A Wacky Read

The rocking hoofsteps of the herd echoed through the halls of Canterlot Castle. They hurried to see Celestia and beg her for help in the times of near war.
The throne however was empty.

In search for her they asked around, servants and secretaries. "She had to head out, I'm afraid", Raven Inkwell told them, "She got a letter from Spike."

She showed them the letter and Twilight was shocked to read it. It didn't read anything in specific, but was made to lure Celestia into the old castle. It was very clear to Twilight, that it was, "A trap by Rex."

While her friends looked at the letter, they started to worry.

"You don't say, he has Celestia, do you?", Fluttershy shivered. And Applejack asked her, "What are we gonna do now?"

Twilight took a moment to think. Her look wandered across the coloured windows that adorned the hall. When her eyes fell upon the idol of Discord, the light shone brighter, the day became whiter and Twilight had an unfortunate idea.

"It's time to ask Discord for help."

"I'm sure he's happy to help", Fluttershy assured.

"Are you sure, Sugarcube? He ain't always the sharpest tool in the shed, if you know what I mean."

"I know", she turned back to her friends, "But we need his magic."

With a glow of her horn, the Princess summoned him. And in a white flash he appeared in the hall.

Discord was known as the god of chaos, whatever that was worth in a dying world like Equestria. He was not of Pony-kind but a dragonic figure, with a long flexible body covered in grey fur on the torso part and dark red scales on the parts beyond the hips. One of his legs was hooved, one was of reptile descent. One of this hands was of a lion and one of bird anatomy and clawed. His face was long but his mouth tiny, adorned by but a single fang. His goatee and bushy brows where white and showing his age. His eyes were yellow and might have been revealing an illness undiscovered to Pony-kind. Two long ears and two long horns adorned his head, and yet again, they weren't the same. One horn was curved and bumpy, grown from rings and of the capricorn family, but the other was branchy and forked, like deers have them.
In his appearance alone, Discord was chaos. But in his acting, he was madness as well.

When he appeared in the hall, he was covered by foam, holding a brush in his hand and wearing a thin cap on his head between the horns. His fur was wet and dripping.

"What is it, that doesn't have time until after my bathing time?", he asked the Ponies with his wacky voice.

"There's an emergency and Equestria needs your help."

"Emergency, hmm? Equestria? Or do you mean, you, Princess Twilight Sparkle?", he bent down to her, smiled and poked her nose with his lion paw.

Since they don't have the best relationship, Fluttershy picked up from here and went up to Discord. "Discord, there's a villain in Ponyville. Ponies went missing and now Celestia is missing too."

Discord was immediately excited, "What?!" His gear disappeared and he was clean and ready. "Where is this villain?"

"First you have to try to save the ones that went missing", Twilight commanded.

"Alright, who was it?"

"Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl the bearded and Celestia."

"And Spike too, dear!"

There was powerful magic roaming within Discord. With a single snap of his fingers he could have done anything he wanted, even bring balance to the universe, as all things should be. His personality prevented him from great heroism though, at least for most of his time.

Since he was friends with Fluttershy, he tried to make a better use of his powers. And this was one of those trials.
With a snap of his fingers the summoned upon the Unicorns, Sunbutt and his pal Spike.

But only Spike appeared.

Everyone was confused. "Where are the others?", Twilight asked.

"This is weird." Discord snapped the finger again and again, but none appeared. "It's like, they don't exist anymore."

Fluttershy hid her crying face behind her hooves, "Oh, no." And the others were shocked as well. Only Twilight was mad. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, they might be ... be ... dea-"

"NO! It can't be! It mustn't!" Twilight's eyes started to glow white, magic was oozing out of her body, squirting from her horn. The air around her was charged and sparking. The charged air soared and created suction, turning the halls into a windy place.

Applejack fought her way through the wind, she didn't stop until she held Twilight in her arms. Her hat flew off under the ceiling but she couldn't let go of her. "It's alright, Twilight!", she yelled. Her voice was carried away but Twilight heard her. "We can fix this!"

They were soon joined by the other mares and the wind weakened.

Once they all had the Princess in their arms, her magic seized and her eyes returned to be teary.

"You're right", she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "We have to fix this. We're the only ones that can."

"Fix what exactly?"

The loud voice of the Princess of the night made every head turn around. Luna walked into the hall on her search for her sister. "Why is it still day outside?"

She looked at Discord, "And why is he here?"

"A great day to you too, Luna."

"Princess Luna!", Twilight yelled happily and trotted her way. "Thank Celestia, you're still here!"

"Talking of her, where is she?"

"We don't know. We think she was captured by one of the aliens."

"The Humans?!"

"No, the other ones. One of the Lizards."

"There were Lizards too?"

"Humans, Lizards", Discord sounded bored, "What's the difference? Let's just go there and get Tia out of there."

"Why don't you teleport her here?"

He shrugged, "I can't. I know, right?"

"Very well then", she looked down to Twilight, "Where is this Lizard?"

"No!", Spike yelled. "Don't go there. Please! He'll get you too!"

"Spike?! What happened?", Twilight asked while the Dragon clinged onto her leg.

"Rex, he took her magic away! And now he controls the sun!"

