Control of The Self

Princess Luna was yet again searching through the dreamscape to see if she could gain access to that human’s mind. After weeks of checking back on the door every day only to be pushed away, she was more than ready to try this one final trick. She’s been preparing this for about a week and she was sure, more than ever, that if this didn’t work, nothing would. She approached the bubble and looked at it one last time and noticed something was odd about it. It was… different, looked more colorful than usual.

Luna walked right up to it and reached out her hoof and was surprised by the results. Her hoof, instead of being pushed away, was able to pierce into the bubble.

“What trickery is this?” She asked to herself, unsure if it was safe to step inside of the dark room. She had waited many moons to enter this being's dream world, anticipating the moment until she would finally be able to see what thoughts were held within. And so, she walked right in, the world around her turning dark while the dream started to slowly build around her.

While waiting for the world to come into play, she couldn’t help but think of what dreams may be held within. Was he dreaming about his past? Maybe a horrible deed he’s done? Or something completely arbitrary and random? Or is it going to be an amalgamation of all the above? Luna could only shake in her boots as the world fully came into view.

Only for her expectations to be utterly crushed as she found herself in the middle of a colorful, grand spectacle. Around her sat many other humans, most of whom looked older than Matthew. And what she saw couldn’t match with what she heard. The sounds of children laughing and yelling over one another filled her ears, drowning out the talking adults. And as she looked around herself, she could see grand machines that spurred out orange tickets to giddy children. She saw many other adults wearing orange uniforms as they carried plates of pizza while children ran around them. Some trying to keep the children under control and making sure they didn’t hurt themselves.

But what caught her attention the most was not the fact that children were all wearing party hats or were all pushing each other out of their way. It was the giant mouse that stood in the center of the gathering masses. It had tears here and there some fluff poking out of its ear and a stupid grin on its face that infuriated Luna.

“I guess it’s one of those dreams…” Luna said to herself as she watched the giant mascot continue its duties. But once it stepped away from the children, she could feel a familiar pull telling her to follow it.

“This is the dreamer? How ridiculous.”

She followed him without any complaint and soon found herself inside a grungy, worn out room with a table occupied by a couple of people.

“Man I fucking tell ya, these kids are going to kill me one day,” The dreamer said as he started to pull off the head of his costume, revealing a sweaty, frazzled hair teen beneath it. He looked younger than Matthew, but still had the same attitude.

“Yeah, we had a bunch of ‘em almost knock down one of the arcade machines,” A voice said behind her, his pimpled face and greased up red hair not impressing the princess all that much.

“Still not as bad as the teenagers I tell you that much,” Matthew said, regaining the attention of the princess as the two began to converse to each other about their job. All the while the princess seemed to have her attention being pulled elsewhere, completely ignoring the conversation in front of her. She stared in rage at what was happening in front of her. The pure and utter anger that filled her system as she realized what was happening.

Discord was pranking her.

“Oh, that infuriating cur!” She said, not wasting anymore of her time as she magicked up a door tearing the door open and slamming it shut behind her. Barley even managing to hold down her rage as she was casting a spell to exit the dreamscape.

“He leads me on a wild goose chase thinking that the human was more dangerous than anything this land has ever seen. Tartarus, I bet he also rigged the door to keep me out until he awoke!” She said to herself as her physical body started to wake up from her spell.

“He angers me to no end! And for what?! Just to get a few laughs!?!” She said as she all but stepped down off her throne, not noticing a shadow creeping up behind her.

“What’s wrong Lulu, did the big, nasty, human scare you?” Luna snapped her head around to face the draconquess with her, her raeg being ever so prevalent on her face.

“Give me a good reason I should send you to the moon, where you can rot!”

“Oh, Lulu, I didn’t know the human was that scary.”

“You will refer to me as ‘Princess Luna’ you enraging animal!”

“Why are you so angry at me Luna?-

“Princess Luna!”

