Controlled Chaos

Chapters

Chapter Two: Stories
Chapter Three: Acceptance
Chapter Four: Anger
Chapter Five: Bargaining
Chapter Six: Denial
Chapter Seven: Depression
Chapter Nine: Mistakes
Chapter Ten: Necessary Evil
Chapter Eleven: Get Better Soon
Chapter Twelve: Trust
Chapter Thirteen: Performances
Chapter Fourteen: Devotion
Chapter Fifteen: Nothing to Lose
Chapter Sixteen: Apologies
Chapter Seventeen: Secrets and Lies
Chapter Eighteen: Emotional Catalyst
Chapter Nineteen: Common Enemy
Chapter Twenty: End of the Line
Chapter One: Missing
Chapter Eight: Reckoning

Chapter Two: Stories

It was a day much like this one.

Not exactly like this one, but close to it.

It was half past six in the evening, and my wife had only just left to pick up our daughter from her friend’s house. I was alone in the house and there was not another soul nearby.

The only room in the house that was lit up was the living room, where I was unenthusiastically watching the drivel they put on television. There was nothing better for me to be doing; it was a Saturday and the house had been cleaned prior to my wife leaving, given that the main cause of mess had gone out for the day.

It was a few minutes before I noticed that something was wrong. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and the TV started to run static. I stood up and headed over to the TV to check that none of the cables had fallen out. Finding no problem, I turned around to leave the room to check for a malfunction elsewhere, and that’s when the world flipped upside down.

Quite literally.

I dropped down to the ceiling, landing flat on my back with a loud thump. I groaned and looked up at the floor. Nothing else seemed to be affected at all by this change in gravity, much to my astonishment.

With the panic already setting in, I grabbed hold of the lampshade beside me to stop myself from falling again.

“What the hell is this?!” I screamed, glancing around at anything to accuse for my predicament.

Which is when I heard the front door open and someone come in.

“No, stay out of here!” I yelled, believing them to be my wife and daughter. I didn’t want to scare them with what was happening to me if it was real. “Just… wait in the car for a few more minutes!”

“You shouldn’t be pushing away the only one that can help you, friend,” said someone not my wife or daughter.

The door was closed and I could hear footsteps coming closer to the door of the living room.

“Who are you?!” I shouted, panic only growing. “What are you doing in my house?!”

“You mean, what are YOU doing on the ceiling?” asked a creature I had never seen before as they turned the corner into the living room.

It was your friend, Discord the draconequus. Of course at that point, I didn’t know who or what he was, so my fear was higher than it had ever been before.

I was about to let my fears through, but he reached up and put a hushing finger to my mouth.

“All will be explained,” he said, holding his other hand up to me, “but first, let’s get you down from there, shall we?”

My fear of him was great, but he was offering assistance and my fear for what was happening was even greater. I took his hand and he pulled me down from the ceiling. There was a floating sensation and I found that I could manoeuvre myself around in the air.

I spun in the air so that my feet were at the floor and the world suddenly span right side up. I dropped to my feet, and then turned to stare at him in wonder and terror.

“What are you?” I asked quietly, shaking his hand off of my arm.

“I, my friend, am Discord the draconequus,” he answered, giving a little bow. “You may never have heard of me, but I need your help.”

“My help specifically, or just help from anyone?” I asked, fear subsiding slightly.

“Well…” he said solemnly, looking down at the floor. “I have no choice now. There’s a time limit to how long I can stay here. When it runs out, your whole world will be in danger.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, fear being replaced by anger at how little he’d explained himself.

“Actually, I shouldn’t have said that…” he muttered, backing away from me slowly. “You won’t believe me and then you’ll take too long anyway…”

“Then talk fast!” I spat at him. “Why are you here and what do you want from me?”

He let out a long and incomprehensible string of words at me, speaking so quickly that I couldn’t understand him. Once he’d finished, he stopped and waited for me to say something.

“What was that?!” I shouted loudly.

“You told me to talk fast,” he chuckled back innocently. “Was that a little too fast for you?”

“It was too fast for anyone!” I yelled. “Say it again, slower this time!”

“Alright, suit yourself,” he said darkly, frowning and crossing his arms dejectedly. “Why I’m here… that can wait, I suppose… but what I want from you is to be my replacement.”

“What?” I said foolishly, still not able to comprehend what he was saying, but on my part this time.

“I need a replacement,” he repeated, enunciating every syllable. “You’re just someone picked at random though, so don’t let it go to your head.”

“What do you need a replacement for?” I asked him.

“Because I’m dying, friend,” he answered sombrely.

-=-=-=-=-

“Wait, Discord was dying?” Rainbow Dash asked loudly, jumping up into the air. “How come he never told us?!”

“Calm down, feisty,” the human replied calmly, waving at her to sit back down. “I’m getting to that part.”

“No, she’s got a point!” Twilight piped up, standing up and facing him. “How did he know he was dying? If he knew that he was dying, why didn’t he say anything to his friends?”

“I just said I’m getting to that,” the human reiterated. “Would you like to hear it or would you like to just keep interrupting me?”

“I think we’d all prefer that you just told us the important parts!” she yelled at him angrily, eyes welling up slightly.

“Well I’d prefer to tell the story,” he replied with a dark sense of humour, “and seeing as I’m the only one who knows all the information you want to know, I don’t think you’re really in a position to negotiate.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but shut it quickly and slowly sat back down. She sent a look of concern at Fluttershy, who was silently crying to the grim news of her friend’s end. The human noticed her tears and snapped his fingers at the ground in front of her. A box of tissues erupted from the ground for her to use, but she remained still.

He gave her a worried look for a moment before continuing his story.

“So anyway…” he said, lifting the book he was reading from back up and turning to a new page.

-=-=-=-=-

“What’s so important about you getting a replacement if you’re dying?” I asked him indifferently, crossing my arms as I waited for his answer.

“Because both of our worlds are in danger,” he said seriously, looking me right in the eye as he said it.

It was a moment before I could respond to that. There was so much truth in what he’d said, but it just didn’t sound possible.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked at last, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “How do you know they’re in danger?”

“It’s very hard to explain, friend,” he stated, not breaking eye contact with me once. “You’d better come with me before it’s too late.”

Then the lights started flickering on and off. He looked up at them and sighed.

“Oh dear, looks like I’ve stayed too long to ask you nicely now,” he said sadly, looking back down at me.

He grabbed my arm again and a pair of handcuffs appeared on our wrists, locking me to him. I pulled against them uselessly as he turned and started dragging me along behind him. I think you’d be surprised at how much strength he had in his skinny body.

“Get these off!” I shouted, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him back to face me. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice anymore,” he said morosely, turning back around to drag me towards the front door. “I’m very sorry about this, but you’ll be back with your family in no time at all.”

It wasn’t technically a lie, but if I’d known what he actually meant, I would’ve fought harder against him.

But, as it was, I believed him and let my guard down slightly.

He led me to the front door of the house and opened it slowly. When it was opened fully, I gasped at what waited for us on the other side.

Before us was a still image of what I could only assume was the end of the world. Humans and ponies like yourselves were frozen in place as they ran from something in the distance, a scream on every face in sight.

He pulled me through the door and into this unknown realm before I could protest. The door slammed behind us and vanished with a pop as I turned around to look back to my own world.

“Where are we?” I asked, turning back to face him.

“This, my friend, is the end of both our worlds put together,” he answered darkly, marching on through the terrified statues.

I followed him slowly.

“What is this, the future?” I asked him as I examined a terrified pony that I passed. “And what are these things?”

“They’re ponies; citizens of my world,” he explained, not stopping for even a second, “and a place you’ll have to spend the rest of your time.”

“What?!” I shouted, running to catch him. “You said I’d get to see my family again!”

“No, I said ‘in no time at all’,” he said with a crestfallen smile, “which, in my mind, means no amount of time can be used to show it.”

“You lied to me!” I spat at him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him against a wall aggressively.

“You aren’t my replacement yet, friend,” he said sadly, vanishing in a puff of smoke. I punched at the wall and spun around as he reappeared behind me. “As for your first question; no. This is just what I imagine the future to be, but it’ll become reality unless we stop it.”

“’We’?! I shot back, lunging at him. He was replaced suddenly by a bubbly figure of himself which dissipated as I came into contact with it. I spun round to search for him. “What do you mean, we?!”

“Well, ‘you’ is more specific,” he said from directly above me. “Remember I said I needed a replacement? Well I’m a spirit of chaos. THE spirit of chaos, mind you. Meaning the only one.”

“What’s that even mean?!” I shouted, stepping away from where he hovered.

“It means, my friend, that when I die, the chaos I control will run free throughout the land,” he answered, dropping down to my level. “Or rather, lands. Plural. Yours and mine.”

“Get to the point!” I yelled, grabbing him by the neck and picking him up. I dropped him suddenly as I realised my strength that I didn’t have before. “What…?”

“Am I saying?” he finished, chuckling lightly. “I don’t know myself half the time. This time isn’t one of those times, though.” He frowned lightly and looked down at the ground. “What I’m saying right now is that when I die, chaos will spread through both our worlds like wildfire.”

“I got that part,” I muttered, looking down at my hand in awe. “How am I supposed to stop it?”

“Of course I picked someone who doesn’t listen…” he said to himself, shaking his head disappointedly. He looked back up at me. “By becoming my replacement! If you value the lives of every single person in existence, that is.”

“But…” I said quietly, head spinning. “This doesn’t make any sense…”

“Then I’ll explain it all again,” he said exhaustedly, like he’d already gone through it ten times. “I’m dying because I am a spirit of chaos and I’ve been in harmony for too long. When I die, the chaos that I control will run free because there will be nothing keeping it in check. I need you to take over for me, because there’s no stopping it now.”

“No…” I said, mind only on one thing even now. “Why can’t I see my family again?”

“Your world has seen too much chaos already,” he replied in a grim tone. “It almost killed me twice over just to hold the chaos from breaking free there as long as I did and I’m more experienced with chaos than you’ll ever be. If you go back there, you’ll not only be killing them, but everyone you know, everyone I know, and everyone else. Chaos is a deadly thing, after all.”

I felt my eyes start to water as I thought of the last time I would ever see my family.

I remembered the first time I met my wife. The greatest thing I’d ever seen my daughter do. All the fun we’d had together as a family.

It would never happen again. Not unless I intended to see them suffer.

It was just a question of whether I wanted to let them live but not live with them or be with them and kill them.

I knew which one I’d pick, no question.

“What… what do I need to do?” I asked, letting the tears streak down my face. “I’ll do anything for them, just tell me what I need to do.”

“I really am sorry for all this,” he said gravely, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t need your sympathy!” I screamed, shaking his hand off and glaring up at him. “You’ve already told me; you’re dying! I don’t need a dying man’s pity!”

“I’m just trying to help,” he said slowly. “I guess that’s not going to be helpful in this situation…” He shook himself into a better mood. “Anyway! We’re in part of my own mind, somewhere in Equestria. When you leave, you’ll wake up somewhere in my world. Understood?”

“How does… how does that work?” I asked, feeling my knees buckle. I looked up at him. “How can I be in your world, but not mine?”

“My world is ridden with harmony,” he explained. “There’s so much harmony, it needed element bearers at one point. Your world doesn’t and, therefore, cannot support the existence of a spirit of chaos.”

I nodded bleakly, understanding what he was getting at.

“Now, there’s one thing I want you to remember,” he said, lifting me back up to standing. “When you get there, you need to create chaos, but you also need to make friends. That’s the most important thing I can say.”

“Right…” I agreed weakly, head dipping to the floor. “Make chaos… make friends… got it…”

“And another thing,” he continued. “Stop being so down about it all! Your family and your friends and everyone is living on thanks to you! Be happy that you’re making this sacrifice! I could have met someone bent on the destruction of the universe!”

He slapped me across the face a few times, snapping me out of the trance I was falling into.

“Yes…” I muttered, grabbing his arm and pushing him away. “Yes. Yes, it’s good. It’s… very good. I need to… create chaos. Make friends. Who are the best candidates?”

“You’ll know everything I know when you leave here,” he said sadly. “You’ll know who to talk to.”

He pointed at something behind me. When I turned around to see it, it turned out to be a door floating in the air. I assumed it was going to be the way out of here.

“Head through that,” he explained. “Once you do, it’ll take you out of my mind and into Equestria. There you’ll have to find your own way. But, with my knowledge and memories, you should be fine.”

“What else happens when I go through?” I asked, turning to face the door fully. “That can’t be it.”

“No, it’s not,” he replied sadly. “I’ll become one with you, as I am the spirit of chaos right now and you are to become the next spirit of chaos. I will still be in your mind, but not for very long. I’ll be gone soon, but expect another presence in your mind until that happens.”

“Right,” I said. “Thank you.”

“I should be thanking you, friend,” he chuckled with a tip of an imaginary hat. “Best of luck to you. Oh yes, and tell Fluttershy and her friends I wish her all the best.”

I turned to see a tear fall from his eye, but I didn’t say anything. Instead, I opened the door leading out of his mind and into Equestria. With a foreboding sense of grim anticipation, I stepped through and into a new world.

-=-=-=-=-

“Which is when I stepped out here,” the human finished, waving at his surroundings. “And so a new story begins.” He slammed the book shut. “The end! Wasn’t that fun?”

“Wait…” Twilight breathed, think what the human had said over. “But… there’s so much that you didn’t explain! Surely Discord would’ve given you more of an explanation than just ‘you’ll become one with him’!”

“That wasn’t the question I asked, princess,” he replied darkly, snapping his fingers at her head, where a dunce hat appeared. “Honestly, if I were a teacher, you’d get an F.”

“I thought it was fun!” Pinkie put in helpfully, giving a strained smile. “I really liked the part where… um… where it…”

“You don’t have to like any of it, Pinkie,” the human explained sadly. “You lost your friend and I lost my family. If you liked any of that, there’s something wrong with you.”

“Is… Discord still in your head?” Twilight asked, standing up and staring at the human as tears streaked down her face.

The human nodded slowly.

“Then… could we talk to him, please?” she asked as politely as she could.

“I knew there was something I left out…” he muttered to himself. “I’m afraid I can’t. He told me that if he lets me let him back out, he won’t be in my mind anymore. If that’s the case there’ll be nothing holding the chaos back for when he… passes on.”

“You didn’t say that in the story!” Rainbow Dash yelled, flying up to the human’s face. “Now we just gotta ask if that whole story was true or not!”

“Oh, it was as true as I could make it, feisty,” he told her, smirking lightly. “I just forgot to add that one little truth in. It’s very hard to think up a whole story like that on the spot.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you needed to bring us all the way out here, though!” Applejack yelled angrily, standing up to stomp towards the human. “You coulda told us back in town for everyone to hear so you won’t make ponies panic that much next time they see you!”

“Oh, I’m just making plot holes left and right…” the human whispered, chuckling quietly to some unheard joke. “I also forgot to mention that he would be most present at the point he left Equestria at, where I would find myself here. If I showed you my reflection far away enough from this point, it would just be my reflection you’d see.”

“There’s a lot more than just that you missed out!” Twilight shouted, approaching him aggressively. “I don’t think the only rule was ‘make chaos and make friends’! There’s got to be more to it than that!”

“Oh, there is, princess,” the human replied with cruel enjoyment. “I just don’t want to tell you.”

He pulled his hands in above his head, and the foliage above them grew across the clearing and left them all in the dark. There was a sudden pop, and the human had left them.

“He’s gone!” Rainbow stated, flailing about in the air to feel for him. “That stupid…!”

“Girls, I’ve got some light here!” Twilight yelled, horn igniting as she cast a light spell.

Her friends huddled around her to stay in the light. After doing a quick tally of who was with her, Twilight realised that one of them was missing.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight called out, sending a beam of light out to scan the clearing. “Where are you?”

“Here…” Fluttershy whispered from where she had been sitting while the human told his story.

“Are you alright?” Pinkie Pie asked, moving over to help her friend up.

“I’m… fine…” Fluttershy whimpered, clearly the contrary.

“Let’s get back to Ponyville,” Applejack suggested, heading off in the direction of the town. “Ah’ll bet we find that human making chaos there for everypony.”

“It’s like Discord’s return all over again…” Rarity muttered. She quickly clarified. “You know, back before he was good.”

“With any luck, he won’t create too much chaos,” Twilight commented, following Applejack as she led the way home.

They headed on in silence, emotions mixed about the human’s story. Whether it was true or not, none of them could say, but there were definitely some things that the human had not put into that story.

It wasn’t until the outskirts of Ponyville that they heard a scream from somewhere in the town.

A glance was shared between them all before they rushed off to the source of the scream.

Chapter Three: Acceptance

As the girls galloped towards the source of the scream, another unmistakable sound started to come into hearing range.

It was the sound of fire.

The smoke rising in the distance confirmed it.

“’Won’t create too much chaos’ you said!” Rainbow spat at Twilight furiously, glaring at her as they hurried towards the pillar of smoke.

“I said ‘hopefully’!” Twilight replied in a panicked tone.

“Yeah, yeah,” was Rainbow’s only reply before she flew up to round up some rain clouds to combat the blaze.

It turned out that a single house was burning, home to a very contrasting pair of musicians. Already, the fire brigade was working to extinguish the blaze and with Rainbow’s help, it would be put out in no time.

Only one of the musicians it housed could be seen safe outside the building though.

“Tavi’s still in there!” yelled Vinyl Scratch, one of the home’s occupants.

“Ah’m on it!” Applejack yelled, charging past the fire team to kick the door down and barrelling into the burning building.

“She’s a brave one, isn’t she?” said the human from beside Twilight, making her jump.

“What did you do?!” she yelled at him angrily. “You’ve put ponies’ lives in danger!”

“Whatever do you mean, princess?” he asked, putting a hand over his chest in shock.

“You know what I mean!” she answered, scowling at him fiercely. “You set a building on fire! Somepony’s still in there!”

“Oh, I didn’t start this fire, princess,” he replied with a sly grin. She raised an accusing eyebrow. “That’s the truth. Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“He pinkie promised, Twilight!” Pinkie whispered frantically, leaning close to Twilight’s ear. “Discord knew what it meant and now so does he!”

“Okay, okay!” Twilight replied, snapping back to face the fire. “Just help us put it out!”

“Now why would I do that?” he asked innocently, staring up at the burning building amusedly.

“Because two ponies are in there and in danger!” Rarity shouted, stepping in front of the human and snarling at him. “Our friend just risked her life and she’s a normal pony! You’re a spirit of chaos, aren’t you? So use the abilities that you have as a spirit of chaos!”

“Oh, suit yourself…” he replied quietly, looking down at the ground and snapping his fingers.

A giant, upside down glass appeared over the house, which dropped down to encase the whole building and the blaze it was fuelling. Several of the fire brigade shouted some angry protests and rounded on the human.

“What is this?!” yelled one of them, approaching aggressively. “We need to get that fire out!”

“The glass will starve the fire of oxygen,” the human replied calmly. “I’m helping put it out. You should be thanking me.”

Twilight thought to herself quietly, debating the human’s logic. After a minute, her eyes darted back up to the glass and she ran forwards, horn igniting. The human popped out of existence and rematerialized in front of her to deflect the bolt of magic she fired at the glass with a hand mirror.

“What are you doing?!” she screamed. “You’ll suffocate them too! And with the fire already burning up all the oxygen, they won’t make it out!”

“And what happens when fire is supplied with a sudden burst of oxygen?” he asked, tapping her horn disapprovingly. She looked down at the ground in shame before he continued, “Exactly. It blazes over. You’d kill them both instantly. And to think you’re the smart one of the group!”

She didn’t reply. Instead, she stared up at the dying fire with growing concern. She wondered if Applejack and Octavia were safe from the fire on its own. The human smirked cruelly at the building and crossed his arms expectantly.

After a few minutes, the last fiery embers vanished and the fire was out. Twilight looked up at the human hopefully.

“Now get rid of it please!” she pleaded. “The fire’s out! We need to get them out of there!”

“Let’s make sure the fire’s out first,” he said, raising a hand at her and keeping his eyes on the imprisoned house. “Give it another minute.”

“They’ll die!” Rarity shouted, spinning back to face the human. “There’s no air left in there for them to breathe!”

“Any fire that’s in there now won’t be large enough to cause any more problems!” Twilight added, sending a bolt of lightning up at the glass. It cracked slightly. “Let them out! Please!”

“I’m just making sure,” the human replied, waving at them innocently.

“Please, just let them out,” Fluttershy whimpered, drawing the human’s attention to her.

His expression shifted from one of cruel enjoyment to one of sorrow for a moment.

“Alright…” he breathed, approaching the glass and putting a hand against it.

As soon as he did so, it shattered into tiny pieces, showering the house with sparkling shards of glass. In a second, Rainbow Dash shot into the building, followed swiftly by three members of the fire brigade.

“You’d better hope they’re okay!” Twilight yelled, marching in front of the human. “If they’re not, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” the human snarled, leaning down to glare her right in the eye. “Because last I heard, your ability to do ANYTHING about me was put back into a tree to keep Equestria safe.”

Twilight shied away from him a little, eyes darting to anything else so as not to look the human in the eye. After a moment of glaring at her, the human stood up straight again and looked back to the building.

Despite Twilight’s growing fear, Rainbow Dash and the fire brigade emerged from the building, carrying two ponies between them. Twilight, her friends and Vinyl Scratch all ran towards them, all hopeful for their friends’ wellbeing.

“Applejack, are you okay?” Pinkie Pie yelled, leaning over her unconscious friend.

Rainbow Dash held her back before explaining, “She’s okay, but the fire put her out for a while.”

Pinkie Pie sagged a little, but managed a shaky smile.

“I know a spell that can wake them up!” Twilight announced, horn lighting up to cast it.

“I think it might be a better idea to let them recover naturally, ma’am,” a member of the fire brigade explained quickly.

Her horn went out and she put on a worried expression. The human stepped forwards, met only by the fire brigade forming a line to stop him approaching.

“Whoa, back off, buddy!” one of them barked, waving him back. “You’re the reason they’re in this state!”

“No, I’m the reason they’re alive,” he snapped back, glaring at the pony who’d spoken. “Now get out of my way before I get you out of my way myself.”

“What do you want to do to them?” the fire pony asked unsurely, taking a step back.

“Wake them up,” the human said seriously, stepping past the fire brigade slowly.

A container appeared in his hand and he popped off the lid, then leaned down and waved it by Applejack’s nose. She breathed in deeply and her eyes opened suddenly.

“What the…?“ she breathed, snapping back to consciousness. “What happened? Why am I out here now?”

“You blacked out due to lack of oxygen,” the human explained, moving to the other pony to rouse her from her unconsciousness.

The other pony mimicked Applejack’s reaction to the smelling salts. As soon as she was awake, the human smirked and vanished with a puff of smoke.

“Tavi, are you alright?” Vinyl asked, pushing past the other ponies in the crowd. “You’re not hurt are you?”

“Am I alright?” Octavia repeated, staring at her roommate incredulously. “Am I ALRIGHT?! Oh, that’s rich! Coming from the pony who started it all!”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Vinyl thought of what had just been said.

“You think I started that?!” she yelled at last, scowling. “I’m not the one who was playing around with the microwave!”

“I was cooking dinner, you stupid featherbrain!” Octavia screamed, standing up straight and pushing Vinyl away. “And I’m not the one who plays with pyrotechnics in her bedroom all the time!”

“Girls, calm down!” Twilight shouted, stepping in between the two of them. “It might just have been a machine malfunctioning!”

Vinyl pushed her away and snarled at her roommate.

“I don’t do that up in my bedroom!” she shouted. “And you’ve started fires with the microwave before!”

"That were small and easily put out!" snapped Octavia loudly, stepping closer to her roommate aggressively.

There was another crack and the crowd’s attention was suddenly drawn to the recently detonated firework in the sky. The human stared up at it with morose enjoyment before turning to the crowd.

“Your attention, please!” he yelled, raising his arms to draw the crowds full attention to him. “I have something I would like to say!” He cleared his throat to project his voice better. “I may have started a fire that may have led to the fire we just witnessed!”

“You…” Twilight breathed, shaking her head disbelievingly. “B-but… you pinkie promised! You’re a liar!”

“Oh no, princess,” he said, sneering, “I never promised that I didn’t start a fire, I just promised that I hadn’t started THIS one.”

“Why?!” Rainbow Dash roared, flying up to his face with a snarl on hers. “What’s in it for you, seeing ponies’ lives being put in danger?!”

“Chaos, my dear,” the human replied calmly, smirking at her. “That’s what I was tasked with creating, and that is what I intend to create to the fullest extent.”

“You…!” Rainbow yelled, swinging a hoof back to hit him.

He vanished before she could touch him.

“It’s okay, everypony!” Twilight yelled to the crowd. “We’ve got it under control! We’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone!”

“Will we?” Rainbow hissed, turning to face Twilight with no good intention. “Because last I checked, we don’t have anything to use against him!”

“Rainbow, be quiet!” Twilight whispered, trying to keep good appearances for the worrying crowd. “Do you want to scare everypony?”

“Go back about your business, ponies!” Applejack yelled, heading over to join Twilight. “We’ll sort this out before it goes too far!”

The crowd began to disperse, albeit worriedly, leaving the fire brigade to clear up their equipment and make the building safe. The girls regrouped, some of them less pleased than others, and realised that they were one short again.

“Where did Fluttershy go?” asked Pinkie Pie, looking around for her missing friend.

“I think she needs some time on her own,” Rarity supplied sadly, looking off in the direction of Fluttershy’s home. “We’ll all go and check in on her later.”

-=-=-=-=-

Not far away, Fluttershy trotted slowly through the streets of Ponyville, her face pointed at the ground. There were some tears flowing from her eyes, but she didn’t wipe them away. She just headed back to her home in grim silence.

She sniffled lightly, eyes for nothing but the ground in front of her. It was then that she realised that she wasn’t alone. Nevertheless, her gaze remained on the ground.

“Hello, Fluttershy,” said the human solemnly, breaking the silence she had put herself into.

“Hello…” she replied sadly, glancing up at him quickly.

“Are you alright?” he asked, stepping in front of her and stopping her in her tracks.

“I’m fine…” she whispered, contradicting herself with how she’d said it.

“No, you’re not,” he said, slowly crouching down to her level. He put a hand on her cheek before continuing. “I know you’re upset, but I just want to know if I can do anything to help you.”

“Why do you want to help me?” she sobbed, moving her face away from his hand.

“Because you’re the closest thing to friend I have right now,” he replied sincerely.

She looked at him in puzzlement before asking, “You think of me as a friend?”

“You were Discord’s closest friend,” he explained. “Seeing as I have Discord inside my head, I feel an obligation to become your friend myself. I know you don’t want Discord to go, but he’ll have to soon.”

Fluttershy whimpered and looked down at the ground again. He squeezed her chin gently and brought her head back up to look at him.

“I really am sorry about this, Fluttershy,” he said gravely, a single tear dripping from his eye. “If it makes you feel any better, you weren’t the only one who lost something in all this.”

“Why would that make me feel better?” she cried, dropping onto her haunches. “Nopony should have lost anything…”

“Some of us had to lose something, Fluttershy,” he replied seriously, stepping closer to hug her warmly. “If we hadn’t lost something, everyone would’ve had to lose everything.”

Fluttershy sobbed into his shoulder and wrapped her hooves around him.

“I d-don’t like losing f-friends…” she wept, holding him tightly.

“He’s not lost,” he replied, pulling away to look her in the eye. “Not if you hold onto him.” He touched her chest. “In here.”

“Th-thank you…” she whimpered, pulling him back into a hug again.

It lasted a minute before she pulled away from him and sniffled again.

“Now,” he said, standing up straight, “dry those tears and we’ll take you home.”

He snapped his fingers and a handkerchief appeared in his hand, which he offered to her. She took it to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. When she was done, the human took it back from her and it turned into bubbles in his hand.

They set off towards Fluttershy’s home, neither of them saying another word.

Author's Note

This chapter was written in three hours so sorry if it's badly written :fluttershysad:

Chapter Four: Anger

It was when the sun began to set over Equestria that Rainbow Dash located the human again.

He was sitting outside Fluttershy’s house, reaching out to the creatures that were lightly sniffing at his fingers to determine whether he was a threat or not. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, however, and that meant he could only be there without her knowing or even letting him.

With an angry growl, she shot towards him, eager to give him a piece of her mind for everything that he had done today and everything that he was doing now. She spun around in the air, ready to deliver a strong kick to his arm to keep those defenceless and unknowing animals safe.

He didn’t even look at her as a large, kite-shaped shield appeared on his arm and blocked the kick that she was ready to deliver. Rainbow felt something snap out of place at the impact with the shield, but tried as hard as she could to not let it show on her face.

“Hello, feisty,” he said indifferently, not even glancing at her. “Before you shoot first and ask later, maybe you should remind yourself who you’re dealing with.”

“What are you doing here?” she spat at him, trying to keep her leg stable so it wouldn’t hurt as much. “You better hope Fluttershy’s okay with this, or I’m gonna kick the hide off you.”

“You mean you’ll try,” the human sighed, looking up at her at last. He regarded her leg for a moment before his uncaring expression shifted to one of concern. “That looks painful. Would you like me to help with that?”

“It’s f-fine!” she replied angrily, but her strained voice betrayed her.

“No, it’s not,” he stated surely, standing up and turning to her. “By the looks of it, your leg is broken. The longer we leave it, the more painful it will be. Now come on and let me help you.”

“Why would you want to help me?” she asked, moving away from him as he approached. “You tried to hurt my friend today and just made chaos for everybody! What’s different now?”

“Nothing’s different now,” he said, teleporting to behind her and taking hold of her leg firmly. She yelped as it moved out of place, but didn’t try to get away. “Me helping you now will create chaos; you’re thinking that I don’t care but I’m helping, causing conflicting opinions and, therefore, chaos.”

“Well… now that you’ve told me that, it won’t,” Rainbow replied, letting the human wrap the leg in a magical bandage that appeared from nowhere.

“I know, I just made that up,” he said humourlessly. “I’m just helping you because I want to help you. I hate letting people stay in trouble when I can do something to help.”

“You sure didn’t care about that earlier,” she replied crossly, crossing her forelegs disappointedly.

“That was a problem I caused,” he answered. “When I am causing the problem intentionally, I usually have good reason and I wouldn’t really care too much. When I haven’t caused it or indirectly caused it and can help resolve it, I will usually try to do something about it. Now hold still, you have something in your ear.”

He reached up to her ear and began to pull warm, wet plaster out to cast the leg with, much to her disapproval and amusement at the same time.

“Indirect, my flank,” she said as he wrapped it around the bandage. “You knew what would happen when you put that shield up.”

“And you knew what would happen when you tried to kick my arm in half,” he added, giving her a serious look. “I was defending myself. You should have expected that.”

“Whatever,” she waved it away as a hair dryer appeared in his hand, which he used to dry the cast with.

“That should be alright for now,” he said once he was sure the cast was dried. “Make sure you head to the hospital as soon as you can though. I may be a spirit of chaos in training, but I’m no doctor.”

“Thanks, I guess,” she muttered, looking away from him.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, nodding. “I’m going to assume this won’t help you see me as a friend though, unless you’re considering it right now.”

“Like heck I am,” she spat, snarling at him angrily. “You nearly killed my friend today and then you tell me you’re happy to help somepony who needs it. That’s just messed up on so many levels.”

“Chaos is a strange thing, feisty,” he replied calmly, leaning back and crossing his arms sombrely.

“My name’s Rainbow Dash, featherbrain,” she snarled.

“Oh, I know,” he said simply, “I just prefer using nicknames.”

The door to Fluttershy’s house opened up and out stepped Fluttershy, carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and some bread on it in her mouth. She staggered when she saw Rainbow Dash and the tray slipped from her grip. Before anything could drop or spill, the human lunged towards it with his hand outstretched. He was too far away to actually catch it, or so Rainbow Dash thought.

His whole arm stretched to reach the tray and his hand widened to support the tray as he caught it.

He stood there for a moment in stunned silence before speaking. “Whoa,” he breathed. “He was right when he said I could do all kinds of things.”

“I’m sorry,” whispered Fluttershy, taking the tray back from him. As soon as she did, his hand returned to normal.

“It’s okay,” he replied, moving forward to put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.” He took the tray from her and nodded appreciatively. “Thank you for this.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the tray in shock. “You’re feeding him now?” she yelled angrily. “Why? Why are you trying to be nice to him after what he did today?!”

“Take it out on me, feisty,” the human snarled, dipping a slice of bread into the soup and taking a bite. He didn’t even look at her as he ate. “I’m the one that deserves it, not her.”

“What happened to your leg?” Fluttershy asked, noticing the cast for the first time.

“He broke it!” she snapped, pointing at the human aggressively. “I thought he was going to hurt your animal friends and I tried to stop him, but he stopped me by breaking my leg!”

“It was a natural response,” the human explained. “She would’ve kicked my arm in half and I merely defended myself. I did cast it for her though.”

His eyelid twitched as he chewed his food.

“Yeah, he helped me out with it, but he still broke it!” Rainbow yelled, spreading her wings out angrily.

“If it helps, I’m sorry,” he said seriously. “As I’ve already said, it was a natural response.” He tipped the soup bowl up to his mouth to finish it off and put it back on the tray. “You’d do the same.”

