrica" Discord explained, snapping his claw to make a map appear and pointing in the direction that Twilight is traveling in.

" . . . So if you know her plan and you know where she is going. Then why are you asking us to go and get her? Why don't you just teleport over there and get her yourself?"

"Ah yes, you see, that's where you come into play! You see, I could just pop over there and grab Twilight myself, but that wouldn't be any fun! I want to see Twilights own friends bring her down and take her back to the place she despises most! Now that would be entertaining to watch!"

"Oh, now I see. Your trying to get us to do your dirty work just so you can have entertainment! Well we're not your show mares so you can just buck off!" shouted Fluttershy, slamming a hoof against the table.

"Easy Fluttershy, I didn't mean to harm your feelings! Yes I want you to do this for my pleasure! But wouldn't you agree that this is a "win, win" situation? I get my entertainment, and you get to capture Twilight Sparkle! Plus, I said that if you agree then I will literally show you the way! You can waltz right down to Appleloosa, bring her back to Pony Ville, and do whatever you want to her! And if you want, I'll even allow Pinkie to turn her into a cupcake for you, I know how much you love her "special" cupcakes!"

"Really!" Pinkie excitedly shouted.

"No" said Fluttershy, bluntly.

"Wait, what, why!?!" Pinkie whined.

"Because, Sparkle thinks she can just leave us here in this pathetic excuse for a town! She thinks that she's better then everyone, leaving to some safe haven while were stuck here in this chaos ridden pile of trash! Well I'm going to show her what she truly is, a coward! A coward who runs away instead of facing her problems! I'm going to force her to come back to Pony Ville and make her wish she had never been a coward! I'll make her suffer until she BEGS FOR ME TO KILL HER!!! I will take her down, and make her wish that SHE WAS NEVER BORN! I WILL MAKE HER MY SLAVE, MY VICTIM, MY PLAYTOY!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! she laughed as lightening struck over head (yet inside the building).

" . . . . Are we gonna rape her?"

"Wha- NO! Pinkie why would you think I wanted to do that!"

'Where did that lightning come from? We're indoors, and I didn't do that . . . how did she do that?' thought Discord.

"You said you wanted her as your play toy so-"

"I didn't mean THAT kind of play toy!"

" . . . . So we're not raping her?"

"Why would you- NO! No we're not! What's wrong with you!

"You literally committed ten different acts of murder ever since this story started, how is that any worse?" asked Pinkie.

"I, well that's, you see- . . . (I am going to kill when this is over) FINE! Do what you want! I don't give a buck! Let's just grab the others and get this over with!" said Fluttershy, crossing her forelegs and looking to the ground with an irritated expression.

"So you girls agree to find Twilight Sparkle?" asked Discord.

"Fine" said Fluttershy.

"I guess" said Pinkie.

"But your not our boss! We find Sparkle under our own terms! Got that!" shouted Fluttershy.

"By all means, do as you want" said Discord, smiling. Snapping his claw, Discord made a trail of light appear. It exited Sugar Cube Corner and out of Pony Ville. "This will lead you straight to Twilight Sparkle. Don't worry, only you two can see it. That way Twilight won't know that your on to her".

"Well, that's convenient. Alright, let's get this show on the road. Come on Pinkie, lets go grab the losers" said Fluttershy, grabbing Pinkie by the foreleg and pulling her out of the store, along with her boxes of pastries.

Seconds after they left, Discord squealed with delight. "Ooh! This is going to be SO much fun to watch! But am I really going to let them harm Twilight once they capture her? Hmmm . . . eh, I'll think about it. Now, what shall I do until my entertainment begins? . . . Ah ha! I know!" Reaching behind himself, Discord pulled out a zipper and used it to unzip a small hole into reality. At first he saw static, then he took a T.V. remote and changed the static to an image of what appeared to be a tall, lean, armored from head to toe adventurer fighting several of Celestia's royal guards. "Good thing the dimensional barriers are weak, or I would never be able to watch little ol' Dawny Boy fight in his big boy armor! Hello Dawny Boy!" Discord shouted, waving to the adventurer.

The adventurer turned to Discord. "Wha- YOU AGAIN!?!" he said in a dark, grunge voice.

"Dawny Boy?" asked one of the guards, chuckling.

"That's his name?" asked a second guard.

"What! No! My name is not Dawny Boy! I am DAWN BREAKER! THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM! Master of combat! Defeater of foes! Kicker of your ship!"

