The Circus

Twilight awoke like she did every day, yawning loudly as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Looking towards her window she could see the gentle light of morning seeping through the curtains. Stifling another yawn she got out of bed and looked over to see if Spike had gotten up, which he hadn't. Spike was still sleeping in his basket, curled up so that his tail didn't hang off the edge of the basket, his blue blanket tucked in around him. Spike yawned as he slept and cuddled up closer to his pillow, a small smile on his lips as he slept. Twilight smiled at the cute little dragon and quietly walked over to the bedroom door opening it with her magic and walked down the stairs to the rest of the library, closing the door with her magic.

Once she was at the bottom of the stairs Twilight headed for the kitchen, her stomach growling loudly. She entered the kitchen and walked over to the table, using her magic to grab a packet of oatmeal and a bowl of hot water with a spoon. Pouring the packet of oatmeal into the bowl of water she stirred it so that it wasn't soupy. When she thought that it was stirred enough she ladled a spoon full into her mouth and quickly swallowed. She sat down in a chair and continued to eat her oatmeal, looking up when a sleepy looking Spike walked into the kitchen. He held in one of his claws today's newspaper, he put it on the table then walked over to a cubbard that was easy for him to reach and filled with all sorts of precious gemstones.

Twilight picked up the newspaper and began reading the latest news in the small town of Ponyville. Unfortunately she had opened it before she had seen the front page or else she would have seen the breaking news of a small strange circus tent appearing in the center of town. When Spike turned to the kitchen table with an armload of gems he almost dropped them all when his eyes landed on the picture of the small tent, causing him to yelp. Twilight looked up from the article she was reading about the disappearance of the heavily guarded ashes and armor of Nightmare Moon. She gave a confused look at Spike who was walking over to the table and waited for an explanation from the little dragon as he placed the armload of gems on the table.

"Look at the front page." Spike answered her unspoken question and quickly began munching on the gems that he had picked for breakfast. Twilight closed the newspaper to see what had scared her number one assistant, her confusion disappearing with a squeak of surprise as she looked at the picture of the tent. Normal circus tents were large enough to fit thousands of ponies into them while the one in the picture couldn't even fit a house in it. That wasn't the part that had made Twilight squeak like Fluttershy looking at her own shadow though. No, what had made Twilight squeak in fear was that the circus tent was black and red with spikes sticking out of it like a pincushion. Just looking at the tent made her shiver and this was only a picture of it!

Looking away from the picture she looked up at Spike who had just finished devouring his breakfast. "Spike could you?..." Twilight knew she didn't need to finish the question when Spike ran out of the kitchen and returned seconds later holding a quill and scroll. "Well that was fast! Dear Princess Celestia..." Twilight explained that if Celestia didn't already know that there was a strange circus tent in Ponyville that had simply appeared over night. Twilight promised that it was nothing to worry about but if Celestia felt that it was important enough she could visit Ponyville anytime to see the strange tent. "Sincerely, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." Spike finished writing down the letter, rolled it up and sent it to Celestia by setting it on fire with his dragon breath.

"I wonder what the tent is anyway." Spike said as he walked over to the kitchen table and took the empty bowl and spoon to the sink to wash them. "I don't know Spike but I'm going to go get the other girls just in case the elements are needed." Twilight said as she got up and stepped down off the chair she was laying on and headed for the front door. "While I'm gone could you search for any books that might mention something about a strange circus tent that appears over night?" She stopped at the front door and turned her head and saw Spike give her a thumbs up from the kitchen. "Just don't do anything stupid OK?" Spike called from the kitchen as Twilight opened the door with her magic and stepped outside into the bustling Ponyville. "Don't worry Spike, when do I do anything stupid?"

