//------------------------------// // A Chaotic Nightmare Night // Story: Five months of Chaos // by The Blackcuno //------------------------------// Twilight’s crystal castle’s walls were, for a lack of a better term, the only thing stopping the shear amount of chaos magic from breeching its basements confines and flooding Equestria in pure unbridled chaos. The basement had been enlarged by use of a normal magical spell to be bigger on the inside than the out and thus allowed for the pair of draconequi to do chaos magic without the need of massive tracks of land. Sitting neatly, on a cloud made entirely off pink cotton candy was Discord, the lord of chaos and teacher to the newer Draconequus Twilight. She had a scrunched up expression on her face and was trying to comprehend the complexity of the chaos magic. “So, as I was saying before you decided to blow up my example in a shower of Tofu; Each Draconequus as a unique Chaos magic signature that makes them unique much like ponies. For the most part, mine is like your normal magic of being Jack of all trades, master of none” Discord explained. “You however cannot be that so your chaos magic, from what I can tell at this stage, is food related” “Food?” Twilight said as her face went from a scowl to a confused one in a micro second. “So that’s why I’m leaving behind food stuffs when I teleport” “I’m surprised you can even do that” Discord mentioned nonchalantly. Twilight scowled again before sighing and falling backwards into her signature taffy cloud. “You seem to grasp the basic principles of chaos magic easy enough, all you need to do now is well-“ “-Well what is it that I need to do?” Twilight asked stopping Discord in mid-sentence. “Practice” Discord mentioned waving his paw around. “Simply put, practising your magic will allow you to judge what you can and cannot do” “You seem to know an awful lot about magic Discord, you know more than you’re letting on” Twilight said accusingly. Discord smiled and placed a paw over his chest. “Guilty as charged; After all having a few years of reigning before Celestia and Luna as well as more years before that still, I know a thing or two about chaos magic” he said nonchalantly whilst waving his hand. “Now then, anything else you need to know my dear?” Twilight shook her head at the comment as her brain refused to take on more information. That entire morning Discord, though in a costume that made him look like Albert Einstein, had basically gave her the basic principles of chaos magic. it was remarkable that it was so simular to her normal magic but at the same time it was so strange and foreign, like going to a restaurant you know and love in a different country only to find it serves your normal food but with rice instead of chips. It wasn’t until she thought about it that it all started to make a sort of sense in a weird roundabout route. “I have no further questions for you at this time Discord. So I guess that’s it for today” “Excellent, now then time for some fun” Discord said happily as he flashed to an alternate part of the room. “Now then my dear Twilight, whilst we have lunch, I want to hear everything that the princess’ had to say about your new form.” He conjured up a plate of sandwiches to which Twilight rolled her eyes. She flumped back into her own cloud. “What’s there to say, they basically told me to be careful about the chaos magic that’s all; Oh and that if I remain like this they will not hold it against me” Twilight said, summoning up her own sandwiches, a combination of cheese, capsicum, mayonnaise and cucumber. Taking one in her dragon claw she bit into it and near swallowed it whole. “I see, so they didn’t mention anything else?” he asked, Twilight could tell straight up Discord was prying for more information but decided to play along with his games, after all two are needed to play a game of wits. “Nope, that’s it” she lied just as fast to cover it up. “That’s it? Seriously now; do they not realise the sheer complexity of this issue!” he snarled. Twilight was taken aback by the sudden shift in character. She was confused as he sighed. “A Draconequus is a being of pure chaos, one does not simply wave that off like Celestia’s cake fantasies or Luna’s addiction to modern day gaming.” “How has that got anything to do with them not telling me anything?” Twilight asked. Discord smiled before leaning into his hands. “Draconequus are innately drawn to chaos magic, to not use it would be like a Pegasus refusing to fly or a Unicorn that cannot cast magic. To refuse to do so is to refuse the nature of them to begin with” Discord explained. Twilight seemed to be interested to say the least. “Hence why you had your little, Chaos stint with the princess’s a few months back” “Okay so how does one stay on top of it?” “Simple” Discord said, snapping his fingers changing the room to that