//------------------------------// // Crumble // Story: Chaos Never Takes a Break // by FlashFoward //------------------------------// Discord was in his usual dream world, when isn’t he at this point. With dreaming and the mysterious doors powers to play with, there was more to do here then staring at other statues in the garden. There have been a few new editions to Discords dream land. One of which was statues of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. True, the statues didn’t actually have the real ponies encased inside. But there was an odd sense of comfort seeing them stuck in the same prison he was currently in. Discord walked over to Twilight’s statues and smirks at the sight of her terrified face. Her jaw was dropping and her eyes opened wide with terror. Fitting, that’s what was. Applejack was covering her face with her Stetson, Pinkie was stuck in mid laughter, Rarity glared daggers, Fluttershy’s face looked similar to Twilight’s and Rainbow’s face just oozed shock. Shame this little scene was to never become reality. A spark of anger shot through Discord’s veins. As nice as it was to have resided here, in the dream land that offered so much freedom, the fact of being trapped in here, to toy with one’s ideas, was boring. Similar to having a party, it’s pointless to have one person to attend rather than a few. There were no innocent real ponies to prank here and relish at their misfortune. Watching the overturned houses fly by felt pointless and empty now. Being alone was not fun. This would have been the rare few times Discord would’ve considered sitting down and being nagged at by Celestia. Just to see the look of how unhappy or distressed she was to see his face would have been worth it. Discord turned his back from the Element’s and walked past his dreamland to the familiar plunging darkness. How could have the presence of the door be forgotten? It offered some of the most fun to him, which was something due to how the dream world was not limited to his chaotic ways. It had been a few days since Discord had last come to the door looking for something to do. The last visit was to Rarity paled in comparison to some of the freakish things he had done to the likes of Snails. Speaking of the foolish colt, Discord was now able to waltz around in his dreams in the day time. Poor soul was so paranoid; Snails had a hard time telling reality from dreams. More than once, his teacher yelled at him to stay focused. Whenever she did so, Discord would walk up to her and inflate her head like a balloon to the point of explosion. Snails would always pass out at the sight of this. Of course, Snails mental state did not go unnoticed. Many of his classmates were paranoid about Discord’s existence now. Was he really in stone? Was Snails just losing his marbles? That last part always got Snails all worked up. If Discord would’ve known that the young colts mind was not made to pull the strain he had put it through, putting him through the nightmare wouldn’t have happened. It’s hard enough to go around being discreet, just add to the pressure of his blabbering about Discord and things were getting really hard. The familiar black sinister door had made its appearance. It still looked intimidating as ever. Who would be the next poor soul to suffer from a sleepless night? How about honest Applejack? She might be strong, but behind that she was just as vulnerable as anypony else. Family and friends mattered to her most and those were things that can be easily corrupted. After all, madness just needs a little push. Like gravity. With one paw on the doorknob, a smirk ran across Discord’s face. Applejack won’t know what hit her. Feeling the metal morph in his palm, Discord swung the door open to see what was waiting for him. Lots of tall and bountiful apple trees were present. These weren’t normal apple trees, the apples were much larger and looked much juicer. Wanting to know if they were as good as they looked, Discord grabbed an apple and took a large bite out of it. Indeed, the sweet juices gushed into his mouth. Darn thing was pretty delicious. After grabbing a few more apples to eat, it was time to get to work. A soft whistling tune filled the air and Discord figured he wasn’t on his own here. Taking the form of one of apples rom earlier, blending in with the apples on the trees was child’s play. Applejack came skipping through his field of vision. Discord focused his magic on Applejack’s whistling and made her choke a little. Applejack coughed for a while and continued through the field. Not one to let his prey get away, Discord changed back to his normal form and landed softly on the ground. He grabbed one of the apples from a random tree and hurled it at her head. His aim was true the apple landed right at the back of her head, actually knocking off her Stetson hat. Applejack’s face was one of pure rage as she noticed Discord’s presence. The intensity in the air was thick you could cut it with a butter knife, which Discord happily did. “How did you get here?” Applejack demanded. “That’s for me to know and for you to find out, my dear.” Discord crooned, taking flight to avoid her trying to buck him. Applejack pulled a lasso from thin air and caught