Elements of Harmony, Pillars of Chaos

by epicfail236

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6
Length: 8479

Chaos and Harmony are words. The meanings behind them, however, require far more than words to accurately portray. What happens when you try to explain one, without the other?

For more than a thousand years, Celestia has ruled over Equestria, and a lasting harmony has been draped over the land like a blanket for nearly a millennia. But really, what is Harmony? And why is Chaos it's opposite?

-----

Working title, working storyline, working everything really. Let me know if you think this just needs to be sent to the junk heap, or if you would like to hear more.

Published 2013-05-14 00:00:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-17 00:06:49 UTC

A Most Peculiar Visitor, on a Most Dangerous Night

Chapter 1: A Most Peculiar Visitor, on a Most Dangerous Night

It was cold in ponyville. And by cold, I don't mean the typical cold you would expect in a typical Equestria cold snap. This was really, really cold. Twilight shivered a bit as she looked out the window at the white haze that was all that was visible out of the window of her current residence in the lower levels of the Ponyville library, and reflected on precisely how cold it was. Absently using her magic to stoke the fire that was her primary source of heat, taking great care to ensure that no embers would escape the enchanted device, she stared out into the white void and sighed, recalling the conversation that led to this situation...
--oo00&&00oo--

It had been six days earlier, and Twilight sitting with a steaming cup of hot cocoa, going over the final preparation of the organization for this year's winter wrap up. With only a few weeks left until the ceremony, she had to be sure everything was in order so she could begin the pre-pre-organization preparation checklist for each team. She was just taking a sip of hot cocoa when her ear twitched, a sure sign of a new proximity spell she had placed around the library. A proximity spell targeted to a very specific individual, one who seemed rather fond of breaking skylights. Sure enough, the twitch in her ear was followed up by a soft cry, one that she quickly recognized as the yell of one of her best friends: pegasus, element of loyalty, and all around speed demon Rainbow Dash. With a sigh, she magicked open the usual skylight that Rainbow typically fell through when her training maneuvers began to get a bit more 'spirited,' and deftly summoned a pair of pillows to the spot on the floor that had been marked with a small 'X.' As the cry grew louder, she smiled to herself, congratulating herself on taking the time to research the set of spells that made for a safer landing for her friend, and for coming up with a plan to properly cast them with enough time to catch her before she broke through her ceiling. Again.

A brilliant plan, for sure, but it was foiled, sadly by the fact that, once again, the technicolor pegasus decided to fly in the face of statistics. Instead of coming in through the window she decided to plow right through the front door, slamming it open with enough force to cause it to come loose from one of the hinges, and for several books to come rattling off their shelves and onto the floor. The pegasus didn’t simply stop there however, her cry continuing as she continued to randomly fly around in circles, despite the continued protests of both Twilight and her draconian assistant. It took a rather liberal application of magical power and the weight of Spike on her back to slow her down long enough to even see her properly, and what Twilight saw wasn't pretty. Her eyes were wide and panicked, her breathing far heavier than would have been expected, even given the exertion, and her whole body was tensed. Twilight quickly recognized the signs for what they were, a fight-or-flight response causing a surge of adrenaline, preparing a pony for immediate action. It was apparent that Spike also seemed to recognize her state, even from his position on her back, as he quickly hopped off her back only to stand next to her laying a calming claw on her shoulder.

"Hey Dash, calm down, you're going a mile a minute here. You okay?" Spike said softly and calmly. It was fortunate, Twilight guessed, that he had some experience dealing with rather agitated ponies. She was willing to admit, on more than one occasion she had worked herself up into a panic very similar to this before, though it was far more in the realm of her admittedly somewhat obsessive personality than it was in the realm of the rather relaxed Rainbow Dash. This immediately cause Twilight no small amount of concern; anything that would bring Rainbow to this state was likely something serious, and as a friend, she was determined to help.

"Yeah Dash, what’s wrong? Has something happened?" She asked. Immediately Dash's agitated state heightened again, as she began to panic again.

"Has something happened?! Has something happened?!?! Yes something has happened! Something terrible has happened! The worst possible thing that could possibly happened has happened, that’s what's happened!" She started waving a piece of paper around in her panic. "The most terrible awful thing that could possibly happen ever is happening right now and... and..." with that, her hind legs gave out under her, and she collapsed to a sitting position on the ground, still out of breath. Twilight gently took the paper from her hooves and smoothed it out, reading carefully. the further along she got, the wider her eyes grew, until she got to the end, then scanned the whole note again, asking Rainbow in a whisper "You mean... you're short on snow by--"

"--Thirty six inches." Rainbow finished for her, her eyes downcast and her tone somber, her earlier panic given way to exhaustion and sorrow. "I... I have no idea how I missed it all. I went to contact some folks I knew from the academy who still work back at cloud central. Cloudsdale says the measurements are some of the furthest off they've seen... ever. There's no way we can get that much snow in before the end of the season, and that throws off the entire pattern for the whole next year. It'll be disaster, and... and it'll all be my fault." She finished in a near whisper, a single tear running from her eye.

