Discord sat in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, seeming rather content in his throne as he sat in a reclined position, a rather large orb in front of him on a golden pedestal. The orb itself radiated a sinister purple aura and an image was in it showing various chaotic activities around Ponyville. Discord let out a laugh as a pony ran away from some flowers that were several times her size roaring at her with gnashing teeth. Discord paused for a moment and looked down to his side, seeing a small pegasus mare of a stony grey color looking down and away from him, a black band around her neck with a dark red gem embroidered into the center. The Spirit of chaos raised an eyebrow and brought his bear hand down patting her head, “Enjoying the chaos Fluttershy?” She turned her head to the orb and gave a frightened look making Discord roll his eyes, “I thought you would be running around with your little friends, why are you here?” Fluttershy looked up at him, before looking away from him and then back to him, seemingly trying to decide whether to speak or not,
“Um… Master Discord… There‘s three fillies here to see you… if… if that‘s okay with you.” Discord paused as he brought his eagle claw to his chin, seeming to think for a moment before looking to the other end of the throne room to the enormous chocolate doors,
“Three… fillies? Interesting… send them in, by all means!” Discord said as he waved his claw to her, Fluttershy backing away slowly before running to the doors and slowly pulled one of them open,
“Right… this way girls.” A pegasus, unicorn and earth pony filly walked through, the earth pony looking up at Fluttershy and cringing as she saw her, the same reaction coming from the other two fillies as well, the earth pony speaking in a noticeably southern accent,
“You really don‘ look too good Fluttershy… Maybe you should lay down for a bit.” Fluttershy paused for a moment as she stared down at them before slowly shaking her head with a sigh,
“Master Discord wouldn‘t allow that. There‘s much too much work to be done around the castle for me to take any breaks Applebloom.” The pegasus said nothing more as she walked past them and closed the door leaving the three opposite Discord, the spirit of chaos waving for them to approach him. Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle all approached Discord, the spirit giving both an amused and slightly irritated look,
“Oh, it‘s you three again. Didn‘t I already tell you that you could have your little tree house as long as you didn‘t bother me?” Applebloom spoke up, the farm filly nodding towards him as she took another step forward,
“We were just wonderin’ if… we could see our sisters and Scootaloo could see Rainbow Dash mister Discord.” Discord gave an amused chuckle as he leaned his head on his bear hand, looking at the Cutie Mark Crusaders with an amused grin,
“It really doesn‘t matter to me what you do. The only reason we have the deal we do is because you three hastened my escape from that statue. Of course, about your requests… Applejack and Rainbow Dash are no longer here I‘m afraid.” Discord looked at the shocked faces of the three while waving his claw at them, “Of her other friends, little Twilight Sparkle chose those two to be brought back from being in stone in exchange for Princess Luna here.” To Discord’s sides were statues of the two princesses. Princess Celestia to his right and princess Luna to his left from where he was sitting facing the girls and he motioned to Luna as he spoke her name, “Rarity is hard at work creating banners to be hung about the castle depicting my own brilliance. Go see her if you really want to just leave when you‘re done and don‘t mess anything up. The girls have got the castle just the way I like it.” Discord went back to watching the orb as the Crusaders left out a door to the side and walked down the hallway, Scootaloo looking to the other two from Applebloom’s right,
“So what are we going to do about rescuing everypony? Discord‘s probably gonna turn us to stone too if he catches on to us.” Sweetie Belle let out a sigh, shaking her head a bit as the three fillies walked down the chocolate halls of the castle,
“I really don‘t think there‘s anything we CAN do right now.” Applebloom spoke up, smiling a bit as she looked from Sweetie Belle to Scootaloo,
“Come on gals, we can‘t lose hope. There‘s always a chance that Twilight can find a way to beat Discord and besides, now she‘s got mah big sis Applejack and Rainbow Dash with her!” Both fillies grinned in response to Applebloom’s words and nodded towards her as Sweetie Belle pushed open a door and the three heard Rarity’s voice singing with a bit of a sadness to it,