of a war room like set up with a massive map of ponyville in the centre. “You do little things of chaos magic such as pranks etc., the larger the chaos that ensues the better the results. Though be warned about this. Too much chaos and well, you go a touch looney or it spirals out of control and you lose your mind.” “Looney?” “Well look at the supposed ‘King Sombra’, he used Chaos magic and went insane, as did I actually too but that’s beside the point” “So if I don’t use chaos magic, I go nuts. If I use too much I go nuts. So either way I’m going to go nuts?” “Not necessarily, like I said. Chaos has a fine line that we must walk. Alas, such is the nature and base desires of a Draconequus” he mentioned, snapping his fingers the room change to be a tiled pattern of purple and a deep yellow with a red star in the middle. He looked over at Twilight before appearing to her side. “Now then, I best be off as I have a lunch date with dear old Fluttershy, Ta-ta for now” Twilight would strangle the Draconequus if she could but reached into thin air before moaning in annoyance. Rolling her eyes she pondered what Discord had said for well over an hour before snapping her fingers to change the room back. Nothing happened, so she tried four more times before a doll of Discord appeared. “Also, chaos magic is unaffected by other chaos magic so if you were to do something I cannot revert it back and vice versa ta-ta” Twilight gritted her teeth once more before letting out a cry of anger and storming off to her study, a storm cloud hanging above her head dropping drops of cream on her head as she went. A few days passed once more only to bring it to the night of Nightmare Moon, or Nightmare Night as it’s known across the land of Equestria, and it was Spike who was begging Twilight to do something rather rash for the night. She had enough now and was on the verge of blowing something up with Chaos magic. “For the last time Spike I said no! I’m not about to do this for you so you can woo Rarity, not going to happen” she snapped back as the Dragon rolled his eyes. “But-“ “I said no, now I’m expecting her to arrive later today anyway so be off with you, take the day off or something” Twilight said waving her white lion hand about. “Fine I will!” Spike shouted slamming the door to her study. Twilight yelped as she realised that her tail had been caught in the door frame and was now throbbing in pain. She had not told Spike of her plan along with Rarity so it was supposed to be a surprise for him alone. A knock at the front door broke her out of the book she was reading and with a snap she teleported to the front door where Rarity was waiting for her. “I saw Spiky Wikey run off in a hurry, I hope he hasn’t been too much of a handful” Rarity asked, Twilight nodded before letting her friend walk past her. “Oh dear I hope it’s not a problem” “I told him no. get this, he wants me to use my magic to change him into a pony for Nightmare Night” Twilight said as Rarity chuckled in response to the baby dragons antics. “Isn’t that what you’re going to do with me now?” Rarity chided to which Twilight sighed. “Well, yes, but a Pony is different to a spell resistant dragon like Spike” Twilight mentioned before looking at Rarity. “Now are you sure about this, I don’t even know if this will work” “Twilight, Just do it before I need to rebuild the courage to do this again” Rarity said, she saw Twilight nod before she heard a snap of the dragon claw then nothing. Twilight was freaking out now as Rarity’s eyes fluttered open. “Buck, Buck, Buck why was I so stupid to accept this, Celestia is going to imprison me in stone for this!” “Twilight what are you- What happened to my voice?” Rarity asked as her voice sounded off to her. She saw the Draconequus floating around in circles above her before stopping when she heard her voice. “Rarity, you’re okay, oh thank Celestia” Twilight said steadying her breathing to a point when she wasn’t hyperventilating. “Don’t worry I can fix this” “What happened?” she asked trying to move, as she did she slammed into the crystal floor and caught a reflection. Staring back at her was not the Unicorn face she was accustomed but something else entirely. A subtly older, but no less intimidating, face of a teenage dragoness. She looked down at her fore hooves and then at Twilight. She mouthed the word ‘Dragon’ over and over before passing out once more and with a solid thwack landed on the floor once more, head bouncing off the coffee table leaving a massive dent in the crystal, if that was possible. Twilight proceeded to panic further until she got another look at Rarity. Silvery white scales with deep purple ear fins akin to Spikes but instead of them being pointed upright they were pointing down. A pair of wings adorned her back to the natural size of a Dragon of her age in comparison to dragon’s