Eris' game

by Java Joe

Trust nopony

Later that day the ponies showed up in Canterlot. There wasn't much else they could do. With the elements of Harmony gone and Discord in a pony body maybe there was something else to try. And so, to Canterlot and Princess Celestia they had come but things were not always what they seemed.

Canterlot seemed colder somehow. The streets weren't filled with happy citizens but ponies with watchful eyes. Everywhere they went, they were met with suspicion and distrust. Had it not been for Shining Armor allowing them access to the castle, they might very well not have gotten in.

"I can only take Twilight further, right now you girls will have to wait here, " he directed them to a sitting room not too far from the throne room. When asked why he simply said, "you need to trust me on this, the princesses will not allow more than 1 pony to see them at a time."

"So what's going on here?" Twilight asked her BBBFF as they proceeded alone down to the throne room.

"Twilly, this is not a good time for you to be here. Everywhere you look, everypony is suspicious of every other pony. I've heard tell of some have even barricaded themselves in their homes and aren't coming out for any reason. Paranoia is running rampant and there's nothing we can do."

"So how is it you're still unaffected?"

"Cadance is helping with that. You remember at our wedding, how we defeated the changelings?"

"Sure, the power of your love was enough to drive them away."

"Exactly, for the past week we've been performing that spell every night and every day it gets less and less effective. Last night we were barely able to cover the castle. I shudder to think what's going to happen tonight. In any case, here we are, " and he led her directly to the throne room where Celestia was currently having some heated words with Luna.

"Every day it's the same thing, " Shining Armor said. "Luna comes in after Celestia has raised the sun, says something and it devolves into a pointless argument that can last for hours. Yesterday it was about how the royal gardeners were using too much fertiliser in the rose garden."

"We are telling you sister dear, that it behooves us to be this way."

"But darling sister, how can you say that? Do you not hear how silly you sound?"

"Silly? There be nothing silly about it. We are after all the protector of the night and the Goddess of the Moon! Why shouldst I not have a signal to inspire fear and terror in those that would otherwise bring trouble to our land?"

"But a 'Luna signal'? I don't even know what that means and yet it sounds like something out of a comic book."

"Excuse me Celestia? Luna?" Twilight called trying to take the princesses minds off the current affairs.

"Of course, it's little miss perfect Twilight come to tell us how wrong we are, " Celestia scolded.

"Verily sister, we must admit that thine student has maybe grown too big for her station and needs to be taken down a bit!"

"What? " Twilight shook her head in disbelief at what she was hearing. "I came back because I needed your help!"

"Help? She needs help! The Element of Magic needs help from us? Why whatever could we do to help such a powerful individual?" Celestia mocked.

"Sister, please don't be so rash. If this little upstart needs our help then maybe we can find time to listen to her prattle."

"Was she talking to you? No, she was talking to me!"

"I was talking to both of you! But if neither of you can take the time from your busy schedules to actually do some work for your subjects then maybe we need to start to hold free elections!" Twilight cried. She knew this was wrong that the princesses shouldn't be fighting and she wasn't helping but it was as if she couldn't stop herself. For the next few minutes the princesses & Twilight continued to bicker.

Shining Armor pushed Twilight out of the room while she continued to yell and shout at the princesses only to have her recover in mid recrimination once they were gone.

"What just happened?"

"The same thing that happens once the princesses run out of steam. One of them huffs off to go to her room to sleep. When they get together it starts off normally but then one of them says something and an argument erupts."

"It's Discord, it has to be." She looked at her brother and told him what happened to the Elements of Harmony and to Rick and how they hoped the princesses could help in getting them back.

"Sounds about right. Twilly, " he leaned in conspiratorially, " Cadance and I are leaving tonight after we cast the spell and Luna has raised the moon. I don't want to leave my post, but our foal is going to be born soon and I don't want them to be here when it happens."

Twilight looked at her brother and said, "okay. See if you can make it to Ponyville. There's room at the library for the two... I mean three of you. And if for whatever reason I'm not there, go out to Sweet Apple Acres and tell them that I sent you. They'll help you out."

The two siblings hugged, wished each other good luck and went on their way. Twilight picked up the fillies and they left Canterlot, maybe for good.

Upon arriving back at Ponyville, they noticed that this town too had changed. Although it wasn't as obvious as it was in Canterlot, it definitely wasn't the welcoming and friendly Ponyville they had left the day before. Some of the shops were closed, others showed signs of damage and a few looked like they had been abandoned completely. Rarity rushed off to the Carousel to check up on it and Twilight sped off to the library. What they found was not what they had hoped to see.

Rarity found the place barricaded and a very determined, not to mention wounded young dragon protecting it.

"Spike!" she shouted when she saw her lover all scratched and bruised.

