Tessla and Austin traveled down deeper into the depths of the castle. They didn't even know it went down that far. Spike came and found them soon after they left their rooms. He was now leading them. They went down pretty far until they came to a large room. They entered into another world, or so it seemed. It might as well have been Twilight's playground. A laboratory. They were not alone, though.
“Hey, guys.” Twilight said happily. “Glad you could make it.”
“What time is it,” Austin asked.
“It just turned 4:27,” Twilight said.
“Oh, good,” Austin said sarcastically. “I was afraid I got up too early.”
“Ha, you're funny,” Twilight said with a giggly, “But seriously. Ben's doing a really interesting experiment.”
“Ben's doing an experiment,” Tessla asked. “What kind of experiment?”
“That's what I would like to know,” Discord said as he popped into view. A sleepy Fluttershy stood next to him. She yawned a big yawn and then looked around.
“Oh my. I must be dreaming again.” She said sleepily.
“You see. I was called here spur of the moment while I was out with Fluttershy. I need to get her home and quickly.”
“You were out with Fluttershy at four in the morning,” Tessla asked.
“I get what your insinuating there,” Discord said defensively, “And I'll have you know we were studying the nocturnal habits of the rare Everfree Pink Chicken or something like that. It dances you know.”
“I'm aware,” Tessla said, “I brought her the egg.”
“Okay, you're all here,” Ben said. To pretty much everyone's surprise he was wearing a well fitting lab coat. Where it came from, no one knows. “Now, my goal here is to create a kind of chaos infused crystal magic device.”
“Excuse me,” Discord said. “Chaos infused?”
“Yes, that is where you come in, Discord,” Ben explained, “I need you to put a small portion of your chaos magic into this crystal here. From there, I will try and infuse other crystals with it. If I'm right I will be able to throw the infused crystals and make completely random things happen with the power of chaos.”
“So you want to create a chaos grenade?” Austin asked.
“Pretty much yeah.” Ben said with a huge smile on his face. “Isn't it awesome!?”
“Only if it works,” Tessla answered.
Ben turned and gestured to Discord to pour a small portion of his powers into the aforementioned crystal. It was a large round crystal about the size of a pony head. Discord held up his finger to say wait a minute.
He snapped his fingers and a small, personal bar appeared in front of him. The alcoholic bar, not just a random metal bar. He reached below and pulled out a metal shaker, shaking it vigorously for a few moments. After he was done he took the top off and poured out the contents. A water like fluid flowed down from the shaker and fell into the form of a tall margarita glass, minus the actual margarita contents. Discord took this from the bar over to Fluttershy, who was swaying back and forth as drowsiness and a need for sleep was taking over her. Discord took the glass and threw its imaginary contents against a wall. A door appeared. He opened it, revealing that it lead to Fluttershy's own bedroom. He gently scooped her up in his arms and placed her in her bed. He pulled the blankets up over her and made sure she was comfortable before leaving. He took one last look at her before he left. He could hear the faint sounds of her breathing peacefully in her sleep as he closed the door behind him, snapping his fingers after.
Discord walked over to Ben. The crystal was right next to him on a table. “Be wary, human. The powers of chaos are not to be trifled with.”
Discord reached out and touched the crystal with the tip of his forefinger. Instantly a dark mist filled the crystal. It was an ever shifting mist, never staying in just one shape. Occasionally, small arcs of electricity would arc around in the mist. Sometimes, you would see other things. Like cotton candy where mist should be, or a stained glass figure swimming through the glass. Once they even saw an explosion. Not a small little boom either, but a huge mushroom cloud causing, havoc creating, mutant making, terror inducing, five inch tall nuke blast that rocked the misty crystal.
“Excuse me,” Discord said with a small blush. “Silent but deadly.”
“Now the fun starts,” Ben said with an evil mastermind like grin.
He took several crystals he had prepared beforehand, which were all about the size of a small can of soda. One of them he took and placed in a chamber underneath the larger, round crystal. There was a slot that would funnel the raw chaos power down into the chamber with the small crystal. The crystal were treated beforehand and would take in this chaotic energy and hold it until thrown, upon which time the crystals would shatter. The chaotic energy would be released and something random will happen. In theory.
Ben closed the chamber and locked it tight. Twilight herself spelled that chamber so that none of Discord's magic could leak out and cause any trouble in town. It was strangely silent in the room for the next several moments. All the eyes in the room were locked onto that chamber, waiting for something.