Twilight furrowed her eyebrows in thought, her impulse to chastise Dash far overshadowed by both the seriousness of the situation and the emotional state of her friend. "Three feet of snow within the next two weeks... " she stood still for a moment, then nodded her head, her magic clearing the table of all her existing books. "Alright. Spike, grab me the pegasus weather manual and the scrolls, we have some weather to plan!" Spike nodded and rushed off to get the necessarily materials, while Twilight went and sat beside Rainbow Dash, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Rainbow, i know this seems like an impossible task, and I know you’re worried and stressed, but don't give up just yet. We still have time."

Rainbow looked up at her friend, a doubtful expression on her face "Twilight, there's no way we could get that much snow out in such a short time, it would be too dangerous. We would end up wrecking the city under that much snow!"

Twilight helped the pegasus to her feet with an encouraging smile. "Not if we plan it right! We can work with the town to reinforce the buildings and make sure everyone stays safe. It'll require a lot of coordination and planning, but thats what you've got me for! But we can't plan anything out sitting on the floor here. Come on, lets get some more hot cocoa and we can sit down and look things over. I may know some things about weather manipulation, but I'll need the help of an expert to get a plan together..."
--oo00&&00oo--

It took three days of planning and research, and two more days planning out contingencies with the mayor's office, and a healthy dose of unicorn and pegasus magic combined to shift weather patterns, and this was the end result. Six days of near continuous snow, and cold, to keep the weather stable for the rest of the year. She looked up at the clock, and noted the time after glancing at the measurement device that was the only thing visible through the haze of white. Noting the measurements in her weather log. Day 3, 8PM. Measurement of snow accumulation 18.5 inches. No deviation from current plan and measurements. Everything seems to be going along as planned.

With a sigh, she closed the logbook, and used her magic to return it to the shelf, grasping another in a purple glow and bringing it to the table in front of her. Since things had calmed down, and since she had six days indoors without anything to do, she had started a bit of research of her own. Ever since going through the initial calculations coming from cloudsdale, she had some suspicions that her friend had been less at fault for this crisis than she believed. Further research into historical weather patterns and the patterns of weather had further developed her suspicions. Something strange had been going on with the weather in Equestria for the last several seasons--
THUD!

Twilight jumped in shock and looked around, glancing for the source of the noise. Nothing appeared out of place on the shelves, so the only thing that could be making that noise would be the door. But no one was scheduled to make the rounds until at least tomorrow morning.
THUD THUD!

The noise was certainly coming from the front door of the library. She quickly headed towards the door, fearing the worst. When she broke down the tasks required to keep the town running and safe, she made sure Spike could help coordinate any communication required, so he remained in the mayor’s office to weather out the storm. This had the extra bonus effective of getting an easy way for anyone from the mayor's office to get to the library quickly in case of an emergency. They only reason why Spike would have to tunnel through the snow was in an absolute emergency, and Twilight quickly began to fear the worst. Magicking her warmest boots and scarf, she stepped up to the door and threw it open, preparing quickly to assist Spike and the emergency teams she prepared when --
--oo00&&00oo--
Cold.
Cold and wet.

That was... pretty much all he felt now. Well cold, wet and hungry really, as it had been days since he'd had any significant food, and now at least a full day since he'd seen anyone at all, or really anything really below his legs that wasn’t snow. But he continued on. See, he trusted, and when you make that sort of commitment, it’s one you stick through. It had been a hard time going, but in the end, trusting had gotten him where he needed to be, closer to his goal, closer to the end, and quite possibly closer to a painful agonizing death if his current condition was anything to go by. He knew he wouldn't last much longer in this weather, regardless of how much time he was used to roughing it, but he knew he was close. He could feel it in his bones. Struggling against the wind and snow, he ploughed forward, past shapes that may or may not have been houses. Always working towards his goal. Suddenly, he saw something in the distance. His face brightened, even for a moment seeing what his heart told him was his goal. It was about friggin time, Luna's mane, he was getting sick of all this-- COUGHHACKCOUGH.

He brought up his hoof to his face, and he knew when he saw the streak of red he saw he had just removed that his body was finally starting to get annoyed with him. He knew he didn’t have much time to get out of this weather, so he set forward with as much purpose as he could. Half way to what he assumed was the front door, the coughing increased, half way past that, his hooves gave out for a moment, and he collapsed into the snow.

'No... not when I'm this close. I refuse to be beaten by a hundred yards of snow...'

