Friendship is absolute chaos

by Aether Spark

Daily Discord Dillydallying

Friendship is absolute chaos

The sound of apples falling into a bucket was the most common noise heard if you frequented Sweet Apple Acres. If you visited enough, you’d eventually meet the Apple family, a family of farmers who harvest the apples and live by the sweat of their brow.

The farmer currently collecting apples for the upcoming harvest is none other than Applejack, one of the Elements Of Harmony and as honest as she is strong.

“Ah think this may be the first time, ah’ve caught the apples when they’re at the peak of ripeness!” Applejack said with a wide grin. She then trotted over to the next set of trees and bucked them, watching various types of apples fall into the bucket.

Red delicious, fuji, honeycrisp, gala, granny smiths, apricots, cherries, banana’s, orang- “wait, what?!” Applejack thought as other fruits besides apples began to pour into her buckets. She looked up at the treeline and saw various fruits decorating them, including guavas, coconuts, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, and even pumpkins.

“Most of those don’t even grow on trees!” Applejack said in horror at the blatant defacing of her farm’s stock.

And she knew right then and there who was to blame…

***

Rarity rose from her evening nap, refreshed and renewed for her upcoming last-minute tasks. She gave a stretch, a brief but unladylike yawn, and strolled slowly into her bathroom for a quick toilete before the tide of inspiration was to sweep her back into action.

After finishing her business, she approached the wash basin and bent down, gathering her make-up supplies and applying them to her face, flawlessly even with her eyes closed. “Oh Rarity. You are such a fortunate mare.” A brief touch-up with her evening lipstick, the faintest application of rouge to her cheeks, and she continued, “Gilded Canvas will simply marvel at your creations next week. All that remains is how to best arrange them so she is properly swept away!” Rarity mused as she reached with her magic for her mane brush. As she did, there was a breeze behind her, and she realized the bathroom window was open.

"Odd. I don't remember leaving that open." She thought about it for a moment before shrugging the incident off as a side-effect of her fatigue from a long day of inspired design. A quick glow of her magic closed the window before she returned to the wash basin and her interrupted thoughts.

“Gilded Canvas can be a most difficult critic to satisfy, but I'm quite sure she will be singing the praises of Rarity when I am through with her.” Rarity closed her eyes while getting ready to brush her mane, imagining the designs she had planned for the occasion. "They will be simply marvelous, my greatest success-- yeouch!” She gave a pained yelp as the firm bristles of her brush raked against her delicate scalp, she then held the offending instrument in front of her for closer examination..

“That’s odd. Why can’t I feel my mane?” With the hesitance of a rabbit in a timberwolf den, she turned to the mirror…

...and beheld her bald head…

***

Party time was always the best time for Pinkie Pie, and she bounded and bounced around the bakery, determined to make this one the best party ever!

“Alrighty! Next up we need fifty more streamers, twenty-five more cupcakes, seventy-two more balloons for the northern side of the bakery, nine fully functional chocolate fountains, three trampolines big enough for Gummy to do his famous mid-air spin, a partridge in a pear tree, and a million other things the author is too impatient to type down! CHECK! Operation best party ever is a go!” Pinkie squeed (which is totally a word, because she was doing it, and you can't do something that fun without a word to describe it) as she raced around, putting the finishing touches on her party.

As she finally finished, Mr. Cake entered and gave a low whistle at the work done.

“Wowzers, Pinkie. You really outdid yourself this time,” he said with a smile as Pinkie bounced up to him.

“Thanks! Now we just need to wait for the birthday boy to get here!” Pinkie threw herself onto a beanbag chair with the intent of taking a small break only to collide with the wall.

“Ooof!” Pinkie sat up before looking back at the beanbag chair in surprise, and saw it was made of cardboard.

“That’s weird, I could’ve sworn I put an actual bean bag chair here.” Pinkie shrugged it off and set the cardboard cutout back up, figuring it could be a funny prank for the party. Pinkie then went over to the punch table to relieve her thirst. When Pinkie grabbed a cup and tried to drink, she ended up picking up the whole table.

“Wow! Did I accidentally pick out the helium-filled punch table again?” Pinkie said before realizing the table was just as flat as the chair.

“What? More cardboard?” Pinkie said, seeing the table was made of cardboard as well as the cups and punch. Seeing a pattern here, she darted about the room finding out all the decorations were made of cardboard. even the cake was just cardboard and frosting. “Oh, no! Mr. Cake! The cardboard is taking over my party!” Pinkie cried out before noting the lack of response and turning to see Mr. Cake just standing there…

...before he suddenly fell over, revealing he too was a cardboard cutout.

