"Ok... so first thing's first, we better contact Celestia," Twilight decided. Assembled around her in the council chamber of her new castle was one of the most strange assortment of ponies ever gathered in one room. Sat on her throne at the head of the group was Twilight herself - relatively normal, other than the fact that she was supposed to be an alicorn princess. On her right was Rainbow Dash, fidgeting awkwardly in her seat and occasionally sending rainbow sparks from her horn. Next to her was Fluttershy, who looked beyond bizarre and decidedly embarrassed in her new draconequus body. More and more it appeared she was struggling to control her new-found powers, and Discord as a pony stood looking extremely amused as little fluffy sheep clouds began to pop up around the castle.
On the other side of the circle of thrones sat Applejack, who couldn't sit still or find a comfortable position in which her orange wings wouldn't poke into the chair. Rarity raised her eyebrows.
"You just have to keep them folded in like this darling," she advised, her own white wings tucked neatly at her side. Applejack's hat was knocked to the floor as she tried to squash her wings back against her body.
Finally, there was Pinkie. Every few seconds a pink flash would light up the room as she teleported uncontrollably. Even when she wasn't accidentally using her magical powers, she shot across the room with her wings, leaving a sparkling pink trail in the air behind.
"Weeeeeeee!" squealed Pinkie, a huge grin across her face as she almost collided with one of the increasing number of strange sheep clouds. Discord was by now rolling on the floor laughing, kicking his hind legs in the air at the prevalence of chaos in the room.
"Will everypony QUIT IT?" yelled Twilight. Pinkie teleported obediently back into her seat and Fluttershy apologized quietly, although the sheep remained. Applejack's wings finally snapped to her side and the group all turned to Twilight expectantly.
"Sorry," Twilight added. "But whatever's going on is serious so we need to get to the bottom of it, and soon."
"I just don't understand!" cried Rarity. "What possible purpose could there be for swapping our species like this?"
"I'm not sure... but the Princesses will know what to do, I'm certain of it. Spike? Spike?" Twilight called. "Where is that dragon? It's never been more important for him to send a letter than it is right now!" A small sheep flew into Twilight's head and Rainbow, Pinkie and Discord all struggled to suppress their laughter.
The doors to the chamber burst open and Spike ran inside, panting for breath.
"There you are, Spike. Now I need you to write a letter t-" she began but Spike interrupted before she could finish her order.
"Twilight - you - need - to come - outside - now," he gasped.
"What now!? What could possibly be more important than this?" she cried exasperatedly.
"I'll - write your - letter! Just - go!" he told her, flopping down in the corner and pulling a quill from behind his ear.
Twilight hesitated, but then nodded. She knew Spike wouldn't be telling her unless it was something serious.
"All right, come on everypony - let's go!" Twilight told her friends. Within fractions of a second, Pinkie had already zoomed past in a pink blur, Fluttershy had teleported away, Applejack and Rainbow had begun to run and Rarity had flown past with her new wings.
"This is gonna take some getting used to," Twilight sighed. Discord tried not to laugh.
It became apparent as soon as Twilight got outside what Spike had been worrying about. A huge, red, gleaming bubble seemed to surround all of Ponyville. It reminded Twilight of the protective shield Cadence had created to keep out King Sombra, only it had a much more sinister edge. Almost every resident of the small town was stood outside of their home, staring up at the ominous red dome with obvious fear.
"What is it?" Derpy wondered from up in the air.
"Where the hay did it come from?" asked Granny Smith.
"Ok, I'll-" Twilight began but then hesitated. She was about to say that she'd go and consult her books, but she realized with dismay that most of them were now destroyed. Her second suggestion was going to be that she'd try and blast through it with her horn, but she was forced to remind herself that she no longer had magic. Her third, most simple option was going to be that she'd fly up and examine it - but due to her absence of wings she would have to walk over to its border. Before she could offer, however, Rarity had already spoken.
"I can see that this... bubble thing, is scaring you all - no matter, for I will venture to find out what it is using my new wings," Rarity told the crowd below. The citizens of Ponyville stared up at Rarity's new pegasus form with awe and horror as she flew towards the uppermost reach of the huge red bubble. When she approached the top, she tentatively reached her hoof out to touch it - and upon doing so was instantly thrown back towards the ground. Her wings snapped to her sides at the shock and Rarity screamed at the top of her voice, unable to fly now that she needed to. Applejack managed to soar forwards just in time to catch her, and the two tumbled to the ground clumsily, but intact.
"Have no fear everypony!" Pinkie yelled. "I'll teleport out of the bubble!"
"Erm, remind me what's the benefit of that?" asked Rainbow, but Pinkie had already vanished in a pink flash. The residents of Ponyville cheered as they spotted Pinkie reappear outside of the bubble's wall - however, within seconds she reappeared back where she was, looking confused and disappointed.
"This bubble's just a big meanie!" cried Pinkie, waving her hoof at it angrily.
"Ok, enough games. I'm gonna try and blast it with my new magical horn," Rainbow claimed, licking her lips and focusing. Everypony watched with bated breath as a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.
With all her effort, she tried to fire a super awesome magical rainbow lazer - but all she managed was to fizzle a few sparks from her horn.
