Nothing Like Home

Chapter 7

The young Chaos’ fog swept into the castle after his brother for revenge. He felt the love he had for Celestia leaving his body. It drained his will to continue. He was losing the will he had left, the reason he had to fight. His pace slowed and he merely looked like morning fog rolling over the floor. He reached the royal bedroom and returned to his pony form, looking at the door. Chaos knew Discord was on the other side, but at this point, what was the reasoning for even confronting him? All hopes and aspirations he had left for the world had left him. He only wished to take from others what he had lost.

The doors swung open, smashing into the wall and taking them off the hinges. Chaos had made his decision, the first thing he wanted to take, was everything Discord had left. When Chaos peered into the room in search of his brother, all he saw was Dr. Hoophstep, who sat at his brother’s desk, just sitting there. Chaos rushed over to him flipping the desk.

“How dare you put such an idea in my brother’s head! He took everything from me! Answer me you worthless scum of an ali-”. Chaos froze. He looked into the eyes of the doctor. The doctor was petrified; he was perfectly still, to the point where Chaos could not tell if he was dead or alive. “No matter”, he thought, he had no time for such matters. The shadows from Chaos’s tail surrounded the old pony, reducing him to a skeleton in the chair that he rested in.

A shiver shot down Chaos’s back, “That felt good…”, he thought. “Really good…” He shook his head and wondered where his brother was located.

“Such a heartless brute!”, Discord exclaimed from the doorway. He leaned on the busted door frame. “I freeze him for a good 5 minutes to have a little fun with his despair, and you go and absorb him. How ruthless, was I that bad?” he chuckled.

Chaos turned to his brother in pure anger. The creature in the doorway was not his brother. It was a strange creature that was made up of many different animals.

“Brother… wha-what the hell?”, Chaos said in disgust.

“Like it?” Discord belted out a heavy laugh. “Hoophstep called me a… a… a Dragonequus! I suppose this hideous form was what he meant for not being loved back, which is no matter! I was never one to care about looks anyway.” He grinned at his broken brother, “What is it brother? You look like you are getting over a bad break up.” He chuckled and stretched.

Chaos vanished into the shadows and bolted towards his brother. Discord grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air.

“I think you forgot who taught you what you know!”, he boasted, throwing Chaos across the room. “I don’t care if you are more powerful than I am, I still know more than you, and I always will. Which is sad, brute force never wins in the end, kid.” He turned his back on Chaos and walked down the hall. “I’m going on a trip, Chaos. Enjoy the rioting villagers!”, he called.

Chaos blacked out, and recalled everything that had just happened, reliving it over and over again. He still had his love left, but it was not enough to show. He saw Celestia’s face drenched with tears over and over again. The young princess was rotting on the inside; his will to even wake up was gone.

That will was quickly inspired when a large hoof made contact with his dense stomach. Chaos jumped back, flustered. He coughed and shook his head to regain his sight. The cheated prince was bestowed with a mob of angry-looking ponies. A rather large pony stood in front, he was the one who awakened Chaos.

“Killing ponies a bit tiring there, young prince?”, he bellowed, walking forward. He cracked his neck and flicked his hooves. “I’m going to enjoy this”, he laughed.

Chaos stood up, now towering over the large pony. Chaos smirked, and looked amongst the crowd.

“No one is in the mood to listen to reason, I suppose?” Their faces grew dimmer than before. The large pony stared Chaos in the eyes.

“What in the name of the high heavens happened to you?” he questioned. Chaos leaned forward into the pony’s face and examined his eyes.

“You have the eyes of the weak and defeated”, Chaos remarked. “I swear that a second ago, you were very triumphant and boastful.” He smiled and looked into the ponies eyes a bit more, cause him to tremble.

Chaos looked up across the crowd. “You all look a little scared.” He looked down at the large pony again. “Have you ever lived a nightmare?”, Chaos said calmly. The pony spit in his face. Chaos’s face started to bubble and melt off. His skin dripped off, bit by bit, falling on top of the pony’s head. Chaos clenched his teeth, not knowing how make a skull smile properly. He chuckled and caressed the pony’s mane with his bare skull. “I’m sure you don’t want to deal with a nightmare, do you?” Chaos chuckled under the gurgling of his dripping flesh. “I suggest you leave me be”, he said, spitting flesh at the pony.

