Friendship is absolute chaos: Fixing a distorted world.

Chapters

Return
United we stand, and hopefully not fall.
Getting ready for a chaotic adventure
The walking hive [part 1]
The walking hive [part 2]
Thanksgiving came early...
A lively city
A dragon can be cute too
Yak-iverse
The sea fortress
Chaosville [part 1]
Chaosville [part 2]
Friendship is chaos and harmony
Chaosville [final part]

Return

Spike and Discord stood at the top of the hill overlooking Ponyville.

"What… what happened here?!" Spike asked.

"I don't know," Discord said.

Ponyville was unrecognizable, clouds covered the ground, houses floated in the air, the ground had eyes, birds flew upside down and backwards, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Well?" Spike asked.

"Well what?" Discord responded.

"Can you fix this?" Spike asked.

"...I'm honestly not sure," Discord said.

"You're not sure?!" Spike exclaimed.

“This chaos… I’ve never seen such congealed and dense chaos,” Discord said “But it’d be a disservice to my friends if I didn’t try!” Discord said before extending his hands and the town began to glow as Discord tried to reorder the chaos magic running amok.

But in the end Discord fell to a knee and panted in exhaustion.

“Discord!” Spike said running to him.

“This chaos is too… much, even for me to corral… no this isn’t even considered chaos… it’s better described as absolute chaos,” Discord said getting up.

“Th-then what do we do? What about Twilight and the others? Maybe if we find them then this can be fixed?” Spike asked.

“I doubt the harmony wave could even scratch this,” Discord said as he began to walk towards the town.

“Wait! Where are you going?!” Spike ran after him.

“We’re not going to find out the issue by standing around dear Spike,” Discord said.

“I guess… is it safe for anypony to go there?” Spike asked nervously.

“Just stick with me, I know chaos better than anypony-” Discord was cut off as the ground spat out an anvil that fell upwards and hit him before turning into birds and they flew off.

“Am I really safe?...” Spike asked.

“Of course, I just haven't dealt with such condensed chaos before, it’ll just take a bit of adjusting to-” Discord was getting up when gravity moved him left and then reversed his movements and speaking tones.

“oK mAYBE a pROBLEM,” Discord snapped his toes and returned himself to normal.

“If it's too chaotic even for you, we’re in trouble,” Spike said. “What happened here?”

“I can only assume they let their chaos bottle up too much, I left specific instructions to filter their chaos every now and then.” Discord said.

“Are you sure you’ve never dealt with something like this?” Spike said, stepping out of the way of a floating toaster shooting ice out of its holes.

“On a much lesser scale yes, I’ve never seen this much chaos however,” Discord said wearily, as he gestured for Spike to get beside him.

“What?” Spike said expecting something bad to happen any second.

‘I need to form a regular chaos bubble, it’ll protect us from any warping effects,” Discord said before concentrating and forming a golden bubble. “Stay right beside me, and no matter what, don’t leave the field,” Discord warned as he moved on.

“Ok,” Spike said.

Discord noticeably grunted with the strain of the chaotic pressure as he walked among the absolute chaos.

“This isn’t so bad, we can fix this,” Spike nervously muttered trying to reassure himself.

“I hope so, otherwise we may be doomed, by the way jump,” Discord said.

“What why-” Spike was cut off when Discord grabbed him and jumped into the air avoiding a moving portal that led to outer space.

“Like I said, we have to be careful of warping, in this mess we could end up anywhere,” Discord said.

“Got it,” Spike said.

As the two moved on they saw more damage, buildings were in the midst of deconstructing and reconstructing, the ground kept developing various orifices, but the most shocking part was the ponies who didn’t make it away from this catastrophe quick enough.

They were objects and various household items with pony legs and eyes just… going about their day?

They looked like hydrants, shelves, brooms, ovens, benches, ect, it was a weird sight indeed, not to mention they were twitching every now and then.

“What’s wrong with them?” Spike said nervously.

“Absolute chaos, they’re so chaos-infused right now their bodies are becoming disconnected from reality, don’t stare too much,” Discord said.

Spike walked past several ponies turned objects who looked like they were going about their day.

“I said don’t stare,” Discord warned.

“Why? They're not doing any-” Spike was cut off when one of the ponies, a green bicycle with eyes, looked at him.

“Huh?!” Spike staggered back.

“Okajhafshjopahfowjoeirwajkljdfngkjf,” The pony bike said in a distorted voice.

“Ahhh!” Spike yelped as he staggered back and he accidentally stepped out of the field.

And he was yanked into the air by an invisible force and tossed in a hundred directions in a minute.

“Spike!” Discord yelled as he formed a chaos lasso and sent it to snag the screaming dragon and he missed, he tried two more times and finally caught Spike before tugging him back into the field.

“AHH!” Spike screamed disoriented and freaking out, Discord smacked him to snap him out of it.

“SPIKE! Calm yourself, you’re back to safety!” Discord said.

“I… I huh? Wh-what happened?” Spike said gasping for air.

“You stepped into the chaotic hornet's nest, that's what, if I didn’t save you you’d have been torn to shreds by the chaos horizon by the next minute,” Discord said.

“I want to leave now,” Spike begged.

“I’m afraid we’re in too deep to leave right now, just climb on my back or something,” Discord said, picking him up with his tail and setting him on his back before continuing.

“Tell me straight Discord, are we going to fix this?” Spike asked.

“I… don’t know,” Discord said.

“I’m worried about Twilight and the others,” Spike said.

“Me too, but I need to focus,” Discord said as he made it to the town center and saw the fountain that was spewing out all kinds of liquids that were turning into colorful bubbles and floating away.

“I can sense we’re really close,” Discord said before noticing a projectile and ducking it, seeing literal ducks flying backwards overhead.

“So if we get there we can fix this?” Spike asked.

“No we’ll know where this happened, fixing it is another case,” Discord said.

“Ok…” Spike mumbled.

Discord walked on and saw the distorted ponies and the town in utter calamity… even the old him would be appalled at the sheer disorder that is occurring right now, and the thought of Fluttershy and the others in big trouble spurred him on.

Discord then arrived at the castle and saw the castle floating in the air and looking like it had shattered to pieces and the shards were just floating around a purple sphere.

“I think we’ve found the core of the absolute chaos,” Discord said.

“Should we destroy it?” Spike asked.

“Not unless you wish to blow the planet to pieces, we need to dispose of it properly, and that’s easier said than done,” Discord said grimly.

“Why?” Spike asked before suddenly the crystals began floating around the sphere faster and they formed into something.

“What the?!” Spike exclaimed.

“So it shows its face at last,” Discord said.

“Discord… how long has it been since we’ve last talked,” the Discord-like face that emerged from the crystals said.

“What is that?” Spike asked.

“Chaos, straight up, the voice of chaos,” Discord said.

“What?” Spike said.

“Let me save you the lengthy explanation, Harmony and Chaos are two sides of the same coin, just like harmony has a voice, so does chaos,” Chaos said.

“But I thought the personification of chaos was you Discord, right?” Spike asked.

“I represent chaos, like how Celestia and the elements of harmony represent harmony, I represent chaos,” Discord explained.

“Recently he’s fallen out of favor, ever since he let that pink-haired whiner lead him down the path of harmony,” Chaos said.

“Do NOT, insult my friend,” Discord snarled.

“Or what? You're going to throw flowers at me? Face it Discord, you’ve lost your edge, and now that you have, I am looking for a new apprentice, and I’m grooming the former guardians of harmony into such,” Chaos laughed.

“You let my sister and the others go! Or I’ll-” Spike was cut off when the face got really close in the blink of an eye.

“You’ll what? You're not a creature of chaos! You can’t even step out of that field of protection without succumbing to me,” Chaos mocked.

“Where are they Chaos?” Discord demanded.

“At their places of abode, still undergoing mental conditioning, they’re certainly making me work for it too, they're too attached to their notions of morality and love and all that garbage,” Chaos spat.

“Let them go!” Spike tried to leap at it but Discord caught him.

“You fool! Have you forgotten what happened earlier?!” Discord shouted.

“Best keep your pet on a leash Discord,” Chaos mocked.

“Pet?!” Spike said indignantly and renewed his struggle, Discord had no choice but to snap his fingers and put him to sleep. As Discord put the sleeping dragon on his back he turned to Chaos again.

“Turn this world back, You know full well what’ll happen to this world if absolute chaos is allowed to run rampant for too long!” Discord said.

“Yes, I do, and that’s fine with me,” Chaos said.

“What?!” Discord said in disbelief, “You know that balance is needed! Without even a smidgen of harmony in the world we’ll all die!” Discord shouted.

“Why should I care? Ponies everywhere never gave chaos a chance, they’re always championing harmony. Harmony this, harmony that! Well I’m sick of it, once my new apprentices are ready I will leave this world to rot and find a new one,” Chaos said.

“You…. I didn’t think even you would resort to that out of petty jealousy!” Discord said with disgust.

“Jealousy? Oh nononono, you have it all wrong Discord, I’m leaving because my purpose here will never be fulfilled, you see Discord, I chose you all those years ago because you were the most chaotic one around, you didn’t disappoint me until recently when you decided to retire and live in harmony, you were my last hope for this world’s chaos, and now, I’m cutting my losses,” Chaos bitterly said.

“L-look! I’ll return to chaos just undo everything!” Discord begged.

“Too little, too late, the first loss I’m cutting, is you,” Chaos growled.

Discord, realizing the danger, now decided to teleport as far away as possible.

He wound up in Canterlot… only to find that the whole city was upside down and spinning… and Chaos was waiting for him there.

“Tch!” Discord then teleported again to the Dragon Lands which had multiple erupting volcanoes, they were spewing chocolate sauce and the dragons there were just like the ponies, changed into random objects with limbs and eyes, only the dragons seemed to be walking in reverse, as if time has become distorted.

Chaos was already there, with a smirk on his crystalline face.

“Want to try again?” Chaos asked.

“Ngh! Leave us be!” Discord said before teleporting to the wastelands and hiding under a rock.

“We’ll be safe here,” Discord said.

“From what?” Chaos asked.

“From Chaos ...ah crapbaskets…” Discord said before fleeing on foot away from the floating crystal face.

“You can’t hide from me Discord, where there is chaos there will be Chaos!” Chaos laughed.

“There has to be a nonchaotic part of the world!” Discord exclaimed while carrying the snoozing Spike.

Just as Chaos was gaining on him he felt teleportation magic forming around him.

“Huh?” Discord said.

“What? No!” Chaos growled and he lunged for Discord but he was teleported just as his crystal teeth clamped down on the space he and Spike were a second ago. “I have to intercept him!” Chaos said before vanishing as well.

Discord reappeared on a crystal floor and tumbled to the ground, he turned sensing an incoming teleport but for some reason, it stopped a few dozen miles away.

Discord looked out to see the crystal face crash into a barrier and shatter before reforming, he looked around before staring at Discord balefully and disappearing.

“What… what happened?” Discord asked before turning and seeing Celestia and a dozen guards.

“Celestia? Oh thank goodness, you are still around, thank you for saving-” Suddenly every spear present was pointed at Discord.

“Oh…” Discord said.

Spike woke up and looked groggy. “Ugh, what happened? Where-” Spike stiffened when he saw a spear in his face and he laid down and closed his eyes.

“Play dead play dead…” Spike muttered.

“Discord… we need to talk,” Celestia said firmly.

“Well… this has been a fun after vacation day.” Discord sighed.

Author's Note

And at last we continue where the last story left off.

I will say that this story will have a few more darker tones in it, but will be full of chaotic whimsy to the best of my ability.

I hope you all tune in for the thrilling conclusion to Friendship is absolute chaos finale

United we stand, and hopefully not fall.

Discord and Spike found themselves being led by Celestia to another part of the Crystal Castle.

“So… uh-” Discord attempted to break the awkward silence.

“Silence,” Celestia said.

“...” Discord grumbled.

“Why am I coming? I didn’t even do anything,” Spike asked.

“You are not in trouble Spike, however you need to hear this too,” Celestia said.

As they walked down to what looked like a map room, Celestia showed them in and stationed herself at what looked like the map from Twilight’s castle.

“You may sit,” Celestia said.

Discord and Spike sat, guards were watching the door and standing behind them.

“What’s with the guards?” Spike asked.

“Insurance,” Celestia said.

“You do know I can beat them all easily right? They are not even-” Discord began to say before Celestia interrupted.

“They’re not for you, they are here as volunteers to go out into Equestria, as such they are needed here as the last bastion of Equestria’s safety, they go out for food and helping ponies come here and be saved,” Celestia explained.

“Why didn’t you say so sunbutt?” Discord sighed.

“I am NOT in the mood to be mocked Discord,” Celestia barked.

“Sorry,” Discord said casually.

“Anyways, as you can see, Equestria is in danger, it seems that the chaos has become so congealed and thick it can literally be cut with a knife,” Celestia said.

“We know,” Discord said.

“What I also know is that this all resulted because of a bet… care to enlighten us Discord?” Celestia asked.

“....Well… a bet and trying to prove a point are similar yet different-”

“Care to enlighten us?” Celestia repeated frustratedly.

“Ok I can see where this is going… yes this is partially my fault,” Discord said.

“Only partially?... tell me, who was it that decided that turning the elements of harmony into chaotic beings was a good idea? Which led to the current state of the world?” Celestia asked.

“Hey now, If Twilight had just gotten over her personal bias and admitted I was right, maybe these current events wouldn’t have unfolded,” Discord defended, Spike looked a little upset that he was blaming Twilight, Celestia even more so.

“I have been so thoroughly stressed out trying to keep the populace I managed to save from panicking and maintaining order while there still is, and you AREN’T helping,” Celestia said rubbing her temples.

“Well tossing around blame isn’t going to get this problem licked sooner,” Discord said.

“Agreed… We’ll deal with that afterwards, for now, I need to know how this will get fixed, I managed to teleport the elements of harmony and combine their powers with the crystal heart to form the harmony barrier, now the question is how long it will last, we are running out of rations and the ponies are growing restless, we need to find a way to disperse the chaos magic,” Celestia said.

“I don’t think it even can,” Discord said sadly.

“What do you mean? Surely there is a way,” Celestia demanded.

“The harmony wave is the only way to possibly fix this chaotic pollution, and even then the bearers are trapped in Ponyville, being brainwashed into new lords of chaos and disharmony, and the chaos is sentient, it will know I’m around, a few mere ponies will know nothing about how to survive in Ponyville, there’s nothing we can do,” Discord said.

“Then… we’re doomed?” A guard nervously said.

“No! Where there’s a will there’s a way,” Celestia said

“Can you stop a world from exploding?” Discord asked.

“What?...” Celestia said sounding shocked.

“Naturally absolute chaos takes months to decay a planet but due to the extra chaos magic it has been shortened, we may only have days left,” Discord said, the guards began to shuffle nervously.

“We need to awaken my sister, surely she can help!” Celestia said.

“What happened to Luna?” Spike asked.

“She was attacked by Chaos in the dream realm and trapped there, I have tried to go in after her but I am forced out each time I try,” Celestia said somberly.

“That is because the dream realm is now under the occupancy of Chaos, I am afraid there’s nothing we can do now."

“W-We’re doomed!?” A guard began to panic.

“Silence! We can find a way,” Celestia said sharply.

“Be real, if we leave this world now we can survive!” A guard shouted.

“Are you crazy?!” Another said.

“I don’t see you coming up with ideas!” The guard barked back.

“I SAID SILENCE!” Celestia said with the Canterlot voice startling the ponies “We are doomed the moment we give up! Discord, if there is a way, any way! We need to try!” Celestia said.

“...I suppose… it’s a long shot, but I could send someone in my place to the places we need to go,” Discord said.

“What?” Spike said.

“Chaos recognizes my chaos signature, but if an unknown were to use my power, the signature would change and he would think that pony a random aberration and ignore it, like I said though that’s a long shot, if he finds out what we’re planning that pony would be killed on the spot to dissuade us,” Discord said.

“K-killed?” A guard said.

“Alright, if it is our only option we need a list of volunteers-”

“Only one,” Discord said

“What?” Celestia said.

“You think I have all the power in the world? We need to send in a fully charged pony, not a bunch of weakly charge ponies,” Discord said.

“One pony could not fix this, we need many!” Celestia said.

“Not happening, they wouldn’t last a day out there, and then we’d be thoroughly screwed,” Discord said.

“Then… who?” Celestia said looking to her guards, all of them had a big no on their faces and looked ready to flee the room.

Celestia sighed and stood straight.

“I will do it then,” Celestia said.

“As good of an idea as that sounds, you wouldn’t last very long either," Discord said.

"Why?" Celestia said.

"You've used the elements of Harmony on it before, it would recognize you in an instant," Discord said.

"How do you know?" Celestia said.

"I've seen absolute chaos before, never on this scale but I have seen it," Discord said.

"Then… who?" Celestia asked sullenly, everypony looked about the room wondering the same thing, then an unexpected voice spoke.

"....I'll do it," Spike said.

Everypony just looked at Spike with varying expressions.

"What?" Celestia said

"Spike, that's very brave but surely you know the dangers, somepony else should go,” Discord said.

“No, If I had been here, Celestia would have known and none of this would have happened, I gotta go and save my sister and her friends if nopony else will go,” Spike said looking at the guards judgingly.

“Spike it is too dangerous,” Celestia said.

“That’s the thing, it’s always too dangerous for me, I get left behind for my safety all the time, and I appreciate Twilight looking out for me but I need to be a big dragon one day, I blame myself for not staying to help Twilight, now I need to make up for it, even if just to myself,” Spike said.

“...A dragon would make for an interesting unknown chaos signature, but still, you're leaping into the lion's den here,” Discord said.

“Then I better bring my meat collar,” Spike said and Discord laughed.

“Very well, I suppose you’ve proven your gusto, very well, Celestia.” Discord turned to her. “Have your guards get together all these materials,” Discord said, conjuring a list of items and handing it to Celestia.

“Why?” Celestia asked.

“I’ll explain later, for now, have them get moving, the sooner we do this the better,” Discord said.

“Very well,” Celestia trotted over to her guards and hoofed it to one and instructed them to go get it.

After the guards leave Celestia trots back to them.

“Okay, this won’t be easy Spike so listen up,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said.

“Celestia, how long before the world is fully subsumed in absolute chaos?” Discord asked.

“Using my magic senses and the rate of spread I determined yesterday that we have only a few days before the world is subsumed and destroyed,” Celestia said.

“A few days?” Spike gulped.

“So this will be our only chance, okay Spike, what you need to do is go into the heart of this chaos, I.E Ponyville, and find your friends, we need to be careful because right now they're not in their right minds,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike responded.

“You need to attach the elements of harmony to each bearer and get them to remember who they are, then hope, just hope that they don’t revert,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said.

Suddenly a guard appeared in the room “Pardon the intrusion, the items and room are set up,” the guard said.

“Okay, follow me everypony, we only get one shot at this,” Discord said.

“Okay,” Celestia and Spike said as they went to the room, as they got there They found multiple bagged items.

“What is this?” Spike asked.

“I’m going to be merging my body and power with you Spike that’s what,” Discord said.

“....What?” Spike said, looking surprised.

“What? This is what you signed up for,” Discord said.

“I didn’t know we were going to fuse or something like that, is it permanent,” Spike said.

“I dunno never attempted it before,” Discord said.

“I’m not feeling very reassured here,” Spike said.

“You're welcome to back out and let another pony save your friends,” Discord dismissed as he used his magic to start forming the ritual circle.

“I…. what does this merging entitle?” Spike demanded.

“I become one with you and you obtain my powers and knowledge, but to be clear, when this happens you may feel urges to commit chaos and run amok, resist that,” Discord said.

“O-ok?” Spike said feeling nervous right now.

“Discord, are you sure?” Celestia said.

“I am, and if we cannot unfuse, then I have one request Spike,” Discord said.

“What?” Spike asked.

“Take…care of Fluttershy,” Discord said sadly.

“Discord, we can find another way if you-” Spike began but Discord cut him off.

“This is literally our only option, and it’s a fifty-fifty percent chance, we got no other options, consider this my atonement in Celly's eyes even though I'm not fully in the wrong,” Discord said.

“...Very well, let’s begin then,” Celestia said.

“W-wait, will I still be myself? Will I remember-” Spike said trying to get to know what is going to happen.

“I don’t know Spike, like I said, I never used it, I may have made it on the off chance I was ready to pass the mantle but I never ended up using it,” Discord said.

“I see… Ok…” Spike said taking a deep breath “For Equestria,” Spike said stepping into the circle with Discord.

“S-so will this hurt?” Spike asked.

“Not at all,” Discord said before glancing at Celestia and nodding, signaling it may.

“By the way if Spike does go rogue because of the chaos magic, I need you to calm him, just letting you know,” Discord said to Celestia.

“Very well,” Celestia said.

“Alright Spike, ready to become a creature of chaos?” Discord asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” Spike said trying to steel his nerves.

“Very well….” Discord said “Close your eyes, and take a deep breath,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Spike shut his eyes and breathed deeply.

“If I don’t see the light of day again, then goodbye, my dear friends…” Discord sighed before beginning.

“Tibi potestatem meam trado, vitam aeternam concedo tibi in chao,” Discord began, and as he spoke the circle began to light up, a wind whipped through the room and heat began radiating off of Spike “sume potestatem meam et exsequere sic missionem tuam, FIO!” Discord said with finality.

He then repeated himself three times and each time he did the circle lit up more and more and it felt like a mini hurricane in the room, Celestia watched in awe as Spike lifted into the air and Discord coiled around him and chanted one more time.

“Tibi potestatem meam trado, vitam aeternam concedo tibi in chao, sume potestatem meam et exsequere sic missionem tuam, FIO!” Discord shouted and a blinding light shone forth.

It filled the room and shattered the windows.

Celestia was laying against the wall and she fell down.

As she got up she saw Spike kneeling amidst the smoke, but Discord was gone.

“Spike?” Celestia warily asked.

“...” Spike stayed there kneeling on the ground.

Celestia got up and trotted over to him cautiously as anything could happen right now.

“Spike are you-” Celestia froze when he spun to meet her, he opened his mouth and he breathed fire at her.

“Huh?!” Celestia hurriedly put up a barrier as the confetti hit the barrier scorching the…..wait… what?

“Hahahaha! You thought I was going to burn you eh Sunbutt?” Spike laughed and rolled around on the ground.

“Spike! What is the meaning of this?” Celestia said, sounding upset.

“Aw, take a joke Celly! Hey wanna play cards? Or eat candy I could go for some candy, Oh! Let’s visit those sourpusses downstairs and livin them up with pranks, all sorts of wonderful pranks ahahahahaha!” Spike jumped into the air and floated.

Showing his new form.

He was still a baby dragon but now he had an antler and a horn, his tail looked like Discord's red scales and a tuft of hair at the end, and he had a pair of mismatched wings and yellow eyes with one slit and one circular pupil.

Realizing Discord's prediction became true Celestia tried to calm Spike.

“Spike, ignore the chaotic urges in your mind, remember your-” Celestia got a pie thrown in her face.

“Boooooring, all this talking is boring, let’s play!” Spike said before running up then along the walls at increasing speeds.

“Spike!” Celestia called out.

“Wheeee!” Spike said ignoring her.

“Spike!” Celestia grabbed him in her magic and pulled him close “You will calm yourself!” Celestia demanded.

“Blah blah blah! Who cares what the boring Princess of the Sun has to say?” Spike giggled and started flying around and bouncing off of the walls like a rubber ball.

“It’s honestly like dealing with a toddler,” Celestia said as several more pies impacted her.

“Whoo hooo!” Spike cheered doing a frontflip in the air.

“How can I get him to center his thoughts?...Wait…” Celestia got an idea and spoke casually. “I suppose that Chaos will destroy the world and thus no more fun for you,” Celestia said.

Spike paused and looked at Celestia with an unreadable expression.

“Twilight and even Rarity is depending on you but if you're going to sit here and goof off then we have no hope then best to lie down and accept fate,” Celestia dramatically said.

“Rarity? Twilight?” Spike said remembering them and all his other friends, and that seemed to help him calm down.

“Are you calmer Spike?” Celestia asked.

“I-i think so,” Spike said.

“Good,” Celestia then walked on and gestured for Spike to follow.

“Are you ok?” Celestia asked.

“I feel… Great! Awesome! Like I wanna-” Celestia smacked Spike to snap him out of it “Thanks, gotta get that under control,” Spike said.

“You do, so tell me, how… is Discord still in there?” Celestia asked.

“I think so, It’s kind of like he’s rattling about my brain, it’s so strange, knowing so much chaos magic when literally an hour ago I didn’t know the first thing about it,” Spike said rubbing his head trying to center his thoughts.

“You possess power beyond that of even me now, it is not a toy, it will be a tool to help save the world,” Celestia said.

“Bout time I got a turn at saving the world,” Spike chuckled.

“I will bring you to Starlight, we’ll discuss our next step with her,” Celestia said.

“Ok," Spike said before wincing.

"Are you ok?" Celestia asked.

"Yes, just a… headache," Spike said.

"Very well let's get moving" Celestia said.

"Nice coverup Spike," Discord chuckled as a see-through apparition visible only to Spike.

"Why did I say that?" Spike wondered.

"Because I wanted you to, I had to make it sound like I was vanishing forever just in case," Discord said.

"In case of what?" Spike asked.

"In case Celestia started asking questions, after all we don't want her or any pony else looking over their shoulders knowing that I could be there watching, ponies are paranoid as is," Discord reasoned.

"I guess, so were you lying about being able to separate too?" Spike asked.

"...No, I'm really not sure if this can be undone," Discord admitted.

"I hope so I don't want you rooting around my head forever," Spike said.

"Hey, maybe we can find the CMC, and make them our agents of chaos, and you can be the new Lord of Chaos and Disharmony," Discord chuckled.

"Be quiet! I don't want the story to get plagiarized," Spike said.

"Oh… you can see the fourth wall too now, so much for that line of jokes…" Discord said sounding bummed.

"Yeah it's weird… it's like knowing we're in a story…that we're all fake, I honestly don't like that thought," Spike said uncomfortably.

"You'll get used to it," Discord said.

"I doubt- oh hang on Celestia is talking again," Spike said.

"Sorry what was that?" Spike asked.

"You didn't hear a word I said along the way to the war room did you?" Celestia said impatiently.

"What can I say I got a lot on my mind," Spike shrugged.

"I do hope this arrangement is temporary," Celestia said with a sigh. "I said that we need to figure out our next move now that you possess the power of Discord, and if you truly possess his knowledge now,” Celestia said.

“Got it, well to be frank I feel like the information is slowly registering like I don’t know everything he knew but I’m sorta learning as I go,” Spike said.

“I see, well we’re here,” Celestia said as they arrived.

Starlight was organizing books and reading them in a quick way, hearing the door opening and closing she turned to see Celestia and Spike.

“Oh hello Celestia, hello… what is that?” Starlight warily asked.

“That’s rude,” Spike huffed.

“Discord performed a ritual that bestowed his power unto Spike,” Celestia said.

“He could do that?” Starlight asked.

“Clearly, now I’m The Lord of Chaos and Disharmony!” Spike said cheerfully.

“Temporarily,” Celestia added.

“We’ll see,” Spike said.

“Why did he do that? And where is Discord right now?” Starlight asked.

“He’s become one with me, as far as I’m concerned he’s a thought in my head now,” Spike said.

“Aww Spike, did you have to say it like that?” Discord said while hovering behind Starlight.

“I see… this is truly an interesting turnaround,” Starlight said.

“As to why I’m wielding Discord's power now, it’s because if he went out there Chaos would be able to track him using his chaos signature, but now that the power is in me, it’s changed and I seem like just another abnormality, now before we get too distracted, what’s the situation?” Spike said.

“Ah, good point, we’re getting off-track, alright come with me,” Starlight went over to the map of Equestria, just a normal map unlike the other.

“So far the chaos spread has covered a majority of Equestria, and each day that goes by it spreads further, we need to find a way to sneak into the center of the chaos, without, alerting the entity, and since we have you we need to think of how we are going to get the coverage we need to do this,” Starlight reasoned.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked.

“I reckon if we manage to free every Element of Harmony from the chaos’s influence we can weaken the chaos subsuming Equestria and transfer the harmony magic of each element to the Crystal Heart, by fueling the heart with enough harmony energy we can create a counter field and revert Equestria back to normal!” Starlight reasoned.

“That could actually work,” Discord admitted.

“Yeah,” Spike said.

“Yeah what?” Starlight asked.

“Uh, yeah that sounds like a good idea,” Spike hurriedly said.

“Hmm, ok? Anyhoo, we have a problem,” Starlight said.

“What?” Spike asked before Celestia cut in.

“We need to breach the barriers all at once and simultaneously fix this, otherwise, Chaos could retaliate before we fix this,” Celestia said.

“I can always make more of me,” Spike said snapping his fingers and making six of him.

“Not likely, the reason is that the elements are the antithesis of you right now Spike, touching them will damage you, let alone all six of them,” Celestia said.

“Crap, I remember Twilight mentioning that she couldn’t touch the elements,” Spike said before merging back into one dragon.

“Then what are we going to do? There’s only one who can enter the bearer's prisons undetected.” Starlight pointed out.

“Well… what if we find new bearers?” Spike offered.

“What?” The two mares questioned.

“Think of it, if we find new ponies… or whoever can resonate with the elements and fix them up maybe we can have new bearers that can help me?” Spike said while subtly high-fiving Discord who told him to say that stuff.

“...That could work… Spike you're a genius!” Starlight said getting to work, writing out a list of possible candidates.

“Let’s get the elements ready for the trip, I will find a method of transportation so Spike doesn’t have to touch them,” Celestia said teleporting away.

“Is there anything I can do while preparations are made?” Spike asked.

“Well… now that you mention it can you come with me,” Starlight said trotting out of the room, Spike floating after her.

As they made their way to the lower lobby area of the Crystal Castle Spike saw a saddening sight.

Multiple ponies were pitching tents setting up corners and occupying the large room, and several other rooms.

There were many familiar faces too, like Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon, Bon Bon and Lyra, Mayor Mare, and many others.

“Wait, where are the other creatures?” Spike asked.

“This and the ponies in town are all that we managed to save before the chaos took over, the rest are swallowed up in the chaotic pollution, which is why we need to get moving,” Starlight said.

“Got it, but maybe I can help?” Spike wondered.

“Hm? Help how?” Starlight asked, Discord meanwhile gave Spike a knowing look.

“A party!” Spike said flying into the air.

“Huh? Spike! Get back here!” Starlight called after him.

The other ponies looked up to see Spike hovering over them and they all grew restless.

“What is that?” Diamond Tiara nervously said.

“Are we in danger?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Worry not quadrupedal mammals, I bring, FUN!” Spike then summoned his powers and made the room glow before a big magical poof made a party set-up.

“Huh?” Starlight said seeing this.

“Hungry? Let me take care of that!” Spike made tables of food appear “Bored? I gotcha!” Spike created an arcade in a room. “You all don’t have to worry, because I am going to fix the problems in Equestria and save everypony!” Spike cheered.

Everypony saw the party and began to cheer up a little as they went ahead and started to party.

“Whoa… he did more in one minute than me and Celestia did in several days,” Starlight said impressed as she saw Spike flying around and helping ponies out.

Celestia came running into the lobby with the elements.

“Worry not my subjects, we have found a...solution?” Celestia said confusedly as she saw the party “Spike! Stop this party at once, we have an important objective-” Celestia wanted to go retrieve the partying dragon but Starlight got in her way.

“Let them have this, the ponies needed this,” Starlight said.

“But the world is in-”

“The world can wait a few more hours, right now he’s cheering everypony up, this way we’ll have less ponies making complaints in the future about this ordeal,” Starlight said.

“...Very well, I suppose a cure for their flagging hopes was in order,” Celestia said sitting down with Starlight and watching Spike fly around and conjure more methods of entertainment.

Author's Note

If you guys are a fan of Chaos Spike, then here ya go! I got some comments suggesting a chaotic Spike at one point and thought 'Why not?' So now Spike can survive in the chaotic realm.

Tune in tomorrow, where a poll will be featured in the author's notes determining the course of the story.

Till then, stay frosty! :raritystarry:

Getting ready for a chaotic adventure

After the party Spike set up started to die down Spike walked over to the edge of the party and sat down.

“Whoo, that felt good, eh Discord?” Spike said.

“Rightio, heads up buzzkill coming our way,” Discord gestured to the approaching Celestia and Starlight.

“Hey Princess, hi Starlight,” Spike said.

“Hello Spike, I suppose I should thank you now,” Celestia said.

“Why?” Spike asked.

“Because thanks to you the other ponies here seem less depressed and they’re better fed now,” Celestia said.

“Yes, that’ll make it easier to keep the masses calm,” Starlight asked.

“Yeah, hey, now that I think about it where’s Shining Armor and Cadance?” Spike asked.

“In the Crystal Heart chamber, they are watching the Crystal Heart so that Chaos cannot attempt to breach the Crystals Barrier,” Starlight explained.

“I guess that’s why I haven’t seen them, so what now?” Spike asked.

“I have the elements, I magically tethered them to the Crystal Heart, as you seek out the new bearers I ask that you be careful of the dangers, especially since your going to be alone." Celestia said.

“Ok,” Spike nodded “Can I visit Shining Armor and Cadance first, in case something goes wrong?” Spike asked.

Celestia winced at this “Believe me when I say it Spike I shouldn't be barring you from seeing them but they are located at the crystal heart right now and with your current chaos powers we don't know what could happen, please understand," Celestia said.

"Wha- then bring them here," Spike said.

“And make them leave their post? What if Chaos launches another attack?” Celestia said.

“Then I stop him! Let me see my brother!” Spike’s eyes began to turn red, Celestia noticed and seems guarded.

“Spike, calm yourself, you're letting your chaotic emotions run wild,” Celestia subtly lit her horn.

“I AM CALM!” Spike said huffing and puffing, making multicolored fire emerge from his mouth.

Starlight remembered what happened when Twilight lost control… she went ballistic and nearly vaporized her, she had to do something! Starlight lit her horn and conjured a tub of ice cream.

“Let me see my brother or I will BURN YOU TO A-” Spike was cut off as the tub was splattered into his face.

Spike shook the ice cream off and looked disoriented.

“Whoa… what just happened?” Spike asked looking dazed.

“You nearly attacked Celestia in a fit of rage because she wouldn’t let you see your brother at this time,” Starlight explained “Thank goodness Cadence shared the location of her ice cream stash with me,” Starlight sighed.

