Despair and Chaos

by Choral Note

Chapter 1

I woke with a start. Why? I wasn’t sure. Perhaps I just had a nightmare I can’t remember? Either way, I woke up suddenly, in an unfamiliar place. I looked around to see a room. The walls and floors appeared to be made out of a fluffy white material, as was the furniture.

“Where am I…?” I muttered to myself, sitting up. “What happened?” I did my best to recall.

The final class trial was all a blur full of Junko’s creepy smiles and, at the last moment, blood splattered everywhere. I shuddered as I remembered her excitement as she pressed the button that ended her own life. Then, I remembered standing by the door of the school… everyone’s smiles… and Kirigiri’s words. Finally, we left that school. All I can remember after that… is darkness. Just like the darkness that had ended my happy, peaceful life.

“What… happened?” I repeated to myself.

“Oh, you’re finally awake,” a voice snorted. I turned my head to see what appeared to be a cyan pony with wings and a rainbow-colored mane, smirking at me.

I involuntarily scooted back.

“Ah, right, allow me to introduce myself,” she said. “My name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria!” She announced proudly. “What’s yours?”

Still, the only reply I could give was a stutter in surprise at a talking, candy-colored pony with wings.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, tilting her head. “Cat got your tongue?”

“I… How… Where…?!”

She sighed. “I guess I should explain everything…” Then she smiled. “But explaining isn’t really my thing. So, I’ll let Twilight explain everything!” She then clapped her hooves together, as if to resemble snapping. “That reminds me! We need to go meet her and the others at the library!”

“C-could you maybe explain anything?!” I waved a hoof I realized I had in the air. “Maybe you could explain why I’m a pony?!”

“Like I said,” She said, waving her hoof dismissively. “I’ll leave the explaining up to Twilight. C’mon, the library isn’t too far.” She walked toward the door, and then turned her head toward me. “By the way, you still haven’t introduced yourself.”

“U-um…” I muttered, trying to find the right words. “My name is Makoto Naegi… but you can call me Naegi.”

Rainbow grinned again. “All right, Naegi,” she said, opening the door. “Just follow me to the library for an explanation of the situation. Twilight’s good at explaining things.”

“Um, okay…” I muttered, steadying myself on to the squishy floor. “What is this, anyway?”

“It’s cloud, duh.” Rainbow remarked, already walking outside.

I opened my mouth to argue that walking on cloud should be impossible, but I closed it when I remembered I was talking to a rainbow pegasus while being a pony myself. Instead, I decided to focus on walking with four hooves.

“Just put one hoof in front of the other,” Rainbow instructed.

Doing my best to follow her instructions, I trotted towards the door. As soon as Rainbow Dash opened it, however, I immediately stepped back.

“We’re above the ground?!” I cried, eyes widening at the view of the ground.

“Well, yeah. This is a cloud home, after all,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. I guessed it did make sense that a cloud house would be off the ground.

“But how do we get down?” I asked.

“We fly, obviously!” Rainbow cheered. “I mean, you do have wings.”

“...Oh. I guess I do…”

“Relax; flying isn’t hard. If you can’t do anything else, you can at least glide down,” she reassured.

“...Right.” I looked nervously down at the ground below.
“Now, let’s get to the library,” she said.

On the way, we talked about the town (apparently called Ponyville), and Rainbow’s friends (who we were apparently supposed to meet with for some reason).

Eventually, we came to a stop at the library, which was apparently inside a tree. Rainbow walked up to the door and knocked with her hoof.

“Twilight, it’s me! Rainbow Dash! The guy who was with me woke up!”

The door cracked open, revealing a large, violet eye. “Rainbow Dash?” The door opened wider, also revealing a lavender-colored muzzle and dark indigo mane. “Oh, thank goodness! I wa s beginning to get worried since nopony had shown up! Well, come on in!” She said, ushering us inside. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle! And you?” She gave a wide, worried smile.

“My name is Naegi,” I answered. “Um… where’s everybody else?”

“Like I said,” Twilight sighed. “They’re taking a while to get here. You two are the first to arrive.”

Before I could continue trying to make small talk, there came a knock on the door.

Twilight opened the door again, this time revealing an orange pony with a straw-colored mane and a brown hat. “Howdy, Twilight,” She said with a thick southern accent. “My friend Hagakure just woke up, so I figured I should come and meet y’all here.”

“Naegi, this is Applejack,” Rainbow introduced.

Applejack tipped her hat at me. “Nice to meet ya, partner.” She stepped in, allowing a burnt orange pony with a crazily sticking up brown mane inside. “And Rainbow Dash, this is Hagakure.”

