The Chaotic Touch of Harmony: Flesh and Blood

"...I haven't done enough with my life..." he wallowed, hugging the pillow and closing his eyes, struggling to get to sleep, squeaking "...I don't want to die...", trying to control his breathing between sobs and get to sleep. Soon enough, he managed, falling fully unconscious, at peace. Dreaming of a magical land... Called Equestria…

Paulo awoke to find himself in some form of… Endless, starry void. Various white, shining orbs were suspended within this dream-like dimension. His eyes wide, Paulo looked around, jaw dropping as he noticed his body; That of a grey-black unicorn, his mane black, seeming to have a light green tint.
”...Where...Am I?” He simultaneously asked and thought, his voice echoing through the void, softly returning to him. His gaze wandered across the starry landscape, before he heard innumerable faint whispers.

There was something indescribably wrong and terrifying about them, their voices speaking in some unknown language, invoking a primal fear in the unicorn. He squealed lightly, trying to run AWAY, only to find himself within one of the orbs, a gasp of terror coming from deep within his throat as he saw one of the beasts rear it's face at him. Appearing to be a black and purple swirling mist, given form by some indescribable magic, in the shape of a long neck and fanged mouth.

MINE!!! It screamed, in a voice which was deep, desperate, powerful and… Almost territorial, it’s mouth opening wide as it flung it’s jaw towards the orb he was standing in, as he screamed in response, backpedaling rapidly as the moment it’s jaw contacted the orb, it seemed to spread across the surface of the orb, obscuring his view in darkness.

Paulo gasped as he awoke, covered in a film of cold sweat… And fur.
That has to be… The most terrifying nightmare i’ve ever had. He thought between pants as he sat up with a sigh, slowly relaxing again as he looked down. Suddenly, as a thought occurred to him, he grinned. He could still think! He could control his body! Paulo was still himself… If just a bit furrier. He sighed with a smile in relief at the revelation and looked over his new body His long, dark green mane coming into view in the corner of his vision, as his fur was colored a light brown.

And i’m… Not dead! I mean, I can still think! It’s still me~! He thought, grinning as he tried to get to his hooves atop the bed, before he yelped as he collapsed. “...Mmmgh, I could see that coming a mile away.” He muttered into his blanket, before grinning and slowly getting to his hooves “But still, i’m alive!” He exclaimed enthusiastically, his grin evolving into a minorly worried one after a moment, his gaze wandering down “...Unless my mind is some kind of clone and i’m not the same person that went to sleep last night…” He muttered fearfully, his ears lowering before he smiled, shaking his head before carefully attempting to hop off of the bed. He succeeded quickly, though it took conscious effort. “...I don’t think I am, and I honestly don’t want to. Let’s make the most of this! Magic!” He exclaimed, grinning in foalish glee as his past fears about the transformation were quickly subsiding.

He looked up to the book with a frown, before sighing and raising a hoof, looking to it “...Oh come on, this could be the subject of a joke…” He stated while growing an amused smile, shaking his head and slowly walking to a nearby mirror, intending on seeing himself for the first time “A unicorn tries to open a b-YAH!” He exclaimed, eyes widening in shock for a moment as he jerked back upon seeing his face, before moving forwards again with an amused, if slightly disgusted smile. His horn, and a decent portion of his face below it, was smeared with blood. A glance to his bed, and he could easily see the bloodstain on the pillow, centralized, yet… Rolled around.

Must have been when the horn pierced the flesh. He pieced together, shaking his head whilst raising a hoof to the dried blood with a grimace “...Magic comes later, first it’s time to wash this off.” He stated, lowering the hoof again and slowly, cautiously, walking through his house, each window totally closed beforehand.

Soon enough, he reached the bathroom sink, closing an eye and biting the faucet’s handle. Slowly, awkwardly, and tooth-damagingly slowly (To his mind at least; The metal making him worry about the long-term implications of doing this), he managed to get a good stream of cold water going, propping himself up on his chest whilst bringing his head near to the stream. He then rubbed at the dirty spots repeatedly with wet hooves until they were completely clean once more.

Once done, he took a small sip of the water, thirsty from sleeping, before slowly turning the tap off once more, and carefully getting back to his hooves, drying them on a nearby towel, as well as drying his face by face-planting in said towel, and rubbing his head around.

