Altered Visage

I closed my eyes lazily as I performed a perfect backstroke through the ocean of stars, enjoying the sensation of the cosmos caressing my form as I sliced through it. Or was it something other than a backstroke? I had long forgotten the names of the different swimming styles I had learned as a child. Is it possible to be doing something perfectly when you don’t really know what it is you’re doing? I put my hands behind my head and just floated there, letting the coolness of my galactic pool wash over me as I contemplated such trivial matters.

"Well, what have we here, a hairless ape swimming about in the night sky?" I opened my eyes to see a goat faced creature with a single fang hanging from an impish grin, and two very yellow and red eyes staring down at me.

“Discord!” I jovially exclaimed. “Make it rain chocolate milk, I’m feeling kinda thirsty, oh and fetch me a glass too if you’d be so kind.” Discord’s grin quickly faded to an annoyed frown.

“I am no butler, I am the embodiment of chaos,” bolts of lightning flashed through the inky abyss behind him as he continued his boast, “I bring worlds to their knees as I drag them into an abyss of insanity purely for my own amusement. You should show a little more respect.”

I pondered silently for a moment, finally noticing that this couldn’t be real. “I’m dreaming. Shouldn’t you be Luna?”

“Luna is not the only-"

“Never mind,” I interrupted him with a wave of my hand as Discord’s left eye twitched, “stupid question. It’s a dream, why would one fictional character be any more likely than another?”

“If you had any sense you would take this a little more seriously.”

“Awww, but where’s the fun in making sense?” I watched as his twitch grew worse at me stealing his line, “speaking of fun, why aren’t you? You’re supposed to be all zany and mindscrewy and stuff, but instead you’re just being grumpy.”

Was this the best my mind could come up with? An expanse of somehow liquid blackness dimly lit with a million stars and a so very not fun Discord? I closed my eyes and concentrated on turning Discord into Fluttershy jumping around in a children’s ball pit. I remembered hearing somewhere that you could control a dream if you’re aware it is one, and if I wanted to die of cuteness overload as if I met with an adorable Freddy Krueger, then I damn well was going to.

I opened my eyes and found myself sitting chest deep in multicoloured balls with a glaring Discord floating in front of me. I frowned as I threw a bright yellow ball at him, which landed with a light smack on his face. Much to my surprise, his head came right off and his body exploded into a thousand coins, the like of which you’d see in many video games. I blinked a few times as the ball that I had thrown halted in midair and then reversed direction entirely to float towards me, now with Discord’s scowling visage planted firmly upon it, kind of like when he was on those balloons as he was corrupting Pinkie Pie. It may not have been very manly, not that I had much manliness left after becoming a brony, but I couldn’t help but giggle like a little girl at the image.

“Glad you approve.” the sarcasm in his voice was thick enough to spread on toast. I contemplated making that literal for a moment, but decided against it since I wasn’t hungry.

“Too bad you’re not real, I’m sure you could do some truly amazing things that I couldn’t even imagine. It’d certainly spice up this dream.”

“Oh, I assure you, I am very much real, and if I hadn’t promised Fluttershy that I was going to be nicer I would have you at my mercy for your attitude.”

“Oh, please!” I scoffed, "If you’re the real Discord, then I’m a changeling!” As soon as the thought came to me I was surrounded by a green flame as my subconscious turned me into exactly what I was thinking of. Spitting balls out of my mouth (never thought I’d be saying that one), I raised a forehoof and stared through one of the many holes in my leg to Discord on the other side whose eyes had widened to the point of taking up half his ball. Face. Face-ball. Whatever. I put my hoof back down and narrowed my eyes at him, and in a voice that reminded me of Queen Chrysalis, though different, more masculine I liked to think, I protested, “This changes nothing. You’re still not Discord.” The look of surprise was quickly replaced by a malicious grin that had me fidgeting nervously.

“Oh, but you are a changeling.” The best way for me to describe his voice would have been cruel anticipation. I didn’t like it.

