Elements of Chaos
Act 1
Chapter 1
“HA-HA! Do it again! Do it again!” the pink pony begged, giggling uncontrollably. A gray pegasus set down her punch glass and smiled.
“Well, okay Pinkie; only for you.” Pinkie Pie felt her heart begin to race as her friend blew on a stray piece of yellow hair, revealing her shining golden eyes. “Here goes...”
Anticipation built in the pink mare as the gray pony’s face went blank. Then, suddenly, the golden eyes began to move away from each other, making Pinkie’s friend look quite goofy. Once her eyes were as far away from each other as they could possibly go, the pegasus sang in the silliest voice she could muster; “Ding!”
Pinkie Pie fell out of her seat. On pure instinct, she grabbed the table cloth for support. Pinkie hit the floor and the items on the table poured onto her, dragged along by the table cloth. Breathing heavily, Ponyville’s premiere party pony rose back above the table. “You’re a riot Derpy!” she laughed.
“Thanks, Pinkie!” The pegasus said happily. “Nice hat by the way...”
“Huh?” The party pony looked up. Sweetie Belle’s birthday cake sat upon her head, the frosting decorating her face and mane a light purple. “Oops.” The friends only laughed harder as a festive pink candle dropped off the top of the cake and rolled across the floor. “Look! My mane’s falling out!” This sent the duo into another torrent of giggles.
“I guess we have to make a new cake, huh?” Derpy asked once they’d calmed down.
Pinkie shook the baked confectionery from her mane. “Mm-hmm, but first we have to clean up. We can’t throw a party if the place looks like this!” She gestured to their surroundings.
All of Sugarcube Corner was coated in layers of baking ingredients; cinnamon dusted the cooking utensils, sugar lie in large piles on the floor, and flour decorated every available surface. This is going to take awhile to clean. We probably should’ve skipped the flour fight... Pinkie thought. Oh well, it was fun!
The pair had been baking all morning in preparation for Sweetie Belle’s birthday party; cupcakes, cookies, fudge, and Derpy’s personal favorite: muffins. The crown jewel was the three-layer birthday cake that now sat on Pinkie’s head. It had taken over four hours to mix, bake and decorate, now they would have to start from scratch. It was all right though. After all, it wasn’t every day a young filly turned ten years old! Besides, Pinkie Pie loved to bake. In fact, the only thing she loved more than baking was baking with Derpy Hooves!
“Say Pinkie Pie, what time does the party start anyway?” Derpy asked, cleaning off the counters with a wet towel.
“Around five, why?” The pink pony replied, gathering up the loose ingredients on the floor.
“I was just wondering if we’d have enough time to make a replacement cake for Sweetie Belle.”
“Of course, silly filly! There’s a backup cake in the oven!” Derpy looked over to her friend, confusion evident on her face.
“There is?”
Pinkie Pie looked up from the flour castle she was building. “Well, duh! I always make a backup cake for birthdays!” She said proudly, “I have to keep my perfect record for party punctuality!”
“But I don’t remember-”
“Details, details...” Pinkie said, waving off the comment. “Look, I’ve got a beard!” The baker pony sat up, showing off her flour Fu Manchu.
The pegasus gave Pinkie a bemused look before returning to her cleaning. What was that about? Pinkie thought. Man, some ponies sure can be weird!
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A cyan pegasus watched the lavender unciorn’s eyes close, while the horn protruding from the latter’s forehead began to glow brightly. A few hushed moments later, the apple tree before them exploded into a ball of purple flames and smoke. “Woah, Twi!” Rainbow Dash said excitedly. “That was awesome!”
Twilight Sparkle gave her friend a very irked look. “It wasn’t supposed to explode, Rainbow.”
Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side, confusion evident on her face. “It wasn’t?”
“No, it wasn’t.” Twilight said surlily. “I was trying to increase the bloom speed of the apples on this tree.” As if to emphasis her failure, the burning tree fell to the ground with a loud crash. “Have you even paid attention to anything I’ve said today?”
“Uh... yeah?” The pegasus laughed nervously and turned away to hide her blush. In truth, she really had tried to listen to her friend, but the specifics of unicorn magic were nowhere near as captivating as the way the breeze gently blew against Twilight’s dark purple mane.
“You know Rainbow, you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.”
“No!” Rainbow said, probably a little too quickly. Catching herself, she continued. “I mean, I don’t want to miss any more tree explosions.”
Twilight stamped her hoof on the ground and released an indignant huff. “Why did you even ask to run this experiment with me if you’re not even going to listen to what it’s for?”
