//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Nightime and Morning // Story: The Disarray Trilogy Part 1: Of Harmony and Chaos // by Ink Blotch //------------------------------// The Disarray Trilogy Part One: Of Harmony and Chaos Written by Walker “Ink Blotch” Holden Chapter 4: Nighttime and morning                  What Discord was thinking now was how much he despised alicorns. After Luna had left with Twilight Sparkle and friends Celestia had continued to badger him about his lab’s whereabouts without mercy at the slightest. This Discord had expected, what he had not expected was to be dragged along for the ride. Sealed within the mirror of a locket hung around Celestia’s neck Discord fumed about his discomfort with the situation and cursed himself for the location he had hidden his lab. When Discord had chosen the hiding spot he had done something Celestia would never have thought of him doing; finding a logical hiding spot. After prodding Discord had discovered that Celestia had been looking for his lab in such places as Canterlot gardens, Everfree forest and even the ocean. It had not dawned to Celestia that Discord would not choose an overly dramatic or poetic location for his lab. Rather he had decided to hide it in the out of the way secluded base of Mt. Feather Crest. A large mountain on the border between Equestria and Raptorn the home of the griffons. This meant that Celestia and Luna had to forgo magic and flight when they got too close since the griffons would be able to detect the source and label it an invasion. The relations between the griffons and Equestrians had a rocky past and while some griffons lived in Equestria and had comfortable lives with the ponies the griffons in Raptorn were uncomfortable with the overly powerful nation of Equestria living next door and often looked for reason to pester Celestia and Luna on current events even more so when word reached to the Raptorn capital about Celestia acquiring an elite group of ponies wielding the elements of harmony. To make matters worse in order to reach the lab Celestia and Luna would have to travel through the Shadow Cloak jungle. They would be able to use minor level one or two spells but it would be hard to control their magic to such a low level. Discord had thought it would be funny to make them travel the jungle should they ever go to his lab but now that he was taking the trip he was less than amused. “Must you swing your head so much? It’s like being a pin-pong ball in here!” Discord yelled up to Celestia who at the moment had a machete between her teeth and was dressed in light armor in jungle camouflage colors, Luna the same. Celestia ignored Discord has she had done for most of the trip. If there was one thing Discord could not stand it was being ignored and Celestia knew this. Once they had gotten out of the castle Celestia had mellowed out a bit and was now trying to enjoy the trip as much as possible and was happy to leave the castle since in a long time. Luna continued to look disapprovingly at the darkening sky. “Six and three quarter minutes late. Does the magician’s court know not of the ramifications of the night sky’s tardiness?” Luna looked to her sister for support but instead heard muffled giggles. “Sister! Please this is serious! Now the tide will be late and nocturnal animals will be confused and-Stop laughing!” Celestia composed herself and put her machete away. “Luna you promised not to obsess about work while we were saving the world.” “I made no such promise!” Celestia giggled again. “Oh, that was a joke was it?” “She learned from the best” Discord slyly commented from his mirror. “You really must develop a sense of humor Luna” Celestia told her sister. “Really going to keep ignoring me? Well fine ignore this it is getting dark and if we don’t find a place to rest for the night we are all walking entrees.” “Oh fine Discord where exactly do you recommend?” Discord pleased to finally have her attention pressed his face against the glass of his prison and looked from side to side. “How about… There!” Discord pointed to a large hollowed out tree in a small clearing surrounded by a blue leafy plant. Luna walked directly through the plant followed by Celestia into the tree. There they made a small fire and unrolled sleeping bags they had brought along. Celestia fell asleep quickly, Luna had trouble since she usually was awake during the early night but made due. Discord was the last to fall asleep wondering what poison joke had in store this time. *********************************************************************         “…And then everypony else had stopped talking but I kept going and said; Oatmeal? Are you Crazy? It was soooo embarrassing!”         “Wow sure sounds like it.”          