//------------------------------// // Using Somepony Else's Talents // Story: There's Always Chaos // by SchrodingerFu //------------------------------// Chapter 2 – Using Somepony Else's Talents Pinkie Pie flapped her new blue wings and shot off into the air. She spoke softly to herself, “Chocolate rain?” Much to her dismay, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, much less a cotton candy cloud containing chocolate milk. “Pinkie!” Twilight called, “Come down here! We need to figure out what Discord is up to!” Pinkie resigned to returning to solid ground, but not before performing a few areial maneuvers. “Alright everypony,” Twilight Sparkle said to her five friends, “we'll need to know as much as we can about Discord if we're going to stop him.” Rainbow Dash spoke first. “He likes to mess around with everypony!” Applejack gave her addition, “And he has that strange magic o' his!” “Good. What else?” Twilight said with a smile. Silence. Twilight groaned, “Is that really all we know about him?” Further silence. Exasperated, Twilight let her head fall in her hoof. Discord's familiar laugh echoed above the group. He was wearing a snorkel, and gracefully backstroking through the air above the ponies' heads. “You really don't know much about me, do you?” Pinkie Pie noticed his aerial swimming. “Ooh! I should try that out later!” “Pinkie!” Twilight barked. Discord continued while switching to a dog-paddle, “I'll give you a little hint. If you plan to win, you're going to lose. If I were you, I would do what I'm doing!” Twilight was puzzled. “But... If you were me, we'd be you. And if we were you, we wouldn't be around here causing trouble!” Discord swiftly replied, “But I do what I do regardless of what's happening! That's the beauty of it!” He descended to the ground and turned his attention to two of Twilight's friends. “Applejack, Rarity, kindly look over there.” He pointed a long, thin talon toward Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who were laughing and playing elsewhere in the town square. Sure enough, Applebloom possessed a small, orange feathered wing on either side, and Scootaloo had lost her wings in favour of Sweetie Belle's small white horn. “Why, those are just our sisters with Scootaloo.” Rarity replied. “Are you sayin' you did somethin' to our sisters?” Applejack's tone became suddenly enraged. Discord laughed. “Of course not, Applejack. I only mean to say that your sisters are certainly taking their changes well, unlike you.” He glared at Twilight. She glared back. “Well, seeing as there is no further business to attend to here, I bid you ponies adieu.” Discord politely lifted the top hat which had materialized upon his head, them disappeared in his signature puff of smoke, leaving the six ponies to their own devices. The rest of the day was spent as normal, for the most part. In fact, for many ponies, the change did not affect their daily duties. Applejack could buck trees just fine, and occasionally used her wings to fly up and pick off the particularly stubborn apples. Fluttershy, though she did not make use of her horn, found no trouble in caring for her animal friends without her wings. Pinkie Pie spent her afternoon becoming surprisingly proficient with her new feathered torso addition. Twilight was hard at work studying, as usual. Unlike the others, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were seriously hampered by their losses. It took Rarity far longer to design clothing for her Boutique, and Rainbow Dash was out of a job without the ability to move clouds. Those who lost talents were working toward learning new skills. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had asked Twilight for preliminary magic lessons, to which she excitedly agreed. Fluttershy even offered to aid Rarity in the Boutique when she was finished with her animals. All in all, ponies were adapting quite well to Discord's first act of chaos. Each pony slept well that night, excited by the prospects of fun new stuff to do. Every pony, that is, except for Twilight Sparkle. She continued to study. When she could no longer study from sheer exhaustion, she lied awake on her bed and thought. She thought and thought and thought and thought and thought, and then she thought some more. She thought about her friends, and about Celestia. She thought about all the trials and hardships they had faced. They had dealt with a dragon, a hydra, and even Nightmare Moon, who had overpowered Celestia herself. But Discord had beaten them. How? The Elements should have worked, but they didn't. They should have taken away Discord's power, but they didn't. She didn't understand, and that aggravated her. Nevertheless, her exhaustion eventually got the better of her, and she drifted off to sleep. It was dark. Princess Luna's daily duties were about to end, and her sister's were just beginning. Some ponies were just waking up to start their early morning routines. Unfortunately for the rest of them, Discord had other plans. The town hall bell rang out sharply, awakening almost every pony in town. Naturally, within minutes there was a massive congregation in the town square. Once again, a stone stage rose from the ground, only this time it made a simple “pop” rather than usual ground-shaking. Discord appeared before the assembly, not with a fireworks display, but a picture of one set behind him. “A pleasure to have you all here today, ponies.” He spoke as though to an old friend, albeit with a loud, booming voice. “I have something very important to announce to you all. Being the extraordinarily talented draconequus that I am, I'm afraid that I will be needed outside of Ponyville for some time. As such, I won't be able to spread much more chaos aroudn here for the time being. The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief. The big race switcheroo was a jarring change at best, and an impossible one at worst. “However,” Discord began again. “I have chosen three ponies to rule over Ponyville in my stead. Girls, come up here, if you please.” Trotting confidently up to the stage were Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Everypony was speechless. He's letting three little fillies rule the entire city? That's madness! They don't know the first thing about leadership! Mayor Mare spoke up. “I will not allow you to assign the role of leader to three fillies! For hundreds of years, the leaders of Ponyville solved problems democratically, not through sheer force of will!” Discord was annoyed, but not angry, as though a particularly insolent fly was buzzing all around him while he was trying to finish a crossword puzzle. It's just a fly, so you can't be angry, but come on, there are just like seven more words to get. “In case any of you get ideas of rebellion, they can call me back here with the wink of an eye.” With a wave of his paw a staff appeared, about four feet long, hovering just above the three fillies. “Anyone who disobeys them, angers them, dislikes them, peeves them, berates them, defies them, disagrees with them, bores them, appalls them, or for any reason does not appease them will answer to me, and from what I know the Canterlot Castle dungeons are surprisingly empty...” With a burst of smoke, he disappeared once more. The staff slowly descended to the ground in front of the three fillies, who were still smiling triumphantly. The stage upon which they were standing fell back to the ground with the sound of a balloon deflating. Applebloom scooped the staff up onto her back, “Well, go about yer business, everypony! We'll be good leaders fer sure!” They began to trot away together toward city hall. Discord appeared once more where the stage had been. “And no lambasting them either!” With that, he disappeared again.