A Silver Thread of Fate

“She bit me!” Discord bellowed. He shook his lion paw violently to dislodge the filly, but she had chomped down too tightly. “Ow, hey! That hurts! Would someone please get this abomination off of me?”

From the moment Celestia asked Twilight and her friends to help reform Discord, she knew that it would be a trying event. She’d prepared every countermeasure for the draconequus she could think of, mentally reviewed his methods of manipulation, and even prepared to give him a chance. Unfortunately, things seemed to be proving to be as Penny often said about plans: they rarely survive first contact with the enemy.

Covering her face with a hoof, she groaned. Why did he have to get Penny involved? I didn’t even know she was awake yet! Celestia only knows how this is going to turn out now.

Peering around the side of her hoof, she watched the small pony get shaken and waved about. Penny’s eyes were shut tight. Tears streaked from Penny’s eyes as her limbs flopped uselessly about. The look of sheer terror etched into her face was worrisome; she’d only seen Penny this scared when she thought the princess would kill her, and the day she had her breakdown. The tightness in the small pony’s face did nothing to hide that she was in pain.

Twilight leapt into action, attempting to grab Penny. If Discord would just stop shaking the foal-sized mare long enough for Twilight to grab her, this would be so much simpler. Instead, all her leaps to grab Penny got were a hoof or tail to the face.

Of course, some of her friends seemed more inclined to see the humor in this. Chiefly, Rainbow and Pinkie were rolling about on the ground as fits of laughter wracked their bodies. “I don’t know which ‘abomination’ to root for,” Rainbow wheezed between giggles. “I mean, Discord, have you seen yourself in the mirror?”

If he at all shared their appreciation for the irony of the situation, he was doing an outstanding job at hiding it. If anything, he looked to be growing increasingly annoyed. With a snap of his eagle-claw, he teleported behind everypony.

As the group turned to look at them once more, they saw Penny was still attached. Worse, her horn was beginning to glow. Another surge?

“Come now, this is getting ridiculous.” He looked to Twilight with a plaintive look. “You’re her ‘Auntie Twilight’,” he said, mimicking Penny’s voice as he held out his paw to dangle her before him. “Give me a hand. Please. This thing might be contagious!”

A physical approach will probably only hurt Penny, she thought. Reaching out with her own magic, she found the tiny mare had packed a dense layer of magic just under her own skin. It’s as if she’s trying to create a barrier, but one like this would only protect her from... magic?

With such an application of magic, it’d be hard for even Twilight to manipulate her without overpowering and risking hurting her. The suppression band was nowhere in sight, and since the conjuring spell she’d summoned it with before operated on knowledge of the object and its surroundings, she wasn’t going to be getting her off that way.

Support came from what should have been a surprising source in any other situation. “Um... Penny,” Fluttershy said in her usual subdued voice, approaching the marechild and the draconequus. She reached a hoof out and gently placed it on Penny’s back. “I know you’re scared and might not even be aware of what’s happening, but you need to let go of Discord.”

It was hard to tell, given that he’d begun shaking his lion paw again, but there was a side to side movement of Penny’s head. Fluttershy didn’t relent, however. “I promise that we won’t let him hurt you if you let go.”

“She’s telling the truth, sugarcube,” Applejack added. “Regardless of what y’all did or didn’t do, ya don’t deserve this.”

Much to Twilight’s surprise, Penny opened her eye slightly to direct a sidelong glance at Fluttershy. She seemed to consider her and AJ for a moment before shutting her eye again.

“Discord, could you please stop shaking her so—”

Penny let go as Discord’s wildly shaking paw reached its peak. Were it not for the fact that she were in danger of injury, the height of the arc she was launched in might be considered impressive. As it stood, everypony was simply too stunned to react.

At her highest point, the aura cone around Penny’s horn intensified. A powerful wind whipped all around them, creating an updraft that slowed the descent of the flying filly. Her body leveled out...

Twilight rushed in the direction that Penny was falling. She once more attempted to seize the pony projectile with a telekinesis charm. Between the speed of the falling pony, the interference from whatever wind spell was being cast, and the layer of magic that was still nested beneath Penny’s skin, Twilight just couldn’t get a grip.

