The Alliance of Chaos

Chapter 6

“Oh, and you.” Said Turquoise. He approached Fluttershy. She shyly lowered her head. “You are an animal lover. You have grass in your mane, and you smell like the woods. Aside from that, actually, I can’t tell much about you. You aren’t completed or detracted from by anypony.” He said softly, lowering his face. “Thou art an enigma, milady.” He said, archaically. She went even lower into the ground, if that was possible. He was studying her closely. He couldn’t find anything. This filly was a mystery. He scratched his head, lifted her up, combed through her mane and tail, even looked in between her flanks discreetly, but this pony was a complete and utter mystery. “That’s the first time I haven’t been able to dissect a pony’s personality completely.” He stated, flummoxed. “And let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Said Fluttershy, sticking her nose up. Twilight looked at her, confused. In the mirror, he could see her eyelid twitch. Got a bit close there, didn’t I?

“But of course, how could I forget you?” Said Turquoise. He turned to the princess. He gave her a short look-over. “Ruling a nation and teaching students is hard work.” He said, scrutinizing her face. “Gotta cover up those dark circles, or people will know you’re tired. Excellent makeup work.” He circled quickly around her. “Silk pillows, I see. Just about anything else would cause a good bit of chafing for a pony of your size and stature. With those horseshoes, I can’t see your hooves, but they are filed to fit, aren’t they?” He looked her up and down. He looked at her eyes again, squinting. “Contacts?” He looked a bit surprised.

“Shall we get back on track, now?” She said, slightly irate. “While I find your deduction and observation impressive, it can make a pony uncomfortable. The fate of Equestria is at stake. Not just Equestria, even the lands beyond. The world is at stake.”

“Right. I just like knowing who I’m dealing with.”

“I’m the princess. How do you not know me?”

“Good point.”

“Twilight, Discord said he was acquiring allies, correct?”

“Yes, Princess. We met one downstairs.”

“Where is it?”

“Umm... I incinerated it.” The princess’ eyes widened, and she knit her brow.

“Okay... is anything left?” She held up her hoof, and shook her head, eyes closed. “So, you incinerated it?”

“Yes....” Twilight poked at the floor, awkwardly. “The bones are still there.”

“Then I would like to see it. We must know who it is.”

They went downstairs. “This one is familiar.” She said, considering it. “He is gathering spirits together, correct? What color was its aura?”

“Poisonous green.”

“Green, scaly?”

“Yep.” Said Twilight.

“This was Revulsion, spirit of Rot and Fear. She’s not dead. She is a wisp-based spirit, who is not organic. She is truly a spirit, an embodiment of a soul in the shape of mist. She’s probably in this room.” She paused, took a deep breath, and said, “Waiting for me.”

Suddenly, the door was again replaced with a solid wall of wood, with thorns coming out. The thorns were twitching. The black wood began to spread, thorns sprouting from everywhere. “She’s replacing your tree with thornwood.” Twilight gasped. A nodule grew out of the center of the room. Black vines waved in the air. Eyes opened in the vines, blinking at the two ponies. Sap leaked from the eyes like tears. The tree was sentient. The vines twirled together, went into the ground, and were replaced with a pony figure. It was entirely black. It was a real pony, covered in the green sap. It had a broken horn. Revulsion was a fallen unicorn. “SSSSSelesstia.” She hissed.

“Vineleaf.”

“Don’t call me that. You know who I am. Who you made me into.”

“You made yourself when you tried to kill me.”

“For the good of the foresssssst. You would kill my chiiiiildren, my precious garden.”

“You turned ponies into timberwolves. You were obsessed with toxin and insects, death and rot.”

“For the foresssts. They could not sssurvive on there own. I taught them how. How to kill their killersss.”

“We needed that hospital. Ponies were dying by the hundreds from the toxic plants you created.” She looked at the circle of oakwood left around her. “And you’re using one of your creations against us, I see. A sentient tree, capable of moving and breathing. You used its life to give some to yourself. Not only did you sap the life of ponies, now you sap life from your own... children, as you call them.”

“They gladly give it to me, there own mother! They love me like no pony ever could. With my broken horn, I was always the odd one out. Until I found a fallen tree. It was dying. A tree without roots. A unicorn with no horn. The plants, they fell to lumberjack’s axe. My horn fell to the industry of thisss.... ‘perfect’ world.”

