Feathers and Whispers

by Derpator

She's my chaos. My little chaos.

Why did it always happen?

Every day was a loop. The hands of time fought fate and rewound themselves over and over again. Everypony knew it as well as me, and yet, at the same time, didn’t.

They were clueless, you might say. Until it happened, that is. Same start, same end.

I knew it, yet I chose to ignore it. That’s why I fought, why I fled, like always.

It started out a few hours after the Sun’s rise. Beams of shimmering light poured out across Ponyville in awe. Everypony was out and about, given such a beautiful morning, and I could hear the singing choirs and whistles of various animals nearby. To everypony, it was just another regular, sunny day.

And to me, it was as well. I haven’t always been the best schedule keeper, nor had the brains to remember important dates like others. I’ve always preferred the carefree and – it pains me to admit – rash lifestyle. I’ve faced consequences because of my actions, I won’t ever deny that, but it’s always been a part of who I am.

Everypony loved a daredevil every now and then.

Maybe that’s why the day seemed so innocent. All I was doing was resting on a cloud overhanging Ponyville, basking in the sunlight Celestia offered us. It was part of my regular morning routine – loving the euphoric sunshine.

But, I should have known it would have found me. It always did.

All it started off with was a sudden whisper in my ear. My heart skipped a beat and, like some connatural instinct, my wings leapt from their resting place. Run! the voice told me. I knew this part well.

I did run (or flew, rather). What muscles that lay dormant in my bathing had awakened, exploding with a sudden influx of energy. As I darted above, Ponyville was mostly a blur, barring the notable buildings I was used to – Sugarcube Corner, especially. As I cast my gaze to the pixelated specks below, all I could make out were dots of colours splodged around. They were the denizens of Ponyville, going about their day like normal. Upon seeing me for the split second I was there, all I could make out was a call for my name, or perhaps a question.

What was I up to? Nothing...

That’s how it struck. Those who thought I was racing for laughs were simply blind.

See, it hid underneath a shell. It moved freely during hours of the day, stalking me endlessly through a coat of pink. Nopony knew the harsh gravity of that until it was too late to do anything.

It was pure, raw chaos. It distorted the fabric of normality and consumed everything organic in its wake. And it was stalking me a like a hungry and vicious predator hunting its panicked prey. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Sometimes I hid in what my environment provided me. Barrels, rooftops, the well in the middle of town. All I ever got was confusion from the nearby ponies. I'd hush them when they questioned my intention and strange activities, but I was never fast enough to prevent their inevitable fate. The chaos enveloped them all in its morbid, twisted sense of humour. Bon-Bon, Lyra, Roseluck...

It fed on them once the chaos found me by the three. With each pony it swallowed, its determination to live and envelop me grew. Other ponies – they were mere cattle to stimulate its growth.

And I loved every moment.

Wherever I flew to, entropy trailed behind. If I attempted to hide in a bush—I once figured blending into something normal might fool it—I would soon hear rustles. Next to a few barrels, and one of them would start wobbling. Every day I scouted out various vantage points, and every day, every single one I picked, it found me as clear as ice. I was pretty sure it would find a needle in a haystack if it had the chance.

It was hopeless, or so a part of me always wanted to say. I flew as fast as I could whenever I encountered it, but the chaos was south, while I was north, and it clung to me. It would have followed me to the ends of Equestria.

Sometimes, I thought about doing that. It excited me, the idea of getting away from Ponyville for a week or so. Head out and go somewhere nice with her, just the two of us.

She was such an enigma...

Today though, I chose a new location: The Golden Oaks Library. I figured Twilight’s home might be a safe haven, if only temporary. I could have filled her in on my situation – she wasn’t one to dismiss absurd ideas at the drop of a hat – if I had the time.

Because of my speed, I didn’t have time to stop and knock. Instead, I came off more as a leaping tiger entering a pony’s home ready to maul, and, as I should have expected, was met with a flying tome to the cranium. Ouch. I quickly dismissed the rather comedic idea of Twilight Sparkle fighting off intruders with literature as I readied to explain myself. I caught a brief glimpse of the book that hit me, though: Daring Do and The Orb of Illusions. How ironic, I thought.

