> When Chaos & Magic Mix (Oh So Well...) > by lillytheomegawolf > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Once Upon A Time In Canterlot > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once upon a time in Canterlot... Midnight struck. The moon rose to its full height in the sky, empowering the mistress of the night who watched over those who slumbered.  Two lovers lay at peace, snuggled up together in their bedchambers in the castle. Although one was a princess, the being at her side was not officially her prince.  Discord rolled over to face the ceiling and wondered aloud. “I wonder what it would be like if magic were a little more ...chaotic...” A soft groan escaped the large white alicorn at the lord’s side.  “Discord, what are you talking about?” Celestia’s muffled reply came from the bedsheets beside the lord of chaos.  Discord grinned, “you know... magic. Spells and all that. What if they were a little more... chaotic..?”  “No.” The muffled tone of his lover lessened the grin the patchwork creature wore. “But it would be funny.” “Discord-” A very tired Celestia rolled to face the trickster. “Think of how fun it would be to wake up and rediscover your magic as something new and exciting.” “No.” “Oh come on Tia. Have a little fun.” The princess yawned, her eyes closed and she snuggled up to her lover. “It’s been a long day... Just go back to sleep.” Discord caressed Celestia’s pristine soft coat. “One day. All I ask.” Silence reigned.  Discord sighed. A single eye cracked open to eye the draconequus who couldn’t help but grin hopefully back. “One. If I don’t like it, I’ll take you to the sun with me for a day.” Discord laughed softly and clicked his fingers. “Good one, Sunbutt.” A white wing playfully batted the lord of chaos in the face. Celestia then rolled over, capturing her partner in her forehooves. “I’m serious. Now, back to sleep.” A kiss goodnight sealed the deal and Discord relaxed into the plush coat of his pony. This was going to be fun! Luna rolled over in bed and wrapped her hooves around her special princess. She decided to have a little fun before she lowered the moon. With a light tinkle of magic, she touched her horn to Twilight’s plush side to give her a tickle. With a shimmer, her lover began to change. The princess of the night let out a surprised yelp and shot up in bed. Before her lay a lavender coated hippogriff with a beautiful two toned mane and light purple claws. “Wha-” Luna stumbled back in bed, completely aghast. She tumbled out of bed and hit the floor with a loud plonk. “Huh-?” A rather groggy looking hippogriff pulled herself up in bed and gazed down at Luna. Her face scrunched up in wonderment. “How did you fall out of bed?” “Y-your... I mean- I made- turned you into-” Twilight yawned and stretched slowly. “What are you talking about Luna?” “My magic. We tried to tickle thee for fun but- but something... happened.” Hippogriff Twi shook her mane. “I feel a little odd. Did I sleep on my left wing again?” Luna dumbly pointed to the bathroom where she knew they had a mirror. After accidentally turning her marefriend into another species, she was not about to accidentally cause a catastrophe by summoning a mirror. The groggy hippogriff stumbled out of bed mumbling something about her hooves feeling weird. Luna found her gaze lingering on the nice flank of her ...mare and gulped. She was not attracted to hippogriffs. She- A high pitched scream made Luna jump and she reflexively rushed to her lover’s side. Twilight stood before the mirror, her mouth agape, wings spread wide. She landed heavily on her rear. “What happened to me?” “Um... I tried to use my magic to tickle thee... next we knowst, thou art turned into a hippogriff.” Hippogriff Twi shot her companion a look, “remember the language thing? Is that's why you fell out of bed in surprise?” Luna flushed. “Correct.” “Ugh... Let me just-” Twilight scrunched up her face in concentration. “what are thou attempting to do?” “Teleport to Celestia to- right... No horn.” Twilight sighed.  “Why would thou wish to see my sister?” “So I can ask her if it’s just your magic being weird... or if Discord is behind this.” “But it has been a long time since he last caused a problem of any kind. In fact, recently he has been most-” “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Twilight sighed. “What if he’s gotten bored and decided to have a little fun... only now I don’t have magic, so I can’t easily stop him...” Luna cringed, she couldn’t help but feel more than a little responsible for her marefriend’s sad state. “Mayhaps tis best if we fly out to see her. Somehow I don’t trust my own magic.” “Wonder why...” a hint of a cheeky smirk came over Twilight’s face as she slowly approached. “Don’t worry Luna, I know you didn’t do this to me on purpose. I still love you.” She gave her a peck on the cheek and Luna couldn’t help but feel that it was certainly quite odd to be kissed by a hippogriff, even one as pretty as Twilight. “Maybe I should check on Starlight first and see if her magic is affected too.” Twilight mused as she exited the room. Luna nodded to herself. She carefully reached out then tentatively pulled her moon from the sky. Her stars winked out of the dawn sky and the night mare felt relief flood her system. It felt like the moon had slipped down below the horizon okay and was now resting. Did this mean her deep alicorn magic was not affected but her regular, unicorn magic was? What is going on here? Celestia awakened to the tug of her sun. With a yawn, she propelled it into the sky. She shot up as sunbeams leapt into the room. It was not noon!  The solar princess reached out once more and this time was more careful in the positioning of her celestial body. It rapidly sank in the sky and Celestia was only just able to halt its progress before it vanished below the skyline. The ruler unleashed a sigh. That was unusual.  Wait.  Magic. Discord. His little ...request...  Her gaze shot down to the sleeping creature who was snuggled up to her lower body.  “Discord.”  Nothing.  Celestia sighed. “Discord. Please wake up.”  “I’m asleep. Cuddle me.”  Celestia was tenderly pulled beneath the bedsheets. “Did you do something to my magic?”  “Your magic? Why ever would I do anything specifically to your magic?”  “So I did not in fact accidentally agree to anything last night?”  With a poof the grinning draconequus appeared floating in front of his bedmate. “That’s right! I asked for a bit of fun. You said no. I pleaded... then you most graciously agreed to my request.”  Celestia gently massaged her temples, this was far too early in the morning for fixing her stallionfriend’s fun. “Why did I do that?” A sigh escaped the alicorn. “So what exactly did I agree to?”  “Don’t you think it will be much more fun if you find out for yourself?”  “Really Discord?”  Her lover grinned back at her like a cheshire cat.  Celestia sighed. Maybe a little spell would show her what he had done. The long white horn glowed golden. With a swish their bedside table disappeared. In its place lay a bed of pink flowers. Celestia sat bolt upright, her jaw lose.  “Oooooh. Teleportation spell. I see you left behind some flowers too,” Discord mused as he played with his beard. “I was supposed to lift it a few hooves off the floor,” Celestia replied stoically.  “Even better,” Discord nodded sagely.  “No Discord. This is not better. I need my magic. My little ponies need their magic.”  Discord shrugged, “I promised it will only be for a day, what could possibly go wrong, whilst being utterly hilarious?”  A white hoof impacted with the bedsheets, “reverse it. Now.”  The insistent draconequus shook his head. “Can’t do it.”  “I meant now, Discord,” Celestia scowled at her cheeky lover.  An old fashioned pipe appeared in the claws of the draconequus. A bubble popped out as he drew a breath from it. He then exhaled bubbles that sparked all the colours of the rainbow. “You can now do things like this Tia. Enjoy it.”  The unimpressed alicorn shot a spell at her companion who jumped. Discord looked down at his arms and wiggled his fingers, “what did you do!? I feel... wrong.”  “I tried to reverse your spell, taking into account how my magic is now infused with your chaos.”  “Hmmm...” The draconequus noted his companion’s multicoloured mane had changed to its original pink coloration. Now that was unusual. He stroked his chin then clicked his fingers.  Nothing happened.  He clicked his lion's paw, then his clawed hand, then his tail. The patchwork creature frowned, “That’s odd. Hmmm...”  Celestia attentively watched her trickster and began to wonder if the spell perhaps had unintended consequences.   “Wait...” Discord turned his vision to the sun and he visibly paled. “No, it can’t be...”  “What?” Celestia dreaded the answer but knew that whatever she had done to Discord must have had a profound effect. Maybe she had accidentally removed his powers for the day? The horn and antler on the draconequus’s head glowed golden. The bed hovered up into the air. A rather un-manly squeal erupted from Discord. “I can’t believe it! Tia’- Oh how chaotic is this! You just gave me your magic!”  His antler and horn glowed once again and the sun lowered then rose once more into the sky. “I even have your connection to the sun!” A cocky grin appeared on his face as he reached out to his princesses sun, “down it goes! Up, down, up, down, up-” “Discord!”  The patchwork creature jumped, “what?”  “My sun is not a toy.”  “Not when you control it. But now I-”  Celestia reached inside herself and willed her companion to be quiet. The chaos inside her replied and she found herself compelled to click her tongue. Discord jolted as his voice fell into silence. He motioned to his mouth then began to frantically wave his arms. The sunny ruler chucked. “I think we traded powers, oh lord of the sun.”  Celestia reached inside herself toward the strange new chaos she felt and willed her lover to transform into something else. She clicked her tongue once more. A loud pop echoed around the room and before her lay a giant snake.  Both parties jumped in surprise. Discord smacked his serpentine head against the wall while Celestia fell off the bed. The alicorn scrambled back up to her hooves, quick to repeat her click. With a mighty poof, the snake turned into a rather surprised looking earth pony.  Discord burst out laughing, “that is-”  Again Celestia clicked and before her stood a griffon who brushed his own chest then stood admiring himself. “My, my, my, Celestia... has somepony discovered the joys of chaos.”  “N-no. Of course not.” Celestia once again clicked and the griffon poofed into an alicorn.  ...A rather handsome alicorn stallion at that. He bore Discord’s colouring in all the right places and his horn was light blue with a slight spiral to it.  Truth be told, Celestia was rather tempted to leave him like that. With a click and a pop Discord found himself as an alicorn with his own mismatched legs. He lifted his foreclaw and admired it. “Nice work my love. I should have given you my powers a long time ago, this is fun!” “It’s unusual,” Celestia admitted. “I rather enjoyed turning you into different creatures like that.” It was then that the royal alicorn noticed her mane had changed. “My mane?”  “Thanks to giving me your powers, I think you’ve become normal Celestia for a day.” Discord noted with a growing smile.  Celestia’s wings extended and her pretty pink mane fluttered down, half covering her face. She shifted to better gaze at the patchwork alicorn.  “You like what you see.”  “I- So what if I do?”  The grinning male alicorn strutted toward his slightly smaller companion. “Admit it... you like what you see. I make alicorn look good.”  Cerise eyes travelled from the unusual legs to the strong chest then to the powerful dark blue wings before finally arriving at the rather handsome muzzle. “Yes. You do. Although this is not the Discord I fell in love with.”  “Well too bad, you just have to put up with me till sundown. Please leave me like this, unless you can think of something even more fun that is. But as I was saying... sundown. That’s when everything will go back to normal.” “Everything?”  Discord nodded solemnly. “Everything. Even things like our table.”  “I will take your word for it. I remember, I warned you with a trip to my sun should I not like this.”  Discord chose to ignore the threat, “now... how does a pony teleport?”  Celestia laughed. “You mean to tell me you don’t know any spells?”  “Spells work differently to my usual chaos magic. It’s totally unchaotic and that makes it boring. Now how do you teleport?”  With a swish of her pink mane, Celestia came in close and clicked her tongue.  The couple appeared in the library. “You’re a natural, you know that?” Discord grinned at his companion. “And you’re insufferable.” Celestia shot back. “Now let’s quickly give you some groundwork for my magic. I’m sure before long there will be hordes of angry ponies demanding to see their princess. I also need to draft a letter to send to the other cities, telling them this will only be for one day and asking that they try and enjoy themselves without worrying about consequences.”  “Oh psh-tsh. Don’t be such a kill-joy. They will love it!”  “Study time.” Celestia reminded her companion.  “I’m bored already,” quipped Discord as he followed behind his marefriend who hastened to the section dedicated to magic.  “Starlight I need your help with- Starlight?”  Hippogriff Twilight came to a stop in the doorway to her student’s room.  It seemed that the sleepover with the royal crysler had turned into a cuddle session at some point and Starlight was bound in the hooves of a sleeping stallion. Her friend and student lurched up in bed, quick to cast a teleportation spell to escape the embarrassing situation.  “No don’t-” The purple hippogriff reached out a claw in desperation as her friend vanished to who knows where.  Maybe she had vanished into thin air? Or accidentally banished herself to Tartarus? Or- “I’m right here, you can quit panic- what happened to you?” Starlight asked, sounding more like a mouse as the now six inch tall pony extracted herself from her sleeping companion’s mane. “And how did I end up in Sunburst’s mane?”  The groggy stallion batted at the thing in his mane then pulled the covers over his head, mumbling something about noise.  “Okay, that proves my hypothesis,” noted Twilight.  Starlight fought to pull herself out of the covers that buried her. “What are you talking about? Why are you a hippogriff? This better not be some strange bedroom game you and Luna play, because I really don’t want to know about it.” Twilight flushed at the thought of Luna doing ...things to her while she is a hippogriff. Purple wings quivered, the young princess promptly forced all such thoughts out of her mind. “What? No, this was an accident. Something has happened to magic. When you tried to teleport, you’re lucky that all it did was make you small and teleport you to your coltfriend’s mane. Congratulations on that by the way.”  “It did?" It was then the tiny mare realized her position and jumped in shock. "I'm tiny! Why am I so small? Sunburst, wake up!” Tiny Starlight commanded.  The giant lump she stood on mumbled and slowly rolled over. Starlight flew through the air, “aaaahh!”  Twilight was quick to catch the tiny unicorn in her foreclaw. She placed mini Starlight carefully down on the set of drawers next to the bed.  With a groan, the stallion rolled over. “What happened?” Sunburst poked his head out from under the covers. “Why is everypony being so- Princess?”  “Yes. This is me, something happened to magic and we need to find out what.”  “Well...” With a grunt, Sunburst sat up. He waited for the hippogriff to turn around before he got out of bed and swapped his nightclothes for his regular kit.  With her back to the couple, Twilight continued, “I’m thinking Discord.”  “Oh really?” Starlight rolled her eyes. “What gave it away?”  “Starlight? Why are you so small?” Sunburst asked with concern. “Something happened to my spell.” The tiny unicorn lit her horn and suddenly a huge rumble sounded from somewhere above.  “Uh... Star, what did you just do?” Sunburst asked frantically as the sound of water came closer.  “I just tried to summon Discord.” The small pony grinned sheepishly. “I guess it proves our magic really has been replaced with uncontrollable chaos magic.”   “Love-” Luna appeared in the doorway just in time for the torrent of water to hit the group.  The four ponies were carried yelling and screaming through the hallways, down the stairs and into the main room before they were swept out the front door. Twilight clutched onto Luna as water continued to blast past them onto the street.  With a frantic cry, Spike barreled out the door and faceplanted in front of Twilight. Water rushed past the downed dragon knocking those who had risen down once more. The young dragon rose with a scowl as the water subsided. “What is it this time?”  “I think...” Twilight trailed off as she stood and shook herself. “Discord replaced our magic with chaos for fun.”  “He what?”  Applejack started her day like she always did. Breakfast was early and before long she found herself before the first apple tree of the day. She quickly turned around and gave it a buck. Something pushed back hard, the earth pony stumbled forward and almost lost her hat. “What the?”  The farmer turned to face her tree and her jaw hit the ground. Before her stood tall a rainbow coloured tree that was three times the size of the other apple trees. The apples it bore were at least five times the regular size and also glowed differing colours.  This couldn’t be right. Applejack shook her head. She turned her gaze to the other normal trees then closed her eyes. She was just seeing things. It was ok. Her tree had not just turned giant. And all rainbow. After a few deep breaths, green eyes opened and she turned to face the tree she had bucked once again.  Nope. It was still big and colourful.   It was still totally bizarre. It was as if Discord had touched it, not her.  Discord. He hadn’t caused any problems for a long time. Even though he had changed for the better didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of trickery.  “Alright. I know yer out there. Show yerself.” Applejack stomped a hoof on the soft earth.  A patch of flowers bloomed underhoof. The farmer stumbled back. She glanced at the underside of her hoof. Okay, now how did that happen?  She wondered to herself if maybe the strange tingle inside had anything to do with her apparent ability to mess with the vegetation.  It was probably time to go and see Twilight. The farmer sighed, she needed to find out what happened to her earth pony magic. Applejack headed resolutely off, back to the house to tell her brother not to touch their trees.  Pinkie Pie awoke to a buzzing sensation inside her brain. As she shot up in bed her mane bounced and her forehooves twitched. “Oooh! Discord has swapped magic with chaos!” A grin ripped across her muzzle. This should be fun! “I wonder what it will do to my earth pony magic.” She tapped her hoof on the bed. Nothing happened.  The party pony wondered for a few moments... What might she be able to try? What could confirm this feeling of extra chaos inside?  “Oh, I know!” She bounced up and in a flash, disappeared.  With a poof, Pinkie Pie appeared in the Cakes kitchen. “Oooh. Instant transmission. It’s even faster than normal.” She glanced around the kitchen carefully. “Hmmm... I wonder...”  A rather groggy alabaster unicorn wandered into her well decorated kitchen in Carousel Boutique. Rarity lit her horn to turn on the jug to boil water and blinked in surprise when the whole jug vanished. A deep, carefully breath filled her lungs. “That... was not a teleport spell.” She sighed. Who knows where that went. A light blue lit the white horn once more as Rarity this time tried to pick up bread for her breakfast. A scream rent the house as the loaf grew in size till it was twice as long as an adult pony. “But- my magic!?” Rarity frantically glanced over to her workshop. How was she supposed to create new works of art without magic? The sound of small hooves on wood broke Rarity’s thoughts. “Are you alright?” Sweetie Belle asked as she rounded the corner. “Wow, how did you make the bread grow so big?” “I tried to levitate it,” Rarity huffed. The young filly snickered. “Nice one. How about I try?” Her horn lit and the bread instantly caught fire. Rarity withdrew in shock, “Sweetie Belle!” “I’m sorry!” The older sister frantically tried to suffocate the flames with her magic. The fire was replaced with rain that poured upwards to the ceiling. Sweetie Belle’s jaw hit the floor, “how did you do that?” “I don’t know!” Rarity cried back, the fashionista turned to her sister. “Sweetie Belle, please follow me and don’t use your magic.” “Why? Do you know what’s wrong?” “No, but I suspect Discord has something to do with this. Come on!” Rarity hurried out the door, flanked by her sibling. Sweetie couldn’t help but glance behind, “but the rain. Our bread!” “Forget it, please do keep up!” Rainbow Dash rolled over in her cloud bed and yawned. It felt too early to get up. She lay there staring at the ceiling for a while as the clouds of sleep slowly cleared. After an unknown amount of time, she rolled over and lay staring at the wall. “Oh, yea... I had agreed to breakfast at Fluttershy's...” the pegasus mumbled as she extracted herself from the warm confines of her bed. The blue mare stood there for a few moments as a feeling inside her registered. Something felt different. Something was weird. She flicked her wings and worked them slowly. Nope, they felt fine. She hadn’t slept on something, so that was good. 

