Timely Chaos

by Click Clack

An Old Beginning

"No, no no no! Not now! Don't you DARE-"

*fzzzzzt*

"Say goodbye to your oh-so-precious Equestria!"

*fzzzzzt*

"They forgot. In the end, th-"

*fzzzzzt*

The world swirled about in total darkness, with random flashes of light and sound like these being the only things breaking up the shadow. The void was so cold that it burned, though there was no pain to it. Suddenly, a voice came seemingly from nowhere.

"Wake up."

The void started spinning.

"Wake up. The world is in need."

"Wake up, Twilight Sparkle."

"The world needs you."

"Wake up."

* * * * * * *

Birds.

She could hear birds chirping.

Twilight's eyes snapped open. Sitting up, she looked around, finding herself to be in an apple orchard.

"Where...where am I?" She said.

"You're nowhere." A voice from behind her said. "Or somewhere. Frankly, that's what you make of it. I'm just here for the entertainment."

Twilight whipped her head around, but found nothing there.

'Strange.' She thought. I could've sworn I heard somepony talking to me.'

Twilight tried to stand up, but fatigue got the better of her, forcing her to lay down.

'Why am I so tired? What happened? Why can't I remember?!' Twilight's frustration grew with each question, only to be replaced by confusion when she caught sight of her fur, which had been turned a deep blue.

"What in Equestria happened to my fur?!" She exclaimed.

"Forced Temporal Displacement, what else?"

She looked around again for the source of that voice, but found nothing around her but trees.

'It feels like I know that voice from somewhere...But where?'

* * * * * * *

After regaining some of her strength, Twilight began to walk. She didn't know where she was going, just that she needed to find some answers as to what was going on. After wandering around for a while, she caught sight of a barn, with a familiar orange pony walking towards it, pulling some hay in a cart.

"Applejack!" She shouted, running towards her friend. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

Applejack turned her head and stared at Twilight in confusion.

"Do ah know you?" She asked flatly.

"Huh? Oh, it's the fur isn't it? It's me, Twilight!"

Applejack stared blankly at her for a few seconds before turning away,

"Ah don't know who ya'll are, kid, but ah know for a fact that ya ain't Twilight. Ah haven't seen her in ten years."

"Ten years?!" Twilight gasped. "But I saw you just the other day!"

Applejack sighed.

"Ah do not have time fer this, kid. You know what happens if we stray too far from The Schedule."

"What? What's 'The Schedule?' Just point me in the direction of Rainbow dash, or Pinkie Pie or somepony, they'll back me up!"

Applejack froze. She slowly turned to face Twilight.

"Whoever ya'll are, you must've been living under a rock or somethin. Everypony knows about The Schedule. It governs what everything does, every moment of every day, to keep order. If you don't do exactly what it says enough of the time, you get arrested."

"That's messed up! Princess Celestia would never do something like that!"

"She didn't do anything to stop it, either." Applejack said with a sour tone creeping into her voice. "She just let everything happen, and I highly doubt even she could reverse it by now. As for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, I'm afraid nopony will be able to talk to them for quite a while."

"Why is that?!"

Applejack sighed again. "It all happened because of The Schedule."

"I don't follow."

"Pinkie Pie's randomness and the pure order of The Schedule simply didn't mix, and she cracked after just a few days. She's currently stuck in a mental facility. Rainbow Dash, being her stubborn self, tried to oppose the government just carting Pinkie away, and when that didn't work, she tried to break her out. She was caught, and is currently spending time in Ponyville City Jail."

"Since when does Ponyville have a jail?!"

Applejack turned back towards the barn and started walking away.

"Ah need to get back to The Schedule, and you should too, if you don't want to join Rainbow in that jail." Applejack stated coldly. "Goodbye."

Twilight stood in the same spot for a few seconds, trying to process the information. She eventually started walking towards the path leading up to Ponyville, mind racing at a million miles per hour. What was going on?!

"Oh, poor Twilight." The same mysterious voice said. "You honestly have no IDEA what's going on, do you?"

