MLP: Age of Chaos

by religarro

Chapter 2 - The Topsy Turvy Prank

Arriving at the clubhouse that doubled as their temporary office, the girls were ready for their first big prank since they became Masters of Mayhem. The whole way there they had been having a laugh at the expense of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon; who had gotten their comeuppance for attempted eavesdropping. Maelstrom and Disarray were already inside sitting at the conference table. In front of them were various folders, Mael had one open and was reading over it’s contents, sporting a very wide grin. Turning to face the girls with a smile of his own, Disarray gestured for them to join him at the table.

“Took you all long enough. Have a seat girls, I have a new prank. It’s not only an amazing way to announce ourselves to Equestria, but it’ll give some valuable insight on Team Harmony as well” exclaimed Disarray.

The girls looked at each other, smiling and taking seats across from the dragon. Each had a look of baited excitement on their face.

“Ok Disarray, we’re listening. What’s the prank?” Shadow said with a grin.

The dark drake materialized several folders, handing one to each of the other masters who opened them. As they read their smiles grew “You see” began Disarray “My plan is this…”

After a few minutes of explanation the girls were rolling around on the carpeted floor laughing their butts off. This was going to be absolutely hilarious. Each was looking foreward for the roles they’d individually get to play in bringing this plan to fruition.

“Nightmare Night was fun, but this, this is going to be nuts!” laughed Shadow

Disarray nodded “In the end we’ll get lots of information to; information we can use to craft even bigger and better pranks. We’ll make pranks ten times harder for them to defeat!”

“But isn’t that sorta cheatin?” asked Bad Seed.

Hymnphonic shook her head “We’re the bad guys now, remember? We’re not supposed to play fair. Besides, since the good guys are going to win in the end anyways, might as well make it as hard for them as possible”

Disarray frowned abit, deep in thought “I’m confident the prank part will work. What kinda worries me is having to directly confront Team Harmony. I’m not sure if we’re strong enough yet. I’m not sure if I’m strong enough yet. I mean, last time we just got a mob to handle them, and I wasn’t even there for that, you girls were. Going head to head with Team Harmony though, are we really ready?”

“You are. We’ve gone over the basics of each of your power sets” replied Maelstrom. They had been sitting quietly watching their team work. “I’ve given you magic lessons and training. Sure, one could always use more training and we never stop learning, but you all are more than ready. Trust me,Team Harmony doesn’t stand a chance against you all. The only limit now is your own imaginations”

The rest of them nodded. They knew they were powerful, but just how powerful were they? This is so totally awesome!

---

The prank was a simple one. Simple but oh so very effective. However it wasn’t the effect that required all the planning, it was the execution. The prank had started the moment Celestia’s sun peeked over the horizon. Every half hour a new major city would fall prey to chaos, then the nearby town, and then the villages. It was past noon and nearly all Equestria had been affected. Nearly all but Canterlot and Ponyville. It was hilarious, all of Equestria being affected by chaos and the only ones who could stop it were none the wiser.

Disarray sat on the roof of the Castle of Friendship eating a large gem he materialized using his flames. He idley munched on his snack, watching the mountainside city in the distance. The Ponyville clock tower struck two, meaning it was almost time for the real show to begin. the next city to be affected was Vanhoover, and then finally Canterlot.

Over the past week in Canterlot, Princess Luna was becoming increasingly worried about her sister. Celestia had been acting very strange since the morning after Nightmare Night. She had become jittery, and paced around. Luna would often hear her mumbling to herself when she thought she was alone. Stranger still, Celestia was refusing to eat her favorite desserts after just the first bite. Inquiring as to why, the sun princess informed her younger sister that they all just tasted...off. Thinking it was an issue of labor, Celestia gave her royal bakers and confectionery staff a couple vacation days, thinking they were being overworked and stressed resulting in a decrease in skills. When that didn’t work, she fired all the staff and hired new ones. When that didn’t work she fired those and sent for new ones from neighboring countries.

Here in the present, Princess Luna was very worried about her older sister. Said older princess was currently sitting on the floor of her private chambers, weeping. The floor was littered with plates, sauces, and trays of sweets, cakes, and other desserts of all kinds. Each confectionery moursel having one bite taken out of it.

Luna laid on her sister’s bed and watched as Celestia slowly regained her composure and used her magic to take a slice of cake off a nearby cart. It was a 3 layer cake covered expertly with marshmallow cream icing, each layer of the cake having a different berry flavor; strawberry, blackberry, and blueberry. The cake had been decorated beautifully with fresh strawberries cut to look like small flowers. It was a very beautiful slice of cake. Princess Celestia took her special dessert fork, a small silver fork with her initials etched on, and brought a small bite of the cake to her mouth.

A mixture of confusion, disappointment, and sorrow crossed the princess of the sun’s face as she began crying again. “I...I don't understand why. They all taste good! They’re just as good as they always are! Why can’t I enjoy them anymore?! Everypony says they taste just as amazing as always if not better but to me they’re just so...inferior now. Why? Why why why?! I NEED MY DELICIOUS TREATS SO WHY CAN’T I ENJOY THEM ANYMORE?!?!?!”

