A Touch of Chaos

by Written Out

Poor Second Impressions

Twilight Sparkle, librarian of Ponyville and personal protégé of Princess Celestia, was not having a good day. In fact, one could go so far as to say she was having a very stressful day. Since, as anyone who knows the purple unicorn could tell you, saying "Twilight does not handle stress well" is like saying "Rarity likes jewels" or "Fluttershy is meek," it was always hazardous to anypony’s health to be near a stressed Twilight Sparkle. Or hazardous to anydragon’s health, in the case of her beleaguered number one assistant.

"Twilight, do you really think all this is necessary?" The baby purple dragon stood in the middle of the library, one clawed fist clenched around a lone piece of paper. Long years of practice ensured that his claws would not puncture the fragile scroll, their sharp points easily slicing through the thin material. He still had nightmares about those training sessions. Twilight got scary when her books were at risk.

The unicorn mare in question was currently standing next to one of the bookshelves, her horn glowing as she rapidly perused the books lining the walls. Several dozen books floated around her, wrapped in the same purple glow as her horn. One would occasionally float down in front of her eyes for a few seconds before it was dismissed and sent back up to float with its fellows. "Of course it’s necessary,Spike," she shot back without looking away from what she was doing. "Did you even read the letter from Princess Celestia?" Twilight rapidly skimmed through the books on the shelves, picking up some and discarding others based on an elimination process that probably made sense only to her.

Spike glanced down at the letter he was holding, taking a moment to think how to respond. Talking to Twilight when she got like this could be... dangerous at the best of times. "Of course I read the letter, Twilight. The Princess wrote that she detected some sort of magical activity from Discord’s statue. I mean, what could she expect you to do about it?" He waved the paper at her. "The Princess says right here that the Princess is going to hold onto the Elements of Harmony in the hopes that their proximity to Discord will keep the seal from getting any weaker. I just don’t see why this means you have to read" – Spike blinked in disbelief as one of the books floated in front of his eyes – "A Study of the Annual Tax Reports of Ponyville? Who writes books like this?"

“You don’t understand at all, Spike.” Twilight shook her head as she pulled another book off the shelf. She finished glancing through the bookshelf before dashing past Spike to a bookshelf on the other side of the room, not hearing Spike’s cry of alarm as he dove out of the way of the cascade of books following in her wake. “Princess Celestia asked me to keep my eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. This is a personal mission from the Princess! If I don’t take it seriously, she’ll think I don’t care! She might think that I don’t want to be her student anymore!!" The more she talked, the louder she got until she was almost shouting in Spike's face. "She- mfffmfffmfffmrglemnfff."

Spike was unphased, used to this brand of nonsense from his adopted sister/housemate. His expression was flat and deadpan as he placed his claws over her mouth, muffling whatever she was saying. "I thought we've already been over this. The Princess wouldn't do that. Besides that, look outside.” Spike released Twilight's mouth before walking over to the window and pulling aside the curtain to reveal the beautiful day outside. The weather forecast had called for clear blue skies, and that’s exactly what the pegasi had delivered. "There’s no cotton candy clouds raining chocolate milk, the animals are acting normally, and nopony seems to be acting grey. Even if Discord did try something, what’s the worst he could do with the Princess watching him?"

“That’s just it, Spike. We don’t know the worst Discord could do. That’s why I need to research what’s normal for Ponyville, so I’ll be able to tell if anything abnormal is happening.” As if the world had been waiting for Twilight to start talking about normalcy in Ponyville, the front door chose this moment to fly open and release a small pink tornado into the room. Spike jerked around in surprise, his claws catching on the curtains and tearing holes in them while Twilight recoiled in shock, releasing her magic and causing the books she had been holding to rain down onto the library floor.

"Hi Twilight!" The pair looked at the intruder and saw that, rather than a freak weather occurrence caused by Discord, it was instead the excitable pink party pony known to the world as Pinkie Pie. "What’cha doing? Ooh, are you reshelving the library again? You know you shouldn’t just leave books piled on the floor like this, right? I should know, once when I was still young and learning about cooking, I thought it didn’t matter how the ingredients were stored and I just left them all over the floor. The pastries and sweets I made with those ingredients were aweeeeeeeeeeful. They weren’t as bad as the baked bads AJ helped me make that one time when she was tired, but they were pretty close. Not that I’m saying we should throw your books in the oven and eat them, but I’m pretty sure they don’t keep as well on the floor."

