//------------------------------// // A Big Ol' Storm of Chaos // Story: Through The Crack // by grimchi3f //------------------------------// Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 3: A Big Ol' Storm of Chaos With a flash of light, Discord and Princess Celestia materialized in the center of Ponyville. They were surrounded by destroyed houses from when Eggman had fired his missiles. In the distance, fire still blazed on a couple of houses; this was where most of the ponies had went. The part of town Discord and Celestia were in was almost completely deserted, save the lone mint green unicorn crying over the broken corpse of her one true love. "Oh no," whispered Celestia, tears forming in her eyes. "What happened?" "Isn't it obvious?" asked Discord quietly. "This was all Eggman's doing." This quiet conversation caused the unicorn's head to perk up. "Who's there?" asked the unicorn. Before Celestia could say anything, Discord said, "Someone who understands how cruel fate can be." The unicorn turned around slowly. When her eyes fell upon Discord and the Princess, she gasped. "P-princess and--" "Discord," said the draconequis, leaning forward and taking the unicorn's hoof, "the god of chaos. Nice to finally meet you Lyra." "H-how do y-you know my name?" Lyra questioned, glancing from the Princess to the serpent. "Oh Lyra, I know all about you," Discord answered, smiling. "Still obsessing over humans?" A dark look passed over the unicorn's face. "Not anymore," she said coldly. "If the one who came through here is anything to judge them by, they mus all be a bunch of monsters." She looked down at Bon-Bon's body, tears forming once again in her eyes. "I can't believe she's actually d-dead!" She burst into tears upon completing her sentence. While Discord began laughing, Celestia looked on in sadness. "You poor thing." "Alrighty then," said Discord, recovering, "I think it's time you leave, Miss Heartstrings. And take your dead friend with you; she's lying on the perfect spot for my throne." Without complaint, Lyra lifted her lover delicately off the ground with magic and began walking away. Once she was out of sight, Discord flew to the spot where Bon-Bon had been, keeping Celestia's horn tightly in his grip and dragging her across the ground. With a snap of his fingers, the blood that had been on the ground disappeared. "Now for the fun part," Discord said, glancing down at Celestia evilly. "This going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." "What do you me-AAAAHHHHHHH!" the Princess screamed as Discord tightened his grip on her horn and began dragging magical power out of her, letting it coalesce into the palm of his free hand as a dark red orb that was slowly growing in size. "Heheheheh," Discord chuckled sinisterly, relishing in Celestia's pain. He could only imagine the agony that she must be feeling. And he enjoyed every second of it. Sadly though, like all good things, this had to come to an end. With a sigh, he stemmed the flow of magic. As Celestia's knees buckled, Discord examined the red orb of magical energy in his hand. It was about a foot in diameter. That was good; it was big enough to achieve what he planned to do. Celestia looked up at the orb. "Wha-what are you going to... to do with that?" she asked weakly in between breathes. The draconequis sneered down at the alabaster alicorn. "Create my perfect world." With that, Discord slammed the crimson orb into the ground, plunging it deep into the dirt and then letting it go. The ground shuddered once, then twice. In a split second, the sky went from light blue to blood red and the area around where Discord had plunged the orb began cracking. Out of the cracks, a red shockwave exploded outward, enveloping all of Equestria and plunging it into a state of chaotic limbo. Buildings were being ripped up out of the ground and turning upside down; pink cotton candy clouds began appearing throughout Equestria, soaking it in a mixture of chocolate milk and cola. Everything changed into something that didn't make sense, something more chaotic. Cycles were reversed and Equestria became isolated from the outside world. Then, after a final flash of scarlet light, the cracks on the ground mended and out of the ground rose Discord's ornate stone throne. "My dear Celestia," said Discord, bringing the Princess up to his level by her horn and gesturing to the world around them, "welcome to Chaostria." ------- The Doctor galloped into the TARDIS at full speed, kicking the door closed behind him. Despite all the pressure on him to travel to Sonic's universe and get the Chaos Emeralds, the Doctor felt more alive than he had in ages. He hadn't run like that since... since that incident with the waters of Mars and Captain Adelaide Brook. "No!" exclaimed the Doctor, shaking his head. "I mustn't think about that. I've got more important things to worry about right now!" Rushing to the control panel, the Doctor examined it and tried to think up a solution to getting to Sonic's world. After a few seconds, he had an idea. "Let's say that my universe is in the middle," the Doctor said to himself, pacing around the control panel, "and that the other two are on either side of it. If I take