A Discordant Romanceby chasethebronyChaptersCh 1: Discord and Apple Bloom, sitting in a tree...Ch 2: First Comes Love...Ch 3: Flowers and DreamsCh 4: DiscoveryCh 1: Discord and Apple Bloom, sitting in a tree...A Discordant Romance By: ChasetheBrony Discord Being the lord of Chaos was a pretty awesome gig. Go around, change the world as you see fit, and generally control all entropy in the galaxy. Well, It was awesome until that uppity Celestia thought that creating a haven of order in his land of chaos was a Good Idea. With both of them being in their adolescence at the time, he had (foolishly) thought that he could tackle the powers of order and harmony by himself. As it turns out, he was wrong. Very, Very wrong. Celestia and Luna managed to use the powers of harmony and order to freeze him into a statue and render him unable to directly affect the world. However, they had overlooked one tiny little detail: When an element is crystallized, that causes it to be focused and can therefore be used to create cohesion and will eventually create an increase in power on a localized area. Essentially they had inadvertently created a chaos cannon. At first, Discord’s power was severely diminished by the creation of order in Equestria. Being forced to sit in one spot and watch pigeons crap on you is not the best way to retain your sanity, so he began to contemplate the rest of his chaotic realm outside the earth. From these contemplations, Discord came to several conclusions: One: The universe is in a constant state of entropy and is expanding chaotically without limit. Two: Being lonely sucks. Three: Imaginary friends stop being fun after 456 years. Also, they don’t talk back and make lousy conversation. And Finally: there are exactly 4.56234203948231094e2345478 stars in the universe +/- 3.43e12532 with an additional 9,453.456 being created every other minute. Even though his power was rising, he was getting more and more bored. The closest he ever got to new amusement was when Celestia banished Nightmare Moon to the Moon. They had some interesting conversations, but Nightmare Moon wasn’t exactly the most personable pony, and they quickly grew to hate each other’s guts. After what is possibly the longest game of “I’m not touching you”, Nightmare Moon lost after 1,000 years. However, His feeling of victory was short lived and the loneliness quickly set in. After over five thousand years of imprisonment, the moment had finally come. Millenia of captured cosmic chaos had finally been accumulated for this one single instant. All the power of chaos was unleashed through the top of the statue first. Then, using his headcannon, he slowly began to fracture his stone prison chip by chip. Apple Bloom School Field Trips were usually fun. Usually. The exception being when your teacher parades you through a garden full of boring old statues and lectures you for hours on ponies you never really wanted to learn about anyways. So as usual she got in an argument with Scoots and Sweetie Belle to try to pass the time. Soon enough, their argument turned into a full-fledged fight. After Cheerilee broke up the fracas, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were back into their same bored routine while the tour continued. “Psst!” Scootaloo whispered over at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “Psst yourself!, What’s up Scoots?” “What do you say we go and have some fun?. Maybe we could go and see if we can get our cutie marks by climbing statues or something” Scootaloo always had the best ideas for getting their cutie marks. Making sure that Miss Cheerilee was distracted while giving her tour, the three fillies snuck off into the field of statues. Scootaloo was right! Tag is so much more fun when you have to weave your way through a maze of statues! giggling while she was running Apple Bloom suddenly ran head-first into a huge statue. Looking up, she saw that it was the large Draconequus statue Miss Cheerilee had pointed out earlier. “Hmm... I don’t remember all these cracks being here when we looked at it five minutes ago.” With a puzzled look on her face, she reared up on her hind legs to try and get a better look at the new fissures forming on the skin of the statue. Suddenly a bright yellow light began to shine from the fractures, blinding the small yellow filly. Apple Bloom fell backwards onto the ground screaming as the statue exploded in syrup and eggshells. A loud booming voice overtook her world. “I am FREE!” Part of Applebloom wanted to run away screaming. Part of her wanted to be courageous and stand against the creature. The odd third part of her wanted to bow in front of the creature and worship him. Looking around, the beast noticed Apple Bloom and froze. Freezing in place, the draconequus stared into her eyes for what seemed like hours. His gaze seemed to reach to her very soul while spontaneously surrounding her with those little chalky hearts and hooves day candies. Then, he broke the stare, shook his head, looked up at the castle and stated: “Well, off I go to conquer the world again!” and with a loud pop and a wave of chocolate milk and strawberry frosting he disappeared into thin air. Later, the other children and an extremely worried Miss Cheerilee found Applebloom staring wistfully at an empty pedestal in the middle of the garden, surrounded in candy hearts and frosting with a small smile on her face. PART II -20 Years Later Apple Bloom and Twilight Sparkle were gathered in the Ponyville Library basement tinkering on a mass of machinery surrounding a small crystal cube. Twilight’s horn was glowing violet while Apple Bloom was wrenching inside of one of the larger metal contraptions. Ever since she had gotten her cutie mark (a slide-rule) after engineering the drawbridge of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Super Secret Clubhouse, Apple Bloom was considered one of the best engineers in the Ponyville-Canterlot region of Equestria. Ever since she had released the dragoneqqus Discord in the Canterlot Gardens twenty years earlier, Apple Bloom had been working on the design for her newest creation: The Chaos Inhibitor. In conjunction with the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, Apple Bloom had spent the past three years designing this powerful artifact. Combining Unicorn Magic and Earth pony Engineering was no small feat even on it's own. Unrefined magic was inherently unstable and unusable by the earth ponies, while most unicorns were so reliant on magic they sometimes had a hard time understanding the more precise working of the newfangled engines and machinery. Either way, with a large grant from the Equestrian Science Institute, and some supplemental funding from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, Twilight and Apple Bloom had in conjunction created some of the largest scientific leaps since the advent capturing steam power. ~~~~ “Can you pass me a number 7 adjustable spanner?” The slight twang of the younger pony’s voice echoed from inside the small metal case. Levitating the spanner over, Twilight tapped Apple Bloom on the flank with it and then set it on the ground by the other pony’s foreleg. After a couple minutes of grunting and mild swearing, Apple Bloom finally emerged from the machine with a victorious smile on her face. “Well, Twilight. I think it’s done! Let’s run some preliminary tests and then we can go ahead and let Celestia know that we are ready for the chaos transfer.” The earth pony trotted over to the output console to monitor the output readings. “Ok Twi, lets start by tryin' to capture the chaotic entropy of combustion. That should be a good baseline test to calibrate the Chaos Inhibitor with.” With a quick snap of magic, Twilight lit a candle over in the center of the room by the crystal cube. Then she quickly retreated behind the relative safety of Apple Bloom’s console. “Ok, I am going to go ahead and start feeding magical energy into the input nodes.” Twilight’s horn began to glow and lavender tendrils of magic began to expand themselves to several crystals on the edge of the room. “Input Nodes online. Beginning connection to aether laylines.” The unicorn stated. Twilight began to sweat under the magical strain. “I have achieved magical connection. Stand by and watch for any unusual magical fluctuations while the connections stabilize.” The arranged machinery and crystals began to light up and hum with a rhythmic pulse. “Ok ‘Bloom. Its under your control now. I will watch and maintain a shield in case of... accidents” Tapping at the data inputs in front of her, Apple Bloom did a quick recheck of all the magical displays before flipping a large red switch. “Feedin’ power to the Inhibitor.... now!” The cables connected to the cube suddenly began to glow and crackle with power. Immediately after, the cube in the middle of the room began to lift out of it’s cradle and glow a deep crimson. Suddenly several small alarms on the console began to ping with urgent warning. “Twilight, the Inhibitor is overdrawing on the nodes! Try to shunt off the energy into the dissipators!” “I am TRYING to do just that! It won’t go! I am going to go ahead and cut off the power from the leylines.” With both ponies frantically working to stop the machine, they didn’t notice a blue form coalescing around the Chaos Inhibitor. “Twilight! Ah’ve lost all control of the device! Get a shield up now! With the amount of energy being drawn in right now, I think the nodes are going to expl-” Halfway through her sentence, the entire room froze. For a split second there was no chaos in Equestria. Just perfect order. It is said that the universe abhors a vacuum. Is is the nature of the universt that pure order or pure chaos cannot exists. When one of them becomes absent itself, the universe corrects the lack with a massive correction. That perfect counterbalance formed itself around the cube. It first resembled a snake, then as it grew arms and legs, It ceased to resemble anything except for one creature. Discord. Then with a large explosion, everything went black. Awakening Ever since he had escaped from his prison (and after his soon re-imprisonment) Discord had been thinking. The Draconequus had given up on finding any love millennia ago. Every time he kept thinking about it, he was constantly reminded that there were no other Draconequus in existence. However, even that would have been surmountable were it that others liked and accept him. Unfortunately, few saw past the mishmash of creatures his body resembled and looked for the soul within. All they saw was a hideous freak who sewed chaos everywhere he went. This fear and loathing was plain to see on the faces of those around him. Even the few who had seen though his mad exterior had locked him in stone to be held as a spectacle for everyone to see. With a thousand years to pout, he had been bent on revenge. Locking away Celstia in her tower, playing with the Elements of Harmony, he had been king. But his anger had clouded his judgement. He had not anticipated the power of hope, love, and friendship. All things that had been so long denied to him. Now he just sat in melancholy thought, despairing that he could never even find friendship sealed away in the void of the universe. His mind wandering, he drifted towards a memory from his first release. The face of a small yellow filly with a candy apple mane. Not looking on him with fear or horror, but instead with curiosity and awe. He wondered what her life was like after his release. Maybe she had a family now. She definitely had friends, that was for sure. Few ponies cared to live without the friends they made so easily. He was used to being lonely by now. ~~~ Being the lord of Chaos meant that Discord had the ability to ‘feel’ the ambient chaos of the universe. Being of the Universe meant that he was familiar with the galactic sense of balance. For every buildup in order in one area, there was a chaotic event elsewhere to maintain the status quo. The eddies and swirls of the chaos/order matrix surrounded him and were a part of him. So when there was suddenly a major unbalancing