years. “Oh my, when I said ‘Let loose’ I didn’t mean turn a friend into a dragon” Discords voice chided as Twilight spun to see him standing there with Fluttershy in tow. The Pegasus had a saddle bag on her back ready with her attire for the evening ahead. “But kudos to you Twilight, though I wonder if slamming her head on the table was a good thing” “That- D-d-dragon is Rarity?” Fluttershy stammered getting a good look at the ‘Teenager’ dragon. “Oh my I do hope she is okay?” “Well she just passed out and hit her head on the table” Twilight mentioned showing that the coffee table had a massive dent in the crystal the size of Rarity’s new head in the table. for some reason though, Rarity was unharmed from the impact, aside from some crystal dust on her forehead. “But I had to keep it from Spike as he- well he wanted to be a pony this year” Discord clapped his hands before snapping his fingers causing a confused Spike to appear before him. “I had to” “Discord, put me back now” Spike said waving his fists at Discord to who looked at him with a serious expression plastered on his face. “No, Twilight here has something she needs to say” Discord said with a little bit more of a serious tone. “Don’t you my dear?” “Fine, Spike, listen the reason why I won’t turn you into a pony is-“ “-my head is killing me, Twilight why did you not warn me” Rarity called out from the couch. Spike looked over a white head emerged from over the back. “Spike, well this is most certainly an-“ “-Rarity?” “Of course darling, we wanted to surprise you for tonight with this” Rarity explained as she walked out on unsteady legs. “Rarity, you became a dragon willingly?” Fluttershy meeped as Discord let Spike go. He then crossed his arms. “Well this isn’t going to work now is it, allow me” Discord commented looking at how Spike was shorter by a good head when compared to the dragoness Rarity. “Discord what are you-“Twilight called out as he snapped his own claw. A flash of light later and instead of looking down at Spikes eyes, Rarity was staring at a chest this time, of emerald green. “What did you do to- My voice dear Celestia what just happened?” Spike asked looking at his slightly larger claws. “I cannot allow for a child to ‘Date’ an older lady so for tonight I have corrected it” Discord mentioned. “You could have warned me about this” Spike snarled back as Discord smirked. “Huh, wings, that’s new. Uh Rarity are you okay there? Because my face is now up here and those are my- whoa Discord what did you do?” Rarity’s embarrassment was showing behind her new coat of white scales as a soft red. An Apt thing to do when you’re looking at the teenage version of Spike who looked as though he had been to a gym at least 3 times a week. “Well I must say, shall we enjoy this? “ “Uh Rarity, this is awkward” Spike said rubbing the back of his head blushing hard. Twilight had to stifle a laugh with Discord grinning from ear to ear at the situation at hand. “Well I think we should leave the pair to their own devices. Twilight, perchance are you free for this evening? Seeing as it’s the night of scares I think –“ “-Discord are you asking me out?” Twilight asked genuinely shocked at the idea of him asking over her more than anything. The Draconequus looked at her firm expression before nodding sheepishly like some child being told off. “Sure, most Nightmare Nights I spend indoors anyway after walking around the town and it will be a good test of chaos magic” Discord smiled, it was going to be pure chaos that’s for certain tonight. Twilight and Discord kept to the skies of Ponyville observing the area for any forms of screams they could come up with as Luna’s moon crested the horizon signalling for the festivities to begin. The pair seemed to be more interested in observing where they could cause chaos than actually partaking in the night’s activities. Though they both watched Spike and Rarity catch the eyes of most the town folk and decided to stalk them for fun. Said dragon’s was now waiting at the Apple bobbing station with Applejack and Big Mac dressed up as Vam-ponies. “Uh Spike is that you?” Applejack asked as the now teenage dragon nodded walking up to the stall. The apple bob stall she was attending to was currently being re-stocked of apples after they all suddenly became wedges of cheese to a laughing Twilight and Discord. “And, whoa nelly who in tarnation is that?” “Applejack is that anyway to talk to a lady dragon?” Rarity said twirling as she did to show off her form, going so far as to make Spike even more embarrassed than what he already was. “Rarity, how in tarnation-“ Applejack asked as a pair of voices laughing out loud enough for her to see the white and pink clouds above them. “-Ah’l right, Twi did you do this?” “Rarity’s idea not mine” Twilight said leaning over the cloud’s edge. “Besides, what’s the harm in