//------------------------------// // Prologue - Chaos Theory // Story: Apple of Discord // by Permutator //------------------------------// Prologue - Chaos Theory * * * * “I will never use my Element of Harmony against you.” Fluttershy took off her butterfly-shaped necklace, the only thing standing between Discord and, well… everything else, and let it fall to the ground. As much as Applejack wanted Discord to fix the flooding in her farm, she had a feeling that her naïve friend had just made a very bad deal. “Excellent!” With a snap of Discord’s fingers, the flooding in Sweet Apple Acres was… frozen solid. “There, much better! I do prefer ice skating to water skiing, don’t you?” Ice skating. It looked like Discord was obeying his crazy whims instead of returning Fluttershy’s respect. What a surprise. Well, Fluttershy looked surprised, at least. “Discord! That’s not fixing it! Why, I oughta…” “It’s not? I’m afraid I don’t see what you mean, Fluttershy! This farm is better than it was before! Apples are boring. Ice skating,” he did a pirouette, “is fun!” He skated over to the ponies and dragon standing on the recently-created shore. “Ah, but I see the problem. I’m hogging all the fun to myself! How rude of me.” He snapped his fingers again, and seven sets of white ice skates appeared before them. “Whoa,” Spike remarked, looking down at his pair. “I’ve never seen dragon ice skates before.” “My own design.” Discord pointed to one scaly foot. “They’re quite comfortable.” Spike was getting distracted. “We don’t want to go ice skatin’ with you, Discord!” Applejack interjected. “What we want is for you to fix my farm!” Spike snapped out of it. “Yeah!” He kicked one skate a foot away from him. “If you don’t, we’ll turn you back to stone!” He picked up the Element of Kindness from the ground and offered it to Fluttershy. Fluttershy hesitated, looking angrily at Discord, then reluctantly at Spike, then back. Twilight chimed in. “It’s the only power we have over him, Fluttershy. The Princess will understand!” Fluttershy’s gaze settled on Discord. After spending a few seconds countering his smug smile with as much contempt as her face could express, she spoke. “I made a promise not to use my Element against him, and I’m going to keep it.” “Ta-daaa!” Discord did a few triumphant leaps and spins on the ice. “And that, my little ponies, is the power of integrity! Maybe now you can see why I don’t bother keeping my promises.” “Fluttershy!” Applejack had to agree with the crafty chimera on this one. “This is the Element of Honesty talkin’—there are some things more important than keepin’ promises!” “Yeah, he just broke a promise to you!” Rainbow Dash hovered near Fluttershy’s face. “An eye for an eye, right? Anything goes!” Fluttershy looked over her shoulder at her friends. Applejack was too busy looking at her pleadingly to see if the others were doing the same, but she could have guessed they were. “Oh, please.” Discord looked smug. “Can’t you see it’s pointless? Fluttershy’s too kind to break a promise. You might as well accept your fate and go skating with me! Would you like your skates in a different color?” He snapped his fingers once more, and seven pairs of bright orange skates appeared in addition to the ones already there. Rarity recoiled. “Or a different pattern?” he suggested. Snap. Now there were plaid skates of yellow and blue. “Oh, yes. That’s much better than white, far more wintery. In fact…” Waves of plaid spread out across the snow from where he stood, covering the landscape. Rarity raised a hoof to her forehead and fainted into the garish slush. “This snow looks tasty,” Pinkie Pie remarked. “Pinkie Pie, you know you’re not supposed to eat yellow snow, right?” Twilight lifted a hoof apprehensively. “It’s not just yellow. It’s yellow and blue! And together, that makes…” Pinkie mixed together the two colors with her hoof. “Red? Wow, that’s even yummier than green!” She buried her face in the snow and came back up looking delighted. “It tastes like oranges!” “That’s the spirit, Pinkie Bye! Oh, and you have to try the apples. You can’t reach them, though, can you? Here, let me turn the trees upside-down for you.” He snapped his fingers. “My apple trees!” Applejack gasped. “And the apples, what’d you do to them? Fluttershy, you gotta stop him!” Fluttershy had gone from angry to dejected. “I’m sorry, everypony,” she said, turning around. “There’s nothing I can do. I’m just going to go home.” “No way!” Rainbow Dash followed her. “You could fix this so easily! And look at how awful he’s being to you. Do you really still think he’s your friend?” “Not anymore.” She sounded like she was holding back tears. “My, my, what a shame,” said Discord as she walked away. He turned away from her and addressed the remaining Element bearers. “Who knows? Maybe your magic friendship beams will work without her! Give it a try!” He turned around to reveal a sign on his back saying “FRiEND ME”. “Another trap,” said Applejack. “He wouldn’t suggest it if it was gonna work.” “No,” said Twilight. “I think he just wants to rub it in. I say we do it. What other choice is there?” “We could let the Princesses know what’s happened!” Spike pulled a quill and parchment from… wherever he keeps those things. “Oh, that’s a good one, Spine. I didn’t think of that.” Discord snapped his fingers, and a spring burst out of the ground, sending Spike and a fair amount of colorful snow flying to parts unknown. “Whoops! Looks like that idea won’t work. Any more suggestions?” “Why do you really want us to do it, Discord?” Rainbow Dash touched down near Applejack. “Maybe you should try listening to your purple unicorn friend. Purple’s the second-smartest color, you know. Now, I don’t have all day.” “FRIEND ME,” announced a neon sign, blinking into existence above him. “Let’s just try it,” said Twilight. “He’s been wrong about the Elements not working before.” Applejack sighed. It wouldn’t fix her farm, but… “Alright. Maybe it’ll work. Who’ll wear Fluttershy’s Element, though?” “I can,” volunteered Discord. “Be our guest!” said Rainbow Dash. “It’ll probably bite you.” “Oh, I’m not so sure about that.” An oversized crown appeared on his head, helpfully labeled “KiNG” in dripping red paint. “‘King’ is only one letter away from ‘kind’, and how smart can it be? It’s a friendship necklace.” There really weren’t a whole lot of options. “I’ll wear it,” said Applejack. “The Element of Honesty and the Element o’ Kindness. I may not be as nice as Fluttershy—and maybe that’s a good thing,” she added, giving the rascal who’d exploited the kind pegasus a scornful look—“but I do try my hardest.” “Two Elements?” Twilight asked nervously. “Wow!