Awareness awoke, floating in a void of empty space, where the laws of gravity no longer applied. Consciousness was born, existed, arms and legs sprouted-- then without further ado the epiphany slapped sense back into its creator before it sprouted wings and soared off into the diet orange soda (sugar free) colored sky.
Nines, shooketh from his state of unconsciousness, only managed to turn in the air and to his dazzed and surprised state of awakening-- found something else blocking his vision and through instinct and reflex, immediately aimed to wrestle his offender into submission.
What ended up happening instead of his dreaded assailant going down, was him grabbing something thin, peeled, oddly familiar as he wrestled with the 'tentacled creature' that had affixed itself to his visor and what was most certainly was not a banana.
Unfortunately, it was and Nines was anything but amused.
The banana peel was tossed aside, floating away in a environment that (for now) defied the force of gravity, and if Nines wasn't mistaken he was sure that peel had just made a rude gesture as it flapped away from view.
Distant laughter bounced off giggling daisies on the ever shifting horizon and in that moment everything came rushing back to Nines as he recalled when and where he was.
This was not his Equestria. But it may as well could have been had things been different.
Heels clicked, boots ignited, and the zero gravity space Nines had been floating in no longer mattered. He flipped from upside down to rightside up and then righted himself as he turned, searching, looking, wondering where his target was and where he had scurried off to the moment he had appeared and interrupted his chance.
Hoping that perhaps, there still was a chance at all.
The voice, familiar but foreign, deep, full of mirth and callousness, laughed once more and the daises that floated by on sweet scented breeze laughed along with their creator.
Seeing nothing but lollipop trees, and brushing off the unexplainable reasons he was covered in whipped cream, bits of pie crust, cherries and banana pieces, Nines leaned northwards--
--diving deeper into madness.
Discourse.
The start and the end.
In the five years he had now been in Equestria (his Equestria, as the difference between this and that was always important to remember, to never forget that there was something that still remained when he finally went back), Nines had come to learn much of what he had accepted as the world he had been reborn in.
One of these things or rather one of whom, he had had to interact with- was Discord. And for that draconequus in particular there had been little interaction with the self-proclaimed (who assured he certainly was) 'spirit' of chaos. The few interactions they'd had always left him feeling...unnerved if not but sometimes oddly enough amused.
Discord tended to do that when he was entertained by someone and wasn't trying to be what Dash would call (translated) nicely "a pain", and if Twilight had anything to say: "he's someone you just eventually get used to" only after a pause to then add "...sort of..." before finishing with a weak and rather forced smile.
Weak assurances had done nothing to convince the soldier of an elitist regime of enforcers but then again, judging the self-proclaimed spirit (who rather found it annoying you questioned he was anything but) was not something the trooper would or thought of doing. Not with his background and the reflections he'd come to observe as time went on and he had become more involved in...this...
This fixing of errors and righting of mistakes.
Coming here though. To this when- it opened one's eyes. To a when and where that almost was, almost had been again, and one that held such a deep hold in the past its mere mention brought shudders. Especially since it could have been had things been different when he returned. And was different when this one was nothing like his own.
Coming into these other when's, these other where's was always somewhat jarring. There was always little they knew and only so much that could be told. It required what the librarian alicorn loved, research, but not the research she often joimed. One riddled with danger and consequences something her student Starlight was (sheepishly) familiar with.
Star Swirl's spell could only allow you to do so much, gave you only so much time to do things with. The Look Back, Look Fast spell seemed to have a security. A sort of safety measure if believed to be a precaution, a measure set by the past unicorn for others that did not completely apply to the creator. To prevent those who may come for his works from gaining any true successful efforts in altering time significantly and discovering that which should be left alone. And while adaptations had been made- there were still hurdles that could not be completely overwritten- at least when it came to ponies or the various species of Equestria (Sunburst had theorized)-- but when it came to Nines, that's where the spell's time limit seemed to be non-existent.
A boon for what they wanted to do and a disadvantage for what it meant.