As I should have predicated, Twilight began scolding me with unfriendly words regarding me and my actions, when all I could think about was the ticking of an alarm clock. Tick-tock. She was going to be another victim if I didn’t say something soon, but at five-hundred-words-a-minute, Twilight could have easily given me a two-hour lecture. Go ahead, I've got the time.

I briskly took action by silencing her, firmly planting my hoof onto her muzzle (which she wasn’t fond of from her glare alone) and opened my mouth to speak.

Just then, one of the bookcases creaked. My face went cold and my ears fell. “Uh oh,” I whispered coyly. I was met with raised eyebrows.

It all happened within an instant. A flurry of books was thrown across the library like a blustering hurricane. All I heard as I fled outside was the screams of one of my best friends as she fell victim to the expanding chaos. Her shrills echoed in my mind.

If only she had let me tell her...

“Sorry, Twilight,” was all I could say, a grin creeping up on my lips.

Then again, she had it coming. She deserved it.

In a way, I wasn’t guilty of what I had done. I’m a loyal pony, but at a time like that, and in that particular situation, I couldn’t deny seeing Twilight’s reaction. It was priceless, I might add, even if it only lasted a fraction of a second. If anything, though, it fuelled me with a new kind of excitement. Where would I venture next, I wondered. Where would I lead my chaos?

I frantically weaved across Ponyville, into and out of shops, public areas, all of them crawling with unsuspecting victims. I danced around the town, leading behind me a rift in the dimensions between order and disorder.

It was fun seeing their unsuspecting faces as they met their demise, one by one. We made quite a team. I was the caterer to feed her the next meal. I lined them up, she devoured them, we laughed.

I was drunk on power, on laughter and high on life. I wanted to hold her so bad and tell her so much, and yet, I wanted to keep it up. Where was I to go? Somewhere secluded, but then our fun would have ended.

She would have liked that when I thought about it.

It was Sweet Apple Acres I set my sights on after all of Ponyville was feasted on by the chaos. Applejack surely would have made a great contender in our game. After all, she did love our company.

I didn’t lay eyes on her or anypony else as I approached the farm, unfortunately. I guess that meant...

Our game was over. It was time to pack up, but I still wanted more. It wasn’t over by my watch. With a delirious grin, I took refuge in the confines of a small haystack inside the barn, shrouding myself from the outside world.

I cackled. She wouldn’t have found me.

A minute passed in mental bliss before something unexpected happened. My tail was suddenly engulfed by the chaos. For a split-second, the whole world slowed down. My heart went aflutter, my eyes reduced to the size of pinpricks, and I thought, in that lonely moment, that it was all over.

And then the liquid slobbered along my pristine tail. It couldn’t have been over. I never lost!

My next decisive action was another rush. I snapped out of my trance, whipped my tail out with tremendous force and dashed away. My heart rate skyrocketed as I looked back and stared at the chaos in its eyes. Its hypnotising, gorgeous blue eyes...

I was a fool to give into temptation. I clipped a feather on the barn door as I exited, and because of the fast speed I had pounced with, wound up scraping across the ground, rolling around in a chaotic manner and grunting in pain with each tumble. My momentum ceased, leaving me on the dirt path a few dozen metres from the barn.

I squinted and ground my teeth when I flapped my wings to readjust myself. Tears threatened to ooze through my eyes, but I held them back. Focus, Dash, I told myself, and faced the open barn. I frowned and shook my head.

My teeth ground together when I took the initial flaps. I forced myself past the pain, and set off on what I quickly concluded would have been my final journey. Once more, then it was over.

The furthest place I predicated I could make it was a grassy hill that overlooked the majority of Ponyville. Plenty of open space, it was perfect. Through pain and adrenaline, it took every fibre I could muster to reach my goal, but, with strain and torment, I made it and landed on the hill.

I gazed back behind me as I sat down and furled my wings. The pain soon began to fade, which eased me up a little, and I glanced towards Sweet Apple Acres with erratic breaths. If only for a few seconds, I was safe.

The chaos was nothing but a blur out there in the open. Inch by inch, it was advancing towards me at the pace of an Earth pony, taunting me with every step. Why was it making me wait? Was it letting me recover?

My body slumped, my muscles went limp and my head descended.

The blur in the distance disappeared when I briefly looked back towards the farm. I knew it in an instant; time was up. Good thing too, I was waiting.

