Hey, Shadowflame here. So, um.... uh... frick. I'm not even sure if I want to record this chapter. It doesn't affect a single aspect of what happened to us afterwards, but I thought I'd at least write it down.... Honestly, I thought my life couldn't get any more insane. At least this chapter has already happened and been done with. What happened?... Well, just read and you'll find out.
And truth be told, if anyone reads this, the rest of my group would most likely kill me (Sky would be the first to do it, no doubt). You see, we all had made an agreement to never speak of this again and... I'm not sure if this is breaking that agree-
"Shadow, what are you doing?"
"Oh! H-hey Sky. Didn't see you there..."
"Wait, I thought you had already finished yesterday's journal entry."
"Oh, um... Hehehe, you see, I'm um, adding in something I missed."
"Really? Let me see."
"No, wait! Hooves off the journ-"
"What's this? 'We all had made an agreement to never speak of this again'... Shadow! Why are you writing about this!?! I thought our group's agreement was to forget this ever happened!"
"Um.... I gotta go uh... somewhere!"
"Shadow! Get back here! I swear, I'm gonna kill you if anyone else reads that!!!"
"Agh!!! Sky, Don't Use Demon Drive in here!!!"
Anyways, by the time you read this, Sky will have probably killed me. Enjoy anyways!
__________________________________________________________
Mornings in the Crystal Empire were rumored to be one of the most amazing sights in ELO. Of course, only the admins of the game could attest to this, since the Empire had been closed off from players at the start of the game. No one else could even come close to seeing if those rumors were true. But that changed when my group and I reached the Empire ourselves, and we got to see the sight firsthand.
Really, it was amazing. With the rising rays of the sun peeking over the mountaintops, the light pierced through the crystal structures of the buildings. Immediately at dawn, almost every building glowed a bright amber color as they were illuminated by Celestia's sun. If you were looking at the empire from a distance, it could've easily been mistaken to be made of gold. It was the kind of thing you'd show to a special sweetheart on hearts and hooves day: Absolutely breathtaking.
I, however, couldn't care less at the moment.
Right now, my mind was entranced by how soft my bed was. Ever since we used up almost all of our combined bits to buy the Crystal Palace as our home, I took up residence in a single bedroom for myself. I was right now sprawled out on an incredibly soft, queen sized bed. With cotton blankets, and the fluffiest pillows I've ever laid on, I didn't even want to wake up for the start of the day. Honestly, in my opinion, the bed could've competed against the comfort of a cloud and probably would've won if it did. I was content to lay there for hours.
Of course, the celestial body known as the Sun had different plans for me. The big, burning nuisance just had to peer over the ledges of my bedroom windows, shining a glint of light right at my eyelids in an almost comical fashion.
The light snapped me out of dreamland, making me groan as I turned my head away from the sunlight. Still wanting to enjoy the warm bed, I tried to fall asleep again. But soon enough, the whole room was brightly illuminated by the Sun. Blinking my eyes, I realized the room was too bright for me to get any shut-eye. Resistance was futile, and I found my eyes opening in defeat.
Disappointed and half asleep, I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes with my hooves. As I did, I found a little liquid running down the side of my snout: Drool.
Great, I'd been drooling in my sleep. Guess that bed really was comfortable after all. I don't usually drool unless that's the case. I actually think last night was the best sleep I've ever had. Wiping the excess saliva from my chin, I slid myself off of the bed and onto my hooves.
That's when my legs almost buckled underneath me. I wobbled a bit, but it didn't really phase me. I was only minimally surprised, since I was still half asleep. So, not wanting to think about it, I only assumed that my legs were still a bit sore from yesterday. After all, that side quest from the day before definitely took a lot out of me.
Yawning, I opened my eyes so they'd adjust to the light of the morning. And once I got them open, I took a glance around the inside of my room. Come to think of it, I had never gotten the chance to really see my room in broad daylight, since I had just moved in here the night before.
The floors were made of crystalized marble, with a soft, circular rug in the middle of the floor. On one wall, a closet jutted slightly out of it for storage, and on the other, several, full length windows allowed sunlight to pour into the room.
