//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Chaos and glitches don't mix well // Story: My Little Pony: The Glitch // by GlitchyError //------------------------------// In the last chapter, we left off with the mane 6 watching Discord running away from an entity no one has ever seen before. "THIS ISN'T RUNNING AWAY!" Discord burst through a wall made out of cheese wearing a football helmet, a knight's metal chest plate, and...a pink tutu? "It's called a strategic retreat!", He clarified as he deadpanned, "and if you're wondering why I'm dressed up like this, you can blame that glitching monstrosity." Suddenly his ears perked up as he gained a nervous look on his face, "Speaking of which, I got to go!" Discord then cowardly ran away- "STRATEGIC RETREAT!" Just as the entity crashed through the wall a moment later, however, it looked different from before. It is now bigger than last time and the color of its eyes change to neon orange. It let out a static and unclear noise as it turned to where Discord went before it sprinted after him. A few moments later 6 colorful talking ponies arrived, panting as they stopped to take a breather. "This is...getting us...nowhere…", Twilight Sparkle panted as she tried to regain her breath, being a unicorn,  she doesn't have much physical stamina to continue running. "Your right...we need...a better...plan.", Rarity agreed with her friend. Rainbow Dash dropped to the ground to give her wings a bit of time to relax," I still don't get it! How can those two be faster than me! It's impossible! And every time I do manage to catch up they start running again!" "Ah'm more surprised that Discord is running away from that thing. Isn't he supposed to be the Spirit of Chaos?", Applejack noted what everyone else was thinking as well. "Yes but we all saw that Discord's powers do not affect it it looked like it was absorbing his magic. Maybe that's why he is trying to escape.", Twilight pointed out as she recalled several moments when Discord would constantly try to stop the entity with little to no success. Rainbow Dash smirked, "Ha! That'll teach him not to mess with our world! About time he gets what he deserved!" "I wholeheartedly agree with you Darling," Rarity nodded her head before pointing out the obvious," but we still don't know what that thing is or if it's our ally." "Well...It seems t-to only be focused on D-discord...and we haven't seen it harm anypony.", Fluttershy stuttered. Applejack agreed with the yellow pegasus," That's true but we can't be too careful. We don't know much about the fella...other than the fact it can't be harmed by anything." Twilight let out a sigh as she tried to make sense of their situation, "This job of ours is getting harder and weirder by the minute...but I am sure once we turn Discord back into a statue we can deal with that thing and everything should settle down. As long as we are together, we can do this!" It was then that the girls noticed something...and that something is the lack of noise from their hyperactive pink friend. "Wait, where's Pinkie?!?!", Twilight and the others looked around desperately for any signs of Pinkie Pie," Where did she go?!?" A few seconds later Rainbow Dash spotted a familiar pink puffy tail peeking out from a corner of a building. "There she is! I found her!" The 5 ran over to their pink-colored friend as she stood still while she stared at something with her blue eyes. The first to arrive was Rainbow Dash, "Pinkie! What are you standing around here for? Come on, we still have to go find Discord and...that...thing…", Her words died in her throat when she turned to where Pinkie Pie was staring. The others arrived just in time to see their two friends staring off into the distance with their mouths wide open in shock. " What in tarnation?", Applejack asked out loud as Fluttershy walked up to the two.  "Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie?", Fluttershy tried to get their attention by waving her hoof in front of them, but failed," What's wrong?" Pinkie lifted a hoof and pointed in front of them, "That." Confused, the 4 ponies turned their heads in the direction she was pointing to. "Darling, what do you mean by...that…", Rarity's words trailed off as her eyes widened in shock and horror. Besides her Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack did the same thing when they finally saw it. Glitches. There were glitches everywhere. Constantly changing squares and rectangles covered everything in the vicinity. Entire buildings were twisted and scrambled into weird-looking abstracts. Once tall buildings now became small while the small ones grew into ginormous constructions. Even the once soap-made streets became a hideous combination of slime, ice, gold, and sponge. That wasn't the worst, however. "AAHH!!!" "WHAT'S HAPPENING!!!" "MY LEGS! MY LEGS ARE GONE!" The worse was the ponies that the glitches changed. None looked the same but all of them are equally strange looking. One pony was made out of cotton candy, a pegasus pony had their legs turned into wings, a unicorn pony's horn became twice as big as their head, and there was that cluster of limbs that is made up of different ponies. The mane 6 had their jaws dropped at the terrible sight. "What…how...but...what-", Twilight stuttered before she was interrupted by the ground shaking beneath her feet. Which was followed by the screams of a terrified Discord, who came running out of a house. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Discord looked smaller than earlier and appeared to have aged several decades. He even had small patches of glitches on his body that began to slowly change his physical appearance. Right now he looked normal, or as normal as Discord could be, but soon enough the changes would become clearer. Then the house he came out of was destroyed when something big crashed through it. By its glitch-covered body, it was clear that it was the entity, however, it looked different from before. Its once randomly colored glitches had all been bleached into a pure white color while its orange eyes turned to crimson. Not only that but it now has four large arms with each ending with a crab's claw, a dragon's tail, and two pairs of insect-like wings while its legs were replaced by 6 arachnid-like appendages.  "RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" It let out a static and glitchy roar before it chased Discord down the street. The ponies in their way immediately fled, not wanting to be run over or turned into something worse, while Twilight and the gang stood on the spot with their jaws hanging in the air. It took a full minute for them to recover from the shock. "Well...that answers our questions. That thing is not a friend.", Applejack said as she blinked. "I am gonna need a bigger cake…", Pinkie spoke after a few seconds of silence. The next one to come out of shock is Rainbow Dash," Forget about the cake! We need to stop that thing before it destroys Ponyville!" This caused the rest to snap out of their shock. "Your right. What are we waiting for? Let's go girls!"Twilight encouraged as she and her friends chased after the entity...well except for Fluttershy who stood as still as stone while Applejack carried her on her back. Thankfully because of its size it was relatively slow now compared to last time and the group finally caught up with it. The bad news is that it's now climbing to the top of a tall glitched-up tower that used to be the mayor's office building...with Discord in one of its claws. "You know, this wasn't what I expected this day to go, "Discord said to himself before he cringed and groaned when the entity tightened its claw. From the ponies' point of view, they could see grey-colored wisps coming out of Discord's body before they were absorbed into the entity,  causing it to grow bigger in size and its head to change from a humanoid skull to that of a bull. After its change, it had reached the top of the tower where it stood up and pounded its chest with its two extra limbs. "RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" The monstrosity let out a mighty roar just as a shockwave of glitches burst forth from it. The glitches washed over everything and everypony, changing them all into even more scrambled horrors...everypony except the bearers of the elements. Just as the wave was about to hit them the Elements of Harmony suddenly glowed before they projected a rainbow-colored dome that protected their bearers. Twilight and the gang were relieved by this, "Thank Celestia the Elements reacted the way they did.", The lavender-colored unicorn said in relief. "Yeah but what about the rest of Ponyville? We can't just stay here and let that thing run loose!", Applejack turned to stare at the monstrosity through the slightly transparent barrier. "We agree with you Applejack but we don't even know if the Elements will work on that thing!", Rarity added," What if it will absorb their magic as it did with Discord!" After she said that Twilight instantly perked up, "That's it! Rarity you're a genius!" Rarity blinked in confusion, "I am?" "I didn't notice it until now but those tiny things that the monster created have Discord's magic in them.", Twilight started carefully at a small patch of glitches that tried to break into the barrier, "If my theory is correct then if it does absorb the Element's magic-" She was about to explain until she was cut off by Pinkie Pie. "It will start to react to the chaos magic that's already inside the thing which will then cause the two energies within it to clash with each other and cancel them both! If we shoot enough of their magic at it then it will surely cause an explosion that will erase the entity and the chaos magic will then be destroyed! Resulting in everything going back to normal, us saving the day, and me throwing a 'Victory!' Party!" . . . Pinkie looked confused when her friends stared at her with their mouths wide open in shock, "What?" Rainbow shook her head, "So...we just blast it with the elements?" "Yeah that...that about sums it up.", Twilight nodded, still surprised by what Pinkie just said. "WELL THEN! What are we waiting for! Let's kick that thing's sorry butt!", Rainbow Dash proclaimed. "Um...I don't think it...even has a butt at this point.", Fluttershy pointed out. "You know what I mean!" The rainbow barrier around them lowered itself to reveal the mares wearing a determined look on their face as they looked to the entity that continued its rampage. "Alright girls, let's do this!", Twilight shouted before they charged forward. Meanwhile at the Library Spike tended to the place while the others were out to save Equestria from Discord, or that was what he was told. He still doesn't know about the giant glitching monstrosity rampaging outside. How you may ask? Well, it's because he was wearing some ear muffs as he cleaned up the Library. He was humming a tune in his head as he dusted the bookcases and put back some books that had fallen off their shelves. Heck, he didn't even notice the ground shaking because he was too deep into the song that he was humming. However, his ignorant bliss was shattered when he tripped over something, "Waah!" Spike's eyes widened as he saw the ground getting closer...but before his face met the floor he felt something grab his tail. "Huh?", He was confused when he was pulled back onto his feet and the grip on his tail let go. "Oh, thanks for that!", Spike said as he turned to whoever helped him but found himself face to face with something blue. "Your welcome." Spike stiffened as he slowly lifted his head to see a pair of ocean blue eyes staring at him curiously. "Hello!" THUD Spike's face planted onto the ground. "Um...was it something I said?" Jaune's POV  Knowledge is painful, especially if it's forced directly into your head. The good news is that I know where I am now and I gained other useful information. For