Luna just sighed. While she was very worried about her sister, this was starting to get annoying. Personally, the moon princess had no real desire for sweet things. She understood the irony, as during her holiday it was what she was offered as tribute by children. Still, she never could understand her sister’s obsession over them. Even so, she tried a couple cakes in an attempt to calm Celestia down and couldn’t find anything wrong with them.

“Tia” said Luna “I love you, but this is really starting to become...excessive”

“But...but Lulu you don’t understand!” cried Celestia

“Then help me understand. When was the last time you ate something sweet that didn’t taste off”

Celestia stopped crying and thought for a moment before replying “The morning after Nightmare Night. I went to visit Twilight Sparkle and Spike, or Disarray as he’s calling himself now, to see if what you told me about him joining chaos was true. We talked and he had made me breakfast; some juice and these delicious pancakes. Oh, just remembering them, they were perfect. Absolutely perfect! So soft and fluffy, and he put these little...I think they were chocolate chips? They were a bit harder than chocolate chips...anyway, he put them in in the pancakes, and gave me a mug of syrup. A whole mug Lulu! He said it was bottomless and never ended. I asked him if I could have it, and he said he’d think about it. Back to those pancakes though. Luna, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything so perfect after all these thousands of years and…”

Celestia stopped talking as her mini speech was drowned out by Luna’s laughter. The princess of the night was rolling around on her sister’s bed, holding her midsection and even wheezing from laughing so hard. Celestia’s eyebrow twitched.

“What is so funny?! Do you find my suffering to be amusing?! Do you find it funny that my last good memory of sweets was a simple breakfast?!”

Luna couldn’t answer, still laughing hysterically. Celestia waited for her to finish, but after a couple minutes her patience was wearing thin.

“Luna…” she said “If you would please SHUT UP!!!”

Being yelled at seemed to jolk the moon princess and, after recovering a little, Luna reached over an placed a hand on her sisters shoulder. “I’m so sorry…”

“You’re forgiven, just tell me why you were laughing at me!” Celestia replied angrily

“What? Oh, no, I’m not sorry for laughing. This is hilarious. I’m sorry because I have some very bad news to tell you” Luna responded.

Celestia was about to comment on how it was rude and unsupportive, and maybe even cruel, for her younger sibling to laugh at her plight but Luna opened her mouth and what she said next killed any steam Celestia had built up.

“It would appear you’re the latest victim of the Candy of all Candies dear sister”

It was like Celestia’s whole world had shattered. Her mind tried to find fault with her sister’s statement. She didn’t want to accept it, she couldn’t accept it.

“No…” was all Celestia could whisper.

“Now, I’m sure he wasn’t trying to be cruel. I mean, yes this is a tad extreme but you ARE always complaining about your weight. I think he was trying to help you in his own twisted way” Luna said with a chuckle, mumbling amusingly “He really is embracing his new chaotic title”

Celestia just sat there, silent. A couple minutes ticked by until she calmly stood up, brushed herself off, and turned to look at her sister. Even though her demeanor was calm, a fire burned in her eyes.

“The dragon wants to play? Ok. He seems to have forgotten who he’s messing with, but I’ll remind him” she said calmly “I won’t tolerate this insult dear sister. No no. He will pay. HE. WILL. PAY!!!”

Luna just gave her older sister a deadpan expression. Celestia could be rather childish when it came to her sweets, and Luna just wasn’t in the mood to deal with her anymore right now. No, after all this it was time to retire to her own chambers for a nap.

She was about to leave when a Pegasus came crashing through the window, faceplanting right into several desserts. The two princesses watches as he slowly stood up and proceeded to walk backwards, stepping on another discarded dessert, slipping, and falling again.

“Sir, are you alright? What’s happening to you?”

The pegasus stood up once again, very shaky and scared. Trying to move yet again he ended up tumbling into a nearby wall. This time he just laid there, a slice of pie stuck to the top of his head.

“Your majesties! I risked my life flying here to beg for your help with a terrible curse that has befallen Cloudsdale just this morning! None of us can move properly! Every time we try going left we end up moving right. We try walking forwards and we go backward! Please your majesties, we need help! Our city is in complete chaos right now; we can’t move or work properly. Don’t even get me started on flying, it took me almost four hours to get here!

The princesses gave each other a concerned yet confused look

“I passed by several towns on the way here your majesties. I saw the same curse affecting all over them. They send emissaries as well.”

As if on cue, the three heard crashes all around the castle as various ponies flew through windows or into hedges around the grounds. It seemed a few got the same idea as the pegasus stallion and tried to fly towards Celestia’s chambers. Their aim wasn’t so lucky though, if the various thuds heard just outside off to the side of said window was any indication.

After helping the stallion out the door and onto a chair in the hallway, the two monarchs teleported to the throne room to confirm the story. It would seem what the pegasus said held true. From Maredrid to Manehatten, from Fillydelphia to Trottingham, nopony could move properly.