“All I did was warn you about the human.”

“How did you do it? Changing the dream?! The dreams that human has can’t be as simple as a random job! Nopony is as intertwined into dreams as I am! I didn’t waste weeks of my life just so I could find him playing as an oversized rat! So how did you change it?!”

“Luna, whater-

“PRINCESS LUNA!” She screamed out, almost on the verge of using her Canterlot voice.

“Princess Luna whatever you think I did, I can assure you that you have your bets on the wrong draconequus. While I do have a rather large sum of power at my disposal, I assure you that I still don’t know how to take hold of the dreamscape like you do. Nor do I want to. It’d be too easy to cause chaos that way.”

“Then he…”

“Oh come, Luna, you can’t honestly think that skinny armed weasel is that dangerous, can you? He might be a new species from another world and such, but I doubt he’s going to be able to do much at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me I believe I’m missing tuck time with Fluttershy. Tataloo!” Discord said before quickly snapping his fingers and teleporting off somewhere else. Leaving Luna alone with her thoughts about what Discord has told her. Her mind wondering about how he could’ve had such an affect on her world without even making the conscious decision to do so.

“Perhaps you are less dangerous than I thought, Matthew… I will have to send an apology later,” A scowl slowly making its way on her face.

Twilight was currently rereading all the notes she wrote down with Matthew. Her eyes, seemingly, not being able to tear themselves away from the book in front of her. She was so enamoured within her story that she failed to see Spike starring directly at her.

“You there?” Spike asked, causing Twilight to let out a small scream of surprise. She dropped her book and looked over at the dragon in shock. Spike simply scratched the back of his head and looked around.

“... Uh… You’ve been reading that book over and over again for the past couple days, don’t you think you should find something else to read?” Twilight, after calming her nerves down, sat back down and levitated the book back to her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Spike. There’s nothing better than what’s in this book! We talked about everything! His species, the animals there! The weather! The technological advancements! I can’t believe they have this method of travel called… ‘cars’, it’s just so fascinating!”

“And I get that Twilight, but, maybe it’s getting to the point of being unhealthy.”

“Unhealthy? What do you mean by unhealthy?” Twilight asked as she put the book back down.

“Well… I don’t think this is a good look for you,” Spike said as he pulled a mirror out of a small drawer near him and held it up to Twilight. What Twilight saw made her gasp. Her eyelids had sacked down heavily, it looked like she hasn’t slept in weeks, and her man was a mess, almost getting to the point of being a rat's nest. Suffice to say, she was less than stellar to see herself.

“... I… Why did nopony say anything?”

“Because it was just me… and I tried to tell you but you told me you’d get sleep later and… you didn’t,” Spike said as he pulled the mirror away and put it back in the drawer next to them.

“I… I guess I didn’t realize how bad it’s gotten, huh?”

“You’re telling me, I really think you should take the day of, Twi.”

“But, I need to talk to Matthew, I know Fluttershy is going and I still have so many questions still!”

“... Do I need to pull out the mirror again?” Spike said as his hand was slowly edging its way closer to the drawer.

“No! No. You’re right. I’ll go brush out my mane and go to sleep. I don’t really have all that much to do today anyway, so I’ll just enjoy myself,” Twilight said as she started walking up her room, but just as she was about to enter the door she stopped and turned around.

“You don’t suppose Fluttershy’s going to struggle talking to Matthew?”

“... Is that a serious question? It’s… Fluttershy.”

“... Yeah… maybe I should-”

“NO! I’ll just go find Rainbow Dash and tell her to watch over Fluttershy.”

“You sure that’s a good idea? I know you were asleep for most of it, but I don’t think Matthew and Rainbow Dash hit it off that well.”

“Hey, she’ll keep him in line, and why not? Maybe they’ll sort out their differences!”

“Or make them worse, we don’t know that much about Matthew. As far as we know, he may still be holding a grudge over her.”

