Grab Bag of Harmony

I took a deep breath, and concentrated. A soft, almost white, purple glow surrounded my outstretched palm. I focused on the apple laid out in front of me, and it was surrounded by the same glow.

I moved my hand up, sweat starting to form on my forehead as I strained to keep my focus. This was so much easier when I was pressed for time! The apple floated into the air, and began to shimmer. I closed my eyes, and tried to focus just on the feeling of the Aether. I imagined a clearing in the trees that I had seen, and inserted that memory into my focus.

I heard a pop, and a saw a flash of light beyond my eyelids. The feeling of the Aether was gone. I opened my eyes, and was happy to see that the apple was indeed gone. I repeated the process, but with my self. I felt the world reshape around me as I teleported.

I was in the clearing, as I intended. The apple was sitting on the ground, unscathed. I bit into it, and smiled. Reliable teleportation? Check.

I set the apple back on the ground, and focused the Aether yet again. The apple burst into flames, and I smiled with a nod. I waved my hand again, and the flaming apple became an frozen apple. Elemental manipulation? Check.

Now for something that should be more difficult. Breaking physics by creating matter. I imagined another, whole apple, and focused the Aether. Another, unharmed apple appeared next to the frozen one. Wonderful! I had power over the laws of physics themselves! Or maybe Equestria just worked differently.

I scratched my chin, which turned into ink at my touch. Or maybe manipulating the Aether is doing Equestrian magic? I mean, by definition, Aether is a name for the fictional and/or theoretical force that flows through all reality. Would magic be a form of Aether?

I lit up my hand with Aether, and studied the glow. I thought about it, and realized that I hadn’t actually seen a unicorn use magic. Maybe it didn’t look like how it did in the show? I went into my ghost form, and imagined Rarity as I had seen her.

With another strange feeling, I found myself in… Donut Joe’s, of all places. The Mane 6, sans Twilight, plus Spike, were sitting at a table, and talking. I ignored them, and floated outside. I willed myself to take on a unicorn form, and I shifted.

I had an… ink black mane and coat, with grey eyes. My cutiemark was an inkwell. I pondered my pony name, and settled on Ink Blot, for convenience and relevance. I floated into an empty alleyway, and became physical.

Time to figure out what Aether actually was. I walked into Donut Joe’s while taking in Canterlot around me. Various ponies glanced at me, but otherwise ignored me. I pushed the door open, and headed for the Elements.

I hopped onto an empty stool, and attached myself using ink. I wasn’t quite ready to sit on small stools with a new body. “Hello there!” They all looked at me with confusion, while Pinkie smiled.

She threw her hooves up, and shouted, “Inkie!”

Rarity looked between her and I, and said, “Pinkie?” I blinked a few times.

Pinkie giggled. “Clyde!”

I shook my head, and refused to question it. “Anyways, Pinkie’s right. It’s Blake, usually. But Ink Blot right now, because I’m trying to blend in. I just wanted to ask if Rarity could pick something up with magic. I have a form of magic, but I don’t know if it’s the same as Equestrian magic, so I wanted to see your magic in action. Celestia and Luna are kinda on a manhunt for me, I think, and Twilight’s probably still asleep.” I put a hoof to my chin. “Also, I don’t think I should see Twilight any time soon.”

They all were still for a moment, except for Pinkie, of course. Rarity squinted at me. “Of course, that’s no problem at all. But I must ask, can you answer some questions for us? Forgive me if this is rude, but when a mysterious creature appears during an invasion, becomes that dreadful Changeling Queen, then steals the magic of one of the Elements of Harmony, it makes us a bit apprehensive.”

I nodded, and watched as Rarity picked up her cup of… hot chocolate or something, I don’t know. Sure enough, it was the blob-like glow seen in the show. So Aether Manipulation is something different than unicorn magic, at least.

“Cool, thanks. Yeah, my magic is different.” I picked up the napkin holder, which was enveloped in my purplish light alongside my horn. “Anyways, what questions did you have?”