But as I gazed at the windows, I noticed something through one. It was the window farthest to the right from the others, and the weird part was that I saw someone through it.
It was a mare, looking straight back at me through the window. She looked like a gray unicorn, with a crimson red mane. I could only see her head through the window, but another thought registered into my sluggish morning mind; My room was over 40 feet above the ground... So how exactly was this mare looking at me through my window at this height?
As soon as my early morning drowsiness left my system, I noticed one small, but very crucial detail: What I was looking through wasn't a window.
It was a mirror.... Which could mean only one thing...
I had been looking at myself.
My eyes widened, and so did the mare's. I took a few steps closer to the mirror, and the mare did likewise. My mind was racing, almost on the verge of panicking. I felt my heart pump through to my ears at a similar speed. I knew I was looking through a mirror, and the mare in the mirror was copying my exact movements, which could only mean... That mare in the mirror... was me.
I glanced down at myself and I felt my stomach make a jump up to my throat. That feeling was probably what stopped me from screaming as an initial reaction. I took a hurriedly closer look at myself.
My muzzle had shrunken from its usual length and into a smaller snout. My mane, though still the same color, now reached down past my shoulders, and my eyelashes had grown bigger and longer. My whole body was shorter than before, and my legs felt somewhat weaker, which would've explained why I had trouble standing before. My body was made of more curves now than before, my wings had shrunk down considerably, and my tail had grown so long it was now touching the ground wherever I stood. The only things that remained the same were my colors and my cutie mark....
I couldn't believe it. I had become a mare! I WAS A MARE!! I. WAS. A. FEMALE! WHAT THE CRAP?!
Stumbling back in shock, I screamed, "What the cra-" I instantly snapped my mouth with my hooves, making an involuntary, high pitched squeak. Even my voice had changed, sounding as feminine as any girl's.
The reality of the situation only deepened at that point. The next thing to leave my mouth was a scream: A long, high pitched, girly scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
"No! No! Nononono! H-how did this happen?!" I asked, even though it felt really uncomfortable to speak with a girl's voice. I shook my head, causing my elongated mane to flap into my face. I didn't like that feeling either, but I didn't bother about it at the moment. "No, no, this can't be happening. How COULD this have happened? There's no way this is even possible. This has got to be just... A dream. Yeah, that's it, just a dream." I chuckled weakly in an equally as weak attempt to calm myself down.
But as I looked at myself, I never remembered having a dream this vivid before. But just to make sure, I decided to use the old fashioned test: Pinching yourself.
Although, since I had a lack of fingers, the pinching idea proved to be ineffective. So, I decided to bite my hoof with my teeth instead, hoping that'd it work just as well. But as my teeth pressed down on my flesh, another girlish squeak emitted from me as the painful shock flew through my arm.
"Ouch" I withdrew my teeth from my hoof. Glancing back at the mirror, I moved a bit of my mane out of my face as I groaned, "This can't be happening!... This can't be happening, but it is! What happened?! What did this? Or even, who did this?"
The more I contemplated about it, the more confused I got. And the more confused I became, combined with my new voice I kept hearing, I was becoming a bit agitated, and then angry. And as I got more angry, the more I wanted to know who or what did this to me so I could beat them to a pulp. And the more I wondered, the cycle of emotions would continue more, growing in magnitude with each rotation. Man, did my mind turn into a girl's too? Because my head was starting ache with so many complicated emotions going on all at once.
I groaned again, crumbling down to the ground and letting my long mane droop over and cover my face. I wasn't getting anywhere just by thinking about this. I needed to explore a bit and hope that I'd find something that was the cause of this. But that left another problem: What would happen if the rest of my group saw me like this?
My eyes widened in horror at the thought, "That's... going to be a problem."
Suddenly, a girl's scream pierced through the air, echoing through the halls of the palace, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE F***kIN' KIDDING ME!!!"
I didn't recognize the voice, and guessing from what they shouted, they were experiencing the same change I was.
"Uh oh." I quickly jumped up and galloped out of the room to see what happened, and who it had happened to.