“At least something as simple as washing myself is an adventure now.” He thought with a grin of amusement, rolling his eyes and slowly heading back to his room, and the book. Exhaling happily, he realised that he was on the verge of releasing some enormous tension that he had never previously noticed.

Pushing the tension to the back of his mind for now, he arrived back at the book and smiled, before giving the book a deadpan look and sighing, slowly clambering back onto the bed to get on eye level with it, before hooking one hoof to the side of the object, pushing it from the table. His spare hoof then caught it, and pressed it against his face, as he used the pincer move to bring the book to his pillow, before he sighed with an amused smile, opening the book with a hoof and bringing it to the first page, before quickly scrolling through it with his surprisingly blunt horn.

“I’m using my head a lot, these days.” He muttered with a chuckle “Now, where was I… Ah yes, i had to press my magical focus to the next page…” he stated, turning to the first of many indecipherable pages, text scrolling from left to right on it in gibberish, like a screensaver. With a sharp inhale, he pressed a horn to the page, smiling.

Instantly, spreading outwards from his horn in a circle, the animated page became covered in a perfect black, a simple sentence appearing in bold, white letters covering the page.

Finish Chapter 4 of the book you have been provided, in order to proceed.

He blinked, eyes widening in shock as he reared his head back, staring down at the book for a moment in surprise, before he felt his right ear start to itch horribly, twitching. Cringing, he moved a hoof up to it, only to feel… Paper?

Paulo, of course, freaked out upon feeling a massive amount of paper, curved into a cylinder, stuffed into his ear. Again, he released a yell as he had earlier. “GYAAAH! GET OUT!” He exclaimed with shocked eyes, panting and instinctually attempting to grab the paper with a hoof and slowly pull it out. Somehow, his hoof actually attracted the paper, making it very easy to remove. He had to remove a good few sheets of paper, their surfaces warm, as if they had just come from a printer, before the supply in his ear ‘dried up’, and he was back to normal.

Panting hard, he grit his teeth in the leftover horror, and noticed that it looked like the underside of the top sheet of paper was colored. Cringing, he turned the paper over, to find something truly bizarre. Staring up at him, was what looked like a child’s crayon drawing of a strange creature, it’s head being that of a horse, two mismatched horns on it’s head, and a black mane. It’s eyes had yellow sclera, with two red pupils, mismatched in size. What came next was even more surprising.

“Hellooo~” The drawing cooed, before chuckling, standing up and somehow coming off of the page, still 2d as it bowed towards him “Discord, master of Chaos, at your seeervice~” The drawing mocked, the bow long and exaggerated.The position of it’s limbs, and it’s expression, however, did not change, even it’s mouth holding still.

Upon seeing the image move, Paulo had at first yelped out in shock, eyes widening as he scooted back against a wall, before his jaw dropped as it spoke, an eye twitching lightly as a hoof moved up to rub it and it’s twin, trying to confirm if he was seeing things, Paulo’s breathing starting to get heavier. This could NOT be real. Magic, yes, but living drawings!?

“HAHA! Ahhh, your reaction reminds me of somepony…” The Master of chaos said, wiping a wide-open eye before running a hand through his beard, the image slowly turning purple for some reason. Paulo’s mouth opened slowly, inhaling to ask a question before one of Discord’s claws moved up to his mouth in a shushing gesture. Suddenly his mouth felt like something was filling it, causing the stallion to yelp in surprise, eyes widening “Hush now, I don’t have long, so allow me to speak BEFORE you ask what the meaning of life is.” The spirit stated, shaking his head and looking down for a moment, exhaling as he brought his claw down, the strange sensation promptly leaving his mouth, allowing Paulo control of it again. He quickly exhaled, brushing his lips with a hoof and grimacing, before pausing. His mouth tasted of asparagus…

“So, you… Lost your ability to use your magical book!” The drawing exclaimed in mock sadness, teleporting to the book, and kneeling before it, Paulo blinking and quickly following him with his eyes as his jaw dropped. “Oh woe is youuu~ But wait… I, HAVE, A SOLUTION!” The Draconequus exclaimed, grinning and holding up a drawing of a blue liquid within a test tube.