"Ooh! Looks like Dawnys getting a widdle mad" Discord said in a mocking tone.

"GET THE BUCK OUTA HERE!!!" Dawn Breaker roared.

"Or what? Your going to shoot me with one of your-"

Before he could finish, Dawn Breaker reached into his bottomless pouch and extracted a metal tube bigger then his body. He pressed a button that extended a handle, trigger, and scope. Taking aim, he shouted, "BIG! BOOM! CANON!!!" before firing.

Before the missile could reach him, Discord quickly zipped the dimensional portal closed. He, however, was not quick enough to unattached the zipper form the portal. The missile hit the zipper from the other side, causing the zipper on Discords side to fall to the ground and break. Discord huffed, annoyed. "Such a party pooper! Now how am I supposed to watch other dimensions! . . . Oh well, might as well skip to the next chapter now".

XX

Fluttershy knocked on Applejacks door three times and waited patiently. A few moments later, the door opened, revealing Applejack.

"Hey there Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie. Boy am I SO happy to see you two!" Applejack said in a sarcastic tone.

"Applejack, do you know where Applebloom is?" asked Fluttershy.

"A course I know where she is! Why wouldn't I?" said Applejack.

"Really? Then where is she?" asked Fluttershy.

Applejack, trying not to make eye contact said, "well, I, uh, well why should I tell you! What business do you have askin where Applebloom is?"

"Because Pinkie Pie and I saw her on our way over here. She and the other two crusaders were trying to find Spike inside my shed. Luckily for them they didn't know the combination to my lock so they couldn't get inside. If she had, well, lets just say you'd have one less apple to your tree".

" . . . And your telling me this why?"

"Because she's your sister".

". . ."

" . . . And I'm going to kill her if she goes in my shed".

". . ."

" . . . You don't care, do you?"

"What! Of course I care! She is ma sister after all!" said Applejack, trying to avoid eye contact.

" . . . Uh huh, sure. I gave her and the other crusaders a warning for now but only because Pinkie and I are on a schedule".

"So why exactly are you two here?" asked Applejack.

"Sparkles left Pony Ville and is heading south. From our classified resources we have discovered that she is trying to escape Equestria and travel to Zebrica".

"Wait, classified? I thought Discord told us where Twilight was going!" said Pinkie Pie.

Sighing, Fluttershy leaned close to Pinkie and whispered into her ear, "we don't want Applejack knowing that!"

"Why?"

"Because the more we know, and the less that she doesn't know, the easier it'll be to use her to our advantage! We're gonna give Jack just enough so that she'll help us capture Sparkle. But we'll keep the more important details to ourselves, kapeesh?"

"Oh! I get it!"

"Are you two discussin somthin that I should know about?" asked Applejack.

Leaning away from Pinkie, Fluttershy said, "yes! We were just talking about how much of a valued team member you'd be if you joined our group and helped us capture Sparkle!"

"Well a course I'm a valued team member! Heck, I don't even need a team! I'm good enough to count as five ponies!" Applejack bragged.

"Good! Then you wouldn't mind helping us capture Sparkle!" said Fluttershy.

"Now hold up, I never agreed to nothing! Now why are you two goin after Twilight for? She left! Good riddance! Why would you want her back? And more importantly, why are you working for Discord?"

"We're not working for anypony! Discord simply gave us a little guidance, that's all. And as for why we want Sparkle back in Pony Ville is because, well, I'm not sure if I should tell you. Its just too awful for me to even say out loud" said Fluttershy, turning away from Applejack to hide her smirk.

"What's so awful? Did Twilight do somthin?" asked Applejack.

"Oh you wouldn't want to know, believe me, you wouldn't".

"What did she do!?" shouted Applejack.

"Oh why did I even bother coming here? Guess I wasn't thinking straight, come on Pinkie, we'll go get Sparkle ourselves".

Fluttershy only took one step before Applejack jumped in front of her. "Now wait just a darn minute! Ya'll better start explainin yerselves right now before I come over there an buck yer hind quarters!"

"Wait, really? Wow that escalated! Could you at least take me to dinner first?" asked Pinkie.

"I, wait, what!?!" shouted Applejack.

"I mean, I'm more into Fluttershy but I wouldn't mind doing a cowpony. Unless Fluttershy wants to join in then-"

"I DIDN'T MEAN THAT KIND A BUCK!!!" shouted Applejack.

