Spike flew over the ocean, only the ocean was looking solidified yet still moving like it was made of molasses.
“I hope we aren’t too late,” Spike said as he flew towards the direction of Mount Aries.
“At the rate that the chaos is spreading we’re actually doing very well,” Discord said as they saw the waves of Molasses breached over them, Spike used an umbrella to protect himself from the chaotic seawater.
“Alright, Discord since this is our last one we need to make this a quick snatch and grab, Now we just need to find out-”
“Spike!” Discord called suddenly.
“What? What’s about to happen?” Spike asked.
“Look, in the wave,” Discord said.
Spike turned to see a larger wave and through the minimal light provided by the rainbows dotting the skies… he saw what looked like fishes, big ones.
“Fishes? I don’t see the problem,” Spike said.
“Look closer,” Discord said.
“Ok?” Spike said and he saw the fish had angler antennae and manes?...
“Seaponies? Something is off… what is-”
“SPIKE! ABOVE YOU!” Discord said and Spike looked up to see something leaping out of the wave’s tip and descending on him.
It looked like a large maned anglerfish.
“AAAAHH!” Spike teleported away from it as the monster fish splashed down, he looked to see more jumping out of the wave and descending on him.
“Killer seapony attack!” Discord exclaimed.
“Yikes!” Spike dashed through the air back towards land as the fish splashed down behind him.
“Get higher Spike!” Discord said.
“Ok!” Spike said as he flew higher and got away from the fish.
“Whew… that was clos-” Spike was cut off as something hard conked him in the head.
“OW!” Spike exclaimed before turning to look and see some kind of metal objects with wings flying in a V formation.
“Are those-”
“TOAST!” Discord exclaimed as the objects were revealed to be flying toasters that fired black bread at them.
“OW!” Spike yelped as several more hit him “their hard as a rock!” Spike exclaimed.
“Book it!” Discord said as Spike flew away from them.
Eventually, they stopped shooting at him and turned around.
“Did we lose them?” Spike asked.
“I think so… that went from one to a hundred really quickly,” Discord said.
“Yeah, I’m thinking Chaos is serious about it this time,” Spike said.
“For our sake let’s hope he doesn’t know about our mission yet…” Discord said.
“So what do we do?” Spike asked.
“Not get eaten?” Discord responded.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious, I meant how do we get past the ocean when we’re in danger the whole time?” Spike said with his arms crossed.
“Well, have you forgotten you have my magic, the power of not one, but two hatchling chaos gods, and all the essence of chaos of a collapsed pocket universe powering you? What is there you CAN'T do?"
“I suppose, but I don’t want to cause any problems, like what if I blow up the planet or something?” Spike asked.
“Just don’t use too much power, Think, how can you get past this?” Discord asked.
“...Maybe… we can freeze the ocean!” Spike said.
“I don’t think-”
“Take this!” Spike shot a blast of magic into the ocean and it froze… before splintering apart and exploding, sending seawater everywhere.
“What just happened?” Spike asked, dodging a chunk of ice.
‘You can’t freeze the whole ocean, your chaos magic overclocked the ice buildup!” Discord said.
“How was I supposed to know?” Spike defended.
“You have a huge amount of chaos magic in you, if you aren’t careful you’ll cause a catastrophe,” Discord warned.
“Ok ok,” Spike said as he hovered back across the ocean. “Let’s try stealth,” Spike turned invisible.
As he floated around the molasses waves he saw the deadly fish swimming around, none were noticing him.
“Whew… I think we’re-” Spike spoke to soon as an angler seapony jumped up and nearly bit him. “AAAHHH! How did they-” Spike asked.
“Spike! Your shadow!” Discord pointed out that he still cast a shadow and the anglers were starting to converge around it.
“Oh come on!” Spike said as he teleported back to land, panting as he saw that the anglers were scattering again.
Spike's shadow frantically flew across the waves back to him before taking its proper place.
“For a world that doesn’t run on logic there’s a lot of logic messing with me right now,” Spike said.
“Nothing that can be done about it, even logic can be randomly applied,” Discord reasoned.
"Ugh! This is dumb! If I have all your powers, maybe I can teleport directly where we need to go instead of trying to go through this mess, or maybe we go back in time and just fly there, then go forward in time, and ta-da?"
“Sounds good on paper my mismatch friend but it’s not that simple, There’s an anti-teleport field surrounding Mount Aries, Chaos may be onto us,” Discord said warily.