in the fabric of Chaos, Discord got worried and went to investigate. What he saw horrified him. What he had previously believed to be impossible, had been achieved: Perfect Order. Sending his senses straight to the center of the ordering, he could feel the construct siphoning the magical essence from the earth. He also began to feel it slowly spreading its crystalline growth through the area. Thankfully, the chaos of the planet's core was slowing the ordering enough for him to act. Leaping into motion, Discord gathered up all the chaos he could and dove into the matrix. Moving into the zone of pure order felt like jumping into a lake of liquid helium I. Keeping an open path of chaos behind him, he kept pressing forward toward the center. The close he got to the source, the amount of pure order was so great that he could literally feel it stopping the molecular processes in the world around him. Soon he could feel his path closing behind him. Pausing for a minute he began to use some desperate measures. Drawing on the pure fusion chaos of the far flung stars, the pulled the chaos of nuclear fusion in to blast a path through the order. Knowing that he had to stop the spread he burned a path of nuclear fury to the cause of the order. Reaching the center, he could see the pulsating creation before him. Marveling at the engineering of it, he was enthralled at the controlled imperfections in the crystal that allowed it to focus the massive amounts of magical energy required to freeze the atoms themselves. In fact, the more he looked the more he realized that what it was doing was simply using the chaos around it to self-perpetuate the chain reaction. Discord was shaken out of his reverie by a sudden drop in chaos. Seeking the cause, he realized that he had drained 3 systems of solar power just to keep his channel to the heart open. With a final gathering of power, Discord collected his chaos and dropped it all in one blow to the cube of pure order. With a crash of power and the thundering of released magic, the world came back to life. Ch 2: First Comes Love...A Discordant Romacne Ch 2: First comes Love.... From the Wreckage The destruction of the lab was not quite total. As Discord stood up, his claw began to try to massage the massive headache that was developing in his head. Opening his eyes, he saw before him the same yellow pony that had stood before him twenty years ago. Only, age had improved what was a blossoming flower into a beautiful lily. Well, a battered and unconscious lily that is. Beside her laid the one responsible for his second imprisonment: Twilight Sparkle. Just her name sent a combination of fear and anger coursing through his veins. From the way they were laid out, it was obvious that some sort of shield had protected them from the brunt of the blast. Moving over to check on the earth pony, he tried to summon a tendril of chaos to glide him over to her side. Suddenly his headache flared and he collapsed on the ground with fiery bolts of pain coursing through him. When the pain finally cleared up, he sighed in frustration and gingerly picked up the yellow mare and carried her out of the wreckage. Climbing a set of stairs, he found himself in the reception area of an exceptionally well stocked and organized library. Looking around, another set of stairs led up to what looked like a bedroom area. Staying in shape had never been a top priority for a being who could command chaos to carry him and whatever he desired. So having to actually walk and carry weight was exceedingly tiring. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, the sight of a decently sized bed with star printed sheets brought the promise of resting his arms. Carefully laying the mare down in the bed, he tucked her in, and had absolutely no idea what to do next. If he stayed, he would undoubtedly be discovered and the fracas that ensued would surely end up with him being encased in stone for yet a third time. But, he was hesitant to leave the side of the beautiful figure in front of him. After a moment of crisis, his self-preservation won out. Finding a stack of paper and pens nearby, he grabbed a sheet and jotted down a quick note. After folding it up, he wrote on the front: “For when you wake up” and propped it up on the bedside table. With one last glance back into the room with the drowsing figure, he snuck off to hide. Rise and Shine The light creeping through the curtains was shining right in Apple Blooms eyes. She tried to turn over in bed, but the sudden feeling of pain enveloping her woke her up with a whimper. ‘Whose bed am I in?’ she wondered idly. Looking around, she saw that she was in a largeish bed with stars and planets on the sheets. Her eyes widening in shock, she frantically looked around to see if Twilight was in bed with her. Not seeing that anypony else sharing the bed with her, she let out a little sigh of relief. Focusing on her wounds, she realized that she had no idea how she had gotten injured. ‘C’mon Apple Bloom, think! you can remember...’ Suddenly a rush of memories filled her mind. She remembered setting up the Chaos Inhibitor, initializing the power sequence, then... nothing. All she knew was that something had happened and she had wound up in Twilight‘s bed. Getting up, she noticed a small note laying on the bedside table Opening it up it simply read: “Hope you get better, I don’t think I could bear to lose you again. -D” ‘Well that’s odd. I don’t think I know anypony with a name that starts with a D.’ While she was pondering upon who could have possibly left her the note, the door to the bedroom slammed open and a very pissed-off Twilight stormed inside. “Why in Luna’s name did you leave me in the workroom?! I thought that you would at least have the decency to wake me up and put me in my own bed, but noooo; you had to leave me passed out and bleeding in the middle of the burning wreckage downstairs while you were sleeping peacefully IN MY BED!” With those last couple words she looked like she was about to burst into flames of pure rage. “Uh, Twilight, I have absolutely no idea what the hay you are talkin’ ‘bout. I just woke up a couple minutes ago.” After a slight pause, she continued “Wait, what happened in the workroom? What happened to the Chaos Inhibitor?!” with the thought that her precious project had somehow been a failure, her voice started to raise it pitch. “You mean you don’t remember?” Thinking hard and coming up with nothing, the youngest member of the Apple family stole a phrase from her older brother: “eenope.” “Well here is the short and sweet version: It worked, then it exploded.” Her engineering mind began to mentally take apart the Inhibitor’s design to try and reconnect where the process could have gone wrong. While she was thinking, Twilight walked up to the bed and saw the discarded note laying next to Apple Bloom. “What’s this?” “Ah, dunno. It was layin' next to me on the bed when I woke up” Twilight quickly read through the short letter, and got a confused look on her face. “Hmm, well there are several things that I can tell from this note just by looking over it. First: Whoever wrote it must have been in the workroom, because they noted that you were injured. Second: They seem to be somewhat enamored with you. Third: They obviously like you more than me, because they carried you up and tucked you in, while they left me collapsed and bleeding on top of some rubble” Apple Bloom got out of bed and wandered over to her business partner. “Hey Twi, why don’t you go and fix yerself up. I am goin’ to go see what I can salvage from the workroom.” With a grumble, Twilight walked into the bathroom and the sound of a hot bath being filled could be heard through the door. Grabbing a notebook and pen, the engineer walked down into the main room and stopped at the threshold of the basement. Steeling herself for what lay within, she opened the door and moved down the stairs. What she saw filled her with surprise and sadness. Her life’s work lay in ruins under the library. Moving around in the basement, Apple Bloom was dumbfounded as to how she and Twilight actually survived in the surge of energy that had wrecked everything in the basement. Looking around, she noticed that the six energy dissipators she had installed were nothing but black lumps of slag on the ground. “Well at least now I know that my dissipator design worked...” she mumbled under her breath as she took notes. After surveying the damage, there was depressingly little material or equipment that could be salvaged. However there did seem to be a few interesting inconsistencies with the survey of the damage. In a normal explosion centered on the Inhibitor, the power would have spread radially from the device, laying waste equally around to the workroom. What she saw painted a whole other picture. There was a small circle of relatively untouched ground. In front of it was the remains of the control console. Then in the center of the room, the Chaos Inhibitor was nowhere to be found. There was none of the shrapnel normally associated with crystalline explosions. Also, there was an inexplicable charred path that looked like it had been burned from one edge of the room into the center of the chamber. Stumped on what exactly happened, she did what any good scientist would do: She wanted to collect more data. Trotting back upstairs, she stuck her head upstairs and told Twilight that she was going home to grab some of her tools, sensors, and some supper. On her way out she ran into Spike, who was returning from the concert he had been attending the past couple days in Canterlot. “Hey Ap- What happened to you?!” He cried out in shock at the bruised and battered looking Apple Bloom. “We had an accident in the lab yesterday afternoon. Twilight is ok, though she was also hurt a bit in the blast.” “Blast? Were you two trying to do? I don’t want to have to replace all the flooring again...” “Actually Spike, if you could avoid cleaning the workroom right now, I still need to take some measurements down there.” “If you say so” he shrugged. “I'm going to find Twilight. She is probably going to make me run the library while she is resting. Will you be coming back later?” “Yes, Spike. I will, do you need me to pick up anything for the two of you? “Uh, not right now. Thanks though!” “All right, well go look after Twi. I’ll be back in a couple hours.” With that, Apple Bloom began to walk back to her house wondering how she was going to explain this to her roommates. Garden Tour Garden Springs was taking another group of tourists through the Royal Canterlot Gardens. This was a rather slow time of year, but nonetheless she still had groups of five to ten ponies coming through every couple days. The tour took them past the royal hedge maze, the royal fountain collection, the royal shrubberies, the royal guard posts and finally the royal statue garden. Passing all the marble statues of ponies was normally awe-inspiring, but the big attraction was the large statue of Discord that resided in the middle of the plaza. So when she walked up to it and saw that Discord had disappeared, she did the only rational thing that came to mind: She screamed and fainted. Normally Princess Celestia looked forward to her brunch. A nice relaxing meal of tea and some light sandwiches in between tedious meetings and entertaining foreign dignitaries was a time for the Princess of the Sun to unwind a little and read a book. She had also given her guards standing orders that nopony was to disturb her unless the nation was in dire threat of war or cataclysm. So far, she had gone twelve years without something coming up during brunch. With a light sigh of happiness Celestia levitated her book up in front of her and happily read while sipping on some tea. Just as she was getting comfortable, the doors to her private tea room were slammed open startling the princess and causing her to spew tea all over her book. Annoyed, Celestia turned around to give a nice shout at whomever it was that just ruined her favorite novel. A very tired Shining Armor was standing in the doorway panting like