He looked up at her, one of his eyes black and swollen so badly he couldn't open it. "Rarity?" he asked weakly. He smiled on seeing her again and tried to hobble over to see her.

"Oh, my poor Spikey Wikey!" she said, nuzzling him and giving him a gentle kiss on the lips. "What happened?"

"A lot of the townsponies just went crazy and started attacking other ponies and destroying shops and houses. I was on my way here from the library when it started so I tried to protect this place as best I could. Sorry I couldn't do a better job of it, " he finished sadly, his head drooping.

"Nonsense Spike, you did everything you could, " Rarity said encouragingly. "The shop means nothing to me and can always be rebuilt, you on the other hoof are much more important, " she kissed him gently again for good measure.

His eyes shining bright with unshed tears, Spike beamed at the compliment and he felt like he could die a happy dragon now if need be. They entered the Carousel, collected what they could then left to join the rest of the fillies.

Twilight too was shocked at the state of the library. Books had been cast about, some windows were smashed and there was crude graffiti all over the walls but beyond that, no other damage she could see. Carefully getting a few books and belongings, she too walked out of the library and went to join the rest of the fillies. Ponyville just wasn't safe for the moment. The next stop would be Sweet Apple Acres.

They walked in silence as they headed towards the farm. Applejack was worried about her family but Rainbow Dash did her best to comfort her. "C'mon AJ. Your family is more than able to take care of themselves. Big Mac alone could take on 10 ponies without a problem. Nopony in their right mind would attack him!"

"That's what I'm worried about. These ponies ain't in their right minds!" Applejack replied. But the further they got from Ponyville, the better they seemed to feel as if the chaos and the strife that affected the ponies was confined simply to that area. By the time they had reached Sweet Apple Acres any negative feelings they had were gone.

"Alright everypony, we're home for the moment. Now we ain't got much room in the house for all y'all but the barn is big enough and we've got plenty of straw so why don't all you ponies go stake yourself a claim in there while we go inside to rustle up some vittles." Applejack said bringing Rainbow Dash with her. The rest of the ponies wandered over to the barn where they'd be staying until all of this blew over.

Eris had been very busy over the past few days. Her chaos magic was still not enough to warp reality and she feared that while in this pony body she might never have access to it again but Trixie on the other hand was a fair sorceress. Not as powerful as Twilight Sparkle or the Princesses of course but she had raw power that he could exploit and use.

It had been over 1000 years, but she remembered this part of the Everfree forest once had a large fort, fashioned from stone that the humans had built. It was crude, especially compared to the caste at Canterlot but it provided protection and a place from which she could work. Given time it might become the centre of a new capital from which to rule her land and later the world.

Her magic probed the earth, searching for the stones that used to stand here. Some were missing or destroyed over the centuries but others still existed and those still carried within them the memory of the fort. And with a mighty blast of pink light, the very earth rumbled beneath her hooves as the stones were thrust from the ground and one by one they were recombined together along with new stones to recreate the keep in all its monstrous glory. Mighty trees were hewn and fashioned into planks to recreate the door, iron torn from the very ground itself was driven into the wood to fasten it all together.

Evil, triumphant laughter poured over the land as the fort was made whole.

"Come slave, and bring that statue with you. I want to try something, " Eris said as she walked into her new home. Weighed down with the weight of the statue Sunrunner followed after her, his legs trembling with the strain.

Placing the statue in the room she had selected, Eris slowly walked around it admiring her handiwork. "We're going to try something with it later. Until then, we need to go shopping."

"Shopping mistress?"

"Yes, I'm going to need a bed and some blankets and sheets. You don't expect me to sleep on the ground do you?"

"No mistress. Of course not mistress."

"That's a good slave. Eris will have to give you a treat tonight, would you like that?"

"Yes mistress, very much mistress, " Sunrunner said with unbridled eagerness.

The two headed towards the nearest place where they could get what they needed which unfortunately was Fluttershy's cottage. It didn't take long to get there and with the exception of Angel Bunny keeping watch over the cottage, there was no opposition to their taking what they needed. It took several trips, but in the end they had raided Fluttershy of her bed, blankets, sheets, pillows and food. Angel Bunny tried to put up a defence but in the end he was easily dispatched. Although he did manage to flip them the bird before scampering away.

Meanwhile back at Sweet Apple Acres.

"Guys! You will not believe what I just saw!" Rainbow Dash said as she streaked to a halt in the air above the orchard where Applejack and Twilight were. "Eris raised a huge castle thing straight up from the ground in the Everfree forest!"

"A castle?"

"Well, maybe a fort or something. It looked kinda old, and blocky and made from stones. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Can you show us Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, the leader in her coming once again to the front.

"Sure, follow me!"

As they ran, Applejack asked, "shouldn't we tell the other fillies?"

"No. Rarity won't come, her mane will get all mussed up and Fluttershy is still hovering around Big Mac."

