//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Alterations // Story: Corruption, Schism, Fear, and Cheesecake // by Zocarik //------------------------------// Chapter One: Alterations By: Zocarik Dedicating this chapter to lamphobic, for being my first follower. Thank you. ========================================= Six mares. Six plans. One night to ruin them all. Applejack’s plan was a complete lack of any plan. She simply wanted to take the night off. She had finished clearing the trees of apples early this year and felt that she deserved a break. Pinkie Pie planned to perfect her previous proprietary experiments on chocolate chip cookies. She vowed to find the perfect balance of dough and chocolate chunks. Fluttershy settled in front of her fireplace with a romance novel. All the critters around her house slept peacefully. Rainbow Dash had the night shift on weather duty this week. Something about flying by starlight filled her with appreciation for the simple pleasures of life, so working the graveyard hours caused no problems for her. Rarity sat in the center of a whirlwind of cloth. Inspiration for a new ensemble filled every fold of her brain. Twilight Sparkle floated above a lake, caught in a sphere of her own power. She had retreated to the Everfree Forest to train her magic. All of the water in the lake levitated in a ring with the lavender mare at the center. If something went wrong with the training exercise, nopony would get hurt out here in the forest. Pity that none of their plans would be carried out this evening. An odd tone, like running a hoof around the rim of a wine glass, rang out through Ponyville. None of the six mares noticed the sound. They did shiver at the sound even though the ringing did not reach their conscious notice, but they ignored the momentary sense of unease. One being, all the way over in Canterlot sensed the tone. So. It has begun. I hope that you are ready, my little ponies. As Applejack sat on the porch, a malevolent entity gazed out at her from the tree line of the orchards. Blank teal eyes identified her. This is one of them. They stopped us. They will pay. Starting with this one. I will avenge you, my fallen brethren. And the irony of vengeance will taste like cotton candy. With that thought, the entity started creeping forward. Unfortunately for it, Applejack had incredible hearing. She heard its approach before it had covered half the distance to the porch. “Who’s there? Nopony should be on mah property at eleven in the night!” The entity silently cursed. Holding still and breathing lightly, it waited for the mare to move. She got up and walked out onto the lawn, closing in on the teal-eyed entity. Wait. This could be to my advantage. Just a few steps closer… The farmpony fulfilled its hopes as she approached three more paces. Now! In a flurry of motion, the silent one bolted up to Applejack. Before she could even register its form, it had jabbed her in a pressure point in the neck. She was catatonic before she hit the ground. Grabbing the mare, the entity started moving toward the Zap Apple orchard. We have plans for you. This goes here, that goes there, and… Done! Rarity sat back with a sigh. The new dress rested on the mannequin. Rarity darling, you’ve done it again. Another first class ensemble. She glanced at a clock. Only midnight? That one took less time than I expected. A noise from downstairs startled her. It sounded like something crashing around in the kitchen. Before she had taken a step, something pounded up the stairs. As it burst into the Inspiration Room, Rarity beheld the source of the noises. The monster glared at her with glowing, slit-pupiled, crimson eyes. Before the fashionista could react, it lunged across the room and smashed into her. Seizing Rarity in its massive jaws, it shook her like a doll before defenestrating her. Rarity closed her eyes and screamed. When she opened her eyes, she saw stars. Not the stars of being injured, but the real stars. As the white unicorn gathered her senses, the beast leapt through the broken window and approached the supine mare. Its jaws closed in on her pale flesh. The light of the fireplace warmed Fluttershy. Gentile shoring came from all the animals around the cottage; their breathing formed a soothing background noise. Fluttershy finished the last page of the book and stretched. Glancing at the clock, she realized that she had read for longer than intended. Midnight already? Time sure does fly with a good book. Unnoticed by the butter-yellow mare, a hungry shadow crept out of another room. It had carefully slipped into the cottage through a window. It approached the gentile mare. Before she even had a chance to scream, it bit down on her neck. Despite being outside, Rainbow Dash did not see anything abnormal on the ground. Then again, all her attention was focused on a strange cloud. Clouds don’t glow in the dark unless there is electrical discharge in them. There is no noise, no thunder, from this cloud. Something fishy is going on. Something magical had to be involved. Despite what many believed, the cerulean pegasus actually did know the meaning of caution. She demonstrated this caution as she approached the cloud. Circling the cloud, Rainbow tried to figure out what could have turned the cloud fluorescent. Twilight didn’t say that she was gonna do any experiments on clouds lately. The Everfree Forest has not had any unusual activity lately. Celestia said in her latest letter that Discord has been behaving. So what is this? As the flying mare made her latest fly-by, the cloud reacted by bursting open. A small quick creature charged Dash before she could register the action before her. It ensnared her in tendrils of silver