Chaos born from nothing

It was a clear night sky. The stars made themselves known like blinking holes in a black tapestry, their size so infinitesimally small compared to the enormous void they were in. One could develop a phobia from all the unending space.

On the outskirts of equestria a few unicorns were out, concealed tunic rags. Right now they were going to a special area where the princess couldn’t find them, allowing them to experiment with illegal magics that should never be used in the public.

They had finally acquired all the ingredients and knowledge they needed to perform another experiment. One requiring multiple members to perform. One that was considered one of the most dangerous in existence among ponykind.

Their destination was a large building made of stone enchanted to resist the strongest of their experiments and could even withstand the pressure of strength and fire from even an adult dragon. It was a ruined thing, buried underneath overgrown trees, massive vines, and shrubbery. The windows had long since shattered and left only gaping holes of what was once possibly a lively location.

One of the members stood behind to check that they hadn’t been followed. They quickly shut the stone door behind all of them after confirming they were alone.

“Well, that went better than expected,” the stallion at the door commented.

“Alright ponies time take the hoods off. We got another spell to use,” the stallion said as he pulled down his hood.

The stallion had a dark green mane with a blue coat. Some wrinkles made their way through his fur, revealing his advancing age.

When the rest of the unicorns took off their hoods, the old stallion couldn’t help but think of candy thanks to the wide assortment of colors in front of him. They could serve as stained glass windows where they were made of glass. They were in great contrast to the interior. By some luck, the rubble above had collapsed onto each other to make a stable cave-like area. An area lit only by candles or luminous stones brought by the unicorns since there were no cracks for light to come on. All over the walls there were traces of old rituals and spells: Scrubbed runic symbols, scorch marks, uneven dents in the stone, and even some leftover ingredients left to char and rot in the various nooks and crannies.

A young unicorn stallion with a red mane and orange coat went to the elder. “Alright boss we're all here, so what do you get for us?”

The older unicorn used his magic to pull an old satchel out from under his cloak. It was so degraded it seemed to bend, twist, and fragment like an old piece of paper.

“Umm, what is that?” one of the mares muttered.

“This, mares and stallions, is supposedly one of the oldest and rarest spells known. And I’ll be honest; I don’t even have the foggiest idea what it is or what it does.” He cleared his throat. “But whatever it is, caused the royal guards to put me on a hit list.” A lot of the unicorns in the room gasped in surprise.

“D-did they?” The younger unicorn asked, but the elder denied it.

The elder scoffed.“No, otherwise I would have seen them by now.” He lowered the satchel onto the ground and heaved a sign. “Unfortunately, I’m going to be hiding until this whole thing passes over, but as of now this will be the last experiment we do for quite some time.”

A lot of the unicorns groaned and whined Despite the danger they put themselves in there was no denying they enjoyed doing their experiments.. But, because their leader had to go into hiding,now all that fun was gone.

The elder saw their saddened expressions and spoke. “I said for the time being, that doesn’t mean forever,” he specified. “I’ll be back again,” he said with assurance. “In the meantime this is what we need.” He pulled a parchment out of the old satchel with his magic and carefully unfurled it. “The text on this paper is a little hard to translate thanks to its incredible age, but what I can tell is that we need a crystal from the Crystal Empire and both a phoenix feather and phoenix tears.”

The unicorns nodded and began to prepare while the young stallion went up to the elder. “That’s it? Seems so simple.” He spoke in doubt.

“That’s because it’s not. You do realize we’ve tangled with much simpler spells than this and there’s always been a caveat.” The young stallion nodded. “Well here’s our caveat: We need to fuse all three of them together to create a phoenix crystal.”

The young unicorn's eyes widened. “Phoenix crystal?!” he shouted.

The elder cringed from the pain in his ears. “Not so loud, I’m right here,” he complained. He rubbed his ears to clear away the ringing.

“B-but sir creating a phoenix crystal is considered dangerous for multiple reasons,” the young unicorn said.

“I know that but considering the amount of strenuous magics we’ve done, this is nothing short of making a cake,” the elder said in a cocksure manner.

“So that’s all we're doing? Making a phoenix crystal?” The young stallion asked..

The elder shook his head. ”No, this is only part of it. It gets worse from here,” he chuckled.

The young unicorn felt his spine shiver, for some reason he had a bad feeling about all of this. A very bad feeling. After finishing their conversation, the ingredients they needed were put into the middle of the room. Small metal cones were placed at the hooves of each unicorn readying to perform the spell.

“Alright everypony, what we’re about to do is a little more dangerous and a bit harder than what we’ve done so far so we must focus on this a lot more unless you enjoy being burnt to a crisp, understand?” the elder asked as he looked to everypony. The unicorns nodded knowing this was something not to joke about.