Discord’s goat leg. The look of triumph on AJ’s face soon vanished once Discord removed his captured leg entirely. Another leg replaced his old one immediately after a puff of smoke. “Here, you can have it.” Discord yelled as he threw his goat leg back at AJ. Still stunned by his trick, AJ got hit over the head with the leg. Once it did bounce off her though, it blew up in a burst of smoke. Seeing as that Applejack was being preoccupied with the smoke, Discord turned his attention to his surroundings. Plenty of trees around and what looked like a farm was not that far off. An evil idea crops at the corner of his mind. With a casual snap of his talons, the trees around Applejack died and shriveled up. The apples were reduced to ash. Applejack had finally found her way through the smoke. “What did you do?” She looked mortified at the condition of the trees. “This does look ugly now. Ah, I have the perfect idea.” With that being said, Discord clicked his talons again and the withering trees burst into flames. “Someponies just want to watch the world burn.” Applejack looked terrified at the presence of the flames. She didn’t know that the flames would only burn the trees and nothing else. Discord started to glide over to the farm. It was the only place now that hadn’t combusted into flames. A loud galloping sound could be heard as Applejack chased after Discord. Why was she so fussed over him going over to the farm? Maybe it held some sentimental value to her? Discord landed on the roof of the farm. After another casual snap of his talons, the farm was now painted polka dot. An old mare came trotting outside, from within the farm, and started yelling. “Whose bright idea was it to paint the place polka dot?” “Mine, of course.” Discord whispered in the old mare’s ear after poking his head over her shoulder. “Get away from Granny, Discord!” Applejack threatened as she finally made it to the farm. “What? I didn’t do anything.” Discord muttered, poking Granny’s head with the tip of his talon. Concrete started to encase Granny from where Discord’s talon was. Soon, Granny Smith was in statue form. Her jaw was slightly slack and her eyes were wide open. She looked more surprised than anything. “Turn her back to normal!” AJ demanded. Discord scratched at his goat beard and faked a look of deep concentration before answering. “Nah.” Before Applejack could even charge at Discord, he trapped her in a cage. With all her might, she bucked multiple times at the bars. Since rubber is what made up the bars, it would only stretch out once bucked. After many failed attempts at bucking her way to freedom, Applejack collapsed to the ground. “I think the rest of your family should come on out.” Discord muttered, poking at one side of the farm as he spoke. The large building collapsed and only a large red stallion with a small filly on his back was left standing amongst the wreckage. Applejack had been yelling frantically and Discord magically zipped her mouth shut. “Are you related to Applejack?” Discord asked casually to the red stallion. “Eyup.” The stallion replied in a simple deep voice. “My name is Applebloom and this here is my brother, Big Mac.” The young filly interjected. “I thought you looked familiar.” Discord muttered, recalling Applebloom arguing with two other fillies about him a while back. Once poking their heads with his talon, Big Mac and Applebloom were both encased in stone. Applejack began thrashing about in her cage and Discord rolled his eyes at her. He magically attached a large weight to her and she was planted still. With an approving nod at his handy work, Discord began juggling his three new statues. Muffled yells were erupting from Applejack’s muffled mouth. “I can’t hear you over the sound of melting trees!” Discord called out, stopping at the middle of juggling show. Applebloom’s statue lingered in the air and nearly crashed to the ground before Discord caught it with his tail. Applejack sighed in relief but began thrashing around in her cage once the three statues were crushed into a fine dust. Tears started to run down AJ’s face and Discord had all her restraints disappear. “Please, Discord, stop. I’ll do anything. Just turn everything back to normal.” Applejack pleaded in between sobs. “Set me free and then we’ll talk.” Discord replied bitterly. “Okay fine! Just give my family back.” Applejack bawled. The crumbled pieces of the three statues started to reform into the shapes of Big Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith. With one last snap of his talons, the farm rebuilt itself and the fields grew apple trees at a rapid rate. “Now is time to collect my payment.” Discord whispered in Applejack’s ear. He poked at her forehead and an odd sensation flowed through Applejack’s body. “Better wake up, tomorrow should be an interesting day for you.” Discord’s loud maniacal laughter rang in her ears as Applejack woke up. No pony else was in her room. Applejack punched her pillow a few times, trying to make it more comfortable for her head. Sadly, sleep was just not going to happen. Every little creak of the wood floors startled Applejack awake. After letting out a sigh of frustration, Applejack decided it was best to work on the fields early today.