//------------------------------// // Insanity // Story: An Unlikely Couple // by Legacy55 //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle was gone. Instead, an insane, broken shell was all that remained. Gone were her organized, intelligent thoughts. They were replaced with only one desire, stop Discord. So every thought that entered her mind centered on him and how she could stop his nefarious scheme. She giggled softly to herself, rocking back and forth. She was surrounded by the mess of the library but she didn’t mind. It didn’t matter what her house looked like. No, she had a much bigger problem to deal with, and she was the only one who could solve it. All her friends had turned on her, and even her beloved teacher didn’t believe her. But she was smart; she saw through Discord’s tricks. While everypony else might love him, she knew he hadn’t changed at all. The same devious monster still lied beneath, waiting for a chance to strike at the foolish ponies. She would stop him, no matter what. Even if all her friends thought she was crazy. The thought made her laugh. They actually thought she was the one who was crazy! But in reality they were the ones who were crazy, and she was the only sane one left. She was the only pony not under Discord’s control. Luna was the closest thing she had to an ally, but she wasn’t radical enough for her tastes. She wasn’t able to take risks to stop Discord. She hadn’t taken any of her ideas seriously, and some of them were brilliant! Sure, maybe not all of them would have worked, but would it have hurt to try? Suddenly she began to come to a realization. She didn’t need Luna! The alicorn was weighing her down by refusing all of her perfect ideas! She didn’t need her permission to act! She could do it on her own! Twilight’s insane grin grew from ear to ear, and her eyes darted around the room in excitement. She would put a stop to Discord, no matter the cost. “They’ll see… They’ll all see that he hasn’t changed at all, and that I’m not the crazy one!” She cackled before teleporting off. -------------------------------------- Luna stamped her hoof against the ground in frustration, snorting as she looked left and right. “Now where is she? Every other day she’s in her room, so why did she pick now to suddenly go somewhere else?” A very nervous guard was walking down the nearby hallway, completely unsure about how he was going to find Princess Luna. Sighing he continued down the hall, shaking his head as he went. Suddenly he bumped into something. Turning to see what had run into him, he fell back in fear. Standing right in front of him was a very angry looking Alicorn who was looking at him with pure disgust. “Watch where you’re going!” She barked at him. “Why do we even employ such stupid guards? I should have you fired on the spot!” “Oh, uh, I’m every so sorry you’re highness… I was just looking for…” He paused a moment, his confused brain organizing itself. “Princess Luna! I was just looking for you!” She gave him an odd stare. “What for?” “There were some rather disturbing reports that we received from Ponyville. I went to tell Princess Celestia about them, but she was much too busy and she directed me to find you! At first I had no idea just how I was supposed to find you-” The guard was talking a mile a minute. He only stopped when Luna cut him off. “Enough of your babbling! If these problems are about Discord then I don’t want to hear about it!” The guard pawed the ground nervously, unsure of what to do next. “Well actually, they are about him… So, should I just go find Princess Celestia again?” “You should get out of my way!” She yelled. The guard was shivering in his armor, and he quickly scurried off lest he anger her any further. She sighed before heading down the hallway, trying to find any sign of her sister. An explosion suddenly came from deep within the castle, shaking the building violently. After a few seconds it was gone, and the silence of the palace returned. “What in Celestia was that? It sounded like it came from the elements hall…” Luna wondered, quickly teleporting to the disturbance. The room was a complete mess, with a massive hole leading to the elements storing room. Some of the windows had shattered, and pieces of smoking rubble lined the ground. She took a cautious step towards the hole, trying to peer through the smoke for any sign of the perpetrator. All she heard was an evil laugh that echoed through the room, then whoever it was teleported off. The smoke cleared, and she found the room vacant, save for an empty case adored with jewels. “This is bad…” ----------------------------------- Applejack bucked the tree hard, and sent a storm of apples falling to the earth. She picked one up and shook her head. “Now who In Celestia’s name would do this to mah apples?” She remarked, commenting on how the apples were painted various colors. She sniffed it cautiously, and then took a bite out of the bright blue apple. It tasted just as it should, so she