“Uh...s...so?” I squeaked as I sank as deeply into the ball pit as I could, submerging myself beneath the sea of colours, trying to escape from the little ball of chaos circling my head. I took a few shaky breaths, trying to reassure myself that it was only a dream and that a dream couldn’t hurt me. The image of a certain burnt up, fedora wearing, claw wielding dream walker popped into my head and I couldn’t suppress a shudder.

After maybe thirty seconds of silence I let out a sigh of relief, thanking my subconscious for letting me escape my nightmare so easily. Then, ever so slowly, all the little globes surrounding me spun around in place, revealing hundreds of little Discord faces staring at me. I tried to jump, to fly, to run, to do anything to get away from the mass of insanity that had engulfed me, but I couldn’t move at all, as if every sphere was holding me down with the force of a steroid fueled body builder.

“You can’t escape us that easily, insufferable insect.” The sound of a thousand voices admonishing me in not-quite unison was terrifying.

“Please, let me go! What would Fluttershy say?”

“Oh, we don’t think even Fluttershy would hold it against us for harming such a major enemy of Equestria.” The legion of Discords chuckled viciously, unendingly, driving me mad with fear. I closed my eyes and flattened my ears as tightly against my skull as I possibly could, the oddity of having ears that could do such a thing barely registering as I tried to block out my tormentor, quaking in terror.

“But I’m not-" the world changed around me as I could no longer feel the pressure of drowning in a sea of Discord, “a...changeling?”

I tore my eyes open, hoping that I had woken up and escaped my nightmare, but quickly realized I wasn’t so lucky. I was strapped inside a giant sized transparent ball that was inside some kind of tunnel. I could see bright, flashing lights in the distance and briefly wondered what they could be before turning my attention to my restraints. Each hoof was tied to a separate point of my prison, stretching me out spread-eagle, and no amount of struggling against them could free me.

“You’re right, I’ve been far too boring, it’s time to play a game.” I looked up to where the booming voice was coming from and froze as I saw a Godzilla sized Discord looming over me with sadistic glee plastered upon his face. I watched as he reached down to something that I could not see and yelped as I felt my ball rolling backwards until I was upside down and staring directly at a coiled spring. Realizing just what I was currently in and what was to come, I groaned.

“Well fu-“

WHOOOSH! My ball shot through the tunnel and out into the flashing lights. I was spinning far too quickly to see anything more than a blur of colour, but I could hear the telltale pinging sound of a pinball machine and the hearty guffaws of Discord as he racked up the points. Each and every time my prison slammed against something I felt my limbs get jerked painfully against their restraints. Did you know that you could feel pain in a lucid dream? Neither did I. Oh, and the dizziness! It took the entire effort I was capable of to not vomit. In the dim recesses of my mind, I was glad I hadn’t eaten Discord’s toasty sarcasm earlier as it would no doubt have made the task impossible.

After what seemed an eternity, but was likely only a few minutes, I realized that I had come to a stop, though I could barely tell with the way my head was still spinning. I was apparently positioned between a sloped wall and one of the flippers that was angled as if it had tried to strike me too soon and held that position, forming a sort of V that held me in place. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see anymore of the pinball machine that I now saw was filled with My Little Pony themed objects, the most prominent being a replica of Discord’s head, mouth gaping open and tongue sticking out to the floor as a ramp, ready to swallow any poor, unsuspecting pinball that was shot its way.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m having a ball!” I opened my eyes at the mocking tone to see that the head of Discord that had been a part of the intricate layout of the game had come to life and was gazing down upon me in my round prison.

“Please...stop. I’m sorry.” I could barely get more than a whisper out from my lips.

“Stop? But I’m so close to beating my high score!” I merely whimpered in response as tears streamed down my face, wishing that the pounding in my head would go away.

“Aw, are you crying? Aren’t you having fun?”

“It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream.” I kept whispering this mantra to myself, trying to convince my aching body that it was all in my head.

“Just a dream? Do you really think I couldn’t harm you just because you’re dreaming?” An uproar of his laughter struck me, shaking my prison and causing me to flinch.

“Please don’t hurt me!”