Frowning, Twilight did some quick mental math as she ran. Two rapid blink spells could work in theory, but the speed of Penny’s descent would make things tough, timing wise. Besides, with Penny shielding herself in this way, there’d be no way Twilight would be able to get her.

Sliding to a stop, Twilight cast a spell on the ground in the area Penny would touch down. None might see it, the hard-packed hillside became soft like a pillow and pliable like sand. The impact might still hurt, but it was all she could do, now.

“But does she stick the landing?” Discord asked the microphone that had manifested from nowhere. All eyes were on Penny.

No. No she didn’t.

Perhaps it was the moment of distraction. Maybe it was because Penny was still weak from the medical coma and hadn’t even begun recuperating... Either way, the spell fizzled at the last moment and, with one last gust of wind, Penny went tumbling across the hillside.

Even as Discord appeared to the side of the small pony, brandishing a scorecard rating the display a two, everypony joined Twilight at the crash site. Although the small pony had torn a fair furrow into the land, she did not appear to be broken.

“What’s wrong?” Discord asked with a smile that didn’t quite sell itself as genuine. “I thought chaos was your playground.” These last words were once again spoken in Penny’s own voice.

Silver Penny did not rise to his bait.

Her eyes were screwed shut, and she seemed to be hyperventilating. Tears left dirty streaks through the dirt on her face. As Twilight grew closer, she could hear the filly chanting. “Get it out. Get it out. Get it out. GET IT OUT OF ME!”

Fluttershy was the first to reach the filly’s side. She carefully pulled Penny from the dirt and held her close—an attempt to calm her with her warmth. It didn’t seem to ease Penny at all, though. “What’s wrong with her, Twilight?”

Again Twilight found herself examining Penny with her magic. Even though there was no indication that the small mage was casting a spell, there was a ball magic located within her stomach. It appeared to be the same sort of densely packed variety of energy she’d kept just under the surface of her skin moments before, but now it seemed to be trying to keep something in, rather than out.

A bit more probing, and she found her answer: Discord’s magic. Had she passively absorbed some of the draconequus’s energy when he’d teleported her? Or had it been from the physical contact?

Penny’s eyes jerked open at the touch of her magic and she looked pleadingly to Twilight. There was an unfamiliar glint in her eyes when she spoke. “P-please, Aunt Twilight,” she begged with teary eyes. It was chilling how childlike she sounded in that moment. “I can’t get it out on my own. Get it out of me!”

In that moment, hearing Silver Penny call her ‘Aunt Twilight’, she pushed all thoughts from her mind. Her friends, the princess’s request... even Discord could wait.

As gentle as she could, and taking the care to not allow any excess energy to bleed into Penny, she encompassed the smaller unicorn’s magic bubble in her own shield spell and began to guide it up, out of her belly. It was not an easy affair; Discord’s magic resisted every step of the way, and refused to stay in one static form.

“Discord, fix whatever you did to her!” Twilight demanded as the energy became visibly lodged in Silver’s throat. “Her magic’s unstable; she shouldn’t be using it at all!”

The draconequus reclined in the air with a disinterested snort. Conjuring a glass of chocolate milk with a snap of his talons, he replied, “Don’t blame me when your little amalgamation of order and chaos tries to take something that was never hers and suffers the consequences.” Once he finished drinking the glass, he crumpled the milk like paper and dabbed his face clean. “Honestly, just because the whelp has a little chaos in her and she thinks my power is her birthright.”

He smiled and quietly snapped his talons. the obstruction in Penny’s throat came loose and rocketed out of her mouth. As the unicorn pair’s fields of magic fell away, revealing a stained-glass lamp shaped like Discord that, unlike Penny, did stick the landing.

Although Penny went limp, she remained conscious. Fixing him with a hateful glare, the likes of which Twilight had never seen from the small pony, she said, “I never tried to take your magic, fucker.” She spat, the wad of spit quickly turning into a parakeet. “I’ve been in a coma with a magic suppressor strapped to my horn for the last two weeks. The moment my band came off, my body’s been in overdrive trying to fill my reservoir.”