Creating a phoenix crystal was considered a very dangerous act, the reason being that its unpredictable nature and forcing so much magic potential into such a small object could end up in tragedy. A very gruesome, very burnt tragedy.

After creating holographic images of the spell instructions in front of the unicorns and preparing themselves for a bit, the elder spoke seriously“Alright we all begin the incantations when I give the mark”

Everyone was growing nervous, with hearts pounding and sweat permeating their coats. They never did something of this level, and they were as excited as they were scared. Just as the elder shouted, the unicorns quickly charged up their magic and fired their spells upon the three items.The ingredients glowed brightly from the infusion of magic, and they all started to shift and twist. The feather and tear began to float and circle around the crystal

“Alright, now we need to concentrate more pressure on the tear and father if we want them to combine stability into the crystal!!”the elder shouted..

The unicorns listened and focused even more of their magic into the ingredients. Now the crystal began to float and collided with the tear and feather, producing a bright flash.. The feather and tear glowed with radiance and produced heat that was singing the tips of the unicorns’ coats. It floated towards the crystal started to spin around it alongside the tear. They started picking up speed, creating stronger and stronger friction in the air, producing even more air and pushing the unicorns back.

The crystal began warping, changing into conglomerate shapes that moved like liquid. The liquid crystal began to expand, moving to one side until the feather and tear smacked into it. The ponies were all grunting in pain, and the walls around them were starting to turn orange from the heat. Two collapsed when their horns burst with the heat of the magic being used. Another was flung against the wall by the sheer pressure of the spell pushing against them, but they endured as best as they could. The crystal engulfed the ingredients like clay covering a toy, initiating the final reaction. The amalgamation started glowing a blinding white and producing sparks that flew in every direction. At first, the sparks weren’t significant, but their numbers began to increase until it almost looked like a fountain was flowing from the warping, central shape.

The heat from the crystal built up more and more by the second turning the closed room into an oven. The unicorns felt the magic waver from the crystal. It was starting to finalize, and all the pressure was slowly being absorbed by the crystal, giving relief to the spellcasters. They groaned and grunted because of the stress.The elder especially suffered due to his aging body.

“Well,we did it.” One of the unicorns said while huffing. They couldn’t help but stare in awe. The crystal glowed and pulsed like a beating heart, but every movement was a gentle hum rather than a violent thump.

The elder scoffed and wiped his forehead. ”Yes. We did. Now, for the actual tricky part,” he said.. The rest of the unicorns stared at him with shocked expressions. They weren’t done! Making the phoenix crystal was hard enough, but what the elder said meant that that wasn’t the hard part. The young unicorn was right, and he gulped nervously. The elder used his telekinesis to lift up his satchel and fully open it. Whatever was within caused the scaldingly hot atmosphere to dip quickly in temperature. Where the ponies were melting, now they were freezing.

What the elder pulled out was a dark blue crystal with a milky-white interior, almost making it seem like it held a ghost within its bowels. Some of the unicorns began flooding the elder with questions regarding the mysterious item. He was quick to answer them and be relieved of the noise.

“This, mares and gentlecolts, is the Wendigo Stone,” he proclaimed as he held it up high.

It produced a strange ambient noise, like distant, violent wind howling as strong as it could to be heard. The noises caused shivers in the group, and it wasn’t because of the cold. THey could feel their fear grow the longer they were in the presence of the stone.

“B-boss w-were d-d-did you g-get that?” one of them stuttered fearfully.

The elder seemed unaffected by whatever spell the stone was casting upon its surroundings. If he was truly afraid, then he didn’t show it.“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve done questionable things more than what we’ve done so far. If you're curious, then just know that I took it from somepony who has expired, and no. I wasn’t responsible.” The elder said as he looked down on the stone then back to the group. “That’s enough questions. I want to see the results of this spell” the elder spoke with hints of anger and discomfort.

He moved the satchel and the stone to the middle with the phoenix crystal. “Alright put the crystal in the satchel,” he said. One of the unicorns nodded and did just that. The elder closed the satchel up and began to speak. “On my mark all of us fire upon the satchel at the same time.” The unicorns nodded to the elder as they went back in place.

On his command, the ponies fired their spells upon the satchel, causing it to glow and pulse and shake around angrily.

“Shields up, everypony. The magics are starting to meld together within the satchel, but it is even more volatile than before, and these are the magics of two extremely powerful artifacts.” He took a deep breath to calm himself. “I’m honestly not sure if we can take the impact that the combination is going to create.” He looked to everypony standing behind the combined dome covering the satchel. “Together, this barrier can resist an adult dragon or two, but even they pale in comparison to what this is about to unleash.”