"What about Pinkie Pie? " Applejack asked only to realise that it was a silly question when Twilight gave her a look. This was something that called for stealth and if necessary cunning. Pinkie Pie for all of her inner strength had none of those qualities so it fell to these three fillies to see what Eris had wrought.

They bypassed Ponyville, the last thing they wanted to see right now was the condition of their town but also if Eris had managed to turn some of the villagers they didn't want this information getting back to her. It didn't take long, running cross country to reach the Everfree forest and to see Eris' fort.

Twilight took one look at it and immediately recognised it as being human in style. She had seen several examples of this while they were in Europe and in some of the movies Rick liked to watch. Somewhere in that fort was Eris but more importantly to Twilight somewhere in that fort was her husband and she was determined to get him back.

The fillies held back, hidden in the brush while trying to get a better look at the fort and not get spotted or seen in the process. They shouldn't have worried because from their vantage point they saw Eris and her helper bringing what appeared to be furniture from Fluttershy's cottage.

"Why's she stealing Fluttershy's stuff?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I guess there's nothing left of that place other than the stones. She's going to need to sleep somewhere and cold stone isn't all that comfortable, " Twilight said.

"No, I mean why Fluttershy's stuff? It's nice and all, but I would have thought an evil thing like Eris would want something... I don't know... darker and more dangerous looking. Fluttershy's things are just so... girly."

"Ah'm sure she don't care about fashion and a bed's a bed. So we know where she is, the question is how do we get in?"

"We're going to have to come back later with the rest of the fillies, that's for sure, " Twilight said, her voice cracking a bit near the end.

Applejack put her hoof around Twilight's shoulders and said, "Ah'm sure he's fine at the moment. We'll rescue him, don't you worry none. Besides, that stallion of yours is a tough customer. He ain't gonna give Eris no satisfaction."

Twilight sniffled a bit and smiled at her friend. "Thanks Applejack. You always know the right thing to say." Reluctantly she turned around and trotted back to the farm, followed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Inside the fort, Eris was doing a little redecorating.

"No, over more towards the window slave! That's too far, bring it back a bit, " she ordered Sunrunner who was busy trying to move her bed into the right position. It really didn't matter where the bed was located, she just wanted to mess with him.

Sunrunner strained under the load to move all the items like his mistress wanted. He didn’t mind, he worshipped the ground she walked on with her dainty hooves. Nothing she could ever say or do to him could change that so he gladly followed her every whim until she finally said the location of the bed was fine.

Turning to other matters, she went downstairs to check out the statue of the human. He was a fine looking stallion, but she required a human so that meant two spells. The first was simple enough, the changing of him back from stone. The second one, changing him to be human might take a little longer but first things first.

An aura of pink light surrounded her horn and a bale of straw broke apart and fell to the floor right next to the statue. Next, some large chains embedded themselves in one of the stone pillars. From the ends she fashioned some large manacles which she then attached to the hooves of the statue. Once they were secure, a quick blast from her horn and the statue came back to life.

"... love you!" said Rick before realising he was no longer in the cave and seemed to be in some old castle somewhere.

"Thank you Rick, that's so kind of you to say, " Eris said with a false smile.

"Where the bloody hell am I? Why am I chained? What the hell is going on here?" he demanded.

"You're in my fort. So you can't escape. And I need you for something, " Eris said, answering each question in turn.

Rick struggled against the chains but only succeeded in drawing blood from the manacles.

"I do wish you'd stop that. I need you alive and healthy for what's coming next. And just to make sure you don't try anything while I'm working..." Eris cast a small spell that immediately knocked Rick out onto the pallet of straw and sent him to sleep.

"Tomorrow, you become human once again and then the fun is really going to start." Eris brought out a small chest into which the Elements of Harmony had been placed. Hopefully, one of these might help her in breaking the human, or if she couldn't use them directly then maybe the despair he'd feel would help. No matter, there was no way for those ponies to get inside this fort. They'd need an army to do so and nopony nearby would even consider joining up. Too much distrust among the citizens of Ponyville and Canterlot. If those fillies had to raise an army, they'd have to go really far afield to do so and they were running out of time. In a few days, once the human had been broken, all of Equestria would be hers and soon after, the world.

Maniacal laughter rolled through the fort and into the forest. Bad things were coming.

Comments

[Alex Wadegrove]

Do continue...

[Umachan]

I leave for a few days and there's three chapters waiting.
Damn you! You're the enemy of getting things done.

P.S. Loved the "Luna Signal" idea.

[Genesis1212]

has everypony here gone CRAZY!?
damn you eris oh reminds me eris from grim adventures of billy and mandy she was obsessed with chaos as well >w< i could picture spike with his injuries hes one tough dragon and i love how rarity shows more open affection >w> hold tight rick just a bit longer ><