Chapter 4: By Zervziel
An intense pain thrust the young stallion back into the waking world. As he became more conscious, Braeburn looked around, though this only served to send a new wave of pain surging through him.
“Oh, my head. Did anypony get the name of the buffalo that dun hit me?” he asked aloud, not really expecting anyone to hear, massaging the aforementioned body part with a shaky hoof.
“No buffalo here, friend.”
The voice caused the young earth pony to bolt upright. That voice. It was so thin and strained, not too mention pretty rough, as if it’s owner had spent the last hour gargling sandpaper. Braeburn subconsciously recognized that he was in one of the many infirmaries around the HQ.
Still looking around, he recognized the limp unmoving forms of his team. Two empty beds to his right was Slate Bulwark. The dark gray lump that was the earth pony guard simply looked like he had fallen asleep. Every now and then his left hind leg would twitch. One row above Slate was the young mare known as Scootaloo who seemed to be sleeping fine as well though the top of her head was swathed in bandages.
To his left Braeburn found Twilight and Cadance, the lavender mare simply opting to hug the pillow with her forelegs as she rested her head upon it.
However the princess was another story altogether. From where Braeburn rested it looked as if she was already awake. After readjusting himself to be more comfortable, the hay-colored colt tried calling to her to no avail. It wasn’t until then that he noticed something was off. The princess’ eyes were wide open and her pupils had shrunk down to mere pinpoints. That, and the aghast look imprinted upon her face, made Braeburn quite sure that the lovely alicorn had seen something fit for neither mortal nor immortal eyes.
“Ewwww. She musta woken up just into time to see Discord’s victory dance.”
'At those words, a strong shudder wracked the princess of love’s body, disrupting her thousand-yard gaze.
“Ugh. So much jumping and jiving…and the jiggling!” Summoning a small plastic basin used just for this, Cadance tried to empty her stomach’s contents as demurely as she possibly could.
Braeburn would have offered his sympathy if he hadn’t spied the last member of his team in the corner.
“R-R-Rainbow Dash?! What in tarnation happened to you?!” He blurted out, his eyes practically bulging from their sockets.
“Heya, Brae!” Rainbow called back before cackling. She waved her left front hoof energetically, which only made the earth pony fight to keep his own previous meal down.
It was both amazing and yet increadibly disgusting, watching somepony wave a disembodied hoof. Over all it was a tad nauseating as all the exposed artificial muscle linking the limb to the now cybernetic pegasus contracted and expanded in sequence.
In fact that wasn’t the only part of Rainbow that was in such a state. Rainbow Dash’s head was now suspended by wires about two feet above the rest of her body, linked by what could only be described as a robotic spine, the dark metal construct projecting down into her open neck. Other assorted cords and cables continued to link the two as well, some looking organic while others obviously weren’t.
“Took on the god of chaos on my lonesome after you guys took a nap. Didn’t end well. Though you can’t say I don’t have guts…see there they are!” Rainbow Dash blurted, before cackling again, this time the laughter going on a bit longer than necessary.
Even as Braeburn looked where Dash had mentioned, he noticed the pegasus’ eyes had a haunted look similar to Cadance. The somewhat forced laughter and the random eye twitching told him all he needed to know about her mental state.
True to Rainbow’s words, she did have guts. They were practically on display, a sickly red pulsing light giving the synthetic organs a horrific appearance as they protruded from Rainbow Dash’s now open rib cage.
“Oh wow. That’s…”
“Impressive?” Dash asked innocently.
“Terrifying is what I was thinking.” Braeburn finished.
“Bah. Why were you talking about buffalo earlier?”
Braeburn sheepishly combed his gold mane back with a hoof. “Nothing. Guess I got knocked silly. You say Discord did this to us?”
Rainbow Dash looked down at her body sadly. “Yeah. In more ways than one.”
Both ponies were silent for a few moments before a new sound broke the silence. Back in her bed, a young pegasus started shifting restlessly underneath her sheets.
“I hate to say it, but I think the squirt is about to have one hellish nightmare.”
The older pegasus tried shifting herself, but was brought up short by the myriad network of wires and organs that had been taken out and suspended in front of her for repairs.
Thinking quickly, she looked back at one pony that could help. “Brae, I can’t do anything here, go see if you can keep her calm.”
