What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

“Why is she suddenly so grey?” I whispered to Twilight.

“I don’t know, let’s get her to the castle. Maybe Princess Celestia knows what’s wrong.”

“All right.” I silently replied and cleared my throat

“Octavia, stand up and come with us.”

“I’m fine right here.”

“Just come with us...”

“Nope.”

I turned to the group “Would someone please talk some sense into her?”

Vinyl walked up to Octavia. Her usual big smile was gone and lowered her head to the level that Octavia was on.

“Stand the buck up and follow us. Now.”

“Such harsh language is not needed my dear.” Rarity said to her. But Octavia stood up and walked up to the group. The smell coming off of her was HORRIBLE!

“Come on, let’s move” I told the group. We made our way to the castle and the stopped in front of the doors. The guards gave Octavia a weird look but let us all in anyways, they recognized us. Both princesses stood at the top of the large staircase in the hall. Twilight ran up to Princess Celestia, leaving the group behind.

“Princess Celestia! It’s so great to see you!” she yelled as she ran up to her

“It’s also good to see you my faithful student. What brings you here?”

“Pinkie, Octavia, Vinyl and Pim will tell you in a moment. Do you know what’s wrong with Octavia?” and she pointed at her

She gasped. “All of the Element of Harmony, come here.”

They all moved forward and Princess Celestia whispered something to them. After a while I heard Rainbow Dash yell something. “Discorded?!”

Princess Celestia stepped out of the group and walked up to Octavia. “Go with them, they’ll help you.”

Without saying anything, she joined the small separate group and walked off.

“Hahahahaha... Ah, ah, ah! Celly, I’ve put FAR too much time into this plan for you to put your tall little hoovsies into it and spoil it.”

“And that’s why we have come here.” I said. It was like I was almost used to it, but both Princesses looked around the room looking for the source of the voice.

“Oh, don’t tell me that the mighty, and divine princesses can’t figure out the location of wone widdle wonewy voice?”

Somehow it still managed to creep me out. But this was a bad time for him to show up.

“It’s some freaky red earth pony with a tri-colored mane. It can make stuff float and grow beards on everypony. Oh, almost forgot! It has something with pizza rolls.”

“Floating, growing beards and pizza rolls. You think I can only do that. Pimmy-boy, I have much, much more abilities and party gifts than even that.”

Welp, there goes my hopes of having any chance against it.

“Reveal thyself!” Princess Luna called out.

“Luna, I don’t think that will work.” I said and facepalmed

“You’d be surprised, Pimmy-boy.” There was the red pony, standing in-between the two princesses and looking at his hoof.

The two princesses almost simultaneously jumped aside.

“What? Lu-lu over there wanted me to show up, so I did. Now you’re freaking out like you just saw a nightmare.”

“Well you do look pretty fucked up, don’t you.” I called out to the red pony

The red pony looked at me with surprise as he lifted a hoof to his muzzle. “I’m not... ugly... am I?” He summoned a mirror out of nowhere and looked at it.

It screeched in pain and burst into flame.

“Guess I am.”

“Well, what are you going to do this time, oh red ugly overpowered pony? Drop a piano on my head or turn me into a tiki statue?”

“Those are both very funny ideas, Pim, but I was going to do something before you distracted me,” The pony began as he tapped his hoof against his chin. “I know I said it before... Oh, right! Nightmare!” The pony’s face split into a maniacal grin.

Everypony started to back off in fear.

“Let’s get ready for a party... Because there’s no party... Like a Mentis party!” Mentis reared up onto his rear hooves and spread his forehooves, massive party poppers erupting from nowhere and firing off confetti and a smoke cloud.

“Now everyone, lets say hello to the guest of honor... Nightmare Moon!” Through the haze, I saw Mentis reach his hooves over to Luna’s forehead, and Luna began to writhe as she changed shape.

“WOO PARTY!!!!” I yelled... but then I looked over to Luna. “Fuck.” I ran up to Luna but it felt like there was a wall somehow pushing me back, impeding any progress at all.

“Hehehehehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Well Pim, I guess that you’re just stuck with watching her change, aren’t you?”