“Well, at least you’ve said sorry, I guess,” Fluttershy muttered, looking down at the ground.

“That won’t fix my leg, Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted, rounding on her friend aggressively. “Why are you standing up for him even after that?!”

The human growled quietly and shuddered suddenly, but said nothing.

“Because he’s my friend,” Fluttershy answered quietly, rubbing her leg anxiously.

“I’m a better friend than him!” Rainbow snapped, flapping closer to Fluttershy. “Yeah, he’s got to be evil, but that doesn’t excuse him from what he’s doing!”

“I would suggest you stopped talking to her in that way, Rainbow Dash,” the human spat, putting a hand on her shoulder to pull her back.

She shrugged him off. “I’m getting to you,” she snarled, giving him a quick glance of hate. “Fluttershy, who do you want to help more? Your closest friends or some jerk that wants to make chaos?!”

Fluttershy whimpered and shrank down in fear, eyes welling up. Rainbow suddenly felt something cold behind her; not touching her, but giving off a cold air. She turned quickly to face the human, but the sight that greeted her made her gasp.

The human was surrounded by a pale blue aura, like flames, and his eyes had turned bright red. In his hand, there was a flaming sword, which he gripped so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Two of his teeth had lengthened into sharp fangs, which protruded from his snarling mouth.

“Whoa,” Rainbow breathed, backing away slowly.

“James, no!” Fluttershy yelled, stepping towards the raging human quickly. She didn’t enter the blue flames around him.

“James?” Rainbow asked blankly, looking between the human and Fluttershy anxiously.

The human twitched in place for a second, and then the flames began to fade. His teeth shrank back and his eyes returned to their natural colour. He stood still as a statue for a moment before he spun and slammed the sword into the floor.

“WHY?!” he roared, hurling it up into the sky, where it vanished. “WHY AM I HERE?! WHY ME?!”

Rainbow Dash backed away from him quickly as he collapsed onto the ground and sobbed. Fluttershy looked ready to start crying too, but she kept her emotions in check and marched towards him slowly. She put her hoof on his shoulder, but he snapped up at her with a snarl, knocking her hoof away.

His look of anger quickly turned to one of sadness. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, drooping back to the floor. “I’m sorry. He’s… he’s angry too. He’s upset. He doesn’t want to go.”

“Discord?” Fluttershy asked in surprise, anxiously leaning down to him.

“He wants out,” the human breathed, grabbing hold of his head with both hands. “He wants back out and I can’t let him!” He jumped back up and stomped away from her. “STAY IN MY HEAD!! YOU COME BACK AND I CAN’T TAKE CONTROL AND THEN WE ALL DIE!!”

He shuddered violently and collapsed suddenly. Fluttershy ran over to help him back up, but he held a hand up to stop her.

“I can handle this!” he shouted at her, slowly climbing back to his feet. “He just doesn’t want to go! He wants to stay but I can’t let him or we all die!”

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” yelled Twilight Sparkle from not too far away. “We heard someone shouting!”

“I’m going,” the human barked, tears rolling down his cheeks as he shuddered again.

And just like that, he was gone.

As Twilight Sparkle and her friends approached, Fluttershy let out a quiet, little whimper. Rainbow Dash flew to meet her friends, but Fluttershy merely stared at the place the human had vanished.

Her friends began to chatter about what had happened and she knew she would have to get in on the conversation to counter Rainbow’s biased opinion of things.

In the distance, there was a scream of rage. She stared in its direction before heading over to join her friends sombrely.

-=-=-=-=-

The shout of anger was heard by a patrolling princess Luna.

Her sister had received a message from Twilight Sparkle about what had happened today, concerning Discord and... this human. Luna had volunteered to check it out for herself, of course, and had promised that she would find this human and talk to him about his chaotic ways.

That shout seemed to be her best lead.

She soared in its direction quickly, thinking up all the different ways she could word her first meeting with him. If what Twilight had said was true, and it most probably was, he wasn’t a very difficult individual to reason with, but all of this would still have to go smoothly for things to work out well anyway.

After a minute, she spotted what could only be the human up by the edge of the Everfree forest, surrounded by punching bags hanging from rods of metal that defied the laws of physics. He looked to be lashing out wildly at every one of them, and when his blows connected, they would fly off the rods and puff out of existence before being replaced by another.

She landed not too far away from where he was viciously striking the punching bags and slowly trotted over to meet him. Before she could reach him, he swung his leg in a wide arc at a punching bag. The kick was either well or badly aimed, as it flew straight at Luna’s head. She ducked just in time to avoid it.

“What do you want?” the human spat at her, turning to glare at her.

“Um… greetings!” she said unsurely. This was already going wrong. “I am pr –“

“Princess Luna,” he interrupted, marching off into the forest. “I know who you are.”

“Excuse me, I wasn’t finished!” she called after him.

“Then walk and talk!” he yelled back, not even turning back to look at her.

She kept her annoyed comments to herself and hurried after him. She lit up her horn to give some light for them to see, but it looked like the human didn’t need it.

“Now get to the point,” he growled after she’d caught up with him.

“I just wanted to talk to you about... how should I put it…?” she trailed off, looking to the top of her head in thought.

“Me being evil?” he supplied darkly, making a cutting motion at a tree in his path. It was severed at the stump and he pushed it over with ease before stepping over the stump. “What’s there to say about it?”

“Well… quite a lot actually,” she stated politely, not willing to get on the wrong side of him. “You see, if what princess Twilight says is true, you can’t stop making chaos. All I want you to do is to create it somewhere it won’t hurt or scare ponies.”

“Chaos that nobody experiences isn’t chaos, moony,” he replied. “That’s what Discord told me; I have to make chaos for people so I can break the harmony of everyday life.”

“Hmm… princess Twilight failed to mention that in her letter…” Luna remarked.

“She didn’t, I just never told her.”

“So… you didn’t give her the whole story?” Luna stepped in front of the human to stop him. “Then I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you for all the details. This is something we’ll need to know.”

“You don’t need to know if I know it, moony.” He vanished and reappeared behind her before marching deeper into the forest. “I get that you don’t trust me, but telling you is just going to give you power over me. I’m not letting that happen.”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “I’m sorry, but you don’t have a choice in the matter!” she yelled angrily, infuriated that he hadn’t even given her a single shred of care.

“I’m in a bad enough mood already, moony,” he snapped, yanking his arm away sharply. “Don’t make it worse for me.”

“I am putting the lives of many ponies in priority!” she yelled, stepping closer dominantly. “If there are parts of that story that we need to know to help keep them safe, then I will have to get those details out of you by any means necessary!”

“Are you threatening me?” the human growled, taking a step closer. “Because that’s a stupid thing to do when I’m not thinking straight, princess.”

She put a hoof on his chest and pushed him backwards a step. “You’re new to all this power you have,” she snapped. “I doubt you could do anything to a princess of Equestria.”

“Really?” he asked quietly. His eyes flashed and he shuddered. “Thank you, Discord.” He grabbed Luna by the horn so suddenly that she couldn’t even react. “At least SOMEONE cares about the situation I’m in.”

There was a sensation of being dragged through the air all of a sudden, and Luna realised he had teleported the two of them to somewhere else in the forest.

“What are you doing?!” she shouted, shaking him off of her horn. “Are you aiming to anger a princess of Equestria?!”

“Oh, you’re all bark and no bite,” he said with a cruel laugh. “The real question is; were you aiming to anger a spirit of chaos with all the knowledge of a chaotic veteran in his head?”

Luna snarled and ignited her horn as he flicked something up into the air in front of her. She regarded it for a second before she realised something horrible.

Her horn was still in the human’s hand.

“To be honest, I didn’t think that would work,” he said as he noticed her expression change, spinning her horn around his finger deftly. “I guess anger can really give you super strength.”

He vanished suddenly and there was a tap on Luna’s back. She spun to face it and found that her wings were missing too. Her horror only grew as the light from her horn went out at last.

“Have fun getting home, ‘princess’ Luna,” the human spat at her.

He let the words hang in the air for a minute before vanishing again, leaving her alone who knew where in the Everfree forest.

Chapter Five: Bargaining

Princess Celestia was worried.

Her sister had left to go and talk with this human last night, but still wasn’t back by noon the next day, and that wasn’t even taking the newly appointed spirit of chaos that was a danger to her subjects into account.

Presently, she was taking her chariot to Ponyville to talk to princess Twilight about this. If anyone would know anything, she surely would. If all else failed, she would just have to confront this human personally.

She hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that though; she didn’t like the idea of having to face him without the elements of harmony with her.

She sighed. Luna hadn’t been so cautious, of course but, with any luck, she wouldn’t need them. She wasn’t holding her breath about it.

As princess Twilight’s castle approached, Celestia mulled the idea of talking to the human over and over again. If she had to talk to him, she would have to be very careful with what she said; there was a horrible feeling that if she said the wrong thing, she would regret it.

The chariot landed in front of princess Twilight’s castle and she snapped herself back into reality with a quick shake of her head. She stepped off the chariot and trotted towards the entrance. The doors opened before she could touch them and princess Twilight stepped out to hug her warmly.

“I’m so glad you came, princess Celestia,” said Twilight, pulling out of the hug slowly. “You got my message, I take it?”

“Yes, I did, Twilight,” Celestia replied, nodding sombrely. “But I’m afraid that’s not the reason I came.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “But… why else would you be here?” she asked.

“Luna was here last night,” Celestia answered. “Is she still here?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen her since we all met up last. What would make her come here anyway?”

“I see…” Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. “She came here to speak to that human you mentioned. Do you know where I might find him? He might know something about where to find her.”

“Are you sure you want to talk to him right now?” Twilight asked, ears flattening against her head. “Fluttershy said he was very upset last night. He might still be in that state.”

“I must, Twilight,” Celestia said, bowing her head sadly. “Luna has never been away for this long without her letting me know. I’m worried about what’s happened to her.”

“Well… Fluttershy told me that she welcomed him to stay at her house, but I didn’t see him when we left her last night.”

“I’ll check with her then; he might have gone back to her when you weren’t around.”

“Do you want me to help? He can be… a bit of a problem to deal with.”

“If you think that would be a good idea, then you’re welcome to.” Celestia nodded at the guards that were harnessed to the chariot. “At ease, gentlemen. I’ll be gone for a while.”

They saluted to her quickly and unstrapped themselves from the chariot.

“I’m sure he’ll know where she is anyway,” Twilight remarked, leading the way to Fluttershy’s cottage. “I’ve come to the conclusion that if there’s a problem, he’ll be the one behind it.”

The statement hung in the air as they headed onward. As they did so, there was a grim feeling in Celestia’s gut that they were being watched.

Twilight didn’t seem to have the same feeling, however, so she just put it down to slight paranoia.

-=-=-=-=-

When they arrived, Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Twilight knocked on the door to check if Fluttershy was inside, but when no answer came after a few minutes, she reasoned that Fluttershy must have already left.

Celestia sighed, looking down at the ground. “Well this is… problematic…” she muttered gravely. “Do you have any idea where she could be, Twilight?”

“At this time, anywhere in town,” Twilight answered sadly. “I would say we could ask Rainbow Dash to see if she can find her for us, but she’s in hospital right now.”

“Oh?” said Celestia inquisitively. “What put her in hospital?”

“I did,” said a disembodied voice from right beside Celestia’s ear, making her jump away in surprise.

The feeling of being watched came back into Celestia’s mind.

“Who’s there?” she called, turning her head to search for the voice’s owner.

“I am,” the voice whispered, directly in front of Celestia.

“This is not funny, James!” Twilight yelled angrily, spinning around to try to locate him. “Where are you?”

“Here,” said ‘James’ from behind the two of them. They spun around quickly to see him stood there, wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday. His eyes looked bloodshot and his hair was much more untidy than the day before.

Celestia put on her warmest smile to greet the human kindly. “Hello there!” she said jovially. “I am princess Celestia! Welcome to Equestria!”

“I know who you are,” the human stated darkly. He waved a hand at Twilight. “She’s just said who I am, so I won’t introduce myself.”

“Very well,” Celestia agreed with a small nod. “If you know who I am, you must also know my sister.”

“That I do,” the human spat with grim distaste.

Celestia raised an eyebrow accusingly. “I’m sensing you don’t like her,” she said seriously.

“No, I don’t,” he replied.

“And why is that?”

“She likes kicking a man while he’s down.”

“I don’t quite understand. Could you perhaps give me a little more detail?”

The human sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Last night, we had words, she and I,” he said, staring Celestia right in the eye. “I wasn’t in a good frame of mind and she didn’t seem to care.”

“Then you know where she is,” Celestia said quickly, changing the subject back to what she wanted it to be.

“Oh yes,” the human said with a cruel smirk.

“Then where is she?” Twilight interjected, stepping closer to him.

He snapped his fingers and a gift-wrapped box appeared out of thin air. He caught it before it dropped and handed it to Celestia, who took it grudgingly.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Open it,” the human ordered, not breaking eye contact with her for even a second.

With a growing sense of dread, she untied the ribbon and slowly unwrapped the box. Once all the wrapping paper was removed, she cautiously lifted the lid of the box and braced herself for the worst.

“W-what is this?” she breathed as the contents of the box came into view. She looked up at the human sharply. “Is this some kind of joke?! Why is there a horn and a pair of wings in here?!”

“Don’t they look familiar?” he replied with a dark sense of amusement.

“Yes, they do, which is why I’m asking!” Celestia yelled angrily, scowling at him.

“You remember when Discord took yours and your friends’ horns and wings, don’t you, princess?” the human asked Twilight, chuckling menacingly.

“What did you do?!” Twilight yelled, shaking her head disbelievingly. “You can’t have done that to her! She’s a princess!”

“I thought that too,” he replied. “Isn’t chaos a strange thing?”

“Where is she?!” Celestia roared, stomping towards him.

“Try the forest, sunshine,” the human whispered cruelly. “Have fun.”

With that, he vanished.

Before Twilight could say anything or offer any comfort, Celestia was gone in the blink of an eye, dropping the box containing Luna’s horn and wings suddenly. It took Twilight a moment of searching to see that she had taken off towards the Everfree forest. She followed as quickly as she could.

Once Celestia was over the Everfree, she shouted as loudly as possible, “LUNA?! LUNA, WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Princess, it could take you hours to search the whole forest on your own!” Twilight called after her. “We should organise a team of guards to help search for her!”

“Oh yeah, look how well that turned out last time,” the human said, appearing beside her in a very nonchalant pose.

“YOU!!” Celestia rounded on him fiercely, a snarl that would scare a dragon on her face.

“Yes, me,” the human chuckled sadistically.

“TELL ME WHERE MY SISTER IS!!” Celestia screamed, flying towards him swiftly.

He didn’t even flinch as she came right up to him to glare at him in the face. “Tell me first, what can you offer me for this information?” he asked with a cruel smile.

Celestia faltered for a moment. “I-I can offer you anything! Just tell me where she is!”

“Oh, can you? Anything I can think of?”

“Yes! Now tell me where she is!”

“I’ll go and inform the guard, princess! We’ll find her in no time!” Twilight yelled, leaving the two on their own to discuss negotiations.

“I would, but I think we should strike a deal first,” said the human, watching Twilight leave. “Tell me, what exactly do you think I would want in this situation?”

“I… I…” Celestia stammered, eyes darting to anything that would help her. “I don’t know! Just name it and I’ll see it done for you!”

“Really?” said the human with a sly grin. “Anything I can think of if it means me telling you where your sister is?”

“Yes! Name it! I just want to get her home safe!”

“I want…” He cackled lightly before revealing it to her. “Your horn.”

Celestia blinked and flapped backwards in shock. “M-my… horn?”

“Yes, your horn. The source of your magic. What, added to your wings, makes you a princess.”

Celestia thought about it for a moment. On one hoof, she would be giving up her powers as princess and, thus, leaving Equestria in the care of princesses Twilight, Cadence, and, hopefully, her sister again. On the other hoof, her sister was in danger right this minute and there was no telling if the guards would find her in time.

“I… I’m… I…”

“Take your time. I’m sure your sister’s fine. For now, at least.”

“No,” Celestia said at last. The human froze up in the air for a moment.

“No?” he asked with a frown.

“You heard correct. I’m not going to give you my horn. As much as I love my sister, Equestria needs me as a princess. Without me, there’s no one to raise the sun and the moon, and I don’t want to leave such a large task in the care of the other princesses.”

His eyes narrowed for a moment and he smiled in appreciation of her bravery. “Well… this is awkward.”

“What else can I offer you instead?”

He chuckled darkly and closed his eyes. “Oh, ho-ho… that was really the only thing I wanted, sunshine. If you can’t give me that, I think I’ll just…” He grabbed hold of her horn suddenly. “Take it.”

He flicked his hand away from her head, and she felt a part of herself disappearing. She stared at the human in awe, watching him as he stuffed the horn into his pocket.

“Well, what do you know? Turns out I CAN always get what I want!” he joked evilly.

“Y-you… you’ve got what you wanted! Now tell me where my sister is!” she yelled, putting on a brave look.

“I suppose a deal’s a deal, isn’t it?” he reasoned, nodding in agreement. He vanished for a moment. When he reappeared, he was holding a struggling, horn-and-wing-less princess Luna in his hands.

When Luna saw her sister, her struggling stopped. “Tia!” she yelled, reaching out to Celestia. “He…” She noticed Celestia’s missing horn. “He took…” Her struggling resumed. “Give it back! You can’t take her horn as well as mine!”

“Oh, I can, moony,” the human replied, smirking. He moved closer to Celestia. “Here’s your sister. Enjoy being mortal.”

He disappeared suddenly, leaving Luna hovering in the air for a moment. Celestia darted forwards and caught Luna before she could fall.

“Sister, he took your horn!” Luna yelled. “Leave me and go after him!”

“No, Luna,” Celestia replied, flapping down to the ground. “I need to make sure that you’re safe.”

“I’m safe now! Go after him!”

Celestia said nothing as she landed and let Luna stand again. Luna shook her head disbelievingly and marched away.

“So you’re letting him get away with this?” she asked incredulously. “He’s robbing Equestria of two of its princesses! How can you let him get away with that?!”

Celestia blinked in recognition and smiled hopefully. “I’m not,” she said. “I know where your wings and horn are. We just have to hope he’s forgotten about them.”

With that idea in mind, she led the way back to Ponyville at a gallop.

-=-=-=-=-

“Guards!” Twilight yelled as she approached her castle, where four guard ponies were waiting for their princess to return. They snapped to attention. “I need your help!”

“Yes, princess!” they barked in unison, saluting quickly.

“I need one of you to head back to Canterlot and round up some more guards,” she explained. “The rest of you come with me. Princess Luna is lost in the Everfree forest and we’ll need a search party to help find her!”

“Yes, ma’am,” one of them replied, taking off to head to Canterlot.

Before he could get anywhere, however, the human appeared in front of him and stopped him.

“Hold on there,” the human said, holding a hand up to the guard. “That won’t be necessary. Moony’s been found.”

“She has?” Twilight asked, smiling widely. “That’s great! How did you find her?”

“Sunshine and I made a deal she couldn’t refuse,” he said with a grim smirk.

“What kind of deal?” Twilight asked, moving toward the human apprehensively.

“A secret deal!” He put a finger to his lips and made a shushing noise. “Can’t tell you that!”

“Well, where are they then?”

“They’re heading back now. Moony can’t fly, remember?”

“I suppose not…” Twilight reasoned, looking down at the ground.

“Anyway, I have people to see and chaos to make,” he replied, giving a quick wave. “Ciao!”

He vanished before Twilight remembered that she was supposed to be angry at him for what he’d done. She looked back at the guards and smiled nervously.

“He’s… supposed to make chaos,” she explained anxiously, rubbing the back of her neck. “He’s Discord’s… replacement.”

The guard’s didn’t question it; Celestia had probably already explained it to them. Twilight sighed and headed back towards the edge of the Everfree forest, where she would hopefully meet up with Celestia and Luna soon.

As she did so, there was a niggling feeling in her mind that told her she was forgetting something.

Author's Note

I have a horrible feeling that I made a mistake somewhere that I missed in proofreading. Sorry if there is one :fluttershyouch:

Chapter Six: Denial

It took them both nearly an hour to find their way out of the Everfree forest, and when they did, Twilight was there to meet them.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” she yelled happily as she launched herself at them to embrace them both. “I was so worried about you! I would’ve gone in to look for you, but…”

“It’s okay, Twilight, we’re here now,” said Celestia, pulling away from Twilight.

Only then did Twilight notice Celestia’s missing horn. “H-he… he took your HORN?!” she screamed, stepping back. “No, no, this can’t be happening! He can’t take it away from BOTH of you!”

“Twilight, it’s alright,” Celestia replied, smiling weakly. “What’s happened has happened and we can’t change that. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Of course it matters, princess! Without your horn, you won’t be able to… I can’t do this on my own!”

“You may not have to, Twilight,” said Luna, smiling confidently. “Can you take us to Fluttershy’s home?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Celestia put a shushing hoof over it. “Please don’t question it, Twilight,” she said calmly. “We’re hoping that luck is on our side, but luck may not wait for very long.”

“A-alright…” Twilight muttered, horn igniting. “Brace yourselves.”

With a flash of purple, they were suddenly standing outside Fluttershy’s cottage. Several little animals squeaked and ran away in fear, but other than that, there was no reaction.

The residual effects of the spell hadn’t even faded before Celestia eyes were darting all over for the box containing her sister’s wings and horn. Within seconds, she spotted it and lunged towards it. She spun it around to stare inside, and when she did, she grinned widely.

“I have them!” she yelled, spinning back to face the other two. “I don’t know how he forgot them but I have them!”

“That’s brilliant, Tia!” Luna replied, hurrying over. “Now the only question is if they can be put back as easily as he took them!”

“Hold on a second,” Twilight said quickly, snatching the box away with her magic. “I want to make sure they aren’t just a trick that he left behind.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of that myself,” Celestia muttered, smile disappearing.

Twilight stared at the box as her horn flashed with magic pulsing through it. After a moment of using the spell, she smiled and levitated the box over to Luna.

“They’re real, alright,” she breathed, relieved to have discovered such a thing.

“Excellent!” Luna cheered quietly, as if too loudly would bring the wrath of the human down upon them. She took her horn out of the box and smiled widely. “And now…” She lifted it up to her head. “We just have to hope.”

As the horn moved closer to her head, there was a small zapping noise as it magnetised back to the correct position on her forehead. She remained still in awe for a moment, grin slowly growing even wider. Then, quicker than the eye could even register, she snatched her wings out of the box and jammed them onto her back. The same result happened again.

Celestia smiled again, but that quickly disappeared. “I don’t like this,” she muttered. The other two turned to face her, their own smiles disappearing. “Why did he make this so easy? It should’ve been a lot harder to get them back if he wanted to take my horn as well.”

“You’ve got a point there,” Twilight replied, glancing up at Luna. “The only reason I can think of that he’d want to your horn would be to stop the sun and the moon rising and lowering, but that can’t happen if Luna has her horn and wings back.”

“I can’t think of any other plan he could have either,” Luna added. “I can tell he’s a smart individual, so he can’t have forgotten them by accident.”

“Maybe he did…” Twilight reasoned. “If he didn’t want us to get them back, he would have confronted us about it already, and I can’t think of why he would want you to have that power.”

“If he has forgotten, then we should keep it from him,” Celestia suggested, nodding at her sister. “I don’t want him taking them again.”

“That makes sense I suppose,” Luna agreed, casting a spell on herself to hide her horn and wings. Now it looked as if she had never reattached them at all. “How long do I keep it up?”

“As long as it takes for us to create a spell that protects us from him taking them again.” Celestia said slowly. “Twilight, I’m sorry to ask this of you, but could you start working on that as soon as possible please? I feel you would fare much better than either of us would; you’re much more skilled with magic than we are.”

“That shouldn’t take too long,” Twilight answered, nodding. “I expect I should have one created by the end of this week, if I apply the right theories. What do we do until then?”

“We stay out of sight. Mine and Luna’s appearance would only spark panic amongst the populace. We need to avoid that as much as possible.”

“Very well,” Luna agreed. “I suppose we could just pretend that we both caught something and we’re feeling too under the weather to come out in public.”

“We can head back to the castle and you can take the chariot back,” said Twilight. “I’ll teleport us there too if you’d like. It would keep you out of the eye of the public too.”

“Please,” said Celestia, nodding.

Again, Twilight’s horn lit up and, with a flash of purple, they were back at Twilight’s castle. When they got there, the guards waiting for princess Celestia quickly jumped to attention and saluted. It took a moment for the first to notice that something was wrong.

“Princess, where’s your horn?” one asked, staring at Celestia in confusion.

“And Princess Luna, you’re missing your horn AND your wings!” another pointed out.

“That human took them,” Luna answered. She raised a hoof to quieten all the comments they had about that. “He’ll give them back in time though; this is just… a cruel joke he’s playing on us.”

“Princess, I mean no disrespect, but I really don’t think this is just a joke,” one of the guards commented.

“No, it's not, but I swear we will get them back soon,” Celestia explained darkly. “And, I beg you, do not speak of this to anyone. It will only cause panic.”

“Aww, what’s wrong with a little panic?” asked the human from right beside her. She spun to face him with her wings tucked in for fear he would take them too. “Panic is good for chaos, and chaos is good for me.” He smirked. “And I’m good for… well, just about everything, aren’t I?”

“Return her horn this instant!” Luna yelled, stepping threateningly towards him. “Equestria may be able to do without me, but without her, there will be no one to raise the sun and moon!”

The human let out a single laugh and flipped out of the relaxed stance he was in. “Oh, don’t worry about that, moony,” he said, leaning down to pat her on the head. She flinched away, fearing that he might brush her invisible horn. He didn’t seem to notice. “The moon doesn’t need to rise; ponies can sleep during the day and nobody cares about the night anyway.”

Twilight snarled and marched up to him, batting his hand away from Luna’s head. “You give it back right now!” she growled, horn igniting to reach into his pockets with her magic. “They’re not yours to take! How would you feel if someone came and took your power?”

“I’d welcome it, princess,” the human laughed cruelly, raising his arms to his sides. “I think you’re forgetting what I went through to get here.”

“Still, give them back right now! Equestria needs the sun and moon!”

“Needs; yes. Wants; not necessarily.” He looked over at Luna, spotting her fuming quietly. “Oh, sorry. Did that hit a nerve?”

There was suddenly a roar off in the distance, drawing the attention of all three princesses and the guards behind them. As its echoes faded, the human snapped his fingers and a bottle appeared in his hand.

“What was that?” Twilight asked as the human uncapped the bottle. “That sounded close!”

“Oh it was,” the human said calmly, waving a rag out of thin air. “Just on the edge of Ponyville, to be precise.”

“What was it then?” Celestia asked furiously. “It sounded dangerous!”

“It is,” the human said, remaining calm as he poured some of the bottle’s contents onto the rag. “Ursa Major, in fact. An angry one too. You’ve been through something kind of like this before, haven’t you, princess?”

“Oh no,” Twilight breathed, shaking her head. “No no no no no. Do you have any idea how crazy that is? Bringing an Ursa Major HERE?!”

“Of course I do,” he replied, folding the rag neatly. “That’s why I did it. Chaos is a very crazy thing, after all.”

“Guards, get the citizens of Ponyville to safety!” Celestia barked, galloping towards the noise’s source. “If it gets to close, try to keep it away from them!” They gave a quick salute before taking off and flying off towards Ponyville’s centre. “Twilight, you’ve dealt with something like this before as a normal pony! Now that you’re a princess, it should be just as easy!”

“Now hold on a minute,” said the human, appearing in front of her before she could get anywhere. “Before you go, I just have one thing to say.”

“Make it fast!” Celestia growled, flexing her wings aggressively. “Ponies’ lives could be in danger!”

“She’s not going with you,” he said with a cruel smirk.

Before Celestia could argue, he teleported to just behind Twilight and pressed the rag over her muzzle. She let out a muffled scream, but was powerless to do anything else. Within a few seconds, she passed out and collapsed onto the ground.

“What did you do?!” Luna yelled, rushing to Twilight’s side.

“Gave her some good, clean chloroform,” he answered, taking a swig from the bottle. He savoured the flavour for a moment before downing the rest of it. “Hmm, doesn’t seem to have the same effect on me. Strange, that!”

“What are you doing?!” yelled Celestia, spinning back to him. “Nopony else can help Ponyville now!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” he chuckled gravely. “There are two other princesses here, aren’t there?”

“Without their abilities as princess!” she shot back. “You took them when you took our horns and wings!”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to think of something, won’t you?” he replied, reappearing in front of her. “You girls have fun now!”

He tapped her nose lightly and vanished, leaving Celestia and Luna alone with Twilight’s unconscious body. They shared a hurried glance, and both came to the same idea.

“Luna, you can’t!” Celestia stated quickly. “He’ll take them back off you!”

“It’s either that or let the whole town be at the mercy of an angry Ursa!” Luna replied. “I know which I’d prefer!”

“Luna, think of the bigger picture! If you do anything, he’ll take them away again! What happens then?”

Screams of ponies could be heard all of a sudden, snapping their attention back to the lumbering giant in the distance, slowly approaching Ponyville from the Everfree forest.

“Look, I’d rather regret it now than regret it later!” Luna yelled, letting the spell hiding her horn and wings flicker and die. “If I don’t help save Ponyville, what then will Equestria think of us?!”

She took flight and soared towards the approaching Ursa, leaving her sister in the dust.

“She’s really determined, isn’t she?” asked the human, appearing beside Celestia again. “I mean, I know she’s trying to hide it from me, but that’s determination to save the town right there.”

“You knew about this?” Celestia breathed, turning to glare at him. “How? How did you know about her having them back?!”

“I left them there on purpose, sunshine,” he replied. “I’ve just got to say that I’ve got plans. Big ones. Especially ones that involve her.”

“What plans? What are you talking about?!”

“Oh, but that would be telling.” He grabbed the top of her head and his eyes flashed for a second. “But, of course, you won’t remember that now. Too much information.”

“Remember what?!” she roared, shaking his hand off of her head. “What did you do?!”

“Oh, wouldn’t THAT be telling,” he replied, smirking. “Don’t forget to take her inside.” He motioned at Twilight. “You’ve certainly proven that you can forget things easily.”

“What do you mean?!” He vanished yet again. “Come back! You have a lot to answer for!”

With no luck, she scowled and turned back to face the Ursa that Luna had no doubt charged to intercept. She sighed in defeat and hurried over to Twilight, then slowly started dragging her into the castle.

Even with everything else going on, there seemed to be something else that the human did that she couldn't quite grasp.

Maybe it would come to her in time.

Chapter Seven: Depression

Rarity had been having the feeling that it was going to be one of those days for quite a while now.

She had woken up and it had just come upon her; the feeling that it would be a very bad day.

But there was so much evidence to the contrary; the boutique had more customers than usual in the morning, the newspaper had shown another positive review from one of her previous customers, and Sweetie Belle hadn’t obliterated anything yet!

Regardless, the feeling remained. It was just something that she couldn’t explain. It was like something would make this better-than-usual day a complete disaster.

At some time past noon, things started to look like they would change for the worse.

She heard the sound of something falling to the floor in the next room over. With no idea what it could be, she left her dressmaking for the moment and hurried in to find out what it was. Perhaps it was just Opalescence knocking something over...

But, when she got into the next room, the sight that greeted her was not a welcome one.

“Ah, curly!” the human greeted happily, waving at her from beside a heap of clothes. “Good!” He cleared his throat and motioned at the mess he’d no doubt made. “Ah, yes. I may have… broken something. Completely unintentional, mind you. I don’t know my way around this place quite yet.”

“What do you want, James?” Rarity spat, hurrying over to the pile of disorganised clothing.

“Ah, so Fluttershy introduced me,” he replied, smile fading slightly. It popped right back as he clapped his hands together. “Brilliant! I hate introducing myself! Isn’t she just an amazing friend to have?”

“Is that sarcasm?” Rarity asked, picking up one of the spilled dresses and ironing out the creases with her magic. “Because I really can’t tell.”

“I wouldn’t be sarcastic about Fluttershy being a wonderful friend, curly,” the human said harshly. He snapped his fingers and the box the clothing had fallen out of scooped up the dresses on the floor. “Now, I came here to ask you something.”

“I already asked what you wanted, you merely changed the subject.” She took a calming breath and levitated the box of dresses back to its rightful place. She smiled calmly and turned back to face him. “Now, what is it that you wanted, James?”

“Do you have any spare animal food?” She blinked in confusion at his unexpected question. “You know, the thing that you give to your cat when it’s hungry. Do you have any spare?”

“I have some, but why would I give it to you? I’m running very low at the moment.”

He turned and sighed. “I thought you were the element of generosity at one point. So much for that.”

Rarity ground her teeth together and her smile faded. “How much do you need?” she asked, careful not to growl too much.

“A lot,” he replied, smiling in a way that made her want to hit him. “Maybe all of it, if you’re feeling nice today.”

“What would you even want it for? I wasn’t aware that you had a pet yet.” She shook her head lightly. “Wouldn’t Fluttershy be better to ask for it?”

“She left this morning and hasn’t come back yet.” His happy expression sank a little. “I didn’t want to take any from her without asking.”

