The stallion enjoying a good smoke focused on the purple princess before him as he took another slow pull from his hookah, "is there something I can help you with, Princess?"

She hesitated for a bit, "...Yeah. This is gonna sound weird, but your name wouldn't be Storm Chaser? Would it?"

Smoke come from the stallion's mouth in staggered puffs as he started laughing at her question. "Hahaha!...Cough...Cough...Do I look like that clown of a pegasus who would attack a Wonderbolt in the middle of Canterlot? My name's Smokey Vines. Anything else I can help you with?"

Twilight narrowed her gaze at him. Sirens started going off in Twilight's head as she put the pieces together. Nopony else should know the name Storm Chaser. No pony, except Princess Luna. That combined with the fact that the tracking spell brought her directly to him was too much evidence to just be circumstantial. She widened her stance and scuffed a hoof at the ground with a snort. Silence fell over the park. Everypony knew the sound of a pony spoiling for a fight.

Applejack was the first to assume the position and entered a combat stance of her own. "What is it sugarcube?" She asked through her teeth.

"It's him, AJ. I'm sure of it," Twilight declared. "We've been chasing the wrong pony."

Smokey looked back and forth between them as realization dawned on his face. "Well oops. I'm not supposed to know his name. Am I?"

The rest of the girls caught on to what was happening at this point as they began to circle around him. Cutting off all escapes. The other ponies in the park started quickly backing away from the circle of six ponies that had a knack of finding every bit of trouble in town.

"There's nowhere for you to escape, Smokey. We have you surrounded," Twilight announced. "Come with us quietly and we won't have to get rough."

Smokey took one last deep pull of smoke as he stood up, cracking his neck as he did so. "Points for tracking me down with spirit threads, Twilight Sparkle. But I think I'll have to take those back for not getting the jump on me while I was prone. How do any of you hope to protect what you care about when you make such poor decisions?"

"Ya'll ain't in any sort of position to lecture us here buster," AJ growled, muscles bunching up in her legs, ready to spring forward at the drop of a pin.

Smoke leaked out of the corner of Smokey's mouth as looked sideways at the apple farmer. A savage grin creeping across his face. "Why Applejack...Losing one's temper never helped anypony. What would Big Mac say?"

"That's it!" Without further warning, Applejack charged the grinning fool. Determined to pound his face into the ground.

"Don't do it! It's a trap!" Shouted Pinkie Pie.

But it was too late.

Right before She would've connected her hoof with his face, the center of their circle exploded into a cloud of blue smoke. They didn't hear anything connect but they could no longer see either of the ponies. As the smoke cleared, neither pony was still in the circle.

"Wow. It didn't take much to goad her on like that. She may want to consider anger management courses?" Came a voice directly from Twilight's side.

She leapt back from the source of the voice. When had he gotten right next to her? She looked around in a panic but couldn't find AJ. "What did you do with her?!"

"Relax, she's fine." He pointed a hoof to the top of the abandoned hookah, where a tiny Applejack was sitting looking dazed and very confused.

"Poison joke?!" Was Twilight's first reaction upon seeing her shrunken friend.

Smokey whistled at her response. "You ARE a sharp one, lady."

Twilight grabbed at him with her magic, hoping to lift him into the air and end this here and now. She couldn't get a hold of him though. It was like her magic couldn't find anything to grab hold of. "What?! How?!"

"Well this has been fun," he rubbed idly at a shoulder. "Let's do this again some time." He turned and started walking away.

"I don't think so buddy," Rainbow Dash was on him like a flash. He spun to face her even as she tackled him to his back. She growled in his face, "no pony does that to my frien...mffff." Rainbow's words were cut off as she suddenly found her lips locked with the stallion under her. The shock of suddenly being prench kissed made her roll off of him as her face was quickly becoming flush. "What's the big idea?!" She yelled at him as purple smoke started dripping out of her mouth.

The spot she had him pinned found itself short one earth pony even as misty smoke curled around it. They quickly looked around the area, trying to find where the slippery stallion ran off to.

"Careful girls," Twilight said as she scouted the surrounding area. "He's a slippery one."