he had just sprinted all the way from the Crystal Empire just to break down her doors. Knowing that she couldn’t stay angry and her son-in-law for too long, she beckoned for him to enter her tea room. “Come in Shining. What brings you here in such a rush?” "Discord appears to be loose again.” A pause so pregnant that it probably could have broken birthing records followed his announcement. Celestia was staring at Shining, hoping that he wasn’t joking or trying to pull some sort of evil prank. “Seriously?” “Seriously. A tour guide was taking a group of ponies through the statue gardens, when she saw that the statue of Discord was gone. She screamed and fainted, and one of my guards heard the commotion and ran over to investigate. Then once he saw the statue was gone, he reported it in and took the tour group away from the gardens” “Have there been any reports of cotton candy clouds or chocolate milk rain?” “Surprisingly, no. When I first heard, I sent the pegasi out to look for any signs of Chaos, but they reported back that there was nothing like last time.” Looking pensive, Celestia began thinking of her next course of action. She couldn’t just announce that Discord was loose again. With nothing changing or being strange, her little ponies would just panic for no reason. However, she couldn’t ignore that he was on the loose again. Just the fact that he was showing some restraint this time meant that he had learned his lesson from last time and was lying in wait for his best opportunity. Coming to a decision, she began to give her orders to her Captain of the Guard. “Shining, here is what I want you to do...” Ch 3: Flowers and DreamsA Discordant Romance Ch 3: Flowers and Dreams Stalking the Prey Discord sat in silence as the yellow one passed him. He was hiding in the brush of the tree-library, and was waiting to see where she was going. While hiding, he had heard Twilight talking to her, and he learned a couple important things: First: The pony he had tucked into bed was named Apple Bloom Second: They were working on a device called a “Chaos Inhibitor” But most importantly: They still hadn’t discovered him. Undoubtedly, Celestia would soon be alerted that her centerpiece statue had once again disappeared and would have begun to take action. However, this time things would end differently. Last time, he was sure that with the Elements of Harmony spread across six ponies he could make them hate each other enough to break the bond with their own Element. Last time he was a fool. Carefully moving through the back alleys of Ponyville, Discord tried to keep up with his quarry. Sliding through the streets like a dark shadow, he followed Applebloom through Ponyville until she stopped at an unassuming looking cottage on the edge of town. Unlocking the door she stepped inside. From his vantage point, Discord was unable to see what was happening within. However, if he strained his hearing a bit, he could faintly hear the conversations within. Home Sweet Clubhouse Apple Bloom walked into her house, and was greeted by the usual sight of her living room. Scootaloo was crashed out on the couch, a box of take-out dumped on the floor next to her. Sweetie Belle was probably off at work still. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed that she wouldn’t be home for at another couple hours at least. Treading quietly so she didn’t wake up her housemate, she silently went upstairs into her bedroom/workroom. Similar to Rarity’s Inspiration room (though arguably much more dangerous), Apple Bloom’s workroom was a mess of metal parts, wires, crystals and technical diagrams. Tucked away in a small corner of the room was a tiny bed draped with an old red comforter embroidered with apples and trees. Rummaging around the room, the engineer finally found what she was looking for. Slightly larger than a loaf of bread, it was a small yellow box with several switches and dials on the top. A taped on label read “Chaos Detector” in black penned ink. Grabbing it, she gently set it in her saddlebag and gathered several more tools and instruments along with a small purse of bits for dinner. Carefully descending the steps, she was surprised to hear Scootaloo up and about. “Hey ‘Bloom! There is something at the door for you!” Well, now that her housemate was up, there was no point in trying to be quiet anymore. “Thanks Scoots! How was work today?” “Meh. Same crap, different day. Just filing more paperwork and trying to resolve scheduling conflicts between the Canterlot and the Cloudsdale Weather Teams. Also, could you take a look at my wings? I tried doing a little gliding in them and I think some of the servos on the port wingtip are acting up.” Putting her tools down, Apple Bloom moved over to look at the offending machinery. “Yeah, it looks like you rammed the wingtip into something pretty hard and bent them again. You also have a couple small pebbles stuck in the bearing channels.” Grabbing a small crescent wrench and screwdriver she began to tinker on the artificial wing. “Have you been trying to do stunts again?” “Hehe, well Rainbow Dash was in town on vacation and she hadn’t seen my new wing upgrades yet. Sooo, we kinda ended up racing a little and I sorta ran into a tree. Then I fell onto the ground. And then I rolled into a lake.” Scootaloo gave her friend a big smile of pure innocence. Shaking her head, Apple Bloom finished cleaning up and straightening the wing. “There ya go Scoots. Try not to mess it up again. Those are some pretty sensitive components you have attached to ya there.” Walking to the door, she found a small vase of lilies tied with cord and a small note hanging off the side. Bringing it inside, Apple Bloom set it on the table and opened the note. “Dearest Apple Bloom, For so long my heart was cold and set in stone, I was living in a world of loneliness and sorrow. Everything changed when I emerged from that explosion And everything has changed and i now have reason to look forward to tomorrow. My soul has found its love which before it could not comprehend Before, I had no reason to love. I had never before believed that could make my heart mend For my feelings for you are vast, like the starry expanse above. This feeling, it beats for you alone. Also, here are some flowers. -D” Having read the note over Apple Bloom’s shoulder, Scootaloo could be heard gagging in the back of the room. “Oh sweet baby Celestia on a tricycle, that was some of the worst poetry I think I have ever read.” “Well ah thought it was kinda sweet.” “If by sweet you mean diabetes inducing, then yes; I agree.” Shooting Scootaloo a snide look, the yellow mare gently took the flowers and put them in a vase with some water. Actually taking a look at her roommate while she was walking around, Scootaloo noticed the bruises and scraped covering her friend’s body. “Bloom, what happened to you? Did you try to fix moving machinery again? I thought you had learned after the train incident” Apple Bloom shuddered at the memory of trying to fix that damned train. After recovering from the awful recollection she responded to Scootaloo's query. “Nope. The Chaos Inhibitor Twilight and I was working on kinda blew up a little.” Perking up at the thought of her friend being caught in some totally awesome explosions and action, Scootaloo suddenly became a lot more interested. “So was that the large whump I heard this morning? I just assumed it was Derpy dropping another large object or accidentally releasing a small thunderstorm on the town again.” “Well we still don’t know how it happened, and I actually came back to get some of my tools to analyze exactly what happened. But I really need to go and get food and take it to the library. I may or may not be back tonight, so go ahead and lock everything up; I have my spare key with me. Also, don’t forget to oil your wings. I noticed small amount of corrosion buildup in some of your flight guidance lines. ” Nodding her hear in agreement with whatever Apple Bloom was saying, Scootaloo watched her best friend walk off towards the library. With a quick glance at the vased flowers, the mechanical pegasus just whispered softly .“Who has she gotten herself involved with now...” her words lost in the breeze. Ground Zero After swinging by the cafe, Apple Bloom hurried up to return to the Library. The sun was beginning to set behind some of the houses, and enough time had already passed that some chaos particles may have already started to dissipate. Walking through the front door she called out to the Librarian and her assistant. “Hey Twilight, Spike! Ahm back with dinner!” Like any growing child Spike came careening down the stairs at the mention of food. Twilight slowly followed behind, gingerly taking each step to avoid being banged up, "Hey there! While you were out spike and I were trying to fix any of the other internal damage caused by the explosion. Did you get the tools you needed?" “Yeah, I did. I want to go ahead and get started with the data gathering after dinner. I don’t want the risk having the energies dissipate too much before I can get some measurements.” Setting the food on the table, the three quickly ate the dinner and began to gather the tools necessary for their analysis of the ground zero. With Apple bloom leading, they slowly descended the stairs into the basement. Setting up shop in a small cleared area by the stairs, they began to take their readings. Of the area… Three hours later, they still weren't quite sure what had happened. From what they could price together, it seemed like there was a massive release of energy in the room. But, the source had been external rather than emanating from the machinery itself. However, the most likely interesting part was the microcrystalline fractures in the wood walls on the room. Atypical of most wood damage there were tiny fractures through the material similar to the spider webbing found on impacted glass. "Well Twilight, 'ahm completely stumped about what could have caused this. I don't think I have ever seen anything like this in organic materials like wood before." Sitting quietly, Twilight was in deep thought. Suddenly she looked up with a look of epiphany. "What if the wood was frozen?" Applebloom gave her coworker a look of incomprehension. "OK, so have you ever dipped something in liquid air?" Nodding her head Applebloom responded "Yeah, I have. Though it was only once. Making liquid air takes huge amounts of energy, so I never got to mess with it much." "Well if you dip something organic like wood or fruit into liquid air, it flash freezes it. Then, if you take that object and smash it with a hammer, it will shatter like glass." Beginning to see where Twilight was coming from, she began to finish connecting the dots of what Twilight was saying. "So what you're saying is that something caused the lab to freeze. Now what in Equestria could have caused that to happen to the entire room?" "I don't know, but let's go upstairs and try to reconstruct what happened with what we know." First: when activated, the inhibitor began to draw unprecedented amounts of magical power. Second: After we lost control the inhibitor seemed to explode, and knocked us unconscious. Third: when we returned to the lab after regaining consciousness, there was no trace of the inhibitor. All the equipment that managed the magic flow melted, and the other equipment shattered like glass. However, the center of the room and a small path are scorched as if by fire. Sitting on the couch in the library's main room, the two mares were deep in thought. Apple Bloom suddenly sat up, a look of epiphany on her face. "Twilight, what if the inhibitor actually worked better than we thought?" "What do you mean by that?" "Well, the whole point of the inhibitor was to draw off excessive entropic energy from a chaos event right? Well what if instead of giving it a small spontaneous chaos event like an explosion, we just kept feeding it more energy?" "That would cause it to try to order the chaotic flow of energy being fed to it... oh no..." "Oh no?" "So magic is an intrinsic part of all the earth right?" "Yes..." "So by