"Stop it! Stop it!" cried Twilight. "We don't know what this bubble is or where it came from, but I doubt firing magic at it will work!" Rainbow grinned a little sheepishly. "So far we've established that we can't go through it -" Rarity nodded firmly, wincing- "and we can't teleport away from it." Pinkie nodded too, twirling her black scheming mustache. "So... I guess we just have to wait for Princess Celestia to reply and tell us what's going on. In the meantime, we'll research in the books I have left to see if we can find anything relevant. Earth ponies, try and get to work on the farms - we'll need to stockpile as much food as possible. Pegasi - see if you can still control the weather within the bubble and keep an eye out for any Cloudsdale ponies who might arrive with news on the situation. Most importantly, everypony needs to stay calm."
After a brief pause, the residents of Ponyville murmured their assent. The earth ponies gathered with the apple family and started heading back towards the farm, while the pegasi flew up into the air to try and control the weather. Derpy flew along behind looking cheerful.
"Nice work, Princess," murmured a voice in Twilight's ear. Discord winked at her and Twilight felt a little better.
"Ok, I guess we better find out what we can," Twilight told her closest friends. They smiled back at her, supportive as always.
"Good thinkin', Twilight," agreed Applejack.
Before any of them could move, however, the sky darkened and a booming voice began to laugh...
I really liked this for multiple reasons, though I wonder....Do you ship Twicord/Discolight? You seem to hint, maybe, at it? I like fluttercord myself. But don't worry, I'll still read!
But okay, I'm going to tell you the first thing I especially liked:
The sheep clouds. Not only is that funny when I picture it in my head, but I was worried the second I saw 'cloud' that it was going to be described as pink with chocolate milk rain. I always love anyone who comes up with their own magical events when it comes to Discord's chaos. Some don't seem to realize that he can literally do anything and doesn't do the same things over and over. He did pink clouds and chocolate milk rain once, and that's all the most people seem to remember. Keep making them original, I love it! Not only that, but Fluttershy's making sheep clouds--you're connecting her magic to her personality and likes. Excellent job.
Also, I love how despite the fact that all of them are completely out of their comfort zone (or should I say element? HAHAHA) they still get things done and do their best to be useful/helpful. Rarity tries to fly and look at the bubble (though I'm sure she also just likes having wings and showing the gorgeous things off, but she's also got a good heart so she meant to help too), Pinkie tries to see if she can teleport out, Rainbow tries to blast it...Fluttershy doesn't do much, but that's probably because she's too nervous about her powers to help, and of course Discord can't do much at the moment, and it's in-character for him to just sit back and watch all the glorious confusion and chaos. And Twilight. You did great showing her worth despite not having either thing--especially no horn, which is the very essence of her element, power, and passion--but she doesn't lose her TALENTS that aren't magic-related, or her strengths. You still show her leadership skills and her ability to handle tough situations. She's still a princess, and she doesn't need anything for that. The Mane Six are still friends who have a sense of justice and do their best to help and be useful, despite everything. Bravo showing that, bravo! I'm glad it's not "I can't do anything!" "Me neither!" Though it would be understandable and possibly funny to go that direction, or use it to build angst (which may be fun to do later), you still show that they haven't lost a sense of who they are.
Also, your pacing is really good here. :) It flowed super naturally.
This story feel like an actual episode, good work.
I should have expected that Fluttershy will use her powers to animate all kinds of object into animals, thats so in her character.
And im also kind of curious about the romance tag, in the beginning i was sure that Fluttershy transformation will be the main cause of the shipping since she basically learn how to be Discord but now i could see also some kind of admiration between Discord and Twilight. Pinkie is neutral for now although she could compete with Fluttershy in creating chaos by mistake
Or maybe you planning on doing a suprise like in Shounen Anime where it isnt clear which shipping is canon? Like for example in Naruto where basically Naruto/Sakura and Naruto/Hinata is still possible and probably not resloved until finale?
5211101 in general I'm very much a fluttercord shipper still deciding where to go with this one though thanks all your feedback, I'm glad my pacing was better in this chapter and I was trying my best to keep everypony in character - to me that's the most important thing loving the "out of their element" pun I'll try and keep it up!
5211217 when I started writing I was sure which ship I was going to include, now I don't know either haha I think I'll just see where the story takes it
5213077
Haha, you can even go for a fourthsome as long as it make sense in narration .
Im digging the story so far and Discord being chaotic and polyamorous is kind of in character for him, although im aware that making a polyamorous shipping is very hard to write and would require a lot of development. So its your call how do you imagine the ending of this story overall.
Pacing gone better. But I have one little nitpick at this story:
Granny Smith without an accent, really?
Overall, great story, I'm beyond intrigued
5213785 yeah, sorry about that didn't really know how to write an accent into that phrase glad you're enjoying it anyway
5214402
I'm not great with accents either, but:
Will sound a lot more Granny Smith like, I think...
5216887 Okie dokie lokie! think I've changed it
well that chaos was fun while it lasted.
cloud sheep and all.
now random voices that laugh for no good reason!
be gone and let them panic some more!
5217509 don't worry, I'm sure there will be more panicking And more cloud sheep
5204877 You're welcome and that's good to hear.
Just when I thought it couldn't get cuter,
!
5233204 Thank you I try my best