“Then what do we do?” Spike asked looking forlorn.
“The only thing we can do… blend in,” Discord said.
“Huh?” Spike questioned.
“They react to you, but not to eachother, maybe we can literally swim with the fishes,” Discord reasoned.
“... You're asking me to swim across the ocean amongst carnivorous seaponies?...” Spike said.
“Yes,” Discord said.
“Only you could come up with something that hairbrained…” Spike sighed and he jumped into the thick sea water and after getting acclimated he turned himself into an angler and swam.
“Yeash, it’s hard to swim through this stuff, it’s like real molasses,” Spike said.
“Chaos works in mysterious ways,” Discord said “Alright, quiet now, your getting closer,” Discord said and Spike saw a group of Anglers nearing him.
One of the angular seaponies spotted Spike, and waved jovially.
"Hi! Welcome to Seaequestria!"
“Huh? They talk?” Spike said before he quickly changed his tune when more Anglers crowded in.
“Uh, hi! I am a visitor from further inland and I’m-”
“LAND?!” The anglers immediately got angry.
“What?” Spike said
“We hate everything not sea-related, we eat land dwellers!” The anglers growled.
“.....Uh’m good thing I was just kidding!” Spike nervously laughed. "I'm from an inland lake!"
"Oh you poor thing!" One to his left said.
“An inland lake? Harsh dude,” Another said.
“Did the land dwellers try to fish you out?” Another asked.
“Um… no?” Spike said.
“Good!” Another said before the groups of Anglers scattered except for one.
“So what brings you to Seaquestria?” One asked.
“I… came to pay a visit to the mountain area! See the sights ya know,” Spike said.
“I wouldn’t the all-seeing eye doesn’t like intruders,” The angler said.
“All-seeing eye?” Spike said.
“A big ball of light that turns everything it’s looking at to stone,” The angler said.
“Of course there is…” Discord sighed.
"TURNING TO STONE?! THAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF CHAOTIC!" Spike said, something in him snapping.
“Calm yourself Spike, your letting your chaotic emotions run amok,” Discord said.
“Sorry…” Spike said taking a few breaths.
“Uhm yeah it is, anyhoo, come pay a visit to Seaquestria anytime,” The angler said swimming away.
“Whew, it worked Discord,” Spike said as he swam slowly through the water.
As Spike swam on he saw multiple anglers swimming about, some gave him glances and some waved, thank goodness they didn’t know about his true form, or he’d have to see if chaos magic could repair himself from bits and pieces…
Spike swam on until he saw a bright light in the distance.
“Are we there?” Spike asked.
“Yes, just be careful, the last thing I want is to be a statue on the bottom of the ocean,” Discord said.
“Me too,” Spike said.
The two swam towards the light until they came across a line of anglers in mismatched pieces of armor.
“Halt!” The anglers said.
“Huh?” Spike said.
“Nobody continues beyond this point, the eye deems it so,” One angler said.
“But I need to get through!” Spike argued.
“Why?” The angler asked with a raised brow.
“...Uh….sightseeing?” Spike attempted.
“Not a good reason, beat it before we make you into chum,” The angler said.
"So why do you listen to the eye? Seems kinda orderly to me." Spike pointed out.
“It’s the will of Chaos, and don’t say orderly, that word is taboo here,” The angler said.
"Yeah, it sounds super boring to me too. But how is it chaotic if you're all doing what you're told instead of whatever you all want?" Spike reasoned.
The anglers began whispering among each other.
“Uh… well Chaos told us to do so and he’s the boss around here, we don’t want to be turned to stone,” The angler said.
“But technically listening to orders is what someone of harmony would do, not of chaos,” Spike said
“But what about the eye? Chaos will have our hides if something happens to it,” The angler to Spike’s left asked.
“Fooey to that!” Spike exclaimed “We need to unite and oppose this orderly command. And being turned to stone sounds like the opposite of a chaotic punishment. Are you sure Harmony didn't fool you into doing what she wants?"
The anglers were stunned and they began whispering to each other, eventually, the one in front of Spike nodded.
“You make a solid point, I hated floating here all day anyways!” Then the anglers swam off.
“Nice work Spike,” Discord said with a nod of approval.
“What can I say, I got a silver tongue,” Spike said showing off his now silver-colored tongue before swimming in the direction of the mountain.
Spike arrived and poked his head out of the water and saw a startling sight.