None of the elements had been prepared for what they were now looking upon. Standing about twenty feet from them was the circus tent, and it looked alot scarier in person. The metal spikes that were protruding from the inside of the tent looked to be sharp enough to cut somepony if they got too close. There was a large group of ponies that had been watching the tent from a good ways away. The weirdest part had been that when they got near it the tent had opened to reveal an enter sign and a platform in the center surrounded by the spikes. Right now the six mares had gotten into an argument on whether they should enter like the sign said or wait for Princess Celestia. "Ah think we should wait for the Princess." Applejack said as she glared back at Rainbow Dash who thought they should go check out the tent to make sure it was safe.

"I have to agree with Applejack." Rarity said as she glanced over at the very sharp looking spikes that were shining in the sunlight. "Those spikes look sharp and I for one would rather not get part of my mane cut off." Pinkie Pie had agreed with Dash saying that they should make sure it was safe for the Princess while Fluttershy hadn't really said much but she had said that she'd rather not get any closer to the scary tent. Finally they had stopped arguing and turned to Twilight who had been quietly observing the tent, especially the platform inside, with great interest.  "What do you think Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, this seemed to break Twilight out of her thoughts and look at her friends who were watching her expectantly.

"Well I want to look at the platform in the middle but if you girls don't want to then that's fine we can wait for the Princess." Twilight said, the others looked at each other and seemed to come to a silent agreement on what to do. "Fine, ah just want ya'll to know that ah think it's a bad idea." Applejack said as they all walked towards the tent, except Fluttershy who had to be encouraged by Rarity to follow. Once they were close enough to the tent to see that there way was blocked by the spikes they were all ready to wait for the Princess when a loud screeching sound could be heard from within the tent. Without warning the spikes began to move apart and once the screeching stopped the spikes had moved so that a path had been made to the platform.

"ENTER..." A strange and distorted voice said causing the six mares who had already been on edge from the screeching of the metal spikes to jump. Now all of them were ready to turn back and wait for the Princess especially Fluttershy who was cowering behind Rarity. But we all know the saying "Curiosity killed the cat" and Twilight might have been scared but she wasn't ready to turn tail just because of some creepy voice. "Come on girls." Twilight said as she carefully walked past the metal spikes that now seemed to wave slightly like blades of grass in a meadow. The others slowly followed after making sure that they didn't get close to the metal spikes.

When they were all finally on the platform two long crescent rods rose from the floor until they connected making a half-circle in the middle of the platform. The six mares waited, not knowing if anything else would happen or if the voice would tell them what to do next. They waited but nothing seemed to happen so they relaxed, they all took a deep breath not knowing that they had even been holding it. A lever rose up in front of Twilight who was the closest to the half-circle causing her to jump back with a squeak. All of the mares looked at the lever then at each other, They had come this far time to find out what this tent was here for. Twilight walked up to the lever and used her mouth to pull it, the half-circle in the middle of the platform began to glow as electrical magic built up inside of it. Without warning the built up electrical magic was released, causing a strange blue portal to appear and suck up the unsuspecting mares.

Celestia was furious. Ever servant and guard who saw her in the hallways of the palace moved to the side just to get out of her way. Celestia had gotten Twilight's letter about an hour ago and had been searching the whole castle high and low for Discord. Throughout that whole hour she had searched every room, every nook and cranny that he could hide in, for Discord. Finally when her anger was about to boil over she had found him, he had been taking a nap on her throne room's ceiling. "Good afternoon Tia, I just had the most wonderful nap on your throne room ceiling." Discord said as he stretched on the ceiling then lazily drifted down to the ground where a furious Celestia awaited. Once Discord was just above the floor Celestia levitated the letter in front of his face.

"Read this and tell me what you think." Celestia growled at Discord, making him raise an eyebrow at her but turned his attention to the letter. His eyebrows scrunched together as he read the letter, then his eyes grew large with shock as he finished the letter. "You didn't destroy it?" Discord asked looking up and into Celestia's angry eyes, flinching back a little as if he had been physically hit. "How could we?! After we defeated you we couldn't use the elements again and none of our magic seemed to do anything to it, so we teleported it to it's own little dimension!" She said as she ripped the letter out of Discord's hands, rolled it up and placed it under her wing. "Now you must promise me that you will not tell my sister!" She hissed at him, a cough came from behind them causing both immortals to look at Luna who was standing in the doorway.