Rarity glanced over at Pinkie talking to Bliss through the bars of the cell having long given up on convincing her friend to stop fraternizing with the enemy. Applejack was still taking her turn sleeping and Rarity was bored out of her mind. When Fluttershy had returned with the antidote for Spike Twilight had made him drink every drop. Afterwards Spike had turned a horrid shade of purplish-green and Twilight and Fluttershy had stayed by his side making sure he didn’t vomit the antidote. Twilight had fallen asleep next to Spike and everypony had decided it would be best to leave her like that. Fluttershy was staying upstairs to watch Spike and last time she had checked was playing poker with Angel the bunny and Owloysius the owl and oddly enough Owloysius was winning. Rarity checked the old egg timer they had found to keep check of sleep turns and saw she still had fifteen minutes until it would be her turn to sleep an hour and then Applejack would go again (Pinkie had insisted she didn’t need to sleep.). Rarity glanced at Applejack again and slowly turned the egg timer to five minutes. “Hey doll face that’s not nice.” Rarity nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden opinion of Rage who since had finished verbally assaulting his brother had gone straight to sleep. Rage was lying down in a corner of the cell with one eye half opened. Rarity catching herself countered. “Oh what do you know about being nice? I need my beauty sleep.” “Fine go on ahead but I am known to tattle and maybe I’ll strike up a conversation with Jack while you’re sleeping and give her a few ideas.” Rarity glared at the earth pony but turned the egg timer back to fifteen minutes. “There’s a good girl.” Rage chuckled. “So have you just been awake spying on me?” Rarity spat angrily. “Don’t flatter yourself doll face I just can’t sleep with those two flirting over there.” “My name is Rarity and if you ask me- Wait those two what now?” Rage now with both eyes opened yawned and chuckled again. “Well I guess it might be a little one-sided but it’s a brother type thing for me to know his emotions I suppose. Or maybe Lord Discord built us to read each others emotions. I don’t know just don’t tell him that I'm interested in his feelings or else he will never shut up.” Rarity glanced to Pinkie and Bliss again but saw no sign of endearing emotion from either one rather the most she could say was that they were becoming friends. But even that would be a problem for later. Instead she decided to change the subject. “You do know your not doing yourself any favors by referring to him as Lord Discord right?” “We know but we don’t get a choice. He hardwired us to call him that.” Rarity looked confused and Rage rolled his eyes. “Ok you know how you do something so often that it comes naturally to do it? Like dotting your i’s with hearts or calling a friend by a pet name? Well it’s like that only we have had it since birth.” Rarity thought she understood but suddenly had thought of something she had not before. “How old are you three exactly?” “What day is it today?” “July 17th” “We have been alive for roughly six months.” Rarity had known that the three had not been alive that long but had suspected that they had been alive right after Discord attacked last September making them ten months old. “Why did it take so long in between Discords attack and your birth?” “The magic Discord used to make us age faster was set to delay so things could blow over a bit.” This made sense to Rarity. Looking at the earth pony she began to wonder if they had any other surprises. “Hey Doll face?” “It is Rarity and what?” Rage guffawed “Whatever Doll Face. I just wanted to know how long in your opinion is it going to take to get me out of here?” Rarity was losing patience with the irritating pony. “Well in my opinion Celestia will probably find her deepest, darkest, FILTHIEST dungeon throw you three in and then throw away the key.” She said with a humph. “Harsh. I just wanted to know so I wouldn't miss Blues’s concert.” Rarity rolled her eyes. Blues was a local troubadour of sorts who would play his saxaphone in town square but also would occasionally play all day concerts in the park. “Now really that bit of sarcasm was only viable once. And honestly I could do without. I doubt that a ruffian such as yourself would even consider listening to high quality music such as Blues produces.” Rage shrugged. “No joke. I got my ticket right here.” From behind his ear Rage pulled out a small blue ticket that had a small musical note similar to the one Blues had as a cutie mark. On it was the date July 20th. Rarity was surprised. “Oh! I did not take you for a jazz fan...” “Oh yeah. Huge fan.” Rage said. It was hard to see from his coat color but Rarity could have sworn he was blushing.  Now I have one last question for you.” He said “What is it?” “Shouldn’t you not be fraternizing with the enemy?” Rarity was caught off guard by her own foolishness but was saved by the ringing of the egg timer. “Oh look at that out of time guess I should wake Applejack.” Rage smiled cruelly as Rarity rushed Applejack awake and made herself comfortable on the inflatable mattress they had set up. Applejack yawned herself awake and looked over on the cell mates. “Two asleep and one chatten with Pinkie?*Yawn* She can handle this herself.” Applejack sure that Rarity was asleep crawled next to her on the bed and snuggled up before falling asleep herself leaving three ponies awake. *********************************************************************         In the Shadow Cloak jungle inside a hollowed out tree Princess Celestia awoke to the sun on her face. She rarely got this pleasure and savored every moment of it. Stretching she stood outside of the tree shelter and took in the morning. Not too far away she heard the gentle gurgle of a creek. She decided to get a drink from the creek. The creek was only a few yards from where they had stayed the night before and when she got there Celestia lowered her head to the water and drank. When she was done she raised her head and looked into the calming water to see her own pink reflection. She stood and stretched once more about to turn back to the tree when she stopped and quickly looked