He hesitated “Sure thing, but…um…what makes you think she’s gonna be having a nightmare soon?”
Rainbow Dash looked at him with a desperate look in her eyes. “Um…..mare’s intuition?”
Before Braeburn could retort, the orange pegasus started thrashing about. Tears leaked from her closed eyes before she screamed out. “NO!”
Scootaloo didn’t now where she was; the landscape around her was alien and bizarre. The sky was piercingly blue. A moon that looked about five hundred times larger than it should be provided the seemingly endless sky with a crater-pitted ceiling. The grass was an interesting shade of dark purple, almost to the point of looking black. Across the rolling hills were ruined buildings. Marble columns lay like scattered sticks in the general area. The cold white stone of the buildings lay in the low light like bleached bones, the low breeze echoing among them.
“Hello?” She called, hoping for a response. The only response was her own voice bouncing back at her.
“Anypony there? Helloooo!” She called again, trotting up a hill before gliding to the top of it’s neighbor. Again no answer came, the only sounds were her voice and the soft rustling of the weird dark grass. At this point Scootaloo panicked. Flying from hilltop to hilltop, she cried out for help. Her continued answer was a chilling silence.
Finally the orange pegasus collapse at the top of the largest hill she had seen so far. Not even bothering to pull herself off the ground, she sobbed. “Hello? Anypony? Sweetie Belle? Applebloom? R-Rainbow Dash?”
She didn’t know how long she watched the disturbingly close moon over head before she heard a particularly strong gust of air. She could see the shift on the grass as the wind blew towards her, finally wrapping the young pony in a chilling embrace, causing her to shudder involuntarily. It was then she though she heard something. A faint whisper that danced playfully in the wind teasing the fushia-maned pony with tiny tidbits.
Suddenly, a firm feminine voice spoke directly into her mind, “Young Scootaloo, you have been called upon to serve. Your life up to this point is forfeit. Your friends will forget you. Your family won’t know you.”
“Wait a minute! Don’t I get a say in this?!” Scootaloo cried, staggering to her hooves.
The voice chuckled darkly. “But of course. You have two options. Help save the lives of nameless masses that don’t know you, can never care for you, and in all likelihood, will never know you existed.”
The words sent a chill through the pegasus as the wind never could.
“After all,” the voice continued, ”if you remember what that puppeteer of an alicorn said, each universe has it’s own individuals. There are other Scootaloos. You are but one of many and a rather pathetic one at that.”
As it spoke, small forms began to rise from the grass. Shadows that resembled tiny foals, looking as if somepony had cut out a small equine shape from the darkest of nights. Once formed, the little scamps proceeded to leap upon the unsuspecting mare, nipping, tugging at hair and feathers all the while chanting in a sing song voice, “Save us, save us!”
“Oh save us!” One cried with the voice of a young filly. “Our Celestia has gone mad and wants to burn our world!”
“Save me! Save my friends!” Cried another shadow foal, this one a young colt. “My brothers and I accidentally unleashed the Mad God, Discord, as you once did!”
“Save my family,” cried the last, another shadow colt. “My mother and father are never there but now they’re deathly ill. Surely you can do something!”
Scootaloo’s head felt like it was spinning. With each repetition of “Save us” the foal’s voices doubled until it sounded as if a crowd was screaming at her to save them.
The young pegasus hadn’t felt such pressure for what seemed a lifetime. “Stop!” She screamed. “I can’t handle this! I’m just a failed weather mare!”
“There is another option.” The voice somehow managed to make itself heard above the crowd. “Give up. Go home. As you just said, it’s too much for one mare to handle. There’s nothing for you here.”
Scootaloo tried to think as she attempted to escape the shadow foals. “But what about my new friends?!”
“Who?” the voice asked coyly, “The ponies you’ve known less than a day? Why should they care about a failed flier?”
Another shape started rise from the ground. Large, metallic shapes burst up from the grass, throwing sod into the air as the emerging form started clicking and grinding as parts shifted into a familiar form that Scootaloo recognized instantly. The dread machine from the Rainbow Factory loomed over the young mare menacingly. A recent addition glared down at her with disturbingly placid mechanical eyes.