“Whoa… uh, sorry Celestia,” Spike said.

“It is fine, but I hope you understand the reasoning why I feel it would be dangerous,” Celestia said.

“I guess, can you tell him I said hi at least?” Spike asked.

“Ok,” Celestia said hugging him.

“Thanks,” Spike said hugging her back, after the hug Celestia handed a backpack to Spike.

“A backpack? Are you sure this will keep the elements safe?” Spike asked.

“Yes, it cannot be opened by anypony else but the one wearing it, it’s durable and it hides magical signatures, it’s ideal for this journey,” Celestia said.

“Gotcha” Spike nodded and then Starlight gave Spike a map.

"You can teleport around but I figured this will help,” Starlight said.

“Thanks,” Spike said “So this is where I head off eh?” Spike said floating into the air.

“Not quite yet, you need this,” Celestia floated a gem over to Spike.

“What’s this? A snack?” Spike was about to eat it but Celestia pulled it away from him.

“Nono, it is a communication stone, it will enable us to communicate with you, just use your magic to activate it,” Celestia said, Spike nodded and put it in his bag.

“Alright, well, any last words of encouragement?” Spike asked.

“I’ll be in communication shortly to see how the exit of the barrier went, if anything goes awry, come back in, got it?” Celestia said.

“Yeah,” Spike replied before remembering something important.

"Wait a minute what about Luna I just realized we never got back to her," Spike said turning to Celestia.

"We can help her once we can reactivate the elements, so I beg of you, hurry while she still has time," Celestia said.

"Ok," Spike said with a nod.

“Good luck Spike!” Starlight said.

“Alright! See later! Hopefully…” Spike said before teleporting.

Spike reappeared on the edge of the crystal barrier.

“Spike? Can you hear me?” Celestia’s voice called over the crystal.

“Yeah, I can hear you,” Spike said.

“Where are you right now?” Celestia asked.

“Just at the edge of the barrier, as instructed,” Spike said as Discord walked up beside him.

“Now’s the moment of truth,” Discord said.

“Let’s keep our fingers and hooves crossed,” Spike said as he stepped forward.

“Be careful Spike,” Celestia assured.

Spike exited the barrier and felt the oppressive weight of the chaos around him and it forced him to a knee, he managed to stand up and it got easier over time.

Spike readied himself to jump back into the barrier on the off chance Chaos was ready to pounce…

Spike glanced all over the ruined landscape and saw no sign of the chaos personification.

“I…I think we’re in the clear,” Spike said into the crystal before spinning to check if the opposite was true.

Still nothing.

“I…I think it worked!” Spike said happily.

“Whew…” Discord sighed heavily.

“Thank the sun, we aren’t done for then,” Celestia said.

“Alright, now let’s get going, we’ve got three objectives,” Spike said making three numbers appear.

“First off, we need to find new bearers… but where?” Spike asked.

“Why didn’t you check any of the ponies back at the castle?” Starlight asked as Spike began to walk.

“Because none of them seemed to resonate, I got… intuition,” Spike said glancing at Discord.

“Darn right,” Discord said.

“Second we need to get into Ponyville and free the elements,” Spike said “and then, lastly, we need to subdue Chaos,” Spike said.

“A good plan Spike, and I think I know what to do,” Discord said.

“Spill it,” Spike said pocketing the crystal for now.

“Let’s go pay a curtain shrub a visit,” Discord said.

“Huh?” Spike said quizzically.

Spike teleported to a cave and he looked around for the ‘shrub’ Discord mentioned.

“In the cave Spike, but let me do the talking, and don’t get too close,” Discord said.

“Ok?” Spike said as he followed Discord into the cave of harmony.

As Spike and Discord entered they saw a giant crystal tree, Spike could see the chaos trying to subsume the tree but the light the tree is exuding is extinguishing the chaos magic.

“The tree of harmony?” Spike said quizzically.

“That’s right, now stand back, I got to have a conversation,” Discord said approaching the edge of the light.

Spike wondered what kind of conversation they were going to have, maybe he’ll hear ancient secrets, or maybe-

“Hey! Tree! Wake up we need to converse!” Discord called shattering Spikes's thoughts.

The tree lit up more and a glow emanated from the tree and a silhouette emerged.

“Huh?” Spike said seeing a pony he desperately wanted to see.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike ran for the pony that looked like her.

“Spike! Wait!” Discord called and Spike immediately felt burning pain as he entered the light.

“OWOWOWOW!” Spike retreated out of the light.

“You're a chaos being now, the light of harmony is harmful,” Discord said.

“Yes, it is best for now that you keep your distance young Spike,” Harmony said.

“Huh? ‘Young Spike?’ Why do you sound like that Twilight?” Spike asked.

“That’s not Twilight, she is merely taking her form to have a means of communication,” Discord said.

“What?” Spike said confused.

“And what brings you here Discord? Come to mess the world up more than it is now?” Harmony said bitterly.

“Whoa whoa, it isn’t all my fault you know, but besides the point we need your help,” Discord said.

“To locate new bearers?” Harmony guessed.

“...Yes,” Discord said.

“How’d you know?” Spike asked.

“My intuition, and my ability to know what’s going on throughout the land… did you know the Hippogriffs are experiencing a storm of fudge in the distant lands of the Hippogriffs?” Harmony casually said.

“Sounds tasty,” Discord said wryly “Can you help?” Discord asked.

“I can,” Harmony said.

“I’m sensing a but coming…” Discord said.

“But, why should I trust you… especially after last time,” Harmony said with a glower.

“Last time?” Spike asked turning to Discord.

“Oh come on! The world is at stake and you're going to still bellyache over me deserting you to work for Chaos?” Discord said with a sigh.

“I’d say you have yet to fully regain my trust,” Harmony said.

“Then trust him” Discord said pointing to Spike “I’m just an echo of my spirit now, surely you can trust Twilight’s #1 assistant,” Discord said.

“You can take control of him at any time, how do I know?” Harmony said back.

“He can?” Spike said sounding surprised.

“Yes, but I haven’t, I haven’t once gone rogue-” Harmony raised a brow. “-...Since the Tirek incident… can’t you forget and forgive? Isn’t that what you do?” Discord said.

“Even abstract concepts of universal balance have forgiveness limits,” Harmony said.

“The world is about to die! Can we settle this afterwards?!” Discord yelled.

“Only when you give me a reason to trust that you won’t revert to the Discord that only ever cared about fun at the expense of others!” Harmony said.

“You call yourself the abstract of Harmony!? Where’s your forgiveness?” Discord said.

“I-” Harmony began but Spike stamped his foot and shouted at a tone that almost surpassed the Canterlot voice.

“SHUT UP!” Spike shouted silencing both of them “Discord, we need to get things moving and insulting Harmony isn’t going to make her want to help us more, but more than him I’m disappointed in you!” Spike said pointing at Harmony who took a step back.

“Spike!” She said narrowing her eyes.

“My sister and friends are being brainwashed and hurt and you can’t look past your dislike of Discord's past to help us? They're your bearers! Care about them and all the innocent lives that could be lost first, then hash things out with Discord, I can’t believe I even have to question you of all ponies,” Spike said panting from his outburst.

Harmony seemed a little stunned by his words. She looked to the side for a second to consider it and then nodded.

“Very well, you carry a point Spike, perhaps I let my bitterness speak for itself, I will trust Discord once more, all I ask is that you not let Chaos win,” Harmony said.

“Thanks,” Spike said.

“Thank you…” Discord said.

Spike levitated the elements out of his backpack and floated them over to the tree.

“You need this right?” Spike asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Harmony then grabbed them in her own magic and put them in their slots.

Afterward, her eyes glowed and then she floated the elements back to Spike.

“I have located the ones who will be the new bearers,” Harmony said.

“Who?” Spike asked.

“Give me a second,” Harmony levitated six crystals to herself and began using another crystal to carve something onto them. Afterward, she floated them to Spike.

And on the crystals were the images of a dragon, a yak, a griffon, a hippogriff, a pony, and a changeling.

“Hang on… are they those six youngsters who applied for the friendship school?” Discord asked.

“Yeah, the one Twilight tried to open up, had a rocky start, strange that didn’t get mentioned in the previous stories,” Spike said.

“Well it was summer vacation, and they're not notable enough in this part of the series, yet” Discord reminded him.

“Alright, let’s go with that,” Spike said.

“And they currently reside in their home countries right now, with varying circumstances, time is of the essence, collect them and bring them back here, I will fix them of any chaos ailments,” Harmony said.

“Gotcha,” Spike said assuredly “We need to get going then Discord and locate the students,” Spike said.

“Ok, and uhm… Harmony?” Discord asked.

“What?” She asked.

“Thanks for helping us, even though you don’t like me,” Discord said.

“It’s fine,” Harmony said.

Spike and Discord exited the cave and looked at the map, Spike summoned a marker and marked the spots he needs to go to.

“Alright, Where to first?” Discord asked.

Author's Note

Things are heating up, and now the journey toward repairing the planet can resume.

On that note, let's start the poll. In the comments, tell me...

Where to first? You guys can craft this story's path, now craft away! :rainbowdetermined2:

Trottingham
Dragon Lands
Changling Hive
Yakastan
Griffonstone
Mount Aries

The walking hive [part 1]

“Hmm… I’m thinking the Changling Hive, the audience wanted that one the most,” Spike said.

“I’m still getting used to you being able to see them,” Discord said.

“Well get used to it, we’re going to be seeing a lot of that from here on out,” Spike said before snapping his fingers and teleporting.

Only to end up on the peak of an upsidedown mountain.

“Huh? Didn’t I aim for the Changling Hive?” Spike said confusedly.

“You're forgetting Spike, this world is consumed in absolute Chaos, the landscape has changed,” Discord said.

“Then how do we get there?” Spike complained.

“I don’t know, this is chaos beyond me,” Discord said before going into thought. “Although, if we can find a way to trace the hives signature we can attune it to us and locate it… problem is we need a Changling for that,” Discord said.

“Isn’t chaos meant to break the rules?” Spike complained.

“Even chaos magic has rules Spike, no changing that,” Discord said.

“Great! Where do we find a Changling….” Spike said trying to think if there were any Changlings left near the school, but as far as he’s concerned many of them have yet to integrate out of the hive.

“Hmm if only there were more that lived in…town…wait… I GOT IT!” Spike said.

“Spike, I can read your mind, You're not seriously thinking of going back to Ponyville are you? If Chaos sees us the whole operation is kaput,” Discord said warningly.

“There’s a Changling that lives there though, if they never left since Cranky’s wedding, then we have our source!” Spike said.

“That’s literally a one out of a million chance, what if they left at some point, or during the attempted takeover by Chrysalis?” Discord said.

“Well, do you have any better ideas?” Spike said knowing he doesn’t.

“Oh… fine! But if everything gets botched it’s on you,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Spike said flying off towards the direction of Ponyville at the speed of Rainbow Dash and leaving a plaid contrail.

“Alright, we need a plan to avoid being detected by Chaos,” Spike said.

“I could make a cursory scan of Ponyville to detect any Changlings, I am a spirit now so I shouldn’t emit enough chaos magic to be detected, but there is a risk that Chaos will sense something is amiss if he senses an outside chaos signature such as yourself so close, we need to keep hidden,” Discord said.

“Got it,” Spike said as Ponyville soon appeared over the crest of some trees and he got behind a giant rock.

“Ok Discord, get searching,” Spike said.

“Ok,” Discord said before flying into town.

“Ok, it’ll be okay… please work,” Spike said keeping an eye peeled for Chaos.

Discord floated through the distorted town, he looked to see multiple objects with pony legs walking around and in random directions.

“Ok, if I were a lingering Changling, where would I hide?” Discord said before flying around and through multiple walls, seeing various sights.

“Let’s see a room smothered in honey, nope, a room with ponies that have random animal heads… nope,” Discord mumbled as he floated through each wall of each building.

Discord then poked his head in the Mayor's office but hurriedly pulled it out “Gonna pretend I didn’t see that,” Discord said leaving.

Spike teleported from one cover to another, one boulder he was behind turned out to be a giant snail that immediately started singing something called the star-spangled banner, what luck.

Spike hid in a tree and poked his head out.

“No sign of Chaos,” Spike muttered.

As Spike made his way to another cover he felt a change in the atmosphere of the area.

“Is it him?” Spike asked before seeing a light in the forest, Spike knew he shouldn’t but something in him urged him to investigate, making himself invisible he snuck into the multicolored bushes and approached the light.

And he saw a strange sight indeed.

Strange hybrid animals seemed to be guarding a giant pink sphere with a butterfly on it.

“Is that where Fluttershy is?” Spike asked.

He saw a flamingo with a snake neck and head, a bear with rabbit legs, and even a giant flying fish.

They all had this zombie look in their eyes, which can only mean Chaos is having them guard it.

Then Spike heard a noise and he looked up and saw Chaos descending, he eep’ed and hid quickly.

Peeking out he saw Chaos hovering around Fluttershy’s prison.

“Be unkind… hate everyone… when you get blocked show them you rock…try being mean for a change…” Chaos muttered as he hovered around the sphere.

“He’s trying to convince her to give up on kindness,” Spike said.

Discord had flown around town at least three times, but no sign of the Changeling.

“I guess I was right, no Changelings,” Discord said as he flew around, not a single building had a Changling.

But as he was leaving Discord paused and wondered about how they were going to find the Hive without them… Spike will be pretty disappointed… “I suppose I could attempt a full town scan with what magic I still possess in spirit form, but that runs the risk of us being found out…” Discord tried to think of what to do…

‘Discord,’ Spike’s echoing voice said in his head.

“Yes, Spike?” Discord responded.

“I found Fluttershy,” Spike said.

“What? Where?” Discord asked.

“She’s in a magical prison,” Spike said.

“I know that,” Discord said.

“But her animals are being used as guard dogs, and I think I can hear her crying, are you going to give up just because of this?” Spike questioned.

“...Touche,” Discord said before using his now-limited chaos magic to scan for signatures.

“Thought he needed convincing,” Spike said sounding satisfied.

“Hmm? Who’s there?” Chaos demanded before vanishing.

“Discord, hide! He’s coming!” Spike said.

“Almost there…” Discord said as he continued scanning, and the scan led to one place, a marriage hall.

“Huh? I already checked- crap!” Discord quickly flew into a building and hid and at the same time Chaos popped up and looked around.

“Hmm…. Must have been nothing,” Chaos said as he floated back to Fluttershy’s location.

Discord popped his head out of the house and sighed before flying to the marriage hall, he got in there and looked around thoroughly.

“I don’t get it, the signs pointed here…” Discord said as he looked under a floating chair.

As he looked around he saw the podium and he scratched his chin before sneaking over there and knocking on the floor beneath the podium… it was hollow…

“I get it…” Discord said.

Spike was sneaking back to his hiding spot in the trees, he climbed a tree and hid in the leaves.

“Discord, come in, have you found the Changeling we need?” Spike asked when he got no response he tried again “Discord? Discord where are you?” Spike said.

Fearing the worst he got ready to go in after him.

Until he saw Discord running through town with a tuba.

“I found him!” Discord shouted and behind him were several rabbit bears.

“Crap their out here too?!” Spike said, he didn’t like it but if they are caught out here then it’s all over!

Spike teleported into town and grabbed Discord and teleported away, he also teleported the Rabbit bears.

Spike wound up back at the cave of harmony.

“Spike?” Harmony said running to him, but pausing before getting too close as the light would hurt him.

“I’m fine! Quickly! We have company!” Spike said turning to the several rabbit bears who looked confused as to where they were before recentering their attention on them.

“Very well,” Harmony exuded her light and bathed the creatures in it while Discord covered Spike.

When the light extinguished there were a couple of rabbits and bears who looked dazed and they collapsed.

“It was wise to bring them here, they could have revealed your presence, Spike, were you successful in your initial goal?” Harmony asked.

“Yes, we were!” Discord said before shoving the tuba in Harmony’s hooves.

“What is this?” She asked.

“A Changeling, apparently he hid underneath there from all the hysteria,” Discord explained.

“Alright,” Harmony then used her magic to turn the tuba back into a Changling.

The Light blue Changling then hit the ground and got up slowly.

“Ugh… what happened?” He asked.

“We did,” Spike said approaching him.

“What are you?” he asked warily.

“Oh come on, I’m not so deformed that nobody will recognize me right?” Spike asked.

“He is Spike, Twilight's loyal assistant,” Harmony said.

“Aren’t you Twilight?” The Changling asked.

“No I’m-” Harmony began but Spike cut her off.

“We’re getting off track, point is your hives in trouble Discord gave me his powers and now I’m going to save everyone, I need your help,” Spike said.

“How can I help?” The Changeling asked.

“I…How can he help Discord?” Spike asked.

“We take a sample of his DNA and use it to trace wherever there are a lot of Changelings,” Discord said.

“Ok, what’s your name?” Spike asked.

“Kevin,” Buzz said.

“Cool, we need a DNA sample to find and help your people,” Spike said.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” He said warily.

Spike sighed “Look, Thorax initiated a no-shift day to learn to teach the hive to learn to appreciate themselves, I helped set that up and have yet to tell Twilight,” Spike said.

“...Thorax did say the only one he told about this was his friend, Spike, so you are Spike? What happened?” Kevin asked.

“Not important! Just trust me!” Spike said.

“Ok ok,” Kevin said getting up and breaking off a piece of his chitin, “I was overdue for a shed anyways,” Thorax said.

“...You could have just given me a drop of blood or spat in my hand,” Spike said grossed out when he hoofed him a piece of his carapace.

“No way I’m giving my blood to a random person,” Kevin said.

“I said I’m… never mind, thanks,” Spike said taking the chitin and leaving.

“Good luck Spike!” Harmony said.

“I will,” Spike said rentering the chaos-infected world.

“Alright, I think I’ve assimilated enough knowledge to do this,” Spike said before focusing and the chitin glowed and then formed a light sphere and floated away quickly.

“Ok!” Spike said floating after it.

It went by surprisingly fast and Spike ultimately found himself at Ghastly Gorge, Spike went up to it and looked around before spotting something ahead that made his mouth drop.

“What the?!” Spike said.

The Hive had legs and was moving across the Gorge towards him, Spike had to float away to avoid being stepped on.

As Spike looked on he saw the moving hive and knew one thing, the first leg of his journey… is on something with legs…

Spike then flew after the hive and landed on an outer edge.

“Oook, never been in a moving castle before, hope Thorax and the others are alright,” Spike said as he moved into there.

He went through some tunnels and entered another and another…

“I think we’re lost,” Spike said.

“In a world of chaos, getting lost is easy, it’s finding the way out that is tricky,” Discord said.

“Alright, where do I go?” Spike asked.

“Well, maybe-” Discord was cut off by a distorted voice.

“Ksejdaehjdaiohjdiohjdneowrf” A voice suddenly spoke from the dark.

“Huh?!” Spike and Discord said as they saw something approaching.

“Ready yourself, Spike, there’s no telling what it could be,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said.

The being entered their view… and it was a goose.

“Huh? A goose?” Spike asked.

“Pqwjdakasjdlakdajmikw,” The goose said before a flash of fire turned it into a tiger.

“Whoa!” Spike teleported as the tiger pounced, the tiger turned and tried to pounce again but it flashed once more and turned into a mouse and tumbled at Spike’s feet.

“Huh? What’s happening?” Spike asked before hearing more garble from the tunnel and turning to see more random animals.

“KHJDFHOILAWSJDIOAS,” A polar bear said.

“LAJSNLASKDLJADDIJOJENWUIEH” a bird tweeted.

“Oanjoiadjsiopdajiophdfjaodw,” a…giant ant said?

Suddenly the animals all shifted again.

“I think… their all Changelings, and they're trapped in some kind of neverending shift involving animals?” Discord said.

“How’d you figure that?” Spike asked retreating down another tunnel to avoid the animals trying to capture him.

“I can understand a little of their chaotic babble,” Discord said and Spike looked at him. “It’s my one hundred and fifty-fourth language,” Discord shrugged.

“Well, then why are they attacking us?!” Spike yelled as he ran.

“Because their minds are being affected by Chaos! We need to get moving! Teleport!” Discord said.

“Where?!” Spike asked.

“Anywhere!” Discord said.

Spike snapped his fingers and teleported as a jaguar nearly got his tail.

Spike wound up in a tunnel that was divided in two.

“Whew, I think we lost them,” Spike said as he continued on, picking the left path.

“Yeah,” Discord said.

Maybe float ahead just in case, I don’t want to be surprised again,” Spike said.

“Alright, just don’t expect much help,” Discord said as he flew down the corridor.

“Wait! I didn’t mean to leave me alone!” Spike said running after him.

Spike ran for what felt like a few minutes before he saw Discord around a corner of a cave exit, and Discord waved for him to pause.

“What?” Spike said.

“Chaos really messed up the place,” Discord said as he looked ahead into the main hive room.

Spike peeked around him and saw something unsettling.

“What happened here?” Spike said as he saw what looked like a giant bug monster and a dozen other Changelings with animal heads pushing carts full of crystal into a tunnel.

The room was a giant throne room yet it had no ceiling and it was raining multicolored rain.

“Odd,” Spike said before noticing the giant beetle-like bug and seeing similarities to an old friend.

“Wait a minute, that monster is Thorax!” Spike gasped.

“Hmm, did he do something with his hair?” Discord asked.

“What do we do?” Spike asked warily.

“Don’t look at me, you’re the one who’s friends with the guy,” Discord said.

“Hmm… I got an idea then, one so crazy I’d say you're rubbing off on me,” Spike said.

“What?” Discord asked.

Author's Note

Part one of the Changling Hive.

Hope you all eagerly await the next chapter. :heart:

The walking hive [part 2]

Spike’s idea was crazy, but he went ahead with it.

He snuck through the room avoiding being seen by teleporting from rock to rock.

He did an action roll between a rock and landed against the wall and began scaling it like a legit lizard.

He got up high enough and stared down at the crystal carts being transported by the manipulated Changelings.

“Ok, we need to find out which one is Ocellus,” Spike said looking around.

“They can’t see me, let me check,” Discord flew among the Changelings and looked at their body colors and size.

“What are you doing?” Spike asked.

“Seeing which one is Ocellus, I am very good at this,” Discord said as he flew around.

The monster that was Thorax seemed to detect something, it began flicking its tongue… it tasted emotions in the air…

It looked up where Spike was…. And saw a stalactite on the broken ceiling. The creature glanced around looking for the source.

“Discord,” The stalactite whispered, “I barely hid in time, have you found her?” Spike said.

“Almost… nope… not that one…” Discord said before hearing a voice speak loudly elsewhere.

“ASDOIJASDIJDOWWQNJLKWNQ,” A female voice said.

“‘Hurry up you maggots’? And why did that voice sound familiar-... oh…” Discord saw a blue Changeling with a panda head speaking into a speakerphone.

“If that isn’t her I don’t know who isn’t, although why is she acting different?” Discord said before sneaking over to her and waving to get Spike’s attention, Spike looked at Discord and he pointed to the panda-headed Changeling.

“Ok… it’s showtime,” Spike said before turning into a Changeling with a fake panda head on his head and sneaking down into the line, knocking another Changling off of it and pushing his cart.

“Nothing suspicious here…” Spike said.

The giant Changling monster noticed the scent's location changed and focused on the Changling groups.

It noticed a particular changeling and leaned in to sniff it.

“Crap, he noticed me too soon, plan B,” Spike said before stamping his hoof and suddenly every Changling's head looked like his.

“KSJASSDN?” The monster growled.

“Real subtle Spike!” Discord said.

“Shut up!” Spike said before trying to maneuver closer to Ocellus.

The giant monster that is Thorax began skimming every Changeling that passed him.

“Hurry Spike! Before he finds you,” Discord urged.

“Quiet,” Spike said as he got close enough to Ocellus that he was under the ridge with her above him.

“Only got one shot at this,” Spike muttered nervously as he paused beneath her, watching the monster Thorax carefully.

“C’mon c’mon!” Spike thought.

“Spike!” Discord said seeing the Changelings behind him getting impatient.

“Aakjnsjk” The monster said and just when Spike thought he was going to be discovered a Changeling stumbled which caught his attention.

“NOW!” Spike thought and he morphed his hoof into a claw and snapped it to make the ledge crumble and Ocellus fell into the crate Spike was toting. Spike then tapped her on the head to make her fall asleep and turn her invisible.

All this was accomplished before Thorax looked back.

“Package retrieved,” Spike said in his head.

“Ok,” Discord wiped his brow.

“Now I just need to get out of here…” Spike said.

“....Please tell me you didn’t do all this without an escape plan,” Discord asked.

“No………..yes, but I got chaos powers now, I can just teleport out right?” Spike asked as he let some Changelings pass.

“Not unless you want to be discovered,” Discord warned.

“Then what do I do?” Spike said as he tried to maneuver away from Thorax.

“Alright, didn’t want it to come to this, but I guess I need to use my limited influence on the world to save the day,” Discord cracked his knuckles and flew to the ceiling and used his magic to break the stalactites on the roof, none over the Changelings but enough to cause a ruckus.

The Changelings scattered in a panic and Thorax looked around for the disturbance and left his throne.

“Now Spike!” Discord whispered.

“Ok!” Spike turned invisible as well and grabbed Ocellus’s cart and ran for an exit.

It wasn’t fast enough as Thorax saw a cart moving on its own toward a cave.

“UQPMXMVBNVBVBWUQAL” Thorax shouted in his garbled voice and began chasing Spike, using the taste of his emotions in the air to track him.

“Crap! The distraction didn’t work!” Spike yelled as he took to the air and grabbed the unconscious Ocellus in his magic and he flew down the tunnels as Thorax pressed down the tunnel after him.

“THORAX! BUDDY! I know I don’t look the same but it’s me!” Spike called to Thorax.

“WEBREBOOSADFF” Thorax said.

“What?” Spike said looking at Discord.

“Something about orders!” Discord said.

Spike flew from tunnel to tunnel and used his magic to collapse the tunnel several times to block Thorax but the monster just plowed through the blockages.

“I can’t slow him down!” Spike yelled.

“The cat’s out of the bag! Teleport!” Discord said.

“Ok!” Spike said before snapping his fingers and teleporting just as Thorax nearly got him with his jaws.

Spike reappeared outside of the hive and he fell out of the air and tumbled to the ground with Ocellus.

“Ow!” Spike said as he crashed into a tree.

“You ok?” Discord said flying up to Spike.

“Yeah, how’s Ocellus?” Spike said getting up.

“She’s fine,” Discord said.

“Good, let’s get out of here before-” Suddenly a loud booming noise echoed about the area.

“Now what?” Spike wondered turning only to go rigid at the sight of the Changeling hive proceeding towards him.

Not only that but it has developed a skull-like face on it that roared at him.

“Not good!” Spike said grabbing Ocellus and flying away as fast as he could.

The hive pursued him crushing the forest around it as it chased after Spike.

“How do I beat this thing?!” Spike panicked.

“Try using the size of the hive against it!” Discord said.

“How do I do that?” Spike asked before noticing a shadow over himself and he yelped as he narrowly dodged being stepped on by the hive.

The hive opened its mouth and released a swarm of Changelings.

“Oh great!” Spike said before using his magic to create a barrier stopping the Changelings from reaching him, but the bulk of the Hive smashed through.

“Give it the slip!” Discord suggested.

“The what?!” Spike called back.

“Tie its laces together!” Discord clarified.

“Oh… I get it!” Spike said before flying back around and avoiding a leg of the hive and several Changelings.

Spike used his magic to form a large rope and he sped up, he wrapped it around a leg and began to spin around the hive multiple times.

The hive tried to hit him but he was moving too fast and soon its legs were caught.

The hive tried to move after him but the rope restricted its legs and it fell over, crushing the forest around it.

“Score one for the dragon!” Spike cheered.

“Don’t celebrate yet Spike,” Discord warned.

‘Why?” Spike asked before a hole was busted out the side of the hive and Thorax exited it.

“Oh…” Spike said before darting away as the giant bug tried to pursue him.

“Thorax! Stop!” Spike yelled as Thorax and a swarm of Changelings pursued him, Thorax ignored and slashed his mandibles at Spike who swerved underneath it.

“He won’t listen to me!” Spike said.

“We gotta lose them before they discover the cave of harmony!” Discord said.

Spike was about to agree before an idea came to mind…

“Are you crazy Spike?!” Discord demanded.

“Just trust me!” Spike said before conjuring a note and a quill and swiftly writing a note before using his messenger fire to send it.

Afterwards, Spike continued to flee at fast speeds from Thorax and the other fifteen Changelings.

He led them into the Everfree forest, where trees were floating upside down.

Spike led the monsterized Thorax into an open space and paused.

The giant beetle monster reared up and roared and struck with its mandibles at Spike several times.

Spike avoided by teleporting around and he created a line of flames to keep it back.

The monster hissed and tried to leap over the flames but Spike’s plan was ready.

“NOW HARMONY!” Spike called.

Suddenly a light bathed the area and the monster looked and saw it was right next to the cave of Harmony and it screeched as the light burned it.

Spike then flew up to the panicking Changelings and used his chaos magic in conjunction with Harmony to forcibly strip them of the chaos magic.

The monster shrieked as it shrunk down and all the Changelings morphed back to normal.

Spike then teleported them all into the cave and when he got there he saw the changelings were back to normal including Thorax and Ocellus, he sighed before he collapsed.

“Whew…. That was not easy… everyone cool?” Spike asked sitting up.

“Oooh…” Thorax groaned and got up.

“My king!” Kevin ran up to Thorax.

“What happened?...” Thorax asked.

“Your back!” Spike said with relief that his plan worked.

“I can’t believe it actually worked…” Discord sighed in relief as well.

“How did we get here?” Thorax asked.

“You don’t remember?” Spike asked approaching.

“Uh… and you are?” Thorax asked the strange dragon-like creature.

“Oh come on!” Spike sighed.

“Wait a minute… Spike?” Thorax asked.

“Yes!” Spike said exasperatedly “If even you have trouble then I might just need to wear a nametag,” Spike said looking a little red.

“Easy Spike, remember your chaotic emotions,” Discord advised.

“Your right your right… Long story short Equestria is in peril because of a crystal face and chaos magic and you were turned into a giant bug by it and nearly ate me, I absorbed Discord's magic to work undetected.” Spike said.

“Oh… is that it?” Thorax said confusedly.

“We should focus on the one I needed to save first, Ocellus,” Spike said, turning to Ocellus who was still sleeping, with a snap of his fingers she woke.

“Huh?... where am I?” Ocellus asked.

“Hey Ocellus, there’s quite a story that needs to be told for clarification,” Spike said.

“Who-” Ocellus said when she saw Spike.

“Spike, and Discords magic,’ Spike said before she could finish that sentence.

“Allow me,” Harmony said before helping her up and guiding Ocellus to the tree for a private conversation, the other present Changelings joining them.

“Well, glad that’s solved,” Spike said.

“We still have five more before we can attempt to ‘solve’ this,” Discord said.

“Then let’s get moving… Where to next?” Spike asked

“Well…” Discord said, pondering for a moment.

Author's Note

Spike saves some of the Changelings and Thorax and Ocellus, but he's far from done yet...

Where to next my friends!? :pinkiehappy:

Trottingham
Dragon Lands
Yakastan
Griffonstone
Mount Aries

Thanksgiving came early...

Author's Note

Let me warn you this chapter is weird yet funny with some twinges of dark.

I hope you all enjoy the chapter me and Alex worked on and be sure to vote on the next location afterwards.

And give credit to Grimmy Weirdy for the idea.

https://www.deviantart.com/grimmyweirdy

Thanksgiving came early...

“Griffonstone? Interesting choice of location,” Discord said.

“Cater to the crowd I suppose, next stop land of the bird cats,” Spike said before marching towards the exit.

“Wait!” they turned to see Ocellus running up to them.

“Sorry Ocellus, but you can’t come,” Spike said.

“I know, but I heard from Harmony of what’s been going on and I need to know, did you see my family there? At the hive? Are they okay?” She pleaded.

“I’m going to be honest I’m not sure, my main goal was to retrieve you and Thorax if possible, but with your help we can fix everything, we need to get the rest of your friends first though,” Spike explained.

“O-ok,” She said sounding worried about the hive.

“Alright, let’s go,” Discord said and Spike nodded before getting ready to leave, before pausing.

“Wait a second, where are we going to get a DNA sample of a griffon? Gallus was the only griffon who lived in Ponyville,” Spike pointed out.

“Good point… what do we do?” Discord pondered.

“Um… if you don’t mind,” Ocellus said approaching from behind.

“Yeah?” Spike questioned.

“I overheard, you said you needed a DNA sample for what again?” Ocellus asked.

“Well I need a DNA sample to locate the lands of the other students to find and help them,” Spike explained.

“I-i can help then,” Ocellus said.

“How’s that?” Spike questioned.

“I-i…. please tell nopony this but… I like to collect… mementos of my friends, in case I lose them,” She admitted sounding embarrassed.

“...What?” Spike said both interested and grossed out.

“I know, it must make me a freak but, I got a scale from Smoulder, a feather from Gallus, a hoofchip from Yona, and another feather from Silverstream, and a hair from Sandbar… please don’t hate me…” Ocellus begged.

“Hate you? I should be thanking you, you have saved us a ton of trouble!” Spike exclaimed.

“Talk about plot convenience,” Discord rolled his eyes.

“Where is it?” Spike asked.

“Back at the hive…” She admitted.

“...Well, at least we know where it is,” Spike said, “is it alright that we have a DNA sample to track your room?” Spike asked.

“Ok… please only look for a small pink box,” She said.

“Why-”

“Please,” She said firmly.

“Oook,” Spike said with his hands up, Ocellus then broke off a small chunk of her carapace with a wince and hoofed it to Spike.

“I hate it when they do that,” Spike said.

“Sorry,” She said.

“It’s fine,” Spike said before waving them off and heading for the exit, Spike had to make the looong journey back, thank the sun for chaos magic being able to give one super speedy flight or this would take forever.

Spike landed behind an indigo tree and saw the Changelings swarming out from their hive and trying to break the chaotic rope restraining their walking hive.

“Ok… Discord?” Spike asked.

“Yeah?” Discord asked.

“We need another distraction, watch my back,” Spike said creating a second Spike and sending him off.

“On it!” Discord saluted.

The animal-headed Changelings and the ones that were changing into random animals were using sharp rocks to cut the rope.

Before they suddenly heard rocks falling. All attention was shot to the fake Spike waving at them before running off.

The Changelings hissed and flew after him.

