//------------------------------// // Who's Laughing Now? // Story: Chaos Never Takes a Break // by FlashFoward //------------------------------// “Snails please pay attention in class!” Cheerilee snapped impatiently at the drowsing foal. Snails jerked his head up and looked directly at his teacher with his drooping eyes. His eyelids have grown dark and developed bags lately. A sleep deprived week was finally taking its toll on Snails and Cheerilee was lenient at first but with the lack of improvement, it was time to act. Once class was dismissed, Cheerilee pulled Snails from the class and started to chat with him. “Snails, is everything okay at home?” Cheerilee asked with genuine care. “Everything is perfect. Why you ask?” Snails replied, his head bobbing slightly. “You have been falling asleep in the middle of class all week Snails.” Cheerilee replied. “Oh, um, I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately.” Snails confessed sadly. “I noticed.” Cheerilee took note of the bags under Snails eyes. “You have been having nightmares?” Snails eyes opened in terror and he quickly averted his teachers gaze. It was true his nightmares have been becoming troublesome lately. Being buried under slime, courtesy of Discord, had become a ritual for a week now. Snails figured if he didn’t sleep, Discord could no longer haunt his dreams. This was a double edge sword though. Yes he had no more nightmares with Discord burying him under slime but, in exchange, Snails was slowly losing his wits and concentration. Every time he closed his eyes, he wouldn’t see darkness. No, it was Discord showering him in slime again. His fellow classmates said he was just paranoid, but he wasn’t by a long shot. “No, neighbors have been making a racket lately that’s all.” Snails lied. Cheerilee sighed and let Snails go home. Snails felt a familiar dread come over him as nighttime rolled around. Another sleepless night was waiting for him. To pass the time, Snails started to flick through pages of a Daring Do book. Slowly though, Snails noticed slime started to leak from the very walls in his room. No, he couldn’t have fallen asleep…or had he? Snails got up and ran to his closet mirror. Odd, his reflection was distorted rather than being pristine. Leaning in closer to the glass, Snails wondered vaguely if he really was dreaming. Suddenly, a lion paw broke through Snail’s reflection and grabbed the real Snails by the neck. Snails let out a yell before the lion paw dragged him into the glass. While doing so, Snails heard a familiar maniacal laugh and Snails knew who was doing this to him. Desperately, Snails tried to resist being tugged but it was in vain. The harder he resisted against the grip, the firmer it would become. Snails felt like he was going to lose conscious before Discord would drag him over. “Always the hard way with you pony’s, nothing can be done easy. Fine, let’s play rough.” Discord whispered evilly. Suddenly, Snails face rammed repeatedly against the glass. Once, twice, thrice Discord rammed his head against the glass. Every time his head hit against the glass a weird squeak sound would be produced, almost like a crushed chew toy. Discord could be heard laughing and Snails wanted nothing else then for this to end. The lion paw finally let its grip slack a bit, allowing Snails to catch his breath. “Not done yet.” Discord teased. The lion paw squeezed harshly on Snails neck again. His head inflated and his eyeballs popped out. After Discord repeated the action several times, he threw Snails across his room. For some reason, Snails couldn’t stand upright. His legs had gone rigid and his head still felt like it was swelling horribly. Discord was looking down at Snails in pity. “You know, the statues in the garden at least look decent.” Discord eyed Snails with a frown. With a snap of his fingers, Discord summoned a small mirror for Snails to see himself. “NO!” Snails wailed, but his cry fell on death ears. His body turned to stone. Discord grabbed a tissue from nowhere and sneezed on it. Boogers coated Snails, the statue, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. “I think that should do the trick.” Discord said, placing his finger on the temple of Snails. “Bye now.” Discord tipped Snails, the statue, over. With a loud crack, Snails stone body broke into many little pieces as it hit the ground. Rubble coated the ground where Snails had previously stood. “GAH!” Snails yelled out. He ran to his closet mirror and noticed that he wasn’t a statue or a pile of rubble. There was no Discord and there was no oozing slime on the walls. Snails tried to fall asleep but he was terrified to do so. He wasn’t sure if Discord would be waiting for him once he finally dozed off. ________________ Discord opened the familiar door that allowed him to venture to others dreams. Tonight was quiet fun, for him at least. The poor look on that foal was just priceless! But, Discord felt like he needed a break from his worn out victim. He needed somepony new. The question was, who? The princesses would be for later. Not that he feared them, it was more along the lines he wanted to have a better grip of manipulating others dream before tackling them. Twilight was much too smart she might zap him if she saw him roaming in her