“Tia, I fear your plans of vengeance will have to wait. It seems our new god of chaos has made their official first move”

Celestia nodded with a sigh “It would seem so. Try to keep things organized here while I go to Ponyville and alert Twilight and her friends. I also need to teach her how to send scrolls via magic, since she cant use messenger flame anymore”

Without missing a beat, both princesses moved into action. Celestria raced over to her royal chariot and upon her single command “To Ponyville!” they were off.

They were just clearing Canterlot proper and nearing the city limits when the they were hit by a wave of energy. The large clock and bell tower of Canterlot chimed the half past the hour when the both pegasus stallions pulling the royal chariot lost control, careening down and crashing into the front yard of a noble’s mansion.

Celestia shook her head, recovering from the accident “Are either of you hurt?” she asked.

The two guards groaned their answer and tried to stand up and help their princess. However, as soon as they had taken their first step they were tripping and stumbling over each other, ending up as a tangled heap on the ground. The same could be said for the various staff of the mansion whom had tired to come see if everypony in the crash was ok.

Celestia tried to get up and go over to her guards to check on them but ended up stumbling over herself and falling down again as soon as she tried moving.

“Oh great, now I’m affected” she grumbled, getting back up onto her hooves. She decided to test the waters a bit and dusted off her clothes. It was weird, mentally moving in the opposite way she’d normally want to move. Feeling she had at least a loose grasp on what was going on, she decided the only way to get to ponyville now was to walk. Slowly she moved one leg forward, and then the other. It was difficult, she had to really concentrate. She debated teleporting, but since she wasn’t sure how this ‘curse’ worked, she didn’t want to risk it and end up struck in a wall somewhere or worse. So she kept walking. What should have been only an hour long walk took her three as she had to move slowly as to not trip herself up.

Disarray spotted the alicon from his perch atop the castle of friendship and smiled. He teleported in front of her, just outside the town. Nearby, under a tree, Maelstrom slept under a large sombrero. Celestia looked towards the drake, and then the chaos god, and then back at the drake, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, you’re late. They got tired of waiting and took a nap. Better late than never I suppose. Still, I thought it only took an hour to walk from Canterlot to Ponyville” he said mockingly.

“Oh har har” replied Celestia, glaring at the drake “Also, I’ll get you back for those pancakes!”

Disarray only grinned “Now now princess, I was just doing you a favor. Once you shed all those extra pounds you’re always complaining about, you’ll thank me. I think you’ll also appreciate your royal guards no longer saying ‘Praise the Sun’ as they watch you walk away.”

Celestia’s eyes widened, twitching abit “THAT’S why they were always saying that?!”

“Opps~” teased Disarray “Well, now you know. Your habit of wearing white sundresses sometimes leaves your bright yellow cutiemark visible, especially with your tighter clothes. I supposed I’m the first person with the balls big enough to tell you this. I mean who’s going to tell their ruler, a goddess of the sun, that they can see through her rather form fitting clothing. But I digress, we’re talking about the size of your assets, not what they’re clothed in. Look, I’m only saying, just because you’re the princess of the sun doesn’t mean your butt has to be as big as one. Even though the royal flank helps many a soldier stand at attention. Though, your habit of wearing thongs surely doesn’t hurt any.”

A vein bulged on Celestia’s forehead out of pure irritation and embarrassment. Surely her rear wasn’t THAT big. Also, what's wrong with wearing thongs?! They are comfy! The nerve of this dragon, talking to her like that!

It was at this point Maelstrom decided to jolt awake.

“Huh, wha….someone talking about Celestia’s extra big booty?” they said sleepily, getting up and poofing the hat away. Seeing the other two, they smiled and floated over “Ah, I see you took your sweet time getting here. Must be tough lugging all that badonkadonk around.”

The vein on Celestia’s forehead was bulging so much one might think it would rupture. Before she could open her mouth to stay something back, Maelstrom spoke up again.

“Anywho, you’re late! I had to hold off the finale just to wait for you to get here.” they said. “I already told her boss” Disarray said while folding his arms over his chest

Mael nodded and grinned, snapping their fingers. In a cloud of goldust, Team Harmony teleported in. They looked around confused until they spotted the princess staring angrily at the Mael and Disarray. Rushing over to Celestia they each took a stance between her and the two members of Team Chaos.

“Why is the princess here? What did you two do?!” demanded Twilight

“Oh, lots and lots” replied Disarray.

“And we’re going to do lots more” said Maelstrom as the Ponyville clock struck the top of the hour. An energy wave shot off from the tower and washed over ponyville. Roseluck, who could be seen a little ways away, walking with a water pail, suddenly stumbled and fell. She slowly managed to stand up, and tried dusting herself off. Instead of a normal downward motion she instead made upward ones, sweeting dust and dirt in her face. Coughing she tried to move forward to reach her nearby water pail but instead moved backways, tripped over a rock, and falling again. Panicking now, she shakely but quickly got to her hooves and tried to run back to her house, but instead ran backwards at full speed, crashing again. Team Harmony just watched the whole display in confusion and Celestia just groaned.