Rainbow put her hooves on the table, and leaned towards my face. “How do you know so much about us? Why did you show up during the invasion? How can you change shape?” She paused, and got even closer. “Are you a changeling spy!?”

I took a breath, and gently nudged her away. “You six, and Twilight are celebrities of a sort from where I’m from, don’t know, I’m made out of ink, definitely not. Anything else?”

Applejack raised a hoof. “What’re you plannin’ on doing now? From what you’ve said, you ain’t from around here. If this is a vacation, what’s on your schedule?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I just got superpowers in the last twelve hours, so I plan to use them. I want to visit Sombra, and find Tirek. Essentially, I’m abusing what I know about this world and it’s future in order to make it a better place.”

Pinkie snorted, and then laughed. “That’s what I do every day, Inkie! We need to get together, play some pranks. GASP! Do you know about the black-eye telescope prank? You could be the black eye!”

I chuckled nervously. “As entertaining being a bodily injury sounds, Pinkie, I think I’ll pass on that one. Well, I’m gonna head now, because I have some stuff to do. I hope you six can be joined by Twilight soon enough, and I hope he isn’t too much of a bother.”

I smiled, and pulled myself back to the castle while in ghost form. I had work to do now, and no pony was going to stop me!

——————

The Elements and Spike watched as Blake winked out of existence. Applejack took a breath, and folded her forelegs. “I don’t care what he says about makin’ things better. He gives me the willies all over. And who was he talking about not bein’ a bother?”

Spike scratched his head, and set down his donut. “I dunno, but I’m with you. Accident or not, I don’t like ponies that hurt Twilight. Or anypony, don’t get me wrong. But especially Twilight.” The rest of the Elements mumbled their agreements.

They sat there in silence for a moment, sipping their drinks and eating their donuts. Rarity was the first to set her food down, and clear her throat. “Blake mentioned some ponies named Sombra and Tirek. Now, I have no idea who Tirek is, but I have heard the name Sombra.”

The others turned to her, and motioned to continue. “Well, while we were getting ready for the wedding, I was researching the history of gem cuts, don’t look at me like that, Twilight isn’t the only one who reads! Anyways, I came across a mention of a place called the Crystal Empire. An old mares tale, unfortunately. But the book did mention that it was ruled by a tyrannical King Sombra.”

She let that bit of info hang in the air. Rainbow waved a hoof. “So what, our friend Inkie is going on a search for an old mares tale? Ha, I hope he has fun with that.”

Spike shrugged. “I thought that Nightmare Moon was an old mares tale before, y’know, she tried to send the entire world into an eternal night. What if this ‘Crystal Empire’ isn’t an old mare’s tale?” They all stared at Spike. “Hey, there’s a lot of mare’s tales that aren’t true, too! Like the bogeymare!”

Rarity ran a hoof through her mane. “Still, I believe we should remain vigilant. Pinkie Pie, dear, you’ve been unnaturally quiet so far… Pinkie?” They looked at the empty spot on the bench, then around the room. Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. Rarity threw her hooves up. “Of course she’s gone, she’s Pinkie.”

Spike shifted a donut towards a table. “I bet a donut she’s planning a ‘welcome to Equestria’ party for our inky friend.” The others nodded in agreement.

——————

Princess Celestia was very frustrated. First, that fool Chrysalis had tried to usurp her, then the bug had managed to defeat her in a one-on-one magic duel, then that human had appeared, and hurt Twilight, and now said human was virtually non-existent.

Celestia had attempted to trace any teleport when he had disappeared, but no luck. She could see past invisibility spells, so those were out of question, and he hadn’t been an illusion. That much was evident by his transferal of Twilight’s magic.

She remembered something from a few years back, and focused her magic into a teleport. The room she was in was dark, so she lit her horn light a light. Various picture frames adorned the wall, but they were all empty. A dais sat in the center of the room, and an ornate mirror rose from it.