“You fucker! Don’t you even dare do something to her! I will rip your entrails out and use them as a lasso to choke you!”

“Good luck trying to find them, I can’t even do it myself when they feel like playing hide and seek!”

I kept on trying to pass that invisible wall with no success. I noticed that more and more confetti was falling near Luna. Eventually I couldn’t see through it anymore.

“Fuck!! I have to save her! Vinyl! Where are you?!”

I heard a faint voice call out my name. “Pim!”

Damn it! Am I completely isolated?!

“Yes you are, Pim. Yes you are! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Mentis appreared right in front of me.

“Guess what Pim? You’re stuck here. With ME. EEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!”

I balled up my hands to fists, and they started to shake in anger.

“You’ll pay for this!” and I charged at Mentis.

“Bad form, Pim.” Mentis reared up again and turned into mist as I barreled straight through him. I looked around and saw Mentis behind me. I shook my head in disbelief.

“Round and round and round I go... Which one is real? Not even I know. Hahahahahahahahaha!”

I sunk to my knees and put my hands to my head. “How am I going to save Vinyl...Shit! How am I going to save the rest! I need to find Pinkie, Vinyl and the rest and get the fuck out of here!”

I stood up and charged into a random direction off into the mist. My eyes were hurting from all the smoke and I could barely breathe.

“Are you going to find them? Are you going to fail? Lets see what happens, Pim.”

“I won’t fail! I swear!” I used all my courage to continue running through the mist.

“How can you be so sure? I’m here, there’s Nightmare running around, and this is MY smoke. What do you think you can do against the Traveler of Insanity?”

“I will kill you where you stand.” (get the reference?) I said bluntly as I kept running. I should have bumped into a wall by now. I still didn’t understand what was happening!

“Kill me... Hehehe... Now that’s a funny thought...”

After running for a while I saw a silhouette in the mist.

“Vinyl! Is that you!?” I yelled as I ran to the silhouette. As I got closed I noticed the silhouette was bigger then a pony’s and I felt the air becoming colder... A lot colder. My eyes reached the point where I needed to close them to ease the pain. Suddenly I bumped into something and fell to the ground. I opened my eyes and I saw a black alicorn in front of me. It was looking down to me. She had black fur, Blue-ish armor, a mane like the night sky and a moon as cutie mark.

“So this is the foolish creature that Mentis told me about.”

I crawled up from the ground and yelled “BOOK IEEET!!!!” and ran off as fast as I could. I closed my eyes again due to the mist. And guess what... I bumped into something else... AGAIN! I opened my eyes to Mentis. Hundreds of them smiling at me with their cracked grins.

“NOEP!”

“Welcome to Mentis’s room of one thousand insanities! Now, I bet you’re wondering how you play the game, and what you get when you win, don’t you?”

I walked up to the closed Mentis and punched it. It just vanished into smoke and reappeared later.

“Ah, ah ah, Pim. You’re in the game now, and you got to play by the rules!”

“When what are said rules huh?!” I yelled

“The rules are simple. Find a way out without breaking the mirrors, and you get her,” He clopped his hooves together and Vinyl popped up next to him. All of him. “If not, that means that she gets to be food for Chrysalis!”

“Who the flying fuck is Chysalis?! Nevermind, I don’t even care. So if I get out I’ll get Vinyl and the rest right?”

“I said Vinyl. Never said the rest. You get to find them for yourself. Granted, I’ll also take away the smoke.”

“Any clues?”

“Pim, I’m the villain here. I’m not supposed to make it easy on you. Now shoo. Go.”

I sighed. “Damn it,” and started running to the right of the room. It wasn’t long before I bumped into a mirror. I started looking around. The mirrors where everywhere, on the floor, ceiling and obviously the walls. I saw Mentis in the mirror and I turned around. He wasn’t there...

“Pim, Pim, Pim... You obviously don’t want to save your friends, don’t you? Lookie here! Vinyl!”

He stepped into a hundred more mirrors and made even more Vinyls refract off of the mirrors.

“I fucking hate your guts. Go die under a giraffe.”

He winked at me. I shrugged.

“A giraffe? I can make that happen!”

Suddenly, hundreds of balloon animal giraffes winked into existence. One found itself on Mentis’s head.