example, Equestria's main population consists of ponies. Colorful four-legged talking herbivores are categorized into 4 types. Earth Ponies who are earthbound but are strong and have a good connection with the earth, Pegasus Ponies who have wings to fly while being able to manipulate weather, Unicorn Ponies who have horns and use magic. The last ones are the Alicorns, they are those who have all three traits and are the most powerful among the pony kind. In Fact, two of them could move the sun and moon, giving them control over day and night. I suddenly held my head in pain, "Ugh...I should learn to control my glitches before holding any books." When I had accidentally absorbed those extra books it felt like a train slammed into my head full speed. I blacked out for what felt like hours before I woke up and noticed that only a few minutes had passed. I also suddenly know how to cook pastries, make clothes, take care of several kinds of animals, set up a party, the basics of how to fly with wings, and several magic spells. I still haven’t caught a proper grasp of it all, and I don't think I'll be able to use a few of those but I feel like I am going to need those later on. For now tho I think I'll move the baby dragon somewhere more comfy. Gently, I picked up the small reptile before walking back to the living room where I set him down on the couch. I even gave him a small blanket I found earlier. “Right...what to do now?”, I found myself wondering,” A few of my questions are answered but I still have a lot more...maybe I should go outside and ask somepony.” With that thought in kind, I made my way to the door. Although I had to duck since it was so small but I was outside and despite it being so weird looking it was quite peaceful. “Huh...this place isn’t so bad.”  "RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" “...the heck?” I turned my head to the right and saw something big pounding its chest atop a tall building. However, what truly caught my attention was what the creature was made of. “Are those...glitches?”, I stared as it let out another ear-splitting roar before it unleashed a wave of glitches in every direction. I watched closely as the glitches changed anything they touched, from trees to buildings, he even saw a few scrambled ponies stumbling around in panic. Soon enough the glitch wave came closer and I instinctively crossed my arms in front of me as I brace for the impact. %#!@%@#!@#$ I waited and waited...however, I felt nothing. Curiously I opened my eyes to see what exactly happened. !@$%!%^*%^&^@# “Huh?”, My eyes could not have been wider when I saw that the foreign glitches were being absorbed into me. All those glitches that were heading in my direction were caught in some kind of vacuum as they all flew into my chest. However it didn’t hurt me, it kinda tickled actually. “Hehehe, okay this is weird...but it... feels good.”, I felt more energized as I unconsciously absorbed all the glitches in the vicinity. From the structures to the street, all patches of glitches were pulled into me and to my relief, everything these glitches messed up started to return to normal. It took a few minutes but every small bit of glitches was gone and this section of the small town looked normal again. The most thankful for this surprising turn of events are the ponies that were nearby. “My legs! Their back!” “I’m normal again!” “Thank Celestia!” I felt a smile grow on my face when I saw the ponies celebrate but that smile dropped slightly when they finally saw me. An awkward silence filled the air as I stared nervously at the curious and confused ponies who stared back at me. “Um...hello there!”, I awkwardly waved at them. I don’t know why but being the center of attention of a crowd made me very nervous. Fortunately, I didn’t have to endure that for long when a roar was heard and everyone's attention turned to the large glitchy monstrosity just as it let out another wave of glitches. Instantly the ponies screamed as they all tried to run away from it, not wanting to be changed again into something worse. I watched as the panicking stampede of ponies ran past me to safety but amongst the chaos, I saw a small pegasus filly trip and fall on the ground. They tried to stand back up but when they did it was already too late, the wave of glitches was mere moments away. The clear fear in their eyes, their helpless and frightened state caused something in me to snap. Little Filly's POV I don't know what is happening. Just this morning everything looked normal..until the clouds became cotton candy and it started to rain chocolate. At first, it was fun with me and my friends playing around, but then things started to get scary. This weird pony popped up in the air and started doing terrible things to everypony and everything. He turned the street into soap, made everypony do something weird for fun, he even took my wings away and replaced them with large leaves!  But if that wasn't worse this huge scary monster came out of nowhere and chased down the baddy. I thought it was helping us but then it grew bigger and meaner and started ruining the town! Those small white squares and rectangles started to spread and turned everything they touched into...weirder stuff! Even I was covered in them and my head turned into a chicken while my fur into the grass. I panicked and started running around asking for help but everypony had the same problem. I was scared, thinking that I'll be like this forever...but then something amazing happened. When another wave of those things headed our way I tried to run,  not wanting to become something worse. That was when those things stopped in the air for a second before they all flew in one direction. I couldn't see where they were going with so many of those things around but then I saw myself turning back to normal! Everypony and everything around us changed back as every last one of those things was sucked away. It was then that