"And gross, keep me out of your fantasies. Or I'll shank you". said Fluttershy.

"Ugh! Fine!" said Pinkie, crossing her forelegs.

"Now would you two just start explainin yerselves!" said Applejack.

Fluttershy sighed, "alright, I tried to warn you. You see, before Sparkle left I went to her house and tried to help keep her books dry because it was raining. And instead of saying thank you, she shouts at me! Saying how I'm a terrible friend! I tried to calm her down, but then she started bad mouthing our other friends! She called Rarity greedy, Rainbow dash selfish, and you a liar!"

"What about me?" asked Pinkie.

"You? Oh, uh, she said that uh . . . you smell".

Pinkie gasped, "that monster!"

"And that's not even the worst part! She then started complaining about your apples!" said Fluttershy.

"She wouldn't!" said Applejack.

"She did".

"What did she say?" said Applejack, angrily.

It took Fluttershy a lot of restraint to not smile, she had to focus and keep a straight face. "She said that your apples were by far the worst apples she had ever tasted! She's hated your apples ever since the very first day that she met you! She gags just from the very thought of your apples! And if she had to choose between apples and starving, she would have died a long time ago!"

Grinding her teeth, Applejack said, "where did that no good varmint head off to!"

No longer able to restrain her smile, Fluttershy said, "right now she's resting in Appleloosa. If we leave now, we might be able to catch her before she leaves".

"Give me five minutes" said Applejack, walking into her house.

As soon as she was in the house, Fluttershy laughed and said, "well THAT went well!"

"Ya! Applejacks must really be mad about Twilight saying all that! I had no idea she hated her apples so much!" said Pinkie, laughing.

"Ha! Ha! . . . um, Pinkie, you do realized everything I said was a lie, right?"

"It was?" asked Pinkie, cocking her head to the side.

" . . . Your an idiot".

At that moment, Applejack walked out with a saddlebag full of supplies. Locking her door, she said, "Now don't think this makes us friends! I'm just comin along so I can teach that no good varmint what happens when you bad mouth ma apples!"

"Whatever, let's just get this over with" said Fluttershy.

"So, next stop: Rarity's?" asked Pinkie.

"Ugh! Guess so, dang this is going to suck" said Fluttershy.

"Why's that?" asked Applejack.

"Have you tried talking to Rarity ever since that stupid rock came into her life?" asked Fluttershy.

"Actually, I haven't seen her in awhile" said Applejack.

"Me neither" said Pinkie.

"Well I have, and every single sentence its "Tom this" and "Tom that!" She never stops talking about that bucking rock! I swear, I can feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one every time I talk to that mare!"

XXI

If there was one thing Fluttershy hated most right now, right this moment, it was Tom.

The trip from Applejacks farm to the Carousel Boutique, even with all of the chaos blocking their path along the way, didn't take nearly as long as trying to convince Rarity to help them capture Twilight.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie were waiting outside the front door, keeping their ears against the door to eavesdrop on Fluttershy and Rarity's conversation. Fluttershy had told them to wait outside while she tries to convince Rarity to come with them.

Three hours have passed since Fluttershy had entered into the boutique.

"You can see Tom as soon as we return with Sparkle! I assure you, no one is going to try and steal Tom!" Applejack and Pinkie Pie heard Fluttershy say.

"And how can you be so sure no one will try to steal Tom? No pony can resist such a beautiful diamond like Tom! I bet your trying to get me to leave my home just so you can have the opportunity to steal Tom!" said Rarity

"For the one hundredth time, I DON'T GIVE A SINGLE BUCK ABOUT THE STUPID ROCK!!! I just want you to come and help us capture Sparkle! Is that really so much to ask for!?! We're only going to be gone for a few days! Tom will be nice and safe here until you come back!"

"Well if you would just let me bring Tom with me then I assure you I could assist in your-"

"Oh for the love a! Rarity! You! Can! Not! Bring! Tom! WITH! YOU!!! He's too heavy! He'll slow us down! We need to move as fast as possible if we are going to get to Sparkle before she leaves Appleoosa! Rarity, just . . . listen closely, would I lie to you?"

" I don't think so".

"And would I ever put you into a situation that makes you uncomfortable?"

"Well . . . your kind of doing it right now".