He had to speak louder and louder until he was drowned out by the screaming of the satchel. It started floating on its own and began to shake more and more violently. The ground started to tremble and milky-white fire and energy began emerging from the magic source. At first, the unicorns could handle the random, raw blasts of raw magic, but the intensity grew more and more; Tripling and quadrupling in strength. They found themselves grunting and straining their bodies to hold in the incantations. What in the world was the elder trying to do?

The impacts were taking their toll as cracks began to form on its surface, but the unicorns would pool more magic into it to repair it as best as they could. The form of the stones collided and melded together within the satchel with no real focus in mind, but the incantations eventually took their effect, and the forms of the two artifacts coalesced into a single point. The elder gasped in shock when he saw the satchel implode upon itself into a bright, white light. Everypony stared at this event until all the energy was eventually released, blowing everything back and obliterating the shield.

The elder unicorn grunted and put a hoof to his head, waiting that the loud ringing in his ears would subside. The adrenaline coursing through him started to subside as well, allowing him to feel the full force of the strain he put on his body and granting him a strong, sharp pain all throughout his being. His vision eventually refocused from the blurred mess it had briefly become, letting him see the others groaning in pain on the floor. He winced from seeing one of the ponies bent over a stone slab that had detached itself from the ceiling.

The elder was more concerned with the others of his group despite the pain he could feel himself.. “Is everpony alright?” he asked.
One of the unicorns said they were ‘just dandy’ in a very sarcastic tone.

Another pointed and shouted at something in the room.“Oh my Faust! Boss, what is that?!”

The elder raised his eyebrow and followed the pointing foreleg.He was shocked, to say the least. What he saw made no sense at all. In the middle of the room the satchel was now gone and in its place was a floating sphere. There was no color to it. No shape. Yet...no absence of color and shape. It hurt tremendously just to look at it. He knew it shouldn’t exist, but it was there. It just…was. It stayed there, immobile, defying all common sense. No spells were cast to make it float so...immobile.

“Boss is that what supposed to happen?” one of the female unicorns asked.

The elder took some time then shook his head. “I’m not sure. The parchment stated that the artifact would allow us to perform spells and potential new magic of worldly proportions, allowing us to modify the very fabric of the world itself, but...” The elder used his telekinesis to try and grab the orb but he found that he couldn’t. “Wait that’s not…It’s not there?”

Some of the unicorns looked at him with confusion. “Uhh, boss, what do you mean?” one of the male unicorns asked.

“I mean there’s just nothing there.” They stared at him with more confusion, prompting a groan of annoyance. “What I mean is we can see the sphere right there in front of us, but my magic can’t pick it up as if...as if it wasn’t there…” The elder began to what this thing was if it wasn’t an object. Unless it wasn’t an object at all but, rather, a hole? There was one way to find out, at least, one way he could think of for the time being. Using his magic, he lifted a piece of stone that broke from the ceiling and chucked it at the hole. It flew towards it and then just disappeared. He felt a sudden pressure in his mind but shook it off. This was not the result he was expecting at all.

“What is that? What exactly did we do?” one of the unicorns asked. Stress filled every syllable.

The elder speaks immediately. “I’m...not sure. This isn’t what was supposed to happen, I’m sure of it. I think he might have torn a hole in reality.” Many present were baffled. A tear in reality?!“But, even with the amount of magic pooled together, that shouldn’t have happened.” The elder put a hoof to his chin and started thinking, but that only worsened his growing headache..
The elder unicorn approached the…thing and raised a hoof to it.. This was an incredibly risky action he was undertaking. So many things could go wrong, but deep down he loved it. This was exactly why they all performed forbidden spells: To see just what they were and what they could do!

He passed the hood of his robe through it first, followed by a hoof. “This is strange. I can’t feel anything at all, almost like…” The elder frowned and pulled his limb back out. “I need to check the parchment. There must be an explanation somewhere on it, and if not there then in my notes.”

When the elder left, some of the more curious unicorns moved to the aberration. The young unicorn from earlier couldn’t help but be amazed by the results of their experiment..

“Wow.” He turned to the others. “Can you believe it? We did this.”

“Yeah, but what did we do?” one of the mares wondered.

“Hm? What was that?” The young stallion was sure he had seen something, so he leaned closer and felt something graze his eyes.“Uhh, boss?” he called out.

The elder had been rummaging through his satchel, pulling out a few dozen notes held in a satchel far too small for all that was being pulled out. “What?” he shouted.

Unnerved, the unicorn took several seconds to answer. “There’s something in the...thing,” he said nervously.

“What are you talking about?” the elder said without taking his eyes away from his notes.