"Not tell me what sister?" Luna said as she walked over and stood next to Celestia, a confused frown on her face. Discord looked around the room, pretending like he didn't notice Luna's glare while Celestia groaned in annoyance. Before Celestia could explain about the Circus appearing again there was a large magical presence that appeared to be coming from Ponyville. Without warning the magic exploded outwards, causing a large EMP or electro magical pulse that basically caused a "black out" on magical energy. All three immortals shared wide eyed looks before Luna spoke. "Was that what I think it was?!" Luna said, Discord nodded before he snapped his finger and disappeared with a pop.

Discord popped into existence in Ponyville to the surprise of all the residents who had swarmed to the tent after the pulse of magical energy. Discord searched the crowd for the elements of harmony or for Twilight's assistant and spotted green fins moving through the crowd towards him. "What happened?" Discord asked Spike as soon as he saw the little dragon who was gasping for air from his run to the center of town. "Twilight *huff* and the others *huff* opened the portal." Spike wheezed as he tried to catch his breath, Discord looked over the crowd and saw they were staying a ways away from the tent . Grabbing Spike with his tail Discord fly into the air and landed in front of the tent, making sure to stay back from the spikes that were wildly swinging as if they were in pain.

Twilight rubbed her head as a throbbing head ache had greeted her when she was thrown out of the portal. She opened her eyes and found that the world was upside down, until she rolled onto her stomach. Getting up and looking around she found that her friends were all sprawled out around her, getting up after there unexpected teleportation. "Where in tarnation are we?!" Applejack said as she got up and looked around at the where they were. The trees and bushes here were made of cut-out metal and behind the metal cut-outs looked like a dark void. Once they made sure that everypony was OK they got down from the platform that had another portal on it, this one a orange color.

Looking around the only way they could go was forward down a path that was dimly lit by strange metal mushrooms. "I wonder where we are." Twilight said as she curiously looked around at the cut-out metal trees and bushes. "Where ever we are is a mighty strange place." Applejack said as they began to walk down the path, the farther they got the darker it seemed to get. Not long after beginning to follow the trail could they hear somepony using some very colorful language that even made Applejack blush. The voice that they heard now was nothing like the voice that told them to enter, it was higher pitched and not distorted.

"...Damn piece of ugh! when I find out who made that EMP I'm going to gah!" Who ever was yelling was near now and seemed to be coming from above them. Looking to the side they all spotted a large machine that was the size of a buffalo and had alot of wires running from it. Standing on top of the machine was a pony who had opened a panel on the machine and was trying in vain to fix it. "Everything looks fine! Why aren't you working?!" The pony on the machine shouted in rage as it continued to work on the machine, not even noticing the six mares who were staring at them.

"Um excuse me but-" "Who the?!" Before Twilight could finish her sentence the pony yelped in surprise and jumped into the air, crashing back down into the machine which caused the panel to shut and the machine to turn on. "Oh I guess it just needed a good hit..." The pony jumped off the machine and walked over to another panel that had levers and buttons on it. "We don't get many visitors, not since the portal stopped working anyways." The mares could now easily see that the pony was a unicorn as their horn glowed, using their magic to push random buttons and pull levers.

"But if your here..." The unicorn all of a sudden gasped and turned towards the mares, they couldn't make out any details about the unicorn but they had a brown coat and mane. "...Then that means the portal is back online!" The pony turned back around and continued to push random buttons until a green light glowed from the control panel. Trotting over to another control panel the pony began flipping very heavy looking switches that made lights turn on all around them. The light was blinding and the pony seemed to disappear from where they were standing and reappeared in front of a gate with a red neon sign that said "Regal' Playland".

The pony stood up on its hind legs and splayed out its forelegs like a certain magician about to perform. "Welcome to the one, the only, Regal Masquerade's Playland!" The unicorn shouted as fireworks went off behind them, exploding in mid air causing sparks to lazily drift down in strange patterns. "I am the Ringleader of this fine carnival, though I spend most of my time in the circus." Regal Masquerade said as he got on all fours again and quickly looked over the six mares standing in front of him. Twilight looked at the colt standing in front of them, the first thing she noticed was that he wore a ringleaders get-up even with the way to large black top hat.