The real Spike snuck into the Hive by turning intangible and flying through the side of the hive.

“Ok, now where is her room?” Spike said following the trace carefully until he came to a room.

It looked as distorted as everything else, but he saw a nightstand floating by.

“Hmm, it could be in there,” Spike said floating up to it, before pausing.

“Only look for a small pink box,” Spike remembered Ocellus saying, he didn’t want to invade her privacy any more than he was already, so he ignored the nightstand and floated around the room looking until he saw a pink box, deciding that must be it he grabbed it and flew back out through the walls.

“Well that was easier than before-” Spike paused when he got outside and found himself surrounded by Changelings.

“I did my best,” Discord admitted.

“Of course…” Spike sighed before snapping his fingers and making smoke fill the area in a burst.

The Changlings scattered and searched but Spike had teleported to safety and snuck off while the Changlings searched.

“Hah, suckers,” Spike said running off.

Spike got to a safe area and turned a rock into a key before using it to open the box and find the samples.

“Ok, little grossed out but to each their own,” Spike said picking out the feather and using the trace spell to lead him to Griffonstone.

“Ok! Let’s go!” Spike said anticipating what he was going to face.

He crossed several mountain ranges with his own chaotic version of the rainboom… chaos boom? Spike Boom? You get the point…

Spike landed at the base of a cliff.

“Ok, the path leads up from here," Spike flew upwards to the top of the cliff, the whole way he was dreading what he might find… will he find bizarrely shaped creatures? Strange weather? Or some land of eldritch nonsense in which there is no escape with ones sanity intac-

BKAW!

“WHAAA!” Spike yelped as he flew backwards seeing what can only be described as a literal large and raw pre-thanksgiving meal turkey nearly nailing him out of the air as it leaped from the cliff wall and onto another.

“What the absolute hay?!” Spike exclaimed before hearing clucking noises not wanting to look but having no choice Spike used his magic to light up the cliffside and he saw a swarm of those giant undercooked turkeys making chicken noises.

"This is hands down the weirdest thing I've ever seen… like I can't even tell what I'm looking at…" Spike said.

"I believe the human world refers to this as Thanksgiving… even though it's July…" Discord said

The clucking turkeys jumped from their perches and tried to divebomb Spike.

"AAAAAHHHH! Spike yelled as he flew around avoiding the deadly rain of poultry.

"Get to higher ground!" Discord exclaimed.

"Ok!" Spike dodged another turkey and flew up avoiding more and finally getting over the top of the cliff and saw what's become of Griffonstone.

There's no other way to describe it, the place looked like it had been replaced with a lush green land with weirdly shaped trees and houses that looked like ovens and lakes made of… stuffing and gravy?

"Ok… weirdness level has been officially turned up to eleven…" Spike said.

"This is to be expected, the further the world decays from the chaos pollution the less sense everything will make," Discord said.

"Then we better hurry," Spike said flying to the ground and running.

As Spike rounded a corner he saw more of the killer birds and hid.

He saw one of the turkeys gorging itself on the stuffing from a stuffing lake.

Once it was full it wandered past Spike approached a house oven and climbed in before the oven turned on.

"If this seriously gets any stranger I'll puke…" Spike said.

"It's like they're cooking themselves for a feast or something… for who though?" Discord questioned.

I don't know but I should get out of here before they decide that I'm fit to be stuffing," Spike muttered before moving on.

Spike made his way through a forest with strange trees and saw more of the turkeys, so Spike quickly turned himself invisible and laid low.

As Spike followed the trace to hopefully find Gallus and get out of this place Spike came out of the forest and saw a large field where the turkeys were walking around.

These ones were different though, they had wings.

The magical sphere led him into that field so he followed it.

"You don't think these turkeys are the griffons right?" Spike asked.

"Griffonstone is mainly inhabited by Griffins and I don't see anything else here besides evil turkeys so it has to be," Discord said.

"And the changelings only had random transformation to deal with this is almost humiliating for the proud Griffins," Spike said before he bumped into a turkey and became visible involuntarily.

"Huh?!" Spike exclaimed, as his invisibility fell.

"BRAAAAWK!" The turkey clucked angrily.

"Oh dear! They've got an anti-magic field surrounding them! Run!" Discord exclaimed.

"Ok!" Spike tried to run but the bird lunged and ate him in one bite.

"Oh no, Spike!" Discord exclaimed.

"Discord? Help!" Spike yelled as the Turkey ran off with him inside it.

"Hey! Get back here you fowl beast," Discord said chasing it.

"Hey you! Spit me out right now!" Spike demanded.

"Don't be so stubborn Spike. Soon we'll be cooked together into a single delicious meat-pie Spike! Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Said Gabby's voice from all around him.

"Gabby?!" Spike exclaimed

"Isn't it wonderful Spike?" She said dreamily.

"Gabby you're corrupted with chaos magic!" Spike said trying to reason with her.

"Of course I am! I was in Griffstone, now I'm a delicious turkey dinner ready to be cooked and served! And you get to be my stuffing!" She said casually.

"That's horrible!" Spike said.

"It's fun! I've done it a dozen times already! I'm gonna stuff myself even more this time! Maybe It'll be a cake next! Or ice cream! Or chili! I'm not bound by anything anymore! Whoopie!" Gabby cheered.

'At least I don't have to worry about being cooked, I once took a nap in Twilight's oven and came out not even noticing it'd be on.' Spike thought.

Gabby was speaking to him, respond, maybe he could still reason with her?

"Gabby! If harmony isn't restored Equus is gonna explode!" Spike said.

"Explode? I haven't done that yet!" The turkey exploded, in several little Gabbys... Spike landed on his rear, the little Gabbys in a circle around him and all said together. "Come on Spike! You're chaos too! Great new look by the way! Totally cool! You know total freedom for a little while is better than living on and on in some boring predictable world!" she said.

The little Gabbys then joined back together like they were playing cards being shuffled back into a deck, Gabby grew several times her size, but now her rear was avian with wings, and her front was feline. "Besides, we'll just glue ourselves back together! I thought chaos was nothing but trouble too... griffins being selfish and mean, and Discord made me the griffionist bully greedy griffin in history when he twisted everything before the rainbow fixed me... but now I AM chaos." Gabby said sinisterly.

“No, your just corrupted! Right now you're not even Gabby! I need to find Gallus to fix this,” Spike said trying to leave before she cut him off.

"That's right! I'm New Gabby, and I LIKE being New Gabby! Just like YOU like being New Spike? Don't you?" She then turned into a tiny kitten with gigantic gut-wrenchingly cute and innocent eyes. "You wouldn't want to make someone never heard from again would you?" she said in a high-pitched voice.

“N-no!” Spike said a little perturbed.

“You're just holding back your REAL self Spiky-Wickey." Gabby shape shifted into a gray version of Rarity with a blue mane. "Stop being a stick in the mud and join the fun!"

“...” Spike had to admit, being chaotic is fun… and- NO! Twilight and the others need him! “Sorry Gabby, but no,” Spike said squaring up.

“Awww, you party pooper!” Gabby said turning into a giant multicolored dragon.

“Whoa….” Spike said backing up, Discord caught up to Spike panting and gasped as he saw this.

“Spike… you didn’t happen to do this did you?” Discord asked.

“No, at least I don’t think I did,” Spike said.

“Oh dear… I think she assimilated with the chaos magic! Run!” Discord said.

“Sure thing!” Spike turned and flew off as the Gabby dragon roared and began to chase.

Spike ran through the field and any nearby turkeys scattered as Gabby ran through the area after Spike.

“Come back here Spike!” Gabby roared.

“Why is she trying to attack me?!” Spike asked as he flew faster.

“Remember how out of control you were when you first got chaos powers?” Discord pointed out.

“Yeah?” Spike said.

“I’m thinking she’s out of control too!” Discord said.

“How do we calm her?!” Spike demanded.

“Ice cream! Remember?!” Discord reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” Spike said remembering that ice cream calmed angry chaos beings.

So Spike flew higher and searched around while Gabby flew after him, shifting into a manticore with a party hat and a wedding dress on.

“We can be buddies in chaos, Spike! We don’t need saving after all!” Gabby spoke out.

“Come on! Stuffing lakes, gravy ponds with gravy boats, lakes of cranberry sauce, where’s the ice cream?!” Spike said as Gabby shifted into a three-headed giant flying squirrel with wings.

“Get back here Spike!” She shouted, taking a swing at Spike with her claws.

“Yikes!” Spike swooped under her swing, she bit her teeth at him a few times and Spike teleported a good distance ahead of her.

What she did next he didn’t see coming.

She puffed up her cheeks until they were gigantic and blew a power gust of wind at Spike knocking him out of the air and sending him flying into a rainbow-colored waterfall.

“Nooo!” Spike yelled as he splashed down, before popping his head out and shivering.

“Wait… cold, creamy… this is ice cream!” Spike said, glad something is going his way this time.

Looking up he saw the flying squirrel monster fly above him and drop down with the intention of body slamming him.

“Wait for it,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Spike responded.

Spike waited a few seconds and she was nearly upon him before he snapped his fingers and teleported.

She slammed down on the ice cream and made a huge splash.

Spike reappeared about a mile into the air and watched carefully… then suddenly, he saw a familiar griffon crawl her way out of the ice cream and collapse.

“Gabby!” Spike exclaimed flying over to her.

“Spike, be careful,” Discord warned.

Spike reached Gabby and she slowly stood up and shook her body to shake off the ice cream sticking to her coat.

“Ugh, what happened?” Gabby asked.

“Gabby?” Spike asked as he flew into view.

“Spike? Hey, I just had a dream about you, I was a turkey and I was having so much fun in a chaotic no rules world and-” Spike cut her off.

“That all really happened,” Spike said.

“Hmm?” Gabby tilted her head “So, we’re really in a no-rules world?” She asked looking giddy.

“Oh no, don’t get crazy on me again,” Spike said.

“I mean, why fix what ain’t broken?” She asked.

“Because the world is going to explode if I don’t!” Spike clarified.

“We could always glue it back together, right Discord?” Gabby asked.

“Huh? Wait, you can see him?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, he’s right next to you,” She said.

“It makes sense, after all she seems to have bonded with the chaos magic in her body thanks to her naturally chaotic disposition and her contact with a lord of chaos,” Discord pointed out.

“Is that how it works?” Spike said confusedly.

“Clearly,” Discord said.

“So… I have Discord powers now?” she asked

“Limitedly it seems, since you got yours an unnatural way, I can assume it’s more limited than Spike’s magic,” He said.

“You're sure? She turned into a giant dragon,” Spike said.

“You really don’t know the limits of your own chaos power do you?” Discord said knowingly.

“Not really,” Spike admitted.

“Well you better learn them, if you're going to showdown with Chaos in the future,” Discord said.

“Wait, what if I don’t want things to return to normal?” Gabby said.

“Gabby, please just help us, my sister and friends are in trouble and I don’t know what else to do but find Gallus and the others to help,” Spike said.

Gabby looked conflicted upon hearing this, but after a few minutes of thinking she looked back.

“Ok… But on one condition,” She said.

“Yeah?” Spike said, relieved she was helping.

“I get to keep these powers,” She said.

“Deal,” Spike said.

“I hope we don’t regret this,” Discord muttered.

“Alright, where is Gallus, surely you know,” Spike questioned.

“I saw him earlier over by the gravy pond, follow me,” She said as she flew off.

Spike flew with her and the two seemed to cover alot of distance with their quick flight.

When they got to the gravy pond Gabby flew to cover.

“Gabby?” Spike questioned.

“Follow me,” She said.

“Ok,’ Spike then flew with her to cover and they landed in some bushes.

They poked their heads out of the peppermint-scented bushes and saw the gravy pond where multiple turkeys were bathing in gravy.

“Not the oddest sight i’ve seen today,” Spike admitted sadly.

“There he is,” Gabby pointed at Turkey off to the back of the pond, splashing around the edge.

“Alright,” Spike said getting ready to fly.

“Wait!” Gabby said.

“What?” Spike asked.

“There are some other things, the gravy is boiling hot, so don’t go into it, there’s something swimming in there too,” Gabby said.

“Ok, we ready?” Spike said.

“Nope, I have to do some damage control first, so your on your own here,” She said.

“What?” Spike said before Gabby teleported.

“...Ok…” Spike sighed.

"It's rather nice actually... having creatures who LIKE being chaotic now that they've had a taste of it," Discord said wistfully.

"Maybe you coulda done that instead of tormenting everypony like they were your toys," Spike said sardonically.

"Hindsight is 20/20," Discord said.

Spike flew out over the gravy, carefully watching the clucking turkeys.

A few tried to grab at him with their featherless arms but he stayed out of reach.

“Alright Spike, just keep your eyes on the turkey we need,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said… Before suddenly the gravy exploded behind him, Spike spun to see a giant snake emerging from the gravy, only it had Grandpa Gruffs face on it.

“What the?!” Spike exclaimed as the giant Gruff snake roared at him and lunged to eat him.

“Ah crap!” Discord said as they flew around the snake’s head and hurried off towards the shore.

“Where did Gallus go?!” Spike asked having lost track of him amidst the scattering turkeys.

“Over there!” Discord pointed to a turkey that was climbing a tree to escape.

The giant snake splashed down and pursued Spike across the gravy lake.

Spike frantically flew with his plaid contrail away from the snake and he got to the edge of the pond just in time to avoid its bite.

He flew up to the tree Gallus was scaling and grabbed him before flying off.

The snake chased them through the forest and Spike struggled to hold the thrashing clucking turkey.

“Discord!” Spike called.

“I don’t know what you want me to do?!” Discord said.

The snake snapped its teeth at them several times and Spike was panicking, before he could think of an out suddenly an anvil fell on the snake's head.

“Huh?” Both Spike and Discord said looking up and seeing Gabby.

“Run ahead Spike! I’ll catch up!” Gabby said before turning into a dragon again and landing on the snake as it recovered.

“Gabby!” Spike called.

“I got this! Go!” She called.

“We have to move!” Discord said.

“But Gabby-”

“She’s giving us an out, let’s go!” Discord said.

“...Ok…” Spike said as he flew back out of Griffonstone while Gabby fought the giant Gruff serpent.

Spike was panting as it wasn’t easy carrying a struggling turkey all the way back to the cave of harmony.

But he managed.

When he got back he placed Gallus on the ground, in the cave, everypony present stared at the odd sight of a giant raw bird thrashing on the ground.

The turkey clucked, got up and tried to flee but Harmony appeared in front of it and flashed her light to turn him back.

Gallus tumbled to the ground and looked sick.

“Ooohh….” Gallus groaned.

“You okay Gallus?” Spike asked, Gallus, answered by getting up, turning and vomiting stuffing onto the ground.

“Ugh!” Spike said.

“Tell….nobody…” Gallus said before collapsing.

“Gallus!” Spike said running up to him.

“Let him rest, it was quite the ordeal in Griffonstone,” Harmony said.

“And a weird one at that,” Spike said before noticing some griffons in the group now.

“Huh? Where did they come from?” Spike asked.

“Gabby brought them here,” Harmony said.

“Oh… so that’s what she meant,” Spike said.

“You should rest too Spike, that was not an easy run you had,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said agreeing, before he heard a voice.

“Spike?” Celestia’s voice called.

“Celestia?” Spike said picking up the communication crystal.

“Oh thank goodness, we’ve been trying to contact you,” Celestia said sounding relieved.

“What’s up?” Spike said.

“You need to hear this, we’re still tracking the chaos spread and found it’s speeding up! We need to hurry up,” Celestia said.

“Ok, I guess we need to skip the break then, i’ll hurry,” Spike said.

“Thank you, Spike,” Celestia said before the transmission cut.

“So much for a break…” Discord sighed.

“No time, where too next?” Spike reached into his backpack and pulled out the box of DNA samples.

A lively city

Spike pulled out a green hair and used his magic on it to form a trace.

“Alright, next up… where does Sandbar live again?” Spike asked Discord.

“I’m not sure, but I believe last I heard he was visiting his uncle in Trottingham,” Discord said.

“Trottingham then!” Spike said flying after the trace which flew off further into Equestria.

Several hours later Spike arrived and was quickly weirded out by what he saw.

Everything looked as it did before, no floating buildings, no bizarre creatures, the only chaotic thing was the sentient objects with pony legs and eyes.

“What the?” Spike said as he landed and walked around “This place looks… normal?” Spike said sounding relieved after his bizarre experience with the living clucking turkeys.

“Spike!” Discord said sounding alert.

“What? I’m just relieved that we may be getting a break for once-” Spike suddenly fell to the right with a surprised yelp.

Spike tumbled through the air and into an alleyway that suddenly morphed into a mouth.

“WHAT THE HAY?!” Spike said before teleporting before the teeth could snatch him.

Spike teleported to the sidewalk and staggered back as he saw several buildings uproot themselves and sprout legs.

“Oh come on! I was just happy about getting a break!” Spike complained.

The buildings tried to step on Spike who flew away from the stomps.

“What’s happening!?” Spike cried as a building fell forward trying to crush Spike and he had to teleport out of the way.

Spike flew high and managed to avoid a building that tried to ram him out of the air and when he was high enough he saw the town had a dozen walking buildings that replanted themselves in the ground.

“What… what is going on?!” Spike panted.

“I tried to warn you, the city is alive!” Discord said as he caught up.

“It’s what?” Spike said before a great rumbling occurred. “Now what’s happening?!” Spike asked

“Oh no, RUN!” Discord shouted as he flew off.

“What?” Spike asked as he saw two whole blocks of the town separate from the ground and swing upwards.

Spike only realized then what was happening…

This part of the town was forming into one giant maw!

“CRAAAAAAAAAAP!” Spike yelled as he shot upwards with superspeed and he had to maneuver around several buildings and he saw a shrinking window ahead.

“COME ON COME ON!” Spike yelled and he narrowly squeezed through a narrow gap and escaped the city's mouth.

Spike flew over to the hills outside of Trottingham and crashed into the ground which stretched like rubber and flung him into the distance.

Spike landed and caught his breath.

“What… Happened in there?” Spike breathed.

“The city seems to have become sentient, luckily it doesn’t seem tied to Chaos in the sense he can see us through it,” Discord said.

“That was insanity!” Spike said.

“Welcome to absolute chaos,” Discord said.

“How am I going to fight an entire city?! This will be impossible!” Spike demanded.

“Well find a way or everypony is screwed,” Discord said.

“Alright…” Spike said with a huff he began pacing back and forth.

An hour passed and Spike still had no idea.

“Well?” Discord asked.

“I don’t know! Fighting an entire hive was enough but all of Trottingham?!” Spike exclaimed.

“Beats me, but if you don’t think of something soon, we’ll be in trouble,” Discord said.

“...” Spike took some more time to ponder and slowly… an idea formed.

“I sense an idea forming,” Discord said.

“Yes…” Spike said.

Spike wandered back into Trottingham, what was different however… was what he was wearing.

“Your sure Spike?” Discord whispered.

“If the city thinks I’m just another aberration then it might not hurt me,” Spike said.

“Good luck then,” Discord said.

Spike wandered into the city, as for what he was wearing… he looked like he was wearing a fire hydrant with his legs sticking out.

“Ok… be careful,” Spike said and he hesitantly approached the very edge of the city that nearly ate him.

“Please for the love of all that is good work,” Spike said putting his foot on the gravel.

Immediately he felt a rumbling.

“Great…” Spike sighed and got ready to run but then he saw what seemed like all the graffiti in the alleyways were moving across the walls towards him.

“Discord, what’s happening?” Spike asked.

“The town senses an unfamiliar presence, just act natural,” Discord whispered.

“Ok…” Spike then started walking like he didn’t see all the graffiti following him.

He noticed on the wall an eye graffiti watching him.

“So that’s how the city sees things…” Spike whispered.

“Alright, now remember, as long as you don’t act suspicious, we won’t be found and crushed,” Discord said.

Spike wandered for what felt like half an hour.

“Anything yet Discord?” Spike whispered as the eye was still following him.

“We’re going in the right direction, Sandbar’s trace is nearby,” Discord said.

Spike followed Discord for what felt like another half an hour and he arrived at an intersection.

He stood among several other curious items, like a doll that split into smaller dolls, and bear-sized gummy bears and a cactus, and so many more weird sentient objects.

“Just act natural,” Spike said, feeling the graffiti eye’s stare on his back.

Spike waited and saw the crossing light turn green.

“Ok-” Spike began to walk forward into the road but a loud beep was heard and Spike narrowly jumped back from an upside-down carriage driving in reverse nearly hitting him.

“Whoa!” Spike said.

“Way to be subtle Spike,” Discord said watching the eye observing him curiously.

“But the light was green, for trotting,” Spike said.

“Spike, this world is meant to not make sense,” Discord said.

“So we cross on red?” Spike gave a sigh.

“Fraid so, you're lucky the city hasn’t declared us a threat yet,” Discord said.

“Ooook,” Spike said seeing the light turn red.

The sentient objects began crossing, Spike followed and crossed the street hurriedly.

Spike turned a corner and then came across a spiraling street.

“What are we dealing with Discord?” Spike asked.

“Don’t walk on the street, walk through the air,” Discord said.

“Why?” Spike asked.

“It’ll seems strange to the city if you don’t,” Discord warned.

“And this isn’t?” Spike said walking forward and he hesitantly stepped on the area where the road wasn’t.

He was literally walking on air and he walked in the spiral.

“This is so weird,” Spike said “The last two areas were nothing but survive against the odds, but this time it’s all covert operations,” Spike said.

“Weird how this stuff works out,” Discord said.

Spike walked and found himself in a strange intersection.

Some carriages were moving at the speed of light, while others were moving at the speed of a snail.

“Should I just fly over?” Spike asked.

“If you want the city to discover you,” Discord said.

“Yeah…” Spike agreed and he took it carefully, like that frogger game that one-eyed triangle introduced him to when he was in the crystal dimension.

Watching carefully for the slow-moving carts he slowly stepped around each one until he got to the other side.

“Are we there yet?” Spike asked.

“It’s around the corner,” Discord pointed.

As Spike moved to go to the house Sandbar was at, an eye that was watching him narrowed its eye suspiciously, and a piece of concrete raised up slightly and Spike tripped on it.

“AH!” Spike yelped and when he hit the ground the helmet on his fire hydrant costume fell off.

Spike was groaning as he got up and he looked to see the wall staring at him… all eyes were on him…

“If only this show allowed swear words…” Spike muttered before turning invisible and running.

An echoing rumble shook the city and the eyes began darting all over the place looking for him.

“Well, this isn’t fine at all!” Discord said as he ran alongside Spike.

“Gee ya think?!” Spike said before hearing another rumble and suddenly concrete slabs began erupting out of the ground beneath him.

“AAAAH! How did it find me?!” Spike questioned.

“I don’t think eyes are all this city has!” Discord pointed to a graffiti ear listening for him.

“Dagnabit!” Spike said as he took to the air and entered communications with Discord.

“With the city on high alert we need to communicate through thought,” Spike said.

“Good plan,” Discord said.

Where’s the house of Sandbar’s uncle?” Spike asked.

“Over there!” Discord pointed at a faded yellow house in the neighborhood area.

“Ok!” Spike said flying through the air quietly, apparently he wasn’t careful enough as he accidentally rustled a tree’s leaves as he flew by, this was seen by a nearby eye and immediately a dozen concrete hands erupted out of the ground and rushed forward to get him.

“Crap!” Spike said as he dodged the hands and flew through the house wall creating a hole.

Spike looked around and saw several eyes and ears appearing in the walls and floors of the house, but no Sandbar in sight.

“Psst, check upstairs,” Discord said, Spike nodded and silently flew upstairs and fazed through a door, finding himself in a colts room.

“Ok… where is he?” Spike asked looking at the messy room, he thought he wasn’t here when suddenly he saw a traffic cone exit a closet with Sandbar’s legs.

“Found him!” Spike accidentally said outloud.

“SDJDAQI?!” The cone said before a dozen eyes entered Sandbar’s room and Spike knew he had blown it.

“Aw heck,” Spike said before darting forward and grabbing the cone and flying through the wall.

Immediately entire houses began uprooting and chasing Spike.

“Why can’t I turn Sandbar invisible!?” Spike said as he tried to fly higher but thrown objects forced him to fly lower.

“He has an some kind of chaos field around him that’s messing with your chaos magic!” Discord explained.

“Great! Can anything else go wrong?!” Spike shouted.

A giant hand formed out of all sorts of object congealing into a giant hand-shaped mass.

“When are you protagonists going to stop saying that?!” Discord shouted.

The giant hand moved quickly and smashed down repeatedly and Spike avoided and flew higher.

Suddenly dozens of buildings appeared in the sky and began to rain down.

“It’s never easy is it?!” Spike shouted as he flew around the falling buildings and objects.

Spike seemed in the clear before a falling bicycle hit him and he dropped Sandbar.

“NO!” Spike shouted and he dove for Sandbar as the giant hand transformed into a giant stone dragon head and it opened its maw to eat them.

Spike grabbed Sandbar and flew as fast as he could and he escaped the mouth, the teeth however struck him and sent him tumbling.

“AAAAAHHH!” Spike shouted as he tumbled through the air.

“Spike!” Discord called as the giant head flew after him.

Spike thought this was it… but he remembered Twilight and the others and he knew he couldn’t lose here! Spike then teleported and avoided the bite of the stone head and he flew over and caught Sandbar before he hit the ground.

As Spike flew through several street walls that sprang up he knew he was on his way to the edge of the city.

But Trottingham wouldn’t let him leave that easily…

The city split down the middle and it began sandwiching itself.

“OH COME ON!” Spike said as he dodged buildings like rows of teeth and he flew to the edge of the city.

“COME ON COME ON COME ON COME ON!” Spike yelled as he got to the edge just as the jaws of the city were about to clamp on him.

SMASH!

The city clamped down and a noise like an explosion occurred for miles.

Discord flew up into the air and turned, but not seeing Spike “Spike?...” Discord asked.

Just when Discord was about to panic he saw a light erupt from the jaws of the city and Spike busted through a building with Sandbar in tow.

“SPIKE!” Discord yelled and he flew over to him as they flew away from the living city.

“I can’t believe you survived!” Discord said.

“It was touch and go but I made it! Let go!” Spike said as they flew back to the cave of harmony.

When they arrive Spike hit the ground panting and Sandbar tumbled over to the hooves of Harmony who was in the process of teaching the Changlings and Griffons present.

“Well… that was a surprisingly tough one,” Discord said as he landed.

“SANDBAR!” Oculus ran over to him and picked the cone up.

“Uhh, Harmony could you um,” Gallus asked.

“I may,” Harmony said before bathing Sandbar in her light and Spike saw the restored pony.

“Thank goodness…” Spike said getting up.

“He will be unconscious for awhile, were you seen out there Spike?” Harmony asked.

“No… not by Chaos at least,” Spike said.

“Then we still have a chance, your efforts have borne fruit Spike, with more harmony, brought back to my presence I am having an easier time restoring several areas from chaos decay.

“Alright, then we better pick up the pace,” Spike said before getting out his box of DNA samples.

Chaos overlooked the town returning to ‘normal’ and smiled.

“Things seem to be going my way after all,” Chaos said with a chuckle before vanishing.

As he appeared back in Ponyville where the chaos was so thick it was beginning to subsume the town like a fog he approached a purple chaos cocoon.

“And soon, I will have my new apprentices, the question is, will you succeed? Or will I?” Chaos asked.

Author's Note

Does Chaos actually know? Find out by tuning in.

And be sure to vote for the next destination.

Dragonlands
Yakastan
Mount Aries

A dragon can be cute too

“Time to hit some home turf!” Spike said pulling out the scale of Smoulder and activating the trace.

As it flew off Harmony approached just out of range of hurting Spike.

“Your halfway there Spike, but be careful, I fear Chaos may start to notice the trouble we’re causing,” Harmony said.

“I’ll keep an eye peeled,” Spike said before flying off, as Spike flew on, Discord flew up beside him.

“You're still worried about Gabby aren’t you?” Discord asked.

“Well… I mean she was fighting a giant snake when we last saw her, who knows what happened to her,” Spike said.

“Well one damsel at a time, let’s focus on the efforts it’ll take to free the first six,” Discord casually remarked.

Spike nodded but kept his attention divided between following the trace and watching for any abnormalities.

Spike had to take the long way around so Chaos wouldn’t sense him.

When Spike arrived he saw the state the Dragon Lands were in.

Chocolate erupted out of the volcano’s, the flowing magmatic sweetness looked tempting but he resisted, there’s no telling what could happen.

In any case, the dragons suffered a similar fate to the ponies where they were now random objects with limbs walking around and even through the air.

One dragon was even walking with his wings… how weird.

"Hello Spike! Do you want a hug Spike? They're free!" Cheered a life-size plushie sheep with red fur, waving his hooves. Spike knew that voice.

"Garble?!" Spike exclaimed.

"That's me! I'm Garble the Sheep! The Bestest Best Hugger In All The World! You always wanted to be friends! Wanna be friends? Now I don't feel like bullying everything because I'm scared of showing weakness! Now I just wanna give hugs!" Garble said.

Spike shook his head. "Okay, what is this? How is this chaos? Being friendly? Wanting to be friends? BEING NICE? Garble opening up about his feelings?! This is crazy!" Spike said confusedly.

Discord deadpanned. "Please oh please tell me you just heard yourself."

"But I thought ... friendship is harmony! Shouldn't this be poisonous to chaos or something?!" Spike questioned.

Discord shrugged. "Do you think I was poisoned when I became friends with Fluttershy? Have you ever looked at Twilight and her friends? They're as chaotic as me sometimes even before I made our little bet." Discord explained.

"No they weren't!" Spike defended.

"Want It Need It Spell, Hunger Spell for the Parasprites, the Prank Rampage of Rainbow Dash, Pinkamina,” Discord said with a raised brow.

“Ok, point taken,” Spike sighed.

“Who are ya talking with Spike?" Garble asked sweetly.

“Nobody, hey nice chat Garble but we need to find Smoulder, do you know where she is?” Spike asked.

"Ya wanna talk with Princess Smoulder? She's the nicest, prettiest, cutest, most adorable dragoness in all the land! I'm proud to be her big brother!" Garble said happily.

“....What?” Spike said not sure if he misheard or not.

“It is as the sheep said,” Discord said.

“But Smoulder isn’t like that, she always acts tough,” Spike said.

“I suppose she only ‘acts’ tough,” Discord said.

"No way! And Garble was really a hug happy sheep deep down?" Spike exclaimed.

Garble gave Spike the sad cute eyes and waved his arms a little more.

"UGH! FINE!" Spike hugged the teenage dragon-sized plush sheep. He was so soft and warm, like his basket bed. Spike just wanted to hug him forever...

"Uh, Spike... " Discord whispered.

"Huh! Oh right! Thanks!" Spike said to Discord.

"You're welcome!" Said Garble thinking Spike meant him.

“Now will you take us to her?” Spike demanded.

“Sure! Just follow the multicolored road to her domain! Passed the Mountain of Sharing, take a 'whatever' at the Lake of Happy Feelings, and through the cave of Emotionally Healthy Teenage Dragons being lovely looked after by their parents even though they have wings!” The sheep cheered.

“I’m almost forgetting this place is overloaded with chaotic energy…” Spike sighed.

“Cuteness can be chaotic,” Discord said as they followed the sheep down a pathway.

Their trip eventually led to the edge of a multicolored brick road.

“And this is Smoulder… right?” Spike asked.

“Yep!” Garble said.

“I’m starting to wonder if she has a repressed side,” Spike wondered.

“We all have one,” Discord said.

Spike followed Garble into a pathway that led to a mountain that was blue for some reason.

“Are mountains usually blue?” Spike asked.

“This one is,” Discord responded.

Then the mountain moved slightly... and it opened a ruby eye... and Spike realized... this was Ember... the size of Dragon Lord Touch.

"Hello! Princess Smoulder has friends visiting!" Called Garble with a 'Baaaah!'

"YAY! Princess Smoulder has friends visiting!" Ex-Dragon Lord Torch flew down to them... from a life-size doll-house castle at the top of Ember. Except Torch was the size of a Breezie... and had butterfly wings that left sparkles in his wake, and he was wearing a pretty tutu. "Welcome! Welcome everyone!"

Ember opened her mouth... her tongue rolled out to reveal a real red plush carpet with pretty gold tassels, her fangs were Roman-style pillars.

And out came... another Ember... this one normal size, and wearing a maid uniform. She curtsied. "Hello Spike! I see you've moved up in the world! Princess Ember being in charge is the greatest thing that's ever happened! The Dragon Lands are finally nice!"

"Best thing ever!" Hopped out another Ember, this one wearing a cute purple cat costume with her face visible in the mouth. "Like! We don't need to lead! Fight wars! Deal with selfish, stupid, ugly, dragons all day! Just happy friendly dragons all around!" She said.

“This literally can’t get any weirder…” Spike said with a deadpan.

“When are you going to learn Spike,” Discord sighed with a facepalm.

Spike noticed at the back of the giant Ember's mouth a perfectly polished stone door with golden engravings of dragons having happy-go-lucky adventures and pretty diamond handles.

"Will you take the elevator up to Princess Smolder, Lord Spike? Or would you like to climb up my side?" the Maid Ember asked.

"You can take the way up me, while you climb up me too!" The Ember in a cat costume blew on her thumb, and ballooned into a dragon/cat/bus balloon, her door slid open. Her face on the front of the bus smiled at her innocently. So was Garble, so was Torch, so was the Maid Ember...

And the worst part was... they weren't the forced mechanical smile Twilight and the others had described with the equalized ponies at Our Town. It was like one of Pinkie Pie's smiling contests!

Spike wondered if his teeth were going to start falling out at this rate. Equestria was legendary for being the nicest place you could live, but this was too much! So much friendliness and unoffensive pleasantness after so much maddening chaos trying to eat him was making him dizzy!

“Well, what do we do Spike? Think it could be a trap?” Discord asked.

“I don’t know, but we need to find Smolder and they're basically pointing us in the right direction… let’s just trust them for now, especially if it gets them to stop smiling like that…” Spike said a little creeped out.

"You don't like me smiling Spike?" Garble's lip quivered.

“Uh… nonono! It’s just… let’s get moving before it gets late,” Spike said trying to avoid a shameful bawlfest from Garble.

A chorus of baby dragons lined up and began to sing happily. "It's time to GET moving! It's time to get packing! A trip is always great! Always totally great!"

“I swear if this gets any sweeter and cutesy I might puke,” Discord muttered.

