The Adventures of Chaos and Nightmares

“Rise and shine sleepy heads,” came Uncle Discord’s voice. “It’s time for breakfast. The menu is as follows- blueberry pancakes with syrup for you ponies, sapphire pancakes for Applespike, and chocolate milk for me, Screwy, and Mothball. So who’s coming?” Discord grinned as everypony sat up and got out of bed after hearing the menu. “Always works,” he muttered to himself as he left. “Be down in ten minutes!”

After breakfast, Jewel asked, “What do we do now?”

Screwy grinned. “Let’s play truth or dare.” Screwy loved this game, mostly because she could always tell if ponies were lying during their truths. But many ponies didn’t want to play truth or dare with her for that particular reason. Also, the dares in the Castle of Chaos could get out of control, especially when you were playing with somepony who lived there and knew exactly what was behind the door of every single one of the 137 rooms in the Castle of Chaos. Needless to say, everypony had mixed reactions to this proposition.

Zany jumped at the chance. “Yeah! Let’s do it Screwy!”

Applespike was a little more hesitant. “Well, if Zany’s doing it…”

Twinkle shrugged and said, “Okay, if you all are gonna do it.”

Jewel and Mothballs’ reactions were more along the lines of, “Uh, I don’t think so,” “Um, I don’t know, I could just watch,” and, “Maybe we could go do something else while you guys…”

“Nuh uh, you two,” said Screwy. “It’s four against two. You’re playing.”

All they could do was look at each other and groan. “Well, I guess we’re playing,” said Mothball. Then he whispered, “Prepare yourself.” All Jewel could do was nod.

“Okay,” said Screwy. “The rules are pretty simple. Basically your standard game of truth or dare, except you can only pick truth three times in a row before you have to pick dare, and vice versa. So who’s ready?” Screwy didn’t wait for an answer. “I’ll go first, since it was my idea. After that, whoever I pick will go next. Everyone okay with that?”

“Yep,” everyone replied in unison. Even if they hadn’t been okay with it, it was no use arguing with Screwy. She always won.

“Okay. Jewel, truth or dare?’

Jewel looked scared. She hadn’t expected to be picked first. “Um, truth?” she said tentatively, more of a question than a statement.

Screwy grinned. She loved this. “What was the biggest mistake of your life?”

Jewel didn’t hesitate, instead she hung her head and said regretfully, “Going to model for Picture Perfect. I always knew there was something off about that stallion, even before I signed the contract, but I just went and did it anyway, to get away from the school. I now know that if I had stayed in the school, I would have gotten better in time, but instead, I just ran away.”

Screwy nodded. “Interesting. Okay now it’s your turn, Jewel.

Jewel nodded. “All right.” She was starting to warm up to this game. “Screwy, truth or dare?”

Screwy didn’t hesitate. “Dare!”

Jewel thought about that for a moment, then remembered something Gemstone had told her about. ‘Screwball, I dare you to go to that room with the creepy roller coaster Gemstone told me about and ride it.

Screwy nodded excitedly. “Done.”

“Wait!” Zany exclaimed. “Can we come with you?”

Screwy thought about that. “Sure if you want to. You weren’t dared to, so you don’t have to do it, but you can.”

“Awesome! Come on you guys! Let’s go!”

Twinkle nodded immediately. Mothy, Applespike, and Jewel shrugged. “Why not?”

“Great,” Screwy said as they reached the door. There were three rows of seats. Screwball and Mothball went in the first row, then Applespike and Jewel, and that left Twinkle and Zany for the last row. They glanced at each other and then at the rest of the group before climbing into the seats. Then came the voice, “Sit back and relax as we take you through a journey of time and space and gumdrops. We hope that you have a pleasant ride, for it may be your last!” They all shivered at that, except for Zany and Screwy. Suddenly, the car dropped. The ride had started.

Once the ride was over, they got out of the car, all looking shaky except Screwball. “Woohoo!” she yells. “Let’s do it again!”

“Riiiiiiight,” says Jewel. “Or let’s not. It’s your turn.”

“Okay,” says Screwball. “Hmm. Twinkle, truth or dare?”

Recalling their conversation from last night, Twinkle quickly chooses dare. “Dare.”

Screwy grins evilly. “Hmm. I dare you to kiss Zany. Right here, right now.”