A dark smile crossed Penny’s face. “Thanks for the help, Twilight,” she added, not looking away from Discord. “Where’s my hammer? The library?”

~ 11 ~

I don’t know why Discord perks up at mention of my hammer but his smile grows far wider than one’s head should allow. He looks from me to Twilight and chuckles. “Yes, Twilight. Do tell us where her hammer is,” he says in a far too interested tone. “She might be a magic parasite, but she’s got spunk.”

Don’t turn anything into semen, Discord. Please don’t turn anything into semen. Especially not me.

I chance a glance at Twilight, but the look on her face tells it all. There’s no way in Tartarus that she’s going to give me my hammer or even tell me where it is. I don’t blame her for not trusting me, either; I can’t even stand, we have no idea if I’m going to start surging again, and I probably am stupid enough to attempt a summoning charm with no frame of reference where it is or what might be in the way of it.

Note to self. Learn that useful dimensional pocket spell.

Twilight looks from me to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I need you to fly Penny to the library,” she says in an authoritative voice. It’s an instruction that leaves the pegasus bristling. “My parents should be able to take care of her until this is resolved.”

Immediately, Rainbow flares her wings in what I’ve come to recognize as a pegasus threat display. “Why do I have to take her? I don’t want to do with her after what she did to you!” she snaps. “Make Fluttershy do it!”

Fluttershy’s whispered “I wouldn’t mind,” goes unheard by everyone but me, unfortunately. Even as I find myself wishing I could nestle myself further under the soft yellow pony, Twilight shakes her head.

“The princess seems to believe that Fluttershy is our best bet for rehabilitating Discord,” she says. “I trust her judgement and you should too. Besides, you are the fastest in the group.”

With some dark curses I am unable to make out, the rainbow pegasus launches herself off the ground, snatching me roughly from Fluttershy’s care. Within no time, we’re several hundred feet above Ponyville. High enough to kill me, for sure.

Why am I not scared, then? I wonder as Rainbow’s grip around my midsection tightens. I would normally be terrified to be at this sort of height.

Instead of flying in the direction of the town library, though, we linger for a bit.

“I can’t believe she trusts you,” Rainbow mutters. “You tried to murder her, yet she’s been watching over you like family since she brought your sleeping butt down from Canterlot!”

For the slightest moment, her grip shifts, as though she’s contemplating dropping me. “Killing me would make you no better than how you saw Soren,” I say in a tired voice. “Even if he deserved it, Soren wasn’t in a sound state of mind. You seem pretty rational to me, so it would be worse... and I don’t think you’re a murderer, even if you might feel justified.”

“Wha...” Her grip slackens, but still I remain there in her arms. “Why are you talking like Soren’s somepony else? You’re him, aren’t you?”

Amazingly, I manage the strength to shake my head. “I am... or, was.” Moving’s hard, and it leaves me feeling exhausted. “I... Did Twilight tell you about what happened in Canterlot before I was put in a coma?”

Rainbow tightens her grip as she says, “No.”

“I... I killed a changeling to protect somepony—a complete stranger.” I look down at the town and force down the thought that some piece of me still deserves to plummet. “The part of me that once was Soren Friedrich was too full of emotional baggage, and simply couldn’t take having killed another thinking being... It was tearing me apart inside.”

Water rims my eyes as the memory of pulling the plug on the part of my psyche that was Soren. The heartbreak of watching him fade away, leaving behind just another memory... just collected knowledge.

“The part of me that was Soren... he knew it would be too hard for me if he remained,” I whisper with a sob. “We decided together that it was his time to pass. In a sense, I’m not the pony who tried to kill Twilight anymore; I’m just the cumulative result of a lot of ponies’ bad decisions. I still don’t know what my decision’s even done to me.”

A heavy silence hangs over the pair of us once I finish speaking. Can’t rightly blame Rainbow. I knew that Rainbow Dash, out of loyalty for Twilight, disliked me and the fact that Twilight was ordered to instruct me in penance for her part in everything that happened, so for me to suddenly tell her I wasn’t even sure I was the same pony must be really confusing.