I saw where they all were headed. It was a tall hairless monkey that wore clothes that I've never seen before. What shocked me was that this new animal ate up those little squares and rectangles. When it was done I just stared at it. I didn't know who they were or what it was but I knew for sure that it had saved me and the other ponies. Speaking of other ponies they all seemed to finally notice it. We all just stood there and it did the same, but it looked nervous and shy. "Um...hello there!" It talked. It talked! I don't know how but it did and suddenly I felt excited cause I wanted to talk to it! But then that large monster roared again and another wave of those things started coming after us. Everypony ran away from them as fast as we could but from the corner of my eyes, I saw the thing just standing there. After that, I tripped and tried to get back up but when I looked back it was too late. I cried on the spot and closed my eyes as I just waited to be turned into something horrible again. "Help me!" @#&$+)@$##%(%&#! I didn't feel anything, I didn't feel those things washing over my body or myself starting to change. I had opened my eyes slowly to see what happened and it was at that moment I saw it. Standing in front of me, that strange animal stood on its hind legs and blocked those things from getting me. I watched with wide eyes as it stopped those things from going any further and started to eat them all up. It was...protecting me. When the thing was finished eating and there were no more of those flying white-shaped, it had turned around and looked at me. At first, I felt afraid, afraid that it was going to eat me next...but then I saw its eyes. They were kind, caring, and are the same color as the sky. I don't know why but I suddenly felt calm and safe when I'm near it. "You alright kid?", It asked me with a caring tone and from its voice, it was a he. "I-I am", I stuttered out as he smiled softly at me. "That's good to know." BOOM When that explosion hit my ears I turned to where it came from and saw that terrible monster landing on the ground. It shook the earth and I felt myself stumble but I managed to stand back up. I looked at the thing that protected me and saw him staring intensely at the monster. "Hey kid, can you walk?", He asked me before looking in my direction and I nodded my help. "Alright, I need you to go find someplace safe to hide, okay?", I nodded my head again just as he turned away and started walking over to the monster. "Wait!" He stopped and looked back at me again. "Where are you going?" "I'm gonna make sure that thing doesn't hurt anyone else!", He sent me a cheeky grin as he sprinted off towards the monster and before I knew it, I lost sight of him. I looked up towards the monster as it went on a rampage. Even with how scary it looked, that weird animal was still brave enough to try to stop it. "Good luck mister…" No ones POV Right now the glitching abomination is angry, very very angry. To vent its frustration it was pounding and smashing away at the rainbow-colored dome where its prey is hiding under. Within it are the main six and a very tiny Discord. "I'm just gonna say it out loud, I am not at fault for that thing!", The tiny and power drained Discord complained before he hid behind a rock when a crack appeared on the dome. "Twilight...ah don't think...we can keep...this thing up any...longer!", A tired and winded Applejack said. "I-I can think of something! I just...I just need more time.", Twilight wasn't faring any better as she struggled to come up with a plan while trying to help maintain the barrier. The other element bearers were in a similar tired state. They had tried to use the elements on the monster but it had somehow learned of its plan after one of its arms disintegrated. Now, whenever they tried to use the elements against it the monster would condense its glitches, preventing their magic from reaching the chaos magic it hid within its body. After many trials and errors, they had managed to get Discord away from it, preventing the monster from gaining more strength. However, because of it they now find themselves backed up into a corner. "Is this...is this the end?", Rarity said as she tried to stand up but ended up collapsing on the ground. "NO, IT'S NOT! We Can...We can still do this!", Rainbow urged her friend to not give up as she landed on the ground to recover. Fluttershy, surprisingly, still stood her ground and stayed strong, despite her legs shaking, "I can do this...I can do this…" CRACK! Another crack appeared after the monster smashed the same spot multiple times. It seemed to notice this and started to focus on the weakest spot of the barrier. Seconds later more cracks appeared as it continued its onslaught. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! "Dang it…", Twilight mumbled under her breath as the others slowly fell to exhaustion and despair. . . . "Wait…", Pinkie Pie's ears suddenly perked up when she heard a weird sound, "Does anypony else hear that?" The others turned to her with a confused look. Discord raised his brow at her, "Hear what?" "HEY UGLY! EAT THIS!" "Hragh?" The monster turned to the left, only to have a giant fireworks rocket slam into its gut. "OOF!" The main six and Discord watched with wide eyes as the rocket pushed the monster back a few yards before it exploded, sending it a few more yards away. Slowly they turned their heads to where the rocket came from and saw Jaune holding a giant lit match stick in his arms. Their eyes grew wider when they saw several of the other 3 giant firework rockets behind him, each pointed in the direction of the monster. "HOPE YOU STILL HUNGRY!", Jaune shouted just as the monster recovered and glared at him, to which Jaune glared back, "CAUSE THERE'S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" As the two glitches prepared for battle, their audience could only think of one thing. "...what's...what's happening here?"