He could drop into a when and stay for as long as was needed, get pulled out when they had enough bits and pieces to understand what they were dealing with. It took time to open a temporal vortex, energy and effort to maintain one for longer than at least a few minutes,continued use could lead to exhaustion and while there was a spell that used ley lines to feed the portal to act as a temporary battery for a limited time the issue that came was if the portal closed and the caster was not accurate- they would be sent back to their last location over and over and over- till they got the when and where right- or at least till they died from magical exertion.
And so when Nines went in- there was a timer that was required where he would and could be pulled out. So long as one of them that could cast the spell stayed behind there was no major reason to fear, except for safety. For staying too long in a time that was not his, in a world that he still was learning, could affects on his mind in ways which could have greater consequences than a Rainboom could if it never happened.
Steps were taken, precautions activated and so it had been done for Sombra, done for Chrysalis, done for that one reality where Scorpan betrayed his brother and was the one to go mad with corruptive power-- and now it was being done for Discord, Lord Discord.
The only problem was- he seemed to have been aware of this. And now...now they were paying for it.
This, it seemed, was going to be more difficult than he had imagined.
Discord (confusing, yes?) had been consulted when the idea or the concept was being put together. Of helping the reality Twilight had seen where Lord Discord (a title that had made his go smug with oozing satisfaction) had won and was the ruler of Equestria once more.
The spirit of chaos had been thrilled at the concept of a space and time adventure; babbling about the mere chance of a temporal journey reminding him of two kids, an old man, and some car- all references none of them had understood even as his had proceeded to go into detail on the matter-- but had been quickly disappointed when he found he couldn't enter his counterparts own reality. It seemed only one Discord was allowed to this party and any others were being given the not so subtle sign to LEAVE.
Odd considering how many times the chaos lord and his identicals often went out clubbing but then again- chaos never made that much sense to begin with and probably would continue to avoid making sense as long as it had a say in its jogging schedule and kept on a separate lane from its hated neighbor, order.
And so since Discord could not help them the easy way (which was already questionable on whether bringing him made things better or worse), he helped them by giving them a gift. Something that would be useful-- one way or the other.
Three minotaurs, with the grace of swans, pirouetted, skipped and then leaped towards an approaching Nines.
Had Rainbow Dash been there- it would have been a sight to behold.
Images of one Iron Will flashed into the mind's eye and Nines, disturbed by this for the briefest of seconds, heard the voice of Iron Will shout: "Learn to assert your dominance on stage in a day, today! My moves will show you how to not just attract an audience but earn the respect of a real dancer!"
And that was when the first dagger flew by.
Banking left to dodge, Nines failed to notice said weapon became nothing more than a ballon that deflated behind him before exploding into roses.
It was one thing to have weapons, it was another thing to use them.
Taking a moment to charge as his enemies tossed their weapons aside, a feat that would confuse Nines (and only make sense once the battle continued) the soldier took a shot at a frontal strike--
And caught sight of a tour en l'air on the edge of his periphal directly above.
Time slowed as one bull did a triple twirling front flip in the air as he came down and brough one muscular hooved leg down to perform a fatal drop kick.
And then quite suddenly time sped back up and he had seconds to dodge.
Angling, shifting, turning, and repositioning Nines slammed a single foot into the ground, pushed off, then rebounded off a candy cane trunk just in time to hear it splinter, fracture...then fall.
He didn't have the time to think- only react.
The first meaty fist came with a graceful twirl and with a leap and rocket boost back, Nines created distance.
Minotaurs, were the athletic champions of the world. At least when it came to bipedals. Oh sure, there were Earth Ponies and the musculature they often boasted without having to say a word, but when it came to the bipedals of the world (excluding dragons because let's be honest their sizes don't help) the Minotaur were the victors when it came to speed, agility, durability and strength. It made them fierce foes. Dangers that had to be dealt with strategically rather than brute force or numbers (if you weren't an oversized dragon or all-powerful alicorn). It was why they held such focus in the craft of metal weaponry and close-quarters combat. Their agility and speed made them tough to hit easily, their strength something to be cautious of- and the coordination a group could have made them almost a disaster.