She was surprised by his thoughtfulness. “That’s… very decent of you, James.” She smiled warmly. “You can be a very nice person sometimes.”

“I’m a nice person all the time,” he replied sincerely. “You just don’t notice it. It’s all for the greater good in the end.”

Her smile faded once more. “Yes, I… I suppose it is. Just don’t expect us to be approving of your… good intentions.”

He snorted with grim amusement and smirked at that. “Now, about that animal food; can I borrow it off you?”

“Borrow?” she asked incredulously. She rolled her eyes. “I hardly think you’ll be giving it back after your pet is done with it, or I should hope not anyway.”

“Oh no, I’m not that twisted,” he laughed, holding his hands up defensively. He sighed and put his hands on his hips. “I suppose I won’t be borrowing it if you put it like that. Alright then. Can I have it please?”

“I suppose it would be impolite for me to say no seeing as you’ve asked so nicely, but you still haven’t told me what it is you’re feeding.”

“A big, hungry bear. I read somewhere that this one is an omnivore and the stuff in most animal foods will suit it just fine.”

“Oh, you’re taking care of one of Fluttershy’s friends?” she asked, smiling yet again.

“Not exactly…” he muttered, smirking. “So where can I find it? She’ll be wanting it soon.”

“It’s in the other room, I’ll go and get it.” She left him for a moment as she hurried out of the room to fetch it for him. After a minute or two, she returned with a large sack that looked to be barely filled. “Here you are. If there’s none left when you’re done with it, let me know. Otherwise, bring what’s left back please.”

“Will do! Have a nice day, curly!”

He grabbed it out of her magical grip and vanished with a crack. She sighed loudly and went back to her work, pondering about that human. Was he really trying to make friends? Was he just misunderstood for doing what was right? Or did he really enjoy making lives a misery?

No, that was a cruel thing to think. Even if he did make chaos, he had already explained that it was for the right reasons. It was just the wrong way to go about it.

But what was wrong when chaos was right?

She shook herself out of her confusing thoughts to return to her work. She had a lot of orders to be getting on with and she certainly didn’t want to get behind just by thinking about someone that made chaos for a living, quite literally.

It wasn’t until about an hour later that James reappeared.

“Boo!” he yelled from right behind her, making her jump forwards in surprise.

Luckily, she had just finished using the sewing machine so her work was not ruined. That didn’t excuse him for making her jump though. She spun around and swung a hoof at him, but he dodged backwards before she could hit him.

“Don’t do that!” she panted, putting a hoof over her chest to feel her racing heartbeat. “You nearly scared the life out of me!”

“I couldn’t resist,” he said happily, chuckling to himself. “You’d do the same at one point with this kind of power.”

“Well, I… I hardly think so,” she said breathlessly, “but I can see why you would find it entertaining.”

“So here’s that food back anyway.” He held out the sack of food to her. Rarity took it from him and looked inside. “Sorry, but I had to use all of it.”

“That’s alright, there wasn’t much there. At least you brought the bag back. It’s always good to be recycling this stuff instead of leaving it out there for some other poor pony to clean up.”

“I don’t sink to that level,” he said seriously. “I had enough trouble with that back at home when…”

He went quiet and stared straight ahead.

“Are… you alright?” asked Rarity, tilting her head at him.

“I better go,” he quickly replied. He put on a false smile and looked down at her. “Sunshine and moony need a warning about the incoming Ursa Major after all.”

“What…?” He vanished before explaining what he meant. It only hit her what he had said after he had gone. Her eyes widened. “Incoming Ursa Major?! I’ve got to tell somepony!”

She rushed out of the boutique as fast as she could. As soon as she did, some kind of brown dust in the air went into her breath and she choked on it. It tasted like what the animal food she had given out earlier smelled like, and that thought made her retch.

If what he had said about the incoming Ursa Major was true, he must have turned the food into powder and spread it around for the Ursa to follow the trail of. It was a smart plan and one that was undoubtedly working if what he said was true.

But why he had let the trail end at her house was beyond her.

Perhaps what she had thought earlier about him enjoying making others’ lives a misery was true.

Pushing that thought aside, her eyes darted over to the Everfree forest. She couldn’t see it over the trees yet, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. The first thing she thought to do was to warn Twilight; the most able bodied pony in Ponyville for this problem. She’d dealt with an Ursa Minor before, and that was before she was a princess.

She coughed some more of that animal food dust up and spat it out quickly before hurrying off to Twilight’s castle, where Twilight would undoubtedly be thinking up ways to cope with James. Maybe she’d already come up with something. Maybe this wouldn’t have to happen anymore.

She heard a roar from the Everfree forest, drawing her attention back towards it. She still couldn’t see anything yet, but that roar had proven that the Ursa was indeed coming towards Ponyville.

She picked up the pace towards Twilight’s castle. After a minute, she spotted four guards soaring in the opposite direction. One of them spotted her and dashed towards her.

“Ma’am, you need to leave the area now!” he barked, pointing at the Everfree forest. “There’s an Ursa Major coming in from the Everfree forest!”

“Yes, I know!” she replied frantically. “James told me about it just now! We’ve got to warn Princess Twilight!”

“She knows, ma’am!” the guard replied quickly. “Right now, we just need to get the area evacuated! Get to a safer location and we’ll deal with the rest!”

Before Rarity could say anything else, she noticed a dark blue blur shooting overhead towards the Everfree forest, where there was now a monstrous, blue figure standing over the trees. She noticed that the blur was Princess Luna when it had slowed enough to discern who it was.

The guard opened his mouth in awe as he noticed some untold truth.

“What is it?” Rarity asked, noticing his expression.

He shook his head and turned back to her. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” His expression returned to a stern one. “You need to leave the area for your own safety, ma’am!”

Rarity nodded as the guard took off again to get on with his task. She watched him go, then realised that she should have offered to help him out. He probably would have said no anyway.

She galloped out of the area, opting to head to the school to make sure Sweetie Belle and her friends hadn’t decided to do anything that could be catastrophic for their well-being, like finding out if their cutie marks were saving Ponyville from Ursa Majors.

She only hoped that Cheerliee could keep an eye on them well enough, but there was no denying the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ cunning.

-=-=-=-=-

The Ursa swung at her again. She ducked under the swipe and sent another tranquiliser spell at it. This was taking far too long; the Ursa was already in Ponyville and the guards were still evacuating ponies from nearby buildings.

Luna snarled and flew around the back of the giant bear creature, firing another tranquiliser spell into the back of its neck. It spun around and snapped its jaws at her, missing her by a hair’s breadth. She flapped away quickly and sent a freeze spell at its mouth. It iced over for a moment, but the Ursa broke free almost immediately.

“He’s certainly a tough one, isn’t he?” said a voice to her right.

She turned to look as the Ursa roared and lashed out at her again. The distraction was almost her downfall, but she managed to put up a defensive barrier to deflect the blow just in time.

“Where are you?!” she bellowed, turning back to the Ursa and firing a slowness spell at it.

“Here,” said the human, appearing right in front of her.

Luna caught a glimpse of his morbid expression before the Ursa’s jaws clamped shut around him. She shot a rope spell at its jaws to tie them shut but, again, it broke free quickly. The human looked to be in the same place, untouched.

“What are you doing?!” she yelled at him. “Do you have a death wish?! Get out of the way!”

“I do actually,” he said slowly, spreading his arms wide as the Ursa swung a claw at him.

It sent him flying off into the distance, leaving Luna alone with the Ursa again. Luna growled and let out a burst of magic light, blinding the Ursa so she could get close enough to tranquilise it again. It swung its claws wildly, knocking the roof off a building before destroying it completely.

“But I can’t like this,” the human said, appearing beside Luna again. She pushed him out of the way of another swipe of the Ursa’s claw and sent another tranquiliser spell at it. “Why bother fighting all this? Everything’s going to end in chaos one way or another.”

“Not if I can help it!” Luna shouted, launching yet another tranquiliser spell at the Ursa. “You can create chaos, but we will always be ready to keep it in check!”

“That’s my job. I keep chaos under control. But I see no point in doing that anymore.”

“What?!” The Ursa leapt at her and she darted out of its path. “What do you mean?!”

“I’m done with all this. Goodbye.”

He snapped his fingers and he disappeared with a puff of smoke. Luna cursed and fired another tranquiliser spell at the Ursa. What did he mean he was done with this? She couldn’t think about it for very long before the Ursa renewed its assault.

She knew Ursa Majors were almost immune to tranquilisation spells, but she had put in enough force with those spells to put a dragon to sleep a hundred times over! What kept this one going for so long?

-=-=-=-=-

Fluttershy watched the Ursa Major swat at Princess Luna from atop a hill on the other side of town.

She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t doing anything though. She wanted so badly to do something to help, but she couldn’t find the ability to do so. Something was stopping her, but she had no idea what.

When James appeared beside her, she looked up at him with a sad frown. She fully understood why he was doing this, and that was why she couldn’t bring herself to get angry at him for it. It was to keep him alive and, by extension, everyone else alive.

It was a chaos that she would have to accept.

She noticed that he looked more down than usual. “What’s wrong?” she asked. The answer came to her immediately. “Um… I mean… you just look… sad.”

“I am, Fluttershy,” he replied, sighing as he sat down. “I have to make chaos for the rest of my life or everyone suffers. I make them suffer to stop them suffering. That doesn’t even make any sense.”

“I… I don’t know what to say to that,” she whispered, looking down at the ground in shame.

“You don’t have to say anything.” He raised a hand at the Ursa Major off in the distance. “That thing should keep going for a few days at least. I made its coat doubly fortified against any spell that would put it to sleep, so that’ll keep me free for a while.”

“But… wouldn’t that mean that…”

“Nobody will be able to live there for a while, yes,” he confirmed, dropping onto his back. “I will have to ruin lives in order to save them, and I hate that.”

“Um… well…”

“I see no point in keeping the world safe if all I’m doing to keep it safe is putting it in danger.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I give up. Chaos can have the world.”

“W-what do you mean?” asked Fluttershy, leaning over his face to look down at him.

“I mean I’m giving up.” He teleported to stand beside Fluttershy. “I’m never going to see my friends or family ever again, and they were pretty much all I lived for. Due to that, I’ve decided to just stop caring. You can’t understand what I’m going through, so don’t try.”

“Help me understand!” She flapped up to his face and looked him in the eye sadly. “I want to help in any way I can! If you help me understand, I’ll help you get through this!”

“What’s the point?” he asked bluntly.

A crack of lightning struck right beside them both, making Fluttershy yelp and jump away in surprise. She stared at the charred spot on the grass for a moment before spinning to face James, who remained unfazed.

“W-what was that for?” she asked cautiously and fearfully.

“That wasn’t me,” James replied calmly. “That was the chaos I’ve given up controlling.”

He vanished with a pop, leaving Fluttershy alone on the hill. There was a loud bang off in the distance, drawing Fluttershy’s attention back to Ponyville. She gasped when she spotted a house floating upside down in the air and another was inside out.

It was like Discord’s first return all over again.

Her pupils dilated when she noticed the crater in the ground where the carousel boutique used to be. Rarity must have gotten out. There was no way she’d stay in there! An Ursa Major was attacking the…

Where did the Ursa Major go?

It was there a few minutes ago when she last looked over at Ponyville, but it had completely vanished now. Maybe James had decided to stop all this…

He hadn’t though.

Where did that thought come from? It was like something had put the thought into her head without her knowing. Why would she think something like that when that was the worst thought she could have at the moment? She wouldn’t ever think so hopelessly on purpose!

Fearfully, she decided to find her friends and help them out in any way she could. She charged back into Ponyville, ready and willing to do her part.

What had stopped her from doing this before?

-=-=-=-=-

When Twilight regained consciousness, she was inside her castle and on her bed with Spike and Celestia waiting for her to open her eyes.

“Twilight! You’re awake!” Spike cheered, rushing forward to hug her. He stood back from her and looked down at her in concern. “Are you alright? Princess Celestia said that the human drugged you to sleep!”

“I’m… fine, Spike,” Twilight replied, rubbing her aching head. “How long… ow… how long was I out?”

“Not too long, Twilight,” Celestia explained. “Luna went to take care of the Ursa Major, but I haven’t checked to see how she’s –“

She was interrupted by a loud bang from outside the castle.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, sitting up.

“I don’t know,” Celestia replied, turning to face the door out. “With any luck, it’s just Luna using a little more force.”

“It wasn’t,” said James. “That’s chaos. Glorious and terrible chaos.”

It took a moment of searching for Celestia to spot him; he was on the wall, quite literally. He was a completely two-dimensional image on the wall and, if she hadn’t noticed him breathing, she could’ve sworn that he was just that.

“Twilight, get back!” Spike yelled, leaping between her and the human. “You touch her and I’ll burn your flank off!”

“What have you done?” Celestia asked coldly, glaring at him.

“Nothing,” James answered, blinking very slowly. “And that’s just it. This is the end of my short, little adventure in Ponyville. I give up here.”

“Wait… what?” Twilight asked, sliding out of the bed. “You’re giving up? What does that mean?”

“It means what it sounds like, princess,” he explained. “I’m done with this. I’m not doing anything anymore. What’s the point in it? There isn’t one. Not when I can never see the people I love ever again.”

“What are you saying?” Twilight asked, stepping closer to the wall and tilting her head. “If you’ve given up and aren’t doing anything anymore, what was that chaos you said was outside?”

“That, my dear, was the chaos that I have to stop by making more chaos.”

Twilight blinked. “Are… are you saying that… you’re just going to let it free?”

“Until there’s no one left alive to experience it and, by extension, no one left for me to make chaos for. Then it’ll all be over.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “All of it.”

The image on the wall cracked and he vanished suddenly.

“Uh… what did he mean?” Spike asked, looking over his shoulder at Twilight.

“Spike, stay here,” Twilight said quickly. “It could be dangerous and you don’t have the magical powers of an alicorn. I think it would be better for you to stay here too, princess Celestia.”

“Normally I would argue, but right now I’m forced to agree,” Celestia said gravely.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Twilight said, turning and charging out of the room.

When she was out of the castle, she took flight and soared up to get a better view of what was happening.

She couldn’t spot anything too bad just yet, but then she noticed something in the corner of her eye up above. She looked up and saw a tiny red dot in the sky. With no other way of telling what it was, she cast a magnification spell in front of her to get a better view.

She gasped.

It was meteorite.

A quick calculation showed that’s its current trajectory would land it dead center of Ponyville.

With a million and one panicked thoughts in her mind, she came to the conclusion that she would have to find Princess Luna. She couldn’t do this alone.

Luna would be… where would Luna be? She might have gone for the Ursa Major, but where was the Ursa Major? She couldn’t spot it anywhere.

“Just let it land, princess,” said James, snapping into the material plain beside her.

Twilight spun to face him with a ferocious and terrified look on her face. “You can’t let this happen!” she screeched. “Hundreds of ponies will die!”

“Then I’ll be able to join them quicker,” he replied darkly.

“You can’t just give up like this! What would your family think?!”

He said nothing, instead vanishing again.

Twilight shook herself out of the teary eyed state she was in. She was NOT going to let ponies die like this, especially under her care!

She just had to find Luna to get some help.

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long with this one it's a long story that I can't be bothered to go into. :ajsleepy:

Chapter Nine: Mistakes

It had been an hour since James had corrected the last of his ‘mistakes’ in Ponyville.

By some degree of luck, chaos had only been let free in the surrounding area, so only Ponyville had been affected. It hadn’t even been affected as badly as originally thought, as no lives were lost and no one was harmed. The only damages were a few houses destroyed by the Ursa Major and the carousel boutique exploding on its own accord.

Of course, Rarity had been devastated when she’d found out about her home being destroyed, but Twilight had offered her and her sister a place to stay until they were compensated or had a new home in place.

Right now, however, the focus was on James.

“Would you like me to say it again?” he asked the ponies in front of him. He received only silent glares in reply. “Oh, fine then. Everyone, I’m sorry for having an episode of psychotic depression and nearly letting a giant rock crash into Equestria and kill everyone.”

“That’s not the point!” Celestia yelled at him. “What would’ve happened if Applebloom hadn’t found you?! You can’t just let the responsibility you have with this power slip and let everyone down like that!!”

“Ha, you have no horn,” James replied mockingly, smirking at her amusedly.

“Well, I do have a horn!” Luna snapped, lighting it up to prove her point as Celestia fumed silently. She stomped towards him angrily. “So listen to me! Your responsibility is greater than even mine, so –“

“You mean hers.” He motioned his head at Celestia. “The moon, we can live without, but the sun? Ponies would die without that.”

“How dare you even say such a thing?!” Twilight shouted. “Ponies need the night as much as the day!!”

“Just think about that for a minute, princess,” James said, chuckling. “You’re supposed to be smart, so I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.”

“Why, you…!” Twilight snarled, but did as he said regardless.

“Whatever you may think, you must know that your responsibility is what keeps this world, and your own, safe!” Luna stated with a scowl. “Think of what would happen if you weren’t around to control all this chaos! What would happen to your family? They would meet a painful –“

He snapped out of existence suddenly and there was a crack behind the others. He must’ve taken Luna with him, because she was not where she had been standing just now.

“Where did he…?” Twilight went quiet as she turned around to the cracking sound. She gasped at the sight that met her.

He hadn’t disappeared, he’d just moved so fast that it looked like he did. He had grabbed Luna by the throat and slammed her against the castle wall with such a force that it had cracked. The temperature in the room had dropped too.

Luna choked and scrabbled at James’s hand as he moved closer to her face. “I wouldn’t be saying such things to the man who just saved the day, moony,” he spat at her. “I can make it all happen again if I wanted.”

“LET GO OF HER!!” Celestia screamed, diving towards him and wrapping herself around his torso. She shook him a few times before realising it had no effect and sinking her teeth into his neck instead.

He growled at Luna once more before throwing her down to the ground. Celestia leapt off James’s back and helped Luna back to her feet.

James remained still for a moment before rubbing the red teeth marks on his neck. “Are we sure she’s not a vampire?” he asked with a humourless chuckle. “She sure bites like one. Not that I’d even know what a vampire bites like anyway…”

“That was way out of line!” Applejack yelled, leaning down to offer Luna some more support.

“Put yourself in my shoes, apples,” he replied indifferently, staring at her coldly. “You’re never going to see your family, whom you love more than anything, ever again. Someone comes up to you and tells you how they wold die painfully because of a mistake you made. You would’ve reacted the same way.”

“Ah’d like to think that ah wouldn’t!”

“Suit yourself.” He teleported back across the room to sit in his chair again. “Now, where were we?”

Luna stood up and slowly marched towards him. “I apologise for what I said, James,” she wheezed, rubbing her throat. “It was wrong of me to say that. I was in a bad frame of mind and I apologise for not being able to keep my emotions in check.”

James was quiet for a moment. “Apology accepted, moony,” he said slowly and sincerely. “I apologise for not keeping mine in check and lashing out like that.”

“You’re forgiven.”

“Glad we got that settled,” James said with a solemn nod. He smiled again and clapped his hands together. “Now then! Shall we get onto something a little less depressing to talk about?”

“How about you not ever doing something like that ever again?!” Twilight shouted at him. “While I know your family means very much to you, you can’t go attacking ponies for telling you something that very likely would happen!”

“Watch it, princess,” he warned, eyes flashing for a moment.

“No, you watch it!” she spat, stepping towards him. “The truth hurts, but it’s still the truth! You can’t deny that!”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” he said darkly. “But hey, at least you’re not being slammed into a wall like moony was.” Luna glared at him, which he smirked at. “What? You’re the least important princess anyway.”

“You can be an audacious scumbag when you want to be, James,” Luna said coldly.

“HA! Coming from the one that wanted to put Equestria into eternal night!” he yelled with a rude grin on his face.

There was silence.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said mockingly. “Was that the wrong thing to say?” He nodded his head and looked up in thought. “Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?”

Twilight was the first to react to his cruel words. She marched towards him and struck him hard across the face. He sniggered to himself and turned back to face her with a malicious glint in his eyes.

“How dare you?” she asked fiercely. She struck him again. “How DARE you?!”

“Twilight, it’s okay,” Luna said quietly, putting a hoof on Twilight’s back. “He has a point.”

“No, he doesn’t, Luna!” Celestia yelled, stepping in front of Luna and putting her hooves on her sister’s shoulders. “That wasn’t you! That was Nightmare Moon! You couldn’t do anything to stop it!”

“Well, so she says, anyway,” James put in, rocking back on his chair.

“Will you be quiet?!” Celestia roared at him, snarling viscously. “You don’t even know what you’re saying!!”

“I do actually,” he said, smiling darkly. “And I know that I’ve said too much now.”

He faded out of existence slowly, the last thing to vanish being his cruel smile. Twilight screamed and spun around to buck at his last location as hard as she could. Applejack approached and put a hoof on her shoulder, but she shook it off quickly.

“How can you be so calm right now, Applejack?!” Twilight shouted. “Didn’t you hear what he said?!”

“Ah heard ‘em just fine,” Applejack replied. “He’s just tryin’ to get under your skin.”

“Well it worked!” Twilight yelled. “If you can’t see what he said was wrong, then you must not care!!”

“Twilight, please,” said Luna, moving towards Twilight slowly. “It’s alright.”

“Ah think you need to take a break, Twi,” Applejack said slowly, putting her hoof back on Twilight’s shoulder. “You’ve obviously had a lot to do today, so ah think you need to go take your mind off things.”

Twilight smacked Applejack’s hoof away again and laughed darkly. “Don’t you get it, Applejack?” she whispered cruelly. “No, of course you don’t. You haven’t had to deal with everything he’s done today.” She pushed Applejack away. “Well, I HAVE!!”

“Twilight, I agree with her!” Celestia stated quickly, putting a hoof in front of Twilight and holding her back. “You’ve been through a lot today, and you need to rest! You’re far too stressed out to think rationally!”

“I’m the only pony thinking rationally!” Twilight yelled, spinning around to face Celestia. Her eyelid twitched for a moment. “Did no one else see what he did to Luna?! And then he had the nerve to bring Nightmare Moon back up!!”

“What’s all this shouting about?” asked Rarity, coming in from the kitchen with cup of tea in a magical grip. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh, look who turned up late to the party!” Twilight yelled, marching closer to Rarity. “Let me guess, too busy styling your mane?”

Rarity gasped. “Twilight, what has gotten into you?” she asked concernedly. “You’ve never said something to me like that! What did he do?”

“What did he do? What have YOU done, Rarity?!” Twilight screamed, smacking Rarity’s cup across the room. “Oh, that’s right! NOTHING! You weren’t trying to save Ponyville from complete destruction! You weren’t even the one who found your sister!!”

“Twilight, that is enough!” Luna yelled, putting a magical field around Twilight to restrain her. “You’re taking this too far! It doesn’t matter anymore!”

“I’m not taking it far ENOUGH!” Twilight roared, sending a large burst of magic out to shatter Luna’s spell. “He can’t get away with this!! He’s putting too many lives in danger to just walk away!!”

“And on that note…” said James, reappearing behind Twilight and holding another rag over her mouth. “You’ll thank me later, princess.”

Twilight sent out another burst of magic and sent him flying against the wall behind her. “You think you can just come here and do this?!” she screamed, spinning to face him. “You’re just evil!! There’s not a shred of good in you!!”

“I may have overdone this one a bit,” James muttered, jumping up. “Listen to me, princess. You’ve got to just –“

“Just WHAT, exactly?!” she bellowed, eyes flashing as her horn was wrapped in a magical, purple flame. “Just let you spew some lie about how you won’t do it again?! Because you will do it again!! I know you will!!”

“You’re going to hurt someone if you keep this up,” he said, slowly and cautiously approaching her. “I knew you’d get angry, but I didn’t know how angry you’d get.”

“Well you should’ve thought of that before you did what you did!!”

“Girls, get out of here,” he said, waving at them to leave. “This is a mistake I made, so I’ll sort it out.”

The others hurried towards the exit, but a wall of magical purple light materialised in front of them. “Why should they leave?!” Twilight screamed. “I want them to see you get what you deserve!!”

“God dammit, I’m never using that spell again…” James whispered to himself.

Twilight must not have heard it, but Celestia’s ears perked up. James noticed that and put a shushing finger to his mouth at her. She knew what would happen if she said anything, so she would have to confront him about it later.

Twilight pointed her horn at James as its glow intensified, snarling furiously. In the blink of an eye, James crossed the room and tackled Twilight to the ground. Before they even touched the floor, however, they vanished.

The magical wall in front of the exit vanished and the purple aura where Twilight once stood slowly faded. How could she be so powerful to leave a residual glow of magic? Not even Nightmare Moon had been that powerful!

And what exactly had James done?

“She’s… going to be alright… isn’t she?” Rarity asked anxiously. “She… She’s never been like that before… Did he do something?”

“Ah’m thinkin’ that he did,” Applejack said sadly, looking down at the ground.

“I heard him say he did something too,” Celestia stated slowly. “I don’t know what, but he must not have been as knowledgeable about it as he thought he was. That wasn’t Twilight just now; that was… someone else. She wasn’t in a good frame of mind anyway, and then he did something to her.”

“With any luck, he’ll be able to stop it before she hurts somepony,” Luna said sincerely. “If she’s that powerful right now, I fear for anyone that gets close to her.”

“Should we go check on the g-girls?” Rarity asked shakily, taking a hesitant step forwards. “They might have... h-heard something and come to investigate.”

“Ah’ll go check on ‘em,” said Applejack, holding Rarity by the shoulder. “You need to sit down.”

“We’ll watch her, Applejack,” Luna said, reaching forwards to lower Rarity to the ground. “Go. Check on your sister and her friends.”

Applejack left the other three to go and see if the Crusaders were still where they last had been last.

Spike would’ve come to get them if they’d run off anyway, wouldn’t he?

-=-=-=-=-

“So, let me get this straight,” said Rainbow Dash, rubbing her brow with a hoof. “He just… blew it up?”

“Yep!” Pinkie Pie answered, bouncing up excitedly. “It was like a party cannon! But waaaay bigger!”

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had gone to the hospital to visit Rainbow Dash and tell her about the day’s events. Of course, Rainbow Dash had been furious when she’d heard what James had done, but that fury had abated since then.

“You know, that kinda does sound pretty awesome…” Rainbow commented, tapping her chin as she thought about it. “But I’m still mad at him for the other stuff he did.”

“Well… he has been through a lot…” Fluttershy said quietly. “You shouldn’t get angry at him for getting upset about things.”

“Fluttershy, he let chaos take over Ponyville. I’m not angry at him for getting upset, I’m angry at him for what he let happen.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Fluttershy muttered.

“So did the doctor say when you’re getting out, Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked happily, putting a hoof on Rainbow’s casted leg.

“He said I was lucky that James put it in a cast before it moved out of place,” Rainbow replied, leaning back on her bed. “I’ll say thanks next time I see him. I should be out of here tomorrow.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Pinkie cheered, doing a little kick of joy. “You’ll get to say thank you to James before you know it!”

There was a loud bang from outside somewhere. Pinkie Pie spun to the window and peered out to see what it was. After a moment, she frowned and turned back to the other two.

“What was that?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know…” Pinkie replied, rubbing her chin and narrowing her eyes warily, “But I don’t like it.”

“It’s probably that stinking featherbrain breaking something…” Rainbow suggested.

Suddenly, there was an echoing scream filled with nothing but hatred and rage before another loud bang. The three of them shared a worried glance before coming to the same conclusion.

“That was Twilight!” they all said together.

“We’d better go see what’s wrong,” Fluttershy suggested. “We’ll have to leave you here, Rainbow Dash. Sorry.”

“It’s fine!” Rainbow replied. “Go and see what’s happened to Twilight!”

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy leant down to give Rainbow a quick hug before they galloped out of the room.

Chapter Ten: Necessary Evil

Spike didn’t know why he’d let himself get recruited into this.

As far as he knew, he couldn’t even get a cutie mark of his own! But the Cutie Mark Crusaders could be very persuading when they wanted to be. Why couldn’t they just get their cutie marks in that? Or espionage? Or covert operations?

They had all snuck out of one of the castle windows, unknown to the others. Scootaloo and Applebloom were leading the way, so sure that they wouldn’t get into trouble for something as inconsequential as trying to find their cutie marks. Sweetie Belle and Spike hang back a bit, anxiously glancing over their shoulders back at the castle in case someone had seen them leave.

“Uh, shouldn’t we get back?” Spike asked unsurely, tapping his claws together. “Twilight might be worried about us.”

“Ah, you’re just a chicken!” Scootaloo replied smugly. “I bet you just don’t want to get in trouble!”

“No, I think he’s right,” Sweetie Belle added. “Rarity wanted us to stay inside earlier when we went into Twilight’s castle. I don’t think she’d be happy about us doing this.”

“And ah think you’re a chicken too!” Applebloom teased, looking back at the other two with a smirk. “Maybe you two should go on a date! You’re perfect for each other!”

Spike cleared his throat and looked away from Sweetie Belle. “I’m just saying I think we should’ve told the others we were going out,” he said anxiously. “They could be worried about us.”

“And I don’t even think our cutie marks are going to be chaos detectives,” Sweetie Belle added, rosy cheeked. “Haven’t we already tried that already anyway?”

“Not this kind of chaos detective-ing!” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly. “The one we tried before was for Discord! We’re detecting chaos for this new guy that took over for Discord!”

“I still think we’ve tried that already,” Sweetie Belle replied.

There was suddenly a bang and a flash of purple light from somewhere nearby, making them all jump. Scootaloo and Applebloom seemed to be more shaken up then Sweetie Belle and Spike, something that was not missed.

“Ha! Now who’s the chicken?” asked Spike triumphantly. He and Sweetie Belle slapped hoof and claw in the air as the other two turned to face them.

“That was different!” Scootaloo protested.

“Y-yeah!” Applebloom agreed shakily. “We were too busy thinking about everything we were gonna do to be focused on real life!”

“Whatever you say, you chicken!” Sweetie Belle laughed.

Suddenly, there was a deafening scream of fury and another bang. The voice was unmistakeable, but that couldn’t be Twilight, could it? She had never sounded that angry before!

With a quick glance between the four of them, they all came to the same conclusion.

Cutie Mark Crusader plus one scream investigators, yay!

-=-=-=-=-

The two of them emerged from James’s tackle somewhere in Ponyville. Twilight’s horn fired off a large blast of magic up into the sky, illuminating the area for a moment. James rolled over Twilight’s body and spun around to face her.

“Twilight, you’ve got to calm down,” said James, holding his hands out in front of him. “I know you want to be angry right now, but you could’ve killed someone with that spell!”

Several ponies gasped from nearby as they saw what had just happened. James waved at them to get back, but they took no notice of him, curiosity overwhelming them. Twilight slowly climbed to her feet and glared James right in the eye before letting out an ear-splitting scream of unbridled rage and a burst of magical power. The watchers flinched away as they were slightly deafened by such a resounding scream, but they did not run.

“Why should I calm down?!” she roared, stomping a hoof firmly and causing a slight indentation on the ground. James eyed it warily, but quickly returned his gaze to Twilight. “So you can just walk away without punishment?! You deserve more punishment than anypony else!!”

“Believe me, Twilight, I know that more than anyone,” he replied, taking a small step towards her. “But the way you are now, you’ll just be punishing everyone soon.”

Her eyelid twitched and her horn flashed brightly for an instant. A look of terror appeared on her face for a moment, but it quickly faded back to one of fury. James raised an eyebrow at that, smirking humourlessly as he began to figure out what was happening.

“Oh, this’ll make a few headlines…” he muttered. “Come on, Twilight. You’re better than this! Fight it before you start fighting everyone!”

She snarled and pawed at the ground for a moment. “I’d rather fight you!!” she screamed before hurtling towards him.

“Yeah, walked right into that one, didn’t I…?” James whispered to himself, adopting a fighting stance.

Before she reached him, she sent out a shot of magic ahead of her. James reacted quickly; a baseball bat materialised in his hands and he swung it at the projectile, knocking it high up into the sky. He spun with the momentum of his swing, hurling the bat to one side before delivering a roundhouse kick to Twilight’s head. She flew across the street and crashed to the ground in a heap.

James heard a gasp from somewhere in the slowly forming crowd and turned his head slightly to see Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie watching from not too far away, a look of shock on both their faces.

“Aw, great, now I feel like I’m on stage,” he joked quietly, turning his gaze back to Twilight. “Come on, princess! Better get this over and done with before your friends see this!”

Twilight growled as she got back to her feet. “Then stand still and let me make you suffer!!” she shouted, eyes lighting up.

“Yeah, not gonna happen,” James replied. “This is how it’s gonna work, princess; either you let me put you to sleep and no one else gets hurt or you put me down and then you start hurting everyone. What’s it gonna be?”

She smirked darkly and fired six orbs of purple light that homed in on him rapidly. “If it makes you suffer for what you’ve done, then I will hurt everyone!!” she shrieked, laughing cruelly.

“Again, not happening.”

One of his hands shot up to the sky and was swiftly pulled down, dragging a large red octagon by some invisible thread with it. The octagon crashed down into the ground before the projectiles and they collided with it at such a force that they exploded violently. James took up a fighting stance again as Twilight’s horn lit up once more. She fired off a beam of light at him, which he blocked and absorbed with a shield that suddenly appeared on his arm.