She walked towards it, and pressed a hoof to it’s surface. It was still solid, which meant that the human couldn’t have passed through it. Unless he had somehow found a way to open the mirror whenever he wished…

A flicker of crimson and gold crossed her mind, but she banished the sour thought. At that moment, she felt something in Canterlot fade away, and cursed. What was that self-damned human doing now!? As a snap resonated through the air, she sighed, and answered the question for herself.

"Hello, Discord."

——————

I stared up at the panicked stone eyes of one Spirit of Chaos. With a flick of my wrist, I attached myself to Discord’s frozen torso, and felt around for anything out of the ordinary. There were two small lights underneath my ink.

One was like a kaleidoscope, constantly shifting, and twisting the colors surrounding it. The other was grey, and cold, like stepping on marble with your bare feet. That was the one I wanted. I touched the grey light, but immediately pulled back.

Stone had begun to creep into my ink, and Discords horns had begun to thaw. I thought of a possible solution to this problem, and stretched my ink to the statue again, as well as the ground below it. With a small effort, the grey began to drain from Discord, and into the ground below.

A circle of grey began to spread in a circle from the statue, petrifying the various plants and grass surrounding the Spirit of Chaos. When the last bit of stone drained from Discord’s body, he blinked, and stretched.

“Ooo-o-o-oh, that was an even worse position than last time. My neck is all wound-“ He looked down at me, and frowned. “Well, what do we have here? I thought humans were long gone!” He began poking me, and smiled when my surface turned into ink, and rippled.

He threw his head back, and laughed his iconic laugh. “Oh, my mistake. You aren’t human, not anymore, at least. Not after that stunt you pulled!”

“Sorry, I’m not in the mood for mind games. I came to offer a deal with you.” Discord paused, and stared blankly at me. “Yeah, I know. This is probably a bad idea. But here it is: I am willing to become friends with you, so long as you don’t hurt anypony, mentally or physically.”

I grinned at him. His eyebrow began to raise, but he caught it before it got too far. “That has got to be the worst deal I have ever heard, and I’ve made some pretty awful deals. What do I gain from you being my friend?”

“Insurance, simply put. I don’t hurt my friends! And besides, if you don’t become friends with me, you’re just going to have to befriend those Elements of Harmony, and they’ll keep you on a tight leash. I won’t stop you from making a few clouds into cotton candy, and I won’t betray you.”

“Or, I could teleport away right now, and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted! I really do not see any point in accepting your offer.”

I shook my head, and bit my lip. “Unfortunate. Well, if you change your mind, feel free to seek me out.” I closed my eyes, then shot my arm out, covering Discords chest in ink. I found the shifting light, and grabbed a hold of it.

With a mental and physical yank, my ink came free of Discord, who stumbled backwards on his stone pedestal. He felt his chest, looked at the light, and snapped his fingers. “What.” He snapped some more, then clapped, stomped, and popped his tongue. Nothing happened.

“Alright, if you want to be my friend, I’ll be hanging around in Canterlot, and Ponyville. Have fun wreaking havoc without me, Dissy!” I waved, and snapped my fingers. In reality, I didn’t know how to use chaos magic, so I just turned myself into a ghost.

Discord frowned, and growled. “Alright, fine! I’ll accept your offer, just give me my magic back!” I reappeared, and smiled at him. With another flick of my wrist, the shifting light flung itself from my body, and into Discord's. I tapped into the Aether, and began to destroy the petrification enchantment without touching it.

“Thank you! This is going to be so fun! I’ve always wanted a friend like you! Somebody powerful, you know? Hold here for a moment, I need to grab something.” I focused on the Aether, and was glad to see that two other glows were there alongside my pale-lavender light.

One was a collection of various purples, all shifting and swirling together in random movements. Chaos magic. The other was a blobby glow, the same color as my normal light. My theory was correct, after all. I had figured that my contact with unicorn magic was what had allowed me to use unicorn magic. Now I had chaos magic as well.

I snapped my fingers while tapping into the Aether, and smiled when the sound resonated through the air as I teleported to a certain Princess.