It seemed like an agonizing few minutes, but he eventually struggled through the snow to the door. Straining, he slowly started pounding on the door, hoping against hope that someone would be able to hear him knock with the bedlam outside. It was rather agonizing, knocking on a door when you could barely feel your hooves, and with his strength sapped, he needed to lean upon the door, his eyelids getting heavier with each passing--
--oo00&&00oo--

Twilight was nearly knocked over as a large... something came tumbling through the doorway, collapsing in a heap just inside the building. Recovering from the shock, she blinked and turned to look outside as the wind started to blow snow into the library. Seeing no one else, she quickly shut the door, then turned to face whoever would have the gall to go walking through the snow in--

She stopped. The pony was standing, silver eyes locked onto her through an ice and snow covered face, breaths coming out in raspy, unsteady heaves, every muscle shaking in apparent exhaustion. The shock of seeing the pony looking at her with such an intense expression brought the unicorn up short however, any greeting, admonishment or, pretty much anything really, halted momentarily by the intense look. For a moment they stood there looking at each other, his gaze intent, hers confused. This certainly didn’t look like anyone from ponyville, and with this storm, no one would be able to reach the town from outside for at least another week... so who could--

"Twilight... Twilight Sparkle?" the newcomer said. His voice was raspy, the tone unsteady, but the intensity was strong. Twilight blinked for a moment, then hesitantly responded with a nod of her head. After a moment, the newcomers body started shaking, and for a moment she was concerned until he heard the beginnings of a raspy chuckle, which turned shortly into a fairly hearty, though raspy, laugh. The laugh was rather infectious, and she even broke out in a smile, considering the circumstances, until his laugh turned into a rather harsh coughing fit, which found the unicorn coming over to help the newcomer stand as his hooves started to give out completely.

"Ohmigosh, are you okay?" she asked him, only to hear him chuckle again, though a bit more restrained this time.

"Its ironic, really. I finally get to meet you after all this time, and the first thing I have to do," he looked up to face her again, a small smile on his face. " is apologize."

"apologize for wha--" Twilight started to respond, then had to restrain a gasp when she looked at his face again, the slowly melting snow covering it now covered in a crimson that was unmistakable.

"for this." And with that, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed bonelessly at Twilight's hooves. This, of course, was shocking enough to the unicorn, and she stumbled backward for a moment.
Which was precisely when all Tartarus broke loose.

It started with a light breeze, the flowers in the planters swaying a bit, a page or two turning from the open books on the tables, but what was more frightening to Twilight was the feeling of magic emanating from her newly unconscious house guest. She had spent enough time around powerful magic users while in school in canterlot (not to mention the time spent in the presence of the Princess herself) that she had a good handle on how magic actually feels around others. Though each unicorn's magic had its own unique 'taste' to it, generally you could tell if a spell was going to work as expected or not based on a general feel to the magic before it was being cast. And based on the feeling she was now getting, several things became extremely clear to her:

One: whoever this was, their magic was very strong.

Two: whatever was happening to that magic, it was about to go extremely wrong.

Three: She should probably duck and cover.

Acting on a base instinct given to her after years of working on experimental spellcrafting, she took a flying dive under a nearby table, and not a moment too soon, and the newcomer's magic simply... exploded out of him. Vases shattered, books flew through the air, and everything just seemed heavier under the weight of all that uncontrolled magic. Twilight looked around frantically, watching her beloved library fall under attack, and wracked her brain for a solution. She was forced to redouble her efforts when she noticed a strange effect the magic was havingn on the surrounding objects -- they were actually attacking the host. Books, swirling through the air, would dive down and glance off the unconscious form, and even small shards of glass would fly by and cut into the body.

Forced by circumstances, Twilight did the only thing she could. Keeping low to avoid the maelstrom spinning above her, she ran over to the newcomers unmoving form and gathered her energy for the one spell that she could think of that may have some effect on the chaos above her.

Magic is a tricky thing, especially uncontrolled magic. When a unicorn releases their magic to perform a spell, it begins as nothing more than swirling energy, unfocused and random. The combination of focus, concentration and incantation takes that wild energy and changes it, focuses it into a shape and form that can then be used in whatever way the wielder chooses. However, if that energy is unfocused, it swirls around until it is either used up on its own, dissipates over time, or is harnessed by someone else who takes that energy and manipulates it. Twilight knows this because it has happened to her before, during a certain infamous entrance exam. Though she knew she had nowhere near the control that her mentor does, she certainly knew attempting to control the energy swirling around the library was a far better idea than letting it dissipate on its own.

