Lightning crackled in Ponyville's sky. Pitch-black clouds blotted out the Equastrian air as an uncontrollable storm grew in size and intensity.
"Rainbow!" Twilight Sparkle stood on the deck of her tree home, calling to her pegasus friend. She was wearing the colorful umbrella-hat she had received from a seemingly paranoid Pinkie Pie, but it did little to stop the torrent pouring on her. "RAINBOW!"
Cyan blurs flew back and forth in the sky, stopping only momentarily to respond to the unicorn pony. "Twilight - We're doing the best we can! I have my best weather-ponies working overtime!" She grabbed a nearby cloud that rolled by and gave it a push. "These clouds aren't cooperating!"
With a constant chorus of thunder in the background, it was difficult to understand each other. "Uhm... okay! Then keep up the good work!" She returned inside, but it looked as if a storm in itself had already blown through the library. Books were scatttered about in an organized chaos. There was no time to return any of the books to their proper shelves, though Twilight made a note for Spike to at least stack the books nearby their respective places. As she removed the umbrella, her thoughts shifted to the little dragon. "Spike! Have you found anything yet?" One pile of books shifted and fell to the ground. Spike jumped from the mess holding an unrecognizable blue book and began walking towards her. Twilight hoped to find a book or even a spell that would help to solve the weather catastrophe, so she was overjoyed to see progress. "Is that it?"
Spike stopped in his tracks. "Eh..." He let out a fake cough that sounded like a guilty chuckle. "No, but I found that Daring Do book you were looking for! 'Riders of the Missing Ark', was it?"
With a sigh, the mare gave a look of disapproval towards the baby dragon. "Spike! Ugh, this is more important than catering to my personal needs, what we need is-"
Spike cut her off with a loud 'a-hem' and pointed at a stack of seven books. He returned Twilight's stare. "That's what I found. They're in alphabetical order. When I finished searching for those I decided to look for this." He threw the book he held carelessly over his shoulder and stormed off towards the bedroom "I'll be taking a nap."
She would have to thank her number one assistant later, but now she had work to do. She levitated the top book in front of her, titled 'All You Need To Know About Weather'. Twilight scanned the pages for anything related to the intense storm occuring outside, thunder reverberating through the walls as a strong reminder. The lavender mare read the pages aloud as a habit whenever she was nervous. "Hailstorms... Hurricanes... Lightning..." Frustrated, she flipped through all the pages with barely enough time to actually fully read and understand. It did provide some insight on the elements of the storm, but nothing on the storm itself, so the book was set aside and Twilight grabbed the next one.
KNOCK KNOCK KNO-CRASH!
Pinkie Pie burst through the door, her whole body shaking, her hair quivering as if it were gelatin. Twilight dropped the story and rushed to meet her friend. "Pinkie, what's wrong with you?!" Twilight said as she cocked her head with a quizzical look.
Pinkie's face looked as if she had eaten a whole lemon, and knowing her, there was a chance. But she cringed and her tingling all stopped for a second. "My Pinkie Sense!" Her body began rumbling again, distoring her voice. It sounded as if she were speaking through a fan. "I-I do-on't kno-ow wha-at's ha-ape-eni-ing!" And as quickly as she came in, she left in a blur that would make Rainbow Dash jealous.
Twilight wondered if she was going to work uninterupted. Nevertheless, nopony was going to let her get in the way of this. She settled down to continue her studying and reflected on how this storm came, if only to clear her mind and understand.
Nightmare Night, two nights ago. At Pinkie Pie's suggestion, they all decided to dress up as each other. Pinkie as Applejack, Applejack as Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash as Fluttershy, Fluttershy as Rarity, Rarity as Twilight, and Twilight as Pinkie. It was quite the idea, and Rarity even helped with costumes. Ever since Princess Luna's direct involvement with her 'holiday', the notion of fright was more and more an object of fun if played right.
The night did not go as planned. Luna never appeared for the festivites, and each of the six friends were displeased with their costumes and blamed Rarity. She made a remark about each pony was difficult to create for. During the ensuing argument, Fluttershy began to cry, and the other five blamed each other for it. Pinkie hated to see her friends argue, but after a hoof fight began between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, there was nothing she could do to stop it. When it was broken up, everypony went home upset.