It also made them graceful and deadly dancers.
One minotaur came prancing on cloven hooves and kicked outward with a sweeping spin which fed into a rising twirl, knocking Nines down to pink poka dotted ground and then forcing him to roll as that stopping leg came down where his rib cage would have been.
The world shifted, the Sun evaporated, and when the steam was gone and darkness fell it was Night that came in place of Day. Stars collided to form viewers and in that moment as the fight continued there was a unanimous agreement amongst audience and contender--
balle had never been so terrifying till now.
Duck, jump, dodge, block, throw a jab here and it does only to slow down one as two more join the fray. Now it's three not one against one.
A leg sweeps and he jumps back, a piroutte comes at the speed of a gallop and a high kick is barely avoided in time. There's only enough time to dodge, roll and just barely enough to recover and stay aloft on his own feet.
He reached for his utility belt, grabbed at where the handle should have been, squeezed and raised to block--
And was met with a crushing blow to the helmet that would have brought worry for a concussion- instead, left him disoriented.
Muscle memory kicked in and Nines kicked, was dodged, stepped on chest, jumped back with elevated and back-leading foot, heels came together, clicked, gravity was an illusion and he soared back and away.
They chased, taking powerful leaps. Leaps that nearly reached him. 15 feet up and they jumped like crickets, covering distances that no normal dancer should ever have been capable of. But then again this was his world, where rules were meaningless and all that mattered was fun.
The stars where cheering. Hooting. Hollering
Some applauded. Others threw stardust constructs of roses and flowers out onto the field but they never landed because they never had a chance.
This world was madness- and madness lived in all.
Out-danced and out numbered, weaponless, and increasingly approached by minotaurs who had moves his eyes had never seen- Nines dove out of the way of one that got too close and landed on the ground, hard. Momentum did not care and proceeded to roll him across blue checkered ground like one rolled dough. He rolled and rolled, scratches and dust coalescing on his armored light weight plates and his pursuers folllwed.
When Nines had stopped the ground was littered with pebbles and marbles. And that's when he saw his chance. The stone. He grabbed several, picked an extra and then scrambling to knees, his foes rushing at full giant leaps, one of them a hooffoot away, he jumped back, threw his body into the bedsheet covered ground and then chucked one at just the right time at just the right landing. The stone flew. Soared. Became a blur. Mass shifted, its spin rounded, and then became hard candy with swirls of red and white as it went through the air. Contact was made- a painful sound from something hard hitting sensitive nerves and tissue above the knee, there was instantly a look of pain crossing features on not one but all three, then down went the male minotaur with a hissing cry of pain.
A crowd of boos came from watching stars- there was even yell of "foul play!" from a passing crow. Three chirping crickets croaked their judgement and the tally came to a total of 0. If Nines paid these any mind he clearly didn't give a reaction. Because one second there was booing- the next there was sunlight and cotton candy clouds. Instead, he grabbed another stone and ignored the alteration of matter as the smooth surface turned into another wrapped sweet.
"Where is he?" it was the only sensible question to ask in a land that shifted from madness to sanity, back to disorder and instability.
The minotaurs, all three of them with grey hues of varying types, ignored this question and instead gave their downed comrade the attention he deserved.
Out of nowhere chips began to fell from the sky. Triangular in shape, almost but not quite orange in color and fell from cotton candy clouds.
Distracted by this Nines looked up, failed to notice the fact that one of the minotaurs was rising-- then just as he was turning his attention back to his opponents, the pebbled ground turned to ice and became the largest skating ring in history.
Instantly the minotaur slipped and went down, Nines drawn back to the situation instinctively did not move and thus saved himself the embarrassment of slipping and earning the same laughter from the flock of giggling flamingos flying by.
Heels clicked and Nines floated. He looked down at the Inverted. Minotaurs, that would never be have the way they normally would if one maniac had not freely flipped them around and let them do so
For one brief moment there was sympathy. He held an expression of sympathy that they could not see and then gained higher altitude. Tapping his helmet- locking onto a signature, and then without a second glance back headed east. Where the madness seemed to grow.