Her horn glowing and her face screwed up in concentration, she reached out to gather up the energy around her, and was immediately shocked to find it gathering up around her, almost eager to be used. the magic around her gathered, she promptly set to work in finding something to expend the energy on something. First, she set to closing out the windows and door that had been thrown open by the magic, only to find that the magic didn’t quite respond how she had expected. Where normally the window would simply close on its own, instead the spell reacted by lifting up a book from the floor, which then promptly rocketed towards the ceiling, deflected off the wall and slammed into the window frame, causing the window to fall back into its closed position. The book then rocketed back to its place on the shelf. Several other items flew around and resolved things in similar fashion, much to twilight's confusion. After all the windows and doors had been closed, and the books had mostly deflected off of each other to fly back on the shelves where they belonged, a good chunk of the magic around her had dissipated, however enough still remained that she didn’t want to simply release it. She then set about performing magic that she knew was complex enough to help release the remaining magic, conjurations and creations. However, as with the rest of the magic, things just didn’t seem to work as she expected, something she had never seen out of wild magic before. After a few more minutes, the remaining magic had been used up, and she collapsed near her new guest out of breath. After taking a moment to recover, she began to take stock in her surroundings. Everything seemed to be in one piece, if a little rough around the edges, at least as far as the non-living things were concerned. The one other pony in the room, however, was a bit worse for wear.

Twilight looked over at the unconscious, still breathing (thank Celestia) figure on the floor of her library, and had to suppress another moment of shock. The magic had generated enough heat and wind to clear the remaining snow from the body, however that did not do much to remove the ages of dirt and grime that seemed to be caked on the figure. the body was gaunt and thin, as though he hadn't eaten regularly in ages, and a few sparse scars and traces of muscle pointed to what must have been a hard period before that. but what drew her eye more was what else he had. He had what Twilight thought must have been a horn at some point, however now appeared to be nothing more than a stump, as though the horn itself had been broken or cut off at some point. Then her eyes traced across his back to see wings as well... or rather one and a half wings. One wing was battered and bruised, the feathers worn and dirty, and the other wing... well, didn’t exist. Where there should have been a second wing, only a poorly healed stump was found. She shuddered to think of what this alicorn must have gone through at one point to arrive at ponyville in this state.
She was pulled from her thoughts when the unconscious body heaved out another shuddering cough, and with that a bit more blood. Twilight quickly drew a cloth to wipe off the blood and started clearing off a space on the floor near the fire with cushions and blankets to get him warmed up. as she slowly started preparing to bring him closer to the heat, she took another look at his face, contorted in pain and couldn’t help but ask out loud.
"Who are you?"

Author's Note

A/N: First post here on FiMFiction! Just a bit of a plot bunny that had been traipsing around in my head for some time, something that I do have a bit further developed in my hand, but before putting out the effort, I wanted to run it by the crowd and see if anyone though it was worth pursuing further. Anyone interested in hearing more, or shall I go back to my other work?

Field Notes on the Care and Feeding of Unicorns and Whatever-You-Ares

Chapter 2: Field Notes on the Care and Feeding of Unicorns and Whatever-You-Ares

Before the winter season began, Twilight had taken a trip into Everfree forest for a day to spend time with Zecora, and also to collect various herbs and plants to keep the supplies in her research laboratory fully stocked through the winter season. While out discussing the merits of sustainable magic-free agriculture (as is practiced in Zecora's homeland) versus the ground magically maintained by earth ponies (by Equestrian custom). They came across a rather interesting bush with berries that Twilight had never seen before.
"Zecora, have you seen this one before?" she asked the zebra, who came over and took a closer look at the bush itself. Taking a berry in her hooves, she closely reviewed it, and after a moment, took a quick bite, only to immediately spit it out, tasting the remains while deep in thought. Then after a moment, her frown turned into a small smile, and she replied.
"A bush like this here is news to me, for I have not seen its kind before in the Everfree"
"So you don’t know what it is then?" Twilight responded with a frown, to which her companion gave a chuckle.
"Now I didn’t say that, my unicorn friend, I’ll tell you their story before our journey's end." she replied, while plucking large batches of berries from the plant and placing them in her rucksack.
Over the course of the rest of their survey, Twilight received a lesson in history and myth on the origin of the Zoomberries. Generations ago in her homeland, things were far from peaceful, as with the lack of a centralized government tribal leadership would occasionally squabble over territories and landmarks. Often, the leaderships of these tribes would gather together and small periods of peace were afforded the land, but often the task of managing so many smaller tribal groups, each with their own customs and traditions, became far too complex for the temporary leaders to handle, so inevitably a breakdown in the system would occur within a matter of months or years, and the groups would return to squabbling for another generation. When they arrived back at Zecora's hut, she proceed to finish the story while showing Twilight how to prepare the berries into a dark liquid with a robust taste.
"Finally a kinsman, asked the spirits of our leaders past, to provide us a solution to the problem that would last. The spirits heard the tribes hopeful plea, and provided a solution in a most interesting tree. The berries, you see, prepared in a special brew, would give the leaders the strength to see their task through. The drink they would consume would see them through their plight, even if the leaders had to stay awake all night. Though consuming the drink they found had a cost; for as much time they would gain, some would also be lost. So be wary, friend Twilight, and take heed from departed friends, that you balance your means so they are justified by the ends."