“I mean,” the young unicorn looked at the hole then back to the elder. “I saw something move in it.”

The elder stopped and turned to the young unicorn with a raised brow. “What, are you sure?” the elder asked. The young stallion nodded. “That’s not right, nothing should be--“ His voice hitched in his throat when saw something jump out and hit the young stallion in the head. A sickening pop of bone came shortly afterwards from the young unicorn as his eyes rolled back. He fell limply to the floor, seemingly killed instantly. The rest of the unicorns were horrified, screaming in terror and backing away from whatever the culprit was.

Despite the horror the elder was seeing, he couldn’t help but try and analyze whatever this thing was. He saw shapes vaguely resembling bony hands with glowing white veins pulsating through them.
No one was thinking properly when some odd shape appeared on the ground with a loud ‘flop’.. It was a conglomerated mass of silvery fur, and many winced when they heard the sounds of bone popping and cracking into place. Its misshapen form was...a horror to behold. Its face had no skin or muscle, instead revealing the bare skull beneath and the pointed teeth that bent and twisted in unnatural angles. Its body was missing bits and pieces that, for some incomprehensible reason didn’t look odd. Its beating heart was revealed behind its exposed ribs that led to four arms with clawed hands. Each arm connected to...something despite being broken and with their shapes floating in the air, absent from the rest of the body or even just the arm. Its legs, whilst similar to an earth pony’s, saw the hooves replaced with toes. At least the tail looked...normal despite the gaps. It seemed to be as tall as Princess Celestia, if not taller.

This thing was just unnatural; it defied logic because it shouldn’t be alive at all, and yet it stood before them all. It moved its head from side to side making wet pops, and then it spoke. “I’ve pondered over time whether the unicorns have evolved their magic to greater heights or they've degraded over time.” Its voice was deep, guttural, and echoed deeply. It sounded ancient.

“I-it speaks!” One of the female unicorns shouted.

“But what does that matter? I came back, finally! And I must stretch my form.!” It bolted about, faster than anyone could follow.. It moved with grace, seemingly dancing with twists and turns. The unnatural beast returned back to the middle as if nothing had happened. The elder was about to speak but to his horror watched as every pony casually fell to the ground, dismembered and cut into pieces, left in pools of red.

The elder can only register the need to scream as everyone he knew had died in the blink of an eye. He couldn’t believe it! This had to be nightmare. He wanted to wake up soon. He needed to! Maybe this was Luna toying with him? He felt something warm touch his hoof, and looking down he saw the spreading pool of blood he. This...this was no dream. The elder’s breath stuck in his throat, and he spun around to get as far away from this place as possible. He didn’t get the chance as a boney finger became lodged in his cranium.

The beast chuckled, enjoying the shocked look the elder was giving. t“Let’s see what I can learn from you..” It chuckled again. A loud ‘boom’ resonated in the enclosed chamber, and the elder became limp. His green coat became paler until his body was fully lifeless. The entity pulled its finger back and wiped the viscera on the elder’s coat, slightly disgusted.“Thank you for your help in guiding this lost wanderer. You must see your life as a worthwhile investment, helping strangers you’ve never met before. .” It produced a guttural, garbled laughter as muscle and sinew started growing across its body, filling in the gaps and holes.

Its chuckles eventually subsided, and it turned back around to the thing that brought it here.“I managed to hitchhike on their spell, but I can’t have anything else coming out with me, let alone it” He grabbed the edges and pulled them together, visibly struggling as he put his new muscles through their paces. Finally ‘gone’, the creature sighed in relief. “Takes care of that. Now is the time to leave.” As he took a step forward, he heard light breathing. It came from the red-maned unicorn lying on the floor, barely alive. “Ahh still alive, are we?” It pondered silently. “I could kill you, but I’m busy being free. You can have your fun there, although...”

He raised a hand over the young pony, engulfed him in a purple aura, then raised him to meet the creature’s face. The unicorn’s eyes slowly fluttered open. He immediately began screaming in terror, making the entity quickly grab his muzzle closed with two hands.
“So loud. Stop yelling so much!” he yelled as he let go of the unicorn.

“W-what in the name of Tartarus are you?!” The young unicorn yelled in terror.

While the yelling was annoying, hearing the pony incite the name of ‘Tartarus’ was chuckle-worthy to the entity. “I am...the Chaos King, and I am here to take Equestria as my own, as should have happened the first time!” He dropped the young unicorn on the floor causing a pained grunt. “But...perhaps I was too hasty in my actions. I haven’t been out in a very long time, you see.” He cleared his throat. “I need information, and you will provide it for me until otherwise.” He smiled, revealing his row of sharpened and crooked teeth.

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Co author the psychopath
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