“You forgot the part where you die!”

“Pim, I’m insane, not stupid. Besides, I don’t even know how to kill myself, silly!”

I walked off, I needed to concentrate. Everything looked the same! Damn mirrors, time to run off into a random direction again. I turned around and began running. I started to think... What if I run into a mirror? Maybe it’ll teleport me! I looked for a mirror that was directly facing me. After looking for ten minutes I found one nearby and made a run for it. But before I could run into it I saw another reflection of Vinyl. Is she the real one? Of course not!

“Mentis! Would you be so friendly to stop fucking with my head?” I yelled, hoping he would hear it.

I started walking around again. This went on for quite awhile until I got tired of it.

“I’m never getting out of here, time to break the rules.” I said to myself. I looked around a bit and got rid of my T-Shirt to wrap around my fist. I punched the mirror with all my might but I it remained unharmed. I tried again and again and again. Nothing worked.

“Well... FUCK!” I yelled and swinged my foot against in rage. The mirror shattered! I saw a hallway in front of me.

“Now I can finally fucking get out of here!”

There was clapping.

“Hahahaha, good show, Pim! I was wondering when you would stop confining to the rules and break them. It was so boring watching you bumble around aimlessly and bump into the walls. Now, if you open the door in front of you...”

The outline of a door shone like a light right in front of me. I ignored Mentis and walked to the door.

Is this a trap? I can’t trust Mentis, but this looks like my only way out. I have to do it!

I put my hand against the cold door to push it open. I opened it a bit and was blinded by the brightness. I turned around before entering.

“Are Vinyl and everyone else in there?!”

“See for yourself.”

I walked through the door. It looked like this was the throne room.

“‘Ello! Anyone here!”

“Pim?!” I hear my name from above. I ran to the middle of the room and turned around. I saw everypony that I had arrived with here. Octavia looked normal again, great! I was actually looking forward to drinking something with her.

“What happened to you guys?!” I called out.

“We ‘cured’ Octavia, Vinyl joined us a bit later. What’s wrong, you look stressed?” Twilight replied

“So you guys don’t know what happened!?” I yelled again

“I don’t think so, what happended?”

“The red pony appeared! And he turned Luna into Nightmare Moon! We need to get out of here!”

Everypony gasped. A moment later we heard laughter.

“Guys! Now! We need to leave!”

“No! We need to get Luna back!” Rainbow Dash yelled

“Are you mad! Mentis is in there! WITH NIGHTMARE MOON!” I responded

“Mentis?” Applejack asked

“The red pony.” I sighed “But we need to go! Now!”

“You’re right.” Fluttershy said

“Ya’ see, now let’s go!” I yelled. I began making my way up to the balcony they were on.

“Twilight! Where’s the nearest exit?” I asked once I reached them

“On the other side of the room.” she replied pointing at the door on the other side

“Hahahahaha... Let the games begin!” A voice called out.

“Are you fucking kidding me!” I yelled “We need to move. Now!”

I ran down the stairs leading to the balcony and the group followed me. Once we we’re on the main floor again, we made our way to the door.

“Did you really think that it would be that easy? Hahahahahahaha!”

Suddenly, the entire room extended explosively, and walls burst from the floor.

Standing on top of these walls was Mentis, in a red velvet suit and matching top hat.

“Hahahahaha! Seeing that we’ve already had our little party, I guess it’s time for the afterparty! If you follow the trail,” He pointed with his hoof at the entrance to the maze. “You’ll find yourself at the... refreshments. Hahahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Everypony stay together!”

“Remember how that idea worked with Discord? Yeah, didn’t think so.” Mentis splayed out on top of the wall he was standing on, putting his hooves under his chin.

“I don’t know what happened so I don’t give a single shit.”

The group started to walk into the maze. “M’kay. Left or right everypony?”

“How about every-which-way? That sounds like fun!” Suddenly, Mentis clapped his hooves together. A bright flash later left me alone in a corner of the maze.

“Are you fucking kidding me!” I screamed, hearing the echo a few moments later.

Mentis was sitting on a stool, floating in the middle of everything, reading a newspaper. He lowered it to look at me. “No, I’m not. If I were kidding me, there would be more rubber chickens and squeaky ducks.”