Twilight growled furiously and galloped towards him. Before she reached him, however, she teleported the last of the distance and swiped up with her horn that looked a lot sharper and longer than it had been only seconds earlier. A magical sword came into being as she did, following the movement of her head. James stepped around so his shield hand was on the side being attacked and knocked the sword to one side. Twilight snarled and renewed her assault.

“Not getting me like that, princess,” James stated calmly, batting the sword away as it swung down at him.

“Then stop moving!!” she screeched, spinning around to buck her hind legs at him. He teleported to just out of her reach and spun back to face her as she fumed. “You can’t avoid your punishment forever, James!!”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to for the one you’re thinking of giving,” he said, snapping his fingers to make a metal rod appear in his free hand. “What would you rather; forgetting about it all or killing me and punishing everyone else as well?”

She ground her teeth together as her magical sword swung at him again. He parried the strike with the shield and lunged towards her with the rod raised high. A shield spell was cast above her, knocking the rod away, and she swung low with the magical sword. He leapt over the swipe and spun in the air, aiming his weapon at her head.

She teleported out of his range and the sword shot towards him like a throwing knife. He stepped to one side to avoid it and hurled his shield at her. It clanged harmlessly off of a wall of purple light she had put up and she fired another spell blast at him in return. He spun out of the way, using the manoeuvre’s momentum to fling the rod at her. Her magical wall had gone down too soon and it hit her right between the eyes.

As she was stunned, a small rock hit the side of James’s head. “Get away from Twilight, you big bully!” yelled Spike the dragon, standing in a stance he’d no doubt seen James use earlier beside the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “I’m warning you! You hurt her again and I’ll make you into burnt toast!”

“It’s for her own good and the good of everyone else, Spike!” James replied, rubbing the side of his head as he dived towards Twilight, tackling her to the ground. “If I don’t stop her, she’s just going to keep hurting people!”

He put her in a hold that restricted her movement and pressed her against the ground. He raised a hand and grabbed a needle out of the air. He pulled one of Twilight’s legs out to jab the needle into it, but he was stopped by something pulling his arm back.

“I mean it!” Spike yelled, scowling at him threateningly. “I’ll burn you alive!!”

Before James could pull his hand away, Twilight let out a deafening shriek and a shockwave of magic, sending him flying straight up in the air. On his descent, he spun to face upwards and something propelled him backwards and away from Twilight. He somersaulted backwards as he fell and landed on his feet in a crouch. He looked around for Spike, snarling when he saw the poor dragon in a crumpled mess on the ground some distance away.

“Happy now, Twilight?” he snapped, running over to Spike’s side. “Are you happy with what you’ve accomplished now?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were there before he was, each one of them with a terrified look on their face as they panicked about what they should do. When James reached them, he knelt down beside him and pushed them back gently. He leant down to listen for breathing from Spike’s mouth before putting two fingers on Spike’s wrist to check his pulse.

While this was happening, Twilight looked to be having some kind of emotional turmoil; one moment, she would look terrified, fearing for Spike’s life, and the next, she would look furious and uncaring for him. James noticed this strange behaviour as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

“Girls, get a doctor,” he muttered, standing up above Spike’s broken form. He began to slowly march towards Twilight “Princess Twilight and I need to have a chat.”

“I-I’m sorry!” Twilight sobbed, taking a step towards Spike quickly, but was stopped when James raised a hand to her slowly. “I didn’t mean to hurt him! Is he alright?! He’s going to be o-okay, isn’t he?!” She twitched and her expression shifted to a cold one. “He got in the way!! Any fool with the sense to move would have done so, and, thus, he’ll remember his pathetic mistake!!”

“Gotcha,” James said quietly, smirking darkly. “Hello, Nightmare Twilight.”

He moved across the space in front of him in the blink of an eye, grabbing Twilight by the neck and throwing her onto her back before slamming her down to the ground. Before she could retaliate, he grabbed her by the wings and twisted them in such a way that made her scream in agony. He planted a foot on her chest and pressed her down against the ground. Her struggle against him halted for a moment and she looked up at him fearfully. After a second, she nodded at him.

“Great job, Twi,” he whispered, pulling her wings off completely in a single swift movement. “Keep fighting it.”

Her detached wings vanished from his hands suddenly and Twilight hissed at him furiously, pupils narrowing and becoming snake-like. He chuckled humourlessly as another needle appeared in his hand. He heard some of the obviously terrified crowd gasp as he leaned down to stick it into her leg. She fired a blast of magic up at his face in a last-ditch effort to get him off of her, which hit him hard. After a moment, he looked back down at her with a bleeding nose and a cruel smile before he stabbed the needle into her leg and injected its fluid inside her.

“I will come back!!” she spat at him. “I will return once more!! I will see you suffer!!”

“I’d like to see you try it, Nightmare,” he replied, leaning across to her ear to whisper to her. “Just know this; I am the stronger one here and I will never stop defending this world while I still draw breath.”

Her pupils returned to their original look and her horn shrank back down to normal size as the sleeping drug took its effect on her. She kicked out at him weakly as he put a hand on her head and his face regained a stern look. When her eyes drifted shut at last, he did what he wanted to do. Behind him, he heard the sound of approaching ponies.

“What did you do to her?” Fluttershy breathed, looking down at Twilight’s unconscious body. “Is she alright?”

“I put her to sleep for a few hours and wiped her memory,” he replied gravely. “When she wakes up, she’ll forget she was ever angry.”

“But what happened to her?!” Pinkie yelled, pushing James’s leg off of Twilight’s chest. “She’s never wanted to do anything like that before! Not even on her own!”

“She was just so mad that she let her guard down,” he replied, cradling Twilight in his arms to pick her up off the ground. “She let her guard down and the Nightmare saw an opportunity to take over.”

“Nightmare?” Fluttershy asked, looking up at James in shock. “As in… Nightmare Moon?”

“The Nightmare that made Luna Nightmare Moon, yes,” he explained. He sighed and headed off towards Twilight’s castle, motioning for the other girls to follow. “Imagine a parasite; something that latches onto anything it can to feed on and grow stronger. That’s what the Nightmare is.”

“So… she’s not a real pony?” Pinkie reasoned, following James as he walked.

“Something like that.”

“But… how did Twilight let her guard down?” asked Fluttershy.

James sighed again, closing his eyes. “She didn’t,” he said darkly. “I dropped it for her.”

Before giving any more explanation, he vanished with Twilight, leaving Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy alone. They turned around to the doctor that was seeing to Spike and then to each other. They both came to the conclusion that Spike needed more attention right now, and they headed over to him slowly.

-=-=-=-=-

Twilight could hear voices.

They sounded very familiar too.

“Did you tell them about your plan?”

Plan?

“No. They don’t need to know it yet.”

“Good choice. I’d suggest telling the others to not let Twilight know about this. We don’t want Nightmare repeating all this.”

Nightmare?

“They’ll ask questions, you know. How you knew about that stuff, in particular.”

“Let ‘em. I’ll just make up some story or wipe their memory, if need be.”

“Do you really want to do that to them? Especially Fluttershy.”

What was going on?

“Look, I can only see the one blip in the plan so far and that was when I was depressed about things today. You came and cleaned that up anyway.”

The one she’d seen attacking James!

“Yes, but I won’t be able to clean up all your mess, even if I am –“

“Shh. She just gasped. I think she’s been awake this whole time.”

Oh no.

She felt something put over her mouth and she could taste that drug that’d put her to sleep earlier again.

She held her breath, but she’d already breathed too much of it in.

“Note to self; chloroform works better than other sedatives.”

“I’ll make sure to remember that for you.”

She felt a hand on her head as she faded out of consciousness.

“Sorry, princess, but this is to make sure you don’t mess any of my plan up.”

She opened her eyes and glanced around weakly. There was James, carrying her, and then there was…

Blackness.

Author's Note

This chapter was originally just me venting my frustrations in word form but that got too off topic way too quickly so that's why you have this chapter with as much fighting in it as it has. I'll make it up to you later.

Chapter Eleven: Get Better Soon

Applejack didn’t like the idea of having to lie.

Sadly, James had approached her last night and ordered her to do so for Twilight’s sake, and the sake of everyone else. She couldn’t fully understand why, though. She gathered that it was so Twilight didn’t know about what had happened last night, but she couldn’t quite understand why that was necessary when everyone else in Ponyville would know what happened by now. Surely, at least one of them would have gone to the newspaper about it. Maybe the newspapers already knew.

Of course, James had seen to that too.

Rather than anything to do with Twilight’s outburst yesterday, the news only seemed to cover something about a giant kitten fighting a robot monkey from space over a box of crayons in a place called New York today.

It had gotten a laugh out of her family, even if it clearly was just some prank played on the entirety of Ponyville, maybe even all of Equestria.

Right now, however, Applejack and her sister were headed towards the hospital. Spike probably needed some support in all this after what happened yesterday. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had told Applejack, Rarity, Luna and Celestia about what had happened, and then James had appeared and gave them all orders to not let Twilight know about all this. He hadn’t exactly told them why, however, only that it was for the sake of Twilight and Equestria itself.

Applebloom looked up at her sister with a hopeful smile on her face. “You think Spike’ll be alright?” she asked. “He’s a tough little dragon. He’ll be alright, won’t he?”

“Ah’m not so sure, sugarcube,” Applejack replied. “If what you, Pinkie and Fluttershy said was true, ah’m thinkin’ he might be in a bad way.” She sighed. “But ah guess he is a dragon. He’ll probably be okay. Just… might have a few bumps ‘n’ bruises for a while.”

Applebloom was quiet and looked straight ahead again. She looked like she had something on her mind, Applejack noticed.

“What’s on your mind, Applebloom?” she asked, nudging her sister in the side. “You look like you’re thinkin’ of somethin’. Anything ah can help with?”

“Uh…” Applebloom replied, looking for the right way to say it. “It’s nothing. Ah’m just thinkin’ about Spike bein’ in hospital ‘cause… Ah think we might have been the reason he got into hospital in the first place.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well… we asked Spike to come with us. If we’d let him stay in the castle, he wouldn’t be where he is now.”

“Don’t think like that, Applebloom,” said James breathlessly, stepping out of nothingness beside her. “Blaming yourself… for everything means the bad guys... are in the right.”

“What do you want, James?” Applejack asked coldly, not even looking at him.

“Nothing,” he replied, leaning over to catch his breath. “Just wanted to tell Appleboom… that her friends are waiting for her up at the hospital. God… Do not do what I just did. It really takes it… out of you.”

“What did you just do?” Applebloom asked, looking up at him.

“I just… ran around the rest of Ponyville that I missed… to wipe the memories of everyone that… saw what happened yesterday. Not an easy feat.”

“What?!” Applejack yelled, spinning to face him.

“Why’d you do that?” Applebloom asked, tilting her head at him.

“What gives you the right to do that?!” Applejack roared, marching towards him fiercely. “You think you can just take the memories of other ponies like you own the town?! You can’t just do that!!”

“Because I needed to make sure that… no one can tell Princess Twilight what she did…” he answered slowly, looking up at Applebloom. “It’s kind of important... that she doesn’t find out about it… or it’ll happen again.”

“Ah don’t get it,” Aplebloom commented, shaking her head and looking down to think about it a little more. “Why would it happen again? Ah’m sure she’d learn from her mistake, wouldn’t she?”

“Are you even listenin’ to me?!” Applejack yelled, grabbing the collar of James’s shirt and dragging him close to her face. “Where do you get the nerve to do somethin’ like that?!”

“I had my problems with it too, apples,” he replied, taking a step back. The shirt flopped down in Applejack’s grip as he faded through and out of it. “Trust me when I say this; I don’t like doing this, but it’s for the greater good.” He held out a hand. “I’ll be having that back, please.”

Applejack scowled and smacked the shirt into his outstretched hand. He put it onto his shoulder and looked up at the sunny sky.

“Yeah, I think I’ll leave it off for a while. Nice enough for it today, isn’t it?”

“Why’s it important to keep it from Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Like I said; she finds out about it and it happens again. I’ll explain it in more detail later, with the others.” He looked down at Applebloom and smiled. “You go on and see Spike with your friends. Your sister and I need to have a little chat about things.”

“Can’t ah stay and listen?” Applebloom replied, frowning dejectedly.

“Don’t you want to go see Spike? I’m sure he wants to see you and make sure you’re alright too.”

Applebloom thought it over for a moment before nodding in agreement and trotting off towards the hospital. “See you later, Applejack!” she called, turning her head back to her sister. “Ah’m gonna go check on Spike!”

“Oh boy, does she remind me of my daughter…” James muttered, watching her go. “Never wanting to be left out but always putting her friends first.” He turned back to Applejack and his smile faded. “I need you to round up the others as soon as possible. Not Twilight though; she stays out of this. Get them to all meet up at the hospital, Spike’s room in particular. All of you need to know this.”

“Why Spike’s room?” Applejack asked, tilting her head bewilderedly. “Shouldn’t he be left outta this?”

“He’s the one who suffered from this, apples. He needs to know why it happened more than anyone.”

“Makes sense, ah guess…” she muttered, mulling it over in her head. She looked back up at him when she realised something important. “Why not just wipe our memories like you did the others that saw it?”

“Because I’d really rather just see how much I can trust you to keep your friend, and Equestria, safe. The others that saw it won’t exactly trust Twilight as much as you guys do after something like that. Why? Are you saying your friend can’t trust you with this information?”

“Ah’m not sayin’ that.” She nodded and frowned. “Ah’ll get the others and meet you back at the hospital, and when we get there, ah think we’ll all want a proper explanation of what happened yesterday.”

“You’ll get one.” He took a step back from her and smirked. “I’ll be there in about five minutes, if I’m right about how many ponies I have left to mind-wipe.”

He snapped his fingers and vanished suddenly. When he was gone, Applejack sighed and started trotting slowly towards Sugarcube Corner, the closest home of one of her friends. She didn’t make it very far before she heard someone following her. She turned to see a pony she had never seen before hurrying after her.

“Can ah help you?” she asked the stranger.

“Who was that… um, creature?” they asked back, staring at the spot where James had vanished. “You must know… it. I saw you talking to it like you knew it very well.”

“Ah wouldn’t say that, sugarcube…” Applejack muttered, looking down at the ground. “He’s just… someone ah know. You must be new in town, but ah wouldn’t worry about him too much. But, just to be on the safe side, steer clear of ‘em. Now if you’ll excuse me, ah gotta go find some friends of mine.”

She tipped her hat and continued on her way to Sugarcube Corner. The strange pony tilted her head in wonder, marvelling at the thought of a strange being with the abilities of a master sorcerer in this town somewhere. She watched Applejack for a moment before coming to the right conclusion.

Princess Twilight must know something about him.

In fact, she needed to talk to Princess Twilight about that fight she’d had with that strange being yesterday anyway. It was time to kill two birds with one stone!

-=-=-=-=-

Spike was worried.

Since he’d woken up a few hours ago from the concussion he’d received, he’d had doctors in and out of his room to do all sorts of doctor stuff; take some of his blood, give him some medicine injections, and anything like that. That wasn’t why he’d been worried, though. He’d been a brave little dragon about all of that.

The real reason why he was worried was Twilight.

If she could avoid it, and she always could, she would always make sure he wasn’t in harm’s way when she was casting spells or, at least, out of the way of serious physical harm. But yesterday, she’d been so brutal with her spell. She’d never done something like that before, not even if she was furious about something.

It couldn’t really be of Twilight’s own doing, could it?

He was distracted from his thoughts by a knock on the room’s door. Being the only one in the room, he naturally assumed it was for him.

“C-come in!” he called, wincing as something clicked in his chest.

The door was pushed open and, to his surprise, in rushed the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Howdy, Spike!” Applebloom greeted happily.

“Wow, you got your own room?” Scootaloo breathed incredulously.

“How are you feeling, Spike?” Sweetie asked warmly.

“Not good…” Spike muttered, clutching at his aching chest. “What happened with Twilight after I passed out?”

“Oh, you shoulda seen it, Spike!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “James went to town on her! He was faster even than Rainbow Dash!”

“That’s… not really something that’ll cheer me up, Scootaloo…” Spike muttered, looking down at the bed. “I didn’t want Twilight to get hurt, but James hurt her anyway.”

“I didn’t do it by choice, Spike,” said James, materialising beside the bed. “Believe me when I say this; if I didn’t do what I did when I did it, it wouldn’t just be you suffering, it’d be the whole of Equestria.”

“W-what do you mean?” Spike stammered, looking up at James. He shook his head and snarled. “Liar! You just wanted to hurt Twilight!”

“What can I do to make you believe me, Spike? I swear on my life; if I didn’t stop her, Equestria would’ve been thrown into eternal night.”

“You… What?”

“What do you mean?” Applebloom asked. “Are you sayin’ she’d be Nightmare Moon or somethin’?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Applebloom,” James said bluntly, sighing lightly.

The four others looked at each other in confusion at what James was saying. After a minute of stunned silence, James snapped his fingers and an armchair appeared behind him, which he sat down in. He pointed at the ground behind each of the Crusaders in turn, and they turned to see he had made cushions appear for them to sit on.

“Please, sit,” he said, waving a hand at them. “We might be here a while.”

“W-what for?” Spike asked hesitantly, looking across at James wonderingly.

“You four, out of all the citizens of Ponyville, deserve an explanation more than anyone else, you in particular, Spike.” James tapped his chin in thought for a moment. “Actually, there are five others. Seven if you include sunshine and moony, but they’re not in Ponyville anymore.”

“Are you talkin’ about mah sister and her friends?” asked Applebloom. “But… there’s six of ‘em. Who’re you missin’ out?”

“The one pony that, by any means necessary, should never know about what happened last night; Twilight Sparkle.”

“Why can’t Twilight know about it?” Spike queried. “She’s the one who did it, so shouldn’t she know already anyway?”

“I wiped her memory. She can’t remember that particular happenstance any more than the rest of Ponyville can.”

“Oh yeah, you said you were doing that!” Applebloom exclaimed.

“To you and your sister, Applebloom, but not the others yet,” James replied. He snapped his fingers and a pocket watch appeared in his hand. He checked the time before taking a bite out of the top of it. “And… by my watch… ‘scuse me… the others should be here soon.”

“That’s… kinda gross…” Sweetie Belle stated, shuddering at the sight of him eating a bit of clockwork metal.

“Oh, that’s right,” James said looking down at the watch and slapping his forehead. “Forgot to make it a gem!”

The watch flashed bright pink and was suddenly made of gemstone. James considered it for a moment before offering it to Spike.

“I’m not gonna finish this,” he said as Spike took it from him. “Hope you enjoy.”

Spike licked his lips before chomping away at the gem in his claws. After a noisy minute of happy munching, he wiped his lips and smiled.

“Thanks!” he said to James. “That’s the first meal I’ve actually really enjoyed in here! You can visit more often!”

“You’re acting a lot more warmly towards me, Spike,” James said, smirking at the dragon. “If all it takes to get you on my side is give you a gem, I’m sure you’ll be gaining a lot of weight over the next few weeks.”

“Uh… what?”

“It’s a joke. Don’t worry.”

There was another knock on the door, drawing the attention of the five of them. Spike looked up at James inquisitively, wondering if he should allow entry or not. James nodded lightly.

“Come in!” Spike yelled over at the door.

The door opened and Spike smiled as five more ponies entered. Rarity and Pinkie Pie rushed to Spike’s bedside to start fussing over him as Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed slowly.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay, Spike!” Rarity exclaimed, hugging Spike tightly. He winced when she did, and she receded quickly. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“N-no, it’s… fine,” Spike replied. “I just… got a few ribs cracked and suffered a concussion.”

“I was going to bring you a cake, but Applejack came to get me before I could finish it!” Pinkie said sadly. “Sorry I couldn’t make you a get-better-soon cake, Spike!”

“It’s okay, Pinkie,” Spike replied. “I… I already ate.”

“Ah hope you’re not feeling too bad, Spike,” said Applejack, trotting over to Spike’s bed to put a hoof on his shoulder. “Ah know Twilight did what she did, but ah know that she didn’t want to hurt you intentionally.”

“What’s he doing here?” Rainbow Dash spat, pointing at James. “He’s probably the reason Spike’s in here anyway.”

James sighed and closed his eyes. “The truth hurts, but the truth is that yes, I am the reason Spike is in here,” he said slowly. “Now if you’ll let me –“

“What?!” yelled Spike, Rainbow Dash and Rarity all at the same time in disbelief.

“Ah thought Twilight hurt ‘em!” Applejack yelled angrily.

“She did, apples, but I’m the reason Twilight hurt him.”

“Then y’all best start explainin’ yourself, James!”

“It’s a long story,” said James, snapping his fingers to make a set of cushions appear beside the girls. “Sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”

Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack scowled as they sat down. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy glanced at each other anxiously before doing the same without a scowl. Spike shifted uncomfortably in his bed, anxiously glancing at James.

“Is there anything anyone needs at all?” James asked, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Can we sit with Spike?” Applebloom asked. “Ah think he could use some… uh… reassurement.”

James chuckled lightly. “By all means, Applebloom,” he answered warmly, waving a hand at the bed. “If Spike’s alright with it, feel free.”

“T-that’s… okay,” Spike stammered, shifting in the bed to allow the Crusaders to sit on it with him.

Applebloom beamed and leapt up onto the end of the bed happily. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were not so enthusiastic about it though. When the three of them were sat on the bed, James smiled and clapped his hands together.

“Now then,” he began, “all questions and criticisms should be reserved for the end of this tale. There will be no bathroom breaks, so please, if you need to go, go now.” He waited a moment to see if anyone would move before continuing. “Excellent. Then let us begin.”

Author's Note

Sorry for taking forever with this one I was busy ~~finding my true calling~~ ~~getting my cutie mark~~ doing other stuff.

Chapter Twelve: Trust

“As I’m sure at most of you know,” James began, “Twilight had a dark and furious episode last night. This has resulted in Spike being hospitalised and a majority of the town’s populace to forget what they were doing last night.” He breathed in and out slowly. “I want you to know this; that was not Twilight.”

“Then who was it, featherbrain?!” Rainbow yelled.

“All questions and criticisms must be reserved for the end of the tale,” James said with a frown. “Now are you going to be quiet or am I going to have to get the duct tape and rope out?” He waited for her to cross her hooves and scowl silently before continuing. “Good girl. Anyone else who so rudely interrupts without prompt or break will be duct taped and tied up to keep them quiet. Clear?”

“What counts as a break?” asked Rarity. “I thought you said there weren’t going to be any.”

“That does; when I ask a question. So are we clear?”

“We get it, just get on with it,” Rainbow spat crossly.

“Alright… Like I was saying, that wasn’t Twilight. You probably won’t believe this, but that was Nightmare Moon.” He waited a second as the stunned silence filled the room. “That was a prompt to react. Feel free.”

“What do you mean, Nightmare Moon?” yelled Rarity.

“How is that even possible?” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Ah hope you’re gonna give us a little more detail than that, James,” said Applejack.

“Okay, one; I mean the monster that Luna became when she got jealous that nobody liked her,” James answered. “Two; it’s possible because of what I explained to you and Fluttershy last night. Three; I never said that was the end of the story, apples.”

“Then get to the story, stupid!” Rainbow yelled.

“Okay, you were not prompted there, feisty, so you have to be duct taped and tied up,” James said with cruel amusement.

He snapped his fingers and a rope that appeared out of thin air started tying itself around her. As she protested and struggled against it, he dragged a finger across his lips and a strip of duct tape appeared over hers, correlating with the movement of his finger. When he was sure that she wasn’t going to talk over him again, he chuckled to himself.

“Let her go!” Rarity yelled, hurrying forward to her struggling friend.

“Do I have to do the same to you, curly?” he asked, readying his hand to snap his fingers again. She shook her head and sat back down slowly. “Are any of you going to interrupt without being allowed to first?”

“No…” Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie muttered together.

“You four aren’t as required to keep quiet though,” he said, pointing at the four on the bed.

“How come?” asked Scootaloo.

“You’re children,” he explained. “Children couldn’t keep quiet if you gave them everything their heart desires. Now, back to the story. Nightmare Moon. I told Pinkie and Fluttershy the principle of Nightmare Moon last night; she’s not a real pony. Instead, she’s just a parasitic entity that will latch onto any being that becomes too furious to see things clearly.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Sweetie Belle protested, standing up on the bed. “If that’s true then how come nopony else has been latched by Nightmare Moon yet?”

“She likes to aim for those of you with more power. While I’m sure you could make the planet explode if you wanted it to one day, Sweetie, I don’t think you’d really count as what the Nightmare is looking for.”

“So is she lookin’ for a princess to turn into?” Applebloom asked.

“That is correct, Applebloom. Now you’re thinking outside the box. Good job, you!”

Applebloom beamed again at the praise. James smiled weakly at the sight of her so pleased with herself.

“Thanks for making my day, Applebloom. I’ve not seen someone so pleased with themselves since I was back at home with my daughter. Even better job on that.”

“James, you’re getting off topic!” Rarity exclaimed.

“I’m allowed enjoy a little achievement too, aren’t I?” he asked, frowning at her. He sighed lightly. “But I suppose you’re right. Nightmare Moon, then. The reason she can’t latch onto any princess when they’re not enraged is because each princess has a subconscious mental barrier up. She can’t get through it when it’s not cracked by fury.”

“But… surely the princesses have been angry enough for this to happen before!” Rarity suggested.

“Oh, they’ve been angry before, just not angry enough.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked.

“They have to be so angry that they forget right from wrong if it means making the one responsible suffer,” James explained. “Moony was angry at her sister for taking all the credit, and Twilight was angry at me for what I’d done yesterday.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “And I amplified that rage.”

“What?!” came the yelling voices of Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Spike at the same time.

“So you made Twilight even angrier then?” Applebloom queried.

“Oh, you. Stop being so clever!” James laughed appreciatively. “You’re right again, of course. I did make her angrier.”

“Why?!” Rarity yelled.

“You’re the reason I’m in here then, not Twilight!” Spike shouted, shuffling back in the bed. He winced in pain when he did so.

“Fluttershy, can you take care of Spike, please. I don’t want him hurt any more than he already is.”

Fluttershy stood up and trotted over to the bed, where she gently lowered Spike back down against the pillow and whispered something to him about not moving. Once she was finished, she sat beside the bed and waited for James to continue.

“Yes, Spike,” he said slowly, frowning. “I am the reason you are in here. I cannot be any sorrier than I am for making this happen. But before you say anything else, I want you to know that I did not, in any way, mean for it to get so out of control.”

“Well, you should’ve thought of that before you did it!” Applejack snapped.

He stood up and put his hands behind his back. “I didn’t know what the spell would do, apples. I knew it would make her furious and maybe start a whole scandal about a princess losing her mind, but not angry enough to let Nightmare in.”

Spike spotted James’s fingers moving behind his back, but didn’t think much of it. “You still made her hurt me!” he yelled. “You made me think that she hated me or something!”

“Spike, I swear to you, cross my heart and hope to fly, that I didn’t mean for her to hurt you. If I could have prevented it by any means, I would have.” He smirked. “I probably shouldn’t have stayed in town with her, actually.”

“You shouldn’t have done anything at all!” Applejack yelled.

“Ah, you weren’t allowed to speak there, apples,” James replied with a smug smile.

He snapped his fingers and a leather muzzle appeared in front of Applejack’s face. She gasped as it shot towards her mouth and strapped itself on, clamping her mouth shut. Rarity and Pinkie Pie glanced warily at Applejack as she tugged at the muzzle, but said nothing.

“At least you didn’t tie her up and put duck tape over her mouth, ah guess…” Applebloom reasoned. “But you are gonna let her go after this, right?”

James let out a single, quiet laugh before smiling down at her. “Yes, she will be freed from my muzzle of evil, Applebloom, just like feisty will be freed from the rope and duck tape,” he explained. He smiled widely and ruffled her hair. “My daughter was a lot like you are in that way too; she always thought that every cloud had a silver lining.”

“Get back to what you were saying!” Spike yelled angrily.

“Right, sorry, Spike.” James cleared his throat before standing up straight again. “Uh… I think that’s it actually. The only thing left to say is…” He frowned. “I need you all to keep this quiet. I’ve only told you all this instead of just wiping your memory because I believe that I can trust all of you to keep Equestria safe.”

“What do you mean?” asked Scootaloo. “Are you saying… we need to keep this a secret unless we want Equestria to explode or something?”

James smirked and turned to face her. “Yes, Scootaloo, something like that,” he said. “You must all keep this away from everyone, particularly Twilight. If she finds out about it, she could panic and let it happen again. We can’t, by all means, let that happen.”

“But… ah thought you said that Nightmare Moon only comes back when the pony forgets right from wrong,” Applebloom thought out loud, tilting her head in confusion.

James chuckled to himself and looked up at her. “You’re too smart for me, Applebloom,” he said, smiling at her. “That is correct, but if Twilight knew what happened, there is a chance that the memory of that granting Nightmare a tiny crack in Twilight’s defence and, therefore, getting back in.”

“That don’t make much sense…” Applebloom muttered.

“No, it doesn’t, but that’s the truth,” James said, smile faltering a little. “Now then…” He snapped his fingers and the restraints on Applejack and Rainbow Dash vanished. “Any questions?”

“You better hope that was the whole story, James!” Rainbow yelled, flapping up into the air and stretching her wings.

“That wasn’t a question,” James replied.

“Well here’s one for you! Do you want your flank to be kicked so hard you can’t sit for weeks?!”

“I would prefer that to not happen, feisty.”

“While I do think that Rainbow Dash may be making violent threats, I kind of agree with her,” said Rarity, trotting over to James slowly. “Is that the whole story? Is there anything you missed?”

“To the best of my knowledge, that is the whole story,” James answered. “If I missed anything that you noticed, you can talk to me and I’ll tell you about it.”

“Wait a second, how do you know all that stuff about Nightmare Moon anyway?” asked Pinkie Pie.

James smirked and snorted with amusement. “That’s one little detail I think it’s safer to keep to myself,” he said. “I mean, if that time-travelling wizard found out that I told you, he’d throw into the abyss.” He put a hand over his mouth. “Oops. Silly me. I’ve gone and told you now.”

“Ah can tell that was a joke, but are you gonna tell us the truth about how you know or not?” Applejack snarled.

“No, apples, not even for the whole world.”

“Thank you for telling us all that, James,” said Fluttershy.

“And thanks for giving me credit for how smart ah am!” Applebloom added happily.

“Thanks for saying thanks, girls,” James replied. He turned back to the rest of the group. “So then, do I have your word that you won’t speak to this to anyone at all?”

“Does that include my other friends?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes, Pinkie, yes it does.”

“Aw, fine!” Pinkie moaned, kicking at the ground.

“We promise, James,” said Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” said Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash at the same time.

“What about the rest of you?” James asked, smirking at the four on the bed.

“As a Cutie Mark Crusader, I give you a Crusader’s promise that ah won’t tell anypony about this ever!” Applebloom said confidently, putting a hoof over her heart.

“When did that become a thing?” asked Scootaloo.

“Just now when ah made it a thing, Scootaloo!” Applebloom replied.

“Alright, we do the same as her then,” Sweetie Belle said. “Crusader’s promise.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” James commented with a small grin. “You’re making your own promises. That is very cool.”

“Uh… I guess I’m with them,” Spike said, looking down at the bed. “I swear to not tell anyone about this. I don’t want Twilight to do that again.”

“Excellent,” James said, clapping his hands together. “I’ve got to go check some things now though, so I bid thee good day. Go back to whatever you were doing, or stay and chat with Spike.” He slapped a hand against his forehead. “Oh! Spike, you fell down some stairs. That’s the story for Twilight, okay?”

“Okay…” Spike muttered.

“She’ll be coming to visit you very soon,” James said with a weak smile. “That, I can guarantee, if I’m right about the chloroform’s effect time.”

He vanished with a puff of green mist, leaving the girls and Spike to chat amongst themselves.

-=-=-=-=-

Twilight could hear knocking somewhere.

She sat up in the bed she had no recollection of getting into and rubbed her aching head. What had happened yesterday? She could remember the meteorite, the chaos, and James resolving everything, but beyond that, nothing. It was like someone had locked the memories away from her.

“S-Spike!” she yelled, climbing out of the bed. “Can you go see who that is, please?”

She was surprised when she couldn’t hear the sound of tiny footsteps rushing towards the door, or even a yell of affirmation. Spike must have been out somewhere…

She stretched her wings out and –

Hold on a minute.

Something was wrong.

She slowly turned her head back to look at where her wings should have been, feeling an absence there. When she spotted that they were completely gone, she gasped. What had James done?!

“Spike!” she shouted, feeling the panic take over. “Spike, where are you?!”

Knock knock knock.

This wasn’t the time to be panicking! It was probably just some practical joke of his! He would probably give them back like he did Luna’s anyway!

Knock knock knock knock.

“Hello?” somepony Twilight had never heard before yelled. “Princess Twilight? Can I come in?”

“N-now’s not a good time!” Twilight yelled back.

“But it’s important!” the strange pony yelled, sounding like they had entered the castle. “It’s about what happened last night!”

“I…!” Twilight stopped. Any information about what happened last night would be welcome. “Give me a minute! I’ll be right there!”