The world was oddly upside down, dull, and muted and Nines could not help but notice this as he made his way in.
Leaves withered into dust, twigs curled into agony and fell from the ground to the sky never to be seen again, and the doors were all a nasty shade of pale yellow..
There were doors everywhere. Doors that he did not open for he knew how this game went.
The signature was here. Somewhere- possibly behind a door.
The question was which one. Which one had her.
And as if to vaguely answer that, there was a sniffle somewhere to his right and he turned. He turned and flew in that direction wondering, hoping, desperately wanting for it to be one of them.
The sniffling grew louder and then the doors did a thing.
They rearranged. And now the sniffling came from everywhere.
"Pinkie?" The soldier called and there was a louder sniffle and no response as Nines floated higher in an inverted state of inverted. Feet towards sky, head nearly touching mud. He looked betweem the doors, tried to use his built-in locator and found it to be useless.
"Pinkie!?" he called again.
"What -sniff- could -sniff- you possibly want?"
It was a good question. One he didn't think about.
"I...want to help..." and it was sincere.
"Don't need any." Came the sullen response.
"Your friends need you Pinkie."
"Nopony needs me..."
He winced, he looked. The doors were so many- the voice came from them everywhere.
"And what makes you think that?" he tried.
"Because..." there was hitching and it was palpable.
"Because??" he stressed and flew lower. Where the voices merged and the sounds seem to be coming from an area that was the strongest.
There was no response. The silence was punctuated by sniffling.
"Pinkie?"
"Because I'm just a joke. A joke and that's all I'll ever be." And the pain in her voice shattered three doors.
Silently, "Jokes, make people laugh--"
"But when they laugh at you- make fun of you--"
"--then they're the wrong audience. And the right one's still waiting for you out there, out here. We're all parts of a bigger joke that make each other whole. And Pinkie you're the one that brings cheer and joy to everybody you meet. Not every joke fits in with that- you're the one that tries to make room for any joke, gives them a bit of joy when they don't deserve it, gives them something to look forward to, and gives them something to smile about." There was warmth in his tone. "Even me."
There was a moment where nothing happened. Then a single door opened. In its background there were dull and drab greys, boring lifeless blacks. And one muted color toned pinkish pony mare with a mane that nearly touched her hooves.
"And who" she wiped at tears "are you?"
She got the odd sense he might've been smiling. She didn't know how she knew or guessed or even felt it. But her mark tingled and it made her feel like that guess wasn't wrong.
"I...guess you could call me a friend. One who's been looking for you and the others for awhile." Her eyes went down, saw her knecklace, her faded Element in his hand. And Pinkie felt something stir in her. Something that hoped.
And then the necklace was on- and everything got a little brighter.
Following Pinkie's return, there was discussion.
Nines had done his best to fill in what was necessary, but with Pinkie, he hadn't had to say too much.
The summary had been simple: he was from another when of a different where, and through the effort of his friends- had systematically (through multiple visits) tracked down, hunted and found the missing Elements of this world.
Pinkie, to some degree, had somehow managed to figure this out.
Nines knowing Pinkie (at least not this particular Pinkie), had not bothered asking 'how' as one should learn when dealing with the party planner the answers to those hows would never come clearly. The discussion had shifted at some point to locating the others and figuring out where they were. Pinkie suggested Spike, as apparently he had been the only one unaffected- because Discord hadn't bothered to Invert "the help". (A statement that now that she was no longer wallowing in self-pity infuriated her greatly).
The next problem was figuring out where he'd went. Searching Equestria in its current state would prove both dangerous and impossible, Nines had advised against it, so a few minites were spent figuring out where the drake could have went.
Pinkie had been the first to pitch a suggestion not long after: checking the library.
Nines, blinked, then asked the obvious question after a brief pause, "why?"
The simple answer: "It was the last place I saw him heading with Twilight."
"And how long ago was that?"
She had opened her mouth to respond...then the curls had drooped just a little as the party planner realized she didn't know.
