Twilight was pacing back and forth eating ice cream and mumbling to herself about the potential disaster coming their way.
“It’s okay Twilight, it’s fine! Rarity just single hoofedly ticked off half the town right after I promised Mayor Mare nothing bad would happen… we can fix this,” Twilight said to herself.
“Twilight calm down panicking won’t help any-”
“I AM CALM!” Twilight shouted before eating more ice cream to cool her temper.
“Clearly,” Starlight sighed
As Twilight was about to continue her spiral Rarity groaned and began to wake up.
“Oooh, what happened?” Rarity groaned.
“Rarity? Good your back to normal,” Starlight said
“Yes, are you alright?” Twilight asked
“I think so, what happened to-”
“The town?! Oh well you pretty much blew it up!” Twilight shouted going back into her rant.
“Don’t mind her, the ice cream seems to be failing to improve her mood right now,” Starlight assured
“Wait, I remember… the voice in my head, it did something and then…. Oh dear Celestia…” Rarity whimpered as tears entered her eyes.
“What? What is it?” Starlight asked
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Rarity sobbed
“Rarity what’s wrong with you?” Starlight said in confusion.
“Guilded Canvas, please tell me she was unconscious when you found her!” Rarity begged
“Um, if you mean that platinum-colored mare no she ran for it when she had the chance,” Starlight said oblivious to Rarity’s growing distress.
“I’m ruined! Finished! Obsolete!” Rarity sobbed “Guilded Canvas would be a madmare to approve my boutique now!” Even Twilight came over to calm Rarity.
“I’m sure she’d understand if she knew you weren’t in control,” Twilight said
“How do you know I was out of my mind?” Rarity asked,
“...Look Rarity, I’m going to be honest here, I think there’s more to being a draconequus than chaos powers…” Twilight said,
“What do you mean?” Starlight asked,
“Rarity have you been… hearing a voice in your head lately?” Twilight asked,
“Yes, yes I have, are you saying you have too?” Rarity asked,
“Yes, my suspicions are confirmed then, the inhibited chaos is starting to control us!” Twilight reasoned
“What? Your saying we’re falling under a control of sorts?” Rarity said
“I need to find out,” Twilight stomped her hoof and summoned the book.
Twilight flipped through the pages at her usual clip, but all she found was the menial info Discord imparted.
"There's no mention of the chaos going haywire in the way we are experiencing it," Twilight said getting frustrated she threw the book onto the table... and Starlight noticed something she didn't, she saw a page that looks like it was stuck to another.
"Twilight, I think you missed something," Starlight said magically separating the stuck pages and levitating the book back over to Twilight.
“A missed page? How could I have missed that?” Twilight said before grabbing the book and examining it.
“Warning, vent chaos occasionally or it starts to develop a mind of its own?... I missed something THIS vital?! How on eqqus am I to take that? Does it mean the chaos is trying to vent itself against our wills?” Twilight said.
“Due to overabundance… but when regular ponies lose control of their magic it simply leaks out and causes natural magic anomalies… this is different, it’s like your magic is starting to become self-aware, and if that’s the case you need to vent it right now!” Starlight said standing up.
“Vent it how?” Twilight asked
“I don’t know,” Starlight said
“Perhaps another meeting is in order, then,” Rarity morosely said
“She must still be upset about failing Guilded Canvas’s appraisal,” Starlight guessed.
“Just wait Rarity, we’ll fix this, you can relax for now,” Twilight said
“I’ll relax when I know the fate of my boutique,” Rarity said
---
Applejack woke up with a start.
“Huh? When did ah fall asleep, last thing ah knew ah was working, then-” Applejack jumped a little when she realized she was on the hammock Dishonesty set up, she jumped again when she realized she was a draconequus.
“It’s mighty comfy right? Let’s take the day off”
“No… When did I-”
“Ah got tired of waitin for our break so ah convinced you to sleep and ya agreed, remember?”
“Yer lyin, Ah never agreed!” Applejack tried to get up but the hammock seemed unwilling to let her get up.
“Sure ya did, ya even agreed to let the farm animals and yer sister an brother to take care of it.”
“Ah said ah… wait what was that last part?” Applejack asked
“Somethin about root beer ah think,” the voice nonchalantly said
“NO! About making mah family take care of it!” Applejack
“Take a look,” Applejack looked and her jaw dropped.