Dash was also sure she had enough sleep and naps over the last day. With a shrug, Dash trotted off to get herself breakfast. A speeding blue pegasus barreled through the skies toward a lone cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville. Suddenly it registered that the skies were supposed to be clear today and without a second thought, the rainbow trail deviated. Dash cut through three clouds then bounced off a fourth. “What the-!?” The speedster fought to correct her trajectory before she crashed into a cloud some distance away. This cloud flattened under her like an egg thrown into a hot pan. Dash tore her gaze from the flat white puff under her hooves to the puffy white construct that had deflected her. “Alright, you. You’ve asked for it!” Rainbow Dash shot off toward the cloud and came to a stop before it. She hovered in front of it and poked it with a forehoof. It felt ...like a cloud. A soft indent was left as she withdrew her hoof. “Huh.” She spun around and prepared to buck the offending cloud. After a moment's hesitation Blue hooves delivered a hard kick. Rather than the satisfying poof that typically followed impacts, her hooves sank into something soft then slowly withdrew. The speedster span around and her jaw loosened. The bucked cloud was raining. Chocolate milk. “How? What?” Dash looked to her own hooves then back at the now pink cloud that rained chocolate milk. “Discord!? Where are you?” Silence. The blue pegasus huffed. Fluttershy might be wondering where she was if she took any longer. “Discord? Hey, Discord!” Dash once again poked the cloud. If Discord wasn’t directly involved in this cloud turning into a chocolate milk cloud, then what could it be? With a strong beat of her wings, the lone mare ascended then dived down at the pink cloud. She tore through the cotton candy construct and span around several times to try and loosen the chunks that clung to her coat. With her wings folded she shot toward the earth below. Hunks of cloud dislodged from the speeding pegasus as she picked up speed. Blue wings shot out causing a jolt as the pegasus narrowly missed slamming into a house. She had fallen faster than she thought she had. That was off-putting.  Dash beat her wings frantically to once again gain altitude so that she could survey the cloud cover. Should she leave the rest for Cloud Kicker and Thunderlane? Those two were on duty today and providing they were not affected by Discord’s chaos, there would be no further problems in clearing the skies. Deciding to put on a bit of extra speed, Dash rushed off with speed to leave a rainbow trail in her wake. She kept pouring more power into speed till a certain cottage appeared. The pegasus spiralled around, higher and higher till she hit sonic rainboom speeds. With a triumphant cry, the athlete spiralled around and around, leaving a giant halo far above the cottage. She then slowed her speed, corkscrewing round and round as he descended toward his mare’s home. With a flourish, Rainbow Dash alighted at his fillyfriend’s doorstep. Something felt.. odd. More so than before. The front door opened to reveal a bright eyed yellow pegasus. “Good morning Rainbow wha-” “Hi Fluttershy- Woah.” A blue hoof reached up as Dash felt his throat. “Why is my voice so low?” “W-who are you?” The shy pegasus half hid behind her door. “Uh, it’s me. Rainbow Dash.” Replied the blue pegasus as his forehoof fell from his throat. “Well you look like her, but um... you're a stallion.” Fluttershy tentatively replied. “I-” Dash took a quick look at her lower section and shot ramrod upright. “Why do I have that?” A giggle escaped the animal caretaker. “All stallion’s have one of those, silly. But... what turned you into a male?” “I uh... did ... a trick.” “Okay?” Fluttershy’s head tilted ever so slightly as she tried to consider what trick was powerful enough to accidentally swap gender. Dash pointed up at the skies where the last fading colours of his sonic rainboom lingered. “You pulled off a sonic rainboom and turned into a stallion?” Fluttershy scrunched up her muzzle in confusion. “Yea... I left my house as well, me.” Dash began, “but uh... I saw that some clouds needed clearing. But this one cloud bounced me off then turned pink when I bucked it. It then began to rain chocolate milk.” “Was Discord nearby?” “No. Well. Maybe? If he was he didn’t respond.” Fluttershy thought carefully for a moment, “please, come in. Maybe we should go see Twilight after breakfast and ask her to contact Celestia and Discord.” Dash nodded, “yea. Get that trickster to turn me back to normal. This feels... weird. Like natural, but totally not me.” The yellow pegasus giggled as her stallion entered, her eyes lingered on his well toned flank as he passed her by. “I think you look rather nice for a stallion.” “Thanks, I guess.” Dash sank into a seat in front of the table that bore the couple’s breakfast. His eyes lit up at the sight, “this looks great! Thanks, Fluttershy!” The buttery pegasus smiled in thanks as she took her seat. Celestia strode up to the double doors that led to the throne room. The mighty ruler turned to her coltfriend. “I feel it best that you stay out here. I worry that my little ponies may try something drastic if they see the one responsible for all this.” The alicorn stallion at the princess’s side nodded. “I think you might be correct, although I do wish you ponies would learn how to lighten up. This is all just a bit of fun.” With a side eye glance at her lover, Celestia pushed open one of the doors with a forehoof. She then stepped into her throne room, her serene smile upon her muzzle. -only to be hit with a wall of sound. Celestia forced herself to keep walking to her seat as ponies called out to her. Once she had taken her seat, the princess of the sun, at last, decided it was time to break her silence. “My little ponies!” The royal Canterlot voice rang out around the large room dominating the voices of her subjects. Silence descended as the room chock full of ponies awaited further words from their princess. “My little ponies.” Celestia began once more, calm and collected. “Please try to remain calm. Discord has replaced every ponies magic, even mine, with chaos. In return, I took his powers. Let me be very clear-” The alicorn paused to wait for several displeased nobles to once again fall silent. “This will only last for one day. Then everything will go back to normal and anything chaotic that has happened today will also revert to how it was.” “Why has he done this!” “Change it now!” “Give us our magic back!” “Do something!” “Stop him!” Individual voices quickly became lost to the princess under the sheer volume of speakers. She refrained from the urge to rub her temples. Instead, the princess of the sun squared her shoulders and gazed out over the crowd of mostly noble ponies that had filled the room. She waited and allowed the voices to wash over her. The room fell into stuttering silence as more and more ponies realized their princess was waiting to speak. As silence took hold Celestia sighed. It had been a bad idea to let Discord swap magic with chaos. No surprise there. She was pretty sure she had the chaos power to reverse the changes. But doing so would be dangerous. “I will repeat what I have written in the letters I have just sent out to every home in Equestria. For this day only, Discord has swapped magic with chaos. Earth pony magic, pegasus magic and the obvious unicorn magic are all affected. At the end of the day, everything- that includes both your magic and whatever crazy changes happen to things around you today will return to how they normally are. All damage will be undone. Discord is unable to reverse the changes because I accidentally swapped my magic with his. While I do now wield the powers of chaos, I do not wish to tamper with a spell that I know nothing of. Please, either try to enjoy this unique day or stay in your home and avoid using magic.” There was an awkward silence that followed as ponies processed their ruler's words.  “Are you sure it will only last for today?” One unicorn stallion asked.  “Yes,” Celestia nodded.  “And everything will go back to normal at the end of the day?” An earth pony mare spoke up. “Even if I've accidentally turned all my trees into bunnies?”  “At midnight, yes.” The voice of Discord drew everypony's attention to the alicorn stallion who strutted out to recline beside his marefriend. “You know, you really could get a more comfortable throne.”  Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Yes Discord, but it is also made for only one alicorn, not two.”  “That’s the lord of chaos?” Fancy Pants spoke up. “I say, you don’t look half bad, sir.”  “You could almost pass for a real pony.” Another posh alicorn spoke up. “Almost.”  Discord grinned at the crowd. “Why, thank you. This is only temporary, till my spell ends at midnight. Now please, you all should run along and enjoy this day of chaos without consequence.”  “But what happens if we don’t want our magic swapped with chaos?” Hoity Toity spoke up.  Discord shrugged, “Go home. Stay in your room with no magic like a good little pony and ignore the world outside. But that would be boring... please don't do that. You're lucky I promised Celestia here-” at this, he nuzzled her rather affectionately. “That it’s one day and one day only. So enjoy.” The alicorn stallion’s horn lit up with a light blue aura and with that, Celestia and Discord vanished in a flash of sunlight.  Several ponies yelled out in surprise and one charcoal coloured stallion even cast some kind of spell. He promptly found himself falling from the ceiling. He bounced off two earth ponies below with a comical ‘boing!’ sound then collapsed in front of a guard where his coat flickered all the colours of the rainbow. “Great. Now I feel extra weird,” he moaned.  One of the younger pegasus stallions near the back piped up, “you hear that? He said no consequences!” With that, the young stallion’s wings shot out and he put on a huge burst of speed flying through one of the stained glass windows. The window exploded into tiny shards that fell as motes of light, harmlessly flittering down to those below. In the wake of the stallion was a trail of bubbles that were slowly dispersing overhead.  “Well, I’m off. It’s time to draft a formal letter of complaint.” Hoity Toity turned and strode out of the room.  Several others followed him, keen to make it home to safety with their sanity intact.  Other ponies began lighting their horns or unfurling their wings. One of the few earth ponies gave a tentative stomp of her hooves and was rewarded by the floor beneath turning into diamonds. She cried out in joyful surprise before barging past a shocked guard into the palace hallway beyond.  Bedlam erupted in the castle as ponies flew through walls, filled the air with all manner of random objects while other ponies changed shape, surprised at the unexpected effects of their altered magics. Many spells led to inverted gravity in small patches of space and a collection of ponies trying to get out found themselves running on the floor one moment and the ceiling or walls the next.  Many guards simply stood there, unwilling to try and stem the chaos that was erupting in the castle they were to guard. After all, Celestia was fine. The castle would be fine, tomorrow. Hopefully. Celestia and Discord appeared far up in the skies on a nice big cloud. It was as pink as the princess's mane and large enough to fit a four bedroom house.  “Now some alone time!” Discord proclaimed joyfully.  “Are you sure that was the right thing to do? Now my poor ponies will be wondering what happened to us?”  The lord of chaos laughed his lover off then gave her a nuzzle. “Of course they will be fine. It’s just a bit of harmless chaos!”  Celestia sighed but allowed her companion to continue to cuddle up. "Some days I'm glad you're here to help us loosen up. Other days you make me question my sanity." "Sanity is overrated my dear, embrace chaos." "Aren't I embracing it now?" Celestia asked softly as she nuzzled her grinning stallion. As the pair continued to enjoy their close contact, the male alicorn shifted around a bit then unfurled his right wing and pulled his princess in closer.  “Now, what do you say about a quick cuddle as alicorns then we have some fun with your chaos and my sun magic?”  A smile pricked at the edges of the white alicorn’s muzzle. “I think... I will trust you and see how this-”  The princess was interrupted by a small flash of light and a scroll plopped down in front of the couple.  “Well, what do you know, dragonfire still works.” Discord commented as he picked the scroll up. “It’s for you, my dear.”  “I’ll let you open it. After all, somepony has my magic.”  “You don’t trust yourself to try and open it with chaos?”  “I fear to do so might have unintended results,” Celestia replied softly.  “But that’s half the fun!”  “Just open it, please.” Discord obliged with an eye roll and unfurled the scroll in front of them. “Well.. it seems Twilight has been having fun. I would very much like to see what she looks like as a hippogriff.”  “It sounds like we need to pay her a visit.”  “Two minutes?”  “You really want cuddles first?”  “I want to experience alicorn cuddles first, yes.” Discord confirmed as he lay down, bringing his princess with him.  “Oh, all right. But then I must make sure my faithful student and sister are alright.”  Five minutes passed in cuddly silence before Celestia leaned in and clicked her tongue.  The couple appeared in the gardens outside the palace. “This is for taking my magic.” The mighty ruler clicked once more and Discord exploded toward their pink cloud above. The fluffy construct went off like a nuke when the stallion hit it Discord continued exploding as he fell back toward the ground below, laughing all the way.  He landed in a crater, his mane on fire while his wings showered multicoloured feathers everywhere. The tiny feathers further twinked into little rainbows before vanishing creating a beautiful zone that sparkled with light around the couple. “Do that again!” He fluffed his wings and used his magic to bring a tree over for him to ride. The stallion had only just taken his footing on the extracted tree in time for Celestia’s click.  The mighty ruler of Equestria cringed as her attempt at making him fly on the tree backfired. Discord was knocked off his hooves and lay stunned on the ground while the mighty log flew into the side of the castle as though fired from a canon and then it exploded.  The visible shockwaves stuck Discord who flew like a ragdoll up into the sky. Celestia fought to keep her footing and won as the waves subsided.  Discord landed with a giant crash on Celestia herself. “Y-you’re light as a feather?”  “Now I’m not.” Discord grinned as the light on his horn went out. The couple collapsed in the soft grass and lay there for a moment enjoying the contact.  “Do you forgive me now?” Discord asked softly. A unicorn guard who had been carried high into the sky from the exploding wall landed with a bounce nearby. He bounced three more times before he found his footing and scurried off to stand at attention some way off. The unicorn saluted his princess then continued to stand at attention. Celestia nodded to her faithful guard then returned her attention to Discord. “I forgive you, provided more of my ponies enjoy themselves.”  Discord rubbed his forehooves together in anticipation. “Well then, we have work to do.”  “Off to Ponyville?”  “Off to Ponyville.” Discord nodded then lit his horn.  “Celestia!” Hippogriff Twilight leapt up, delighted to see her long time mentor appear in front of the wet castle of friendship.  A giant cake the size of Shugarcube Corner slid past the group with Pinkie Pie riding it. The party pony waved at those below, "hi Celestia! Hi Discord! This is fun!" “Discord!?!” Spike stared at the alicorn stallion at the princess's side. "You look cool!" “Why, thank you.” The alicorn of chaos grinned. "You can thank Celestia for my transformation." “Discord!” A rather annoyed male Rainbow Dash landed with Fluttershy in his forehooves. He carefully placed his marefriend down then pointed a hoof at the prankster. “You have a lot to answer for!”  “Yea!” Applejack chimed in as she and Rarity took their places beside Ponyville’s resident princess. "Fix my magic, now!" Rarity demanded. "Well, you see... I can't do that," grinned Discord. > Chaos Far and Wide > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a bright sunny morning in Cloudsdale. It was early enough that few ponies were up and about. The air was clear and the skies were calling for pegasi to have some fun. Spitfire strode out of the cloud villa she shared with her husband. She gazed out over the upper section of the mighty city and forced herself to take a moment to enjoy the sights. At the appearance of a dark blue mane in her vision she decided sightseeing was over. “Alright Clipper, let’s go already.” Soarin grinned back at his wife as he lightly bounced on his hooves, ready for action. “Race you to Canterlot and back?” Spitfire cast her stallion a sideward glance. “Are you full of energy or something?” “Must be all the pie I ate last night.” “Of course it is.” Spitfire couldn’t help but smile as she launched herself into the open skies. As Soarin lazily took off behind his wife, a jug popped into existence right in front of his face and fell onto the soft cloud doorstep. “What the!?” The surprised blue stallion fell from the sky and bounced on the soft cloud below. “Who’s teleporting kitchen things at this time of day?” He snickered to himself. Whoever had accidentally just done that would be missing their regular morning hot drink by now. “Are you coming?” Spitfire hovered impatiently in the middle of the road. “Yea, Just had a jug appear in my face.” Spitfire spotted the jug in front of her husband. “Huh. That’s random.” “Isn’t it?” Soarin giggled as he spread his wings for take two, take off. The couple sped through Cloudsdale side by side. Soarin lazily performed barrel rolls while his wife flew straight and true by his side. The cheeky blue stallion couldn’t help but grin as he rolled close enough to brush wingtips, blue against yellow with each cycle. The contact tingled more than normal, prompting the stallion to continue his acrobatics. Spitfire smiled as she maintained her flight, “almost out of town. Then I’m going to leave you behind.” “No you won’t,” Soarin playfully shot back as he somersaulted then took up a position directly in front of his companion, blue tail so close she could bite it. As the couple left Cloudsdale airspace, Soarin put on a massive burst of speed. The acceleration was so crazy it left a vibrant trail of blue along with a shocked mare in its wake. Spitfire pumped her wings and was surprised by the feeling of power as she shot off. For whatever reason, she was clearly faster this day than normal. She briefly wondered what it would be like to attempt a complex stunt or few at these speeds. By the trails, they were leaving and the rush of wind that pressed against her muzzle Spitfire wondered if they were somehow approaching Sonic Rainboom speeds. A grin ripped across the yellow muzzle. There was a husband to beat and tricks to attempt. Now for some fun. Two balls of light and feathers blitzed over Ponyville on their way to Canterlot. A cone of their respective colours trailed them both as they sped along, fiery yellow gained upon cool blue till they were neck and neck. Soarin grinned at his spouse. “This is cool!” Amidst the wind noise Spitfire barely caught the words that were shouted at her. “Let’s try some tricks!” “After I beat you!” A blue twirl erupted as Soarin put on a further burst of speed. He cut through two clouds, both burst into sparkles causing the cocky stallion to grin. Keen to see more fireworks, Soarin angled toward another cloud. To his shock, the cloud rebounded him like a springboard. The whirlwind of a stallion slammed into his wife at full speed. Spitfire grunted as the wind was knocked out of her. Something dark blue was in her face but she had no power to remove it. Yellows mixed with blues as the couple’s speed carried them like a missile back toward Cloudsdale. They impacted with a thunderclap against one of the outer clouds upon which the city was built. Another boom rent the air as the pure white clouds erupted into storm clouds. The whole lower city began to rain on the landscape far below. A twinkle filled the air as snowflakes filled the city. They fell upward toward the higher levels of the city until they reached the rainbow factory. Cries of surprise rang through the air as the pegasi who were out and about early found themselves covered in unexpected snowflakes that were falling the wrong way. “What’s happening?” “Why is it snowing?” “Snowflakes?” “What’s going on?” As a two toned groggy Wonderbolt extracted himself from a crater in the side of lower Cloudsdale, questions and exclamations blurred together till they became noise. The half fiery yellow, half blue stallion shook his head. “What happened to me?” “I feel as though I got my head kicked in by some idiot rookie. What kinda cloud did you hit Soarin?” It was then the pony paused, glanced down at his own body. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The split tone colouring that perfectly cut himself in half from the sides of his face to his tail was well… as if somepony had taken one Spitfire and one Soarin and merged them together taking exactly half of each pony. Although the new form was definitely male. “What in Celestia- Soarin, why can I hear your thoughts and why are they about my wings?” “I dunno Spitty.” The same stallion replied to himself. “Wait… are you thinking about thrashing those new rookies this afternoon?” “Yes.” “So cool, wait… I’m talking to myself?” A half smile quirked at the yellow side of the pegasus. “Yea, I think you- well are me. Uh… us. I think we are. Soarin, how fast were you going?” “Gee, I dunno.” The blue shoulder shrugged. “But isn’t this cool?” “Hey, are you okay?” A white pegasus mare with a cool blue mane approached the half tone stallion. “Are you talking to somepony?” “Yes!” “Yea, my wife.” “Where is your wife?” The pegasus glanced around. The stallion fell into thought, his gaze fell. “Uh… funny story. So I was going fast.” “Both of us were.” A yellow wing rose. The mare took an uncertain step backward. “Uh.. okay?” “Then I hit a cloud, hit my wife and we somehow became one pony. I think.” “I’ll just go… yea.” The white mare took off, vanishing into a blast of lightning. A blue hoof rose in complaint. “Wha- did you see that Spitfire?” “Of course I did. Something weird is going on. Come on, we gotta go see the princess.” The stallion’s muzzle scrunched up for a few moments and the yellow wing lashed out as best it could against the blue side of the stallion’s body. “I’m in charge, stop fighting-“ “But Spitty, we can just talk to each other in our thoughts now. Isn’t that so cool!?” “It’s weird. You keep thinking about flying, me, my body and eating.” The stallion nodded to himself. “Yep!” ‘Oh simple Soarin-‘ ‘Hey!’ “What? It’s true,” The yellow wing folded carefully and Spitfire felt her side of the shared body smile. ‘What exactly happened?’ Spitfire thought at her husband. It felt very strange to think that she was now apparently sharing a body with him and could communicate without even bothering to speak out loud. ‘And how come I got stuck as a stallion with you inside my head?’ ‘I dunno. We were flying rather fast, I cut through a few clouds then one bounced me!’ “Bounced?” Spitfire realized she had spoken that aloud then continued quietly. ‘How could you possibly bounce off a cloud, no cloud can take a speeding pegasus.’ ‘Well sure.’ Soarin couldn’t help but grin.‘But this one did, it bounded me right into you… then we somehow became one. Isn’t that so romantic?’ ‘I want my body back.’ The stallion giggled so hard the shared body obeyed as a whole and wore a dopey smile. ‘I want your body back…’ Spitfire felt her yellow wing quiver with excitement at the mental images that flooded her. Soarin certainly had a creative imagination, including some ideas he had neglected to mention before. Soarin sensed his wife’s reaction to his thoughts and feelings. His muzzle flushed. ‘You uh… don’t have to do that.’ ‘You can read my mind too, stud.’ ‘Yes, and it’s scary.’ Spitfire couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Now what do we do?’ Soarin caused their shared face to break out into a slight, hopeful smile. ’I think, I control one wing, you control the other and the rest of our new body we share?’ ‘Try let me use your blue wing too.’ ‘Why do you get to drive?’ Soarin moaned. Spitfire giggled, pleased by the reaction. “Because I’m boss when we fly.” “Fine.” “Weeeee!” A black stallion who looked as though he had been dipped in a rainbow barrelled through the air overhead. Liquid rainbow fell from his forehooves in a fine mist. A drop fell on the two toned stallion. It pulsed then vanished into the multicoloured coat. Rainbow twinkles radiated from the pegasus as he stood there in shock. “What is going on here?” Soarinfire asked as both Spitfire and her husband wondered the same. As a late riser, Vinyl much preferred the feeling of waking to the noonday sun than morning, yet for some reason, as she lay there in the large king size bed she could not will herself to fall back to sleep. Her eyes wandered the wooden ceiling. Then they closed. Then Vinyl detected the smell of something nice cooking. The wonderful smells called to the bed bound pony. A strange tingle ran down the unicorn’s horn. Her eyes shot open as the strange sensation dissipated into her system. That was weird. In no time at all Vinyl Scratch was strolling into the kitchen. She spotted her marefriend and grinned. “Good morning beautiful. Something smells awful nice.” “Good morning Vinyl. Lucky I decided to cook extra today, you normally sleep in.” “Yea, stupid brain wouldn’t let me get back to sleep. Then I realized I couldn’t just snuggle you, then my horn tingled.”