“Come on, squirt. Don’t you want to bring some color into these dull new worlds?" taunted Rainbow Dash as the cyborg beckoned the horrified mare over with a cold metal hoof.
Quickly the chanting of “Save us!” shifted from desperate pleas to a more taunting tone. Grinning wickedly, the shadow foals held Scootaloo still. Without any warning the limp chains on the dreadful machine came to life as they shot forward and through Scootaloo’s legs. As she screamed in pain, the chains proceeded to wrap themselves around her. With a dull clank and wide grin, Rainbow started reeling in her helpless prey.
Scootaloo thrashed as hard as she could to escape, ignoring the searing pain in her limbs that the movement caused.
“Come now, young one,” Teased the voice. “How can you help other ponies if you can’t even help yourself?”
“I can help myself!” Scootaloo screamed in defiance, adding her wings to her battle against the chains. Looking furious, the shadow foals who had been thrown free from her thrashing grabbed hold of the chains and tried to drag the bound pegasus to her doom with renewed vigor. But against all odds, the orange pegasus actually managed to stop herself from being pulled towards the Rainbow Machine.
Hoped dawned in Scootaloo as she pumped her wings hard. She started laughing, feeling giddy at the prospect of escape. Then came twin crushing impacts upon her back, shattering and twisting her wings beyond repair. The injured pegasus shrieked in pain as she was dragged backwards.
The cybernetically enhanced Rainbow smiled darkly as her two disembodied front hooves returned to float by her body. Lifting the pitiful, broken, sobbing form up to eyelevel, Rainbow shook her head before speaking in an oddly tired voice.
“One paltry performance before giving up. Seems to be a running theme with you, Squirt. You’re such a loser.”
Scootaloo felt as if someone ripped her very soul out of her body as with that final phrase, Rainbow dumped her into the heart of the machine. As she fell, Scootaloo couldn’t take her eyes off her former idol as the sky itself turned blood red.
“WAKE UP!”
Scootaloo gasped as ice cold water splashed over her, soakng the mare through fur and feather.
“Wha-what?!” She finally wheezed out. Standing over her were the forms of Braeburn, Princess Cadance, Twilight Sparkle, and Discord, who was currently offering popcorn to the others.
“You were having a nightmare, Scootaloo,” Twilight offered weakly.
“Ya think?!” Scootaloo snarled acidly. She did not want anyone to see her so vulnerable.
“We could hear it from over here!” Rainbow Dash supplied from her spot in the corner of the room. “Sounded really bad so I had Braeburn try to wake you up!”
“Who asked you anyway?!” The group of ponies backed off at the vehemence in the mare’s voice. “I’m fine. It was just a stupid dream that can’t hurt me.”
Twilight’s face scrunched with concern and she started to say something before a magic zipper appeared on one cheek and rendered her silent with a quick zip. Startled, she looked over at Princess Cadance who just gave her a stern look while shaking her head. Twilight Sparkle was very much a 'fixer' personality and the Princess knew Scootaloo needed time more than she needed a lecture.
A tone rang out through the room followed by a familiar voice. “All viable members of Team Paladin, please report to me immediately for the after mission report and assessment. Dr. Discord, you get up here too. We must discuss this dance group you are forming.”
A silence followed Lady Shard’s announcement, which was only broken by a certain pink alicorn dry retching at the news of a Discord Dance Club.
“By the cosmos, No!” she moaned.
Ignoring Cadance's plight, Braeburn trotted over to the one member who had managed to sleep through both nightmare and announcement. “Haybales and thunder! This fella can sleep! Come on, Slate, up and at ‘em!”
Slate Bulwark groaned before rolling out of bed, followed by a bass thud as he impacted the floor.
“I’m awake.” He growled pushing himself up.
“Good thing. We need to see Lady Shard about our performance,” Twilight informed him, spazzing slightly as she said the last word. It hadn’t occurred to her until then that this was practically a grade! At that thought, the lavender unicorn bolted out the door. Cadance and Scootaloo shortly followed her, the latter encased in the former’s magic. Braeburn was walking out the door alongside Discord before somepony clearing their throat stopped him. Both earth pony and draconequus stopped and looked back.
Rainbow Dash’s head glared back at them indignantly from its lofty perch above her body. “Forgetting somepony, are we?”