the coordinates for the pony universe and use the exact opposites, with the coordinates of my universe directly between those two sets of coordinates, then I should get to Sonic's universe! Brilliant!" Suddenly, the TARDIS shook once, then twice before becoming still again. "What was that?" the Doctor asked, turning to face the door. He stood there, staring at the door, trying to decide if he should take a look outside to see what had happened or to forget it and go and get the Chaos Emeralds. Finally, his sense of duty overwhelmed his overbearing curiosity. "Whatever just happened there probably can only be fixed by the Chaos Emeralds. I need to get going, I've wasted enough time as it is!" With that, the Doctor began traveling around the control panel and fiddling with it, getting the coordinates exactly right. Once they were, he walked up to the final T-shaped lever. He put is hoof on it. "Here goes nothing," he said, pulling the lever down. Then, with a smile, he added, "Allons-y!" ------- "What!?"Sonic and Tails exclaimed simultaneously, their jaws dropping. Eggman nodded and slipped his glasses into his pocket. "I would like to apologize for everything I've done here and back home." This was beyond weird to Sonic. Could Eggman really be apologizing? And... did he actually just take off his glasses!? Not once, in all the years they'd been fighting each other, had Eggman taken off his glasses in Sonic's presence. For the first time ever, Sonic could see Eggman's actual eyes; they were a brilliant blue, the same color as Sonic. "How do we know this isn't another trick?" asked Tails, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "We haven't forgotten the Interstellar Amusement Park." "I didn't thinks so," Eggman chuckled. "Here, let me expl--" The fat scientist was interrupted by a sudden earthquake which was followed instantly by another equally powerful earthquake. "What was that?" asked Eggman, looking past Sonic and Tails to the outside of the library. "Look!" they heard Twilight shout from behind them. Both Sonic and Tails turned around. Twilight and the other five ponies were standing next to the destroyed entrance, staring out into the outside world. What was currently happening outside was extremely unnerving. The sky had turned blood red and most of the houses in Ponyville had been turned upside down-- literally! In the sky, there were tons of pink clouds pouring brown rain and, on the ground, were what appeared to be buffalo dressed as ballerinas... doing ballet. Alongside the buffalo, were a multitude of different woodland creatures with extremely long and skinny horse legs. Sonic let out a low whistle. "That Discord guy wasn't lying when he said he had chaos to wreak. This is the most chaotic thing I've ever seen!" "Well, I don't know about you guys," began Pinkie Pie, preparing to go outside, "but I think I'm going to get a taste of that delicious chocolate ra--" "No, Pinkie," said Twilight, holding the pink pony still with magic. "We have to stay here and wait for the Doctor to get back with the Chaos Emeralds." "Aaawww, you're no fun!" "You know," started Rainbow Dash, looking up at the sky, "I don't remember the sky being red the last time Discord was released." "Hey, you're right!" Twilight replied. "Yeah, the Doctor didn't say anything about red skies either," said Eggman. "Then again, he only told me about the pink clouds and the chocolate rain so I had no idea about the buffalo or the upside down houses. "Hey, weren't you supposed to be apologizing?" Tails asked, turning to face Eggman. "Yes, I am," Eggman answered as Sonic and the 6 ponies also turned to face him. "But first I have to explain why I am so that you won't be so suspicious." Sonic nodded. "Makes sense," he said, crossing his arms. "Oh, and nice eyes by the way. Very nice shade of blue." Eggman couldn't help but smile. "Thank you." Then, after clearing his throat, he began, "It all started shortly after you and your younger self defeated me..." And so he went on to explain the changes he'd been going through. He explained that he'd only tricked the Doctor because he thought that the Doctor wouldn't believe he was changing and leave him in the void. Eggman also explained the difficult decision he had faced in front of Discord's statue and what his final decision had been. He explained nearly everything that had been going through his head until the moment he saw Sonic's boom. "You really must have changed," said Tails. "You deciding not to willingly unleash a divine beast upon the world is most definitely out of character for you." "Yes, well, whatever changes I made were utterly worthless once I saw Sonic's, uh... rainboom," Eggman replied. "What, do you have something against sonic rainbooms?" asked Rainbow Dash defensively. "No," answered Eggman, shaking his head, "but seeing Sonic in Equestria angered me immensely. Why did the one person who I hate above all others have to be here? Seeing Sonic brought all the horrible memories into my head; all the pain and suffering I've been feeling throughout the years was forced into focus. All my changes were reversed and my main goal was, once again, evil." "But all that pain and suffering you felt, according