And so to the library they'd went. Hoping for the best. Upon arriving towards the memorized destination they had found to no one's surprise...nothing. Which was worse than finding a vacated out Treebrary. There was just nothing. No tree, no treehouse, no sign of any building having been there except for the indentation that it had been there and simply wasn't there anymore.
Confused, worried, Nines had looked to Pinkie for answers. She had responded with a reflection of his look.
Unwanted questions began popping into the mind: how long had Discord been in charge here? (It was something they had overlooked). Had Twilight dragged Spike to Canterlot? Where would they be in this mad world if they had actually left?
The internal questioning would have continued till Pinkie gasped and physically turned Nines head in one direction.
The same direction (what was guessed to be) tracks of some kind followed leading away from the indentation where the building had once been. Something with many legs that led away from where the library was and seemed to head upwards, north, somewhere towards the distant outline of lollipop trees. The two had shared a glance (arguably Pinkie had glanced and simply looked back at her reflection on Nines visor) and then without speaking had decided to follow.
And so the next supposed hour (since the concept of time didn't really matter or make sense anymore if Time Turner somehow managed to find it) was spent searching for something that logically should've been where you last expected it to be. During that trip there had been some close calls with a assembly of balle dancing minotaurs, a group of hip hop dancing squirrels, and finally a friendly chatting pair of giraffes who once locked into a conversation --truthfully they forced you into a one-sided one-- would follow you till you managed to cross or reach someplace they simply couldn't see (or reach) before calling quits-- if you were lucky enough to not magically come across them a third time in this cubix mix and mash world.
An hour or so later and they finally made it. Several gallops away up an incline and there it was. The Oak Library. Resting at the end of a upwards hill, a good distance away from candy corn houses where grey hued ponies trotted by the by.
Nines had approached with caution the entire way towards it, Pinkie not so much, but it could be noted from her ears that she was on the alert, ready to jump into action where needed.
Apparently, so had the tree.
The ground shook, dirt erupted, and a squeal of fright found one pony in his arms.
Stunned, confused, waiting for what was certain to be a fight, the Oak Library did something unexpected.
It got up, somehow seemed to possess the ability to squint without having facial features of any sort as it leaned unnaturaly over its two approaching guests, in doing so a unicorn and dragon looked through the window to stare back at a frozen Nines and Pinkie. There had been a single second of shared silence as everyone stared at each other-- then Twilight turned her greying hued back on the outside guests and as if answering that reaction, the tree pulled all of its major roots from the ground and took off, running. Running like the wind. Scurrying on roots the size of one pony, as if something rather foul was coming after it.
There was a moment of silence, except for the pounding of frightened roots as they carried everything from Tree to Library to what had certainly been a Unicorn and a baby Dragon in the top window, fleeing with all of this and more and leaving one bipedal and one party planner to stare in the dissipating dust.
Nines and Pinkie shared one glance, then took off to catch their runaway treebrary.
Branches whistled in the wind and the heavy sound of roots pounding against the ground at a uneven pace was the only warning a buffalo or pony could have as they ducked out of the way of a runaway tree library.
Wagons were grabbed in branches, flipped onto their sides, and almost became collision points for a soldier and a pink mare.
Ponyville was an attraction center to the abnormal and unnatural, but chasing a runaway treebrary was somehow something else that deserved a rank of its own.
"Hop on!" Nines had called and no sooner had he finished was there a pink pony in his arms.
Gaining altitude Nines moved up, dodging most of the trees attempts at flinging things to knock the two down and poured on the speed as the tree scurried away.
Branches became elastic and whipped about wildly from behind, trailing like a cape of angry serpents against the trees back and over the face of its door as Nines and Pinkie mad an attempt to barge in. The same current of angry branches flapped around wildly as Nines and Pinkie aimed for a window and it was through quick reflexes they avoided being caught in them just barely.
"Nines!" Pinkie called, gave him a bit of a squeeze that got his attention as they kept the chase but maintained distance. "Throw me!"