“Now now, don’t go getting all grumbly yet, I have some ponies I want you all to meet” said Disarray, holding up a hand and snapping his fingers. In a green flash three black ponies appeared, the same black ponies from Nightmare Night. They smiled evilly and stared at Team Harmony with their solid colored eyes. They moved up to each of their rivals, reaching out and shaking their hands. The first to speak was the earth pony, standing in front of Applejack

“Well, howdy” the black pony said, mimicking Applejack’s greeting. “Ah’m Bad Seed, it’s real nice to meet mah rival face to face like this, ya know, without a mob of young’uns trampling ya down. Maelstrom gave me all of yer strength, stamina, endurance, and agility. Ah also have the power to warp and twist nature to mah will, along with some other surprises.”

The pegasus in front of Rainbow Dash grinned and spoke up next “You can call me Shadow Blitz, I control the weather with the full power of chaos! I’m also a flyer faster than you, so good luck catching up to stop me”

Lastly the unicorn took Rarity’s hand and gave a small curtsy “I am Hymnphonic” she said in her weird triple voice “I’m your rival Rarity, your evil counterpart if you will. My gift is that of music; my melodious voice will make ponies do the craziest things! I’m also a very talented magic user, if I do say so myself. Maelstrom has granted me all the magical power of a pre-alicorn Twilight Sparkle.”

“Don’t worry Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, I’ll be locating some rivals for you real soon” Mael spoke up “You will find that I don’t think like Discord; doing things solo all the time. No, my goal is to create a full six person team to face off against you lot”

Disarray folded his arms as the trio moved to stand at his sides, smirking at the speechless Team Harmony

“What was that you said Princess? Oh yea; unlimited power is no substitute for true friendship” he said mockingly, wrapping his arms around Hymn and Seed’s waist, pulling them in for a sideways hug “I couldn’t agree more. Anyways, we have tons of chaos and confusion to create, so if you’ll excuse us..”

With that, Team Chaos teleported away. Team Harmony just continued to stare at the spot they had been standing. A new god of chaos, plus a full team of six lesser gods of mayhem. This was bad, this was really really bad. Celestia looked over at her ex-student now fellow princess.

“Twilight, I’ll be honest with you...I’m genuinely concerned about Equestria’s future.” she said.

“As am I” replied Twilight, before smirking “At least I would be if this weren’t so easy! They brought us all together! All we have to do is fire our rainbow powers and everything is fixed! Wow, all this build up and they really dropped the ball!”

The rest of Team Harmony nodded and before Celestia could warn them, tried to move into a circle. All they ended up doing was tripping over each other and landing in a heap. There was laughter as Maelstrom floated a little off to the side, watching the whole incident.

“You really thought we forgot about your harmony powers?! Haha no, I just wanted to see all of you fall on your faces! Well, I had my fun, now for the game to officially begin!” they said, snapping their fingers. Before the girls could protest they were poofed away, only Celestia remaining.

“I’d recommend you go to the town square, that’s where all the fun is going to be” suggested Mael.

“And why should I heed anything you say?” questioned Celestia, raising a brow

“Go. Or don’t. I personally don’t care, the choice is yours. I’m just telling you where the main event is most likely going to be. You could always just head back home. What was it, a three hour walk?” Mael replied with a shug before teleporting away.

With a huff Celestia concentrated, moving one hoof at a time, her hands at her sides, her eyes on the road leaning into Ponyville. She could hear all the chaos happening in the town. She had to hurry!

---

Team Harmony had expected to be flung into some deep cave, or some arena facing some chaotic beast, but when each opened their eyes they saw they were in fact in their own homes. At first this gave them feelings of relief, until they realized they now had to find each other just to undo this huge mess. All the while, Team Chaos was out there doing who knows what.

Rainbow Dash had managed to get herself to the front door of her cloud house. She figured out that trying to move backwards was the way to move forwards, but now comes the hardest part; figuring out flight. Walking may be one thing, but one can’t just do all the tiny adjustments wings make while in flight in reverse. She spent her whole life practicing how to go forward fast, flapping them slowly in reverse was going to be a challenge. If she can just make it to the ground, she’ll walk the rest of the way. Dash didn’t like not being able to fly, but she needed to get to her friends.

Rainbow Dash was deep in thought when a shadow past overhead. Most accurately, Shadow was looping around in the air above Dash, taunting her as the cyan pegasus slowly flapped her wings and became airborne. She tried her best to ignore the taunts and jeers as she slowly descended to the ground. She tried her best, she tried so hard, but her pride just couldn’t take it. Turning her head up to the sky, she called out the the pony above her.

“You talk a big game, but you don’t have the guts to come down here and say that to my face!”