Twilight had taken that advice to heart, and had rarely had any of the rather strong drink since obtaining and preparing the berries for use, only consuming it when performing advanced star-charting or complicated potion work that required focus and late nights. In this, at least, she was fortunate, for her current predicament certainly required a level of focus that would have long since been lost had she not had enough of the Zoomberry brew to last through the night. Taking a sip from her third mug of the surprisingly bitter drink, she turned from the outside window again back to what she has designated her 'documentation zone' where the three logbooks were open, three specifically spelled quills poised over each book ready to write as directed by their enchantress.

"Current weather quill, new note entry: Day four, ten aey em, current snowfall at twenty one inches. deviation from predicted pattern less than a half an inch, no concern currently required. period." walking over to the logbook, she looked down at the logbook as the quill finished scratching out the record as she had dictated, and shook her head and sighed, saying to herself "it's so much nicer to have spike here to dictate, at least his writing is a bit more legible. I'm going to have to recopy all this later."

The dictation quill was apparently put out by her statement, as to her consternation, the quill proceeded to rear up and smack her across the snout. The feather being a feather, of course, this caused no physical damage to twilight, and instead caused her to frown at the offended inanimate object and huff in frustration. A quick application of her magic and the annoyed quill returned to its docile state by the logbook. Shaking her head, she went back to her cup and took another sip, once again thanking generations of Zecora's ancestors for finding this wonderful plant, when a moan from the couch nearby captured her attention. Trotting over to her visitor, she saw that he was tossing and turning, and had managed to twist the blanket off of his form again, so she carefully reached down, avoiding the sharp talons on his forelegs and wrapped the blanket around his body again, while looking to the washcloth and bowl, only only to find it nearly empty again. She took the bowl and balanced it on her back, while walking over to the sink, she gathered her thoughts, and began to speak.

"Patient Log quill, new note entry: Patient log entry number one." she said out loud, looking out of the corner of her eye to make sure the quill was scribing. Once she was sure it was writing properly, she continued.

"I have started this log as a record of my care for my new patient slash visitor, name unknown. Species... unknown. As we are currently under lockdown in the library, I am unfortunately the only one who is available to care for him, and based on my research into medical procedures, it is always best to keep a patient log, especially when there are unknowns. This log will be my record of treatment, and hopefully rehabilitation, of my visitor, referred in this log as patient Delta, after the Ancient unicorn glyph for change, at least until he is able to provide his name himself." While she was speaking, she had refilled the bowl with cool water, and now began to carefully walk the bowl back over to the table by the couch/bed.

"Patient arrived at the library by surprise in an intense snowstorm, and was significantly malnourished and quite ill, though whether it is from the cold outside or from his aforementioned state, I am currently unaware. Patients characteristics are... difficult to describe. When he arrived, he appeared to be an injured alicorn, however while caring for him overnight, I was rather shocked to discover that parts of his body would actually... change form, especially during his fever dreams. Patient has displayed body parts from multiple species, even as his torso appears to remain statically that of some sort of pony. In addition, the patient does appear to have a cutie mark, of sorts. However, the marks description... eludes me. Not because it is difficult to describe, but rather the fact that the mark itself seems to... obscure itself. Anytime I look at it, it almost appears to shift out of my field of view, or blur in such a way as to make it impossible to see clearly. Sometimes I see it out of the corner of my eye and it appears clear, but anytime I do, focusing on it just causes it to fade away. I have entertained the possibility that the patient might be a changeling, however other than Crysalis, no changeling has been noted to be able to channel the magical power that Delta has..."

Setting the bowl down, she took the cloth in her hoof and dipped it in the water, and laid it on the visitor's head, the cooling cloth causing the patient to moan softly in his sleep.

"In addition, rather than absorbing energy, as changelings do, the patient seems to be emitting energy, very similar to that of any given unicorn, though the composition of this energy is... different. The magic itself seems to counteract everything I know about magical theory. Any time any significant quantity of magic is brought into close proximity with Delta, the magic changes somehow, becoming something different each time, though in general it appears to be more... interesting" --she looks over at the violent quill from earlier-- "than harmful. Other than the rather significant burst of magic that occurred upon his arrival, no large upwelling of magic has occured short of small bouts of uncontrolled magic, which usually manifest while he is appearing to be in the throes of a fever dream."

"Admittedly,", she noted, dabbing the cloth again "Delta has managed to raise more questions that I would have thought possible for someone who has said less than a dozen words to me, however I am confident that between the herbal remedies I have at my disposal thanks to Zecora's vast knowledge of medicine, and time, Delta should be okay long enough for this storm to pass and for him to receive some real medical attention. I would normally transport any other sick pony directly to the hospital and have them treated there, but given the reaction that happens when Delta comes in contact with simpler magicks, I may end up getting him to a hospital in Appleloosa, after three months wandering through Tartarus The next safety check is scheduled to come through in less than two hours, I will request some additional medical supplies or a possible consultation from one of the doctors if they are available. In the meantime, I will continue to observe and assist in his recovery. Period."