feeding it magical energy straight from the earth, the inhibitor essentially tried to remove all entropy from the planet. With no entropy, there would be no heat or temperature, effectively causing the world to freeze." "That would explain how everything got cold enough to shatter. but how did they actually shatter?" "Hmm well according to Neighton's third law, every action should have an equal and opposition reaction. a sudden reactive influx of heat and entropy would cause a similar explosion, but if the ordering of the planet happened as fast as I think it did, then the explosion should have left Ponyville a gigantic crater." "Well, lookin' at the burn patterns on the ground, it doesn't look like a spontaneous influx of heat to me. What it looks like is similar to a river running into a lake. Almost like something guided the reaction to the inhibitor." "Agreed. If it was a normal reaction, it would have most likely have started from the outside in. The big question still stands, what would have focused it like that?" Another moment of silence reigned over the den. "Well what is the opposite of ultimate order?" “Well, ultimate chaos of course... but what would direct something like that?” Between the two mares, a look of mixed comprehension and fear crept along their faces. As they said in unison, “Discord.” Ch 4: DiscoveryA New Day Rises Twilight was having a no good, awful, really bad morning. For starters, finding out that your arch-nemesis has once again escaped his stony prison right before bed leads to spending far too long thinking about the possible consequences, instead of actually sleeping. Waking up wasn't much better. Her body still ached from the explosion two days ago, her head was throbbing with the pains of dehydration and stress, and they were out of coffee in the library. ~~~ After living in Ponyville for so long, many of the residents learned to avoid Twilight on her grumpy days. Thankfully, those days were very few and far between. Whether the cause was caffeine deficiency, anxiety, stress, or hormones, it was fairly easy to tell when the purple librarian was not in the mood to interact with others. As a result, Twilight was given a wide berth as she trudged across Ponyville to buy some breakfast from Sugarcube Corner. A small bell chimed as Twilight walked through the door and marched over to the counter. “Coffee.” One word, and she strode over to a corner table where she would hopefully not have to talk to anyone. Pumpkin Cake slowly walked over to the purple grump cautiously, carefully levitating a cup of coffee in front of Twilight’s face. As soon as the purple menace grasped the mug, she quickly hid behind the counter with her brother Pound. “Do you think she wants anything else?” He whispered to his sister. “Shhhhh! Let her get the caffeine in her system. Once she relaxes past the point of ‘I will torch anyone who dares interrupt my thoughts’ you can go offer her something to eat.” The two watched from behind the counter as the black caffeinated beverage began to slowly work it’s own kind of magic on the lavender . Minutes passed and the rage levels in the room began to slowly diminish to much less potentially lethal levels. Pushing her brother out into the danger zone, Pumpkin watched Pound slowly move over to Twilight table; His every move was deliberately slow and he was making sure to avoid any sudden motions. “Can I get you anything to eat Miss Twilight?” He cautiously asked, ready to bolt in case of sudden rage induced fireballs magically appearing. Trembling with barely contained fear, he watched as she turned to face him, her purple eyes focusing in on his face. “Yes actually. Can I get a bagel with capers and a lemon poppyseed muffin please?” Happy that he avoided harm, he rushed back to the kitchen and relayed the order to Pumpkin. While the order was being made ready in the back, Pound stuck his head out the back and signalled to the rest of Ponyville that the danger had passed. With a sigh of relief, the rest of the town began to go about their business as usual and without fear of sudden unicorn immolation. Confrontation Apple Bloom really need some time to think. Walking alone through the Whitetail woods, she mentally was alternating between thinking about the consequences of Discord’s release, and how she had inadvertently caused it. Walking to the top of a hill, she sat under an old grizzled oak tree and just watched Ponyville come to life as the sun rose over the horizon. “Seems like I’m not the only one around here who can appreciate a good sunrise.” The oddly familiar voice startled the yellow mare, causing her to look around frantically for the source. “If you are looking for me, you won’t find me you know. I was here first after all.” The smooth voice flowed through the air, coming from the tree, but yet seemingly from elsewhere. Something about the voice tugged at her memory. Looking back though the hazy memories that time faded, she kept getting the distinct feeling that she should recognize the speaker. “You know, your face really is adorable when it’s all scrunched up in thought like that” the voice called with a hint of humor. As soon as the last word passed, something clicked in the yellow mare’s mind. Cautiously, she asked her question, simultaneously hoping that she was both right and wrong at the same time. “Discord, is that you?” “Astute sense of hearing Apple Bloom. I must say, you really have grown up to be quite the observant mare.” Chuckling at his little joke, his voice continued to flow from the branches surrounding her. A little peeved from the sarcasm, Apple Bloom was struck with a moment of inspiration. “We’re gonna see who’s laughing now...” she muttered under her breath. Standing up, Apple Bloom put all her years of hard work at Sweet Apple Acres to good use by giving the massive oak tree a powerful buck right in the center of it’s trunk. The ground trembled at the tree shook violently, knocking loose acorns, squirrels, birds and one rather distraught looking Draconequus. “Ow! What did you go and do that for?” Inquired the not-quite-pony. Standing up, he rubbed his back where he had fallen on a rock. “I was having a rather fun time being all mysterious and mystical. Kids these days, no respect for their omnipotent elders...” Sticking her tongue out at Discord, Apple Bloom just walked back over to her sitting spot under the tree and leaned back against it once more. “So Discord, what exactly are you doing back here in Ponyville?” She tried to say nonchalantly. “Besides saving your life and the rest of the world besides? Oh not much. Watching the time slip by I suppose. After spending several millennia being encased in stone, one finds ways to amuse themself after a while.” An awkward silence filled the clearing. “Soooo... does Celestia know you are here?” “Not to my knowledge, though the fact that I am free once again probably has her leaving large clay bricks in her excrement” Stuck between being horrified that Discord would even talk about the elder diarch of Equestria like that, and laughing at the absurdity of it; the laughter barely won out as a couple of light chuckles escaping the mare’s lips. “I would bet that she is sending out search parties for me by now. Celestia was always the unfun disciplinarian of the two.” Rolling his eyes, he changed his voice into a recognizable mockery of the sun princess. “Discord, go clean your room. Discord, don’t play with your food. Discord stop turning my castle into a roast beef sandwich.” His voice returning to normal, he continued on his little tirade. “She never understood the meaning of ‘fun’”. Chuckling at his vocal impersonation, Apple Bloom’s curiosity overcame her usual inhibitions about conversing with immortal deities. “So you knew the princesses pretty well then?” a moment of silence ensued before he replied with a rather pained voice. “I suppose you could say so... Oops! Looks like you have a visitor. Time for me to make like a tree and fly off into the sunset.” Before she could formulate a reply, she heard a familiar voice calling her name from the woods before her. A familiar lavender unicorn was approaching her spot under the tree, accompanied by a white unicorn stallion and his pink wife. Building Relationships Sitting in their house, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sitting around the kitchen table discussing their best friend’s new romantic interest. Laying between them were the flowers and the love poem. “I can’t believe that Apple Bloom has a romantic lover” pouted the white unicorn. “I work so hard, but all the stallions who pine after me are just interested in sex. Why can’t I get mystery flowers and sappy love poems...” “It’s probably because you keep reading all those awful romance novels and expect every stallion to be a perfect gentlecolt” muttered Scootaloo under her breath. “For your information, the books I peruse in my free time have absolutely nothing to do with what I look for in a stallion thank you very much!” Just as the argument began to wind up, the door burst open and Spike walked in. Freezing in the doorway, Spike was wondering why both of the mares at the table were staring at him so intently. “Uhh..” he stammered looking for any excuse to leave the now hostile territory. “Tell her she is wrong!” shouted both of the two mares at the table. Slowly backing out the door, he just wanted to avoid his quickly impending doom at having to choose between the two and be wrong regardless of choice. "TwilightsentmeovertoletyouknowthatsheandAppleBloomwillbecomingbylaterfordinnerpleasedonthurtme!" His message delivered, he sprinted out the door as fast has his legs could carry him. Just a Walk in the Park Apple Bloom did not believe in coincidence. A back to back visit from chatting with Discord to apparently having lunch with the Captain of the Royal Equestrian guard could not possibly be unrelated. A gentle breeze rippled across the grassy clearing while the four ponies sat comfortably on a packed sheet. Twilight was chatting amiably with her brother and his wife about some humorous anecdote based on married life, while everyone was nibbling on some sandwiches that had been packed in Twilight’s saddlebags. After a lull in the conversation, Shining cleared his throat and turned to face Apple Bloom and his sister. “Well, Twilight told us about your experiment. While none of us, including Princess Celestia, hold you to blame for Discords release; I hope you understand the kind of position this puts the Equestria into. Since there haven’t been any large scale chocolate milk rainstorms or floating buildings, we have so far managed to keep his escape quiet. The tabloids are running wild with rumors, but otherwise nopony it the wiser.” He paused to take a sip of grape juice. With sigh he continued. “I don’t think I have to warn you to be on the lookout for Discord, but please let us know if you see or hear anything related to his escape.” Thinking for a second the yellow earth pony spoke a little slowly, as if unsure how to phrase her next sentence. “Ah certantly do my best Shining. If I do see or hear anything, what should I do?” “Just tell Twilight, and she can get word directly to me. Being a unicorn does have it’s perks after all” He said with a wry grin. Cadence was talking with Twilight, but took a break to chat with Apple Bloom. “So word around town is that somepony has been leaving you love letters and flowers” She deadpanned. Blushing furiously, Apple Bloom's face turned as red as her hair. Stammering in embarrassment, she tried to get a suitable response out. Smiling knowingly the princess of love just chuckled. “Well I for one am happy that you are finally finding somepony to share your life with. And I happen to think that poems and flowers are hopelessly romantic” With that she shot a pointed glance at her husband. Her blush calming down, the four ponies spent a little more time chatting and eating before packing up to leave. Shining Armor and Cadence walked with Twilight and Apple Bloom to the edge of Ponyville, but split off towards the train station. Twilight and Apple Bloom walked over towards Apple Bloom’s apartment, ready to continue the day.