 “Tingled?” Octavia paused her preparations, concerned for her partner. “As in?” “I dunno. It’s weird. Who cares, I feel fine now.” A wide grin split the white pony’s muzzle. “Well, if you insist.” Octavia shrugged as she continued to put the finishing touches on the meal. “Breakfast is almost ready, why don’t you set the table?” “Sure.” Vinyl grinned as she lit her horn. The whole kitchen vanished with a comedic poof, cloud of smoke included. The bench, table, food… all gone. Two mares stood in a room that was now filled with a giant amplifier, so large it touched the roof and was as wide as the kitchen bench. It was a true monster and had no place in a building as small as a house. “Woah…” Vinyl drooled at the sight. “My lovely breakfast!” Octavia cried out and stamped her hooves in despair. Suddenly the veggies, buns and hay appeared a few hooves above the cellist. They promptly fell and landed directly on her back and face. “Hey! Looks like we found your breakfast!” Vinyl cried excitedly as she danced over and took a bite at the food on her marefriend’s face. “Here, let me get this for you…” Vinyl carefully cleaned her fillyfriend’s muzzle. An added bonus, the food was cooked to perfection and tasted delicious. “Say, this is amazing… you have got to try it too.” Octavia sighed. “That’s nice. But I’m currently wearing it.” “Heh… Right.” Vinyl giggled softly. Her attention returned to the giant speaker and she couldn’t help but ogle it, “I think I’m in love…” “I do hope that you mean me, right?” The DJ shot her marefriend a cheeky look. “Of course… what else.” A flash of green briefly illuminated the centre of the room. Both mares turned to see the small letter that now lay on the floor. “That’s Celestia’s letterhead,” Octavia remarked. “I got it!” Vinyl grabbed the letter and began to read. “Huh… She could have sent that one minute ago…” “What?” Octavia asked as she carefully approached, still laden with food. “Oh, just says here that Discord replaced every ponies magic in Equestria for just one day and that we are to have fun. Oh, and anything crazy gets reversed.” Vinyl grinned as her head filled with crazy ideas. The DJ's eyes settled on her laden mare, "first food. Then we gotta have some fun!" Outside the still rather wet looking castle of friendship and a decidedly not wet school, four mares, one young dragon, a female hippogriff and one blue stallion faced off against two alicorns. Water continued to trickle out from the main entrance of the grand crystal building. It pooled cooly around the feet of those who stood, ignorant to the tense environment. The missing party pony was too busy having fun driving a giant pink/purple cake the size of Sugarcube Corner in laps around the group and the castle. "Fix my magic, now!" Rarity demanded. Discord grinned as he casually flicked his large alicorn wings. “Well, you see… I can’t do that.” “What’da mean?” Applejack piped up. “Can’t do it, or won’t?” “I’m an alicorn now. I can’t.” The master of chaos continued to smile coyly as his tail found his partner’s pure white leg and snaked around it playfully. “In an attempt to reverse Discord’s spell I accidentally caused us to swap magics,” Celestia explained. She gave her pink mane a light flick, unused to how it gathered against the side of her neck. “You did?” Twilight asked, surprised. “But instead of the desired effects, you swapped magics?” “Yes.” “Is that why your mane is pink?” “Correct,” Celestia confirmed. “But Princess, if you have Discord’s chaos, can’t you simply use it to return everything back to normal?” Applejack asked. Celestia glanced at her lover then shook her head. “No. I do not wish to tamper with something I myself do not understand when the risk outweighs the reward.” “But- I’m sure you could.” Rarity spoke up, hopefully. “Discord’s magic swap will only last for one day, then everything will return to how it was. I decided one day was not worth undue risk. Instead, let us attempt to enjoy it for what it is.” Celestia explained. “So I’m stuck, unable to fulfil any orders and unable to use my magic for one whole day?” Rarity gushed, her mind overflowing with dreadful scenarios and displeased clients. “But- I have deadlines… my shop is flooded by rain and I’m afraid that my next spell might destroy it completely!” “Now, now there Rarity.” Discord tried to calm the panicking mare. “Nothing that happens today will be permanent. You should try and enjoy yourselves. Just like Celestia and I shall.” The swirly horn lit up and the alicorn couple vanished. “But... my magic, the classes? What do we do… whata we do…” Twilight joined in her unicorn friend’s hyperventilating, shocked by her mentors relaxed stance on a day filled with chaos. Pinkie Pie cried out gleefully as she casually parked her giant pink and purple cake up the castle. “You girls need to try this!” The party pony bumped something in her cake controls and the building sized cake unleashed a warning beep and began reversing away from the castle. “Oops!” With a quick flick of a cake nob, Pinkie pushed the accelerator and the cake slammed into the castle. “Whoops!” Cake exploded everywhere! Rarity cried out in distress as chunks of wedding cake and cheesecake impacted with her flawless coat. She was quick to flick small chucks of the dessert out of her mane. Other ponies the group appeared less affected by the traumatic experience. Although there were still many hooves running along coats and manes as every pony hastened to clean themselves up a bit. Luna leaned over and began carefully cleaning her hippogriff partner with her tongue. “This cake is most exquisite.” Twilight leaned into the mighty alicorn, her eyes shut as she processed things. A smile slipped out accross her purple beak as Luna carefully licked her cheek clean then gave her a kiss. “Yeah, tasty face.” Rainbow Dash agreed cheeky as he sampled some cake that had landed on his fillyfriend’s snout. Fluttershy blushed smiled timidly back. With a drawn out sigh, Rarity used her magic to dispel the remainder of the desert on herself and shrieked as her alabaster coat began to glow the colours of the cake. The now glowing pink and purple mare fumed to herself. “I should not have done that… Discord!” “Can’t hear you!” Pinkie Pie finished as she bounced out of the cake crater and casually wandered up to her friends, completely clean and cake free. Rarity eyed the clean mare enviously as she continued to fume. Literally. There was smoke coming out of her ears. Rainbow Dash took notice and he giggled softly. “Wow Pinkie, looks like whatever happened to your magic has worked out well for you,” Twilight commented. “And what Luna did to you looks great too!” Pinkie fired back, full of enthusiasm. Luna smiled. “Indeed it does.” “Hey Discord, come back!” Pinkie Pie cried out as she continued to bounce happily around the mismatched group of friends. “Darling, you can’t summon the lord of chaos…” Rarity muttered. The pink pony scoffed, “of course I can!” The staff of summoning chaos appeared in the party pony’s forehooves and she leant against it like a sage ready to cast her spell. “Noodle beasts! Discord, Celestia! I summon you!” With a swish and sparkle of magic, a rather surprised pair of draconequus appeared before the group of friends. Two six inch tall, drenched unicorns washed up in the long grass outside Ponyville’s palace. The couple clung to each other for dear life as water continued to gush around them. Once the flow of water subsided to a dribble the pair collapsed against each other. 
 “Sunburst you idiot… why did you have to go and shrink yourself too?” Starlight complained as she held her stallion. “Uh, yeah… because- because... Starlight, I shrank myself.” Sunburst sheepishly replied with a half smile as he motioned to his now tiny form. The pale pink mare groaned with aggravation. “I can see that dummy.” The smile disappeared, “I’m sorry. I tried to make you bigger again.” Starlight levelled a flat stare at her coltfriend. “How did you target me and hit yourself?” 
The tiny stallion twiddled his hooves. “Uh… chaos?” The tiny mare groaned, “okay… you uh… don’t try to use any more magic. I’ll just reverse what I did and make us normal again.” “Okay,” Sunburst was quick to agree. The pale pink mare carefully focused. Her horn lit up with a carefully devised spell. And… A soft pop echoed and suddenly there was one inch stallion and a two inch mare. 

Sunburst gazed up at his towering fillyfriend and the even bigger blades of grass around them. “Honey… I uh… Think you just shrank us again.” “I can see that Sunburst.” After a moment of venting, Starlight calmed down with deep, careful breaths. “I’ll try that one more time.” “Maybe you need to consider that Chaos would not simply reverse a process like magic does.” Starlight nodded, “I will. Um... I’ll try this. Hold on.” A soft, cyan glow covered both unicorns and after a moment they began to grow. “It’s working!” Sunburst called out with delight. Suddenly the couple found themselves on a rock, on a big hill. The hill overlooked a forest. Green surrounded the couple on all sides including the mountain behind them. “Um… where are we?” Sunburst asked tentatively. “I can fly!” Scootaloo cried out as her scooter flew through the air with no sign of slowing down or losing altitude. The filly buzzed her wings harder and was rewarded by even more altitude. The scooter zipped around several floating buildings, trees and the occasional pony, bearly missing most of them. “Slow down!” Applebloom cried frantically as she clung on to her friend’s hindquarters for dear life. “But- Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo turned as her friend’s grip slipped. The earth pony plummeted to the ground below and landed with a crunch in a pile of apples that had not been there a moment earlier. Tender Taps raced up to the downed filly, “are you alright?” 
 “Yeah…” The splattered filly shook herself clean. “Thankfully these here apples broke mah fall.” “Oh good… Hey, look at what I can do now!” The excited colt took his filly by the forelegs and they began to dance. Apple Bloom’s eyes grew wide as she realized the world faded away. It was just them two there, in the middle of the street. The sunlight dimmed around the duo as they began to tango with a high, intense passion. Traditional tango music drifted across the air. Two spotlights followed the pair in the otherwise dark lit street. As they paced in sync back, forth, to the left then right the colours changed to a hot red and pink. 

The young pair locked eyes and Tender Taps ran a hoof down his dancing partner’s back. A free flowing green and light red dress materialized on the filly. She smiled and gave her colt a playful poke in the tummy. A dapper suit and bow tie appeared on the orange colt. With matching grins, they continued to tango. Tender Taps guided his filly as she twirled and returned to him with a graceful flick of her tail. The music changed to a slow waltz and the lights dimmed to a soft warm background glow. The pair hugged each other close. Apple Bloom tentatively placed her head against her colt’s. The orange colt grinned back and lowered his right forehoof to rest on her flank as he continued to steer them slowly around the street. Scootaloo, at last, managed to fly her scooter back to her friend only to find her dancing with Tender Taps. The whole street was cast into darkness except for the spotlights on the pair. It was almost as if there was an invisible box around the couple. She huffed. Boys. What a distraction. Now who was she supposed to have fun in the skies with? “Hey, Scootloo! It’s so cool to see you flying!” Scootaloo span around, her wings easily keeping her aloft on her ride as she faced the one and only grey colt… 
“Hi, Rumble. It’s Discord’s magic, but isn’t it cool?” “Yeah! I hope he lets you keep whatever it is that lets you fly. It’s great seeing you in the sky, even if it still is on a scooter.” Scootaloo frowned, “hey… I bet I’m still faster than you.” “Wanna bet?” Rumble grinned back. “You haven’t seen what chaos has done to my wing power!” “I don’t need to,” Scootaloo poked her tongue out at the cheeky youngster. “Oh yeah?” “On your marks!” The duo span around to face the speaker, a half sunny yellow, half blue stallion with a split toned mane and tail floating in the sky before them. “Who are you?” Rumble cut the flow of the impending race dead as he gazed inquisitively at the odd two toned stallion with the half fiery, half dark blue mane. “I guess you can call us Soarin-uh-fire. Yeah. We came because we wanted to see if our daughter was okay.” “Oh, well I hope you can find her. Things are a little wild…” Scootaloo replied as a house floated merely past the group. It was upside down. A stallion gazed out the front door in shock, the internal gravity keeping him planted the right way up for inside. All eyes followed the house as it passed over the two dancers and their darkened street. Soarinfire shook his head. “Yeah, we found her. If you two want to race, how about we take it to the edge of town? “Bring it on,” Scootaloo replied with a smile. “And prepare to loose,” Rumble added with a confident smirk. “Hang on a sec, I’m gonna summon the rest of my kit.” Vinyl lit her horn with a confident grin. “Are you sure about that? The princesses message said-” “Of course, this is gonna be great!” Vinyl magicked in her DJ set up with a light flare of her horn and a confident grin. With a pretty blue burst of light, a singing bunny troupe appeared before the two mares. They hopped merrily around the giant speaker singing the tune Vinyl had been mixing the day prior. It looked ridiculous, but somehow the bunnies produced a combined sound that was a very close, if bunnyfyed, match for the DJ’s regular system. “Awww… I thought it would make my turntables bigger or something…” “Vinyl, I think the bunnies are the or something.” “Right. They’re kinda cool though.” The DJ commented as she relaxed and enjoyed the bunnyfyed edition of her tunes. A large crash sounded from outside. Both mares were quick to rush to the window and see what calamity had befallen Ponyville this time. “Is that…” “Yep. That’s a cake. And it totally just exploded and painted the whole castle pink and purple.” Vinyl concluded with a pleased grin. “I think I’ve had enough of this day already.” Octavia moaned as she massaged her temples with her forehooves. “I think today is awesome! That announcement from the princess says it will all get changed back anyway. We should go wild!” “No.” “Aww come on, Tavi! We should try and play some music together, or go on an adventure? Or get drunk together! We should totally get drunk and make epic music! Come on, it will be fun! Please…!” “Oh, why not…” Octavia gave in and a smile broke out across her face. “I can’t say no to that face.” “Yes!” Vinyl leapt at her fillyfriend and latched on with a gleeful hug. “Vinyl dear. Is our house floating?” The grinning unicorn withdrew and noticed the front windows were facing the ground. The street was moving. The DJ laughed. “Let’s jump.” “What?” “Come on, with your earth pony powers and my weird chaos magic I just know we won’t get hurt!” The orderly musician teetered, not overly given to the idea of jumping out a window. A sudden magical push from the unicorn caused them both to fly out the window. The couple landed heavily in the middle of the road. With a swirl of magic, Vinyl stood behind a large mixing desk with turntables and giant speakers. Octavia found a glowing metallic silver electric cello in her forehooves. It was plugged into her partner's sound desk and ready for action. As the bow tentatively moved across the strings the singing bunny troupe joined the couple. Vinyl grinned at Octavia who rolled her eyes but smiled too. They struck up an energetic beat, blasting the town with music. The rabbits, their house and several trees danced in time to the beat. Lyra and Bon Bon sat together on their bench in the park while the world around them floated, ran or jumped madly by. The bushes pulsed with the beat of the impromptu concert. Neon lights flickered through the trees as many of the local foals played. Several freaked out looking parents looked on. “I do hope Discord keeps his word.” Bon Bon mused softly as she watched the action from her mare’s side. “It will be fine…” Suddenly the mint green unicorn sat up excitement lit her muzzle. “Oh, I know!” “What dear?” Lyra lit her horn. A pair of pink underwear landed on her head and slid down her horn. 

 Bon Bon giggled. “What are those for?” “Those go on a human.” Bon Bon rolled her eyes but decided to humour her partner. “You mean there’s a human somewhere missing their… uh..?” “Underpants.” Lyra giggled as she lit her horn again. “It’s fine. They probably don’t need those anyway.” A gasp rang out from the candy maker. Lyra had transformed them both into humans. The once unicorn unleashed an excited squeal. “It worked!” “You turned us into fairy tale creatures?” Bon Bon asked as she eyed her hands. She tenderly gave the fingers a wiggle then poked her companion in the nose. The couple shared a glance. “I told you, Bon Bon, they are real.” Lyra gushed. “Come on, we must check these human bodies out!” “You- summoned us?” Discord asked as he glanced around. Then the noodlebeast noticed he was no longer an alicorn. “You turned- Celestia! You look beautiful!” A light blush adored the grey snout of the lord of chaos as he beheld his lover. “I- I do?” The female draconequus glanced at her white paws and uttered a cry of shock “What the-?” Celestia hovered, borne aloft by two white wings with pink-blue tips. A pretty pink, purple, green and blue mane cascaded down past her shoulders. Unlike the mane in her alicorn form, this mane carried none of its ethereal powers. It was soft and luxurious. Two small horns poked up between her ears, one white and orderly, the other a pretty pink spiral. Celestia’s right forearm had zebra stripes that led to a soft white paw. Her right arm was that of a white lion. Soft fluffy white fur covered her head down to her chest where it faded into light cream. The cream coat carried on till it met her right hind hoof. Her left leg was bright green and could have belonged on a kirin. There was a small rainbow tuft of fur where the seapony-like tail met her hindquarters. Celestia’s tail was a cute, baby pink with a tufty end that carried the same rainbow array of colours as her mane. All in all, Discord’s blush continued to grow as he admired his mare- er… draconequus. “Pinkie, did you just turn the princess into a draconequus?” Twilight gaped. “I think so.” Pinkie replied, a wide grin adorning her muzzle. “I’m keeping this staff for later… It’s awesome!” “You should give the daedra back his toy, Pinkie.” Discord commented with a grin as he continued to admire his pretty noodlebeast. “Oh! Gotta go! My sisters need me!” Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed. She shoved the magic staff into a portal to another world then drew herself up. The bouncy pony placed her right hoof on her forehead and vanished with a high pitched teleporty sound. “Wait, what?” Rainbow Dash glanced around. The lone stallion shook his head then grinned as he eyed the noodlebeast couple. “Pinkie being Pinkie… With added chaos… Kinda cool to see somepony enjoying this.” 
“Indeed,” chuckled Celestia. The new draconequus raised a fluffy white forepaw and snapped her fingers. 

A two pony large chocolate mud cakes appeared, floating on a rainbow cloud. Celestia clapped her paws together with joy. Discord grinned, happy to see such a beautiful draconequus so delighted. Luna giggled as her sister took a dainty bite out of the large dessert. “Now sister, cake, really?” Celestia giggled like a giddy school filly as she took a helping of cake. “Now is the perfect time for cake.” “Aaaagh!” Rarity suddenly broke down. 

All eyes turned to the drama queen as the pink and purple mare bemoaned her condition. “But what about my beautiful white coat and perfectly curled mane? Can any creature fix this disaster!?” Celestia carefully eyed her right forepaw. After a moment’s hesitation, she snapped her fingers. Rarity stood, pristine and back to her natural colouration. The fashionista sighed with relief as she checked herself over quickly to make doubly sure everything was back to normal. “T-thank you, princess… Now… please allow me to find someplace to hide while I wait for this dreadful day to be over.” ...then her coat began to glow. Rarity froze. "Oh no..." And the alabaster mare became a softly shining crystal pony with a vibrant blue mane. "I look..." Rarity uttered an excited squee and began admiring herself in a full body mirror that had appeared in front of her. "Happy accident?" Celestia ventured. "Verry happy. Thank you, princess!" Rarity replied eagerly. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Okay... so, I’m a stallion, Twi is a hippogriff… you're now a crystal pony. Pinkie is Pinkie... that leaves Fluttershy and AJ. What do you wanna turn into Flutters? I bet you'd be cool as a dragon. Dragonshy!” Fluttershy withdrew behind her mane. “I like plain old me, thank you.” The blue pegasus shot his fillyfriend a smouldering look. “Really?” Yellow wings flickered as the shy mare’s muzzle heated. “Um.. yes. If that's okay.” "Ah'm fine just the way I am too," Applejack added. "We got enough weird changes to this here group." “It’s not half bad being a different species, you might enjoy it AJ,” Twilight spoke up as she admired a foreclaw and how different it was to her normal hooves. “Claws certainly give me a few ideas that need testing.” “Like what, love?” Luna asked as she admired the lavender coated hippogriff. “Point is…” Twilight shot her marefriend a shy look then turned her attention back to the distressed unicorn. “I think we can have a lot of wonderful new adventures today.” “Well, count me out. Please.” Rarity froze as she spotted something in the skies above. “Sweetie? It can’t be.” Carousel boutique flew gracefully through the air as though it were some kind of airship. It was sideways, pointy roof facing the direction it was flying while the filly herself sat happily on the front door. “Weeeeee! Look sis, I made it fly!” “Yeah, and we can make it do this too!” A brown coated colt with a two-tone orange mane poped up through the window and quickly took his place beside the white unicorn filly. In the young colt’s hooves, he held a gamecolt handheld game system. As he steered left, the whole building veered to the left. With a push of another button, the shop flipped upside down and suddenly the two young ponies were hanging upside down like bats as they flew overhead. “Watch out!” Rarity cried as the pair almost crashed into the school of friendship. “They look like they’re having fun to me,” Discord chuckled. Rarity rounded on the grinning trickster. “Yes, well… if anything were to happen to them-“ “I can guarantee you. No creature can possibly be harmed by my chaos today.” “Good. I’ve always wanted to fight the lord of chaos.” Everypony turned at the sound of a new entrant. There stood two crystal ponies at the edge of the school grounds. Shining Armour stood, glowing by his radiant pink wife’s side. “What do you say Discord? Interested in a fun little challenge?” “Are you sure?” Discord glanced around the assembled group. “I had hoped for a day of fun and chaos. Not fighting.” “But I want to see what you’re like with mother’s magic,” Cadance added. “You look nice mom!” “Thank you,” Celestia giggled as she did a tight loop then shrank to a pint sized noodle. “Is that a private offer? I want in.” Rainbow Dash declared as he placed a wing proudly over his fillyfriend. “I wanna see what I can do as a stallion.” “How about we make it a game, like an Ogres and Oubliettes boss fight?” Spike spoke up excitedly. “Sounds good to me.” Shining armour was quick to agree. “Eeeyup!” Big Mac added. “An' where did you come from?” Applejack asked as her brother ambled over to stand beside her. “Ah heard mention of Ogres and Oubliettes.” Big Macintosh placed his dice set down in front of him. With the snap from Celestia’s paw, the group found themselves on the opposite side of the castle and school. Now much further away from Ponyville, the mighty draconequus of the sun snapped her tail and the dice grew to the size of apple trees. The large twenty sided dice then rolled outward and away from the party to form a large circular perimeter. There they sat, like sentinels. “How's this for a safe setting?” The sunny draconequus asked. “I think it will do nicely.” Twilight was quick to agree. "Eeyup," Big Mac agreed along with his sister. Spike rubbed his claws together. "I call dibs on DM'ing." The young dragon was transported by swirling dragon magic to the top of one of the large dice. The larger, teenage looking Spike smiled as he looked out over the mismatched group. Although it was clear that both Fluttershy and Rarity were less keen on the event, everypony seemed happy for the young dragon to lead the game. > The Best Laid Plans... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Five of the six student six sat around the table in the cafeteria of the school enjoying a late breakfast. They were currently missing an earth pony. The windows to the outside world were covered in cake and frosting. The gaps in the dessert showed a crazy world outside. A tree kissed the glass then shot away. A wide eyed yak returned her gaze from the display to her friends. “I think we should go outside and experience it!” Silverstream declared joyfully. Gallus scanned the princess's letter and shook his head. “Na. I vote to stay in here. The chaos seems to be leaving the school alone just like the letter suggested it would. I vote we keep it that way.” “But I want to find out what kinds of freaky cool powers I can get!” Smoulder exclaimed as she finished her last mouthful of breakfast. “I guess it could be highly insightful to try my changeling powers out there.” Ocellus ventured. “But I’ll only go if you all come with me.” “I’m with you.” Smoulder grabbed the colourful bug in a hug. “Sure,” Silverstream agreed. “Come on grumpy!” Gallus playfully fought the hippogriff off. “I’m not grumpy. Someone kept me up last night.” “Because you’re so fun to snuggle!” Silverstream squee’d as she latched on to the griffon and began to nuzzle him. Smoulder broke out into raucous laughter and fell against a shyly giggling bug. Yona broke the table as she too shared in the moment of levity. “Hi, guys!” Sandbar greeted the group as he stepped through a swirling silver portal and into the middle of the room. All eyes were on the swirling patterns behind the colt as they faded into thin air. Gallus hurriedly sat up, shoved the huggy pink hippogriff off and pretended as though nothing had happened. “Dude. How did you do that?” “Uh… Pinkie gave me this uh, portal gun. She says it runs on earth pony power.” Sandbar shrugged as he wielded a strange claw like device on his right forehoof. “Since my parents are kinda freaking out, I thought I would come here and have fun with you guys.” “Yona glad to see Sandbar.” The yak was quick to give her coltfriend a hug. “Can we try this portal of yours?” “Sure,” the green colt grinned. He lifted his forehoof and fired three times. Two swirling portals appeared before the group of friends. “Don’t they look cool?” “Yeah, they do.” Smoulder was quick to agree. Sandbar grinned, “just remember, the cake is a lie. Or… at least Pinkie Pie says so.” “That one looks like it goes to yak bedroom.” Yona pointed to the left portal and the shimmering room beyond. “Pony got something he need to share?” “Uh… nope. Just, uh… pretend you never saw that.” Sandbar sweatdropped and fired twice in a quick bid to summon a new portal. Silverstream glanced into the new portal then upward to one that had appeared near the ceiling. “Why does it look like this leads to the portal above us?” “Because… portals?” The colt grinned. Yona threw herself through the middle portal and fell like a bomb from the portal above everyone’s heads. The cracked table exploded into a million pieces and began to rain rose petals. “Woah.” Smoulder dashed through the middle portal only to fall through the portal above and land in a small ring of fire. Ocellus tentatively poked at the portal to the group's right. “Is that… a beach on the other side?” “It looks nice, Let’s find out!” Silverstream eagerly rushed through the portal. The group followed with haste and found themselves on a quiet, long beach somewhere. They were standing on a cloud that was floating up then down again like a platform in a video game. Far along the shoreline to their right, they could see a huge number of flying shapes approaching from the sea. “Griffons?” Gallus wondered aloud. “I wonder what they’re doing…” Silverstream said. “Maybe we should fly over and say hi!” “Na. Something feels wrong.” Gallus replied. Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser flew overhead and waved at the students. The small group waved back, eyes wide with wonder as they beheld a pretty sparkling rainbow that trailed behind the couple. “I’m going closer to watch.” Sandbar leapt off the cloud as it came close to the sand and shot a portal in front of them. With great care, Sandbar aimed the portal gun far along the beach and fired. The swirling portal before them came to life as a connection was established. The colt eagerly led his fellows through, keen to find a close spot to watch the flight of so many griffons. Four rodeo clowns shot through the sky and landed with a mixture of comical party sounds. They held their various positions for a moment as they stood in the middle of the Appleoosa fairgrounds. Bales of hay danced around the rodeo clowns, two of whom began to leap and dance. Troubshooes regarded his surroundings with caution. Woebegone, the only other member of the troupe who had not yet joined in gave Troubleshoes a lazy hug. “Come on partner, this looks great!” “Ah dunno.” Hayblaze, a warm yellow stallion wearing a pink tutu leapt toward Troubleshoes. “Look, I'm cupid!” The tutu wearing stallion whipped out an ornate pink bow and arrow and shot the large stallion in the shoulder. Troubleshoes stared in shock at the arrow that protruded from his right shoulder. “Uh, why do Ah feel weird now.” “Cause, the princess of love gave me this bow n' arrow and now I’m Cupid and you gonna chase that mare of your dreams.” Hayblaze grinned confidently as he nocked another arrow. 
"But Ah don’t have a mare of my dreams.” The young yellow stallion deflated somewhat. “Seriously? A big guy like you… why not?” “Why do Ah feel so weird…” Troubleshoes pondered. The extra large pony tapped the ground with his right forehoof and suddenly he sprouted like a magic bean. The once large brown stallion found himself as tall as a large barn. "Chaos... why can you not play nice with me?" Suddenly the stallion had a feeling. It started softly. Three of his fellow rodeo clowns hovered in front of his face, one had blown his cheeks up like balloons while Hayblaze and Woebegone simply floated. “I feel like Ah need to go to ponyville an' see th’ princess?” “Wait, Princess Twilight?” Hayblaze exclaimed, his eyes wide. “Yep.” The tutu wearing stallion nudged his fellow floating earth pony, “see, my arrows really do work!” “Yea, but now you’ve made him go crushing on the princess.” “Ah’m not crushing anypony.” Troubleshoes stated as he carefully scanned the surroundings and noticed he had accidentally crumpled the side of a barn with his hind legs already. A couple of farmers and rodeo ponies gazed up in awe at the large stallion. “Hey, go have fun!” Woebegone exclaimed. “But Ah don’t wanna hurt anypony.” The titanic brown stallion replied hesitantly. “You won’t. Come on! We can go with you if you like.” Woebegone continued to gesture excitedly as he flipped over and began to float upside. “Yeah, I wanna see you meet the princess.” Hayblaze chimed in, “I wanna see you get yer love.” “But princesses aren’t mah type.” Troubleshoes levelled a flat, unimpressed gaze at the grinning yellow stallion. “Maybe another arrow will help?” The comparatively tiny stallion was quick to fire. The arrow landed like a needle on Troubleshoes shoulder and immediately grew to a comparable gigantic size, pinned to him. Hearts wafted through the air as Hayblaze cried out things about finding his true love. Troubleshoes wasn’t listening to any of that. He was too busy staring at the arrow that poofed out of existence, leaving him free of any arrows in his side. “That-” Troubleshoes tripped on a stack of barrels and came crashing down like a falling silo. The ponies that he landed on flew like ragdols along with all the barrels, hay and trees. The trio of floating rodeo clowns gazed at the giant in awe. “That was incredible!” “We truly can do anything without hurting others!” The giant brown pony rose slowly to his feet, kicking over the nearby barn in the process. “Ah- Ah need to get goin'. Maybe that princess Twilight knows somethin’ about what’s going on around here…” With unsure movements, Troubleshoes fled toward the distant town of Ponyville. “Come on guys, let's follow him!” Hayblaze announced as he hitched up his tutu, then sped toward a floating barrel and rode it like a rocket behind the titanic station. The station with cheeks full of air shook his head and began bobbing along toward central Appleoosa. Woebegone shrugged, dived at the scattered barn and grabbed the four largest pieces of timber. He attached them to his hooves and took off running like a drunk weasel on his makeshift stilts. A troupe of attacking griffons, a thousand strong flew toward the shores of Equestria, hell bent upon the destruction of the peaceful ponies within. As they passed into the air space of the foreign land they noticed the air felt strange. As they passed over the sandy shores below and drew nigh of the woods everygriff noticed the woods up ahead. Something was wrong with the trees. Many were floating. Or flying like a griffon after a hard night at the pub. There was also what looked like a group of large exotic rocks flying around the treeline. Chief Grandeur and his son Glen glanced at each other. The younger griffon gulped, “what is going on father?” “I think it’s Discord! Watch yourselves!” 

The chieftain’s warning was followed by a blast of wobbly air that caused half the army to fly upside down while the rest of the flock found themselves pointed toward their homeland beyond the sea. “Sir, I don’t like this!” One of the captains cried out as he began to spin like a top through the sky. The mini tornado griffon began knocking griffons out of the sky, left, centre and right. Chief Grandeur bellowed angrily. “No! We must-” 

The mighty beast found his chest fluff amplified to the size of his tail feathers and something began to tickle his tum tum. The proud warrior burst out into giggles and found himself falling like a stone. Despite the freefall, his wings refused to work and somehow, the mighty leader was not afraid. He landed with a splash, stunned in the beach’s shallow waters. Somehow the fall was as damaging as Brick jumping off a tall tower. No falling damage is a wonderful thing. Glen fell face first with a splat into the sand nearby, flowed by the rest of their flock. Half lay with the tide licking their faces like a cat, while many griffons found themselves impaled in soft sand with various comedic slaps, crashes and squelches. Before the griffon chief sat a pair of grey mares, one light, one mid and one a darker blueish grey. They looked overly serious for ponies. Several hundred feet behind the mares, a group of six different creatures watched. The blue griffon in their midst was clearly laughing, collapsed against the giggling pink hippogriff. The sight annoyed the mighty chief Grandeur no end as he forced his now normal plumage back into place. With a high pitched teleport sound, a pink earth pony appeared in the midst of the duo. Her right foreleg fell from her forehead and she was quick to wrap her sisters in a great big hug. “Hi girls! Whatcha doing out here?” “Casting out a bunch of rocks.” Limestone rounded on the griffons. “Rocks?” Glen asked, totally lost. “You!” Limestone glared at the would-be attackers. The boulders that had been floating above the trees raced toward the greyish blue mare and at the signal from her forehoof, landed with a titanic set of thumps in the sand nearby. “We are not rocks. We are here to conquer your lands!” Chief Grandeur flicked his tawny brown wings, rather put off by the mare’s apparent ability to control stone. “You’re not.” The blueish grey earth pony replied, her expression dour. “Meet our pets.” Limestone stomped the ground and glared at the griffin who towered above her. “What-?” Any further words were cut off from the mighty griffon chief as the large boulders sank into the sand. From below, an army of boulders shot skyward. The shocked griffons found themselves carried on the mighty stones till they passed from Equestria’s borders. As the boulders passed the invisible border they appeared to lose their power and fell like rocks toward the ocean below. The many griffons hastened to take wing. As a thousand griffons hovered in the sky, flabbergasted by the strange events a pegasus couple flew over the beach where the pie sisters continued to stand guard. The pegasus couples’ cries of joy were followed by a pretty rainbow. All eyes lingered on the beauty. Chief Grandeur growled and flew back across the invisible border in the sky. “Come on, we will attack by air. Stay away from flying rocks!” 
Many in the army tentatively obeyed their master, the ruler of all Griffonstone. With their re-entrance, the pegasus couple began to fly toward the griffons. The pretty rainbow began to expand till it covered the horizon like an impending storm. “What the-! What is that?” Gilda called out. Chief Grandeur gazed along the incoming rainbow. “I have a bad feeling about that rainbow! Quick griffons, fly!” The whole flock of would-be attackers fled from Equestria. Their hurried wingbeats ripped at the sky, chased by an inviting rainbow that smashed against the invisible border in the sky. “Great job Limestone!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she tacked her two sisters in a tight hug. “Seems Discord’s power is good for something.” The blueish grey mare shrugged as she returned the hug with one hoof. Marble nodded as she continued to watch the fleeing flock. “I can take us home now if you like?” Pinkie Pie offered eagerly. Limestone shot her bouncy sister a disdainful stare. “I don’t like your teleporting. We use Marble’s method instead.” “Marble?” The pink party pony released her sisters and began bouncing eagerly around. “Oh, oh! How do you move super-super quick?” “Like this.” The tough earth mare strode up to a small stone that had been left on the somehow still pristine beach. She tapped it with her left forehoof twice and a large rabbit hole popped into existence. “Now we follow her in.” Limestone shot her surprised pink sister a light, brief smirk. “Cool!” Pinkie Pie eagerly waved to the group of shocked looking students who continued to stand some way off. With a comic boing! Pinkie Pie followed her sisters into the hole and moments later, they popped out of a large rabbit hole behind the mighty castle of friendship in all its, still damp, splendour. The hole shrank, quickly vanishing once the last mare had exited. “Can we do that again?” Pinkie Pie eagerly asked her sister. Marble shook her head and pointed to Pinkie Pie’s friends. Pinkie Pie lit up. “Oh! I better find my battle cake!” “What just happened?” Gallus wondered aloud, shocked by what his own eyes had witnessed. “I think a bunch of griffons just got their tails kicked by one earth pony!” Smoulder fell over laughing. After a few moments levity, Sandbar examined his spare front hoof then tentatively tapped it against the sand. A small patch of flowers sprang up. The colt wondered at the display for a moment before he turned his gaze back to where boulders had flown. “I wonder how they did that…” “How about like this?” Yona leapt into the air. “Yak slam!” Yona butt slammed the soft sand. Sand showed the group of friends and the yak found herself five yaks deep in a large crater. “I want to play in the water! Gallus, I want to see what you look like as a seapony!" The excited hippogriff led the griffon toward the sea. “Okay, only if I get to do this!” Gallus swiped the hippogriff out of the air and rushed with chaos boosted zig zag speed over to where the waves grew large. He tossed her into the ocean. 