"Bleh..." Rainbow was rubbing at her muzzle as more and more smoke poured out of it. "What did he do to me?!"

"You mean to tell me no pony's been brazen enough to try and steal a kiss from you yet?"

Pinkie was the first to spot the source of the voice, "Rarity look out!"

Rarity turned around to find the troublemaker standing right over her. She tried to stop his advance with magic but ran into the same problem Twilight did. Her magic just seemed to roll off of him as he planted a kiss on her as well. Her eyes went wide as she pushed him away and started spitting on the ground in a very unladylike fashion. "You brute!" She yelled at him as purple smoke started pouring out of her mouth as well.

Smokey just stood there with an evil grin plastered across his face, making no effort to run. "You two make a cute couple. How close are both of you anyway?" He jumped over Rarity, grabbing her by the barrel as he did so and using the momentum to flip her over his back. Next thing Rarity knew, she found herself airborne and flying headfirst for Rainbow Dash.

Rarity flew through the air towards the prismatic flyer. Rainbow Dash, being the loyal friend she is, made to catch her, but the moment their bodies touched they were enveloped in a cloud of purple smoke.

Twilight slowly approached the edge of the smoke, "girls? Are you ok?"

"I don't know," came a distorted voice from inside the cloud. "I feel funny."

The smoke cleared to reveal a white unicorn with a curly rainbow mane. A pair of white pegasus wings were on her back and her cutie mark was a diamond being split by a rainbow bolt.

Silence ruled the five mares that were previously six. "What the hay!" Shouted Appletiny from the top of the hookah. "Ah git turned into a pip-squeak and they get turned into that?!"

"Oh my stars," came a voice from the newcomer that was clearly sounded like Rarity. "How bad is it, Twilight? He didn't mess up my mane, did he?" She reached up to inspect her mane.

"Who cares if you got a little dusty, Rares." Came the voice of Rainbow Dash as the same pony snapped her hoof down and straddled the ground in a ready stance. "Where did he run off to?!"

"Um...girls?" Twilight carefully approached the strange pony, "is that both of you in there?"

"What are you talking about?" "Whatever do you mean?" Came the dual voice response.

Twilight cringed as she conjured a mirror and held it up to them. A face with one blue eye and one magenta looked back at them from the mirror.

"Ahhh!!!" Came the scream from both of them. "What did he do to my coat? Your coat?! Look at my poor mane. I don't have anything that compliments this look. Rarity, I don't think this is the time to think about clothes. You're right Rainbow Dash. We need to find that scoundrel." They looked around and spotted him as he was running out of the park. "There he is!" shouted Raridash as they spotted Smokey running into the middle of town. They made to chase by both running and flapping at the same time, but their new body had horribly thrown off their balance. All they accomplished was an epic face plant.

"Are you girls going to be ok?" Asked a very worried Twilight.

"Worry about us later!" "He's getting away!" They shouted at her.

"I'll come back for you. Keep Applejack safe." Twilight turned on her heel and chased after the earth pony along with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

"Oh don't worry," said an exasperated Raridash as she laid on the ground, shaking. "We're not going anywhere."

Smokey galloped through the streets of Ponyville. Looking over his shoulder he saw that only three of the original six were chasing him. How had she figured out how she could pull on the strings already? He knew she was reading some primers on the subject a few days ago. But it should've taken weeks at the minimum for her to grasp the subject to this degree. Was it her special talent? Maybe. Either way he needed to find a way to lose them until he could pass on the earth pony spirit he was carrying to his host.

He should be far enough ahead now to pull off a getaway. He spun in place and skidded to a stop as he breathed in deep and channeled earth pony magic up through his body and into his lungs. He wouldn't have been able to use magic to this degree if he hadn't already completed the first part of his mission.

He exhaled hard as he blew a rolling smokescreen over Ponyville's streets, obscuring the sun from his pursuers. Watching for a moment to make sure they got covered up by the black fog, he ran down some side street until he found some crates to hide behind next to one of the buildings.