____________________________
I galloped trough the halls of the palace as fast as I could, which was actually slower than I could have run before. My legs, now being feminine, lacked strength I naturally had before, and my body's weight had shifted, so keeping my balance on my hooves was proving to be a challenge again.
But nonetheless, I could still manage to gallop. I ran down the corridors towards the scream I had heard before. Thankfully, the crystal palace wasn't as large as the Canterlot castle, otherwise, I probably would have lost the source of the voice.
But as I made my way down a hall, I heard something, the same voice from before, "No, no, no. Just, no! Why am I a freakin' girl?!"
My eyes widened as I realized I hadn't been the only one who had changed gender... That was really weird to think out loud. Anyways, I listened for the girl's voice and followed it until I came to a closed door... wait, this was Sky's door.
Gasping in realization, I quickly opened up Sky's door and entered, only to freeze in the threshold.
In Sky's room, a dark cyan, unicorn mare sat in the middle of the floor. Overall, her body shape, eyes, mane, and tail made her look like a recolored Vynil Scratch. The only difference was her cutie mark: A Pentagram. She was glaring down at her outstretched hooves, as if they were some kind of abomination.
Well, It appeared that Sky was in the same mess I currently found myself in.
But something that caught my eye was his... um, her Player ID. (Hm, I guessed since we had changed gender, so to speak, our past male pronouns didn't apply anymore... Wow, that sounded really weird. Would anything not sound weird in this situation?! Probably not... Hm, where was I again?... Oh yeah! Her player ID.) It no longer read, Midnight5ky. Instead, it now said: Night5kyla.
"Sky?" I ventured a guess.
He, I mean, she... (Gosh, I was going to have a hard time adjusting pronouns). Anyways, she looked towards me, half shocked since she hadn't seen me enter the room.
"Who are you?" Sky/Skyla demanded. From the glare she gave me, I realized she didn't recognize me. I would have thought my Player ID would have shown who I was, but...
My eyes drifted to my health bar in the corner of my vision, right where my Player ID was. But instead of Shadowflame, it read: Darkember.
I groaned inwardly. Honestly, this was becoming more and more like R63 every minute.
Glancing back to Skyla/Sky, speaking in a shaky female voice, "Sky, it's me, Shadow."
Her eyes widened, "Shadow?" He, er, she looked at me again, taking notice of my colors, as well as my horn and wings, "Hm, sorry. I didn't recognize you. I guess *this*" She gestured to herself, "happened to you, too. By the way, your Player ID isn't Shadowflame anymore."
I nodded, even more weirded out by both of us having been changed, "Yeah. And it doesn't look like your player ID is Midnight5ky anymore. Now it says, Night5kyla."
Skyla/Sky glanced at her ID, growling sarcastically under her breath, "Hm, well that's fan-frickin'-tastic."
"So, any idea how this happened?" I asked.
"No!" Skyla threw her hooves into the air in frustration, "I have absolutely no clue! When exactly did we hop through a Rule 63 portal, because I sure as hell don't remember going through one!"
"Hm, same here." I muttered.
Great. If neither of us knew how this happened, then this was going to be harder to figure out than I thought.
We both looked at each other in silence for a moment, but Sky...la filled it in, "Hey, do you know if this happened to anyone else?"
My eyes widened again as I remembered, "Oh! The others! We better make sure everyone else is alright."
I quickly opened up my player menu, accessing my message program. I began typing up a message addressed to our whole group, muttering the words as I typed them,
Everyone, this is Shadowflame. I know my Player ID is... different, but I'll explain later. Right now, I need everyone to gather in the throne room immediately. We've got a huge problem on our hooves.
I tapped another button and sent it. Turning back to Skyla, I motioned for her to follow, "Come on, let's go. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can be stallions again. And I'd prefer not to be a mare for the whole day."
"Yeah, me neither." Skyla stood up, though she wobbled a bit in the process like I had, "Whoa, that's weird. My legs feel... weaker. But at the same time, I feel lighter."
"Hm, I know what you mean. Guess it's a perk. Now let's go."
________________________________________________
Skyla and I were the first to reach the throne room, and there we waited until the others of our group came.