it?” “Harm, she’s now a Dragon for Celestia’s sake” Applejack said firmly. “That’s like-“ “Relax, I only did it for tonight alone so nothing wrong with it” Twilight said. “And Spike is enjoying it aren’t you” “Thanks for the embarrassing moment ‘mom’” He muttered in annoyance to which Rarity grabbed his arm and yanked it hard. The resulting yank caused him to loose balance for a moment to which Rarity used the opportunity to drag him away from them all, tail entwining with his causing more embarrassment. “Awe, young dragon love” Discord mentioned as Twilight smirked as to his comment. “It’s adorable, the females, I have you know, are much more ‘vicious’ than the male during that age.” “So long as it’s only tonight then we will be fine” Applejack said, she then noticed how Twilight had absent minded tied her tail to discords. “And what about you two huh? Hanging out like that some would think your dating.” “My dear Applejack, nothing seems to escape your perceptive eye. I simply asked Twilight out, is that so much to ask, or do I need your approval to ask her out. Last I checked her mother was in Canterlot” Discord mentioned seeing that the farm pony’s normal demeanour was still there. He made a mental note to break it “Ah still don’t trust yah after that little incident with Tirek” Applejack stated harshly. “I was misguided is all” Discord said solemnly. Twilight rolled her eyes as he sniggered before rolling over in the cloud. “Now then, perhaps some more chaos is needed elsewhere, we have already caused enough chaos here” “You, ah should have guessed the cheese was your idea Discord” “Did you actually taste the cheese?” Twilight asked, Big Mac looked at the wedges and bit one. “See, Apple flavoured Cheese, thought it was a bit different to apple bobbing. Apple bobbing with cheese that tastes of apples” “How in tarnation did you manage that one?” Applejack asked astonished as she tried the last part offered to her from big Macintosh. “Actually forget I asked” “Chaos magic my friend AJ” Twilight mentioned waggling her finger. The pair then teleported away leaving the clouds to sit above the pair. “AH swear, if those two are hooking up then I’m going to take Pinkie up on chaos insurance” Applejack mentioned to her brother. The stallion nodded in agreement muttering only. “Eeyup” “A most frightening of night when you are near, my friend Twilight” Zecora stated, her attire the same from the previous years of a witch pony. “Though I am confused as to why your costume is so real and Discord with you” “Well, this isn’t a costume Zecora, I’m stuck like this for another what, two and a half months?” Twilight mentioned as she conversed with the zebra who smiled. “It matters not what the book looks like, but it’s the contents it contains that matter the most” “You dropped the rhyming it would seem” Twilight mentioned to which the Zebra chuckled. “That I most certainly did, for even I find it most tiering when it comes to rhyming” the Zebra said. “If I may enquire, how did this in turn transpired?” “Earrings apparently made by Discord” Twilight mentioned as the pair watched said Draconequus strut around causing laughter from the Fillies nearby. It was at this point a sharp twang in her head caused her to wince out in pain. The pain continued until something snapped in her head, Discord looked over and noticed that she was clutching her head in pain. “Oh Sun flank” he cursed. Summoning up a megaphone he tapped it a few times earning the attention of all around him. “Attention residents of ponyville, I would recommend you all duck for cover as we are about to have a massive surge of-“ He never finished the sentence as Twilight screamed out in pain before casting out a massive wave of chaos magic that increased in size until stopping at the borders of ponyville. Without any hesitation for his own self, he teleported to Twilights side, grabbed her and her head before she collapsed and opened one of her now tightly shut eyes, the pupil was looking up as though she had fainted. Glancing around the ponies all seemed confused as to what was going on that was until Scootaloo, who was dressed as a wolf, suddenly used her back leg to scratch her ear like a dog would. “Discord if you would please, Explain to me what just happened to keep me at ease” Zecora said as he noticed that Twilight was out cold. “Uh Scootaloo why are you scratching your ear like Winona would?” Applebloom asked as Scootaloo shrugged. “This is seriously bad” Discord muttered. Rainbow Dash, clad in a near perfect version of the Shadow bolts attire landed next to the pair of Draconequus. “Uh Discord what just happened?” Dash asked removing her purple tinted goggles. Behind her a pair of shadows seemed to manifest into three pegasai, each clad in the shadow bolts attire bowing to her. “Uh, explanation now please” Applejack was next to appear, Fangs visible over her bottom lip, cape draped over her flank and coat a lighter shade than normal but her eyes were ruby red like an apple skin. Following her though was Fluttershy; She was basically how she was during the Vampire Fruit bat issue last year, but wasn’t a rapid animal and semi composed. “Okay so what in tarnation was that and owe-“Applejack said rubbing her now bleeding lip. “Did ah just bite my lip?” “Hrm, interesting” Discord said tapping his chin when the screams of panic came from a pinkie Pie source. Said Mare was running around, her head detached from the neck down. “Oh dear” “Discord did you do this?