Twilight looked up to see the quill finish up the last of her dictation, then looked down at her patient, who had now started to mumble softly as the cool washcloth seemed to calm him slightly. Twilight would try to understand what he was saying when he mumbled to himself, however she could never make heads or tails of it. She guessed it was just one of a multitude of questions she would have for him when he awoke. Suddenly, she felt a gentle build up of magic coming from her guest, and stepped back as he yet again went through a metamorphosis, this time losing his dragon claws and growing a pair of Gryphon wings, albeit ones that didn’t look like they could actually lift him off the ground. The sudden growth caused him to roll into an obviously uncomfortable position, which she quickly stepped forward and nudged him with her hooves, causing him to roll back into position. This time, his groans were accompanied with what appeared to be a small smile, one that was matched on her face as well. It appears that her houseguest was on the mend, albeit slowly. She then stood, and walked over to another shelf, this time pulling out more of the historical weather data and calculation books from before and started to read when she yawned deeply. It appears that the long night she had was starting to take its toll, zoomberries or no. Grabbing the alarm clock from her bedroom, she set herself an alarm with enough time to get up before the safety patrol would be doing their rounds. She then set a monitoring spell on her patient, and settled down for a quick nap.
--oo00WW&&WW00oo--
**BBRRRIIIINNNGGG**
**THUD THUD THUD**

Twilight groaned and sat up, holding her head with a hoof as she screwed her eyes shut against the noise. Blindly reaching out and slamming her other hoof against the nearby table she struggled to find the first source of pain in her head, eventually finding it and silencing it, possibly forever, by pitching it across the room, where it promptly fell apart. She sighed in relief as the noise stopped echoing in her head, only to groan again in frustration as the second noise persisted. She must destroy the noise, there was nothing else to it. It must be dissasembled and made to not make that noise.
**THUD THUD THUD**

"Twi? You alright in there?" Darn, the noise is coming from a pony. Ponies should not be disassembled, no matter how annoying they are.
**THUD THUD**
Probably should not be disassembled. Probably.
"Hold on a second, I'm coming!" Ugh. Even when its coming from the self, it is painful. Self cannot be disassembled. If self were to be disassembled, no one would be around to reassemble.

"Twilight if you don’t open up this door, ahm gonna have to open it myself."

Stumbling to the front door of the library, Twilight turned the locks and opened the door inwards, grimacing at the light and blinking tears from her eyes, until finally the form of Applejack became mostly clear, a wide shovel in her hoof and a smile on her face.

"Well Twi, don’t you look a bit under the weather today. you alright?" The noise from the pony with the hat was too loud. Must. Not. Disassemble. Into. Base. Components.

"Hey AJ. Sorry I'm a bit out of it. I think I better understand Zecora's warnings about the ends justifying the means. Come on in, we'll talk more after I’ve done something about this headache." Twilight said, leading the earth pony inside the library and shuffling past her towards her laboratory, and her sweet sweet headache relief potion. grabbing the first bottle on the shelf, she took a bleary look at the instructions she had painstakingly written on the bottle about dosing, then promptly ripped out the stopper with her teeth and chugged half the bottle. A moment later a wave of relief washed over her and she sighed. The potion was not enough to completely eliminate her headache, but now at least she should be able to interact with other ponies without feeling a strong desire to remove their vocal cords. Now she was ready to interact with the world.

"Sorry about that Applejack, I had a long night and took some of Zecora's zoomberry brew, apparently its not wise to use it to stay up all night." she said, walking out of her lab and back into the main floor of the library to find her friend just standing there staring at the sleeping form on the couch. "Ah, I see you've met Delta. He's the reason I didn’t get any sleep. Um... Applejack?" She waved her hoof in front of her friend's face causing her to blink, then turn back to Twilight.

"Um... sugarcube... who... exactly is that nappin on your couch there?" she said, gesturing towards the currently pegasus-shaped patient. Huh,that one is new. Twilight made a note to put that specific change into the next log entry.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure Applejack.. He came up to the door of the library last night, and he was in a really bad state. Collapsed just after getting inside, and has been out like that ever since.” she conveniently skipped over the immediate aftermath of his arrival for now, it seemed silly to mention it, at least until she had a better understanding of what exactly happened. “I've been looking after him, but he's still pretty feverish."

"Ya reckon he may be dangerous? He was wanderin around in the middle of a snowstorm." she asked, her eyes not leaving the couch. Twilight frowned.