I slowly closed my eyes as I prepared to accept my fate. Taking a deep inhale, there was silence that passed by on the wind as I contemplated my current situation. I thought the quiet air fit well with the veil of darkness in my eyes. Drums resonated from my chest. In that moment, all was still. It wasn’t long before tiny clip-clops nearby became audible.

They got louder with each step. I dared to open my eyes, just one final time. Could I face her once more?

A blue feather entered my vision when I twisted my head, sinking towards the ground next to me without grace. I sighed, hung my head and re-closed my eyes. My head returned to where it was previously. She was so awesome, so beautiful.

Two limbs touched my sides, slowly wrapping around my stomach like slithering snakes. I remained stiff as they clung around me, claiming their property. Lips grazed along my coat, and the warm breaths that tickled my fur chilled my spine and wings into paralysis. A mouth trailed up to my neck in small doses, saliva marked my skin, and I glanced upwards with darkness in my eyes. A whisper soothed its way into my ear, the same voice from the beginning. My lips parted, a flush painted my cheeks crimson and she consumed me.

Was it all just a game to her?

Maybe it was, and maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps, somewhere in my mind, I had found it just as much fun as she had. Perhaps, even with everything that had happened, I managed to smile with her.

In some ways, she was my guardian angel. In others, my little bundle of chaos.

And I was her prize.

Author's Note:

Anywhere I go, she’s there. Whether in the corner of my eye, or hidden in a crevice, she’s always there, watching, waiting.

And she loves every second of it. Within my own mind, lodged around in the thousands of thoughts I have, I do too.

But at the same time, a million other thoughts swim around, carrying a million voices each, crying out their unvoiced please.

I don’t hear their screams.

Comments

[Toratchi888]

...Dude; that's creepy.

[Rainbow87dash]

Pinkie Pie the stalker

[Archangel of the Silent]

That was messed up. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[PinkieDash11]

Great job, I love it! I bet all PinkieDash shippers will read this!

[Starlight Nova]

Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.

[Drifting Heart]

5092543
How about the spastic stalker? harsh? Sorry can't find the word for it. So people still ship this? Well i got nothing on that blame season two for my distaste for the ship but whatever anything by derpator is good.

[Derpator]

5093191
The minimum for one-shots is 2,500 words I believe. I would, but this falls short on that front. I could probably extend it with thorough edits, but I like how it is right now. Maybe in the future if I can.

To all the readers, I'm glad you enjoyed this. This fic didn't bring in the views I was hoping for, but you can't win them all. I applaud you if you figured out what's really going on in this story. This story is not Dark at all if/when you do. If anything, it's the complete opposite. This is a fic that you're supposed to think about to decipher what's going on. If you already managed that, then I commend you. Whether I made it obvious or not is up to readers individually.

If not, or if you're completely confused, then I can give you hints: Italics, Author's Notes and the question: What is chaos? If you just read it and understood it for what it is, then that's fine, but this story isn't exactly... what's on the tin, let's say.

[Crimson Dawn]

I actually really like this. It is nice to see somebody writing in a very different way about a subject that otherwise could be written as being very mundane. This just shows how even things that can be very simple can be made more fun with an author that wants to change things up a bit.

[Cerulean Starlight]

Argh! I'm bewildered. What could possibly not be dark about this? What do you mean by "chaos"? At one point in the fic, Dash literally says that "entropy trailed behind" her; does "her little chaos" reduce all structured life around her to single cells or something? I wish I understood. . . . And why the heck is time looping?!

Then again, she had it coming. She deserved it.

I think you forgot to close your italics tag here; the next several paragraphs are italicized.

[Derpator]

5097176
Aha, there we go. Alrighty, here's the thing. Also, the italics are very intentional and are in the right places, as I shall explain shortly. Spoilers, obviously, and quite long.

First, you have to look at the fic in two different ways: The normal text and the italics. When you read the italic text, Rainbow Dash seems to come across as more sinister, or evil. The chaos follows her, and with what happened to Twilight and other ponies, she seemed to enjoy it, while the rest of the narrative in regular text is saying how she somewhat fears it, and that she has to flee all the time, claiming that it would forever follow her. So what's going on?