Shadow Blitz zipped down, hovering right at eye level in front of Rainbow Dash. “You think so?” she asked “Because I do, and I will. I said you’re slow. I said that you were a washed up has-been before you even became a wonderbolt. I said I’ll always be faster than you…”

Dash could feel her blood boiling, being insulted like that. Shadow could see the rage on Dash’s face and just grinned, leaning in real closely “and if you want to prove me wrong. Just race me. Here and now, we’ll see who’s faster. Rather, more accurately, we’ll see just how much you’ll lose. How far behind me will you be? Three seconds? Five? I’m personally banking on ten second flat. Wanna do it, don’t you? Lets race then. Readysetgo!”

With that, Shadow took off like a black bolt through the sky. Rainbow Dash, who was already fuming and wouldn’t, couldn’t, step down such an insulting challenge, beat her wings hard to catch up. However, instead of flying forward, she shot backwards at full speed, right into a pink cloud made of bubblegum. She flailed and struggled but it only seemed to get her more stuck. Shadow Blitz just casually flew back, laughing the whole way.

“That was just way too easy” the shadow pony said between chuckles.

“That’s not fair, you tricked me! This is cheating! Get me out of this!” Dash screamed angrily, struggling with the bubblegum that was wrapped around her limbs, stuck to her clothes, and in her hair, tail, and feathers. She glared at Shadow, who only smiled in response.

‘What kind of pony would betray her own kind to join the likes of chaos’ Dash wondered to herself. She knew the answer though. After all, that’s all Chaos was; cheaters and traitors.

Shadow just shook her head with a smile “Cheating? I’m the bad guy, remember? Anyways, I have other things to do, but don’t worry, I’ll push you where you need to go.”

With that, Shadow placed her hands on the side of the cloud and began using her large wings to push and set Dash and the cloud adrift towards the town square.

“I’ll get you Shadow!” Dash’s voice called out as she drifted away.

Over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack had just made it to front gate and the path that lead right back into town. On the way, she passed her brother as he attempted to complete his daily chores. That was going about as well as one would expect. Still, she admired him for not giving up, and neither would she. Progress was slow, as she had to concentrate on every step she took, but she was never the type to shy away from some hard work. She had passed an old wagon on the side of the road and thought for a few seconds about trying to use it to get back into town faster, but decided against it. It was best keep with the method that was working instead of trying to come up with some crazy stunt. After almost twenty five minutes, she was nearly halfway to town. She saw somepony down the path walking towards her and was about to call out to them until she realized who it was.

Bad Seed waved at Applejack, stopping just a few feet away. Applejack took a defencive stance, not sure what this self proclaimed rival of her’s was going to do. She didn’t trust this mare.

“So, yer here ta stop me?” asked Applejack. Bad Seed just smiled and nodded.

“Well, ah don’t believe fer a second yer as strong as me. Ah think yer just full of it!” Applejack proclaimed. “I think yer lyin!”

Applejack knew this was a bad idea. It was obvious this ‘Bad Seed’ wasn’t affected by the chaos magic, so a full out brawl would be not be in the farmmare’s favor. However, Applejack couldn’t accept the claim that this dark pony was as strong as she was. Next to Big Mac, she was one of the strongest ponies in equestria! No, this had to be some sort of trick to try and throw her off her game. That’s all chaos is after all, lies and tricks.

With her resolve hardened, Applejack began clumsily running towards Bad Seed who just stood there and grinned. With a yell, Applejack threw a punch in the dark pony’s general direction, only for said pony to just side-step and trip her. Only slightly phased after tumbling and eating dirt, Applejack shakely got back to her feet “low down dirty trick. Come on and fight me normal-like!” she yelled, momentarily forgetting the backwards prank effecting her. She tried charging forward, only to tumble backwards and fall over again. Hearing laugher, Applejack scowled and turned to face her ‘rival’, only to be pelted in the face with something and covered in...was this apple juice?

Confused, her anger temporarily forgotten, Applejack watched as Bad Seed plucked an apple from a nearby tree.

“Hey! Those aren’t yers! That’s stealin!” the farmmare complained.

“Bad guy, remember?” replied Seed, smiling as the apple in her hand warped and expanded. Applejack could see it starting to slosh as it filled with more and more apple juice. Before she could react, Bad Seed pulled back her arm and fast balled the overfilled apple right at Applejack, pelting her in the face again. Sputtering, Applejack got to her hooves, using her hands to get some of the juice out her eyes. An apple hit her in the stomach, and she fell down again with a grunt.

Ok, before she was annoyed. Now, now she’s truly pissed. All that anger came back with a vengeance and Applejack glared at Seed as the dark pony plucked another apple, her chaos magic swelling it up.

“Don’t ya dare throw another one at me!” Applejack said through clenched teeth.

Bad Seed grinned. “Ok, ah won’t” she said, dropping the apple, which splatted when it made contact with the ground.

That was it? That’s all it took? Applejack starred both angry and confused until Bad Seed held up her hand and snapped her fingers. The apples on all the nearby trees began to swell. They swelled so big they began to hang like bright red juice filled party balloons. Applejack was wide eyed, directing her attention back at Bad Seed.

“Ya said ya wouldn’t ya liar!” she said, standing back up with new found vigor. She really hated liars.