dreams. Perhaps, one of the other school foals? They were very feeble and generally not smart enough to outwit him. This made them the perfect target for his devious plans. Which one though? Discord recalled a rather prissy and annoying filly when he was a statue the first time around. Her cutie mark was a tiara, but he couldn’t recall her name. Discord palmed the doorknob and released his hold on it. Excellent, the door assumed the form of the tiara! Pushing the door open, Discord was mildly surprised to see what was behind it. Columns of fancy marble were standing high to the heavens and room glistened like a diamond. There was a throne sitting at the other side of the room and there sat the foal. She looked like she was yelling orders at a few unfortunate stallions, must have been her servants. Ugh, she was so egotistical and just OOZING arrogance! For once, Discord figured he wouldn’t be the only one would actually enjoy trying make her life miserable. As usual, Discord assumed a disguise, this time a pony that had a crystal ball for a cutie mark. He made his way to the foal, who took notice of his presence at last. “Excellent, an oracle shall tell me about my fascinating future! Tell me, will my future bring more riches me way?” the egotistical foal demanded. “Pardon, your highness, what is your name?” Discord asked, stressing highness with some slight distaste. “You are not aware of your highnesses name? I’ll let that slide for now. I am Princess Diamond Tiara!” the small school filly gloated. “Okay, Princess Diamond Tiara, give me a moment.” Discord started to wave his hooves over the crystal ball that he made appear from thin air. Tiara looked into the ball and wore a frown on her face. “I see fog.” Tiara deadpanned. “Look deeper my dear.” Discord replied a little demandingly. She looked deeper and noticed she saw herself within the fog. However, her cutie mark was gone and so was her tiara. This couldn't be right, she was royalty! “I think you messed up.” Tiara said with a stern gaze. “The ball never lies.” Discord replied simply. Tiara felt slightly nervous now. She gestured Discord to leave, but he remained stock still. “Are you scared?” Discord asked with an evil smile. “No.” Tiara lied. “Let’s see about that…” Discord clapped his hooves together and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. “Hey, what do you mean by that!” Tiara demanded. Discord replied with his usual evil chuckle. Diamond Tiara trotted back to her throne and sat down. She didn’t like the sounds of this. Suddenly, her thrown wilted and crumbled apart underneath her. She fell down and hit the cold floor with a loud thud. Discord reappeared in front of Tiara in his true form now. “Discord!” She screamed. “Where,” Discord looked around before he looked down at his legs “oh yeah that’s me.” “How did you get here?” Tiara yelled shrilly. “Magic.” Discord joked. “I must say, for ponies that thrive on friendship and kindness,” Discord began to slither around Tiara “you sure are mean and egotistical.” “Please, it’s not my fault I am just better.” Tiara spat back. “In your mind, sure, you are better than the others. But, that cutie mark just oozes arrogance.” Discord pointed at her flank. To Diamond Tiara’s horror, Discord whipped off her cutie mark and made her a blank flank. “Give me my cutie mark back!” Tiara demanded angrily. “No, I think you need to learn a lesson.” Discord said, his lip going to his devious smile. With another casual flick of his fingers, Discord summoned Tiara’s classmates. Scootaloo was the first to start laughing at Tiara’s dismay and soon the rest of the class followed suit. “Stop laughing at me!” Tiara screamed. Discord slapped a clown hat on her head and the class broke out into renewed fits of laughter. Tiara broke into tears and Discord had the school foal’s disappear, Scootaloo gave one last hearty ha before she vanished. “Make it stop.” Tiara whimpered. “If you continue to do this to the others around you, this will never end.” Discord hissed into her ear. Discord clicked his fingers together again and summoned Diamond’s Tiara back. “I wonder,” Discord placed the tiara back on the scared foal’s head. “What came first? Your cutie mark or you just named yourself after it.” Tiara didn’t reply and Discord shrugged. He knew she had no intention to utter a word to him about that. “I guess, it’s time to go.” Discord clicked his fingers for the last time before disappearing. Diamond Tiara flinched as Discord clicked his fingers. She rubbed her hoof over her tiara to make sure it was still and she felt something odd as she did so. The thing on her head started to coil around her hoof, and to her horror, it was a snake. Shaking her entire body to try to get the snake off her, this was in vain since it only aggravated the snake even more. ___________ “GET OFF OF ME!” Diamond Tiara yelled out. Opening her eyes, she was happy to see that she was back in her own room. There were no signs of snakes or Discord. The tiara cutie mark was still on her flank and her tiara was sitting on her night stand. Try as she must, sleep was just impossible. Every time she finally managed to go into slumber, Discord would be there, waiting, and would proceed to make her a blank flank and replace her tiara with snakes again.