"You hang out with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, I can't believe you have room to complain," Spike said carefully under his breath.

“They knew my limits,” Discord said with a shrug as the two walked towards the castle.

"Let's hurry can't be late!" Continue the baby dragons skipping along. The sun smiled down on them. "This'll be the day we see something super duper new!"

"La la-la-la-la-lala!" Garble skipped ahead of them without a care in the world.

“Ok, hopefully we won’t be eaten,” Spike said as they walked up to the mouth of the mountain Ember.

The cat/bus/dragon open pull with her teeth on her own airpiece, and deflated herself, back to the shape she was before.

As they walked along the sheep, cat and maid Ember’s followed Spike and Discord up to the inside of the mouth and the two made it to the doors at the throat of the giant Ember.

The doors, instead of pushing open, slid to the side, like, well, an elevator... and inside another Ember, this one dressed as a bellhop. Except without pants, but who the heck wore pants in Equestria? "Floor please?"

“Um… the floor where Smoulder is?” Spike asked.

“Alright, come on in,” Bellhop Ember said.

Spike and Discord glanced at each other and then entered the elevator with the other Embers and the elevator went up.

Cutsy music played as they stood there awkwardly

There was a ding, and the door slid open, revealing a beautiful watercolor forest, with a buncha of super cute dragons, including a pink one, a blue one, and a pair of conjoined twin dragons.

"Hi, wanna learn about friendship?" The pink dragoness asked.

"Uh, we're fine right now thanks,” Spike said.

The door closed downward instead of sideways, and the elevator rose again. Bright colors clashed as wild disco music began to play, everyone began dancing.

"Everything is awesome!" The dragons except Spike sang.

The door slid diagonally... revealing another pastoral landscape with floating jewels and peaceful sheep munching mindlessly on grass... then a young purple dragon with golden horns and wings flew down, burning the sheep who scattered. The dragon waved.

"Howdy! Ya guys wanna collect gems, beat up bad guys, and burn sheep? ... I'm kinda killing time until my next adventure comes along."

“Well, that escalated quickly…” Discord said.

“Are we going to get there soon?” Spike asked.

“Oh yes, we just have 400 more floors,” The cat Ember said.

“WHAT?!” Spike said.

"Hey you guys need help?" The purple dragon asked. "Wouldn't be the first time I was dragged into another world to fix someone else's problem."

"Thanks, but let's put a pin in that, this adventure is weird enough without any crossovers," Spike said.

"Oh, okay, good luck buddy!" The purple dragon waved as the elevator closed, this time in Tetris blocks falling down and filling in the door, leaving no seams.

"Why couldn't I be as cool as him?" Spike lamented.

"That's what happens when you're a support character in ponies' lives." Discord said patting him on the back.

They went to another floor and another and another and another…

[1 hour later]

The door opened to a blank white room with the words 'Place For Forgotten Characters' glowing in neon lights. A green pony with a pink mane and a candy mint cutie mark turned their way.

"Spike? SPIKE! You've come to save me! I knew Pinkie Pie wouldn't forget about me forev-" The door violently shut as she began running towards them.

“...Should we-” Spike asked but Discord just sadly shook his head.

The other dragons just kept smiling blissfully as if they hadn't seen a thing.

[2 hours later]

They arrived at floor 389

“I feel like I'm dying…” Spike said getting a splitting headache from that one level that had a sun screaming loudly and constantly and another one where jack in the boxes sang constantly.

“We’re almost there Spike,” Discord said.

“I swear I am starting to question why we didn’t just fly up to her room,” Spike asked.

“Because that would be rude,” Cat Ember said.

“Still!” Spike sighed.

[45 minutes later]

“That last one didn’t need to take that long,” Spike said as the elevator dinged again and finally, FINALLY, opened revealing a room full of flowers, bunnies and there were a dozen different Embers, one wearing a jester costume, another in a gardener's hat peacefully tending to the giant smiling flowers, and another in a tutu beautifully dancing on a stage, and another Ember in a chef's hat baking cookies, a stone statue of Ember spitting water in a fountain (also blissfully smiling). Spike stopped counting before he got more dizzy.

“I’m starting to wonder if she has an admiration for Ember like Scootaloo does for Rainbow Dash,” Discord said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Spike sighed and he went on to walk through the cutesy room full of fluff and flowers.

"Garble!" Shouted a plush blue sheep with Ember's voice.

"Ember!" The two ran to each other and hugged with an adorable squeak.

"I saw through my sisters you were coming! I told Princess Smolder all about it! She's so happy that Spike got to move up in the world too! Just like she freed us of all our burdens! She's so much better at ruling dragons than me!"

"Yes she is! But that's not your fault! You're the bestest best sheep in the whole wide world!"

"No, you are!"

"You!"

"You!" The two kissed.

“Ok, I am about to just leave if this continues,” Spike said as he approached the two “Hey um, sheep Ember, can you take us to Smolder?” Spike asked.

“Sure! Queen Smolder!” Ember happily called skipping off to a fancy table where Smolder was in a lovely dress, and drinking tea with other plush animals.

"Ah, Lord Spike, Retired Lord Discord, happy you could finally make it," Smolder said in a motherly sweetly voice. She snapped her fingers, and Spike and Discord were both in formal wear, and were teleported into a pair of fancy chairs.

“Wait… Smolder, your… your using chaos magic?” Spike asked looking surprised.

“Yes, I have attuned as well, nice to see you too Discord,” Smolder said.

“Charmed…” Discord said.

"Smolder, do you realize what's going on? What you're doing?" Spike asked.

"I'm having tea with you two-" She snapped her fingers again, and two cups of tea appeared in Spike and Discord's claws. "-remember, pinkies out!" She took a sip. "We're in my castle. And I've taken the Dragon Lands thanks to the power I got because I was able to rise above the rest, and made it to be an ideal place where everything is wonderful!"

An upside-down unicycle walking on a pair of hands wandered by. Smolder point a finger, and it turned into a smiling flower dancing snap-dragon flower with the rest. "I'm still working out the bugs, I'm happy you came Retired Lord Discord, you can teach me and Spike together! Just because Master Chaos has rejected you doesn't mean the Dragon Lands will!"

“Master Chaos? Smolder, it sounds like your actually cooperating with him… you realize what his endgame is right?” Spike asked.

"He's going to help Princess Twilight and the other become true gods of chaos now that Discord made it crystal clear he wanted to retire, and double clear now that he's given you his essence, with him now existing as an extension of you, and once they're fully ready, they'll explore the universe looking for a new world to grant the gift of chaos magic to."

"Smolder! Are you WILLINGLY serving him?!" Spike accused.

"Serve? Spike, I'm calling him 'Master' because it's what his proper title is for granting me magic."

"And all the other dragons get twisted around and go crazy while you get to make them all whatever you want because you happened to keep your head above water?" Discord asked.

"Spike, I'm doing everything to HELP the Dragon Lands. Just because I'm using chaos magic doesn't mean I'm not helping! Celestia freed Discord because she thought his chaos magic could help right? Why shouldn't you give me that chance too?" Smoulder asked.

"It's NOT because you're using chaos magic! Smolder... Ponyville is filled with weirdos, I'm one of them! So why do you think everyone was scared of Discord and he had to MAKE THEM go along with his chaos?" Spike said.

"Because they were scared of it."

"Because he was FORCING IT on everyone... Did you ever ask Ember WHY she didn't use the Bloodstone Scepter to just ORDER every dragon to be nice and civilized like she wanted?" Spike said.

"I... thought the scepter wasn't that powerful." Smolder defended.

"Smolder, I've HELD the scepter. I could have ordered Garble to want to be a circus clown and WANT be friends with everypony if I felt like it... but so what? It wouldn't be Garble anymore who changed. He'd have just been my little doll." Spike responded. "You've made the entire Dragon Lands nothing but your giant doll house!"

"Some dragon will never change on their own..."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is? Do you want to make Garble unhappy again? Dragons are looking after their hatchlings until they can look after themselves instead of throwing them out the moment they hit molting. Dragons aren't fighting over treasure anymore.... After all... your friends used the Elements of Harmony to make Princess Luna good again. How is this any different?"

“The difference is she was corrupted with dark magic, they saved her and helped her make her own decisions again, you're doing the exact opposite here,” Spike said.

Smoulder looked stunned and looked to the side in thought on how she could attempt a rebuttal.

Discord said, "Smolder dear, I'd have never expected you to have this much talent in letting chaos flow like this. And you are truly a hidden natural. But you are using chaos magic to FORCE it down a path to a twisted parody of HARMONY. Blech. I can't believe I'm saying this. Your little bugs are never going to go away. Because chaos despises stasis, predictability, staticness. They're going to slowly get worse."

“I… just wanted to make a better world for dragon kind, are you saying it’s all wrong?” Smolder asked.

"Smolder, Equus is gonna LITERALLY fall to pieces if everything goes completely to chaos," Spike explained.

"And do you call what I've created chaos? I'd say I've SAVED my brother, Ember, and all the rest. You don't need to worry about the world falling apart as long my Dragon Lands exist."

"And there's no telling how long until your chaos magic pushes back against... all this." Discord gestured.

"I can handle it!" Smolder said slamming her claws down on the table before realizing what she did. "Oh my! Apologies. A lady should never lose her temper like that dearies," Smolder said.

"Smolder... I've had this chaos magic for only a while... and, yeah, I'm excited at everything I can do with it too. But I'm still not gonna use it to twist ponies and dragons to how I think they SHOULD be." Spike said.

"Ember!" Smolder called.

"Yes Your Majesty?" Every Ember in the room turned to her, including the fountainhead.

"Are you happy the way you are?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" They all echoed.

"Would you all like to recombine into Dragon Lord Ember? To exist as just her?"

“No Smolder, we don’t,” The Embers echoed simultaneously.

"See? You're the one going against THEIR wishes!" Smolder said.

Spike sighed. "You made Ember this way... that isn't fair. Especially not to her. She's not thinking clearly. She can't compare to how she is now to how she was. If being this way was really so much better... then they'd all WANT to go back to being this way if you changed them back."

"... I split Ember into countless other Embers, they've all been thinking and feeling separate from each other. I gave each of them a shard of her soul, they've all been growing into full souls on their own. I can't just force them all back into one Ember." Smolder defended.

"And they're still answering to you without a second thought. Are they all happy because you've given them these happy lives, or because you've forced them not to have any choice but to be happy... like Discord didn't give my friends any choice but to be selfish bullies?"

"What's the difference?" Smolder asked, growing in size, her dress tearing slightly. "Somecreature gives you a jewel, you're happy, they take away the jewel, you're sad. I give them chaos magic, they're happy!" Smolder snapped.

The Embers actually cowered away from her.

"Those don't MAKE me happy, they give me the chance to BE happy. Your dragons might be MADE to be happy, but they're not BEING happy!" Spike pointed a finger accusingly.

Smolder growled loudly at this and she got larger as her magic grew more chaotic.

The table sprouted eyes and looked fearfully at Smolder and inched away. Some of the flowers pulled up from the roots and made for the door.

“Spike, I think her emotions are turning chaotic, we need to calm her,” Discord said getting up.

The pretty murals on the walls came to life, the adorable painted dragons fleeing from the thunderstorm that appeared, their little painted houses growing eyes and sharp teeth.

One Ember cried out as her lower body turned into a sword as she fell over.

“Smolder, calm yourself,” Discord said.

“Ice cream, we need ice cream!” Spike said before using his magic to conjure some.

"Little sister! You're not being happy!" Garble called. "Not being happy is wrong!"

"Shut up!" Smolder yelled.

Suddenly Garble's mouth vanished. He held his hooves to his face.

The sheep Ember gasped in shock covering her own mouth. Spike floated up the ice cream with his chaos magic... only for Smolder to breathe blue fire, melting it completely. "Oh dang."

"You said icecream will help Duchess Smolder?" Said the chef Ember as her hat suddenly flew off with a pair of wings.

"YES!" Spike shouted. Spike snapped his fingers again, covering Smolder in chains, which she just grew bigger and broke. Spike thought better of trying to chain her again. Spike created more icecream only for it to get melted as well.

“Smolder! You need to eat the ice cream to calm down!” Discord said.

“QUIET!” Smoulder growled and breathed black fire at Discord but it went through him because he was a spirit.

The chef Ember ran for a fridge, and pulled out a giant plate of ice cream and ran towards her Empress... and suddenly turned into a fridge herself. Her face was visible on the digital display.

"This is my kingdom now! Dragons rule by who is the strongest! I'm now the strongest! So what I say goes! And I say my Dragon Lands is perfect! And if you can't see that, then you're a buncha selfish losers!"

Garble ran straight for Smolder.

"Garble! Don't!" Spike shouted, not thinking to simply teleport him out of the way in his panic.

The plush sheep slid and jumped to dodge Smolder's purple, pink, and plaid flames getting right next to her. He hugged her.

Smolder stopped in her tracks. "That... feels nice."

The sheep Ember opened the Ember Fridge and took out the ice cream, and as her Countess was distracted, tickled her.

"Now!" Sheep Ember shouted.

Spike didn't need to be told twice as the entire contents of the giant sundae was dumped down Smolder's gullet.

"Technically you're not supposed to be able to eat and laugh at the same time, but that never stops Pinkie Pie," Spike said.

Smolder looked woozy and shrank down to normal and fell to her knees, when she got ahold of herself she looked around and saw everyone looking at her nervously.

“...What…What have I done?” Smolder said tearfully.

“You’ve realized that this power is dangerous,” Spike said.

“And if you're in a volatile mood, lethal,” Discord added.

“Then… what do I do?” Smolder asked.

"Praetor... are you going to snap us out of existence?" Asked the sheep Ember. The other Embers looked equally scared.

“No… I’m sorry, I think I was mistaken after all,” Smolder got up and looked at Spike sadly.

"I'm afraid we have a bigger problem," Discord said. "Smolder.. Chaos is FORCING Twilight and the others to be like him. And you and your friends are the only creatures we know who match up with the Elements and have a friendship powerful enough to stop him, and save your teachers and our friends... And you can't do that if you're a god of chaos..."

"But... if I go back to being plain ordinary Smolder... won't everything I've made... everyone... just... disappear?"

“For the most part they’ll return to normal,” Discord explained.

The ballerina and gardener Embers hugged each other, locking eyes on the chaos gods.

"But if we go back to being one Ember... isn't that same thing as all of us disappearing?" Asked Chef, now Fridge Ember, her face moving on the screen.

Garble pointed at his mouth. Smolder snapped her fingers, his mouth reappeared.

"But I don't want to go back to being all grumpy all the time!" Garble protested.

"I don't want him to go back to being all grumpy all the time!" said sheep Ember.

"If it's REALLY what you ACTUALLY want, then you won't... " said Discord. "And... if you ladies really do have independent souls, separate from Smolder's magic... then you shouldn't vanish... but finding an Ember to be Dragon Lord Ember is going to be a problem. And this chaos magic can't just vanish... it'll either be reabsorbed by Chaos directly, making him stronger...or it needs a new host. So either one of you becomes a new chaos god... Or Spike takes on her power himself."

"Wouldn't she just become another floating spirit in my head?" Spike asked.

"She might have attuned to the power of chaos, but she hasn't evolved into a draconequus. She used her magic to change everything around her, instead of herself like Gabby. I wonder what animals Gabby'll make herself up of once she fully evolves... besides the point. The point is... you either get another newbie god of chaos and let this whole mess happen again just with a different flavor of the month. Or you take in Smolder's power so she can touch the Elements."

“Well… I guess only one of those options may benefit us in the long run, Smolder, I am asking you to filter your magic into me, to improve my chances of beating Chaos,” Spike said.

“...There really is no other way?” Smolder asked.

“No, I am afraid not,” Spike said. "I'm not letting Chaos steal the ponies I love because a stupid bet got out of hoof and he and Harmony couldn't learn to get along!"

“...Ok, I trust at least you Spike,” Smolder said.

“Ok, stand next to each other then,” Discord said and the two dragons did so.

"My Lady!" Maid Ember quickly said. "Before you do.. I just want to say, on behalf of myself, and all my sisters, and all of Dragon Lands... thank you... for letting us be happy," Maid Ember said.

"Thank you." The Embers, Torch, and Garble, all bowed.

"You're... you're welcome," Smolder said before Discord gave Spike the signal and Spike drained Smolder of her chaos magic, it wasn’t painful or slow, but it did feel like her strength left her and as this happened the castle around them vanished and they found themselves on the mountainside.

Except now the mountain was a mountain, and not a giant Ember... an Ember now teenage dragon-size without an elevator inside her. She sat limply on her tail, staring blankly at nothing, her eyes empty without a role to fill.

Spike saw his opening and snapped his fingers. The Bloodstone Scepter fell into the blank Ember's claws... She blinked, and her eyes focused.

"Spike! Smolder!" She stood up. "Dad!" She looked up at her mountain-sized father besides the mountain that was herself a second ago, but that was foggy, instead, memories of the original Ember came flooding into her mind. She looked around... seeing herself in dozens of shapes and costumes.

"Don't worry, she won't remember a thing, that's how this always-" Spike began to say.

"I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!" Ember yelled.

"Chaos, remember?" Discord said.

"Smolder! ... You... Ugh... You... I can't feel too angry at you... ugh! So dang happy!" Ember said looking emotionally conflicted.

"I liked it," Garble said back to being a dragon.

"You would," Ember snorted.

The sheep Ember (now flesh and blood) hugged Garble. "Yay! My happy Garby!"

Garble hugged her back.

Ember looked around at the copies, no, not copies, parts of her... her sisters. She raised the Bloodstone Scepter. The other dragon Embers glowed. "As Dragon Lord, I command you all, find your own identities and lives of your own free will."

"As our Dragon Lord Commands," the Embers echoed, then shuddered.

The Embers looked at themselves... usure, their role in existence suddenly not so clear.

"I'd... like to dance for more than just Smolder," said the ballerina Ember said at last. The other Ember began to voice other desires, no longer perfectly unified in their need to obey Smolder.

"You guys... just better keep clear of Twilight for a while... just until I explain to her you're not a buncha mirror pool clones," Spike said before he heard sniffling, he turned to see Smoulder looking sad.

“Hey Smolder? You ok?” Spike asked.

“In one afternoon I lost my cute and happy kingdom and goddesshood, you tell me…?” Smolder said.

“You're no less of a dragon just because of this,” Spike said.

“Thanks… let’s... Just get going,” Smolder said getting up. “Oh… and if you tell anypony what happened today, I’ll kick your butt,” Smolder said.

“Heh, I'm sure you will,” Spike said as he floated into the air and Smolder followed with her wings.

Discord asked, "So... how does it feel having not just my power, but now the power of an 'in-training' god of chaos too?"

“I… don’t feel any different, maybe I-” Spike was cut off as he moved to fly back towards the cave of harmony and he took off like a rocket leaving a beige contrail in his wake.

“WHAAAAAAAH!” Spike yelped.

“I think he needs to get used to it again…” Smolder said.

After hours of trying to find his way back and then making the journey to the cave of harmony with his friends Spike and Smoulder and several other dragons landed at the cave and walked in.

“HEY! We got some newcomers here!” Spike called.

“Hey guys!” Smolder called.

“Hey!” Sandbar ran up to Smolder and tried to hug her but she sidestepped.

“Not a hugger remember?” Smolder said.

“Sorry,” Sandbar said.

“Yeah right, we all know your cutesy fantasy,” Gallus said walking into view.

“What?! How?!” Smolder exclaimed.

“Forgive me,” Harmony said walking into view as well “I was watching everything and I may have monologued too much,” Harmony said.

“Twilight?” Smolder said confused.

“While you explain it to her we gotta get moving,” Spike said pulling out the DNA samples again.

“Godspeed Spike,” Harmony nodded before gesturing Smolder to follow.

“Alright champ, where is our next zany adventure?” Discord asked.

Author's Note

I owe the making of this chapter to Alex Warlorn, with their help I was able to finish this in one night.

Also here's a link for the whole sheep/Garble thing.

https://www.deviantart.com/magerblutooth/art/A-Bully-s-Sheared-Off-Arrogance-Commission-968069549

Yak-iverse

Spike grabbed Yona’s hoofchip and set the tracer.

“Just two more Spike,” Discord said eagerly.

“I don’t know, something tells me things will get harder before they get easier,” Spike reasoned.

“Ok,” Discord nodded Spike sent the tracer and got ready to go. "It's not like you've gotten even more powerful thanks to the chaos magic you absorbed from Smolder or anything."

“Good luck Spike!” Smolder called.

“Yeah, be careful,” Gallus said.

Spike flew out of the cave of harmony to go to Yakyakastan.

“...So can we eat the tree? It’s made of crystal and I’m a little hungry-”

“No…” Harmony said.

“Darn it,” Smolder said.

Spike and Discord flew through the air, thanks to the extra chaos power he has now, the long trip was shortened.

“Please don’t let Yakastan be populated with killer… flying hammers or something…” Spike said remembering his excursion with the turkeys.

“You can never tell with absolute chaos,” Discord said.

“Well I hope I can-” Spike said before he heard a noise, Spike looked around for the noise, it sounded like a whistling noise.

“What is it?” Spike asked.

“SPIKE, LOOK OUT!” Discord said.

Spike turned to see what he was warning him about and he saw what looked like a giant floating colorful bubble.

“AAAH!” Spike exclaimed as he flew around it “What was that?” Spike asked.

“It looked like a universe bubble… but those only appear in the presence of chaos and one with-” Discord said before noticing Spike was heading towards another.

“Spike! Pay attention!” Discord said.

“Huh?” Spike skidded to a stop before a large purple and blue bubble.

“Uh, what happens if they pop?” Spike asked.

“They don’t pop, not unless one is about to go supernova, you see when a being is trapped in a universe bubble they sort of become a god of sorts,” Discord explained.

“You mean to tell me every Yak is going to turn into a draconequus?!” Spike exclaimed.

“No no, god of the universe inside the bubbles. One can only imagine what Yak’s dream of,” Discord said.

“Hmm… And how do we tell which one is Yona’s?” Spike asked.

“I dunno, I never made these things back when I was in charge, too much hassle and nobody else got to have as much fun as me,” Discord said.

“Wow,” Spike said.

“So I guess we search until Yona’s is found,” Discord said.

“Ok… do I just walk in or-” Spike asked before Discord shoved him in the one in front of him.

“AAH!” Spike yelped as he tumbled onto the grassy ground.

“Discord!” Spike yelled.

“What? We’re on a time limit,” Discord said.

“Still,” Spike said as he got up and saw a land made of toys.

“Huh, not what I expect-” Suddenly the toys were smashed by a giant hoof and Spike looked up to see a giant Yak calf.

“Ybor loves crushing toys!” Ybor laughed as the toys ran from her.

“...Ok, this I expected a little more,” Spike said as he left the bubble.

“Alright, how many more,” Spike said before locating the other bubbles which numbered into the hundreds.

“....I wish this show allowed curse words…” Spike sighed before heading into another one.

Spike entered a pink one and saw a yak village and decided to explore a little.

“Alright, things look normal here,” Spike said before hearing something and turning to see Yaks running toward him.

“Of course, normality doesn’t stick around!” Spike ran as the stampede of Yaks followed him.

Spike took to the air and the Yaks angrily shouted after him.

“What’s got their goat?” Spike asked before spotting a statue of a dragon.

“Huh? Odd,” Discord said before the statue burst into flames and a flying Yak spotted him.

“You! Yak not like dragons! Dragon eat pet squirrel!” The Yak said before flying at Spike.

“Ok, safe to say this is the wrong one!” Spike said flying away.

The Yak a flash was clad in shining golden armor, with a hammer as big as he was, and leaped onto a chariot pulled by two goats that flew into the air after Spike, swinging lightning bolts at Spike. Spike suddenly found himself with a target on his back that he threw off only to have a new one appear.

"What is this?" Spike asked.

"Oh it isn't the worst," Discord held up a mirror. Spike yelped at the sight of himself, a big black spiky dragon with a face a mother couldn't love.

"YAHHH!" Spike flew faster.

Discord said, "Well, remember, you are an INTRUDER in their domain. If this is the worst you've come across so far. Consider yourself lucky."

“This is definitely the most dangerous one, we’re literally dealing with omniscient Yaks!” Spike exclaimed.

Spike reached the edge of the bubble and exited.

Discord said, "Consider yourself double lucky you weren't instantly assimilated into their fantasies. Any mortal that tried would be turned into part of the setting. You can hold onto yourself, and so can I, because you're not mortal anymore."

Two of the sphere gently bumped into each other. In an instant they morphed into towering Yaks the size of buildings, glowing ethereal colors.

"YOU NOT PERFECT!"

"NO! YOU NOT PERFECT!"

"DESTROY!" They bellowed and began punching each other, the spheres spinning away in shockwaves.

"What the heck?!" Spike yelled as the shockwaves sent him flying as well.

"They're clashing! I’ve heard of this! When two opposing universes collide the victims will feel their world is threatened and attack with their new power!” Discord said loudly over the thundering blows.

“What’s the likelihood of Yakyakastan surviving this?!” Spike asked.

“No problem, as long as no more than one crashes into each other, the world should survive,” Discord said.

“The world?!” Spike said not liking that wording.

“Relax, the chances are sixty-forty,” Discord waved him off.

“Those aren’t favorable odds!” Spike said.

One of the Yaks fell over limp, making houses bump upwards. The victor leaned over him, and touching him, the loser turned the same color as the winner and absorbed into him like two pieces of clay. The winning Yak quietly hugged himself and morphed back into a sphere, now twice as big.

"Hmm, it seems just as you absorbed Smolder's magic, these little pocket universes will absorb each other."

"And become big enough to absorb everything?"

"Now now Spike, wouldn't that have happened already? It's not like Yakyakastain didn't exist until it was needed for us to be here by the plot after... right?"

Spike shivered. "Will you stop that?!"

“Sorry, it’s funny to see you realize the plot is there,” Discord said with a chuckle.

"But what's so chaotic about this? I mean, every Yak in their own perfect little ball. That's even less Chaotic than Smolder's crazy happy-go-lucky kingdom!" Spike said as he flew around several more bubbles.

Discord rubbed his chin. "Could be Chaos is just making fun of the opposite side of the spectrum. Or he's just being, well, chaotic. Or the Yaks will eventually go crazy being the only mind in their little worlds, and Chaos is playing the long game."

“Then we gotta do something,” Spike said flying into another bubble and seeing a winter wonderland.

“Not Yona’s,” Spike said seeing an elderly Yak sledding around, he left that one and went into another one.

"Yes Prince Rutherford, Equestria is much more perfect being ruled by Yakyakastan, I was being stubborn and unreasonable for not seeing otherwise!" Princess Celestia wearing Yakyakastain clothing said bowing her head, to Prince Rutherford, now the size of a mountain with wings.

"We ponies have been snooty and have insulted your culture again and again, it's only the right thing to do!" Princess Luna said, similarly dressed with a smile.

"Yaks are much better allies for dragons than ponies, and I'm sure you can teach us all how to be more perfect," Dragon Lord Ember said, riding on the back of Garble.

"And I'm so happy for you for sparing me for being the one pony who actually gets your culture," Prince Blueblood said sitting on a throne.

"And everypony can listen to my traditional Yakyakistan music all day and nobody's gonna bully me about it!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

“...This is both interesting and scary,” Spike said.

“I find it amusing,” Discord said.

“Who would have thought Rutherford felt this way?” Spike said wondering if he and Twilight should have a talk after this.

Spike left the bubble and hovered up and looked at all the spare bubbles, and saw three about to intersect.

“Oh no!” Spike flew over to the bubbles and he formed a barrier to stop the bubbles.

The bubbles were successfully repelled but one of them wound up bouncing off the barrier and hitting another one.

“Watch out!” Discord exclaimed as the two bubbles formed into giant Yaks and they began attacking each other.

Spike flew through the bubble swarm and got his distance from the scuffle, Spike watched until the green and red Yaks punched each other and locked horns, Spike saw the green one grab the red one and suplex it, defeating it, he then absorbed it and returned to bubble form.

“Whew, we were almost in the midst of that,” Discord said.

“We’re looking for a needle in the haystack here and any moment the bubbles could interact and cause mayhem!” Spike sighed loudly “How do we find Yona?” Spike asked.

"Do you want the quick and easy and fast way?"

“Yes? You had one this whole time?” Spike asked incredulously.

“More like recently,” Discord said before explaining his method. "But you're not going to like it. At all. In fact, perhaps I should... oh right, I can't do chaos magic, only you can, it belongs to you know. Oops. Let me whisper it."

A moment later Spike shouted. "That's not 'not like' that's 'you're still evil'!"

"You want to spend forever looking through all these bubbles?"

"...No. I don't… but still…” Spike said looking conflicted.

"Before I'd do this sort of thing FOR FUN, but now it's to actually HELP ponies... besides... you know he'd do it if we asked."

"Then why don't we ASK him?"

"Because it needs to be genuine. Otherwise it definitely won't work, instead of 'might not work.'"

"MIGHT?!" Spike said exasperatedly,

"Chaos!" Discord exclaimed.

"... I am never forgiving you for this." Spike said.

"Don't be so dramatic, you can just make up some boneheaded excuse and they'll buy it. You're a chaos god now, you have a legal right to lie." Discord said.

"... Sorry Sandbar." Spike whispered as he snapped his fingers.

Sandbar teleported into Yakyakastain... several hundred feet up. The colt looked around confused at the sudden location change... and finally noticed nothing was holding him up. He fell. Screaming.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Sandbar cried flailing his legs.

"I gotta stop this!" Spike said getting ready to fly over to him.

"Wait for it," Discord said.

"It's not happening!" Spike frantically said.

"Wait for it!"

"DIscord he could-"

"Then we'll be no worse off." Discord shrugged.

"Discord!" Spike cried seeing Sandbar getting closer to the ground.

"Waiting for it!"

When Sandbar was two seconds from hitting the ground. One of the spheres morphed into a giant Yona with wings. She leaped into the air and caught him, Sandbar vanished into the sphere, and the giant glowing golden Yona morphed back into the sphere.

"There's the one!" Discord shouted.

"Good thing she could hear him!" Spike said.

"Oh, she couldn't. I was gambling on that 'power of love' nonsense you ponies are always spewing that she'd magically know her soulmate was in mortal peril in a separate universe."

“Discord… I am seriously considering telling Celestia, and Fluttershy,” Spike threatened.

“Please don’t I'm in hot enough water,” Discord begged.

Spike flew over to the golden bubble and entered.

“Thin ice Discord,” Spike said before he landed, and what he saw honestly surprised him.

It was the school of Harmony?... and Yona was playing a hoofball game with her friends… As an earth pony mare!?

“Wait… Yona’s dream is to be a pony and play with her friends?” Spike asked.

“Yeah,” Discord said

"You can do it, my princess! After this, we shall be married!" Shouted a now stallion and now ALICORN Sandbar.

Discord said, "Remember what I said, mortals who enter bubbles are assimilated into the universe of the bubble's master."

“Is it reversible?” Spike asked.

"If Yona wants it to be. He's this way in THIS universe. Outside of it, he'll be a normal Earth pony colt instead of a powerful Alicorn stallion who could fight at your side."

“Why do I feel like you want him to stay like this?” Spike asked.

"Are you kidding? There are enough Alicorns in the world as is... honestly, if they weren't being brainwashed by Chaos I wouldn't mind a few more Draconequi around... it's lonely being the only one of your kind..."

Spike thought of the years he'd spent with Twilight, the only dragon he'd ever seen was in the mirror. Not having a clue of his own species. Let alone where his egg had even come from. Celestia only said it had been a 'gift' from very a dear friend.

Spike’s thoughts were interrupted when Yona noticed him and paused.

“Hmm? What is that?” Yona asked.

“Uhm, hey Yona! I’m Spike, I know I look weird but that’s because of Discord,” Spike said.

“Come on Yona!” Sandbar cheered her on.

“Hold on!” Yona told him and ran off to continue playing.

“Uhm, Yona? We need to go,” Spike tried to call after her but she ignored him and continued playing.

“What do we do Discord? She holds all the cards in this realm,” Spike said.

“Well, we could simply wait for her universe to run its natural course and die of heat death. You, me, Yona, and now Sandbar are the only real souls here. The rest are phantoms, puppets, like characters in a video game. Yona doesn't have the divine power to create souls from nothing... but we do have one factor... she's effectively made Sandbar her co-ruler of this reality, only others who'd just make them a submissive actor in their world."

“Discord, you don’t mean we wait for this universe to-” Spike said looking scared but Discord just rolled his eyes.

"I was being sarcastic!" Discord said before flying over to Yona and the others and gesturing for Spike to follow.

"So what are you even saying?"

"Try to keep up. Yona and Sandbar both being in this bubble normally just make it stronger, since Yona now has a real soul with her-"

"TOUCH DOWN! YONA IS THE BEST SPORTS PONY EVER! SHE IS PERFECT!" Trixie shouted from the stands.

"Yona likes the lazy kid way too much to treat him as an NPC... he's taken the place of 'Mr. Perfect Sandbar'... Which means there are two Obluette Overseers here."

"But... no game can survive with two game masters," Spike said trying to figure out Discord's plan.

Discord grinned. "Exactly."

Yona's hoofball uniform morphed into a wedding dress, and Sandbar's regalia morph into a tuxedo.

Spike said, "I don't like where this is going."

The two stood at an altar and Twilight was the priest saying their marriage vows.

Discord coughs and shouts. "Yona! Prince Sandbar! What's the best way to take care of nature?" Discord’s words made the two look to him.

"Just let nature do its own thing, who cares if Winter Wrap-Up and Falling of the Leaves are a thing? I'm sure the animals will be fine." Sandbar said.

"BEND IT TO PERFECTION!" Yona proclaimed.

The two blinked. And looked at each other.

"Discord, if they break up because of you-" Spike said warningly.

"I'll accept whatever punishment," Discord said with a dismissive wave. "Spike, haven't you learned anything yet? You're chaos. You can't afford to 'play by the rules.' anymore,” Discord casually said. "You have the power to twist the game however you want. It's what keeps the game from getting boring, it's the purpose of chaos!” Discord said before focusing back on the two newlyweds.

“Yona, I think you should go with the flow, that’s how things handle themselves,” Sandbar said.

'Bring chaos to order,' Spike thought. He sighed. And let go. He snapped his fingers. A nest appeared full of winged rabbits, one fell out of the nest.

"Yona help little bunny bird back in nest!" Yona went to grab the rabbit but Sandbar interrupted.

"No you shouldn't, you'd just make the mother reject it!" Sandbar said.