She got the sense he was looking at her in a not so funny way and Pinkie's face gained an edge of seriousness not often seen. "Do it! I can make it! Just give me an opening and I can make it if you can manage the door. I have a feeling something will happen if one of us gets in!"
He was hesitating, and for that alone she felt a bit safer knowing he cared. "Pinkie Promise!" she cried as they dodged an array of whipping branches that cracked in the air a little too close. "Pinkie Promise, I'll be fine!"
He looked at the tree, the Oak Library that seemed both scared with how it fled and bulldozed everything and everyone aside, yet also angry with how it lashed out at them, keeping them away but not yet trying to injure or seriously maim them.
He wondered...if the library and Twilight were...
"Nineeees!"
He looked at her. The brilliant aqua blue eyes filled with a light and assurance he knew so well, and so he nodded.
Charging into the hurdle of writhing branches, Nines found his hunch correct- the branches paused, froze almost like they hadn't been expecting that- then somehow the tree started moving away even faster.
"Now!"
He grabbed her, poured on the speed for as long as a second, spun with her as she extended out to create a balance, then he let go as his spin turned into a throw. She went up in an arc, writhing branches shying away, hesitating, then snapping out at her and acting like a steep bridge under her as she flew above it all- giving her the opening she needed.
A pink hoof moved to the door , hit it with a knock, the door flew open, Pinkie went through--
And then the library began to slow down, crash and plant itself in the ground.
Nines landed, called out Pinkie twice and then was rewarded with: "I'm fine! But you may want to get in here!"
Upon climbing the stairwell and entering Oak Library, the first thing a possible customer might see was a unicorn that loved her job as a librarian. If one were paying attention, the level of detail applied to organization according to author or genre would have rivaled Pinkie's.
In the discorded library none of these things existed.
What did exist was ever organisers nightmare and that came in the form of books hopping off shelves and trading their respective positions from genre to genre. Sci-Fi went into Poetry, Classical went into the mature sections, Romantic majorities filed themselves away in Drama, Dark and Mystery.
It was enough to make Twilight build a sweat from just seeing the sheer disorder in her own dominion and the fact there was no Spike hastily making any of these corrections as entire book cases got up and swapped spots with their neighbors spoke more than enough volumes about how bad things were.
"We need to find Twilight, now" came Pinkie's serious but at the same time worried voice.
As if noticing occupants in the room for the first time, every book of every genre froze what it was doing as if put on pause. The room lurched and the stairs leading to the second floor where the residents stayed groaned a horrible groan of wood having weight on it and then all of a sudden everything in the room changed, starting with the staircase that would've led to Twilight's room.
With a poof of smoke the main entrance vanished, blinding Pinkie and Nines who tensed and waited for any sort of action. Nothing happened, except for the complete jittering dance that Pinkie tended to do when something big was about to happen.
"Pinkie?", came a growingly concerned trooper, "what's happening?!"
"I D-DO-DO-DON'T K-Kn-KN-KNOOOW!" She cried as the party planner became a vibrating mess of curling and unfurling curls, up and down rapid fire hops, an occasional kicking leg and whipping tail-- then it all stopped.
The smoke vanished, the ground stabled, and when the two looked around they found a new entrance, bereft of what a library hall would have looked like. In its place was a gaping arched entrance that showed no end and held no warmth. There was a coldness that emanated from it and as Pinkie cautiously neared with narrowed eyes her breath appeared in the cloud of condensation with every puff.
There were no stairs, no bookshelves, and a central hall that should have contained a small part of the History section, was gone. All that remained in front of them was a hallway and an entrance, all that remained behind them was no exit or window in sight.
"I think Twilight wants us to go through here", Pinkie said cautiously, though her ears were submissive and not high. When she turned to look at Nines her eyes were sad and almost glossy. When he didn't reply, she continued, "I know it sounds strange even if this is our only exit, but...I don't think this is Discord. I...I don't think going in there will hurt us, and I really don't think we should be standing around to wait and see what happens."
"Why is that?" He asked, then clarified. "What makes you think he isn't doing this with everything else he can do?'
