Chapter Seventeen: Capital Of Chaos

Chaos. Canterlot, the mountainside capital of Equestria, was in chaos. Nothing was as it had been the day before, everything had been changed to some degree. The paths in front of us twisted wildly, as did the dimensions of the buildings. Some were floating, others upside-down, and even some turned into what looked to be butter or fudge.

"Oh, my!" Rarity exclaimed. Our group steadily advanced in a cautious manner.

"Careful, everypony. Discord could be up to anythin'." Applejack warned.

"He's been busy, that's for sure." I said.

We came across a fountain, which was now spewing what looked to be lemonade.

"I don't like this." Twilight said warily.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is not afraid!" Trixie was confident.

"We have to get to the archives." Time Piece reminded us of our objective.

Pinkie took a bite of a chocolate pillar. "Mmmm!" She bounced about, sampling all of Discord's converted confections.

"Don't get carried away, Pinkie." I said, stepping over a fissure in the street full of what looked to be soup. This place was in total disarray. None of what Discord did was productive. But, as he had once said, 'what fun is there in making sense?' The group forged on. No ponies were to be seen.

"Where is everypony?" Fluttershy said with concern.

"They're alright, Discord wouldn't really hurt anyone." I found myself trying to comfort the pegasus again.

"Right, as he said, death is boring. He doesn't do boring things. That's why he did all of this." Twilight added.

The layout of Canterlot was different now. Instead of an orderly assortment of streets and such, it was a maze of fantastic illusions and impossible happenings. Most of all, the city was quiet. Very quiet.

"I don't think the usual route will get us to the archives." Twilight said, glancing about.

"It's near the castle, right?" Time Piece asked.

"Yes, it is." Twilight clarified.

"Discord will try to prevent us from getting to the castle. We'll have to go through all he's got to get there." I said.

At that moment, I heard a wet splat, then another. Splat. It was coming from around a corner. The group came around it, and we all froze.

There was a large, round intersection here, and it was full of dozens of gelatinous... things. Amorphous in shape, they began sliding toward us, leaving trails of ooze. They looked like generic dungeon-crawler enemies to me; simple, with no method of attack other than running into you. They were almost pony-sized and varied in color from red and blue to green and purple.

"What are those disgusting creatures!?" Rarity exclaimed.

"I don't know, but they aren't letting us by." I said. I prepared to fight, but found myself without a melee weapon. I took off my bookbag, preparing it for use as a bludgeon. It wasn't hard or very heavy, but it was rather large and had some books in it. Our three unicorns' horns glowed. Rainbow Dash and a clueless Derpy took to the air, ready to strike. Applejack and Time Piece just readied a charge, and Pinkie looked like she was about to eat the creatures. Fluttershy made herself small and Spike dismounted. The gelatinous blobs came closer.

"Hah, the Great and Powerful Trixie laughs at such unimpressive beings. I may not be a match for an ursa minor, but I'm certainly a match for you!" She loosed a blast of energy at the nearest blob. It wasn't a powerful one, but it was enough to splatter the creature over a square meter. Rarity released a similar blast of similar effect and power. Twilight loosed a beam of purple light, dispatching half a dozen of the creatures. The rest of us joined in.

In a flurry of sudden action, the sluggish blobs were being smashed, kicked, and blasted to smithereens. I smashed my backpack down on one of the creatures, splattering it over my pants and shoes. I saw Pinkie ripping at some of the blobs, eating them. It struck me. These creatures were just animated Jell-O. They were hardly any challenge for our ensemble. There was but one left after about twenty seconds of battle, and it was huge. It was bigger and faster than the others, and had developed a hard shell somehow. Twilight blasted it with a magical ray, piercing through the creature, but to no effect. The other blobs began to reconstitute themselves. The large one loomed over us, and it came to all of us at the same moment. Run.

Run we did, and the still rather slow blob could not keep up, and we soon lost the gelatinous horde. Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.

"Did you see that? That was awesome! We like, destroyed them!" I couldn't keep myself from laughing too. We had just fought Jell-O, there wasn't much not to laugh about.

"That was no challenge!" Trixie announced.

"You're tellin' me." Applejack agreed.

"They were tasty!" Pinkie added. All of us stared at her. "What?"

The group continued through the broken, twisted city. More of the jelly creatures were about, but they were easily avoided or dispatched every time. It was well after 9PM when we reached the castle, and still the sky remained frozen at mid-day. The last few days had been difficult and tiring. I wasn't used to doing so much in one day. I had gone all around my hometown on foot, switched universes twice, and walked to the capital city of Equestria, all in one day. My feet were sore and my shoulders tired from wearing my backpack all day. But we had to keep going, no matter the personal cost.

The castle grounds were heavily distorted, as was the castle itself. The Canterlot Archives were close by, and Twilight led us to them. Like everything else, the building was distorted, its contours all wrong. I felt that getting through Canterlot was a bit too simple. I didn't like it, Discord had to have something else up his sleeve. We entered the archive building, and headed for the Starswirl the Bearded wing.