Schoolhouse Shenanigans!

by Dragonborne Fox

Chapter XXIV- Serious Cider Business Part 2

Lazarus was fuming with fury. The fox he was hitting on all these years had the soldier with a man and then that man cheated on her, thus creating the swordsman he most despised? What?

Matt was too busy running on the treadmill whilst under Reflex to carry on the conversation. "Uh, dude, your team's losing and it's because you're slacking off."

Lazarus looked at the brothers, who now were glaring at him. Matt was right--he, the God of the Winds, was slacking off. And that was a no-no. He soon left the swordsman to fall by the hand (hoof?) of the treadmill as he gathered more apples by the hundreds. Get rid of the swordsman and maybe, just maybe, make the wizard cry like a girl...later.

Lance's machines aided Coryza in quality control--she really needed it. Yes, the mugician was being overpowered much like Anna was. The machines internally scanned the apples for any worms--and any rejects were put into the reject pile. Lance himself was collecting apples alone now, but he laughed out loud and pointed accusingly at the brothers whenever he had a free hand with which to point. He also flung the occasional insult in German just for giggles.

Blake was quickly wearing out. Sure, he was half-demon and he did have help in the form of Applejack, but even he had his limits. His fuel was about to hit empty soon, and he needed someone to replace him stat. Wait! He had just the plan. But it would have to involve his tank hitting beyond empty first.

The children were rooting on their parents like no tomorrow. They hopped and shouted and chanted like raving lunatics. Alexis even flung tomatoes at Flim and Flam as a means of saying 'I don't like you!'

Lancelot began his Monkey Dances after he flung Katie into a tree, much to Fenrir's anger. Fenrir, in response, pointed out that rivalries beyond that of the Flim-Flam Brothers and Apple Family should be saved for later. Thus, Mr. Rage-a-lot was penalized--any other penalty afterwards would result in him being banned from the competition and would jeopardize the amount of barrels and quality of cider the brothers would make. Lazarus berated his comrade for his incompetence before resuming with the apple-plucking.

The treadmill cursed Matt out in the form of sending him flying. This made him rush headlong into trees and bounce off a lot of them like a pinball before he ran right into the Beholder and flipped him over in the impending crash. The trees that had apples released said apples for Lance to gather before the enemy got hold of them. Blake wore himself out at last, and by now his face was purple. He sauntered towards the party, aiming specifically at Twilight Sparkle, who stood next to Discord. When he got there, he gathered the two and pointed at Natalie and Anna.

"WHAT?!" Twilight cried, raising a hoof and spreading her wings in shock.

"A-Are you certain about this?" Discord asked worryingly, scratching his chin with his gryphon claw. Blake nodded, motioning for the archer and wizard to walk towards him. Both women did as told with looks of shock on their faces. He then glanced at them and smiled.

"Natalie, Anna, listen carefully. Twilight will turn you into ponies and then Discord will enhance you with chaotic energy. The catch is, you can only perform your tasks for fifteen minutes. But the good news is that your mana never runs out." Blake explained.

Natalie and Anna gasped briefly before looking at each other wide-eyed. Natalie then returned her glance to Blake and worryingly asked, "Are you sure about this? Is it safe?"

"It is safe to be imbued with chaotic energy for no more than an hour a day if you aren't a Chaos God," Discord reassured with a hearty nod.

"In that case," Anna started, "Let us have it!"

Twilight's horn began glowing and so did her eyes. A purple aura encased both wizard and archer while a white light covered their bodies head to toe. Hand and foot became hoof. Horns grew out of their foreheads. They grew tails similar to the hair on their heads. Pelts replaced clothing so fast time seemed to slow for them. Two-legged bodies changed to four-legged equine shapes. Their bodies completed the metamorphosis and were lowered onto the ground on all fours. The Flim-Flam brothers watched this and so did Lazarus and Lancelot. And all their jaws dropped wide open for all to see. The question 'what in flaming tartarus just happened?' ran through their minds and halted production yet again. The most recent cider barrel actually dropped, rolled, and broke open because the machine itself was stopped mid-launch. Cider spilled all over that patch of grass.

The mares shook off the wobbly feeling of walking on all fours before their eyes opened. Instead of blue and green, their eyes were glowing a vivid purple, thus signifying their chaotic enhancement. They then bounded off--Anna took over the treadmill and she ran faster than Matt while Natalie resumed her waylaid Star Shower. This time, it was now the Chaos Shower because the magic Natalie had was also enhanced. As a result, the Stars turned purple and emitted wisps of chaos rather than sparkles consisting of more Stars. The chaos-imbued Stars also directed the fall of apples towards Lance's baskets and overflow was contained by chaotic levitation magic.

Flim and Flam panicked. Lancelot was now busy running away from the fact that the sky was falling on his head and Lazarus seemed to lose his aerial balance every five seconds because Lancelot kept running into him--either that or the Stars hit him in the face. As another result, they quadrupled the power on their cider making machine and this time used the funnel for once. This didn't suck up whole trees--nope, it sucked up patches of land which equated to at least three trees per suction. Good (bad?) thing the machine was enhanced so that it would spit out anything but apples. What everyone failed to notice was that three mares--one earth, one pegasus, and one unicorn--were approaching the farm with Mr. Rhodes and Miss Cheerilee just inches behind them.