Later that night, while everypony was asleep, Twilight was staring out her window and noticed a bright flash over the horizon. She observed it as it grew brighter. Before long she realized it was actually a shockwave, but from what? It washed over Ponyville without doing any damage, but Twilight has no recollection of what happened directly afterwards. When she regained her memories, the storm had already began.
"That's it!" Twilight proclaimed with joy.
Pinkie Pie had somehow returned quietly and was staring over her shoulder. "WHat's it? YOU? Haha, tag!" And again she left.
Ignoring her friend, the unicorn found a book with big bold lettering 'CHAOS' on the front. Her instincts told her that this held the key. She opened it to the first page, where a familiar figure was posed. Discord.
And it spoke. "Oh my dear friend Twilight. Aren't you so clever?" The image literally jumped from the page. "Sitting inside that stone prison is such a stale experience." Paper Discord examined its fingernails. "A hammer and chisel is just too much work for my delicate hands."
The mare dropped the book. Twilight was in disbelief. But the elements of har- "You know, Twilight, I'm reading your thoughts as if they were words on a page. I've taken care of the elements. They weren't all that stylish, so I ate them. Could have used more salt."
The figure plucked some words from inside the book and stuck them on her head. "You should get that checked out." Discord held up a mirror at Twilight, but all she saw were the words:
CHAOS WILL REIGN
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
The spirit of chaos is playing around in here, and expects me to believe his threats? He hasn't even made any demands yet... Princess Celestia thought, her eyes following a sworn enemy.
He showed up minutes ago, chanting about how they are in his playing field now.
"Oh, princesses. Or is it it Princi? You never really ask because there is hardly ever two princesses to address." Discord pranced about the royal Canterlot throne room as if he were a priveleged pony allowed to see it for the first time. The draconequus slid across the polished floor, using it as his ice-rink.
Celestia stood at the ready, protecting her throne as a symbol for her title. Her sister, Luna, was standing guard at the chamber doors. The princess of day spoke with such elegance, it almost made Discord gag. "Discord! We've defeated you before! Don't you think you should just give up?"
"Hmm..." He began counting on his fingers, and when he ran out, more digits appeared. He brought up his left hand and furrowed his brow before opening his mouth and whispering to himself ", and carry the moose... But that conflicts with the parade of candy apple squirrels."
Discord stopped and stared at his hand that had one-too-many fingers. He quickly fainted but was right back up, removing the extra appendages and throwing them to the side, only to go up in flames. "You see deary, one of your great pony novelists may or may not have written an essay in detail about my very answer. No. Oh, but the story about the great pony novelist is also made up."
Luna raised an eye at Celestia, who then turned to face the spirit of chaos with a scowl. Her horn began to glow a bright orange, building up all the powers that the ruler of Equastria held. Luna followed suit. They aimed at Discord- wait, he was just standing right there.
She heard an evil laugh behind her, but it began to sputter and turn into a cough. Celestia turned her head to see Discord pulling a live rat out of his mouth, only to throw it away and explode. "Sorry, hairball. Literally, it was Hairball. That's what I named him, before his unfortunate accident."
Celestia growled at him, but he was not fazed. His eyes grew wide and face morphed into a drooling grin as he slithered up to the princess. "DID I EVER TELL YOU HOW YOUR MANE IS," he stopped to clear his voice, and with sing-song ", EXQUISITE?" He reached an arm up to her horn and with little effort, pulled it right off as if it was a gag toy.
Then he swirled it into her hair and yanked it off, forming a cotton candy cone. But Celestia didn't feel anything. The draconequus ate it in one large bite before snapping his fingers, and her head was returned to normal. The alicorn was mortified - not because she feared Discord, but his antics were childish and downright
impossible.
"Uhh, Luna?" She leaned over past the spirit of chaos, who was busy chewing his fingers, to see Luna looking at herself in a corner of mirrors, no doubt placed there by Discord to distract her sister.
The real Luna turned her head, half to the side in a what-do-you-want position, and screamed ", THE PRINCESS HAD BEEN DOUBLED!"
