Chaotic Neighbors

10 Chapter The !O The Pissed Off Agent

Proofread by Hunter Steel

Twilight was still moving. She could see Discord’s face contorted in pain and surprise. They seemed to hang there for hours, days maybe? Twilight didn't see when Lady Kunai put down her leg. She didn't see when she twisted her body around and she didn't see the kick that followed. She didn't blink but she missed every movement. What she did see was Lady Kunai floating horizontally her dress (or was it a part of her body?) wrapping around her lower body, denoting the twist she made, one of her legs pointed down toward a small sinkhole that wasn't there before. There were bits of fur and scattered scales around the lip of the hole among splotches of what her traumatized mind refused to recognize as anything other than hot sauce. The world sped back up. Twilight was staggered and stopped by a gust of air then pushed back by a second, displaced by Lady Kunai's movement. Lady Kunai's delicate form gently floated down to stand at the edge of the sinkhole and she brushed her dress so it settled into its original arrangement. Twilight didn't know when she moved but she was racing back to the hole. Lady Kunai was closer. Her body glowed with a faint blue light and plumes of soil and rock erupted from the hole followed by an unconscious Discord. His underside was rubbed raw from tail to snout and he must have been causing chaos in that hole because he was dripping with tomato sauce and fruity chunks were hanging off him. He floated up in front of Lady Kunai and Twilight adjusted her course, panicked at what would happen next.

Her fears were put to rest when Lady Kunai gently lowered him to the ground. Skidding to a stop at his side Twilight had no clue what to do. CPR came to mind but Twilight hadn't the faintest idea how to start giving a Draconequus CPR. Frantically looking around she saw Rainbow Dash pulling herself out of a pile of ponies bowled over by the gusts of air and the rest of her friends racing to her and only halfway from the ship, ‘how long did all that take? Weren't her friends directly behind her before this happened?’ Applejack and Pinkie were leading, Spike clutching to AJ’s back with Rarity and Starlight bringing up the rear. Why Starlight hadn't teleported Twilight didn't know but she couldn't spare a thought for that now, she needed to help Discord. “His injuries are mostly physical,” Twilight's eyes snapped to the source of the voice. Lady Kunai was trying to help. But she did this so Twilight wasn't sure if she could be trusted. Twilight placed herself defensively over Discords prone form just in case. “You only need to send him back to his pocket dimension and he will be fully recovered in a few days.” Twilight wanted to be furious. “Once you are done you may speak to me on my vessel if you so wish, though considering the situation I wouldn't blame you for insisting we leave, I will extend our stay by seventy-two hours, if within that time you still wish to speak with us you will be free to do so, however, if you have decided not to facilitate us we will leave at the end of the seventy-two hours or when you instruct us to do so, until then, good day Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Kunai turned to return to her ship.

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Kunai’s POV

“Wait!” Kunai stopped and turned back. “Please, can't you heal him like you healed Michele and Leccy!?”

I mentally stiffened in incredulity before calmly replying.

“Twilight, he attacked me unprovoked and attempted to kill me and my guards while we were down and distracted respectively, in addition to the three delegates you spent the entire day negotiating with.”

A minuscule caress of psychic influence made Twilight's mind flickered back to the sight of a mangled white earth pony, her open wounds and shredded stump writhing as flesh regenerated.

“All of whom happen to be my friends.”

Another gentle brush brought Images of her friends lying in puddles of blood to her mind unbidden, open wounds writhing in agony as Discord floated through the chaos capital of the world tut-tut-tutting with a fake look of pity on his face. His expression alone made bile rise in Twilights throat.

“To answer your question Princess, yes, I could easily heal him, however, I am not nearly that kind or forgiving. The most I would be willing to do is ensure he doesn't die, and I am quite certain he will recover on his own given time in his pocket dimension.”

Twilight didn't try to stop her again. A final caress of psychic energy set Twilight's thoughts on a certain path and she was left to do the rest, Kunai could tell that Twilight’s thoughts would take the first train and derail it. So she made one of Twilight's darker train of thought stand out, not anywhere near enough to be the most prominent, she didn't intend to be caught after all, but just barely enough to put it in the vicinity of the top hundred most likely options. Then with a feathers touch, she sporadically outlined random indisputable bits of logic in that train of thought. Dark as it may be, and left Twilight to analyze them and come to her own conclusion.

