One day later,
“Aaron? Misty? Sparky?” Sunny calls out into the woods as her friends search nearby.
After reviewing Canterlogic security footage, Hitch learned that Aaron and Misty were responsible for the stolen property. However, after talking with the test pilot, it was clear that it wasn’t their fault for crashing the stolen property. They are impressed that Aaron even got where it is with minimal damage. Even the pilot said that he had a hard time using it without crashing into something. Regardless, the problem remains that Aaron and Misty have broken their parol and will get an ear full from Hitch once he gets his hooves on them. But first things first, they must find them.
“Where are you?”
“Why didn’t he use his earth pony magic to make a big tree or flower so that we could find him easily?” Pipp asks Sunny as she shakes her head,
"Ah Pipp. We are in a forest,” Pipp smile embarrass realizing what she just said,
Zipp flies over head, looking to and fro before moving on. Hitch talks with some of the animals nearby for any clues as Izzy goes around a tree before seeing a hole big enough for her head to fit in at the bottom, “Anypony there?” She asks, not getting a reply before sticking her head inside, “HELLO!” Izzy’s voice booms from the tree scaring off any creature that where in it and nearby, much to Hitch’s distress,
“Izzy!” He scolds her as she pulls her head out covered with dirt, she coughs regretting her bright idea,
“No pony in there,” She declares, coughing out a leaf that got stuck in her throat, “But I will find them,”
“Thank you for your enthusiasm, Izzy, but please refrain from scaring away the extra help,”
“Sorry,”
“Hay, I found something!” Pipp calls out,
The other move next to her, finding the remains of Aaron’s campfire. Hitch quickly descends into the den and checks the campfire, “Its cold. They must have camped here before moving on,” Hitch says as Sunny looks around, confuse before the rest of them descend into the den,
“This doesn’t make anything sense. If Aaron was able to make a campfire. He should have been able to get out of these woods easily,”
“What makes you say that?”
“Most ponies that can 'ruff it' to say can navigate out of the most environment with relative ease. So why haven’t we found them already?”
“Uhm, guys?” Izzy says, starring at the end of the den, “There is a door here,”
“Why is there a door here?” Zipp asks as Izzy pushes open the door revealing the hallway with torches lining the walls, “A secret tunnel?”
They all stare down the tunnel, all thinking the same thing that the ponies they are looking for took the spooky tunnel. But just when they were about to head inside, a strong gust of wind came from the other side of the tunnel, snapping out the torches in an Erie sound of a dying pony with something colorful coming flying at them, “AAAHHHH!”
All ponies present quickly ran away, screaming in the opposite direction of the cry hiding amongst the trees. They stay hidden for a good five minutes before Sunny was brave enough to descend from her hiding place, “Is every pony already?”
“What was that?” Hitch says from behind a tree with Izzy right behind him,
“I don’t know. But considering that nothing else happened. It safe to say that nothing else is going to happen,” Sunny calmly says, bringing her friends out of hiding,
“You don’t think that somepony died on the other side of the tunnel, do you?” Pipp nervously asks as Zipp lands next to her,
“No, I don’t. Although I will admit that they scared us pretty well. I believe that is all to it. It must have been something to keep ponies away. Look, the torches are lit again,” Sunny points to the tunnel where the torches are indeed lit once more, “I guess that somepony didn’t want ponies using this tunnel,”
“So, if that is the case, why did they hide it?” Zipp asks as Sunny moves back to the door with everypony else nervously and reluctantly moves closer as well,
Curious, Sunny examines the door before noticing that one side of the door is stone while the other side is wood. She gasps in surprise, not because of the clever camouflage on the door, but at what the camouflage was hiding, “It a Gate of the Ancients,”
“A what?”
Sunny grabs hold of Hitch, shaking him in her excitement, “IT is a Gate of the Ancients! The ponies of old used to use gateways like these to travel all around Equestria using Canterlot as the center point of travel,” She looks in awe with stars in her eyes at the tunnel as Hitch falls to the ground once Sunny lets him go in a daze, “I only heard of their existence from stories for nopony could find them. Now we know why. We have to go in,”
Zipp rushes in front of her friend, spreading out her wings, halting her moment, “NO!” She shakes her head, “Sunny, that is a terrible idea!”
“Zipp, it was just a spooky tunnel, and now reveal the Gate of the Ancients; nothing is going to happen,”
Zipp disagree, “I believe somepony just forgot about the screaming death we hear earlier. Somepony went through an awful lot of trouble to hide these gates. There must have been a reason for it. Besides, if this tunnel scared us, there is a good chance that Aaron and Misty also got scared away as well. So, there is no need to go inside,”
“Normally, I would have to side with Zipp on this one, but there is one little problem with that idea,” Hitch declares before moving close to the ground, “There are two sets of tracks that lead down the tunnel from the campfire with another set of smaller tracks around the campfire. Suggesting that Aaron and Misty did indeed go down this tunnel. Also,” He points to a discarded rainbow-colored wig outside the tunnel, “I saw the wig coming flying out of the tunnel when the torches went out. It is my professional opinion that they did indeed go down this tunnel. And since there are no small tracks leaving the campfire can only mean that they took Sparky with them,” Hitch declares before giving off in a dead sprint down the tunnel, “DON’T WORRY, SPARKY! DADDY COMING!”
“Hitch, wait!”