Mount Aries was in pieces and it was orbiting a glowing eye that cast a beam of light everywhere it looked.
“I can’t help but wonder if this is a reference,” Discord mused.
"To what? There's only like a bajillion video games and movies that use the 'big creepy eyeball beam of doom!'“ Spike said.
“True,” Discord said before seeing the eye looking near them.
"I still don't get this whole, 'turn to stone thing', I mean, you turned to stone because as unchaotic as you can get. You implied you didn't turn ponies to stone because it's against your nature... and then you had others do it for you."
“I agree, odd that Chaos would go that route, I wonder why-” Discord said before a seagull flew by and got caught in the beam before it turned to stone. As it fell and hit the ground and broke it exploded like dynamite.
“....I guess that’s why….” Discord said with a wince.
"Look, all we need is a giant sling-shoot and pow, it'll explode right in its, well, eye, when it looks at the giant ball."
“Sounds like a plan!” Discord said eagerly before the two made it to shore and hid behind a boulder as the eye looked their way, when it looked away they snuck over some rocks and saw a neat enough rock formation to enact their plan.
“Ok! Plan ‘blind eye’ is a cinch,” Spike said as Discord nodded.
The two then snuck over to the two standing rocks and Spike conjured a giant rubber band and magically lifted a large boulder onto it.
“Ok Spike, I’ll go over there and help you aim,” Discord said flying up to the eye and gesturing Spike to change his aim.
“Alright… little to the left… little lower…. A few more inches annnnnd, hah!” Spike launched the boulder at the eye.
“Hah, this will be easy….wait a minute…Oh no… SPIKE MAKE THE BOULDER DISAPPEAR!” Discord shouted.
“Huh?” Spike said before Discord shouted again.
“THERE’S SOMEPONY IN THERE!” Discord said.
“Crap!” Spike snapped his fingers and made the boulder disappear, The eye turned towards Spike and he narrowly ducked behind cover.
Discord flew over to him and Spike was panting heavily.
"Can't anything be easy?! I should've turned those angular ponies into pool toys instead of wasting time with them!" Spike stomped a foot.
“Calm down, Princess Skystar was in there, she was unconscious,” Discord said. “And besides, pool toys aren't very chaotic either, rather placid really."
"If Chaos can cheat, I should be able to too!"
“Not that simple Spike, We need to find another way without hurting the hostage and finding Silverstream,” Discord said.
“Ok… I need to get moving,” Spike said before sneaking out of cover as the eye was examining the landscape behind it.
“Spike, I just noticed but look,” Discord pointed as Spike reached another cover.
“Huh?” Spike saw what looked like a crystal prison.
“Odd, you don’t think…” Spike approached the prison and found a Hippogriff inside.
“Ok, this is strange, Why imprison the hippogriffs in crystal instead of making them minions?” Spike asked. "Such a waste."
“Can you chew through?” Discord asked.
“I can try… wait… what if this explodes like the seagull did?” Spike said.
“Good point, we should move on then,” Discord said.
"But what if the next rock I touch explodes? What if the princess explodes when I touch her? What if Silverstream is rigged to explode when I get near her or she's teleported back to the others?"
“If we only focus on ifs we’ll never get anywhere Spike, we need to hurry,” Discord said.
“Ok,” Spike said before skittering from cover to cover, hiding behind boulders and walls when he had the chance, he narrowly got caught by the eye several times.
“How, do we find her?” Spike asked.
“Spike, I think the trace is leading up closer,” Discord said pointing to the trace they lost track of earlier circling about the isle.
“Ok, but where? It’s circling the whole island,” Spike asked.
“It’s… wait, hide!” Discord said as a noise was heard.
“Huh?” Spike said before turning himself into a large rock.
“What? What’s happening?” Spike asked.
“There’s something nearby,” Discord said.
“What?” Spike asked before hearing a rumble and he looked to see a massive creature that looked like a hybrid of pony, griffon and seapony lumbering past.
“What the actual what is that?” Spike asked.
“It’s worse than I thought, It’s Queen Novo, and she’s been brainwashed,” Discord said.
“Like we needed more obstacles in our way!” Spike sighed.
“Be careful,” Discord said as Spike snuck around the pathways while the large creature patrolled.
“Ok. we just need to find Silverstream and book it, easy…” Spike muttered as he made his way around the corner he saw an open space with more crystal prisons.