“Ah said I wouldn’t and ah won’t. Didn’t say ‘nothin bout the trees though” Bad Seed responded with a giggle.

Before Applejack could say anything more, she was pelted in the back of the head. Falling face first into the dirt, she managed to get on her knees before being pelted again in the side, falling over. She looked around frantically to try to get eyes on her attacker when she saw one of the trees themselves pull back one of its branches and sling several apples at her. Most of them missed but one got her in the face again.

“Well, mah work here is done” Bad Seed said, turning away and walking back down the path towards Ponyville.

“Wait! Ya can’t jus-” Applejack tried to call out, but never got the chance. As soon as Bad Seed was out of range, the trees seem to take this as a queue to begin attacking all at once. Applejack desperately crawled through a hailstorm of overfilled apples and sticky mud made from dirk and apple juice. She concentrated the best she could to move as quickly as possible, even though she kept getting plastered over and over again. One thing was crystal clear in her mind; she really really disliked that Bad Seed.

Rarity was fairing a little better at Carousel Boutique. Fortunately, her shop and home was wasn’t that far from Twilight’s castle, however she felt the best course of action would be to get to town square. It made the most sense as the best meeting place, if her friends had indeed been teleported to their own homes.

She had made it out her shop no problem, and was slowly making her way down the street when she noticed a green flash off to her right. Turning, she saw Hymnphonic walk up next to her. They stayed silent for a few minutes, Rarity concentrating on walking forward and Hymnphonic just keeping pace casually. Finally, the fashionista couldn’t take it anymore and turned to her ‘rival’.

“If you’re going to fight me or try to stop me, pleeeaase don’t ruin my hair! It takes too long to get just right again” she said.

The shadow pony just gasped, looking at Rarity in disbelief “My word, I wouldn’t DREAM of doing something so crass. A lady doesn’t go around getting filthy in scuffles!” she replied.

Rarity felt a wave of relief wash over her. Maybe her rival wasn’t so evil after all. Could she have been wrong about her thoughts of Chaos being nothing but messy and unrefined? The mare next to her definitely dressed well; in a style of dress Rarity had never seen before that gave the mare a sense of sexuality and mystery while keeping her air of sophistication and high class.

They kept walking and Hymnphoic began singing a wordless song. Her odd triple voice made each note haunting and alluring. All the ponies around them, who were just trying to focus on moving around correctly, began believing themselves to be cats and dogs and started behaving as such. They ran around trying to chase each other crashing into everything, creating messes and total chaos.

“Must you?” asked Rarity with a sigh

Hymn just smiled “Yes, I must. Oh, and before I forget. The ‘dogs’ all see you as a bitch in heat. Have fun with that, ta-ta” she said before teleporting away.

Rarity stopped walking and turned to look at the stallions around her. They each were looking at her with a hunger in their eyes, some even had their tongues hanging out of their mouths. Normally, Rarity was used to and somewhat adored this kind of attention; that of stallions drooling and tripping themselves up over her. However, this situation was less than ideal.

She began walking again, noticing that the affected stallions were now following her, rather large bulges in their pants. Again, something she wasn’t totally against, but the situation wasn’t the best. She picked up the pace, and so did they as best they could. Soon she was running down the street as fast as she could without falling, which really wasn’t that fast. From the sky, it started raining various flavors of juice, soaking everything and making it all sticky. The stallions following her gave chase the best they could, which meant tripping over each other and themselves and ending up in one large barking heap. This gave Rarity the chance she needed to get away, but she was soaked to the fur with juice, causing dirk, dust, stray leaves, and bits of hay to end up stuck to her as she hurried towards the town square. Worse still...

“Nooooo my hair!” whined Rarity

It was a rather comical sight that two shadow ponies watched from the safety of a nearby roof, giggling to themselves.

In the Castle of Friendship, Twilight had managed to get from her room, down a couple flights of stairs, and was slowly making her way across the main hallway to the front door. She had thought about just teleporting, but unsure how her magic was affected by this crazy backwards prank, thought better of it. So instead she elected to walking.

Waiting by the front door was Disarray, slow clapping.

“Congrats on making it this far Twi, keep at it. You can do it.” teased the drake

“So you’re supposed to be the one stopping me Spike?” asked Twilight

“Disarray, and that’s right. I am YOUR rival, after all”

“Wait, YOU? Sp-er Disarray, no offence by I’m an alicorn princess, and you’re just a baby dragon. That doesn’t seem at all fair” said Twilight matter-of-factly.

Disarray clenched his fist seemingly about to say something. He slowly relaxed and smirked, letting loose a breath of purple flames that filled the hallway. Twilight instantly raised a defensive barrier, the kind her older brother Shining Armor had taught her. To her surprise the flames passed right through and she gave a small yelp, closing her eyes and fearing the worst. Her own baby brother was going to burn her to a crisp! After a couple seconds, she realized she wasn’t dead or even in any pain. Opening her eyes, she saw everything looking as normal as ever, no even better. The walls and floor looked extra clean. Whatever he was trying to do, she managed to stop him after all!