just scratched her head and threw it away. The cowpony headed over to the barn and began loading several bags of apples on to a cart. As she headed back in to grab another bag, there was a rustle behind her. Turning around, she jumped back in fright, spilling the fruit all over the ground. Twilight took a step towards the frightened Applejack, a grin on her face. “Holy Horse-apples! Don’t scare me like that, Twilight! You dawn near gave me a heart attack!” Twilight didn’t respond, instead taking another step towards her. Cautiously she stepped back, “Uh, Twilight? Are you feeling okay, sugarcube?” Again no answer as she stepped forward again. “T-t-twilight, you’re scarin’ me!” Applejack continued to step away from the crazy pony. Finally she felt her back brush up against something. It was the wall. She was trapped. Seeing that she had nowhere to run Twilight laughed. “It’s okay Applejack! Everything’s going to be all right…” Her voice was like ice, and it sent chills down her spine. The cowpony was now breathing heavily and her eyes darted around the room for any sign of escape. There was something wrong with her friend; something very, very wrong. She remembered seeing her during the whole Smartypants crisis, but this was something completely different. This was much worse. Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Applejack let out a scream before everything went dark. ------------------------------ “Alright, one…two…three!” Pinkie Pie yelled, dumping her bucket onto her unsuspecting target. At that exact same time a levitating bucket tipped downwards. The snoozing mare was suddenly drenched with a pink liquid. Disgruntled, she wiped it from her eyes and shouted. “Who did that?!” Rainbow Dash jumped up from her cloud and looked left and right. “Come out whoever you are!” Pinkie Pie broke out in a fit of giggles, causing her to levitate down to her friend. “Don’t worry Dashie! It’s just me and Discord!” She was currently being suspended by a bunch of balloons tied to her back. “Pinkie? What is this stuff? And did you just say Discord?!” “That she did!” The Draconequus laughed, appearing out of nowhere. “Just us playing a few goodhearted pranks!” Rainbow Dash shot him a glare; he might have changed, but she still didn’t like him. Just the sight of him made her blood boil. “What is this stuff?” She questioned, eyeing her now pink coat. “Strawberry milkshake!” Pinkie shouted with glee. “Isn’t it great? We were going to do chocolate, and then I shouted no! I said Strawberry milkshake would be better, and then Discord asked who we should prank first, and who else came to mind but you! So we found you and pulled a prank on you! Then you asked who-” “Pinkie, you can stop talking now…” The pink pony instantly shut up and just looked at her friend with a smile. Rainbow licked her foreleg and a grin spread across her face. It was delicious! Quickly she began eating the delicious treat and soon her coat was a shining cyan. “Let’s go find someone else to prank! Maybe we can find Twilight! That’d be hilarious!” Discord laughed. Pinkie’s eyes lit up with excitement and joy. Just the thought of the usually clean Twilight covered head to hoof in Strawberry milkshake made her giggle. “Let’s go!” She untied a few balloons and drifted towards the ground. Discord turned to the mare, “Enjoy yourself, Rainbow Dash! All of this wonderful chaos only lasts one day, so why not live it up?” He smiled before following his pink companion. This left Rainbow Dash alone to comprehend what he had just said. Ponyville was in what appeared to be chaos, and while it might have been light out, the stars and moon were still visible. She just shook her head and rested back against her cloud, soon drifting back to sleep. ----------------------------------- “There you go! Now make sure to keep off that wing, and soon you’ll be as good as new!” Fluttershy said happily to a blue jay, who’s left wing was freshly bandaged. The bird gave a sort of salute with its good wing before running off. Fluttershy walked to her kitchen, whistling a happy tune as she went. She pulled out several ingredients from the various cupboards, and went about making some cookies. In a few minutes she was just about to put them in the oven when a loud noise startled her. Dropping the pan she scanned the room with her scared eyes, ready to run at the sight of any danger. Instead, Twilight step through her door. “Oh, Twilight! Thank goodness, I was really scared there for a second!” Fluttershy said, her voice as innocent and pure as ever. “Yes…” She hissed, walking over to her friend. “Um… Twilight? You look… different… are you okay?” “Oh, I’m just fine! Yes, perfectly fine!” She said, scraping her teeth together as she spoke. Now standing right beside her friend, Fluttershy took a step away from her. “D-do you need s-something?” The Pegasus’s voice was quiet as a mouse. “Nothing, nothing at all…” Her horn began to glow purple, and the next second Fluttershy hit the ground.