Shaking her head fondly at the antics of her hyperactive friend, Twilight turned away from her and began collecting the fallen books. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy Pinkie’s company – far from it – but she knew that anything that could be classified as "normal" in Ponyville would be found far, far away from the maniac earth pony. Preferable in a different time zone. Glancing around the room, she spotted Spike acting strangely out of the corner of her eye. "Spike, why are you standing like that?"

"No reason." Spike was standing as tall as he could in front of the torn curtains, trying to block them from the unicorn’s view. Thinking quickly, he desperately grasped as the first thing he could think of to turn the conversation away from himself. "So, uh, why did you come here, Pinkie?"

"Oh, that’s right." Pinkie bounced over to Twilight as Spike's question reminded her why she had shown up in the first place. "I wanted to ask you something. See, I was going to Zecora’s house in the Everfree Forest because I wanted to borrow some of her masks for a party. She told me to come over today and she would pick out some for me to borrow. I was going to hang them on the walls and put flashing lights and have spooky sounds coming from behind them. The masks would have been like hnnngh and the party goers would have been like 'gaaaasp' and everypony was going to have so much fun! While I was heading there, I met a strange animal on the road and I wanted to know if you knew anything about it. It was like a minotaur, like Iron Will who you never met, only it was smaller and it had a strange head and are you okay Twilight? You just got that look in your eyes that hadn’t really been listening to what I was saying but something I said interested you and you want me to explain more."

Twilight wiped a hoof across her face. "Sorry Pinkie, I was just thinking about a letter Princess Celestia sent me. And am I really so easy to read?"

Pinkie playfully booped her on the nose. "Of course, you silly filly."

"That explains why I always lose at poker night," Twilight grumbled, rubbing at the offended orifice. Shaking her head, she turned to look back at Pinkie "Anyways, do you think you could tell me a little more about the creature you saw?"

"Okie Dokie Lokie." Pinkie stood on her back legs and started making large sweeping gestures with her front legs. "It was shortly before noon, and I was making my way to Zecora’s house when I saw it. Like I said, it was shaped like a small minotaur," she began to draw the shape of the creature in the air as she described it, “with two legs that it stood upright on, two arms with hands on the ends of them, and a head that I don’t really know what to compare it to. When I saw it, I ran up to it and asked it if it wanted to be my friend. I was singing to it about how I had never seen a creature like it before and how we were going to be new best friends, but I think I scared it because it screamed like a little filly and swung the axe it was holding at me." Pinkie showed Twilight the bandage wrapped around one of her front legs. "I was so surprised that I didn’t even know what to do when the creature ran away. Even Cranky didn’t respond that badly when I first met him. Oh, I’m okay," she added hastily, seeing Twilight’s shocked expression. "It only nicked me and I already saw Nurse Redheart about it. I was going to ask Fluttershy track it down, but she’s off playing with her animal friends somewhere and I couldn’t find her. See, I was thinking she would be able to use her kindnessness to calm it down, but she wasn’t home, and I was thinking like 'hmmmmmm' and then I was like 'ohhhhh' and then I came here because I thought you might have a fancy spell that would allow me to talk to it so I could ask it if it wanted to be my friend. So what do you say, huh, huh, huh? Will you come with me to the Everfree Forest? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?"

Twilight took a moment to recover from the onslaught of words, not sure what surprised her more. It was either the fact that Pinkie had happen to stumble on an unusual creature (it attacked her?) right after Twilight received a letter from Princess Celestia telling her to watch for anything unusual, or the fact that Pinkie didn’t seem to stop for a single intake of breath throughout the whole retelling. Choosing to classify both under 'Pinkie being Pinkie' for the sake of her continuing sanity, Twilight agreed to go with Pinkie. "Alright. I actually want to meet this animal myself. Princess Celestia sent me a note asking me to keep an eye out for anything unusual. A new creature in the Everfree Forest – especially this close to Ponyville – certainly qualifies. Spike, I’m going to head out for a bit. Sorry, but can you handle cleanup?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem, go ahead." Spike watched the two mares leave, making sure to stay between them and the torn curtains until they were out of sight. "Now then," Spike said as he turned towards the books lying around the library. Picking up the closest one, he read the cover aloud. "'A Study of the Annual Tax Reports of Ponyville.' I…have absolutely no idea what to do with this book."

