Heart and Mind

"...They tend to die before their time."

Her body may have been stinging badly all over, but that was about all the beam had done to her. Apple Bloom forced herself back to her hooves as other emotions began to push to the surface. Right now, she couldn't care less about what Lucky Roll might have done before today, the investigation could wait for ten minutes, all that mattered was what had happened right in front of her. He, was hurting, Pinkie Pie...Her mind clouded with red mist and she snarled as she charged forward, lowering her head and body slamming Lucky with all the force she could muster, just in the right place to headbutt his throat. The impact left the unicorn stumbling back, his hold released as Pinkie dropped to the floor, gasping for air.

"Pinkie! You still here?"

"Ya." Pinkie gasped, clutching her throat and huddling up on the floor. She was clearly suffering from the chokehold and wasn't going to be able to move immediately, there was only one option for now. Apple Bloom braced herself in place and her face darkened as Lucky managed to steady himself and looked back up at her with that same unfocused stare. He slowly started to advance, firing another beam as he did so, Apple Bloom managing to duck out it's way this time. Another shot, another easy dodge, it was as if he wasn't even trying anymore.

As Lucky Roll let a third shot loose, Apple Bloom realised it was going under her, if she dodged this one it would hit Pinkie for sure. Without thinking she dropped her front end down and took the hit square on the chest, grunting in fresh pain as she stumbled backward, only staying upright thanks to the wall right behind the two of them. She growled in frustration and smacked herself in the chest a few times, trying to keep the pain down as anger and adrenaline started to kick in again.

"What is your problem?" Lucky asked flatly as he stepped closer. Apple Bloom growled at the sheer failure of logic presented to her and pushed herself forward again, figuring that she'd have an easier time defending Pinkie if she wasn't in the line of fire.

"MY problem?...Are you...Really?!" She snapped, rushing forward as his horn glowed in anticipation of another attack. The gap was closed in a bound and she swung a hoof into the base of his horn, feeling it make contact and knocking him back again, disrupting the magic in the process. Lucky took a few steps back and braced himself, keeping out of punching range this time as his horn glowed again, the murky golden aura surrounding a nearby wall mounted picture. With little effort, he plucked it off the wall and threw it straight at Apple Bloom's face.

Apple Bloom threw her hooves up, feeling the wood frame smack against her legs and drop away. She quickly moved round to make sure any stray shots didn't go near Pinkie, only to be forced to bat away a freshly thrown vase. Her mind racing with ideas on how she was going to bring this to an end, a rattling of something being picked up from the adjacent room made her swing round and instinctively block again. Only once this move was done did she realise, a little too late, that the room in question was the kitchen and a rather sharp looking knife had been magically thrown at her.

Seeing it was one thing, doing something was another, she didn't react in time and the knife gashed her front right ankle. Apple Bloom yelled in pain and dropped back on her rear, clutching her injury, silently thankful to see that it wasn't bleeding enough to be a deep cut. Lucky advanced again, his grin now a borderline slasher smile. Panting hard and panicking slightly for what to do, Apple Bloom bit her lip and let the pain dictate her action, bringing her good hoof up and swiping at Lucky. While she struck nothing but thin air, the stallion still recoiled to avoid the slight spray of blood. Apple Bloom used the momentum to swing herself round and balance on her front hooves just long enough to buck her legs out.

Even as she overbalanced she felt her buck make contact. Lucky cried out and backed away again as Apple Bloom fell onto her side and looked back at him, from the look of it she had managed to hit his jaw and possibly taken a tooth out. It didn't help his look as his face darkened and his horn glowed anew, it took a moment before Apple Bloom realised that the aura had surrounded her. Even if he wasn't strong enough to lift her with it, it was enough to move her, as he showed as she was thrown skidding back along the floor. She hit the wall back first, knocking the air out of her lungs and leaving her downed next to the still recovering Pinkie.

Apple Bloom was only vaguely aware of the shocked cry Pinkie gave as she saw her friend laid out next to her, still aware that being choked half to death had taken a lot out of her. A small slither of her mind gave thanks to the inherent durability of earth ponies as she pushed herself into a half standing position and pulled herself forward to defend Pinkie again, even as she still fought for breath. Lucky was moving in again, his eyes narrowed and his grin demented.