"But Yona can't do nothing!" Yona cried.

“It can find its own way back up, that’s how it will get stronger,” Sandbar argued.

“But it look hurt,” Yona said.

“Rabbit’s need to grow strong on their own to survive to adulthood, it’s what nature intended,” Sandbar said.

“Yona not like that,” Yona said looking miffed.

Spike snapped his finger again, this time a herd of deer/mouse hybrid ran along... only for a young sickly one not to keep up with the herd, and trip over its legs, squeakily sadly. And cat/wolf hybrids began to circle around it.

“Yona save deer mouse thing!” Yona said but Sandbar stopped her again.

“They’ll attack you too,” Sandbar said.

“Then Yona get hurt!” Yona said trying to run up to the poor animal but Sandbar held her back even as she dragged him along.

Spike snapped his finger and summoned a wild pig with bat-like wings and a fake but realistic dragon/hydra getting ready to roast the pig on a spit.

“NO!” Yona cried.

“Please Yona! That’s a feral dragon! It will kill you!” Sandbar cried.

“Yona not liking your lack of care for animals!” Yona said whirling on him.

"Yona is right... Sandbar is right... Yona is right... Sandbar is right..." Silverstream began to chant.

"We should fight together... we should leave it alone," Smolder said.

“RUN!.... FIGHT!.... RUN…. FIGHT!” Gallus spoke like he was malfunctioning.

"You should always help... you should just leave things be..." Ocellus said.

“Discord? There’s not going to be an explosion is there?” Spike asked as the building began to rumble.

“There could best get your hardhat on,” Discord said casually.

Spike snapped his fingers, giving himself a stylish mustache, and teleported to the pair... the alter and wedding trapping vanishing as they were forgotten.

“I want you to be safe!” Sandbar said.

“Yona want you to be brave!” Yona said.

"Hey guys! Can ya tell me! Where would you two like to live? Equestria or Yakyakastan? What's the best season? Summer or winter?"

“Summer and Equestria,” Sandbar said.

“Winter and Yakyakastan,” Yona said.

The world flickered between summer and winter, Yakyakastan and Ponyville.

“What’s better, chilling with your friends or playing sports?” Spike asked.

“Sports!” Yona said.

“Chilling,” Sandbar said.

It began to rain chairs and basketballs and Spike put up a barrier to protect them.

"Is it more comfortable for two ponies to be together than a yak and a pony?" Spike said.

"Yes," Yona said.

"No," Sandbar said.

The world actually began to flicker like a malfunctioning tv and their friends vanished. A green and purple checkerboard pattern began to spread from where Spike was standing.

“Almost there!” Discord said.

“If you could change the other's personality in any way, would you?” Spike asked hesitantly.

“No!” Yona said.

“Yes,” Sandbar said before the two looked at each other with sad looks, the sky turned yellow, Buffalo danced in tutus, the sun and moon flew past each other in opposite directions, Screwball flew by with a wave, and-

POP!

The bubble finally gave out and popped, the inside of the little universe dissolving into raw chaos... that Spike absorbed before he even realized what he was doing!

“Whoa!” Spike cried as he tingled all over from the power entering him.

As the world around them vanished and Yona and Sandbar hit the ground nearby.

“Huh? Guys!” Spike ran over to them.

“Ow…” Sandbar groaned.

“Yona’s head hurt,” Yona said.

As the two got up they began to remember what happened in the bubble and looked to each other with sad looks before looking away.

"Yona! Sandbar!" Spike shouted. The two looked at him. Spike said before he realized what he was doing, "You two don't need to remember ANY of that!" Spike's eyes became colored swirls, and so did Sandbar and Yona's.

"We don't need to remember any of that." They said together in a monotone.

“Wow, surprised you went that route to make them forget, you're shaping up to be a great lord of chaos in the future,” Discord chuckled.

“Be quiet…” Spike sighed. He couldn't deny... how... exciting it had been... seeing such a stagnant, empty puppet show fall into pure chaos, all because of him, and all because he just tugged on the right threads to unravel the whole things... mortal hearts could be fragile as glass... And Yona and Sandbar... he'd just looked at them, and it was like nothing he'd done happened. Mortal minds could be as easy to shape as clay. He knew Harmony knew, no way she didn't... but he also knew she wouldn't complain... she'd gotten her next Element of Harmony, and neither was traumatized from the whole thing.

"Yona, you have nothing to be ashamed of by being a Yak. Sandbar, sometimes it's fine to help nature along, we're part of nature after all. Both of you, it's fine to want and feel different things."

His two puppets echoed back to him, this becoming a natural part of their psyches, and Spike snapped his fingers, and the two blinked and shook their heads, their minds their own again.

"Easy isn't it? Always easy. Why play by the rules when you can ignore them? Why play along when you can just make things how you want..." Discord didn't sound happy about this.

"I lied to Smolder."

"If it's any constellation, at least all you did was undo the trauma and remove some thorns... after all... you can't have them being disharmonious when you need to save the world from absolute chaos, right? And you did say we were on a timetable." Discord's voice was devoid of any of his usual smugness. "Fluttershy calls me out whenever I lie to get what I want too."

Spike hugged himself and shivered.

"It's so easy to just keep going, isn't it? Not stopping once you've gotten going," Spike said.

"Reigning myself in and learning to release my chaos in ways that didn't destroy the lives of Futtershy and those she and I care about was the hardest thing I had to learn."

"Hey Spike," Sandbar said trotting over. "You teleporting me like that was a dirty trick ... but.. it helped save Yona, so I can't complain. And you helped me stand up to Prince Charmless Me and accept me as I am."

"And help Yona to love Yona as Yona... Yona can't be staying in perfect fantasy when Yona's friends, Yona's teachers, Yona's EVERYTHING is in danger!" Said Yona proudly.

“Yeah, and I need to be there to help,” Sandbar said before turning to Spike “BTW were you the reason I was teleported from the restroom to here?” Sandbar said looking a little miffed.

“Restroom?” Spike asked.

“A hole in the back, answer my question,” Sandbar demanded.

“We talk about that later, Yona needs to find friends,” Yona said.

Suddenly a rumbling occurred and the group looked up to see several bubbles have collided and formed into giant Yaks.

“I thought you said it wasn’t likely to happen!” Spike told Discord.

“I also said sixty-forty! RUN!” Discord said and the group fled from the stomping hooves of the Yaks as they fought.

Spike used his magic to levitate his friends and fly away from Yakyakastan, but as he flew several more bubbles collided and became huge Yak constructs.

“AAAAHH!” Sandbar yelled as they swooped under a swinging hoof, a brown giant punched a grey one sending it flying and Spike had to speed up.

“HOLD ON!” Spike yelled as he sped up and the group narrowly avoided being crushed.

Spike and the group flew across the sky at blazing speeds.

“SLOOOOOW DOOOOWN!” Sandbar said looking green…er than usual.

“Yona not like this speed!” Yona said looking like she’s gonna hurl too.

“Ok!” Spike managed to slow down and he realized he covered the distance back to the cave of harmony in under a minute.

“Whoa! We’re here already?” Spike said before floating down and into the cave.

“It’s alright guys! I got them-” Spike was cut off as Sandbar and Yona ran past him and puked in the corner.

“...That will be hard to clean up… thanks for that,” Harmony sighed.

“Spike! You're here,” Ocellus said running to Spike and the others followed.

“What happened to Sandbar, one moment he was there and the next he vanished,” Gallus asked.

“It’s… uh… a long story…” Spike said “I’ll let Sandbar tell you, for now I got one more to track,” Spike said brandishing a feather.

“Silverstream,” Harmony said with a nod, as Spike turned to leave Harmony shoved her face up to Discord and spoke with anger.

“I know what you did… Sandbar could have died!” She said quietly.

“But he didn’t,” Discord said.

“Don’t ever do that again,” She said before trotting off.

“Whoo… I bet there’s going to be a fun conversation after all this,” Discord said before following Spike.

To Mount Aries!

Chaos overlooked the destruction occurring in Yakyakastan and gave a chuckle.

“Just as planned…” He said before flying off “Sooner or later they’ll catch on, but until then, let them hold onto feeble hope,” Chaos said “I’m sure even Discord will find this plot twist impressive.”

Chaos laughed as he vanished to his next destination.

Mount Aries…

Author's Note

Well, we're on our last one before the final confrontation.

Be ready the next chapter is gonna be weird yet awesomely chaotic.

The sea fortress

Spike flew over the ocean, only the ocean was looking solidified yet still moving like it was made of molasses.

“I hope we aren’t too late,” Spike said as he flew towards the direction of Mount Aries.

“At the rate that the chaos is spreading we’re actually doing very well,” Discord said as they saw the waves of Molasses breached over them, Spike used an umbrella to protect himself from the chaotic seawater.

“Alright, Discord since this is our last one we need to make this a quick snatch and grab, Now we just need to find out-”

“Spike!” Discord called suddenly.

“What? What’s about to happen?” Spike asked.

“Look, in the wave,” Discord said.

Spike turned to see a larger wave and through the minimal light provided by the rainbows dotting the skies… he saw what looked like fishes, big ones.

“Fishes? I don’t see the problem,” Spike said.

“Look closer,” Discord said.

“Ok?” Spike said and he saw the fish had angler antennae and manes?...

“Seaponies? Something is off… what is-”

“SPIKE! ABOVE YOU!” Discord said and Spike looked up to see something leaping out of the wave’s tip and descending on him.

It looked like a large maned anglerfish.

“AAAAHH!” Spike teleported away from it as the monster fish splashed down, he looked to see more jumping out of the wave and descending on him.

“Killer seapony attack!” Discord exclaimed.

“Yikes!” Spike dashed through the air back towards land as the fish splashed down behind him.

“Get higher Spike!” Discord said.

“Ok!” Spike said as he flew higher and got away from the fish.

“Whew… that was clos-” Spike was cut off as something hard conked him in the head.

“OW!” Spike exclaimed before turning to look and see some kind of metal objects with wings flying in a V formation.

“Are those-”

“TOAST!” Discord exclaimed as the objects were revealed to be flying toasters that fired black bread at them.

“OW!” Spike yelped as several more hit him “their hard as a rock!” Spike exclaimed.

“Book it!” Discord said as Spike flew away from them.

Eventually, they stopped shooting at him and turned around.

“Did we lose them?” Spike asked.

“I think so… that went from one to a hundred really quickly,” Discord said.

“Yeah, I’m thinking Chaos is serious about it this time,” Spike said.

“For our sake let’s hope he doesn’t know about our mission yet…” Discord said.

“So what do we do?” Spike asked.

“Not get eaten?” Discord responded.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious, I meant how do we get past the ocean when we’re in danger the whole time?” Spike said with his arms crossed.

“Well, have you forgotten you have my magic, the power of not one, but two hatchling chaos gods, and all the essence of chaos of a collapsed pocket universe powering you? What is there you CAN'T do?"

“I suppose, but I don’t want to cause any problems, like what if I blow up the planet or something?” Spike asked.

“Just don’t use too much power, Think, how can you get past this?” Discord asked.

“...Maybe… we can freeze the ocean!” Spike said.

“I don’t think-”

“Take this!” Spike shot a blast of magic into the ocean and it froze… before splintering apart and exploding, sending seawater everywhere.

“What just happened?” Spike asked, dodging a chunk of ice.

‘You can’t freeze the whole ocean, your chaos magic overclocked the ice buildup!” Discord said.

“How was I supposed to know?” Spike defended.

“You have a huge amount of chaos magic in you, if you aren’t careful you’ll cause a catastrophe,” Discord warned.

“Ok ok,” Spike said as he hovered back across the ocean. “Let’s try stealth,” Spike turned invisible.

As he floated around the molasses waves he saw the deadly fish swimming around, none were noticing him.

“Whew… I think we’re-” Spike spoke to soon as an angler seapony jumped up and nearly bit him. “AAAHHH! How did they-” Spike asked.

“Spike! Your shadow!” Discord pointed out that he still cast a shadow and the anglers were starting to converge around it.

“Oh come on!” Spike said as he teleported back to land, panting as he saw that the anglers were scattering again.

Spike's shadow frantically flew across the waves back to him before taking its proper place.

“For a world that doesn’t run on logic there’s a lot of logic messing with me right now,” Spike said.

“Nothing that can be done about it, even logic can be randomly applied,” Discord reasoned.

"Ugh! This is dumb! If I have all your powers, maybe I can teleport directly where we need to go instead of trying to go through this mess, or maybe we go back in time and just fly there, then go forward in time, and ta-da?"

“Sounds good on paper my mismatch friend but it’s not that simple, There’s an anti-teleport field surrounding Mount Aries, Chaos may be onto us,” Discord said warily.

“Then what do we do?” Spike asked looking forlorn.

“The only thing we can do… blend in,” Discord said.

“Huh?” Spike questioned.

“They react to you, but not to eachother, maybe we can literally swim with the fishes,” Discord reasoned.

“... You're asking me to swim across the ocean amongst carnivorous seaponies?...” Spike said.

“Yes,” Discord said.

“Only you could come up with something that hairbrained…” Spike sighed and he jumped into the thick sea water and after getting acclimated he turned himself into an angler and swam.

“Yeash, it’s hard to swim through this stuff, it’s like real molasses,” Spike said.

“Chaos works in mysterious ways,” Discord said “Alright, quiet now, your getting closer,” Discord said and Spike saw a group of Anglers nearing him.

One of the angular seaponies spotted Spike, and waved jovially.

"Hi! Welcome to Seaequestria!"

“Huh? They talk?” Spike said before he quickly changed his tune when more Anglers crowded in.

“Uh, hi! I am a visitor from further inland and I’m-”

“LAND?!” The anglers immediately got angry.

“What?” Spike said

“We hate everything not sea-related, we eat land dwellers!” The anglers growled.

“.....Uh’m good thing I was just kidding!” Spike nervously laughed. "I'm from an inland lake!"

"Oh you poor thing!" One to his left said.

“An inland lake? Harsh dude,” Another said.

“Did the land dwellers try to fish you out?” Another asked.

“Um… no?” Spike said.

“Good!” Another said before the groups of Anglers scattered except for one.

“So what brings you to Seaquestria?” One asked.

“I… came to pay a visit to the mountain area! See the sights ya know,” Spike said.

“I wouldn’t the all-seeing eye doesn’t like intruders,” The angler said.

“All-seeing eye?” Spike said.

“A big ball of light that turns everything it’s looking at to stone,” The angler said.

“Of course there is…” Discord sighed.

"TURNING TO STONE?! THAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF CHAOTIC!" Spike said, something in him snapping.

“Calm yourself Spike, your letting your chaotic emotions run amok,” Discord said.

“Sorry…” Spike said taking a few breaths.

“Uhm yeah it is, anyhoo, come pay a visit to Seaquestria anytime,” The angler said swimming away.

“Whew, it worked Discord,” Spike said as he swam slowly through the water.

As Spike swam on he saw multiple anglers swimming about, some gave him glances and some waved, thank goodness they didn’t know about his true form, or he’d have to see if chaos magic could repair himself from bits and pieces…

Spike swam on until he saw a bright light in the distance.

“Are we there?” Spike asked.

“Yes, just be careful, the last thing I want is to be a statue on the bottom of the ocean,” Discord said.

“Me too,” Spike said.

The two swam towards the light until they came across a line of anglers in mismatched pieces of armor.

“Halt!” The anglers said.

“Huh?” Spike said.

“Nobody continues beyond this point, the eye deems it so,” One angler said.

“But I need to get through!” Spike argued.

“Why?” The angler asked with a raised brow.

“...Uh….sightseeing?” Spike attempted.

“Not a good reason, beat it before we make you into chum,” The angler said.

"So why do you listen to the eye? Seems kinda orderly to me." Spike pointed out.

“It’s the will of Chaos, and don’t say orderly, that word is taboo here,” The angler said.

"Yeah, it sounds super boring to me too. But how is it chaotic if you're all doing what you're told instead of whatever you all want?" Spike reasoned.

The anglers began whispering among each other.

“Uh… well Chaos told us to do so and he’s the boss around here, we don’t want to be turned to stone,” The angler said.

“But technically listening to orders is what someone of harmony would do, not of chaos,” Spike said

“But what about the eye? Chaos will have our hides if something happens to it,” The angler to Spike’s left asked.

“Fooey to that!” Spike exclaimed “We need to unite and oppose this orderly command. And being turned to stone sounds like the opposite of a chaotic punishment. Are you sure Harmony didn't fool you into doing what she wants?"

The anglers were stunned and they began whispering to each other, eventually, the one in front of Spike nodded.

“You make a solid point, I hated floating here all day anyways!” Then the anglers swam off.

“Nice work Spike,” Discord said with a nod of approval.

“What can I say, I got a silver tongue,” Spike said showing off his now silver-colored tongue before swimming in the direction of the mountain.

Spike arrived and poked his head out of the water and saw a startling sight.

Mount Aries was in pieces and it was orbiting a glowing eye that cast a beam of light everywhere it looked.

“I can’t help but wonder if this is a reference,” Discord mused.

"To what? There's only like a bajillion video games and movies that use the 'big creepy eyeball beam of doom!'“ Spike said.

“True,” Discord said before seeing the eye looking near them.

"I still don't get this whole, 'turn to stone thing', I mean, you turned to stone because as unchaotic as you can get. You implied you didn't turn ponies to stone because it's against your nature... and then you had others do it for you."

“I agree, odd that Chaos would go that route, I wonder why-” Discord said before a seagull flew by and got caught in the beam before it turned to stone. As it fell and hit the ground and broke it exploded like dynamite.

“....I guess that’s why….” Discord said with a wince.

"Look, all we need is a giant sling-shoot and pow, it'll explode right in its, well, eye, when it looks at the giant ball."

“Sounds like a plan!” Discord said eagerly before the two made it to shore and hid behind a boulder as the eye looked their way, when it looked away they snuck over some rocks and saw a neat enough rock formation to enact their plan.

“Ok! Plan ‘blind eye’ is a cinch,” Spike said as Discord nodded.

The two then snuck over to the two standing rocks and Spike conjured a giant rubber band and magically lifted a large boulder onto it.

“Ok Spike, I’ll go over there and help you aim,” Discord said flying up to the eye and gesturing Spike to change his aim.

“Alright… little to the left… little lower…. A few more inches annnnnd, hah!” Spike launched the boulder at the eye.

“Hah, this will be easy….wait a minute…Oh no… SPIKE MAKE THE BOULDER DISAPPEAR!” Discord shouted.

“Huh?” Spike said before Discord shouted again.

“THERE’S SOMEPONY IN THERE!” Discord said.

“Crap!” Spike snapped his fingers and made the boulder disappear, The eye turned towards Spike and he narrowly ducked behind cover.

Discord flew over to him and Spike was panting heavily.

"Can't anything be easy?! I should've turned those angular ponies into pool toys instead of wasting time with them!" Spike stomped a foot.

“Calm down, Princess Skystar was in there, she was unconscious,” Discord said. “And besides, pool toys aren't very chaotic either, rather placid really."

"If Chaos can cheat, I should be able to too!"

“Not that simple Spike, We need to find another way without hurting the hostage and finding Silverstream,” Discord said.

“Ok… I need to get moving,” Spike said before sneaking out of cover as the eye was examining the landscape behind it.

“Spike, I just noticed but look,” Discord pointed as Spike reached another cover.

“Huh?” Spike saw what looked like a crystal prison.

“Odd, you don’t think…” Spike approached the prison and found a Hippogriff inside.

“Ok, this is strange, Why imprison the hippogriffs in crystal instead of making them minions?” Spike asked. "Such a waste."

“Can you chew through?” Discord asked.

“I can try… wait… what if this explodes like the seagull did?” Spike said.

“Good point, we should move on then,” Discord said.

"But what if the next rock I touch explodes? What if the princess explodes when I touch her? What if Silverstream is rigged to explode when I get near her or she's teleported back to the others?"

“If we only focus on ifs we’ll never get anywhere Spike, we need to hurry,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said before skittering from cover to cover, hiding behind boulders and walls when he had the chance, he narrowly got caught by the eye several times.

“How, do we find her?” Spike asked.

“Spike, I think the trace is leading up closer,” Discord said pointing to the trace they lost track of earlier circling about the isle.

“Ok, but where? It’s circling the whole island,” Spike asked.

“It’s… wait, hide!” Discord said as a noise was heard.

“Huh?” Spike said before turning himself into a large rock.

“What? What’s happening?” Spike asked.

“There’s something nearby,” Discord said.

“What?” Spike asked before hearing a rumble and he looked to see a massive creature that looked like a hybrid of pony, griffon and seapony lumbering past.

“What the actual what is that?” Spike asked.

“It’s worse than I thought, It’s Queen Novo, and she’s been brainwashed,” Discord said.

“Like we needed more obstacles in our way!” Spike sighed.

“Be careful,” Discord said as Spike snuck around the pathways while the large creature patrolled.

“Ok. we just need to find Silverstream and book it, easy…” Spike muttered as he made his way around the corner he saw an open space with more crystal prisons.

“Ok, now we’re getting somewhere,” Spike said sneaking up to the crystal and seeing… a pink griffon in there?

“Wait a minute, who is this?” Spike asked.

“It’s Silverstream, I can sense it, she must have been fragmented,” Discord reasoned.

“How do you figure that?” Spike asked.

“I have the sense of this stuff, chaos god remember?” Discord said sounding like he’s bragging.

“Oook… how do we get her out without blowing her up?” Spike asked.

“Try this,” Discord whispered in his ear.

“I’ll try it, but hopefully nothing bad happens,” Spike then used his power to shrink the crystal and the griffon to tiny size and he picked it up.

“Alright, that’s one fragment,” Spike said.

“Now where are the others?” Discord guessed, before seeing the trace moving to another part of the island.

“Spike we should follow it,” Discord said.

“Good plan,” Spike said before ducking behind the cover as the giant eye looked in his direction.

“Sure wish I could teleport right now,” Spike said before slipping into the pathways.

Spike had made a bit of a journey to the place where the trace was circling and found another, this time a pony.

“It’s like she’s been split into random species or something,” Spike said,

“Not really, didn't you know? Hippogriffs are all descendants of ponies and griffins who became, VERY VERY special friends.” Discord said.

“I... I guess that should have been obvious from their name, wonder why I never figured it out before,” Spike shrank down that crystal and picked it up too.

“Can you sense anymore?” Spike asked.

“One more signal on the far end, the trace will guide us,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said as he snuck all the way over to the ocean area avoiding the eye.

As he got there he hid from the eye which lingered over there for a few minutes and then it looked away.

Spike then snuck over to where the trace is and found a merpony.

“Ok!” Spike shrunk that one down too and he retraced his steps and hid behind a large cliff face.

“Alright… now that I have them, how do I free them?” Spike said.

“Alright this get’s technical, first make them big again,” Discord said.

Spike did so and Discord resumed “Now you have to magically examine them for any traces of an explosive trap.

“Ok,” Spike said as he then cast his magic and subtly felt around them for any explosive magic.

Thankfully he found none.

“Whew…” Spike said before Spike snapped his fingers and broke the crystals. In a flash the three different Silverstream grew to normal size. They shook their heads in confusion and looked at each other in existential shock.

"Who are you guys?" Scoffed the griffin.

"I'm... pretty sure you girls are me," said the pegasus rationally.

"Oh! Does this mean we can have three times the fun?" The seapony giggled, floating above the ground.

“Alright, now we just need to merge them again,” Discord said.

“Ok-” Spike was about to when there was a deafening roar, echoing through multiple heads.

The monster created from Queen Novo tried to bite Spike head off as she swooped passed. Spike hit the dirt as the monster turned around. A griffin, pony, and siren head all angrily screaming at him.

Spike shuddered. He slowly stood up. "I... have... had... ENOUGH."

"Spike! Remember your-"

"Shuddup. You're the whole reason this mess started!"

"Technically the others had their heads in the sand over chaos magic not being like pony magic and-"

"I said shuddup! I want my family back! I want my friends back! The real them! Not whatever Chaos is twisting them into! And I'm tired of all the garbage Chaos keeps throwing my way! Hey! Novo! You don't work for Chaos! You work for me!" Spike's eyes became colored swirls, the monster stopped dead in her tracks, all three heads staring at Spike dimly as their eyes became the same colored swirls.

The three heads echoed, "Yes... Lord Spike... what is your command?" The creature droned.

"For now just sit there and don't bother me, I've got to figure out how to put your niece back together so she can save the world!" Spike ordered

"As you command Lord Spike." The giant beast quietly sat there, staring straight ahead.

"It isn't very chaotic to follow orders," Discord said.

"I'll say whatever I've gotta say to get my family back!" Spike said.

Discord raised his hands “Ok ok,” Discord said.

“Alright, you three!” The pony, merpony, and griffon looked up.

“Back together now! Or I get impatient!” Spike said.

“Uh… how do we-” Spike snapped his fingers and the three merged back into Silverstream.

“Whoa!” Silverstream hit the ground.

“Ok, we’re getting back home no questions asked.” Spike said.

“But Spike, what happened to-”

“No questions asked,” Spike said firmly. He only didn't brainwash her to shut-up because that would take longer.

“I’d do as he says he’s a little on edge,” Discord said before remembering she couldn’t see him.

“Ok…” She said meekly and Spike picked her up and levitated Novo with them and flew off.

Spike flew quicker and quicker the eye saw them flying off and, instead of turning them to stone, it let out a rumble.

And suddenly the molasses-like waves got fiercer and bridged over Spike and he was forced to dodge.

Get outta my way!” Spike said firing a chaos beam from his eyes and blasted the waves near him apart.

The anglers began leaping out of the water after him but Spike flew higher to avoid them.

“SPIKE! WE’RE GOING TOO FAAAAST!” Silverstream cried.

“Be quiet! I need to focus!” Spike said before seeing the flying toasters coming at him.

Spike geared himself up and opened his mouth and began sucking up all the toast they fired into his mouth.

“Even if it’s hard as a rock, I can still eat it!” Spike said before spitting the rock chunks back at the toasters and breaking them.

“I’m starting to wonder if it is safe to let him around others right now…” Discord wondered.

“Spike… I’m gonna….” She retched over the side of him.

“Oh no! Not on me!” Spike said as he built up speed.

Even the thrill-seeking Silverstream hung on for dear life. It didn't help she had three minds that had just been unceremoniously forced back together in her head.

"Novo! Whatever gets in my way back to Harmony's cave, make sure it gets OUT of my way!" Spike ordered.

"As you command Lord Spike." The three heads said.

As Spike flew further into the ocean area anglers and toasters dove at him. Yet Novo quickly dispatched anything that got too close.

Spike carried the gagging Silverstream back across the ocean until they reached land and crashed.

As Spike got up he grabbed a rock, grew it to the size of a boulder, then a small island and threw it into the water.

“THAT’S WHAT I THINK OF YOU CHAOS!” Spike said. Snapping his fingers, making the resulting tidal wave go in reverse and slamming into their pursuers.

“Spike… please chill… you're kinda scaring me now…” Discord said.

“Ugh… our... my tummy…” Silverstream groaned.

“I… am tired, of being a punching bag for Chaos, now, I’m getting serious…” Spike took a deep breath and grabbed Silverstream and flew back with Novo.

“Goodness… I imagine Harmony will have some words with me,” Discord said.

Spike arrived back in the cave of harmony and the others rushed over to Silverstream.

“Silver! You ok?!” Gallus asked.

“Hippogriff look sick, Yona make remedy out of-”

“Nono… we're fine…” Silverstream said getting up. "Part of me is ticked off at Chaos for this happening and Spike for the rough ride. Another part of me thinks while Spike is being most efficient he was acting reckless. And the last part of me just hopes to have a barf bag next time we go on that ride... uuuh." Silverstream said dizzily.

“Hey guys…” Spike said still looking ticked.

“Uh… is he ok?” Smolder asked.

“Spike, you will calm yourself, if you let your rampant anger get out of control it’ll cause more harm than good,” Harmony said approaching.

“I’m trying…” Spike said as Novo walked behind him sitting down, her six mind-controlled eyes obvious.

"Is that your auntie?!" Gallus gasped.

"I am Lord Spike's loyal servant," the three heads said together.

"It was that or let Chaos keep controlling her," Spike said matter of fact.

“Spike, please release her, she’s our aunt,” Silverstream pleaded, something all three of her agreed on.

“Ok, Harmony do your thing,” Spike said putting up a barrier around himself and Harmony used a harmony flash, turning Novo back to normal, Spike simultaneously released her from his brainwashing.

“Oh dear… what happened?” Novo asked.

"The tree using Twilight's face can explain things. I've got better things to do," Spike said.

“Indeed, we have all the young six gathered, we can now lead our assault on Chaosville.

"Don't you mean Ponyville? And why would we do that?" Silverstream asked rationally.

“There’s a lot you don’t know, and a lot we still need to do, Let’s get things together,” Spike said.

“Yes, time is of the essence,” Harmony said.

"Hmph! With how you've been pushing back Chaos' power around here I don't think we have to worry about the world going kaput any time soon if it needs 100% for everything to end. I'm not worried about the world, I'm worried about my family." Spike said.

Floating above Ponyville, Chaos smiled.

“The last piece is retrieved, all headstones pushed aside, time to bury the past and make this world a memory,” Chaos chuckled.

“Come new queens of chaos and disharmony, come and meet me, may the best chaos god win,” Chaos said before laughing as the six colored spheres levitated around him.

Author's Note

Things are building towards the climax, one thing is for sure.

Spike is done taking Chaos's crap... may the coming chapters be a ride for you all.

Chaosville [part 1]

Spike and the young six as well as Discord and Dragon Lord Ember sat around a fire in the middle of the cave of harmony.

“Alright, now that we have the necessary beings for the assault on Chaosville, we have to come up with a plan of attack,” Harmony said.

“Who needs one? We move in and attack Chaos with the harmony beam, BOOM!” Smoulder said eagerly.

“No no, do you really expect him to be caught off-guard so easily? Besides, as we are now, the harmony wave won’t destroy him, only weaken him,” Harmony responded.

“What? I thought that was the point of all this,” Spike said.

“No, he is an abstract concept like me, you’d need to get rid of chaos entirely to destroy him, he needs to be subdued,” Harmony said.

“Ok, how do we ‘subdue him’?” Gallus asked.

“As it stands the chaos surrounding the globe is speeding up, I fear it is because the former bearers are slowly succumbing to the influence of Chaos, if that happens, we are finished,” Harmony said.

“I got a lot of chaos power,” Spike said.

“Against six draconeqqui and Chaos himself?” Harmony said.

“Point taken…” Spike said.

“We need to move in undetected and free the six before dealing with Chaos, the less pawns he has the easier this will be,” Harmony said.

“Well then what are we waiting for!?” Ember said.

“Alright, Ember’s right,” Spike said.

“Ember? Nonono, I am her twenty-third sister, she’s over there,” the Ember clone said as Ember approached.

“Thanks for holding my spot sis,’ Ember said.

“No prob,” she walked away and Ember sat.

“So what were we talking about?” Ember asked.

“....Anyways, we need to get moving, time is of the essence,” Harmony said.

“Alright first, we must give the elements to the new bearers,” Harmony said before floating the jewelry off of the tree to the group.

“Let us start the initiation, first off Gallus,” Harmony floated the tiara to him.”

“Oh come on, I get the girly tiara?” Gallus complained.

“Hush, anyways, you seek to defy the norm in Griffonstone and find friendship among ponies, you seek the magic of friendship, thus I give you the element of magic,” Harmony puts it on his head.

“I…guess that’s kinda cool, am I the leader?” Gallus asked.

“No,” Harmony said.

“Darn,” Gallus said.

“Next Silverstream,” Harmony said turning to her, “You seek the joy of everything fun and happy, and seek to spread that to your friends, I grant you laughter,” She said.

“We thank you,” Silverstream giggled.

“Next, Smolder, back in the day I had almost given up hope that dragons would look beyond their own hoard for another, but you give me hope once again, you value your friendships and thus are granted loyalty,” Harmony said.

“Nice,” Smolder said putting on the necklace.

“Yona, you express yourself without hiding your nature, sure you wish to be a pony, but you're honest about it, I grant you honesty,”

“Yona thanks you!” Yona said.

“Sandbar, you show consideration for others, and are a beacon for others to be better to one another, Kindness is yours,” Harmony said.

“He could never replace Fluttershy,” Discord yawned.

“Shh!” Spike said.

“Lastly Ocellus, your something the Changelings of old were never and that is giving, you share your pure heart with others and never give up on your friends, Generosity is yours,” Harmony said.

“T-thank you,” Ocellus took the necklace.

“Are we done?” Discord boredly asked.

“Silence,” Harmony said rubbing her temples.

“What’d I say?” Ocellus asked.

“Nothing nothing, just an annoying thought is all,” Harmony said.

"I think she’s talking about you Spike,” Discord teased.

“No…” Spike sighed.

“Alright, now that that is done with, we must hurry on, our next item on the agenda is to fix the element bearers.” Harmony said “You have protection thanks to the elements of harmony but not much,” Harmony said.

“How do we help them though?” Spike asked.

“It will harrowing, but you must have each of these six enter the respective element prisons and find a way to snap the element bearer out of it.

“How?” Gallus asked.

“I do not know, but you must get them to remember who they are,” Harmony said.

“And what do I do since I can’t wield an element?” Spike asked.

“Your job will be the most harrowing of all, you must directly battle Chaos to distract him, and prevent him from realizing our plan until it’s too late for him, and hopefully things go well unlike before,” Harmony said not so subtly hintingly.

Discord crossed his arms and humphed. "What makes you think I've ever forgotten what I was 'before?' That hasn't turned me into 'Not Discord.'"

“You joined Chaos voluntarily, he’s brainwashing them, besides, what of your life prior to Chaos do you actually remember?” Harmony said.

"Grogar. A tyrant. Ruling the world with absolute perfect order. Perfectly predictable, dull, and without anything that makes life worth living."

“Whose she talking to?” Smolder asked.

“It’s a little freaky,” Sandbar said.

"No it isn't!" Spike said with a quiet echo to his voice.

"No it isn't." The six echoed.

“Spike? What are you doing?” Harmony asked

"Keeping things streamlined," Spike said.

“I would appreciate you not hypnotizing them, we need them to not be susceptible to Chaos’s mind tricks,” Harmony said.

"Exactly," Spike said. "I hijacked Queen Novo from Chaos no problem."