The doors to the throne room burst open as the first of our group arrived, rubbing his eyes groggily, "Ugh, Shadow, why wake us up so early?" Dylan whined.
My eyes widened and so did Sky's... I mean, Skyla's. I cursed inwardly, Wait... Dylan wasn't changed like Sky or I was! He was just the same as he was last night! When I found Sky as a girl, I figured the rest of our group would've experienced the same transformation. Unfortunately, it didn't look like that was the case anymore.
Dylan finished rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and looked towards Skyla and I by the throne. Seeing us, he blinked in surprise, "Oh, I thought you two were someone else. Sorry. Um..." He frowned, "Wait, how did you two girls get here? I thought the only ones in the empire was my group."
I groaned. Dylan didn't recognize who we were. I thought he'd at least recognize our colors. Go figure.
Sky...la's reaction was similar, and she facehoofed herself, groaning, "Dylan, could you be any more blind?"
Dylan stumbled back slightly, thinking she was just some strange mare who had snapped at him. In hindsight, that would be enough to surprise anyone. "Wait, w-what?" Dylan stammered slightly, "I'm not- and how-"
Skyla stomped her hoof against the crystal floor in frustration, "Oh, for the love of-! Dylan, it's us: Sky and Shadow."
That took Dylan for a loop.
"...What..?" He paused for a moment as he took a closer look at the two of us, an eyebrow raised in confusion. He stayed frozen in place as the cogs in his mind worked, until they suddenly clicked, making his eyes go wide, "Wait, SKY?!"
I sighed, muttering to Skyla, "Took him long enough to figure that out."
Dylan only gave us a wide eyed look, his jaw swinging open on its hinges. He was obviously trying to say something, judging from the sound of words that died in his throat before he could get them out.
Skyla rolled her eyes, "Dylan, quit gawking and just say something if you're going to!"
That at least got her younger brother to close his mouth... Hm, 'her'... Yeah, this change in pronouns was starting to sound weird no matter what the case.
Anyways, Dylan clamped his mouth shut, glancing between the two of us. He said absolutely nothing while eyeing us for what seemed to be an hour instead of just a few seconds.
I grimaced a bit, "Um... Dude? You okay?"
But then, Dylan's mouth began to curve at the corners, slowly growing into a bigger smile. We both heard a few snickers as well. And then, right at the door of the throne room, Dylan collapsed on the floor, laughing his little flank off.
I blinked in surprise at the sight, "Oh..." I glanced at Skyla, "I can't say I was expecting that reaction from him."
However, Skyla's reaction to Dylan's laughter was considerably less mediocre than mine. She glared daggers into her little brother and her horn lit up with magic. Instantly, Dylan's laughing form was covered in black magic, lifted up into the air, and then thrown down hard against the floor just in front of the throne.
After that, Dylan's laughing was replaced by a groan of mild pain, making him whine, "Ow, that hurt..."
Skyla smirked down at him, "Heh, serves you right. I wouldn't laugh at someone with demonic arcane power, even if they have been... genderbent." Skyla suppressed a shudder at that last word. She obviously wasn't liking this at all.
As Dylan got back up to his hooves, I glanced towards Skyla, "Well, at least we know some ponies haven't been changed like us, but I just hope we aren't the only ones stuck like this."
"Hm, tell me about it." She grumbled.
Luckily, we soon found that we weren't the only ones who had been affected as the rest of our group filed into the throne room over the course of the next few minutes.
First, Neon entered the room, and walking next to her was a pegasus mare with dark grey fur and a long blue mane. Judging from her colors and her cutie mark, I guessed she was Lexus. Above her head, her player ID read: Parangelia.
But as Neon and Lexus/Parangelia came in, they were constantly giving each other quick glances, but they always broke their gazes away whenever they happened to make eye contact. Even though only Lexus had been changed, it was clear that both of them were really uncomfortable about it.
It took me a while before I realized that Neon and Lexus had shared a bed last night. They had woken up as Neon and Parangelia... Two mares... Talk about an awkward morning.
After them, two other mares entered, though I didn't recognize either of them at first. After a quick check of their color schemes and their cutie marks, I confirmed that they were Violet and Soul, their Player ID's reading, Lilac Entrant and Spectral_Cards, respectively.