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down excitedly. “If this works, you’ll go down in history as the kind-and-honest-est-est-est pony ever!” Rainbow Dash seemed less impressed. “So, what,” she said, “we’re actually going to do what he says?” And indeed, Discord was smiling. “Two Elements on one pony?” he pondered. “I’ve heard that can have very unpredictable results. Downright chaotic, if you catch my drift.” “He’s right,” said Twilight. “There isn’t much written on the Elements of Harmony, and the Princesses can be pretty tight-lipped about them, but I’ve read some theories here and there. An alicorn can use more than one Element at the same time, but a regular pony like you or me supposedly just doesn’t have enough magic to control them. If the power of the Elements is released without proper guidance… the results will be even less predictable than Discord’s own magic.” “I see his plan now.” Rainbow Dash flew right up in the face of the most powerful being in Equestria. “He wants the Elements to backfire on us. That way, even if Fluttershy comes back, we won’t be able to use them.” “But even he doesn’t know just what’ll happen. Bit of a gamble, isn’t it?” asked Applejack. “Gamble? Me?” Discord yanked Rainbow Dash’s wing. Her eyes began to spin like reels on a slot machine. “Never!” Both eyes landed on cherries. “Sti—gak!” Rainbow Dash gagged. She coughed up a cherry. “Still, he—urrk!” Another cherry. “It’s his—gkkk!” Two cherries this time. “His plan i—guh… nnn… mmp…” After spending a few moments looking like she had tried to swallow an apple whole, Rainbow Dash vomited a waterfall of plump, red cherries, which Discord caught in a bucket. She then fell to the ground. “Jackpot! I love cherries!” He tossed a few into his mouth. “Want some?” He spoke with his mouth full, offering the bucket to Applejack, who, having seen where its contents came from, backed away. Discord shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He spat the pits into the air, and they began to orbit around his head like little moons. Rainbow Dash got up, panting. “Let’s hit him with everything we’ve got.” “I had no idea you hated cherries so much, Rainy Days.” Discord pulled out a notepad, a pencil, and a pair of half-moon spectacles. “Is that the result of some childhood trauma, perhaps?” He jotted down some notes. “It’s Rainbow Dash!” she snarled. Twilight used her magic to pick up the Element of Kindness and dust the snow off of it. She glanced concernedly in the direction Spike had been launched earlier. Discord wrote furiously. “Patient is having difficulty remembering her own name.” Twilight tried to put the Element around Applejack’s neck, but it didn’t fit over the one already there. “Just put it on backwards,” Applejack suggested. “But then the magic beam will be facing the wrong way.” “You sure that’s how it works?” “Are you sure it isn’t?” “Fair enough. Upside-down, then?” Twilight pulled the necklace away from Applejack’s neck, flipped it around, and put it back on. It was a tight and extremely uncomfortable fit, but after a few moments, she got the clasp in the back closed. Discord clapped his hands and laughed. “You should see yourself, Apple Mac! You look quite intimidating with double the weaponized harmony power.” “You’re going down, Discord!” shouted Rainbow Dash. No one else looked quite so confident. “I sure hope so,” said Applejack. “Really now?” Discord, now wearing sunglasses and a floral-patterned shirt, set a lawn chair down on the ice and reclined in it. The ponies got into formation. “Have you ponies no imagination?” he asked. Twilight, after a nervous look over her shoulder, activated the Elements with her horn. “I’m hoping it will turn you all into beetles, and you’ll discover a beetle kingdom in dire need of your help to depose their beetle tyrant and return the true beetle king to his rightful place on the beetle throne.” The Elements began to fire their cutie mark-shaped beams at Discord. “Then Beetle Pinkie Pie turns out to be a traitor and kills the whole royal family with poison gas!” The five of them rose into the air with a burst of rainbow energy. The Element of Loyalty coughed up a cherry. “See? There are much more interesting things to hope for. Maybe not practical things, but…” A rainbow ribbon of pure harmonic power was descending on him. Or maybe not so pure—a dark streak ran down the middle, right between sky blue and bright yellow. “There are so many possibilities to think of. All it takes is a little imagination.” Discord wasn’t turning to stone. “You ponies never seem to appreciate that.” His expression was contemplative. A menacing aura surrounded him in the midst of the rainbow, crackling and dancing with chaotic patterns and bursts of light. “Always thinking about what’s real and what’s practical.” He looked almost sadly at the ponies. His strange glow began to spread through the rainbow, contaminating it. “Reality’s no fun. Why spend all your time thinking about reality, of all things?” Applejack was getting nervous. She had a feeling that the strange energy approaching them was Discord’s unpredictable results, and it didn’t look good. “And when somebody tries to make it fun, well…” Applejack was beginning to feel the effect of Discord’s whatever-it-was. It pressed down on her mind. Darkness clouded the edges of her vision, even though she was surrounded by colorful light. “Everyone loses their minds…” Discord seemed to trail off as Applejack lost consciousness.