None of them heard what they were expecting to hear. They expected to hear the sounds of heavy machinery pounding away at something, sounding much to large to be in such a small chamber. They expected to hear the sounds of wild animals randomly making their noises from within the chamber. They would not have been surprised to hear moaning coming from within that chamber, but there was nothing. It was silent. Eerily silent. Dead silent.
Ben was glued to that chamber. Time passed on by as he stared at the doors, but he paid no attention. He tuned out the tic and the tocs of the clock on the wall. He ignored the sounds of the others breathing around him. He focused on just that chamber, blocking out the rest of the world around him. And then he heard it.
It was small, barely noticeable, but he had rehearsed this experiment so many times that he had been expecting it. That one small hiss that came just before. That one little sound that told him his waiting was almost over. That one small noise that told him he was a genius.
A much louder, prolonged hiss forced steam out of the edges of the chamber door. Ben opened the door carefully with a special heat resistant mit that allowed him to pick up the hot crystal with ease.
Ben turned around to face the rest of them. He held the chaotic crystal in one hand. He stared at for a moment before looking up at them. The smile on his face had only gotten bigger. He was happy. “I have done it!” He said, laughter escaping him that sounded more like laughter of relief more than laughter that came from something funny.
“I don't believe it,” Austin said, “Ben just created a crystal chaos grenade.”
Ben's laughter subsided and he took another look at the chaos grenade he held. It was then that he noticed the heat. It was coming from the crystal and he was feeling it even through the oven mit Twilight loaned him. It was getting hotter and hotter by the second. Ben rushed over to the table to set it down, but by the time he reached the table it was already burnt into the oven mit. Quickly trying to relieve the pain his hand was now feeling and safely contain the crystal Ben accidentally did something.
In his attempt to relieve his hand from the mit Ben somehow caught his hand on a piece of fabric. The oven mit traveled with his hand as he yanked it out. The oven mit reached its limit and snapped back, but the crystal broke free.
Through the air it flew, like a chaotic crystal tumbling end over end through the air on its way down to the ground. Both Twilight and Discord watched for a second before leaping into action. Unfortunately, both of them lost their wits for that second and both decided to actually, physically leap. Discord's longer reach and soft lion paw gave him the best chances of safely getting the crystal. If it were not for Twilight slamming into him from the side and sending them both off course he might have actually succeeded. But Twilight hit him and they both rolled away from the crystal.
“I got it,” Tessla shouted as he starting moving.
He rushed up as it was falling. The chaos crystal grenade was right above him now. It was falling right to him. He held out his hands to catch the falling crystal. He was right in it's path, and it was really close. Tessla lunged forward to catch it, and it slipped right through his fingertips.
“And . . . I don't got it.”
The world stopped for a second as only the sound of that crystal shattering filled the air. Tessla stared down through his fingers at the broken pieces. Dark mist was lazily flowing around it. As he stood there staring down at it, the mist rose up. It rose up, circling and shifting around Tessla. More mist than they thought would have been in just one crystal was now encircling Tessla. Tessla himself was standing there, unsure as what to do in a situation like that. It was then that the mist moved again.
The mist that encircled Tessla moved closer to him, much closer. It swirled around his entire body like a dark chaotic vortex. It swirled around, faster and faster and faster, getting closer to Tessla as it went. Finally, Tessla absorbed all the chaotic mist that was surrounding him, whether he wanted to or not.
At first nothing happened. Then he changed. It was not a drastic change. Barely anything at all really. It was just that one of his eyes changed. His eyes were normally a color of brown, but now that only applied to one of them. His other eye had become like that of a fox. It was a slit down his eye, now an eery shade of magenta.
“What just happened?” He asked with a pant. “I feel. . . strange.”
“Well, I shall be taking that back, thank you very much,” Discord said. He strolled on over to the table with the large round crystal on. He placed his hand on the crystal and reclaimed only a fraction of the power he put into it. He groaned and turned on Tessla.
“You stole my power,” He said accusingly.
“It wasn't my fault,” Tessla defended, “It was Ben's experiment.”
“My failed experiment,” Ben said, looking sad.
“So, does this mean that I have some of Discord's chaos magic now?” Tessla asked, looking over himself. “I don't look any different, do I?”
