Wonders

It felt odd to fly without moving my wings. As I flew from Canterlot to Ponyville in a carriage beside Princess Celestia I kept stretching my wings, just to make sure they were still there. It got to the point where the princess asked me to stop.

“There is no need to be anxious” she said, she misunderstood my emotions. “Twilight and her friends are wonderful, and I'm sure they will make you feel welcome”

“Whether I feel welcome or not does not matter” I replied coldly “my assessment of your kingdom’s harmony shall not be affected by their welcome”

Then Celestia looked anxious, and the rest of the trip passed in silence until one of the Pegasi pulling our carriage announced our imminent arrival.

As we got closer I looked at the ponies going about their business in the village, many were looking up at our carriage as we approached, but those who didn’t appeared happy, harmonic. That was a good sign.

I addressed the princess “I shall disguise myself until you have assured the townsfolk that there is nothing to fear”

“Is that really necessary?”

“If I am forced to freeze them the situation will only devolve into disaster”

We were descending; I turned myself into snowflakes before the ponies on the ground could see the passengers of the carriage.

We landed softly on the road leading into the village, a small crowd of ponies had gathered around our landing zone, including an Alicorn, the fourth princess, Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn of Magic.

The fourth princess was purple, with a star mark on her flank; she smiled as she bowed to Celestia.

“Greetings princess,” she looked up “In your letter you said you would be bringing an important visitor with you, where are they?”

“Oh he’s hiding” Celestia smiled “I'm sure he’d come out if there were less ponies watching, could we speak in your castle Twilight? Your friends should come too; you will all be needed for this mission.”

The purple princess led the way, followed by Celestia and five other ponies. None of them noticed the small cloud of snowflakes swirling around their hooves.

The magic castle was small compared to the castles in Canterlot and the crystal empire; it was made of crystal and shaped like a tree, with a large star at the top.

We went through a large set of doors into the main hall; Celestia immediately began explaining the situation.

“With me is an important visitor, a representative of another kingdom.” She began “I need you and your friends Twilight, to give our guest a tour of Equestria.”

“No offence to our ‘Visitor’” said a blue Pegasus with a rainbow lightning bolt on her flank “but do they really need a Princess and five other ponies just to show them around?”

“Of course they do Rainbow!” exclaimed a white unicorn with gems on her flank. “They are obviously terribly important and we must show them the respect they deserve.”

“But why us?” asked an orange Earth pony with apples on her flank “isn’t there somepony whose job it is to foalsit fancy ponies?”

“Applejack!” cried the white unicorn “don’t be disrespectful!”

“You are giving the tour my little ponies,” Celestia interrupted “because this will not just be a tour of Equestria, is will be a tour of Equestria’s harmony.”

“Oh blah blah blah harmony this and harmony that. You ponies could use some chaos to make your lives interesting” I could not see the speaker, but I could guess who he was.

The carpet the ponies were standing on slid out from under their feet, it floated into the air and rolled itself up. Then it unrolled, and there stood the killer of Destiny, the Nightmare leader, the last Draconequus, Discord.

I sprang into action. The snowflakes that had been my disguise swirled towards the lord of chaos, the cloud grew quickly as it enveloped him, I froze him solid, then materialised in my true form in front of him.

Some of the ponies behind me screamed.

“Fear not” I exclaimed “he is frozen, he cannot harm you”

The ponies began yelling incoherently behind me.

“Who in the hay are you?!” one of the ponies asked.

A yellow Pegasus with a butterfly mark ran to the frozen master of evil yelling “Discord!”

An odd reaction.

“Unfreeze Discord, Zephyr” said Celestia sternly.

Say what?

I turned towards the Princess of the sun “Why in the name of harmony would I do that?”

“So you don’t kill yourself” she responded “Discord is reformed”

She was right, I realised. Keeping the most powerful being on the planet frozen was draining my life force quickly, and the master of disharmony didn’t seem to be emitting any disharmony for me to feed on, which was certainly odd.

I took the princess’ advice and allowed Discord to slowly thaw; meanwhile Celestia was calming the ponies. “This is Zephyr” she explained “He is a Windigo, he feeds off of negative emotions, disharmony. You will be giving him a tour of Equestria, he wants to see how wonderfully harmonious our ponies are.”

“Your princess borders on deceit” I said “I am here to search for disharmony, if there is enough to sustain a great storm then I shall bring the rest of my tribe to burry your lands in snow and ice.”

The orange pony rolled her eyes, quite rudely. “Why in Equestria would we give you a tour then?”

“Because, rude one, your princess wants you to show me how good your kingdom can be, so I may be persuaded to spare it.”

The mocking voice of the Puppeteer rang out from behind me “Well you won’t be able to take the tour looking like that”

I turned to face discord, his head had thawed, and he had acquired a monocle. “The transparency is so last millennium, and where are your hind legs? You can’t travel across Equestria looking like you are dressed for nightmare night.

“He’s right Zephyr” Celestia said before I could reply “you will need to blend in if you are to speak to ponies without incident”

“Why would I need to speak to them?”

“So you can ask them questions, questions that might reveal the harmony, or disharmony, they are feeling.”

It sounded reasonable, which was galling. I never liked taking on the form of these creatures, they were heavy, and clumsy, and opaque.

But I did it anyway.

I took on the form of a white Pegasus stallion with long blue hair and an obscure mark. I still looked far from normal, but at least I was the same species as those who I would be conversing with.

“Fine then, let’s get this tour started”

Apparently Celestia had already started planning out the details of my inspection. “You will begin by spending a couple of days in Ponyville.” She began “then you will travel to Appleoosa, a small town in the south, then northwest to Manehatten, then west to Canterlot, north to Cloudsdale, and finally north to the crystal empire, where your tour will end.”

“Those are not the only settlements in your empire” I objected “I must see every possible hideout of disharmony!”

“It would take a very long time to visit every settlement in Equestria” the sun princess reasoned “The towns I have chosen each represent the different types of settlements in Equestria, there are small villages and big cities, rich towns and poor towns, places where all three types of ponies live together and places where there are a lot more ponies of one type.”

Once again, the princess sounded very reasonable, but surely she should not be allowed to influence her own kingdom’s inspection? I realised I didn’t really have a choice, the only settlement in Equestria that existed before the nightmare war was the crystal empire, I couldn’t even name another settlement that should be added to the route.

“Alright, let us begin.”