"You think...That this is done?" Apple Bloom asked between breaths. "I'm not leaving...Not leaving my friend again...She means more than you could realise and I-ah!" She ducked a fresh beam and braced herself as best she could with a bad leg, growling defiantly despite struggling to stand at this point. Lucky smirked and lowered his horn further, primed to end the showdown. It glowed brighter and fired...A stream of confetti, complete with party cannon-esqe squeal. He stopped and looked up at his horn in confusion, looking focused for the first time in a while.

"What the...?" He said quietly, taking a step backward and yelping as his back legs slid out from under him, leaving him sprawled on his back. Pinkie Pie and Apple Bloom could only watch in confusion, noticing that the floorboards beneath Lucky's feet looked like ice. The detail was lost from their gaze though, as the stallion was enveloped in a bright gold aura and thrown against the opposite wall with enough force to knock him out cold. For a minute there was only silence, broken only the shuffling of hooves as Pinkie got back up.

"Okay...What just happened?" Apple Bloom asked quietly, tensing as something knocked into her middle and squeezed. She looked down and realised that Pinkie was hugging her tightly, looking back up at her with the warmest smile she'd ever seen.

"Thank you, Apple Bloom..." Pinkie said, the sheer relief in her voice almost overwhelming her ability to get the words out. Apple Bloom blushed deeply at the sight, those familiar feelings that she'd managed to keep under control so far rushing back to the surface in full force. She wrapped her good hoof round Pinkie and held her close, a silent promise that they were okay now. It was weird, she'd gone through how it might feel it be in a scenario like this so many times in her head, now that she was here it just felt peaceful and...Right. Those were the only words she needed right now, the last month's stresses and worries melting away in the warmth of the moment.

"Well I couldn't exactly leave you like that, could I?" Apple Bloom replied simply, cracking a grin even through the stinging pain that was making itself known all over her body once again. "Are you okay after all that, Pinkie?"

"Thanks to you. I was just taking photos of anything suspicious and wondering if I could get a show about investigating crime with a really popular theme song out of it. I showed Lucky some of the pictures to see if anything jogged his memory and then my knee got super extra pinchy. I looked at it to make sure it was the Pinkie sense I thought it was and he pinballed me right into the wall. That was where the screaming came from, because I was kind of terrified at how aggressive he was, then the arm came down on my throat and I thought I was gonna have to set up a 'Welcome to heaven party' for myself...What about you though?"

"Me? We both got through this in one piece, there aren't words for how good I feel." Apple Bloom managed to hide a wince and glanced down at herself, knowing she'd have to get her leg seen to soon. "I'm just wondering about at the end when everything went haywire, not even you're random enough to take credit for that."

The two of them looked at each other in sudden realisation before looking up as a somewhat dark yet jovial chuckle rang out around them. While Apple Bloom was somewhat perplexed, Pinkie simply grinned and sat up fully.

"Of course, the only one who could match my kind of crazy. Hi Discord!" She grinned more as the draconequus popped into existence next to them with a flash. Discord was still as much of an enigma as ever, appearing every so often and spreading a little chaos in Equestria. Although most still didn't fully believe in his reformation, a growing number of ponies had reported that such chaos had provided help in desperate or dangerous situations. Even now, the little smirk on his face at the sight around him indicated that he was satisfied by the results of his actions.

"Good morning to you too, Pinkie Pie, Apple Tart."

"Apple Bloom." Apple Bloom quickly corrected, Discord waving a good natured dismissal in return.

"Yes yes, of course. Now I love how you've handled the decorations in here, very Archea era. It's not really very in style at the moment though and it looks too tough on you to keep up...You got a little something on your hoof, Apple Brownie."

Discord gave a click of his fingers before she could correct him and all the items damaged in the fight warped back into their original place, all fixed up or cleaned off. Apple Bloom looked down at her cut and saw that it was now sporting a bandage with a smiley Discord face on it. She chuckled softly and looked back up at him.

"Thanks. So, how exactly did you come out of nowhere and save us like that?"