---

Twilight and Pinkie walked through the Everfree Forest, heading down the path to Zecora’s. What was normally a spooky walk for Twilight to walk alone whenever she wanted to share some tea with Zecora was made much more cheerful by the pink pony bouncing alongside her. Pinkie didn’t even need to say anything; her mere presence was enough to brighten the gloomy forest path. The journey was uneventful until Pinkie abruptly stopped in front of a hole that looked as if it had been torn through the undergrowth by something twice either pony’s size.

“You see, Twilight? The whatzit came out through here and ran back down the path as well. I bet we’ll find its home at the end. Oh, I can’t wait until I'm able to talk to it. We’re going to sing and dance and laugh and play together, and then I'm going to throw it a party in town so everypony can meet it and we’ll all sing and dance and laugh and play together." She took a few steps forwards before stopping, realizing that she had suddenly lost her companion. "Are you coming?"

The purple mare had stopped at the side of the path and was examining the cut vegetation. "Give me a moment, Pinkie. I just want to get an idea of what we’re dealing with." Careful not to touch the affected areas, she muttered to herself as she tried to get a grasp of the creature’s capabilities. "These plants were definitely cut by a bladed object instead of with claws or teeth. Whatever it is probable doesn’t have many natural defenses and uses tools it either makes or steals to protect itself. If it holds these tools in its hands, it probably can’t use magic. Finally, we can assume it is unable to fly because it went through all this vegetation when it would have been much easier to fly over it if it could." She nodded, satisfied with her conclusions. "Alright Pinkie, I’m ready to go.”

Pinkie began bounding happily down the path cut through the vegetation while Twilight followed behind, occasionally stopping to get a clear look at something that caught her eye. Eventually, the pair heard a dull repetitive “thunk” sound coming from the direction they were heading. Pinkie immediately perked up and began heading in the direction the sound was coming from, but Twilight grabbed a mouthful of tail and pulled her back.

Once she was sure that Pinkie wasn’t going to run off, Twilight spat out the fuzzy tail. Why and how did Pinkie's tail taste like cotton candy? "Hold on, Pinkie. We don’t want to scare it again. Let’s sneak in close and observe it for a while before we try talking to it."

Pinkie nodded her head energetically before responding in a whisper that was somehow louder than her regular voice. “Okie Dokie Lokie.” Laying her body flat against the ground and sticking her tail straight up in the air, Pinkie began sneaking in what was quite possibly the least stealthy manner possible without actually making any noise.

Twilight rolled her eyes at Pinkie’s antics and followed after her. As they got closer to the sound, it seemed to be getting more and more irregular, as if whatever was making it was beginning to act erratically. Eventually, the pair spotted the creature they were looking for standing in the middle of a clearing. Hiding in some bushes where the creature wouldn’t be able to see them, they watched as the creature would raise the axe over its head before swinging it down on a piece of wood in front of it. It took Twilight only a moment to realize the creature was chopping firewood. Convinced of the animals’ intelligence, since it wouldn’t need firewood unless it was capable of controlling fire, Twilight took the opportunity to observe it. Making mental notes about the creature, she took a moment to make a mental note to remember to write out her mental notes next chance she got. Couldn't be too careful, after all.

As for the creature itself, it was a lot like Pinkie had described. Its basic shape was similar to a minotaur’s, though there were several key differences. The first, and most noticeable at a glance, was that it lacked the bulging muscles prevalent in so many minotaurs. It also lacked fur on most of its body, instead choosing to wear clothing for warmth and protection. From what Twilight could see, it lacked scales, claws, wings, horns, fangs, a stinger, or any other natural defences and probably depended on tools to survive. Twilight indulged herself in a satisfied smirk at seeing one of her theories was right. It looked to be mammalian and its hard edges made her think of a stallion more than a mare, so it probably was a male of its species. Other then the fact that it – he – was about as tall as Princess Celestia, he didn't look all that threatening.

