The Curse of Discord

by Creative Charmer

Chapter 7: All is Well...Or So It Seems

Shortly after the wave had turned everything after normal, the explosion had finally ceased. The wind stopped blowing, everything was normal, and Equestria was once again safe from chaos. However, a great deal of dust was still blowing around in the aftermath of the explosion. The other ponies who were blown away found themselves surrounded by dust, coughing uncontrollably. Even Spike was afflicted by this storm of dust clouds, having been blown away after losing his grip on the rock he was taking shelter behind.

Twilight lowered her magical shield, and quickly became engulfed by dust herself, coughing just like her friends. "These blasted irritants!" she said while coughing.

Soon enough, the dust clouds dissipated, and everyone grouped back together at the site of the explosion—all except for Twilight, whom was still surrounded by dust. They all quickly went over to Twilight and gathered around her.

When the dust cleared, Twilight opened her eyes and was surprised to see that everyone had suddenly assembled around her. They all then gathered in closer to Twilight, giving her each of their respective congratulations.

"You did it, Twilight!"

"We knew you could do it!"

"You were simply marvelous out there!"

"Yes, you were really great, Twilight," Fluttershy said softly.

"Great?? She was just as great as how great she always is! And that's really really great!" Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced excitedly.

Twilight blushed from hearing the kind and supportive words of her friends. Spike then went up to Twilight and hugged her by the neck.

After that, Applejack walked next to Twilight and began rubbing her hoof in Twilight's hair, playfully mussing it up. "Yah certainly showed that cloud what fer."

"She indeedily did!" Pinkie exclaimed right next to Twilight. "That cloud never ever ever could have been beaten if it wasn't for Twilight!"

"Yeah! She's the best! Spike added.

Twilight looked quite glad. "Thank you very much, everyone, but not all the credit should go to me. You each did your own part in helping to defeat that cloud and save Ponyville, so we all deserve a piece of recognition."

Everyone smiled, feeling touched by Twilight's thoughtfulness.

"This looks like the perfect time for a group hug!" Pinkie Pie blurted out. She then pulled everyone together for a group hug, much to their surprise. After a few moments of indecision, everyone decided to go along with it and hugged one another.

Everyone was feeling quite contented right now; especially Twilight; but then, all of a sudden, a thought came to her mind. "Oh! Wait a minute!" she said as she pulled herself out of the group hug, causing the whole hug to disband.

"Awww, why'd you do that for?" Pinkie asked despondently. "You messed up the flow of the hug!"

"I'm sorry, Pinkie Pie, but I need to get back to Ponyville right away so I can write a letter to Princess Celestia about everything that's happened with that cloud. She'd surely want to know about such a strange phenomenon."

"Yeah, I was expecting you to say something like that," Rainbow Dash said. She then started laughing, and the others soon joined her. Twilight, on the other hoof, did not laugh like the others. Her laugh didn't sound convincing, as she did not think what Rainbow had said was all that funny.

Applejack walked up next to Twilight. "Hey, don't feel bad, Twilight. It's just a bit of fun, is all. We know the princess would want tah to know about all this," The other ponies agreed, which made Twilight feel better.

"Just make sure to tell her how brave we all were," Rainbow Dash said as she nudged Twilight with her elbow and winked at her.

"Oh, don't worry. I know the princess would definitely want to know the bravery of every pony—" Spike abruptly cleared his throat. "...and dragon, here," Spike and everypony else smiled in response.

"Well, it has been a big day today. We should go ahead and pack it in," Applejack said as she started walking towards Ponyville.

"Agreed. I'm going to need quite a bit of cleaning to get my mane back to its beautiful flowing form once more," Rarity said as she stroked her mane, which still had some stains of chocolate milk in it.

"Then let's be on our way," Twilight said.

"And on our way we go!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she hopped together with the others, all on their way back to Ponyville.

Not long after they had started on their way back to Ponyville, Twilight began feeling something strange inside her head again. A stirring in her head, making her feel uncomfortable. As the feeling progressed, she began feeling more in the way of pain, which transgressed into a mild headache. Twilight felt so sore that she shook her head around to try and relieve herself of the pain.

