• Published 25th Jun 2012
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Ascension - cloudedguardian



Celestia is dying. Or at least it seems so. Afflicted with a curse that is destroying her very nature, she sets a plan in action. The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony will take the throne in her wake... Not that they know that yet...

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Royal Ruckus (Part 4)

Part Four
Cascading Chaos

This. Is retarded. Absolutely stupid. Ridiculous and unbelievable and… And…

Rainbow Dash stopped dead in the middle of the hallway as her brain stuttered to find the right word to continue her internal rant. Her wings, clenched tightly at her sides unfolded for the sole purpose of slamming angrily in the air as a frustrated scream slipped out through gritted teeth, punctuating the guttural noise with the thrum of a strange drum. It could hardly be classified as a word… But it was rather fitting all the same.

Rainbow took a deep breath, trying to calm herself even a little, but bottled frustrations just pushed out her exhale as a harsh snort that left her feeling just as furious as she had before. Ears flat against the back of her head, she continued her fuming saunter down the hallway towards the throne room.

To be honest she didn’t want to go to the throne room, with the loud noise of renovations and bustling workers… But most of all she didn’t want to go because she knew Twilight would be standing proud in the middle of it all, calling out directions as she worked on her own tasks… And when RD inevitably entered the room, the two’s eyes would meet… And Rainbow Dash would have to look Twilight in the eye, and admit she had failed to one of her best friends.

That thought alone was enough to make the young alicorn freeze where she stood before the Throne Room’s door, and look bewildered behind her. Once again the thought of going back and trying again rather than face the disappointment of a friend came to mind.

But then what? Rainbow asked herself coldly. I go and make an even bigger mess of things? Make an even greater fool of myself? At least this way I’m not wasting anypony else’s time. May as well just… Get it over with.

The scene of chaos that greeted Rainbow Dash when she gained the courage to open the door was far from what she had expected. Fifty ponies ran in thirty different directions, each carrying something to or fro, all calling out something different, their shouts filling the air with the humming headache of organized chaos. Her eyes instinctively began searching for her friends among it all, and Twilight was the first and easiest to spot.

Standing tall among the hunched and hurrying crowds, was the vibrant purple alicorn that Rainbow Dash knew so well. Books and clipboards floated about Twilight’s head in her vibrant magenta aura as her quill hastily buzzed about, checking off and writing away under the stream of muttered orders that its holder was constantly muttering under her breath.

There was something definitively off about her, however… And it didn’t take long for Dash to place what it was. The frazzled mane with the kinked tail, the tiara that bore the Element of magic crooked upon the place on Twilight’s head on which it sat, the occasional twitch that decreed the reason why she was standing still in the middle of it all was not because of proud and confident leadership but rather because she was trying to go in too many different directions at once… Yup, Rainbow recognized this Twilight, and it didn’t bode well with her.

With the desperate hope that she wouldn’t have to bother her already over-stressed and frazzled friend, Rainbow switched her attention to trying to find Rarity. It took a little longer to spot the white alicorn among all the clouds of white plaster dust and pale-colored unicorns in their white paint-splattered over-alls. Just spotting her at all warranted a double-take, as Rainbow had not been anticipating actually finding her, having expected her to still be in the gardens. As she made her way over to her fashionista friend however, Rainbow began to suspect that Rarity was just as bit overwhelmed and stressed as Twilight was.

For one, Rarity was undoubtedly twitching. Second, the beautiful purple mane that her friend toiled over each day to perfect was soaking wet, filled with leaves and pine cones, and what Rainbow was assuming was mud… And Rarity didn’t even seem to care… Or maybe she hadn’t even noticed. Either way, when it came down to it, it didn’t matter which it was, it meant that there was something seriously wrong with her friend.

“Uhhh… Rarity?” Rainbow asked awkwardly, her already serious concern for her friend only growing as Rarity fixed two unfocused and shrunken eyes on her. “Y-you okay?”

“No!” Rarity squeaked shrilly with a rather broken smile. “No. No no no no- I’m not okay! I’m not okay at all! And do you know why?” Rarity’s entire demeanor seemed to change in a heart-beat, going from creepy-town cheerful to tranquil-fury freaky in a blink as she stepped towards Rainbow. “Well, do you? DO YOU?”

“N-no?” Rainbow suddenly found herself suppressing the urge to run as far and fast as she could away from her hyper-ventilating and possibly psychotic friend.

“Well I’ll tell you why! It’s because they’re all beasts! Every last one of them! Psychotic rabid horrible beasts! Demon spawn I tell you! And they’re everywhere absolutely everywhere! No escape just there! Every time there’s another one! Screaming and yelling and throwing things with the water and the mud and the cries…” Rarity began to trail off as her gaze became more unfocused… Until she was staring off into space still muttering to herself as if Rainbow was no longer even there.