"I'm sure all of me is fine," Silverstream said. "Part of me is impatient right now and wants to kick the bad guys' tails, but another part wants to work out all the details so everything goes according to plan, and the rest is excited to see all the strange and crazy stuff in Ponyville since we're gonna save the day no matter what."

“I rest my case,” Harmony said, “Let us move now, I will remain here to try and slow the spread of chaos,” Harmony said.

"Thanks for nothin', that is quite logical, this is gonna be so exciting!" Silverstream said in multiple tones.

“Is she alright?” Sandbar asked concernedly.

"It's nothing you need to worry about until AFTER we rescue my family and we put Chaos back in his place," Spike said.

"We don't need to worry until after we've rescued the Bearers and defeated Chaos." Sandbar echoed obediently.

Discord said, "Spiky-Wikey... since I can see what's going to happen a mile away, I might as well tell you now. Chaos magic doesn't just disappear. Either Fluttershy and the others will come to their senses, but their transformation will remain until I or they undo it, assuming they can force themselves to after they've gone from being ponies transformed into Draconequi into Draconequi who used to be ponies... or if the Elements somehow squeeze them back into their tiny pony shapes... you better be prepared... you're about to become the most powerful, and dangerous, chaos god in history, assuming your friends don't decide they like being all-powerful and immortal now that it's not just been a 'problem of the week to get solved.' Even if they decide what I did... not liking being anyone's minion."

“I… see,” Spike gulped.

“Off you all go then, be careful,” Harmony said.

“Alright, let’s go!” Smolder said.

“Yes! All but one of me is not cowering!” Silverstream cheered.

“Time to set things right,” Ocellus said.

“I’m coming girls, wait for me,” Spike said as the group exited the cave.

The group moved on to the outside of the cave of harmony.

“Alright, everyone listen up, I am going to fly us there, there’s no telling what may happen along the way so let’s stick together,” Spike said as he grabbed them in his magic and floated up into the air.

“Just please don’t drop me again, I nearly had a heart attack last time,” Sandbar begged.

“I won’t I won’t,” Spike said before flying off in the direction of Chaosville.

Chaos looked out towards the cave of harmony from Ponyville.

“Heheh… seems the time has come, let’s start the party,” Chaos said before suddenly the extra thick chaos polluting Ponyville began to expand…

Spike flew in the direction he knew Ponyville was in, when he saw Ponyville he looked shocked.

The town somehow looked, even more, worse for wear than before, he was seeing whole buildings beginning to disintegrate and reform, the formally parading pony objects were rapidly disappearing and reappearing in random places, and at the heart of the chaos a similarly named being seemed to just be… lounging?

“What’s going on?... nevermind, we need to find the others,” Spike said.

Gallus suddenly grunted in pain.

“Huh?” Spike turned to him.

“I’m fine, just a twinge of pain,” Gallus said.

“Ok,” Spike shrugged and he flew down to the forest which had trees rapidly spinning in place, he flew to an open area amidst the trees.

“Alright, we’re in the thick chaos, Harmony said the elements will protect you but not for long, so time is of the essence,” Spike said.

“Let’s save Fluttershy first,” Discord said.

“No, we save them all at the same time, I am going to send you all to your destinations,” Spike said.

“How do you know where to send us?” Gallus said wincing from a pain in his head.

“I can… sense things, just give me a moment,” Spike turned around and whispered to Discord.

“So where are they?” Spike asked.

“From what I saw last time, at their places of residence,” Discord said.

“Ok! My sources say at their places of residence, I will teleport you there,” Spike said.

“W-we’re going in alone?!” Ocellus shivered.

“Don’t worry, things will go smoothly as long as you have the element,” Spike said.

“Let’s go,” Smolder said.

"I'm not scared, that is logical, this is gonna be fun!" Silverstream said.

“Yona is ready!” Yona said.

“Ok, remember what Harmony said, and good luck!” Spike then teleported them.

“Are you ready Spike?” Discord said, admittedly nervous.

"I wasn't about to say anything in front of Harmony with her precious chosen ones, but if this had been my scheme, I'd have gotten the parents of the ladies and have THEM remind them who they were, or Shining-Didn't-Appear-In-Season-One for Twilight and Miss-200-years-old for Applejack. They TAUGHT the girls to be who they are... they'd have found one of them for each." Discord said.

"I trust Harmony to come up with a plan a lot more than you," Spike said.

"And I don't blame you. Just don't forget, thinking outside the box isn't Harmony's strong suit. Just as thinking INSIDE IT isn't Chaos's." Discord warned “Now go on, before Chaos realizes what our plan is,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Spike said as he walked out into town and spotted Chaos just floating around.

“CHAOS! I’m here to finish this!” Spike said.

Chaos spun around with mock surprise. “OH! Spike the newcomer to godhood, you scared the me out of me!” Chaos mocked.

“Enough games Chaos! I have enough power to beat you,” Spike said.

“Heheheh, so the pet got off his leash and thinks it’s above the holder?” Chaos mocked again.

“I am NOT A PET!” Spike yelled and he fired a beam of chaos magic at Chaos, who just opened his mouth and ate it.

“Hmm… a bit spicy isn’t it?” Chaos remarked.

“What?” Spike said.

“What? Is your gusto fizzling out already? Hah, Discord really messed up choosing you,” Chaos mocked before forming a body with crystals from the castle looking like a random colored even more random version of Discord's body, each toe and claw from a different beast, each scale from a different creature, ever-shifting in meaningless pattern.

“Don’t underestimate me, I’ll do anything for my friends!” Spike said.

“Which is what makes you unfit to be a lord of chaos, friendship,” Chaos said.

“What do you mean?” Spike demanded.

“Friendship is synonymous with order, peace, and all those other things that make me want to hurl, tell me dear boy, what sounds more fun? A predictable world run by logic, or a world where anything can happen? You can do anything, be anything, you could be immortal, invincible, and control everything,” Chaos asked. "Why throw that away for your friends?"

"... Have you seen the things Twilight would do for a friendship report? Or how crazy things get when Rarity and Rainbow Dash hang out together in spite of being like oil and water? Friendship is as chaotic as it comes, you can never be sure which way it'll go." Spike explained.

“Friendship is what tied Discord down and led him to become peaceful then he stopped spreading chaos, that yellow-bellied thing ruined him, and now, I am ruining what made that happen, you cling on to the norm, while I make the new norm, If ponies don’t want chaos, they get DESTRUCTION!” Chaos said malevolently before raising his hands and tearing multiple houses out of the ground.

Many ponies fell out, some bounced like rubber, other shattered, only to reform into smaller ponies and start playing poker, other went 'splat' flat like pancakes, only to pull themselves up and walk away with her flat legs flapping in the wind. Seemingly oblivious to Chaos and Spike.

“First, I’ll strip you of your powers, then I’ll leave you to die with this world, and your sister and friends, will be my messengers to the worlds beyond this dimension, and the best irony is, you could have prevented all of this Spikey boy,” Chaos sneered.

“What?” Spike said.

“You could have said no to Discord's offer, stayed to help your friends, and maybe when things went south you could have sent a message to Sunbutt about this, and it would have been resolved! I wouldn’t have gotten my chance to drown the world in chaos, so really Spike, the blame goes to you,” Chaos mocked.

“N-no… I-” Spike stuttered.

“Like the perpetual child you are, you need a time out for your mistakes!” Chaos threw the houses at Spike.

"You wanna see childish? Twilight and the others are MINE, not yours! The real them! Not whatever cheap, boring, PREDICTABLE, flat-as-paper personalities you've given them!" Spike said as he teleported around the houses thrown at him.

“Oh, I'm wounded!” Chaos laughed as he turned the clouds above Spike into stone and they fell towards him.

Spike saw them and flew out of the way but instead of hitting the ground the clouds flew to the left.

"Blah, blah, I'm so evil, blah, blah, spread chaos, blah blah, old me was a loser. I don't NEED to meet them to know you've done nothing but copy Discord's old shtick! You call that chaotic?! Fluttershy gave Discord MORE possibilities, more chances for chaos, without her, he'd have stayed EXACTLY THE SAME! Sounds pretty darn orderly to me!"

"Spike... thank you..." Discord whispered.

“Oh, so you think you know my job better than me? I invented chaos!” Spike dodged giant fists made of crystal that manifested out of the ground, they opened their hands and sent flying hordes of birds at Spike and when the birds got close, they burst into blinding flurries of confetti.

“Agh!” Spike was disoriented as Chaos laughed.

“See! Unpredictability is the best ability!” Chaos chuckled.

“Spike, be careful,” Discord said.

“I hope the others are having more luck than me,” Spike grumbled.

Smolder appeared at Rainbow Dash’s prison.

“Ok! Now, let’s do this!” Smolder approached the blue sphere and entered.

And she fell through the skies…

“AAAAAHHH!” Smolder quickly stretched her wings out and flew up “Whew that surprised me,” Smolder said before seeing that she was in Cloudsdale.

“Huh?... for a chaotic brainwashing prison this seems oddly normal… I wonder-” Smolder suddenly had to cover her ears when loud as heck music blared over the cloudspace and Smolder turned to see what seemed like a concert in the distance.

“What the? I gotta check this out,” Smolder said flying in that direction.

Silverstream arrived at a pink sphere and looked around.

“Alright, two parts of me thinks there’s a trap, while another wants to proceed, overrules? Nah, I am sure Pinkie is nothing to worry about,” Silverstream said as she entered… and found herself in darkness.

“Huh? Odd,” Silverstream said before proceeding on and seeing a light ahead.

“Alright, Pinkie, what is he offering you? Nothing, everything, shut up you two!” Silverstream talked to herself as she proceeded into the light.

Yona arrived at the farm and she looked to see the trees picking their own apples and eating them before regrowing them.

“Odd, now Yona must enter prison and find out what Applejack’s problem is,” Yona said before entering the prison.

She found herself right where she was a minute ago, with no sphere in sight.

“Hmm? Where did Yak go? No difference,” Yona said looking around.

Suddenly a loud cheer caught her ear and she turned to see some kind of party being held.

“Yona like parties, but where Applejack?” Yona said entering the party.

Sandbar poked his head out of some bushes, and unlike Spike from before there were no mutant animals guardian it now.

“Curious…“ Sandbar said before approaching and slipping into the prison.

He found himself at a much bigger cottage.

Within was a yellow-furred Draconequus reclining on a chair drinking tea.

“I don't know what I have gotten myself into, let’s hope nothing bad happens…” Sandbar said.

Ocellus entered the prison before her inside the Boutique and found herself somewhere odd.

It looked like… a cave? Why a cave?

As she was wondering that she heard voices echoing from within.

“O-ok… it’ll be okay,” Ocellus said before entering.

Gallus arrives at Twilight’s prison floating in the center of a spiral of crystals that was once a castle.

He was about to fly up but he heard the explosions in the distance and turned to see Spike in the distance fighting a Draconequus made of crystal.

“Good luck Spike,” Gallus said before flying up to the prison… before something appeared behind him…

Spike impacted the ground before rolling and he jumped and flew away as the ground turned into a mouth and tried to eat him.

“Ngh!” Spike grunted as he impacted against Chaos.

“Right behind ya!” Chaos tail-whipped Spike into the ground.

“Aaah!” Spike yelled as he hit the ground.

“Do you admit defeat? Please say no,” Chaos said.

“Not on your life you psycho!” Spike fired a chaos blast at him but he simply snapped his finger and turned it into balloons that popped raining down chattering teeth on Spike.

“Ah! OWOWOWOW!” Spike yelped as they bit him.

"Seriously Spike? This is the limit of your imagination? I thought you were better than this. All that chaos magic and all you can think of is 'zap-zap'? I thought you were calling ME boring! This can't be all you have. Or is your definition of chaos being a punching bag?"

“You- I am just getting started!” Spike said conjuring up a pie with dynamite in it.

Chaos just snapped his fingers and the dynamite blew up early sending Spike flying.

"No no no, boy. I can't believe you. How can you be so close to becoming something greater, and you're still trapped thinking inside the box, clinging to arbitrary rules of what can and can't work. I can think of a million ways to blow you up where you stand right now. But so what? Where's the UNPREDICTABILITY in that? Come ON hatchling! Show some freakin' will to live!"

“I’m… not done yet!” Spike said before using his imagination to conjure up a catapult with a dozen flaming fists on it, it flung them at Chaos, but Chaos simply blew some air and sent them back and Spike was forced to dodge.

“Oh that was sad… the old flaming fist trick? What is this amateur hour?” Chaos taunted.

“Shut up!” Spike said.

"I know you're still learning hatchling, but stop clutching to these logical, rational, and harmonic ideas of what you can do! Hit me with something surprising for me's sake!" Chaos said exasperatedly.

“I-I…” Spike said.

“Spike! Listen to me!” Discord said.

“Huh?” Spike said, turning to Discord.

“You gotta do as he says and turn it up a notch or a dozen!” Discord said.

“I’m trying!” Spike said.

“Try harder, everything rides on this fight!” Discord said. “Your family, your friends, everypony! Use everything you’ve learned on this journey to win! Or at least… you know,” Discord said insinuating on the success of the student six.

“... You're right…” Spike turned to Chaos.

“Oh, you're done talking with that failure now?” Chaos casually asked.

“Yeah, and now, it’s time for some chaos…” Spike said powering up his claws with chaos magic.

In his mind's eyes, Spike the little normal baby dragon stood before a giant iron double door covered in chains... with the faintest pull... the chaos rumbled with a thundering echo. The iron doors swung outward with a deafening creek. Out flooded green fire with countless long necked dragon heads, laughing, snarling, hissing, weeping, sighing, and reciting poetry... Spike was swept up in the green flames, his body turning into the same green fire, and became one with it.

In the real world, a spiral of flame erupted, and in Spike's place a purple-scaled draconequus.

"TWILIGHT AND THE OTHERS ARE MY HOARD AND I LOVE THEM! YOU WON'T TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME YOU OLD FART!" The Chaos God snarled.

"... Finally," Chaos whispered.

Author's Note

Things are heating up as we speed towards the final confrontation.

What twists and turns await us?

Chaosville [part 2]

Spike and Chaos stared at each other.

“Spike… you fully bonded with the chaos!” Discord said in awe.

“That’s right! Now shut up and let me paste this geezer!” Spike said with a growl.

Chaos just laughed.

“Oh your indeed a hoot young one, so you managed to bond with the chaos in your body, I am the very concept of it! What makes you think you hold so much as a prayer against me?” Chaos asked.

“Maybe not… but I’ll be willing to try!” Spike said before hovering into the air.

“Let’s throw a party dear boy, till we drop!” Chaos said before he lunged forward and Spike mirrored him and the two clashed causing an explosion.

Smolder walked through the prison and looked around.

“I’ve only been here once, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary,” Smolder said as she made her way toward the noise.

As she made it to her destination she suddenly found herself cut off by two burly ponies.

“Um… excuse me,” Smolder said.

“You are not awesome enough to enter, leave,” The pony said.

“Excuse me?” Smolder said offendedly.

“You are not awesome enough to enter, leave,” The pony said almost robotically.

“Let me through, I gotta find Rainbow Da-Oomph!” Smolder was shoved back by the burly pony.

“You are not awesome enough to enter, leave,” The pony said.

“You say that one more time, I swear,” Smolder warned.

“You are not awesome enough to enter-” Smolder breathed fire on the pony in an attempt to scare him off… what happened instead was he reached through the fire and grabbed her by the neck and hoisted her up to him “Leave,” He said before chucking her.

“Whooaaa!” Smolder cried as she hit the ground “The heck? That usually works.” Smolder said before getting up “Alright beefcake, you want some of this?!” Smolder said before charging at him, only to bounce off his muscular chest.

“You are not awesome enough to enter, leave,” He said.

“Is that all you can say?!” Smolder demanded.

“No,” The pony said.

“So you're belittling me… hmmm… wait a minute…” Smolder saw they were earth ponies and there was open space above them.

“Hah! Too bad you don’t have wings!” Smolder said flying over them… only to run into one again, he was floating even without wings.

“You are not awesome enough to enter, leave,” The pony said for the UMPTEENTH time.

“What the?!” Smolder tried to go around him but he just hovered at the right speed in her way.

“How can somepony be this good at body blocking?!” Smolder said.

“Give up and leave, you do not have the permission of the awesome one to enter,” The pony finally said something else.

“And how do I get that?” Smolder asked, arms crossed.

“If she lets you in, which she hasn’t, you are not awesome enough to enter, so leave,” The pony said adjusting his sunglasses.

Smolder pinched her brow “You let me in or I swear… I’M GONNA-” Smolder didn’t get to finish her threat before a booming but familiar voice called out.

“YO! Let her through, she’s with me!” RD called.

“Huh?” Smolder peeked over the guard's shoulder to see a shocking sight.

A draconequus Rainbow Dash, on a throne, carried by other buff ponies.

“You have been granted permission by the awesome one, you may pass,” The guard got out of her way.

“Hmph! Not so cool now are ya?” Smolder humphed at him before flying up to Rainbow.

“Yo! If it isn’t Smolder, what’s shaking my girl?” Rainbow casually asked.

“'What’s shakin' my girl?'” Smolder confusedly parroted.

“Jinx, heheh, so what brings you to my concert?” Rainbow said stepping off her throne and the guards using their bodies as stairs for her.

“Uh…” Smolder had a brief brainfart before shaking her head and resuming “Equestria needs your help Rainbow, you need to leave this prison before you-” Rainbow held up a paw to quiet her.

“I’m gonna stop you there, Equestria’s in danger? And you want my help?” Rainbow asked.

“Um… yeah?” Smolder replied.

“Pass, so why not come down to the concert hall, there’s a big buffet table with gem embroidery, and Spitfire and the group are getting ready for their next number, I tell ya they're awesome-” Rainbow was cut off by Smolder.

“Waitwaitwaitwait, you pass? Rainbow, your friends need you, to stop Chaos! I-”

“Oh you mean the cool guy who gave me unlimited power, as long as he supplies it I’m gung ho for some action,” Rainbow said all chill-like.

“Rainbow… what about your friends!?” Smolder demanded.

“Eh who needs em, having fans is better,” RD shrugged.

“Who are you?” Smolder said sounding shocked.

“The coolest Draconeqqus around, that’s what!” RD snickered before floating back onto her throne.

“After the concert, I’m gonna leave this rock called Equus behind and bring my awesomeness to other dimensions, just like bossman said,” RD said.

“B-but what about pony kind! You can’t leave them like this!” Smolder said before RD was suddenly up in her face talking in a low tone.

“Please, do tell me what I can and can’t do again, see where it gets ya,” RD said before resuming like she hadn’t threatened her.

“Anywhoo, the concert is calling me so I bid you adieu,” RD said before teleporting away.

“....What the…?” Smolder said just standing there in shock.

Silverstream walked into the light and came out into what she expected, a HUGE party was going on.

There were rides, clowns, buffets as far as the eye can see, and ponies everywhere.

“Wow! What a big party! Eh normal get-together” Silverstream grunted as she tried to sort the voices in her head.

“One part of me wants to stop and party. One part is really confused, and the last is annoyed at how hard it is to find the pink weirdo in this."

Silverstream entered the party and saw all sorts of things going on, it’s like Pinkie’s description of the pony custom called… Comic con or something like it?

As she walked on she saw some ponies cheering for a clown and she figured she’d ask for directions.

“Excuse me,” Silverstream asked getting the clown's attention.

“Hmm?” The clown hummed.

“I am looking for Pinkie Pi-” Silverstream got cut off by a pie in the face.

“Oh nono, no speaking of the birthday girl until it’s time!” The clown said with a giggle before floating away.

“Oook… Do you know where she is?” Silverstream asked.

“Who?” The clown paused.

“Pinkie P-” another pie hit her face.

“HAHAHA!” The clown laughed before flying away.

“One part is annoyed… another is also annoyed… but the other other loves pie!” Silverstream said before moving on,

As she moved through the party she noticed that anypony she chatted with was avoidant… odd.

Silverstream was about to just fly around until she found her before a loud bell went off and everypony left their stations and went to a stage.

“Huh?” Silverstream went to where they were going and looked up at a giant gift box.

“What is-?” Silverstream was shushed by everyone.

Suddenly the gift opened and a platform rose out of it and a draconequus Pinkie rose out of it.

“Hello…” Pinkie muttered even as the crowd cheered.

"Happy birthday..." Silverstream turned her head... next to her was another Pinkie Pie with 'deflated' hair.

“Huh? Two Pinkies?” Silverstream asked.

"Hm? What are you doing here? I thought this was supposed to be a 'slow burn corruption' story," said the other Pinkie Pie. "You haven't awakened to your true-self... even I can tell that."

Silverstream looked at the pink draconequus performing on stage without a care in the world.

"W-Who are you?"

"The name's Pinkamena... and you and I have a lot in common, for instance, I can tell you're in pieces... a lot like me. I'm the part of Pinkie Pie she never wants to think about, bad memories, bad feelings, I come out when she doesn't want to deal with them."

“You're a fragment of her personality, a part of me is curious! I am also confused, and upset?” Silverstream said as her mind was drifting again.

“That’ll happen, you’ll get used to it, for now you got to get Pinkie to remember who she is,” Pinkamena said looking up at the depressed draconequus trying to do a musical number and the crowd somehow liking it.

“I'm honestly surprised you're here though... I know everything Pinkie Pie knows, even if she sometimes blocks out things I know. And I know, you were supposed to awaken the chaos in you, and be a candidate for becoming a draconequus... But you're not radiating chaos magic at all... meaning Spike took it from you, or Chaos for whatever reason didn't give you the chance TO awaken... not that Chaos has to make sense... but everything he's done so far as been part of some scheme... so it'll a little off-putting."

"Wait wait... Spike told us that Gabby and Smolder gained chaos magic... but I was supposed to too?! Wait, 'supposed to' with chaos?"

"Yeah. For being the embodiment of unpredictability, he sure seems to be an angel." Pinkamena said without much passion.

“Hey you two, you're interrupting the show, this is the best part,” A clown said.

They saw Pinkie doing a dance with the microphone that sprouted legs and after several twirls she did the splits.

"I'm talking with my friend!" Pinkamena growled. "We can enjoy the show just fine!"

"Uh, yes mistress... sorry for interrupting." The clown bowed several times before running.

"What IS this?" Silverstream asked.

"It's a rite of passage, Pinkie Pie letting of her harmonic desires to embrace chaos and complete her ascension as a chaos goddess... to only care about HER chaos."

“No! I gotta stop her then, maybe after this tune, no asap! Argh!” Silverstream tried to focus.

"Do you have a right to? If this is Pinkie Pie's decision, then-" Pinkamena said.

"Chaos brainwashed her!" Silverstream insisted.

"Did he? Or did he just tempt her with things she'd always wanted, but didn't want to grasp because the harmonic side was keeping them in check?"

“The world needs Harmonic Pinkie to save it,” Silverstream said as she started to press through the crowd, Mena close behind.

“You're only going to make things worse…” Mena sighed.

“Maybe you're right, no I can do this!” Silverstream said trying to shake the other voices out.

She made her way up to the platform where Pinkie is dancing.

"Just be careful... Chaos wouldn't have boasted of you being a chaos god candidate and then made sure you couldn't awaken as one without some scheme in mind."

“We’ll be careful,” Silverstream said before calling up to Pinkie “PINKIE! I need to talk to you!” Silverstream called.

The crowd gasped and stared at her as the music paused and Pinkie looked at her, sounding excited despite the glum look on her face.

"Silverstream? You're here? Cool! I was wondering when we'd get to that part of the story! ... But you seem kinda plain... But I see you're now a crowd."

"No thanks to Chaos!"

"Multiple personalities is a good thing for a chaos goddess, just think, no one can be sure which of you will do next!"

"Pinkie Pie this isn't about that! You need to get out of here! Chaos is going to destroy Equestria, the WORLD from all the chaos he's spreading, Harmony can't keep up!"

"I've had time to think about it... and honestly, I LIKE being this way. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye... " Pinkie replied.

“What? Pinkie! What about Equus?” Silver asked.

"It'll be FINE! Once Chaos leaves and us with him, then Discord will be the only Chaos God left, and Harmony will have Equus ALLLLLLL to herself like she's always wanted, big bully."

“But without Chaos here the balance will tilt again, Discord can’t possibly take the job solo,” Silver tried to explain.

"Oh you haven't seen the big twist coming," Pinkie Pie leaned in with huge grin.

“Twist? What twist?” Silver asked.

"Come on! We've been building up to it since the beginning of this story arc! I thought it was kinda obvious by now!” Pinkie said with a laugh.

Pinkie Pie cracked her knuckles. "But if you really are that worried about Equestria not having enough chaos when we leave... you can help fill in the quota. You've always been chaotic at heart Silverstream... "

“Me? You're suggesting I become the new lord of chaos and disharmony?”

"Well, there are so many different KINDS of chaos... having just one was always kinda weird don't you think? You, Discord, Spike-"

"How do you know about Spike?!" Silverstream demanded.

"I read the last chapter," Pinkie replied.

"What?!" Silverstream exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it, it'll make sense to you soon enough," Pinkie said.

"Pinkie Pie! I don't care how much you love doing this-" Silver tried to reason.

"Say that again!" Pinkamena suddenly closes, her head on the Draconequus, and suddenly Pinkie Pie being in the crowd.

Even more confused Silverstream said, "Not-not what we meant! I mean, that abandoning everyone you love just for a giant party? That's not you! You love GIVING parties to others, parties that LET THEM be happy, not parties that only make YOU happy."

“But chaos me loves parties for myself,” Pinkie said grumping a little.

“But that’s not who you are!” Silverstream said.

Pinkie began to grumble and suddenly Silverstream was hoisted up with chaos magic.

“You darken my party with your anti-chaos talk, GET OUT!” Pinkie said tossing Silver to the edge of the crowd. Pinkie's head was on the Draconequus again and continued her song and dance routine.

“Warned ya,” Mena said, trotting up to her.

“There’s gotta be something we can try,” Silverstream said before looking around for anything that could help.

"Be careful, the only answer might be inside."

Yona walked through the apple trees and saw what looked like one of Applejack's family get-togethers.

“Eat to yer heart's content everypony! Ah, transcend today and bring the name of the Apple Family to the stars, and maybe ah’ll meet some UFOs too!” Applejack said although she was clearly lying about the UFO’s.

“Yona smell food!” Yona said making her way over to a table, but before she could sit down she paused and shook her head.

“No! Yak must focus!” Yona said making her way up through the crowd and approaching Applejack who was a draconequus and lounging on a throne made of apples.

“And ah said to Flim and Flam, ya’ll can have mah farm, when ya learn how ta beat me at hoofwrestlin! HA!” Applejack said.

“Yona don’t believe that,” Yona said and the ponies around her looked at her like she had just spit on Applejacks apple fritters.

“Oh hi there little guy!” Applejack said.

“Yona a girl!” Yona said.

“Really, ah canne tell the gender difference, it’s all in tha fur,” Applejack said.

“That not how Yak genders work!” Yona said before taking a breath “Applejack must stop and come with Yona, Equestria in danger!” Yona said.

“Ah no need, ah jest checked a few minutes ago, everythin’s fine,” Applejack said.

“Yona been here for nearly half an hour, you lying,” Yona said.

“Ah ain’t lyin, maybe yer jest a bad judge of character,” Applejack said.

“Will you come and help or not?” Yona asked.

“Nah, ah’ll jest stick around here an enjoy time with mah family before ah take the Apple name to cosmic levels!” Applejack laughed, and everypony robotically laughed with her.

“Yona need to figure out how to convince Applejack she not liar,” Yona wondered.

“Well if that’s all ya needed ah got lots of work to do, sittin, eatin, staring at sky, ya understand,” Applejack said dismissively.

“Yona not leave,” Yona said.

“Then ah’ll kick ya out,” Applejack said getting up… before sitting back down “Big Mac, escort her out,” Applejack yawned and laid back.

“Yes mam,” Mac said with a hypnotized look in his eyes as he walked up to Yona and picked her up.

“Hey! Let Yona down!” Yona said as she was carried to the edge of the property.

"Eenope!"

Yona got up but Mac stood there blocking her way “Yona have to figure out how to fix Applejack’s head!” Yona said.

In the opulent version of Fluttershy's cottage, the yellow draconequus waved at Sandbar.

"Hello Sandbar, it's right about time for you to show up. Please have a seat. Don't worry, nothing here is booby-trapped or going to try to corrupt you. The tea is safe too."

Sandbar inched in, braced for some sort of trap... he'd heard the corrupted Fluttershy was as cruel as needless... not... not like normal Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy! I know this might sound crazy, but you're not supposed to be a draconequus, this isn't real! Chaos is corrupting you, and soon he'll destroy Equus from Harmony being overwhelmed! You can to escape here and help stop him!"

"... Oh I know all that already, sugar?" Fluttershy said offering him some sugar.

Sandbar found himself holding a teacup sitting in a chair his size across from the chaos goddess. He dimly nodded.

"I know this is a pocket world created to finish my 'corruption' into a complete draconequus like Discord. I know the others are going through the same thing. And I know you and the others are here to 'rescue me' from this. Restore us all to normal, put Chaos 'in his place' and restore Equestria's status quo as if none of this had ever happened, except the others learning not to bully Discord about his magic." Fluttershy said in a knowing tone.

“Why are you sounding.,.. Uncorrupted? Shouldn’t you be shouting at me or something?” Sandbar said wondering what was happening right now,

"Because this is me Sandbar, Fluttershy. Not AngryShy, not SnootyShy, not GothShy, not TrendyShy, not OppositeFluttershy... I've had my head swapped around many many times. And I know chaos way more than any of the others... I don't even scream when I visit Discord's world anymore... it's rather beautiful when you accept it for what it is."

“I…get that but-” Suddenly Sandbar jumped when he heard a yell from behind him and he turned to see a tiny Draconeqqus Fluttershy in a cage.

Fluttercruel snarled from within a cage, "I was supposed to absorb you! Not the other way around!"

The draconequus Fluttershy said calmly, "You wanted me to embrace being a draconequus, I have, you wanted me to embrace chaos, I have. You don't need to be so sour about it, you need to learn to behave yourself for when you meet your father."

"Chaos?" Sandbar asked confused.

"Discord of course silly, he was the one to create my corrupted self... yes he was quite horrible wasn't he when we first met," Fluttershy said.

Some scones appeared on a plate next to Sandbar... he gingerly took some.

"This.... this isn't what ... you were supposed to be all evil and stuff... and I was supposed to snap you out of it!"

"I know you were Sandbar, that's how this is 'supposed' to go. You were supposed to come here, with her treating my animals as if they were stuffed animals, suffering for my amusement, that I'd never do. I'd kick you out of my cottage when you tried to convince me it wasn't right, and have to come up with another plan."

“I am so confused right now,” Sandbar said

"You're telling me! I'm supposed to be Fluttershy right now! Not her!" The little draconequus snapped.

"And that behavior is why you're still on time out," Fluttershy said.

“So let me get this straight Fluttershy, you are not corrupted and you know everything that is going on? And your doing nothing to stop it?” Sandbar asked.

"Not anymore. Chaos let us have our most petty desires here filtered with our corrupted selves. And no, I'm not. Because I don't intend to leave once Chaos and the others leave."

"... What?... But... " Sandbar said.

"That's what Chaos says is supposed to happen?” Fluttershy said.

"Why... why are you DOING THIS Fluttershy? Don't you want to save Equestria?" Sandbar exclaimed.

"I AM saving Equestria..." Fluttershy responded with a sip of her tea.

"... Have you looked outside?! Have you seen what Chaos did to everyone, is doing to everyone, to your friends?"

Fluttershy said darkly. "Yes... I do... He's being horrible... every bit as horrific as Discord was, except he knows better and is doing it anyway... all for the plan he's had in motion from the beginning, that you're supposed to overcome in the end anyway... "

"THEN HOW IS THIS SAVING EQUESTRIA?!" Sandbar slammed his hooves on the table.

Fluttershy stared at him.

"Uh... please explain Miss Fluttershy please, I'll be good?" Sandbar squeaked under the power of her stare.

Fluttershy put down her teacup. "Have you ever heard of Opaline, Sandbar? You will... and you'll wish you never did."

“Who is she?” Sandbar said.

"She's an Alicorn who was raised in the same kingdom as Luna and Celestia... except she thinks Alicorns should rule ponies 'just because' rather than earning it. She's so powerful that the only way Twilight will be able to stop her is to seal away magic from Equestria completely... it'll cause every dragon in the world to go into a centuries long sleep... Equestria will fall into ruins... the ponies tribes will be separated again... unicorns will become depressed recluses, Pegasi will become fame obsessed isolationists, and earth ponies militant xenophobes"

“H-how do you know this? Did Chaos feed you lies or something?” Sandbar stuttered.

"No. I'm further along than any of the others... that means I can ... well, you wouldn't understand the term. But I can see beyond our world Sandbar... in a way you can understand, you could understand, you could say I'm seeing the future the same way you're seeing me across this table."

“S-so… Equestria’s harmony is doomed?” Sandbar gulped.

"As long as events continue on their current course, Sandbar. I won't let Discord face that future all alone. Discord will see ponykind fall apart without being there for me. If we cause enough chaos, we can cause our reality to take a different course than the one it would naturally take... that world would still exist... but it'd be no longer OUR world."

“I…I still need to get your help in fixing the current situation, think about it, what about your friends? How can Twilight help guide Equestria from the stars?” Sandbar said grasping at straws.

"I'm hoping that if I knock things enough off the rails, then there's no way that future can come to pass. I don't like it. I hate it. I loathe myself for it. But if harmony falling and chaos reigning is inevitable, then if I'm part of the chaos, maybe I can help things along a different course."

“That’s… I don’t even know where to start… Your gambling on the hopes that Equestria will fix itself based on you being one of the Chaos beings?” Sandbar questioned.

"I have faith that Discord and I, and maybe Spike and Silverstream, together can make it so the chaos won't destroy everything, just set Equestria on a better course."

“And if it doesn’t? What if you putting it all to faith causes things to go down a worse path?” Sandbar questioned.

"You have faith in your friends succeeding, you have faith that Harmony knows what she's doing, you have faith that Spike and Discord will be able to keep Chaos distracted long enough for you to save me and the others and that all of us will still want to be ourselves after everything Chaos has done to us."

“Spike…Yeah, what about Spike? If you just lounge here waiting for completion Chaos will kill him!” Sandbar said worriedly.

"... Being dead isn't very chaotic is it? Sandbar... let me ask you... if Chaos wanted to make Spike never heard from again... why wouldn't have already? If Celestia fought YOU seriously, do you think you'd win? Or 'delay' her?"