“Oh please, Rainbow dash isnt that dumb, I doubt she’ll do anything bad. And I think the guy can handle himself, he didn’t look like a pushover.”

“Maybe because you couldn’t see over the bed. He didn’t look too good, but… I suppose you’re right. Rainbow Dash won’t make or… do anything too drastic so I guess you can go get her.”

“On it!” At that, Spike headed out, opening and quickly shutting the door behind him, leaving Twilight on the staircase.

“I mean… it could make things better, but… wow… I’m starting to feel how sleepy I am,” Twilight said as her legs wobbled beneath her. She slowly turned back around and started heading inside, her eyes lids growing heavy as she trotted.

What she failed to notice was a talon and paw reaching for the notebook she left on the table.

The hospital room was rather quiet, the only noise being the machines letting out whirls of beeps every now and then. It was so still and so quiet that one would be able to hear Matthew breathing. The only thing that broke the silence were the small wheels on the EKG machine that started to move on their own. It started off slowly but picked up in speed, pulling away from Matthew as it then started rushing towards a wall.

The loud crash when it collided against the wall shot Matthew awake and made a small scream. He looked over to see the now broken EKG machine, as well as the now dented wall.

“Goddammit,” Matthew said as he slammed his arms down on the bed. Not even a second passed by when the door to the room was slammed open and two guards ponies entered, spears drawn and at the ready.

“What the hell are-” Matthew said, cutting himself off as the memories from last night came back.

“Oh right, ponies…” The guards ponies looked around a little more, only seeing the broken EKG machine. They slowly put their spears back and looked back at the human.

“What happened in here?” One of them said as they approached the new dent in the wall.

“I… Tried standing up on my own… I grabbed it and I tripped, I sorta flung it trying to stay up,” Matthew said, barely believing his own lie, but it seemed to be enough for the pony guard who knew nothing about Matthew.

“I’ll call a nurse,” Said the other pony guard, both leaving eventually after seeing that everything was fine. After they left, Matthew simply let out a sigh and looked at the damage he had caused.

“Musta been a bad dream or something, I swear this shit’s getting harder to control,” He said as he then started grabbing at his head in frustration. He was so angry at himself, he didn’t even realize that two ponies had walked into the room.

“Hello there Mister Human,” A soft spoken voice said. Matthew raised his head up and looked over to see the shy, yellow only from yesterday walk in with rainbow haired backup. Caught off guard by the name, Matthew stared at Fluttershy with some confusion.

“Oh… Hey.”

“Would you mind if we came in?” Fluttershy said, as she held a small smile on her face.

“I don’t mind, go ahead,” And so the ponies did. They both walked right in and were shocked to see what happened to the machine. Rainbow Dash took a closer look at it and poked it confusingly.

“Woah, what happened to this thing?”

“I uh… pushed it.”

“You pushed it?” Rainbow Dash said in surprise as she turned her head back to look at Matthew.

“Yeah, I was trying to get up and I got angry so I pushed it,” Rainbow Dash turned her head back and looked at the wall itself.

“And you left a dent in the wall… Remind me not to piss you off.”

“Yeah… You should remember that yourself,” Matthew said with a somewhat snarky attitude. Rainbow Dash quickly turned around, her facing showing some anger, and started walking towards Matthew aggressively.

“What was that?” She asked as Fluttershy got in the way between Rainbow Dash and Matthew.

“Rainbow Dash, we talked about this, you said you’d be nice and apologize,” Fluttershy said with a small glare.

“Me?! But he just-” Matthew saw very little but the look on Rainbow Dash’s face was priceless as she went from full on anger to full on freight in less than a second. Rainbow Dash backed away from Fluttershy and stammered.

“O-Okay okay! Just stop with the look, please!” Fluttershy eased up her look on Rainbow Dash and stepped out of the way and let her talk to Matthew. Rainbow Dash walked forward and stood at the base of Matthew’s bed, scratching the back of her head and looking away from Matthew.

