-Of Soup And Soap-
A short sketch about the consequences of changing a single letter.
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She had failed.
With a snap of his claws, and a blue flash, Twilight, accompanied by the deceitful draconequus Discord, re-appeared in the crater that once was the Canterlot Palace Labyrinth. Blinded by the coincidental outlook over the maze from the palace window, she had misinterpreted the riddle the chaotic spirit had spoken to them, leading her friends to an uncertain destination.
Wings and magic taken from them, and separated by towering walls, they had scrambled through the hedge maze in an attempt to reunite and reclaim the powerful artefacts – and they had failed. The Elements had never been there to begin with. It had all been part of Discord’s plan to turn her friends against each other. Now they just sat bickering behind her.
“Think Twilight, think!” she muttered to herself, growing increasingly more frustrated, “Find the elements back where you began…”
Tapping the side of her head with her hooves, she willed a thought to come into her head. It didn’t.
“…back where you began.”
The argument behind her began to escalate, as grey-Fluttershy began to torment and tease her other friends, especially provoking grey-Rarity, who was determined to keep her boulder-diamond.
“Urgh!” cried the purple mare, defeated, “I just want to go home.”
Suddenly, it all fell into place for her.
“Wait a minute…home!” exclaimed Twilight profusely, “Back where you began! The elements must be in Ponyville!”
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With a short scene transition, the five mares had inexplicably travelled the entire distance from Canterlot in an instant, as Twilight finished her sentence, and were now standing on the road just outside Ponyville, overlooking the town centre.
“Come on girls!” called the librarian enthusiastically, “I’m certain this is what Discord’s riddle meant! If we get back to the library, I have a book which I just know will give us a clue!”
Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a train of giraffe-bunnies, trampling over her in a mad rush to get somewhere.
“Good boy, Angel!” called grey-Fluttershy gleefully, “Mama’s so proud!”
Suddenly, the sun dropped below the horizon in an instant, to be just as quickly replaced by the night-time sky and the moon. The rapid transition of light to dark had left the five ponies effectively blind, forcing them to stumble about hopelessly in the darkness.
So much so, could they not see anything, they failed to notice a dark, red liquid boiling out of the ground around them. It was only when the red fluid was around their ankles, did they notice anything at all – but the sensation of a boiling liquid covering their flesh quickly changed their reaction to sheer agony.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHH!!” yelled Twilight in excruciating pain, hopping up and down on the tips of her hooves, “It burns!”
The burning sensation on her legs began to fade, as her body adjusted to the new temperature it found itself in. Bringing her forehoof up to her mouth, she licked the fluid, and her eyes widened.
“Discord’s turned our dirt roads into soup!” she cried, both surprised and delighted at the same time, “And it’s tomato soup at that!”
The aforementioned draconequus floated past her serenely, sipping steaming soup slowly from a silver spoon, as he drifted past.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Discord rhetorically, gesturing out over the town with his spoon, “This is the new and improved Ponyville, and these are only my first changes.”
Behind her, grey-Pinkie swam a casually-grumpy-backstroke through the soup-road, squirting a fountain of soup out of her mouth.
“This may look like fun, but it’s not!”
“Picture it,” continued Discord, appearing out of somewhere next to Twilight and picking her up, “The culinary chaos capital of the world!”
Once again, the sun dropped beneath the horizon, leaving them blind in darkness.
“I can’t picture anything. It’s too dark.” Twilight replied flatly.
“Well,” retorted the draconequus, dropping her back into the soup, “Wait a few minutes and you’ll see it in the beautiful light of day - or not.”
“You know,” began Twilight slyly, “I might be warming up to this whole chaos thing. With a mage as powerful as me, Pinkie’s culinary and reality-warping skills, and your chaos – we would be unstoppable…”
The draconequus paused, taking this bold statement into consideration.
“Deal!” exclaimed Discord enthusiastically.
Turning around, he snapped his claw, and turned grey-Pinkie back to normal-Pinkie – that is, if “normal” can be used to describe her.
Picking the two mares up in a tight hug, Discord announced gleefully,
“I think this might be the start of something wonderful!”
With a flash, they disappeared.
And so began a new era in Equestria’s history, one that would be remembered fondly for many years to come.
End.