"Well I don't mean to. I know how much Tom matters to you, therefore, I wouldn't want anything to happen to him. Your happiness is my happiness, and if Tom makes you happy, then he makes me happy too. And I know its uncomfortable leaving him, but I am trying to make it as comfortable as possible! I'll keep him safe inside this boutique, In a place where no pony can find him. He'll be locked up and hidden away, and I assure you, he'll be right where we left him when we return. And if that still doesn't help, then we can both find a safe place for Tom, together! Rarity, do you trust me?"

"I . . . I suppose I do".

"Great, come with me, lets find a safe place for Tom".

"Alright".

"Sounds like Fluttershy finally convinced Rarity" Pinkie whispered to Applejack, happily.

"Do you have a basement? Because I think that that would be a safe place to put him".

"It could be, but . . . hold on a second! I know what your up too!" shouted Rarity

"What!?" said Fluttershy. Based off the tone of her voice, Applejack and Pinkie Pie could tell the she was genuinely confused.

"I think you spoke a bit too soon Pinkie" said Applejack, annoyed.

"Your going to take me down to the basement and make me think that your only trying to help. But when you get the chance, you'll knock me out and lock me in the basement! Then-"

"Do you even have a basement?"

"Well, I, uh . . . no . . . But I'm sure you'll find a basement! Then you'll knock me out and-"

"Wait, so your saying that I'm just going to go out and look for the nearest basement, come back, drag you over to some other ponies house, bring you into THEIR basement, knock you out, then lock you up?"

"Exactly!"

" . . . Rarity, why in the wide world of Equestria would I waste my time doing all that?"

"Because you want to steal Tom away from me!"

" . . . Rarity, if I wanted Tom that badly, I would have just killed you".

"Ah hah! So you admit it!"

"What? No! I was just giving an exam-"

"Don't deny it! Your plan this whole time is just to get me to lower my guard so you can steal Tom! I know what this is! Your not trying to capture Twilight! Your trying to capture Tom!"

"I don't want your stupid-"

"Well you can't have him! I have discovered your plan! And I know exactly what this is!"

"I'll bet!"

"Don't say it".

"That this is!"

"Don't say it!"

"A!"

"Don't you dare say-"

"TRICK!"

Applejack gave Pinkie an uneasy glance as she listened closely, nervously waiting to see what'll happen next. For what felt like several minutes, Applejack and Pinkie heard nothing but the sounds of their own breaths, steadily becoming heavier with anxiousness. Sweat slowly dripped off of Applejacks forehead, Pinkie's eyes were wide. Together they listened, ever so closely, they listened.

Suddenly, the sound of glass could be heard shattering.

"I'M DONE! I'M BUCKING DONE! MOTHER BUCKING MARSHMELLOW PRINCESS PRICK DOESN'T WANT TO LEAVE HER PRECIOUS DIAMOND FOR A FEW MESELY CELESTIA DAMN DAYS! THREE BUCKING HOURS WASTED TRYING TO GET THROUGH THAT THICK ASS SKULL OF YOURS! GIVING MY BRAIN ANAL THE ENTIRE TIME!!!"

Applejack and Pinkie heard something else break. By the sounds of it, it was glass and furniture . . . or maybe an entire room (they couldn't tell).

"IF YOU WANT TO SPEND ALL YOUR TIME WITH TOM BY YOURSELF LIKE SOME SORT OF PETHETIC LONLY PEICE OF SHIT! THEN BY ALL MEANS! HAVE AT IT! I DON'T CARE! WHY SHOULD I CARE! WHY AM I EVEN HERE! WHERE DID MY SANITY GO THAT I THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Applejack and Pinkie Pies jaws were dropped to the ground at this point, staring at each other with utter astonishment.

"GO AHEAD! STAY HERE! STAY HERE AN BUCK THAT CELESTIA DAMN ROCK ALL DING DONG DAY! CAUSE I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! I'M DONE! I'M LEAVING! GOODBYE! AND GO BUCK YOURSELF!!!"

"FLUTTERSHY! GET BACK HERE! YOUR GOING TO PAY FOR THE DAMAGE YOU'VE CAUSED! FLUTTERSHY! FLUTTERSHY GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT! FLUTTERSHY!!!"

At that moment the door swung open and a fuming Fluttershy exited the boutique. She slammed the door shut, walked a few feet, then stopped. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. "We're done here, time to go get Sparkle".

Applejack, still recovering from what just happened, slowly asked, "but what about Rainbow?"

