Controlled Chaos

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.