“Ok, now we’re getting somewhere,” Spike said sneaking up to the crystal and seeing… a pink griffon in there?
“Wait a minute, who is this?” Spike asked.
“It’s Silverstream, I can sense it, she must have been fragmented,” Discord reasoned.
“How do you figure that?” Spike asked.
“I have the sense of this stuff, chaos god remember?” Discord said sounding like he’s bragging.
“Oook… how do we get her out without blowing her up?” Spike asked.
“Try this,” Discord whispered in his ear.
“I’ll try it, but hopefully nothing bad happens,” Spike then used his power to shrink the crystal and the griffon to tiny size and he picked it up.
“Alright, that’s one fragment,” Spike said.
“Now where are the others?” Discord guessed, before seeing the trace moving to another part of the island.
“Spike we should follow it,” Discord said.
“Good plan,” Spike said before ducking behind the cover as the giant eye looked in his direction.
“Sure wish I could teleport right now,” Spike said before slipping into the pathways.
Spike had made a bit of a journey to the place where the trace was circling and found another, this time a pony.
“It’s like she’s been split into random species or something,” Spike said,
“Not really, didn't you know? Hippogriffs are all descendants of ponies and griffins who became, VERY VERY special friends.” Discord said.
“I... I guess that should have been obvious from their name, wonder why I never figured it out before,” Spike shrank down that crystal and picked it up too.
“Can you sense anymore?” Spike asked.
“One more signal on the far end, the trace will guide us,” Discord said.
“Ok,” Spike said as he snuck all the way over to the ocean area avoiding the eye.
As he got there he hid from the eye which lingered over there for a few minutes and then it looked away.
Spike then snuck over to where the trace is and found a merpony.
“Ok!” Spike shrunk that one down too and he retraced his steps and hid behind a large cliff face.
“Alright… now that I have them, how do I free them?” Spike said.
“Alright this get’s technical, first make them big again,” Discord said.
Spike did so and Discord resumed “Now you have to magically examine them for any traces of an explosive trap.
“Ok,” Spike said as he then cast his magic and subtly felt around them for any explosive magic.
Thankfully he found none.
“Whew…” Spike said before Spike snapped his fingers and broke the crystals. In a flash the three different Silverstream grew to normal size. They shook their heads in confusion and looked at each other in existential shock.
"Who are you guys?" Scoffed the griffin.
"I'm... pretty sure you girls are me," said the pegasus rationally.
"Oh! Does this mean we can have three times the fun?" The seapony giggled, floating above the ground.
“Alright, now we just need to merge them again,” Discord said.
“Ok-” Spike was about to when there was a deafening roar, echoing through multiple heads.
The monster created from Queen Novo tried to bite Spike head off as she swooped passed. Spike hit the dirt as the monster turned around. A griffin, pony, and siren head all angrily screaming at him.
Spike shuddered. He slowly stood up. "I... have... had... ENOUGH."
"Spike! Remember your-"
"Shuddup. You're the whole reason this mess started!"
"Technically the others had their heads in the sand over chaos magic not being like pony magic and-"
"I said shuddup! I want my family back! I want my friends back! The real them! Not whatever Chaos is twisting them into! And I'm tired of all the garbage Chaos keeps throwing my way! Hey! Novo! You don't work for Chaos! You work for me!" Spike's eyes became colored swirls, the monster stopped dead in her tracks, all three heads staring at Spike dimly as their eyes became the same colored swirls.
The three heads echoed, "Yes... Lord Spike... what is your command?" The creature droned.
"For now just sit there and don't bother me, I've got to figure out how to put your niece back together so she can save the world!" Spike ordered
"As you command Lord Spike." The giant beast quietly sat there, staring straight ahead.
"It isn't very chaotic to follow orders," Discord said.
"I'll say whatever I've gotta say to get my family back!" Spike said.
Discord raised his hands “Ok ok,” Discord said.
“Alright, you three!” The pony, merpony, and griffon looked up.
“Back together now! Or I get impatient!” Spike said.
“Uh… how do we-” Spike snapped his fingers and the three merged back into Silverstream.
“Whoa!” Silverstream hit the ground.
“Ok, we’re getting back home no questions asked.” Spike said.
“But Spike, what happened to-”
“No questions asked,” Spike said firmly. He only didn't brainwash her to shut-up because that would take longer.
“I’d do as he says he’s a little on edge,” Discord said before remembering she couldn’t see him.