into the water again. “Pink?” She thought aloud. Then from the campsite Celestia heard the shrill scream of Luna. Running and tripping back Celestia burst into the campsite to find Luna’s armor on the ground with a small lump wriggling inside. Finally the lump found the head hole and out from it came Luna’s head but it was smaller and her mane was regular hair. She looked like she had after Nightmare moon had been defeated. But besides her sisters panicked stuttering Celestia heard one other thing; laughter coming from beside her sleeping bag. Celestia furiously opened the locket containing Discord and found him rolling with laughter within the mirror. “Oh my Celestia this is- this is rich! HA! Pink is really your color if I do say so and you Luna.” Discord breaked for air and then continued to laugh. “You are just adorable! That’s you what? Seven hundred, eight hundred years ago?” Discord laughed even harder rocking himself back and forth. Celestia was not amused. “This is no laughing matter Discord we can’t keep going until we find out what happened to us.” Discord wiping a tear from his eye grinned at Celestia. “Really Celestia you don’t even remember this? This was something we made together to prank ponies in Canterlot gardens. Poison Joke remember? Of course after we found out that it spread like wild fire under certain circumstances it was less fun cleaning it.” Celestia remembered now making the plant with Discord for that very purpose in their childhood days. It was so long back that she hadn’t remembered what the plant looked like but she did remember the cure. “Luna stop panicking. If you help me we will have an antidote in a flash but for now just shrink your armor to your size and we can gather the things we will need.” Luna did so. “Good now go and find a red flower with white thorns I will be out momentarily.” “O-ok.” Luna squeaked surprised at her voice’s high pitch. Once Luna was gone Celestia turned her anger towards Discord. “If you think this will buy your abominations time it wont.” Discord was confused by this statement. “What do you mean Celestia? I did this as a joke. Buy time for what?” Discords color flushed from his face with dark realization. “Oh. I never thought…” “Never thought what? That I would not destroy your creations? They are monsters. You and I both know why my father wanted with an army of ponies. I also know that in order to make these new ponies you would have to have used an older model if you were strapped for time. That only makes them even more dangerous. Tell me Discord did you use any assassin type models?” Discord hesitated but answered “Yes.” “So they are capable of killing and being quiet about it.” “Again yes but they have no blood thirst I made sure of it! And only on one of them I used the assassin model the other two are just a commander class and a guard class.” “But should they get into an aggressive situation they would have combat skills would they not?” “As much as a regular pony. Celestia they are harmless I expected that you would banish them or put them into community service but I never thought you would murder them!” “Enough! I have made my mind.” Discord opened his mouth to object but saw that he had no chance. Instead he remained silent as the sisters gathered ingredients for the antidote to their poison joke. Celestia removed his locket and her armor to bath in the creek later on. After the sisters had taken their bath it was nearly midday and they began to travel again, Celestia had been de-pinked and Luna had stretched out. “If this was Celestia’s way of making me shut up it worked.” ********************************************************************* Applejack jumped off the apple pie trampoline into a swimming pool of apple ice cream and did back strokes back and forth. Somewhere in the distance she heard a small squeak but didn’t pay it attention. She kept swimming through the sweet apple concoctions finally jumping out completely dry. Again the squeak but a tiny bit louder. Apple jack trotted down the cobblestone patch leading to a clearing in a forest there stood a tall handsome red and purple colt. Once more the squeak was heard this time audible. “Please wake up…” Applejack continued to ignore the voice as she walked up to the colt. “Oh Passion Fruit its me!” “Who?” “Applejack darling” Passion Fruit held Applejack in his arms. “Oh, Passion fruit whisper those sweet nothings in mah ear.” “Who.” “Er, me.” “Who.” “What in tarnation? Nyah!” Applejack looked up to Passion fruit and saw that his head had been replaced by Owloysius’s head. “Who.” Applejack probably would have ran away terrified but was awoken by Angel jumping up and down on her face with Fluttershy telling him “Oh no Angel don’t do that.” “Wha-why ar ya?” “Oh well I suppose if you’re awake now I kind of sort of really need your help…” “Applejack yawned and looked around at her three awakeners. “With what sugarcube?” “Well I was making some tea for the three of us when Pinkie came into the kitchen and asked if she could use it with me. I was watching the water so it didn’t boil over so I didn’t see her come in. Am I taking too long to tell the story?” “No yer fine keep going.” “Oh well I kept making tea but when I turned around to talk to Pinkie *Ulp* h-he was in there.” “Wha? Who?” “Who.” “Don’t start with me.” Applejack looked into the cell and saw Wisdom and Rage both asleep and snoring but Bliss was missing. Applejacks eyes widened with realization and she grabbed onto Fluttershy’s arm