They rush after him without stopping until they reach the end of the tunnel. But what was waiting for them on the other side was nothing anypony expected. It was a grand throne room of emerald color walls with pillars reaching into the ceiling lining both sides of the room. At the end of the room, two fire pits stand on opposing sides in front of a staircase with a red carpet leading to an empty throne. They all stare in wonder at the sight before them, not sure where they are. However, before anypony could say anything, the fireplace booms pillars of fire, leaving clouds of smoke in their wake as a shadowy figure emerges. Its shape is disfigured and undetermined as two purple eyes with white swirls stare at the mane five with nothing but hated in them,
Its voice echoes in a mighty voice, causing everypony to stare in awe and fear, “I am the Great and Powerful Mistress of Chaos! Who are you!” It says demands from them as the fireplaces send pillars of fire in the air each time the shadow spoke,
The mane five tremble and shake with fear holding onto each other with Sunny being in the middle of them at the sight before them. Thoughts of retreating cross their minds but the doors closing behind them quickly eliminated such silly ideas. They look at each other before they shove Sunny forward as she pushes against her friends, not like the idea of being volunteered. She looks back at her friends, seeing that they have retreated behind a pillar for safety as they give her smiles of encouragement and mouthing words of ‘You got this.’
Sunny gulps before turning to face the Mistress of Chaos. She has heard of a Lord of Chaos but never heard of a Mistress of Chaos. And judging by what is going on here, they are not welcome and have intruded on her home. If this Mistress of Chaos has even a fraction of the Lord of Chaos' magic. Then she and her friends are in serious danger. Even the Ancient Heroes of Equestria couldn’t defeat their Lord of Chaos but befriended him instead. Maybe she can do the same here.
Her legs shake as she takes two steps forward, “I- I- I am Sunny,” She answers meekly, “Sunny Starscout, and these are my friends Hitch, Pipp, Zipp, and Izzy.” She points to each pony respectively, “We came here-”
“Enough!”
Sunny fall onto her belly in fear as the shadow looms over her. She continues to shake, staring into those swirling eyes, “I know why you are here,” The shadow passes over all of them, scaring them all to the floor, “You have come here for the ponies that came here before you,”
“You know where they are,”
“Yes, they are in my care,”
“What about Sparky!” Hitch cries out, regaining some courage, “Did you see a little dragon with them!”
Shadow turns quickly to face him, “You will speak once spoken to!” It scolds him, causing Hitch to faint. Izzy moves quickly to his side, checking on him before cradling him in her hooves,
“That wasn’t very nice. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Frightening him like that. He is only looking for his baby,”
“Silence!” Everypony gathers around Izzy and Hitch as if trying to protect their fallen comrade, “Whippersnapper! I have already decided to help you meet your friends,” She says as the shadow shrinks and fades, revealing a pony, “There is no need to fear me,” The floating mare says, starring disappointedly at the group of ponies as Izzy tries to wake Hitch up,
“Wait, if you were going to help us, then why the scare show?!” Zipp says now that the danger is gone regaining her bravo,
“I had to be sure that you meant no harm to my family,” She takes a bow while remaining in the air, “Let’s start over, I am the Mistress of Chaos,” She looks up at them with a smile, “You may call me Screwball,”
“Hi, Screwball. Uhm, we didn’t mean to enter your house unexpectedly,” Sunny says, apologizing,
“Don’t worry about it,” She says pushing her hoof behind herself, and to everypony’s surprise, the throne room that they were in disappears as if they were standing in front of a painting as the background scenery falls to the floor like a movie set. Revealing the ruins of Canterlot in its stead, “It was a just rental,”
“How?!”
“Chaos Magic, my little pony, is an amazing thing once you get used to it. But at last, there can only be one user at a time," She disappears and appears next to Sunny wearing a blue jumpsuit with yellow lines and a random number on the back, "Can you imagine what our world would become if everypony could make an instant house with no cost and no time at all?”
“I can imagine it being a little out of control,”
“That is why it is chaos magic. Nothing it does makes any sense," Screwball teleports in front of them again in a blue Sunday dress holding a matching umbrella talking in a professional tone, "And that is the beauty of it,”
“So, are you a Draconequus or an earth pony?” Pipps says, scrolling through her hoof phone for anything about the mare in front of them,
“Both, actually," Screwball says as her dress disappears before she moves next to Zipp, pulling a mini Discord and Fluttershy from Zipp's mane, much to her confusion, "I am a hybrid between a Draconequus and a Pegasus,” She waves the figures around before putting back where she got them causing Zipp to see if they are indeed stuck in her mane,
Zipp shakes her head, not finding anything before she notice something about Screwball, and checks her back to make sure, “But where are your wings?”
“That is what I like to know!" Screwball groans falling to the floor like liquid before pulling herself together and staring up into the sky with her hooves behind her head, "I mean, come on. Here I am, a beautiful earth pony mare born from a Pegasus, and no wings here," She gets off the ground and hoovers in the air, "I mean, I can give myself some wings,” She grumbles as a pair of feathery wings come off her back before they puff in a cloud of feathers, “But that is not the point,”
“I get what you mean," Sunny says, understanding a little of where Screwball is coming from, "So where are our friends?”
"Oh, I had sent them to PonyvIlle for the Harmony feast. But first thing first," Screwball grabs Sunny next to her before pulling a chain above her head causing a shower of water to drench Sunny, revealing her in her normal colors, surprisingly not soaked to the bone, "If you didn't know that we were here and having a festival for the Elements of Harmony. Why are you dressed up as the Princess of Friendship?"