The farm animals were tending to the chores and what was worse her family seemed to be doing it too, they had swirls over their eyes, showing they were acting against their wills.
AB bucked a tree over and over but only a few apples fell, her hooves looked bruised but she continued regardless.
Big Mac was carrying a cart full of apples... pretty much all of them, even with his strength he was struggling.
And Granny Smith was tending to the fields even though her body was clearly hurting her doing so.
“No… ya enslaved mah family!?” Applejack cried out in horror.
“Technically you did,”
“NO!” Applejack tumbled around in the hammock before dropping to the ground and getting up.
Applejack then snapped her fingers over and over again trying to fix this, eventually, she succeeded and they seemed to snap out of their daze.
“Ow! Mah hooves are killing me!” AB whined
“Hmm?” Big Mac looked around confused
“Oh! Mah hip!” Granny fell over twitching in pain.
“Granny!” Applejack stumbled over to her and held her up.
“Ah’m… ah’m okay,” Granny groaned.
“Ah’ll fix this, ah will!” Applejack ran off.
“Where ya going?” Apple Bloom called
“Ah’m quittin this bet!” Applejack yelled back.
---
Rainbow sat on her couch rubbing her forehead, she couldn’t believe what happened back there…
“I nearly got them killed, What is wrong with you!?” Rainbow shouted at her alter ego.
“I taught those losers a lesson in picking on me, that’s what,”
“You could have hurt them! Scratch that, they could have died!”
“To make a cupcake sometimes you gotta crack a few eggs. Besides, I don’t consider them friends. Why should I be obligated to be nice?” Disloyalty asked.
“I can’t even with you! UGH!” Rainbow said rolling onto her stomach. “I have to get this under control… Hate to bother egghead with this again but I need another boring sphere…” RD said before peeking out of her house and flying out toward town.
---
Pinkie waved her guests off with a forced smile, when the doors closed her sat down and heaved a sigh of relief.
“Finally…”
“C’mon that party was great! Except for the parts where you threw in a word I’m not allowed to say in front of foals during songs and shoving his cake onto the ground… or when you made me shoot snakes out of my mane.”
“How else could I end the party sooner?” Unhappiness said
“Party pooper,” Pinkie sighed
“Come on Pinkie it’s time to help clean up around here.” Mrs. Cake said
“Gotcha gotcha!” Pinkie opened her mouth but Mrs. Cake shut it.
“And no black holes this time!” She said seriously.
“Ok,” Pinkie said sadly before her ear raised. “Hark! There be trouble a brewin, Gotta go!” Pinkie said before bouncing out of the store.
“Sometimes Pinkie…” Mrs. Cake sighed
---
Fluttershy was trotting through town, trying her best to forget her ordeal back at her home.
“Okay, visiting the market should be easy, right? Just need food for my little friends,” Fluttershy said trying to stay calm even though her other half was going berserk inside her head filling it with constant yelling and insults and driving her up a wall, Celestia make this hell end! Fluttershy paused and took a breath.
“It’s fine, everything is fine,” Fluttershy said arriving at Carrot Tops stand, interestingly the mare seemed eager to end their transaction, after collecting some carrots she went over to other stands and obtained some more veggies, with similar reactions...
“Good so far,” Fluttershy said
“So many ponies… I hate crowds!”
Fluttershy ignored her darker half and continued on, but as she trotted on she found the noise of the Market to be more grating than usual.
Not to mention ponies were giving her a wide berth… unsurprising given that she was one stupid question away from transporting somepony to mars…
Fluttershy approached another fruit stand but when the owner saw her he shut the blinds.
“Um, excuse me? I just want some kumquats if you have those in today, you see there’s a birthday coming up and I want to prepare Mr and Mrs otter their favorite-”
“We’re closed!” the stallion said
“But you were just-”
“I said we’re closed!” The stallion said
“O-ok…” Fluttershy trotted on to the next stand and the same thing happened.
“What is happening?” Fluttershy asked
“Bunch of cowards,” Unkindess said
Fluttershy trotted through town, her head low, from every, stand their communication was either abrupt or not at all…
It was honestly making Fluttershy angry… angry enough to… to!....TO!
“Excuse me-”
“WHAT?!” Fluttershy rounded on the pony unlucky enough to be on her soon-to-be warpath.
Lily jumped for cover.
Fluttershy took a breath and trotted up to where Lily of the flower trio was hiding.
