//------------------------------// // The beginning of the problem // Story: Friendship is absolute chaos: Part 2 // by Aether Spark //------------------------------// In a blaze of light, the top of the grassy hill suddenly became far less empty as a mismatched pair of creatures stepped out of the shimmering portal.  Discord gave a rather disinterested yawn as he looked around, but Spike put down his huge bag of gems for just a minute to stretch and wriggle his toes in the grass. Afterwards he picked up his gems and followed Discord as the two walked toward Ponyville. “Whew, it’s good to be back,” Spike said happily.  “Yes, now I can watch Twilight fret over how much weight you’ve gained.” Discord chuckled. “I couldn’t help myself! There were so many good flavors I've never tried.” Spike complained as they approached the crest that led to Ponyville, not noticing the darkened skies or bizarre happenings around them. “Well perhaps a few weeks of working at Sweet Apple Acres can help… you… recover.” Discord trailed off as he saw the state Ponyville was in. “What?” Spike said before spotting the town and jumping in surprise “SWEET CELESTIA!” The town was completely unrecognizable, Discord would have cheered knowing he'd won if he wasn’t so filled with dread as to what the implications of what he’s witnessing meant. “Twilight, girls… what have you done?” Discord said. ----A week earlier--- An eye poked out of the castle doors and glanced about, making sure nopony was around. “The coast looks clear…” Twilight's voice came out before she stepped away from the door and took a deep breath. “Ok, focus Twilight. You're not going to submit to the chaos. You got this,” Twilight said, trying Cadance’s breathing technique. “No matter how tempting it is?” The annoying voice rang out in Twilight's head. “Quiet you!” Twilight whispered harshly at the voice before exiting her castle and trotting through the streets. “Maintaining disguise so far,” Twilight whispered to herself. Twilight made it to Quills and Sofas without any more distractions.  Normally, she would have sent Spike on the errand, but he was in another dimension with Discord... It was odd that she felt comfortable with that, but things had changed so much. As for Starlight, she was already running an errand by going to collect paint to cover up what happened in the bathroom. Take a note reader: when you have chaos magic, don’t fart in the shower... Trust me. Twilight went into the store but immediately felt some dust from a cleaning pony’s sweeping tickle her nose. “Oh come on!” Twilight cried running out of the building, leaving a confused pony in her wake as she looked for a secure spot and sneezed. The alleyway walls she was facing were covered in caramel and sprinkles while the ground was covered in pickles and whip cream. “Not again…” Twilight sighed when she heard a teleport noise next to her. “HI TWILIGHT!” Pinkie squeed, startling Twilight as Pinkie looked to the alleyway with sparkles in her eyes “I was just going to say my chaos sense was tingling and detected something yummy was occurring next to quills and sofas, fun fact I had a dream like this once except there were chocolate bunnies everywhere too!” Pinkie jabbered, leaping into the candy-filled alleyway. “Wait, chaos sense?” Twilight said incredulously “YEP, it’s my Pinkie sense enhanced by chaos magic. It’s so much stronger now!” Pinkie cheered rolling around in the whip cream and pickles. “I… see” Twilight sighed, luckily passerby ponies saw this and just shrugged it off as another one of Pinkie’s shenanigans...  Sometimes it pays to have a friend who’s publicly accepted as crazy. After buying the quills, Twilight headed back to her castle, but when she passed by Carousel Boutique she heard crashing sounds. Naturally Twilight doesn’t pry but she couldn’t help her curiosity and peeked in through a window. Rarity was swimming around her house which has become filled with cranberry juice, turning all of her dresses red and ruining them.  “Oooh boy…” Twilight said as she trotted over to the door and opened it causing a waterfall of cranberry juice to pour out of the building along with Rarity who was now red with juice. “Thanks, darling….” Rarity mumbled “What happened?” Twilight asked  “I was going to pour myself a glass of cranberry juice when I found out that I was out, I simply thought about getting more cranberry juice when the entire boutique suddenly flooded with the stuff.” Rarity said clearly upset. “Remember what the book said about thinking.” Twilight instructed “Think carefully or disaster strikes, I know” Rarity rolled her eyes and trotted back to her establishment. “Do you need any help?” Twilight asked “No no, a simple reversal should do the trick.” Rarity said trotting into her house…… a few minutes later the house shook and milk and cookies started shooting out of every window. Rarity poked her head out the front door.  “On second thought dearie, help would be very much appreciated.” Rarity nervously said. --- After that little fiasco Twilight was back in her castle. “Whew… glad that trip is ov-” Twilight faceplanted into the side of a cow before falling down. “What the?” Twilight looked around and saw farm animals all over the place. “Applejack…” Not two seconds after thinking that did she hear a knock on her door. Upon opening it she saw a sheepish-looking Applejack. “Um, hi there Twi, gonna need mah families barn animals back.” Applejack said looking embarrassed. “Let me guess, you couldn’t get them to move along fast enough so you thought about if they could just end up somewhere safe from harm?” Twilight said  “Eeyup… So how’s it going so far with you?” Applejack asked as she started to line up the animals. “I simply went to get quills and already a quarter of the town is experiencing chaos outbreaks.” Twilight sighed, helping Applejack herd her barn animals out of the castle. “Ah don’t get how Discord expects us to understand chaos magic right out the gate,” Applejack said while picking up a chicken that ran underneath a table. “He could have given us a while to prep”  “Agreed but that would involve him playing fair,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. After yet another fiasco Applejack left with her herd of animals. “The day just started and I’m already tired.” Twilight sighed before going over to a stack of books and lighting her horn. She used her magic as filtered of chaos as she could to try and simply put the books away but as with anything that has something to do with chaos magic, something goes wrong. Her aura suddenly turned yellow and the books suddenly sprouted wings and flew away. “Dangit! Why is this so complicated!” Twilight growled her eyes beginning to take on a red tint before she shook her head and took a deep breath. “Calm, Twilight calm yourself,” Twilight said taking a deep breath. Twilight went to the kitchen and checked the refrigerator, looking inside she could see entire gallons of ice cream. “Hopefully I won’t need it,” Twilight said before grabbing some milk and trotting over to the cabinet. Upon checking inside for cereal she spotted some wheat flakes and she was about to light her horn to grab it until she remembered what happened with the book. With a sigh, she used her hooves to climb up a little and snatch it.  “Okay Twilight, Spike isn’t here so you’ll need to pick up the slack, he needed this vacation anyways,” Twilight said to ease her nerves for the coming week. As Twilight sat down with her breakfast, she couldn’t help but look at it… it needed something… wheat flakes were just too bland, maybe if it had more sugar and sprinkles and hot sauce and peanut butter and- Twilight slapped herself, it’s fine… the cereal is fine. “You're in control Twilight…” Twilight said before beginning her meal. “I wonder how the other girls are doing,” She wondered ---- Applejack finished herding her animals back to the farm, her brother waiting expectantly at the front gate. “This better not be a recurring theme,” Big Mac said “Ah’m sorry Mac, still tryin to figure this chaos magic out,” Applejack said “Y’all read the manual right?” Mac asked, Applejack told her family what happened and though they were shocked they didn’t freak out and agreed to help her corral her chaotic urges. “Yes but it still isn’t easy tryin to-”  Applejack paused when she saw a chicken wandering from the group and she held out a hoof. “Hold on there-” Applejack paused when her attempt to stop the chicken caused the chicken to glow and suddenly grow in size until is was as big as a house. “Oops…” Applejack said as the animals ran off in a panic as the oversized chicken walked back towards town. “Ya may need to review it again…” Mac told AJ “Yeah, ah do…” Applejack sighed before running after chickenzilla. --- Rainbow Dash was gradually reshaping the clouds with her chaos magic. “A little bit here, a little bit there…” Admittedly this chaos thing was hard at first but even though RD was frankly not the brightest, she was good at reading manuals and instructions for how to do things. How else do you think she’s been able to stay a Wonderbolt so long? “Alright… annnnd there!” RD finished and she gazed upon clouds she reshaped to her image. “Awesome! I’m getting the hang of this!” RD said as she stared at her artwork… but something was missing suddenly… without RD’s knowledge, her tail reshaped into a hand and snapped its fingers. Suddenly the clouds began dancing around. “Huh? Wait I didn’t tell them to do that,” RD said sounding confused and she saw a familiar pegasus flying near them. “Hullo Rainbow!” Derpy cheered as she flew towards the dancing clouds. “Why are the clouds dancing? Is it because-” Derpy was cut off as one of the clouds swatted her with its cloudy hoof, surprisingly solid. “DERPY!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew over to the falling pegasus and managed to catch her. “Owie…” Derpy groaned “Okay! That’s enough dancing! Stop!” Rainbow Dash set Derpy down on a non-anomalous cloud and clapped her hooves. The clouds became inert… then turned into RD-shaped ice blocks and fell. “Okay… I don’t have the hang of it!” RD said as she flew forward.  “C’mon c’mon! Something less dangerous than giant chunks of ice!” RD tried to think and she clapped her hooves. The Ice turned into a rain of thumbtacks. “NOT BETTER!!” Rainbow was panicking, on ground level ponies looked up and screamed seeing the deadly rain incoming. “Unless you want all of Ponyville to be literally trotting on thumbtacks you better do something!” The annoying voice that pretends it’s her said. “I’M TRYING!” Rainbow clapped frantically and the rain became different bad things. Lava, Exacto knives, licorice, sharks, buzzsaws, steamrollers, TV’s, anvils. “You may want to hurry!” The other voice said  “Grrr! C’MON!” RD could see the ground incoming this was her last chance! CLAP!   