and ran up the stairs Angel and Owloysius following behind. “Oh but what about Rarity?” “No time Fluttershy!” Applejack burst through the door to the upstairs and made a beeline for the kitchen. In it she heard screams and laughter and when she got to the doorway she saw Bliss flying by the ceiling and Pinkie throwing muffins, apples and anything else at him. Applejack sprang into action and bucked a muffin pan from atop the stove and hit Bliss directly on the forehead. Bliss crashed onto the ground and held his hooves to his head where a nasty burnt bruise had instantly formed. Applejack breathed deeply and looked to Pinkie to make sure she was ok but saw her with a mortified expression. “Applejack! What are you doing?!” Applejack in confusion answered. “Uh, saving y’all?” “From what?” “From him.” Applejack pointed towards a cross eyed Bliss. “He wasn’t attacking me silly.” “But you were throwing stuff at him.” “I wasn’t trying to hurt him we were playing a game! Who can catch the most food in they’re mouth.” Pinkies attention shifted to Bliss. “Are you ok?” Bliss removed his hooves and with crossed eyes answered. “Kni Chtolb si eht tsom emosdnah ynorb.” He shook his head and re-answered. “I think I am. Jeez AJ bad enough you hit me in the head the pan was still hot. Ow.” Applejack looked from the pair in the kitchen to Fluttershy who shrugged. There was a thump at the front door. Fluttershy perked up. “Oh! That must be the paper. I’ll get it.” She walked away quickly from the awkward scene leaving Applejack to deal with it. “So let me get this straight. He escaped from his cell so you decided ta play with him?” “No silly.” Pinkie exclaimed with a smile. “I let him out.” “That’s even worse! Why in Celestia’s name would you let him out?” “Well we were up all night talking and about a half an hour ago we decided that we were hungry so I said I would let him out to get food. He said it might be a bad idea for him to leave the cell but I told him not to worry that it would be fine. When we got up here Fluttershy was making tea and we started making muffins. A little bit ago she left and we started playing our game. Then you came in and did that.” Pinkie looked to Bliss again. “Are you sure you are ok Silver?” “Yes. But!” Bliss said hurriedly having an idea. “Well when I was a little colt Wisdom would kiss my cuts and bruises…” Pinkie kissed Bliss’s forehead. He looked like he could die of happiness. Pinkie did not notice this Applejack did but tried to ignore it. “Look Pinkie I don’t know what y’all were talken bout but you can’t let Bliss, Rage or Wisdom out.” “Silver.” Pinkie corrected “Beg yer pardon?” Applejack replied starting to get frustrated with Pinkie and anxious of Bliss. “Well.” Pinkie said preparing to explain. “Last night Silver was telling me about how he and his brothers had each named themselves a few days after they had been born and I told him that somepony just couldn’t name themselves that’s just not how it works. So I decided to give him a new name and name his brothers when they were awake so I thought and thought and now his name is Silver Lining!” Applejack did not know how to react to this so she continued the conversation hoping for something to make sense. “Why Silver Lining?” “Because he is just so happy all the time! You know that saying how every cloud has a silver lining? It’s even his cutie mark!” Applejack couldn’t argue with that but still didn’t like him being up here. “That’s nice and all Pinkie but he has got to go back to the cell.” “Buft Imf sthill eatenggf.” Silver argued with a mouth full of food. “Well ah don’t know what to say to that… But he has to go now!” Silver swallowed his mouth full. “Okay fine. I'm leaving.” “Good and Pinkie? Go with him and wake Rarity. Oh and put his rubber band back on.” “Okie-dokie-lokie.” Both ponies hopped down the stairs and Applejack sighed a breath of relief. From around a corner Fluttershy shaking slightly whispered. “Are they gone?” “They are sugar cube.” “Oh thank goodness.” Fluttershy said timidly walking into the kitchen both Angel and Owloysius riding her back carrying the morning paper. “I thought for sure he would do something *Gulp* awful.” “Honestly Fluttershy I don’t really think that boy would hurt anypony. Then again he did help poison Spike. How’s he doing anyway?” “Oh his temperature is back to normal and he is still sleeping with Twilight. I don’t really want to wake either of them.” “Yeah, probably the best thing ta do. Whats in the paper?” Applejack asked wanting to change the subject. Angel hopped off of Fluttershy onto the table and brushed some playing cards away to make room for the Equestrian Daily the front page read: Pony Disappearances Continue! Local Horseshoe Maker Caramel Is Next Victim! Applejack grimaced at the title but looked over the front page. On it was the headline and a picture of Caramel. Below it were pictures of the other four missing ponies three Pegasi and another earth pony. “Not Caramel. He was always getting inta trouble but this is just awful… Fluttershy ya don’t think those three could have anything ta do with the disappearances do ya? I mean it’s been five ponies in a month.” “Oh I-I don’t know… I mean it could but I don’t really want to talk about it… If you don’t mind. By the way Applejack… who is Passion Fruit?” Applejacks face blushed and she prayed to Celestia for a reason to change the topic. This prayer was answered with the sound of yawning from the room over. “Well finally those two are awake.”