“Stitch by stitch, stitching it together…” Rarity then sighed as she stopped working and dropped her head. She was the same stony shade of grey as Fluttershy was and sported the same collar as well. Around her were numerous black and red banners depicting Discord’s face; some spread out and some rolled up against the wall. Rarity looked terrible as well, her eyes had bags under them indicating she wasn’t getting the sleep she normally got and her mane was in tangles, split ends here and there, even on her tail. The unicorn paused as Scootaloo closed the door and looked up at the three, her eyes slowly scanning them before she laid her head back on the desk, “I don‘t want you to see me like this Sweetie Belle… why would you three come here anyway?” Rarity rose her head a moment later, giving them a rather sorrowful expression as Sweetie Belle walked over to Rarity’s workstation and rose up on her hind legs, planting her front hooves against the table she was working on and smiled towards her,
“To try and cheer you up of course! And Discord told us that Applejack and Rainbow Dash are with Twilight now so I‘m sure they‘ll find a way to save all of Ponyville and all of you too!” Rarity’s expression seemed to darken a little as Sweetie Belle finished talking and the unicorn started working again, running her hooves across the red and black fabrics as she passed them through the sewing machine in front of her,
“Sure she will. Discord has the Elements of Harmony and Twilight has Rainbow Dash and Applejack so… literally nothing. We‘re being enslaved here while she‘s out running around doing Celestia knows what!” Rarity gave a growl as she looked towards the girls with a look of resentment, “She is NOT going to save us and it‘s foolish to even think that way and the sooner you three get that through your heads the better now…” Rarity raised her voice as her expression became angrier, “GET OUT! I have much work to be done!” Sweetie Belle stamped her hoof in defiance while the other two crusaders looked intimidated by Rarity’s outburst of anger,
“You have to have faith that Twilight will come through in the end! Without hope what do you have?!” Rarity fell silent, simply staring at the filly for around twenty seconds before she spoke in a reserved and neutral tone,
“Exactly what I have now. If I did have hope that wouldn‘t change anything. Whatever Twilight is doing I couldn‘t be much help to her anyway I mean think about it. What are my talents? I‘m overly dramatic and I can make clothes. Really, how does that help in a world of chaos?” Sweetie Belled turned her back to the unicorn, hanging her head as she sighed softly,
“The Rarity I knew would never think that any of her friends would have abandoned her. I know full well that if Twilight had chosen you then you would have done everything you possibly could to help her. You also have magic Rarity and while you aren‘t as powerful as Twilight, you still have a unique and positive outlook when things get this bad…” Sweetie Belle looked back to her sister for a moment, tears having welled up in the filly’s eyes, “At least I thought you would.” Sweetie Belle then ran out of the room, followed quickly by the other two fillies leaving Rarity alone in the room once again. She silently watched the door as it closed before pausing for a few seconds and returning to her work, a neutral expression on her face.
Scootaloo and Applebloom ran after Sweetie Belle as she simply ran down the halls, tears falling behind her until she tripped and skidded a few feet, burying her face in her hooves as she sobbed loudly. Applebloom and Scootaloo trotted over to her, Scootaloo leaning down and nuzzling her lightly making the unicorn raise her head and sniff a few times as her crying slowed, “Come on Sweetie Belle… you know Rarity better than any of us. It must be Discord‘s magic that‘s making her think that way!” Sweetie Belle took a moment to regain herself, sniffing back tears for a short while before slowly nodding to the other two,
“Y-Yeah I guess you‘re right…” Applebloom looked to the other two with a smile,
“Should we go ask mister Discord where Pinkie Pie is? Maybe we can cheer her up a bit… unless she‘s still all springy and happy.” The other two crusaders nodded to her and they all ran back to the throne room, approaching Discord seeing him laying in a hammock tied to the statues of the two princesses as he basks in sunlight seeming to come from nowhere at all. He wears sunglasses as well and tilts them down as he hears them approach,
“What do you three want now…?” Applebloom was the one who spoke next, smiling lightly towards the spirit of chaos,
“We were just wonderin‘ where Pinkie Pie might be. We were sure you‘d know.” Discord fell silent, seeming slightly disturbed by their question and he sat up in the hammock, letting it tilt so he slid back into his throne and looked to them all,
“Girls I‘m going to tell you something. There are multiple forms of chaos.” Discord rose three fingers on his eagle claw, pointing to one after another as he spoke, “Physical chaos, the changing of one‘s physical being into something chaotic. Psychological chaos, which deals more with making one‘s mind chaotic with different thoughts. And finally there is environmental chaos, the changing out the landscape to be, well, chaotic.” Discord leaned back in his throne, laying his arms on the armrests, “Little Pinkie Pie, however has fallen out of my jurisdiction. There is a difference between chaos… and madness.”