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “My vampire bat Fluttershy I assure you it was not Discord but Twilight who has changed us all” Zecora mentioned as she looked around. “And for our costumes are now reality, if you give me five minutes I can wake her up with my special brew” “Please do as soon as you’re able” Fluttershy said looking around as more ponies became their costumes they were wearing for that night. “Now it would seem she has reawakened” Zecora said as Twilight blinked a few times, her head pounding. “Try and take it easy, fainting like that had us all on the edge” “What- I feel like a hammer just slammed into my head, from all directions” Twilight stated as she heard a collective sigh of relief from the gather ponies, dragons and lone Draconequus. “What happened?” “Discord?” Spike asked, his voice still in the deeper octave of being a teenager. “Can you explain?” “Well, basically, you know how unicorn foals have outbursts of uncontrollable magic?” Discord asked summoning up a set of paper cut outs that looked like the element bearers. “Usually they can be brought out of it by a parent or guardian” “And this is what precisely- Buck it!” Applejack swore again, “buck these teeth!” “That is very un-lady like you Applejack” Rarity said. “Bite me” Applejack snarled. “At least you don’t have to worry about fangs- Buck!” “Girls please, cease this please” Fluttershy said. The Dragon Rarity and Applejack Vampire continued to argue for another few moments until Fluttershy let loose a high pitched screech to stop the pair. “Thankyou. Now then Discord please continue to explain” “Well, same applies here. Twilight here had a little chaos magic outburst. Normally the parent would remove the ill effects with their own but in this case-“ “-Chaos magic can only be removed by the one casting it” Twilight finished. “Correct again, we should run a game show” Discord said as Twilight attempted to move. Her body simply refused to move at all. “But another thing. You used up nearly all of your magic in one shot so you need to recover” “And what about us, or the rest of the ponies affected around town, as much as I like being the headless pony, I would like to return to normal. But this still has it perks. Imagine my head sitting on a cake of my body, now there’s an idea” Pinkie asked, her head was resting on the still dented coffee table whilst her body did other things comically mind you. “Alas, as much as that’s morbid and curious; the correction will need to wait until she is recovered fully from this discharge” Discord said, “But I can-“ “-no” Discord snapped out of character, startling the ponies, “no buts on this one my dear. Chaos magic is not to be trifled with when you are exhausted like this, they can and will wait or the consequences will be direr than a form change for a few days. You will be resting for the next few days won’t you?” Twilight looked at her friends then at discord before shaking her head. “No, I need to fix this” she said, Discord was about to go off again when he heard the snapping of lions paws, but nothing happened. The snapping happened a few times more as Twilight looked confused. “What’s going on?” “Oh that’s simple. I blocked your magic, until such time as you’re fully recovered I won’t remove it” Discord said crossing his arms. “What, remove it now” twilight demanded. “I wont-“ he said crossing his arms in refusal. “Discord remove it now” “No I won’t” he said firmly back at the still weakened Twilight. “Discord now” “I won’t because If I do I will lose you and I cannot allow that to happen” The room went silent as they then noticed the one thing Discord would never do, only one other had seem him in this state and that was sun butt Celestia. They were about to ask why when he snapped his fingers and vanished from the room. “Spike send a message to Celestia now, explain everything to her” Twilight said getting up slowly only to collapse once more into the fore hooves of a pair of ‘shadow bolts’. “Uh who are these two?” “My flying team apparently. Take her to her room guys” “Sure thing captain” the pair said in unison hoisting the weakened twilight up by the arms and hefting her to the upper floors where her room was located.