Fluttershy, whom was to the right of Twilight, noticed Twilight's strange behavior. "Is everything all right, Twilight?"

"What..? Oh..yeah, everything's fine. I just feel some sort of pang in my head."

"Oh, oh-my!" Fluttershy replied frightfully. "Do you need anything to make it feel better?"

"No, no; you don't have to do anything for me. I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll eventually just—"

Twilight abruptly stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes had become locked onto a rock a short distance in front of her. The rock lay in the path of where Fluttershy was walking, but she was unaware of this approaching hazard. Twilight stared intently at the rock, her eyes unmoving. There was yet another stirring in her head, but this time she felt no pain of any sort. There was something else going on in her mind; something...sinister.

Twilight slowly closed her eyes, and then opened them again, but now her eyes looked much different than before. Her eyes had changed color, having a yellow tincture, with the pupils being of a crimson shade. With these new eyes, Twilight's expression progressed into a much more twisted look, now sporting a quite nasty-looking smile, devoid of any cordial qualities.

"Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. "Are you sure you're okay? Because you still look a bit ill to me."

Twilight twisted her head towards Fluttershy. "Oh, I'm just fine, Fluttershy," she replied in a slightly demented manner. "Never been better. Oh, but you know what?"

"What?" Suddenly, Fluttershy found herself tripping over the rock in her path, causing her to topple onto the ground.

"There's a rock you're about to trip over!" Twilight proclaimed mockingly as she chortled at Fluttershy's misfortune.

As funny as Twilight thought this whole situation was, everyone else didn't think the same. Becoming solicitous, the other ponies rushed over to Fluttershy's side to see if she was okay.

"Fluttershy! are you okay??" Rainbow Dash asked fretfully.

"I..I think so..."

"Are you quite sure?" Rarity asked. "Does anything hurt?"

"Well, maybe.."

Pinkie Pie ran next to Fluttershy. "Let's see where it hurts!" she lifted up Fluttershy's right leg. "Does it hurt here? Or here? Or here?" Pinkie asked quickly as she poked Fluttershy's leg hard in several different places.

Fluttershy cringed during each poke. "Actually, it hurts wherever you poke me."

Pinkie gasped. "Oh my gosh! This is more serious than we thought!"

Then, the ponies were drawn to the sound of snickering. They all looked over to see Twilight, who was still laughing at Fluttershy's misfortune.

"Twilight! what's gotten into you?" Rarity says crossly. "How can you just laugh at poor Fluttershy?"

"Yeah! and it tweren't right of you to just let 'er trip like that, either!"

Upon hearing the scolding words from her friends, Twilight's mind blanks out. She then shakes her head, and her nasty disposition and eyes reform back to their original states. She then becomes horrified at what she had just done. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, Fluttershy!"she exclaims as she runs over to Fluttershy. "I don't know what happened!" As she and the others helped Fluttershy up, Twilight thought back to how she had felt before and after Fluttershy tripped on the rock. Why did she do it? She would never play such a mean trick on her friends, or anypony. It was as if somepony else made her do this bad deed, but Twilight couldn't think of how that could be possible. After all, how could somepony control her in such a manner, and why would they do it? The answer to this question would obviously not be an easy one to figure out, even for Twilight.

Just then, Fluttershy got back up on her hooves. "Well, I think I'm okay. I mean, it wasn't that big of a fall, I guess.."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that, Fluttershy; and I'm still really sorry for playing such a malicious trick on you."

"Oh, it's okay, Twilight. What's important is that I'm fine," she smiled, to which Twilight smiled.

"Well then, now that everything is all right, shall we continue going on our current route?" Rarity asked.

Nobody had any argument here, so they all began walking back to Ponyville once more. However, Twilight still didn't feel completely all right. It still bothered had that this had happened, and she still had no idea of how or why it happened. But, because of how horrible it had felt to her in particular, she hoped that it would not happen again, instead of trying to figure it out. But, that was not too likely...

Comments

[AtomicScootaloo]

You just went to discord town Motherfucker.