Ch 1: Discord and Apple Bloom, sitting in a tree...A Discordant Romance By: ChasetheBrony Discord Being the lord of Chaos was a pretty awesome gig. Go around, change the world as you see fit, and generally control all entropy in the galaxy. Well, It was awesome until that uppity Celestia thought that creating a haven of order in his land of chaos was a Good Idea. With both of them being in their adolescence at the time, he had (foolishly) thought that he could tackle the powers of order and harmony by himself. As it turns out, he was wrong. Very, Very wrong. Celestia and Luna managed to use the powers of harmony and order to freeze him into a statue and render him unable to directly affect the world. However, they had overlooked one tiny little detail: When an element is crystallized, that causes it to be focused and can therefore be used to create cohesion and will eventually create an increase in power on a localized area. Essentially they had inadvertently created a chaos cannon. At first, Discord’s power was severely diminished by the creation of order in Equestria. Being forced to sit in one spot and watch pigeons crap on you is not the best way to retain your sanity, so he began to contemplate the rest of his chaotic realm outside the earth. From these contemplations, Discord came to several conclusions: One: The universe is in a constant state of entropy and is expanding chaotically without limit. Two: Being lonely sucks. Three: Imaginary friends stop being fun after 456 years. Also, they don’t talk back and make lousy conversation. And Finally: there are exactly 4.56234203948231094e2345478 stars in the universe +/- 3.43e12532 with an additional 9,453.456 being created every other minute. Even though his power was rising, he was getting more and more bored. The closest he ever got to new amusement was when Celestia banished Nightmare Moon to the Moon. They had some interesting conversations, but Nightmare Moon wasn’t exactly the most personable pony, and they quickly grew to hate each other’s guts. After what is possibly the longest game of “I’m not touching you”, Nightmare Moon lost after 1,000 years. However, His feeling of victory was short lived and the loneliness quickly set in. After over five thousand years of imprisonment, the moment had finally come. Millenia of captured cosmic chaos had finally been accumulated for this one single instant. All the power of chaos was unleashed through the top of the statue first. Then, using his headcannon, he slowly began to fracture his stone prison chip by chip. Apple Bloom School Field Trips were usually fun. Usually. The exception being when your teacher parades you through a garden full of boring old statues and lectures you for hours on ponies you never really wanted to learn about anyways. So as usual she got in an argument with Scoots and Sweetie Belle to try to pass the time. Soon enough, their argument turned into a full-fledged fight. After Cheerilee broke up the fracas, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were back into their same bored routine while the tour continued. “Psst!” Scootaloo whispered over at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “Psst yourself!, What’s up Scoots?” “What do you say we go and have some fun?. Maybe we could go and see if we can get our cutie marks by climbing statues or something” Scootaloo always had the best ideas for getting their cutie marks. Making sure that Miss Cheerilee was distracted while giving her tour, the three fillies snuck off into the field of statues. Scootaloo was right! Tag is so much more fun when you have to weave your way through a maze of statues! giggling while she was running Apple Bloom suddenly ran head-first into a huge statue. Looking up, she saw that it was the large Draconequus statue Miss Cheerilee had pointed out earlier. “Hmm... I don’t remember all these cracks being here when we looked at it five minutes ago.” With a puzzled look on her face, she reared up on her hind legs to try and get a better look at the new fissures forming on the skin of the statue. Suddenly a bright yellow light began to shine from the fractures, blinding the small yellow filly. Apple Bloom fell backwards onto the ground screaming as the statue exploded in syrup and eggshells. A loud booming voice overtook her world. “I am FREE!” Part of Applebloom wanted to run away screaming. Part of her wanted to be courageous and stand against the creature. The odd third part of her wanted to bow in front of the creature and worship him. Looking around, the beast noticed Apple Bloom and froze. Freezing in place, the draconequus stared into her eyes for what seemed like hours. His gaze seemed to reach to her very soul while spontaneously surrounding her with those little chalky hearts and hooves day candies. Then, he broke the stare, shook his head, looked up at the castle and stated: “Well, off I go to conquer the world again!” and with a loud pop and a wave of chocolate milk and strawberry frosting he disappeared into thin air. Later, the other children and an extremely worried Miss Cheerilee found Applebloom staring wistfully at an empty pedestal in the middle of the garden, surrounded in candy hearts and frosting with a small smile on her face. PART II -20 Years Later Apple Bloom and Twilight Sparkle were gathered in the Ponyville Library basement tinkering on a mass of machinery surrounding a small crystal cube. Twilight’s horn was glowing violet while Apple Bloom was wrenching inside of one of the larger metal contraptions. Ever since she had gotten her cutie mark (a slide-rule) after engineering the drawbridge of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Super Secret Clubhouse, Apple Bloom was considered one of the best engineers in the Ponyville-Canterlot region of Equestria. Ever since she had released the dragoneqqus Discord in the Canterlot Gardens twenty years earlier, Apple Bloom had been working on the design for her newest creation: The Chaos Inhibitor. In conjunction with the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, Apple Bloom had spent the past three years designing this powerful artifact. Combining Unicorn Magic and Earth pony Engineering was no small feat even on it's own. Unrefined magic was inherently unstable and unusable by the earth ponies, while most unicorns were so reliant on magic they sometimes had a hard time understanding the more precise working of the newfangled engines and machinery. Either way, with a large grant from the Equestrian Science Institute, and some supplemental funding from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, Twilight and Apple Bloom had in conjunction created some of the largest scientific leaps since the advent capturing steam power. ~~~~ “Can you pass me a number 7 adjustable spanner?” The slight twang of the younger pony’s voice echoed from inside the small metal case. Levitating the spanner over, Twilight tapped Apple Bloom on the flank with it and then set it on the ground by the other pony’s foreleg. After a couple minutes of grunting and mild swearing, Apple Bloom finally emerged from the machine with a victorious smile on her face. “Well, Twilight. I think it’s done! Let’s run some preliminary tests and then we can go ahead and let Celestia know that we are ready for the chaos transfer.” The earth pony trotted over to the output console to monitor the output readings. “Ok Twi, lets start by tryin' to capture the chaotic entropy of combustion. That should be a good baseline test to calibrate the Chaos Inhibitor with.” With a quick snap of magic, Twilight lit a candle over in the center of the room by the crystal cube. Then she quickly retreated behind the relative safety of Apple Bloom’s console. “Ok, I am going to go ahead and start feeding magical energy into the input nodes.” Twilight’s horn began to glow and lavender tendrils of magic began to expand themselves to several crystals on the edge of the room. “Input Nodes online. Beginning connection to aether laylines.” The unicorn stated. Twilight began to sweat under the magical strain. “I have achieved magical connection. Stand by and watch for any unusual magical fluctuations while the connections stabilize.” The arranged machinery and crystals began to light up and hum with a rhythmic pulse. “Ok ‘Bloom. Its under your control now. I will watch and maintain a shield in case of... accidents” Tapping at the data inputs in front of her, Apple Bloom did a quick recheck of all the magical displays before flipping a large red switch. “Feedin’ power to the Inhibitor.... now!” The cables connected to the cube suddenly began to glow and crackle with power. Immediately after, the cube in the middle of the room began to lift out of it’s cradle and glow a deep crimson. Suddenly several small alarms on the console began to ping with urgent warning. “Twilight, the Inhibitor is overdrawing on the nodes! Try to shunt off the energy into the dissipators!” “I am TRYING to do just that! It won’t go! I am going to go ahead and cut off the power from the leylines.” With both ponies frantically working to stop the machine, they didn’t notice a blue form coalescing around the Chaos Inhibitor. “Twilight! Ah’ve lost all control of the device! Get a shield up now! With the amount of energy being drawn in right now, I think the nodes are going to expl-” Halfway through her sentence, the entire room froze. For a split second there was no chaos in Equestria. Just perfect order. It is said that the universe abhors a vacuum. Is is the nature of the universt that pure order or pure chaos cannot exists. When one of them becomes absent itself, the universe corrects the lack with a massive correction. That perfect counterbalance formed itself around the cube. It first resembled a snake, then as it grew arms and legs, It ceased to resemble anything except for one creature. Discord. Then with a large explosion, everything went black. Awakening Ever since he had escaped from his prison (and after his soon re-imprisonment) Discord had been thinking. The Draconequus had given up on finding any love millennia ago. Every time he kept thinking about it, he was constantly reminded that there were no other Draconequus in existence. However, even that would have been surmountable were it that others liked and accept him. Unfortunately, few saw past the mishmash of creatures his body resembled and looked for the soul within. All they saw was a hideous freak who sewed chaos everywhere he went. This fear and loathing was plain to see on the faces of those around him. Even the few who had seen though his mad exterior had locked him in stone to be held as a spectacle for everyone to see. With a thousand years to pout, he had been bent on revenge. Locking away Celstia in her tower, playing with the Elements of Harmony, he had been king. But his anger had clouded his judgement. He had not anticipated the power of hope, love, and friendship. All things that had been so long denied to him. Now he just sat in melancholy thought, despairing that he could never even find friendship sealed away in the void of the universe. His mind wandering, he drifted towards a memory from his first release. The face of a small yellow filly with a candy apple mane. Not looking on him with fear or horror, but instead with curiosity and awe. He wondered what her life was like after his release. Maybe she had a family now. She definitely had friends, that was for sure. Few ponies cared to live without the friends they made so easily. He was used to being lonely by now. ~~~ Being the lord of Chaos meant that Discord had the ability to ‘feel’ the ambient chaos of the universe. Being of the Universe meant that he was familiar with the galactic sense of balance. For every buildup in order in one area, there was a chaotic event elsewhere to maintain the status quo. The eddies and swirls of the chaos/order matrix surrounded him and were a part of him. So when there was suddenly a major unbalancing in the fabric of Chaos, Discord got worried and went to investigate. What