Oh she just had to ask, didn’t she? Thinking fast, Rainbow Dash came up with an excuse so brilliant she should have been named liar of the month. “Because I was bored.” she said, nonchalantly striding over to the fallen log. The violet flames danced around to an inaudible tune, slowly eating away at the tree and releasing smoke into the sky. “Really Twi, if it’s a choice between flying around bored all day or watching you blow up Applejack’s trees, I’ll run experiments with you until the cows come home.”
“Blowin' up what now?” An orange mare said, walking up behind Twilight. She looked over to Rainbow and the burning tree. “Land Sakes, Twilight!” the farmer gasped. “Ah said you could run yer weird experiments on one o’ mah trees to make it bloom faster, not blow it up!”
Applejack pushed Rainbow Dash to the side so she could see the fire as Twilight released an angry growl. “I didn’t mean to Applejack! I did say it was an experimental spell. I also said that there was no telling for sure exactly what it would do!” It was true, Rainbow Dash could back her up. After all, they’d spent hours going over those stupid ‘Experimental Magic Safety Rules’ Twilight had made up. Not that Rainbow had really listened to them of course; the breeze had fixed that problem.
The earth pony stared at the flames. “Y’all killed Larry!” She shook her head in disappointment. “But... Ah did say you could try yer spell on it, so Ah guess it’s mah fault.” She looked up at Twilight. “Ah’m sorry Twilight, Ah don’t mean tuh yell... Ah guess Ah’ve been on edge a bit since...” her voice drifted off, but Rainbow Dash knew where Applejack was going with her apology.
“Aww, that’s okay A.J.!” Rainbow said, slapping Applejack on the back with a hoof. “We all miss Granny Smith! I’m sure Twi understands.”
“Rainbow!” Twilight reproached the pegasus with a stiff glare.
Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably under the harsh gaze. This wasn’t exactly the kind of stare she wanted to elicit from the unicorn. “What? What’d I do?”
What had she done wrong? She’d played peacemaker, hadn’t she? Helping Applejack with her apology and even assuring her that Twilight meant well; wasn’t that a good thing?
“No, it’s all right Twilight.” Applejack said somberly. “But Ah halfta um... clean the hayloft in the barn. The mice are gettin’ a mite troublesome.” She cantered off towards the large red building off in the distance.
Once again, Rainbow Dash found Twilight shooting daggers at her. “What?” she said, shying away from her.
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Applejack trotted off towards her barn, or, as it had become lately; her fortress of solitude. She just wanted to be alone right now. Rainbow Dash- Celestia bless her, she was only trying to help- had opened up all of her feelings from last week’s events.
It wasn’t like it was any huge surprise or anything, Granny Smith was old. Very old. She obviously wouldn’t have lasted much longer, even had she survived the heart attack, but Applejack was still just as stunned as she had been on that morning last week. All of her life, Granny Smith had just been there, she’d never really given it much thought before.
Sneak home from school early and get caught? Granny Smith would talk Mom and Dad from taking you back. Fall from an apple tree and bump your head? Granny Smith would make it better with a cookie and a hug. Having trouble dealing with ponies? Granny Smith always knew just the right words of advice to say. She couldn’t just be gone; she was always there.
As Applejack made her way down to the barn, a loud, echoing crash tore her from her thoughts. At first she thought it was another of Twilight’s failed attempts to magic her trees- she never should have agreed to that- but it had come from the clear opposite direction, the barn.
Breaking into a gallop, Applejack made her way down to the barn and pulled the door open. The sight made her gasp in horror.
The hay loft’s support beam had snapped while her brother had been storing apples, and now Big Macintosh lie under a heap of iron tools and hay bales. All Applejack could see were his large hooves sticking out from under the pile. “Somepony get a doctor!” she yelled, rushing to the red pony’s side.
Applejack shoved a few tools and a bale of hay over to uncover a bloodied face. “C’mon Big Mac!” She pleaded aloud. “Not you too! Ah can’t lose you too!” She cursed herself, she knew that she should’ve given Rainbow lease to smash this barn down as well, it was too old. But no, Big Macintosh had wanted to keep one up for storage until the other one was replaced. Now look at what’d happened!
Three ponies rushed in a few moments later. They saw the pile and then the crying earth pony. “Caramel, go get Nurse Redheart!” Twilight exclaimed. “Quickly!” The sandy yellow pony bolted out of the door and off to town. “Rainbow, Applejack, stand back. I’m going to try to get all of that stuff off of him.”