When Twilight met his eyes she screamed in fear at what she saw, or in this case what she didn't see. Regal had eyes but they were just completely devoid of color, making it look like he didn't have any eyes but pools of darkness. At Twilight's reaction Regal jumped a little and using one of his hooves swatted at his face. "Do I have a tarantrum on my face?! You would not believe how many of those pesky bugs escape and how much they like sitting on your face." Regal said as he looked back up at the mares who were giving him a horror filled look, and that's when he remembered. "Oh right my eyes I forgot about that, sorry to have scared you girls" Regal said as he took off his hat with his magic and scratched his head causing his messy hair to get even messier.

"Now I'm a very busy colt and have a very important guest to invite." Regal said as he put his hat back on and walked past the mares but turned around before he got to far away. "But where are my manners? It was a delight to meet you all and I hope you have a great time at the carnival!" Regal then turned around and continued on his way towards the portal, leaving Twilight and her friends pretty confused. "He seemed nice." Fluttershy said timidly while they all turned back to the entrance to the carnival.

Discord watched with interest as the spikes in the small tent seemed to calm down and wave like grass in a breeze. He had long thought that the Circus that he had created all those years ago had been destroyed by the celestial sisters but here it was in all its glory. He had created it back in the darker days of his rule when he thought that torture and pain was funny. After a while he had seen that it was not as fun as cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk and other random chaos. He had forgotten about the circus and it seemed to have forgotten about him as its magic felt like his but it had a twist to it that was strange. Discord was brought out of his thinking by a flash of bright light as Luna and Celestia appeared next to him, a look of fear on Luna's face caused him to wonder what had happened while he was gone.

"W-why is it back?" Luna asked as she stared at the small tent, at the sound of her voice all the spikes stopped moving and pointed towards her. Luna shrank away at this and watched as the spikes began to wave around wildly as if trying to tell her to run, but as quickly as it started it stopped and the spikes stopped waving. Discord walked forward and tried to move the spikes with his own magic but nothing seemed to happen. "You have no power here." Said a distorted voice as it laughed maniacally at Discords attempts to get through to the portal. "But I do." Said another voice that wasn't distorted and made Luna shudder uncontrollably in fear.

Somepony walked out of the portal and took a deep breath of fresh air, looking through the sea of spikes that surrounded him and looked directly at Luna. "I, Regal Masquerade, would like to formally invite Princess Luna to have a fun time at Regal' Playland." Regal said as he looked around at the other ponies with Celestia and Discord a large smile plastered to his face. "Ah you must be Celestia the sister that wasn't there to save poor Luna. You must be Discord, spirit of chaos, Master has told me alot about you. But enough of that." Regal looked to Luna and his voice seemed to grow softer as he watched her.

"Now my dear there are somethings that we have to discuss." Regal said, his horn glowing a dark green as the spikes began to move to the side to create a path. Luna looked at her sister then turned back to Regal and began to walk forward but was stopped by Celestia. "You don't have to go, Twilight and her friends will be fine I'm sure of that." Celestia said as she glared at Regal who glared back, his pure black eyes easily showing the hatred behind them. Luna looked back at Celestia and sighed, looking down at the ground sadly. "I'm not going to be any help to Twilight and her friends, but maybe I can stop him from scaring them to badly." Luna walked forward past the spikes like they weren't there and stood next to Regal as the spikes moved back to block the path.

"I hope you are ready to be tried for your crimes." Regal said as he looked up to Luna with a calculating look which Luna returned with a glare. "How about yours? Have you been punished enough yet?" Luna asked back with malice as Regal laughed maniacally. "Oh yes I have been punished for my crimes." Regal said as he walked forward and through the portal followed close behind by Luna, Celestia and Discord watched with confusion.

To Be Continued...