Both of them were well aware of their change, but their reactions were quite a bit different. Lilac shuffled into the throne room, glancing down at herself with a 'wtf' expression.
Spectral, on the other hoof, looked surprisingly happy, ecstatic even. Much to everybody's chagrin, Spectral would giggle to herself occasionally as she found this whole 'gender change' hilarious.
Next came all of Team Vortex. Comet and Swift entered first, thankfully unchanged, though Swift was obviously stifling snickers as he looked at the rest of us who had changed. But right behind them, Eclipse and Siren entered, both of them changed.
Eclipse was now a unicorn mare with a long, messy mane and tail. Her Player ID read: Veil, and she looked like she was about to pee herself. As she came into the room, she stared wide-eyed at herself in pure horror. I swear, if her fur wasn't already white, her face would've been as pale as a ghost's.
Right next to her, stood a taller, purple pegasus stallion, with a short, pink mane. His cutie mark was a red rose, and his Player ID read: Siron. As he walked in on cloven hooves, he glanced around at the rest of us warily. He looked like he felt... awkward. He looked very uncomfortable and awkward.
But as they walked in, I caught sight of Skyla out of the corner of my eye. Her eyes were wide as she looked at Siron, and her jaw threatened to hang open in surprise. It was almost comical.
I had to suppress a giggle, (wait, what? I don't giggle!!) as I smirked at Skyla, "Hey, on the bright side, if it turns out we're stuck like this, at least you and Siren,... er, you and Siron, can still-"
"If you value your wings, don't you dare finish that sentence." Skyla growled, though I could see a tinge of purple on her face, beneath her blue fur. You know, red and blue make purple, and you can guess where the red came from.
Shrugging, I looked back to everyone present, "So, who's not here?"
"Oh, um..." Neon replied, taking a head count, "It looks like the only ones not here are Cross, Cinn, and Sharky."
Skyla suddenly snickered under her breath, and I gave her a curious look, "What?"
She only grinned, "I really hope Cinn woke up as a girl this morning." She chuckled, "The look on his face would be priceless."
Violet/Lilac suddenly pointed towards the door, "Hey, here comes Cross!"
Everyone looked where she pointed, only to find a blue mare, with Cross' color scheme, enter the room. Her mane was stylized almost like Twilight Sparkles, and her cutie mark was Cross' own red cross. Her player ID read: Sw33tcr0ss, and she entered the room, eyes wide, while her left eyelid twitched occasionally. The Element of Laughter was obviously taking this worse than everyone else.
"Um, Cross? You alright?" I asked.
She shook herself into reality, as if she hadn't noticed anyone else before. Taking a look around, she visibly relaxed when she saw she wasn't the only one genderbent. (Okay, this has officially become my weirdest morning ever. Last time I’m gonna say it.)
Cross sighed, "Yeah, I'm alright." She shuddered, "I'm just..."
"... Disturbed?" Parangelia ventured, grimacing. "Trust me, been there, done that."
Suddenly, as Cross made her way deeper into the throne room, the doors opened again as another player walked in.
Sharky yawned, covering his mouth with a hoof, "Ugh... Man, that was some good sleep. A real bed is way better than an ice block any day." He glanced around, his eyes widening as he saw us.
Only a few seconds passed by, before Sharky burst out laughing, "Oh my- Phht, HAHAHAHA!"
Skyla growled at Sharky, "Shut up! Unless you want to die for real this time!"
Sharky simply shrugged off the idle threat, wiping a few tears from his eyes, "Oh my gosh! This is TOO good! I never thought Discord would bring this old gag back out of the mainframe."
I frowned, "I take it you know what happened to us?"
Sharky nodded, a smirk on his face, "Yes, Ember... You don't mind if I call you that, do you?"
"Yes." I deadpanned.
"Alright." Sharky continued nonetheless, "As I was saying, Ember," I glared at him, "I know what happened to you all because I was the one who helped programed this gag. It's called the 63rd Glitch."