“AAAH! Mr. Cake was made of cardboard all along!?” Pinkie freaked out and tried to look for an escape when she accidentally tripped and fell into the fake cake. As she sat up, a droplet of icing fell onto her lips, and she licked it up, noticing a weird taste.

“Hmm… tastes like almonds, pickles, hot sauce, chocolate milk, ketchup, jalapeno peppers, peanut butter, vegetable gravy, applesauce, and just a hint of rutabaga…”

Pinkie set her face with an uncharacteristic glower. “Only one guy makes icing like this…”

***

Fluttershy had just fed her animals when she decided to take a well-deserved break, and curled up on the couch.

“Whew… I sure hope Mr. and Mrs. Hoppington are done having babies. I’m not sure how much more spare space the burrows have. But at least everything is taken care of for now.” Fluttershy looked at Angel who was hopping after her with an impatient look on his face, in hopes the small bunny would agree with her on the subject. With a yawn, Fluttershy laid down on her side and decided to take a brief power nap.

…

…

…

“Hey! Ain't you gonna feed me too?!” a gruff male voice called out, startling Fluttershy so bad she leapt up and clung onto one of her cottage’s ceiling beams.

“Hey, hey relax it’s me!” the voice called out again. Fluttershy’s panicked gaze swept over the room to find the mysterious intruder.

“W-w-who’s there?” Fluttershy squeaked, shivering in fright

“Down here!” the gruff voice called out, and Fluttershy looked down to see Angel Bunny still standing there and tapping his foot impatiently.

“Angel? Do you know where that voice is coming from?” Fluttershy asked, hovering down to him. Much to her surprise Angel answers her.

“Whaddya talking about? I’m the voice! Now, are you going to get me my salad, or do I have to make it?” Angel asked impatiently.

Fluttershy gaped at her talking rabbit…. Before screaming and backpedaling away from him. Her backpedaling caused her to crash into an indoor birdhouse causing a bird to fall out.

“Oh! I’m so sorry little one,” Fluttershy said, reaching down to console the bird, when suddenly the said bird suddenly poofed to three times Fluttershy’s size, scaring the crap out of Fluttershy.

“Um, pardon me?” Fluttershy turned around at the new voice and saw Harry behind her but he was now wearing a suit and tie.

“Do you have any more trout? I just met this female bear, and I want to impress her,” Harry asked eloquently.

Fluttershy’s mouth flapped open and closed in a silent panic before she darted outside screaming. Upon getting out, she held the door closed panting.

“W-what’s going on?! C-could it be-” Fluttershy didn’t get to finish when she saw how her animals were acting. The ground-bound animals were now flying while the birds were walking on really long legs. Her panic became even worse, and she called out to the culprit with every bit of strength she could.

***

Rainbow Dash punched through a dozen clouds at once, creating a series of rings in her wake. With a swift loop back and forth, she flew back through them, adding a tight spin to scatter the fragmented bits remaining. She paused a short distance away and looked back at her work with a quick hoof-pump and a loud cry of success.

“AWW YEAH! A new record! Applejack owes me a free mug of cider,” Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. As Rainbow flew off to claim her winnings, however, a cloud cut her off.

“Huh? That’s weird” Rainbow tried to fly around the offending cloud, but it moved in front of her again. Not very patient on the best of days, Rainbow snapped at the misbehaving cloud

“HEY! Move it punk! I got places to be!” Rainbow managed to get around the cloud by faking it to the left and flying right around it, only to faceplant into another cloud.

“Oomph! Hey!” Rainbow Dash cried out as she suddenly found herself surrounded by clouds.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow said, getting nervous as the clouds began to cut off her escape routes.

“Why?” one of the clouds asked.

“H-huh? W-wait a sec are you speaking?” Rainbow stuttered

“Why do you buck us around, punch holes in us, and sleep on us? You even once pee’d in one of us when you thought nopony was looking!” the cloud to her left barked.

Rainbow was shocked, a little afraid and a bit embarrassed at the memory. “U-uh… I-I um” Rainbow stuttered, not sure how to respond.

“Hey, guys! Why don’t we knock her around so she can know what it feels like!” a shorter cloud called out from the back. The other clouds hummed their agreement and began closing in on her.

“H-hey! Wait a minute! I didn’t know you guys could talk, I swear! C’mon, can’t you let me off the hook just this once?!” Rainbow cried, but the clouds didn’t slow down in their approach, and eventually, instinct took over. Rainbow noticed an open spot in the clouds’ formation and bolted through it screaming, and the clouds gave chase.