“I am so sorry, I’ve been dealing with… things… what did you need?” Fluttershy asked.
“I was just thinking… never mind,” Lily said nervously.
“Come on, I’m listening,”
“I really mean no offense when I say this Fluttershy so please don’t hurt me…. Your scaring the other ponies here,” Lily said
“...What?” Fluttershy’s eye twitched
“Ponies here know about your… current state and worry that if anypony angers you, you’ll do something with their produce.”
“I see…” Fluttershy said
“I can do your shopping for you so the other ponies won’t-”
“STOP IT!” Fluttershy snapped
“Ah!” Lily dove behind cover again but Fluttershy levitated it out of the way.
“I-i didn’t mean anything by it!” Lily cried
“You think I want your pity? Your fear? Your idiotic herd mentality telling you to isolate the pony with chaos powers and a short fuse?!”
“N-no?” She whimpered
“IF I WANTED TO I COULD TURN YOU INTO PRODUCE AND FEED YOU TO MY PETS! SO DON’T CODDLE ME!” Unkindness roared
At this point Lily was curled up on the ground and crying and that’s when Fluttershy snapped out of it and realized with horror what she just said,
“I didn’t mean it I swear!” Fluttershy cried looking around to the ponies but they all fled the area.
With a depressed sigh Fluttershy trotted out of the market and towards Twilight's castle.
---
Twilight was in the midst of writing notes to each of her friends while Starlight was consoling Rarity.
“Let it all out Rarity,” Starlight said
“She didn’t like my dresses from the start! What did I do wrong?!” Rarity cried.
After Twilight constructed the letters she wrapped them all up.
“Okay, I have the necessary messages written out, now to deliver them, the meeting will be in four hours, that should be enough time to get everything set and-” As Twilight approached the door to leave it flew open and sent Twilight flying…. for the umpteenth time.
Twilight hit the ground and just as she was getting up she saw it was her friends she was getting ready to scold her friends for hitting her with the door again when Pinkie scooped her off the ground and looked her in the eyes.
“Twilight!”
“What!?” Twilight said
“The plot beckons! Something big!”
“What?” Twilight said confusedly
She was pulled out of Twilight's grip by Applejack
“Twilight ah can’t do this anymore! Ah quit this bet!”
“I need another boring sphere! I can’t take it anymore! My chaos powers nearly got somepony killed” Rainbow Dash
“I’m tired of everypony being scared of me! I want to quit too!”
“I-”
“QUIET!” Twilight yelled silencing the others.
Applejack set her down and Twilight took a few steps back before taking a few calming breaths,
“What brings you all here?” Twilight asked as calmly as she could
They all began speaking at once again and Twilight was beginning to get angry again but thankfully Starlight came to the rescue and cast a silencing charm on them.
“Twilight, you were thinking of a meeting already weren’t you? Why not take this opportunity to start it?” Starlight said disarmingly.
Twilight seemed to seethe for a moment before taking a calming breath and pointing at the table.
The others nodded.
---
After they all sat down and Starlight fetched them some drinks and ice cream Twilight began the meeting.
“Alright, now this meeting will begin and to keep it organized we’ll pass this feather around to signify who is talking to me,” Twilight said
The others nodded.
“To start we’re all experiencing the same thing, right? We’re hearing voices, losing control of ourselves, doing things that would usually be the antithesis of us, right?” Twilight asked
Everypony looked at eachother before nodding at Twilight.
“I feared as such, we’ll begin now,” Twilight hoofed the feather to the first pony Fluttershy.
“I’m so sorry Twilight, but I want to withdrawal from this bet,”
“What? Why?” Twilight said
“I threatened the life of another today, all because I felt they were coddling me… I would never do that, and…. It’s like you said, I’ve been hearing a voice as well, it’s an evil cruel voice, even now it’s insulting me!” Fluttershy whimpered.
Twilight wanted to be indignant but the sight of Fluttershy crying made her decide not to.
“It’s alright Fluttershy,” Twilight said soothingly.
“No, it isn’t Twilight! I’m scared! Of myself and others!” Fluttershy said.
“Maybe pass on the feather so you can take a moment to calm down,” Twilight suggested
Fluttershy nodded and passed the feather to Rainbow Dash while taking a few polite bites of her ice cream.