“Ooooh-kaaaay…” Rainbow breathed out carefully, slowly backing away from the twitching alicorn. “Rarity’s lost it.”

“Oh! Rainbow Dash!”

Blue ears swiveled quickly to focus on the surprisingly chipper voice of Twilight, drawing Rainbow’s attention to the approaching mare. “Uh, hey Twilight…”

Twilight returned Rainbow’s rather awkward smile with a reassuringly sane one of her own. “I need to ask two favours of you Dash, is that okay?”

“Yeah… Sure Twi, what is it?”

“Okay, first favour. Be perfectly honest with me, how’s your task going?” Twilight asked bluntly, her calm smile suddenly seeming a little eerie to Dash.

The constantly twitching left ear could probably be blamed for that. RD decided, as she struggled to hold her friend’s gaze without her stomach feeling like it was going to turn itself inside out.

“Ah. That badly, huh.” Twilight said suddenly, earning an abashed and grateful grin from a blue alicorn who was relieved that she had been able to avoid saying it herself. “That’s okay. That is perfectly alright- to be honest it was anticipated and will be dealt with accordingly. Second favour!” Rainbow jumped slightly as Twilight seemed to interrupt herself with her declaration.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight seemed to regain a bit of her composure again to give her friend a sad smile that said quite clearly how freaked out they both felt. “If I start to lose it, smack me. Okay?”

“Sure. Whatever you say Twi.”

“Thank you. Now, that that’s all dealt with, is there anything you need to ask me or…?”

“Yeah, two questions actually, now that I think about it.” Rainbow said, glancing around the chaotic mess that the Throne Room had become. “The first being… What exactly is going on here?”

“Ah yes of course. Well, I don’t really have time to explain it properly with all the backstory and history that it deserves, but the long and short of it is that certain areas of the castle are being renovated to better suit us- The Throne Room, as you can see, is receiving the majority of said renovations. They started about an hour ago. At this pace I think it is safe to say they will be done by tomorrow.”

“Huh. That’s kinda impressive.” Rainbow admitted, trying to pull her gaze away from two well-built stallions working together to move the old throne out. “Okay, second question.” She began, pulling her dark rose-colored eyes to meet Twilight’s tired violet ones. “Where’s the dolt of an advisor you got paired up with?”

Instead of replying, Twilight pointed over her shoulder at the bundle of rope that, until this point, Rainbow had assumed was an old carpet tied up to be carried out. Now she realized it was an old dusk-colored unicorn well-bound with his mouth magicked shut. If she recalled correctly, his name was Gray Scales and he was probably twice as old as the both of them.

“I know it’s far from proper…” Twilight began, a slightly awkward laugh escaping her as her cheeks reddened. “But he was driving me positively insane. He would not shut up, didn’t know what he was talking about in any sort of way, treated me like I was five, constantly insulted me and Spike, questioned literally everything I did, laughed at me for any sort of mistake I made, no matter how minor or inconsequential, even putting down Celestia in her choice of making me her student, and I did mention he would not shut up?!” She snapped, glaring darkly at some point behind her friends’ head. “I felt like if I didn’t do something about him I was going to snap and most likely do something I’d regret.”

“I know the feeling.” Rainbow deadpanned as her gaze followed the now pacing Twilight.

“I mean, it’s not like Celestia did this out of sheer desperation, right? She totally knew what she was doing, she always does, and she picked us because she knew we could handle it if we worked together. After all, the only reason why this is all going so badly is because we’re all going in different directions because of these idiots, and once we all get together again we’ll do amazing. It’s not like I’ve failed at being a ruler on my very first day, none of us have, it’s just things out of our control and once we can collaborate we’ll do phantasmal! I haven’t failed her yet, I haven’t messed everything up, right? Oh, but what if he’s right and I’ve screwed everything up already and all this chaos is just an inevitability and we’re all doo-“

Smack.

“Ow. That was fast.” Twilight blinked as Rainbow put her hoof back down with an eyebrow still raised at her. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“You’re welcome.” Dash deadpanned, still looking a bit worried as her friend took another deep breath. “You really okay there, Twilight?”

“Not really, no.” She admitted. “ But I’ll live. And hopefully my sanity will survive as well. Spike’ll be back in a bit, and… We’ll figure this out.

“Anyway, if it’s one thing we’re good at, it’s figuring things out at the last second in the heat of the moment, right?”

“You got that right, Twi.”