Taking some time to catch his breath, Smokey sat down and let his weight lean into the crates.

"Hi!" Shouted a cheery voice. "That's neat trick you got there."

He snapped his gaze to the top of the crates, where the Pinkie was looking down and grinning madly at him. How had she caught up like that? What was so funny? Wait...there was something funny about her just appearing there. Just not funny for him. Combine that with some of the earlier antics he'd witnessed already. Only time a pony was able to do the impossible for no reason was...

Eyes went wide as the last pieces clicked into place, "you!" He shouted at Pinkie. "It all makes sense now. You're a seed of chaos!"

Pinkie tilted her head, looking at him crooked. "A what now?" She turned over her shoulder and shouted, "girls! I found him! He's over here!"

Twilight and Fluttershy were violently coughing up the black smoke when they heard Pinkie shouting from a side street. They pushed their way through the fog until they found the alley that Pinkie and Smokey were in. Pinkie was standing on top of a crate and Smokey was...backing away? Backing away and looking at Pinkie with a look of panic and terror.

"Pinkie!" Shouted Twilight. "What did you do? He looked scared."

"I didn't do anything," said Pinkie. "He just spouted some nonsense and started freaking out."

Smokey was backing away from the pink terror, eyes darting back and forth. "Funny. Unexpected. Strange. I need something to twist the chaos," could be heard under his breath in a bare whisper. "Will dark humor work? Twisted humor?"

They all saw him focus his eyes on the yellow pegasus next to Twilight. That creepy grin returning to his face as the manic stance he had taken started to lessen. "That'll work."

"Fluttershy! Run!" Shouted Pinkie as a trail of green smoke traveled up the wall and started pooling behind the girls. Smokey jumped at her from out of the pool even as the body that was standing where he was before started to evaporate.

Fluttershy jumped into the air, unfurling her wings to take flight, but she was a bit too slow as she found a pair of forelegs wrapped around her. The momentum of Smokey's jump carrying them both back to where Pinkie was standing. A cloud of green smoke covered the two of them as they landed, the edge of it just barely missing Pinkie.

"Fluttershy?!" Twilight shouted after the pegasus. "Speak to me!"

"I'm ok Twilight," came a deep voice. "Eek."

The smoke cleared leaving a very embarrassed and suddenly male Fluttershy and an even more confused Pinkie. "That's it?!" Exclaimed the party pony. "You turned her into a stallion?! What's that supposed to accompl...ack!"

A pink explosion of smoke covered both Pinkie and Flutterguy as Smokey dashed past Twilight out of the alley. Twilight tried again to grab him with her magic but still couldn't get a grip on him. What in the name of Celestia is going on?!

"Girls are you ok?!" She shouted as the smoke cleared. "He's getting away, we need to..." Her face instantly went beet red and her wings involuntarily flared back as she stared at the state the two of them were in.

They both had hearts in their eyes as their bodies entwined, seemingly oblivious to the world around them. Flutterguy was gently nipping at Pinkie's neck. Pinkie had a dazed look on her face as he head was thrown back, drool rolling down the side of her mouth. Flutterguy's started to nipple her way down Pinkie's back, eliciting moans of pleasure from her as he made his way down to her...

"Nope!" Twilight levitated both of them apart from each other as she conjured a rope to tie them both up. Both of them making various lude sounds as she quickly tied them up, none of it doing anything good for her either as she started to feel her own heat rise.

"This is getting way too out of hoof," panted Twilight as she desperately teleported the three of them to the library.

They appeared in the lobby of the library. Fortunately it was empty. She didn't need anyone else seeing both of her friends in this state. Quickly teleporting back to the park, she picked up Appletiny and Raridash and dropped them off in the library as well.

Twilight made sure the door to the library was locked before she made her way over to the wall and started banging her head against it.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

"Twi," came the squeaky voice of Appletiny. "Did you catch him?"

"No." Twilight slid to the floor as she started sobbing. "And he's left all of you in this state."

Raridash shook a bit as she stood back up and gingerly turned to look at the two of their friends bound on the ground. "What happened to them?" Came their combined voice, both asking the same question.