“Wha‘da‘ya mean mister Discord?” Discord shook his head as he looked to the three, his eyes drifting from Applebloom to the door to his left,
“You might as well see for yourself. Through that door, the final door at the end of the hallway.” The three fillies were silent as they walked through the door but Scootaloo spoke up as she looked to the others after they closed the door,
“What do you guys think Discord meant by madness?” The two fillies shook their heads as they walked, but each of them stopped cold as they saw what was at the end of the hallway. Whilst every other door in the hallway was made of chocolate, the final door seemed to be wrought iron, similar to the highest caliber prison doors. Applebloom motioned to the side, a tall dresser against the wall and the other two nodded, the three pushing it up to the door and they all hopped up onto it, peering through the small window at the top of the door.
Pinkie Pie sat in the center of the room before them, the walls were solid white and the room was brightly illuminated by a single bulb at the top of the room that would occasionally flicker. Pinkie Pie’s usually poofy mane was hanging down and straight along with her tail which was laying against the floor. She was faced away from them, her face covered by her mane till Applebloom spoke up, “Pinkie Pie…?” Pinkie Pie was silent for nearly a minute as the crusaders watched her, but before a minute had passed they heard her voice,
“Come on everypony… smile, smile, smile…” Her voice had an eerie tone too it, as if it was both horrified and overjoyed at the same time, the tone of pure insanity, “Fill my heart up with… sunshine…” Pinkie Pie slowly turned her head, her eyes bloodshot and lifeless, but as she stared at them, fear began welling up quickly inside of the fillies as Pinkie’s smile grew wide, “You‘ve come? Come to see your good friend Pinkie Pie in this place?” Pinkie Pie slowly stood and turned around, fully facing them with a sadistic smile on her face, “He was so nice to give Pinkie Pie her own room. But chocolate rooms can be so messy so she decided to change it!” Pinkie Pie rushed up to the bars, pressing her face to them as the crusaders were knocked off the dresser and looked up at her from the floor, the grey pony staring down at them all with wide eyes, “It can be so boring in here though, no way to set up parties to have with Pinkie‘s best friends in the whole world. You three… have you come to let Pinkie out? Release her from this prison and back into the beautiful chaos of this world?!” The three of them shook their heads and Pinkie Pie paused for a moment before her head disappeared from the bars, her voice still echoing out to them,
“Girls. Can you come back up to the bars please?” Pinkie Pie’s tone had changed and seemed more normal then before, the crusaders looking to one another hesitantly before they all climbed back up onto the dresser and peered into the room. Pinkie was sitting in the center of the room again but was facing them, “To be abandoned, and be alone in a world like this… some minds simply can‘t comprehend it. As you all know…” Pinkie Pie looked down with a sigh, her eyes having become more normal as well as she looked to the floor, “I draw my own emotions from those around me and I do all I can to make others happy because that‘s how I become so happy myself. Go. Find Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash and tell me how they‘re doing…” Pinkie Pie gave another sigh as she laid down, burying her head in her hooves, “The only one who smiles here is Discord… I can‘t be happy knowing that my friends are so sad and there‘s nothing I can do to help them.” Pinkie rose her head as a tear dropped to the floor, “I have to stay in here because… There are only brief moments like this where I can even have control over my own mind. Go now and find out if they‘re safe, it will give me something to smile about because… I know Twilight chose Applejack and Rainbow Dash instead of either Fluttershy, Rarity or myself and that‘s okay but… if you see them tell them what‘s happening here… and tell them I still love and miss them dearly.” The three fillies nodded with determined looks and turned, leaving Pinkie Pie and ran down the hallway and out of the castle towards Ponyville.