The two gave each other an uneasy grin, before a loud crash sent Twilight off in a slightly panicked hurry to assist the builders with instructions, directions, and a helping hoof.

Any small sense of relief that Rainbow had gained by talking to her friend quickly began to fade as the doors opened once more to admit a Pinkie that Rainbow was acquainted with a little too well. A small part of Rainbow’s brain suddenly began to question why she was the one that got to see what it looked like when her friends snapped. As interesting as that question was, it would have to be dealt with at a later time, as Pinkie looked liked she needed a hug… And maybe a giant platter of sweets, as laughing or not, and going by that laugh it was a lot closer to the “not”, Pinkie looked like she was on the brink of breaking down crying.

“Twilight! I really made a mess of things and-“ Pinkie got cut off as the doors across the hall slammed open with a bang and a frustrated and choked shout of a rather interesting euphemism that Rainbow couldn’t quite place.

“I’ll be with you in a second Pinkie, just let me-“

“Twilight, I know ya said ya needed me for something but Ah don’t think Ah can really do this and-“

Rainbow found herself suddenly stuck trying to decide whether to go over to a terrifyingly upset Pinkie, or an actually crying Applejack… When her gaze briefly met Twilight’s, she could see that she was having much the same dilemma, as she tried to go in five different directions to get everything done and get to her friends to help them as well, while constantly shooting concerned and panicked looks over Rainbow’s head at something before having her attention yanked elsewhere.

“I’m sure everything will be fine AJ, just let me-“ Twilight cut herself off again as a couple of builders approached her for help, leaving Applejack to only look more bewildered.

Why can’t there be two of me? Rainbow asked herself angrily as she glanced between her two best friends. She was being reminded in the worst way possible how it felt when Discord had presented her with a very similar choice… Although the consequences of this decision were not nearly as dire, the stress and racket of everything going on made that hard to keep in mind.

A huge crash echoed out from behind her, causing Rainbow’s wings to flare out in panic as a similar expression crossed Applejack’s face.

“APPLE BLOOM!” An orange blur shut by Rainbow, cutting off Pinkie’s already broken laughter like a mute button, and leaving Dash to look behind herself with more than a little bewilderment.

As AJ hastily pulled apart a fallen banner to reveal three crying fillies, Rainbow’s eyes traced around the room as her brain tried to function despite it being too loud to think. The balcony above them that Twilight had kept looking at, the banner that had hung next to it on an old hook, the old hook that had rusted through and was now in pieces on the floor as the banner it held was torn apart by a vibrant gold magic… It thankfully didn’t take much to put it together. The CMC must have been playing up on the balcony and had grabbed the banner when they either fell, or just as likely, jumped off to do a little adventuring before getting caught in the fabric and falling the last twenty feet to the ground when the hook broke.

“Oh no not you lot again! OUT!” Twilight’s yells caught Rainbow’s attention, and she nearly did a 180 trying to keep track of everything. One of the advisors, Cheery Chimes if she recalled her name correctly, had just come in with a group of staff and was getting chewed out by Twilight as she tried to shoo them off.

“Now listen here missy, we have a job to do and-“

“It is not missy.” Twilight practically snarled back. “It is “Your Highness.” Whether you like it or not, Celestia has made me and my friends your Queens and you would do well to remember it!”

“Celestia was nothing but a troll and a fool playing favourites!”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

Rainbow’s eyes slid shut in slow horror. This can’t be happening. This is just way too much. And it’s all-

The advisor’s arguing, the CMC crying, Rarity’s mutterings slightly growing more panicked, Pinkie’s laughter having died and changing to broken sobs that were even worse to hear.

Too-

The racket of the builders, the thudding of hooves going to and fro. Shouts and screams and cries.

LOUD!

The castle front doors slammed open despite the scaffolding built against it, which began to rock precariously unbalanced. A stampede of birds and animals came charging through, much to Rarity’s very audible horror, with a very flustered Fluttershy following them in.

Her quiet, ‘oh dear this wasn’t supposed to happen,’ couldn’t even be heard among everything else that was happening. Birds squawking, mice squeaking, chipmunks and squirrels chattering angrily at fleeing builders and screaming maids.

The sky above, which had already began to cloud over a deep black, could now be seen growing even darker through the open doors as Rainbow’s eyebrow began to twitch.

And then some blasted idiot had to unzip Gray Scales mouth.

“This is a complete and utter disaster! The lot of you are the biggest disappointments I have ever seen in my lifetime! Why I ought to-“

That, my friends, is what we call the last straw, and the sky and storm outside declared it falling upon Rainbow’s back with a spectacular flash of lightning and crash of thunder.

“SHUT THE BUCK UP!”