Pinkie's tail dipped a bit lower and her eyes narrowed as her expression became dour, "it's...just a feeling." She looked back to the voidless entrance that waited for them on the otherside. "We should go" she said after seconds of nearly a minute in thoughtful silence, turned to move at a trot and not a hop, "before something else happens."
Looking around, saying nothing, Nines followed behind. Going into the abyss where the two disappeared.
Her Element was Magic and so it made sense and lined up perfectly with what Pinkie was feeling.
Twilight had gone into detail about what happened after Discord had won. Once victory had been secured and the Elements out of the way their abilities and magic had been returned to them as they neither posed a harm or even a threat with their connection to the Elements severed. Twilight had said it was like being having all your thoughts pointed in a specific direction and then guided that way, similar to a panic attack or having random thoughts pop into your head, only these guided action and reaction-- to which Discord had entered the rather still fragile topic of that time and then proceeded to point out where Twilight was wrong. Offering some insight in what Inversion did and didn't do. It altered the personality, so to speak in a manner, but didn't make things up out of nothing or do what Twilight seemed to be defining as mind control. Inversion, the true kind, drew on the darkest aspects of an individual and then made them reveal themselves. The sides of an individual they kept locked up and also didn't know about. The negatives of their very being brought out through chaos and given the freedom to stretch their legs.
In summary: "I never did much of anything except let your otherself out. The part of you that already exists. The aspects of yourself that were already there, just locked up, kept in check, and magnified the more the individual tried to deny it. So what you call 'mind control'", he had offered a small smile, "I call 'revelation'."
And as the bearer of Magic, Twilight still had a fine level of affect on her surroundings even if she wasn't aware of it. Combine that with the fact they were walking in what seemed like a separate dimension of darkness that somehow allowed them enough light to make out each other, and the theory that Twilight's magic was in play here might actually be possible.
Especially when the rules no longer applied anywhere.
"--do you see that?" Pinkie's question finally reaching his ears.
He looked ahead and saw....was that light?
Pinkie took off at a run calling after him to hurry, and as he gave chase the light grew brighter and brighter the closer they got till--
--they were outside in a new hall. Something several times bigger and roughly the size of a field. Something like a maze or almost similar to a labyrinth. One made up of bookcases stacked with books, with cases and shelves so great and tall that they were like entire towers made of books. Towers so massively tall that they blocked view of everything, everything except a massive tree tower in the distance where one pony and one baby dragon could just barely be made out from the window's view.
Heels ignited and defying gravity Nines made to fly overhead with Pinkie in one arm-- but then she started shaking which gave Nines pause the moment she gasped.
"Twitchy Tail!" she shouted.
The second those words left her mouth, a thud fell over and drowned out the "Pinchy knee!" a thud so loud that the draft from the fall of several thousand books landing and piling on the ground behind them that it made Nines turn in that direction to see what could have possibly made that sound and or if it was cause for concern.
They were dictonaries. A total of probably more than a hundred. Looking up he saw they fell from a broken shelf, split in between that had allowed the rows of dictionaries to come raining down.
Looking back, the dictionaries did nothing. And because he was so focused on inspecting for danger and ignoring Pinkie's pokes and prods to get his attention, the attempts at warning him when he was already wary of this reality and trying to keep an eye out for anything this Lord of Chaos might pull, he didn't notice her say "pinchy knee!" multiple times-- Till he turned around and began floating away only to pause when something growled.
"Pain!" Howled one voice from the pile. Loud and clear, deep and resonant.
"The feeling experienced from the suffering inflicted upon an individual!" the pile of books under the dusty, scratched dictionary at the top barked in reply.
"Agony!" the leading dictionary cried with a mouth that did not exist but growing in size and muscle as it shifted, spines growing hard; pages rising out of its back, cover becoming hard; solid wings shaping, glowing eyes of red energy forming as it became a creature with rows of paper sharp teeth that glinted from the boring white light of chandelier above like dangerous sharp metal.
"Agony!" other dictionaries repeated as they two shifted and bubbles, gaining mass and form as their leader took to the air and hovered in stasis waiting for them.