"... Chaos is TOYING with him?" Sandbar asked.

"No. He isn't." Fluttershy responded.

“Then Spike’s part of his ‘grand scheme’?” Sandbar tried again.

"That would be spoilers, I'm sadly not allowed to share, I would if I could."

“How Fluttershy… How can I convince you that waiting around may make things worse?” Sandbar said honestly trying to find a leg to stand on in this conversation.

“Good luck pal, she’s as dense as they come,” Fluttercruel said.

"You're right Sandbar, it might make things worse, it might make things better, isn't that better than knowing things WILL get worse?"

“I… need a moment…” Sandbar said getting out of his chair and trotting to get some thinking space.

"Take as long as you need. Your friends will be finished with their parts in your quest around the same time when we're done here. Feel free to use my Element of Kindness... "

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sandbar said sullenly.

Ocellus wandered into the cave and looked around at the crystalline walls and stalactites.

“R-Rarity?” Ocellus murmured as she made her way into the deep dark cave.

As she walked past something she turned and saw a shape.

“AH!” She jumped before seeing it was a statue of Rarity, chiseled to a tee.

“Huh? Where am I heading in this cave?” Ocellus asked herself as she continued on, seeing more statues in different poses and she eventually found a red carpet.

Her confusion growing she made her way to the other side of the cave and saw something… that made her cringe.

A castle was being built atop a statue of Rarity.

As Drconeqqus Rarity was hovering about cracking a whip at the ponies building it.

“Faster! I want this beautiful diamond statue of yours truly to be finished ASAP, better yet NOW!” Rarity said.

“I knew she was vain but… this is scary,” Ocellus said, wondering if she should run.

“You there!” Rarities voice called and Ocellus eep’d, thankfully when she looked she just saw Rarity chastising a slave taking a break.

“Must I watch you all day!? The more gems you find the better! I NEED MORE GEMS!” Rarity said.

“Yes mam!” The slaves ran back to hurry.

“How can I convince her to help when she’s holding that whip?” Ocellus said not liking the idea of getting whipped.

Ocellus knowing she had to do something snuck down to a lower area using a belly crawl and when she got there she saw Rarity flying about cracking her whip.

“O-ok… here’s hoping nothing bad happens…” Ocellus gulped and called out.

“Mrs. Rarity! I need to speak with you!” Ocellus called as loudly as she could.

“HMM?” Rarity turned to her and floated down, her eyes almost looked like Discord’s… she was running out of time.

“Rarity I need you to listen Equestria needs-” A lash landed just in front of her. “EEEP!” Ocellus jumped onto a pillar avoiding it.

“Why aren’t you working? My precious little gems need mining and cleaning,” Rarity said snobbishly.

“R-R-R-Rarity, this isn’t you! You have to stop! Before Equestria dies!” Ocellus said.

“Dies? What care have I? I need my castle completed in which I shall take it with me so that I may have a throne among the stars, I’ll beat Luna out for most glamorous ruler!” Rarity laughed.

“B-but what about-”

“Move along! I have no time for minor drivel!” Rarity said taking her leave, at least until Ocellus shouted after her.

"SPIKE NEEDS YOU!" Ocellus shouted.

Rarity stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widened.

“Spike? Oh dear me… how blind I’ve been… I need…” Rarity began.

“Yes? Yes?” Ocellus said hoping she got through to her.

“A butler for the trip, how silly am I?” Rarity said face palming “I do thank you for reminding me,” she said “Where is he anyways?” Rarity said.

“Rarity, Spike is fighting Chaos right now! He might lose!” Ocellus said.

“Oh dear! I hope he doesn’t smite him! Spikey-Wikey is the only one here that is actually good at finding gems,” Rarity obliviously said and Ocellus facehoofed.

Ocellous thought for a moment. "Chaos is going to take Spike from you... something that belongs to you... are you just going to give him up?"

“....” Rarity paused and looked conflicted “Oooh, you do make a good point, Spikey-Wikey is MY assistant, why should I let Chaos have him?” Rarity said to herself, “But then again scrapping with the boss will be oh so tiring, I just got a manicure too… oh what to do?” Rarity said.

“She’s really consumed by her greed… I need to sway her to put this on,” Ocellus said to herself.

“Hmm… oh well, perhaps after my beautiful castle is finished,” Rarity said.

“Uhh… wait!” Ocellus called after her flying after her.

Gallus woke up on the ground.

“Ugh.. what hit me?” Gallus said before realizing he was still in front of the barrier.

“Well, no time like the present,” Gallus said entering.

And he found something interesting… Nothing changed, except for the lack of chaos, everything looked like it did before the chaos.

And Twilight was sitting on a chair reading a book with her friends all reading books too.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Gallus said before heading over to the draconequus.

“Hey! Twilight!” Gallus called.

“Hmm? Gallus?” Twilight looked up at him.

“I-...” Suddenly The headache returned and Gallus grunted “Ugh, what is with this headache, ever since we got here…” Gallus said before something rose up behind him.

“Huh?” Gallus turned and… saw nothing.

Spike impacted a wall and teleported just as a dozen giant bees attacked him.

Spike floated up and sent energy spheres at Chaos who dodged them but was hit by another, the sphere squirted water sending him flying through a building.

Chaos got up and reached his hand to the side and a hand came out of the sky and grabbed Spike before pulling him up, and Spike found himself suddenly next to Chaos and he found himself suddenly smashed into the ground.

Spike’s tail gained a hand and snapped its fingers and suddenly an anvil landed on Chaos’s head.

“Ooof! Not bad dear boy, but your still green,” Chaos said poking the anvil and making it go up and it suddenly came out of the ground and hit Spike in the face.

As the anvil flew up it suddenly shattered and formed into a rain of gecko’s that exploded like dynamite on impact.

“HAHAHAHA! The old raining Gecko’s gag, always get’s me!” Chaos chuckled.

Spike flew out of the smoke and tackled Chaos before snapping his finger and raising two houses before turning them into ice cream and making them slam together on Chaos as Spike backed off.

Suddenly the ice cream was eaten rapidly and Chaos burped.

“Whoo! Needed that stress reliever, ice cream always was my favorite, that’s why I made the calming mechanism when I invented the draconequus!” Chaos said before grabbing himself from the sides and ripping himself in half before the halves reformed into two Chaos’ and then he did it again and they became four then eight then sixteen.

“Time to split! Wouldn’t you say?” Chaos said before the Chaos’ all pounced on Spike in a dogpile.

Spike exploded out of them as a giant.

“I’M NOT GOING DOWN THAT EASY!” Spike said.

“Oh, made yourself larger? That’s cute, can you do… THIS?” Suddenly all the copies made themselves ten times bigger than Spike.

Spike tried to make himself even bigger but as he got bigger suddenly a house was crushed.

“Oh no!” Spike stopped growing.

“HAH! And that dear boy is one of at least fifty reasons why I’m better at chaos than you or Discord, I don’t care what happens to mortals or this stupid town,” Chaos said before they all raised their feet and aimed to crush Spike.

“NO!” Spike put up a shield to protect the town as they all began stomping on it.

“GUYS! You gotta hurry!” Spike said.

It showed Harmony sitting with the other Dragons and Changelings and every creature, waiting for everything to change.

“How’s it looking?” Ember asked Harmony.

“Not well, the six are struggling to reawaken the former bearers, one in particular is set in their ways, and Chaos has become more powerful than I first anticipated. If things go on like this, our problems will only grow…” Harmony said.

“We must have faith,” Thorax said and they turned to him “Faith in those six, in the bearers, and especially, Spike!” Thorax said resolutely.

“You're right, the moment we give up is the moment we lose,” Ember said.

“Very well let us keep our hopes high, for a better tomorrow,” Harmony said as they all looked out at the chaos unfolding.

Author's Note

Things are only getting more and more dire, can Spike and the others turn this around?

Friendship is chaos and harmony

A portal opened up and six Draconequi exited.

The other members of both parties were waiting there with bated breath and when they saw the six come back they ran over to them.

“Girls! Spike! Gallus!” Rarity cried.

“Everyone! Did you do it? Did you win?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, we did,” Spike said as the others crowded around him and the others.

“Is Chaos… gone?” Smolder asked, having returned to normal size and sporting a few bruises.

“For now, let’s just say he’s been humbled,” Spike chuckled.

“Well, now that that is all settled, I suppose it is time to get back to fixing this,” Rarity said.

Smolder said, "Hey! I thought the whole problem was if Chaos ditched Equestria, Harmony would overload and explode or something!"

“It would have, but according to Chaos, we’re stabilizing the balance now,” Spike said.

"So... I GAVE UP BEING A GODDESS FOR NOTHING?!" Smolder exclaimed.

“We can help you Smolder,” Gabby said with her raised paws.

“Maybe after everything is fixed first,” Twilight said.

“Agreed, let’s get moving, guys?” Spike turned to his fellow Draconeqqui.

They nodded and they all snapped their fingers teleporting everycreature present to the cave of harmony.

Spike walked ahead of the others and Harmony trotted to the edge of the cave and she seemed a bit surprised before grimacing.

“I suspected this, but it still surprises me… Hello again Spike,” Harmony said.

“Hi…Suspected what?” Spike asked.

“...Do you remember what I said to Discord? It seems it is happening all over again with the bearers and those young ones I had elected.” Harmony said with an air of disappointment.

“Is that a problem?” Spike asked a little miffed.

“No… It’ll take some getting used to is all, but having so many Draconeqqui around, I can’t help but suspect Chaos was behind this, I’ll need to communicate with you all later on this to avoid this problem happening again,” Harmony said before gesturing them all to follow her and they walked into the cave.

“So why does the outside still look so messed up? Chaos is gone and we’re in charge till he comes back,” Gallus asked.

“Because Chaos pollution doesn’t just vanish like that… I am afraid to say there’s one more thing that needs to be done,” Harmony said.

“And that is?” Spike asked.

“We need to fully congeal the chaos and compress it, then use the harmony wave to, and I say this theoretically, erase it,” Harmony said.

“Are you mad?!” Discord said “All the chaos coating the world could kill someone who tried to compress it all, the pressure is too much!"

“...There’s no other way to do so,”

“What if he had help?” Gabby said.

“But the chances of you all being destroyed will offset the balance again, not to mention I refuse to endanger anyone,” Harmony said.

“But who will-”

“I will,” Harmony said.

“What?!” Discord said “Think about this Harmony you were just told that all this chaos magic could kill somepony, you are not back to full strength yet because of the tilted balance,” Discord said.

"It would leave us with six draconequi, and no Harmony, and we'd be as doomed as before!" Twilight said.

“...Then who can take the risk? I have a better chance of survival than you all, I mean no offense but you're all still young in the ways of chaos,” Harmony said.

“I can’t accept that Harmony, I will go and that’s final,” Spike said.

“What?” Gallus said.

“Spike, you heard the risks, I can’t allow you to-” Harmony began but Spike interrupted.

“I don’t care what you think Harmony, draconequi started this mess, and now a draconequus will fix it,” Spike said before flying out of the cave.

“SPIKE!” Gabby tried to fly after him but Fluttercruel got in front of her, tiny as she was she made herself known.

“Look, that idiot wants to risk his life to clean that jerk's mess, let him, I know dragons and they are as stubborn as Tartarus,” Fluttercruel said.

“But I-”

“Spike…” Harmony said looking sad “I pray you make it,” Harmony then levitated the elements with her and she exited the cave.

“Ok Spike, I need you to extend your influence across the very planet itself, grab the chaos by the edges, and force it back!” Harmony called.

“OK!” Spike said as he flew up and up and up and eventually, he pierced the thick multicolored clouds and appeared above the top with the sun shining on him.

“Ah! So bright! Ugh, forgot how long I’ve spent with cloudy skies,” Spike mumbled before he began focusing on his power and he extended his influence in the form of chaotic ropes of magic.

Despite the chaos loaded within him, however, his limit was reached…

“Come on! I need more distance!” Spike strained and he pressed the ropes of chaos magic for more miles across the globe.

But as it looked like the chaos ropes were about to snap from the pressure they finally reached the edges of the chaos bubble surrounding Equus.

“I…got it!” Spike strained, it was like stretching his arms across the whole world.

“OK! NOW DRAG IT BACK TOWARDS YOU!” Harmony called loudly.

“Ok!” Spike strained and he began pulling.

He felt the bubble shudder and groan as he pulled it back across the world. The world was fixing itself as he reigned the chaos in.

“Are you okay up there!?” Gabby’s voice most likely through a megaphone called up.

“IT’S…. LIKE… PULLING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF THE GROUND… WITH MY HANDS!” Spike yelled from the strain.

The bubble began to slow as the compression got more and more difficult.

“AAAGH!” Spike was turning purple in the face from the strain.

“We gotta help him!” Gabby said.

“No! The process is too delicate at this stage, if his concentration is broken the chaos will snap back over the world!” Harmony said.

“Then what do we do?! That kind of pressure will kill him!” Gabby said.

“I should have done this, only a cosmic being like me or Chaos could breach that compression of chaos without breaking Spike’s concentration,” Harmony said.

“Then go!” Gallus said.

“I. CAN’T. I need to fire the harmony wave!” Harmony said.

“Then… what do we-” Suddenly the world shook and they saw yellowish magic beginning to turn thicker and thicker like a layer of molasses.

“All we can do is hope at this point,” Harmony said before sensing something “Wait… no way,” Harmony turned towards the distance as a portal opened…

Spike was raining sweat and looking like he was going to explode from the strain.

“I…can’t… do this!....” Spike gasped as the chaos bubble though a few thousand miles to go was becoming so thick and compact that it was like squeezing a boulder into a pebble.

“I need…. To hurry…. For…. for….” Spike looked like he was going to pass out when suddenly…. His chaos reserves were refreshed in an instant.

“Huh?! How did-” Spike turned his head and saw Chaos. “What are you doing here!?” Spike demanded.

“I had a while to think it over, and I’ll need many more, but really, if you are to be a new chaos god, don’t give in, chaos bends to you, not the other way around,” Chaos said before vanishing.

“Was… I hallucinating?.... No, no distractions!” Spike said focusing on his chaos magic. Chaos may be a jerk but he’s right, with his powers, he bends to no magic now! Twilight and his friends will live in harmony and chaos once more!

Spike roared and his eyes lit up as the ropes tightened once more and the bubbles condensing resumed.

“If I have to bear the weight of the world, SO BE IT!” Spike said before pulling with all his strength and the chaos shrank and shrank until it formed a smaller town-sized sphere.

“I… CAN’T GET IT ANY SMALLER!” Spike yelled to Harmony.

“Amazing,” Harmony said before shaking her head and charging all the power in the elements.

“I cannot focus on that right now! RAISE IT AND THROW IT INTO SPACE SPIKE!” Harmony yelled.

“Ok!” Spike heaved with everything in his being and the chaos magic sphere began lifting off the ground.

Ponyville returned to normal as the chaos left it and Spike raised it over his head.

It was a giant bright yellow sphere of chaos magic and he threw it into the sky will all the strength he had left.

“Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, Magic! GIVE ME STRENGTH!” Harmony yelled and she aimed and fired her harmony magic and it pierced the clouds blowing a giant hole in them and it flew all the way into space after the chaos magic and struck it.

She yelled as she gave it her all and the Chaos bubble shrunk slowly.

Disappearing slowly by the harmony magic striking it and soon it was pushed farther and farther away until the harmony magic began coiling around it and compressing it until it was eliminated altogether.

Spike watched the whole thing and smiled before falling, completely exhausted.

As he fell it looked like he was going to crash but Twilight suddenly appeared and caught him.

“I got you,” Twilight said before carrying him to ground level.

Spike slowly woke up, it was odd, he felt warm. Did he die? He doesn’t seem to be anywhere else but-

“AH!” Spike shot up in his bed and looked around, he was in the hospital.

Twilight was sitting in a chair next to him and she smiled and ran over to him when she saw he was awake.

“SPIKE!” Twilight called as she hugged him.

“Twilight? TWILIGHT!” Spike said as he hugged her back.

After a lengthy hug, Spike laid back in his hospital bed “What happened? Where did everypony-” Spike asked but Twilight answered.

“It’s alright Spike, you did it,” Twilight said petting his head with a hoof.

“You look… normal,” Spike said.

“I’m actually not a Draconequus anymore,” Twilight said.

“What?” Spike said.

“Yeah, having phenomenal cosmic powers was fun, but Smolder made it clear she wanted them and honestly, harmony is where I should remain, besides, doing so cleansed my mind of Chaos’s control,” Twilight said.

“So Smolder is now a chaos goddess again?” Spike asked.

“Yes, she’s going to be a big help in keeping things interesting around here, as will Gallus and Gabby and Fluttershy and Discord-”

“Wait, Discord? He’s back? I thought he was still a ghost,” Spike said.

“Alooots happened since you passed out a month ago,” Twilight said.

“I’ve been asleep for a month…?” Spike asked in shock.

“Yeah,” Twilight said.

“Oooh boy…” Spike rested his head on the pillow.

“I need to leave soon, I still got a few hours of community service to take care of and Celestia will get mad if I don’t-”

“Community service?!” Spike said sitting up.

“Easy Spike,” Twilight helped him lay back down.

“Sorry, but what do you mean community service? Don’t tell me you were punished,” Spike said.

“No… well actually yes, you see after everything was basically back to normal Celestia gave me and my friends a stern reprimanding for what happened, as well as Discord, and we’re now doing community service for a year to make up for it,” Twilight sheepishly said “I’ve honestly never seen Celestia’s face turn that color while yelling, I don’t want to bore you with the details,” Twilight said.

“You shouldn’t have been punished, this was all Chaos’s fault,” Spike said.

“Alot of creatures were at fault really, but mostly us, we apologized to Discord for underestimating chaos magic, it’s fine Spike, we only have eleven more months to go,” Twilight said.

“What about Harmony?” Spike asked.

“She’s fine, still recovering from that massive harmony wave but she’s doing better now,” Twilight said before getting up “I have to get going now,” Twilight said.

“Ok… Umm, see you later then?” Spike said hopefully.

“Yeah, and Spike,” Twilight said.

“Yeah?”

“I’m proud of you, not just for saving Equus, but for everything else too,” Twilight said.

“Thanks,” Spike said.

“See you later,” Twilight said before leaving.

Before Spike even had a chance to go back to sleep a few figures decided to swoop in and say hi.

“HI SPIKEY!” Gabby cheered.

“AH!” Spike bolted up at the sudden voice and saw several more figures pop into view.

“Hey Spike!” Smolder said.

"Hey Smolder you look... different," Spike said referring to her now draconequus look.

"New and improved," Smolder grinned. "Miss Twilight's loss is my gain."

“Hello again Spike,” Discord said coming in last.

“Hi guys, uh… why are you here?” Spike asked.

“We were pretending to be flies on the wall and overheard you were better,” Gabby said.

“Indeed, I must say Spike you gave us all quite the scare when you blacked out for a whole month, Celestia has been positively chewing my ear off about the chaos incident.” Discord sighed dramatically.

“How about you Spike? Are you feeling better?” Gabby asked.

“Yeah… Am I still… a draconequus too?” Spike asked.

“I still sense the power of chaos within you but it will take a while for it to return to what it was,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Spike said “Well if you guys can give me room I need to rest some more,” Spike said laying back down.

Instead, he found himself standing with a backpack on.

“Huh?” Spike said.

“Not today, you just woke up and now you're coming to see something,” Smolder said.

“What? Why?” Spike asked.

“Just come on,” Discord said and the three teleported and Spike found himself in Ponyville Square.

Where he saw something that made his eyes widen.

“Wanna have a picnic right next to your congratulations statue?” Smolder said with a chuckle.

Spike saw before him a giant sculpted statue of himself as a draconequus standing tall and proud.

“Wow, I don’t… know what to say,” Spike said.

“Say yes!”

“Yes?” Spike said

“Permission given!” Gabby snapped her fingers and summoned out of Spike’s backpack a picnic spread full of gems.

“Whoa!” Spike said.

“Come now, is that enough to surprise you after all that’s happened?” Discord asked.

“Discord!” Everyone turned to see Fluttershy trotting up to them.

“Hey Shy!” Discord said.

“Fluttershy? You look normal too,” Spike said.

“I’m not, see,” Fluttershy turned into her draconequus form before returning to her pony form “I just like my old form better, I am going to be a Draconequus from here on,” Fluttershy said.

“Why?” Spike asked, “What about the element of kindness?” Spike asked.

“Sandbar is taking over for me,” Fluttershy said “What matters is that the dark future I foresaw is going to either be averted, or me and Discord will be together, either way is a win,” Fluttershy said.

“Aww, it gets more heartwarming every time,” Discord said.

“Dark future?” Spike questioned.

‘Oh right, you never heard, let’s let that be a story for another day,” Fluttershy said before sitting with them.

“Ok,” Spike shrugged and they all sat down and enjoyed their food.

As Spike ate he couldn’t help but look at his statue and smile.

“What’s up Spike?” Discord asked.

“Oh nothing, so, how does it feel not being the only Draconequus around here now?” Spike asked.

“Different I will admit, but fun! Now the griffons and dragons will know chaos and fun, while I remain here with my friends,” Discord said.

“That’s good, but don’t start sounding like Chaos now, or else somepony will think it’s all going to happen again,” Spike laughed and so did everypony else.

They clinked cups of juice “TO FRIENDSHIP!” they cheered as they went on with their picnic.

It showed the cave of harmony and Harmony looked out at Ponyville with a smile.

“It’s good to see him awake again, I admit, the fact you helped him last moment came as a surprise to me, what happened in the rift?” Harmony asked.

Chaos appeared next to her.

“Lots…. Let’s just be glad that balance is restored, I… hope you had the time to consider,” Chaos asked

“Even I can only forgive so quickly Chaos, I will admit you were in a dark place back then, and I can understand what with Discord being your one hundredth failed student, but it seems you outdid yourself, I will have to try extra hard to balance out the amount of chaos your new draconequus proteges will cause,” Harmony sighed.

“Figured I would at least try,” Chaos shrugged “I will admit that young dragon is more exceptional than I first thought, It was worth it I suppose, to create my successor,” Chaos said.

“You and your long cons,” Harmony said with an eye roll.

“What can I say, I invented them!” Chaos laughed.

“Not anytime soon though, and only if he wants to take your role,” Harmony said.

“Yes yes, Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do,” Chaos said before walking into a portal.

“Farewell,” Harmony said before vanishing as well.

---A few weeks later---

Spike stood in the throne room with all of his friends, Draconequus and not.

Celestia and even Luna who thankfully recovered when Equus was liberated from the chaos.

“Spike, I believe you know why you're here,” Celestia asked.

“I’m not in trouble?” Spike asked.

“No no, quite the opposite, we wish to both congratulate you and also ask for your aid,” Celestia said.

“Aid? In what?” Spike asked.

“I am afraid that given recent events, the pony population is… understandably still recovering from the travesty that occurred awhile ago, Discord and his fellow Chaos users have received some grief while going about their lives, I suppose what I am saying is, we would like you to be their spokes-dragon,” Celestia said.

“Me?” Spike said.

“Everypony knows it was you who saved Equestria, and so I feel that it would be best that you aid in helping the ponies get over their fears,” Celestia said.

“Even though we feel grief of our own towards Discord, it is not fair to the other Draconequi here,” Luna said.

“Are you up to the task?” Celestia asked.

“Am I? Of course!” Spike said “I saved Equus, I can save my friends,” Spike said.

“Thank you, Spike,” Celestia said.

Spike nodded and turned to his friends who smiled gratefully.

“After all, friendship is harmony, but it’s also pretty chaotic,” Spike chuckled.

Author's Note

And we've finally finally reached the end of Friendship is absolute chaos.

This was a fun and exhilarating adventure we all took, and now everything is alright again.

I will be resuming some of my unfinished stories and starting new ones, so I hope you all enjoyed this story and all the adventures that it came with. :pinkiehappy:

Chaosville [final part]

Smolder made her way into the building ahead of her, seeing various ponies looking like zombies as they hurried around helping out to continue the concert.

“I have to figure out how to snap RD out of it… but how?” Smolder questioned herself. As she made her way up to the concert area she saw Rainbow sitting in a royal-looking seat in the front row.

“Ah, she did say she had the Wonderbolts performing for her…” Smolder said before making her way through the crowd to where Rainbow is.

“Rainbow! I still need to talk to you!” Smolder called but her voice couldn’t be heard over the cheering crowd.

“Go Spitfire! Let it rip!” Rainbow cheered as the song continued.

“Ok… I have an idea but I’m most likely gonna be incinerated for it… helping save Equus or dying… Guess, I got no choice then!” Smolder flew up to the stage and shoved Spitfire aside.

“HEY!” Spitfire said as she stumbled back.

“Huh?! Hey hey hey! CUT!” Rainbow shouted and everything went silent.

“Uuuuuhh… H-hi?” Smolder said nervously knowing RD might be getting ready to hurt her.

“What. the. Hay?! Get off the stage!” RD shouted.

“Rainbow!” Smolder said getting right to it “You need to snap out of it! You can’t leave Equus to die like this!” Smolder called.

“Oh not this again!” RD sighed before teleporting up to her.

“Your interrupting the score of the century to remind me that Equus is gonna blow up from all the chaos pollution?!” RD sneered.

“Uh… yes?” Smolder said.

“Give me one reason to not turn you into a lettuce leaf and feed you to Tank,” RD said pointing to a bipedal tortoise in a suit licking his lips at that thought.

“B-because… Countless ponies will die if you continue doing this, are you seriously going to abandon your homeworld just because Chaos said so?” Smolder said forming a plan.

“Uh yeah,” RD said.

“What about your ‘pony pride’ or whatever your always championing? Can your pride stand up to the fact that you're not Chaos’s equal?” Smolder said.

The crowd gasped as RD narrowed her eyes.

“What?” RD said.

“Face it RD, your only second best, can you call yourself the queen of disloyalty if you swear your allegiance to him? If anything you should put this on for your sake!” Smolder said holding out the necklace.

Several security guards arrived on the scene.

“Shall we remove her o awesome one?” One said.

“...No…” RD said “Allow me!” RD grabbed Smolder by her throat.

“I’m still waiting on my reason I shouldn’t kill you for interrupting my concert…” RD said.

“I-if you…let Chaos win… you lose!” Smolder gasped.

“Why?” RD said.

“Because a wise yet arrogant pony once taught me that a good friend is always there for those they care about! You think your not, but YOU. ARE. LOYAL!” Smolder said.

Loyalty… the antithesis of her… but her words struck a cord within RD and she remembered… her friends… her family… her element… she remembered…

“I-.....I… I’m not! I am….” RD shook her head as if coming out of a haze.

“Remember RD… you're not a draconequus… you're the best pony there is!” Smolder said honestly grasping at straws.

RD gripped her head and dropped Smolder and suddenly the environment and ponies around them vanished.

“I’m…. no…..SHUT UP!” RD said clutching her head.

“You heard, didn’t you? The RD I know!” Smolder said getting the necklace out.

“Sm-...Smolder!... hurry!” RD said as she knelt down clearly battling the chaos in her head.

“I got you RD!” Smolder shouted as she ran up and jumped… and was snagged by a tail.

“I’m NOT loyalty… I am a GODDESS!” She snarled.

“Only one chance then!” Smolder breathed fire in RD’s face and RD shouted in pain and dropped her and while the draconequus was staggered she jumped up and slid the necklace on her.

“I sense the first one!” Harmony said.

“Then hurry!” Ember said.

Harmony focused on her power and sent it through the element.

“RD…WAKE UP!” Harmony commanded.

“NOOOOO!” RD shouted before she started erupting chaos magic out of her mouth and she shrunk down to her normal pony self.

“RD!” Smolder ran up to her and shook her.

“Ugh….” RD said as she slowly got up and shook her head.

“You alright?” Smolder asked.

“Yeah… oh man… what have I been doing? We need to help the others!” RD said.

“THAT’S the RD I know,” Smolder said before the two ran off towards the barrier’s edge.

Silverstream flew up to Pinkie Pie at least a dozen times but she just teleports her away.

“She’s probably right, we gotta do something!” Silverstream said out loud.

“You're just wasting everyponies time…” Mena said.

“Then you do something, I got this, we got this!” Silverstream said.

“Why not just lure her in?” Mena said.

“Why? How? When?” Silverstream asked.

“Follow me,” Mena said leading Silverstream to a pin the tail on the donkey board.

“HEY PINKIE!” Mena called.

“Huh?” Pinkie said.

“I’m ready to play that stupid game with you!” Mena said

“Wow! Really? I knew you’d come around.

“All you…” Mena trotted away as Pinkie appeared.

“Thanks!” Silverstream said before turning to Pinkie.

“Where’s Mena?” Pinkie asked.

“Pinkie, we really need to talk,” Silverstream said.

“Oh not this again, need I teleport you away once more." Pinkie threatened.

“No, listen, You aim to make ponies happy right?” Silverstream asked.

“Yes, but I can make other beings happy too!” Pinkie said.

“What about you?” Silverstream asked.

“Hmm? What about me?” Pinkie asked.

“How happy will you be when this whole thing takes off, you’ll never see your family again, your friends, acquaintances, everypony! You leave and so many will be sad again…” Silver reasoned.

“...So?... I can… visit periodically right?” Pinkie asked.

“When? When Chaos feels like giving you a vacation?” Silver pointed out.

“He won’t,” Mena said laying on the ground nearby.

“...How do you know,” Pinkie said.

“I know because you know, Chaos has no intention of letting us go, we’ll be his servants and only cause chaos where he tells us,” Mena replied.

“You have to not listen, listen to us, Equestria needs you now, the joy of everypony you know weighs on your decision,” Silverstream said.

“But the twist… it may be a game changer, I’ll be unable to make anypony happy or sad if I am left behind,” Pinkie said unsure now.

“That is a risk you gotta take for your friends, please Pinkie, help us,” Silverstream said offering the necklace to Pinkie.

“I know, I need to make others happy, and if following Chaos leads only to tears, then maybe I can take my chances…” Pinkie allowed her to put it on her and the environment faded away.

“You did it…” Mena said without a shift in her tone before she vanished to.

Pinkie returned to normal upon Harmony’s command.

“Are you okay Pinkie?” Silverstream asked.

“Yeah…” She said wiping some tears from her eyes “I will be,” Pinkie said.

“Then let’s fix this distorted world, together!” Silver offered a hoof and Pikie took it and they ran off to the exit.

Yona had tried multiple times to get past Mac, but even her Yak strength wasn’t enough to overpower the red stallion.

“Yak need to get through!” Yona said.

“Eenope,” Big Mac said.

“....Then Yona needs to do something she promised she’d never do… What’s that over there!” Yona pointed away from Mac and he glanced.

Perfect.

She struck him in the stomach.

“Yona not like cheap shots, but she had no choice,” Yona ran past Big Mac who was on the ground holding his gut.

Yona ran back up to Applejack who was dancing on the tables and paused when she saw her.

“What?! Didn’t you an I agree to disagree?!” Applejack demanded.

“No, you kicked Yak off of property, and now Yona is here to make you go save Equestria!” Yona said.

“Why should ah, ah told ya ah checked and found everything normal,” AJ said.

“NO! You not liar Applejack, you are one of greatest teachers in school, you teach honesty,” Yona said.

“Ah thought it was cooking,” Applejack said compulsively lying again.

“No, Yona need family, you need family! If you leave how will you meet family again?” Yona said.

“Whaddya mean? Ah can bring them with… right?” Applejack said.

“No! Chaos want pony to serve him! Harmony said so,” Yona said.

“Why should ah trust Harmony? She’s a liar unlike me,” Applejack said.

“No! Yona need you to see, you not liar…” Yona looked around for a way before spotting an apple pie… and remembering one of AJ’s lessons…

“Like how Yona hate apple pie!” Yona said.

“What?! How can ya hate apple pie, it’s the most delicious apple dessert!” Applejack said offendedly.

“Yona is being honest, unlike you!” Yona said.

“Yer jest bein mean! To tell that to an Apples face, ah should turn you into apple pie an eat ya!” Applejack threatened.

“What about the time you were being cruelly honest? Yona remember that lesson! Yak being honest pony be honest about her feelings,” Yona said.

“AH AH’M BEIN HONEST ABOUT MAH FEELINGS…….Oh…” Applejack said suddenly getting an epiphany.

“Yona, want honest pony over liar pony any day,” Yona said.

"....Yer right, Ah should be totally honest one hundred percent of the time, even if it hurts ponies, breaks up families, hurt friendships, lets foolish ponies keep doing foolish things that'll get them hurt, hurts your friends' feelin's when you hate something they love, and totally tell your customers where they can get a better price for something at the big brand store but you can't afford to lower yer price any lower!"

“Yona thinks that isn’t fully true, if pony isn’t honest who is she? Nopony will trust her, if Yona lied all the time, would Yona be trusted? Would Yona have any friends? Pony doesn’t have to be brutally honest all the time, just when you need to be,” Yona said.

“Ah… can’t deny that lyin all the time is… tiring… but if ah’m honest all the time how will ah-” Applejack questioned.

“Yona will be there, and pony will be able to know the right time,” Yona nodded.

“Ah’ve been plum foolish…” Applejack said before levitating the necklace off of Yona and onto her neck. “No honest means no friends… and ah’d hate to leave mah family behind, that’s the truth,” Applejack said as she returned to normal.

“Yona will help, now we hurry!” Yona said as the environment returned to blackness.

“Ok!” Applejack said following her.

Ocellus chased after Rarity who flew up to her castle window and entered.

“Rarity wait!” Ocellus asked.

“What is it now?!” Rarity barked “Can you not see that I am enjoying the splendor of high society!? And who permitted you to come in here?” Rarity said.

“I need to tell you more,” Ocellus whimpered a little as Rarity cracked the whip at the air.

“Then make it quick! I have much preparation to do!” Rarity said gruffly.

“You have parents here don’t you? What about them?” Ocellus said.

“Who cares about them!... I have jewels! Gems! Diamonds!” Rarity said.

“Sweetie Belle?” Ocellus said.

Rarity paused at that… “I… do admit she will be missed, but I am sure mother and father can take care of her! I have a universe of treasures just waiting for their true owner to claim them!” Rarity said.

“........Can you be happy if you're alone?” Ocellus said.

“...What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Can these gems and treasures play games with you? or be there when you need a shoulder to cry on? Or wear your outfits? You can’t subsist on only jewelry, you need friends!” Ocellus said.

“....I don’t… need friends… I am happy…. I’M HAPPY!” Rarity snapped.