"Ehm, guys?" Rainbow floated by the window and caught eye of something peculiar. The gang checked for themselves, but didn't exactly take it well.

"But", Twilight yelled, "Hey! That's my castle!"

They beheld the flying pink castle that slowly approached Canterlot. "At least now we know where he is", Rainbow shrugged.

Luna turned Twilight around and ordered her, "You go ahead, stop this madness before more Ponies come to harm. I'll get help. I know somepony with experience in unusual situations like this."

Twilight nodded, "Fine", and turned to the window. She gazed at her castle, "Let's get him head on!"

"Aww-yeah! Now you're talking my language."

"Discord! Can you get us in?"

"Puh-lease", he sighed and snapped his fingers. Luna was left alone when the mares, Spike and Discord disappeared in a flash.

Immediately she hurried down the hallways to get her friend for help.

In the meantime, the Elements of Harmony, or the bearers anyway, found themselves in a slightly redecorated crystal castle. The crystals were almost black and every other colour darker overall.

The light was dim around them and their eyes didn't catch where they were.

"Do you like it, Princess?", the smooth voice of the Lizard Wizard echoed through the darkness.

"Show your face and I tell you what I'm thinkin'", the Princess grunted through her teeth.

"I'm growing it bigger. Since, you see, when it comes to castles, bigger is better."

"Where is Princess Celestia?! Where is Starlight?! What did you do to them?"

"Why, you came for the Unicorns? And there I thought you were concerned about the Humans."

From the dark background, the Humans appeared around the mares. While still frozen like statues they were put around them in a circle. Only Jack O'Neill was alive and thrown onto his injured knees. His hands were in chains but other than that, he was unharmed.

The Ponies gasped upon their mistake. They left the Humans in the castle and now they were in the hands of the mad Lizard.

"Take them, they are yours. I have no use for them", Rex said.

And so Twilight collected them with her pink framing magic, eventually to unfreeze them from their spell.

Rodney yelled immediately and twitched. His high pitch scream was for all to hear. Since nothing was happening to him, he dared to look up.

Ashamed he straightened his back and clothing and cleared his throat. "Hello there?"

Cam and the Humans looked around, "What is going on here? Did the room change all of the sudden?"

"Not really", Jack grunted. At once they came to him to help him up. "What happened, Sir?"

"Long story short. While you were frozen, one of the Lizards went insane. He's all powerful now and we need to stop him."

"Why", Rex sighed, "You cannot imagine how sick of this sentence I am by now. No, you don't need to stop me. And no, you can't if you tried."

"If I could see him, I could give it a shot", Cam joked while his eyes tried to pierce the darkness.

Fluttershy whispered, "Discord, light."

"Oh, right, right!", he nodded and raised his hand. Everyone was blinded when he made the night of the hall into a bright day.

What it revealed was horrifying. The ceiling and walls of the great hall were swarmed by gigantic eels. The black, slick bodies seemed endless and intertwined in an everlasting motion. Here and there a head peeked out of it to hiss at the self proclaimed heroes and heroines, to then go back into the pile.

While they were in awe, they heard the laughing of the blue mage.

"You're trying this every time. It's getting boring."

"Darkness, please", Fluttershy squeaked and the light disappeared again.

"Every time?", Twilight muttered.

Rainbow just said, "You know you're crazy, right? I mean, we have fought bad guys before, but this is just over the top."

"No, actually", Hati said, "This is just another Ri'Sh-Day."

The cluster of Pones and Humans beheld the hall entrance and the Lizards that stood in it.

At once, Cam opened fire and sent three rounds their way. Krator jumped in front of Elisa with his gauntlets risen. Two of the rounds ricocheted from his golden metal into the hall, one went through Morty's lifeless skeleton body. "Are you done now?", he asked plainly.

"Wow! Hey!", Hati yelled madly, "Don't do that, man! We're here to help you guys!"

"Oh, yeah?", Cam asked, "I'm sorry if I'm not that quick to believe you, man."

"Cam Mitchell! What, if they tell of the truth?"

"Teal'C is right, you know", Rex explained. "It has always come to this, you see. But now that we're all complete, we can move on already."

Everyone that had a weapon was drawing it. Rook drew his pistol and so did Cam, Sam and Vala. Teal'C was aiming his staff weapon into the void.

Hati was drawing his steel blade from his belt, "We don't have to do this, Rex. We can just finish your thing and walk away. Just walk away, right?"

Only Morty didn't make any effort, he had his arms crossed and rolled his eyes. "This is getting us nowhere."

"The Doctor is right. The changes you're making are minuscule."

"Oh", Hati mumbled, "I have a hunch. And it's bad."

"What are you talking about?", Jack yelled, "What changes?"

"Why, you never remember it. Certainly didn't remember it the last time. I confess, I was quite rude the last time. Maybe that is the reason why you are so angry about it. Why, now, there's an interesting issue I have to experiment on, once I'm done here."

Pinkie's pitch voice shred the darkness, "Everypony hold onto each other!"

And with an echoing laugh, magical runes appeared around the hall and every each one within. The floor opened beneath them and they all fell through the conjured portals, everyone through their own.
The laughter disappeared when the portals closed above their heads.