to what Sonic and Tails told me, you brought all that upon yourself," Twilight pointed out. "Sonic wouldn't have had to stop you if you hadn't done the evil stuff in the first place." "Right you are," said Eggman, nodding. "Before, when Discord was here, I saw what my actions can cause even when I don't mean for them to. Seeing that caused me to look back at all my past deeds and, in doing so, I truly realized what a monster I've been. In that instant, my hate for Sonic vanished and was replaced by a hate for myself." He looked Sonic dead in the eyes. " I'm sorry Sonic, for everything I've done to you and our world. It was evil and wrong and, for the rest of my life, I pledge to do the right thing and make the world a better place. I don't expect you to forgive me so easily, as the stuff I've done is absolutely horrid, but I hope that, in time, you do end up forgiving me." Sonic, who had been silent during the entire conversation so far, walked up to Eggman, held out his hand, and said, "Welcome to the good guys, Ivo." As Ivo smiled and shook Sonic's hand, there was a cacophony of protests from the other seven people in the room. "You're going to forgive him, just like that?" asked Tails. "After all he's done?" "Who's Ivo?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "I thought his name was Eggman." "I really think you should reconsider this, Sonic," Rarity said. The complaints continued until Sonic couldn't take it anymore. "SHUT UP!" the hedgehog shouted. Just like that, everyone shut up. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. Sonic facepalmed. "Yes, Rainbow Dash?" "Why'd you call him Ivo? You said his name was Eggman," replied the pegasus, lowering her hoof. Just as Sonic was about to answer, Ivo put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me explain," the scientist began. "My actual name is Ivo Robotnik. A few years ago, Sonic and his friends started calling me 'Eggman' as an insult and it kind of stuck." "His name isn't the problem here," interjected Tails, looking at Sonic. "Sonic, how can you forgive him so easily? Did you forget all the things he's done? Even he didn't expect you to forgive him that easily. This could still be some elaborate ploy." "But it isn't," Sonic replied, shaking his head. "I can tell. Not once, in all the years I've known him, has he actively apologized or explained himself in so much detail. This time it's genuine. And come on, he took off his glasses! He's never done that!" He glanced up at Ivo and added, "Of course, despite the awesome shade of blue, you might want to put those glasses back on. Seeing your eyes is starting to creep me out." Ivo laughed. "As you wish," he said, taking the glasses out of his pocket and putting them on. Tails glanced from Ivo to Sonic and back again. "I don't know Sonic. This still seems pretty suspicious." "Here, let's ask Applejack," said Sonic, turning towards the orange pony. "You're the Element of Honesty, right? Well, do you think Eggm-- Ivo here has genuinely changed?" Applejack gazed intently at Ivo for a couple seconds before saying, "Ah reckon... ah reckon he's genuinely changed. He's no longer evil." "Well, if Applejack says it's true, then it must be true," said Pinkie Pie. "But that means we have to throw Ivo an I-Was-Evil-But-I've-Just-Turned-Good-And-Now-I-Pledge-To-Make-The-World-A-Better-Place party! I need to go get the party supplies from Sugarcube Corner. See ya!" "No Pinkie!" Twilight shouted, using magic to stop Pinkie from doing just that. "We have to wait here for the Doctor to get back." "Anyway," Tails said, putting the conversation back on track, "I guess that if both Sonic and the Element of Honesty think you have changed, then it has to be true." He walked up to Ivo and held out his hand, just like Sonic had before. "I'm sorry for doubting you so much." Ivo chuckled and smiled down at the young fox. "It's quite all right," replied the scientist, shaking Tails' hand. "I understand." In the following minutes, the six ponies followed suit and shook their hooves with Ivo. "Your eyes really are a brilliant shade of blue," Rarity complimented when it was her turn. "Despite all that evil stuff you've done, you seem like a pretty cool gut," said Rainbow Dash on her turn. "I still don't like what you did to your world's woodland creatures," Fluttershy said, glaring up at Ivo as she shook his hand. "When this is all over, I'm going to throw the bestest party ever!