His work done, Disarray moved over and opened the door. He stepped out, stopping only to glance back at Twilight. He raised his brow as she gave him a smug smile. Twilight took a step forward and slipped, falling on her butt. Looking around confused, she tried to stand up but ended up slipping and falling again. She tried moving herself over to something to help her pull herself up but her hands and hooves couldn't get any sort of traction on the extra slick floor. A look of realizing crossed over her face as it dawned on her. This is what Disarray did. She looked at him with realization and he in turn gave her a smug smile.

The black dragon turned and started walking away, leaving a flailing Twilight slipping around on the floor.

“Hey! Wait! You can’t just leave me like this! This isn’t fair!” cried Twilight

Disarray just looked back and smirked “You’re a big strong alicorn princess, I’m sure you can figure it out” he said, walking out the door.

Twilight struggled for a few more minutes before giving up. She tried moving on all fours, using swimming motions, and even attempting to skate across the floor. None of it worked, the surface was too slick and with this backwards prank her coordination was completely off. Laying on her back, she wondered how she was going to get out of this. This may have been a tricky situation but she’d been through much worse. She’ll find a solution, she always does.

Minutes ticked by and the purple princess was lost in her thoughts. She thought about this new god of chaos and their influence over her baby brother. She thought of those mysterious mares Spike, er, Disarray was associating with. Who were they? Could they be trusted? Anyone who willingly sided with chaos had to be evil, right? But Spi-Disarray had said he willing chose to join. Then there was the matter of this whole prank thing. This backwards prank is going to get some ponies seriously hurt. She couldn’t give up, she was a princess and needed to put a stop to this madness!

With newfound determination she began thinking of ways to get out of this predicament. The main issue were these slick floors. If she could just make it out her door, it’s a short walk to the town square. She figured if the rest of her friends had been teleported to their homes as well, the town square would be the most obvious place to meet up. So first things first, she needed to find a way to walk down the hallway and out the door. Disarray had left it open, probably to tease her, being so close to her goal but unable to move towards it.

When times were dire like this, she would usually read a relevant book, or write a letter to Princess Celestia for advice. It’s a shame she can’t do either right now. She wondered how Celestia was doing, and if team chaos had done to her what they had done to the elements. Though, teleporting the solar princess back home wouldn’t do much other than save her a trip.

Wait! A Letter! No, rather parchment! She could use a scroll to create a path to walk on! The idea was so simple, she wondered why she didn’t come up with it sooner. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn glowing as she reached out to find what she needed. From down the hallway, out the library doors, floated a large scroll. It moved over towards the doorway, before falling to the ground and unrolling towards Twilight; effectively creating a parchment paper path for the perplexed purple princess to use to get out of her particularly peculiar predicament.

Twilight slowly stood up on the paper. Success! At least, it would have been had the paper itself not start to slip on the floor. Freezing in place, she sighed in relief as she tested her center of balance. This wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought, but at least now she had a fighting chance. It was like walking on a tightrope almost, she had to concentrate on stepping on the middle of the paper as to not cause it to slip right or left. Using her wings to help balance, she slowly made her way out of her castle and towards the town square. Seemed Disarray underestimated her resourcefulness! Either way, it was time to find her friends and save the day.

---

Once she managed to get out of her castle, it was a relatively easy and short walk to the center of town. As it turns out, Twilight was right. Two of her friends were already there waiting for her. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were sitting on the steps of Town Hall, casually talking to both Princess Celestia and Disarray. Maelstrom was off to the side napping under a sombrero. Hearing yelling, she looked up and say Rainbow Dash on the roof, stuck to...was that a large wad of bubblegum? Twilight shook her head. It was time to end this, just need to wait on the final two friends. She just hoped they were ok.

Her answer came in the form of a loudly complaining Rarity walking towards the group. Her normally white fur was a pale purple. Her clothes were covered in patches of dirt and the occasional odd leaf, along with her messed up hair. The look on her face was nothing short of furious as she marched up to Disarray.

“Disarray! I will not, no, CANNOT forgive this! It rained grape juice of all things, getting me all filthy and soaked! Do you have any idea how much time it’ll take to get all this out of my fur?! Also, this outfit, the fabric is completely ruined! AND MY HAIR!!!”

Before she could continue, Disarray held up a hand “I don’t do weather, that’s Shadow Blitz’s thing. If you have a problem, that’s who you gotta complain to”

“But you’re the team leader right? You come up with all the plans” Pinkie said, moving over and poking Maelstrom who woke up “Or are you the one responsible? You pull the strings, huh puppetmaster? Huh?! HUH?!” she asked the chaos god, giving them a comical evil eye that just made the god laugh.

Standing up and floating over to the group, Maelstrom answered the question “I may provide the power, I may be their boss, but I don’t control the Masters of Mayhem. They do what they want”

Disarray nodded “And I don’t come up with detailed plans, just prank ideas and suggestions on where the other Masters should be for the best impact. Anything beyond that is whatever they choose to do”

Twilight was about to say something about responsibility for one’s friends, and guilt by association, but was stopped as the group spotted Applejack walking into the square. The farmmare was covered in mud, from hair to hooves. It was Fluttershy who rushed over to check on her, asking if she was ok and what happend.