After what seems like minutes, Rainbow once again begins flying us down towards a familiar looking tree in the middle of town. “For what it’s worth, I’m happy you care about my a—about Twilight enough that you’d be willing to protect her, even when she doesn’t think she needs protection,” I say softly. “At the same time though, never be so loyal that you’re willing to become a monster for the sake of others... It’s not worth it. Trust... me. Not Soren, but Silver Penny.”

With these final words, it becomes too difficult to keep my eyelids open. I’ve expended too much energy... I chide myself. Reckless, that’s what I am. Always pushing too hard, even now.

Surprisingly, I don’t pass out. It’s weird, I know. I’m conscious of everything going on around me as Rainbow lands outside the library; I just can’t move any of my limbs.

What catches me off-guard, however, is that I’m being handled a lot gentler than when we took off. Was it something I said? Instead of being grasped around the midsection like a sack of potatoes there’s just one hoof snaked around my torso, just behind my forelimbs, like I’m some sort of doll.

There’s an awkward three-legged shuffle that I can feel in how I’m held as Rainbow makes her way over to the door, and then a knocking sound. I don’t get why she’d knock; it’s a fucking library and it’s broad daylight.

Honestly, it’s kinda awkward being luggage. At least if I had control of my body, I could make an attempt at an awkward conversation to fill the gap, but I don’t even think Rainbow realizes I’m aware of everything going on around me. Not that I’d chance magic trying to let her know. I burned a lot of what I’d absorbed containing that bit of Discord’s magic I’d pulled in.

After but a few moments, the sound of a door opening greets my ears. “Oh hello, Rainbow, Twilight’s not—” It’s weird... even though I’ve never heard this voice in my life, I know from lingering memories of Lyra’s childhood that this voice belongs to Twilight’s mother, Twilight Velvet. “Oh! Silver Penny! What happened to her? I thought she was still in the hospital!”

You know how it’s super awkward when people start talking about you like you aren’t even there or they don’t notice you? Yeah. I loathe being unable to speak for myself. Instead, I’m left listening to Rainbow explaining what happened because I don’t have the good fortune to just pass out.

Suffice to say, Rainbow tries to not make me sound like a psycho as she tells Twilight Velvet about how Discord poofed me from the hospital to near Fluttershy’s place and how consequently I bit him. Or how I wanted to smash him with my hammer... Or how I vomited up a lamp. I say tries because, let’s be honest here, she sounds insane just for saying it.

All Velvet says as she takes me in a telekinetic grip is, “Thank you for bringing her, Rainbow.” Once I feel momentum from being moved and hear the door close, she adds, “You’re just like Shining Armor. Even in the face of a larger foe, you’re a fighter.” Not long after, I hear running water. “I wonder if you were like that before they used his genes to stabilize you, or if that came after...”

Without warning, I’m eased into warm water up to my midsection. As water gets poured over my head, I hear her say, “Now, let’s get you cleaned up.”

~ 11 ~

Mmmmh... Somepony prods me gently. What?

“... Penny. I need you to wake up.”

Wake up? When did I fall asleep?

“Silver Penny!” The next prod is nowhere near as gentle. There’s a sense of urgency to it. That voice is familiar though... “How long as she been like this?”

“Rainbow Dash brought her here just over three hours ago.” That’s Twilight Velvet’s voice. “She was unconscious when Rainbow brought her. I suspected she was just tired from over-exerting herself.”

From what I can tell, I’m tucked into a bed again. There’s a nice downy comforter wrapped around me, and I can feel a pillow propping me up. Nice and fluffy.

“I put her to bed after giving her a bath, but aside from breathing, she hasn’t moved at all.” There’s a lot of concern in her voice. “I’ve seen restful sleep before, but this is different. Is it possible that she’s slipped back into a coma?”

She... sounds really concerned for me. We haven’t even met—I tried on purpose to keep myself out of their lives—but she sounds... like a worried grandparent. Is she seriously accepting me as her kin, even knowing my origin... and what I did?