Applejack felt a tug, then found herself being dragged out the door by her cyan friend. “C’mon A.J. You don’t want to see any more of this.”
A purple glow flowed out of the barn door and soon multiple pieces of equipment that had once sat upon her brother were being flung out of the building with extreme prejudice.
A couple of hours later, Applejack paced back and forth in the hospital emergency room. Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had been with her through for whole wait- Pinkie Pie had shown up earlier to commiserate Applejack before finishing up preparation for Sweetie Belle’s birthday party. A party Pinkie Pie seemed less excited about planning now.
The door burst open and a white mare ran into the hospital. Breathing heavily, she approached Applejack. “Oh Applejack!” Rarity exclaimed, throwing her legs around her friend’s neck. I just heard the news, I’m so sorry!” Releasing her grip, she continued. “I just got back from Manehatten a few minutes ago, Pinkie Pie told me that Big Macintosh... Will he be all right?”
Applejack studied the ground worriedly. “Ah don’t know, Rarity. They ain't said nothin'.”
Rarity looked around to see her friends sitting down. “It’s good to see you again, girls. I missed you while I was away; I just wish our reunion was under better circumstances.”
A few minutes of awkward silence passed before Rainbow Dash said, “He’ll be okay A.J. Big Mac’s as tough as they come!” The other mares all nodded in mutual agreement.
Applejack hoped that her friends were right, she didn’t even want to think about the alternative. That would be hard enough on her, but she couldn’t imagine the pain it would put their little sister Apple Bloom through. Applejack had even decided to let her live a few more hours of blissful ignorance instead of getting her from school early.
A few more minutes passed before a door opened down the hall and a white pony with a nurse’s hat approached the group. “I have great news.” Nurse Redheart smiled. “With only a few lacerations and some broken bones- he will need bed rest for a few weeks, mind you- Big Macintosh is going to make a full recovery!”
“Oh, thank Celestia!” Applejack cried, for she had been fearing the worst. With the sight of all that blood staining her brother’s coat, the situation hadn’t looked all that good for the stallion. The orange mare didn’t know what she would have done if she’d lost Big Macintosh and Granny Smith only a week away from each other. Apart from losing her loved ones; Applejack wasn’t sure she was ready to handle all of the responsibilities of running Sweet Apple Acres, let alone the task of raising Apple Bloom by herself!
“We’re just patching him up now and he’ll be ready to go home and get into bed.” Nurse Redheart explained. “A few broken ribs won’t hold Big Macintosh down for very long though, so I’m sure he’ll be up and about soon.”
Twilight offered the question on everypony’s mind with a curious glance at the doctor. “Exactly how soon is soon, Nurse Redheart?”
The white pony studied her clip board and said, “He should be ready to get back to work around November.”
“November?” Rainbow Dash spluttered, rising from her seat. “But that’s two months away!”
“Now now, Ms. Dash,” The nurse said patiently. “Certainly you, of all ponies, knows how long it takes for bones to get back into tiptop condition. Big Macintosh is lucky a few broken ribs are the worst of his injuries, from what you girls told me.”
“So... he’ll be fine ‘round November? Like, completely healed?” Applejack questioned once again.
“Good as new.” Nurse Redheart confirmed. “Actually, he’ll be ready to head on home in a just few minutes.”
True to her words, a heavily bandaged Big Macintosh carefully limped down the hospital hallway accompanied by Nurse Tenderheart. After a few agonizing moments, the large red pony stood before them. “Hello.” He said, wincing slightly at the pain of speaking. He looked around the room. “Apple Bloom’s still at school?” Applejack nodded her answer. “Good, I don’t want anypony missin’ anything on mah account.”
After some thank-yous and goodbye’s, Applejack found herself walking home with her older brother in tow. “Are you okay, A.J?” he asked after they got out of Ponyville.
“Yeah... yeah, Ah’m fine.” the orange pony answered, looking down at the ground.
Big Macintosh stopped walking and pulled her eyes up to meet his. “Hey. Ah know this whole ordeal scared you, but Ah’ll be okay.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed at the statement. “That’s not all you wanted tah say, is it?” The red pony nodded.
“What happened today Applejack...” he said carefully. “It made meh realize that Ah won’t be around forever. In fact A.J., I could up’n leave at any time. You need tuh be ready fer that, just in case.”
“You’re not goin’ anywhere anytime soon, Big Mac. Don’t you dare talk lahk that!”