he saw horrified him. What he had previously believed to be impossible, had been achieved: Perfect Order. Sending his senses straight to the center of the ordering, he could feel the construct siphoning the magical essence from the earth. He also began to feel it slowly spreading its crystalline growth through the area. Thankfully, the chaos of the planet's core was slowing the ordering enough for him to act. Leaping into motion, Discord gathered up all the chaos he could and dove into the matrix. Moving into the zone of pure order felt like jumping into a lake of liquid helium I. Keeping an open path of chaos behind him, he kept pressing forward toward the center. The close he got to the source, the amount of pure order was so great that he could literally feel it stopping the molecular processes in the world around him. Soon he could feel his path closing behind him. Pausing for a minute he began to use some desperate measures. Drawing on the pure fusion chaos of the far flung stars, the pulled the chaos of nuclear fusion in to blast a path through the order. Knowing that he had to stop the spread he burned a path of nuclear fury to the cause of the order. Reaching the center, he could see the pulsating creation before him. Marveling at the engineering of it, he was enthralled at the controlled imperfections in the crystal that allowed it to focus the massive amounts of magical energy required to freeze the atoms themselves. In fact, the more he looked the more he realized that what it was doing was simply using the chaos around it to self-perpetuate the chain reaction. Discord was shaken out of his reverie by a sudden drop in chaos. Seeking the cause, he realized that he had drained 3 systems of solar power just to keep his channel to the heart open. With a final gathering of power, Discord collected his chaos and dropped it all in one blow to the cube of pure order. With a crash of power and the thundering of released magic, the world came back to life.
Ch 2: First Comes Love...A Discordant Romacne Ch 2: First comes Love.... From the Wreckage The destruction of the lab was not quite total. As Discord stood up, his claw began to try to massage the massive headache that was developing in his head. Opening his eyes, he saw before him the same yellow pony that had stood before him twenty years ago. Only, age had improved what was a blossoming flower into a beautiful lily. Well, a battered and unconscious lily that is. Beside her laid the one responsible for his second imprisonment: Twilight Sparkle. Just her name sent a combination of fear and anger coursing through his veins. From the way they were laid out, it was obvious that some sort of shield had protected them from the brunt of the blast. Moving over to check on the earth pony, he tried to summon a tendril of chaos to glide him over to her side. Suddenly his headache flared and he collapsed on the ground with fiery bolts of pain coursing through him. When the pain finally cleared up, he sighed in frustration and gingerly picked up the yellow mare and carried her out of the wreckage. Climbing a set of stairs, he found himself in the reception area of an exceptionally well stocked and organized library. Looking around, another set of stairs led up to what looked like a bedroom area. Staying in shape had never been a top priority for a being who could command chaos to carry him and whatever he desired. So having to actually walk and carry weight was exceedingly tiring. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, the sight of a decently sized bed with star printed sheets brought the promise of resting his arms. Carefully laying the mare down in the bed, he tucked her in, and had absolutely no idea what to do next. If he stayed, he would undoubtedly be discovered and the fracas that ensued would surely end up with him being encased in stone for yet a third time. But, he was hesitant to leave the side of the beautiful figure in front of him. After a moment of crisis, his self-preservation won out. Finding a stack of paper and pens nearby, he grabbed a sheet and jotted down a quick note. After folding it up, he wrote on the front: “For when you wake up” and propped it up on the bedside table. With one last glance back into the room with the drowsing figure, he snuck off to hide. Rise and Shine The light creeping through the curtains was shining right in Apple Blooms eyes. She tried to turn over in bed, but the sudden feeling of pain enveloping her woke her up with a whimper. ‘Whose bed am I in?’ she wondered idly. Looking around, she saw that she was in a largeish bed with stars and planets on the sheets. Her eyes widening in shock, she frantically looked around to see if Twilight was in bed with her. Not seeing that anypony else sharing the bed with her, she let out a little sigh of relief. Focusing on her wounds, she realized that she had no idea how she had gotten injured. ‘C’mon Apple Bloom, think! you can remember...’ Suddenly a rush of memories filled her mind. She remembered setting up the Chaos Inhibitor, initializing the power sequence, then... nothing. All she knew was that something had happened and she had wound up in Twilight‘s bed. Getting up, she noticed a small note laying on the bedside table Opening it up it simply read: “Hope you get better, I don’t think I could bear to lose you again. -D” ‘Well that’s odd. I don’t think I know anypony with a name that starts with a D.’ While she was pondering upon who could have possibly left her the note, the door to the bedroom slammed open and a very pissed-off Twilight stormed inside. “Why in Luna’s name did you leave me in the workroom?! I thought that you would at least have the decency to wake me up and put me in my own bed, but noooo; you had to leave me passed out and bleeding in the middle of the burning wreckage downstairs while you were sleeping peacefully IN MY BED!” With those last couple words she looked like she was about to burst into flames of pure rage. “Uh, Twilight, I have absolutely no idea what the hay you are talkin’ ‘bout. I just woke up a couple minutes ago.” After a slight pause, she continued “Wait, what happened in the workroom? What happened to the Chaos Inhibitor?!” with the thought that her precious project had somehow been a failure, her voice started to raise it pitch. “You mean you don’t remember?” Thinking hard and coming up with nothing, the youngest member of the Apple family stole a phrase from her older brother: “eenope.” “Well here is the short and sweet version: It worked, then it exploded.” Her engineering mind began to mentally take apart the Inhibitor’s design to try and reconnect where the process could have gone wrong. While she was thinking, Twilight walked up to the bed and saw the discarded note laying next to Apple Bloom. “What’s this?” “Ah, dunno. It was layin' next to me on the bed when I woke up” Twilight quickly read through the short letter, and got a confused look on her face. “Hmm, well there are several things that I can tell from this note just by looking over it. First: Whoever wrote it must have been in the workroom, because they noted that you were injured. Second: They seem to be somewhat enamored with you. Third: They obviously like you more than me, because they carried you up and tucked you in, while they left me collapsed and bleeding on top of some rubble” Apple Bloom got out of bed and wandered over to her business partner. “Hey Twi, why don’t you go and fix yerself up. I am goin’ to go see what I can salvage from the workroom.” With a grumble, Twilight walked into the bathroom and the sound of a hot bath being filled could be heard through the door. Grabbing a notebook and pen, the engineer walked down into the main room and stopped at the threshold of the basement. Steeling herself for what lay within, she opened the door and moved down the stairs. What she saw filled her with surprise and sadness. Her life’s work lay in ruins under the library. Moving around in the basement, Apple Bloom was dumbfounded as to how she and Twilight actually survived in the surge of energy that had wrecked everything in the basement. Looking around, she noticed that the six energy dissipators she had installed were nothing but black lumps of slag on the ground. “Well at least now I know that my dissipator design worked...” she mumbled under her breath as she took notes. After surveying the damage, there was depressingly little material or equipment that could be salvaged. However there did seem to be a few interesting inconsistencies with the survey of the damage. In a normal explosion centered on the Inhibitor, the power would have spread radially from the device, laying waste equally around to the workroom. What she saw painted a whole other picture. There was a small circle of relatively untouched ground. In front of it was the remains of the control console. Then in the center of the room, the Chaos Inhibitor was nowhere to be found. There was none of the shrapnel normally associated with crystalline explosions. Also, there was an inexplicable charred path that looked like it had been burned from one edge of the room into the center of the chamber. Stumped on what exactly happened, she did what any good scientist would do: She wanted to collect more data. Trotting back upstairs, she stuck her head upstairs and told Twilight that she was going home to grab some of her tools, sensors, and some supper. On her way out she ran into Spike, who was returning from the concert he had been attending the past couple days in Canterlot. “Hey Ap- What happened to you?!” He cried out in shock at the bruised and battered looking Apple Bloom. “We had an accident in the lab yesterday afternoon. Twilight is ok, though she was also hurt a bit in the blast.” “Blast? Were you two trying to do? I don’t want to have to replace all the flooring again...” “Actually Spike, if you could avoid cleaning the workroom right now, I still need to take some measurements down there.” “If you say so” he shrugged. “I'm going to find Twilight. She is probably going to make me run the library while she is resting. Will you be coming back later?” “Yes, Spike. I will, do you need me to pick up anything for the two of you? “Uh, not right now. Thanks though!” “All right, well go look after Twi. I’ll be back in a couple hours.” With that, Apple Bloom began to walk back to her house wondering how she was going to explain this to her roommates. Garden Tour Garden Springs was taking another group of tourists through the Royal Canterlot Gardens. This was a rather slow time of year, but nonetheless she still had groups of five to ten ponies coming through every couple days. The tour took them past the royal hedge maze, the royal fountain collection, the royal shrubberies, the royal guard posts and finally the royal statue garden. Passing all the marble statues of ponies was normally awe-inspiring, but the big attraction was the large statue of Discord that resided in the middle of the plaza. So when she walked up to it and saw that Discord had disappeared, she did the only rational thing that came to mind: She screamed and fainted. Normally Princess Celestia looked forward to her brunch. A nice relaxing meal of tea and some light sandwiches in between tedious meetings and entertaining foreign dignitaries was a time for the Princess of the Sun to unwind a little and read a book. She had also given her guards standing orders that nopony was to disturb her unless the nation was in dire threat of war or cataclysm. So far, she had gone twelve years without something coming up during brunch. With a light sigh of happiness Celestia levitated her book up in front of her and happily read while sipping on some tea. Just as she was getting comfortable, the doors to her private tea room were slammed open startling the princess and causing her to spew tea all over her book. Annoyed, Celestia turned around to give a nice shout at whomever it was that just ruined her favorite novel. A very tired Shining Armor was standing in the doorway panting like he had just sprinted all the way from the Crystal Empire just to break down her doors. Knowing that she couldn’t stay angry and her son-in-law for too long, she beckoned for him to enter her tea room. “Come in Shining. What brings you here in such a rush?” "Discord appears to be loose again.” A pause so pregnant that it probably could have broken birthing records followed his announcement. Celestia was staring at Shining, hoping that he wasn’t joking or trying to pull some sort of evil prank. “Seriously?” “Seriously. A tour guide was taking a group of ponies through the statue gardens, when she saw that the statue of Discord was gone. She screamed and fainted, and one of my guards heard the commotion and ran over to investigate. Then once he saw the statue was gone, he reported it in and took the tour group away from the gardens” “Have there been any reports of cotton candy clouds or chocolate milk rain?” “Surprisingly, no. When I first heard, I sent the pegasi out to look for any signs of Chaos, but they reported back that there was nothing like last time.” Looking pensive, Celestia began thinking of her next course of action. She couldn’t just announce that Discord was loose again. With nothing changing or being strange, her little ponies would just panic for no reason. However, she couldn’t ignore that he was on the loose again. Just the fact that he was showing some restraint this time meant that he had learned his lesson from last time and was lying in wait for his best opportunity. Coming to a decision, she began to give her orders to her Captain of the Guard. “Shining, here is what I want you to do...”