Ocellus shivered but continued “Then why do you sound unsure?! Where’s your proof!?” Ocellus said.

“....I don’t… but I can bring-”

“No you can’t Rarity, Chaos intends to hold Spike captive here on Equus, you need to snap out of it and help him!” Ocellus said.

“I… Oh dear… your right… How can I call myself a queen without friends… it would be a lonely existence” Rarity said dropping the whip.

Ocellus approached.

“Then protect your existence by helping us, not Chaos,” Ocellus said.

“You're right…” Rarity said and she grabbed the necklace, even though it burned her hand and she slipped in on and returned to normal.

After the environment faded Rarity turned to Ocellus.

“I am glad to be a pony again, let us make haste Ocellus dear,” Rarity said.

“Ok,” Ocellus smiled.

Tentacles burst out of the ground, and out of the air, from every possible direction as Spike teleported about. Then he made a portal and punched through it, then pulled his claws back.

Five seconds later, Chaos caught Spike's punch from the past, then was punched in the face from another portal. Spike then opened another portal and punched through it.

"Misdirection, about time you learned." Chaos said. Chaos looked up. "Right on schedule."

Pink, blue, white, and orange streams of power swept in an arch over the sky, and dived right into Spike, making him bigger than before, his arms and legs different now pink, orange, white, and blue.

Spike felt dizzy. But the same time... he couldn't have felt better.

"Be careful Spike... this doesn't feel right."

"Huh? Something happen? I was busy reading," Chaos looked up from a Isekai novel written in a dead language and with half the pages missing and the other half written in code and with one tenth of the pages outright lies of what had happened compared to the rest of the book. "Oh you got bigger."

"You got that right! And everything even more clear than before." Spike hissed.

"Come how Spike, don't tell me you're still holding.... Back?" Chaos calmly looked up to see a meteorite headed straight towards him. Chaos held up a tiny umbrella as it hit, leaving a massive crater, with chaos at the center smiling. "Well, that was rather risky, hurting those precious little innocent ponies."

"I'm here for my friends. And if your toys were that easy to break, they'd have broken already." Spike said in a no-nonsense manner.

"Oh will you stop with that dour attitude of yours?" Chaos chuckled.

"Oh I'll be plenty happy when you're history and I have my family back!" Spike snapped his finger, Rose Luck appeared in front of him... looking around confused, her head shaped like a flower and her feet accordions.

"What's going on? I was right at the Salty Colors Recital."

"You're my toy now, not Chaos'!" Spike breathed fire on her... Rose Luck grew and grew until she was bigger than Ponyville town hall, her form a cross between a rose and a dragon. "Sic'em!"

"Yes Master!"

The flower dragon roared and charged at Chaos.

Chaos sighed and took out a squirting flower, and unleashed a fire
storm... Rose Dust turned into a swarm of petals, reformed behind him, and dug her claws into Chaos, while unleashing a sonic scream cracking his crystal draconequus form.

Chaos opened his mouth wide, and a giant boxing glove punched out, but Rose Luck's head turned to flower petals again and reformed. Rose covered vines sprang from the parts of Chaos's body Rose Luck had struck her claws. They spread at lightning speed. Chaos teleported only for Rose Luck and vines to teleport with him. Just as the vines reached his head, Chaos whiplashed his own head, breaking it off as the rest of his body was consumed by the vines, and morphed into a giant rose.

Rose Luck roared. "Get back here coward!" She snapped at his head as it teleported about until she smashed her head into a rock, distracting her for a few precious seconds.

Chaos' head grew legs, scurried away, then morphed back into his full form.

"Well kid... congrats... you almost had me there... proud to see you finally using these mortals as they should be used!"

"If they get back my family, then they're doing exactly as they should, after all the times we've protected them, about time they gave something back."

"Yes Master Spike," the Rose Luck dragon bowed.

"Heh, sure you wanna go down this road kid? These toys have families too."

"And if I don't get my own family back, they'll all be destroyed anyway when you abandon Equus!" Spike snapped his fingers, Lyra and Bon Bon appeared before him. Lyra was a golden harp with her flesh and blood pony head on one end, with five turtle legs carrying the harp. Bon Bon was in a SMILE black business suit and sunglasses, and also had a dozen heads. "If I can't beat you, I'll just make some minions who can!"

Lyra opened her mouth and several notes played.

"I know dear, but I think Alpha Hoof's orders of 'stay back and observe' are still an option..."

"Master Spike has use for you," Rose Luck said.

Spike slammed Lyra and Bon Bon together like clay before breathing chaos fire on. They grew into a two-headed dragon as large as Rose Luck, one side with Lyra's colors, the other with Bon Bon's, their scales their coat colors, and their horns their mane colors.

The two heads echoed, "Command us Master Spike we might destroy your enemy."

"Take out Chaos!"

"Your loyal puppets obey!" Snarled the hydra as she turned around, fired a blast of fire from Bon Bon's mouth and a blast of ice from Lyra's mouth.

"Oh please, I was hoping we were passed..." Chaos raised thermal barrier... except the fire froze his form solid, and the ice was scalding hot, in complete contradiction to the laws of physics. "... Finally using that imagination I see," Chaos said as he shattered. Rose Luck stomped her claws, rose vines grew out of the ground, grabbing every shard. The hydra's head quickly began eating up the shards of chaos' body, but they changed into tiny draconequus crystals and flew away. Spike's dragon caught many of them, but the rest simply reformed into Chaos who grew back to his proper size.

"Dragons eat crystal... even cosmic-powered crystal like it was rock candy. I admit, that's actually clever kiddo. You get a gold star." Chaos said throwing a star-shaped shuriken that Spike ducked.

Spike gave out a short laugh. "Why thank you. You're rather chipper for someone I'm gonna munch down on."

"I haven't had this much fun in eons hatchling!" Chaos said.

"Ooooh then you're gonna be revved up for this one!" Spike clapped... Zecora appeared, perfectly normal and safe, it took her all of two second to realize where she was and what she was looking at. But Spike didn't care, she was just raw material for him anyway. She was a close friend, she should be honored to make this sort of sacrifice.

Spike breathed fire on her... Zeocra grew into a dragon form... her stripes now perfectly even and straight over her scales... in fact, she look perfectly symmetrical, nothing about her seemed that strange except for her stripes.

"Command, so I might aid our band," Zecora said.

The black and white dragon stood perfectly at attention, its claw prints leaving a perfect black and white checkerboard pattern.

"AN ORDER DRAGON!? ARE YOU INSANE?!" Mouths opened on Chaos belly, hands, knees, chest, and feet and end of his tail. Different colors spectrum of chaos magic fired straight at Spike to warp him several different ways at once.

"Protect me!" Spike snapped.

Zecora with perfect calm blocked Chaos' attack, which fizzled out on contact.

"Don't you realize she's dangerous to you too?" Chaos said.

"Commands at to be heeded, even for a chaotic master it is needed," Zecora said.

Spike laughed. "I think my beauties are coming along nicely."

Chaos chuckled realizing Spike was getting into it "Incredible, isn't it? Realizing nothing is stopping you. That your dolls are yours to play with."

"... Except you," Spike said darkly.

Fluttershy looked out into the distance.

“It seems my friends are all but freed, good for them,” Fluttershy said before drinking some more tea.

Sandbar approached the table again.

“Ah, tweedle dumber has arrived!” Fluttercruel sneered, Sandbar ignored her and sat down.

"You should hurry along Sandbar," Fluttershy said, reclining in her chair, snapping her claws, and the furniture changed into a bamboo style, then Hearts and Hoove, Hearths Warming, and finally single-color oversized plastic toys that Sandbar felt a strange primal connection with. "Your friends have all succeeded in freeing the others. And Spike getting more powerful and chaotic by the minute. Mine and Twilight's chaos magic is the last Spike will assimilate if you succeed. Are you sure you want to force MORE chaos magic on Spike when he's already affected as much as he is? You should just take my place with my friends... after all, I don't know if I'll be able to remember what I've seen in the future if you succeed in making me give up my chaos magic. Then I know Opaline Arcana will descend on Equestria, Twilight will be forced to seal all magic... and everything we've worked for will crumble into a forgotten memory."

“I don’t even know if that would work with me as the element of kindness, that’s a gamble too,” Sandbar said.

"Better a gamble than a certain doom. Oh I'm sorry, was that supposed to be your line Sandbar?" Fluttershy narrowed her eyes.

“Look Shy, you’ve painted a pretty dark picture for the future of Equestria, I will admit, but you can’t just give up your role as the wielder of kindness, otherwise maybe everything will crumble sooner than we might expect,” Sandbar said hoping he thought of this right.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“Look at it like this, if the element doesn’t work, and we lose but your plan to exist as the new Chaos of Equestria works, who will wield the element of kindness, the elements will be incomplete, I don’t know if Harmony can just choose new permanent owners, no owners of the elements and things might get even worse if you think of it,” Sandbar said.

“That… may be but even if that is the risk I am willing to take it if it means we have a better chance at stopping Opaline,” Fluttershy said.

“Come on! What does this world owe you?! Just go with Chaos already! And let me be in the driver's seat! It's your nature!” Fluttercruel cheered.

“Quiet!” Sandbar said.

“Quiet,” Fluttercruel mocked.

"Behave." Fluttershy said darkly.

"... Yes mother." Fluttercruel whimpered.

Sandbar resumed hoping to get Fluttershy to see his point. “At the very least help out here and find out if things can improve with Harmony’s help before you switch to chaos, it’s better than just twiddling your hooves and hoping things will improve on their own,” Sandbar said.

Fluttershy snapped her fingers. A portal opened leading to the chaotic Ponyville/Chaosville. She picked up Fluttercruel's cage with her tail.

“H-hey! What are you doing?” Fluttercruel demanded

"You're coming along dear... if I could reform Discord, you will be a piece of cake, but I'm not letting you out of my sight until Chaos has either left Equus or fate has gone the way it's already been laid out," Fluttershy said.

“Does this mean you’ll help?” Sandbar asked.

"I'm not giving up my chaos magic, or being a draconequus, not right now. But you're right I shouldn't try to change the script just by doing nothing." Fluttershy snapped her fingers again. Angel appeared, and grew larger with a pair of feathered wings and a saddle on his back.

"Angel, be a dear and give our dear Sandbar a ride for mommy."

“On it!” Angel said before picking up the pony and setting him on the saddle and then he took off.

“WHOAAAA!” Sandbar said as they rode along.

Fluttershy calmly floated out of her chaos bubble being careful not to give her chaotic-self a rocky ride as she flew alongside Sandbar.

Each of the Student Six and the Mane Six exited the prisons.

“Rainbow Dash! Over there!” Smolder pointed at Chaos battling Spike's ever-growing entourage of chaos (and one order) dragons. Chaos was definitely looking to be on the back foot. He summoned a giant gorgon eye, only for Spike to teleport in Octavia and turn her into a mirror dragon, turning the giant eye to stone.

“What the hay? What’s been happening out here since the explosion?” Rainbow asked.

Suddenly the sound of flapping wings caught Rainbow’s ear and she narrowly moved out of the way of a giant flying rabbit.

“Huh?! Angel?” Smolder and Rainbow spoke.

“Hello Rainbow Dash, Smolder,” A familiar voice said.

“Oh Fluttershy! You got out too- WHAT THE HAY?!” Rainbow said when she saw the Draconeqqus Fluttershy.

“Shooould we be concerned Sandbar failed?” Smolder asked.

“No, I’ll explain after this situation,” Fluttershy said.

“Oook,” Rainbow said as they flew on.

Applejack and Yona exited her prison bubble and saw Pinkie and Silverstream there.

“How’d ya know where we were?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know, she grabbed us and we were suddenly here,” Silverstream said.

“My Pinkie sense told me to find you, come on! We need to find the others and Draconequusshy!” Pinkie said.

“Come again?” Applejack asked.

“Come on!” Pinkie galloped away.

“Hold on!” Applejack ran after her.

“Yak smash Chaos!” Yona said as she followed.

Gallus and Twilight approached the Boutique and saw Ocellus and Rarity exit.

“Hello…” Twilight said.

“Twilight dear! Oh thank goodness! I was worried that this insanity would never end!” Rarity dramatically said.

“Let us not waste time, let us hurry,” Twilight said.

“Yeah what she said,” Gallus said.

“Ok!” Ocellus said, but as they ran on she couldn’t help but notice a strange taste in the air around Twilight… Odd.

“Hmm, multi-dragon attack all with custom powers eh? It seems you're more capable than I first thought young dragon, but sadly this is where I still come out on top!” Chaos said as he teleported away from the multiple dragons.

He floated nearby and snapped his fingers.

“Let’s see how you like these apples,” Chaos said before all of Ponyville began shaking and a giant golem made of earth emerged.

“Golem, attack his dragons, ooh, and don’t forget this,” Chaos conjured a giant sword and gave it to the golem. The sword had a crown shape on top, with the glowing runes on the blade translating as 'Dragonslayer.'

“A little dragon slaying will surely get you to see my point,” Chaos said.

“I thought killing wasn’t chaotic?!” Spike said as the golem approached.

“It isn’t, but there are alas, exceptions to the rules sometime, to make an omelet, you gotta crack a few dragons,” Chaos laughed as the golem closed in.

“Look out!” Spike tackled Zecora out of the way of a decapitating swing.

“And while they are dealing with this, I can deal with you,” Chaos said as he zoomed forward leaving patchwork contrails in his wake and Spike who was distracted helping his dragons with the Golem didn’t see Chaos coming and he rammed Spike out of the air and into the ground.

“AGH!” Spike grunted as Chaos held him down.

“And when the final throes toll as such, this world will know, you failed,” Chaos said as he made a bomb in his hand and made it bigger and bigger….

Until the bomb got turned into a swarm of butterfly winged bunnies.

“Huh?” Chaos turned to see Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy?” Spike asked.

“Hello Spike,” Fluttershy said casually.

“No… Sandbar was too late wasn’t he?” Spike asked.

"I WISH HE WAS!" Fluttershy's gray-self snarled from inside her doll-sized cage.

“Ah, so she came out of the cage at last, the defiant one,” Chaos said getting up and walking over to her, while Spike picked himself off the floor.

"Now now Mr. Chaos, you, well, my chaotic self on behalf of you, told me to embrace being a chaos goddess, you told me to accept being a draconequus was better... I have. Though for being Chaos, you sure want others to do what you want predictably."

“Ohohoho, indeed, for what is more chaotic than a being who is supposed to be unpredictable being predictable in a world gone absolutely mad, on that note though, I think you know I am far from a one trick pony,” Chaos said “So do tell, are you here because that pony friend of yours convinced you to? Or perhaps you wish to save your boyfriend?” Chaos mocked.

"You tell me, this is your script after all. And when you lose, we'll be back to fate's script, and I'll give it some edits."

“Oh my dear, who said we had a script?” Chaos said before turning and firing a blast at Spike who was sent flying into a wall “He is quite imaginative, and strong, most likely because of all the stolen power, but while he’s a pretender thinking he’s a god, I am the concept of chaotic power, tell me, where do you see a victory?” Chaos turned back to her.

"You tell me. You need Spike. He was no match for you. You wanted us to be rescued by Sandbar and his friends. If you wanted him never heard from again, you'd have done so already."

“Heheh, I can’t hide anything from you can I? You are right, and naturally I-” Chaos leaned his head to the side casually avoiding a punch from Rainbow Dash who tried to get him from his blindspot.

“Darn it!” Rainbow said.

“We were talking,” Chaos said to her.

Suddenly he heard more voices and saw the Student and Mane Six gathering nearby.

“It seems the time for conversation is at an end my dear,” Chaos said as he floated back “Now for the real fun,” Chaos said.

“You won’t hurt them,” Fluttershy growled.

“Not unless they give me reason to,” Chaos said as he looked on at the ponies and other beings associated with them gathering.

Spike saw this and smiled.

“Girls!” Spike got up and teleported up to them.

“Spike! Yer….a draconequus? The hay happened to you?” Applejack asked.

“Loooong story,” Smolder said.

“C’mon guys! Let’s hit him with the harmony beam!” Rainbow said flying back over to the group.

“Yes,” The group turned to Chaos who was floating up to them.

“I suppose you all have me dead to rights, one issue though, can Sandbar use the element?” Chaos asked.

“Why can’t Shy use-” Applejack said before noticing the draconequus Fluttershy “Oh…” Applejack said.

“I can try girls!” Sandbar said before putting on the element and getting ready.

“Well then girls and boy, I suppose I have nothing more to do than lament my defeat, hit me with your best shot,” Chaos said sitting down.

"This is too familiar," Fluttershy whispered.

Fluttershy's chaotic self grinned triumphantly.

“Go guys!” Smolder cheered.

They focused their powers and felt the elements charging.

Harmony felt the power swell in her back in the cave of harmony.

“It is time…” Harmony said before she sent the power.

The power lit up and they floated in the air.

“It’s working!” Ocellus said happily.

And with their powers united they fired the harmony wave at Chaos.

“....Heh…” The beam hit Chaos and an explosion occurred… before it shrank down into a tiny sphere in his palm.

“Hahahaha! Oh it was quite hard to keep from laughing, I mean seriously, I did exactly what Discord did, you fell for it twice!” Chaos laughed.

“What the?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“I-it didn’t work?” Rarity said.

“Th-that’s impossible,” Applejack said.

"So this was his ace?" Fluttershy sighed.

“...” Twilight said nothing.

“Well now that this charade is over let’s get onto why you lose,” Chaos said while crushing the harmony magic in his palm.

“What do you mean?” Spike said.

“Did you not bother to examine the magic coming off from your group?” Chaos asked.

“What?” Discord who had been silent up until now said before turning around… and his jaw dropped.

“What do you-” Spike turned and gasped “GIRLS GET AWAY FROM THERE!” Spike exclaimed.

“Huh?” They turned to see two draconequi one a purple one and the other a blue one, and they both attacked with chaos magic that sent eveypony flying.

"I thought for sure he'd target Silverstream!" Fluttershy swore as she conjured pillows for everyone to land on safely.

“Well done my dear friends,” Chaos said to Gallus and Twilight as he walked up to them and turned towards the group.

“And my grand plan comes full circle! Thank you Spike, you really screwed up just well enough,” Chaos said “I sent a clone to corrupt your blue friend here and meanwhile Twilight finished her indoctrination, It’s like I told your yellow friend, I am far from a one trick pony!” Chaos laughed.

Gallus looked ashamed while Twilight just smirked.

“Guess it’s time to admit defeat Spike, don’t worry, we’ll rule the stars soon enough,” Twilight said.

“No…” Spike cursed having realized Chaos was stalling this whole time.

Fluttcruel couldn't stop giggling. "I mean, it would've been great if you others had gone along, but we only ever really needed Twilight and Gallus!"

Fluttershy crossed her arms. "I guess Harmony is going to need a lot more time to find new bearers later."

"What makes you think there IS a later?" Chaos laughed.

"You stopped the Elements, so did Chrysalis', remember? It's not very unpredictable ... also... I know my staying a draconequus wasn't in your script... I was supposed to be rescued by Sandbar... "

“Oh quit thinking you have something over us, with one of each six on our side, you don’t have any ammo,” Twilight said walking around Chaos

"Gallus..." Smoulder said sadly. "Look, I don't know what Chaos told you or showed you... I got a taste of the power too... but ... can you really WANT want this?"

"There's nothing chaotic about being someone's lackey," Fluttershy said.

“I…I…I….” Gallus flinched looking like he was struggling to explain himself.

“We have to do something,” Silverstream said.

Spike said, "Twilight, what did he show you? What did he tell you? If you're not just some stupid puppet pretending to be Twilight, then why?"

Twilight suddenly seemed a little conflicted seeing Spike's sadness but she hardened her expression and focused her chaotic eyes on Spike “He showed me something wonderful… a world, where nopony dies, friends forever… I must have it, it’s out there, in another dimension,” Twilight said looking like she was determined to stay resolute.

“You want to be in a world where eveypony is immortal?” Spike asked

“I want to take you all there… I am immortal Spike… you know my struggle, the fact that I will outlive even you!” She said looking teary “I refuse, I will give us an eternal sanctuary!” Twilight said.

“Twilight I-”

“We’re running our mouths a bit aren’t we, come on Twilight, Gallus, let’s vamoose,” Chaos said opening a portal.

"Yes Master," the two draconequus said together.

"HEY! What about me?!" Fluttercruel shouted.

"What about you?" Chaos shrugged.

"I'm your loyal follower! You can't just leave me with these losers!"

"... Did you just imply there's something I can't do?" Chaos said darkly. Chaos snapped his fingers "You've served your role, time for you to go." A flying giant piranha with buzz-saw teeth appeared and swallowed Fluttercruel's cage. In less than an instant later, Fluttershy snapped her own fingers. Her chaotic self, still doll-size, appeared in her paw, shivering in terror.

The gray Fluttershy looked up. "You... you saved me..."

"Why wouldn't I?" Fluttershy said. "You're a victim here too."

“Congrats, goodbye,” Chaos turned to leave.

"I told you! Twilight is MINE!" Spike roared. The very air twisted from the mountain of chaos magic he'd absorbed.

"And Gallus is MINE!" Smolder swore... and something within her snapped... and she began to grow larger and larger... her deepest friendship with Gallus, had triggered her Greed Growth.

“Let’s make like trees and leaf,” Chaos said before flying into the portal with the other two and it began to close.

“NO!” Spike said.

They wouldn’t make it in time how could they- suddenly a whistling noise was heard and they turned to see a figure flying through the air and they caught the portal and held it open.

“Gabby!” Spike exclaimed.

“Ngh! Later! Go! Before it closes!” the chaos-touched griffon said.

“Ok!” Spike said and he flew in through a gap along with Fluttershy and Smolder grabbed the edges of the portal and held it open.

“GO!” Smolder said and Gabby nodded before entering, the portal slammed shut and sent Smolder flying.

“NO!” The others shouted.

“Smolder!” Silverstream ran over to Smolder who was unconscious.

Spike, Fluttershy and Gabby tumbled into an invisible floor, upon standing they saw they were in some kind of weird bluish void.

“Where are we?” Spike asked.

“The inter-rift, the center of all dimensions,” Discord said.

“So… you followed us here, persevering?” Chaos said and they turned to see the three draconequus standing there.

"All Spike has to do is eat you Chaos, and you'll be out of a job," Fluttershy said. "He's been doing nothing but absorbing the power of other Draconequi since he merged with Discord."

Spike looked at Fluttershy... and remembered all the animals Fluttershy took care of that devoured each other in the wild. Had THAT been Fluttershy's own plan?

“I think you’ll find I’m quite unpalatable,” Chaos snarked “he absorbed the power from some upstart draconequi’ so what? Can he handle the sheer chaos that is me? I don’t think so,” Chaos laughed.

“Spike, come with us, we can find a world where our siblinghood is eternal!” Twilight said but Spike ignored her and turned to Chaos.

"Chaos, you said you've won! So just tell me, why did you spare me all that time? You did nothing but encourage me to be chaotic during our fight. You didn't need me alive to ambush the others and whatever your chaotic backwash has done to Harmony."

“Why I spared you? Why did I huh? Well, let’s take a few guesses, could it be that I found you entertaining? Or maybe I was hoping for a world-class sycophant, or perhaps I was bored and needed a challenge, or maybe I needed to make a point, who can say? What is known is this, if you don’t come with us, then I see no other point but to send you back to your realm with your tails tucked between your legs, last chance Spike, take it while it’s good.” Chaos said.

“Spike, please, we can be together forever!” Twilight said.

"Twilight! You don't need him! You're already immortal! I'm already immortal! Fluttershy is already immortal! If Fluttershy could tame her Chaos-Self then so can the others! Chaos is just conning you of something we already have or can do on our own! He just doesn't want another chaos god like Discord who won't do what he's told... which is kinda pathetic when you think about it, a Chaos god who wants everything to go his way. Kinda dumb."

Chaos’s eye twitched “So I take it you’d rather be kicked to the curb then? So be it, don’t say I didn’t try,” Chaos said.

“Chaos… is what he’s saying true?” Twilight said.

“Ignore him, chaos can’t make a mortal immortal,” Chaos said.

“...” Twilight looked conflicted.

"Gallus, why are you doing this?" Gabby asked. "I mean, this is definitely an improvement, not gonna argue that, but Spike is right, if this jerk wants us Draconequi to do whatever he says, then Chaos sucks at being chaos!"

“..................The same thing…” Gallus said looking like he couldn’t look her in the eye.

“What did he promise you exactly?” Spike asked

“....Friends drift apart Spike, and I don’t want that…. What if we finish our studies and go back to living in separate places and forget about each other? I never had friends like them, and If I can spend an eternity with them, that sounds a whole lot better than spending it as a griffon in Griffonstone, a place where friends are theoretical…” Gallus said.

“Gallus…” Gabby said looking surprised.

"Chaos, there's enough draconequi now between us to finally restore balance to Equestria! No overabundance of Harmony! You don't need to do this anymore! The only reason you're still doing this is because you're being too orderly to change your ways! If Discord can change, but not you, that makes him more worthy to be Chaos," Fluttershy said. "And remember what happened when Discord betrayed his nature, you'll destroy yourself!"

Chaos looked upset to hear that, “Orderly? Me? Don’t make me gag, I am Chaos! I don’t ‘change my ways’ if I were to side with ponies like Discord did then whose to say chaos itself will be undone!” Chaos said.

"Chaos IS change!" Fluttershy said.

“Chaos… maybe they're right,” Twilight said.

“...I don’t want to lose my friends,” Gallus said looking sad.

Spike said, "If Chaos abandons Equus, and takes you with him... what makes you think you'll ever see your friends again? If you want to stay together, whose going to stop you now that you're a chaos god? Me? Celestia? Luna? Twilight? ... The only one here not wanting you to stay together, is him."

“Never see them again… Chaos? That’s not what you said,” Gallus said.

“Well… you can pay a visit every now and then but when you are in charge of a new world's chaos you gotta be vigilant,” Chaos shrugged.

"Chaos, tell me straight, am I ever going to see my friends again,” Gallus said.

“Of course!” Chaos said.

“I….Don’t believe you,” Gallus sighed.

“Oh don’t be a baby, you can always make more friends, at least Twilight here understands we can't bring more friends to an eternal dimension,” Chaos said.

“Actually… didn’t you say that I could bring my friends?” Twilight said her eyes flickering.

“Can we move on from the topic of friends? Let’s get this show on the road!” Chaos said.

“No…” Gallus said.

“Pardon?” Chaos said.

“You lied to us!” Gallus said.

“Like I said, there will be more newer eternal friends, friendship is a dime a dozen,” Chaos said.

“Not to me,” Gallus said, floating over to Spike and the others.

“Hey HEY! Get back here!” Chaos said.

“Sorry I lost my head back there guys…” Gallus said.

“It’s alright,” Gabby said.

“Tch, fine, as long as Twilight is on my side, right?” Chaos said and Twilight looked towards Spike.

"Chaos you'll get what you want anyway. Spike doesn't need Discord's essence to be a Draconequus anymore with the power he's absorbed ... six elements, six Draconequi, we'll be keeping Equus in balance Chaos," Fluttershy said. "Oh and Discord, it's nice to see you're safe."

"Oh, thank you and... I have to say, I've, never seen you look so beautiful Fluttershy, not that you weren't beautiful before, I mean, you certainly are quite attractive for a draconequus, not that I'm just attracted to you because you're pretty-"

"THIS IS WHY I CONSIDER YOU A FAILURE DISCORD!" Chaos snapped.

“Huh?” Discord said

“You're too attached to that yellow horse! You forgot the purpose I gave you all those years ago! You betrayed me!” Chaos said.

“Sheesh, a guy can only stand loneliness for so long, unlike you, you're pathologically resentful of anything that doesn’t relate to chaos, It’s your nature, I get it, but geeze man, get a grip,” Discord said.

“I’ve hit my patience limit, Twilight, take care of them,” Chaos said.

Twilight looked at Spike and seemed to consider his words from before… and she hardened her expression.

“Yes master,” She said.

“Twilight?” Spike said as she charged up magic… and winked.

Spike understanding waved his hand and the others caught on.

“Let’s see how you like disintegration from your own sister,” Chaos taunted.

“How about you?” Twilight said before spinning and blasting Chaos with the beam.

Chaos shouted in pain as the blast sent him flying into an invisible wall after sliding down it he got up and looked on in shock.

"This is absurd! My indoctrination was perfect!" Chaos said

"It was... I am a draconequus through and through, the idea of being a pony again, or ugh, a harmonic Alicorn makes me sick." Twilight said. Gallus nodded the same. "I just love my family more than I wish to serve you, you opened up my eyes to all the possibilities I was too orderly to see before. Thank you, Master."

“You…. all of you….” Chaos said floating up and lit his hands up “So… that’s it huh… seems I can’t depend on anypony or creature these days…” Chaos grumbled “Well live and learn, I go back and try with somepony a bit more selfish than you lot and then I get my enforcers of chaos throughout the multiverse, this is a temporary win at best,” Chaos said.

“Chaos… stop…” Fluttershy said.

“Stop what? Trying to enforce my chaos on the realm? You might as well as tell a fish to stop swimming or an anteater to go vegan,” Chaos said.

“I mean stop being so stubborn and petty!” Fluttershy said.

“What?” Chaos said looking angered at the prospect of a former mortal calling him out like that.

“Face it Chaos, you lost, guess mortals aren’t as hopeless as you thought,” Discord said. "Well, mortals who have had an upgrade, courtesy of you, looks like you did better work than you expected."

“....You think this is it? That I am bested? You reject,” Chaos growled at Discord.

“Even you can’t beat these odds Chaos,” Spike said.

“Big talk from a draconequus who supposedly when going against me, he turned ponies into his minions the moment his back was to the wall." Chaos said.

“What?” Twilight said.

“That’s right, you claim the moral high ground, yet you put your neighbors in danger, and I’m the hypocrite?” Chaos said

"Nothing that can't be fixed," Fluttershy said. "I've seen Discord undo his changes before. You miscalculated Chaos, if you'd kept stringing along Spike, you'd have had your perfect selfish Draconequus, but you had to go along with the plan you already had in place. And you could have left with Twilight and Gallus any time you wanted, but you needed to show you're clever."

“Tch, I will admit I did miscalculate, but whatever, I can always try again in a few years, get an even better one, you six however, are not sticking around,” Chaos growled before getting gigantic and powering up a ton of chaos magic “Though it is against regulation, I’ll make an exception this time,” and then he looked ready to attack. "You're all failed creations, time to wipe the slate clean."

“That’s a lot of chaos magic, enough to destroy a dimension!” Discord said.

“Come on guys! We can’t let this guy win!” Spike said charging his own powers.

“Alright!” Gallus said and Gabby charged her own as well.

“I’m ready,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m with you!” Twilight said.

Then Chaos fired a massive blast.

The six retaliated and the beams connected as the two forces pressed on it seemed that the beam was approaching the Draconequi.

"You actually think you have enough power to take me on?!" Chaos bellowed.

"No, but it makes for a great distraction," Fluttershy said.

Tiny Chaos-Fluttreshy bit Chaos on the neck from behind.

"AGH! You pest!" Chaos flicked her away. But he'd been distracted for just a moment. Spike grabbed him. "Oh what are you going to-"

And Discord's spirit flew out of Spike, and into Chaos. But Fluttershy was right, Spike had absorbed so much chaos magic, that Spike didn't change at all.

"AGH! What are you doing?! You think you can mentally overwhelm me?! I gave you your power Discord I made you what you are!" Chaos reached into his own head and pulled out Discord's spirit. "There! Anything to say before you go?"

"Fluttercruel was the distraction, but you should know one thing, I'm the decoy." Discord snapped his fingers.

A portal opened up right next to Chaos, and the collective blast from the Draconequi hit Chaos at point-blank range in the face, washing over him like a flood.

"GAAH! You Idiots! You're trying to drown an ocean!" Chaos yelled as he pressed through it.

"An ocean REALLY frozen over! You are in serious need of a cleansing Master!" Twilight shouted.

“What?!” Chaos shouted.

"If the Elements of Harmony can fix a corrupted Alicorn like Luna, how about six Draconequi fixing YOUR corruption!"

And Discord separated from Chaos, and manifested, blasting with the others.

“AAAAAGGH!” Chaos shouted as he was blasted by too much chaos energy and his crystal body fractured and broke apart until he was a torso and a head.

When the blast ended Chaos laid amid a crater, shrunken back to normal, coughing as the six Draconequi approached.

“Oooohhh…. How… how could I lose?...” Chaos wheezed.

“You kept underestimating mortals, well, now you understand,” Spike said.

“We’re weak compared to deities, but together, we’re strong,” Fluttershy said Twilight then walked forward.

"Maybe this was your real plan all along Master... Nightmare Moon put ordeals in our way that were practically tailor-made to prove me and my friends were worthy of the Elements even though she tried to stop us. Maybe some part of you wanted this. Chaos can't exist without harmony, harmony can't exist without chaos,” Fluttershy said.

“....Hehehehhhh… I really can’t hide anything from friends of Discord can I….?” Chaos wheezed before reforming a stable enough body and limping out of the crater.

“So… this was all just to find worthy Draconequi to take over where Discord left off?” Spike said.

“Mostly… you see, there’s a reason I need a minion…. Just as Harmony needed lots of harmony to manifest I need chaos… when Discord turned his back on me, I lost my meaning, this has happened many times, and I suppose I just finally had enough, to think I’ve been humbled like this however… it’s surprising,” Chaos said.

“But all the danger… all the…you can’t be serious…. This was all a test?” Spike exclaimed.

“I nearly left my dimension to rot for a test?” Gallus said.

Twilight said, "I imagine much like Luna, he didn't realize what he was doing. He wanted to abandon Equus with new minions. But at the same time he left holes for Spike to become more powerful, and instead of wiping our minds and turning us into his blobs of clay, he left us with free will and happy memories... Master was working against himself this whole time."

“I suppose you're right…” Chaos said, “I just need time I suppose…” Chaos said before turning and walking towards one of the many portals.

“Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked.

“Somewhere else, I need some time to reflect on whether I am going to come back and resume my duties, after all, there are some newcomers to watch over Equus with Harmony…” Chaos said before entering the portal.

“...Soooo…. What now?” Gallus asked.

“Now?... Now we go home,” Spike said.

Author's Note

Whew! And here is my grand finale to the confrontation with Chaos, It was long and hard to make but I hope you all loved it.

I'll have the next one up eventually covering the end.

Stay tuned! :pinkiehappy: