Chaos Reigns

[ShadowStorm88]

Val grumbled as he gently opened his eyes, the sound of a dog, with chicken wings crowing as it woke him up to an early moon light rise. He had gotten around eight hours of sleep, sleeping on a giant slab of pudding that used to be his bed. It seemed that ever since Discord had broken free; the entire world had gone nuts. In fact, most of the residents were becoming sillier nad siller as time went by. Why he hadnt been affected? Maybe he had been overlooked.

Getting up, he grumbled "Ahh, another beautiful...poka doated sky". Discord really was having fun messing reality up. Outside, he could see somes ponies had accepted this silly new reality; heck a few had switched personalites!!! A group of stallions, were dancing around in dresses whilst some mares were dressed up in football gear and tackling one anohter.

Letting out a brief chuckle, he quicxkly silneced himself. No, he could not find this funny. Nothing about this situation was!!! Yesterday, a group of hippos had done ballet through town, tramlping over some fruit stands, making hte stnads turn into balloons!!! Approaching the door made of stryforam, he sighed as he exited and went to greet the insane world.

[Sherlock Hooves]

Sherlock awoke... well that would imply that he had actually gotten sleep to wake up. No he had, once again, the worst night's sleep ever. There was just no getting comfortable with the lunacy that was going on. Ever since Discord had taken over Equestria nothing was what it was suppose to be, the detective hadn't had a case in months and everything else in the world was starting to get to him. He had been asked by the palace guard and security force to help with anything that could stop Discord, but ultimately they failed. From that day things had began to slowly fall apart; at first the damage was limited to Ponyville and the valley it rested in, but soon enough chaos had spread to all corners of Equestria and the capital fell. By shear will he had managed to hold onto his sanity and a few scraps of order in his life, but they were weak and wouldn't last for much longer. He sat at his desk... well the giant marshmallow that use to be his desk and stared out the window at the constantly changing sky. "I can't deal with this much more... I mean I use to be thought of as eccentric but this!... I can't just let this continue.... what to do...?"

[ShadowStorm88]

"No I would not like to buy a shoe, useing a pencil and a bucket of popcorn" Val grumbled as he walked past a pony clerk, who was selling shoes that had soles made of bubblegum. Shivering at the cold feeling of the texturted grass, he grunted as he siad "If I had bad eyes, Id have a seizure from the colors" he grumbled as he walked past a colt, who was hopping up and down on a pogo stick as he bumepd into a wall before falling down. A few times, Val had to fight the urge to be silly. His trainging had allowed him to keep his mind in relaity or..at least making sense, and this silliness was like a disease!! It spread from one pony to the next, more wild and strange then the last one!! Blinking, he heard a whilsting sound as he looked up and gasped as he jumped out of the way as a two ton anvil hit the ground. Looking up to see a pegasus fly down in front of him wth a tiwrly hat, she giggled "Meep Meep". Before running off intot he distance in a puff of smoke. "Oh yah, Cartoony. Lets not forget this is making ponies act cartoony" Val muttered, putting a hoof to his face in exhaperation.

[Sherlock Hooves]

"No, NO! Out get out I'll not have more of this in here!" Sherlock was shouting a a heard of balloons and forcing them out the door of his office. After getting them out he gave an exasperated and frustrated sigh. He stomped his hoof very angrily, he was tired of it. He wasn't putting up with this any longer, "That's it! If I stay in this world much longer I'll lose myself to this lunacy! So either I find a way to fix this... or I die trying to. Either way I'm free of it!" He laughed, somewhat insanely then quickly got hold of himself. He could feel it, it was harder and harder each day. He got his things, that were still normal, together and started out; looking back at his home for what could be the last time, then bolted down the street. "I still know of one place in this loony bin that hasn't fully lost itself. The ward that Celestia put on the palace will probably be the last thing to fall to Discord." He bolted past the chaos and confusion dodging moving walls and dancing bison. Finally he reached the palace, the wad protecting it kept the chaos influences at bay. Only allowing ponies not yet effected by Discord's influence. Racing up the stairs he made his way to the library, and began to scan through the books, enjoying the moment of peace that has eluded him these past weeks. He had spent hours looking through the books, history, magic, the elements of harmony, but nothing. "ARGH! Nothing! Not a single clue" He gave into his frustrations by tossing the book he was reading at a wall. "To everypony's knowledge only the Elements of Harmony could stop him... but they failed... so what now?" Taking a deep breath he regained his composure and waked over to pick up the book he had tossed across the room. When he got there he noticed something odd, he could swear he felt something. A breeze, very faint but it was there. Setting the book down he pulled out a small pouch with a nozzle on the end; giving a squeeze a fine white powder was sprayed out and floated around, then was blown away by the breeze showing its origin. "Hmmm peculiar..." Placing the pouch back he started to feel at the wall and knocking on it in different places listening to the sound. *thunk* *thunk* *THUNK* "There we go" Feeling along he noticed a hinge on the wall lamp, he gave it a tug and the wall and part of the floor opened to revile a passage, a spiral staircase going down. "Most engaging"

[ShadowStorm88]

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" Val screamed, tears running down his eyes comically in an almost anime style!! He was being chased by the hippos form yesterday. They were trying to force him into a frilly tutu like thiers!! "Stay away from me" Val shouted horrified!!! This was a nightmare, a freaking nightmare!!! Looking back, he screamed as they shot guns at him and tried to plaster a frilly one around his waist. Watching another pony run by, he blinked as he noiced he looked kinda...ordinary? As in...a pony that hadnt gone insane?!?! Turning around, he leaped over the hippos and charged after the pony as he watched hism rush towards the library. "Yes, must get to..safety" Val panicked, as he dove, and ducked to avoid getting plastered. Picking up a mallet, he whirled around as he tossed it hard in the direction of the hippos; nailing one in the nose knocking it out. Whirling around, he kicked the doors to the librabry open and slammed them shut. "Safe, ha ha..im..heh heh...safe" he calmed down. Whirling around, he noticed the pony near a set of spiral stairs as he called over to him. "Hi, our you umm..normal" he asked slowly, wnating to be ready to run agian.

[Sherlock Hooves]

Sherlock spun around ready to fight the possible intruder, seeing that the young stallion appeared normal and coherent he relaxed. "Normal... I find that somewhat ironic..." He chuckled a little then started talking more to himself than to Val. "I mean everypony thought I was very odd back before all this happened... I guess they still think me odd though... because I'm not a crazy as the rest of them... Sorry, yes to answer your question, I have yet to be affected by Discord's chaos." He turned back to the stairway and started walking still speaking, almost like he expected the stallion to follow him. "I had grown so annoyed of... this... that I finally had to try and figure out a way to stop it. Sadly my research has yielded nothing." The stairway ended and opened up to a large old looking room with only the lite from upstairs casting a faint glow. "Oh this wont do... lets see." Pulling something from his vest pocket he reached up to a hanging torch and made a spark lighting it. The pail lite reviled a large room with shelves, old shelves. And rows of old books. "But maybe this will be of help... Mind giving me a hand with the rest of these?"

[ShadowStorm88]

Val nodded as he followed the pony, releaived that he was normal. "This place is driving me crazy!! Its almost at a few times made me go loopy like the rest of the whole world" Val exhapserted as he started looking through the books to try and find something that could help their situation. As he skimmed, he found himself retelling what had happened earlier. "Im a guy for goodness sake!! I do not wear frilly stuff!! Yet those hippos wouldnt take a hint since they chased me all over the place. Then I fell into a plush bear doll, and when i got up; i started spekaing out of its head!! I cant take this".

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Indeed, trying to hang on to the little remaining sanity in this world now is like trying to empty out the ocean with a tea spoon." After a few minutes of searching Sherlock gave an excited shout, "YES! This should prove useful..." He pulled out not a book but a few leafs of parchment and set them on a desk. They were covered in dust and very old but not as delicate as one would think, a preservation spell perhaps. "Lets see... "The year 3434 of the Second Age, here follows the account of Celestia, Princess of the Sun and ruler of Equestria." This is the personal notes of the Princess! I wonder... this will take some time to read through.... with luck there will be something about Discord in here." Taking the papers and dividing the stack in half he hoofed one half to Val. "Here read through those and see if anything comes up."

[ShadowStorm88]

Val gasped as he was handed a book. As he was about to go and read the book, he gasped as it suddenly started to fly up into the air. Flying after it, he caught it grinning and froze as he was suddenly bombared by a barage of pies. Landing, he grumbled "Stupid pranks". Skimming through the book for some sort of asnwer, he gapsed as he suddenly saw three things connected to Discord. Or, at least three items that were around his picture. A...dagger, a magic 8 ball and....a pogo stick??? WHat in the world did these three items have to do with the guy?? I mean sure he was a sneak, random and at times even silly; but...wiat.... Approaching SHerlock, he asked "Do oyu think these have anything to do with him"?

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Wait a what?" Sherlock asked as he nearly pushed Val out of the way and read through the passage. "A dagger, magic 8 ball, and a pogo stick? This seams strange... but this is Discord... Maybe there's something mentioned in the Princess' notes." He turned back to the parchment he was reading through skimming for the items mentioned. After a fare amount of time he beamed and cheered. "That's it! That's the answer!" He started to bounce happily and laugh with a little bit of glee. Eventually he stopped and chuckled a little maliciously, "This is the answer. According to the Princess' notes there was a myth about three objects, of unknown origin that held his power, and bound Discord to our world. I would bet the small amount of my sanity left, that those three things are what the myth were about." He smiled triumphantly as he continued, "The myth says that if these three unknown objects are brought together and distroyed, Discord will lose his power and be cast out of existence!"

[ShadowStorm88]

"Wait, your saying we can stop all this if we find those three items? Tha..thats wonderful" Val grinned as he started to dance happily, remarking "Getting rid of all this insanity and actually being able to live in a normal world once more almost sounds too good to be true!! Yeah, I'd defeintly be up for htat". Realizing how he was acting, he slowly calmed himself down as he said "Wait, but these three items. They..they could be anywhere. Anywhere at all in all of Equestria, and we dont even know how to find them, or if they even exisct". Pointing at the book, he remarked "What if Discord put that in thier to throw us off, make us thiink we can defeat him in that manner? I mean, you have to admit it does almost sound too good to be true when you really think about it".

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Its because if we do this it will kill him..." Sherlock immediately answered Val's question. He was a little cold about it, he didn't even look up from reading the notes. "That's why we never heard of it. The princesses knew about these items and they knew that they would stop him... but they couldn't do it. As much as it was needed to stop him... Celestia and Luna couldn't kill him..." Sherlock got a little solemn as he reads on. "Now it is pretty thin... even when Celestia and Luna fought Discord the first time around this was just a myth... but the three items are supposedly at the far corners of Equestria, and when they are found they need to be brought together and destroyed... That's real thin... freaking anorexic." He looked up and thought to himself for a moment. "Though at this rate... I'll take thin over horse shoes made of jello."

[ShadowStorm88]

That got Vals attention. He..had to kill...someone? In his line of work, he got invovled in alot of scuffles and had to be fit and able to fight whenever the time came. But he never had kill someone before. The concept sounded...completly ailen to him. Looking outisde at the insane world, the worst part was; he didnt think they had a choice. Either it was kill Discord and put the world back to a normal, and sane place. It was that, or contue to live in an altered reality where everything was crazy, nothing made snese and was consantly changing every five seconds. Looking down, he said "Well...darn...out of all the things i expected to do in my life, to..go on a mission to see someone killed. I never expected that really". Staring back at Sherlock, he siad "But...I'll do it if it means the world returning to normal".

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Its not something I'm very keen on doing myself Val... but its our last hope. I just hope we can find these things again. The locations listed here are from over 1000 years ago... they could be anywhere by now." Sherlock jotted down some notes from the originals and placed them back on the shelves. "The only thing is how are we going to keep our sanity while we're doing this?" He sighed and started for the upstairs, "We'll need to see if we can procure transportation, preferably something that has been exposed to the shielding spell."

[ShadowStorm88]

"Oh yeah, bcause the last thing we need it the transportation to transform into a donut, with cinammon wheels" he sighed as he looked down. A 1000 years he said?!? Geez, he was right!! They could be destroyed by now, or even not excisting. Smiling weakly, he said "Well, I did see an unusual looking device outside. It looked like some sort of weird storgage that could fit four ponies". Leading him towards the window, he pointed towards what looked like...an SUV?? "I have no idea what the thing is, but it defintly looks useful" he smiled lightly as he said "its been thier for a few days, so Im pretty sure its real".

[Sherlock Hooves]

Sherlock blinked in confusion and looked out the window. "What in Equestria is an SUV? Oh... those new runabout vehicles? Well I think that will work... I don't know how to drive them though... But I'm sure that they can't be that hard." He reviewed his notes and nodded to his new partner, "Well the closest artifact's last known location was deep out in the Buffalo lands a ways out past Appolusa." Quickly folding up his notes he quickly made his way out of the library and to the waiting transportation.

[ShadowStorm88]

Following behind Sherlock, Val stared at the strange veichle as he looked all around it. "How do you get in this thing" he asked aloud as he poked his hoof around the side of the door. Finiding a knob like thingy, he pulled as the door swung open. "Woooooww" Val awed as he looked all over it. Stepping into the passenger seat, he said "Its kiinda cramped in this thing". Looking out a sherlock, he siad "The first items near Appolsa you say? Well, thats kinda a ways away".