Paulo smiled in amusement at Discord’s pun, though he cringed back lightly with a grimace at how bad it was Solution… Liquid and answer… Auuughhhh!

Discord’s face however, soon became more serious “Don’t explain the joke Paulo, it ruins it!” The avatar of Chaos exclaimed, before smirking “But more importantly for you, I have a plan.” he began, causing Paulo’s eyes to widen in shock and gasp. Did he just… Read my mind? “Well, more of an errand. Oh, you ponies sure do love those~” Discord said in an amused tone, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards to a minor degree, causing Paulo to tilt his head lightly to the left with a curious light in his eyes, smiling softly, yet nervously. Solution… Could he have a way to get me a new book!? Then again, he likely caused this… The only question can be why... Paulo thought, before he gasped, attention refocusing on Discord as the image of his eyes expanded to fill most of the ‘head’ portion of the image, long, black lines forming, obviously intended to be eyelashes as he clasped his hands together and looked towards the window, pupils dilating to a disturbing degree. Paulo’s own eyes widened as he stared for a moment, head jerking back upon seeing Discord’s body change ...Well, that’s creepy! He thought, jaw dropping once more.

“What’s the matter~? Don’t like cute~?” Discord asked in a high pitched voice, before chuckling, returning to normal “Seriously though, there is hope for you yet, pony. I have a simple task for you, which WILL get you your magic again~” Discord stated with a smile, before leaning in, his ears stretching out as his head shrunk, the actual size of the paper not changing as he moved to Paulo’s ear, the unicorn blinking in surprise, becoming still with a poker face on.

“I have to say, congratulations on the Lunar Corruption~ Highest so far~ Had you been in Equestria, you’d have gotten a job with Luna’s Shades very quickly… But it turns out, her little recruitment program is hurting you now.” Discord whispered, frowning and giving Paulo’s ear a hug, looking out to the distance, as Paulo remained stock still, looking off to the middle distance, though his eye occasionally wandered to look at the odd creature.

“Your book, my little gift to you, SHOULD be sending a signal to Equestria, telling one of Twilight Sparkle’s spells that you need a Lunar Training book, right here, right now!” Discord said, hopping down and looking to the aforementioned book, frowning and putting his claw and paw to his hips.

“BUT, that relies on ambient magic being around the sender. And is there ANY ambient magic on falaffle, or whatever you call this world? None! Zilch! Nada!” Discord exclaimed, shaking his head before giving a ‘humph’ in mock frustration

“And that’s what you’re going to fix!” Discord said with a grin, extending his arms to Paulo, who blinked in shock, head jerking back as he gasped “Me?... But I never got st--” He began, before Discord laughed, shaking his head “You need SOME magic, sure, but i’ll give that to ya. What we need is a Glade. Given your corruption, it’ll be Lunar. Nice and powerful things, Glades… Be sure to tap the crystal once it’s done.” Discord stated, leaning back with a smirk, his image starting to shimmer, causing Paulo to widen his eyes, and lean slightly forwards.

“Hm? Oh poo, i’ll have to go soon.” Discord sighed with minor frustration “I’ll leave you with this advice before you get started!” He exclaimed, his image becoming more distorted, as Paulo gasped, leaning in, listening intently and deciding to trust this being for now.

Discord put on some stereotypical builders’ clothes, lime green with silver stripes, and a yellow construction hat atop his head, as he pulled a blueprint out of… His side, clearing his throat
“#1, build in nature - You need dirt at the center. #2, not near a cliff. Solid ground only, please. #3, dance the boogaloo. #4, Toodaloo!” Discord stated, grinning and waving before his image jumped down upon the page it had come from, returning to it’s initial position as it remained still, staring up into the air. Paulo blinked with wide eyes and stared right at it for a moment, biting his lip lightly.

After a few moments with his jaw dropped, he closed it again, closing his eyes and sighing “...Alright… I have no idea what else to do for now… Discord…” He sighed ”I’ll trust you for now... building this ‘Lunar Glade’, and allowing a signal to reach aliens could be dangerous, but…” He sighed “We already had SETI, what is there to lose?” He concluded, stretching and picking up the next piece of paper, which went into detail teaching levitation. There were around 4 pages in total “...Time to get to work.” He sighed.