Twilight turned her head towards the sound, not really expecting to see anything, but to her surprise, she finally saw the source of the voice. Her ears flattened against her head as her eyes narrowed.

"Discord!"

* * * * * * *

"Well, who where you expecting? Robert Patterson?" Discord said.

He was sprawled out on the grass next to the dirt path, wearing a pair of sunglasses and an annoying smirk.

"What do you want?" Twilight snapped.

"Well, you're no fun. Honestly, I'd rather not tell you, because your confusion is the only chaos I've felt in YEARS."

Twilight ground her teeth. "I'm not in the mood for your games, Discord. Go choke on a cotton candy cloud or something."

"Grumpy today, aren't we?"

"Of course I'm grumpy!" Twilight yelled. "I've just woken up in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres, and apparently missed at least the last ten years, not to mention the very one that corrupted my friends and turned Ponyville into absolute chaos is taunting me in the middle of all this!"

Twilight paused for a breath, and then realized something; the world was perfectly in order. In fact, it was almost too perfect. There was no sign of any chaos at all.

"Wondering what happened?" Discord asked. "Why I'm around and there's no chaos?"

Twilight nodded.

"Here, I'll show you.'

Before she could protest, Discord had touched the tip of her snout with his finger. Suddenly, the world turned gray.

"What did you do?!" She demanded.

"I gave you the ability to see the world how I see it." Discord explained.

"You're colorblind?"

Discord chuckled bitterly. "I wish. I see things in terms of how much magic is in things. The more magic, the more vibrant everything is, as far as color goes, that is."

"But there should be more magic than this!" Twilight said. "I don't understand!"

Discord stood up and turned to face Twilight, with a surprisingly serious expression.

"Might I remind you of a scientific principle? 'All that is orderly will eventually descend into chaos.'"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"You're fairly smart, for being a pony. I'm sure you know that whenever the balance of nature is upset too much, magic starts having problems. Well, because of The Schedule, things became so orderly, chaos itself faded, upsetting nature and rendering magic null and void."

"So magic can't be used anymore, right?"

"Sort of. Have you tried to cast a spell yet? Even something simple like levitation?"

Twilight's response was to try, but all she managed to do was shoot off a few sparks.

"You see, Twilight Sparkle, because of my nature as an immortal, I still have some magic left." Discord said. "That's how I was able to transfer my sight. However, I don't have nearly enough to cause any significant chaos."

"Forgive me if I don't believe that, but I don't trust you as far as I could th-"

Discord interrupted by turning himself into a ping-pong ball.

"You were saying?" He smirked.

"This is serious!" Twilight yelled. "How are you not concerned about it?!"

Discord changed back and sighed.

"Well, fine, little miss grouchy no-pants. I'll do it your way."

Discord then proceeded to scrunch his face up as if he had just eaten something incredibly sour.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"It's an impression of you, couldn't you tell?" Discord said. "I figured the expression alone would have given it away."

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"You know, for being thousands of years old, you're extremely childish."

"Well, I may be immortal, but that doesn't mean I have to be mature about it."

Discord and Twilight stared each other down, with neither one speaking. Eventually, Twilight sighed and started trotting away.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Discord yelled. "I was winning! I could totally see you were going to blink!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. Without turning her head, she called back "You want to help me find a way to fix the current situation, or are you just going to stand there like a statue for another few thousand years?"

Discord grinned and ran to catch up.

"Let's make some chaos!" He said eagerly.

Comments

[Shpoople96]

Has potential.

[DthWaker]

Seems like an interesting and original premise. Thought I have to say that Twilight accepted Discord's company too fast. I'll be tracking it to see where it goes.

[Blue Print]

Neat, I'll track this. Good Discord dialogue by the way. The premise does excite me. Who better to wreak a little havoc than the master of magic herself? Keep it up.

One tiny correction in the 4th to last paragraph: DIscord yelled
You double capitalized.

[Lamaar]

I am entirely curious to see where this goes.