Ch 3: Flowers and DreamsA Discordant Romance Ch 3: Flowers and Dreams Stalking the Prey Discord sat in silence as the yellow one passed him. He was hiding in the brush of the tree-library, and was waiting to see where she was going. While hiding, he had heard Twilight talking to her, and he learned a couple important things: First: The pony he had tucked into bed was named Apple Bloom Second: They were working on a device called a “Chaos Inhibitor” But most importantly: They still hadn’t discovered him. Undoubtedly, Celestia would soon be alerted that her centerpiece statue had once again disappeared and would have begun to take action. However, this time things would end differently. Last time, he was sure that with the Elements of Harmony spread across six ponies he could make them hate each other enough to break the bond with their own Element. Last time he was a fool. Carefully moving through the back alleys of Ponyville, Discord tried to keep up with his quarry. Sliding through the streets like a dark shadow, he followed Applebloom through Ponyville until she stopped at an unassuming looking cottage on the edge of town. Unlocking the door she stepped inside. From his vantage point, Discord was unable to see what was happening within. However, if he strained his hearing a bit, he could faintly hear the conversations within. Home Sweet Clubhouse Apple Bloom walked into her house, and was greeted by the usual sight of her living room. Scootaloo was crashed out on the couch, a box of take-out dumped on the floor next to her. Sweetie Belle was probably off at work still. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed that she wouldn’t be home for at another couple hours at least. Treading quietly so she didn’t wake up her housemate, she silently went upstairs into her bedroom/workroom. Similar to Rarity’s Inspiration room (though arguably much more dangerous), Apple Bloom’s workroom was a mess of metal parts, wires, crystals and technical diagrams. Tucked away in a small corner of the room was a tiny bed draped with an old red comforter embroidered with apples and trees. Rummaging around the room, the engineer finally found what she was looking for. Slightly larger than a loaf of bread, it was a small yellow box with several switches and dials on the top. A taped on label read “Chaos Detector” in black penned ink. Grabbing it, she gently set it in her saddlebag and gathered several more tools and instruments along with a small purse of bits for dinner. Carefully descending the steps, she was surprised to hear Scootaloo up and about. “Hey ‘Bloom! There is something at the door for you!” Well, now that her housemate was up, there was no point in trying to be quiet anymore. “Thanks Scoots! How was work today?” “Meh. Same crap, different day. Just filing more paperwork and trying to resolve scheduling conflicts between the Canterlot and the Cloudsdale Weather Teams. Also, could you take a look at my wings? I tried doing a little gliding in them and I think some of the servos on the port wingtip are acting up.” Putting her tools down, Apple Bloom moved over to look at the offending machinery. “Yeah, it looks like you rammed the wingtip into something pretty hard and bent them again. You also have a couple small pebbles stuck in the bearing channels.” Grabbing a small crescent wrench and screwdriver she began to tinker on the artificial wing. “Have you been trying to do stunts again?” “Hehe, well Rainbow Dash was in town on vacation and she hadn’t seen my new wing upgrades yet. Sooo, we kinda ended up racing a little and I sorta ran into a tree. Then I fell onto the ground. And then I rolled into a lake.” Scootaloo gave her friend a big smile of pure innocence. Shaking her head, Apple Bloom finished cleaning up and straightening the wing. “There ya go Scoots. Try not to mess it up again. Those are some pretty sensitive components you have attached to ya there.” Walking to the door, she found a small vase of lilies tied with cord and a small note hanging off the side. Bringing it inside, Apple Bloom set it on the table and opened the note. “Dearest Apple Bloom, For so long my heart was cold and set in stone, I was living in a world of loneliness and sorrow. Everything changed when I emerged from that explosion And everything has changed and i now have reason to look forward to tomorrow. My soul has found its love which before it could not comprehend Before, I had no reason to love. I had never before believed that could make my heart mend For my feelings for you are vast, like the starry expanse above. This feeling, it beats for you alone. Also, here are some flowers. -D” Having read the note over Apple Bloom’s shoulder, Scootaloo could be heard gagging in the back of the room. “Oh sweet baby Celestia on a tricycle, that was some of the worst poetry I think I have ever read.” “Well ah thought it was kinda sweet.” “If by sweet you mean diabetes inducing, then yes; I agree.” Shooting Scootaloo a snide look, the yellow mare gently took the flowers and put them in a vase with some water. Actually taking a look at her roommate while she was walking around, Scootaloo noticed the bruises and scraped covering her friend’s body. “Bloom, what happened to you? Did you try to fix moving machinery again? I thought you had learned after the train incident” Apple Bloom shuddered at the memory of trying to fix that damned train. After recovering from the awful recollection she responded to Scootaloo's query. “Nope. The Chaos Inhibitor Twilight and I was working on kinda blew up a little.” Perking up at the thought of her friend being caught in some totally awesome explosions and action, Scootaloo suddenly became a lot more interested. “So was that the large whump I heard this morning? I just assumed it was Derpy dropping another large object or accidentally releasing a small thunderstorm on the town again.” “Well we still don’t know how it happened, and I actually came back to get some of my tools to analyze exactly what happened. But I really need to go and get food and take it to the library. I may or may not be back tonight, so go ahead and lock everything up; I have my spare key with me. Also, don’t forget to oil your wings. I noticed small amount of corrosion buildup in some of your flight guidance lines. ” Nodding her hear in agreement with whatever Apple Bloom was saying, Scootaloo watched her best friend walk off towards the library. With a quick glance at the vased flowers, the mechanical pegasus just whispered softly .“Who has she gotten herself involved with now...” her words lost in the breeze. Ground Zero After swinging by the cafe, Apple Bloom hurried up to return to the Library. The sun was beginning to set behind some of the houses, and enough time had already passed that some chaos particles may have already started to dissipate. Walking through the front door she called out to the Librarian and her assistant. “Hey Twilight, Spike! Ahm back with dinner!” Like any growing child Spike came careening down the stairs at the mention of food. Twilight slowly followed behind, gingerly taking each step to avoid being banged up, "Hey there! While you were out spike and I were trying to fix any of the other internal damage caused by the explosion. Did you get the tools you needed?" “Yeah, I did. I want to go ahead and get started with the data gathering after dinner. I don’t want the risk having the energies dissipate too much before I can get some measurements.” Setting the food on the table, the three quickly ate the dinner and began to gather the tools necessary for their analysis of the ground zero. With Apple bloom leading, they slowly descended the stairs into the basement. Setting up shop in a small cleared area by the stairs, they began to take their readings. Of the area… Three hours later, they still weren't quite sure what had happened. From what they could price together, it seemed like there was a massive release of energy in the room. But, the source had been external rather than emanating from the machinery itself. However, the most likely interesting part was the microcrystalline fractures in the wood walls on the room. Atypical of most wood damage there were tiny fractures through the material similar to the spider webbing found on impacted glass. "Well Twilight, 'ahm completely stumped about what could have caused this. I don't think I have ever seen anything like this in organic materials like wood before." Sitting quietly, Twilight was in deep thought. Suddenly she looked up with a look of epiphany. "What if the wood was frozen?" Applebloom gave her coworker a look of incomprehension. "OK, so have you ever dipped something in liquid air?" Nodding her head Applebloom responded "Yeah, I have. Though it was only once. Making liquid air takes huge amounts of energy, so I never got to mess with it much." "Well if you dip something organic like wood or fruit into liquid air, it flash freezes it. Then, if you take that object and smash it with a hammer, it will shatter like glass." Beginning to see where Twilight was coming from, she began to finish connecting the dots of what Twilight was saying. "So what you're saying is that something caused the lab to freeze. Now what in Equestria could have caused that to happen to the entire room?" "I don't know, but let's go upstairs and try to reconstruct what happened with what we know." First: when activated, the inhibitor began to draw unprecedented amounts of magical power. Second: After we lost control the inhibitor seemed to explode, and knocked us unconscious. Third: when we returned to the lab after regaining consciousness, there was no trace of the inhibitor. All the equipment that managed the magic flow melted, and the other equipment shattered like glass. However, the center of the room and a small path are scorched as if by fire. Sitting on the couch in the library's main room, the two mares were deep in thought. Apple Bloom suddenly sat up, a look of epiphany on her face. "Twilight, what if the inhibitor actually worked better than we thought?" "What do you mean by that?" "Well, the whole point of the inhibitor was to draw off excessive entropic energy from a chaos event right? Well what if instead of giving it a small spontaneous chaos event like an explosion, we just kept feeding it more energy?" "That would cause it to try to order the chaotic flow of energy being fed to it... oh no..." "Oh no?" "So magic is an intrinsic part of all the earth right?" "Yes..." "So by feeding it magical energy straight from the earth, the inhibitor essentially tried to remove all entropy from the planet. With no entropy, there would be no heat or temperature, effectively causing the world to freeze." "That would explain how everything got cold enough to shatter. but how did they actually shatter?" "Hmm well according to Neighton's third law, every action should have an equal and opposition reaction. a sudden reactive influx of heat and entropy would cause a similar explosion, but if the ordering of the planet happened as fast as I think it did, then the explosion should have left Ponyville a gigantic crater." "Well, lookin' at the burn patterns on the ground, it doesn't look like a spontaneous influx of heat to me. What it looks like is similar to a river running into a lake. Almost like something guided the reaction to the inhibitor." "Agreed. If it was a normal reaction, it would have most likely have started from the outside in. The big question still stands, what would have focused it like that?" Another moment of silence reigned over the den. "Well what is the opposite of ultimate order?" “Well, ultimate chaos of course... but what would direct something like that?” Between the two mares, a look of mixed comprehension and fear crept along their faces. As they said in unison, “Discord.”