“Accidents happen, sis. If need be, you have to be ready to run the farm, to raise Apple Bloom, to take care o’ yerself.”
Applejack had just opened her mouth to give Big Macintosh a piece of her mind when another voice broke through the silence. “Big Mac! Applejack!” A small yellow filly ran up behind them, the red ribbon tied into her mane waving in the breeze. She reached her siblings and took a long look at the larger of the two. “What happened to you, Big Mac?”
“Nothin’ worth worrin’ ‘bout Apple Bloom.” The eldest pony said. Apple Bloom furrowed her brow and studied her brother for a long moment.
“Are you sure?”
“Eeyup. Now you two’d better hurry on up if’n yer gonna get tah that party.” Applejack recoiled and shot Big Mac a glare.
“What? Big Mac, y’all can’t be serious!” What was going through this pony’s mind? He could barely walk straight and he wanted the only two family members he had left to leave him on his own?
“You heard me, sis. Ah’ll be okay, Ah can take care o’ mahself jus’ fine.”
The young filly looked from her brother to her sister, confusion evident on her face. “What’s goin’ on here?”
Applejack tore her eyes off her brother and turned back towards town. “Nothin’,” she growled. “Let’s get on down to Sugarcube Corner, Apple Bloom.”
Applejack watched her sister run with her friends around the room, giggling and excitedly taking turns tackling each other to the ground. “Y’all be careful!” She shouted over the music. “Y’all could hurt somepony!” Like most young children, the Cutie Mark Crusaders completely ignored her and continued sliding under the tables in their game of tag.
“Aw, lighten up Applejack! It’s a party! Let ‘em have some fun!” Pinkie Pie cheered next to her.
“Ah know, but Ah don’t wanna see anypony else get hurt today.”
The pink pony studied her friend carefully. “I know silly!” she said. “But you can’t hover over Apple Bloom like that, she wont like it!”
Applejack turned and studied her excitable friend, she hadn’t been expecting something so deep from Pinkie Pie of all ponies. Before she could answer though, the pink mare took off to start a game of limbo with the other partygoers.
Shaking her head, the farmer made her way across the dance floor and out the door. The night air felt cool and damp against her fur. Sitting down just outside the door, Applejack looked up at the moon and sighed. A little bit o’ party goes a long way. She thought. It was nice to once again be outside, if only for some fresh air.
Something about the night always made her feel peaceful; calm, serene even. However, tonight it was different. Applejack got a strong sense of foreboding as she looked up at the large white moon. The feeling didn’t last very long though, because behind her, a ruckus could be heard inside the bakery. The door opened violently and Rarity tripped over Applejack as she stomped outside.
Shaking herself, the white mare stood back up and glanced back to see what she’d tripped over. “Oh,” she said, noticing the other pony. “My apologies Applejack, I didn’t see you there.”
“S’okay Rarity, I shouldn’tah sat in front o’ the door like that.” Applejack watched as Rarity dusted herself off and took a seat beside her, mumbling about the nerve of some ponies. “What happened?”
Rarity scowled, as if remembering something unpleasant. “Caramel asked me out.”
Is that all? Applejack wondered. I wish that was the least of MY worries! Letting out an exasperated sigh, the orange pony voiced her opinion. “What’s wrong with that? He’s been sweet on yah fer ages.”
Rarity shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand Applejack.”
“Try me.”
“Well...” The white pony began, starting to pace across the walkway. “I can’t date Caramel, he’s... he’s... well frankly, he’s a boor. I need somepony that’s refined, somepony who has class. Caramel... well, he isn’t either of those.”
“How do you know that? Caramel’s nice enough, forgetful at times, but he means well.”
“He may mean well Applejack, but love is more than meaning well. A stallion has to have class, he needs to be able to provide for his mare.” This didn’t sound anything like the Rarity that Applejack knew. Was she saying that she wouldn’t give Caramel a chance because he didn’t have any money? Deciding she didn’t like the way the conversation was going, the orange pony turned around to go back inside.
“Y’know Rarity, money ain’t the same as class.” she said as she opened the door. Just as she was about to step forward back into the bakery, a chilling voice forced her to stop.
“Hold, fair Applejack.” The cowpony knew that voice. What would she be doing here? A quick glance behind herself confirmed Applejack’s fears. A dark blue alicorn stood before her, flanked by her ever present guard.
“Princess Luna?” The princess nodded and stepped into the moonlight.
“I must speak with you and your friends.” she said quickly. “‘Tis an emergency.”