“I uh… I’m sorry about… ya know being… a bit mean. I just didn’t know you and I thought you were going to try to… do something bad. I’m… sorry,” She said, not really able to look up at Matthew. The human on the other hand was shocked to hear such an apology, his face just left his mouth slightly agape. After a few seconds of silence, Matthew shook his head and stared at Rainbow Dash.

“I uh… accept your apology. It’s fine really, I don’t know what it’s like to see uhh… well something like me. I’m sorry too, about the insults and all that I’m just… I guess I was a bit on edge myself. ”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I accept your apology.”

“Still, can’t imagine what it’s like to be in your shoes and see… well… this,” Matthew said as he gestured to himself.

“It’s a bit horrifying if I’m being honest, you look like you’re about ready to turn into a zombie,” Rainbow Dash said with a small smile on her face. Matthew, seeing the smile, picked up what she was putting down.

“Really? I’m the disgusting one? You know, they say if you follow a rainbow, there’s a pot of gold at the end of it, why do I see your ugly ass?” Matthew said with a smirk while Rainbow Dash’s smile seemed to deepen.

“Oh yeah? Well I see somepony who looks better with the bandages on. Maybe if you had them over your face, somepony would be interested in you.”

“Oooooh, that’s a great line coming from someone who looks like they just got out of bed. Though I bet you’d look better if the lights were off.”

“Well I-”

“Why are you two being so mean to each other?!” Fluttershy said, stopping the flow of their insult battle the two were having. Rainbow Dash and Matthew both looked at each other for a few seconds with some confusion on their faces.

“It’s a friendly thing, Flutters, don’t worry about it. I like this guy, seems pretty cool to hang out with,” Rainbow dash said as she shot Matthew a smile.

“Yeah, just some friendly banter, don’t worry yourself.”

“Oh… Okay,” Fluttershy said as she noticeably relaxed.

“But, if you guys don’t mind me asking, whatcha doing here?” Matthew asked.

“Well, I thought I could just come by and make sure you’re okay. I was getting worried thinking about you all night with Angel Bunny. I told him all about you and he seemed so worried, so many of my animal friends were.”

“... You talk to animals?” Matthew said with genuine confusion.

“Well of course I do silly, it’s my cutie mark,” Fluttershy said as she point to her flank.

“I… I mean I asked about them but… that doesn’t… butterflies?”

“Don’t worry about it dude, I’m sure Twilight will do her geek magic and you’ll learn about them just fine,” Rainbow Dash said as she turned back around to the wall.

“I… guess? I know I didn’t really ask, but where exactly will I be living when I’m out of the hospital?” Fluttershy widened her eyes in excitement at hearing that.

“Oh. I was thinking you could be with me and my animals! I promise they’re all nice and friendly they wouldn’t-”

“I think I’ll have to pass, sorry,” Matthew said, cutting off Fluttershy before she was even able to finish her sentence. Her mood seemed to drop suddenly at hearing Matthew’s words.

“Oh… I understand, sorry,” Fluttershy said as she seemed to sulk a bit more. Matthew, feeling bad for her, came up with a lie on the spot.

“I uh, I don’t want to cause… I have really bad allergies with fur and stuff and I can only imagine how covered that place is with like cats and dogs and-”

“It’s mainly squirrels, rabbits and a bear man,” Rainbow Dash said as she started poking at the dent now.

“I… a bear? Yeah, I’m gonna have to pass on that. What about you, Dash?”

“Sorry man, that’s gonna be a no go, I live in the clouds and I don’t think you’d be able to stay up there for long,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked back at Matthew.

"... Sorry you live in clouds?" Matthew asked with his jaw slightly agap.

"Well yeah, they're comfy and you can only stay on them if you have a pair of wings," Rainbow Dash said while pointing to her own set of wings.

“Damn… well, it’s not like it’s gonna matter much, you guys’re gonna send me home anyways.”

