“I think we might be lost,” said the younger sister.
“We can’t have gone too far,” said the elder, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.
The two young sisters were not far from the farm which was their home. But lost in the darkness of the Everfree Forest, they might have been miles away. Those woods have a way of playing with a pony’s mind. The familiar path had long since vanished from under their hooves. It no longer mattered which way they went, any direction would surely lead them deeper into the forest.
“What’s that?” said the elder sister.
“I heard it too,” said the younger.
“It sounds like…voices.”
So it was. Dark whisperings floated through the trees and seemed to hold sinister conversation with their hissing leaves. Instinct told the sisters to flee from the voices, but they resisted. The speakers were at least ponies, they reasoned. There were darker things in this wood, weren’t there?
No. Not tonight there weren’t.
They crept toward the voices as quietly as they could and peered into a clearing. Seven cloaked ponies stood in a ring, quietly murmuring something. The sisters exchanged a fearful glance. They were trespassers here, and they knew it.
The elder sister tried to creep silently backward through the wet brush, tried to gesture to her little sister to do the same, tried to get away before anything bad could happen.
Tried.
“What have we here? Two little fillies far from home, hmmmmm?” a high, nasal voice spoke. Magical light surrounded the sisters and they were lifted off their hooves and pulled into full view of the cloaked ponies.
The younger sister screamed.
“Hush,” said the one with the high voice. Her hood slipped off, revealing a fiery orange unicorn. A cruel almost-smile played on her lips. As soon as she said that word, ‘hush,’ the younger sister felt her throat tighten. She fell into a strangled silence.
“They have seen us!” a cloaked pony said. He sounded old, his voice cracked and tired.
“What does it matter?” said the orange mare. “After tonight, all of Equestria will be the plaything of a god of Chaos.” She magicked the sisters into the middle of the circle and dangled them in front of the cloaked ponies. “Or do you think we shall fail?”
“O-Of course not!” said the old pony. “I have never doubted the power of Chaos. But…we are so close. Perhaps it’s best not to take any chances?”
The orange pony’s eyes narrowed. “What chances? There’s nothing special about these two. Look at them. They’ve never seen the power of Harmony in their miserable little lives. And they’ve probably never heard the name Discord, either. Have you, little one?”
The elder sister shook her head. “No,” she squeaked.
“See? You worry too much, old one. Harmony has no power here. Not on this night. And after tonight, not ever again.” She turned her attention back to the dangling sisters, her lips curling and opening into a savage smile. “Poor little ponies, how about I tell you a story. You like stories, don’t you? You should. You’ve just walked into one…”
Terrified, the sisters nodded.
“Once upon a time the world was Chaos. Then there was light. The light was called Harmony, and it made a world of caring and kindness. But the world it made was such a dull bore that, a long time ago, a group of ponies just like us discovered a way to build a bridge back to Chaos. And a traveler came to us across that bridge, a spirit of madness who plunged the world back into the insanity from which it was born. His name was Discord.
“Sadly, it was not to last. Two awful sisters found out the secret of Harmony and used its light to imprison Discord. He has slept under their spell for a thousand years. But tonight, Chaos returns to Equestria.”
The elder sister bravely spoke up. “Y-You’re g-going to wake him up, aren’t you?” At that moment, nothing could sound more horrible to the little filly.
“Oh no,” said the orange pony. “Discord was nothing compared to what we’re after. We have found the lost bridge to Chaos, but we have learned so much since that time a thousand years ago. Discord was a minor spirit of chaos. We are going to call a god of Chaos. The one who plays with the universe like a toy, the nameless idiot god who grins from the abyss beyond the edge of reality.”
“And…wh-what are you g-going to do with us?” the elder sister said.
The orange pony’s cruel smile widened. “Feed you to it.”
Wild horror gripped the sisters and they clung to one another. Suspended in midair, they only had each other to hold on to. A chanting filled the night air as the cloaked ponies spoke the terrible words that opened the way to Chaos.
The ground opened up beneath the sisters.
“Come, Chaos!” cried the orange unicorn. “You who toys with reality, who breaks the boundaries of the universe, come!”
Then she dropped the sisters into the open earth.
They held each other tight. The elder sister whispered something into her younger sister’s ear as they fell. Whatever it was, she said it too quietly for the cloaked ponies to hear. They wouldn’t have understood anyway. The sisters vanished into the darkness.
A pregnant moment passed. Nopony uttered a word. And here was where the cult of Chaos made its great mistake. Harmony, that awful power that pulses at the heart of all things, that shines in the magic of friendship and flashes from the souls of lovers, awakened in the bond the sisters shared. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it burned with reckless passion, spread its wings against the sea of Chaos, and took flight.
Chaos spat the young ponies back out.
The sisters, still locked in terrified embrace, landed on a mat of soggy brown leaves where they sat, bewildered and staring as the god of Chaos entered the world.
Cords of colored light shot out of the pit and coiled around the cloaked ponies. They screamed and struggled as they were dragged into the darkness of Chaos. There was a slurping sound, like one hears when a pony gets to the bottom of a hay shake, and they were gone.
The god of Chaos rose from the earth, which filled back in under it, the gate between worlds sealing shut with a crunch. It stretched its limbs and threw its head back and laughed musically. The sisters trembled, but could not look away.
For awhile nopony moved. The god of Chaos seemed to be waiting for something. It did not approach the sisters. For a being summoned from the depths of insanity, it looked strangely normal. It glanced around itself as if it could not decide what to do. Its eyes were wide and searching.
“We should go,” whispered the elder sister.
“Wait,” said the younger.
“For what?”
“It looks…lonely.”
“Lonely? It’s dangerous! We have to tell mom and dad about it so they can warn the Princess. If anypony can stop it, it’s her…”
The younger sister gingerly approached the newborn god of Chaos. It looked at her with crystal clear eyes that seemed to see right into her soul. But those eyes…they were young. Like a baby’s eyes, blue and infinite. The younger sister swallowed and drew near. Worried for her safety, her elder sister trotted up beside her.
“Hello,” said the younger sister.
The god of Chaos cocked its head and continued to stare at her.
“Oh, we can’t just leave it here all alone,” she said.
“I…guess not,” said the elder sister. “But what are we going to do with it?”
“We could bring it home to the farm.” Then, to the god of Chaos, “How about it? D’you want that? Would you come home with my sister and me?”
The god’s face split in the widest grin either sister had ever seen. It jumped up with childish excitement.
“Okey dokey lokey,” it said.