"From what I could tell...sniff. He turned Fluttershy into a stallion and then supercharged their libidos. He made his escape as they started to...Sob," Twilight started bawling on the floor. "I couldn't just leave them like that!"

Raridash slowly made their way over to Twilight, carefully pacing each step to avoid tripping any more than they already had. "Twilight," came Rarity's voice from the combined mares. "I think I speak for all of us when I say you need to get back out there and find him. He's hurt more than a few ponies at this point." "Yeah," Rainbow's voice picked up. "We'll hold down the fort until you get back. Now get out there and show him what happens when you mess with us."

"But I've lost the signal. I don't know how to find him now."

"The Twilight we know," came both of them. "Wouldn't quit so easily." She placed a hoof on her shoulder, "now get out there and make us proud."

"You heard em girl, get out there and give em what fer!" Appletiny cheered from the nearby table.

"Ok ok, I'm going." Twilight got up and made her way to the door. She placed one hoof on it before turning back with a small smile on her face, "where would I be without you girls?"

"You still here?!" Appletiny yelled at the top of her lungs. "Git goin girl!"

"Right," and she turned and walked out the door.

Twilight stood in front of the library, searching for threads again. Unlike before, it seemed she was starting to get familiar enough with them that she didn't have to start at one end or the other to be able to find them. It only took a moment to locate one.

As she grabbed it, another emotion started to bubble up within her, this feeling refused to let anypony mess with her and her friends like this. That earth pony had played with her friends, tossed them around like they were small foals and walked all over them like they barely mattered.

This feeling burned from the center of her being and it refused to be simply dismissed as she poured her magic into the thread. As she empowered her hold on it, the thread broke in her grip and turned to face in another direction before reconnecting and making a new path.

A menacing snarl climbed up her face as she honed in on the direction of her prey. The fire inside her continuing to bubble to the surface as small embers flaked off her fur.

The emotion tore through her like a raging inferno.

That emotion, was rage.

This was supposed to be so simple. He pegged the Apple family stallion as a perfectly compatible match too. All he needed to do was wait for nightfall, sneak into the farm house while everypony was sleeping, snatch his magic, and pass it off to his host. It should've been easy enough to do it all in the same night. But then his host had to go and blow himself up, and then have the bad luck of having somepony see him do it.

Smokey was on the edge of the Everfree forest. He leaned against a tree to catch his breath before trying to escape into the forest. He was burned out. That last spell may have been a bit extreme, but a chaos seed isn't something to handle with half measures.

"Maybe I overreacted. I mean, she has been here a long time and Ponyville's still here." He thought about it a bit more,...then facehoofed. Followed by hitting the sides of his head. "I did overreact. Stupid stupid stupid. She's bound to an aspect of virtue. That connection wouldn't let her tear reality apart so easily."

He was kind of hoping that as good a friend as Twilight was, she wouldn't let them take things too far and he could get rid of the last of his pursuers in one shot.

A thread lit up his chest and pointed in the direction of town. "Oh come on! How are you learning this so fast?!"

He should've rested after going into Everfree, it was more dangerous to do so but the wild magic would've easily masked his signal.

Smokey started running toward the signal while preparing the last of his smoke. He hardly had any left in him. Probably only enough for one last big trick before he burned out. Suddenly the line snapped and popped as Twilight appeared right in front of him. Heat washed over him and his instincts screamed at him to move out of the way. He jumped to the side and slid to a stop. He looked back he saw the spot he was just standing and saw that it was now just a bubbling scorch mark as he looked at the mare that almost fried him.

Her coat had turned bleach white while her mane and tail were a blazing inferno. Her eyes?! Oh her eyes had turned blood red as magic cascaded off of her, vibrating the air as it did so.

"SMOKEY!" Raged Twilight. "HOW DARE YOU COME INTO OUR LIVES AND PLAY WITH THEM LIKE THIS! WE WERE ALL HAVING A PLEASANT TIME UNTIL YOU SHOWED UP AND SET US ON THIS WILD CHASE! I HAVE ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH WITHOUT UPSTART VILLIANS THINKING EQUESTRIA IS THEIR PLAYTHING! FOR THE GOOD OF ALL OF EQUESTRIA, IN THE NAME OF ALL THE PRINCESSES...AHHHHHH!!!"