“Yeah, that egghead’s bound to figure something out.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey man, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you throw it this hard?”

“What?”

“The whole… dent in the wall thing. You don’t look that strong, your arms look pretty flimsy even with all the padding its got.”

“I… guess it was just pure anger,” Matthew said,

“I guess.”

“You guys just wanted to check up on me, right?” Matthew said, Fluttershy perked her head up and looked at Matthew.

“Oh yes, we just wanted to make sure you’re okay, there’s nothing else you need is there?”

“Nope, I think I’m fine, just bored now, could use a book or something to read,” At hearing those words, Rainbow Dash snapped her head towards Matthew with excitement and glee in her eyes.

“Oh! You wanta book to read! I have this amazing book series you’d love! I read it myself when I was at the hospital and it’s such a great story filled with action and mystery and it was just so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said as she was getting excited just by her own description of the story. Matthew only stared at her with slight discretion.

“I’ll uhh… I’ll keep that in mind…” A few seconds after Matthew was done talking, a couple nurses came in and looked around the room to see the now dead EKG monitor.

“Oh, dangit,” one of them said as they started moving the EKG machine out. The other nurse decided to check up on Matthew.

“You’re fine, right? No pain in your skin or anything… or your muscles?” The nurse asked as she looked over at the wall.

“No, I’m fine, no pain at all.”

“Hmm, if that’s the case, then I think we can take off these bandages… Would you two mares just wait outside for a quick minute?” The nurse pony said as she looked towards Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“Yeah, me and Fluttershy were about to go anyways, come on Flutters,” Rainbow dash said as she floated herself outside of the room with Fluttershy following behind. But before she existed, Fluttershy turned to look at Matthew.

“Stay safe, please,” She said before heading out herself.

“Alright sir, I’m just gonna remove the gauze and see how well you’ve been healing up,” The nurse said as she conjured up some magic and started to peel away some of the gauze.

“Ohh, that looks like it healed nicely, you are definitely ready to have this whole thing be removed!”

“Oh, great, how does that-'' Suddenly, in a poof of magic, the gause that wrapped up Matthew’s entire body was gone, leaving him completely naked, thankfully there was a sheet covering most of his more exotic parts. Matthew stared down at himself in shock as he felt the fresh air on his skin again.

“Damn, never knew I could miss the feeling of air,” Matthew said as he started taking in senses again.

“Okay sir, we’re just going to switch out the broken EKG machine with this new one, thank you Nimble,” The nurse said as she magicked a new strap around Matthew’s arm.

“Huh… that’s weird.”

“What’s weird, sir?”

“I guess I just never noticed it but the whole thing being wrapped around my arm… we usually have something that goes on our finger,” Matthew said, flipping his arm over and pointing to his left index finger.

“Oh, you don’t say! How do they find the… Huh…” The nurse seemed to lose her excitement when she noticed something on Matthew.

“What?”

“Sir, I don’t mean to alarm you, but what are those spot things on your arm?” She said, pointing to Matthew’s arm. Matthew looked down and saw the scars he himself inflicted onto him.

Track marks.

They’re scars now, but it’s been so long since he’s even looked at them that he simply forgot they were there. Matthew could only stare at them, memories from before flooding in and overwhelming him.

“Can I take a quick look sir?” Matthew was brought back out of the depths of his mind quicker than he could think. Without a second thought, he clapped his hand over the marks and looked at the pony in fear.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Matthew said, as though he were reading off of a script.

“Sir, if you’re still damaged, we can gauze-”

“It’s not a burn. It’s-... Just a thing humans have!” Matthew said, lying right through his teeth. The nurse pony seemed to back up with a face of clarity.

“Oh! I’m so sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I’m assuming it’s a… ‘human’ culture thing. Oh well,” the nurse pony said as she started heading out to the door with her other nurse friend.