She hurried over to her wardrobe and rummaged around for anything that would hide her missing wings. She procured a wide ribbon and hurried back over to the bed. She levitated two pillows off of it and held them beside her. She then wrapped the ribbon around herself and the pillows, making it look like her wings were beneath the ribbon.

“Coming!” she yelled when she was sure that the stranger wouldn’t think her wings were missing.

She hurried out of the bedroom towards the main entrance of the castle, making sure to keep the pillows in the right positions. When she got to the main hall, she found the strange pony waiting there for her.

“Oh, hello, Princess Twilight!” said the stranger.

“Hello! I’m sorry, but we’ve never met! Who might you be?” Twilight replied politely.

“My name is Prism Shine!” the pony replied, bowing to Twilight. “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“The pleasure is all mine,” Twilight replied. “Now, you said you knew something about last night. Can you tell me about it, please?”

“Yes, about the battle between you and that strange creature!” said Prism. Twilight tilted her head. “Oh, that’s really what I wanted to speak to you about!”

“Uh… what do you mean, battle?” Twilight asked confusedly.

“I heard he was taking over for Discord. Is that true? Is he the new spirit of chaos?”

“No, the battle! What was this battle you’re talking about?”

“Oh, I’m sure you can talk to your friends about it and they’d tell you!” Prism grinned and anxiously stepped from hoof to hoof. “I want to know more about this new spirit of chaos! Can you tell me more about him please?”

“I could tell you about myself if you wanted, stranger,” said James, snapping into existence beside Prism, making her jump. “In fact, we’ll talk about me as much as you like. But later. I need to speak with Twilight for a moment.”

“Oh, thank you!” Prism said gratefully, grinning ear to ear. “I’ve wanted to find out more about you since I learned about you from my cousin that lives here! She said you made a giant glass appear to put out a fire! Is that true?”

“I’ll talk to you about it later,” James insisted, gently nudging her back towards the door. “I need to speak with Princess Twilight alone.”

“Oh, yes!” Prism replied, backing away to the door. “Forgive me, all powerful spirit! I shall leave at once!”

She turned and hurried out the door. James watched her go and smirked. As much as Twilight wanted to know more about what had happened yesterday, something was telling her that it would be a better idea to keep her questions to herself.

“She seems like a lot of fun,” James stated, turning to face Twilight. “Now then.” He frowned. “I’ve got some bad news, princess.”

“What is it?” she asked. She decided to feign ignorance. “Did I do something yesterday? I can’t remember anything after that meteorite was destroyed.”

“I know, but that’s another story. Oh, you know that your wings are missing?” He snapped his fingers and the ribbon holding the pillows against Twilight’s sides unravelled and fell to the floor. “That’s the same story. I’m sure you’ll want to know it, but that can come later.” He sighed. “It’s about Spike.”

Twilight gasped, all questions and accusations put on hold at the thought of her number one assistant being in trouble. “What about Spike?” she asked breathlessly. “Is he alright? Did something happen?”

“He fell down the stairs and ended up in hospital last night. He’s alright, but he’s cracked a few ribs and suffered a concussion.”

“I’ve got to go see him!” Twilight yelled. “Thank you for telling me! Bye, James!”

She teleported away, leaving James alone. When the residual magic faded, he sighed and put his hands on his hips.

“Hope you know how to deal with this, guys…” he muttered. He looked at the door out. “Now then… Where’s that happy little pony gotten to?”

Chapter Thirteen: Performances

Prism Shine was very excited.

Not a day in Ponyville and already she’d met a princess and the new spirit of chaos, and now that very same spirit of chaos was going to speak to her about himself! There wasn’t anything that was any more exciting than that!

Well, most would argue that chaos was evil; Discord’s first reappearance was proof of that. But this spirit of chaos was different and she knew it! For starters, his kind had never even been seen before in Equestria! Although Discord was the same in that regard, he had traits similar to several other creatures seen in Equestria. This new one, however, was very different.

It was like science, magic and sheer chance had all crossed paths and created something that just begged to be studied!

All these thoughts and millions more raced through her mind as she happily trotted away from the castle. Would he answer all the questions she had for him? Would he give a demonstration of his power for her to see? Would he be willing to go so far as to put the entire town in danger like Discord had?

Would her ‘friends’ finally see that she wasn’t just a chaos obsessed little freak after all this?

She and her thoughts were suddenly stopped in their tracks when the sky suddenly clouded over, making the whole area almost as dark as night. She looked up, but her attention was snapped onto a large, red curtain materialising in front of her. A drumroll started sounding as two large circles of light appeared on the curtain. As she looked around for the source of the noise, a booming voice suddenly echoed through the street.

“Ladies and… No, just lady!” the voice boomed. “You’re in for a real treat today!” The lights shifted around the curtain dramatically. “Hailing from another universe, brought here by another’s choosing, I give you…!” The lights joined in the centre of the curtain and it parted slowly. “The new spirit of chaos, who also happens to be your announcer!”

She gasped as the light illuminated him; he had both arms – she recognised the minotaurian appendage easily – raised above his head as he stood in a pose that made him look even more majestic than he already appeared. It was truly a marvellous sight.

“Woo! Yeah! Outstanding!” she cheered as she applauded him loudly.

Like usual, she could tell that there were other ponies staring at her. They always did when she expressed her opinions like the judgemental filth they were. The creature leapt forwards and past the curtain, making her heart skip a beat as he flew through the air towards her. He landed at a run and skidded to a halt right in front of her. She felt her knees go weak as he bowed deeply to her. Her!

“Delighted to make your acquaintance, milady,” he said, looking up at her with something akin to a sly twinkle in his eyes. “And what might you be called?”

“I’m…” she whimpered, already feeling faint at the idea that someone was treating her with this much respect. “My name is… Y-you are talking to me, r-right?”

“Who else could I be talking to, my dear?” he asked, waving his arms around at the surroundings. “The only other pony here is the one that definitely has somewhere else to be!” He made a motion with his hands at a pony off to one side, who hurried away shortly after. “No, there’s no one else here that I could be talking to, so you are indeed who I am talking to!”

Prism was giddy with joy. No other pony had treated her with this much respect since her mother had died, and even then that was only family being remotely nice to her!

“I’m… P-Prism Shine,” she said weakly, staring up at him in awe. “A-and… you are…?”

“Name’s James,” he replied, holding a hand out to her. “Oh, that rhymes. I hope that’s not a crime!”

She giggled quietly and reached up to his hand slowly. “I-it’s a… You don’t know how much of a pleasure it is to meet you, sir,” she said breathlessly, marvelling at the feel of his skin. “T-that is… I’m sure you could know… if you wanted to… B-but I just mean it’s… It’s a very big pleasure to meet you. I’ve never been so happy about something in all my life.”

“Well, I’m glad to have that effect on you,” he said. He pulled his arm away from her slowly, only his hand was still in her grip. “I’m, uh… I’m gonna need that hand back, Prism.”

“Oh, forgive me!” She let go of his hand and jumped backwards, as if being too close would offend him. His hand hovered for a moment before darting back to its rightful spot on his arm. “I didn’t mean to try taking your hand!” She remembered an old minotaur saying and went red. “T-that is… y-you’re a wonderful… um… spirit of chaos… b-but I d-don’t think I’d be ready for… m-marriage.”

“Ha!” he laughed loudly. He looked down at her and grinned amusedly. “I like you, Prism Shine. You’re quick to jump to the wrong conclusion in the right way.”

“T-thank you, almighty spirit,” she answered, bowing to him.

“Ooh, that’s new.” He leant down and pulled her up straight again gently. “You don’t need to bow to me, Prism. I’m not a princess or anything like that.”

He was so humble, as if he was putting himself on the same level as mere mortals!

“But anyway, you wanted to talk to me about something?” he said warmly. He snorted as he realised something. “Oh, hold on a moment.”

He snapped his fingers and the clouds above parted, letting light back in, and the stage behind him slowly started to turn into dust that was carried away by the wind. When the stage was gone completely, he turned back to Prism and smiled again.

“Go on,” he said, inviting her to speak.

“Oh, where to begin?” she squealed, bouncing on her hooves. “I want to know everything there is to know about you! T-that is…” Her excited demeanour faded slightly. “If… If you don’t mind.”

“Tell you what, you wait right here and I’ll be right back.” He ruffled her hair and smiled. “If we’re going to be talking about everything, we’ll have to get breakfast. I know just the place, but I’ll have to go… borrow some money off someone.”

He gave her a quick wave before vanishing with a colourful pop. Prism Shine stared at the spot he had just been standing in in awe. After a second or two, she grinned widely and started dancing happily on the spot.

He was going to talk to her about everything!

The spirit of chaos was going to talk to her, maybe even answer every single question she had to ask!

Now who was crazy, society?

-=-=-=-=-

Twilight appeared in the hospital reception, startling the receptionist.

“Hello, which room is Spike in?” she asked frantically, hurrying towards the counter.

“Oh, Princess Twilight!” the receptionist replied, flustering with the notes that she had thrown up in the air in her surprise. “Y-you’re... Are you hiding your wings for some reason?”

Twilight looked back at her missing wings and then back at the receptionist. “Y-yes, I am!” she stated. “That doesn’t matter though! Which room is Spike the dragon in?”

“Dragon?” The receptionist looked through her notes quickly. “That’s funny… I don’t remember him coming in...” Her eyes widened at a discovery. “Oh! East ward, room six!”

“Thank you!”

Twilight teleported out of the reception before the receptionist could even say ‘good day’. When she reappeared, she found herself surrounded by her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She glanced around anxiously as the shock of her sudden appearance faded until her eyes finally rested on Spike.

“Spike!” she yelled, rushing towards the bedside. “Are you okay? I came as soon as I heard! I would’ve come sooner, but I’ve only just woken up!”

“T-that’s okay, T-Twilight…” Spike muttered, shuffling away from her slowly. “I-I… think James said something… Y-yeah, he said something about chloroform.”

“He what?!” Twilight yelled. “Then… He’s the reason I haven’t come to see you until now!” She remembered what James had said earlier. “B-but… I suppose he did tell me that you were here when I woke up…” She shook her head and gave Spike a concerned look. “What happened? James said you fell down some stairs!”

“Uh… I… fell down some stairs,” Spike replied, touching two fingers together anxiously. “I… Uh…”

“He tripped up and fell down a lot of stairs, Twilight!” Pinkie supplied. “He came to Sugarcube Corner and Gummy accidentally got in the way at the top of the stairs! Spike couldn’t see him because he was carrying some stuff in front of him, and then that stuff landed on him when he fell down!”

Spike breathed a sigh of relief, something that piqued Twilight’s interest. She also spotted the others glancing between each other, as if to send some telepathic message between themselves. Whatever it meant, Twilight didn’t really care. What mattered right now was Spike.

“That sounds terrible!” she commented, putting a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “Sorry, I don’t remember anything after the meteorite exploding yesterday. Was I there?”

“N-no… Y-you were…”

Spike didn’t know what to say to this. He glanced up at the others to look for some support. Luckily, Applejack caught on quickly.

“You said you were telling off James for what he was doin’,” she said. She looked down as more thoughts came to her. “Uh… You told the rest of us to… let you do all the talkin’, so we left you and the other princesses to… give ‘em a piece of your mind.”

Then Twilight remembered what that pony had said earlier. “Oh, yes! What’s this about a battle I had with James?” she asked. “A pony I’ve never seen in Ponyville before said something about that this morning before I came here! What was that about?”

There was silence. Twilight noticed the girls anxiously glancing at each other, as if they were trying to come up with something collectively. She wondered what that was about. Maybe it meant something…

“Oh, that crazy pony?” Applebloom said at last. “Ah remember them! They were sneakin’ around the castle while us three were watching you give James a piece of your mind!” Her ears flapped back against her head. “Uh, sorry about that. We just wanted to see you show ‘em who’s boss!”

“Uh, yeah!” Scootaloo added. “That crazy pony must’ve been a reporter or something! They had a notepad and quill and they were writing stuff down and…”

“We told them to go away and leave you alone!” Sweetie Belle put in. “They thought you were fighting James! Well, fighting him much more seriously than just using words.”

“What was their name…?” Applebloom pondered, tapping her chin.

“Prism Shine, she said,” Twilight stated. “I wondered why she was so interested in James...”

“Now why didn’t you tell me about that, Applebloom?” Applejack asked sternly, frowning at her sister.

“You too, Sweetie Belle!” Rarity added. “You shouldn’t just talk to strangers like that! They could be dangerous!”

“Nice job, Scootaloo,” Rainbow whispered, leaning over to bump her hoof against Scootaloo’s.

“Oh, good!” said James, appearing beside the bed. “You’re all still here! Excellent!”

“Hi, James!” said Spike, Pinkie Pie and Applebloom at the same time.

“Oh, James,” Applejack said, looking up at the human. “Ah… Ah need to speak to you.” She glanced around at the others. “It’s about… uh, somethin’ important.”

“I’m sure it can wait until later, apples,” he replied, patting Spike on the head lightly. “I’ve just invited someone to breakfast and they’re waiting for me right now. I came back to ask if anyone’s got any money I could borrow.”

“Where are you going? Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie asked. “Hold on a sec! I can make that on the house!” She reached into her mane and pulled out a pen and paper, which she hastily scribbled something down on. When she was done, she held it out for James to take. “Here you go!”

“Before you go, ah really think ah should speak with you for a second, James,” Applejack said firmly.

James looked up at her and frowned. “Is it about…?” he asked quietly.

“Ah believe it is.”

James cursed under his breath. “Alright,” he said slowly. “Meet me at Sugarcube Corner. I did promise someone I’d speak with them, so I’ve really got to go. See you there, apples.”

“Who, that crazy reporter?” Twilight asked irritably. “The one who wanted to make a story out of us chatting too loudly to each other?”

“I’ve gotta go,” James said calmly. “Get well soon, Spike.”

He vanished with a fiery crackle. Once he had left, Applejack stood up and headed over to the door.

“Sorry to be leavin’ you, Spike,” she said as she pulled the door open. “But ah really gotta speak to James about… that thing.”

“I-it’s okay, Applejack,” Spike answered. “Hope it… Hope it goes well.”

She tipped her hat and left the room. When the door swung shut, Twilight turned back to her friends.

“What was that about?” she asked, tilting her head bewilderedly.

“Applejack wouldn’t want us to say,” Rarity said carefully. “It was something very personal that happened.”

“Oh, never mind then,” Twilight replied. She looked down at Spike and smiled weakly. “Sorry, Spike. You’ve not been the centre of attention this whole time! How are we going to make that up to our brave little dragon?”

“Uh…” Spike thought for a moment. “You… could try getting me some gems as a get better present.”

The girls all laughed and began chatting happily with him, but there was still an air of apprehension in the room. Twilight didn’t dwell on it though.

It probably wasn’t important at all.

Chapter Fourteen: Devotion

Mrs Cake watched that human and another pony enter Sugarcube Corner with wary eyes.

She’d heard Pinkie Pie’s story of what that human was capable of and willing to do, and she wasn’t going to let her guard down while he was in her store, even if he did appear to be a kind and gentle… being.

She felt herself involuntarily tense up as he approached the counter with a slip of paper in his hand. She wondered what could be on that paper as he casually marched towards her. Maybe it was some kind of cheap joke, or a prank, or…

“Morning, Mrs Cake,” he said with a polite wave. “Pinkie gave me this to give to you.” He handed her the sheet of paper. “She said it would make it ‘on the house’. Hope that won’t be too much of a problem, will it?”

Mrs Cake read the messily written message and frowned. “She’s not done this before though,” she said, looking up at the human as that other pony trotted over after examining the place. “How do I know she really gave this to you and you didn’t just use your chaos powers to make it up?”

“Oh, for…” he muttered, snatching the sheet away from her and scrunching it up. He turned back to the stranger and motioned for her to come over with his head. “Prism, come meet Mrs Cake. I’ll be right back again.”

He vanished suddenly, leaving the stranger to cautiously approach the counter like a scared foal. Deciding that this new pony would be a lot less likely to cause evil misdeeds, she put on a smile and stood up straighter.

“Hi there, miss!” she greeted warmly. “What can I getcha?”

“I’m waiting for James to come back,” the stranger replied. She grinned widely. “Isn’t he just amazing? He has the power to do anything he wants!”

Mrs Cake’s smile faded slightly. “I’d hardly call that amazing,” she said with a slight growl in her voice. “You… must not have seen what he made happen yesterday.”

“Okay!” the human yelled, reappearing with a pink pony in his hands. “Here’s your proof! Tell her, Pinkie!”

“Oh, hi Mrs Cake!” said Pinkie Pie, happily waving at Mrs Cake from the human’s arms. “Is that get-better-soon cake finished yet?”

“It’s still got a few more minutes to cook,” Mrs Cake answered unsurely. She gave Pinkie an unsure look. “Uh… Did you say it was okay for him to bring you back here or… did he just kinda grab you?”

“I take it she doesn’t think very highly of me,” the human said to Pinkie Pie.

“Hey!” the stranger yelled, leaning over the counter to point at Mrs Cake accusingly. “You can’t talk to him like that! So what if he did just grab her? He can do that if he wants!”

“It’s okay, Prism Shine,” the human said, putting a hand on the stranger’s back. He looked up at Mrs Cake and smiled innocently. “Of course I asked her! What do you think I am? Some kind of evil spirit of chaos?” He sniggered quietly. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

“I don’t think you’re evil!” said ‘Prism Shine’, turning to stare up at him. “You’re well within your rights to do what you want! You’re supposed to make chaos!”

“Let’s… get to that later,” the human told her, dropping Pinkie to the ground. “Pinkie, tell Mrs Cake that you wrote that note, please?”

“I wrote that note, Mrs Cake!” Pinkie exclaimed happily, seemingly unfazed by the growing air of hostility between the two mares in front of her. “I’ll make sure to pay it back out of my own money later!” She turned and gave the human a stern stare. “You hear that, mister? I’m paying, so make sure you spend as much as you like!”

“Because that makes perfect sense…” the human muttered.

“It doesn’t have to make sense!” Prism Shine exclaimed excitedly. “That’s what chaos is!”

“I think we’d best just get breakfast and have our little chat, Prism,” said the human, pulling Prism Shine back by the tail gently. He looked down at Pinkie Pie. “Do you want to get back to the others, Pinkie, or would you prefer to wait until that get-better-soon cake is done?”

“I wanna wait until it’s done!” Pinkie yelled happily, bouncing up and down excitedly. She headed into the kitchen behind the counter at a bouncy trot. “A freshly baked get-better-soon cake is much better than a not freshly baked one!”

“Alright then… What’ll you have for breakfast, Prism? Someone else is paying, so don’t overdo it with the price, okay?”

“As you wish, almighty spirit,” Prism answered, bowing slightly.

Oh, wasn’t that just wonderful? That human was making ponies worship him now! As if he couldn’t get any worse! He muttered something to himself and shook his head at Prism Shine lightly, no doubt for how pathetically that crazy pony had bowed to him. Prism turned to Mrs Cake and sneered mockingly.

“What’s the cheapest item on your menu?” she asked cruelly. “I’ll have that.”

“Get out of my store,” Mrs Cake said simply. “We have a zero tolerance for bad behaviour policy, so I have to ask you to leave.”

“Just… go wait outside, Prism…” the human muttered, pushing Prism back gently. “I’ll take care of this.”

“You too,” Mrs Cake added to him. “After everything you’ve done, and what you’ve no doubt made her do, that policy applies to you more than any other customer I’ve had in this store.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Get out of my store before I fetch the authorities, please.”

“So go get them then!” Prism yelled, slamming a hoof on the counter. “They can’t stop him! He’s stronger than all of them put together!”

“Leave it, Prism,” the human whispered, pulling her away from the counter. “I’ll ask someone else if they can sort something out.”

Prism scowled at Mrs Cake one last time before turning, flicking her tail at her crossly, and marching towards the exit. The human gave Mrs Cake something that looked like a look of disappointed apology, as if she had done something wrong as well, before following that crazy pony out of the store.

When they had left, Mrs Cake sighed in relief. That could have ended badly, but she had kept a cool head in the face of danger and come out victorious.

Well, of course she had triumphed there! Wasn’t it normal for the bad guys to be defeated?

-=-=-=-=-

Applejack spotted James and a pony she’d seen once before – earlier that morning – leaving Sugarcube Corner with a sense that something bad had happened. She trotted over to meet them, and the one that was probably Prism Shine smiled at her when she spotted her approach.

“Hello again!” Prism greeted warmly. “Did you find the friends you were looking for?”

“Uh, you must be Prism Shine,” Applejack stated, smiling unsurely. She looked up at James slowly. “James, ah gotta speak to you about… that thing.”

“Ah, that thing,” James replied solemnly. “I’d forgotten about that.” He looked down at Prism and smiled at her weakly. “Prism, sorry to be so all over the place, but I have to ask you to wait right here again.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Prism replied, spinning around to grin at him. “The spirit of chaos staying in one place for too long wouldn’t be chaotic at all! You’re just showing that you’re good at what you do!”

Applejack gawked at Prism behind her back before James caught her and made a ‘stop it’ gesture at her with his hand. As Prism turned to see what Applejack was doing, James led the way away from her and Applejack hurried after him. When they were out of Prism’s sight, Applejack gave James a very anxious look.

“That pony might be a problem, James,” Applejack said quietly. “Twilight said something about what happened last night, and ah think that pony’s responsible for that.”

“I see…” James reasoned, looking down and scowling. He glanced back up at Applejack. “I’ll chat to her a little bit, but she seems a bit… unstable for her mind to be wiped of that event.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she seems like she’s got a few screws loose.” He glanced past Applejack’s head to see if anyone was watching them. “She’s... She’s been treating me like I’m some kind of almighty deity.”

Applejack tilted her head in confusion. “Like you’re a princess or something?” she asked. She shook her head disapprovingly. “You can’t let her do that. While I’m sure you’re powerful like a princess, ah don’t think you should be…”

“Worshipped like one?” James suggested, finishing Applejack’s sentence. “I know, but she’s a bit… deluded. I’ll wipe her memory of what happened last night, but I’ll see what else needs to be done when I talk to her. Don’t worry about it; I’ll sort it out.”

“Ah’ll hold you to that,” Applejack replied, nodding. “Now, ah’m gonna head back to check on Spike. Anything you need at all?”

“Well, we were kicked out of Sugarcube Corner, so I’d say we need some breakfast.”

“How’d you get kicked out?”

“I don’t think Mrs Cake likes me.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “Or Prism Shine, for that matter.”

Before Applejack could question the matter any further, there was a loud crashing sound from the direction they had come from. They glanced at each other worryingly before hurrying back to see what the noise was. When they rounded the corner, Applejack’s jaw dropped and James cursed under his breath.

One of the windows of Sugarcube Corner had been shattered, and there was one very satisfied looking pony stood right beside it.

“Who threw that?!” roared Mrs Cake, peeking her head out the door with a furious snarl on her face. She caught sight of Prism and marched towards her. “Did you throw that?! What am I saying, of course you did! I hope you plan on paying for those damages!”

“I’m not paying for anything, you old hag!” Prism cackled, leaning down to pick up a stone off the ground. “You wronged the spirit of chaos, so you need to be punished!”

She hurled the stone at another window powerfully. It crashed through the window and shattered it completely, making Mrs Cake gasp and stare at the damage. She slowly turned to face Prism as she literally shook with rage. Prism giggled evilly and leant down to pick another stone up.

“James, ah think you better do something,” Applejack said quickly, looking up at him.

“Don’t know why I didn’t do that already,” he replied before snapping out of existence with a whooshing sound.

“You wretched creature!!” Mrs Cake screamed, slapping Prism across the face and knocking her to the ground. “Who do you think you are?!”

“Mrs Cake, I’m gonna have to ask you to calm down,” said James, materialising behind her.

She bucked out at him furiously, but he disappeared before she could touch him. He reappeared in front of her with his hands held out to placate her.

“You!!” she screeched. “You’re the cause of all this!! If you weren’t here, that crazy pony wouldn’t have done anything!!”

“I… I’m not crazy…” Prism muttered as she stood up beside James.

“No, Prism, you’re not,” James reassured her. He gave Mrs Cake a stern glance. “Mrs Cake, if you don’t stop this right now, someone’s gonna get hurt.”

“I hope it’s you!!” Mrs Cake roared, lunging at him.

In the flash of time that she was moving towards him, time seemed to slow down. Prism yelped in fear, recoiling slightly, and James moved much faster than even Applejack could see. He was suddenly beside Mrs Cake, there was a flash, she was suddenly in a straitjacket, flash, he was beside the cowering Prism, flash, she was cradled in his arms, flash, and then they were gone.

Applejack blinked as time sped back up again, wondering what had just happened. She shook her head to snap herself out of it and hurried over to Mrs Cake. What had stopped her moving to help all this time?

“Get me out of this thing!!” Mrs Cake shouted, wriggling and writhing in her restraint.

“Mrs Cake, you really gotta calm down!” Applejack yelled, leaning down to help Mrs Cake.

“Why should I be calm?!” she yelled back angrily, giving Applejack a cold and furious glare. “She damaged my property!! Who’s going to pay for that?!”

“Ah’m sure it’ll get sorted out!” Applejack answered, fumbling with the straps on the back of the jacket. “But you really need to calm down or you’re gonna start hurting the wrong ponies!”

Applejack had a flashback of the night before suddenly, making her shudder. That could never happen again.

“Honey, what’s the matter?” asked Mr Cake, stepping out the front door of Sugarcube Corner. He gasped at the sight of his wife garbed in restricting clothes. “What happened?! Why are you in a crazy pony jacket?!”

“It should be somepony else in this thing!!” she replied angrily, shaking the jacket off as Applejack finally undid the straps on the back of it. “Some crazy pony shattered the windows!! She should be locked up!!”

“Apples, make sure you get her calm, clear?” James’s disembodied voice whispered to Applejack. “She’s scared, angry and out for blood. You make sure she does not go back into Sugarcube Corner like this. By any and all means necessary.”

“Ah got it,” Applejack replied with a confirming nod. “Good luck with Prism Shine, James.”

“I’m gonna need it,” James replied before a snapping sound marked his disappearance.

Applejack sighed and put on a brave face before marching over to the frantic Mrs Cake and her anxious husband. She tensed up as Mr Cake received a slap across the face after he tried to calm his wife down.

Applejack grimaced at the idea that James had done something again, but hopefully he had wised up after the last time he had done something like that.

Chapter Fifteen: Nothing to Lose

Prism wasn’t quite sure what was going on anymore.

First the spirit of chaos hadn’t punished that stupid pony for harming her, and now he was running from a perfect opportunity for chaos!

Maybe he was just trying to make chaos by making ponies think he would make chaos and then not make chaos… But that didn’t even make any sense!

Wait, what was she thinking? Chaos wasn’t supposed to make sense!

She was dropped to the ground in front of the spirit of chaos when they reappeared, somewhere on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Before she even looked at him, she was aware of the harsh and disappointed glare she was receiving. She turned to look up at him slowly and worriedly, wondering what she had done to upset the spirit of chaos.

“What the hell were you thinking, Prism?” he snapped at her. “I get that you wanted to help me, but why were you breaking the law and damaging other ponies’ property to do so?”

“I-I… I just thought… she needed to be punished f-for… for upsetting the spirit of chaos…” Prism whimpered, ears flattening back against her head. “I-isn’t that… what I was supposed to do?”

“No, it was not,” he growled. “I appreciate you willing to do that, but actually doing it is completely unnecessary. Let alone stupid.” He looked back towards the town. “I’m probably going to get hated even more now. I can’t even begin to imagine how Mrs Cake is feeling about you too.””

“S-sorry…” Prism whispered, fully understanding what he was saying. “I just… I thought I was helping…”

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You don’t need to be sorry, Prism. Not to me anyway.” He looked up at her again and frowned. “I know what you were thinking. You wanted to impress the spirit of chaos by doing your part in making chaos and by punishing those that had wronged the spirit of chaos. Am I wrong in thinking that?”

“N-not… really…”

“Alright…” he muttered, shaking his head lightly. “I can understand your devotion, or… whatever, but you can’t just be doing things like that, even if you do think it’s the right thing to do.”

“A-as you wish… almighty spirit…”

This wasn’t good. She was showing how weak she was to the spirit of chaos! What would he think of her now? Would he think of her the same way everyone else had thought of her? With distaste and hatred?

“And, for the love of god, do not call me almighty spirit,” he ordered. “I’m not any more almighty than you are. Well, I’m more powerful than the average so-and-so, but I’m not, in any way, shape or form, almighty. I’m not a god, Prism.”

“B-but…” she stammered, glancing up at him. “You’re… the spirit of chaos. There’s no one else as powerful as you. S-surely you could… be classed as a god… c-couldn’t you?”

“While I’m sure my power would technically put me on the level of a god, I refuse to be known as one. I’m sorry if you want to think of me as one, but I really can’t allow you to do that.”

“B-but… c-can’t I at least… help make chaos?”

“It’s a very dark path, chaos. Normal ponies can’t cause chaos without suffering in some way themselves. If you want to help make chaos, you’re only putting yourself in danger of other ponies and the law. You’ve got too much to lose, so please do not help me.”

Prism was quiet as she thought about what he had just said. After a few seconds, she felt tears coming to her eyes. Maybe he wasn’t as powerful as she had originally thought, because if he was, he would have known about her past already. This had never been brought up before, so she could never be ready for something like this; how much she had to lose.

“N-no… I don’t…” she sobbed, turning away from him. “I’ve… got n-nothing to lose…”

“What do you mean?” he asked, teleporting in front of her and leaning down to look her in the eye. “I’m sure you’ve got somethi—“

“I’ve got nothing!” she yelled, pushing him away. “My mother is g-gone! My own father disowned m-me because of who I am! I’ve n-never had any real f-friends! I barely had enough m-money to even get here! I’ve got n-nothing to lose! If m-my whole life is chaos, why can’t I c-cause chaos too?!”

James’s jaw dropped slightly and he said nothing. Prism Shine sniffled and dropped onto her haunches, thoughts on one thing; the only one that would potentially accept her for who she was was about to reject her.

“I’m really sorry, Prism,” he said sombrely, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t know.”

“W-why can’t I help make c-chaos then?” she whimpered, wiping her teary eyes. “I’ve g-got nothing to l-lose. I won’t b-be in that much danger...”

“You know what, Prism Shine?” he said quietly, offering her a tissue. “I think you’ve made more chaos for me than you realise.”

What?

“Come on now. Dry those tears.” She wiped her eyes with the tissue and looked up at him wonderingly. “Do you know what you’ve done for me already?”

“W-what?” she asked, tilting her head bewilderedly. “What could I have done?”

“Supplied a whole lifetime of chaos for me, Prism.” He smiled at her. “How many other ponies do you know who’ve been through what you’ve been through?”

“I… None…?”

What was going on?

“You’re different, Prism. You’re not like normal ponies, and that’s not a bad thing. The chaos you’ve made just by getting through everything you’ve gone through is phenomenal. Everyone else would’ve expected you to just give up and die, but you didn’t. Know what that means?”

“N-no… What?”

“You’ve made more chaos than I ever could. I would’ve just given up. You didn’t. You’re here now.” He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. “Do you know the real definition of chaos, Prism Shine?”

“Uh… disorder and confusion?”

“Spot on. Do you think other ponies would’ve thought you’d get through it all?” She shook her head weakly. “Exactly. Therefore, you have created confusion. Shattered their expectations. Created chaos.”

“S-so… what you’re saying is I… helped you? How?”

“By being the most chaotic little pony you could ever be.” He ruffled her hair lightly. “You’ve made enough chaos to last you a lifetime. You don’t need to make any more.”

“B-but… I want to make more. Chaos is all I have now.”

“Tell you what, you wait right here just one more time and I’ll give you something more than just chaos,” he said, tapping her nose lightly. “And it won’t just be that talk you’ve wanted to have all this time. I promise, this’ll be the last time I go and do something else. Okay?”

“I-I don’t mind,” she replied, kicking at the ground anxiously. “You can… take as long as you like.”

“I won’t be that long, I promise.”

He snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving her alone once more. She wondered what he was going to do now; something she’d done every time he’d left her alone. The other times, she could understand; he needed to speak with his friends for something. But this time was different. What could he be doing now?

She was suddenly aware of a presence behind her, but when she turned around to see who it was, there was no one there. She tilted her head in thought, wondering who it could have been. No sooner had she thought it did she spot a shadowy figure somewhere in the Everfree forest. It didn’t look like a pony, more like a creature with mismatched body parts.

Something was telling her that she should investigate this strange figure, despite everything else in her mind screaming at her that she needed to wait for James to come back. With an anxious glance over her shoulder, she decided that she wouldn’t be gone too long; not long enough for James to get back before her, anyway.

She had never been into the Everfree forest before, and her first steps into it were met with a foreboding sense of anxiety. It was like she knew something bad was going to happen. That idea was only gaining more evidence as the shadowy figure continued to move further away, forcing her to venture further into the forest, despite all the thoughts telling her to just turn back. Why had she not already done that anyway?

After a few minutes of her following this mysterious entity, she came across a very large clearing in the forest. She could see it through the trees, and she could also see someone else in that clearing.

James, the spirit of chaos.