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Well I don't think we need much room... now... I think that these things are suppose to run under their own power.... How to activate it though....?" After a few minuets of looking Sherlock found the keys in the ignition, "Ah there we go... now... drive, accelerator, and break. Okay well this shouldn't be too hard." Pressing the accelerator, a bit too hard, the two fly off down the road and nearly crash into a wall before stopping. "Gah! Well.... okay then. A bit sensitive on the acceleration... keep it genital.... Lets try again." After a second attempt the two were off on the road to the great western plains and Appolusa

[ShadowStorm88]

Val blinked as he sat side saddle as he looked around casually, smiling lightly as he siad "WEll, this certinatly is a change of pace". Looking at Sherlock, he siad "Hopefully we'll be able to get all the wya to Appolsa in this thing". Staring around the interrior of the SUV, he pressed a switch which turned on the AC and provided coolness, since it was rather humid outside in the desert. "Ahhh that feels good" he smiled lightly, as he looked up. Blinking, he gasped as he heard a familar rumble outside. Looking behind, he blinked as he could see something pursuing htem at high speed. "Our those the...STEP ON THE PEDDLE" he shouted in panic at the sight of hte hippos from earlier, charing at the SUV!!

[Sherlock Hooves]

Sherlock looked behind them out the back to see the charging heard and twitched at the site. "OH BOY! The long vertical peddle on the right!" Stomping the peddle to the floor the vehicle surged forward, kicking up a cloud of dust. Keeping an eye on the rear Sherlock saw the stampede gaining on them. "Blast they'll overtake us at this rate!" Thinking quick he quickly turned right then left to avoid being hit by them. Taking a lot of close calls, he managed to maneuver them away from the heard. Breathing a sigh of relive he smiled before looking back to the front and seeing the them all turn and charge them. "Oh horse apples."

[ShadowStorm88]

Gasping, he shouted "LOOK OUT"!!! Lowering his head, their was a flash of bright light for the both of them. "Im dead...or transofmred into something humilating thats how htis...whaaa". Opening his eyes, he could see he and Sherlock were both alright. The SUV on the other hand, had shielded them but at the same time now had pink wings on the side of it. Question was weather or not they worked. One of the hippos had managed to latch herself onto the side of the car, as Val tried to shake the car to get her off. Growling, he said "She dosent want to let go".

[Sherlock Hooves]

"Bullocks! Hang on!" Sherlock jerked the wheel left and right trying to force the oddity off the vehicle. Unfortunately with little success, the strange creature managed to stubbornly keep its hold. "Try and kick her off, and hold on!" Still shifting violently left and right Sherlock hoped that Val would be able to dislodge the thing from them.

[ShadowStorm88]

Val gulped as he gently climbed up onto the roof of the car. Silence emintated from up, and was quickly replace with the shouts of a distressed pony. "WAIT!! STOP THAT!! DON'T PUT THAT ON ME!! GET OFF". Moments later, the creature fell off as it went into a roll on the twisler road. Val climbed back into the car, huffin sadly now in the outfit the hippo had tried so hard to get on him. "If you laugh, Im going to hoof you" Val grunted humilated. Looking back, he could see nothing else following them. "I think we lost it" he sighed lowering his head.

[Sherlock Hooves]

Sherlock held back a snerk as Val reentered the vehicle dressed up, "I-I wouldn't dream of it.... *ahem* But you're right I think we're fine for now.... not sure if that was just a random attack or if we're being targeted.... I hope it was random. If Discord knew what we were planning...." He trailed off into silence as they continued to their destination. After entering Buffalo territory and a few miles in they had reached the last known location of the first item needed to destroy Discord. "There's nothing here!" Sherlock said frustrated, "Horse feathers.... I knew it was to good to hope that, that information would be that accurate.... It is over 1000 years old." He slumped against the vehicle and tried to think about what to do next, then something managed to catch his eye. A stone protruding out of the desert, "Hold on.... what's that? It looks like... sandstone? It is, now that is curious." Looking at Val's reaction Sherlock answered before it was need to asked. "Out of everything we've seen so far out here.... this is the most.... normal. Its unassuming if you weren't looking for it. But currently the sand we're standing on has been turned into sugar.... but this rock hasn't changed, why do you suppose that is?"

[ShadowStorm88]

Val had kept his mind on other things as they had traveled through the blazing deseret, wanting nothing but to find Discord and kick his teeth in for putting him through this humilation. As he slumped back, he blinked as he noitced whilst they drove that the sand had transformed into sugar. "Oh joy, the Surgar desert. Thats just what we need" Val said, his sarcastic voice devoid of any enthusiasum. Slamming his head down as he heard Sherlocks frustration, he commented "So we traveled here for nothing". Perhaps it was time to call it quits and give into the insanity that Discord had created around them. At least that way he wouldnt have to worry about anything anymore!! Hearing Sherlock mention the stone, Val looked up as he said "Thats true, it is the only thing that hasnt been affected. Unless, its not even really a stone". Getting out of the car, he appraoched the stone. As he wa sabout to touch it, Kangaroos holding liquorish swords jumped out of the sugar and attacked!!!