Outside of Canterlot Scootaloo hopped onto her scooter, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom getting into a small wagon attached to it before Scootaloo beat her wings, sounding like a motor as she began moving, although was careful on the soapy road. Applebloom spoke up as they continued down towards Ponyville in the distance,
“So let‘s head back to the clubhouse and figure out how we‘re gonna find Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow!” The scooter sped down the road, Scootaloo swerving expertly on the road.
It took the girls a good two hours of straight riding to get all the way back to their clubhouse and they headed inside quickly as they arrived. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle laid down on the floor and Applebloom walked over dragging a large sheet of paper along with her and as she laid down she flipped it and placed it between them. On the paper was a map of Equestria, expertly detailed depicting various landmarks and locations, “Okay girls where do ya think we should look for ‘em?” Scootaloo brought a hoof to her chin and laid her other hoof on the castle of Canterlot,
“Well we can cross off Canterlot since there‘s no way any of them would go there again.” Sweetie Belle looked over to Applebloom, tilting her head a little as she smiled, laying her hoof on the map and slid it over to Ponyville,
“I think we should start in Ponyville and spread out from there.” Scootaloo stood up and trotted over to the wall, taking her cape from the wall and tied it around her neck, turning back to the other two fillies with a grin,
“Well what are we waiting for? Let‘s go crusaders!” The three spoke at the same time after they packed saddlebags for themselves and put on their capes,
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FRIEND FINDERS YAY!” The crusaders jumped from the balcony of the clubhouse and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom hopped into the wagon and Scootaloo grinned as she hopped onto her scooter and the three sped off towards Ponyville. Applebloom unfolded the map as they sped through Sweet Apple Acers and began pointing to different locations,
“If we don‘ find ‘em in Ponyville where should we head next?” Sweetie Belle looked over to the map and brought a hoof to her chin,
“Let‘s check Ponyville first and then head back to the clubhouse before so we can make a list of places to check.” They continued through Ponyville for a number of minutes, arriving at Twilight’s library and went inside, looking around slowly as they entered and Scootaloo closed the door, the three spreading out and walking through the library. The crusaders proceeded through Ponyville, checking each landmark and area around town before they ended up back at the farm, Applebloom watching Big Macintosh digging holes and disappearing into the ground along with barking occasionally and acting like a dog,
“Ah can‘t wait till all of this chaos is fixed and everythin‘s back to normal again.” Scootaloo sped over to the tree house and the girls walked up the ramp leading to the door, Sweetie Belle closing the door after they had all walked inside,
“Okay so they‘re not in Ponyville so we can cross that off the list of places now.” Scootaloo paused as she walked back over onto the carpet and sat down looking from Sweetie Belle to Applebloom,
“Hey… what if they‘re looking for the Quill of Eternity like Written Dreams was?” The girls brought their hooves to their chins as they thought about Scootaloo’s words,
“Actually I‘m fairly certain you three are right about that.” The three fillies looked over with a gasp, their gazes locking on the door as it opened, a dark blue pegasus with a silver mane and tail trotting in and smiling to them all before he takes a step back and his eyes widen as the crusaders tackle him to the floor giggling and nuzzling him,
“Mister Dreams is back!” Written Dreams laughs and waves his hoof, trying to get the girls to get off of him,
“Okay, okay girls, come on, that‘s enough.” The fillies get off him a few moments later and sit in front of him as he stands back up and sits before them with a light smile, “I came back to see if you three want to take me up on the offer I gave you all when I got here.” He then raised a hoof as the crusaders opened their mouths to respond and shook his head, “Take a few days to think it over. I‘ve got the next clue to the quill so I‘ll be back soon. Oh…” He grins towards them, “It seems that there are three mares following the clues as well. When they get here no doubt they‘d like to learn about both the first time I came here and the time I came here to get the clue myself. And… if you could not tell them about me showing up here just now, that would be good. I‘d prefer they go through the clues as I did. I‘m really amazed at how fast they‘re making progress through the clues on their own.” The three nod to him with bright smiles on their faces and Written Dreams turned to the door before looking back to them, “Just wait here for them girls. I‘ll be back in a few days to check up on you.” He gives them all a gentle smile, “I‘m glad you‘re all still safe.” He closed the door behind him and took off into the sky, flying at an incredibly fast speed and disappeared from sight after only a few moments. The sun soon set, the twilight sky soon being shrouded in the dark blues of night.