He looked like he was waiting for someone, but why would he be waiting here? No one was stupid enough to come this far into the Everfree forest on their…

Oh no.

Panic set in quickly, freezing her on the spot. She had the idea to run to him, but something stopped her before she could actually do so.

“Keep quiet, little pony,” someone whispered to her, but there was no one close enough to do that. “Don’t want him to know you’re here, do you?”

She heard a whooshing sound, which was then repeated in the clearing. She quickly looked over to spot another being stood beside James. It looked like that strange creature she’d seen leading her this far in. It also looked like…

No way.

“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting long, James,” said the other self-assuredly.

“I’ve been doing that to someone all day,” James replied casually. “I kind of deserved a little bit of that for myself.”

“Yes, that pony…” the other mused. “She’s going to be a problem, James.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she’s just going to keep wanting to make chaos, make enemies, and just generally be a problem for you.”

“Problem for us. And I can deal with that anyway.”

“Yes, I suppose so.” He chuckled maliciously. “But, I’m just saying, I think it would be better to wipe her whole memory.”

“Why? That would just destroy her whole life. She’ll have no memory of anything at all.”

“Yes, that’s what wiping her whole memory means.”

“I’m not doing it. You might think you’ll be able to do it, but I’m not going to let you do this at all. You might be more experienced with chaos than I am, but I’ll stop at nothing to keep her safe.”

“Yes, I suppose you will, won’t you?” the other said darkly, crossing his arms disappointedly. “Well, you know that I’m right anyway, so it would sure be a shame if you had no choice but to do wipe her memory yourself.”

The undergrowth concealing Prism began to noisily creep apart, leaving her out in the open for James to see her. When James did spot her, he gasped. The other laughed cruelly and slapped a claw onto James’s back.

“Well well well!” he said loudly, pushing James towards her. “Looks like she knows about me! Now you don’t have a choice!”

“Please! I didn’t see anything!” Prism yelled frantically, backing away in fright. She felt tears come to her eyes again. “I won’t tell anyone! I promise!”

“Aww, she’s begging,” the other commented condescendingly, smiling at her evilly. He looked over at James again. “Now then, James. Are you going to be the one to erase her life completely, or am I?”

“When did you become so evil?” James breathed, shaking his head lightly.

“You use that word as if I’m not a part of you anymore,” the other said, smirking grimly. “’You’. Don’t you remember that we were of one mind at one point?”

“If this is what you are, then we were never of one mind,” James spat, turning to glare at the other. “You’re nothing but a monster. I don’t sink that low.”

“Not yet, anyway, but you will. Chaos can be very addicting and you’ll probably suffer withdrawal symptoms at one point too.” The other pointed over at the sobbing Prism casually. “Now who gets to take care of her?”

James was quiet for a moment, glaring at the other hard. “I’ll do it,” he hissed, turning to face Prism gravely. “If she’s going to have her memory wiped, the least I can do is make it so that it’s wiped by someone who actually cares.”

He marched towards Prism slowly. Prism turned and glanced around for anything that could help her, but nothing was there. She turned to run away, but a wall of purple bricks materialised in front of her, blocking her escape.

“Don’t run, Prism Shine,” James said sadly. “I’ll only catch you and then feel even worse.”

She backed up against the wall and made herself as small as possible as he came right up to her. He leant down as she whimpered like a foal to put a hand on her head. Without any warning, she felt something sharp jab into her neck. Why was this happening?

But James must have already been wiping her memories because, before long, she started to slowly slip into unconsciousness.

This couldn’t be how it ended, could it?

“Good man, James,” said the other with a devious chuckle. “I’d suggest bringing her somewhere else. We don’t want her first new memory to be of me, do we?”

“No, we don’t,” James said darkly.

Before Prism could slip away completely, she felt herself being scooped up and cradled like a baby, and then she felt like she had just teleported again.

Then there was just empty blackness.

Author's Note

Iiiiiii've got a plaaaaaaaan! :pinkiecrazy: :raritywink: :trollestia:

Chapter Sixteen: Apologies

Pinkie Pie was worried about Mrs Cake.

She’d gone out earlier when that window had been shattered and hadn’t come back in yet. Then another window had been broken and Mrs Cake shouted a lot and then Mr Cake went outside and there was still shouting going on out there. Pinkie was pretty sure Applejack was there too. She would’ve gone out already, but her cake was almost finished cooking and she didn’t want to accidentally burn the place down by leaving an oven turned on and not checking on it periodically.

That’s how the great fire of Trottingham started, you know.

Speaking of which, the timer dinged, signifying the end of the cake’s cook time. She spun to face it and peered in through the glass on the door. It looked perfect, so she quickly put her hooves into some oven gloves and took the cake out of the oven. It was still steaming hot, so she decided that it would probably be best to let it cool a little before putting the decorations on. No one ever won a baking contest by entering a cake with all its icing messed up, after all.

Well, there was that one time…

“Pinkie, I need your help,” said James from right behind her, making her jump and almost drop the cake.

She spun to see him carrying that pony that was with him earlier in his arms. She looked like she was completely unconscious, most likely James’s doing. She put the cake down gently after she’d checked that it was okay, then gave James a fierce glare.

“You’re lucky that didn’t get messed up, Mister!” she said angrily. “If it did, you’d have to make a new one for Spike real fast, or I’d have to…! Ooh, you don’t want to know what I’d do!”

“You don’t know what you’d do, Pinkie,” he replied, lowering Prism Shine onto the ground. “But I really need your help right now. Are you in or out?”

“I’m in!” Pinkie replied, completely getting rid of her angry demeanour. “What do you want me to do?”

“You know how to make friends, yes?”

“Are you kidding me?” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Have you ever met me, James? Of course I know how to make friends!”

“What about friends that have never had friends themselves?”

Pinkie was quiet for a moment. “As in… no friends at all?” she asked, tilting her head. “Do you mean Prism? Did she never have friends?”

“Answer the question,” he snapped, giving her a quick glare. “Can you make friends with someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to have a friend and, by extension, may or may not know how to deal with it?”

“I… I guess I could try…” Pinkie answered slowly and unsurely, tapping her chin. “I mean, of course I’ll try, but I bet I can do it anyway!”

“Good, because I promised Prism Shine to give her some friends. Not in those words exactly, but something was promised and I intend to make it friendship.”

“Well, that’s a really nice promise, James! If friendship’s what you promised, I’d be more than happy to help in any way can!”

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am, Pinkie.” He looked down at Prism and checked her pulse. “Do you know how long a normal sedative lasts? It’s only been a few minutes, but Twilight was only asleep for a few seconds when I drugged her with the same thing.”

“I don’t know. Why can’t you ask Twilight? Would it make her remember last night?”

“I don’t want to bring Prism to Twilight like this and I don’t want to leave Prism on her own. She knows too much for her own good.”

“Ooh, does she know a secret?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “Can I know that secret too? I promise that I won’t tell anypony at all!” She made the movements of a pinkie promise. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

James sat in silence for a few seconds. “You know what, Pinkie Pie?” he said after the pause, looking up at her slowly and deliberately. “I just might do that. The only catch with this one is that if you break it, you’ll die.”

Well, that was scarily straight-forward.

“Are you saying you’ll murder me, James?” she asked slowly, frowning. “Because that’s not cool. Not cool one bit. Even if I do break a pinkie promise, you can’t just –“

“I won’t be the one to kill you, but someone else will. I can try and prevent it from happening, but I can’t promise anything.”

“Well, that’s ominous and scary and really really non-descriptive.”

“You’ll see what I mean later and see why it’s like that though.” Before Pinkie could say anything else, James put a finger to her lips as Prism started breathing normally again. “Hey, Prism,” he whispered, smiling lightly at her. “How are you feeling? Remember anything?”

“I… I remember… everything!” Prism replied, eyes widening. “B-but… you said you were going to… I thought you told him you were wiping my memory!”

“I may be evil, but I’m not that evil, Prism Shine,” James explained. He helped her up and glanced over at Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, keep an eye out for Mrs Cake coming back in. Don’t want another problem right now.”

“Don’t worry! If she was coming back in, I would’ve heard her already!” Pinkie answered happily, but she moved to keep an eye on the door into Sugarcube Corner anyway.

“Now then, Prism,” he said, looking down at Prism Shine again. “You remember me saying I’d give you something more than just chaos, yes?”

“Y-yeah…?” Prism replied unsurely, anxiously glancing over at Pinkie Pie.

“And you also remember telling me that you’ve never had a friend before?”

“Y-yes…”

“Prism Shine, meet Pinkie Pie,” James said, waving a hand at Pinkie.

Pinkie perked up at the sound of her name and turned her head to smile at Prism happily. She waved enthusiastically before bouncing over to Prism and holding her hoof out.

“Pleasure to meetcha, Prism Shine!” she greeted excitedly. “I can tell we’re gonna be reeeeeeal good friends, you and I! That’s because I’m real good friends with everypony though, but I can be your best friend even more than my other best friends!”

“Um…” Prism squeaked, nervously taking Pinkie’s hoof to shake it gently. “H-hello… Pinkie Pie…”

“Aw, don’t be shy!” Pinkie replied, pulling Prism into a warm hug suddenly. “I’ve already got a friend who’s really shy! You should meet her one time! Ooh, I could introduce you to all my other friends! I’m sure they’d love to get to know you too!”

“Go easy, Pinkie,” said James, smirking as Pinkie pulled out of the hug and beamed at Prism. “Introduce her to more friends when she’s ready.” He frowned slightly. “But, you know the story with Twilight, so it might be best to leave her out of it for a while.”

“Y-you mean… Princess Twilight?” Prism stammered, looking back at James confusedly. “W-what’s the story with her? W-why do we have to leave her out?”

“Oh, I didn’t explain that to you yet, did I…?” he muttered. He smiled weakly at her. “Basically, you know that thing between me and Twilight last night?”

“What about it?”

“You can’t tell Twilight about it at all. Pinkie can tell you why not later, and that’s what… he told me.” He looked down at the confused Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, you’ll understand what that means later when I let you in on that… secret. Meet me at six tonight on the edge of the Everfree. Make sure you’re not followed, and I can’t be any more serious about that than I am.”

“I-is that… a good idea? T-to tell her about… him, I mean…” Prism asked nervously, glancing at Pinkie out of the corner of her eye.

“I’ve told her the consequences, and now I’ll have to tell you too; tell anyone, and I mean anyone, about what you saw, and he will come after you. I’ll defend you as best as I can from him, but I can’t promise anything.”

Prism went quiet, thinking about what he had said. Pinkie noticed her new friend’s discomfort and leaned over to put a hoof on her back. After a moment, the sound of the door into Sugarcube Corner could be heard opening.

“Oh yeah, you were supposed to be watching for her to come back in, Pinkie,” James said with a small chuckle. He looked down at Prism and smiled at her. “That’s probably the one that slapped you for breaking her windows, Prism.”

Prism gasped. “Th-then... we need to get out of here!” she yelled frantically, hurrying to stand behind James in fear. “She’ll just get mad again!”

“Who’s in there?” Mrs Cake called into the kitchen. “Pinkie Pie, who’ve you got in there with you?”

“Well, at least she’s calmed down,” James said quietly. He smiled down at Prism and stepped to one side. “You know what, Prism? I think it’s better that we let her know you’re here. You could apologise for doing what you did and maybe make another friend, if she’s feeling nice.”

Before anything else could be said, Mrs Cake entered the kitchen. When she saw James and Prism stood there beside Pinkie Pie, her jaw dropped. Pinkie hurried to stand in front of Prism Shine when she saw Mrs Cake’s expression shift to a furious one.

“Hold on, Mrs Cake!” Pinkie exclaimed, putting her hooves on Mrs Cake’s shoulders. “Don’t get angry again! You just got calmed down!”

“What are you doing back here?!” Mrs Cake yelled, snarling at the two unwelcome guests in the kitchen. “I thought I told you to get out, you crazy pony!”

Applejack entered the kitchen suddenly, no doubt drawn by the sound of Mrs Cake’s rage building up again. When she saw James stood there smiling innocently and Prism Shine cowering beside him, she frowned.

“James, ah… Ah think you better get outta here,” she said unsurely, glancing at Mrs Cake.

“Oh, I will,” James said innocently, putting his hand on Prism’s back. “Right after I repair the damages caused by my friend here.” He snapped his fingers and there was the sound of a window shattering in reverse from outside. “And I think Prism Shine has something she’d like to say to you, Mrs Cake.”

“Honey, the windows are fixed!” Mr Cake called in from outside. “We don’t need to get them repaired anymore!”

Mrs Cake narrowed her eyes at James. “What are you playing at, you menace?” she spat. “You have an ulterior motive. All evil villains do. You’re no different to them.”

“Come on, Mrs Cake!” Pinkie said sadly, frowning. “Don’t be a meanie! He fixed your windows!”

“No no, she’s right,” James said. “I do have an ulterior motive, and that’s to make Prism some friends.”

“You mean her?” Mrs Cake spat, nodding at Prism. “She could never make friends! She’s as evil as you are!”

“Now that’s just cruel,” James replied. “Sure, she’s different to you, but that doesn’t make her evil.” He looked down at Prism and gently pushed her forwards. “Come on now, Prism. What do you have to say?”

Prism gulped and looked down at the ground. “U-uh…” she muttered worriedly. “S-sorry…”

“Come on, Prism, you can do it,” James assured her. “This is one way you can make friends; by apologising for upsetting someone.”

“I…” She lowered her head and looked up at Mrs Cake fearfully. “S-sorry for… breaking your windows… and… calling you names…”

“Great job, Prism Shine!” Pinkie complimented, turning back to smile at her friend. “I’m sure you’ll make loads of friends if you keep going like that!”

“Now, I think you have something to say too, Mrs Cake,” James said, turning his head to look at her.

“What did I do?!” Mrs Cake yelled angrily. “She’s the one who damaged my property!”

“Uh… you did physically assault her, Mrs Cake,” Applejack supplied, earning glare from Mrs Cake. “Ah’m just sayin’ what ah saw.”

“And, while breaking other ponies’ property is against the law too, you can’t press charges when there’s no damages to report,” James said calmly. “But when other ponies saw you attacking her, she’s allowed to press charges for that.”

Mrs Cake’s jaw worked up and down as if she was trying to say something, but couldn’t. Applejack nodded at James’s statement, understanding what he meant. Pinkie Pie glanced between Prism and Mrs Cake like something was about to happen between them. Prism Shine merely kicked at the floor nervously, staring downwards.

“Come on, Mrs Cake,” James said. “Be the better pony. Prism’s apologised for her mistake, and now you need to apologise for yours.”

Mrs Cake scowled and ground her teeth, but eventually gave in. “I’m sorry for attacking you, Prism Shine,” she said at last, with hardly any niceness in her voice. “It was wrong of me to do that, but you were asking for it.”

“Don’t be sour about it, Mrs Cake,” Applejack commented. “You know it’s the right thing to do, so there’s no point stayin’ mad about it.”

Mrs Cake growled lowly, but saw the logic in Applejack’s statement. Besides, Prism Shine had apologised, and if evil ponies could apologise, so could she! No, calling her evil was mean. The poor mare was terrified of her, and she wasn’t even apologising back and meaning it. There was nothing good about that.

“Prism Shine,” Mrs Cake said seriously. “I am very sorry for attacking you and insulting you.” She forced a smile. “I mean that. I’m sure that, in time, the two of us can look back at this and laugh about it.”

“Woohoo! Great job, everypony!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down ecstatically. “Even James, who’s not even a pony! Great job, friends!”

“See, Prism?” James asked Prism, smiling at her. “Friendship is better than chaos. Now you have something else.”

Prism smiled weakly, but remained staring at the floor. Applejack trotted over and patted her on the back before Pinkie Pie pulled the other three ponies in the room into a warm, friendly hug. James laughed at the exchange, knowing that Prism was going to get very far if she kept up like this.

But then there was the case of him.

“As wonderful as this is, I’ve got some bad news,” he said solemnly, frowning. The others looked up at him and their smiles faded. “Prism, I need to take you somewhere that he won’t find you. I’ll give the address to Pinkie Pie so she can send letters to you until I… deal with it. You don’t mind keeping a long distance friendship, do you?”

“It’s… fine, I guess…” Prism muttered, moving a little closer to Pinkie Pie. “It… won’t take long, will it?”

“What’s this now?” Applejack asked. “Ah get the sense ah’m missin’ out on somethin’.”

“Shh! It’s a secret!” Pinkie whispered to her.

“Is it important?” Mrs Cake asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” James answered sincerely. “Pinkie, I’m trusting you to stay in contact with Prism. You’ll see her again, but it won’t be until something happens. You’ll know what it is when it does. And… you know what to do later.”

“I know it!” Pinkie replied happily with a knowing wink. She frowned sadly and pulled Prism into a one-hoofed hug. “But is it really important that she goes?”

“I… think it is…” Prism answered dejectedly, pulling away from Pinkie Pie and trotting over to stand beside James. “Sorry, Pinkie Pie…”

“I’ll give you her contact details later, Pinkie,” James said, leaning down to take Prism’s hoof. “And to everyone else, we bid thee good day!”

“Uh… bye everypony…” Prism said quietly. “I’ll see you later... friends…”

James gave a farewell salute before snapping his fingers and vanishing with a colourful pop, taking Prism with him. As soon as they were gone, Pinkie bounced up and landed in a crouch facing Applejack.

“I’m gonna go write a letter to her right now!” she yelled, grinning ear to ear. “I don’t even know where she’s going to be, but I’ll write a letter to her right now anyway! She’s my new pen pal and even newer best friend!”

“She certainly seems like a nice pony,” Applejack replied. “Reminds me a lot of Fluttershy. Ah bet the two of ‘em will get along like a house on fire. Shame they didn’t meet up today.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that I went from hating her to liking her that fast?” asked Mrs Cake. “I mean, it’s nice that I can call her friend and all, but don’t you think that’s a little bit strange?”

“You shouldn’t be complainin’ about it!” Applejack answered, smiling and shaking her head happily. “It all got sorted and you made an unexpected friend. Just enjoy the moment!”

“Aw, but I got a get-better-soon cake to finish!” Pinkie moaned, frowning and drooping a little. She perked right back up suddenly. “Ooh, I know! I’ll write the letter while I decorate the cake! It’ll be the best cake making, letter writing letter-cake I’ve ever done!”

“I think it’s the only one you’ve ever done, Pinkie Pie,” Mrs Cake commented with a little chuckle.

“Well, it’ll still be the best I ever did!” Pinkie yelled before bouncing out of the kitchen for something to write the letter with.

“Ah guess ah’m not needed anymore, Mrs Cake?” Applejack asked, smiling at her friends antics.

“No, but thank you for calming me down, Applejack,” Mrs Cake replied kindly. “I hate to think of what I would’ve done if I’d come back in like that.”

“No problem. Ah’ll see you later!”

Applejack trotted out of the kitchen as Pinkie Pie bounded back in with a quill and notepad. As Pinkie started on the cake making and letter writing, Mrs Cake giggled at her almost crazed process of getting two things done at once.

The whole time, she couldn’t help but think; why did she go from hating Prism to liking her in almost the blink of an eye?

Oh well, it didn’t really matter right now anyway! She had made a new friend and a cake to help decorate! Pinkie Pie wasn’t as good as she’d thought at doing the two things at once, after all.

Chapter Seventeen: Secrets and Lies

Pinkie Pie was excited about this secret, but terrified at the same time.

James did say that telling anyone would mean she would die, and she didn’t want to die.

Dying meant not doing anything for the rest of ever, and that would be the most boring thing in the entire world.

Unless there was a place that you went to after death to meet other people that had died too…

Some kind of magical land ruled over by an all-powerful ruler that set off a chain of events that eventually led to the land before Equestria being made and the first ponies being born.

As she pondered the theory of existence, she failed to notice a human in a business-like suit stood ahead of her. Her thoughts only snapped back to reality after she had accidentally walked into him.

“Stop not having eyes, Pinkie Pie,” said James, smirking and patting her on the head. “How are you supposed to see this secret if you don’t have eyes anymore?”

“But I do have eyes!” Pinkie replied, putting a hoof up to her face to make sure they were still there. “They were just clouded by… cloudy stuff!”

“Well, that doesn’t matter anyway,” James said, turning towards the Everfree forest. Oh, so that’s where she was absent-mindedly wandering to! “I do believe we’ve got a secret to be sharing.”

Pinkie noticed that something seemed wrong with the way James looked. “Hey, James,” she said, looking up at him as he led the way into the forest. “You seem a little… something... today. Is there anything wrong?”

“No, Pinkie Pie, there’s not,” he replied enthusiastically. “Why d’you ask?”

“It just looks like there’s something wrong with you.”

“Well, there’s plenty wrong with me. Surely you should know that. You’re the clever one, aren’t you?”

“That’s Twilight. She’s super smart. I’m the partying one!”

“I see.”

Something was definitely wrong with him. James would’ve known Pinkie was the happy fun party pony. He kind of knew it earlier, and that’s why he let her be friends with Prism Shine! Maybe she was thinking of the wrong thing. Maybe this excited anticipation of this super-secret secret was getting to her.

“Maybe you’re just paranoid,” James suggested.

Yeah! Maybe she was just-!

Wait.

“Yeah, that’s a thing I can do now,” he said quickly, clamping her mouth shut with his hands. He smirked as his head floated off of his shoulders and hovered in front of Pinkie’s face. “You’ll find out how in a minute. It actually makes sense if you think about it hard enough.”

She let out a muffled string of words at him, hoping he would get the message to let her mouth open again. Fortunately, he wasn’t just bluffing about being able to read minds and he released her, head floating back to where it belonged.

“How did you do that?” Pinkie asked, glancing up at him again. “I didn’t know you could read minds!”

“Oh, I’ve been able to read minds for…” He paused and blinked. “I don’t know, actually. I’ve only tested it out just now. And I just said, you’ll find out in a minute.” He chuckled to himself. “Oh, this’ll be fun.”

“What’ll be fun? Is it a party? Can I come too?”

“I suppose you could call it a party, but if that’s the case, then everyone’s invited.”

Pinkie Pie didn’t notice the cruel grin that started to form on his face, but she still felt an air of badness coming from him.

What was wrong with him?

“You’ll see in time,” he said darkly.

Oh yeah. He could read minds now somehow.

Wait, not even Discord could do that! How was it possible for James to do that when it was never possible by even the most powerful spirit of chaos out of the two she knew? Something was definitely wrong. Pinkie just had to figure out what before something bad happened.

With her suspicions in place, she remained quiet for the rest of the journey through the Everfree forest. After a while, she started to notice some familiarities in her surroundings. It looked like they were headed to where James had told them that he was now the new Discord. But there was a strange sound nearby now… Like some kind of magical… thing. She gulped as she stepped through brush and into the clearing.

“Pinkie, run!” came the muffled scream of…

James?

“Well, there’s your secret, Pinkie Pie,” said the ‘James’ right beside her. “Oh, and don’t try running. I’ll only catch you and make the punishment really punishing. That’s why they call it a punishment, you know!”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped as she finally processed what was going on. There were two of James now, but one of them seemed a lot less James-y than the other. The one that had led her here, in fact. The real James looked like they were trapped in a blue bubble of some kind that he couldn’t escape from. That must’ve been some strong bubble mix then, because James was hammering his fists against it as hard as he could.

“I forgot to ask the man where he got it, actually,” said the fake James with a dark smirk. “I’ll try and find him again and get him to send you some in the mail! But first, we’ve got a problem we need to deal with.”

Pinkie’s legs were suddenly encased in what looked like concrete and she felt a slight tugging on her tongue. When she opened her mouth to protest, she realised that she couldn’t speak anymore. Fake James held up something at her, and she saw that there was now a tongue in his hand, presumably hers.

“Don’t hurt her!” James roared, still muffled through the bubble.

“I’m not hurting her,” fake James replied innocently. “I’m just trapping her in concrete and ripping her tongue out painlessly.” He turned to Pinkie. “That doesn’t hurt, does it?”

She nodded her head at him furiously. It didn’t hurt her physically, but it was hard on her feelings.

“Yeah, well, I meant physically.”

This fake James was a joker in all the wrong ways.

“Oh yeah, the problem was you, by the way.”

“You’re the problem!” James yelled, slamming what looked like a warhammer against the bubble. “Let her go!”

“Blah, blah, blah,” fake James replied, rolling his eyes irritably. “Anyway, the story goes like this; I travelled back in time from the end of the world because I killed it and I was bored. I’d been alone for a very long time, mind you, so I had lots of time to practice quite a few magical powers. I’m surprised they actually worked myself. That’s the simplest way I can put it, really.”

There was so much of that statement that didn’t make sense. Time travel? End of the world? What did all this crazy stuff mean?

“Well, end of another world. And time travel might not be the right way to put it. It was really more like universe jumping. See, I killed my own universe and I had time to myself to practice some stuff. It was about three years of nothingness for me, so I jumped to a time that I knew wasn’t going to be nothing.”

But what for exactly? Why would he come back to a time that had something to do stuff with? This wasn’t making much sense at all, but Pinkie couldn’t exactly argue without a tongue in her mouth.

“Yes, you can!” fake James exclaimed with a small snigger. “Just think it at me!” He teleported with a loud crack to beside the bubble of magic holding James. “But he’s already arguing the most for you. So I’ll just cut straight to the point!”

James kicked at the bubble and growled furiously, drawing another happy snigger from the fake. The bubble suddenly jolted to one side, knocking James over inside it before returning to its original position. The fake turned back to Pinkie Pie with a malicious grin on his face.

“You see, Pinkie pony,” he began, strolling indifferently towards her. “I’m not a spirit of chaos anymore. It’s more like… god of chaos now.” His eyes flashed bright yellow and his whole being started shimmering. “Oh yeah, and this isn’t even my final form. I know this is a bit forward, but would you like to see it?”

Did that mean he wasn’t really another James after all?

“Never said that.” His body began to shift into something else. “Now behold, small horse, the true god of chaos!”

He grabbed at his left sleeve and ripped it off in one swift movement, allowing Pinkie Pie to witness sharp orange scales to start growing all around his arm and his hand to transform into a talon of some sort. Before his arm was even finished changing, his right leg snapped to an awkward angle for a human leg. Pinkie cringed slightly at that as the leg tore through his clothing as it grew to what could be best described as a leg of some kind of feral thingy. Pinkie’s attention was suddenly drawn to his face, part of which was changing to a dark, writhing mass of stuff that wrapped around an eye that changed to look more like what Discord’s did. Finally, a set of dark grey spikes grew out of one side of his head, like some kind of dragon’s head spike things.

When Pinkie was sure he was done transforming into the evil god of chaos that he claimed to be, all she could do was stare at him in awe. Even she couldn’t have come up with something so crazy, not even with six sacks of sugary goodness and an infinite amount of stuff to put together.

“Yeah, well,” said fake James. “Chaos is something that you wouldn’t expect. Did you expect this at all? Bet not.” He turned back to real James and chuckled. “You’ve been quiet for a while. What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” He snorted with amusement and held up Pinkie Pie’s tongue cruelly. “Oh, if I was a cat, the pun would be intended.”

“I thought you were here to help me,” James snarled, eyes letting out sparks. He must’ve been pretty angry to have his eyes on fire or something, thought Pinkie Pie. “You lied to me. Why? What the hell is in it for you?”

“Chaos, good sir.” He sniggered and marched over to the bubble. “Surely, you should have figured that out by now. And anyway, this is helping you out too! Chaos keeps you alive and, by extension, everyone else alive! And, with everyone else alive, I get to make more chaos. Won’t that be fun?”

“That’s something else. How did you survive so long without anyone to make chaos for?”

“Like I said; I’m a god now. Immortality is kind of in the job description.” He teleported to beside Pinkie Pie again. “Oh, I almost forgot. I was going to give a stupid explanation about something that probably would’ve come into play later and allowed you to stop me somehow.”

Well, he couldn’t explain everything that Pinkie Pie had to question. She had gazillions of questions, and she wasn’t even sure that was even a real mathematical term.

“Okay then, I’ll just stick with the simple version.” He sighed and pulled up a chair out of nowhere to sit on. “I came here originally to stop James blowing up the planet with an ulterior motive. I kind of lied my way into his trust after that. Then I betrayed him earlier, as you can probably tell, because I knew he was on to me.”

Still loads and loads of questions, but that at least answered the main ones.

“Oh, that reminds me!” He leant down to smirk in her face. If Pinkie still had her tongue, she would’ve said some reeeeeally mean stuff to his face. “I was going to betray all of you too! Or rather… both of us were.”

“It was only a contingency plan!” James shouted, hammering his fists against the bubble. “I never meant to actually use it!”

“He did, actually,” fake James continued. “Basically, you know princess pony turned into Nightmare Moon last night?” Pinkie nodded unsurely, glancing over at James. “That was intentional. James wanted to make it known that he could take her so he could let her out again when you planned on using the elements of harmony on him.”

Oh, wow! That was a genius plan! Why the heck hadn’t anyone thought of that before?!

“Twilight might have eventually. Speaking of, Twilight’s memory wasn’t wiped to stop it happening again, it was wiped to stop her figuring it out. She’s a clever pony, apparently.”

“Then you lied to me AGAIN!!” James screamed, thrashing in the bubble of magic as hard as he could. “I swear, when I get of here, I’m going to kill you!”

“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?” He looked back at Pinkie Pie and smiled darkly. “He’s a silly one, isn’t he?”

Pinkie was too busy processing what had just been said to hear him. She wasn’t sure what to think of any of this. It was just… too confusing to even comprehend. James wanted to let Nightmare Moon take over Twilight? What kind of friend would do something like that?

Or… was he even their friend in the first place?

“I don’t think he was, tiny equine,” fake James stated bluntly, standing up straight to pat her on the head with his spiky talon. “But, if it makes you feel any better, he’s a treacherous bastard anyway.”

“Pinkie, I swear, I’m going to make this up to you,” James said, looking Pinkie right in the eye. After a second, Pinkie looked away, unable to even look at him anymore. “I’ll make it up to all of you. I’m not lying anymore.”

“Yeah, he is, actually. I can read his mind, you know! He’s lying.”

Pinkie just tuned James out. She didn’t want to hear it anymore. Her trust had already proved a mistake, one that she wasn’t going to make again.

“I’ll, uh… leave you two to sort out your differences,” said fake James, hurling Pinkie Pie’s tongue at her. She flinched away, but it vanished at the last second and she felt something appear in her mouth. “I’m off to make chaos and… you know, maybe destroy the world again. I can just travel to another universe and start again if I want anyway!”

And then he vanished leaving Pinkie alone, teary eyed, and trapped with someone she thought was her friend.

Not a friend anymore though.

Author's Note

~~I know how stupid this chapter is, but honestly, I had this planned from about chapter... six, I think. This wasn't actually going to happen for a while originally, but I want this over as soon as I can manage.~~

~~Expect more stupid things to happen that you're probably going to disagree with soon. I don't really care what I'm doing with this anymore.~~

~~Sorry.~~

I changed my mind I'm gonna work as hard as I can to finish this story cuz I got a plan again and this one actually works kinda.

Chapter Eighteen: Emotional Catalyst

Dear Princesses Lulu and Tia

This is Princess Twinkle Shine and I’m asking you to both come to Ponyland for something thats definitely not a trick in any way shape or form why would you even think that thats just stupid.

You should probably come like right now too otherwise were all gonna explode or something.

Yeah thanks bye

Princess Twinkle Shine

Luna read over the letter and snorted with amusement. This surely couldn’t be serious! It clearly wasn’t Twilight who wrote this; the writing wasn’t even close to neat, as Twilight’s usually was, the grammar looked worse than a foal’s just starting their education, and even Twilight’s name was incorrect!

“What are you up to, James?” she whispered, smile slowly fading.

“What’s wrong, Luna?” asked Celestia as she entered the throne room again. “Who’s the letter from?”

“It’s from him,” Luna replied, rolling the letter up and hovering it over to her sister. “I think he’s up to something.”

Celestia unrolled it with a hoof as Luna held it with her magic and quickly scanned over it. When she’d finished, she smiled and sighed.

“Oh, James,” she whispered, shaking her head disappointedly. “What are we going to do with you?” She adopted a more serious expression and trotted over to the throne. “In all seriousness, this trick has to have some ulterior motive. I’m not sure what we should do about this.”

“Neither do I,” Luna said slowly, tucking the letter away for later. “Perhaps we should see what he’s up to just to make sure he’s not making too much trouble.”

“That being the case, I’d rather you didn’t go,” Celestia said as kindly as she could, frowning sadly.

Luna was silent for a moment. “But I’m the only princess left in Equestria with all their abilities!” she complained. “That being the case, I’m the one with the power to handle most of his power!”

“Luna, I know, and I’m sorry. I just… don’t want it to happen to you again.”

“Are you…?” Luna’s frown grew more severe. “Are you saying that I could become… her again?” Those words were hissed with such contempt that Celestia recoiled slightly. “Thank you, sister. Thank you very much. Your faith in your own sister is outstanding.”

“Luna, he made Twilight turn into her last night! A pony who has absolutely nothing to gain from becoming Nightmare Moon! You had something to gain at the time, and that’s what scares me! What if he does something that brings it all back?”

“No, I see what it is,” Luna spat, far angrier than she felt she should have been. “You think it will happen and that I’m too weak to stop it from happening.”