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie once her turn arrived. "Welcome to the good side Ivo," said Applejack, vigorously shaking his hand. "It's nice tuh properly make yer acquaintance!" When it was her turn, Twilight said, "It's good to know that even the worst of us can change their ways." During these proceedings, Sonic couldn't help but smile at the surrealism of it all. Eggman turning good? For real this time? Shaking hands with magical talking ponies? Seeing all this made Sonic wonder what would happen once they got home. Since Eggman had changed, what would he, Sonic, do? Without the almost constant thwarting of Eggman's schemes, things would get boring pretty fast. Of course, if that was the price to pay to have Eggman become good, then it was most definitely worth it. "All right, now that we got that out of the way," Sonic began, rubbing his hands together, "we should probably--" The blue hedgehog was interrupted by a loud snore that came form the purple creature on the floor by Ivo's feet. The snore was immediately followed by the small purple creature grumbling, "Of course you can kiss me Rarity, I don't mind at all." Everyone turned to look at Rarity who's face had turned bright crimson. "M-maybe we should, um, bring Spike to his, uh, bed?" she asked in a shaky voice. "Yeah, probably," Twilight giggled as she and Rarity walked up the stairs to the bedroom, levitating the sleeping dragon close behind and leaving four hysterically laughing ponies and Ivo, Sonic, and Tails utterly confused. ------- The sounds of small explosions filled the air as the Doctor held on the the railing inside his TARDIS for dear life. The control panel in the center of the room was sparking and exploding. Cords and wires were hanging form the ceiling, sparking with electricity. The TARDIS itself was shaking uncontrollably. Of course, the Doctor knew why this was happening as the first few times he tried traveling to the pony universe the same thing had happened, but that didn't make the Doctor any less worried. Now, to make matters worse, the Doctor could feel a familiar bubbly sensation in his chest that was slowly spreading outward into his limbs. He'd felt this sensation a couple of times before and it meant only one thing: his body was changing form. As the bubbly sensations spread into his head, the last things the Doctor's mind registered before losing consciousness was that the shaking had stopped and the explosions had ceased. The noise filling the air now was that of a very familiar grinding noise. "It actually worked," whispered the Doctor as he dropped from the railing and lost all consciousness. "I can't believe it actually worked..." ------- Knuckles was annoyed. No, he was much more than annoyed; he was down right pissed. "What's the point of throwing someone a birthday party if that someone leaves before the party can really begin!?" the red echidna screamed at nothing in particular. "And without telling anyone!" Knuckles was currently walking through one of the jungles on his home, Angel Island, trying to get back to the Master Emerald's shrine. In his right hand he held a burlap sack, containing the seven Chaos Emeralds which Sonic had just left lying around in the park. Sonic's birthday party had been a total disaster. First, Eggman shows up with his Time Eater machine and sucked them into a black void of nothingness. Then, once that was over, Sonic left without telling anyone where he was going. In fact, no one had even seen Sonic leave! Knuckles sighed. Even Tails, the one who had planned the party in the first place, had left without telling anyone. Sometimes he wondered why he was even friends with those two at all. Maybe, said a voice in his head, your friends with them because you get lonely after guarding the Master Emerald alone for so long. "Ergh, SHUT UP!" shouted Knuckles, punching the nearest palm tree with his free hand, causing the tree to shake and emit a 'thwong' sound. As the red echidna began walking away, he noticed that the 'thwong' sound wasn't going away. In fact, it was actually getting louder. And, to top it all off, there seemed to be a sort of grinding noise that was also increasing in volume. Knuckles turned around to see just what the heck was going on. Next to the shaking tree, becoming more visible with each passing second, was what appeared to be a blue police box. He knew what a police box was mostly because he'd seen a few in Station Square. But... what was a police box doing on his island? The sight of it caused Knuckles to drop the sack holding the Chaos Emeralds. There was a sudden cracking noise as the roots to the palm tree snapped. However, Knuckles was too transfixed by the now completely visible police box to notice as the palm tree, now at gravity's whim, fell onto Knuckles' head, knocking him out cold. ------- Upon coming back to consciousness, the Doctor opened his eyes slowly and stood up. He had a bit of trouble standing up as he now had two legs instead of four. Since he'd been in the pony universe for so long, he'd gotten used to walking on four legs. Finding out that he now had two legs caused the Doctor to look down at himself and see what the rest of his body looked like, afraid that something had gone wrong. What he saw, however, relieved his fears immediately. He had the same two legs, two arms, and, once he checked, two hearts. Over those appendages, he wore his favorite brown suit with magenta tie. Everything seemed in order. Even the Converse sneakers were right. After walking a couple of feet towards the door, he stopped. "Wait a moment, I've forgotten something," the Doctor said. After a few moments of thinking, he had it. "My face! I've forgotten to check my face!" He immediately began feeling his entire face, putting his fingers into every nook and cranny he could find. Once again, everything seemed in order; same unkempt and spiky hair, same scratchy chin, same snot filled nostrils... it was good to be back in this form. He'd