“Ok…” She said meekly and Spike picked her up and levitated Novo with them and flew off.
Spike flew quicker and quicker the eye saw them flying off and, instead of turning them to stone, it let out a rumble.
And suddenly the molasses-like waves got fiercer and bridged over Spike and he was forced to dodge.
Get outta my way!” Spike said firing a chaos beam from his eyes and blasted the waves near him apart.
The anglers began leaping out of the water after him but Spike flew higher to avoid them.
“SPIKE! WE’RE GOING TOO FAAAAST!” Silverstream cried.
“Be quiet! I need to focus!” Spike said before seeing the flying toasters coming at him.
Spike geared himself up and opened his mouth and began sucking up all the toast they fired into his mouth.
“Even if it’s hard as a rock, I can still eat it!” Spike said before spitting the rock chunks back at the toasters and breaking them.
“I’m starting to wonder if it is safe to let him around others right now…” Discord wondered.
“Spike… I’m gonna….” She retched over the side of him.
“Oh no! Not on me!” Spike said as he built up speed.
Even the thrill-seeking Silverstream hung on for dear life. It didn't help she had three minds that had just been unceremoniously forced back together in her head.
"Novo! Whatever gets in my way back to Harmony's cave, make sure it gets OUT of my way!" Spike ordered.
"As you command Lord Spike." The three heads said.
As Spike flew further into the ocean area anglers and toasters dove at him. Yet Novo quickly dispatched anything that got too close.
Spike carried the gagging Silverstream back across the ocean until they reached land and crashed.
As Spike got up he grabbed a rock, grew it to the size of a boulder, then a small island and threw it into the water.
“THAT’S WHAT I THINK OF YOU CHAOS!” Spike said. Snapping his fingers, making the resulting tidal wave go in reverse and slamming into their pursuers.
“Spike… please chill… you're kinda scaring me now…” Discord said.
“Ugh… our... my tummy…” Silverstream groaned.
“I… am tired, of being a punching bag for Chaos, now, I’m getting serious…” Spike took a deep breath and grabbed Silverstream and flew back with Novo.
“Goodness… I imagine Harmony will have some words with me,” Discord said.
Spike arrived back in the cave of harmony and the others rushed over to Silverstream.
“Silver! You ok?!” Gallus asked.
“Hippogriff look sick, Yona make remedy out of-”
“Nono… we're fine…” Silverstream said getting up. "Part of me is ticked off at Chaos for this happening and Spike for the rough ride. Another part of me thinks while Spike is being most efficient he was acting reckless. And the last part of me just hopes to have a barf bag next time we go on that ride... uuuh." Silverstream said dizzily.
“Hey guys…” Spike said still looking ticked.
“Uh… is he ok?” Smolder asked.
“Spike, you will calm yourself, if you let your rampant anger get out of control it’ll cause more harm than good,” Harmony said approaching.
“I’m trying…” Spike said as Novo walked behind him sitting down, her six mind-controlled eyes obvious.
"Is that your auntie?!" Gallus gasped.
"I am Lord Spike's loyal servant," the three heads said together.
"It was that or let Chaos keep controlling her," Spike said matter of fact.
“Spike, please release her, she’s our aunt,” Silverstream pleaded, something all three of her agreed on.
“Ok, Harmony do your thing,” Spike said putting up a barrier around himself and Harmony used a harmony flash, turning Novo back to normal, Spike simultaneously released her from his brainwashing.
“Oh dear… what happened?” Novo asked.
"The tree using Twilight's face can explain things. I've got better things to do," Spike said.
“Indeed, we have all the young six gathered, we can now lead our assault on Chaosville.
"Don't you mean Ponyville? And why would we do that?" Silverstream asked rationally.
“There’s a lot you don’t know, and a lot we still need to do, Let’s get things together,” Spike said.
“Yes, time is of the essence,” Harmony said.
"Hmph! With how you've been pushing back Chaos' power around here I don't think we have to worry about the world going kaput any time soon if it needs 100% for everything to end. I'm not worried about the world, I'm worried about my family." Spike said.
Floating above Ponyville, Chaos smiled.
“The last piece is retrieved, all headstones pushed aside, time to bury the past and make this world a memory,” Chaos chuckled.
“Come new queens of chaos and disharmony, come and meet me, may the best chaos god win,” Chaos said before laughing as the six colored spheres levitated around him.