Several players around the room who were more familiar with the Internet, me included, just facehoofed at the name, much to Sharky's amusement. "As you can guess, it's a program in the game that changes a player's model to that of the opposite gender."
Skyla grumbled at him, "And this is a thing, because why?"
Sharky chuckled, "It was just a pranking tool we secretly added during the last week of development on ELO. Actually, the ones who made the 63rd Glitch were myself, Rex, and Fro, seeing as the glitch revolved around our specialties in programming. We didn't tell any of the other admins about it, knowing that they might oppose to it. The reason why we made it was to troll any hackers and such who messed with our programming... as well as anybody who just got on our nerves." He laughed, "Of course, we were never able to use it before Jupiter found it and nullified the program before ELO was released."
"Wait..." Dylan frowned, "If Jupiter nulled the program, how did it happen to everyone here?"
Sharky paused for a moment, "Well, who else has the power to change the game's coding to match his desires?"
Nobody needed to say the culprit's name out loud, since everybody knew He had done it.
Of course, that didn't stop the eight of us who had been changed (save for Spectral) from screaming, "DISCORD, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
____________________________________________
Well, like any sane person, after turning into your genderbent self, we all decided to have breakfast and try to work out a way to reverse the 63rd glitch while we ate.... Though we weren't getting far in the latter action.
I grumbled to myself as I stared at the untouched bowl of oats in front of me, "Urgh... I hated Discord before, but now I just want to kill him."
"Hm, join the club." Skyla muttered from where she sat beside me at the table. Our group had gone down to the dining hall in the castle, and now all of us were at the table, trying to eat breakfast.
Big emphasis on 'trying'. I hadn't even touched my breakfast, and I doubt I would have. I just didn't have an appetite then... And no! I was not having that girly 'stereotype' about watching my figure! I know you all were thinking it!
I rested my head against the dining table's surface, only to get a face full of mane. Gah, I didn't even have mane this long for an hour yet, and it still bugged the heck out of me. Seriously, how can girls handle hair this long?
Brushing my hair out of my eyes, my eyes drifted across the table.
Not much had changed since we left the throne room. Dylan, Swift and the others who hadn't been changed were making tiny jokes here and there, when they were supposed to think of a way out of this mess. It didn't help that Spectral was joining in on the fun. Everyone else was just staring at themselves or the others who had been changed as they were trying to get used to the fact that the majority of our group were suddenly now mares.
The worst part of it all, the thing I couldn't bear to watch due to the sheer awkwardness of the situation, was Neon and Parangelia. The two of them were sitting together at the table, trying to eat calmly, but their eyes were constantly drifting towards each other and then jerking away on eye contact. It was even awkward for me to watch! Heck, the two of them hadn't even spoken a word to each other since the throne room.
Spectral watched the two of them, a curious look on her face. She then proceeded to break the silence between them in probably the worst way possible.
Spectral glanced between Neon and Parangelia, "So... what? Does this make you two lesbians now?"
Neon and Parangelia turned away from each other instantly, both of their faces beet red.
Nearby, Lilac facehoofed, "Spectral! You can't just go joking about that! This is kind of serious, not to mention just making a lot of us uncomfortable."
Spectral shrugged apologetically, calmly taking another bite of her breakfast, "Sorry. I was just trying to break the ice."
Across from her, Neon replied, "N-no, it's fine. I appreciate the effort, Soul."
Spectral giggled a bit as if Neon made a joke, "Heh, thanks. But I think you should just call me Spectral for now, since I'm not exactly my manly self anymore."
Parangelia threw her a glare, "Yeah, you're acting way too happy about this."
Spectral only laughed again, "Well, duh! There's way too many jokes to use in a time like this! Speaking of which..." She turned her head, "Hey, Ember!"
"Don't call me that." I deadpanned.
"Yeah, sure thing." Spectral nonchalantly ignored me, "Anyways, Ember, you have wings?"
"Yeah."
A tiny grin grew on her face, "And you have a horn, right?"
"Yes..." I didn't know where Spectral was going with this, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it.
Spectral looked as if she could barely contain herself from exploding into a fit of laughter, "So... you're an alicorn, aren't you, girl?"