Nines did not wait to hear the rest. He took off flying.
But he still heard their shout as they all began to give chase.
"The feeling one experiences through the suffering of pain!"
"Burns!" came the cry.
"The result of flesh marred by fire!"
Balls of heat flew by and Pinkie squealed in terror as Nines performed loops and turns, trying to avoid direct confrontation.
"Death!" came the screech.
"The end of one's life!"
A piercing screech came from behind and Nines cut the gas and plummeted as a gaping hole slammed into the back of one giant bookcase from where he and Pinkie had been. Nines tossed Pinkie up, she screamed, planted her forehooves on the back of one encyclopedic monster, propelled herself off that as it flew between her and Nines in chase and then found herself in the trooper's grasp again as he soared up to catch her.
If he had that weapon this wouldn't be so difficult.
"Kill one and another just takes the lead" he grunted as he he caught and flew. "We need to get to Twilight and Spike but this doesn't look like it's going to be easy."
"Pinkie!"
"Oh, right!" she grabbed a book from the oncoming section, opened it-- and then every letter from the book vomitted out its contents with rapid fire, missing and taking down only a few of the oncoming abominations who crashed into others and took those out with them on their way down.
But with one down, two new books shifted as they flew by and joined the swarm on the chase.
"We're surrounded! There's books everywhere Nines we can't keep doing this forever!"
"I know!" He replied. "What do--"
"Twitchy Tail!"
He swerved to his left, dodged a shifting tomb that had become a massive boulder and went careening into its allies--
"What do you think we should do?!"
"The top of the book cases! If I can get up there I might be able to make it to Twilight and Spike!"
"But--"
"I'm faster on ground Nines! You know me. If I can get up there I can make it! If I can catch up to Rainbow Dash on ground, I can do this!"
He growled, threw her ahead over two of them, grabbed a book as they looked up at her and flew in to capture-- got blown to pieces by a book on the autobiography of Whiny Blows the opera singer.
Then he caught her. "Alright! How do we get you uo there?"
She thought about it as they flew and then she frowned. "No idea."
"Pinkie!"
"Okay! Um, oh!" she threw a hoof out as she was tossed and crumpled the head of one encyclopedia as it tried to circle after her, "I've got it, oof. Thank you. But no, next time you throw me don't catch me."
He looked at her and she knew that look even if she couldn't see his face because she got it often enough to recognize it. "I'm serious!" she frowned with a glare.
"Fine." And so he pitched her when another line barred their path, mouths glowing an internal fire. The moment Pinkie went sky born the mouths lost their glow and then all focused on Pinkie.
Several moved to grab her while only two refocused on Nines. The party planner struck out, manuevering in the air and landing with a single hoof to slam the torso of one creature, audily snapping multiple sentences, creating grammar errors that infected its structure. Commas became periods, incoherent words were formed, new ones with no meaning created as Pinkie kept herself in the air by landing a well placed hoof in the right spot and managing to one-shot all the creatures trying to grab her out of the air.
"AH HA!" she did a triple cannonball and dove towards her target, it looked up at her-- screamed "Rescue!" in a voice that sounded almost feminine and then found itself latched onto by a powerful Earth pony who jostled its head to the left and right, forcing wings and movement to go wherever the head went.
"I'm off! Take care of Nines for me!" she flashed a smile, then was off.
Several dictionaries turned to the makeshift ride taking away their target and immediately stated "capture" in unison.
Nines however threw a book about tquartz formations at them from the mineralogy section and watched as a hundred burning stones went into a hundred different bodies.
Nines, glancing back briefly, watched as Pinkie wrestled her ride towards the tree, then turned just in time to watch books shake themselves off their positions, fall, change, and form new bodies.
He sighed, and prepared himself for a wait.
Author's Note
I actually struggled to figure out how Discord would affect Twilight and make it a challenge.
In case you are wondering the Monstionaries are the Lord of Chaos' way of warping Twilight's love of books.
I did not plan that. It actually came to me while I was typing.