The crowd, now getting over the astonishment of watching another pony’s face melt off, started to back up towards the door. “Boo”, Chaos cooed in the large pony’s ear. The pony took off, trampling every pony in his way. “What the fuck are you!?!” He cried. The mob took off after him, screaming and crying, trampling over one another. A few were left behind, crushed underneath the crowd. They were close to death, and they reeked. The sweet smell of death. Chaos closed the broken doors and stood over the ponies.

“I am quite hungry, and I don’t suppose you 3 plan to get up and run off anytime soon, now do you?” Chaos smiled and sat down on his brother’s bed. His specters crawled across the floor and picked up the ponies. The ponies were red, blue, and yellow. Chaos laughed and smiled at the broken ponies.

“Did you know that red, blue, and yellow are the main colors of the spectrum? Any color that can be shown is made from the hue of those 3 colors. I think this means something, maybe the start to my new life, it’s equivalent to the vast spectrum colors that exist. Or I’m overthinking it. Haha, you never know!” He insanely cackled.

A pain shot in Chaos’s side. He threw the ponies to the side and glared at them with horror in his eyes. “What the hell is wrong with me?” he mumbled. With a gust of wind he turned into fog again and disappeared from the room. He searched for Celestia, yet she was nowhere to be found. It was strange; he had figured she would be rallying more villagers. It seems like that wasn’t the case. He slipped through the town, unseen to the eye. Brushing past all of the village ponies, he repeated “Must find her, before it’s gone.”

“Halt, shadow boy!”, Luna roared. Chaos, returning to pony form, grabbed Luna by her scruff.

“Come with me!”, he said panicking. She dug her front hooves into the ground and barked out a loud “No!”. Chaos stopped, realizing that they all hated him now.

“Where is your sister?” he asked sternly. She started to make a rebuttal, but noticed that he was very serious.

“She is at the park, crying over your worthless flank”, he snuffed. Chaos crossed his neck with hers and whispered his goodbye, followed by “I will see you again soon.”

He disappeared as fast as he arrived. Racing through the town, the goal being the park, Chaos didn’t even bother reducing himself to shadows. Knocking over everything in his way, from market carts to ponies; he couldn’t care less about them at this point. In the middle of the park, next to the rainbow fountain, laid the heart-broken Celestia. Chaos felt the little will he had left start to break. He slowed his pace and started to scuff his hooves along the ground. She lifted her head from the fountain edge and turned it towards Chaos.

“Here to slaughter me too, oh demon of the Alicorn castle?”, Celestia moaned. She sat her head back on the fountain and let out a deep sigh. “Celestia, listen to me.” Chaos said still panicking. She didn’t bother moving her head. “What do you want?”, she mumbled.

Chaos, using his shadows as a tool, forced Celestia to her feet and looked her in the eye. “I know you don’t want to listen to my reasoning, so I am passed that. I am here just to give you something, and I will be on my way. All I know is I can feel my will breaking… I can’t exactly explain it, but I know I have to do this now, before I snap.”

His shadows seeped off of his mane and around her neck. They grew thicker and created a necklace of shining gold. She looked down at the necklace.

“It’s beautiful”, she whispered. Celestia looked up at Chaos to see him crying. He squeezed out the last couple of tears that were left and chuckled. “That will be the last time I can do that” he said. He started preaching words that Celestia had never heard before. She looked at him, confused and a bit worried of what was going to happen next. Chaos started shaking and his shadows started spinning in 5 different places. They condensed just as the necklace had.

After the shadows faded, 5 different gems sat in their place. Chaos gave them up to Celestia.

“This should help you to defeat my brother. I don’t wish to put forth the effort anymore”, he said with a bland, monotone voice. “Each contains one of my magics. Personalities, emotions... it all rests within those gems. Combined, they should be able to take Discord down. I was never good with strategies, that was always your forte. But sadly, I was gifted with power I never needed. I wish you all the luck in the world, Celestia. I hope you can forgive me. Just promise you will search for my brother and take him down”, Chaos explained. She gazed into his eyes one last time, and his into hers. Her eyes were filled with horror and despair; his with flat and uncaring resentment.

~~