Austin grabbed a crystal of a nearby table. It was large and flat, so it made a sufficiently good mirror. He walked over and held it up to Tessla's face. Tessla stared at the reflection of himself in this crystal.
“Whoa. So I do look different,” Tessla grabbed the crystal and casually tossed it behind him. The crystal mirror hit the floor, and exploded. An actual explosive boom went off, covering them all with a layer of brown sugar. Next thing they knew the sprinklers Twilight didn't have covered them all with chocolate milk.
“Tessla,” Austin said.
“Uh, yeah?”
“I believe that is a yes to your question. You have some of Discord's power.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“Who is Sherlock,” Pinkie asked amidst licking Austin's arm clean of chocolate milk saturated brown sugar.
“Um, Pinkie,” Twilight asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, my Pinkie senses told me there was going to be a sugary explosion at your big, shiny castle, so I came by to check it out.” Pinkie said,” Nobody told me there was going to be chocolate milk, though. Bonus surprise!”
The rest of them left the laboratory one by one, leaving Pinkie Pie in their by herself to clean up the mess. She was licking the floors when they left, using her mouth like an industrial strength vacuum.
They all filed back to their rooms to get back the rest of the night they had wasted in the lab. Ben and Twilight went to sleep especially sad that night. Science had failed them. It had left both of the as well as Discord not liking the outcome. Austin did not really care at the time. His one good night of sleep and he got woken up for a damn science experiment that could have waited until morning.
It was nearly five thirty by the time they all got back to their rooms. Austin and Ben both collapsed onto their beds as soon as the doors behind the closed. They assumed the others did much of the same. The only one who didn't seem to be tired at all was Tessla. He was more excited than anything. He resisted the urge to snap his fingers all the way back to his room, but that wasn't going to last. Austin just hoped he was going to wake up in his own bed.
Austin rolled over in bed. He was having an immeasurably bad time trying to fall asleep. No matter what he did nothing seemed to be comfortable for him. Finally he rolled over onto his back and stared up at the stars. A shooting star streaked across the sky as he gazed up towards the heavens. It was only then that he heard the sounds of a pony next to him.
Twilight lounged on her own side of the bed looking much more comfortable than Austin. She was sleeping soundly, and even snoring softly and adorably. It took him a second to notice that there was something off about her, and everything else. He looked around him in all directions. It all seemed normal, except for the star laced ceiling, the Princess laying next to him and the fact that there was no discernible floors beneath the bed.
“I must be dreaming.” He whispered out in a single breath.
Twilight's form next to him shifted slightly as she stretched out her legs. She sat up in the bed and rubbed her eyes with a hoof. She sleepily gazed about until her eyes fell upon the human in the bed next to her. Immediately, she was wide awake. She blinked a few times while trying to calculate all possible reasons as to why he would be there.
“Uh, hi Twilight.” Austin uttered after a few awkward moments of silence.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Twilight freaked out as she lashed out at Austin. Hooves were flying everywhere, the covers to the bed were in the air, and Twilight was still screaming things that Austin couldn't understand. All the while he was trying to calm her down. Needless to say it didn't go well. At one point, Twilight actually nailed him with a right forehoof across the jaw that sent him back. Austin slowly fell back and off the bed.
Twilight calmed down, but was still breathing heavily. She crept to the other side of the bed and looked over the edge of the mattress. Austin was laying on his backside with his feet in the air on a crystalline floor that resembled the floors of her castle. Above his head she saw three little versions of Twilight flying around with their right forehooves extended out.
“What the hell is going on?” Twilight said with heavy breath.
“Well, this is awkward.”
Twilight spun around in the bed to see Luna standing their with Ben at the foot of the bed. Luna was holding back a laugh while Ben sported a rather large smile. He obviously found it as funny as Luna did. Twilight panned around to see that it wasn't only those two their with her.
“I agree, sugarcube. That is right embarrassing.” Twilight cringed with sheer embarrassment.
“Oh my.” Red was filling Twilight's cheeks faster than a thermometer in a pot of boiling water.
“Really, dear, why keep it a secret for so long?” Twilight felt her eye moving in a familiar twitch.
“Do you two want a moment alone?” It was then Twilight decided that Dash was going to be the first in her grand plan for revenge.