Twinkle was looking at Screwy with horror, probably thinking something along the lines of, How could you do this to me? Zany’s usually snarky expression was also replaced with horror, and more horror, and still more. He turns to Twinkle, his questioning gaze asking, Did you tell her? She nodded in affirmation, with a pleading look that said, She made me do it! When Zany saw that, his expression softened on her, and he turned his accusatory glare from Twinkle to Screwy, who was enjoying every moment of this a little too much, in his opinion.

Twinkle asked timidly, still not completely recovered from the shock, “Can I pass?”

Screwy shrugs. “Technically you can, but you don’t want to be a chicken, do you?”

She really knew how to get under her skin. Plus, Twinkle knew Screwball would take that literally and turn her into a real chicken if she didn’t do it.

Contemplating kissing Zany in front of all her friends or becoming a chicken, she decided kissing Zany in front of everypony wouldn’t be so bad. It wasn’t actually kissing him that bothered her, it was doing it right in front of everyone. And she really didn’t want to be a chicken. She supposed they’d find out someday anyway. And if they played their cards right, it wouldn’t have to be today. She just has to pretend not to like kissing Zany and vice versa. She looks at Zany, sending her idea through expression. He nods. “Well, okay,” Twinkle heard herself saying.

She advanced toward Zany, constantly reminding herself in her head that she had to pretend not to like this in the slightest. But once she had her lips upon his, all of that was forgotten. Everything and everypony else in the room was forgotten and there was just Zany and Twinkle, in a world all their own. Zany, apparently, felt the same way, because he leaned in and kissed her back. After a few moments, they remembered where they were and what they had been trying to do. They both have the same desperate thought. Maybe they didn’t notice? But when they turned around, they found all of their friends staring open mouthed at them, save for Screwy, who was smirking like she knew this was going to happen the whole time.

I wonder if she’s psychic too, Twinkle thought.

“Er, maybe we should explain,”said a very embarrassed Zany.

Twinkle nodded. “Yes. Yes we should. But first.” She turns to Screwy. “YOU PINKIE PROMISED!”

Screwball just smiled, unfazed at the very, very loud yell from Twinkle, who had been using the Royal Canterlot Voice. “I Pinkie Promised I wouldn’t tell anypony what we talked about. I never said anything about getting you to do it.”

“But you...I mean.” Twinkle sighed as she realized she didn’t have a comeback for that. “Why do you always find a way around things?” she grumped. “Sneaky Screwy. Really sneaky.” But she had amusement hidden in her eyes, showing that she was impressed by Screwball’s method, even if she hated what Screwy had actually used the method for.

Screwball nods proudly. “I know.”

She was cut off from saying anything further by Applespike asking, “Okay, um, you mind explaining now?” he asked, in a rather irritated manner.

Twinkle and Zany were suddenly very quiet, all laughter gone from their eyes as they glanced at each other uneasily. Silently coming to an agreement, they faced the group. “Um, so we kind of, um,” stammered Zany. He was finding it harder than he thought to tell his friends. Screwy laughed, clearly enjoying this.

Twinkle sighed. “You remember that, um, incident with Picture Perfect and Goodnight awhile back? Well, that’s when this,” she motioned to Zany and then back to herself, “kinda started. Twinkle went on to tell most of the story, leaving out a few embarrassing details, things she really didn’t need to tell her friends. When she finished, she looked up at them and almost laughed. They had resumed their earlier position, staring open-mouthed at them, except for Screwy, again. “So that’s it,” finished Twinkle. She smirked. "You can all stop staring now. You make me wonder how your eyes haven’t gone dry yet. Do none of you realize you’ve been staring, unblinking, at us for almost an entire minute?”

Now they blinked. “Oh,” said Jewel.

Mothball just stared some more. “You mean to tell me,” he started slowly. “That you two, the two I had to break up fights between almost every day when you were younger, are dating?” He had never looked so surprised. “That’s about the most unexpected thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said, grinning. “Congratulations you two. You have officially blown my mind.”

Zany smiled his usual snarky grin and bowed with huge exaggeration. “Why thank you good sir. I never would have expected such an honor from a guy who can change into whatever he wants whenever he wants.”

Twinkle rolled her eyes at this. “Okay, that’s enough everypony. It’s my turn. Applespike, truth or dare?”