“If you ever need anything, just give a shout and we’ll come as soon as possible!” She said before finally leaving the room. When the door shut, Matthew looked back down at his arm, the disappointment ever so present in his face. He traced his hand around the marks, each one giving a small reminder to how badly he was addicted back then. Then one memory came forward from the depths of his mind, there was so much fighting, and yelling and it all lead to something he’d regret for the rest of his life.

He kept playing the memory in his head over and over again, tears welling up in his eyes as it just started to become too much for him to handle. He eventually stopped and sunk his head into the pillows he had, and wept.

Celestia was in the middle of her duties, currently talking to some random noble about something or the other. She wasn’t quite certain what the topic of conversation was anymore, after centuries of listening to the same sort of rabble day in and day out, it all just starts to mesh together after a bit. Usually it’s about erecting some statue for somepony whose family never deserved it, or land disputes, or some minor conflict that could’ve been resolved without Celestia’s guidance. Rarely, if ever, is it about somepony else.

“And I can assure you this statue will stand as a legacy to my great, great, grandfather Snoogles! And teach others of his greatness for years to come!” It appeared to be the usual today. Celestia let out a small sigh, bit down on her tongue, and forced her usual royal smile.

“I’d love to erect a statue in your… great, great, grandfather Snoogles, but I don’t believe that would be a valuable use of resources. If you’d like I-”

“No! This statue has been requested for generation after generation! We’ve sent multiple letters of request as we always have year ‘round to…

And like that, she started to tune out the pony in front of her, her mind being occupied with things far more important. The Summer Sun Celebration will be in about three weeks and she couldn’t wait to attend it with her sister… Would her sister like it? It was a celebration for beating Nightmare Moon, but it’s turned into something far more familial.

Celestia was drawn away from her thoughts as her eyes glazed over to one of the many stained glass windows that adorned her great hall. Something was amiss with it, she swore there was an extra figure on it, but she wasn't sure which one.

It wasn only when she took a closer outlook that she realized what had changed, there was a certain Draconquess reading a book on it. And it seemed to be looking directly at her. The royal smile that was ever so present on Celestia’s face seemed to drop instantly.

“Are you even listening?!” The noble asked, bringing Celestia’s attention back.

“I heard you, but it appears that there is a rather important matter I must attend to now. If you’d like to continue this conversation elsewhere, I’d be glad to listen more, but if you could please step out now, I’d be more than grateful. This goes to you too, my loyal guards,” Celestia said, in a matter-of-fact tone. The noble she was talking to simply had their mouth agape before pushing their head with a loud humph and walking out of the throne room. The guards, didn’t hesitate or even dare disobey the princess’ orders and walked off as ordered to.

Celestia, after making sure the coast was clear, drew her attention back towards the stained glass window.

“You can come out now,” Celestia said. The small figure in the glass painting quite literally pulled itself out of the painting and fell down to the ground with a loud shatter of glass. It rapidly put itself together, and with a poof of smoke, Discord was in the center of it in full mass with a book in his hand.

“Hello there Celestia, how goes your little meeting thingies? They bore you to death yet?” Discord said, not daring to take his eyes off of the book in front of him.

“I believe I am doing just fine Discord. The only thing that clouds my mind is to why you are here.”

“Oh, I simply wanted to ask you a few questions about the human that we have in our sweet little town of Ponyville!” He then popped up right in front of Celestia, with a fake doctor's outfit on.

“I hear he’s been a rather big conundrum for your sister! Doesn’t that interest you?” Discord said, taking his eyes off the book for once and letting it poof away somewhere else as he looked deeply into Celestia.

“I had a feeling you were watching but I didn’t think you’d stay around as long as you did, you usually get bored of such things.”

“Ohh that’s true, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for our little broken down and lonely human friend!” Discord said as he poofed a random photo of Matthew into his hands and shedding some mock tears.

“What is it you really want Discord? You don’t come by here to play games unless there’s something you’re not telling me,” Celestia said, clear that she wanted answers for Discord’s appearance.