She was waiting to hear from Pinkie Pie, but got nothing. She could see a patch of pink in the corner of her eye, but when she looked all she was a big, fat ball of pink fluff. It rolled over to reveal itself to be Pinkie Pie, just blown up from all the chocolate milk and brown sugar. She let out an impossibly loud snore and so Dash flew over to wake her up. In response to Dash poking her in the belly Pinkie Pie rolled over, trapping the would be waker upper underneath her girth.
“What the hell is going on,” Twilight asked. “How did I end up in bed with Austin?”
“You mean you don't know,” Rarity questioned, “Oh my.”
“I can explain,” Luna said with a giggle, “If you will all give me a moment.”
Luna took a moment or two to compose herself properly. She took a few deep breaths and got the laughs out of her system. Finally, she brought herself back to her serious princess mode before speaking to them all once again.
“This is not real. You are all in a small pocket of the dream realm I patrol during the night.” Luna explained. “I have gathered you all here to give you a very important message.”
“That's all well and good,” Austin said from the floor before clawing his way up to the bed. He rested his arms on the mattress, using them to support himself as he spoke. “But that doesn't explain . . . this.” Austin nodded down to the bed.
“Heya, Austin,” Applejack said. “You, uh, got a little something by yer face there.”
Austin looked up to see the little flying Twilight buzzing around his head. He waved them off, but they only came back to rest on his shoulders. All three of them. The giggled as they evaded his hands when he tried to swat them away.
“I swear, I am not doing this on purpose.”
“It's okay.” Luna said, “It is just the power of the dream realm. I didn't have time to properly create the right setting before I plucked you all out of your own dreams and brought you here. I started with Twilight and Austin.”
“It would seem this dream realm created a setting of its own,” Rarity said.
“Yes, so it would seem.” Luna said.
Austin was only half paying attention. The three mini Twilight's were swishing their tails back and forth, tickling his ears. Annoyed, he snatched one up with a very quick move of the hand. He held her firm, but not tightly. He brought the little Twilight in close and whispered something to her. When he was done she giggled some more, got the other two, and flew off for Pinkie Pie. They danced around on her back, tickling her with their tails and causing her to roll over and over as she laughed.
Rainbow Dash's head shot up. “I can breathe! I'm free!”
“Anyway,” Applejack said, “Why ain't that Tessla fella here with us?”
“For some reason, he is not sleeping at the moment,” Luna replied. “Now, I must give you the message before it gets too much later.”
Later That Day . . .
Morning broke over Ponyville and Tessla bounded out of his room. He had showered, brushed his teeth and gotten dressed for the day. But when he exited his room he was surprised to see that everyone was already up. It seemed rather early to him, so why were they all up? He simply shrugged it off as a pony thing and headed off.
He entered the dining hall for breakfast to see that there were more ponies than usual there. All the Mane Six had gathered there, as well as Austin and Ben. He did notice a rather unusual distance between Austin and Twilight, but didn't ask about it. He sat down between Ben and Pinkie Pie and across from Applejack.
“Where ya been, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
“In my room,” Tessla answered, “Preparing for the day. You know, showering, dressing, and all that.”
“Sure,” Applejack said. “Say, what's up with your eyes? One of 'ems different than the other.”
Oh crap. Tessla had completely forgotten about that. One of his eyes had changed colors due to his absorbing some of Discord's power. “It's a long story,” He finally said. “Speaking of stories, why are you all here?”
“It's amazing,” Ben said, as giddy as ever. “They found the Changeling hive! We are going to investigate!”
“Really?! Where is it?” Tessla asked as he poured his cereal.
“Don't know yet,” Ben replied, “Details are being given to us at the Castle in Canterlot. We're leaving in half an hour.”
Half an hour later and all of them were on a train headed for Canterlot. Of course, the three guys got some strange looks. Still not every pony in Equestria was used to seeing them around. A few crystal ponies recognized Ben and waved at him. He waved back. The ride their really wasn't that interesting.
Ben and Tessla were the most excited to see Canterlot. Austin had been there before already. His 'visit' may have been short and limited to a small area of the castle, but he had been there already. He was pretty excited, either way.
The train pulled into the station at Canterlot. Ponies filed off by the droves. A seemingly endless sea of ponies disembarked while another was waiting just beyond the doors to get aboard the train. Although, the crowd did part when Princess Twilight stepped her hooves on Canterlot streets. They took another step back when three humans followed her off the train.