“Oh, I have a much better idea than that. What chaos would be wrought if a changeling were to be found nearby their very homes? The panic would be wondrous to behold, and I could say I’ve done my good deed by bringing your presence to light!”

“You....You’re bluffing! There’s no way you could do that, you’re not real!”

“Still clinging to that vain hope? I’ve already found you. The poor little changeling looks like it’s having a nightmare. I wonder what it could possibly be dreaming about, don’t you?”

Relief flooded over me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. It started out low and quiet, but soon grew to match even the most raucous of outbursts that the draconequus in front of me had ever let loose. Discord’s plastic pinball face warped into one of confusion and I could only laugh harder. If I hadn’t been strapped in place I no doubt would have fallen to the floor of my ball, legs unable to support me through my relentless giggling.

“I fail to see what’s so funny.”

“I...I know...“ I tried to explain that I knew he was lying now, but I couldn’t help laughing more, I began to think the cathartic release of all my fear at once had broken my brain. I bit my lip in an effort to stop and took a few slow, deep breaths through my nose to calm down, but failed miserably. A deep scowl now graced Discord’s face, obviously not pleased at how little seriousness I had given his threats. I felt a sudden jerk as my ball began rolling again, suddenly remembering that I could still suffer in this dream and my laughter came to a very abrupt halt.

“No....no no no no no!”

The movement was painfully slow at first, allowing me a perfect view of Discord licking his lips hungrily and then place his tongue back on the floor, opening his maw wide in preparation for what was coming next. THWACK! I was off again, a blur of colour gracing my retinas and a familiar sense of nausea took hold of me again. Then darkness and a loud gulping sound all around me as I stopped spinning.

“Congratulations! You’ve got the high score!” I heard an artificial, joyous voice exclaim as my container dissolved around me, allowing me to slowly sink into the darkness below as if I had fallen into a lake filled with caramel sauce. I found it hard to concentrate anymore, but I could swear that I heard a new voice somewhere above me.

“Discord! What....r...doing?” It was faint, but definitely feminine, and familiar.

“...na! No...ing...at....” I couldn’t make out what they were saying, and just let oblivion wash over me as I ignored them.

WHUMPF!

The sound and feeling of landing on the unfairly hard ground greeted me and I groaned in protest of the new pain that joined my aching limbs and splitting headache. I figured that I must have fallen out of bed as I tossed and turned during my nightmare.

Even with my eyes closed I could tell it was painfully bright, I probably should have closed the blinds on my window so that I wouldn’t go blind on waking up. Not much point in delaying any further, I figured, so I cracked open an eyelid just enough to see up to my ceiling. My sky blue ceiling with wispy white things floating around and what I could have sworn were the edges of the leaves from a tree in the periphery of my vision. I cautiously opened my eyes the rest of the way. The late afternoon sun danced in the sky, mocking me with the knowledge that I had slept in incredibly late. The trees I had thought I’d seen earlier were not only there, but even had ripe apples hanging from their branches.

“Where am I? Am I still dreaming?” My voice sounded off as I muttered to myself, so I tried to clear my throat with a cough. I hoped I wasn’t coming down with something.

“Hello? Is somepony there?” An adorable southern accent filled my ears, and in disbelief I whipped my head around to find its source. It couldn’t have been! But it was! Peeking out from behind an apple tree, there was a little, yellow pony graced with a red mane and an oversized pink bow topping it off. It was Apple Bloom! I could feel a squeal of joy building up inside of me, desperate for release as one of the biggest, toothiest grins of my life grew upon my face. My glee quickly disappeared when I saw unadulterated terror staring back at me.

“St...stay back!” She stuttered out as she took a shaky step back from me, eyes wide and trembling violently.

“I’m not-“ at the sound of my voice, she cut me off with a scream and turned tail, running from me as fast as her little pony legs could take her.

“APPLEJAAAAACK!”

“Wait! I’m not going to hurt you!” I reached out my arm in a futile effort to stop her. My black, chitin covered, holey arm ending in a blunt hoof.