In essence, there are two narratives going on in one story. They're happening at the same time, but are placed at opposite ends of the spectrum. The normal text is one end, while the italics tells the other. Which one is technically 'correct' then? That's where the Author's Notes comes into it. Basically, it goes about the idea of a person's subconscious, and that we have thousands of thoughts constantly happening, but we never know of them. When you first meet someone, your subconscious will have thoughts of that person and judge them that you're completely unaware of.

The regular text is all in Dash's subconscious. In reality, she isn't aware of any of it. The italics though, she is, fully. The italics is what's really happening, though, in accordance with the story, is happening at the same time as the regular text. The italics is just what Dash is really thinking along the ride, while the rest isn't. It still happens, but she's unaware of it.

So how does this link in with the chaos idea? The obvious thing is that the chaos is Pinkie. I reckon everyone could probably figure that out. But it all starts with a whisper in Dash's ear, then she's off on the run with Pinkie following her. So, what's exactly happening?

Well (and this is where the fic loses the Dark tag), Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are going around Ponyville and playing a kind of hide-and-seek. Only in this version, they make the ponies around the town jump in shock. In the fic, Dash says that a few ponies asked what she was up to, and she denies everything. In reality, right after then, Pinkie would appear out of nowhere and make that pony jump out of their skin, and then the pair would be off again. This is where the idea of chaos comes in. Pinkie, for all intents and purpose, is pure chaos. Disorder, entropy, we've seen her crazy powers in the show. She can appear from the most random of places, break physics, and, because of this, break order. In essence, she's chaos, and by using those crazy powers to surprise citizens, she's essentially spreading that chaos around for her and Dash's amusement. That's what it meant by devouring them; it's simply Pinkie and Dash going around and scaring ponies for their own little game.

And later on, Twilight is a victim too. Pinkie emerged from behind a lot of books, and there's no doubt right then and there that Twilight shrieks from not only Pinkie, but the destruction of literature. After that though, they've gone and scared pretty much everyone and Dash wants to continue, so she goes to the barn. Hides, but Pinkie finds her and glomps her tail, and Dash refused to lose. She looked back at her in a way that would say, "haha, you can't get me," but ended up clipping her feather and injuring herself. Still, she perservered and made it to one last location: the hill. There, she finally gave up, and Pinkie came behind her and essentially began to hug and kiss her. Seriously, this is actually fluffly. And what with the time loop, it suggests that the pair do this every day. Basically, they're awesome marefriends to one another. And with the 'Ends of Equestria' idea, it's that Dash has been thinking of taking a holiday with Pinkie somewhere. I just played it along with the whole chase-thing. I'm rather sneaky.

Pretty long, but that's what the fic is meant to be. Like in my previous comment, yeah, this is a fic that's not supposed to be easily seen. Hopefully this cleared things up.

[TGM]

5097336

I should've known better to expect an actually dark dark story from you.

still, good stuff. I like the differing between italics and plain text.

[Derpator]

5164207

I should've known better to expect an actually dark dark story from you.

Is that a challenge I see?

And here's a bit of trivia: This story was a pain to write. And I think dealing with that pain showed in the quality of the end result. I liked the concept, I liked the very idea, and I liked the twist and the idea of the reader figuring the truth out.

However (and this is big), when it came to writing the story, as in, the events that unfolded, it became a pest just attempting to write a couple of sentences. Switching back between the two voices was no trouble, but actually writing the events was a pain. And I think it shows. This story could have been 500 words or so longer, and it could have been spruced up, but by the end, I was just so annoyed that I wanted it released. It's certainly a nice twist from the normal regarding this pair and what we've seen in the show, along with the whole inner thoughts idea, and I'd certainly like to see it done by someone much better than me, but I think I delivered 2/3 of a good premise here.

Might have been the first person. Might have been something else. Haven't figured it out yet.

[TGM]

5164390

Dude, don't put yourself down. The story was good, and you're an excellent writer.

Maybe in the future take a step back from the story when you're sick of it and think about where you want it to go, that's what I do.

Sorry if I came off as condescending, I enjoyed the story a lot.

[Drifting Heart]

It was a intresting twist on the chase thing. she's always chasing dash even in my fanfic she did for a while but stopped and this bugged dash which caused her to get jealous. i hate to say it, but pinkiedash was my first and your first will always be special to you.