Whispers and gossip filled the air as the group all traveled to the Royal Canterlot Castle. It followed them like a bad smell that wouldn't go away all the way to the castle gates. It persisted even after they were all out of view. A large crowd of ponies had assembled outside the gates in a quest to feed their curiosity and find out what they were doing there.
Meanwhile, in the throne room were Luna and Celestia, eagerly awaiting the arrival of their guests. They had to reschedule something else, but that was okay. It happened often when royals and nobles were involved. Celestia and Luna both brushed the thought aside as their guests entered the throne room.
“Hello,” Celestia said with a smile, “It is good to see you all again. Now, I bet you're all wondering why you are here right now.”
“Yes, Celestia, we are,” Twilight said, “We were given so little information before.”
Celestia was about to speak when a sound interrupted her. It was hooves. They were stomping across the tile floor leading into the throne room. The sound echoed off the high, vaulted ceilings making it hard to determine which of the many corridors the pony was coming from. Celestia knew, though. She turned her head just as the pony entered the room. In an angry huff the doors flew open to reveal that it was none other than Prince Blueblood.
“Aunt Celestia, I must speak with y-” He stopped mid angry step as he caught sight of the group before him. It wasn't the ponies that he found odd, it was the others. The humans. He put his hoof down and glared at them before turning on Celestia.
“Really?!” He shouted. “We had this lunch planned for weeks, and you blow me off because of these freaks?!”
“Hey,” Tessla shouted back, “We are not freaks.”
“Well, you look like freaks to me,” Blueblood sneered, “And I am not the only noble pony who thinks so.”
“I'm not surprised,” Tessla replied, “Except for the Princess's, most noble ponies have their heads up their asses.”
“You best watch what you say, freak.” Blueblood angrily glared at Tessla.
“And you need-” Tessla started to speak and he thrust out a pointed finger for emphasis, but something went wrong. His Discordian chaos powers accidentally activated. Something manifested itself just as Tessla pointed, and it flew out right towards Blueblood. There was no way for him to react in time. All he could do was watch as it got closer and closer and closer. SPLAT!!
Blueblood wiped the whipped cream from the pie that just hit him. The tin bottom was hanging from his horn, but he tossed that aside. He glared through glazed eyes at the long haired human who was still pointing at him.
“I did not mean for that to happen,” Tessla announced, “But I am also not sorry.”
“You dare?!?!” Blueblood shouted. He let out a roar of anger and charged Tessla.
Tessla screamed as Blueblood closed in. It wasn't a girlish scream. It wasn't the manliest of screams either. More a scream of surprise than anything. Everyone and everypony else promptly back far away from Tessla by that point, if they hadn't already.
Blueblood reached Tessla with shocking speed and raised up on his hind legs. He slammed his forehooves down with a thunderous echo. The figure of Tessla shattered into smithereens and fell to the ground like glittery dust.
“HA!” Blueblood exclaimed, “Weak.”
Just then he got tapped on the shoulder. Blueblood turned to see a tall figure with an oversized mustache standing there in a brown uniform marked with three letters. He didn't have time to read them as this figure produced a box from behind him.
“Package for you.”
“I wonder what this could be,” Blueblood said as he took the quill in his magic and elegantly signed his name at the bottom of the paper. He took the package and placed it on the floor in front of him. He cut the tape with his magic and opened the flaps. As soon as he peered in the box a very large red, round glove shot up from the box, hitting the Prince square in the jaw and sending him into the air.
The figure stepped out of his brown uniform and mustache to reveal that it was in fact, Tessla. He smiled and raced over to a random spot on the ground. Tessla did a few things when he reached this spot. He marked it with a red 'X' and placed a game there. It was one of those test your strength carnival games, except there was no hammer. After that he drew a watch on his wrist with a blue crayon and counted down.
“Three. . . two. . . one.”
Blueblood came down like a comet, shrieking like a schoolfilly all the way. Tessla side stepped as Blueblood landed square on the marked spot, and also on the game. The little metal piece that went up slammed the bell on top with amazing force.
“And we have a winner!” Tessla shouted, “Here you go, sir. Your prize.” Tessla pulled out a stuffed plushie doll that looked like a life size fat, round, overstuffed Pinkie Pie. He dropped it onto the already dazed Blueblood who just groaned as Tessla walked away.
“Hey!” Pinkie Pie shouted, “Where can I get one of those?”