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// Treachery on a Cloud 
// Story: Aspects of Chaos 
// by LordLycaon 
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	Celestia had just finished raising the sun for the day, and was now going through some important paperwork that she had been putting off. Paperwork. That stuff was the bane of her existence as the ruler of Equestria. She wished she didn't have to deal with all of it, but it was a requirement that all leaders needed to meet.

"Helloooo, Celestia," called a familiar voice from out of nowhere. The alicorn's head shot up from her work in surprise as her quill and papers began dancing around seemingly by themselves. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

Celestia sighed and said, "Stop it, Discord. This is important work that I'm doing right now."

In a brief flash of light, the spirit of chaos himself appeared, floating over Celestia's desk with mischievous grin on his face. "Oh, come now, Celestia, don't be such a bore! I've been cooped up in this palace of yours for so long, I almost feel like I'm beginning to make sense!"

"You're free to visit Twilight and the others anytime you wish," Celestia pointed out. "You know that, right?"

"Of course I do! But I aim to make you give me a big ol' grin before I go anywhere! Now, let's see…" Discord began scanning the room, looking for something he could use that would lighten Celestia's mood a little. His eyes settled on a window pane that bore the image of Celestia and Luna raising the sun and moon for the first time respectively. "Hmm. This might work!"

"Discord," Celestia said in a warning tone.

"Relax, Celestia, I know what I'm doing," he assured her with an easy-going wink. He snapped the fingers on his eagle talon hand, and the images of Celestia and Luna began dancing in ballet styles, with the sun and moon spiraling in unison with their respective controllers. Celestia had to admit that it was sort of an entertaining sight.

And that's about when things started getting freaky. The tiny Celestia and Luna stopped dancing and began to crumble away. Celestia's eyes went wide at that. "Discord!"

"Okay, I did not do that," Discord said in his own defense.

"Who else could do something like that?"

Discord was about to answer when his lion paw right hand began to glow. "I am definitely NOT doing this!"

"Discord!" Celestia shouted, worrying about the master of chaos for the very first time. "What's happening to you!?"

"I don't know!" he shouted as six lights suddenly burst out of his chest and broke through the window pane that Discord had enchanted. After several moments of heavy panting, Discord had caught his breath again and looked out the window, Celestia doing the same. "That can't be good."

-o-

Fluttershy trotted happily through her garden, stopping occasionally to water flowers where they needed it. A few animals were helping her with her chores, most of them having already been helped by the yellow pegasus and returning the favor. She hummed a sweet melody as she went on working.

Her pet bunny Angel hopped up to the small carrot patch and sniffed at the plants. He licked his lips as he decided that they were ready to eat, and began tugging at one of them. Fluttershy giggled when she saw this and approached the plant that Angel was struggling with.

"Hang on, Angel Bunny," she said with a smile. She leaned forward and bit onto the leaf and pulled the carrot out of the ground, then laid it down for Angel. "There you go! Enjoy your snack." She looked over the whole area where she grew her fruits and vegetables. Everything looked ready to be eaten. "Hmm. Maybe I'll call Applejack over to help with picking everything." She continued watering the flowers in the garden, but stopped when she heard what sounded like shouting.

Out of nowhere, a lavender form rammed into her. She and the form tumbled away until they collided with Fluttershy's cottage's wall.

"Ow…" muttered the lavender alicorn who had tackled the pegasus. Twilight Sparkle looked down at Fluttershy's dizzied form. "Oh, no! Fluttershy, I'm sorry! I'm still getting used to these wings." She flapped the feathery limbs to demonstrate her point.

"Oh, that's okay," Fluttershy replied with an understanding smile as Twilight helped her back up. "I bet that I would have been a total goof if I had grown a unicorn horn and could suddenly use magic."

Twilight nodded with a slight laugh. "It is a pretty difficult field to master."

"Hey!" called a third voice. A rainbow blur appeared and stopped above the two to reveal a cyan mare with a rainbow mane and tail. "Geez, Twilight, that's the fourth time you've crashed into somepony! Come on! We gotta keep practicing if you want to fly the right way!"

"Sorry, Rainbow!" Twilight said. "I'll be back with you in a minute, okay?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said, "All right, five minute break. But we've still got a whole training regimen to cover before lunch! I'll be at Sugarcube Corner." With that said, the cyan pegasus flew off to her destination.

Fluttershy giggled a little. "I guess flight practice isn't going too well? Er… I mean… um…"

"It's okay, Fluttershy," Twilight said with a reassuring smile. "Rainbow's pretty much transformed into a drill sergeant. She barely tolerates even the smallest failure. It's sort of ironic, considering how she crashes into something just about every time she goes flying."

Fluttershy giggled. "Well, I don't want to keep you. You really should get going. You know how impatient Rainbow can get."