If she were in Kunai’s place would she do the same? Twilight wondered. She turned her attention back to the creature she stood above, did she know him? He felt like a dangerous stranger now more than when he escaped the first time. The magic of friendship didn't prepare her for this.

She didn't respond when Rainbow tried and failed to tackle Kunai and was repelled by a shield from one of her guards. She didn't react when her other friends showed up and started fussing over Discord and she didn't react when their attention turned to her and all the while her eyes never left Discord. Kunai made sure to choose a path that would likely have Twilight reconsider everything about Discord, the open-mindedness that would produce was going to be very important for the future, Twilight’s mind was a skyscraper in its youth and Kunai’s influence, even though completely gone from Twilight's mind, had pointed out a flaw in the design, nothing deeply structural, but still something that bears investigating for the stability of the entire structure. Of Course, there was no guarantee it would work out in her favour, the mind is a complex thing and it was perfectly possible that nothing would come of this, or worse it would backfire, but centuries honing natural and acquired skills in psychic and mental manipulation made those chances negligible, even so, they were already contingencies for such outcomes.

§That was satisfying.§ Thought Kunai.

I wish I was there in person, I haven't even met him face to face yet and I can tell he's going to be more trouble than he's worth.

Thalassemia, he's millennia older than all of us combined, freakishly powerful, and a complete unknown, even for his age and presumed experience. No offence but I honestly don't think you could straight up win a fight against him. I don’t think he actually went down that easily, he wouldn't be the first being to fool my senses, it's possible he’s decided to try another method of attack since attacking head-on wasn't working out for him and he didn't want to get on the Equestrians bad side. And while I wouldn't mind taking out more of my frustration on him that would only negate the leverage his attack gave me.

You could of at least used a better hex, but I can't really argue with your logic at this point, we just need to wait for the princesses reaction.

Them are fightin’ words Thalassemia.

Thalassemia gave a mental eye roll. I already know Twilight won't be a problem, it's the other Princesses I was talking about.

Did you forget that you’re not skilled enough completely to keep your thoughts from me yet?

…

Thalassemia I know your still there and you know I know.

…

Aren't you going to say anything?

Not really, I was just going to watch the three of you and see where this goes. But now that you mention it, I'm sure we're all wondering why Wavelength Suppression completely crippled him instead of just preventing him from using his magic to its fullest. For all his power he should have still been in the fight. He was knocked for a loop that much I'm sure of.

Tho, why so careless Kunai? Their cooperation isn't worth your wellbeing. I know you saw our collective concern when your thoughts leaned toward becoming a marter, regardless of the defences you put up, might be walking right now but we have no clue what he could have done to you.

I could feel Anarchy’s heart metaphorically clench, I don't think I'll ever get used to that.

Dully Anarchy could be registered trying to deny the accusation before remembering that was pointless with his agents, giving up, and making his feelings on the matter easily recognizable to them.

Anarchy I'm fine, the three of us have been repeatedly checking me over from the moment it happened and we haven't found anything other than that poorly executed spell he used to attack. And honestly, bringing this planet up to the point we want will be much easier if we have decent influence in Equestria, we can get them to do a lot without any significant Influence.

Kunai already knew they weren't going to accept that excuse given the situation, and they knew she knew. She sure as hell wouldn't have accepted it from any of them.

I'm not intending to do anything like that again I already have what leverage I need and now I'm just going to meet the Princesses drop them a line and leave. Other Delegations can handle everything else, they have to reach out to us eventually, and if we want to speed up that timeline we can just have word reach them that Discords attack is the reason I didn't return.

Accepting her reassurances their shared mental space faded to the background of their minds, all the while keeping them intimately connected and aware of each other.

‘Now let's see what the Princesses choose.’ thought Kunai. Having finished her mental conversation Kunai completed her turn away from Twilight, ignored the occasional flashing cameras and made her way toward a group of injured ponies to lend her aid. She ended up spending the rest of the evening helping ponies injured in the collapse and using her powers to repair whatever damages she could and brought the day to an end helping a few children to find their parents.