Braeburn was about to say something when the oddest of apparitions materialized behind Rainbow Dash and started gnawing on one of her rear hoofs.
“Hey! Buck off, Oscar!” Dash cried, weakly trying to dislodge the sausage pony without hurting herself or the equipment supporting her.
Snickering to himself, Discord nonchalantly made his way over. Looking back at Braeburn, he called out, “Tell Shard I’m wrapping things up here with Rainbow Dash and that we’ll be along in a little bit.”
The stallion nodded and made his way out the door either not hearing or ignoring Dash’s pleas not to be left alone with Discord.
Once outside, Braeburn took a deep breath of fresh air, adjusted his hat and followed after his team. The group made their way through the labyrinth of metal, plastics, and stone of the city to the teleportation grid.
Stepping onto the metallic circle of the teleporter, Twilight turned to her team. “Sooo....do any of you know exactly where Lady Shard is at this moment?” she asked nervously, practically prancing in place in agitation.
The Princess gave her a level stare as she stepped on. “No, but we can find out, Twilight, so please calm down.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to worry about everything so much, Sparkly.” Slated rumbled “Good way to die early if you’re too high strung. Need to learn to relax a bit.”
“That sounds really weird coming from a Royal Guards, pardner.” Braeburn couldn't help but add, earning him a stern glare from Slate.
“I’ll just send you to Central and you can start looking there.” Called the teleportation assistant from his spot behind a bank of control panels. With a few quick button presses, the beams of light lashed out and disintegrated the ponies, sending them on the way.
One quick trip that involved having their disassociated atoms fired through a wormhole across millions of miles to the T-port Hub near Central Core, the group walked/staggered, everypony feeling some degree of nausea. One of the first to get over was Twilight.
“You know, some ponies have started philosophical debates arguing anout whether or not the ponies that walk into those stations are really the same ponies that walk out.” Twilight supplied in a conversational tone.
“That kind of thing is something I don’t want to even think about,” groused a still slightly damp Scootaloo, still quite disturbed by her nightmare and subsequent waking.
The other present members of the team murmered agreement with the young pegasus as they continued on, leaving the unicorn nopony to talk to about the ‘fascinating’ subject she’d been dying to discuss. “Oooooh! What I wouldn’t give for another Twilight to talk to on occasion.”
“Lady Shard, the team you requested should be arriving shortly.”
The alicorn looked over at the pony who’d just spoken. “Thank you, Nightmare. You may take off the rest of the afternoon. This will take awhile and I know how much you despise Discord.”
The self-styled Queen of Darkness (and the Night, Shadows, and Dark Stains) shuddered, sending waves through her nebulous mane and tail. “Can you blame me? You know how the beast was in my home universe.”
“Yes, yes, I know. After all I got to see just how bad he was since that was one of my self-assessment missions I took myself to ensure my skills don't atrophy too much.”
Nightmare Moon laughed. “I do remember actually. Apparently you were quite rusty.”
“Rub it in, why don’t you?” Shard growled. “I didn't do too bad for the most part...with the possible exception of that face-plant I had. That was pretty bad.”
The black alicorn snickered. “I don’t know. You did manage to 'face-plant' into Discord, giving the Elements time to imprison him again.”
“Yeah, and got the magical backwash off that EoH blast in a place where the Sun nor Moon shine for my troubles.”
At this both ponies started laughing. Still laughing, Nightmare Moon made her way to the door and left, giving Lady Shard sometime to prepare, shutting the large metal doors behind her. Shard could barely hear the guards outside bidding the mare a good day.
Mentally calling herself to the task at hoof, the Lady levitated a clipboard in front of her as she scanned it. “Let us see what’s on the checklist this time. After action report? Check. Appearance?”
At this, she set the clipboard and walked over to a wall-mounted mirror that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. Normally her dark steel blue fur looked well groomed and her pale blue mane and tail where as straight as she could comb them. Now they were pretty badly mussed, and several of her feathers in her wings were out of place. The alicorn took a moment to straighten those out, opting to use her mouth rather than her magic. Habit more than anything else.