"Oh, right!" Twilight darted away then. "See you later, Fluttershy!" she called back to her friend with a wave of her hoof. The yellow pegasus waved back at her friend as the lavender alicorn left. She smiled happily as she went back to her daily chores. It was the same daily grind as usual for everypony. Except Twilight had wings now. That was the only real difference.

-o-

Twilight hummed a tune as she trotted through town to Sugarcube Corner, a smile on her face. It had been a week since she became an alicorn and was crowned a princess, but everything remained relatively the same. Granted, sometimes ponies would bow to her when she was out running errands with Spike, but that was mostly when she didn't realize that her wings were unfolded.

Speaking of which, flying was nowhere near as easy as Rainbow Dash sometimes made it look. She was making decent progress, thankfully enough, thanks to Rainbow and a few books on flying that Princess Celestia had given her. Still, she had quite a ways to go before she could call herself an expert flier.

Just as she arrived at Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow Dash suddenly flew out of the front door, but not of her own accord. She landed in a way that looked like she had been kicked out.

"Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted indignantly and she got back onto her feet. "What the hay was that for!?"

"You've got some nerve, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie replied angrily. "Coming back here after what you did! And I thought Gilda the Griffon was a jerk!" With that, she harrumphed and went back inside the bakery.

"Rainbow, what did you do?" Twilight asked with concern for her friends.

"How should I know?" Rainbow replied with a confused look. "The place was a mess when I came in, and Pinkie Pie just freaked out and gave me the boot!"

Twilight looked over at Sugarcube Corner, then back to her friend. "Don't worry, Rainbow. I'll talk to her. I'm sure this is just some big misunderstanding." Rainbow nodded as Twilight headed for the sweets shop.

As she entered the building, she stopped dead in her tracks. The whole place looked like a tornado had blown through it. Cake batter and icing and flour were scattered all over the place. Pinkie Pie was busy scrubbing the floor when Twilight came in. "Pinkie, what happened in here?"

"Rainbow happened, that's what!" Pinkie answered in an uncharacteristically angry tone. "She just charged in here last night while I was managing the store for the Cakes and created a tornado for no reason! Then she put all the blame on me! Can you believe that!?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Twilight said as she shook head in disbelief. "Rainbow wouldn't do something like that. She would never leave her friends out to dry like that!"

"Well, she did seem a bit… off the other night," Pinkie pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

The pink mare put a hoof to her chin. "Well, she just laughed at me like a total jerk when I offered her some cake. She said she didn't need anything like that from an 'idiot loser.' And now that I think about it, she looked kinda dull."

"Dull?"

"Yeah! Like when Discord turned us all into our opposite selves! She looked a little gray, almost like she was losing color."

Twilight thought on that for a moment. "I don't like this. I certainly hope Discord isn't up to his old tricks again. Fluttershy went through a whole lot to reform him." Just then, Spike came running into the bakery, a scroll in his claw.

"Twilight! We just got a letter from…" He stopped and looked around the room. "Whoa. What happened here?"

"Never mind that, Spike," Twilight stated as she came up to the young dragon. "I take it that's a letter from Princess Celestia?"

"Yep," Spike said as the recently crowned princess levitated the scroll with her magic and quickly read through it.

"'Twilight,'" she began. "'You and the others must hurry to Canterlot immediately. I fear that a new threat is now looming over Equestria. I will tell you more once you arrive. Also, the Elements of Harmony may be needed. Signed, Princess Celestia.' Oh, this doesn't sound good at all."

"I'll go tell the Cakes that we've been called by the princess," Pinkie said as she dashed off to do just that.

Twilight and Spike left the bakery, and were quickly confronted by Rainbow Dash. "Well?" the pegasus mare asked. "What's her problem?"

"Sorry, Rainbow, but we've something bigger going on," Twilight said. She informed Rainbow of the princess's letter. Understanding the situation, Rainbow nodded and flew off to get the others. Twilight then hurried off to fetch the Elements of Harmony with Spike by her side. This sounded like a dire situation.

-o-

A lone pegasus laughed as she reclined on a small cloud. She couldn't believe she actually got away with that! It was just plain awesome! Now all she had to do was continue ruining Rainbow Dash's reputation, and soon, she'd be golden.

"Monochrome," said a female voice. The gray-haired pegasus looked up at the newcomer – another pegasus – and smirked. "Come on. Dusk wants us back soon. Now move your sorry flank before I move it for you!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Mal," Monochrome replied as she lay back down on the cloud. "I'll be there whenever I feel like it."

"Hmph. Well, don't come crying to me when she turns you inside out for insubordination." With that, the other pegasus flew off. Monochrome watched the pony soar away with cocky grin.

"Like you're one to talk," she said to no one in particular. She crossed her forelegs and watched as Rainbow Dash flew around town in search of the other representatives of the Elements of Harmony. She grinned at the futility of it all. They would never be able to stop her and her "comrades."