"I'm fairly certain he isn’t, or if he is, he's sick, so regardless it's our duty to make sure he gets better. Thats what good ponies are supposed to do."

"Well, I figure you’re right about that, but are ya sure you can handle it? This is kinda out there even fer you Twi."

Twilight nodded her head. "True, it is. I was actually hoping you would pass on word to someone at the hospital, see if they can't answer some of the questions I have or send some extra supplies tomorrow in the next round."

"Well sure, but why dontcha just magic him over there y'self?"

"I would, but magic doesn't quite work right recently. I tried to get a book off of the shelf on practical medicine, and my spell got redirected and pulled over a book on techniques for building proper birdhouses. I don’t know what a teleportation spell would do, to me or to him. So, I’ve been doing things without magic, at least until this snowstorm passes. Unfortunately, carrying him is probably not an option." Twilight replied with a laugh. "Anyway, you should get going; you still have rounds to make before the snow picks up again, don’t you?"

Applejack nodded and headed towards the door. Twilight handed her a quick list of questions which went into the rucksack at Applejack's side. As the pair of friends were walking out, Applejack turned to her friend with a smile.

"Ya know what, Twi, I just realized somethin'. You prolly got off the best out of everyone in town here in the library."

"Why do you say that AJ?" Twilight replied as she held the door open.

Applejack walked out and looked back over her shoulder towards her friend and replied "Stuck indoors for three days in a library with no one for company but a stallion that yer slowly nursin’ back ta’ health? I think I might be jealous, sugarcube."

Twilight's face turned a bright red and she started sputtering denials to a laughing Applejack as she trudged through the snow towards her next destination. It was only after she had shut the door that Twilight realized that none of the strangeness that had been commonplace over the last eighteen hours had been visible during Applejacks visit. She glanced over again at the form wrapped up in blankets on her couch, who had just sprouted a beak..
Curiouser and curiouser...

Author's Note

I've decided to try something new with this story. If I write something, at the end of the day, I'm going to post whatever I have up long as I have a story-logical stop of any kind, good or bad. Hopefully that will help with the whole "leaving half written chapters to waste away in my GDrive" problem that plagues my FF account. I should also note that while I do go through and correct for major spelling and grammatical mistakes, these chapters will not be beta read. Read at your own risk. Thanks for reading, liking, disliking, or commenting in advance.

Also, zoomberries. Think triple espresso energy level with the potential for a mistake whiskey level hangover. And yes, I just introduced a high caffine analogue to Equestra, Celestia help us all if Dash or Pinkie find it.

Peace.

Better than Nothing, Really

Chapter 3: Better than nothing, really.

It was rather odd, floating in and out of oblivion. Not an entirely uncomfortable feeling come to think of it. That fact, though, frightened him more than anything else. He had been in scrapes before, and it had never been comfortable. Usually it was rather the opposite of comfortable. There was usually pain, or some sort of burning somewhere, some feeling of nausea. Something that told him that at he was still there, that he wasn’t dead.

Dead. Now there was a thought he didn’t want to dwell on for long. Not that it was easy to dwell on anything for long while floating through nothing in your own head, not with everything all fuzzy up in there and everything feeling pleasant. He couldn't focus, couldn't keep his mind together, but he had to. The journey he was supposed to be in the thick of was just beginning, and there was absolutely no reason for him to be down and out this early in it. Usually it was at least half way through his journeys before he did something that stupid.

*Thump Thump*

Suddenly, a throbbing pain started to surge through his head, eliciting a mental sigh. This, he noted with some relief, was something that he could work with. Gathering his strength, he focused on the pain. And with that, brought a vague sense of awareness of what was going on outside of his head. He could hear things, vaguely. A mumbled voice, the scratching of a quill. Then, a cooling sensation on his head. This was a nice feeling in contract to the pain, but at the same time it was a curse, as he felt his senses dulling again. Focusing again he tried to bring his body into action. Something small to start, just opening his eyes a bit would be enough. Darkness slowly became light, which became blurry disconencted shapes. Maybe a bit of movement, and one purple blur that appeared to be the source of the mumbling. With great effort, he slowly blinked, and the forms solidified a bit more, but other than general shapes, he couldn’t make out much of anything. It appeared that the purple one above him did recognize that there was some awareness there, as the cloth once again came up to cool his head, and the blanket that was around his... well his whatever he had on now, he couldn't quite tell yet... was replaced. The voice became a bit more soothing, and he found himself sinking yet again into the void. This time, he felt a bit more relaxed about it; the moment of partial clarity was enough to know that he was at least still around, and he certainly didnt plan on going anywhere anytime soon. For now, though, it was best if he rested. Letting the oblivion flow around him once more, he fell back into nothingness, and began to dream.