Looking back at her coat and mane, she heaved a wary sigh. One of the Order’s very few good Discords had seen fit to create a whoopee cushion the size of an extinct mammoth in one of Central’s large atriums and had promptly belly flopped onto it as she had passed. On top of that rather minor indignity her counterpart, Sliver, had seen fit to depart, leaving everything in her hooves while subtly insulting her cousin for her seemingly poor choice of champions.
“Overgrown lightbulb. Why does she have to be such a pain in the flank. Oh well.” Levitating a brush over to try and salvage her mane and tail, Shard brought the clipboard over as well. “Appearance? In progress. What’s next….Ah. lunchtime.”
Levitating a paper sack from a drawer within her desk, the alicorn quickly swept the room, her cyan eyes checking every corner, nook, and cranny. Seeing nopony else, her horn flashed a blue light as she cast a powerful security spell, one that erected a powerful shield spell on all the entrances. It also had the benefit of rendering her office sound proof.
Satisfied her office was safe; Lady Shard stuffed her face in the sack and pulled out her prize. Even through the paper wrapper, she could taste it. Wasting no time, the alicorn unwrapped the meal and tore into it with the ferocity of a starved wolf.
After finishing, she wiped her mouth and incinerated the paper remains. “MmmMmmm! That was a good burger.”
Shard knew how most ponies would react if they knew her little secret. A mixture of act disgusted, act self-rigteous, and then run in terror thinking the big bad pony was going come and gobble them up. Despite this, she found having the occasional burger was quite refreshing. Damn humans and their addictive food. Thankfully she could get it delivered to her and almost all the humans were very good at keeping secrets. Most of them at least.
After waiting for a short while, the alicorn dimly heard her guards speaking to someone outside the doors. Eventually the doors opened revealing most of the team she was waiting for. Only two seemed to be missing.
Shard frowned, “Where are Rainbow Dash and Discord? They were to be here as well.”
A handsome hay-colored young stallion took off his hat as he stepped forward and answered. “Mighty sorry, ma’am, but Discord apparently had to put Ms. Dash’s parts back in before they came here. I was kinda hoping they’d be here already.”
Looking at the clock, the Lady chook her head. “We might as well get started as there is an event I promised to be at starts fairly soon.”
Five copies of the after action reports appeared before the team. Shard spoke up “Well as we all know, that battle could have gone a lot better. I saw some excellent teamwork potential out there but there were plenty of mistakes as well. What do you think went wrong out there.”
Slate Bulwark answered. “We were in a battle against Discord without the Elements of Harmony. Not much we could do.”
“True,” replied the alicorn, inspecting the edge of one of her forehooves. It was an act, but a useful one. “But you were not harmless and all you had to do was disable Discord.”
“But how?” Twilight asked, cutting in. “Without the elements we were severely limited.”
“Again quite true. However you will not be carrying around the Elements in the field, not too mention only two of you have ever wielded the Elements before and are capable of doing so with any reliability. What we were testing yesterday was your ability to adapt.”
“Wait! Yesterday?!”
Shard waved her hoof absently. “Yes. Needless to say Discord knocked you ponies for quite a loop. Rainbow Dash tried to take him on alone, bless her heart, but Discord just engaged the failsafe. Underhooved, yes, but allowable. Good way to practice having someone down in the field.”
Checking the clock, the Lady hurried on. “Ok, my appointment is coming up soon so here is what is going to happen with your group. Despite your failure for your initial test, the Paladins will be activated and begin taking low-risk and low profile missions immediately. Your commanding officer on the HQ will be Shining Armor. To be specific, your actual brother, Ms. Sparkle.”
At this Twilight flashed Princess Cadance a radiant smile who returned it. Either not seeing this or likely not caring, Lady Shard continued on.
“And the commander in the field is….well congratulations, Princess Cadance. Your actual rank as well as pay grade still needs to go through the system. As that is everything, you are dismissed. Your first mission will be here soon enough. If you’ll excuse me, I must attend to a function for Pinkie Pie.”
At that name, Twilight’s ears perked up. “Pinkie Pie? Which one?”
Shard continued out the door and simply replied “A good many of them. If you wish, you may accompany me. It is guaranteed to be quite a sight.”