“...Applejuice…” was all Applejack said as she marched over to Maelstrom and Disarray. “Where is that Bad Seed?! Ah have some choice words for her!”

Disarray and Maelstrom snickered and Mael spoke up “All in good time. For now, you’re the last to arrive. So, with all of you here let me say congratulations to all of you for finally making it. You did it! You can now make with the harmony and stop this prank” they said as they teleported Rainbow Dash down to the ground.

“Just like that? No tricks?” asked Twilight warily.

Mael shook their head “Nope, just go for it, I’m actually rather bored and disappointed” they said, pulling out a clipboard and looking over some charts “The results were...less than ideal”

Team Harmony shrugged and carefully moved together into a circle, holding hands and concentrating. Their eyes glowed white and a rainbow blast fired out in a shockwave, spreading to all corners of equestria.

The prank was done, everything was set right. Team Harmony gave each other hugs and talked with Princess Celestia. Maelstrom was just shaking their head sadly.

“These figures; just terrible. It seems I greatly overestimated the team’s abilities because these results are just...embarrassing” said Mael.

“I’m terribly sorry boss. I’ll redo the the figures, and adjust the data” Disarray responded.

Even if he was her ‘rival’ now, Twilight wouldn’t standby and let any being talk to her baby brother like that. “Don’t you berate Spi-Disarray like that! What he did was actually really clever! We won because we’re the good guys and Harmony will always win. Disarray, is this really the ‘kind and supportive’ boss you were talking about? Because I must say, I’m not impressed!”

Maelstrom and Disarray gave Twilight a confused look before Mael spoke up “I’m not talking about Disarray and Team Chaos, they preformed spectacularly; I’m talking about you lot. This prank should have been wrapped up in around ten minutes at the MOST. It took you all over four hours. I’m including you Celestia”

Team Harmony just stared as Mael floated over and began reading from the clipboard “I’ll let Rarity slide this time, but Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight, this is just embarrassing. Applejack, you should have used that wagon to get to town faster. If you had, Bad Seed wouldn’t have gotten bored and went to go mess with you. Seriously, have you no sense of urgency? The wagon was your best bet to get to town fast”

Applejack frowned and was about to say something before she closed her mouth and sighed. She had thought about using the wagon too, but thought her current method was good enough. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?

“Rainbow Dash, do I really need to say it? You got to get better control of that ego of yours, your friends were counting on you and you fell for an obvious trick” Mael berated.

Rainbow Dash just looked down “She kept saying she was faster than me…” she said.

“Finally, Twilight. This is probably the worst results yet. Disarray kept going on and on about how smart you were, but you seem to lack basic problem solving skills. I don’t blame you completely though, Celestia seems to lack the same basic skills.”

Twilight and Celestia gave an angry glare to Mael, opening their mouths to voice complaints until Maelstrom asked them a simple question “Why didn’t either of you just teleport?”

“B-But...the prank...and everything was backwards...and I thought it was too dangerous, because you know, backwards magic!” Twilight stuttered

“But magic wasn’t backwards. In fact, the only thing that was backwards were ponies. Fluttershy realized that right from the start after seeing her animals moving normally and just had her pet bear carry her. She was the third one here after Pinkie Pie and Celestia. Also, you both really have no excuse. Celestria, did you even test your magic to see if it was affected or did you just assume? Twilight, you initially didn’t test yours either but later you USED levitation magic get that scroll, so you should have realized you could have teleported. On that note, why didn’t you think of just levitating YOURSELF out of your castle? This of course isn’t even touching on the fact that you all meeting here was more of a fluke than anything, as you had no ways of contacting each other to let them know where to meet up”

The two princesses were speechless. The answers really were that simple, and their mistakes were really that obvious.

“So yea, this should have been a ten minute prank. Celestia teleports to Ponyville, we teleport Team Harmony together, give an evil monologue, Teleport them apart, and then Twilight just teleports to each of her friends and teleports them to a single location. Harmony magic, and done. But no, wow. We greatly overestimated Team Harmony. Everything from here on out is going to be a cakewalk.”

Team Harmony just stared at each other as Disarray and Maelstrom teleported away, both of them shaking their heads mumbling “this is going to be way too easy”

Twilight turned to Celestia “We won...but why do I feel like we failed somehow…”

Shaking her head, the princess of the sun just sighed “Before I forget, let me teach you how to magically send and receive scrolls...”

Comments

[Kaliann25]

Whoa, I didn't think you would bring that prank out.

Ah, such memories. I remember I struggled for two days trying to translate the climax of this chapter.

Anyway, I loved the scolding in the end. Funny, and direct.

Read ya' later!!

[Darkmaster10000000]

Hahahahaaaa, I love it when the antagonists are actually intelligent. It always makes for a better story.

[pyro talon]

That was just beautifully written and I loved all the sass keep up the great work.