//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Several Stops Along the Way 10/10 // Story: The Curse of Discord // by Creative Charmer //------------------------------// "There's one thing I find strange about this," Rarity said. "Just one?" Rainbow responded jokingly. "Very amusing, Rainbow Dash," Rarity replied in a sullen, sarcastic tone. "Then why don't you sound amused?" Pinkie asked Rarity as she poked her head right up next to the unicorn's face, to which Rarity simply used her magic to push the oblivious mare out of her way. "As I was saying—what I find so strange is: why did it take so much longer for you to go through your transformation than it has before?" "Hmm, that's a good question," Twilight said, as she now began to contemplate this thought. "I hadn't thought about this previously, since so much else had been on my mind, but now that it has been brought up, it warrants further analysis," she then commenced her reflecting on the subject; making sure to get every last detail right so as to conclude her scrutiny properly. The others all watched the ruminating unicorn in silence; not wanting to disturb her while she was thinking deeply. "Hmm...the only conclusion I can draw is: when I had my emotional outburst at all of you earlier, the anger I was conveying was enough to prevent the transformation from occurring at the time it normally would, because the rage and what I was doing was chaotic enough to stave off the change until the chaos ended, and because nothing was happening after that, the curse sensed that more chaos needed to be wrought by me so it went ahead and began the alteration of my body into what it is in its present state," Twilight took a breath after her long speech, and scanned the blank faces of her wordless friends. "...ahh, yes; of course," Pinkie agreed in a serious tone. "It all makes sense now." "It does?" "I don't know, but if Twilight says so, then it must be!" "Well, thanks for supporting me on my theory, because I really thin—oh my gosh!!! What are we doing?? We have to get to Canterlot before this gets any worse! Let's get a move on!" Twilight quickly commenced her walking, but this was soon found to be much more difficult than previously anticipated. After only a few mere steps did Twilight find her body unable to keep still: it was shaking, wobbling, and just kept flopping all over whenever she tried to move all fours legs concurrently. "Ohhh, darn it! I can hardly even walk like this!" Her friends only watched as Twilight struggled to even walk in a straight line. This was something nobody felt like they could assist her with—unless they held her body steady as she walked all the way to Canterlot. The only one who didn't looked worried was Pinkie Pie, who could not help but chuckle at how silly Twilight was portraying herself as she attempted to walk. When Twilight noticed Pinkie's snickering, that was when her frustration had reached an all new high. "Darn this curse!!" she shouted in a loud, extremely perturbed tone. "It has done nothing but bring misery and dread upon me and everybody I've been around!" Twilight grasped her head as she attempted not to let her rage take hold of her again. "Errrgh!! I just want to get to Canterlot so the princess can completely eradicate this curse from my entire being so it will never make me bring harm to anybody ever again! I want to go there now! Now! NOOOOW!!!" and on that final shout of "now", the magical field around Twilight's horn had changed into an intense glow, and in a bright flash of light, everyone had vanished from that spot in an instant leaving only the trace of a charred area of the ground behind. As quickly as they had disappeared, the ponies and Spike reappeared in an entirely new location—and that location was none other than Canterlot! The sudden swiftness of this teleportation had everyone puzzled and unaware of what had just occurred. "What th—?!" "What just happened?" "Where are we?" Everyone looked around at their surroundings, and saw they were in the part of the castle's garden that was near the hedge maze, as was pointed out by Spike. "Canterlot?? What in the heck are we doing in Canterlot? Weren't we just down by Ponyville?" Rainbow asked in bewilderment. "Yes, indeed we were. Hmm..." Rarity began thinking about what had just happened. "The last thing I remember was Twilight becoming rather angry..." "And her horn was glowing really bright! And then there was a big flash of light that hurt my eyes! Ow!" Pinkie exclaimed, shutting her eyes from thinking about the bright light pain. "Huh...I must have unintentionally teleported us all to Canterlot somehow," Twilight conjectured. "Unintentionally? You mean that wasn't what you were tryin' tuh do, Twilight?" "No, and I agree that it does sound very strange that I would teleport all of us without my knowing about it," Twilight thought about this herself. "It seems that because I wanted to go to Canterlot so badly, my magic brought us here on that very whim—quite interesting..." Twilight rested her chin on her left front hoof as she contemplated her thoughts on this matter. Suddenly, her pondering was interrupted by the abrupt trembling of her hoof against her face. She quickly pulled her face back, then turned her attention towards her now convulsing leg. Nobody was more in shock now than Twilight, whom covered her eyes as her leg was engulfed in light like all her other body parts, with the light bursting at the end of the transformation to reveal that the disquieted unicorn's leg was now the muscular arm of a ferocious grizzly bear—all in the span of only six seconds. "Wha—?! What th—??" Twilight was so dumbfounded by this abrupt transmutation that she couldn't even get her head straight—and that went especially for everyone else watching. "What just happened?? Why did I change just now?? I hadn't even done anything bad to invoke a change to my body this time!" "That sounds bad." "It's definitely not good." "And not being good is the baddest thing of all!" Twilight endeavored to grasp this sudden new dilemma, albeit still in a flustered manner. "This curse must be getting stronger to the point where it doesn't require the presence of chaotic happenings to grow more powerful!" Pinkie gasped. "That really is the baddest thing of all!" "Yes! And it's also why we can't waste any more time! We have to move now!" Twilight began to run(or at least tried to run) towards the entrance to the castle, but was abruptly halted by the calling out of Spike. "What is it, Spike? Can't you see we're in a hurry??" "I know, Twilight, and that's why I wanted to ask: can't you just teleport us to the throne room?" "NO!!" she hastily yelled back at Spike, with him falling backwards in surprise. "Not while I'm like this! I'm afraid that the use of any of my magical abilities would only accelerate my hexed condition! We'll just have to hoof it as fast as we can! I just hope that my evil side isn't triggered while we're here! I don't want the ponies here in Canterlot to go through what the ponies in Ponyville just went through! Ohhh, I'm wasting time talking again! Let's just go!!" On those last words, Twilight sped off into the castle without even waiting for her friends, leaving them all stunned in her wake. However, it was worriment they were all truly feeling, after seeing suck a panicky display from Twilight. "Twilight's really starting to lose it," said Spike. "Starting to?" Rainbow remarked. "She's been getting crazy ever since this whole thing started!" "Yeah! She's totally cuckoo in her coco!" Pinkie shouted, but then paused for a bit. "...wait, I don't think I said that right. Preeetty sure that was supposed to rhyme..." "Ah know she's not feeling herself right now, but that's why we're all here—it's our job as Twilight's friends to help her in any way we can! Remember, friends stick together, no matter what!" her resolute shout rang out amongst her friends, whom all shouted their agreement together, with Pinkie making a point of sticking her face right up against Fluttershy's face, showing how much she loves sticking together. The whole group then ran off after Twilight into the realm of Canterlot Castle. "I do hope that Twilight will get to the throne room before it's too late," Rarity said to Applejack as she ran alongside her. "Me too, Rarity," Applejack responded, afterwards turned her head straight forward again. "...me, too..."