magic. Rainbow was forced to watch as the tendrils seeped through her skin. She tried to struggle, but as the tendrils slipped into her body, she grew weaker. Pinkie pulled the latest batch of cookies out of the oven and replaced it with the next batch. Taking a bite out of one of the new cookies, she evaluated the new recipe. “Too much chocolate, not enough cookie,” she whispered to herself. “Batch eighteen still holds the record. Don’t worry, batch twenty-nine. I will eat you as well. Batch eighteen is just better than you.” Suddenly, a doozy shook her whole body. This one felt like it was centered on several places. Something was happening in Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, the sky above Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest. “Wow. That is the biggest doozy I’ve ever felt. It almost felt like part of the doozy would occur in Sugarcube… Corner…” Realizing the implications of that, Pinkie instantly went on high alert. “Alright doozy. I know something is gonna happen here. Just don’t take too long. I need to watch the cookies.” Sitting down, she waited for the inevitable. The twitch fulfilled its promise. Something Pinkie had never expected to happen, happened. A weird creature phased into existence in front of Pinkie. Its eyes glowed blue as it trapped the party pony in a cobalt orb of magic. Even as the magic started tickling Pinkie all over, the creature pulled the finished cookies out of the oven. While passing Pinkie a cookie, it ate one of the cookies itself. Pinkie ate the cookie. Even though the magic trapped her, she started dancing. “I DID IT! I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie! Recipe thirty will go down in my permanent cookbook!” Letting all of her magic out exhilarated Twilight Sparkle. Because most structures lacked sufficient shielding against dangerous magic, the lavender mare usually held most of her magic in check. Cutting loose endangered all life around Twilight. Only in a situation like this could she safely use everything at her disposal. Twilight closed her eyes. They only distracted her from the true point of the exercise. Reaching out with her magic, she stared at everything. Each leaf on each tree stood out more clearly than they do in broad daylight. Individual water droplets hung suspended like diamonds in her magical sight. Deciding to test herself, she stretched her senses to Ponyville. There, she saw troubling things. A changeling was just finishing its labors. Applejack floated in a changeling cocoon suspended between several Zap Apple trees. A large, wolf-like beast bit down on Rarity’s helpless form. She lay on the verge of death because of a lycanequus, a wolf-pony. Something that looked like a pony bit into Fluttershy’s neck. No blood reached the air, as the creature licked up the blood as fast as it came out of her throat. Clearly, this was one of the legendary Vamponies. Silver light extended from the Solpony, the daylight equivalent of Vamponies, to Rainbow Dash. The structure of the magic indicated that the Solpony had its mind set on enthralling the polychromatic mare. A wind elemental had Pinkie in its clutches. Even as Pinkie celebrated her new recipe, elemental magic flowed into her flesh. She was being turned into an elemental. Twilight’s mind filled with rage at the sights. NO! I will not allow my friends to come to harm! Those creatures will pay! Reaching out with her magic, Twilight prepared to save her friends. Unfortunately, she forgot that all of her magic currently was being unleashed. Even the surge she unleashed when she hatched Spike didn’t hold a candle to the magic currently at her disposal. Instead of simply stopping the monsters, Twilight’s magic did something unexpected. The surge altered all five of her friends. They noticed the magic as a wall of white energy coming from the Forest. Twilight suddenly noticed a magical anomaly surrounding her body. What is this? It looks like a teleportation spell, but the quantum-spatial folds are way off. What is happening? Even as she thought, the anomaly vanished, along with the mare inside of it. A strange sphere of solidified magic remained behind. The first thing that Rarity noticed upon awakening was the dirt. The second detail she noticed was the blood that covered her body. “Ew! I’m filthy! What happened last… night…” Even as she spoke, the memories returned. What was that horrid monster? And, why are all of my injuries healed? Wait. There was that flash of magic. Maybe Twilight helped me. Deciding to thank her friend, Rarity started out toward the library. Magically cleaning off the filth, Rarity achieved a state of cleanliness and fabulosity before reaching the tree. Inside, she found something unexpected. Discord flew around the library, collecting books and setting them on the table in the center. “Discord! What are you doing here so early in the morning?” The reformed Spirit of Chaos stared at the white unicorn with an unexpectedly serous expression on his face. Rarity got an earful from the Chaos master. “Listen carefully. This is important. All of our friends are in trouble. First, read the letter on the table. Then, you need to gather the other Bearers in this library and make them read these books. They will explain most of what happened to the five of you last night. I must leave to help Twilight with the trials ahead of her. You five must remain strong and in Harmony, or there is a better than fifty percent chance that Twilight will die. I have no more time to explain. Adios my friend.” With those parting words, Discord snapped his fingers and vanished. That was the most serious Discord has ever been in my presence. I had better find the others. Oh, I hope they’re safe.