“Vine, you must give this up! You have twisted beauty into disease. Lush leaves into spiteful thorns.”

“I turned weakness into power. The plants, they thanked me! I heard their voissses, their pleas, and anssswered them.”

“You loved nature for its beauty. You took it away.”

“You of all poniesss know there is a prissse to pay for power. They were happy to pay it.”

“Only after they were twisted into your slaves.”

“They were not my ssslaves! My children were happy to kill the ponies who took their chiiildren away, and took them down!” She growled, her brow furrowing in anger. Her yellow eyes burned with anger. Her cutie mark was blurred. A flowering plant was vaguely visible, but above it, in sharp detail, was a razor thorn, piercing through a pony. Twilight was horrified by it. Past the shape, the thorn was red. She had begun to dry off. She was revealed to be dark green, with a spiked mane. It was red with green at the roots. Her hooves were stained with tar-like sap. Her eyes were cruel and hard.

“You are poisoned, Vine. You of all ponies knows poison when they see it.”

“I am not poisoned! I am empowered!”

“This is poison of the soul. Let go of your hate. Come to peace with the world. Understand that while it changes, not all change is for the worse.”

“I was crippled by this change. My children were killed by it.” The stump of her horn was crackling. Magic aura extended beyond the horn, flickering in the vague shape of one. Magic flowed in a spiral, trying to follow the path a horn made, but without it, the magic was shapeless and volatile. The spiral ribbon began to collapse. It retracted back into stump. She growled.

She forced magic through the stump again. The cuticle of her horn began to bleed. Suddenly, the magic flashed into a perfect spiral, and Turquoise was suddenly there in a green flash. She held him in vines, and walked up to him.

“Vine?” He said, surprised. “What happened to you?” He said, looking at her stump.

“The industry you always loved. You helped make this happen, you will fix it.” She said, looking at his horn. She stroked it with a hoof. She lifted it up, and his eyes widened.

“No! Please! Don’t do it!” He was shaking. She brought her hoof down hard.

A piercing scream was heard, as his horn snapped. The turquoise stump was leaking green magic. Blood seeped from the edge. He was whimpering, lying on the ground, clutching his forehead. Revulsion took the horn in hoof. A vine came up to her stump of a horn, and filed it smooth. The same thing happened with Turquoise’s horn, and she put the shattered horn to her own. She tried to use magic. As she began to focus her unicorn magic, the horn flashed green. It was back to a changeling horn. Turquoise stood shakily and grinned. “There are some things you don’t know about me since we last met.” From his horn, green magic bubbled like acid. His shell was revealed. She widened her eyes. Looking up at the horn, she was shocked. However, the process she started was beyond the point of return. The horn had begun to bind. She attempted to stop it, but to no avail. It began to take over her horn. Two magics clashed, and began to struggle. The horn began to glow. Magic tried to follow the horn. As it met the changeling horn, it began crackle out. The green turned into white. It exploded.

Colors. Green and white. A burst of blazing light emanated from the junction, burning wood and singing coats. Twilight held her hoof to her eyes. Rot was a silhouette in the center of the explosion. Suddenly, it stopped. She stood, panting. The horn had successfully attached. Celestia gasped.

“How?”

“Ressearch of... organic components... prosthetics... rebinding lost horns... returning to... unicornhood...” She suddenly widened her eyes. “But... not the effects of it.” She looked at the plants, horrified.

“You... have been restored?” Said Celestia, in wonder.

“Yes. And now I have to put this right. Her horn lit up. The wood turned back into oak. Her coat turned into a beautiful velvet green, and her mane became a mop, falling down on both sides. Her yellow eyes softened to amber. Her horn was bubbling. The changeling half wanted to take over. She used the horn, melding the changeling half. She was an absolute expert when it came to organic reshaping. Turquoise’s horn had started to regrow.

“You have the ability to regrow limbs.” Said Vine, looking at the growing stump. “You were not born changeling.” She said. “I can restore you, but it will take time.”

“Vine!” Said Celestia sharply. She snapped to attention, fear piercing her soft amber eyes. “You have killed hundreds of ponies. You must pay your dues, Vine.”

“You want to save Equestria. What if I could help?”

“Keep your promise, and I will gladly release you. If you betray us, you will pay.”

“I understand, Princess.” She said, bowing.