“Luna, think reasonably!” Celestia yelled. “It’s a small risk but the consequences are great! Do you really want to risk so much?!”

“It’s not a risk because I won’t let it happen again!”

“What if he makes it happen?! I’m not losing you again to this!”

Luna growled quietly. “Fine,” she spat, glaring daggers at Celestia. “You don’t want my help, so you won’t get it.” Her horn lit up, ready for a teleportation spell. “Good luck.”

She teleported from the room, leaving Celestia to shake her head in disbelief. How could she have been so thoughtless?! She’d essentially just told her sister that she was going to let Nightmare Moon take her over again! What kind of pony did that make her?

“Don’t feel too bad. I was gonna do it much worse than you did.”

Before she could even make a move to face the wretched human that had caused all of this, thick ropes shot out of the ground and wrapped around her tightly, squeezing her breath out of her. She tried to scream for help, but something was stuffed into her mouth to keep her quiet. She writhed and wriggled in her bonds as the sound of approaching footsteps drew closer.

“Yeah, it’s me,” said the… What had happened to him?! “Oh, that? I’m not entirely sure myself, but it’s probably something to do with an overload of chaos in my time.” His face twisted into a cruel grin. “But enough about me, let’s talk about you. How does it feel to have orchestrated the return of eternal night with the smallest amount of help from the god of chaos?”

She let out a muffled scream of fury and renewed her struggles. He was going to make it happen again! What kind of monster would…?!

Wait… He said god. Since when had his ego grown so much that he could so easily call himself a god?

“Oh, you know,” he stated indifferently. “Since I killed a whole world with minor assistance from some worthless individuals that I eradicated afterward anyway. It’s a long story.”

She screamed again, but only muted sounds slipped through her gag. She couldn’t let this happen!

“Well, uh, I don’t mean to… rain on your parade and such, buuuuut… you’re kinda… too tied up to do anything about it.”

She snarled and glared at the monster in front of her – calling him human was a nicety that he didn’t deserve anymore. He chuckled lightly and leaned closer to her face.

“You might be wondering what I’m doing.” His head rocked from side to side as he thought for a moment. “Okay, you’re not. But I’m gonna say it anyway. You see, tiny horse princess, I’m not the James you know anymore. Now… I’m somethin’ else. As for why I’m here, let’s just say I’m here to cause a little…” A pair of sunglasses appeared on his face suddenly. “Havoc.”

Whatever he was here for, he couldn’t get away with it. He’d become a tyrannical monster in every sense of the word, and he needed to be…

“Wait,” he said quietly, frowning. “Aw, dammit! I’ve been working on that joke for years and the first time I use it, I mess it all up! Great job, brain! Can I start again?”

He could fall into a bottomless chasm for all Celestia cared.

“That’s not very nice.” The ropes tightened, again squeezing the air out of Celestia’s lungs. “Anyway, I spent a loooooong time coming up with a new name for myself. I kinda need one now, being a god of chaos and all. I mean, Discord’s name was okay, but I want a better one. What’d you think of ‘Havoc’?”

Celestia gasped through the rag as her vision started to fade, lack of oxygen getting to her.

“As for why I’m here, that’s obvious. I’m just here to cause a little…”

Another pair of sunglasses appeared over the first pair on his face, most likely to add to that joke in some way, but Celestia blacked out before he could finish.

-=-=-=-=-

Fluttershy had seen Pinkie Pie and James heading into the Everfree forest not too long ago.

Naturally, she’d told her friends about this as soon as she could, fearing for the safety of both her friends. They’d all said that they were both probably safe but, just to abate Fluttershy’s worries, they’d agreed to head into the Everfree after them. The doctors had said that Spike needed some rest anyway.

Presently, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were waiting for Rarity and Applejack to sort a few little things out back at their homes, or in Rarity’s case, Twilight’s castle. They were only checking if their younger sisters were staying out of trouble, but that was very important at the moment, especially with a new spirit of chaos around.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Fluttershy asked anxiously, glancing back at the Everfree forest. “Oh, I hope they’re okay. Pinkie didn’t say she was meeting James in the Everfree forest…”

“They’re probably fine,” Rainbow reassured, patting Fluttershy’s shoulder. “James can handle himself and Pinkie’s got her ways of getting outta trouble.”

“They’re probably at that place where James came into Equestria,” Twilight stated.

“How’d you come to that conclusion?” Rainbow asked.

“I… It was the most reasonable place I could think of,” Twilight replied, not entirely sure where the thought had come from herself. “They… They’re probably just visiting where… Discord disappeared.”

“And they didn’t tell us? We coulda gone too!”

“James probably wanted to take each of us there individually. It’s pretty hard on him too, after all.”

“Sorry we’re late!” called Rarity as she and Applejack hurried over. “Sweetie Belle and her friends have… gone Cutie Mark Crusading.”

“Ah hope they’re bein’ smart about it this time,” Applejack added. “Not that ah’m doubtin’ ‘em, ah just hope they’re okay.” She smiled and stood up straight. “So, where’re we headed?”

“You know that place where Disc- James came here?” Rainbow asked. “Twilight’s got a feeling they’re there.”

“And I’m detecting something magically powerful there too,” Twilight put in. “The only one that would be is James, so it’s a pretty good feeling.”

“Then let’s get to it,” Rarity said with a stern smile. “We’ve got two friends to save!”

“Oh, I really hope they don’t need to be saved…” Fluttershy whispered.

“I… I didn’t mean it like… that…” Rarity replied sheepishly, ears flattening against her head.

“We can talk on the way!” Rainbow yelled, flapping her wings strongly to propel herself into the Everfree. “C’mon, guys!”

They followed her in quickly, Twilight leading the way with a magical light from her horn. There was little talk between them, something that only seemed to make them more uncomfortable as they got closer to where Discord… passed on.

It felt like hours, but it was only a few minutes before they reached the edge of the clearing.

“Alright, girls, remember,” Twilight began quietly, turning back to the others. “They’re probably… paying their respects. We can’t just go…” Her ears pricked up. “You hear that?”

“Look, I can’t say it enough, Pinkie,” came the muffled voice of James. “I’m sorry. I only wanted to use it as a contingency plan, so it might not have happened anyway.”

There was a small whimper in reply.

“What have you done now, James?” whispered Twilight as she pushed through the brush and into the clearing, ready to reprimand him for whatever he’d done now.

There was a collective gasp as they saw exactly what was going on.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow yelled, rushing forwards to her trapped friend. “What did he do?! You better not have hurt her, James!”

“Oh, yeah, because the one trapped in an unbreakable bubble is the one who hurt her,” James replied coldly. “Twilight, can you get me out of this thing?”

“Hold on, James,” Twilight answered, trotting slowly towards Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, are you okay? You look… upset about something.”

“I am,” Pinkie whimpered tearfully. “I thought my friend wasn’t going to betray me like he did, but he did and now I’m upset about it.”

“Dammit, Pinkie, I’m SORRY, OKAY?!” James roared through his containment bubble. “Do you want me to get on my knees and beg forgiveness?! Because I WILL do that!!”

“Whatever it was, we should get you out of that rock first, Pinkie,” Rarity whispered, horn already lit up as she chiselled away at the concrete restraining Pinkie Pie.

“Why do ah get the feelin’ ah ain’t gonna like what you got to say, James?” Applejack asked fiercely, glaring daggers at the human.

“Because you won’t,” James spat bluntly. “Just… get her out of that first. All of you deserve the truth.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “The real truth.”

“There we go!” Rarity cheered as the last shard of concrete dropped off of Pinkie’s hooves. “Quite well timed, if I do say so myself.”

“Alright, James,” Rainbow growled lowly. “What’s this truth that you haven’t already told us?”

“I think I can answer that a lot better, Rainbow Dash.”

The girls spun to face this newcomer, but no sooner had they done so did they gasp loudly and collectively.

“Hello, girls,” said Discord the draconequus, alive and well. “I can’t tell you how much I missed – “

He couldn’t get another word out before the girls charged at him and hugged him tightly, tears of joy and ear-to-ear grins of delight all around.

Author's Note

I am so sorry that I took so long with this and I know ~~all~~ some of you probably hate me by now but I actually have a pretty reasonable reason.

I've been so freaking depressed and damn near suicidal again and I've been venting all my frustrations in many ways and only recently got through it all.

Sorry for getting so depressingly morbid but it ain't happenin' no more. Pinkie promise.

But yeah, this is my... eighth or ninth plan regarding this story and this one should be okay. Should being the key term there.

Chapter Nineteen: Common Enemy

“How did you get back here?!” Rainbow Dash yelled, hugging Discord tightly.

“We thought you were gone!!” Twilight squealed through her teary-eyed state.

“I’ve missed you so much, Discord!!” Fluttershy added, squeezing him more warmly than any of her friends.

“What is going on?” James breathed incredulously, frowning and shaking his head. “You… You can’t be here. How are you here?”

“Can’t I… have some time to… be with my friends, James?” Discord gasped, smiling as the group hug choked the air out of him. “Also, I do actually… need to breathe, girls.”

They all tightened their hug on him and then backed away, giving him room to breathe. His eyes closed and a single joyful tear dropped from his cheek. He opened his eyes again slowly, smile shrinking to one of content satisfaction.

“Now, then,” he said with a small sigh. “We need to address that… little detail that James brought up.”

“No…” James whispered, not in disagreement, but out of sheer disbelief. “You… You can’t be here. If you’re here, then I… WHY ARE YOU HERE?!!”

“Ah.” Discord’s smile vanished completely. “James, you have to – “

“You told me you were DYING!!” James roared, hammering his fists against the bubble. “YOU TOLD ME YOU COULDN’T GET OUT OF MY HEAD WITHOUT LETTING EVERYONE DIE!!! NOW I’M HERE FOR NOTHING!!!”

The bubble he was trapped inside actually shuddered at that last word.

“James, can’t you just be happy that you can go home now?” Twilight asked, frowning sympathetically. “You don’t need to be here any –“

“You know that story I told when I first came here?” he growled, eyes literally glowing with rage. “I must’ve left out the part where he said there would always be some part of the spirit of chaos in my head, even when he’s gone. I can’t back unless I have a death wish, Twilight Sparkle.”

“You’re angry, I know,” Discord said as he marched towards James’s prison. “But you’ve got to hear my side of the story.”

“Get me out of this thing,” James spat, punching the bubble’s inner wall.

“Hmm…” Discord pondered, tapping his chin. “You know, that’s something very strange. Have you ever tried to pop a bubble from the inside? I mean a fully enclosed proper bubble.”

“Hurry up.”

“Aw, you’re all depression and rage. You’re no fun. The punchline was all real bubbles are indestructible from the inside. Seriously, have you even tried popping one of those things from the inside?” He tapped the bubble with his talon and it popped instantly, dropping James to the ground. “Now then. Can we get a few things straightened out?”

James launched himself at Discord and swung his fist wildly. Discord disappeared and dropped out of the sky onto James’s back, pinning him to the ground.

“Get off me so I can punch your stupid face in,” James growled into the dirt.

“Now that’s just mean. Can I talk now?”

James grunted in response, but stayed silent.

“I’m very sorry, girls, but it’s story time again,” Discord said, crossing his arms as a row of seats sprung out of the ground. He motioned for the girls to sit down, which they did, before he smiled and began. “There’s no easy way to put this, but there’s another James out there,” he said calmly, looking into the eyes of each of his friends in turn. “Only… this one is truly more evil than even the one we’ve got here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight exclaimed, glancing down at James. “How is that even possible?”

“He’s had practice,” James growled. “A lot of practice. Especially in the few years of nothing he had after he killed his own universe.”

“Killed his own universe?” Rarity gasped. “He… He’s not planning the same for this one, is he?”

“Wait, how do we know you’re telling the truth?” Rainbow piped up, flapping up and out of her seat. “This could be some bad joke for all we know!”

“Firstly, that is sadly what he wants, Rarity,” Discord answered. “Secondly, it’s no joke, Rainbow Dash. Ask Pinkie Pie. She saw him.”

“Please don’t remind me…” Pinkie sighed, putting her hooves over her head. “It was completely un-fun to meet that joker.”

“Sorry, Pinkie Pie,” Discord apologised, nodding his head at her. “But anyway, as Pinkie Pie knows, there is a much crueller version of our James running around now.”

“Then how do we stop ‘em?” asked Applejack.

“Straight to the point, eh, Applejack?” he asked with a smirk. “That’s good. Because, if I’m not mistaken about this, we don’t have a lot of time to stop him before he gets too out of control, even for me.”

“But… why is he here?” asked Twilight, cocking her head to one side. “I mean, he can’t just have come here for no reason.”

“He came here because he’s from an alternate timeline,” James muttered, slamming a fist into the ground. “As previously stated, he’s killed his own world.”

“On the subject of world domination and/or destruction, there is that matter of… last night.”

“What happened last night?” Twilight asked unsurely.

“N-No!” Rarity yelled. “James said not to talk about that!”

“It’s okay, Rarity,” said Pinkie Pie sombrely. “We were only told to not talk about that because Twilight might have worked out the plan of real James and evil James.”

“Twilight, you almost became Nightmare Moon last night,” Discord stated bluntly.

There was silence for a moment. All eyes were on Twilight now. After the long pause, she shook her head.

“No,” she protested. “I-I can’t have… become Nightmare Moon…”

“You did, Twilight, but we’ll get onto that later. First comes the reason you almost became Nightmare Moon.”

“W-Wait… But… I can’t have become Nightmare Moon!”

“You didn’t. You almost became Nightmare Moon.”

“That’s still not possible!”

“Twilight, you know we all love you, but you’ve really got to let me finish. He made you almost Nightmare Moon to make a statement to her that he could take her on without the Elements of Harmony on his side.”

“So… he lied to us again?” asked Rarity. “It wasn’t by accident?”

“Sadly, no. In fact, that was the beginning of his contingency plan to make Nightmare Moon return if he was ever trapped in stone like I was.”

“What?!” yelled Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all at the same time.

“Although that’s something.” He leant down to James’s head and tapped it with his claw. “How exactly did you think they were going to deal with it? I mean, if they were willing to put Equestria at risk by taking back the Elements to deal with you, how did you think they would deal with Nightmare Moon?”

James remained silent and motionless.

“Now don’t get upset because someone poked a hole in your already terrible plan. I’m just asking questions.”

James mumbled something into the dirt as the girls all stared accusingly and disappointedly at him.

“You’ll have to repeat that. I couldn’t quite hear you.”

“In hindsight, it was a stupid plan,” James growled. “Do you have to keep making me feel worse about it?”

“Yes, I do,” Discord scolded, crossing his arms. “Once you learn your lesson about lying and make up for it, then we can build a bridge and get over it.”

“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow hissed. This only earned a sharp glare from Discord. “Alright, fine. But he better learn his lesson real good.”

“Can we just get to the point already?” James snarled, shifting under Discord’s weight. “I can learn my lesson later. We’ve kind of got a universe to save.”

“Yes, I suppose we do,” Discord said calmly. “And I think I’ve got a plan on how we save it right here.”

He stared at the others and gave them a tiny smile, and they glanced at each other unsurely.

“Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?” Pinkie Pie commented, shuddering at the very thought.

“Oh, don’t worry. If all goes the way I’m thinking it will, nothing bad will happen to anyone except James’s doppelganger.” He frowned. “I hope not, anyway.”

-=-=-=-=-

Luna was furious.

Her own sister had essentially just told her that she was going to let Nightmare Moon return again! How could Celestia have so little faith in her sister that she thought Luna was actually going to allow that to happen?!

She kicked the floor in her quarters and began to pace around the room.

“I’ll show you, sister,” she hissed, spitting the final word with more contempt than she would ever do in any other scenario.

Wait… Maybe that was it! She could prove that it would never happen by going to Ponyville and solving whatever conundrum James had created to lure them there in the first place!

“Oh, yes. That’s an excellent idea.”

She gasped and spun around, glancing at everywhere that the voice could come from.

“You poor creature,” that dreaded voice whispered. “You think I’m actually here, don’t you?”

“What do you want?” Luna gasped, fear overtaking her as the thought of losing herself to the Nightmare presented itself for real. “How are you here?”

“Did you not hear?” asked the voice of Nightmare Moon. “I’m not present in the real world right now. I’m merely… on the edge of your wildest nightmares.”

“But… you can’t be here!” Luna hissed frantically, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. “You can’t take me again!”

“No, Princess Luna, you’re wrong.” There was a small giggle of cruel delight. “I am more present now than I have been in the last few years, thanks to your rage.”

Had Luna let this happen? Had getting so angry with her own sister let the Nightmare return again?

“Oh, don’t worry, you poor foal,” Nightmare’s voice whispered, almost as if she was actually right beside Luna. “I’m not here to take you. I’m here to help you.”

“W-What do you mean?” Luna gasped, backing up against the wall. “How could you help me?”

“You and I share a common enemy, Princess Luna. That… spirit of chaos has allowed you to let me back in, if only just. As for myself, he has nearly destroyed me entirely. That incident with that other princess, when he ripped me out of her, I was almost eradicated.”

“Good!” Luna squeaked, adopting a brave expression. “Y-You don’t deserve to exist!”

“How cold,” Nightmare giggled cruelly. “I’m merely suggesting that you and I work together to exact vengeance onto him. I’m not saying we kill him, for a spirit of chaos can only die of harmony’s eternity. I’m only saying that we… teach him a lesson that he will never forget.”

“N-No!” Luna yelled hoarsely. “I won’t l-let you back in!”

“He brought this upon you, you know,” Nightmare hissed temptingly. “Without him, I wouldn’t have returned.”

Luna shut her eyes tight and started repeating the words ‘go away’ to herself, hoping that Nightmare Moon would obey Luna’s wishes.

“I’m too strong for that now, child.” Another evil giggle. “How do you think I’ve been able to stay after your rage has subsided? It’s for that reason that I believe we can stand a chance against him if, and only if, we work together.”

Luna started sobbing quietly, realising that, if she was this was powerful, Nightmare Moon would probably take over, regardless.

“It’s because of him,” Nightmare whispered. “Let’s show him that we are not be toyed with in such a manner.”

Luna’s eyes opened slowly as a growing feeling of defeat took over.

“Y-Yes…” she breathed, pupils narrowing to slits.

“Good…” Nightmare replied in a satisfied tone. “We shall show him the power of the Lunar Princess and the Nightmare together.”

“Yes!” Luna cried, stomping a hoof as a fearsome grin grew on her face. “We will show him that we are a force to be reckoned with!!”

“Precisely.” The evil giggle became a malicious cackle that came from Luna’s mouth. “We will become more powerful than even chaos itself!!”

“YES!!” Nightmare Luna screamed. “WE SHALL SHOW HIM WHAT IT MEANS TO MEDDLE WITH THE NIGHT!!”

Her wings expanded. Her horn lengthened and sharpened. Her mane became more ethereal. Her teeth sharpened to fangs. Her coat darkened to pitch black.

“At last,” said Nightmare Moon, in the flesh. “And now, human, we will show you that this is your nightmare.”

Just outside the room, unbeknownst to the Nightmare inside, Havoc stepped away from the door and smiled evilly before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Author's Note

I have come to face up against my true enemy, and that enemy is myself. Dun dun duuuuun.

But seriously, I wage war upon one dark section of my mind on the plains of Eternity for victory over my own this is getting way off topic so basically I still hate me but I'm gonna probably make this go out with a bang/ really badly.

Happy whatever.

Chapter Twenty: End of the Line

This was a stupid plan.

Even James had said a lot to say against this plan, even if it succeeded. Of course, all the girls had argued against it as well, but James more than others and, according to Pinkie Pie, with very good reason.

But, despite their best efforts, Discord was very clear in the fact that it may be the only thing they had left and, therefore, the best plan they had.

It was still stupid though.

“Right then,” James said as he teleported all of them into the centre of Ponyville. “You girls know what you’re doing, right?”

“Keeping the town safe!” Rainbow barked. “We got this!”

“Get them to safety and I’ll deal with doppelganger.”

“How do we even know this is where he’s going to be?” asked Rarity. “I mean, he could go to anywhere in Equestria! Why would he choose here?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said that doppelganger as he snapped into existence in front of them all. “This just seemed the most cliché to pick first.” He chuckled to himself and crossed his arms. “Oh, and it’s ‘Havoc’ now. Cool name, right?”

Before the girls could even flinch, a large hammer appeared over their heads, ready to slam down on top of them. Before it could touch them, there was a loud clang and it was parried off to one side. James dropped the shield that he’d used as a defensive tool and shot towards ‘Havoc’ furiously.

“Come on, then!” James yelled as he spun backwards in the air upon reaching Havoc, kicking out at him powerfully. “Let’s save the world and die trying!”

“That’s the spirit!” Havoc replied happily, jolting his head to one side to avoid the kick and responding with a jabbing punch to James’ knee.

James yelled in pain as his leg bent at a horrifying angle and he dropped to the ground. He clutched at his undoubtedly broken leg as Havoc grinned evilly at him.

“Well, that was easier than I thought it would be,” he said, almost disappointedly. He looked over at the girls, jaws wide open at the quick battle. “I mean, seriously. One of you could do a better job than that.”

“Let’s put that to the test!” Rainbow Dash yelled, flapping up and punching the air as if ready to take up the challenge.

“You’re no fun though. You got a broken leg.”

“So do I!” James roared as he dropped onto Havoc’s back, his knee suddenly encased in a bright pink cast. “Do your damn job, girls!”

He vanished before another word could be said, dragging Havoc with him. The girls waited in silence for a moment before sharing a worried glance and hurrying away in different directions to tell the ponies of Ponyville to get to the train to get themselves to safety, which was due to leave soon.

As stupid as this plan was, there was no arguing with the method of execution.

-=-=-=-=-

Princess Celestia awoke with her head spinning.

She looked around and found herself to be stuck to the ceiling of the throne room in some kind of pink spider’s webbing. Above her was a note that she could just about read, but when she did, her rage only increased.

BRB gotta go kill some ppl xoxo

He had a lot to pay for now.

She would have screamed, but her mouth was sealed shut by yet more webbing. She settled for thrashing and writhing as hard as she could instead, but that did no good either.

Then there was the sound of approaching hoofsteps all of a sudden. They hadn’t come into hearing normally, like they were walking from very far away, they sounded like the pony had teleported to just outside the door.

Why would they teleport, but only to outside the throne room?

If they were going for dramatic effect, suspense and Celestia’s curiosity, they had succeeded at that.

They stepped into the throne room with a cruel smile.

No.

“Oh, sister,” called Nightmare Moon playfully. “Where have you run to now?”

Celestia remained as still as she could, hoping that Nightmare Moon wouldn’t notice her. Why had he done this? Was he truly more evil now than chaos had ever been before?

“I’m not going to hurt you, sister,” Nightmare Moon said in a sing-song voice. “I’m here to help with some pest control.”

You’re not my sister, Celestia wanted to scream. Give her back.

After a moment of scanning the room, Nightmare Moon giggled evilly and looked up. When she saw Celestia, she flapped her wings and flew up to hover in front of her, almost mockingly.

“There you are,” she said cruelly, lifting Celestia’s chin up to look at her full in the face. “Don’t tell me you’re not surprised. You said that this was going to happen already. As much as you might hate it, Celestia, this is your fault.”

It was Havoc’s fault. He’d been the one to send that letter, and no doubt he’d done what he did last night as well. He’d manipulated Luna’s mind into making her become Nightmare Moon again.

“Now let’s get you out of that web,” Nightmare whispered, her horn lighting up.

A magical blade materialised in front of Celestia, dangerously close to her throat. It remained there for a few seconds before slashing at the strings of web suspending Celestia in the air. She plummeted to the ground, wings still tied in sticky webbing, but Nightmare merely watched her fall with a malicious grin.

She landed with a pained grunt. The webbing was thick enough to cushion the landing slightly, but not enough to stop the air being knocked out of her. As she gasped for breath, Nightmare descended slowly.

“You don’t seem very pleased to see me,” she giggled harshly. “I wonder why that is. After all, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to hurt him.”

What?

“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” said Nightmare. “You’re wondering why I, of all ponies, would want to help you. The answer is simple: I want to make him extinct like he nearly made me extinct.” The webbing covering Celestia’s mouth disintegrated with a quick spell from Nightmare Moon’s horn. “What say you?”

“I want my sister back,” Celestia breathed. “If you’re going to help me, you must at least be on my side.”

“You shall have your sister, Princess. Just not yet. She is not nearly as powerful as we are together now.”

Another spell and the webbing binding the rest of Celestia’s form evaporated.

“Fine,” Celestia whispered.

She didn’t like it, but it was the best she had right now.

-=-=-=-=-

Well, this plan went from very stupid but very effective to very, very bad very quickly.

“Come on, Jimmy boy!” he teases, swinging an oversized sword at my head, which I duck underneath. “You gotta fight loads better than that if you wanna save the world!”

I say nothing as I tackle him to the ground, or rather, what feels like it should be the ground. We’re in the sky right now, somewhere above Ponyville, yet it feels like we’re both on solid ground.

That’s just chaos for you, telling reality to go jump in front of a train.

“Oh, I’m having flashbacks to that final fight of the Matrix series!” Havoc laughs as he kicks up and rolls backwards, sending me flying over his head. “Can I stick my hand in your chest and murder you now?”

Again, no words escape my lips as I flip over in the air and propel myself back at him with a pair jet engines that I summon out of nothingness and swap my feet for. He jumps back to his feet and his hand shoots up to catch the punch I’m sending his way. I come to a complete stop in the air, my momentum completely vanishing, as soon as my fist meets the palm of his hand.

I feel cold. Colder than I’ve ever felt. I can’t move a single muscle. It’s like I’ve become a statue.

“Still alive?” he asks mockingly. “I mean, I haven’t even tested this yet, so maybe you are. Maybe you’re not. What’s it like to be at zero degrees kelvin? ‘Absolute zero’ sounds pretty cool actually.”

This isn’t even possible. I should be dead and gone right now. Absolute zero means that every atom of my being should be frozen in place, so why the hell am I still alive?

Because absolute zero can never exist here, the voice in my head explains. I mean, seriously, didn’t you do untested theoretical physics? Absolute zero requires no atoms at all to be moving and if he’s still moving, you can move too.

I must remember to get Twilight to walk me through that theory later.

If I live, that is.

I think as hard as I can about catching fire, and within a few seconds, I’m ablaze.

“Look at you, Johnny Storm,” says Havoc, frowning as he backs away. “Oh well, let’s get this over with.”

I can move again, but before I can do anything, Havoc grabs me by the throat and lifts me up above his head.

I choke as he squeezes and snarls at me, levitating his dropped sword back over to him. He grabs it when it’s close enough and then presses it against my neck. I can already feel it cutting through my skin.

“Honestly, have you learned nothing?” he asks with a cruel grin. “I’m better than you. You can’t win. At least you’re not putting up a fight now.”

He’s enjoying this. He wants me to react to his taunts so he can keep kicking my sorry behind out of existence. He doesn’t want to just kill me, he wants to annihilate me.

I would keep fighting, but I already know how to beat him and it’s not like this.

Then he receives a tap on the shoulder from a newcomer in this battle of the gods.

“Pardon me,” Discord says very sweetly. “But I must tell you to stop.”

I cringe. That’s just a bad joke that I don’t think he even understands very well himself.

Havoc makes a move to turn around, but Discord has already brought his comically large hammer down onto his head, sending him hurtling back down to earth and leaving me to recover from being strangled by an angry god.

“Hammer time?” I ask, rubbing my aching and bleeding neck.

“I’m glad you get it,” Discord says blankly. “Because I don’t even know why MC Hammer isn’t a construction worker.”

“Is she ready yet?”

“Yes, she’s on her way now. I’ve just asked her to take a little time to let you and I bash him around a little.”

“Then let’s bash him around a bit more.”

The two of us are back in Ponyville all of a sudden, on solid ground again, beside the crater that Havoc made when Discord knocked him out of the sky. We step to the edge of it and peer down into it.

He’s not there.

“Oh, great,” I mutter. “Of all the times for him to vanish without a trace, the time when he’s probably suffering from a concussion and unable to get very far is the one where he does vanish.”

“James?” I hear Fluttershy call over. “Is everything alright?”

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” Discord replies, crossing his arms disappointedly. “Is Ponyville safe?”

“The train is packed and outta here with everyone on it!” Rainbow Dash yells with a salute, joining Fluttershy.

Soon after, the others are with us. All except Twilight, but she’s got her own little job right now.

“Alright, did you see where he went?” I ask the girls.

“D-Did he get away?” asks Rarity.

“He can’t have gotten very far. He’s probably just recovering from a concussion that Discord gave him.”

“I wouldn’t say that, Jimmy boy,” says the one we’re looking for from right behind me. “Little bruising here and there but no concussion. How are you by the way?

I can’t even move before Havoc stabs his stupidly massive sword through my stomach. The girls gasp. Discord leaps over to join them, holding his arms out to defend them if necessary. The sword is pulled out and stabbed again into my back.

And again.

And once more.

“Well, besides dead, I mean,” Havoc adds smugly.

“Urk,” is all I can manage to say as everything starts to go black.

I’m going to die now.

But that was always a very distinct possibility. I just thought I’d last a little longer.

-=-=-=-=-

Havoc dropped James’ lifeless body to the ground, leaving the sword piercing his heart. He stared at him with a maniacal grin on his face for a moment before looking up at the girls and Discord.

“Well, looks like you’re down one,” he said coldly. “Let’s see how long it takes you all to die.”

“Excuse me, Mister human, Sir!”

Havoc spun around to face the source of the voice, but saw no one. He snarled and spun back to the others.

“Why, whatever’s the matter, good sir?” asked Discord, smiling innocently. “You seem a bit paranoid. Are you hearing things?”

“Pardon me, good sir!”

“What is this?” Havoc growled, glancing over his shoulder.

“Does he look paranoid, girls?” Discord asked the girls calmly. “He looks paranoid to me.”

“I concur,” Rarity added, standing up straight and putting on a straight face.

“Ah hear ya,” Applejack put in, tearing her eyes away from James’ body.

“He’s about as paranoid as a…” Pinkie Pie trailed off. “Uh… He just looks really paranoid.”

“Sir, I have a question!”

“Okay, you wanna play that game?” Havoc spat. “Let’s play that game! Where are you?!”

“How much is that going to cost?”

“How much is what…?!”

Before he could finish, a very large and very purple magical shovel smacked him across the face so hard that he flipped over backwards and landed flat on his stomach with a pained grunt.

“Oh, wait,” said Twilight Sparkle as she marched confidently away from the fading smoke of her teleport spell. “I forgot that you’re getting served for free.”

Author's Note

It's been a while. ~~I spent all this time thinking up that last joke.~~ Sorry about that.

I'm not actually going to finish this one. The chapter title was being honest: this is where my journey through ponyland ends. I've had this chapter finished for about six months, debating exactly what to do next and that's my decision. I'm tired of ~~not getting enough sleep~~ harmony and chaos and horses with tattoos on their butts. It was just a phase that I went through while on a journey of self discovery anyway.

Thanks for coming, hope you had fun and have a good one.

P.S: I haven't proofread this chapter since I last edited it so expect mistakes or something.

Chapter One: Missing

It was a rare occurrence that Discord went missing unannounced.

It was often that he’d disappear, but he would always let somepony know to avoid any panic that it might stir up from the thought that he’d gone back to his old ways. His friends never thought it would happen, of course, but some ponies of Ponyville were still getting over his chaotic personality.

But, as uncommon and nonsensical as it was, he had vanished without a trace this time. Not even his self-proclaimed carer, Fluttershy, had been told about it.

Fortunately, Fluttershy had told her friends as soon as she’d noticed him gone, and they’d all rallied together to form a search party to find him again. They’d even recruited a few happy-go-lucky volunteers that had come to accept Discord and his haphazard personality.

Currently, princess Twilight Sparkle was organising this search party into an efficient system that would hopefully make this search last no more than an hour at best. The plan was simple; to split into groups of two that would then fan out across the town. If one group located Discord, they would bring him back to the starting point and wait for the rest of the search party to return, maybe even find a way to notify the others that the search needn’t continue.

To make this run even more smoothly, the ever-precise Rarity had given out maps with each group’s allotted segment of Ponyville marked down. To make matters even easier, she’d also given out clipboards and quills to mark off where was searched. She’d even put those quills in flashy holders that she’d put together hastily when she’d thought the idea up.

“Alright,” said Twilight Sparkle, running through her checklist of the plan again quickly. “So now that all of us know what we’re doing, should we get this underway?”

“Oh yes please,” Fluttershy put in quietly. “I really hope he’s okay or… or I just wouldn’t know what I’d do.”

“Aw, he’s probably just playing hide-n-seek and forgot to tell us!” Rainbow Dash put in confidently. “I was great at that game! We’ll find him in no time!”

“Then let’s go find Discord, everyone!” Twilight exclaimed loudly, drawing a little cheer of agreement out of two of the volunteers and her friend, Pinkie Pie.

With that, they all went their separate ways to scour the town in search of the draconequus.

Little did they know how disappointed they would be.

-=-=-=-=-

A few hours later, the search party regrouped back where they had started.

The emotions they brought with them were less than desired.