“It’s possible.” That voice... I remember speaking to them earlier. Nurse Redheart. That’s it! “She was remarkably weak upon waking, in no small part due to the lengths we went to ensure her mana pathways healed properly. From what Twilight told us, she’s always pushed herself harder than she should, so it’s quite possible she overexerted herself too much again.”

Oh... They think I’m in a coma again. But I feel fine; I just can’t move a muscle. But that’s no good. I don’t want ponies worrying about me like that. Fuck knows I put them all through enough through what I do. It doesn’t feel right to let them do so when I’m just too tired to move.

But if I can’t open my eyes or give any physical indicator that I’m awake and can hear them, what can I do?

Reaching within myself, I can feel that my reserves are fuller than they were, although they’re nowhere near full... At least I can manipulate my magic; if I couldn’t I might actually worry... I might be able to pull off a spell, but what? Prestidigitation might work, if i wasn’t tucked in so tight. I don’t wanna make it seem like I’m just firing off randomly or surging by trying to levitate something either...

If only I could just speak.

Wait... I remember reading up on a cantrip not unlike prestidigitation... Just as multipurpose, but for what I want to do, it’s perfect. One of the effects is to create a sound at a point of origin of my choosing. Feasibly I should be able to use it to replicate speech.

But how do I cast thaumaturgy again?

“H-hello?” The sound isn’t perfect and there’s a slight distortion effect, but it’s definitely close to my voice. Admittedly, I could do without hearing the pair of them startled. “Don’t worry. I’m not in a coma. I’m just really, really tired. Couldn’t move a muscle if I tried, so I chanced thaumaturgy.”

There’s a sigh of relief from Velvet, but Redheart’s all business. “Is there any numbness to your limbs? Can you feel anything at all?” she asks, prodding a random spot in the blanket cocoon.

“No,” I tell them. “No numbness. Few sore bruises... Could be worse. No manaflow in my extremities. Burned a lot not dying.”

I frown inwardly. I’m low enough already, and I’m pretty sure if I don’t cut off soon, I’m not going to have anything left. “Can’t keep this up... Really low right now, output exceeding input...” Somehow, I don’t even need to reach out to know both of them are frowning too.

“Before I cut off and try to rest some more,” I say, feeling warmth in my face even as I force myself to form complete sentences for this. “Thank you for bathing me, Missus Velvet. You...” How do I phrase this? “Didn’t have to do this for me. I appreciate it. Everything I’ve been through... last few days, no, weeks... feel cleansed... more ways than one.”

There’s a moment of silence, and then a gentle touch on my mane. Rather than muss it up like Dad and Twilight did, she neatly parts it around my face and horn. “Dear, you needn’t worry,” replies the mother of my gene donor. “Twilight might have skipped the topic out of respect for cultural differences, but ponies don’t view bathing as a taboo as you do. We’d do so for any who could not do so for themselves, blood ties or no.”

Much to my surprise, she pecks me on the forehead, just below my horn before walking away with the nurse. If I accepted Shining and Cadance’s offer, she’d be my grandmother, wouldn’t she? Tears rim my eyes as it occurs to me that I’m actually considering it. Now... it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. I don’t have to be alone.

I... Soren never knew his grandparents all that well. Surprisingly muscles twitch, parting my lips with a smile. On his father’s side, both died before he was even born, and on his mother’s, they never spent near enough time to bond before passing in his teens.

Here, though, I’m being offered a second chance. Why was Soren so opposed to the idea of being family, if only adoptive, with Shining, Cadance, Twilight, and the parents? Guy spent too much of his time with his head in a book, treating life like a narrative and breaking things down into story elements. That’s why we agreed that he should go, though, isn’t it? So that I can be what he could not—what he’d hold me back from achieving?

Maybe that’s part of what that dream was trying to tell me. It’s okay to compromise... Life’s not just about being who you want you to be, or being who the world wants you to be, but finding that fine balance. I think... I think the world wants me to be happy for a change, and I think I’m actually willing to give that a chance. I feel... hope?

But what of those nightmarish images... that suffering and dread? That all felt too real to be just a dream.

And Discord called me an amalgamation of chaos and order... What did he mean when he said that? Does he think there’s a little chaos in me because Soren was a human?

Too many questions and too few answers!