Ponyville braced themselves as they were buried in… Snow. They all poked their heads out and sighed with relief. Until Rainbow collided with the ground sending all the snow and ponies flying. “Oooowwww……” Rainbow crawled out of the hole she made in the ground. “Well, disaster averted at least…” Rainbow said THUD “Now what-” Rainbow turned around but her lightning-quick reflexes are what saved her from being stepped on by a giant chicken. “What the hay?!” RD flew to Applejack who had used her lasso and is trying to tug on it. “Uh, let me guess you accidentally made chickenzilla there?” RD asked “Say’s the one who probably brought an early winter!” AJ bit back. The chicken clucked loudly and began pecking at the ground, shaking it and the ponies fled in fear. “Rainbow! Ya gotta help!” AJ said as the chicken kicked at her. “Ok,” Rainbow flew up to the chicken’s face. “Hey!” RD said to catch the chicken's attention. The chicken looked at RD with a quizzical look. “Uuh… Down boy!” RD attempted… The chicken just clucked loudly and tried to peck RD. “Really? ‘Down boy’? That’s yer plan?!” Applejack barked “Well how about you do something better than just tugging on his leg!” RD shot back. As the two bickered the chicken continued causing havoc. ---meanwhile--- Things in the bakery were… interesting to say the least. Of all the mares turned chaotic beings Pinkie has been the best at using her powers. It helps that she was pretty chaotic, to begin with. Ponies sat in floating chairs, desserts walked themselves to their eventual consumers, And the Cake twins were having fun playing with their now animate toys. Mr Cake was watching all this, still trying to take it in. “Um, Pinkie, how long did you say this chaos thing was going to go on?” Mr Cake asked. “Just a week, but if I can convince Discord to let me have them longer…” Pinkie got a mischievous look on her face. “Nonono, a week sounds fine,” Mr Cake hurriedly said “Aww…” Pinkie sighed in disappointment. As they were talking suddenly the ground shook and they peered outside to see a giant chicken. Pinkie gasped “I had a dream like this once!” Pinkie said “Oh creampuffs it’s headed for here!” Mr. Cake freaked out “Don’t worry! I’m prepared for this scenario!” Pinkie said before giving a whistle. --- The chicken approached the building and began pecking the dessert-like designs on the roof before suddenly a window popped open and a slide came out followed by gummy sliding down it. “Huh? Gummy?” RD questioned Suddenly Gummy grew to the size of the chicken. “Whoa!” both AJ and RD said as the two animals stared down. “BCAW!” The chicken charged as Gummy just blinked before being tackled over. As the two fought, Pinkie teleported in next to her friends. “HIYA!” Pinkie said to her friends “PINKIE! What were you thinking now we got two out-of-control animals in town!” RD said “Psh their just having fun!” Pinkie said while ducking a thrown pony giving a Wilhelm scream.   “PINKIE!” Both shouted “Oh alright, brb!” Pinkie said before teleporting and immediately reappearing with Fluttershy in tow. “Sorry I took so long!” Pinkie said “Pinkie told me everything,” Fluttershy said “But you were only gone for a second!” Applejack said in shock. “She was pretty quick about it,” Fluttershy said before flying over to the squabbling animals and she got in front of the chicken’s face, giving the stare. “Calm down! Or it’s time out for you!” Fluttershy said, the chicken clucked and sat down. “Okay, now you!” Fluttershy turned to Gummy but was surprised to see him rolled onto his back wanting belly rubs. “Oh I can’t be mad at that,” Fluttershy went over and petted Gummy. “So what do we do about the giant animals, because ponies are getting pretty freaked out here.” RD pointed out “Well let me see,” Fluttershy thought back to what she read in the book on how to summon it to you, just think of the book in your hooves. And like that it appeared in her hooves, after flipping through it she found a page about size-changed animals. “Alright, got it,” Fluttershy said before waving her hoove and magic came and shrunk the two down. Fluttershy scooped up the toothless alligator and chicken and plopped down by her friends in the snow and hoofed the animals to them. “There we go,” Fluttershy said  “Shy you're a lifesaver!” RD said patting Fluttershy on the shoulder. “It was no problem,” Fluttershy said “Dearie me,” the group turned towards the sound and saw Rarity trotting through the snow. “Had I known it was going to snow today I would have brought out my winter attire,” Rarity said “Heheh, about that, the snow is kind of my fault, but on the other hoof we’re lucky it wasn’t something else,” Rainbow Dash admitted “We gotta get ahold of these powers, the smallest action makes all sorts of trouble,” Applejack said  “Darling don’t get me started, I was in the midst of making some silk scarfs and suddenly I was attacked by my scarf which apparently thought it was a snake… It is rare that I must destroy one of my works but it had to be done,” Rarity said “We should go see how Twilight’s doing, maybe she’s figured out how ta curb these powers,” Applejack said, the others agreed and followed her to the castle. “Ugh, I can’t wait for this bet to be over,” RD whined as the group headed towards Twilights.  “Same,” Applejack said The group continued on until they saw the castle “I wonder if Twilight is even home-” Rarity began when suddenly a massive wave of chaos washed over the castle and it jumped a little in the air. “What in tarnation?!” Applejack shouted “What was that?!” Fluttershy questioned “Twi could be in trouble! C’mon girls!” RD said as they galloped over to the front door and opened it. And what they saw surprised them.