“Oh yes! I was wondering if I could talk to you about that whole… power thing that our sweet boy Matthew has!” Discord snapped his finger and a giant projector screen came out of nowhere with a diaphragm of a human brain, Discords clothes changing as well to look like a professor.

“Go on,” Celestia said with caution.

“So! Here we have the normal human brain, nothing is wrong with it. It is perfectly healthy in every single way imaginable! But…” Discord snapped his fingers again and the image of the human brain changed to show a small growth inside of the brain.

“This is our dear sweet Matthew’s brain. Just by looking at it, it looks like some sort of benign tumor! But it has some special abilities that I’ve never seen before! I can feel its power! It’s potential! And it is quite interesting!”

“What’s your point Discord, I know that he harbors some power already,” Celstia said, annoyance forming in her voice. Discord then snapped his fingers again and appeared in a two piece suit with a fancy table in front of him.

“Here is my offer! You allow me to teach this human how to control his power, and only me, I promise to bring you some absolutely beautiful technological advancements!”

“You? How could you make a promise such as that?” Celestia said, confused all the meanwhile. Discord then snapped his fingers again and brought a notebook back out and laid it on his fancy desk.

“The last time I was in the human world, they had nothing more than sticks and stones and were only just discovering how to farm! But this book tells me that they’ve advanced so much further than I could have possibly imagined! It’s honestly quite impressive to see!”

“Wait, you’ve been to the human world? Do you know how to go back?”

“Well of course I do, it’s rather easy for me to-”

“Send him back,” Caught off guard, Discord stopped his tirade and stared at Celestia with confusion.

“I… I apologize, what?”

“Send him back home,” Celestia said again with more emphasis.

“I… I think you misunderstand the situation, Tia. I want to simply-”

“And I want to send this lost soul back home. Send him back,” Celestia said more stern than ever. Discord’s smile dropped fully as he realized what he’s done. He quickly concocted a plan and regained his smile.

“Oh, Tia, that would only cause more harm than good!”

“Please explain,” Celestia said. Discord snapped his fingers again, turning the table in front of him to a crystal ball while he wore some fortune teller outfit. He waved his hands in front of the ball and showed off what looked to be a regular city.

“The power he currently possesses is small now, bound to grow in time. It might not be that dangerous at the moment, but…” With a wave of his hands the city inside of the crystal ball quickly turned into rubble.

“If he goes on without proper guidance, and proper training, he’s going to destroy everything. And he won’t know what he can do to stop it...” Discord said, with a serious tone in his voice. Celestia took his words in while looking deeply into the crystal ball.

“... Then why offer to bring technology if all you wanted to avoid was bloodshed?”

“Ah, well, I simply wish to help you along with our little perfect world! Could you think of all the things we could do if we had half of what was in that book? So many things could change and I’d love to see it all play out! ... Oh and the whole reformed thing,” With another snap of his fingers he was back to his regular self with the book in his hand.

“You’re having fun with this, aren’t you?”

“Oh, you know little old me,” Discord said, his head already being wrapped in the book he’s reading, literally. Celestia mulled over his words for a few seconds before speaking again.

“If I give you permission, I expect you to teach him properly. No chaos and no intent to harm him whatsoever, do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll make sure the human won’t be harmed during our little training exercises!” Discord said with a wave of his paw.

“Is that all Discord?”

“Why yes. I’ll start his training in two weeks! See what he can do after he’s fully recovered.”

“Good, now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’ve put my court on hold long enough.”

“Oh yes, yes, go on and continue your most exciting court matters! I’ll be on my way, my dear Celestia!” With one final snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared in a puff of smoke and left Celestia to her own devices. She breathed in one final time to catch her breath and forced her royal mask back on.

“Guards! You can come back now!” The guards who were stationed at the bottom of Celestia’s throne returned and stood tall and stoic for their princess.

“I believe we have court to finish.”