“W-we can’t f-find him,” Fluttershy stammered, on the verge of tears. “W-what if h-he has gone b-back to his old w-ways?”

“Fluttershy, you worry way too much,” Rainbow Dash growled, giving of a violent air of aggression and anger. “He’s playing a prank on us and when he shows up again, I’m gonna kick his head into the ground!”

Twilight, looking much more flustered than any of her friends and the rest of the search party, sighed and looked around at the worried crowd that’d been drawn since the first group, Rainbow Dash’s, got back.

“Well,” she breathed, drawing her slightly bloodshot eyes up to her search party. “Thank you, everypony, for helping us search! Since it’s only been a few hours since we last saw him, we can’t really involve any other ponies like the guard unless we get volunteers that are willing to give up their free time to help us cover more ground!”

“What if we can’t find him in time to stop him creating chaos again?!” yelled somepony in the back of the crowd.

Of course, this drew some whispered ideas from the crowd that could easily be at least half the townsfolk. They’d all heard the rumour that Discord had gone missing and had been drawn to the ponies in the search party while they waited for the rest to come back with their result.

“N-no!” Twilight yelled. “No no! He won’t go back to his evil ways! He’s our friend and he won’t betray us again!”

“He’s already done it before!” shouted another pony. This one almost sounded the same as the first, just with a higher pitched voice. “What’s to say he won’t do it again?”

More hushed conspiracies were thrown about the crowd. Some ponies shifted on their hooves uncomfortably or turned to look over their shoulder.

“W-well…” Twilight stammered, eyes darting to each of her friends for assistance. “He realised what he was doing was wrong! He won’t do it again!”

“He’s a blasted spirit of chaos, I say!” another pony in the crowd. Again, they sounded the same as the first, just with a stronger accent. “What’s to say his own being hasn’t taken hold to send him tumbling right back to some dishonest treachery?”

For the third time, venomous thoughts were passed around but much more openly this time.

“He…” Twilight stopped for a second and squinted at the crowd, hovering a little to search for whoever was yelling these things. “Who is that? You’re just trying to scare everyone, aren’t you? You can’t fool me like that!”

“Oh, I’ll fool you no longer,” said a voice from behind Twilight, the same but it sounded much older this time.

It drew a collective gasp from the crowd as they noticed this newcomer for the first time. Twilight spun to face them, greeted by the sight of a lump of red, tattered cloth with what looked like skeletal claws coming from what could only be sleeves of this cloak.

“H-how did you…?” Twilight trailed off, staring in awe at this creature’s appearance.

It whispered something to itself, something that Twilight couldn’t make out, but she did hear something about souls for sure. Maybe she was just listening for the wrong kind of thing.

“Who are you?!” Rainbow yelled, advancing towards the pile of crimson rags. “How did you get there without me seeing you?! Don’t tell me you snuck up on us ‘cause I was looking that way this whole time!”

“Boo,” something invisible behind Rainbow Dash’s head said darkly.

She yelped in fear and spun around with her hooves flailing at the voice’s source. When she was met with nothing at all, the crowd piped up again. Twilight’s friends started whispering anxiously to themselves as well.

Twilight, however, only had eyes for whoever was under that cloak. She took a step closer, pushing the clamours of the crowd behind her to the back of her mind. She reached up to pull the cloak away, but someone else beat her to it.

“Swoosh!” yelled a tall, bipedal creature as it ripped the cloak off of what turned out to be nothing. “Oh look! Nothing’s there! And you got scared about that?”

A few members of the crowd screamed at the sudden appearance of a creature that would no doubt appear alien to them, but to Twilight, it looked similar to something she had seen before.

It looked human.

“What is that thing?!” yelled somepony different to the first few voices that’d shouted out of the crowd.

“Discord really has gone back to chaos!” another pony shouted.

“Everyone, run for your lives!!” screamed another.

The panic that the humanoid creature had stirred up was enough to get most of the crowd to follow this panicked order. Within seconds, there was nothing but a panicked mass of screaming, fleeing and terrified bodies. If anything, this panic was just making the situation even more dangerous; somepony was bound to get hurt or trampled in this carnage.

“Wow, I see what he was getting at,” said the humanoid creature, now leaning on Twilight’s back nonchalantly. “This IS fun!”

“What are you doing?!” Twilight yelled, jumping away from the human that remained in the air in a leaning position. “Somepony’s going to get hurt soon!” She turned to her friends that were trying to calm the crowd, albeit with no luck. “Girls, we’ll make sure nopony gets hurt! Fluttershy, you try to talk to this thing that Discord might’ve brought here!”

Fluttershy went pale and stammered something incomprehensibly, but Twilight had already left her to help placate the havoc.

“Fluttershy, was it?” the human said, appearing by Fluttershy’s side. “Nice to meet you. I hear you’re the nice one.”

“P-p-please d-don’t hurt m-me…” she whimpered, shaking like a leaf. “I… I was your m-master’s f-f-friend… c-can w-we be friends?”

“Oh, don’t be so scared!” he chuckled loudly. “You took assertiveness lessons, right? That’s what I’ve heard! Use those lessons and be brave!”

Fluttershy shrunk down a little bit, but gulped and put on a brave face.

“Y-you’re right!” she said firmly, stomping a hoof on the ground. “Y-you should stop this right now or somepony could end up really badly hurt!”

“Oh, bravo!” the humanoid congratulated, taking a step back in awe. “That was very courageous of you! You should be proud of yourself!”

“Um… thank you?” Fluttershy replied unsurely. This only drew another chuckle from him.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a dark smile on his face. He looked back at the chaos behind them and sniggered to himself. “I’ve had my fun; I’ll stop this madness now.”

There was a pop beside them, making Fluttershy jump and spin to face the sudden firework that was the source of the noise. The fuse sparked and lit as the human pointed at it and, in a few seconds, it flew up into the air with a whistle and exploded with a colourful pop.

Almost immediately, the crowd went silent and turned to the source of the cheery explosion in the sky. The human, who was still looking up to where the sparks had faded, whistled appreciatively.

“Always loved those things,” he mumbled to himself. He then turned back to face the crowd. “Citizens of Ponyland!”

“Ponyville!” Pinkie Pie corrected, suddenly much cheerier than she’d been only seconds before.

“Right, citizens of Ponyville!” yelled the human happily, spreading his arms wide. “Fear not for your lives, for I mean you no harm! I come to thee bearing words of great interest and wonder!

“Is this guy for real?” Rainbow Dash asked furiously, still steaming from the chaos he had caused. “I say we kick his hide in for starting this whole thing!”

“You seem to be all about violence, feisty one!” the human yelled back with a smirk. “I wouldn't advise it though. If you did that, I might not tell you where your friend has disappeared to!”

“You know where our friend is?” Fluttershy asked, stepping forward hopefully. “Where is he? Can you take us to him?”

“Indeed, I can!” the human shouted loud enough for the whole crowd to hear. “I can take you, dear Fluttershy, and your friends to find your chaotic companion! Would that not please you?”

“Yes, that would please us more than I can ever say!” Fluttershy piped up, scampering towards the human with her eyes wide and beaming. “We’re all so worried about him and we’ve been searching for him all day!”

The human chuckled to himself darkly again.

“Won’t this be fun…” he whispered to himself with a hint of melancholy. “Then come along!” He vanished with a puff of smoke and reappeared some few feet away. “Do keep up!”

He disappeared yet again, leaving the crowd of still panicked ponies and the six bringers of calm behind. The six shared a hurried glance between one another and charged in the direction the human had been heading.

-=-=-=-=-

After a few wrong turns, backtracks and practical jokes, the humanoid creature finally stopped in a clearing somewhere inside the Everfree forest. Despite some protests against venturing in too deep, the human insisted that they would find him somewhere within the forest.

Regardless of this, there was still no sign of Discord, but the human had declared that he could go no further.

“Well, where is he then?” Rainbow asked angrily.

“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie perked up, ever eager to cheer up her friends. “Maybe he’s hiding and we just have to find him ourselves now!”

“Ah don’t mean to sound cynical, sugarcube” said Applejack, leaning in to talk to her friend. “But ah really don’t think any of us are willin’ to look for him again.”

Pinkie Pie sagged a little bit at the denied cheer-up of her friends, but tried keeping an air of happiness about her.

“Oh, he’s here alright,” the human said with grim satisfaction.

“Then where the heck is he?!” Rainbow yelled, rounding on the human that had maintained its almost uncaring smile. “’Cause I sure don’t see him!”

“Oh, calm down, feisty,” the human said calmly. “He’s not that hard to miss, is he?”

“Well ah want ya to point him out to us ‘cause ah don’t see him either,” Applejack snapped at him, turning to face him.

“Wow, Fluttershy, are all of your friends this snappy?” the human asked Fluttershy as he appeared right beside her. “Or is that just the ones that look like they might take things a bit too seriously?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Applejack shot back, taking a threatening step closer. “If ah were you, ah’d tell us where our friend is so we don’t do somethin’ we’ll all regret!”

The human vanished with a pop and reappeared above Applejack’s head, hovering in the air. She could barely register his sudden presence before he grabbed her hat off her head and spun it onto his own.

“You’re the honest one, aren’t you?” he asked, looking down at her with a bored expression and floating just out of her reach. “I won’t take that as an empty threat then. My fun’s been had already anyway, so I see no point in keeping it from you any longer.”

“Then where is he?” Twilight put in, half aggressive and half hopeful.

“Oh, I do hate being the bearer of bad news…” the human whispered gravely. He dropped back to the ground beside Applejack and pushed her hat back onto her head. “I won’t ask for you to forgive me for this because I know that this news may be very hard on you.”

Before the girls could say anything, a large mirror snapped into existence where the human pointed. He stepped in front of it and beckoned them all closer as he turned to face his reflection. Slowly and unsurely, Fluttershy and her friends moved in to look in the mirror.

When they did, there was silence for a few short seconds.

“What… what am I looking at?” Twilight asked, staring at the mirror with growing trepidation.

“Is that…?” Rarity whispered, looking between the human and his very inaccurate reflection.

“This is a joke, right?!” Rainbow yelled, spinning to face the human angrily. “Stop making a joke out of this! This is serious! Our friend is missing!”

“Oh, I wish it were so, feisty,” the human chuckled sadly, never breaking eye contact with his own reflection. “I would’ve preferred to stay at home with my own family and friends, but fate is cruel. What you see is the truth. If you don’t believe it, that’s fine. I don’t much believe it either.”

“But that’s Discord!” Rainbow exclaimed, shaking her head disbelievingly. “You don’t even look like him! Why do you think this is so funny?!”

“I don’t,” the human replied sharply, turning to stare her right in the eyes. “It’s very hard to explain all of it, as I’m sure you can figure out.”

“Then try to explain it as best as you can!” Twilight yelled, breaking her stunned gaze from the reflection of Discord in the mirror. “We really need to get to the bottom of this!”

“Very well,” the human said. He vanished for a second and reappeared a few feet away in an armchair with a book in his hands and a smoking pipe in his mouth. “I will now tell you the story of how Discord and I became one. Are you standing comfortably?”

“What do you mean by became one?” asked Twilight, tilting her head to one side.

“Shhh!” the human shushed, putting a finger over his mouth to quieten her. “I’m telling the story now! All questions can wait until I’m done! Do you want this to be explained or not?”

“Yeah, Twilight, I wanna hear the story!” Pinkie Pie put in, a little too happily for the situation. She dropped into a laying position and turned to face the human in his armchair.

With some hesitation, her friends took up the most comfortable position to listen to this story. Regardless of their reluctance to hear the story, it was a step in the right direction, whatever that may be in this situation.

“Then I’ll begin,” the human said, opening the book up to read. “This, dear ladies, is the story of how I came to Equestria and how Discord disappeared.”

Author's Note

Proofread by me so expect mistakes.
Cover art comprised of images found on Google and not created by me. I only glued them together or something.

Chapter Eight: Reckoning

Pinkie Pie’s tail was twitching.

She was inside and nopony was even close to anything that could fall though! It must’ve been something outside. If that was the case, it must’ve been something huuuuuuge falling otherwise she wouldn’t have been warned about it.

Maybe Derpy Hooves was dropping a piano again…

But she’d lost the job of moving pianos last week for breaking too many of them!

Whatever it was, Pinkie Pie was going to investigate. Sugar cube corner was quiet today anyway and Mr and Mrs Cake could handle what little work there was too. The twins even had a new babysitter; the now-looking-for-work Derpy Hooves!

Mr and Mrs Cake had their doubts about letting such a ditzy pony look after the twins, but Pinkie had persuaded them to let them see just how sweet and caring Derpy could be.

“I gotta go see something, Mrs Cake!” she called over to the counter, where Mrs Cake was working. “I’ll be right back!”

“What is it, Pinkie?” Mrs Cake called back. She spotted Pinkie’s twitching tail. “Oh. Twitchy tail?”

“It’s outside! I’m gonna go find out what it is and see if I can help get a poor pony out of its path!”

“That’s okay! I’ll send Carrot out to find you if we need help around the store!”

With that, Pinkie pushed open the door out and somersaulted onto the path outside, eyes shooting up to the sky.

Strange… There didn’t seem to be anything falling. At least, nothing she could see. But that couldn’t be right! If it was something so big it made her tail twitch while she was inside, she just had to be able to see it out here!

Suddenly, and without any warning, her whole body started twitching. That could only mean one thing; a doozy was going to happen! Whether that was good or bad, she had no idea. The only idea about it that she had was that it would happen in Ponyville.

Maybe it was just going to be James finding a way to keep the universe from exploding without making chaos!

“You can’t let this happen!” came the voice of Twilight Sparkle, far too loudly for the conversation to be fun in any way. Twilight only ever raised her voice when someone was really far away or when she was angry.

Pinkie Pie heard Twilight’s lowered voice say something else, but she couldn’t quite catch what it was. It sounded serious though, judging by the tone it was yelled in. It was like an angry, scared-y kind of tone. That could only be bad.

So, still with no idea as to what her pinkie sense was telling her, she raced on towards where she had heard Twilight shrieking about not letting something happen. Maybe what someone was letting happen was the doozy!

That was not good at all if it was something that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

It took her a minute to get to Twilight’s castle, where she had heard Twilight earlier, but when she got there, Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

A hornless princess Celestia, on the other hoof…

“Oh, hello Princess Celestia!” Pinkie greeted happily. “What happened to your horn? Oh, I know! You’re doing a prank on all of Equestria!” She winked knowingly. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anypony!”

“I wish it were that simple, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia replied sadly. “But you don’t have to think about it. Have you seen where Twilight got to? I heard her scream something at James and I only hope it was about nothing too serious.”

“I heard it to! We should try to find out what she was shouting about!” She remembered the pinkie sense she had earlier. “Oh yeah! I think there’s gonna be a doozy happening soon! And something big is falling too! My pinkie sense told me that!”

Celestia looked up and frowned. “I can’t see anything falling. Maybe that’s what Twilight was shouting about.”

“No, she was shouting about not letting something happen!” Pinkie’s eyes widened as an idea came to her. “You don’t think they’re both connected? Oh, I hope they are! We could be detectives and detect how they’re connected! That’d be so much fun!”

“I don’t think now’s the time for that, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said gravely. “I think we should find James first. His mood is terrible and he said something about giving up on everything and just letting chaos take over. We can’t let that happen.”

“Then let’s go find the grumpy grump!” Pinkie yelled cheerfully. “If he lets chaos take over, things won’t be fun at all!” Her mood turned serious as she realised what had just been said. “N-no. That won’t be fun for anypony.”

The two of them set off into the town to search for James, Pinkie’s smile slowly reappearing.

She wasn’t going to let something like this keep her down!

She just hoped that James would be easy to cheer up too.

-=-=-=-=-

Twilight Sparkle was terrified.

More terrified than she’d ever been in her life.

Even more terrified than she’d been when she’d found out that the average pony would swallow at least four spiders in a single year when she was four years old.

A quick recalculation of that meteorite’s size and velocity meant that it would not only obliterate Ponyville, but at least half of Equestria.

That could not happen. Not while she was a princess and while there was still a breath in her body.

She just had to find Luna.

Even though the Ursa Major was gone, Luna should still be where it was last; beside the Everfree forest. But if Luna had dealt with the Ursa Major by now, there was no telling where she could have gotten to.

Maybe she should have stayed and waited by the castle…

Which would be the most effective method of stopping that meteorite?

Would they be able to stop it completely?

So many thoughts and more raced through her mind, the most prominent being the safety of the ponies of Equestria. She had to save them. If she couldn’t save them, what would be the point of being a princess in the first place?

“Twilight!” yelled just the pony she was looking for. “Here! The Ursa Major has been dealt with!”

Twilight spotted Princess Luna off in the distance, casting a bubble spell around what looked like a very tiny Ursa Major. Twilight flew over to Luna, dropping into a gallop. She skidded to a halt in front of Luna.

“Did he do anything?” asked Luna. “The Ursa became tiny on its own! What did he do?”

“Nothing, and that’s the problem!” Twilight replied frantically. “He’s letting chaos take over! Did you see the meteorite in the sky?!”

“Meteorite?” She looked up and spotted the red dot in the sky, now the size of her hoof at this distance. “That… Is it headed for Ponyville?”

“Yes, but it’s too big to destroy just Ponyville on its own! It could take out all of Equestria! I came to find you to ask for your help stopping it!”

“I’ve got a better idea, princess,” said James, grabbing hold of her horn from behind. “How about I take your horn and we just let it kill everyone? Wouldn’t that be –“

He was interrupted by something hitting him hard, presumably across the face, by the sound of it. Twilight couldn’t see what it was, but Luna gasped. Twilight spun around just in time to see another figure holding James in such a way that restricted his movement. As soon as she saw them, however, they disappeared.

That other figure had some similarities to someone she knew…

But it couldn’t have been him!

She was drawn suddenly to the sound of Luna yelping in fear. When she spun back around, however, Luna looked to be completely fine.

“What was that?!” Twilight asked.

“What?” Luna asked bewilderedly, glancing around at whatever Twilight was talking about. “What happened? Did I miss something?”

Twilight shook her head and snapped herself back to the problem at hoof. “We need to stop that meteorite! It’s a matter of life and death!”

“Yes, of course! We need to stop it now! Let’s go!”

The two of them took off and flew up towards the meteorite, ready to stop it by any means necessary.

-=-=-=-=-

Fluttershy heard the screaming start when she had re-entered Ponyville.

It must have been about all this chaos going on. There was nothing else it could be; there was an Ursa Major somewhere and a house was upside down, but even that was probably just the beginning by now.

She had to find her friends to help them out with all this. It shouldn’t be too hard to do; Rainbow Dash was still in hospital and Applejack and Rarity were most likely gone to the schoolhouse to keep their sisters safe, so it was just Pinkie Pie and Twilight that could be anywhere else.

But, as soon as she’d thought it, she spotted Twilight and Luna fly up to the sky. She watched them for a few seconds, wondering what they were doing. Perhaps that small red dot in the sky had something to do with it…

“Hey, Fluttershy!” yelled Pinkie Pie happily. Fluttershy turned to see her bouncing towards her with Princess Celestia right beside her. “We’re being detectives!”

“What happened to your horn, Princess Celestia?” asked Fluttershy, pointing at Celestia’s hornless head.

“I’m afraid James took it from me,” she replied with a sad frown. “I’m not sure why he wanted it, but we need to get it back after all of this is sorted.”

“But will it even get sorted?!” James yelled angrily, barrelling out of an alleyway beside them. “Because no matter how hard you try, I’m NOT stopping this!! You hear me?!”

He seemed to be directing his words at someone in the alleyway. The others turned to look for who he was talking to, but who could it be? Who would be strong enough to put a smidgeon of fear into even James’s heart?

There was definitely something there, but before any of them could discern who, or what, it was, there was a small bang and suddenly a thick cloud of smoke surrounding them.

Fluttershy coughed as she breathed some of it in and her eyes started to water. Despite this, she still had the ability to just barely see through the smoke. James was lashing out all over the place, as if something was about to leap out and attack him at any angle.

“Come on then!!” he roared as he swung his arms wildly. “Where are you?! At least show your stupid face!!”

Fluttershy saw a chain with a small blade at the end shoot through the smoke and into James’s back. “GET OVER HERE!!” yelled a deep voice she couldn’t place as James was yanked through the smoke towards the chain’s point of origin.

“REALLY?!!” James bellowed as another figure entered the smoke and struck him hard across the face. “YOU COULD’VE TAKEN ANYTHING TO REMIND ME OF MY HOME AND YOU PICK THAT?!!”

Fluttershy gasped as she began to notice more and more of James’s attacker. They looked so similar to someone she knew…

But that was impossible!

She watched in awe as James swung one arm at the attacker and the strike was deflected with ease. The attacker sent a fist shooting towards James’s throat, and he choked as he was forced to the ground by the attacker’s blow.

“Fluttershy?!” yelled Celestia through the smoke. “Where are you?! We’re out of the smoke! Who’s in there with you?!”

Fluttershy remained quiet as she watched that ever so familiar assailant deliver another punch to James’s stomach before grabbing him by the leg and vanishing completely, taking James with them.

Suddenly, she felt someone touch her head lightly. “I’m so sorry about this, Fluttershy,” said…

Wait, what just happened?

There was a pop to her right, but there was no one there when she looked. What had James done? When did this smoke appear?

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie yelled from somewhere to her right. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m… *cough* fine!” she replied. All of a sudden, the smoke vanished. “W-what just… happened? I don’t remember getting into that smoke…”

Pinkie Pie and Celestia shared a concerned glance before hurrying over to her. “You should’ve come out of there!” Pinkie said as she hugged Fluttershy tightly. “You could’ve gotten hurt by that… uh, that somepony James was running from!”

“Did you see who it was, Flutershy?” asked Celestia.

“What?” Fluttershy whispered. “I… I don’t what you’re talking about. I only saw some smoke. Was there somepony in there with me?”

Again, Celestia and Pinkie Pie shared a concerned glance.

“If you’re okay, then it doesn’t matter,” said Celestia. “Now, we still need to talk to James about all this. Do you think you can come with us? He might listen to you more.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Fluttershy answered. “Let’s go find him before it’s too late!”

And so the three of them set off in search of James and…

Was there someone else? Fluttershy couldn’t remember.

-=-=-=-=-

Applebloom was on a mission!

And because that mission could be cutie mark related, her friends were on that mission too!

“What exactly are we doing?” asked Scootaloo.

Oh right. She still hadn’t explained what she’d seen out the window of the classroom.

“Ah saw a whole house upside down!” Applebloom explained excitedly. Then she’d had… “And then ah had the idea to see if we could get our cutie marks in bein’ chaos stoppers!”

“That’s not really a good idea, Applebloom,” said Sweetie Belle. “Why did you get us to sneak out of class for that? Didn’t chaos stopping need six elements of harmony last time?”

“Well mah sister said that there’s a new Discord! Ah bet if we talk to him nice enough, we could get ‘em to stop it all!”

The other two looked at each other in silence, trying to think of anything they could do to persuade Applebloom to not go through with this. As sensible as it was, there were still fifty billion flaws with her idea. For one, they weren’t exactly the best at talking. Second, they didn’t even know where to find this new Discord.

And so on and so on.

“Is this really a good idea?” asked Scootaloo.

“Of course it is!” Applebloom replied happily. “We just need to find that stupid chaos fellah!”

“That could take all day,” Sweetie Belle stated. She glanced over her shoulder at the schoolhouse in the distance. “Maybe we should’ve just waited with the others until Princess Twilight sorted all this out…”

“There he is!” Applebloom yelled, pointing at who could only be the new Discord. “Cutie mark crusader chaos stoppers, go!”

“Yay…” droned Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo dully as Applebloom charged towards their target and…

Was there someone else with him?

Whoever it was, they vanished before they could see who it was.

“Well, howdy there, chaos fellah!” Applebloom greeted with a happy wave. “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders and we’d like to talk to ya!” She noticed his bruised eye and tattered clothes. “Uh… you alright?”

“Applebloom, be careful!” hissed Sweetie Belle as she caught up with her friend. “He could be dangerous!”

“Heh…” the new Discord chuckled weakly. “You really… ow... picked a bad time for this…” He sat up straight and smiled weakly. “I am so… uhg… dangerous I could… uh… make you explode!”

“See?!” Sweetie Belle whispered. “I told you!”

“That just means… you’re braver than… most…” he explained, wincing as he grabbed at his stomach in pain. “So be proud of yourselves… for coming here…”

“Ah got us to come out here!” Applebloom put in proudly, standing up taller. She frowned and regarded his broken body again. “But… yeah, are you alright?”

“Never been... unf… better,” he said, but his voice told Applebloom everything she wanted to know.

“Ah think you should go to the hospital,” she said concernedly. Her serious look switched back to an excited one. “And while you’re at it, could ya put a stop to the chaos please?” She scowled at him. “Else I’m gonna hafta put some hurt on ya!”

“What happened to being nice?!” Scootaloo yelled angrily. “We’re sorry Mister chaos man. Please don’t make us explode.”

“Call me James,” he replied, reaching down to ruffle Applebloom’s mane. “And I’m not going to make you explode. I lied about that. You’re still pretty… ah… brave.”

“Well looky here, Mister James!” Applebloom growled as fiercely as she could manage and jumping right in front of him. “Y’all better stop all this or we’re all gonna make you ‘splode!”

He smirked and ruffled her hair again. “You remind me of… my own daughter,” he said sincerely. He closed his eyes and smiled. “And just for that reason, I will.”

“W-what?!” Scootaloo yelled incredulously. “Just like… that?”

“What, were you expecting something more… ow… dramatic?” he replied, rolling his eyes at her. “I can be dramatic. Just give me a second.”

He snapped his fingers and suddenly all the bumps and bruises on his body faded back to normal. The jaws of the Cutie Mark Crusaders dropped as he stood up, completely fine now. He drew a line in the air with one finger and a sword was pulled out of nothingness, attached to the end of his finger.

“Now then.” He grabbed the sword out of the air and swung it round to hold underneath his arm. “Oh no! You have defeated me! I must stop this chaos before the entire world ends!”

He dropped back onto the ground, facing upwards. He gave one final grasp at the sky with one hand before his eyes closed and he gasped in a final breath.

“What just happened?” asked Sweetie Belle blankly, staring at James with a confused look.

“Weren’t you listening?” he asked, eyes remaining closed. “I lost. You beat me. Shouldn’t you be celebrating now?”

Applebloom grinned and looked back at her flank. “So we should be getting our cutie marks now!” she cheered. It was about a minute of her staring at her flank expectantly before she frowned and kicked at the ground in frustration. “Aw, haystacks.”

“Maybe we didn’t beat him good enough?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Should we try again?”

“Oh no, please not again!” James pleaded, sitting upright. “I’ve had enough beating for one day!” His smile faded. “Way too much.”

“Well maybe our cutie mark isn’t in chaos stopping,” said Scootaloo. “So what? We’ll just have to try again tomorrow!”

“Or maybe,” James said, jumping up to his feet, “you shouldn’t limit yourselves to one special talent. From what I know, you three are good at a great number of things, so why should you limit yourselves to just one of those things?”

“Well ah wanna get mah cutie mark!” Applebloom yelled. “Cutie marks are what makes a pony special! Right now we can’t –“

“Applebloom, there you are!” yelled Applejack as she approached from the direction of the schoolhouse. “What are you…?” She growled when she spotted James and picked up her pace. “Get away from mah sister, mister!”

“But Applejack, he ain’t so bad!” Applebloom replied.

“Did you find them, Applejack?” yelled Rarity from somewhere behind Applejack.

“Ah got ‘em, Rarity!” Applejack yelled back. She glared at James fiercely. “An’ ah swear, if you’ve so much as touched a single hair on her head, you’re gonna get it big time.”

“Sis, leave ‘em alone!” Applebloom yelled, standing in front of James defensively. “If we make him mad, he might not stop makin’ chaos now!”

“Oh yeah,” James said quietly. “Your sister’s just saved all of Ponyville, apples.”

“What?” Applejack said dumbly, blinking in surprise.

“Ah talked to him good enough and he said he’d stop all that’s goin’ on!” Applebloom said proudly, grinning ear to ear.

“You should be proud of her,” James said in a complimentary tone. “She’s a real star.” He frowned and looked up at a red ball in the sky. “Just like that one there.”

“What one where?” asked Scootaloo, looking up to where he was looking. She gasped when she spotted it.

“Please don’t say that’s what I think it is,” whimpered Sweetie Belle, going weak at the knees.

“Sadly, it is,” James said calmly. “But it’s not gonna be there much longer.”

Before anyone could ask what he meant, he vanished with a puff of smoke. Once he had done so, Rarity ran up to beside her sister. She frowned when she got up close to her.

“Sweetie Belle, don’t ever do that again in a time like this!” Rarity yelled, pulling Sweetie Belle close. “You had me sick with worry!”

“Rarity, we were just saving Ponyville!” Sweetie Belle replied, struggling out of her sister’s tight hug. “Well… Applebloom was. We just tagged along.”

“Saving Ponyville?” Rarity queried confusedly. “What do you…?”

“James said that too,” Applejack supplied. “Don’t ask me how she did, because ah don’t know.”

“Well, whatever the case, the three of you are coming with us this instant!” Rarity said crossly, scowling at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “We’ve got to get you somewhere safe!”

“How’d ya find us anyway, sis?” Applebloom asked as they were led away by Rarity.

“One of the other students said they saw ya through the window,” Applejack answered. “If you’re gonna sneak out, make sure no one sees ya first!”

“Applejack!” Rarity reprimanded, snarling at her friend. “Don’t encourage them!”

“Right, sorry,” Applejack replied, smirking to herself. “Now Applebloom, tell us how ya ‘saved Ponyville’, why don’t ya?”

Applebloom began her story with beaming pride.

-=-=-=-=-

The meteorite wasn’t slowing down.

Luna and Twilight had both been pouring endless amounts of energy into their slowness spells, but nothing seemed to be working.

But they weren’t giving up yet, and nor would they do so while they still drew breath.

“Afternoon, ladies,” said James, suddenly appearing between them. “Lovely day, isn’t it?”

“Get out of here!!” Twilight screamed at him, sending yet another slowness spell up at the meteorite. “We’re not letting you stop us from stopping this thing!!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but I’ve got no choice,” he replied with a dark chuckle.

“We know you have to make chaos, but you don’t have to kill thousands of ponies for it!!” Luna shouted angrily, snarling at him.

“Oh no, not like that,” he said, shaking his head at her. “I mean I’m gonna have to stop you doing this because I’m going to stop it.”

“W-what?” Twilight faltered in her spell casting to stare at him in disbelief. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, princess, that I am going to show you how you should get rid of a meteorite.”

Twilight and Luna both glanced at each other incredulously, then back at James. He held a hand over his eyes to block out the sun and squinted at the meteorite.

“First off, don’t use slowness spells from so far away. They’ll lose their effectiveness as they travel further from their point of origin and that thing’s only just entered the atmosphere.”

“What makes you…?” Twilight stopped, stunned. “How did you know that?! That’s a theory that was proven only months ago and Discord was never told about that!!”

“Oh, I’ve got my ways,” he replied with a small chuckle. “Secondly, don’t use slowness spells on something that big; gravity still works fine, after all.”

“Well then, how do you propose we deal with it?!” Luna roared at him.

“Simple.” He held a hand up to his mouth as if he was talking into something. “Jimmy Boy to Broadsword, come in Broadsword.” He held his nose with his other hand. “This is Broadsword, we read you loud and clear, Jimmy Boy.”

“What are you doing?!” Twilight yelled. “Stop playing games!!”

He took his hand away from his nose. “I’m trying to save the world here! Get off my back!” His hand went back to his nose. “We’re getting some interference, Jimmy Boy. Could you speak up a little?” His hand moved away again. “Don’t worry, that’s a problem on my end, Broadsword. You are free to engage.” Back onto his nose again. “Roger that, Jimmy Boy.”

James moved both his hands away from his face and he pointed at the meteorite with two fingers on either hand. All of a sudden, lines of light drew themselves around him in a strange construct. Twilight and Luna flew out of their path and gawked at what looked like an outline of a very large cannon, but with more machinery attached than they had ever seen on a normal cannon.

“What is this…?” Twilight breathed in awe at the intricate detail the lines of light had created.

“Jimmy Boy, this is Broadsword,” James said, his hand over his nose again. “Are we clear to fire?”

“You are clear to fire, Broadsword,” said a voice that sounded like James’s from what was best described as a speaker beside him.

“Aye, sir.” James saluted and his hand went back to the position they were in just moments before. “Firing now.”

His fingers made a squeezing motion and there was the sound of something charging up.

“What’s it doing?” asked Luna.

“I’d cover your ears if I were you.”

Twilight and Luna barely had time to comply before there was a deafening boom, like a cannon firing but much, much louder. They were almost blinded by a beam of light that shot towards the meteorite from the end of the ‘cannon’.

And then the meteorite exploded with a force so great that Twilight and Luna were knocked back a little, even from this far away. When the echoes had faded, there was no evidence that it was ever there; it had been completely disintegrated.

James smirked as the lines of light around him vanished. “And that, my dear, is how I propose you get rid of your meteorite.”

Author's Note

Disclaimer: Mortal Kombat was created by some guy that was not me. Please support the official release.

Seriously, the latest one is awesome.