All that was easy, but the head was unlike anything Twilight had ever seen before. Whenever it turned to pick up another piece of wood, it would unintentionally show its face to Twilight. The face was rounded, which meant it probably had a spherical skull. On that face, the creature possessed two small eyes above a nose that stood out from the rest of the skull. Below the nose, there was a mouth with red lips that sharply contrasted against the off-beige skin surrounding it. Underneath a short yellow mane, Twilight could see two external ears on the side of his head. Unlike a pony’s, or any other animal with external ears, the ears appeared to be stationary and non-expressive. Twilight couldn’t claim to be an expert in reading the expression of… whatever it was, but it looked focused on cutting the wood, although its eyes would occasionally dart into the surrounding region like it expected some horrible monster to leap at it from the undergrowth.

Deciding she wouldn’t learn any more by just watching it, Twilight poked Pinkie in the side to get her attention and walked directly into the clearing, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. The creature had his back to the both of them, and he didn’t notice the pair until Twilight deliberately stomped on a twig, snapping it loudly enough to be clearly heard throughout the clearing. The creature’s entire demeanor changed in an instant. Turning towards the pair, the expression on his instantly changed to a mixture of shock, hatred, and fear the moment he spotted them. He held the axe defensively in front of him and his eyes began to rapidly dance around the clearing, as if he was looking for an escape route.

"Easy now, we don’t want to hurt you." Twilight tried to keep her voice as calm as possible as she imagined what her friend Fluttershy would do when confronted with a scared animal. If anypony would know what to do with a potentially dangerous animal, it was Fluttershy. Twilight took a tentative step towards the creature, cautiously concentrating magic in her horn. The translator spell she wanted was a simple one, automatically transplanting knowledge of any language the creature spoke into her mind. The spell was a temporary one, and could only work on intelligent beings that were normally capable of speech, but Twilight didn’t think that would be a problem. Reaching out to him with her magic, she gasped in shock as a sudden chill ran down her spine that broke her concentration and her spell.

It was unmistakeable. It felt as if a lion had a taken a single claw and had slowly ran it down her spine from her nape all the way to the tip of her tail. There was only one creature she knew of that could do this, and she could clearly feel the force of his magic in the air. Her mouth opened involuntary, and it felt like her lungs froze up in fear. Despite this, a single word escaped her, identifying the source of the fear she felt paralyzing her body.

“Discord…”

At her lightly exhaled word, the animal standing in the center of the clearing suddenly broke to the side, trying to escape into to the undergrowth. Not understanding what had just happened, but not willing to let the creature escape when she had so many unanswered questions, Twilight focused her magic and tried to grab the creature but the feeling ran up her spine again and the creature slipped through. Trying to grab the creature with her magic was like trying to hold onto water with her bare hooves.

“Pinkie! Stop him!” Twilight shouted.

The pink pony suddenly burst from the spot the creature was heading towards, having somehow got there from her position beside Twilight without the unicorn even realising she had disappeared. The creature took several steps back at Pinkie's sudden appearance as he reached into a pocket of his clothing. He tucked the axe underneath an arm and pulled out an orange fruit together with and a very small stick. He fiddled with the objects for a moment, his back turned to Twilight so she couldn't see what he was doing. She did see when he pulled his hand back and threw the fruit directly at Pinkie's face, the stick embedded in the orange fruit and a tiny flame burning on the end of the stick. The creature ran in the opposite direction, sprinting away fast as he could. Pinkie, who had been talking non-stop about new friends since she had jumped out of the bush, stared curiously at the fruit as it flew towards her.

The fruit was abruptly wrapped in a purple glow before being encapsulated in a purple sphere. Twilight, with her horn glowing the same colour as the glow surrounding the fruit, hurriedly gestured upwards with her head. The fruit flew up, following the silent directions of the powerful unicorn. Just as it cleared the treetops, some juice from the fruit dripped down the matchstick and into the merrily dancing flame. The fruit exploded with a sound like an angry dragon had just descended into the clearing. Twilight’s force field was able to contain the flames, but the concussive blast thundered through the clearing and threw both ponies to the ground. Squeezing their eyes shut and covering their ears, the girls could do nothing but wait out the blast.

After an instant that felt like an eternity, silence reigned. The girls unsteadily got to their hooves amidst the falling sticks and leaves to see that the creature had vanished. He had disappeared during the explosion, and was probably long gone by now. Twilight turned to Pinkie and saw that the pink mare was sitting on the ground with a dejected expression, repeatedly muttering something to herself. As Twilight approached Pinkie, the saddened mare looked her in the eyes and repeated what she had been muttering loudly enough for Twilight to hear.

“No new friend?”