A pink claw grabbed the blue birb and he found himself splashing into the cold salty sea along with her. As the pair sank, Silverstream’s pendant lit up and they were transformed. 
In contrast to Silverstream's soft, curvy form, Gallus looked more like a half shark, half griffon kind of seapony. He blinked in surprise as he eyed his new form. "Huh... this actually looks kinda cool. I expected the chaos to do something crazy." Silverstream smiled as she admired her companion’s form. ”I think we may have passed beyond Equestria's borders. Do you want to try one more time closer to the shore and see what happens?" Gallus shook his head. "Maybe later. This feels weird enough as it is. Race you to that rock down there?" Silverstream noticed the indicated sunken bolder. "Okay. Ready? Go!" The pair of seaponies took off playfully through the ocean. Sandbar used the portal gun to jump onto a flying tree. He fired a portal under Yona then in front of him. The young yak landed heavily on the tree. The huge wooden flying object tilted toward the sand. The pair of youngsters screamed as the sand rushed toward them. With a surprisingly soft impact, they found themselves skidding along the beach at crazy speeds on the large tree. It was sort of like a go kart. Smoulder and Ocellus watched the pair shoot past. The dragon grinned, “I bet they’re fine.” With a deep breath, Smoulder tested out her fire breath. The normally dangerous fire was whiteish blue and the temperate appeared to drop in front of her. “Do you have ice breath?” Ocellus wondered. “I have an idea!” The shapeshifter changed into a large stag and used his antlers to throw sand into the air. Smoulder breathed on the sand and smirked as the whole lot became a large frozen block. It plopped neatly into the sand before the pair. The dragon placed a hand against the cool surface. “Not bad… I think I prefer fire.” “You have to admit, it is quite cool.” Ocellus commented softly. “Do you think you might have any other new abilities?” 
 “I dunno… I wanna see what you got too.” Smoulder replied with a playful grin. The stag changed shape and became a light blue male young dragon. Smoulder grinned, “nice.” Ocellus checked his new form out, “uh… I was supposed to turn into me…” “Really? Cause it looks like you did a great job turning into a super hot dragon.” “I- Have a really deep voice…” Smoulder grinned as she stepped closer and put an arm around her companion. “I know… it’s kinda hot.” The male dragon shot his companion a panicked look, completely unsure how to react to such a comment. “I’ll try again…” A swirl of green took hold of the changeling and revealed… A rather confused young light blue dragon. He stood there on the beach glancing down at his own body. “But… I should be me.” Smoulder giggled. “Try change into another creature.” The changing dragon nodded demurely then shapeshifted into a bright pink hydra. Smoulder gazed wide eyed at the sight of such radiant pink. “Woah. So. Much… pink.” With a flash Ocellus returned to her usual form as… A male dragon. The rather unhappy dragon gazed at his own feet. Smoulder lifted her companion’s head to meet her own gaze. “Hey, it’s just for one day. Besides… I like it!” “Y-you do?” 

The real dragon rolled her eyes. “Well duh. Hey, can you do this?” 

Smoulder summoned her fire and breathed at a large rock that floated by. Green acid flew from the young dragon’s maw. The small boulder melted. “I like this one!” “Um… I’ll try.” The ex-bug took a dainty breath and unleashed… …A few flickers of ice breath. 

“No, no, not like that.” Smoulder shook her head. “Watch me. I’ll show you how it’s done.” Ocellus attentively watched as his companion struck a pose. “You gotta take a really deep breath, like this.” The young dragon filled her lungs to their uttermost then unleashed a bout of frost breath upon the beach before them. 
She smirked at her changeling pal. “Think you can copy that?” “I’ll try.” “Alright. Who’s who?” Spike was quick to take centre stage, eager for some fun. “Can you and Discord be the final boss?” Shining Armour asked as he turned to the draconequus couple. Celestia turned to Discord with a smile. “I think it would be exciting to be mock villains.” “I agree.” Discord held out a forepaw for her to take, “my lady…” The sunny draconequus giggled softly as she took her partner’s paw. Discord’s horn lit up with a soft yellow glow. “What if I’m the one you both are guarding?” Rarity spoke up. Celestia and Discord shared a look. “You are quite welcome to be our captive.” The princess lifted her left paw and clicked. “Your knight in shining armour is on his way to rescue you.” With that, Rarity vanished from the group and appeared on the top of Spikes D20. "Hi, everypony!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she bounced up to the group. She carried a large slab of bright yellow cake, strapped to her side like a shield. "I hope I'm not too late to join in. Are Celestia and Discord the bosses? Oooooh!" "You're just in time." Discord replied with a sly smile. The party pony was quick to bound up to the draconequus's side. "But now I'm here and your auntie Pinkie is ready for action." Spike cleared his throat. "The line is drawn. The heroes stood face to face with their foes. On one, Shining Armor, Cadance, Big Macintosh, Twilight, Luna, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy... uh Pinkie?" The grinning party pony bounced up and down beside the two 'villains.' "Yeppers?" “Pinkie you are on our side remember?” Twilight spoke up. Pinkie pouted. “Yeah but your side looks unfair and mean and doesn’t have cake.” "Uh, does that mean you want to be on Discord and Celestia's side?" Spike Spoke up, somewhat unhappy over the interruptions. "Yeppers!" Pinkie Pie bounced onto Discord's back and used it as a springboard to reach the other noodlebeast. "Okay." Spike took center stage once more as Pinkie Pie swung from Celestia's tail. "And today's boss fight sees our heroes seek to save lady Rarity from the clutches of Discord, Celestia and their loyal baker, Pinkie Pie." "That's me!" The suddenly serious baker now wore a chef's outfit and wielded two cakes. "And I'm ready to fight- no I'm not!" The cakes and outfit vanished as Pinkie gazed out toward Ponyville. "Pinkie?" Applejack spoke up."Are you okay?" The chef's outfit reappeared on the pink mare. "We can start. When my date shows up, we have reinforcements!” “Say what now?” Applejack stared at the party pony in shock. “Since when did you find some pony?” Rainbow Dash spoke up. 

“He found me.” Pinkie Pie grinned. “Enough talk!” Spike cried out, “I want to see some action.” Twilight and Luna took to the skies in anticipation. “We’re ready.” "And Ah' think..." Big Mac spoke up as he strode over to stand beside his friend, Discord. "Ah'll fight alongside mah, good friend... Discord." "I'm a good friend?" Discord gazed at the earth pony in surprise. "Eeyup. Ah' think this also makes the playing field about level." Big Mac suddenly was dressed in dark outlaw looking clothes. Applejack gawped at her brother. "But Big Mac..." The stallion smiled mischievously and dipped his hat to his sister. Spike groaned. "Anymore changes?" "Just two incoming. But I'm sure Cheezie won't mind if we start now." Pinkie Pie grinned as she bounded up and down on her large battle cake. A serious chaos mood settled on the party. It was time for a chaotic battle to rescue the fair maiden. Spike took a deep breath, "alright. This time." Blueblood stood, transfixed in the street of Canterlot, shocked out of his mind by the chaos surrounding him. Unicorns hovered and phased through solid walls. Earth ponies plated plants in solid stone with their hoofsteps while pegasi decorated the skies with twinkles of every colour imaginable. Fillies and colts played on chocolate clouds of chaos or bounced around the city as though it was one giant bouncy castle. On every street corner there were a few snobs in shock or calling out to their princess to save them. The noble prince made a break for the castle. He had to find Celestia. There must be some way to restore order. As he crossed the threshold the prince found himself in his bedroom. Blueblood huffed. This was getting annoying. He strode out his bedroom door and found himself in the palace armoury. A light brilliant gamboge stallion appeared by his side. This rather lanky stallion was wearing shining silver armour and was smiling at him far too brightly to be entirely sane. “Sir Blueblood.” The lanky stallion called joyfully out as he stepped closer. The posh white stallion shot the speaker a disdainful look. “What, peasant?” “It is I, sir Cheese. Otherwise known as, Sir Cheese. Or Cheese Sandwich. Or the future husband of the element of Laughter. I am here to offer you a noble quest, brave prince.” “You are?” Bluebook turned to more carefully regard the strange stallion. The prince noted the stallion was far too lanky to be palace guard material. “And what sort of quest could you possibly offer me?” “The quest to save your fair lady.” “But I don’t have a wife. And there is none who I have met worthy of my attention.” “Are you sure about that?” Sir Cheese smiled back. “Um…” Blueblood ducked as an earth pony drifted overhead and clanked against some shields, eyes filled with wonder at being weightless. “Shouldn’t it be the guards' job to rescue ponies?” “Ah, but remember faint hearts never won fair lady.” A yellow fore hoof extended, a free offer to the freaked out prince. “But-“ “No time!” The happy stallion bounced in place. Somehow, Blueblood felt his hoof rise. Something in him knew that the mare of his dreams awaited. But this is ridiculous! Spotting the rising white hoof, the joyful stallion grabbed hold and briskly began to lead him toward the front gate of the city. As the pair crossed through, the world shimmered and with a jolt Blueblood found himself standing in front of a small country town. “Welcome to Ponyville!” Cheese Sandwich announced joyfully. Blueblood was quick to confront on the grinning stallion. “How in the hay did you do that?” “Why, twas simple. It’s fast travel between areas. With Discord’s magic in the air, any earth pony such as the Pies or myself can do it.” “The… pies?” Blueblood replied slowly. Was this stallion supposed to be making any sense at all? “Quickly now, our future wives await!” “My what?” Blueblood took a few steps away from the town. And then he felt it. His maiden was indeed in need of saving. He had a mare to sweep off her hooves! Without another thought, Blueblood took off at a gallop through the centre of town. He quickly passed the armoured party pony. 

With a rather large bounce, Cheese Sandwich shed his helmet. It landed on Blueblood’s horn with a clang. In shock, the noble prince unleashed a weak bolt of energy from his horn. The bolt vanished into the helmet. With a mighty wash, the metal spread across the prince’s form till it covered him from head to hoof in the most regal, trimmed armour a prince could hope to wear. Blueblood paused for a moment to admire the suit of armour. “Now I feel ready to rescue fair lady…” “Good. Now let me get my accordion out and we will be ready to go!” Cheese replied jovially as he whipped out his squeezebox and held it aloft like some mighty totem. The lanky stallion leapt forward, ready for action.