"Shoddy writing," Discord gave a chuckle before walking over to the unconscious form of Lucky Break. "Actually, I was having a delightful time at home, watering my thinking tree, when I felt this most unpleasant magical imbalance. Of course I rushed straight over, after double checking the place on a map, stopping by to visit Zecora and buying some new gardening clothes."

"...Seriously?" Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow in disbelief, Pinkie was still happily giggling away. With a flash, Discord changed into his new professional gardener look.

"Not bad eh? Once that was settled I got here and realised I'd picked up this one," He changed back to normal and indicated Lucky. "You put up a cracking defence for how badly you were hurt right from the start but I needed to step in eventually, needed my fix of helping good ponies out."

Apple Bloom nodded and looked down, trying to avoid making eye contact with Pinkie. She'd just been trying to keep Pinkie from worrying about her too much and that was completely undone thanks to some probably intentional lack of tact. Pinkie simply placed a hoof on her shoulder but didn't comment. She looked up again to see Discord examining Lucky up close before placing a finger in his ear.

"And the culprit behind all this is right...Here!" Discord pulled his finger back out, carrying what looked like an peach sized orb of cyan coloured magic. It was sparking and pulsing slightly, almost as if angered at being disturbed. He eyed it closely, his eyes narrowing at the sight of it, before summoning a glass case and locking it in there.

"Oooh, what'd you think it is?" Pinkie whispered over to Apple Bloom.

"Beats me," She replied, watching as Discord, now sporting a hazmat suit, studied the magic in detail, slowly taking items from around the house and jury-rigging them into a full science lab around him. "Ok, that's a bit much."

"There's no such thing as too much in the name of science! It's allowed me to confirm that this...Is magic!" Discord exclaimed, holding the case up dramatically for several seconds before looking up in frustration and clicking his fingers, summoning a few lighting bolts that ricocheted around the room for extra dramatic effect.

"Okay, did you confirm anything useful?" Apple Bloom asked, unable to help but grin slightly as Discord sighed in exasperation and ran a clawed hand down his face.

"Well if you must know, this magic is serious business. It's powerful, somepony else's, borderline chaos magic. I should know because I pioneered the style this knockoff uses. Mind control magic. Though whoever came up with this put an interesting twist in, it stays dormant until some unknown trigger comes up and then fires up orders included when the spell was cast, making the unlucky pony some kind of sleeper agent...That's really quite brilliant."

"That's...Dark," Pinkie commented. "So, when you're done and put everything back, could you sent all that to the Institute? We pinkie promised to give them what to learned."

"Ah, those tech ponies. I do like them, feels familiar for some reason. But yes yes, I'll make sure they can get to finding new ways inject some good old chaos into Equestria."

"Right...Oh! Speaking of things we learned, I found a secret book upstairs that shows Figleaf's side of things." Apple Bloom told Pinkie. After a moment to take it in, Pinkie gave a small squee and hugged her again.

"You're amazing Bloomie, you super secret seeker you!" She exclaimed before darting off upstairs to go see it. Apple Bloom blushed again and rubbed her leg in embarrassment, unable to deny how good that moment had felt. She glanced over at Discord, who had taken his equipment off and was wearing the most knowing smirk imaginable.

"...What?" Apple Bloom asked nervously.

"Nothing, just thinking some congratulations are in order. It's always tricky to figure out who you are in that sense, now the question is when you plan to tell Pinkie Pie."

"I-you-I mean...Tell her what?" She stammered, not sure if he was doing this to her for fun or as payback for disrupting his dramatics earlier.

"Oh come on, surely you've figured it all out by now, even they've all pieced it together by now!" Discord exclaimed, throwing his arm out and pointing at nothing in particular. Apple Bloom looked over that way and stared, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Eventually she looked back at him, trying to find the right words.

"Discord...You are so random."

"Thank you," He grinned in reply. "Seriously though, give it some thought and sort out what's going through that pretty little head of yours."

She disregarded that last comment and stepped aside to test how well her bad leg could take her weight. It hurt like hell but was good enough to walk with a limp. That wasn't the only issue on her mind though, much as she hated to admit it, Discord had a point. She really needed to take a long hard think to herself and decide once and for all just how she felt about Pinkie Pie.