Ch 4: DiscoveryA New Day Rises Twilight was having a no good, awful, really bad morning. For starters, finding out that your arch-nemesis has once again escaped his stony prison right before bed leads to spending far too long thinking about the possible consequences, instead of actually sleeping. Waking up wasn't much better. Her body still ached from the explosion two days ago, her head was throbbing with the pains of dehydration and stress, and they were out of coffee in the library. ~~~ After living in Ponyville for so long, many of the residents learned to avoid Twilight on her grumpy days. Thankfully, those days were very few and far between. Whether the cause was caffeine deficiency, anxiety, stress, or hormones, it was fairly easy to tell when the purple librarian was not in the mood to interact with others. As a result, Twilight was given a wide berth as she trudged across Ponyville to buy some breakfast from Sugarcube Corner. A small bell chimed as Twilight walked through the door and marched over to the counter. “Coffee.” One word, and she strode over to a corner table where she would hopefully not have to talk to anyone. Pumpkin Cake slowly walked over to the purple grump cautiously, carefully levitating a cup of coffee in front of Twilight’s face. As soon as the purple menace grasped the mug, she quickly hid behind the counter with her brother Pound. “Do you think she wants anything else?” He whispered to his sister. “Shhhhh! Let her get the caffeine in her system. Once she relaxes past the point of ‘I will torch anyone who dares interrupt my thoughts’ you can go offer her something to eat.” The two watched from behind the counter as the black caffeinated beverage began to slowly work it’s own kind of magic on the lavender . Minutes passed and the rage levels in the room began to slowly diminish to much less potentially lethal levels. Pushing her brother out into the danger zone, Pumpkin watched Pound slowly move over to Twilight table; His every move was deliberately slow and he was making sure to avoid any sudden motions. “Can I get you anything to eat Miss Twilight?” He cautiously asked, ready to bolt in case of sudden rage induced fireballs magically appearing. Trembling with barely contained fear, he watched as she turned to face him, her purple eyes focusing in on his face. “Yes actually. Can I get a bagel with capers and a lemon poppyseed muffin please?” Happy that he avoided harm, he rushed back to the kitchen and relayed the order to Pumpkin. While the order was being made ready in the back, Pound stuck his head out the back and signalled to the rest of Ponyville that the danger had passed. With a sigh of relief, the rest of the town began to go about their business as usual and without fear of sudden unicorn immolation. Confrontation Apple Bloom really need some time to think. Walking alone through the Whitetail woods, she mentally was alternating between thinking about the consequences of Discord’s release, and how she had inadvertently caused it. Walking to the top of a hill, she sat under an old grizzled oak tree and just watched Ponyville come to life as the sun rose over the horizon. “Seems like I’m not the only one around here who can appreciate a good sunrise.” The oddly familiar voice startled the yellow mare, causing her to look around frantically for the source. “If you are looking for me, you won’t find me you know. I was here first after all.” The smooth voice flowed through the air, coming from the tree, but yet seemingly from elsewhere. Something about the voice tugged at her memory. Looking back though the hazy memories that time faded, she kept getting the distinct feeling that she should recognize the speaker. “You know, your face really is adorable when it’s all scrunched up in thought like that” the voice called with a hint of humor. As soon as the last word passed, something clicked in the yellow mare’s mind. Cautiously, she asked her question, simultaneously hoping that she was both right and wrong at the same time. “Discord, is that you?” “Astute sense of hearing Apple Bloom. I must say, you really have grown up to be quite the observant mare.” Chuckling at his little joke, his voice continued to flow from the branches surrounding her. A little peeved from the sarcasm, Apple Bloom was struck with a moment of inspiration. “We’re gonna see who’s laughing now...” she muttered under her breath. Standing up, Apple Bloom put all her years of hard work at Sweet Apple Acres to good use by giving the massive oak tree a powerful buck right in the center of it’s trunk. The ground trembled at the tree shook violently, knocking loose acorns, squirrels, birds and one rather distraught looking Draconequus. “Ow! What did you go and do that for?” Inquired the not-quite-pony. Standing up, he rubbed his back where he had fallen on a rock. “I was having a rather fun time being all mysterious and mystical. Kids these days, no respect for their omnipotent elders...” Sticking her tongue out at Discord, Apple Bloom just walked back over to her sitting spot under the tree and leaned back against it once more. “So Discord, what exactly are you doing back here in Ponyville?” She tried to say nonchalantly. “Besides saving your life and the rest of the world besides? Oh not much. Watching the time slip by I suppose. After spending several millennia being encased in stone, one finds ways to amuse themself after a while.” An awkward silence filled the clearing. “Soooo... does Celestia know you are here?” “Not to my knowledge, though the fact that I am free once again probably has her leaving large clay bricks in her excrement” Stuck between being horrified that Discord would even talk about the elder diarch of Equestria like that, and laughing at the absurdity of it; the laughter barely won out as a couple of light chuckles escaping the mare’s lips. “I would bet that she is sending out search parties for me by now. Celestia was always the unfun disciplinarian of the two.” Rolling his eyes, he changed his voice into a recognizable mockery of the sun princess. “Discord, go clean your room. Discord, don’t play with your food. Discord stop turning my castle into a roast beef sandwich.” His voice returning to normal, he continued on his little tirade. “She never understood the meaning of ‘fun’”. Chuckling at his vocal impersonation, Apple Bloom’s curiosity overcame her usual inhibitions about conversing with immortal deities. “So you knew the princesses pretty well then?” a moment of silence ensued before he replied with a rather pained voice. “I suppose you could say so... Oops! Looks like you have a visitor. Time for me to make like a tree and fly off into the sunset.” Before she could formulate a reply, she heard a familiar voice calling her name from the woods before her. A familiar lavender unicorn was approaching her spot under the tree, accompanied by a white unicorn stallion and his pink wife. Building Relationships Sitting in their house, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sitting around the kitchen table discussing their best friend’s new romantic interest. Laying between them were the flowers and the love poem. “I can’t believe that Apple Bloom has a romantic lover” pouted the white unicorn. “I work so hard, but all the stallions who pine after me are just interested in sex. Why can’t I get mystery flowers and sappy love poems...” “It’s probably because you keep reading all those awful romance novels and expect every stallion to be a perfect gentlecolt” muttered Scootaloo under her breath. “For your information, the books I peruse in my free time have absolutely nothing to do with what I look for in a stallion thank you very much!” Just as the argument began to wind up, the door burst open and Spike walked in. Freezing in the doorway, Spike was wondering why both of the mares at the table were staring at him so intently. “Uhh..” he stammered looking for any excuse to leave the now hostile territory. “Tell her she is wrong!” shouted both of the two mares at the table. Slowly backing out the door, he just wanted to avoid his quickly impending doom at having to choose between the two and be wrong regardless of choice. "TwilightsentmeovertoletyouknowthatsheandAppleBloomwillbecomingbylaterfordinnerpleasedonthurtme!" His message delivered, he sprinted out the door as fast has his legs could carry him. Just a Walk in the Park Apple Bloom did not believe in coincidence. A back to back visit from chatting with Discord to apparently having lunch with the Captain of the Royal Equestrian guard could not possibly be unrelated. A gentle breeze rippled across the grassy clearing while the four ponies sat comfortably on a packed sheet. Twilight was chatting amiably with her brother and his wife about some humorous anecdote based on married life, while everyone was nibbling on some sandwiches that had been packed in Twilight’s saddlebags. After a lull in the conversation, Shining cleared his throat and turned to face Apple Bloom and his sister. “Well, Twilight told us about your experiment. While none of us, including Princess Celestia, hold you to blame for Discords release; I hope you understand the kind of position this puts the Equestria into. Since there haven’t been any large scale chocolate milk rainstorms or floating buildings, we have so far managed to keep his escape quiet. The tabloids are running wild with rumors, but otherwise nopony it the wiser.” He paused to take a sip of grape juice. With sigh he continued. “I don’t think I have to warn you to be on the lookout for Discord, but please let us know if you see or hear anything related to his escape.” Thinking for a second the yellow earth pony spoke a little slowly, as if unsure how to phrase her next sentence. “Ah certantly do my best Shining. If I do see or hear anything, what should I do?” “Just tell Twilight, and she can get word directly to me. Being a unicorn does have it’s perks after all” He said with a wry grin. Cadence was talking with Twilight, but took a break to chat with Apple Bloom. “So word around town is that somepony has been leaving you love letters and flowers” She deadpanned. Blushing furiously, Apple Bloom's face turned as red as her hair. Stammering in embarrassment, she tried to get a suitable response out. Smiling knowingly the princess of love just chuckled. “Well I for one am happy that you are finally finding somepony to share your life with. And I happen to think that poems and flowers are hopelessly romantic” With that she shot a pointed glance at her husband. Her blush calming down, the four ponies spent a little more time chatting and eating before packing up to leave. Shining Armor and Cadence walked with Twilight and Apple Bloom to the edge of Ponyville, but split off towards the train station. Twilight and Apple Bloom walked over towards Apple Bloom’s apartment, ready to continue the day.