As they chased her around the sky, Rainbow spotted a familiar figure standing behind a tree before he dove out of sight.

“Are you serious?!” Rainbow gritted her teeth at finding out who the culprit behind this was, and she opened her mouth to shout at him.

***

“Why are we researching Starswirl’s notes again? It’s not like you haven't read them a thousand times already.” Spike strained as he carried a tall stack of books down a set of stairs, cautiously easing his way down each step while the books swayed above him.

“I know, I know, but It never hurts to check again!” Twilight sang as she flew around to a desk to prepare for a studying session and Starlight set down a stack of books with her magic.

“You can never know too much about the past, I do agree. But you should branch away every once in a while Twilight,” Starlight said as she made herself comfortable in a chair and levitated a book on cooking vegetarian lasagnas with magic.

“Well it’s like I said, it never hurts to look again.” Twilight landed and waited for Spike.

“Speak for yoursel-WHOA!” There was a dragon-sized crash, several thumps, and a loud whump that Twilight quickly identified as Spike sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by scattered books.

“Spike!” Twilight and Starlight galloped over to him and helped him up. “Are you ok?” Twilight asked

“Yeah, it was weird. One of the books jumped off of the stack like it was alive or something,” Spike said, which just earned a confused look from Twilight.

Twilight and Starlight glanced at each other confused before looking at Spike. “Um, are you sure you didn’t just hit your head on the way down?” Twilight asked disbelievingly.

“Hey! I know what I saw!” Spike defended

“I don’t think-” Twilight began before she saw movement to her right. Turning, she quickly ducked with a yelp as a book lunged at her head, and Starlight gave a cry as one began snapping at her hooves. Twilight grabbed Spike in her magic and dove behind a table while Starlight dove under the couch. The other books around her began bouncing around, some started flapping their book covers and flying across the room.

“I TOLD YOU!” Spike called as he ducked down.

“Sorry for not believing you! What’s going on?!” Twilight cried as her books began acting all chaotic-... Wait… chaotic? Now that her head was a little clearer on the situation, this definitely looked like the work of a particular nuisance…

***

Discord was standing behind a podium, tapping a baton on the podium a few times, waiting for his favorite time of the day.

“They should be vocalizing in about... 3...2…” Discord hummed before the air around Ponyville was shaken with six individual shouts, some horrified some enraged and all exasperated

“DISCORD!”

“DISCOOOOOORD!”

“DISCOOOOOOOOOOOORD!”

“THIS ICING WAS MADE BY DISCORD!”

“DISCORD!”

“Discord!”

“Hahahaaa! Ah, music to my ears!” Discord laughed,

...two hours later

A group of rather irate ponies sat at a table in the castle, their silent seething being proof enough that they were all here for the same reason. Fluttershy remained more silent than usual, because she really did not want her friends angry at each other. At last, the alicorn in the room broke the silence by clearing her throat.

“Well, I assume we’re all here for the same reason?...” Twilight said, glancing about her friend’s varying expressions.

"That was already covered in the introduction to this part of the chapter," said Pinkie but Applejack spoke up before anyone else could respond.

“Tell me where Discord is,” snapped Applejack. “Ah’m gonna buck his head on backwards! Look what he did to mah family’s stock!” Applejack produced random fruits and a few vegetables from a straw basket beside her.

“Umm… I don't see the problem here. If anything, it looks like he expanded your family's stock,” Fluttershy said, hoping to bring out a positive in the situation.

“He defiled it is what he did! We’re th’ Apple family! Apple! We got a set stock and program, and we follow it to the wire! Now he’s going to turn it back, or Tartarus will be had!” Applejack said with clear vehemence until she saw the horrified look on Fluttershy’s face and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

“Ah’m sorry, sugarcube. Ah got a bit riled up there. The point is ah want him to fix this because we have a process to Sweet Apple Acres, and we can’t afford so many new crops right now. It’ll mess with the system we’ve worked so hard to set up,” Applejack said, which calmed Fluttershy down a little.

“Moving on! My day was just as crappy,” Rainbow said over their conversation, earning a scowl from Applejack. “Discord had me chased by a horde of clouds...that um… had lots of lightning and ninja swords and-” Rainbow quickly added to save some face. Still, a look from the others told her it wasn’t working, so she sighed and continued on about how they chased her until she had to dive into the forest and hide in a log until they gave up and dissipated.

“Ah can’t believe ya’ll got chased around by clouds,” Applejack said with apparent amusement.

“They were talking all creepy-like! How was I supposed to react?!” Rainbow Dash barked back

“Moving on!” declared Twilight. “Pinkie, what has he done to you this time?”