"Yes!" I practically shouted in annoyance, spreading my wings so it couldn't be any more obvious, "What are you getting at? And don't call me girl!"
"Then- *snkr*" She laughed between breaths, "Then that means- *snkr*, haha, you must be… a princess!"
...
Wait, what?
Instantly everyone burst out laughing; everyone except me, that is.
Cross in particular was banging her hoof against the table as she keeled over in a fit of laughter, her eyes even watering from laughing too hard. She giggled, adding to the joke, “HAHA! All hail Princess Ember!”
I glowered at all of them, but not for very long as their laughing lasted quite a while. What could I say, even if I was the butt end of the joke, it was good to see the whole group laughing again. It’d been a welcome change than what we were usually accustomed to. It seemed almost like old time… except there were more males than females back then.
But then everything changed when the fire nation attacked… er, I mean, when a voice boomed through the dining room, silencing everyone, “Well, I’m pleased you’ve all had a good laugh, but Princess Ember and the other elements have a little job to do.”
My eyes widened, like everyone else’s, when I recognized the voice, “Discor-!”
Before I could even utter the name, there was a bright flash of light and the eight ponies who’d changed gender were teleported out of the Crystal Empire.
Swift, Dylan, Comet, Sharky, and Neon now found themselves alone in the dining room, gaping at the fact that their friends had suddenly disappeared because of the chaotic entity of chaos.
As if right on cue, Cinn entered the dining room, and his face turned into a frown as he noticed everyone’s expressions, “Um… I missed something important, didn’t I?”
Swift replied, “Eh… more or less.”
____________________________
Meanwhile, in a faraway place, we reappeared into reality after the forced teleport.
Once I managed to orientate myself, I took a glance around. Behind me stood the rest of my team, and they were just as confused as I was, asking, “Where did Discord bring us?”
But after a quick look around, we realized we were standing in Canterlot’s city square. The stone road, and the walkways around nearby buildings were practically empty, since nobody was usually out and about this early in the morning.
“Why are we back in Canterlot again?” Parangelia asked.
Lilac followed up with, “Or better yet, why did Discord bring us back here?”
“Oh, because I have a little side quest or two for you dearies!” The voice replied from nowhere. Suddenly, Discord popped out of a manhole in the ground, dressed in orange construction worker’s clothes. The draconequus set the manhole’s lid off to the side as he climbed out, an amused smirk on his face, “After all that work I did down there in the sewers, I decided that I need a little entertainment to get me back into the working spirit.”
With a snap of his fingers, Discord was then sitting on a recliner with a bowl of popcorn in one paw, and a TV remote in the other claw. An empty TV frame appeared in midair, positioned so the draconequus had a perfect view of us through it, as if we were some random television program he was watching.
Skyla glowered at Discord, “No way. I ain’t playing any of your stupid games.”
Discord feigned a hurt expression, leaning back in his recliner, “Oh, woe is me! To be rejected by cute, little filly. How cruel must life be?” He instantly burst out laughing, “Well, I’m sorry to burst your resolve, Skyla, but I’m afraid that unless you do these little tasks for me, you’ll never change back to your male self again.”
“WHAT?!” Skyla looked ready to kill, but Discord merely yawned it off.
The draconequus smirked at the eight of us, “Truth is, unless you complete my little challenges before the sun sets today, you’ll all be stuck with the 63rd Glitch through the rest of the game.”
Parangelia instantly snarled, “Oh, hell no! I’m not staying female until we beat you!”
“What are the challenges?” Lilac asked, eager to get them over with.
Discord shrugged his shoulders, “Oh, I can’t tell you, at least not yet anyways.”
“Why not?!” I demanded.
He grinned like a devil, “Oh, well that depends on whether or not your readers will accept the risks.” He pointed a claw right towards the screen where you were reading from, “It’s up to them whether or not I continue with this, or just let you be and let the chaos insue.”
“Er… what readers?”
“You know, them!” He pointed right at you again.
I facehooved, “Discord, you’re insane.”
Discord chuckled, “No, the readers are the insane ones, and unfortunately for you, they will determine your fate. Hopefully they are merciful.”