Twilight quickly turned to her team and set up a meeting time later on before hurrying after the Lady. Upon catching up to her, Twilight shot a glance at the Lady’s flank.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, but what does your cutie mark stand for? It looks like a whirlpool or a vortex.”
A shadow darted overhead as the two exited Central.
“Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she buzzed the unsuspecting unicorn. In an instant the unicorn’s purple mane was a frizzed mess.
“Gah! Rainbow! Why did you do that?!”
The pegasus rolled onto her back and fly backwards as she passed her friend at a much slower rate. “Relax, egghead! I’m just playing with you. Learn any thing from Lady What’s-her-face?”
“That would be Lady Shard.” Corrected a passing Princess Luna as she entered Central.
Rainbow simply stared before rubbing her head with a hoof. “Wow, kinda odd just seeing important ponies pop up and leave like that.”
Twilight smirked as she continued to follow Shard. “Well sure! There are literally hundreds if not thousands of the same pony here. For example, the Rainbolts! The rival team of the Wonderbolts and every single member is Rainbow Dash!”
Hearing this, Dash promptly dropped from the air onto her haunches. “There’s a flight team of Rainbow Dashes! That’s SO COOL!”
“Yup! They haven’t allowed the Wonderbolts to win any titles for the last four years.”
Raonbow picked herself up and started walking alongside Twilight. “Wow. So how does that work anyway? I mean if there are hundred or thousands copies of the same pony how come there aren’t a hundred Wonderbolts or a hundred Rainbolts?”
The unicorn thought for a moment before responding. “Weeell. Basically the skill level needed to get in to either groups or any other groups goes from very high to phenomenally high.”
The cyan pegasus thought this over before nodding. “That makes sense. Otherwise just any Rainbow Dash could get in. What about the rest of our friends?”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahead of the two ponies, Shard simply continued walking. Initially she had been heading for the teleportation grid, but after Twilight’s question about her cutie mark, the Lady decided a demonstration was in order. Checking to see if Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash were paying attention, she smirked when she noticed the two were so engrossed in their conversation they never noticed her. A flash of light from her horn and a swirling vortex of light appeared in front of her. Oblivious to even this display, Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked right on through.
“We’re here!” Lady Shard announced loudly. “And it looks like we’re just on time since they’ve simply started maneuvers.”
Both Twilight and Rainbow looked up startled by the announcement and confused by the change in their surroundings. Instead of the gut wrenching height provided by Central’s spoke-like bridges, they were now standing on a metallic platform. Behind them loomed one of the largest cities either ponies had ever seen. In front of them was an immense plain that stretched for what seemed forever. A large wood of to their left provided shade.
Twilight’s eyes were assault almost immediately as she gazed at the field. It was hot pink! Looking again she corrected herself. There were ponies down there! So many it made the plain itself seem pink! Eventually Twilight could make out formations.
It was literally an army of pink ponies and not just any pony. As Twilight watched the crowd, certain details stood out. Balloon cutie marks, darker pink mane and tails that were exceedingly poofy and the feeling that common sense had no hold here.
“I-i-it’s a-“ stuttered Rainbow Dash, her cool demeanor gone, replaced by a wild look in her eyes.
“It’s an army of Pinkie Pie,” breathed Twilight. Even from here the unicorn could feel the vibrations of the candy-coated horde in front of her. Twilight’s eyes searched the field. The Pinkie’s were marching in square formations with about fifty ponies per side. There were twenty of these squares in all. Twilight’s brain crunched the numbers. Fifty thousand. Fifty thousand Pinkie Pies marched upon the plain below.
Tearing her eyes from the sight, Twilight looked over to Lady Shard. “Lady, why are all these Pinkie Pies here?”
“It’s basically a meeting for Pinkie Pies. Every single pony down there is an active agent for the Order.”
“WHAT?!”
“It’s as I said. In fact most of these Pinkies still have their home continuums. They act as intelligence and have an important job as well.”
“What’s that?” asked Twilight wondering just what kind of job the frizz-maned pony could have that would be considered important.
“Pinkie Pie is usually in charge of making sure the dimensional dividers are weakened, which in turn allows us to form portals in the different dimensions easier.”
The unicorn looked dubious. “How does she do that? She’s an earth pony!”
“You have honestly never noticed her ability to pop up in odd places?”