missed it. After walking another couple of feet towards the door, the Doctor quickly turned around and walked back to the control panel where he pressed a button and watched as his sonic screwdriver, a thin, cylindrical contraption with a blue tip, rose up out of the panel. Once it had risen up to its full height, the Doctor plucked the screwdriver up from its pedestal and put it in his pocket. "I can't believer I almost forgot my sonic screwdriver!" exclaimed the Doctor who was once again walking towards the door. "Well, then again, I haven't really used it much since I came to the pony universe as I can't really use it very effectively with as a pony." Upon reaching the door, the Doctor opened it and poked his head out to check his surroundings. The TARDIS seemed to have landed in a jungle of some sort and, judging by the position of the sun, it was about 2 PM. On the ground in front of the TARDIS was a fallen palm tree and, under the leafy end, some sort of unconscious red anthropomorphic creature that looked vaguely like Sonic. "Knuckles the Echidna!" the Doctor shouted enthusiastically. "Isn't that just the darndest... hold on a second, something's not right here." The Doctor looked from the fallen tree to the unconscious Knuckles and finally to his TARDIS. "Woops." Over on the ground beside Knuckles was, completely untouched by the tree, was a large burlap sack. The Doctor, being careful to step over the tree and Knuckles, went to investigate. After grabbing the bag and opening it, he found that contents of the bag were the very things he'd come here for: the Chaos Emeralds. Despite his relief at finding them, he couldn't help but feel a twang of disappointment. The Doctor had wanted to stay in this form just a tiny bit longer. The one time he wanted a little bit more challenge, the stuff he wanted was presented to him on a silver platter. Then again, why didn't this happen more often? He wished it would've been this easy and uncomplicated the last time he'd faced Davros and the Daleks. If it had been, Donna would still be with him and he'd never have had to run away from his death which would've meant that none of this would be happening... After closing the bag, the Doctor took it and rushed back into the TARDIS, snapping his fingers to shut the door. He put the brown sack on the floor next to the control panel and immediately began putting in the coordinates for the pony universe. Once the coordinates were in, the Doctor put a hand on the final T-shaped lever and pulled. "Allons-y!" he shouted, grabbing the nearest railing and mentally preparing himself for the treacherous ride back to Equestria. ------- The mighty draconequis, Discord, sat upon his throne and surveyed the new and improved chaos capitol of the world, Ponyville. Seeing all the delightful chaos made Discord extremely happy. Looking to his right, he saw Celestia chained to his throne, absolutely miserable, which made him happier still. "Oh Celestia, doesn't all this chaos make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?" asked Discord jubilantly, gesturing to everything around them. "No, no it doesn't," the Princess replied, glaring up at the serpent. "Seeing my subjects submitted to this horror doesn't make me feel good at all." "Horrors?" the draconequis retorted, rolling his eyes. "You always were overly dramatic. You should lighten up; have some fun! You might as well, seeing as all this isn't going anywhere anytime soon and neither am I." "But why, Discord, why?" Celestia questioned. "Why are you doing this? Why be a monster when you can be so much more?" "Don't play dumb with me Celestia, you know perfectly well why!" shouted Discord, his tone suddenly becoming icy. "Unless you've forgotten?" "But that was so long ago, surely you still can't be angry about that?" "Au contraire, Celestia," growled Discord, "I am still mad about that. You were the only person I ever loved. I thought you'd be able to see past my mismatched exterior and find my heart of gold inside, but no, in your vanity, you turned me away. You thought me a monster so that's what I became." "Okay, I agree that that was stupid and vain of me but--" "But nothing, Celestia. If you think the decision you made all those years ago was stupid and vain then why not be with me now?" asked Discord, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I promise I'll stop all this right now and be a good little draconequis from here on out." "I-I can't," Celestia admitted, looking shamefully down at the ground. The hope that had jut been in Discord's eyes was instantly replaced with fury. "And why not?" "Because... because I'm in love with somepony else," answered the Princess, looking up into the serpent's eyes. This caught the dracnoequis's interest. Celestia was in love with someone? Who was it? "And who might this 'somepony' be, exactly?" asked Discord, staring right back into Celestia's eyes. "You can tell me because I won't tell anyone. I, unlike you, don't enjoy crushing people's love lives." Afraid that, if she didn't tell him, things would get worse, the Princess decided to tell him. "It's... it's..." "Yes, yes?" Discord questioned, leaning forward in anticipation. "... it's Twilight Sparkle."