“Is that you, Naegi?!” Hagakure cried, nearly tackling me with a hug. “This is crazy! I mean, we’re ponies!”

I shook my head with a smile. “It is crazy, isn’t it, Hagakure…?” I answered, trailing off.

The three mares looked at the two of us in confusion. “You two know each other?” Rainbow asked.

Before we could say “yes”, another pony, an ivory unicorn with a royal purple mane, walked through the open door.

“Forgive me for interrupting, dear,” She said. “But I came to meet up with everypony!”

Another dark green unicorn followed her inside. “Could somebody please explain why I am a colorful unicorn?” he demanded.

“Just as soon as everypony meets here,” Twilight answered, relieved that more ponies were showing.

“Everypony, this is Byakuya Togami. Togami, this is Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle.” She turned to me and Hagakure. “My name is Rarity; a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I’m Naegi,” I replied. “And this is Hagakure.”

After introductions, we all chatted a bit while waiting for the next pony to come, which happened sooner than expected.

“Hey, everypony,” a pink pony cheered as Twilight opened the door. “Sorry we took so long; Hina and I made some donuts!”

“Hey, guys,” a red pegasus with a gravity-defying brown ponytail said in the same manner as the pink pony. “I’m Aoi Asahina, but just call me Hina!”

“A-Asahina?!” I cried in surprise. “You’re here, too?!”

Hina turned to me in surprise. “Naegi?! Is that absolutely adorable big-eyed pegasus you?!”

“Anyway, I’m Pinkie Pie, super-party-pony extraordinaire! I-,”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!” A shrill cry came from outside.

“T-that sounded like Fluttershy!” Twilight cried.

The nine of us rushed out of the door of the library. Rainbow flew up to get a bird’s-eye view. “She’s near her cottage! C’mon!”

We galloped as fast as we could in the direction Rainbow directed us, and before long, we saw butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane rush by, shrieking. “Somepony help meeee!” She cried, running as fast as her hooves would carry her.

A few seconds later, we found who she was running from. “If you don’t get back here right now, I’ll stab a thousand holes into that little pony body of yours!”

“I-is that…?” Hagakure stuttered in shock.

“Genocider Jill,” Togami called after the serial killer. “Come over here.”

“Hmm?” the dark gray pony said, stopping in front of Togami. “Who the hell is this pony?” Her eyes widened. “Byakuya-sama? ! Could that be you?!”

“Why were you chasing that pony?” Togami demanded.

Syo just shrugged. “I dunno. She just started shrieking and running as soon as I woke up.”

“Well… you do look pretty scary,” Hagakure said, stepping back.

“C’mon, Fluttershy,” I heard Rainbow Dash say. I turned my head and saw her walking back toward us with the pony that had been running. I didn’t even realize she had gone after her!

“I-I’m so sorry for worrying everypony,” She said, tears in the corners of her eyes. “I was just… so frightened when I saw her.”

“D-don’t worry about it,” I assured her. “I mean, Genocide Jill would scare anyone.” I turned to Jill. “But we would appreciate it if you’d turn back into Touko Fukawa.”

“Ugh,” Jill groaned. “Do I really have to turn back into her?”

“For introductions, at least,” I explained.

“Ah-choo!!” She sneezed before she could respond. “Huh?” She looked around at us, then suddenly squealed in horror and backed up several feet. “Wh-wh-what the-?!”

“Fukawa,” Togami said coldy. “Calm down.”

“B-B-Byakuya?!” Fukawa cried. “Is that really you?! Why are you a-?!”

“I was wondering that as well.” He glared at Twilight, who shrunk back in his gaze.

“I-I’ll explain everything as soon as that unicorn who’s staying at my house wakes up,” she answered. “Ack! That reminds me! We should probably get back!

“Hey Naegi, if there’s one more pony here…” Hagakure muttered. “Considering the ponies already here…”

“Right,” I said, before he could finish his sentence. “It has to be Kirigiri!”

Author's Note:

This chapter was actually going to be even longer, but I decided that this was a good place to end the chapter. Also, a longer chapter means it's going to take a LOT longer for it to come out, especially because I have a tendency to procrastinate. Before anyone says anything, I know my pacing is terrible, especially when it comes to introductions. Unfortunately, by the time I realized this, it was too late to really change it so the chapter still ran smoothly. Also, I'm having the DR characters use the honorifics, just 'cause it kind of makes sense to me. All that aside, I hope this was an enjoyable, or at least tolerable, chapter. I'll try to write the next chapter soon!