“I don’t plan on quitting this bet, but I need a new boring sphere, I lost the old one remember?” RD said
“Yes, but I’m not sure it works like that,” Twilight said
“What do you mean?!” RD responded hotly before digging into her ice cream a little to cool off. “Sorry,”
“It’s fine, I mean that I think all the spheres only react to their user,” Twilight said
“Then what the hay am I gonna do?” RD said
“We can experiment later, for now, pass on the feather,” Twilight calmly said
“O-ok…” RD said passing it to Rarity, surprisingly Rarity just hoofed it to Pinkie.
Deciding this is because of what happened with Guilded Canvas she accepted this.
“Twilight, the mean voice in my head made me nearly ruin a birthday party today. I wanna do over!” Pinkie whined.
“How so?” Twilight asked.
“By going back in time! If I use my draconeqqusy powers I bet I can go back in time and try the party again! And hopefully, that sourpuss won’t ruin it again!” Pinkie said with a sudden cheer.
Much to Twilight’s horror.
Twilight hurriedly ate several spoonfuls of ice cream before trying as calmly as she could to dissuade Pinkie from messing with the time/space continuum using her powers.
“Pinkie, no. Using your powers to alter the course of time, if that’s even possible, is a terrible idea. What if you irrevocably change the flow of time?!” Twilight said
“I’m sure the readers will find some way to make sense of it,” Pinkie waved it off.
“Pinkie, no!” Twilight said angrily.
“But-”
“NO!” Twilight barked.
“Aww…” Pinkie said.
Next pony Applejack…
“Twilight, call Discord. Ah want outta this bet!” Applejack demanded.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Applejack,” Twilight pleaded.
“Forget that! Ah did things ah would sooner die than do,” Applejack said
“Like what?” Fluttershy asked
“Ah slept on the job,” Applejack said.
“That’s it? No offense but that doesn’t sound bad enough to quit the bet-” Rainbow Dash began before Applejack spoke again.
“That came after ah enslaved mah own family,” Applejack finished.
“Whoa what?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Wait your turn, Rainbow,” Twilight reminded her before turning back to Applejack. “Tell us,” Twilight said
“Ah lost control of myself and what exactly happened is a blur ta me but when ah woke up, they and all the farm animals were doing the chores, even to the point they were ignoring their own pain!” From her expression, Applejack obviously felt like dirt just talking about it.
“You're kidding,” Twilight said.
“Ah wish ah was. Granny was in so much pain she was shaking. Ah don’t want to be the cause of that again, so Twilight, call up Discord and tell him ah quit,”
“B-but, if you quit, we all lose!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Ah don’t care. Mah family comes first!” Applejack said.
Twilight made a shushing motion to Pinkie and turned back to Applejack.
“We can take measures to prevent that from happening again, but we can’t afford to give in. We’re only part of the way through the week and we just started-”
“AH DON’T CARE!” Applejack shouted.
“Applejack, eat some ice cream,” Starlight suggested.
“Fine, but ah ain’t budging,” Applejack ate some ice cream while she talked
“We’ve all said our part. Applejack and Fluttershy want to tap out, Rainbow Dash needs a new boring sphere, and Pinkie wants to attempt a most likely illegal spell involving messing with time.” Twilight looked at Rarity but Rarity just shook her head.
“And Rarity had too much trouble with the visit from Guilded Canvas, so we’ve all had our share of problems, but me and Starlight and I have come up with a solution,” Twilight said.
The others looked at each other and then to Twilight showing she had their attention.
“Apparently there’s a page in the manual we all missed regarding venting our magic, which we haven’t been doing. If we can find an isolated place to drain our chaos magic into, we can regain control of ourselves and prove to Discord that chaos magic can be tamed."
“Ain’t that contradictory? If we’re releasing our chaos magic elsewhere, won’t that show we can’t handle it?” Applejack said.
“Not really. After all, we’re choosing our path, not letting the chaos run wild like Discord said. If we just release a manageable amount of chaos magic into an isolated place we should be within parameters.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Rainbow Dash “Lead the way egghead,” Rainbow Dash said
“And we’ll be back in control, right?” Rarity asked.
“For certain,” Twilight said before trotting over to Rarity and rubbing her back, which seemed to cheer her up enough to stand up.
“Then let us make haste,” said Rarity
“Yay! Roadtrip!” Pinkie cheered.
“This better work Twi, or ah’m quittin fer sure,” Applejack said.
“It will,” Twilight said before leading the other girls out of the room.