“Discord nearly ruined my party by replacing everything with cardboard, and he even turned Mr. Cake into cardboard. I barely got the party set up in time, and even then It wasn’t as splendoriffic as my first one was going to be,” Pinkie said, looking uncharacteristically miffed, not speaking any further.

Twilight nodded and turned to look at Fluttershy, only to be unsettled by her shivering. Deciding she most likely did not want to talk about it, she moved onto Rarity, who had a false grin frozen on her face.

“Um… so what did he do to your mane Rarity?” Twilight hesitantly asked.

Rarity’s head turned to her with an almost metallic creak, her twisted smile not leaving.

“Why whatever do you mean, darling? My mane is fine,” Rarity said through gritted teeth.

“Uh, what mane? Yer hair is all go-” Applejack said before Rarity sent her a crazed look.

“MY MANE IS FINE! MOVING ON!!!!” Rarity shrieked at her, causing all eyes to stare at her fearfully.

“U-uh yeah! Umm, sorry about that,” Applejack stuttered, mentally noting to never get involved with a prank involving Rarity’s mane.

“Easy mistake, darling,” Rarity hummed.

“Well, then we’re all gathered here for the same reason. Given that Spike and I had some trouble with some sentient books, I can only assume Discord was behind it,” Twilight said to her irate friends, getting a series of agreeing nods.

“Is it just me, or is he being more of a pest than usual?” Applejack said gruffly.

“W-well I mean… He probably just needs to know we need a break is all…” managed Fluttershy in an attempt to show some support for her chaotic friend.

“Oh no!” Rarity snarled. “We’ve been lenient enough with him! He always ignores us when we’re being light on him, so I say it’s time we show him what’s for!” Rarity finished with an angry growl, which caused Fluttershy to cringe back in her chair.

Twilight announced “I do admit Discord needs to be more considerate, or we’re never going to get anything done around here. Let’s go find him and put a stop to this nonsense.”

With that, the group got up and left the castle, followed reluctantly by Fluttershy who was feeling too nervous to go through with any confrontation, but wanted to support her friends.

---meanwhile---

After his perilous experience alongside Twilight involving an attack of the living books, Spike felt like having a bowl of gems to calm his nerves.

"Some rubies, sapphires, garnets, and amber with whipped cream and chocolate chips sounds nice," Spike said, drooling a little at the thought of the tasty treat he was going to have. As the small dragon went to the pantry for his meal ingredients and opened the door, Mr. Cake came tumbling out and onto the ground, startling the little dragon so badly he nearly peed himself.

"Ooof!" Mr. Cake said when he hit the floor.

"M-Mr. Cake?" Spike said after recovering from the shock. “What the hay were you doing in the pantry?” Spike asked.

"I... have no idea..."

Author's Note:

The beginning of my awesome new story for you awesome people.

Enjoy!

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Is this a crossover with MLP: Chaos is Dark Magic?

[Aether Spark]

10611195
Never heard of that story tbh.

Can you describe it?

[Georg]

Looking good.

[Aether Spark]

10611303
thanks

[Damaged]

Coverart Sauce: https://www.deviantart.com/heilos/art/Organized-Chaos-512777210 (SFW)

Haven't read this one yet, but it's going on my "read asap" list.

[Bugsydor]

A few of the characters are feeling a bit off to me. I didn't enjoy Pinkie's blatant 4th-wall shenanigans, Rarity's mane shouldn't be distressing her this much after "It's not the Mane Thing About You", and talking animals seems like one of the last things that would distress Fluttershy (who can understand animals through her special talent).

The other three seem okay.

Not off to a great start, but I'll see how I feel about the story in a chapter or two.

[Comickook]

I have to say, so far, this looks like an amusing start. Yeah, I could definitely see Discord pulling these sort of pranks and I could, at the very least see the reactions of two-thirds of the Mane 6 (Pinkie might enjoy harmless mischief, but I could see her getting upset by the pony who is like a second father to her getting turned into cardboard), but as another reviewer pointed out the pranks on Rarity and Fluttershy should not have upset them THAT much (Rarity because of previous experience, Fluttershy because the talking animals deal would be barely noticeable with HER special talent). I could especially see Rainbow getting freaked out by clouds looking for payback.

All the same, the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up ARE generally well done and I'm off to the next chapter.

[Cerulean Blue]

“Hmm… tastes like almonds, pickles, hot sauce, chocolate milk, ketchup, jalapeno peppers, peanut butter, vegetable gravy, applesauce, and just a hint of rutabaga…”

That sounds like a horrendous cake icing, even for Discord.