"What about her!?!"

"Well shouldn't we ask for her help to?"

Fluttershy ran up to AJ and stuck her face into hers. "Look, I'm in no mood to talk to anypony else right now. I swear if a pony so much as even tries to walk up to me, I am going to rip their head off, skin them, and wear their skin to their own funeral! I am done recruiting anypony else for this mission! You, me, Pinkie Pie! That's all we need! So buck Marshmallow! Buck Skittles! We don't need them! All we need is us!" Fluttershy turned away from Applejack and started walking in the direction that lead towards the edge of Pony Ville. "No more games, no more silliness, no more of wasting my time! Its time to go and get Sparkle NOW!"

VI

[Twilights POV]

I awoke to nothing, absolutely nothing. Everything was gone, the forest, the animals, the trees, all of it was gone. Replaced with darkness. I was confused, I could have sworn I was in a forest just now. Where did everything go?

"Where am I? Its dark, I can't see! Where are my friends! Where did they go? Please, somepony help me . . . I'm scared . . . "

(No pony to help you).

"Who said that! Who's there!"

(No pony to help you . . . you have no friends . . . you are alone).

"Who are you! Show yourself!"

Slowly, a gray light appeared in front of me. When the light was gone, there stood another me, except, this me was different. She looked depressed, and her color was faded. Tear streaks could be seen from underneath her eyes.

"Who are you? What are you?"

(All gone . . . all of them . . . gone) said the other me.

"Who's gone?"

(Our friends).

"Why? What's happen to them?"

(They abandoned us . . . because of him).

"Who abandoned us? What are you talking about? Who are you!" I was starting to get annoyed, this other me wasn't giving me a clear answer.

(Him . . . the spirit who changed them . . . the spirit who changed us). The other me had a fresh wave of tears fall from her eyes.

"Spirit? What spi-" I paused, as memories flashed before my eyes. Cotton candy clouds, the elements of harmony missing, a giant maze, the library burning, Spike leaving. When the memories finished, I collapsed to the ground and cried.

How could I have forgotten. I failed, I tried to use the elements of harmony to stop Discord and failed. And everything just seem to get worse from there. Fluttershy setting my room on fire, me yelling at Spike, Spike leaving me . . . how did I forget this? . . . WHERE AM I!!!

"What is this place?"

(Inside your head).

"My head . . . wait, you said that Discord changed my friends and us, does that mean that your . . . are you an opposite version of me?"

The other me hung her head low, and started crying. (Soon, I'll be the only version of you).

"Only version, what do you mean? Are you trying to get rid of me?"

The other me shook her head, (I don't want you to go).

The other me collapsed and sobbed.

I lifted myself to my hoofs and walked over to the other me. I sat next to her and placed my foreleg around her. "I'm not going anywhere, if you can help me I can try to understand what's happening right now. I know you must be scared, but I'm scared too. If you can help me, we can try to find a way out of this".

The other me looked up to my eyes, then rested her head against my chest.

(I'm scared).

"Me too". I began gently petting her mane, trying to comfort her. "You said we were inside my head, can you explain what you mean by that?"

The other me sniffed and nodded. (I do not know why, but it seems that you are in control of your true self when you are asleep).

"My true self?"

(Yes, your true self. The way you are acting now, kind, smart, friendly, this is your true self).

"And you said I'm in control when I'm asleep, right?"

Other me nodded.

"Then who's in control when I'm awake?"

Other me was silent for a moment, before slowly saying, (I am).

"You are?"

(That is correct).

"And when you say "in control" what do you mean exactly?"

(I mean in control of our bodies, in more specific terms, your body).

"My body? But how can you control it if I'm right here?"

(Because that is the way his magic works).

"Who's magic?"

(The spirit of chaos of course. His magic can change a pony to become their opposite selves. Once they are changed, they will no longer act the same, nor will they want to).

"Why wouldn't a pony want to change back? If their evil then how come they wouldn't want to be good again?"

(I said they change to their opposite selves, I did not say they turn evil).

"But their opposite selves would be evil, right?"

(Do I look evil to you).

I sighed, "no, you don't. But if your my opposite self, how come your not acting the way our friends did. Once they changed into their opposite selves they started acting like jerks!"

(Not all of them).

"What do you-"

(Remember Applejack? Sure she was a liar, but for the most part she didn't do anything wrong but lying. And even Rarity, she may have acted like a jerk but she wasn't nearly as bad as the others, she was just greedy).