Twilight thought back to one visit to the spa where Pinkie Pie had emerged from a bowl of sponges that was far too small. “Well…maybe.”
Looking back up, Twilight could help but ask. “But how do you keep the Order a secret? Wouldn’t many ponies want to come here? I mean this place has a level of technology never seen in Equestria!”
Lady Shard just gave her a smug look. It took the unicorn a moment to understand what the alicorn was imply. Bringing a hoof to her face, she groaned at the obvious answer. “A Pinkie Promise?! Really?”
Shard started to laugh but stopped at the sight of Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus was still frozen in place, her horrified expression at the legions of Pinkie Pies still there.
“Hmmm. I believe we may have broken Ms. Dash.”
“Rainbow? Oh no!” Twilight raced over to her friend and shook the pegasus urgently. “Come on, Dash! Snap out of it!”
Frantic, the unicorn fell upon an old habit born out of her younger years, as she looked to the nearest source of authority. “Lady, we need to get Dash some help right away!”
“Calm down, Ms. Sparkle! I’ll send you and Ms. Dash back to the infirmary for now and then send down one of the Order’s psychiatrist.”
Wasting no further words, another swirling vortex appeared in the air. Twilight needed no further urging as she lifted the pegasus in the air with her magic and walked through.
No sooner had the portal closed, a scraping noise filled the air. Curious the alicorn looked only to spy Discord rowing a cigar store Indian towards her.
“I take it Ms. Dash failed the second test?” he asked, a bushy white eyebrow raised.
Shard shook her head as she sat down. “Wasn’t so much a test as much as it was to see how she reacted to Ms. Pie. Sadly your assumptions were correct. Hopefully we can get to the root of the problem before their missions pick up.”
The draconequus laughed, slapping his eagle talon on his equine leg. “Ohoho, you kill me, Shard! No pony just ‘gets over’ an experience like the one she went through. In fact, I’m sure we need to have miss Scootaloo examined as well.”
Sighing, Shard abandoned her mask of omnipotent authority and instead lay down. “So you are saying our two new recruits both suffer from extreme mental scarring. That makes this even harder.”
Discord arched his long body over the pony to poke her in the side. “So why is that one team so important, anyway? Surely we have better and much more experienced teams.”
The alicorn looked up into the sky and admired the impossible sight of Tenebris Ultra’s horn piercing through the heavens. “If you must know, it’s because of Her. She is preparing for something and before you ask, no. I have no clue what it is. What scares me is neither of Them know as well.”
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Make that implying.
Over all, I'm glad how this chapter turned out. Was pretty fun too.
1177388 Can't help but feel annoyed whenever I see this on any story. Someone goes to the trouble of writing a story and the only reaction some people have is to leave a single emote.
Preemptive jimmies rustled pic.
rustledmyjimmies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ONLY-THE-DEAD-CAN-KNOW-PEACE-FROM-THIS-RUSTLING.jpg
1178098 srry what i meant was
Lol this story rocks you get STACHE!!! 
That fight was yesterday?!?!
Feels like two months ago.
Good chapter see you when you update!
Pinkie Pie(s) run intelligence? That strangely makes sense.
Oh, and:
Don't look at me like that. It fits.
1202035 God, that song was so damn trippy. Close but less elephants and more pony. Also why won't anyone freaking comment on Scoot's dream?!
1209623
Because we already knew she has problems and it just reinforced it?
1211227 Oh. Still that's the first time i have written something like that so some feedback about it would be nice. Was it effective, scary? Or did it just come off as corny?
1211337
I'd say it was pretty jarring at least
1211417 In the good or bad way?
1212694
Good.
You bet your ass she gets them delivered.
Was it similar to the Fudderwagon?
Fifty.... THOUSAND PINKIE PIES?????
I'm out. See you never! And I totally did not break a Pinkie Promise on purpose. Nosiree. Nope.
*Runs away*
Talk about Scoots having a wierd dream. I kinda feel bad for Dash, seeing 50 000 of the same pony that tortured and murdered her. Like if Rainbow Factory Scootaloo seeing the rainbolts, so many dashes.. I can imagine them all pulling off a Sonic Rainboom at once, now that would be utterly awesome, 50 000 (maybe) Sonic >Rainbooms at once...