I sighed. Looks like there’s no other choice. Whelp, here goes nothing. I went left at the first corner, right at the second. And this went on for a while until I lost track.

Wait... wasn’t I here before? Why does it look the same as five minutes ago?

I kept walking, hoping to eventually reach the exit. And I did... after something that felt like walking around for an entire day. I saw the door that we were supposed to reach and I saw everypony except Twilight. I went up to the group where everypony stood.

“I also got out! But where’s Twilight?” I asked

Rarity turned around with tears in her eyes. “We don’t KNOW!!!” and she burst out in tears. She let herself fall, and before she hit the ground a couch appeared out of nowhere.

“Twilight? Oh, you want Twilight?”

I looked up and saw Mentis on his stool. I began to become angry... again.

“Give her back you bastard!” I yelled at him. (I swear way too much)

He got a manic grin again as he jumped off of the stool and landed on the floor. “You want Twilight back, do you? Well... What if she doesn’t want to go back?”

“Wha’ did ya’ do to her!” Applejack yelled.

“Oh, little old me? Nothing. I didn’t do anything to dear old Twi.”

“And you expect us to believe that?! I would think that you were smarter!” I yelled at Mentis.

“Well, I said I didn’t do anything to her. That means no type of magical persuasion was involved,” He grinned and pushed a lock of multicolored hair out of his face. “But, I can be charismatic if I want. Twilight just looked from my point of view, and saw the right side of things.”

“Could you give me a brick please? I need something to throw at you!”

Mentis had some type of cold glint in his eyes as he talked. “You know, Pim... You really don’t want me to get more involved into this than I already am. You won’t like it. You won’t like it one bit.”

“Fuck!” I turned to the group. “We need to go everypony! He isn’t going to give her up!”

“I won’t go without her!” Rainbow Dash almost yelled.

“We have no choice! If we want to get out of here then we need to go now!”

With that said, we all began running towards the exit. All except Rainbow Dash.

“Come on! We need to leave!” I shouted at her.

“No! I can save her!” she yelled at me, and then she flew off.

“Come back!” I yelled at her, but she was already too far off to hear me. I ran back to the group.

“Dashie left. She went out to find find Twilight. We can’t save her. Not with Nightmare Moon and Mentis out there.”

Applejack stopped running. “We need ta’ wait for her. She might come back!”

“She’s not coming back! Think! Mentis and Nightmare Moon have her! Unless you also wanna stay behind then I suggest you come with us.” I replied. She nodded shakily and continued running. We were near the exit, two giant golden doors. Bigger then anything I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

“Hahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA! Fine, leave me with dear Dashie, I know I’ll have some fun with her...”

I opened the door and gestured everypony to go. Before I went through as the last guy out, I yelled, “We’ll be back! Don’t even try doing something to Twilight or Dashie!”

I went outside and started looking for the carriage that was supposed to bring us back to Ponyville. I noticed that the sun was hanging at the horizon, not moving.

Did they do something to Celestia? No, she can defend herself... I hope.

“The carriage isn’t here!” Pinkie screamed, with the usual floating-in-the-air thingy.

“Then we walk home.” I said with a voice like Leonidas’s. We walked through the city, the city’s usual chaos had been stopped by everypony staring up at the sky. We got out of the city with minimal fuss... Until Mentis decided to pop up again.

All I heard first was his voice booming out across the city.

“ATTENTION PONIES OF CANTERLOT: THIS CITY, ALONG WITH THE ENTIRETY OF EQUESTRIA, IS NOW UNDER QUEEN CHRYSALIS, CHANGELING MATRIARCH AND NOW RULER OF EQUESTRIA’S CONTROL. NOW... HAVE A NICE DAY. I GUESS IT’S GOING TO BE YOUR LAST... HEHEHEHE... HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Then all of the ponies panicked.

Another chapter done! WOO! Next chapter might take a little longer. It has something special included that requires some more work! And I've set a goal for this story. To get it featured once before chapter 25! I'd appreciate if my lovely readers would help me with that! Anyways! Thanks for reading

Pim out! *jumps out of imagination*