"I hadn't thought about that before, but what about the others? They didn't act very nice, especially Fluttershy.

(I have a theory, and I'm quite certain that its true. I believe that Discords magic only affects the ponies personality, not their morality, unless their morality plays a key role to their personality. Allow me explain, all of our friends had their personalities changed therefore causing them to act oppositely to the way they normally act. However, because Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's personalities involved their morality, they changed to become jerks. Fluttershy is the element of kindness after all, so its no surprised that she would be evil. As for Pinkie Pie, I assume that because her personality involves making other ponies happy, she'll wind up doing the opposite and make ponies unhappy. All in all, your personality will change, but if you are kind then you can remain kind unless your personality mixes with your morality).

"Hmmm . . . I see what you mean. That explains why Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were the worst out of all of them. But what about you? If your supposed to be my opposite then shouldn't you be acting more . . . I don't know, stupid"

(I said their personalities are altered-).

"But that is my personality. I won't say I'm a genius or anything but I really like to read and learn. So wouldn't something like that change?"

(It already has. Your love of reading and learning is beginning to change. This won't make you stupid however, your personality changing isn't going to take away everything you've already learned. But your lucky, the way your personality is. It seems that no matter how strong Discords magic gets, it will only be able to do minor damage to you).

"What do you mean?"

(Well, first off your personality has changed, but not by much. You're still a smart, kind, and strategic unicorn. There is little change to you because your still in the early stages of becoming "Discorded").

"Discorded?"

(Its a term I came up with, it means when Discords magic has changed you to your opposite. You can tell when a pony is Discorded when their color fades. Your color has faded but it is still purple, that means that your at a very early stage of being Discorded thus causing little change to your personality- personality).

"But what about my friends, they're color had changed gray last time I remembered"

(Yes that is true- true- true, your friends colors are worse- worse- worse- {They left you} then just merely having faded- faded- faaaaad-d-d-d {You don't need them} AAAAAGH!!!).

Other me screamed and pushed me away. She stood to her hoofs and started shaking.

"Are you alright? What just happened?"

(I think your waking up! Your subconscious is pushing us back- back- back- into reality-ty-ty-tyyyyyyy {Your friends are evil}).

As Discorded me spoke, she would disappear and reappear quickly. Like a dying light bulb blinking its last volts. Her words would loop as she tried to speak.

"What's happening to you?"

(My thoughts are being scrambled- scrambled- scrambled- my thoughts are being scr-scr-scr- as your subconscious- conscious- conscious- everything's returning- ning- ning).

"Is there anything I- I- I can do to help?" I clasped my hoofs to my mouth, having realized I started doing it as well.

(No, you can't stop it- it- it- you can't stop- you can't stop- you can't stop- {Your world will burn in chaos} you- you- you).

Discorded me screamed, then disappeared.

"Wait! Where a- a- a- a- whats happening!?!"

I tried to scream but no- no- no words came out. I could feel myself being pulled out of my own he- he- he- head. I tried to focus bu- bu- but it was no- no- no {foolish girl, you have lost}. Help me- me- me- me- PLEASE HELP!!! HE- HE- HE- HE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

?drocsiD siht gniod uoy era yhW

Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, The, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Worlds, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, More, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Fun, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, With, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Chaos, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic, Betrayal, Deceit, Cruelty, Despair, Greed, Magic.

Wouldn't you agree? - D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight awoke in a cold sweat, panting. She felt as if she had a terrible nightmare, but couldn't remember anything. She lifted her head and observed her surroundings. The sun was up, the wind had stopped, and all of the clouds were gone leaving a bright and sunny sky. Twilight sighed with relief at the comfortable change of weather. For the first time in what felt like days, Twilight felt relaxed. Twilight rested her head back onto her saddle bag, allowing the gears in her head to start turning.

Five seconds later, she bolted from the ground and ran to the dirt road. She looked into the direction that lead to Pony Ville and squinted. She didn't see anything coming her way, however, the chaos had become close enough for her to hear screaming, and a psychotic laugh.

"Oh no, I over slept!" said Twilight. She quickly ran back to the clump of trees she had slept in and snatched her saddle bag. She placed it onto her back and ran over to the dirt road.

'If I hurry, I may still have a chance to out run the storm' thought Twilight, as she galloped full speed down the road.