--oo00WW&&WW00oo--

“... the subject’s fever broke several hours ago, and he appears to be resting now. The number of random occurrences relating to the subject’s rather unique effect on magic have reduced significantly and his metamorphosis seems to have stopped as well, leading me to believe his current form is more likely his true form.”

He regained awareness again, and this time, the voice was clearer, and though things were a bit fuzzy, he could clearly make out both her words and the scratching of a quill, along with the subtle ring of magic, which he supposed was hers. There was a few moments where he could hear the rustling of paper and the scratching of another quill, until she spoke again.

“The medicine Applejack brought for Delta seems to be working quickly, I would expect him to be healthy enough to be up and about by this time tomorrow...”

Delta. She had named him Delta. He could appreciate the irony in that, even in his semi-comatose state. He might have even expressed his appreciation if he could do more than mumble. As it is, mumble was what he did, quickly drawing her attention and sending her rushing over to him.

“Oh! you’re awake! Are you alright? Do you feel better? Can I -- OH stop writing you stupid quill!” she turned around and sent a pulse of magic stopping the quill from scratching out her questions, causing him to chuckle a bit, which dissolved into raspy coughs. She turned back to him with a concerned expression. “Oh dear, are you alright?”

He controlled his coughing enough to rasp out a request for water, which Twilight quickly provided. after taking a few sips, he settled down a bit, frowning.

“Thank you.” he said, coughing a bit, then looked up at her. “How... how long?”

She looked at him confused for a moment, then it hit her. “Oh! Um... it’s been about two days since you arrived. You’ve been sick the whole time.”

He made a noise of acknowledgement, then laid his head back down. “Tired. Feels like I've been run over by a railroad.” he said. Twilight smiled.

“I bet. Get some more rest, we can talk some more later.” she said, causing him to look back up at her. As their eyes locked, he seemed to stare past her eyes for a moment, as though he was looking for something. She noted, for the first time, that his eyes were heterochromatic. His right eye was a typical green, but his left was actually a pale silver. After a moment he nodded with a small smile, that fit very well on his face, and laid his head back down. As she went back to her desk to continue her research work, she heard him whisper, just barely.

“Thank you, Miss Sparkle” to which she turned around and gave him a smile.

“You’re welcome”

--oo00WW&&WW00oo--

It was dark outside when he awoke next, but the fact that he felt much healthier than before made things inside considerably brighter. Sitting up on the couch quietly, he noted that Twilight had decided to get some rest. The fact that she was sleeping with her head on the work table, face in one of the open journals on the table, a bit of drool pooling under where the magicked quill still hovered over the page, told him her choice to sleep wasn't necessarily voluntary. A small smile on his face, he carefully stood up and took a quick inventory. Mind, check, and much less fuzzy than it had been for a while, thank Luna. Body, check. Stretching out his hooves and twisting around to get the cricks out of his muscles he winced a bit. It seems that between his illness and the weeks before, he would need to get out and move a bit, he hated being out of shape. A look out the window at the still blowing snow storm told him that wouldn’t be happening for awhile, so on to the next muscle. Magic, check.

Taking a deep breath, he focused and called upon his magic. Softly, and slowly, his horn started to glow a sim silver, that wavered in and out, pulsing slowly. He chuckled to himself.

‘Well, it seems you were up and about while I was under at least. Well, no sense in overdoing it, lets just go with something simple’ He looked around the library looking from his resting place, to Twilight’s sleeping form, to the bookshelves. Then he grinned, rolling his shoulders, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pushed.

It was just a bit of a magical nudge, but it was enough. One of the books on the shelves slid from its space on the end of a stack and bumped into a small globe sitting on the shelf nearby. The globe quietly and gently rolled towards the end of the shelf until it tipped just off the edge, bouncing twice on books hanging out of the overhangs from the shelves below before coming to rest on a pillow that Twilight had set in the corner earlier that day. Upon bouncing, each book flew in a different direction, the first bounced off a cushion on his sleeping space, flipping the blanket on it up in the air and right over Twilight while the cushion itself came to rest right on the other side of the table across from her. The book then landed with a soft thud on a stack of books on the ground in front of the couch, while the second one went right into the unicorn’s waiting hoof. The blanket fluttered through the air and came down to drape itself over Twilight, who let out a soft moan and stirred just a bit, before settling down with a smile. The observer noted the success of his magic and went to sit down across the table from her, but not before picking up another pillow and very gently replacing the journal under her head with the much softer object.

‘Yep’ he thought to himself, ‘I’ve still got it.’ He then opened the book and turned to page one.

Showmanship: The practice, perils and pitfalls of plethoric performances, by Spotlight Flash Chapter one...

Of course. He rolled his eyes, looking up with exasperation.

He looked at the clock, noting it was still an hour or two before sunrise. With a sigh, he shook his head and settled down to read.

Author's Note

Chapter, with little to say about it. Shorter, but this time I had a bit less time to write. More later! Thanks for listening!