The unicorn frowned, laying on his bed as he slowly moved his vision across the paper, a hoof to his forehead “So…” He muttered “...That, that… Divide the interaction of elements by the mass aaand~” He inhaled, eyes closing tightly as a soft glow came to his horn, starting out as a deep, dark blue before progressing to a lighter hue. The page in front of him shared in this glow, twitching upwards jerkily as he grimaced, deep in focus for a few moments more, giving out a few grunts before opening his eyes with a gasp, seeing the page fall back to earth.

“...It worked.” he stated breathlessly, a smile of childlike glee soon covering his face “It worked! It’ll take practice, but…” The stallion exhaled, shaking his head and looking down, a sigh entering his voice as he grinned, cooing “So cool~ It’ll take work, but...” He smiled, shaking his head once more “...It’s definitely worth it.”
The stallion used his muzzle to push that paper aside, inhaling deeply as he looked to the next spell he was to learn, eyes widening in surprise as he jerked back lightly after reading for a few seconds “...That needs me to have quite fine control of my levitation…” He muttered under his breath, shaking his head and inhaling, before hopping off of his bed. “...Might as well practice levitation while walking…” He hummed, his horn lighting up as he grimaced, standing straight and closing his eyes as he concentrated deeply.

There’s something… Off. In this spell. I can’t quite put my finger on it… Something’s inefficient. Wrong...
He inhaled, his eyes opening as he walked to his desk, collecting a pencil in his mouth and moving to a notebook of his, opening it carefully using his horn to pry it open, soon moving over it and leaning in.
...Gah, it’ll drive me insane if I don’t fix this. Let’s see now… That section needs to go and be replaced with…

Paulo labored over the new spell for around twenty minutes, having found no other way to write thus far without using his mouth. It was clunky, but surprisingly fluid. He exhaled when finished, spitting the pencil from his mouth, before looking over it with pride “Funny, I wonder how Discord missed that small thing…” He hummed, closing his eyes once more and grimacing as he attempted to levitate the page once more, the glow coming from his horn softening, taking on a slightly lighter blue tinge. The effect itself was that a random small object in the room, this time a tiger plushie from his childhood, levitated into the air, at least a few inches up, him grimacing as he was only able to hold it for a few seconds before releasing it, sighing happily with a smile. “Yeah, that was a bit easier.” He said whilst panting, before his stomach growled angrily.

“...Guess that’s my cue.” He muttered with a smirk, turning and leaving his room, heading downstairs carefully with a smile “Some time off would be nice.”

~24 hours ago~

"We're international, so please look us up." The wolf-masked figure concluded cheerfully before the camera, waiting for the PAP member behind it to turn it off, sighing and removing his mask once that was done, revealing the face of a relatively young man, between 25-29 years of age, the scabbed remains of a recently acquired bite, seemingly from an animal, present on the right side of his jaw.

“You did well, Nicole… Enjoy yourself, you can rest now.” He sighed, the camera operator nodding and walking out of the room, as the figure walked across the room to a heavily locked door, going through a number of keys as he scowled, snarling angrily “Damn those cultists… Damn those ponies… Damn whatever fiend spawned them.”

He quickly entered the room, closing it with a slam behind him, various mechanisms automatically locking the door once more as he sighed, walking through his office, very utilitarian in nature at this point, having a simple chair, desk, and a number of screens showing data near the back, a bed to the side, a drawer next to it filled with files and a desk with a few photos to the right of the room.

He approached the photos, tears coming to his eyes as he frowned, picking up one which depicted a woman around his age, standing next to him on a city’s pavement, her hair brown and long, her eyes a deep amethyst. The two were taking a ‘selfie’ together, grinning as they both gave a thumbs up.. The man sighed, smiling softly with tears in his eyes as he adjusted the angle of the photo in his hands, bringing one up to wipe at his eye “...You gave your life so that I could live… I won’t…” He inhaled, before continuing “Let your sacrifice be in vain...” he sobbed, looking down to the ground, a hand raising to his face as he sighed.

“...And i’ll die before those ponies get a chance to show their true nature.” He added after a few silent moments, putting down the photo and sighing, walking to his desk with a deep frown, tears still in his eyes as he wiped them, teeth clenched

“...Humanity needs some medicine. And i’m going to give us some.”