Twilight wrapped her forelegs around her friend’s withers and pulled the pink pony into an equine hug. She knew how much Pinkie loved meeting and making new friends.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie. C’mon, let’s head home. We’ll talk about this with the others tomorrow."

The pair returned to Ponyville in silence, each thinking about the events of the day. Twilight walked Pinkie to Sugarcube Corner, worried about the well being of her friend before heading home herself. Entering the library, she was greeted by the inviting smell of a well-cooked supper.

Spike’s voice emanated from the kitchen. “Is that you, Twilight?” he asked, strolling out of the kitchen with a frilly pink apron strapped to his tiny chest. “Perfect timing, supper’s almost ready.” Looking up, he spotted how bedraggled Twilight was, with her body covered in dirt and sticks and leaves sticking out of her mane. "Wow, you look worn out. What happened out there?"

Dragging herself to the dinner table, Twilight leaned against it and rested her head against the smooth wood. "I’ll be fine, Spike. I’ll tell you what happened later. For now, I’m just happy to be home."

Indeed she was. Spike had done a wonderful job of cleaning up, as always. All the books were put away, with a small pile off to the side representing the books she had picked up during her last trip at Canterlot. She hadn’t told Spike about them, had she? Whoops. Other than that, the room was the same as always, looking the same as she remembered it and…wait.

"Spike, when did we get new drapes?"

---

Dear Journal,

This is my second article today, and it’s getting late, but I feel the need to write what happened. I was chopping wood not too far away from here when I was attacked by the Pink Abomination again. I was able to get a clear look at it this time, and I clearly saw the face of fear. It took the form of a small pink pony, standing at about my waist height. If I didn’t know better, I might even have called it cute. I was barely able to escape from the two of them by lobbing a Firexplosive Fruit and running away as fast as I could. I don’t think I killed them, and I feel like killing them would just make them angry.

I didn’t clarify, but there were two of them this time. In addition to the Pink Abomination, there was a purple unicorn with it. Unicorns should not exist, but my mysterious feelings and knowledge told me that the creature would kill me and crunch on my bones if it had the chance. When I first saw this…Purple People Eater, its horn glowed and I felt a horrible sensation running through my body. It was as if my entire body had been immersed in a bucket of ice cold water.

I’m scared, journal. I’m in a place I don’t understand, fighting creatures that shouldn’t exist. Just seeing these creatures fills me with feelings of indescribable hate and fear, and I’m afraid they aren’t finished with me.

But their existence is impossible! The Pink Abomination moved faster than I could see and the Purple People Eater almost seemed to be using magic. There’s no such thing as magic! I wonder if they even existed, or if I just imagined them.

Journal, I fear I may be going insane. Or maybe I already am. I just... don't know.

It’s late and I’m tired. Maybe everything will make sense in the morning. Goodnight, journal.

Goodnight.

Comments

[Platinum2094]

"No new friend?"

[Soul Reaper]

indeed, i find this story pleasing enough to give you this:

partner-ad.photobucket.com/albums/f144/ELEMENT151/taokaka.gif

[matangadijolachanga]

the briefness of this journal entry was good , that is all i can say

[Kokokoo]

I died at purple people eater.

[Starlight Nova]

When does Discord make his actual first appearance?

[WithRegardsTo]

THE PURPLE PEOPLE EATER!

OMFG SO MANY LOLS!

Author, I love you. I'm also loving this dual-viewpoint thing you've got going on.

.... The purple people eater.... That one is going to keep me laughing for a while.

[Schismatism]

Loving this so far! Definitely going to eat my way through the story in record (for me) time. And that last line...

Goodnight, Night Vale.
...Goodnight.

[StormLash99]

"No reason." Spike was standing as tall as he could in front of the torn curtains, trying to block them from the unicorn’s view. Thinking quickly, he desperately grasped as the first thing he could think of to turn the conversation away from himself. "So, uh, why did you come here, Pinkie?"

You done goofed Spike, and for that you have earned yourself this:

[astromormy]

Purple People Eater

Really? Did it have one eye too? lol

[kotor511]

At the very least, in this story the human doesn't simply act irrational out of self stupidity, but is forced to do so by direct magical tempering of his mind.

False/True knowledge and emotions are implanted in his memories and that's better than most other stories of "human runs from ponies or attacks them."

I also commend the author for pretty much getting Pinkie's and Twilight's personality spot on, which isn't always the case as well.