Pain shot through the muscles between her shoulders as she lost her hold on her magic, "what the...?" She tried to turn around as her legs gave out, finding herself pinned to the ground.

The dying fires licked at Smokey's coat and mane as he dug his hoof into the unicorn's magic node which, conveniently enough, also worked on alicorns.

Twilight looked forward to where Smokey was supposed to be standing as her body seized up. The body there was slowly dissolving into smoke. She should've seen that coming, he'd been pulling smoke tricks the whole time she and her friends had been chasing him.

"I realize the irony of monologuing after getting the jump on you for doing the same." Sweat was pouring off Smokey Vines body from the remaining fire that was still dying down. "But do you know why I was able to take all of you down despite only being an earth pony?"

Twilight coughed up a bit of the smoke her body was letting off from her own flames. "It's because of that weird magic you're using, you monster." She got out through gritted teeth.

"No Princess Twilight Sparkle," he leaned down over her and whispered in her ear. "Because at every turn you all demonstrated a lack of control. Applejack lashed out at me in anger and made a bad judgement call as a result. Rainbow Dash and Rarity's personalities are so out of sync with each other that despite them being stronger in the same body, they were tripping over their own hooves. And as for the last two. If Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy commanded better control over their own urges, that aphrodisiac would've been nothing more than mild annoyance."

Twilight hopelessly struggled under him as tears formed in her eyes, "why are you doing this?"

"Because there is darkness in this world, the likes of which none of you are ready to understand. And at this rate," he leaned in and whispered ever so softly, gently tickling the hairs inside her ear. "Equestria will fall."

Smokey breathed deep one more time and glistening white smoke poured over Twilight Sparkle as consciousness was denied her.

Evening was falling as a knock came at the door of the Golden Oaks. The rest of the girls were still there in the library in their altered forms.

"You two gonna get that?!" Appletiny poked at Raridash.

"I'm tired though." "It hurts to move." Said Raridash in her dual speak voice that no one in the room had gotten used to.

Another set of knocks came from the door louder and more forceful.

"All right, I'll answer it." "Fine, I'm getting up." Raridash gently got to her hooves and slowly edged her way to the door, stumbling a couple times but eventually making it there as a third set of knocking started up. She unlatched and opened the door.

The door opened to reveal Zecora standing there holding a small bundle.

"I was worried about bothering you at this late hour," she took in the sight of the anomaly in front of her. "But it seems your case has gotten quite dire."

"You may as well come inside, Zecora." "Yeah we've had better days, Zecora." Raridash inched along the wall to make room for her enter, leaning against the wall for support.

Zecora entered the room with a raised eyebrow as she took in the sight of the tiny pony on the table and the hogtied mare and stallion in the corner of the room with a...rather pungent smell coming off them. "I can see you've had quite the eventful day. I would hear the details, if you may."

"None of us really wanna talk bout it." Appletiny took off her hat started shuffling it in her hooves, abashed.

The bundle Zecora was holding shifted in her grip and soft muffled crying could be heard coming from it.

"Whacha got there?" Appletiny was taking on the job of doing the talking for the room since Raridash looked on the verge of collapse.

"It is the reason for my visit," Zecora set the bundle on the table and started unwrapping it. "Although now I see I must work my magic to see you all are fit."

She finished unwrapping it and a small purple bundle of fur rolled over and sat up.

A filly sized alicorn sat on the table with burns at the edges of her mane and tail as well as the tips of her wings.

Twilight Sparkle looked at the lot of them with tears pouring down her face, "sniff...sniff...I failed."

Author's Note

I'm just gonna say right now, Smokey Vines and this encounter wasn't near as dark and twisted in my head when I parsed out my ideas.

That being said, this chapter was a hell of a lot of fun to write.
Thoughts? Concerns? Cries of anguish?
Leave your comments below, I'd love to hear them.